Revelations In White Light

Author: Anime Ronin

Rating: PG – 13 (for now due to mentions of abuse - may go up later due to swearing, blood and demonic horror)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Summary: Challenge/Story Idea from SwordofChiyun that involves Xander getting kicked out of Scoobies after Graduation and revelations of his real father and shades of his mother's family's past.

Crossover: Yes, with Charmed and some hints of Hercules.

PART 2

AN: (massaging lump from Frying Pan of Doom on back of head) Here's a nickel's worth of free advice – never post anything without the knowledge of your muse ... it hurts too damned much when they find out. Strap in, boys and girls – time to take one Hell of a ride.

{Outside of strip club – Leo has just told Piper the news, Xander has been dragged out of back by Prue and he is clothed}

He cautiously stuck his head up from the other side of the parked car, an astonishingly beautiful brunette woman on either side of him, and surveyed the situation that he had been dragged into – a tall blonde man had apparently told another brunette woman something that involved him somehow and the other two were waiting on an explosion, one he was sure that he didn't want to get caught up in. Xander was a number of things, but stupid didn't happen to be one of them – the woman was just standing there, clenching her fists and looking mightily pissed off, but not saying anything, which was a VERY bad thing. "How in the hell did I get dragged into this? I left Sunnydale to get AWAY from shit like this."

The brunette to his left shrugged, "Apparently you are his son." She was older than he, maybe by seven or eight years, but not much more than that, with dark brown hair, hazel gray eyes and an almost natural pallor to her skin.

"His son? If he's thirty five, I'm a Mormon."

The brunette to his right smiled at that, "Oh that means you get multiple wives, right? Can I be one?" He and the other brunette looked at her oddly and she backed up, "What? It was a valid question." She was younger, maybe three or four years older than him, more athletic than thin, but also held a wild streak that reminded him all too much of Faith.

Any other conversation that would have gone on stopped as the woman stormed off back into the club and the man sighed dejectedly, "It's safe to come out now."

The two brunettes charge the blonde man and begin barraging him with questions, so he turns around and slips back into the club, dodging the happy hands of the wait staff and some of the patrons, and made his way to the bar, where the other brunette was sitting with a shot glass and a bottle of Maker's Mark, "Hi."

"Hello." The tone was civil, at least, but not inviting.

"Xander."

"Piper."

He looked at her as she sat and looked at the shot she had poured, "Tastes better if you drink it."

She shot him a glare and slammed the shot back, cringing at the burning sensation that she most assuredly was feeling in her throat, "S-s-smooth."

"Bullshit. MM is a sipping whiskey, or so that bastard Tony always told me." He poured himself a shot and, damning the legalities of it, sipped it, "You're taking the news well."

"So are you."

Xander snorted, "Before I left town I lynched the man I though of as my father with a vacuum cord and then my mother told me about what happened way back when, and the guy's name. Growing up on the Hellmouth has taught me there are no such things as coincidence ... and to answer your question, I'll be pissed later." He poured her a drink, "So, you're his wife?"

She nodded, "Of two years, even gave him a son, Wyatt." She turned and saluted him with the shot glass, her brandy brown eyes red with tears and pain, "You have a step brother."

Before she could slam the shot back he grabbed it from her and put it down, looking into her eyes and then, gently, he pulled her close and hugged her. She hesitated for the barest fraction of a second before hugging him back and beginning to cry, heaving, body-wracking sobs shaking her in his embrace for several minutes until she pulls back, wiping her eyes as she did, and then looking up at him, her face puzzled, "Do you go around hugging strange women all the time?"

He shrugged, "Not normally, but you looked like you could use a hug at that point in time, and besides, now I get to say I have a hot step-mother. Better?"

She gave him a look, "No."

He nodded, "Alright – the walking sperm bank and I need to chat, so I'll send your sisters," he looked at her and she nodded, "back in." He walked out of the club, once again fending off hands from the clientele and staff, and was greeted by the sight of both brunettes glaring at the blonde.

"So, it wouldn't be incest, would it? I mean, we have no genetic connection to him, right?" The youngest brunette seemed persistent in the matter while the older one was doing her best not to strangle her sister.

