Xander met up with a weird occurrence the night before he left. He nodded at the guys in the burger shop. "Long night, guys?" he called as he walked toward the counter.
"Not really," Buckaroo said. "Just got done with a show. You're back in the US again?"
Xander shot him a grin. "Meeting over training materials." He paid for his order with a grin for the girl. He looked back at him then pulled out his map to hand over. "Two of them saw a photo of me at the concert's aftermath," he said quietly.
Buckaroo looked them over, wincing. "I thought he was dead."
Xander pointed. "He's a ghost now." He grinned. "I was hiding in there from Rosenburg."
"Good idea," one of the band muttered, nodding.
"You're Council?" the waitress demanded.
Xander grinned at her. "I'm Xander, dear."
"Who?"
"Buffy's Xander. The one she had helping her in Sunnydale?"
She shook her head. "Huh. We knew about the vampire guy and the werewolf."
Xander rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Angel left after graduation to take over LA and ended up with my ex girlfriend Cordelia. Oz is still in Tibet as far as I know."
"Oh, you're that guy," she said with a grimace.
"What?" he demanded, hands going to his hips. "Which one did you confuse me with?"
"Love spell guy."
"That so backfired. I was only supposed to get Cordelia so I could get her back for dumping me on Valentine's day. She was also my first relationship." The waitress snorted and walked off. He shrugged. "Whatever. I don't live on opinions." He looked at the staring trio again. He rolled his eye. "Amy cast it for me and it got everyone but her. How many guys have done stupid things during their first relationships?"
"Most of us." Perfect Tommy admitted.
Cordelia phased in, staring at him. "I think you were right to get me," she said, glaring at the waitress. Who shrank back looking scared. Xander grinned at her. "Two things, huge problems. First, the other slayer? She's okay. Doesn't need hand holding. Could use the new books." Xander grinned and nodded. "Second....how did you get into that one temple with the instruments and what did you touch?"
"I touched a few and I ran in there to get away from the guys shooting at me for being evilly white again."
She rubbed her forehead. "That might end up being a bad thing."
"Did it give me taint like the mermaids?" he guessed. She nodded quickly. "Well, screw it. I wasn't musical before this so maybe now I'll be a bit more musically inclined. I haven't noticed a difference."
"The Powers think that might just be a great payback," she warned.
Xander smiled. "Did they plan that battle with the two-headed goddess?"
"What two-headed goddess?" Cordelia demanded. Xander smiled, taking his burger and his map to leave. "Xander!" she called, staring after him. "What two-headed goddess?"
"Look it up," he called. "They can scry. Just don't ask the redhead to do it, please!" He got into his rental car and drove off.
She looked up then at the waitress. "Xander did a lot more than that love spell and he did save Buffy's life a few times. He's a really good signpost and helper for the slayers. Even the Powers That Be have to admit that under truth spell, even though they hate him a whole lot. Which is why that love spell went really wrong." She looked at Buckaroo. "Don't even try," she warned quietly. "They've seen and it'll go wrong. Just like every other thing around him." She left with a look up and a sigh.
"Sure," New Jersey said then ate a fry. "That's a good warning."
Tommy nodded. "Very handy."
Buckaroo shook his head but he was smiling. "It sounds like things we would've gotten into when we were younger."
"Don't remind me," Tommy shot back with an evil smirk. The others just shook their heads. The group around the trio at the top were used to weird things.
***
Two hours after Xander had finally gotten to sleep, Cordelia's ranting woke up the house. "You took out a hell goddess!" she said when one of the slayers finally got Xander up and down there to answer her bitching. "How did you do that?"
He shrugged. "She showed up to nag me about Willow! I wasn't in the mood to be nagged about something I had no control over. I warned her and then I shot her in the stomach. I didn't realize her power core was there, it just exploded." He shrugged. "What did you expect me to do about her?" He walked off shaking his head. "They seriously worry about the wrong things," he said when he ran into a staring Willow and Buffy. "Night, Cordelia."
"Damn it, Xander!"
"That seems to be his name, yup," Faith quipped, staring after Xander. "A goddess?"
"Accidentally on purpose," he called back.
Buffy huffed, trying to follow him but he was holding his bedroom door shut so she couldn't stomp in there to yell at him. "I'll get you tomorrow, Mister." She went down to ask Cordelia what had happened *this* time.
Willow was unhappy about it.
Giles was alternating between scowling at Willow for getting a hell god's attention and glaring at the ceiling toward Xander's room.
Buffy was just wanting to go beat him for daring to do that by himself. Didn't he know men didn't do those things?
***
Xander sighed as he walked into the airport, smiling at the guard. "I'm away from the nagging before most of them got up!" He went to get his boarding pass and then to security. "Hi, guys."
"You're chipper," one grumped.
"I got out of the slayer house before the girls got up to nag me about things." He smiled. "It's great, even though I've got almost a whole day of flying back to Africa in business class."
They got him through the lines quickly enough before his happy mood infected other travelers. Perky travelers made the lines go more slowly because they chatted and the TSA didn't like that.
***
The slayer that Xander hadn't met looked up at the clapping for her sparring practice. She found the guy leaning against the side of the building, staring at him. "Do I know you?" she asked.
He walked out, smiling at her. "I'm the trainer for the other girls. My name is Xander Harris."
"I'm Yihana," she said, shaking his hand. She pointed at one man. "This is my trainer."
Xander nodded, waving him over. "I've heard you had one that was very good so I'll only go over some of the information we've got to give to the girls. You're also the oldest on this continent and the most trained. Most of the other girls are under the age of puberty." She winced. "We have four that're over that age, but two are married and one's just now in it. One has a child and one doesn't. The last one over that age I just moved near one of the tiny ones to help her since they've got a problem. She's sixteen." He clapped his hands, smiling and shaking the trainer's hand. "Xander Harris, watcher over all the African slayers."
"You're young," he said.
"I jumped in to help Buffy in Sunnydale back when I was sixteen." The man winced, shaking his head. "It's experience in my case. There's very few watchers left. I've got books for her in the jeep and a few things we've been giving all the girls." They followed him to the jeep. "All right, this is a copy of my notes on the Africa specific problems we've run into. You're the furthest north-east. We've called to talk to you but you said you could handle things like fights so I concentrated on the tiny ones so they knew how to get away if something new attacked them."
"That's reasonable," the trainer agreed. "Are they with their families?"
"Yes. The new Council considers it a great idea for them to stay with their families if possible. We don't take in the girls unless there's a reason like their parents are going to kill them or something evil." That got a nod. Xander handed over two newly printed manuals. "They just got these done, they were magicked to me earlier today. These are off the original training sets, the ones the slayers were trained to back about a hundred years ago.
"We've run into things that were covered in them that weren't in the newer one so a watcher just recently reformatted all that for easy carrying. Before then it was three books that were about two feet thick total." She smiled. "Now for the goodies." He pulled out a box, a bag, and a backpack. "All the slayers get an allowance so they can buy food for themselves and help however they can with their families. We know that you ladies have needs for a lot of food and that some of you live in thin areas."
He patted the backpack. "This is a new patrol backpack. We've put them together for the other girls, mostly the ones in Asia. I've included some extras that are more practical, including extra canteens." He let her go through it. "That is your compact field identification manual. There's some that aren't in there, but we went with the most common things. That's why we supplement with the new books." He grinned. "In there is also your slayer phone. It has programmed numbers for me, the main house, the two senior slayers, and all the girls in the region. I check in with the minis each and every month, even if I'm traveling between them." She looked it over. "It's a satellite phone so it should get a signal everywhere." He flipped up something. "That's to charge it with the sun. Very handy for some of the girls since they live without power and one's near a desert." He pointed. "If there's electricity available, that's your charger."
"It's cute and delicate," she said.
He smiled and shook his head. "That's the type of phone US military guys carry. It's pretty drop proof but don't sit on it. It's not fancy but it works. One of the girls has a smartphone so she transferred all the numbers and kept that one as a backup in case something happened."
"It's a good idea with how they're spread," the trainer agreed.
Xander grinned. "My idea. The Asian slayers mostly had phones or were from smaller villages that had a phone in the village somewhere. The two in Hong Kong have super smart phones that may launch missiles for all we know."
The trainer grinned. "I've seen a few of those."
"I carry a phone like those, only mine's got a non-slip case. They've got good call quality. Also, Buffy and Faith both like to randomly call to check on the younger slayers. Buffy's about my age. She's been doing it since she was sixteen."
"We heard she died," the trainer said.
"Twice," Xander said with a nod. "Once I did CPR. The other time, that was Willow. We're still debating if it was prompted by the Powers That Be or not." He shrugged. "Long story and why the old Sunnydale team is in charge of the Council now." He pointed. "The box is your weapons. We give new ones when you break one. Those are the classic weapons but I've been known to help most of the girls find a gun they can use if they're able and want to. They can come in more handy down here than they do in Europe or the US, where you get a lot more staking and beheading. I went with weapons that you girls should probably be at least slightly familiar with if they're in traveling or agrarian villages and the others seem to get used to them pretty easily.
"The scythe is included because the *special* scythe, which I can tell you about after all this present giving, needs to be able to be used if you have to." She nodded, putting that aside. "The last one is a traditional present when I come in the first time. I've had a lot of parents who got very mad that their daughters were slayers. So I bring a present to make them less mad. I learned that after my second time of explaining everything to them, their minister of choice, and at least one police officer. The officers usually suggested it to make them less mad," he told the trainer. "I have no idea why."
"They probably saw it as compensation for them not being marriage material," he said.
"Slayers now are more than encouraged to find a normal life, a happy life, and if they want kids we have things we can teach them to make themselves safer." They both gave him odd looks. "There's over six hundred of you over the age of fourteen, Yihana." She slumped, mouth slightly open. He grinned. "I've got thirteen of you under me in Africa alone, nine old enough for at least the basics of training and the rest are little girls. Plus a few tiny minis who're still cooing at things instead of able to start learning how to avoid being snatched. That brings me up to twenty-seven if I remember right."
"Why?" the trainer demanded.
Xander sighed and sat on the driver's seat. "Back when Buffy died defeating a hell goddess named Glorificus, who had come to open portals to bring her hell realm onto this plane, Willow had a magic addiction. Buffy was dead for six months. Willow told us she was in hell. Even before she scried her or anything she told us she was in a hell realm." He pulled out the training manual, opening it to that page. "Because she had a magic addiction it blinded her to the rational thought of 'is this a good idea or not'. She ended up pulling Buffy back, which loosened the First Evil." Yihana swallowed, shaking her head. "The dreams you got about the other girls dying? Those sightless guys were called Bringers. They're her minions. Thankfully, the battle against her and her minions locked them back inside the seal in Sunnydale's hellmouth."
The trainer stared at him, mouth open. "So she brought the slayer at the time back?"
"Well, slightly. There were two at that time. The first time Buffy died, I did CPR. She had just been drowned by an older master vampire. There was a prophecy and all that. Which meant we had two called. Buffy still had powers and then we had Kendra. She showed up to handle things and we found out that Buffy had been dead long enough for it to move on and call a second slayer. Kendra was killed by a vampire and Faith was called. Faith had huge amounts of problems due to mental trauma and other problems.
