Chapter 5: Training

The following morning the Scoobies were already gathered at the Magic Box pretty early, seeing as they were all just too curious about Pan's first night of slaying and they couldn't wait to badger Faith to tell them how good Pan really was. Laughter rang through the shop, when Faith told them about Pan's acting skills, which had completely convinced the two vampires that Pan was a weak and defenseless little girl, an easy snack. The Scoobies began to laugh even louder, when Pan added with a pout that the two vampires hadn't even been a real challenge for her.

Soon, the two Slayers were finished with their tale, especially seeing as the two vampires really had been stupid, and it was then that Trunks rose from his chair and cleared his throat. The Scoobies looked at him, a bit confused, but Trunks allowed a small grin on his face to reassure them. However, his voice was serious, as he began to talk. "As you know, I talked to Giles yesterday about an important request I wanted to make, and after he had considered it, he agreed." Trunks hesitated for a moment. He knew that, if he told them that he partly wanted to do this to pay them back for their hospitality, they wouldn't accept his help, so it was better to keep quiet about that. "As you know, I've grown up around martial artists and that I'm one myself, so what I would like to do is offer Faith, Pan and Dawn to train them and teach them all I know about fighting."

"Wicked," Faith whispered with a smirk, which she exchanged with Pan. While the younger girl hadn't seen Trunks in action, yet, something Faith had already had to chance to, she had at least already heard about the Saiyajin's abilities. "I'm in."

"Me, too," Pan quickly agreed. "And thanks… for offering this."

"Hey, it's no problem, really," Trunks told them with a grin on his face. "And what about you, Dawn?"

"I'm not sure…" she answered uncertainly. "I mean, I know my sister was the Slayer, but I'm just me, I'm just Dawn. The only thing that's special about me is that I can open portals. I don't think I'd ever be able to keep up, especially not with two Slayers."

The grin Trunks sent her was slightly unnerving, but his voice was soothing and convincing, as he said, "That's where you're wrong. As I've already explained to Giles, I have the ability to sense the power level of other people, something which I will also teach you to do, and what I've seen is that you have a lot of potential. With the right and enough training you will easily be as strong as a Slayer. Believe me. I know what I'm talking about."

"Do you really think so?" Dawn asked, still not knowing what to do.

"I promise, Dawn. In just a few weeks, maybe even less, you'll be able to slay your own vampires."

Dawn hesitated for a moment, biting her lower lip, before her face lit up with a bright grin. She jumped up from the chair and hugged Trunks tightly around the waist. "Thank you, Trunks! I'll do my best!" Finally someone who was taking her seriously and encouraged her to fight the good fight instead of just trying to protect her. "When do we start?"

Pan laughed, while Faith chuckled. "That's a good question," the new Slayer asked.

"Hey," Trunks laughed. "Calm down… All in good time."

"Trunks," Faith said seriously, as she got up and put her hands on her hips. "Listen to me. We don't know how long it will take Giles to find a way to get you back to your dimension. That means we have to use the time we have and start as soon as possible." The serious expression on her face turned into a smirk. "Or do you want it to be your fault if one of us gets hurt, just because we don't get enough training?"

Trunks groaned exasperatedly and ran his hand through his hair, but there was also a smirk on his face. "Fine." In reality, Trunks was really happy that the three girls were so eager to learn. He just hoped he would be just as good a teacher to them as Gohan had been to him. "We could start now, if you want. I wanted to start off easy, anyway. No sparring, yet, just ki-controlling. But we need some peace for that, so I think we should go to the training room."

Pan jumped up, almost eagerly, and Dawn clapped her hands excitedly. Even Faith had to resist doing something that would be completely out of character for her, as Trunks just grinned and led the way into the backroom. Once the door fell shut behind them, Trunks told them to sit down on the mats, because there would be some theory behind the practical. With a groan, the girls slumped down on the mats, closely followed by Trunks.

As soon as all of them had settled down, Trunks began his explanation of the theory behind the ki. "Okay, I try to make it as simple as possible. Basically, ki is your life force, the energy in your body that allows you to live. Everyone has ki, even plants. But to use it, for example for ki-attacks or to fly, you'll need to gather this energy and draw it forth. However, first of all, you have to find it, and this is most of the time the most difficult part of this training. Once you've found it, the rest is pretty easy." He smiled at them. "Any questions?"

Clearing her throat, Pan looked at him, feeling a bit stupid for wanting to ask this. She was sure that Dawn and Faith already knew the answer, but she had just arrived at this place only a bit more one day ago and knew about her destiny for just as long. And even though the other girls had told her Trunks' story, there were still many things she didn't know. "Uhm… Flying? And what are ki-attacks?"

Trunks simply winked at her with a smirk on his face and instead of answering, suddenly began to float. Pan's jaw literary dropped to the floor and even Dawn and Faith couldn't keep the awe and admiration from their faces. None of them had ever seen another person fly like this, not even demons (not counting the dragon Dawn had seen from Glory's tower). But to top it off, Trunks stretched his index finger and a small beam of energy hit the dummy in the back of the room.

