Ship of the Line: High Guard Frontier

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Andromeda, Star Trek, and Stargate as their owned by people far more fortunate and creative than I am. This was written for enjoyment and no profit was made.

Summary: YAHF. A ship and her captain are pulled across time and universe by the God of Chaos. For three Scoobies, life will never be the same again.

Author's Note: Written in conjunction with writer Pyrgus. Reponse to 'Ship of the Line' challenge on 'Twisting the Hellmouth' website.

Warning: Lemon towards the end of the chapter and is marked. (Lemon removed from Fanfiction dot net. Can find it on Twisting the Hellmouth website.)

Chapter 2

Rest did not come easy for the young man that was considered to be the most normal, and in a less friendly reference, the most useless of the Scoobies. Xander felt like he was on autopilot as he got up at the same time Dylan usually had and begun his morning workout. The somewhat familiar action resulted in taking him on a jog through the decks of Andromeda to clear his head.

While pushing his body to keep the fitness he had gained through his possession, Xander was trying to sort through the memories that felt as strong in his mind as his original memories did. The little sleep he was able to get the previous night had helped make sense of everything he now knew thanks to Dylan, but the memories felt like they had been overlaid with Xander's own.

"So what am I supposed to call you now Captain?" The voice of Andromeda interrupted his introspection.

"What do you mean?" The dark haired Scooby asked though he suspected he knew what she meant.

"In a way you are still Captain Dylan Hunt. Your body has changed to where my internal sensors show you are him even though you do not have his spirit for the lack of a better term. That and the fact that after you woke up your wife this morning she kept referring to you as both Xander and Dylan, and you didn't seem bothered either way."

"Wait a moment, wife? Andromeda while Dylan and Rommie were married and we became them for a few hours doesn't mean me and Cordelia are the same. First off there is a little thing called a marriage certificate in order to be married on Earth." Xander hoped that little detail would silence the A.I. on the issue.

"Besides a girl like her would never go for someone as low as I am in social standing. Even if a marriage certificate suddenly appeared on Earth for me and her, we'd probably kill each other anyway before we even got around to a divorce."

Xander was unaware that his ship was already plotting and planning to play matchmaker. The biggest question for Andromeda though was whether to get Dawn involved.

Unfortunately for Xander, Andromeda's comments brought him to a stop. Not only did the fact he was still unsure just who he was now stop him in his tracks, but also at Andromeda's referring to the biggest bitch in his high school life as his wife. The very notion of being married to Cordelia Chase both mortified and exhilarated him.

Xander could only hope the latter was Dylan's memories of Rommie but he wasn't positive on that fact. After figuratively living what a positive marriage could be like and not as his drunken parents portrayed, it made him wonder if he could have something like that one day.

That same thought led him to his now ten year old daughter that Cordelia and himself suddenly found themselves in the care of. After some checking, it was discovered that she had memories of being raised by Dylan and Rommie, but Andromeda had confirmed her DNA was a one hundred percent match to Cordelia and himself. Xander was sure there was a deity laughing at him somewhere.

"Morning Dad," a young female voice spoke up behind him, making him focus on his surroundings once more.

He turned to see Dawn standing in gray sweats holding a basketball. It was then he noticed he was standing where he had set up...no, where Dylan had set up his basketball hoop. Leaving his messed up memories for another time he focused on the younger girl.

"Morning Dawnie." He went over to give her a morning hug, unconsciously slipping into the role of loving father who recognized his daughter. "Ready for some one on one?"

Dawn's smile lit up the room as the fears about her parents being so different from what she remembered were abated. When she was tucked into bed the previous night, Xander and Cordelia spoken to her and confirmed they would always be there for her. While her dad seemed younger and different he still loved her.

Unknown to the father and daughter, Cordelia and Andromeda were monitoring the two from the command deck. Andromeda stood as a solid holographic form next to the young woman that had dressed up as her Avatar.

