Chapter 3: The Hermit
As Xander went to tell the tale - minus the more fantastical parts - to the Slayer lying next to him on the couch, he remembered./
- O -
Thailand, Bangkok
Almost three years earlier
Now what? Xander wondered after picking up his luggage. Exiting the airport for one thing of course, but Xander was thinking in broader terms as he walked out of the arrivals hall. So, here he was. The vision and the people in it - figments of his drugged mind - had pretty much told him to go here: 'orient of boxing'. Further it had told him vaguely that 'those he would meet, would lead him to the hidden lands'. Whatever /that/ meant. Of course the rest of the visions was suitably disturbing, made sense, and was detailed enough for Xander to accept it as an actual, real, meaningful vision - which seriously sucked by the way.
So now here he was: in Thailand, doing . . . who knew what. He walked into a bigger hall, in the distance glimpses of a cluttered Thai road. He looked around the equally cluttered hall, chaotically filled with people. He sighed, and started walking toward the exit, his missing eye giving him a ghost-throb. As he walked he looked right, and suddenly stopped. He saw a girl, and not just any girl. He squinted, rechecked a third time, and then called out, "Dawn!"
Indeed, he was right. The long-haired brunette whirled her head around, and their eyes - precisely her two and his one - met. The girl's eyes widened with shocked recognition, and then worked her way through the mass of people. Xander did the same, and soon the two met somewhere in the middle. "Great," Dawn told him bitterly. "I /knew/ it. I just /knew/ Giles wouldn't let me do this mission alone. Why did I even bother getting my hopes- . . ."
"Ho there, Dawn," Xander interrupted her. "Giles didn't send me here."
"He didn't?" Dawn asked surprised, and then furrowed her brow. "Aren't you supposed to be in Africa then?"
Xander smiled at the teen, and said, "Something came up. I can't believe Giles let a seventeen-year-old girl wander in here alone."
"Hey, I can take care of myself - martial arts training, lots of it lately, and I /am/ seventeen, it's late for Europeans, you know? Why, a girl in my class went on vacation with just two friends, /last/ year at /sixteen/," Dawn said, annoyed that she couldn't properly fold her arms across her chest, packed as she was.
"Calm down, calm down, I believe you, I was j- . . ." Xander hastily said; to have a Summers woman pissed off at you was never good.
Dawn interrupted him, picking up on something, and asked, "Wait, what do you mean with, 'something came up'? I'm not going to like this, am I?"
"Let's get a place more private, okay?" Xander asked her.
An hour later they found themselves in a very nice hotel room, reserved for Dawn by Giles, paid for by Watcher Council funds - but not quite, since Dawn exchanged it for a room with two beds. It was rather nice that Caleb had only destroyed the physical building, and not touched several centuries worth of interest built up over among others inherited funds - something expected of all Council operatives: a will in which all their money is left to the Council.
"Ah, nice shower after that cramped plane," Dawn sighed in satisfaction as she came from the shower. Xander had gone first, on insistence of Dawn, so he was already in a set of clean clothes sitting on his bed. He took the seventeen-year-old in, wearing nothing but a towel, and drying her hair with a second one. The towel was wrapped tightly around her full breasts, and her flaring hips were visible. Her face, her lips were quite attractive too - to Xander's shock. He had always looked at her like a kid sister, and good friend - especially in the last year in Sunnydale, and now . . . Xander shook his head, and Dawn noticed it. She delicately turned to regard him and asked, "What's the matter?" She looked down at herself, and back in a quick motion, smirked, and said, "What? I grew up? Am I sexy?"
"Dawn," Xander said. The defeated tone in his voice made Dawn instantly stop her teasing smile. "You're very attractive young . . . woman now, okay? But I have /no/ interest in anything romantic with /anyone/ right now."
"Okay," Dawn said, and walked over. She sat down next to him, tying the towel in her hair. "I'm sorry. Is it . . .?" She trailed off, not really able to say the name, but she didn't really have to.
"Not just that . . . Dawn," Xander said, his voice choking. He shouldn't really tell, did she still hero-worship her sister? He felt her arm suddenly around his shoulders, and her head landed against her. He couldn't help but smile, and grab her right hand. "Thank you," he said softly, and then decided to partially explain. "While searching for Slayers in Africa, I came across one with a brother. He wasn't willing to put her into my care, because I showed him glimpses of my . . . doubts, and pain. He gave me the option to go to another village, much deeper into the heart of Africa; an old village, with a lot of different rites, some said magic. He said they could help me get back on track. I went for both the girl and myself."
