Disclaimer - Its all mine I tell you all mine, um okay actually I own nothing
except this story and My muse is currently suing me for custody

Chapter 1

Okay it's been six weeks since Buffy regained her memory and six weeks since she said she loved me. That I have to tell you was one of the best moments of my life, right up there with discovering Twinkies. I mean imagine you have loved this Girl since you met her and you have dreamed about her finally seeing you in the same light and when it finally happens she loses her memory. That's gonna suck, I don't care what anyone says. When she finally regained her memory and she told me she loved me, well the feeling is indescribable. Anyone who has ever felt this feeling will know what I'm on about.

So for the last six weeks we have been doing all those things that I always wanted to do. Going to the movies, going out dancing, patrolling and just watching TV or listening to music. Now I know we have done that sort of thing in the past but this time is different, we're doing all these things as a couple. And trust me that make's a world of difference. For example we went out for a meal to this little Italian restaurant just outside Sunnydale called Gino's. The service was good, the food was great and the company was excellent. (So up until now it had been perfect I was even thinking nothing could possibly go wrong, stupid me). We had just left the restaurant when we heard a scuffle around the corner we started running towards the noise when a figure flew out of the alley hit the road and promptly dusted as we came around the corner we noticed five vampires attacking someone, Buffy immediately jumped in to the fight, I stepped back and pulled out the vials of Holy water and started throwing them at the vampires.

This went on until one of the vampires at the back noticed me throwing the vials and ran towards me "I'm going to feast on your heart blood bag". Shaking my head I reached into another pocket and pulled out a shinny stake and waited for the vampire. Now normally I don't take vampires on in a fight but I was dying to try out willows new inventions, like the stake I had in my hand it was painted with holy water based enamel and Garlic mixture. Yeah I know Garlic won't kill vampires but, as Willow pointed out when I mentioned it to her, if you get garlic into a wound it won't close for ages and will sting like a bitch. And that's on top of how much pain the vampire would be in from being stabbed by the stake in the first place. So I was waiting for the vampire when one of the others shouted, "Leave him, we can get him later, kill the slayer."

Now I have to admit that even if he hadn't been talking about Buffy I would have been pissed off at being ignored. "What the matter fang face scared of a human?" This stopped the vampire in his tracks and it turned around and looked at me, then started to walk towards me, I have to admit I really I find the predictability of vampires funny. But I had decided enough was enough so I reached into my jacket and pulled out my gun, when the vampire saw this he started to laugh "Guns don't kill us, mortal, don't you know anything?" I just looked at the vampire

"Do you mind if I try anyway?" the vampire just smiled and spread his arms.

"Idiot" I muttered and promptly shot him, its face contorted in pain and fell on the floor screaming in agony. I quickly ran up to it and staked it and as it vanished I thought I saw a look of gratitude on his face. As I looked up Buffy staked her last vampire and looked at me "I thought bullets didn't hurt vampires?" I just look a little queasy and said

"Depends where you shoot It." she looked at me and I pointed down, she looked at me in shock "You . . . Shot . . . ." She could not finish so with a wince I nodded and she shuddered, she was walking towards me and she just shook her head. "That's low, shooting someone in the nuts, even if it is vampire." I just shrugged, it's the results that count, and every time I used these bullets they worked. They weren't pleasant, but they were effective. As we walked off I looked at her, "What happened to the other person in the alley?" she just shrugged.

"They disappeared as soon as I staked that last vamp. It's really weird I got the feeling I recognised them." I put my arm around her shoulder.

"Lets just go home." As we walked towards my car I felt like I was being watched I looked at Buffy she didn't seem to notice anything. But when we got to the car I pulled Buffy into a hug and while I was hugging her I looked around the area behind us, I thought I saw a shadow but when I looked back the shadow was gone. So shrugging we got into my car and drove away.

When we arrived home Buffy insisted on going to the Magic Box to tell Giles what had happened. When we walked into the Magic Box we saw that everyone was there. Willow and Tara were sitting at the table looking through some books and Giles was walking towards the table with even more. As we were about to speak a voice that sounded very British said, "I think I have found a copy of the prophecies of Shuchenecstra. It's very old but appears to be in good shape, and might just have more information about what we're looking for." As we heard this voice Giles looked up, "You have? Where did you find that?" I was wondering where Wesley was, as we couldn't see him, just hear him, when he walked out of the store room with a rather large dusty book. "I found it in a wooden box at the back of your store room, on the bottom shelf of the old bookcase." As he finished talking Giles finally noticed us standing there.

