Vanguard Slayer

by Joshua The Evil Guy

Buffy encounters an enemy that she cannot defeat alone. After this demon kills Angel in front of her, can she possibly survive? Only with the teachings of a young warrior sent by the Watcher's Council to train her and her friends does she have a chance!

2. Swifter Justice

Vanguard Slayer

Author: Joshua

Summary: The warrior that the Watcher's Council sent isn't even as old as the Slayer herself and yet despite all doubts, he is what he is, and he can and will teach the Slayer, and her friends, what it is he was sent to teach them. But can they learn the secrets of the Chi-Armor in time before the Judge returns for his revenge?

Spoilers: Up to "Bad Eggs" and beyond, but before "Surprise", which turns out very differently.

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon created and owns the Buffyverse, which is company owned by Mutant/Enemy Productions. "Chi-Armor" is, as far as I care, a semi-original concept, derived from multiple factual and fictional references, but the term and use itself is original to this story.

AN: Chi-Armor is NOT pronounced how it looks to the American, British, or even Japanese eyes, no offense. It is pronounced with the Greek approximation. Χ, or "ck-I" is the way to pronounce it when you see the word put as Chi-Armor. If seen as chi or ki, then it is pronounced how it is spelled.

"*NEVER* mess with someone who can alter the basic forces of the Universe,

and avoid messing with people who can rip off your arms and beat you to

death with them."

"Especially if they happen to be teenage girls."

-- Troy Guffey

Story: "Swifter Justice"

Last time on Vanguard Slayer:

The young man turned his attention to Giles and a hint of a smile reached his face. "Again, forgive the intrusion, and my rather abrupt manner. I sincerely apologize for my rude behavior, but given the circumstances, I felt I did not have much recourse. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Jason Everheart. And Mr. Giles, I was sent by the Watcher's Council. To help you."

Everyone just stared at him, stunned.

And now:

After a few minutes silence, with Jason waiting patiently for their response, Giles finally broke the silence by stuttering, shakily putting his glasses back on, "T-the Wat-watch . . . you were sent . . . here . . . by the Watcher's Council?"

Jason slowly nodded his head, and then backed it up with, "Yes. I am here to train you in order to help you to defeat and destroy the Judge, if indeed we're talking about the Judge, a minor boss in the Omega Order."

"Uh-um, uhm, yes, well, I believe that we are," Giles stuttered again.

Xander raised his hand, but rather than point him out, Jason just looked over at him. Taking that as permission, Xander asked, "The Judge I recognize, since that's the pasty blue-faced bastard that has made my past week a living nightmare, but I'm not recognizing this Omega Order. Sounds ominous, should I be running in terror or just go ahead and shit my pants right here?"

Jason cracked a grin and then began to laugh, startling a lot of the people there, who from his solemn expression thought he couldn't laugh, especially at one of Xander's jokes.

"Well, that all depends," Jason answered the other youth, "If you faced the Judge and you're still alive, then running in terror won't do any good, seeing as the Omega Order is one of the premier forms of organized evil across the entire world, so there really is nowhere to run. However, I believe I did call the Judge a minor boss in the Order, so I would hold out on shitting your pants until you meet someone a little higher up."

"Oh, good to know," Xander acknowledged and the heavily sat down, the closest he would ever come to fainting dead away without being knocked unconscious.

"I'm sorry, but it's just," Giles rejoined the conversation, "I never expected, I mean, I certainly didn't expect the Watchers to . . . well, I'm afraid this is all rather unorthodox . . ."

Jenny put a hand on Giles' shoulder, which had the instant effect of quieting him. "Chill out England. Now, why don't we all calm down and Mr. . . ."

"Everheart," Jason answered the prompting, "but please, just call me Jason. I'm not old enough to be Mr. anything."

"Yeah, speaking of which, how old are you anyway?" Cordelia bluntly demanded.

Jason stared at her for half a second, and then cocked a grin at her, which had the immediate side effect of making the May Queen blush deeply, and then answered her, "I'm sixteen, as of last July for your information. And again, I apologize for being so abrupt, but could I possibly get some introductions here?"

"Oh, yes, how terribly inconsiderate of me," Giles stepped forward, "Allow me to introduce, as you already guessed, Buffy Summers, the Slayer, her best friend Willow Rosenberg, and their mutual best friend Xander Harris, and another friend of theirs from school, Cordelia Chase. And this is Jenny Calendar, um, their Computer Teacher."

"And a decent witch, or maybe you prefer the term Technopagan?" Jason asked, "Seeing as you're also a computer teacher. And before you ask, I can read auras, and yours just screams witch."

Jenny flinched slightly after Jason spoke, but otherwise didn't really react beyond just staring at him, which everyone was doing in equal amounts.

"Giles?" Buffy finally spoke. Everyone turned at her voice, but she was looking only at her Watcher. "Can I speak with you for a minute? Alone?" Her tone broke no argument.

"Uhm, yes, of course Buffy," Giles stuttered as he began to get very nervous. "If everyone will excuse us . . ." he trailed off as Buffy pulled him out the back and then into the alley, where for once no vampires were hanging out.

Once they were out in the alley, Buffy roughly grabbed Giles by the arm and slammed him into the wall. He cried out, but more from surprise than pain.

"Buffy! Ow! What is the matter with you?" he yelled.

"Me? What the hell is the matter with you? You called the Watcher's Council and you, you told them . . . about Angel?" the look she gave him then almost broke the Englishman's heart.

"I did no such thing Buffy," he promised her, while picking himself up from off the wall. "There is a certain procedure that must be followed when an active Slayer comes across a certain level of threat. Specific, known demons, an unusual circumstance, and even a strange development with her powers perhaps. The last time I called the Council was the night after . . . the night after you died and then successfully defeated the Master. That was an unusual circumstance."

"So I'm guessing this Judge falls into specific known demons?" Buffy asked, sniffling a little as she wiped the tears that had fallen after what she had viewed as Giles' betrayal. "But did you . . . ?"

"No, Angel was never mentioned once. I merely told the Council that you had encountered the demon, and that I was very sure this was the Judge that is considered one of the most lethal and dangerous demons in the entire world. Buffy, I would never do that to you, please believe me."

"I do Giles, I do, and I'm sorry for doubting you," Buffy wiped away the last of her tears and then set her face in stone. "I do want to know who this guy is though."

"I'm not too sure actually," Giles reluctantly admitted, scratching the back of his head. "About a day after I called the Council the night that . . . that you encountered the Judge, they called back and told me that a deal had been struck, in what way or with who they wouldn't tell me, but they did tell me that they were sending someone that could help you to beat the Judge. Personally I thought it would be one of the Council's Black Op teams, but apparently the case is this young boy."

"Yeah, boy, like I'm a girl, he's probably some mystic warrior the Council paid to lend me a hand until I finally kill the Judge," Buffy surmised.

"However, I am confused about that matter of training he mentioned," Giles suddenly mused.

Buffy looked up and glared at her Watcher. He noticed and returned with a look that clearly said 'what?'

"Giles, I am not getting even more training on top of everything else I suddenly have to deal with. And he's 16! He's younger than me by like six months, and other mystical warrior or not, I am not letting him tell me what to do in my town!"

"Buffy, please, think about this," Giles pleaded, "The Watcher's Council would not just make some kind of deal to send this boy to us for nothing. And if you knew what I've read about the Judge . . . Buffy, please, just give him a chance to prove himself before you try to kick him off the Hellmouth, so to speak."

Buffy glared again, but actually did think about it. Finally she just sighed and nodded.

"For you Giles, and only because of you. Now lets get back in there and celebrate my birthday, and get to know this creep," Buffy mumbled to herself.

Giles rubbed the bridge of his nose and just sighed as he followed his Slayer back inside.

"It's OK guys," Buffy said as she and Giles walked back in, "Giles confirmed his story, he's legit, at the very least."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Jason muttered sarcastically.

"It's the Hellmouth, and it wouldn't be the first time someone wearing a trusting face tried to kill all of us," Buffy retorted. Jason nodded, acknowledging the point and his apology.

"Right, OK, I can understand that," he said understandingly. "I just need to make one thing clear though."

Everyone raised a suspicious eyebrow at that, but paid attention anyway.

"If I'm going to train all of you in what I've been sent here to do, you're going to need to trust me. And if I recall, it's you and the Watchers who said that time was of the essence, so you're just going to have to get past the trust issues."

Xander bristled slightly at the boy's implications and stood back to his feet and snapped, "Hey, Buffy put the serious hurt on the Judge, injuring him so bad that it's been practically dead quiet around here, if you'll pardon the pun."

"And how long do you think it'll take a demon of the Judge's power to heal from whatever kind of injury is inflicted on him? I'm betting not nearly as long as it'll take all of you to learn the technique I'm here to teach you." Jason retorted.

"Wait just a minute here," Buffy interrupted, "What's all this 'all of you' stuff I'm hearing. I'm the only one you're going to be teaching!"

Jason stared at her, and then glanced around the other people in the room again.

"Originally, that was the deal. And then I saw that nearly everyone here has the same potential, some even more than you Slayer, to learn and even excel at what I have to teach," he answered.

"What is it exactly you're here to teach us anyway?" Willow asked.

Jason smiled, "I'm glad someone finally asked that. And despite what you hear and see on TV, it's actually easier to tell you rather than show you."

"You're gonna teach us how to do that stopping bullets thing Neo did on the Matrix?" Xander asked.

Jason stared and rolled his eyes. "No. The technique is called Chi-Armor. And it's . . ."

"Ck-eye armor?" Xander repeated, speaking the syllables slowly, rolling them off his tongue.

Again, Jason rolled his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Yes, Chi-Armor. It's the ability to develop one's . . . aura, or some call it their life force. Others just use the simplified term of their soul. But basically, it all boils down to developing their free-flowing body energy into a solidified form of energy and then manifest it as a crest of armor."

They all just stared at him as he stopped speaking. Even Giles had never heard of such a technique, or even such a phenomenon existing before now. That is if this Jason Everheart was telling the truth.

"Maybe I need to explain it better," Jason started to say.

