Revelations In White Light

Author: Anime Ronin

Rating: R

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.

Chapter 5 – Thus Ends An Era ... But For Whom?

{Xander's Front Lawn – 10 seconds after last chapter}

Faith felt more than a little uneasy as she watched B's wounds disappear and her stomach clenched as the blonde's eyes snapped open and showed nothing but bloodlust. Fortunately for her, the both of them, actually, Leo was on top of it and did something to put the possibly mentally–unstable Slayer out of commission as another Whitelighter, a dark- haired woman who could give her a run for her money in the sexy department, walked over and gave Xander a big hug.

"Good to see you again, Alexander."

"Good to be seen, Jenny." Jenny? Dead because Angelus broke her neck, Jenny? This was getting way too weird, even for Sunnydale. "So, you're here to teach Willow how to use magic properly?"

"For the time being, Xander." The woman tucked some hair behind her ear and turned to look directly at her, smiling as she did, "And who is this lovely young woman, Xander?"

Faith felt her cheeks redden as Xander smiled and walked over, slinging his arm over her shoulders, "This is Faith, the Vampire Slayer, Jenny – we keep each other honest and she keeps stealing not only my coffee, but my boxers, too."

"They're comfy!" Faith's hands flew to her mouth instantly, the words registering to her mind and making her already-red cheeks turn darker.

Xander merely chuckled while several others openly laughed as her hard-as- nails mask slipped slightly and squeezed her a little more, "Why do you think I wear them?" Before she could give him a rather lewd answer, he looked at his aunts and smiled, "Is the binding permanent?"

"No, it isn't," the middle one, Piper, who was now holding the baby, said with what sounded like a sigh of relief. "Once she re-learns how to connect with the Earth and to do it the right way, we'll loosen the bindings on her powers. This one, however," she looked over at Buffy, who was still out cold, "is something of a dilemma."

"Yes, it is." Faith spun around and saw G-man standing there, his eyes downcast and he wore an air of regret around him, "Buffy's allowed her power and her anger to go to her head – short of killing her or stripping her of her powers, there is little we can do."

Faith felt her lips draw into a hard line at the mention of removing B from the whole Slayer gig, "Can't we get her help? I mean, isn't this part of the whole gig, that we all lose our self once in a while?"

Leo walked back over and shook his head, "No, because the Slayers were never meant to last as long as Buffy has, let alone allow the line to ever be split – harsh but true. Add to that she had deep-seeded power fixations before she was called and you have a perfect recipe for disaster when that power is challenged." He looked over to where her sister Slayer was laying on the couch and sighed, "I need to consult with the Elders and, if needs be, The Powers. Neither will like it, but I think that Buffy has proven that she can no longer be trusted."

Faith was about to come to B's defense when Xander began to chuckle, as if he found something oddly amusing, "Actually, Leo, I think I DO know a way that we can get her to see things from a different perspective and offer her a choice at the same time." She looked at him and his face broke into a devilish grin, "And then she'll know how it feels to be the Zeppo."

{Elder's Council – later that day}

"Why have you summoned us here, Elders? Don't you think we have better things to do with our time than to chit chat with glorified watch dogs?"

Xander couldn't resist the opening, "Like watching a Chosen One, Buffy Summers, a Slayer, possibly lose her mind because of her own inadequacies?" The beings that stood before the Elder's Council, a total of seven, glared at him as one and he smiled back at them, "Howdy."

"Alexander, please do not antagonize our colleagues," the Supreme Elder said with a carefully hidden that clearly said 'at least not in front of everybody'. "Now, as Alexander has pointed out, Slayer Summers' mental stability is the reason for this meeting – she seems intent on killing young Alexander here and, despite the fact that he is technically on probation with the Corps, he has provided us with several ideas that not only keeps her alive but possibly makes a better Slayer out of her."

The Powers That Be, headed by a man who looked exactly like Vince McMahon, growled as one and he 'Vince' stepped forwards, "And what are these supposed possibilities, Supreme Elder? She is a perfectly good Slayer, and would be even better if your golden child there had not tried to save her in the Master's Cave, as I am sure she could have done so on her own."

The Supreme Elder stiffened at this, "While Alexander may be one of ours, he is far from perfect and he was human at the time – your Slayer would have died if not for him. That aside, he has suggested that you place her on a probationary period and temporarily strip her of her powers to allow her a choice. She had never liked being the Slayer and if she chooses not to be one, allow her to leave and place the full essence into Slayer Williams."

"A Slayer who is rooming with Alexander," another PTB, who looked like Carrie Fisher and even has on the white robe and 'cinnamon bun' hair do. "He cannot be trusted."

"You're still pissed at me, aren't ya?" Xander was under the full force glare of all seven entities of the Powers and he could only grin, "Me, a powerless human with no destiny, royally fucked any plans you had made and, not only that, did it with style."

"How DARE you speak to us like that! Do you know who we are?"