"Ah Buffy, Xander there you are." As he said that Willow and Tara both quickly glanced up at us and then back down at their books. I looked at Buffy and then turned to look at Giles, as Buffy spoke. "What's going on Giles? Why are you all acting weird?" As Buffy said this, I noticed that Wesley was just standing there looking at us, to be more precise he was looking at our joined hands and he looked a little worried. "Buffy, Xander nice to see you again." Buffy and I just nodded, and then I looked at Giles. "Are you going to answer her or what?" As I said this Giles looked at me and muttered something about bloody rude Americans, then he just sighed. "A little while ago, Wesley discovered a prophesy about a rather large demon summoning an number of other equally large demons and then opening the Hellmouth." I just looked at Buffy

"Well, not to sound jaded, but that's nothing new." She nodded her head and turned back towards Giles. "That still doesn't explain the weird looks off Wesley and the fact that Willow and Tara won't look at me and then there's the fact that you're stalling." When she finished speaking, she crossed her arms and looked at Giles. "Well, when Cordelia has a vision, or Wesley uncovers yet another ancient prophesy, Angel and his team go out and try to stop the said evil act from occurring. Thus saving lives."

Buffy still had a confused look on her face, and I was thinking about what he had said when I thought of something, and my face dropped. Buffy must have noticed because she turned to me "Xan? What's wrong?" I just looked at Giles and he nodded his head and then went and stood next to Wesley beside the table "Xander what's wrong? You look someone stole your last Twinkie." I just looked at her then turned to look at the table and everyone was watching me with a mixture or worried and frightened faces. I just leaned towards Buffy kissed her on the cheek and stepped back. "You can come out now deadboy." Buffy's head snapped back towards me and her eye's widened. She was about to speak, when a voice said "Buffy." We both turned around and saw Angel and Cordy standing there beside the front door. Next to them was a black man holding an axe, a small dark haired women and right at the back of the group was Faith. I was about to say something when I heard Buffy speak.

"Angel".

I looked up and sure enough Deadboy was standing there looking at Buffy as if he had never left. To tell you the truth, it was starting to piss me off. As I was stood there, I was thinking about all the things I would love to do to Angel starting with a holy water bath, and then getting progressively darker. Okay so maybe that's a bit extreme. But you have to realise that while I know Buffy loves me, she also at one time considered Angel to be the love of her life. And while, I know she's moved on, I'm almost positive he hasn't. After a moment or two Cordelia turned towards Giles and Wesley "Have you found anything more about this prophecy yet?" They both shook their heads. Buffy turned towards Giles and Wesley. "What Prophecy?" They both looked slightly uncomfortable but didn't say anything. Cordelia looked at them "What is your damage? Okay we found part of this prophecy, and then we came here to ask Giles if he knew anything about it. There was only three pieces of the prophecy that we could understand. It looks like it was written in 15 different archaic languages. The first bit said 'It shall come to pass that the Slayer and her first love will battle' then the second bit said 'they shall do battle until one of them strikes the other down and only then can the slayers new love, the white' and the last bit said 'battle against he who must not be named and save them from death' that's all we could find." After she finished speaking Giles looked at Buffy and said "The only thing we have found out so far is that the site of this battle is roughly 45 miles north of Sunnydale in a place called the Well of Darkness." As he finished speaking I mumbled under my breath "Just once, for a change, I would like one of these places to be called the holy place of the Eternal Twinkie. " Angel glanced at me and then looked back at Buffy "So we decided to come and talk to Giles, and see what he thought." He looked at Giles "Anything you want to add?" Giles looked a little worried, but just shook his head and motioned for Angel to continue. "After talking to Giles, we decided that we should get you, and your latest boyfriend and head to this place, I take it that your boyfriend knows about you being the slayer?"

Before she could answer I said "Like I would let her go with out me anyway." Angel looked at me "You're not invited boy. The prophecy was quite clear and even if we can't read all of it, I really don't think that they had doughnuts back when this was written. So really, I don't see what use you could be anyway." As he finished talking, he looked at the rest of the scoobies and noticed that apart from Giles everyone was glaring at him. Giles must have been looking at me, cause as my hand went it to my jacket, he started to move towards me. Unfortunately he was a few seconds late, because before he could reach me I had my gun out and pointed at Angel. He just looked at me. "Guns don't hurt vampire's boy." I just smiled

"The last vampires that said that about 45 minutes ago is now dust. Want to see if you do any better?" As I said this Faith stepped forward

"You should listen to him fang; I have seen what that gun can do to vampires." He looked at her "Guns can't hurt vampires." As he said this, I laughed

"Your right guns can't hurt you, but I'm almost positive that the bullets could though. Perhaps you'd like me to demonstrate."

