See Part One for Disclaimer and details. Hey everyone, welcome to the final chapter of the story! I just wanted to once again thank everybody who's reviewed and sent feedback, you've helped make this fanfic into one of my most interesting ones ever - seriously, it's much appreciated. Well, time to wrap this one up and move on to other projects, so I hope you enjoy the final episode of "The Guardian"!

***

Part Nine: Everything Happens For A Reason

Pyramid-shaped tomb, Blessed Memories Cemetery, Sunnydale

May, 2002

Almost a month had passed, and things had finally begun to settle down.

Buffy had obviously been very upset about what had happened that night, and Xander had had to have a long talk with both her and the two teenagers in question. In a sense, though, what had happened wasn't all that surprising; Connor had never been exposed to a human girl his own age before, and his repressed hormones had instantly taken over when this flower of womanhood had come within range of his manhood.

Plus, with the two of them being Buffy's sister and Angel's son, and both of them around the same age, genetically speaking, it was practically unavoidable once those two had met one another. Granted, that didn't quell the Slayer's desire to instantly kick Connor out of her house and ground Dawn until she was thirty, but it went a long way in explaining why two strangers had almost instantly started sucking face like that.

After the rather uncomfortable birds and bees talk, Angel and Connor had started to bond, much to Xander's relief. Father and son had a number of things in common; such as good fighting instincts, lousy singing voices, a liking for cookie dough fudge mint chip ice cream, and their taste in Summers women. So Harris slowly but surely withdrew from Connor's day to day life, letting his real father take over the role of parental guardian; he was still there for anything to help the boy adjust to life on Earth, but he let Angel be the person Connor looked to first for anything that needed explaining.

Connor had recently moved to Sunnydale, though, as the male teen had decided that he didn't want to stay in LA. Mostly because his 'Uncle Xander' didn't live there, but also because Dawn didn't live there, either. So Angel had refurbished his old mansion on Crawford Street, and commuted to the Hellmouth as often as he could to visit his offspring.

It was not surprising that Cordy/Kira did the exact same thing, too, in order to visit Xander every night, as they had quickly progressed into a real relationship after Harris had finally given up searching for Anya. And today, after she had judged he was ready, the seer had taken her beloved to meet the Guardian of the Slayer line and hear what she had to say.

Thus, right now Xander was reeling in shock and disbelief, as he stared at the Guardian.

He had listened to the old woman's story, and was still trying to come to grips with the enormity of what he'd heard – and what he had helped do over seven months ago local time, when Buffy Summers had been resurrected from the dead.

"So what does all this mean, bottom line?" he asked slowly.

"You and the others really screwed up, sweetheart," Cordelia said to her boyfriend apologetically.

"And now, we've just about run out of time," Kira added.

"No, it's worse than that. The First Evil must have learned that the forces protecting the Slayer line have been compromised by now, it must have already have begun massing its armies to attack and destroy all the Potentials and the Chosen Two," the Guardian said helplessly. "We're doomed, unless you can somehow fix the damage before that happens."

"How?" the whitelighter demanded.

"By doing what you do best," Cordelia told him.

"Only a whitelighter in the astral plane can repair and realign the cosmic forces which used to protect the Slayer line," Kira added. "But it's not something that can be done easily or quickly, Xander. And you were still in your denial phase about what you really are, before ending up in Quor-toth. That's why we convinced Cordelia not to say anything about this to you before now; you simply weren't ready for the job, you didn't have the power or the right attitude to do it."

"I see," Harris scowled at the woman he had accepted into his heart and his bed. Still, he suspected that the Seer was right; his powers had been virtually non-existent back then. "So what..."

Xander's ears were almost blasted apart from the strength of the whitelighter jingle, and he orbed out without finishing his sentence. Frowning, Kira followed him, and both supernatural beings arrived in Buffy's backyard where the Slayer lay dying of a gunshot wound to the chest.

This was thanks to Warren Mears, as his plans had been foiled the previous evening by the Slayer, the ensouled vampire and the miracle child who had taken out the Buffy-bot and the Xander-bot in addition to stopping the trio's bank heist. Mears himself had managed to flee with a rocket pack last night, but had come around today to get his revenge on Buffy the only way he knew how.

