Chapter 17

After it settled down in the library again the healers and warders were ready to start. Faith and Wesley were each holding an arm of Xander as they watched the group removed spells on Kendra. After the first spell Kendra just sniffed a bit and looked around but shook her head. Kendra came over by Xander and Wesley started to move when Xander smiled “Faith, touch Kendra” Faith reached out and touched Kendra's arm and Kendra smiled “Wow” Kendra looked down at herself “Not a major change but you can see that one of the ropes is gone.”

They continued on for about an hour checking with Kendra after each one and sometimes the swift looks of pain or anger that crossed her face had everyone worried but she shook her head no when asked if she wanted to stop. She continued checking with Faith and looking after each one. They finally got to the last block. This one had become active when the slayer essence came in and was extremely strong. Ssallaa looked at Kendra “We are worried about this one.” Kendra looked at Ssallaa and frowned “If you feel it is best not to go forward we can stop.” During the process you could watch as Kendra no longer was as distrustful of the realmers as she had been.

Jesse walked over “You saw what it looked like, we are all concerned that its hiding the feeling of the demon. From what we remember of the legend of the village of Eearra the women that the men raped and got pregnant said they the child felt 'Evil' so we are worried that you will feel that way.”

Kendra straightened, while Faith looked at everyone and Wesley quirked “Village of Eearra... ouch.. um what were we talking about.”

Everyone looked at Wesley, Jesse looked at Ssallaa “Think we should do that block on Wesley before hand? If he knows something it may help.”

Kendra nodded “It seems he knows some about the block, if everyone is so worried it would be best.”

Jesse nodded reaching out and putting a hand on Kendra's shoulder in comfort. Kendra started but didn't move away. Faith smirked at her.

Moving people around they started on Wesley. As soon as they finished removing the memory block he rushed to a trashcan and threw up crying. “Oh shit. Don’t touch that block yet. Shit....”

Joyce and Linda looked at each other in concern and Rupert and Ethan moved to help him. Finally getting him able to stand without throwing up he looked at Ssallaa “The block is on the demon feeling and removing it is... She will feel it inside her. Right now subconsciously she knows it’s there and reacts but.. “ drawing a deep breath to steady himself “I was 15 and the slayer was visiting. I saw the block on her and removed it before they realized what I was doing. Father screamed when he saw what I did, I said I saw the block and how it warped her and was trying to help. She was screaming about the feeling inside her and grabbed the sword she was training with and killed her watcher and was going after father for doing this to her, she said they were responsible for it spreading and hurting the girls. The demon knows everything that happened to all the girls, even the uncalled potentials. When a slayer sleeps the demon goes into her dreams to tell her what happened and is happening to her sisters. She was killed quickly and they bound my magic and mind that afternoon.”

Kendra looked at Wesley “Is there a way of loosening the bond without opening it? So I could maybe talk with the demon?”

Wesley looked thoughtful, Jesse looked at Xander and Willow, “Talkies?”

Xander nodded “May work, it sounds like its similar in some ways. Guardian is not happy but that is not new. Actually he is very, very, mad and …. that would be interesting...” Everyone looked at Xander as he was talking and his eyes flashed between white and brown. He looked closely at Kendra and moved over to walk around her looking at her and you could see the internal conversation going. Willow looked as well “But if we did talkies and then side plane it would she still have the slayer package?”

Jesse looked. “We would just be talking with the demon and setting it up in its own area, allowing her and the demon to talk. The essence that passes with the slayer would still be there but the demon wouldn't be as prominent.”

“Won't work”

Jesse looked at Xander “Why?”

“A clan of Orchorracks were looking to move from where they were. There were four clans in the area and it was having problems supporting that many. They made a deal with the Eearra's. They gave the Eearrans weapons and supplies to help start a village for the new clan and secure the area up for their arrival. The clan that was moving was young and newly formed. The Eearrans took over all the other villages in the area using the weapons the Orchorracks gave them instead of setting up an area peacefully for the clan. Then before the clan arrived they created the slayer so when the clan arrived for their new home they were attacked. The Orchorracks subdued the slayer easily and the disgust at what the villagers had done was extreme. They cursed the villagers for their greed and treachery. Both to the Orchorracks and the young girl.”