The young woman had woken up before Xander which surprised herself. She was not normally a morning person. The quiet time had given both of them a chance to talk, and Cordy found it refreshing to talk to someone without the external pressures she normally felt. The result was that Cordelia didn't feel the need to freak out as much as she once would have. As their conversation came to a close, Cordy was coming to fully accept the new life she could have if she stayed with Xander and Andromeda.

"He definitely makes a good father doesn't he?" Andromeda spoke out, voicing similar sentiments that were running through Cordelia's mind.

"Yeah," Cordelia replied quietly to herself. "Who'd have thought with someone of his upbringing would be so good with a child of his own," she muttered in reference to what she knew of Xander's rough childhood.

Like Xander, her mind was a mess with two personalities waring for dominance. One moment she was Cordelia Chase who was trying to find her place in things and meet everyone's expectations of her. The next moment she was Rommie, loving wife and mother to her family and a sister to Andromeda. It was then that she noticed something that had been on her mind since the previous night.

"Andromeda how are you..." She gently poked Andromeda's seemingly real shoulder. "Solid?"

Andromeda looked at herself also in confusion. "Unknown. Since arriving here I have noticed some changes throughout the ship that weren't there before. My holo emitters have been greatly improved. New sensors I never seen before were at my disposal that helped determine I was not in my home dimension. I also hold other technologies in my database I have been studying. All of which shows much promise in aiding our endeavors, like matter teleporters for instance."

The Rommie in Cordelia was intrigued at the possibilities and subconsciously reached up to rub the back of her neck just under her skull. Under her fingers she could feel a slight lump by her brainstem where a colony of nanobots were injected. Andromeda did so after Cordy asked if there was a way to give her the same access to the ship as Rommie had.

Cordelia had felt off not feeling a constant connection to Andromeda that Rommie felt when she was the Avatar of the ship. It allowed her to remotely access things around the the large vessel, in return the nanobots allowed Andromeda to have eyes and ears whenever Cordelia was off ship. New subspace communication equipment allowed Andromeda to keep in constant contact with Cordelia up to a couple of light years away.

Andromeda noticed the action and felt concern. "The nanobots giving you trouble?

Cordelia pulled her hand away and relaxed. "Just a slight headache. The influx of information is taking some getting used to."

Cordy had been subconsciously using the internal sensors. With them, she was monitoring her significant other and daughter to make sure they stayed okay. It was a habit Rommie had developed and did out of concern for her family. Cordelia made a mental note to focus on sorting her thoughts out more once she was able to do so in private.

The two new sisters looked at Xander and Dawn when they sensed the pair enter the command deck. Both had worked up quite a sweat playing basketball. Dawn looked like she was about ready to dance in joy having beaten her dad in his favorite game. Xander looked happy simply because Dawn did. It was a father's prerogative to let their child win in sports after all. Feeling playful, Xander and Dawn attempted to hug Cordelia who immediately backed away from the two.

"Ugh! Don't even think about it until you both have a shower!" She exclaimed, dramatically holding her nose as she backed away from the two.

"Dawn go with your mom and get cleaned up. Knowing her, she'll be wanting you to be as fashionably dressed as she is." Xander's eyes found themselves unconsciously eyeing Cordelia's outfit that day. She was wearing a similar outfit she wore on Halloween but this time it was blue.

His teasing caused Cordy to stick her tongue out at him in a childish response. But both young adults were reminded they desperately needed time to talk alone. They were starting to sound like a family when only twenty-four hours ago they would have been sniping at each other's throats.

"Okay, Dad." Dawn gave him another hug before mother and daughter left.

Xander turned to the holographic form of his ship's A.I. It took him a moment to figure out how to best express what he wanted. "While playing basketball with Dawn I did a lot of self assessment and I came to a decision. Change the records to list me as Alexander Hunt, Alex for short."

Andromeda could only smile in response. She was glad that Alex wasn't completely denying what he had inherited from Dylan. "What made you come up with that name?"

