Part 12: Chapter 8.

A/N: The next couple of chapters will switch back and forth between what's happening at the present time and what happened during Alex's campaign to unite Rivellon. The chapters taking place in the past will have "Campaign" in the title.


-oOoOo-

"I expected your world to be... lusher, the way you described it," Audrey said. She sounded a little disappointed.

"Mountains give way to forests, give way to plains, give way to deserts. Just like in Rivellon," Alex said. He started singing.

"I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me, princess, now when did
You last let your heart decide?

I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic dragon ride

A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us 'no'
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming."

Alexander had long since gotten used to the fact that in Rivellon, if you wanted music, you either made it yourself or a friend played and/or sang for you. Add in the fact that Rivellon had never heard of the songs he knew or of copyright law, which together meant he had passed a number of songs from his youth along (or at least all he could remember of them). He was the first to admit that he hadn't started out as a very good singer, but a couple years of practice had made him at least decent.

"Yes, show us your world, Daddy!" Jesse pleaded.

"Well, those lights over there are where Daddy lives. It's a small town here, but it's about the same size as Capital City back home." He picked his son up and pointed towards Sunnydale.

"Capital City is considered small here?" Audrey asked, a little awed.

Alex pointed towards the LA skyline. "That's the city of Los Angeles. We'll visit there eventually too; but if my memory serves, LA had something like 15 million in the metro area."

"Million?" Audrey was dumbfounded. "That's..."

"Not even the largest city in my world. Just the biggest one that's close by. And for comparison, I calculated once that there was somewhere around 30 million people in the whole of Rivellon," Alexander informed her. "But first let's get settled in. Then I can teach you what you need to know about my world." With that they headed off towards Sunnydale.


-oOoOo-

"We kinda hoped you'd be okay with this," Willow said.

"Hey. I'm okay with it. More than okay. I leave and the two girls in my life give up on the rest of the male race? I'm more than okay with that. I'm flattered is what I am," Alexander laughed.

"Laugh it up, fuzzball. Speaking of which, you still need to shave," Buffy pointed out.

"And actually, it's the three women in your life," Willow emphasized the word 'women'. "Anya actually came back looking for you too. But then Buffy had a bad break up with this jerky guy and she and Anya bonded over their hatred of all things male."

"Men are evil," Buffy and Anya added in stereo.

"Xander being the notable exception," Buffy added without Anya's backup. Though she still hadn't forgotten that he'd promised that demon a human soul in exchange for his trip back. She hadn't told anyone about that, but she intended to mention that privately sometime soon.

Giles cleared his throat.

"And you too, Giles," Buffy amended.

"And me!" Jesse cried from Willow's arms.

"And you!" Buffy gave him a tickle.

"And what about you, Will? Part of me thought Buff might give up on males eventually... but you?"

Willow frowned, thinking about her past hurt. "Well, Oz left me—wolfy issues—and I was moping around so Buffy and Anya dragged me to this Lesbian Appreciation Fest. And there I was formally introduced to this cute girl- I mean, woman, who I'd seen at our Wicca group. And since I was there, she kinda assumed I was a lesbian and made a move. And then I found out that I was lesbian and that we're both witches. Oh! You should have been here last week. The whole town lost their voices and Tara and I did this spell that was so intense. We were so-"

"Ahem," Anya interrupted, glaring at Buffy. Apparently, Buffy liked that story a little too much.

"Oh, right." Willow blushed as much as Tara already was.

"What?" Buffy teased her girlfriend. "I thought you liked me as a lesbian."

"You're only supposed to fantasize about me," Anya instructed.

Audrey hit her husband over the back of his head. "And that goes double for you."

Alex rubbed the back of his head. "Fine. I'll only fantasize about Anya." Another smack. "Okay! Okay. But someone explain to me why Spike is living with Giles and not being swept into the wastebasket?"

"And me too, while you're at it," Giles added.

