Hellmouth: Rifted

Chapter5: Training and School

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Palladium, Rifts, Wormwood, Phase World, or any TV Show. I am making no money off of this work.

Reviews: Yes please. No flames, but constructive criticism is a MUST. Also if you have some major or minor plot-bunny concerning our favorite goofball White Knight in Rifts Earth feel free to let me know.

The Story will progress upon Xander's return to Sunnydale with occasional flashbacks of both his adventures and the Scooby Gang's summer.

Pairings: Giles/Jenny, Angel/Cordellia, Oz/Willow

Lazlo.

"How is young Alexander progressing?" Nobody was fooled by the speaker's rather mundane appearance. Despite his completely average appearance he exuded power. His friends knew him as Murray, but his true name was over eighty syllables long and only pronounceable by native speakers of Dragonese. "When last I spoke with him he had not yet mastered the psychic blade that your knights are known for."

"Much has changed Murray, Alexander has proven to be an exceptional student. He has successfully tamed his instincts and uses them to focus on our ideals. As for the swords, watch, I was rather impressed." Lord Coake smiled to his companion as he gestured to the sparring arena. "Sir Thorpe claims he is ready for Knighthood, and I have to say I agree."

The pair watched as Xander, dressed in naught but his gi and sandals, manifested a pair of blue energy blades. Unlike many knights his blades did not appear as swords made for energy, but rather beams of hard light. One could only compare them to the old Pre-Cataclysm movie Star Wars. As soon as the blades formed the arena was filled with sparring drones. The Order had built special robots they used to train Apprentices, armed with neural maces and tasers they were effective training tools.

"Eight drones, you yourself only fight ten at a time. Isn't this a bit much, my friend?" Murray was a bit concerned. Alexander was a new friend, a true White knight, something all too rare in this world. He only knew of a handful and each was precious.

"I'd send ten, but all we have available is eight." Lord Coake responded, smirking a bit as Murray gave him a dumbfounded look. "I'm a superior duelist, but Xander has tricks I cannot even duplicate."

The pair watched as Xander deflected a taser blast with a Psi Sword. Without pause he made a pushing motion and with a touch of telekinesis he knocked the offending drone down. Another drone made an attempted to brain the young knight with it's mace only to find it's legs knocked from under it as Xander performed a flawless sweep kick. Following up, he delivered a single downward thrust, the Psi-Sword piercing the robots main power conduits. Another drone attempted to stun him with a taser blast only to find Xander was not standing where he had been a moment ago. The drone went down as the Knight used his swords in a scissor motion to behead the machine. The move cost him however as another drone managed to connect with it's mace, the blow spinning Xander as the neural disrupter field did it's job. Dizzy from the blow, and slowed a bit from resisting the affects of the technological weapon Xander retreated as he concentrated for a moment. Before the next blow could rain down upon him, his form blurred for a moment, the results of erecting a body hugging telekinetic shield. As the mace bounced off the field Xander moved, leaping the length of the arena coming down to dispatch the drone he had knocked down telekinetically. With the odds down to five on one, Xander smiled. Moving as in a dance of two blades the young man sliced two drones in half and rendered each taser inoperable.

"I see what you mean. You rely on skill and cunning. He has that plus his other psionic powers." Murray commented. "Do you think he could best you?"

"If I was a threat to his friends or family, I would not survive the fight. Otherwise I would handedly beat him. Against an ally he lacks the killer instinct. He'll destroy an enemy, but he'll never be able to fight as effectively in a true spar." Lord Cake admitted.

Seeing the odds were down to three on one Xander appraised his options. He could take the drones, but he was getting tired. The use of his abilities was draining. He had some energy left, but soon it would be down to skill, and he was not the best, in his opinion. That's when a strange thought came to him.

Reaching out with his mind, Xander seized control of the closest drone. Rewriting it's internal programming in a flash he turned it on the others. As Xander retreated back to his own mind he smiled as the drone grappled the two others and dragged them away before self destructing, the resulting blast severely depleted his shield, but in the end he stood victorious.

"Inventive." Murray chuckled softly at the finishing move.

"That's the first time he's done that in combat. I've seen him do it to put Hot peppers in some of the other apprentices' food. I had to excuse myself from dinner in order to laugh." Lord Coake grinned at the memory.

Snyder's Office

Sitting behind his desk with a smirk of satisfaction Principal Snyder shakes his head at Joyce, Angel, Scott and most of all Xander.

"Absolutely not! Under no circumstances." Snyder sneered. "I will not have Harris back in this School. The only reason I am not having him arrested for trespassing is that I wanted to tell him to his face."

"But you can't keep him out of school." Joyce had instantly gone to livid. The little troll in front of her was a sniveling coward from what she remembered of parent teacher night. "You don't have the right."

