*****
Giles Apartment
Sunnydale, California
"J... Jenny?" Giles asked in shock, his glasses sliding halfway down his nose as he stared at Xander.
Xander nodded, "Yeah. She uh... Volunteered according to Leo."
"My lord."
Xander half chuckled, "Hey-la Hey-lay, your girlfriends back."
Giles glared at the young man, "This isn't funny, Xander."
Xander sobered quickly, "I know that, G-man. But you know me... Bad joke guy."
"Yes... quite." The British Watcher said sourly as he absently cleaned his glasses.
"Look, I just wanted to let you know before she orbed in on you while you were talking to Willow or something. I still don't know how this is going to work out..."
"Umm... what?"Giles looked up form where he had bee staring, "Oh. yes... you're absolutely right of course... could be very... sticky."
"Yeah." Xander said, "Look, I'm going to let Buffy know..."
"Hmmm? Oh... yes... right. Are you sure you don't want me to handle that? What with the... unpleasantness of the past few days?"
Xander grinned, a little wryly. "Interesting way of putting it, Giles. But, No... I need to talk with her anyway. Its funny, about the only person I seem to be ok with right now is Faith...and isn't she supposed to be the troublemaker?"
Giles chuckled softly, his mind still half on other matters. "Yes... Perhaps you should take that as a sign?"
Xander groaned, "I don't need signs to show me the bumps in this road, G- Man."
Xander turned to leave the small apartment as Giles spoke, "Xander?"
"Yes?" he half turned back.
"Don't call me that."
*****
"Willow?" Buffy called out as she entered the room. She wasn't sure what she was going to say to the young witch, but she felt the need to clear the air... to start healing the breech that Willow's spell had opened.
It was funny in a way, she thought as she looked around. It was her room too but it suddenly felt alien to her. Like it wasn't home anymore.
"Willow?"
"Buffy!" Willow's voice was shocked, and filled with trepidation.
"hey Will." Buffy said, smiling a little sadly as she stepped over to her friend. "I guess we need to talk, huh?"
"Uh... Buffy...This might not be a good time..."
"What?" Buffy glowered, "I came over to talk about putting what happened behind us, Will! You can't just brush this off..."
"I'm not! Please, believe me! But you shouldn..." Willow cringed as someone else entered the room from another door.
"Willow, we really should get back to... Oh... hello, Buffy."
Buffy turned white.
*****
Xander had looked all around for Buffy and finally decided to check her room. which, he suddenly realized, sounded absolutely insane.
As he climbed the stairs of her dorm he heard a very familiar scream, followed by yelling he recognized as Willow's and sounds of a scuffle. He broke into a run and dashed into the room.
And stopped dead as he took in the scene in front of him.
Buffy had charged Miss Calender, a stake in her hand, while Willow and Tara tried to keep them apart.
"BUFFY!"
The room went silent.
The Blond Slayer turned to look at Xander, her eyes wide in shock. "Xander?"
"Why are you attacking Miss Calender?"
"Miss Calender is dead, Xander!"
Xander nodded, "You have a point there... still no reason to be rude."
Buffy goggled at him while the Whitelighter giggled. "Dead. Evil. Evil. Dead. Slayer here, remember?"
Xander quirked his mouth in a slight smile, "She's the new Whitelighter for Willow, Buffy."
Buffy backed up slowly, falling onto her bed in shock. "Oh." She said quietly.
"Apologize to the nice Angel, Buffy."
Surprisingly Buffy actually obeyed the gently chiding voice, "I'm sorry..."
Miss Calender smiled softly, "It's alright, Buffy. You couldn't have hurt me anyway."
"Really?"
"Really." Jenny grinned, "But you still need to tone down that Slay reflex, you might hurt someone who can actually be hurt someday."
"ummm... yeah..."
Xander watched the outcome, a little relieved but still berating himself for not getting to Buffy earlier. "At least I got to Giles in time..." he mumbled.
Jenny's head came up, "Rupert knows?"
Xander nodded.
"Thank you," She said, "That would have been... very awkward..."
