"Accidents Do Happen"
By Kiara Fallan
Ceri2@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except what is mine....I don't even own the computer in which I started writing this story. My life isn't mine. The idea and powers are mine, the bad guys you don't recognize are mine, and even the room (see my first story) and it's "computer" named Naia is mine....If you sue me you are going to be surprised when you realize that I only have ten cents on me....and my parents have no idea that I do this (plus I'm legally an adult now so...) Oh, and I'm not explaining any of this either. If you want an explanation read my first story: A Chance to Help
Note: Story takes place after Graduation, but Angel never left.
* to disappear and to reappear. If he reappears somewhere other then his normal position you'll know hence the "Phased and reappeared [insert location]"
Xander so far has these powers: Energy can shoot out from him, the ability to teleport himself and other people, and he gets a room (see I do own the room) and a voice who is called Naia. Read and you will discover the newly found talents....allong with his weaknesses.
-----------
"Wandering in the loneliest, wildest spot of all the domain, he came upon her as suddenly as if a wish had brought her to the nook haunted for both by pleasant memories."
A Modern Mephistopheles (A Long Fatal Love Chase), Louisa May Alcott
Things change. People grow up, or at least made look like they have. The Senior class of Sunnydale High had graduated. The ceremony was one they would never forget, at least the ones who had lived through it would never forget. Through it all, there stood out a group. A group who had managed to survive even though they led the assault against the evil. It was a group of teenagers, or now as young adults with the exception of three older looking men. However, everyone wondered how the one young dark haired boy had grown up, or at least gotten braver and more stronger.
Xander, who once looked upon himself as the zeppo, the unhelpful one, suddenly became someone of great importance in the group. Assigned by mysterious beings as "guardian" of the Slayer and the group, Xander was given abilities to help him with his duty. He fought even when he was a beginner to defeat an evilness that almost drained him dry. Since that time, Giles, Xander, Buffy, and Angel started up a training program that took place in the mansion that Angel had lived in before he moved to an apartment. It was kind of hard to train him, considering that not one of them knew the extent of the abilities.
"OWWWW!" Buffy exclaimed, landing on her butt. "Xander be careful that you don't kill me in training!"
Xander turned around to face her, an uneasy smile on his face. "Sorry, Buffy. I didn't even mean to do that. I was trying to stop you from being able to move like I did two nights ago."
He offered her a hand, and Buffy took it and got up. Giles was paying no attention to what was going on. Angel, who showed up two minutes ago, stood up off his chair and went to the pair.
"Are you alright Buffy?" He asked.
Buffy dusted herself off and nodded. The pain hadn't lasted long, and she knew that she didn't receive Xander's full force. What she received had probably been Xander's restrained "I don't want to hurt you but I want to show you something" force. They had, at least after graduation, learned that Xander could unleash his abilities at different forces. Graduation had shown them that his powers were indeed very strong if he wished them to be.
"Sorry. I'm still having trouble keeping everything straight." Xander said, quite apologetic as he phased*. He never quite knew when he did that. It was almost like an instinct or a bad habit he couldn't break. He also knew it made Buffy uncomfortable. He would have apologized but at that moment he phased again and reappeared next to Giles.
"Giles, what's new in that book?" He asked, noticing that Giles was reading a really old looking book that was full of pages.
Giles jumped. "Oh, it's just you. I wish you would warn people before you do something like that."
Xander smiled. "Yeah but then you'd jump over my warning."
Giles paused for a moment and nodded in agreement. "Enough about that. I found a new book."
"What's new." Buffy muttered not quite so softly as she hoped.
Giles cleared his throat. "I'll pretend you did not say that. This book is quite informative of demons, prophecies, and magical people that other books just vaguely mention."
"Does it have anything about me?" Xander asked, breaking the momentary silence.
"Actually, no. It does not, which should not alarm you. There are many things that do exist are not in any book. This book does however point out that there is something both good and evil coming our way. It specifically says that someone who appears to be one thing is actually another thing and disturbs the balance of good and evil. Unfortunately it does not tell me if the balance is tipped to good or evil. There's another thing to say that the person who is protective will be unknowing of the disguise." Giles explained.
