----Part 6: Enter Shaten, the Shadow Chick from the Mountains of Japan----
"Damn it, Xander."
It was just after school, several days after the defeat of the vampire ninja. The students were filling out from the building to go back home, or some other place they'd rather be. Lexa, Willow, Buffy and Lotion were standing under the large tree in front of the school, and Lotion was angry.
"Lotion," Lexa tried to calm her down.
"No, you not Lotion me, future husband," Lotion verbally barreled through her attempt, pointing a finger at him. "This not fair, and you know it."
"Whoever said life was fair?" Lexa half-quipped. Judging from the storm growing a couple of notches on Lotion's face, that hadn't been a good idea. "Lotion, you've seen her. Faith looks up to me like I'm god's gift to mankind, and she's still far too hurt to just toss in the deep end. I gotta mentor her a bit, train her physically, train her mentally, get her to focus on all things that she's got to offer herself, give her some self esteem, get her to be on her on two feet. And you know it too."
"But it cuts in our fun time!" Lotion protested greatly annoyed. Lexa looked at her empathically, and she groaned. She folded her arms under her chest, and muttered, "Sometimes I wish you weren't so damn good."
"Would you love me, if I wasn't?" Lexa tried with a smile.
Lotion sulked even more, then said, "Perhaps not, but good does not equal weak. You would have still defeated me in combat, I would still be your fiancee, at least you would be taking advantage of me and we'd be having fun - together. Not being stuck on the sidelines of my own fiance's life."
"I promise, the moment I'll build down the time I spend mentoring Faith, and the moment there's enough free time, you get all the fun I can give you during it, okay?" Lexa said gravely, hoping to calm the incensed Amazon down.
"Fine! I will hold you to that!" Lotion hissed, and then sighed deeply. She looked over to the still silent Buffy and Willow, and asked, "And what's wrong with you two?"
"Huh?" they both said, and turned their heads toward each other. The moment their eyes met, they quickly averted their eyes again. Buffy looked up at Lexa and Lotion, and said, "Uh, I gotta, I gotta go train Kendra - she's lagging behind us, and you know; big ass-kicking. Yeah." Then she quickly hurried off.
"Yeah, and Jenny is waiting for me, doing magic stuff, see ya, Lexa," Willow hurried out, and then ran off in the opposite direction to Buffy.
"What's with them?" Lotion asked confused, looking from the retreating form of Willow to the retreating form of Buffy and back again.
"I got no idea; can't be their period, not according to the calendar," Lexa said thinking over Willow's and Buffy's behavior.
"You've got a calendar!?" Lotion asked surprised and miffed.
Lexa back up a step, and waved his hands to ward the Amazon off. "It was Oz's idea. With the additional numerical estrogen advantage he figured it'd be a good idea. Kendra and Faith aren't on there yet, of course."
"Aargh, where do these girls keep popping up from anyway? Is the Hellmouth a dog and they're the flees!?" Lotion asked out loud, and Lexa gasped. She looked around to see if anyone had picked up what Lotion had said. "Ugh, I'm going to go do some training myself, and don't forget your promise, future husband!"
"I won't," Lexa assured the amazon as she started walking off. Then Lexa breathed out a sigh of relief, and walked off to the right, toward where she knew Faith would be waiting.
A minute later Lexa reached the other brunette who was leaning against the school building. Her face looked like a thunder storm; which was no doubt the reason none of the guys who were checking out the girl in tight brown leather pants and blue tight tank top had the guts to go up to her. A backpack was slung over Faith's right shoulder. She looked up and noticed Lexa coming to her. Her face softened, but was she was obviously still annoyed. "I can't believe you made me go to school, especially with this stupid backpack, I look like a goody goody schoolgirl," Faith said darkly, showing said backpack. The backpack was dark green, with a Supergirl picture prominently on the front, along with smaller pictures at the side.
Lexa smiled as she took in Faith's appearance. "Trust me, Faith, you look nothing like a goody goody schoolgirl; for that you'd have to be wearing a pleaded skirt, would look good on you," Lexa thought, picturing Faith in a traditional schoolgirl uniform.
"Don't you dare!" Faith almost screamed in horror, then she deflated and pulled the backpack to the front, showing the Supergirl picture prominently to Lexa. "Look at this. This would be bad enough without the stupid comic book picture! But it's got some dumb, girl scout flying blonde in a miniskirt on it. I didn't even bring a bag to my old school!"
"That was probably your main problem right there," Lexa said with a slight smile.
For a moment Faith looked angrily at Lexa, and then she deflated even more. She looked at Lexa miserably, but admiring, and whimpered, "How could you do this to me?"
"Faith," Lexa said with a big smile, while she slung her arm around the leather-clad brunette and turned her around to face the same direction as she was. "I want you to get in touch with your softer side," Lexa said as she started walking forward, Faith coming along.
"I don't have a softer side," Faith sulked, putting the backpack back over her shoulder as she walked next to her friend and admired mentor, who lowered her arm from Faith's shoulders.
Lexa smiled as she said, "And I don't like girls, so we're even." Faith turned her head to look at Lexa with annoyance. Lexa smile at her as they reached the pavement and turned toward Lexa's apartment. "Look, I don't want to turn you into mush mush, but we both know your hard as nails exterior is a mask."
"I'm tough," Faith protested, looking around to see if any of the other students were close enough to pick up on their weird, and extremely personal conversation. None of them were.
"Yes, you are, Faith, and that's why unwilling to face the soft inside of you is so odd," Lexa explained, and slung her arm back around Faith's shoulder; a little awkwardly because the backpack was in the way. "You see, completely hard and inflexible makes you brittle. Some softness makes you flexible, you can bend and absorb blows, be they physical or emotional. Something punches through that brittle, tougher looking than it is exterior of yours, and everything you've bottled up inside will spill out."