"Ladies? Can I talk with him for a few minutes? I think your sister needs to have someone near her right now." They nodded and left, however not before the older brunette gave him a looking over that could almost be considered lewd, but regardless they left and he was alone with the man who might or might not have been his father. He was tall, maybe six feet and small change, with broad shoulders and blonde hair that was cut short, but had light colored eyes and was wearing a frown, "So, you're him."

"You look just like Jessica."

"So I've been told in the past."

Leo raised an eyebrow, "So, how have you been?"

"I grew up on the fucking HELLMOUTH, Leo, with drunk and abusive parents – how the hell do you think I've been?" He gave Leo a cold grin, "Though to tell you the truth, Tony wasn't looking so hot when I left. Did he die?"

Leo looked vaguely sick for a second and then blank for several minutes before answering, "No, your mother saved him ... for some reason I think she loves him."

Xander growled, "Hmm, I guess I'll have to try harder next time. What do you think of a sniper round? How about disembowelment? Oh, or beheading?"

Leo looked very sick now even as Xander heard the crunching steps on the rocks from behind him, "Was it really that bad? Did he really hurt you that much?"

"More than you know, Leo – now, I know I seem to be taking all of this rather well, but let me tell you that it's all sinking in right now and while I may look like my mother, I do know I have her temper." Leo paled at this and Xander went on with a savage grin, "So, Leo, where the fuck have you been? Screw that – what are you?"

Before Leo could answer, the door to the club opened again and the manager stuck her head out, "Yo, Zorro – you have a set up in ten."

Xander growled slightly and looked back at Leo, who had paled slightly, "Don't think this conversation is over, Leo. I want answers and trust me, one way or another, I get them." Having said that, he stalked off towards the back.

He didn't get far, though, when he heard the youngest say, "Hey, let's get front row seats!"

{After second set – last of evening}

His first night of stripping and he pulled down nearly $900 dollars; that was almost half of what the used car dealer, 'Honest Pedro' had been asking for a hot little four-door number, but the guys in the back were getting rather surly about his take that night – he had, apparently, set some kind of record for the club. Either way, he had money now and some of it was thanks to Phoebe, the youngest of his apparent sister-in-laws, as she had given him a ten and Prue, the oldest of the trio, had dropped a twenty on him as well. Grabbing his bag and nodding to the manager, who winked at him in return while watching a monitor or something, he walked out of the club and towards the front parking lot, where he had been told to meet them.

As promised, they were there, but only now Piper had seemed to have lost some of her sadness and moved into anger, Phoebe seemed to be egging her on and both Prue and Leo were trying to keep the middle sister from killing the youngest – oddly enough, this appeared to be a normal situation, which scared him more than he cared to admit, "Well, this is nice."

Leo looked over and seemed very relieved while both Prue and Phoebe stopped what they were doing at a harsh look from Piper, who then looked over at him with a slight smile, "Are you ready to go?"

He looked at her oddly, "Where? My place is right down the road."

"You wanted answers, right?" He nodded and she went on, "Then you're coming with us." She walked over and grabbed him by the hand, dragging him back towards Leo and the others, "Now hold on ... this might seem weird."

Before he could say anything he was hit by the very same feeling of lightness that had happened at his old house, when he was fighting Tony, and then as soon as he relented he was in someplace new – gone was the seedy strip joint parking lot and in it's place was a rather nice parlor, complete with a grandfather clock, couches, chairs and ... a dark haired young man holding a baby, "Well, shit."

"Language!" Piper walked over to the young man and took the baby from him, walking back over and depositing said child into his hands, "Xander, meet Wyatt ... you half brother."

"Half brother?" The young man with dark hair looked over at Leo, who nodded, and then at Piper, "Mom, what's going on?"

Piper began to explain to the guy what was going on, but Xander found himself pre-occupied with little Wyatt, who appeared to be very seriously attempting to fit the toes of one of his feet into his mouth. "Stop that, Wyatt – take it from someone who has mastered the art, you'll get more than enough practice of sticking your foot in your mouth when you get older. Trust me on that fact." The baby giggled a little and began to play with Xander's outstretched fingers, laughing as his belly was tickled and he was given goofy faces to look at.

"HE WHAT?" The other dark-haired young man present shouted at Piper, who had the patented 'Mother' look on her face while both Prue and Phoebe were sitting on the couch, watching the scene like it was a tennis match.