"Yes, and frankly, I am not impressed." He stepped up even as Leo tried to grab his shoulder, "I'm offering you a chance to fix several things that have gone wrong, reunite the Slayer line and, if all things don't work out as planned, get rid of me in the process."

"How about you let us take care of them, Alexander," the Supreme Elder said with a slight groan and sent him out of the room with a wave and a bit of power.

Sonja was waiting there and she sighed, "Not making any friends in the Powers, Xand."

"Wasn't trying to, Sonja. Still, I do find it slightly comforting that even as a deposed Whitelighter, I can still annoy the brass with the best of them." He reached into an interior pocket of the light jacket he had worn to the meeting and pulled out a long, cylindrical piece of beef jerky and stuck it between his teeth like a cigar, "I love it when a plan comes together."

"Hannibal Smith you are not, kid." Sonja snaked her hand into his jacket and grabbed the other one he had stashed there and took a bite out of it, "Besides, they haven't agreed to anything."

"But they will, Sonja, if you think about it – they are willing to risk that Buffy will quit being the a Slayer in order to get two fully- functioning Slayers on their roster, even if one of them hates the other one for one reason or another." He absently munched on his jerky and began to walk around, "Now, if they do take her powers away, and she still wants to be a Slayer, she'd probably be forced to earn them back by doing menial tasks and labor to do so, which will teach her humility and, as such, pull her head out of her ass."

"Something that you would enjoy, I am sure."

"Of course, Sonja – she'd get a chance to see what it's like to fight the demons of Sunnydale without Slayer powers, in essence, she would be fighting as I was for a while and if she survives that, she'd realize that my point was valid and not only that the world does not revolve around her, but that she was wrong in trying to limit her allies on the field of battle by not preparing them properly."

"And that would, in essence, teach her to think before she tries anything stupid like that again?"

Xander snorted, "No, the bleach she uses on her hair has already eroded the ability to not think stupidly, so it would have to teach her to actually listen to people who are trying to help her." He snapped off another piece of jerky and chewed on it for a second, "Of course I could be absolutely wrong and have made a complete ass out of myself in front of the bosses, but that's never stopped me before."

Sonja stopped him as he passed by and pulled him down to sit beside her on a large rock, "Xander, all BS aside, what are you going to do if she wants to be a Slayer and needs to re-earn her powers?"

He looked at her and stuck the jerky back in between his teeth, "Well, ma'am, I'd stay out of her way and help only if asked by her and if it is done so in a very polite manner."

Sonja elbowed him in the side, "Goof."

"Nag."

"Let's not start this again, alright? Besides, we have company." She pointed to the doors of the Council Chamber and they were opening to show Leo, who motioned them in, "Shall we?"

"We shall." They walked in and found the Powers were still there, though none of them looked happy, "You bellowed?"

"It has been decided that Slayer Summers will be offered the choice if she wishes to retain her title of Slayer – if she does not, she will be removed from the Hellmouth and sent to live with her father, but if she does, you must work with her, Alexander. Think of it as part of your punishment."

"Alright, but make sure she understands that if she takes an attitude with me, I'll leave her sorry ass in the middle of a fight and not lose any sleep over it." This upset several of the Powers, but the leader looked pleased, "What are you smiling about?"

"I always knew that you would be capable of leaving her behind, Alexander, but I never though that you could be so callus as that. I like it. Are you sure you won't come and work for us?"

Xander snorted, "Hell no – I have too much pride and self-respect to be led around by the nose or short hairs and made to do things that cannot be explained to me for any other reason than 'we said so' or 'for the good of all mankind'." He noted that none of the Powers took offense to that and while he was speaking Buffy had been brought into the Council Chambers, looking quite upset.

"Slayer Summers, you should know that your actions of the past few hours have, quite frankly, forced us to do something that we never thought we would need to do – your powers as a Slayer are here-by removed from you." She looked outraged as a ball of pure white light exited her body and came to rest inside of a crystal that one of the Powers, a woman who looked more than a little like Michelle Yeoh, "Now, as you have always bitched about, you never wanted to be the Slayer – it chose you. So, your choice is if you want to continue to be the Slayer or not – if you choose yes, then you will be assisted, but not in command of or under the command of, Alexander Harris, but if you choose not to, then you will be removed from the Hellmouth and sent to live with your father. Choose."

Buffy looked blank for a moment and then huffed, "Look, you're right, I never wanted to be the Slayer, but let's face facts – it's all I have ever done that actually made a difference. Yes, I made mistakes, lots of them, and I learned from them – I want another chance, but if you think I am working with that loser, you have another thing coming!" She glared at him, "Why didn't you ever come to us and tell us you were a Whitelighter? We could have used you like that."

