See Part I for disclaimer and details. Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed and emailed. I appreciate it all, and for those reviewers I can't email back to say thanks, I'm saying it here. And I truly hope I won't let your faith in me down. And now, on with the story...

Part IV: Bronzin' It

The Bronze, Sunnydale. Later that night

Xander stepped through the doors into the nightclub after paying the admission price, and was promptly shocked as he recognized the place from his dream that morning. ( Uh-oh. This don't look good... )

After the...interesting meeting with Whistler, he and Buffy had split up to find Giles. Xander had tried the school, while the Slayer had tried the Watcher's apartment, but Rupert had not been present in either place. The siblings had agreed to meet up later and, if there was time, check out the Bronze.

And so Xander had shown up at the club, hoping to find Buffy there. It never once occurred to him that someone as old as Giles might be present as well.

The young man looked around, scoping things out. He saw groups of teens clustered together; some his own age, some older or younger, chatting and laughing. Horsing around, or not. With or without dates.

Larry, Devon and Oz. Tucker, Andrew and Jonathan. Percy, Hogan and John Lee.

Xander suddenly felt a cold shiver run down his spine. This place had inadvertently brought back memories of LA and Hemery High, of the times he had spent fooling around with his three closest buddies before he'd learned all about the things that went bump in the night. After Merrick had finally found his Slayer in the City of Angels.

His best friends. Tyler, Grueller and Andy.

All three of them were dead now, killed by the vampires Lothos and Amilyn.

Xander shook his head, clearing away the bad memories. He looked around and finally spotted the brunette girl he was looking for, thanks to his prophetic Slayer dream. ( What am I supposed to do about you? I can't just say, 'beware of vampires, and don't dance with any of them'! )

Still – looking at Cordelia Chase talking to her friends in the club, and obviously acting as the queen bee of the group, Xander couldn't also help thinking that this was exactly the type of girl that he might have pursued six months ago. She certainly had a face and body dazzling enough to drool over.

But dating Cordelia almost certainly wasn't an option now. Not under these circumstances. The male teen still had nightmares about what had happened to one of Buffy's friends called Nicole, who had been more than slightly interested in him back in Los Angeles.

As Xander watched, Jesse approached Ms. Chase and her entourage. Cordelia didn't appear to notice as she said to her friends, "My mom doesn't even GET out of bed anymore. And the doctor says it's Epstein-Barr. I'm like, pleeease! It's chronic hepatitis, or at least chronic fatigue syndrome. I mean, NOBODY cool has Epstein-Barr anymore!"

( Then again, maybe I don't have to worry about being attracted to her after all. She suddenly reminds me way too much of pre-Slayer Buffy! ) Xander frowned.

"Hey, Cordelia!" McNally tried to look suave and debonair, but only succeeded in appearing dorky and vulnerable as he launched his first opening line.

The Chase girl instantly made a face. "Oh, yay, it's my stalker!"

The boy tried to butter her up a bit. "Hey, you, uh, you look great!"

Cordelia just looked at Jesse like he was a bug, one that the beauty queen wanted to stomp underneath her shoe. "Well, I'm glad we had this little chat."

Her suitor suddenly appeared nervous and pretty much just coughed out, "Listen, uh, you know, you wanna dance, you know?"

Cordy shared a look of disbelief with her Cordettes. "With you?"

"Well, uh, yeah."

"Well, uh, no!" Cordelia said savagely, as the sheep smirked.

"Then could I have the honor of the next dance?"

All the girls and Jesse turned around to see who was the owner of that voice. And several of the females present felt their eyes go wide at the new arrival's muscular physique, as Cordelia seemed to size up the new boy and said casually, "Xander Summers, isn't it?"

"That it is, Cordelia Chase."

Cordy looked carefully noncommittal as she considered Xander's reply. ( He knows who I am? Oh, come on, of course he does! ) "Well, let's see. Dance with you? Hmmm, I'll have to think about it..."

( A bit full of yourself, aren't you? And to think, I'm not even getting paid to do this! ) An annoyed Xander came a bit closer, "What's there to think about? Answer's either yes or no. Or are you hinting that you can't dance?"

Cordy felt her hazel eyes go wide with shock, as many of the Cordettes almost whined in dismay. "What? Of all the NERVE! Oh, you better believe that I can dance, mister-"

"So prove it."

The cool in-crowd began to whisper feverishly amongst themselves as Xander and Cordelia faced off, and Jesse said, "Hey, pal, why don't you just-"

But Xander just kept his brown eyes locked onto Cordy's and said simply, "One dance, just to satisfy my curiosity. Think of it as a 'Welcome to Sunnydale' present."