"So we had Buffy being the slayer and Faith ended up in jail for a while for her problems." The trainer nodded once, still scowling. "When Buffy started to have dreams about the Bringers we went looking and found out what happened and got all the slayers and watchers we could find to Sunnydale. That was right before the Bringers blew up the old Council's building in England." Yihana winced. "It ended up being a battle against the First Evil.
"It takes seven slayers to bleed on her altar to lock her in there. The slayer scythe is a special weapon imbued with the slayer spirit. It can kill a bringer. Buffy wields it now but it can kill most any demon so all the slayers need to know how in case they need it. Or it goes to the next senior slayer. We only had two slayers so Willow talked to the slayer spirit inside the scythe to activate the ones who had made it to Sunnydale."
"Which is when we all got activated," Yihana said. "I remember the dream asking if I wanted it."
Xander looked at her and nodded. "Yup, it sure was. All the slayers and all of us in Sunnydale who were working with the team went into the hellmouth to fight the First Evil to seal her back in. It was the first time we'd really lost team members. Buffy died to stop Glory, but she chose that. This time we had slayers and others dying in the battle itself. We lost three of the six of us who weren't slayers who were helping. We lost eleven slayers that day. The main house, which is in Cleveland with the most open hellmouth, has the remembrance obelisks for them and the others who fell during other battles and the few who died on patrol."
She nodded. "Now you're an army of slayers. We train you how to handle yourself. We train you how to deal with things you must. We also make sure the young ones get to be young girls who play but are a bit careful about things. We make the girls that want to go to college go." He smiled. "Two of the slayers are presently in medical school to come back to be our trauma team. We're all real proud of them. The same as you're allowed to have a real life if you want. We'll help you celebrate all the happies and be there when you need us for the bad things.
"The slayers are like sisters to each other, and they do argue sometimes. Buffy and the girls from the Middle East get into clothing talks that turn vicious at times. Giles had to duct tape her mouth the last time she started on their modest clothes." Yihana laughed. "Buffy's fashionable. She grew up that way because she wasn't one of the girls the old Council took from their family to raise." He shrugged. "She went to normal schools and all that. She grew up a normal girl for LA."
"What about hunting?" the trainer said.
Xander nodded. "If that's her choice and she wants to hunt, then we'll support that and her. I'm here to explain things we know about, to give her information she might not have yet. I've run into a lot of things that weren't in the traditional training. No one studied Africa-specific threats. Even during the colonial times the old line weren't all that welcome." He shrugged. "That's part of what went into the new training manuals. Most of the vampires in Europe and the US you can stake or behead.
"You guys have a few psychic and energy vamps down here that you have to kill with blood because that's a weakness to them. You have a lot more beheading ones than we do in the US. You guys also have ancient temples that have been there for generations that no one's heard of because no one was there." He grinned. "I've run into a few of them. Literally in a few cases because I was getting away from Willow magic. She was drinking on the anniversary of her girlfriend's death. Which I understand very well. I just didn't want to be pregnant."
The trainer winced. "Is she still around?"
"In Cleveland most of the time. She's got a fair grip on her magic addiction. Though she does nag, a lot. The senior witches in Devon are on her speed dial," he said dryly, smiling at him. "And mine in case I have to call them on her again for trying to make me pregnant. Oh, there's a young witch in one of the villages. We had to have a talk with her because she created a blizzard. That's the only way she figured out how to stop the bad guys who were trying to hurt her village. She's eight. She and Giles got a long talk about things like ethics and common sense and while she might look up to Willow there's better things, like people eating trees. They decided that was a great idea."
The trainer moaned, shaking his head. "Oh, dear."
Xander grinned. "Old line watcher?"
"Cousin to one," he sighed, looking at him. "They hated your team."
"We know. We hated the old Council right back," he said with a smile. "Thankfully, most of them blew up with the Bringers. That left Giles in charge of the Council. There's a head watcher on each continent and area. Most of us are younger. We saved sixty-nine, I think, watchers. Mostly research guys. Three have died since then due to vampires and one died due to food poisoning in Asia with the head over there. The girls there like to try each other's native cuisines. He said he's fought off food poisoning at least once with two of them."
The trainer looked at his young slayer. "It seems I've done good with you."
"She looked excellent in sparring, though she does need to know bladed weapons. They come in more handy than you realize," Xander said. "Especially since on the way here I spotted three different demon communes that're going to have problems soon from the fighting in the next country. The locals there were protecting them but one village near the border had been burned and they were fixing one of the communes so they could go on living peacefully."
"We can handle them," he said.
"We leave the peaceful ones alone. If they need our help moving out of the way of a problem, or if they run into something bigger being a predator to them, we do help them. The Sunnydale team has always had a good working relationship with the peaceful communities. Especially with the information circuits. It's how we figured out what was going on a few times." He shrugged. "It's come in real handy. The three communes all had anti-violence charms on the gates so they were peaceful."
"Really?" he demanded.
"Why harm something peaceful?" Xander countered. "Make them fight us? The whole Council is that way now about the peaceful community. We've gotten a lot of information from them about bigger things coming up. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't have known about the invasion in LA that got the slayers a lot of press attention."
"There's been attention, like reporters?" the trainer said.
Xander nodded, pulling out his phone to look up the site he used most, showing them. "That's one of the peaceful community's sites about the slayers. The links page at the bottom has a link to most of the other ones, including the CNN site that got started just after the invasion in LA." He let them look it over. He saw her grin and looked, nodding. "Buffy grew up fashionable," he said. "She makes it work for her but she's the only slayer going out in real heels on patrol."
The trainer looked at him. "She can?"
"And does, often." Xander nodded with a grin. "That's just her being her. We let Buffy be Buffy, the same way we let Yihana be Yihana."
The trainer nodded, going over the other sites that were linked. "This is not the Council I'm used to."
Xander shrugged. "We on the Sunnydale team changed it a lot when we took over. Gone are the days of kidnaping potentials. Gone are the hoarding of information. We have agents and others who know so they can help us. Mostly they asked so we gave the what they needed to know to handle things. I've taught a lot of that down here. With the way you ladies are spread out and so many being so young, we've had to let them handle some things themselves. They call if they panic and we appear to help. Or we call if there's something huge and they come help because they got the point that saving themselves comes in really handy at times. We had a few we had to get local rebel groups to come help." He shrugged. "You do what you gotta do."
Yihana nodded. "Sometimes you do." She took the phone to look at Xander's page since they had just found one. "This one does not like you."
Xander looked and nodded. "They don't watch me." He grinned. "They don't think I'm pretty anymore since one of the First's minions popped my eye. Then again, that site's run by one of the former old line watchers who's now bedridden due to injuries. He survived the explosion by being in a vault and having all of it fall on top of him." The trainer looked at him. Xander shrugged. "Wasn't my doing. We didn't deal with the council too much since Buffy told them to bite her over that little birthday test. We no longer do that by the way."
"I thought that was a bad idea," the trainer agreed. "Why did she react so strongly?"
"They kidnaped her mother too."
"Ah. That makes sense."
Xander nodded. "They tried to fire Giles and she told them to bite her. She had her watcher and we had Wesley." He shrugged. "They rehired Giles when they panicked and actually told us about Glory. Apparently hell gods change things."
Yihana nodded. "I would think they would."
Xander smiled. "There's eighteen that I've noted on this continent. Only one's relatively close by and it's a few hundred miles. So far she hasn't done more than sigh in disgust at cars and hasn't tried to take in any slaves or minions. If that changes, she's on the list to be handled. You can call and I'll show up with heavier weapons."
"We have heavier weapons?" the trainer asked.
"That's one reason why I play kitten poker with the peaceful community," Xander quipped. "I don't have a lot but I have a few pieces if we need them." The watcher groaned. "I've also found a few pieces thanks to people who thought I was mean to be treating young woman like they had sense and were capable of handling things. Pity about their narrow viewpoint." He gently took the phone back and got onto another site. "This one is a bit more realistic and less fangirl squealing about some of us." He let her have the phone back. "It's how I keep track of some of the girls that made it to Sunnydale. Andrew, the main house's housemother, does the same thing."
"Housemother?" she asked.
"He takes care of the building and the slayers living there. He makes sure they eat, do homework, do training, cleans up the messes, gets people in to fix holes that the girls cause all too often."
"Oh. He's a man?"
Xander grinned and nodded. "Men can do that job just as well as a woman, Yihana. He's very good to the slayers. He treats them like he would a sister."
She nodded. "Interesting." She looked at Andrew's page. "He does magic?"
"Yes, he used to. He doesn't as much anymore. The Devon coven is awfully down on guys who do traditional magic at times and they nearly took him out for handling something with a touch of magic while he had an arm in a sling. He was floating the spice bottles and they threw an awesome fit. Thankfully Willow stuck up for him and Andrew was able to change them back from cats and lizards after Willow changed them."
"You guys aren't sane," the trainer said.
Xander shrugged. "Life does that to us all sometimes. Yearly bigger battles, stronger ones every few months, plus patrol? It wears you down and you cope however you can." He looked at him. "I came to Africa to grieve my former fiancee. She died in the battle with the First. We weren't together any longer but she was still a close friend and we lost others there. Then I got asked to look in on the slayers to see if any of them had any training. Which turned into me training them and learning more about how to do survival things. Before I could camp and hunt some. Now I can do a lot more because I needed to learn that skill. Which I pass on to the girls."
He nodded once. "I can train her for most everything she'll need to know."
"Sure. Let me know if you can't. There's things like desert camping that may come in handy or even weapons. Can you use a sword?" The man grimaced but nodded. Xander smiled, pulling out a second box. "We heard she had a trainer that was doing pretty good. That's why I didn't rush over to help her and only called. This is your set because I had them send me one just in case. Make sure you know how to handle all those. If not, I can run a short lesson and let you work against each other if you want to do it that way." He looked through them, frowning at some. Xander plucked out one, letting Yihana hold hers.
"Okay, come at me, Yihana." She did and he blocked while showing them a bit of how to handle it. "With the Slayer Spirit came information on a lot of different weapons. Usually it takes a few times using them to wake them up, then you have to get your body used to what your mind knows." She nodded, stepping back. "Try the scythe. Most of the slayers got a strong sense of how to use them and swords." She pulled that out, checking it over.
"Treat it like a curved dagger, not a longer weapon. There is one with a scythe blade on the end but I don't have any of those here. I can show you how to change yours over if you need to." She nodded. He showed her how to use the scythe most effectively as a hand weapon. Her trainer pulled out his to go over. By that night they were looking good at handling them, if not more in her case. Xander pulled something out of her pack, holding it up. "To record slayer dreams or just to think in. Most of the girls do keep one. Some even write notes to future slayers who might read them. If she has a slayer dream that's prophetic, call the main house and tell them that. If they don't understand you, ask for Andrew. We both have translating software if we need them. His is on his computer so he might have you skype if you can. You don't have to though."
The trainer nodded. "I can do that. Where are you going after this?"
