Title: Destiny Means Nothing
Chapter: Three
Author: White Knight_7
Pairing: Xander/Tara
Rating: 12, maybe a 15 (For US readers, I think that confers to a PG-13 or PG-15)
Summary: After a brush with death, Xander ends up rethinking his place in the Scooby Gang, and his relationship with a certain shy witch...
Feedback: Yes please, this is my first real attempt at fanfic and so any ideas you have are welcomed as long as they are constructive.
Author's Notes: This is set after the first episode of Season Five. Basically that means that Dawn is around and every one except Xander, Giles and Anya have just started the new college year. This is not an overtly bashing piece but as always if you want to create an unconventional pairing there might be some friction. Also, this is NOT a 'Xander gets a power and the author completely changes the character' story. There's something special about him no doubt, just no real powers involved. B/S shippers, PISS OFF MATE!
Due to some suggestions by readers, and my beta Kaz, I shall display some grammatical aids.
"" = Speech
** = Thoughts/Telepathy
Italics = Memories
Disclaimer: What idiot invented this thing anyway. Here goes. I don't own any of these characters, I'm just altering certain events in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe for my own benefit, to bolster the MEAGER T/X reservoir out there and show everyone what Joss should have paired people up with.
The door of the Magic Box swung wide open, signaling the arrival of Xander and Tara. While Xander had a mile-wide grin plastered across his face, Tara was blushing like mad and trying to make eye contact with anyone in the room. Quite confused by this, Willow began to mentally ponder the situation.
*What are they finding so funny I wonder? I've never seen Tara like that when I tell one of my jokes. I bet it was a sex joke or something like that, I mean it would have to be to . *
"Are you mind babbling again, Wills? " Xander said, his words breaking Willow out of her reverie to answer him.
"What? What do you mean." She said confused until she realized what he was talking about and replied, "Oh . yeah. A little I guess, how could you tell?" Willow asked.
"You do this cute thing with your face, dead giveaway to us experienced Willow-watchers," Xander explained, directing a smile at both Willow and Tara before walking over to the table and dropping his grease-covered paper bags on the table, commencing the feeding frenzy.
Once everyone's stomachs were sufficiently stuffed with food, Willow and Tara got up from their seats and begun collecting their things.
"Where are you going, Wills? I didn't think we had a lecture today." Buffy commented to her friend.
"We", Willow said, pointing to the three college friends," don't. But Tara and I found this new Wicca group. We are going to check out. It was a little under the radar and took some finding but we met one of the members last week and introduced ourselves. The first meeting is tonight."
"Real witches this time or just more bad Martha Stuart impersonators?" Xander quipped reminded of what Willow had told him about the first group of wicca-wannabes she had found on campus: the most powerful element they could conjure was the lemon fruitcake. However, that group was the first place Willow had met Tara, definitely a good point.
"No Xan, full-blown witches this time. They did a few minor demonstrations, like printing and removing tattoos from each other. One of them even turned her hands into green mist."
"It was v-very cool." Tara added from Willow's side.
"Yeah. This week we're going to try and help this girl who randomly teleports whenever she sneezes." the redhead added excitedly.
Walking out from behind the counter after hearing this, Anya turned to the two wiccans and said, "Well, if they are real spellcasters than they can maybe come and practice some of their magic here in the shop."
"Now just a minute -." Giles said before Willow swiftly interrupted him,
"Thanks Anya, that's really thoughtful." Willow said, taken aback by Anya's seeming generosity.
"Well, that and the pots of money we'll make from selling them magic supplies." Anya explained.
"That's my girl," Xander said affectionately, "always thinking with your wallet."
After this exchange Buffy turned to Willow, a bit suspicious about the thought of them joining this new Wicca group. "Just be careful Will. I don't want you joining some evil magical cult or anything. Those tattoos could be evil, or something." Buffy told her friend, still a bit wary after Xander's near-death experience. She was the one person who did not need reminding about the casualties they had sustained over the years. Such a near miss with one of the people closest to her rattled her quite a bit, although her pride got in the way of just saying it out loud.
"Not to play down your perceptive abilities, but would an evil magic cult use Mickey Mouse as their emblem?" Willow questioned the worried Slayer.
A small smile spread across Buffy's face at her friend's words and she replied, "I'm sorry Will, I know it's stupid but we've just been taking a few too many chances and getting sloppy lately." She momentarily glanced in Xander's direction but her eyes quickly flitted back to Willow. "Go. Have fun and try to find out a bit about this group. They might be useful to us. You know what kind of magic they practice, how good they are."
" . the gay to straight ratio." Xander added, instantly earning him shocked looks from all females in the room - except Anya. "Oh please, I was just curious how often witches turn out to be gay; all that magic and late-night spell casting, who could blame you?" Xander continued earning a pair of blushes at the last remark as the two witches in question remembered their experiences with casting spells at the dead of night.
"Xander please, I think that's enough abrasive comments from you for now." Giles told him.
"I know you've thought about it, Giles; I seem to remember a night in not too long ago involving a bottle of absinthe." the young man informed the room suggestively.
"Giles!" said a shocked Buffy, trying to get the disturbing images of her drunk Watcher out of her head.
"I think the less said about that the better." Giles tried to cover up.
Standing next to Xander now, Anya spoke up. "Actually you're half right - about the lesbian thing, not Giles being pissed out of his tree. There is an island in the Aegean Sea called Lesbos and until about 900 years ago about 300 lesbian witches populated it. They came up with some powerful sex and love spells, I can tell you."
Before anyone could say anything else, a huge bout of giggles erupted from the doorway. Turning to see where it was coming from, they saw Joyce with a bemused expression on her face and Dawn - who was bent over laughing.
Suddenly blushing with embarrassment, Buffy asked her mother, "Uh mom, just how long were you standing there?"
"Long enough," replied the older woman as she and Dawn walked towards the center of the shop and greeted everyone there.
"Great. More people who won't spend any money in the shop." Anya said as she busied herself with a box filled with small statues of Hephaestus.
They mostly ignored Anya's tactless comment. Dawn immediately steered for Xander's place at the table while Joyce approached Buffy.
"Hey Dawn Patrol," Xander said, raising his hand to give the youngest Summers lady a high five.
"Hey Xand." She said returning his high-five then asked, "What are you doing?"
"Well my young friend, I have been filling up on calories and delving into the terrifying world of tax returns." Xander said.
While Xander and Dawn talked each other's ears off, Joyce and Buffy were talking more seriously. "All right Buffy, you are to look after Dawn until I get back from the gallery at four. Make sure she gets some of her work done now because she has a project due on Monday. Okay? " Joyce told her eldest daughter.
"Yes mom, look after Dawn, check, make sure she does her work, check, get annoyed all afternoon." Buffy said before Dawn responded with a "HEY!"
Once Joyce had left the store, Buffy turned to Dawn, a serious expression painted across her face.
"Dawn, you are not to touch or even go near ANYTHING on the shelves, counter or anywhere in the shop. You are to get at least an hour of work done before Mom comes to pick you up. I'll be in the back training with Riley and Giles. Don't call me out unless it's really important. Got it?" Buffy railed into her little sister, in a similar way to what her mother had done only minutes before.
To answer her, Dawn gave Buffy her best 'couldn't care less' look, forcing Xander to break the sisterly stalemate, and raising his hand in a mock salute said, "Yes Master-Chief Summers, all present and correct, huuah!"
Looking bewildered for a moment, Buffy feigned apathy and replied, "Uh, yeah. Whatever. Just make sure she does it okay?" She then turned and went into the training room at the back of the shop.
As Riley turned to join her, he contemplated Xander for a moment, *Weird guy. Most of the time he's a crazy joker, but every so often he actually seems to know what he's doing. * He thought, thinking back to the events of the previous night and Xander's actions during it.
* I suppose living on a 'Hellmouth' or whatever for all of your life has got to toughen you up. I guess he's just seen Apocalypse Now one too many times.*
Once Riley had gone into the back room, Dawn and Xander continued talking. "So, do you know why Buffy is being an ice queen today. more than usual I mean?" Dawn asked Xander, curious as to her sister's recent change in attitude.
"Ah, yeah. I think that's kinda my fault, Dawnie." Xander said.
"Why? You didn't hide Mr. Gordo in the washing machine again did you?"
