8. Chapter 8
Disclaimer: Buffy and Charmed are not owned by me.
"Again."
Xander let out a growl as he got off the ground and got in his fighting stance again. Xander and Sandra had been training for three weeks now and you could already see results. Thanks to his soldier memories he was picking up the fighting styles and stances at an incredible rate. His hyena possession had some side effects also. His muscles had been enhanced so that the benefits from any training or exercise are more than doubled, and she had been working him hard. All of this really helped with the physical side of his training; however, his magical training was another story.
/Flashback/
"Focus, Alex, your power is there you just have to find it," Sandra told him.
"I'm trying but it would help if I knew what my power was," Xander practically growled out.
Sandra opened her eyes to see his clenched shut in concentration and anger. "I told you all witched are different. There is no way to tell what your power is until you use it. All I know is that you have already used it, and since you can't remember what is was we have to use meditation to find your trigger," she said.
Xander took a deep breath. He knew she was right but he hated sitting still. Letting his breath out and then in he slowly calmed himself. 'Focus' he thought. 'I've already done this I just have to figure out how'. As he was breathing a memory came back of a dream he had. He began to see the shadow men again just jumping around him. He started to panic 'this isn't supposed to be happening is it' he thought to himself.
Sandra watched as her young charge dropped into a trance and breathed a sigh of relief. That is until she saw the panicked look on his face. She started to get up and rouse him from his trance, but then the look changed to one of anger and the air started getting warmer. The last thing she saw was a wave of fire heading towards her.
Xander was just about to call out to Sandra when he realized he was scared of shadows. SHADOWS! Then he got angry. Suddenly he felt that spark over his heart that seemed to ignite a wildfire. He mentally pushed that fire out at all the shadow men in a wave of force. With that he opened his eyes and saw the warehouse they were in burning and Sandra buried under a pile of charred wood and barrels. Xander managed to get her out of the warehouse and out of sight by the time the firemen got there.
/End Flashback/
That had just been the beginning. After they found his trigger he then had to focus it and channel his magic to do what he wanted. Unfortunately his trigger was anger and anger is really hard to control. Every time he used his power it immediately got out of hand and he couldn't stop it not to mention that now that he had actively use his power every time he got angry he would either get really hot or things would randomly catch on fire. All in all his active power sucked.
The other aspects of his magic were going pretty well. He could now rhyme like a pro and could probably make a potion out of things found in a girl's purse. Ok probably not the last one but he was getting pretty good.
Xander didn't know what he would do without Sandra. She had helped him so much already just by training him, but had also saved his life.
Xander had been able to convince her to let him stay in his hotel it just didn't seem right to move in with her. However three days into his training he was attacked in his hotel room.
/Flashback/
BANG!
Xander rolled out of bed just as the fireball that had been aimed for his head hit his bed. Xander peeked over the side of his bed to see a huge demon with three horns and really sharp teeth. Its skin was blue with black swirls everywhere, but what caught his attention were the blue fireballs it had in its hand.
Xander ducked down behind the bed as a fireball flew past it. All of a sudden the bed was flung against the other wall and Xander looking up at the smiling demon.
"Ah I caught myself a tasty little witch. Let's make him scream," it said as it started to reach for Xander. But Xander was raised on the Hellmouth and had fought side by side with the Slayer, so reached up and grabbed the demons arm and flipped him over his head. Rolling out of the he ran into his weapon bag. Xander grabbed his sword and charged the demon. Seeing this the demon smirked and sidestepped the swing and punched Xander in the stomach causing him to double over. Then he was grabbed by his throat and slammed against the wall.
"Bad little witch. I don't like it when my food fights back," it said still smirking.
Xander couldn't break the things grip and its skin was like leather. All Xander could do was gasp out one word.
"S…Sa…Sandra"
The demon never saw the orbing blue lights or the ax that took off its head.
/End Flashback/
After that little episode he moved in with her and Sandra stepped up the training. It wasn't as bad as he thought. She was like the sister he never had and sometimes the mother he wished he had. Sandra for her part was surprised at the affection she had for her charge. She found herself treating him like a brother and she liked it.
They didn't just train like crazy they had fun too. Sandra showed Xander around the city and some of its best attractions. She also managed to get him into a few clubs. All she could do was smirk when he told her P3 was his favorite.
Despite all the training they were doing Sandra still wouldn't let him fight some actual demons at least not until he could use his power in a fight, and that was what they were trying to do now. Their plan was to get him angry enough in a fight to bring out his powers but hopefully in a more controlled flow.