"Well after what you told me about how my genes have been altered to be closer to Dylan to almost that of a brother in comparison, it seemed obvious for the last name as it helped me lose my connection to my deadbeat parents. As for my first name, Xander was the name of the goofy kid who shirked responsibility. I think its time I finally grew up." Deep down Alex knew those words were finally putting to rest the conflict he felt about his identity.

Both ship and captain grinned at each other as Alex walked over to the pilot's station. While he knew what Andromeda was capable of he wasn't sure if Slipstream was present in his home dimension. After a moment to confirm he could open a slip point nearby he started to head out.

"Once I get cleaned and changed, prepare for slipstream. I think our first task is to see if we can find out if any of the races from your home dimension are in this one. Our first stop will be the Andromeda galaxy. For all we know the Vedrans are out there forming the Systems Commonwealth as we speak. If not maybe other races that had once been allies could be so again."

"In the words of a human proverb. 'Here we go again!'" Andromeda watched her newly named captain walk away. She was looking forward to another adventure.

Scene Break

Back in Sunnydale Buffy was an unhappy Buffy. She sat alone in the library after her Watcher had performed a multitude of spells to determine what happened to her after she had reported her changes from Halloween. Her mentor's only explanation was that somehow due to the chaos magic she had lost her mystical Slayer powers for new ones, whatever they might be. It was unfortunate for the former slayer that chaos magic was unpredictable in its nature.

While Buffy was unaware about anything else strange happening after the night was over that was similar to herself, she hadn't heard from her Xander shaped friend since he disappeared. There was also word out that the head cheerleader of Sunnydale High hadn't been found by her friends either since that evening.

The now natural blonde girl had learnt that her best female friend had ended up in the hospital after receiving a mild concussion when she was hit by a van after the spell ended. Buffy had noticed Willow hadn't been as shaken up as she should have been, instead the redhead had frequently commented about the cute boy that had hit her. If her interpretation of Willow babble was correct, then her best friend wasn't suffering alone as the boy had stayed by her side while she was in the hospital.

Glancing once more at her Watcher, Buffy slid her sleeves of her shirt up to expose the bone blades on her forearms. She found herself instinctively flexing the three blades, causing them to go back and forth from laying against her arm to jutting straight out. Buffy hoped they weren't permanent like a zit on her face, but a part of her figured the things would be handy in a fight. Her Nietzschean memories gave her insight on just how effective the bone spikes could be at killing.

Thinking back to the previous night, she remembered her stalking of Xander. Her more enhanced hearing had picked up that the only male in her group of friends was the infamous Dylan Hunt, hero of the System's Commonwealth and the Nietzschean people's most respected foe. The part that freaked her out the most was that the powerful woman that possessed her considered Buffy's Xander shaped friend as a desirable mate. It was an odd feeling due to the fact that she shouldn't find a non-Nietzschean worthy of her. That thought alone made Buffy's mind even more confused and wondered if she was suffering from split personalities.

Moving on to further events of the night, Buffy wasn't sure how she felt about the dusting of Angel that she witnessed. While she was upset at seeing her friend kill her boyfriend, the new part of her psyche found herself disgusted at the thought of mating with a Vampire. The undead smell that reached her nose almost made her vomit from where she was hiding, some fifty yards away. She shuddered at actually being close enough to kiss the vampire. The event caused her to reconsider things in her life, especially if her change was permanent.

Buffy looked up hopeful though when Giles came back in from his office after discussing matters with the Watcher's Council.

"Well? What'd they say?" Buffy quickly pulled her sleeves back down to cover her bone blades as they made Giles a little uncomfortable. When Giles took his glasses off and started to clean them, the hopeful look slid off the blonde's face.

"Well I explained what happened. I'm not sure how much comfort this is but after hearing Ethan's spell somehow caused you lose the mystical power that gave you the abilities of a slayer, they issued a kill order for him. Also I been informed that they are bringing in the new slayer from Boston to take over your duties here. I been told she has been active since last year after your near death experience."