"No, nothing so serious. Last night while we were on patrol, we got into a fight with a couple of vamps and I got bit by one of them." Xander explained and Dawn's breath hitched when she heard he had been bitten. "Don't worry, no lasting damage but it really freaked Buffy out, I think. Good to know she cares I suppose, but I think it's earned me the cold shoulder for a couple of days."
"I'm glad you're still alive." Dawn said quietly, as freaked as her sister about the concept of a dead or turned Xander.
Smiling at the young women beside him, Xander leaned over and gave her a quick hug of reassurance and said, "Thanks Dawn."
**************************************************************************** **********
The sun was low in the sky when Xander finally left the Magic Box, bored out of his wits and with a sore backside to boot. While he was sure he would now try to avoid doing tax returns for as long as possible, there was still the issue that was confusing him the most and that was the situation with Tara. He had no idea what could be causing their freak 'connection', especially since they had only really gotten to know each other. Why hadn't this happened to him and Buffy, or Willow? Not that he was complaining; his previous experiences with this random telepathy had been interesting. Still, it begged investigating, but how?
He opened the door to his apartment and strode over to the kitchen to make a sandwich. Once the ingredients were collected, he began to wonder where Anya had gotten to, and so shouted into the apartment, "Sweetie? Are you here?"
A short yelp was heard from the bedroom and Anya bounded through the door and ran over to Xander, giving him a fiery kiss. "Hey honey, when did you get back?" Anya questioned him.
"Oh, just a few minutes ago. Were you sleeping?"
"Yeah. Who would have thought that counting money could make me so tired?" Anya said, turning to help Xander construct his infamous turkey and stuffing sandwiches. "Anyway, I was thinking we could just have a quiet night in; you, me, the TV, and a box of condoms. Sound good?"
Grinning like a fool, he leaned over to kiss her, wondering what he did in a past life to deserve her. Although rather brash and occasionally thoughtless (by a savvy human's standards), she was the best he could ever hope for.
Grabbing his pile of sandwiches, he plopped down on the sofa, with Anya curled up next to him while they cycled through several of his DVDs, until the phone rang, disrupting their quiet time.
Anya was closest to the receiver and picked it, bellowing into it, "What d'ya want? I'm in the middle of 'The Sound of Music', so if you don't have a good reason, rethink calling this number!"
The phone was silent for almost ten seconds before the person on the other end carried on, "U-uh, A-Anya? It's m-me Tara. Sorry to disturb you but is X-Xander there?" the cowed Wiccan asked tentatively.
"Um, yeah, I suppose, one second." Anya replied, a little confused by what Willow's girlfriend would be doing calling her BOYFRIEND outside of sociable hours.
"Xander, Tara's on the phone. She wants to speak with you." Anya said, covered the phone then followed up, "Are you having sex with her?"
Utterly shocked by this Xander managed to blurt out, "W-WHAT! No, of course not. Pass the phone please."
Taking the phone from his irate girlfriend, he leaned back into the comfy sofa and then said into the phone,
"Hi Tara. What brings you to call me at this hour?"
"U-uh, sorry. Is this a b-bad time?"
"Nah, course not. But in future you might want to avoid Anya's 'cheery capitalist film' time." He said, trying to reassure the young witch now terrified of his girlfriend.
This obviously worked as he could hear a high-pitched giggle echo down the phone, then Tara continued speaking, "T-Thanks for the advice. Anyway, I was wondering if we could meet up tomorrow, i-if you're free that is, to talk about, well, our 'thing'. Could you maybe meet me in the University library at eleven?"
Thinking it over quickly, he decided that it was better to figure out what was happening sooner rather than later, and so quickly answered back, "Sure, sounds great. I don't have any work tomorrow, nothing to hammer together on Sundays. Eleven it is."
"Okay. B-Bye."
"Bye."
After he had given the phone back to Anya, a confused frown appeared on her face and she asked, "So, what was that about then?"
"Oh, nothing much. Tara just wants me to meet up with her tomorrow, to help her with." Xander answered, then quickly lied. "a history paper. On Sunnydale. Since I've been here my whole life, she wanted an insider's perspective on it." Despite his apparently excellent talent for lying, he hated doing it to his girlfriend.
"Why can't Willow help her with it? I mean, she's been here as long as you have and probably wouldn't mind." Anya said, a little curious why Tara would be asking Xander, of all people, for help on a history paper.
"Willow's away with her parents tomorrow, visiting one of her uncles in LA and she won't be back 'til late, and the paper's due for tomorrow." Xander explained, most of it true. Willow was indeed visiting her Uncle Eugene in LA; the history paper was just a helpful cover.
"Okay, that's fine. But right now you're going to show me some special attention." She said, pulling him towards the bedroom.
"Oh, I love giving you special attention, hun." Xander replied.
**************************************************************************** **********
If someone were to observe the scene in Xander's bedroom, they might consider it peaceful; his arm draped across the women next to him protectively, a content look on his face. However this observer would be wrong. He might appear calm outside, but internally he was raging.
A blurry wish-wash of bright colours appeared before Xander, swirling steadily before coming into focus. Thinking he was getting out of his bed in the morning, he was quite surprised to note that not only was he standing up already, but also was dressed. The colours focused and he realized he was standing in the middle of a grass-covered field, a light grey sky above his head.
* Oooo-kay. Where did my room go? Why am I outside? * Xander thought to himself worriedly.
Looking down at himself, he was quite stunned. Instead of his normal apparel of a shirt and smart jeans, he was dressed head to toe in heavy- looking black armor, spikes curling up on his shoulders like half-formed waves. He was also holding a long obsidian sword in one hand and a shorter, thicker blade in the other.
* Not good, not good! Dark armor and evil weapons! I'm so dead. * Xander wracked his brain, but then it hit him, * Oh crap, this is way too similar to that nightmare I had in the hospital, except this time I look like the."
He paused for a second while it sunk in, * Bad Guy. *
Looking to either side of him he saw long battle lines draw out, peppered with all manner of creatures dressed in similar dark armor, most of them demons. When he looked one in the eye, what he saw surprised him. He saw.respect, fear maybe even a tinge of loyalty. All these creatures were working for him.
Finally, he scanned the horizon in front of him and his suspicions were confirmed. He really was the villain of this piece. His final clue was that the other battle lines drawn out across the field, apparently smaller in number, were filled with beings in white armor and various other clothing, humans and one or two ethereally cloaked creatures. In short, the good guys.
*This would be a really good time to wake up. Make breakfast, have more sex with Anya, anything but this. *
He tried to open his hand and drop the sword, running like his instincts, for the most part, were telling him to. But then an overpowering calm entered him, and he could no longer move. He could still feel everything, physical and emotional, but he couldn't divert from his course.
His body raised the long sword high above his head, holding it there. Everyone in his (?) army tensed, waiting for what was going to happen next.
He started to run, dropping the sword as he did so, and the lines burst forward, charging headlong into the fast approaching enemy, who began moving shortly after they had.
The next few minutes were hectic to say the least. Sword smashed against sword, axe or even flesh. While Xander himself was used to small skirmishes and the inherent blood that tended to flow, this was horrific. Strangely, he did not feel the need to vomit, or run and hide. The calm that he had felt earlier was still there, even in the tangled mess of battle, controlling him, keeping him in check. He was almost reveling in it. And at this point, he wasn't sure if these were emotions from the person he was supposed to be or himself.
After a while, it seemed as though they was going to lose, demons falling like raindrops all around him, struck down by some yet unseen force. Stepping back into a cadre of demon soldiers, he carefully surveyed the battlefield. While most of the heavier battle demons were still around, many of the regular foot soldiers lay dead on the ground. Looking into the distance, it seemed that several of the angelic creatures were surrounding one human woman, not yet engaged with the fighting.
* Hmm, must be their general. * He observed tactically.
While his foot soldiers were falling in droves, not too many of the humans were dead, by comparison. In fact most of them were firing arrows and bolts from a distance, so what was killing his demons? Then he saw it, or more accurately, her.
Attacking several demons at once with a long curved blade, she easily dodged their clumsy swings or parried them and followed up with a fatal counter-attack. She moved with near godly grace that should be possessed by someone much her senior, yet she only appear about eighteen. There was only one girl ('in all the world') who could best demon-kind like that.
The Slayer.
