Title: Rebirth
Author: Arjen
Length: About 56.000 words
Summary: When Dawn and Xander recognize someone from Sunnydale they embark on an adventure to save someone they never heard of before. But is everything as it seems?
Pairings: X/D friendship, nothing romantically.
Rating: PG-13.
Crossover: None
Disclaimer: All characters are property of Mutant Enemy and whoever else wants to lay claim to them. Everything that I thought up is made using their property so I can't really claim that either.
Feedback: Preferably constructive criticism, tell me what I've done right and wrong and I'll be happy. Flames I consider as written by five years old who according to that ridiculous rating system aren't allowed to read this.
Chronology:
Rebirth: Noir (posted on )
Rebirth: Family (posted on and Twisting the Hellmouth)
Rebirth.

Background: Takes place about a year after Season 7 ended. And follows on the events of Rebirth: Family, which isn't necessary to read in order to understand the story but might be nice to do anyway. Xander stopped actively fighting the darkness, although he still helps the Slayers in other ways. The reason for doing that will be explained in the story.

Italic text signifies dreams.

Chapter 1:

Sweltering in the ridiculous heat Xander was starting to doubt the wisdom of his current action. While he really enjoyed the opportunity to once again spend time with Dawn, he didn't believe he could stand the constant chattering much longer.

He had agreed to go shopping with her so that they could catch up on everything that had happened since their last meeting. But now, barely 2 hours later he really wished that he had understood the subtle hints Buffy had been giving when she heard of this plan.

"Look, discounts in that store. Let's go and see if they've got anything nice." Dawn exclaimed, dragging Xander into yet another clothes shop. Inside the, thankfully cool, shop he listened to her blathering on about some ruins she had visited in Rome, interspersed with comments about what she found on the racks. Xander wondered why he hadn't figured out how Dawn would react to the chance to spent time with someone she hadn't really talked to in over a year.

It wasn't long though before it was decided that everything nice had already been bought and Dawn dragged him back into the heat. So busy berating himself about his lack of foresight, Xander didn't immediately notice the girl's sudden stop and walked into her.

"Hey, what's with the suddenly stopping where people are walking?" He then noticed where she was looking and sucked in his breath before quietly asking. "Is that who I think it is?"

"The strange stalker guy?" the brunette asked him. "I don't think there are two people in the world who dress like that, do you?"

"I wonder what he's doing here."

Dawn glanced at him for a moment before looking back at the shabbily man who seemed oblivious to the pair following his movements. "I'm still wondering what he was doing in Sunnydale."

"Right," Xander told her, wanting to know the same thing, "let's find out shall we."

"Yeah" she concurred, before starting after the man. "So how shall we do this?"

"Let's see where he's going first, we can decide what to do after that."

. . . .

Following the man proved to be harder then they had suspected as he seemed to be very aware of his surroundings and they had almost been caught several times. This last time Xander had been quick to press Dawn against a wall and probably thinking the two of them were lovers their target hadn't paid any attention to them.

"He's gone into the store." Dawn told him, letting him know he could let go.

As he did so Xander posed the question he had been wondering about for the last fifteen minutes. "I don't get it, why is he buying clothes?"

"It's not like he can't use them, his taste in clothes is even worse then yours used to be."

"Yeah, wait a minute. What do you mean by that?"

A perfectly innocent smile was the only reply he got to that.

"Fine, be that way. But it still didn't answer my question, I mean I can understand the normal clothes but unless he likes to dress up why would he go into a lingerie store?" And to emphasize his point he indicated the store they had just seen the badly dressed man enter.

"A girlfriend?"

"You know Dawnie, that is one of the scariest things I've heard you say in a long time. Just imagine there really is someone out there that would like to date him." Even the thought of that managed to send shivers down his back, just the fact that whatever the man was might breed was bad enough. To actually imagine his partner did so voluntarily was a little too much for him.

"Okay, I admit it's a little farfetched but I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation for it that doesn't involve images that make us sick."

"Yeah well, I think that maybe we should call for some help after all. The way he almost caught us this time was a little too close for comfort."

Smirking Dawn answered that. "What? You mean you didn't like it? We could practice a little if you want."

That was wrong in so many ways he didn't even want to think about it so he grabbed his mobile phone and dialed what he thought of as the Slayers house. Hopefully Buffy wouldn't ask just how the two of them had managed to make the man believe they weren't following him. Raising the phone to his ear however he discovered he couldn't get a connection.

"I can't get through, maybe you can try your phone?"

"I didn't bring it and besides it wouldn't work here anyway."

It wouldn't work? What kind of nonsense was that? "Why not?"

The way she looked at him didn't make him feel like the smartest person in the world but he was used to that so it didn't bother him that much. "I was in Europe remember? I've got a phone that works there and since the phones there use another wavelength then we do here it won't work on most networks and besides, the others are too expensive with the routing through Europe and all."

