Title" Christina Thaylor
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and setting belong to Joss Whedon and UPN etc.
Author's Note: I wasn't satisfied with the direction of "The Adventures of Christina and
Xander." So I'm rewriting and reposting it. Hopefully I won't hit a brick wall before it is
finished.
Feedback the good the bad the ugly, always appreciated, never mandatory
Xander sprawled on the couch in the back of the Magic Box, waiting for Anya to finish
the daily cash count, and generally everything was all right with his life, when the door opened.
It sounded like the little bell had been snapped off its string, and he had barely enough time to
get his feet on the floor before an enraged Willow stormed into the room.
"What's the what, Will?"
Willow, jerked around, seeing him for the first time. Turning away from him, she pulled
at small leather bag from her pocket and flung it on the table, before powering up the computer.
Xander picked up the bag, and fingered it, seeing the tiny markings on it.
"Please, Xander," Willow snatched it from him. "I need to find out what it is."
"It's a gris-gris."
"I know what it is," Willow turned to the computer, fingers flying over the keyboard. "I
need to know what it does, and how to counteract it."
"Now why do you suppose some one would send a gris-gris to a witch," Xander mused
aloud, getting an angry glare from Willow. Xander sat back down on the couch, not sure that he
was liking the way his mind was working. For one thing, Willow was actually hacking, surfing
the net, not using mojo to help her along. Which was leading to all sorts of ideas hopping
through his mind. "A little low on the magic Will?"
"If you must know, I don't have much magic to be low on, or any at all." Willow turned
to Xander with an exaggerated sigh. "This gris-gris took it away, and I've got to find away to get
back, because otherwise I'm...I'm..."
Normal," Xander finished for her. "And that would be bad because?"
"No," Willow yelled at him. "That's not what I meant at all, and you know me better
than that." That was the trouble, Xander did know her and had seen the changes in her. "And
you're not helping, distracting me. Why don't you go see if your demon-lover is finished."
"Fine," Xander snapped at her. She was almost instantly sorry she said that, but was too
wrapped up in her own problems to care, much. "Don't forget to lock up on your way out."
"Ready t go," Xander demanded stomping out of the back room. "She can lock up when
she goes."
"You're not staying?" Anya looked confused. "We always help."
"Help with what?"
They turned to see Buffy standing just inside the open door.
"Willow's mojo has been lost, or stuck, or something, and she's desperately afraid of
being like the rest of us mere mortals."
"So you're bailing on her. Come on Xander, that's not like you."
"She made it pretty clear that I was in the way, and that I should go be with my Demon
Lover,"
Buffy stared. She was pretty sure tat Willow would never say anything like that, and if
she did, she was too disturbed by something to really mean what she said. Then again, she had
never seen Xander so upset, but before she could ask more, Xander brushed past her and out of
the store.
Buffy entered the back room to see Willow concentrating on the computer before her,
often glancing at the bag on the table beside her and the screen.
"Hey," Buffy wondered over to that table and picked up the bag. "Xander said that
something happened to you power. This have anything to do with that?"
"Yeah," Willow looked up, her eyes wide and doe like. "It came in the mail this
afternoon, and ever since then I, well, haven't been able to do anything."
"So what are you going to do about it?"
"I thought I'd look up the sygils, which shape the spells, but I can't find anything."
Willows eyes shone. "Oh Buffy, what if I can't get them back. What am I gonna do?"
"You'll get them back," said Buffy with more confidence than she really felt. "You keep
looking, and I'll round up Xander and we'll see what we can dig up."
As soon as he got home, Xander stormed into the hall walk-in, through a side panel and
into a cubby hole office he had built into an empty crawl space. While not much, barely more
than a rickety card table supporting an ancient Macintosh Plus system, a small pone, a dented
metal chair, it still served the purpose.
"Hey Chuck," he said into the phone to one of the people he worked with at the site.
'You keep pretty much on top of comings and goings. You ever hear of anyone coming here,
from, say Africa, Haiti, New Orleans, places that practice vodoun."