Faith sniffed lightly, looking down and remembering her breaking down with Buffy; she didn't want her hero to see her like that; and yet her hero wanted to see her like that. It seemed contradictory; Lexa now wanted her to show how tough she was by coming into touch and showing that weakness. Just as strange; she remembered how the breaking down and showing all that weakness to the blonde Slayer, had indeed made her feel stronger, strong enough to erect all her walls again and show off her strength to Lexa. Somehow, the first experience, made it both less daunting and more daunting at the same time. "So what do you want to do now?" Faith asked Lexa.
"Now?" Lexa said with a grin, "Well, first we go home, then we have some coffee and girl talk, and then we train martial arts."
"Girl talk? I don't do girl talk, and that's not a mask. And you're a guy underneath this body, since when do guys do girl talk?" Faith whined, trying to get out from under it.
"Since they're girls half the time," Lexa said with a smile, and a wiggle of her eyebrows.
"I'm doomed," Faith said, deflating.
-----
Buffy and Kendra exchanged rapid blows inside the library. Suddenly Buffy went down and made a leg sweep. Kendra jumped over it, but Buffy was too fast; the blonde immediately jumped up into an uppercut, and hit Kendra in her chin while she was still in the air. The exotic Slayer slammed into the ground, and gave a grunt and a whine. "Ow," she complained.
Buffy took a step forward, toward over the downed Kendra, and smiling down evilly, she said, "For every time Xander or Lotion kicked my ass during training, I'm gonna kick your ass, unless you get good enough to stop me."
"That should be sufficient incentive."
Buffy and a groaning Kendra turned their heads at the interruption. Giles, impeccably British as usual, had come out of his office and was now watching the proceedings from behind the library counter. "I thought so," Buffy said evilly, while helping up Kendra.
"But ees eet thee most effecteeve methad?" Kendra asked dubiously.
"That is a good point, Buffy," Giles pointed out, liking the interplay between the Slayers and looked questioningly at Buffy.
The blonde rolled her eyes and answered him, "It's not as if I'm doing nothing but kicking her ass. I am actually teaching her stuff before having her put it into practice."
"Yes, well, Kendra, the council has confirmed; like Faith you are to stay here for now, under my care. They specifically refused to say if you are to get a new watcher other than me. I would venture a guess that they are still deliberating on that," Giles announced.
Kendra nodded with understanding, to say, "I am glad; I like eet eer. Friends ees better dahn no friends."
"And Buffy Summers is right again, it never changes, sometimes it gets boring," Buffy said with a grin, folding her arms across her chest smugly.
"And den Xander keecks your ass for vahriatee," Kendra replied casually.
"Hey! You're supposed to be the good, obedient, silent type," Buffy complained at the sudden jab.
Kendra smiled Buffy, and told her, "Friends are bad eenfluens, ent of course, eef not pheeseecallee, I must strike bahck verballee."
"Oh, yeah?" Buffy asked and smoothly swiped Kendra's legs out from under her. The exotic Slayer slammed onto the wooden floor with a grunt. "Strike that."
"I see you two are getting along splendidly, carry on," Giles said, and turned away, walking back to his office, reflecting on being so fortuitous he didn't need to do the training himself anymore with a light smile. He picked up the envelope he had received earlier, and opened it. He perused through it, and his good mood vanished. He lowered the letter, and looked forward stoically, thinking deeply.
-----
"So, how about boys?" The question was a fair one. In the last half an hour, drinking coffee in the coffee shop, they had talked about all kinds of things; like school, the weather, their past, the one thing that hadn't come up.
"Use 'em and loose 'em," was Faith's answer, and finished unpacking a cookie that she started to eat.
"That's it?" Lexa asked her new student, trying to figure out if it was the mask slipping back in place or the way she really thought.
Faith chewed her cookie self-consciously. With her mouth still full she shrugged, and said, "Screwing is all they're good for anyway."
"You're talking to one, remember?" Lexa pointed out a little incredulously. Faith looked down with some shame, and then shrugged. "What happened that made you think like that anyway?"
Faith looked up, and grinned evilly at Lexa, "Wanna see how good I am?"
Lexa smiled, allowing the change of subject; knowing Faith just wasn't ready to open up that can of worms so soon. "I'll take your word for it," Lexa said with a smile.
"I sure would wanna see how good you are," Faith said with an even bigger grin. Lexa raised her eyebrows at Faith. "Oh, come on. I know you're my mentor and shit, but you're a guy that's a girl half the time. You know what's like to have a nice big juicy . . ." Lexa wasn't a prude, but this was going far, and so she was nervously looking around whether any people could over here. Faith's evil smile didn't falter when she finished softly, "shaft up there. Nice and big, and all the right spots, and uh . . ." Sitting in her chair didn't keep Faith from putting her hand between her legs and making a rude movement with her pelvis. "You must be amazing in the sack," she finished.
"Uh, yeah, well . . ." Lexa said, lightly self-conscious.
For a moment Faith thought she had actually managed to embarrass Lexa into silence, but then she suddenly got an acute insight. "You're a virgin," Faith said softly, with large eyes full of marvel.
"Of course not; I'm not exactly as experienced as you, but I'm not a virgin," Lexa said, lightly offended.
"With girls, just with girls," Faith said with her complete understanding, and Lexa stayed silent. That was all the confirmation Faith needed, and completely forgetting she was in a public place, she spoke with rising volume, "Not with guys. You haven't been with a guy. No man's ever given it to you good and hard and deep! Oh, I /so/ have /got/ to get you -laid-!"
Lexa was pale as Faith leaned back leisurely, grinning widely imagining how best to go about her first project. People were staring at the couple, and Lexa got up rapidly. "Al right, big mouth," she said as she fished her wallet out of the back pocket of her jeans. She dumped the money on the table, yanked her and Faith's coats from the couch, and grabbed Faith by her upper arm, dragging her along, "we're getting out of here."
