From The Hellmouth He Shall Be Borne

2?

AN: Well, to clear up a few things for everyone here, as Jenny is still alive, this is just after Halloween, so for the sake of argument, nothing has really changed as far as canon went, costume-wise, that is (Xander-Solider, Willow-Ghost, Buffy-Lady Useless). Oz and Willow are a kind of semi-couple, Kendra is in Sunnydale to stay, Cordy is apart from the group and both Tony and Jessica are in rehab.

AN2: Previous part to this story can be found at -

http/ Month Later)

Angel watched as both Buffy and Kendra began to tear their way through a pack of unsuspecting vampires and marveled, not for the first time, at how effective of a fighting force the pair of Slayers were when they were not trying to kill each other – it was an act of a higher power that he was still around at all, with as badly as Kendra had reacted to him at first, and more to the point with how very little help he had gotten from the others in his continued survival that made Angel wonder just how many allies he really had among the 'Scooby Gang'. Buffy was the love of his life, Willow was her friend and at least tolerated him, as did her boyfriend, Oz, Rupert Giles did the same and while Jenny Calendar of the clan Kalderash held no personal animosity towards him, she wouldn't save him at all if she had a choice in the matter.

"Watch your six, Kendra!" And then there was Xander Harris, the bane of his unlife, but more to the point, the most dangerous one of the lot – the boy held no allegiances to The Watcher's Council, nor to the clan Kalderash, but more to the point, he didn't need any of those ties as he was a force unto himself … and that was before his alliance with the being known as Pelor. He was currently clubbing a rogue vampire over the head with a rather large fluted mace before backhand smashing another, and had to visibly stop himself to keep from hitting him as well.

Kendra, for her part, only turned, smiled brightly at Xander, and then went back to slaying vampires, which led him to ask Xander, "Awfully chummy with her, aren't you?"

Xander didn't even spare him a glance, "You've got a point you want to make?"

Angel just shrugged his shoulders as the Slayers finished the vamps, "You and she just seem really … close – is it just Slayers who you get close to, or is it a strong woman thing?"

Xander didn't even miss a beat, "I don't know – is it a Slayer thing with you, or is it just jailbait that you go after?" Before, Angel would have ripped the boy's head off for that without fear of retaliation, but he knew that Xander would somehow find a way to take him into death with him, so he left it alone even as the last of the dust settled and the Slayers walked over, "Fair maidens of dust, I bid thee welcome."

Kendra blushed lightly and Angel couldn't help but smirk at the thought that the Jamaican Slayer was falling for the boy and Xander didn't appear to notice it, as per usual, but Buffy shot him an annoyed look before looking at Xander, a smirk on her face, "Maidens of Dust? Have we been demoted?"

"Nah, but while you do kick butt supremely with things that go 'squish', things that go 'poof' and get all dusty when you beat them are your true forte," Xander said amicably, his time spent with Jenny Calendar obviously making him more at ease and more confident with his speaking. This was proven as he, after putting away his mace, walked over and threw a friendly arm over Kendra's shoulders, who blushed a little more, "Now, what do we do?"

"Go home," Buffy said with a groan. "It's Friday, we've been fighting goon squads for the past week, and I'm in serious need of a shower to get all of this vampire dust out of my hair. Later, guys," she said, leaving the three of them there. As she left, Angel felt a pang of hurt in his chest even as he reminded himself that, over the past few weeks, she had been distancing herself from him, saying that their 'relationship' wasn't natural, that it would never work and, while it had initially almost destroyed him, as time went on he realized that she was right – he was a vampire, she was a Vampire Slayer, and even at this low point, Xander's words before forcing him down to the Master's Lair came back to him 'she seems to think that you're a person, and I need you to prove her right', so he respected her wishes and let it lay … for now.

