Willow walked through the door into the dark interior of the compound, head hung, trying to ponder the information she’d been given. She didn’t know what to make of it though. She would sure Giles or Spike would know, so she headed there after dismissing the detail that had gone with her.
She found them in the Library, talking quietly over a sweat drenched and peacefully sleeping Xander. “What happened to him?” She asked, kneeling down next to the couch, touching the forehead of the long time friend she had thought she’d never see again.
“We gave him some herbs to get the drugs out of his system. He should recover well now, though he’ll more than likely be weak for some time to come.” Giles informed her, checking over their patient.
“What did you find out, Red? I know that look.” Spike said, realizing she had found out something she didn’t know what to do with.
“Went down to the Initiative base. It’s been burnt down. Completely destroyed. Out diversion didn’t keep them away the other night. They were attacked by hordes of demons. They destroyed the base to keep the captives from getting let loose. There were bodies everywhere.” Willow said, raising tear filled eyes to the others. “They drugged them all to keep them quiet while they destroyed the base to hide the evidence.”
“Bloody Hell.” Giles said, stalking across the room, facing away from the others. After several tense minutes he turned back and stared at Xander’s sleeping form. With a voice choked with worry and tears, Giles asked to the still figure, “What did they do to you my precious boy?”
~*~
Xander scrunched his eyes closed, the brightness having attacked them and causing a headache as soon as he opened them. He never remembered it being this bright. Why were the blinds opened anyway? He normally closed them so the sun wouldn’t wake him in the morning. Then he remembered.
He wasn’t at home. He was at Giles. Spike had been there. He’d been sick, but he’d seen Giles and Spike and two people he’d never seen before. He wondered who they could be. But it didn’t matter right then. He could open his eyes, he could move. They’d fixed him. He’d actually gotten to see Giles and Spike, but he hadn’t seen the others. He also wondered where they were.
Sitting up, even slowly, was painful. Muscles protested the movement and his stomach rolled with nausea. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out for, but he was stiff and weak. He felt like he hadn’t walked much in ages. How much time had passed since he’d been rescued? Couldn’t have been more than a couple of days. He was sure of that.
Groaning as his body settled into a sitting position that was comfortable to him, he gazed around the room. His heart jumped in his chest. Nothing was familiar to him. Oh he recognized the smell of old, dusty books, but that was about all he recognized. The walls were windowless, covered in cabinets and cases containing weapons. The bright light had been from several candles set around where he was sitting. Books were piled on several tables, all the chairs in disarray.
Xander could recognize several magical supplies and symbols around the room. He’d seen them many times during the spells Willow and Tara had cast along side Giles, as they fought for the side of right.
There was a flight of stairs on one side of the room, a door firmly closed at the top. Standing slowly and shakily, Xander moved towards the stairs. He didn’t know where he was, but he knew he’d seen Giles and Spike earlier. Or had that been a figment of his fevered mind? No. He’d seen them. Spike had talked to him. So they had to be there somewhere. What if they’d been taken too, and he hadn’t been rescued? What if he needed to go rescue them? Were those their captives that were standing in the corner of the room when he’d woken up from the fever the first time?
He had so many questions and he knew all of the answers lay beyond the door in front of him.
Slowly, Xander climbed the first few steps, out of breath already from the exertion and the exhaustion emanating from his body. He was so focused on his mission, that he didn’t hear the door at the top of the stair squeak open. He didn’t even realize he was no longer alone until the person spoke.
“Xander?” Spike’s voice was laced with disbelief.
Xander, startled by the intrusion into his introspection, yelped, jumped, and stumbled on the stairs. He’d have fallen if it hadn’t been for Spikes vampiric reflexes.
“Spike?” Xander asked, not wanting to believe what he was seeing. Was it another trick of his mind? Was Spike really there, or was he imagining it?
“It’s me Xander. What’s say we get you back to the sofa? You’re in no condition to be walking around, just yet.” Spike said, already half carrying the weak boy back to his temporary bed.