He barked orders to the surrounding demons in a foreign language he could barely understand, and the demons responded by surrounding him in a circle, shields raised and approached the young warrior. The other humans attempted to slow their advance with arrows from their bows but the projectiles just bounced off the thick metal shields harmlessly. When they finally got to the Slayer, the other demons broke off to distract the remaining human warriors while he walked up to her in a ready fighting stance.
Whirling around to face him, she looked momentarily puzzled that she wasn't facing another demon, but a human. This passed quickly as she dropped in a similar fighting stance, her blade held with both hands, pointing down and to the right, waiting.
They may have stood there for ten seconds or ten minutes, neither could really tell, but it was her that struck first. She brought her sword up in an inverted cut followed by a quick downward one, using her speed to the full. She expected him to be unable to handle such a quick attack, being just a human. Instead, he used the fact she was overextended to his advantage and spun along her blade, trying to deliver a fatal cut across her midsection, which she was barely able to block, and even this was done awkwardly. Seeing his chance, he delivered a series of strong cuts and jabs designed to put her off balance. Countering his tactic, she barely managed to sidestep, give a sidekick to his leg then do a full backflip through the air, landing six meters from her original position.
This sort of cut, parry, stab and retreat dance carried on for quite a while, each opponent looking for a hole in the other's defenses. Eventually, it was he who made a mistake, dropping his long sword from his guard position, leaving his upper body open for the killing blow. Noticing the hole, and eager for the fight to be over, she quickly stabbed forward at his neck and head hoping to kill him and be done with it.
It was a little strange to her, though. Why would he drop his guard so easily, giving her an open avenue of attack? She was even more confused when she went for the jab to his throat; it appeared he had dropped his sword all together.
She realized quickly what had happened, but not quick enough to stop what would happen next.
From Xander's point of view, he was wetting himself (mentally, of course). He was very close to sudden death when all of a sudden he lowered and finally dropped his sword.
* What, are you nuts? Pick the damn blade up! * He willed his body to defend him, but it was as unresponsive as ever.
Then he, like the woman in front of him, saw it.
He immediately dropped to one knee with all the speed he could muster, then reached out and grabbed her hand, her weariness allowing him to capture it easily. In one swift motion, he pushed her hand up then stabbed out with the short blade that had been hanging at his side since they charged into battle.
* NO! * He screamed. He wasn't only killing a human, he was coldly murdering a Slayer, one of which was his best friend. It was against everything he believed in.
Still, belief would not stop the blade as it crashed into the right side of her ribcage, penetrating the thin battle-armor she wore and ripped through flesh and bone, a torrent of blood exiting the wound.
She fell to the long grass, her body making a quiet thud against the soft dirt, more blood pouring from the wound, a strange green tint to it. Thinking quickly, Xander realized that the blade he had just killed a Slayer with had not only wounded her fatally, but poisoned her as well, insuring that absolutely no recovery could be made once cut.
His gaze traveled away from her dying body up to where the supposed general stood. Both had expressionless looks on their faces. When he looked past the green armor and helmet he knew where he had seen that face before, long golden locks trailing down the sides of her helmet . Tara.
God had no amount of humor he would not subject Xander Harris to.
Xander could tell his consciousness was fading as his vision blurred again. The most disturbing thing was that the only word he could think of as he stared at the Slayer's fallen corpse was - efficient.
**************************************************************************** **********
An overriding force of shock drove Xander to awake immediately and he shot up it bed, the morning sun burning the backs of his retinas. Blinking it away, he quickly turned over to find Anya gone. Panicking he jumped out of bed and ran naked out of his room and into the main space of his apartment, his heart beating a hundred times a second and sweat pouring off him.
He heaved a huge sigh of relief when he saw that Anya was indeed alive and safe in the kitchen making some breakfast, smelling of sausages and bacon.
He did a double take when he realized Tara was also in the room, apparently waiting for him.
Anya turned around and spotted him, saying, "Xander, honey you're up. And naked."
Tara faced with the sight of a stark naked and sweating Xander did the only thing a self-respecting lesbian could do. She looked a moment longer, then closed her eyes and tossed him a pillow from the couch to cover himself up with.
Fighting its way to the surface, Xander's mind kicked in and did the only thing it could do: caught the flying pillow and attempted to cover himself with it.
"I-I'm r-really s-sorry X-Xander." Tara managed to get out, ninety percent of it stutters, which was back in full force.
"Hang on, I'm the one who should be apologizing, running in here half- cocked." He said, trying desperately to hide himself up the small pillow.
Never to miss a golden opportunity, Anya chimed in; "It looked like a whole cock to me honey."
"Now's not the time, sweetheart." Xander told his girlfriend.
"U-uh, g-guys?" Tara said meekly, still facing the other way her eyes screwed shut.
Realizing he should probably cover up, Xander ran back into the bedroom and quickly slung on a pair of boxers, some black jeans and a T-shirt before returning to the living room.
"Tara, you can look now." Xander said.
"O-Okay." She answered, turning around slowly as not to be surprised by his nakedness, although seeing a man naked for the first time certainly was a learning curve for her. Seeing him in normal clothes once more, she breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down next to her of the sofa.
Anya quickly brought them over some food and Xander wolfed it down at a rate that surprised both women, devouring two fried eggs, four sausages, four slices of bacon and several pancakes by the time they had barely dug in.
"Hungry sweetie?" Anya asked him in shock.
"Yeah, starved. Any more? I'm still a bit hungry and all that sleeping made me tired." Xander replied, moving over to the kitchen to finish up the leftovers from the frying pan.
When he sat back down again, Tara watched him for a moment then asked, "Bad dreams?"
A little taken aback by her perception for a moment, he realized that if he had had some of these weird dreams, maybe she had as well.
"Yeah, how did ya guess?" Xander asked her, curious for her answer.
"Well, I just sensed a slight change in you aura that may indicate mental disturbances. That and you slept in really late, nightmares tend to do that."
"Nightmares?" Anya asked, worry heavy in her voice, "Were there bunnies in Gestapo uniforms?"
"No hun, just some generally bad horror movie stuff." He said, deep in thought about said dreams.
"X-Xander?" Tara questioned him cautiously, "I c-could look at them maybe, try and figure out what they mean? I m-mean if you want we could do that?"
"Can you really look at people's dreams? I heard that was a very rare gift." Anya asked, recalling some knowledge from her 1121 years of living.
Blushing a bit, Tara said proudly, "I know it is, but my mom and grandmother taught it to me when I was young. I h-haven't done it for a while though, so I could be a bit r-rusty."
"Yeah, yeah, comma definitely. That would be really helpful, thanks Tara." Xander said appreciatively.
The three of them continued talking and eating for the better part of the hour and it was half past twelve by the time they were ready to go.
"Bye Ahn. See ya later, 'kay?" Xander said.
"Yeah, have fun sweetie. Don't have sex without me." Anya added tactlessly.
Blushing intensely, Tara looked away from the two people in front of her and coughed nervously.
"D-don't worry Anya. Gay, remember?" Tara said to calm Anya's boiling jealousy.
"Okay. Bye anyway." She said, giving Xander a quick kiss and walked away.
"It's always the quiet ones."
**************************************************************************** **********
Walking down the street outside his apartment, Xander and Tara were in a period of silence while each thought about the new implications of this connection between them.
* Okay, so we need to find out what this is. Well, Sister Mary always said she could help with these kinds of phenomenon.* Tara pondered to herself.
"Who's Sister Mary?" he said out loud, without realizing he had read her thoughts by accident.
"She's this great witch healer from. oh dear. You did it again." Tara said, a little upset that he could skim her mind so easily.
"Sorry, sorry, dammit! This is going to get plain annoying eventually. I don't mean your thoughts are annoying but, this is very confusing." He admitted to her, and she nodded her agreement.
"Well, and totally not intruding here," he said stressing by raising his hands in mock defense, "but who is Sister Mary? Is she a nun or something?"
"No, not a nun. She's an experienced Wiccan priestess, who is versed in many magical arts and has incredible sensory perceptions. She can often see things we cannot, bonds between people, and supposedly into the future, although I-I've never seen her do the last one." Tara explained to Xander, who carefully absorbed this.
"Sounds like a plan." He said cheerfully. " Where does she live? In town or are we talking a mud hut in the middle of a swamp?"