"true." Xander grinned. "Well... that's everyone I think..."
Everyone nodded.
"Good." he said. "I'm going home. This has been one hell of a week."
Tara giggled under her breath at the understatement as he walked out.
*****
X&J's Residence
"Let me be sure I understand this..."
Xander nodded patiently, waiting for Jarod to continue, even though he didn't feel terribly patient. He had just managed to wrap this stuff up with the others and he now found himself explaining it again.
"This woman...died."
Xander nodded.
"Murdered by a vampire? Who, is now a good guy?"
Xander nodded.
"And Buffy sent that same Vampire to hell?"
Xander nodded.
"And he's back.... and now, so is the woman he killed?"
Xander nodded.
Jarod sat back and thought about it, finally he leaned forward intently. "Does anyone stay dead around here?"
Xander was about to answer with a flippant response when a thought struck him. "Jessie..." He trailed off sadly.
"Who?"
Xander's mouth twisted a little, "My best friend... we grew up together... He was sort of my first real introduction to the world of Vampires... I... I..." Xander's voice faltered, "I staked him."
Jarod's mind instantly slipped into sim mode, culminating data as it fed him probable scenarios and situations. His face grew sad as the emotional hit came over him, immersing him in a simulation of what Xander must have felt. Finally he sat back heavily. "I'm very sorry, Xander."
Xander shook it off, "So am I, but there's nothing to be done about it now... just have to keep on moving."
Jarod nodded, but inside her worried about his young friend. He recognized the symptoms of repressed emotions and unfinished business. However all of Xander's other demons made it difficult to chart a path that might help the young man. Finally Jarod just shook his head, his face etched in sorrow, as he shifted the idea to the back of his mind where he would continue to work on it until he found a solution.
*****
Orbit
Three days later
"Finally!"
Jacob looked up from the screen he had been reading, "You got the location?"
"Yes. Someone finally ran a search that resulted in a map of 'California' being presented."
"And it only took..." Jacob looked at the computer, "Five days."
Anise growled at his flippant tone, "five days of people calling up pornography, bitching about television, and cursing at each other for little to no reason. You have a very strange culture, Jacob Carter."
Jacob shrugged, "We like it."
Anis shook her head, "I've plotted the map against the terrain below and believe I've located Sunnydale... that's odd..."
"What?"
"Some sort of interference is blanketing the area... I can get any readings on the town."
"let me have a look at that." Jacob slipped in behind the computer, allowing Selmac to take over. When he spoke again it was in a strange, resonating, voice. "You are correct, Anise. The interference seems to be strongly focused in extremely low frequency radiation... I've never seen anything like it."
Anise nodded, "Very interesting. I wonder what is causing it?"
Jacob/Selmac shrugged, "I do not know."
"No matter. We have a mission to complete... and perhaps the boy will know."
"Perhaps."
The two Tok'ra agents checked the cloak on the transport and prepared the small ship for landing.
*****
X&J's residence
"Morning Xander." Jarod grinned as he stepped down the stairs. When the was no answer he looked around. Odd... I was sure that Xander came down first.
He stepped into the kitchen and looked around, "hello? What the...?"
The table was a mess. There was an empty carton of milk, and two empty boxes of Cap'n Crunch. Jarod quirked an eyebrow and looked around. An odd noise caught his attention and he stepped out into the hall.
What the?
Jarod walked down the hall, and stopped at the half open door to the bathroom. Inside he could hear sounds of someone retching.
"Xander?" Jarod said, looking inside.
Inside the bathroom Xander was kneeled over the toilet, looking pale and sickly as he emptied the last dregs from his stomach into the toilet. He looked over at Jarod, his face stricken by nausea.
"It was worth it." He said through his teeth as he tried in vain to hold back another bout of retching.
Jarod grimaced, and turned away from the bathroom. Only Xander would do something like that.
*****
Giles Apartment
Giles slammed the last of his books shut in frustration. His entire collection, largely worthless to him at the moment. He stared at the rough sketches he had made and debated what to do. He could ask the Council for help, but if his suspicions were correct it would attract unwanted attention on Sunnydale.
