Xander's Chance

Xander spent the afternoon with Toni and then made the journey he didn't want to. There were two reasons to go, both of which were Oracles. He appeared in the middle of the White God's compound and began walking. His senses registered the shocked Guardians that stopped what they were doing to stare at him.

"You couldn't call first?" Darian materialized seconds later and fell into step a few feet from him. "Doubt even you'd walk away from the hundreds of Guardians around here. Damian has a warning order out about you. You know, for threatening his wife."

"She's expecting me." Xander had no second thought about the Oracle predicting he'd show up today. He chose to appear far enough away from her that Damian didn't sic his Guardians on him. The act was out of politeness, because he needed something.

"Figures." Darian's presence kept the other Guardians at bay. He led them towards the massive red barn at the center of the buildings.

Xander sensed those within before he set foot into the ultra-modern gym. Darian nodded to the Guardians present, most of which left quickly at Xander's appearance. They paused beside the ring in the center, where the two at its middle had stopped to stare at him.

"It'll take more than a helmet to protect yourself from me," he said, amused at the sight of the tiny Oracle, Sofi, in padded headgear and gloves. Her long, blonde hair was in a ponytail down her back.

"Back off, Xander," Dusty, the man in the ring with her, ordered. With chiseled features and cold eyes, he looked every bit the man who had headed up Damian's assassination corps before the promotion to the leader of all operations in the Western Hemisphere. "You're supposed to request permission to visit."

"Or your Oracle could tell you."

"Oh, now you want something from me, after threatening to take off my head?" Sofi said with faux innocence.

"If he's coming to you, and you're still alive, then he's not a threat," Eden said from her vantage point nearby. "This time, at least."

"I know why he's here," Sofi replied coolly. "He ran into something he can't handle."

"I can handle it," Xander responded. "Just not in a way that lets everyone involved live."

"Dusty, I need to talk to him," Sofi said, gazing up at the blond man beside her.

"Fuck no."

"He won't go away until I do."

"I don't give a shit."

"He can stay," Xander said. "Not like he can kill me."

His words made the silence that followed even tenser. He smiled, enjoying it, then climbed through the ropes of the ring. Dusty was bristling. Sofi stepped up beside him, unwilling to back down from the vamp that came to see her.