"And?" Dawn prompted gently from her friend and erstwhile crush.
Xander sighed, keeping the more disturbing details to himself for now, "It was everything he said it was, and more. They too had a Slayer called, and they didn't allow me to take her with me until after I did a vision quest, the same thing Mboto - the brother - recommended me. I had a vision alright, it told me to come here, and then the people I meet would lead me to 'the hidden lands', whatever that means . . ." Xander paused and looked Dawn in her eyes, and said, "Dawn, the vision gave me a new purpose, but also gave me even more pain; what I saw is /not/ good."
"That bad? What was it? And I can't believe /you/ of all people got a vision; judging by last year and the whole power trip Buffy and the others were on, only Slayers and ensouled vampires get them," Dawn said, a mixture of concern, excitement, and happiness in her eyes.
"I don't think I should tell you yet," Xander said, turning his head.
"Hey, I can handle it! Then we can get Giles in, and shorten this newest threat a good head!" Dawn protested, annoyed at her 'little girl' status.
"No!" Xander said forcefully. "It's not you, I'm not telling anyone yet, time is not ready for it; and /you/ promise me you won't tell anyone, /especially/ not Giles, Buffy or anyone else in this new Council that's being built."
Dawn looked at him stricken, and then nodded, "I promise - this is worse than anything we've faced before isn't it?"
Xander didn't answer, and instead said with a smile, "Hey, 'people I meet', I guess you're one of them. So tell me about this mission, 'cause it seems fate has ordained I'm tagging along."
Dawn's left mouth corner quirked up, and she answered, "Through reports there is a group of Slayers active in the vicinity. A group, however, that does not answer to us. I'm to find them, observe them, and if possible make contact and recruit them. I've got a week before I have to get back to school; autumn break."
"Only a week?" Xander asked with raised eyebrows.
"The reports are very detailed," Dawn said as she got up. She reached the suitcase she had placed on her bed, and rummaged in it for a few moments. She then presented the brown folders, and handed them to Xander. She smiled at him and said, "You think you can keep your eyes in reading mode while I put on my clothes?"
"I'll try, but I won't make any promises," Xander answered with a grin.
A day later, quite far away from Bangkok, somewhere in the bush-bush, Xander and Dawn got out of their rented vehicle. The two walked to in front of the car, Dawn holding a map. They leaned against the hood, and checked out the map. "Okay, according to the reports, they are highly active in this region. Any idea why they need to be active here? You don't suppose there's a Hellmouth or something similar around attracting demons, do you? If so, I haven't yet seen any . . . oh."
Two green vicious little demons had arrived from the bushes. They had rows of razor sharp teeth, and were drooling some slime. Xander casually pulled a gun from the back of his pants' waistband and shot them both in the middle of the head just before they were going to say something cliché for vicious bloodthirsty things. Both demons dropped to the ground instantly. "Chop off their heads, Dawn, you never can tell with demons," Xander said solemnly keeping them covered. When there was no movement he looked at Dawn and saw her looking at him in shock. "A little bit of the soldier boy, and the first thing you're taught in Africa by the surviving Watchers there: get a gun and learn how to use it, there are things in those war-ridden countries a lot worse than demons," he explained without a show of emotion.
Dawn nodded, and then quickly stepped forward, pulling a hatchet normally used for cutting plants blocking the way from a sheath on her left hip, and proceeded to cut the demons' heads off. "Yuck," she commented as both she and Xander dragged the corpses off the road and dumped them. "I'm thinking," she started after the deed was done, "we won't have much trouble finding the Slayers around here."
"I agree," Xander said, and then, after grabbing some hiking and survival gear from the truck and putting it on, they went into the woods.
They didn't find any more demons, but they did find their tracks, and soon more. After moving through the forest for about half an hour, they found tracks of humans. Quite a few of them. Xander estimated about a dozen, but since a lot of the tracks were overlaid, he couldn't be very sure. After telling Dawn that, the girl asked softly, "More Africa?"
