The Archer
Xander felt his mind begin to come out of itself as his spirit became whole again. Xander sighed and gathered his thoughts, then struggled to not wake up Faith with his laughing. The four spirits had spent the entire night playing pool and trading humiliating stories about themselves. By far, soldier's were the best. Basic training should be turned into a comedy show.
Xander struggled to regain control of himself, then just collapsed in a fit of giggles as he remembered hyena chasing vampire around the bar, using his pool stick as a bat while he tried to hit him. Xander grinned like an idiot when he remembered soldier tripping vampire, and then Xander tripping hyena. That had been funny. Course, they were all four drunk.
Xander sighed and opened the trapdoor. He walked downstairs and stopped before he entered the bedroom, which had become Faith's room. He stretched out with his senses and found that Faith was asleep still. He crept inside, opened the drawer, pulled out some clothes, then snuck back out to the den.
He walked into the bathroom, which was right next to the bedroom and the den. It was down a short hall that, somehow, didn't ever echo. Xander lit all the candles, then started his morning routine.
Faith thrashed around in her bed. She knew that someone had been there, but where? She panicked and started to try to get out, but something held her back. She punched and kicked, but they did nothing. Then, she stopped. She opened her eyes as wide as she could and found that she was tangled up in the covers.
She ripped them off and looked around her room. She looked up at the skylight and saw that it was nearing dawn, but wasn't there just yet. She looked around the room and saw that paintings were decorating the walls. They were mostly of X and a hot woman that Faith had never known.
She got out of the bed and started to go to the bathroom, or where she guessed the bathroom was, but stopped when she heard the shower going. She walked down to the bathroom and saw that it was well lit with candles. She opened the wooden door and looked inside.
She could tell automatically who was in the shower and Faith just had to grin as she heard him singing. God, X was hot, but he couldn't sing worth a damn! She was about to just go and get some clothes, but then the shower curtain came open and…
Xander panicked when he saw Faith peeking from behind the door. He just wished himself away, then he was gone. Faith opened the door and came inside. Xander stopped moving as she came inside. He didn't trust himself, or the other three quarters of himself, to not react to the naked woman in his bathroom.
"X," she called, "Where are you?"
Xander, praying that this worked, projected his voice into the hallway as he said, "Out here."
Faith turned her head towards the door, and Xander let out a sigh of relief. Then groaned when Faith looked back at him. Xander just gave up and walked over to her. He went around her, but not without brushing her, and grabbed a towel. He wrapped it around himself, then let himself be seen again.
"Lord, Faith," he said, "You ever heard of knocking?"
"But then I would have missed the show," she said, her face spread out into a huge grin, "Besides, we're square, now. I saw you, and you're still seeing me."
Xander sighed and turned away. He grabbed his clothing, walked out into the hallway, then got dressed. He heard the shower going again as the Slayer bathed…Xander forced away those thoughts, the not-so-easiest task of the millennium.
Xander groaned to himself and walked into the kitchen. He opened up a cabinet, filled the cauldron about a third of the way up, then put some herbs and spices inside. About ten minutes later, he had warm soup ready for the two of them. He poured half in a bowl for himself, then did the same for himself. He extinguished the fire, put the ingredients away, then brought the food out to the den. He put them both on the coffee table and sat down on the floor as he awaited Faith.
Almost instantly, she was walking over to him. She stopped before she reached the table and sniffed.
"What is that," she asked.
"Home cooked chicken noodle soup," said Xander with a smile, "Dig in."
"You don't have anything else," she asked, "I got better when I was living in that hole you dragged me away from."
"Try it, then see if you can say that."
Faith sat down, got the bowl and, after seeing Xander just drink the soup from the bowl, shrugged and slurped the soup. Xander put his down to watch her. As she ate, Xander could tell she was enjoying it. She took it away from her lips, then looked at him in amazement.
"How the Hell did you do that," she asked.
"A little bit of seasoning can go a long way," he answered.
Xander came back into the den as he finished cleaning up the dishes. Faith was sitting on the couch, waiting for him. Xander sat down and didn't speak.
"X," said Faith after a long moment, "What's up?"