"No!" Buffy hastened to stop such an explanation, not needing the headache wrapping her mind around such new age concepts, or even old age like stuff in Giles' books, would undoubtedly give her. "That's all right," she further placated him, "Look, we're having a party here, and . . . since we need to work on trust issues, like you said, you might as well join us so we can get to know you better."

Jason, and everyone else, just stared at her for several moments, before one by one everyone else turned and looked at the stranger, telling him they had accepted Buffy's assessment of the situation, and awaited his decision. Even Xander, normally the most paranoid of the group, was silently waiting to see whether he would willingly join them or not.

"OK," he said at length, "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Buffy said as they all sat down, joined by the newcomer.

A couple days after Buffy's birthday, giving her time to enjoy a private, family party before beginning their training, Jason gathered all of Buffy's friends, and even Ms Calendar to the Library to further discuss what he was here to teach them, and to finally give them a demonstration, albeit a small one.

"OK, we're all here," Buffy said to Jason as he walked into the Library, while gesturing around the room at everyone of the group lounging about, "And you're the one that kept saying all of us, so why don't you stop with the secrets and show us what you can do already."

Everybody had gotten used to the way Buffy and Jason reacted to one another, as from the moment they met it seemed they had been testing each other, Jason testing Buffy's patience, and Buffy testing Jason's temper. So far, as anyone could tell, neither one was cracking just yet.

Jason just smiled almost serenely at Buffy while he nodded and replied, "Actually Buffy, that's exactly what I had in mind. After all, the key to completing your goal is the motivation that keeps you going. And if you know exactly what this ability can help you to do, I'm sure all of you will try that much harder to attain it."

"Yeah, well, I still can't believe that you want us to do this training thing too," Cordelia interrupted. "I mean, she's the Slayer, she's the one that fights the demons and blah, blah, blah, and has to go out at night and gets her clothes all dirty stalking the graveyards."

"So then," surprisingly it was Jason who spoke, "what are you still doing here Cordelia? Just because I'm offering it to all of you, and am asking you to, does not mean I'm going to force you to do this. This is your choice, I'm just giving it to you. So if you really don't want to be here Cordelia," he stopped and turned and pointed at the double-door entrance to the Library, "there's the door."

After this, everyone just stared at Cordelia, who was wide-eyed, like a deer caught in headlights. Finally, she seemed to snap out of it and she sunk a little in on herself as she whispered with a far less haughty attitude, "I've got nothing better to do anyway."

With a small smile, Jason just nodded at her and continued, "Well, all right then. But first . . ."

He trailed off as he got to the center of the room, and seemed to freeze suddenly. Several of the group got nervous real fast, but Buffy herself couldn't sense anything evil, besides the Hellmouth, nearby so she just stared, confused, at the young warrior. Then she did feel something.

It was like a compression of the air, making everything real thick and for a couple of seconds really hard to breath. That's when they first noticed it. It looked like the air had gone completely solid around Jason's entire body. At first it seemed like an optical illusion of some kind, and then it didn't go away. In fact, it seemed to be getting thicker, and more defined. After another couple of moments, Buffy realized that it was taking the shape of armor of some kind.

Finally, after an incalculable amount of time, the heavy air feeling left them, but the semi-solid air around Jason remained where it was, and stranger still was that it being over his body didn't distort how he looked in the slightest. Buffy was shocked that it could be so easy. No effort of any kind, just a bit of concentration and he had what looked like armor made out of solid air, which in itself was a paradox.

"This," he finally spoke after his lengthy pause, "is Chi-Armor. 1% power."

That floored Buffy. Both figuratively and literally as she slid off the table and only just managed to catch herself before falling to the ground. "If that is 1%, what's 100% like?" she demanded to know.

"Why? Did you feel something?" Jason asked, sounding genuinely curious, but Buffy chose not to see it that way.

"Yeah, we all did," Xander shivered, Willow and Cordelia also nodded.

"Are you going to answer my question, or not?" Buffy snapped at Jason.

"Are you going to sit on the floor all day?" he retorted, smirking down at her.

Getting fully to her feet, her face contorted in a mask of controlled rage, she stalked the short distance between her and the young warrior and with only that as warning, she reeled back her fist and threw her fist at Jason's head. Her fist, without a sound, was stopped about two inches from Jason's head, where the optical distortion around Jason's body began.

Buffy's face suddenly grimaced in pain as she took her hand back and cradled it for several moments. Her expression transfigured into one of anger, but before she could attack again, Jason held up his hand to interrupt her.

Jason just grinned at her and said, "Solidified energy. For those capable of generating it, they can usually sense it as well. Most people, at this level of power, just shrug the symptoms off as being some kind of air pressure change or changing weather or something like that. That's why you guys can do this," he turned to the rest of them, "This is your way to having your own powers, your own weapons against the demons. Instead of just one Slayer, you'd be a team of Slayers."

The others perked up at that, especially Giles, who was more worried about that statement than excited.

"Cool as that may sound, 1% doesn't sound that impressive," Buffy retorted, "So how much punishment exactly would I have to dole out to get past this and get to you?"

"We'll get to that in a minute, I assure you Buffy, but for right now, I've got some more explaining to do. So could you please sit down?" he asked, sounding as calm and in control as ever, and that just irked Buffy that much more. But she did, sullenly, turn around and go and sit back down at the table. Unnoticed, everyone except the two combatants, released a soft sigh of relief.

"Now, what you are no doubt detecting, possibly even seeing is what I mentioned before, solidified energy. Pretty much the basic component to even using Chi-Armor. Through meditation, physical perfection, and unity of mind, soul, and body, solidified energy can be attained, but only through force of will and the need of the body can Chi-Armor be claimed. The first step, solidified energy, is impossible for most people in this world. What you are trying to do is so impossible that it would be easier to push the sun with your own hands through the eye of a wooden needle. But by the time you're done, that'll be easy."

Xander raised his hand and spoke before being called on, "I thought you said we needed motivation for this? Now I don't know about the rest of us, but this ain't doin' much for motivating me."

Jason rolled his eyes, but still continued, "Don't worry Xander, that's most of the world, not you guys. You guys are a cut above the rest. I know you can do this. Now. The first step in the process is meditation. Physical perfection we can work on later this afternoon, and I would imagine Buffy is a little more familiar with the exercises we'll be doing there than the rest of you. But for meditation, that's the easy part."

Seeming like he was relaxing some unseen muscle, they watched as the 1% Chi-Armor around Jason disappeared and he walked over to the cage and started getting out the training mats that Giles and Buffy usually spread around the floor during her training in the library.

"Everybody pick a spot. Don't worry, we'll start with the boring easy stuff. Learning how to breathe," Jason remarked in a teasing tone as all the teenagers groaned, but they did get up and picked a spot on the floor on one of the mats and sat down cross-legged.

"Uh, and what about us Mr. Everheart?" Giles asked, indicating him and Jenny.

After a slight wince, Jason answered, "You two can go home. If you ever had the potential for this, neither of you have it now and you'd probably only get in our way. And please, don't ever call me Mr. Everheart. Makes me think my father's somewhere nearby. My name is Jason, and I would greatly appreciate it if you referred to me as such."

"Oh, uh, yes, of course . . . Jason." Giles replied.

Jason smiled and then went back to the center of the room, all eyes trained on him. He stood there for a couple more seconds, and then turned to look at the two adults with an expectant look on his face. Finally they figured it out, and trying to hide their discomfort and leave without further embarrassment, Giles and Jenny both quietly went towards the doors and then through them. Leaving the teenagers with the strange young warrior.

After a few more days, the group had figured out what this training required of them pretty quick, and Jason was right. The first part was boring.

Each day, whether school day or weekend, they spent a portion of the morning meditating under Jason's guidance. Most often it was at the Library, but sometimes, like on the weekends, they all went over to Buffy's or Willow's houses, where the parents weren't around very often and they were the only ones there. Sometimes they would spend at least a whole hour meditating, sometimes barely even five minutes before Jason called a stop to it, saying they had done enough for that day.

Then, usually in the late afternoon, sometimes sooner, they would meet in the library or on the school football field or even in the local forest once, to work on their 'physical perfection' aspect of training. More often than not, this included running at least 15, sometimes 25 laps, and then a number of calisthenics and endurance training exercises. Buffy was the only one to call this part boring, and that usually got her an extra fifty laps than everyone else. Not for punishment, but because Jason said he didn't want her to get bored.

And he wasn't the typical Watcher-type trainer, giving them exercises and then watching them do it. For every step of the training, from the meditating in the morning to the last workout just before night, he was right there with them, breathing every breath in time with theirs, running every step side-by-side, and pushing every limit they were. Especially with Buffy, and he was the only one who could actually keep up with the Slayer, which was surprising enough, but he also sweat less than she did after the physical training was over.

A week and a half after Jason had arrived, Buffy and the others were slowly trudging into the Library to cool off after their latest grueling training session. Buffy, being the only one who could move easily, took the few extra steps to grab the cooler where they had put several bottled waters for afterwards, which it now was.

Cordelia plopped down in the chair closest to the door, while Xander settled for the stairs, which he actually tripped over, just to the left of the table. Willow had just enough energy to crawl into the closest chair on the opposite side of the table from Cordelia, which unfortunately was about five feet further back than the one the High School debutant had found.

Buffy chose the table itself to sit on, and once there passed out the liquid refreshments and took one for herself, taking a long drag before doing anything else.

"So, do you guys still want to keep doing this?" Buffy asked. She had asked the same question after each and every session, and each time she had only gotten tired grunts. But they all, even Cordelia, showed up the next morning for meditating, and in the afternoon for a workout that made even her training with Giles seem light by comparison.

Today was different.

"You know Buff, I'm getting real tired of hearing you ask us that," Xander snapped from his corner on the stairs.

Buffy blinked in surprise and turned to face her friend, a look of confusion clear on her face.

"Yeah Buffy," Willow chimed in, "the way you keep asking it's like you expect us to up and quit. But even after all that we've already been through, you keep asking like the answer is going to be different. It's not."

