Disclaimer: I'm like the fourth monkey. They don't see, hear, or know anything. I don't own anything.

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Chapter 6

Good grief, Buffy thought, as she was buffered back and forth in the crowded airport, now I know how poor Cho An felt when she came to America. Hong Kong airport was crazy. She couldn't understand a word anyone was saying and all the people banging into her were making the Slayer rise to the surface. She had to get out of here. Struggling to keep her temper, she made it outside and onto the sidewalk. Breathing deeply, she pulled out the map Giles had given her and patted her wallet. She had directions and cash, now she just had to find a cabbie that spoke even a little English.

Hours later the cabbie jabbered at her in some weird pigeon English she was sure he thought she understood and pointed out the window. They'd long ago left the main part of Hong Kong and were now in some outskirt, boondocks area. If Buffy were a normal girl she might have been worried, stories of foreign kidnappings and all, but she was the Slayer. Unless the guy had a nuke hidden in the trunk, there wasn't much he could do to hurt her. So she shrugged and handed him what she assumed was enough money, and by his smile a very large tip, and got out of the cab. She had packed light and when she pulled out her duffle bag behind her, the cabbie roared off in a screech of tires.

"You have a good day now," Buffy grumbled under her breath and turned to what she supposed was her new home for a while. Only, all she could see was a whole lot of stairs. Sheesh, she thought to herself as she began to climb, why do I feel like I'm on the set of one of Xander's weird, old Kung Fu movies. Next thing you know, some weird dude with a long white beard is gonna appear and start talking to me in riddles or maybe some ninja's will attack. I think I'd prefer the ninja's. I've had enough of weird people speaking in riddles. Oh well, as long as he isn't carrying any cheese, I don't think I could handle that.

After climbing the eight million stairs she stood staring. There was a high wall that ran as far as the eye could see enclosing the area and a really big set of doors in front of her along the path. There was a large bell hanging to the left side of the door with a rope hanging down. Shrugging, Buffy went up and rang the bell. Then she set her backpack down and proceeded to wait and wait and wait some more.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" Buffy yelled and picked up her bag. "I am not Qui Chan….whatever his name was! This is stupid." Not a patient person to begin with, Buffy's temperament had not improved with the addition of her new Slayer driven rage. "Stupid Giles and his stupid ideas," she muttered as she leapt easily over the wall and into the garden on the other side.

(Six Months Ago, in the hotel)

"You want me to what?" Giles pushed his glasses up in a reflex action.

"I want to know if you know anybody who could teach me about all that Chi stuff you used to go on and on about when we used to train together."

"Chi stuff…Buffy did you pay attention to anything I said back then?" Giles just sighed. He didn't know why he was surprised, he should be used to the fact that she didn't listen to him by now.

"Well of course," Buffy's voice was indignant, "How else would I know about the stuff? So what if I didn't, you know, retain every word," she got a little guilty looking, "It's not like there was a test or something later."

"So why, if it isn't that important, do you want to know about it now?"

"Well just cause it couldn't help me then doesn't mean it can't help me now." She looked at Giles from her seat on the chair inside the hotel room. The air conditioning was on full blast, it was over a hundred outside, and it made her shiver a little as the artificial breeze cooled her skin. She was getting paler than usual, she decided absentmindedly as she rubbed her arms. Those last weeks in Sunnydale she had spent so much time patrolling and such at night that she hadn't been able to get outside during the day much. Two weeks trapped in a hotel room certainly hadn't helped her get back her tan either.

"Listen," her voice was low, "I'm running on empty here in the ideas department. I have an idea of how to get the basics down, it shouldn't be much different than when I first got Chosen, but after that I'm in new territory. The only thing I can think of was all that Chi stuff you used to talk about. You know, how if I could control my inner power than how I could be so much more effective as a Slayer."

"Yes, I remember talking about it a few times," Giles nodded. He had only mentioned it every training session.

"Right, so I never had any interest in learning about those kinda things back then. There wasn't time and to be honest, I probably wouldn't have listened even if there was." Giles looked at her, surprised. It wasn't like Buffy to admit things like that.

"Oh come on, Giles," Buffy grinned at him self depreciatingly making something in his chest tug painfully. "It's not like I'm the sharpest tool in the shed. I can be a little dense sometimes, we all know it. The fact of the matter is I'm 'live in the moment girl'," she put her fingers up in little air quotes. "I've had to live that way if I wanted to survive. But now I've gotta' get beyond that. Also, that chi stuff, it's sorta' important now, so spill."