Xander pulled out his map. "This is my usual route. I'll deviate here to come check on her every few months." He looked up. "Yell for me if you need me. We have ways of getting to emergencies thanks to the coven. Or I'm owed a few poker debts that can do that for the bigger things they don't want to be taken out by as well." That got a nod. "The blue dots are the other slayers. This is where Ayo is. She's the unmarried sixteen-year-old one. She's got the most training of all of them but yours because she's able to travel and train with me more often, plus she's gotten the chance to do some on her own with her family. She's guarding a five-year-old slayer at the moment. There's a huge problem near them that's looking to raise up their ugly, horned head."
"That's good to know. I can act as her watcher."
Xander smiled. "That's great. There's three forms you have to deal with to get paid for doing that." He pulled out copies. "I just photocopy them when I start to run out. This is your incident report form. This is for battles, bigger issues that need specially noted. Those things that need someone to look at and start to clean their glasses over." He grinned. "This is your monthly check in report form. This is the 'went on patrol so many times, got this many problems while on patrol' form. Just the facts in number form is fine. Willow puts them in to get statistics so we can track upswings in activity and things like that. That way we can move some of the slayers to heavier areas because they usually end up needing the other form."
"That makes sense."
"It does. Willow created them and Buffy trimmed them down to something she could fill out of she had to. It works well and even if you're injured this one usually takes about ten minutes to fill out. The other one, if you're emailing it you can include any film that got taken, including stuff from news sites if there's any around. A few I wrote a paragraph, included a link to the news story, and included an injury report from the ER.
"Giles wasn't amused but it gave him all he needed to know until he could call and check on the slayer. You'll probably hear from him about every month or so at first. That way he knows if you get too stressed, need help, those things. In three months it's spring in the US so therefore apocalypse season. The last one is the 'please replace me' form." He handed that one over.
"For weapon replacements, things like replacing her allowance because the bank got stomped on by something or the rebel group robbed it. Both have happened in the last year. The stepped on one he didn't realize and wasn't doing more than chasing after his girlfriend whining at her for her stomping off in a snit about him doing something dumb. He did apologize and helped them rebuild it. Even before his girlfriend demanded he help rebuild it he was helping rebuild it."
Xander looked up at him. "He's peaceful but hates the thought that we consider him a bit scary for being a few stories tall. He farms for the demon community that eats flesh or blood so they don't eat people. When one of the girls' village needed food desperately he gave me a good deal on a small flock of sheep to give them and threw in some feed grain for the sheep until they could get some growing for them to eat."
"I never would've considered that."
Xander smiled. "Sunnydale used to be the most active hellmouth. We had nearly as many peaceful demons as we did humans in town, plus a huge vampire menace. We learned very well how to work with the peaceful community to protect both of our peoples. They don't want apocalypse battles either. They give us a lot of information when we need it. We have ones that can fix weapons or make speciality weapons. We have ones that have made clothes for some of the slayers on patrol that got injured. We've had a few that have used their healing skills on the slayers after larger battles. Never discount how peaceful and helpful the peaceful community can be. If they're mad at you, they'll let you know, but otherwise they're generally pleasant and just want to live their lives."
"I'll keep that in mind. We don't see too many that aren't causing problems."
"I've heard she took out a few for being funny colored. One of them was a half-human and she needs to be more careful," he said quietly. "Harming a human can cause a lot of problems with the slayer spirit. Faith accidentally taking out a human that got thrown at her during a battle with vampires broke it in her for a long time." The trainer grimaced but nodded. "There's ways if you have to hurt them, or if you're protecting yourself it probably won't happen. We've had a few girls who had to protect themselves and it didn't harm them any but that does change a being in many ways. We never want to see the slayers get that exhausted with life either."
"I can understand that."
Xander nodded. "Good." He called Giles. "It's me and Yihana's trainer-slash-watcher. I've showed him the three forms. I've given her weapons and the books so she's got a copy. He's done good teaching her how to defend herself and fight. The sword lessons earlier went very well. She's awakening the memories at a super pace." He smiled at the pleased noise. "So I need you to set them up with the standard team on patrol perks and paycheck please."
"Of course," Giles said. "We were hoping she'd be able to help you with some of the problems you've run into."
"She's near a few peaceful communes and I want her to stay in this area for now," Xander said. "There was evidence one of the peaceful ones got bothered by the next country over's forces recently."
"Charming. We can work on that." He cleared his throat. "Here we go, the six sheets we have to fill out to employ you both. She's automatically employed but this way we have a payroll record."
"I'd put them on with the online version but no service here," Xander said.
"Good to know." He went over each of the forms with him, filling them out. By the end of an hour he had them all done and they were officially watcher and slayer for the northeastern parts of Africa.
***
Xander woke up in his jeep with a snort, looking at the fizzling noise that had woken him. "Morning, Gloria," he said dryly. "Why are you down here?" He sat up and made himself get out and stretch. It was apparently going to be a long day. "Kennedy," he said with a nod for her. "Huge problems in London?"
Gloria, a perky brunette who was about to go to college, smiled at him. "Watcher Witcher said that you're being overrun with stuff to do so he assigned me down here and Kennedy wanted to meet the one you just found." She looked around then at him. "It's not as desert-like as I thought."
"That's another part of the continent. You get the whole range from mountains to deserts here," he said. He stared at her. "If you're staying, there's got to be rules, Gloria. You can't run wild like you did in London. They don't club down here."
"Why not?" she asked. "It's very stress relieving."
"There's no clubs." She slumped, staring at him. He nodded, smiling some. "There's some that are more like the martini bars that Kennedy goes to but get down and dirty on the floor clubs? Nope. There's also a lot of very modest cultures. Which means sometimes you'll have to cover your hair and you're going to want pants exclusively. If only so you don't get bitten by mosquitos and get malaria."
"I told her about the trip my parents brought me on to Morocco," Kennedy said. She handed over a bag. "Hers. Including a few pretty scarves and a few long sleeve shirts for the cold nights." She waved a hand. "Let me get back to the drudgery of running the London house." She disappeared thanks to the waiting coven.
Xander grinned at her. "Weapons?"
"Mostly on me. Witcher said to please work on my hand-to-hand and sword work. Apparently he thinks I'm just okay in those areas."
"You girls can't be great at everything. You're not Buffy or Faith and you shouldn't try to be Buffy or Faith." He looked at her present outfit. "It's modest enough for this area. Untuck the shirt." She did that so he led her to where Yihana was working out. "Morning," he called, making her wave one hand then go back to lifting weights. "Yihana and her watcher Gregory, this is the Slayer Gloria. She got assigned down here from the house in London. She's doing a year before college thing."
Gloria smiled, holding out a hand. "Yihana, hi. Welcome to the sisterhood of slayers. Kennedy would've stayed but she's allergic to dirt I guess." She shrugged and Yihana smiled and shook her hand. She shook the watcher's hand. "She's lucky. Most of us don't have our own watcher anymore. Though the ones who're married tend to do that with their spouses."
"And one's twin brother," Xander agreed, then yawned. He flapped a hand when the girls looked at him oddly. "Two visions last night. Nothing too soon though. Updating ones I've already seen." They nodded and settled in to talk. Gregory gave him a worried look when the talk went to fashion. "Gloria was raised by the old Council for a few years. Her mother was a Watcher and turned her over," he said quietly. "She managed to hide among London's underground to save herself after the explosion."
Gregory nodded, going over to talk to her about how she managed things in London. Xander got his laptop and came back to type in a preliminary report and send in those visions. Yihana looked at him. He grinned without looking up from his typing. "Vision recording stuff, ladies. Go ahead and talk. You each have stuff to teach the other." They went back to talking and figuring things out. Gloria got a bit loud talking about the local peaceful communes, she adored the ones in London's group, but that was her being excitable.
***
Six months later, Xander was evacuating Gloria and two other of the mini slayers back to the US. He nodded at the Custom's guy, pulling out his ID. "We need a supervisor," he said quietly. "We have emergency paperwork." He pulled that out for the girls.
The agent called that in and got them to a special handling area. The girls relaxed as best they could until they got helped. The supervisor took his sweet time but came in and stopped, grimacing. "Special paperwork, sir?"
"I'm with the Council."
"I heard." Xander handed over the paperwork. "State Department approved I see," he said as he went through them. "It's not a bad idea."
"I know they don't have proper passports and the embassy said to ask for a supervisor."
"That's fine." He stamped in the ones that had them after doing the bag search. He nodded at one. "Miss, you don't have to worry anymore."
"I know," she said. "I just got used to wearing it. Xander had to save me from some people who took me hostage to get a wife. They didn't like me fighting back." Xander patted her on the back. "Can we go to the Council house now please?" She was being strong so the younger slayers didn't see how injured she was, but she was quickly running out of steam. It was time to sit down and cry again.
"Of course, Miss." He looked at the two little ones then at Xander. "Are there others coming?"
"No. There might've been one other one but she went to stay with one of the bigger slayers. If so, I'll come gather her myself from here." They shook hands and the girls got walked off. "Ten minutes to get the rental car, then we'll pause by our usual doctor, Gloria. That way she can take the records and make sure you don't need any refills."
"Thanks." She looked at him. "I'm sorry I didn't do what you said to do and got captured."
He paused and hugged her. "Honey, I've been captured by the same people. I had to call in a poker debt to have them eaten." She giggled. "It's not your fault they're assholes. It's their fault they're assholes." She nodded. He made sure he had the two little ones and walked them to the car rental counter. They ran into two agents. "Not right now," he ordered firmly. "I need to get the girls to the clinic and then the house. I do have a report for you but they have to come first."
"We can talk on the way," one offered. He nodded at the big slayer and smiled at the two younger ones that were hiding behind Xander. "We're not here to hurt you, ladies."
"We just got them out of Nigeria," Xander said bluntly, earning a wince. "Gloria needs to hit the slayer clinic almost immediately. Not that I don't trust their docs but I don't."
"She's off today," the other agent said quietly. "I'll have someone call her to meet you at the Council house, Mr. Harris. We can talk while we walk. We wanted to talk about the battle two weeks ago."
Gloria snorted, shaking her head. "Not that huge and Yihana nearly set it off by being an 'all demons are bad' slayer. She learned."
Xander nodded. "Took her two broken legs and a broken tailbone," he agreed. "Plus the lecture from hell and Willow's version when she showed up." He smirked a tiny bit. "She's very sorry and she's learned now that there's differences." He hurried to the machine to get them a rental car, having to go to the desk instead when it wouldn't let him. He held up his ID. "I'm in delivering slayers to the head house," he said quietly. "I know I'm a bit younger than your regs state. I have this problem every other trip."
The desk clerk nodded, finding his file in the system. "Just a sedan, sir?"
"I need two booster seats if they're available. If not, I'll manage until we get to the house. They're not that young." The clerk looked at the girls then at him.
"We can give him a dispensation," one of the agents said with a smile as he flashed his badge. "They need to get to the house as soon as humanely possible." She nodded, adding that in and doing the paperwork quickly.
He took the keys with a smile and herded the girls out there. "Potty break now or in an hour, ladies." They went to the bathroom. He had to get Gloria because she started to cry again. The two little slayers followed him carrying her to the car. The agents just followed and helped where they could. The girls had to come first this time. They understood.