"Bloody hell." He muttered as he stood up, holding the hand drawn sketches of the silver weapon in his hands. He stared at them for a long time, looking from paper to paper to paper, and then looking at the phone.
"Bloody hell." He snarled again, his hands turning into fists as he crumpled the paper in his hands. He walked across the room and dropped them in a metal waste bin and, after further thought, lit a match and dropped it along with them.
I hope I'm doing the right thing. he thought as he watched the paper burn.
*****
"H... hello?" the quavering voice echoed through the large foyer as the blond stepped inside hesitantly.
Jarod popped his head out, smiling, "Hello, Tara. Come on in, make yourself at home."
The blond Wiccan smiled hesitantly, but took a few more steps inside. "Is Xander here?"
"He's... indisposed for the moment." Jarod said, smiling slightly.
"Oh!" Tara looked surprised, "Its not serious is it?"
"No..." Jarod grinned, "He just needs to learn to be more careful with his dietary habits."
"O...ok..." Tara said, a little confused. "As long as its not serious..."
"He's riding the porcelain train." Faith grinned as she walked into the room. "Dumb bastard must've ate three boxes of Cap'n Crunch in a sitting."
"Why?" Tara asked, completely confused.
Jarod smiled, "I think he finally snapped off his enforced diet."
Tara blinked. "He'll be alright?"
"He'll be fine." Jarod promised, "How's the new Whitelighter going?"
Tara's face beamed, "Jenny's great... she knows all sorts of things..." The she darkened again, "But she won't teach them to Willow yet..."
Jarod nodded.
"I hope not." Xander said, coming into the room. "Willow needs to take a break from learning spells for a while... At least for a little while..."
Tara nodded, almost against her will. "But she loves learning..."
"Knowledge without wisdom is the path to purgatory." Jarod said.
Xander shot him an odd glance, "Where do you get those lines?"
The Pretender shrugged, "I read a lot."
"Remind me to introduce you to comics... You'll love them."
"Cool."
Faith smirked, "Great, instead of one geek I have to deal with two."
Tara watched the exchange, a half smile on her face, as the three people argued good naturedly. The environment here was so different from her home. Even when it came to how they dealt with Willow. her family would have suppressed Willow's desire to learn... would have forced the young Wiccan to bend to their will. Here, they got her help... both to learn magic and control. Tara sighed, wishing she had grown up in a place like this instead of Darynville.
The two men missed her sudden moment of melancholy as they bantered back and forth, only catching the forced smile she put in place as soon as they turned back to her.
"So, Tara," Xander grinned, "Any reason for the visit?"
"N...no... I can go if...?"
"Nonsense," Jarod grinned, "Come on in... We have a slack day. As Xander keeps telling me, let's pig out and watch the tube."'
"Christ girl," Faith shook her head, "You are *way* to timid. C'mon, while they're watching sports or something I'll teach ya some confidence."
Tara shied away from the dark Slayer, remembering Willow's dark comments about the girl. "I... I don't think..."
Xander laughed and pulled the reluctant witch into the living room as Jarod grabbed food from the kitchen. "Come on. She won't bite... well, actually I won't guarantee that come to think of it..."
Faith shot Xander a dirty look as the group retired to the living room.
*****
"Are you certain this is a good place to leave the ship?" Anise asked as they walked away from the invisible craft.
"Sure." Jacob grinned, "Saw it on a movie once..."
When Anise glared at him he hurriedly corrected himself, "Kidding... just kidding! Look, who's going to look in the wreckage of an old building like this?"
"What type of building was it?" Anise asked, "It appears to have been destroyed in combat."
Jacob frowned, "Yeah... that kinda bugs me... It was a school from the looks of things... but there shouldn't have been any combat in this area... the United States is generally safe that way."
Anise shrugged, "Perhaps the child, 'Xander', will know."
"Maybe," Jacob said reluctantly as he followed Anise toward town, tossing occasional looks over his shoulder.