Xander quickly healed Buffy's wound, while Kira looked around at the fleeing Warren. One energy ball later, and the villain was unconscious on the ground. The Seer knew she could and probably should have killed this human piece of excrement, but there was no way she was ever going to risk her relationship with Xander over the likes of him.

Harris suddenly looked up, hearing Willow's voice screaming from the upstairs bedroom. He orbed into the house and found Miss Rosenberg cradling Miss Maclay's body. ( Oh, crap... )

"Tara? Baby? Sweetie, come on, wake up!" the redhead sobbed. Then Willow saw her oldest friend, and hope instantly blossomed in her heart. "Xander! Please, hurry, you gotta heal her!"

Harris tried, but it was too late. "I can't heal the dead!"

"NOOOO!!!!!" Willow instantly screamed in agony and rage at the injustice of it all.

"But, but there might be something else I can do though – Willow, stand back!" Xander got up and moved away from the witches, suddenly making another decision.

"What? I, I can't, I can't just leave her..." Willow protested, momentarily more confused than hurt and angry.

"It could already be too late!! Willow, for God's sake, if you ever even once trusted me, MOVE!!" Xander screamed at her, his body starting to glow with that heavenly golden color.

Luckily, the bonds of friendship between these two stretched all the way back to almost the cradle itself, and so Willow obeyed without another word. Xander had ceased to notice by this point, though: he was concentrating on remembering something that had never actually happened.

Namely how Alexander had been recruited into the ranks of the whitelighter corps, thanks to the memories provided by that Halloween chaos magic – back when all this had really begun.

Just like on the 'Charmed' episode when Leo Wyatt had explained his origins to Piper Halliwell, Miss Maclay's soul started floating in white light, wondering what to do. The choice was upon her...

In an instant, Tara made her decision without regrets or second thoughts.

Just like when Xander had been transformed by the chaos magicks, a blue light started to shine down upon Tara's body as the corpse was transformed into those beautiful shining white orb lights, causing Willow to gasp in astonishment. The blue light grew more intense, as Kira shimmered in and her own eyes went wide. As the becoming ritual began to draw to a close, the white orb lights morphed back into Tara's human form, having received all that was necessary for the new whitelighter to exist and then the blue light simply vanished.

"Tara? Tara?" Willow whispered in disbelief as the female guardian angel got up off the floor, just as Xander sagged and Cordelia caught him before he fell down. "Tara?"

"Willow," the whitelighter said in wonder, staring at her soul mate. "I, I couldn't leave you..."

"TARA!!" Willow screamed in pure joy, throwing herself at her beloved and kissing the hell out of her.

Xander finally straightened up as the witch and the new whitelighter turned to look at him. "Oh God, Xander, thank you!" Willow exclaimed, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks, still holding Tara as tightly as she could.

"No. It wasn't me," Xander said slowly, looking upwards with a peculiar expression on his face. "I mean I tried, but I just didn't have the power to create another whitelighter – I'm not an Elder. Someone up there must have done it – for their own reasons," he cogitated slowly.

"Like who? Osiris? I kinda doubt he – hey, what's wrong?" Willow blurted out, seeing Xander's expression change.

"Something's wrong, I don't know what but I can sense it. And I don't know why, but I've gotta go. Right now," Harris said strangely, feeling like the poles of destiny were finally about to come together somehow. "Oh, I'm getting some really wiggy vibes here – uh, just in case? Tell everyone goodbye for me, especially Connor..."

"What are you talking about?" Tara wanted to know. "Xander, you can't just leave, there's so much you have to teach me-!"

"You'll just have to figure it all out on your own somehow, the same way I did," the man said hurriedly. "Sorry, but I really have to take off!"

"Not without me, you're not!" Cordelia said determinedly, as the Seer followed the orb trail of their beloved as best she could.

***

The Astral Plane

A moment later

It takes a special amount of concentration for a whitelighter to exist self-aware within the in-between dimension known as the astral plane. Similar to the astral plane on 'Charmed', it was a place where physical form meant little: here, there wasn't actually any difference between the biggest galaxy and the smallest pebble.