"He was not a Whitelighter at the time you and Miss Rosenberg betrayed him," 'Vince', the lead Power, said with more than a little anger in his voice. "And add to that he has saved the world three times, you a countless number of times and brought you back from death once, and I would be hard-pressed to think of anyone who should have been at your side from the first. However, be that as it may, if you do not do as you are instructed, then you will never reclaim your powers – as things stand now, you are weaker than Alexander was at his best on the Hellmouth and will remain that way until we see that you have truly begun to learn your lesson. Abuse your powers again and we will remove them from you permanently." Buffy gulped at this and nodded. "Good. Now, Elders, for your news."

"Alexander, we believe that while you have great potential to be a Whitelighter, we cannot allow you use Deadly Force as you have done so in the past. So, that having been said, you will not be allowed back into the Corps as a Whitelighter." Several of the Elders growled at this, as did some of the Guardians, but the Supreme Elder went on, "However, we have looked at the rules of the past and see that as times have changed, so must the rules – a new breed of Whitelighter will be needed for the coming times and you have been chosen for a template, as it were. You are free to work as you see fit, for whom you see fit, but know that if we do need you, we ask that our requests be given prescience over those of others."

Buffy stared at him in shock and then that shock turned to anger, as if she were thinking 'how dare he get off with a lighter sentence than me' or 'I should be the template, not him', but he could only smirk at her. "Will- do, Boss, but I do have one question concerning Buffy and my ... partnership with her; what happens if she tries to kill me again? You of all know that I might not let her live this time, Whitelighter or not, Probation or not." This wiped the angry look off of Buffy's face and brought several well- hidden smiles to the faces of most of the Elders.

"As long as Miss Summers knows what she is doing, I trust your judgment, kid. We are adjourned." With a hit of the rock/gavel and a feeling of lightness, Xander found himself and Buffy back in his den, and he was morbidly pleased to see that she was about to blow chunks.

"Trashcan's right behind you." She turned and made a deposit, being noisily sick for several seconds before coming up, wiping the bile from her mouth, "You get used to it, eventually."

"How long is that?"

He shrugged, "Took me a few hours of constant orbing, but I did it so often that it became second nature." He sat down and she cleaned up her mess before sitting down across from him, "So, what the hell is your problem, and don't give me that shit about you wanting to protect me or that I had nothing else to give to you and the group, because, frankly, it's getting old."

She looked taken aback for several seconds before she sighed, "Alright, I'll admit that I was hasty in treating you like dirt – you were doing the best you could and we weren't exactly going out of our way to make things easier, but you don't know what it's like to have that kind of power at your disposal!"

"The Hyena? Soldier Boy? Either of these ringing a bell, bottle blonde? I was physically stronger than you the first time with the Hyena and a six year old was emotionally and mentally stronger than you the second, Summers – I know more about it than most would think."

She looked affronted, "I was NOT that bad as a Noblewoman."

"A DEMON, A DEMON! That's not a demon, Buffy - that's a car." Again he felt more than a little morbid pleasure when she turned red in the cheeks and ears as she admitted he was right, to an extent. "Look, regardless of what you think or what I think, our bosses want us to work together, as a team, and as much as I hate to admit it, they are right."

"Fine, but don't expect me to work with Faith – she betrayed us."

"Like you betrayed me, but you don't get a say in the matter, so deal with it – she's the only real Slayer we have right now until you quit or earn your powers back and that won't happen until you learn to accept the past, look at what is in the now and move on with everyone but vampires, or have you forgotten Angelus?"

She winced at that, "That's not fair, Xander, and it was a completely different matter at that."

"You're right – you never wanted to sleep or have sex with Faith, did you?" She blushed and he went on, "As long as you have double standards like that, Buffy, you'll never get the slightest inkling of power back, end of discussion." He got out of his seat and went to get a drink, no asking if she wanted anything, because he needed to blow off a little steam. How DARE she bring Faith into their problems without first thinking of the whole Angelus factor, something that he still couldn't, and probably would never, get over. Of course, she let more than a few things slide, as had he, with his deal with the demons to keep people safe.

"You're right." Buffy walked into the kitchen and grabbed a glass out of the dish rack, "I do have a lot of double standards, and I haven't forgotten about what Angelus did to this town, or Jenny, but I loved him and until you know what it's like to love somebody that much, you'll never understand what it's like to have to send them to hell."

"Ampa the Incan Mummy girl, Cordy, Willow, and Faith – I loved them all in different ways, but I will be DAMNED if you think you can use love as an excuse to not do your job." He took a drink of the cola he had grabbed and glared at her, "What else are you going to try and use as a defense now, Summers?"

She gaped several times until she seemed to steel her backbone a little, "What about me? Didn't you love me?"

"Once, but now I can barely stand the sight of you, or do you think I've forgotten about that dance you gave me at the beginning of Junior year just to make Deadboy jealous?" She flinched at that and he sighed, "Look, we can go back and forth all fucking night if we want, and all we'll do is open up old wounds that should stay closed – let's get past it and work together."