"But I didn't finish my cookie," Faith complained as she tried to grasp the plastic wrapped treat still lying next to the saucer of her coffee.
"You've had enough cookies for the day," Lexa said hastily, as she pulled Faith fully upright. The Potential stumbled for a moment, before they reached the front door and they exited. Lexa handed Faith her jacket and put her own on. "I cannot believe you did that out loud."
Faith grinned as she put on her jeans jacket, and told her, "I still have to get you laid. You're going to -love- it!"
"I've got Lotion," Lexa said defensively, looking around and glad the street was mostly empty.
"Oh, come on," Faith said with a grin, quickly passing Lexa. She turned around and walked backward to be able to look her mentor in the eye. "The real thing that defines a woman isn't her period, it's getting fucked."
"I think some people would disagree with that," Lexa protested a little.
"Then some people are wrong," Faith wiped away the protest smoothly, still walking backward. "Which is besides the point anyway. We were just having our little 'girl talk' . . ." Faith made the quotations in the air, ". . . and I distinctly remember you telling me you wanted to find out what it's like to be a girl, and that being straight as a guy, you were straight as a girl, and you're now essentially bisexual. There's no way in hell you can deny that in order to understand what's it like to be a girl, you must have had at least one good old fashioned uh." Faith once again had her hand in her pelvis and made the lewd gesture.
Lexa paused, and looked up at the sky, raising her hands in despair, and said, "God help me."
"Not hearing a denial," Faith singsonged, standing still herself, grinning evilly.
Lexa pointed at Faith, and told her, "Still got Lotion." She walked on again.
Faith turned around and walking next to her, looking up at the taller girl, she said, "Who is your fiancee, and all butch Amazon. If she really loves you, she understands you had to learn it yourself, get it out of your system so to speak. Plus, it's like a guy not minding his girl being with another girl, especially if he can join in. You know I'm right, big old Amazon would be proud to have a man with that much confidence, especially if it means you'd get even better in the sack." Faith took the time to wiggle her eyebrows at Lexa, "You're not telling me you aren't intrigued, I know you are, at the very least at the instinctual level or you wouldn't be checking out guys." Lexa stopped her walking, and Faith passed her and turned around again, facing her. "Admit it, or come up with one hell of a good denial to convince me."
Lexa sighed, and looked down, emotions warring inside of her. She looked at Faith, eyes up, head still down, and gave a naughty smile. Feeling the irrational need to be sneaky and secretive, Lexa admitted, "I've been . . . intrigued."
Faith made a happy jump in the air; which on the leather-clad girl looked so wrong. Then she brought her right index and middle fingers to her mouth, give it a suggestive lick, and said, "Mind wandering, huh? A little self-induced uh."
Lexa shook her head with a suffering sigh, even as she couldn't keep a smile off her face, "You're a menace."
"I've been called worse," Faith answered with an evil grin on her face that seemed glued there.
"Well, don't think I'm just going to jump the nearest guy I come across," Lexa noted somewhat wryly.
"Of course not," Faith said with a disapproving tone, "This is your first time. We'll set a date, so we can live toward it, get the anticipation going, have the juices running, make you so damn horny by that time you are about willing to jump the nearest guy you come across."
"I take it back," Lexa commented, and resumed walking, passing Faith, "you're worse than a menace."
"Still called worse," Faith said with a grin, falling in step, and making Lexa roll her eyes.
-----
Night
Cemetery
Two urns stood side by side in the urn wall. Several other ruined ones were in the same wall, but they were old, and most of them long destroyed. The two urns though, were new, and in good condition. One had 'Angel' written on it with golden letters; the other carried the name 'Jesse McNally'. Suddenly out of nowhere, a lightning bolt pierced the events, and slammed through the urn carrying 'Angel'. Both urns shattered immediately, and the ashes of both urns were strewn about - except for a small whirlwind of ashes. Electricity crackled through it, and whirling about the ashes came together, finally coalescing with an extra powerful spark into a nude figure, that dropped to the ground instantly, groaning weakly.
Angel looked around, shivering, and whispered, "What?"
-----
Buffy and Oz finished the cemetery, and stepped back on the pavement. They were both in loose, but not too loose clothes, perfect for fighting. "Well, that was that," Buffy said with a bored tone.
"Nothing," Oz said with a nod. "Maybe we should add seedy bars, and warehouses to our patrols?"
Buffy shrugged, and said, "We're underage; what are we gonna do? Beat up the bouncers?"
"Even seedier bars then," Oz said casually. Buffy turned her head to look at him in confusion, and was about to ask, when it dawned on her.
"Oh, yeah, bars so seedy they don't care about ID, huh?" Buffy said with a frown. "They exist in Sunnydale?"
"We'd have to look," Oz answered, and then gave her an uncharacteristic smile.
Buffy looked left and right, and realized that their houses were in different directions. One walking the other home would be a waste; the one doing it, would still have to go back to his or her own home the entire way alone. "I guess this is where we part ways," Buffy said, and Oz nodded. "See ya tomorrow, Oz."
"Ditto, Buffy," Oz said, and Buffy turned right, while Oz went left.
Buffy walked casually, liking her life right now. She wondered if she should make a detour to Willow's, feeling slightly guilty, but eventually decided against it. As such she walked toward her house, passing houses some with neat gardens, some overgrown with weeds. Then someone half naked half-staggered from a drive way onto the pavement. His bare back was to Buffy, but it was obvious the pants he was wearing hadn't come out of his own wardrobe; the pipes were much too short for one thing. The male turned around, and Buffy's heart skipped a beat; then decided to skip a couple more. "Buffy," the male said with a groan in his voice.
"Angel," Buffy said shocked.
"Wh-what happened? I feel like I haven't seen you in months, something about . . . oh, god," Angel stammered out.
