Blight

Major dark AU, starting at season 2. Xander looks back on the event that changed his life, and the tragic aftermath. Character death. Disclaimer: These aren't my characters. I don't own anything. Thoughts and author notes are distinguished from speech by the use of italics. This may be too sad to be a long-term story. Let me know what you think - ml

September 2000

Xander Harris stood on the Appalachian Trail, looking out over the Blue Ridge Mountains into North Carolina. "Mountains," he laughed to himself. As a California boy, he was used to more spectacular vistas. He walked a short distance from the trail and sat on the ridge as he waited for his climbing partner to arrive.

He pulled out his guidebook and read about the area. Until the first part of the 20th Century, the area was home to a great forest of American Chestnut trees. These tall, massive trees were the redwoods of the east coast. They provided food for animals ranging from bears to squirrels. The trees were the basis of America's furniture trade.

Then chestnut blight was accidentally imported from China. The disease was first noticed trees around the Bronx Zoo in 1904. The North American Chestnut had no resistance to the disease. Adult trees were killed, and saplings grew to be short, twisted caricatures. By 1950, the entire ecosystem had collapsed. According to the guidebook the east coast forests were still trying to recover.

As Xander read the guidebook, he felt the text could be applied to him as well. And he could readily trace the cause of the blight that ended his life as he knew it. It happened the second day of his junior year in high school.

His memory spun back. Buffy had just come back from LA. She had returned with a major attitude problem; blowing off Willow and him; insulting Giles, her Watcher; fighting with Angel; and threatening Cordelia. She found out that a group of vampires had been trying to bring back the Master; revive the ancient vampire who had briefly killed her.

"I brought her back," Xander recalled. "I brought her back by performing CPR and how did she repay me? First she was a major bitca, followed by the lap dance of humiliation, then she told us to back off while she dealt with the vampires. That was when everything went wrong…"

September 1998

Xander, Buffy, and Angel were on their way to the warehouse where the vampires were performing the ceremony. The Anointed One, the powerful vampire in a child's body had sent a brunette vampiress to distract Buffy while he abducted Willow and Giles. It had taken precious time for Buffy to persuade, or more accurately torture, the information on the gang's lair from the now dusted vampire.

Angel and Buffy ran all the way to the warehouse. Xander, with his more human limitations, managed to keep up. Nearly winded, he asked, "How are we going to get them out?"

Angel replied. "Buffy, if you can distract the vampires, Xander and I will free the others." Buffy nodded.

"How are you going to distract them?" Xander asked.

Buffy said, "I'm going to kill them all."

They entered the warehouse and Xander's heart stopped. Willow and the others were suspended from a line over the Master's skeleton. Several vampires were around the skeleton and a huge, bald demon was chanting in an ancient tongue while holding a short sword. Beside him stood the childlike form of the Anointed One.

As the bald vampire finished speaking, he plunged the blade into Willow, whose blood spilled out, dripping on the ancient vampire's skeleton. The redhead made a gurgling scream and fell silent again.

Angel, acting quickly, managed to reach the line that held the suspended bodies and pulled them away from the assembled vampires. Xander ran up the ladder to reach Willow, heedless of the chaos around him.

Buffy, blinking the tears from her eyes as she fought quickly ran through the minions, aided by Angel. The fight was quick and brutal. Buffy destroyed the Anointed One and Angel finished the vampire who had stabbed Willow.

The two warriors ran up the stairs to their allies. Giles and Ms. Calendar were regaining consciousness, while Cordelia was still under the influence of the drug that had been fed to them. But the eyes of Buffy and Angel were fixed on the other two occupants of the area. Xander was holding Willow's bloody, lifeless form. Her eyes were open and vacant.

Xander was covered with her blood. His eyes were closed as he gently rocked the small body of his oldest friend. Over and over he whispered, "Please don't leave me. You can't leave me."

Buffy had been too late. It had taken too long to get the information on the Master's whereabouts. She had failed her best friend. And she couldn't face Xander. She descended the ladder, torn between despair and rage. She saw the gleaming white skeleton of the Master, splattered with Willow's blood. She saw a sledgehammer on the floor. She picked it up and assaulted the skeleton with mindless rage.