"You heard me, Chris – Leo is Xander's father, your half-brother and Wyatt's, and don't yell at me because my hearing is perfectly good." She walked back over and took Wyatt from him, who was starting to get fussy, "Now, you two play nice while Prue and Phoebe help me put Wyatt to sleep." The trio left them alone in the room as Leo had vanished somewhere.

'Chris' was a little shorter than he, but about the same age, with a more slender frame in the shoulders and arms and legs, but looked like Piper, rather than Leo, with dark hair, Piper's facial features and her general build, and it also appeared that he had her temper as well as he snapped, "What's your name?"

"Alexander Harris, and don't give me any flak about this, I just found out myself."

Chris sneered at him, "I'll do as I please. It's not like you can do anything about it."

As he finished the word 'about' Xander found that he was already in motion and as he finished 'it' spun Chris around and put him in a choke hold while buckling the back of his knees. Chris gasped in surprised and vanished in a shower of gold and white light, appearing behind him, but was solid enough to receive a shot to the gut from a backwards kick that sent him careening into the couch.

"Rule One: Assume Nothing. Always believe that your opponent is a highly- trained martial artist and sandbagging even if they're 70, overweight and on an oxygen tank." That was one of the first lessons the Soldier had learned in Special Forces training when it came to hand-to-hand combat, and he went on, "Rule Two: Never give away anything that can be used against you. Before then I didn't know you could teleport like Leo, but now I do and will be prepared for it next time I am forced to attack."

"Alright, already," Chris groaned, holding his stomach as he got up from the couch. "I get it – no attacking you."

"Good, because if you attack me again I won't be fighting with kid's gloves." Chris looked up at him and he continued, "I had time enough to snap your neck and no fancy teleporting trick could have saved your ass if I was right where I was, when I was, and how I was."

Chris then pouted, "Point taken."

"Good, now where's the gutless wonder? I told him I wanted answers and I want them right the fuck now."

He felt a hand hit him against the back of his head and turned to see Piper standing there with a scowl, "I don't like that kind of language in my house."

He rolled his eyes, "Trust me, Piper, when I say that's about as mild as I go now-a-days." He absently rubbed the back of his head as both Prue and Phoebe came back down, "Where's Leo?"

Piper rolled her eyes, "Knowing him, he's in the Elder's Council Chambers."

The words sparked an image in his mind and suddenly Xander felt light ... and then solid again as the scene faded to black as he heard several gasps of surprise and felt a sharp blow to the back of his head.

{Elder's Council Chambers 20 Seconds Earlier}

"Elder, he must be allowed to speak." Leo was doing his best to convince the other Elders to hear his son's case, as they wanted to bind any possible powers Xander had.

"No, Leo, I will not allow someone who grew up on the Mouth of HELL to ever possibly become a Whitelighter." The Supreme Elder shook his head in disgust, "I mean, what would happen if he ever were able to get in here?"

As if to answer that question, there was a shimmer of heavenly lights and Xander's form began to form, but not quickly enough as one of the Guardians snuck up and slammed a staff into the back of Xander's skull, knocking him down to the ground and out, presumably.

The Elders were dead silent, as were most of the others in the Council Chamber, while the Guardian who struck Xander roughly brought him to his feet, but then something odd happened – Xander's eyes snapped open and he didn't look like a happy bunny, in Leo's opinion. He spun to face the Guardian and slammed a knee into the gut of the man, who gasped and bent over, and then came up with a hard left uppercut to the jaw that sent the Guardian sprawling to the ground of the Chamber, out cold.

"Vampires and demons hit harder than him, hell, Tony Harris hit me harder than that." Xander reached down and grabbed the staff that had been used against him, absently twirling it in his hands, "Anyone else wanna have a go at it?"

"How did you get in here?" The older Elder rose form his place on the Council, his face etched in worry.

Xander, for his part, merely shrugged his shoulders, "Don't know – Piper told me where dear old dad might be and POOF, here I am." Xander looked over at him and Leo found himself looking not into the eyes of his son, but the eyes of a person who was considering whether or not to spit him up like a goose on the staff and stick him over a slow bed of coals, "Running again, Dad?"

Leo shook the image out of his head and shook his head, "No, Xander, I was up here pleading your case."

Xander gave him a look that told him that he'd been granted a little leeway, but not much, and then turned to the Elder's Council, "And you people are?"

