Champions of the Universe Original Draft

by Joshua The Evil Guy

AUOne particular Buffy has a destiny very different from the others. Crossover with the entire Dragonball universe, and several other thrown in too. This is the original draft of Champions.

4. The First Week

Champions Of The Universe: 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Disclaimer:           In no way do I own any of these characters, or their histories, except ofcourse for the Powers, the Compound, and the character of Goku, though not his history or name.  All characters and other links to the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" belong to Joss Whedon, and the respective production companies.  Anything related to Dragon Ball Z belong to their respective creators.  This is entirely a work of fiction, and in no way do I promote or believe any of the things within here written, nor do I stand to make any sort of profit.

The First Week:

Second Day:

            For the second day, Goku found himself getting up at least an hour early, eating his breakfast almost unhealthily fast, and in general getting ready a lot sooner than the rest of the Compound did.  And then he found himself stepping through his MTC into his new recruits apartment.  He just stood there for the first few minutes, waiting for the last ten minutes before wake-up call.  The moment that it was ten till, he attached the vocal enhancer to his throat and shouted as loud as he could, "Rise and shine!!  Rise and shine!!!"  Ofcourse with the vocal enhancer it sounded more like a fifty foot giant was shouting it instead of the six foot Saiyan.

            After his third bellow, the reaction he had gotten yesterday morning repeated itself.  At least to the point of all the doors opening.  The difference came in the fact that both Buffy and Xander were holding their make sevens in their hands and had them pitched to be thrown at him if he hollered another decibel.

            Yet what kept him from shouting out once more, was Giles holding Nightblade, the tip sparking with blue energy.  Instead, he just covered his mouth with his fist, removed the vocal enhancer and cleared his throat.  Then he smiled condescendingly, as he had been ever since they had met him, and said in as snobbish a voice that he could produce, which just made him sound like a really tough drill instructor, "Not too bad for your second day.  You should remember the drill, so get to it!"

            The four relaxed, and Buffy and Xander tossed their katanas back into their rooms and then shuffled out and over to the meal bar.  Giles just re-sheathed Nightblade and joined them at the bar.  The teens looked a bit rumpled from their sleep, but Giles himself looked remarkable well kempt.

            Goku also noticed that each of them had taken to what most in the Compound had in sleeping attire.  They had slept in their underwear.  Or rather, Buffy and Willow wore their black leotards, Xander the boxers and tank top, and Giles had either put them on before opening his door or slept in his pants.  Though they are quite comfortable, Goku thought to himself.

            Buffy was still tired.  In fact she was so tired that it felt like she had gotten less than ten minutes of sleep.  Nevertheless, she found she still had the strength to threaten Goku with her sword, and then walk over to the bar to eat.  This morning, it was much simpler, just eggs, biscuits in gravy, and orange juice.  For everybody.

            "Wow, who knew that this was everybody's favorite breakfast!" Xander commented dully as he sat down and started shoveling in the nutrition.

            "It's not," Willow answered numbly as she too shoveled in the grub.

            They ate in silence for some time after that, and after they finished the first helping, Buffy asked for a second round, while Xander asked for some cereal.  Giles went back to his room with Nightblade, and Willow, complaining that she was stuffed, went over to sit on the couch for a few minutes.  Which actually turned into curling up on the self-conforming cushions and trying to go back to sleep.

            Ten minutes after waking up, Buffy and Xander had finished their seconds and were standing up just as the lights started flashing and the "wake-up whine" started sounding.  "Shut up!" Buffy yelled at the ceiling.  In response, the lights started strobing and the whine got twice as loud.  Buffy yelled again, louder, "SHUT UP!!!"

            Suddenly the whine got to be bone shaking and teeth shattering and the lights began to give everybody a headache.  Goku was showing just as much pain as the rest of the mortals but offered no support or explanation.  Finally Willow shouted at Buffy, "BUFFY!  I don't think that IS WORKING!!"  Willow was just as surprised as anyone when the wake-up alarm suddenly cut out, leaving her to shout the end of her sentence at a higher volume.

            "What just happened?" Buffy asked Goku.

            The taller Saiyan/human just shrugged and was wincing as he cleared his ears.  "Uh, my guess is that they installed the 'wake-up or else' clause in your system.  What that means is that your alarm cuts out when its convinced that you're awake, but some species can shout in their sleep, so words that indicate the noise to stop, such as 'shut up' or 'quiet' or so on, they won't turn off the system.  Plus your voices have to reach a certain volume in order to be effective."

            Buffy just rolled her eyes and went into her room.  "Perfect.  If anybody needs me I'm going to be getting off in the shower.  Don't bother me."

            Willow mimicked her friend's sentiments, but chose not to say anything and went into her own room.  Xander, quiet until now, looked up at Goku and seemed about to ask a question, but he hesitated and then just turned and started for his own room.  Goku stopped him however, "What is it Xander?"

            Xander paused, slowly turned around, and looked the 1/8th Saiyan in the eye.  "What do you think Goku?  I want to know when we're going to see the results of this training of yours.  So far…all its done is kill us and make us snap at each other's throats.  We were a pretty good team before we came here Goku.  Now…now we're barely holding together."  Xander stopped talking and went into his room to get a shower.  Leaving Goku with a confused look on his face.

            In her room, Willow was feeling many things.  She was a feeler of many different emotions.  Confusion, anger, frustration, exhaustion, anxiousness, fear, and more confusion.  She just shook it all off for a moment and entered her bathroom, making sure the door was closed behind her.

            Then, avoiding the mirror, Willow carefully stripped out of her single-piece leotard/underwear and set the "Sonic shower" as Goku had shown her yesterday morning.  Sighing in hopes that the shower would relieve most of her stress, Willow stepped into the alcove and commanded, "Shower On!"

            Immediately, the force field sparked into place at the entrance to the shower and the "lights," which Willow had realized were actually sonic resonators, came on.  As yesterday, Willow's entire frame was bombarded with more sensation than she could stand at once.  As yesterday, she came within seconds of the shower's activation.

            She could barely hear her own screams of ecstasy above the whine of the shower, but she had little desire to give the off command as she was hastily approaching her second orgasm.  After her second orgasm, which somehow merged with her third and fourth orgasms, the resonators began to shift into the green spectrum, and now Willow really was going crazy.

            All thought and stress and just about everything left Willow, except the sensation and the ecstasy.  She was nothing except one big cumming nerve, as her breasts were stimulated in ways that she never before imagined.  She fell to her knees, her legs parting, as yesterday, and rediscovered the pure pleasure coming (in more ways than one) from the area between her legs when she opened them to the light.

            Slowly, Willow began to return to reality as the green gave way back to the blue.  She knew from experience that if she didn't stop it then, then the cycle would just start over again.  Despite the temptation, Willow shakily got to her feet and commanded, when she could hear her own voice again, "Shower Off!"

            The lights and force field turned off immediately and Willow stepped out of the alcove, naked, dry, and completely clean.  'I'm going to have to get used to this,' Willow thought to herself as she picked up her leotard, referring to the non-need of drying off after stepping out of the shower.

            She was also surprised when she stepped into her clothes that they felt the same cool fresh clean that they had yesterday when she had first put them on.  She wondered briefly, yet again, what had happened to the clothes they had been wearing when they had arrived here, but figured that they'd either be given replacements, or be able to keep these for when they went back home.

            Zipping up her jumpsuit, Willow sat down on her large bed and quickly slipped her boots on, minus socks (another thing to get used to), but the boots were so comfortable that she felt she didn't really need socks.

            Ready, as she ever could be, Willow stepped out of her room and into the living room, surprised to see Goku standing there with a confused look on his face.  "Is something wrong Goku?" she asked friendly.

            The taller Saiyan started at Willow's question, apparently unaware of her entrance into the room.  "Huh?  Willow?  Oh.  No, nothings wrong.  Nothing directly anyway.  Don't worry about it, I can handle it," Goku said when she looked about to say something more.

            "Well, okay," Willow muttered and then went to the couch to wait for the others.

            After a minute of tense silence, Willow felt the need to talk and asked Goku, "So, uh, Goku?  What's on the agenda for today?  Oh, and did Amana…uh, I mean the Arch Mage get in touch with you about yesterday?"

            Goku looked up at Willow, and she was afraid that she'd have to repeat her questions, but Goku answered them simply enough.  "Amana?  Yeah, she got in touch with me.  You'll be going to her at the same time.  And don't worry, she told me that they would forgo the maze this time," Goku said with a grin.

            "As for what we'll be doing today, more of what happened yesterday.  Except that I expect Giles to be staying here most of today.  You've passed the reading material course, right?" Goku asked suddenly.

            Surprised, Willow nodded and said, "Um, yeah, why?  I mean, Amana…the Arch Mage said that I had, and that's why I joined you guys yesterday.  Why do you ask?"

            "Did you come across any references to 'The Blades of Power'?" Goku asked.

            Willow creased her brow in concentration as she searched her photographic memory for the information.  Then her face lit up.  "Yeah!  Yeah, I did!  But it was only a singular reference in a book on various magical power artifacts known throughout the omniverse.  I think it went, "The Blades of Power, while origins are cloaked in secret, are among the most valued and powerful weapons available in the battle of Good and Evil.  Each Blade is rumored to have its own specific name, abilities, and personality, yet all of them are highly revered as extremely powerful magical tools.  At last documented count, there are 30 of these Blades in existence, for they have no doubles across the Omniverse, and are truly unique."  At least I think that's what is said."

            Goku was just staring at Willow, waiting for something apparently.  Then it clicked.  Willow's eyes went wide and her eyebrows near disappeared beneath her scalp.  "You…you mean-you mean, you-you-you-you-you, you mean that…GILES!  That Giles' sword is one of the Blades of Power!!?" Willow screeched.

            Instantly, Buffy, who just putting on her jacket, was out of her room and looking around.  Her eyes locked onto Willow, who was not in any obvious danger, so she asked in a breathless voice, "Willow?  What's wrong?  What happened?"

            Willow looked at Buffy, and Buffy got really, really nervous at the look the redhead had on her face.  "Its almost nothing, Buffy.  I…I just learned something really…(erhrm) interesting about Giles' Blade." Willow coughed.

            "Oh, you mean that it's alive.  We learned that last night Will," Buffy waved off her friends panic.  Before Willow could further explain, Buffy walked back into her room and grabbed her own sword and then stepped back outside and closed the door behind her.

            "So, Goku, what's next?" Buffy asked with humor as she wrapped her neck-length blonde hair back into a ponytail with a wire she had found on her dresser this morning.

            Instead of answering, Goku asked what was on Willow's mind, "Buffy?  Where did you get that?"

            "Get what?" Buffy asked back, finished with her hair and now standing behind Willow on the couch.

            "That wire you just used to pull your hair back," Goku pointed out.

            "Oh," Buffy shrugged.  "I don't know.  I just found it on my dresser this morning.  Part of my problem yesterday, I realized was that my hair kept flying in my face, so when I saw it, I figured problem solved."

            "Oh," Goku muttered.

            At the silence, Buffy and Willow looked at Goku again as Buffy said, "So Goku?  What's next?"  Goku just grinned and shrugged.  "We wait for the others to come out here," he told her simply.

            "Oh," Buffy repeated.

            Dropping the matter for the moment, Buffy jumped over the couch and landed beside her best friend, whom she was feeling much better around after the assurances from last night and a much needed relaxation the Sonic shower provided.

            "So Will," she asked her bestest friend, "ya gonna explain those "consequences" you mentioned last night after the spell?"

            "Huh?  Oh!  Yeah, I mean I guess I should," Willow babbled.

            "Spell?" Goku interrupted.

            Buffy nodded and answered, "We cast a spell last night.  Figured Will could use the practice."

            Willow, blushing, nodded her head in agreement with Buffy.  "Uh, remember that shield spell that I cast the other day?  Well I read about it just yesterday in the books the Arch Mage told me to read, and I also read about how to transfer knowledge from the future for instances of inspiration, and that's how I knew how to do the shield spell that day, and I know you were angry, but I figured that…"

            Willow stopped talking when she saw the look on Goku's face.  It wasn't one of pride, or anger, or even disappointment.  It was more…intense than that.  Like Goku was going over the numerous ways he could kill her most painfully right at that moment.

            "Is something wrong Goku?" Buffy asked, who did not like one tiny little bit the way he was looking at the girl next to her.

            "What.  Exactly.  Did.  You do?" Goku asked very slowly.

            Buffy put her hand on Willow's thigh to keep her from answering, and answered for her.  "We cast two spells.  The first so that Willow could get in touch with her past self during the demonstration in the gym the other day, and the second was the spell that Willow cast then, which you exploded over, though I still don't get why.  So we made sure our clothes didn't get dusty, so what?  Didn't really matter since those clothes are probably scrap right now anyway."

            Willow was glad that Buffy was defending her, though she didn't see where she had done anything wrong, but what she found her mind thinking on was not Buffy's words of defense, rather the hand she had on her thigh.  The moment that Buffy touched her with such a simple gesture, she felt an almost electric contact there where Buffy's warmth met her own.  It was very distracting, and very disturbing at the same time.

            "Willow," Goku pulled her out of her private musings.  "How much of a talk did you and "Amana" have yesterday?"

            Willow was confused at the question, and Buffy's hand still on her thigh certainly didn't help.  "Uh, well," Willow began, "We…we talked about magic.  She explained what magic is exactly and why it is the way that it is and a whole bunch of other stuff.  Why?"

            "I don't suppose any of this…"other stuff" included anything about rules did it?" Goku asked, his face and posture deadly serious.

            Willow froze.  Her mind went over every detail of her time with the Arch Mage.  The redhead timidly shook her head.  "No, nothing about rules.  Except what was defined in the books…"

            Goku stood to his feet rather suddenly, startling both girls.  When he began to pace back and forth around the room rather aggressively, it was obvious to the two teenagers that their Trainer was upset, but they had little clue as to about what.

            After another minute of nothing but Goku pacing, trying to calm down, Xander came out, looking much refreshed, but possibly upset about something himself.  When he saw Goku though, he got concerned.  "What's going on?" he whispered to the girls as he sat on the back of the couch.

            Buffy just shrugged, her face saying the rest.  Willow shrugged as well, but backed it up with, "We're not sure.  We told Goku about the spells we did last night and he looked ready to kill me, as in really kill me, and then he started pacing after he asked me about rules."

            Xander scowled in concern.  "You don't think that by casting spells outside of training that we…broke some kind of…rule?" he asked hesitantly.  Buffy and Willow froze, inside and out.  They hadn't even considered that!

            "Uh oh.  Will, quick, what are all the consequences," Buffy hastily whispered.

            "Well it's just a general karma thing in Wicca.  Kind of a 'do unto others as you would do unto yourself' but a bit more.  It goes, "Ever mind the Rule of Three, three times what thou givest returns to thee.  This lesson well, thou must learn thee only gets what thou dost earn!"  Basically translated it means that whatever you do with your spells, comes back to you threefold.  If you use the power wisely and to help others, good things will happen.  If not…" Willow left the statement hanging.  Buffy and Xander nodded in understanding.

            "There are more consequences to what you did other than karma Willow!" Goku snapped, continuing his dizzying pace.

            "Hey, ya wanna explain exactly what we did wrong here?  And stop pacing for crying out loud, you're making me dizzy!" Buffy snapped back at him.

            Goku stopped and turned on the three teens.  Buffy suddenly wished that he hadn't stopped pacing.  "There are rules Buffy!  Rules are kinda vital in more regards than you teenagers would probably have the capacity to understand.  There is to be NO, and I repeat NO unauthorized magic to be performed or used outside of the Mage Tower.  What had me so upset the other day was that Willow used a spell, which in itself she should not have done, that she should not have known or been able to do.  I thought that just maybe…they might blame me if somebody actually cited the rulebook on you.  In the end, I was lucky.  They just thought she was gifted.  Now, you're telling me that the fluke that saved me and you guys from being in the largest trouble one can be without having to fight for your life, was a couple of spells that she learned yesterday?"

            "Well, when you say it like that…" Buffy trailed off.

            There was a kind of tense and extremely uncomfortable silence after that.  Finally Goku seemed to just say "Whatever" and he stood up in a huff and grabbed a package near where he'd sat.  He opened it and then tossed it down in front of the two girls.  They were so surprised, and not to mention definitely feeling the shame and regret, that the two girls and boy just sat there and stared in wonderment at the Saiyan's movements.

            After he tossed down the package, one of the contents spilled out onto the floor.  Buffy was surprised to see a device identical to Goku's advanced palm pilot, or Global, in the closed format.  Slowly picking up the package, she saw three more of the devices in there.  She looked up just in time to see Goku step through the MTC.

            "Goku!  Wait!" she called after him.  It was of little use however as he was already gone.

            "Buffy, what is it?" Willow asked, standing up next to her friend to look in the package as well, Xander on the other side of the Slayer.  They were just as surprised and confused as Buffy was.  Willow pulled out one of the devices, while Buffy picked up the one on the floor.

            Willow examined the device and was surprised by the simplicity of it.  It was about 8 cm long, shaped like a flattened oval, and while closed at the widest point only two and a half cm wide.  One side had a black grip, while the other was the same sterile gray the Compound seemed to favor.  At the top of it was what looked like a micro-camera with red, yellow, green and a blue lights beneath it.  On the bottom, on the backside Willow felt a switch that she imagined must be what activates the device.

            Willow held it like she had seen Goku hold it all yesterday, and came to the disappointing realization that her hand couldn't flip the switch positioned like that.  So she just brought her other hand up and flipped the switch.  But she never expected it to sting her!

            "Oww!" Willow yelled as she brought her pointer finger up to her mouth to suck the pain away.  When she looked at her finger, she was surprised to find a small pinprick, but no blood or any other sign of the wound.

            "Will?  What happened?" Buffy asked with concern.

            "Uh, I don't know.  It bit me!" Willow whined.

            "Well, what'd you do?" Buffy asked, frowning with further concern.

            Willow shrugged.  "I just flipped the switch on the bottom of it.  I figured that would turn it on.  I didn't know that it would bite me!" she answered.

            Frowning, Buffy gave Xander the package and held her own Global the way Willow had it and reached up with her second hand until she found the switch in question.  She jerked her hand back in surprise when the expected bite came, but she didn't cry out.  She did notice however that the lights just beneath the mini-cam, in particular the red one, came on after she did.  "Hunh," she grunted in confusion as she put her finger back to the switch, only no further bites came.

            "Well, it might be just a DNA thing Will, you know so that it'll recognize only authorized users, right?" Buffy hypothesized.

            Willow had to nod at that logic.  "You're probably right Buffy.  But wouldn't that mean that these things, Globals are ours now?"  Wiccan asked.

            Before Buffy could speak, the device in Willow's hand began to chirp, exactly as Goku's did, in answer.  Willow nearly dropped it from surprise, but she kept it in her hand as she looked into Buffy's equally shocked eyes.

            "Well?" Buffy prompted.  "Answer it!"

            Willow gulped.  She didn't even know how to turn the damn thing on and she was supposed to answer her first call on it?  She tried the switch at the bottom again, but that didn't do a thing other than freeze up.  Sighing, she squeezed the grip tighter and shook it in anger.  "How do I turn you on?!" she screamed in frustration.  She barely noticed that her increased grip pressed some switch inside the grip at the top of it where her thumb rested.

            In response to the button Willow pressed beneath the black grip, the chirping device suddenly beeped and slid open to the side, so that the gray side was another seven centimeters away from the grip side, and an illuminated panel with the image of what looked like an orange fishman with extremely large bulbous eyes, connecting the two edges of the Global.

            "Um…hello?" Willow spoke uncertainly to the image.

            "Witch, you are to report to the Mage Tower immediately for a meeting with your Trainers.  The MTC has been set, all it requires is your authorization.  You are to go as soon as possible." The orange fishman said in a rather bubbly language that Willow understood despite its alien origins.

            "Um…OK.  Thank-thank you for telling me," Willow answered as politely as she could.

            Just as she was about to ask it how to turn off the Global in her hand, the fishman spoke up once more.  "Look Rookie, I know you're new and all," he (if it even was a he she thought) began, "But you do not keep people like the Arch Mages waiting around, if you know what I mean.  So if they ask you to jump, you ask how high?  If they tell you to kill your best friend and ****** with your worst enemy, you do it.  Got me?"

            Willow just nodded, her eyes easily showing how overwhelmed she was.  "Yeah, got it.  Except for the, uh, the whatever word it is you used to describe sex, but that's not important is it?  Um, please tell Aman…the Arch Mage that I will be there immediately.  Um…out?"

            The orange operator just gave her his species equivalent of rolling eyes, which was actually to just flap his fins in an agitated manor, according to her implant.  His image disappeared, only to be replaced by the clear glass or plastic or whatever the screen was.  She then remembered that when Goku was done with his Global, all he did was close it.  So she did.  She was somewhat surprised to feel the switch on the bottom to click when it had.

            Willow then remembered that Buffy was in the room when the blonde touched her shoulder.  She jumped slightly, but then quickly relaxed.  "Um, look Buffy, I, uh, I gotta go.  I'm sorry.  I'll explain later…if I can," Willow whispered the last part as she hurriedly walked to the MTC and pressed her hand to the black plate.  "Witch," she authorized when the circle turned red.  It turned a brighter shade, and Willow didn't even bother a glance behind her at her friends.

            Two seconds after Willow was gone, Giles stepped out of his room, ready for the day as it was.  Xander took out his own Global, as well as the only remaining one and tossed it to Giles, while Buffy just stared in dreaded confusion at the red spot on the wall.

            "What's this?" the Watcher asked, decked out in his full outfit, complemented by his Blade sheathed over his shoulder.

            Buffy, distracted from her dark thoughts, turned to her mentor and explained what they had found out about the Globals so far.  After that, Giles nodded his understanding and both he and Xander got their "bites", which Giles also surmised was for identifying the DNA of the primary user.  He also discovered and told them about the button hidden in the grip that activated the device.

            A couple minutes after that, Buffy became more and more agitated, though no amount of begging or concerned questions would get her to disclose why.  Finally, Buffy stood up and grabbed her Global and pressed the button.  It gave the customary beep upon being opened and Buffy ordered at the crystal clear screen, "Get me Goku.  And do not tell me you need authorization, you already have it!"

            Two seconds later, Goku's image was displayed.  He looked kind of angry to the men's eyes, but Buffy was too blinded by her own anger to notice it.  "Goku, what happened to Willow?" Slayer snapped out.

            Goku didn't answer for several moments.  Finally, "She's being questioned about her activities since yesterday.  Other than that, I know nothing.  All I did was tell the Mage Council, the people in charge of the Mage tower and basically all magic-users in the Compound, what you told me and they said that I should stay out of it, and the there was very little chance that Witch would be participating in the group training today.  Is that what you wanted to know, Slayer?"

            Buffy barely stopped herself from growling at the human/Saiyan crossbreed.  "She better be ok, Saiyaman, or else…"

            "Or else what?" he challenged right back.  Buffy didn't have a come back.

            Finally she just glared hard at him and asked, "Well?"

            Goku glared back, but she could see that his demeanor towards them had changed.  "Meet me in the gym.  You know where."  And with that, his image disappeared from the screen.  Buffy snapped her Global shut and turned to her remaining team members.

            "Well?" she asked their view on the recent events.

            Before either male could answer, Giles suddenly turned and looked sharply at his sword.  He looked like he was about to start arguing with his shoulder, but instead he just deflated and looked at Buffy with an apologetic gaze.  She smiled briefly and nodded.  "I understand Giles.  You go meditate.  Xander and I will go.  If you need to go to your room, or the gym, or wherever, just tell me before you go somewhere else, okay?"

            Giles nodded.  "Of course Buffy," he said and turned to go back to his room.

            As the two warriors walked hastily to the MTC, Xander turned to Buffy and asked something that had begun to bug him.  "I hope he meant the private gym.  You know, our private gym that he got for training.  Not the Main gym.  You don't think he meant the Main Gym, do you?"

            Buffy shook her head.  "I'm sure that he meant the training gym," she assured him.  "Where was that again?"

            In the Mage Tower, Willow found herself entering Amana's office/work shop.  And she was not alone.  There were no less than fourteen other people, or other, in the room.  One was Amana herself.  About ten of the creatures in the room however were anything but human.  The majority of them looked kinda like the robotic nurses that had "escorted" Willow and the others into the operating room where they had gotten their implants…well, implanted.  Except that these things were way shorter, and they had an additional two legs along with the other four appendages.  They were also a rusty brown color and instead of tube arms with tentacles at the ends for hands, they had multi-jointed robotic arms and claws for hands.  The heads however, remained the same.

            Willow was confused and concerned at the same time, a state of being that she found herself in quite a lot recently.  She turned to Amana to ask her what was going on, but was stopped, or rather was stunned into silence by the creature standing behind Amana.

            He, she was quite positive that it was a he, was at the very least nine feet tall, and a minotaur.  Yes, no doubt about it, a minotaur.  He was wearing a beautiful red and gold armor breastplate and thigh and shin guards.  The armor seemed to make him even more regal than his appearance already did for him.  His skin, (or maybe fur?), was solid black, his eyes a golden bronze color, and his horns curved forward perfectly ivory white.  Willow couldn't see any tail from the way he was standing, but she couldn't help wondering if he indeed had one.

            The Arch Mage clearing her throat drew Willow from her stunned silence at the minotaur's appearance.  "Willow?" she asked.  Willow immediately stood at attention and looked straight at Amana.  "Yes Arch Mage?" Willow responded respectfully, keeping in mind the etiquette lessons Amana had given her yesterday.

            Amana nodded her head briefly at the proper use, but Willow knew from the look in her teacher's eye as well as everyone else's stances that something more was going on.  She just hoped she wasn't in any, or if she was then not too much, trouble.

            "I would like you to meet someone very important," Amana gestured to the rest of the room.  Willow quickly scanned the remaining faces, and was surprised to find two other humans besides Amana and herself in the room, yet they appeared to be little more than servants, as they stood almost reverently behind Amana and the minotaur with their heads bowed.

            "This," Amana stepped back and gestured at the minotaur, "is the Arch Mage Level 3, and master of seven of the fourteen Forbidden Arts, Lord Archer."

            The massive beast bowed graciously to the red witch and Willow couldn't help feeling that she had just been paid a great deal of respect and honor.  Smiling gratefully, Willow tried to mimic Archer's bow, but she felt she must have messed it up in some way, because when she straightened, both Amana and Archer were barely holding in restrained laughter.

