The First day:

She felt so nice and warm, relaxed and safe. Like floating in the womb or on a cloud. And then arms wrapped around her in a loving embrace. Soft lips whispered in a loving sound, "I'll always be with you. Always."

She took a gasping breath to answer, but a much louder, harsher sound suddenly intruded upon the pleasant and comforting dream.

"RISE AND SHINE!!! RISE AND SHINE!!!!!" was belted out with such volume that the permanent fixtures shook with vibration.

Buffy bolted straight awake, her body tense, ready for anything. Vampires, please! Demons, no sweat! Her mother waking her for school? OK that might be a problem, but still she could handle it, maybe. Finally, after having shot out of the large bed like a cannon ball, Buffy realized where she was and what she was doing.

Blushing and semi-glad that no one was there to see her reaction; Buffy relaxed, only to jump at the next bellow, "RISE AND SHIIIIIINNNE!!!!!!!" Slowly she deduced where the offending sound was coming from. The living room.

"Open," Buffy commanded harshly. The doors slid open, just in time for Buffy to get blown back by the wind of the next call out, so loud that nothing could have understood it. She saw Goku standing in the middle of the large room with an annoying grin on his face. He was filling his lungs for another call when the other three doors opened simultaneously. Seeing that he was still going to yell, Buffy picked up the katana that she had gotten yesterday, removed it without thinking and then threw it straight at the 1/8th Saiyan. Seeing the blade moving straight at his head, Goku decided not to yell again, choosing instead to dodge the flying blade and catching it by the hilt with his right hand.

"Nice throw," he commented, calmly rotating it on his wrist.

Buffy, her hair tussled, her posture more tense than an angry panther, and her expression alone would've melted the skin and muscles from Goku's bones if it could have. Buffy stalked forward, and not even thinking, grabbed back her sword, and solidly punched Goku across the jaw. "WHAT the HELL do you THINK you are DOING!!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, not even close to matching whatever bellow he was shouting earlier.

Goku grinned that same annoying pitiful smile he seemed to have reserved just for Buffy, and answered, "Waking you up for your first day of Training."

Everyone stared in complete disbelief at him. "What?" Buffy exclaimed, completely exasperated. Goku just grinned and held up his Global, which he had told them was what the advanced palm pilot was called. On it, displayed in very large red numbers was the time. 5:59:57...58…59… and then as soon as the time changed to 6:00 AM, every light in the place turned to the brightest intensity and some of them began to strobe, while a loud whine sounded out for approximately thirty seconds, and then turned into an even louder whine that sounded more like a train than anything else.

Everyone except Goku had their hands over their ears, and he was actually smiling. "GOKU!!" Buffy shouted, or tried to, over the brain melting sound. Goku quirked an eyebrow and looked her way, indicating that he had indeed heard her. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!!!" she screamed, the ON!! part being shouted just as the overwhelming noise cut out and the lighting went back to normal.

Goku continued to grin as they all looked around in confusion and let their hands away from their ears, not entirely trusting the silence. Finally, Goku decided to answer Buffy's question.

"That," he paused, pointing to the ceiling in general, "was the wake up call. The entire Compound is on the same time zone, so everybody gets woken up at the same time. When everybody in the apartment is awake, it cuts out, but not before. When you shouted, it was loud enough for the room's computer to be convinced that everyone was awake. I decided to get to you first. It's hell waking up to that thing. If you don't wake up by level two, which was what you stopped it at, it only gets louder and way too annoying."

As they all accepted this, Buffy just nodded and thanked him, but before she could completely vocalize, the lights over the bar area that everybody had assumed to be some kind of breakfast or bar area, correctly by the way, suddenly lit up and four plates of food suddenly appeared out of thin air.

"Better hurry," Goku advised. "You get thirty minutes to eat. Period. Whether you're through or not, at the end of thirty minutes, that food disappears. No exceptions. Go on, I've already eaten, and you all have a very busy day, as I'm sure some of you no doubt remember."

Buffy blanched and nodded and could not have made it faster to the seat that she noticed had a gold embroidered lining, and a small stenciled name just this side of the steaming plate of blueberry pancakes. Noticing that they were already soaked in the absolute best maple syrup that she had ever tasted, she took several bites and swallows before turning to see Goku sitting in one of the recliners looking at something on his Global.

"This is great, Goku! But how did you people know what we eat for breakfast?" Willow asked. Before the 1/8th Saiyan could answer, Buffy added, "Yeah, I mean, blueberry pancakes are like my favorite breakfast, ever since I was a kid. How'd you, or rather the computer replicator thingie, know that?"

Goku shrugged and without looking at them said two words, "The Powers."

Unsurprisingly, that actually did answer all of their questions on the matter. While Buffy was having the best blueberry pancakes that she had ever conceived, the others had their own favorite morning meals. Xander was also having pancakes, but they were more of the regular variety with strawberry jam to smear over them instead of syrup. Willow, strangely, was having orange and pineapple flavored grits, and everyone somehow expected Giles to have some kind of typical 'English breakfast', but to everyone's shock, save the two kids that brought them there, his favorite meal seemed to be McDonald's ham scrambled egg and mozzarella cheese biscuit, x 3. All of them were finished in just under fifteen minutes. As soon as they were, the empty plates, utensils and glasses disappeared in a sparkling green effect, then a green light shown over each "place mat."

"Still hungry?" Goku asked from his seat.

"Not really to be honest," Buffy muttered, having filled herself with the delicious meal. Similar sentiments were echoed across the board.

"Then say aloud, and all of you, 'Not hungry anymore,' Simplistic, I know, but it still works." Goku explained to them. They repeated the command phrase and the green lights disappeared.

Taking this as cue that breakfast was over, they each stood up, waiting for any kind of instructions, having absolutely no clue what to do next. Goku spent maybe a minute more looking over whatever he was reading on his Global, and then closed it and stood up to appraise them. He nodded his head in slight approval and ordered them to pick up the packages (minus Buffy and Xander's swords, which they were still holding) they had picked up yesterday and to open them in their respective rooms. Then to "get ready" for the day, which included a shower and getting dressed.

Buffy walked into her room carrying the two plastic wraps and the box that was somewhat bulky, more like a large foot locker than a normal cardboard box of any size. Kind of flattened, but not really. She decided to open this first, and it took her a moment or two to work it out. Finally she read the print that said, (in another and altogether alien language that she found she now understood despite reading it as said language), "MODEL 5: Parts 3 & 4" and a switch just beneath it that she understood said, "Press to Open." So she did.

When it opened with a strangled hiss, like an airlock opening, she found that she could now lift the lid. What made her stare though was what she saw on the inside. Folded, almost neatly was a liquid-vinyl-like material "leather jacket" style jacket and two, what looked like, heavy black leather work boots. "What the…?" she said aloud.

Shrugging, she turned to the two wrapped packages. After ripping apart the plastic, which came apart easier than she had expected it to, in the smaller one she found three sets of a kind of black spandex leotard/one piece swimsuit. She also noted, that if they had been swimsuits, they would be the kind that were made for swimming, as there was nothing low-cut or at all revealing about them in the slightest. Pure functionality. "Hunh," she grunted, putting them on top of the jacket, which she had taken out and laid on the bed.

In the last package she found, again three pair, gi-style black, with the same liquid-vinyl material, pants. She sized them up against her waist and was mildly surprised to see that they almost fit perfectly, leaving enough room to freely move without bunching up or getting in the way, and not at all too tight. She also noticed that the primary color seemed to be a favored black. Shrugging, and assuming, since the drawers in the dresser were completely empty, that these were her training clothes, she grabbed one pair of the leotard and the pants and went to take her shower in the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom, Buffy found a pretty basic, if not spacious, design. A somewhat typical porcelain, or at least that's what it felt like, toilet, and an entire bar/counter with the metal sink, which had that sensor thingy that turns the water on and off, in the center of it. Surprisingly, the mirror, compared to the size of the counter was rather small, just a three foot tall round bureau mirror with straight laced polished metal edges. In fact the entire room had that effect, almost like it was too clean, or very sterile and metallic.

The floor thankfully was carpeted with the same material, and the walls the same curved smooth gray color with absolutely no outstanding decoration. And then she turned her attention to what could only be the shower. Only it wasn't. A shower anyway. Neither was it a bath nor any other type of cleaning area that Buffy was familiar with. Just past the toilet, to the right of it when sitting actually, was an alcove into the smooth wall. Aside from the counter/sink, the toilet and the paper dispenser next to it, and the glass door, it was the only break in the gray dome. Inside the alcove was a square of patterned tiles on the floor, and three long glass panels that could have been vertical fluorescent lights, one on each wall, which was squared off into corners by the way. The ceiling held a large circular fluorescent-like looking light, and that was all. All of the lights however, for the moment, were off so Buffy, not entirely trusting what she had seen of "Compound" technology so far, wasn't so sure.

Finally, feeling that she was wasting time, Buffy called Goku into her room, just as he was leaving Giles' by coincidence. Entering after her, Goku proceeded to the bathroom and waited for Buffy to join him before revealing a panel hidden right next to the alcove. In it was several settings. Rather than say anything or explain it, he just pointed to the settings that he was manipulating, making sure that she saw him setting it for; 'Vocal', 'Shower On', and 'Shower Off'. Marking the setting of how the shower was to be activated, and which phrase activated it, and which turned it off again. Then he left, expecting to walk straight into Willow's room once he was out of Buffy's.

Shaking her head, Buffy closed the doors behind Goku, grateful that he had helped, yet a little miffed in the way he had done it, but she could understand why... somewhat. So with that out of the way, and trusting these people to have her shower set the way she liked it, as they seemed to do that with just about everything else, Buffy stripped and made ready to step directly into the shower without it "warming up" first.

What surprised Buffy first was that as soon as she dropped her shirt and pants to the floor, they seemed to simply be absorbed into the floor, which left her with just her training clothes. Hoping that wouldn't happen with all of the dirty clothes she dropped on the floor, Buffy stepped into the alcove and briefly wondered about water being sprayed on the outside, but seeing they had an absorbing floor, not to mention probably some kind of a force field that held it all inside, (which they did, but it wasn't the water it was holding inside), Buffy didn't worry too long over it.

Stepping inside, Buffy wondered briefly where the water would be coming from before saying clearly, "Shower On," and she found out. As soon as the words left her mouth, Buffy felt more than saw an energy force field come alive in the opening of the alcove. It looked like nothing was there, no lights, no crackling energy, no nothing. But the smell and feel of ionized air was unmistakable.

Surprised, Buffy didn't even have time to react before the "shower" actually started. The four lights suddenly came on, a soft bluish vibrating color, and a sharp high pitched humming whine filled the air. Buffy didn't know what was happening, but she suddenly felt very afraid. Everywhere the light hit her body, she vibrated; skin, muscles, bones, even the very atoms of her body vibrated. It was like standing next to a pounding stereo at a party, except this was much more intense and focused. So much more intense and focused. Just standing there for a minute or so, Buffy began to notice something else. She was beginning to actually "feel" clean. But that humming whine was starting to give her a headache and the strange light was only adding to it. Closing her eyes helped some, but when she tried to cover her ears, that only gave her a headache that much quicker. And that of course is when things start to go screwy.

After five minutes of the blue light treatment, they suddenly begin to shift to green, and as they do so, the high-pitched whine becomes even more so until Buffy no longer hears it as a humming whine, but as a very annoying and audible dog whistle. As for the sensations of the body, the vibrating molecules suddenly are switched into turbo and her skin is actually vibrating. Not to mention her hair and…other things.

As weird as it all was, Buffy wasn't about to deny how pleasant it still was. And pretty soon the vibrations began to take a more interesting effect on her. Buffy rarely ever let herself get this worked up this early in the day, but seeing as she was on a time limit, she really saw masturbating in the shower as a real bad idea. Yet she wasn't exactly the one doing it.

Wanting to end this before it could go any further, Buffy gave the command, "Shower Off," but she couldn't hear her own voice. Only that incessant whine. She tried again, and she knew she was saying something, she just couldn't hear it. Nothing but that god-awful whine that was coming from the lights. She kept trying, shouting even, but that only seemed to get her even more worked up.

When the light hit an almost emerald green, Buffy could barely stand it anymore, let alone remain standing. She tried to just walk out of the alcove, but the force field prevented her, sparking every time and everywhere she touched it. It didn't really hurt, aside from the initial shock, but when she placed her hand evenly on the field, it still sparked but it felt more like leaving your hand on a vibrator. It certainly didn't help with what she was trying to avoid doing.

Buffy's breaths began to come in ragged gasps as the vibrations of the lights and the force field, which she was leaning her back against, provided so much stimulation that she was on the literal edge. Her skin, her breasts, her nipples, hell, even her tiny little hairs were receiving so much fiery sensation and stimulation that just one more push or two more minutes and she'd be screaming on the floor. She decided to help herself along since she was at the point of either cumming or dying, and she brought up her right hand, and pinched her left nipple as hard as she could.

The resulting scream was loud enough to be heard even above the whine. Unfortunately, that just caused the lights to begin to shift back to blue, or maybe purple, she couldn't really tell from the sudden lack of energy from what had to be one of the best orgasms she had ever had in her young life. She almost slumped to the floor, but she managed to keep her footing, just.

Usually after cumming that hard, or even getting that worked up, Buffy had felt dirty, sweaty, and like she needed a shower or something. Now, she was clean as soon as the sweat and juices touched her outer skin. She suddenly suspected that she was going to like her showers from now on. If she could ever get out of the first one.

Finally, after only ten minutes of green light, the high-pitched whine lowered some and Buffy found that she could hear herself speak, but again just barely. She commanded one more time, "Shower Off!" and almost immediately, the whine stopped, the lights turned off, and the force field sparked one final time to indicate that it was gone. After fifteen minutes of that high-pitched whine in her ears, Buffy's ears were still ringing a little and it took her a moment or so to get herself steadied before stepping out of the alcove, cleaner than the day after she was born.

The blonde Slayer just shook her head, clearing out the buzzing she still had and put on the leotard and the pants. She then went out to her bedroom, surprised a little to see the packages still laying around, after seeing the vacu-floor with her pajamas. She put on the boots next, even though there were no socks, and laced them up before grabbing the jacket and sword, putting them on, and heading out to the living room, where unfortunately everyone else was waiting for her.

"Uh, hey guys," she greeted sheepishly. "Sorry I took so long, but I, uh…I, uh, kinda had to figure out the shower portion of the shower. Sorry."

"Ah, no worries Buff, we all had some trouble, but Goku helped us out with the finer mechanics of a very relaxing, "Sonic Shower". From the way Will's been blushing since she stepped out, I'm kinda guessing that both of yours were a bit more…interesting?" Xander grinned roguishly as the innuendo worked its way through Buffy's brain.

Buffy immediately fixed the teenage boy with a "Slayer Death Glare", he gulped audibly and then took several steps so that Giles and Goku were between him and the angry Slayer. Finally she let it go and turned to Willow, who was blushing that much more from Xander's comments. Buffy made eye-contact with her friend and asked, "I, uh, take it that you had some…fun?…in the shower too?"

Willow just furiously nodded and then sat down, thoroughly embarrassed now. It was at this point that Buffy noticed what everyone was wearing and came to a startling revelation. She, Xander, and Goku, (And Giles to a lesser degree) were all dressed practically identical.

All three of them wore the same black liquid-vinyl, from the look and feel of it, jacket that was devoid of ornament or graphic design. Yet stylized like your typical "movie" leather jackets with the full sleeves, black material down to just below the waist, past Buffy's waist, and a sharp collar that seemed to like staying in the "Elvis" fashion. Both men were wearing their jackets, so while she could not tell easily, she imagined that both were wearing tank tops of the same material her leotard was made out of. They all covered the same amount of chest, except maybe Goku's, his seemed to be cut so that it was mid-chest region on him, while Buffy and Xander's were a few centimeters below their collarbones. As far as the pants and boots went, they were completely identical. Buffy also noted that Xander was already wearing his sword, over his right shoulder like Goku, while she still only held hers at her side for the moment.

Meanwhile Giles and Willow each wore something rather unique. Giles was the closest to what the others wore, with gi-style black vinyl pants and heavy black work boots. That was where the similarities ended however because he was actually wearing a belt and while he did have a black shirt on, she could tell that it was a T-shirt rather than the tank tops like Goku and Xander wore. Also, his jacket seemed to be somewhat sleeker, and a faded brown leather rather than liquid black of theirs. She also noticed that her's, Xander's, and possibly (she wasn't exactly sure) Goku's jackets had thick shoulder pads, whereas Giles' didn't. And of course he still had on his spectacles, though she hoped he would take them off before the actual fighting portion of training began.

Willow was without a doubt the farthest from what the others wore. The best way to describe it was a jumpsuit. It was black, which Buffy had noted was the chosen color for the day, but with patches of silver/gray where the pockets were. She had pockets over each breast, one on the left shoulder, and another on the right elbow, and of course the usual pockets for pants, at the waist on both sides and each buttock. Buffy saw that she also had kneepads.

After inspecting everybody's wardrobe, Buffy turned back to Goku, and raised her eyebrows in question. Thinking she was still on the shower issue, before she could speak Goku said, "The, ah, the showers aren't exactly the showers you might be used to. These showers are based on the theory that certain harmonics and sound waves can be used to dissolve and dissipate certain molecules, specifically unattached dirt, grime, and dead skin on the body. It's been safely modified so that it causes absolutely no internal damage of any kind, brain or otherwise. Though, I'll be the last to deny that having vibrations coming at you from all sides does... elicit certain…reactions."

Buffy just kept staring at him, grateful for the little lesson, but it wasn't what she'd been about to ask. Then she motioned around the room at the others, and then at herself and raised her eyebrows once more, indicating the silent question. Goku then figured it out pretty quick.

"Oh, the uniforms? Well, that's kinda required. Mostly because of the materials, not to mention it's better than what people tend to normally wear," Goku explained.

"What I'm wearing, along with Xander, is the basic humanoid male uniform. It's called the Model Five. And it is basically what you see. The shirt, or basic tank top is made out of a near indestructible polymer based material, woven in such a way that nothing short of raw star plasma, or something worse or more powerful could smudge it, let alone tear or vaporize it. The pants are styled for freedom of movement when fighting, as well as made of the same material, yet the weave isn't quite as strong as the shirts. The boxers, also made out of the same material, are pretty much just that, boxers. The boots are weighted, and they also have a bit of technology in them that can be beneficial when training here in the Compound. When in training, the boots use a variation of graviton-manipulation technology. What that means is, that normally these boots weigh about two to three kilos, but when out on the gym floor, or in a training room, depending on your regimen, they may end up weighing more than twelve tons."

Goku paused, letting them absorb that much information. After several moments of total silence, not to mention enormous relief pouring off of Willow, who was just wearing some simple rain boot style boots, Goku continued. "And finally there's the jacket. It is made out of the strongest woven material that absolutely anybody knows about. I honestly don't think that, short of the Powers or some other thing just simply erasing them from existence, anything could possibly destroy one of these jackets. But it's more than just the material. It's multi-layered and even magically enchanted for various…things. I don't really know them all, since I don't know if it's possible for someone to go through them all. Of the ones I do know, and appreciate the most, the jackets are self-cleaning, they can't stain, tear, rip, or even get scuffed. They can survive bombs, guns, and nuclear explosions at point blank range and everything in between and beyond. And, if it's possible, they can kind of protect anyone beside you, or that you're holding close. If you're like me, you might one day really appreciate that little aspect. Oh, one last thing, the 'shoulder pads'? They're also graviton-enhancers. Meaning that the jacket can weigh just as much as the boots, and sometimes even more."

"This is what you two will be wearing for the next six weeks. Don't worry about washing, you can wear these things for a hundred days straight, not bathe, and even let a corpse wear it for its funeral and they'll still be fresh. I only got you two backups in case our training actually does ruin them. By the way, it's a guarantee that you will need those backups, and maybe several more. As for Willow, she's a witch and she's going to be studying under two of the four most powerful magic-users in the Multi-verse, let alone the Compound, so chances are even greater that she's going to be blowing stuff up, at times probably even herself, so she will most definitely be requiring almost all of her backups. Oh, and her jumpsuit as well as the leotard underwear are made out of the same material as the jackets, minus the training weights and magical enhancements. Just thought I'd let you know that so you'll have the proper response when you all see her again this afternoon around Lunch, which by the way, is not for at least ten hours, maybe more if you aren't doing some things right."

"To begin with, we'll have a general overview of your schedules and then you'll divide up. Giles, I managed to pull some strings, and you've got the gym on your own today. As I said last night, Buffy and Xander are with me, and Willow will transit over to the 'Mage Tower'. It's the big spire with a sphere on top. It's the most isolated building in the universe, so that's why all of the magic users are trained there. Initially trained anyway. Those that reach a certain level of control can train anywhere the hell they please. So, before your questions, let's just go, and yes Buffy, I'll be with you this time," Goku allayed as he noticed the brief show of mistrust flicker across her features. The Slayer just nodded and waited with the others by the MTC.

Yet when Goku came up behind them all, he just stood and stared at Buffy. At her returning stare, he exclaimed, "Look, I am not going to be going everywhere you are going every time you go through one of these. The sooner that you all learn how to use them, the better. I've already shown you how to basically operate it. Now, we're going to here," and he held out his open Global with the coordinates highlighted.

Buffy read it, nodded and stepped forward and placed her right hand on the black plate, she felt a small tingle in the back of her head and saw a green line run down the black plate, scanning her palm, or DNA, or finger prints or whatever. Then the circle began to glow, and in a calm clear, and rather loud voice, Buffy shouted the coordinates. "Main Gym! 2nd floor! Private Training Area Section 41: Alpha! Authorization…uh, Goku!"

Behind her, Goku groaned and put his hand over his eyes. She might have gotten the authorization wrong, but it didn't really matter since about a second after she finished speaking, a large, obviously holographic, due to it's transparency and the occasional flicker of static, eye appeared that stared at each of them in turn. Buffy didn't remove her hand, too afraid to move. After it had looked at each of the fighters, Goku shrugging at it when it turned to him, it just "blinked" a couple times, or rather it was covered with static for the same amount of time that a blink lasts, and then it disappeared and the circle began to glow, with it's destination chosen.

Buffy was about to say how many would be traveling, but Goku came up and grasped her shoulder, pulling her away from the plate and said, "Never mind now. The authorization was your codename. From here on in, that's all the authorization you'll need, unless you're somewhere you aren't supposed to be, say like the nuclear reactor that runs the power to this building."

"Oh," Buffy muttered sarcastically, "thanks for the heads up by the way."

"You're welcome," Goku responded, stepping through, followed by Xander, Giles, and Willow, who gave Buffy a sympathetic look before she stepped through also. Shrugging, and just accepting that it was going to be one of those days, Buffy followed her friends and Trainer.

When they all came out on the other side, it was hard for any of them to be impressed. The room was little more than four equidistant domed lights, the MTC, and them. The rest of the room was just solid gray walls. It was like being on the inside of a matchbox, except there's no sliding out of it. The floor at least was padded, enough to cushion light blows, and to protect the floor from cracking or breaking or whatever, while the walls and ceiling just looked like plaster, they all suspected that it was reinforced with a force field, thereby making it even tougher than reinforced steel.

"OK, I'll bite, where are we?" Buffy asked the Trainer.

Goku just shrugged and turned to face the black, and brown in Giles' case, clad group. "This is our personal Training Gym. We meet here first, every morning, and we meet here everyday right after lunch, and we meet here every evening just before you turn in, for what I like to call our "night time sessions". You are allowed to come here on your own, provided you've got nothing else you have to do. As much as you all do have to do, there will be instances of free time, where you can either choose to lay around and get lazy, or you could get in a few more training hours. That I'll leave up to you. This first week, and maybe next week, you will have no free time. Understood?"

There were silent nods of acceptance from the four. Not liking the silence, Goku asked, "Questions, comments?" Willow raised her hand, smiling at the hilarity of it, Goku nodded at her. "Uh, what do we do?" she asked like it was an obvious question but everybody had avoided asking it for that simple reason.

"Well, today, I'm going to show you some basic moves. Basic for me anyway. By the time we're finished you'll be able to do it as well, but for right now I'll only be demonstrating, and then we'll divvy up, 'kay?" Goku answered, moving to the center of the room.

"Divvy up?" Buffy asked, confused.

"Well I told you that you and Xander would train under me, and Giles and Willow would be trained elsewhere. But I'm not planning on doing that for at least another hour or so, so let me get started with the demonstrating, and then I can let Willow go and give Giles his surprise." Goku explained. "And so that you guys can get used to using those energy senses I tried to teach you yesterday, I'll do it as a Super Saiyan. If that's OK with you Slayer?"

