By David MycockWalking the Path 16/
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the vampire slayer or any other of the characters in this story they belong to Joss Whedon and whoever else created the characters used in this story. Any characters I created I own.
Pairing: Janna Kalderdash/Xander Harris
Summary: Set after the love spell episode. Xander begins to walk his own path after leaning of his true origins. This also has a twist from the love spell episode with Xander actually sleeping with Jenny during the spell and the reactions from the rest of the group.
The next morning everyone met in the living room again, Kendra and Mr Sabuto still looked uneasy around the two nosferatu whilst the others didn't seem to mind their presence
"So where do we start?" Janna asked deciding to start things rolling
"I believe with some kind of proof they indeed work for the Hellsing organisation" Mr Sabuto responded instantly
"They are who they say they are Mr Sabuto" Xander told the watcher
"How do you know that?" Kendra asked
"Last night I had a small conversation with none other than Vlad inside my head" Xander replied confirming what Lilith and Adrian already knew "He somehow used the runes on the sword that he forged to open a telepathic link for a better word so he could talk to me" he added
"Good lord" Mr Sabuto said in complete shock whilst Kendra looked weary about how powerful this vampire was beginning to sound
"Are you sure it was actually him?" Amy asked
"It was father I felt his presence within the manor last night" Lilith put in
"What did he say?" Sarah inquired surprised by this turn of events
"Only that even though we can't find him yet that didn't mean we couldn't talk" Xander informed them
"Wow" Sarah said which was echoed a second later by Amy and Mr Sabuto
"Now that's out of the way maybe we should go into more detail about why you are here" Janna spoke up leaning against Xander
"As we said last night we were sent by father to help train you and your mate in not only our way of fighting the darkness but also how to use the ancient magic of the Romany" Lilith explained once more "If you are to how any hope of locating father you must be able to survive what you may come up against on your quest and as I said last night if you are not trained in how to use the magic of the sword you could bring harm to everyone you wish to protect" she continued
"And I except your help" Xander told Lilith "And any advice you may wish to give" he added
"Same goes for me" Janna agreed along with Amy and Sarah
"As we said last night we will train your mother and friend but not to the level we will you unless father or Sir Integra order us to" Adrian reminded them
"We'll accept whatever you wish to share with us" Sarah told them
"Then let us begin, the more you learn before you hunt again the better the chances you succeed in your objectives" Adrian said standing joined a second later by Lilith
"Before we begin there will be no more hunts until we revise our tactics" Xander told the others as he stood followed by Janna
"But" Kendra started to object before Xander cut her off
"Kendra the way we hunted Angelus last night is the same way Buffy and her group hunts and Angelus knows everything to do with how they work which means they know how we worked" Xander explained "It gave him the edge and almost led to our deaths if Lilith and Adrian had not arrived when they did" he added "We have to come up with a new way of conducting our hunt, the formation of our group the weapons we use things like that thing that will surprise Angelus" he finished
"You raise some good points once again Xander" Mr Sabuto said as he rubbed his eyes "And you are correct Angelus will use everything he knew as Angel to destroy us, I guess this is one of the many downsides of allowing a vampire souled or not into your group and has given him the edge" he added
"Another mistake on Buffy's part" Xander sighed "She was the one who wanted him to become a full member of the group over mind and Giles's original objections" he informed them
"We'll get started on tactics you begin your training" Mr Sabuto told the two before splitting up
Jack Crow decided to pull over at the upcoming motel, they were only three hours away from Sunnydale but they needed to rest and his men needed a break from been inside the trucks. He looked over to his sleeping companion and shook his head as another factor to his decision came to mind he and the others were tired and they wanted to be in fighting form when they arrived on the hell mouth.
After a two hour talk on the way the Hellsing organisation not only created the weapons and ammo that actually destroyed demonic weapons but on the tactics employed by them giving Xander some ideas on how to use them against Angelus.
Janna was looking quite surprised at the more modern way the Hellsing organisation raged the war against the darkness.
