Title: "Living After Death"

Episode: Prologue - "My Sacrifice"

Author: RockyD

E-mail: dollen@frontiernet.net

Category: Eventual B/X and Fr/X

Rating: PG-14 (nothing worse than the show)

Summary: Alternate Version of "The Gift." Xander makes the ultimate sacrifice.

Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me, they belong to Joss

Whedon and Co. The only thing I lay claim to is the excruciating torture I put them through... and I'm sure they love me for it.

Author's Note: This is my attempt at a sliding doors type fic. It starts out the same on both sides, but one event or another skewers the story further apart towards the end. Other parts, for those who want the Fr/X side, can be found at the group FredandXander.

Author's Note 2: The first signs of the fracturing of my psyche. I have to thank Jason Thompson and his multi-shipper site for wrapping my brain around the possibility of X/Other. You're to blame for this. :)

Feedback: YES! I desperately need it, like an addiction. It would be appreciated.

*FADE TO: The yard where the portal tower is built. The gang is crouched behind a machine, trying to avoid getting hurt.*

"Okay, we gotta charge or something." Xander declared.
Anya shook her head, looking weary, "We tried that."
'Spike. Can you hear me?' Willow's voice pierced the vampire's mind. He nodded to himself, frowning, "Yeah, loud and clear."
'Is there someone up there with Dawn?'
Spike looked up, squinting his eyes, "Yeah, can't tell who."
Xander looked confused, "Are you talking to us?"
'Get up there. Go now.' Spike peered out uncertainly. The way up was still blocked. "Yeah, but-" 'Go!'
Spike jumped up and dashed out as the others stared at him in surprise. In a split-second decision, Xander grabbed the bat from Anya's hands and headed after the chipped-vampire, ignoring Anya's cries for him to stay.
Willow put her hand behind her without looking back firmly latching Tara's in her grasp. They're combined power forced the crowd of guards to split apart down the middle. They were all surprised by the invisible force that was shoving them aside as Spike ran through. He reaches the stairs and leaps up them without slowing.
Seconds later, Xander barreled through as well, cracking a minion over the head with a bat as it made a grab for him. He dashed up the stairs as quickly as he could to keep up with the vampire, but it was no good as the vampire had the advantage of not needing to breath.
Spike used his speed advantage to make it to the top in record time, where he began climbing the ladder to the tower's very tip.

*CUT TO: The tower's top. Doc produces a pocket-watch and looks at it as Dawn watches him fearfully.*

"Well. What do you know?" He spoke with disturbingly warm tone. Spike appeared behind him. "It's just about that time."
Dawn caught sight of the vampire and made his presence known, "Spike!"
The Doc whirled around as Spike strode forward purposefully. "Why am I finding myself unhappy to see you right now?" Spike growled.
"The feeling is strangely mutual, old friend." The Doc merely smirked.
Spike glared, "Come on, Doc. Let's you and me have a go."
The Doc looked back at Dawn, tapping the knife against his hand, "I... do have a prior appointment."
Spike vamped out, "This won't take long."
"No, I-I don't imagine it will." The Doc was eerily calm.
Spike lunged forward, making a grab for the knife. Doc was prepared for this, and easily sidestepped. He used Spike's momentum to spin him around, grabbing him around the neck, and thrusting the knife deep into Spike's back. Spike and Dawn gasp at the same time. "You don't come near the girl, Doc." Spike growled.
"I don't smell a soul anywhere on you. Why do you even care?" Doc pondered out loud.
"I made a promise to a lady." Spike responded quickly.
"Oh?" He pulled the knife out of Spike's back, before continuing, "Then I'll send the lady your regrets."
Spike gave Dawn an agonized look, trying to apologize wordlessly, "No." Without further ado, Doc pushed Spike over the edge of the tower.
Watching him fall, Dawn cried, "No!"
Spike fell to the ground below, landing amid a pile of bricks and grimacing in pain.
The Doc wiped the blood off the knife and walked back to where Dawn was chained up, "Now... where were we?" Dawn let out a piercing scream.
Doc brought the knife to Dawn's stomach, slicing a thin slash through the material and the skin. Dawn cried out and sobbed in pain. "Shallow cuts..." Dawn cried again, as he slashed her, "...shallow cuts..." He makes another cut and Dawn cries out again.

