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!

5. Vanguard!

Vanguard Slayer

Author:Joshua

Summary:Buffy has finally received her Chi-Armor, the pinnacle of Jason's training. Now the others, her friends must all activate their own Chi-Armors. Will they be able to do it in time to meet what is still to come? Now that the Omega Order has lost two of its agents in Sunnydale, what will it the order do, and what does it want with Spike and Drusilla?

Timeline: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-eye" 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.

Story:"Vanguard!"

The cemetery was quiet at midnight. Pitch black atmosphere, the lights from the street lamps didn't even come close to highlighting the gravestones at the edge of the graveyard. The atmosphere certainly fit with it being the resting place of the dead.

Except, that is, around the mausoleum at the center.

"Careful! Don't let that one get away!" Buffy shouted out loud, grappling with two vampires at once. Around her, all her friends were facing their own fiends of the undead, thankfully with their solid-energy armor active.

"On it!" Xander shouted as he shoved one of his arms through the chest of the vampire he'd been fighting. Once it was already dust, he quickly turned and ran like the Flash straight from the comics after the one vampire that was running off. All the rest were fighting still.

"Be careful," Jason called out, sounding very casual about the whole affair.

It showed too, as he was barely making any moves against the undead, but when he did, they were the ones that went flying or to the ground in pain or just plain falling to dust from a few precise blows from him. Most of the vampires were avoiding him now, choosing to swarm Willow and Cordelia as much as they could, but thankfully Buffy and Jason were not idle in this.

While neither one of them were going all out by any means, they each found that roughly 10 percent was all they really needed to wipe out the vampire hoard they were exterminating that evening. Ten percent boosted Jason to above Slayer levels of speed and strength, and for Buffy she got to use her new trick of thrusting her entire arm through the vampire's chest in order to dust them. Not to mention ripping off their heads became much easier.

All of the others were also using their armor, though limited to whatever maximum output they had available. Xander was at roughly 75 percent, Willow at 65-ish, and Cordelia was just barely over fifty percent, but still, all three of them had 'ghost armor' by now.

The vampire ambush had started out with just over thirty vampires, attacking in tandem as Buffy, Willow and Cordelia were walking through the graveyard. Jason and Xander had chosen to patrol the perimeter, but once the fighting got started, they hurried to rejoin their friends. By now the vampires were down to less than half their starting strength, but it was still enough to double-team each human and have a single one left over. That one just so happened to be wearing the uniform of an agent of the Omega Order.

The others were all 'locals' or had just been recently turned. Still, the one Omega vampire was leading them and directing them like a trained military officer, even if they only followed those directions about half the time. It made them just dangerous enough to warrant Buffy and Jason using solid energy in the first place, but certainly not enough for full Chi-Armor.

A bit more fighting, Willow dancing in and around her opponents fluid-like, Cordelia falling back to dodge and then surging forward with hard punches and kicks, and Xander striking hard, fast, and without mercy. Buffy and Jason were finished first and were working on bracketing the Omega vamp before he could get away.

Unfortunately, neither one of them managed to get it.

Someone else did.

"Kendra!" Buffy exclaimed upon seeing a familiar face as the vampire fell away into dust.

The Slayer from Jamaica was the same as always, her mocha brown skin smooth and unblemished, while being held in a strict, no-nonsense kind of way that used to drive a bug up Buffy's butt. At least her clothing choice had improved, going from brown silks and leather to an assortment of denim, cotton, silk, leather, and all in very complimentary colors too. She turned at hearing Buffy's voice and smiled warmly, finally breaking that strict demeanor that she always carried around like a proud banner.

"Buffy! I'm glad I finally found you!" the second Slayer rushed forward.

In the background, Xander came charging back, after having defeated the retreating vampires, and ghosted across the graveyard like an avenging wraith and swept the remaining enemies into dust with one decapitating rush. Seeing that there were no more enemies, Cordelia, Willow and Xander released their ghost armors with a sigh of relief. Only then did they notice Buffy and Jason off to the side speaking to a person they all knew.

"Kendra!" Willow screamed with glee as she raced forward to hug the Jamaican Slayer.

"What are you doing back here?" Buffy questioned, then a sour look crossed her face, "Your Watcher didn't happen to read more portents of doom heading our way, did he? Because let me tell you, I've had just about all that I can stand for this month."

"Uh, no," Kendra blushed. "Actually, I was told by Mr. Zabuto that there was some confusion and I had to report here for special training. Nothing else was told to me, except that Mr. Zabuto would be calling in some help to... pick up the slack?"

"Ohhh...Kay," Buffy looked confused, and obviously didn't quite understand.

"Uhm, sorry to interrupt," Jason interjected, having powered down after the Omega vamp had been dusted, "but who is this?" he asked, pointing at Kendra.

"Oh, right, you two haven't met," Buffy chirped, glad to have something else to focus on other than her confusion. "Kendra, this is Jason, he's new in town, wasn't here the last time you came by. Jason, this is Kendra, the second Slayer."

Jason startled and looked like he was about to bolt. "Uh... repeat that please?"

Buffy smiled and replied, "Kendra became the Slayer when the Master killed me, but Xander revived me with CPR. Thus, two Slayers. Kendra is the second Slayer. Do you need me to keep repeating?"

Jason just stared, open-mouthed and wide-eyed.

"Geez, what is wrong with you?" Buffy asked, annoyed at how he was reacting.

"I need to make a phone call," Jason stated before immediately turning around and walking off.

"That's weird," she commented briefly, then turned back to her Sister Slayer.

"Who is he? What happened to Angel?" Kendra innocently asked.

The way that everyone quieted down and their eyes darkened with sadness, Kendra knew she had said something wrong. "What is it? What happened?"

They all glanced back at Buffy, who took a deep breath and let out a long, quiet sigh, then she nodded. Xander was the one to actually answer Kendra's hanging question.

"Angel's dead. Killed, by a demon called the Judge. After that, Jason showed up and... well, he taught us a few things. He's also the one that finally killed the Judge," Xander said.

"How is that possible?" Kendra wanted to know.

They all shared a look, unsure of how to proceed as this was more Jason's kind of thing.

"That's... complicated," Buffy finally said to her. "We'll probably end up explaining it to you and showing it off later anyway, but we'd just end up confusing you or something like that. So, really, what brings you back to town? And what kind of special training?"

Kendra shrugged. They were all walking out of the graveyard now, more or less following the direction that Jason had run off in, leading back to the High School.

"He was unclear," Kendra admitted. "He just said that there had been some confusion over a deal the Council had made and that I had to report to Watcher Giles to receive some special training that had recently become available to the Slayer."

Buffy frowned, beginning to catch on to what might have happened here.

"OK, I think I know what is probably going on here," she said with a resigned sigh.

"That the Watchers made the deal thinking that Jason would go train Kendra and just send an operative to take out the Judge without ever meeting us?" Cordelia supplied for the blond.

"Exactly," Buffy nodded, not even bothering being surprised at Cordelia's sudden insight.

"I do not understand," Kendra glanced back and forth between the teens.

"Giles isn't the one that has the special training," Xander answered for the Jamaican Slayer, "Jason is. He's been training us for the past few months in something he calls Chi-Armor. Spelled 'c'-'h'-'i', but pronounced 'ck-eye' armor. It's seriously cool, and Buffy can already use it, but we're catching up."

Kendra frowned, and protested, "But it is the Slayer's sacred duty to fight the demons and forces of evil! Not... school children!"

"How many more times are we going to have to go through this?" Cordelia asked idly.

"Kendra," Buffy said, "I'll say this once and only once. My friends are part of my life, and I'm not going to give them up just because some tweed-wearing stuff-shirts a full continent plus ocean away tell me to. I'll even throw in what Jason told us to sell us on it. Instead of just one Slayer with extra powers, there's now a whole team of Slayers with extra powers protecting the Hellmouth."

Kendra blinked, her programmed learning unable to deal with the concept of a team of Slayers, or even Slayer-level fighters, in one place at one time.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Xander grinned, ribbing her.

Kendra just continued to walk mutely alongside them as they went back to the Library.

The Library

Half Hour Later

It didn't take them long to get back to the Library, but Kendra was surprised to see that the boy the others called Jason had beat them back, and had apparently been there for quite a while. Currently he was speaking on Giles phone in the office. The door was closed so any conversation coming through was muffled and couldn't be understood, even to Kendra and Buffy's sensitive hearing.

"Ah, I had wondered what might send Jason off in a snit like that," Giles commented upon seeing Kendra enter the Library. "Wonderful to see you again Kendra. What is it that brings you back to the Hellmouth, if I might ask?"

"Special training," Kendra dutifully replied.

"My Watcher said that there had been some confusion and that I was to report directly to you the moment I arrived, Mr. Giles. I arrived by bus and noticed some vampires nearby, and so I decided to do a quick patrol before coming here. On my way past one of the cemeteries, I came across everyone and helped out where I could with destroying the remaining vampires, but it seems that it was not truly needed."

"Oh pishaw," Xander waved off the comment, over-exaggerating, "We'll always be glad of some extra Slayer style help, even with the small stuff. Wow, since when did vamps become 'small stuff'?"

"Probably right around the time Jason showed up," Willow surmised.

"Yes, about that," Kendra frowned and asked, "He is to be the one to train me? And he has already trained the rest of you?"

"Well, Buffy's already finished her training," Cordelia said, "The rest of us are still working on it, but we're getting real close. Xander especially."

Kendra's frown deepened and she shot Giles a meaningful look. Well, at least she meant for it to be meaningful, but while he seemed to understand what she was saying, he clearly did not agree with it, as the older Englishman frowned himself before looking down at his feet.

"Kendra," Giles started to say. "I believe I understand your concerns, but let me assure you, we have already discussed this issue and neither Jason, nor these young people could be dissuaded. Also, I would like to point out, Jason is in fact a completely normal human being, other than what it is that he is training everyone here for. I trust that the others have already told you some of what this training is all about?"

"Some," she admitted, "but I'm not sure that I truly understand. Not much of it made sense."

"Yes, well, uh…" Giles started cleaning his glasses again.

