Disclaimer: If you recognize it than I do not own it.

The demon came out of nowhere. They were just getting on with their day, knowing it would be a long night. Then suddenly for the most part, they were waking up in the hospital.

Xander sat up in his bed seeing a very bruised and bloody Oz waiting for him. "Ouch," Xander said, "Please say I don't look as bad as you do."

Oz glanced over at him surprised to see him awake. "Worse," Oz stated in a slightly shaken voice, showing more worry and emotion than Xander remembered seeing.

Xander paled remembering seeing Cordelia go flying. "Cordelia, is she..."

He couldn't bring himself to finish the question, but Oz understood what he was asking. "They won't let me in to see her," he admitted. "She's critical.'

Xander pulled out his IV trying to remember what happened but it only came in flashes. "What happened?"

"Demon Came. Demon was hunting. Demon won. Almost won. You got some good hits in. It ran when a crowd left the bronze," Oz said keeping as blunt as possible.

"Willow? I remember her getting hurt but...god I remember Cordelia," Xander cringed, he remembered Cordelia being torn into.

"It was badness." Oz offered.

"I just, I just can't see how everything went so bad so quickly," Xander admitted. "How's Willow?"

Oz nodded understanding. "She's been released. Temporarily. She's home. I promised to stay here."

Xander began to pull himself back together, it wasn't time for him to lose it now. "break into ICU?"

"Course."

It was far too easy to break into the room. Cordelia was laying on a bed that seemed to consume her. Xander felt sick seeing her hooked into dozens of machines, just keeping her alive. After looking at her in absolute horror. He got angry. 'ohhh even better, the slayers little tag along. How does it feel to be abandoned by your slayer. She left the town to the demons. It will be fun taking out Sunnydale's last line of defense, nothing stopping us now. Bout time the humans around here realize that Sunnydale belongs to demons," he hissed mockingly remembering the word.

"Xander," Oz said seeing a darkness in the teens eye that was normally very well hidden.

"Yeah our slayer fucking abandoned the hellmouth and now it is a free for all," Xander returned. "We are a couple teenagers minus the super powers minus the weapons and minus the help from the watcher. Willow, she's going to get herself killed by getting in too deep with magic. Cordie...god cordie," he said looking down at his girlfriend. "There is four of us against an army. We are all going to did and she just left us to it cause it didn't work out with her boyfriend. I staked my brother and still kept fighting. She...god cordelia," He said again horrified.

He went over to the bedside and gave Cordelias cheek a kiss. Then he stomped out. Oz followed him worried about just how angry Xander was. He always was so good natured it was surprising to see. It worried the slightly older teen that he'd do something he would regret…if he survived long enough to regret it. "Your going to do something stupid."

"Yep," Xander said angrily walking out of the hospital. "Now are you joining me or not?"

Oz followed him. "You have to be hurting." He did after all wake up after six hours of being unconscious.

"Maybe," Xander said but it didn't stop him.

"Xander..."

Xander looked at him, "a month, she's been gone a month. We can't keep up with it. People are coming back. The death rates are twice as high as they were before Buffy came to Sunnydale. They are coming back fast. Energy from Acathla or some shit but they are coming and guess what Oz, they will win."

From the hunting they had done, that was clear. They were fighting a losing battle. "Your moving on anger. It leads to badness," Oz said hoping he'd at least think about what was happening before doing something he regretted.

"I'm tired of them hunting us," Xander said as they reached the school and he did not hesitate to break in, grabbing the best of his weaponry. "I'm hunting them."

"And the two of us will die."

"Who said it is the two of us," Xander returned looking up at him for the first time. "They got an army, I'm going to build one."

Oz looked at him surprised, what he was suggesting seemed absolutely impossible. "What?"

"They are my pack," Xander growled. "this is our home. Our territory Oz. They don't get to take it from us. They don't get to keep killing our friends while the rest of the world can just move on."

'Ever think about leaving."

"Our home, our people and they can't or won't protect themselves so we are going to have to do it for them because it is our fight. That's something buffy never understood or she wouldn't have left. I'm done playing games."

Oz looked at him seeing that he truly was intending to do this and just from his stance, Oz was beginning to think he'd succeed. He knew there was more to Xander Harris then what met the eye. His wolf was warning him that the other teen was powerful. He never understood it before. "How do you plan on building an army?"