"Don't be silly. Just because she's a witch doesn't mean any of those old legends apply. D-Do you see me with a wart on my nose, f-flying around on a broomstick?" Tara told him, deflecting his comments.
"No, quite the opposite in fact. You see, I was actually drawing a comparison between your witch-mentor gal and the great Jedi Master Yoda, famed for his perceptive abilities and muddy hovel in the swamp." Xander said, smiling all the way as he rattled off some of his endless pop culture knowledge.
"I'm more of a Princess Leia kinda girl actually. She was my first real fantasy woman." Tara admitted, shocking Xander a little.
"If I may say so, a fine choice. Although I'd have to say that Amidala is much hotter nowadays." Xander added.
Smiling for a moment, Tara quickly shook her head, and said, " We're getting a bit of topic here, Xander."
"Ah, what the heck? We got the rest of the day, and I still haven't heard all your fantasies and the various woman involved in them." He said gleefully.
"Are you f-flirting with me?" She said, keeping the mood light.
"Quite possibly. What would you say if I asked you to accompany me to the Espresso Pump?" He asked hopefully.
"I think I'd say 'triple espresso and a slice of fudge cake please'."
"Good God woman, whatever happened to 'thy body is thy temple'?" He asked in mock surprise.
"First, I have a temple at home, with candles, incense and statues. Second, I'm addicted, so d-don't argue."
"Yes, ma'am."
**************************************************************************** **********
Sitting down at the furthest table from the counter, overlooking the street, Tara looked out across the half-empty café at Xander, getting their order of coffee and various foods. While this new friendship with him caught her completely unawares, it was nice to have a friend who didn't have supernatural abilities, or was a woman. It was quite easy to get caught up in a conversation and end up talking for hours, and it was now quite apparent where Willow had inherited her babbling from: trying to keep up with Xander.
* Although the amount of food he eats is unnatural. * She thought humorously as she noticed him walking back over to their table with a tray holding two cups of coffee, one large slice of triple fudge cake for her, two large iced buns and two sandwiches for him.
Once he had distributed the food and drink, he carried on their original topic of discussion, "So, funniness and sexual fantasies aside, where does this witch-master live?" He asked, trying to maintain a serious level of talking.
"She lives at a grove in a small town called Haventon, about twenty-five minutes drive from here. I've already called ahead so she'll be expecting us in about an hour or so. Once you finished eating, we can go." Tara explained. Strangely, she had much less of a problem with confidence when speaking with him then normally with other people's friends, especially guys.
* Considering all the time we've spent together recently, and in the Scooby Gang, I suppose we are real friends now. * Tara pondered, staring off into the distance.
"Heeelllo? Tara? Wake up." He said.
When she came back from her daydream, she asked, "Xander? A-Are we f- friends, now? I mean apart from me being Willow's girlfriend and you being Willow's b-best friend?" She asked a little insecurely.
"Of course we are, in a true friend capacity. Why? Am I freaking you out or something?"
"N-No! Definitely not. But I've just realized that you're my first real guy friend." She said, relieved.
"Well, I have to say, I'm honored. But enough of this idle chatter," He said, stuffing the last piece of a sandwich into his mouth. He continued in a garbled super-hero voice, "there's work to be done!"
Exiting the shop, they walked casually to the other side of the pavement and hopped into Xander's car, staring the engine and beginning their trip to Haventon.
**************************************************************************** **********
Driving down the highway towards Haventon, both companions in the car were enjoying a comfortable silence; Xander was immersed in the music pouring from the radio and his own incessant whistling, while Tara was thinking quietly to herself. It had been far too long since she had been to see Sister Mary or any of her circles of magically inclined friends. Unfortunately, most of them were back in North Carolina with the rest of her family, but Sister Mary was still one of the only people she could fully trust in magical terms. She was also one of the reasons she had chosen UC Sunnydale as a university.
* Willow's been getting a bit ahead of herself lately. All those black magic transformations and energy spells can't be doing her any good; maybe I should try and talk to her when I get back. Teach her some of my white magicks. * Tara pondered
She suddenly realized that in all her time with Willow, she had wanted to keep Sister Mary a secret from her. But within a few months of meeting Xander, she was already taking him without a second thought or any alternative options being discussed.
Thinking back to the first time that she had been taken to see Mary, Tara drifted off into her memories.
She stumbled out of the old red car her mother owned, clinging to her like a limpet. It wasn't often she got to go for a trip away from home, and this was the first time she had left North Carolina. The old house in front of her stood tall, grey stone and white wash colouring the walls and earthy moss covering the tiled roof. All around the house were trees, a whole forest of them, backing onto the house and it almost seemed like the house was were the trees started growing.
Reaching the oaken front door, her mother crouched next to her, smiling and said, "Okay Tara, now I want you to be on your best behavior. Sister Mary is a very old friend of mine and I don't want you to be naughty while we're here, but it's okay to use your gifts. Mary's very good at using those. Just remember not to use your magics at home again dear. You know how cross daddy gets." Her mother said in a warm voice, easily quelling Tara's fear for the present.
Knocking on the door, it slowly opened to reveal an older woman with dark brown hair, covered in flowing dress. Exchanging a few pleasant greeting with her mother, she invited them in to her house. The interior of the house was not like any other Tara had seen. Instead of family pictures, clocks and ornaments that decorated Tara's house, this one was filled with plants of all shapes and sizes. The walls were a dark green colour, mimicking its natural surroundings. Although she could be sure, Tara thought she saw the plant move when she approached, as if to acknowledge her.
Walking over to them, Mary approached Tara and softly said, "Hello Tara. My name is Sister Mary, a friend of you mom's."'
Pausing for a few seconds, Tara looked up sheepishly and asked, " A-Are you a n-nun?"
Making a small laugh, the older witch turned to her and said, "No Tara, I'm not a nun. I'm a priestess of Wicca, the big boss woman. Would you like to see some magic? I'm told you're quite good."
"N-N-No, n-not really, Mom's good t-though." The small girl said, pointing at her mother.
"I know she is dear. Would you might if I showed you some magic?"
Reveling in the chance to practice her forbidden gifts, Tara giggled then took the older woman's hand a followed her into the back garden.
They practiced magic there for the rest of the day; Tara's small power nurtured by the two experienced witches, blossoming into much more than she could have learned by herself. Finally after a few days at Mary's house, they had to go home. Before they left, Sister Mary gave Tara one final piece of advice.
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Breaking out of her reverie now that Xander had turned the radio off, she remembered that last warning she had received from Mary, and muttered it to herself, "With great power comes great responsibility."
Hearing this phrase, Xander turned to her and said, "Never figured you for a comic book nut, Tara. You a fan of Spiderman then?"
"W-What? I've never really read any comics, apart from X-Men. I like Rogue." She said, confused by his questions, "Why do you ask?"
" 'With great power comes great responsibility'. It's one of Spiderman's main mottoes. Why, did you get it from some where else?" He replied, as confused as her now.
"Oh. Sister Mary told it to me the first time I came here. It's the warning for all magic-users to take responsibility for your actions and balance your wrongs. Like karma." She finally explained.
"Are you sure? Did you ever notice, oh, I don't know, lots of web and a red latex suit in her house?" He quipped, raising his eyebrows questioningly, a grin plastered on his face.
Laughing, she smiled at him and said, " Is there any fact of life you can't turn into a joke or pickup line?"
"Hmm. Math, too many numbers involved." He said, then realized where they were and said, "Ahah. Here were are, Haventon. Is that her house?" He asked, pointing to the old stone house at the edge of the encroaching forest on the west of town.
"Yeah, that's it."
Bringing the car down the drive, Xander parked it close to the house then they got out and approached the old building. They reached the front door and knocked on it, making dull thuds on the heavy oak. When they received no reply, Tara said to Xander, "This isn't normal. Usually she's at the door even before you've knocked on it. Maybe she's meditating."
As soon as she had spoken these words the door creaked open slowly, but instead of the elder witch they were expecting to see, a large green tentacle opened the door and pointed further into the house, directing them. Following its directions, they walked down the hallway, the various plants bending in the direction they had to go, watching their every move. When they finally reached their destination, it turned out to be a large greenhouse at the back of the property.
Opening the door carefully, Tara walked into the room, caution in her every step. When they finally found the older witch however, the only thing they could do was gasp in shock.