She looked up and he was somewhat surprised to see tears in her eyes, "Can we ever be friends again?"

He finished off the drink in one go and crushed the can before answering her, "Only if you pull your head out of your ass, learn a little thing called humility and stop acting so damned superior to everybody – the world does not revolve around you just because you are or were the Slayer, so get over it and yourself."

"Such a nice attitude, Alexander." Sonja orbed in and had a somewhat mocking smile on her face as she looked towards Buffy, "And everyone wonders why it is that you brought her back to life in the first place – could it be her absolutely winning personality?"

Buffy bristled at Sonja's response, "And you are?"

"This is Sonja, my teacher and friend – trust me, she may not look like it, but once you get her angry, be somewhere else." He walked up behind the auburn-haired woman and hugged her back into him from around the waist and she lost the tension he could see in her body, "So, what's the first job?"

"Standard patrol, no magical weaponry or powers for either side – if you can both survive without getting killed or killing each other, it would be a start." She turned around and gave him a peck on the cheek before pulling away, "Later, Xander." With that, Sonja orbed out.

Buffy smiled at him somewhat cattily, "Kinda cozy with her, aren't ya. Does Faith know?"

"Yes, I am, yes, Faith knows, and no, it is not that kind of relationship – more than likely she was just trying to get a rise out of you and it worked." He left the kitchen and went to the rather small attached garage the home had and started pulling things out of a cabinet.

"What are you doing, Xander?"

"You noticed that the garage is kinda small, right?" She nodded and he smiled, "Follow me and find out why." He stepped into the cabinet and then out of it into what had been most of the original garage and was now a storage depot for weapons and other things they might need.

"Jesus, Mary and the other guy – Xander, what is this place?"

He gave her a mock-surprised look, "Why Buffy, don't you know an armory when you see one?" He pulled off his light jacket and then pulled on a shoulder harness and started loading a screw-on suppressor and several magazines underneath the arm of it before sliding an H&K USP .40 caliber pistol under the other arm.

"Why are you taking a gun along, Xander? I don't like guns."

"I don't care if you like guns or not – Sonja said no magical weapons or magic, so that leaves out my family's sword and my healing powers. You can use stakes if you want, but I don't like to get that close. I mean, we're not all Slayers, now, are we?" He never stopped moving and shrugged on a long duster before sliding several stakes into the pockets and the rest of his kit – holy water in pressurized canisters, like the riot police-issued mace and pepper spray, several flash packets that held small incendiary charges surrounded by flammable substances, a cross and several small med- packs he'd procured at the military surplus store a while back.

Buffy just watched him for a few moments before packing away several stakes and crosses and some holy water he had in squirt bottles, but then looked at the far wall and the sword hanging there, "Ooh, dibbs!"

"Freeze, short stack – that's my family's sword and it's enchanted – no go for tonight."

Buffy pouted and kicked the concrete, "I never get to use the cool stuff."

He looked at her incredulously, "Do you even remember the Judge? I got you an AT-4 anti-armor, man-portable rocket launcher to take him down with and you say you never get to use the cool stuff?"

She shrugged, "Okay, so I rarely get to use the cool stuff." She went along to a workbench and picked up a modified Bowie knife he'd picked up some time back, "Cool."

"Leave it – the edge doesn't hold very well and even if it did, you'd be better off taking a short sword instead of that monster."

"Do you have ANY weapons I can use that aren't magical, half-assed, broken or that I don't like?"

He narrowed his eyes slightly and went to the same workbench and, after rooting around for a second, brought out a double-edged Randall knife, "Try not to cut yourself with it, Buffy."

She smiled, "Pretty." Frankly, it never amazed him that she was so taken with weapons – show a Slayer a new toy and she's like a kid in a candy store.

{Cemetery, later that evening}

"Is it a freaking vamp and demon holiday and we weren't told about it?" Buffy whined a little and then kicked up a small clod of dirt as they walked through the cemetery, "Why aren't there any vamps?"

"Because you're giving they a lot of notice that you're looking for them with as much noise as you're making?" Even from her hiding spot, Sonja smiled and held back a giggle as her student lazily snapped off a one-liner at the former-Slayer's expense. She'd swear that he was a genius with some of the material she'd heard him come up with – kind of like a young Jerry Lewis but without the physical comedy in it as well.

"Oh, like you're being so quiet over there, mister 'I tripped over a headstone'."

"Compared to the racket you're making, I'm practically fucking invisible." Xander had attached the suppressor to the end of the barrel of his USP .40 and held it casually as they continued to walk in silence for several minutes.

"Rumor has it you killed Spike."

"And?"

"Is it true?"

"No, Tara, my other charge, killed him with a fireball – I made him suffer first."

Buffy stopped at this, "Why?"

Xander didn't. "He deserved it."

"Again with the why?"

"Two Slayers to his name, an untold number of victims, how he earned his name and not to mention the fact that he wrote that awful poetry." Sonja had to hand it to him – when he was right, he was right, as she had read some of that awful poetry as well.

