Arriving outside of Starter Town everyone looked around and were astonished about the whole place looking like they were on another planet or at least in another country. Buffy turned towards Xander with the intention of pinning him down and letting him spill all information. But the look she saw directed at the horizon told her that something saw seriously wrong. She tried to see what was coming but couldn't
She stepped closer to Xander and talked in quiet but for others to hear clear tones. Xander never taking his eyes off of the horizon began to explain.
"Xan, talk to me. What is going on?"
"This is Aincrad. A world that arrived over this town a few days ago. I am connected to this place through my mind. It did send a message to me that a horde of monsters began to run rampant in this part of the Starter Area. The Starter Town behind us is a saveplace. If you are hurt run into town and wait until you have healed up a bit.
Up here am I called White-Knight. You are all my guest. That gives you a few extra abilities to use. All Abilities that you should be able to use instinctively according to your stats that Aincrad read off of you. One of those abilities are accelerated healing. But only in a town and only if we are in a battle. This is a battle-field.
The Monsters we face are varied. The can be simple boars to bears and dragons. I can't see them well enough. But they are fast on their feet and they will be here within the next 2 minutes. I thought about them running up against the Shield surrounding the town and then take potshots at them from the Townwall. But Aincrad told me that the shield would not withstand such an onslaught. So we just have to fight as good as we can.
So please do your best and if your hurt run into town and hide there. I will make the first attack so you can see what is possible up here. Here they come."
Out of some wood, right as rain, came a huge horde of monsters. Willow and some of the others began at first to back up. But when they saw Xander fly out of his stand with a yell and his two swords out to play already cutting a big slash into the horde did they begin to stand tall as well. Buffy not wanting to be outdone came along for the ride and with the help of the Aincrad-Battle-System and her own Slayer-Powers did she very quickly get the hang of it.
You could soon see monster parts flying left and right with both Buffy and Xander being the only two really fighting. The monsters gave way a bit. Enough for Buffy to jump back and talk with the others. Giles asked first.
"Buffy what do we do?"
"This is easy guys. You just have to rely on what you usually do down when we fight against a big bad. This Aincrad has a wicked thing that helps you fight. Xander and I will take on the majority. You just help out where you can. You will get the hang of this easily. Come on!"
With that did she jump back into the fray with more monsters coming out to play and being squashed by the two dervishes. Willow out of some weird reason did the first try and let a fire spell fly. What surprised her the most was the fighting system talking to her in a second accelerated to a few minutes.
"Greetings Willow Rosenberg. I am the Aincrad-Battle-System. You are a Witch and on earth bound by the three folded rule."
"Greetings Aincrad what is the three folded rule?"
"Everything you do with magic will come back to you via karma three fold. That is not personal definition. But global definition. So if a spell you do is considered bad by the majority of Witches around the world then you will get bad Karma. That Rule is also to be acknowledged up here. But this is a battle. So use all attack spells you have. If you look up in your right corner of your view you will see a red and a blue line. Red is your life. Blue is your magic. You need time to reload your magic. So if you are low run back through the Towngates behind you. Now go and fight. There is a good enemy to your front left."
Willow came out of her introspection and rightly saw the monster outlined by a red circle. Willow suspected that the enemy was on her sights. Which was replied positively by Aincrad. So Willow wanted to begin the incantation for the fire spell. But without speaking out loud she held a ball of fire in her right hand and looked at it a bit dumbly. But then with a smile she threw it towards the monster who promptly burst into flames and popped.
Willow jumped up and down with her first kill and looked over to the others who began to smile and fight themselves.
When the others began their fight did the battle not really go very long. They rounded up the whole horde quickly and then began to cheer. Xander stood there with his swords out smiling at the byplay by the others. He let his swords vanish and then called out to them: "Come on people. Let's go into town and get something to drink."
Buffy being giddy and pumped up by the fight came bounding over and hugged him to herself with everything she could: "That was so much fun Xander. I haven't really had a battle where I could go full out. Thanks a lot. But you still can't get out of explaining all of this."
When she did come out of her post battle giddyness did she realise what she had done and then jumped back and began to stammer out something or other. Xander only smiled, nodded and then took them into the Main-Tavern. The towns NPC's were suddenly all there and making the place a bit more lively. Xander sat them all down in a separate little room and began to explain everything about the place.
When he was finished did all of them look quite astonished. Giles was as usual the first to find his mouth working. The others following suit. But in the cacophony of sound did Xander have a hard time hearing anything. So letting out an ear piercing whistle did everyone shut up. Xander pointed to Giles first and he began.