**************************************************************************** **********
Chapter: Three
Author: White Knight_7
Pairing: Xander/Tara
Rating: 12, maybe a 15 (For US readers, I think that confers to a PG-13 or PG-15)
Summary: After a brush with death, Xander ends up rethinking his place in the Scooby Gang, and his relationship with a certain shy witch...
Feedback: Yes please, this is my first real attempt at fanfic and so any ideas you have are welcomed as long as they are constructive.
Author's Notes: This is set after the first episode of Season Five. Basically that means that Dawn is around and every one except Xander, Giles and Anya have just started the new college year. This is not an overtly bashing piece but as always if you want to create an unconventional pairing there might be some friction. Also, this is NOT a 'Xander gets a power and the author completely changes the character' story. There's something special about him no doubt, just no real powers involved. B/S shippers, PISS OFF MATE!
Due to some suggestions by readers, and my beta Kaz, I shall display some grammatical aids.
"" = Speech
** = Thoughts/Telepathy
Italics = Memories
Disclaimer: What idiot invented this thing anyway. Here goes. I don't own any of these characters, I'm just altering certain events in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe for my own benefit, to bolster the MEAGER T/X reservoir out there and show everyone what Joss should have paired people up with.
The door of the Magic Box swung wide open, signaling the arrival of Xander and Tara. While Xander had a mile-wide grin plastered across his face, Tara was blushing like mad and trying to make eye contact with anyone in the room. Quite confused by this, Willow began to mentally ponder the situation.
*What are they finding so funny I wonder? I've never seen Tara like that when I tell one of my jokes. I bet it was a sex joke or something like that, I mean it would have to be to . *
"Are you mind babbling again, Wills? " Xander said, his words breaking Willow out of her reverie to answer him.
"What? What do you mean." She said confused until she realized what he was talking about and replied, "Oh . yeah. A little I guess, how could you tell?" Willow asked.
"You do this cute thing with your face, dead giveaway to us experienced Willow-watchers," Xander explained, directing a smile at both Willow and Tara before walking over to the table and dropping his grease-covered paper bags on the table, commencing the feeding frenzy.
Once everyone's stomachs were sufficiently stuffed with food, Willow and Tara got up from their seats and begun collecting their things.
"Where are you going, Wills? I didn't think we had a lecture today." Buffy commented to her friend.
"We", Willow said, pointing to the three college friends," don't. But Tara and I found this new Wicca group. We are going to check out. It was a little under the radar and took some finding but we met one of the members last week and introduced ourselves. The first meeting is tonight."
"Real witches this time or just more bad Martha Stuart impersonators?" Xander quipped reminded of what Willow had told him about the first group of wicca-wannabes she had found on campus: the most powerful element they could conjure was the lemon fruitcake. However, that group was the first place Willow had met Tara, definitely a good point.
"No Xan, full-blown witches this time. They did a few minor demonstrations, like printing and removing tattoos from each other. One of them even turned her hands into green mist."
"It was v-very cool." Tara added from Willow's side.
"Yeah. This week we're going to try and help this girl who randomly teleports whenever she sneezes." the redhead added excitedly.
Walking out from behind the counter after hearing this, Anya turned to the two wiccans and said, "Well, if they are real spellcasters than they can maybe come and practice some of their magic here in the shop."
"Now just a minute -." Giles said before Willow swiftly interrupted him,
"Thanks Anya, that's really thoughtful." Willow said, taken aback by Anya's seeming generosity.
"Well, that and the pots of money we'll make from selling them magic supplies." Anya explained.
"That's my girl," Xander said affectionately, "always thinking with your wallet."
After this exchange Buffy turned to Willow, a bit suspicious about the thought of them joining this new Wicca group. "Just be careful Will. I don't want you joining some evil magical cult or anything. Those tattoos could be evil, or something." Buffy told her friend, still a bit wary after Xander's near-death experience. She was the one person who did not need reminding about the casualties they had sustained over the years. Such a near miss with one of the people closest to her rattled her quite a bit, although her pride got in the way of just saying it out loud.
"Not to play down your perceptive abilities, but would an evil magic cult use Mickey Mouse as their emblem?" Willow questioned the worried Slayer.
A small smile spread across Buffy's face at her friend's words and she replied, "I'm sorry Will, I know it's stupid but we've just been taking a few too many chances and getting sloppy lately." She momentarily glanced in Xander's direction but her eyes quickly flitted back to Willow. "Go. Have fun and try to find out a bit about this group. They might be useful to us. You know what kind of magic they practice, how good they are."
" . the gay to straight ratio." Xander added, instantly earning him shocked looks from all females in the room - except Anya. "Oh please, I was just curious how often witches turn out to be gay; all that magic and late-night spell casting, who could blame you?" Xander continued earning a pair of blushes at the last remark as the two witches in question remembered their experiences with casting spells at the dead of night.
"Xander please, I think that's enough abrasive comments from you for now." Giles told him.
"I know you've thought about it, Giles; I seem to remember a night in not too long ago involving a bottle of absinthe." the young man informed the room suggestively.
"Giles!" said a shocked Buffy, trying to get the disturbing images of her drunk Watcher out of her head.
"I think the less said about that the better." Giles tried to cover up.
Standing next to Xander now, Anya spoke up. "Actually you're half right - about the lesbian thing, not Giles being pissed out of his tree. There is an island in the Aegean Sea called Lesbos and until about 900 years ago about 300 lesbian witches populated it. They came up with some powerful sex and love spells, I can tell you."
Before anyone could say anything else, a huge bout of giggles erupted from the doorway. Turning to see where it was coming from, they saw Joyce with a bemused expression on her face and Dawn - who was bent over laughing.
Suddenly blushing with embarrassment, Buffy asked her mother, "Uh mom, just how long were you standing there?"
"Long enough," replied the older woman as she and Dawn walked towards the center of the shop and greeted everyone there.
"Great. More people who won't spend any money in the shop." Anya said as she busied herself with a box filled with small statues of Hephaestus.
They mostly ignored Anya's tactless comment. Dawn immediately steered for Xander's place at the table while Joyce approached Buffy.
"Hey Dawn Patrol," Xander said, raising his hand to give the youngest Summers lady a high five.
"Hey Xand." She said returning his high-five then asked, "What are you doing?"
"Well my young friend, I have been filling up on calories and delving into the terrifying world of tax returns." Xander said.
While Xander and Dawn talked each other's ears off, Joyce and Buffy were talking more seriously. "All right Buffy, you are to look after Dawn until I get back from the gallery at four. Make sure she gets some of her work done now because she has a project due on Monday. Okay? " Joyce told her eldest daughter.
"Yes mom, look after Dawn, check, make sure she does her work, check, get annoyed all afternoon." Buffy said before Dawn responded with a "HEY!"
Once Joyce had left the store, Buffy turned to Dawn, a serious expression painted across her face.
"Dawn, you are not to touch or even go near ANYTHING on the shelves, counter or anywhere in the shop. You are to get at least an hour of work done before Mom comes to pick you up. I'll be in the back training with Riley and Giles. Don't call me out unless it's really important. Got it?" Buffy railed into her little sister, in a similar way to what her mother had done only minutes before.
To answer her, Dawn gave Buffy her best 'couldn't care less' look, forcing Xander to break the sisterly stalemate, and raising his hand in a mock salute said, "Yes Master-Chief Summers, all present and correct, huuah!"
Looking bewildered for a moment, Buffy feigned apathy and replied, "Uh, yeah. Whatever. Just make sure she does it okay?" She then turned and went into the training room at the back of the shop.
As Riley turned to join her, he contemplated Xander for a moment, *Weird guy. Most of the time he's a crazy joker, but every so often he actually seems to know what he's doing. * He thought, thinking back to the events of the previous night and Xander's actions during it.
* I suppose living on a 'Hellmouth' or whatever for all of your life has got to toughen you up. I guess he's just seen Apocalypse Now one too many times.*
Once Riley had gone into the back room, Dawn and Xander continued talking. "So, do you know why Buffy is being an ice queen today. more than usual I mean?" Dawn asked Xander, curious as to her sister's recent change in attitude.
"Ah, yeah. I think that's kinda my fault, Dawnie." Xander said.
"Why? You didn't hide Mr. Gordo in the washing machine again did you?"