"I can't believe the council would not try and modernise their arsenal" Xander said with a shake of his head
"They only use modern weapons against traitors or rogue slayers" Adrian told them "They cling to age old traditions which has cost them a lot of lives over the centuries" he added with a frown
"Sounds like it's going to be hard to convince them to change" Janna mused
"Sounds more like it's going to be more effort than it's worth" Xander said as he stood up from he and Janna had been sitting "But I guess it's worth a shot in the end" he added
"The council is not known for it's ability to except advice on how to improve their ways, the Hellsing organisation and the Vatican council had tried before only to rebuffed quite forcefully" Lilith informed them speaking for the first time since they had begun
"Well next time we won't give them the option of refusing as I will no longer allow innocent people to get killed due to their pride" Xander said heatedly "I mean they are supposed to help keep the darkness away and all they seem interested in from what I have seen is their own power" he stated
"That is a correct view of how things stand especially in light of the fact that the current council is led by Quentin Travers" Lilith replied "He is quite harsh in his punishments of those who disobeys him" she added
"As interesting as this is it has no baring on things yet, we have training to begin" Adrian interrupted the conversation
"You're right" Xander agreed "So what's first?" he asked as Adrian led him over to the shooting range
"This is the Hellsing standard side arm" Adrian told them as he pointed to a hand gun that resembled a desert eagle "It holds seventeen rounds of both normal and explosive rounds" he explained "Lets see how you handle it" he said as he took a step back to join Janna and Lilith to watch as Xander loaded the weapon and took aim
Buffy paced the library as she tried to come up with a way to stop Xander and Kendra from killing Angelus but so far she hadn't been able to think of anything, she was getting frustrated by how things were turning out.
Giles attempts to get Miss Calendar to retranslate the spell were going no where and none of the others could think of a way to save Angel without the spell. She wished Xander had never gotten involved with her calling; she blamed much of what had happened on him and the rest on Miss Calendar.
She turned as the library doors opened and admit Giles and Willow both looked tired and slightly angry
"Any look?" she asked hoping they had found either Xander or Miss Calendar as she had asked them too
"No neither are in today" Willow replied as she sat down annoyed that she again wouldn't be able to try her hand at magic
"Damn them" Buffy spat "Giles is Miss Calendar the only way we can get a hold of the soul curse?" she asked
"I'm afraid it is" Giles replied as he polished his glasses "Only the Kalderdash tribe and Miss Calendar have the actual Curse and we have no way of actually contacting the tribe and also we do not know where Miss Calendar has hidden the scroll she used to translate the curse" he added
"Then maybe we should search her office" Buffy suggested
"No that is out of the question Buffy" Giles said instantly "If you were caught it'd be just the excuse Snyder would need to expel you plus I doubt she would of be careless enough to leave it in the school" he added
"What about her home then?" Buffy shot back instantly
"An even worse suggestion as that could lead to you getting arrested" Giles said feeling fed up and angry with how fixated Buffy had become ignoring almost everything else
"He's right Buffy we just have to wait until we can talk to Miss Calendar again, I'm sure eventually she will give us the curse" Willow tried to calm her friend
"But the longer she resists giving us it then the better the chance Xander and Kendra will have to kill Angel" Buffy argued
"For now we'll just have to wait" Giles told his slayer with a sigh
Xander drunk deeply from the bottle of water Lilith had given him feeling rather tired from all the drills Adrian had put him through, Janna was looking no better from she was sitting in front of him
He had managed to come to grips with the two main weapons the Hellsing organisation used pretty quickly due to the left over solider procession whilst Janna still had some way to go before she could shoot as well as he could, he was looking forward to trying out the bullets on Angelus when they decided to hunt him again.