"Shall we, Kendra?" The Jamaican Slayer was, currently, staying with Xander at his shared home with Jenny Calendar, after she had been granted temporary guardianship over him after his mother's and his father's forced trip into alcohol abuse rehabilitation – forced meaning that both Jenny and Xander had given them an ultimatum of going into rehab or to be bludgeoned to death by a mace wielded by a son who still had MANY issues he needed to work out. After that, some strings had been pulled by someone and, thus, Jenny was made to be Xander's guardian, an odd choice, given that they acted more like brother and sister, maybe even nephew and aunt, than people of no relation whatsoever.

"We shall, Xander. Farewell, Vampire," Kendra said to him with some distaste in her voice, as if the words were hard for her to spit out – it was no secret that she wanted to destroy him, despite Buffy's assertions of his good nature, but while the others were not as ready to jump to his defense, Xander had, to Angel's surprise, spoken up, saying that he (Angel) was off limits, but that if his soul was ever lost, it was 'dust city' for him. Buffy had praised Xander for his leap of faith, but that praise fell short as Xander then amended, "Of course, if anyone gets to dust him, it's me, so step in line, Kendra – it starts behind me," something which neither Slayer had liked, for two obviously different reasons.

Soon, though, Angel found himself alone in the middle of a graveyard and sighed before turning and walking back to his apartment – he had major brooding to catch up on, and nobody wanted to keep him from it.

(Harris-Calendar-McPherson Residence)

After a quick shower for himself and a slightly longer one for Kendra, Xander found himself as the meat in a babe-sandwich, something that once would have had him in happy-dreams for nearly a month, but after living with the pair for a few weeks, it was now somewhat commonplace. Kendra was on his left, dressed in a pair of sweat pants, her socks, a sports bra and a tank top, idly munching on some non-fat chips while Jenny was on his right, dressed (or, as he preferred to think, almost undressed) in a pair of her short shorts, a baby-t and socks and he was in a pair of shorts and a white t-shirt, all three idly watching Moe, Larry and Curly go at it in classic reruns – he was, indeed, the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet.

That's not to say that it was always fun – CPS was constantly in the house, checking on him and Kendra, as Jenny wasn't blood relation to either of them, and Kendra's Watcher, Sam Zabuto, had the rather annoying penchant for calling on Saturday mornings before the decent hour of noon, Jenny's jackass of an Uncle, Enyos, was always coming by in a way that made Deadboy look even more annoying, as he used the dark, stealthy bit just a bit too much, and, of course, he was starting to cop flak at school about it, flak he didn't take from anyone and made those feelings known, especially to Quark. For some 'odd' reason, the kids and staff at Sunnydale High seemed to have nothing else to do other than to pry into his personal life and the lives of Kendra and Jenny, and it was starting to get to him so much that Pelor had to almost nightly come into his dreams and remind him that clubbing someone to death with his mace was NOT the kind of thing that a Cleric of Pelor did … at least, not in the sight of others.

Kendra broke his chain of thought by passing her chips through his line of view to Jenny, who accepted them and began to chow down at a ferocious rate, bringing an odd thought to mind, "Jenny, I have a semi-personal question for you."

"I wax," she said instantly, looking over at him and grinning as his mind supplied several possible questions for that particular answer. He groaned lightly and she giggled while Kendra choked lightly, but Jenny relented, "What is it?"

"I've noticed you eat almost as much as I do, but you exercise even less – how is it that you stay so slim?"

She gave him a mysterious look and grinned before popping a handful of chips into her mouth, crunching on them while handing the bag right back to Kendra, who had a light blush on her face, "Why, Xander, are you curious? Looking to jump allegiances?"

He snorted at her, "Of course not, I was just curious."

"Well, you do know what they say about curiosity, right?"

It was Kendra's turn to get in on the action as she handed him a now-empty bag of chips, "It answers de question?"

He shot her a mild glare, which rolled off of her back without any effort – it was amazing that, after only a few weeks, Kendra had come out of her shell to the point that she was acting more and more like a normal teenaged girl her own age rather than a reclusive automaton who blindly followed orders as she previously had. He and Jenny had worked laboriously for HOURS to get her to laugh, let alone blush, though as that wasn't too hard they were taking what they could get, and from there it was daily exercises to get her to loosen up a little more, and after on a few days, Kendra was firing back small, shy quips when either he or Jenny would zing her.