While I'd been talking, Giles walked over to me, being careful to keep out of my line of fire. "Xander, don't shoot him we need him." I turned my head slightly to look at Giles "No-one talks to me like that and gets away with it. Not any vampire and especially not that vampire." Just then I felt a hand reach over and push the top of my gun down until it was pointing at the floor. I look round and saw that it was Buffy that was pushing my hand down. "Xander you can't shoot him, if the prophecy is correct he might be needed." She let go of the gun. "Put it away." I was tempted to argue, and she must have noticed because she stepped close to me and softly said. "If you don't put the gun away, you're sleeping on the couch for a week." Now as threats go, that was a good one because as soon as she finished speaking the gun was back in its holster. Cordelia stepped forward. "What did you say to him?" Buffy just smiled sweetly. Angel with a sick look on his face said "She said 'If you don't put the gun away you're sleeping on the couch for a week' " Willow just smiled

"That's about the fifteenth time she has used that threat now." Buffy just smiled kissed me and said "It works." Angel looked at me, and it wasn't a friendly one.

"So you finally told her about the Masters cave and the Hospital then?" I shook me head and motioned for him to shut up. But it was too late as Buffy turned towards Angel. "What are you talking about?" he looked at me and said

"You never told her?" I shook my head.

Buffy was looking from me to Angel and back again when Giles spoke. "Angel is referring to the fact that when you went down to the master's cave, Xander had to push a cross into Angels face to get him to help save you. And when you were ill in hospital Angelus came to visit you, either to turn you or kill you. Xander stood up to him and made him leave." After he stopped speaking, Buffy looked at me. "Is this true?" I just looked at her.

"Yeah, it's true." She just nodded her head

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" I just sighed. "Well there is one other thing. A few years ago when you were fighting the sisterhood of Jhe, I was in the basement stopping Jack O'Toole from setting off a bomb under the library." As I finished speaking she nodded her head, and turned towards Giles

"Did you know about that?" He shook he head

"I knew about the bomb as I removed it from the boiler room when I released Oz, but I never knew what it was doing there." As he finished speaking that little voice inside my head started laughing. "It's been fun knowing you kid" then he started whistling Taps.

After a few moments she turned towards Giles "Why didn't you ever tell me?" he just looked at her "It wasn't my place, I thought if Xander didn't tell you he must have had his reasons and I decided it was his choice" she stood just nodded her head and turned towards Angel "So can you explain why you didn't tell me" he glanced at me briefly, then looked at Buffy "I didn't tell you about the time in the masters cave because I was scared, that if you found out, that Xander had to force me to help, you would never speak to me again" he paused "and the time at the hospital, Angelus thought that if you knew that Xander faced him with no weapons or backup, you would realise how much he loved you and that might have given you the strength to finally stake him, as for the bomb in the cellar I didn't know" as he finished speaking all eyes in the room were on me and to tell you the truth I was starting to get nervous. Buffy looked back over at Angel and shook her head "I can understand your reasons for not telling me, I'm not very happy about them, But I do Understand them" as she finished speaking she turned towards me "Its your turn to tell me why you decided not to tell me, I can understand Giles point of view and I can even understand why Angel didn't tell me. But I can't understand why you didn't tell me."

I didn't know what to say I have been keeping these incidents secret for years, I just didn't know where to start. So I just stood there trying to figure out what to say, when that little voice spoke up again "Try the truth" so I took a deep breath "The reason I didn't tell you about the masters cave, was you were going out with Angel at the time and you knew I didn't like him, so I was convinced that you would think I was making it up to try and get you to break up with Angel, The reason I never told you about the hospital is that I thought you already knew, that Angelus had mentioned it to you, to try and get to you" I paused " And the reason I didn't tell you about the Bomb under the Library was I didn't feel like getting in to another argument with you, because less then 24 hours earlier you had given me a lecture for trying to help you"

When I finished talking to Buffy I looked over at Giles "I always wondered what happened to the bomb, I went down there first thing the next day but it wasn't there" Giles just nodded his head and smiled " I found it when I went to release Oz the nest day and he helped me move it to a more secure location" I just looked at him and smiled. After a few moments Buffy started walking slowly towards me after what seemed like a life time she was standing in front of me with a strange expression on her face, then she simply leaned forward kissed me and said "Thank you" Now I have to admit That wasn't the response I was expecting, I was about to say something to her when I heard Wesley say something to Giles that I couldn't make out" but judging from the faces of Willow and Tara they had heard him clearly, as I looked at Wesley he was pointing his finger at a section of the book and as I watched Giles start to read his face suddenly went white and he muttered "Oh dear Lord" as he dropped the book on the floor and staggered backwards then sat down in a chair with a thump.

I apologise for the delay in updating this story and my other work but my hard drive blew up about 5 months ago and I lost nearly everything, so please be patient I will have more chapters of this story and the others as soon as I can. As always please read and review my work.

BIG G