"So they're just kicking me to the curb?" Buffy asked as her voice grew more upset. She had only started to finally accept her duties and now finds out she was being replaced. It did not help her currently fragile ego.

"No! No, not so much. I'll try and see if I can restore you to your former self. But unless I know what spell Ethan did, I don't know what I can do to help. The magic he practices leaves so much up to chance given that it's chaotic in nature. The magic sometimes doesn't react to everyone the same way. There can be a many reasons that caused a spell like that to react differently from one person to the next." Giles tried to placate the young woman but doubt he was having much effect.

Buffy slumped in her chair quietly pouting as she thought. "What about Willow? From what she told me she's completely back to normal along with all the other students and kids I heard about." Her frown deepened. "Well except that I haven't heard anything from Xander and Cordelia. But something strange happened to them last night. I think they got on a spacecraft or something and flew away from what I saw. They were also talking to someone else that wasn't there."

"So you suspect you three are the only ones that received a permanent change from the spell?" Giles wondered at why that happened.

"Xander was the one that got our costumes for us and Cordelia. Could there be a connection there?"

Buffy noticed the look immediately that settled onto her Watcher's face. It meant research, an all night study session that really impacted her beauty sleep. Buffy could only groan as Giles stood quickly to retrieve his books that he felt might hold the key.

Thoughts of her being not genetically designed to research filled her mind. Followed by thoughts of what she needed to do to return to her physical peek. Buffy had the knowledge of being Nietzschean and knew what her body was capable of with her genetic enhancements. The young blond didn't know why she didn't stay as she had been when the spell was active, but she made plans to start work on improving himself to what she could be.

Neither the Watcher or former slayer knew that Xander had been the reason that he and the two girls kept some of their changes permanently. When Xander revived Buffy and therefore invalidated the plans of the Powers That Be's prophecy, it had marked Xander as an agent of Chaos much like Ethan.

Unlike Ethan however, who chose to be a servant to Janus, the roman god himself picked Xander to be his hand in the universe. The handling of Buffy and Cordelia's costumes had left enough of a mark to extend the same blessing onto the pair. Buffy's new abilities had atrophied due to her long distance from Xander's presence when the spell ended. Janus who was a god of transitions and bringer of civilizations, had found a worthy Avatar when his hand merged with a renowned guardian of civilization.

Scene Break

"Transitioning to normal space," Andromeda spoke as the the ship exited out of slipstream on their last stop through the galaxy of her namesake.

Little Dawnie relaxed where she stood at the pilot's station standing on the stool that her godmother Beka Valentine had made for her. It helped Dawn reach the controls properly till she grew up. Beka had taught Dawn how to pilot slipspace since she was old enough to understand. Unlike in her memories, piloting slipstream had gotten more difficult, but thankfully Dawn found herself adapting to the unused slip routes.

"I've never piloted Andromeda through so many difficult routes in slipstream before. Felt like was I was trying to squeeze a grape through a straw," Dawn complained to her parents and Andromeda.

After several trips throughout the day, the command deck had a great feeling of depression. That feeling was strengthened as everyone stared at the screens that showed a devastated system. Outside the ship floated the remains of the Tarn Vedra civilization. From what they could tell everything had been wiped out.

"The destruction is many centuries old. If the Vedran history is similar to this universe as it was in mine then a great battle happened here just as the Vedrans would have started interstellar travel." The ship's A.I. sounded as depressed as the rest felt. They all shared a connection to the planet in one way or another.

"Unbelievable." Alex sighed rubbing his face.

They had spent a whole day bouncing around the star systems of the Andromeda Galaxy, looking for any race they were familiar with in the old universe. While proof that some of the races been around, events had taken place that prevented all of them from becoming spacefaring species. The Vedrans had had been destroyed long before they could uplift other civilizations to the stars.

"I guess that's that then," Cordy spoke up after comforting Dawn. The younger brunette was upset to see many races she had friends from were no longer among the living.

