Part Twenty Nine: Strange Days

Xander tossed and turned in his sleep as he was assaulted by strange dreams. He hadn't had a decent nights sleep sense Willow had blasted him in her attempt to destroy the world.

The dreams always had an old man in them that wanted Xander to leave the Hellmouth and go to Tibet. If it wasn't a dream it would be laughable, even with his new position as Forman he didn't have enough money to travel around the world, and tonight he told the old man just that.

"Very well, I will accommodate you this one time," said the old man.

Suddenly Xander found himself on a stone floor. Well first he found himself about five feet above said stone floor, but that didn't last long.

"What the hell!" exclaimed Xander as he was painfully awakened, and saw the old man from his dreams standing in front of him.

"Now you can begin your education," said the old man.

"Huh?" was Xanders intelligent reply as his mind attempted to catch up with the rest of him.

"Your magical education," said the old man.

"Okay time out!" said Xander as his mind began to work when the old man mentioned magic. "Where am I, how did I get here, and who are you!"

"Impressive, not many would be able to get all of that in one sentence," said the old man. "To answer your questions; you are in Tibet, I brought you here with magic, and you may call me Ancient One."

"Okay, that leaves me wondering why you went through the trouble. I don't think you want to train me in magic, I don't do magic. Maybe you want to talk to my friend Willow," said Xander.

"Your friend is quite powerful, but I believe that you will quickly surpass her. After all you disrupted her magic quite easily two weeks ago when she was at the height of her power," said the Ancient One.

"That was just because Willow didn't want to kill me, not because I can do magic," said Xander with doubt in his voice. He had felt something working in him that day, but had dismissed it.

"I assure you it was magic," said the Ancient One. "When you come to terms with this Mordo will come and escort you to your room."

"Wait, how am I supposed to get back to Sunnydale?" asked Xander even as the Ancient One left the room.

"Things are coming, Dawn. Listen, things are on their way. I love you, and I love Buffy, but she won't be there for you," said the specter of Joyce to a now truly frightened Dawn.

"Liar, liar, pants on fire, hanging from a telephone wire," chanted a voice that Dawn hadn't heard in three months.

"Xander?" asked Dawn.

"Got it in one Dawn," said a ghost like Xander.

"You aren't supposed to be here," snarled Joyce.

"Neither are you," said Xander. "In fact I don't think you are even here in your real form, let's see what we can do to fix that."

After saying those words Xanders ghost like image changed. Gone were the casual clothes that Dawn had always seen him in, instead he wore vaguely Asian clothing with a red cape, and a golden amulet.

"Let the All-seeing Eye of Agamotto reveal your true form," said Xander in a commanding voice right before the room was filled with blinding light.

When the light had dimmed enough for Dawn to see again a demon whose head was made out of flame was standing where Joyce had been.

"You got to be kidding me. Last year it was three geeks, and now we have to settle for Mr. Bic as our big bad?" moaned Xander even as his ghost form switched back to his normal clothes.

"Who?" asked Dawn with a small smile on her face. It was nice to have Xander back and making fun of things again.

"You know, Mr. Bic. The cartoon guy with a flaming head that's on cheep lighters," said Xander ignoring the seething demon behind him.

"FOOLS!" roared the demon. "I am Dormammu, not a lowly being to be mocked!"

"I know who you are Mr. Bic," said Xander with a dismissive wave. "I also know that right now you are sealed about twenty levels below the Earth dimension. This means you can only talk us to death."

"When I enter this realm your screams will last a thousand lifetimes," said Dormammu before he blinked out of existence.

"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but at least you will never date me," said Xander to the air before turning back to Dawn.

"So what's up with this?" asked Dawn as she passed a hand through Xanders form.

"Astral projection," said Xander with a smile. "Apparently I'm a big time magic guy now so I can do all kinds of fun stuff."

"So you're like Willow now? Does this mean you're gay?"

"Only in the sense that I get very happy looking a women," said Xander. "Okay that came out a bit dirtier than I wanted it to, but you get the idea."

Dawn just giggled until Xander turned serious.

"I need to get back to my body now, and then get my corporal self to Sunnydale. If Dormammu is getting ready to breach into our realm again we could be in big trouble."

Dawn simply nodded in acceptance that Apocalypse season was coming again. On the bright side though Xander was coming home, and he looked really yummy in the Asian clothes he had morphed into for a time. Maybe he would ware them again if he got happy enough looking at her for a change.