Xander looked up at her, and grinned. Nodding he said, "The same Watcher taught me, if you don't want to run in a pack of lions, you better know how to read tracks." Dawn grinned back at him, and then they followed the tracks. Another ten minutes later they found them. Xander and Dawn quickly disappeared behind a rock and bushes far away once they heard them, and used binoculars to check it. Slayers had better senses than humans after all, and they weren't ready to make direct contact like that just yet. From their position they had a good view how a group of eleven Slayers cleaned out a nest of the same demons that had attacked them earlier. The nest was housed in a cave, and the demons had tried to charge the Slayers and hoped some slipped past them, but not one survived. All were gutted, decapitated, staked or otherwise killed. It was a brutally efficient operation: Xander and Dawn were pleased, the Slayers obviously understood teamwork.
When the Slayers were done, they left, and Xander and Dawn followed them at a discrete distance. After a while of following, and Xander and Dawn checking their computerized GPS map, they soon figured out the Slayers were heading toward a nearby village. Having determined their destination, they decided it was best to make contact, and so they stopped sneaking and simply walked heartily. Obviously, it didn't take long before the Slayers to know of them, and they were surrounded. "Who are you?" the lead Slayer demanded.
"Ah, I'm Dawn Summers, and this is Xander Harris," Dawn introduced the two of them. "You are Slayers."
The Slayers looked at them suspiciously, and the lead Slayer said, "True or not, what's that to you?"
"We're the ones who made you Slayers," Xander answered her, and all the Slayers looked surprised.
"Could you bring us to whoever trained you?" Dawn asked with a disarming smile, which she hoped worked as well on Slayers, as it did on men and sisters. The Slayers could say 'no' of course and disappear, but they would simply go to the village they already knew they were heading too. The only other possibility would be the Slayers trying to kill them, but both Xander and Dawn had decided upon coming down that that option's chance was slim to none. The subordinate Slayers looked at their leader, who frowned in concentration as she thought what to do.
The leader then stuck out her hand, and said, "You give us your weapons and walk in the middle of us, you can come."
Xander shrugged and pulled out his two guns, as Dawn pulled out a stake. She produced two more stakes, and Xander three. Then they both placed two knives - utility knives, but they could be used as weapons - in the Slayers' hands. The Slayers looked rather astonished as the pile, and they didn't even have the holy water, the crosses and a few more objects and vials not useful against humans, but the Slayers didn't know that. Once the weapons were taken into custody, the Slayers let Xander and Dawn - boxed in between Slayers so they couldn't do anything - carefully to their village.
Once there, Xander and Dawn were led to a house and a revered man. The three had a long talk, in which the whole sordid messes on both sides were explained. The man had talked to them about knowing the legend of the Slayer - from his description he and his family were most likely descendants from a centuries-dead Watcher - and how one girl in his village was called, and then he found more and more. Xander and Dawn explained about the battle against the First Evil, what Buffy had come up with as a solution, and how they had gone along with it. The man was most pleased, especially after they offered some knowledge only Watchers would know.
When the three went out the house to celebrate their new alliance, and soon recruitment of the Slayers /and/ the man and his family into the new Watchers Council, the lead Slayer arrived excitedly. "Sir, he has been spotted again, the slippery one. Allow us to go after him right this instant so we can finally destroy him!" she reported with glittering eyes.
"You can go, but return their weapons, and take them along. They speak the truth; they have more knowledge of the supernatural and how to battle it than all of us combined. They will be very useful," the old man said.
The Slayers looked at Dawn and Xander, and then the leader nodded. Not happy, but not exactly unhappy about it either.
The eleven Slayers, Dawn and Xander sat in hiding in the jungle, waiting. The Slayers had explained about the demonic monster: big, hairy, with large and sharp teeth to tear you apart. In short: one nasty demon. And it was smart too apparently, for it had given them the slip four times already. Xander and Dawn were excited, and somewhat distracted both thinking about how to break it to the Slayers later on. They, or at least some and then in multiple groups - this area could use multiple Slayers - would have to come to a Slayer training facility.
"There," the lead Slayer hissed softly, pointing. Xander and Dawn couldn't make anything out yet; Slayer superior vision helping the Slayers. So, they both pulled out their binoculars, as the Slayer whispered, "Coming closer, everyone get ready."
Xander and Dawn looked through their binoculars. They then changed the focus till they could see clearly. Their eyes widened in shock, just as the lead Slayer ordered, "Attack!"
The entire group of Slayers charged forward, as Xander and Dawn jumped up and together yelled, "WAIT!" The Slayers however did not listen: stakes, swords and other assorted weaponry was pulled, all determined to kill the demon. Xander and Dawn ran after them, but they couldn't possibly keep up with the Slayers. "This way!" Xander suddenly said, veering off to the right, and pulling Dawn along by the arm.
