By David Mycock Portals and Dimensions 21
Walking the Path
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the vampire slayer or any other of the characters in this story they belong to Joss Whedon and whoever else created the characters used in this story. Any characters I created I own.
Pairing: Janna Kalderdash/Xander Harris (There will be other relationships in this story but this is the main one)
Summary: Two days after the end of the first story Xander and his friends arrive in L.A to meet up with Vlad Tepes Lawyers not knowing the adventure awaiting them and the changes it would bring within the group.
(Other Realm)
Cassandra frowned as she watched Alexander and his friends sleep, she sensed something was wrong but she did not know what it was. She turned to her lord and was not surprised to find he too seemed to sense it
"What is it my lord?" Cassandra inquired wanting to know what it was she was sensing
"I believe Alexander and his friends may have encountered one of those dimensions where they are not welcome by our alternate selves" her lord answered frowning "I must speak with fate, keep watch Cassandra and only intervene if their lives are threatened is that understood?" he ordered as he began to leave
"Yes my lord very clear" Cassandra replied feeling herself shiver as she sensed his power pulse
She turned back to the viewing pool and watched as Alexander jerk upright as did Tara, both seemed to have had a nightmare but she had detected none. Maybe Alexander and his bond mate had sensed the same thing she and her lord had somehow
(San Francisco New Dimension)
Xander jumped to his feet and pulled his sword from it's scabbard as Tara woke Lilith from her own sleep, he quickly made his way over to the pack where they had placed the gifts they had been given in Middle Earth and handed them out
"What is wrong Alexander?" Lilith inquired still somewhat confused by her friend's actions
"Something is coming for us Lilith, I do not know what but it wants us gone anyway possible" Xander answered as he prepared for a fight
"How do you know?" Lilith asked for clarification making sure he understood she did not doubt his instincts
"I think the bonding ritual has enhanced mine and Tara's magical senses, combined as they are in the bond they seem to have picked up this threat" Xander tried to explain what Tara was whispering in his mind
"It's a possibility, as no one has performed the bonding ritual in a thousand years there are no texts which show what effects it can have" Lilith stated as she thought about what her friend had said
"Well we can discuss that later right now something dangerous is coming for us, we need to prepare" Xander told her
He stepped away from the door holding both the sword of Vlad Tepes and the Mithril sword in a ready action whilst Tara placed her back against the wall holding her own Mithril sword whilst she prepared to cast flame spell. Lilith grabbed her hand cannon and her Mithril sword and prepared as well, still somewhat confused as to what was suddenly after them but never doubting it would arrive.
A few seconds later the door to the room they were staying in was blown apart as two large demons walked in weilding swords which were coated in magic, Lilith fired his hand cannon as soon as they stepped inside the room whilst Tara unleashed her flame spell. The demons managed to stop the spell but the first demon took Lilith's shots straight into it's guts, it dropped to the ground and began howling in pain.
Xander moved forward and quickly decapitated it, whilst Liltih was forced to drop her hand cannon and engaged the beast with her sword as it jumped towards her. Tara remained where she was preparing a freezing spell hoping to encase the demon in a block on ice if she could get a clear shot, Xander slash his Mithril sword at the demon's unprotected side and managed to cut it causing it to growl in pain before it suddenly lashed out with his fist catching Xander straight in the face and knocking him against the far wall taking him out of the fight for the moment.
Lilith growled as she watched the demon back hand Xander and felt her demonic intincts begin to grow within her making her want to tare this demon apart with her bare hands, she was a little surprised by the strenght of this demon but it was still beneath a nosferatu and that gave her an edge. She used her enhanced speed to catch the demon off guard and nail it with the hilt of her sword knocking backwards; she followed up with a vicious back keep which sent it flying out of the room.