"we already have one, we just have to pull it together."

"And you lost me," Oz said.

Xander just went to a pay phone and dialed a number speaking softly into the phone before moving on. Oz following behind him until they reached a house down the street from Xanders. Oz was shocked though he did not show it, seeing Tor Hauer was not what he was expecting.

"Come in," Tor said with a nod as they entered.

Xander was pulled into hug and he put his face in her throat, a second later she pulled away, not something Oz expected.

"Oz, I'm assuming you know Tor, Kyle, Heidi and Rhonda."

"Yes."

The four mean kids however were impatient and wanted answers, screw the introductions. Especially as Xander looked like he had been in a fight with the entire football team. "Oy, what you call us together for," Tor asked.

Xander hoped he was making a good choice. He was angry. He wanted revenge. He was tired of losing and this was the only chance he had. So he was going to give them what they wanted and he would let them decide what to do with it. "You wanted the truth, the absolute truth about Sunnydale. Buffy wouldn't let me tell it. Still want it?"

"Course."

Xander looked at them seriously, "Vampires, werewolves, witches and warlocks, demons, all of your worst nightmares exist," Xander said clearly.

There was a slight inhale of breath, but oz was confused that the four didn't seem overly surprised at the statement, as if they were almost expecting it. "And what happened to us," Heidi asked. "What made us eat someone, you told us it was a ritual and it struck us, that it wasn't our fault yada yada...but you never fully explained."

"A warlock...or a mage. I don't really know the difference. He wanted to take in the spirit primals of hyenas, we got in its way. The hyena spirit primal possessed us."

It sounded insane but also unbelievably accurate, they knew despite wishing differently that he was telling the truth. "And, you and your little gang fight this stuff," Kyle asked, "since sadly, that actually makes sense. The barbeque forks to the neck do not. Anything weird happening, your always around stopping it so you fight these things."

Xander nodded since lying would do none of them any good. "Yes."

The four shared looks and didn't hesitate to make the next statement. "We want in," Tor said shocking oz. "We wanted in before, but we want in."

"In...well, being in got Cordelia in ICU on life support and they don't know if she will wake up. Being in... fighting these things, it's going to put us in an early grave, maybe tonight, maybe next week but we will end up dying hideous painful deaths, maybe if we are lucky they will find our bodies and maybe, just maybe there might be a tiny chance we won't be so torn apart that we will be able to have an open casket. Probably unlikely," Xander wasn't sugar coating it. He knew the reality of what they did, he also knew that when he came here and told them the truth, they would want to be involved. Its why he chose them first.

Tor laughed, "This is Sunnydale Harris, we are going to die, die young, maybe tonight, maybe next week. It will probably be a hideously painful death. Maybe there will be a body but even if there is, how much of it is recognizable is debatable. This is Sunnydale. Speeding up our demise or not, we want in." Oz was confused, it couldn't possibly be that easy to get people involved.

Xander grinned, that was the answer he was hoping for. It wasn't a nice clean job but it was one he believed in, even if Buffy was under the assumption that only slayers slayed, this was their home. They all deserved to be given the opportunity to fight for it. "You don't know how much I wanted to hear that," Xander admitted.

"Oh really," Rhonda said surprised, she didn't understand why he was suddenly informing them of all this. "You seemed to shove it away before. Shove us away. Our alpha."

Xander gave them a sad look, "It was never my call," Xander returned. "If I even hinted at the idea of bringing others in I got shot down. Supernatural supposed to be a secret and all. Besides, not one of you tried to hang with me."

"Your blond friend shoved us away every time we tried," Tor admitted. "Which is why I was shocked to get the call. What changed?"

"It's our fight," Xander returned. "our town. Our friends. Right now, I'm on a bit of a revenge kick. A demon was hunting around the bronze. Would have killed us anyways. Cordelia's in a coma because of it. We got beat to hell."

This idea made them uneasy, they wanted to be involved but wanted all the facts. "So you want us to fight your battles," Kyle challenged.

"She left the town to the demons. It will be fun taking out Sunnydale's last line of defense, nothing stopping us now. Bout time the humans around here realize that Sunnydale belongs to demons," Xander said remembering the words. "Sunnydale belongs to us. We can't defend it. Not just us. Buffy..."