Buffy just shrugged as the others stood patiently by, waiting for the light show to begin. They didn't have to wait long as Goku immediately transformed into a Super Saiyan. Buffy, just as immediately, felt the pangs in her gut and rubbed it sympathetically, but managed to keep her breakfast down. Goku then began to levitate until he was in the exact center of the room. He stayed there for a moment or two, in a mid-air horse stance, before beginning his routine.

Without moving any other molecule of his body, he began punching the air with his left fist, so fast and so many times that they could all feel the breeze from the punches and saw it as little more than lines of movement and a slight blur from his arm. After maybe a thirty seconds, where he executed no less than several hundred flawless straight-arm punches, he switched arms and proceeded for the rest of the minute with that arm in the same fashion.

Without losing a beat, when he finished with his right arm, his left arm rejoined the exercise and he suddenly resembled a statue of Shiva, the six-armed Hindu god of war as he continued so fast that it looked like he had as many arms himself. His punches and strikes took on more intricate patterns until everyone stared at him in awe and amazement. His entire body was straight and still as a statue's frame, his arms were little more than blurs and after-images, which was one of the most amazing things that they saw about the man before them.

After another minute of arm and punch exercises, Goku suddenly stopped moving completely. The sudden shift startled those that had become hypnotized by his "warm-up", Buffy just narrowed her eyes in curiosity at what would happen next while the others continued to stare in amazement.

The Super Saiyan smiled as he prepared his next trick, and when he suddenly flew straight at them with little more warning than that, Buffy reacted on instinct, diving to knock Willow and Giles out of the way, and Xander dove the other way. The other two teenagers yelled at the surprise move before everyone realized that Goku had just flown straight into the wall behind them, only to rebound off of it and then onto the opposite wall. From there he ricocheted around the room at random, and at some points faster than any eye could follow. While he was mid-air at some points he would shoot off several more punches, strikes, or kicks, all at speeds that made it look like little more than movement lines.

Finally, apparently having finished his warm up for the day, Goku reappeared in the middle of the room, still a few feet from the ground, and waited for the others to get back on their feet. Once they were, he returned to normal and then dropped the rest of the way to the ground, and walked up to them. "Well?" he asked when he got to them.

They all stared at him in disbelief. "You-you're saying that we'll be able to do…all of that?!! All of us?" Buffy stuttered. Goku just nodded.

"All right!" Xander exclaimed. "Dead boy, eat your heart out!"

"Dead boy?" Goku asked, amused but mostly confused.

"Uh, he means Angel." Buffy explained. "Uh, he's sort of my boyfriend, and sometimes he helps me out on patrol and fighting the really big nasties. He's also a vampire. But with a soul, so that, uh…kinda makes him good…I guess."

Goku grimaced at the mention of the souled vampire, and to the others he seemed to be contemplating some major issue that he really didn't want to talk about. So finally he just shrugged his shoulders and muttered, "Oh, what the hell…"

Goku turned to look directly at Buffy and caught her eye. Looking straight at her, and her him, he said as calmly as one could, "Buffy, the Council knows about Angel. And they have kind of set up a rule about him with you. For a very good reason I might add. Nobody has any problem with you dating or seeing Angel, and everybody kind of agrees that you deserve to be happy, but there is a kind of major problem with Angel being happy."

Growing concerned, not to mention a little ticked that yet another Council were setting up rules for her to live by, Buffy asked, "What do you mean?"

Goku sighed. He knew this would be hard, but he never expected it to be this hard. Plus he never expected to actually like his new charges so quickly. It usually took him at least three weeks before he developed any sort of comradery with his trainees. Swallowing his apprehension, he explained to Buffy the finer details of Angel's curse.

"Buffy, Angelus, or Angel as you know him, was one of the worst vampires in the history of vampires, on almost every world. Believe me, Angelus, what Angel was called when he was a regular vampire, was one of the meanest, toughest, and most evil of the vampires of the middle ages. Then, the Romany Gypsies cursed Angelus with his soul. They did it quite simply so that he would suffer throughout eternity for the few crimes that he had committed against them. Not that they were exactly minor crimes. Anyway, there's a loophole on the curse. If Angel ever stops suffering for even a moment, if he has so much as a single moment of pure happiness, then his suffering will stop forever. He will lose his soul and return to being that monster Angelus."

"Wait a minute, you mean that Angel would turn evil?" Willow naively asked.

Goku nodded and looked Buffy in the eye. Finally she asked the question that he was waiting for her to ask. "What exactly do you mean by, 'moment of pure happiness'?"

Goku grinned roguishly and answered rather cryptically, "Well, the same moment of pure happiness that you and Willow had this morning in the shower would suffice, if you catch my drift." She did.

"So you mean…" Buffy stared at the dark-haired Saiyan.

"The rules about your relationship between you and Angel apply purely and only to how it might affect this loophole in the curse. For him, it means no 'happy' or 'ecstasy' drugs. For both of you, it means no marriage and no sex. For you, it means no sex. Of any kind. With him. That about covers the rules." Goku fully explained.

"Oh," Buffy muttered, too numb to really react while trying to absorb this information.

Everyone was rather quiet, learning that an ally and friend had the potential to turn against them. Though for one of them it was the possibility of a dream come true, he did not want it to come at the cost of Buffy's happiness, not to mention all of the damage that the demon Angelus could do to them. All the more reason to get stronger, faster, and more powerful, Xander decided. His eyes shown with fire as he stood taller and turned to Goku, breaking the mood of silence, shock and depression.

"Well OK, Deadboy doesn't get any, that's perfectly fine with me. And he's not evil right now, and probably just coming in from patrol or whatever. Now we're here for a reason, so I say that we get to it and make sure that if on the ever unlikeliness that it does happen, then we'll be able to all handle ourselves. All right?" Xander asked the question generally, but it might as well have been a direct statement to Buffy.

She nodded and turned to Goku, the same fire in Xander's eyes reflected in her own. "Let's do it," she said fiercely.

Smiling, Goku turned the attention back to training. "All right then. Now that the ugly stuff is out of the way, how about we get to the actual training?" he offered. "OK, first thing to note; we will meet here every morning, at this time. Here I will give all of you a few moves that you will practice for whatever time we have here together before Witch and Watcher go to their own areas, and the rest of us work more on the physical conditioning. I'll just be showing you a couple of basic moves, just to get you started, and then you will practice that move until you can do it, and do it as I tell you to do it. Understood?"

Willow raised her hand.

"Yes Willow?" Goku singled her out immediately.

"Witch and Watcher?" she asked, confused.

Goku grinned and nodded. "Until you get promoted anyway. As for Giles' codename, well, that was kind of the simplest and most obvious name for him, don't you think? Besides, you guys need to get used to having these codenames, so for that purpose, when we are training, I'll be calling you by those names."

"What's yours?" Buffy asked out of the blue.

Goku shrugged, like he didn't really care about it and answered, "Saiyaman."

Blinking in confusion for several moments at the strange sounding name, to them anyway, Buffy just stood there for a moment, shrugged, then she just muttered "Oh, OK," ending the conversation before they got any more distracted than they already were.

"All right!" getting their attention, Goku returned to the center of the room and indicated they should join him. "Here's what you're going to be doing for the next hour." Goku then moved into a casual modified horse stance, holding his arms at the ready by his sides. Then with his right hand, he punched the air so that his arm was straight out. Then he stood straight again.

"So get started," he said with a mocking grin.

They all stared in complete disbelief at him. Even Giles had his mouth hanging open in shock. "You have got to be kidding me," Buffy stated in disbelief.

When Goku just shook his head, still grinning, Buffy closed her eyes and took deep breaths, counting to ten. When she was calm enough, she took a step to Goku and looked him in the eye. "When you said you were going to be teaching us the basics, I didn't think it would be that basic!" she told him with a scowl.

Goku continued grinning, if possible it was actually broadening, stood a little taller over the short blonde, and then answered her, "For the next hour Buffy. Yet since you seem to think that it's so easy, I want you to do at least one hundred of those punches, perfectly, in the next ten minutes. I'll even spot you five minutes to learn how to do it perfectly."

Buffy realized that she'd been had when she heard that. She would have commented, but fear that he'd increase the punishment just because. "Fine," she hissed glaring him down off his high horse. She turned and glared at the others, and they all knew that they'd be right there with her.

Getting back to her place in the lineup, Buffy positioned herself identically to what Goku had shown them, and then taking a deep breath she punched the air so that her right arm was straight out, and then quickly withdrew her arm to her side and then punched the air again. She kept a steady pace, to the near amazement of everyone in there, save Goku. Five minutes along, she had counted her punches to at least fifty-nine and she showed absolutely no signs of slowing.

Goku cleared his throat, causing Buffy to pause for a moment to look at him. He glanced at all the others and they immediately got into variations of a similar stance. He sighed. Turning to Buffy, "Start over. Count it on the withdrawal and when you get to one hundred, ten minutes or not, switch to the other arm. This is what's known as a kata. Keeps you from destroying your bodies before we can make you stronger and instills some basic skills that we can quickly build off of."

Buffy nodded, understanding, and started counting and punching all over again. It took her just under seven minutes to finish. With both arms

Of the other three normal humans, Giles was the closest in skill, yet he was still far from perfect, so Goku started with him. He caught the hints quickly and was soon moving as well as Buffy. He had to stop at fifty to catch his breath, and then started over. Xander was the next to worst, but he also caught on quick, plus he didn't need to pause every fifty punches or so.

Willow was the worst, completely unused to physical exertion like this, and Goku was glad that Buffy had finished and decided to help with her. It took a lot of understanding on both their parts, not to mention a small booster speech from Buffy, but soon all of the others were doing as well as Buffy could. Once they had all done at least one hundred each, without pause, Goku decided to move on to the next move. Kicking.

And so it went for the whole hour. Buffy often finishing early with however many exercises Goku told them to do and helping teach Willow the finer little tricks she had learned. By the time that the team was scheduled to split up, they'd only just finished with the kata.

"All right, it's about time for you to go Willow, but before we split up I just want to run through a quick stretching routine that I want all of you to do before you work out, no matter what. Even if it's a fight. It's a nearly perfected technique so that you have absolutely no soreness, save what is caused by injury, after the fight or the next morning and so your muscles can grow correctly." Goku explained. He then went through the stretching technique himself, pointing out the finer points as Buffy perfectly mirrored him and the others struggled along. Willow actually enjoyed the stretching, as much as it hurt, she could feel her muscles loosening up, allowing her a slight sense of relaxation.

After they were done, a beeping sound was heard, and Goku stopped everything to pull out his Global and open it. It was the source of beeping, and when he opened it up a voice that spoke in nothing resembling English came from it, but they all still understood it. "Goku! Witch is scheduled for her training period at the Mage Tower in fifteen minutes, and we have the "item" that you requested for Watcher."

Goku grinned and nodded and answered to whoever it was, "Great. Set the coordinates for her, and transport the "item" in. Thanks a bunch Barf!" Everyone started at the name, mostly because of what the name meant in English, second because it was the name that he had asked 'Ralph' about, the octopus thing that had gotten them their supplies and training uniforms yesterday. Nobody said anything though, as the MTC immediately started glowing and there was a large flash of light and a large sheath-covered broadsword appeared just above Goku's head. He easily caught it as it fell.

"See you this afternoon Willow." Goku grinned at her. At seeing her hesitation, Goku comforted her, "Don't worry Willow. Just do what you feel is right, and don't piss anybody off. Don't worry, I have confidence in you and so does everyone else here. I'm sure that you'll do just fine."

Smiling at the pep talk, Willow nodded and went over to the MTC. She turned around to face everybody just before entering the glowing red portal. She smiled shyly, waved and said in parting to everyone, "Wish me luck!" Then she faced the portal, silently gulped to herself and stepped through, the echoes of everyone's "Good Luck!" at her back. And then she was gone.

Once Willow was gone and the red circle had stopped glowing, Buffy felt an odd, cold unpleasant feeling crawl up from her gut. Her best friend, her only real girl friend since coming to Sunnydale, had only been gone for a single second and she was already missing her so much that it hurt. Here they were in a completely unknown situation, in a completely unknown place with no knowledge of how they got there, nor how to get home, and told that they were going to be half-killed in their training to be strong enough to fight demons and monsters that she never wanted to face in the first place! And how was she supposed to protect Willow if she couldn't be with Willow?

Buffy then saw that the men had noticed the expression on her face, which the moment Willow stepped through the portal had been one of pain and loss and intense worry. She observed that Xander just grinned while Goku cocked an eyebrow at her and Giles simply gave her a look of sympathy. She glared at the lot of them equally, Xander backing down first from experience, and then Goku shortly learning that in such cases nobody but Buffy ever won.

Grateful that he was moving on, Buffy turned her full attention to Goku and the sword that had appeared in his hands, or close enough to them, or above them. Whatever. 'God, one minute without Wills and I'm already resorting to 'babble mode', Buffy mused to herself.

Goku turned to Giles, grabbing the older Watcher's attention. Presenting the Englishman the sword, Goku introduced Giles to his new partner, "Giles, allow me to present your 'surprise' that I've been telling you about. This is a mystical blade, one of maybe fifty made in total. The Compound didn't make it or its counterparts; rather we discovered them on various worlds. The blade's name is 'Night Blade'. You'll understand when you draw it. It's powers, as I've been told and understand it, have mostly to do with the aspects of the night and darkness, or rather lack of light. Nothing evil or anything like that. Actually that may be absolutely nothing close to what it does or is. Only the wielder can ever know all of its secrets, and only if the blade lets the wielder know them all."

Giles raised an eyebrow, not unlike any Vulcan. "'If the blade lets the wielder know them'?" he repeated as a question.

Goku, grinning like Sylvester with Tweety in his mouth, just nodded and explained. "All of the 'Blade' swords are sentient. Each has its own name, its own personality, powers, and abilities. At last count, about thirty or less of the Blades had been claimed and are being used. Now, with you, I think that makes an even thirty or thirty-one. Give or take."

Giles just stared at the sheathed blade being held before him. It was completely wrapped in an undecorated black silk cloth, so Giles had no clue, aside from the length, as to what the 'Blade' looked like. "If its sentient, does that mean that it chooses its wielder, or that it just gets assigned like so many weapons?" Giles asked out of the blue, with just a hint of anger in the undercurrent of his voice.

Goku's grin lessened to one more suited to one discussing something that he really hated, but still needed to discuss in good spirits. "All of the 'Blades' are given a choice and are asked when they wish to take on a wielder, and yes it is the Blade that takes on the wielder. When they say they are ready, though none of them actually talk, they are taken from the pocket dimension they are kept in and then one of us Trainers requisitions for any available one and that's what I did. Nightblade here had passed up on three candidates before you, and yes the swords can choose to reject certain people that it does not allow to hold it, and if that happens, usually the Blade tells us which of the other Blades would best be suited to that warrior. I'm hoping that I don't have to go back, because it's literal hell getting through the paperwork to properly requisition one of these guys, though I am told that some of the Blade's personalities are more female in characteristics... But never mind about that. Just, here!"

Seeing that Giles was still hesitating, Goku practically forced the wrapped weapon into his hands. "Come on Giles, as big a responsibility as it sounds, the Blades were made first and foremost to fight evil. Every single one of them. And I'd like you to be the one who unwraps it. The whole 'imprinting' thing and all that," Goku reasoned.

Finally Giles relented and took the silk cloth wrapped sword. Slowly, almost reverently, Giles unwrapped the Blade. The hilt was the first to be uncovered. Giles paused in his unveiling to study it. The bottom of the sword was a large circle, about twice as big as an American half-dollar coin, and at least a centimeter thick, solid black, and a strange and undoubtedly unique symbol etched into both "faces". The hilt itself seemed to be made of an ancient ivory that had once had much use. Etched into the ivory at the four corners of it (i.e. front, back, left side, and right side) were nearly indecipherable Latin runes. Studying them closely, Giles could read them and translated them automatically.

"Blade of Night"

"Force of Aid"

"Power of Right"

"Truth of Mind"

"Fascinating…" the Librarian muttered as he realized that this was truly a weapon for good, in fact deserving to belong only in a Knight's hand. Unwrapping more, the guard was revealed and then the beginnings of the sheath. The guard was just simply a piece of metal about six centimeters long total, sticking evenly out three centimeters from the hilt on either side and the blade made of the same solid black metal as the bottom of it. It ran even with the blade and was just as thick as the "coin" at the bottom and held a few design tweaks here and there, yet nothing noticeable or outlandish in any sense.

The sheath, as it was revealed slowly by Giles' careful removing of the gift cloth, was a soft light brown leather with a shoulder strap already in place, and also made out of the soft leather. There were two rings of gold on the sheath, one a few centimeters from the mouth of the sheath, and another over four centimeters from the tip.

Giles was absolutely fascinated by the artifact he now held. Even if he had not been told so, he felt that this was a true weapon, a sword meant to be used and not kept locked behind some glass case in a museum, forgotten. No, this was most definitely meant to be used. For battle, for vanquishing evil, for exactly what all it was meant to do, Giles had little idea, but he also felt that he would find out. Soon.

Going with instinct rather than any outside urging, Giles took the pommel of the sheath just beneath the top gold ring with his left hand and slowly, almost reverently once again, placed his right hand around the hilt of the Blade. Taking a deep breath, preparing for the Blade to shock him or something to indicate that it wanted another wielder, and so he slowly tightened his grip. Then he pulled, and to his utter amazement, it slid out almost fluidly and did not shock him or seem to tell anyone that he was not the right wielder of such a magnificent weapon.

Once the mystical Blade was out, it cut the air as Giles held it above his head, kinda like King Arthur when he pulled out Excalibur, Buffy mused. She noticed that Goku was openly grinning at this, and she imagined that Nightblade must have chosen its new wielder.

As the Watcher held Nightblade above him, like some actor's imitation of King Arthur, Giles began to feel something. It was a strange and new feeling, and definitely not unpleasant, but it was not exactly ecstasy either. It felt more like a part of him that he had never been totally aware of was suddenly opening up and attaching itself to the sword that he held above him. Then, like a shock, he realized what part of him that was. He had given it a name a long time ago. In his rebellious college days. Ripper.

Yet his control was not slipping, rather it was intensifying and increasing. As though the Blade had taken the rage that was Ripper, his darker half, straight out of him and kept it as its own. And then, in place of Ripper, the Blade gave something back to Giles, a piece of itself. Part of its power and the ability, the capacity to understand the Blade. And Giles now knew what the Blade's power was.

Shaking himself out of the reverie he had been drawn into, Giles lowered the sword and stared at the actual blade part of it. It was a little under two meters long, just less than a hands breadth wide at the base, shortening to a sharp and deadly double-edged tip. It was solid black, but not as though it were absorbing all the light in the room, rather a polished almost glassy solid black. Giles realized that the sword was made out of obsidian, volcanic glass. Yet the way that this sword was crafted, not to mention the fact that it was actually supposed to be used, defied all laws of logic and physics. There had to be very strong magics at work for it to not crack or break during a battle, that or it had to be some of the strongest obsidian that had ever existed and forged in blazes hotter than the core of Earth's sun. For all Giles knew right now, it could have been both.

Nodding in approval all of a sudden, Giles sheathed the Blade and made to place it over his jacket on his back. Goku stopped him. "Take your jacket off first," he said. At Giles' skeptical look, Goku gave him a look that said (as he said it aloud as well), "Trust me." Giles then handed the sheath back to Goku, who held it by the strap while the Watcher removed his brown leather jacket, which he now realized matched the color and material of the sheath and strap of the Blade. He handed the jacket to Buffy, who held it as Giles took back the sheath and then looped it over his head so that he could draw the blade over his right shoulder.

"Now what?" Giles asked their Trainer.

Goku indicated the jacket, and Buffy handed it over. Goku then handed it to Giles who noticed for the first time the slits in the back. One just beneath the right shoulder, and another opposite it on the lower left portion of it. "I see," Giles commented before slipping the jacket back on. Goku then helped in getting the sheath to properly stick out of both ends. It was a nice effect.

"So, uh, now what?" Xander asked, now that the drama was out of the way.

Goku turned to him and answered, "Now the three of us head to the Conditioning gym and get you two started on your strength and endurance training. Giles stays here to start bonding with his new weapon. And before either of you ask, I'm only following the instructions that go with the Blades. Giles, who is now the wielder, has to have time to learn how to use the Nightblade, not to mention its powers, which only he can do. Meaning, we can't be here to interrupt or 'help'."

"Oh," Buffy muttered before turning to Giles, like she was going to give him a hug.

"It's all right Buffy, I'll be fine. Trust Goku and try not to wear him out, all right?" Giles comforted his charge.

At the statement Goku openly grinned and barked out a single laugh. When they turned to glare at him he continued to grin and explained, "Giles, I will not be the one to be worn out today. If anything, Buffy will be lucky to be standing long enough to step through the MTC back to your apartment." Xander and Buffy both gulped and began to sweat in buckets. Giles just mirrored Goku's grin.

"Well, off with you then. I trust that you all have a very full schedule." Giles said, ushering them out with an evil grin.

"Oh, we do," Goku added, dragging the two teenagers by the scruffs of their necks, "I'll be by later to bring you out for lunch, which we'll all be sharing at the Movable Mess. I'll be gentle." He added softly to the teens in his hands, and then a second later, the three young people were gone from the private gym and suddenly someplace else.

When Willow appeared in the infamous "Mage Tower", one of the things that she had not been at all expecting was to end up in a place that was furnished and looked exactly like her dentist's office waiting area. Yet that was where she ended up, with the only obvious exits being a closed secretary's window, and the MTC minus the black panel that activated them.

"Uh, am I in the right place?" Willow, nervous, asked aloud to the empty room. Getting no immediate or vocal answer, Willow nervously decided that she had to wait. So she sat down on the couch, which uncharacteristic of the furniture she had seen so far, did not conform to her body, but rather remained more rigid than a brick wall. Thing was, it looked exactly like all the other "leather" material furniture.

Willow sat uncomfortably for several minutes before she began to think about where she had ended up, where she was supposed to be, and what she was there for. Number one, she was in a waiting area designed to look and be comfortable, yet was not. Number two, she was supposed to be in the Mage Tower, the training building for all of those warriors in this tournament that use magic and so forth. And three, she was there to be trained in the use of magic. Logical deduction, from all past examples of "high wizards" that were to receive a new student or such, always, always, always tested them with something that could only be solved with A) their wits, B) their brains, and C) magic. And of course the infamous and evil D) All of the above.

Willow decided to skip A and B and went straight for C and D. Doing as Amy had taught her, Willow focused her thoughts inward and cast the simple scrying spell that was the only one she knew. Immediately she saw three things; the entire room was an illusion, there was a door, a real human door just next to the window, and there was a sign above the door with a clock underneath the word EXIT. The clock she surmised was how long she had been in there as it was quite obviously not a true time-keeping device. Then she turned her attention to the MTC and was briefly blinded by what she saw there. Apparently the MTC was a controlled singularity, aka black hole/wormhole/pulsar/hole in space/time. The important thing though was she could see the black panel that controlled the MTC. Unfortunately it was on the opposite side of the room from the Red circle.

Quickly realizing that as soon as her hand left the panel for the MTC it would close, no matter the supposed normal operation of the device, Willow tried to think of a way to keep the portal open long enough for her to race through it from across the room. She quickly came to a possible solution as she went over the list of spells that Amy and her family had taught her. A glamour. Of herself, and the illusion could hold the portal open by sticking its arm through like Goku had done.

Checking the clock and surprised to see that she had already been in the waiting room for ten minutes, Willow hastily gathered the energy she would require for a full glamour double of herself. It was formed, perfectly, within five minutes. When Willow stood, she was surprised that the glamour just stared at her, like a mirror, rather than a robot like she had expected.

Rather than debate on it right now, Willow mentally commanded the glamour to go over and wait by the MTC and when it opened, to stick its arms through. She also added on as an after thought for it to follow her after she went through the portal. She went immediately to where she felt the MTC control panel was and then placed her palm flat against it and said in as clear a voice as she could muster, "Uh…Mage Tower! Arch Mage's Private Office, uh…Authorization Witch-in-training! One…and a half?"

Immediately the red circle started to glow and the glamour put both her arms through it. When she did, the energy of the spell and the energy of the portal began to react slightly, causing the areas directly around the glamour's arms in the portal to glow in white rings. Willow raced as fast as she could from that side of the room to the portal, only to have every single piece of furniture try to get in her way. She jumped on the table, and not entirely trusting the suddenly sturdy looking couch, she jumped over the couch onto the back of one of the chairs putting one of her feet on the top of it and leaning in with most of her weight, caused the chair to tip over backwards thereby allowing the young redhead to leap from there the rest of the way into the still open portal.