Suddenly, the door to the office slammed open and Jason emerged.

"Sorry about that," he apologized to Kendra directly. "I had to contact my... organization, you might say. They're the ones that made the deal about me training the Slayer with the Watcher's Council. In their negotiations, they failed to mention that there were now two Slayers and that the one they wanted me to train, was actually in Jamaica, not Sunnydale, CA. Which is where they told us the Judge had been spotted, by the way."

"Ah, I see," Kendra frowned, stiffening her posture.

"Ah, I don't," Buffy countered, an annoyed look on her face as she rounded on Jason. "You mean you weren't supposed to teach us anything? You were supposed to go teach Kendra?"

"That," Jason answered, equally annoyed-looking, "is what the Watcher's Council is now making all this fuss about. Apparently, they had been expecting this Watcher, yours I'm assuming," he said to Kendra, "Watcher Zabuto to call them about a new person arriving to teach Kendra something. When they heard nothing about it in their weekly report from him for the sixth week in a row, they ordered Kendra sent here. I've been told to bring her into the fold."

He paused and looked Kendra up and down. Buffy frowned, recalling that look from when she'd first met the Chi-Warrior. Curious, she turned and gave Kendra her own analyzing look.

Privately, she asked her Animal Spirit Guide, the Lioness, 'So, what is it that lets Jason tell if someone can or can't use Chi-Armor, huh?'

She can. Her own Animal Spirit Guide is already in contact with all of us. She has as much potential as the rest of you and if she trains hard and accepts what Jason teaches her, she could become a powerful, and loyal ally.

'Loyalty was not a part of my question,' Buffy mentally pouted at the Lioness. 'But I can see why you would point that out. The Watcher's Council has been getting a little bit too... manipulative with my life and the lives of my friends of late. Let me know if there's anything I can do to make sure Kendra is more loyal to US than she is to the Watcher's Council.'

Of course.

Meanwhile, Jason nodded his head and told Kendra, "All right. You certainly have the potential to use Chi-Armor. The question now becomes, are you willing to learn from me?"

"And what is it, specifically, that I would be learning?" she questioned, crossing her arms.

Buffy and Jason both smiled widely at her.

The Library

The Next Day

The conversation with Kendra had gone about as expected for everyone. General disbelief, demands of proof, and near-catatonia from shock and awe when both Buffy and Jason demonstrated their respective Chi-Armor as final evidence. Jason was now repeating all of his earlier lessons that he'd shared with the rest of them, but just with Kendra one-on-one.

Since she was a Slayer, he forewent the physical conditioning aspect and instructed her purely in the mental and meditative aspects, directing her more towards aligning her energy and preparing her to meet her Animal Spirit Guide, which they all knew was speaking with their own spirits, but no matter the cajoling, they weren't told who, or rather what Kendra's Animal Spirit Guide was.

For the time being though, Xander, Willow and Cordelia focused more on their own training, and continuing their physical conditioning, except that was being directed now by their individual Animal Spirit Guides instead of Jason and Buffy. It made knowing what they needed to work on much easier.

Another aspect of their training was in figuring out what elements they were aligned with. It was pretty obvious that Buffy had a Wind affinity, and they all already knew that Willow had Water as her element, and Jason had told them himself that he had Lightning, as well as what all the other elements were. And just because people they knew had one element and not another did not necessarily preclude them from having the same element.

Buffy made comment that she didn't even have an idea what her element really was until after she breached 100 percent and her Chi-Armor manifested. It could take the same event happening for each of them before they could be a hundred percent sure of what their element was going to be.

So far, neither Xander nor Cordy had shown signs of manifesting their element as Willow had done. Their Animal Spirit Guides, the Hyena and Raven respectively, hinted that they'd each already gotten the clues to what their element was, making Cordy think she too had a water element, given that her vision had included rivers.

Regardless, both of the highly hormonal teens avoided Willow for a while outside of training, patrol, and school. She wasn't visibly mad at them, and when they did speak with each other, she showed no signs of the temper tantrum she'd shown when she'd caught them making out. Still, there was a... vibe in the air around her whenever Xander, Cordelia, and she were all in the same room.

It was a strain, to be sure, and not something Xander enjoyed as he had to avoid being in the same room with his best friend and his maybe-but-not-really girlfriend. Mostly this involved avoiding one, or both of them. Something that he was trying very hard to do at the moment.

"Oh come on!" Xander cried out, chasing after Giles as the man walked away. "Why not? It's not like there's anything out there that I can't handle! And it's only a matter of time before the rest of us are where Buffy and Jason are. The Judge and the Executioner are gone, it would just be vampires, right? So why can't I patrol on my own?"

"Because it's too dangerous!" Giles snapped at the teen.

"You let Buffy patrol alone!" Xander protested.

"Buffy is the Slayer!" the Watcher retorted.

Xander snorted and got in Giles' way again. "And I can be stronger, faster, tougher, and arguably better than just about any Slayer. Er, except Buffy that is. Still, you see my point. Stop thinking of this as each of us just having some temporary extra powers. Start thinking of us like Jason said; a whole team of Slayers. What could it hurt?"

"You," the man replied angrily. "You could get seriously hurt, or possibly even killed. No, I won't let you. I refuse."

"Well, what if instead of listening to you, I just decide to go out on my own and do my own patrolling, while telling you that I'm staying home in my room with the doors and windows locked?" Xander sarcastically offered him.

Giles glared, then faltered on seeing Xander's version of Resolve Face, though he didn't name it. It was just the look he got whenever he dug his heels in and refused to budge. Giles sighed and took off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Fine," he finally relented. "But only for an hour, and you come straight back here before that hour is through, understand?"

"Absolutely, G-Man! You won't regret this," Xander exclaimed.

"I only hope you are right. Here," he handed Xander a quickly-scribbled note. "I'll have Buffy, Willow and Cordelia cover the cemeteries near the center of town. You can take those streets in the warehouse district at the same time. Remember, only..."

"One hour, there and back here, got it G-Man," Xander nodded, taking the piece of paper with a grin and hurried off before Giles could change his mind.

With a heavy sigh, the Watcher watched the young man scurry off, and could only pray that he was doing the right thing. Of course, it was only a matter of time now before Willow and Cordelia would be asking for their own patrol routes. Why didn't they ever cover this at the Watcher Academy?

Warehouse District

Night

Xander was walking quietly along the street, keeping his senses open as he passed shadows alongside the alleys and abandoned buildings all around him. He'd been on his first solo patrol for about half an hour now and so far there hadn't been so much as a single vamp. He was starting to get bored to be honest. How long until he finally found some demons to slay for crying out loud?

After the past couple weeks, he'd come to expect almost nightly vampire attacks, especially with all the Omega uniform vamps spurring the others on. Except for tonight that is, or so it seemed. Where was all the evil, he wanted to shout. Thankfully, he was able to hold his tongue.

Certainly didn't need to go around jinxing himself and the whole world atop the Hellmouth of all places!

Then again, as the thought back, Giles probably assigned him this area for the exact reason that the unscrupulous Watcher knew it was going to be dead quiet tonight, (pun not intended). At least in this area it was.

Suddenly, Xander heard whistling echoing all over the area. He stopped and listened. It continued on for another few seconds until he recognized it as a poor, whistled, rendition of 'The Farmer In The Dell' and the way it echoed so he had no clue where whoever was whistling was at the moment. Spinning around and around, he tried to reach out with his enhanced senses of hearing and smelling, but was getting nothing.

Finally, after about three verses, the whistling stopped.

"Well, this is certainly creepy," he commented aloud, "Even for the Hellmouth."

There was a flash of movement, out of the corner of his eye, down the end of a dark alley between warehouses. Xander, against his normally keen instinct, quickly ran down to chase whatever had moved. His confidence in himself and the skills he had learned making him think he was practically invincible. At least against vampires.

Unfortunately, as the young man discovered upon turning the corner of the alley, he wasn't facing just vampires.

"Hullo Kitten," a soft, velvet voice broke the silence of the night. The dark, feminine figure stepped forward into the moonlight, showing the familiar face of Drusilla. Oh, and about half a dozen uniformed Omega vampires plus two collared hell hounds. The tags on the collars held the same mark as the badge over their hearts that all the vamps wore.

'Oh shit,' Xander silently cursed to himself.

"Mrs. Edith told me you would be here, at this appointed hour," the insane vampiress told him. "That you and I would meet under the moon and the stars, and that something very special would happen tonight."

"Oh really," he squeaked, gulping as his backed away from her. "What's that?"

The dark haired woman smiled serenely at him, before a demonic visage replaced it as quickly as an eye blink. Drusilla grinned with a feral intensity at him before hissing, "The stars sing of the chaos of the moment! For good or for evil, for light or for dark, for mortals to die or to live! All decided in Mortal Kombat! Heh, heh, heh!"

"OK, somebody's been playing too many video games," Xander quipped, right before charging his solid energy armor to its maximum, the ghost armor forming in a flash of light, and then leaping to safety atop the roofs.

Except he forgot about the hell hounds, both which leapt and tackled him mid-air before he get reach the edge of the nearest building. Frustrated at this turn of events, he grabbed both hell hounds by their skinny throats and threw them crashing to the ground, right before he joined them. Though he did manage to land on his feet.

They didn't give him time to enjoy it though, and before he could even get up, he was being dog-piled by almost all of them. Drusilla hung back though, waiting and watching.

'This is not working!' Xander growled to himself, trying to get out from under the vampires, but they had the advantage of superior strength and the leverage to back it up.

Oh really? What was your first clue? He heard a voice, a familiar voice in his head.

'Buffy?' he asked mentally. He couldn't be sure though, as he knew that his friend had telepathy when she was wearing Chi-Armor, but she was supposed to be on the other side of town with Willow and Cordelia.

Not exactly. Here's a hint. Yip-yip!

Xander froze as his entire body locked up and tensed.

'YOU!!' he screamed inside his own mind, his anger making his ghost armor flash dangerously.

Me. The voice of the Hyena said, still using Buffy's voice for said communication.