            Grimacing at the sense that she was secretly being made fun of, Willow decided to take another page from Buffy's book and just get straight to the point of it.  "You asked for me Arch Mage Amana?" Willow felt the need for adding further identification what with two Arch Mages in the room.

            Amana nodded.  "Yes.  Goku tells me that you…cast a spell in your room last night?  Which resulted in the "fluke" of you casting an advanced shield spell during the demonstration the other day?"

            Willow nodded, confirming all that the Arch Mage had just said.  "The 'Knowledge of Time' and 'Tri-power Shield' spells."

            "Are you telling us that you cast two high level mage spells last night," Archer spoke, his voice was like speaking thunder "just after reading them once in the books you read yesterday?"

            Willow nodded once again.  She was mildly surprised at how gentle the powerful looking creature sounded, even with his intimidating voice.  She was even more surprised that they weren't acting like they were about to punish her, but rather more like amused teachers that were trying not to beam after having a 1st grade student solve a College level Calc problem.

            Archer and Amana shared a look, but said nothing further.

            "Am I in trouble?" Willow finally asked when she could stand the suspense no longer.

            "Trouble?" Amana repeated in a surprised, and somewhat amused, tone.  "Why my dear Willow, what could possibly make you think that you are in trouble?"

            Willow was slightly thrown by Amana's carefree attitude, especially after how nervous Goku seemed when he explained why he was so upset this morning.  Nevertheless, she was still expecting at the very least a punishment of some kind.  "The way Goku reacted this morning, when I told him about what we'd done, he explained that magic-users of a low rank, such as myself, are not allowed to perform spells or magic of any kind outside of the Mage Tower without instructions or permission from the Mage Council or the Arch Mages.  I, uh, I kinda never got your permission to, uh, do any spells after our lesson yesterday.  I apologize."

            "Apology accepted, however unneeded it was," Amana graciously received.

            Now Willow was really confused.  Archer, seeing her confusion, took it upon himself to try and alleviate it.  "Fear not young one," Archer spoke in rumbling tones, "You, nor the friends that aided you are in any trouble whatsoever.  We, on the other hand, are the ones that are in trouble."

            Willow furrowed her brow as she stared up at the minotaur.  "I don't understand.  Why are you in trouble?"

            "Because Willow," Amana picked up, "We highly underestimated you.  No one in over a half millennium at the Compound has been able to pass the first week of knowledge training in their first day!  So…allowances were made for this one instance Willow.  You see, you've already skipped five levels of rank Willow.  By performing those spells last night, including a memory clean spell on your past self, you have merely confirmed our suspicions as well as our plans to advance your training.  You are now at the rank of Sage Willow."

            Willow was speechless.  She didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything.  She just stared nearly open mouthed, in shock, at the two Arch Mages.

            "We will be advancing your training young Sage," Archer informed her.  "And before we continue with it, I would like to make a request of you."

            "Anything!" Willow blurted after she had computed the request.

            "My name, my true name, is Ralleg-Giseg-walix-Borah.  I prefer Archer.  Not Arch Mage, not Teacher, or whatever other names my friend Amana told you to call her in public.  I'm just Archer and that is all I want to be called.  You think you could handle that little one?" Archer explained.

            Willow smiled up at the black furred man-beast.  "Archer," she said simply and nodded.  Then her brow furrowed again as a look of concentration crossed her face.  Then a look of inspiration and awe and at the same time fear replaced it.  "You-you, you're a, a, you're a Guardian!  A Guardian of the Crossroads of the Plains!  The Lord and—"

            "NO!" Archer suddenly erupted at Willow's babbling.  As violent as his reaction was, he immediately calmed down and repeated much softer, "No.  You are mistaken Sage, I am not the Lord Borah of the Crossroads of the Plains.  That is my father, my older brother, and my nephew.  I am merely a member of a prestigious family, and an extremely powerful mage.  I apologize for my outburst."

            "It's ok," Willow nodded quietly.  "I take it that you don't get along that well with your family?"

            Archer said nothing, but he did look up in surprise at the elfin redhead.  She nodded in understanding.  "I don't get along too well with my family either.  Especially not my mother.  To her I'm nothing but another study, or a textbook case of teenage psychobabble.  As for my father…" Willow stopped talking and turned her back on the assemblage in the room.

            The silence extended into the realm of uncomfortable until Willow felt like she would either have to confess her entire soul to these two strangers, or just try and move on past the unpleasantness her statement had caused.

            "So, advanced training.  I guess I'd better get started then, hadn't I?" Willow looked expectedly at the Arch Mages.

            Amana looked up at the minotaur beside her and showed a genuine smile.  Archer looked down and returned the gesture, then nodded.  Before Willow could even blink again, she suddenly found all of them, except for the robots and the two attendants, back in the cement square reading room she had been taken to yesterday.  She looked worriedly at Archer, afraid that he'd be stooped over from the low ceiling, but she was surprised to see that either the room had expanded, or it was a different room, because the ceiling was now more than high enough to accommodate the nine-foot tall bull creature.

            "This is going to be much similar to the exercises yesterday Willow," Amana informed her.  "The only difference is, that there will only ever be one book on the table at one time.  When you have finished and truly learned all there is to learn from it, the book will disappear, and another will appear to take its place.  After you have finished with all of the books that we send to you, we will come and test you.  Any questions Sage?"

            While Amana spoke, Willow had rounded the table and was now standing behind the chair she would sit in.  "What kind of books will you be sending?" Willow asked, expecting a courier to bring them until she remembered where she was and what Amana had said about the books disappearing and appearing on the table by themselves.

            Archer remained unreadable, but Amana, Willow thought, looked like she was about to break out into soft chuckles.  She didn't but she still looked like she might.  "We will be sending you the entire library.  And if time permits, a few choice selections from our personal collections." Amana answered.

            Willow's eyes widened in shock.  "But…I…but I haven't even read all of the books in Giles' Library!!  I mean…well, yeah ok I've read all of his demonology, occult, and witchcraft books, and the Watcher diaries, and more than half the poetry section, and then all the technical and scientific non-fictional sections, and the…"

            "We get the point Willow," Archer interrupted her, seeing a trend in her ability to run at the mouth a little.  "We shall leave you to your studies now.  We'll both return when you complete."

            And with that, both the minotaur and the human vanished in flashes of orange, and red and yellow light.  Willow sighed as she turned to the table, seeing a rather modern looking book already on the table.  She sat down, opened it and began to read.

            "OWW!" Buffy screamed as she hit the wall a seventh time in half as many minutes.  And as before, she just gritted her teeth and pushed herself off ran right back into the fighting between her, Xander and Goku.

            Even though Goku was stronger and at the rate they were training, Buffy and Xander were more evenly matched, rather than let them face each other or team up on him or face him alone, Goku had them sparring in a free-for-all.  Which basically means that there is no team, it is every single person for them self.  If Buffy were attacking Goku, and Goku only defending, Buffy couldn't count on Xander fighting Goku as well, thereby ganging up on him.  Xander might as well attack her as he would Goku.  Or vice versa.

            Buffy jumped back into the sparring session with a flying roundhouse kick that would have connected painfully with Goku's head…if it had stayed in the same place.  Goku's head disappeared in a blur of movement a second before Buffy would have hit him, leaving the Slayer slightly imbalanced when she landed.  A perfect opportunity for the hyena-like Xander to move in with a tiger strike, which she barely managed to dodge herself.

            Suddenly Buffy found herself on the defense as Xander kept moving at her and Goku also began to move against her.  She blocked a kick from Xander with her forearm and then ducked under a slow punch from Goku and then tried to attack Xander, but had to switch her punch to another block to avoid Xander's punch and Goku's simultaneous high kick.

            Buffy knew better than to try and block any of Goku's attacks, since even the weakest would send her careening back towards the wall.  She ducked and blocked Xander's kick and another hit and tried to swing around for a sweep of Goku's leg, but the 1/8th Saiyan was too fast and jumped up and flipped away from the sparring two.

            With the small reprieve from two attackers to one, Buffy counted her blessings and took on Xander full force and speed before Goku turned his attention back to them.  She blocked a high-speed punch from Warrior X and threw her own directly at his face as hard as she could.  She was momentarily dismayed at being satisfied to hear a crunch of bone as his jaw and nose potentially shattered.

She didn't let up as she brought her right leg up into the Warrior's ribs and jumped up and brought her left leg across his head at the same speed and power of her punch.  She didn't even wait for him to go down, knowing that he would, as she felt a minor cramp and turned at an impressive speed and held her clenched fists and forearms before her face, before she'd even seen Goku's fist flying towards it.

She successfully absorbed the attack and considered striking out with her own when she felt an additional hit on her shoulder, knocking her back some feet.  It was immediately followed by a solid hit to the middle of her back, knocking her to the floor.  Still, Buffy managed to keep her fists together and up.

When no more attacks immediately came, Buffy tried tapping into her ESP power sense thingy and determine exactly where Goku was.  Thankfully, she found him, some six feet right in front of her.

With no other thought or plan other than to attack, Buffy pushed herself to her feet and raced almost blindly straight at the dark fighter.  She no longer had any form or pattern to her attacks; she just punched or kicked wildly at the air, the air where Goku had, as always, been just an instant before.  She always managed to track him; she just couldn't move fast enough to attack him.

Finally, Goku had had enough.  After everything that they had done today, both Slayer and Warrior X were, if anything, getting worse.  Sure, their physical strength was slowly increasing, as well as their speed, and their ability to adapt to the higher gravities, but unfortunately, their fighting ability was dropping faster than a stone in a black hole.

Before Slayer could throw her next punch, Goku caught it, crushed her hand, again, and then backhanded her so hard that her head was twisted 180° in a bone-crushing blow.  Slowly, her skin covered with the blood and bruises of her ordeals, Buffy dropped to her knees and fell to the ground, dead.

As Xander, first, began to glow in the familiar golden light of the Powers, Goku sighed and pulled out his Global.  Before he did anything more though, both Slayer and Warrior X were revived.  "We're done for today.  Go back to your apartment and get some sleep.  You'll have a tougher day tomorrow, understand?"

Groaning, and despite the rush of energy from being revived, Buffy and Xander both felt tired and nodded, getting to their feet and going to the MTC.

"Think he was a little harsh today?" Xander asked as quiet as he could.

Buffy shook her head.  "Naw, it's not that.  He's just frustrated.  We're probably the weakest most pathetic recruits he's ever had.  I mean, look at how he treats us!  And he hasn't even done that 'power up' thing that he did the first day we were here!"  Buffy sighed her self as they reached the portal.  "If it's the last thing that I do here Xander, I am going to get Goku to face me as a Super Saiyan, and I am going to win." The Slayer vowed.

"Buff, believe me," Xander supported, "I would like to see nothing more.  Well, you and Kathy Ireland in string bikinis in a hot tub come a close second, but Goku beat and bloody on the floor is definitely number one."

Buffy giggled slightly as she activated the MTC and set coordinates for their apartment.

Goku, meanwhile, had heard everything they'd said and couldn't help smiling at the thought of an ordinary…ok, not so ordinary human, a Slayer, but still a human, forcing him to transform to Super Saiyan to match her.  It was laughable.

He turned back to his log.  And the requisitions he had to fill out before the start of the next day.

Trainer's Log: Trainer #253810572     Codename: Saiyaman

The second day of training has gone much the way the first had, at least for Slayer and Warrior X.  Watcher, as predicted, after receiving the 'Nightblade' has spent a great majority of his time meditating, according to his teammates only stopping to eat or rest, and even then only for short time periods.

Willow, the mage of my new team has already been reported on, and on follow-up, I've been told by Arch Mage 2 that she is receiving the necessary training to ensure that the mistakes she has made so far will not be made again.  Also I'm told that Willow, uh I mean, Sage has met her secondary magick instructor, Arch Mage 3, Archer.  Hopefully if she is as talented as we all think her to be, then she will catch up enough that I can continue her physical training tomorrow.

Slayer, I have noticed, has a strange affinity for Will-Sage.  I would almost call it sisterly concern, if not for the fact that Willow treats Buffy the same way, and when I see them together like that, I just get the impression that there's something more between them.

For tomorrow I have requisitioned the secondary training.  Normally, with most this would wait until their physical standards are up to peak, usually around the second week, but with the exception of Slayer, I doubt that any of them will be any more ready than they are now.  The only way that I can see to advance their training is to increase it, and until they actually learn how to handle the Secondary Training, I can't do that.  No doubt Buffy's going to complain about her hair getting wet.

End of Log Entry: 243510141997

Third Day:

            "Cool.  Very cool," Buffy commented on their surroundings as her team stepped out of the MTC with Goku.  "Where the hell are we?  It's obviously not any of the gyms we've been to so far."

            "No, no it's not.  Slayer, Watcher, Sage, Warrior X, welcome to 'Second Training', " Goku said almost theatrically, gesturing as such towards the incredibly huge room they found themselves in.

            Actually to say it's huge is only half right.  The top half was huge.  Huge like the Sears tower is to the thickness of a penny.  It was the bottom half that made it unbelievably, unimaginably huge.  For the most part, gray was the obvious primary color, but also the entire room, since it in fact only makes up a single wing of a large building, was just a giant cylinder.  The top half was made up of about five levels.  The bottom level, they would find out was just an access from the bottom half to the top half, and the next to bottom level was preparation/locker room area for entering the bottom half.  Leaving the top three levels for everything else.

            The third, or central level was designed as a preparation/testing/training area for the training done in the bottom half, and was actually the level that Slayer and her team were on right now.  The top two levels were entirely different.  The top level was to be the last of their "Secondary Training" involving learning to use the various training or other technologies the Compound made regular.  It was the second level that Goku was anxious to move to, but again, there were rules.

            "Ok, I'll bite," Xander spoke up taking a look at the room they were in, "What's 'Second Training', and that sounds like it has emphasis."

            Goku smirked at him.  "It does.  Not all of the fighters here are faced with opponents from the same environments, as you might be used to.  This is to teach you how to fight, and fight well in various other environments.  To the extreme.  I'll be handling two of the environments in your regular training, this is to take care of the third."

            "And that would be?" Willow asked, worry in her voice.

            "Underwater," Goku said as he walked away, going to speak to some alien that they assumed was in charge.

            "Oh shit," three teenage voices rang out in unison.  While a fourth, older and with an English accent said, "Oh dear."

            Thirty minutes later, Slayer and team were being briefed on what their new training regimen required and involved.  Buffy, for once in her as yet short life was paying active and close attention, knowing that she would be seriously embarrassed, not to mention dead for several minutes if she didn't and screwed up somewhere.

            The one giving the "briefing" wasn't Goku, who actually had left saying that the technicians and so forth here would take care of them and tell them exactly what to do.  The creature standing before them, as they sat on metal bleacher type benches, was actually rather aquatic looking himself.  He actually looked somewhat like they imagined humans would look like if they evolved from whales or dolphins rather than monkeys.

            "Now, first of all, my name is Chedwindallawhee!, but most humans call me Chad." The whale man introduced himself.  "Don't worry about introducing yourselves, I already know your names.  What we're going to be doing here is preparing you for any chance that you may have an underwater or possibly even space, meaning no atmosphere, fight on your hands.  First things that we will be doing is testing each of yours lung capacities and how long you can survive without oxygen in your systems.  Don't worry, everyone here is immortal so in case you were planning on asking, yes, you will die."

            Chad then gestured behind him at large water tank in the distance.  "That is what we like to call the 'Air Tank.'  Its filled with a special fluid unique to several planets connected to the Compound and we've found a way of artificially reproducing it.  It allows those that breathe oxygen and nitrogen naturally even though it is in liquid form and they are technically "underwater", it's the same as being in a real atmosphere.  We use that, after we're sure your breathing capacity is up to par, to teach you how to more or less move accurately underwater.  It's a lot harder than you might think, because you have to move just as fast as you do on land, and sometimes faster."

            "After that, and you've met all the requirements for that, we will take you to the Bottom Level as we like to call it.  There you use everything you've learned up till then on fighting in a liquid, non-breathable atmosphere.  After that, if you manage to graduate Secondary Training, then you might just be lucky enough to get a couple training sessions in the Bottom half of this facility."

            Buffy raised her hand.  Chad, giving his species equivalent of raising his eyebrows in curiosity (which actually wasn't that different, just take away the eyebrows), nodded his head for her to speak.

            "When you say bottom half…" she left it hanging for a moment, but Chad quickly picked it up.

            "The Bottom Half of this facility is completely underwater, equal in depth as the Top Half is in height, but capable of pressures beyond the core of a White Dwarf star." Chad answered.

            Buffy looked around in confusion.

            Chad chuckled briefly as he understood her confusion.  "Sorry.  This is actually just the Third Floor of the Top Half.  There are two more levels nearly identical in size above it, though the Top Level might be a few centimeters higher, and two more beneath us.  The Bottom Level is actually completely submerged as well, while the Fourth Level is more or less one giant multi-chambered airlock.  The entire Bottom Half though is equal to size as all five levels, just not sectioned off."

            All the human's eyes widened as the idea of the true size of this place truly sunk in.  Xander summed it all up best with his next word.  "Whoa."

            Chad nodded and said, "Indeed."

            "Now, first things first, testing your current lung capacity, then we'll work on your system's ability to cope without oxygen.  This way please," Chad walked away, waving them after him.  They all quickly raced to catch up.

            They all soon came to an open area where Chad was waiting for them.  Buffy and Xander especially noticed the rather large fish-tank-like structure filled with water…and a lid.  However Chad directed them to something that looked like a clear tower with measuring lines on it connected to a hose.

            "This is a Anthological Respiratory Capacity and Expansion Measurement Device.  Or for short, Breathometer.  It measures your lung capacity, your lung strength, and your respiratory effectiveness.  You take this tube," Chad explained, picking up the tube, "place it in your mouth," he pointed at the mouthpiece on the end, "and then try and blow into it, trying to get the measuring object as high as possible.  By the time you're through with this course, at the end of five weeks for average, most humans are able to keep it at the very top for thirty or a few seconds longer.  I myself, and my species, can keep it at the top for over three hours."

            Buffy smiled a little wanly and added in a dull, sarcastic voice, "You must be so proud."

            Chad gave her an expression of annoyance or mild anger, but then he suddenly smiled, if not somewhat darkly.  "Well Ms. Smart-mouth, why don't you go first?  Let's see how long you can last."  With that, Chad handed her the tube, and Buffy found her feet carrying her close enough to accept it, and her arm taking it and fitting the mouthpiece into her orifice.

            'Well, here goes,' Buffy thought as she took a deep breath, as deep as she could manage and put the hose to her mouth, and blew.  And blew.  And blew.  Right around the time that Buffy's face was turning beet red, a very dark red, a small rubber ball began to peak over the bottom of the tube and agonizingly slowly began to creep up a mark at a time, until the top of it reached right around the fifth from the bottom mark before Buffy looking like she was about to pass out, and a very disturbing shade of violet, spat the tube out of her mouth and collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath.

            The ball, for measuring purposes remained frozen in the tube where Chad marked Buffy's "score" as a three, the middle of the ball.  Buffy saw this, since he made the mark up on a big screen with her and her team's names at the top.

            "A three?!  You gave me a stinking three!?" Buffy gasped out.

            Chad gave his version of a shrug, which consisted of making a symbol with his hand that might have normally been misconstrued by the humans if not for their implants.  "You actually did very impressive," he complimented.  "Most humans can't even get the ball to crest the surface, let alone get it any higher.  You must not be an average human to have this much lung power."

            Buffy slowly, once the dizziness had subsided, got to her feet, letting Xander and Giles support her.  "Yeah well, I'm pretty strong for my size," Buffy answered the compliment, almost falling over again.

            "Watcher, you're next," Chad called.

            Both Watcher and Warrior X had what Chad called, "To be expected," results.  But when Sage, Willow, came around…

            "All right Sage, you're up," Chad handed the refreshed/sanitized tube to the redhead.

            Tentatively, Willow took the tube and took several big gulps of air, then let all of her air out slowly, and then took over ten seconds refilling her lungs.  Then she put the mouthpiece to her lips and began to exhale into the tube.  The ball instantly shot from the bottom of the tube to the very top where it stopped.  Willow wasn't looking at the tube, rather Buffy in front of her who was staring back.

            Chad and the other two warriors were watching however and their collective jaws dropped straight through to the Bottom Half.  As they continued to stare at the readout, and Willow continued to exhale into the tube, the ball began to…flatten.  As though the force of pressure being put against it was increasing until it was almost smushed flat.  When Willow began to flush a little, over a minute after she started, the ball was less than an inch thick, where it had been over three just a minute ago.

            As the observers kept watch, something else began to happen.  The Tube suddenly shot up an extra foot, but the flattened ball remained where it was, until it began to move mark by mark up the added foot till it was about two thirds of the way to the new top.  After that point, it began to slow on its climb, but it still continued.  By the time that it reached the top of the additional foot, Willow was catching up on how purple Buffy had looked earlier, three whole minutes after she had started the test.  It remained at the top for a total of thirty-seven seconds before it suddenly took a nose-dive back to the bottom when Willow collapsed to the floor, passed out and with the hose still in her mouth.

            "Willow!" Buffy yelled as she ripped the hose from her best friend's mouth and tried to determine if Willow was conscious, or even breathing anymore.

            Fortunately, in the next few seconds, Willow started coughing and color began to return to her cheeks.  Buffy breathed a heavy sigh of relief and just held Willow in her arms, making sure that the redhead was getting enough air.

            "Are you okay Willow?" Buffy asked softly.  Apparently, though, loud enough for Chad to hear her as he shouted in the next instant, "OK!  Is she OK!  She's way more than OK Ms. Small guppy!  She's off the charts!  Only an Aquarian has that much natural lung capacity for humanoids!  I don't suppose you're friend there happens to be part alien?"

            "No, she just tends to babble on without taking a breath," Xander answered.  "At last count, her record was five and a half minutes of non-stop talking without taking a single breath.  And then she was just red-faced."

            "Five…minutes…?" Chad stuttered, shock radiating off him in waves.

            "Well, we didn't exactly have a stopwatch…" Warrior X trailed off as the whale man raced off and said something excitedly to another technician or whatever.

            "No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!  That's not what I meant!" Chad exclaimed angrily at him.  "I meant that she actually exhaled into the tube for five minutes!  That's never been done before, and especially by a human!!"

            "Wait a sec I thought you just said that you could keep that ball at the top for over three hours and Willow's keeping it up for five minutes has you jumping like it's the second coming?!" Xander argued.

            Chad gave him an annoyed glare.  "My species' natural environment is in deep sea and ocean environments, but this girl gave the equivalent lung pressure to survive at a minimum of 5 miles beneath sea level.  And she held it for five minutes.  The most that even I can survive at 5 miles below is only ten minutes, and that's with the added training that I have.  So that this girl can do it naturally…you can see why I'm impressed?"

            Xander blinked and looked at the still huddled forms of Buffy and Willow, who was breathing better, not regular, but better.  Then he looked over at the stoic Giles and then back to the whale man in front of them.  "Sure."

            Chad just flipped him off once again and called over another technician, who he whispered something that none of them could make out before the technician scurried off to take care of whatever Chad had asked him to do.

            "Uhm…moving on," Chad said moving closer to the two girls, "as soon as Sage is able to walk again, we'll be making our way over to the vacuum training.  We've already got all the readings we need for the moment…"

            "What the hell do we need training to clean carpets for?" Xander interrupted.

            Giles rolled his eyes and snorted, while Chad shrugged his shoulders at Xander, which according to his implant was like flipping him off, and scowled at the youth.  "Shut up and meet me over there when your friend ************** " the string of syllables was lost on the humans whose implants refused to translate them into English, but still gave the meaning that was similar to "catching her breath" or "gets her energy back" or "finishes excreting her fishes."  The last one didn't make that much sense but the meaning was clear enough with the first two.

            When Willow had regained her strength, enough to walk without falling over from the dizzy spells, some ten minutes or more later, the team joined Chad over where he had directed them.  The area was quite a bit different from the last.  Where that had been a more or less opened area with several to many machines scattered about, this area was cramped as small as possible to fit as much into a smaller space.

            It looked like nothing but solid metal squeezed into a ten by 14 foot space, with only computer consoles connected to it on the outside and then two very distinct features that were the only true hints at the nature of the area.  A rectangular window that viewed into a small yellow lit chamber, and a door bigger than almost anything the humans had ever seen, but just small enough still fit on the chamber.

            There were at least three other technicians present here besides Chad when Slayer and her team approached.  The technicians, similar to Chad and obviously the same species, ignored them, but Chad looked up from the console he was at and gave them a slight grin, and a concerned glance at Willow.

            "Feeling better?" he asked.  The redhead mage grinned back and nodded silently.

            "Good!" he exclaimed and turned back to the console.

            The humans exchanged several looks as Chad offered no more comments.  Finally Buffy just shrugged and stepped forward to address the whale man, saying, "Soooo, what is it exactly that's next in this "Second Training" of yours?  Learning the proper use of modern cleaning supplies?"

            The three technicians and Chad all gave the sign equivalent of rolling eyes and continued to ignore the fighters, chattering away in their native language with one another.

            {I can't believe that every human that comes through here tells that stupid joke when we bring them to this part of the evaluation} the first technician complained.

            {I know what you mean, but humor is often the only defense mechanism most humans have.  I don't blame them, only suffer.  Besides, I would not underestimate these humans.  Especially that redhead.  She got a 79 on the Lung capacitor!}

            {Seventy-nine!  A human!} the second technician exclaimed.

            {The only humans to have reached any level past fifty is…} the third trailed off.  They all knew what he was referring to.

            After that, the technicians worked in silence, or as silent as it can ever get on the 3rd level, until they had completed the preliminary checks and prepped the vacuum chamber for the humans.  Chad turned back to Buffy to explain what was to happen.

            "This is called the Vacuum Chamber.  Quite simply because of it's purpose, to create a stable vacuum of atmosphere.  No air, no dust molecules, nothing, and because of that, no sound either.  One of you at a time will enter here and we will activate the chamber, taking out the air.  You will exhale as the air is removed until you have no more breath, and then you will stay alive for as long as possible.  This is supposed to kill you.  Its just how long you last that we are looking at."

            Buffy and the others just stared in muted shock as Chad's statement struck home.  'Immortal, remember, we're Immortal, gotta keep reminding myself that,' Buffy and the others found themselves entertaining the same thoughts.