'Good thing that Xander likes Dungeons & Dragons. I don't think I could have expected all that if not for having him have me read all of the wizard's tasks and battle stories to him.' Willow thought just as she and her glamour came through the portal.

When she landed in a tumble with her more than solid double, Willow caught a glimpse of the office she had arrived in before seeing the being sat behind the large desk before said being grabbed her attention with two words. "Not bad."

Of what she did see of the office, it was rather typical of what anyone might expected of a powerful wizard or witch's private lair. It was large and dome-like, which seemed to be the primary theme of the Compound. Aside from the large steel/metal desk and the impressive throne-like reclining chair behind it, there were numerous podiums scattered about, some perhaps decorations, most of the things looked like they were more a part of some magical or scientific experiment. And you can't have an inner sanctum without flying books. Or a complete multi-colored chemistry set. Yet this was all beside the point and just frosting next to the wizard (or wizardess) that owned it all and was supposed to be some kind of magical titan in human flesh. Instead...

Just a pleasant middle-aged (appearing) woman in a long flowing green robe with red highlights. She had a stopwatch or maybe an olden pocket watch in her hand and was staring at the Willows on her floor. She repeated her statement to fully grab Willow's, the real one's, attention. "Not bad Willow, not bad at all."

Standing up slowly, mostly to make sure nothing would attack her, but also to indicate respect for the obvious higher ranking individual seated before her, Willow hastily dismissed the glamour version of herself and gulped nervously before asking the woman, "Uh, if I may ask…not bad what?"

The older woman, who could tell by how much older what with the whole Immortality deal, smiled sweetly and indicated the space in front of her desk, and as she did a chair materialized there. Willow suppressed the squeal of surprise that had risen in her throat and nodded her thanks to the Arch Mage before taking the seat quite literally made for her.

With little more than that, the Arch Mage launched into her explanation. "Not bad with your first test Willow. Most magic users that are sent into the waiting room end up going through the maze at least twice before even trying the portal. And then the fastest that anyone ever could get from the pad to the portal was two seconds, and that was with casting a speed spell before doing so. Very clever creating a glamour to hold the portal open while you made it from the pad to the other side. Yes. Very clever."

As Willow was flushing with the praise, something suddenly occurred to her. She didn't quite know what made her think of it, but when she did, she immediately acted on it. She once again cast the scrying spell and she immediately saw that the older witch was reading her mind, as well as holding her immobile to the chair. Suppressing her nervousness, Willow took calming breaths and thought of an old poem that she and Xander had helped Buffy to memorize for English class last year.

'Oh Captain my Captain…' she repeated over and over as loud as she could in her own head. Focusing as hard on the words as she could, she barely heard the woman before her say something.

Losing her concentration, Willow tried to refocus her attention to what the elder witch had asked. "Huh? Sorry, what?" Willow stuttered.

"I asked you, young Witch, do you feel me in your mind?" the Arch Mage asked again.

Willow almost lost her focus again, and then she remembered the one thing that she could do better than all of the Scoobies. Multi-task. Reciting the poem, along with at least several strands of code that she had memorized as access codes for various computers and computer systems around the Sunnydale area, Willow answered in a calm tone, "I'm not sure I understand what you mean?"

Suddenly the other woman smiled brightly. "Scoobies?" she asked with a hint of a laugh. Willow arched an eyebrow, while internally she fought down panic. 'They have information about us from the Powers. The Powers knew we called our group the Scoobies, and she wants me to slip so she can read more from my mind. We'll two can play at that.'

"Can you now?" the mage asked.

Taking a lesson from Buffy in intimidating looks, Willow did her friend proud as she smirked evilly at the Arch Mage. She suddenly began to think in no less than seven different directions at once, four in various virus codes that she had written herself, another two in the poem at different paces, and maybe five more in just random words that she normally saved for babble mode. The strain of trying to make sense of all of the jargon suddenly running though the young hacker's head quickly became obvious to anyone looking at the Arch Mage. Checking the scrying spell, Willow saw that the Arch Mage had disengaged the mind probe, or whatever it had been.

"Like I said, clever," the elder witch repeated, rubbing her temples slightly and sitting a little straighter. Willow quickly realized what she had done and who she had done it to and quickly slipped back to the nervous teenage girl that was in a place that was way, way, way over her head.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I-I-I didn't mean to do anything wrong, I-I just kind of reacted. It was like an instinct when I saw that you were reading my mind, and I only learned that scrying spell two weeks ago and…" Willow babbled.

"You learned that spell just two weeks ago!?" the Arch Mage interrupted with a shout.

Suddenly afraid that she had done something seriously wrong, Willow shrunk back into her seat and meekly nodded, too terrified to give any other response. The Arch Mage, seeing her mistake quickly dispelled all the spells that she had on the young witch.

"I'm sorry for shouting Willow," she apologized in a quiet gentle voice. "It is just surprising. The scrying spell that you just used, twice in a row now, is a very powerful one. Well, very powerful for one that is supposed to be of your talents. Which is not supposed to be much at all. Tell me, what can you tell me about the spell you cast in the Gym yesterday afternoon?"

Scrunching her face in confusion at the question, and much relieved that she wasn't being yelled at, Willow carefully considered her answer, as well as the question before speaking. Finally, "Uh, I just kind of reacted. I wasn't really thinking at the time, and I didn't really mean to cast a spell, and Amy, that's the other witch that has been teaching me magic back at home, never taught me anything about mystical barriers or anything like that, so I, uh…I don't really know that much about it." She finished quietly.

Sitting back and steepling her fingers in front of her, the Arch Mage carefully regarded Willow before speaking again. When she did, it was in the same quiet voice, but with an air of authority and respect around it. "Please forgive me Willow, I have been very rude. Allow me to introduce myself and our surroundings. I am the Arch Mage Level 2, Sorceress of the Elements, High Wizardess of over 900 Realms and master of nine of the fourteen forbidden arts. My name is Amana, Amana Grael, when in private you may call me Amana. In public and in training, you may call me Arch Mage, or Teacher, depending on the situation and the place. You are currently in my private office, on the third floor of the Mage Tower. That means that we are near the top. In the Mage Tower we always count the roof as the first floor and count down from there, mostly because we keep changing the building and its floors, it is easier to work things that way, especially with basements. Heh, heh, heh," Amana laughed. Willow smiled, put much at ease, but as yet not understanding what the elder magic crafter was talking about, she didn't particularly find it funny.

"And you are Willow Rosenberg," Amana continued. "A witch in training that has had a summary total of three whole months of experience with magic and any of its rituals and beliefs and sciences."

"Well, actually…" Willow started, but stopped when the blond haired woman gave her a look that told her it would be wiser to wait until she was finished.

"You also only started spell casting a single month ago, am I correct in all of this information?" Amana pointedly asked, referring for Willow to finish her correction.

Instead, Willow just timidly nodded and remained quiet. Frowning with annoyance and slight frustration, Amana cleared her throat, causing Willow to look up. "Actually…what Willow?" she proffered.

Willow blinked in confusion for a second and then decided to finish the thought since her teacher was making it a point for her to finish it. "Uh…well, I was going to say that I only knew a few rituals and it's a little closer to two months, three weeks and two days, not counting today. Uh…that's all."

Amana smiled gently at the shying young woman. "Willow," she whispered like a soft breeze. Willow looked up, not sure what to expect. She saw kind eyes with gentle power staring back at her, they were almost hypnotic, yet Willow never let herself get drawn away from the reality that was her teacher staring at her.

Smiling a little brighter, Amana sat forward and crooked her finger in a "come here" gesture. Willow leaned forward a little herself, expecting either a yelling directly in her ear, or some magical secret to be whispered even softer than her voice that if it were said any louder would do serious damage.

Instead, Amana simply said in a quiet, yet stern like no Principal could ever hope to be tone, "Willow. If you want to succeed at anything, magic most included, you must be more confident and not afraid of any consequences. Speak up, shout your thoughts to the world and if they judge you for it, damn them. Do not refuse to stand up for yourself and never let anyone control you. And just because you can stand up for yourself, don't let it go to your head and be disrespectful. Do you understand me?"

Willow nodded and said as respectfully as she could, "Yes ma'am."

Amana closed her eyes and sighed, sitting back. Shaking her head, she stood up and walked over to a cabinet that had appeared only at the moment that she stood in front of it. She rummaged for a moment and then came back to her desk with a strangely shaped bottle filled with a red liquid, the cabinet disappearing when she turned her back to it.

"What's that?" Willow asked as the Arch Mage walked back to her seat. Amana did not answer her, rather conjured a very beautiful crystal chalice on the desk in front of Willow. Once the teacher was sitting once more, she opened the bottle and immediately the room was filled with a heady scent the likes that Willow had never before imagined nor encountered.

Amana poured the red liquid into the chalice until the crystal cup was filled to the brim.

"Drink it. All of it." She ordered.

"What is it?" Willow asked again.

Amana stared hard at her, but Willow remained firm in her questioning look. Finally Amana replied, "Just something to help you relax and allow me to begin the process of assessing your magical abilities and any training you do have. It will not have any long-term effects on you and all I ask is that you drink it in order for you to be properly assessed."

Nodding, Willow picked up the chalice and carefully placed the red liquid under her nose, smelling with her senses and what magical instincts she had. Detecting a little bit of alcohol, yet nothing outright dangerous, the witch tipped her head back and downed the drink in a few gulps. Willow immediately felt the relaxing aspects of the liquid and quickly sat the chalice back on the desk before she lost her focus.

"Wow," she commented, surprisingly not slurred in the slightest. "That's, uh, that's great stuff." Amana just grinned and waved at the chalice and it vanished. She stared intently at Willow for several short minutes, giving the red witch the thought that even if she could detect any kind of spell that the Arch Mage was casting on her, there would be absolutely no way for her to counteract it.

"Willow, how much do you really know about magic?" Amana suddenly asked her.

Slightly thrown off-balance by the sudden question, Willow took a second to consider her answer. "Well, uh not all that much to be totally honest. I mean, I know it exists. I know a few wiccan rituals and I've read several tomes from various cultures that explain magic, or they try to anyway. I also know a few voodoo tricks, though Amy and her aunts told me never to try them." She finally answered.

Raising an eyebrow at the last admission, Amana asked, "Did you ever try a voodoo 'trick'?" Rather than being offended or looking crossly at the elder witch, Willow just blushed a furious scarlet and hung her head a little. That was all the answer anyone would need. Nodding her head, Amana refrained from comment on that for the moment. She still had several more minutes before the liquid would take complete effect and she could properly gauge Willow's talents, so for now she might as well make small talk.

"Well, allow me to try and fill in some of the gaps in your education Willow…" Amana offered, bringing the young girl's head up. She then proceeded to give Willow a basic lecture on magical theory, and proven magical fact. Explaining first what magic was, the energy of the mind and various other forces throughout a plane of space, and then how very few and specific people and entities born had the potential to attract and direct these energies.

After some time, at a point when Willow was practically buzzing with the information she had absorbed faster than a sponge, Amana proceeded to take Willow into the lab portion of her office and proceeded to test her mental and magical talents. Some of the tests, such as levitation and transfiguration were familiar to the young witch, while others like matter manipulation and energy fixation were completely unfamiliar to her. It took several hours, and surprisingly after it, Willow was even more buzzed and full of energy than she was before.

"So? How'd I do?" she bubbled as they went back to the desk.

Amana tried unsuccessfully to hide the growing smile on her face. "Well Willow, Goku was quite correct in saying that you have great potential. And I, among a few others, which Goku is included in, have been charged in bringing out this potential and into its full blossom as quickly as possible. We will have lunch here today Willow."

Willow's eyes widened as her mind processed what the Arch Mage was indicating with that one sentence. Swallowing the large lump that had appeared in her throat at that very instance, Willow nodded and put on 'resolve face'. Amana openly grinned as she waved her hands and suddenly, no flash of light, no sensation of movement, just one second in the office, and the next moment they were in a place that looked like a prison cell turned classroom with a large table with a single uncomfortable chair at its center place. The walls were stone gray and Willow saw no possible exit, not even an MTC.

"Uh…" she stuttered a little worried.

Any further comment was cut off completely as Amana waved her right hand and the long and very large metal table was suddenly stacked full, up to at least a full five meters, corner to corner with various books and tomes that were all of varying ages as they were of sizes. Eyes wide in both amazement, and a little worry, Willow turned to the Arch Mage.

Just before she disappeared in a flash of white-yellow light, Amana turned to look Willow straight in the eye and ordered, "Read these. All of them. I will return when you have finished and I will test you on every one of them. Then we will have lunch. If you finish early enough, I might let you have your meal with your friends at the Mess," she smiled darkly, "but I doubt that you'll finish in the allotted time. Remember, there will be a test." And then she disappeared, leaving Willow alone in the room with the biggest homework assignment of her life.

The place that the three black clad warriors stepped into from the glowing red portal was both impressive and disappointing in its own rites. It was a room about twice as large as the room they had just been in, save for the ceiling that was the same height, and the fact that it was filled with equipment that somehow made it seem even smaller than the training room.

What made it impressive, despite the sheer size, was the startling number and variety of the equipment scattered evenly in a pattern unique to the place. What made it disappointing was the fact that every single piece of equipment could be found in any Fitness Center's gym. There were several number of each type of equipment, the average being around ten or so, but not often any more than that. There were treadmills, stair machines, ten individual workout machines, you know those kinds that have about a dozen different weight training machines all put in one, and a larger variety of aerobic exercise devices than either teenager had ever encountered before.

"What is this place?" Buffy asked, in awe as they walked down an aisle between several of the training tools. Goku stopped them in front of one of the treadmills before answering.

"Endurance Training room," he provided as way of explanation. "Here, you build up your strength, speed, and muscles. Then we work on training you to fight until you drop. Like I said, endurance training. You two will workout here, on what I put you on, for as long as I say with the only breaks being what I give you and water. Buffy, here's your first stop." Pointing at a relatively simplistic treadmill.

It was really only the black walk-cloth, the wheels and motors that the cloth ran on, and a bar to hold onto if you needed the added support, only without all the added fancy electronics and stuff. Buffy just shrugged, figuring it to either be set by her pace, or to be fully automated. Nodding, and hoping she wasn't going to regret it, Buffy got up onto the treadmill, grabbed the bar and waited for any further instruction.

"For right now, just set your own pace and we'll see how long you can keep it up. I'll be on the other side, getting Xander set up. Have fun," Goku grinned as he and the dark-haired youth walked off. Buffy grinned back, good-naturedly, not wanting the stronger warrior to see how much she was worried over this.

Taking a deep breath and holding onto the bar, Buffy began a light jog. The cloth surprisingly didn't have the slow buildup that she was accustomed to with such devices and didn't drag in the slightest. In fact it was just like jogging at the track at school, which Giles had made her run several times last year during training.

Meanwhile, Xander was still in the sweating buckets phase. Even when Goku led him over to something he was quite familiar with…a weight bench. The reason that Xander was temporarily relieved was because there were no bulky uncomfortable large round weights on the sides of the bar. Until he remembered about the gravity enhancers Goku told him were in his jacket and boots that could make the clothes he was wearing feel like twenty tons. If they could do that to clothing, they could certainly do that to a weight bench.

"Ohhhh, shit…" Xander couldn't help muttering as he came to this revelation.

Goku just grinned and forcefully pushed Xander onto the device by his shoulders.

"Don't worry Xander, we know you're not as strong as Buffy. Yet. So we'll start off pretty easy. About a hundred or so pounds by your measurement scale. Do no less than an equal hundred reps and I'll be here to spot you. And count. So get started, I'm planning on changing Buffy up in about twenty minutes, and we aren't moving until you are finished. So the less time you are here, the less time that Buffy is huffing and puffing over there, 'Kay?" Goku challenged the young teen. At which Xander suddenly got a very determined look in his eye.

'Ah, teenage crushes. Has there ever been a more effective way to motivate such creatures?' Goku mused to himself as Xander got a comfortable grip on the bar. Then he answered himself, 'Nope,' with a smug grin.

'All right,' Xander thought to himself, 'I can do this. No problem. Most of my books that I carry around at school weigh more than a hundred pounds, so this won't be that bad. At least I won't have to sit in a boring classroom listening to an even more boring lecture from a boring teacher. Come on Xander, you can do this, you can do this, you can do this…' he began repeating the mantra over and over in his mind. Until he actually tried to lift the bar.

'What the hell!!' Xander thought as he felt as if he were trying to bench press his dad's Buick rather than a six foot long bar with no weights on it.

"Uh, Goku?" Xander grabbed the trainer's attention. "Yeah Xander?" Goku asked like he was being asked a question about a movie he was watching at the moment. "I can't lift the bar. I thought you said it was only one hundred pounds?" Xander was surprised when Goku started shaking his head.

"I said that we would be starting you off with one hundred pounds. In order to do that, you actually have to get started, which means that you have to lift the bar yourself, no changing it's force weight until then." Goku explained.

"Uh, just curious, just how much 'force weight' does this thing have right now?" Xander asked, very afraid of the answer.

"Well," Goku started off, like he was about to explain something complex and he knew Xander would still find it fascinating, "it's made out of the same material as yours and Buffy's swords, plus all the circuitry, and the power source, which is almost as dense as the material itself. So, until you actually manage to pick that bar at least three centimeters from its holding position for longer than a five point six second interval, which by the way count as 'two' counts, you know; 'One…Two…that's one second interval. Until you do that, it won't become one hundred pounds. And I can't help you, doesn't count unless you're the one to do it."

"The same metal…" Xander quietly repeated. "But…but-but Buffy could hardly lift that sword, and you're expecting me to lift something that's supposed to weigh twice as much?!!" Xander near shouted. Enough to get Buffy's attention.

"Hey!" she shouted from the treadmill. "Everything OK over there?"

Goku glared dangerously at the loud teen beneath him before answering, "Fine."

Suddenly Goku showed just how dangerous a trainer he really could be by getting his face less than an centimeter from Xander's, eye-to-eye. "Lift!" he hissed out. An order, no, a command. One that Xander dare not disobey.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Xander started taking deep breaths and reacquired the comfortable grip with his very sweaty hands. Then he started to flex his arm muscles to lift the bar up the necessary three inches. After a full minute, he had repositioned his legs several times for better leverage and still hadn't budged the massive (due to it's density) bar. After five minutes, Xander finally made some headway. His head looking like it'd explode any second, his arms feeling like they were on fire and his chest was exchanging oxygen in such quantities that he felt he could fill a hot air balloon and keep it in the air for an hour. He lifted it less than a millimeter, but he had moved it. Rather than stop, rest and spend an hour congratulating himself on the back, he redoubled his resolve and continued to push as hard as he humanly could upward.

After the point where he was seeing more stars and red than the gray of the ceiling, he finally moved it a full millimeter from the holding position. Breathing in through his nose and out through the mouth, as he had been taught was the best way to breath when heavily exerting oneself, Xander spent the total of the next two minutes working the bar millimeter by millimeter continuously upward, until finally something broke (metaphorically speaking) inside him and he started open mouthed breathing, which he found gave him much deeper oxygen reserves, despite everything he had been taught to the opposite. After that point, the lifting somehow seemed easier. Not greatly in the slightest, just enough that he seemed to have enough energy to actually complete it.

Thirty minutes after Buffy had been placed on the treadmill, Xander finally lifted the bar over the threshold mark. It did not immediately lighten to the one hundred pounds that he had been told it had been set to, rather it gradually lightened as he continued to lift it higher until his arms were fully outstretched. And even by that point he was not certain that it was at the one hundred pounds it was supposed to be, so carefully he moved the bar from over his head where the holding position was to over his chest, hoping and trusting yet at the same time not trusting Goku to spot him and keep the incredibly dense bar from crushing him. Even if he was immortal now, which he still didn't quite entirely believe just yet, he didn't favor having his head smashed into a gooey smear on the floor by a slim piece of ultra-dense metal.

After less than a minute in that position, Goku stared at him and impatiently asked, "Well?" Taking a really big breath, Xander began his reps. His arms felt like they were on fire while being crushed into pancakes, but he kept on lifting. After he lost count around thirty or so, he began to feel a slight difference, a very slight difference in his pain. As he kept pushing the weight upward and slowly letting it down to his chest, he thought at some points that he could actually feel his muscles growing and strengthening.

After a near eternity of torture for Xander, Goku interrupted his rhythm, snapping his fingers in front of the young man's face. Xander paused long enough to realize what was happening before pushing the bar back up, fully extending his arms and locking them into place, as comfortable as he could get at the moment. "Yeah?" he gasped out, his entire frame drenched in his own sweat.

"You're done. Put the bar back down and join me over by the treadmills." Goku ordered, walking away.

Xander sighed a huge breath of relief and maneuvered the bar accordingly and carefully lowered the bar, which somehow seemed to get heavier with every millimeter until it was less than that from the cradle, and there he let it drop the rest of the way. Taking gulping breaths, Xander just lay there for several minutes, letting his tired and suddenly light, airy feeling arms just rest for the moment or two.

After the rest, Xander slowly sat up, waiting for the dizziness and lightheaded sensations to leave his brain in peace before standing up fully. Once he was comfortable on his feet again, he looked around the room until he saw where Buffy, who was still on the treadmill, and Goku, who was standing just off to the side from her staring at him, were. He quickly made his way over to them, despite feeling the need to sit down and take a nap or something.

"Sorry," Xander apologized automatically as he came up to the black clad pair, "but do you honestly expect me to recover from doing one hundred reps of a one hundred pound bar as fast as you two would? No I didn't think so."

Buffy, who was equally drenched in her sweat as Xander was, looked pleadingly at Goku. He noticed that her pace was much more brisk than what she started out on. "Can I please get off now?" Buffy huffed between breaths.

Goku nodded, still staring at Xander. Xander finally noticed it to the point that it started to creep him out. "What?" he asked loudly. Goku frowned a little and shook his head as Buffy got off the treadmill and immediately bent over and began to try and get her breathing back under control.

"It's nothing," Goku answered Xander's question. "Get on the treadmill. Start at whatever pace you like that will keep up with the runner. It'll increment faster and you won't be allowed off until you either outrace the machine, or we come and get you and let you off. Buffy, come with me."

Buffy nodded and stood up, mildly surprised that she was able to do so given what she'd just been through. Normally she handled the two or three miles that Giles had her run daily at extreme paces most mornings and afternoons. However, she just felt like she had run at her top speed for over fifty miles. And actually, she had, with no rest either.

Once Buffy's breathing was semi-under control, she quickly caught up and followed Goku along the path he lead through the workout machines. Xander, meanwhile got onto the treadmill, that same that Buffy had used, and began to walk. As soon as he did, the running cloth picked up speed until he was at a fairly decent jog. Gulping, he wiped some sweat from his forehead and kept pace. For the next hour. And through six increment increases until he was running flat out at 13½ mph.

Buffy on the other hand was taken over to the row of weight benches. "Is this what you had Xander doing?" Buffy asked as she sat down on one of the benches and laid back. Goku nodded and twisted a knob just above where her head rested on the bench.

Frowning, Buffy asked, "What did you do?"

Goku looked her in the eye and replied, "Well, you're stronger, much stronger than Xander is. I have to increase the weight that you lift to make any sort of difference. 'Kay?" Buffy thought about it for a second, and deciding that it did make sense, she nodded. Goku nodded back and told her, "I'll tell you when to stop." She nodded once more before setting her feet, getting a comfortable grip on the weight-less bar and taking several deep breaths through her nostrils. Then she lifted the bar straight up like it really was only a thin two-meter-length metal bar.

She cocked an eyebrow at the lifted instrument before grunting, "Heavy," and began doing reps. She kept a very intense pace, and only slowed when her arms began to get sore. Even then she quickly pushed past the pain and kept the same pace. After a half hour, and nearly three hundred and seventy five reps later, Goku had remained quiet and Buffy was still going at a blazingly intense pace. Twenty minutes after that, Goku decided that she'd done enough, the weights having incremented twice, first from the standard density-weight of the bar itself to twice that, where her arms began to get sore, and then from that to four times its weight, and she had barely flinched, keeping the same straining pace.

"All right Buffy, that's enough," he ordered, grabbing the bar on the up-push. Buffy blinked and shook her head, having gotten into a zone while her body pushed itself farther than she had ever been allowed before. She was hardly out of breath as she sat the bar down and sat up. She flexed her arms and rolled them around, stretching out the muscles, hearing them sing with the exercise and work out. She rolled her neck a little before standing up and looking up at Goku, waiting for his next exercise.

She almost found herself eager for the challenge. She wasn't sure, but something about this training, training different and more intense than she had ever felt or even conceived of before, was exciting a part of her that she usually associated with her more primal Slayer instincts. Maybe Slayers naturally wanted to get stronger and her body, in realizing this, was practically celebrating at the chance.