"Did you like making him suffer?"

"On some level, yes, and before you say that makes me just as bad as him, let me tell you why – he's a vampire, a creature of darkness, and by birth I am a Whitelighter, a being of light and good. Now, the old saying is that to do the right thing, you can't always do the good thing, but they have that backwards – to do the good thing, it isn't always the right thing."

"And that applies here for what odd reason?"

"Justice, Buffy – all of Spike's victims got a tad bit of justice out of the pure agony he felt for those few moments before Tara burned him." He continued walking even as Buffy stopped, "And in the end, right or wrong, Justice is all that separates us from them."

Sonja could only sigh as he disappeared into the shadows of a small stand of trees, leaving Buffy standing in the middle of an open patch of gravestone-littered ground. Normally Xander was kind of upbeat and a jester, but it was statements like that, that made Sonja remember just how much he had seen and how much he knew about life.

{Next Day – Empty Warehouse}

"Tell me again why SHE needs to be here?" Jenny could only sigh at the anger in her charge's voice – it was amazing that she had not already slipped onto the dark path already.

"Because I asked her to be and you have unresolved issues with her – until you let go of your anger you will never be able to properly tap into and control the powers that you want to use. Like it or not, I am the teacher, again, and you are the student, again, but this time I am already dead and I won't have to worry about some pesky vampire losing his soul and snapping my neck to where you don't get the instruction in the magical arts that you need." She walked over to a set of candles and absently lit them while Faith, the Slayer and Xander's friend, perked up.

"How'd you meet up with Xander again, Lady J? I thought the two of you ran in different circles."

Jenny sighed, "We did, and don't call me that. He is, or was, a Whitelighter, and I, at the time, was in the Guardian corps, or rather, I was a true Guardian Angel. One day he orbed into a school that my charge was in and we bumped into each other."

"And what happened?"

Jenny blushed, "Well, to be perfectly honest, I slapped him at first, but then I tried to hug him in half."

Willow perked up, "Why'd you slap him?"

Jenny felt her cheeks burn some more, "Because he orbed into the lady's room, Willow." She then giggled at the memory, "He turned the most darling shade of red when I told him where he was and didn't even orb, he just ran right out of there." Faith laughed at that one and Willow merely turned red at the possibility of it happening, "Of course I apologized to him later on, as he did to me, but sufficed to say, we have put it behind us now."

The lessons went on for nearly an hour before Willow hit her first stumbling block – Faith's constant snickering; Jenny knew that Faith was doing it to irritate the bound-Wicca, and it was working so well that Willow finally screeched and turned on Faith, "What in the nine hells are you laughing about?"

"You, Red – you're trying so hard to get your mojo back that you're looking past the obvious reason for why you lost it." Jenny winced at what was about to happen – Faith was nothing if not direct.

"Oh? And what is that obvious reason, you slut?"

"Your anger, Red. Not to sound all cheesy, but your anger leads to the Dark Side and if you don't come out with what's eating you, it will fester and grow until you explode – trust me, I know of which I speak." Jenny blinked at the sincerity in Faith's voice, but apparently that did nothing to alleviate Willow's anger.

"Fine, my problem with you is that you took Xander away from me! I was supposed to be his first, no some slut who bangs every guy she can find. Xander was supposed to be there for me if Oz didn't come back, and now that he's gone, I can have Xander, or I could if you weren't in the picture."

"Goddess, Child, do you actually LISTEN to what you are saying?" Jenny walked up and slapped Willow good and proper, "You wanted Xander, yet when you were with another person, you wanted him to be alone and miserable on the off chance that you broke up with your boyfriend and needed someone to fall back on. That aside, as I understand, you and Xander had your chance, but he broke it off and suffered more than you did with Cordelia voicing his family's dark secrets over the entire school while Oz didn't speak to you for just over a week and a half."

"That, Red, was so fucking low that you'd need binocs to see a snake's dick. And for your information, me and X, that was our choice, not yours – you had your shot and you blew it, or rather, you blew dog-breath, if the rumors are true." Jenny stepped back as Willow's face went completely red, "If not for you, X and I could have been good for each other – neither of us had any real friends and you still kicked him out of the group like the cold bitch you really are."

"SHUT UP!" Thankfully Willow didn't have her magic, but she still had her fists and feet as she charged Faith and swung with all of her might, but Faith was waiting on that and put her charge in a choke hold, a very painful one.

"Give me a reason, Red. I've killed before, and so has boy toy – neither of us would lose any sleep over it."

"Faith, let her go." Jenny looked over at Rupert, who stepped out of the shadows that he had thought he had been hiding in, and sighed, "She needs help, not throttling."