*****
Giles Apartment
Sunnydale, California
"J... Jenny?" Giles asked in shock, his glasses sliding halfway down his nose as he stared at Xander.
Xander nodded, "Yeah. She uh... Volunteered according to Leo."
"My lord."
Xander half chuckled, "Hey-la Hey-lay, your girlfriends back."
Giles glared at the young man, "This isn't funny, Xander."
Xander sobered quickly, "I know that, G-man. But you know me... Bad joke guy."
"Yes... quite." The British Watcher said sourly as he absently cleaned his glasses.
"Look, I just wanted to let you know before she orbed in on you while you were talking to Willow or something. I still don't know how this is going to work out..."
"Umm... what?"Giles looked up form where he had bee staring, "Oh. yes... you're absolutely right of course... could be very... sticky."
"Yeah." Xander said, "Look, I'm going to let Buffy know..."
"Hmmm? Oh... yes... right. Are you sure you don't want me to handle that? What with the... unpleasantness of the past few days?"
Xander grinned, a little wryly. "Interesting way of putting it, Giles. But, No... I need to talk with her anyway. Its funny, about the only person I seem to be ok with right now is Faith...and isn't she supposed to be the troublemaker?"
Giles chuckled softly, his mind still half on other matters. "Yes... Perhaps you should take that as a sign?"
Xander groaned, "I don't need signs to show me the bumps in this road, G- Man."
Xander turned to leave the small apartment as Giles spoke, "Xander?"
"Yes?" he half turned back.
"Don't call me that."
*****
"Willow?" Buffy called out as she entered the room. She wasn't sure what she was going to say to the young witch, but she felt the need to clear the air... to start healing the breech that Willow's spell had opened.
It was funny in a way, she thought as she looked around. It was her room too but it suddenly felt alien to her. Like it wasn't home anymore.
"Willow?"
"Buffy!" Willow's voice was shocked, and filled with trepidation.
"hey Will." Buffy said, smiling a little sadly as she stepped over to her friend. "I guess we need to talk, huh?"
"Uh... Buffy...This might not be a good time..."
"What?" Buffy glowered, "I came over to talk about putting what happened behind us, Will! You can't just brush this off..."
"I'm not! Please, believe me! But you shouldn..." Willow cringed as someone else entered the room from another door.
"Willow, we really should get back to... Oh... hello, Buffy."
Buffy turned white.
*****
Xander had looked all around for Buffy and finally decided to check her room. which, he suddenly realized, sounded absolutely insane.
As he climbed the stairs of her dorm he heard a very familiar scream, followed by yelling he recognized as Willow's and sounds of a scuffle. He broke into a run and dashed into the room.
And stopped dead as he took in the scene in front of him.
Buffy had charged Miss Calender, a stake in her hand, while Willow and Tara tried to keep them apart.
"BUFFY!"
The room went silent.
The Blond Slayer turned to look at Xander, her eyes wide in shock. "Xander?"
"Why are you attacking Miss Calender?"
"Miss Calender is dead, Xander!"
Xander nodded, "You have a point there... still no reason to be rude."
Buffy goggled at him while the Whitelighter giggled. "Dead. Evil. Evil. Dead. Slayer here, remember?"
Xander quirked his mouth in a slight smile, "She's the new Whitelighter for Willow, Buffy."
Buffy backed up slowly, falling onto her bed in shock. "Oh." She said quietly.
"Apologize to the nice Angel, Buffy."
Surprisingly Buffy actually obeyed the gently chiding voice, "I'm sorry..."
Miss Calender smiled softly, "It's alright, Buffy. You couldn't have hurt me anyway."
"Really?"
"Really." Jenny grinned, "But you still need to tone down that Slay reflex, you might hurt someone who can actually be hurt someday."
"ummm... yeah..."
Xander watched the outcome, a little relieved but still berating himself for not getting to Buffy earlier. "At least I got to Giles in time..." he mumbled.
Jenny's head came up, "Rupert knows?"
Xander nodded.
"Thank you," She said, "That would have been... very awkward..."