“I thought I’d imagined you.” Xander admitted, as he let himself be led back to the small sofa where he’d woken up.
“It’s not a mirage. I’m here with you Xander. Everything is going to be ok now. Your safe now.” Spike assured him as he helped him to lay back down under the sheets.
“What happened to me? After I was taken a few days ago, what happened?” Xander wanted to know, was desperate to know. He didn’t know where he was or what was going on, but he wanted answers. He wanted to know that he was really safe, that Spike was really ok, that everything would be ok again. He hadn’t worried too much about being taken, not at first. He knew he would be rescued, but remembering the fever and the sickness, he was desperate to know what had happened to him.
Spike took a deep breath. Letting it out slowly, he turned to face the younger man. Spike looked deeply into Xander’s confused and worried eyes. “Where do you want to start?”
“Where are we? I don’t think I’ve ever been here?” Xander said, looking around the strange room.
“It’s the new library. You’ve been here before, as I recall. Remember the basement to the old factory? Looks a lot different now, doesn’t it?” Spike asked, gesturing around the room, his voice bitter and sarcastic.
Xander looked around the room where he’d woken up, mentally stripping the room of everything and adding a bed where the couch was. It was the basement to the factory. He recognized it anywhere. Nothing like repeating the past to get the blood flowing. At least he didn’t have the head injury and girlfriend to cheat on. That thought made him snort to himself.
It wasn’t until he focused back on the books and papers strewn about the room that he realized what Spike had said. “Library? What happened to the Magic Box and Giles? We don’t do research there since when?” Xander asked, turning bewildered eyes towards the vampire again.
Spike had to look away. He knew this was going to be hard for Xander. “The Magic Box was burned down by demons. Giles house was lost in an earthquake caused by demons. Half the town is overrun by demons of some sort.”
Xander sat in shock. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was impossible. How could the town have become over ridden by demons? Buffy and the others wouldn’t have let that happen. That thought reminded Xander of something. “Spike, I know you and Giles are here too, but where is Willow and Tara, Buffy, Dawn? Where is everyone else? I know you guys have to have a plan for taking back the town. We can just get the Buffster and do some major demon damage.”
Spike had to get up and pace the room. He didn’t know if he could say this to the boy. He’d idolized those people and it was going to break his heart to find out what happened. He wasn’t going to take this well, and Spike was tempted to get Red to tell him. She’d kwon him longer. She’d had that relationship with Xander that he’d never been able to have. She could handle this better. Spike wasn’t sure he could handle it at all.
“Spike? What’s wrong?” Xander asked, worry tinting his voice. Spike almost laughed. Here he was, worried about the Whelp, and the Whelp was worried about him.
“Xander, a lot of things have changed. After you were taken, we searched for you. In the mean time some demons sneaked into town. We didn’t hear a bloody thing about it. No warning. They opened the bloody Hellmouth. We closed it again, but damage was already done. Several new species of demon got into our world. They’ve taken over the town. Buffy and the rest of us, we tried to clear them out. We tried to save the populous. You’d have been proud of us.” Spike said with a laugh. Toying with the pages of a book on the table, he continued, his back turned to Xander, so the boy wouldn’t be able to see the tears that clouded his eyes.
“We ran in there, brave as you please. Looked kinda like you. Just ran in there, no idea about what we were facing. Buffy, she was killed a few weeks after the Hellmouth opened. Dawn not even a week later. Got attacked by some demons at school, in broad daylight no less. I tried to protect them both, but it wasn’t enough.” Spike took a shaky breath, then continued. “Tara died a few months later. A spell took her, or the backlash when a demon opened a portal in their casting circle. Red barely survived either the spell or Tara’s death. She, Giles and I are all that’s left.” Spike turned a watery smile on Xander, who sat, paralyzed by shock and grief.