"Vodoun?" Xander could almost see Charles scratching at what's left of his hair. "Can't
say that I do, but Johnny says there's a new girl in his class. She's got sort of a dark complexion,
will that do? Planning on joining the clan?"
"Nah, just curious. Got a friend who's interested in that sort of thing, you know, the
voodoo part. Thought maybe I'd help out."
"Oh, that's it, see old Pete down by the docks. He knows all about that kind of stuff."
"Okay, great, I'll do that first thing tomorrow, uh, after work."
Chuck chuckled. "Bring something, he likes treats. Especially liquid ones."
Xander returned the chuckle, hung up, and fired up the computer. He was still at it half
an hour later, when the doorbell rang and Anya's voice shouted through the thin walls.
"Xander it's Buffy."
"Great, he thought. Just what I need.
"Kind of late to go calling Buff," he said as he stepped out in the hallway. If Buffy
wondered why he was in the closet, her eyes didn't give any indication. He did note the spark of
anger, but he was too busy nursing his own to care. "Some big nasty in town, that you and
Willow can't take care of without me."
"Thought I'd give you a chance to explain to explain why you ran out on Willow."
"She didn't want me there, remember."
"No I don't remember. What I do remember is my best friend very upset, and her oldest
friend bail." Buffy poked him in the chest hard. "You used to be her friend, remember."
"Yeah Buffy, I do remember, only we're not so much friends any more, and if she
doesn't want me around, considers me too much of a distraction, then the best thing I can do for
her is to not be around."
Buffy glared at him. "Fine if that's what you want." She turned and stalked out the door.
It wasn't what he really wanted, and for a moment Xander considered running after her,
but he couldn't see any way of coming out from under without smelling like three shades of
jerkiness.
The Sunnydale Docks, not a great place to be, not now. Especially not now, when the
sun cast long deepening shadows. Xander found Old Pete sitting under the rotting hulk of Pier
21, next to a ramshackle lean-to. Old Pete had taken a swig out of the bottle almost before
Xander had given it to him.
"You know Vodoun?"
"Why, whassa you want to know for?"
"A friend of mine received a voodoo charm, that she thinks did something to her. I just
need to find some information, that's all. A gris-gris that stops her from using her magical
powers."
"The girl's a Witch?" Old Pete reared back on his haunches, the whites of his eyes
showing.
"Well," Xander wasn't quite ready to tell all, so he tried to choose his words carefully.
"She think's she is, and this voodoo charm took away her powers, and she really believes that.
So if I could tell her that there's no such thing, it would make her feel better."
"Oh it works, all right, just wondering what she got Old Pete into is all."
"She?"
"Yeah, new girl, dunno her name, came to me last week, said she knew I could help."
Old Pete took another swig. "Sad there was this Witch, gonna make things bad for everyone.
Showed up at the Bronze, that's this club you know, course you know. You look like someone
as knows how to have fun. Anyway she mad a whole room full of people disappear, and then
she brought them back again, only no one but she knew what had happened, then that same girl
showed up at the joint again and weird things started happening. Told her she should keep her
head low, keep out of it, but she said this witch could hurt a lot of people, and she had gotten
close enough to see how the girl was having fun." Old Pete shook his head. "Girl said she had
to do something, couldn't just keep her nose clean."
"So you gave her the spell?"
"Yeah, told her, she had to do it herself, cause I never seen the girl myself. Only know
she has reddish hair and green eyes, named for a tree I think. Anyway, girl had to do it, I
couldn't, don't do that anymore. Still wouldn't stop people suspecting Old Pete if they thought
anything weird was going on."
Willow, what are you doing? Xander hadn't anted to believe that his life long friend was
capable, but Willow's odd behavior of late, plus Old Pete's somewhat blurrily delivered
description sounded too close to comfort.
"This girl, do you know where she is?"
Old Pete's eyes snapped. "Ain't no grave robber. She came to me, not me to her.
Young slip of a girl."
'Uh thanks," Xander stood up, remembering what Chuck had said on the phone last
night. "Enjoy the bottle."
