Date written: Sun 6 November 2005
Author: Starway Man
E-mail: theop at kew dot hotkey dot net dot au
Disclaimer: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar, Kuzui, Fox, WB and UPN. The 4400 and other related entities are owned by Scott Peters, René Echevarria, American Zoetrope and Renegade 83 in association with Paramount and Viacom Productions, Inc. Some of the text is from the various TV episodes, and so does not belong to me of course.
Rating: R
Warnings: Some violence, sexual references, attempted assault and character death is present. Plus there are spoilers for just about everything with regard to the Buffy and Angel shows, and up to the end of season 1 of The 4400.
Main characters: Xander, Cordelia, ensemble
Acknowledgments: Thanks to ScifiGate and Buffyworld for housing the various TV show transcripts, that were used in the writing this story. Also, many thanks to my beta readers Greywizard1235 and Nodakskip! This couldn't have been done without your fantastic help.
Classification: Action-Adventure, Angst, Crossover, Alternate Universe
Summary: Two of the Slayerettes disappear, during 1998 and 1999. What happens when they return as members of The 4400, during 2004?
Title:A White Knight, A Cheerleader And 4,398 Other People
"The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf, the lion and the fatling together, and the little child to lead them."
(Rupert Giles, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)
"Lord, the world sure has changed since we've been gone."
(Richard Tyler, THE 4400)
"Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper, and the finder of lost children."
(Jules Winfield, PULP FICTION)
Part I: The Seeds Of Yesterday
Location unknown. Far into the future
It was a magic spell like no other, a unique combination of technology and the supernatural. And once it was cast, it started travelling backwards through time and space. It sent its thread-like filaments throughout the ocean of history, as it sought out its targets...
The people who could prevent The Catastrophe from ever happening. A catastrophe that meant oblivion for the entire human race.
The spell found 4,398 candidates that fulfilled its creators' specifications, and the white light quickly sucked them away to the future. To be...altered...and later seeded back into the timeline, to prevent humanity from becoming nothing but a memory.
When it came to the last two people selected by the future humans though the situation was...somewhat different. Because these two were also part of another group, one destined to really make an impact on the fate of the world.
And on account of that, both the male and the female teenagers in question had been earmarked by the Powers That Be to live short lives containing lots of angst, pain and misery – as part of their so-called 'big picture', already.
Sunnydale, California. September 16th, 1998
Cordelia Chase. A 17-year-old brunette senior, at Sunnydale High. A cheerleader and former May Queen, too.
Tactless, rich, beautiful and canny beyond her years, any sociologist would have told you that Ms. Chase was on the fast track in life towards success and power. But unfortunately, all that had changed...the moment she had met Buffy the Vampire Slayer, back in sophomore year.
( Well, guess it's official, ) Cordy thought to herself with a mental shrug, as she drove along towards the Chase manor. ( Buffy Summers really is back in town now, because the freakiness has definitely started up all over again... )
It was the night of what Daniel 'Oz' Osborne had called the 'Dead Man's Party' at Buffy's house, located at 1630 Revello Drive. The welcome back celebration for the blonde Chosen One (who had left town back in May) had been marred by the appearance of a number of human zombies, thanks to the mask of Ovu Mobani, as well as the Slayer's very public arguments with her mother and friends...
But despite the traditional heart-stopping fear and terror, for the first time since coming back from summer vacation – Cordelia had truly felt ALIVE again.
And it hadn't hurt that her boyfriend had demonstrated his new talent as a very decent kisser tonight at the party, either...
Thinking about Xander Harris as she arrived at the main gates, Cordelia grinned to herself. ( The big dummy's never gonna change, I bet. Throwing himself at those zombies that way tonight, to protect me and everyone else! I KNEW that there was a reason why I love him... )
But hard on the heels of that thought, Queen C gasped to herself in horror. ( Oh no! Oh, NO! Did I actually just think that? Dear Lord, it couldn't be. Oh my God – how the hell did I ever fall in love with the incredibly lame loser that I'd been fighting with, ever since kindergarten! )
Cordelia switched off the car's ignition, and just sat there for a while – deep in thought. ( Okay, this is serious. In fact, this is BEYOND serious! I need to talk to someone about this. But who? My parents? No way, they hate Xander. Harmony and the others? They'll just laugh in my face! Buffy and Willow? Forget it, they're his friends – not mine. Giles? Please – he's too old and stuffy, not to mention British as. So then, who? )
The Chase girl still didn't have an answer to her question, as she slowly got out of the car to clear her head. But she didn't get the opportunity to ponder it any further, as a white light appeared from up above...
Cordelia dropped her car keys, looked upwards – and then disappeared.
A short while later, a waft of black smoke appeared briefly – and then appeared to coalesce into the form of a heavily-armoured silver demon, named Skip. He looked around in confusion, "Well, crap. Cordelia Chase, where the hell are you?"
