As always, great work! What's your next point of departure?

Thanks. That depends entirely on my muse's whims. ;-)

Pretty good minus that "forcing Angel" thing. I read a story that touched on that, and I think it's explanation was a good one. Angel was pretty much just waiting for The Master to come kill him anyway, so all he really needed was a push to die saving the girl he loved rather than die while reading a book or something. I mean, would Angel REALLY take a threat from Xander seriously? He could have disarmed him without much trouble, thrown him out, and gone back to what he was doing before.

Well, since Joss showed us that Angel was doing nothing more than just sitting in his apartment and reading, while waiting for notification of Buffy's death, I don't really agree with that interpretation.

Yes, Xander couldn't have physically forced Angel to take him, but since Angel basically was a moral jellyfish and had no moral backbone, saying Xander forced him to take him to the Master's cavern is a valid and factually correct statement.

In Season One, Angel was either a coward or a stalker focused on a teenaged girl who was only slightly more than half the age he'd been when he turned, and who was indifferent to all of the evil happening round him.

Neither one is anywhere approaching the vicinity of a hero.

Just read your reply to the last review. Hopefully, Xander can clear the air with the others before the big canon blowup in season 4.

Yeah, that's the idea.

The implementation, though, will have to wait on my muse's whims.

Just read this again, glad I did. I really don't see this as Buffy bashing. This really is a discussion of how one side of a relationship feels about the actions of the other. Xander never says that he won't be a friend of Buffy's in the future, just that if she wants a friend, she needs to be a friend and that her past actions were not that of a friend. Until then, he won't put up with abuse and that they can at least be co-workers if nothing else. He wasn't harsh, cruel or mean, just very matter of fact.

I'm interested in the follow-up conversation she has with Angel and the Xander / Willow conversation, let's see if Xander can remain detached and mature then.

I'm glad you see that, and I'm also planning on having a second conversation with Buffy to allow her to present her view of how she saw things happening, and offer explanations for certain events. That's not to say that the two of them are going to agree about most, or even many, things which happened, but it will help to clear the air for them.

I think that the upcoming Willow-Xander conversation is going to be very messy, and no one is going to be very happy afterwards, but it needs to be done if any sort of equitable friendship is going to happen. In some ways, Willow treated Xander - the guy she's called her bestest friend since kindergarten - even worse than Buffy did, and that definitely needs to be addressed.

And I can pretty much say that Xander is not going to remain very "detached and mature" at that point. ;-(

Awesome awesome awesome!

Thanks. ;-)

Love this. Looking forward to the next story in this series.

I've got that started, but my muse is focused on stories for the rest of the August challenge.

oh my... that was one hell of a conversation... though Xander was correct with everything he said...
great story ^_^

While what Xander said was correct, Buffy will get to air her point of view of things eventually, too.

Great story!
I love the changes to Xander, hinted at in the first story, more clear in this one.
Buffy needed to hear that from Xander, I hope she can make friends with him now.
Willow needs a similar wake-up call.

There is going to be a *lot* of changes in store for pretty much the entire Scooby Gang before this series of stories is done. *Everyone* involved screwed up, more than once, and few of them rarely got called on it.

Love it! Can't wait for more!

Thanks. More will show at my muse's whim.

Solid run down from Xan on his new perception of his relationship to Buffy. Definitely something that would come to a person after some time away and applying distance to perception and introspection. Nice entry. Hope we get to see more.

Yeah, reviewing past experiences in the context of new information can lead to new conclusions about stuff you took for granted previously.

There will be more. When it shows up is up to my muse.

Talk about some major wake up calls, all in one conversation!

Sincerely hope you add to this, and I'd like to point out that the building the Vamps' nest was in is now vacant and has been abandoned long enough for them to take it over, /and/ that there's probably all sorts of loot inside, should Xander care to look... and maybe pick it up for back taxes as a home he can work on and a base to operate out of suing said loot and whatever he obtained during his travels...

Yeah, I got the idea from some of Lucifael's stories - 'Eye of the Beholder', to be precise - but at least I steal... /borrow/ from the best, right?

'Stealing' is taking from one source and not acknowledging it.

'Research' is taking from a great many sources and not acknowledging any of them. ;-)

Glad you're enjoying the story.

Interesting look into a more mature Xander. I liked how he addressed Buffy's immaturity and selfishness. There were a lot of times that I felt like smacking her throughout the series. Xander is a much more compelling person now that he has ripped off the blinders and sees Buffy for what she truly is and isn't making excuses for her. I look forward to more to the story, hint hint.

Yeah, Xander is a bit more mature here, but Buffy will eventually get to point out some of his screw-ups, too, since he wasn't exactly a paragon of excellence, himself.

More will be coming, but I'm not exactly sure when.

Great story. Glad to see a Xander with some backbone. I am looking forward to anything else your muse comes up with in this story line.

Thanks. I appreciate your reviewing. ;-)

Not bad.

Things aren't looking well for the later fight with Adam. Of course, Xander will probably produce the right weapon for dealing with him.

I see a long talk ahead between Joyce and Buffy.

I'm gonna be getting back to this eventually, and we'll see some of the possible repercussions of this and some other conversations Xander has or will have with some other people.

As it stands now, as he very clearly stated, Xander would definitely help out with the ADAM situation when asked. How well the Joining spell would function with things as they are now, however, is a matter yet to be determined.

Hehe, great story.

Thanks. There will be more to this story line sometime in the future, as my muse's whims dictate. ;-)