"Buffy aint human," Rhonda stated. There was something extremely unnatural about that girl.

"She had skills we didn't, and yes she was human," Xander added. "Just special. Now the demons are coming out, taking risks, killing more. They are coming in packs, almost an army worth and we don't have one to fight back. I decided to stop caring about how it was drilled into my head to not bring in others. Its time Sunnydale fights back."

"You don't have to tell us," Heidi returned with a dark grin, "We would have helped you fight your own battles. God Xander. You saved me from making the biggest mistake of my life."

There was a slight flinch from the four mean kids and Oz wondered what Xander had stoppedd her from doing. "Don't make this about that," Xander stated. "I don't want you doing this because you think you owe me because you don't."

"You stood on a bridge, the side of a bridge and talked me down from killing myself," Heidi stated causing Oz to glance at Xander shocked, he had never heard about this before. "I was up there because a monster got in my head, made me kill someone, eat someone and I enjoyed it. That monster, a part of it was still inside. You helped me control it. You helped all of us even though we put you through hell in school. Helped us live with what we did. Helped us know we could still control that part of us that remembered liking it. You made us realize it wasn't us. Fighting...isn't that all we have left?"

"I was considering going army," Tor admitted. "I'd sign onto yours in a heartbeat. I know some martial arts," Tor could only think of one very important question, weird and unusual look to the group of them so he figured Xander would have some answers. "What happened last Halloween."

Xander grinned, "What did you dress as?"

"We dressed as the two knights of the round table...that really happened didn't it."

"remember how to use a sword," Xander asked grinning.

They nodded grinning, "Rhonda and I dressed as Archers," Heidi stated, "I still got my bow."

"Xan you remember, the muscle memory is imprinted," Xander stated. "If you work at it, pull it out. I can still hit a target nearly any distance with a gun. I dressed as a soldier. Still have the knowledge too."

"We remember things, a lot of things," Heidi offered.

"Good, swords are great, bows better. Vampires are 3 times faster, 4 times stronger than a person," Xander stated. "Demons most of them even worse."

Tor nodded. "Yeah but it's a fight that needs to be fought. We are up for it."

"Good," Xander said pleased though also worried. "I am probably going to get us all killed but enough is enough. They wanted a fight and we are going to give them one."

"Not much of an army just us six...seven if you include the redhead. You said Queen bitch is out and where's Blondie?"

Buffys leaving still hurt, they had fought for her, fought by her side and she abandoned them when it got difficult. Sure, her life sucked, but they couldn't just up and leave, this was their home and Xander realized, that Sunnydale did not matter to Buffy. She only fought because she had no choice. "No idea," Xander replied. "Not sure if I would forgive her if she decided to show up. Besides, if tonight goes as I expect it too, I should be adding a bit more firepower."

"Alright alpha, build us a pack worth fighting with," Kyle agreed. "who are you thinking?"

"Amy Maddison," Xander said.

They looked surprised at that. "Hmmm, she smells off slightly, power..." Kyle offered.

"She's a witch," Xander returned. "Potentially a few others. Have any suggestions?"

"Larry Blaisedale," Heidi stated. "He'd fight with and for you any day. Hell, he warned his team against bullying you. Lost his best friend five months ago. Barbeque fork incident."

"That geek that O'toole makes do his homework, a geek has there uses even if he can't fight worth shit," Tor stated. "Johnathan or something like that."

"Oh, and just about 50% of the students at Sunnydale will step in if asked," Rhonda added. "Because all of us are either burying our heads or trying to understand the impossible to understand."

"Most of our kindergarten class is dead," Heidi stated, People we started school with...god there's what, of the original Sunnydale elementary school classes 20 people left?"

"Not even," Xander returned. "Willow, cordy, you, me, Aura, Johnathan, Amy, Tor, O'toole, Larry, Michael, from our kindergarten class. Kyle moved here first grade, Rhonda what third or fourth?"

The reminder of so many dead classmates long since forgotten turned their stomachs. "God that's sickening to think about."

"I think we lost about ten in our class before we reached high school. That's of the originals, we lost so many others as well, we'd gain a kid here and there and most of them would die. that's a big chunk. We lost ten more in high school. Not counting the other classes or the people who popped into the school along the way."