"Oh." He hadn't known that, not that he had ever really paid any attention to his phone except to make sure it looked good.

"He's leaving again."

"Great, any idea what he bought?"

"I don't even want to think about it."

. . . .

When the man finally left the shopping district he had been into what must have been every clothing store the city contained and a couple of others, including a travel agency. That last one bothered him the most because it indicated the man might be leaving again and he didn't want that to happen before they had gotten some answers from him.

They continued following the man while he made his way toward the seedier parts of the city and Xander was happy to notice their target wasn't as vigilant as before. This meant that they could just follow him without having to duck into every other side passage. For some reason however Dawn still insisted they pretend to be a couple so he allowed her to cuddle against him. When she had first told him that he had feared her crush might have returned but he was quite certain the girl he thought of as a little sister knew better than that.

Still he had to admit that it did make for an excellent cover and he once again wondered about the man that was now making his way to what he figured would be a seedy motel. A motel probably not unlike the one they had finally managed to track him to back in Sunnydale. Of course, it might have been more useful had they managed to do so before he had left but at least they had tracked him down. And now they had a second chance to find out who and what he was.

. . . .

When their quarry finally entered a shabby looking motel he realized they had indeed finally found his lair. Well, that sounded a little more ominous then it probably was but still, he made sure not to underestimate the man.

"Okay, we know where he's staying now." Dawn told him, after she had let go of his arm. "Shall we get Buffy and the others and ask him some questions?"

"I don't think we can take the chance to wait for them," Xander answered, although he had a feeling that entering the motel would have consequences he wouldn't like. "In Sunnydale he disappeared before we could find out anything and I really don't want that to happen again."

"So we go ask him ourselves?" his friend asked, and he detected a slight tremor of nervousness in her voice as she did.

He could definitely understand that nervousness, while the man hadn't exhibited any special powers the last time they encountered him, he had managed to elude Buffy's Slayer senses when she tried to follow him. But he couldn't allow that to interfere with this, as far as he knew the man was only human. "Sure." He told her with a confidence he didn't really feel. "What's the worst that could happen?"

The dirty look Dawn sent his way convinced him that hadn't been what she wanted to hear, but they crossed the street in order to enter the building anyway.

. . . .

Upon entering the motel Xander was confirmed in his suspicions about the hotel, but his attention was soon drawn towards the young attendant who looked up from his book, before telling them "Room 12; take the stairs one floor up, second door to the left." Without bothering to see if they had understood the strange command he then once again returned to his book.

The two former residents of Sunnydale however stopped where they were and when Xander turned his head to look at Dawn, he noticed her looking back with the same confusion on her eyes as he was feeling. Deciding they needed more information from the man, Xander tried to get some. "Eh, what?" He didn't like his sudden inability for coherent speech and for a moment he doubted the wisdom of coming here alone.

The attendant looked up from his book again and when he spoke this time, agitation colored his voice. "You're here for the weird guy, right?"

When he didn't receive an answer besides another confused exchange of looks the man obviously decided he wasn't dealing with the sharpest tools in the shed and elaborated a little "You know, the guy with the blue baseball cap, the butt-ugly green shirt and the shoes that were fashionable some time before the wheel was invented?"

This time Xander understood what he was talking about, but since he was still a little unsure about the situation he asked. "Yeah, but how do you know?"

This seemed to confuse the attendant a little. "He told me to look out for you and send you up to his room. Didn't he tell you about that?"

This time it was Dawn who answered him "No, he must have forgotten," she looked a little doubtful before continuing though, "you're sure it was us he told you to look out for?"

The short-lived confusion had disappeared from the attendant's face as he answered her. "Absolutely, he told me to look out for a beautiful brunette and her companion. And I don't think anyone else approaching your beauty will come here today."

Xander had to roll his eyes at the rather pitiful attempt of flattery but still noticed how Dawn preened a little at the compliment. So deciding to get on their way he thanked the guy and after verifying the directions set out for the stairs. Once out of sight from the attendant Dawn confronted him. "Okay, that was weird. I think it's safe to say he knows we were following him though."

"No kidding, and to quote Han Solo, I've got a bad feeling about this." He answered, thinking a little about the description the guy had been given about them. Looking at Dawn he tried to see the beautiful brunette that had been described, but in his mind he only saw Buffy's little sister. While he had noticed she had become her own person, physically he still thought of her as the same twelve year old he had to baby-sit.

"But we're still going to do it, aren't we?" she asked of him.

"I don't really see how we can do anything else." He confirmed and started up the stairs, wrinkling his nose at the stale smell of cigarette smoke that had permeated the stairway.

. . . .