"Sorry. But I think you're mistaking me for someone in the charity business," Cordelia replied, her voice now ice-cold.

"And I think you're just afraid to dance with me," Xander said with a hint of scorn.

Well, of course that was a clear challenge that simply couldn't be ignored in the cutthroat world of American teenagers. So Cordy said scathingly, "Fine! I'll show you. One dance it is!"

Jesse just watched in disbelief as his beloved led his new rival out onto the dance floor. "How...how did he just do that?"

None of the Cordettes even bothered to reply, their eyes glued to the mismatched couple walking away from them.

The band playing at the club that night, who were in fact called "Sprung Monkey", suddenly switched to a slow romantic ballad; just as the two brunettes got onto the crowded dance floor. Thus, Xander held his arms out with a slight smile. Grimacing, Cordelia moved into his embrace and they started to dance.

Although, to the girl's surprise, this guy seemed to be a better dancer than she'd anticipated.

"I have to admit it. You're not half-bad," Ms. Chase finally remarked, a few moments later.

"Neither are you," Xander replied, mellowing a little from his previous attitude. "But you shoulda seen me two years ago. I was a complete spaz with two left feet! Thing is my Aunt Arleen saw me dancing once, and she got so embarrassed by what I was doing she decided to pay for dance lessons..."

The music was soft and almost hypnotic, and Cordelia finally relaxed into her dance partner's arms. "So. You're from LA, right?" she asked meaningfully.

"Born and bred."

"Oh, you're so lucky! I'd kill to be so close to that many shoes!" The girl suddenly turned to look into Xander's face. "So tell me – did you really burn down your old high school gym? It's been all the gossip around campus today!"

The youth grimaced. "Wonderful. And in my defense my sister was in trouble then and I had to...help her out that night."

"You guys are real close, huh?" Cordelia felt a brief pang from the fact that she was a neglected only child.

"Well, yeah. But you wanna hear something funny? Up until a year ago, twin thing or not, Buffy and I had hated each other's guts for ages," Xander replied, with a funny look on his face. "I mean, she was like a complete airhead until she-" The boy then instantly shut up, cursing himself for almost mentioning the Slayer stuff. ( What the hell's the matter with me? Get a grip, asshole – and no, not of her ass! )

"Until she what?" Cordelia asked curiously.

"Nothing, doesn't matter," Xander quickly changed the subject, "So, you got any brothers or sisters?"

"No. And since we're having this touching reconciliation moment?" Cordelia instinctively put on her haughty mask, "Some free advice for you. You wanna fit in here, the first rule is: know your losers. Once you can identify them all by sight, they're a lot easier to avoid," she said with a quick glance around.

"Appearances, they're very important to you. Aren't they, Cordelia?"

The female teen looked at Xander in sudden apprehension. "What did you just say to me?"

"No offense, but from what I've seen so far I'm pretty sure it's true. And lemme guess – your friends over there watching us dance, you're not even sure if the minions really like you for you, huh? But you still hang out with them, 'cause it beats being alone by yourself."

"Minions?" Cordelia said dangerously, even as she battened down the hatches on her emotions from Xander's uncannily accurate insights into her life.

The Hemery High School outcast again silently cursed his phrasing, and letting the jargon from the Slayage part of his life slip out. "Sorry, obviously a bad choice of words. So, what should I call them – flunkies? Worshippers? Groupies? None of the above?" Xander suddenly smirked at his companion, trying to play it off like he was hitting on her.

It apparently worked, as Cordelia instantly scowled at him. "You know what? I'm really starting to not like you!"

Xander suddenly pulled her close as a distraction, and he could feel her suddenly-racing heartbeat as Cordy's magnificent chest crushed against his. Then the boy whispered to her, "Ditto!"

Cordelia's breath hitched in her throat as her hormones surged, ( Oh yeah, I can tell that this guy definitely works out! ) Then she gaped in surprise as the song ended, and Xander instantly let her go. "What-? What are you doing?"

The son of Hank and Joyce Summers looked at her in surprise. As the band started playing a louder and faster song he pulled her out of the way of the crowd and said, "Just one dance. That was the deal, right?" Suddenly Xander saw Giles up on the upper level and hurriedly added, "Listen, Cor, thanks for the dance. But, uh, I gotta go talk to someone! 'Scuse me, I'll see you at school tomorrow. And thanks again..."

Cordelia looked justifiably horrified at the prospect of a guy, and especially this one, just blowing her off like this. As Harmony and the others came up to the dark-haired girl she seethed, "You, you, you – JERK!"