'Couldn't you at least pick someone else's voice to mimic when you're annoying me?' he snarled at her, still struggling to get free. 'It's getting real confusing what with Buffy able to talk inside my head now too! And I may have accepted you as my Animal Spirit Guardian, but that does not give you the right to just pop in and bug the crap out of me when I really don't need it!'

I know. That's why I'm speaking to you now, the Hyena said in the same tone Buffy uses when speaking to a particularly stupid vampire, You kind of need my help right now. That little rhyme Dru spouted off, mixed in with the video game reference. That was a prophecy. So listen up Xan, because if you don't... you're dead.

'Get me out from under this vamp-pile and I just might listen!' he argued back.

What if I told you two of these six vamps here used to be part of your pack when you were possessed by the evil hyenas?

'WHAT?!!'

Before the Hyena could respond, Xander's ghost armor kicked up about three notches and he moved even faster than before, slamming fists, feet, and everything else at the vampires, ripping off the heads of at least two of them and the hearts out of the other three, leaving only one vampire to guard Drusilla.

'Now what was that about Omega recruiting from Sunnydale High School delinquents?' Xander asked his Animal Spirit Guardian.

I said what IF. Really need to pay closer attention, Xan. If you did, you might have noticed that your anger and righteous fury right there, it kicked your solid armor up to over 90 percent. Little more of that and you'll hit 99 percent before getting rid of that last minion there. Unfortunately, righteous fury isn't going to get you Chi-Armor. In fact, only one thing will.

'Oh yeah, what's that?' he asked, readying himself as he faced off against Drusilla and the last Omega vampire.

You already know the answer to that question.

Xander felt the Hyena's influence leave him, like she went back to the lightning-filled plain of burnt grass rather than watch him fight for his life. 'Typical,' he thought to himself, and took a deep breath before focusing more on the threat than his 'spiritual' issues for the moment.

Drusilla was suddenly in his face, moving faster than Buffy did against him that time she slammed him into a rock wall! He had no time to debate or decipher cryptic riddles, he barely had time to react at all!

He backpedaled and ducked under her swinging talons, diving back and to the right, where unfortunately the last Omega minion vampire waited to grab Xander by his upper arms and hold him. This ticked Xander off plenty and with hardly any effort at all, he snapped his arms free and spun with a right-handed chop thereby severing the demon's head and vanquishing it into so much dust. The unfortunate part came into play as Drusilla used this as a distraction to close the distance and land a hit on the armored teen.

"GAAAHHHHH!" he cried out, feeling real pain and knowing he was injured.

'Wha—what just happened?!' the thought wildly, fleeing from the one remaining vampire by jumping up to the roofs. If anything, he'd certainly gotten in his practice jumping.

You can die you know, Buffy's voice echoed throughout his mind. Despite the pain, he knew it was really the Hyena Spirit's voice, but he didn't have the presence of mind to debate semantics.

'What... what are you...?'

Even while the armor is in place, even when you have full 100 percent Chi-Armor, you can still die. It's not an invincible shield you can hide behind like bullet proof cars or vests or whatever. So stop holding back Xander. Because if you really DON'T know how to get Chi-Armor by now, you're stupider than even you believe.

'...You are really annoying, you know that right?' he growled back at her as he let the ghost armor fade so it was just him standing on the roof there.

Takes one to know one.

He laughed, but it came out more like a snort. "Truer words were never spoken. Or thought as the case may be."

Uh, focus here Xan.

"Right," he almost hit himself in a 'Homer Simpson' moment. "Now, how does this go again?"

"Ooh, is the puppy going to start growling now?" an airy voice said from behind him.

"Y'know," he said as he turned around, "I used to really, really hate it when Angel pulled that crap. I really don't need the reminders, so in the future... put a bell on or something, OK?"

Drusilla did not respond, though a glint of amusement was visible in her predatory eyes.

Xander scoffed and shook his head ruefully. "Let me tell you something, I used to really hate Angel, period. Couldn't stand the guy. All he did was stalk around in the shadows and give cryptic not-really-helpful warnings that usually came too late to do anything about. And for all that he got the girl of my dreams, G-Man's trust, and got called a freaking hero while I'm just trying to stay alive and get called a 'lucky kid' or unlucky. Depends on your point of view I suppose."

Suddenly, Drusilla had closed the distance between them by ten feet before Xander could finish blinking during his tirade. He stopped his pacing that he'd unconsciously fell into during his rant and faced her directly.

"Then Jason comes along and I'm thinking, 'Hey, cool, I get to be a real hero now, a superhero even!' Then I get shown up by a kid that's a full year younger than me, Buffy's still the best, and Angel is still a hero that I'm comparing myself to. Well, Dru, I'm sick and tired of being the runner-up."

"Is the puppy going to try to grow into a wolf now?" she tilted her head as though listening to someone, or something else only she could hear.

"Not a wolf," he grinned savagely, an ugly expression on his face, "A hyena. POWER UP!"

There was a flash of blinding light, and from overhead a cloud cover had come in only a few minutes ago, now throwing down a bit of lightning. Specifically, one very large lightning bolt, heading straight for the roof where Xander and Drusilla stood. It struck Xander dead on.

"Oh... poo," Drusilla cursed as Mrs. Edith started shouting for her to get the hell outta there.

The Hyena was right. Xander knew exactly what it took to go from solid-energy ghost armor to full on Chi-Armor. He'd known it since the night he saw Buffy transform. The only reason he hadn't already attained Chi-Armor on his own was very complicated, but could be simply summed up with a single word; Fear.

He had been afraid of what it would mean to have all that power, and he'd seen it twice now so he knew what that power was and some of what it could do.

There was no easy way to say it, but Xander had been abused at several points in his life. Mostly verbally and mentally, but there had been instances of physical abuse under the guise of punishment. It used to be, in Xander's world that adults had all the power. And most of the adults he knew tended to abuse, neglect, or misuse that power in every way imaginable. Now he had the opportunity and ability to gain more power than practically any person on the planet had ever had before, and he was scared of what he would do with it.

If he were perfectly honest with himself, he'd totally admit to being as selfish, petty, and flawed as every adult he'd ever met and would undoubtedly mess up his own kids if he ever had them some day. That terrified him more than anything else. So having that much power, he had to wonder if he was worthy of it after having met people like Buffy Summers and Jason Everheart. Even Deadboy had some honor and decent qualities.

In the end though, it came down to a single choice. Accept the power and use it wisely, or die. Drusilla wasn't giving any other options. The powering down before summoning his Chi-Armor just gave him a chance to catch his breath, though he had to admit there was a certain kind of sense in that one had to start from a blank slate before rebooting to an upgrade.

As the bolt of lightning struck him in the crown, Xander felt a pressure and then a flood of raw energy flood him, like somebody hitting him with a hammer made out of water that cascaded down in a never-ending waterfall! He felt the bolts of energy strike out of his body into the air and the ground until they started forming shapes around him!

He felt the bolts turn solid and form silver-white gauntlets and gloves over his arms. The seed-lightning bolts coming out of his feet arched up over his legs until he felt the solid weight of full body-forming plat armor slide into place over his calves and thighs. Around his chest a burst of pure electrical energy flashed away, leaving a silver and white crest of armor in its wake, detailing muscles that hadn't been there six weeks before. Around his head, Xander could only see the blinding white, but he felt it as the lightning bolt from on high finally ended and pooled around his head until it formed into the helmet. From the outside it appeared like a cross between a motocross-helmet and a Power Ranger's, as there were hyena-esque influences present in the design, but it fit tight and pointed. The black visor stared out from between the hyena-face's jaws and the mouthpiece part of the lower jaw, making for a very intimidating presence.

Once the glare finally faded, Xander's new Chi-Armor could finally be seen and fully appreciated. Drusilla stared, her eyes going wide in shock and more than a bit of fear.

Standing on the high side of 7 feet, almost 8 feet in height with broad shoulders and a build to match so it looked natural. The appearance of the armor was a white-silver plate armor, fit tightly over his heavily packaged frame. Beneath the plates, just peeking out as a highlight almost, was black chain-mail-mesh that fit as tight as spandex would on a body-builder. The distinguishing features, beyond the helmet, were the shoulder pads and the chest plate. The former being jagged and sharp, standing out as vividly as his unique helmet design. The latter was more like Batman's armor, looking like chiseled pecks and abs made out of white-silver metal, and with the silver showing up as 'hyena-spots' similar to those found on the real animal's fur coat. The spots continued like large silver freckles all over the plate armor, but was most noticeable on the chest plate.

Besides these differences, he seemed virtually identical to Jason's armored form, right down to the ozone smell all around him and the sparks coming out of his visor/eyes.

"..." Drusilla said nothing in the face of this new threat, merely staring in awe, and by now more than a little terror. A simple, mortal boy was nothing to the master level vampire. This... Chi-Warrior on the other hand, only another Warrior of equal or greater power could stand against him, and Drusilla was neither of these things.

Xander, of course, new this and turned to stare at the insane vampiress with a cold glare.

Dru ran.

She ran faster than she had ever run in her entire existence, living and undead both.

Not ten seconds and five blocks later, the white-silver-black figure landed directly in front of her in a blur of motion. The vampiress skidded to an ungraceful halt and stared up at what could be her demise if she did not escape soon.

`We're not done yet,` she heard the Warrior's voice inside her head, where only Mrs. Edith spoke to her, where the stars sang to her. And he was there! Inside her! Speaking!

"NOOOOO!" she cried, sounding as insane as she truly was, holding her head and backing away from the armored warrior. "NO NO NO NO NO NONONONONONONO NOOOOOO!"

`Huh, well I admit I am impressive, but I don't think I warrant that kind of reaction. Although, considering who and what you are, I do have to admit it's kind of nice.`

Drusilla jumped over the tall figure and tried to keep running.

`Ah-ah-aahhh!` he chastised her as he reached up and grabbed her by the leg, `I said, WE'RE NOT DONE YET!` he telepathically shouted, paralyzing the seer's mind for a moment even as he wrenched and threw the demon down to the ground, cracking the pavement from the force of the impact. Amazingly, there were no broken bones, but she'd be feeling that injury for quite a while, if she lived past the night that is.