            "Oh, o-okay, so uh, through here?" Buffy asked, pointing at the door.  Thinking it better to remain silent, Chad nodded, Buffy nodded back and walked towards the incredibly large door, which opened like those blast doors on Star Wars, very fast and with a loud hiss.  Arching an eyebrow, Buffy just swallowed her fear as only a Slayer could and stepped through the door into a bright white clean room, at the other end of which was a near identical door to the one that closed just behind her, except the same clean white as the rest of the room.

            Suddenly Chad's voice spoke up, as though from a loudspeaker, "This is an airlock.  In just a few moments we're going to start pumping in larger amounts of nitrogen to help your body cope with the sudden changes in atmospheres.  Most humans reported that their ears pop during this phase, but I advise you to keep your breathing normal, keep yourself from hyperventilating or yawning.  We'll be opening the other end into the primary chamber in a few moments."

            Buffy nodded her understanding, figuring, though not seeing, that a camera was somewhere in the room.  After a few moments, as promised Buffy' felt her ears begin to pop, but not painfully or even that annoyingly, and several moments after that the door in front of her suddenly and rapidly hissed open, revealing the same yellow chamber that she had seen through the rectangle view port, which she could now see from this end and all the others on the other side.  She could see the worried look on Willow's face.  She just hoped that they couldn't see the same anxiousness on her face as easily.

            "She looks scared," Willow commented silently to Xander and Giles on either side of her.

            "Well, considering that she is in what is essentially a death chamber," Xander answered, "I think that she has full and legal right to be scared Willow."

            "Well, yeah, that's a good point and all, but we are immortal now, right?" the pure innocence in Willow's question drew both men to place their hands in silent support for comfort on the girl's shoulders.  Still, she frowned and looked anxiously back at Buffy, who looked at her and actually gave a half smile at the redhead.

            Giles seemed to be the only one to note the interaction between the two girls, that Buffy somehow seemed to make herself look more confident, less scared than she had been a few seconds before Willow and her eyes caught.  Giles gave a half-smirk as he patted Willow's shoulder and gave a fatherly nod to Buffy in the vacuum chamber.  The blonde smiled and nodded back.

            At the next moment, the technicians became extremely active as Chad spoke through a microphone to Buffy.  "Slayer, now we need you to listen.  Here's what we're going to do," Chad began.  "We're going to start draining the air in a few moments, once we've set everything up, especially the sensors that monitor your vitals.  You'll feel a slight breeze as that happens.  As it is happening, we need you to exhale as much as possible, and as slow as you can.  Not all at once and try not to hold anything back.  And it is extremely, extremely important that you try to keep from inhaling to as little as you can.  And if you try and hold your breath, your lungs will explode, so please remember to exhale when the breeze starts!"

            Chad looked at another screen for several moments after Buffy's tense nod of understanding, and then he leaned back over to the microphone.  "We'll be ready to start in another seventy-five seconds.  Now most humans that can actually control themselves have been able to keep going for at least fifteen minutes.  The others…that can't control themselves and keep trying to breathe in the vacuum usually pass out in the first two minutes and are declared dead three minutes after that.  For a higher score, please try and control yourself, and if you want to last longer, then minimize your physical activity as well.  But do keep in mind that you don't come out of there until you're dead.  Understood?"

            Gulping, Buffy nodded and tried to keep herself from hyperventilating, but was only marginally succeeding.  Some twenty seconds later, when Buffy was just getting her heavy breathing under control, Chad announced through the loudspeaker that they were beginning.

            Buffy felt the "breeze" almost immediately and took a big gulp of air before she slowly started exhaling.  She kept reminding herself that she had to keep exhaling and try and keep from naturally drawing in breath, because there would be none.

            After thirty or so seconds, Buffy felt the breeze taper off and she was scraping to keep exhaling, her lungs starting to feel heavy and constricted.  Once she felt that she had given all she could, she felt all the blood rushing to her head and she quit trying to blow out breath and made the same action as holding her breath, except she wasn't struggling to hold it in, she was struggling to keep from bringing it in.  She managed to hold her posture for, by her count, maybe forty-five or more seconds before her panic response became too strong to ignore and she opened her mouth and tried to take a breath.  Only there was no air to breathe, and her panic response went into over time, trying desperately to get air into the Slayer's lungs, giving Buffy choking reactions.

            Buffy's head was rushed with blood, she could hear her heartbeat in her ears and her eyes began to feel like they bulging out of their sockets.  She managed to regain control of herself after maybe a minute of desperate struggles to remove any obstructions, which were not there, from her airways or maybe get some kind of air supply to them.

            Buffy also noted, almost casually that there was suddenly no sound.  Where she had footsteps before, now it was like her ears were wrapped in cotton.  Except for her heartbeat ofcourse, which was getting to be very rapid.

            After two to three minutes, Buffy began to feel dizzy from the oxygen deprivation and was turning red, purple, and now a funny kind of blue.  When Buffy was in control enough to look, she saw Willow and the other staring at her nervously, their postures speaking of the dread in their hearts.  She tried to give them the same half smile that she had before, hoping to give them the impression that she was still all right, but she wasn't sure if she had succeeded, her body was beginning to go numb.

            Goku had just finished speaking with the Wing Director about getting his trainees into the Second Level training, and was feeling in quite a good mood, since he had indeed gotten what he was after.  It took a lot of persuasion on his part, a whole lot, as well as some bribery and paying nearly double the training fees that he normally would have if he was willing to wait the weeks that most had to, but he was not willing to wait, so he paid it.  For some reason, the allotted credits more than covered the standard Second Level Secondary Training package.  So Goku had gotten the Premium.

            He checked the time as he walked back along the Third Level.  'Hm, they should just be finishing up at the Vacuum Chamber,' Goku thought as he made his way to the dreaded decompression chamber area.

            What he saw surprised him.  Four technicians, including Chad among them, and Giles, Willow and Xander were all staring, wide-eyed and shocked at who he assumed to be Slayer in the Vacuum Chamber, but he couldn't see that well into the view port.

            He came up behind his recruits and asked, "Where's Slayer?  Don't tell me she went last?"

            "No, she went first," Willow answered in a dull, dead voice.

            "Then…what are you all still doing out here?" the Saiyan asked, confused.

            "Waiting our turn to die apparently," Xander snapped, all attention still on the view port.

            "You mean to tell me that you've only just started the Vacuum tests!" Goku exclaimed, turning his attention on Chad, who was staring in just as much shock as the humans were at the view port.

            Softly growling to himself, Goku stepped around them to see himself what lay behind the clear material.  He stopped and dropped his jaw as he saw Slayer pacing there in the vacuum environment.  She looked like hell, her skin deathly and dangerously pale, her eyes bloodshot, and her hands trembling.  It was the most amazing sight Goku had ever seen.

            Goku himself had lasted up to ten minutes with struggling activity his first time in the chamber.  He could now last up to over three quarters of an hour in a complete vacuum, comfortably.  He could stretch himself to over an hour and a half, but then he would pass out, dying thirty minutes later.  The thing is, he looked as bad as Buffy did only two minutes after his first test had started.

            "How long as she been in there?" Goku asked, his voice suddenly mimicking the same quiet that Willow and Xander's had.

            Chad looked at something on some console and answered after a moment, "For over 15 minutes now.  With moderate struggling shortly after vacuum pressure was sealed.  After that she's just gotten…well seemingly more aggressive as the minutes pass.  Her vitals are steady however, despite somewhat elevated.  We're also recording this.  You don't mind that do you?"

            Goku numbly shook his head.  He stepped forward, wondering how Buffy was feeling.

            Buffy had lost track of the time.  For all she knew at the moment, she had been born in this vacuum.  Her head was starting to ache, and way worse than the one migraine she'd had shortly after her rumble with Lothos in L.A., and she was getting really, really dizzy.

It didn't stop her from pacing though.  She wasn't sure why she had started.  She vaguely remembered somebody…who?…maybe Flipper.  Yeah, Flipper.  She remembered Flipper telling her something about being still makes you stay in here longer.  Well, she wanted to get out as soon as possible, and the only way she could see to do that at the moment was to keep moving and do as much as possible to not stay still.

Just then, she caught a glimpse of something, movement, out of the corner of her eye.  She stopped pacing and turned to face whatever it was, working with only basic instincts at the moment.

She immediately recognized Goku.  The tall, dark 1/8th Saiyan Trainer had stopped his approach when Buffy had turned towards him.  She remembered the pain of the past two days, the anger at his arrogance, the indifference he felt towards her friends, the confusion of what was going on, and most especially, how he treated her as though she were some kind of burden that he was forced to deal with, that he didn't want her.

            She was working with only primal, basic instincts at the moment, the oxygen deprivation having warped her view of many things.  She was the Slayer.  A predator, a hunter, a being of pride and not afraid of many, if any, things.  She attacked.

            Goku was surprised when Buffy suddenly stopped her pacing at his approach and turned to look at him.  He stopped and looked back at her, a blank look of surprise on his face.  She had one of confusion, of contemplation on hers.  For several moments, the two warriors just stared at each other, Goku wondering what was going through the Slayer's head.

            Then, as suddenly as a vampire could turn, Buffy snarled and he imagined if she had been capable of making audible sound that she would be growling like one too, when she attacked, running almost head first into the see-through plate of material.

            Rather than be knocked out by the action, the opposite was true.  The material actually looked like it might have rattled with the impact as Buffy stepped back and stared, almost uncomprehendingly at the space.  She reached out a hand and felt the material, but seemed frustrated that she couldn't see it.

            She looked back at Goku, and their eye met briefly, and Goku, for once in his time at the Compound, was truly afraid for his life at that look.  She snarled again and this time rammed her fist, hard into the material.  The same effect happened, but Buffy wasn't about to stop.  She lifted her fist back and hit it again in the same spot, and again, and again, and again.

            Ten minutes later, Buffy's punches were coming as strong and regular as ever, and the girl only looked angrier.  By this time, several more technicians had come over to observe the warrior's behavior…and her endurance.

            She had been in vacuum for nearly twenty-five minutes now, and during twenty of those minutes in very active physical activity.  That she was still conscious, let alone going at her pace, was more than merely astonishing, it was unprecedented.  Especially by humans, and a good portion of other humanoid species as well.

            "How long has she been in there now?" Goku asked Chad for the third time.

            Chad checked the monitor and answered distractedly, "Almost thirty minutes now.  This girl is amazing.  Not only did she get a three on the Breathometer, but this!"  The other technicians heartily agreed with Chad, but gave little comment, they were all too busy saving and recording the data from the sensors in the chamber.

            Suddenly, a loud bang could be heard.  It was soon follow by a second, louder bang.  Then a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, each slightly louder than the last.  "What is that?" Willow asked amidst the bangs.

            "I'm not sure…" Chad trailed off as they all looked at the view port and saw Buffy banging away at the clear material, each bang corresponding to each hit against the rattling panel.

            "Impossible…" one of the other technicians whispered in awe.

            Suddenly, as suddenly as the banging had started, Buffy's punches became twice as fast and looked twice as strong as well, and the banging turned into dull thuds that rattled the clear panel view port twice as much as it had been.  After several of these hits, a scuff appeared on the point that Buffy was hitting.

            After thirty solid minutes, and five minutes of the heavy hitting, Buffy actually began to look tired, well it would be more accurate to say that she looked like she was about to pass out at any second, but her hits just kept on coming.  The scuff had become large enough to mark her entire fist, and the dull thud had become banging once more.

            An alarm suddenly went off at one of the consoles, one of the technicians quickly checked it and told the rest present, "She'll be passing out soon.  The oxygen in her blood is almost at complete zero."

            Everyone nodded, but most, particularly Goku, Giles, Willow and Xander, kept their eyes on Buffy, still punching at the spot.  After a couple more minutes, Buffy's punches looked like they were losing strength, and the hits became irregular.  Indeed, it looked as though the Slayer would pass out at any moment, but she was still on her feet and hitting at the wall, still wanting to get at Goku.

            When Chad announced forty minutes, Buffy's hits had slowed to one every two to three seconds instead of two every second.  Finally, the girl stopped her hits, and had she been capable of breathing, most imagined she'd be panting with breath right now.  Goku stepped forward again, and as before the same scowl returned and everyone could see the muscles in the blonde's arms tensing.

            She was putting all of the last of her strength into the final punch, she knew it was the last of her strength, and if she succeeded in getting out of this prison the tormentor, Goku, had put her in, she knew she wouldn't have enough strength left to get at him with, but to get out of it might be enough to make him realize that she would not give up so easily.  That she was not a burden, she was something to keep, to be wanted.

            She cast one last look at the redhead.  Her eyesight had blurred so much that it looked as though the objects in her vision were at the end of a long tunnel, and when she looked at Willow, the girl's face and head were surrounded by a light so beautiful it almost made Buffy cry.  She looked back at Goku and her vision was clouded completely by a blood red color.  And then blackness.

            Buffy suddenly wavered on her feet and it looked as though she would not get to throw even that last punch, but just as she was tumbling to her knees, she threw her fist straight and true, though from outward appearances it wasn't that powerful, and hit the same mark.  It cracked in a spider-web pattern as Buffy fell back from her knees and lost consciousness.

            The technicians went crazy.

            "That's impossible!  Impossible!" one was yelling over and over.

            "She couldn't do that!  No one can do that!  She just couldn't do that!"

            "There is no way that could be done, no way!"

            "Her endurance is incredible, but her strength must be off the scale if she can do that!"

            "She's the strongest warrior we've had come here in a long time, that's for sure!"

            "Amazing!  Simply amazing!" Chad himself was saying.

            "What's so amazing about it?  You just killed her," Xander snapped at the whale man.  "So she went out fighting.  Big deal!"

            "No, no, that's not what I meant," Chad indicated the crack in the material.

            "That is a quintescent sealed force field enriched polymer.  In short it is not easily broken, let alone cracked!  There are five layers of an incredibly strong material between here and there, and between each layer is a thin, low-level force field to aid in the stress of the vacuum environment.  That girl!  That girl just punched her way through those force fields, and three if not four of those five layers!  It may not sound like much considering the strength of some of the fighters that are present at the Compound, but this girl is a first week trainee!  No one in here should ever be able to do what she just did."

            "Oh, well," Xander was saying, "Buff always has been kinda buff I guess you could say."

            Willow snickered at Xander's one-liner but said nothing else, staring in concern at Buffy's crumpled form in the vacuum chamber.  Shouldn't she be waking up by now, she asked herself.

            Goku and Giles saw Willow's concerned gaze, and when they saw the other had also noticed, they gave each other a brief look.  Goku nodded and stepped forward, putting his hand on Willow's shoulder.

            "Remember what we talked about yesterday Willow?  How the Compound views death?" Goku asked his trainee.

            Willow nodded silently, not reacting any further.

            "Good.  Just wanted to reinforce that.  And as for Buffy still lying there, she'll remain like that until her body is brought back into an environment with air in it.  For right now, it's kind of like she's in a kind of stasis, her body not functioning until it has what it needs to properly operate once again.  Until then…" Goku trailed off, Willow getting the idea pretty quickly.

            "So…"

            "Yeah," Goku interrupted her.  He turned to Chad and the technicians.  "If you don't mind guys, we do have a lot to get done today, so if we could go ahead and proceed with the tests?  We have to get moving on to the Second Level."

            Chad and another technician gave him something the Slayerettes thought resembled a look of utter disbelief and disregard, but said nothing immediately.  After a moment, and receiving data from one of the consoles, Chad answered the Trainer.

            "Yeah and I'm going to transfer to Hawaii and offer to be the fish sacrifice at the banquet of the Volcanoes," he said sarcastically.  "Yeah, go ahead monkey-boy, we can do, for now, without the others.  Besides, it's going to take the nanobots at least a couple hours to repair the damage that Slayer has already inflicted…"

            Willow and the others suddenly turned on Goku.  "Wait just a minute here!  Buffy's still in there, and we are not going anywhere without her, especially in this place!"

            "Do not worry Sage," Chad answered her.  "We'll remove her, safely, before we begin repairs.  It'll just take some time to get the necessary equipment and protocols in place."

            "Well tell you what guys, why don't I just go inside and get her…" Xander suggested and started to make his way towards the big door.

            "You will do no such thing!!" the technicians shouted at him, Chad moving immediately to intercept him.

            "If you were to just walk in there…that is a vacuumed environment youngling, and the environment in the outer airlock chamber and out here is very much the opposite!" Chad tried to explain.

            "So…?" Xander didn't get what the whale man was trying to say.

            "So if you open the door Xander, the entire chamber could explode," Willow answered coming up beside Xander.  "So, Chad, why don't you just run the test one more time, let one of us go in there after you run the airlock through its cycle and we'll bring Buffy out.  Hell, I'll do it!"

            Chad put an arm on the redhead's arm before she could get too far.  "Uhm, well, you see…there are…protocols and, and certain programs that, that…that…"

            "Only one person can be in the main vacuum chamber at a time," Goku interrupted.  "The computer systems that control it won't let anyone else in until the chamber is confirmed empty.  And it takes nearly a week to fully replicate a new vacuum chamber, so we aren't allowed to destroy it."

            "So what are we supposed to do?" Willow wailed in near-despair.

            Goku shrugged and looked at Chad.  Chad chose to avoid Sage's glare and turned back to the other technicians who soon became busy doing other things, determined to get Slayer out of the vacuum chamber as soon as possible.

            While everyone else worked and worried, nobody noticed that the one thing they were all concerned about…had woken up.  Buffy's eyes suddenly snapped open when Willow wailed, her eyes looking normal and healthy, and much less red.  She still wasn't breathing, and her body hurt in places she was not aware were supposed to hurt, but she was conscious and still aware of her situation in the vacuum chamber.

            Slowly, carefully, and because she quickly became very dizzy, Buffy got to her feet, leaning heavily on the cracked glass, or whatever the hell it was.  Her vision was all fuzzy, and she could barely make out several things that she knew she should have recognized.

            'Have to get out,' was her first and only thought.  She then turned and looked through the clear material and saw Willow looking worried and generally fretting.  More determined than ever now to get out Buffy turned around, looking for the way out that she knew was there.

            She saw the vague outline of the big door that led to the air lock, her vision was still very fuzzy so all she saw was a big fuzzy blob, but she was adequately sure that it led to the outside.  She slowly, carefully let go of her hold on the glass and tried moving her legs in the direction of the fuzzy blob.

            At first she could barely stand, but she soon forced the strength to her legs and managed to start walking, but then her dizziness began to affect her, but she remained as focused as she ever had been in her life, demanding her body do as she commanded it to.  It wasn't easy, but after several attempts of half-stumbling half-falling across the small room, Buffy almost slammed herself into the door, almost knocking herself out again, but remaining upright, conscious, and in a hell of a lot of pain.

            Suddenly, Willow looked through the view port, drawn there by some feeling in the back of her neck.  Her eyes widened at what she saw.  "Buffy?" she whispered so silently that no one else could hear her.

            That single soft spoken word stopped all the commotion and whatever arguing as every eye in the area turned sharply towards the broken chamber.  Buffy was half-stumbling half-falling towards the chamber door.  After three attempts where she ended on her knees, only to get right back up, the oxygen deprived Slayer reached the inner door of the chamber air lock system.

            Willow was livid.

            "OPEN THE DOOR!" she screamed loud enough to bring attention from half the level.  "Open it!  Get her out of there!  NOW!"  When the technicians and other aquamarines didn't move fast enough for Willow's satisfaction, she shoved her way past them, and relying on her implant to translate the controls, began operating the air lock system.

            "What are you doing!?  Stop that!" Chad screeched at her.  "Saiyaman!  Stop her!  She's your trainee!"

            Goku turned and looked interestedly at the whale-man, raising an eyebrow.  "Now why should I do that?  She's doing the exact same thing you would be doing, only faster.  I really don't see a problem with getting my student out here any faster, do you?"  Goku's voice took on a slightly dangerous tone and Chad quickly backed down.

            "Damn," Willow cursed.  "She won't survive the recompression process.  I'll have to go in and get her!"  Willow then hit two controls simultaneously and the outer airlock door opened wide.

            "Will!" Xander shouted, chasing after her.  "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

            "I'm going to get my best friend Xander, and don't try and stop me!" the redhead explained as she jumped into the air lock.  She held up a hand and muttered five words and Xander suddenly found himself repelled by some unseen force.  The door closed and the air lock cycle started before he could do anything else.

            Inside, Willow was going through her own helpless thought process.  She was fighting every urge to panic, and when she heard the hiss of the atmosphere being removed, she began to slowly exhale, as she had done earlier with the breath analyzer thing.  Only this time, she actually held some back.  Not a lot, but enough that she was sure she wouldn't pass out dragging Buffy into the airlock chamber.

            Slowly at first, too slowly for Willow's state of mind, the inner door started to open.  Then it was open and there was Buffy, sprawled out before her, looking helpless and weak.  Willow almost cried out, but prevented herself to preserve both air and because it would be pointless.  Willow quickly knelt by Buffy's body and was surprised beyond words that the blonde Slayer was still alive and conscious.

            Having seen all she could stand for the past two days of seeing her best friend dead, Willow quickly began to half drag and pull Slayer inside the air lock chamber.  Once she had gotten the body past the door, Willow collapsed, already feeling faint.  She waited patiently, at first, for the inner door to close and the sequence that would get them out of there to begin, but it didn't start.  The door just hung open where it was left when Willow dragged Buffy in.  Willow began to get worried.

            Out in the observation area, the technicians were almost beside themselves with confusion and dread.  Goku was standing there, tense, with his arms crossed and looking rather ticked.  Xander had seen Willow's actions through the view port and when he saw the doors weren't opening on their own, he raced to the side and tried to start opening it on his own.

            Giles, on the other hand, was merely watching the proceedings with an almost disinterested glare.  The problem, as the technicians were shouting about it, was that the system was locked out, due to some protocol of procedure in the program.  Because Willow had reengaged the air lock cycle, without running the program through the proper set of programs, it remained in 'Error' no matter what the technicians tried to do about it.

            Back inside, Willow had finally figured out that the door would not close on its own, so she was trying to get it shut herself, just by pushing on it.  Unfortunately, it was either on hydraulics, or it weighed way more than she could lift.  She had begun considering trying some of the spells she had learned, figuring that when one exhausted all other contemporary means, that was the time to use magic, Giles beat her to the punch.

            Calmly, and not drawing anyone's attention, Watcher walked up to the crack in the view port Buffy had made, unsheathed Nightblade with a smooth, single motion, and so fast that a streak of light was all that was visible of the blade as it cut fully into the crack, with explosive results.

            After all, what normally happens when you unexpectedly and rapidly expose a pure vacuum to a full atmosphere?  The vacuum, and everything around it…blows up real good.

            After Buffy and Willow had sufficiently recuperated, in other words were able to walk again, Goku immediately rushed them off, with barely a word of comment to Chad and his technicians, since Willow seemed to have said it all.  Buffy was still too out of it to ask her usual questions to Goku, so they all just kind of trudged behind the Saiyan.

            He soon led them to an area that had a large circle outlined on the floor and was clear of any other equipment.  Buffy and Xander saw it and immediately groaned at the same time.

            "Don't worry, this isn't a Gravity Enhancer," Goku eased their fears.  "It's a lift that takes you anywhere inside the top five levels.  Just think of it as an open air elevator."

            As he finished explaining, a floating metallic disc, the same circumference as the circle outlined on the floor, lowered from the ceiling to directly in front of them, until it was seamlessly even with the floor.  Goku stepped onto the arrived platform and gestured for the Slayerettes to do the same.

            Buffy was the first to take a step forward and was quickly followed by the rest.  As soon as they were all settled, and safely away from the edge, the lift smoothly lifted off again, giving the teens and Watcher a good look at how humongous this place actually was.

            By now Buffy was able-bodied enough to start bugging their trainer again.

            "So Goku," Buffy started, staring at the sheer amount of space that was taken up by more things than she had a clue about, "where is it you're taking us next?  To get out lungs autopsied and examined while we sit and watch?"

            Goku smirked at the sarcastic quip and said nothing.

            Buffy immediately had a sinking feeling in her gut, and it had nothing to do with the elevator ride.

            The platform finally stopped, after having gone for over ten minutes through a vertical metal tunnel, with barely any sensational notice that the ride was over.  Buffy wasn't sure what was more surprising; where they ended up, or that it was incredibly smaller than the Level they had just left.

            Goku noticed Buffy's, as well as the other two teenagers', looks of confusion and answered their questions before they could say anything.  "The Second Level is dedicated to two things.  Holding and storaging one of the Compound's backup main frames, and then the reason that we're here.  All that metal and so forth around us as we came up from Third Level was what this floor is mostly made up of.  Computer systems."

            "Wow," Willow mumbled, suddenly bright eyed and beginning to look like a kid in Candy Land.  "But if you have such advanced technology…why have computers bigger than ENIAC and all the Super Computers in the US combined?"

            Goku chuckled.  "Dave?"

            "Yes Saiyaman?" a voice from out of nowhere and everywhere responds to Goku's prompt.

             Goku winced.  "Dave, I've told you at least four hundred and thirty eight times now, well, make it thirty nine, I do not want to be addressed as Saiyaman, just Goku, okay?"

            "Yes Saiyaman." The voice answers back.

            Buffy giggled but covered her mouth when the Saiyan glared at her.  Xander and Willow turned around to try and hide their own grins.  Goku sighed deeply and turned to his trainees and addressed them, just as Buffy asked a question.

            "Who was that?" she asked.

            "That was Dave," Goku answered, looking a tiny bit annoyed, but no one could tell if it was because of Buffy, or the voice he called Dave.

            "Dave is one of the Compound's primary AI's.  Dave is in charge of all of the training facilities.  And here is where one of his primary processors is located, though he does have many more backups placed throughout the entire Compound." Goku explained.

            "Really?" Willow squeaks, always the computer geek.  As Xander and Buffy grin at her child like expression, she mumbles again, "That is so neat."

            "All right, enough with the tension and making Willow drool," Buffy interrupted with a grin on her face.  "What's the what with "Level Two"?  Why are we here?"

            Goku grinned.  He turned to a nearby technician, who happened to be human, for the most part as far as the other humans could tell.  That is until they got a good look at his reptilian eyes and snake-like tongue.  "Greg?  If you want to explain it…"

            The dark haired creature shook his head to the negative, and when he spoke, he sounded completely human with no snake lisp that the full humans had expected.  "Are you kidding me?!  I saw what happened down there when you left them with Chad!  Unh uh, bucko.  You are staying right with them until they get up from the terminals.  If you need help, ask Dave, but leave us non-fighters out of it.  Please!"  The technician then turned back to what he had been doing before.