Ouch! Buffy had used her considerable Slayer and martial-arts-training enhanced strength to pinch herself in multiple places along her left arm; but she wasn't waking up. This wasn't a dream. "Buffy?" Angel asked again, and then his eyes widened as a fist moved rapidly toward him, and smashed into his nose. Then all went dark.
-----
With a groan Angel regained consciousness, and found himself into very thick chains, which kept him stuck to a pillar; a pillar in a factory. The factory was familiar and he remembered things inside it, he didn't remember doing.
Buffy finished locking the heavy thick chains she had luckily found and tasted to be powerful enough to restrain a vampire. "B-Buffy, what's this?" Angel asked the Slayer.
Buffy took a step back, shivering, as he looked at her former boyfriend. This couldn't be real. "You lost your soul, I dusted your soulless ass, so not with the trusting," Buffy said emotionlessly. "You could be him, messing with me. How the fuck did you get back to life anyway?"
Angel was shocked at Buffy's use of the expletive; he hadn't ever heard her talk like that; but then he supposed this was an appropriate time. Buffy herself was surprised it had slipped out herself, but payed it no heed, working to keep her emotions in check. "I don't know; I just woke up in a graveyard and didn't know up from down," Angel muttered, testing the chains a bit, and finding himself truly unable to move. Angel looked back up, letting his gaze move up Buffy's body, and pausing at her hands; she wasn't wearing the ring he had given her. "You're not in love with me anymore," Angel stated, half as fact, half as an accusation. He looked up in Buffy's anguished face and wished he could take her pain from her. "When?"
"Do you really want to know?" Buffy asked, thinking hard over what Angel had said. Graveyard; no doubt where his urn had been. But how? Angel nodded, painfully. "The moment we started having sex; when you've had a living being, burning with passion for you, blood pounding in his veins, delicious smells of sweat entering your nostrils, you really notice when you're having sex with a cold, clammy, corpse." Angel looked down both ashamed and hurt, as much for himself as for Buffy.
Buffy meanwhile, had an epiphany. The lightning strike she and Oz had seen and heard! Just one. She was going to report it to Giles in the morning, but she had a pretty good idea what that had been. A lightning- "Oh, my god!" Buffy exclaimed, and then felt sick to her stomach. She had an impulse to run right away, but a momentary thought struck her. She turned and looked around. The factory was still littered with lots of things; some left by the vampires, most from even before. She had to be able to find a plastic bag, a pan and duster in this place. And so she went rummaging about hastily, looking for the stuff. Angel watched her frantic search with confusion. To Buffy's relief, it did not take long to find the items she needed.
As Buffy figured out the best way to transport the things along, Angel asked, "So, Xander?"
Buffy took the momentary time to look up at Angel, and said, "No." For a moment Angel seemed hopeful, until Buffy added, "I'm with Willow now. I'll be back." Then Buffy sped off, leaving a befuddled Angel.
-----
Buffy ran through the cemetery, the only thing holding back her tears was the hope that she didn't have to shed them. If any vampires were about to see Buffy zipping by with almost unimaginable speed, they'd run away scared. As such, it did not take her long to get to the urn cabinet; what was left of it. The Slayer skidded to a halt, and looked with horror at the place. It was ruined, and not like before, and the two urns that had born names were destroyed. Some dust; possibly ashes; was all around, but Buffy knew from the weight of a full urn, most of it had already been blown away by the wind. "No," she whimpered and felt tears for her friends finally detach from her eyes. She heaved in air with difficulty - her friends had suffered enough for all her failures and mistakes - they had lost their friend, Jenny had lost an uncle, and now they'd lost the only tangible remains of their friend. She sank to her knees, sobbing, as she remembered sitting with Xander and Willow on several occasions since she placed Angel's urn next to Jesse's. Just sitting there, grieving and taking inspiration from the ashes; why they were fighting, to make sure it never happened again - or at least keep the occurrences down as much as possible. As she sobbed, cried and remembered she pulled out the duster, and a bag she had found in the factory, and tried to gather up the ashes. After a few attempts and swiping it from the grass and sand into the bag she gave up; the little ash she got in there, was mixed with an almost equal amount of sand, and some grass, and most of it had been blown away anyway.
Buffy let go of the duster and the plastic bag, and let herself fall backward, landing on her back. She jerked and sobbed as she cried, bringing her hands to her eyes. Then she slammed her hands to the ground on either side, denting it, and screamed, "You bastards! Whoever you are! Why couldn't you leave him dead!? Things were good! At least move his urn away from Jesse's . . . you stinking, god damned, sickening . . . AAAHH!!"
She curled up and sobbed some more before making up her mind. She got up, got the duster and the bag, and left.
-----
"Willow?" Buffy asked as she peaked behind the narrowly opened door to Willow's bedroom, keeping the bag with no more than a hundred grams of ash, along with some other substances behind her. She felt ashamed and guilty, and extremely nervous.
"Hey, Buffy," Willow greeted from her bed, already in pyjama's. They were rather cute, white with a flower pattern, and Buffy knew them well enough to know they looked good on her girlfriend, but that's not why she was here. "Come on in," Willow said with a light frown as Buffy didn't enter immediately.
"Hi," Buffy said, as she nervously took small steps into Willow's room, shaking a little. This just couldn't be good. As the plastic bag came into view along with a slowly, step by step entering, nervous looking Buffy, Willow frowned.
"What's wrong?" Willow prompted, as several nightmare scenarios flooded her mind, scenarios she all rejected because she couldn't see how they could have come to pass - not without her knowing about it on before hand.
"Uhm . . . Willow . . ." Buffy started weakly, closing the door slowly behind her. She was still stalling for time, and her breathing slowly increased with apprehension. "Y-your not going to like this; oh, who am I . . . It's really bad."
"What?" Willow prompted, growing pale.
Buffy, both sheepishly and guiltily, brought up the bag slowly. "This . . . is all that's left . . ." Buffy slowly said, still fighting for the courage. Willow's much too alarmed look is what gave Buffy the courage to finish, "of Jesse's ashes."