"Much as I hate to agree with two out of three losers, stop trying to hog all the glory. Like Jase said the first day, we've got the potential to have our own powers, be our own Slayers, instead of relying solely on you for protecting us. So stop trying to keep the superhero thing to yourself because it's like a virtue or something to share," Cordelia added her two cents.

Buffy was stunned, her mouth moving but not working for several seconds, and then finally she regained control and exclaimed, "Guys! That . . . that's not what I meant, I mean . . ."

"That you think we're too weak to protect ourselves?" Xander finished for her with a derisive tone. She looked hurt at the tone, but Xander didn't even flinch at her wounded puppy dog stare.

"Just go ahead and admit it Buffy," Xander stood up suddenly, his anger giving him the energy to do so, "You think you're better than us. You think that we have no chance of doing what you do. Being the Slayer has made you an arrogant bitch!"

A spark of anger entered Buffy's eyes, but before she could respond to Xander's accusations, Willow interrupted with her own thing to say.

"He's right Buffy. We have a chance here, a chance to join the fight on equal footing with you, but every single day you've done nothing but try to drag us down and get us to quit. Why?" the redhead demanded to know.

The way the room got suddenly quiet told Buffy she had better answer.

"Because I don't want you to get hurt," Buffy quietly told them. Tears, real tears, not part of the puppy dog act, began to spill down her cheeks.

"Guys, all of you, you have no idea what I go through, and I don't want you going through it. The nightmares alone I wouldn't wish on anyone. But the secrets and the going out late at night, not getting enough sleep, training, and then the constant fear that some demon is going to attack me at any minute, or that some vamp, like Darla or . . . A-A-Angel gets invited into my home and kills my family while I'm at school! You only know the half of it, since the most you do is keep my hours and go to school with me. And now this! I don't want you to have my life, because my life is HELL!"

Buffy managed to remain composed for all of three seconds after that, and then the tears took over and all she could do was run out and keep running until she couldn't run anymore.

The others, left behind, just stared after her. Cordelia opened her mouth, a retort about emotional Slayers on the tip of her tongue, until her brain leaped ahead to reign in her tactless mouth. This was not a time where being top bitch would help her in the least.

"Shouldn't one of us go after her?" Willow asked, sounding worried.

"No," Xander answered bluntly. "She should know that it's our choice. She can't make it for us, no matter how much she wants to protect us and make our lives simpler than hers. It's our choice, not hers."

With a sigh, the two girls agreed with him and then resumed resting.

When Buffy finally stopped she was surprised to find herself back out in the woods, not too far from where they had trained that afternoon. Leaning against a tree, she just let herself slide down to the forest floor and proceeded with crying alone in her misery.

Would have been perfect, except that she wasn't alone.

"Is something wrong Buffy?" Jason's voice called out from just behind her.

Buffy gasped and tried desperately to wipe away the evidence of her tears, but it wasn't working as more tears just kept spilling out. She jumped to her feet and struggled to keep Jason from seeing her face.

"I thought you'd already gone home," Buffy said, struggling to control the tremble in her voice.

"And I'd thought you had already gone inside," he countered. He seemed to stare at her for some time, she couldn't tell for sure because she had her back to him, before he finally let out a deep sigh and told her, "So, I see they've finally confronted you about it."

That stopped her cold.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded, but keeping her face away from him.

"The way you've been dragging them down in training, showing just how much better you are, taunting Xander and Cordelia when they showed how exhausted they were, and according to Willow, who I spoke with the other day, always asking at the end of every training day why they don't quit already. It's been a problem that I noticed on that first day. I never said anything to you about it before because it's a matter best left between you and them. So instead, I did the same thing to you that you were doing to them. But instead of getting beat down by it . . ." he trailed off.

"I was challenged by it, and tried harder," she finished for him after a lengthy pause.

"I suggested to Willow, when I spoke with her, that she apply the same philosophy. She obviously told Xander and Cordelia, because today was the best training that they've had, for all three of them."

Buffy finally turned around, showing her face, and the evidence of her crying to Jason. She also saw that he was still putting away the weights they had worked with earlier.

"Need any help with that?" she offered.

He stared at her for a couple of seconds, and then shrugged and nodded, "Sure."

Together the two of them got the weights and other exercise equipment put away and started carrying the boxes back to the school. As they walked, Buffy asked, "So why didn't you talk to me about how they were . . . are feeling?"

"Like I said," Jason answered, blowing the hair out of his face, briefly revealing both of his bright blue eyes for a moment, "it's a matter between the four of you. If I get involved in any way other than advisory, that's the wrong thing to do and the conflict will never get resolved. But I'm glad to see that you aren't as stuck up as Xander and Cordelia made you out to be."

Buffy almost snapped at that, until she remembered what Xander had said right to her face.

Deflated some, she asked in return, "So what advice do you have for me sensei?"

Jason laughed, sparking a smile on Buffy's lips, and replied, "Well, teacher I may be, but I'm hardly old enough to be anyone's sensei, let alone yours Buffy. My advice for you is to stop trying to drag everyone down. That's counterproductive in any relationship, whether friendship, family, or comrades in arms like we all are. My second piece of advice, take a step back from your reasons for why you don't want them to be trained, and try and see it from their point of view."

"How could I possibly do that? I'm not a mind-reader, and frankly I never liked the whole Freaky Friday concept," Buffy interrupted.

"Well," Jason shifted one of the boxes to get a better grip, "Willow's your best friend. I saw that the moment I met the two of you. She's your real friend, no matter what you do. And by default, I believe that she would do anything for you. Xander looks up to you. Might be a bit of a crush there, but I could be reading a little too much into these things."

Jason couldn't help but notice Buffy's blush when he told her that. "But at the same time, he has a healthy dose of realism. So as much as he worships you Buffy, when he thinks you're wrong, he'll dig in and not only confront you about it, he'll get very stubborn and probably say some things to you that he wouldn't mean in any other circumstances."

"And any clue as to getting into Cordy's shoes?" Buffy asked.

"Other than having a credit card with unlimited credit and going to every Super Mall in the country?" They both laughed at that, and after a little bit of that, he continued, "Seriously though? Cordelia needs friends. Real friends, like what you have with Willow. She has a slightly warped version of that with Xander, near as I can tell. But she needs it. Like fish need water, like a plant needs sunshine, Cordelia needs friends. So no matter how overprotective you get, or however bitchy she gets, she'll stick with all of you because right now, she sees in all of you something she has very rarely ever seen with the crowd she usually hangs around. But she's still 'Queen C' I believe is the nickname Willow called her."

"Yeah," Buffy laughed.

By now they had reached the school, and Buffy was suddenly reminded of why she had run off crying in the first place. She almost started crying again from the memory alone, but then her talk with Jason registered in her mind, and she started trying to see the situation from all of her friends' point of views. It made a big difference in her thinking.

The Judge was never afraid. But he did sometimes get nervous, like he was right now as he stood before the newly installed tele-screen communication device. Other than get rid of the last of Nest's hoard and all of the rest of Spike's incompetent lackies, the Judge had also ordered many other renovations to the old abandoned factory, which had become his base of operations just as much as it was Spike's.

For the moment, the Judge was resting, his armor temporarily removed and showing off his well-defined, but scarred blue torso. His lower torso and abdomen where wrapped in white gauze and bandages, which harshly contrasted with the rest of his skin. The wound the Slayer had inflicted upon him had been deeper than he'd thought it was, so it was taking much longer to heal than he had planned. Nevertheless, his strength grew daily and soon he would be more than strong enough to go out and deal with whatever was left of the Slayer.

But for now, he had to answer to his superiors. And that refers to more than just rank.

Almost before he was ready, the screen flickered to life, showing a red-glowing black upside down horseshoe symbol, with two curved concentric lines around it and glowing red orb on a black background. The Symbol for the Omega Order.

After thirty seconds of that, the screen flickered again, this time revealing a dark room where the only light reflected onto an ebony table, also bearing the Omega symbol merged with the Eye of Ra with two Ankhs placed on either side of the merged symbol.

The voices from those among the table though, were neither hidden nor distorted in any way.

"Making a new home base on the Hellmouth, are we Judge?" one of the number at the table said in a mocking voice. It was completely impossible to know which of the figures in the shadows had spoken, but the Judge knew exactly who each and every one of them were. He did, after all, share a seat on that table with them, despite they all being more than powerful enough to destroy him with only a thought.

"Only temporarily," the Judge promised his colleagues. "There's a rather annoying little Slayer here that I want to take care of. And it certainly doesn't hurt having a base of operations and many operatives in place over the Hellmouth, in case we'll need it some day in the future."

"The future is the future, and we have no interest in the Hellmouth or having many, let alone any operatives stationed there," another of the creatures there snapped. "However, seeing as there are currently no other projects that need your immediate withdrawal and attention, we'll let you have your fun. But don't get carried away Judge. We have, however tedious, an alliance with the Mayor of that burg you're staying in right now. For the moment, this alliance benefits us and we want it to last as long as possible. Until we change our minds that is."

"I understand. My only target is the Slayer. As soon as . . . as soon as she's taken care of, and all her friends and family dead, I shall return," the Judge promised.

Another of the ones at the table chortled and commented, "You're looking a little weakish there my friend. Did the big bad Slayer give you a boo boo?" The entire table erupted in evil, mocking laughter.

The Judge, unable to blush, just glowered at the screen, clenching an unseen fist. "She got a lucky shot. I'll be healed within another few days, and I will make her scream for mercy even while I kill her."

"Fine, but remember that if we need you elsewhere, whether the Slayer is dead or not, you will come Judge," the first voice told him.

"Of course," the Judge nodded his head, and all trace of tension left his body. He knew where his loyalties lie. After all, the Omega had saved him against an army that surely would have defeated, if not destroyed him several centuries ago.

All that needed to be said over and done with, the screen flickered back to the Symbol for the Omega Order, and then shortly after died, leaving the Judge in contemplative silence. Soon, he thought, soon the Slayer will die.

Jenny Calendar was just putting away the last of the graded papers from last weeks tests into their folders when she heard someone enter the classroom. Since it wasn't too long after the end of school for the day, and since she knew with certainty that all of 'her' kids, and Rupert's too, were off with that Everheart boy training in the woods, Jenny really wasn't too worried about someone entering the room.