Shaking off the feelings for the moment, she focused on Goku. He was staring over at Xander again. She knew the look too. It was a calculating stare, one that was put on the face of one who wants to find out something, knows where to look for it, and only has to wait for it to appear before him. Buffy had seen it more times than she could guess on Willow's face while they were having a study/cram session. Giles sometimes bore it himself during training, wondering what she would have to learn next as a part of her "destiny".

Buffy, wondering what Goku was looking for exactly, turned to stare at Xander as well. Then she realized something else. Goku was probably sensing Xander's power to see if it was actually growing or whatever. Focusing as she had learned the day before to do, Buffy recognized 'Goku' almost immediately, but she had a little bit of trouble finding 'Xander'. When she actually 'found' him, she could somehow sense how she would never normally pick him up on her radar, but she could instinctively tell that she would still be able to sense him, as she could now, provided she 'looked' for him.

Focusing all her senses, most especially her new sixth and/or seventh, on her friend, Buffy began to feel out what was happening within the young man. She was more than a little amazed when she felt his current level of "power", though it was far less than her own, it was surprisingly strong. She wasn't sure how she knew this, but she didn't doubt it. The next thing that surprised her was that she could sense Xander's "Potential Power" or how much energy he could actually be putting into his work. She was more than just a little surprised to feel his power output to be very far below that potential. Very far below.

Shaking herself out of the stupor that focusing on Xander had done, she turned back to Goku, who was now staring at her. "What?" she asked automatically. He smiled roguishly and said, "Nothing." Grimacing in annoyance, Buffy decided to let it go for the moment and pushed him for her next exercise.

"OK, never mind then. What next? I mean, if you're going to be alternating us between these two for the whole day, then why not just let us do them at the same time, or let me do weights until Lunch and Xander on the track, and then after lunch we come back and switch or whatever." Buffy suggested.

Goku just shook his head and turned away from Xander and walked to the next corner of the room. "I'm not even going to dignify that stupid question with an answer. And yes it is a stupid question because it's a stupid idea. I'm spacing out your exercises so that your muscles can cope with the strain they're being put under. Rather than focus on one group of muscles for an extended period of time and forcing them to adapt overnight, they are getting rest periods that allow them to expand and grow and it also targets more than just one area of muscles. Your way would cause cramps and sore muscles for at least the next day and force you into the clinic for some massive massage therapy. This way, you adapt and grow stronger quicker and with much less pain."

"Massage?" Buffy asked, following, and with a note of youthful anticipation in her voice.

"Massage Therapy." Goku corrected. "It would not be a normal massage and it would not be as relaxing. Massage Therapy focuses on forcibly relaxing, unknotting, and helping the muscles to grow. Sort of like Acupuncture. Useful, relaxing, but extremely painful."

"Oh."

The area that Goku now led the Slayer to was actually little more than padding with a white circle on it. The trainer waved the girl into the circle and she stepped into the center. Looking at him, her question written on her face, Goku answered it. "Another adaptation exercise. For the time being, just stretch, using that technique I taught you. Then wait for me to return. If you get bored waiting, then do a few of your own exercises, like push-ups or whatever floats your boat."

Just as he was turning around, Buffy shot out a quick question. "What exactly does this circle do?"

Without turning around, Goku responded, "It's a Graviton-Enhancer Operator. Or GEO. In short, it's what activates the weights in your outfit. This is to get you used to the gravity of the Compound as well as strengthen your muscles and endurance. Don't worry, if it gets to be too much, just sit still and let your body adapt to it that way."

"What?!!" Buffy screeched as the Saiyan walked away. Buffy wanted to go running after him and drag him back and beat him to a pulp for even suggesting such a torture, but another question sprung to mind before she could move.

"How heavy is it going to be?" she shouted.

Goku stopped and turned back in her direction. "10 G's. Or ten times the force of Earth's natural gravity. However, since Earth uses 1.2 Gravitons, about 20.7 Gravitons per sq. mm," he answered back, and then resumed his walk over to Xander to get him off the treadmill.

Buffy gulped and just stood there for several minutes. Goku and Xander were well out of range of her hearing, but she found that with her new sense she could tell exactly where they were. Though she had trouble telling what exactly it was they were doing.

After several longer minutes, Buffy decided to sit down and wait for them to get back, rather than have to fight to stay standing when the thing increased the gravity. Sitting Indian-style, Buffy calmed her breathing and tried to relax a little. She noticed the air was getting a little heavy, but she chocked it up to her sweat. After what felt like several hours but was less than thirty minutes, Buffy's restless mind forced her into action. Standing up, which she was surprised was harder than normal, but again she just chocked it up to her sore and tired muscles, she began to pace around the circle.

After another ten minutes, which she actually tried to count she was so bored, Buffy had to stop pacing, her muscles screaming out for a slight rest. She stood in the center of the circle once more, just standing still, yet her leg muscles still demanded a rest. Yawning suddenly, Buffy scratched behind her neck and noticed how slow and heavy her arm felt as she did it. Biting her lower lip, Buffy wondered if the suit would activate whether Goku was here to activate it or not. Chances were pretty good that it had been active since he had left.

Shaking her head, feeling her very brain being pulled downward by a force stronger than she was used to, Buffy decided to fight this as much as was possible. She reached both her arms upward and stretched, standing on her toes. The effect was as she feared, heavy and way more difficult to do than it should have been. Buffy decided to take Goku's suggestion and exercise to occupy herself until he came to let her out of this. She worked the stretch routine that Goku had taught them once more, and surprisingly this actually helped her muscles a little, causing them to feel less strained.

Then she sat back down, and began to do a few hundred push-ups. After she did that, she was heavy-winded and her arms were sorer than they'd ever been before. Next she rolled over and did about a hundred fifty or so sit-ups and stomach crunches. After that, she jumped to her feet and began to pace again, waiting impatiently for Goku. Thirty minutes, thirty excruciatingly long minutes later, Buffy stretched one last time, and as she was finishing up with that, Goku and a very exhausted Xander came to her section of the gym.

"Hey guys," she greeted good-naturedly, though she felt anything but. "Wow, Xan, you look pooped, flushed, recycled, and everything in between." Xander barely had the energy to respond with a weak grin and a small wave.

"All right," Goku groaned at the bad joke, "Enough of that Slayer. X! Get in the circle. No questions, no comments, and do not pass GO or collect two hundred dollars!"

Xander hastily walked into the circle before Goku had even finished speaking. Buffy grinned at him openly and patted him on the shoulder as they traded places. After he more or less caught his breath, standing straight in the middle of the circle Xander finally managed the energy to speak once again. "So, uh, what exactly is this?" he asked sounding uncertain.

Buffy opened her mouth to give the explanation that she had been given, but stopped herself at the last second to glance at Goku to see if he wanted to answer it instead. When she looked at him, he was staring intently at his Global, occasionally tapping a key or two. When he finally finished whatever he was doing and looked up at the two teenagers staring at him. Then he recalled the question that Xander had asked.

"Oh, it's uh…the device that activates the weights in your uniform. I'm setting it for about ten G's for you Xander. But we'll do it gradually, don't worry too much X. Buffy was started out at more or less the same level, but because of her adaptive nature, we've already increased it."

Buffy was nearly floored, and it was at that moment that she realized that she was still feeling the same "heaviness" that she had been feeling for the last hour or more. Her eyes bulging, she sputtered at the trainer, "Y-y-yo-y-y-yo-you-u-YOU increased the gravity!!!?" she ended up screaming. Goku just nodded and had gone back to his Global.

In her rage at being deceived, Buffy never noticed the blinking light glowing that was on the sides of her boots, and hardly even bothered to realize that she was now storming forward towards Goku in the equivalent of 50 times Earth's normal gravity. Goku just stood there, withstanding Buffy's brief rage and after the brief minutes, during which she completely lost her train of thought and ended up confusing herself, (and anyone else that would have tried to follow her line of thought), he just glared at her until she got back down and crossed her arms and pouted like an angry two year old.

Goku was actually more than a little impressed. Buffy's uniform had actually been 'G-active' since she had put on the jacket and had stepped through the MTC for the Training Room. From the moment that she had started the katas and exercises, the uniform had been set to just over 4 G's, the most that many humans could handle. After seeing this on the training room monitors, the people in charge of such things slowly incremented Buffy's G's until by the time that she got off the treadmill, she had been running in 10 G's for the past ten miles or so of it.

When Goku had taken her to the circle, there her GEO suit was put immediately into 20 G's. She didn't even show signs of feeling it until they incremented it to 25 G's, the equivalent of being near the Earth's core. They left it at that as she began to exercise, and only incremented it again just before Goku came back over with Xander, to 30. When Goku called for an update, he was just as shocked as they had been at how well Buffy adapted to the stronger gravities. Then, using his considerable influence and so forth, he authorized that she be upgraded to a steady 50 G's, or 50.9 Gravitons per sq. cm. Which is what she was at, and she was acting like most humans did in 5 G's!! Goku however had kept his word on Xander, even though he knew he should be harder on the boy since he wasn't even using his maximum energy, and kept the youth on a slow increment to steady off at 10 G's when he stepped into the white circle.

Suddenly, his Global beeped at him, startling everyone there. Pulling it open, Goku read that on higher orders, and irrevocable authorization, Xander's training had been upgraded to a flux 20 gravitons per sq. cm Translating to 20 G's, and not always that. He quirked his eyebrows at the statement of data and then smiled darkly.

"What?" Xander and Buffy cried out in fear at the same time.

Glancing up, Goku's grin grew darker. He said two words that both confused the hell out of them, and sent cold shivers up and down their spines. "Sparring time," he answered darkly.

Two solid hours later, Buffy and Xander were panting and limping their way through the MTC back to the Gym where their day of hell had started. Giles was now sitting Indian-style in the middle of the room, the unsheathed Nightblade laying length-wise across his knees. He seemed almost completely unaware of them, his eyes closed and his form completely still. That is, until he spoke without moving a thing other than his lips.

"Hello Buffy, Xander, Goku," he softly greeted.

"Hey Giles," Goku greeted way too cheerily. After the workout and beating that he had just given the two teenagers, they could barely stand straight. Not to mention the way that Giles had done the whole "I know you're there even though I can't see you" thing really creeped them out. Finally Xander couldn't stand it anymore, literally.

Collapsing to the floor in exhaustion, the lanky youth concentrated more on continued breathing rather than getting back up or listening to the conversation around him. Buffy looked about to join him, but she was more concerned about the members of her team that she had not witnessed nor seen since they had split up more than four hours ago. Still, she also could no longer stand it, and settled for collapsing onto her butt and more or less staying there as little more than a heap of flesh for several more minutes.

When her breath caught up with her lungs, Buffy finally found the strength to ask her Watcher the question she had been pondering on for the past four hours. It can get boring on a treadmill with nothing to read or look at. "Giles," she called hoping to get any kind of response from the statue on the floor. He just replied, moving nothing but his lips, "Yes Buffy?"

Thinking that was the best she could get for now, and not really up to being the annoyingly cute little girl that she could always get her little finger wrapped around him with, she just asked her question. "Giles, what have you been doing since we left? I mean, I know Will's supposed to be doing the witch thing, and me and Xander have just had the living hell beat out of us," Goku's grin just got a little wider as he stood off against the wall, "and I've been worried sick that if that was happening to us, you'd either be in Librarian heaven in research, or getting something almost as bad as we've gotten. Plus, you're acting all weird."

"Weird?" Giles asked.

Xander, from the floor, "Yeah, you know! The whole, zombie-comatose-Jedi-sensing thing you did when we walked in. Plus, I don't think you've moved in a very long time. Whereas me and Buff here had to do all we could to keep moving just so we wouldn't fly across the room when Mr. I'm-so-tough-I-beat-up-teens-and-laugh-while-doing-it actually hits us. And he even tells us he wasn't even trying that hard!!"

"But I wasn't," Goku supplied with a laugh.

Buffy groaned, and finding enough energy struggled to her feet and made it over to Giles. "Giles, if you ever, and I mean ever put me through something like that, I will kill you. Call it a promise."

"I think that you might find that more difficult that you realize Slayer," Giles retorted.

Slightly perturbed by the cold response, yet realizing that he was just calling her by her codename, Buffy barely had to think of the responding retort coming out of her mouth. "Well, Watcher, as it being that I already beat your ass black and blue in training, I mi-iiiIIIII-yii!" Buffy screeched. Faster than Buffy had ever thought anyone but Goku could move, Giles grabbed the hilt of his obsidian sword, swung it around and turned it so that the flat of the blade would hit the back of her knees, thereby tripping the blond girl and forcing her to land hard on her backside against the floor. Of course, the Graviton generators in her suit were still active, making it that much harder of a fall.

More than just a little surprised, Buffy took a little time to shake loose the stars that had come back to her vision, only to see the blade at her jugular, less than a millimeter from breaking skin. Too afraid to gulp, Buffy froze on the spot and for the first time, truly afraid of the man that she had thought too often just as helpless as any other non-super powered combatant in a fight.

Then the blade was retracted and Buffy could breath safely again. "Consider it a warning Slayer. My skills with the Blade have only just begun, and they will continue to increase with each day that passes. I'm confident that Goku has something very rigorous planned for all of us, not just you and Xander. So I'm sure that you'll get to see me in the very shape you've found yourself in, at some point."

Getting up, and knowing not to ever threaten Giles' life unless she could very well back it up ever again, Buffy only nodded in response and went to help Xander up. He had sat up when Buffy had screamed out, and the surge of adrenaline the event had caused for the both of them was enough to get them both to their feet.

"So now what Goku?" Buffy asked. And almost immediately regretted. Every time that she had said that to him today, he had always come up with something that left her almost dead tired after doing it.

"Well," he began, "right now we're waiting to see if Witch is going to join us. If not, then we're going to exercise in here until Lunchtime. Non-stop."

Xander just groaned in misery, while Buffy frowned a little but didn't vocalize any response. Giles meanwhile was still in his Yoga thing and she really didn't want to know what it was that he was meditating on. Suddenly, Buffy felt something. With her new sense.

Focusing immediately upon it, she tried to make sense of what she was feeling. At the very first, it felt incredibly strong. Then it slowly ebbed off until whatever it was, was still very strong, but not incredibly so. Like when a wave crashes into the shore. The crest of the wave is incredibly more powerful that the rest of the wave, but when it hits the shore it disappears rapidly leaving the rest of the wave, which is powerful in its own right, just not as much as it was during the crash to shore. That's kind of what this power felt like.

"Goku?" she grabbed her Trainer's attention.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"What's that?" she just asked, staring off into space, not really at anything.

Confused, Goku asked back, "What's what?"

"That power," she answered. "It was incredibly strong for a second or so, and then it just kind of ebbed off. What, or rather who was it? It felt kind of close."

Scrunching his face in confusion, Goku focused his senses and tried to discover what power it was that Buffy had just discovered. When he found it, he blinked in shock. Heck, he was in shock.

When Buffy saw that he had found what she felt, she asked, "Well?"

"Uh… well, Buffy…uh…" he mumbled.

"Spit it out Goku!" she shouted.

Rather than say anything, Goku just looked straight at Giles. Buffy followed his stare, and then she was staring at Giles. When the implications hit her, her eyes widened and her breathing rapidly became shallow. Blinking away the shock, the Slayer slowly composed herself and calmly asked Giles what he was doing. "Giles, Watcher, what are you doing? Goku says that it's your power that I'm feeling."

"Actually, it is the Blade's, not my own. Though at some point, I'm told, that my own power level will come to that ability." Giles monotonously replied.

Shaking her head, trying to wrap her thoughts around what he just told her, Buffy shouted out, "What the hell is THAT supposed to mean?"

The still figure on the floor had the audacity to actually smile right then. "It means, Buffy, that the magic sword on my lap is very strong. When it teaches me how to use it, I will be that strong." The entire taunt was said like that of an adult "baby talking" to an infant, or when kids tease each other on the playground by talking like a little kid.

Now that she understood how to use her power sense, as she began to think of it, Buffy actually felt her own power level raise just a little. She then focused on what her body was doing. Getting ready to fight. 'So that's the secret. I just have to focus my body into various levels of fighting, then I can control how far my power level goes up.' Buffy realized.

Forcing her fury at her Watcher's words into an even higher blaze, Buffy only felt her power raise barely a fraction higher. She would need another focus to raise her level any higher. Then she remembered her first Watcher, and how he just breezed into her life, and blew his windstorm of being the Chosen One, the Slayer, and then left her. Just as she was beginning to think of him as more than just an annoyance. Suddenly her rage, remembering all the pain, the heartache, and the fury at what the vampire master Lothos had done to her, it just exploded.

Goku looked up in shock at Buffy, surprise clearly etched on his face. But it was the next words out of the blond woman's mouth that shocked all of the men.

"Get up you bastard! I may take that kind of talk at school, from Goku, and hell even from my enemies, but I will be a damned soul in the first circle of Hell before I let you get away with talking to me like that! Get up! Fight me!! I'll put you back down on that mat so fast that you'll wonder if that wimpy sword really is teaching you its shit!!" she shouted.

Goku actually winced. "Mistake," he muttered to himself. "Do not insult the Blade."

Before anybody could try to dissuade this very volatile situation, Buffy drew her katana blade like she had been born with it in her hand. Giles opened his eyes. Xander audibly gasped. The Watcher's pupils were dilated to the point where his entire eyes looked black. Buffy just stood their waiting, her impatience growing with each second.

Smiling darkly, Watcher tossed the Blade, twirling it into the air. Then he just back flipped from his cross-legged position on the floor onto his feet, and then he caught the Blade on its down crest. Twirling it on his wrist, he asked his charge, "Are you sure about this Buffy? I mean, even before we came here, I could still beat you in fencing."

"Who the hell said we were going to fence?" Buffy replied with a dark voice.

Faster than Xander had ever seen her move before, Buffy was at Giles, her sword swinging in fast and sharp arcs. Giles blocked every one. After ten or twenty seconds of just wild swinging, Buffy actually developed into a more or less pattern with the katana, which Goku, or anyone with a trained eye, would notice that Giles easily adapted to. Buffy continued to try and hammer past Giles' defenses, keeping Watcher entirely on the defensive.

Then something seemed to happen. Buffy either caught her second wind, or Giles was already tired after having sat down for so long because Watcher finally took a step back, having until now stood his ground where he landed. His face too shown that he was beginning to tire, while Buffy's face was still enlightened by her fury.

"Very good Buffy. I think you're finally getting the hang of the katana. Next you'll have to try the broad sword," Giles neutrally commented, trying to distract Buffy.

Buffy's reaction was not what he had hoped it'd be. Her face, if possible, actually became more infuriated and her blows twice as hard and her speed noticeably increased. Finally her rage became so great, that she yelled.

"AaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" a reverberating hollow sound that scared all the men to their core. As her throat elicited this unearthly sound, her body moved so fast that Goku had trouble keeping up as he was. Her sword knocked the Blade aside but for a moment, and before any of them could blink, she performed the same move Watcher had done to her earlier, flawlessly.

Caught completely off guard, and having no way to counter the move, Giles ended up on his backside on the floor, less than two minutes from the moment he left it. When the stars had cleared from his vision, he saw the Slayer's katana at his Adam's apple. Knowing that he would cut himself on the laser-sharpened sword if he gulped or even breathed any heavier, Watcher stayed very, very still.

Suddenly a loud sound of clapping filled the room. Buffy lifted her sword and turned to look at the offending source, Goku. "Very well done Slayer. Very well done," he complimented.

Turning back to Watcher, Buffy asked in a stone cold tone, "I trust that I've made my point?" He silently nodded from the floor. "Good. Both as team leader and the representative for this Tournament, I expect your respect. If this "Blade" of yours really is sentient, then I expect its respect as well. Xander, I trust that I have your respect, right?"

Immediately, "Yes ma'am, you do, ma'am!" He then snapped an awkward salute. "You aren't gonna beat me up are you?" Buffy grinned some and shook her head to the negative.

Making a slight show of it, Buffy twirled the Make Seven katana on her wrist before sliding it over the hilt of the sheath and then fitting it firmly into the back-sheath. After Giles got back to his feet, Buffy began to pace a little more. After a couple turns, she finally turned to Goku and boldly asked, "So how long are we going to wait for Willow?"

Goku just stood there against the wall, his arms crossed across his chest, and glanced at her. Then he just shrugged and replied, "However long you want to wait. Lunch isn't for another six hours or so, and the reason we cut sparring time so short was because of how easily I kept beating you and Xander. If you die more than five times in a single training session, it's one of the rules to move onto another exercise."

Xander did a double take, as did Giles, though Xander's showed considerable more shock. "We died! How did we die? I thought we were immortal because of the Powers!" he shouted.

Goku nodded. "You are. That's why you're standing there shouting right now. The way the whole immortality aspect works is like this. If you're hurt, then you stay hurt until your body heals itself. If you are hurt enough that you would die within one to twelve hours, then you are healed within five to ten minutes. If you are hurt enough that it would be considered instant death, then the Powers directly heal you so that you are at whatever your full strength is within a few seconds. I think I broke your back some twelve times Xander, only twice enough to cause instant death. I snapped Buffy's neck nearly six times. You'll also notice that any bruises that you would have from 'sparring practice' aren't even there. And they won't be."

Buffy stopped. "So you're saying that we're only immortal in that we can't die permanently. Not can't get sick, can't get old, and if we get so much as a paper cut it won't heal instantly right in front of our eyes. Am I right?"

"Not exactly. The part where you don't get old does apply. It's just not immediately noticeable. And for injuries like paper cuts, bruises, even scrapes, they'll heal just as fast as your body normally heals it. Only if it's life threatening does it heal any faster." Goku answered.

"Oh, okay," Buffy commented before resuming her pacing.

After another minute, which even Xander considered pacing, though unlike Buffy he was feeling every weight of his gravity enhancers, Buffy declared her boredom once again. "Is there any way that we can go to Willow rather than her to us?" she shouted at Goku again.

Goku deftly shook his head to the negative. "No way. The only people that can get into the Mage Tower anyway are either mages, or mage's guests. And before you ask, I don't know any mages so lets just cut that line of questioning off right there!"

Buffy frowned and continued her pace about the room. When it brought her next to Goku's position on the wall, she stopped. "Fine. Whatever. But right now I'm restless. I've never felt like this before to be honest. It's like…"

"Like you've been touched by a purifying fire, and when you touch it, it dances across your skin, making you feel more alive than you've ever felt before." Goku finished for her.

Blinking, Buffy turned and stared up at Goku. He just grinned at her.

"How…how did you know…that?" she asked quietly. Giles and Xander were both paying close attention to the pair.

Goku just shrugged. "For the first half of my life I always knew something was different about me. I was stronger, faster, and tougher than anybody and everything. Then I met someone. Apparently he knew my great great grandfather when they were both kids. Then he taught me Martial Arts. And I actually felt like I was accomplishing something worthwhile in my life. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was doing exactly what I was supposed to, and for the right reasons. It wasn't until the Powers approached me that I felt the portion of my Saiyan heritage actually sing from the training I received. It was in my fifth week of training here that I was able to cross the barrier into Super Saiyan. The moment that I did, I never felt the same ever again. I felt just like that."

Buffy blinked and nodded her understanding. Then she snapped her right arm out to attempt to punch Goku in the face. Before her fist was even a foot from his face, he had blocked it by catching her arm.

Without losing a beat, Buffy then snapped her left foot out, letting Goku hold most of her weight as she solidly connected with the side of his head. Surprised, Goku let go of the Slayer's arm and rubbed absently where her foot had connected, soothing the dull pain that had appeared there.

Buffy then tried to kick the Saiyan in the chest, but he wasn't distracted long enough for him to ignore her attacks and he easily blocked the kick with his arm. Keeping up the best advantage that she'd had over the powerful fighter since she'd met him, Buffy kept swinging kicks at his head and chest, while he just as easily dodged or blocked them.

Finally, after a minute of watching this continue, Xander realized what they were doing. What they had been doing for the past two hours; sparring. According to Goku's definition anyway, was more or less a free-for-all where every fighter in the room tried to knock out every other fighter in the room. Before, when it had just been Xander and Buffy versus Goku, needless to say it had been more than a bit one-sided.

Buffy was a much better fighter than Xander was, but compared to Goku it really didn't matter. He had avoided every single one of their attempts to land a hit on him, but no matter how many times they tried it seemed like every one of his did. After the first hour, Buffy had learned how Goku liked to fight, his style of fighting. Well, she at least recognized what it looked like. And after 90 minutes, even Xander had caught onto some things.