Willow frowned with confusion and denial, even as Buffy could already see the tell tale signs, tightening muscles and focusing of eyes, of anger and grief. "What do you mean?"
"A-angel is back alive," Buffy managed, and saw Willow's face turning into a vicious scowl, "There was a lone lightning bolt, after I ran into him and chained him up in the factory, I realized that it . . ." Buffy swallowed, feeling miserable when Willow's face now was a mixture of the rage and infinite pain she had seen the signs of earlier, "I ran to the urns - this is all I could save . . . and a lot of it is sand."
"No. No! NO! Tell me this is a joke," Willow was surprisingly fast, grabbing Buffy by the collar of her sweat shirt. Her face was no filled with grief, anger, and a last fleeting hope, a last ditch effort of denial. Buffy actually felt scared with Willow's face was so close to her, filled with rage directed at the most convenient target. Willow positively snarled, much to Buffy's surprise despite the fact she knew it was coming, "If this is a sick joke, Buffy, I'm turning you into a toad, and we're through!"
Buffy just put her right hand, which was free, around Willow's waist, and painfully shook her head. And just like that the rage in Willow deflated, looking to her right at the back, and then broke down crying, "No. No. Nonononono . . ." She sank down, and Buffy sank down with her, whispering at her girlfriend while holding her close and cuddling. She put the bag down and fully embraced the sobbing Willow, and cried along with her. She hugged the redhead close, rubbing her cheeks against Willow's and whispered meaningless supports her girlfriend.
After a minute or so, Willow's crying lessened, and then suddenly stopped. "Oh, my god . . . Xander."
Buffy nodded, "We-we should call them all together, at the library."
"Xander alone, first," Willow corrected.
-----
The Library
An hour later
"Would you mind telling us what this is about?" Buffy looked around, sought support in the eyes of her girlfriend and took a few steps forward to the library table - on which was the bag holding the last few remains of Jesse McNally. She took her time to look to her right at Xander. Her heart filled with what she could plainly see written on his face. His eyes were bloodshot, filled with grieve and a cold rage he couldn't vent anywhere. With arms folded across his chest, and a downward turn mouth, he looked like something you don't ever want to mess with. Forty five minutes earlier she and Willow had broken the news to him. What Willow had gone through was nothing compared to his grief. Worse, was that Faith had been at his apartment. Willow and Buffy had tried to get him alone, but it hadn't worked. Xander had been ready to storm out and kill Angel right then and there; and not fast either. He had cried, waled even, along with raged everything and everyone in the universe. Willow and Buffy had held him, let him get through the initial reaction, getting to stay his vengeful hand for a few minutes by using the same reasoning she had used on herself earlier; 'She wasn't thinking straight when it came to Angel, so the decision of what to do with him, and determining if it really was Angel or just Angelus playing her, had to go to the whole group, and since he obviously wasn't thinking straight either; the decision had to go the whole group.'
Xander still wanted to kill Angel, that much was easily read off his face. Buffy also noticed Lotion on one side of him, and Faith on the other. The brunette, at first, had looked afraid at the raging and grief-stricken male forty-five minutes earlier; until she recognized he wasn't going to touch her in anyway bad. While Buffy and Willow were still talking to sooth him somewhat, while he didn't let them get close; part of him blaming Buffy which she forgave and forgot right away, Faith had conquered her fears, and gotten closer to him. Xander-Lexa's new friend, he didn't turn away them, helping to calm him down so she and Willow could come closer and comfort him as well.
"I guess not everyone here knows Jesse McNally," Buffy said gently, gauging all their reactions. Xander winced - even after already knowing; Lotion looked with wide eyes at Buffy and then immediately turned to Xander - obviously he had told Lotion. Jenny and Oz drew a blank. Giles obviously recognized the name and remembered; but probably didn't quite know the difference. As close as Giles was to her and the rest of the Scooby Gang now, back then he had only just arrived, and had had no contact with Xander and Willow yet. Cordelia blinked, flinched just a little bit, and then obviously clamped down upon her emotions. Buffy was surprised - it was obvious the cheerleader captain wasn't unmoved over the boy, and here she thought Cordelia just thought of him, like she did of Xander and Willow back then, as losers not worth her time - and it couldn't be what happened at the Bronze back then, the sword-wielding cheerleader had had enough experiences with the weird and violent since then that that wouldn't raise such a reaction from her. "Jesse was a friend of Willow and Xander . . . he was turned when I first got here, and dusted," Buffy explained calmly, and looked out of the corner of her eyes at Xander. His hands had tightened around his upper arm. "That's all that's left of his ashes," Buffy said solemnly.
Most people looked blank, and had varying levels of confused, written on their faces. "So?" Oz summed up quite nicely.
Buffy looked at Willow once again, then back at the gathering and said, "His urn stood next to Angel's. A lightning bolt struck both . . . and resurrected Angel." The result of that statement was a shocked, wide-eyed looks at Buffy, which gave her the opportunity to add, "I ran in on him on the way home, I guess he was heading there; I captured him and chained him up in the factory."
It was Cordelia who spoke first, snidely, "Did that happen today, or have you hidden him away for awhile?"
"Fuck no!" was Buffy's shocked reply. Xander had looked over at Cordelia's half question, half accusation. He hadn't even thought of that; which he figured meant he couldn't see Buffy doing that; he wondered if he should add 'anymore'. It was obvious that Buffy indeed hadn't done that; the fact that she had resorted out of anger and frustration with an expletive - something she hardly ever, if at all resorted to, was really all one would need to realize that. If any doubt remained, the hurt look in Buffy's eyes and the shocked and hurt tone eliminated them quite nicely.
"Faith is a bad influence on you," Willow said softly and completely humorlessly, rocking back and forth on her feet, still not over the shock of having lost Jesse's urn and ashes.