"You mean it's not predicting my death? That's new." Buffy said.
"That's not true. If the balance is tipped towards evil, you may end up dead due to the inability to deal with all the evilness." Angel said, growing concerned that something could happen to make Buffy's duty a living hell.
After the discussion, Buffy and Angel left to do a patrol. Giles once again started reading his books again. Xander took off for his room.
Xander's room remained as it always was except that it had become darker. Now a days, Xander preferred not to see a lot of light. Naia told him it was natural for him to prefer the darkness. Usually, when Xander appears in his room Naia will either greet him, or will not speak at all. This however, was not an unordinary day so far.
"Hello Alexander." Naia said. "She" (It's assumed it's a she but no one really knows) sounded cheerful, but Xander understood she did not have emotions.
"Hi Naia." Xander replied back. "Hey Naia, there's been a new prophecy discovered. Do a check on it, try to figure out what it means."
He didn't bother to give it to her. He knew she would have gotten it earlier from his conversation with Giles, Buffy, and Angel. He lied down on the one piece of furniture that he had placed in there. It was like a cement bench and it was near the left side of the room. The room had become like his home. In fact Xander stopped going to his house a month ago, choosing to come here instead.
While he slept, Angel and Buffy were busy doing nothing. No vampires had chosen to attack them or anybody else. There were no evil demons creeping around plotting world domination or opening the hell mouth. So they ended up talking to each other. They talked about mainly what they did in the past.
"Graduation was the worst. Faith had gone evil, you got sick, and seeing Xander actually not be himself was what made it that way. Xander defiantly. I've never, not even after his new abilities showed up, seen him act so serious. He never laughed, he never smiled, and he barely talked unless to give orders. It was just like he became some uncaring super soldier in a fight with a giant snake."
Angel nodded. Although he stated to actually get to know Xander in two months, he would have to take Buffy's word that that was not his usual behavior. According to Buffy and Willow, Xander had not exactly been himself ever since the battle with Drogean. Perhaps it was this behavior change which allowed Xander to be friendlier with Angel. However it occurred, Angel began to feel more comfortable around Xander, and even began to like him.
"I thought everything was bad. I mean, at any moment something could go wrong. You almost died forever when you faced the Master. Spike almost killed you on Halloween, I almost killed you, Drogean tried to kill you, though I think he was mainly after Xander, the Mayer tried several times to kill you, and the entire town led by your mother tried to burn you and Willow at the stake. Mr. Trick would have killed you had it not been for Faith. And then, Faith tried so hard to get rid of you. So if you ask me, everything is bad, but it gets better after there's no more danger." Angel stated.
"Everything bad?" a voice behind him said.
Angel and Buffy turned around to see where the voice had come from.
"I don't see anyone!" Buffy said.
"Nor do I." Angel replied. "Hello?"
There was no reply. Buffy shivered. She never liked voices with no source.
"It's probably Xander playing around. He probably changed his voice and is eavesdropping in our conversation." She said, trying hard to convince herself more then Angel.
"We should ask Xander first and if it wasn't him, we should tell Giles." That was all Angel said in response.
However, the voice was not done by Xander, who just woke up from a fitful sleep.
"Naia," Xander said while sitting up and stretching, "Something's happened. I can tell."
Naia gave no answer. Which was odd considering Naia never disappeared. Xander shrugged his shoulder and decided to do his Latin homework for the schooling the council had decided that he should have. While they somehow left teaching him of his abilities to his friends, they were teaching him magic, math, history, Latin, demonology, and science. He actually liked the magic class. Willow was helping him in that...however sometimes it seemed like he was helping Willow. Right now, his homework dealed mainly with how to deal with magic spells that have gone wrong. Lucky for Xander, he had already gone though many spells that had gone wrong.
Later on, he decided to stop in at the university where Willow, Oz, and Buffy were attending. Unfortunately for them, he was not in the mood to be bugged by the college students that frequented them. He turned invisible, phased and reappeared next to the door in the student lounge area. He silently walked up to where Buffy, Willow, and Oz were sitting. As he neared, being careful not to run into people, he listened to their conversation.