"Why?" Dawn said, running along, no longer being held.
"I recognize his pattern, I taught him that; very effective against vampires - and I do not like the implication it's effective against Slayers as well. He'll circle back, do some weaves and arrive there," Xander said breathing hard as he and Dawn ran hard on a shorter route.
"What's Oz doing here anyway?" Dawn asked still in shock at the appearance of their long lost friend on their binoculars.
"No clue," Xander said, and they turned left, putting in an extra effort in a sprint - the heavy plant growth making running difficult. They reached a small clearing no more then four meters across, and on the other side appeared a black-haired Daniel 'Oz' Osbourn - dye being hard to find in the middle of a rainforest. His eyes widened, both in shock and fear. The werewolf hesitated - wondering for a brief moment if his erstwhile friends would come hunting him - then decided to trust his friends, and his sense of smell that didn't detect any magic or chemicals on them that might be used to alter their state of mind. He surged forward, went between Dawn and Xander, and turned around just behind them.
"Where to?" Oz asked.
"Wait right here," Xander said, as sounds betrayed the Slayers were only close behind. Oz waited apprehensively and watched as the Slayers arrived at the clearing. "STOP!" Xander commanded and indeed the lead Slayer and the few behind her stopped. They looked questioningly and surprised, but by far means they had not relaxed. "What are you doing? He's not a demon, not a monster."
"You step away from him, he transforms," the Slayer warned, wondering why the one with superior knowledge of the supernatural didn't know this.
"I know, he's a werewolf, it's a disease, not a demon," Xander said hastily, and with authority. "He's a human being for twenty-eight days of the month. Only during a full moon, and the day before and after does he transform into a wolf. Lock him up during that time and there's no foul. Better even, I know Oz here, he's learned how /not/ to transform during a moon, that means he's human all the time. He's not a demon, he's /not/ evil, and you're /not/ supposed to kill him."
The lead Slayer growled and took a step forward. "Your friends with a monster? I don't know if I still want to have anything to do with you and me."
"He's not a monster!" Dawn called out.
The lead Slayer said as she stepped forward, "We're Slayers, we're here to kill the monsters."
Xander pulled out his gun, and pointed it at her, while Dawn pulled her crossbow from her back. "I will not let you kill him, and I prefer not to kill you," Xander told them with steel in his voice.
Dawn added for good measure, "But if we have to choose between him and you, you're the ones who'll go down."
"He's not human!" the lead Slayer called out as if that was enough, and the other Slayers agreed with that sentiment. "So we kill him, before he can kill humans. That's our sacred duty."
"You're not human, you're stronger, faster, heal faster," Xander countered with mounting nervousness. He was started to think he couldn't convince them. "Do you have to kill yourself?"
The Slayer snarled out, "We're /not/ monsters. We're /human/ all the way. We are the Chosen Ones to fight the Darkness. We kill the likes of him."
Oz tried to get Xander's attention, but failed. "How do you know," Xander growled out suddenly angry, "you're not worse monsters than Oz here could ever hope to be?" Dawn and Oz, and especially Dawn, looked with shock at that question. Then two Slayers came swinging from a tree on either side of Xander and Dawn, and kicked Xander's gun, and Dawn's crossbow from their hands. The other Slayers charged. "RUN!" Xander said.
"This way!" Oz called pulling Dawn in a diagonal backward direction. Xander followed as they ran. Oz pushed a particularly sturdy branch forward, saying, "Xander, duck." The branch sprung back - Dawn right behind Oz was past it - Xander ducked, and the branch flung over him. It slammed solidly into the Slayer right behind him, and with an 'oof' she was launched backward off her feet, and slammed into more Slayers. This gave Xander time to pull his backup gun from his ankle holster.
Oz disappeared into some undergrowth, and Dawn and Xander followed. The wolf's instincts were sharper than ever it seemed, as he crawled onward underneath plants, just high enough to let Xander under as well. "So, Oz," Dawn said softly, and sarcastically friendly. "What are you doing here? We were here to find some rogue Slayers, which we found and joined on a hunt."
Oz grinned unseen by his companions behind him, and answered her, "Rumors of a hermit around here that helped someone take full control of the beast. I thought I'd beaten it a second time, met a girl I liked - almost killed her."