It also helped that the room was practically bathed in sunlight.

However, not even she expected a long forgotten voice from her past say in a normal tone, which sounded like a shout in the quiet room, "Jenny Calendar?"

She let out a short shout of her own, jumping as she turned around and stared, wide-eyed at the old man standing there. He was dressed simply, with European features, including the big nose and mustache. He wore a simple hat, brown jacket, white shirt with a drawstring tie, and brown khakis. But Jenny knew him.

"You startled me," were her first words to him, to explain her reaction.

"You look vell," he said with an obvious accent as he walked closer to her.

"Yes, I'm fine," she hurriedly told him as she walked around her desk, still facing him.

Suddenly she looked, and felt very apologetic. "I know I haven't been writing as much lately, I've been busy." Unconsciously, she crossed her arms, and lowered her head.

"I cannot imagine what has been so important that could make you ignore your responsibilities," the man said back to her, as though accusing her of something.

Gulping softly, Jenny uncrossed her arms and tried to excuse herself, "Well, I've been . . . working, and . . . and I . . ."

"The Elder woman has been reading the signs. She knows that something has happened. Something is different!" he snapped at her.

Jenny ducked her head again and sighed, closing her eyes, almost as though expecting to get hit. Instead, some strange transformation seemed to have occurred beneath the Computer Teacher's beautiful exterior. "Angel's dead!" she shouted at him.

Taken aback, he just stared at her, his eyes conveying more shock than the rest of his body or face. "Vhen did this happen?" he demanded to know.

"A little over three weeks ago," she said, looking him in the eye like she very well might hit him.

"Who killed the monster?" he demanded again.

"Another monster," she said almost teasingly. "Angel had been helping the Slayer, the Slayer Uncle! He had been making amends for his evil, he even saved my life, and despite that still suffering for all his crimes, even more so, I promise you! And then . . . a demon came. He was more powerful than the Slayer, and still is. Angel gave his life to save hers."

The man, who had been revealed as Jenny Calendar's Uncle, just stood there, staring at her for some time. Finally he sighed and turned back around, stepping back from her.

"Ve are de servants of Vengeance," he quoted the words Jenny had been told since she was a little girl. "Vengeance is not like the modern man knows it, a word," he told her, beginning to pace, "Vengeance is a living thing, beyond life and death, beyond the petty eye for an eye, give and take of day to day life. Vengeance is eternal. And therefore it is Vengeance's vill that Angelus die now."

"I'm sorry, I should have contacted you sooner, but . . ." Jenny started to apologize.

"But vhat!" he suddenly shouted at her, turning on her. "Vhat?! You thought that you were Jenny Calendar now? You are still Janna, of the Kalderash people. A gypsy!"

"I know Uncle," she hissed, looking up at him like she may gut him as well as hit him. "I know."

"That is good, because I would hate to be de one to remind you," he told her softly.

"What do the people need of me now?" she asked, sounding bored with the question, but her eyes never left his.

"There is nothing left for you to do here," he said simply, but took note of the surge of panic that was quickly squashed he saw in her eyes. "But, dare is nothing needed for you back home either. So for now you may remain in your current life and remain Jenny Calendar. But I trust that such a visit will no longer be necessary in the future?"

"Yes Uncle," Jenny, or Janna, promised, bowing her head once again.

"Dare will be much debate over this, much debate," her Uncle muttered to himself as he walked out of the room, leaving Jenny to stand there, shaking and hugging herself, as though to keep from weeping.

"What am I going to do?" she asked herself between gasping sobs.

"OK, everybody ready?" Jason asked the silent room as they all sat around on their mats. "Remembering how to breath, begin to focus on your inner energy field. You know how to feel it, sense it, how to see it. For now, just focus on it until you can see it clearly in your mind and feel it clearly in your body."

It was about a day after Xander and the others had finally snapped and snapped at Buffy for her attitude. After helping Jason with the equipment, Buffy had tried to face the accusing stares and glares of her friends, but the emotions were just too high and they would give the Slayer no leeway. Finally, after several minutes of what he called useless meditation, Jason sent Buffy home, making her promise to practice real meditation before she went to sleep that night.

Rather than patrol, as she'd told Giles she would that night, instead she stayed in her room, finished her homework for the day, had dinner with her mother, and then retreated back to her room and practiced the meditation Jason had been teaching them for at least three and a half more hours before finally going to sleep, exhausted from the day.

When she woke up, she actually felt much refreshed, full of energy, and even when they met for morning meditation just before school, she could have sworn that her energy was flowing easier and more smoothly. The others, much the same as they always were, at least were no longer hostile to Buffy, and Willow was trying hard to make it like the whole argument had never happened.

But Buffy wasn't about to forget it, and made no derisive comments to her friends of any form or fashion. When Xander confronted her about it, she'd just replied that Jason was the one to decide how good they were doing and whether or not they should quit.

That afternoon, after school, back out in the forest, instead of working alone in silence with their exercises, or giving them 'Give it up' looks, Buffy steadily paced each of her friends, offering them verbal encouragements and silent looks of challenge, before racing ahead of them in whatever exercise, almost egging them on to do better. Jason did the same for all of them, including Buffy.

And now they were all back in the Library for the latter meditation.

"For the past few days, you know that we've actually been trying to create solidified energy. And remember, you have to use your will power to force it to happen. This isn't any easy, yoga, clear your mind meditation, and the exercises you've been doing to strengthen and increase the endurance of your body is only the most basic and easy part of it. Your inner energy should still be racing from the workout your body has gone through, making it that much closer to the surface, and that much easier to grab on to. Now you just have to force it, with the force of your will to become solid energy."

Jason stayed silent for several more moments, stretching almost into a full minute. Finally, after not seeing their auras change in the slightest, he sighed and tried again. "You have to focus. Your will isn't just a stubborn attitude or straining against the inevitable and hoping for the best. It's more than a mentality, more than a physical desire to have your way. Your will, your free will, is what makes you, you! Without your will, your ability to make decisions and have the force and drive to complete it no matter what gets in your way, you're just another drone, an insect that doesn't matter."

"OK, as helpful as all the philosophy is," Buffy snapped, opening her eyes, "that doesn't help us any with what we have to do. I mean, you have explained the what, the why, and even the way to do it, but you've been a little vague on *how* to do it!"

Jason grimaced and sighed, thinking things over for a minute. Finally he nodded and said, "All right then, a hint about creating solidified energy; you need to think magnets."

They all opened their eyes, staring at him unbelievably.

"Magnets attract pieces of iron and other metals," he went on, "Now if a magnet can attract enough metal, it'll be covered by it, sort of like armor." Jason paused, giving them each meaningful looks.

"There are specific points in the body where your life energy flows closer together and can there be controlled," he told them. "These points are called chakras. In order to turn your chakras into magnets, you'll need a powerful force, and since magnetism won't work, you'll have to make due with your force of will. Now try again."

With a collective sigh, they all closed their eyes once more and settled back into the meditative trance until they could once more feel their energy flowing through them in steady pulses.

It was Buffy who felt it first, although the others were just a breath and a heartbeat away, she felt something like when she felt her own pulse in her wrist or neck, a point, two points actually on her back, between her shoulder blades, where the pulse and flow of her energy was more easily felt, more easily grasped. Concentrating, like one would concentrate on squeezing one's fist around a ball, focusing on the energy rather than the action of squeezing, Buffy instantly found and felt all the other points in her body where her energy came closer together, all at once.

There was a collective gasp as one by one they all figured out the trick to controlling the flow of energy through their body, but making their free-flowing life energy into a solid form of armor, they didn't yet understand or know how to do that. But Buffy did know how to make her energy at the very least solid, like Jason had already showed them how to.

Like with squeezing a ball, except this was more like crushing a semi-truck down into the size of a tiny ping-pong ball, forcing the energy to compact, closer, and closer together, but the physics of it was the same as turning a gas into a solid. Turning Free-flowing molecules into stagnant, stationary, solid material.

After all, she did just pass her physics quiz just that day.

Willow realized the same thing next, but Xander and Cordelia were still struggling with it by the time that both Buffy and Willow showed that the teenagers could do this.

As they all sat at their places, everyone but Buffy and Willow became sharply aware of a familiar 'air compression' feeling, which reminded them of Jason's demonstration with 1% Chi-Armor. Xander and Cordelia's eyes snapped open and then stared at Willow and Buffy respectively, as bit by bit, that same solid-air illusion that had been around Jason that day, enveloped both Buffy and Willow, but at the same time, seemed to be much more solid. And if Xander didn't know any better, he could have sworn that he saw some light actually reflecting off the air around them.

Worried that she might not be able to maintain what she was doing, Willow kept her eyes tightly shut, focusing all of her energy into the compressing action she was forcing it to do. Buffy knew that she'd have to fight while maintaining this concentration, and decided to test herself before Jason could. What surprised her the most, as she opened her eyes and focused on her surroundings just as much as her internal energies was that her energy flow, and that included the energy she felt she had already 'compressed' and she knew now surrounded her like a living forcefield, didn't change in the slightest. It flowed as it always did, just in it's new form, as she had willed it to do.

Stunned by this, it took a couple more minutes before Buffy finally noticed exactly what the sensation of being surrounded by solid energy felt like. In some ways, she felt even more free, more liberated, not held down by anything, but at the same time she felt every part of the 'demi-armor' she now wore around her. But not until she moved that is.

The field was like a second, outer skin. And she felt naked, but that didn't inhibit her any as she knew she was wearing clothing. It was just the sensation of feeling air as though she were completely unencumbered.

Standing up was a whole other experience as she felt herself move more lithe than she had ever felt before. "Whoa," she commented, the awe present in her voice.

"Cool," she said to herself as she looked down and saw the air distortion, but only from the outside of it. Looking at her hands and feet, but when she tried to see it in front of her face, nothing.

Buffy's exclamations brought the others out of their own meditations, and when they looked, they could only stare in stunned disbelief. Then Willow realized that she herself was doing it as she looked down at herself and felt the change in her energy flow.

