What's up with Xander? (This fic takes place a few hours after 'What's up with Buffy?' ended)

Sunnydale High, parking lot. 9:05 PM

"Is everyone all right?" Giles asked, trying to break the silence of his depressed pupils. Everyone had their heads down and was at a total loss for what to do next.

Buffy rolled her eyes after that question. "I know you mean well, but honestly Giles. What do YOU think? The First is still running things, most of our army has been killed off, there's a new kind of bad in the school, and I will never, ever have a normal life."

"And you still manage to always make it out to be about you!" Anya interrupted, stepping forward into Buffy's face.

Xander leaped in between the two women. "Ix nay on the rama day!" the boy ordered. "This is exactly what the First wants us to do, and I for one am sick of it. Besides, didn't this JUST happen a few episodes ago? Hello, let's be a little original."

"I just love it when he takes charge" Andrew said with lust in his voice, sucking on a lollipop. Spike gave a discreet head tilt toward Andrew, leaving Dawn to stand there all confused, like there was some secret gay/bi guy code that she wasn't getting. She shrugged it off. "What do we know so far?"

"That we're back to being helpless little humans who try too hard" Vi replied. She sighed.

Faith reminded the gang of the little hope they had left. "But we still have the scythe like G said. We should head to the coven right now-"

Suddenly, Xander's single eye glowed white and he stared off into space like he could see another scene being played out right before him. "No. We can't. They've all been killed by Bringers."

"DAMNIT TO HELL!" Giles exclaimed, so peeved by the fact that he didn't even pay attention to Xander's new ability. "I knew I shouldn't have said that out loud. "Bloody omniscience..." Vi comforted the watcher by patting him on the back.

Dawn blinked repeatedly, amazed. "Wow, Xander. You really CAN see things! What the hell is happening to you. And Buffy... This is good, right? We're all getting stronger." Her eyes shifted over everyone, who seemed to be sort of agreeing with her. They just weren't sure what to make of the situation.

"No it's not" Buffy said. "What's happening to Xand can't be good. It's the First's mind trick - somehow the Bringers are giving Xander power. It's probably even a phony vision just to mess with our minds."

Xander shook his head. "No, Buff. It was plenty real. I could feel it too, their hearts being ripped out...I could even smell the smell."

Buffy shook her head, disagreeing with Xander. "No, you're not supposed to have power. I mean, it goes against-"

Andrew stepped up, appalled that Buffy could say this about her best friend. "Hey, back down Callisto! Who are you to say who gets the power? Maybe Xander has been granted a gift. Like Peter Parker or...Gahndi."

The pert blonde's anger was beginning to flare up. She just KNEW she was right about this. She looked at Andrew. "Okay, if you want me to get all PC- Xander isn't supposed to have supernatural power. It just goes against who he is." She faced the group. "Tell me you guys aren't falling for another one of The First's tricks!"

Faith folded her arms, not afraid to confront Buffy as usual. "How's this a trick, B? Xander could be our one way ticket out of this circle we've been running around for the past few months."

Buffy looked around. "You guuuys" she whined. "I can't believe this is happening. AGAIN. Remember the deal about the scythe? I was right. There really was something there. I'm right here too, I just KNOW it."

"Oh yeah, and finding the little knick knack turned out to be oh so very important" Spike said. "Looks to me your fancy little axe there has been knocked down to being just another bleeding weapon." Perhaps Buffy needed to be knocked back down to being just another Slayer, Spike thought. And if it would ever come down to it, Spike was his own man now. He'd take the bitch on in a fight. No matter how much power she gathered.

Ignoring Spike, Buffy raged on. "The First knows we love Xander and thinks that we won't question his new power for what it really might be. We're STILL in a war guys. I've tried to be sentimental with my previous speech, but that obviously only stalled the inevitable."

Xander put a comforting hand on Buffy's shoulder before anyone could start giving her a well deserved bitchfest. "Listen, Buffy. I know you believe you're right, I really do." He gave her a meangingful look and she started to cry. "But, maybe - just maybe, you're not. Even when you almost always are. And what then, do you think that means you'll be a bad person? That you'll fail us?"

