Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. George Lucas, Lucasfilm, LucasArts and others own Star Wars. Michael A Stackpole owns the X-Wing and I, Jedi novels. I do not.

Title: Sunnydale Jedi: Chapter 7

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Rating: PG-13 again, people.

Pairing: Err… Xander/ Buffy

Feedback: Please, I beg.

Thanks: All my reviewers. You know who you are. Also, everyone who made suggestions. They will probably appear somewhere along the line…

Continuity: General season 5 (Dawn)

Crossover: Buffy / Star Wars. Old Republic.

*

"Xander?" Dawn called out, "Where's Buffy?"

Xander poked his head down the stairs and grinned. "Shh! I just got her to sleep! Don't wake her up."

"Really?" asked Dawn, since Buffy's return from Hell, Xander and Dawn had had a hell of a time ever trying to get her to fall asleep. Time flows differently in Hell, as Angel discovered when he had his little trip there. Buffy had discovered it also. She now stayed up, and active, until collapsing from exhaustion every 36 hours or so.

This was a problem, but there was a more serious one to worry about for the time being. None of her wounds were healing, and Buffy showed no signs of becoming the person she had been before she leapt into the portal initially to save Dawn. The animalistic instincts of the Slayer, as well as the human animal had taken over he mind, keeping her alive in a place that no human should have survived for more than a few minutes.

Giles, shocked and disheartened by the fate that Buffy had encountered left almost immediately for Britain again, running from the memories that haunted him of his Slayer, while Willow and Tara left when Buffy attacked Willow for hurting Dawn.

Dawn was beginning to feel that bringing Buffy back at all was not a good idea, and that it was one more in a long line of mistakes that she would not have made if she had merely thought them through a bit more.

"Yes, really, Dawn." Said Xander. "Now, come on, it's your bed time too."

"Oh, Xan," Dawn pouted, "do I have to?"

"Have you got school tomorrow?" was the response as Xander reached the bottom of the stairs.

Dawn sighed theatrically. "Yeah, Xander. You know full well I have."

"Well, no staying up late then. Come on, get upstairs!" Xander waved in the direction of them, and stepped aside so Dawn could go up them.

"Fine…" huffed Dawn, and trudged wearily up the stairs. It was no use arguing with Xander when he was like this.

Crystal approached Xander. "Aren't you gonna moan at me, too? After all, I am nearly as young as her…"

Xander shook his head, "No, you're a Slayer, which despite being a sucky job, means you don't have to get more than a couple of hours sleep a night. Slayer physiology, you know?" Xander smirked, "besides, you have to patrol, and I have to do something for a while, otherwise I'll never get to sleep…"

Crystal just laughed quietly and shook her head, before picking up her jacket and a few stakes. Xander sighed at what life on the Hellmouth was like, and followed the Slayer out into the night.

*

Xander and Crystal walked in silence through each graveyard in Sunnydale, one after the other. Neither felt the need to say anything, and both were comfortable with the silence that covered them. Besides, it's a lot easier to hear vampires coming when you aren't bemoaning the general unfairness of the universe as Buffy always did. Or always did before she went to hell.

At a noise behind them, Xander spun, with Crystal only a fraction of a second behind him. A lone vampire approached confidently, obviously a fledgling from the tux he was still wearing, and obviously some sort of football player from the sheer bulk he had.

"Do you want to take him or shall I?" asked Xander quietly.

Crystal smirked, a most unladylike expression on her features. "Oh, please, you go ahead. It's been a long time since I could watch someone else do the work. Like, never."

Xander nodded and closed the distance between him and the fledgling vampire. On the five-yard mark, the vampire charged, holding his arms out wide, hoping to catch his first meal through pure, unadulterated violence.

Knowing that if the vampire got in close and grappled him to the floor he was screwed, Xander fell back as the vampire charged. The vampire continued to get nearer, and Xander decided that distance was the order of the day, and somersaulted backwards, propelling himself a good 15 feet up in the air and landing a considerable distance from the vampire, who had stopped charging in shock from the move his prospective meal had just performed.

Crystal called over to Xander, "You call that dealing with him? Running away? Jeez…"

Xander glanced over, annoyed at the comment. "No, I call this," Xander pulled out his light-saber and thumbed it on, "dealing with him…"

Using the Force, Xander flung his light-saber at the vampire, and watched as the blade spun slowly in the air. His Force control was not as fine as it should have been, and the blade began to drop slowly toward the ground as it spun. When it reached the vampire, who was standing, both petrified and fascinated at the circle of light coming for him, it was at ankle level.

On the first spin, it took the vampire through the ankles, severing both feet and causing the vampire to begin collapsing. The second spin went through its knees, then continued round and severed its legs at the waist.

As the vampire collapsed completely, the blade spun once final time and went obliquely through the vampire's neck. The gut wrenching screams cut off abruptly as it burst into dust.

Crystal looked over at Xander speculatively. "Was that intentional?"

Xander took the look of fascinated horror off his face and nodded, albeit unconvincingly. "Yep. One hundred per cent in-ten-tion-al…" he paused slightly in between each syllable.

Crystal nodded back at him. "Right… if it was intentional, do it again!"

Xander looked at her. "Huh? There aren't any more vampires left."

Crystal pointed. "Uh, Xand… look behind you!"

Xander turned, and saw a group of vampires watching the show with interest.

The first stepped forward a fraction. "That was cool, man! How'd ya do that?"

Xander just stared in shock. Vampires? Standing and not attacking? What was the world coming to?

The vamp continued. "Well, never mind, eh? That was one we wanted, to increase our gang, ya know?" He waved at the seven or so vampires with him. "So…" his face shifted into the game face Xander had got so used to. "You'll just have to replace him!"