Some things in Sunnydale never changed, and the Bronze was still the hangout of choice,
for both young and the still nearly young. Xander only hoped that this mysterious girl was there,
and that Johnny, Chuck's son, was there to point her out, and, oh yeah, that no one thought him
some sort of perve for talking to her.
Johnny was there, and the offer of a free soda and fries, got the information that
Christina, the new girl in his socials class, was sitting right over there, against the wall. All
alone, because she was too good for ordinary males like him.
"New here, eh." Xander sat at a table next to the girl, who, as Chuck had said, was rather
dark skinned, though that could have been the lighting.
"Yeah, so." That was delivered in the utmost "get away old bugger" tone that a sixteen
year old could deliver.
"Was talking to old Pete." Xander watched the girls face, and was rewarded with a flash
of recognition, that was quickly wiped away. "Said you were doing the hoodoo with the
voodoo."
"Oh please," the girl rolled her eyes. Like I believe that stuff."
"You put a hex on a friend of mine. See, she's a witch with powerful friends, and I gotta
tell you, I'm surprised they haven't kicked your ass by now."
"Maybe you should get better friends." The girl's eyes wandered to a point over
Xander's right shoulder. "Oh sh....."
Xander twisted to follow her gaze, and was less than surprised to see Buffy and Willow
making their way towards him. He turned back to see that the girl had slipped away, and was no
where to be seen.
"Who's the girl," Buffy took a seat, and Willow sat at another.
"Girl?"
"Yeah, the one you were talking to?"
"Just a girl," Xander shrugged. "I had nothing better to do, Anya's keeping the shop
open late tonight, so I came to the Bronze. Oh and I talked to a girl, who is no longer here.
Something wrong with that?"
"Maybe," Willow said grimly. "If she had something to do with what happened to me
and you knew and you didn't tell us."
Xander considered is words, aware of two things, both of them were ganging up on him,
and, from the look on the Slayer's face, this wasn't just a question and answer session but an
interrogation. With him as the interrogatee.
"You made it clear you didn't want my help, remember, telling me to go be with my
Demon Lover, that ring any bells." He glared at Willow, he then turned to face Buffy. "I'm not
the enemy Buff, though you seem determined to treat me as if I were. Also, if you think I was
talking to the girl responsible for removing Willow's magic then there must be some reason
why, which tells me you're not into full share mode either."
"Xander," Buffy warned.
"No, don't Xander me," Xander got to his feet. "Suddenly, I'm not too thrilled at being
here. So I'm leaving."
"Xander," Buffy hissed, "Sit down."
"Or what, you'll stake me?" The two glared at each other, until Xander sighed and
looked away. "I'm so out of here."
Xander didn't cool off until he got out into the parking lot, and it didn't have anything to
do with the cooling breeze coming in from the ocean. It had more to do with his not being able
to stay mad at his two best buds, even though they were aggravating the hell out of him. He
wondered how long it would take before they were, well, friends again.
"We need to talk."
When Xander landed from his impromptu trip to the moon, he spun to see the girl he had
been talking to . She was standing in the shadows, next to the door. Scared.
"Yeah, I guess we do." Xander took a quick look around, "but not here."
"Where's you're friends?"
"We're not exactly friends at the moment, and I'm sure you figured that out, as well as
the little item about them being after you."
"Yes, that's why we got to talk, um, you got car?"
"Over this way," Xander spun and walked to the left. Running feet told him that the girl
was catching up, and was ready to go when they finally reached the blue convertible. "Get in.
We'll find someplace quiet, where we can talk."
They drove in silence, until Xander finally stopped at an out of the way diner on the edge
of town, near the airport. Making sure he had a couple crosses and a handful of stakes, he led
the way inside. Where he had a coffee, and the girl had a coke.
"Okay, give. Name?"
"Christina Thaylor."
"You sent the gris-gris to Willow, the one with the red head?"
"Yeah, I sent it." Christina went on to deliver pretty much the same story he had gotten
from Old Pete, but with more detail and less drunkenness. Xander's heart sank. He had
harbored the belief that there was a mistake there someplace, but it was quickly being driven
back, the description was too real. 'I suppose you think I should give them back?"
"You can do that?"