She moved to followed only to see the demon begin screaming as three people arrived in a bright light, she and Tara stepped outside the room followed by an unsteady Xander to see one of the new arrivals flick her hands freezing the demon where it stood. Tara seeing the chance for her own spell unleashed her own spell encasing the demon in a block of ice which would hold it for at least five minutes
"Are you okay?" a female voice asked from where the new arrivals stood
"We're okay, Xander caught a bad blow from that one but we managed to kill it's friend" Lilith answered as the now revealed three women moved towards them "Thanks for the assist, may we ask who you are and how you knew we were in trouble?" she asked
"My name is Piper these are my sisters Phoebe and Paige" the middle female answered indicating her companions "As to how we knew you needed help, well that's a long story" she added with a smile
"My name is Lilith and this is Tara and Alexander" Lilith introduced herself and her two friends
"I have to say you don't seem surprised to see a demon" Phoebe stated
"Well we did see one of them use magic so maybe this has happened before" Paige reminded her sister
"Maybe we should deal with this guy and then find a new hotel before we start discussing things" Xander finally spoke having shaken off the blow from the demon which had caught him off guard with the strength behind it
"You're right, just let us handle this" Piper said cursing herself for loosing focus
Xander and the others watched as the three sisters began reading from a piece of paper what was obviously a spell, the demon began to smoke melting the ice of Tara's spell before bursting into fire and vanishing. Lilith noted the demon they had already killed had also combusted inside their room
"You better come with us, then we can talk" Phoebe told them
"Let us get out stuff and we'll be right with you" Tara replied feeling they could trust these people
(Other Realm)
Cassandra had watched the fight in silence, the demons had been strong but thankfully Lilith had managed to get a lucky shot and killed one of them. The second had been more of a problem but thanks to the help of the alternate charmed ones it too was now dead, she was surprised to see Lilith's more demonic instincts come to the front when Alexander had been struck so hard. She wondered if there was more to Lilith's friendship with Alexander than had been shown so far. She couldn't help but think there may be more to her step daughter's feelings for Alexander than she was showing, since returning to her father's side she had controlled her demonic side with an iron will and kept it contained and yet it had surfaced when Alexander had been struck by a blow that may have caused more damage than a normal blow would of. She would have to keep a closer eye on her step daughter from this point if only to keep things from getting more complicated.
She was confused to see that one of the sisters was different in this dimension for some reason. She wondered if Prue Halliwell had never been born here or if she was given a different name or something else was amiss. She turned as she heard someone enter behind her and noted her lord walk back to the viewing pool looking a bit more relaxed
"My lord Alexander and Tara both sensed the same thing we did and managed to prepare themselves just in time for an attack by two very powerful demons" she reported
"I know Cassandra, fate has given me a very detailed report on this dimension" her lord replied "The demons were sent by our alternate selves to remove what they saw as threats to their grand plan, fate decided to intervene and sent Phoebe Halliwell a vision and made it feel very important they help" he continued "Thankfully the charmed ones acted on the vision whilst fate tries to reign in the powers of that dimension" he finished frowning
"My lord this dimension's charmed ones are different than ours" she stated still confused by this
"This dimension is a year and a half ahead of our own and according to fate Prue Halliwell died five months ago at the hands of the source's bounty hunter shacks" her lord informed her "She was replaced by an unknown half sister named Paige Matthews who they encountered during Prue's funeral and had to save from first Shacks then the source himself" he continued as he watched the charmed ones take Alexander and his friends back to their manor "She took up Prue's position and helped reconstitute the charmed ones" he finished catching Cassandra's rather shocked face causing him to chuckle
"Will that happen in out dimension my lord?" she inquired feeling badly for the sisters who had always held in high esteem
"It may, and yet because of Alexander's presence here she may be saved if he learns what he needs to act" her lord answered
"If he managed to save her then what would happen to the Paige of our dimension my lord?" she asked as she went through the possibility of Alexander saving Prue
"Again that would be up to Alexander and what information he decides to take back from this dimension" her lord replied "But I Believe the charmed ones of our dimension will be getting a visit from Alexander once he returns" he stated confidently to which Cassandra nodded in agreement
(San Francisco Halliwell Manor)
Xander almost shuddered as he was released from the mode of transport they had just used to get to the girl's home something they called orbing. It was a rather unusual feeling and not one he wanted to do again for a while, he looked around and noted the rather large room they were had an old feel to it.