"No, nothing so serious. Last night while we were on patrol, we got into a fight with a couple of vamps and I got bit by one of them." Xander explained and Dawn's breath hitched when she heard he had been bitten. "Don't worry, no lasting damage but it really freaked Buffy out, I think. Good to know she cares I suppose, but I think it's earned me the cold shoulder for a couple of days."
"I'm glad you're still alive." Dawn said quietly, as freaked as her sister about the concept of a dead or turned Xander.
Smiling at the young women beside him, Xander leaned over and gave her a quick hug of reassurance and said, "Thanks Dawn."
**************************************************************************** **********
The sun was low in the sky when Xander finally left the Magic Box, bored out of his wits and with a sore backside to boot. While he was sure he would now try to avoid doing tax returns for as long as possible, there was still the issue that was confusing him the most and that was the situation with Tara. He had no idea what could be causing their freak 'connection', especially since they had only really gotten to know each other. Why hadn't this happened to him and Buffy, or Willow? Not that he was complaining; his previous experiences with this random telepathy had been interesting. Still, it begged investigating, but how?
He opened the door to his apartment and strode over to the kitchen to make a sandwich. Once the ingredients were collected, he began to wonder where Anya had gotten to, and so shouted into the apartment, "Sweetie? Are you here?"
A short yelp was heard from the bedroom and Anya bounded through the door and ran over to Xander, giving him a fiery kiss. "Hey honey, when did you get back?" Anya questioned him.
"Oh, just a few minutes ago. Were you sleeping?"
"Yeah. Who would have thought that counting money could make me so tired?" Anya said, turning to help Xander construct his infamous turkey and stuffing sandwiches. "Anyway, I was thinking we could just have a quiet night in; you, me, the TV, and a box of condoms. Sound good?"
Grinning like a fool, he leaned over to kiss her, wondering what he did in a past life to deserve her. Although rather brash and occasionally thoughtless (by a savvy human's standards), she was the best he could ever hope for.
Grabbing his pile of sandwiches, he plopped down on the sofa, with Anya curled up next to him while they cycled through several of his DVDs, until the phone rang, disrupting their quiet time.
Anya was closest to the receiver and picked it, bellowing into it, "What d'ya want? I'm in the middle of 'The Sound of Music', so if you don't have a good reason, rethink calling this number!"
The phone was silent for almost ten seconds before the person on the other end carried on, "U-uh, A-Anya? It's m-me Tara. Sorry to disturb you but is X-Xander there?" the cowed Wiccan asked tentatively.
"Um, yeah, I suppose, one second." Anya replied, a little confused by what Willow's girlfriend would be doing calling her BOYFRIEND outside of sociable hours.
"Xander, Tara's on the phone. She wants to speak with you." Anya said, covered the phone then followed up, "Are you having sex with her?"
Utterly shocked by this Xander managed to blurt out, "W-WHAT! No, of course not. Pass the phone please."
Taking the phone from his irate girlfriend, he leaned back into the comfy sofa and then said into the phone,
"Hi Tara. What brings you to call me at this hour?"
"U-uh, sorry. Is this a b-bad time?"
"Nah, course not. But in future you might want to avoid Anya's 'cheery capitalist film' time." He said, trying to reassure the young witch now terrified of his girlfriend.
This obviously worked as he could hear a high-pitched giggle echo down the phone, then Tara continued speaking, "T-Thanks for the advice. Anyway, I was wondering if we could meet up tomorrow, i-if you're free that is, to talk about, well, our 'thing'. Could you maybe meet me in the University library at eleven?"
Thinking it over quickly, he decided that it was better to figure out what was happening sooner rather than later, and so quickly answered back, "Sure, sounds great. I don't have any work tomorrow, nothing to hammer together on Sundays. Eleven it is."
"Okay. B-Bye."
"Bye."
After he had given the phone back to Anya, a confused frown appeared on her face and she asked, "So, what was that about then?"
"Oh, nothing much. Tara just wants me to meet up with her tomorrow, to help her with." Xander answered, then quickly lied. "a history paper. On Sunnydale. Since I've been here my whole life, she wanted an insider's perspective on it." Despite his apparently excellent talent for lying, he hated doing it to his girlfriend.
"Why can't Willow help her with it? I mean, she's been here as long as you have and probably wouldn't mind." Anya said, a little curious why Tara would be asking Xander, of all people, for help on a history paper.
"Willow's away with her parents tomorrow, visiting one of her uncles in LA and she won't be back 'til late, and the paper's due for tomorrow." Xander explained, most of it true. Willow was indeed visiting her Uncle Eugene in LA; the history paper was just a helpful cover.
"Okay, that's fine. But right now you're going to show me some special attention." She said, pulling him towards the bedroom.
"Oh, I love giving you special attention, hun." Xander replied.
**************************************************************************** **********
If someone were to observe the scene in Xander's bedroom, they might consider it peaceful; his arm draped across the women next to him protectively, a content look on his face. However this observer would be wrong. He might appear calm outside, but internally he was raging.
A blurry wish-wash of bright colours appeared before Xander, swirling steadily before coming into focus. Thinking he was getting out of his bed in the morning, he was quite surprised to note that not only was he standing up already, but also was dressed. The colours focused and he realized he was standing in the middle of a grass-covered field, a light grey sky above his head.
* Oooo-kay. Where did my room go? Why am I outside? * Xander thought to himself worriedly.
Looking down at himself, he was quite stunned. Instead of his normal apparel of a shirt and smart jeans, he was dressed head to toe in heavy- looking black armor, spikes curling up on his shoulders like half-formed waves. He was also holding a long obsidian sword in one hand and a shorter, thicker blade in the other.
* Not good, not good! Dark armor and evil weapons! I'm so dead. * Xander wracked his brain, but then it hit him, * Oh crap, this is way too similar to that nightmare I had in the hospital, except this time I look like the."
He paused for a second while it sunk in, * Bad Guy. *
Looking to either side of him he saw long battle lines draw out, peppered with all manner of creatures dressed in similar dark armor, most of them demons. When he looked one in the eye, what he saw surprised him. He saw.respect, fear maybe even a tinge of loyalty. All these creatures were working for him.
Finally, he scanned the horizon in front of him and his suspicions were confirmed. He really was the villain of this piece. His final clue was that the other battle lines drawn out across the field, apparently smaller in number, were filled with beings in white armor and various other clothing, humans and one or two ethereally cloaked creatures. In short, the good guys.
*This would be a really good time to wake up. Make breakfast, have more sex with Anya, anything but this. *
He tried to open his hand and drop the sword, running like his instincts, for the most part, were telling him to. But then an overpowering calm entered him, and he could no longer move. He could still feel everything, physical and emotional, but he couldn't divert from his course.
His body raised the long sword high above his head, holding it there. Everyone in his (?) army tensed, waiting for what was going to happen next.
He started to run, dropping the sword as he did so, and the lines burst forward, charging headlong into the fast approaching enemy, who began moving shortly after they had.
The next few minutes were hectic to say the least. Sword smashed against sword, axe or even flesh. While Xander himself was used to small skirmishes and the inherent blood that tended to flow, this was horrific. Strangely, he did not feel the need to vomit, or run and hide. The calm that he had felt earlier was still there, even in the tangled mess of battle, controlling him, keeping him in check. He was almost reveling in it. And at this point, he wasn't sure if these were emotions from the person he was supposed to be or himself.
After a while, it seemed as though they was going to lose, demons falling like raindrops all around him, struck down by some yet unseen force. Stepping back into a cadre of demon soldiers, he carefully surveyed the battlefield. While most of the heavier battle demons were still around, many of the regular foot soldiers lay dead on the ground. Looking into the distance, it seemed that several of the angelic creatures were surrounding one human woman, not yet engaged with the fighting.
* Hmm, must be their general. * He observed tactically.
While his foot soldiers were falling in droves, not too many of the humans were dead, by comparison. In fact most of them were firing arrows and bolts from a distance, so what was killing his demons? Then he saw it, or more accurately, her.
Attacking several demons at once with a long curved blade, she easily dodged their clumsy swings or parried them and followed up with a fatal counter-attack. She moved with near godly grace that should be possessed by someone much her senior, yet she only appear about eighteen. There was only one girl ('in all the world') who could best demon-kind like that.
