Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Warner Bros, etc.
A/N: This fic was inspired by the last two episodes of Angel, "Damage" and "You're Welcome". In "Damage" Andrew stated that Xander had been in Africa. I know it may sound weird to think that French is spoken in Africa, but it's true…I looked it up! Also, it's easier to write out for the story's sake than say…Arabic. If the French isn't right on, bear with me, I'm still learning.
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"When did this happen?" Xander asked the girl in front of her. Beside him, Nique repeated his question in French. "Quand est-ce que ceci s'est produit?"
The girl blinked back tears, tugging nervously at her sleeves. "Ce doit avoir été la nuit passée. Que pourrait avoir fait une telle chose?"
Nique looked up at Xander. "She says it happened last night. She doesn't know what could have done such a thing."
Xander sighed as he dropped down to a kneeling position. On the ground in front of him lay the mangled body of a Potential. She had obviously been tortured before the blood had been drained from her body.
"Give her the standard story," he said, his voice sounding toneless to his own ears. Nique nodded taking the girl by the arm and leading her out of the room.
He reached out and turned the girl's neck so that the two puncture marks were visible. Her name was Malaika and she had been his next contact, but he'd been too late. She was the second potential he'd lost that week.
He could hear sobbing from the other room and, not for the first time, he was glad that he wasn't the one that give the loved one the line about a random terroist attack. It had sounded absurd to him at first. He didn't see anyway that people would believe that vampire attacks were in fact terrorists at work, but he soon found that regardless of which side of the world you were on people only wanted to believe what they wanted to believe.
He reached down and pulled the patterned sheet lying over Malaika up over her head. "I'm sorry," he whispered to her.
"Xander," Nique said in her strange accent. He turned and met her dark eyes. "We should go now."
Xander got to his feet and followed Nique outside of the small house and into the African sunlight. He had no idea how he was going to tell Giles he'd lost another one.
"I know that look," Nique said matter of factly. Xander looked up at her startled. "It wasn't your fault."
"It's never my fault is it?" Xander said wearily. "It's the coven's fault for not locating her sooner, or the new council's fault for having a possible leak, or maybe it's just fate's fault that she died before she even had a chance to live, but it's not mine."
"Yes," Nique said nodding enthusiastically. "I'm glad you understand."
Xander stopped walking and stared at her. She was so hard to judge, even after three weeks of working side by side with her, he wasn't sure if she was serious or joking. She raised her eyebrows at him slightly and then her face broke out into a wide grin.
"You Americans are so easy!" she exclaimed as she began walking again.
Xander caught up with her, feeling a little upset that she would be so cheerful after the death of a Potential. He never understood the way things always seemed to slide off Nique, it was almost as if she was untouchable. The majority of his time was spent torn between envying her for this quality and disliking her for it.
She was the first Potential he'd been sent to collect six months ago. When Giles had given the Scoobies their assignments Xander had no idea that being an ambassador to Africa would be such a difficult job. The sheer number of shots he needed to enter the country should have been a sign right off that it wouldn't be a piece of cake, but he'd tried to stay positive about things. Staying positive had proven to be impossible when he found that the guide Giles had arranged for him had stolen all his luggage, passport and money, leaving him trapped in Africa until Giles could arrange to sort things out. With no way to communicate, no place to stay and no clue what he was going to do he was pretty sure that things couldn't have gotten any worse. Until they did.
He'd been in leaning against the wall of the hotel he was supposed to be staying in and waiting for a phone call from Giles when he'd heard a commotion in the alley behind him. His first sight of Nique had been of her fighting a vampire, something not easy to do in the traditional Arab dress for women. Something in the bottom of his stomach had told him that she was his woman. He had rushed forward to help, staking the vampire from behind and watching a wide eyed Nique stare at him in shock. Not sure how to speak to her as he didn't know French or Arabic, the two most common languages, he had tried to do a pantomime that included the awakening, vampires and how to kill them. Nique's look of wide eyed surprise, faded to first confusion and then laughter.
