***Unknown Location***
She watched over the on goings on Earth, and smiled, "Yes, everything is falling into place. Soon the others will appear and then the fun will begin. Soon my family will be together."
***Halls of Hogwarts***
He was pissed off, 'what the hell is his problem anyway, the girls apologized and he still gave us attitude.' He continued along the hallway trying to calm himself, until he ran into trio of students. "Hey watch where you're going," he snapped, but calmed when he saw who it was, "Sorry guys, I am just having bad day."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione straightened themselves and shrugged off what happened and looked up at Xander. Harry wondered how someone could already be having a bad day already, 'It's only the first day.'
Ron on the other hand noticed his agitation and knew why and where Xander had become agitated, "Let me guess, Snape," he chuckled. He himself had been on the receiving end of Snape's never ending torture of Gryffindor students.
"Yep, he kicked me out of class, and gave me detention too!" Again he tried to calm himself, before he made a fool out of himself, "But oh well, so where can a guy go to have fun," he said with a lopsided grin.
Hermione gave a disapproving look at him at hearing that he got kicked out of class. She was about to say something about taking responsibility, when she caught his smile she couldn't help but smile back, 'He is cute.'
"Well we just finished our Herbology class and were going back to the common room, before we go to lunch want to join us," Harry said.
"Sure I have nothing better to do, since it was a double class of Potions," he followed them through the hallways. "So tell me, where can I get a TV around here? I am dying to see some movies."
Harry and Hermione laughed, while Ron looked confused at the reference. "Well, you won't find any in this school," Hermione said to him and giggled at his reaction.
"No TV, no TV," he mumbled, "How am I suppose to relax and keep up with my favorite shows. Damn it, I'm going to miss Charmed."
Harry laughed, while Ron still had his confused blank look. "We have other things to entertain us."
"What's a TV?" finally getting the courage to ask, Ron waited for the answer.
Hermione turned towards Ron straightened herself and prepared to give a lecture on the TV.
Harry stifled a laugh at seeing Hermione get prepared and waited to see what she would say.
"Well, it's a box that has pictures move. The muggle community seem to use it extensively and those that do nothing but watch this box are called couch potatoes or just lazy." She turned towards Xander and giggled, "Are you a couch potato?"
Ron gave her another blank look, "But don't we have that, I mean all our paintings and photographs move."
Hearing Hermione's frustration Xander cut her off before she started to another round of explanations, "You have to see it to understand, maybe when class is over I'll take you guys to see."
Before they started to move Xander asked a question he couldn't hold back. Xander looked at Ron and said, "Have you ever seen Star Wars?"
"No, what's Star Wars," asked a confused Ron.
Shaking his head in horror and disappointment Xander just started walking. "Just a movie. Just a movie."
They all quietly walked toward the room, Ron was wondering what a movie was. But then he remembered Harry and Hermione explaining it to him last year. While Xander was wondering why the wizard community hid itself so thoroughly, 'What's the big deal there are magic users out there, why does this community hide?'
***Snape's class***
Having assimilated the knowledge of the first year lessons the night before, they thought the class was a little on the easy side. Potions was extremely easy for them as it resembled chemistry. 'All we have to do is follow the instructions and the formulas and the results will appear.'
'Exactly Ari, this seems so trivial really.'
Snape had finally given up on stumping the girls and so gave them more work to finish before class ended.
***Gryffindor Common Room***
The trio made their way into the common room with Xander following them from behind. He had calmed a lot from his encounter with Snape, but he still didn't want to let it go. That confused him too; he usually let things slide.
He picked the chair nearest to the fire place and just stared at the burning coal for a while, things haven't been like he thought they would be. He had expected to enjoy the school and get totally absorbed by his training, like he did the past few months, 'It's different here.' Tsunami did have a way to calm him and have him focus on his training, but here and now he was totally unfocused; all he thought about was his friends back home. 'I failed you Faith, I am so sorry. I failed you too, Buffy. I failed them all.' He continued to think about his friends and wondering how they where doing. He didn't know how he could look them in the face, 'I used Faith, and abandoned them all. The least I could have told them I was leaving. Even Deadboy had the guts to tell Buffy before he left.'
