Tobias sighed internally as the two looked at him. They hadn't moved for the past minute since he'd dropped his little information load on them and now they were apparently too stunned to even register that he'd just asked Buffy a question. So yeah, this was going great.
'I'm really enjoying this so far.' Black wolf suddenly spoke up, sounding amused.
'Shut up you.' Tobias snapped back, being sure to keep his face the same.
'I would, but really, the looks on their faces are priceless. I think Giles might've actually swallowed a fly with how much his mouth is open.'
He repressed the urge to growl. 'If you're not going to say anything productive, than don't say anything at all!' He cut the link with his psychotic personality, having enough problems without dealing with the voices in his own head. He looked at the two and sighed, leaning back in his chair.
"Look, I get that this is a lot that I'm dumping on you in one session, but I'm still me." He stressed the word. "Yes, I have a spirit in me that gives me my powers. Yes, said spirit is a few thousand years old and I have access to the memories of everyone who had it before me, but that doesn't change anything. I'm still the same Tobias who you've come to know over the past few months. I'm not suddenly going to change just because you know some of my background. So...can you please stop staring at me like that? It's making me very uncomfortable."
He could hear their teeth click together when they closed their jaw, Buffy looking away while Giles took off his glasses and polished them.
"We're sorry, but...well as you said; this is quite a lot to process."
"And I understand that. But that doesn't mean I like being gawked at like an animal I'm a zoo." He held up a hand before Giles could speak. "I know you don't mean to do it, but that is what I feel like. So, how about a little deal? You don't ask me any questions relating to my tenant, and yes I will accept that label, and I'll tell you some things about it at a later date? And in the meantime, if she would still like me to, I teach Buffy the styles of bending I mentioned earlier." He looked at the blonde. She seemed to hesitate for a second. "If you've decided not to, I will understand. I'm merely offering my knowledge and skills, not trying to force you into anything."
She thought for a second before nodding slowly. "I'd really like to learn actually. But… Are you sure you want to-"
"I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't sure I wanted to teach you." He cut her off. "Please don't make me repeat myself." He stood and looked at Giles. "I'm afraid you're going to have to stand while we're working, unless you want to sit on one of those." He pointed at the old furniture.
"I think I'd rather stand than sit on those insect ridden things." He grumbled, getting off his own chair as they all dissolved. He moved off to the side while Tobias concentrated on the space in front of him and made a white mat of air, twelve feet by twelve feet. He walked onto it, Buffy following behind as they stood six feet apart.
"Now, before I start teaching you the stances and movements, I'm going to show you how effectively they can be utilized, but I am going to warn you now. These styles were never made with the intention of being used by people who couldn't bend the elements they related to. There was no rule against it; people simply didn't think it important if you couldn't bend in the first place. So I can only show you the basics and some advanced forms, but you'll have to adjust them and find what fits with you."
She nodded. "So you're saying you can only show me the door, but I'm the one who has to walk through it."
Tobias blinked. "Did...did you just quote The Matrix?" She nodded, looking slightly smug. He clapped slowly. "Color me impressed. I would've thought action movies were boring considering your normal life." She shrugged, not really giving an answer. "In any case, yes, in this instance, you would be Neo and I'd be Morpheus teaching you how to fight. Unlike the movie though, I'll be kicking your ass for a lot longer."
She narrowed her eyes. "Don't bet on it."
"Hhmm. Get in your stance and we'll see."
XXXXXXXXXX
Buffy stretched out a little and hopped on the balls of her feet before lifting her fists and bracing her feet, her right side slightly ahead of her left. She could feel Giles watching them closely but ignored him as Tobias moved, putting his hands out. His right hand was a little lower than his shoulder, palm out, and his left hand was significantly lower, palm parallel with the ground. His feet was slightly raised onto the balls and his overall stance was rather relaxed, ready to move in any direction.
"Begin." He said flatly, but didn't move an inch from his spot. She remembered what he said about one of the styles he was going to teach her, water, was about redirecting the opponent, with some counter strikes. She had a feeling he was waiting for her to make the first move.
She took a sudden step forward, but he didn't move or even twitch in response. She tried it again, putting herself in easy attack range, but he still didn't react. It was making her nervous, but she tried throwing a punch.
Tobias suddenly ducked down and to the side, his right hand wrapping around her wrist to pull her forward and flip her over his back, landing her firmly on the ground before she even realized what had happened. She blinked and stayed there for a minute until he leaned over her.
"You're hesitating too much. Water might be a counteractive style, but if you're afraid of what I might do, you won't be ready to react to what I will do." He held out a hand. After a second of consideration, she slowly took it and let him pull her up. After he did, he walked five feet away and said, without turning around, "Again."