***
Xander walked into the house. "Andrew, is the doc here yet?" he called.
"Just now parking!" he yelled from the back of the house. He came out. "I can handle the minis, Xander."
"Okay. I'll carry Gloria up to the clinic. She won't make it on her own," he said quietly, getting a nod. He went out to get her. She was dozing but tried to swing on him. He patted her. "It's me, Gloria. We're home. I'm bringing you to the doc." She nodded, resting her head against his shoulder. She was light enough to not be a burden. The two mini slayers were staring at Andrew oddly.
Faith leaned out. "Hey, girls." They smiled. They knew her by voice. "C'mon inside. That's Andrew. He makes the cookies and all the food. You two hungry?" They nodded, following her to the kitchen with Andrew behind them. "The big slayer?"
"Xander carried her," Andrew said quietly.
"That shit sucks and I hope like hell a huge demon does eat those mother fuckers," she said in Latin. The minis didn't know Latin yet. Andrew nodded, handing her a cookie. Xander walked in. "Gloria be okay?"
"Sometime," he said quietly. "We hope." He sat down, taking his own cookie. "You two were excellent earlier. You deserve a treat tonight. For that, why doesn't Faith show you the game room once you get rooms."
"I can do that. Some of the minis locally are in for a thing tonight." She led them off to show them their rooms and then the slayer game room. They ran in to talk to the other girls about their own age. Xander had taught them a lot of english along with their native languages so they weren't going to have troubles with the books being in english.
Xander looked at the agents that had followed them. "What else did you two need to talk about?"
"Sumatra."
"Not my circuit," Xander said bluntly.
"Djibouti?" the other one asked.
Xander nodded. "Yihana's territory. She was a kill them all sort. It caused a huge problem when she moved to take one out that was more powerful than she expected. She learned because she's now a bit broken. Both legs and tailbone broken. Her watcher saved her ass and we had to show up to handle the emergency. Thankfully we could talk him down from his killing humanity rage," he finished dryly. "Then I yelled at her in the ER. Then Willow showed up to yell at her. I'm pretty sure she's now in line with the way the rest of us do things." He ate the second cookie Andrew gave him.
"What happened to the young ones?" the other agent asked.
"The two minis were in Nigeria. Their families got attacked for them being slayers. They're both orphans now. The government got horrified that there were slayers in their country. I warned Gloria about going out alone due to the problems up north of where we were. One of them spotted her and took her hostage for being 'exotic' by being a white girl from England. I managed to rescue her with some help but it was over a day later. She fought them off for as long as she could. She's got a pretty bad concussion and probably shouldn't have flown but getting the two minis out of Africa any other way would've caused more problems for her so she demanded we fly like normal people."
He bit into the remains of that cookie, chewing slowly. "Thankfully I'm on good terms with the local peaceful clans there and they hated their asses too. They took down a good portion of the forest to help me find her and that whole unit of assholes were gone. They sold them to poker debts. I walked off at their screams to save them saying it served them right for doing the same to young women." He finished that cookie.
"Is your older slayer going to be all right and do the younger two need continued care?" the first agent asked quietly. "We can arrange things and let the State Department help."
"They helped me evac the girls. They also watched them while I went to get Gloria. They didn't want to look me in the face when I carried her in from the ER." They nodded. "We got out of there in under a day."
"That's good. She can get better care over here," the first agent said. "Is there anything we should know?"
"I'm out of artillery." He smirked a tiny bit. "You won't find a report on that. They covered it up greatly."
"We can come back if we find it, Mr. Harris. That way we get battle reports. It could complicate US operations or diplomatic operations."
"With the way the diplomats tried to get me to not go find Gloria....yay." They nodded. "They actually tried to tell me she was a lost cause."
"We don't think so," the second agent said. "Thank you for managing it." They shook his hand. "We'd like battle reports sometime later this week, even if they were covered up."
"I'm expecting someone from SHIELD to pounce soon since I had to email them updated visions."
"We'd like to hear those too," the other one said with a smile. "So we're all prepared." Xander nodded. They left.
Andrew handed Xander a mug of tea. "She'll be okay. Our doc is amazing."
"The doc was crying when I put her onto the table," Xander said quietly. "I'm hoping she'll be okay. I had to tell her mom." He sat down with a sigh. "This is so fucked up, 'Drew."
"I know, Xander. You're only one guy. You can't be everywhere and even with visions you're not omnipotent." Xander gave him a weak smile, drinking his tea.
Giles walked in. "Faith introduced me to the two minis you brought over. The other?"
"Moved with Ayo's charge." Xander looked at him. "Gloria's in the clinic."
"I noticed the 'no men' sign on the door that's usually only employed during female exams." He patted him on the back. "I would've found magic and destroyed them all," he said quietly. "I find no fault in you using the local peaceful community. It seems quite like karma." Xander nodded he agreed. "She'll be fine."
"I had to tell her mom."
"That's fine. I'll call her mother to make sure she knows she's here and under treatment." He went to tap on the door to the on-site clinic. A nurse opened the door slightly. "I was going to call her mother to update her that she's here. Should I give over any other information?"
"The concussion has healed quite a lot thanks to the slayer healing gifts. The other trauma....she's still healing and in a lot of pain. She'll be in the infirmary for weeks probably."
"I'll let her know and try to get her to come over to visit." He walked off to his office to make that call. He found Buffy in there being nagged by one of the old liners. "Excuse me but I need my desk, people. Buffy, quit eating in the library. This isn't the school and some people do hold books to be nearly holy objects." He settled down, staring at them. "I have to call Gloria's mother, people. I need privacy." They walked off. He called after looking up their number. "Hello, Mr. Georges. It's Rupert Giles." He relaxed into his chair.
"She is here. They just got back to the house and our on-site doctor is already going over her injuries. They said the concussion has healed quite a lot but she'll be in the infirmary for a few weeks probably for the other...trauma. No, from what I understand she was kidnaped off the street in front of the house. They were in Nigeria," he said more quietly. The father groaned. "Xander saved her by having the local peaceful community help. I'm told they were every efficient and others were rescued at the same time.
"No, from what Xander said she insisted they fly because he had two orphaned slayers he had to bring over. Xander babied her on the way over with them. He's presently beating himself up for not realizing she was outside the safety of the house. Yes, those same sort did take her. No, I believe his report said he let the peaceful community have them. It was like karma in many ways," he said.
He smiled slightly, opening up the travel program he had learned. "We can arrange for you and her mother to show up over here. It's definitely not a problem to have you show up to baby her until she's ready to head home or to college. She said she was taking a year off when she requested to go to Africa to help Xander. She had exemplary service down there, including some rather large battles. We've actually upped her paycheck due to that so she can afford a good bit of her first two years at the very least. Of course, we'd love to have you both as soon as you can come over. I can arrange that." He made travel arrangements and told him them. They agreed they could show up then and he let them go pack. He tipped his head back and sighed.
Buffy leaned in. "Gloria's nagging the nurse back that she's stronger than needing fussed over." She smiled. "She's trying to tough it out."
"As many girls would." He looked at her. "Her parents are showing up."
"I'll have Willow dust the guest suite. Xander's in there to nag her into letting herself get treated and fussed over." She pulled back, walking off to tell that to Willow.
***
Xander walked outside the next morning, nodding at the three agents out there. "Are you here to arrest me for getting Gloria out of their hands?" he asked bluntly. "If so, can I finish my cup of coffee first? I've been up all night with her."
"Not that I know of, sir," one of them said, looking at the others. "We're here to talk to a Mr. Harris about what he had been doing for the last six months." Xander sipped his coffee and waved a hand. "Why would you think you needed arrested?"
Xander quit drinking to stare at him. "One of the slayers got taken in Nigeria." The agent went pale and shuddered, shaking his head. "So if that's a problem, I'm really sorry I had them help me destroy the forest and things."
"We have no known orders on arresting you for that and if we did, I'd probably backtalk my boss," the SHIELD agent said firmly. "Considering Agent Hill actually smiled about how you got her back and got justice for the others? I doubt SHIELD will say a word, Mr. Harris. The others? I believe they're FBI?"
"Homeland," the pale one corrected. He took a deep breath. "No, sir, I don't have that order and I'm just glad you managed it. My partner and I are here to go over your reports on what you did in lower Africa. Everyone's fairly confused."
The SHIELD agent smiled. "I'm here to go over the updated visions you've had over the ones you gave Agent Hill, Mr. Harris."
"We'd like a copy of those," the Homeland agent said.
Xander nodded. "We have a sitting room. The girls are getting ready for school." He led them inside, letting Andrew fuss at them by getting them coffee. "Can you find my laptop, Andrew? Please?"
"It's in the kitchen. Willow was looking at your reports and scowling."
"I hope she didn't erase things," he sighed.
"No, she didn't." He went to get it and brought it out. "Here you go. Let me light a fire under some tardy little slayer butts."
"It's school time!" Xander yelled. "Either go to school and learn something today or you have me for sparring all day long!" Suddenly girls streamed and ran down the stairs for the bus stop. "Have a great day, ladies," he called with a smile and a wave at their backs.
"I might go to school to avoid sparring practice," Faith quipped on her way down the stairs. "Let me hit the infirmary to do some fussing of my own." She looked at the agents then shook her head. "Battles you didn't admit to?" she guessed with a smirk.
"Yup. Sure did."
"Good!" She went to help with Gloria. She needed a good, strong shoulder to cry on and Faith was plenty strong.
Xander got into the files they wanted. "There you go. The visions are in the secondary word processing screen." He finished the new cup of coffee, letting them read things.
"Not even we saw one of those," the SHIELD agent said with a smile for him. "Good job, sir."
"Thanks."
"Are you super powered?" one of the Homeland agents asked.
"No. I just had to handle it because I was there." He shifted and shrugged. "No one else would."
"Good point. How did you handle it? Weapons used perhaps?"
"I'm out of artillery. I need to play more kitten poker to get some more." They groaned and went back to the reports.
***
That afternoon, Buffy was in charge of looking at the notes sent home. "Wow, not one single report of missing or undone homework. Everyone was praised for being attentive today."
Andrew smiled at her. "They weren't listening to me so Xander yelled that if they didn't go and learn something today he'd be sparring with everyone this afternoon."
"I'd go be booky for that," she decided, signing the ones that needed to be signed. "Report cards are soon, right?"
"Four days," he said dryly.
"I'll go get the 'good job' cards tomorrow then." She put all the notes back into the folders the girls put them in to be reviewed. "Giles will be proud." She got more coffee and went to afternoon sparring for the mid-aged minis. She paused when she saw a flash. "Hi. Do we know you?" she asked.
Xander came out of the living room, staring at her. "Hey, Yihana. How's your watcher? Is there a huge problem or are you just in for help?"
"Since we found out why, Gregory's been drinking himself into a coma," she sighed, looking at him. "You're not answering your phone?"
"I broke it getting Gloria out of idiot hands." He waved. "Buffy, this is Yihana."
"Hi." She shook her hand with a grin. "I'm going to do mid-age mini slayer sparring. You can come chat and then we can talk to your watcher together. Giles did some drinking too after I started college because he thought I didn't need him as much. Proved him wrong by calling up the spirit for the first slayer." She grinned. "Now we only see drinking when it's a huge problem or Willow's done something."