The astral plane was a spiritual rather than physical one. It existed without borders and boundaries, and as such it was a place for spirits and demons, and even a place for the gods themselves. It was a place where a person, even a whitelighter, was only as strong as his own thoughts. That was why Skip had found it so easy to manipulate Cordelia here, creating that fake mall and everything else to lull her into a false sense of trust and complacency.

As Xander materialized, he saw the astral plane as it truly was and focused on a spinning white disc not far away, in the center of which there appeared to be six interlocking coils. These 'cables' were in colors that held no meaning to the human eye, but that wasn't important. What mattered was how they twisted and undulated chaotically within the astral plane. They spun and whirled aimlessly, obviously damaged in some way.

Harris somehow knew what to do, as he tried to 'heal' them. Slowly, ever so slowly, the 'cables' symbolically representing the mystical forces which used to protect the Slayer line began to stop moving like snakes upon the Gorgon's head. Moving with painstaking deliberation, the whitelighter began to untangle them, smoothing them out and restoring them to what they had once been.

One down.

Metaphorical sweat began to build on Xander's brow, as he kept at it.

Two down.

The stress of the job began to eat away at his concentration, as Xander started struggling to maintain his focus.

Three down. Halfway there.

Bits and pieces of Xander's "body" began to flicker in and out of existence, as the man forced himself to keep going with his appointed task.

Four down.

The flickering effect was getting worse, as the whitelighter drew on reserves of strength which he didn't know he had – as the Seer and Cordelia finally materialized on the astral plane as well, radiating everything they felt about this man in order to assist him. Hope, desire, faith and love.

Five down.

Unfortunately though, that was when the First Evil showed up.

Enraged that someone was attempting to short-circuit its plans for extinguishing the Slayer line, the ancient evil entity came swarming in as a huge, horned, red-eyed monster. It began battering the whitelighter and his half-demon companion with its tremendous powers, not exactly impotent within this plane. The First attempted to feed on their life-force and destroy them both forever, quickly distracting the guardian angel from finishing his job.

But as Whistler had once said, it was all about balance – and so, the god of chaos named Janus arrived on the scene, attracting the First's attention by doing the mystical equivalent of pinching it on the rear. Roaring at the insult, the First attempted to tear Janus in half – but it failed to do so, of course, thanks to the Roman god's divine nature.

Too late, the First Evil realized its mistake and turned its attention back to its primary target – just as Xander finished healing the last of the mystical forces, and Janus began to fade away.

***

Sunnydale, California

The same time

"What the hell?" Buffy said as she fell down gasping, all her Slayer powers gone in an instant after Xander had finished his rushed repair job.

Not far away, a portal opened up in an alley near a demon restaurant and Anya Jenkins finally arrived home with her new boyfriend – Stewart Burns nothing but a dismembered corpse and bad memory at last.

***

Stockton, California

The same time

Faith Lehane, prisoner number 430019 of the California state penal code, suddenly stopped exercising in the prison yard. She somehow felt – different. Stronger. More complete, so to speak.

The one girl in all the world again, finally.

***

The Astral Plane

A moment later

Janus watched in amusement as the essences of the whitelighter and the seer were torn apart by the furious and rampaging First Evil. Hearing a request from the Powers That Be, it subsequently granted the favor before vanishing completely out of the astral plane.

***

Sunnydale, California

The same time

A white light started racing all along Angel's body, as the vampire collapsed with a strangled cry. "Uhhhh!"

"Dad?" Connor asked worriedly, reaching down to help his father up.

Angel started gasping for air, and could suddenly feel an oddly familiar thumping in his chest. His nose felt like it was completely blocked, unable to perceive now what it had been capable of a mere moment ago.

The former vampire knew these feelings, having experienced them once before thanks to being infected with the blood of a Mohra demon.

"I'm alive!"

***

Marseilles, France

The same time

The half-insane Spike, wandering around in the underground tunnels of the city and babbling nonsense to himself, suddenly had a burst of lucidity and knew it was time to go back to Sunnydale.

Time to go back to HER, soul and all.

***

Empty Alley, San Francisco

A while later

The first thing Xander knew was pain.

The next thing he knew was that he was laying on the ground, and that there was someone laying right beside him.

The third thing he knew was that a man dressed in 1970's clothing was standing over them both, and looking down upon both him and his companion with an indefinable expression on his face.