"Dawn, are you up for one more jump to the Than homeworld?. They might have survived since they were able to develop slipstream on their own before joining the Commonwealth. But if you're too tired I can pilot us there instead. You did very well today Dawnie."

Alex gave her a comforting hug as he tried to maintain his hope. His thoughts of trying to bring Earth into the galactic fold seemed to have gone up in smoke like every civilization they had visited. He wasn't about to risk bringing the people of Earth into the galactic scene without a strong interspecies government to protect them.

Just as Dawn was about to comply as she felt capable for one more trip before resting, Andromeda spoke up effectively halting them from leaving the system. "Captain I am picking up a facility on what remains of Tarn Vedra. While I'm detecting no power anywhere, the facility is mostly intact."

Alex smiled seeing where Andromeda was going with it. "And if we can restore power we might also find out what happened here. Good job. Prep a Lancer Drop Ship for departure."

Dawn and Cordelia immediately made to follow but both young adults stopped Dawn from coming along. "No way squirt, you're staying here incase it's dangerous." Cordy ordered the pouting young girl.

"You guys don't let me have any fun!" Dawn stormed back to the pilot's station giving them the cold shoulder.

Alex shook his head thinking back to a younger Cordelia when she had her own tantrums. He yelped in surprised when he was slapped in the shoulder. "Hey! What was that for?" He asked as they made their way to the hangar bay.

"I know what you're thinking. I wasn't that bad dweeb." Cordy gave Alex the evil eye as if daring him to contradict her.

Alex grumbled quietly to himself as they reached the dropship. Together the two took off and headed to the facility that was for the most part intact. It was a quiet flight to the scorched surface of the planet. As they were preparing their space suits due to the planet no longer having an atmosphere, Cordy decided to bring up the big pink tutu wearing elephant between them.

"So how are you handling all this?" Cordy asked in a subdued tone proving what was going on weighed greatly on her mind.

Alex stopped and looked at her briefly before continuing to slip his suit on. "How should I be handling this Cordelia? We're only seventeen and now share the responsibility of a ten year old daughter. On top of that we have command of an advanced warship that was supposedly a tv series. Of course, that's not including what we gained from two people who were married to each other."

Thinking on it again, it surprised her that she wasn't as disturbed about it as she should be. It was something new and exciting without the stress of her old life. "You ever thought about getting married one day?" Both connected their helmets before leaving the safety of the dropship.

"Honesty, I never gave it much thought before today. You know what my parents were like Cordy. Can you expect me to marry anyone when I had role models like them?" His tone was full of sarcasm as the two entered the structure that had seen better days.

Further talk was halted when they managed to locate a door to the building. It took a few moments to cut the door open in order to get in. Once inside, Alex sat down the tool kit he brought with him to start working on getting a console they found operational. Cordy looked at her mutual partner in their new lives with renewed sympathy before she started to look around. The high powered beam of light from her Force Lance illuminated the dark and dusty room.

The inside of the building was large due to it being a giant dug out hole with a roof. After a more deeper visual examination, the inside contained what looked like the remains of an alien ship that she didn't recognize from her memories as Rommie. To the former cheerleader, Andromeda was a beautiful ship with her streamline form. From what she could tell from what she was looking at, the alien ship was bulky and ugly.

"Got it!" Alex exclaimed in triumph as he got the Vedran console near the wrecked ship working. "Andromeda, I have the interface hooked up to a console. Access it and see what you can find out. We'll do some more scouting around in here."

The two walked together around the remains of the ship while Andromeda searched through what the databanks the Vedran console contained. Aside from the remains of the wrecked ship, there hadn't been much to look at. They eventually came across some container boxes stacked near a corner that drew them to the area. Inside were hundreds of yellowish squid looking objects. Alex picked one up to try and examine it. It looked advanced and almost simple in the construction.