Jenny noticed this and smiled, "No, that it killed the Cleric."

Xander gave her a bland look and made the sound of a rimshot, "Ha ha."

Kendra smiled at the banter between Alexander … Xander and Jenny – they had welcomed her into their shared home with open arms when Mr. Zabuto had decreed that she should stay in Sunnydale to help with the dealings there, generally because Slayer Summers … Buffy … was starting to show signs of weakening as the Slayer; Jenny had taken her aside for several hours and explained to her that, while she was a Slayer, she was not a robot and should act like a young woman in her teens would. Xander, for his part, had gone out of his way to tell her jokes and to try and get her to 'loosen up', as he called it, even while he himself was practicing and reading out of tomes that were not from Mr. Giles' library – she had been fascinated to no end when she had learned that he was a Cleric of a god, Pelor, and when she had shyly asked a classmate if they knew who this 'Pelor' was, Jonathan had been most kind to tell her.

The mere thought of Jonathan brought a slight flush of heat her to cheeks and she was cursing herself slightly when Xander noticed it and smiled at her slightly, "So, what's his name?"

She tried to play dumb, "Who?"

Jenny didn't buy it, "The guy you were thinking about … unless it wasn't a guy and you're into girls, and then we'd need her name."

Kendra's face exploded into a massive blush as the implications of that statement registered in her mind – she did not, as she had heard it, 'swing that way', though Jenny and Xander had once said that it was perfectly alright if she had, though Xander had mumbled something Jenny about 'especially if we can watch', which had gotten Xander elbowed in his ribs by Jenny even as he snickered. "His … hi… his name is … Jonathan."

Xander's eyebrow arched slightly, "Jonathan Levinstein?" Kendra gave him a look of pure dread as his mirth left a thoughtful expression came over his face, "Nice kid, a little self-conscious and lacking in the reality department, or at least his friends are." Xander then threw his arm around her shoulders and he pulled her to him, hugging her close, "I'm sure you'll reconnect him with planet Earth."

Jenny smiled as Kendra's face relaxed greatly – she knew that the Jamaica-born Slayer was very shy in dealing with anyone other than herself, and the simple fact that she was talking to another boy, let alone one who was even more of an outcast than Buffy and her friends, that was a large step for her. "Yes, Kendra, I do hope he is a nice boy – I doubt that he'd survive Xander's ire, let alone his ire with a mace in hand." Xander groaned at her as she brought up his rather protective nature of Kendra and the last vampire whom had gotten a little … 'fresh' with her – she wasn't sure that the human body, let alone one that was inhabited by a vampire, was made to bend that way, but Xander had turned the vampire into a pretzel, an act that Buffy had tried to duplicate several times unsuccessfully.

Kendra, from her place under Xander's arm, snickered at Jenny's comment, remembering not only the same event but also her first day at school and her first encounter with the football team – she had been asked to come to their locker room and 'warm them up', but Xander had stepped in at this point, very unamused, and told the boys that if they wanted to warm up, to ask 'Larry', "I'm sure he'd LOVE to help warm you boys up." Larry, whom had been one of her accosters, had immediately picked up on whatever Xander had been implying and had vehemently denied the accusations, but the seeds had already been planted and the group of males had gone away, leaving her alone.

Xander, for his part, just sniffed, "I tell ya, I get no respect."

(Later)

Jenny looked on as Xander tucked Kendra, whom had fallen asleep on the couch, into her bed and then stood up, and she could tell that something was bothering him; he had been overly protective of Kendra, but the way he had been acting as of late was out of the norm even of him. "Xander, what's wrong?"

Xander stepped away from the slumbering Kendra and walked out the Slayer's room, shutting the door, before answering, "I'm going away for a little while, Jenny."

She blinked at this – she had been expecting a great many things, ranging form the facts that he was gay, that he wanted to have both herself and Kendra in a threesome, or that he was Romany; him leaving had been the last thing from her mind, "What?"