Christina rolled her eyes. "They're not gone. They're just bound, so she can't use them.
All I have to do is unbind them, but if I do, is she gonna come after me?"
"The Willow I grew up with wouldn't, and would be appalled at what she did at the
Bronze. I can't speak for the Willow she is now, but you saw the girl she was with?" Christina
swallowed and nodded. "That's the Slayer and if you don't undo what you did, she's not going
to stop looking until she finds you, and she tends to think with her fists before she does with her
head. Oh, she can use her head, given the right sitch, so I'd suggest you help that along a little.
I'll do what I can to keep them off you're back, but I can't promise or anything."
"I suppose," Christina dug into her purse, and handed Xander a bag, similar o the one she
had sent Willow. "Give her this, and she'll be as powerful as usual. I'll just have to risk her not
coming after me,"
Xander's heart went out to her. "Look, they don't know for sure yet, and I'll run
interference as best I can. After all, I've been told I am quite distracting. However...."
Xander leaned across the table and started whispering to Christina, who was looking very
dubius.
"What are you doing here?" Buffy glared at Xander as he entered the back room of the
Magic Box. Willow stared daggers from her place in front of the computer.
"My girl friend owns the place remember." Xander grinned. "I have my very own key."
He turned to face Willow.
"Three things. One, the next time you send people through dimensions, or make them
disappear, for do funky dances, or what ever it is you do to unsuspecting people, don't do it in
front of others who might think what you did was bad, which it was, by the way, and decide that
they should do something about it. This is the Helmuth remember, we got more than our fair
share of those. Two," here Xander took the pouch out of his pocket, and tossed it to Willow.
"This will restore your powers, which you always had but but were bound so you couldn't use
them, and three. Three, I don't remember who the person who did this to you is, but I do
remember some things. One, I had a forget spell placed on me, two I have a charm that protects
me against the use of magic so don't even think of using magic to try and make me remember,
and three I'll know if you try going after her." He spun on his heels.
"Willow," he heard a frustrated Buffy exclaim.
"Buffy, I can explain."
He wondered how that was going to turn out.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and setting belong to Joss Whedon and UPN etc.
Author's Note: I wasn't satisfied with the direction of "The Adventures of Christina and
Xander." So I'm rewriting and reposting it. Hopefully I won't hit a brick wall before it is
finished.
Feedback the good the bad the ugly, always appreciated, never mandatory
Xander sprawled on the couch in the back of the Magic Box, waiting for Anya to finish
the daily cash count, and generally everything was all right with his life, when the door opened.
It sounded like the little bell had been snapped off its string, and he had barely enough time to
get his feet on the floor before an enraged Willow stormed into the room.
"What's the what, Will?"
Willow, jerked around, seeing him for the first time. Turning away from him, she pulled
at small leather bag from her pocket and flung it on the table, before powering up the computer.
Xander picked up the bag, and fingered it, seeing the tiny markings on it.
"Please, Xander," Willow snatched it from him. "I need to find out what it is."
"It's a gris-gris."
"I know what it is," Willow turned to the computer, fingers flying over the keyboard. "I
need to know what it does, and how to counteract it."
"Now why do you suppose some one would send a gris-gris to a witch," Xander mused
aloud, getting an angry glare from Willow. Xander sat back down on the couch, not sure that he
was liking the way his mind was working. For one thing, Willow was actually hacking, surfing
the net, not using mojo to help her along. Which was leading to all sorts of ideas hopping
through his mind. "A little low on the magic Will?"
"If you must know, I don't have much magic to be low on, or any at all." Willow turned
to Xander with an exaggerated sigh. "This gris-gris took it away, and I've got to find away to get
back, because otherwise I'm...I'm..."
Normal," Xander finished for her. "And that would be bad because?"
"No," Willow yelled at him. "That's not what I meant at all, and you know me better
than that." That was the trouble, Xander did know her and had seen the changes in her. "And
you're not helping, distracting me. Why don't you go see if your demon-lover is finished."
"Fine," Xander snapped at her. She was almost instantly sorry she said that, but was too
wrapped up in her own problems to care, much. "Don't forget to lock up on your way out."