The Supreme Elder took a look of superiority and sneered at his son, "The Council of Elders; we govern the Whitelighters, guide them, teach them."

"Great," Xander scoffed. "Another Council who probably don't even remember what it's like to get their hands dirty. I thought that when I left Sunnydale and the Slayer I wouldn't have to deal with Watcher act-alikes."

The Supreme Elder looked more than a little affronted, "Now see here, young man, I will not tolerate being spoken to by some ... half-breed ... like yourself."

Xander proceeded to give the Supreme Elder the 'finger' and sneer, "Yeah, just like the Watcher's Council back in England. You can't handle someone else in your sandbox, let alone the fact that they just pissed in it, and want them eliminated. – Typical tyrannical 'for the betterment of all' mindset."

Several of the other Elders murmured among themselves while the Supreme Elder went red with rage, "I should have you executed for barging in here, young men."

Xander merely cricked his neck left and then right, "I never should have been allowed to get this far, especially as I don't know how I got here, but if that's gonna happen, grow a pair and do the job yourself." He stopped working the staff around his body and snapped it into two pieces over his knee before wielding them like Eskirma fighting sticks, "Or, we can work this out like civilized men and women to a point that you don't get your ass handed to you."

"I say we allow him to speak his peace," an Elder from China said with a slight accent. "He has made several good points and aside from that, if of our blood – he deserves nothing less." About half of the Elders nodded with the man and Leo took that point to jump back in.

"As I was saying, Supreme Elder, I was unaware of my son's existence due to the interference from the Hellmouth, as we all were for the same reason. Just because he grew up there as a normal person is not a valid reason that he should have his powers bound, or for him to be destroyed."

"He has been possessed twice, Leo," the Supreme Elder said somewhat patiently, "and not only that he has a blood allegiance to Ares of the Greek Pantheon, who has boosted and caused both of his Possessions. We cannot allow that in any member of our kind, I am sorry."

"You're scared." Xander's voice was flat, dangerous, but his eyes were accepting. "I understand that, believe me, but just because of some mitigating factors that I had and have no control over, you want to basically play God with me and bind my supposed powers or kill me. Please, stop me if I'm wrong here," he went on, raising a hand, "but I don't see where you get off doing that. The Hyena Spirit was a pain in the ass who almost raped my best friend, but I was able to stall him long enough for her to hit him ... me ... with a desk. The Soldier Spirit was something of an annoyance at first, but the information he has provided has saved the world three times already – The Judge, the bomb under the Hellmouth, and the Ascension of Mayor Wilkins."

"I am not contesting that you have done good deeds in your life, Alexander," the Supreme Elder admitted with a hint of grudging admiration, "but the simple fact of the matter is that you cannot be trusted to uphold our teaching with the level of professionalism needed. I am sorry."

"Then let me try. Give me a chance to prove you and your cronies wrong – if I fail, then you're right, kill me, strip me of my powers, whatever, but if you're wrong, you've got another person to help you out." Leo felt more than a little pride fill him as Xander proceeded to manipulate the situation to his advantage. "What do you have to lose?"

The Council of Elders looked at each other and one of the Elders, a slight blonde woman, stood, "We must discuss this situation and suggestion."

Leo nodded and walked over to Xander, "I will return with him when you have reached a decision, one way or another." That said, he orbed with Xander back to the Halliwell Manor and as soon as they were solid again, he sighed, "Well, that went well."

Xander, for his part, looked like he was about to lose his lunch, "Warn me when you're going to do something like that, Leo, and I still want some answers – I've pieced together a few things, but how about some conformation?"

Leo sighed, "Whitelighters are basically Guardian Angels for pure-born Witches, with rare exceptions. We are generally either born into the position, as you, Chris and Wyatt were, or are accepted after our deaths, as I was." (AN: I think that he was killed, but don't hold me to it) Leo went into the ins and outs of being a Whitelighter and the powers that it entailed, but when it got to a part about protecting one's charge, Xander's expression went black.

"Let me get this straight – you can't kill to protect your charge? No matter what?"

Leo shrugged, "Those are the rules."

Xander snorted and then rubbed his forehead, "No wonder so many natural Witches die – your rules have you by the balls and increase your operational limitations."

Leo winced, "Stop thinking like a Soldier, son – you're not one."