'You're homesick aren't you,' he heard the voice of the ship that had been helping him. The soft calming voice made him smile.
'Yeah, I am. I miss my friends, the way I left was so wrong. I don't know how much longer I can keep it up. It's just different here and the kids here are great. Oh man did I just call them kids, I am getting old.' He mentally groaned, but smiled when he heard a soft giggle.
'What's with all the giggling, I didn't know that a ship could giggle,' he smiled as he heard her sigh.
'Alexander I would like you to meet someone, she is my other half,' she replied cryptically, 'close your eyes and you will be able to converse with her.'
Xander closed his eyes and waited, wondering what would happen next and what was going on. As he closed them, he instantly saw himself inside the ship Tsunami. 'This is a mental representation of my ship,' he heard from an unknown voice.
He looked around and smiled at the familiar surroundings, he always felt calm and comforted in the ship and the mental image had the same effect. He looked at the beautiful young woman in front of him; her blue hair flowed down her back and reached all the way to her knees. Her pink eyes sparkled and displayed her mischievous nature. She resembled Tsunami very closely, except the two emblems on her forehead were triangular in nature instead of circular. "Are you Tsunami too?" he asked, not knowing what else to ask. He tried to brush off his errant thoughts, 'She's almost as cute as Tsunami... I loved the freckles.'
She giggled at his last thought before answering, 'No, silly. I am Sasami,' her face scrunched up as she thought for second, 'Well maybe, I am not sure.'
He noticed her mood change and saw the sadness that the question had brought about. Deciding to change the subject, he thought, 'So you've being watching me, huh. You like what you see?' he raised his eyebrows suggestively. He remembered Tsunami mentioning to him that she was Sasami's ship, so he didn't need to ask too many questions to trust her.
'Well yes and no,' she answered him softly, her cheeks discoloring slightly though he was sure there was some pink on her cheeks.
'Damn just like all the women in my life, oh well. So what's the sitch?' He smiled as she looked at him confused at his choice of words. 'What's wrong?' he asked concerned.
'You seem to be harboring a lot of pain, and you never let anyone close to you.' She let that sink in then continued, 'However your heart is good and kind. You stand up for others when they can't stand up for themselves.' Her concern was evident; she had watched him through Tsunami and had come to admire him.
Becoming very uncomfortable Xander just smiled, although it didn't reach his eyes. 'Yeah, that's life. So tell me about yourself.'
She noticed him changing the subject and decided that he wasn't ready to open up. She smiled at him, 'Next time we meet we will speak more about me, now I must go. It is very difficult to talk with you. Being a few light years away does tire someone making a direct mental connection with another.' Her image disappeared and was replaced with the older looking Tsunami. 'I believe your friends are calling for you Alexander.'
"Hello, earth to Xander. You in there?" asked Harry as he tried to shake Xander from his daydream.
'You have no idea,' he mentally snapped out. "Huh, What!" He turned toward Harry and noticed that Ron was setting up what looked like a chess board. Hermione was sitting next to Ron reading a book on Vampires, 'Oh man, at least their not ignorant on what goes bump in the night.'
Snapping of his internal musing, Xander turned toward Harry and smiled "What's up?"
"Ron got the chess board, want to try a round with him?" He didn't want to tell him that Ron was the best in the school.
"I don't know. I am not very good." He looked at the board and remembered when Willow had tried to teach him to play. 'I got impatient and kicked the board,' he mentally chuckled as thought of Willow's reaction. 'She sure acted like she was my girlfriend, ranting and telling me I was being bad and that I had to listen to her. At least she wasn't shy around me.'
"Fine let's get to it," Xander walked over to the table with the chess board and sat across Ron, "So how come the pieces are moving, it's just a tiny bit creepy."