“The town finally wised up though. Started looking around and seeing what was going on instead of what wasn’t. Too little too late now, but at least it’s something. Got a right many of them that help us. Several here were with you at your graduation, helped you fight the demon mayor. They asked about you when they first came to us. They started looking for Giles when things got bad. They lost a little hope when they heard Buffy was dead, and you were missing, but we’ve held together. We’ve all been searching for you day and night. Didn’t know whether you were alive or not, but we had to look. Those people out there, some of them didn’t even know you, but after hearing the other’s stories about graduation, and the way Willow and Giles talked you up, they would have stopped at nothing to bring you back. And here you are.” Spike said, finally turning to fully face Xander. He could tell that this was all a shock to the boy. He’d expected it would have been to him to had he not lived it. He just wished there were something he could do to lessen the pain.
Xander sat shocked, immobile. He didn’t know what to do, what to think. His brain just would not, could not process what he was being told. Buffy, Dawn, Tara. All dead. Willow, Giles and Spike fighting along side the citizens of this town, his graduating class, against demons that no one knows anything about. Demons that were brought here through the Hellmouth. He didn’t understand how all of that could have happened.
“Spike, please tell me you’re joking.” Xander asked in a small voice.
“I wish I could, Xander.” And he did. Spike wished he could just say it was all some bloody awful joke. He wished all the demons would take off their masks and be human, and that all the dead friends and neighbors would come out of hiding and laugh at their little joke. But he knew that wasn’t going to happen. He’d seen them die, he’d seen the demons kill them. There was no joke to be had here.
“But…how? I mean, how could all of that have happened in just a few days? How could the world have completely changed in that short of time?” Xander asked, not being able to grasp the reality of it all.
Spike was confused. Short amount of time? It’d been bloody forever. “Xander, what are you talking about?”
“I’ve only been gone a few days. Two gone at the most, and maybe three I’ve been sick I’m guessing. How could all that have happened in less than a week?” Xander asked, tears running down his face as he tried to understand, tried to comprehend everything that had happened. He tried to put everything into the timeline that he had, but it just wouldn’t fit. Nothing fit anymore.
Spike grew worried. Sitting down in front of Xander on the sofa, he took the human’s hands in his. “Xander, pet, what’s the last thing you remember?”
Looking at Spike, Xander tried to mesh this nice, gentle creature to the snarky friend he’d had a few days ago. “I was on my way home from patrol. These guys attacked me. I screamed for you and you came running out, but they injected me with something and shot you. I remember praying you got inside before the sun came up. I was so worried you wouldn’t wake up in time. The next thing I remember is hearing you and Willow. I couldn’t move but I heard you. Then pain, lots of pain. Then Giles voice. Finally, I woke up for a little while, and I was sick, and you and Giles were here with two people I didn’t know.”
Spike took a deep, unneeded breath. He hadn’t expected this. He’d planned on Xander being able to tell them what had been done to him during his captivity. They hadn’t planned on Xander not remembering anything. This was not the way things were supposed to go, but when did they ever stick to a plan recently.
“Xander, we rescued you four days ago. You didn’t move, or talk, or even whimper the first day you were here. You cried the second. We gave you herbs to clean drugs out of you system the third. That’s why you were sick and why you’re so weak now.” Spike cleared his throat and braced himself for however Xander may react to his next statement. “Xander, you’ve been gone for three years.”
Xander didn’t know what to think. Here was one of his closest friends, and sure, he was a soulless vampire, but they’d been friends for a while. And this friend was telling him that most of his other friends were dead, that everything he’d ever known had changed drastically, and that he’d not been around to see it because he’d been kidnapped by a bunch of freaks who’d probably thought to antagonize the Slayer with his capture. He couldn’t believe this.
He sat motionless for several minutes and they each ticked by slowly for Spike as he waited for Xander’s reaction. He knew it wouldn’t be a good reaction. Lord knows how he would react to news like this.
Spike was surprised when Xander slowly pulled his hands out of Spike’s and stood.
“Xan?” Spike watched worriedly as Xander walked shakily away from him and to the desk in the corner of the room.
“Why?” Xander asked, his voice quiet and small, but he knew the vampire would hear him.