Xander glared at him, "That's where you're wrong, Leo – I am a soldier, only it's in a war that you and yours seemed to have forgotten about. I fight vampires and demons of my own violation, and as such, I think like I do because of it. Sure, the Soldier Spirit helps out a lot, but that's the up side of what he gave me – I have his memories and trust me, I slept a hell of a lot better at night before some of the highlight reels of cluster- fuck and FUBAR missions that he went on."

Leo winced at the pure emotion in his son's voice – he'd seen what the Vietnam war was like and remembered vividly what that tone was; it was the tone of someone who had seen too much, too soon, and not had enough time to recover from it. While not quite shell shock or Post Traumatic Stress, it could become dangerous if the individual wasn't strong enough to deal with it.

"Xander, this is the last time I am going to warn you about your language." Piper came up beside him and looked at his son, "Do it again and I'll make you eat Phoebe's cooking."

Leo winced at this even as Phoebe gave a gasp of pure horror at the threat and Prue snickered at it – Xander, on the other hand, merely smiled, "She can't be any worse than Buffy – she almost burned down a stove melting butter for out popcorn one night."

Again Leo winced – the boy didn't know when to shut up and not make challenges like that.

{Next morning – Breakfast}

It was official – Hell had frozen over; someone was a worse cook then Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summers, and he was related to her by marriage. "God that's awful," he muttered to Chris, who appeared to be doing his best to keep his pancakes in his stomach.

Phoebe, who was cleaning up a nearly-burned skillet at the sink, turned and glared at him, "What was that?"

"He said 'God, that's awful', butt pain, and he's right." Prue dumped her pancakes into the trash and winced as she heard glass breaking inside of the can, "Do yourself a favor, let Piper handle the cooking, or Chris."

Phoebe glared at her older sister, "Are you implying that I cannot cook, Prudence?"

Prue smiled, "Yes, I am. Your take out ordering is top notch, but your recipe following sucks – always has."

Xander, Chris and Leo, who had come in a few minutes before, immediately backed away as Phoebe began to wield the skillet like a deadly weapon, "Take that back, Prue."

Prue leaned forwards, "Make me."

The two began to squabble while Piper sighed and the three of them got the hell out of Dodge as quickly as possible, ending up in the living room after a few seconds of flight. The sounds of the fight made it's way into the parlor, where Leo looked at Xander and Chris sat down with a grunt, "Now, Xander, I'd like to start today with a few questions."

"Like?"

"How is your mother?"

Xander bit back a snarl, "Grow a pair and go see her yourself?"

Leo held out a hand to forestall Chris' outburst and sighed, "Look, Xander, you must let go of the past before you succumb to the darkness within yourself."

"Sure, Yoda, I'll do that as soon as I get a straight answer out of you as to why you bailed on Jessica."

Leo sighed, "I didn't know she was pregnant, Xander, and if I had I would not have been able to do anything about it at the time – my charge was at a critical juncture of her training and life and I could not be spared."

Xander growled suddenly, a sound that wasn't exactly human in nature and made Leo step back and Chris to vault over the couch he had been sitting on, "So, either way you wouldn't have been there to own up to what you did? And you wonder why I have a problem with all of this BS, not to mention you in particular?"

Leo held up his hands, "Look, son, if I could turn back the clock and change things, I would, but I can't, so we're going to have to work these things out as we go."

Xander nodded once, but then got close to Leo, "Alright, but I need to think on my own for a little while. Also, a piece of advice and a warning: don't leave Piper or anyone else in a lurch like you left mom, and if you do make damned sure I never find out, because I will come after you and nobody under HIM will be able to save your sorry ass." With that said, Xander stormed out of the Manor and stalked down the streets of San Francisco in the early morning hours of a Saturday.

{Park}

The kid had been doing a kata for nearly ten minutes, flawlessly too, when Ares decided to approach him – Xander needed to work some steam off first and Ares knew that if that did not happen, what he was about to do would be that much harder, "Hey, kid."

The kid stopped, and Ares could see the warrior beneath the khaki pants and loose white t-shirt that he wore, "Yeah?"

"You know who I am?"

"Vaguely – Ares, right?" They shook hands, "I like the series."

Ares smirked, "Thanks – Herc thought it would be a good idea with us playing our old selves, and I can't believe that I almost shot the whole damned thing down." They shared a chuckle at that and then Ares drew himself up, "As you may or may not know, you and I have a connection through your mother – her father, your grandfather, was the last of my High Priests, and as such, you get certain fringe benefits from it all."