Taking a breath, which sounded more like a sigh of resignation, Xander gathered his meddle and ran into the brawl fists swinging. He managed to angle himself so that he was behind Goku, but Buffy could still see him. He had learned that lesson after the first twenty or so accidents.

Xander aimed for the back of the Saiyan's neck with a balled fist, coiled back his arm, and threw it with everything he could muster. Less than a second before it would have landed, Goku vanished before their eyes. He moved so fast they barely saw the lines of movement as he vacated the space.

In the same amount of time that it took the image of Goku not being there to reach Xander's brain, he had already realized what had happened and sent the message to his arm and fist to stop before they hit Buffy. With credit to Xander, he managed to freeze his body a second later, with less than a half centimeter between his arm and Buffy.

Yet at the same time, Buffy, having gotten into her fighting zone where she concentrated more about fighting and hitting the enemy rather than where she's going, didn't notice that Goku had 'flashed' away from her until the kick she had been firing off as he did, knocked Xander down and nearly all the way to the far wall. She did notice it the second after though.

Her senses screaming, Buffy ducked just in time under a high kick and soon found herself little time to wonder about how bad she had hurt Xander. Even after all the times Goku had maneuvered them into the same trap over the past two hours, Buffy was still focused more on getting to the target herself rather than realize the only hope she had of getting the target was to use teamwork.

After the kick, Buffy blocked several more as they came at her from nearly every side, and another vicious high kick every time she tried to fully stand. Having had enough, Buffy rolled away from her attacker, paused, then rolled back the same way and twice the distance.

Spinning as she came to her feet, Buffy managed to survey the entire room, determining the highest threat and the location of it and her target. Buffy paused when she saw Giles, having drawn his sword, advancing on her. Rapidly.

Ducking under his first swing with his new Blade, Buffy saw the opening she often exploited when sparring with Giles during training. After he struck, he always left his right side open. Buffy's hand shot out without her even thinking about it. Though she did have to force herself to put more force behind the blow than she normally did with Giles.

Her result, while heart wrenching, was what she had expected. Giles grunted and went to his knees in pain. Buffy spun, giving a sloppy roundhouse to the hand holding the Blade, knocking it away from the Watcher, and then punched him in the face. Harder than she normally had to, but the result was the same. Giles got knocked out. From his perspective though, for the last time.

Buffy turned, seeing Giles slump to the floor into unconsciousness, and started scanning the room for Goku. She barely had to look as he 'flashed' right in front of her, surprising her, but not enough to stop her instincts. She reached up and decked him solidly across the face.

His head turned slightly to the left, but he gave little else of a reaction to it. Frowning, Buffy decided to see what all of that strength-training this morning had done for her, and doing her best to raise her power and put as much of it into this one punch that she could, she tried her right.

Goku wasn't entirely sure what Buffy was up to when she started in on him. Maybe she just really hated getting beat, maybe she normally trained like this, or maybe she was actually trying to prove something. 'Poor kid,' he thought to himself, 'I've gotta get it across to her that it takes a while before she's strong enough to take me like this.'

Her first punch when he reappeared in front of her stung a little, but if he could stand multiple ki blasts and energy waves with nary a scratch, then he could stand the chance of getting a bruise on his cheek. Her right punch however…

Goku's head was snapped all the way back to his right she hit him so hard. 'DAMN! That HURT!!' was his first thought after the blow. Buffy, not wanting to lose an inch of gained ground struggled as hard as she could to keep her power up and lay it into every one of her hits.

Less than an instant after her punch, Buffy threw another, aimed at his left shoulder with as much if not more power to it. This knocked the Trainer back around the other way. She hit his other shoulder, then his upper torso, and then she started getting into it with her kicks.

At each blow the blonde Slayer dealt the experienced and powerful warrior, he felt more and more pain to each blow being delivered. 'Damn, she's strong,' he thought as she started kicking his upper torso and head when she could get a clear shot. Then he mentally sighed. 'But not strong enough. She's using almost all of her energy just to lay some more pain into me. She's fighting sloppy. What the hell is her problem? I mean, really!'

Having had enough, Goku upped his speed the marginal fraction of a factor and caught Buffy's next punch in the palm of his left fist. Then he stared her in the eye, and gave her a look that he saved only for those that really annoyed him.

When Goku caught her punch, Buffy realized that he was just playing with her, testing her to see if she could actually do any damage. When he stared at her with dead eyes, eyes that were bottomless pits empty of all emotion, and at the center of that pit was an anger so . . . terrifying that Buffy nearly screamed and tried to run the other way.

"Ow." Goku stated in a voice as dead and terrifying as his eyes. Then he crushed every single bone and cartilage joint in her hand. At that she did scream. Mostly in pain though.

Then he backhanded her so hard that her neck was actually torn away from her spine, though without tearing her head from her body, it still had the effect of killing her instantly. Goku dropped the lifeless corpse and sneered. "Weakling," he hissed, wiping a drop of Buffy's blood from his face.

"Nooooaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Goku turned at the shout and avoided Xander's meager attempt at a flying kick. Goku wanted to keep up his harassment of Buffy, but Xander demanded his attention. Almost literally. Goku wasn't sure when Xander had drawn his sword, or when Xander's claims of being unable to lift it were forgotten, but he was mildly impressed as he easily ducked and dodged the sloppy and clumsy strokes that Xander was swinging at him. He even had to avoid it at a faster than normal speed.

After several seconds of this, Goku asked Xander in a friendly, non-committal voice, "Xander, what's the point of this? You're hardly strong enough to even hold that sword, let alone use it properly. Buffy-" he was cut off momentarily by ducking forward under a high swing, "-thought she could take me. I proved her wrong because the confidence her luck-" he paused to emphasize his point, "was giving her, went to her head and she thought that she actually had a hope of knocking me out. It finally got so annoying," he avoided a forward thrust, "that I decided to proceed with teaching her the next lesson. Don't hit me unless you plan on hitting me, and meaning it."

With that last statement, Goku caught Xander's katana between his forefinger and his thumb. The trainer looked his student in the eye and told him in the same dead tone he had spoken to Buffy in, "I give few warnings Xander. Count this as one of them." Then he hit Xander so hard against the cheek that the human boy's neck broke in so many places it would be safe to say that it was shattered.

After the last dead body hit the floor, there was a strange quiet, almost a…() a deathly quiet about the room. Goku looked around at his three pupils and noticed himself how quiet it had gotten. He waited for approximately another seven seconds before saying aloud, "Oh man," he grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration, "THIS is boring. Gotta teach myself not to kill them all at once."

Just as Buffy, Xander and Giles were starting their impromptu training session, Willow was still in the Mage Tower, in the little concrete room, (she was surprised that one of the spells in the books she was reading allowed her to find out where she was and that the gray stone walls actually were concrete) having been in it for over five hours already, and reading the last few lines of a rather large tome that looked more like it held canvas paintings rather than book pages. When she finished, she quickly filed away the information she had absorbed from the book entitled, "Runes of Little Voodoo tricks."

No, she's not kidding. Sometimes having a Universal Translator in you brain, basically letting you understand and potentially speak any language in existence, was a very useful thing. Most of the time though, it was a very weird thing.

As she closed the final book of that had been on the table, it turned to vapor and disappeared before her eyes. The first time this happened Willow had totally wigged for all of a single minute, then she saw the usefulness of not leaving the books just lying around, getting in the way. Smiling that she was one more step closer to her goal, Willow reached out for the next book to memorize that was always seemingly there without even looking. When her hand grasped nothing but air and the wooden table, she looked up in surprise.

The table was empty.

"What the…" Willow started to protest before there was a flash of light and Arch Mage Amana Grael was standing before the table staring at the young witch.

"Finished already are you?" she asked in a gentle probing tone.

Willow was flabbergasted. There should have been no way for her to go through all five hundred and twenty-five books that had been on this table when she first sat down at it. "Uh…no! I mean, I shouldn't be." Pausing to gather her thoughts, Willow looked her trainer in the eye and asked, "Teacher, how long have I been in here?"

Slightly worried about the answer, Willow almost jumped out of her skin in shock when Amana answered, "Roughly about five hours. But don't worry Willow, the books wouldn't have disappeared if you did not truly read and study them all very carefully."

Willow started after that. "Five hours!? I've been in here reading for only Five hours?!"

Amana nodded and conjured a chair before her to sit across from Willow at the table. "Now comes the hard part, young Witch. I will now test you in everything that you possibly could have learned from those books. Understand that this is not a test of wit or courage or knowledge. This is a test of magic and to guarantee that you have truly learned what you had the potential to learn here. Now, Willow, if you will please sit down, we can begin."

Calming herself, Willow nodded and sat back down in her chair. "Good. Now, tell me the six varieties of ground demon that you will find on Trachea Prime in Universe 367 of Sector G9-N42?" Amana put forth. Without even thinking about it, Willow gave her the correct answer.

Less than thirty minutes later, Amana was struggling not to be in shock as Willow passed every single one of her tests. Almost all of it was knowledge based, book type answers. It seemed that books and knowledge was where Willow was strongest. Only near the end did Amana ask for anything other than a verbal answer, and it was a demonstration of a focusing technique that Willow had memorized in a book on ancient forms of meditation. She had even tried it out herself before the test, using it to calm her nerves over the once overwhelming task of reading and getting through all of the books.

Finally, the test was over. And once again, Amana was in amazement. Nobody, in her time at the Compound anyway, had ever gotten through the knowledge room in less than an entire day. She had even added to the books here because of Willow's comment on Voodoo and other darkish arts. Having kept that in mind, Amana had filled her schedule, not expecting to have to bother with Willow again for the rest of the day. So she decided to turn the youth back over to Goku to get her started on her physical training.

"Well, Willow, this is almost surprising," Amana congratulated her as she stood. She had to maintain the appearance of complete and utter control. "Because you finished so early, I'll let you join you other friends in the Main Gym. Goku should be there, putting them through the proverbial ringer I suppose."

Both magic users giggled at that. "Unfortunately, I have other business to attend to today, so I will see you either later this evening or tomorrow at the same time, do you understand?"

Willow nodded silently, rounding the corner of the table to stand beside her teacher. Then she paused as she asked her question. "Well, I do have one question. Am I done for today, I mean do I just go back to my room and do whatever?"

Arch Mage Amana Grael smiled wickedly as she answered the red witch's question. "No Willow. Goku will be filling up the rest of your schedule with his aspect of your training. Something important to remember from the "" is…"

"Maintain thy body as with thy mind so as to keep thine wits and their power," Willow quoted from the mentioned book. "I know, I know, I remember," she grumbled. She ducked her head like any teenager hearing an oft-heard lecture, so she never saw the smile that graced the Arch Mage's face.

"Right," was all the experienced wielder said before teleporting them both back to her office. Waving a hand at the red circle on the wall, she activated the MTC. Pointing at it, she ordered, "I've already programmed the MTC to take you to Goku and your friends current location. Go ahead and step through Willow. We'll continue this tomorrow unless I can get free time tonight. But don't worry, I'll take care of it. Go and be with your friends for the time. Come the time, I'll be taking up all of your time."

Willow nodded and smiled a gracious grin at the blond woman before racing to the portal. The second that she was through, the portal went back to its inactive state, leaving Amana alone in the room. Sighing, she turned around and pressed a hidden button among the clutter of her desk and spoke to the air. "Move up my appointment with Archer. And cancel the dinners. My new student is going to be requiring more of my attention than I had first anticipated." The answering chime in the air told Amana that her message had been received, understood, and carried out.

The words to describe Willow's feelings when she arrived on the other side of the MTC in the gym room where Goku had just finished with the little sparring match Buffy had started, do not exist in the English language. And if they do, they belong in a dramatic horror novel or script. But how would you feel if you saw two of your best friends lying on the floor, their heads bent at very inhuman angles, their faces and heads covered in their own blood and a man that was more of a father to you than your own was slumped in a similar fashion against the wall?

Willow's eyes were immediately watering as she looked at the small amount of carnage that lay before her, at which the center of stood Goku, looking troubled. "Wha…wha…whut-what happened here?" Willow quietly stuttered.

Goku looked up in surprise. "Oh! Willow! Uh, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"Amana-uh, I mean Arch Mage Amana told me that I had finished earlier than she had expected. She told me to come here and you would-" Willow stopped talking when something stranger than death began to happen in the room.

Buffy and Xander's broken bodies were suddenly surrounded by a bright golden-yellow glow, highlighting every inch of their skin until it was so bright that Willow had to turn away and she couldn't see their bodies anymore. In the next second, the golden light disappeared even faster than it had appeared in the first place and there were Buffy and Xander lying on the floor, groaning and complaining about something, but very, very much alive.

Willow felt like fainting, but was prevented by Buffy's waking statement. "Ow yourself Goku!" she shouted at the Saiyan. Xander, always the first to notice, immediately ran over to the young Vampire Slayer and asked in a panicked tone, "Buffy, are you all right?"

Buffy rudely shoved off Xander's comforting hand and snapped at him, "I'm fine Xander. Thanks to our immortality." She muttered the last with as much sarcasm as she could muster at the Saiyan trainer. Buffy stalked angrily away from the two taller dark-haired warriors. She got about five steps before stopping upon seeing Willow standing there like she was about to have a heart attack or something.

"Hey Will, when you'd get here?" Buffy asked casually, though inside her guts gave a slight lurch at seeing that worried frown in Willow's forehead.

Willow, still in shock, started pointing at the floor where they had been just a minute before, stuttering, "What…but…I…you…what…?" Buffy's eyes widened as she realized that Willow had seen them dead on the floor. Immediately she moved forward to help her absolute best friend in the world. "Oh god, Wills…" Buffy trailed off as she embraced the traumatized teen in her arms. The second that the shorter Slayer was beside her, Willow began to break down from the emotional overload.

Seeing this little drama play out in front of him, Goku rolled his eyes and groaned something about newbies. Noticing that Xander was still beside him, but his eyes locked to the female pair, Goku began to think of ways to actually get these kids motivated. Admitted, it was their first day, but…well, hell. He had been almost as bad, though he counted himself lucky that he was the only one to go through his training.

Sighing, Goku realized the only way to get them through everything was to keep them busy. Not give them enough time to think about things, to work out the pain, to realize how changed everything would be from this moment forth. Clearing his throat loudly he managed to draw the girls' attention as well as Watcher's and Warrior X's.

"Willow, I'm not sure if your Mage teacher explained everything to you, but I'm sure that you remember that the Powers promised you immortality?" Goku asked the elfin redhead.

Taking a deep breath and extricating herself from Buffy, Willow nodded to her best friend and turned to look at Goku. Goku was slightly impressed, but his expression showed nothing. Willow nodded and spoke with very little tremor in her voice. "My magic teacher is the 2nd Arch Mage, Amana Grael. For some reason she hadn't planned on me finishing my lessons this early, so I have her consent to spend the rest of my day here, with you guys. As for the whole immortality thing, I think I just got my proof, huh?"

Scratching the back of his head, Goku grinned sheepishly saying, "Uh, yeah. Look Willow I'm sorry about what you saw coming in here, but…well Buffy started it!"

The accused looked pointedly back at the accuser and shouted, "I did…well, OK so I did, but you didn't have to kill us, again!" she finished much quieter than when she began. Willow's eyes shot wide open. "Again?"

Goku shrugged. "It's what I call sparring. Best way to train somebody in my opinion. Rather than learn only theory and technique, you actually fight it out, learning how your body can react to the techniques and how well it works. I only get lethal when my opponents get lethal, sloppy, or too annoying in Buffy's case. I've already warned X and Slayer, now I'm warning you and the rest of your team. Don't attack me unless you are prepared to be attacked, and only hit me if you plan on hitting me and meaning it. I don't really care if you were swinging your hardest Slayer. Lesson 1, don't waste your energy by attacking just to cause one little more bite of pain. Always go for either the kill, or the end of the fight. Decide that before you even face your opponent. Are you going to kill him, are you going to beat him, or are you going to embarrass him?"

"Embarrass? Like you're doing to us?" Buffy snorted.

"No, what I'm doing to you is called 'feeling you out'!" Goku corrected by getting in her face, though it would be more chest to face. "Normally the first week is spent in such, but your schedules, as I have said are a little different. Normally we'd just be talking about whatever while I showed you a few basic moves and you showed me all of yours. But no, I have to get you guys into a shape your bodies have never been in before! I have to get you stronger, faster, more powerful than you can imagine at this moment, and I have to do it at an accelerated pace. Now I am sorry if you are not having fun Buffy, but you knew from the moment that the Powers explained everything to you that this was not supposed to be fun! It's life and death and if I have to kill every single one of you a billion times over to teach you how to stay alive, then by the Powers I will kill you one billion and one times!"

After this tirade, the Slayer team hung their heads in embarrassment, until their leader, Slayer, decided that she had had enough feeling sorry for herself as an excuse to be a bitch. All the reason she needed was standing right in front of her anyway.

Gathering herself, Buffy stepped forward to face Goku and looked up into his eyes. He saw the fire there; she saw the arrogant determination in his. "So what's next?" Buffy asked.

Meanwhile, in another area of the Compound, specifically the Mage Tower, Arch Mage 2, also know as the Second Arch Mage, Arch Mage Rank 2, the former Sorceress Witch made Arch Mage, and as of today "Willow's Teacher", was having a very important discussion with her colleague, Arch Mage 3. Also called "Archer". He was a minotaur.

"I'm telling you Archer," Amana stressed as she sat down behind her desk, he remained standing, "she's got it. I've only ever known one other . . . entity that has been able to absorb magical knowledge so quickly. And you know who I'm talking about!"

The minotaur snorted, a loud noise. "While I am willing to entertain helping you out with another trainee, some of the time, Amana, just because you happen to believe she could be a prodigy is no reason for the both of us to directly Teach her. We don't want to overwhelm the human, do we? Besides, one has to take into consideration that her magical reserves are very low, and time needs to be allowed for them to be exercised. If suddenly the both of us are testing her, teaching her, and getting her to exercise her talents all of the time, it doesn't even leave room for her to catch her breath, let alone allow her reserves to build up at all."

"Have you," Amana suddenly snapped at the large creature, "ever heard of someone, human or otherwise, getting through the first week of book reading in the first half of the first morning of training?! I couldn't even give her next weeks books to read because I can't get a hold of Tarot, whose got a number of them for several of her own students."

"Well," Archer shrugged, "if you're right about the girl, we'd only need them for the afternoon."

"Don't laugh," Amana could see the minotaur was struggling to contain his chuckles. "This could be a serious matter. What if I'm right? And this girl is a prodigy? Then what?"

"What do you think 'what'?" Archer turned the question around. "We do what we're supposed to do. Teach the girl everything we can, then turn her over to the one being that is still teaching us. But I'm still not convinced. Yes, I heard the rumors about what she did yesterday," Archer held up his hand to forestall any more arguments from his friend, "But even a fireball spell, a shield-barrier, and that she was smart enough not to even enter the labyrinth in the first place, does not make her a magical prodigy. Even . . . even he was never a prodigy. He says so all the time. She just probably reads a lot and has a photographic memory."

"And even if she did, it's more than that," Amana argued. "She didn't just memorize the books, she understood them! And her reserves are already increasing. What do you think the first thing I did was? Here!"

She handed him a file folder with a sheaf of papers in it. Archer accepted it and opened to read. "What am I looking at here?" he rumbled.

"The results of the tests I ran on her. Double-checked through the automated scanners."

Archer, as much as a minotaur could, blanched at what he was reading. "The machines registered her magic as several scales higher than what you did!"

"They're functioning perfectly, as am I. There's also to consider that I was looking at her core of magic, whereas the machines look at her life force as well. But they aren't that far off from each other, are they?"

"With only a month of training she could be at Mage level!" Archer exclaimed, still looking at the file in his hands.

"I think she's already at that level of potential, she just doesn't know how to access it yet," Amana explained to him.

"By the end of the Six Weeks..."

"She'll definitely be a Power Mage. And depending on how well we do, she could specialize and become the ranking master easily. Archer. She's a practicing wiccan. Just a practitioner, but she really believes as well. Thing is, from my conversations with her, she's also a born Jew."

Archer winced at that.

Amana nodded, but continued, "It seems, to me almost, that she's, in her own beliefs anyway, twisted the two together into a variation of Christianity, only rather than Mary, Jesus and God, she worships the God, Goddess, and Nature."

"Well, that's your specialty," Archer handed back the folder. "I'll teach her in battle magics and the like. You can fill in the basics and everything else she wants to know."

"Agreed. But I'd still like to bring you in earlier than we'd previously thought."

"I'll think about it," the minotaur shrugged. "Until then though, no more talk about her being some kind of magical prodigy. There are enough rumors about this . . . Slayer Team as it is without adding to it."

"Very well," Amana reluctantly agreed as Archer left.

"Now we finish what we started in the Endurance Training Gym," Goku answered Buffy's question. "It seems Willow got done rather quickly with whatever magic training she had to do for today. Her Teacher contacted me while I was getting you and Xander warmed up, which is why we came back here and waited for her. Now, Witch, let's get you caught up."

He turned to the black-clad redhead and crossed his arms.

"Start running. Along the wall, doesn't matter which direction you go in, just start running around this room until I tell you to stop. No breaks, no collapsing in exhaustion, if you're breathing hard, just keep breathing and keep running until I tell you to stop. And you might want to do that stretch I taught you earlier before you get started. Now."

Willow 'eeped' but immediately started stretching the way Goku had shown her and the others earlier that morning. Once she was done with that, she quickly ran to the wall and started jogging alongside the entire perimeter of the room and didn't stop until Goku finally told her to.

"Buffy, 500 push-ups. On your finger. You can pick which one to get started with, but once you finish one set, move onto another finger and do another five hundred, until you do all ten fingers." He glared when she didn't immediately move, while she glared back, but after about a minute of that, she finally fell to the ground and started with her right index finger.

"Xander, c'mere," Goku waved the teen over to him.

"I want you to stand on your hands," he told him.

"Huh?" Xander was confused.

"And stay that way until I tell you different. If you fall down, get back on your hands immediately. No breaks. Got me?"

"Yeah, OK. Why?"

Goku, rather than be frustrated, was actually glad of the question.

"Because Buffy already has perfect balance. You, on the other hand, I've already seen trip over your own feet. Don't worry, when she's done with her running, I'll have Willow join you. It's supposed to help you find your true center of balance. And it works. Now on your hands."

Rather than ask anymore questions, despite not quite being satisfied with the answer he'd gotten, Xander got down on the ground and pushed his body up into the air as he struggled to balance on his hands in the extra gravity his GEO suit was putting on him. Not that he was ever really that good at doing it in normal gravity to be honest.

Goku then turned around, but before he'd even done that much, Giles was already back in his original position, legs crossed, Nightblade laying across his lap while his eyes were shut tight as he meditated.

Shrugging, Goku then turned to further motivate Willow, who was starting to lag a bit in her jogging. He quickly got her 'running' and made sure she kept the pace for long enough to satisfy him.

A few hours later, Buffy got up, having completed five hundred push-ups, on single fingertip, for each of her fingertips. She was starting to really feel the burn now, but strangely, that only made her feel even eager for more, which confused her and exhilarated her at the same time. Nevertheless, she got up, caught up to the jogging-Goku and running-Willow, and asked their Trainer, "Finished. So what's next?"

Goku almost tripped over himself as Buffy surprised him with that question, but he didn't, and he even made sure that Willow didn't stop herself from the same surprise. Then he turned to glare at Slayer with a mix of annoyance and mild awe. "You're already finished with all that?" he asked, incredulous.

She just shrugged back, not even breathing hard with the run. In fact, the run seemed to have cooled her down some from the exertion of her push-ups, he noticed.

"She's..." Willow huffed, deep gasping breaths coming between each of her words, "... she's... a... Slay... yer..." she just kept gasping for air after that.

Again, the blonde just shrugged, but verbally answered, "Wills has a point. It usually takes me less than a week to get used to Giles' training sessions and he has to come up with something else. Of course... this is the first time I've been challenged. Giles' training usually just makes me sweat until I get used to it."

Goku just blinked.

"Fine," he grumbled, "go join Xander in what he's doing, but do push-ups at the same time. One thousand with both hands. Another thousand on fingertips, then two thousand apiece on one hand's fingertips for each hand, and IF you can get all that done before I tell Xander to stop trying to do handstands, then do another thousand on a single fingertip for each fingertip without using the other hand to further balance yourself."

Buffy blinked, then asked, "But... then how do I switch hands when I finish with the fingers on my first hand?"

Goku shrugged again, and answered, "Tell you what. Instead of just switching fingers, you have to push yourself off the ground and catch yourself with the new finger. Now get over there!"

It just so happened that they were coming up to a corner when he shouted that command, and Buffy was feeling a bit... frisky at the moment. So when she shot him a mischievous grin, he began to feel real worry all of a sudden.