Xander nodded. "Yes you do." He went back to the agents. They were still looking over his past reports. It was like no one had seen them before. Which could be with Willow being the one that answered the house's emails.
***
Xander accepted the invitation that had been in his email, nodding at the agent waiting on him at the club. "What's up?" he asked, sliding in across from her.
"I didn't invite you, Harris."
"Huh." He looked around. "I don't see any of my usual contacts." He handed her the note. "I didn't see anyone else here that I'd know."
She looked and nodded. "It was sent in my name." She looked at him. "I got the report from the agent that came to debrief you. Thank you for not muddling his mind too much, even if you did give him bad ideas of how to handle situations when he had to." He smirked at her. "It was nice of you not to confuse him. How many did you hide?"
"I got them into my reports file."
She stared. "How many weren't reported?"
He shrugged. "No comment?"
"No." She stared at him, smirking slightly. "How many?"
"Probably about thirty, forty incidences, mostly with humans. Not like the Council cares about that." He stared at her.
"Can we know?"
"Nope." He grinned. "I'm all about the lacking nagging." He got up and went onto the floor to dance. He hadn't heard any of the songs they were playing but that was about normal these days.
Agent Hill sent that to the agent, who said he got a few of them by finding his diary. Still not everything but about fifteen or so of that forty that were missing. Maybe they'd be able to find something from their contacts down that way. Hill reminded him he wasn't Harris so he couldn't do the same things Xander did. The agent sighed back but agreed he couldn't. He didn't like artillery or training teenage girls.
***
Xander was getting down on the dance floor when his 'staring at me' feeling started. He glanced around casually. He spotted the guy staring and frowned some. He nodded at his dance partner, going to get a drink from the bar. "Can I have a coke, no ice?" he asked.
"No liquor?" he asked, moving to pour one.
"I'm driving later."
"Sure." Xander paid and walked off sipping it. He caught the guy's eye and headed back to the bathroom so he could slip out the back door the back parking lot. He nodded at the bouncer. "I just saw an ex's new guy staring at me," he told the bouncer. "It's not going to be a fight. He looked like he figured out why she's my ex."
The bouncer nodded. "I've had a few of those."
"I've had a few that could've been hell goddesses," Xander quipped, cracking him up. The guy came out. Xander nodded to the corner, walking over there. "You're setting off my supernatural radar. Why?" he asked, taking a sip.
"I'm not harmful, kid."
Xander shrugged. "I have a whole different criteria for dangerous than most of us. Dating Anyanka did that."
The guy nodded. "We heard." He grinned, pulling out a card. "Slight issue that's calling in a pinch hitter for a panic."
Xander blinked at the card then at him. "Aren't you a math guy? I saw your article in a magazine on the plane."
"It's my off-season job," he quipped with a grin. "Gotta do something when I'm not making toys."
Xander hung his head, shaking it. "Don't your mortal family mind?"
"They decided they didn't want to make toys." He shrugged. "They're happier."
"Then why ask me?"
"Because Santa fell and broke his leg in five places," he said. Xander winced, sipping his soda with a head shake. "We've had a small problem with another clan of elves that split off over quality issues about five hundred years ago. They want to stage a hostile takeover and Santa can't defeat it right now. We need a pinch hitter."
"You guys play baseball?"
"My brother did." He grinned. "It has to be someone from the right sort of background."
"You know most everyone considers me a violent goofball, right?"
"Yeah. I did a background check through Don before we picked which one to ask. It's you or someone who's into very sunny Care Bears who could never help us if they show up."
Xander nodded, finishing his soda and tossing out the plastic cup. "I need to call the house and get a few things."
"I can meet you there in an hour?"
"That'll work." He shook his hand. "How long?"
"Six days maybe. He's got accelerated healing. We just need someone who's a bit tough to sit there and be in place."
"I can do that." He found his keys on his way around to his car, heading back to the house. He stopped in the infirmary. "Hey." Gloria looked up from her pudding at him. "I'm being asked to go sit on a seat for six days or so to keep something from happening."
"Must you?" He nodded. "Can I come?"
"It'll mean walking and stuff." She grimaced, shaking her head. He leaned down to kiss her on the head. "I'll be back in about a week. It'll be okay."
"They fuss."
"It's that or being in the hospital for a few days."
"No thanks. I'd hate that." Xander smiled. "Go be scary."
"I'll try." He tweaked her ear. "Yihana's here."
"I heard," she said with a grimace. "I'll talk to her soon. My mom's coming tomorrow." He nodded. "Get a new phone?" He pulled out his new phone to wave. "I'll call if I need saved."
"Seen Gweliza?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"She's *excellent* at being a guard puppy. She's six but she's even driven Andrew into a headache and leaving her alone." He smirked as he walked off. He paused in Gweliza's room, tapping gently on the door. She opened it, staring up at him. "Gloria needs some guard dogging for the next few days. She's not used to all the fussing and her parents are showing up tomorrow."
The young slayer smirked evilly at him. "I can help her be less fussed over. We know she's in the infirmary for really bad things. I won't ask her why." She closed her door with a smug look at her roommie, who shook her head but they got back to bed. They had a long day tomorrow guarding their injured sister slayer from fussing. It'd surely get them cookies from Andrew.
Xander went up to pack and came down to the kitchen. "I got called in as a scary seat holder for about a week to stop a problem, 'Drew."
Andrew looked at him. "Okay. Who did you sic on Gloria?"
"Gweliza." He smirked. "She's feeling too fussed over right now and her parents are coming."
"She'll do good." He handed him a pastry he was baking for breakfast. "Keep your phone on."
"Not sure if I'll get phone reception." Andrew took his new phone to work on then handed it off. "Thanks, 'Drew." He walked outside, nodding at the two elves waiting on him. "Hey." They grabbed him and his pack, taking him with them. They made it back easily enough thanks to jet packs. Xander nodded his thanks. "Have some fun, guys. This can't be worse than a hell goddess a few times." He walked in, smiling at Bernard. "I've suitably helped Gloria not get totally fussed over when her parents show up tomorrow."
"I heard one of your slayers got hurt," Santa said from his seat. He had a full leg cast and it was propped up on a stool.
Xander grinned. "Yeah, slightly, but I had help getting her back." Santa nodded. "They earned it."
"Agreed," he said. "Don't be too scary. We try for less scary and more imposing."
"I'm very imposing when I want to be." He grinned. "I've got it. Go snog the missus and rest that. It'll never heal straight if you don't rest."
"Point. I'm supposed to be seeing a meeting party."
"I can help. I learned diplomacy in the last few years." He grinned. "I had to."
"I saw." He stared at him. "Wow." Xander shrugged, losing some of the smile. "Before I probably would've applauded but now I'd probably have turned them into living snowmen."
"They'd hate that being in Africa and all." He dropped his bag beside the throne. "So, what's going on?" Santa handed over the request for the meeting. "I can help." He looked at the staring elves, smiling. "I'm Xander. I'm the on-site trainer for the slayers staying at home in Africa." A few shivered. "You guys have it, I'm just here to help for the broken leg thing." They nodded and got back to work. He looked up. "Is Gweliza on the naughty list?"
"Yup." Santa nodded. "She's a bit wicked. Especially with that hanging some kid upside down from the school's roof."
Xander raised an eyebrow then texted that to Andrew.
"How are you getting service?"
Xander grinned. "Andrew's magic."
Santa sighed. "I forgot you guys had your own version." Xander nodded, finishing that text and getting one back. "Bad?"
"Andrew's going to talk to her. He won't put up with bullies since he was bully bait for his whole life so far." He put his phone back into his pocket. "How many are coming?"
"Probably six. That seems to be a good mediation party."
Xander nodded. "With warriors watching just in case?"
"I'd hate to think so," Santa said. "Maybe though." He shifted with a grimace. "I slipped off the roof fixing a decoration."
Xander looked at him. "I've fallen out of a few trees."
"Feels about as bad, yeah." The doors were imperiously knocked on. "I think that's them."
Xander went to answer it, smiling and waving off the elves staring. "Guys, let's let us talk." He opened the door, staring at the elves. "Hi. Are you the meeting party?"
"Who're you?" one of them demanded, sneering at him.
Xander grinned. "I'm Xander. I got asked to come up to help with a slayer problem. A few of the girls are classified wrong because of the slayer spirit plus we've had a few supernatural communities that have wanted to know why Santa doesn't come see them."
"Oh," the speaker said, blinking at him. "That's very odd."
"I'm just like that. Come in, please. We'll sit and chat about the problems going on. That way no one's too huffy?" They nodded, walking in and following him back. He smiled at the young looking woman. "Hi."
"I'm Abby. I'm the Maker of the Cocoa." She nodded at the elves. "Would you like some? We have three kinds right now."
"We don't want to risk things," one of the warriors said.
Xander looked at him. "Do you really think someone like Santa would poison your cocoa?" he asked. "I'd never think about Santa that way. Well, Anyanka's version of Santa she told us about maybe but not this guy. He's the nice guy. He believes in fairly chatting about things." He stared at the speaker.
"We'd love some cocoa," he said with a fake smile. Abby smiled back and got them cocoa so they could put what they wanted in the cups.
Xander sipped his first. "Thank you, Abby. That's as great as Joyce Summers' version and I don't even have to come up with a personal problem to talk to her about to get some." She grinned and walked off. Xander passed on the pot. "Here, fix your own cups. That way you get what you want in it." He added another marshmallow to his cup. The others let one of theirs taste things then made theirs. "I used to wonder about the D&D split, Santa. Is there one point where the froofy elves in the books came from these or were they made up? And what about the dwarves?"
He blinked. "I think their elves are from another realm. I'm not sure. Curtis? Or you, Bernard?" He sipped his cocoa.
"Their elves are from another realm, not our kind, Xander. Dwarves we do have."
Xander smiled. "I ran into the K'Fr'csat clan in Africa. They loved my battle axe with me since I helped take out something trying to attack them. Did they come from another realm?"
Bernard considered it then shrugged. "I don't know. I've never read that anywhere." Xander grinned, sipping his cocoa. "As for the supernatural children... we hadn't thought about that community needing servicing. I'm not sure how we'd go about that. I'll send a message to Mother Nature."
"She hates some of them for immigrating," Xander warned. "Screwed up some ley lines or something."
"I'll ask, maybe that's why our radars went wrong last year." He went to ask that.
Santa smiled at him. "I wouldn't mind. All kids need happiness."
"Refugee camps?" Xander asked.
"I tend to work through relief agencies. I can't just magically gift those kids because they'll think it's a trap."
Xander nodded. "I can understand that. I ended up working with a slayer near one of the ones in Rwanda. They got most of my food and stuff to make sure the kids could make it."
"I'd do the same thing," Santa agreed with a smile. He looked at the elves. "So, what's the reason for the talk? You never included that part." The elves looked at each other.
The speaker stood up. "We have been feuding for many years."
"Which I've never understood," Santa admitted. "It seemed like a silly argument that got you hurt. I don't understand why that bothered you so much."