Xander took a calming breath and then charged her again. He threw a right hook, which she ducked, followed up by a kick aimed for her stomach. She grabbed his leg his leg and jerked him off his feet. Xander landed with a thump and suddenly saw red. The next thing he knew there was a fireball in his hand and he flung it as Sandra.
Sandra saw the fireball and started to smile 'we did it' she thought. Then she saw it coming right for her and barely had enough time to orb out of the way. When she finally solidified both her and Xander were smiling.
"Ha ha you did it," she said. "Now we just have to get you to do it without getting tossed around for half the day," she continued.
Xander's smile fell and he groaned. "Just once can't it be good job Xander now let's take a break or call it a day," he whined.
"No because I refuse to call you that childish nickname and because you still have a long way to go."
That was one thing they always argued on his name. Xander was uncomfortable with his full name he didn't feel like he deserved it. 'Protector of Man' indeed, but she refused to call him Xander saying that it was a childish nickname that demeaned his value as a warrior.
He laughed at her when she told him this but immediately shut up when he saw her giving him the death glare.
/Flashback/
"You fight demons because it is the right thing to do. You face down evils that make grown men and women wet themselves. You do all this without your heritage and without other powers. You are a warrior Alex in every sense of the word, and don't let anyone tell you different," she said.
All Xander could do was stare at her and nod his head. He had walked back to his room in a slight daze. 'No one has ever said anything like that to me before' he thought to himself. He went to bed that night with a smile on his face.
/End Flashback/
"However I guess we can call it a day you have been working hard," she said.
"Yippee," Xander said doing the snoopy dance.
"Ha ha come on you goof. So how's the anger management?" she asked.
That was a major problem he had. Xander has never considered himself an angry person, but when you suddenly start setting things on fire when you're the least bit angry it forces you to do some soul searching. The first couple of days after his powers activated had been the hardest every time he got the slightest bit upset they had another burn mark somewhere. Meditation worked for a while but he was still setting things ablaze every once in a while, so Sandra got him some tapes on anger management and a stress ball.
The ball didn't last very long. The first time he tried to use it it melted in his hands. The tapes however were a big help he hadn't set anything on fire in two day and he told her just that.
"I'm glad for a while there I thought we would have to move out of the city or risk lives living in an apartment," Sandra said. She bumped him with her hip before saying, "Come on I'll race you to the car." With that she orbed out.
"Hey that's no fair you're cheating," Xander yelled as he raced after her.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: ok so one more time jump before we get to the main part of the story.
9. Chapter 9
"Alex duck!"
Xander dove for the ground just as a fireball flew over his head. He had learned not to question Sandra when she told him to do something or it could mean a lot of pain for him. They had been fighting some low level demons when one had thrown a dagger at him. Sandra had told him to duck then too, but instead of listening he turned around instead. The dagger had dug into his right shoulder cutting right to the bone. Thank God for White Lighters especially Sandra. She had killed the demons then healed his shoulder. Unfortunately he had to sit through a lecture on listening to her while in a battle situation while she healed him.
Xander jumped up from his crouch and launched a stream of fire at the Scavenger Demon that had thrown the fireball. He nailed it right in the just and paused just long enough to make sure it burst into flames before moving on to the next target.
That's another thing that had changed. He had managed to control his fire power over the last couple of weeks.
/Flashback/
"Come on Alex focus channel the power from your heart into the palm of your hand," Sandra told him.
Xander sat in the middle of another abandoned warehouse with his legs folded in a lotus position with his eyes closed and beads of sweat rolling down his face. As he sat there he could feel the heat just behind his heart flickering back and forth like a candle flame, but slowly he coaxed it down his arm towards his palm.
"Alex look you did it," Sandra shouted.
When Xander looked down at his hand there was a ball of orange and red flame about the size of one of his stress balls. He looked up at Sandra with a wide grin and lobbed the ball towards a pile of wood were it exploded sending wood shards in every direction. When Xander and Sandra looked at each other they both had maniacal grins on their faces and started laughing.
"Demons better watch out cause with this kind of fire power they don't stand a chance," Xander said while smirking until a hand wacked him on the back of the head.
"Don't get cocky," Sandra told him. "Some demons are fireproof or need a vanquishing spell to kill. While your power is strong you shouldn't rely on it that leads to laziness and death."
Xander gave her a somber look before nodding his head.
"Now that took you way too long try again only faster," she told him. Xander let out a groan before getting back into position to try again.