That's when she suddenly raced ahead slightly. But rather than just running faster to where Xander was, she leaped forward slightly and started doing cartwheels, which quickly developed into back-flips and a full gymnastic routine that soon brought her to the corner wall. The corner wall that she then, in the midst of a high-speed flip, landed her feet on and then ran up for several steps before jumping off of it in a somersault that actually brought her parallel to the wall they'd just been running alongside for a couple seconds.

A couple seconds was all the blonde Slayer needed to complete her somersault, twist herself mid-air, and plant her feet back along the wall as though she were running on the ground again. She kept her speed up and increased her distance until she was, roughly, straight across from Xander. She then bent her knees close to her in the half-instant before gravity, even the enhanced gravity, could take full hold of her and then utilizing the full advantage of her Slayer strength, launched herself off of the wall straight towards Xander's position.

Unfortunately, despite their already impressive exercises, she didn't have quite the strength needed to get herself all the way there, so when she finally descended back down to the floor, rather than just landing on her feet, or even just falling down, she caught herself in a roll along the ground, both to absorb the impact and to maintain her momentum, as she flung herself out of the roll and into another flipping, cartwheeling gymnastic routine the remainder of the distance until she landed right next to Xander, from a jump, on her hands, which she then stabilized herself on to mirror Xander's own handstand. Except perhaps a bit more balanced.

After about a minute, once she was certain that she wasn't going to fall or anything, she smiled, and then began steadily and methodically doing handstand push-ups, making sure to count each one. And then going fifty over from what Goku told her to do so far.

Goku just stopped and stared at the girl as she did her little stunt. Chewing on his lip for a bit, he began to wonder about his trainees, and their "overwhelming" schedule. And that maybe they didn't have it as hard as he thought. Maybe they even had it easier than they should have it.

Deciding to put off any decisions until he knew more about what these kids could do, he flashed ahead, back next to Willow, who'd known better than to stop with him to also stare at Buffy's antics, and urged the girl to increase her pace to a "fast run".

Four hours later, Buffy was on the pinky finger of her left hand, rounding off her nine hundredth push-up on that finger. Of course it would be easy to just bend her elbow, but Buffy wanted to feel challenged. She was getting a prime opportunity to actually enjoy being the Slayer, and she was damn well going to take full advantage of it, so what she actually ended up doing was fully extending her arms and even her legs and toes, stretching her entire body as much as she possibly could, and then keeping her entire frame as still and smooth as a steel piston, she lowered herself until her nose was pressed flat against the floor. To add difficulty, after she'd moved from hands to all-fingertips, on the downward motion she also tucked her legs in, though keeping her torso as straight as ever, looking like she was trying to sit on her knees, upside down. Of course on the up-motion, she stretched her body all the way out once more, including her legs and feet.

One thousand hand push-ups, one thousand push-ups with her fingertips (and sometimes nose) as the only parts of her body against the floor, then two thousand single-hand push-ups, again with just her fingertips, with her right hand, another two thousand fingertip push-ups with her left hand, and then, because she didn't want to have to start all over or break her fingers, she then started on her single-finger push-ups, starting with her right index finger. After those thousand were finished, she paused for an extra second, taking a deep breath, and then using just her right index finger, "jumped" about two centimeters off the ground for a single second, but it was long enough for her to put her right middle finger in place and catch herself on the digit, amazingly keeping her balance with minimum struggle. She then started the process all over again, working her way through her right hand's ring finger, pinky finger, and finally thumb.

When she got to her right thumb, and one thousand push-ups with that finger finished, she took an even deeper breath, and managed to "jump" six centimeters up, and stay aloft for roughly three, two-and-a-half seconds, but she got her left index finger in place and maintained her balance with even less struggle than she'd had so far in 'switching fingers'. She then worked her way through her left hand fingers, one by one, until she'd arrived at her left pinky finger.

Of course, during all of this, Buffy had been doing the full-body stretching, and the going down till her nose was smashed against the floor, and bending and stretching her legs in time as well.

She was tired, but more than that, she was actually getting a full work-out. Not just "get sweaty and then your done" thing that Giles always made her do. But a "feel the burn, getting really stronger, muscle-tearing" workout!

What was really surprising her though was how she felt about that. She honestly felt like she could keep doing this kind of thing for the rest of her life. Literally! And what's more amazing to the socially-minded teenager was that she was having fun!

Xander, right next to her, had finally managed to keep himself in a, somewhat, stable handstand. Unfortunately, he'd found out the hard way that that was all he could do for right now. He'd tried, once, to mimic Buffy in doing push-ups. He then spent another five minutes getting back into his handstand and did not try to do any more push-ups.

Giles was still meditating, but the others noticed that he was sweating just as much as they were. Maybe more in fact.

Willow had been running for the past four hours and discovered, the hard way, that when injuries, aka exertions, become "life-threatening", such as a heart-attack or lungs bursting or blood seeping into air passages, clogging airways, and the like happen, their immortality immediately kicks in and starts a slow, moment-by-moment healing process. In short, if you're right on the edge of being killed by your own actions, say running, it will keep them on the 'safe side' of that edge, but it won't pull them back from said edge by even a millimeter.

But that's only after an injury exists, as Willow further discovered when Goku gave her a ten minute break to "catch her breath" (she'd been bleeding from her nose and mouth and coughing up more blood and puke than carbon dioxide) which allowed her immortality to repair the damage. Or rather, stop her blood from entering her lungs, and stitching a few of her lethally-torn muscles back together and also keeping her heart from failing, but only just.

So when Goku got her back to running, Willow was actually in more pain than before her break, as her immortality forcefully kept her injuries from killing her, and her muscles that she'd been working all morning, ones that having torn apart wouldn't kill her, were screaming in sheer agony as she forced her body to move when all it wanted and needed to do was stop and heal itself.

Willow later discussed this with the others, as her mind over-analyzed her discomfort and what was happening with her body via immortality even as she ran through her pain. Their Powers-granted immortality did not augment their healing in anyway. If anything, at certain points it even slowed it down, keeping them from healing as they normally would. The only exception that Willow had seen was when Buffy, Xander, and Giles had all been killed and then 'miraculously' revived, fully-healed of all injuries, even muscle-tears. Which meant that rather than wait a week or so to see the development, working their bodies into goo, and then being "killed" and then immediately revived, they could grow stronger and stronger depending on how hard they worked at it.

As it was, Willow had not yet been allowed to die, but she desperately wanted to, as Goku kept pushing her on, at the same 'fast run' pace, despite how much her body wanted and needed to rest. Thanks to her immortality, unfortunately, running until she was dead was no longer an option.

It was just as Buffy switched to her left thumb that Goku finally allowed Willow to slow back down to the 'run' pace, and kept her at it for another hour, while Buffy finished up the exercises Goku had given her. In less than six hours no less.

Three reps from her last bit, Goku suddenly shouted at Xander, "Warrior X! That's enough for now! Drop and start doing push-ups. Ordinary push-ups! Slayer!!"

Buffy froze, halfway down.

"Cool down, do some stretches," he paused with a smirk, "do that pacing that you like to do. Now, please."

Buffy stayed where she was, while Goku told Willow she could slow down to 'jog' but to keep moving for right now. The blonde teen was tempted to finish her last few bits and then do what Goku told her, but then he snapped back at her, "SLAYER! I told you earlier, only do that until I told X there to stop doing his handstands. He's already doing what I told him to do. Now COOL DOWN!!"

How he managed to move between running alongside Willow and screaming in her face so quickly without her even noticing him move, Buffy didn't quite know. But she knew when not to push, so she just jumped off her thumb into a somersault and onto her feet and started stretching, slowing the movement of her body gradually in order to prevent cramps later on.

After everyone, even Giles, who was not done with his meditation, was cooled down and more or less worked out, Goku stood before them, while Buffy finished pacing to stand next to her Team.

"So now what?" Buffy asked, tired but still exhilarated.

Goku smirked at her as he told her the answer.

"Lunch?" Buffy asked incredulously for what had to be the tenth time as she stood in line behind Goku on the floating barge called the "Movable Mess".

"Yes," Goku answered once again, "Lunch. And a big one at that. You've got to understand something here kids. You aren't normal anymore. And I don't mean because of your secrets or whatever powers or roles you played before. I mean because you are here, and you are one of us. One of Good."

"Don't you mean one of the 'good guys'?" Xander asked from behind Willow over the din.

Goku shrugged and grabbed the tray that materialized in front of him before answering. "Everybody's a good guy at some point in their lives Xander. But being one of Good, on the side of Good in the Tournament of the Powers, the Tournament of Good and Evil, well, that just adds to it. We're all on the side of Good, no matter what we are or were before hand."

"Getting back to how we're not normal anymore?" Willow grabbed her tray after Buffy.

Goku nodded and received a piece of plastic with a number on it and a PADD on his tray. He turned back to Willow and noticed them looking in confusion at his actions, "It's our serving number and menu. I have a personalized menu, but each of you get one PADD, these gray slates. I'll explain at our table, but for right now keep the line moving." They did.

"In answer to your question Willow," Goku continued after Giles had exited from the line and they were all following close behind their Trainer through the loud and boisterous crowd, "Training affects different species in different ways. Sometimes even affecting individuals different from the rest. When I was growing up, I liked to get into fights and was rather athletic, but not into sports. Other than that and being stronger than just about everybody else, I was a regular kid. When I started training in the Martial Arts, I just got stronger. When I came here, I got in touch with my Saiyan heritage, my roots."

They sat down at a round table that was empty and had just enough space for the five of them and seemed to be in the center of a space surrounded by filled tables. "Something that Saiyans are very different than humans in is a higher metabolic rate. I age actually a little slower than the average male my age, minus the whole immortality deal, but my energy levels are always in need of replenishing, and my body needs constant workout to stay at maximum strength. I won't become a weakling, but if I stop training altogether, I still lose strength."

"Higher metabolic rate? What do you mean?" Giles asked, clearly confused.

Goku thought for several moments before coming to a feasible explanation. "You know how Special Ops Soldiers in the Marines, Seals, and SAS eat?" Giles, after a hesitation, slowly nodded. "Saiyans eat five times more than that, just as fast. In half the time." He added.

Goku didn't have time to see everyone's shocked faces as he turned when the robotic waiter, little more than a box-screen with two multi-jointed arms hanging from the ceiling, came floating their way.

"Ah, Cecil!" Goku called, grabbing the robot's attention. It flew over right away and stopped just above the outside of their table, waiting for their orders. "Tell you what, I'll have my usual special please. My trainees here will have whatever has been prepared on their own menus. Please look under Slayer, Witch, Watcher, and Warrior X."

A moment later, the black screen blinked to life and green lines shaped into a digital face answered with a horrible French accent, "Of course sir. And, may I ask, how many servings will you be requiring today?"

"Oh, uh, just one each for them," Goku answered. He seemed to think a little more before finishing with, "And I'll have six servings please Cecil."

Immediately all noise in the Movable Mess, save that of the hover engines and a dropping utensil or two somewhere, just stopped. Buffy and the others looked around, finding their table to be the center of attention. Or rather Goku as the center of attention.

The robot too seemed to be staring too. "Are-are, are you sure that you truly need six servings sir?" To cover up his blunder in etiquette, the robot hastily added, "Because of health issues that is sir."

Goku nodded and handed Cecil his PADD. "Six servings of my usual," he ordered.

Silently, the robot took the offered PADD and rolled back towards the kitchen to prepare and get the food. The Slayerettes stared after the robot, some of the other eyes in the room following it as well, before seeing that Goku was still the center of attention.

"Uh, Goku?" Buffy asked. "Why is everyone staring at us? Or rather, at you?"

Without looking up from the table, Goku answered with a smirk, "You're about to get your answer Buffy." Five seconds later, the biggest creature the humans had seen since The Powers That Be came right up behind Goku.

Size was the first thing anybody would notice about this guy. Second thing was that he was purple, and alien, and had a very large mouth from which two tusks emerged prominently. The third thing that Buffy, at the least, noticed was his outfit. It was nearly identical to what she, Xander and Goku were wearing, except stretched almost four times as big. And no sword. Instead he had a large black belt, though on him it looked just right, with a strange high-tech looking belt buckle.

Buffy looked him up and down, arching her right eyebrow in interest at the strange fighter. Well strange to her, who had never before seen something non-human that hadn't been a demon or something to kill. Wanting to stretch herself, Buffy opened up with her newly discovered sixth sense. She was nearly overwhelmed by the onslaught her brain received from the large number, along with the large sources of power her sense detected in the small room.

The moment that Buffy opened up with her sensing ability, Goku and almost every other fighter in the room immediately gave her sharp looks. Buffy was too overwhelmed to notice, trying to make sense of the new data her mind was attempting to computate, just staring off into space at nothing in particular.

Goku closed his eyes and sighed. If the others at the table didn't know any better, they'd think he was embarrassed by something.

"Hey Girl!" the purple warrior behind Goku growled in a completely inhuman language. "You'd better reign in your curiosity if you know what's good for you! Nobody here likes being focused on too much! Especially me!"

Buffy finally figured out her new ability. She focused back on Goku, the only other power she was familiar with, which gave her perspective enough to realize that she was practically catatonic sitting at the table. Shaking herself and physically shaking her head to clear the lethargy that had creeped in, Buffy blinked hard before looking back to Goku.

Catching his hard glare, Buffy gulped and hastily apologized. "I'm sorry. I…just was trying to orient myself. Well, come on! You only taught me how to use my Slayer sense like this yesterday, you expect me to not try and use it on my own?"

"Actually I fully expect you to try stretching yourself," Goku responded, much to the group's surprise. "However, I would appreciate it if you could allow etiquette to dictate your actions a little more. Basically Buffy, what you just did was the equivalent of going up to each and every person in this room and put your head on their shoulders to listen what they were talking or thinking about. Everyone here can sense powers and power levels, and thus are also sensitive to detecting others using that same ability on them. In other words, it was very rude Buffy," he summarized.

Buffy gulped one more time, this time lowering her head and blushing furiously, now understanding her error. "Sorry," she apologized once again, much quieter though.

After this, most of the room turned back to their meals or conversations, now the topic of subject being primarily Goku and his new recruits. Yet the huge purple warrior behind them remained. Goku let the creature wait another whole minute before addressing it by name.

"What is it Gortung?" he asked impatiently.

The purple alien, Gortung, grunted and then walked around so that it was now behind Xander, but facing Goku. "I'd just like to know Goku, as I'm sure most in here would, what's so special about first day recruits that you actually require 'six' special's. You only eat so much when preparing for a Tournament or in the sixth week of training for a truly gifted warrior. What makes these guys so special that you are so hungry?"

The newbies were left shaking their heads in wonder. Their Universal Translators gave them a flawless translation, but at the same time gave them the information that some of the meanings had been lost or changed along with the word as the languages between Gortung's native and English were just too great for comparison.

Goku just shrugged and stared back at the huge, vicious looking fighter. "They show a strong potential. That and their team leader has asked that I stop going so slow with them. In order to do my best, I need to be at full energy. Anything else is either none of your business, or emplaced by the Council. Any other questions Gortung?"

Growling slightly, the large purple, tusked fighter gave a negative indication and rounded the table to go back to his seat. On his way he "accidentally" bumped Buffy, knocking her into the table painfully.

Failing to reign in her temper, which seemed to have magnified since her devastating and embarrassing losses to Goku, Buffy jumped up from her seat and shouted, "Hey!" and shoved the purple mountain away. Buffy stopped the second after she realized what she'd done, as Gortung, growling louder and more ominously than any vampire could ever hope to copy, stood up and glared threateningly back at her.

Buffy glared right back, just as hard, not knowing what else to do. Thinking that Goku would stop her, or maybe even save her if it came to that, Buffy walked up to the huge alien, as it did to her, until they were right in front of each other.

Buffy almost cricked her neck looking Gortung in the eye, but she didn't back down. Neither did he.

"What did you say?" Gortung growled out.

Smirking, "I said, you bulbous mountain of putrid worm stench, watch were you lay your sasquatch copied appendages you call feet, and keep your ugly purple shit-faced ass out of my face!" She continued the insult, following with her Translator's suggestions, by pinching her nose and open teeth grinning up at the fighter, which was the same as giving it the finger.

Growling in a way that the humans thought sounded extraordinarily like laughter, which their translators then confirmed, Gortung extend its hand, with seven fingers that it was large enough for, and pushed Buffy slightly with one of its fingers. She rolled with the soft impact, like if Xander had play-punched her shoulder. She smiled genuinely back at it, which it understood due to its own translator, and then she shoved him back. He hardly moved.

The laughing growl increasing, Gortung finger-shoved her again, with a little more force, causing her to take a step back. Her smile now as fake as her good mood, Buffy reached up and forcefully shoved the creature in the abdomen, surprising everybody but Goku when it too had to take a step back from the hit. Its growl now lost some of its humor and it full-hand shoved her, hard. She nearly knocked over the table behind her when she rammed against it.

Repressing the urge to growl some herself, Buffy got back up, stalked up to her current opponent and using both hands, shoved against his chest with as much force as she could possibly muster without holding anything back. She surprised even herself when he suddenly flew back at her shove, until he hit the far wall, over the tables and various patrons between his starting and stopping places.

To further her surprise, when Gortung didn't immediately get back up, nobody went to help him, nobody attacked her on his behalf, and in fact, nobody looked like they cared much at all. Everybody was just sitting around, either eating or talking with their neighbors. Snorting, Buffy turned around and walked back to her table just as the food was arriving.

Sitting down, Buffy noticed that there were no less than five of the robot screens hovering about the table, and the only one giving her looks over what she'd just done was Willow, who was staring at her in concern.

"Buffy, are you all right?" the redhead asked.

Buffy nodded and responded shortly, "Yeah. So, Goku, what's for lunch? I'm starving enough as it is." The Saiyan just looked to the lead robot for answer.

Immediately plates began to be set before them. Buffy first, got what looked like baked chicken and several vegetables, Willow got some tofu looking junk, and Giles a cheeseburger and fries. Xander actually got a tray of food, which caused everybody at the table to stare at him when it was sat down. On the central plate were four Twinkies, three Hohos, and a slice of extra cheese pizza. There were several other plates of various types of deserts and cakes too.

When Xander noticed them all staring he gave them a look that said while he also asked aloud, "What?"

As for Goku, the first plate sat in front of him held something like a large juicy steak, but not cooked too much. The other seven plates held noodles, filling the plate to the brim and at least several dozen centimeters high. The others stared as all of the plates were set before their Trainer.

"Now I see why everybody was staring. I'd stare too if I heard somebody was going to eat that much." Xander commented.

Goku looked up, "You ain't seen nothing yet," he said just before he began to eat.

Seventeen hours later, the group was walking, actually it was more sympathetic to dragging themselves through the MTC into the Training gym, the room where their day started out in.

"I hurt. I am hurt. There are parts of me that hurt that I didn't know could hurt," whined Willow as she stumbled against the wall and slid to the floor.

Xander followed her in similar condition and slumped down beside her. For once he had nothing to say, which was surprising because he'd spent most of the training talking, making nonsensical sarcastic comments, or complaining that it was impossible. But he still did it all.

Giles, looking wearied and worn, came after them but managed to remain on his feet. Then Goku, looking the same as ever, and Buffy, who looked tired but for a reason beyond the lesser mortals, happy. In fact she looked so good as to say chipper. Xander and Willow decided that they didn't like this.

"Buff, you usually hate training," Xander mentioned from the floor, "What is so great about this that you are now actually enjoying this?"

"Yes, I quite agree," Giles added. "Normally I have to threaten and lecture you to get any cooperation of any sort. What makes this so much more different?"

"Yeah Buffy, why are you so chipper after all of that?" Willow whined quietly.

Buffy smiled, but tiredly.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I guess it's like you said Goku, I'm finally getting challenged enough that I'm getting in touch with my inner-Slayer. I'll admit guys, I feel just as tired as all of you look, but I also feel kinda, I don't know…good about it."

"It's understandable Buffy," Giles commented. "The Slayer would naturally adapt to such a strenuous ordeal very easily, but I still find it remarkable that you aren't affected more by the training we've all undergone here."

Buffy just shrugged and just kind of stood there. Goku meanwhile was setting up something with his Global again, but nobody really took notice by this point. It had become commonplace in regards to the dark-haired Trainer, enough that they finally figured that if he wanted them to know what it was he was doing, they'd find out eventually.

Suddenly Giles grunted and had to sit down almost immediately. Xander and Willow, already on the floor just stayed there and Buffy found her breath becoming labored once again. She had learned that it only happened when Goku had increased the gravity, requiring her lungs and bodies' need for more oxygen.

"So, increasing the gravity again Goku?" Buffy asked.

Goku nodded absently and tapped something on his Global. Finally he seemed satisfied and closed the device and walked to the center of the room. Buffy was about to follow, but she noticed that her friends did not really want to move, so she turned back to help them. Reaching for Willow's hand she added as encouragement, "Come on, up you go!" Grabbing both teenagers' hands, pulling them up with her subdued strength, she helped them to their feet.

Groaning with great complaint, they managed to get to stand, and immediately wanted to go back down. "Ah, ah, ah, no you don't. I'm doing this, your doing this, Giles is doing this. Complain all you want, but your still doing it." Buffy ordered.

"Can I at least take off the jacket?" Xander begged.

"No!" Buffy and Goku answered simultaneously. They shared a look at their agreement, but quickly moved on.

Giles managed to get up on his own and the four lined up in front of Goku in the center of the room. Buffy felt what he was planning, but decided against comment. "All right, here's what we're going to do. So far I've had you focus on primarily strength and endurance training, the weights, the higher gravities, and the rest of it. Now I'm more or less going to be teaching you the basic techniques. Now, as you learned this morning, they may be obvious and simplistic, but with repetition, not to mention when you focus on speed and accuracy they can quickly become very important. Buffy, this time no helping. If you think you're finished, then just keep going. This isn't a competition, this is getting you all to the same level of fighting that you can at the least face off against each other and come to a draw."

"First, ready position," Goku showed them what was basically a modified horse stance, one foot a half-a-step in front or behind the other, keeping the feet at just outside of shoulder width, and right arm drawn back by his sides, his left brought up in a guard position before his head. They copied him as near as they could.

"Xander, right punch," he ordered. Xander hesitated, not understanding. Then he punched his right fist straight out, like they had done that morning for their first waking hours.

"Good," Goku complimented. "Now I want you to keep doing that until I tell you to stop, understand? Always returning to the ready position before throwing another punch, alright?" Xander grimaced and almost made a face, but nodded and did as ordered.

"Giles, go meditate," Goku ordered.

Batting an eyebrow, Giles just shrugged and turned around and went to the MTC and told it to take him to their quarters. "Hey!" Buffy shouted. "Where's he going?" Goku glared hard at her, but answered anyway.

"He requires a different training regimen Buffy. The sword trains him. I only train him to work with the rest of you. He needs to meditate with it at regular intervals or…something dangerous might happen."

"Dangerous how?" Buffy asked, ignoring Xander beside her who was still punching away.

"I can't tell you," he reluctantly confessed. "At least not yet anyway. I'm sure that Giles might be able to better explain it himself, but just be aware that he needs to meditate every now and again. It's kind of important for the Blades for some reason."

Buffy grimaced, but for the moment accepted this argument. She'd had enough of them with the trainer today to last them all for a year. She nodded and waited for his next instructions.

"Willow, I know that you're still new to this, and I really hate sounding like a corny drill sergeant, but drop and do push-ups until you drop dead. Literally. Xander and Buffy are both stronger than you, so we're going to have to spend more time focusing on that and endurance with you, okay?"

Sighing, and resigning herself to her fate, Willow nodded and 'dropped' to the ground and started pushing herself up in ten times normal gravity, where her arm muscles got ten times the workout.

"Buffy, attack," Goku ordered.

Slayer didn't so much as hesitate. The second the word fully left his lips, Goku was dodging and ducking under her tired hits and kicks. This went on for at least thirty more minutes, and Willow had surprised herself by continuing her own exercise despite how exhausted she already was from other such exercises from earlier in the day.

"Xander, change arms!" Goku suddenly ordered, ducking under a high kick from Slayer.

The training session continued in this fashion for another thirty minutes, which is about when Willow finally dropped to the ground and could no longer move her arms, no matter what she tried to do. Willow's sudden weakness caused Slayer to freeze for a moment, a moment that Goku used to punch her, "lightly", across the face.

She turned her head slowly back to him, her lip cut, and glared at the one-eighth Saiyan. They continued to spar, though Buffy was seriously distracted until Willow rolled over onto her side and tried to get back up. She couldn't.