"Maybe you should start your recruitment speech with that," Kyle suggested. "Would have had me in without a second thought and I'm not born here. God, I never put the deaths together like that before."

"Sunnydale syndrome," Xander returned, "it's like the towns spelled to forget the dead."

"And you remember," Rhonda pointed out. If they had not eaten the principle, they likely would never have bothered with the nightlife but Xander, he knew.

"I can't forget," Xander admitted, "Some days I wish I could, but you get to a point where you can't forget it anymore and everything you repressed just comes back stronger and more difficult to ignore. I think you all are past that point as well."

Heidi laughed, "After you memorize the taste of human flesh, you can't ignore it anymore. Is that Sunnydale syndrome a real thing because I always just figured my parents didn't give a shit about us after they seemed to forget my brother dying. Never questioning the whole 'accident' thing. I thought I was insane."

Xander cringed, he knew over the years, when he saw things he shouldn't have, or weird things happened, he felt insane because monsters didn't exist. He had known for years and let them think they were crazy, he felt horrible at that. The truth sucked but it was better than pretending everything was okay and knowing it wasn't. "Sorry I never told you the truth before this."

"No you were too much under blondies thumb," Rhonda said. "That we've noticed. We want in. We don't want to be coddled or treated like babies. I got a younger sister. She asked me to take her to the zoo a few months ago. I freaked, like freaked freaked. I don't want her to grow up like that. I'll fight so she never has to. So she can go to the damn zoo without worrying about turning into a psycho hyena person and eating people."

Xander grinned, it was a darker grin then his usual easy going one. He was done playing games, being the comic relief. He was going to have to step up and finish this, "welcome to war boys and girls, We will give you a very brief welcome after we go gather the rest of our army."

"Coming with," Kyle said nodding to the others. "they'll stay back? Deal?"

Xander gave a sharp nod as they went to where Amy was staying with her dad and he let them in, Amy just grinned giving Xander a hug before looking confused at the other two. "Hey Xand, what's up?"

"You mentioned learning magic, so you could fight back," Xander stated. "So, you would be able to stand a chance against what you know is out there."

"Yes," Amy said still looking warily at the other guests. "But I got off track till you pulled me back. Why what's the point of this?"

"Would you like to join the fight with us, I can guarantee dying young and painful," Xander said.

Kyle rolled his eyes as Oz shook his head, that was no way to gain any help. "You need to work on your speeches," Kyle pointed out. "Dyeing young and painful, it's not really going to draw people in."

Amy laughed, "no but honesty is important. dying young and in pain, I thought that was almost a guarantee in Sunnydale Xander. Besides, Buffy is not overly fond of inviting other people in. Her and Mr. Giles were not very welcoming."

Xander knew that, they had barely wanted him and Willow involved. Still, he wasn't in the position to throw away any potential help. He stopped caring what Buffy and Giles wanted when they abandoned the hell mouth. When he watched as a demon tore apart his girlfriend and nearly killed his best friend. There choices didn't matter when they weren't there.

"They aren't involved. Sunnydale's practically fallen into hell because Buffy took a sabbatical. Cordelia is in a hospital bed on life support because we were just walking home from the bronze. I'm going for revenge and making this town ours again. I'm tired of losing people. So, I'm gathering up an army of people and taking it back by force and showing the demons who really owns this town."

She couldn't help but grin. This was the Xander who used to protect her from bullies, not the tag along he had grown into. "You know I'm in and I think Jonathan, Michael and Nancy might be interested. Nancy is a practicing witch and so's Michael. Jonathan lost one of his cousins last week. We aren't really friends but he does do some basic witchcraft and is probably up to the fight. He's got a good chunk of Mr. Giles books memorized. He'd be a huge help and Nancy knows a lot about magic and the not so evil demonic places. She's a second-generation witch and learnt everything from her mother before a demon got her when Nancy was 13. We aren't close friends or anything but if we brought it up they would all maybe be interested."

Xander nodded, if they were interested and knew what they were getting into, they were welcome. They needed all the help they could get. "Give some hints to them, tomorrow at noon."

"Yes sir," she said before grinning. "So, who are you off to induct now?"

"Larry," Xander returned.