Crystal was standing next to Xander. "Not without going through a Slayer, you wont!"

The leader looked at her as if she was stupid, "The Slayer is DEAD, sweets! That's why there are so many of us around here now."

Xander laughed. "You think a vampire would have enough brains to recognise the new Slayer, wouldn't you, Crystal?"

She looked sideways at him. "Yeah."

Xander shrugged, and smiled at the average intelligence of a vampire. "Never mind."

Using the Force, Xander pulled up his first blade from where it was still lying on the grass, and pulled out his second. Both were on in the blink of an eye, the twin snap hiss filling the graveyard. Throwing caution to the wind, he charged the group.

Crystal was a fraction behind him, pulling a stake as she went.

The two worked in concert, making it look as if they had worked together for years, each in tune with what the other was doing. When Xander spun, Crystal ducked so that she wouldn't be decapitated as well. When she leg sweeped a vampire, Xander hopped over it so he didn't fall as well.

One vampire broke away from the group, and Crystal followed, leaving Xander against the rest of the vampires. It wasn't a problem with the way he fought.

Crystal jump kicked the vamp in the middle of his back, and winced as the crack of its spine accompanied the move. The vampire collapsed on the ground with its back broken. Crystal stood over it. "Cool." She plunged the stake down, through the vampire's heart and watched as it burst into dust. She leapt up excitedly. "Hey, Xand! I got one!"

Xander glanced over and grinned from the middle of the vampire cluster he was stuck in. "That's great, Crys!" then turned away and continued the fight. His light-saber cut through a vampire as he turned, not severing its waist completely, but gutting it and causing the vamp to fall down screaming.

Ducking under a wild roundhouse, Xander swung his second blade up through the vampire, splitting it through the middle, hip to shoulder.

A vampire got a lucky hit in as he straightened from the duck, and struck Xander in the face with its fist, full force. Xander was sent spinning from the force of the blow, and whipped his saber around to decapitate the cause of the spin. The vampire burst into dust.

Xander regained his balance and spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. Feeling around his mouth with his tongue to see if any teeth were loose, he cursed himself silently. When he found a loose tooth, he started cursing the vampires.

Damn it! I'm fighting vampires, not sabers, and I got careless! Vamps might not be light-saber artistes, but they can still pack a punch. Sloppy!

The three remaining vampires split up, one heading for Crystal, who was standing watching the show, and two closing again on Xander. They both lunged.

*

Lindsey stood at the entrance to the graveyard, watching the fight with interest. To his left, stood a demon bodyguard, and his right, William the Bloody. The beached blond vampire was cursing in his eloquent way. Lindsey merely smiled at the litany of swear words the vampire was reeling off. Harris was proving to be quite a surprise. Not even Wolfram and Harts seers had expected this much power.

*

As the two vamps lunged for him, Xander spun away, taking one vampire in the throat in the process. Tearing the light-saber out of the vampire's neck severed it the rest of the way and he burst into dust.

Realising that the odds were no longer in its favour, the now lone vampire attacking Xander chickened out. It turned and ran.

Pulling into his reserves of the Force, Xander watched the vampire run, and then went after him. Using the Force to accelerate his movements propelled Xander past the vampire and stopped him yards in front of the fleeing vamp.

The vampire ground to a halt as he realised the person he was running from was now in front of him.

"Hi." Said Xander.

"Err…"

Xander smiled and thrust forward with both light-sabers. Drawing both out and back round, Xander decapitated the vampire smoothly. As it dusted, Xander smirked, "It slices, it dices… your handy dandy kitchen tool!"

Hearing a shout, Xander took off in the direction of Crystal.

*

When Xander had run off so fast he was a blur, Spike had decided to help the vampire attacking the Slayer. Lindsey and his bodyguard stood and watched impassively, evaluating Harris' threat to Wolfram and Hart if he chose to fight them, and his usefulness if he was persuaded to work for them.

*

"Spike?" mouthed Xander as he approached the two vampires attacking Crystal. Spike's head snapped up. "Shit! 'arris!" He turned and ran, back in the direction of Lindsey.

Xander was too busy to follow him. Crystal flung the vampire off of her, and stood up shakily. Xander looked at her worriedly. "You OK?"

She nodded, trying to get her breath back. "Yeah, fine. She moved her shoulder. "Ow! That's gonna hurt in the morning."

Xander shook his head. "You're a Slayer. You'll be fine by the morning."

The vampire just lay on the floor. "Hey, err… yeah… you do know I'm still here, don't ya?"

Xander looked down at him. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Big bad vamp needs dusting, Crystal."

She smiled. "Check!"

Aiming, Crystal threw a stake at the vampire, and watched as it burst into dust. "Way cool. That's three."

Xander frowned, confused. "Three what?"

Crystal looked at him as if he had grown a second head. "Three vampires, idiot."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "By my count, you only got two tonight."

"Yeah, exactly. I've dusted three vampires. Two tonight, and one when training back in jolly olde England."

Xander looked at her in shock. "You ONLY dusted THREE vampires?"

"Yeah! What's wrong? That's loads!"

"Uh… Crystal… on the Hellmouth, if you only get three a night, it's kinda considered an easy night…"

The two walked back out of the graveyard, and Xander cringed as Crystal screamed, "WHAT?"

*

Lindsey looked speculative. "We must get Spike to distract them. Then, the senior partners can do what they wish…"

*

Hey, not a lot of Buffy in this one, mostly trying to build up the character of Crystal for later. I wish to say: I'm gonna be Modem-less for about a month, and probably computer-less for a couple of weeks in that. So it may be a while, people. Sorry. (But: It will be a week or two before that, so I'll try to post a couple more chapters…)

Paradigm Shifter