Finally, Goku was tired of Slayer's distraction and ordered Xander to help the redhead up. He immediately did so, and was about to continue his punching the air, when Goku stopped Buffy's attacks and indicated that for the moment the fight was over.

"Xander, you take over sparring with Buffy. Don't worry about hurting each other, just do your best, and Buffy, if you want to you can teach him some moves. I'm going to take Willow to the Clinic to get her healed up real quick. Don't worry you two, it's nothing serious, just some basic relaxation and massage techniques." He explained.

Buffy started a little and asked worriedly, "Uh, not…"Massage Therapy"?"

Goku shook his head as he easily picked the small girl up and threw her over his shoulder, "No, it shouldn't be that bad, just something to relieve the pain and help her muscles to heal faster and grow properly. That's all."

"OK, just, bring her back safely, 'kay?" Buffy granted wistfully.

Goku nodded and Willow mumbled something about Buffy not worrying, but nobody really heard it.

Xander and Buffy just stood there in the training room for several moments staring after their best friend in each of their existence's. Ever since he had first laid eyes on her, Xander had wanted to be alone in a room with a sexy, sweaty Buffy. Unfortunately he was too tired, too heavy, and too worried about Willow to try and take advantage of the situation, such as it was.

"Um, Buffy, as much as I would love to take a break…" he left the statement hanging.

It seemed to snap the blonde Slayer out of the trance she had fallen into. "Yeah," she mumbled. They turned to face each other and for the first time since Buffy had learned that she was going to die at the hands of the Master, Xander saw doubt, confusion, and fear in her eyes. Seeing such made him instinctually want to do two things; take her in his arms, tell her everything was going to be okay and be the emotional support his friend needed at that moment, OR, beat it the Hell outta her. He considered the place, and made his choice.

"Well, way I see it, we can do two things," he found his mouth saying without his full consent, "One, we can sit on our asses and wait for Goku and Willow to come back and Goku might actually through a tantrum, or he might just give us that disappointed pity look." Xander noticed that Buffy's eyes flashed with anger when he mentioned the look Goku had given them all numerous times that day. "Or two, we can do as he says and beat the holy livin' crap out of each other."

Buffy looked up at the 'normal' guy in her life. Ever since she had met him he had done everything in his power to endear himself to her. Make jokes, put himself in mortal danger, just to help her, and help Giles and Willow with the research thing. He had done the emotional support thing too, when necessary. Buffy thanked Heaven above for her friends while wondering what she could have done to deserve them in her life.

Buffy smiled boldly at Xander's comment and nodded. They approached each other until they were within short striking distance of one another. Buffy nodded to him, he nodded back.

"All right Xander, I'm going to swing at you, you block. I'll pull back, and then you'll swing a punch, and I'll block. For right now, at least until you get better at fighting, we'll go with that, kay?" Buffy explained, not wanting to hurt her friend, either emotionally or physically.

Xander nodded and put himself in the 'ready' position Goku had shown them.

Buffy swung a slow, but fast enough to still be one, right punch at Xander's jaw. His left arm shot up faster than she expected and successfully blocked it. She pulled her arm back and waited for the dark-haired youth's move.

She was genuinely surprised when his left arm shot out from the side faster than she expected, but her instincts were sharp enough to bring her own arm out to block it. Xander pulled back his arms and immediately raised his right arm to block the incoming punch from the Slayer. Not wanting to let her get one up on him, he shot his own hit out just as fast. She blocked. So it progressed, Buffy just going with a normal routine, as with a punching bag, hitting as fast as she could and blocking the return strikes, which came just as fast.

Xander found himself actually enjoying the light sparring occurring between him and his not-so-secret crush. So much so that he realized that she was lightening up on him. Her punches were just the lightest bit softer and her blocks were waiting until the last second to stop him. Feeling resentful, Xander decided to see if maybe he really could give the other warrior a real workout.

Buffy was surprised when Xander's punches started to come faster, and landing with a little more force, and she was moving fast enough to recognize that his blocks were waiting until the last second or so to stop her hits. It was at this moment that Buffy remembered what she had learned about Xander earlier that day in the workout gym. He had only been using about half his power so far. Grinning despite herself, she wondered if she, not Goku, would be the one to bring her lanky dark-haired Xander shaped friend to his full potential.

Xander noticed Buffy's grin, and he realized with a shock that she was enjoying herself. He recalled Goku and Buffy saying something about the only time that they felt fulfilled was when they were getting stronger? Was that right? Well then, maybe giving Buffy a more than decent workout could count as their first date? Or maybe not. But still, since Slayer was grinning, Warrior X decided to give her something to grin about.

Xander, conserving his energy by focusing it, started to ignore the pattern they had developed into and just started to try and hit the Slayer as much and in as many places on her gorgeous body as possible. Buffy's eyes widened at the change in tactics, but her instincts and training allowed her to adapt nearly effortlessly. She quickly realized what Xander's objective was, though she didn't understand the reasoning behind it.

Buffy opened up with her sixth sense, feeling out Xander's budding power. She was amazed at how easy the new skill had become for her, and how quickly she found his power. In truth it was not far behind hers and was steadily growing, but she was still far stronger than the boy. She felt him accessing his power, raising it, relatively, higher than she had forced her own, in her rage-filled attack on Goku earlier. She discovered, though, how he was doing it too. He was focusing his energy, conserving it and only bringing it to full out as he finished his strikes, allowing him to save his overall energy for more hits or later endurance. Basic karate.

She was amazed at how well Xander was handling himself, even blocking her own wild blows now. She then thought of trying what Xander was doing, focusing her energy, not just letting it all out in one single moment to fuel all of her movements, but to hold back until just before her strikes would land to power her hits.

Warrior X could almost immediately sense the change in his opponent. One second she had been scrambling to adapt, and had easily done so. Several moments later, she slowed in her own hits as she studied him. He didn't really mind, too focused on the next hit or block to care. And in the next moment, she seemed to relax, as she had been before he started focusing on wilder attacks, when they were just easing into it.

Warrior X was confused for a brief moment. He wanted to be the one to actually give Slayer what she wanted, and right now at this moment that was giving her the best workout she'd ever had. Yet he couldn't deny that when he had changed tactics all of a sudden, she had been working much harder, therefore more workout. So in order to give her what she wants, he would have to try even harder on his end of the fight. Here's where the conflict came in though, he didn't want to hurt her. Well, he figured that he probably couldn't hurt her, even if he did try, but he wasn't really up to even wanting to try and hurt her. He momentarily flashed back on the moment that, once upon a time, had the Slayer actually backed into a corner.

It was during the Hyena possession thing. He still hadn't told anybody but Giles that he remembered every excruciatingly embarrassing detail of what had happened to him. What he hadn't told them though, what he hadn't told anybody and had taken nearly a year to discover, was that he still had the hyena strength, the senses, everything that he'd had when possessed. He knew he wasn't still possessed, but he couldn't deny that his senses of smell and hearing had dramatically improved since the incident.

The strength aspect he hadn't noticed until he and Willow had started patrolling with Buffy on a regular basis. He could always smell the undead approaching, and could always hear Buffy and Willow's heartbeats as they fought, but the fact that the couple of times that he dared to actually fight a vampire one on one, he shocked himself by actually causing the vampire pain with his hits. He even managed to take some of the harder knocks easier than he had ever remembered taking hits like before. And somehow nobody but him had noticed.

Realizing that for once he could back Slayer into the same corner and she wouldn't run away, and might respect him for his new strength, Xander came to the undeniable conclusion that he had to fight full on, no holding back, it was time to let the "hyena" go.

She was a bit shocked when she had to blocked two rapid punches from Warrior X, and then he started to laugh. Not just any laugh though. One that sent chills up and down her spine, and had once given her a week of nightmares, though mild in comparison to many of her others. The laugh of the hyena. The one time that Xander had actually been scary and had nearly been strong enough to beat her.

His laughter was short lived. Only meant as an outward representation of the giddiness he felt as he finally let go of his inhibitions of strength and fear. Then he started actually trying to hit the Slayer. He began to watch her, even as they moved and blocked one another, looking for the weaknesses in her defense. He found several and immediately took advantage of them.

She was scared. She was scared of the fact that she was scared. Because she was scared of Xander, and he was the one person, other than her mother, in her life that she wasn't supposed to be scared of.

His hits became harder than iron, faster than she would have thought possible, and he stopped just wild swinging. He began to target her weaknesses, where she was slow to block or left entirely open. He managed two very hard hits on her abdomen and a third a glancing blow off her right shoulder.

Slayer then recognized what he was doing. He was Fighting. He was intimidating her, studying her technique, finding the weaknesses, and taking full advantage of them while maintaining his own defense. She got angry at that.

She was the Slayer. She was the strong one, the Chosen One, she was the fighter! Not him! He was just the guy that liked to hang out with her, he made jokes, he flirted with her, and he even fawned over her a little bit. But he wasn't better than her!

She wasn't sure where this line of thought came from, but she did know it made her blood boil. It gave her an anger that she had never associated with being the Slayer before. A sense of pride, in herself and her abilities. It made her want to win.

Feeling out with all her senses, Slayer noted with a subdued note of shock, since her primary focus was bent on beating Warrior X, that he had gone to full power. He had somehow accessed the full potential that she had sensed in him. She had done what she had set out to do, now all she had to do was survive the encounter and still win the fight.

She studied X's form as he threw a punch at her face and she blocked it. In the next moment, her right arm flashed out and knocked the Warrior for a lulu. He staggered back from the blow, but he wasn't bleeding yet. Smiling dangerously, Warrior X laughed again and kicked Slayer in the stomach. She took the blow but didn't fall back, though she did have to bend over from it.

He waited patiently, for three seconds, before she leaped up and snap kicked at his jaw. He ducked under it, barely, and punched his arm where the Slayer would land. She caught the arm, but missed the punch coming from the other side and he got her across the jaw. After that, first blood was called and they began to seriously come close to killing each other. They fought like their lives depended on it and neither was willing to give an centimeter.

The fight continued until Goku came back, with a healed Willow who was groaning and begging to go back to the clinic as soon as the heavy gravity took its full effect on her once more. When she saw the fight however, all her concerns were suddenly for her two best friends, who looked very much like they were desperately trying to kill each other.

"Buffy! Xander!" she screamed, hoping to make them stop. Instead Buffy just high kicked Xander's head so his neck snapped dangerously backwards.

Goku put his hand on the young witch's shoulder to stop her from running into the brawl that had developed between the two friends. "Stop Willow," Goku ordered. "They have to work this out. Whether that be limits of training, or whatever emotional issues they're dealing with. You know it's almost natural. I've noticed Xander's crush on Buffy. She doesn't seem to really reciprocate his feelings. Add to that that she's stronger than him and nothing he seems to do ever gets her attention, I'd say that he resents her. As for Buffy, she's been holding back practically all day. I don't know if it was because of all of you or if she truly doesn't know how strong she is, but right now she's giving almost all she can give to really fight Xander and keep from killing him outright."

He stopped and looked at the worried redhead beside him, "Something you have to understand Willow, we here don't take death as seriously as you've been raised and learned to view it. It's just a part of training, and while unpleasant, almost as common as cramps in normal training. The only time we ever take death seriously is in the Tournament. We never, ever, joke about the Tournament. Not even with Champions. In anything else, death is nothing. Death is easy. Death, Willow, has been cheated."

Willow stared at the fight in front of her, listening with only a half an ear to what Goku was telling her. It wasn't until she saw Xander hit Buffy so hard that the Slayer actually had to take a step back, and absorb the retaliating kick the same way that Buffy would have, that Willow began to realize that Xander was getting his wish. He was becoming just as strong as Buffy and Angel. He could win the Slayer's heart if he could prove to her that he was just as good. Willow wondered briefly if she still had any chance whatsoever to win Xander's heart.

Willow got her answer when Buffy backhanded the youth so hard that he actually flew back to the floor. Not a chance in hell. What surprised Willow even further was that Buffy didn't let up on Xander when she knocked him away. She took a running start and then tried to jump kick his slumped body for further damage. Fortunately, he rolled out of the way in time, and then he took advantage by side-kicking the Slayer when she landed.

Buffy acted like she didn't even feel it, instead forcing Xander on the defensive with various punch/kick combos. Willow was horrified when she managed to catch glimpses of her friends' faces. Both were smeared with blood, and while Xander's was still bleeding from a cut on his cheek and his possibly broken nose, Buffy's was equally thick red from her lip and nose.

Finally Willow couldn't stand to just sit back and watch anymore. Turning on Goku she glared him full throttle with the "Resolve Face". "Aren't you going to stop them?!" she screeched. "I don't care about your views on death, but . . . they're…they're killing each other!! They're best friends! They shouldn't be trying to kill each other! This is brutal, and, and, and…and…its wrong!"

The glare Goku turned on Willow blasted her "Resolve Face" out of the water and into subatomic particles. "You want them to stop Willow, stop them yourself. Until Buffy comes up and asks me, again, 'What next?' I'm content to let them beat each other into whatever bloody pulps their bodies can fit into. It teaches them endurance and how to take hits with the body. It'll help in the end, trust me on that Willow. But if you want them to stop this, you're going to have to stop them on your own."

Willow's resolve doubled at the challenge as she stared back under the intense look of her Trainer. When she turned back to the two she wanted to help, though, she started to feel a bit of doubt. Sucking it in, Willow ran as fast as she could, which in the heavy gravity wasn't as fast as she'd have liked, her intent to stop the fight in progress.

Yet the very moment that she got within range to be of any effect, Warrior X's fist, not on the way towards Slayer, struck out and solidly connected with the girl's face. Willow fell back, more in shock that her best friend had just hit her than in pain from the blow. She thought he hadn't meant it, but the next moment, while Slayer was backing off a bit after a rather hard hit from the warrior, he turned to her, and grinned darkly. Then he laughed.

Recognizing the laugh, and feeling identical feelings to the ones Buffy'd had, Willow just fell into the ready stance, understanding that her words would not reach her friend while he was in this state. He just laughed again and snapped out a kick at her head. She barely dodged it in time and moved forward to punch him in the face. Instead his left hand just appeared in front of her nose and backhanded her with the force of a home run softball. In short, hard.

Willow knew her nose was broken immediately as she staggered back from the surprise blow. "OWWWW!!" she screeched, her hand automatically going to cover the wound. X just laughed and was about to taunt her, but Slayer had other ideas.

The moment that Willow's screech reached her ear, she felt a burning sensation form deep in her chest and a stark fear ran ice through her veins. The next sight she saw was X, still laughing like a hyena, stalking closer to the injured redhead. She didn't think, she just moved.

Warrior X wasn't sure what happened. One second he had been about to make a one-liner about girls being wusses, the next thing, he knew only pain. Slayer, who'd been behind him and was now between him and Willow, had suddenly kicked him in his chest, followed instantly by two punches to his face, a kick to the small of his back, and a knee to his head, knocking him back at least three meters.

Willow entertained thoughts, going along with the current level of insanity, of Buffy suddenly turning on her and beating her until she really was little more than a pile of flesh and bones. Instead, she and Goku were somewhat surprised to see her go back after Xander. She almost dived on top of him, grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket and dragging him to his feet.

Any defense that X could have mounted was utterly wasted in the next second as Slayer brought her knee upwards for another attack. This time in an area far more sensitive to X's position. Goku actually winced, feeling sympathy for the other male. Willow just stared in disbelief, her broken nose forgotten.

As for X, well he gave the typical reaction and every single cell of fight left him. Slayer just stood over him as she let him slump to the ground, cupping his crotch as though she would dare to hit him there again. Instead she just wiped the blood from her chin. Her own blood the startling realization came to her. Suddenly, all of the pains, hurts, bruises, and cuts X had inflicted on her during their "sparring" match was screaming out their agonies.

A hissing noise could be heard. Buffy wondered what it was, looking around the room for the source. After several moments, they all realized it was Xander, trying to talk. He managed to gasp out a few more breaths of air, but couldn't do much more than that.

Buffy began to panic that she had actually hurt him. Yet one look at his crumpled form told her that she indeed had injured him, it was the fact he wasn't speaking that had her so worried. "Xan…" she croaked, her own voice failing her. She tried again, "Xander?" a little better, "Are-are you…OK?"

He managed to spare enough energy to lift one hand from his crotch to wave the blond Slayer closer to him. She hesitated for but a second, her Slayer instincts telling her that he might be trying to ambush her, but she ignored them. She knelt down beside him, worry evident in her expression. "Xander?" she asked again, her face a short distance from his.

The look of pain that had been on his face suddenly evaporated like the air and before Buffy could recognize the change, he grabbed her with an iron grip around the throat and kicked forth with his right leg. He then kicked her with enough force to knock her back, over two meters away. "Gotchya," the warrior exclaimed as he leapt to his feet.

X then turned to Willow, and stopped. He was shocked to see the blood on her face. Flowing from her broken nose. A broken nose he had given her. He almost stopped the fight right then and there, but Slayer literally demanded his attention.

"X!" she screamed, realizing he was in his "warrior" mode. He turned just in time to see the enraged Slayer rushing at him. He fell into a defense stance and blocked her first two hits, and managing to get out a few of his own before she started pummeling him six ways to Sunday.

Buffy was letting loose all her frustrations of the past 48 hours on Xander's nearly defenseless form. She didn't think he deserved to be called a Warrior, not yet at any rate. His power was strong, stronger than anybody could have guessed, but hers was stronger still, and she'd just proven it. Her Slayer instinct driven blood lust demanded she end it, and end it with a surefire method. Normally 'Buffy' would've tried to repress this dark urge, but the Slayer didn't.

After a brutal combo, Slayer jumped up, and slammed her left leg as hard as she physically could into the warrior's chest. They all heard a sound distinctive of cracking wood, and Slayer realized she had just broken his ribs. The boy fell back to the mat, trying to catch a breath of air, but unable to do so. Slayer fell with him, her leg still on his body. Deciding to take pity and not let him choke to death or drown on his own fluids, Slayer wrapped her inhumanly strong legs around the dark-haired teen's neck. She began to squeeze until she felt she had a good enough grip, and then she twisted her legs the opposite direction his head had been meant to turn in. The force was just enough, and everybody heard the sickening crunch and Xander's eyes glazed over and all of his struggles ceased in the next second.

Trying to catch her breath, Buffy tenderly untangled herself from Xander's corpse and tried to stand up, forgetting that the gravity was supposed to be heavier than normal. She managed to get to her knees, and felt satisfied enough with that to stay where she was. That was when she looked up and saw the look on Willow's face.

A look of pure shock, horror, revulsion, and ever-present throughout all of these, fear. Fear of Buffy. Fear of what she had just done. Buffy immediately realized her mistake. She had heard Willow's conversation with Goku and had assumed that the redhead had actually listened and realized what it meant. Buffy had caught on to the same truths after her first sparring match with Goku, and had guessed that Xander had to.

"Willow…?" Buffy whispered out, trying to stand to her feet. She succeeded after the third try. Yet when she tried to take a tentative step towards her friend, Willow just backed fearfully away from her, like she was some kind of dangerous animal.

Buffy felt her heart break at the action. Willow hated her. Her emotions suddenly raced out of her control and she began to feel weak. Her legs were about to give out when the group became aware of a bright golden glow behind her.

Buffy heard Xander stand to his feet behind her and heard him mutter loud enough for all to hear, "Geez Buff, you couldn't have gone any softer on me could you?" he asked in a voice that was entirely sarcastic.

"Xander?" Willow's voice trembled as she spoke. "You're alive?"

"Well yeah Will, we are immortal now y'know," Xander responded.

In the next instant, the blackness that had been threatening the periphery of Buffy's vision suddenly swam up and completely assaulted her, she had no more strength left to fight it. Her last thought was, 'Willow hates me…'

As he was standing up Xander noticed that all of his injuries, particularly his broken ribs and the cuts on his lip and cheek were completely healed, as though they had never been. He did have a sharp pain in his neck though, every time he turned it a certain way. He hoped it would go away eventually.

Xander was actually surprised that Willow hadn't been aware of the purpose of the exercise just now. They really were supposed to train until they killed each other. Then they'd just get back up and kill each other again. He just hoped that Buffy had gotten the workout she wanted from him.

Just to check, he looked up at Buffy after answering Willow, and asked, "Hey Buff, did I give you a good enough workout?"

Buffy just stood there, looking like she'd had the crap beat out of her. All of a sudden, her legs just seemed to be cut right out from under her. "BUFFY!!" Xander and Willow cried together. Xander didn't have time to think, he just reacted, jumping forward and catching Buffy's body as it started to fall to the heavy gravity.

"Buffy! Buffy!" Xander was shouting, trying to get the blonde to wake up.

Goku appeared in the next second, standing over the three huddled teenagers. He knelt by Buffy's head, which Xander was cradling, and opened her eyelids and checked the rest of her vitals in quick succession. After he was through he took a sigh of relief, and part amazement.

"She's still alive," he told her friends. "But obviously she's pretty beat up. Now we have two options here, one, we take her to the Clinic, or two, we kill her now and she's fully revitalized in seconds as opposed to an hour or more."

Willow and Xander shared a look. Willow's held a heavy concentration of doubt about everything, while Xander's just offered the redhead a question. Willow, still very confused, just looked back and forth between Buffy's unconscious and bloodied body and Xander, looking like he had just woken up from a pleasant nap.

"Xander…?" Willow croaked.

"It's true Willow. When we die, the second that we revive, we're perfectly healed. I mean, look at me! I was bleeding all over the place, my ribs were broken, and I think I might have sprained a whole lot of stuff. Now I feel better than ever. Well, except feeling heavier than my uncle's car. And I get the sharp pain when I turn my neck just so." Xander said.

Willow's eyes widened at the last statement as she kept in mind what exactly had killed Xander. Finally, Willow worked through enough of her disbelief to put her mind on Buffy's problem. Spend the rest of the day healing in the sterile Clinic where they were treated as so much pieces of meet to poke, prod, and measure. Or snap her neck so her immortality could heal her instantly.

They all knew what Buffy would choose, but Willow was the one to say it. "Kill her. But not painfully!" she begged, looking at Goku.

Goku just shrugged and looked at Xander. When the teens noticed, Xander started yelling, "What?"

Goku just shrugged again. "She killed you X, now it's your turn. Then I have to take Willow back to the Clinic to fix her broken nose."

Willow had tendrils of fear run down her back at the thought of going back to that meat locker. "Why don't you just kill me now," she muttered sarcastically. "It'd hurt less."

Goku shrugged again and then punched the girl in the face so hard that shards of cartilage and bone from her nose were driven into her brain, causing instant death. Xander just stared in disbelief as Willow collapsed to the gray-tiled floor, her face literally caved in.

"Umm, Goku…" Xander squeaked.

"Yeah X?" the Trainer said cheerfully.

"Just this once, would you mind killing Buffy? I-I, um I'm not feeling up to it at the moment, and…and I think I'll just let it go this one time, 'kay?" Xander said lightly, still staring at Willow's corpse.

"Okay," Goku said easily, then stood up and kicked Buffy's chest in, till the top of her chest was less than a millimeter from the top of the floor. (Think crushed cookie paste)

In the next few seconds, both Willow and Buffy began glowing until the light was blinding and they stood up in the next second under their own power, feeling no pains at all. "What happened?" Willow muttered.

"You asked me to kill you, so I did. Instantly so you wouldn't feel anything," he answered.

Buffy was silent, remembering her last conscious thought, 'Willow hates me…'

Deciding to move on, Buffy, sounding rather tense turned to the Saiyan and said stiffly, "So what's next? Glad to see Willow's OK and everything, but we've got a lot to do. So how about Xander take a shot at you and you give me something else to do, huh?"

Goku just stared blankly at her for a few moments. "OK," he finally nodded. "Do what Xander was doing. Don't stop until I tell you, and don't stop and ask me what's next because you're bored. Willow, stomach crunches. Xander, we're over here."

The team from the Hellmouth put up no argument, sensing the strangeness of the mood and choosing to just do as told and not whine or complain about it for once. Buffy practiced her punching, unconsciously staying as far away from Willow as possible, while Willow just dropped down and did stomach crunches and sit-ups while Xander punched and kicked at their Trainer who effortlessly avoided his attempts. They didn't quit until the end of the day, nine and a half hours later.

It was actually ten hours after the end of Buffy and Xander's "fight" that the trio managed to hobble back through the MTC to their apartment. More than a half hour spent in the Clinic for something the Doctors would only ever refer to as a "Check-up" and only in their native language, none of which happened to be human, let alone English.

That wasn't the worst part of it though. The minimal 'worseness' of it was th décor of the place, nothing but thoroughly sterilized stainless steel-like machinery, furniture, walls, floor, and even the beds they were forced to sit uncomfortably on. It was worse than they thought it would be, mostly because they all felt like they were in some kind of meat-grinding butcher's shop chop block. Willow had already been there, so was at least prepared for it. Buffy and Xander weren't so much.