"Well, I'm telling you that both me and Angel heard it. I think it was Xander playing a trick on us."
"You think I did what?" Xander said softly, still invisible.
Willow and Buffy jumped. Oz, as usual, did not seem to notice.
"Xander!" Willow exclaimed, which got the room's attention and they proceeded to stare at her.
"You know, I think this is a real good time for ALL of us to take a walk. Don't you agree with me Oz?"
Oz looked up. "Yes."
With that Oz stood up, Buffy grabbed Willow and pulled her up, and muttered loud enough for just Xander to hear to follow them. They left the building, and after getting to a place that was secluded and void of all activity they stopped.
"Xander Harris! You are so dead when I get my hand on you!" Buffy said, trying to figure out where Xander was.
They heard someone laughing close by, and then all of a sudden, clothing appeared. They looked like they were being worn, but no one could see the body. They quickly vanished.
"Would it have been better to scare the entire lounge of the College?" The voice, coming in the area of the clothing, asked.
"Xander, why are you not being seen today." Willow asked, trying to find out if there was a certain reason to her friends invisibility.
"Hate all college students with the exception of you guys. Last time they saw me it wasn't quite a good confrontation. They didn't take well to the fact that I was visiting my friends while not attending this school." Xander said, only this time fully visible in different clothing.
Ignoring the fact that they were upset at him he turned the conversation to something else. "Now what was it you think I did?" He added a smile.
Buffy, still upset about the invisibility, was now positive it had been Xander who had said the words last night. "We were talking about your little practical joke of showing up invisible, eavesdropping, changing your voice and saying something while me and Angel were out patrolling. That's what you did."
Instead of smiling and saying an 'all right you win' gesture that Buffy expected, he frowned. That caused Buffy to stop being so confident. But then Xander did something even more unusual. He looked concerned and worried.
"What's wrong?" Willow asked, growing concerned over Xander's change in behavior.
"Wasn't me." He said, and phased. "Are you guys doing anything important, because I'd really like to tell Giles about this now."
Xander's attitude had told them something serious must have been going on. Xander was not usually the one to skip the jokes and go straight for Giles. So the three decided that the classes they had were not that important today. Even though it would mean they had to miss their psychology class. They started to walk off the campus when all of a sudden someone from behind them spoke.
"Excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to know where the Sociology class in room 243.I'm new here and I'm afraid I haven't a clue where to go."
When they looked they found a young dark haired female, wearing jeans and a pink tee shirt and carrying a shoulder bag big enough to fit textbooks.
Even though Xander had other things on his mind, at the sight of the young lady, he immediately dropped everything else and offered his assistance. He did happen to know where the room was due to his touring the campus with his friends.
"Here, I'll show you." Xander said, still enticed by the ladies looks.
Buffy frowned. "Xander, we had plans."
Xander turned around. "This won't take long Buffy. I'll meet you guys there ok?"
Buffy nodded and she turned and started walking towards Giles's house with Willow and Oz following behind her. Somehow, she had gotten an odd feeling about the new person. But she had brushed that aside.
Xander watched them walk away. "Well, shall we go?"
The lady smiled. "Yes, let's go! Is your name Xander?"
Xander nodded. "It's actually Alexander, but I prefer Xander. Ok, you know my name, so what about you?"
"Unfortunately, Anastasia. But everyone calls me Ana." Ana said, enjoying herself.
"That's a nice nickname. Well, Ana, it looks like you have arrived. Good luck in Sunnydale. Word of advice. Never invite strangers into your house." Xander said, before turning around.
"Xander, do you think that I might meet you later tonight for a tour of the town?" Ana called out.
Xander turned around again, smiled, and nodded. "Sure see you at what time?"
"How about six?" Ana asked, hoping he'd be free then.
"See you at six then!" He yelled back and turned around the corner.
The minute he was in a secluded area, he made sure no one was coming. Then he phased and reappeared in Giles's apartment. The others were already talking to Giles when he appeared and he didn't bother to even say hello.
