InsaneJournal

Xander glowered at the five girls standing in front of him, four of them Slayer potentials and the fifth Dawn, his arms crossed over his chest. Faith stood behind him on one side with Giles on the other, the Slayer holding a battle-axe with a smile and the Watcher looking on with some amusement.

“Um,” queried one potential, “so what are we doing?”

“Training begins now,” replied Xander. “Dawnie, get your ass up here.”

“How come she gets to be up there?” whined the potential.

“Because she’s been training with Faith for almost a year now and, therefore, she knows a lot more than you all do. That seem a good enough reason, Rona?”

The potential blushed and nodded, mumbling, “Yeah.”

“Good.” The vampire clapped his hands together and intoned, “First off, we work on hand-to-hand. Since you’re not Slayer’s but potential one’s, you don’t have the skills or the strength – this is a good thing and a bad thing. On the one hand, we don’t have to be too careful. On the other hand, this makes things a lot harder.”

“How harder?” asked another potential, Kennedy.

Xander smiled and replied, “We’ll see. So, we have four of you and four of us – we’re gonna draw names and see who gets who for training. We’ll be your sparring partner and your teacher, so you had better damn well listen to what we say. This is the Hellmouth and we’ve been here for longer than you have so we know just what you’re going to be facing. G-man, you got the hat?”

The Watcher sighed at the moniker then handed over the battered kid’s top hat Dawn had dug out of somewhere from an old Halloween costume. Xander grinned and held it out towards Rona, who blinked at him before gingerly reaching into it.

“Faith,” she mumbled after a moment, looking up nervously at the Slayer. Faith just grinned back and Xander jokingly chided, “The girls are for teaching, not eating,” before shifting the hat to Kennedy.

“Giles!” exclaimed the girl, grinning at the Watcher. Giles smiled back at her and nodded before watching the hat as it moved on to Eve, the potential Xander had managed to rescue some days ago before the Bringers got to her.

“Dawn,” she read off, grinning at the other girl standing on the porch.

Xander twirled the hat then, the last piece of paper falling out, and balanced it on his head as he grinned at Vi. She smiled back nervously and said, “Um…you and me?”

“You and me,” he repeated with a nod. Then he looked at the girls again, absently noticing Faith taking the hat off his head, and said, “Okay, so let’s get started. Pair off into the yard and we’ll see how this goes for an hour. Hopefully you all have a few innate Slayer instincts you can tap into that’ll make this a hell of a lot easier.”

Shuffling around into the pairs, the training began with the learning of stances before moving slowly into certain simple moves. Xander eyed Vi as she took a breath, readying herself, before sinking into the stance he’d shown her first – her feet shoulder width apart and firmly on the ground, arms up in a slightly defensive stance but ready to strike, and her eyes on him. He went purely defensive, arms up only to block, and nodded to her to begin.

She lunged forward, punching towards his face, but he easily blocked that with his forearm. Trying again, she hissed as he blocked it again, frowning.

“Don’t get angry,” he cautioned. “Keep calm; your head needs to be clear during this. A clouded mind isn’t going to help you do anything but get killed.”

“Okay,” she said and punched again, the blow glancing off his elbow. Then she spun around in an entirely untaught move and Xander caught her foot as she executed a roundhouse kick.

She pouted but looked confused as he grinned at her. “Instinct,” he said, gesturing at her foot in his hands. Then he let it go and she stared at him as he continued, “That’s a damn good sign, Vi. Now we’ve got an idea to work with.”

“We do?” she asked.

“Yup.”

Vi nodded then looked at the others, who were all looking less successful than her. She then glanced at him and said, “Xander?”

“Yeah?”

“Do…do we really have a chance? I mean, you do since you’re…y’know…and Faith’s the Slayer but…we’re nothing.”

Xander sighed at that and leaned over so his face was level with hers, their eyes meeting.

“Everyone has a chance,” he intoned in a sure voice. “Just because Faith’s a Slayer doesn’t mean she’ll see the end of this. Nor does me being a vampire mean I’ll live through this. But you have to believe that you have a chance to live, Vi; a chance to do something with your life after this is over.”

“Will I?” she asked softly.

He shrugged and replied, “That’s your choice. You have one right now: you can give up and wait for the end to come or you can step up and learn this and fight back.”

Vi frowned then nodded, saying, “I’ll do that.”

Xander chuckled and asked, “Which?”

“Step up.”

“We’ll make sure you can then. Now head inside, I can smell dinner.”

She nodded and started walking away but paused in the door as Giles, the other potentials, and Faith passed through. Turning back, she called, “Xander?”

“Yeah?” he asked, one eyebrow arched.

Vi smiled and said, “Thanks,” before she disappeared into the house. The vampire chuckled then walked over to Dawn, who was still standing in the backyard staring up at the sky. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and asked, “Penny for your thoughts?”

