Note: A big thanks again to Inachis, without her this would be much harder to read.

Chapter 3

On Saturday the young man we saw before was sitting at the same table as last time. Oblivious to his surroundings, he was waiting for Xander to appear and continue his story. After all, he still had to finish the article he was writing. He sat there for an hour or two and just at the moment he was thinking about paying up and leaving, Xander appeared in the doorway, looked around for a moment and then went over to the young man.

"Good evening John, are you ready for more?" Xander asked while sitting down on the free chair.

The young man nodded and at that Xander started: "Ok before we continue, as you know I'm a wizard of the White Council type and we have the so called 'Laws of Magic' to follow which would be

Thou shalt not kill by use of magic.

Thou shalt not transform others.

Thou shalt not invade the mind of another.

Thou shalt not enthrall another.

Thou shalt not reach beyond the borders of life.

Thou shalt not swim against the Currents of Time.

Thou shalt not seek beyond the Outer Gates.

And let me tell you, I broke them all..."

The young man was shocked and silent for a moment before he looked up. While continuing to avoid looking into Xander's eyes, he asked, "You did? How, when, why?"

Xander smiled before he answered, "Ahh, you will see, those questions will answer themselves while I continue my story."

Xander looked over to a waitress and waved her over. He quickly ordered a steak with potatoes and a beer. Then he turned back to John. "Hmm, last time I stopped with the death of Kendra and that my Faith was called because of that, but Faith will be in my story later on because at that moment in time we quite logical didn't know about her. While Drusilla killed Kendra my friend Willow was hurt by another vampire and lucky for us all, I woke up from being unconscious after being hit by some flying debris before that vampire could kill Willow. I quickly turned that vampire to dust with a small fire spell, but sadly, Kendra was already dead by that time. I still blame myself for not being able to help her. Drusilla being crazy, but not stupid, fled as fast as she could after she saw how I dusted her minion. After calling an ambulance and the police, and a long talk with those useless wanna be cops, I went out for a hunt."

Here Xander paused for a moment because the waitress from before brought him his order. While smiling at her and starting to dig in he continued, "Let me give you a piece of advice. Never go hunting when you're angry, at least not if you're an angry wizard, because here I broke our third law. After I went through two vampire nest without finding any information about Drusilla's whereabouts, I went to Willy's bar. There I dusted every vampire after making sure they couldn't tell me anything about Drusilla. At that time Willy was already afraid like hell, but he still wouldn't spill anything of what he knew. After intimidating him a bit more I lost control of my anger and took all of his knowledge directly out of his mind, thus breaking the third law..." Here Xander paused again and took a deep sip from his beer.

After a few minutes of silence, aside the sound of a pen scribbling over a piece of paper, Xander continued. "The sad thing is that I broke that law for nothing. Willy had no clue at all about Drusilla. After searching for her in Sunnydale for about a week I heard from one vampire that she had left the town shortly after she killed Kendra. As a thank you to the vampire I gave him a gift in form of a stake through the heart instead of a stream of fire." Here Xander stopped his tale again and took a deep gulp from his beer. "Do you want to hear more this fine evening or should we call it a night?"

After the young man gave Xander the answer that he hadn't really told him much yet today, Xander nodded and leaned back in his stool and thought a bit about what to tell now before starting: "Until Graduation our lives were kinda normal, at least for us. I learned more about being a Wizard and Faith joined our small band of heroes, for a while at least. To my shame I was so deep into learning more about being a Wizard that I totally missed how the others mistreated her and after she killed the Deputy Mayor in a friendly fire accident, she became deeply disturbed. Out of fear she tried to blame Buffy for it. Things went south from there. Her Watcher, a guy called Weasley or something like that, gave a report of the killing to the Council and they sent a retrieval team to get Faith to a trial. This was when I finally became aware of the situation and after a long talk with Faith and the others, I got the complete story out of them and tried to talk to that Weasley guy. Sadly he was quite thick headed and I wasn't able to get him to help me convince the Council that the death of Finch was an unfortunate accident and that Faith was in need of a councilor instead of a trial and thus I broke the fourth law of magic. I used my power and skills to enthrall Faith's Watcher and after a long talk with him and a few other Council members over a long distance call to London, I luckily convinced them to share my point of view. Only two days later the Council sent a councilor to Sunnydale to help Faith get over her problems."

