Lie To Me, Part 3

(_)(_)(_)

November 2, 1997

As it was the weekend, the Scoobies patrolled later than they did on weekdays, and as a result woke rather later in the day. Joyce had made a huge brunch for everyone. Literally everyone (except Angel, of course), as even Ms. Calendar and Cordelia had ended up traipsing over to the Summers' house to talk about the events of Halloween.

"I still want to know how the heck there's two Slayers." Buffy said as they ate. "I mean, not that I mind too much - Kendra's kind of nice. Naive and brainwashed, but nice. Still, from everything you've said." She indicated Giles. "There oughtn't to be two of us at once."

Giles looked a bit discomfited. "Actually, I had a think about that yesterday, while we were entertaining Kendra." He said. "And the only way I can think that it happened is that you really did die, however briefly, that day."

Needless to say, that news didn't really go over all that well with anyone at the table. Buffy and Joyce both went a little gray around the edges, and Joyce wrapped one arm around Buffy. Willow's eyes got suspiciously shiny. Jon, Ms. Calendar and Cordelia all looked rather distressed. For himself, Xander was rather abruptly not hungry and ... well. He shoved away from the table and bolted for the basement.

He ended up sitting in a corner of the library section of the basement, arms resting on his knees and his forehead resting on his arms, trying to figure out if he was more angry or upset or what. Because his emotions were kind of doing a dance on him. He'd known it had been close, of course. Kind of hard to miss, with the whole 'having to do CPR' thing. But just because you need to do that doesn't mean the person is actually dead - at least, not yet.

Granted he hadn't known her really well then - heck, he still didn't know her really well now, as they hadn't known each other for even a year - the realization that she had actually died bothered Xander a lot. The fact that she could have *stayed* dead - and worse, that her staying dead would have been on Xander, was freaking him right the hell out. He didn't know if he'd have been able to handle that, after Jesse. Hell, he wasn't sure he could handle the could-have-been of it now. Not to mention that he was even more pissed off at Giles and Angel than he'd been when the whole thing had gone down. Though at least Giles had tried to fix his screwup at the time, was learning from his mistakes, and Xander didn't think he'd screw up like that again. Angel on the other hand ... Xander was more tempted than ever to stake the bastard. If he'd just gotten off his ass, the whole damn thing might not have happened. Hell, if the two of them had just watched their mouths, it might not have happened. Fucking prophecies. Self-fulfilling sacks of crap, more like.

He didn't get long to try to sort himself out in private. Both Jon and Buffy came after him about a half a minute after he'd tucked himself into the corner. They sat with him quietly for a while until he finally picked his head up and leaned back.

"Thanks, Xander." Buffy said quietly.

Xander gave a wobbly laugh. "No problem, but let's try not to have that happen again, ok? I dunno if I could handle having that happen a second time."

"Me either." Buffy said, giving a convulsive shiver.

They sat there quietly for a bit longer, then Xander sighed. "Right. We better get a move on. With a bit of luck, Kendra will show up again today, and we can work on corrupting her a bit more."

"Yeah, here's hoping. You know, Giles had mentioned how Slayers were usually brought up, and it sounded creepy as hell. Actually seeing it, it's *so* much worse." Buffy said as they got to their feet.

"No shit." Jon said, making a face. He bumped shoulders with Xander and gave Xander a questioning look.

Xander grinned at him. He wasn't ok - wouldn't be for a while - but he wasn't freaking out anymore either. Which was about as good as it was going to get for now. Besides, he didn't want to worry Jon.

(_)(_)(_)

Jon kind of wanted to smack Giles for breaking that bit of news so offhandedly. He actually might have, if the situation was different. But he realized that Giles was still trying to rid himself of the indoctrination he'd been subjected to by the Council. Giles had shed most of the indoctrination by now, but there were still bits and pieces of it that hadn't been thrown in the trash yet and they'd crop up now and again. Jon had seen Teal'c deal with the same sort of problem now and again regarding the Goa'uld and the indoctrination that all Jaffa got. And Teal'c had had Bra'tac corrupting him for ... well, a long time before Jon had met him.

Though Bra'tac would have unwittingly allowed Teal'c to retain some of the indoctrination. For all Bra'tac had figured out the Goa'uld were bad news, he would not have been able to shake all of the indoctrination, as doing that alone, in secret, with no support or unbiased outside opinion of things was pretty much impossible. Mostly because without outside help, you just wouldn't see all of it. And whatever bits Bra'tac was blind to, he'dve let Teal'c keep.

At any rate, everyone reacted pretty predictably, at least for civilians. Which is to say that everyone was varying shades of freaked out. Jon didn't blame them at all for that - it was a natural enough response. Even folks trained to deal with the possibility of dying could and did still freak out at close calls - it just didn't happen quite as often as they *had* gotten training.

All of that said, Jon was still on his feet and chasing after Xander when Xander bolted, and only mildly surprised when Buffy was only seconds behind him. Xander and Buffy would be the hardest hit by this, Jon knew. Buffy because she'd been the one who died, however briefly, and Xander because he'd been the one to pull her back. Shit like that tended to forge bonds between saver and savee, so there had been even odds on both of them either curling up and freaking out or going to the assistance of the other one.

It didn't take any kind of brain at all to figure out that Xander was probably freaking out over the could-have-beens. Unfortunately, there wasn't much Jon could do or say to help, because logic really didn't tend to work on that sort of shit very well. Your brain still insisted on going there and freaking right the hell out.