The absolute very worst about the Clinic however, were the Doctors. They treated them like so much mass of meat to be picked, poked, prodded, scanned, weighed, and measured. They spoke like the patients weren't even there, even though with the Universal Translators they could all understand perfectly, talking to the computer with the test results and not even caring about the groups' comfort or feelings.

Finally, the Doctors, if that was what they could be called, let them go, and Goku set the red portal back to their apartment and told them he would pick them all up at the same time (and in the same way) the next morning, which thankfully was not for another ten or so hours.

The moment that they were through the portal and in their "apartment" that they still had not fully explored yet, all three of them noticed a remarkable change.

"What the hell?" Willow cursed as she suddenly stood straight, feeling lighter than a feather.

"Yeah, I feel it too Will," Xander added, feeling the same.

"Well, it is a little less stuffy in here," Buffy quietly observed, still feeling tired and mildly heavy.

"They must've turned the GEO thingies off," she surmised, then asked, "Cool. I suddenly don't feel as tired. You guys want something to eat?"

They both declined, choosing to go and lay out on the comfy couches and recliners. Xander plopped down on the larger couch and started to pretend like he was sleeping, though both girls could tell that he was faking it. The over-done snoring sounds were their first clue. Willow sat down in one of the comfy gray recliners, sighing as the cushions immediately conformed to her body to give maximum support and comfort.

Buffy ambled on over to the bar where they'd had their breakfast and sat at the stenciled seat with her name. "Can I get something to eat please?" she asked aloud.

A computer-like beep of confirmation sounded from either the wall or the bar itself as a holographic display, of green and yellow light, suddenly popped up in front of the blonde Slayer. In yellow/gold 3-D print, was the question 'WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE?'

Buffy frowned a little. Then she remembered, the two times that Goku had let them eat all day, he had said something about their personal menus. So she shrugged and decided to see what she had available before just saying anything that they might not even have.

"Can I see my personal menu first please?"

'CODENAME PLEASE…' was displayed.

Buffy sighed and remembered the trouble she had with her door last night and Goku's explanation of it. "Slayer," she answered shortly.

'ACCESSING…' 2 seconds later, 'FULL NUTRITIONAL MEAL DISPLAY OPTIONS:'

Right below that, the entire green-light screen was full of five columns of names of both snacks, meals, and, in English, the names of every single food item that Buffy had ever thought was good. Buffy didn't really want to count, but she suspected each column to contain well over 100 items each.

Gulping at the fact that anybody could know this much about her, Buffy skimmed the lists until she came to something that sounded particularly tasty; rotisserie baked chicken, mashed potatoes and crème mushroom gravy, and corn on the cob. She chose Coke as a drink. Making her selection, which amazingly enough was just to tap the item on the screen, which then highlighted, and then pushing 'SELECT' area in the bottom right corner of the screen, and ten seconds later, during which the screen disappeared, the counter hummed for one second, and the remaining seconds were given to the materialization of the food from the same green light that had manifested their breakfast that morning, complete with utensils, she had her meal.

Buffy immediately dived into the meal much the same way that Goku had devoured his at lunch, not caring in the slightest for any noises or messes that he'd made. She just knew she was hungry and this was food, which would make her not hungry.

As Xander and Willow sat in the "lounge area", the soft, subtle, yet incredibly mouth-watering scents of Buffy's dinner made it's way over to their nostrils, to the nerves at the top of their noses, and into their brains, which registered as pleasure. A much desired pleasure.

Xander's nose started twitching the moment the scent hit him, though his eyes remained closed. Willow just turned around and stared at Buffy's back, her mouth opening some, the drool pooling higher in her mouth threatening to spill out over the edge.

"Um, Buffy?" Willow managed to call out after swallowing the large amount of fluids retained in her mouth. Buffy had to pause in her shoveling to swallow and turn around, her mouth rimmed with the gravy from the potatoes. "Yeah Will?" Buffy asked carefully, still thinking that Willow hated her for what had happened hours before in the gym.

"What… what is that you're doing?" the pale redhead asked with a hunger in her voice.

"Eating," the Slayer answered shortly, as though it were obvious. Xander was sitting up at that.

"Um, eat-eating what exactly?" Willow asked, trying to control her voice.

"Oh! Chicken and mashed potatoes, with corn on the cob," she answered, pronouncing potatoes as Poe tot Toes. She then giggled a little. "I never did like saying it that way. Potato, potato." She said, comparing the two sounds of the same word.

"Uh huh," Willow mumbled, getting up and slowly making her way to the bar. Xander was right behind her. They both had a gaunt, hungry look in their glazed eyes.

In the next instant, they both were at their places and gazing intently at the half-finished plate that Buffy had turned back to, though now eating at a more conservative pace.

"Um, Buff, how-how…" Xander had to stop himself from drooling. "How you get food?"

Buffy had the decency to stop, grab the napkin that had appeared with the plate and wiped her mouth before grinning and answering Xander's question. She was glad that neither of them was angry with her over what had happened to them in the past forty-eight hours or so.

"Just ask the computer for your menus, but don't forget to include your code name. Then pick and viola." Buffy explained.

Both were obviously just as starved as Buffy was, as they immediately followed Buffy's instructions, their words tumbling over one another's. Buffy glanced at their menus while they had them up, and was mildly surprised to see each in a different format. Willow's looked to have just as many per column as she had in her entire menu, possibly more, but with only four columns. Xander's was actually much smaller than both of theirs. His had roughly six to eight columns, from what Buffy could see, but each column was maybe twenty or less per column.

When they finally picked, both had picked whole pizzas and sodas, Willow the "Veggie lovers" and Xander extra cheese and each had grape soda. They began to devour their food almost as fast as Buffy had and were concentrating on nothing else. Buffy began to eat once more, but at a considerably more civilized rate than she had been before.

Thirty minutes later, after Buffy having seconds and both other teens finishing all of their pizzas, the plates and other stuff disappeared as the teenagers filled themselves with food and went back to the lounge to just generally relax.

Buffy, having been tense ever since they came back to the apartment, decided to have that "talk" that they all needed to have. There was just one thing missing. Giles.

"Has anybody seen Giles?" Buffy asked, disrupting the silence that had held the room.

Both teens shook their head, feeling content after the fulfilling meal and still exhausted from the earlier trials. Buffy began to feel a creepy tingle of worry at the back of her neck as she stood up.

"Did Goku, or anybody else, say where he would be going to train? I'm serious guys, I'm starting to get worried." Buffy said.

Willow frowned some, but didn't get up. "Have you tried his room?" she asked naively.

Buffy quirked her eyebrows, actually considering the logic of the question. Then she just walked over to the door with 'WATCHER' stenciled in blue next to it. She pressed the panel beside it, hoping that would open. Instead she just heard some kind of computer-generated chirp that actually sounded like a doorbell ringing. Surprised, Buffy did it again. Same result.

Just as she was about to press it a third time, the door suddenly opened and there was Giles directly in front of her, with a rather sour look on his face. As soon as he saw who it was, his expression instantly lightened and he looked rather pleased to see her.

"Buffy!" he exclaimed. "I'm surprised to see you here. What can I do you for?"

Buffy blinked. Was this that same Giles from earlier? She quickly composed herself and answered him. "Uh, I-uh, I need you out here for-for a minute. Are you done meditating?"

"Yes, I finished just a few minutes ago actually. I really wasn't expecting you all back this early," Giles said as he left his room.

Buffy wondered about his statement. They hadn't exactly been away from each other for only a class period. "Giles, how long do you think you've been here?" Buffy asked as they both sat down in the lounge.

Giles made an 'I don't know' gesture and said, "Well, that's where things get rather confusing. I have absolutely no concept of outside time when meditating, but if it helps, from my point of view, since I've last seen the three of you when Goku sent me here to meditate in peace, to me it's felt like approximately three hours. I can only imagine that I've been out for about five or six hours."

The three teenagers stared at him, prompting him to add, "Or possibly longer."

"Try more like 19 hours Giles! We've been through the absolute worst training that you can imagine, and probably some stuff that you can't! And me worrying about how your handling your new magic sword…" Buffy ranted.

"Blade," Giles corrected.

Buffy looked annoyed for several moments before continuing. "Blade," she amended, "Me worrying about how you are doing is not exactly helping my concentration factor. I… Giles, I'm the one in charge, I'm responsible for all of us. The Powers said it themselves, I'm the representative of this group, and that means that I have to take care of all of us."

"Buffy nobody expects you to…" Giles began.

"Buffy, we don't expect you to be anything more than you already are…" Willow started.

"Guys!" Xander shouted, quieting the intellectuals.

"Buff," Xander said, "I get the pressure you're under. I even get a lot of what we're doing here. Above all, I get the purpose of what we're doing here. To learn how to fight and get strong enough to actually do said fighting. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that only you and I fully understand what we're going to have to do," he said, pointedly looking at Willow. She blushed.

"Willow, out of all us, I understand that you are not a violent person, and you aren't really the fighting type. But Will… For crying out loud! We're immortal! We don't have to worry about being careful to not die. I'll be the first to admit that I would rather avoid it, it is quite painful after all. But we are all going to have to push ourselves pretty damn far. Shit, dying is probably going to be the easiest thing we can do in all of this."

They were all silent as Xander spoke. "Willow, you're going to be involved in magic, while Buffy and me are going to be more physical. Giles apparently is going to be off on his own, and by the way G-man, your attitude totally sucked today."

Giles scrunched his face in confusion. "Excuse me?" he asked, his voice a bit stressed. "I have no idea what you're talking about…" He suddenly stopped talking and turned to look back at his room, as though he'd heard someone calling him.

He stood up, saying, "Excuse me for a moment, would you?" Then walked back to his room, leaving the door open until he came back out, walking much slower with the open Blade in his hands. "Giles?" Buffy said in concern.

The Watcher looked up at his name and quickly rejoined them by the couches. "I'm sorry for that you all. But…I…I heard…the Blade, Nightblade, calling me. I know that sounds strange…"

"Actually, since the sword is sentient Giles, it's not that surprising. So what does 'Nightblade' need you for?" Buffy asked.

Giles turned all of his attention to the obsidian Blade in his hand, as though listening to it. After about a minute, he looked back up at Buffy, guilt written on the Englishman's face. "Buffy I feel I owe you an apology. Nightblade has…just explained to me…" he paused.

"Explained what Giles?" Buffy prompted.

"Apparently, if…if my meditation is ever interrupted, at any point before I have fully completed doing so, then…Nightblade actually takes over."

"It takes over your body!" Xander screamed.

Giles hastily shook his head. "No, that's not what I mean. I…when I meditate with the Blade, which is a he by the way, I…it's difficult to explain in words. I…give a part of myself to the Blade, and in return, it gives me a part, the part of it that allows me to…learn how I can best use it. When I meditate, we, the Blade and I, we fortify that bond. In short, it directly teaches me how to use and understand its powers. In return for that, it…in a very, very mild sense, possesses my body. When you…interrupted me earlier Buffy, it was Nightblade that was in control. He…he apologizes for usurping your authority, and both he and I pledge ourselves to you. Though you must understand Buffy…allowances must be made."

Buffy was listening very carefully as Giles tried to explain his relationship with his new swor…Blade. When he finished, or at least looked like he had, Buffy spoke. "Thank you Giles, and…thank you Nightblade," she directed the last comment to the weapon in her mentor's hands. "I understand, at least I think I do, what it is you have to do, and why, but…" Buffy stopped and looked Giles directly in the eye, showing her soul to him and the Blade. "Giles, please…don't ever degrade me like that again. I'll stand up to a little cheek every now and then, and maybe even a temper tantrum, but don't ever talk to me like you did today. Ever again."

All were silent as they felt the emotion in the room. The black weapon between them all suddenly flashed blue, not lasting even an instant, but its message was still conveyed in that amount of time. It was sorry, and it swore to never break the oath it had just made. Giles, with tears pooling around his eyes, just nodded, heartbroken that he could ever do such a thing to his Slayer, ever. He suddenly felt the urge to go and meditate again.

Buffy noticed Giles' sudden anxiety and decided to ask about it. "Giles? Is something wrong?"

Giles just shook his head, then said, "Well, actually I'm not too sure. I suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to go and meditate again." Buffy nodded.

"OK, but first," she said, "would…would you mind telling me if I made the right decision?"

Giles didn't even have to hesitate. He just smiled at her, "Yes, you did Buffy. The Powers warned us themselves, there would be challenges coming that we could have never faced unless we came here. I have every confidence in you Buffy. Please, never doubt that."

Buffy grinned, tears suddenly threatening to wet her cheeks. She stood, as Giles was already standing, and gave him a quick goodnight hug. "Now go and meditate. And don't forget, we have to be ready to go before six. I want to at least try and get up before Goku shows up." Giles nodded, "Of course Buffy. Good night."

"Night Giles!"

"Night G-man!"

Once the Watcher was in his room, the door shut, Xander and Willow turned to Buffy and gave her their best intimidating glares. It just gave her the urge to start laughing. Yet her present frame of thought gave her all the encouragement that she needed to sober up.

"All right Buffy," Willow said, resolve face on full blast, "you've been acting weird since the fight with Xander. Which by the way I understand and don't have any problems with now. Buffy, we're your friends. Tell us what the problem is."

"Yeah Buff," Xander added.

Buffy sat back down at her seat, and suddenly found her knees very fascinating. Finally she looked up at her two best friends in the entire world, "Do you think I made the right choice?"

At their confused looks, she continued, "Coming here. Accepting this whole destiny and true power thing the Powers shoved in our faces. Did I do the right thing?"

Willow smiled, "Buffy, I think you're forgetting something here. I was the deciding vote, remember? So what do you think? Besides, some of the books I've already gotten to read…" Willow's smile actually brightened, "It's almost beyond comprehension. This place is amazing Buffy. And I admit, a tad harsh, but hey, that's life."

"And you know me Buffy, I've been 'gung-ho' since the get go!" Xander added.

The two girls cracked up at Xander's quip, but they all soon quiet their laughter. The somber mood returned and Willow began to think that there was more to Buffy's problem than what she had just admitted.

"Buffy, other than the whole self-doubt issue…is there anything else the matter?" Willow asked.

Xander looked up, but said nothing as Buffy studied her knees once more. "No," the blonde said uncertainly. Xander and Willow shared a look. Xander nodded and stood up.

"Well ladies, I for one am ready to turn in," he said making a humorous display of stretching and yawning.

"Xander wait," Buffy called, as he was almost to his door. He turned back and approached. "Sit down," she asked. Frowning, he did.

Buffy considered trying to find some roundabout way of asking, but she was tired and couldn't think of anything, so she decided on the direct approach. Looking Willow in the eye, she asked, all her emotions in her voice, "Do you hate me Willow?"

Willow's eyes widened and her face fell and paled almost dangerously as her brain short-circuited. Buffy ducked her head, afraid of the redhead's reaction.

"Buffy! How-how-how, how can you say that?!" Willow near exploded when her voice caught up with her sudden hyperventilating breath. "Of course I don't hate you!! I could never hate you! Note the use of negative words like don't and never! Buffy…I love you, and I repeat I could never hate you, not even for an instant." Willow felt a sudden and completely overwhelming compulsion, she got up and was across the small space separating them in a second, where she hugged Buffy in a tight and shaking embrace.

Buffy, the tears she'd been holding for the last eleven hours finally falling as she easily accepted Willow and they just held each other. Xander, while appreciating the possibility of a girl/girl moment, knew when to be just a friend and not a guy.

"Buffy…is this because of the whole fight earlier? Because I'm pretty sure nobody was permanently hurt from that," Xander said.

Buffy turned her gaze to Xander, and he had to gulp from the intensity she directed at him. "Why did you hit Willow anyway? She wasn't even in the fight!" Buffy's voice sounded like diamond against plaster.

Xander just shrugged, looking rather beaten himself. "I guess I've got a confession of my own to make. Remember last year, the field trip to the Zoo? The whole hyena thing?"

"It's not exactly easy to forget Xander," Willow said.

"Yeah, well…"

"It's OK Xander, we know it wasn't you in control," Buffy said.

"Uh, kinda, yeah. Well, that's kind of a yes and no type deal." Xander said.

The two girls stopped and stared at the dark-haired youth. They looked at each other, and Willow slid out of Buffy's embrace. "What do you mean Xander?" Buffy asked.

Xander, desperate, and fearing retribution, "I wasn't actually in control, something else was, I still don't know what, but…" He took a deep breath. "But. I remember everything. Everything. Willow, I am so sorry for what I told you when I was locked in the cage. I swear I didn't mean a word of it. I wasn't in control. But I did lie that I didn't remember any of it. I'm sorry."

Both girls took deep breaths of their own before turning back to one another and then back to Xander. "I take it there's a reason that brought about this confession now?" Buffy asked with a note of ire.

Xander repressed the urge to run away screaming and settled on gulping. "Uh, yeah. Re-remember the, that is, when I had the whole super senses and was almost as strong as you were Buff?" he asked. They both nodded. "Well, Istillhavethem." He said in a rush.

Buffy and Willow blinked and stood up to face their friend. "Meaning…what?" Buffy asked.

Xander shrugged. "Meaning, I can smell vampires, and you, and everything else that I could while possessed, and my hearing is definitely better. And when we've been helping you on patrol Buffy? I-I kinda noticed that the strength is still there too. I don't have any hankerings for meat or, uh…mating, but the…the powers are still there."

"What about the others? The bullies?" Willow asked. Xander could only shrug.

Buffy however, saw how the pattern fit with everything. "Huh," she grunted. "So that's the power I sensed inside you. The hyena spirit? And when you were fighting me, when you were going all out, that's when you started to rely totally on what was left of the hyena? That was why you attacked Willow while I was distracted?"

Xander, his throat dry, nodded.

"Wow," Willow breathed, sitting back down. "But why did you think I hated you Buffy?"

Buffy almost cringed. "When…after I had knocked Xander out…I saw the look on your face. I…I thought you hated me."

Willow could almost laugh, but her heavy heart prevented it. "No Buffy, I didn't hate you. I was scared of you. Xander, my best friend since kindergarten, punched me with very little reason. By the way Xander," she paused as Buffy punched him in the nose, drawing blood, but not breaking it, "I forgive you. Thanks Buffy." The blonde only nodded, smiling with her friend.

"If he did that to me," Willow then continued, "and Goku was all rootin' to see us fight each other, when you finished Xander, I was afraid that you would turn against me too. It was all kind of instinctual anyway. I'm sorry I hurt you Buffy."

Buffy sat back down and put her arm across Willow's shoulders. "It's OK Willow. But unless I give you warning or Goku tells me to, after a very long fight I might add, I will never fight you. I just couldn't do that Willow." Buffy explained. "Doesn't mean we won't ever spar, just means that I won't ever attack you without prior warning."

Willow chuckled and nodded.

"So now what?" Xander asked, sounding as beat as he looked.

Buffy shrugged, her arm still around Willow. "I don't know. We could go to bed, get however many hours extra sleep we'll be needing. Or. We could stay up talking until we're falling asleep where we sit."

"We got enough sleep, I say we talk." Willow said.

Xander gave a lopsided grin and got more comfortable in his recliner opposite the couch. "Sure, why not? So what spells did you learn today Wills?"

Buffy felt Willow shrug herself as they both got more comfortable on the couch opposite Xander. "A lot of things. Some of it, well, I can't really tell you. Other stuff you have to read to even believe possible, and a whole lot of it is in languages that have more letters than English has words. But there was this one thing that I found very familiar."

"What is it?" Buffy asked.

"It's called a Tri-power shield. Basically it uses the spiritual and body energy, also called the Aura energy, of three different people and focuses it into a dome-like shield that protects against all physical, and even some magical harm."

Buffy frowned. "That kinda sounds like…"

"The shield spell that I cast yesterday in the Main Gym when Goku was giving his demonstration!" Willow finished for her. "I began to wonder how I could have possibly known that spell when I only learned of it today. Then I found this other spell that is basically a Temporal-phase mental amplification spell." At her friends' confused looks, she explained further. "Actually, it's called the 'Knowledge of Time' spell. It more or less just allows somebody, with help of course, to send knowledge, whether experience or just like future learned stuff back in time to a person that you want to influence. Usually just yourself. And before you start thinking of like sending lottery numbers or sports scores to yourself, it only works for a brief period of time, and depending on how strong the caster, or casters as the case may be, you could only send it about a day back in time. Like when Xander went to get Angel to help during the night Spike showed up was like a moment of inspiration. For me to have cast that spell…well…"

"Well what Will?" Xander asked.

"Well, I would kinda need to do this Time spell in like…maybe a few minutes in order to send that…moment of inspiration that occurred yesterday." Willow looked kinda sheepish.

"So ya wanna do it? I mean, we can do it, right?" Buffy asked.

"Oh yeah, we can do it. It doesn't require any extra supplies or a ritual or nothing. Not even the shield spell. That only requires the energy that I used from you guys already. As for this knowledge thing, it's more a meditation exercise than anything else. But…I'd kinda need both of you to help. I'd do the focusing and the spell and everything, but I kinda need to you help and give me enough energy to make sure that it can actually happen. But if you don't want to it…" she trailed off.

"Well…" Buffy said. "Didn't we, technically speaking, already do it? I mean, you already cast that shield spell, we all saw you do it. And if we don't do this knowledge through time spell, wouldn't that kinda be like changing the past. So we already did cast it, but in order for the shield thing to happen, we have to cast it again?"

"I know, it's kind of a paradox, but we don't have to. I mean, if we don't then all that means is we'll get dusty when Goku does the demonstration…"

"Let's do it!" Buffy and Xander shouted at the same time as they stood up.

"Okay," Willow meekly added and stood up and led them to one of the clear areas in the room. She had them sit in a more or less triangle and take each others hands.

"Close your eyes and try to stay relaxed. If anything happens, believe me, you'll know it."

Within thirty seconds, Buffy suddenly knew something had happened. She was suddenly seeing the same thing she had seen yesterday at the demonstration. The two energy blasts being shot at Goku hanging mid-air. Only thing was, she knew it was from Willow's perspective.

She suddenly felt Willow, the Willow she was sitting in a circle with in their apartment, doing something, sending her knowledge of the Tri-power shield to her past self. She didn't know how or why, but she was fully aware of Xander and Willow with her, but didn't know what to think of it. Then she was too overwhelmed by seeing the collision of the beams on Goku, again, and the onrushing cloud of dust.

Almost out of nowhere she heard her own voice say, 'This is not the time for spell casting Willow' to which she herself immediately answered in her own head, 'Yes it is' and thought nothing more of it. And in the next few moments, she felt something that she had never even felt before. The spell taking shape, and drawing power from the past versions of herself, Xander, Giles, and a little bit from Willow.

After the shield was dispelled, Buffy thought they would just immediately zap back to the present, but instead she found herself, and her friends with a little problem.

'What! Who are you? What are you doing in my head?' Past-Willow was thinking at them.

'Uh oh,' Xander thought.

'Xander?!' Past-Willow thought with alarm.

'Forget,' Willow thought to her former-self. And that was that. Past-Willow forgot all about them and the spell she had just cast and woke up to find her friends catatonic with shock. After that, the astral time-travelers returned to their bodies in the present.

"Well that was an experience," Xander commented when they all opened their eyes.

"I'll say," Buffy added.

"Well, look at the bright side. At least we didn't get dusty!" Willow chirped.

"Why are you so suddenly chirpy?" Buffy noted with annoyance.

"I cast a spell! And it worked! Usually my first attempts are a lot less than nothing. And now, in three days, I get no less than five whole and new spells to work on the first try," Willow exclaimed. "Buffy, that's like you being able to punch out Goku with one hit. I'm just so happy it worked. And there haven't been any consequences yet."

"Consequences?" Xander and Buffy echoed.

"Uh, I'll tell you in the morning. I think I just found consequence number one. Man, am I tired," Willow yawned.

"Yeah me too," Buffy quietly said.

Xander just yawned and stood up with half-lidded eyes.

"OK, time to go to bed, nightie-night," Willow shuffled to her feet and turned to her own bedroom door. The other two followed her example, Xander reaching his and disappearing first. Just before she could reach hers though, Buffy turned around as Willow called her name.

"Buffy?" she asked, her vocals tired and worried at the same time. "Do-do, do you forgive me? For being scared of you? I-I'm sorry Buffy I never…"

"There's nothing to forgive Willow. Have a good nights sleep," Buffy said quietly, looking intently at the young witch.

"Open," the door opened. She stepped inside, but turned back to see Willow staring after her. Their eyes met. "Close." The door closed.