"I'm thinking about what I should teach you first," said Xander.
"What do you mean," asked Faith, "I thought you said that-"
"I did say that we would try to discern the meaning of your dream, but…you can't just rush into it. You need to undergo a little bit of training in the spiritual realm before we can have a joint-vision quest."
"Like what kind of training?"
"Some meditation techniques, first. Then, I'll bring you into a…simulation of the spiritual training I undergo every night."
"Is it intense?"
"…Very."
"Let's do it!"
"Alright, Faith," said Xander as he got up, "Don't say I didn't warn you."
Xander and Faith sat down in the meditation room. Faith didn't want to say anything, but being in a small space surrounded by mirrors…it really made her uncomfortable. She wondered why there had to be mirrors here.
"The mirrors," said Xander, almost as though he had heard her thoughts, "Are here to remind us of the world. People say that you have no reflection if you have no soul, and they are right. But when your soul travels, your body is left as that…a body. Your soul is not gone, not yet banished, but it is away. It's traveling. It makes the reflection fade."
"So," said Faith, "How do I start?"
"Simple. First, we start out by taking deep breaths. Now, I want you to focus on the…happiest memory from your childhood."
Faith sighed, shrugged her shoulders, then did as she was told. She breathed as deeply as she could and tried to find a good memory. She focused on her earliest one. It was the one of her when she was five years old. She was going up and down on the swing set in the park as her mother pushed her.
As she focused on her memory, she felt her whole body tingle. She could almost reach out and touch it. She saw things from the five year old her's point of view. She looked up as she saw her mother pushing her up and down. She was smiling. Faith felt herself smiling, a true smile. She laughed and screamed to go higher. Her mother pushed once more, and suddenly Faith was flying through the air.
She felt the air rush past her, and she started to panic. Then, she felt a pair of strong arms pluck her out of the sky. She looked up into Xander's face as he grinned. She looked around and saw that her mother had gone and she was now her present-self. She got out of Xander's arms and looked up in the sky.
"I remember this park," she said, "It was in Boston. That woman you saw, X? She was my mother. That was me that she was pushing."
Suddenly, things got cold. She turned around and found herself in a dark room, and the only source of light came from underneath the door. She heard screaming and shouts, then she heard a crack. Then, the door slowly opened. Faith wanted to run, wanted to scream, wanted to fight back…but she couldn't.
"Come here, girlie," said the man as he came closer.
"Faith," said a voice to her left.
She looked and saw Xander standing there.
"X, help," she called.
"I can't, Faith. You need to do this on your own," he said.
"Let's see you, girl," said the man as he came closer.
Faith wanted to scream at him, cuss him out, wanted to…kill him.
"Help me," she cried out.
"We can't," said a voice behind the man.
She looked up and saw Xander, but he was dressed in soldier gear.
"Not until you help yourself," said a voice right next to her.
Faith turned and saw that Xander was sitting on her bed. He was dressed in black leather and had the face of a vampire.
"You can do it, Faith," said a voice in the far side of the room.
She turned again and saw Xander standing there. He was dressed in dark, green pants and had some fur on his feet. She looked around the room and saw that all four parts of Xander were there.
"We have faith in you," said Vamp-Xander.
"You can fight this," said Soldier-Xander.
"Once you start fighting," said Hyena-Xander.
"Then we can, too," said Xander.
Faith looked at each of the Xanders in the room. They all had different eyes, but each showed only caring and compassion. They, all four of him, cared for her. Faith smiled as she realized that someone cared for her. As the man came closer, Faith waited until he got right on top of her. Then, she kicked out with her legs and sent him all the way across the room.
Xander slowly pulled Faith out of her trance. That had been an experience for the both of them. The second Faith managed to clear her head, she leapt at him and wrapped her arms around him. Xander hugged her back, struggling to breath as the Slayer crushed his ribcage.
"You're not alone, Faith," said Xander.
"No," she whispered, "Not anymore."
As the two prepared to go back into their trances, Faith realized that she had forgotten something.
"Didn't you have to go back to school today," she asked.
She didn't really care, she just didn't want him to get in trouble for her.