Buffy hugged Xander. "I-I just don't want anything to happen to you. Xander, please. It's not that I don't want you to be strong. But if I'm wrong...all it takes is just one mistake and the First wins."

"It's okay, it's okay" Xander reassured. "But let's not make any judgments 'till we find out what's really happening to me, okay?"

Buffy felt a soft glow envelop her entire being as she continued to hug Xander. She stared at her left hand while her arms were still tightly wrapped around the carptener's strong, protective body. The hand was previously bruised before, but now the wound had completely disappeared. "Wha...you can heal people too."

Xander looked down at Buffy's hand. "Whoa nelly."

Buffy looked at Xander with tears in her eyes as she stroked his face. "Maybe this is a good thing after all."

"Not to break up the moment..." He stopped himself. "Who am I kidding. I love to break up the moments."

Buffy rolled her eyes and faced the vampire. "What is it Spike?"

"Must I remind you that we still have an Uberbitch to slay." He shot a mean glare toward the blonde. "Not you, love. The vampire...still trapped in the school. Surely you bints haven't forgot."

"He's right" Buffy announced to the gang. "With my new abilities, I may be able to show that non-bitch what woman power REALLY is."

"I'm coming with you" Xander declared.

Giles pushed up his glasses. "I am well aware that you feel all worthy now, but you still in fact lack offensive powers" the watcher reminded Xander. "Buffy is the only one who can fight this thing." He paused. "I was the only one who saw what this new creature is truly capable of." He gave an apologetic look to Faith about the loss of Principal Wood.

Xander politely agreed with Giles, and stepped back into his supportive role. "Looks like it's all on you, Buff. Again."

She shook her head. "No. It's NEVER just me." The slayer suddenly faced Anya, who had been withdrawn for the longest time. "Anya, what do you know about female Ubervamps?"

Anya perked up. She bitched out Buffy more than once in her life, but really, all she wanted to do was just be useful to her. She has been secretely jealous of the Slayer ever since she's been De-Vengeance Demoned, and was always glad when she could be of use. She cleared her throat. "Well, there's the the Old Ones and then there's the... Oldest Ones."

The gang listened attentively to Anya's information.

"You can weaken them, throw anything you want at them, but you can never kill them. The only way is to trap them...but now that they're free from the Hellmouth, I don't know how to contain them."

Buffy nodded. "Well they're still vampires, right? Are you telling me that sunlight or decapitation or NOTHING will work?"

Anya shook her head. "I'm afraid not. They actually created female power in the first place, so you can't even kill them. It's a balance thing. It's like fighting darkness itself. But there is a loophole. They can't be killed, but they can indeed kill themselves. It's rather complicated..."

"Isn't it always?" Buffy quipped. "Well, they can kill themselves. That's good news. I don't know how exactly that's gonna work out yet, but okay - we can do that."

Anya shook her head. "You guys aren't getting the balance thing. Once a lady Turok Han kills herself, the female power will be completely eradicated in a human. The human closest to her when it happens. The Oldest Ones operate in a fashion even before good and evil were at each other's throats."

Vi piped up. "Wait! That's EXCELLENT news! Buffy already has too much power for a human. Maybe by ...uh making the Ubervampiress commit suicide, she'll revert back to who she was before!"

Buffy looked down, contemplating. "No. That has to be too good to be true."

"Well, we won't know until you get with the slaying- right?" Spike said. "Now get to it, all this talking is making my head hurt."

Buffy nodded. She took a deep breath, clenched the scythe in her hand and began to march back into the high school.

"BUFFY - WAIT!" Xander called out.

Buffy turned around. "What? What's going on. What are you seeing?"

Xander felt the air around him, like a blind man learning how to walk. "She's running away back into the Hellmouth. Ooh boy, they must think our plan is going to work!" His eye began to well up with tears.

Buffy smiled, strapping on her resolve face. "I'm the cat and she's the mouse." And with that, Buffy ran as fast as she could through the school doors.

"Go get 'er tiger" Xander said happily. Maybe this whole thing would work out after all.

NEXT CHAPTER: What's up with Amy?