"Its wizard chess, the pieces move on your orders and attack the other pieces according to the normal rules of chess. Now let's go." Ron moved first and waited for Xander's move.
After two more moves, Xander watched as one of his pieces was utterly destroyed by Ron's Knight. "Ah man, it didn't have to dust the pawn. It's not a vampire." The trio laughed and the game continued with Xander adding voices to the moving figures.
"Prepare for war! Charge!" Xander's knight moved and put Ron's King on check. "Hell yeah, take that." 'Thanks Wills for the pointers on chess!'
Ron only smiled at Xander and after two more moves, "Checkmate! I win." Ron held out his hand to Xander and they shook at the good game they had.
"That was fun, never thought a chess game would be exciting. Usually I get frustrated and throw the pieces. But I get the feeling they would attack me if I did that." He laughed as the others joined him, he felt better than he had in the past four months.
"Yeah, I played Harry once and he got mad because he was losing and attempted to throw the Knight. It bit him and he never tried it again." Ron laughed so hard he fell off the chair, while Harry glared at him mumbling about it being a secret game or something.
Hermione had been quiet throughout the whole ordeal and just looked at him and Harry. Xander felt very uncomfortable under her stare and hoped against all hope that it wasn't another girl crushing on him. Willow and Dawn had been the end of the crushes on him and he hoped that would be it, 'I can't stand to hurt someone else.'
They continued to talk about the game and other wizard's games, until Quiddich came up. Ron and Harry got very emotional about the game and went through explaining the whole game to him.
"Ok so you have to catch the golden snitch and you're on a broom, right?" he asked. He had been trying to understand but it didn't make any sense to him.
Harry shook his head in frustration. "I guess you have to see it to understand it. But we'll be having a match against one of the other houses next weekend. You'll see what it's about."
"Yeah and I am going to try out for the team this year, and I just hope to kick some Slytherin ass." Ron happily added.
Hermione just sat there going through her book, stealing looks at Xander a couple times and the doing the same to Harry. 'He is yummy. But Harry is different. Ahhhh this is confusing.' She continued to study the history of vampires and wizards.
The group continued to just sit around and relax talking about Quiddich and other interesting wizarding facts. Finally it came time for lunch, "Its time to eat finally." Xander stood up and the rest followed him through the portal leading outside the common room.
***Somewhere else in England***
"The slayer has not gone through the Cruciamentum; it has been put off since of her jail time. But I must insist that as soon as it is convenient for the council we must perform the ritual as doctrine insists." Travers proudly stood in front of the leading members of the council, confident that his plea to stick to the old ways would be taken in a positive way.
The leading members talked between themselves, a few arguing about what was being asked. "Again, Mr. Travers, you have come in front of the council and requested that we remove the slayer. Our situation is not at its best with Ms. Summers. This will not help matters. What have you say to this?"
Travers smiled, "It has come to my attention that the slayer, Faith, is with child." He watched as the shock of the news hit the members sitting in front of him. "Yes. You see, if she is with child, then she will not be able to do her duty. The ritual will only make certain that she can still due her duty."
Again the council took a few minutes to discuss the news they just heard. "We will discuss this situation among ourselves and when we have made our decision you will be called. For now, make sure that we gather information on the pregnancy. WE MUST KNOW WHO THE FATHER IS. As you know, a slayer as never been able to conceive a child."
"Very well." He turned and walked out of the meeting chambers with a smile on his face. 'Soon very soon the council will have a new slayer to control and the old ways will rule.' If he knew how wrong he was, so very wrong.
***Sunnydale***
Giles had gotten up early and made his way to the Summers' house. On his arrival he did not see anything out of the ordinary other than the two disturbed girls. His own experience had not been a good one; he hoped that they could find out what was going on.
Tara watched him enter the backyard to join them and she whispered to Willow, "He's all traumatized. When he picked up the phone after dropping it last night, he sounded like he was falling apart."