"This is more important," he said, "Now, I want you to bring yourself into a trance. Wait for me to go into my trance, then follow me."
Xander breathed deeply and, almost immediately, felt his spirit take flight.
He found himself standing in that same field, and he was with the other three parts of him. It was a foggy morning, but the sun was beginning to shine. Xander felt Faith come, and then he saw her materialize in front of him. She gasped as she began to trip as she tried to regain her balance, but couldn't. Xander allowed the soldier to catch her. He helped her up to her feet, then let her walk over to Xander.
"Why couldn't you help," she asked angrily.
"Because, this is the spirit realm…or my spirit realm. I'm in charge, but they are more in charge over me."
Faith glanced at the other three, then walked over to them.
"So," she said, "What do you want to do?"
"I can think of a few things," growled hyena.
Soldier necked him.
"We got better things to do," he said.
"Yes," said Xander, "Vampire and hyena, you two take the day off. Soldier, you're taking the two of us to Germany."
"You want some backup," he asked.
"Just dump us there. If it gets rough, bring her out."
"Xander," asked Faith, "Why send me to Germany?"
"Germany in the nineteen forties, Faith," said Xander, "World War II."
"You need to learn what real war is like," said soldier.
"Oh, so fighting for my life day and night isn't a war enough for you two," she asked.
"Not when I fought for my life for years in this war," said soldier, "And the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. You are fighting a kind of war, but it's nothing compared to this one."
"He's right," said vampire, "Nothing compares to it."
"Trust me, Faith," said Xander, "Nothing will kill you. It will be just like a patrol…only, you'll have a gun."
"…Ship me off."
It was almost dusk when the two teenagers came out of their trance. They slowly opened their eyes and became away of the real world again. Faith let out a huge groan and started to cry. Xander, for once, didn't bother to help. He knew that kind of pain.
"That," he said, "Was war."
She sobbed.
"That's the way it truly is. There's no heroic plot, no amazing feats that would get an ordinary man killed. Just about thirty soldiers trying to defeat their enemy."
"Why…Why can't they just…"
"Get along?"
"Yeah."
"Because of what they did to the world, Faith. War can be fought for any number of reasons, unfortunately, but that war…it changed the modern world. Imagine what it would be like if Hitler had conquered us."
Faith shuddered at the sheer thought of it.
"Now," said Xander, "We can start to delve into the visions."
The two were standing inside a field. Both of them were dressed in soldier drab. Xander had a longbow with a quiver of arrows, while Faith was armed with a dagger.
"What's supposed to happen," asked Faith, "I thought we were pursuing visions."
"These kind of visions fight back," said Xander, "We'll need to wrangle them in."
Suddenly, they were attacked by an invisible force. Faith fell to the ground and Xander raced to her. There was a fold in the air just above the two. Xander brought up his bow and let loose two arrows. It dodged one, but not the other. Suddenly, the two were in a series of visions.
The first was of a dark alley. He and Faith were fighting vampires when suddenly, a man dressed in a tux came out. Faith stabbed him in the heart before she realized he was human.
Then, they were both in her room. Her hands were around his neck and squeezing him. She shouted out that she wanted to stop, but couldn't. Then, he died.
Next, they were in the school campus. There was a huge snake in the middle of it. Students were fighting off vampires. Xander was in the thick of students armed with bows, ordering them to fire, and then launching arrows himself. Faith, however, was behind the snake. She was trying to do something, but she couldn't do anything.
Then, they were out of the visions.
Xander gasped aloud as Faith broke down in front of him. Xander lunged for her and crushed her in embrace. Faith was crying into his shoulder.
Xander and Faith were sitting on the couch. Neither were speaking. Faith was lost in thought and Xander was lost in a book. Eventually, Xander spoke.
"I want you to meditate by yourself tomorrow, Faith," said Xander.
"What," asked Faith, "Why?"
"I'm your mentor and I believe you're ready to go out on your own."
"After one day?"
"It took me three days, but I wasn't a Slayer. Meditation is natural for you. Now, I want you to meditate all by yourself until seven. Then, meet me at the Bronze. After a day of meditation by yourself, you should be more…Oz-like."