"Cordelia, I saw the lightning bolt, it was tonight," Oz said calmly as he slung his arm around her waist.
Faith shook her head, put her hands in the pockets of her tight jeans, and said, "I still can't believe it. First a vampire with a bone plate so you can't stake him, one creating a rock hide so sunlight doesn't kill him, now we've vamps getting resurrected. What's next? Vamps who can pick up their hands and screw it back on?"
Everyone looked at her for a moment, agreeing with the sentiment. "I say we dust him, soul or no soul, goes quicker too," Lotion stated at once. Her views on the entire subject simple and effective.
"I agree," Xander said for good measure; Cordelia nodded.
"I'm afraid I must disagree, even if he's Angelus," Giles interjected in the whole gathering with authority drawing everyone's gazes to him, and turning the library silent.
A silence Xander broke, by saying grimly, "You, Giles? What happened to the Watchers' creed of dusting them all?"
"Indeed, however these are unusual circumstances; if we do destroy this walking corpse again, what is to stop whoever resurrected him this time, seemingly with ease, from doing it again? And this time before any of us can capture him?" Giles explained simply.
Everyone looked annoyed at the concept, and not quite having an answer. Oz a moment later came up with a solution, and calmly said, "Chain him up in a box, and throw him in a deep part of the ocean."
"I like that idea," Xander commented with a feral grin.
"When he's soulless," Willow hastily interjected, not quite liking the idea of throwing someone, even if it was Angel, to the depths of the ocean.
"Even souled that's a good idea," Xander replied darkly, looking at Willow as he kept his predatory smile on his face.
"Xander!" Jenny said with a disapproving tone. She took a step forward and leaned on the table. "You can't mean that; granted he wasn't exactly a saint, but he's still a human being, even if he is in command of a demon-animated corpse."
Xander looked slightly guilty, but lowering his arms to his sides he replied, "Dumping him in the ocean keeps him from losing his soul; either because some industrious chick gives him a blowjob, or because some magic user works his mojo. If magic can give him his soul, it can take it away, and you can't use your magic on something you can't find. If Soul Boy has to suffer to keep Angelus bottled up . . ." Xander shrugged to show his apathy.
"I agree," Lotion said instantly, grinning evilly at the concept.
"Can't say I disagree," Cordelia added in, not liking she and Lotion agreed on something. Buffy was distressed; she may not be in love with Angel anymore, but she did have fond feelings, and she didn't want to see him suffer like that.
Jenny didn't like it either; she wasn't enamored with her tribes quest for vengeance and the way it was done; it felt like she was continuing those actions. So she said, "Perhaps before we decide on how to deal with things, we should first try to figure out whether he's got his soul indeed back, and how and why and who brought him back to life."
"I don't like it," Willow said with some measure of artificial evenness in her voice, having everyone look at her, "but if this is Angel, and not Angelus, I can't fault Xander's logic." Buffy hated the concept himself, and hated even more that she somewhat agreed, although she still wondered if the price for such an action would be greater than the reward. As far as she was concerned, they wouldn't be tossing Angel into the ocean, that her girlfriend agreed with Xander on the subject - more so, she was surprised she did. Willow was always the gentle one. Willow finished, "If it's Angelus though, chug him." Everyone nodded with that sentiment, except Buffy who was still wrapping her mind around the concept of Willow wanting to do the same to Angel as to Angelus.
The surprised gasp that came, clearly indicated he or she was just as surprised at Willow's ideas on the subject. The gasp however, did not come from anyone of the Scooby Gang. Everyone turned around to see Angel, dressed now, stand in front of a swaying library entrance. Likely, he was just as surprised that Buffy didn't defend him more. There was a moment's silence, before Lotion hissed, "You said you chained him up!"
"I did!" Buffy defended herself as everyone stood up, and turned to face Angel, and probably ready to rush over and stake him; if not at least chain him up properly this time. The faces of most of them, enraged. Angel obviously didn't feel very safe, or comfortable.
The library door swung open again, giving the Scoobies pause, especially when a smallish men dressed like a New York pimp entered through it. "She did, and good, le'me tell ya," the man spoke with an accent from the same city as his clothes. "The time it took to unchain him was a lot; gave me time to talk to the knucklehead though . . . and didn't I tell ya to not run in here?" Angel turned to the weird man and shrugged pathetically. He turned back to the Scoobies, and added, "Slayer, you should work in SM parlor as a mistress, you'd be rich in no time."
Xander, Lotion and Buffy then shot forward, while Buffy growled, "I'll kill him."
"We actually agree on something," Lotion said, lightly surprised, as they crossed the distance.
Xander reached the little man first, picked him up by the collar, and smashed him right against wall, powerful enough to dent it. The weird man groaned in pain, and looked surprised into the enraged face of Xander Harris. "You're dead, demon," Xander snarled, as Buffy and Lotion came up next to him, eager to join in on the dismembering fun.
"Hold it!" Giles' even tone of wisdom sliced through the air, "Get answers first, then kill him."
The three demon hunters now standing next to a fearful Angel, and in front of a pinned up against the wall demon, looked quite disappointed for a moment, but then focused on their knew task. The demon gulped, realizing quite plainly he wasn't in the company of the traditional, goody-two-shoes, harm-no-one good guys.
"Who in Xi Ama-lang's name are you!?" Lotion demanded angrily. If Angel had any thought of helping his benefactor, it was quickly removed when Xander and Lotion gave him a momentary glare. He backed off and watched.
The demon was quite surprised the three of them had already figured out he was a demon - he looked human after all. The wall was quite hard too, being hurt when he was smashed into it. He gave a light groan, and said, "Hiya folks, I'm Whistler, balance demon, and I work for the Powers That Be . . . could you put me down so I can explain?"