"I have not only the right, but also a nearly physical sensation of pleasure at the thought of keeping hum out of school." Snyder grinned wide obviously enjoying his moment of power. "I'd describe myself as tingly."

"Alexander was cleared of all those charges." Joyce countered. "They discovered the real culprit and apprehended them."

"Yes. And while he may live up to the not-a-murderer requirement for enrollment, he is a troublemaker, destructive to school, property, and the occasional student." Snyder replied easily. "And his grade point average is enough to . . ." his eyes glaze over for an instant. "I'm sorry. Another tingle moment."

"Interesting, I was unaware that a solid C average in the most advanced placement courses your school has was a terrible thing. " Angel cavalierly interjected. "And that included the one grade reduction that missing his finals imposed."

"What…how did you get ahold of our files? You're not his guardian." Snyder's eyes widened with the shock that the ace he had up his sleeve was gone. "Anthony and Jessica Harris declared their son dead anyways. I can keep him out as he is not legally alive."

"Anthony Harris has been indicted on Insurance Fraud. His wife is testifying against him for immunity." Joyce smirked. "It seems Alexander and Scott were adopted, we are currently tracking their birth parents, but until then the State of California has awarded guardianship to myself, Dr. Giles, and Angel."

"It makes no difference I have the right to expel any student who misses two weeks of classes without an excuse." Snyder countered.

"Well then, here is the medical bill from Sunnydale Memorial Hospital detailing Xander's three month stay as John Doe." Angel smiled as he handed over the copies of the papers. "From injuries he received on school campus. I was willing to absorb the cost, but if you are going to block his return…"

"Oh god!"Snyder's eyes widened comically as he stared at the final line of the bill. This would take up the entire slush fund he had squirreled away. "Uhm…he can start class on Monday. And Mr. Anderson is welcome as well."

"Good, I am glad we could come to an arrangement, Mr Snyder." Angel replied as if butter would not melt in his mouth. "After all we already had the School Boards approval. This meeting was really just a formality."

"Hmm, that has to hurt. The School Board basically telling you that your opinion doesn't matter." Xander grinned as he thought back on the meeting. "It kinda calls into question your ability to even do this job. That has to hurt on some level."

"True. You would think they would have told him that to his face, rather than let us do it." Scott added. "It's like they do not like you."

"I think what my boys are trying say is…" Joyce started and then sing-songed the rest. "Nyah-Nyah-Nyah-Nyah."

It was all Angel could do not to laugh as the group left.

The Espresso pump

"I don't get why you want to go back to school anyway. You're what, thirty two?" Amy asked as she was adding chocolate syrup to her coffee.

"Yeah? But do I look it?" Xander said with a shrug. "Be honest I look maybe eighteen and I will for the next century."

"Oh that is going to suck, being carded for a century." Scott shuddered. "I miss beer already."

"Me too." Xander sighed before taking a sip of his beer.

"Alexander LaVelle Harris, you pinkie swore that you were never going to be an alcoholic like that piece of scum that pretended to be your father." Willow said with more and a bit of anger. True they had been eight at the time of the oath, but Willow took it seriously.

"Relax Wills, I don't drink like he does." Xander tried to placate her but when he got a glare from his sister in all but blood. "Ask Scott how much I would drink."

"Most times, three beers a night." Scott supplied taking a long drink of his mocha. "Oh that is good, I missed coffee. Well when we weren't in South America. Only one time did he ever get drunk, but that was in the name of peace."

"Why would getting drunk be in the name of peace?" Amy asked even as Willow's glare deepened.

"Well, we were going through Faerie country and well some of the Faeries gave us Faerie Food; Mussles, Tomatoes, Shortbread…Stuff that transforms you." Xander explained. "Well the Faeries were very upset that they could not prank us. They started leading us towards several different monsters. I was there to clear out the forest, so I asked for Bubbly Wine. There was no way I was gonna ask for Tarts, Beefcake, or Peanuts. The Faeries enjoyed watching us getting blitzed and burping up bubbles for a few hours."

"Why would the other food not work?" Willow asked as she start to smile. The thought of Xander burping up bubbles was terribly juvenile but funny.

"True Atlanteans cannot be transformed by any means." Scott explained. "Which sucks as many great spells transform the caster. We cannot transform to mist. We cannot shape change. We cannot assume the form of any animal."

"You just are upset because that one faerie said if you could be six inches tall she would follow you anywhere." Xander pointed out. "What was her name again? Meggan?"

"M'Gan and it broke her heart to know I could not achieve her size." Scott sighed softly. "And you thought it sucked too when the Three Sisters were after you."

"Of course I did, three demigods with the uncontrollable power to turn people to stone by kissing them. Only reason they were not chasing you was because of Bethany." Xander shot back with a slight smile.