“So that was why they couldn't have girl children?”

“No women born.”

“But, the Slayer Essence”

“They pulled a demon into a girl. Think about what the demons saw. A new way to escape the hell dimensions and come here. The blood of the villagers would be a free gateway into a person. So every Eearran was a carrier of a demon. However, the spells the Watchers did made it so instead of everyone with Eearran blood only the girls when they activated would be infected with a demon. The activation of a slayer is the same as when someone turns a human into a vampire.”

“My god, so when a slayer activates she has a demon take up residency inside her?”

“Yep. The main difference between a slayer and vampire is that the girl is mainly in control versus the demon in the vampire. However, same thing.”

“Before the Watchers changed things every Eearran would have a demon reside in them. They would be in control but they all were influenced. Also due to the curse they were mainly males born so no females were infected. The Watchers 'freed' the men by locking the demon only into the slayer.”

“The evil feeling, even an unborn infant carried a demon... To mask that.”

Ethan looked at Xander “So instead of the Eearrans dying out they are now around the world in the hundreds and with daughters that the watchers made demon holders?”

Xander nodded. Rupert looked at Xander “So the watchers broke the curse Orchorracks put on the villagers?” Xander shook his head “None of the children are born in the Eearrans village. When the Orchorracks put the curse they worded it 'No female child born in the village.' Which you think was sloppy of them but what do you know of the Orchorracks?”

Ethan and Rupert shook their head Paul and a few of the realmers frowned in concentration when one of the healers looked at Xander “I remember a tale as a child of an Orchorrack clan that was betrayed, the curse they did was purposely weak and when another clan asked why they smiled and said. 'They are now demon shells, why allow them the freedom of what they did to themselves?'”

Rupert looked thoughtful “The uncalled potentials usually have sons. So no daughters in the village they must of reduced the birth rate for girls down even farther. Of the 15 children my father had from his potentials there was only one girl. And I remember hearing that Travers had 28 children from his uncalled potentials and none of them were female, though one of his grandchildren was.”

Faith and Kendra looked at Rupert “Children from uncalled potentials?” Faith quickly looked over at Linda who was looking at the ground nodding “That is a major reason I didn't inform the council about you.”

Kendra looked at Linda. “So if I hadn't been called... Sam would of...”

Linda nodded slowly. Kendra turned red, then white, then red again. “Shopping... yes.. let’s go shopping Faith, I need new clothes and lots of boys.”

Faith laughed loudly “Sure K, lots of boys.” noticing the frown on Jesse's face she smirked “At least lots of clothes to catch boys.” Looking at Jesse “So where is the mall?”

Jesse glared at Faith while Xander laughed “If you want a few of us around, Cordy is the best at shopping and Cheryl and some of the others from Haven can help fill in. Cordy is a townie, but Cheryl is relatively new to Sunnydale as well. Cheryl will be helping getting you accustomed to Sunnydale, she is over Haven and that group.”

Faith looked at Xander questioningly, he looked at her “Cheryl can explain it best. I've been here my entire life and like my brother and sister in the middle of everything. She can help from a newcomers viewpoint. Cordy.. Cordy has been a friend since kindergarten. Would suggest Wills but her idea of shopping is similar to Jesse and mine, ask mom what we need and forget about it.”

Faith looked at Kendra who nodded quickly. Faith turned realizing she was still holding Xander’s arm, “sure line us up. If someone can help get us there it would be great or if its close guess we can hoof it.”

Joyce looked at the girls “I can drop you off and pick you up since we were all going to meet for dinner anyway.”

Joyce started herding the girls while Xander called Cheryl and Cordy to arrange the shopping with Faith and Kendra. He knew Faith and Kendra were listening in and made sure they saw him looking at them when he told Cheryl to help give them the lowdown on the town and how it worked and why.