"They tell you what's gone on so far?" he asked, knowing the answer was yes.
Before Xander had appeared the group had told Giles that they thought Xander knew more about what was going on then he was sharing. They couldn't tell why he would keep something from them, but Buffy said she was positive that something must have happened to him to have caused the reaction they told him Xander had.
Giles nodded, although he knew that Xander had only been making idle chit chat. "Xander, you wouldn't happen to know anything about this strange occurrence that happened to Buffy and Angel last night would you?" He asked, trying to make the question sound like a normal question he would ask anybody. He failed, or so he thought.
Xander looked up. "I don't know Giles. I was sleeping. Or at least I was trying to sleep. It was kind of hard, all these weird images in my head. I can't even remember what they are. And when I woke it, there was something different, I knew something had happened. I just don't know what! I'm going to ask Naia about...." He stopped himself at that. Naia hadn't answered him this morning, nor had she greeted him in the usual manner. He got this thick sense of dread in himself.
Buffy, Giles, Oz, and Willow noticed his pause, but the most disturbing part was his facial expression. It was as if he was in another world, and not a pleasant looking one. Before they could try to bring Xander out of it, he disappeared.
He hadn't done that on accident. He just never warned them. He was in his room.
"Naia?" He asked....being hopeful that she would answer him.
There was no reply. Xander wondered what had happened. He tried the council, but it was like someone had locked off the place where they were. He couldn't get there, couldn't hear them or Naia.
"What's happened?" He asked to no one in particular. He did that mainly out of habit. He had become accustom to Naia answering questions or responding to statements that he made outloud. Only this time there was no reply.
He knew he should go back and tell the others, but somehow he felt like he couldn't leave. Like it would be taken away from him if he did. He stayed until it was 5:30. He couldn't stand the silence anymore. He appeared near Ana, but not near enough for her to see how he arrived.
"Hi. Ready for a tour of the town?" He asked, putting on a smile. He had to act like nothing was bothering him.
TBC
By Kiara Fallan
Ceri2@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except what is mine....I don't even own the computer in which I started writing this story. My life isn't mine. The idea and powers are mine, the bad guys you don't recognize are mine, and even the room (see my first story) and it's "computer" named Naia is mine....If you sue me you are going to be surprised when you realize that I only have ten cents on me....and my parents have no idea that I do this (plus I'm legally an adult now so...) Oh, and I'm not explaining any of this either. If you want an explanation read my first story: A Chance to Help
Note: Story takes place after Graduation, but Angel never left.
* to disappear and to reappear. If he reappears somewhere other then his normal position you'll know hence the "Phased and reappeared [insert location]"
Xander so far has these powers: Energy can shoot out from him, the ability to teleport himself and other people, and he gets a room (see I do own the room) and a voice who is called Naia. Read and you will discover the newly found talents....allong with his weaknesses.
-----------
"Wandering in the loneliest, wildest spot of all the domain, he came upon her as suddenly as if a wish had brought her to the nook haunted for both by pleasant memories."
A Modern Mephistopheles (A Long Fatal Love Chase), Louisa May Alcott
Things change. People grow up, or at least made look like they have. The Senior class of Sunnydale High had graduated. The ceremony was one they would never forget, at least the ones who had lived through it would never forget. Through it all, there stood out a group. A group who had managed to survive even though they led the assault against the evil. It was a group of teenagers, or now as young adults with the exception of three older looking men. However, everyone wondered how the one young dark haired boy had grown up, or at least gotten braver and more stronger.
Xander, who once looked upon himself as the zeppo, the unhelpful one, suddenly became someone of great importance in the group. Assigned by mysterious beings as "guardian" of the Slayer and the group, Xander was given abilities to help him with his duty. He fought even when he was a beginner to defeat an evilness that almost drained him dry. Since that time, Giles, Xander, Buffy, and Angel started up a training program that took place in the mansion that Angel had lived in before he moved to an apartment. It was kind of hard to train him, considering that not one of them knew the extent of the abilities.