"true." Xander grinned. "Well... that's everyone I think..."
Everyone nodded.
"Good." he said. "I'm going home. This has been one hell of a week."
Tara giggled under her breath at the understatement as he walked out.
*****
X&J's Residence
"Let me be sure I understand this..."
Xander nodded patiently, waiting for Jarod to continue, even though he didn't feel terribly patient. He had just managed to wrap this stuff up with the others and he now found himself explaining it again.
"This woman...died."
Xander nodded.
"Murdered by a vampire? Who, is now a good guy?"
Xander nodded.
"And Buffy sent that same Vampire to hell?"
Xander nodded.
"And he's back.... and now, so is the woman he killed?"
Xander nodded.
Jarod sat back and thought about it, finally he leaned forward intently. "Does anyone stay dead around here?"
Xander was about to answer with a flippant response when a thought struck him. "Jessie..." He trailed off sadly.
"Who?"
Xander's mouth twisted a little, "My best friend... we grew up together... He was sort of my first real introduction to the world of Vampires... I... I..." Xander's voice faltered, "I staked him."
Jarod's mind instantly slipped into sim mode, culminating data as it fed him probable scenarios and situations. His face grew sad as the emotional hit came over him, immersing him in a simulation of what Xander must have felt. Finally he sat back heavily. "I'm very sorry, Xander."
Xander shook it off, "So am I, but there's nothing to be done about it now... just have to keep on moving."
Jarod nodded, but inside her worried about his young friend. He recognized the symptoms of repressed emotions and unfinished business. However all of Xander's other demons made it difficult to chart a path that might help the young man. Finally Jarod just shook his head, his face etched in sorrow, as he shifted the idea to the back of his mind where he would continue to work on it until he found a solution.
*****
Orbit
Three days later
"Finally!"
Jacob looked up from the screen he had been reading, "You got the location?"
"Yes. Someone finally ran a search that resulted in a map of 'California' being presented."
"And it only took..." Jacob looked at the computer, "Five days."
Anise growled at his flippant tone, "five days of people calling up pornography, bitching about television, and cursing at each other for little to no reason. You have a very strange culture, Jacob Carter."
Jacob shrugged, "We like it."
Anis shook her head, "I've plotted the map against the terrain below and believe I've located Sunnydale... that's odd..."
"What?"
"Some sort of interference is blanketing the area... I can get any readings on the town."
"let me have a look at that." Jacob slipped in behind the computer, allowing Selmac to take over. When he spoke again it was in a strange, resonating, voice. "You are correct, Anise. The interference seems to be strongly focused in extremely low frequency radiation... I've never seen anything like it."
Anise nodded, "Very interesting. I wonder what is causing it?"
Jacob/Selmac shrugged, "I do not know."
"No matter. We have a mission to complete... and perhaps the boy will know."
"Perhaps."
The two Tok'ra agents checked the cloak on the transport and prepared the small ship for landing.
*****
X&J's residence
"Morning Xander." Jarod grinned as he stepped down the stairs. When the was no answer he looked around. Odd... I was sure that Xander came down first.
He stepped into the kitchen and looked around, "hello? What the...?"
The table was a mess. There was an empty carton of milk, and two empty boxes of Cap'n Crunch. Jarod quirked an eyebrow and looked around. An odd noise caught his attention and he stepped out into the hall.
What the?
Jarod walked down the hall, and stopped at the half open door to the bathroom. Inside he could hear sounds of someone retching.
"Xander?" Jarod said, looking inside.
Inside the bathroom Xander was kneeled over the toilet, looking pale and sickly as he emptied the last dregs from his stomach into the toilet. He looked over at Jarod, his face stricken by nausea.
"It was worth it." He said through his teeth as he tried in vain to hold back another bout of retching.
Jarod grimaced, and turned away from the bathroom. Only Xander would do something like that.
*****
Giles Apartment
Giles slammed the last of his books shut in frustration. His entire collection, largely worthless to him at the moment. He stared at the rough sketches he had made and debated what to do. He could ask the Council for help, but if his suspicions were correct it would attract unwanted attention on Sunnydale.