Willow agreed, "Well, whatever it is, it's not the, the traditional haunting, because i-it's not limited to one specific place, and there's not, you know, a dead person."
Tara trembled when she remembered what Giles had revealed on the phone, "Not any more."
Giles thought about it a moment, trying to think of how they could have someone haunting them, "Well after looking through a few of my books last night. I believe it is a hitchhiker." He shivered at the thought of the night before, 'I saw her; how I miss her. But to see her like that was so painful.'
Tara sat there confused, "A hitchhiker?" She leaned closer to Willow, she smiled as she felt Willow embrace her and hold her tight.
Giles took off his glasses and did his trade mark wipe of them, "Um yes well, the standard way to travel through dimensions. Demons and evil spirits, who see someone moving between worlds, take the event to their advantage. They seem to in essence grab on for the ride."
Hearing this, Willow tightened her hold on Tara, "You mean like, some hell-beastie rode in with Buffy? Like ... what ever brought her back is responsible for this?"
Sighing into Willow's embrace, Tara spoke what was on everyone's mind, "Research."
Giles slightly smiled at the young witch's reaction, he looked around the yard and admired the scenery and calmed himself was he relaxed and thought of the good times they had in the past.
"Wake up Giles," Willow yelled at him. 'I don't like being ignored.' "As I was saying," she glared at Giles, "I think we should go research at the Magic Box and maybe find a solution to this problem.
"My thoughts exactly," he said quickly trying to hide the embarrassment of being caught daydreaming. "Very well, let's see how we can deal with this apparition. I hope this isn't going to get more serious."
"It's okay. We, we just kill the beastie and then all is good. We're rolling in puppies! ... Right?" Willow was confident that they could find a solution.
Tara on the other hand was very disturbed by the events of the night before and wasn't so sure, "C…Can we do that? K…Kill it?"
Faith and Buffy chose that moment to come in and both said, "We killing something." Buffy was wondering why there where having a meeting without her and Faith. Faith, well she was just trying to get on Willow's nerves.
"So Tara, how's it going," she sat next to the blonde Wiccan and smiled at her.
"We-l-l-l, we had an en… n-ncounter with something last night," her soft voice quietly disappeared at the last few words.
Willow and Giles went on to fill them in on what happened the night before. Both slayers where shocked that something could happen under the noses and they didn't know about it.
Faith quickly munched on her bagel and spoke at the same time (think garbled language), "Zo hat mluojl!" Seeing Willow's annoyed look, she quickly finished her bagel, happy that she had gotten to the redhead. "Yeah Red, get with the craft. Let's catch us a ghost." Giles could see that the story they had told them had bothered Faith. 'How could it not, her image had been used to scare the two women.'
At this point, Buffy, who had been quiet, unlike Faith, had taken the attention, spoke in a unhappy tone, "I remember something, last… night… uh…" She got lost on the memories of the night before and left the others in suspense waiting for her response.
"Yo, B! What you see last night?" Faith asked the fake blonde.
"Uh…um… the photographs. O-of us. They changed," she softly said as the others waited for more.
Tara on the other had hoped she could help Buffy tell them what happened, "How did they change?"
"They were ... dead. I-I-I mean, we were dead. Like, um ... dead bodies? But, but then they were okay. So I just, you know, figured it was me. That I was going crazy," her eyes where unfocused and her expression told the others how bothered she was by what had happened.
"Yep, you're nuts," Faith joked, but apologized when she saw Buffy's scared look and Willow's angry glare. "Oops, bad joke. B you're not nuts, trust me I would know. We smell our kind," the last part coming out in a grim tone.
Buffy looked at Faith and just dismissed what she said, "Well when you figure out what we need to kill this thing, let me know." She got up and started making breakfast for Dawn.
Faith frowned at Buffy and just stood up and left to her room. The three left got up and decided it was time to go to the Magic Box and do some research, but Tara and Willow had to go to school.
*****