"Wow…" Pan gasped.

"I second that," Dawn agreed, as Trunks lowered himself again to the ground. First the promise of getting stronger and now also flying? This was getting steadily better. "I wanna do that, too!"

"And you will, soon," Trunks told them, still smirking. "If you do what I say. So, do you have any more questions or can we begin?"

"No, no more questions," Pan said quickly, after having exchanged a glance with the other two willing students. "We can start."

"Good… Now, you just need to relax and to concentrate. You have to clear your mind and find the energy that is flowing through your body. You have to feel it, the energy. Once you've found it, try to lead it to your palms and push it out, so that it forms a small sphere in your palms."

Faith, Dawn and Pan followed his instructions and closed their eyes. Trunks guessed that it might take some time until one of the girls showed some improvement, so he closed his eyes himself and concentrated on his own ki, meditating. Slowly a blue aura began to surround him and he again rose into the air.

Unnoticed by everyone in the room, even by herself, a small ki-ball slowly appeared between Pan's palms. While Pan was meditating, her breath became more and more regular and deeper. She thought of nothing but ki and flying and suddenly a picture of her and Trunks with shorter hair flying through the air, found its way to her mind. She was almost startled out of her trance by this vision, but quickly recovered and held onto it. She wondered, where this vision came from, but eventually dismissed it, as she thought that she must have quite an imagination. As she continued with her meditation, a red aura was slowly beginning to glow around her and she began floating as well – again unnoticed by everyone. Pan was about the same altitude as Trunks, when she opened her eyes, wanting to look if this 'ki-thing' worked, and saw Trunks sitting directly in front of her, in a deep trance.

Not bad, she thought, allowing her eyes to roam his extremely well-built body. Only a fool wouldn't feel attracted to his body. No, not bad at all, Pan decided quickly, but then she noticed something else and her eyes grew wide. Trunks was floating in the air, about six feet above the ground. And yet, she was still on eye-level with him. This led to only one explanation. She was floating as well.

Suddenly, startled by this explanation, she lost her concentration, and with a scream dropped back to the ground. Her scream woke the others from their concentration and they saw Pan sitting on the floor, rubbing her behind. "Ouch… That hurts…" she mumbled complaining.

"Pan!" Trunks yelled, the worry evident in his voice, as he landed on his feet. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Faith got up from her sitting position and offered Pan her hand before pulling the other Slayer back to her feet. "Thanks… I think I know now how the air's up there," Pan told them and pointed with one hand to the roof and rubbed with the other her still hurting behind.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Dawn asked confused.

"Well, I was floating, I guess. Or else I don't know why this hurts so much. Ouch… I think I still have to learn how to land properly," Pan joked, while the others just stared at her.

~*~

"I wonder what they're doing in there…" Willow asked herself, when she looked up from one book. It had been quiet the whole time, except for the one scream, but they didn't worry, since Buffy often screamed when she hit something … or someone.

"I don't know what two Slayers, a teenage key and a young half-alien would do alone in a training room," Xander told her, but earned scowls from the other Scoobies. "What?" He thought for a moment. "Hey! That was you with the dirty thoughts! Not me!"

They mumbled apologies and got back to their work. Only Anya sat down next to Xander and began cuddling. "Hey Xander… Can't we go somewhere else to…"

"Sorry Ahn, but no. We have here some work to do. We still don't have a clue how we could send Trunks back to his own dimension," Xander told her.

"So what? I don't think that he really wants to leave, now that Pan's here. If you haven't noticed, I think he likes her. And it's more than obvious that she likes him, too," Anya told him, shrugging her shoulders.

~*~

"Wow, I can't believe you already managed to fly. I mean, I didn't even find this energy in my body. How did you do it?" Faith asked Pan, when the training was over. Even though they hadn't done any 'real' training like sparring or something like that, they were still completely exhausted and sweating like there was no tomorrow. At the beginning this whole ki-stuff really seemed to be quite difficult – at least for Faith and Dawn.

"I don't know. It was somehow easy. I just concentrated on it and when I opened my eyes I was floating. It simply happened. But if you excuse me now, this whole flying stuff made me hungry. I need to find something to eat. Is someone else in this room hungry?" Dawn and Faith shook their heads, but Trunks nodded.

"Okay, then, you two can try a bit longer to control your ki and Pan and I will go and eat something," Trunks told them and he and Pan left the training room.

~*~

After they told Giles and the others, where they were going and that Faith and Dawn still wanted to train, the two Saiyajins were on the way to the only All-You-Can-Eat restaurant of Sunnydale. When they arrived there, they sat down at a table for two and after both got their first plate with pasta and pizza, they began to talk about the training.

"Pan, I must say, I'm really surprised that you were able to fly after such a short time. I knew all of you had the potential to learn it in a day or two, but not in half an hour. Do you somehow remember that you already learned to fly when you were younger?"

"Nope, everything's blank in there," Pan said and pointed to her head. She didn't tell him about this vision she'd had, because she thought it was too embarrassing. She and him flying together through the air. Pan wondered, if that had maybe been a vision or something like that. Giles had told her that Slayers sometimes had those prophetic dreams. Maybe it had been one of them. But, an unbidden thought shot through her head, she'd have to do something if Trunks decided to cut off his hair. He looked way more handsome with the long hair tied back into the ponytail.'