Angel helped Giles, and Ms. Calendar down the ladder. He ascended again, but he didn't know what to do with Willow and Xander. Xander distrusted the vampire at the best of times, how would he react if Angel tried to take Willow's body from him? The souled vampire didn't want to hurt the boy any more.

Cordelia was beginning to wake up. The first thing she saw as Xander and Willow. She couldn't believe her eyes. This couldn't be happening!

From the age of five, it had been Willow and Xander against Cordelia. For years, they had been defined by their relationship with each other. They had fought, but always within carefully regulated limits. On occasion, Cordelia or Xander had overstepped those boundaries. They had always pulled back; made sure the injured party was okay. Those were the rules of the game.

Now Willow was gone. There was nothing Cordelia could do to change that. And she didn't think there would be anything anyone could do to help Xander. Seeing his grief made her wonder if anyone would be so distraught if something happened to her.

She looked at Angel, who she only knew as the older boy who had the bad taste to hang around Buffy. She knew he couldn't be the one to do what had to be done. Buffy, given the way she had been acting, wouldn't have the nerve to go near Xander. "No, it has to be me," she thought.

The brunette got up and walked unsteadily to Xander's side. She gently touched his shoulder and said, "Xander, we have to go."

Xander's eyes opened and he looked at Cordelia, utterly lost. "I can't leave her," he said.

"We won't. But you know we can't stay here. We have to take her…" She was about to say, "to the hospital," but she couldn't. They both knew that no doctor could help Willow. They needed to be honest with each other. "Her parents deserve to know." She reached over and closed the redhead's eyes. "I'm sorry."

For a second, Cordelia was afraid that Xander would mock her. What he did instead was even worse. He put his head on her shoulder and started to cry.

Cordelia managed to move Xander's hands from Willow and helped Angel take her lifeless form. She led Xander to the ladder, and Giles made sure both the teens made it down safely. Xander seemed to scarcely notice anything around him.

Cordelia led Xander as they walked with Giles and Ms. Calendar. The Watcher carried Willow's body. They went to Giles' house and made the necessary 911 call. The police were told about a gang attack. Xander and Willow had been walking home from the Bronze and they were ambushed by a group of teenagers. Giles did all of the talking. He was used to it.

Buffy had fled with Angel. Once Buffy had climbed into the window of her room, she began to wail. It woke up her mother. The older blonde asked, "What's wrong, honey?"

"I-I just got a call," Buffy stammered. "Willow was…there was a gang… She and Xander…Willow's dead."

"Oh my god," Buffy's mom said as she drew her daughter into her arms. Losing Buffy had always been one of Joyce's fears.

Buffy found no comfort in her mother's embrace. She didn't deserve it. "All of this is my fault," she thought.

Joyce Summers said, "Do you want to go over to see the Rosenbergs?"

Buffy shook her head and began to cry even harder. She couldn't lie anymore. She told her mother everything, bending a metal bar to demonstrate her strength. She told her mom about Merrick and what had happened in LA, how she had fought the Master and died, and how she had just gotten one of her best friends killed and wrecked the life of the other one. "Xander brought me back to life after I fought the Master last year. The day I met him, I let them take his other best friend, Jesse. Now I let them kill Willow."

Joyce didn't fully believe everything Buffy had told her, but it did seem to answer a number of questions she had over the years. "But Buffy, if everything happened as you said, it wasn't your fault. You were just too late. You didn't try to hurt them."

"Yes I did," Buffy said, tearfully. "When I got back, I went out on patrol and saw Xander and Willow. They were sitting on a stone wall, playing. Xander had taken his ice cream cone and touched it to the tip of Willow's nose. Then the playing became something else, and they almost kissed before a vampire attacked them. They were so close to what Willow had always dreamed about."

"The next night at the Bronze, I asked Xander to dance. I rubbed against him in front of Willow; did everything I could to drive him crazy. I asked him if I ever thanked him for saving my life. When he said 'no,' I told him, 'Don't you wish I would?' and left him on the dance floor. I smiled as I walked by Willow. I'd shown her that I could take away what she wanted any time I felt like it. Then, the last time I saw Willow I told her and Xander that I couldn't patrol with them anymore, that they were useless civilians."