            "Did I do a bad thing?" Willow asked worriedly once the humanoid had gone.

            Goku chuckled again and softly shook his head.  "Not really.  You were just concerned about your friend, and I don't think anyone would blame you for that.  Just understand Willow, some of the things in training are supposed to kill you.  My training days were just as hard as yours.  Maybe a little more lenient on schedule, but trust me, I sympathize."

            "Is this supposed to kill us?" Xander asked what was suddenly on their minds.

            Goku shook his head.  "This is an upgrade to the translator lobes in your brains.  You know, the things you had surgery to get in your brains?"

            As he mentioned their impromptu surgery just the other day, they all unconsciously felt the back of their heads, where the scars were still fading, despite being dying and regenerating several times in the past forty-eight hours.

            "What kind of upgrade?" Buffy asked.

            "Knowledge.  Right now, you've got the hardware with the basic operating software in there," Goku explained, pointing at their heads.  "What this place is, it downloads more software to the devices, which provide it for your brains.  Normally this would be done much later in your training, but yesterday…"

            When Goku trailed off, both Buffy and Xander ducked their heads in shame.  "So what kind of knowledge?  How's it supposed to help us fight better?" Buffy asked.

            "Martial arts, fighting styles, techniques, strategies, anatomical information of the most common aliens, demons, and so forth on the side of Evil as well as some basics for handling yourself around the Compound, like the basic layout and putting a general map in your heads of the entire universe.  Keep in mind that the Compound is in its very own pocket universe, so as big as the Compound is, so is the universe."

            "What kind of martial arts?" Buffy asked.

            Goku shrugged.  "How many species are in or apart of the Compound?" he asked back.

            Buffy shrugged and her face automatically scrunched in confusion.  "How the hell am I supposed to know that?"

            Goku grinned at her.  "Couldn't have said it better myself."

            Buffy glared at the cryptic answer, until she thought about it, and realized that the Compound had access to as many forms, styles, and techniques of martial arts as humans on Earth had martial arts, multiplied by the number of individual races and so forth the Compound has access to.  When Buffy realized the scope of what they were about to have implanted in their heads, she unconsciously let out a low whistle.

            "Wow," Xander muttered as he too realized, followed by Willow letting out a low, "Whoa."  Giles just kind of stood there.

            Suddenly, their revelations were interrupted when Greg came back over and announced, "We're ready for you."

            Goku nodded at the Slayerettes and gestured them forward, ahead of him.  Buffy glared at him, suspicious since the few other times Goku had done that, they ended up getting attacked or something worse.  Goku saw the look and grimaced slightly.  "Please?" he asked, gesturing again.  After a moment's tension, Buffy simply walked where he'd indicated.

            Greg led them through quite a maze of electronic components, computer towers, and shelves of things that only Willow recognized, and piles of things that no human could recognize.  Until finally they walked into an open area where there were a large number of "dentist chair" like chairs arranged along several rows.  What made them different, besides the non-dentist equipment beside the chairs, were the massive amounts of electronic, such as electrodes, scanners, and wires, devices protruding from them.  The head rests also looked kind of funky, with only a thin metal bar held out by to thick metal wires so it could support the top of the head only, leaving the back of the head open to access from below.

            "These are the DTM's," Greg explained before anyone could ask.  "That stands for Data Transfer Matrices, or Matrix in the singular.  Now, to prove that there are no harmful side effects, to any of you, we were hoping for a volunteer, and we have the Clinic on standby to send one of their Field Technicians if anything did go wrong.  Not to mention, you people are immortal.  So not much to worry about, I assure you."

            "What do you mean 'you people'?" Willow asked suddenly.  "Isn't everybody here immortal?"

            Greg's eyes shot up in surprise.  "I thought you knew," he muttered in shock.  He cleared his throat at a look from Goku, who looked more impatient than anything else, and explained, "Um, well, only the fighters of the Compound are immortal.  The others, the Technicians, repairers, and so forth…well they, we, live here.  You already know that the Compound is it's very own universe, yes?"

            The humans nodded to the affirmative.

            "Well, the Powers, have allowed the Council and the fighters to sometimes "save" entire civilizations, of collapsing worlds, cities, or about to be destroyed civilizations…by bringing them here.  It is an entire universe, so they have room for more than enough people, and…" Greg stopped talking as something behind them began to make a sound that the humans could not truly identify.  It was a cross between an insisting beeping and an unending, but pleasant sounding, droll.  "Excuse me," Greg apologized.

            The computer technician quickly walked back towards a computer tower and activated the monitor there.  The blue screen lit up his face as he read what was displayed there.  Suddenly he smiled, but as he kept reading, the smile turned into a look of surprise.  His good mood seemed unaffected however as he turned back to the group and waved them forward.

            "Well, I must say I am truly honored.  Not to mention impressed that young Goku is the one who is to train all of you.  The specifications for your downloads just arrived.  It would seem that you are getting the…oh, how did you phrase it before Goku?  Ah!  Yes, the full package." Greg announced.

            "Now, Slayer…"

            Buffy interrupted, "My name is Buffy."

            Greg smiled at her and nodded, his reptilian eyes glistening with amusement.  "Yes, Buffy.  Would you please sit in this chair here?  Have no fear; I will explain everything and how this device works.  In fact, if you are anything like the average fighter here, I'd dare say you might actually enjoy this."

            Buffy shrugged and angled herself into the reclined seat and then shuffled herself some to get comfortable.  Once she was settled, Greg was suddenly beside her on the left and nodded, beginning to place some of the electrodes on specific places over Buffy's skin.  Once everything was placed and attached, things such as the heart monitor, Greg nodded and then pointed at Buffy's head.  "Thank you, now I just need you to release your trangl and we can begin."

            Buffy frowned and jerked her head upward.  "My what?!!" she screeched in outrage.

            Goku sighed and grinned at Greg's look of confusion.  He quickly answered the technician's confusion in Gnarn, "It's only been about two days since they all received their translators, and obviously they haven't finished calibrating to their new hosts yet.  Don't worry.  Just get her set up.  And I'll join you in the Booth after we get them all set up, all right? "

            Greg just nodded and turned to retrieve something off the back of the chair.  Goku turned to Buffy and explained what Greg had said.  "Greg just asked you to let down your hair Buffy.  The translators in your brain only have the basic set of languages stored in them right now, meaning the most commonly used in the Compound.  Another part of this download is that it will enhance your language comprehension and will even activate the auto-translating feature."

            "Auto-translating feature?" Buffy repeated as she removed her hair from the ponytail she'd put it in that morning.  The others were nodding, understanding now why the gibberish Goku had spoken to Greg in, hadn't been translated for them.

            Goku shrugged.  "It means rather than just waiting for a full language to be put into your translator directly, you can just listen to the sounds and way the language is spoken and after a few moments, you'll be able to understand it, and even speak it like a native.  Buffy put your head back."

            Buffy frowned at the order, but complied and saw Greg pull around and show her the device he had retrieved from the back of the chair.  It looked like "high-tech" hair barrette with a wire coming out the back, or an enlarged, curved microchip.  It was about four to five inches from top to bottom, and was softly curved, as though meant to fit over something rounded.

            "This is the connector," Greg explained.  "This will attach to the back of your head, directly over where the Translator synapse was placed.  Do not worry, there will be no penetration and you will hardly feel a thing from its presence."

            "How does it work?" Willow asked, stepping forward.

            Greg shrugged.  "Through a process of neuro-synaptic and electromagnetic signal emission through semi-conductive areas.  I would be happy to fully explain the physics and science behind it, but as you are on a schedule, and these machines require precise control, it must wait until a later date I'm afraid."

            Willow nodded, understanding, and anxious to speak with the technician after it was over.  Seeing the Sage's permission, Greg then knelt down and proceeded to fish through Buffy's cascading gold locks until he found the healing scar at the back of her skull, and then with a skill that made it look simple, placed the connector to her head and stood back up.

            He walked back over to the tower he had been at before and began manipulating some things on the screen.  Willow was about to ask what he was doing when he answered before she could speak.  "Since this is mostly a demonstration to show you this is perfectly safe, we'll start by downloading only a single fighting technique, fully, into your brain.  I'm sure you'll enjoy this Buffy."

            He manipulated a couple more things and then turned back to the group.  "Oh, Goku, if you will?"  Goku nodded and stepped forward.  "Oh yeah!  I forgot about that part."

            "Why does he keep saying I'll enjoy this?" Buffy asked before Goku reached her.

            The Saiyan shrugged and faster than Buffy could react, he pulled out and strapped down the hidden clamps in the seat around Buffy's feet, legs, wrists, and arms.  Buffy went bug eyed and tried to forcefully remove the clamps, but even with her gravity-enhanced Slayer strength, they wouldn't budge.  The moment that the clamps were secure, the seat suddenly came to life and elevated slightly so that Buffy felt like she was floating on a cloud maybe.  If she weren't strapped to it that is.

            "HEY!  What do you think you're doing?!" Buffy shouted.  Giles sneered and reached his hand up to draw Nightblade, while Willow's eyes started to turn solid black and Xander reached for his own sword.

            Goku turned to the three humans and gave them a look that said, "As if!"  They all knew that with their current strength, and despite their training so far, Goku could still easily beat them all.  He turned back to Buffy, "Stay calm Buffy.  This is just to keep you from hurting yourself."

            "Hurt myself?  Hurt myself!?  Why would I want to hurt myself?" Buffy began to panic, her heart rate beginning to show its rise on the monitor.

            "You'll see," Goku said with a roguish grin and nodded at Greg.

            Greg nodded back and pressed the on-screen button labeled "LOAD", which turned red at the touch and three seconds later…

            Buffy's next protest never made it to her throat as she felt a sudden tingle at the top of her neck, which soon turned into…something more.  Just as suddenly as the tingling started, Buffy's eyes shot closed, her mouth opened in a silent scream and her body arched, despite being restrained somewhat.  But it was not pain Buffy was feeling.  Nor was it pleasure, at least not purposeful pleasure.

            The moment that her eyes closed, Buffy saw thousands of images suddenly cascading through her mind, all in a billion or more directions and all at once.  There was no pain, and nothing that was specific enough to be called pleasure, but…  It was more like when she was training.  In fact it was exactly like training.  She felt as though she were doing years worth of training in a few seconds, and succeeding at every point.  It made her feel good, and because it was just so intense, Buffy felt really good.  So good in fact…

            Buffy suddenly dropped back with a heavy thud into the seat, her breath gasping in and out of her lungs.  Her eyes snapped open as she suddenly realized what had happened.  And then she remembered.  She remembered everything.

            If her hands hadn't been tied down, they would be clutching her chest, trying to keep her racing heart from bursting out of it.  Instead, she just cursed.  "Holy shit!" she gasped.

            Greg smiled from the computer tower.  "I told you she'd like it," he said smugly.

            Willow was by Buffy's right side in an instant.  "Buffy, are you all right?  What happened?" she asked, wanting to know if her friend was all right.

            Buffy just started nodding.  "Uh…yeah, I'm," suddenly the Slayer started giggling, "…I'm fine, Willow," she managed, continuing to giggle.  After a moment or two to settle herself, Buffy turned to Giles and grinned.  "I know Kung Fu," she said with certainty of fact.

            Giles' eyebrow arched some and he asked her for clarification, "Buffy, I know that we studied some of the basics of Kung Fu to help you in your training but…"

            "No Giles," Buffy interrupted, sounding deadly certain, "I mean I know Kung Fu!  I know all of it.  Every move, every attack, every strength necessary, and even the spiritual stuff that you were trying to teach me.  I mean, I know it."

            She turned to her two best friends, "You guys have got to try it.  It…it's so intense there's no way to describe it.  Not to mention…"  Suddenly Buffy began to blush and smiled secretively, but would say no more.  However, a little eye communication with Willow, and the red Sage understood with wide-eye understanding what the gold Slayer meant.

            "Oh!" Willow squeaked, getting back to her feet.

            "Want some more?" Greg asked, on Buffy's left side now.

            Buffy turned sharply, almost eagerly, at his approach.  Her response was also somewhat heightened over normal, coming from the girl.  "Hell YEAH!!  Hell yeah!" she shouted.

            Xander traded looks between Willow, the seated Buffy, and Goku.  After less than a minute, he stepped forward and announced, "All right, I'm sold.  Hook me up Greg!"  With varying degrees, the others of the group mimicked Xander and Buffy's sentiments and within three minutes, the rest of the team was "hooked up" as Xander had put it.

            Greg stood where all of the humans could see him.  "Now, for monitoring all of you at the same time, I'll have to go to the Control Booth, but don't worry.  And we won't be doing it one at a time, because that would take way too long.  Instead we'll download it all at once, which should take about two to three hours, depending on the absorption rate of your brains."

            "Absorption rate?" Willow repeated.

            Greg nodded.  "Mosts' brains can only accept so much input at once and still have any retaining factor to the data.  Such as reading a book or watching a movie.  The more you read it, or watch it, the more you retain about that.  That's because your brains absorbed the data more easily with repetition.  What we do here is try to take out all of that repetition and individual training.  For instance, there are some people, who can read a book or see an image once and can remember it with vivid detail for the rest of their lives.  That's called Full Absorption.  The rate differs between people and individuals and therefore the two to three hour estimate is the best average, with the program we'll be putting into your heads today."

            "Something I've gotta know," Xander interrupted right before Greg would have walked away.

            "Yes?" the snake-eyed technician asked.

            "You couldn't like…mind control us with these things could you?  I mean, like implant subliminal commands that we'll have to obey at a crucial point…like throw the tournament by killing ourselves or one of our teammates?" Xander asked with full and lethal biting sarcasm.

            Greg shook his head, looking confident, and also somewhat approving, as though he had expected the comment.  "No, that's impossible.  At least for this machine.  It has to do with the Translator synapse itself.  There's a filtering device in it that prevents electronic mind control and even disables subliminal cues the brain has absorbed, or at least points them out to you.  Also, the way that it works prevents it from being a mind control device itself.  All the synapse does is transfers the data embedded in its DNA and any extra data transferred to it, to all the other neurons and synapses in your brain.  So you actually know the data as though your brain had put it there yourself.  Have no fears, there is nothing to worry about that." Greg chuckled and then turned to go to the Control Booth.

            Once they were alone, Buffy berated Xander with no mercy.  "Mind control Xander?" she asked credulously.  "Xander, in case you've forgotten, these people are trying to help us.  They wouldn't do something like that."

            "Oh hoh!  Like it hasn't been done before Buff?" Xander defended himself.  "The only thing "these people", with the exception of individuals like Goku, care about is winning the Tournament the Powers recruited us for.  Chances are pretty high that if we don't stick with the flow or aren't making enough progress, they'll end up reprogramming us into a more cooperative mood!"

            "They wouldn't do that Xander," Willow insisted.  "Amana wouldn't do that…"

            Xander sighed.  "I'm not saying it's actively done, heck, I could be wrong and it isn't done, but admit it Will, the tension around here?  It could be done.  Besides, Goku is the one training us, so I say we trust him.  He's been honest so far and remember the first day of training?  That demonstration of what he says we'll be able to do?  Imagine the looks on the vamps faces back home when we're doin' that stuff on them."

            Four very well intentioned and evil grins formed on the faces of the Team as they contemplated that image.  A few seconds' later speakers in their chairs crackled and Greg's voice soon came out of them.

            "We'll be beginning in a few moments," his voice came.  "Until then, just try and relax.  Once we begin, you'll enter what some of the fighters have called a "Zen-state" which is something alike to being asleep, but with heavy REM and no other stages of sleep for the next few hours.  To you, you shouldn't experience anything outside of watching the programs' download into your mind and maybe a dream state or two, but that is a rare thing."

            Ten seconds later, "Okay, we're starting up the primary program now.  Pleasant dreams."

            Three seconds after that, four bodies arched in their seats as the unexpected intensity drove them all to immediate ecstasy.  After ten seconds, their body's adjusted to the rush of endorphins and other brain stimulating chemicals and quietly settled back into the reclined chairs.  Their eyes were in constant and extremely rapid movement, their breathing regular, while the monitors next to each station showed how rapidly their systems were being taxed.  With the exception of Watcher and Sage however, they showed to be having a healthily strenuous workout.  Watcher and Sage's brain activity, however, suggested that they were not as fast at absorbing the program as the other two were.

            "How are they?" Goku asked the instant he was inside the control room, which looked exactly like an Air Traffic Control Center, minus the windows, and add a whole lot more computer junk.

            "They're fine," Greg assured the Trainer, again.  "Out of all the things that this place does to its Fighters, I assure you," Greg turned from his console and glared harshly at the 1/8th Saiyan, "this is the safest.  And I promised them that I would pull them all out if even one of them showed any signs of danger or abnormality.  So stop being a worry washin'."

            Goku took a deep breath and slowly nodded and took the seat that had been prepared for him, since his stature was considerably larger than all of the others that frequented the control room.  "The term, typically, is worry wart," Goku corrected as he sat down.

            "Whatever," Greg replied as he concentrated on the consoles and bringing up the data on Buffy and her team's downloads.  Four screens suddenly lit up, each showing the same statistics, but varied because each was for one member of Buffy's team.  From first glance, it was just an outline diagram of the humans, male-looking figures for Watcher and Warrior X, and female for Slayer and Sage.  Next to the outlines were about seven to nine rainbow filled lines, like a bar graph, with percentages underneath the lead of the lines.  At the moment, all of the lines on all of the screens were more or less even and very close to the start of the lines.  That began to change over time, however, as the download progressed more and more and even started to differ screen to screen.

            "Hmm, that's interesting," Greg mumbled, looking at the screens, before typing something out in a Global.

            "What?  What's interesting?" Goku asked worriedly.

            "Oh?  Nothing at the moment.  Nothing serious I mean!" Greg corrected.  "It's just that Slayer's absorption rate seems to have a rather high tolerance.  She's assimilating the data at a somewhat faster pace than the others are."

            "Got any hypothesis as to why that might be?" Goku asked.

            Greg shook his head.  "Not yet.  But it's perfectly fine.  None of them are in any danger.  Don't worry Goku, I'll call if anything stranger happens."  Just then, there was a sudden beeping.

            As the two turned at the sound, they stared in absolute amazement as the bottom indicator, entirely in gray, on Slayer's screen started to move very quickly to the end of the screen, while all of the others were still at less than an inch or smaller.

            "What in the name of the Powers…!?!!" Greg exclaimed as he began reading the data.  "By the Makers!  Slayer's fighting absorption rate is over two milli-quads!  It might even be four milli-quads!"

            Goku got up and stood behind Greg, staring in amazement at the screens.  "Per second…or per minute?" he asked.

            Greg froze.  And then, very slowly, he turned to look up at the Saiyan/human descendant.  "Three point five seven milli-quads…per millisecond!" he whispered hoarsely.  Goku's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped as the implication of that statistic worked its way through his brain.  "Call the Council.  Then attach her to whatever extra utilities you can get access to.  I have to tell them about this." Goku ordered as he returned to the chair and rotated it to look at a bigger screen than any other in the room.

            As soon as the Saiyan did so, the screen suddenly flickered to life.  On it was an image of a much larger room.  Gray, the primary color of the entire place it seemed at times, pictured the domed wall and the table at which sat nine beings of quite numerous backgrounds.  Not a one of them was anything close to humanoid however.

            "Yes Goku, what is it we can do for you this afternoon.  Are your new pupils giving you any more trouble?" the large bluish-hued creature at the center of the table asked him with a bit of sarcasm in it's tone.  Not that it spoke in sound waves.

            "Not so much trouble as surprise.  The latest of the Powers' Chosen has a rather eclectic grouping." Goku answered disarmingly and calmly.  "In particular with the leader.  I've read the Mages' reports on the witch of my team, but I didn't expect it to be repeated with the leader."

            That caused a slight stirring with the Council, the ruling body of the Compound.  (Basically, the government.)

            After the group of aliens had settled down, the center blue-hued one, which was by closest comparison, a cross between a coral reef, a giant spider, and a squid-like scorpion, who was obvious the leader of the Council, spoke above the others and asked, "What do you mean?  Explain yourself Saiyaman!"

            Goku them smirked dangerously at the Council, reminding them, briefly, that while they might be the ones in charge, they were not warriors and that he, out of everyone here, was more than capable of destroying them all with just one blast.  "The leader, Slayer, is currently receiving her upload of techniques, along with the other members of her team.   Her absorption rate is estimate to be higher than 4 milli-quads per millisecond.  Now…the witch, Willow is her name, was surprising.  For one so young to be so gifted in learning and using magic.  But for a girl like this, even chosen by the Powers, and empowered by the spirit of her universe to be the Slayer…  There's something you guys aren't telling me, Cephiron.  And I want to know what it is.  Now."

            The steady, yet at the same time foreboding, way that Goku made his demand caused the Council to flit worried glanced across at one another for a brief moment.  Finally, the leader, Cephiron, gave an affirmative motion, nothing a human could recognize without seeing, and answered the 1/8th Saiyan's challenge.

            "There is not much that we do know.  Only what the Powers revealed to us about this particular girl.  She, apparently, is destined to be the strongest out of all of her counterparts and universal and dimensional doubles.  Of the little we have delved…we have only just begun to grasp the concept of how powerful that may be, as there are already several versions of Buffy Summers that are even more powerful than our current Champion."

            "In conclusion, the only thing to add, is that her entire destiny has been centered on her participation in the Tournament.  We have not yet begun to hypothesize what that could mean.  But if her absorption rate is as high as four milli-quads…"

            "So," Goku interrupted, "then do I have permission to use full resources in training this group?"

            There was no way for the members of the Council to miss the underlining emphasis in what Goku was asking.  There was also no other way for them to answer his question.

            Inside the "Upload Area", it was surprisingly much busier since Goku had ended his call and started making others.  There were over a dozen technicians, each humanoid but none human enough to be called such, and no two alike.  They were going over the unconscious forms of the team in training, but in particular were going over the computer towers next to them.  Attaching wires to and from them to additional portable computer hubs they had brought in with them.

            More and more of the portable computer hubs were brought in, but rather than being attached to the primary computer towers, were attached to the already connected hubs.  Greg was the one orchestrating it all, a global in his hand as he checked off a list on it with the other.  Most of the noise came from the shouting though, rather than the low, yet ever-building, hum of the computer cores in the background.

            "Right!  Yes, there!  Connect those two Seamus!  No!  No, Jean, you connect it to the secondary cores!  Yes, that's right!  Now finish up there so Neon can bring in the Fifth core from Level 1!" Greg was shouting orders at the crews around him.

            The secondary computer cores were actually data nodes.  Each one was filled with over 100 Giga-quads of information.  Information of fighting techniques to be specific.  Each node held the full listing of every technique, move, counter, and philosophy and history of every martial art form of a single species.  Humans, for example, have over 300 individual martial art forms.  Other species have been known to have even more.  And at the moment, each of over twenty nodes were being set up to be downloaded into the four humans.

            And more was being requisitioned.  Over 10,000 species were a part of the Compound, in one way or another, and true not all was capable of the martial arts capable, or at least easily capable of the humanoid body, but over 5,000 were.  So when it was discovered that the human brain could actually fully retain all of this data, and it only required the consciousness to access it that any hope of downloading every martial art form in quite nearly all of existence into one single warrior became possible.  Combined with the Universal Translator adding to the recall factor, there was very little doubt of success in the procedure.

            The only problems came in the downloading process itself.  Humans without the strength of mind to absorb all of the data…sometimes did not turn out so well.  Yet never in the entire history of this technology did any human have the capability of downloading the information so fast.  Certain other species could certainly do it faster, but they often had less retention ability.  To keep the data in their brains.

            So the excitement over Buffy's results was certainly understandable, and even if her teammates fell more into the "average" category for the other humans that had taken this procedure, it was worth all 5000 data cores to see the results.

            Unfortunately, only about 2,550 could be brought immediately, with the others coming in later in the day.  So the technicians made due.

            Meanwhile, Buffy and the others dreamed…

            There was fighting.  There was blood, guts, the whole deal.  There was no screaming, however.  Grunting, gasping, pain-induced sounds, yes, but no screaming.  It was dark, no light at all to see what was around her.  She was nothing but the movement, nothing but the punch, the kick…the kill.

            Buffy didn't care that it had not always been this way, she did not care that she was fighting and killing things that she couldn't even begin to see, let alone tell which was and wasn't human or demon.  She was the Slayer, pure and simple.  They attacked her, she killed them.

            Yet Buffy was learning at the same time.  Each opponent, though she couldn't tell who, what, or where, came at her with a different style of fighting.  Which forced her to adapt just to survive their blows.

            Sometimes she was facing four to six opponents, other times not even one, and still others more than she could possibly hope to count.  But she learned.  In the darkness, in the confusion of it all, she learned each technique, each style, each art and used it to defeat the one that had "taught" it to her.  It became really bad when she was fighting over a dozen fighters all at once, using the technique of each against each individual, while blocking in the style and form of the others attacking her.

            Being a dream plane, anything is possible, and Buffy never questioned that she never once got hit, despite the overwhelming odds.  She just kept fighting, and learning.  At the same time that she learned the fighting, she also learned the history, from the spirits of those that she had already killed.

            The spirits just seemed to rise up out of the dead bodies and then began talking about the history, the origin, and everything there was to know or was associated with their specific art form.  At first it was only a couple voices that was a pleasant background while Buffy continued to fight and kill.  And then, as the lesson count rose, the voices became more than just a background, they became the only sound capable of drowning out the fighting.  Yet Buffy heard it all.  She memorized what each spirit said, despite the confusion of fighting and all the others speaking at the same time.  It was the least she could do however, to remember and honor those that she had slain.

            And the fighting went on…

            Xander was running.  He at least had some illumination, yet when there was nothing but blackness around you, illumination doesn't do you all that good.  He felt like he was being hunted…by what, he could not yet comprehend, but his prey instincts were screaming at him to keep running.

            Just then, he heard a sound that still filled his dreams with terror each time he heard it and froze him where he was.  A laughing sounded barks, followed by a hungry and evil growl.  Xander slowly, very slowly turned around.

            Sure enough, hunched there, growling, it's drool dripping to the black floor to create a small pool of saliva, was the hyena.  Its spotted and raised fur was shaking with pent-up energy as it continued to stare Xander down, trying to make him realize he was the prey.