Drusilla's powers as a seer were working overtime, taxing her thought process enough that she didn't even move as the giant picked her up and threw her into a brick wall, trying to get a vision or see some way out of her absolute destruction. There was only one way...

Suddenly, as Xander was slowly stalking forward to where the vampiress had fallen, her eyes snapped open, a demonic yellow as she 'vamped out' and got to her feet in a blur of motion. Just as fast, she flashed forward and struck out at him with her sharpened talons.

"Whoa," he called, jumping back from the swipe. "Looks like somebody still has some fight left in her. I'm going to make sure you never hurt anyone ever again, vampire!"

The insane vampiress merely snarled in response. Xander replied in turn by charging forward in a burst of speed and slamming the dark creature into the cement before picking her up and backhanding the vampire over ten feet through the air and skidding another seven until she slammed into a telephone pole.

`Too bad that thing didn't have big enough splinters to dust you, it might have saved you some pain,` Xander mocked. He walked confidently over to her, and then had to back away in a hurry as Drusilla took a swipe at him and actually scored a hit. The fact that he felt it was worrying enough, but there were also visible scratches on his chest plate where she had struck.

He looked back up at her, his visor covered eyes sparking with real lightning. `Big mistake!` He lashed out with a hay-maker and knocked her to her backside in the middle of the street.

Seeing his fist clench and raise, however, she knew that she needed to switch from offense to defense in a real hurry. She got back to her feet and snarled at him once more. Then she dove and pulled a loose manhole cover for a shield as Xander extended his armored hand, concentrating on what he wanted. A second later, the Hyena informed him of how to do it.

`Lightning Barrage!`

The attack echoed throughout the alley and psychically also, even as fist-sized balls of lightning formed around the armored man's extended arm. They flashed with explosive power for a second before shooting across the distance in a flash. They exploded against Drusilla's shield, throwing her back into the side of a building and completely destroying said shield.

`And now for the finishing touch,` he said as he angled his head to look up and raised both his arms above him. The dark, storm-filled clouds of earlier were still present and seemed to fill with even more power at his actions. Heat lightning jumped from cloud to cloud for several moments until Xander felt that enough energy had been gathered for what he wanted.

Looking back down at his target, he was surprised to see the vampire on her feet and running for the opened manhole that lead into the sewers. She was clearly still hoping to escape and Xander knew, even without Hyena having to tell him, that if she got into the sewers she very well could as they had no way to track her and the small spaces would severely limit their fighting options.

`Too slow!` he mocked her as he summoned one final attack against the vampire.

`Lightning!` he called out and from the center mass of clouds directly overhead came a bolt of real lightning striking with energy, heat, and light upon the sewer opening.

Even Xander, behind the full protection of his Chi-Armor couldn't look directly upon the strike point and couldn't be a hundred percent that Drusilla had fried. After the lightning and thunder had faded and he could look, he saw only the devastation of a direct hit from the lightning and how the sewer had caved in a bit around it.

There was no trace of the vampire at all.

Except, he did see something out of the corner of his eye, and jumping down to take a better look, he saw it was a torn piece of Drusilla's dress. Knowing how vampires dust and everything, Xander was forced to admit that his adversary had gotten away.

Oh cheer up, the Hyena spoke to him, You got your Chi-Armor and you're still alive. That vampire may still be around, but now she knows to fear you and you'll never see her again if she has any brains. And despite it usually being dead, most vampires do.

`Not the point,` Xander replied. Then he relaxed and in a flash of light he returned to his natural human form. "She's still out there and a danger to everyone. Maybe not me or my friends, but vampires have to feed and that puts people in danger. I won't stop until they're all dust!"

Uh-huh, that's good and all, believe me I fully support you here. But you're exhausted, it's night, your patrol is supposed to be over by now, and you have no idea where she went. Time to call it a night Xan.

With a sigh he nodded and turned in the street to head back to the Library. "Yeah, you're right," he admitted. "Time to call it a night. Uh, thanks."

For what?

"Just... thanks," he said with a blush and closed the connection on his side.

Chase Mansion

Few Days Later

Saturday Afternoon

"So, you already got your armor?" Cordelia asked as she brought a pair of iced teas to the loveseat she was sharing with her kind-of-sort-of boyfriend.

"Yep," Xander nodded with a smile as he accepted the beverage and made room for her.

"So?" she asked, her questions obvious, even to him.

He smiled and nodded back. "Well, as we pretty much figured out beforehand, my element is Lightning, same as Jason's actually. Hyena is my Animal Spirit Guide so instead of having stripes, I've got silver spots here and there. No wings either. Apparently that's just for wind-types, Jason says. Or ones that have a winged Animal Spirit Guide, like you."

"Yeah, well, I'm not having as much luck as you and Buffy have had with the whole Chi-Armor thing," she said with a pout.

"I don't exactly consider being able to turn into a giant armored super-powerful warrior a must-have in my relationships. Though I must admit it would be a plus, definitely not a requirement. So, you do not have to worry about me thinking any less of you. In fact," he paused, taking her hand in his and staring honestly into her eyes, and that was saying something.

"In fact, the way that you've gone into this whole thing and how you've not given up and how you're helping out so much, that means more to me than you probably know. Bimbo-for-brains," he smiled that lopsided smirk of his at her.

She returned with a winning smile and said, "Thanks. Dork face." Then she kissed him.

"Harpy," he kissed her back.

"Zeppo," she deepened the kiss so it was almost a minute before he could say anything.

"Queen Bitch," he replied breathlessly, holding the back of her neck and pulling her in for a deep kiss with tongue and everything. She whimpered and moved closer to him.

"And... don't you... forget... it... aahhaahhh!" she gasped between kisses before he started nibbling down her jawline to her collarbone, which he knew was one of her sensitive spots.

"Not... likely... any... time... soon... Oh god Cordy, you're so hot!" he whispered back, just as breathless as he caressed her body and tasted her skin. And he was right, she was like fire in his hands, but he liked her like that!

"Xander!" Cordelia gasped, bringing Xander's head in closer to kiss him senseless and to have him do the same to her. They spent over half a minute just keeping their mouths in contact, tongues wrapping around each other in an erotic dance the two teens longed to match with the rest of their bodies. At some point, Xander's hand went up her skirt and Cordelia unbuttoned his shirt.

Neither of them were doing much thinking by this point, concerned more with the pleasure and the sensations they were evoking within one another. The next thing either of them knew with any certainty was that Xander was down to his boxer briefs and Cordelia to her lingerie, the bra straps hanging loose off her shoulders and about two seconds from coming off completely.

In the next move, Cordelia straddled her boyfriend's lap, driving the both of them nearly over the edge just from the proximity of their bodies now. She held onto his neck with both hands and leaned back, giving him a good look at her body while taking the same pleasure from him. Her bra finally was thrown over her shoulder somewhere and she couldn't stop the blush when Xander gasped in awe, his pupils dilating almost to black in arousal.

"Oh god, Cor! You're beautiful," he whispered passionately.

"You're not so bad yourself handsome," she whispered back, leaning back forward to kiss her wonderful boyfriend and reward him for paying her such lovely compliments. Then he did that thing with his tongue and all thought and reason left her for a little while.

She squirmed around on his lap, her breasts, full and hard, scratched against his full barrel chest. Then they froze suddenly as her squirming brought their still covered areas into direct contact, contact which nearly had them cumming in seconds, but they stopped instead, letting the overwhelming sensations course through them for a moment before locking eyes. Slowly, she moved, not away but closer, rubbing her moist satin-clad mound against his hardness. They both gasped at the sheer pleasure that rocketed through them at just the slightest vibration.

"Oh my god you are so hot!" Xander gasped out in a single breath. He reached up with both his hands to grasp her about the waist, whether to pull her off or pull her closer neither of them could say. What did happen was that he held onto her waist and didn't let go, and she felt empowered by the notion that it was she that turned him on so much.

"Xander! Gawd! Love you!" she panted between gasping breaths.

"I love you Cordy," Xander gasped back, "Love you so much it hurts!"

They pulled themselves closer so there was hardly any room for air between them. The motion tipped them dangerously close to the edge of the couch they lay upon, so Xander decided to exercise some of his new found confidence and picked his girlfriend up in both arms, all while kissing the sense out of her. She just held on, locking her hands behind his neck and kissing back.

After some stumbling around and taking quick glances between kisses, Xander finally managed to get them down the hall and into the ground floor bedroom of the pool house. He wasn't entirely sure on how or why, but apparently after Jason came to town, Cordelia moved out of her extravagant room in the Chase Mansion and claimed the entire two-story w/basement pool house as "hers" and that was why they were out here in the first place. Now, he couldn't be happier as it meant they didn't have to worry about servants or heaven-forbid Cordelia's parents finding them at that moment. It was a big time relief to their inhibitions too.

By the time he laid her on the bed, somehow on the trip between the closed-off sitting room and the bedroom, their last articles of clothing had floated off somewhere, leaving them as natural as the day they were born.

Xander didn't even bother with the blankets and sheets, too caught up in his passion for the woman that he loved to care. He gently placed the brunette bombshell on top and joined her a heartbeat after, laying down next to her, kissing and drifting his hands all along her gorgeous body.

Cordelia mewed into his mouth, his hands leaving trails of fire that burned a path across her skin. After his touch moved on to different parts, she feared the cold moving in claim the area and shock her out of lust-induced haze. Instead, the fire within gained in strength and when his touch returned, it just got hotter, the cold air refusing to touch her. Soon she felt like she really was in a fire, or oven or something really really hot! It wasn't uncomfortable, it made everything amazing!

Kissing and touching were all well and good, better than good in fact, but their hormones were screaming at them that there was something much better they could be doing with one another.

Soon, the flirting touches, soft caresses and passionate groping shifted from all over to the few spots that gave more pleasure than all the rest combined. Cordelia held him in her hand and jacked her fist to keep him hard. One of Xander's hands groped across both of her breasts, while the other fingered her sopping wet pussy, two fingers plunging and caressing while his thumb teased and rubbed against her clit. They cried out in gasps and moans, barely able to contain themselves, yet still afraid of taking that one final step.