"Well, even the Three Sisters did not want to tick off Bethany or her mother." Scott shrugged taking a bit of his cookie. "Dragons are incredibly territorial."

Amy and Willow had been sniggering about the back and forth of the twins. They were acting just like any other set of twin brothers. However when Scott revealed that one of his paramours had been a dragon both Amy and Willow did a spit take spraying a passing waitress with coffee thankfully on just her uniform.

"You dated a Dragon?" both girls sputtered at once.

"Well, she assumed human form all the time, as did her mother, but yeah." Scott shrugged. Taking another drink of his mocha he watched the faces of the two witches. "Beth's mother was teaching me a rare set of spells and Beth became enamored with me for a few months. She eventually found another of her species and they told their first clutch of eggs all about of us. Something I think she regretted later when little Buffy would follow us everywhere."

"What's this about me following you everywhere?" Buffy had come up right behind Scott as he was telling the story.

"Not you, one of you name sakes. A Great Horned Dragon Hatchling." Xander explained before he looked up and almost swallowed his tongue.

"Why would a Dragon name a Hatchling after me?" Buffy asked as she took a seat. Just like every day since Xander had returned she had been dressing in order to snare him. Today it is was a leather mini skirt, and almost two tight t-shirt and leather jacket. Of course she augmented this with heels and stockings after getting a few tips from Scott on what his brother liked.

"Dragons name themselves upon hatching. Bethany, told all her eggs the stories that we told her." Scott explained as watched Xander try to maintain his cool. ~Even after fifteen years you still think she is the hottest thing on the planet.~ He sent to his brother. "Dragons incubate their eggs for six years and teach them the basics telepathically. Normally a dragon might have one or two children, Bethany had a dozen. First one to hatch called herself Buffy and wanted to be you, a hero."

"Awwww." Buffy, Amy and Willow are cooed at the sweet thought.

Elsewhen

"The Unfated is unweaving all our plans." Jasmine addressed the assemblage of beings watched the tapestry of their plans unravel. She was wearing the form that she planned to create with her scheme. "He threatens the Balance."

"Everything threatens the Balance, Jasmine. We must simply work to modify our plans." Elder Zola sighed heavily. "The loss of Janna Kalderash as a Whitelighter was regrettable, but we will make do."

"You Elders are always so wishy-washy. You engineered her death just so you could get your hands on her, but when the Unfated tears her from your grasp you just say: oh well? No wonder you lose so many Wtiches." The Source shook his head in amazement at his counterpart's nonchalance. "If he threatens our plans I say eliminate him, or send him back where he came from."

"Too much has already been changed. The Champion is no longer easily controlled." Oma Desala said after the rest of the group paused in thought as they contemplated their own ideas on that. "Killing him still leaves Liam as far more powerful that the Beast, Jasmine's plan will never work."

"It is true. If I sent the Beast to blot out the sun, the tattoo magic makes the Grandfather capable of killing him." Jasmine sighed. "Not to mention capable of continually healing the Mother. It was the reason we destroyed the Atlantean civilization in the universe."

"That and it made it easier for my people to pose as them." Oma Desala merely shrugged, a strange sight on a squid.

"This changes nothing of my plans." The First said with a wicked grin as it took Buffy's shape. "Just accelerates them."

"Well, bully for you. The rest of us are not getting off as easily." The Entity known as Twilight sulked. "The Mother will never mate with the Father now."

"Well, we could use this to our advantage." Azazel smiled, no matter what mortal he possessed he always came off like a used car salesman. "The Others would tell us our plans only succeeded as long as they did because we limited the Players. Even if we kept it this way for another eon they would claim we were cheating."

"True, true." Gabriel said nodding his head. The Archangel despised the demon, but he had to agree with him. "The fact that our plans call for inferior copies of the Brothers has caused them to snicker at us."

"What is your idea, Azazel?" Jasmine asked. She saw her part of the plan as necessary, all parts of it. Mankind needed a glimpse of utopia and to realize the price was terrible.

"Oh, it is simple. The Unfated is changing the rules, so shall we." Azazel grinned widely. "Let's bring the real Dracula to the game for starters."

"Can we trust it to not do what it's cousins are doing in other dimensions?" Elder Zola face showed his trepidation. They had made the vampires of this world different for a reason. "Vampire Kingdoms are nearly impossible to exterminate."

"And so is the Unfated and his Brother." The First grinned evilly. "It will tip things towards Balance without involving anything like the Host or Mechanoids."

"All in favor?" Oma Desala asked and watched as only the Head Elder did not raise his hand. "Against?" There was not a word as Zola did not raise his hand, he had abstained. "Motion passes. We will bring Dracula to our experiment."