"It is not the way it's done."
"Sometimes you have to move on with the new technology. A lot of children want electronic toys these days instead of simple dolls."
The elf slumped, shaking his head.
Xander pulled out his phone, looking something up. "These are the most popular toys in the US right now for human kids," he said, letting them see the list. "Most kids don't really understand what their parents used to play with, much less what kids back in the really old days played with."
The elves looked at it, grimacing. "That is not what we'd expect." He looked at Xander. "Do no children play with simple toys?"
"There's plenty of kids who would adore getting *any* toy," Xander said firmly, staring at them. "Not just kids in refugee camps but kids in orphanages that have to get theirs donated and poor kids who rely on programs to get them any sort of present. I was one of those and my favorite toy ever was one of the last I got. It was a red firetruck. I was six." The elf shuddered. "There's a place for them but a lot of kids want the things with lights and whistles that play back, the easy toys they don't have to use their imagination with. Now, there's still plenty of kids that would appreciate *any* toys. If you wanted to make toys for them, they'd adore it. There's a lot of kids displaced by wars that a simple toy would give them great comfort."
The elves nodded, looking at Santa. "I do give to them when I can," Santa agreed. "He's right. For a child that's been torn from their home, a teddy bear or a doll might be the most precious thing in their lives. We have a few elves who work on those sort of projects then I go through aid relief agencies to get them to the children. Those kids are generally paranoid."
"And often not in a religion that celebrates Christmas," Xander added. He finished his cocoa and put the cup aside. "If you wanted to make toys for them, could that be worked out, Santa?"
"Definitely. It's a badly needed thing and that sort of craftmanship could bring a lot of joy. They had to shift some of the elves off that for the tv related toy section last year. All the action figures off cartoons and movies."
Xander grinned. "I have a few of those."
The speaking elf looked at him. "Do you celebrate the true spirit of Christmas?"
"Every morning-after when there's been a battle," Xander said honestly. "Christmas can be any day of the year. It doesn't have to be done on a certain day. Even Virginia knew that. You should watch that special. It's how a lot of kids transition from believing in Santa to knowing that he's a spirit of good will. Though a lot of them lose it thanks to their parents."
Santa nodded. "It's sad when kids have to grow up too soon." He looked at the man next to him then the elves. "If you're willing to come back and be employed elves then we'd more than welcome you home."
"As long as you didn't cause stress with the others," Xander said. "Even the Amish can get along with the rest of the community."
The elves nodded. "We will consider that, Santa. It's a thing that would make many happy."
"You're all welcome back," Santa said simply. "Even if you do have to have a year or so to adjust to the way things are frantic around here." The elves nodded and left to talk to their people. "It's a good point, kid."
Xander smiled. "I've seen nomadic kids with smartphones in Africa." He shook his head. "But still not wearing a lot of clothes."
"Sometimes updating is a bit strange on a body," Santa said. "Go rest. You're tired. I can tell." Xander shrugged but smiled and let Abby lead him to a room. He sighed, looking at Bernard. "He's right."
"He is," he agreed. "We do what we can. Those ones coming in would help that whole division beef up to what they needed to be. That and they'd probably have trainees. We could use more of those too."
"Aren't you and Amita going to give me future elves?" Santa joked with a grin.
"I haven't even shown her my ears yet," he admitted. "She's sweet but she's analytical and she'll probably get a bit upset."
"Uh-huh. Still have to tell her before it causes a divorce, *Charlie*," he said dryly.
Bernard smiled. "I'll tell her later. Can I bring her up?"
"You're marrying the girl. It's about time Abby and the others met her."
"Good point." He walked off smiling while sending her an email.
Santa looked at his wife, who winked at him and gave him a cookie. "Thanks," he said quietly.
"Kids like Xander grow up and do better for their kids if they can."
"I know. I wasn't the Santa for him anyway." He kissed her. "Thank you."
"Of course. That's what Mrs. Clause does." She walked off. She had some more stuff to do before she had to start elf education again tomorrow. Including grading math tests. She really needed Bernard to teach that lesson. They got it easier from him.
***
Xander made it home, smiling at the non-perky slayer that was up and hobbling away from her mother. He hugged her. "Hey. You better?"
"Not yet," she said, staring at him. "Where were you? Andrew said you were up north. Was that the ice demons fighting over who the baby's daddy was again?"
"No, a peace treaty thing." He kissed her on the forehead. "If you're still injured, shouldn't you be on couch rest?"
"The minis are hogging it."
Xander leaned into the living room and pointed at two of them. "Let Gloria lay down too, ladies." They huffed but let her have some of the couch. "She's injured and has a lot of bruises too. Be nicer to your sister slayers."
"Not like you can threaten us with christmas," one huffed.
Xander walked in and looked down at her. He wouldn't wonder how his life intersected that way. It just happened around him; weird things connected all the time. "Why not? Just because you don't believe doesn't mean that there's not enough power of belief to make them real." She gaped. He stared back. "Belief, especially innocent belief, is a powerful thing. Beyond that, who crushed that innocence?"
"A boy at school," another girl said with a pout. "He told me I was stupid to still think there was a Santa."
Xander leaned down to look at her. "You may not believe in the big guy that delivers presents but that doesn't mean that others don't. Did you tell others that?" She nodded, looking pouty. "That's mean to take some of their innocence away. Beyond that, there's a physical and a spirit of Santa, Deedra. The spirit is why we go out and we give more to charity and help our fellow beings during the holidays. All that goodwill toward all beings stuff." She looked up at him.
"You can believe in Santa or not, that's not up to me. It's your belief system. There's plenty that say faith like that is very important. Look at Willow's. Hers is strong enough to manifest a goddess that everyone says is a myth when she needs to. That's the power of belief and I won't have you older minis ruining it for the younger girls. Am I clear?" She nodded. "Good. Now go recant that." She sighed but went to do that. It'd stop the crying he was starting to hear upstairs.
Gloria smiled at him. "I still believe in Santa. No one in my family could put together things like bikes yet I still got one that was correctly put together when I needed a new one." The girls all stared at her in awe. She nodded. "My parents can't hammer in nails, much less put together stuff like bikes. No one else could've. I guess that means there was some supernatural help in there, huh?"
"Wow," one said. "That's goofy." Xander scowled. She huffed but settled down.
"She's right. The one year I tried to put together a bike she ended up in the hospital from the injuries because it fell apart under her and cut her," Gloria's father said in his polite British accent. That girl stared at him oddly. "Unlike over here, our ladies don't have handymen that you can hire for simple things. You only hire them for big things, like fixing the house. Definitely not fixing a bike."
"If Santa's real, then how do reindeer fly?" that mini demanded, hopping up. "They're not aerodynamic. They don't have wings."
Xander grinned. "How many times has Willow and Andrew floated things?" She gaped, then stamped a foot. "I'm told it's a special potion inserted into their sugar treats. Flying sugar." He smiled. "I'd try some but I'd probably never come back down. You can ask Willow if she's found the recipe for that potion."
"She agreed it was dumb to believe in things."
Xander nodded. "Yet, she believed strongly enough to bring back Buffy once and nearly Tara. We all have a higher being we believe in, even if it's just our souls. Santa's like that, only he's a spirit that tells us to be nicer, kinder, and help our fellow beings."
"Our fellow men," she snorted.
"No. If you want to help a charity that helps demon children, go for it." She stared, mouth open, making squeaky noises. "What? You think there's not poor among them? It's not like they make CEO money, Deedra. There's plenty of them that work with really low wages but it's better here than where they came from. Some of them do celebrate Christmas. Some don't. You can't judge someone on where they come from. If you did that, then you're a racist and I'm ashamed of that behavior." She nodded, sniffling. "Racists are bad people. I think you need to think about that. The only ones we're allowed to discriminate against are doing bad things and you know as well as I do that those aren't just demons. We've all seen bad humans on the news."
She nodded. "I've seen them." She sniffled then looked at him. "I don't want to be bad."
"Then you need to think about things. What you say to others and to us. What you joke about, all that. Because I heard about that joke you retold the other day and I would've paddled you so fast you would've regretted ever learning to talk." She slumped but nodded. "Good. That goes for the rest of you. You girls need to learn how to think before you speak and act. Buffy and Willow have enough problems with that. You can't follow them there. That's why whole species hate us, because Willow said the wrong thing and came off being bigoted against them. Got it?"
They nodded. "Good. Talk to Gloria's parents about that. They did a great job with her. She did a great job in Africa and she was kind to everyone. Even the ones who weren't all that nice." They nodded, pulling her parents in to talk to them. Xander walked off, batting Willow on the head. "How dare you take some of their childhood innocence," he hissed, glaring at her. "Don't they have a hard enough life without you going all 'there's nothing there to believe in' about things?" He glared at her. "Is them believing in Santa really going to hurt them?"
"The other kids will pick on them. They did me."
"They picked on you because you wrote that paper trying to join Christmas and the Hanukkah traditions. You were confused and you came off being snotty to them. That's why they made fun of you." He stared at her. "For that matter, you ruined a few of their childhood innocence moments too, Willow. Everyone deserves to be as innocent as they can be before life crashes in on them." She huffed off. He waved at her back. "If you're that concerned about the kids growing up strong enough, go volunteer at a refugee camp somewhere near a war. Then see what strong enough really means."
She slammed her room door. He went to tell on himself. He leaned into Giles' office. "I chewed the redhead a new one for ripping some childhood innocence from the girls. She's like the anti-goodwill toward all beings at times. Always has been," he said at Buffy's glare. He stared back. "The girls need and deserve as much innocence as they can hold. That's why we do the evil and dark things for them. So they get to keep it as long as possible."
"Yes it is," Giles agreed. "I had no idea she was bursting that bubble." He sighed. "Are the girls traumatized?"
"Tiny bit but we had a talk about the spirit of Christmas even if you couldn't really believe. Then I suggested that the girls adjust the snotty, bigoted attitude they learned off Willow too. Before we have another warrior clan mad at us," he said when Buffy hopped up to glare at him. He stared at her. "You know she did."
"They're demons."
"Do I need to paddle you too so you remember we work with the peaceful community and only hate the ones that hate us first?" he demanded, leaning in the doorway. "Which isn't exclusively in the demon community?" She gaped. He stared back. "I can't find it in myself to really appreciate anyone or anything that'd try to kill us all. Anything else I'm just fine with and the girls need that sort of open mindedness."
Giles nodded. "I will have to side with Xander on that. We have always worked that way, Buffy. What's gotten into you?"
"I'm wondering if she's possessed or just cranky and needs a vacation," Xander said, staring her down until she grimaced and looked away, slumping back into her seat. "Can we send her on a vacation, Giles?"
"I can, yes. I think it'd do her good. Willow as well." He looked up places. "There's a charming spa and there's almost no activity near there." He booked it for her and printed out the confirmation. Faith had taught him how to do that sort of thing with Fred, from the LA team. "There you go, Buffy. Go have a good holiday and you'll be back just before solstice so you can celebrate the holidays with Dawn."
She nodded. "Thanks." She looked at Xander. "Are you going to bite me again?"