Xander looked at the young man and then said: "You see now we're at broken rule number two. Do you still want to hear more today?"

The young man nodded.

"OK, your call," was Xander's reply.

"Let me get back to Graduation. I fulfilled the dream of every American teenager. I blew up my high school to kill our Major, who ascended to a full demon at the ceremony and planned to eat all of the students and their parents as an appetizer. After that I started the road trip I had planned for years, but instead of doing it with my friend Jesse, who died a few years ago, it looked like I would go on it alone. After I said my goodbye to the gang, Faith approached me and asked if she could join me because she needed sometime of from the Hellmouth too. So we left SunnyD and it wasn't much of a surprise when the old Harris luck hit again." Xander paused in telling the story again to order a Coke from a waitress and after the young woman had delivered his drink, he took a sip and then continued.

"Shortly after we left Sunnydale and just a few miles before Oxnard my car broke down. Magic and technology doesn't always work together, but luckily for me, it isn't as bad as with Harry. We spent a few weeks in the town and after saving the woman who owned the local strip club from a bunch of vampires, we spent a few weeks there. We had a lot of fun there and we also made a few new friends. Faith earned a bit of money by working as a bartender in the club and occasionally she earned a few bucks on stage. I earned some money by warding the club and the homes of the girls. During the time we spent there, Faith and I got to know each other much better and our friendship grew a lot. Even if we shared a room to save some money, we were only friends so far, but the tension was growing. Finally we earned enough and could buy a new car. After a small goodbye party the girls gave us, our next planned stop was L.A., where I wanted to visit my uncle from my mother's side.

He lived in one of those hospitals for War Veterans. Sadly, I only saw him once or twice during my youth, but he was always a funny guy, even if he was a bit crazy, but hey he wasn't in one of those hospitals for fun... Though, if I think about it maybe he was...I always liked to exchange letters with him and now decided to finally visit him on my own. Sadly my mom was always to drunk to drive with me to L.A. for a visit.

That's what brought us to the point where no good plan survives first contact with the enemy...and because my plan wasn't on the good side at all, it only had the chance of a snowball in Hell or a bleeding girl in a vampire nest to begin with.

After an uneventful drive from Oxnard to L.A., we finally reached the hospital where my uncle lived. I got out of the car and let Faith sleep. Just before I reached the entrance, I saw a blond man dressed like a male nurse pushing a wheelchair before him and in the chair sat a man who looked like my uncle, just a few years older than I saw him last. If I hadn't recognized him directly I certainly would have remembered his old flight jacket, because he sent me one like that a few years ago, as a present and I always loved it.

My uncle looked like he was totally dazed out and so I started to follow them. Why, you ask? That's simple. First, the male nurse was going the opposite direction from where the hospital cars stood and second, no male nurse would wear as expensive looking shoes as this man one did. OK, laugh at me for noticing another man's shoes, but if you'd have fought vampires for as long as I have and been a wizard where sometimes your life depends on small details like the wrong clothing or a correctly drawn circle, you would notice them too. I could also blame the girls for it.

After a few moments the man reached a black van and opened the back door. Because it looked to me like this guy was kidnapping my uncle, I started to run and jumped at the guy, totally forgetting I could have used my magic. Just a second before my jump kick fully hit the blond guy, my uncle got up out of the chair and asked in a confused tone. "Alexander?"

That was the moment when my foot connected with the blond one and threw him forcefully into the van."

AN: I totally blame Razial for including those guys as the first people Xander met on his road trip, so all complains are to be addressed to him *evilgrin* and an additional disclaimer will come in the next chapter after I actually tell you who he met, even if you should already be able to guess it.