The Slayer.
He barked orders to the surrounding demons in a foreign language he could barely understand, and the demons responded by surrounding him in a circle, shields raised and approached the young warrior. The other humans attempted to slow their advance with arrows from their bows but the projectiles just bounced off the thick metal shields harmlessly. When they finally got to the Slayer, the other demons broke off to distract the remaining human warriors while he walked up to her in a ready fighting stance.
Whirling around to face him, she looked momentarily puzzled that she wasn't facing another demon, but a human. This passed quickly as she dropped in a similar fighting stance, her blade held with both hands, pointing down and to the right, waiting.
They may have stood there for ten seconds or ten minutes, neither could really tell, but it was her that struck first. She brought her sword up in an inverted cut followed by a quick downward one, using her speed to the full. She expected him to be unable to handle such a quick attack, being just a human. Instead, he used the fact she was overextended to his advantage and spun along her blade, trying to deliver a fatal cut across her midsection, which she was barely able to block, and even this was done awkwardly. Seeing his chance, he delivered a series of strong cuts and jabs designed to put her off balance. Countering his tactic, she barely managed to sidestep, give a sidekick to his leg then do a full backflip through the air, landing six meters from her original position.
This sort of cut, parry, stab and retreat dance carried on for quite a while, each opponent looking for a hole in the other's defenses. Eventually, it was he who made a mistake, dropping his long sword from his guard position, leaving his upper body open for the killing blow. Noticing the hole, and eager for the fight to be over, she quickly stabbed forward at his neck and head hoping to kill him and be done with it.
It was a little strange to her, though. Why would he drop his guard so easily, giving her an open avenue of attack? She was even more confused when she went for the jab to his throat; it appeared he had dropped his sword all together.
She realized quickly what had happened, but not quick enough to stop what would happen next.
From Xander's point of view, he was wetting himself (mentally, of course). He was very close to sudden death when all of a sudden he lowered and finally dropped his sword.
* What, are you nuts? Pick the damn blade up! * He willed his body to defend him, but it was as unresponsive as ever.
Then he, like the woman in front of him, saw it.
He immediately dropped to one knee with all the speed he could muster, then reached out and grabbed her hand, her weariness allowing him to capture it easily. In one swift motion, he pushed her hand up then stabbed out with the short blade that had been hanging at his side since they charged into battle.
* NO! * He screamed. He wasn't only killing a human, he was coldly murdering a Slayer, one of which was his best friend. It was against everything he believed in.
Still, belief would not stop the blade as it crashed into the right side of her ribcage, penetrating the thin battle-armor she wore and ripped through flesh and bone, a torrent of blood exiting the wound.
She fell to the long grass, her body making a quiet thud against the soft dirt, more blood pouring from the wound, a strange green tint to it. Thinking quickly, Xander realized that the blade he had just killed a Slayer with had not only wounded her fatally, but poisoned her as well, insuring that absolutely no recovery could be made once cut.
His gaze traveled away from her dying body up to where the supposed general stood. Both had expressionless looks on their faces. When he looked past the green armor and helmet he knew where he had seen that face before, long golden locks trailing down the sides of her helmet . Tara.
God had no amount of humor he would not subject Xander Harris to.
Xander could tell his consciousness was fading as his vision blurred again. The most disturbing thing was that the only word he could think of as he stared at the Slayer's fallen corpse was - efficient.
**************************************************************************** **********
An overriding force of shock drove Xander to awake immediately and he shot up it bed, the morning sun burning the backs of his retinas. Blinking it away, he quickly turned over to find Anya gone. Panicking he jumped out of bed and ran naked out of his room and into the main space of his apartment, his heart beating a hundred times a second and sweat pouring off him.
He heaved a huge sigh of relief when he saw that Anya was indeed alive and safe in the kitchen making some breakfast, smelling of sausages and bacon.
He did a double take when he realized Tara was also in the room, apparently waiting for him.
Anya turned around and spotted him, saying, "Xander, honey you're up. And naked."
Tara faced with the sight of a stark naked and sweating Xander did the only thing a self-respecting lesbian could do. She looked a moment longer, then closed her eyes and tossed him a pillow from the couch to cover himself up with.
Fighting its way to the surface, Xander's mind kicked in and did the only thing it could do: caught the flying pillow and attempted to cover himself with it.
"I-I'm r-really s-sorry X-Xander." Tara managed to get out, ninety percent of it stutters, which was back in full force.
"Hang on, I'm the one who should be apologizing, running in here half- cocked." He said, trying desperately to hide himself up the small pillow.
Never to miss a golden opportunity, Anya chimed in; "It looked like a whole cock to me honey."
"Now's not the time, sweetheart." Xander told his girlfriend.
"U-uh, g-guys?" Tara said meekly, still facing the other way her eyes screwed shut.
Realizing he should probably cover up, Xander ran back into the bedroom and quickly slung on a pair of boxers, some black jeans and a T-shirt before returning to the living room.
"Tara, you can look now." Xander said.
"O-Okay." She answered, turning around slowly as not to be surprised by his nakedness, although seeing a man naked for the first time certainly was a learning curve for her. Seeing him in normal clothes once more, she breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down next to her of the sofa.
Anya quickly brought them over some food and Xander wolfed it down at a rate that surprised both women, devouring two fried eggs, four sausages, four slices of bacon and several pancakes by the time they had barely dug in.
"Hungry sweetie?" Anya asked him in shock.
"Yeah, starved. Any more? I'm still a bit hungry and all that sleeping made me tired." Xander replied, moving over to the kitchen to finish up the leftovers from the frying pan.
When he sat back down again, Tara watched him for a moment then asked, "Bad dreams?"
A little taken aback by her perception for a moment, he realized that if he had had some of these weird dreams, maybe she had as well.
"Yeah, how did ya guess?" Xander asked her, curious for her answer.
"Well, I just sensed a slight change in you aura that may indicate mental disturbances. That and you slept in really late, nightmares tend to do that."
"Nightmares?" Anya asked, worry heavy in her voice, "Were there bunnies in Gestapo uniforms?"
"No hun, just some generally bad horror movie stuff." He said, deep in thought about said dreams.
"X-Xander?" Tara questioned him cautiously, "I c-could look at them maybe, try and figure out what they mean? I m-mean if you want we could do that?"
"Can you really look at people's dreams? I heard that was a very rare gift." Anya asked, recalling some knowledge from her 1121 years of living.
Blushing a bit, Tara said proudly, "I know it is, but my mom and grandmother taught it to me when I was young. I h-haven't done it for a while though, so I could be a bit r-rusty."
"Yeah, yeah, comma definitely. That would be really helpful, thanks Tara." Xander said appreciatively.
The three of them continued talking and eating for the better part of the hour and it was half past twelve by the time they were ready to go.
"Bye Ahn. See ya later, 'kay?" Xander said.
"Yeah, have fun sweetie. Don't have sex without me." Anya added tactlessly.
Blushing intensely, Tara looked away from the two people in front of her and coughed nervously.
"D-don't worry Anya. Gay, remember?" Tara said to calm Anya's boiling jealousy.
"Okay. Bye anyway." She said, giving Xander a quick kiss and walked away.
"It's always the quiet ones."
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Walking down the street outside his apartment, Xander and Tara were in a period of silence while each thought about the new implications of this connection between them.
* Okay, so we need to find out what this is. Well, Sister Mary always said she could help with these kinds of phenomenon.* Tara pondered to herself.
"Who's Sister Mary?" he said out loud, without realizing he had read her thoughts by accident.
"She's this great witch healer from. oh dear. You did it again." Tara said, a little upset that he could skim her mind so easily.
"Sorry, sorry, dammit! This is going to get plain annoying eventually. I don't mean your thoughts are annoying but, this is very confusing." He admitted to her, and she nodded her agreement.
"Well, and totally not intruding here," he said stressing by raising his hands in mock defense, "but who is Sister Mary? Is she a nun or something?"
"No, not a nun. She's an experienced Wiccan priestess, who is versed in many magical arts and has incredible sensory perceptions. She can often see things we cannot, bonds between people, and supposedly into the future, although I-I've never seen her do the last one." Tara explained to Xander, who carefully absorbed this.
"Sounds like a plan." He said cheerfully. " Where does she live? In town or are we talking a mud hut in the middle of a swamp?"