"OWWWW!" Buffy exclaimed, landing on her butt. "Xander be careful that you don't kill me in training!"
Xander turned around to face her, an uneasy smile on his face. "Sorry, Buffy. I didn't even mean to do that. I was trying to stop you from being able to move like I did two nights ago."
He offered her a hand, and Buffy took it and got up. Giles was paying no attention to what was going on. Angel, who showed up two minutes ago, stood up off his chair and went to the pair.
"Are you alright Buffy?" He asked.
Buffy dusted herself off and nodded. The pain hadn't lasted long, and she knew that she didn't receive Xander's full force. What she received had probably been Xander's restrained "I don't want to hurt you but I want to show you something" force. They had, at least after graduation, learned that Xander could unleash his abilities at different forces. Graduation had shown them that his powers were indeed very strong if he wished them to be.
"Sorry. I'm still having trouble keeping everything straight." Xander said, quite apologetic as he phased*. He never quite knew when he did that. It was almost like an instinct or a bad habit he couldn't break. He also knew it made Buffy uncomfortable. He would have apologized but at that moment he phased again and reappeared next to Giles.
"Giles, what's new in that book?" He asked, noticing that Giles was reading a really old looking book that was full of pages.
Giles jumped. "Oh, it's just you. I wish you would warn people before you do something like that."
Xander smiled. "Yeah but then you'd jump over my warning."
Giles paused for a moment and nodded in agreement. "Enough about that. I found a new book."
"What's new." Buffy muttered not quite so softly as she hoped.
Giles cleared his throat. "I'll pretend you did not say that. This book is quite informative of demons, prophecies, and magical people that other books just vaguely mention."
"Does it have anything about me?" Xander asked, breaking the momentary silence.
"Actually, no. It does not, which should not alarm you. There are many things that do exist are not in any book. This book does however point out that there is something both good and evil coming our way. It specifically says that someone who appears to be one thing is actually another thing and disturbs the balance of good and evil. Unfortunately it does not tell me if the balance is tipped to good or evil. There's another thing to say that the person who is protective will be unknowing of the disguise." Giles explained.
"You mean it's not predicting my death? That's new." Buffy said.
"That's not true. If the balance is tipped towards evil, you may end up dead due to the inability to deal with all the evilness." Angel said, growing concerned that something could happen to make Buffy's duty a living hell.
After the discussion, Buffy and Angel left to do a patrol. Giles once again started reading his books again. Xander took off for his room.
Xander's room remained as it always was except that it had become darker. Now a days, Xander preferred not to see a lot of light. Naia told him it was natural for him to prefer the darkness. Usually, when Xander appears in his room Naia will either greet him, or will not speak at all. This however, was not an unordinary day so far.
"Hello Alexander." Naia said. "She" (It's assumed it's a she but no one really knows) sounded cheerful, but Xander understood she did not have emotions.
"Hi Naia." Xander replied back. "Hey Naia, there's been a new prophecy discovered. Do a check on it, try to figure out what it means."
He didn't bother to give it to her. He knew she would have gotten it earlier from his conversation with Giles, Buffy, and Angel. He lied down on the one piece of furniture that he had placed in there. It was like a cement bench and it was near the left side of the room. The room had become like his home. In fact Xander stopped going to his house a month ago, choosing to come here instead.
While he slept, Angel and Buffy were busy doing nothing. No vampires had chosen to attack them or anybody else. There were no evil demons creeping around plotting world domination or opening the hell mouth. So they ended up talking to each other. They talked about mainly what they did in the past.
"Graduation was the worst. Faith had gone evil, you got sick, and seeing Xander actually not be himself was what made it that way. Xander defiantly. I've never, not even after his new abilities showed up, seen him act so serious. He never laughed, he never smiled, and he barely talked unless to give orders. It was just like he became some uncaring super soldier in a fight with a giant snake."
Angel nodded. Although he stated to actually get to know Xander in two months, he would have to take Buffy's word that that was not his usual behavior. According to Buffy and Willow, Xander had not exactly been himself ever since the battle with Drogean. Perhaps it was this behavior change which allowed Xander to be friendlier with Angel. However it occurred, Angel began to feel more comfortable around Xander, and even began to like him.
