The ceiling was spinning. It was not supposed to do that. Gasping for breath, Cordelia help up a hand at a nervous Wesley. "Let's not do that again."

Wesley pushed his glasses up farther and nodded. "Yes, perhaps we should slow down our, uh, training process."

Cordelia had just attempted a back somersault of of one of the bookshelves. Suffice to say, she had not landed well. She lay on her back, trying not to move. Her entire body was on fire. Wesley was rubbing his hands together, staring ahead blankly. Fine, ignore the injured Slayer.

"So we can call it a day?" She asked, groaning as she tested her fingers. Wesley nodded absently. Sighing, Cordelia stared at the ceiling.

Whomp! A huge stick slammed into her stomach. She yelled in pain, searching for the source of her attack. Giles was holding a giant pole thing and was already raising it to obviously hit her again. She rolled out of the way as it barely clipped her side. "What the hell, Giles?"

Giles calmly stepped towards her, pole in hand. "Do you really think a vampire is going to care if you're winded? There are no time outs in Slaying." He ended his sentence with an emphatic whap as his stick hit the ground where she had laid two seconds ago.

Growling, Cordelia forced herself to stand up. She was not in the mood for this. Giles swung again, and she jumped over the stick. She glared at him, irritatedly. "Quit it."

He didn't respond, but instead hit her in the side with his stupid pole. "I said knock it off!"

She caught the stick when he swung it again, trying to wrench it from him. Instead he twisted it from her grasp and knocked her feet out from under her. Panting, Cordelia tried to catch her breath while he prepared to swing again. Fine, he wanted to play, she'd play.

She flipped onto her feet and faced him, raising an eyebrow tauntingly. He swung his pole thing and she caught it before it collided with her chest. Then she twisted it up, pulling it out of his grasp.

"HA!" She crowed, pointing her new stick at him. Giles rolled his eyes.

Wesley, who had watched the events silently, spoke up. "Go practice on that dummy."

"I think Giles and I just practiced, didn't we?" Cordelia said, grinning gleefully at her insult.

Wesley stared at her blankly, until Cordelia sighed and walked over to the dummy think that Buffy practiced on. "No sense of humor. Must be an English thing." She muttered under her breath.

As she put on her sparring gloves, she glanced behind her. Giles and Wesley were whispering secretly to each other. Of course they were. It seemed that was all they did this week, aside from beating the crap out of her.

She'd gone to after school training every day for two weeks since she'd agreed to Slay. She'd told her parents that cheer practice was an extra hour or so because her team sucked so bad. And she came home sore and tired each day. Admittedly, the training was working. She felt stronger and fitter. More capable. However she was still getting used to her strength. The other day she'd ripped the shower curtain off, broken six glasses and pulled her doorknob off of her door.

As she laid into the fake person, she couldn't help but wonder what they were discussing. As she got more into the workout, she blocked out all thoughts and focused.

Sweating profusely, but feeling pumped, Cordelia wiped her face with a towel and glanced in her Watchers's? direction. Both men were talking quietly, occasionally looking at her and then returning to their conversation. Sighing, she slung the towel over her shoulder and walked over to them.

"Earth to Watchers. Can I go now?" She asked, still slightly out of breath.

Giles gave her an uncomfortable look. "Not quite. There are matters, that uh...need tending."

Cordelia's eyes narrowed. "Matters?"

Wesley cleared his throat. "Yes, er. We think it would be best to inform the uh other Slayer in the vicinity of your presence."

"My presence? I'm pretty sure Buffy knows I'm here. You mean you want to tell her I'm all freaky like her now?"

Giles shifted his glasses. "We think Buffy should know that you have...inherited things that she uh has? We're also discussing the possibility of you two working together."

He held up a hand before she could interrupt. "Now, now. I know it might be difficult at first, but it makes sense. It is senseless to train you two separately when you could learn from each other. I'm not going to listen to any protests. Wesley and I think it's a good idea and that's that."

Cordelia stared him down for a long moment and than rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Giles glanced at his companion. "Buffy is on her way here. I told her we have something important to inform her of."

Cordelia growled under her breath but ceased at a sharp look from Wesley. She shot them both a pouting look and stalked away, putting her headphones back on.

Cordelia looked up from her crunches when she saw the door open and several people walk through. Pulling her headphones out, she sat up and watched them. For some reason Willow and Xander were accompanying the blond, abnormally short person.

Buffy walked over to where the two Watchers were standing. Cordelia stood up and wandered over to where they had formed a circle. She stood slightly behind Willow and Buffy watching silently.