Impressed Giles looked at his former pupil; she had really done a lot of growing up in the past few weeks. Maybe he should have locked her in a hotel room earlier. Shaking his head at the impossible dream he got up and wandered over to the desk that sat in the corner of the room. Pulling out the complimentary pad of paper and pen he wrote down a name, or at least he tried to.

"Buggering cheap pens," he muttered and shook the pen in his hand, scribbling some on the paper to get the ink flowing. There was no response from the pen, excuse or ink wise, and he pulled out a pen from his jacket pocket. Buffy watched him fondly as he wrote in quick, concise strokes. She really had missed him and his grumbly British ways.

"Here you are," he handed her the paper when he was done. "He's an old friend of the family."

"Is he a Watcher?"

"His family used to be part of the inner circle but they actually dropped out of favor a few centuries ago. Something about a dispute on how the Slayers were being treated as property by the Council," he smiled wryly.

"I like him already," Buffy grinned back at him and for a moment they were in complete accord like they always had been. Then old memories and new disputes intruded and they were once again back where they started, going no where fast. Coughing uncomfortably, he shifted in his seat and addressed her again.

"Now he's a very traditional man, Buffy," he told her, "You aren't going to be able to get away with the things you have around me. You'll have to behave yourself."

"Sure, sure," Buffy looked down at the paper in her hands. "Hong Kong?!"

(Present)

"Sure I'll behave myself," she muttered as she trekked across the sand that some idiot had put in the middle of the garden. It was like one big litter box. She'd been running all over the place looking for this teacher guy and nothing yet. She knew there was someone here. She could feel a human presence but it kept disappearing. "I'll be really polite when I bash his head in. That is, if. I. CAN. FIND. HIM!"

"Find who?" Came a voice from behind her.

Spinning in the sand, Buffy laid eyes on an awkward looking man dressed in robes. He was about 5'5" and had a sort of rolly polly look to him. His head was shaved bald and he had twinkling black eyes. They were narrowed at her at them moment.

"You do realize that you're standing in the sand garden that took me four hours to create, don't you?"

"Huh? What?" Buffy looked down at her feet and then around at her surroundings. In fact, if she looked at it right, the sand box did have an organized look to it. "Oh, sorry!" She sprang aside, landing with grace in front of the monk on the grass.

His eyes widened slightly at the ten foot leap she had just made and then he nodded. "You must be the student that Rupert Giles wanted me to take on."

"Yeah, that's me. Wait," she pointed a finger at him but he had already turned and headed off down a path further into the compound. "Wait a minute, you're Master Shin?"

The monk didn't answer but rather continued down the path, making Buffy chase after him.

"Look," Buffy huffed, "I don't know how you guys do things around here normally, but I haven't got time for it. I've gotta get control and then get back out there into the field. My friends need my help, demons to kill and all that."

He kept silent as they rounded a bend and went up a small incline. On the top of the small rise was a small stone building. He stopped, clapped his hands and bowed to it, and then continued on.

"Right," Buffy nodded at the building, exasperated, "Let's just ignore the world saving girl here. Why not, everyone else does? It's not like she does anything important or anything? I mean hello," she grabbed the man's arm and forced him to look at her, "I need to learn from you and then leave. I don't really care if you like me or not!"

His black eyes just stared back at her, impassionate, and then he moved on. Buffy looked down at her hand, frowning. She hadn't been holding on to him that hard, but he shouldn't have been able to get out of her grip.

"Jeez, okay look," she hitched up her bag and chased after him again, catching up as he entered a low stone cottage. "I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot here. I'm normally a very likable gal, at least I used to be. But anyway, I'm willing to do whatever you need me to do but I have to get control over this stuff."

"Why?" He asked out of the blue.

"Why?" Buffy frowned at him, "Didn't Giles tell you anything about me?"

"Rupert knows that I prefer to learn about my students on my own." He sat down cross-legged on a reed mat and gestured for her to do the same on the one that sat across from him.

"You at least know about the Slayer thing, right?" Buffy slumped down on the floor.

"Yes, I am aware of your status as the Chosen One, but I am unsure of why you are here. The Council has not allowed the Slayer to be taught by my family for generations."

"The Council," Buffy frowned at him, "Oh geez, have you got a lot to catch up on. Alright, here's how it goes…"

For the next twenty minutes she explained the circumstances that had brought her here, trying to keep her voice as calm as she could. She didn't go a lot into her past or about the whole dying thing, she just told the story about how the First had forced them to activate all the Potentials and how she'd gotten her supped up powers. He sat frowning for a moment, taking it all in.