"No way," Cordelia stated, stunned.

"Yes way," Xander countered automatically. "I mean," he stuttered, "YES!"

Jason hushed him as Buffy turned towards their "teacher".

"Is this right? I mean, am I doing it? I am doing it, aren't I?" she asked.

Jason nodded, a smile on his face. "Yes Buffy. You have just created solidified energy. Not easy, and certainly not everyone in the world can do it, but you just did it. Congratulations."

Buffy smiled and nodded back. Then looked back down at herself, clenching and unclenching her fists.

"So what exactly can this do for me now, besides be a shield against small punches and stuff like that?" she asked him.

"Remember that first day I showed you Chi-Armor 1%?" he asked her back. She nodded and waited for the rest of his answered. "And how you asked just how much it would take for you to get past even that level of armor?" She nodded again. "The only way, the only way for anything to get past Chi-Armor, is another person using Chi-Armor of a higher power or percentage."

"So what's 100% like?" Buffy asked him, persistent. "I think at some point over the past few weeks I've asked you that before and you said that you would show us after we mastered solidified energy. Well, guess what?"

"You haven't mastered solidified energy Buffy," Jason quickly interrupted her. "You've only learned it. You can only master solidified energy when you can force it to 100% on your own, and by that point, most people that can do this at all, develop their own Chi-Armors."

"So you aren't going to show us anything?" Buffy demanded.

Jason shrugged. "Not just yet. First I . . ."

"Argh! You are wasting my time!" Buffy screamed at him. "Either show me how this Chi-Armor thing works, or I'll do it on my own from here on out!"

"I wouldn't recommend that Buffy, there are still several things that . . ." Jason started to say, but Buffy just screamed again, and then, with air reflecting the light around her like invisible metal, she pushed her way past him, faster than she had ever moved before, and casually knocking him all the way back into the cage with a loud clang, and then was gone before anybody could do anything else.

Jason hurriedly got back to his feet, the others joining him. He looked back at them, and seemed to be torn for a moment before he looked right at Willow and ordered her, "Willow, show the others how you did it, and tell them the frame of mind they need to be in. That should be enough for them to figure out the trick for themselves. I've got to go after Buffy." He was about to leave, then hesitated again and said to her, "Oh, and you don't have to keep on meditating to keep up the solid energy flow. Think of it like setting controls instead of straining a muscle. Your life force will continue to flow, just in a new form until you change it to something else, or something adversely affects it."

Just as he was about to leave though, Willow begged his attention and asked quickly, "Oh! Jason! Uh, just, well, you mentioned that whole 100% thing and I got the feeling, from looking at it, that we did a bit more than your 1% demonstration that day so . . . I was wondering . . . ?"

"Exactly what percentage are you up to?" Jason finished her question for her with a vague smile. Blushing, Willow nodded. "I'd have to say . . . about 5%. Almost 5% at any rate. Keep working on it. The more of your life force you can convert to solid energy, the higher the percentage, and the closer you are to attaining true Chi-Armor. Now I've got to find Buffy!"

It was night. After running out of the Library, Buffy had gone to the last place she figured her friends, let alone Jason, would think to look for her. The beach.

There she continued meditating on her own until she had mastered, in her own eyes, converting her life energy into solid energy. She had even figured out what the whole percentage thing was, as the "percentage" of her total life force that she could convert into solid energy, and thereby, Chi-Armor.

Just before the sun went down, practicing erecting the forcefield around her and dropping it, Buffy estimated that she could, for the time being, erect about 10% of her life force around her into a sort of demi Chi-Armor, like Jason had demonstrated to them before.

And she also found out what this could do.

Something which the Council-hired warrior had neglected to even explain to them yet. But it certainly wasn't hard to figure out once she knew she could do it.

For starters, she moved a whole lot faster when surrounded by the 10% Chi-Armor she could summon. A whole lot faster. And then there was her muscle strength, it was almost like her muscles had no limit to what they could do. She knew this from both pulling cement-sealed posts out of the ground and then putting them back exactly, as well as running and jumping and leaping incredible distances. Slayer strength and agility were one thing, but this . . . this was a whole new level as she found herself jumping over fifty feet straight up into the air before gravity finally caught her, and she was leaping almost an entire mile when she was running the beach.

All this told Buffy however, was that she was undoubtedly ready for the Judge.

At Giles, and Jason's prompting, she had read the source material available on the Judge, and had to admit, without Jason's training, she was way more than seriously outmatched. Besides burning them as he touched them, the Judge could also shoot out energy beams that did much the same thing. Jason assured them however that the Judge would probably rather touch a person, or people when he killed them, because just zapping people long range would tax his powers and wear him out. Unfortunately, the Judge was old and powerful enough that it would probably take several days of constant use before he really wore himself out.

But Buffy knew now that even with only 10%, her newly learned skill of Chi-Armor would protect her even from the Judge's blasts, and most especially would allow her to hit him full force without getting burned herself, as she was last time.

"Any luck?" Willow asked the moment that Jason walked into the Library.

After Buffy had run out, with Jason running after her, the three other teenagers had remained and Willow had tested her own skills at controlling her own Chi-Armor, or at the very least giving Xander and Cordelia the hints they needed to form their own solid energy armor. That was over an hour ago, and after the first half hour, all three were proficient enough that they stopped practicing and started waiting for Jason and Buffy to return.

"I'm sorry," Jason apologized. "I couldn't find her. I even went so far as to check her house or Giles place, or maybe even one of your places. Just before turning back I even swung by the demon bar you guys told me about. Nothing."

"Well, we'll just all have to go out and look for her then."

Everyone turned to stare at the person that said this, because none other than Cordelia Chase was the one that had offered such a concerned and selfless suggestion.

"What?" she asked, not liking the stares.

Jason shook the shock off and organized the group, "Never mind. First thing is to think of places she might go. Any ideas?"

"There are lots of places," Xander answered first, "Buffy patrols the whole town, and we only go with her when she's patrolling a section near the neighborhoods we live in. We don't know as much about all the places to hide as she does, despite the fact that the three of us have lived here our entire lives."

"Being the Slayer gets you into those kind of places," Cordelia wisely pointed out.

"Then as the Slayer's friends and team, which is what we're going to be even if we aren't right now," Jason responded to Cordelia's observation, "so do we. Stick together, because right now we have no way of communicating long distances, but let's start with where we know she could be, whether she would be there or not. Graveyards, warehouse district, mausoleums, places like that. No wasting time, let's go!"

Xander quickly raced over to the cage where he knew Giles kept the weapons and grabbed several crosses, along with bottles of holy water, and enough stakes to go around twice. When he offered it all to Jason, the warrior just smirked and shook his head and replied, "I don't need them, but keep them for yourself. You might need them. For now."

A couple of hours later, it was definitely night, and Buffy was patrolling, even as her friends were patrolling for her.

After the first hour, having kept her Chi-Armor up since she had left the beach, Buffy discovered the downside of having nearly invincible armor around you all the time. It was like constantly straining a muscle that was more automatic than autonomous. Like holding your arm straight out holding only a single, small glass marble in the palm of your hand. Easy, right? How about holding that marble in your hand with arm straight out for two hours solid?

Finally she had just let her energy return to normal, and felt an immediate relief flood her body, and also felt her energy returning, regenerating itself. It would be ready again at the very moment she needed it.

So, for now, she just went about her normal routine, glad she always packed a few extra stakes on her person at all times, even at school or training with Jason. She swung by a couple of the graveyards at first, her first encounter with the Judge being in a graveyard, but they were all unusually quiet. Not a single vampire or demon in sight, or even anywhere near that she could sense.

So, abandoning the graveyards, she turned towards the warehouse district, always a couple of vamps or demons hiding down there, and she had begun to suspect that this was where Spike had moved his lair after taking over from the Anointed One. And somebody as high-profile as the Judge would have to run into Spike eventually. And knowing the power monger Spike was, she wouldn't take the bet that they had teamed up on some level. Probably half of those vamps she'd dusted the first time against the Judge had been provided by Spike.

After an hour or so of wandering around, she still hadn't come across any actual vampires or demons, but her senses were going haywire, telling her they were somewhere nearby, probably watching her and reporting her whereabouts to the Judge.

Good, she thought, because that is exactly what she wanted.

Finally, feeling bored and rather stupid for just running out on her friends, a much-delayed conscience reaction she decided, she started making her way out of the labyrinth that was the warehouse district. She was passing through Wilkins park, a part football field part softball field just on the edge of the warehouse district between that and downtown just as her senses flared and went even crazier than they had been, making her pause and stop in the middle of the field.

And wouldn't you know it, just as she stopped, suddenly and without warning, almost twice the number of uniformed vampires that she had faced against the Judge the last time came out of nowhere. Rather than react immediately, she just waited there in the middle of the grass field.

The vampires did not attack her, instead surrounding her on all sides, obviously just there to keep her from escaping. Her waiting, and baiting, paid off as before her, the uniformed vampires parted with almost military precision, and revealed what had been in her nightmares for over two and a half weeks.

Feeling cocky, because of what she knew, Buffy did not immediately reveal her trump card, instead just getting into a fighting stance, ready for the Judge to either try and zap her, but mostly just trying to get him to attack her. Taunting him.

He saw it, and he had to admire such spirit. It was so much fun to crush!

The demon smirked as he just gestured at her and ordered loud enough for everyone in the clearing to clearly hear him. "Soften her up for me, will you?"

Again, with almost military precision, which she had never seen in vampires before, every one of the undead demons, she counted almost sixty on sight alone, rushed forward aiming to kill her. Knowing she'd be dead otherwise, Buffy played her trump card.

Like straining a muscle, and feeling good to do it, Buffy reactivated her solid-energy field and met the closest demons head on. It was like watching a canon ball tear through wet tissue paper, the way the Slayer tore through the highly trained vampires.

The really cool thing, Buffy discovered that she hadn't in her training earlier that afternoon, was that with her "armor" in place, it was beyond easy to strike her hand right through a vampire's chest, and when she did that, her energy field did something, probably just completely obliterate the vampires' hearts, but the result was that she had found a whole new way to dust vampires.