"Let the blood ... flow ..." Blood trickled down Dawn's torso, trailing down to her feet on the edge of the platform. Blood dripped over her toes. "...free."
"Dawn." A hoarse cry came from behind them.
Dawn gasped in pain, "Xander!"
Doc whirled around as Xander strode forward, one arm behind his back. The Doc looked unimpressed, "This should be interesting."
Xander stopped calmly, "What's a guy gotta do to make you stay dead, Doc?"
He laughed, "I hardly think it matters when it comes to someone like *you!*"
Xander let a punch fly with his visible hand, which the Doc easily blocked. What he hadn't expected, however, was the blow from the baseball bat that collided with his head, sending him crashing to the grating beneath his feet. Xander looked down at him with dry humor, "Made you look."
The Doc, with a visible bleeding gash in the side of his head, looked up at the young man with fury, "It won't matter now... The Key has been bled, and the portal shall open... you will all die!"
Xander's face mirrored his anger, as he dropped the bat and hauled the creature before him up by its collar. He growled in anger, "Nobody hurts my girls." Seconds later, he used all his strength to heave the doctor over the edge of the platform. His scream could be heard faintly as Xander ran to Dawn, who continued to cry.
"Here." Xander said calmingly, as he undid the bindings keeping Dawn in place.
"Xander, it hurts."
He helped her away from the spot she was tied to, "I got it." He pulled her to a neutral spot, and handed her a cloth to stabilize the wounds, "Come here. You're going to be okay." A few drops of Dawn's blood dripped over the edge of the hole. In midair they met something, and a small circle of light appeared, growing exponentially.
Xander leads Dawn limping across the platform to the tower entrance. Dawn stopped, turning to Xander.
Unclear why she stopped, Xander tried to push her along, "Go!"
Dawn shook her head, looking desperately behind him, "Xander, it's started!" Xander turned around. They can both see the light of the portal. The rate at which it was growing scared them both immensely.
Xander turned back to Dawn as Dawn continued staring at the portal, "I'm sorry." She said tearfully.
"It doesn't matter." Xander said unconvincingly. He tried to pull her into a hug, but she attempted to barrel past him. Xander's strong arms are all that keeps her from running off, "What are you doing?"
"I have to jump. The energy." Dawn said, staring at the portal with strange fascination and determination.
Xander shook his head vehemently, "It'll kill you."
"I know." Xander didn't want to understand why she was willing to throw herself away, "Xander, I know about the ritual. I have to stop it."
"No!" He yelled, "I can't let you do that, you're too important to me! Uh, besides, Buffy would kill me."
The tower beneath them shook, "But I have to. Look at what's happening." Lightning lit up the sky, the thunder that followed made them both shiver. Xander looked up. A huge dragon flew out of the portal and buzzed the tower, flying away just as quickly.
"Xander, you have to let me go. Blood starts it, and until the blood stops flowing, it'll never stop."
Xander stared at Dawn in anguish. He looked down briefly, and saw Buffy making her way up the tower. If he didn't do something soon, the Slayer would probably try to sacrifice herself instead.
"You know you have to let me. It has to have the blood." Dawn cried.
Xander's eyes flashed with realization. The combination sparked an answer in his head. As he looked back over his shoulder at the portal, his mind flashed to Spike earlier in the night. 'Cause it's always got to be blood.'
Xander got a calm, peaceful look on his face. He turned back to Dawn, who stared wide-eyed. The look in his eyes told her everything, "Xander ... no!"
"Dawnie, I have to." He held her shoulders firmly, "If I don't, your stubborn and stupid sister is going to go for it instead... she's too important to the world for that to happen."
"No!"
He shook his head, "Listen to me. Please, there's not a lot of time, listen." Xander held Dawn by the upper arms and continued talking to her. Dawn began to cry again. Xander stroked the side of Dawn's face, then kissed her on the cheek.

Xander turned and, in what seemed like slow motion to Dawn, ran down the platform as Dawn remained where she was. She pointlessly reached out a hand after him, as if it would make him stop.

It was then that Buffy finally made it to the top of the platform. She came up behind Dawn's crying form in time to see Xander take a swan dive off the end of the platform and into the portal.

"Xander!" Dawn watched, sobbing, as her sister ran up the platform after Xander. She stops halfway, when it becomes obvious she can't save Xander. She falls to her knees, crying.

Xander falls into the portal and hanging there motionless, as he made expressions of pain.

Dawn cried some more, falling down beside her sister as she began remembering Xander's final words to her. 'Dawn, listen to me. Listen.'

The portal began shrinking as Xander's life force, his blood, started running out. 'I love you. I will *always* love you. But this is the work that I have to do. Tell Giles ... tell Giles I figured it out. And, and I'm okay.

And give my love to my friends. Your sister is going to blame herself for all of this... You have to let her know it was my choice. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world ... is to live in it. Be brave. Live. This world needs more people like you."

The portal draws itself closed, disappearing completely. Xander's body, hanging in the air by the power of the portal, dropped like a metaphorical rock.

They all watched in horror as he plummeted, and began averting their eyes. Mere moments before he went crashing through a stack of palettes, his body simply fizzled out of existence. They all looked up when they heard the slight crackling, to see him disappear.

Gasps all around were heard. The rest of them gathered around as Buffy and Dawn raced down the scaffolding of the tower. When they arrived, they saw the group standing in various states of shock.

Spike, his face bloodied, looked on with a sad admiration of someone who did what he couldn't. Willow and Tara held each other as Willow began to cry. Giles looking sad, like a father who just lost a son. Anya looked around at all the others, begging for answers to questions she hadn't even come to yet.

Buffy and Dawn finally reached the ground, stairs clanking with each step. Perhaps they were hoping to see some sign of Xander as they rushed towards the palettes. All that remained where the clothes he had been wearing. It was as if he'd vanished right out of them.
Dawn begins to cry again, she's joined by Buffy, and the rest of the group soon after. The only one that wasn't joining in on the group bonding was Anya, who starts screaming obscenities in Buffy's direction, casting the blame on her. She gave Buffy a good, hard shove, before taking off out of the construction site into the night.