He smirked. "You're not my type, Buffy. Why would I bite you?" He got out of the way. "Go pack. That way you can escape before Willow hears and tries to join you." She smiled a tiny bit as she hurried off to do that. He looked at Giles. "Is the coven that way too?"
"Not usually. A few have moments. As you said, Willow's almost always been that way. It's probably from her parents."
Xander nodded. "True. Her mother delighted in breaking any innocence in people too. Said it did them good to have reality instead of fantasies. Then Jesse told her that learning to believe in something like Santa and the Tooth Fairy meant that you learned how to believe in bigger things later, like God and stuff. It horrified her that she was ruining them for later higher thoughts and religion." He rolled his eyes.
"How were the elves?"
Xander grinned. "Pretty good. Great cookies and cocoa." He smiled. "The peace treaty went well."
"Good."
"How did you hear?"
"One of the local community saw you talking to one." He stared at him. "I do have my own contacts."
Xander smirked. "Which is good."
"When were you going to mention those reports that the agents found?"
"I sent them."
"Oh dear."
Xander nodded. "Yup." He walked off. "Hey, Andrew, anything for nibbling on? I've had cocoa and cookies for the last five days."
He handed him a salad and the bottle of dressing. "Eat that before you start to bounce." He went back to making salads for later. Xander settled in there to eat. "Thanks for yelling at Willow. She's gotten so judgmental recently."
Xander finished the current bite in his mouth, nodding. "I've noticed. I don't know why. She used to take these spells but it's been a long time since the last one." He ate another bite, shaking his head. "I hate salads."
"Yay. It's good for you sometimes."
"I know." Xander finished up and went to watch tv with the minis. They needed more big brother and parental support at times. Gloria's parents were doing good so he went up to his room to fuss over his weapons and clothes.
***
Xander leaned into view of the teleconference that happened every other month between the houses. "You girls in London have one coming up. I sent you the vision. Have we prepared and warned the local communities?"
One stared at him then looked at Kennedy. "We do?" she demanded.
"I don't think I got an email from you," Kennedy said, glaring at him.
He looked and sent it again. "It's in the house's email account. It's a mystical convergence moment. It'll be demons hiding from off-realm aliens. Especially the evil elves coming for Asgard." The slayers in the conference groaned. Xander grinned. "There's a college in the way. You might want to warn them?" he prompted when the girls in London printed it out to read and groan at. He nodded a few times.
"Doing it tomorrow. I go there," one said with a sigh at the end. "I need to do my papers sooner since it's going to hit the library."
"Have you guys run into Dr. Foster and Darcy Lewis?" he asked. They stared at him. "Thor's girlfriend and her intern, who is very cool. Dr. Foster is trying to rebuild the Bifrost so she's a kidnaping risk, ladies. I sent all this months ago."
"I see that email," one said, glaring at Kennedy's back. "We hadn't seen it before but we will now and we'll keep an ear out for her or her intern, Xander. Thank you."
"Welcome. Not that we'd mind the Bifrost being rebuilt so I can kick a few off this plane and send them home. By the way, Sarji, one's at your college. Going to have a problem directly after the thing in London?"
"I saw that," she said, grimacing. "I've got eyes on him, Xander."
"His staff thingy?"
"I found the part here. The other two?" She looked. "Sarah?"
"Can't find it," she admitted.
"Get with me later, I can maybe clarify where it is," Xander said. "If not, say hi to the SHIELD guys?" They nodded. "Okay. Yell if you need me to come calm things down after the thing in London, Kennedy. There's probably going to be some panicking like we had in LA."
"I can do that," she said.
"Okay. Let me know if you need me." He looked over Buffy's head at her. "SHIELD is going to have major issues. Have you seen that vision?"
"No. I know there's one on my bedside table. Today?"
"Next year, early next year. And it's horrible so I'm going to New York to warn them in person."
"Okay. Taking Gloria?" She looked at her.
She nodded. "I can do that. My parents are back there," she told the ladies in her former house. They nodded they'd check on them. "I can travel with Xander. He's good to travel with and he listens to nice music."
"We can get you your own MP3 player," Willow said, patting her on the hand.
"Killer. See me tomorrow morning so we can travel," Xander said. "They might just show up out of thin air so we don't have to travel."
"Okay." Gloria smiled at Willow. "It was pretty cool traveling with him in Africa. I learned a lot about the locals and the communities they have down there that we don't have elsewhere."
"But....the *thing*," Willow said, giving her a horrified look.
Gloria glared at her. "He had warned us to stay inside the house due to the local rebel group of morons. I stepped out for air. They thought white women were exotic and I might be a good ransom hostage," she said bluntly. "That was my stupid for not listening and I still managed to take out a lot of them before they overpowered me." Willow shrank back.
Buffy hugged her. "Sometimes bad things happen to great people. You're proof of that and you're strong enough that you survived and you're getting better." Gloria nodded, smiling at her for that support. "Remember, we're here if you want to talk, Gloria. We might not be able to understand all of it but we're really good at letting you talk to us and cry on us if you need to."
"I can do that, Buffy. Thanks."
"Welcome." She smiled and smoothed down her hair. "Remember, I'm like the cool big sister that gets you pretty clubbing clothes for all of you girls." Most of them smiled at her. "Okay, two last problems outside the ones he sent to London and Spain."
***
Xander walked outside that night, shaking his head. He looked up. "Yo, whoever's watching, we need a SHIELD agent," he called quietly.
One of the officers on the street coughed. "The agents staring at you in paranoid fascination have all left for the day, Harris. That way they don't see the girls on patrol. It's down to us watching the house."
Xander looked at him. "I've had two visions now of major agencies in rubble."
The officer frowned. "That sucks."
"A lot. And it's going to take huge issues to solve without dissolving three agencies total." The officer grimaced. "So if you see a SHIELD agent?"
"Got it. If not?"
"I'm traveling to where I usually find them." He grinned.
"Good luck."
"You too. There's a vampired girls roller hockey team that's supposed to come up tonight." He walked off to the officer warning dispatch about that.
***
Xander walked into the building he wanted the next day, Gloria with him. He smiled at the receptionist. He pulled up his ID, earning a horrified look. "We have a problem we need to talk to someone sane about. We have information to share with them."
"Yes, sir, I'll call up there. Do you have an appointment?"
"No, I have visions and I saw three agencies in ruins." She winced and called up there. That got them to a middle manager. Xander and Gloria got into the elevator with him then Xander knocked him out. They came off the elevator to guards. "I need Stark please, guys. I'm the Council's seer and this one's a dirty agent. I've seen a lot of dirty agents so I need to tell someone I know isn't involved. We'll go peacefully though." They got led to a sealed office area. Someone walked in and Xander stood up. "Miss Potts."
"He's dirty?"
He pulled out two envelopes and one tape. "The last vision I got taped from almost the start when I felt it starting. I saw why SHIELD wasn't at that mass apocalypse battle in a few years. They're not in existence thanks to a ton of dirty agents in nearly every branch of them and three other agencies, plus the next president's dirty as hell too." She blinked. He grinned. "I know a few I'd trust but they're in DC and that's a cluster of screwed upness since the head guy's there."
"Oh, dear." She called that in. Another redheaded woman walked in. "Natasha."
"Xander," she said.
He smiled. "Thank the Goddess you're okay." She quirked an eyebrow up. "HYDRA."
"We've heard."
"That they're infesting SHIELD?"
She shook her head slowly. "I had not."
He laid out the first envelope. "That one I wrote out. I was in the middle of nowhere up north helping with something when I had it."
She came over to read it, grimacing. "That's bad."
"This was the second one and we got a tape recorder in time to get most of it as I saw it so I couldn't miss anything." He pushed that envelope over and the tape. She looked at the contents, sucking in a long, deep breath. "It is *that* important. Otherwise I would've just done my usual thing and found Hill somehow."
"That is important," she said, bundling it back up. She stared at him then at Gloria. "Are you well?"
"A bit sore."
"She's going to the spa in a few minutes," Xander said with a grin. "She needs it and deserves some self-spoiling to help that."
"Battle?"
"We were in Nigeria," he said. "She wanted some fresh air." Natasha winced. "Which is why they had that charming lack of forest."
"That was excellent work," Natasha said. "The spa uptown?"
"Yes. I've sent one of the girls there before after a problem with her boyfriend."
Natasha nodded. "They're good and they do have physicians on staff that aren't nosy," she told Gloria. "I know a few agents have went there after bad incidents. However they damaged you when you were getting free, they can help." She looked at Xander. "Why were you up north?"
"Peace treaty." He grinned.
"Where were you?"
He shrugged. "No comment. Sorry. That one's classified."
She sighed. "That's so wrong."
"Sometimes." He stared at her. "You can tell the right ones? Including *him*?"
"Yes. I can also help end that."
"You saw the list I saw?"
"Yes. I'm not impressed with them and they won't realize you were here."
"I would've went to Hill but she's in DC."
"That's a bad area anyway. If they should try the girls?"
"We hold no strategic uses for them and if they try, I'm not the asshole to screw with, Natasha. I can pull some of the damndest things out of my ass."
She smiled, patting him on the cheek. "I'm counting on it."
"By the way, London? Say hi to Darcy for me?"
"I saw that."
"Kennedy didn't pull it off the house email and tell anyone until I told the girls during our teleconference."
She sighed. "I shall let others know. We have watchers guarding Dr. Foster. In case others want her to rebuild other things."
"I think the girls should too."
"It's a joint project they could like. Especially once Thor's back." She nodded and left.
Xander grinned at Pepper. "I'm sorry we had to so rudely barge in but it's just that important."
"I understand that." She handed over her card. "Tell me and I'll get it to them or Stark, Mr. Harris."
"Xander please, Miss Potts. I'm not the formal one. I'm the one that trained the girls in Africa. I'm just a hunter guy." She smiled so he took Gloria with him up to that spa. "They specialize in treatment of post battle injuries," he told her once they were in the cab. "Of all sorts. Everything from helping heal big injuries that take sutures to torture injuries." She nodded. "But yeah, letting that out meant that no one in SHIELD came after me for deforesting that part." He looked at her. "Beyond that, Natasha's a good agent. She's been one since before she was your age." She looked at him. "She's a mentor you should look up to and I saw you two working in the same battle with some witch. That was part of one of the other visions they already knew about."
"That's nice."
He leaned closer to her. "Remember the lady from the battle in New York? That was her." She moaned. That woman was a massive crush for the slayers. "Learn from her. Okay?" She nodded. "Good girl. Because I saw you having to fight against a SHIELD agent for some reason and her showing up."
"I can work with her. Will she hold that against me?"
"No. She won't. I'm pretty sure she's seen worse, Gloria." She nodded. "Even than you were when we found you." She smiled slightly. "That also lets her know that there's a slayer up here in case someone tries to kidnap you. That way you have a guarding sort listening."
She nodded. "I could like that. I can't fight yet."
"Exactly. New York has a lot of good people on our side." She smirked a tiny bit. "Don't worry about it. If you see anyone from that battle, you trust them. Especially that archer guy? He's a lot like me and a local."
"Got it." They paid the cabbie and got out, him walking her inside. "I'm Slayer Gloria Sanders. I have an appointment."
