Day nineteen. Let the sequels begin!

Standard disclaimer etc

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Crimson Rain II

Xander stared at Buffy.

Impossible.

He remembered Dawn. He had five years of Dawn-memories. But the look in her eyes, her heartbeat . . .

She's not lying.

So Xander stared, brain more or less broken. It was a good thing she wasn't trying to kill him at the moment.

Dawn's not real?

He banished that thought immediately. Reality was, by and large, what one made of it. After all, a redheaded, Japanese, part-demon swordsman that had never existed lived in his head and lurked in his mirror. Reality was subjective.

So little girls that had once been glowing green balls of energy were not only possible, from a certain point of view they were likely.

I wonder how many of them there are floating around the world.

He swallowed the giggle before it could pass his lips. Hysteria was not going to help. "You're sure?" the question was less question than statement.

"Would I be talking to you for any other reason?" that was also rather less question than statement. Given their long history of mutual annoy-age he'd forgive the Slayer her irritation.

"Sou ka?" well, mostly forgive. Though given the glare she was sending his way, maybe he'd better avoid Japanese around her for a while yet. Say, till she was old and grey and he could be reasonably sure she wouldn't hunt him down and kill him in his sleep.

He banished whimsy to the same corner as panic. "Do you have a plan?"

The short answer was "Yes" the long answer . . .

I should have asked her if she had a plan with a snowflake's chance in southern California of succeeding.

The 'plan' came down to 'Buffy take troll-god hammer. Buffy smash Hellgod!' Xander began to wonder if there might be a way to delicately suggest that his once-friend was being an idiot.

The fact that it was extremely unlikely she could catch him and beat him to death meant squat if she had Willow level his apartment complex.

Memory surged at him, drubbing him over the head with, 'They made Dawn from me and-'

Xander shook it off wishing he was more the rurouni and less the hitokiri. He could use some more zen tranquility at the moment.

He sighed. No help for it.

Bunjee Jumping is easy; first, step off the bridge. "That might not be the best possible allocation of resources," she was glaring at him. He could deal with that. The part of her that was the Slayer was very good at tactics. Not excellent, but very good. Thus, she tended to rush forward in her planning to getting down to blows with the enemy where she could use that tactical ability.

By contrast, a hitokiri planned. Everything available about the target was know. How many guards? What is the building layout? What can go wrong? No matter how much temper and instinct pushed him to act, he would wait, and think.

"You are correct, in that you acknowledge that Willow's attack is unlikely to be game-winning in and of itself. You are also correct in that Glory cannot be fought by something as weak as a vampire. Your plan to distract her with the Buffy-bot is likewise a good one," he acknowledged. "However, would it not be more logical to allow one who is faster than you to engage an enemy equally fast?"

Buffy's eyes widened slightly before narrowing suspiciously. "If you think I'm giving you the hammer-"

Xander cut her off. "I do not know that I could even lift it, and I have no desire to try."

"They how are you . . .?" Buffy trailed off in puzzlement.

"You are forgetting, Buffy. We need not win this battle. We simply need to not lose it."

The light went on. "If both Spike and I can get to Dawn . . ."

For the first time in years, Buffy smiled at him without the edge of maliciousness he had come to expect from her.

Maybe there's a chance for us to make something of this after all.

He shook the thought out of his head, forcing himself to look for any holes in the plan.

I have a daughter. This must go right, for her sake.

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So the monks made Dawn out of Buffy . . . alright, since she's obviously not a clone where'd the other half come from? This episode of plot-hole-filling brought to you by my insane muse!

'Sou ka?': 'Is that so?'

Rurouni: a made up word. Literally. It doesn't exist in Japanese. Given the meaning: wanderer apparently as an extension of Ronin.

Hitokiri: Manslayer, in the context of the anime, an assassin.

And that's it! I'm goin' back to bed.