Instead the arm under his chin moved back a moment, only for the hand to wrap around his neck and squeeze. The young man's face was filled with an almost uncontrollable rage, and if the balance demon was right, and he usually was about these things, a good chunk of grief that was threatening to spill out with tears. "Tell me, demon, if you work for whoever those sickening bastards are; why couldn't they have sent you to move Dead Boy's urn away from Jesse's before bringing the bastard back to life!?" Xander hissed, squeezing almost gleefully. Whistler just gasped.
"Urn?" Angel asked shocked; starting to understand why they were all so upset.
"Xander; please show a few more moments restraint," Giles spoke, the rest of the people present now having arrived close behind the first three.
With some effort Xander managed to let go, allowing Whistler to cough for air. "I don't know, man, I'm just a messenger boy, they send me when and where. They're the good guys, though. Need the big lug over there to do some good for a change; things really didn't go as foreseen."
-"Good guys!?"- Xander snarled, seeing red now. -"Good guys who use demons and demon-animated corpses!? Good guys who resurrect /him/ and destroy the honored remains of the best friend of some of the best and strongest fighters on supposedly their side? Human fighters!? They could have resurrected Jesse, and once I trained him, he'd be stronger and better than that /thing/ of there! Don't sound very 'good' to me, bub."-
"I say we kill 'em both," Lotion said, and Buffy got chills running down her spine; this wasn't the voice of the gung-ho amazon she was used to, but the cold voice of a killer. Whistler noticed it too; he gulped when he realized this wasn't going well.
Buffy realized they still didn't have all the answers, and tried to go on a slightly different tangent, "What do you mean, not as foreseen?"
"You're supposed to be dead, sweetheart, and Dead Boy over here was supposed to stop Acathla," Whistler said casually, trying to sound as harmless as possible and in tune with their perceptions. "Things didn't exactly go as planned; things got better in some ways. The Powers have quite an investment in vamp. You threw one hell of a monkey wrench in things, Alexander."
"What the hell's a balance demon?" Cordelia asked, less pissed, than the ones who lost the ashes of their best friend; and wanting to diffuse the situation just a bit; like Buffy and Giles wanting answers before the blood-spilling began. She looked over, and was pretty certain that Willow's eyes were black; the energy and rage radiating off of her in waves, and her face contorted with it. It was obvious she preferred to now rend the 'balance demon' limb from limb, before doing the same to Angel.
"I take it a demon that works to keep darkness and light balanced," Giles postulated, feeling that Cordelia's ploy was working; Willow's anger and magic were deflating a little.
"If you mean on a personal level, yeah, Ripper. If you mean the big forces of good and evil, not a chance. We're all about helping to find people inner balance and harmony and stuff; which is why I went to recruit the big oaf over there, back when he was still eating rats," Whistler answered with a disgusted face as he remembered Angel scurrying in alleys to find the rodents.
"/You/ sent him here!?" Xander asked, pushing Whistler harder against the wall again.
"Not to do the nasty with the Buffster and turn even nastier than that, if that's what you mean, love . . . no offense Slayer, but . . ." Whistler shivered.
"Will people quit it already!? I know, god damn it, I'm the one who did it with the corpse!" Buffy exclaimed exasperated and looked a little guilty when she saw Angel deflate at her blunt statement.
Whistler nodded, "Well, you were supposed to be killed by the Master, which would have spurned him on to finally get off his lazy ass. Instead, Xander's cross did that, he brought you back, and the rest is some really icky history. Could you set me down, now?" Whistler asked the last hopefully, looking at Xander.
"First, you tell me exactly why we shouldn't throw the bastard to the bottom of the ocean to keep Angelus from coming back," Xander hissed, teeth forced together.
"No more curse, man. They grafted his soul around the demon normally; he can do as many nasties with hot, blonde chicks as often as he wants, although I really hope he doesn't, and he's not ever turning in ugly and psycho again," Whistler explained, making everyone look at Angel for a moment, who squirmed under the glares. "Would you mind letting us go? He's got a lot of work to do."
"No, I'm going to kill you," Xander said with a smile, and prepared to lay down a buttkicking nobody ever got before.
Jenny took a few steps forward, and lay a comforting hand on Xander's shoulder, "Xander, no."
Xander's fist remained, and looked back. "Why not? It's a demon," Lotion asked with a pissed look.
"Because it isn't a sickening killing machine demon; and I do not want to see you, Xander, go down the path of revenge-killings; first it's a non-evil, evil-killing-machine, the next time it's humans," Jenny said gently, while glaring daggers at the balance demon, who winced from the look alone.
Xander looked at Jenny for a moment, as did most everyone else, wondering silently what was going to happen. Xander turned back around, and hissed, "You get to live, demon; but only so you can tell those bastard powers of yours this; they, or any of their employees and followers of theirs, you and Dead Boy included, set foot in this town ever again . . .
". . . we kill . . ." Lotion completed with a grown, followed by everyone inside the room apart from Angel backing it up silently.
His eyes boring coldly into Whistler's own, Xander took back over, ". . . painfully and gruesomely, you got that you piece of shit?"
Whistler nodded difficulty. Xander then picked the demon off the wall, and with a single vicious kick sent him flying out the double doors. Whistler gurgled and groaned out with pain, grabbing his gut which suffered at least one broken rib, and then slammed into the wall on the other side of the gangway. He and Lotion turned to Angel. Xander glared why Lotion said, "You hurry, before I consider it setting foot back in Sunnydale."
"I'm . . . sorry," Angel said with emotional pain in his voice, and felt horrible at how inadequate it sounded, and was. He gave Buffy a last look, but it was obvious Buffy was accepting Xander's and Lotion's and the others' decision with no more than a stare. He then walked out the library, and helped the hurt balance to his feet, before leaving.
"Xander . . ." Giles started, wanting to talk to the young man and his childhood friend; there was no way he knew exactly how to deal with them having lost their friend's remains. Xander didn't answer, he just stepped out of the library resolutely, raging internally. Lotion went after him quickly, as did Faith a moment later.
