Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Charmed.
"So, Xander, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?" Phoebe asked as she got out the bread for the sandwiches.
"Well what do you want to know?" he replied with a nervous smile on his face. While he had grown up around Buffy, Cordelia, and recently Sandra, the Charmed Sisters were Hot with a capital H.
"How about where you're from? Why you're here? How old you are? And are you single?" Phoebe said. She gave Paige a wink when she said the last one.
If Xander had a drink he would have performed a perfect spit take. Now Xander is a male, so an incredibly hot and powerful witch had immediately sent his blood rushing south, and brought a blush to his cheeks. "Uh well, I'm from Sunnydale, known as the lovely vacation home for demons, the Hellmouth." Good Xander, when in doubt fall back on the humor, no matter how bad it is, he thought to himself.
"I'm kind of here to start over or something like that," he said. Paige frowned. As a social worker she had seen a lot of kids come from bad situations, so she could tell he was hiding something.
I'll have to ask him about that later, she thought.
Xander wasn't paying any attention to either of the sisters' reactions, still too flustered from Phoebe's last question. "I'm seventeen, almost eighteen, and yeah I'm currently single," Xander said, and caused his blush to go up a couple of notches.
Damn, too young for Paige, Phoebe thought. She looked Xander up and down, which made him even more uncomfortable, she thought, maybe in a few years.
Paige was shocked he was so young. He seems so much older, she thought. She-unlike her sister- had noticed how uncomfortable this line of questioning had made the young witch so she changed the subject. "How long have you been fighting demons?" she asked.
He looked up in the air to do some mental calculations. "About two years now," Xander answered.
Phoebe, unlike Xander, had a drink, and unfortunately took a mouthful right before he answered. This of course led to a spit take. Both Xander and Paige were staring at Phoebe while she tried to get her breathing under control. At least until Xander burst out laughing. He was quickly followed by Paige. Phoebe simply waited until they calmed down before she turned a glare onto Xander. She was actually quite proud of this glare, since she had learned it from Grams when they were younger. After having been on the receiving end enough times she was bound to pick it up.
"You mean to tell me you have been fighting demons since you were FIFTEEN?" she practically screamed.
Poor Xander, all he could have done was shrink back and shake his head yes. He quickly turned to look at the youngest sister and gave her his best puppy dog eyes which screamed save me. Paige shook her head at the adorable expression on his face and tried to hide the blush coming to her cheeks for some reason. She turned and put her hand on her older sister's shoulder.
"Calm down, take a deep breath, good now let it out," she said. Once she had successfully calmed Phoebe, she gave everyone their sandwiches she had made. "Now Xander, how did you come to start fighting demons when you were fifteen?" Paige asked as she took a bite out of her sandwich.
Xander remembered the manners Willow had, almost literally, pounded into him and Jesse he swallowed the bite he had taken before answering, "Well it really started when this new girl, Buffy, transferred into our school."
So Xander told the sisters about his life in Sunnydale. He told them about the loss of Jesse, Buffy being brought back to life, heck he even told them about the hyena. He didn't know why he was telling these complete strangers his life story, but for some reason he felt comfortable and relaxed in their presence, like he was safe and they would protect him. Piper and Sandra, who had stayed with Piper to look in the Book of Shadows, had come in when he was telling the other sisters about the Halloween spell. They both stayed quiet until the end. Xander hadn't even noticed they were there, as he had been caught up in his story.
Sandra knew it would be good for Xander. The Charmed Ones were powerful witches, but also very caring women. Xander needed to share his pain about his treatment in Sunnydale with people other than her. He needed to build strong friendships with people he could rely on, especially considering what he would have to face in the future.
"So there I was, the portal was growing bigger, Buffy was trying to drag Angel towards the sewer entrance, and Angel was looking straight at me, practically pleading me to help him. The sword was on the ground, so I picked it up and gave him a nod. He tilted Buffy's head up and gave her one last kiss before he pushed her away. I ran, shoved the sword in his gut, and pushed him back towards the portal before Buffy could get back up."
The Charmed Ones saw the tears in his eyes as he retold his story. "After that, Buffy went ballistic. She called me a demon and told me I had 24 hours to leave Sunnydale before she came after me. So I ran back to my house, grabbed some stuff and all of the money I had been saving up, got on the first bus I could afford, and came here," Xander finished and looked at them for the first time since he began his story.
Paige and Phoebe were shocked and appalled with the way Buffy acted, but Piper understood why Buffy behaved the way she had. Grief doesn't make you think rationally, and more often than not you lash out at the first person you can, or the person you blame for the cause of your grief. After all, she hadn't wanted to help Paige after Prue died. Her grief nearly caused her sister to turn evil or die, because Piper thought Paige was trying to steal Prue's place in their lives.
Sandra went over and gave Xander a one-armed hug. "Feel better?" she asked.