"I am not so sure about that, Rupert – most of you needed a swift kick in the ass back then, yourself included." That said, she orbed behind him and planted her steel-toed boot right into his posterior, which caused him to howl slightly and clutch the offended area as she orbed back, "Really, Rupert, what in the hell were you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking, truthfully, Jenny. Granted, if I knew then what I know now, I would have done more to help train ... no, to actually train young Alexander, rather than allowing Buffy to buffalo me into a rash decision."

Jenny looked at Faith, who still had Willow in the chokehold, "Let her go, Faith." Faith dropped the redhead and Jenny turned back to Rupert, "Yes, you should have, but let me tell you something, Rupert – I got to see Xander do several things without your training that, quite frankly, scared me back then and still do now, but know that he never needed your help, only your approval."

Rupert sighed, "What else did he do besides make deals with demons?"

Jenny shuddered at the memory, "He tortured a vampire to death over the course of an entire night for information about Angelus and the Judge – he used methods that no country or people have used in nearly two hundred years, Rupert, and he never once FLINCHED at the screams those techniques got."

"I could have told you that boy toy was hardcore, Gypsy Girl – watched him work Willy the Snitch over for some info and even a few vamps were cringing at what he did." She walked over and Jenny could see the haunted look in her eyes, "But knowing what I know now, I don't think that was Xand – I think it was that Soldier he was possessed by, or someone else, 'cause the way he did it said he'd done it before and wasn't afraid to do worse."

Rupert had turned a rather pasty color of white and Jenny was sure she wasn't far behind him, but she cleared her throat, "Not that I would have expected anything less of him, as he was trying to protect his so-called friends, but the fact remains that he was more than willing and capable to walk within the darkness to protect all of you and he never got so much as a 'thank you' out of anybody. Quite frankly, I'm surprised he let you all live as long as you did." She heard Willow moan slightly and turned, "Are you in a better mood now?"

"What hit me?"

"Faith choked you because you needed some time to cool down – do you want to attack her again and have your powers stay bound or are you going to let go of your anger and start being a real Wicca?"

Willow opened her mouth several times, no sound coming out, before she looked down and very ashamed, "She knew what she was doing, didn't she." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, she did – she pushed your buttons so well that you didn't realize what she was doing until just now." Jenny looked at Faith, who was smirking slightly, "I ask that you not do that again without telling me first, Faith – that was rude." Faith looked only partially remorseful and Jenny looked back at Willow, who was looking up now, "Now, are you ready to start again?"

{Later that evening – X and F's place}

He fought briefly with another pair of chopsticks that was going for the last piece of Mu Shu Pork, but while he and whoever own the chopsticks were busy, a third person there snuck in and grabbed the pork bit. He followed the bite of meat up and saw Jenny's face smiling, "That's cheating, Jenny."

"He's right, Lady J."

"Ditto, Jenny – I thought we were friends." Sonja always did have a bit of a child in her, but Xander had to stop himself from laughing as she went into a full-on pout over the lost bit of pork.

"We are, Sonja, but remember what I said about eating around Xander – get what you can, when you can. I swear he's a garbage disposal on legs."

"No, that's Faith after she's had her little visitor," Xander snarked, to which Faith flipped him the bird. "It's true, Faith."

Jenny chuckled and looked at Sonja, "So, what's on Buffy's agenda tomorrow?"

"Another patrol, again with no weapons, only this time she'll have Xander as backup, unlike tonight." Sonja smiled slightly, "It'll be good to see how she does."

"Help!" Willow came barging into the door, "Buffy's really hurt!" Xander, though he didn't realize it, was out of his chair with Faith right behind him a split second after Willow's shout for help came and they reached the front door at about the same time to see a rather grisly sight – Buffy had been beaten several different shades of unholy hell, had bloody gashes all over her body, and what was left of the shirt she had worn was completely sodden with blood, "Help her, please."

"Fuck," was all he could say while he brought his power to bear, instinctively healing the worst of the wounds, which happened to be a ruptured kidney, a lacerated lung and numerous broken ribs, while Sonja and Jenny backed him up – he had found that the more he used his powers without the energy boost he got as a Whitelighter helped him build energy reserves and tone down the energy used in the act of orbing and healing.

"And then some, boy toy," Faith chipped in as she held Willow back, who looked both ready to pass out from the sight of the blood and dead worried from Buffy's plight.

"Get them out of here, Faith," Sonja snapped, taking over for him as he ran out of energy. Faith grabbed him by the arm and dragged both himself and Willow into the living room, plunking them both down on the couch and giving them a look that said 'stay there'.

The three of them sat in the living room, not speaking, as the two Whitelighters worked on the former Slayer, and then Xander spoke up, "Let me guess, she ran her mouth off to the demons and fought like she was still the Slayer, right?"

Willow looked at him, her eyes red from crying, "It was like nothing worked for her, Xander. They bounced her back and forth like ... like a ping pong ball, or something. Why didn't she hurt them?"