It was more than they could handle at once and the fear slowly dwindled until only their love and raw instinct remained. Raw instinct that was overridden by their still conscious brains and had Xander scrambling for protection, only to find none nearby. Cordelia was too hot to think clearly, and even for the small amount of time that they stopped, she was still riled up, even more so in fact!

"Xander," she moaned, pulling him back to the bed when he'd stood up to check the kitchen or the bathrooms, "I don't care. Neither of are sick or anything and... whatever else happens, I... I love you. I just can't wait any longer! Screw the protection! I'll just take a morning after pill or something."

"Wait a second. Protection..." he trailed off thoughtfully. He grinned suddenly and said, "I've got an idea, just give me a second here." Then he kissed her passionately. "I love you. You're a genius. I love you."

He sat back on the bed, sitting on his haunches, and Cordelia took the time to enjoy the view of her strong, muscular and naked boy friend sitting there with nothing to hide. Xander, unfortunately, forced himself to close his eyes and began to meditate. The same meditation Jason had taught all of them to help them in learning how to achieve Chi-Armor. And also solid-energy.

Moments later, there was a muted flash of light, but not all over Xander's body, only around one specific area, or appendage so to speak. Cordelia's eyes went wide. "Oh, Xander!" she gasped.

He opened his eyes and looked down. His smile was full of pride, though the leer he shot his hot girlfriend was filled with a very different sinful emotion. "Awesome," he said, "It worked! What you said about protection gave me the idea. Solid energy is supposed to be all about protection, so I just... adjusted the energy around that, er, area and converted only a small part into solid energy. It should work and hold up until we're heh, done so to speak."

"And the extra few inches in size?" she mocked, shifting glances from his now glowing crotch and his dark, lust-filled eyes.

"For your benefit only, love," he whispered huskily, falling over her and drawing her into another deep kiss. This time they skipped the foreplay.

There was some hesitation and teenage awkwardness for a minute or two while they got themselves into position, their emotions raging all over the place, but then they connected. Xander was right at the cusp of her opening, pushing her folds back and the sensations from that alone nearly had the two of them collapse in sheer ecstasy. He had to stop himself from pluming her depths lest their first time be far too short a time for either of them.

Finally, the moment came in which they joined as one. Xander pumped his hips and practically fell into her depths, going so far and so deep that he felt like his whole body was being sucked into hers. Cordelia gasped, the sudden fullness and stretching an unfamiliar sensation to say the least, but definitely pleasant!

After what felt like an eternity between the two of them, Xander's body came to rest, hilt-deep inside Cordelia's warm, wet and tight embrace. For the longest moment, once they were filled with one another, they just lay there, basking in the emotional feelings and physical sensations washing over them both.

Then, little by little, Xander began to recede, startling a cry of pure lust from the brunette babe's throat. Her arms shot to her lover's neck and held on tight, her eyes staring into his with a scary intensity. He stared right back and left his body on automatic.

Fifteen minutes later, an impossible fifteen minutes later, the two were still at it, rutting together in the oldest dance of human history, sweating and shaking and breathing as one. It was mostly due to the rather dull lack of imagination in their making love that allowed them such a lengthy coupling, most would say. But the simple fact of the matter was that they were too into each other to bother being overwhelmed by the act of being in each other.

It was a slow climax, but it was one neither would ever forget for the rest of their lives. Cordelia started first, her cries a little sharper, her gasps shorter, and her muscles rippled up and down Xander's shaft in delightful ways that milked him for everything he was worth. Her orgasm started slow, built, and then crashed like a tidal wave against the shore! Xander's was sharp, fast and blinding, but no less intense!

They held onto each other, their bodies shaking and tense, screaming out from the intensity of their love and what they had just shared with each other. Amazingly enough, Xander's solid-energy condom held even after his orgasm subsided and when he finally pulled out it remained in place until he willfully released it and his crotch was suddenly covered by a torrent of his cum.

They lay together for a short while, just holding each other, nearly falling asleep as the fatigue settled in. For a time, they merely felt elated, basking in one another's presence in the aftermath. Then the endorphins ran their course and their conscious thoughts began to make themselves known once again. Cordelia tensed for only a moment, but Xander hugged her and drew her closer. She relaxed once more and breathed in his scent.

"I love you Cordy," Xander whispered into her hair, holding her tightly to him.

"I love you Xander," she whispered back into his neck, holding him just as tightly.

After that, they just lay there in each other's arms, accepting that whatever may come will come. For now though, they were just happy to be together, and that was enough. Talks and conversations could wait until tomorrow.

Sunnydale Uptown

After Patrol

Night

Cordelia sighed to herself as she slowly jogged along the sidewalk in the direction of the rich side of Sunnydale, towards her home. Most people considered jogging at night to be a bad idea in general and suicide atop the Hellmouth. After a rather uneventful patrol however, and another day of training where she was no closer to gaining her Chi-Armor, the Queen C of Sunnydale High felt the need to live a little dangerously for once.

Besides, if there were any vampires or demons about, they would have already shown up to be taken out earlier, and with her solid energy at close to ninety percent she was hardly helpless. Well, 85 percent, but that was almost ninety!

She had a lot on her mind at the moment anyway, and she had discovered quite recently that running to exhaustion often helped clear her mind. At the forefront of her thoughts was what had only happened to her earlier that afternoon in her very own room!

She'd given her virginity to Xander Harris! The Class Clown King of all Losers! Her boyfriend in fact! If she weren't so vain, she might not even care, but at the same time a part of her couldn't help but care that a year ago she wouldn't even bother giving the boy the time of day, let alone be this committed to him!

Still, she couldn't deny her feelings in this regard, and he made her feel... well, a lot better about herself than anything her so-called "friends" and temporary hunky jock boyfriends could ever do for her. Then there was what Raven had shown her in her vision quest.

Now that, was another thing on her mind. The vision quests that all the others had gone on had shown some aspect of their elemental affinity. Willow appeared in the middle of an ocean, her element was water. Xander appeared in the middle of a lightning storm on a burnt grass plain, and it was revealed his element was lightning. Even Buffy, she appeared in an African savannah where the wind never stopped blowing and her element turned out to be wind!

And what about her? She appeared on a bridge that represented her 'safety net' and she needed to jump off it to progress any further along her path. A path represented by rivers traveling through the forest of all things!

For a time she thought that meant that she too had water as her element, but Jason was quick to assure her that was not the case. He couldn't, or wouldn't tell her what he thought her element really was, but he was positive she was not a water element.

After that, she'd tried meditating on her own to see if she could get back in touch with Raven, but he was strangely silent. Which was yet another thing as all the others, even Kendra that had just joined the group, said that they could all communicate with their Animal Spirit Guides all the time now. Well, not all the time, but they did talk about things every now and then, and Xander and Buffy both confirmed that the advice of their Animal Spirits was indeed instrumental in helping them attain full Chi-Armor.

Since her vision quest had ended, she had not communicated with Raven even once.

She suddenly stopped, coming to a running halt.

On the other hand, maybe he had been communicating with her, and she just hadn't been listening. Just because the others got to hear voices and feel a presence within themselves doesn't mean she's been left out. Raven had told her already, Animal Spirit Guides most often communicated through their charge's instincts and intuition!

Feeling a tremble of excitement at the thought, Cordelia smiled and resumed her jogging pace back to her home. A second to get her bearings, she saw that she had about four different ways of getting home. Not bothering to think it over, which is something she would have done to either avoid her enemies, spy on her rivals, or even just pass by her favorite boutiques to get a look at the latest fashion trends, instead Cordy just started down the direction that felt right to her at the time.

Looking back on it, she realized that while what happened after was traumatic for sure, it was something that she needed to experience and was most likely Raven whispering in her ear at the time. She might one day wonder what would have happened if she had gone down any of the other three routes, but at the time all she cared about was running to clear her head.

The route she had unconsciously chosen on her way home took her through some back alleys, roads that were rarely traveled by anyone, even during the day, and were absolutely deserted at night. Except of course for when a vampire from out of town sees a hot brunette running down one of those hidden streets and decided to cut her off for a little midnight snack.

It all happened in an instant. There was no warning, no dramatic music, not even a whisper to make the girl pause and wonder if there was someone behind her. One second Cordelia was running along, in less than half of the next second, the vampire had grabbed her by the throat, covered her mouth and dragged her off to the side, his fangs already moving to her jugular to feast.

The .2 seconds it took Cordelia to realize what was going on seemed the longest in her life, and her body was already reacting to the threat in half that time. The vampire grunted when her elbows slammed into his ribs and torso over and over again, causing actual pain, but not quite the same level that would affect a real person.

"Stop that," he shook her by the throat, one hand still over her mouth, "I'm trying to eat in peace here! And that's not helping."

If she was of a mind too, Cordelia might have rolled her eyes and tried to make some scathing remark about vampires and eating habits, but she was a touch more concerned with staying alive at the moment. She didn't stop struggling for a second, not even when the vampire's grip around her throat started to choke her!

When slamming her elbows into his ribs and kidneys didn't work, she started trying to kick at his legs, aiming mostly at his feet and shins, but hoping for a family jewels shot if she could manage it. She hit about three out of four kicks, and the extra pain for the vampire, while not having him hopping on one leg or anything, it was keeping her alive for precious seconds.

"I said stop that you stupid whore! I can smell you ain't no virgin no more, and you definitely got that fresh fucked taste, so don't even trying to deny you're a whore! Maybe I should take me a free sample, huh? Is that what's got you all squirmy?" he taunted her, reaching down with the hand not over her mouth to fondle her.

That did it! Cordelia was pissed!!

It was one thing to try and kill her! It was another thing to taunt her while doing it! But to call her a whore and make fun of what she shared with Xander? This vamp was dust!

Tapping into her solid energy, Cordelia didn't even focus on converting more power or focus on her element or communing with Raven. She was too angry to do anything but force the change through the sheer fury of her will power!

Ironically enough, that's exactly why Raven guided her down a path that put her in serious mortal jeopardy, and it was exactly what she needed to do to gain her Chi-Armor.

"GAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!" she screamed from behind the hand over her mouth, and her body lit up with a fiery glow.

"OW!" the vampire quickly dropped her and backed away. The most amazing thing was not that she didn't fall, instead hovering there while glowing like a blowtorch, at least not to the centuries old vampire. The more amazing thing was that she had burned him! Like her temperature, her very skin had reached and surpassed that of an open flame!

"What the...?!" the vampire exclaimed, watching in horrified awe as his would-be victim transformed before his undead eyes.

The fiery glow surrounding Cordelia's body intensified until there was a sudden surge of power from somewhere and for only a moment, her form was obscured by a blinding flash of red-orange-yellow light. In that moment, Cordelia felt her energy shape itself to her Will and her Need, her very life essence becoming solid and wrapping around her body like a cocoon of protection.

Her clothes might as well have vanished, she didn't feel them. She stretched out her arms and legs, feeling the fiery energy infuse every cell. Around her arms, red plate armor with red linen-like material beneath formed in a flash of orange flames. Her legs, likewise were covered with red plate armor, lined with yellow-gold engravings and lining, the same heeled boots as Buffy's white armor appearing in red for Cordelia. Her hands clenched and the flames turned yellow before burning away to reveal yellow-gold talons with a red undertone. Her torso was covered with a mix of orange and yellow flames leaving behind a shaped ornate crest of red and yellow-gold armor, the symbol of the Raven emblazoned across her finely-shaped chest in gold. Finally, Cordelia opened her eyes for the last bit, the fiery energy coming from them like sparks from an open fire. Her dark brown hair gathered up and in a blaze of power, the helmet coalesced into a nigh-demonic or maybe Arch Angelic depiction, a golden-lined face framed with a blazing red helmet, a mane of orange hair falling from the top and falling to midway down her back. The eyes started out as her normal brown irises, then they began to glow with the same sparking energy and turned red, then orange, and finally a burning hot yellow-gold with no irises at all, just power. In a final burst of power, flames poured out of the armored warrior's back, except they didn't go away. It wasn't until the transformation completed that the flames finally stilled and became recognizable as two giant orange-feathered wings!

After her energy stabilized and Cordelia took a second to realize what had just happened, she looked down at herself and smiled beneath the mask of her Chi-Armor. Feeling around for a second, she flapped her wings once or twice and realized that unlike Buffy's wings, which might as well have been mechanical given how they were armored, her wings weren't covered at all. They were pure feather and muscle. Well... feather and solid energy at any rate. Still, the difference was noticeable.

Looking up, she saw that her attacker was standing there at the edge of the shadows, his mouth open in shock, and his arms and hands covered with burns she idly noticed.

`Oh, you're still here?` she observed. Her hidden grin became almost feral, though the vampire couldn't see that beneath her expressionless golden mask. `Good.`

Reaching out with one hand, she called out the words on pure instinct, `Fire-starters!`

Starting as barely a spark, as it always does, but quickly growing and gathering strength, a fire started just in front of the 7 foot red armored warrior, a fire that quickly extended a tongue of flame towards the still-staring vampire.

Said vampire quickly realized what would happen if that fire touched him, and he turned to run as fast as he could, not looking back. He didn't get far.

The whole fire, which might as well have been a fireball at that point, slammed into the fleeing vampire's back and covered him in seconds. Before those seconds were even counted, the lone vampire from out of town was nothing more than burnt ash down the sewer drain.

Seeing the threat neutralized, the red armored warrior lowered her hand and seemed to take a breath and let out a sigh, though nothing but the clacking of her armor could be heard. Until a more natural sound that of wings being unfurled and flapping in the air became more prominent.

Cordelia lifted her armored head to the sky and would have laughed out loud if the sound could have been heard. Instead, she gave one strong flap of her natural flame-orange wings and was airborne seconds later. She spent the rest of her time before curfew flying over Sunnydale, enjoying the sheer joy of flight. It was definitely way more relaxing for her than jogging all over the town!

Training Quarry

One Week Later

Afternoon

The whole gang had gathered once again at the rock quarry Jason had secured for their highly destructive training in Chi-Armor. He never did explain how he'd secured it, but seeing that no cops ever showed up from all the explosions and tornadoes and fireballs that came as a side effect of that training, they weren't going to complain.

Today, Jason wanted to have a free-for-all sparring match between the ones that could now use Chi-Armor. Mostly to get everyone used to their new abilities, but also to exercise and see if they could come up with new abilities, or attacks on their own. Unlike most days, Jason would be participating in this using his own full Chi-Armor.

Unfortunately, not all of the gang had progressed as far. Namely Willow and the newly arrived Kendra. Though she had started 'late', the Jamaican Slayer had quickly absorbed everything Jason had to teach her. She was already up to 75 percent solid energy and Jason had guessed that it would only take some more training and interpreting the message she received from her Animal Spirit Guardian, which could be anywhere from another month to that very afternoon.

Willow, on the other hand, despite having learned how to access her elemental abilities, was no closer to attaining full Chi-Armor. She'd managed to push her solid energy output to the low nineties. In fact she was at the same level Buffy had been stuck at before the Executioner had attacked. Except she did know her element and it still made no difference. She could not reach any higher without attaining full 100 percent Chi-Armor.

Dolphin was giving her hints every now and then, but Jason told her that she was over thinking it, and after hearing some of her theories on what to do to get her Chi-Armor, Buffy and Xander had to agree with him.

Kendra had a similar barrier to overcome, not in the physical, but the mental and spiritual. She understood and was very accomplished at converting her natural flowing life force into solid energy, but without that final push, coupled with knowing what her element was and how to use it, she would be stuck at 75 to 90 percent solid energy ghost armor and that was it.

Until those final barriers were overcome, however, Jason had the both of them on the sidelines, meditating or exercising to build up their life force energies. While the rest of them were down in the quarry getting ready to square off.

The four of them stood at the center of the stone pit while Giles, Jenny, Willow and Kendra stood a 'level' above them, far enough away to avoid being in the line of fire and still be able to make a run for it, yet close enough to still see.

"Ready?" Jason asked, looking across at Buffy and at either side to Xander and Cordelia.

They all nodded and took a few calming breaths. Xander and Cordelia especially needed it. Finally the three of them nodded and said to him, "Ready."

He nodded back and said, "Then let's do this. Don't worry so much either. It's just practice. We're not going to try and kill each other."

"Right," Buffy agreed, still breathing steadily.

"Yeah, after all which of us would ever want to try and kill the other?" Xander joked.

Cordelia shot him a glare, while the other two glanced nervously back and forth between the two of them. "That was supposed to be a rhetorical question, Cordy," Xander snapped at her, glaring right back.

"Right, sure, whatever," she said offhandedly.

"Can we get on with this please?" Jason interrupted the fight before it could take off.

"Sorry," they both apologized.

"Thank you," he grinned, then turned and walked five paces back. The others all copied his actions, turning on the spot and taking five paces away from each other. As one they turned back to face one another and then clenched their fists, readying themselves and raising their energy levels.

On the cliff, Willow and Kendra could both feel it before they saw anything, a sort of echo throughout their whole bodies that let them know someone nearby was using solid energy and the sheer amount of it as well. Giles and Jenny felt nothing out of the ordinary, but could understand the tension in the air. It wasn't every day you got to see four warriors gather to use near-mythological powers to train.

Down below, the four teens were as ready as they were going to get, they were just hesitating, see who would go first, so to speak. In the end, the amount of time between energy spikes was so insignificant that it couldn't be realistically measured, and was close enough that it could be said they all transformed at the same time in fact.

"POWER UP!" their shouts echoed throughout the quarry.

The light was blinding as all four warriors transformed at once. Once the initial glare had died down though, Willow and Kendra could see the Chi-Armor form out of the solid energy over their friends and comrades.

Jason was covered in living lightning, all of it emerging from his skin, eyes, hands, his whole body. The living lightning writhed all over him for a minute, and then coalesced around his body like a tamed beast responded to the trainer's commands. His fists opened into tiger claw palms, a flash of energy later his hands were covered by metallic silver claws that would make any tiger jealous! Around his legs, the energy stretched itself thin, wrapping itself around in stripe like patterns of lightning strikes. Another flash and the white armor formed over his lower half, highlighted with silver tiger stripes along the edges. His chest was one mass of living lightning energy, writhing all over and across the rest of his body, until it suddenly blazed with refreshed energy and in the next moment, a tiger crest on white plate armor outlined in electric silver formed. The last piece formed from his eyes, the energy reaching out and transforming itself in a wave starting from that point, like a wall of light driving back the dark. The helmet was a white full-head helm patterned after a samurai's animal-like headgear, but of a tiger, all white and painted silver here and there. One final burst of white lightning arched out from the now armored 7 plus foot warrior as he stood ready to battle.

Buffy began her transformation the same as her first time. From two points on her back, a pair of wings appeared, flapped once and then again, revealing her white armored wings. White armor with gold highlights formed from the very air around her, swirling around her body, her legs, arms, chest and head. The white and gold talons flashed and clenched tight around her hands. Her legs were covered just as quickly, the heeled boots forming fluidly with the rest. The golden lion-themed crest appeared upon her white plate armor in a mini-tornado of energy. The single-slit visor helmet formed last, gold energy moving like the air itself around her head and face. The next burst of energy coincided with the white and yellow-gold armored warrior flapping her wings, talons spread and stance firm as she braced herself to fly or fight.

Xander this time did not need a thunderstorm on hand to call down a burst of lightning, nor did he need a real lightning strike this time. As with Jason, the lightning seemed to come from within him, though far more violently than with the more experienced warrior. Arcs of silver lightning blazed across his skin and body like the bolts of a lightning ball. The energy was bright enough that it made his body seem black in comparison. The black chain-mail body armor formed first, enclosing his entire body as the silver white bolts of power coalesced into the silver and white outer plate armor. Around his fists, silver-lined white gauntlets formed with a flash of power, his fists clenching tight. Around his legs, the lightning danced across the black armor and left the same silver-spotted white plates of armor in its wake. Across his torso, the silver-spot Hyena influenced crest of armor appeared in a blazing burst of power. The helmet came next, forming around his head from the energy pouring forth from his eyes and mouth. The familiar Hyena-themed helmet snapped into place with the few final sparks of power from the transformation. Once everything was in place, there was a build up of power until raw arcs of electricity and lightning leaped from the silver, white and black armored figure as it flexed its muscles and clenched its fist in anticipation of the coming action.