She should have known that was a possibility seeing as he already had the leader of the mean kids backing him. Of course, he'd go for the jock who used to shove his head in a toilet. "Xan, its questionable that you are making an army of people who made elementary and middle school hell," she admitted. "Cordelia, Kyle Du Four...no offence meant. Larry Blaisedale."

"You forgot Tor, Heidi and Rhonda," he said lightly. "I'm not planning no inviting O'toole and everyone else is dead Ames, I mean, everyone keeps dying to the point where is holding a grudge necessary? Where does it end? We all bleed the same and our bloods what feeds this damn town. It feeds the darkness and if we don't step up its going to consume everything."

They couldn't help but cringe, Xander was usually so cheerful and easy going, that was dark coming from him. Worse, it was accurate. "Wow your cheerful," Kyle stated.

"I got nothing left to lose," Xander returned. "I'm in it till the end. So, let's go recruit a footballer."

"I'll ask around the circles," Amy offered intending to back him. She didn't really understand why he was forgiving people so easily but just figured that it was Xander.

"Discreetly, we don't want on their radar too soon," Xander advised, he didn't want the demons getting ideas about them and killing them off before they got a chance to take a few of them with them.

She nodded understanding what he meant, "Witches know discreet," she said lightly as they continued on their way to the next house.

Larrys father answered the door letting them downstairs where Larry was playing video games he stood up instantly uneasy. It was an odd group to enter his basement. "So is the world ending, because it has to be to have you three here."

"Maybe," Xander said honestly. He was tired, he hurt and so he decided to be blunt. He wanted this done. It had already been going better than he was expecting. "Do you believe in monsters?"

Larrys eyes widened, "what sort are we talking about here?"

"Non-human variety."

Larry was silent for a few minutes and they just let him think through what was said. Finally, he took a seat once again. "I'm open to hearing about it."

"Everything from your deepest darkest nightmares exist," Xander said bluntly. "And Sunnydale is the center of it all. All those mysterious and easy forgotten deaths, accidents that are clearly not accidents, everything is real. Some of us know. Some of us fight. Let's just say the only one keeping the monster population manageable decided to go off because she couldn't handle it. Some demons pissed me off. I'm building an army. You in?"

It was blunt, direct and Larry couldn't help but believe them. It shouldn't have been that easy but with all that Larry knew about what went on in Sunnydale, the people he had lost 'mysteriously and unexplained' he wasn't going to lose the opportunity to fight back. Xander knew that. He knew some of the deaths had hit the other teen hard so Larrys answer was no surprise to him. After all, Xander was extremely good at reading people. "I'm in," Larry said.

Xander grinned as Oz looked surprised. "You might want to work on your sword skills, you were pretty good weren't you, for a pirate."

His eyes widened, "that really happened," Larry said shocked as Xander nodded. "Shit I think I nearly raped your blond friend. That freaky strong one."

Xander understood how such an action under someone else's control could eat you up inside, he had almost done the same as a hyena primal. "That wasn't you, not really," He said wanting to assure him of that fact and that there was no hard feelings.

Xander glanced to Oz who was shocked at how quickly Xander managed to pull together an army, "so I got us an army."

"Scary fast," the werewolf admitted. "Devon may be interested. He knows the weird."

"I got a player on the team, carry's around holy water," Larry stated realizing they were gathering people, more the better if they were coming to him. "He is big on the whole, Sunnydale is evil thing. Could use the truth. Hess big, tough and a good fighter. Names Mitch. He had a twin sister who went missing a year ago."

"Tomorrow at noon, in the school," Xander stated, this had gone so much better than he had hoped in his anger. He had not really thought things through, he just acted. He was too angry at what happened to care about the consequences. "Bring him in if you trust him, if he betrays us, minimum I do know there are spells to make you forget cause what we are doing...we probably won't survive high school."

"I didn't think our odds were too good anyways," Larry stated. "You mentioned revenge."

"Cordelia's in intensive care."

Larry's eyes narrowed, he didn't like the idea of the cheerleader getting hurt. She could be a bitch, but she was good to him most of the time. "So we are going to hunt the bastards? Cordelia got the cordettes to back off when I came out," Larry said. "Whatever hurt her pays for it."

"Damn straight," Xander agreed.

There was no turning back now. He had gathered the army, now he just had to get them ready and fight. He was drawing on all his experience as a soldier to get things done. Hopefully, he wouldn't get them all killed.