As they stood in front of the door, Xander mentally prepared himself for any surprises that might come. His behavior downstairs had worried him and he had no intention to be caught by surprise like that again, life in Sunnydale had taught him that surprises were rarely positive.

After completing this mental preparation he looked at the girl standing next to him, who appeared to have done something similar, and asked her if she was ready.

At her nod of confirmation he knocked on the door. First they'd try the nice approach, if that didn't work they could always go for the bad cop routine. Fortunately, or so he decided to think of it, the response was immediate as they were told to come. Xander took a deep breath before pushing open the door with care and stepping into the room that was hidden behind its wooden appearance. He believed himself ready for anything and his first action was to take in as much of the room as possible.

The first thing he noticed was that their quarry was seated at a table, working on something with his back to the door. Not letting this distract him, his one working eye then flickered to the bag of new clothes that was placed next to the man and continued scanning until he had categorized the threat everything present in the room constituted. The room was surprisingly empty though, and since there was nothing hidden under the simple bed, there was only one thing that could be a danger to them. He therefore decided to keep an eye on the door leading to the bathroom, until he'd get a chance to look inside it.

"Please, sit down," the man told them pointing to the bed, while still turned away from the two of them, "I have to finish this and then we'll talk. If you're thirsty, there's something to drink in the fridge."

After sharing yet another confused look Xander motioned for Dawn to take a seat. He however decided to make the best of this opportunity and went to check the bathroom for any surprises first. Opening the door didn't reveal anything outside of the normal stuff a place like that contained and he soon closed it again. Mentally crossing off that threat as well, he then walked to the tiny fridge where he took two cans of coke. Passing one to Dawn he seated himself next to her before he used the sweet-tasting drink to quench his thirst.

While waiting for their host to finish, Xander studied the man who had been an enigma to all of them when he came to Sunnydale and still was by the time they discovered he had already left. Upon entering the room he had already noticed the surprising silvery hair of the man who normally kept that feature hidden underneath a baseball cap, but what surprised him the most was the youthful face of the man. From the way the man had acted back then he would have thought him to be older. For a moment he took his eyes of the man to look at his drink and when he looked back both he and Dawn were being scrutinized by the man.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Their host started the conversation. "It is nice to finally speak to the One who Sees and the Living Key."

Xander could feel Dawn stiffen next to him at those words but her answer still came faster then his. "Are you talking about us? Because those aren't our names."

"Ah, but as Cyradis told Belgarath, they are your names as they are written in the book of heaven."

"Riiight," Xander drawled, starting to doubt the man's sanity, "while we're speaking of names, what's yours?"

The man focused on Dawn now, "Why, I already told your sister what you could call me, didn't she tell you?"

At this Xander interrupted "Well, you don't really look like a Minbari, so I doubt Valen is really your name."

"Ah, of course," Valen smiled "I should have realized you recognized the name. But it's as good a name as any and you won't get another."

At that moment Xander realized just how ridiculous this situation was, here they were sitting quietly, drinking a coke and conversing with an obviously insane man who enjoyed playing games with them. It was almost enough to make him scream. "Okay, we're done talking about the names, I really don't care what you call me or yourself. You knew we were following you, didn't you?"

"Naturally, showing myself to you was the only way to get your attention."

"Why?"

The man ignored his question however and peered in Xander's eyes, something that made him feel quite nervous and made him move back a little before he caught himself doing so.

"What are you looking at?"

"Amazing."

"What?" Why couldn't anyone act like a normal person today?

"Your fake eye, unless you look clearly it's difficult to see the difference with the other. Except of course that it's always the same but still, it's amazing to see such proof of the progress in the medical community."

"Great, I'll tell the doc you said so. Now I think I asked you a question?"

"Indeed you did."

"And? Are you going to answer it?"

"Why, to talk to you of course."

This was really getting too much, Xander had a feeling that if he didn't get some real answers soon, he'd explode from frustration. He realized that this playing that the man did was probably designed to keep the two of them of balance, but knowing about it didn't really help him. He then heard Dawn steering the conversation to a useful subject, she at least was capable of keeping a clear head here. "I'm really happy about that, why don't we start with the reason you were stalking us back in Sunnydale?"

At this the silvery haired man looked a little embarrassed. "Ah yes, I must admit I had underestimated your witchy friend there. Neither of you, nor any of the others would have remembered me if she hadn't spotted me."

While he didn't like to admit it, Xander knew this to be true, he had completely forgotten the vagrant hanging around the construction yard that day, until he arrived at Casa Summers and heard Willow talking about how she had been stalked.

"That may be, but why did you do it in the first place?" Dawn pressed, although it appeared as if the frustration was starting to get to her as well

"It wasn't something I had planned, but as I was in the neighborhood for something else I decided to take a look at the people that were guarding the Hellmouth."

