The Archer

Xander was sitting in the library, reading his book on psychology. A month had passed by sense Faith had been run over and Cordelia had become a new Slayer. Faith had only been confined for two weeks, and then no one could stop her from patrolling. She had a great love of fighting which, in Xander's opinion, was both a good and bad thing.

Violence was a form of meditation. It provided a sense of either resignation or peace, if fought with the right state of mind. Faith was getting much better, but…her mind had been alternating between periods of calm during meditation, to pure terror at the thought of dying. Xander was becoming fearful. He had to find a way to reaffirm her faith in the group, or else she could end up losing all that she's worked so hard to create.

Xander looked up to see a familiar face enter the library. He nodded to Oz, who nodded back and sat down across from him.

"Book?"

"…Psych."

Oz had a questioning look in his eyes.

"Get to know the human mind. Helps."

"I get."

"Full moon's tomorrow. You need a sitter?"

"No. …could meditation help?"

"Wolf? Sure. If you get lucky, you may even be able to tap into the wolf."

"Like you with hyena?"

"Exactly. I don't know. We'll have to try it sometime."

Xander was about to go back to reading his book when his senses picked up on something. He focused on it and discovered that it was heading for the quad. He stood up and put his book down.

"I'll be right back," said Xander.

Xander walked around the quad until he felt it again. It was close. It seemed like it was…dead. Almost like a vampire, except it still had a soul. Xander walked up to where he thought the essence was and looked at the figure before him: a fellow high school student dressed in kakis and eating a sandwich.

"What are you looking at," asked Jack O'Toole.

"A dead guy," said Xander.

"…What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you should be in a grave, with little worms ripping around inside of you."

"…"

"You're a zombie."

"…How did you know?"

"I can sense things like that. Now, two questions: how did it happen? and are you going to make more?"

"I'm not talking."

"Then let me make this perfectly clear."

Xander locked eyes with Jack and broke every spiritual barrier the poor guy had belt up. His entire mind became open to the whole world that was out there, what the 'big picture' was. Xander had only done this once before, by himself. It was another reason why Xander was studying psychology. To make sure it hadn't turned him insane.

Jack started to gasp as his need for air became deeper with each passing moment that he was within that place. Finally, Xander let it go.

"You see what one event could do?"

"…"

"See you around, Jack."

Xander rolled his shoulders as he surveyed the scene before him. Giles and Cordelia were standing on one side of the cave as the three demons began to circle around. Faith was standing in a corner with a bastard sword. Willow was standing in the rear of the cave, whispering her spell. Finally, she blew out the candle.

The fog was lifted and the Watcher and Slayer reacted quickly. They grabbed the nearest demon and flung it to the wall. The demon quickly tossed Giles away into Willow. Xander let an arrow loose and it struck one of the demons in the heart, ending its existence. Faith quickly stabbed the demon Cordelia was restraining, followed by a swift strike behind that decapitated the demon preparing to assault her.

Xander smiled as he jumped off of the ledge he had been prone in. He walked over to the dead demon and ripped the arrow out of it, cleaned it, then placed it into his quiver. Cordelia walked over to him.

Ever sense she had become the Slayer, she had been dressing much differently. She now wore mainly brown clothing and usually wore some camouflage along with it, just in case of an attack. She had discovered her love of camou from Xander, who had been more than happy to share his fashion secrets with her. Through that, the two had reached a respectable truce.

"Good going," said Xander, "You did real good on cooperation. And nice spell, Wills. You good?"

"Yeah," said his redheaded friend, "The shaking is a side effect of the fear."

"I must admit," said Giles as he stood up, "I knew there was a nest here, but I expected it to be vampires. I never thought it would be these. They're new."

"And improved," said Faith as she sheathed her sword, "They gave us a run without even trying. Hope there ain't more of them."

"Well," said Giles as he gathered up the weapons, "We'd best be off. I need to do some research. Ugh, why don't you three take the rest of the night off?"