"I thought everything was bad. I mean, at any moment something could go wrong. You almost died forever when you faced the Master. Spike almost killed you on Halloween, I almost killed you, Drogean tried to kill you, though I think he was mainly after Xander, the Mayer tried several times to kill you, and the entire town led by your mother tried to burn you and Willow at the stake. Mr. Trick would have killed you had it not been for Faith. And then, Faith tried so hard to get rid of you. So if you ask me, everything is bad, but it gets better after there's no more danger." Angel stated.
"Everything bad?" a voice behind him said.
Angel and Buffy turned around to see where the voice had come from.
"I don't see anyone!" Buffy said.
"Nor do I." Angel replied. "Hello?"
There was no reply. Buffy shivered. She never liked voices with no source.
"It's probably Xander playing around. He probably changed his voice and is eavesdropping in our conversation." She said, trying hard to convince herself more then Angel.
"We should ask Xander first and if it wasn't him, we should tell Giles." That was all Angel said in response.
However, the voice was not done by Xander, who just woke up from a fitful sleep.
"Naia," Xander said while sitting up and stretching, "Something's happened. I can tell."
Naia gave no answer. Which was odd considering Naia never disappeared. Xander shrugged his shoulder and decided to do his Latin homework for the schooling the council had decided that he should have. While they somehow left teaching him of his abilities to his friends, they were teaching him magic, math, history, Latin, demonology, and science. He actually liked the magic class. Willow was helping him in that...however sometimes it seemed like he was helping Willow. Right now, his homework dealed mainly with how to deal with magic spells that have gone wrong. Lucky for Xander, he had already gone though many spells that had gone wrong.
Later on, he decided to stop in at the university where Willow, Oz, and Buffy were attending. Unfortunately for them, he was not in the mood to be bugged by the college students that frequented them. He turned invisible, phased and reappeared next to the door in the student lounge area. He silently walked up to where Buffy, Willow, and Oz were sitting. As he neared, being careful not to run into people, he listened to their conversation.
"Well, I'm telling you that both me and Angel heard it. I think it was Xander playing a trick on us."
"You think I did what?" Xander said softly, still invisible.
Willow and Buffy jumped. Oz, as usual, did not seem to notice.
"Xander!" Willow exclaimed, which got the room's attention and they proceeded to stare at her.
"You know, I think this is a real good time for ALL of us to take a walk. Don't you agree with me Oz?"
Oz looked up. "Yes."
With that Oz stood up, Buffy grabbed Willow and pulled her up, and muttered loud enough for just Xander to hear to follow them. They left the building, and after getting to a place that was secluded and void of all activity they stopped.
"Xander Harris! You are so dead when I get my hand on you!" Buffy said, trying to figure out where Xander was.
They heard someone laughing close by, and then all of a sudden, clothing appeared. They looked like they were being worn, but no one could see the body. They quickly vanished.
"Would it have been better to scare the entire lounge of the College?" The voice, coming in the area of the clothing, asked.
"Xander, why are you not being seen today." Willow asked, trying to find out if there was a certain reason to her friends invisibility.
"Hate all college students with the exception of you guys. Last time they saw me it wasn't quite a good confrontation. They didn't take well to the fact that I was visiting my friends while not attending this school." Xander said, only this time fully visible in different clothing.
Ignoring the fact that they were upset at him he turned the conversation to something else. "Now what was it you think I did?" He added a smile.
Buffy, still upset about the invisibility, was now positive it had been Xander who had said the words last night. "We were talking about your little practical joke of showing up invisible, eavesdropping, changing your voice and saying something while me and Angel were out patrolling. That's what you did."
Instead of smiling and saying an 'all right you win' gesture that Buffy expected, he frowned. That caused Buffy to stop being so confident. But then Xander did something even more unusual. He looked concerned and worried.
"What's wrong?" Willow asked, growing concerned over Xander's change in behavior.