"Well good, it's so nice to know that if the Slayers don't kill me, an out of control werewolf will," Dawn joked and looked behind her when she heard Xander shoot. A painful groan from behind him showed they had not fully lost the Slayers.
"Unless I hit them in a vital place, this little gun won't hurt a Slayer much," Xander said, urging Oz and Dawn onward. Soon after they could stand back up, and run through a clearer part of the jungle, Xander shooting backward occasionally. With Oz sense of smell guiding them away from Slayers, they weaved through the jungle desperately, trying to stay ahead of the super powered girls, but their speed was just too much - they gained steadily, and Xander was running out of bullets. Add to that that Xander was certain of only one Slayer he incapacitated enough she wouldn't be running after them anytime soon - things looked bleak.
Xander looked back again, seeing a Slayer gaining rapidly. He started squeezing the trigger . . . and the gun was gone. "What?" Xander exclaimed in surprise, and found himself a moment later in a sticky substance. Looking forward with difficulty, it seemed it was a spider web, and next to him Oz and Dawn were equally trapped.
"Oh, shit!" Dawn said, struggling, but only managing to entangle herself more.
"Lucky us," Oz commented calmly.
"Lu- . . .?" Dawn was about to ask, and then she too noticed the ravine that was only a few steps further. She swallowed and said, "Yeah, lucky."
There was a poof, and the three of them bent their heads back to see a man in white robes, with blue patches, and odd sandals standing there. His white, cut-short - almost shaven bald - hair, gave the three an idea he was rather old. The Slayers beyond him came to a sudden surprising stop.
"Old man," the lead Slayer said, having no wound at all. The two Slayers next to her had a red patch on their arm, but it didn't seem the arm was useless: already healing. "Out of our way. The small one is a monster, a killer, and the others wish to let him go on killing."
"Please leave," the man said calmly, but his voice took on an increasing haunted air as he continued speaking, "I have no desire to kill you, but I will if I have to. These three are now under my protection, and I will assure you that none of them will kill anyone. Once again, I have lost the appetite to kill a long time ago, so please leave."
"This is your last chance old man," the Slayer growled.
The man spoke again, the pain in his voice almost tangible, "Please, do not force me to kill you, leave now."
With a rapid movement the Slayer tossed two razor sharp knives, and they hit perfectly. Both penetrated the man's neck, and were stained red. Xander, Dawn, and Oz looked in shock, then even greater shock as there was a poof, a lot of smoke, and suddenly the man was no more. In his place there was a wooden log in which the clean knives were sticking, and it dropped solidly to the ground. "What?" the Slayer exclaimed with huge eyes, and the others were surprised as well. She looked around, getting a little afraid and then ordered, "Find him, kill him, quickly!"
Two men, looking /exactly/ the same as the old man of before, appeared from behind two trees on either side of the Slayers. The Slayers they appeared next were too surprised to react to them grabbing their heads at the same time. All they managed to do was widen their eyes too late, as their heads and necks were wrenched powerfully to one side, and then the other. Two snaps from either Slayer's necks already told the tale. The Slayers dropped bonelessly to the grounds, dead. The Slayers closest looked shocked for an instant, and then enraged they charged and landed a massive punch on the men. Both of them were launched of their feet, then there was another poof, some smoke and the men were gone. Fearfully the Slayers took a step back.
"Why do people always force me to kill them?" a pained voice asked behind the Slayers and they whirled around.
One Slayer charged, screaming in fear and rage, bringing the stake in her right hand down. The old man took a step back, while he pushed her attacking hand aside without any force in his arm it seemed. The Slayer's left hand came up for a punch and the man did the same. Then he suddenly ducked down, and took a powerful step forward, slamming both hands in the Slayer's gut. The Slayer gurgled out in pain, a crack coming from her ribs, blood shooting from her mouth, and then she was launched off her feet, flying up and over the other Slayers who paused in shock. The girl landed squarely on a piece of wood sticking out, with penetrated through her back and out her chest. She gasped in surprise, and then slumped in death.