Xander had sighed, wanting to go over to the nearest wall and beat his head repeatedly into it. "Forget it," he had said, making his way back up the alley.
"How did you know to kill him?" Nique had asked, her English clear, despite the odd twist her accent put on it.
And that's when he had discovered that she was one of the few people in Algeria who actually spoke English. A development that had made explaining to her that she was one of the Chosen much easier.
After the initial shock of finding out she'd been activated as a Slayer, and almost half a week of arguing with her parents about her leaving the country to train with Giles and the other potentials, Nique begun her training. He had continued collecting Slayers as the coven produced their names and locations, but when they had pinpointed three on the African continent Giles had determined that Nique would be the best guide on the trip, due to her knowledge of the language and habits.
"Can we eat now?" She asked as he caught up with her.
He shook his head. "No, we've got to get to the third potential before it's too late. We'll go to the hotel and pack."
If she was disappointed, Nique hid it well. "Let's go this way, it's much faster."
Xander nodded and once again he found that she had taken the lead. It seemed like all Slayers had a bit of leader in them. Or at least they liked to think so. He didn't mind, it wasn't as if he knew the streets of Annaba himself.
She led him down a few alleys and then he could just make out the hotel they were staying in on the horizon when he heard a man's voice from behind.
"Arrêt ! Donnez-moi votre argent. "
Xander turned and frowned at the man who was standing too close to him for comfort. Nique turned and begun to make her way towards Xander, but the man pulled out a gun and trained it on her.
"Ne vous déplacez pas!"
She stopped abruptly. "Nique?" Xander asked, getting ready to throw a punch.
"He wants your money, he will shoot," she said.
"Ah," Xander said with a sigh. He reached back into his pocket for his wallet. "Well, why didn't he say so?" He made a show of searching through his wallet, pulled out a dinar and dropped it. He rolled his eyes. "How clumsy of me," he said as he reached down to get it. He bent at the waist, grasped it in his hands and then without warning, charged the man.
He managed to tackle him around the waist, knocking him backwards into the wall. The gun fell out of his hands and slid a few feet away. Xander managed to get in a few good punches to the face before the man managed to kick him off. Xander groaned, holding his stomach as Nique stepped forward to get her own piece of the action. He watched as the man struggled to get up, only to be repeatedly kicked and hit by the Slayer. Xander almost felt sorry for the guy.
Suddenly, there was a cry of pain and Nique stumbled backward, holding her arm. Xander's head snapped from the slayer, who had a knife embedded in her arm to the man who was crawling over to the gun. Xander stumbled to his feet and ran as fast as he could, trying to cut the man off, but for the second time that day, he found he was too late.
He watched in horror as the man grabbed the gun and swung it around at him. Xander was running so fast, he was unable to stop or even swerve left or right as the gun went off.
There was an explosion of pain in his chest, but still his momentum carried him forward, and onto the man. His mind wasn't working properly. For a minute there he thought he'd been shot.
Suddenly, Nique had pulled him off the man and rolled him over. He could dimly hear her cursing at the man in French, or maybe Arabic, as she hit him repeatedly. Xander tried to move, to get up and help her, but found himself unable to.
The surprising thing was that he wasn't bothered by the fact that he couldn't move. In fact, he wasn't really feeling all that hot. He'd rather just say here and let Nique take care of him. It was pretty obvious she had the upper hand now, anyway.
He felt something warm underneath him and wondered idly if she'd pushed him into a puddle. Figured she'd do something like that. She'd probably think it was kind of funny when she got done beating that guy to…
"Xander?" She was bent over him, her hand on his chest, and he saw something in her eyes he'd never seen before. Fear.
"Xander, can you hear me?"
His eyelids were getting so heavy he fought to keep them open.
"Xander?"
He lost.
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A/N: More to come. Don't worry, this is just the beginning.