"There's this military group new in town since you've been gone. Weeks or months or whatever. Anyway. They neutered Spike."

"Hey!" the blonde vampire objected.

Buffy carried on as if she hadn't been interrupted. "He knows stuff about them. Plus he can't hurt anyone. Literally. He gets a huge headache if he tries to bite or even hit someone."

"You shouldn't hit!" Jesse lectured the vamp with a shake of his finger.

Spike was taken aback for a second, then he laughed. "Well, look at the nibblet. Chip off the ol' block, in'he?"

The air got noticeably cooler as Alexander stepped forward menacingly. He picked Spike up easily, chair and all, and hauled him to the bathroom where he turned on the water to cover any sounds and hit Spike in the solar plexus. That doubled the vamp over and stopped him from speaking for a minute. The vampire might not need air to breathe, but he certainly needed it to talk. Alex grabbed the vampire's bleached hair and pulled up so he could whisper in his ear. "I don't know or care why Buffy is having trouble staking you right now, but if you refer to my son using a term for food again, or even look at my family in a way that displeases me; all they'll find the next morning is a note mocking them for not tying you up tight enough and a little extra dust in the kitchen trash can." He pulled the vampire away so they could look in each other's eyes. "Do you understand?"

Spike, surprised at the boy's strength and at the clearly non-human breath coming off him, quickly nodded as much as he could with his hair being held. He swallowed. "Perfectly, mate," he choked out despite not being able to breathe properly yet.

Alex shut off the water and carried Spike back into Giles' living room.

"Wow. He's uh... strong," Anya commented to Buffy.

"Yeah. Not quite human anymore," Alexander said.

"My daddy's a-" Jesse said before his father covered his mouth.

"We'll explain everything when we're not in mixed company," he motioned towards where he'd set Spike back down.

Spike opened his mouth to complain but thought better of it.

"Anyway, we'll talk to you guys later. Thanks for the offer, Giles, but I think we'll find an inn to stay at," Alex said.

"No-o-o," Buffy contradicted. "You're not staying at a hotel, Alexander. My mom's on a buying trip. You can stay at my house."

"Have you ever invited Spike into your house?" he asked.

"No! Oh, wait." Buffy gave a hissing intake of breath. "Yeah, I kinda did. But it was to save the world! But no others. Except for Angel."

"We'll call you tomorrow," Alex promised as they left. As they walked to a hotel, he explained to his wife and son the rules for vampires and why they should never, ever invite someone into their house and should instead just stand aside.


-oOoOo-

"Military. Damn! Why'd it have to be the military?" Alex groused.

"Something wrong?" Audrey asked. "You've fought armies before."

Alex shook his head. "Not like this. If I had brought a Company of American soldiers, I wouldn't have needed to recruit anyone else. If I had a Battalion, I could have steamrolled everyone in a week. They have machines and weapons you can't imagine and instantaneous communications. All the good ideas I integrated into Rivellon's army came from them. So they know everything I know about war, but I knew less than 10% of what they know."

"But you can turn into a dragon."

"It's not nearly enough. Their flying machines are hundreds of times faster and more maneuverable than airships. Turning into a dragon would be suicide. Hopefully we don't need to fight these guys, but if we do, hiding as a normal human will be the only way to survive."


-oOoOo-

A/N: "A Whole New World" is from the Disney movie Aladdin. I do not own it. Also, the Stats Alexander uses for the population of LA are rounded down a bit for the year 2000. You can't expect him to remember stuff like that for 5 years, can you?

A/N2: Without Xander there to absorb her affections, Anya found someone else to cling to. Luckily, Buffy had just met Parker and was ripe for Anya's brand of man-hating. ...and woman-loving. Whoo-hoo! Let's hear it for extra lesbians! Les- bi- ans! Les- bi- ans! Les- bi- ans! Les- bi- ans! What do we want? Lesbians! When do we want'em? Now!