            Which is when Xander had a revelation.  It had happened a couple days ago, when he and Buffy had fought…er, sparred.  After the incident with the Zookeeper, and getting the Hyena spirit out of him, Xander had done his best to do what he told his friends had happened to him, to forget the entire thing.  The best he could do was suppress what had happened to him a couple days after the incident.

            It was in only a couple papers, and pushed to a section of such non-importance that nobody would ever normally read it unless they were looking for it and knew where to look.  A couple animals had escaped from the zoo, one of which was a rare species of hyena from Africa.  Xander found out the hard way.

            He was walking home after a rather late patrol with Buffy that night, and he heard a growling, tinged with a sort of evil-sounding laughter following him from the bushes.  Thinking it a vampire, he readied a stake that he had made it custom to always keep with him, if not at all times then definitely when he was on patrol with Buffy.

            Then a strange thing happened.  He heard someone call his name.  "Xannnnnn-derrrrr!" it was part growled, part slurred, but mostly drawn out in almost a teasing manor.

            Xander froze, at first because if a vampire knew his name, then they knew where he lived and if they knew that then they knew about Buffy and Willow too!  Then a faint tinge of memory came to the surface.  Something about what Giles had said a couple days ago, about how the hyenas of the Masai would listen all day, and then at night call out a person they had learned the name of into the darkness…where they would be killed.

            Xander took a few more steps…before the growl repeated itself, calling him by name.

            Taking many deep breaths, and a really big gulp, Xander slowly, very slowly turned around.  And as in the dream, there was the hyena, hunched and tensed to attack.

            The human mind is capable of some pretty amazing things, most of them, however boil down to three things; memory, will, and instinct.  In the few seconds that Xander and the escaped hyena stared at each other on the street, instinct was most of what was controlling Xander at this point.  Fear coming off him in waves, he made to turn around and start running as fast as he could, knowing it wouldn't be enough and the hyena would catch him, kill him, and eat him…all before he'd seen Buffy naked! Was his last thought.

            The hyena, however, launched itself at the human before Xander could fully turn around.  The motion triggered more instincts, particularly the instincts to stay alive, and in turned triggered Xander's fight/flight response.  He brought up the stake, clutched tightly in his hand, a wild gleam entering his eyes as he prepared to fight, his every instinct focused on survival and willing to do whatever it took to do so.

            It all happened so fast that Xander never knew what hit him.  The hyena tackled Xander, its fangs going straight for his throat, but they never quite reached as every adrenaline surged muscle in Xander struck out at the exact right moment, plunging the stake into the hyena's chest.

            Unfortunately, living creatures, even insane mystically possessed ones, don't turn to dust like vampires do when they're impaled with a wooden stake, so Xander was still tackled by the hyena, both of them falling back to the ground.  Xander immediately scrambled away, afraid that the hyena may still attack, but instead it lay there for a moment, making a whimpering sound that still sounded like evil laughter.  Xander, despite his knowledge to never approach a wounded animal, stepped closer, his curiosity overwhelming his instinctual judgement.

            As he looked closer, Xander seemed to catch the hyena's yellow eyes, and then something that Xander had completely forgotten about to this day, the hyena's eye flashed brighter, as though glowing from some inner light, for just a moment, and then a moment later, the hyena died.

            The next twenty-four hours, which thankfully was a Saturday, were still very fuzzy to Xander, even in this dream state where these memories were uncovered.  But somehow, the hyena spirit had re-infected him, and within a day, he had not only suppressed them, but he had forced the hyena into a cage in his mind, keeping it safe from the others, and him safe from it.  Until he had tapped into its power, and released the hyena into his mind once more.

            Now it wanted to turn the tables and put him in the cage.  Xander could tell.  It was almost as if the two, he and the hyena, were a part of each other now, only neither wanted the other here.  Before, during the ritual at the zoo with the others of the "pack" the hyena had immediately taken control, forcing Xanders personality to the back of his mind with magic.  What had happened when he was attacked by the hyena, was to not only repeat the ritual, but he killed the source of the spirit, forcing the spirit to join with his in order to survive.  Only…it didn't have the magic necessary to take control from Xander, only it's instincts, powers, and spirit.  Xander had more power than it had, and that was why it had been caged so easily.  Not that it was that easy.

            But now, it had healed its wounds from within Xander's mind, and now that it was released, it was strong enough to fight him for control.  A fight that Xander didn't want to lose, and the hyena had no intention of losing…

            Giles had things incredibly simple, even if he was learning at the average human rate.  He, and the Nightblade perched on the wall, was in a dojo of sorts, and dressed in a simple beige karate gi.  There was a door across from the fighting mat, which Giles sat in front of, across from the door.  One by one, a single fighter would enter through the door, and then begin instructing Giles about the form, style, technique, etc of the art that they taught.  At first, it was only human teachers, but as the instructors kept coming, aliens, some demons, and other creatures began teaching Giles.  After they had finished instructing them, but before the next one would come, Giles would then fight and defeat them in the martial arts form they had just taught him.  Just like that.

            Nightblade gleamed in amusement at the spectacle, but often added pointers, where Giles could improve a style and learn some things quicker than others, or counterpoint something that the style left open.

            Nightblade also sighed as he realized that the "line" of teachers for Giles was continuing to grow, and at an alarming rate.

            'It's going to be a while,' it thought to itself as Giles continued steadily…

            Back in the Control room, Goku was sitting in the large chair while multiple technicians raced around the small room like worker ants on a caffeine high.  Displayed on a monitor before the 1/8th Saiyan, and was the REM and brainwave patterns of his latest pupils.

            He was paying the greatest attention to Buffy's readouts, yet was also keeping an avid eye on the others.  When the download had first started, all four of them were more or less even on absorption rate and everything else.  Then…Buffy had somehow pulled ahead, while her physical status reported completely normal.

            No one was bothered that Giles' readouts showed more brain activity than even Buffy, though his absorption rate was the exact average for humans that had undergone this procedure before.  Goku also noticed, as the Technicians did as well, they made sure to steer clear of the Blade warrior, that Nightblade was appearing to be rather active, surrounding portions of Giles' bodies at certain times with a faint, yet visible, blue glow.

            Buffy, though her brain wasn't as electrically active as Giles', was certainly in overdrive.  The technicians working on it had calculated her absorption rate at '20 AFs per second'.  Goku's own was, at best, '3 AFs per second'.  The girl was almost a machine, she was processing the data being downloaded into her so fast.  Goku almost choked it up to her being the Slayer…but he knew the legend of the Slayers as well as any Watcher on any number of worlds.  Once a Slayer dies, the spirit that teaches them to fight, and makes them the Slayer, moves on to the next candidate.  Buffy died.  So, technically, while a) still having her powers, b) being still alive, and c) having a destiny to save the world and all that, she is no longer the Slayer, and that means that the spirit that teaches the Slayer how to fight was no longer with Buffy, and it was not a reasonable excuse for Buffy's unusual talent for this anymore.

            So what was it about Buffy, or rather this Buffy that made her so good at learning fighting techniques?

            Goku took a deep sigh, steepling his fingers before his face as he considered the problem he faced.  The Council wanted an answer to this.  Probably hoping they could mass-produce it, like with the Martial Arts that were being 'uploaded' into his students.  He had no answer though.  Maybe it was just her mind.  That this Buffy, contrary to the profiles he had read on a number of this girl's doubles the Compound knew of, though had no contact with, actually liked being the Slayer.  Goku would have to ask her about that later.

            He looked down at Xander, who was actually absorbing almost as fast as Buffy, (at 10 AFs per second), was.  His physical readout however showed that his body was undergoing just as much strain as his mind.  His adrenaline levels were starting to climb rather high, as were numerous other neuro-chemicals.  Nothing was in the danger zone yet, thankfully, but just to be safe, Goku had ordered an emergency medical team on standby inside the Upload Area.  In fact, if Goku didn't know any better, judging from what exactly he was seeing, Xander's mind was adapting his body to whatever he was going through in his dream state.

            That was another thing that Goku and the Technicians had noticed.  All four of them were actively dreaming.  Sometimes, humanoids would occasionally dream during the upload process, after all, sometimes one got sleepy just lying there having information being uploaded into their brains.  This was different however.  Even Willow, who was absorbing at more a sub-par rate than even Giles was, her brainwaves were extremely active, even though her REM status was confirmed by all points that mattered.

            It was an enigma in the worst way.  One that couldn't be solved until after it was gone…

            Xander wasn't sure what to believe, that he was under attack in a dream, or who his fighting partner was.  Not Buffy, that's for sure, not even some famous Kung Fu action star.  The hyena.  Yep, heard right, the hyena.

            A couple minutes ago, if you could call the dream time actual time, the two were staring each other down, the hyena confident of victory, and Xander scared almost out of his mind, but resolved to not let the hyena win, at any costs.  And just before they were certain the other would attack, they noticed that they were no longer alone in the darkness.  They were in fact surrounded on all sides by faceless opponents.  Voices could also be heard, but they were meaningless to the pair as they began to realize what they faced.

            'They mean to destroy us,' the hyena, Xander realized, spoke without moving its jaw.

            "Ya think!" Xander sarcastically remarked.

            'I didn't chose you as a host either ya know!' the hyena growled back.  Xander noticed that it was using an imitation of his voice.  He blinked in surprise as he remembered, it was his voice, during the time the spirit had fully possessed him.  Its sarcasm was more biting, and its every syllable seemed to be a growl or tinged with a confidence and anger so great it was like evil.  But Xander, who knew about masks better than anyone in Sunnydale, knew better.  The hyena may act tough and confident, and may even pretend to be evil, but in the end, it's just another predator, and one that could be as scared as any prey when without its pack.

            "You know…" Xander began, as a plan began to form in his mind, "since these guys want to destroy the both of us, and neither of us favors that prospect, and seeing as how they also outnumber us…" Xander trailed off until he got a glare from the animal, "…how about we…team up…temporarily, just until we kill, or at least get rid of all of'em?"

            'What do I get out of it?' the hyena asked after some thought as the numbers against them began to build up.

            "Look, we're outnumbered as it is, and the odds aren't improving.  If we're going to survive this we've got to work together or we're both going to die…or get erased…or something bad!  All right!!" Xander shouted.

            'What do I get out of it?' the hyena repeated more sharply, and this time with an audible bark.

            Xander sighed and deflated some.  "Look, there is no way in hell that I'm letting you loose to hurt my friends again.  They're closer than family…hell, they are my family!  But…considering that I unleashed you myself just to match Buffy in training…I won't put you back in any cage." Xander finally relented.

            The hyena seemed to regard the young warrior for some moments before finally answering, 'The pack that was first created by the zookeeper's spell, was destroyed the moment the power was placed into him, and I ate him to retrieve my power from him.  You then defeated me in single combat, and won the right to my power.  Your friends…your family…they are my Pack now…they are my family as well.  I swear I will not hurt them.  And you will keep to your oath?'

            Xander stared with a new and complete respect at the hyena.  He nodded, "Yeah.  Together.  Lets do this!"  The hyena grinned at him and let loose a wild laughing bark that signaled the beginning of the battle.  Together, the two of them faced each opponent that came at them.  Without realizing it, the two moved in tandem, working together to take down each fighter against them, moving as one.

            They also learned the same way Slayer was learning, the information of the arts, hidden in the background being subconsciously and subliminally absorbed in the dream state, and they learned and adapted to each fighting technique, even if they didn't use the same style to defeat the fighter, they still learned how to block, defeat, and utilize it.

            It wasn't until the noise was deafening and the blackness was filled more with waiting opponents than empty space that the two realized they needed a better edge than working together.  "Any ideas?" Xander shouted as he knocked out another opponent, only to have another immediately take its place, after they had realized their problem.

            The hyena was silent for a moment before he finally answered Xander's question, with a question of its own.  'How much do you trust me?'

            Xander actually laughed at that.  Then he answered seriously, "Well…surprisingly I actually trust you at all, you won me some points by admitting that you wouldn't hurt my friends, but we do kinda have a past together.  So I guess I'd have to say…I trust you, let's just say that's enough for right now."

            The hyena nodded soberly just before ripping the throat out of another opponent.  'There is something, that I as a spirit, know about that might be able to help us in this battle, and potentially many more.  As a spirit, an Earth spirit mind you, we can inhabit and empower humans with our gifts, and other abilities.  The spell of the zookeeper made you a match for the Slayer, correct?'

            "Yeah, grunt so what?" Xander grunted.

            'There is…another way that grants even more power to you.  And me as well, sort of.  We would merge our spirits.  We would become one, literally as well as figuratively.  Right now, the best you could hope for is to match strength and speed of a newbie vamp.  But if we merged…' the hyena trailed off, leaving Xander to imagine the consequences.

            "Goku?" Xander asked suddenly, with an interested tone.

            Knowing what he was asking, the hyena laughed again, genuinely this time.  'Maybe…maybe more.  It would mostly depend on you.  I can tell that he has merged with a spirit of his own, not to mention was more than human from birth.  But for this fight…we would be unstoppable.  And it would make us stronger, faster, and far more powerful in the coming days.'

            "What are the side effects?" Xander asked.  When the hyena was silent for longer than he expected, Xander snorted, a sort of "I told you so."

            'I don't fully know.' The hyena admitted finally.  'Your friends would not be in danger, they are our pack, and we do not hurt the pack.'

            "What about dominance issues.  Buffy's team leader, and I'm not in the slightest inclined to try and take it away from her." Xander pointed out.

            'Considering that she's beat you the last few times we've faced her, and she is the Slayer, I don't think Buffy's dominance will be questioned.  Her place as a mate however…' the hyena trailed off again, this time with a grin of amusement on his face.

            Xander too grinned.  "All right, I can't keep this up forever, what do we do?" he asked after a couple more minutes into the fighting.

            'I do all the work.  You just don't fight me.' The hyena growled before it suddenly began to glow a powerful amber color.

            "What?!" Xander shouted right before the hyena leapt at him, and then into him!

            Xander felt the change before he knew it was happening, and there were moments of pain, but they left quickly, and a transformed Xander was standing there on the dreamscape.  He was as tall as the human, but his muscles had exponentially grown.  His hair was longer also, with traces of the hyena spots and the same spiky style to it.  His eyes were the same color as the hyena's, except the whites were still there, and he was wearing his Compound uniform, minus the jacket.  He also casually noticed, as he used them to instantly and casually rip out the heart of a nearby opponent, that his hands had transformed into claws.  He smiled, feeling the sharpness to his teeth and let out a laughing bark/growl, just before he leapt into the fray with the faceless opponents.

            It was the next day, and the uploads were just now being completed.  It would still be another two hours before Sage was even caught up with the others, but the fact that she had managed to keep up with the process at all was pretty impressive, although not by much shadowed against the retaining rates of Slayer and Warrior X.  Goku stared through the observation window appreciating what this had done to his students.  Both Willow and Xander seemed to have been physically changed by the knowledge absorbed into their brains, Xander the most by making him almost, strength and muscle-wise, the equal of Buffy.  Willow on the other hand seemed to have hyper-metabolized her body to remove a good portion of her fat stores and transferred the energy to her muscle tone.  Not the same as Xander's, but still made her look less like the weakling she had been.

            Goku was just reading the report from the Technicians.  Leaving out the techno-gobble-goop, it basically said what was clear to common sense.  Slayer and Warrior X had completed the full uploads approximately an hour ago and Watcher was about 90% complete already.  All 5000 data cores had been successfully uploaded into the two humans' brains, each core holding the complete martial arts information of a single species/race, meaning that the fighting techniques and styles of over 5000 races was swimming around their heads.

            Xander's physical makeup had been changed in more than just muscular range.  He also carried a new DNA quotient that granted him some enhancements to his senses, his immune system, and his overall metabolism, both healing, aging, and working off energy.  It took a bit of work, but Goku finally got the answer when he received the data stream from the universal probe sent to the team's home universe.

            A Universal Probe was what the Compound used to gather information about the universes they became connected to.  The probe was little more than a small satellite, barely even big enough to be recognizable by sight alone, and just floated around the space of the universe it was in, picking up and gathering radio signals, among other energy patterns, and when directed to, scanning the actual space/time superstring of a planet or stellar body.  Which then allowed the Compound to learn far more about the culture and history of one of their fighters far faster than researching what the government's history books say.

            Just under a year ago, Xander was exposed to animal spirit possession.  By a hyena.  'Which explains the laughing…' Goku thought as he put the Global away for now.  He took a deep breath and let out a long, slow sigh.  He let his tail hang free for the time being, occasionally twitching it to get rid of an itch.

            That tail.  It was a source of great strength…and great nightmares.  And now Xander had something very similar to that tail inside of him.  A raging wild animal spirit, that wanted nothing more than to destroy.  The Saiyan monkey was a legend of great fear, and greater respect.  The Saiyans that could learn to control themselves while transformed in such a way were given greater respect, as they had to be extremely powerful, both in mind and spirit as well as body, in order to successfully do so.

            There was nothing in all the universes, short of a god, that could defeat the Saiyan monkey.  Anything else that faced it and lived ended up cutting off the Saiyan's tail.  And while a workable defeat, it was not technically a true defeat.  Not even a Super Saiyan could defeat another Saiyan transformed into the giant ape.  A Super Saiyan 2 could…barely, and considering the source of the transformation, so could the level beyond Super2.

            Goku started out of the daze he had developed into.  He looked one last time at his students, glad that the medical staff hadn't been needed after all, but happier still that they would be all right.  He turned and left the Level 2 training building, already planning and anticipating the next days training sessions.

Fifth day:

            Buffy, Xander, and Giles were all waiting in their Training gym, their personal one it seemed, all waiting for Goku.  Buffy had a bit more anger to her expression, and also was pacing agitatedly.  Xander was standing, leaning against the wall across from her, and Giles was meditating peacefully in the center of the floor.

            Finally, about ten minutes after 7 in the morning, the MTC activated and Goku walked in.  He was surprised to see the three or them no only up but rather active, judging from Buffy's mood.  "Hey guys," Goku greeted as he always did, "Have any nice dreams last night?  I know I had some really weird ones after I got my first upload."

            "Like you wouldn't believe," Xander practically growled out.

            Buffy stopped pacing after that and turned to Goku.  "So…what?  We weren't doing good enough for you?  You had to get us a damn fighting upgrade!  And to make matters worse, we've started shouting at each other in alien languages!  And we actually understand them!"

            Goku shrugged, "I told you that after you got them, those are side effects from the Translators.  And as a matter of fact, no, you weren't doing good enough.  6 weeks isn't as long as you think Buffy.   We don't have time to teach the old fashioned way.  Were here to make strong warriors, not just an army of.  And shouldn't he be in his room?" Goku indicated Giles.

            Buffy just shrugged.  "He wanted to stick close after yesterday afternoon.  And Nightblade wanted some actual training after the other day." Buffy answered simply.  "By the way Goku, what was the deal with everybody wanting to arm wrestle me in the Mess yesterday?"

            Goku actually giggled at that.  Then he backed up, with his arms raised.  "Hey, I had nothing to do with that.  It was probably just the guys trying to see how you actually managed to floor Gortung with one punch.  How'd you do anyway?"

            Buffy just shrugged and answered cryptically, "Check the scoreboard next time you eat.  Now are we gonna start training or what?"

            "Fine, fine, have it your way," Goku held up his hands to hold off the Slayer's temper.  "Oh, by the way, I've set it up so that the gravity in here can be controlled vocally.  All you have to do is give your authorization at the start of a session, and shout out a gravity level.  For today, lets continue with the other day's levels and see how all that knowledge got mixed in.  Authorization: Saiyaman.  12.5 gravitons per cubic millimeter."

            At the two teens looks of confusion, Goku rapidly explained.  "Gravitons are the energy form of the effect of gravity, and the GEO technology basically allows us to generate gravitons, at any level, thereby controlling the level of gravity.  We've found that people from stronger gravities usually tend to be increasingly stronger than those from smaller pressures.  So we developed a training regimen that allows our fighters to get stronger.  With your GEO suits, the jackets and boots, you use squared measurement systems, but with a large room you use the cubic systems.  Understand?"

            "And the 12.5?" Slayer asked, as she felt the room, and especially herself, get even heavier.

            "The graviton equivalent of 12 Gs, from your Earth."

            "Our Earth?" Slayer and Warrior X repeated.

            Goku just raised his eyes at them, then they remembered the whole deal about parallel universes and infinite possibilities, thereby infinite Earths.  "Oh, right," the both muttered sheepishly.

            Slayer then turned to the still meditating Giles and called, "Hey Nightblade, you said you wanted some actual training.  Well, Goku's here, and it doesn't get any more actual."  Giles just remained silent, with Nightblade sitting still across his lap.

            The other three shrugged and the sparring began.

            Sage was in the same concrete room she'd been in for the past few days, save the day she had been hooked up to a computer getting martial arts uploaded into her brain, reading one book out of a mountain of them.  It was the third time that she was reading this one, apparently because, it being the Codex, it seemed to shift as time itself shifted, and therefore each time she read it, there was always something different in it.

            Amana and Archer were greatly impressed by the young witch's talent at absorbing knowledge, at least that was what they told her each time the three spoke.  Willow, however, felt she could do better.  She felt like she was lagging behind, like she wasn't working hard enough, or enough period.  And while she did understand the importance of Goku's half of the training, if she wanted to be as good as she possibly could be, Willow had to work in the Mage tower for as long as she was scheduled to, whether she was done early or what.  She planned on spending even more time here than scheduled if they would allow it.

After surpassing all the basic tests that Amana and Archer had given her, Willow asked them, just that morning as a matter of fact, to give them whatever level testing they needed to that would actually push her to her limits.  Not that the current tests weren't challenging enough as they were, but Willow finished them early, as she always seemed to do with tests.  So…she asked for a higher level, something that would take her extra time to do.

Obviously, she didn't do quite as well, but her marks, according to her two magic Trainers, were average…for someone in that level.  So Willow was no longer Sage, she was upgraded to a full class Mage.

There were multiple levels to Mage-hood.  Starting with just a basic magic user, and therefore only known as 'Mage'.  The levels beyond proceeded with an upward number system, all the way to 12.  Each level was based on the number of spells the 'Mage' knew and could perform flawlessly.  Obviously each level was more than just a handful of spells each.  Between beginning Mage level and Mage Level 1, one had to know, and could perform perfectly at least 100 spells.  Then 250 more spells between Mage 1 and Mage 2.  There was no exponential or real number calculation between the levels, but needless to say, they got increasingly higher as the numbers did.

Beyond Mage, there were more individual titles, which were based more on power rather than spell number.  If one was akin to sorcery, then they received the title Sorcerer or Sorceress.  The same with basic witchcraft, Voodoo, Elemental magics, and Wizardry.  Yet it was the levels beyond those that Willow was really wanting to sick her teeth into.

Beyond the simple titles, and the overall title of Wicca, which represented a balance of every art that was available in the Mage Tower, (basically you knew everything, but you knew it all equally, no specialization, and therefore less power in all of it) and was the level most held until they chose either the magic-type they wanted to focus on, or that which they had before they moved into the levels beyond.  The level of Power Mage.

Power Mage levels weren't based on number of spells, but how many different types of magic one knew.  If one knew all the general arts that were qualified to be Wicca, only they also had enough power in each to be equal in power to some that had specialized in each area that was enough to reach the first level of Power Mage.  To reach the second, that was where the Forbidden and Lost Arts came into play.  Most Power Mages, which numbered in total just over 10,000, at the Compound focused on the Lost Arts, which basically meant that only magic-users of a certain level could even learn, let alone use such magicks, rather than the Forbidden Arts, as they were all so difficult to learn.  Most Power Mages actually ended up just focusing on a single Forbidden or Lost Art, and was named for that magic.

The Arch Mages however…  The knew all the Lost Arts, and one was actually constantly inventing more Lost Arts, but they also had mastered more than just one or two of the Forbidden Arts.  The least any of the Arch Mages knew was the Arch Mage Level 4 Clef Ryu-Kishin, an alternate dimensional creature that Willow had never met.  He…or rather it, knew only 4 of the Forbidden Arts.  Willow remembered there were 14 Forbidden Arts, and only the Level 1 Arch Mage, who she had yet to even hear the name of, knew all of the Forbidden Arts and had actually mastered them.

Willow, despite knowing it might be well over her head, wanted to master them as well.  But first, she had to start at the beginning, which is what she was doing right now.  Learning as many spells as she could possibly cram into her already nearly over-filled brain.

Magic book after magic book, ancient tome after ancient secret scroll all full of forgotten secrets.  Yet each tidbit of knowledge was as fascinating as anything Willow could imagine, some even more!  The boring part came when she found her mind beginning to wander away from her.

It wasn't something that happened that often, but when Willow got herself focused on a task she could sometimes focus her subconscious on the monotonous task while her "super consciousness" entertained other thoughts.  The unusual part came in the fact that Willow remembered everything that she had subconsciously done, despite not having her full mind on the task, after she had finished anyway.

Her mind kept bringing up the strange dream that she had had during the knowledge upload the other day.  Sitting in front of a computer screen in a cramped office that was full of martial arts texts, which is actually what made it so cramped, and she was racing to copy the texts in entirety into the computer before her.  Unfortunately she didn't have a scanner, so she couldn't just do them as easily as she had transferred all of Giles' books to computer, (though it was probably a good idea after seeing the one negative result of that expenditure), forcing her to put them in by hand.  Yet, instead of just typing them into Word, or some other writing program, she seemed to be writing it in as a website or something, because she wrote each in with a very strange code.  It wasn't the normal computer code, that's for sure, because each of the symbols were something…other than any symbol a computer made.  They seemed to be multi-dimensional, from a viewpoint anyway, and while they were infinitely complex, they seemed to make sense to Willow as she saw them.

What was disturbing about the dream…was that the young Mage couldn't remember any of the details of the dream…only the results, which was instant access to all of the martial arts knowledge that had been put in her brain.  Willow sighed as she shook herself out of the temporary funk and brought herself back to reality.

Which was surprising because she suddenly found herself, after what she could have sworn was only a couple minutes, reading another large tome, and the pile around her significantly decreased.  Which meant that she had fully read and understood well over thirty of the books in front of her.  Willow shook her head, still to overwhelmed by just about everything to put too much energy into being concerned about it.  She started reading again and went back to that little place in her mind she had just been and called forth the subconscious memories of the books she had just read, and started to consciously review the information.  Unknowingly, she was at the same time typing the information into an imaginary computer in that place in her mind.