Cordelia was covered in ethereal red/orange/yellow flames the moment she started powering up and bringing forth her energy. The light just got more intense as the flames built in strength until she was blocked from view and it seemed that her clothes had gone up in the flames she generated. Instead, the heat and fire embraced her and covered her where she needed it. This lasted but moments as the flames and fire spread across her entire body and suddenly became solid. Around her clenching and unclenching fists, the fire forged itself into yellow-golden talons, red and gold gauntlets with flame like patterns covering her arms. Her legs were encased in flame only to have that flame melt away into gold-lined red armor, a battle skirt forming around her waists, and heels at her red-booted feet. Her chest was ablaze with raw power and heat one moment, and the next it burned away to reveal the red and gold crest of armor with the sign of the raven emblazoned across her finely shaped chest in gold outline. Her brown hair gathered itself up as the helmet formed around her head, the fire of her very soul pouring from eyes and mouth. The masked depiction of a supernatural warrior covered her pretty face as her dark brown hair turned into a wild mane of orange hair that hung down her back, her eyes filled with fiery golden energy shining out from beneath the mask. In a final burst of fiery power, jets of yellow-orange flame erupted from her back, quickly forming themselves into her orange flame-feather wings, which flapped once before settling into position, able to attack and defend at a moments notice.

Once the transformations had completed, and the glare from the excess energy faded, Willow, Kendra, Giles and Jenny all stared in amazement at the small collection of armored warriors. The average height was seven to eight feet in height, but their build made it seem perfectly natural. Like the world around them was smaller rather than them being bigger.

"Amazing," Kendra gasped in awe.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Willow pointed. The four warriors were squaring off now.

`So` Buffy asked, extending her armored wings as they stood across from each other, `How exactly is this supposed to work? Any rules, time outs, things like that? Or do we just... go?`

`Heh,` Jason chuckled, shrugging his silver-striped shoulders. He was by far the biggest of the four of them, his armored form layered with heavy plate armor on top of heavy plate armor it appeared, though all directly proportional to his size and shape. `Yeah, I guess I was a little vague earlier wasn't I?`

`OK then,` he said, `here's how we do this. Firstly, this is just training, we're not trying to kill each other. This is all about getting you three familiar with your new capabilities now that you've achieved full 100% Chi-Armor. We'll do this about once a week, just to keep in practice. This is also an opportunity to learn what attacks or other powers you may have in this form. But it will also show you your limitations, and there are limitations to your new forms. But such limits are unique to the individual. Buffy probably has the highest endurance out of all of us, but Xander may be stronger in some areas, and Cordelia quicker, or just more agile. That's what this is for.`

`Doesn't really answer the question on rules, now does it?` Xander pointed out.

Jason, though it was impossible to tell, seemed to roll his eyes and continued in the silent telepathic method they had when armored up. `Fine. Rules are, no Kill or Final Attacks. No getting back in if you are knocked out or your armor falls. No blowing up the whole area. Other than that, free-for-all. You want more, make up your own, just don't expect the others to play by them. Can we get started now?`

`Yeah, yeah, yeah,` Buffy grumbled and flapped her wings to get some lift, though at times it appeared she could fly without moving the wings, like they were symbolic more than necessary.

`Good, then lets go!` Jason cried and immediately he was in motion, charging straight for the still grounded Cordelia.

Cordelia saw him coming and appeared to be frozen, but at the last possible second, her own wings flapped and she was airborne less than an eye-blink later.

`Lightning Ball!` he raised his right hand, tracking the flame-winged warrior.

Instantly, bolts of white electricity shot out, exploding all around Cordelia's armored form. It was all she could do to keep dodging, let alone mount a proper defense. Finally she flew high enough that she could dodge more effectively, and Jason's lightning blasts weren't reaching her. So he raised his other hand and called out, `Lightning Ball!`

Another wave of energy blasts shot up, filling the sky over the quarry with paralyzing blasts of electricity. Cordelia and Buffy both were forced to dodge rather than counter attack.

`Heh, looks like fun,` Xander commented, then shouted while raising his own hands to the heavens, `Lightning Barrage!`

From Xander, a series of fist-sized balls of condensed lightning formed and then shot into the air, two at a time. Once they reached a certain altitude, usually wherever Buffy and Cordelia were at the moment, they both exploded with concussive force that forced the fliers to abandon the sky for the time being.

Buffy dove at high speed, faster than either of the lightning users could track, and skimmed the ground from mere inches, with her wings spread wide and flat. Aiming for Xander first, Buffy felt what would happen and how to trigger the attack. Taking a metaphorical breath, she focused her energies and called out the attack.

`Talon Wing Dive!`

Instantly, her armored wings began to glow with a hot white light and her ground speed increased dramatically. Before Xander could even process what he was seeing, Buffy had already struck and was streaking past him in a blaze of white light. Moments, maybe not even a full second, after the winged warrior had passed, the very air all around Xander exploded in a concussive blast that sent him flying and crashing into the wall of the quarry.

Buffy didn't bother taking the time to celebrate or check to see if he was all right. So long as his armor was on, she knew he'd be fine. Instead, she turned her attention to Jason and planned on making the same charging attack, but by then she realized she should have attacked him first.

`Lightning Ball!` A hundred electrical charges blew up in her face, forcing her to veer off.

`OK, enough of playing on the sidelines! Firestarters!` Cordelia cried, and pointing her hands towards Jason. Instantly, a spark formed and rapidly grew to a flame, then a fire, and by the time it actually reached Jason it was an inferno, forcing the white and silver armored warrior to retreat.

That wasn't all though, as Cordelia soon discovered she could control the fire like it was an extension of herself. Directing ropes of flame to bind and whip the lightning warrior was as easy as wriggling her fingers while sorting through clothes. She even created some fire-ravens to fly around and dive-bomb her teacher to distract him further.

`Heh!` Jason said as he dodged the various fiery explosions, `Impressive Cordelia. Most impressive. You're learning. Now it's time for the next lesson.`

He took a different stance from the one that was for his standard attack. He was hunched down and was grasping one arm with the other, and lightning was beginning to pool in the held hand. Soon, the energy reached a critical mass and the bolts of energy took on a bluish tint, screaming with the sheer amount of power held within such a small space. It sounded like a thousand hornets tearing each other to shreds in raw fury.

`Lightning Edge!` he called and suddenly streaked forward like he was made of lightning! The hand holding the charge of raw electricity was being dragged behind, and though it was several feet above the ground, the energy was so powerful that the earth was torn asunder in its passing, shooting up a dust cloud of solid stone fragments.

`Cordelia! MOVE!` Buffy screamed at her fellow winged warrior. Seeing that she wasn't going to make it, Buffy made a move of her own and dive-bombed towards the onrushing lightning warrior.

`Soaring Cyclone!` she screamed, though she thought she was doing a 'Talon Wing Dive', the words just popped out of her head. Instead of her wings glowing and expanding though, this time her forearm guards lit up like halogen lamps, and as she met Jason's charging attack with her own, she raised her arms up to meet the white armor's lightning attack, which he also brought forward upon seeing Buffy diving at him.

There was an explosion of energy and when it passed, both of them were knocked back on their buts, Buffy's wings skewed all over the place. Jason managed to sit up and shook his armored head a bit to clear out the cobwebs. Buffy lay there for a minute longer until her wings twitched slightly and the next thing any of them saw, she was back in the air ready for more.

`What the heck was that?` she wanted to know.

`A charging attack,` Jason explained to her. `What you used is known as a counter-attack. Or rather a counter charging attack. There are five basic attacks that can be used with Chi-Armor. Physical, as in punching and kicking the other guy into submission. Elemental, such as your Razor Winds and Cordelia's Firestarters. Energy bursts, much like my Lightning Ball attack and Xander's Lightning Barrage. Charging attacks, gathering raw ambient energy and delivering them at high speed with greater force, as you've just seen. And finally there are the Ultimate Attacks. Usually they just look like giant energy beams, but they're actually the fusion of pure Chi-Energy and raw Elemental Energy to create something incredibly potent and powerful.`

`Whoa,` Xander couldn't help commenting.

`Now, are we done here, or should we get back to training?` he asked in a light, teasing tone.

On the sidelines, Kendra and Willow were looking on with a bit of jealousy and a lot of awe.

"I... we need to attain our armors," Kendra whispered to the redhead beside her. "Today."

"I'm open to whatever ideas you've got on how to do that," Willow replied, not taking her eyes off of the scene before her.

"..." Kendra was silent for a time, trying to think of a way to do this. Suddenly, it came to her.

"The others," she continued whispering, mindful of Giles and Jenny a few feet away, "They gained their own armors through conflict. Facing someone or something that pushed them to their limits. Buffy faced a strong demon, Xander a master vampire, and Cordelia a pack of vampires."

"It was just one," Willow sourly corrected her.

"What if," Kendra paused and then pressed on, "What if we faced each other?"

Willow blinked and finally tore her eyes away from the clash of titans below them. She turned to stare at the mocha-skinned Slayer with incredulous eyes. "Jason was having us do that anyway. Face each other with the ghost armors and learn how to use them."

"Yes, but he always stopped it from getting too serious, yes?" Kendra pointed out.

"OK, yes, but," Willow tried to protest.

"No," Kendra cut her off. "We can do this. We just go at each other until one or both of us manifests true Chi-Armor. Not stopping for anything."

"How about if one of our armors fail?" Willow pointed out. Kendra just shrugged and nodded.

Willow considered it from all sides and angles before finally she sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. All right, let's do this. Let's get away from Jenny and Giles first though." Kendra just quietly nodded her agreement and they both snuck back away from the ledge and to a different section of the quarry. It wasn't that hard to do, not with both teachers' attention riveted to the scene of the other Chi-Armor warriors battling.