"You caused the two possessions I've undergone." The kid's tone was flat, but not unfriendly.

Ares nodded, "Yes – there aren't many of my people in the world, and as you were living on the Hellmouth, I felt you should get all the help you could. I arranged for the Hyenas and the shaman to be at the Sunnydale Zoo, just as I was able to get Ethan Rayne to beseech Janus to empower the Chaos spell on Halloween – both instances made you stronger, as per my blessing, and they allowed you to become a better fighter ... not that the Slayer and her Watcher ever tried to help with that. Great Zeus, they irritate me, sometimes." He grinned, suddenly, "Of course, the little deal you made with the local barkeep and the demons was truly inspired, especially now that they all know about it."

The kid smiled at that, "Yes, it was, however I'm not a perfect bastard yet – I left Joyce under my protection."

Ares could only nod, "As you should have – she's the only one who has defended you so far."

The kid nodded, "I'll have to thank her."

Ares went on then, or rather, he would have, if not for that dark brown haired brat of Leo's that came charging in and drove his shoulder into Xander's gut, screaming about something or other.

Xander rolled to his feet, only to get punched by the brat even as Leo and the Charmed Ones came on to the scene via Leo's orbing them in, "How DARE you talk to my father like that."

Ares winced as Xander blocked the next punch and returned on of his own, sending the other brat to the ground several feet away, "Not bad, Chris, but just like I told you last night, never give away something that can be used against you." He blocked a punch absently and head-butted 'Chris' back, "You gave up the element of surprise." Xander lashed out with a kick that caught Chris in the stomach, "Not smart."

Ares looked over at Leo, who was holding the trio of witches back, but also had a look of sorrow on his face as his eldest schooled his youngest in the arts of hand-to-hand combat ... painfully, "Are you going to stop this?"

"No – Chris has to learn that there are some people that he's not ready to fight and Xander needs to learn that not all problems are solved with violence."

Ares snorted, "Good luck on that second one – he's one of mine, so violence is in his blood. No, he needs to learn how to be subtle, sneaky ... or rather, when to be more subtle or sneakier than he normally is." This point was proven when Chris wiffed a right punch that spun him around 180 degrees ad allowed Xander to hit him with a pair of kidney shots and then slam him face-first into the ground, "He grew up on the Hellmouth – I expect that you and yours upstairs won't like his tactics, but he gets the job done."

Prue, the oldest, winced visibly as Chris came back up and the lower part of his face was covered in blood, "Why is that?"

"I've had him possessed twice, Halliwell, to make him a better warrior – the first one could have gone better, but the second went as scheduled ... except for the Hellmouth energies making his memories degrade quicker than I had hoped."

The middle girl, Piper, glared at him, "You made my brother-in-law be possessed, twice?"

He sighed, "I AM the god of War, remember? By blood he's one of my warriors and I was giving him the tools necessary to survive." He grinned as Xander blocked a groin shot by Chris and returned one in kind, "He has a ways to go, but he'll be one of the best since Xena, if I get my way."

Leo then growled lightly, "He is to be a Whitelighter, Ares – that much is known."

"Not if your Supreme Elder has anything to say about it."

"Listen here, CHILD," Xander snarled to Chris, who was on the ground, stomach first. "I have had enough of your little attitude, so let me make one thing perfectly clear – I kill pieces of shit stronger than you before BREAKFAST on the Hellmouth, so if you want to take another shot at me, bring your game to a new level." He let Chris' head slump forwards and rose, his own face smeared with a little blood that was coming from the corner of his mouth, "And make sure that you don't give away the element of surprise. Thus endeth the lesson."

"Well taught, brat," Ares congratulated him even as he walked towards the group. "Now, as I was about to say before we were so rudely interrupted, I want to show you something to help you understand why you've gotten the short end of the stick your entire life."

Xander spit out a little blood to the ground and, after sparing a glance at Leo, who nodded, nodded at him, "Sure, why not."

Ares clapped his hands, "Excellent." He teleported the both of them to his own domain in Olympus and before a Viewing Pool, which was a more powerful version of what the Whitelighter Elder Council chambers had, "Now, kid, here is your mother's life."