"Ready t go," Xander demanded stomping out of the back room. "She can lock up when
she goes."
"You're not staying?" Anya looked confused. "We always help."
"Help with what?"
They turned to see Buffy standing just inside the open door.
"Willow's mojo has been lost, or stuck, or something, and she's desperately afraid of
being like the rest of us mere mortals."
"So you're bailing on her. Come on Xander, that's not like you."
"She made it pretty clear that I was in the way, and that I should go be with my Demon
Lover,"
Buffy stared. She was pretty sure tat Willow would never say anything like that, and if
she did, she was too disturbed by something to really mean what she said. Then again, she had
never seen Xander so upset, but before she could ask more, Xander brushed past her and out of
the store.
Buffy entered the back room to see Willow concentrating on the computer before her,
often glancing at the bag on the table beside her and the screen.
"Hey," Buffy wondered over to that table and picked up the bag. "Xander said that
something happened to you power. This have anything to do with that?"
"Yeah," Willow looked up, her eyes wide and doe like. "It came in the mail this
afternoon, and ever since then I, well, haven't been able to do anything."
"So what are you going to do about it?"
"I thought I'd look up the sygils, which shape the spells, but I can't find anything."
Willows eyes shone. "Oh Buffy, what if I can't get them back. What am I gonna do?"
"You'll get them back," said Buffy with more confidence than she really felt. "You keep
looking, and I'll round up Xander and we'll see what we can dig up."
As soon as he got home, Xander stormed into the hall walk-in, through a side panel and
into a cubby hole office he had built into an empty crawl space. While not much, barely more
than a rickety card table supporting an ancient Macintosh Plus system, a small pone, a dented
metal chair, it still served the purpose.
"Hey Chuck," he said into the phone to one of the people he worked with at the site.
'You keep pretty much on top of comings and goings. You ever hear of anyone coming here,
from, say Africa, Haiti, New Orleans, places that practice vodoun."
"Vodoun?" Xander could almost see Charles scratching at what's left of his hair. "Can't
say that I do, but Johnny says there's a new girl in his class. She's got sort of a dark complexion,
will that do? Planning on joining the clan?"
"Nah, just curious. Got a friend who's interested in that sort of thing, you know, the
voodoo part. Thought maybe I'd help out."
"Oh, that's it, see old Pete down by the docks. He knows all about that kind of stuff."
"Okay, great, I'll do that first thing tomorrow, uh, after work."
Chuck chuckled. "Bring something, he likes treats. Especially liquid ones."
Xander returned the chuckle, hung up, and fired up the computer. He was still at it half
an hour later, when the doorbell rang and Anya's voice shouted through the thin walls.
"Xander it's Buffy."
"Great, he thought. Just what I need.
"Kind of late to go calling Buff," he said as he stepped out in the hallway. If Buffy
wondered why he was in the closet, her eyes didn't give any indication. He did note the spark of
anger, but he was too busy nursing his own to care. "Some big nasty in town, that you and
Willow can't take care of without me."
"Thought I'd give you a chance to explain to explain why you ran out on Willow."
"She didn't want me there, remember."
"No I don't remember. What I do remember is my best friend very upset, and her oldest
friend bail." Buffy poked him in the chest hard. "You used to be her friend, remember."
"Yeah Buffy, I do remember, only we're not so much friends any more, and if she
doesn't want me around, considers me too much of a distraction, then the best thing I can do for
her is to not be around."
Buffy glared at him. "Fine if that's what you want." She turned and stalked out the door.
It wasn't what he really wanted, and for a moment Xander considered running after her,
but he couldn't see any way of coming out from under without smelling like three shades of
jerkiness.
The Sunnydale Docks, not a great place to be, not now. Especially not now, when the
sun cast long deepening shadows. Xander found Old Pete sitting under the rotting hulk of Pier
21, next to a ramshackle lean-to. Old Pete had taken a swig out of the bottle almost before
Xander had given it to him.
"You know Vodoun?"
"Why, whassa you want to know for?"