After they left Jesse looked at him and shook his head “Oh boy” Xander smirked “Yeah” Willow snorted “you two.” Then the three burst out laughing.

Chapter 18

“Hey Willow, wait up” Jesse and Willow stopped and looked back as Xander ran and caught up with them outside the school library. It had been a long day with Kendra and Faith's first day of school and the strange mood Kendra had been in. Both frowned as they looked at Xander

“Xander, what are you wearing and why. You definitely didn't leave the house in that this morning and you weren't wearing it at lunch.” Jesse and Willow was looking at the Hawaiian print over-shirt Xander was wearing with plaid pants, both frowning.

Xander frowned at them “Well, whatever, Wills, I have found the most perfect spell for you to do. It would be the ultimate revenge and get everything back as it should be.”

Willow and Jesse looked at each other than Xander “You found a spell? Why? And when?”

“Yeah, it needs an uber-wicca to do. And Wills could pull it off and put everything to right. “

Jesse was frowning and started to say something when Xander looked at him and his expression went blank, Xander than went back to smiling at Willow “So what do you say? Come on uber-wicca girl power and all that. This spell needs power, which is you. Otherwise we would need like a whole coven or so.”

Willow looked at Xander frowning “What.. Xander your not making sense.”

Xander handed Willow the spell “Come on Wills, see it’s a simple spell, and think of the good it will do. It will right all the wrongs and put things back where they belong. Think of the good it does.”

Willow looked at Jesse noticing he was blank, then looked at the spell. Reading through the spell she looked at Xander “What.. Where did you find this. It’s a major curse. To do it pulls in dark energy to get revenge on someone. This would open the caster up to dark magick.”

“It's not really a curse, it’s actually for the greater good. See, you’re putting the soul in charge of a vampire and it will make him not eat people. It’s for the good of the people, so he won’t hunt.”

Willow frowned looking at Xander “And we both know there is no way I will do this curse. If I do this I would be breaking my healing oaths. You know that Xander. Why would you ever think I would do something this harmful. Putting a conscience into a vampire, that’s what this does. That harms both the vampire as well as the spirit you pull into him, even if it was himself it would still cause damage to the soul. What are you playing at.”

“The question should be 'What made you think you could play it at all?'” Said Xander from further down the hall. Standing next to him were Kendra and Faith with Wesley behind them with Paul, Cordy, Cheryl and Healer Ssallaa.

Willow frowned looking between them then smiled at the real Xander “Ahh” With that she took a hold of Jesse and pulled him out of the way, moving so Healer Ssallaa and she could break what was done to him.

The Xander that was standing by Willow looked around “Come on, you can't believe that guy is me. Why he dresses totally wrong.”

Xander smiled and Cheryl spoke “Funny, I've known Xander only for two years and I can say I never saw him wear what you are. So who is dressed totally wrong.”

Cordy smirked “Let me guess, last time you wore something like that?” Xander nodded Cordy and the others smiled “So, his talk on bringing things back to the way they belong.” Xander nodded. Cordy walked up to the other Xander, smiled, then brought her foot up and kicked him so hard in the balls that he rose a few inches off the ground. “You want what happened last time to happen. Oh I want a few words with you. The brief parts I saw I really want words with you.”

Faith looked over at Cordy “Kinda hard for him to talk... howl yeah, but not sure he could talk.” Cordy just looked at her “Well I said have words with him, never said I wanted to listen to what he had to say.”

At that point the guy stopped holding the look of Xander and you could see him change. Cordy snorted “Now he looks like a reject from a 50's gangster movie. What is he suppose to be.” The guy panting looks at Cordy “Names Whistler.”

At which point Cordy nods, Jesse looks over “Hey Cordy, could you hold off til I make sure I have the shield done to block what he did. Want to make sure no one can be whammied by it again.”

