DISCLAIMER: I own neither Firefly, nor Angel or Spike ...please Don´t sue! All belongs to Joss!!!!

NOTES:

Thanx for the Feedback …this is a small interlude  ……

Q&A

„ Come on , Alice! Don´t let him get away with that!"

Mal could hear the dark haired vampire yell from the catwalk.

" And Spike, quit playing around …..you´re supposed to be training her!"

Alice and Spike were sparring in the cargo bay beneath him, both breathing heavily, covered in sweat.

Mal joined Angel who was watching the two of them with narrowed eyes. Down in the bay Jayne and Book had stopped their daily work out of lifting weights. Their eyes following the young girl and the slender vampire as they exchanged blows and kicks in what seemed to be a perfectly balanced dance.

Angel crossed his arms in front, scowling.

" They are not taking this serious enough!" he mumbled.

Mal lifted an eyebrow at him.

" Looks pretty serious to me ….." he said. Spike´s fist hit the girl´s face with a sickening thud, the impact hurling her to the floor. Mal could see blood running from the edge of her mouth, but the vampire was already charging her again.

There was an almost inaudible sigh from the opposite site of the catwalk, were River had suddenly appeared. Her eyes were bright, seemingly not missing a thing. It took Mal a moment to realize, that she was not sighing but whispering ….repeating one word over and over again…….Slayer.

The sound of a loud crash brought his attention back to the cargo bay, where Alice had managed to slam Spike into the wall by some trick of acrobacy that his eyes had obviously missed.

Malcolm Reynolds let out a low hiss. He had seen her fighting before, but the way these two went at it under Angel´s scrutinizing gaze was just not human ….

" I didn´t even see how she did that. Is she that good?"

Angel turned to him, his face still grim but with a hint of grim satisfaction.

"She is that good!"

Mal nodded.

" Still ….a pretty tough deal for a girl that young!"

The dark haired vampire hesitated a moment.

" You talked to Alice about this……."

" We had a little chat about what it is you do. She said the two of you trained her, I just didn´t think it would look like this!"

Mal motioned towards the bay once again. Spike was on his feet again, trying to block a roundhouse kick Alice was delivering to his head.

He could hear Jayne´s fascinated chuckle from below.

" Look at that preacher, that girl has some moves!"

The mercenary was obviously enjoying himself, mal shook his head in mild amusement.

" So how come that you do that …..you and your friend, training these ….slayers, was it? How did you end up with little miss firecracker down there?"

Angel shrugged. His face had taken on a sombre, guarded look.

" We did not choose her for this, if that´s what you want to know. For a long time there had been no talk of slayer´s at all. We both had our ear to the ground, followed the stories that went around. We went to look if these stories were true……turns out that there were still slayer´s but they didn´t  survive long enough to be of consequence because these girls had no one to guide them, to train them …..somebody needed to do the job!"

Mal pursed his lips.

" And once your …..charge is dead?"

Angel´s face became hard and grim.

" We move on, find the next in line……"

" How do you know where to look?"

Another loud crashing sound came from beneath them. They both paid it no attention.

" We don´t …..but Alice for one was hard to miss! We just ended up following the endless trail of creatures that had tried to kill her and failed. Her father is a captain, much like you. Alice´s calling wasn´t really good for business!"

Mal nodded …he could see the problem.

" How old was she?"

" Fourteen when she became the chosen one, fifteen by the time we caught up with her."

Mal stared at the vampire, then his eyes wandered back to Alice who was blocking a fast combination of punches Spike was throwing at her torso and head. Not a sound escaped her lips.

" Fourteen years old…" Mal repeated, shaking his head. She had still been a child when burdened with that weight. Today she still looked no older than eighteen, give or take a year.

" She´s nineteen." Angel told him as though he had read Mal´s thoughts.

" Doesn´t seem fair to me, lil´girl like that ….all alone against all that doom!"

Angel shrugged. He understood the captain´s thinking, but he had been there before …a million times. He did not have the power to change the workings of the powers that be …….he did not ponder this questions anymore. All it did was depress him ….

" Probably not."

" Why do it then?"  Mal asked flatly. Alice might have explained it to him, which did not mean he had to understand her acceptance of whatever fate the world had dealt her.

" She´s the chosen one…..evil does not care if you want to be the slayer! None of them would choose to be. Evil will find these girls no matter what. It will come after them. And if it finds them it will try to kill them because they are the slayer….."

"Pretty dire perspective if you ask me." He thought of something, looking at Angel intently.

" How long can they keep doing it ……Alice´s predecessor, how long did she travel with you."

Angel turned to watch Alice and Spike again.

" Mariah ……she lasted 8 months… Most of them don´t live to see their eighteenth birthday. No matter how hard we train them, they will die eventually. One day they simply wake up, bruised and battered, and they realize that this is their life. That from the day they were chosen on their life consisted of challenges and fighting and for the first time they understand that it´s never going to change! They will get up each day to fight for their lives and for what?"

" To fight another day….." Mal said quietly.

Angel looked at him, nodding.

" Yes…..that´s all there is. Once they realize that something inside of them breaks…..Mariah just couldn´t take it. She just ….went out, fought back, but ….her heart wasn´t in it. She was seventeen years old …."

Mal took a deep breath.

" Alice lasted longer, when do you think she´s going to realize …"

Angel let out a deep, low laugh. His face had taken on an almost amused, wistful impression.

" Oh , Alice is different. She knows, she knew all along. It almost tore her apart…leaving her family, her life …..but she´s a trooper. Reminds me of someone I knew back on earth that was. She will never just lay down and let them come for her. Oh no …Alice will keep on fighting as long as there is a breath in her body. She´s special…."

" Bloody hell!" They both turned to find that Alice had somehow manoeuvred Spike into a headlock.

" Yeah …real special girl…" Mal added, but he could not suppress a grin.

" That why you tryin´to meet up with this old pal of yours?"

The remark brought another low chuckle from the vampire.

" Lorne …oh yeah. He runs a very interesting establishment on this outpost we are going to."

" Your girl said he gives people guidance, so is he some kind of guru?"

Angel shook his head, smiling.

" Not really….he just helps people find their way."

" Well ain´t that shiny?"

" You in need of some guidance captain?"

Mal laughed good-naturedly.

"You never know ……how does your friend do that?"

" I think you should maybe come with us , cause if I told you …you would not believe me!"