"I have you here," the receptionist said, smiling at her. "We don't have anything beyond you need the spa for muscle problems?"
"And then some," she admitted.
"Our head of the spa is actually a nurse," she said, smiling at her. "You can talk to her about anything like sutures so she knows how to cover things." She paged her, getting an older, grandmotherly looking woman out to join them. "This is Slayer Gloria, Miss Penshaw."
Xander smiled and shook her hand. "Henrietta."
"Xander." She kissed him on the cheek. "You're the one that was traveling with him?" Gloria nodded. "Then I'm sure you're very sore after six months in Africa with his crummy jeep that needs new shocks. It hurt me just watching him drive off when I was down there to help remove an agent he had found." She smiled. "I was an agent for a while."
Xander patted Gloria on the shoulder. "Want me to wait?"
"I'm good. I'm a big girl now."
"Okay. I'm going to get a meal I don't have to hear nagging about or justify why I'm not living on the slayer diet." He grinned. "Have fun. You're checked in for three days." Gloria nodded. "Oh, this is Hershey's great-aunt."
"Oh!" She smiled. "I've met Hershey. She's a little hellion but sometimes she has great manners."
Henrietta smiled, walking her off. "I tried so hard but her mother still taught her manners. Some day she'll be hell on more than her brothers' nerves." They went through the doorway. "Tell me what sort of injuries you have, dear. Xander didn't share a thing. He left it up to you."
"I'm having a lot of muscle soreness with moving. We...um, we were in Nigeria and I needed some air one night."
The woman winced. "Any stitches?" Gloria shook her head. "Any tears? The hot oil soak might hurt those."
"No, ma'am, those healed."
"That's fine then. Let us know if anything's too hot or it hurts your injuries." She helped her into a robe, looking at her healing cuts and bruises. "Three days should have you right as rain again and we do have a nice counselor on duty if you need one." She looked at the young woman. "You're not the first we've seen or the worst we've seen. You're actually pretty healed and we only need to work on the muscles while you work on the thought stuff." Gloria relaxed. "Just ask and we're here. Including for cookies. They're for lunch you know." She led her to the massage and soaking room. "Let's start with a salt water soak. That should nicely loosen up any muscles and if it hurts we'll switch to a milk one instead." She helped her into the tub and settled her on the seat. "Sore? Anything stinging?"
"No. Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'll see you in an hour, when the water starts to cool off." She petted over her hair and left her to soak. She doubted a massage would help her right now. Her muscles were the wrong sort of sore so they'd have to do something else instead. Xander was right to bring her to them to heal. They had definitely seen worse.
***
Xander looked up from his lunch when someone sat across from him. "Hill."
"I heard you were looking for me." She put the envelopes on the table.
"I'm not going near DC since the head guy's there."
"I heard the tape too. Where did you have the first one?"
"Classified. Sorry. I was helping with a peace treaty. It's where I went after that club."
"Figures." She sighed, looking at him. "It is that bad."
"It is worse than that bad. Did you actually go all the way through the tape to when the head building got destroyed by their own creation and Natasha put everything online? Or when SHIELD went so far down they became noted on a certain bad guy list?" He glanced around then at her.
"They're ones I trust."
"Six you shouldn't." She stared. He nodded. "Ask Willow for a revelation?"
"I can do that." She stayed calm. "How soon?"
"I saw spring."
"Charming."
"I also saw a *thawing*."
"I saw that. He's going to hit the roof."
"Well, that fits well with everything hitting the fan," he said dryly, smiling at her. "From the president down."
"I saw." She grimaced but cleared it up. "Why are you up here?"
"Gloria needed the spa for some sparring injuries."
"Poor girl." She leaned on the table, leaning closer. "You could've called."
"What makes you think they don't have you tapped and probably us tapped?" he shot back, smiling at her. "It's not like they'd like the slayers. We'd be a wall and they'd see me just as normal as Buffy does."
"Point." She sighed, leaning back. "Thank you."
"Welcome. Want walked home? I'm heading toward the slayer house here to check on them. They looked like they had the flu during the last teleconference. Also, Thor's coming soon." He grinned.
"I saw that one as well. How soon?"
"Few weeks."
"Oh, dear. I'll.... Yeah, I'll let them know."
"Start in reverse order? At least London's partially safe?"
"Point." She tapped out a message to a number. "The girls are all sick."
"I'm hoping it's the flu. Otherwise we'll have to replace them and get them to safety." She nodded. He finished his lunch and bagged up his debris. "C'mon, you're on my way." She nodded, walking off with him. One of the senior agents smiled at him. "Nice tie, dude. Did you get it at Abercrombie?"
"No, from my suit shop up here, Mr. Harris."
"Cool." He walked off with Agent Hill. "Giles could use something nice for the holidays."
"Yes he could. He deserves it for having all the slayers nagging him."
"They tried with me too. I held sparring class instead." He grinned. She snorted but smirked a tiny bit. "It helped. A lot." They got into a cab and he gave the cabbie the address of the slayer house. The demon looked back at him. "I'm checking on them. They looked like they had the flu."
"They're pregnant," the demon cabbie said.
"Then they get a nice trip somewhere safe." He smiled as they drove off. "I still can't believe those sort run a clothing manufacturer for money generation."
"It's cheap and teenagers seem to like that brand." She grimaced, glancing back then at him. "Thank you."
"Welcome." He looked at her. "Be careful? Please? I'd hate to have to talk to Fury."
"Gladly. He feels the same way, Xander."
Xander smirked. "I threaten his manliness."
She laughed but didn't comment. They dropped him off and he paid then she took the same cab to her office. She got out and went up to the main video conference office. "Clear it, this is level 8 information." The workers left. She dialed the phone, getting Nick Fury. "Sir, this is a classified information talk. You need to be alone," she said at his look back at the head of the World Security Council. "Even of him, sir."
"Fine. Excuse me but Hill's being paranoid." He walked off to take it in the elevator instead. "What happened?"
"Mr. Harris had another vision and got into Stark Industries to tell them. Including finding a dirty agent there and talking to Miss Potts."
Fury blinked his good eye a few times. "He broke in?"
"Asked to speak to someone and took out the dirty agent in the elevator." She held up the sheets to the camera. He nodded once. "It was that important. We need certain people out of DC."
"He's on a mission."
"I do not suggest that as his team is not exactly what he needs right now with a demon trying to get him."
"I'll let him know."
"Send him to Harris, sir. He's up here. One of the slayers is at a healing spot."
"I heard about Nigeria. He did good. Faster than I could've gotten it handled too. She okay?"
"Relatively. He introduced her to Agent Romanoff and he's a bit paranoid."
"He usually is but he's got a good reason. People are out to get him." He hung up and called someone. "Abort the Silent Flight mission. Send the Captain to New York immediately." He hung up and went back in there. "Sorry. The seer at the Council had another one about an upcoming problem."
"One we need to know about?" he asked, looking up from a folder.
"He's had a few, including one coming up in a while in London. Some mystical convergence that'll cause problems from the other eight realms. Something about elves."
The head of the World Security Council shook his head. "That's going to be messy. Any other good news?"
"He managed to save a slayer that got taken hostage in Nigeria by going to some poker contacts." His boss stared. Fury smirked. "He did good getting her out of there."
"That's good. The girls have an important, dirty job." He nodded. "I hope she'll be okay."
"We all do. There's not enough slayers. He's seen another mass apocalypse in three years." His boss grimaced. "One so bad that even the evil ones were jumping in to help."
"That's bad."
"We're working on it."
"Good. Go do that. I need to know how bad it'll be, Nick."
"I'll find a copy and make you a copy." He walked off thinking. The slayers might be victims if he didn't get them help. Or Harris didn't.
***
Xander stepped out of a shadow when a man on a motorcycle stopped. "Captain?" he called quietly. "I need to see you now." He held up his ID. "It's bad." The man got off the bike and followed him. Xander waited until he took off his helmet. "Good, it is you." He held up the two visions. "The second one's horrifying but from what little I've heard, he's real familiar with what your female teammate went through."
He frowned but read it over carefully. "That's more than we knew."
"Yeah, but I also saw terror courts and military people and three agencies going down in ashes. And that's the nicer part."
Steve Rogers read the second vision, frowning as it got worse. He paused at one and stared at him. "Seriously?"
"Yeah. I checked the vision's picture against the exhibit. Unless he's got a twin....." He shrugged. "He doesn't know anyone. Or himself."
"Fuck," he muttered, going back to reading. He frowned and sighed. "That's bad."
"That's very bad. Agent Hill had a few around her earlier." He flipped over a page to show him the list he had made. "The ones I recognized."
"Oh, dear."
"Yup." He stared at him. "I hate being the bearer of bad news. This time, now we know why SHIELD wasn't at that mass apocalypse battle in a few years."
"Yeah," he agreed, bundling them up. "Mine?"
"Yes. And it had a few extra tidbits the one I gave to Hill didn't. That was your team and your people's needs to know."
"Thank you, Mr. Harris." He shook his hand. "Why did I get evacuated?"
"Because your whole team is them. The head guy is the head of the Security Council," he said quietly. He shrugged. "I'm sorry. All but *her*."
He nodded. "Anyone I can trust?"
"Natasha. That jogging guy." He grinned. "We know about him. A few of the slayers found their way to him. Also, FYI, I had to remove all the slayers from the local house for their own safety. They all got pregnant. We're getting a few younger ones up here. They should be fine."
"That's good. Thank you."
"Not a problem. This shit sucks and I don't want that to happen. If I have to go give myself to some ancient God to solve it, so be it." He smiled. "There's a few who'd love to claim my ass and that's a pretty good enough reason." He walked off. "Be safer. Remember, they're SHIELD too and built the system."
"Yup." He looked then walked off because someone was pulling up to their location looking too interested. The Tower was a few blocks off and his bike was as safe here as anywhere in New York. He made it into the tower and went to Stark's floor. "Some things got hidden. He gave me special information."
Stark took the papers to glance over, nodding at the extra information. "Damn it."
"Yup." He sat down. "Are we all safe?"
"No. Bruce is off doing doctor things." He reread them then handed them back. "That one?"
"Bucky," he said quietly. He looked at him. "Did your dad ever say anything?"
"No. Not a thing. I'm already looking over other things. JARVIS found the other AI and it's being monitored. We've gotten somewhat started." He looked around then at him. "I can't find Barton."
"We can find him and warn him."
"Good. This is going to be bad."
"Very." Steve got a beer and sat back down to come up with a plan. He needed a plan. "London?"
"Thor."
"Will they try for him?"
"Probably."
Willow appeared, head tipped to the side. She smiled and handed over something to the Captain. "That's a revelation like Xander asked me to make. You shouldn't be able to say anything about them if you're not part. Unless I screwed up a tiny bit then I'll fix it. Test it for me?"
He held it, looking the stone over. "Hy...." He broke out choking.
"Good. It works." She smiled. "It has about a thousand uses. Then it'll wear down. Let me know if we need more." She disappeared.
Stark looked at it, taking it from his hand. "Huh. That's handy."
"Very." They shared a look and Steve told Hill the Council had just found an interesting artifact.
***
Weird Old Lines.