"So you are no longer the only Chosen One?" His voice was soft. "That is indeed most momentous."

"Yeah, it's great. Look, can we get back to the part where you're supposed to teach me how to control this stuff."

"Why?" He cocked his head and looked at her.

"Why what?" Now Buffy was really confused.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" She just stared at him, uncomprehendingly. "If I understand you correctly there are now hundreds of Slayers running around. What do they need you for?"

Buffy frowned at him, "Look mister, I don't know what kind of Watcher or ex-Watcher you are but just because those girls are Slayers know doesn't mean everything's hunky dory. They need to be brought together and trained or they're just sitting ducks."

"Yes," he folded his hands into his sleeves, "I understand that. But are not Rupert Giles and the rest of your friends taking care of it? You are but a simple Slayer. What impact can you have? What more can you add to their cause but another pair of hands?"

"Well I…," Buffy froze, caught at an impasse. He was right. Buffy had been so focused on getting control over herself and getting back into the fight that she had never stopped to think what she was going to do when she got there.

What was she going to do with the rest of her life? She could try and teach, she certainly knew a lot about Slaying, but to be honest she wasn't that good a teacher. Look at the disaster she had made with the last group of Potentials she had been given. They had rebelled and kicked her out of the house for cryin' out loud. Faith, for all her faults, had turned out to be a much better teacher than Buffy ever had been. I'm an anachronism now, she snorted to herself.

The new waves of Slayers were going to be completely different than she ever was. They would still fight and die of course, it was the nature of the business. But they were going to be able to fight in teams and call on back-up, to have friends and days off and even lives of their own outside of Slaying. It was a whole new way of doing things.

Buffy had never worked in a team. Oh she had the Scoobies of course and they added their own dynamic to the cause, but in the end she had been the Slayer. They could provide backup and do research and Willow had started helping more with the spells but the final fight had always been Buffy's. She had been the one responsible for their safety, for their continued existence. Even when Kendra and Faith had come something had always gone wrong and she'd been left alone again. She was the last line of defense and it had become ingrained in her being that she always would be, because there had never been anyone else to help her.

"I…I don't know," her laugh was almost a sob, "I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing."

Master Shin looked at her and then nodded, saying, "Well, that is a good place to be."

"What?"

"If one is perfectly aware of one's place in the universe, one is usually wrong," he told her, "The only thing constant in this world is change. All we can do is try and adapt. So I will ask another question. Since you cannot decide what you will do later, what do you want to do right now?"

"Right now," she looked down at her hands, "I want to be able to trust myself. I don't want to be scared of myself anymore." Her voice hitched slightly and she felt the tingle of tears in her eyes. "I want you to help me. Please?"

"Then I will do so," his eyes were kind as he watched her and Buffy actually began to feel a bit of hope.

...

Author's Note:

Da Da DAAAAA! (Takes a bow)

Silence

Alrighty then, I know you're out there. I got some reviews on the last chapter and people seemed to like it. To be honest I was a little worried about it, I'm glad it was so well taken. This chapter is a little different. We are now getting down to the nitty gritty. Buffy needs to get control over her powers, yes, but to do that she's going to have to take a good look at who she's become and what she wants to be in the future. She's never had the time or inclination to sit down and reflect before, there was to much happening, but now she has to. I always got the feeling during the show that Buffy desperately wanted to be able to change her life but at the same time was very afraid to because if she did she would have to really look back at her life.

People have a tendency to get so caught up in the momentum of life that they don't that they rush down a path and rarely take to the time to wonder if they even want to be there or how they can get off. At least, that's they way it is for me anyway.

I actually considered just dropping into this world in the future where the bad guy immediately shows up, but it seemed kinda weak to me. All of the fun is in the journey anyway, not the destination.

Looking forward to your responses and I'm off to write the next chapter.

OMAKE:

Master Shin- Here

Buffy- What's this?

Master Shin- It's a rake.

Buffy- Is this some code for some master level kung fu move your gonna teach me?

Master Shin- No, this is because you ruined my sand garden. Now you get to fix it. -points to the sand garden

Buffy- pout -Fine

(Four hours later)

Master Shin- What in the name of Buddha have you done? -gapes at garden

Buffy- Well, I didn't get what all those swirls and stuff were for, so I just did what I usually do when I'm around this much sand. I made sand scuptures.

Master Shin- stunned silence

Buffy- I think the one of the pig is the best.