-----
Later
Cordelia sat on the couch in her parents' estates pool house. Oz was sitting next to her, and they were watching a fashion show. "So," Oz prompted.
"So, what?" Cordelia replied.
"So, it's 2AM and we're watching a fashion show rerun. How are you doing?" Oz asked her relaxedly.
"I'm fine," Cordelia answered him shortly, obviously not so.
"About this Jesse's ashes?" Oz prodded gently, not moving from his position, leaning back in the couch.
In contrast, Cordelia was hunched over with her hands together in her lap. "He was a loser who was practically stalking me. I could have called the cops and he'd be dumped in jail. What would his ashes mean to me?" Cordelia told him, but her bitchy tone wasn't very convincing.
"Right, 2AM, fashion show, and Xander, loser too?" Oz asked calmly.
Cordelia whipped her head around to regard him for a moment. Oz looked in her eyes. Cordelia turned her head away, and rubbed in her face. Finally Oz sat up and pulled Cordelia into an embrace, one she half-heartedly fought for a few moments, before being pulled to Oz's shoulder. It was a little uncomfortable at first, with Oz being shorter then her, but she found a better way soon. Cordelia held tight, and then muttered, "He and Xander were the only ones who would stand up to me, you know? The only ones who would talk back. I wish he wasn't a damn vampire when he pulled me onto that damn dance floor. I know he's a loser and we'd never last, and then I'd meet you, but part of me wonders; what if? Closest thing I had to a friend apart from Xander back then, and he and Willow never told me and showed me they had his ashes . . . bastards! And now it's gone."
"You should talk to them, tomorrow," Oz suggested, and Cordelia sagged.
-----
Xander's apartment
Faith was the one who opened the door, and Buffy and Willow entered. They saw a still angry Xander sitting on the couch. "Are you okay, Xander?" Willow asked gently.
Slowly Xander raised his head, and then said tonelessly, "I will be."
"Lotion, actually helped him calm down, a lot," Faith said with wide eyes. "I think he was about ready to tear every building in Sunnydale down after he let them go."
The two girls crossed the apartment and sat on either side next to him, while Faith sat down across from them in the other couch, staying silent. "It hurts," Buffy muttered, indeed having a pained voice, "I wish he had stayed dust."
Xander looked lightly surprised, Willow not so, she just held onto her childhood friend. Then he sobered a little, and said, "So that we hadn't lost Jesse's remains."
"That too," Buffy denied, and looked up to her best male friend, "with Angel dead, it was kind of a reminder, his urn. It constantly showed me my greatest failures, and my greatest triumph. I killed the thing that wore my lover's - however sickening that is - face; I set Angel free. It showed me I could do anything necessary to keep this world safe, yet showed me how I was, reminded me of my mistakes, you know?" Xander looked at her, and then nodded.
"Shit."
The three friends looked over at Faith as she sat there watching them. "I feel like a big dumb bitch," Faith said as explanation, looking pitiful.
"That's because you are," Willow said, her head still against Xander's left upper arm. Faith looked over at the redhead, who then smiled, "So are we, which teenager isn't?"
"Not me," Xander shook his head.
"Not me either," Buffy answered with a big grin. Willow and Xander looked at her. "Used to be, but not anymore, uh uh, killed thing that wore lover's face, just said so, remember?" Buffy clarified, and gestured her right hand at her head. With appraising raised eyebrows Xander nodded in agreement, and Willow gave Faith a look.
"I guess you and I have got some growing up to do, huh, Willow?" Faith said with a wry smile at Willow, who was looking annoyed at her two friends; who were softly laughing.
-----
Several days later
The figure was clad only in a black suit. A mask that showed only its eyes. The suit itself was form-fitting around the belly, mid-section, and upper legs - which showed off a delicious, athletic, agile and very feminine physique, that could easily make men howl in pleasure. The suit was looser up around the chest; which meant that the forward curve could have easily been the suit if the figure was male; but being as she was female, it meant they were breasts; not big breasts, smallish, perfect fitting the gymnastic figure; but still very present breasts. The pipes of the suit became equally loose around the girl ninja's lower legs, although never so loose they'd easily get entangled in bushes; giving her the appearance of a wraith in the night . . . if it were night. The Californian sun shone above brightly, and in the late summer it was quite warm; not that the ninja showed any sign of being hot herself.
The girl hid between some bushes of a garden, and quickly scanned left and right; making sure no one saw her, she sprinted silently out of her hiding spot onto the sidewalk, jumped before she reached the street, sailed all the way across it and into a tree. She landed perfectly silent on a branch, and with a second, immediate jump moved forward onto the roof of a house. How it was possible was a secret she and others like her would never part with, but just like with the branch, she landed without a sound on the roof. She made two equally silent steps, and jumped again, crossing the street once more; to land again in a foliage-rich tree. Still silent; not even the various bladed weapons hidden, and not so hidden, on her person made a jingle or scrape, she waited in the tree, hidden from sight. She looked around, and as her ears had told her earlier, a car came around a corner, and passed through the street, and past her hiding tree, without noticing her. Once the car was gone, she moved on; still equally silent.
Thus moving silent and unseen through Sunnydale, the girl soon reached her destination. The roof of Sunnydale High was the perfect look out; and when she landed on it, without a sound of course, she immediately went down to lie on her stomach. She peered over the edge, to the empty lunch seats. There she stayed, waiting patiently, until students came outside for lunch. Then she pulled two things from inside her suit; a picture, and a small set of binoculars, through which she started peering at the students to find her prey.
Down below, the extended Scooby Gang exited the school building, holding trays with food. Xander, Lotion, Buffy, Willow, Cordelia with Oz, Faith and Kendra found themselves a table and sat down.
"Tees feels still not raight," Kendra said in her usual accent, rolling the 'r' heavily. She looked around the table and at the students settling down for lunch, and some talking to each other.