And even if he hadn't been inclined to do what he could to help Xander (and the others) deal with crap they hadn't been trained to deal with, he had the whole sentinel thing driving him to look after Xander. Sometimes, Jon noticed it and it bugged him. Sometimes he didn't notice it. Other times, like now, he noticed it but it didn't bug him. Of course, in his case, it really helped that he had Jim to talk to, who'd had to deal with all this sentinel nonsense with only Blair to help. And Blair, through no fault of his own, hadn't known what the heck he was doing either. So he and Xander were really benefiting from Jim and Blair's trial-by-fire ... even if the two of them were only about a year ahead of him and Xander.

Thankfully, Xander seemed to pull it together pretty quick. Then again, Xander, in the brief time Jon had known him, had seemed to have a very practical, pragmatic bent. Jon wondered sometimes if that was a product of being a guide, of having dealt with really weird shit for nearly a year, or just plain Xander.

Jon followed Xander back upstairs, turning his mind to how they were going to corrupt Kendra. If that girl was going to have a chance in hell of surviving, she at the very least needed to learn to think outside the box, rather than depending solely on Council-approved fighting methods. Because not every critter was going to stick to the script for their species. Spike and Angel being cases in point, if for entirely different reasons.

Though at this point, Jon was almost - *almost* approving of Spike. Master Vampire he might be, and dangerous as shit to Buffy and the rest of them by association, but he was currently doing about half Buffy's job for her. Vamp numbers - and vamp related deaths - had dropped to almost nothing since Spike had decided to make himself a court. Even the other demons were being a bit more well-behaved, though Jon wasn't delusional enough to think that would last. Or that Spike, clever and capable as he seemed to be, could control every demon that came to Sunnydale. Some of them would be strong enough to feel free to ignore him, and others just wouldn't give a shit. Still, the drop in 'business' was much appreciated by all of them.

(_)(_)(_)

When they returned to the kitchen, Xander nearly laughed. Giles had the expression of someone who had been soundly told off and felt badly about their behavior. Joyce was still giving him a dirty look, making it pretty clear as to the source of Giles' telling-off.

"I must apologize." Giles said, and to his credit, he sounded like he meant it. "I did not stop to think what reactions might result from my revelation."

Xander shrugged. "You didn't do it on purpose, Giles. I'll deal." Eventually. He settled himself back at the table and went back to eating, even if his food was a little cold now. "So ... how are we going to handle Kendra?"

"What you began yesterday would work, and would probably be the wisest course. Just ... be ourselves, don't trash-talk the Council no matter how badly we want to, and where possible, use incontrovertible facts and logic to drive a wedge in her programming." Miss Calendar said. "Then let her do the rest."

"Quite so, and I speak from experience on such matters, as while the ... indoctrination ... that children of Watchers receive in order to get them to become Watchers themselves is less intensive, it does still need to be dealt with." Giles said, a rueful expression on his face. "If she continues to respond positively to those methods, we can later employ more aggressive anti-indoctrination measures to fully rid her of their idiocy. Until then getting more insistent about pointing out just how badly the Council has done by not just her but her predecessors wouldn't go over well."

"No shit." Jon said, then after a half-second's hesitation as he stumbled trying to keep the 'I' between his teeth, he continued. "Jack dealt with this sort of thing a lot, due to Teal'c, the rebel Jaffa, and the Jaffa they tried to convert along the way."

"So what're our plans for today?" Xander wanted to know.

"Training." Jon said. "For all of us. I'm getting better with the crossbow, but not good enough consistently enough yet. Besides, it'll give Kendra a better look at how we operate."

There were nods around the table. "At least Angel's been laying low. THAT particular bit of our weirdness is just not going to end well." Willow said, speaking up for the first time. "Not with her trained to stake first and ask questions never. I wouldn't put it past her to stake him, even with all of us telling her he's off the 'stake on sight' list."

"No shit." Jon said.

There was more agreement around the table. "All right. I'll go see if she's lurking yet." Xander said, finally finishing his food and pushing to his feet. "Of us non-Watcher/Slayer types, she seemed to respond best to me."

"No real mystery why." Joyce said. "It's not like you're rude or antagonistic with her. You're also a boy her age. Something she doubtlessly hasn't been exposed to much, if at all." And while Jon was apparently the same age, he gave off serious 'I want no part of that shit' vibes which, while a challenge to some females, would put a girl in Kendra's position off.

Xander missed most of the implications of that at first, but the other adults (and adults in non-adult bodies) were all having a very hard time keeping straight faces. That kind of clued Xander in after a second or two.

"Wait, you think she's, what, crushing on me?" Xander practically squeaked.

"Probably not yet." Joyce said. "But there's a high likelihood she'll get a crush on you or Jon at some point if we get her head screwed on even halfway straight."

"Oh joy." Jon made a horrific face, then glanced at Xander. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna be pointing her your way, Xander."

Xander squawked in dismay. He understood why Jon would do it - hell, he'd even allow it if Kendra did start trying to latch onto Jon - but that didn't mean he had to like it. Or was at all interested in Kendra, at least not as things stood. Maybe that might change somewhere down the road, if she grew a personality, but for now? Not so much.

"I thought it was a sentinel's job to protect his guide?" He asked, deliberately keeping his tone teasing.

"Not from amorous females it ain't." Was Jon's immediate rejoinder.