"Because B ain't the Slayer anymore, Red. She got cocky about her own abilities and that got her fucked up more than normal." Faith looked at him, "I bet you're just loving this, Xander."

"On some level, absolutely – now she gets to see what I used to go through every night, but I'll admit that I don't want her dead."

Willow gasped, "What? What are you talking about?"

He gave her a look that said 'duh', "She's fighting demons the same way I used to – no training, no powers, and she nearly got killed because she got cocky, unlike me, as I nearly got killed because nobody would train me." She looked down in shame and he went on, "She needs to lose the superiority complex before she really pisses someone off and they kill her outright."

"They nearly succeeded, Xander," Sonja said, coming into the living room and dropping on to the couch next to him, leaning onto his shoulder. "She had five, six more minutes to live, tops."

"Goddess, no."

"Yes, and we don't know just how quickly she will heal from here on out. She no longer has any residual Slayer healing and while some of her fighting skills seem to still be there, she no longer has the muscle or mental control to use them."

"I take it back – she's worse off than when I was normal."

"Be that as it may, somebody needs to teach her what her limitations are now, and guess who just got elected?"

He looked at Sonja, "You?"

"No, you." She patted his cheek and laid back down where she had plopped, "Good luck – you'll need it."

{2 days later – after class}

Buffy ate the padded mat that was on the wall for the fifth time in as many minutes – she and Xander had been sparring, in hopes of getting any remaining Slayer fighting potential out in the open, but so far none of it had shown up and he was tossing her around like a rag doll.

"Off the wall, cheerleader." She turned and glared at Xander, who smiled back in a very nasty way before speaking, "If you want to quit, do so not because I am NOT going to let up on you, Buffy."

"But it's hard!"

"Everything worth doing is difficult to learn, Buffy, and this time around you WILL learn it, instead of having it given to you on a silver platter." She shot forwards and lashed out with a kick, but he caught that kick and pivoted, throwing her to the ground with a thump and a grunt, "I can do this all day and night, cheerleader."

"This was so much easier when I was the Slayer."

"But you're not the Slayer – get over it and move on." She winced at the glacial note in his voice and nodded that he was right – she wasn't the Slayer and he was teaching her in hopes of keeping her alive.

She flew at him again and after a few moves, her back was against his front, her arms were clutching his right arm, which was around her neck and choking her while his left was against the back of her head, "THINK before you attack, Buffy, and you won't have to worry about being surprised like this."

Even as he spoke, she could feel his choke hold on her tighten to the point that it HURT! "Ack!"

"You know how to get out of this choke, Buffy – DO IT!"

Even as spots began to form in front of her eyes from the lack of air, she stomped down on his foot, though it had little effect, and shifted to where she was sideways to him and threw an elbow of her own into his gut, which got a grunt out of him and loosened his grip enough for her to push him away. He fell on to some piled up mats and sat there while she got back her breath enough to glare and speak, "You could have KILLED ME!"

"If you can't take somebody who is only a strong as me, what hope in hell do you have of taking out a vampire?" His honest question brought her up short – he was nowhere near as strong as a vampire and he was kicking her ass, so how was she going to fight a vampire? "Stop thinking like a Slayer and use what you know you have, instead of what you wished you had."

She sulked slightly, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting, hoping he would take things easier on her, but he merely stood and started a furious assault on her that had her pressed against the wall in under four seconds and his arm across her throat again, but this time he was looking directly into her eyes and he wasn't happy, "If you do not take this seriously, I will kill you myself, Buffy. Do you understand?" She nodded and he backed up, allowing her to slump to the ground and cough several times.

"Take it easy, Xander. It's not like this is boot camp or something."

She flinched as he looked up at her and grinned a horrifically evil grin – she had apparently given him an idea and she knew that she would live to regret it.

(1 ½ days later – Saturday, 0430 hours}

{AN: Before I get into this, I would like to thank April's (my friend, not my muse) uncle Edward, formerly a Sergeant in the Marine Corps, for helping me think up this part and rough it out – he's laughed at it the entire time we've been working on paper and I can't wait to hear his response when he reads it.}

Dressed in cammies, combat boots and a t-shirt, Xander stood next to Buffy's bed with a cast iron skillet in one hand, a metal spoon in the other and looked at the spell components of a silence spell merge in the bottle he had put them into – outside of the room, nobody would hear a thing, which would ensure that the ungodly noise he was about to make and his possible murder would never be known until the door was opened. Taking a deep breath, he repeatedly slammed the spoon into the bottom of the skillet and placed both right next to Buffy's ear.

"OFF YOUR ASS AND ON YOUR FEET, SUMMERS! KNEES IN THE FUCKING BREEZE, FIVE MINUTES!" He could remember the Soldier's old DI waking him up like that back in boot in the early 60's and knew it would be effective, but how effective was anther thing he would remember for the rest of his life.