"Hello! Earth to Pan, earth to Pan!" Trunks joked, waving his hand in front of her face, when he saw the far-away look in her eyes.

"Huh? Oh sorry…" she laughed, feeling her cheeks redden in embarrassment. "I think I was daydreaming."

Trunks couldn't help but admit to himself that he loved her smile. "And what dreamland did you visit?"

"I won't tell ya!" she answered smirking, trying to play down the humiliation, and turned her full attention back to her plate, hoping that Trunks would do the same and not ask any more questions. Much to her relief, she saw out the corners of her eyes, how Trunks only looked at her for a second longer, before shaking his head and following her example of returning his full attention back to his meal.

~*~

In the course of the rest of the day, Faith and Dawn also learned slowly how to lead the ki to their palms, but none of them managed to fly on the first day. Since Pan already floated, she and Trunks trained to control when she wanted to fly and when not. The very same evening Pan moved officially into Buffy's room and as she was lying in the bed that night she breathed a happy sigh. Even though she had lost her memory, she had found people who cared for her and who were trying to help her with everything. But even though she felt that way, she couldn't sleep. She tried to lie still, and to toss from one side to another, but it didn't help. Groaning she got up and walked to the window and opened the blinds and the window. The air was pleasantly fresh and clear and there were no clouds in the sky, so that she could see many stars and the full moon. She realized with a grin that it must be the full moon that kept her awake. Then suddenly she turned around, grabbed the blanket from her bed and climbed out of the window. Pan stretched her muscles and sat down, snuggling into the blanket and leaning against the wall, just watching the stars. Her thoughts drifted to how beautiful the stars were, and she noticed the nagging feeling that she knew how it was out there, which couldn't be possible of course. Snuggling even further into the blanket, she allowed her eyelids to droop and her last thoughts before falling asleep were of Trunks.

~*~

The next morning, shortly before dawn, Spike and Trunks came back from patrolling. That night had been quite busy. Vampires, werewolves and even a few demons… They really had much to do, and since the night was almost over, they decided to go home and to bed, to rest from their exhausting night of killing. When they crossed the front yard of the Summers' house, Spike suddenly noticed a figure on the roof.

"Hey, look there," he said and pointed to the figure.

"Is that Pan?"

"Yeah, I guess. But she looks pretty much asleep. Someone should get her into her bed."

"I will do that. You should go inside. The sun begins to rise." Spike nodded and Trunks looked around, careful that no one was watching him.

"Uhm, mate, I think we have to go inside to get her…" Spike suddenly broke off his sentence, when Trunks started to levitate. "Okay, do it your way…" He shook his head and walked inside.

Trunks landed on the roof silently, carefully not to wake the beautiful girl up that was lying in front of him. He gently picked her up and carried her through the window into her room and laid her on the bed, covering her with the blanket. While he was watching her she turning onto her right side and sighing contently, he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "Sweet dreams little Panny," Trunks whispered and left the room, carefully closing the door behind him.

~*~

The next few days everyone was busy. The three girls were training to control their ki and trained to fly, because Trunks promised them to begin with the sparring once they all managed to do that. The Scoobies were still trying to find a way to resurrect Buffy and a way to open a portal or something like that to Trunks' dimension. But they were slowly losing their hope, even though it had just been sixteen days since Buffy's death and the appearance of the half-Saiyajin, because they had already looked through almost every single book Giles had in his library and the Council didn't let them look into their books for unknown reasons.

~*~

Quentin Travers, Stevenson and Yasuo were standing behind a large window, looking down into a dark gym. In the background you could hear sounds of training and fighting, which were obviously coming from the gym. "Yasuo, I'm really pleased with you. You taught her really much in the last days that I'm surprised by her improvements," Travers praised the monk.

"I'm pleased to hear that from you sir, but I didn't even do half the work of her improvements. She's simply incredible. With each day she is growing stronger and gets more knowledge. From one moment to another she surprises me with something new. Not just physically, but also mentally. She already learned how to control her ki, and she is even able to float a bit. She is able to recognize vampires at the ki signature and can feel what they are planning to do in completely darkness. But once she has reached her old age again, I will start to train her harder than before. I'm proud to say that she's one of a handful people on the whole planet, who possesses the strength and skill to do that."

"That is good, because I don't want her to fail her mission. The Key must be eliminated, no matter what happens. And this is also a good chance to get rid of the rogue Slayer and the other troublemakers like the witches."

"Hey Quentin!" the three men suddenly heard a female voice shouting. They looked again down into the gym and saw a bit dust flowing through the air to the spot where a small window in the roof sent a bit light into the dark gym. "I'm bored."

"Don't worry. In four days your training will get better!" Travers promised.

"Really? Neat." The owner of the voice stepped into the light. It was a sixteen years old girl with shoulder-length blond hair and lively hazel eyes, holding a stake in her right hand.