It was night.  At least Buffy assumed it was night.  It was difficult to tell, as the Compound didn't really appear to even have a sun.  The day's training had gone considerably better.  For both Buffy and Xander, that's for sure.  They certainly gave Goku enough of a workout that he was actually grinning when he left that evening.  The two humans had used skills and techniques that they had never even imagined before to counter the Saiyan's superior strength and speed, and Buffy's own sensing abilities seemed to have been growing.

Xander's own transformation from the Second Training, which he had explained to the girls as being that he had fully merged with the hyena spirit, giving him the full power of the hyena, but he was in control instead of the base instincts, had certainly helped, and Buffy couldn't help noticing with her senses that he was more powerful because of it.  He was probably about as powerful as any Slayer.

Any Slayer but this one that is, she corrected herself as she continued with the kata her body was doing.  It seemed to be more natural than the katas Giles had had her memorize, the basic moves of some alien fighting form.  Alien to her anyway, because it was actually a simple Jujitsu form, one meant to stretch the muscles and limber up the tendons.

She wasn't sure how she knew all this, but she decided not to fight it, and just go with the flow, as there didn't seem to be any side effects of it.  At least…no non-beneficial ones.

Buffy sighed as she stopped the kata at its end and stood straight once again.  Then, looking around at the MTC, making sure she was alone and wouldn't be interrupted immediately, she pulled out her Global and opened it, selecting from the opening option menu, 'ENVIRONMENT FEATURES'.  A 'Waiting…' sign appeared and was then immediately replaced with the image of the Training Gym handler, a humanoid with scale-like feathers for hair and slitted reptilian eyes.

"What can I do for you Slayer?" he asked cheerfully.  Buffy was aware that while it wasn't English, it was at least some kind of Earth language.

Buffy smiled back and asked what she wanted.  "Is it…possible to seal this gym, that is make sure that nobody interrupts me as long as I'm in here or something like that?"

The reptilian, actually of a race from a planet called Avia, looked intrigued for a moment before asking back, "Well…why would you want that?"

Buffy just smiled a bit more alluringly and answered sweetly, "Well, you see…my Trainer is Goku, and…" Buffy stopped as the Avian nodded and made an expression of sudden understanding.

"Say no more.  I've heard of the guy.  He can be a bit overprotective sometimes of his students, but don't worry.  I can do as you ask, but the standard limit on an environment seal is about 90 hours, but I'll set it so you can lift the seal on your own.  Just give your authorization, and then the command; "Lift Environment Seal of Section 41" and give your authorization again.  Simple as that."  The Avian looked about to close the connection before he caught Buffy's eyes once more and asked, "Is there anything else I can do for you Slayer?"

Buffy smiled in appreciation at the being and answered, "Yeah, just one more thing.  What's your name?"  Raising, what passed for anyway, it's eyebrows at the question, the Avian just stuttered for a couple seconds before answering nervously, "Uh…it's Alvin actually.  I'm the general region manager of Training Areas sections 10 through 50.  If you need anything taken care of in your section, please, don't hesitate to call me."

Buffy nodded gratefully.  "Thanks Alvin, I just might do that.  And please, call me Buffy.  Only vamps call me Slayer.  Oh, those are my nicknames for vampires by the way.  Thanks again Alvin.  Oh, by the way, the voice protocol on setting the gravity that Goku set up is still on, right?"

Alvin nodded, "It is.  And I'll remember that…Buffy.  Have a good workout."

"Thanks!" Buffy said one last time before closing her Global and turning back to her training.  Her personal training.

"Authorization: Slayer…" Buffy hesitated slightly, before she confirmed her decision and spoke clearly and crisply, "…50 gravitons per cubic millimeter."  Immediately the air became thicker and Buffy found herself with a greater difficulty to breathe and her muscles automatically became taut just to keep her on her feet.  Taking a few deep breaths until her breathing was normal and her muscles more or less felt like they had adapted, despite feeling fifty times heavier than normal, Buffy started the same kata she had just finished all over again, this time at 50 times normal gravity.

Goku, after Xander's results from the second training along with Giles' assurances, had pushed the limit to 25 gravitons per cubic millimeter today, and they had all still kept up with him.  More or less.  So long as the 1/8th Saiyan had his Super Saiyan transformation up his sleeve, none of the Slayer Team had any delusions at him being beat against them.  And Buffy was more than determined to face the Super Saiyan…and win.

Which had birthed quite possibly the stupidest idea Buffy Summers had ever conceived.  The idea of training herself, at a slightly more accelerated pace than Goku was going.  At the rate he was going, they might be as strong as he was by the end of the six weeks, but Buffy seriously doubted it.  Something about the Trainer just…irked something in her.  So here she was, moving in 50 Gs and straining for each movement as though walking through solid rock.  It certainly felt like that after the initial start, that's for sure.

Buffy ignored the pain and forced herself, her body, to do better, to do more.  And it did.  Only now, there was no exhilaration after each move as there had been earlier when her muscles were growing and being challenged.  Her body knew it was at its limits, and was beyond them in fact.  And neither Buffy nor her body knew how long it might last, or even if it could.

 Yet she flowed just as gracefully as she had in 1 and a half gravities, as she demanded her body to move in the set patterns in her mind.  Finally, after a half hour, some minutes longer than it took her to do the same kata earlier, Buffy finished and she stood straight once again, her muscles feeling extremely sore from the work she was forcing from them.

A moment later she jumped into the air and did a mid-air spin kick, and barely managed to land on her feet, a bit off-balance in the heavier gravity.  She also noticed that if she had given the same strength in normal gravity, she probably would have been able to touch the ceiling, but as it was she didn't even get a foot of the ground.

"OK, none of the advanced stuff just yet Summers.  First thing's first…get used to the heavy stuff then move on.  And how do we get used to the heavy stuff?" Buffy asked herself before she grimaced as the answer came to her as she recalled Giles' usual regimen of training in the after-school hours.  "Ofcourse, how silly of me," she said to answer her own question, "Run."  And with that she started laps around the outermost perimeter of the gym.

Her body felt sluggish, and undoubtedly heavy, but once she started moving, Buffy felt a little better, or at least not as under so much pressure.  As per usual when she worked out, Buffy let her mind wander, and she immediately found it on a very important subject.  Willow.

The redhead hacker was very important to the blonde Slayer, though she couldn't say exactly why.  She was her only female friend in all of Sunnydale, though there were others both Buffy and Willow associated with, Buffy was absolutely certain that she counted the shy hacker as her best friend, and that was as important to Buffy as her own mother was.

Ever since she became the Slayer, she had felt…alone.  She had the biggest secret anybody could have, and at the same time it was, in its own way, the coolest ever, and she had to hide it from everybody.  Even her own parents and the girls she called her best friends.  Best friends that turned on her the moment she became "too different" to be cool anymore.

And then the gym, the fire…Lothos.  The one thing that had helped her through that time was her friendship with the street punk named Pike.  He was one of the lucky ones, one of the would-be victims of a vampire that she had saved, and demanded that he be allowed to help.  She still thinks he just did it to impress her or some such nonsense, but that didn't matter…after Vegas.

Buffy shook herself before she let herself go down that road again.  It was a long time ago.  Well…just under two years, but still…a long time ago.  She still can't believe he let her wear that coat check girl outfit though.

Buffy sighed.  Then an odd thought crossed her mind.  An image of shy little Willow in that same outfit.  Buffy blinked and staggered, almost tripping as the thought tumbled around in her head.  She blushed as she tucked the image to the back of her mind, and swearing to never let herself find out why that image actually came forth, and why it affected her so much.  Despite knowing that she'd never be able to keep that promise.

Willow was her best friend, first of all, and second of all, one did not think of their best friends…in that manner!  Which brought the blonde back to what she had first been thinking about.  Why Willow was so important to her.

The girl, from the first moment Buffy had seen her, was an enigma.  A living contradiction.  She had a natural beauty that Buffy knew, if allowed to nurture under the right care would turn the shy and timid creature into a raving beauty that would rival the combined popular beauty of Cordelia and all of her "Cordettes".  And yet, she tried to hide it beneath as much bland clothing as possible and her entire air practically screamed, "Pick on me, I'm shy, helpless, and have no life, and I want you to make me miserable!"  At least that was how Cordelia seemed to interpret it.  Buffy chose to hear it as, "I'm lonely!"

Which was definitely something the Slayer could identify with.  That was actually the first reason that Buffy had approached the young girl that first day at lunch.  The whole "need you to tutor me" was mostly an excuse, a true excuse, but an excuse nevertheless, that she had picked up after running away from Giles that first time in the Library.

And then, that night, Luke, Darla, and all of the Master's other minions had chosen Willow and Jesse as the victims for the night, and Xander and Willow were drawn into the world of the Slayer, letting Buffy have a real best friend in the two people, other than Pike, that said they wanted to help, and they would not take no for an answer.  At least they stayed out of trouble more than he did.

She had people, other than her watcher that knew all her secrets…well, all the important ones anyway.  And Xander…coming after her in the Master's lair.  He thought that she had forgotten about that, but she hadn't.  It was cruel of her to use him like that, that night at the Bronze, she knew, but she wasn't in her right mind then.  She was hurting, so she wanted to make everyone else hurt.  And despite the change in attitude, and how much she did hurt her friends, they stayed by her, and supported her through her pain.  Like true best friends.

Willow especially.  The girl was just so innocent, so…so worth protecting from the evils of the world.  Buffy imagined that if she had to, all she would need would be to picture Willow's face to find all the evidence she would ever need to continue being the Slayer and protecting the world, or worlds as the case is now.

Xander was kind of like Pike in the way that he always tried to impress her…and then there was his little declaration just before the big Dance and the whole dying deal.  But…she just didn't feel that way about him.  She laughed slightly, despite her lungs already panting for every spare breath they could get, as she recalled once imagining being with Xander would be like.  Either he would worship the ground she walked on, or he would be like some fairy tale knight in shining armor, always kind and compassionate towards her, and at the same time listen to her thoughts and ideas.  A nice picture when she looked at it, but just that, a picture.  She didn't have the feelings, no matter how nice it would be.

Angel.  Now there was a migraine waiting to happen.  The feelings were there, and ohhh…his body, his eyes, heck the whole package!  But the information Goku had told them their first night here…  That changed things.  Big time.  She had actually had a nightmare about it already.  How the two of them, her and Angel, would come back to his apartment after a terrible fight where they were forced to run, soaked to the bone because it was either raining or they had swam away, she couldn't remember.  And then he would be so kind, and gentle and…  Wonderful.

And then she woke up alone, and didn't see him again for another two days.  He said horrible things about her, making her feel weak and like he was ripping her heart out and eating it in front of her.  Then… he showed his true face.  Holding Willow by the neck in front of them, threatening, taunting…  Snapping Jenny Calendar's neck, leaving her where Giles, who Buffy knew were sweet on each other, alone would find her…  Stalking her mother…  Standing with Drusilla and Spike like some kind of king with his queen and jester…  The last image though, it was always the same, Angel, the real Angel, standing before this demon statue, at the center of which was this evil looking portal that was sucking the souled vampire into it.  The betrayal in his eyes was unmistakable, as was her own hands driving the sword through his chest.

Buffy shook her head one last time, trying to convince herself it was only a nightmare.  But the potential that Goku's warning had unlocked the doubts in Buffy's mind.  Was the mysterious vampire that had said from the start he only wanted to help Buffy…really worth a relationship?  Sure, he was great looking, and had the "bad guy" attitude that attracts all women to the dark, but he was a vampire too.  Maybe Xander's attitude, while a bit extreme, about all vampires being evil was the right one.

Buffy decided to think about it later, but reconsidered having any sort of relationship, outside of "professional" with the souled vampire called Angel.  Until she saw him again anyway.

Slayer finally had to stop, as her body, panting loudly for each breath, demanded she take at least a small break.  Her muscles were screaming with each movement, feeling stiffer than they had since before she ever became the Slayer.  She collapsed to the ground where she was and opened her Global to see the time.  She smiled as she saw that she had been able to keep running for an hour already, having been planning on either lowering the gravity or stop for a break sooner than she had.

One good thing, she decided, about training on your own was you get to find out most of your limits.

When her breathing returned to normal, the Slayer got back to her feet and considered either more running…or some other exercises.  She quickly decided and set at an incredibly brisk pace running around the large room as fast as she could, not stopping until she had done at least ten laps.

After that was completed, forcing herself to catch her breath, she dropped down near the MTC on the floor and quickly began doing as many push-ups as she could force herself to do.  She didn't stop or pause once until another entire hour had passed and only slowed during the tail end of that hour.  It wasn't until the push-ups became so difficult that she could barely even lift herself on her knees that she paused, but she didn't actually stop until she collapsed, and even then, she forced herself to do ten more.

On the final 'up', she decided that it was enough and let herself fall over onto her shoulder, and then continued to roll onto her back.  She lay there for a moment just feeling the heavy gravity and breathing deeply before she forced herself onto her next exercise.  Stomach crunches.

She didn't last as long as with her other exercises, but she blamed that mostly on being exhausted from the others.  After fifteen or twenty minutes, she wasn't keeping track, Buffy stopped, laid back down and centered herself, controlling her breathing precisely.  Then, in an incredible display of her supernatural strength, she pulled her legs back up to her chest, pressed her hands to the floor on either side of her head, and then shifting her weight as she needed to, she pushed down on the floor and performed a perfect flip up onto her feet.

The maneuver cost her though, as she felt her energy drop to zero, barely enough to keep her standing in the heavy G forces.  Finally, she decided that, for now, her body had had enough and she lowered the gravity.  "Authorization: Slayer…" she gasped as her breath seemed to be stolen from her lungs, "25.9 gravitons per cubic millimeter!" she ordered, as that was the last setting Goku had had the room at when he ended the group Training session earlier.  Immediately Buffy felt the relieving effects of the lighter gravity.  She didn't feel "light as a feather" certainly, but her breathing improved and she found she could at least move once again.

Buffy looked at the time, and decided that if she wanted to get any rest before Goku showed up at their apartment, she had better go back now.  She then ordered at the ceiling, "Return to normal settings."  Which was the command Goku had given when the session had finished.  It automatically reverted the gravity to 1 G and whatever other settings had been altered to the room during the training session.

            She then remembered just before she reached the MTC what Alvin had told her.

            Looking at the ceiling one last time she said clearly, "Authorization: Slayer, Lift Environment Seal of Section 41, Authorization: Slayer!"

            A chirping response was heard before Buffy noticed something like a flash crossed over the portal part of the MTC and Buffy touched the pad and instructed it to take her back to the apartment.  It immediately complied without any trouble and Buffy sighed in relief, having been secretly bothered that she might have trouble getting out because she wanted some privacy in her personal training.

            Thankfully that was not the case and Buffy immediately stepped through the Matter Transfer Conveyer Portal into the living room, and right into the back of Willow!  Too surprised for words, and moving at such a pace that she couldn't stop if she wanted to, Buffy slammed into the back of her friend and with a shout, they tumbled to the floor.

            "Omigod!  Willow, are you all right?" Buffy near-shouted, barely managing to catch the off-balance redhead.  Willow had let out her own shriek of surprise, but once she felt Buffy's grip and heard her voice, she immediately calmed down and turned to face her best friend.

            "Yeah, I'm fine Buffy, you just startled me," Willow placated.  Once their breathing was under control, both girls made their way to the spacious couch and sat down, facing one another.

            "What are you doing up so late?" Buffy asked, sure that it was indeed very late.

            Willow just shrugged.  "I just finished my training about two minutes ago," she said, and giggled when Buffy's eyes went wide.  "Don't worry Buffy.  It was all book stuff, and then testing me on my knowledge.  Besides, I learned allot, and you know me and learning stuff.  Hey, speaking of which, what are you doing out and about?  Goku keeping you out for some more training?"

            Suddenly Buffy felt her heart stop, knowing for certain that if she told her friend what she was up to, Willow would panic and stress, and maybe even worse, tell Goku.  Her mind raced for an answer, any answer.

            Willow was surprised to see Buffy's expression freeze while her complexion paled noticeably.  "Uh…well…actually I was taking a walk…through the gardens, you remember Goku showing us the Arboretum, right?  I just wanted to check it out.  But, so Goku didn't bust me or anything about slacking off, I turned the gravity up on my GEO thingies here, you know the jacket and boots."

            "You can do that?" Willow asked, surprised.

            Buffy nodded and pulled her Global out of the jacket pocket.  "I don't think there's much that you can't do with that thing here." Buffy said, suddenly wincing as the pain from the workout her body had been put through was finally noticed.

            "Are you all right Buffy?" Willow asked, a note of concern in her question.

            "Yeah, I'll be fine," Buffy, grunted.  "I think I just over did it a little on the gravity.  But don't worry, not only do I have Slayer healing, but immortality to boot."

            "Yeah," Willow sat back, looking a little dejected at Buffy's reminder of their "immortality".

            "Wills?" Slayer asked, wondering what was bothering her friend.

            "I'm…it's nothing Buffy.  It's nothing," Willow tried to assure the Slayer.

            Buffy rolled her eyes.  "Yeah right, I'm not biting.  Come on Rosenberg, I know you, and this is me here.  Spill girlfriend!" Buffy suddenly bounced a little closer to the redhead on the couch.  Buffy's light attitude brought a smile, however short lived, to the not so light Mage, before what was troubling her reminded her to be depressed again.

            "It's…well, the whole 'death being no big deal' thing.  I mean, immortality, when living on the Hellmouth, and the non-unliving kind at that, is pretty great, cause that means that we don't have to worry about being killed in some accident or whatever."  Willow tried to explain.

            "But…" Buffy led.

            Willow smiled and looked the Slayer in her eyes.  "But.  What about in the long term?  I mean…we're going to look sixteen for…forever!  That's going to cause some problems later on, with the government and stuff.  Not to mention, we've been raised knowing and believing that there is a natural order to things.  Death is one of those things.  Buffy, I'm not saying I want to anytime soon, but…we're supposed to die, when it's our time.  The Master doesn't count Buffy," she added before the Slayer could say anything.  "Prophecy is one thing, and all that, but…I…"

            Buffy frowned in concern when Willow stopped speaking, ducking her head.  Buffy startled suddenly when she realized Willow was crying.  Without a word, Buffy embraced her friend, ignoring all the pains in her body, focusing on helping her friend.

            "Hey?  What's the matter?  What brought this on anyway?" Buffy asked, holding her best friend tightly to her.

            After a few sniffles, and a couple failed attempts at speaking, Willow finally managed to answer.  Sitting up, tears running down her cheeks, she looked Buffy in the eye once more.  "I…it's the whole deal.  It's…too much Buffy!  It was the 'not dying' that made me hesitate in saying yes to the Powers in the first place.  I have no problem with the fighting for our life thing, I mean, we do that every day and night on the Hellmouth, and we've been doing pretty good so far I think.  But…humans are only meant to live a short while Buffy.  I've always known and believed that.  And now…"

            Buffy sighed.  Willow made some good points…yet there was something that she seemed to be forgetting.

            "Wills…I get what you're saying, I really do.  But remember, Slayer here!" Buffy shrugged, "I'm supposed to die before my 21st birthday, whereas the national standard for the human life span is almost a hundred years!  I'm not going to argue about being immortal, even if I do end up living for, oh I don't know, 5000 years!  It's not the amount of time that I have a problem with.  It's what I spend it on that matters.  That's all that matters."

            "Willow, all four of us are immortal now, and the only way we can die is if we're killed in this Tournament thing.  Frankly, I'm not keen on giving up after fighting for so long if we last past our first one.  This…Tournament is what scares me, not eternity."

            Willow smiled shyly, unconsciously Buffy gulped.  "You'll…we'll do fine Buffy.  You beat the Master, I'm learning more magic than I thought possible, and Giles has one of the most powerful weapons in all of existence.  And I mean ALL of existence.  We'll…do fine.  But why aren't you worried about…about the long term.  I mean, yeah, you've got your philosophy "Life is Short", but…that's just it Buffy.  Our lives are no longer short.  We have to start thinking long term.  And…I used to have trouble picturing where I'd be thirty years down the road, would I have a husband, children, what kind of job and life would I have?  Now…I'm thinking in 300 years down the road."

            Buffy smiled and patted her hand on Willow's thigh, unknowingly bringing both of their pulse rates a bit higher.

            "I…don't know what or where we'll end up Willow, but I do know this…we're going to travel that road together.  So you don't have to worry about being alone for eternity, because I'll always be there with you.  No matter what.  And so will Xander and Giles."  Buffy smiled a bit wider, tears threatening to wetten her own cheeks.  "And the long term I'm thinking about is about 3 months from now.  Wills…Goku is Tournament champion for a few years here now, meaning that he's either the strongest or the most resourceful there.  Rumor is that all of a sudden, Evil has a couple champions of their own that are either Goku's equal, or actually stronger.  We…"

            "I know Buffy," Willow interrupted.  "And I'm not dismissing the problem that is that.  I just want to think about longer than going from Tournament to Tournament, fighting and living just to survive.  That's not life Buffy."

            Buffy stopped and frowned.  Then she nodded.  "Your right.  But that's why I'm so focused now.  If we get stronger than Goku now, then we'll be guaranteed the Tournament and we won't ever have to worry about it again.  Well, except when we're there.  And then we can focus the rest of our time on just living our lives.  Having a family, or spending it with the ones we have now."

            Suddenly Willow snorted, rolling her eyes.  At Buffy's raised eyebrow she explained.

            "I just pictured me and my mom "spending time together".  Wasn't that pretty of a picture."

            "Oh?" Buffy asked, her face scrunched in confusion.  "You know, you and Xander don't really talk that much about your parents.  We've talked about my mom because we're trying to keep my Slayer secret from her and that requires some planning, but I know practically nothing about your's and Xan's.  What's the deal?"

            Willow took a deep breath, signaling Buffy to sit back and get a bit more comfortable, because when Willow takes a deep breath, you know you're going to be there for a while.  "My mother is Dr. Sheila Rosenberg, PhD Child Psychology.  Guess who her first paper was about?"

            "Oh Wills," Buffy frowned, feeling sympathy for what Willow was saying.

            "Its…its not so bad really.  But after living with the woman for 16 years you'd think she'd have actually tried raising me?  Well, I mean for probably the first couple years she did ok, or at least tried.  But I think she got scared, or just plain too busy after that because the only one who took me to the park or got me ice cream or listened when I got A's on all my report cards was Dad…and Xander.  And even Dad's busy, but at least he was willing to listen when he wasn't.  Sheila on the other hand, even when she wasn't on the phone, or writing a paper, or discussing with a client, would either ignore me or tell me to go play with my toys, even though I didn't have any!  And when I had something important to tell her or really exciting to show my mom…she'd immediately find something to make herself busy with!  And then when I start hanging out with you, and I try and tell her about it, she barely even listens and thinks your name is Bunny not Buffy!  Dad at least was nice enough to ask about you, but didn't really judge, but he's just being a dad, and Sheila goes straight to her cell phone and starts discussing this new paper about childhood associations with delinquent friends!  And then…!"

            Willow didn't get any further as Buffy saw she was about to break down or something and immediately enveloped her bestest friend in all the universes in a hug and not letting go until her friend knew she was safe and that her Slayer would always keep her that way.  Willow just started sobbing, on the verge already, as soon as Buffy hugged her.  All the anger and frustration her mother had given the Mage by neglect and criticism where there should have been attention and love, came pouring out all at once as Willow beat against Buffy helplessly and kept crying and sobbing, sometimes cursing the redhead's dear mother out.  Buffy just held on and somewhere halfway through it all she started silently crying with the Mage and didn't stop until after Willow had ceased her own tears.

            A long time later, neither sure of the hour, just that Willow had been crying for at least an hour already and only quieted to silent tears and Buffy's embrace little more than ten minutes ago, the two friends finally released themselves, their joints creaking from having not moved for over an hour.

            "Feeling any better?" Buffy whispered quietly, softly stroking Willow's hair.

            Absently leaning into the touch, Willow just nodded, her eyes closed.  After another minute, her eyes opened and she let out a long, tear-stained sigh.  "Some.  Not…not really even good, but…better than I was."

            "Oh Wills…I had no idea that you were so lonely…that…" Buffy tried to comfort.

            "Don't worry about it.  I've…gotten used to it.  And like I said, its not so…"

            "No!" Buffy snapped, startling Willow.  "No it is that bad Wills!  If it weren't, you wouldn't have spent the last hour crying in my arms.  I don't care how much your mother has to do or has going for her, it's a Mom's job to be nosy and to check up on you and to be a busybody!  Look at mine for crying out loud!  I love her like nothing else in this or any other world, and she's always ending up in trouble, or I have to keep my secrets from her, and I'm always lying to her!  Gawd Wills!  This bitch that gave birth to you isn't your mother!  If she were she'd actually care if you disappeared for three days, which by the way you have!  When we get back I am so gonna…"

            "No Buffy," Willow interrupted Buffy's tirade.  "No.  Don't.  If…if Sheila doesn't want to be involved with my life, then that's her business and her problem.  Not mine.  But…now that I think about it…when we get back home, you mind if I spend a couple nights with you and your mom?"

            Buffy smiled, fresh tears threatening again.  "No, I most absolutely certainly would not mind.  And neither will Mom."  Suddenly Buffy's face fell.  "Oh no!  I completely forgot!  What am I gonna tell Mom when we get back?!"

            Willow immediately adopted Buffy's worry, though she knew there was really only one solution to the issue.  Tell Joyce Summers the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  'So help us God,' Willow prayed as she imagined the result of telling Buffy's mom the whole Tournament and Powers deal on top of the whole Slayer-destiny package.

            "Well, we've got six weeks to worry about getting some kind of story straight," Willow assured the Slayer, "not to mention your two best friends and an imposing authority, Librarian figure to support whatever you come up with, and hopefully that will be enough for your mom."

            "Yeah…I hope you're right," Buffy muttered uncertainly.

            Finally the Slayer couldn't take it anymore and the, still set at 10Gs, GEO jacket was getting more painful than it was worth, so she quickly removed it.  As soon as she did, she started when she heard Willow beside her gasp in shock.  Then she looked herself.  Her entire upper body was covered in bruises, as though she were just one big bruise herself.

            "Buffy…how high a gravity did you set your jacket to?" Willow asked, her voice quiet.