Moving with more deft precision, speed, and strength than she had ever even imagined before, Buffy was quickly tearing through the ranks of vampires. Some were trained well enough that they managed to block her initial blows, meaning it only took them a few seconds longer to die as the Slayer tended to punch through, or just plain rip off the arms or legs the vamps used to block her.

In a matter of minutes, maybe as many as ten or eleven, Buffy had taken out more vampires in one sitting than she had in the previous month, and all of them were far better trained than the average vampires she met too.

As the dust from the last vampire fell, she slowly turned to face the blue skinned demon. The Judge, at first, only stared at her. He could feel the energy radiating from the Slayer, far more than when he had first encountered her. He briefly wondered if he should be worried.

It had taken him two weeks to heal from the injury she had given him, and that was when she was still weak, only anger and rage driving her. Now she was fighting for revenge, and if anything she seemed even stronger than ever, and was still at the top of her game, despite doing the impossible and dusting over 60 vampires like they were nothing.

He decided to not be worried, but to not take any chances in fighting her either.

Buffy watched in a rather cautious curiosity as the Judge slowly raised it's right hand towards her, and then suddenly splayed the hand wide. From the center of it's palm a bright flash of reddish lightning shot out, arrowing straight for her. Eyes wide as she realized what this was, Buffy forced her concentration, willing her body to push even more energy into her Chi-Armor. She thought, for a moment she had managed to push it up to about 25%, just as the red lightning struck her.

Or rather, her armor.

Despite seeing it coming, knowing what it was, and preparing herself for it as much as she could, Buffy was still shocked with the amount of force that slammed against her. Enough that she was actually lifted off the ground and slammed into the walls of one of the warehouses behind her, and then imprinted into it by at least two feet! That wasn't the only thing either.

She had been worried about just how much her Chi-Armor could protect her against the Judge's powers, and apparently her new skill only worked just well enough to keep her alive and not ashes, nothing said about her health after the attack was over.

It felt like she was running a fever, and had been put in all-wool clothing, in restrictive real armor, and then put into a sauna, which was inside of iron room, which was then dropped into the middle of an active and exploding, and very hot volcano!

Lucky for the Slayer, the moment that the Judge stopped blasting her, the symptoms and the heat disappeared entirely. Her bruises from being slammed into the side of a building however, were an entirely different matter.

The Judge just couldn't believe it! The only person that had ever resisted his power to Burn Humanity . . . had lead that army against him that the Omega Order had saved him from several hundred years ago. The person, while undoubtedly human, had used powers the Judge had never seen until that day. He still couldn't believe some of the things he'd seen that day.

And now it seemed that the Slayer had either been possessed by a demon and lost all traces of humanity . . . or she had begun to learn what that person had done centuries past.

"Another one," he muttered darkly, angry. With a roar of defiance, he put out both his arms and thrust all of his power onto the still trapped Slayer.

Buffy saw the twin blast coming, but she was so wedged into the wall that there wasn't anything she could do except be sure that her Chi-Armor was in place . . . and would hold.

She couldn't have stopped the scream of pain that came from her throat when the blasts hit even if she didn't know how to scream. The pain, the heat, was so intense that all she could do was huddle down and pray that it would end soon.

No one could say what sent her the vision, or if it was just her mind playing tricks on her as she was forced to endure an onslaught of more pain than she had ever felt in her entire life before. Maybe it was her subconscious, trying to get her to stop the pain. Maybe it was a vision sent by a higher power.

All Buffy knew in that moment, when the heat and the pain and the pressure was just getting to be too much, her eyes screwed up tight . . . she saw Angel. He didn't say or do anything. He was just looking at her. In that moment, her whole reasoning for doing this, facing the Judge by herself, training with Jason these past weeks . . . even going on living at all, it all came back to her and she knew what she had to do.

SLAMMING her will on her energy, she kicked her Chi-Armor up to 35%, enough that the distortion around her became actually thick and you couldn't claim your eyes were playing tricks on you, you knew something was there when you saw it.

Focusing, and with the very slight lessening of pain from her increased protection, she pushed back against the force of the demonic energy the Judge was blasting at her. Once she had enough balance and room to move, she got to her feet, and with another force of her will, maybe kicking her energy up another percentage point, Buffy reeled back one of her Chi-Armor encased fists, and then in a surprising effect, punched the energy all the way back to the Judge, who was knocked off his ass by the feedback.

The Slayer only took a moment or two to relish in her freedom before her anger and rage reminded her there was a demon to kill, and without even trying she leapt over fifty feet through the air, landing in the very spot where the Judge had been standing before being knocked down.

"No more games," she intoned coldly.

The Judge got to its feet and only stared at her for a moment, before smirking in its arrogance and nodded at her.

"You killed the man I love," she continued, her voice dead, her body still, but her Chi-Armor still active.

The Judge smirked and responded, "I've killed a lot of people. Some Slayers as well. I think I'll actually enjoy killing you though. Your boyfriend just got in the way. I liked the sounds he made as I burned him into ash though."

Face scowling in rage, Buffy raced forward, actually blurring around the edges, and hit the Judge with everything she had. He blocked it, and then slammed her with a punch that sent her skidding along the dirt ground.

Uninjured, she got back to her feet, and dusted her clothing off. "You know, that's probably the only thing we agree upon," she told him, a hint of amusement lighting her voice.

"What point might that me? The sounds he made as he died?" the Judge mocked her.

She kept her cool this time as she grinned evilly at the demon. "No," she answered, "About how much I'm going to enjoy killing you."

The Judge snorted in acceptance of the challenge. And it began.

"Any luck?" were the first words out of Xander's mouth as the four teenagers regrouped.

They had been searching the graveyards, slowly working their way towards the warehouse district, only splitting up to cover more ground in an area, but always regrouping within ten minutes. Understanding the seriousness of the matter, Xander had suggested that the guys and girls split up, and when Cordelia agreed with him, surprising Willow more than Jason, but still surprising to both, it was quickly agreed upon and without any distractions they quickly searched all the areas they could.

"I was actually about to ask you guys that," Willow answered, depressed.

"Jason, I'm sure we're slowing you down," Cordelia spoke up, "I mean, I'm pretty sure you can move and search a whole lot faster than we can since we've only just started learning this Chi-Armor stuff."

"Well, when I want to, yeah, I can move faster," Jason admitted as they quickly began moving on to the next area, "But as far as searching, not really. I'm new to the area guys. While Buffy may visit these areas more than you do, you at least know the areas. I don't, and without you guys to lead me, I'd be searching blind, no clue which direction to go or anything. We'll stick together until we find her," he decided.

"Well then, while we're all searching," Willow asked him, "why don't you give us some more lessons on how to use our Chi-Armor? We didn't get to experiment much earlier while we were waiting on you to bring Buffy back. I helped Xander and Cordelia, so now we can all solidify our energy, but how do we turn that into Chi-Armors?"

Jason stopped for a moment then quickly resumed his fast walking pace. "I... suppose," he said hesitantly. "OK, while we're walking, without stopping, form your solid energy fields. I never got to see how well you guys could do it."

"Oh sure, nothing too difficult to begin with, gawd, that's so easy," Cordelia remarked, her voice filled with sarcasm.

Xander glared at her while continuing to keep up, and snapped at her, "Cordelia, just shut up and do it, all right. Now is not the time to be complaining or whining. This is serious."

Cordelia slowed down, looking hurt, but was forced to speed up in order to keep up. She muttered under her breath, "I know that," but did stop complaining and started concentrating.

"But . . . don't we have to be meditating?" Willow asked.

Jason spared her a look, one blue eye staring right through her almost. "I'm teaching you, training you how to do this in the heat of battle Willow," he told them, "If you can't do it during a brisk walk, would you mind explaining to me how you're going to do it in the middle of a vampire attack?"

"Got a point there Wills," Xander commented, before he too turned most of his concentration to forming solidified energy around his body.

Slowly, even while they continued their fast pace to keep up with Jason, the air began to compress all around them until it looked like there was something solid, yet invisible around three of the teenagers. Remembering the warrior's advice about how to let their energy remain solid without having to keep straining to keep it that way, the Slayerettes were surprised at exactly how easy it really was once they knew how to convert their energy. And they were even more surprised at the physical side effects that came about as they walked.

"Whoa! I . . . Dude! I feel light as a feather, but like I can move even faster than ever!" Xander exclaimed.

"Holy cow!" Cordelia began to bounce along. The impressive thing was that her 'bounces' took her over six feet high before hitting the ground again.

"Forgot to mention something Jason?" Willow asked as she easily kept up with him, and even was starting to get ahead, her body moving faster than it ever had before.

"Huh?" he asked Willow, sounding surprised, until he seemed to think about it and then grinned sheepishly while scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Oh. The increased physical abilities. Well, to be totally honest, I was so focused on getting you guys into the shape needed to transform your energy . . . I kind of forgot about it. But I did say that you guys would be like a whole team of Slayers once you mastered Chi-Armor."

"Well, yeah, but we thought . . ." Willow trailed off, not sure what she was going to say.

"Well when you said a team of Slayers, we thought we were going to be able to do whatever it is that makes you so special, not actually be able to do the same stuff a Slayer can do," Cordelia told him. Willow nodded and added, "Yeah, what she said."

Despite the stunning amazement that Willow Rosenberg had just agreed with something Cordelia Chase said aside, Jason continued on, even as the others began to out pace him and doing some rather impossible acrobatic stunts along the way. Such as walking/running along the walls of nearby buildings, leaping up and surfing the power lines, and even doing the Hulk thing by leaping the distances instead of just walking or running.

"Well, like I said, I just forgot to mention it," he excused himself. "Besides, can you say that you're worse off because I neglected to mention one single detail?"

Xander, after landing from a leap, turned to him and replied, "Well, not us certainly, but what about Buffy? Not to be a major downer or anything, but what if she ran into the Judge out here and not knowing any of this stuff, overestimated, or even underestimated her own abilities? She could be in real . . ."