/End Flashback/
With the training Sandra was putting Xander through he quickly got a better handle on his powers. While not fully mastered his witch studies had progressed extremely well. He now knew various potions to vanquish demons, cure injuries, and other helpful brews. While he would never be a master he could still create some effective spells given enough time. Sandra had him create and memorize some helpful spells and generic vanquishing spells to use in a pinch. The physical aspect of his training was where he excelled. He was in top physical condition now and had studied basics in various forms of martial arts, but while he excelled in that his power was still slightly unstable. Sure he could use it and use it effectively, but it would still get away from him sometimes and still occasionally popped up when he was angry. His firepower was really awesome though he could make it into a stream of fire or into a compact fireball, or as he liked to call them firebombs because when they hit anything they blew up in a small explosion proportional to the size of the ball.
When Sandra finally deemed Xander ready she gave him his families Book of Shadows.
/Flashback/
Xander was in the living room of their apartment with the furniture pushed to the side doing some basic katas when Sandra walked in. She sat down on the couch placing a brown sack beside her.
"Alex sit down for a minute please," she asked.
When Xander was finally sitting in front of her she paused for a moment before taking a deep breath.
"Alex you have been training extremely hard these past few weeks. Honestly you're the most driven and hardworking student I've ever had. You've shown me that you can listen and take direction but you also know how to think on your feet and use all of your resources to make sure you come home at the end of the day alive and relatively unharmed. It's because of this that I'm finally convinced that you're ready to go out and fight the demons that are corrupting this world."
Xander had a smile on his face and was almost bouncing with excitement. Sandra knew how hard it was on him to sit at home training knowing that there were demons out there killing innocents and he wasn't there to save them. It had taken a lot of fast talking to convince him that he was useless to anyone if he was killed because he lacked the necessary training.
She smiled at him before picking up the sack and started to pull something out of it.
"Now Alex what I am about to give you is a very dangerous weapon and a demon magnet." She pulled out a black leather bound book. It was a little scuffed up and the pages were a sort of yellowish color that only really old books had. The back cover had three slashes on it from what could only be claws. On the front cover was an all seeing eye. Xander could feel the power coming off of this book and it resonated with his powers. Xander found his hand start to reach out for the book without him being aware of it.
Sandra had a little smirk on her face before she said, "Take it Alex it's yours. This is the Aiken families Book of Shadows. In it is information on hundreds of demons various vanquishing potions and spells and other magical knowledge that your family had gathered over the years."
When Xander finally touched the book the pages started glowing and he heard a rushing sound in his ears. A sharp pain in his finger touching the book snapped him out of it and when he looked down he saw the carved eye looked real and was staring right at him. Its pupil glowed silver for a moment and seemed to look right through him before going back to a simple metal decoration.
Xander looked up at Sandra and asked, "What just happened?"
"Book of Shadows have so much magic that they become almost sentient. The book simply tested you to see if you were really an Aiken witch," Sandra said. "And if I wasn't," he asked?
"Then it would have tried to kill you. Unlike the Halliwell's Book of Shadows evil can touch it so it has other fail-safe's to keep it out of evil hands and the blood and intent tests are two of those."
"Intent tests," Xander questioned? Sandra let out a long suffering sigh. Sometimes Alex's inquisitive nature was more of a curse than a blessing at least for her.
"When the eye looked at you read your mind or at least skimmed it to learn your intentions. Will you use the book for good or evil that sort of thing," Sandra answered.
"Two more questions, what's with the eye and why is this a demon magnet," Xander asked?
"The all seeing eye is a symbol of your family. In the past your family has tended to produce some of the strongest seers and prophets. Other than that the most common magic in your family was mind magic's reading minds, empaths, and hypnosis. The reason it's a demon magic is because knowledge is power. If a demon got its hands on this book it would know how to vanquish any of its opponents and could learn how to counter potions and other magic that can be used on it."
Xander took the book and started looking through it. Sandra left him there but when she got up in the morning and he was still reading he got an earful about the reason a body needs sleep and rest.
/End Flashback/
Xander dodged another fireball before twisting and stabbing his daggers into another demons neck. When he looked up he saw Sandra twist the neck of the last demon turning it into a pile of blue goo.
"Well that was invigorating," she said.
Xander just smiled and wiped the sweat off his face with the bottom of his shirt.
"Let's go home and clean up before heading out for dinner. Oh we can try that new Japanese steak house," she said before grabbing his arm and orbing away.