"Ugh, I feel worse than I did that time when the Source almost beat me to death," the Seer muttered, as she slowly got up and helped Xander do the same.

"Kira? Cordelia?" Xander asked, staring at her intensely.

"Right here, doofus," Miss Chase replied, before turning to face Whistler. "What are YOU doing here?"

"Good to see you again, too," the balance demon said sarcastically. "Now how's about we get down to business?"

"Whistler, isn't it? I remember you – vaguely," Harris said, struggling to recall that meeting which had been nearly two decades ago for him. "And what business are you talking about?" Xander asked.

"Well, kid, lemme tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was this hapless young geek who somehow managed to stumble his way into a really impressive destiny. His ex-girlfriend, whose original destiny happened to suck beyond the telling of it, she somehow managed to stumble her way back into his arms as did her pretty unique roommate. So they all went into Aladdin's cave and managed to save the world, even if no one but a pretty crotchety old broad hiding in a pyramid will ever know that." The demon asked, "How am I doin' so far?"

"Not bad, but it needs a bit more focus on the exotic and incredibly desirable roommate," Kira smirked at Whistler.

The demon shrugged and said, "Okay, how's this? Said roommate is now unofficially unemployed. One, because her vampire boss has finally received his shanshu from the Powers, and two – she's dead in that world. Just like the former cheerleader and former geek."

"What are you talking about?" Cordelia demanded.

"Wait, I'm starting to remember," Xander said uncertainly. "That thing which attacked us on the astral plane..."

"...was the First Evil. Otherwise known as the First," Whistler nodded. "Hate to tell you this, pal, but it killed you as well as your girlfriend here. Or should that be girlfriends? Either way I'm sure Jerry Springer would have had himself a real good time with you guys on his show, any day of the week," the balance demon shook his head.

"So if we're dead, then where are we? This doesn't look like Heaven to me," Cordelia said, looking around the empty alley with its overloaded trash bins. "And I'm sure Hell would have better garbage collection facilities."

"Clever," Whistler deadpanned before turning to face Xander. "Tell me something, Harris. Do you remember what the Englishman said to you about that invisible girl who tried to kill the Prom queen here, a few years ago? Why she actually dropped out of sight and out of mind, I mean?"

Xander ignored Cordelia's glare at the messenger for the Powers and said, "No. Sorry, but all that's just too long ago now."

"Well, he said, and I quote, 'Physics. It's a rudimentary concept that, that reality is shaped, even, even – created by our perception'," the demon said in an excellent imitation of Rupert's voice.

"Still not getting what that has to do with where we are now," Kira looked around again.

"And you call yourself a seer, Seer? Come on, try hard. Both of you," Whistler looked at both the male and female standing before him. "Don't tell me you can't recognize this place?"

Both Xander and Kira gasped. "This is impossible!" Harris said wildly, looking up and his eyes wide.

"How the-? This is San Francisco. The San Francisco from 'Charmed'," Kira suddenly looked very afraid, able to sense the Underworld almost directly beneath her feet. "How did we get HERE?"

"Like I said, physics. Quantum mechanics. Did you know just how many people in America and around the world watch that show, and of those – how many idiots actually believe it's real?" Again the demon shook his head. "Enough for that guy Janus and the Powers to use it to create this little pocket universe for you to be resurrected and live out the rest of your lives, anyway."

"And what if we decide not to stay here?" Xander stared Whistler directly in the eye.

"That's your choice. But if you do manage to force your way back to the world you came from, well, as I said – you're dead there," Whistler explained. "So you're automatically gonna go either upstairs or downstairs, depending on the soul factor, and most of important of all..." he pointed at the brunette woman's belly, "...your unborn daughter is never gonna get a chance at life. So I'd advise you to think about it VERY carefully, before you do something you'll later regret."

The balance demon vanished as Xander struggled to comprehend what he'd just heard. He couldn't handle thinking about the last piece of information Whistler had provided and so he said, "This is the 'Charmed' universe – oh my God, the Elders are here. And so are the Cleaners! And the Angel of Death, the Angel of Destiny, not to mention the Source of All Evil..."