"Mom! Dad! You both need to get out of there. Andromeda is picking up an energy build up that has been going on since you guys found your way in there. We think the place was boobytrapped and is about to explode!" Dawn's frantic voice shouted from their suit's speakers in the helmets, making the two young adults eyes widen. They had immediately broke into a run to the exit for their dropship before Dawn finished speaking.

The pair had been lucky enough to get to the minimum safe distance when the facility exploded behind them. Had Andromeda not remotely prepped the dropship and immediately took off once they were aboard, they would have never made it. Both breathed a sigh of relief once they felt the dropship stop shaking from the force of the blast.

"There must have been a lot of explosives in that place. Now you see why we wanted you to stay behind Dawnie?" Alex asked the young girl over the comm while confirming they were alright and to remind the little brunette, she was kept on Andromeda for a reason. "Now Andromeda, what did we get?"

Cordelia and Alex started to remove their spacesuits now that they were no longer needed. Alex looked down realizing he had accidentally brought one of the squid looking objects with him. He wondered what it was as he placed it on a empty seat in the drop ship.

"While the Vedrans didn't have time to properly examine what they found on the ship, they were still able to get decent scans and document what they had. The ship is from another race that came upon Tarn Vedra and the Vedrans attacked the unknown vessel believing the ship was a threat. They were lucky to take it down before it had time to raise its defenses. Had the ship been ready, nothing the Vedrans had at the time would have been able to damage it."

Everyone there frowned as they had been so used to knowing the Vedrans being the most advanced species in known space. To hear how out outmatched they were made them wonder if there were any other more advanced races about.

"The aliens had a different kind of Faster Than Light travel than slipstream. It works along similar physics as subspace. The yellow object you have captain was a main weapon of theirs that was very effective and unstoppable. The ship's defense was an energy shield that protected the vessel from attacks instead of relying on heavy armor. Those were the major technologies noticed by the scientists studying the ship at the time along with plasma based weapons."

"Can we replicate and use this technology to help us Andromeda?" Cordy asked while looking intrigued. While she was terrible at science before Halloween, she found a new appreciation of it since becoming Rommie. That and she never felt the need to know as much about the galaxy before she became a participant in it.

"My systems are much more advanced than the Vedrans of old had at the time. It would take some modification and tweaking, but I believe I could even improve upon some of the systems to make them even more effective. The new knowledge I have acquired since coming to this dimension will greatly help in this goal."

Alex looked back at the yellow squid with new eyes. "Compared to our own weapon systems how would the alien weapons perform?"

"From what the ancient Vedrans had recorded before they lost power to the facility when the aliens counter-attacked, the yields of the alien weapons weren't much higher than the standard from my universe. But that can be fixed once I have sufficient modifications. One thing of note is our Anti-Proton cannons, they would be a mighty weapon if worse came to worst due to its ability to pierce the defense shield by overloading it."

"Well I'm glad to see we won't have to worry about any galactic bullies after all," Cordelia remarked as they exited the hangar bay after they had docked.

They were then attacked by a brown haired missle who had happy tears when she saw that they were okay. "It's ok Dawnie, we're safe." Cordy comforted the young girl. "Its getting late and we're all exhausted. I'm gonna tuck her in for bed." She added to Alex.

Alex nodded as he watched the two go before shaking his head in amazement at how his life had turned out. "Corelia sure has changed. Wonder if she she'll revert to form once we get back to Earth."

Alex began to make his way to the command deck with the plan to fly back to Earth. However, Andromeda's hologram appeared in front him which caused the young captain to stop and forget the idea before he could even start.

"Captain, I would like to stay in system for a bit. My scans of the explosion showed it was a lot bigger than it should have been. My analysis of the hull of the craft showed a mineral that was a very effective blast multiplier. There is a plentiful amount of the mineral in Tarn Vedra's second moon. I would like permission to set up a mining operation to extract the unknown mineral and run some experiments on it. If it's as effective as I hope, I would like to begin modifying our missiles with them to increase their effectiveness."