From a dead sleep and horizontal position, Buffy Anne Summers erupted from her bed and seemed to hover in mid air for several seconds before crashing to the floor painfully, dressed in a shirt that sported cows, shorts that had ducks and socks that had bears. She came back up in a stance as he continued banging the pot, looking around for the attack.

"GET READY FOR THE DAILY DOZEN, SUMMERS! RUNNERS, SHIRT, SWEATS, NOW! FOUR MINUTES THIRTY SECONDS – MOVE YOUR ASS!" That put her into motion as she yanked on sweat pants and hopped on one foot as she tried to blindly pull on a sneaker and a sweatshirt at the same time and then tumbled to the ground painfully for a second time with a groan, "THIS ISN'T SUMMER CAMP, THIS IS BOOT CAMP! MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT!" She inched her way to the door like a worm and finally got her shoe on and her sweater on, glaring at him.

"Stop yelling at me, Xander. My hearing is perfectly good."

"Summers, while in this phase of your training, the first and last words out of that hole of yours had better be Drill Instructor Harris – you don't like doing things the easy way, we'll do them the hard way ... the RIGHT way. Now, do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir."

"Sir? I'm a drill instructor, Summers, so don't call me 'sir' because I work for a living, now off you ass and on your feet." He had to admit that he was taking the DI bit too far, but it was fun to be on the end of things he was on for once. He followed her down to the porch and smiled, "Now, for calling me sir, drop and give me fifty push ups, and be quick about it – we still have our daily dozen and a run to do."

She glared at him but pressed out the fifty push ups and followed him move for move on the dozen calisthenics that he ritually did every morning, though not so damned early, and then set out at a jog as his watch beeped on schedule – 0545. They ran for nearly an hour and by the end of it she was doing her best to stay on her feet and breathe while he felt good a warmed up as they came back to the Summers front lawn, where she collapsed directly on top of the morning paper.

"Tired, Buffy?" She didn't even have the energy to glare at him so she just flipped him the bird, "Good, you're not too tired to do the extra one hundred push ups you owe me for that gesture, then. Hell, I'll even do them with you." He got down into the ready position, which she slowly assumed, and smoothly pressed one out, "One." She matched him all the way up to fifty, but then fell flat on her face, "Keep going, Buffy, or you start over."

"I can't – I'm not strong enough." She mumbled into the ground and then looked up at him, bits of grass stuck to her face, "Is that what you've been trying to get me to realize? That I'm not strong enough?"

Still in-position, he quirked an eyebrow, "What makes you say that?"

"I physically CAN'T do this right now, because I never took my training seriously enough when I had my powers, and you're punishing me with this ... torture to make me see that, right?"

"Half right – no, you never took your training seriously enough when you had your powers because you were cocky, overconfident, but now that you don't have your powers, you have to be twice as serious as you should have been before and push yourself to your limits and then beyond them. How the hell do you think I lasted as long as I did?" She glared at him and re- assumed the position, so he pressed out another, "One." She groaned.

It took ten minutes to get the one hundred out, having to stop twice, but Buffy finally did it – if nothing else, he had to give her the fact that the stubborn streak that came with being a female in the Summers clan had been the only thing keeping her in the position and pushing them out. As it ended up, he carried her back into the house and put her in the upstairs bathroom, clothes on and all, and turned on the shower on her, which got her moving with a shriek, as it was cold, and then he orbed to his own place, where he cleaned up and waited for Faith to wake up. He knew that if he had tried the same tactic with her, she'd have him spitted up over some slow coals and rotating for several hours, occasionally basting him before feeding him to some lucky vamp – different tactics for different people.

"Hello, Sonja, Jenny." He didn't even need to turn around as two Whitelighters orbed into the room – he could still feel energy signatures and he knew theirs by heart, "Coffee's ready and I think we still have some fruit left."

"Yes, Drill Instructor Harris," Sonja said with a playful tone, her face appearing over his right shoulder as he calmly read the sports page. "I'll have you know that you had just about every Whitelighter up there laughing their asses off this morning with how you got Buffy to admit that she needed to take things seriously if she ever wanted to get her powers back."

Jenny took that point to stick her face over his left shoulder, "And you made us both rather tidy sums with your tactics as well, Xander."

"Do I get a ... share?" Before he could finish and punctuate the sentence, he felt them both kiss him on separate cheeks and he smiled, "I'll take that as a no, then."

"That WAS your share, Xander," Sonja pointed out as she walked over to the coffee pot and poured herself a cup while Jenny took the main news section of the paper. "Unless, of course, you'd like MORE than your share, that is."

He looked at her oddly and let it pass, but mentally made a note to ask Ares something – something wasn't right on the Hellmouth, and as usual in his love life, it could only get REALLY ugly, eventually.

AN: Alright, I'll end this chapter here and we'll start the next one some time next week; I know it seems that Sonja and Jenny are getting WAY too friendly, but trust me, it's not Hellmouthy ... they have a meddler amongst them, several of them. R&R, AR.