Disappearing again, the demon mercenary could find no trace anywhere of the human female – who had been chosen to give birth to his employer, the entity that would be named Jasmine, about five years down the line. It was like the earth had swallowed Cordelia whole.
So Skip just eventually shrugged to himself, ( Oh well, guess the boss will simply have to find some other dumb broad to use and abuse with those visions... )
Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California. February 1st, 1999
Alexander Lavelle Harris. An 18-year-old senior at Sunnydale High. Someone who ever since the days of Little League, had been too much of a jock to fit in with the school geeks – and yet, at the same time, someone considered far too much of a dork to ever hang out with the cool crowd.
An outsider then in every sense of the word, Xander was nonetheless a loyal soldier and friend – and someone who, even as a teenager, had sworn to do whatever he had to...if it was ever necessary to save the world.
It had been a long and difficult five months for him, ever since Cordelia had disappeared. Because her parents had thought Xander was totally responsible for that occurrence, which hadn't surprised the boy like at all...
Mr. and Mrs. Chase had tried everything they could think of to prove it, too. Hell, that duo had even hired a corrupt cop to beat a confession out of Harris one night, even though that hadn't worked out AT ALL like they'd hoped.
Plus, there was the fact that Xander's old man had similarly been sure that his good-for-nothing son had gotten the rich bitch pregnant, and when she'd told him – the kid had quietly buried her out in the desert somewhere.
Well, whatever. Xander had still called the cops every day for a month, after his girlfriend had vanished. He had hoped and prayed that there was an explanation for all this, besides the obvious Hellmouth-y one; but there had been nothing to indicate that.
No ransom note, no deep throat telephone call, not a blessed thing. And now, after all these months, it seemed pretty obvious that Cordelia Chase was either dead...or worse. And at times, Xander wondered what he would do if he ever encountered Vamp Cordelia in a dark alley somewhere. But tonight, the so-called Zeppo knew he had to focus on the present, rather than contemplate that unpleasant future...
In the boiler room of the high school, the zombie named Dickie put the final touches on a bomb that he and his buddies Parker, Bob and Jack O'Toole had decided to set up, in order to 'bake a cake'. Granted it was a relatively crude instrument of death, but it was nonetheless an effective one.
Assembled on top of an oil barrel, Dickie plugged in the timer to the rest of the apparatus, and quickly switched it on. "Whoo!"
He then tapped the keys, and set it for sixty minutes. As Dickie plugged in the last wire, the countdown started; and the zombie squad all chuckled under their breaths.
Jack walked up to the bomb and checked it all out himself before saying, "This is gonna be large!"
Parker responded, "Oh, yeah!"
Dickie checked the wiring once more, as they all laughed again. But then the laughter stopped as a male voice said, "So this is what you guys do for fun, huh?"
The four zombies whirled around, but O'Toole quickly relaxed. It was only Xander Harris, a loser he'd seen on campus and at the Bronze earlier tonight. "What are you doing here, Harris? Last I heard, you were too busy hiding from your dead girlfriend's parents to-"
What happened next, totally astounded the zombie hooligan. Xander raised a shotgun he'd appropriated tonight from a police car and opened fire three times in quick succession, disintegrating the heads of Jack's rotting companions – Dickie, Parker and Bob all collapsing into dust.
"You motherfu-" O'Toole instantly snarled, instinctively reaching behind his back for his knife named 'Katie'.
"Hands where I can see them. And you might wanna try not calling me names – least, not while I'm aiming the twelve-gauge at your head like this, Jack."
O'Toole let the insult die on his lips. "Just so you know – I'm gonna carve you up and serve you with gravy for this, Harris. You pissed me off, boy! Now you're gonna pay the price. First the eyes, then the tongue. Then I'm gonna break every one of your fingers-"
"Blah, blah, blah," Xander interrupted in a bored tone of voice. "Spare me the big speech, O'Toole, I've heard it all before – and from someone way more dangerous than you! Now, we can either stay here till the bomb goes off, or you can disarm it before you die-"
O'Toole boasted without thinking, "Hey, I'm not afraid to die Harris. Because I'm already dead!" He lifted up his shirt, "Drive-by three weeks ago-"
The Slayerette just raised his eyebrows, and Jack suddenly realized his mistake – by claiming to be one of the monsters, the zombie had obviously lost all rights to human charity in Xander's mind. "Then either you do what I say, or I REALLY hope you like the quiet..."
Just before Harris squeezed the trigger, O'Toole caved like the cowardly bully he basically was. "Okay! Okay..." He then pulled a wire, as the timer went blank. "Satisfied?"
"No. Take it apart – slowly. Then throw the main circuit board to the floor, close to my feet."