Buffy narrowed her eyes. This was different. But taking his words to heart, she ignored her hesitation and attacked, swinging at his head. He ducked and spun away, popping up into a stance behind her. She changed directions and tried to keep up her attacks, swinging and kicking as she got into her rhythm, but Tobias was suddenly moving like he had no bones, ducking and flowing out of the way of her attacks. He smacked aside a punch she threw so it went wide and stepped inside her guard, bracing his feet before slamming a fist into her sternum. She felt her feet leave the ground, at least a few inches, as she went back a foot and once again hit the ground, this time without any air in her lungs. As she gasped and tried to stop her stomach from feeling like it had been hit by a wrecking ball.
"That was Earth style." Tobias's voice sounded fuzzy as he looked down at her again, probably due to the ringing in her ears. "Water as you saw is good for dodging and putting your opponent off balance, but Earth is where you really use your strength in the most powerful way possible. The two can cover the weakness of the other easily enough, but you need to be able to switch between the two on the fly at a moment's notice." He paused. "How do you feel?"
"Getting better." She grunted, sitting up. Her sternum was still throbbing, but her Slayer healing was fixing her up. "But I felt like you hit me with a wrecking ball."
He snorted. "Feel grateful that I can't bend earth. Earth Benders are one of the most destructive Benders in the world. I have memories of one guy, King Bumi, taking back his entire city by himself from an army."
"You're kidding." Buffy said after a moment of silence.
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" He asked with a serious face before he helped her up. "Anyways, since you have an idea of what the styles now, I can start teaching you the stances and techniques, but like I said in the beginning, you're going to have to adjust them and find what fits best. Water, for example, you might be able to take farther than me simply because females are more flexible than males. So don't be afraid to experiment or combine these styles with your own techniques, ok?"
She nodded.
"Ok. We'll start with water, so start by…"
XXXXXXXXXX
Tobias sighed as he walked home. The sessions had gone well, Buffy picking up the fluid movements of Water Bending faster than he had anticipated, but he guessed that had come from her already learning different fighting techniques before this. She was just adding two more to her arsenal. Giles hadn't done much other than watch them and write on his notebooks, taking notes and making crude drawings of the stances he'd shown and had the Slayer go through. After two hours of this, they'd stopped and agreed to have the next training period tomorrow at the same time and place, then parted ways.
As he walked, Tobias let his mind drift and examine how he felt about telling the two parts of his past. Relief was in there somewhere, since he could tell they were shocked by the revelations but the reassurances he was still him had made it so they barely treated him differently at all. Some enjoyment that they weren't treating him differently, and that Buffy was apparently picking up his teaching quickly despite the fact he'd been taught these styles himself and only taught them to the girls before. But mostly he was nervous. The process of letting them get to know his past had started and he was afraid of what they'd think of him when he introduced him to Black Wolf, plus the more...unpleasant aspects.
'Aw, I feel all warm and fuzzy.'
Tobias resisted the urge to growl. 'What part of not saying anything is not clear?!'
'The part where you expect me to do it. You know me Tobi, so why do you act like you don't?'
He cut the link off before Black Wolf could read his thoughts. He acted like he didn't know his psychotic personality because it was easier when, in fact, he knew everything about him just as well as he knew himself. What he enjoyed, hated, motivations, and memories of what he did. A lot of them bloody and full of death. As his thoughts drifted there, he realized in an off-handed manner than Angel was probably in the same if not worse spot he was. Bloodied hands and a tortured consciousness as he tried to make up for the pain he'd caused.
He blinked. He hadn't thought about the ensouled vampire in forever, why was he suddenly popping up in his thoughts now? With a sigh, he banished the thoughts and kept walking towards home. He needed some better company besides his thoughts and evil half.
XXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, Buffy was sitting in her dorm room doing some homework, but it wasn't going too well since her mind kept wandering, going over the training session she'd had with her newest friend and what she'd learned about him.
She had been expecting a lot of things when it came to Tobias, surprises being among them. They knew him fairly well, but his past had been a sketchy subject since he never offered anything substantial or details on some things, but she had never expected to learn the source of his powers was a spirit, similar to her own Slayer spirit in some ways, wildly different in others. She continued to come back to fact that it was apparently possible to pass it on to someone else when they died, and that the next person could remember the past lives the spirit had inhabited. The teen had come off as mature and intelligent about a lot of things, fighting and life for example, but she had always thought he'd learned that himself or been taught it. Instead, he had at least a few thousand years' worth of life experience at his disposal. In a way, it reminded her of vampires and how they gathered life experience the longer they lived, growing stronger and more powerful as time progressed. The only difference was Tobias wasn't immortal and he hadn't been alive for more than twenty years at most, unlike Angel who was over two hundred.