Alex sighed while thinking it over. "I guess we can stick around for a bit. It would give us a chance to upgrade your systems before running the chance of encountering any hostiles."

He glanced down the corridor where the two females who became very important to him went. "Permission granted for the weapons and shields. I don't want to use an unknown FTL technology until we can fully understand it. Until we can, we'll stick to slipstream as its something we probably know more about than any race in the nearby galaxies. Now if you have nothing else I'm gonna go and get some sleep."

"Aye sir." Andromeda disappeared with a smile.

She would soon begin her tasks of refitting her systems and the start of mining a moon full of the material they would soon learn was called Naquadah. Andromeda knew the mineral wasn't native to her home universe and deduced it was a unique difference this universe had with hers.

Finally done for the day, Alex walked into his quarters and could hear Cordelia in Dawn's room wishing each other goodnight. He took the time to go into the master bedroom and changed into a t-shirt and shorts to sleep on the couch. Alex didn't expect Cordelia to one day decide to let him have the bed anytime soon.

As Alex was about to leave, he accidentally bumped into Cordelia and his quick reflexes brought her into his strong arms keeping her from falling. "Easy there."

Alex did not notice that his arms around Cordelia were making her brain metaphorically melt as she pressed her body against his. Nor did he see that after he had let her go and passed by her to wish Dawn good night, that she looked upset at him no longer holding her.

"All set sweetheart?" It still amazed Alex at how easy it was to slip into his role as a father, how right it felt.

Looking once again at his biological daughter's room he wondered how Cordy felt seeing their daughter's wardrobe. It seemed obvious the talented Beka Valentine had a large influence in Dawn's fashion sense.

"Yeah daddy." Alex could tell she was exhausted from navigating through slipstream so many time by her referring to himself as 'daddy'. Something she only did when she was either hurt or tired according to Dylan's memories.

"I'm very proud of you today. You did as well, if not better than your god-mother. She might have even felt jealous if she was here." He lightly tickled his daughter that was created by magic as she looked happy to receive her dad's praise.

"Now get some rest. Andromeda is looking to start making some changes to stay as the big bad warship in the universe. She'll likely be a slave driver tomorrow in getting us to help her."

Dawn giggled knowing the ship's A.I. as well as her dad did. In a way, Alex was also married to Andromeda due to Dylan marrying his ship's Avatar. That idea was likely to make psychologists debate for decades. Alex kissed her forehead as Dawn settled into bed. Seeing her looking so innocent and vulnerable reminded him that she was only ten years old even though she acted a lot more mature than her age.

Turning off the light, Alex went out to the couch to lay down and found the pillow and blanket was missing. Looking towards the master bedroom, he found Cordelia standing in the doorway in a tank top and shorts smiling almost shyly to him. Seeing she had his attention, Cordy gestured for him to join her in the bedroom.

A little nervous himself but also somewhat curious, he followed Cordelia into their room as the brunette got under the covers and patted for him to join her on the other side. It was with great hesitation when he complied. She seemed to be acting so much unlike the old Cordelia as of late.

"I'm not gonna bite dweeb," She placated in an annoyed voice seeing how tense he was. That is, when she wasn't admiring his new muscular arms that the shirt didn't hide.

"Not gonna kick me out of bed?" Alex asked still not fully trusting himself to relax as he settled in the blankets with her.

"No, I think its time we really have a heart to heart. Andromeda has been helping me and Dawnie work through these changes. I realized earlier though, that you hadn't had someone to seriously talk about things with."

"I told Andromeda I've come to terms with who I am now. Who you are now, that is probably my biggest concern." He frowned when he noticed a three inch hologram of Andromeda on Cordy's bedside table. "Am I being ganged up on to make me share my thoughts and feelings?"

"No!" The two women replied in perfect stereo which caused Alex to groan in annoyance. He wasn't likely to believe it for a second.

Alex tried to hide his head under his pillow but Cordelia was having none of it. "Not this time Alex, we are gonna have a talk and you can't hide near my old friends or the pint sized blonde bitch to avoid it."