The Slayers now attacked en masse. Straining their heads to watch the fight, Oz, Dawn, and Xander watched with dropped jaws as the man danced between the Slayers. He twisted one up and over him using her own punch against her, and sending her flying with another double handed blow to her stomach like the first. She broke her back as she crashed against a tree. At the same time he ducked underneath a punch, and kicked out and up with his left leg, catching a Slayer underneath her chin. Her head snapped back till her neck broke and she slumped to her death. He jumped up and over a charging Slayer, landed in front of another, and slammed a right hand on her chest. The Slayer choked, coughed up blood, and looked with wide teary eyes at the man, before she died of cardiac arrest and dropped to the ground. At the same time, his left arm hooked behind a left punch of another Slayer, and twisted the arm back behind her. With a quick yank he broke her neck, and threw her against another onrushing Slayer. This continued for another minute, and then all the Slayers had been killed - they hadn't even laid a finger on the old man.
The man, now extremely distraught, slowly walked toward them, then a meter or so away sank to his knees. He was crying. Then he looked up into the sky, and asked in sobs, "Why do they always force me to kill them? Why? Why couldn't they just leave?"
"Um, sir?" Dawn prompted.
The man slowly stood up, made some odd hand gestures and the web that was holding them disappeared. The three friends dropped to the ground with various 'ow's, 'ooh's, 'oof's, and 'that hurt's. "I am Kanasi, I live nearby, and you seemed to be needing my help," the man told them, as they struggled to get up.
"I'm Xander Harris, and you just . . ." Xander looked at the corpses around, and then continued, "Jesus, killed eleven Slayers without breaking a sweat. What are you?"
"A ninja," he answered sadly, and then bitterly added, "an assassin from the shadows that has long since lost the stomach for killing - sadly I seem to be forced into it anyway. I came here to live in peace and quiet all those years ago when I couldn't stomach it anymore."
"Was that magic?" Dawn asked with wide eyes, looking at the log with knives in it, and the place where the net had been.
"Yes, no," Kanasi answered solemnly. "Some would call it magic, but those practicing actual magic will say without a doubt it is not, and it isn't, the two work on a fundamentally different level - magic can do more."
Oz took several steps forward, and said, "I'm Oz - I think you're the one I am looking for."
"You wish to control the beast inside you?" Kanasi asked with a sad face.
"Yes," Oz said with surprise. "How do you know?"
"The beast is obvious," Kanasi said with a sad look. "It will take a long training. Until now, you seem to have controlled it by controlling your emotions. Of course, when you come into a situation where your emotions are powerful, you once more lose control. The beast comes forth using your chakra - your life force, crudely put - you control some of it with your emotions - you wish to fully control the beast, you need to control your chakra directly."
"Would you teach me too?" Xander asked on impulse. He did not know exactly why he asked, but he did anyway.
"And me?" Dawn added, and Xander give her a look that told her he would have a talk with her.
Kanasi looked at them, and then asked, "What for? Do you just want power? Do you wish to better defend yourself?"
The three of them looked at each other for a moment, and then Xander turned to the hermit, saying, "You didn't seem confused when I said they were Slayers, so I take it you know of them."
"I know of the legend, and I believe there is supposed to be only one," the mysterious ninja answered them.
Xander nodded, and said, "We - that is Dawn, me, and several friends, one very powerful witch and a Slayer mostly - changed it." And so Xander explained the demons walked the Earth before man, the origin of the vampires, the demons still walking this Earth today - at which Kanasi didn't seem so much surprised - and then Buffy arriving in his hometown, the Hellmouth and in major lines the events of the past seven years. "We fight the darkness," Xander finished, "this would be to fight the darkness better."
Kanasi looked at each one of them one after another for several long moments. Apparently satisfied with their sincerity he nodded in agreement, he then looked at the Slayers he killed. Xander was the one to say, "First, we will bring their bodies back, so they can be buried by their family. Then we will return here."
The bodies trailed behind the three of them on stretchers. It was a morbid task, but they had to do it. Xander had finally found the time and place to speak to Dawn, without the ninja hermit nearby, "Dawn, you have to get back to school at the end of the week, remember? You cannot stay here and be trained."
"Let me ask you a question first, Xander," Dawn said sternly. "What did you mean with how the Slayers knew they weren't worse monsters than Oz?" Xander looked away. "Well?" Dawn demanded.
"I'd like to know that too," Oz added.
"Like I said, the time is not- . . ." Xander started.
Dawn interrupted him angrily, "The /hell/ it isn't! What was in that damn vision?"
Xander looked at the two who were expectantly looking at him. He sighed deeply, painfully almost, and then, as they continued walking, he told them the contents of the vision.