Both girls stood apart from one another and took some deep, cleansing breaths before they tensed and the opaque gray-white ghost armors formed around them with a muted flash of light. Nodding silently to one another, they charged at one another and started pounding away at one another.

Back with the others, Jason was "teaching" them about how to control the power of their attacks, and the difference between training level and 'I-Will-Kill-You-With-One-Blow' level. Of course this involved throwing attack after attack at them while they either dodged or tried to withstand the onslaught.

Each of them had tried out their own Charging and Counter-Charging attacks, and several more low level counter attacks too. Cordelia had discovered another attack that was her energy blast called Fire Blast, which was a fancy way of saying she could shoot out huge fireballs. After a solid hour, they were starting to feel a bit drained, but all of the were more confident in their abilities and their control over them.

Just as Jason was about to call an end to the training session for the day, they all felt a spike of energy not too far away. What was so interesting about it wasn't the level of power, but the fact that there were two of them.

`What's that?` Cordelia asked when they all turned to look for the source.

Almost in reply to the fire warrior's question, 99 percent Chi-Armor Willow and Kendra blasted into the stone quarry, each going all out against one another in a non-stop display of violence. Even when they hit the ground hard enough to blast a six-foot deep crater, they barely even noticed, just getting right back up and throwing more punches and kicks at one another.

`What the heck are they doing?!` Buffy screamed. Despite not seeing any distinguishing features, they all knew that the two were Kendra and Willow.

`Uhh...` Jason was at a loss for a moment, and then they all felt that same Chi-Energy spike. Beneath his armor, Jason blinked in surprise and couldn't help laughing out loud. `It would seem, that our wayward comrades felt slighted at being behind the rest of us and decided to rectify it.`

`Huh?` Buffy, Cordelia and Xander all asked at once.

`They're trying to reach 100 percent Chi-Armor by fighting each other, the same way you three fought more powerful foes and gained your own Chi-Armor. And from the looks of it, they're succeeding.` Jason explained to them.

As they watched, they couldn't help but notice that every time the two ghost-armored warriors clashed now, there was the vaguest impression of another armor briefly overlapping the ghost armors they wore now. It didn't last more than a moment, but it was still happening.

`Uh, how long are they going to have to do that?` Xander asked, pointing.

`At the rate they're going?` Jason replied, `Roughly the next hundred to thousand years.`

`How about we help them out a bit then?` Buffy suggested. She extended her wings and called out, `Air Cutters!`

Instantly a dozen bird-sized arcs of yellow-green energy shot out from her armored wings and went straight for the dueling pair. At the same time, Xander called, `Lightning Barrage!` and Cordelia `Fire Blast!`, and a pair of lightning blasts and a basketball sized fireball shot towards them too.

Reacting to the sudden threat, the pair jumped apart and began to address the attacks headed their way. For a moment, they seemed to struggle, trying to do something but being held back. Until the attacks hit them and exploded in their faces, literally.

"AAAHHHHH!" Willow screamed, thrown back and armor-less.

"NYEEHHH!" Kendra cried out, the same as Willow without her armor.

For a second, the three that had attacked froze, unsure of what they had just done, but thankfully they both got back up before anything else could be said or done. When the two girls got to their feet however, it was just as clear that something had changed. Jason had seen it in them long before they'd been aware of it, if they ever had been. A primal fear, of trust, of risk, of something, but fear nonetheless. It had been holding them back and keeping them from ascending.

The others too had that fear, but in battle had ridden themselves of it. Buffy, when she saw her friends about to be attacked had thrown away all care of personal safety and gotten rid of whatever fear remained in the simple action of protecting them above herself. Xander, well Jason surmised he could had transformed into his Chi-Armor the day after he started training him, but he had consciously held onto that fear and been aware of it the whole time. When he faced Drusilla, something in him or something about her had made him decide to discard that fear finally. Cordelia, her fear had disappeared shortly after the dream walk with her Animal Spirit Guide, but her confidence had been lost along with that fear. Over time, Jason saw it being built up until finally she had manifested her Chi-Armor and she was an even better person for it.

Willow and Kendra had held onto their fear the longest, and it was all that was holding them back. Seeing their friends attack them and their approaching death was a wake-up call and that was all that was needed for them. Both girls clenched their fists and summoned their energies once more.

"POWER UP!" they both shouted together, and were instantly shrouded in a blinding light.

Willow was surrounded by a blue light that reminded one of the sea itself. Her clothes dissolved in the light so she felt as if she were back in the dream state with Dolphin. Waves of energy flowed from her like the ocean in a storm, creating a torrent of power around her body. Around her arms and legs, they formed tightly to her skin and then began to build up on itself until in a flash of sea-blue light, a royal blue and golden yellow lined armor appeared over them. Her legs stretched out and the same heeled-boots, but colored the same blue and gold formed, a battle skirt forming around her waist at the same moment. Her torso was covered by the ocean-blue energy, and as it built up, patterns could be seen forming in the waves until there was another flash of light, the stylized plate armor appeared and settled. Her fiery red hair flew up around her face like a mermaids before being covered by the same wave of power and a faceless helmet, styled after the ancient Roman helmets, minus the plumes, formed and covered her head. The blue metal with yellow-gold lining and sea and dolphin-styled patterns gleamed like the moonlight on the waves, and glowing blue eyes shone from beneath the shadowed interior of the helmet. The shoulder pads of the armor were just as large and ornate as Jason's, except the wave golden lines made one think of the water more than a tiger. Her fists clenched and she spread her limbs to stretch before snapping back to a fighting pose, the waves of power crashing all around her at the same moment.

Kendra felt like she was surrounded by the very earth itself, but not in a smothering way, more like she was being held and protected by it. Brown particles of earth, the color of dirt and mud, flew up in a swarm, but where they touched her there was no trace of dirt at all. Kendra hunched over int a fetal position as she felt her clothing leave her with just the sensation of being held by the planet she protected. The brown particles collected, forming a shell around her until you could no longer see the naked girl. When it reached a certain thickness though, the giant ball of earth exploded outwards suddenly and what stood in Kendra's place was a brown-armored warrior in metallic armor built for speed and endurance, fashioned after the more modern concept of armor. The lining was a deep emerald green, and the patterns were indeed copied from modern day armor with an almost camouflage style around the legs and arms, though the torso was more like a uniform's version of camo, the browns and green forming straight lines and sharp curves. The helmet was round, the eyepieces more like goggles, and the faceplate was grilled and solid. The only thing that didn't exactly match was a single symbol placed directly over her heart. It was a green bear claw. Kendra flexed her limbs and then did a flip and landed in a fighting stance the moment the explosion finished.

`Well, color me impressed,` Jason commented with a rueful shake of his head. `Looks like we're going to be extending this training session by a bit.`

`That's OK,` Willow interrupted him.

`We understand plenty after watching everyone today, and now we understand how to do it as well,` Kendra added.

`Here, let me show you,` the compact, yet still 7-foot-tall blue and gold warrior commented.

She reached her fist high in the sky, and then clenched it tight and brought it down to strike at the earth beneath her feet in the same moment.

`TSUNAMI!` she screamed, and a literal wave of water erupted out of the ground and soon swamped the other Chi-Armored warriors, save Kendra at her side. Even Buffy and Cordelia couldn't react soon enough to get out of the way.

`Allow me, Willow,` Kendra stepped forward and cracked her armor-covered knuckles. She stood at the same height as her blue and yellow companion, but her presence seemed even larger all of a sudden.

`Geyser Rush!` she cried out and punched a fist towards the downed armored figures.

This would have looked very silly, save for the fact that the moment after she punched, a very real geyser exploded upwards out of the ground, on par with anything Old Faithful ever produced. When the hot water finally subsided, the others waited a moment, to see if their two new comrades would continue their 'demonstration' and when it appeared they wouldn't, they all approached on foot.

`OK, I think we're done for the day, we can pick it up again tomorrow,` Jason told them. Once they all agreed, he simply relaxed and in a blinding flash of light, the white and silver armored form vanished and Jason reappeared in his street clothes.

Following his example, the rest of them, even Willow and Kendra, relaxed their own energies and five more flashes of light later, they were standing there like nothing at all had happened. Though they each looked a little tired, they certainly did not look like they'd just been through an hour long fight that nearly devastated the landscape.

"Congratulations everyone," Jason complimented them all, "You are now officially Chi-Warriors."

"Woohoo!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Alright!" Xander shouted.

"Yes!" Cordelia cheered.

"Yay!" Willow bounced up and down.

Kendra just smiled and nodded confidently.

"Of course just because you can now summon Chi-Armor doesn't mean you know how to use it properly," Jason said. "So we'll be coming back to continue your training for as long as necessary."

"Aw, c'mon Jase," Xander moaned.

"Yeah, don't ruin the mood," Buffy warned him.

Jason laughed and nodded. "You're right. You all did good. Training can wait till tomorrow. So tonight, let's go out and celebrate. You guys certainly deserve it after all the hard work you've put in. And I'm certainly not one to rain on anyone's parade."

"All right already, enough with the speeches," Cordelia grinned. "Let's go!"

"YEAH!" they all shouted, laughing and acting like the teenagers they should have been.

Watching from the ledge, Giles and Jenny smiled down at these young people that were so inspiring and impressed them so much. They could only hope the peaceful times would last so they could enjoy it while they could. Because as much as they would celebrate that night, they all knew that the evil and darkness was just beyond the horizon. Yet, the reason that they stood there, the reason that they were celebrating what they had done, was all so they could stand as a vanguard against the night, keeping the world save and the light shining.

END Episode Five

End of "Vanguard Slayer"

Is this the end of the story? It may be, but there are still lots of unanswered questions. What happened with Spike and Drusilla? What will the Omega Order do next after losing two agents in Sunnydale? What more does Jason have to teach the gang? And what does it mean for life on the Hellmouth?

To get the answers to these questions, Please Review and look forward to the sequel saga "Vanguard Slayer II : Beta"