See first chapter for disclaimers.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to Storyseeker for beta-reading this. As usual, if you have any comments or preferences, please don't be shy. RandR.

PREVIOUSLY: Belle and Sebastian

What of a View

It was a dark and stormy night. No, really, it was, er, is. Xander shoved the random thoughts aside and concentrated on evacuating the village. He didn't know who was controlling the bizarre looking blimp or why they were attacking a peaceful farming village, and he didn't really care. Getting the people out safely was his only goal at the moment. He did note that at least one of the goals of whoever was piloting the blimp seemed to be target practice, as if they were getting a feel for the controls of their new toy.

Xander ground his teeth in impotent anger as he herded the villagers into the bizarre looking forest. He had never seen anything quite like the plants in there, but the villagers assured him it was safe, and he didn't have any better ideas at the moment.

He looked toward the area the blimp was concentrating its fire; where Faith was distracting their attackers. He hoped she would be okay. That goofy ship had a lot of fire power. Either way, there wasn't much he could do to help her.

Faith wasn't having much fun, although there had been a comical moment or two. When she had begun looking for a way to distract whoever was in the blimp, there had been a small contingent of clunky but well-armed robots in the village and Faith had acquired two of their energy weapons and begun firing them at the blimp. That had proved sufficiently distracting. So far the craft's gunner hadn't come close to her, but had managed to fry most of the robots trying to capture her. What was left of that group had fled the village, deciding to leave it to their boss in the blimp.

When the last of the people were gone from the village, Xander pulled a small object from his pocket. He had been told by the man he'd gotten it from, a few stops back, that it was a bird call. With a grimace he blew it, producing a very distinctive noise.

There's the signal, Faith thought. Gotta find him something else. The only way a bird makes that noise is if you stuff it in a blender and hit 'puree.' She disengaged from her game of tag with the blimp and its homicidal pilot and dashed into the forest. A couple of stray shots followed her, but the pilot seemed to lose interest in favor of blasting the forest in general. The goal seemed to be to set a huge fire, and it was working. She dashed through the trees in search of her partner and the refugees.

It took a few minutes before she spotted a terrified group trying to outrun the fire the blimp had started. She caught one, asked after Xander, and was pointed a general direction. Faith took off running, hoping the man hadn't been turned around too badly.

She caught sight of Xander as he was approaching a clearing. The fire wasn't too far behind and Xander ran headlong into the clearing, hoping to make it unseen to the other side. A blast striking the ground a few feet behind him told them both he'd failed.

Xander was blown off his feet and hit the ground hard. He rolled onto his back, but there was no time to move before the next strike. "Xander!" Faith dashed forward, having no idea what she was going to do. Fortunately, someone else intervened.

Suddenly there was a statuesque blonde woman standing over Xander, blocking the lightning with a sword of all things. Faith stared as the woman strained against the energy weapon, her knees starting to buckle. Faith glanced down at Xander, hoping he would use the opportunity to escape and decided that wasn't likely to happen given his current position. She was torn between worry for her partner and irritation at the goofy look on his face.

Faith turned her attention back to the woman as there was nothing she could do. Even getting closer would have been dangerous. So she contented herself with staring at Xander's rescuer. She had long blonde hair restrained by what looked like a gold tiara with wings. The decorative breastplate, if that was its function, was of the same metal but clearly offered little to no protection. The white dress she barely wore left her shoulders bare and ended just above mid-thigh. She didn't look strong enough to do what she was doing, but Faith was in no position to talk.

With a supreme effort, the woman straightened and shoved, which made no sense to Faith, but seemed to work. The shove seemed to cause some kind of feedback in the weapon and the blimp caught fire. The doomed ship turned away and began to retreat even as it failed.

Straightening up, the woman sighed. "That thing sure packed a wallop. A few more seconds might have been too much for me."

"How did you do that?" Faith asked.

"Hmm?" the woman glanced over at her.

"That thing was throwin' lightning bolts."

"Yes."

"The sword is metal?"

"Yes."

"Metal conducts electricity last I checked, so how is it you're not a crispy critter? Not that I'm complainin' mind you."

"The sword is magic," the woman chuckled, while still, Faith noted, not moving from her position. She seemed oblivious to what Faith would have found an obvious concern. "Glad I got here in time. I heard what you two did for the villagers. I wanted to thank you."

"No trouble," Faith shrugged. "It's kind of what we do. Besides," she reached down and grabbed Xander's ankles, pulling from between the oblivious woman's feet. "I think you've thanked him enough."

Xander blinked and looked at his partner. "Oh, hey Faith. You say something?"