"Wasn't me." He said, and phased. "Are you guys doing anything important, because I'd really like to tell Giles about this now."
Xander's attitude had told them something serious must have been going on. Xander was not usually the one to skip the jokes and go straight for Giles. So the three decided that the classes they had were not that important today. Even though it would mean they had to miss their psychology class. They started to walk off the campus when all of a sudden someone from behind them spoke.
"Excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to know where the Sociology class in room 243.I'm new here and I'm afraid I haven't a clue where to go."
When they looked they found a young dark haired female, wearing jeans and a pink tee shirt and carrying a shoulder bag big enough to fit textbooks.
Even though Xander had other things on his mind, at the sight of the young lady, he immediately dropped everything else and offered his assistance. He did happen to know where the room was due to his touring the campus with his friends.
"Here, I'll show you." Xander said, still enticed by the ladies looks.
Buffy frowned. "Xander, we had plans."
Xander turned around. "This won't take long Buffy. I'll meet you guys there ok?"
Buffy nodded and she turned and started walking towards Giles's house with Willow and Oz following behind her. Somehow, she had gotten an odd feeling about the new person. But she had brushed that aside.
Xander watched them walk away. "Well, shall we go?"
The lady smiled. "Yes, let's go! Is your name Xander?"
Xander nodded. "It's actually Alexander, but I prefer Xander. Ok, you know my name, so what about you?"
"Unfortunately, Anastasia. But everyone calls me Ana." Ana said, enjoying herself.
"That's a nice nickname. Well, Ana, it looks like you have arrived. Good luck in Sunnydale. Word of advice. Never invite strangers into your house." Xander said, before turning around.
"Xander, do you think that I might meet you later tonight for a tour of the town?" Ana called out.
Xander turned around again, smiled, and nodded. "Sure see you at what time?"
"How about six?" Ana asked, hoping he'd be free then.
"See you at six then!" He yelled back and turned around the corner.
The minute he was in a secluded area, he made sure no one was coming. Then he phased and reappeared in Giles's apartment. The others were already talking to Giles when he appeared and he didn't bother to even say hello.
"They tell you what's gone on so far?" he asked, knowing the answer was yes.
Before Xander had appeared the group had told Giles that they thought Xander knew more about what was going on then he was sharing. They couldn't tell why he would keep something from them, but Buffy said she was positive that something must have happened to him to have caused the reaction they told him Xander had.
Giles nodded, although he knew that Xander had only been making idle chit chat. "Xander, you wouldn't happen to know anything about this strange occurrence that happened to Buffy and Angel last night would you?" He asked, trying to make the question sound like a normal question he would ask anybody. He failed, or so he thought.
Xander looked up. "I don't know Giles. I was sleeping. Or at least I was trying to sleep. It was kind of hard, all these weird images in my head. I can't even remember what they are. And when I woke it, there was something different, I knew something had happened. I just don't know what! I'm going to ask Naia about...." He stopped himself at that. Naia hadn't answered him this morning, nor had she greeted him in the usual manner. He got this thick sense of dread in himself.
Buffy, Giles, Oz, and Willow noticed his pause, but the most disturbing part was his facial expression. It was as if he was in another world, and not a pleasant looking one. Before they could try to bring Xander out of it, he disappeared.
He hadn't done that on accident. He just never warned them. He was in his room.
"Naia?" He asked....being hopeful that she would answer him.
There was no reply. Xander wondered what had happened. He tried the council, but it was like someone had locked off the place where they were. He couldn't get there, couldn't hear them or Naia.
"What's happened?" He asked to no one in particular. He did that mainly out of habit. He had become accustom to Naia answering questions or responding to statements that he made outloud. Only this time there was no reply.
He knew he should go back and tell the others, but somehow he felt like he couldn't leave. Like it would be taken away from him if he did. He stayed until it was 5:30. He couldn't stand the silence anymore. He appeared near Ana, but not near enough for her to see how he arrived.
"Hi. Ready for a tour of the town?" He asked, putting on a smile. He had to act like nothing was bothering him.
TBC