{Olympus}

The place that the Greek gods and goddesses had as a playground wasn't all history had cracked it up to be, or the show, either; it was actually more of a small glade, rather than a rocky out-cropping or a pantheon. He stood next to the Greek god of War, being eyed by none other than Discord, Athena and Artemis, and was looking into a pool at his mother's childhood – no, there was absolutely nothing wrong with this situation at all, as it was SNAFU.

His mother, it turned out, had a rather plush childhood with her father as the last High Priest of Ares – lots of swords, books, food, clothes, you name it, and she used said swords and books to become quite the child hell- raiser until she was about twelve, when she started to notice boys, mostly due to Aphrodite's Curse. She was happy and well to do, was destined to be married to a captain of industry, until she made one very critical mistake – she went against the wished of both her father and Ares. With that egregious mistake, her destiny was altered to where she married Tony Harris, gave birth to him in the situation that he now knew and history had played out as it had.

When he finally looked up at Ares, his face was schooled into a flat mask, "So she told you and gramps to piss off and as a result my life was a living, breathing hell?"

Ares only shrugged. "She had a destiny that needed to be filled, but as she couldn't follow a simple order like 'don't go to the party', how could we be sure that she wouldn't follow more complex orders in the future? Besides, if she HAD followed instructions, you never would have known Jessie or Joyce, and you wouldn't be one half Whitelighter."

Ares had a point, "Does she know this?"

"No, and she won't know – it's part of a deal I made with Discord a while back." Ares walked over to a tree stump and sat down on it, "I didn't like it, but it had to be done, Xander. I'm not sure if you can understand, but orders and following a chain of command are important, and your mother forgot that."

"Yeah, I understand better than most, but still, what was the point in showing me the past if it has no real bearing on the future?"

Ares grinned at that and Xander felt his stomach clench, knowing that he had just walked into a trap, "Ah, but it does. Sufficed to say, the future IS written in stone, but it's like a kind of sandstone – easily changed and worn away. You're going to have some decisions to make in the near future and some of them won't sit easy with you, but it will be done because it's the right thing to do, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time." Ares stood again and reached his hands forwards, as if holding them out for something, "Now, for a little something that may piss off your dad, but you'll need it later." In a flash, there was a sword in his hands.

It wasn't just a sword, Xander saw several seconds later, but rather it was a work of art – a black steel blade of nearly bastard length mated to a bronze-colored crosspiece and a dark-colored leather-wrapped hilt, ending in a bronze pommel, with etchings down the blade in what appeared to be Sandskrit or Persian, but as he read neither, he wasn't sure. In short, it was beautiful, and Ares was giving it to him, "Who's was it?"

"Smart kid. Actually, it belonged to one of my generals, originally, but most recently it belonged to your mother." Ares shrugged as Xander shot him an arched eyebrow, "Thought that I'd keep the sword in your family."

Xander grinned and accepted the blade, testing it and finding that it was balanced just right for his hands, "Thanks you, Ares."

Ares nodded, "I get the feeling you may need it in the near future."

He hated when people did that – it was like asking 'it can't get any worse, can it?'

{Halliwell Manor}

"Son, I'd like for you to meet a friend of mine, Sonja Gray." His son, Xander, carrying a rather unique sword in a black leather sheath over one shoulder, looked at the Whitelighter next to him and smiled, "She's apparently a rather large fan of yours."

Sonja was of average height, with auburn hair and green eyes, but her athletic build and sometimes ... overactive ... nature tended to keep people at arms length with her, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when she took Xander's proffered hand and pumped it up and down energetically, "Hi, I'm Sonja! I've heard SO much about you, Xander, do you mind if I call you Xander?"

"Um, no, not at all." Xander smiled at the auburn-haired Whitelighter and then looked at him, "Um, Leo, what's going on here?"

Leo smiled, "Oh, didn't I tell you? Sonja's going to be the one teaching you on how to use your powers properly, so make sure you get some extra sleep tonight, because tomorrow is an early day and you're going to need all the energy you can get." Xander shot him a glare that could have melted glaciers and Leo could only laugh as Sonja drew the young man off to the side to talk his ear off.

AN: Okay, I think I'll put the breaks on this chapter right here – the next one will be rather short and be several months in the future, but there will be some flashbacks to explain what has happened and someone in power will show their true colors. R&R, AR.