“Why what? I don’t understand, Xander.” Spike said, standing slowly, his eyes trained on Xander as he wobbled a little, before bracing himself on the desk.
“Why are you lying to me?”
“Xander, I’m not lying to you. Why in the hell would I lie to you about something like this?” Spike asked, genuinely confused by Xander’s train of thought.
“I don’t know, Spike. I don’t know why you’d lie. I don’t know what game you’re trying to play. I don’t even know what the hell is going on. But I know you’re lying to me.” Xander said, his voice slightly louder and wavering.
“Xander, I have told you nothing but the truth. I have no reason to lie. I would never lie to you, not about something like this. Not about something this serious.” Spike said, trying to will Xander to believe him.
“You have to be lying to me. ‘Cause, all of that stuff you told me, everything you said happened, it couldn’t have. I’ve only been gone a few days. And Buffy, she wouldn’t let any of this happen. She wouldn’t have died. She’s done it before, didn’t like it much.” Xander said with a small, almost hysterical laugh.
“Xander, I’m going to get Giles. Maybe you’ll believe him if you won’t believe me.” Spike said, starting towards the stairs and the door at the top.
“He’s not up there. He can’t be. Because this is all just a bad dream. Must have gotten knocked out on patrol. This is all just a concussion induced nightmare and I’m going to wake up, and you’re going to be there, sitting in a chair, laughing at me. That’s the way it has always been, that’s the way it is now.” Xander said, full conviction in his voice.
Silently, Spike made it up to the door. Without a sound he opened the door, whispered to the man standing on the other side, and just a quietly, closed the door again. Slowly, Spike made his way back down the stairs. “Xander,” Spike said, trying to sooth the distraught boy with his voice. It had worked numerous times, when the boy had been fighting with his parents. “Things have changed. You’ve been gone for a really long time. I know this is hard for you, but you have to believe me.”
“Stop saying that. Nothing’s changed. Everything is just as it was, as it should be.” Xander said, almost as if talking to himself.
Spike turned when he heard the almost noiseless opening of the door. Giles stood at the top, making his way down the stairs. Breathing a sigh of relief, Spike turned back to his charge. Noticing the slight trembling of the boy’s muscles, he moved closer. “Xander, you should sit down. You’re weak yet.”
“Leave me alone. I’m fine. Everything’s fine.” Xander whispered.
“Xander?” Giles voice rang out through the room.
“Giles.” Xander sighed. “Spike keeps telling me all these lies. About Buffy and Dawn, Tara. He keeps telling me I was gone for three years. Why is he lying to me?”
Giles head hung slightly as memories assaulted him. “Xander, I wish I could say he was lying, but he’s not.”
Xander’s shoulders began to shake. “You’re all lying to me. Why are you lying to me!” Xander shouted, swiping everything off the desk in front of him. “It’s all lies! Everything!”
“Xander, please.” Giles implored, moving closer to Xander, and placing his hand on the younger man’s shoulders. He was shocked when Xander brushed his hand off, pushing him halfway across the room.
Spike looked one, wide eyed as Xander stalked across the room on sturdy legs. He could see the tear tracks glistening on the young man’s face as he walked to a bare spot in the wall. Spike tried to reach him before it happened, but, surprising both him and the still shocked Giles, he wasn’t fast enough.
As they watched, Xander drew back and punched the stone wall, putting a large hole in the masonry. No one was as shocked as Xander though. As he pulled his hand back he looked at it in complete disbelief.
“Spike? Giles?” Xander’s voice was almost non-existent, and so small in the large, quiet room. Turning wild, scared eyes on the other two in the room with him, Xander held his injured hand out in front of him.
What shocked Spike more than the only slightly scratched skin of Xander’s hand, was the green fluid running from the wounds. And the silver glint of metal under Xander’s skin.
“What did they do to me?” Xander asked, his voice faint, and tearful.
Spike had to hurry to catch the unconscious boy before he hit the ground.