"Did that guy just ditch you?" one of the more thoughtless girls asked the leader of the pack, instantly regretting it when the full force of Cordelia's ire became focused on her.

"Kate, can you say the words 'downward mobility'? Because NO ONE does that to me! No one. Period. Understand?"

All of the followers nodded and Queen C took a deep breath, "Fine. Well, just so you all know, I'd say that I've conclusively proved to that loser that I can dance! And now, we can all move on. So, what were we talking about before that idiot Jesse showed up?"

"Your mother," the Cordette named Lisa piped up.

"Right! Well, as I was saying, my mom supposedly has Epstein-Barr..."

Elsewhere in the Bronze. A few minutes earlier

Jesse McNally couldn't believe it as he saw Cordelia consorting with the...the ASSHOLE who'd butted in, just when he was asking his one true love to dance with him.

And while most of the Cordettes figured that their supposed idol was seriously contemplating getting her hooks into the new boy in town, Jesse just felt his heart getting squeezed tighter and tighter at all the liberties Xander was being casually granted – that he never was.

Finally, the young man saw his evil enemy pull Cordelia in so close that their lips were practically touching before the bastard whispered something in her ear. He simply couldn't take it anymore, ( Oh Lord, I think I'm gonna hurl! Where's Willow? I need my best friend... )

Buffy had arrived at the club by then and the redhead greeted her, "Oh, hi!"

"Hey," the Chosen One greeted back as she settled down onto the other stool. "Oh, is this seat taken?" Buffy asked.

"No, I'm here by myself. But I'm sure Jesse will pop by soon after he strikes out with Cordelia again," Willow rolled her eyes.

Buffy looked at her companion. "Okay, I gotta say it. Meow!"

Willow looked astonished, then pleased. "Really? Thanks! No one's ever said that to me before."

Buffy settled in for some girl talk, having made friends with the cute nerd during lunchtime at school today. "So, spill. You and Jesse used to date?"

"Yeah, but we're just friends now. See, we used to go out, but then we broke up," Willow replied dreamily.

"What happened?" Buffy asked.

"He stole my Barbie." Off the Slayer's look of confusion, the Rosenberg girl explained, "Oh, we were five at the time."

Just then, Jesse joined them; completely ignoring Buffy's presence as he started off by saying, "Will, I need your advice. Where can I get my hands on some quick-acting poison, preferably of the lethal variety?"

Willow looked shocked and startled, "What?"

Jesse then said quickly, "No, no, don't worry, it's not for me. It's for the dude who's been putting his filthy hands all over my Cordelia tonight! I mean, who the hell does that guy think he is? Just showing up in town outta nowhere, and then straightaway horning in on my territory?"

Having seen Xander and Cordelia dancing, Buffy was almost laughing on the inside. The situation had reminded her of an episode of 'Friends' a bit too much for the Slayer to take Jesse's words seriously.

( Myself, I figure you've got nothing to worry about. A, because Xander's been burned once too often in that department before. B, because I'm sure my big brother doesn't think that he suddenly owns Cordelia. And C, because somebody here sure is acting like the jealous boyfriend! )

"Are we talking about my brother, Xander?" the Slayer then asked with a straight face.

"Yeah, that Alexander Summers dude-" Jesse started to say in reply to Buffy's query, before his brain finally caught up to his mouth. The dark-haired boy suddenly looked like a deer caught in headlights as he stared at the blonde girl. "Uh, uh, I mean..."

Willow decided to step in and save her crush from putting his foot even further into his mouth. "Hey, did you know that "Alexander" means "defender of mankind" in Greek?"

"Unfortunately, yeah," Buffy grimaced. "See, back during eight grade, Xander sorta went through this whole "Alexander the Great" phase? Ugh, major embarrassment! Fortunately, the whole namesake dealie didn't last long."

"I'm kinda surprised that your first name doesn't begin with an A as well, actually. I mean, don't parents with twins usually do that kind of thing?" Willow wanted to know.

Buffy shrugged. "I dunno. Well, when we were born, I WAS gonna be named Anne Summers. But then that ended up my second name, for some reason that I've never really understood..."

Jesse was looking back and forth between the girls, somewhat stunned over how his words and presence had been so easily dismissed. "Um, excuse me? We were talking about my personal pain here!"

"Oh, I think you can relax," Buffy gestured towards Cordelia and her flock. "Looks like Xander didn't have any more luck with the Ice Queen than you did."

Jesse turned around and automatically said, "Oh, thank God-" before his mind registered the insult to the woman he wanted to marry one day. "Hey!"

Just then Buffy spotted Xander and Giles upstairs. She quickly got up and made her excuses, before heading out to join them.