Jack growled incoherently, but did as he was told as Xander stomped down hard on the thin wafer of plastic; and both boys knew that from now on, the bomb was just basically a big paperweight.
"So what now?" the amateur psychopath who had repeated senior year three times demanded.
Incredibly, Xander just smiled. "I'd say you've earned yourself a ten second head start..."
O'Toole's eyes widened in disbelief, but then he just ran out the basement door. As he'd promised, Xander waited a few moments and then followed the dead thing; but to his amusement, he eventually discovered Jack being ripped apart by three of the Sisterhood of Jhe demons that had apparently infested the school tonight.
"Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy..."
Noticing the Hellmouth had been sealed again and the Scooby Gang didn't need his help, Xander then just walked out of the school's back door to his Uncle Rory's car, and stowed the shotgun into the trunk. The night's adventures had definitely done wonders for his confidence and self-esteem as the male teenager thought to himself, ( Hmmm, guess I done good all by my lonesome-ness. Maybe I WILL ask Faith out on a date tomorrow night, at that... )
But that was not to be, for just as young Mr. Harris got into the driver's seat – a brilliant light appeared from up above. Xander just looked up in surprise, as the light got brighter and its tendrils engulfed him – and then, exactly like Cordelia Chase all those months ago, the Slayerette vanished without a trace.
And so, as the number of abductees in the future finally became complete, plans within plans began to be implemented...
Mount Rainier, Washington. August 14th, 2004
The world's population had definitely started panicking, as what appeared to be a large comet suddenly headed for a collision course with Earth.
Because something of that mass travelling at 3,000 kilometers a second, impacting onto the planet's surface? Say good night, guys; the human race was about to go the way of the dinosaurs, and all the survival shelters out there weren't gonna make a damn bit of difference...
And yet, the impossible had happened. The comet had slowed down and was coming in for a landing, as members of the Department of Homeland Security and the press arrived on the mountain in question.
A male reporter said on live national TV, "Come on, get the shot! Get the shot!" just as a ball of light came out of the sky, and began to move along a nearby lake.
The onlookers instantly all stopped and watched as the reporter quickly said, "We're close to the base of Mount Rainier. The ball of light is massive; one hundred, two hundred feet in diameter. Hard to tell – we're going to try to get closer. I can tell you that this is, without a doubt, one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen..."
The ball of light continued to hover, and all of a sudden it began to change shape. Quickly shrinking itself down to almost nothing, the light then suddenly disappeared and there was some kind of explosion; a massive energy burst of some sort was released, which blew all the people present down to the ground.
Back in the TV studio the news anchor quickly demanded, "What's going on!"
The reporter struggled to say, "We're not sure what's just happened. The ball of light is gone-"
Indeed it was. And standing around looking lost were 4400 people, that had been missing and/or presumed dead over the last 60 years.
As the mist accompanying the explosion began to clear, the 8-year-old girl named Maia Rutledge looked around and saw the 18-year-old Xander Harris standing next to her. Both of them looked no different from the moment they had been taken, years ago; just like all the others of their kind.
Almost cringing at the loud colours of the Hawaiian shirt Harris was wearing, Maia simply asked, "What's going on?"
Unfortunately, Xander had no idea what to tell her; a moment ago, it had been nearly midnight in Sunnydale. Now, all around him were thousands of strangers in the pre-dawn twilight, and some of them were dressed in weird clothes; one guy was wearing an honest-to-goodness Scottish kilt, and some black guy with a moustache was in old-fashioned military BDUs...
Trying to focus, he grabbed hold of Maia's hand and said, "I don't know, but don't worry kid; I won't let anything bad happen to you-"
The little blonde girl, who had been the first of the abductees back on March 3rd 1946, simply nodded. "I know you wouldn't, Nighthawk."
Instantly, Harris whipped his head around to stare down at her. "How the hell...?"
Not far away, Cordelia Chase found herself standing next to a blond woman named Lily Moore. "Okay, what kind of freaky Hellmouth craziness is going on now!" the cheerleader demanded without thinking as darkness suddenly became light for her, too.
Lily just looked at her as if the teenage beauty queen had lost her mind. "What?"
"Never mind..." Cordelia said hastily, as she looked around at the huge crowd of people that were now surrounding her. ( Oh, whatever's going on...I'll bet that this is all Buffy's fault, somehow... )
Department Of Homeland Security, Seattle, Washington. Later that night
The SP guard was not having a fun evening.
Thousands of bewildered, confused people, some of whom didn't even speak English, had to be processed and logged after appearing out of a ball of light on a nearby mountain? ( Chris Carter, where are you when we need you? )
After finishing up with a guy that really hadn't wanted to go into Quarantine, the guard called out, "Next!"