Xander looked over at the bewildered Romany woman and smiled slightly at her, her nose scrunched up cutely, "I've been having these messages from Pelor over the past few nights and I think I know what they mean." He led her down to his room and, from out of the depths of his closet, pulled out numerous pieces of equipment that she did recognize, yet some of them she did not, until he found a tube of leather with several buckles, "He's been sending me stuff ever since I accepted the job as his Cleric, things like armor and weapons, but this … this came in yesterday."

Jenny looked over the map that was unrolled form the case and, immediately, she could see the immense scale of what Xander was looking at – it looked to be a blueprint of a castle, maybe something else, and it was a multiple-level structure that would inspire nightmares of any architect. Halls ten feet wide, walls easily two or three feet thick, blind corners, rooms that ranged from the size of a closet to that of a classroom, all kinds of nasty little drawing about, drawings of creatures and with several vital things about each even as she began to leaf through the pages of parchment, "Xander …"

"It is called a Dungeon, Jenny, and this is my first little job for Pelor." Xander told her, his voice sounding a touch defeated, "He's having me go to this place and join a party that is going to clean it out. The good news is that it isn't going to be too hard and will be a learning experience – the bad news is that somehow, a Drow has somehow gotten to this world, corrupted four witches and is at the bottom of this Dungeon." Xander took another deep breath and let it out slowly, "The worst of the bad news though, and probably the strangest bit, is that this place … is here, in our world."

Jenny gave the young Cleric a startled look, "What? How?"

He shrugged at her and Jenny, for a split second, didn't feel that much better about the situation that she had a few seconds before, "I don't know, neither does he – apparently the Drow did some mojo and he made his way across the Infernal Planes here, and this has Pelor and several of his other god-like friends very worried, so worried that they've sent some of their own people here to help take care of the problem."

She nodded at this, throwing her mind back to what he had told her and let her read about the other species in the game that was, in another dimension, reality – she had admitted to him that, in her younger days, she had been something of a gamer and had played, but what she was shocked to find out was that while some of the game statistics were correct, many were not; sizes, colorations, even temperaments towards other races had been wrong and from the looks of things, Xander was going to be playing referee if there were several races there. "When do you leave? How long are you going to be gone?"

"I leave tomorrow, sunrise, and I'm going to be gone about a week, at most." She blanched at his words and he raised his hands to her in an easing motion, "I know, the CPS lady is going to be here, but Pelor says that he has it all set up and worked around … and I trust him."

Jenny nodded at his words and sat down on his bed, obviously lost in thought even as he began to pull his gear out of his closet – it was pretty standard stuff, things he had seen in the game guides, but there were other things that had not been there as part of the starting packages, and things that he had added on since then. He didn't like his scale mail, but it was the only thing he could wear and put on with any kind of speed and use while he had his heavy mace and his crossbow, his pack had been a leather backpack that he had replaced with an outdoor backpack that had more pockets in it but, as a concession, was a bit bulkier than his other one. Some of the rather inferior tools that he'd been granted beforehand he had upgraded, things like a chunk of flint and some dry tender to a magnesium striker bar with a steel rat-tail file to pull across it, his mess kit had been replaced by an Army Surplus kit, as had some of his medical items (bandages, adhesives, and tweezers Pelor had allowed, but not things like Band Aids, non-toxic superglue, a penlight or .30 silk thread for suturing wounds). One other thing that he had been able to get past Pelor's scrutiny had been a replacement for the rather clumsy boots that he had been given as well – they were nice, but he much preferred the feel of steel-capped boots on his feet rather than just leather boots with little or no padding; he's also gotten a concession on another very important item of clothing – underwear. While going 'commando' or wearing what passed for boxers in the other world might have been fine for them, he was more of a briefs kind of guy.