"Get out of jail free card," said Xander, "What next, we can't pass go and we can't collect two-hundred dollars?"

Giles actually began to laugh at that one.

"Oh. Dear. God," said the four teenagers, "He laughed at one of his (my) stupid jokes!"

"Well, forgive me if I can, to quote a certain sultry Slayer I know, 'find the fun,'" said Giles, "I mean, can't I have some fun? After all, there is a new Watcher coming here. I'd like to enjoy my time between now and then."

"Alright, buster," said Cordelia, "But you can't clean your glasses for a month!"

"What?"

Xander walked with Faith in the woods later that night. They were holding hands while not speaking, neither felt the need. It was nice to simply enjoy one's presence, even in silence. Faith coughed a little and turned to him.

"X," she said, "Can we talk?"

"Sure," said Xander as he let go of her hand and took a seat on the grass, leaning back on a tree. Faith smiled and sat down beside him, resting in his arms.

"What are we," she asked.

"What do you mean," he asked back.

"You remember how I said that I hadn't seen a tunnel, or a light, or anything when I died. Well, if there's nothing beyond death, then…"

"What's the point? Faith, it's the ageless question. The why. I've spent many a long hour at night, pondering that same question. Were we created from the dust of the earth or from raging atomic particles or from a single celled organism? Were we created by angels, demons, or some other force?

"I can't give you answers, Faith. I can't tell you what to think, or what to believe, or how to feel about this. All I can tell you is that…this right here, right now? This is real. Our friends, our home, our fight. It's all real. Us. It's real, we're real. What we have is real. That is all I need to know."

"…What do we have?"

"…Friendship right now. But, I believe its open to positive change. Do you?"

"…Yeah. I think it is, too."

"The question here is: will it change?"

"Do you want it to change?"

"…I want it to strengthen and to change."

"…I think I want that, too."

"…Will you date me?"

"'Date me?'"

"Yes."

"Yes, Xander Harris. I'll date you. That's got to be the worst pickup line I ever heard?"

"What about 'Can I have you?'"

"Back in the day, that was what a pickup line was."

"Oh. Then, I'll stay with 'Will you date me?'"

"And why, pray tell, would you decide that?"

"Because, Faith, you are too special just to be had. You need to be loved."

"…You're just corny."

"Corny as a hound dog!"

"…What the Hell?"

"…That wasn't my best comeback."

Xander sat quietly upon the desk in the library the next day as he awaited the end. When Buffy had come calling about the Apocalypse, the two were out the door long before Buffy could even get a breath out.

Faith was sitting beside him, leaning against him as Willow and Giles prepared the binding spell. If they were lucky, then the Wicca could seal the Hellmouth off to the demons before they could even open it. However, when were they ever lucky?

Buffy and Cordelia just sharpened their weapons in pre-battle eagerness. Angel just stayed close to Buffy.

Giles, Angel, Buffy, Xander, Faith, Cordelia, and Willow stood before the titan as it stretched out, presumably for the first time since the Master was released.

"My God," said Giles, "It's grown."

Xander leaped onto the second level as more demons came his way. Faith, who was already there fighting off some of them, knocked one down and quickly came to his side.

"We're not doing good," she yelled.

"Yeah," said Xander, "Makes my worse fourths want this night to never end."

Xander sent an arrow flying into the creature's head, hoping that the fire would stay lit this time. He added as much fire with the crystal as he safely could, but it had no effect on the beast. Xander groaned as he sent another arrow into the heart of a demon approaching Angel with a stake. The vampire saw this and nodded his thanks to Xander.

Xander smiled slightly as he returned to the battle at-hand.

Xander focused all his energy on his ice crystal, hoping for his plan to succeed. Slowly, the demons and the creature itself became frozen as a thick layer of ice overcame them.

"Giles," he said, "Finish it."

The bleeding man nodded and quickly finished the binding spell. Suddenly, the creature broke through its icy bonds and shrieked in pain. Then, it crept back down into its hole. The group silently prayed that it would never be seen again.