The short vacation had been good for the entire crew of the Capricorn One, the survivor groups becoming accustomed to different worlds with people, and the others who'd had to deal with Kromaggs and other beasties grateful for less-threatening situations. Even a little vampire hunting and a memory-retrieval spell didn't seem taxing, and the highlight seemed to be the date between Alexander and Tara.
The men-folk had decided to counter the machinations of the female conspiratorial side of things by making sure their representative would not be found wanting. They rented a car, found a tailor and tipped him heavily to finish the work today and on time for the dress clothes they'd made him purchase, including two suits, and in this they decided an upgrade to Armani was in order – why not, it was Alexander's money they were spending, not their own. And when his back was turned they put in an order to be completed for a wardrobe by the time of the next slide.
Alexander arrived back at the Summers house to find Joyce and Joyce in happy conversation as the Buffy and Willow equivalents paired with themselves in getting a nervous Tara ready under the enthusiastic direction of Dawn.
He handed Tara a large bouquet of mixed flowers of many different types, admitting he had no honest idea of which might be her favorite so he went with one he liked and hoped she might also.
"Th-thank you," she blushed, holding them up, and smelling them, conscious of the conspicuously inconspicuous gathering around them, "I-I like them, they're like a meadow."
Dawn offered to take them for her, and the dark-haired girl made a slight leaning-toward-Xander head motion at Tara, who blushed, and gave her date a quick kiss on the cheek.
"I'm glad you like them, Tare," the well-dressed muscled man smiled at her, offering an arm, "Shall we go somewhere public so we can be more alone?"
She laughed, the remark as unexpected as it felt true as a chuckle caused their audience to faux-ignore them and shuffle away, "Okay, let's."
It was a nice evening, and they had a chance to just talk and enjoy each other's company, including the fact that neither wanted to discuss their previous family life situations. They found out likes and dislikes of music, both before and after the Resets, foods they liked that they didn't before, and other little things neither had had much time to consider until now. Xander realized he was quite happy at the moment, just relaxing and not really considering the pressures of getting home.
The next morning saw activity pick up a bit more, the group as a whole throwing themselves into research, relaxation or both.
The 'local' Xander met up with Alexander after school and had the soldier memories restored. It took a bit out of the new soldier, but Buffy had been glad to go on a donut run while he rested. By the third round of sugary fatty goodness the calories were happily reviving energy levels.
"So what now?" Buffy asked.
"Now, you start training with him in guns, small unit tactics, and other soldiery things that'll keep the both of you alive, Buffy," Alexander told her, "And maybe pass on the skills as much as possible to anyone in your group."
"I figured that out, I meant what do we all wanna do now?"
"Ah, maybe a light sparring for the two of you, homework, and maybe we'll meet at the Bronze later on?" Alexander replied, nodded to Giles and left.
The girl grabs him by the neck, pushes him away a bit and elbow jabs him in the face. He staggers back and regains his balance as she jumps onto a crate. She does a jumping roundhouse kick to his face, knocking him to the pavement. Buffy arrives, the others close behind. The girl notices her and approaches, smiling.
"It's okay, I got it. You're, uh, Buffy, right?"
Buffy is taken aback. Just as she's about to answer, the vampire comes
up behind the girl and grabs her by the shoulders. She snaps her head
back to head butt him in the face and grabs onto his arm. A loud report of a large-caliber handgun stuns all within the alley, and as the head explosively turns to dust, Alexander turns to them.
"She's Faith, from Boston, a vampire slayer," the muscled young man deadpans, "In our dimension, she was quickly becoming a good friend of ours, so in spite of her apparent Slayer-Boost of super-cockiness to the point of obsession, she's a decent person underneath so be sure to become close friends of hers; no one in this…trade…should be alone if it can be helped."
As the others remained passive and quiet from overall shock, Alexander holstered his weapon and headed into the Bronze for one of those big fried onion things they started serving.
"Does he do that all the time?" Faith asked the group.
"Nah," Dawn replied, "He's just hungry and didn't feeling like waiting for everybody to hem and haw about introductions. Welcome to Sunnydale, Faith, don't mind Buffy, sometimes she gets the "I'm the Slayer" bug up her butt, but we ignore it, so don't bother to try it with us. Just be Faith, who happens to be a vampire slayer, and everybody'll be your friend soon enough. Come on, I'm hungry, too, and you know how slayers get…"
"Hungry and horny?" Faith replied, then looked at the Slider Gals, "Hey, it's kinda low-power, ya know? But you all Slayers?"
"Long story best told when Alexander's buying lots of food and sodas," Slider-Willow responded, "But the three of us here are, but we're not from this dimension. Oh, and about the HH? Alexander's ours, Oz is Willow there's, Xander is Buffy's, so anybody else is pretty much up for grabs."