"Bloody hell." He muttered as he stood up, holding the hand drawn sketches of the silver weapon in his hands. He stared at them for a long time, looking from paper to paper to paper, and then looking at the phone.
"Bloody hell." He snarled again, his hands turning into fists as he crumpled the paper in his hands. He walked across the room and dropped them in a metal waste bin and, after further thought, lit a match and dropped it along with them.
I hope I'm doing the right thing. he thought as he watched the paper burn.
*****
"H... hello?" the quavering voice echoed through the large foyer as the blond stepped inside hesitantly.
Jarod popped his head out, smiling, "Hello, Tara. Come on in, make yourself at home."
The blond Wiccan smiled hesitantly, but took a few more steps inside. "Is Xander here?"
"He's... indisposed for the moment." Jarod said, smiling slightly.
"Oh!" Tara looked surprised, "Its not serious is it?"
"No..." Jarod grinned, "He just needs to learn to be more careful with his dietary habits."
"O...ok..." Tara said, a little confused. "As long as its not serious..."
"He's riding the porcelain train." Faith grinned as she walked into the room. "Dumb bastard must've ate three boxes of Cap'n Crunch in a sitting."
"Why?" Tara asked, completely confused.
Jarod smiled, "I think he finally snapped off his enforced diet."
Tara blinked. "He'll be alright?"
"He'll be fine." Jarod promised, "How's the new Whitelighter going?"
Tara's face beamed, "Jenny's great... she knows all sorts of things..." The she darkened again, "But she won't teach them to Willow yet..."
Jarod nodded.
"I hope not." Xander said, coming into the room. "Willow needs to take a break from learning spells for a while... At least for a little while..."
Tara nodded, almost against her will. "But she loves learning..."
"Knowledge without wisdom is the path to purgatory." Jarod said.
Xander shot him an odd glance, "Where do you get those lines?"
The Pretender shrugged, "I read a lot."
"Remind me to introduce you to comics... You'll love them."
"Cool."
Faith smirked, "Great, instead of one geek I have to deal with two."
Tara watched the exchange, a half smile on her face, as the three people argued good naturedly. The environment here was so different from her home. Even when it came to how they dealt with Willow. her family would have suppressed Willow's desire to learn... would have forced the young Wiccan to bend to their will. Here, they got her help... both to learn magic and control. Tara sighed, wishing she had grown up in a place like this instead of Darynville.
The two men missed her sudden moment of melancholy as they bantered back and forth, only catching the forced smile she put in place as soon as they turned back to her.
"So, Tara," Xander grinned, "Any reason for the visit?"
"N...no... I can go if...?"
"Nonsense," Jarod grinned, "Come on in... We have a slack day. As Xander keeps telling me, let's pig out and watch the tube."'
"Christ girl," Faith shook her head, "You are *way* to timid. C'mon, while they're watching sports or something I'll teach ya some confidence."
Tara shied away from the dark Slayer, remembering Willow's dark comments about the girl. "I... I don't think..."
Xander laughed and pulled the reluctant witch into the living room as Jarod grabbed food from the kitchen. "Come on. She won't bite... well, actually I won't guarantee that come to think of it..."
Faith shot Xander a dirty look as the group retired to the living room.
*****
"Are you certain this is a good place to leave the ship?" Anise asked as they walked away from the invisible craft.
"Sure." Jacob grinned, "Saw it on a movie once..."
When Anise glared at him he hurriedly corrected himself, "Kidding... just kidding! Look, who's going to look in the wreckage of an old building like this?"
"What type of building was it?" Anise asked, "It appears to have been destroyed in combat."
Jacob frowned, "Yeah... that kinda bugs me... It was a school from the looks of things... but there shouldn't have been any combat in this area... the United States is generally safe that way."
Anise shrugged, "Perhaps the child, 'Xander', will know."
"Maybe," Jacob said reluctantly as he followed Anise toward town, tossing occasional looks over his shoulder.
*****