"Welcome to our home" Piper said with a smile feeling better now that they were back
"It's a nice place, but it feels old like it's been standing for a long time" Tara said in reply feeling the same thing Xander was feeling however she could also feel the magic which surrounded the manor
"It has been here a long time" Phoebe acknowledged as she sat down on one of the sofa's and indicated for them to do the same which whey did after placing their bags against the near by wall
"So why weren't you surprised to see two demons attacking you?" Paige asked first still unsure about this situation as the means of Phoebe's vision was still unknown
"That's a very long story, but to put it bluntly we've come up against vampires and demons before" Xander answered whilst keeping his magical senses alert for any more dangers "What about you?" he asked settling back against the sofa
"It's our destiny to deal with demons" Piper answered strangely feeling they had nothing to fear from their guests which surprised her sisters
"Sounds familiar, you're not slayers are you?" Xander asked with a grin
"What's a slayer?" Paige asked confused at the question
"A Vampire slayer is a chosen champion of the powers to fight and destroy vampires" Lilith gave the text book answer "There is usually only one slayer at a time when one dies another is called, they are always young girls of around 15 to 16 years of age" she added
"We're never heard anything like that before" Piper said with a frown before shouting "Leo"
Xander shared a confused look with Lilith and Tara before almost jumping to his feet in alarm as another pillar of light appeared to form into a man of medium height with blond hair and blue eyes
"What's up?" Leo asked his wife before noticing they had guests "And who are they?" he asked a second later
"Phoebe got a vision of them been attacked by a demon followed by a feeling that it was important we rescue them, so we went and helped them" Piper answered her husband "They managed to kill one of the demons that attacked them but were having a bit more difficultly with the other which we helped kill, we brought them here to have a chat away from any curious eyes seen as it happened in a hotel" she informed him as he sat down next to her "Leo what's a vampire slayer?" she asked
Leo Wyatt frowned at the question and wondered how his wife and her sisters had learned of the slayer "How do you know about that?" he asked trying to avoid the question as he and the other whitelighters had been ordered by the elders not to discuss the other champions with their charge's
"They told us about them now answer the question Leo" Piper replied frowning at her husband causing him to wince
"The Slayer is another champion in the fight against evil, they are usually used to fight and kill vampires but they can be deadly to demons as well" he sighed guessing he was going to be trouble when get went back up
"Why have you never mentioned there are other champions out there?" Phoebe asked
"We're not allowed Phoebe" he answered his sister in law "The high council likes to keep the champions separate from each other, it's always been that way" he added
"Idiots" Xander spat suddenly annoyed "That's make it easier for their champions to be overwhelmed and killed or worse turned" he continued "It sounds as if this high council is as thick as the leaders of the different organisations that fight the darkness" he vented feeling frustrated to hear that the higher powers seemed to be following the same rules as those leading the fight on earth
"What organisations?" Paige inquired watching the young man get himself worked up
Again Leo hesitated in answering until he saw the looks he was getting from his wife and sister in law's, he now knew he was in trouble not just with them but the elders when he got back for answering "There are many organisations out there who fight this war Paige, the Watcher's council for instance helps train the slayer and provides support if needed" he finally spoke missing Xander and Lilith's snort at the mention of the watcher's council
"And you were forbidden to tell us about these organisations which could of helped us?" Piper demanded to know
"Yes I was, I've just broken one of the most important rules we have" Leo confirmed
"Why wouldn't they want us to know about them?" Phoebe wondered
"That's simple to answer" Xander told her causing everyone to look at him as he leaned against the wall
"So tell us the answer then" Phoebe ordered annoyed at the silence that followed that statement
"They don't allow you that knowledge because they are afraid you'll break away from their control and follow your own path, we had the same problem kind of in our own dimension" Xander stated then cursed himself for mentioning another dimension
"Did you just claim to be from another dimension?" Piper asked with wide eyes as Leo looked more uneasy and Paige and Phoebe looked surprised
(Elders Council)
Around a large viewing pool stood a group of seventeen powerful looking beings, each was looking at the meeting taking place between the charmed ones and the dimensional travellers and as it progressed they grew more and more annoyed
"We must stop this, if those travellers give out anymore information or ideas then we may loose control of the charmed line" one of the group finally lost control of his temper
"We already tried to stop them interfering by using one of our agents to hire those demons, we failed" another reminded his colleague
"We have been ordered by fate to leave them alone, if we ignore her order we may bring her wrath down on us as well as the wrath of her master" the smallest of the beings spoke calmly not feeling the same anger as his colleague's
"But they are ruining our plans" another objected "They could cause our defeat" he added
"We cannot be so sure of that, and even if we were we could still not stop them from interacting with the charmed ones" the smallest shot back "Even if we ordered them not to talk to the strangers I doubt they would listen and remember they can choose to ignore us as is there right just because they have free will" he reminded them
"I don't like this one bit, why is fate protecting them?" one of the others asked
None of them answered, they had no idea why fate was so interested in protecting these travellers but not one of them dared test her resolve.
"What do we do about Leo, he has violated our laws?" one of the group asked
"Nothing" the smallest answered with a shake of his head "He has defied us before and each time we have punished him fate has stepped in and forced us to allow him to go back to the charmed ones" he added "We will watch and wait, maybe if the travellers go to far fate may change her mind" he finished noting the looks of anger and frustration his answer caused before looking back to the viewing pool