"Xander, this is truly remarkable. I almost can't believe what is possible up here. I really would like to explore this whole thing. But as I understand is it on the higher levels a tad more dangerous the higher you go. So just asking. How high have you been until now?"
"About level three. But only after I needed some time to really go all out. The Aincrad-System pulled me back as soon as I was tiring out."
"I understand that it was this Aincrad-System that put you up there in the first place?"
"Correct Giles. It sensed that I was pissed of and send me somewhere where I could fight of my anger. It also looks at my stats and takes appropriate action when something goes wrong. The System is set up so if any registered player is close to death on a level, then the player get returned to the town or house he has registered as home. You do loose some of your things as a punishment. I activated a setting where I will be pulled out of a fight before I loose things if my mind is not on the battle."
"Which can easily happen when you go forth in anger. Impressive."
Cordy couldn't help herself she just had to interrupt. But the death glare she got form all the others was enough for her pause and change her speech after a few seconds of thinking.
"Listen here Doofus. Is there a way for me to use this place here? I see a lot of houses free and I believe that you can help me get a house and don't give me that bs about me having to battle my way to money so I can get a house … What? … Oh, yeah, I get it. ... Sorry force of habit.
Please Xander, I almost have nothing to my name anymore. The stupid IRS took anything I had. You know that. Please help me I need a place to stay where I can feel safe from what ever is in Sunnydale. Dear old Dad is in prison. Mom is gone with her fitness instructor and the Sheep in Sunnyhell High are not rally my friends anymore. I know that now. Could you help me please?"
Xander sat back and thought it over for a time. Buffy, Willow, Oz and the others didn't really hide their own curiosity about that. So Xander really didn't have to guess what they were thinking about. After a few minutes of back and forth did Xander really begin to show signs of life and decision.
"Okay, this was not an easy choice. But I will not tell you what you need to choose between or what you can choose from. But I will send you all an invitation. But please wait until you are home again in somewhat save conditions. Because you need to really think about this. You can pause the first time setup whenever you want by just whispering or even thinking 'Pause Setup'. You will have to figure everything out yourself."
Buffy began to get really giddy. But she kept it as quiet as she could. Giles was not an easy man to read. He didn't really now what to think. Sure the fight had been fun. But this first time setup was something else entirely. But he understood Xanders point of not really saying anything. After a few minutes of no one really saying anything the decided to break up the party and go their separate ways.
Xander stayed back and went into his house. It didn't really surprise him that he after about an hour of him getting home having a call on his system that two people wanted to visit him in his house. Luckily for him did he have a few extra bedrooms. He had enough money to upgrade the house a bit. That was why I was still awake. He accepted the call and heard his front door open up. What he also heard was both Buffy and Cordy arguing.
"What do you want up here Cordy?"
"I could ask you the same question Buffy. I am here to sleep in a house where I think that I can get to relax. What do you want up here?"
"I want the same. Mom is still in LA with Dawn and you didn't have a Vampire in your house."
By that time did they see Xander standing there with a smile on his arms over cross. Buffy continued while looking apologetic.
"I know it was my own fault. I am sorry Xander. But I really just need it for a while. Besides did I not choose to live up here. I still need to tell mom about all this."
Cordy smiled: "Well I for one am staying up here. I mean all the things I can do up here is simply fantastic. But I also still have school. So I really don't know what to do. I would just really sleep somewhere there is not a constant threat of someone coming in through the window every night."
By then had Xander showed them through the house and into two of the four guest rooms. Buffy and Cordy didn't really dare say much. Because they were for one really apologetic about what they did. In Cordys mind at least until she got her own place. Then she could try and build up something here that would make her feel better. Buffy wasn't really sure what she felt. On the one side did she really hate being alone and with her Mother and Dawn not there. Well she just wanted to sleep in a house with other people. She could go alone for a while. But this whole experience had hit her profoundly and she needed something that showed her that someone still cared. Even if it was only for a night or two.
It knocked timidly on the door. Xander not being in bed yet went down awakening the curiosity of two others. Making them come down with him. Willow stood outside with Oz who was looking like normal if you didn't know where to look. Willow stood there with her head hanging and asked in an almost not to hear voice. But the harsh answer coming from Xander was almost too much for her."
"Hello Xan. Could I sleep here? I really don't like it in Sunnydale when something is running around being able to kill me whenever he wants. Oz is really sorry as well."
