Chapter 9

AN: Shame on me yes, you are right. A big sorry to everyone who liked this story so far and had hoped for a quick update. Here it is now, but even I wouldn't call 2.5 years quick *g*. So a big sorry for that and my only excuse is laziness, but I stopped writing for a while. I only picked it up again a while ago, after I met Razial and started to work for and with him. So all the thanks for more on this story belong to him and not me, enough babbling now, of to the chapter.

Chapter 9

A few minutes later they were both outside wearing training gear Kara had provided and Xander could only think that Faith looked like a goddess in that outfit.

"Ready Xan? And put your eyes back in," Faith said, grinning.

Both entered a ready stance and waited for the other to start the attack. After a while Faith seemed to get bored and in a lighting fast move she swept Xander off his feet. "Ouch, that hurt Faith, but you only got lucky."

"If you think so boytoy, let´s try again and we'll see if that was luck."

Grumbling a bit Xander picked himself up off the ground and returned to the ready stance. They waited again and then attacked at the same time. This time Xander held out for nearly a minute while blocking Faith's attack and even hit her once, but after Faith put a bit more speed into the fight, he was down again. This time he let out a small cry of pain. Quickly Faith was at his side. "Are you alright Xander?" she asked, concerned.

With a well placed kick Xander swept her off her feet and she landed beside him. "Now I'm alright again," he said, smiling.

"Oh you will pay for that trick, just wait. We are not finished yet," Faith answered him.

They both stood up again and sparred for a while longer; somewhere in the time being John and Bill appeared and watched them both. "Wow, that girl is very quick. I surely do not want to fight her. The boy is taking a lot of hits, but he still stands. Very impressive," John said to Bill, who just nodded.

The sparring went on for nearly two more minutes and finally Xander called Uncle. He was hurting all over, but he had really enjoyed this dance with Faith. He turned around after her heard some clapping sounds. He saw John and Bill standing nearby and nodded to them.

"That was an interesting sparring session," John said to Faith and Xander. "I am not a beginner in Martial Arts myself, but I don't think I could have stayed up any longer than Xander."

"Care to try?" Faith asked in a sultry tone, just as her stomach grumbled loudly in protest.

"Hmm, sounds like your stomach has other plans Miss Faith," Bill said, grinning, and then continued, "Come in quickly and we will see to the needs of your stomach."

"Ahh that damn traitor. But I better listen to him and you are not of the hook J, we will spar later," Faith said, ginning, while she rushed to the house.

"Phew, she is one hell of an energy pack, isn't she?" John asked Xander.

"Yeah. Seems like she isn't much off from my version of Faith," Xander said, while he massaged a few of the places where she had hit him. "Prepare yourself to be hurt a bit soon, John."

Faith looked out of a window and yelled, "Are you old men coming? I'm starving."

+++

After they all enjoyed a small meal, except for Faith… small wasn't really the word to use for the amount she ate... Kara joined them and smiled at them. "I just got a telepathic message from Myxin. He has found his friend and they will be here in an hour or so."

John looked at the woman from Atlantis he had befriended years ago. "That's great, so we can…,"

Whatever he wanted to say was left unsaid, because Faith interrupted him. "Spar, there should be enough time for a little warm up session, don't you think?"

While John groaned about the pain he could already imagine, Bill watched his old friend with amusement and then laughed a bit. "Don't fear John. If you ask nicely I might even heal you, if she hurts you too badly."

John stared shocked at the reporter, who had revealed that he also was a wizard, and said, "You might?"

"Yup," was Bill's only answer to this.

"What do you mean, you might?" John asked.

"You know John, healing is thirsty work for a wizard and I remember a nice bottle of whisky in the cabinet in your flat."

"No, absolutely not. I won't open that bottle, no way," John stated.

Bill shrugged and replied with quite an evil smile. "Your choice, John."

"Are you finished yet?" Faith asked.

"Hmm… no?" John asked carefully.

"Oh come on. Such a big police detective doesn't fear little Faith, does he?" Faith said, grinning.

"Inspector and yes I do. I saw what you are capable of," John answered, as he stood up.

They all left the small house again and quickly went to the free space in the garden which Xander and Faith had used before. John pulled of his shimmy and started a few warm up exercises. After a few minutes of those he finally stated that he was ready.

Faith looked up with a smile, nodded and quickly dropped into a combat stance and waited for an attack from John.

John smiled, knowing Faith was waiting for him to go first, giving her the best chance of getting in the first hit. Deciding to use that, he attacked with a fake kick aimed at her side. However, he quickly changed his direction just as she went to defend. He caught her in mid turn and sent her stumbling backwards.

Faith quickly recovered and narrowed her eyes in concentration, as she redefined the Inspector's abilities. Dropping back into her stance she launched a fast and devastating combo that used at full speed would have killed him. She made sure to control her movements however.

John managed to counter the first two moves, but had to jump out of the way to avoid the third. This opened him up for Faith's sweeping attack at his legs, which sent him to the ground, but he quickly countered with a spinning kick aimed at her mid section. Faith backed off, allowing him to get back to his feet.

This time they struck at the same time, just clipping each other as they passed. Faith used her speed to turn and lash out with a back kick, catching John as he turned to face her again, forcing him backwards.

John grinned. He was really enjoying the sparring match so far. Faith was good. He took in her changing her stance. She was fast, strong and controlled and that made her a deadly fighter. However, she was holding back and that gave him an edge, he thought. He attacked again, pushing himself to be quicker than she expected of him and he succeeded in landing two blows, a side kick and a fist to her chest.