Buffy felt the sudden stab of pain, nostalgia, and love at the thought of her first real love. She missed him, but she was forced to admit that his reasons for putting distance between them were valid. She was a Slayer and human when he was a vampire and immortal. Any relationship between them would inevitably end in heartbreak, either because she grew old and died, which was highly unlikely, or she was killed in the line of duty, which happened to Slayers far more often than she liked. She knew this, but she couldn't help her feelings and would always love Angel.
She paused, her pencil still set to the paper. Now that she thought about it, Angel and Tobias were very similar. Both had more life experience than their appearance would let on, were exceptional fighters, had tricks and skills that were handy, and a certain aura around them. Danger, loyalty, but sadness, like they had done things they regretted bitterly and couldn't take back. But Angel had killed so many people as Angelus to be like he was, so why did Tobias have the same feel unless-
"Knock knock."
The blonde jerked, sending a thick line of graphite across her paper as her pencil moved, and looked at the door to see Willow standing in the doorway, a mildly concerned look on her face as she closed the door behind her.
"Hey." She sighed, taking a breath before she scowled at her paper. That mark was going to take a while to erase.
"Hey." Willow said. "Are you ok? You were in deep thinking mode when I came in, with your eyebrows all scrunched up and that little frown you get."
"Yeah, just...thinking the deep thoughts I guess." She said, pushing away the darker ones that had started to form. She was just overanalyzing and forcing things onto Tobias from when she'd been thinking of Angel. He might be ruthless to vampires and demons, but that didn't mean the teen was a killer.
"So," Willow asked, setting her bag on her bed. "How did the training with Tobias go?"
Buffy felt the spot where Tobias had punched her throb, despite the fact that said area was already healed. "Good actually. He's teaching me some...interesting stuff." She said, suddenly wondering if she should tell Willow everything she had learned. He hadn't told her not to tell anyone, and had even let Giles take notes when he was explaining what his powers and spirit was. Or did he just want to keep this between the three of them? She weighed the two options and decided to tell her. "Actually, we learned a little about him too."
The redhead gave her a curious look, sitting down on her mattress. "Like what?"
She wasn't sure where to start, but it didn't matter. She just started talking and it all came pouring out: his Avatar spirit, the bending styles, the four nations she had learned about, and how old his spirit was with his access to its previous owner's memories. By the time she was done talking, her mouth was dry and Willow's mouth was so far open it was a miracle it wasn't touching the floor.
"He...he remembers?" She finally choked out. "He remembers at least a few thousand years and multiple lifetimes?"
She nodded. "That's what he said. But he doesn't have access to all of it and he's only show memories if he needs advice, though I don't know what that means. But...yeah."
"Wow." Willow said softly, looking off to the side. "I knew it was strong, but I didn't know it-"
"Wait." Buffy said, catching that sentence. "You KNEW he had a spirit!?"
Willow's face flushed as red as her hair. "Kinda?" She squeaked. "He stopped by once and asked me to keep an eye on his body when he was first trying astral projection. But he didn't tell me much I swear," She hurriedly said. "Just that he had a spirit. He even told me it didn't really have a name."
"And you didn't tell us because…"
Impossibly, her blush got deeper. "I forgot."
Buffy groaned and put her face in her hands. She couldn't really fault her friend for not telling her. So many things happened in Sunnydale that sometimes details just slipped through the cracks and were forgotten until later. Doubly so since Tobias, Kazehana, and Yahan came in and turned their lives upside down. Well, even more upside down. After a few deep breaths to get her emotions under control, she looked her friend in the eye.
"So, what do we do?"
Willow hummed thoughtfully. "Honestly, I don't think we should do anything. I mean, this is huge and everything," She added. "But does it really matter? Tobias is still himself; he's just got a few extra quirks like you do with your own powers." She shrugged. "I don't know, but that's just my honest opinion."
Buffy nodded slowly. It made sense, and she couldn't really do anything with this anyways, like Will said. The best she could do was go with the flow and hope she wasn't rushing towards the hidden edge of a waterfall.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Tobias stared at the night sky from the roof of the apartment building, eyes flicking from constellation to the next as he reviewed what had happened the past few days.