            Sensing the potential panic attack, Buffy thought as fast as she could and answered, "Oh, uh, not too high.  Just a couple Gs higher than what Goku had us at in training.  I was only walking so I figured that I needed to go higher to make it a workout.  Why?  Besides Will, the bruises will be gone by the time Goku gets here.  You know me and my Slayer healing."

            Willow shook her head.  "Buffy, come with me," she commanded, getting up from the couch and walking immediately for her room.  At a loss, Buffy just shrugged to herself, and grabbing her jacket, followed the Mage to the room, that still had SAGE stenciled beside the door, and then both entered the redhead's room, which was identical to Buffy's in every way except that there were about three different colored outfits laid out on the dresser, identical to the black one Willow was wearing, except blue, white, and green.

            "Look Will, I'm ok, it doesn't even hurt any more, really," Buffy tried to calm her friend before the panic could fully develop.

            "Well if it doesn't, it's certainly going to be by morning," Willow told her sternly.  "My arms looked exactly like that when Goku took me to the Clinic the other day.  It's a side effect of all the gravity pushing down so much.  When it's at a level you aren't used to that is.  Come on, Amana showed me how some medical techniques today, and not only do I need the practice, but you are going to need it.  Trust me on this Buff."

            "But Will, weren't you hurting when you came back?" Buffy asked as she removed the GEO boots.

            "Yeah, but not as bad as I would have been hurting had I been allowed to heal naturally.  Not to mention, those "doctors" treat you like so much meat sitting there, and they only treat the muscles with no regard for pain or what not.  Besides, I promise to be much gentler.  And I thought you liked massages anyway?" Willow asked with a knowing smile on her face.

            Buffy's eyebrows shot up, "This is about a massage?  Well why didn't you say so?"  Willow just grinned as Buffy immediately made herself comfortable, back up, on the bed.

            "Oh, I, uh…need you to take your pants off too," she said a bit nervously as she took off her own boots and sat them aside.  She didn't catch the heated look Buffy cast her way, but when she did look back, Buffy was standing again and slowly removing the gi-pants.

            "You know," Buffy drawled as she repositioned herself back onto the bed, "I don't let just anyone get inside my pants you know.  I try to avoid having an "easy" reputation."

            Willow's eyes went wide and her face flushed crimson as she suddenly found it difficult to breath, she tried to correct her friend in her intentions, although she could no more deny the allegation than form a full sentence.  "I…but…you…I mean…no, I don't…uh…"

            Buffy smiled and giggled somewhat at her friend, "Chill Will, I'm just playin' with ya.  Come on, let's get with the relaxation motions here!  I'm never one to turn down a free massage."

            That seemed to get the Mage back underway and she quickly nodded while Buffy laid her head down on her folded hands, she quickly removed her jumpsuit and before a word could be spoken, was up on the bed beside Buffy so her hands could reach the Slayer's shoulders, and that would be the only parts of their body's touching.

            The moment that Willow's hands started their special, and recently learned, magic, Buffy felt more relaxation than she had imagined in weeks.  "Uhhhhh… Gawd Wills, you are good at this!" Buffy moaned after a few minutes.

            "Thanks, but I haven't even started on the advanced stuff yet," Willow said with a smile.

            Buffy could only moan in response.  Willow smiled further as she started rubbing more than working the muscles in the Slayer's incredible tense shoulders.  However, Willow knew from experience, as well as Amana's teachings, that Buffy would need more work on her middle and lower back, but unfortunately…the leotard was in Willow's way.

            Frowning slightly, Willow delayed as much as she could by working as much as possible on Buffy's shoulders and upper arms until she could no longer avoid it if she wanted her friend to feel like anything other than a giant sore in the morning.

            "Uh…Buffy?  I…kinda need you to push down your leotard some…so I can get at your lower back," Willow added hastily.  Buffy only moaned in reply, and for a moment Willow thought she'd have to repeat her request, but before she knew it, Buffy was lowering the straps and working her arms out of the leotard, but making sure she still stayed covered.  Then, almost as a last second thought, she pushed it to just under her breasts and before anybody could have seen anything, resumed her face down position on Willow's bed.

            The red haired Mage herself, however, was suddenly finding it difficult to breath because it was so stuffy and hot in the room all of a sudden.  Gulping to quell, (or maybe voice), her concerns, Willow just focused on her teachings and started to work on Buffy's back again, finding her rhythm back and getting used to the Slayer's surprisingly soft skin under her fingertips.

            Working the energy flow, the pressure points, and making sure to loosen the muscles beforehand, Willow worked her way steadily down her best friend's bruised back, which amazingly was actually healing before her eyes.  The leotard kept getting lower, and lower, until Willow had reached the small of Buffy's back and the black satiny material was bunched around the Slayer's hips, rather low, and the Slayer herself was fast asleep.  Willow smiled fondly, recalling what Amana had said the trust someone showed when they fell asleep in such a vulnerable position, as well as seeing the peace on Buffy's face, a very rare picture indeed.

            Finally Willow sighed, and gulping one last time the image of Buffy's near fully naked body before her into her mind, Willow tried to pull the leotard back up, but she couldn't work it under or around the blonde's breasts.  Finally, rather than risk a very highly embarrassing moment, she just decided to wake Buffy up, glad that at least one of them had gotten some sleep.

            "Buffy?" Willow whispered softly, gently rolling Buffy's shoulder.  The blonde Slayer groaned a bit, but obviously did not awaken.  "Buffy?" she tried a bit louder.  Same response.  Willow sighed and rolled her eyes.

            Suddenly, the Mage's orbs filled with wide realization and humor.  She leaned close to Buffy's ear and then whispering right next to the organ, she said breathily, "Rise and shine, rise and shine."  That seemed to do it as Buffy groaned a bit louder and her face scrunched up rather cutely before she unconsciously rolled onto her side and opened her eyes.

            The first sight upon waking that morning for Buffy Summers was one that she wanted to wake up to for the rest of her entire life, whether that be centuries or weeks.  "Willow?" she asked in confusion once the euphoria of half-sleep had disappeared.

            "It's time to wake up.  I just finished your massage, and though I don't have a clock, I'm pretty sure Goku's going to be here soon.  And…" Willow's green eyes briefly flickered down to Buffy's exposed body, "…you need to get dressed first.  I'll see you for breakfast," the red-faced Mage suddenly said and disappeared from the bed and into her own bathroom.

            Buffy briefly followed the path that she had done something wrong until she sat up and realized with a start that she felt more of a breeze than she was supposed to.  She looked down and her face immediately matched the same color as Willow's had been.  The Slayer, gulping as the implications of flashing your best friend accidentally began to run through her mind, worked the leotard the rest of the way on, fitting her arms in the straps and securing it in place before jumping off the bed and into her pants so fast that she forgot to be surprised at the speed.

            Without a word or glance at Willow, Buffy just grabbed her GEO suit (jacket and boots) and left the room for her own as fast as possible.

Seventh day:

            Xander awoke unusually early, that is to say before Goku started bellowing and before the alarm went off, because he was sure as he lived on the Hellmouth that he could never, ever sleep through either.  Still a bit groggy he threw back the wonderfully warm and soft covers and made his way to the edge of the bed.  He sat there for a moment, wearily rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, feeling the latent aches from yesterday's workout, which in his opinion had gone better than all the previous training sessions put together, even the one of him versus Buffy.

            Finally, the youth got up from the bed, pleasantly surprised to feel no detriments in his muscles as he had for the past couple days upon waking, and walked toward the bathroom and only just remembering to take off his clothes, jumped immediately into the sonic shower and shouted out, "ROCK ME BABY!" and immediately the blue lights and force field snapped on, deafening Xander.

            Even in private, Xander couldn't help who he was as he started pretending that he was pretending he was singing at a rock concert live, in the shower, though he couldn't even hear himself.  Far shorter than the girls showers were attuned to, Xander's barely lasted thirty seconds on blue before shifting to green.  However, sixty seconds after that, they shifted to yellow, and then immediately to orange, and finally held for over three minutes on red, the next to highest setting.

            Xander could hear no sound, but his every fiber could feel the sonic vibrations coursing through him, vaporizing all non-him material on, in, or around his skin.  Though for the past couple days, ever since the upload thing, Xander's hearing, he found, was far more sensitive.  Which was why he had set his shower just yesterday to the next to highest setting, even his new hyper-sensitive ears couldn't detect nor identify the sound.  All the levels below that had been enough to make his ears bleed, if not explode, he was sure of.

            Rather than go back down a level, at the end of the allotted time, the red shift sonic shower just cut out altogether, leaving Xander with a brief sensory overload as the sound suddenly came rushing back at him, full intensity, and everything was no longer in shades of red.

            Blinking furiously, and shaking his head equally so, for a couple seconds, Xander soon stepped out of the shower and redressed, still amazed that his clothes felt as fresh as ever, despite all the sweating and dying he had done in them.

            Xander stepped outside his apartment, surprised to see Goku and the others, well, not Giles, already sitting over at the breakfast bar.  Goku wasn't eating, rather was discussing something with a person on his global.  Willow was stuffing down eggs pretty quickly and washing each mouthful down with an overwhelming amount of juice before audibly swallowing it all.  Concerned, Xander quickly made his way over to them, just as Buffy came out of her own room.

            "Hey," the Slayer asked everyone, "how come the alarm didn't go off today?"

            Xander realized at the Slayer's question that he indeed hadn't heard the annoying wake-up call yet.  Willow answered their questions as soon as she finished washing down her latest mouthful.

            "It did.  Both of you must have been in your showers."

            Buffy and Xander exchanged surprised looks before shrugging and walking up to the bar and ordering their breakfasts.  Xander noticed that Buffy looked a bit more tired than normal, even before a sonic shower.

            "Hey Buff, you okay?  You look tired?" he asked, concerned for her well-being.

            "I'm fine Xander, I just haven't gotten used to the early starts is all," Buffy answered a bit too quickly for his liking.

            Xander, even though he could no longer identify it as separate, felt the hyena's instincts and innate knowledge that Buffy was lying, or at least was covering something up.  In fact, if it weren't for the fact that it made him want to growl, he would have sworn it was his own instincts.  The merging of him and the full hyena spirit apparently went beyond just the physical he had been appreciating.  There were mental and emotional burdens as well.

            For starters…

            Xander shook his head abruptly and started shoveling the food that had just appeared in front of him into his mouth, focusing on not thinking about what he was feeling about Buffy and Willow right now.

            Even though he now identified Buffy as the Alpha of this new pack, their pack, some instincts couldn't be controlled through hierarchal politics.  Maybe he could be the prime, the second, the Alpha's mate.  While he didn't like using the terms, that's how half of his personality was looking at it right now, and he couldn't exactly argue with the logic of being Buffy's beau.  Instead of Angel…

            The mere thought of the souled vampire caused Xander growl low in his throat, unfortunately drawing stares from the others, so he quickly covered it up as the beginning of a cough.  Xander tried to forget about his competitor in Buffy's affections for the moment, saving the instincts and emotions for later, during training against both Goku and Buffy.

            Xander managed to control himself for the rest of breakfast, and several minutes later, after Buffy checked in on Giles, who was still meditating away in his room, Xander found himself in the workout room.  Not quite expecting the change of pace after having trained in sparring for the past couple days, both Xander and Buffy stared for a couple seconds before moving on.  Xander immediately got up on one of the treadmills just before Buffy moved on…to Goku.

            "I thought we were training today?" she asked in a somewhat condescending tone.

            Goku shrugged.  "Your skill level, thanks to the uploads, is up to par by now, which means we go back to focusing on your strength and speed.  And this is actually more for Mage's benefit than yours Buffy."

            Buffy, startled immediately turned around and stared at Willow who, still in her black jumpsuit, was staring in amazement at the workout gym.  Gulping, and hoping to just put that morning out of her mind for the time being, Buffy just nodded.  "Fine.  I'll be over adjusting my GEO settings, and then you can focus on Wills.  And…I'll do my own thing."  Buffy walked over to where Xander knew the big white circles were.

            A few minutes later, Buffy came back, walking normally as far as anybody could care and got up on one of the treadmills, a few units separated from Xander.  Willow was over grunting at the weight machines that Goku had tricked him onto the first day, and the hyena boy was not jealous in the least of his best friend.

            Both Slayer and Warrior X were running full out on the treadmills, Xander surprised by himself at how well he was doing, when he noticed that Buffy was beginning to sweat over at her machine.  Growing somewhat concerned, Xander contemplated going over to her, but shook it off, sure of the Slayer's response.  Something painful, some yelling, and undoubtedly an earful of "I don't need or want your help!"

            Xander just shook his head, sighed, and tried to run faster.  And did.

            Xander almost startled in surprise, but kept the faster pace.  He didn't even feel winded!  Smiling, Xander glanced over at the Slayer, who was already sweating, driving Xander's sense of smell crazy as soon as he allowed himself to notice it, but she was also going quite a bit faster than him he noticed.  Xander ordered himself to match and it was only he began to pant that he noticed just how fast a Slayer really was.

            With barely a conscious effort, Xander matched it so that his footfalls sounded exactly the same time that Slayer's did.  Buffy looked over at him, a curious look on her face, as she seemed to have just noticed the odd occurrence.  Xander, who was now sweating as much as she was, just grinned back at her, causing the Slayer to grin back, and then run faster.

            Xander's grin widened as well and he started moving faster himself.  Less than ten seconds after, their footfalls fell in tandem again.  Buffy grinned back at Xander, a more mischievous look in her eyes and she started moving so fast that her arms and legs began to blur to the Warrior's eyes.

            Xander returned the mischievous glint and started putting everything he had into running faster.  He no longer cared about matching Buffy, now he was out to beat her.  Both runners were breathing heavy and had rivulets of sweat running down every inch of them, but they kept trying to run and move faster, already their extremities blurring from such high-speed motion.  The treadmills, made to be used for such high-speed running, weren't even shaking from the footfalls, instead as steady as pavement in a mountain.

            Goku came back over, silently, as the two were still going at it, occasionally chancing a glance over at their "running partner" to see which one was actually going faster, and then proceeded to go faster themselves, even if they were in the lead.  Mage had finally gotten the bar off the handles, and that was mostly thanks to her already strenuous gravity training, whereas Xander had only needed an hour to force the strength from himself.

            Goku checked the time.  A little over ninety minutes, meaning that the two here had been running like this for over an hour, at least.  Goku nodded, a smile on his handsome face and went back over to see how the Mage was doing.

            Xander was no longer glancing over at Buffy as he ran.  He focused entirely on taking the next step and making the time between that and the next shorter than the time before it.  His lungs burned, his muscles screamed for mercy, and his vision and other senses became tunneled.  He only heard his heartbeat, only saw the handle bar before him, only smelt his own sweat and scent, and only felt the landing of his feet on the treadmill.

            Buffy was in a similar position, but she kept glancing over at Xander and was amazed that his legs and arms were blurred as much as her own.  The Slayer's senses, however, were not tunneled, in fact not even focused down.  Instead they seemed to broaden, taking out the nonsense, or maybe just organizing it, and allowing her to hear Xander's heartbeat, Willow grunting as she struggled with the weight machine, the swish of Goku's tail against his clothing as it twitched.  She could see every contour of the wall in front of her as though an aerial photo of a mountainous landscape, but at the same time she could see the same detail of everything in her range of vision, and it was incredibly bright but not painfully so, just…crystal clear and lit up, like with a spotlight.  And then there was her sense of smell.  Oh gawd!  The smells!

            And then there was her new, sixth power sense.  She could feel every electron of energy coursing through Xander as his power rose to its maximum to keep up with her.  She could feel the suppressed, but burgeoning power(s) within Willow as her muscles were slowly strengthened through new use.  And then there was Goku.  She felt as though she could reach inside each of her friends and know everything there could be to know about their power, their bodies, almost even their minds!

            Buffy tried to focus herself past the sensory overload, which actually wasn't overload per say, but increase in her ability to interpret the data her senses were sending her, and more on running faster, despite being in over 35 Gs.

            Buffy was sure that she still wasn't ready for 50 Gs in normal training, though she could probably do just as well, she knew that she tired out too easily in a high enough gravity.  So she just went with ten G's higher than what Goku had probably already set the room to.

            Which brought to mind something the Slayer had noticed.  With the GEO suit, it didn't affect the outside gravity; it just affected how many gravitons were being artificially pressed against your body.  Then…there was the outside, or environment's gravity, which pressed on you, or pulled actually, as a whole, GEO suit included.  Which meant that however many Gs that the suit was set to, was added with whatever gravity the environment was.

            Buffy wouldn't be surprised if the room was actually a couple levels higher than what training had been yesterday, but then that would mean she actually was running in 50 Gs.  And she'd kept up for this long?

            Buffy smirked to herself, and taking a deeper breath on her inhaling pant, started going for broke, pushing herself to exhaustion…and then going beyond, if she could.  A whistling sound began to accompany the flashes of movement from Buffy's arms and legs, something that no ordinary human would find possible, on Earth.  After all, a human raised on Earth that suddenly found himself on Mars could jump over three times his height and almost twice as fast, provided he was unencumbered by the necessary space suit.  Buffy had been living in g-forces equivalent to somewhere on Jupiter for the past few days, and just the night before, had pushed herself through a full strenuous workout in forces beyond anything found on any surface in the Solar system.

            Now, in actually 15 Gs, plus the 35 she was putting herself through, Buffy's mystically enhanced body was exceeding all measured speeds of un-artificial nature in human history.  Only when her muscles began to cramp, and she pushed past the pain and forced herself to remain at her current speed, did Buffy's senses lose the all-encompassing crystal clarity and focus down to what was right in front of her like Xander's had.

            The Warrior in question was already past that point by now, and he knew now that there was nothing that he could do to catch/keep up with the Slayer any longer.  He was at top speed, for the moment, and he couldn't force anything more from him, not for anything.  Unfortunately, he just didn't have the energy to be frustrated and so kept his power level and speed a constant.

            It wasn't until the whistling became noticed that Warrior X realized just how much faster Buffy was moving than him.  He didn't stop running, or decrease his speed any, as he looked over at Buffy, seeing her body move in a constant blur, but still able to be recognized because she was staying in one place, the whistling sound coming from her general direction, as well as quite a hefty breeze coming from it as well.

            Xander barely noticed, and then only because his hearing had stopped being so focused down with his attention diverted from just the running, when Goku and Willow came at a light sprint from the weight machines.  He did, however, notice Willow's gasp of amazement and looked back at them and then at Buffy, seeing no change except the stares of shock and surprise coming from the two observers.

            'What's the big deal?  We're only running,' Xander asked himself.

            He wasn't as surprised as he might have been when he answered himself as well.  'Probably because we're moving too fast.  Only Goku's supposed to have the speed, remember?'

            'Yeah, yeah, I remember.  Sure I can't go any faster?'

            'Damn.  Yep, very sure.'

            Xander ended the internal conversation abruptly when he shouted out loud, out of breath but managing to ask it all in one sitting without gasping between words, "So what's the big deal with staring?  We're just running!"

            Goku almost seemed to startle when Xander had shouted, and for good reason as he had thought that neither runner had heard him and Willow approach, let alone knew they were there!  Goku glanced between the Slayer and Warrior X, still somewhat in shock at the advancements these two had made.  No human had ever begun moving so fast so soon after coming to the Compound for initial training.  Especially not the speed Buffy was running flat out at.  Goku focused his senses a little more sharply on Buffy's power levels and received the shock of his immortal life, up to that point.

            Buffy had somehow focused all of her power to just her speed.  And while yes, strength and speed were physically both controlled by muscles, the energy put forth from ones life force, aka Ki, was entirely different in placement and management.  Usually, in a battle, one increased power to all aspects; raw power (for energy attacks and energy use), strength, speed, and endurance.  But Buffy had somehow found a way of increasing just one to incalculable levels, given her power was still rising from her last measurement, by placing all of her power to it.

            Goku hid his gulp as he began to notice that both Slayer and X's energy were beginning to run rather low, but Xander's was dropping at a faster rate than Buffy's for some reason.  Maybe she was just plain stronger, he deduced.  Or had deeper energy reserves.

            Then it came to him as Xander began to drop in speed.  Buffy was used to the way her body handled supernatural energy and she knew how to hold the energy in reserve, as well as regulate it so it wasn't all wasted in a single burst.  Xander, given his sudden change in form, strength, and power in just the last couple days, had little experience in seeing how his new body handled.  'We'll have to fix that,' Goku decided, thinking to himself, grinning slightly as both runners slowed, slowly.

            Finally, Xander was forced to quit, his energy as near zero as it could go and still leave enough for him to remain standing.  Buffy kept going a bit longer, no longer entirely blurred, but still going at an incredible speed.  A few minutes after Xander finally quit though; the Slayer was down to a heavy jog and breathing extremely heavily.

            "All right, that's enough Slayer.  Time for another exercise while Mage takes to the treadmills," Goku told her, after Willow had given him a pleading look.

            A few seconds after Goku spoke, Buffy finally let herself slow to a stop and had to support herself on the handle bars to remain in anything close to standing.  Mage and Warrior X were instantly by the Slayer's side, helping her off the treadmill to one of the nearby machines that had a bench as part of it and sat her down on it to rest for a bit.  Ofcourse she complained about it.

            "Come on guys," Buffy exhaustedly whined, "I don't need any help to sit down!"

            Xander huffed down onto the bench of a nearby machine.  "Geez Buff!  I was goin' all out and I didn't hit near the speeds you did!  Heck, you do know that you were blurring right?"

            "Blurring?" Buffy repeated with a tired air of confusion.

            Xander nodded and looked at Goku, who taking the hint, immediately raced in a circle around the trio, his form seen as nothing more than a blur to the human eye.  "Blurring." Xander answered, pointing at Goku once the Saiyan had stopped.  "Oh," Buffy replied.

            The Slayer then turned to the Mage.  "So how'd you do Wills?" she asked.

            Blushing slightly, Willow looked down and shrugged.  "Took me almost an hour to lift the bar off.  And I could only keep up for a short while.  You guys were running for longer than I was working out myself."

            "And guess what," Goku smiled down at the girl.

            Willow looked up with somewhat of a "not-surprised" look on her face.  "I get to run?" she asked.  Goku grinned and nodded.  Then he pointed.  Sighing, the Mage immediately complied and stood up and went over to the treadmills.

            "I'll let you two rest up for a minute, then Xander, I want you back on the weight machine while I show Buffy something new, all right?"  Slayer and Warrior X nodded, still too tired to respond in any other way.

*                       *                       *

            Buffy stared in disbelief at her Trainer.  "You're kidding me here, right?  You kid and joke where I find it not funny!" Buffy snapped at the 1/8th Saiyan.

            "No joke," Goku answered soberly.  "Hit it as hard as you possibly can.  Then you're done for the day."

            They were standing against the wall of the workout gym, and before them was a device that no human would ever recognize as a tool in exercise.  It was, in part, similar to the carnival mallet and bell, what with the scale in the back of it with funny little sayings said alongside the scaling.  What made it different was that there was a horizontal T-bar extending from the center of the carnival scale, and the branches of the T going vertical in front of the warriors.  At the center of the bar before them was a simple, small, half foot by half foot black square pad.  And Goku had just told her that all she had to do was hit the pad as hard as she could, and Goku's training of the Slayer was done for the day.  The rest of it was hers to do with as she pleased.

            "So…if I wanted to hang around and help Willow out with her continuing training…?" Buffy asked.

            Goku shrugged.  "I wouldn't mind.  In fact, I'd probably appreciate the help.  But just because my training of you is finished…doesn't mean you don't still have Second Training."

            "But we already got the upload…" Buffy trailed off as she realized what Goku meant.  "The environment training."  Goku nodded and repeated, "The Environment Training.  Now hit the damn pad so I can get a measure of your strength and you can get going."

            Buffy rolled her eyes and huffed at the ceiling.  "Fine."

            Taking several deep breaths, Buffy calmed her emotions and centered herself.  Feeling her power, she focused it into her gut as she had learned to do, part from Kung Fu lessons in her head, and mostly from her experience that she was able to hit harder using this technique.  At least that was what Xander said.

            Focusing all she could of her power into her gut, and feeling the burning sensation that told her something was happening, Buffy slowly reeled back her fist, opening her eyes to focus on the pad.  Buffy began to move the gathered energy from her gut to her fist, but kept it slow, until she snapped her fist forward and released all the energy directly through her fist and into the pad.  To Buffy's surprise, the pad moved backwards some after her hit, the T knocked inwards from the force of her blow.  Buffy watched in interest as a marker was released from somewhere in the device and began going up and down the scale.

            Finally, after going to the very top and the very bottom a couple times, the marker settled firmly on, if Buffy was reading correctly, "OK, so you know how to throw a punch."  Buffy blinked in surprise and looked back at Goku who was recording it into his Global.

            "Care to explain this…rating system of yours?" Buffy asked dangerously.

            "Not really," Goku said with a peculiar grin, and then immediately turned back around and went to where Warrior X and Mage were still working out.

            "Hey!  What am I supposed to do know?!" Buffy demanded to know.

            Goku shrugged as he looked over his shoulder at her.  "Go to Second Training and ask them," was his reply.

            Buffy opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out so she just snapped her jaw shut in a huff of air.  Then sighing, Buffy shrugged and muttered to herself, "Why not?  Got nothing better to do right now anyway."  So she went over to the MTC, and directed it to the Second Training Facility.

*                       *                       *

            Buffy, the first chance she got, was going to kill Goku.  Fair or not.

            The moment she had arrived in the Second Training tower, the technicians from the other day insisted on finishing her base-line measurements before giving her any training.  So…she went back to the lung capacitor, and actually died this time in the Vacuum Chamber, and then they tested her muscle resilience in a hydro environment in the "air-tank" that Chad had told them about earlier in the week.  After that, she got a bunch of sensors stuck on her and put on a treadmill, which then filled with a liquid that while allowed Buffy to breathe normally, did not allow her to float like in normal water.  In fact, it was like being a hundred meters under water, which felt like heavier gravities, and she still had her GEO set to over 35 G's!  What was really funny about that last part of it though was, she could've sworn she actually felt herself sweating, despite being submerged in an oxygen-providing liquid.

            Several hours after, Buffy was allowed to rest on a bench while they either prepared the next test for her, or her first training exercise.  Not that the Slayer saw much difference between the two.

            "Slayer?" a voice called for her.

