"Our speech patterns are changing." Corda observed as she and Alexander walked to Cordelia's home.
"It was bound to happen, along with things like some habits and such. Xander and Cordelia may only be a small part of this merger because they have less then seventeen years of life experience, but they are still a part of it. That's going to influence us. The merger has nearly completely stabilized. We really are becoming one person, with two sets of memories, those memories are going to blend too. That's going to make for some confusion. Like with the animal possession. Cordelia didn't know about that. If their friendship had continued to deepen, he probably would have told her about it."
"True. She sometimes missed their childhood friendship. She didn't like who she became, but found it hard to break free from it. Their reconnection was giving her new perspectives, ones that were beginning to change her. In time, I think she would have been able to break free."
Before Alexander could continue the conversation a man appeared before them. "I didn't get to have my fun tonight. The Slayer was supposed to be all weak and helpless, but I never found her, so I'll settle for her lackey and I'm sure the girl will be a great screamer." The man's face shifted and changed.
"Blood daemona!" Alexander reached for his weapon and fired it, only to get a strange sound from it. The Xander portion of his memories told him, the weapon had reverted to a toy after the Magic had worn off. So he used the toy as a weapon and swung it up so that it clipped the daemona's chin. Its head moved back slightly from the impact as the toy broke.
Corda was moving, she saw the weapon fail and kicked out at a nearby fence post. Natural things like wood, could pierce a blood daemona's protections. She grabbed the broken piece. Alexander followed the hit to the daemona with a punch to its gut . When it bent over, Corda rammed the piece of wood into its back, between its ribs and it burst into dust.
"Slayer." Alexander said. "Xander's memories tell me, that's what Buffy's known as, the Slayer. A girl though the use of mystical forces, used to make both a lure and a weapon against daemonas."
"Something else, I'm certain the gods would find easily unforgivable." Corda said.
"Xander's memories say, the Slayer, only one at a time, have existed for thousands of years, one dies and something moves on from the fallen and another is Chosen. Only a tiny percentage of females have that potential and only a tiny amount of that number fall within a set age range. No girl younger then ten has ever been chosen and no girl older then eighteen. Why those specifications?"
"Because of the lure part, a young girl looks particularly helpless, a much more enticing lure, but is still able to fight."
"Makes sense, a cruel, sadistic and cowardly sense. Hiding behind a child. Humans are intelligent, they can easily find ways to fight daemona. Xander does, the Watcher's books that Xander has read, speak of other humans who have. The Slayer is unnecessary. We can help with this. There's something they call a Hellmouth under this town. I will see if my scanner can analyze it tomorrow. Apparently, its energy draws daemona. And we can make weapons. I may not be an engineer, but I did take the basic all command track classes and I've had to do enough emergency repairs to understand the workings of a number of different devices."
"It's a good idea. But that's for tomorrow, we've arrived."
"This is a beautiful home." Alexander commented. "So different from any human society I'm familiar with or our way of building."
"Cordelia loves it, it's been in our family for four generations." Corda looked startled for a moment. "I just said it was part of my family, didn't I? It both is and is not. This is confusing."
"Xander remembers coming here as a child, playing hide and seek, I would tickle Cordelia when I found her." Alexander looked startled himself. "I just did it too, didn't I?"
"Come on, I'm too tired to think about it right now." Corda led the way inside and up to Cordelia's bedroom. "Tonight, you can sleep in your underwear, tomorrow for school, you can wear some of my father's clothes and we'll go shopping after school. Finally, I can get rid of those rags you call clothes."
"Hey! We aren't all princesses with unlimited bank accounts!"
"I'm trying to help you, Doofus!"
"No one asked for your help!" Alexander grabbed Corda and began kissing her. 'Oh yeah! This is familiar.' He thought as Corda responded. Then she pulled back from him, not her normal response. "What's wrong?" He asked.
"The Cordelia part of me isn't ready for this, I'm feeling frightened. I remember that feeling from when I was her age."
Alexander looked thoughtful and then rueful. "If I'm being honest, so is the Xander part of me. Alright, I'll sleep on the floor. But apparently, they like bickering as much as we do, because that was definitely them, you've never called Doofus."
"Bickering is fun." Corda agreed.