"Willows been busy working on something. She sent one of the runners to tell me she'll be in to see you very soon. She's been very worried about you." Giles explained.
"Well, I guess that's ok. I'm just really anxious to see her." Xander said, sighing slightly. He was fairly disappointed that his oldest and dearest friend had yet to come see him, but he knew there were more important things. "So, why don't you start at the beginning, and tell me everything?"
~*~
Giles and Spike spent the next few hours relaying to Xander everything that had happened since his kidnapping. They told him of their hours searching for him, only find out from the demon underground, that a new Initiative was in town, and taking humans as well as demons. They told Xander about the demons who opened the Hellmouth, though it was quickly closed it again. Not long after, Buffy was killed by one of the many demons that made it out of the Hellmouth. Another killed Dawn a few weeks later.
They told him about the start of the resistance. Of how the town woke up and most of them decided to take a stand. May graduates of Sunnydale High remembered Giles and Willow, Buffy Xander, and Oz, and actively sought them out. Spike went on and on abut how the new 'troops', as he would call them, frowned about Buffy's death, but went into an outrage when they heard that Xander had been kidnapped by the new Initiative the year before.
The next year was spent fighting the good fight, as well as they could, and helping those they could. For a little over a year, with no sign of the Initiative, it had been believed they'd moved on. They lost hope of ever seeing Xander again. That is, until a few soldiers slipped up. During a patrol, several demons were found attacking a couple of drunken soldiers. After killing the demons, the patrol stood back, hidden from view. When the unconscious soldiers were able to walk again, they were tailed to the base.
Months of stakeouts, investigations, spells, and hundreds of man hours finally gave way a month ago. After an undercover member of the team got information from a soldier with a loose tongue, during a night out on the Hellspawn town. They'd found out Xander was still there, alive, if not well. Weeks later, they had the information and resources ready for his rescue, so now here they were.
Xander didn't know what to so with all of this information. It was hard for him to conceive that all of that had happened, but he knew that I had. He could see the proof of it all around him. In the old factory they were now hiding in. In the haunted eyes of the few rebels he'd met while walking around. He could see it every time he looked at his skin, knowing what lie under it wasn't his.
"Giles, do we have any idea what they've done to me?" Xander asked, other questions rumbling around in side his head, but he figured he'd stay with the most relevant at this moment.
Giles sighed. He'd been expecting this question, but that still didn't make him ready for this moment. Giles glanced at Spike and got a slight nod. "Xander, we do not know, right now, exactly what has happened to you in the last few years. We were counting on you to tell us what's happened. But, seeing as you can't remember anything, that leaves that option out. We have a few options available to us. First, I'd like to try hypnosis on you. You may not remember what happened as a result of prior hypnosis or your psyches way of dealing with an emotionally or physically traumatic experience." Giles explained.
"Ok, I guess that would be a smart thing to do. I have to say though. I'm a little worried about it." Xander laughed, a nervous, humorless laugh. "I mean regardless of why I can't remember, it's bound to be bad. Just look at what happened earlier. Would you want to remember how that happened to you? I'm not sure I do. But I understand that we have to know. I know that. I'm just a little�freaked by it all. Ya know?"
"I completely understand that, Xander. If I were in your place, I doubt I would want to know either." Giles told him, a sympathetic smile on his lips.
"Well, despite that, we should do it. It may give some insight into what else the Initiative was up to. That's something that could be useful in the future." Xander said, not looking at his two friends, not wanting them to see the fear in his eyes, though he was sure they could hear it in the wavering of his voice.
A throat cleared on the landing of the stairs, all three men turning to look at Willow, who'd slipped in unnoticed. "Hey Xan, it's great to have you back" She said, tears in her eyes, as she walked down the steps. Xander met her halfway, embracing her in a tight hug.
"Ok, I've got news." She said when Xander had let her go, wiping tears from both their faces.
"What kind of news?" Spike asked skeptically.
"The kind of news that's good, in a bad way." Willow said, leading Xander back over to the couch. "I found some disks when we were at the base earlier. I didn't want to say anything, because they might have been nothing. But I finally got through the encryption. It's medical files. None on Xander, but on some others. It's bad."
Chapter 6 Coming Soon!