This knocked her backwards and allowed him to follow up with a palm strike to her face, which knocked her off her feet. To stop her from recovering, he dropped his knee right onto her throat and trapped her. Faith eyed him for a few seconds, before somehow breaking free, using her legs to catch him off guard and fling him off her. He jumped back to his feet and went for a strike, aiming to disable her.

They were facing each other, each positioned to land the same strike. He nodded, very impressed, and Faith returned the nod and backed off before rejoining Xander.

Bill who stood with Kara near Xander clapped his hand loudly. "That was really fun to watch. That was quite awesome Faith and not bad for an old man, John."

John just growled at his friend.

Kara grinned and said, "Inside I have something to drink for all of us and then we can wait for Myxin."

+++

After they all drank a glass of water Bill looked at John and couldn't stop smirking. After a while of that John finally exploded with a, "What?"

"Nothing," Bill replied, his smirking growing even bigger.

"Bill…," John said in a quiet tone.

"Really, it's nothing. I just thought about selling the memory of you getting your ass kicked by Faith to Suko, Jane, Glenda and Sir Paul. Maybe I'll make a nice BBQ evening out of it."

"Selling the memory?" John asked, a bit confused.

"Yep, we wand wizards have a thing called a pensieve. We can put memories in it and show them to others, if we want to," Bill replied with a grin.

Now Kara, Faith and Xander were grinning as well, while John lost all the color in his face. "You wouldn't dare…," John said quietly.

"I wouldn't?" Bill asked in a sweet voice.

"No, you wouldn't. Faith, what do you say to another sparring session? Looks like we still have some time before Myxin arrives and Bill is just asking for it."

Now it was time for Bill to lose all the color in his face, but he shrugged and said, "If the kid is up to it, why not. Maybe you'll learn something, John."

Faith looked at Bill. "Kid? You are so going to hurt for that."

A few moments later they gathered again at the place where they sparred before.

This time Bill stood in front of Faith and both began to circle each other. Suddenly Faith arched forward with a palm strike, but Bill evaded it quickly and hit her with a light punch on the upper arm, which knocked Faith out cold.

Xander and John just gaped at Bill and the unconscious Faith, while Kara only smiled and nodded at Bill.

Both John and Xander asked at the same time, "What was that?"

Bill grinned as he said, "Carry her inside and then I will explain it." He then turned around, shared a smile with Kara and went to the house.

Looking at each other John and Xander shrugged, picked Faith up and carried her into the house and laid her on the couch.

Still grinning, Bill watched them from the table and after they stepped back, he pulled his wand and said loudly, so that they could hear it, "Enervate."
With that Faith began moving again, slowly sat up and looked around a bit confused.

"Couldn't you have done that outside?" John and Xander asked.

"Nope," Bill replied.

"Why the hell not?" John asked, a bit annoyed.

"First, where would have been the fun in that? Second, it wouldn't have helped to teach you three the lesson Kara and I wanted to teach you," Bill replied.

"Lesson? What lesson?" John and Faith asked while Xander hit his forehead, as he understood what Bill wanted to tell them.

Bill, who saw that Xander had gotten it, said, "Ask Xander, he understood the lesson."

John and Faith looked at Xander.

Xander shrugged. "Quite easy actually. Bill and Kara wanted to show us that even if it was sparring, we are training for a war and not a mud wrestling contest. In a real fight Faith would have been dead instead of just playing sleeping beauty and all because she made a grave mistake."

"Mistake? What mistake?" Faith asked. Aside from being annoyed by getting beaten so easily, she was quite curious now.

Xander looked at her for a while before giving up the hope she would get the point herself. "You forgot something important."

Looking confused Faith asked, "I did?"

Xander just nodded and was grinning in amusement now, together with Bill and Kara.

"If you don't tell me this instant Mr. Harris…," Faith growled at him.

Seeing the reason in not angering a slayer too much, Xander continued. "Simple Faith, you forgot the fact that Bill told us all a while ago that he is a wizard."

"And?" Faith asked.

"Why should a wizard fight you, a slayer, in hand to hand combat, when he has magic at his disposal?" Xander asked.

"But he didn't have his wand or cast a spell," John said.

"No, I didn't use my wand, that's right, but I did use a spell," Bill entered the conversation.

"But how? You didn't say anything," John stated.

"First of, the wand is only a tool to focus the internal magic of a wizard. Granted, the majority of British wizards have become dependent on it, but with the right training, you don't need it at all. Secondly, why should I yell a spell at Faith? Tell me John, if you're fighting with a vampire and you have your Berretta at hand, do you start to yell at the vamp 'I'm going to shoot you, I'm going to shoot you?"

Seeing that John got the point, he continued, "So, if I'm fighting another wizard and I yell the spell at him, he just has to cast the counter. But if I cast silently at him, he first has to figure out the spell I used before he can counter it and by the time he does that, it could already be too late."

Now Faith nodded in understanding as well and asked, "So what did you do to me?"

"As I hit you, I cast a stunner at you, which knocked you out," Bill answered her question. "Mind you, I could have cast it from quite a distance and didn't need to touch you for it, so the next time you have to fight a wizard, don't give him the time to hex you. Take him out fast and take him out hard."

After that small lesson was over, they all settled around the table and took a quick bite to eat and just after they finished the door opened and Myxin entered the house with a stranger following right behind him.

Xander looked at the stranger and asked, "Is it just me, or does the guy look like Legolas out of 'The Lord of the Rings'?"

End note: A thank you from me goes to Inachis for beta reading this chapter and also a big thank you to Razial, who helped me out with the sparring scene between Faith and John. Somehow my fingers were stuck on this.