Buffy cocked an eyebrow as she surveyed Wesley. "Who's this?" She asked Giles.

Giles fixed his glasses for the hundredth time and opened his mouth to speak, but Wesley answered first.

"I'm Wesley Wyndham Pryce. Miss Chase's new Watcher." Well he just dived right in.

Xander gave his nervous laugh. "Why does Cordelia need to be watched?"
They all had similar expressions of confusion and Buffy prodded Giles. "What is he talking about?"

Cordelia found it rather rude how instead of speaking to Wesley she asked Giles instead.

Giles cleared his throat. "It appears that Cordelia has become a Slayer."

All three teenagers erupted into speech, but Giles waved his arms trying to silence them. "Buffy, you did technically die for a very short period of time. A new Slayer must have been called. The person who was called was ...Cordelia."

Xander was the first to speak. "This is insane. We're talking about Cordelia, Giles. Obviously the powers that control hiring the new Slayer screwed up."

Willow nodded her agreement and Buffy took a deep breath. "This can't be happening. There's no way Cordelia's a Slayer. It's insane."

Wesley interrupted, "We're very sure that she is the new Slayer. It's the only logical explanation."

"Well even if she is, Cordelia can't slay. She doesn't know how. It's Cordelia." Buffy said dismissively.

Cordelia's hand balled into a fist, but before she could explode, Giles slammed his own fist onto the table.

"That is enough. Cordelia did not choose this and she has the best attitude out of you all. Starting from this moment you will stop being incredibly selfish and you will listen. This is happening and all three of you will deal with it and stop acting like insolent children. Buffy, you will train with Cordelia and I will not hear another word from any of you!"

There was a long silence as everyone in the room stared at Giles.

Then Willow timidly offered, "Welcome to the team, Cordelia." Giles nodded in approval.

The next day was uneventful, until Cordelia walked into the library after school. She wasn't delighted to train with Buffy, but she figured she didn't have a choice. Willow had become friendly enough, making uncomfortable small talk. Xander made snide jokes about her Slaying, but it was better than Buffy pointedly ignoring her. The other Slayer had refused to talk to Cordelia, and once Giles finished lecturing had left.

Slowly walking into the library, she saw Buffy hadn't arrived yet. Giles glanced up from the book he was reading and nodded in satisfaction. She was wearing shorts and a tank top, and her workout shoes. She had been showing up to train in expensive jeans or a skirt, with an adorable blouse. After being told of, she'd started bringing clothes to change into after school.

"Good. You can start practicing with the mace."

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "When am I ever going to use a mace?"

Giles gave her the 'do it or else' look, and she grabbed the mace wearily. It was an uncomfortable weapon, weirdly disproportionate. She preferred more graceful weapons.

As she was testing the weapon and trying not to kill herself, Buffy walked through the door. She glanced at Cordelia and then raised an eyebrow at Giles.

"Why don't you work over some simple moves with Cordelia?"

Buffy deftly put her hair up into a bun and turned to her. "Fine. I'll teach you how to work the crossbow."

Cordelia shrugged and followed Buffy to the weapons. She tossed a crossbow to Cordelia and she caught it easily. They spent the next half hour working on working and aiming, until Cordelia felt more comfortable with it. They were both so focused the tension eased and they were getting along okay. After the crossbow, they started working out. Cordelia worked on weights while Buffy did this weird aerobic routine. They worked in companionable silence for a while and when they finished, Cordelia found herself thinking that this could actually work.

Cordelia swiftly blocked Buffy's leg as it swung at her chest. As she threw it back, Buffy used her as leverage to flip and try to hit her again. Cordelia grinned and grabbed her outstretched hand, twisting her and then sweeping a leg against hers, sending the opposing Slayer sprawling.

Panting, Buffy rolled over and kicked both of her feet into Cordelia's chest. Cordelia flew several feet and landed on her back, wincing in pain.

They both lay still for a long moment, until Buffy got up to go check on the brunette. "You okay?" She asked, trying to hide a smile.

Cordelia pressed a hand to her side and said sarcastically. "Yeup. I feel great. Just a couple broken ribs, maybe some internal bleeding, no big deal."
Buffy reached out a hand and helped pull Cordelia up. "Don't be a baby. You're getting much better."

Cordelia blew some hair out of her face. "Thanks. Now if you don't mind, I think I'll go home and die."

As she grabbed her bags, she had to admit that she was getting better. They'd been practicing together for about a week and a half, and they now had an uneasy friendship. Cordelia hadn't gone slaying yet, but Giles had said yesterday that she was almost ready. She was anxious and excited at the news. She just really hoped she didn't completely embarrass herself.