Xander moved forward, looking around anxiously – he had lost track of Maia in the jostling crowd, and his Hellmouth-honed instincts told him he had to keep an eye on that particular little girl. ( Where are you, kiddo... )
"Name?" the guard asked, not looking up from his computer screen.
Upon receiving no answer, the man got grouchy. "I said, name!"
Xander snapped his head around. "Xander...uh, I mean, Alexander Lavelle Harris..."
"Date of abduction?"
"February 1st, 1999, I guess," Harris replied, still not quite sure what was going on, but having heard the guy before him mention the year 2003. ( Now this is getting strange, even by Sunnydale standards... )
"Place where it happened?"
"Sunnydale, California."
The guard finally looked up in surprise, having heard of that town – which had become California's version of the Grand Canyon last year. "I see..."
"What?" Xander demanded in trepidation.
"Look, fella, I don't have time to answer your questions – as it is, I won't be getting to bed till at least two o'clock in the morning! All I can tell you is that you're now officially Returnee Number 1,218. So do us both a favour and just follow the yellow line to the Quarantine area, okay?"
For a moment, Xander looked like he was about to argue; but then he just gave up and did as he was told. And the guard again called out, "Next!"
A few hours later, the guard was even grumpier than ever. The stress of having to deal with all these bozos had definitely taken its toll on his psyche. "Next!"
A statuesque young woman came up to him, "All right, I've been waiting for hours – now what the hell is going on? Where am I? What's happened to me?"
The guard smothered a groan; this was getting sad. "Name?"
"I'm Cordelia Chase," the brunette girl spat out. "Now what's-"
"Date of abduction?"
"Hey, I wasn't abducted! Do I look to you like one of those losers on TV, that say little grey aliens kidnapped them and did some sort of weird experiments on their asses?" Cordy ranted.
The guard felt a migraine coming on, from this particular returnee. ( Teenagers... ) "What's the date, as far as you're concerned?"
"Last night was September 16th, 1998," the young woman said at once. "Why do you ask?"
"Where were you, right before you showed up at Mount Rainier?" the man deftly avoided her question and trying to hurry this along.
Now Ms. Chase was getting nervous. "Sunnydale, California-"
Instantly, the guard's head shot up to look at Queen C. "Another one?" he murmured, despite himself.
"Another one, what!" Cordelia was getting sick of the non-answers. "Look, mister-"
"Here's your tag, keep it with you – you're now Returnee Number 3,156. Follow the yellow line, all your questions will be answered as soon as possible. All right, next!" the guard shouted out.
The new Watchers Council headquarters, London, England. August 15th, 2004
The red-haired witch known as Willow Rosenberg cracked her knuckles with a sentimental chuckle, as she settled down to do some good old-fashioned quality hacking.
The young woman, who had once been Xander Harris's best friend in ancient days, had definitely changed since the guy in question had known her. For she was now one of the most powerful magic users on the planet, as well as a lesbian that had recently ended a relationship with a vampire Slayer named Kennedy – and someone who'd sharpened up her old computer skills, over the last year or so.
Thanks to that painful wake-up call she'd had with everyone learning how incredibly rusty the redhead had gotten by 2003, having to surf the Web like any other civilian – just to try to find out information about the Slayer scythe...
As Willow started to navigate her way past the various firewalls and password protection systems, her mind began to wander slightly. And for the first time in a long while, for some reason – she thought of her old crush, Xander.
The 22-year-old woman wasn't sure why, as she deftly evaded a number of traps in the remote server and finally accessed the government mainframe. Perhaps it was because she wasn't sure what Xander would think of her, if he'd still been around today...
For Willow Rosenberg had committed great evil as well as great good, ever since the boy she'd once loved had dropped off the face of the Earth five years ago.
Finally completing her goal and downloading the information she wanted, the redhead let out a big sigh of relief and expertly covered her tracks, quickly getting out of the Department of Homeland Security's cyber-domain. Willow then quickly printed out a list of the 4400 names that had just been compiled the previous night, and started to scroll through them...
For the Council was VERY concerned over what had happened the previous day, and only the older, wiser heads within the Watchers had been able to prevent a massive contingent of Slayers being sent to Washington to...try to take care of the situation.
Willow looked through the names in alphabetical order, but then her eyes froze on one particular name as she gasped in disbelief. Quickly, on a hunch the witch skipped forward to the 'H' section – and there it was, plain as day.
Hands shaking, almost unable to breathe from the shock, the young woman picked up a phone and dialled an extension known only to a few people. "Giles, it's me, Willow. I got the list – and, and you're not gonna believe this..."
Willow paused, almost unable to believe it herself. "He's still alive, Giles! I mean – Xander's back, he's one of those returnees! Oh, yeah, and Cordelia's one of them too. What do you mean, Cordelia who? Cordelia Chase, of course! Remember her? Because I sure do..."
TBC...