The first person Xander ran into once he reached 1630 Revello Drive was, of course, Buffy. Lately, her greetings were more of a list of things that needed repair instead of a simple hello, or God forbid a hug. Today was no different. Apparently, from what Xander could gather from Buffy's ranting, during a sparring match, Faith used a little psychological warfare to get Buffy angry and take her off her game. Mission accomplished.

Xander followed Buffy down to the basement to view the damage first hand. He whistled as he surveyed the scene, mentally calculating what he'd need to do to fix things. They never just break something... Noooo, they have to break the shit out of something.  From what he could gather, Buffy had completely missed Faith's head with a kick, and proceeded to put her foot straight through one of the support beams in the basement. Slayer rage, got to love it.

Hoping to lighten the situation, Xander joked, "Was it at least one of the beams you tied us to last year? Because if anything deserved some breakage, it'd be one of those beams."

Unfortunately, his joke only served to anger Buffy further. Her face squnched up, her eyes narrowed, and a shiver went down Xander's spine as he actually heard her teeth grind. Okay. Joking didn't work, let's try blunt honesty. "In all fairness Buffy, Faith had a point."

With the look that statement inspired, Xander thought he could see the aneurysm forming in Buffy's head. "What the hell do you mean Faith had a point? She was purposefully baiting me! I let her back into my home, and this is the thanks I get? She's up to her old tricks again Xander and I won't stand for it!"

Xander smiled tolerantly. "Maybe she is, and maybe she isn't. But the point is, do you honestly think the First is going to leave on the kid gloves, or spare your feelings in battle?" As Buffy's 'I Am The Law' face started to melt into just a frown, Xander felt it safe to continue.

"Your history with Faith is just one avenue the First could use of a dozen or more Buffy. God help us if the First decided to play the Angel card." Buffy gave Xander a warning glare. "But that's beside the point, the way you are right now, if the First decided to play on your emotional vulnerabilities it'd be both good and bad."

"Good and bad how?"

"Good because it'd make you angry. And you're like the Hulk Buffy... The angrier you get, the stronger you get. But it's bad, because you get sloppy Buffy. Your anger blinds you. We've been fortunate in the past, we haven't really had to deal with any Sun Tzu's on the Hellmouth. Until now, that is."

Xander paused for a breath, and tried to gauge what effect, if any, his speech had on Buffy. Crap. Defensive Buffy. I might as well just be talking to myself now. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. "If Faith can angry up your blood that badly, especially when you know she's just trying to get a rise out of you, then what are you going to do when the First really gets going? As much as Faith knows what buttons to push, how much worse are the First's attacks going to be? It's not called the First Evil for nothing you know."

For as long as Xander had known Buffy, he was still unprepared for the outburst he was about to face.