He looked up at her with tears still in his eyes, but held a small smile on his face. "I actually do," he said. He then looked around at the other people in the room, and a sheepish expression appeared on his face. "Sorry for laying all of that on you guys," he apologized.
"Don't sweat it kiddo. Even the best of us need to lean on our friends or family sometimes. We can't be the big kickass witches all the time," Piper said as she walked up to the other side of Xander and gave his other side a hug.
Xander looked around at everyone in the kitchen and he didn't see any hate, fear, or even contempt that he had seen in Buff's eyes. All he saw was compassion, worry, and a little bit of anger, more towards Buffy than him.
"Thanks for understanding," he said.
In an effort to change the subject once again, Paige looked to Piper and asked what she found out about their blind demon.
"He's not actually a demon," she said. "The book said he was an Aiken witch who started killing other witches and demons, and stealing their powers. At the time the Aiken witches were allied with the Halliwell witches, and asked for their help with their self-proclaimed biggest mistake."
"What was their biggest mistake?" Phoebe interrupted. At one point during Piper's explanation both she and Paige joined the other three at the table.
"Well according to the Book of Shadows, the Aiken witches were powerful seers, and they never saw the betrayal of one of their own," she said.
"So how did they stop our blind witch demon thing?" Paige asked.
"According to the book his name is Timothy, however that could have changed by now, and they sealed all of his Wiccan powers into his eyes-blinding him and taking away his ability to divine the future. Apparently, this turned him into an upper level demon and allows him to be vanquished by a vanquishing potion," Piper continued her explanation, getting a little annoyed with all of the interruptions.
"So why did he kidnap Paige and myself? Wouldn't he have just wanted to kill us?" Xander asked.
"If I would stop getting interrupted I could explain," Piper almost yelled, glaring at everyone at the table. When everyone was appropriately cowed she continued, "When his Wiccan powers were sealed it took away most of his power and stopped him from being able to steal more, so he wants to his powers back. For that he needs the blood of the two lines that cursed him. What I want to know is why they went after you Xander, since the Aiken line became extinct?" Piper finished her explanation and looked at Xander.
Xander saw the sisters looking at him and did what any man in his situation would do. He sent his best puppy dog eyes at Sandra and begged her to explain. Of course, since Sandra had never met Willow, she didn't know the resolve face to counter the puppy dog eyes.
"Fine I'll explain," she said with a sigh. "The Aikens were powerful seers and had a vision that led them to move to the Hellmouth. Unfortunately, the negative energies started to bind their powers until it appeared that they had lost their magic completely. That is until Alex here left the Hellmouth and his magic started to unbind. Alex is the first active Aiken witch in years," Sandra explained.
"So you're an Aiken witch," Xander nodded and Phoebe continued, "Then that means he had both of the witches he needs to unbind his powers. So it's safe to assume that is what he wants, and he will be back."
Paige stood up and headed towards the cupboards. "Okay then, the book says that a vanquishing potion will work so all we need is a bit of skin, and poof he's gone for good. Let's get cracking."
"Paige, only one problem, we don't have any skin for the vanquishing potion," Phoebe said. Phoebe joined Paige in the kitchen and put the pan on the burner.
"Well that's an easy fix. Piper can freeze, you slice, I call for it, put it in the potion, and boom- no more evil demon," Paige said.
"Paige sweety, Piper's powers didn't work on him last time."
"Oh well… then uh, I guess we need another plan. Hey, if you knew this wouldn't work why are you helping me with the potion?" she asked.
"Because so far we only know the potion will vanquish him. Instead of finding a different way to vanquish this Timothy guy, maybe we simply have to find a different way to get the skin," Phoebe replied.
"On that note, Xander, do you have any other power? Or is it simply the fire powers we saw?" Piper asked Xander.
"Nope, I just have my regular fire power. Sandra said some witches develop a second power, but not until they've had time to grow and develop their first," he answered. "If your power doesn't work why don't we write a spell which either boosts your power, or does the same thing, just with all of our power behind it," Xander said.
The pot the two youngest Halliwell sisters were using to make the vanquishing potion let out a puff of smoke. "That's actually not a bad idea. I saw a spell in the book that multiplies the power of the caster by three," Paige said.
"NO!" both Piper and Phoebe yelled.
"It's just Prue used that spell once, and it works yes, but it creates two copies of the caster. When one dies the caster feels it like they died," Piper explained.
"We promised each other we wouldn't use that spell again unless it was as a last resort. We should probably just write a different spell to duplicate Piper's powers," Phoebe said.
"Ok, so we have the beginnings of a plan. Paige, you and Phoebe finish the potion and then make some more of the potions we used on the Vituars, while Xander and I work on a spell to duplicate my power," Piper ordered.
"But… but, I'm new to this. I don't think I would be the best one to help with writing a new spell," Xander said as he was dragged out of the kitchen by both Sandra and Piper. He knew he was doomed the moment he heard laughter coming from the kitchen.
Author's note: Big thanks to my beta hollymariec0mbs