"'s good to know what's the what, ya know?" Faith nodded, "We're cool."
Kakistos and Trick had spent a lot of the old vampire's lucre on hiring the local vampires and a few fyarls as back up; Trick's research showed that a big hunter group had arrived in town and seemed to have hooked up with the Slayer. So now in addition to four demons, they had forty vampires stationed all the way from the Bostonian's motel back to Kakistos' warehouse lair.
Buffy and Faith continued running for their lives, managing to dust two or three overanxious minions before reaching the seeming safety of the building. Buffy had called Giles on the new cell phones the Sliders had insisted upon, and the Gang knew the sitch. And in the distance she heard cracking and deep-thumping noises and hoped it was a good sign and not more hellmouthy trouble.
Maggie Beckett, Logan St. Clair, Beth (alt-Buffy), Pike and Ash smirked as they'd come across the flank of vampires and let a lot of their pent up issues out on the undead, Logan volunteering just to feel free for a moment. Two grenades and a dozen shot-gun shells took down eight, while Beth then lunged in to finish four and the others three amongst themselves.
Looking up in the distance, they could see a group of undead head into a building, but posting a watch in case the Sliders attacked.
"Well, that was fun, much better than Deadites," the former Promised One mused aloud, "But let's get to the main deal, huh?"
Alexander and the fiancées had armed up for an expected easy raid, when the cell call had redirected their efforts. Luckily, they were in the area, called for backup, and chased down a measly six vampires before catching up with Beckett's team.
"How do you want to handle this Commander?" the Major asked, "I'm thinking we head around back and you let us know when to kick in the back door, draw them away so you hit the front hard."
"Okay, Major," he agreed, time being of the essence, "And right now I think Faith and Buffy are the only non-hostiles in the place, we're target-rich."
Meanwhile the local Xander and Scoobs had managed to miss running into any vampires at all, coming from the opposite direction. Pulling up in Alexander's rental car, Xander waited until the others were out and ready, then he speed-dialed his Mega self.
"Hey, that you down the street?" he asked, gunning the engine, but leaving the lights off. Receiving an affirmative, "I'm gonna soften up those four tough-looking guys up front, hurry up now." And he slammed on the accelerator and raced the car toward the door.
The four fyarls didn't care much for being around each other, but the pay was too good to mess it up by attacking each other. They'd heard the gunfire and shrugged it off as no further attack occurred, but they were curious as to what was so important someone was recklessly driving toward the building. Only at the last minute did they realize the vehicle wasn't stopping.
CRUNCHKA-Whack and simultaneous screams and thumps into the doorway were the immediate result, an airbag going off and quickly inflating on the driver's side as many humans arrived and rushed into the building.
Kakistos chortled as his minions engaged the Slayers, darting in and out to land hits, wearing the two girls down as they fought for their lives. The old vampire shouted deprecations on the dark-haired slayer, taunting her with the death of her Watcher, and how this other slayer will be tortured and killed before her own drawn out death.
The gunfire from the back of the warehouse caused Trick and another vampire to look at each other, the situation, and a side exit, the screams of hired minions breaking the 'mood' of the evening.
The two girls had dusted five already, and Kakistos lunged in as not to be denied his vengeance again. Kicking and punching the slayers, the older vampire ordered the minions to deal with the troublemakers, not realizing that he'd sent them to final deaths.
Major Beckett's team after dusting six at the back door, had hesitated on entering the room, but the vampires cam at them and away from the slayers, "Knee-cap 'em with shot!" she shouted, and four shotguns poured destruction without fear of humans being caught in the fire. Six of the eight went down, Beth jumping up and over to kick-down two remaining chargers.
Across the way at the main door, the remaining minions were shocked as two fyarl demons were propelled through the doorway and into their midst, knocking down for of them. Three teens and a Watcher poured through the door, firing burning crossbow bolts into their midst then ducking to the sides. One of the largest humans many had seen came next through the door, one that bristled with muscle as his shotgun pointed low and fired continuously as he sought to neutralize and assess, three young women in swat armor following in with MP5s.
"We need to end this before even the local cops have to show up!" Alexander shouted as they attacked and overcame the stunned defenders.
"I don't think that's going to be a problem!" his Willow called back as the side battles ceased and they watched Faith stab Kakistos through with a broken beam, dusting him. Alexander looked to Giles, and nodded at the dark-haired slayer. The Watcher moved in to help his new charge cope.
"Okay, everyone," Beckett said, "Grab up what we should, then let's get out of here. Now!"
Alexander watched as Xander and Buffy approached, and smirked at his local self, "I guess we'll have to add the automobile to our weapons list from now on."
"Yeah, uh, about that," Xander responded, only to be interrupted again.
"Don't worry about it, I'll leave money to take care of it," Alexander smiled, shaking his head, "Least I'm leaving you to take care of the paperwork."