            Buffy looked up, expecting to see another of the half-marine technicians wanting her form more testing or to ask her how she lasted so long without oxygen.  Instead, the blonde was surprised to see someone dressed similarly to her, but without the boots.  Instead she saw someone who looked almost entirely human, except his toes were webbed.

            He had wet, light brown hair, heavily tanned skin with a five-day old beard on his rugged face, and soothing sea-blue eyes.  He had both a serious demeanor and a disarming grin on his face.  "They call me the Mariner.  I'll be your instructor for the underwater training course.  Follow me please."

            Buffy shrugged and got up and followed the Mariner.  'He reminds me of Kevin Costner, 'cept with darker skin and a little more sun-streaked hair than he had in Robin Hood.' Buffy thought as she followed the bare-foot human mutation.

*                       *                       *

            Willow was panting heavily, and as far as she cared, drenched to the bone.  Goku hadn't let her off the treadmill since before she got on it!  What was worse was she couldn't stop thinking about what had happened with Buffy that morning (or was it last night?), and the two of them, she knew, needed to talk about it.  Unfortunately, both she and Xander had been let go early.  Or at least that was what Goku told her when she had enough breath to ask.

            The untrained Mage did understand why this physical training was necessary; she just wanted to know why it was so hard.  For her anyway.  Buffy and Xander seemed to have no trouble whatsoever with the physical aspects of the training.  In fact it was what they were excelling at!

            Willow knew she'd never been very good at PE and sports and stuff, but where her life depended on it she found that she had untapped reaches of both physical and mental prowess.  So why was it still so damned hard?!

            She focused everything she had left into running just the tiniest bit faster, but her body just couldn't give any more.  She'd thought of trying some of the body enhancement spells she'd learned over the past couple days, but she didn't have enough concentration, let alone the energy, to spar to cast any of them, and she doubted that Goku would let her use them anyway, probably viewing it as cheating.

            Ultimately, it was just a matter of will before the Mage finally collapsed.  When she did, the treadmill stopped instantly and was like solid ground under her feet.  Her neck missed the handlebar fortunately, but she still couldn't move after her sweaty and tired form collapsed fully.

            The next thing she knew, she heard Goku's voice interrupt the ringing in her ears with quite suddenness.  "OK, you can take a ten minute break, then I refresh your memory on a few katas in the GEO circle."

            Willow could only groan in response and remained where she was.

            Ten minutes later, and after a light doze, Willow was picked up and cradled when it became obvious her limp body would not support itself.  "Come on," Goku said tiredly.  "This one last thing, then we can go and meet up with the others in the private Training gym.  You get to see Buffy and Xander," he teased lightly.  Willow just grunted, her eyes still sealed shut.

            Goku snorted and carried her over to the area where Buffy and Xander had been the first day of actual training.  Stopping just outside the white circle, Goku smirked to himself, and then tossed Willow to the ground.

            Surprising herself more than the Saiyan, Willow's right arm snapped out and caught herself in a brief enough hand stand to reorient her center of gravity and swing her legs around from flailing in mid-air to around so her knees were the next to hit the mat, and then completing the move and moving with her still going momentum, her other arm shot out and she flipped up and around to land gracefully on her feet facing Goku.

            Goku smiled at the sweat-soaked redhead.  "Not bad.  This should be rather easy for you now that you've got some of your energy back." He then stepped into the circle with her, and Willow briefly thought she saw the white glow a bit, but she was immediately distracted as she felt everything pressing in on her all at once again.

            "H…h-how h-h-heavy-ee is this?" Willow bit out between clenched teeth as she needed every ounce of strength to remain on her feet.

            "About 30 Gs," Goku answered.  "The average human body can handle, at most, about four to five Gs before becoming incapacitated.  10 Gs is enough to kill any but the strongest of humans.  The entire Compound, on average, is between 10 and 20 Gs, including that walkway that I led you all across your first day here."

            Willow snapped her head up in shock.  "But…how?"

            Goku shrugged.  "Maybe physics are slightly screwed in your world and what's 10 G's to the rest of the omniverse is 1 G to your world.  Or maybe it has something to do with your Powers granted immortality."  Goku paused and gave her a sly look.  "Or, maybe it is because of the physics of the Compound, even the average human is 100 times stronger than normal."

            "Why…?"

            Goku shrugged.  "There are a lot of theories, but the most prominent is because of the size of the universe of the Compound compared to every other universe out there.  Bigger universes usually mean bigger and much more energy within the very core of…well just about everything but it goes without saying that by just saying the universe.  More energy presses down upon those in bigger universes, and when all of a sudden that energy is cut by over a hundred points, or more, a person's personal energy is allowed to…flex a bit more.  After all, you know that a human can leap over ten feet high on Earth's moon, but on earth barely three feet from the ground.  Their strength remains the same, but the energy of gravity affecting them has changed and therefore…"

            "They appear stronger, and in a way…are." Willow finished with a light of understanding.

            "So…" she tried to put it in a bit easier to understand terms, "…the energy of the universe suppresses our strength and personal energy just like gravity suppresses our physical strength…but I don't understand what energy has to do with it.  Personal energy or not, a human can't survive in 10 Gs, like you said and is actually incapacitated at 4!  What's the deal?"

            Goku shrugged and nodded.  "Your physical energy is what we like to call "Ki".  Spelled K-I.  Ki is an incredibly powerful tool and more impressive than anyone uninformed would otherwise guess.  Under normal circumstances, all ki does is guarantee continued life.  In fact most would just view it, untrained, as a physical manifestation of one's will.  Mothers, that when their children are in danger are suddenly as strong as an Olympic heavy-weight lifter, sprinters that suddenly catch a second wind when they put their "mind" over "matter", what I did in my demonstration, increasing what Buffy sensed as my power, as well as you and Giles.  Ki."

            "But…I don't understand…" Willow shook her head.

            Goku frowned and cupped his chin in a standing "Thinker's" pose.  "OK, let me try it like this," Goku started over and started pacing around Willow.

            "The energy of the rest of the universe continuously presses down on your personal energy, which when properly applied and even trained, can increase your physical strength in small bursts.  With me so far?"

            "But…isn't all that just…adrenaline, and-and our muscles?" Willow asked.

            Goku shook his head.  "You've undoubtedly heard stories of amazing feats of strength, and while it could be chocked up to raw muscle strength, why could they only do it then, and when they're placing just as much strain and energy into it, not be able to do so later on?  People don't casually lift thousands of pounds every day, because even in every day events, the same person that lifted a car off a trapped victim last weekend could strain to lift a box that weighs less than half of that car.  Ki, while part of it I'm sure can be shrugged off to adrenaline and all that, is your energy helping your muscles do the work."

            Willow frowned, trying to understand this sudden new, and radical concept.  "In heavier gravities, you can't run very fast or jump very high, can you?"  Goku asked.

            Willow looked up at him and answered, "No, ofcourse I can't.  Wh—"

            "If the gravity just keeps getting heavier and heavier…do you get any stronger?"

            Willow frowned, not sure where this was going.  "No, you get weaker."

            "But if you have time to recuperate from between the increases in gravity, and slowly got used to it, and did the same each time the gravity increased, would you be stronger or weaker when all of a sudden the gravity was back to what it used to be, what you called "normal"?"

            Willow frowned and thought about it.  "Well…when you put it like that, and you're actually given the time needed for your body to adapt, as much as it can, to the higher gravities, then yeah, you'll be a lot stronger when it goes back to normal.  So that's why we're doing the gravity training, but what does this have to do with ki?"

            "How much stronger, after having spent so much time in a universe so full of energy you can't even feel your own, is your ki when it is suddenly in a place with hundreds, if not thousands of levels of energy less than what you've lived your whole life in?"

            Willow frowned again in thought.  "It…would probably be like outer space almost, except with still some sense of direction that is.  And…well, we can fly in outer space…so, our…ki must experience the same kind of release, where it can almost fly after being grounded for so long."

            Goku smiled at her and nodded.  "And where ki had to be tapped with great strain and mistaken for raw strength before, now it increases your physical strength automatically and makes you the equivalent of super strong with no strain whatsoever."

            Willow blinked.  "Wow." She muttered as the full implication struck her.  "But wait, I still don't understand how this…ki…can be used to make us super strong, enough to treat 10Gs like 2!"

            Goku took a deep breath and let out a low sigh.  "Uh…ok.  Energy.  Gravity is energy, you understand that, right?"

            Willow nodded.  "Electricity, the sun, the movements of planets, heat, all of that is energy that you understand, right?"  Again she nodded.

            "The energy given off by all living creatures, interacts with all other energy, same as all other energy reacts with everything else.  If you heat a wire, electricity can't run through it, if you stop the movement of a planet then the radiation of the sun will cook whatever is on the surface in a matter of days.  One energy often interferes or blocks another energy, lessening or preventing that energy from reaching its full potential.  The energy of your universe does that to the living beings of yours and every planet in it."

            "So…what?  You're saying that my energy can cook a planet or power a light bulb?" Willow asked trying to comprehend.

            Goku laughed.  "Probably that latter one, but eventually…probably the former.  But the point is, your energy is capable of increasing the strength of your body, and so much more.  I'll be showing you how to do all of that, and the others."

            "Which is why, starting tomorrow, I will begin teaching you all how to train your ki, and that way, when you go back to your world, where the energy is so much greater, it will allow your ki to gain even more strength because you will be working it against so much pressure.  Kinda like learning strength training on the moon, and then going back to Earth and while with less impressive results than you had on the moon, you are more fit and have a bit more strength than you did when you left." Goku explained happily.

            Willow nodded, fully understanding now.  "So…why are you telling me this now, rather than all of us tomorrow?"

            Goku just grinned at her and Willow just sighed and hung her head, answering her own question, "Because I'm going to need the most work out of everybody, and the sooner I get started, the less work I'll have to put in catching up.  Gotcha."

            Goku nodded and got into a beginner's Tai Chi pose.  "This should seem familiar, even without the implanted knowledge.  These techniques allow you to feel your own energy, and once you are fully aware of it, it's just a matter of simple steps to learning how to manipulate your energy."

            "But—" Willow tried to point something out as she got into the identical pose to mirror Goku.

            Goku shook his head at what Willow was going to say before she'd even said it.  "Ki training is different than magic, and most definitely different from magic senses.  Both might use the same type, or even the identical energy, but source and use are very rarely ever the same thing.  Very rarely.  Now, just focus on your breathing, and feel each movement of your body," Goku guided as they began the exercise.

            "Good…good.  Breathe in…out…breathe in…out…" Goku guided and Willow focused on her breathing, letting her body move of its own accord as she felt each movement.  It wasn't long until she felt as though she could feel the very energy behind each of those movements.

*                       *                       *

            Rupert Giles was in the private Training gym, currently doing nothing but sitting cross-legged in the center of the room with his obsidian blade lain across his knees.  And it truly was his.  The Blade had chosen him, and he had willingly given a portion of himself in exchange for that right of ownership…and so much more.

            The…"relationship" Giles now found himself in was extraordinarily complicated.  The Nightblade, which Giles could tell while entirely sexless, still tended to favor a male similar personality for itself, was fully sentient and therefore quite an experience in dealing with.  Also, the obsidian mystic blade did not communicate to Giles in words, but rather thoughts, which the Watcher found incredibly more rewarding than hours long of proper English speak.

            Words were used to convey thoughts, not form them.  So when Nightblade spoke with Giles, it was in images, concepts, emotions, some words, but more often than not half-formed impulses rather than carefully laid out ideas and speeches.

            Nightblade itself, (The power blade had explained to Giles that while it was male-like, it was also no more than an object, a weapon, and in proper speech that was defined as 'it'.), was an incredible entity, even without its superb abilities, or its enormous power.  Like all of the sentient Blades, Nightblade was a warrior personality, but because of its name, it cloaked itself in shadow and darkness.  While Nightblade was more than willing in sharing its secrets to train Giles further…things of a personal nature, such as when Giles asked if the blade had had any previous bearers, were either ignored or told were not important and forgotten after a flash of slight anger.  If Giles had to choose one word to describe his new "partner", it would be this; Batman.

            Which would, going with the analogy, make Giles either Alfred or Robin.  Giles, despite knowing the stereotype, chose to see himself as more of an Alfred, and did his best to do his best with Nightblade, both in training…and listening to it.

            Sometimes, when they had meditated and their minds joined as one, (easier to let knowledge flow from one to the other), Giles would catch images that he knew were not his own.  In fact the seemed more like dream remnants, or buried memories even.  One image in particular was repeated enough times that Giles began to recognize it, though very few of the others.

            The image was of a warrior.  A woman with long dark black hair and hazy blue eyes.  Often, she was seen wearing the same outfit that Buffy now wore, and smiling against a bright blue-sky background.  Images that included her shown her wielding an obsidian blade and doing tremendous damage with it and performing flawlessly in battles of insurmountable odds.

            Whenever Giles tried to ask Nightblade about the images, the Blade would just apologize and say that it was not important.  Giles refused to believe that, but there was precious little that he could do, other than wait patiently for his partner to come to him with the truth.

            :You're distracted: Nightblade "told" him.

            'Ofcourse I'm distracted!' Giles snapped back.  'You won't tell me anything about yourself, and the only thing I'm getting from our meditating are the images that you won't tell me about!'

            Nightblade took pause, considering, before responding to Giles' statement.

            :She was my first wielder.  The first to successfully do so.  She was a vampire Slayer, and a powerful warrior.  She is also how I came to the Compound:

            Giles recognized that Nightblade always used a different tone than with any other thought whenever the Compound came up.  And that was one of the things that Giles did not want to know about.  Because it was not a particularly good tone.

            'She died in the Tournament.' Giles stated, sensing the truth.

            :Yes:

            Giles, in his mind, nodded his understanding.  'You loved her.'

            :You love Buffy.  It is the same:

            Giles blinked…and a barrier than neither had understood or even recognized as being there suddenly fell away.  They both understood the other just a little bit better…and had admitted the one thing to the other that they had not even admitted to themselves.  Nightblade, his guilt over failing his first wielder in her battles at the Tournament, or not doing enough really.  And Giles, and his feelings for Buffy.  His paternal feelings for Buffy.

            :They run deeper than that:

            'You didn't fail her.  She wouldn't want you to blame yourself.  You are only a weapon.  She was the wielder.'

            :You respect her as a father would, but you also have deeper feelings of love, passionate love, for her.  And I held back on her… :

            Giles was silent for a moment, absorbing the jibes they had taken at each other and then replied with, 'I…do have feelings for Buffy.  But they cannot evolve.  I will not allow them to.  She means too much to me…to the world and so many others, for me to be selfish.  And despite it all, I don't want to lose her respect in me.  Respect as a daughter would have for a father.'

            Nightblade was then silent.  Until finally;

            :I did not allow her to know…to learn, my ultimate power.  It is too dangerous to be used lightly.  It is a level of power that only 10 of the power Blades have, and almost all of them refuse to allow their wielders to even learn of it:

            'Why?' was Giles only response.

            :It is a level of power ever held only by 12 individuals and their leader.  Pure destruction.  No trace, no atom left of the enemy.  The technique is dangerous to both the Blade and the wielder, but because of our construction, we cannot reach the level of power that these 12 had, but the attack itself is enough.  For it can kill even gods:

            'Gods?  You…this technique can kill gods?!' Giles was in shock.

            :That is what makes it so dangerous and why only these twelve individuals have ever had this technique and its full power.  The 10 Blades that carry this technique, myself included, are only copies and rudimentary copies at best, of it.  There are other, just as deadly or even more powerful techniques, attacks, or powers that the remaining Blades have that we 10 do not.  Giles.  Wielder.  I.  Will.  Not reveal to you this attack:

            'But…?' Giles was confused now.

            :No.  It is too powerful.  And it is not something that I can change about myself.  Or you.  If you were to even learn this technique, you would die.  Not even the Powers could save you.  You are too weak.  However:

            'To quote Buffy, "I knew there was a but," Giles thought wryly.

            :However, just because I cannot allow you to use this, does not mean I will not teach you the rest of my power.  At your current condition…you can handle only 7% of my full power.  Which is quite impressive, but in order to be of the best use to you, I must get you up to at least 39% by the end of these six training weeks:

            'Ah, I…see,' Giles replied slowly.

            :You will soon:

*                       *                       *

            Xander was having the worst day yet.  And what made it worse, was that he knew they were only going to get worse!  After he had finished in the exercise room, Goku had taken him to the carnival-punching power measuring thing, where he had gotten a "Who let the dogs out? Bark. Bark!"  Needless to say, Xander was a bit annoyed at that.

            Then he had taken Goku's suggestions at finishing up Second Training…and actually managed to get through all the hellish underwater tests the fish from Hell's oceans decided to give him.  Part of what had made him come was that Goku had mentioned that Buffy had already come here when she had finished earlier, but he never once saw her, until they finally let him go from the tests and he made for the closest MTC for an outside port so he could go to the Movable Mess for lunch.

            The Mess, despite being a hovering and very much mobile restaurant, also despite its name, was about as big as anything in the Compound.  It was, however, only a "single story" restaurant, and the inside was patterned very much after most high school cafeterias save that it was large enough to accommodate over two hundred beings of numerous and even more various sizes.  Most of them big, bigger, or not big enough.

            Xander, having come with Buffy the other day when she had earned herself a record by beating four cretins and a couple demons in arm wrestling of all bar-sports, knew his way around well enough now, and knew who to avoid and the like.  Unfortunately, because of his affiliation with both Buffy and Goku, some people (using the term loosely) not only didn't avoid him, but also sought him out.

            "X!  X man!  Wait up!" a high-pitched whiny sort of voice suddenly crowed as Xander picked up his PADD from the line.

            Xander paused for just a moment before realization washed over him and he sighed, rolling his eyes as he continued to a free table.  Hopefully one with only one seat.

            "X!  X!  X!" the voice continued to call out until finally the owner managed to get through the line and raced over to Xander as fast as it could.

            "Hey man, what's the rush?  Meeting up with Slayer or something?" a short alien, not even four feet high, with pale blue skin and ruby red irises in too-large eyes, and a black ensemble of shirt and pants, started jumping alongside Xander as he walked, searching for an empty spot.

            "No Kramer, I'm not meeting Buffy.  She's still in Second Training or somewhere off on her own.  I just finished the testing round of Second Training, and I'd like to eat something before I go back.  First I have to find a damn seat," Xander muttered the last to himself.

            "Aw, too bad, cause Slayer's cool, she's really cool!  You know that, right?  Wha!  Look who I'm talking to!  Ofcourse you know she's cool!  You know that Freddie's catching back up to her on the list, then he'll have number one, but I'm sure Slayer will challenge him long before he ever gets close to beating her record, right, I mean she's like gotta be the strongest newbie here or something…"

            "Kramer!" Xander stopped and shouted at the smaller alien.  "I'm just trying to find a place to sit and eat.  I do not, I repeat, reemphasize, and reiterate, NOT want you talking in my ear the entire time about stuff I don't give shit about!  And don't call me that.  The only people that call me Warrior X is Technicians, Doctors…and whoever the hell my opponent would be in the Tournament.  My name is Xander."

            That said, Xander stood back up and resumed searching for a table.  He soon found one, Kramer following after him.  "Sure thing," the blue alien said in much more subdued tone, "not a problem Xander."  The way that he said the name made Xander wince.  It reminded him of after he'd gotten a lecture about…well it really didn't matter with his parents.

            Looking at the alien as he sat down, Xander sighed.  He motioned at the other chair, but didn't say anything.  Kramer smiled, which meant what it meant, and sat down.  Then, while scrolling through what he had to offer on his own PADD, Xander said quietly to Kramer, "My friends sometimes call me Xan, but given my codename and all…X is OK."  Kramer's smile only grew.

            "So who's this Freddie you mentioned?" Xander asked as he sat down his PADD, having made up his mind and now just waiting for one of the robotic waiters to come by and take their order.

            Kramer, who ordered the same thing every day, didn't even pick up a PADD and answered Xander without hesitation.  "Oh he's a big nasty alien from the Uncharted Territories in the Embolic Galaxy.  A…a Luxon I think is his species name.  Very warrior bred.  His actual name is Fredalizk, but a lot of people just call him Freddie…ever since he saw a particular movie that is."

            Xander's eyebrows shot up as he picked up on the strange emphasis that Kramer had put on that last little part.  "Let me guess; Nightmare on Elm Street?" he asked with a smirk.

            Kramer just grinned widely and nodded.  Then he suddenly looked up and over Xander's shoulder.  "Oh, there he is.  The one in the red overcoat and the fancy sword on his back."

            Xander looked…and stared.  Sometimes he couldn't help it despite that he had mostly gotten used to all the bazillions of non-human entities there were in the Compound, but sometimes there were just some…where he couldn't help but stare.  The Luxon known as Freddie looked absolutely nothing like the movie character he was nicknamed after, but he was scary enough in his own right.

            He was as tall and as big as Goku, maybe a bit bigger, with…what could only be described as tentacles hanging from his head like hair would from a human.  He wore the standard humanoid black outfit, except the black jacket was replaced with a red overcoat, like Kramer said, and the sword strapped across his back was definitely not a katana or anything else that could be said coming from Earth.  He also had leather straps across both his face, hands, and head which were probably as much an accessory as the wire Buffy used to keep her hair back, Xander thought.

            "Does he cheat?" Xander asked Kramer beside him.

            "Sort of," Kramer answered.  "If he were to go up against Slayer or Goku, he would, but against someone without a name for themselves…not unless it was really close.  And I mean really close."

            "How?"

            "His tongue.  It's like an amphibian's, but it also contains a controllable toxin.  Species trait.  He could either knock you out or kill you.  Only advanced or seasoned fighters have the speed to dodge it though.  If you want to challenge him, you'll have to be sure to take him down as soon as you can, no holding back or last second comebacks for either of you."

            Xander nodded and quickly finished checking off what he wanted.  "Order for me will ya Kramer.  This won't take long." Xander told the alien and then stood and walked over to a board against one wall.  There was a list of fighters here and a tally sheet out from each.  It resembled the chalk boards they used in betting, save for the fact that it was a holographic screen.

            Xander walked to the panel station next to the tally board and pressed a button and announced to it, which then repeated at a louder volume over the rest of the Mess, "Warrior X, entering on challenge against…Fredalizk, or Freddie if he really likes that nickname.  'Cept he looks more like a Squid-head than Freddie Krueger."

            All noise, as was common when such challenges were made, stopped and the challenged Luxon stood up and looked at his new opponent.  Then the alien smiled and laughed.  Xander grinned back and let go of the button as his name appeared on the board, right beneath Freddie's.

            Both fighters made their way to the "official" table used for such activities, and were ensured to be entirely neutral by the bots and everyone else in the Movable Mess.  A crowd, as always whenever a match took place, had already gathered as the human and Luxon took their places on opposite sides.

            Freddie, for intimidation purposes, slowly took off his sword, and the red overcoat, which Xander could tell, once it was off, was indeed GEO enhanced.  Freddie, probably even more so than normal Luxons, was a big creature.  Especially in muscle mass.

            Leather straps ran up and down his arms, connecting to the gloves on his hands, and there were two, what looked like ring-piercings coming straight out of his chest, like they had been pierced through a couple of his ribs.  Xander tried very hard not to be impressed, aka scared out of his wits.

            Warrior X, for much less than an intimidating factor and more for a comfort factor, took off his own GEO-jacket, showing some surprising growth since he had first come to the Compound.

            Both sat down and faced each other for a moment, right arms on the table.

            A Ref-Bot, (Referee Robot) similar to the waiter-bots except for wearing a black and white vertical striped shirt like a Football referee, came up to the table and Freddie and Xander raised their arms.  Their hands enclosed the other and contracted as tightly as they could get them.  The Ref-Bot held the clasped hands together with his own limbs and a countdown appeared on his screen.

            Xander felt like his hand was being slowly ground into fossil fuel, and he wasn't even sure if he was giving as much as he got, but judging by Freddie's face, he wasn't.  Then, the countdown reached zero.

            That was when it happened.  Side effect number one; Hyena/Xander does not like to lose, and does everything to win.  Even playing dirty.

            Audibly growling, Xander's eyes, staring straight into the Luxon's, glowed a vivid amber color, and his grip, using a bit of innate knowledge and dumb luck at the same time, tripled in intensity and pressed down, hard, on a particular pressure point that naturally cut a Luxon's strength by half when pressed hard enough.

            Freddie grunted and despite his intimidating beginning, he almost lost the match right there, as Xander's suddenly three-fold grip started to lean on his arm, forcing it back.  It only took a couple of moments, enough for Xander to get the lead, but Freddie finally managed to work past the pain of Xander's grip and reorient his strength to start working it back against the human.

            What really shocked the alien was that no matter how much of his strength he forced out now, he couldn't budge against Xander's arm.  The human now had the leverage, and he was working that to every advantage that he could.

            Xander's eyes flashed amber once again, and almost as if on cue, his strength increased again and Freddie's arm dropped another centimeter.  Xander hadn't stopped growling since starting, and by now it was loud enough to be heard over the cheering, shouting, and all-around general ruckus of the Mess.  What was really disturbing was that the growl didn't sound like anything human.  Or like any of the large number of alien races present.  It sounded evil.

            Freddie, despite being a warrior for all of his life, and already passed two weeks of Training, began to be afraid of this human who hadn't yet finished his first week.  The rumors he had heard about Goku and his training sessions with the humans didn't help in his confidence either.  Slowly, centimeter-by-centimeter, Freddie lost his confidence…and the match.

            When the tone indicating Xander as the winner finally buzzed, Xander did not let go of Freddie's arm.  In fact, it was almost like he was trying to drill the alien's bones into the table!  Finally, Xander's growl reached a climax…and he laughed as he released Freddie, who immediately cradled his arm, and got up, still laughing like a hyena.  A very satisfied hyena.

            Xander left the Mess after finishing his meal, not aware of the presence that was watching him, and had been ever since his victory over the Luxon.

            "Very interesting," the old man said in a high pitched, yet whiny voice.  "I must do research.  One more thing, CHECK!"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who is this old guy watching Xander?  What does he want with Warrior X?  Is Xander's Hyena half getting out of control?

What about Willow and Buffy's moment of indiscretion?  What will become of it?  Is their friendship over, or is it just evolving into something more?

Who was the previous wielder of Nightblade?  Why is it so protective of its own past?

And what will become of Buffy's 'secret' late night training sessions?  Will she be able to surpass all doubt and become stronger than Goku?

The answers to these questions and more in the next, upcoming chapter; The Six Weeks