"A friend of mine received a voodoo charm, that she thinks did something to her. I just
need to find some information, that's all. A gris-gris that stops her from using her magical
powers."
"The girl's a Witch?" Old Pete reared back on his haunches, the whites of his eyes
showing.
"Well," Xander wasn't quite ready to tell all, so he tried to choose his words carefully.
"She think's she is, and this voodoo charm took away her powers, and she really believes that.
So if I could tell her that there's no such thing, it would make her feel better."
"Oh it works, all right, just wondering what she got Old Pete into is all."
"She?"
"Yeah, new girl, dunno her name, came to me last week, said she knew I could help."
Old Pete took another swig. "Sad there was this Witch, gonna make things bad for everyone.
Showed up at the Bronze, that's this club you know, course you know. You look like someone
as knows how to have fun. Anyway she mad a whole room full of people disappear, and then
she brought them back again, only no one but she knew what had happened, then that same girl
showed up at the joint again and weird things started happening. Told her she should keep her
head low, keep out of it, but she said this witch could hurt a lot of people, and she had gotten
close enough to see how the girl was having fun." Old Pete shook his head. "Girl said she had
to do something, couldn't just keep her nose clean."
"So you gave her the spell?"
"Yeah, told her, she had to do it herself, cause I never seen the girl myself. Only know
she has reddish hair and green eyes, named for a tree I think. Anyway, girl had to do it, I
couldn't, don't do that anymore. Still wouldn't stop people suspecting Old Pete if they thought
anything weird was going on."
Willow, what are you doing? Xander hadn't anted to believe that his life long friend was
capable, but Willow's odd behavior of late, plus Old Pete's somewhat blurrily delivered
description sounded too close to comfort.
"This girl, do you know where she is?"
Old Pete's eyes snapped. "Ain't no grave robber. She came to me, not me to her.
Young slip of a girl."
'Uh thanks," Xander stood up, remembering what Chuck had said on the phone last
night. "Enjoy the bottle."
Some things in Sunnydale never changed, and the Bronze was still the hangout of choice,
for both young and the still nearly young. Xander only hoped that this mysterious girl was there,
and that Johnny, Chuck's son, was there to point her out, and, oh yeah, that no one thought him
some sort of perve for talking to her.
Johnny was there, and the offer of a free soda and fries, got the information that
Christina, the new girl in his socials class, was sitting right over there, against the wall. All
alone, because she was too good for ordinary males like him.
"New here, eh." Xander sat at a table next to the girl, who, as Chuck had said, was rather
dark skinned, though that could have been the lighting.
"Yeah, so." That was delivered in the utmost "get away old bugger" tone that a sixteen
year old could deliver.
"Was talking to old Pete." Xander watched the girls face, and was rewarded with a flash
of recognition, that was quickly wiped away. "Said you were doing the hoodoo with the
voodoo."
"Oh please," the girl rolled her eyes. Like I believe that stuff."
"You put a hex on a friend of mine. See, she's a witch with powerful friends, and I gotta
tell you, I'm surprised they haven't kicked your ass by now."
"Maybe you should get better friends." The girl's eyes wandered to a point over
Xander's right shoulder. "Oh sh....."
Xander twisted to follow her gaze, and was less than surprised to see Buffy and Willow
making their way towards him. He turned back to see that the girl had slipped away, and was no
where to be seen.
"Who's the girl," Buffy took a seat, and Willow sat at another.
"Girl?"
"Yeah, the one you were talking to?"
"Just a girl," Xander shrugged. "I had nothing better to do, Anya's keeping the shop
open late tonight, so I came to the Bronze. Oh and I talked to a girl, who is no longer here.
Something wrong with that?"
"Maybe," Willow said grimly. "If she had something to do with what happened to me
and you knew and you didn't tell us."
Xander considered is words, aware of two things, both of them were ganging up on him,
and, from the look on the Slayer's face, this wasn't just a question and answer session but an
interrogation. With him as the interrogatee.
"You made it clear you didn't want my help, remember, telling me to go be with my
Demon Lover, that ring any bells." He glared at Willow, he then turned to face Buffy. "I'm not
the enemy Buff, though you seem determined to treat me as if I were. Also, if you think I was
talking to the girl responsible for removing Willow's magic then there must be some reason
why, which tells me you're not into full share mode either."