“Can I keep one cent?” she asked, leaning against him.

“Sure, kiddo. Now what’s up?”

“Just thinking deep thoughts.”

“Deep thoughts are bad for teenage minds.”

Dawn smiled up at him and said, “Not right now.”

“True,” he said, frowning. “C’mon, Dawnie, what’s wrong?”

She bowed her head then closed her eyes, sniffling. He immediately crouched down next to her, hands on her arms, and asked, “Dawn…Dawnie, c’mon, talk to me, please.”

“I…”

He waited then she looked up at him, tears running down her cheeks, and gasped, “I…I saw Mom last night. And Buffy. And…and…you. It wore all your faces and told me we were all going to die!”

Xander felt the rage build in his chest at that, knowing just what ‘it’ was. The thing that had visited him on the roof, wearing the faces of Buffy, Arana, and Kay – the First Evil. How dare it visit Dawn?!

Swallowing the anger, he pulled her against his chest and she sank gratefully into his arms with a sob. He held her tightly and swore, “We’re going to beat it, Dawnie. One way or another, we’re going to beat that damn thing.”

“I know,” she gasped against his chest. “I just…it said horrible things. That Mom would never have loved me if she’d known, that Buffy had wanted me to go away, that…that you…”

“That I what?” he asked, feeling the rage kindling again.

“That…that you’d abandon me in the end,” she sobbed. “I know it wasn’t true, I know that! But still…”

“It hurt hearing it and you couldn’t help but think about it,” he said slowly. When she nodded, he leaned his head against her, gently running his hand up and down her back in reassurance. Then he murmured, “I’m not going anywhere, Dawnie. I’ll be here now and when you go to college, and, damnit as much as it’s going to hurt me, I swear I’ll be there when you die.”

Dawn gasped and breathed, “I don’t want you to do that.”

“I’m going to anyway,” said Xander. Gently he pushed her back and looked up into her eyes for a longer moment before he reached up to wipe her tears away. “When I signed those papers to adopt you, I made a promise to Buffy and your mom to be there when they couldn’t. And I’m not going to break a promise to your mom, baker of the best cookies in the world.”

“Xander…” She blinked at him and choked down a sob before throwing her arms around his neck, mumbling, “Thank you.”

“You’re my little sis,” he said, hugging her tightly in return. “Now you gonna dry those tears and go eat the food Tara’s been cooking all day? She made macaroni just for you.”

Dawn laughed and said, “No, she made that for you! The chocolate cake is mine!”

“Is it now?” asked Xander, standing up.

“Yup!” said the teen, her eyes shining brightly though tears still stained her cheeks. She wiped them away then and slid her hand into his, smiling sadly. “I’m glad you’re here, Xander. I don’t know where I’d be if you weren’t.”

“Lost in space,” he intoned jokingly as they walked towards the porch. “And, Dawnie?”

“Yeah?”

“If that thing comes to you again, come to me. It can’t talk to you unless it goes through me.”

Dawn smiled and promised,” I will,” then they were in the house. The commotion in the dining room drew them towards it and Tara smiled at them as they entered, handing them two empty plates.

“Thanks, Tara,” said Xander warmly to the witch. He then nudged Dawn forward, moving her around the happily chatting knot that was the potentials and Faith, towards Giles at the other end of the table. As they settled next to the Watcher, Xander reached out and tugged Willow down into the seat beside him as she made to lean over him.

“Xander!” she exclaimed with a laugh.

“Sit by me,” he said softly, leaning towards her as the sudden urge to be close to her again came forward. She blinked at him in confusion then smiled, nodding as she seemed to understand what he was doing. He smiled back and slowly fixed a plate, ignoring the looks he got from the potentials down the table. Carefully he arranged his food then nudged Willow with his fork, nodding towards his plate with a wide grin.

She leaned forward then burst out laughing at the sight of his food arranged into a very fluffy looking but nasty rabbit. They grinned at each other then both said, “Nasty pointed teeth!”

“Brother Maynard, bring forth the Holy Hand Grenade,” she intoned seriously. Xander bowed then nudged a circle of macaroni forward, shaping a few noodles into a lopsided cross above it with his fork. “Thou must pull the pin and throw it on the count of three, not five!” he said in return, unable to hide his grin.

Willow smiled at that and clasped his arm warmly, leaning forward so her head leaned against his shoulder. He leaned his head near hers and murmured, “I’ve missed us.”

“Me too,” she whispered.

“We’ll talk, ‘kay?”

“Okay.”

Xander smiled and kissed her cheek before turning back to his plate and a conversation Giles started up after smiling at them for a long moment. But his arm stayed next to hers and every once in a while during the dinner, the two old friends would look at each other and laugh to themselves a little.