Suddenly, the young man was interrupted as a flash of red light lit up the horizon in front of them, followed by the pain-wracked scream of a familiar voice.

". . . trouble," he finished. Trading glances with each other, all of the Slayer's friends stopped fooling around and started running as fast as they could in the direction where they now knew their friend to be. Incidentally, all three of them reached 5% solidified energy at the same moment.

Buffy charged first, the Judge receiving her and trying to turn her attack back against her. She quickly avoided him, able to see what he was doing now that she wasn't enraged in her attacks. Before the demon was even aware of it, she ducked under his punch and moved around to his side and slammed her solid-energy encased fist into his side. Ironically, the same side where she had broken a large number of his ribs just weeks before.

Knowing it was foolish to stay in the demon's attack range, she quickly jumped back and readied herself for his counter attack, whether it be with his energy attacks, some hidden minions, or with fists and feet.

Instead the Judge just stood there, apparently stunned, before falling to his knees, his arms curling around his chest in pain. The Slayer just stood there, smirking, and relishing the creature that had killed Angel being in pain.

"Well if that's all you can take, this isn't going to take very long is it?" she asked him in a mocking tone. "Not much without your demonic powers to burn away humanity, are you? If it wasn't for that, I bet any Slayer would have taken you out long before now, huh? Now I know I'm going to enjoy this!"

She stepped forward with the intentions of ripping his head right off, but the moment she got within a few feet of him, he suddenly whirled on her and blasted her practically point blank with his demonic energy.

She cried out with the pain, barely able to keep standing, but forcing herself to, through anger, thoughts of revenge, and the instinctual demands that she obliterate this foul and evil thing above all else!

Finally, after being thrown back almost twenty feet, she managed to get her footing and start pushing back against the force of death energy. Despite planting her feet firmly and fighting what was pushing her back, she was forced back even further, her feet digging trenches in the dirt and gravel. Ultimately, whether her body came against something that would not immediately give way, or the amount of pressure she was exerting against the Judge became equal to that with which he was throwing at her, she didn't know, but she did stop her backwards movement and after that, started to take steps forward again.

It was not easy. Heck, if she wasn't so determined, she was halfway sure it would be impossible to do much more than writhe under the Judge's demonic death rays. But she was that determined. To take revenge. To kill the demon known as the Judge. To end this threat once and for all. No matter what.

On the Judge's end of things, he had exactly one thought continuously repeating in his head. 'This is impossible!'

Only one human had ever been resistant to his powers before. And not even that person could stand up under a full and direct onslaught like the Judge was pouring onto this Slayer. And that person had been infinitely more powerful than this Slayer showed herself to be! It was IMPOSSIBLE!

One final, fiery burst came from the Judge, which actually pushed Buffy back some more, but she quickly caught herself and only remained stationary for another moment before walking forward once again. She wouldn't stop. She couldn't stop.

Each step was a battle in and of itself for the Slayer. The burning heat, the pain of the demonic energy, and the strain of her muscles as she pushed against an incredible force that could probably crush a semi-trailer if properly applied. And despite her newly learned and formed energy armor, she did sustain injuries for her progress.

Burns, 1st and 2nd degree, formed on her hands, arms, and face. Scratches littered her arms and legs, tearing through her clothing. And already bruises were forming as bright red marks where the Judge had successfully hit her before.

Buffy recalled earlier, just before she had run off, Jason explaining that the only thing that could get through Chi-Armor was equal or stronger Chi-Armor. So, given how the Judge's powers were affecting her so, he either was so powerful that he was stronger than all Chi-Armors and even Jason would be thus affected . . . or he didn't have Chi-Armor and his powers were what he concentrated on and with that, he was only a little bit stronger than she herself was with her Chi-Armor around her at its current level.

Then, just all of a sudden, when she was within ten feet of the Judge, practically all resistance disappeared and to keep from falling forward on her face, she stopped. Shortly, the reason became apparent as all the dark orange/red fiery energy the Judge was throwing at her, became barely a trickle of itself before turning into nothing but light streamers flowing around the surprised Slayer.

She smiled with truly evil intent as both she and the Judge came to the same conclusion at the same time. As despite her energies and the punishment she had taken so far, the Slayer flew forward and landed her first real punch against the smurf blue demon, sending him flying till he impacted into a crater right next to the one he had put her in earlier in the side of the same building.

"My turn," she whispered hoarsely, and putting more of her energy into her armor, she leaped, crossing the distance in one bound, landing on the wall next to the Judge, staying there by digging one hand into the wall for a handhold, and the other going around the demon's throat, her feet planted firmly on the wall. "I'm still enjoying myself, are you?" she teased him before with far too much ease, pulled the Judge from the crater he'd been embedded in, and flung him across the park to a skidding, ground-churning toss.

What the Judge found even harder to believe, other than a human, even a Slayer, was beating him like this, was that by the time he finally skidded to a halt, dirt and gravel around his broken and bleeding body, she was standing there, waiting for him, looking down on the demon at her feet.

"But . . . how—" he gurgled as she picked him back up by the throat and held him off of the ground as easily as he'd held the souled vampire weeks before.

"It's thanks to a new friend of mine," was all she told him, and then kicked him as hard between the legs as she could and still keep her grip on him. She still almost lost her hold around it's ugly thick neck.

Without any hesitation, she then let go of the Judge's throat, and turning quickly, she spin-kicked the demon in the chest, sending it flying off again, and creating another crater of dirt and gravel upon landing. And amazingly, Buffy was there waiting for him by the time he landed.

"I never noticed how slow demons were when they're falling," she quipped as she hauled the Judge back to its feet, this time by the horns, which she then broke off with a grunting twist. What surprised her though, was the scream of pain such action brought from the blue demon.

So she just jammed them back in . . . to its ears.

That collapsed the creature once more, and Buffy smirked evilly once more as she made to drag it back up once more. But just as she was, there was a flash of movement and she was suddenly knocked back. Shaking her head to clear it, she tried to figure out what had happened when she noticed the Judge rushing her. Realizing it had been playing possum and blindsided her, she growled and quickly met the demon's charge.

They came together with fists flying, blows either blocked, knocked aside, or landing with only half-force, keeping things close and personal. Buffy twisted under a hay maker punch and launched a spin kick, which the Judge just narrowly jumped back from. Then, before he could jump back in, she body slammed him from the side and knocked him off his feet, managing to stay on her own, until he swept her legs out from under her. Quickly, both kicked back up into fighting stances and jumped right back into the fight.

It was in the middle of this brawl that the Slayerettes and Jason entered the clearing.

"Quick Wills, what are the odds that I'm right twice in one sentence?" Xander quipped as they stared at Buffy fighting the Judge, and seemingly held her own, if not a certain degree of advantage.

Willow glared at her friend, but didn't answer, turning and keeping her attention on Buffy.

"Uh, should we . . ." Cordelia started to ask, but at that moment Buffy landed a killer uppercut against the Judge, knocking the demon up into the air and back several feet, but then unfortunately it managed to land on its feet, " . . . do something?" she finished after the two started brawling again.

"She seems to be handling herself rather well," Jason observed. At that moment the Judge landed a blow to her head, which seemed to knock the sense out of the Slayer for a few seconds.

"Uh, yeah, but how much longer can she keep that up? I mean . . . look at her!" Xander exclaimed. They did, until he added, "She's never looked sexier! And the rags barely holding on as clothing really works for her."

At that, they all turned to glare at the young man. Then Cordelia slapped him on the back of the head and didn't give an explanation. Willow and Jason both assumed it was because she was physically closest to him.

When they turned back however, it did indeed look like Buffy was almost through. The punch the Judge had landed seemed to have knocked her a little off balance, cause she was obviously slowing down, and her blocks and blows were coming with less force. And while the Judge was in equal, or worse shape, it was obvious the demon had slightly more endurance and more base strength at its disposal.

Finally, the Judge landed a combo, completely unblocked, which floored the Slayer after a killer uppercut. For a moment, just a single moment, everything was quiet, the Judge standing there over the Slayer, who was struggling to get back up, and the others all holding their breath in anticipation and dread.

The Judge smirked one last time, raising his fists over his head, doubling them up to maximize the force in landing. Then, slowly, dark red and orange energy began to build up in the waiting attack. Needless to say, the Judge fully intended to kill the Slayer with the next blow.

"Jason!" Willow shouted, panic coursing through her body.

"OK, now maybe she needs some help," he calmly observed.

That seemed to be the last straw for the group of friends as Cordelia's face became "annoyed" and Xander suddenly rushed forward and grabbed the young warrior by the collar and hauled him closer and hissed in his face, "All right dude, enough is ENOUGH! You claim to be this warrior with these amazing powers and skills. Well NOW is the time to show them off. No more holding back Everheart! Either save Buffy right now, or . . . so help me . . ." Xander left the threat hanging, but it was still very real.

Jason smirked, and just like that, a field of solid air surrounded him, throwing Xander off of him, despite the young man's own solid energy field. Straightening his collar, he asked casually, "You do realize she's going to be extremely vexed with me after this, don't you?" They just kept glaring at him, so he sighed and turned back around to face the scene, where the Judge was charging even more energy into his doubled-up fists, apparently oblivious to anyone but him and the Slayer being present.

He sighed again and took several steps forward, stopping when he was equidistant between the Slayerettes and the nearly unconscious Slayer.

"I really wanted to wait a while before showing this to you guys," he muttered, mostly to himself, "Oh well."

The pressure in the air suddenly went up so much that the teenagers held their hands to their ears for fear of their eardrums bursting, and the Judge stopped what he was doing entirely, looking up in shock at Jason as he just seemed to be standing there.

Then, somehow, the pressure just seemed to burst, and Jason went from standing there calmly to his entire body being super-tense as he doubled over, his arms drawn back into fists and he shouted, the words seeming to have more power than in any other circumstance, "POWER UP!"

As the last syllable passed his lips, his entire body was covered with pure white energy that exploded around him like lightning frying a piece of wire, except that the human was not burned in any way. As the glare of the energy slowly faded, instead of seeing a young man with long brown hair and intense blue eyes, there was a nearly seven foot figure standing there. A white-armored seven foot figure.