"Buffy, you may have acted badly but they knew that you loved them Now you'll need to be there for Xander and Willow's family," Joyce said.

"The Rosenberg's don't know me," Buffy said. "Her mom always calls me 'Bunny.' And Xander… When I found him unconscious after the vampires had taken Willow and Giles, he told me that if they hurt Willow, he'd kill me. And he'd have a reason to."

"He was upset," Joyce said. "He didn't mean it."

"You didn't see how he looked at me," Buffy replied.

Joyce decided not to press the issue.

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Willow's funeral was the next evening. Buffy couldn't believe that her best friend was in that simple, wooden box. Xander sat behind the Rosenbergs and was silent throughout the ceremony. Buffy was surprised to see Cordelia was beside Xander. Buffy and her mom sat with Giles and Ms. Calendar.

Willow was buried in Sunnydale's Jewish cemetery. Buffy spoke briefly with Willow's parents. Shelia Rosenberg said that Willow was always talking about "Bunny Summers," and that she had been a good friend to her. Buffy hoped that was true.

Cordelia stayed near Xander. She knew that he would regret making a scene; Willow was too important to him for anything to be done badly. And knowing the proper way to do things was something Cordelia understood regardless of the situation.

Cordelia guided Xander through the mourners, whispering comforting words when he seemed close to tears, filling in the blanks as he spoke to the Rabbi. She told Xander about the burial traditions as they stood near the grave.

After the ceremony, Ms. Calendar walked up to Xander and Cordelia. Both teenagers gave the computer teacher a hug. Giles shook Xander's hand and told him how much he regretted his loss.

Buffy and her mom approached Xander, but Cordelia gently pulled Xander away. She shook her head to the Slayer with a sad frown. Buffy understood that Cordelia wasn't trying to hurt her, she just knew Xander couldn't face the blonde girl, not yet.

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That night, Buffy and Angel were waiting for a vampire to awaken. Angel was letting the blonde girl talk about the ceremony. Hearing about funerals always made Angel feel guilty- having been the cause of so many during his soulless days.

"I gotta hand it to Cordelia, though," Buffy said. "I mean, I've seen her and Xander go at it, but she was beside him the whole time. If she hadn't been there, I don't think he could have gotten through it."

"They've known each other as long as Xander's known Willow," Angel said. "They have a bond, even if they don't want to admit it. I have to say though, I'm impressed. Not many girls her age would be able to help someone like that."

"Her age?" Buffy asked. "I'm her age. What's that supposed to mean?"

Angel fixed her with a merciless stare. "I mean, there aren't a lot of girls, or boys for that matter who don't think the world revolves around them when they're teenagers. I know I did."

Buffy had to agree. After all, her attitude when she returned from LA had proven Angel's point. "Okay, look I'm not here to fight." With that, the vampire they had been waiting for climbed out of his grave. "Oh yeah, I am."

The battle was mercifully brief, ending with the staking of the newly fledged vampire. As they got ready to leave the cemetery, they saw another empty grave. However, they could tell that the body had been taken out.

"What kind of sick freak robs graves?" Buffy asked. She read the name on the tombstone and saw that the missing body belonged to young girl. "She was almost Willow's age…" She stopped at the thought and looked at Angel.

"We better check on her," he agreed.

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Xander knew that Willow had been stabbed, not bitten. Intellectually, he knew that there was no way Willow would be rising from the grave as a vampire. He also knew that it was extremely foolish to be alone in a Sunnydale cemetery after dark. However, he couldn't leave Willow alone. Not when there was even the slightest chance.

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As he approached the grave, Xander saw two of his Sunnydale high classmates, Eric and Chris. They were carrying shovels and talking, unaware of Xander's presence.

"Can't you see how lucky we were," Eric said. "She's Jewish. That means no embalming, no autopsy, nothing. The only way we could get something fresher was to kill her ourselves."

Chris nodded. "I know. Let's just get this over with."

They opened the casket and pulled out Willow's body. That was the last thing Xander remembered before the world turned red.

As Buffy and Angel reached the graveyard, they heard the screams. By the time they reached Willow's grave, Eric was already dead. Chris was frantically trying to drag his broken body away from Xander as he pummeled Eric's body.

That's all for now. As I said, this one is really dark. I'm not sure how far to take it - ml