Suffice it to say, the reaction Xander got was one of utter shock. Dawn then said, "I'm training with this geezer, and that's final. I'll do the schoolwork here, I'll ask Giles to send the proper textbooks, and take one of those correspondent tests, or do tests in local schools, perhaps there is even an English-language school here."
"But- . . . "
"Uh, uh! This is not just about the world, but about my sister as well, Alexander. I /will/ stay!" Dawn said looking into his eye. The look was both steel determination, and a pleading to agree. Her being seventeen, she knew she could be sent back and there was nothing she could do about it. Xander nodded, and then looked down.
The three of them arrived defeated at the former home of the Slayers. The people in the village looked with shock at the bodies being dragged on the makeshift string of stretchers; four behind the men, three behind Dawn. One boy ran back straight to the home of the man who had taught them. Xander, Dawn, and Oz gently set the stretcher they were holding down once they were in the village. The old man came out of his hut and looked at the dead slayers, tears instantly in his eyes. "What did this?" he choked out.
"What did you teach these girls?" Xander asked painfully.
The man looked up, anger marring his crying face, "Are you suggesting /I'm/ re- . . .?"
"They were going to attack him, he's not a demon. Oz here is not only a friend, but someone who helped fight the Darkness with us. I told them to stop it, I and Xander placed ourselves in between him and the Slayers, then they decided we should be killed as well," Dawn said sternly, rapidly. "We had no choice but to defend ourselves."
The man charged with a roar. Xander grabbed one of his hands, and with his other hand he placed his earlier retrieved gun at the man's temple. "There's been enough death today. Don't force me, any of you," Xander said, becoming aware of the villagers looking angrily at him.
"He's a werewolf, a monster," the old man hissed angrily, looking at Oz.
"Someone suffering from cancer isn't a monster," Dawn answered the man. "He's a human being, he has a soul and all. On top of that, he's learned enough control he doesn't transform anymore during the full moon and the day before and after; he doesn't kill anyone or anything."
"If he doesn't, then how come people have seen him transform?" the man hissed, the pain and rage on his face palpable, teeth bared.
"I was attacked by demons," Oz told the man painfully. "High strung emotions, adrenaline surges while fighting for my life brings forth the transformation. Although I don't have control when I'm in wolf form, during my travels I have put enough right and wrong in the wolf that I don't eat humans, and only hunt and eat animals. Just like a normal wolf, or tiger, or eagle. I have not killed a human in years, and I never will again. I'm making sure of that - there are only very specific . . . and very specific emotions that would make . . . no strangers."
Xander started back up slowly, indicating to Dawn and Oz they should do so as well. "We're leaving," Xander said determinedly, aiming the gun gently from left to right, "we wanted to attend their funeral and pay our respects; it's obvious we are not welcome here though. That's too bad, but don't try to stop us, I will defend my and their lives with deadly force if necessary."
Slowly the three of them left.
"Giles, I need time off, what happened here . . . you'll get the report, I need some emotional calming down," Dawn told Giles, completely telling the truth, even though not the whole truth. "Yes, yes, I /know/ you said it'd be tough, but even you will realize your 'tough' is peanuts compared to what I went through." After Giles spoke some more, Dawn said into the hotel room's phone, "You'll just have to send me the books, Giles, so I can study while relaxing, but I need time away from the Slayers. I just need to be me for a while . . . Like I told you a few days ago, Buffy probably won't even notice I'm gone, ever since she met that Immortal something or other . . . Thanks, Giles, see you soon I hope."
Dawn hung up the phone and looked at her two male friends. "That's that," she said solemnly. Xander nodded equally, sitting slumped on the bed. Dawn and Oz looked at him, after he told them what he saw in the vision they understood much better how defeated Xander must feel - they felt a lot of it themselves. But both had a good idea that Xander felt like this even /before/ the vision, and Dawn knew for certain. Thinking back to those final months in Sunnydale . . . back then other things - like staying alive - had preoccupied her not to pick up on it, but Xander had seemed defeated and lackluster even back then. She guessed it had only gotten worse after Anya's death, his let's-go-do-this attitude about the new Council and the Slayers before shipping off to Africa must have been an act - a good one, but just an act. The difference between those last months in Sunnydale and now though, was that Xander had a sense of purpose that he lacked then - a goal - but that seemed to make the basis of his mood only worse. She vowed she would find a way to make him better.
To Be Continued . . .