She watched him prepare his kit even as her mind whirled on and on about what he was about to do – she had seen just what he had been capable of as far as fighting, even before he had been made a Cleric by Willow's botched attempt to help him, and then, of course, came that damnable Ethan Rayne and his Halloween episode; Xander had gone as a Soldier, a simple, generic solider, and since that night had been subject to horrific nightmares of wars in a distant land, lands that she believed to be Vietnam due to some of the names that he said while tossing and turning about in his nightmare-plagued sleep, and she had see some of that in his battles against the demons. Short, brutal attacks that often snapped bones and joints without much thought or any kind of remorse as he mercilessly clubbed the poor demon over the head with his mace (at which point a vampire was then divested of any and all things that could be construed as pawnable or usable, things like watches, rings, cash or necklaces). Now, though, he was going off to fight with others on what her mind termed as a 'Dungeon Crawl' and she wasn't sure just how she was taking it – she knew that she wasn't his mother, that she could not tell him 'no' and have him obey her without any kind of resentment or malice, but he had told her many times that she was his friend, someone he would listen to and, if he could, work with, and she knew that in this instance he would not be able to work with her.

"How do you plan to get there?" Jenny's question startled Xander out of his thoughts even as he began to pack away the last of his things – he knew that she was worried, how could she not be, and he felt like shit making her worry, but he had a job to do.

"Magical means, teleportation, most likely." She watched him pull out several final pieces of clothing and arrange them to be worn – boots, pants, a shirt and some gloves, but also his armor, belt, weapons and such, and he finally looked back at her, "Same way back – I'll be leaving from the house, though, so no worried about that."

Jenny nodded as she stood up and walked over, "Xander, I want you to be careful, okay? Believe it or not, I quite like the idea of you being around here to tell your jokes and to help us with your researching skills." She pulled him into a hug, one he returned, and they stayed there for several minutes, neither saying a word. Eventually, though, they released each other and she smiled at him, "I'm going to bed now, Xander – try not to make too much noise when you get ready to leave."

He gave her a half-grin, "What, the house or your bed?"

She smacked him on the shoulder, "Don't make me choose, Xander." With that, she walked out of his room, though he fancied that she had a little more sway in her hips as she left than when she normally walked. With her gone, though, his smile vanished and looked at his gear – tomorrow was going to be a long day.

(Next Morning)

Armed, dressed and packed, Xander felt the energies of Pelor surround him even as the living room, which held Kendra and Jenny, both of whom looked worried, faded away, and was replaced by a dry, repressively hot and arid setting with rocks, sand and, off in the distance, what looked to be a villa or a mansion.

"Who are you?" He turned in his armor, actually not tripping on his own feet, and came nose-to-sword point with a woman dressed in scale armor, her dark hair done up and her dark eyes glaring at him over her sword. She also wasn't alone as she saw a short man dressed also in scale armor, but bearing a large axe and a shield, and a pair of half-elves, if his eyes were right, one, a woman, dressed in the leathers of a rogue and the other, a male, without any kind of armor but with numerous arcane tattoos on his arms and chest.

A slight waver by the sword point near his nose brought him back to the original question, "Alexander, Cleric of Pelor – I take it you're also here for this mission?"

The Rogue shot him an irritated look, her face flushed with the heat of the area, "No, we're here working on darkening our complexions, Cleric."

Given her tone of voice and her pale complexion, Xander couldn't resist, "Then I'd say you need to take those leathers off and get into something suitably skimpy, honey, because you're not getting enough sun."

His quip got a rather unusual response – the Dwarf, who was holding the axe and a shield, turned and gave the Rogue a leering look, said Rogue had a shocked look on her face as she flushed again, though this time not from the heat, the other half-elf snickered at her and said something in a language he didn't understand and the other woman, the one with the sword pointed at him, smirked and put her sword away even as his eyes took in the emblem of Pelor that was tattooed on her arm, "Well met, Cleric – it is nice to meet one of Pelor's with an actual sense of humor."

He gave her a weak smile even as he shucked off his pack and his helmet, wiping his brow, "Jesus, it's hot out here – of all the places in the world, why pick Texas to build this damned dungeon?"

AN: Sorry about the long wait for this follow-up chapter, but I've had tons of other stories to write and try and make good (things I've done with varying degrees of success). So, what do you think? Questions, comments and critiques are welcomed, flames are not – AR.