"Why does this matter so much to you Cordy? I would have thought you'd have jumped ship once we made it back to Earth aside from the occasional visiting with Dawn."

Alex had grown too distracted trying to guess Cordelia's new motivation to notice that she had slid closer to him in bed. That action effectively closed the physical gap between them.

"I'm doing this because I see a future I could want Alex. Before this I had to live to the expectations of my parents and felt my life was preordained since I was born. My supposed friends are no better than my parents as they compete to be the most popular and fashionably dressed. Out here none of that matters. I can be me and not someone else. I've felt a huge weight off my shoulders since that spell ended. And through it all I believe it's thanks to you."

It was only then did Alex finally notice their proximity when she slid to lay ontop of him. The only way he could have escaped is if he threw Cordelia off of him. The thing that scared him the most was that he wasn't sure if he wanted to do that. The young captain was close to wishing for a Magog attack to rescue him from his dilemma. Alex briefly wondered if wishing in the void of space was just as much a bad idea as saying it while on the Hellmouth. Fortunately Cordelia took the decision out of his hands.

Lemon Starts

(Due to Fanfiction dot net rules, materal was removed due. If wished to be viewed you may at the 'Twisting The Hellmouth' site under the same author's name.)

Lemon Ends

After both young adults had finished, they laid content but exhausted in each others arms. It didn't settle everything between them but it got them to relax around each other. Gentle kisses were frequently shared between the two new lovers. But the quiet revelry did not last as a not so subtle Andromeda had, while undetected, opened a bedside drawer on Alex's side of the bed. Both saw Dylan and Rommie's wedding rings resting inside which were waiting to be taken out and placed on each others fingers.

Scene Break

Beings of great power had been extremely pissed since Halloween night. Prophecies and plans made centuries ago had all come to naught. It started off slow with Buffy Summers not dying from the Master as they had foreseen. While unexpected, they still figured it still worked to their advantage.

Since then, things became worse things and it was harder for them to predict events. If they could not keep a balance between good or evil then a certain being higher than themselves would resign them from their duties. Such a course of action they considered unthinkable.

The Powers That Be knew who was to blame for the loss of control. However, they could neither touch him beyond the reach of Earth, nor could them harm him when upon Earth's surface. The PTBs were forbidden from interfering with events in the heavens, and Janus's protection kept them from reversing or affecting anyone that had been touched by chaos magic.

To make matters worse, they had lost any control they would have had over Buffy Summer when she lost the leftover powers of the slayer. That problem was compounded by the fact their schemes for two important vampires were negated. Their champion and an influential pawn for balance had both been slayed by Janus's new servant..

The Powers That Be plotted to try and regain their control with the only piece they had left on their chessboard now, the dark haired slayer. They knew they would have to cheat to get their lost pieces back. If it didn't work out as they hoped, the PTBs knew they would be removed from their duties leaving mankind in charge of their own fate. Such a notion seemed ridiculous to the senile growing powers.

Another great being in orbit of Earth, was finished helping his new friends on the human homeworld. The small creature that resembled the Roswell grays was leaving the system and heading for home. The distasteful company of its enemies, the Goa'uld, was quickly forgotten as the advanced being began to study its sensor readings from when it first exited out of hyperspace.

It had caught the end of a portal collapsing that almost resembled a hyperspace window. The readings that dissuaded the smart being from thinking so however, was that there was far more energy being released from the aperture than hyperspace would normally.

The only theory the little being known as Thor could come up with was that it was a ship leaving the system. Whether the ship left on its own or ran having detected his ship, the Beliskner arriving, it didn't know.

Having had enough enemies over the millennia, the Supreme Commander of the Asgard race was hoping it might be friendly race. WIth so little that surprised him as of late, the brilliant Asgardian hoped that if the race was not hostile that they would let him study their method of FTL. Thor being both a top military leader and scientist, found a new puzzle to wrap his mind around when not fighting its greatest enemy.