Buffy had proven to be a capable student like he had expected after the first day, but even he had been surprised at how well she had learned Earth and Water style Bending techniques and made them physical fighting styles. She hadn't beaten him once, since he had far more experience with them than she did, but he was fairly confident the next time she met Adam, she wasn't going to get knocked around like a ragdoll. She might not win, but it was still better than her situation before. She had, at one point, asked him if he would be willing to let Riley attend and teach him, and the answer had been an instant no. He might like Riley, but he did not trust him enough to teach him something this personal, and he sure as hell did not trust the Initiative knowing some of the ways he fought. He could list the number of organizations he trust on one hand, and that was because he knew everyone in the group or the head personally. Governments, however, were an entirely different matter.
Of course, he hadn't only been teaching the Slayer new ways to kick demonic asses ten ways to Sunday and back. He and the girls had gone out with her and the Scoobies to the Bronze, the group just relaxing and having a good time. Buffy had almost killed herself when he'd asked if she'd told Willow and Xander about his Avatar spirit while she was in the middle of a drink, causing it to come spewing out her mouth and nose. It had been the source of much amusement for the next few days, and embarrassment for the blonde. It turned out she hadn't told Xander, so he'd told her it was fine and he had expected her to tell them sooner or later anyways, just so long as they didn't treat him differently. They hadn't, but Xander had made an incredibly inappropriate joke about him having access to a couple millennium worth of memories and his...sexual prowess. Needless to say, every female of the group had not been amused.
On top of the occasional visit to the Bronze, he'd spent time with the girls, sometimes going to the beach area they had found, sometimes wandering Sunnydale, other times not leaving the house but certainly enjoying each other's company in the bedroom. They had also joined him and Buffy on their patrols, but it was frankly boring. Vampires were easy challenges to the trio and even Buffy was starting to comment on how easy it was to fight them with her new skills, but they still had to keep the population down.
Otherwise, things had been quieter on the Adam front, and frankly it was making him nervous. It was one thing to send followers to a church to terrorize them, but quite was even worse. It meant he was planning something, bidding his time, and possibly gathering forces. Overall, he wished the demonic cyborg would make his move so they could do something about it.
But, throughout all of this, he'd been carefully keeping track of the days. It had been six days since Faith had left the small town, and he had already packed a backpack with clothes so he could leave in the morning, with the excuse that he had to leave town for a few days to take care of some personal business. In fact, he had come up to the roof with the purpose of looking at the stars and being alone while he found Faith's location through astral projection so he would know where he was heading. He checked his gauntlet and saw the time was a little after ten forty. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and entered his astral state.
"Ok Faith." He said to himself, standing over his solid body as he looked towards the horizon. "Let's see where you ran off to." Normally when he used his astral form to go to a person, he appeared right by them or a little ways away. This time, however, things had a very different outcome.
Tobias grunted as he felt a flare of pain as it felt like he just ran headfirst into a brick wall, making him stagger backwards. He shook his head. 'What the hell just happened!?'
He wasn't supposed to feel pain in his astral state. He wasn't actually substance, but pure spirit. Even Adam had only made him feel nauseous, but any actual pain had been the result of his body rejecting the sensations his aura apparently put off. This was different though; this was like someone had just hit his spiritual form and hurt it. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was.
The skyline was different, full of tall buildings and a few skyscrapers, so he was in a busy city somewhere, and the hum of people shouting, cars honking, and machinery confirmed it. It wasn't New York since he couldn't see the iconic Empire State Building, but what really ruled out the East Coast was the fact that the stars looked similar to what he'd been staring at before doing this. Looking straight ahead, he saw he'd arrived in front of a building that had most of its lights on and a sign that said Wolfram & Hart Attorneys at law.
"Lawyers. Great." He muttered. But that still didn't explain why he couldn't get in, or where he was. Looking around, he picked a random direction and started walking, stopping at corner and reading the street sign, which said: Spring Street. Helpful, but still not enough. He kept walking, passing through people and cars without even bothering to dodge them as he walked through street and foot traffic. Finally, he spotted a newspaper box. He ignored the headlines and focused on the name of the paper itself.
"The LA Times." He muttered to himself, looking around.
Faith had run to the City of Angels.
A/N: And that's all he wrote. I know the ending might seem a little abrupt, but to be honest, I think this is the best spot to do it. I have hardly any idea on what to add to this without it feeling like unnecessary clutter, and for those of you who know what happens in the episode, I'm sure you feel the same. So, heads up, the next chapter will instantly be the morning after this, so don't be surprised at the time skip. As for other things...well, I'm going to keep those a surprise. (Smiles innocently.)
What else? Oh, right, I'd like to say thanks to DanielAlvarado for the review he left, and ask for anyone who has any thoughts to do the same. Life is making it hard to get time to write, but reviews make my muse work faster during the time I can do it. Just so you know. *hint hint*