A whim, they had been worrying for weeks about whether this annoying creature might have been some new ally of the First and all of it was just because the man had been curious. Xander felt that if the situation hadn't been so serious he could almost laugh about it. He then realized something "Why didn't you tell Buffy when you saw her?"

"She wanted to capture me, so I wasn't in the best of moods, besides, I really don't like Slayers." The strange man then reached out and picked up several folders from the table next to him. "But that isn't why I asked you here. I want you to go on a mission for me, a mission that might even save humanity from extinction."

"No." The answer was spoken so calmly Xander almost looked around to see who had spoken, before he realized it had been him. "I have spent seven years of my life saving the world, but now there are a lot of Slayers who can do a better job then I can."

"Yeah, yeah, we're all very grateful you fought those skirmishes and destroyed some beings that were too stupid to be allowed to live. And yes, you should be allowed to rest now after everything you have done." The way Valen looked at him almost seemed to be sympathetic.

"Right." Xander told him, not bothering to acknowledge the slight to their accomplishments.

"Right," the older man agreed before trying to tear apart Xander's arguments, "in a fair universe this would have been the case, unfortunately, this is the real world and it isn't fair."

Now Xander was really starting to lose his temper, his hand moved subconsciously to his glass eye reminding himself how he had already given up more then enough. He probably would have started yelling and screaming at the man if Dawn hadn't broken in at that moment. "Why don't you tell us what it is that you want us to do and if we think it's important we'll take it to Buffy."

This time it was Dawn who received a glare, "Didn't I already tell you I don't like Slayers? They have no finesse whatsoever and this job requires people that can use more then two brain cells at a time."

"Hey, that's my sister you're talking about!"

An annoyed look was the brunette's only answer to that comment before Valen continued "What I want you two to do is important, so I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your comments to yourself until I've finished."

"What if we just leave?" Xander asked him, he had regained control over his temper during the discussion of the other two, but that didn't mean he wanted to listen to anything the man said. He really didn't like the way the man had taken control of the situation.

"You won't because you hate leaving a mystery unsolved; you want to know what this unknown danger is that I'm talking about."

No matter how he hated to admit it even to himself, the man was right about that. Sharing a look of frustration with his friend Xander saw that she too wanted to know what this was all about, so he sighed and let himself relax into the not quite comfortable bed. "Alright then, talk."

And talk their host did, the subject, of what Xander thought of as a lecture, was a woman who had apparently become a quite powerful sorceress and had collected a small group of followers. She was supposedly at the center of the problem Valen had mentioned earlier. He couldn't tell them what exactly the problem was, all he could say was that sometime during the next couple of weeks, something would happen that would determine the future of humanity.

When queried where he got this information the man wouldn't tell them, nor did he want tell them how he believed they could handle the problem. The only hint he gave them on what might be the cause of the problem was a rumor that she intended to tell humanity about the existence of demons.

"So she wants to reveal the real world to humanity?" Xander answered this statement, slightly relieved that they had at least gotten some information. "What's the problem with that?"

"She doesn't intent to tell humanity about everything, only that demons exist."

Resisting the urge to role his eyes at the correction, Xander asked. "Isn't that the same thing?"

"Why, do you really believe that demons are all that has been hidden to humanity as a whole?" Valen shook his head in denial. "No, while you know something about the real world, your pretty friend here knows a greater part of the truth." Both of them turned to Dawn, who at first appeared confused and then seemed to realize something. "Yes indeed, your friends from Europe also hold a portion of the truth. But while it might be interesting, we are not here for a lecture about the real world. Now, like I said, releasing the information about the demons might indeed create a dangerous situation. But you have to remember that we can't be certain that will be what creates the problem."

"And you want the two of us to find out what the problem really is and handle it?" Xander wanted verified.

"Yes."

While Xander's mind had long been made up, he looked at Dawn and he was happy to see that she appeared to hold the same opinion. "No."

"No? You mean you won't do it?" Valen asked surprised.

"That's right, we won't." Xander confirmed, crumbling his now empty can of coke and placing it on the table. "I already told you I wasn't interested in doing this and your story didn't change that at all. I think I might even agree with her about telling the world."

The other man appeared a little disheartened by this and didn't utter any complaint as the two stood up and made to leave. As they were about to open the door however, Xander caught a comment Valen muttered.

"What do you mean by other way?" he asked the man, curious despite himself.

"Why, there are two ways to handle a problem and since you didn't want to solve it there only remains one option to deal with this problem."

With a feeling of impending doom Xander asked him "What option?"

"Why, by removing it of course."

-------------------

Post-fic comments: Not much to say here yet, the story consists of eleven chapters and an epilogue. New parts will appear every two days and as usual I hope you enjoy reading it and tell me what you like and don't like about the story.