"Xander," Buffy warned.
"No, don't Xander me," Xander got to his feet. "Suddenly, I'm not too thrilled at being
here. So I'm leaving."
"Xander," Buffy hissed, "Sit down."
"Or what, you'll stake me?" The two glared at each other, until Xander sighed and
looked away. "I'm so out of here."
Xander didn't cool off until he got out into the parking lot, and it didn't have anything to
do with the cooling breeze coming in from the ocean. It had more to do with his not being able
to stay mad at his two best buds, even though they were aggravating the hell out of him. He
wondered how long it would take before they were, well, friends again.
"We need to talk."
When Xander landed from his impromptu trip to the moon, he spun to see the girl he had
been talking to . She was standing in the shadows, next to the door. Scared.
"Yeah, I guess we do." Xander took a quick look around, "but not here."
"Where's you're friends?"
"We're not exactly friends at the moment, and I'm sure you figured that out, as well as
the little item about them being after you."
"Yes, that's why we got to talk, um, you got car?"
"Over this way," Xander spun and walked to the left. Running feet told him that the girl
was catching up, and was ready to go when they finally reached the blue convertible. "Get in.
We'll find someplace quiet, where we can talk."
They drove in silence, until Xander finally stopped at an out of the way diner on the edge
of town, near the airport. Making sure he had a couple crosses and a handful of stakes, he led
the way inside. Where he had a coffee, and the girl had a coke.
"Okay, give. Name?"
"Christina Thaylor."
"You sent the gris-gris to Willow, the one with the red head?"
"Yeah, I sent it." Christina went on to deliver pretty much the same story he had gotten
from Old Pete, but with more detail and less drunkenness. Xander's heart sank. He had
harbored the belief that there was a mistake there someplace, but it was quickly being driven
back, the description was too real. 'I suppose you think I should give them back?"
"You can do that?"
Christina rolled her eyes. "They're not gone. They're just bound, so she can't use them.
All I have to do is unbind them, but if I do, is she gonna come after me?"
"The Willow I grew up with wouldn't, and would be appalled at what she did at the
Bronze. I can't speak for the Willow she is now, but you saw the girl she was with?" Christina
swallowed and nodded. "That's the Slayer and if you don't undo what you did, she's not going
to stop looking until she finds you, and she tends to think with her fists before she does with her
head. Oh, she can use her head, given the right sitch, so I'd suggest you help that along a little.
I'll do what I can to keep them off you're back, but I can't promise or anything."
"I suppose," Christina dug into her purse, and handed Xander a bag, similar o the one she
had sent Willow. "Give her this, and she'll be as powerful as usual. I'll just have to risk her not
coming after me,"
Xander's heart went out to her. "Look, they don't know for sure yet, and I'll run
interference as best I can. After all, I've been told I am quite distracting. However...."
Xander leaned across the table and started whispering to Christina, who was looking very
dubius.
"What are you doing here?" Buffy glared at Xander as he entered the back room of the
Magic Box. Willow stared daggers from her place in front of the computer.
"My girl friend owns the place remember." Xander grinned. "I have my very own key."
He turned to face Willow.
"Three things. One, the next time you send people through dimensions, or make them
disappear, for do funky dances, or what ever it is you do to unsuspecting people, don't do it in
front of others who might think what you did was bad, which it was, by the way, and decide that
they should do something about it. This is the Helmuth remember, we got more than our fair
share of those. Two," here Xander took the pouch out of his pocket, and tossed it to Willow.
"This will restore your powers, which you always had but but were bound so you couldn't use
them, and three. Three, I don't remember who the person who did this to you is, but I do
remember some things. One, I had a forget spell placed on me, two I have a charm that protects
me against the use of magic so don't even think of using magic to try and make me remember,
and three I'll know if you try going after her." He spun on his heels.
"Willow," he heard a frustrated Buffy exclaim.
"Buffy, I can explain."
He wondered how that was going to turn out.