Disclaimers, etc, see part one.

On the Cleveland Hellmouth.

* * * * *

Buffy left too, eventually, but she still knows what's going on. When I arrived on Willow's doorstep a year later she didn't seem surprised. She had an apron on. I had never seen Willow look that domestic since the day she'd spent baking to make up for that spell.

"What'd you do wrong?" I asked.

"I don't know," Willow said, waving me inside.

I followed her down the hall to the kitchen.

"You know, Will, if you have to make it up Kennedy, there are probably better things to do than bake."

"Not Kennedy, her sister," Willow said.

"Sister?"

"She didn't think I was looking after Kennedy well enough."

I smirked. Willow hit me. It's a well-established tradition. Willow offered me any of many things to drink or eat. I was eventually settled with a glass of orange juice and a plate of assorted biscuits. I reminded myself to find someone who could bake better than Anya could.

"Nice house," I said, to start the ball rolling.

"Is that your professional opinion?" a voice behind me asked.

Turned around. "Could be. Hi, Kennedy."

"Hi," she said.

She kissed Willow in greeting. She dropped what she was carrying onto the kitchen bench to hug her too.

"Ah, ah, ah," Willow said, breaking free of the embrace. "No weapons in the kitchen. Especially nasty, icky, bloody ones."

"It's not blood, it's slime," Kennedy said with an exasperated sigh.

"I don't care what it is, it doesn't come in my kitchen."

Willow put her on her resolve face. Kennedy smirked as she picked up the weapons and sauntered out of the room. Nobody can saunter as well as Kennedy can. Both Willow and I watched her. When she'd gone and we glanced at each other again we blushed.

"How are you doing, Xander?"

"Well. America's nice. And very interesting. And has lots of roads."

"So, I've heard. We've been around a bit. But after Sunnydale this was the strongest calling point for big bads. We're thinking of starting up the school just out of town. It'll be good for the students to have something to fight."

Kennedy appeared again, clean and slime free.

"Is there an apocalypse coming?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Do you want to help out?"

I banged my head on the table. My fighting skills hadn't improved any since Caleb took my eye. Although I can juggle reasonably now, I was not up knife wielding then. Kennedy didn't believe me.

"The K'toks want to blast a way into hell. They're quite honourable, so they even if they fight you, they'll won't take advantage of the eye. We don't have a Watcher yet, you'll at least have to help us research. We just need to know when and where."

So I ended up in the Public Library at midnight going through the secret catalogue of occult texts. Giles's connections, I wasn't sure if it was the Council, him, or Libraries, had found us the local 'aware' person who had books to deal with what he was 'aware' of.

We'd been murmuring to each other for five hours; and I'd been in Cleveland for six; when I realised that I hadn't read anything more than a motel information booklet for months. And that I missed it.

Kennedy had killed one of the scouts, who job it was to ensure the safety of the outer perimeter of their sanctuary site. There were others whose job it was to collect the sacrifices needed to draw the power to create a Hellmouth.

"You mean there's not actually a Hellmouth here already?" I demanded. "After Giles said."

"He was just teasing us," Willow said. "But then, there's always been the possibility to create one here. It's just the rituals involved are too onerous compared to catching the bus to California."

"So we go in and Kennedy kills them and we're safe?" I asked.

"Yeah."

So at three o'clock in the morning I was sitting in my car outside an abandoned factory waiting for my signal to go in and take all the captives out. My part went smoothly. Kennedy appeared fifteen minutes late, grimacing and covered in more blue slime. Willow immediately grabbed her lover and did some magic. Kennedy was able to walk properly after that, but Willow was exhausted. I drove everyone back to Willow's house.

The seven teenagers we had found all had latent magical talent. Willow and Kennedy spent the rest of the morning discussing what to do with them while I slept. The mystical stuff was beyond me. But when they woke up I was able to help them a little to come to terms with what had happened.

I spent a few weeks with Willow and Kennedy. But they were beginning to get very serious about the idea of a school. They were both at college. If Willow did teaching and Kennedy trained as a psychology and sociology they would have good qualifications for what they wanted to do.

I was three days out of Cleveland when I blew the first tire of the trip. I was getting the tool out of the back when I found the book. Giles had hidden a book in the tools compartment; A Watcher's Guide to the Slayer. The dedication in the front said, 'I know you've gone, and I congratulate the strength it took. Find your path and tread it well, even if this book leads you nowhere along it, you will always be able to find us with it. Best Luck, Giles.' It is a good book. I'll have read it soon, but it is solid and smells musty. I used it prop open the door back to LA and the good fight and I didn't think any more about it.

That was the last time I had anything directly to do with the school or anything demonic. It was the last time I had serious knowledge other people didn't want. Until Philip introduced me to his girlfriend.