He looked up as Amy and his mom entered the shooting range followed by Kendra and Mr Sabuto
"So did you manage to come up with some new tactics?" he asked leaning into his chair
"We believe so, although there are some risks I believe in splitting our forces" Mr Sabuto replied as they all took seats
"Splitting up?" Janna asked
"Kendra and Amy believe that we should split our group into two factions one as a hunting group and the other as a sort of backup if we run into more than we expect we will" Mr Sabuto explained
"Might work once the Vatican team arrive but too damn risky if we were to try it right now" Xander said with a shake of his head
"At least we will have some upgraded weapons when we go back out" Janna said
"One advantage but still we need others and I beginning to think I might have an idea how to give us another advantage" Xander said with a thoughtful look
"What?" Sarah asked
"Explosives" Xander replied "We could use explosives to cause massive damage to vampires so they will be easy to kill" he added
"By explosives I take you mean like grenades and stuff?" Amy asked
"Exactly, I've helped Buffy use a rocket launcher to kill what nearly everyone said was a invincible demon and it worked great so I'm thinking using a smaller type will work just as well" Xander explained
The others looked at each other for a few minutes before they nodded their heads in agreement as his idea
Jack Crow sighed as he noticed the welcome to Sunnydale sign, they had stayed at the motel for an hour and a half before getting back underway and now they had finally arrived, his noticed father Adam do a small blessing as they entered what according to Mr Sabuto was the location of the mouth of hell
"Did you get an address for where Mr Sabuto is?" the padre asked
"No he gave us a number to his mobile, just in case they weren't home" Jack replied glancing at his friend
"Then we better give him a call now that we have arrived so we can sit down and discuss why he decided to suddenly give us the location of the portal against his own council's instructions" the padre responded
"Does seem kind of strange doesn't it that after a century of silence one of them suddenly decides to talk" Jack shot back "Still I'm willing to see what's going on if he was telling the truth and this is the location of the portal" he added
Mr Sabuto placed the phone back inside his pocket and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he replayed the conversation inside his head, he was not looking forward to when Jack Crow arrived the man's attitude got on his nerves
"Something wrong?" Sarah asked as she noticed the look on his face
"Mr Crow and his team have arrived and are on their way here as we speak" Mr Sabuto replied as the others turned towards him
"Lilith I think it'd be wise for you and Adrian not be there until after we explain who you represent" Janna said as she faced the female vampire
"I tend to agree after hearing of Adrian's encounter with team Crow" Lilith agreed "But we will not hide from them" she added knowing nothing the Vatican's team had in the way of weapons could hurt her or her brother
"That's okay I wouldn't expect you too, we'll make to only allow him and one of his team to enter the house that way we'll minimise the chance of trouble" Xander said somewhat nervous how events would unfold seen as he was the one who suggested they bring the Vatican team to Sunnydale
Jack Crow looked at the two people stood outside the rather large mansion one of them was obviously a watcher whilst the second had to be the independent hunter he had mentioned. He pulled the truck to a halt and got out
"Wait here padre" Jack told his friend
"Jack Crow?" Xander asked as the tallish man came to a halt in front of him and removed his shades
"That's right" Jack replied "So why did you call us and let us know where the hell mouth was after keeping it a secret for so long?" Jack asked in an aggressive tone
"That was my idea Jack" Xander told him stepping forward
"You the independent the watcher mentioned?" Jack inquired still not trusting them
"That's right Jack" Xander said with a sigh not liking how aggressive the guy was being even though he had been warned before hand how he acted "I don't work for anyone my only concern is saving people's lives and killing vampires and demons" he continued "Things have to change between the different organisations out there, about how they interact with each other" he added
"What you mean kid?" Jack asked as he lit another cigar
"There's a lot to cover Jack so pick one of your team and we'll go inside and bring you up to speed okay and by the way the manor is owned by two members of the Hellsing organisation" Xander informed him
Jack looked between the two for a few minutes before walking over to collect the padre and to tell the rest of his team go check into the nearest motel whilst they found out what was going on and why two of the bitterest rivals suddenly seemed to be cooperating
"Alright kid lets talk" Jack said as he and the padre walked over as the trucks reversed and left the manor grounds
"One more thing Jack the two Hellsing members are" Xander started to say before Jack cut him off
"Don't tell me, they're vampires" Jack sighed "I already know they employ at least three nosferatu level vamps" he added "The Vatican tried to force them to be executed but the Hellsing organisation basically told them where to get of" Jack said with a smirk
"So I guess I can count on you not to try and kill them then and just listen to what's going on?" Xander asked
"Okay kid I don't trust any vamp especially not ones with the power the nosferatu have but the ones who work for the Hellsing organisation have good reputations so I'm willing to listen to them and if needs be work with them but I will never trust them" Jack told him straight
"It'll do for now but after we dealt with our problem Jack I want to talk to you about how things need to change if we are to have any hope of actually making a bigger difference in this war"
Jack gave him a long look as if judging what he had told him before giving a small nod in return as Jack himself had grown quite tired with the way the arguments between the different organisations actually helped the things they fought.