Willow just glared at Jesse. The boy looked clueless as he asked, "What did I do?"

"Well, let's see. You threatened to kill someone, plus y-you were kinda rude and interrupted our conversation. And I think you just insulted the first real friend I've made in about ten years," Willow said, showing a bit of backbone for once.

The McNally boy cringed in dismay and instantly went into grovel mode.

The upper level of the Bronze. The same time

Xander and Giles were talking. "So then, this Whistler doofus says he's here to warn us that we're standing on the mouth of Hell, and like it's gonna open up any second!"

Giles frowned, "Hmmm. Did he say anything else?"

"Yeah, he mentioned a crazy vamp that's apparently been looking for me since the 1800's, and also some kinda sitch called 'the Harvest'," Xander finished up.

"The Harvest?" Giles echoed in confusion, putting aside the other issue for now.

"Sounded like a majorly huge deal, anyway. That mean anything to you?" the seer asked.

"It's not really a common term in demonology, no..." Then the Watcher turned to face his young companion, "I did some telephoning today, by the way, and spoke to some people in London. Apparently, you've become quite the celebrity over there over the past year or so."

"Yeah, I know. Merrick mentioned that once before he...you know," Xander stared at the floor as the memory surfaced in his mind. The memory of that horrible gunshot echoing in the night, after he'd dragged a hypnotized Buffy away from Lothos.

"Yes, quite," Giles looked more than a little uncomfortable himself as Xander looked up again. "Anyway, a chap I know by the name of Robson said there's currently two opposite schools of thought over there. On whether or not you'll keep the Slayer dreams and senses when a new Chosen One gets activated, I mean."

"You mean, when some THING out there murders my little sister! Don't try to sugarcoat this, G-man, I'm not some ignorant civilian-"

Giles held up a hand, cutting him off. "Please don't ever call me that horrible nickname again, and I do mean EVER again!"

Xander shrugged, "Well, would you prefer G-dawg instead?"

And then, just as Giles was about to start a grand tradition and begin polishing his glasses, Buffy joined them. "There you are! Me and Xander go looking for you, and all along you were here preparing to get down and party with us students?"

Giles tried not to snort in disdain. "Oh, yes, that's my idea of fun all right. Watching...clown-hair prance about in search of some tottie with huge knockers, just in order to-"

"Guys, guys! Let's focus here," Xander quickly interjected, trying to play peacemaker as Buffy scowled at her Watcher.

"Quite right, this is the perfect breeding ground for vampire activity after all. It's dark, it's crowded...Xander? Can you sense any undead present in the building, through this infernal crowd and noise?" the British man asked.

"Oooh! There's one!" Buffy pointed down to the lower level at the creature named Thomas.

"Buffy, please. Let your brother concentrate," Giles admonished her.

"But look at the guy! Look at his jacket. He's got the sleeves rolled up, and the shirt! Please – that entire look, it's carbon-dated! Only someone living underground for ten years would still think that outfit was any sort of fashion statement!" Buffy stated emphatically.

"I think she's right," the male teen looked at Thomas as well. Then Xander's head snapped towards the door, "And I think more of them just came in!"

"Great!" Buffy grumbled to herself. "And here I just wanted my first day to be nice and normal. Why can't the damn things simply leave us alone for once?" she muttered as the trio started to head downstairs.

The lower level of the Bronze. The same time

Cordelia was still furious over what had happened with Xander, right down to the tips of her designer Manolo Blahniks.

She was Cordelia Chase! No one was allowed to treat her that way. Least of all some guy who had just arrived on her home turf. No matter how yummy he happened to be.

( You so totally blew it, mister! Even with your past record, you still had the chance for a fresh start here, but then you pulled that sort of stunt on ME? Trying to wind me up for laughs like that. That's a big no-no around here! )

But suddenly she caught sight of a tall older guy dressed in black, and all thoughts of Xander Summers instantly flew out of Miss Popularity's mind.

It wasn't that Queen C was completely fickle that way; it was just that she had a thing for black leather pants, and had always been destined to be attracted to the vampire with Angel's face.

If she hadn't been so overwhelmed by the undead guy's presence, maybe the girl would have wondered why a man who looked at least ten years older than her had started flirting with jail bait like herself. But unfortunately, her recent experience had left Cordelia feeling that age simply wasn't an issue right now.

( After all, ) Ms. Chase thought to herself as she ditched her friends and started to leave the club with Angelus, ( it's not like I'm gonna marry this guy or anything! )

What the young woman didn't know was that her life expectancy could now be measured in minutes, if not seconds.

TBC...