The armor, as far as anyone's sight could tell, was very real. Other than being white, after they had a moment to get over the glare and their eyes adjusted, they noticed a shining silver highlighted several extremities and designs all along the armor.

Other than color, the first thing everyone noticed about him was the increase in size. Across the shoulders alone he had to be at least three and a half feet wide! The armor design had no true origin, as far as armor designs go. Although, there was a rather unique tiger motif. Silver stripes along the upper arms, biceps, thighs, and legs, as well as over and across his back, gave this impression, but what made it a motif was the way his helmet, which completely covered his head, was shaped very much like a tiger's head, just without the gaping mouth or ears. Black, cold, and soulless visors, which couldn't be moved, covered Jason's own eyes, shaped and positioned the same way a tiger's eyes would be.

The rest of the armor was compact, but the sheer size of it also gave the illusion that Jason was packing some serious muscle, and if the Slayerettes didn't know better, then they might have sworn that the armor was actually a size or two small for the man wearing it.

For a nameless amount of time, everyone was frozen, unsure or unable to move.

Then Jason stepped forward, his movements slow, almost methodical, and definitely predatory. With each step the warrior took forward, the Judge, powered down and terrified, took a step back.

"No . . . no . . . no, it-it's impossible! You-you-you, you aren't that person! That person was an Eagle, not a Tiger! And, you-you-you, no . . . no . . . no . . . no . . ." the Judge kept repeating the same thing over and over again.

Jason didn't say anything, but when he'd finally walked far enough that he was now between Buffy and the Judge, he raised his left arm and pointed it at the Judge. Every one watched, amazed, and maybe a little frightened, as what looked like really big sparks of static electricity began to gather there in the armored figure's hand. From there, the sparks turned into arcs of white fire, normally only able to be seen in a light bulb or a 'Jacob's Ladder'. Until Jason was holding in his hand, an actual ball of lightning. Not just electricity, which couldn't survive concentrated like this in the open air, but undoubted and very real lightning!

Jason kept pointing it at the Judge, who was still backing away in terror, the ball getting larger and more intense until it was the size of a soft ball and was brighter than the most intense of Halogen lamps. Then, without any movement or sound beyond a high-pitched fizzing, the lightning ball was thrown at the blue demon, and it moved far too fast for it to even begin to dodge.

There was a bright flash of light, deafening thunder and indications of an explosion. The Judge had been flung back even further, hitting a distant wall, and looking like the demon had been struck by real lightning.

The white and silver armored figure, Jason just stood there a moment and lowered his arm, continuing to stare at the demon. Almost whimpering, and more afraid than they had ever seen any demon of any kind on the Hellmouth, the Judge got back to its feet and slowly made it's way away from Jason and Buffy.

Jason's massive armor covered shoulders seemed to drop for a moment, and this time with his right hand, charged another of the Lightning Balls to the same intensity as the first one, and this one he did throw into the air, but at an arch. An arch which made it more of a boomerang as it flew over the Judge's head, and then did a sharp U-turn and exploded in the demon's face again, blowing the demon into the center of the park, but still a distance away from Jason and Buffy.

The pitiful creature, broken, bleeding, and soot-ridden, reached out a hand to the armored figure and hissed, only just loud enough to hear, "P-please! Mercy! . . . Please!"

Jason only stared at the thing for several long moments, while the Judge just kept begging. Then the warrior seemed to snort, really hard to tell with the armor on, and the Judge's pleas became even more begging.

"Please . . . p-p-please! N-no, no, please!" its voice straining against something.

The white armored figure looked to the sky, and then raised both arms in the same direction.

"No! N-n-n-NO! NO!! NNOOOOOOOOOO!" the Judge shouted defiantly, still begging.

"What's he doing?" Cordelia whispered to Willow and Xander.

Almost in answer to her question, several dark and obviously storm clouds rapidly and far too quickly gathered directly overhead. Already the humans, and the demon, could see flashes of heat lightning and the energy in those clouds. Then there was an arc of white fire between those clouds, connecting them all for just a moment.

It happened at least four more times, until Jason was suddenly surrounded by a blazing white aura of light and energy. At the same moment, five arcs of lightning converged on a central point, which just happened to be directly over the point on the ground where the demon lay crippled, and from that central point, the biggest lightning bolt that any one of them had ever seen, let alone heard of struck down at the speed of light. There was a blinding flash of light, forcing most of them to turn away and cover their eyes, the thunder accompanying it like a physical force pressing them back.

And when it was over, and the clouds above were dispersing, there wasn't even a trace of the so called unstoppable demon. Just one very big, blackened and smoking crater.

"I can't believe you did that!" Buffy shouted. "I had him right where I wanted him, and if you hadn't interfered you . . . OW!"

She screamed in pain as Giles, rather roughly, applied an alcohol soaked gauze to one of her cuts. He didn't say anything, so she had to settle for glaring at him for a moment before turning back to Jason, whom she had been yelling at.

"If I hadn't interfered Buffy," Jason spoke before she did again, "then there is a very large possibility that you would be dead right now. And don't argue with me. Your energy was nearly fully depleted by the point we arrived anyway. In fact I'm amazed, and incredibly proud that you managed to last as long as you did. But that doesn't change the facts, and arguing over them and trying to lie to yourself about your own abilities is not going to change a thing."

Buffy glared at him for several seconds longer before her gaze dropped and all of the anger and tension oozed out of her. Everybody could see and feel the difference.

"I know . . . you're right," she mumbled, but he could still hear her.

"It's just . . ." she hesitated for a moment, and then continued anyway, "I wanted to be the one to avenge Angel."

"I know," Jason said sympathetically.

He walked up to her, where she had been sat upon the Library table, and then kissed her forehead. "I know," he said again, before something slipped and Buffy saw her own pain reflected in his eyes. No, not her pain . . . his pain. She gasped in startled realization of what this meant.

Before she could say anything though, the mask of friendliness was back up and Jason had turned and was walking away. "We'll hold off on training for a couple days for everyone. Let Buffy recuperate," he told everyone as he walked towards the Library doors, "And give everyone a short time to adjust to what they've already learned. Then . . . in a few days, I'll continue your training. I promise."

"Wait, Jason!" Giles called out. Ms. Calendar came in and took over cleaning Buffy's wounds for the Watcher while the warrior turned back.

"Yes Giles?" Jason asked politely.

"Well, you see," the Watcher hesitated, gathering his thoughts and then stuttering his way through, "the whole, well, reason that you're even here, that you were brought here in the first place, well, was to help Buffy defeat the Judge. And now . . . you've destroyed him. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, there is no more reason for you to stay here."

"I suppose you could look at it like that," Jason replied patiently, "But what's your point?"

"My point, or rather my question is," Giles asked, "why are you staying to continue this training if Buffy no longer needs it?"

"Who says she doesn't?" Jason cryptically asked back. Then he just turned and walked out.

"Let him alone guys," Buffy snapped before anybody could say anything, and she knew they had been about to. "He's been through as much, if not more than we have. And we all have our secrets. He deserves the right to keep his."

Nobody said anything for a while after that, just focusing on getting Buffy patched up.

"Did you see what he did last night?" Xander asked Willow as they entered the Library together the next morning. Monday morning.

"Uh, yeah, I was kinda there last night Xander," she replied. "Real hard to miss."

"But . . . he threw Lightning!" the teen exclaimed.

"Actually, they looked like balls of electricity, kinda like those things that Ares throws on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys." Willow countered.

"Except way more intense," Xander corrected her.

"Way more," she was forced to agree.

"But I was talking about after that . . . !" he began to speak quickly.

"Actually," Willow interrupted him, "He summoned real lightning, and then somehow made it even more powerful. He wasn't kidding when he said he wouldn't even have to try if he wanted to kick Buffy's butt."

"Gee Wills, thanks for the ego boost," an annoyed and familiar voice rang out in the Library.

The two startled teens jumped and turned. "Buffy!" Willow shouted. "I . . . we . . . that is . . . " the redhead stuttered.

"What Wills is trying to so eloquently say," Xander interrupted and stopped his friend from embarrassing herself even further, "is that we didn't see you there."

Buffy just kind of stared at him expectantly, almost as though asking if that was the best excuse he could give. He just shrugged in reply.

Finally she just grinned and shrugged herself as she walked into the Library and joined them at the table. "Nah, it's all right," she assured them. "I may be a selfish bitch, but even I know when something impressive happens. And yeah, I'll even admit, in front of witnesses, that Jason is pretty cool, and if what he did last night was any indication of what he's trying to teach us, I'll join right up with you guys in the fan club."

"Oh but Buffy," Willow tried to protest, "you aren't . . ."

"What?" Buffy interrupted her. "A selfish bitch? Yeah Will, I am. Or at least I was. But I promise you guys right now, I'm not gonna be that anymore. I'm going to try and do better by you guys. You've helped me out . . . so much . . ." tears began to form in Buffy's eyes, " . . . that . . . the least . . . I can do, is to help you guys out with what Jason is teaching us. Heck, we might as well go ahead and start training together."

"Really?" Xander asked. "You really think our relationship has progressed this far?"

The girls could easily tell he was making fun, but the smile only went half way on Buffy's face before falling back into a heavy seriousness.

"Yeah Xander," she whispered, "In fact I think it's long past progressed to this point. Guys, I am so, so sorry for . . ."

She never finished as they embraced her from both sides, the Slayer breaking into tears shortly after. Xander whispered another joke in her ear as he softly, and comfortingly stroked the back of her head, "All hail the conquering heroes," his voice cracked slightly, "Ding-dong, the bitch is dead."

Buffy only pulled back enough to say to her two best friends in the entire world, "Damn straight Xander. And unlike yours truly, she's not coming back. I promise you both that." Then she dissolved back into tears.

END Episode Two

Preview: The Judge is dead, Buffy and her friends, despite mistrust and some rocky roads, are closer than ever, and Angel has been avenged. But Jason still remains to teach his students how to fully master Chi-Armor, and yet the question remains, why? And what lessons does he have left to teach them?

Next Episode "The Journey of a Path"