"No he is not Willow. I can see that he doesn't outright hate me. But he is not sorry for what happened. He is the only one in this whole ordeal that hasn't said anything to me. I believe him when he thinks that he can be around me for long enough without wanting to hit me. But in this house is my will law and I have put up a barrier against all forms of hatred towards me. So if he tries anything then he will spend the night in a Jailcell in Starter-Town. I am sorry Oz but I can see it in your eyes."
Oz didn't react at first. But he then nodded once shortly without really showing any emotions. Xander pointed up at two rooms.
"The Rooms up there are free. You're welcome to stay here for the night. Tomorrow you either need to find another place to stay or you need to make your own house up here. Oz you know as well as I that there always are two to what we did. On top of that were we almost killed by spike. But you all seemed to forget that. I was the convenient Guilty Party for everything that went wrong. But no more. I will help you tonight. But tomorrow you three really need to find something else. I believed that I could be civil with you. But I still have too much hatred in side of me for you all. Tonight we have a truce. But tomorrow you need to think hard about something or come up with an excuse I can believe. I already said I was sorry for ever happened. But if you can't forget then this was it with our friendship.
Goodnight everybody."
Xander vanished up the stairs with that and locked his room with a highclass spell. Downstairs did they all only now understand that he was still pissed at them. He was ready to help them along. But as long as something like that would hang between them did the really not have a good foot to stand on. They all went to bed without really speaking to each other.
They all woke up to someone cooking something. It was Xander who was in the Kitchen cooking. Apparently Giles needed longer for his choices. He was not here. Xander saw them come down and plated up the food he had prepared. Without any fanfare did he just put the food out and then plate himself up and sit down to eat. The others followed suit and never spoke to each other. Cordy also saw that she had screwed up badly. So she needed to do something. But right now was not the place to do this. Oz was looking down at his food. It was good. But it wasn't something he could just eat.
During the night had he finally had time to think about what had happened. Of course all that had happened was also a point in Xanders favor. So he now only had find a way to apologize. Xander ate his fill and went out for training. Since it was Saturday did they have one class. But he was back before they needed to go.
The Day went awkward. Oz tried to figure out how to say something like that to Xander. Giles was working on de-invitation spells you could use around the hellmouth. He did find one and quickly with Miss Calendars help did the spells for all the houses and apartments. They could move back home that evening. Xander knew he had maybe botched it with his friends for now.
But he was still so pissed at them. You can't just go cold turkey about something like that. It did take them a good two weeks where all the rest of the scoobys were on tenter hooks from this whole thing. Then came the formal invite to the tavern in a nearby town. Xander had seen them grind for a few days. He knew that out in the boons of this floor could you get a bigger house for almost nothing. So he believed that they made a purchase together.
Arriving at the Tavern he found them located in a separate room. He found a chair near the door and listened to Giles who they had choosen as their first spokesperson: "Hello Xander. We are all really very sorry. We know that we have almost botched it up with you. But we really believe that we have been better than we were. I from my side must say that I am deeply sorry and I hope that you can forgive me over time."
Buffy came next: "Hey Xan. I really am sorry you know. I really am trying. I just don't want to loose you in some stupid fight that you shouldn't need to worry about. I believed that I could save you from all this stupidity. But I know now also through talks with Giles that I can't really order you around. Just don't leave me hanging here.
Willow couldn't say anything. She had brought cookies. Xander picked one out and ate it slowly. Cordy just sat there and wanted to bury herself in a hole. She pulled herself together and said: "Xan I know I maybe the last one you want by your side. But this really is so good up here. Could you feel it in your heart to forgive a stupid moron like me?"
Oz was the last one. He fought with himself for a second and then sat up straight and with two short words said all that mattered to him. While pointing at Xander and then at himself: "Sorry, Stupid."
Xander sat back and thought it all over with surprise written all over his face. He quickly got it under control though. He then began himself: "Guys I thank you for your honest words. I understand all of you. I also must apologize. I really have messed it up a few times. But I just couldn't understand some of your thinking. But I believe that some of that was the spell. So here under the last stars from Aincrads last world.
I also must apologize for what I did. But for now I believe that we are on the right way."
Everybody feeling much lighter was a positive thing for them. The gods that now watched over them were for now happy with what had happened. They talked a bit about this and that what the others had choosen.
But for now I believe that you have the best chance of dreaming that up for now dear Reader. I will continue with this story in another chapter.