Willow looked at Xander “So that spell.” Xander looked at her, “when you 'souled' Angel in the last timeline. It was the start of your fall.” “I see.. Cordy, I have rights to him. He just tried turning me evil.” With that Willow got up and looked at him, Whistler backed up looking scared. Willow narrowed her eyes staring at him coldly. “Cordy, he's yours to torture.... he's not worth breaking the Healing Oaths over.” Jesse and Xander started to laugh.

Whistler looked shocked and then scared as Cordy smiled at him “Luckily I never qualified for healing. Though I think he will be great for us to practice our 'Chuck Blaisdell beliefs' on.”

Jesse, Xander and Paul shudder. Wesley, Faith, and Kendra look on in puzzlement. Cheryl leans over “Chuck is Larry's dad. He would fit in with the Watchers. Only the Watchers treat the potentials better than he would. Major chauvinist. Guess it was worse when Larry was younger, Chuck telling him that he needed to bully people and everything like that. The Cheerleading squad has a training session for all girls in town, and some in other cities. Its mainly how to stop any attack, general safety and basic self defense for women. They call it 'Chuck Blaisdell Beliefs' and we all learn how to take the man out, and what to do if we can’t. A lot of it is how to get them down and make sure they stay there so they can’t hurt you. A cop friend in NY saw the training session and commented that it was worse than what he was taught in the military on dirty tactics. But damn good and had his sister and girlfriend in the next class.”

Kendra and Faith nodded in understanding as Whistler looked at Cheryl then Cordy in horror. “Oh no, there is no way I am sticking around for that.”

Xander looked at Whistler “So why did they send you? Were you to try and get things back on track for the nitwits that were?”

Whistler looked at Xander “Kid you don't understand what you’re doing. I don't know why your changing things so much but your causing major waves. The balance won’t be able to be maintained.”

Wesley looked at Xander frowning “Balance?”

Xander nodded “They call themselves 'The Powers that Be' and believe in maintaining a balance between light and dark. We played their game last time.”

Whistler frowned “Last time... what are you... what was she talking about evil, the spell would open her up but it would balance out with the good of the vamp not being able to hunt.”

Willow snorted “So you think changing something’s natural order is ok. Consequences happen. Even I finally learned that one. And you think changing the natural order of something is done lightly. No way. There would have to be consequences and paybacks and.. shit.. Xander.”

Xander nodded “Yeah thought about that. Actually have a few ideas.”

Jesse nodded “Yeah, but why...” “Later, after this nitwit.” “ok” Whistler looked at them all confused. “Anything you want to tell me.” Everyone laughed then said “NO”. Whistler “Ok, how about we try working together.” Again a lot of snorting and laughing before Xander moved in front of him smiling “How about you go play.” and waved his hand. With that Whistler disappeared. Paul and the others looked at Xander before Paul comments “Xander”

Xander turned to Paul with his eyes white with black specs moving through them. “He’s playing with the powers... a new game. One they normally play on their champion, I just have them playing it themselves this time. It’s called 'try to stay alive in against an overwhelming force' oops, just lost one, and the other is down.. gee how bad. Hmmm... Whistler just found a hole and crawled into it hiding.”

Jesse looked at Xander “Alexander... Brother.. You there.” Faith, Kendra, and Wesley looked over in fear. Willow moved next to Jesse “Alexander?” Wesley shook his head “Considering his name means 'defender of man'..” Jesse and Willow nodded “Yeah, his first and foremost thoughts... Come on buddy, is the mouse worth the game.”

Xander smiled at Jesse “Yes, they needed to be removed. Before we could go forward they had to be taken out.” The look on Xander’s face changes slightly and he shakes then nods “Ok, have that taken care of and those lines closed off. Sorry, we did their game last time. Perfect balance was achieved.”

Jesse looked at Xander “But to do that...” Xander nodded “Yep, no life on the planet.”

Faith and Kendra jerk up in surprise and Wesley shudders. “Shit, what game are you really playing?”

Xander turned and looked at Wesley, his eyes blazing white and his body starts to glow white with golden aura around it “The only one I ever play. Keeping humanity alive and free.”

Wesley nods slowly. Everyone looks at each other and starts to meander towards the library.