"Don't be silly. Just because she's a witch doesn't mean any of those old legends apply. D-Do you see me with a wart on my nose, f-flying around on a broomstick?" Tara told him, deflecting his comments.
"No, quite the opposite in fact. You see, I was actually drawing a comparison between your witch-mentor gal and the great Jedi Master Yoda, famed for his perceptive abilities and muddy hovel in the swamp." Xander said, smiling all the way as he rattled off some of his endless pop culture knowledge.
"I'm more of a Princess Leia kinda girl actually. She was my first real fantasy woman." Tara admitted, shocking Xander a little.
"If I may say so, a fine choice. Although I'd have to say that Amidala is much hotter nowadays." Xander added.
Smiling for a moment, Tara quickly shook her head, and said, " We're getting a bit of topic here, Xander."
"Ah, what the heck? We got the rest of the day, and I still haven't heard all your fantasies and the various woman involved in them." He said gleefully.
"Are you f-flirting with me?" She said, keeping the mood light.
"Quite possibly. What would you say if I asked you to accompany me to the Espresso Pump?" He asked hopefully.
"I think I'd say 'triple espresso and a slice of fudge cake please'."
"Good God woman, whatever happened to 'thy body is thy temple'?" He asked in mock surprise.
"First, I have a temple at home, with candles, incense and statues. Second, I'm addicted, so d-don't argue."
"Yes, ma'am."
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Sitting down at the furthest table from the counter, overlooking the street, Tara looked out across the half-empty café at Xander, getting their order of coffee and various foods. While this new friendship with him caught her completely unawares, it was nice to have a friend who didn't have supernatural abilities, or was a woman. It was quite easy to get caught up in a conversation and end up talking for hours, and it was now quite apparent where Willow had inherited her babbling from: trying to keep up with Xander.
* Although the amount of food he eats is unnatural. * She thought humorously as she noticed him walking back over to their table with a tray holding two cups of coffee, one large slice of triple fudge cake for her, two large iced buns and two sandwiches for him.
Once he had distributed the food and drink, he carried on their original topic of discussion, "So, funniness and sexual fantasies aside, where does this witch-master live?" He asked, trying to maintain a serious level of talking.
"She lives at a grove in a small town called Haventon, about twenty-five minutes drive from here. I've already called ahead so she'll be expecting us in about an hour or so. Once you finished eating, we can go." Tara explained. Strangely, she had much less of a problem with confidence when speaking with him then normally with other people's friends, especially guys.
* Considering all the time we've spent together recently, and in the Scooby Gang, I suppose we are real friends now. * Tara pondered, staring off into the distance.
"Heeelllo? Tara? Wake up." He said.
When she came back from her daydream, she asked, "Xander? A-Are we f- friends, now? I mean apart from me being Willow's girlfriend and you being Willow's b-best friend?" She asked a little insecurely.
"Of course we are, in a true friend capacity. Why? Am I freaking you out or something?"
"N-No! Definitely not. But I've just realized that you're my first real guy friend." She said, relieved.
"Well, I have to say, I'm honored. But enough of this idle chatter," He said, stuffing the last piece of a sandwich into his mouth. He continued in a garbled super-hero voice, "there's work to be done!"
Exiting the shop, they walked casually to the other side of the pavement and hopped into Xander's car, staring the engine and beginning their trip to Haventon.
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Driving down the highway towards Haventon, both companions in the car were enjoying a comfortable silence; Xander was immersed in the music pouring from the radio and his own incessant whistling, while Tara was thinking quietly to herself. It had been far too long since she had been to see Sister Mary or any of her circles of magically inclined friends. Unfortunately, most of them were back in North Carolina with the rest of her family, but Sister Mary was still one of the only people she could fully trust in magical terms. She was also one of the reasons she had chosen UC Sunnydale as a university.
* Willow's been getting a bit ahead of herself lately. All those black magic transformations and energy spells can't be doing her any good; maybe I should try and talk to her when I get back. Teach her some of my white magicks. * Tara pondered
She suddenly realized that in all her time with Willow, she had wanted to keep Sister Mary a secret from her. But within a few months of meeting Xander, she was already taking him without a second thought or any alternative options being discussed.
Thinking back to the first time that she had been taken to see Mary, Tara drifted off into her memories.
She stumbled out of the old red car her mother owned, clinging to her like a limpet. It wasn't often she got to go for a trip away from home, and this was the first time she had left North Carolina. The old house in front of her stood tall, grey stone and white wash colouring the walls and earthy moss covering the tiled roof. All around the house were trees, a whole forest of them, backing onto the house and it almost seemed like the house was were the trees started growing.
Reaching the oaken front door, her mother crouched next to her, smiling and said, "Okay Tara, now I want you to be on your best behavior. Sister Mary is a very old friend of mine and I don't want you to be naughty while we're here, but it's okay to use your gifts. Mary's very good at using those. Just remember not to use your magics at home again dear. You know how cross daddy gets." Her mother said in a warm voice, easily quelling Tara's fear for the present.
Knocking on the door, it slowly opened to reveal an older woman with dark brown hair, covered in flowing dress. Exchanging a few pleasant greeting with her mother, she invited them in to her house. The interior of the house was not like any other Tara had seen. Instead of family pictures, clocks and ornaments that decorated Tara's house, this one was filled with plants of all shapes and sizes. The walls were a dark green colour, mimicking its natural surroundings. Although she could be sure, Tara thought she saw the plant move when she approached, as if to acknowledge her.
Walking over to them, Mary approached Tara and softly said, "Hello Tara. My name is Sister Mary, a friend of you mom's."'
Pausing for a few seconds, Tara looked up sheepishly and asked, " A-Are you a n-nun?"
Making a small laugh, the older witch turned to her and said, "No Tara, I'm not a nun. I'm a priestess of Wicca, the big boss woman. Would you like to see some magic? I'm told you're quite good."
"N-N-No, n-not really, Mom's good t-though." The small girl said, pointing at her mother.
"I know she is dear. Would you might if I showed you some magic?"
Reveling in the chance to practice her forbidden gifts, Tara giggled then took the older woman's hand a followed her into the back garden.
They practiced magic there for the rest of the day; Tara's small power nurtured by the two experienced witches, blossoming into much more than she could have learned by herself. Finally after a few days at Mary's house, they had to go home. Before they left, Sister Mary gave Tara one final piece of advice.
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Breaking out of her reverie now that Xander had turned the radio off, she remembered that last warning she had received from Mary, and muttered it to herself, "With great power comes great responsibility."
Hearing this phrase, Xander turned to her and said, "Never figured you for a comic book nut, Tara. You a fan of Spiderman then?"
"W-What? I've never really read any comics, apart from X-Men. I like Rogue." She said, confused by his questions, "Why do you ask?"
" 'With great power comes great responsibility'. It's one of Spiderman's main mottoes. Why, did you get it from some where else?" He replied, as confused as her now.
"Oh. Sister Mary told it to me the first time I came here. It's the warning for all magic-users to take responsibility for your actions and balance your wrongs. Like karma." She finally explained.
"Are you sure? Did you ever notice, oh, I don't know, lots of web and a red latex suit in her house?" He quipped, raising his eyebrows questioningly, a grin plastered on his face.
Laughing, she smiled at him and said, " Is there any fact of life you can't turn into a joke or pickup line?"
"Hmm. Math, too many numbers involved." He said, then realized where they were and said, "Ahah. Here were are, Haventon. Is that her house?" He asked, pointing to the old stone house at the edge of the encroaching forest on the west of town.
"Yeah, that's it."
Bringing the car down the drive, Xander parked it close to the house then they got out and approached the old building. They reached the front door and knocked on it, making dull thuds on the heavy oak. When they received no reply, Tara said to Xander, "This isn't normal. Usually she's at the door even before you've knocked on it. Maybe she's meditating."
As soon as she had spoken these words the door creaked open slowly, but instead of the elder witch they were expecting to see, a large green tentacle opened the door and pointed further into the house, directing them. Following its directions, they walked down the hallway, the various plants bending in the direction they had to go, watching their every move. When they finally reached their destination, it turned out to be a large greenhouse at the back of the property.
Opening the door carefully, Tara walked into the room, caution in her every step. When they finally found the older witch however, the only thing they could do was gasp in shock.
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