"Xander!" Harris was distracted by the busty brunette happily throwing herself into his arms. "Didn't you hear what he just said? We're gonna have a BABY!" Both the human and the demon kissed him passionately and ferociously, experiencing something approaching perfect happiness.

"A baby," Xander shook his head, once the woman let him go. "I-I just spent the last seventeen years raising Connor – and now I've got to do it all over again with our daughter?"

"Oh, stop complaining!" Cordelia slapped him affectionately. "Now, come on, we've got a lot of work to do. First thing's first, we need to find ourselves an apartment – or better yet, a house. One big enough to hold a decent-sized nursery."

"Actually? We need to do the whole fake ID thing first, and gather together enough money to be able to live underneath the radar," Kira interrupted. "Both that of the Source, and the Elders. After all, we can't trust either one of them."

The next moment, Xander heard the jingling in his ears. "Too late. They've already sensed me," the foreign whitelighter said, looking upwards. "The Elders want to talk to us right away, on account of they're very confused – they know what I am, but they don't know WHO I am..."

"All right, fine. Let's just get this over with," Cordelia said, throwing her arms around her future husband. "And I swear, if they give me any attitude up there? Those TV chowderheads are really gonna regret it!"

"Personally, I'm sure they already do," Kira snarked.

A moment later, the white orb lights vanished upwards towards the sky.

***

Soccer Park, San Francisco

May, 2008

Piper Halliwell and her younger sister Phoebe were talking and watching Piper's son, the twice-blessed child Wyatt Matthew Halliwell, play midfield for his school soccer team.

"So, how are things going with you?" the oldest Charmed One asked her sibling.

"Pretty good," the seer and newspaper columnist replied with a grin. "Coop and I are thinking of starting a family..."

"Well, it's about time!" Piper declared, then cheered her son loudly as Wyatt scored a goal for his team. Then she looked around to look for her second-born. "Chris? Chris, where are you?"

The Charmed One looked and saw her son talking to a cute little five-year-old girl not far away. As she got closer Piper heard the girl say to her little boy, "The home team is gonna win 3-1, see, but my mommy told me never to just say it out loud like that. She says Daddy wants to watch sports without knowing what's gonna happen – unless he bets on the game."

"Is your mommy a witch?" Chris Halliwell looked at her with absolute fascination, even as Piper frowned at what she was hearing.

"No, but my daddy's a real-life angel," the little girl confessed, eliciting a gasp from Piper nearby. "I'm K.C."

"I'm Chris," the Halliwell boy replied, already a charmer even at four years old.

"K.C.? I thought I told you not to just run off like that!" the girl's mother – a seamless blend of Cordelia and Kira Harris, after all these years – came over and scolded her daughter.

"But mommy, I had to! Chris was here, and I had to meet him 'cause I couldn't 'see' him at all," the little girl told her mother innocently, before spying Piper nearby.

"What do you mean, you couldn't 'see' him, sweetie?" Piper asked the little girl. She had already guessed part of it as Phoebe was the seer member of the Charmed Ones, and the oldest sister thus both knew the jargon and was concerned about her son.

"Nothing, really. I mean kids, huh?" Xander's wife smiled at Piper in a strained way, cursing the fact that the gift of sight had been passed down to her daughter and that she'd had to meet Piper this way.

An expert at this sort of thing, the brunette had already figured out that Chris was the first person K.C. couldn't read because she wasn't supposed to. Cordy/Kira knew she had never really been able to see Xander's future because it had meant seeing her own with him; and K.C. seeing Chris's future would likewise be seeing hers with the man she was destined to end up with, thus the little girl couldn't do it at this point in her life.

( Well, I guess there are worse people we could end up being related to, ) the dark-haired seer mused to herself. ( And at least with the Charmed Ones, there won't be any need to pretend that our family is something it's not. )

"Hi, I'm Piper Halliwell. Say, why don't you and your daughter come home with me and my kids for a play-date once this game's over? I'm sure we'll have a LOT to talk to about," Piper said archly to her future in-law, as K.C. ran to her mother's arms.

"Bring your husband along too, if he's here. For some reason, I kinda get the feeling he and my husband Leo will have a lot in common," Piper added.

And thus was born the start of a whole new generation of magical adventure and excitement.

The End