Buffy made herself stagger forward. She couldn't say anything. Her throat was tight and every word that she thought of that seemed right, felt wrong a second later.

"Your reaction was a tad more dramatic than what I'd imagined." Xander finally said.

Normally she would have smiled if the situation had been less serious. But not this. He looked like he'd barely survived a car wreck; survived and yet shouldn't have been walking with the injuries he had. And his tone had been hardly joking. That same malevolence still lingered beneath it.

In spite of it, she swallowed and made herself take another step. "Xander, come on. I'm going to take you home."

Despite the number of wounds on his face, she could tell if he was frowning. And that's just what he was doing now. "Hold the phone. Did my ears just hear you say 'home'?" He laughed again. This time it took everything Buffy had not to gasp. "What gives you the right to tell me where my 'home' is?"

'No. This can't be happening. This can't be happening to him.' Buffy continued forward. "Please. I'm sorry about what happened. I'm sorry I cornered you when you needed space, Xand. But this isn't the way to go. Not you."

"Not me? You didn't think it was possible for your Xander-shaped friend to achieve this level of horror, did you?" Xander took a step toward her. "You thought that just as long as you kept abusing the friendship you had with the sorry sap, you could go on living just the way you wanted…"

Buffy's chest hurt. She shook her head. "That isn't right at all! I'd never--"

"Oh I know. You'd never take advantage of anyone, would you?" He leaned forward a little. "I don't believe that. And you don't either."

Every bit of resolve that Buffy had gathered was waning from her. She couldn't keep this up with him. What was frightening her more, was with each passing second, she felt the darkness grow thicker around him. He was tainted, as dark as Willow had been after Tara's death, perhaps even darker. It was going to take more than talk to break through to him.

"Anya wouldn't approve of this. She wouldn't want you losing herself because of her."

Xander cocked his head to the side. "You really think that'll do the trick, Buff? Playing on my heartstrings? You could manipulate that old banjo anytime you wanted. Well, guess what? Old banjo's got some new strings."

The play on words made her sick. It's something that the Xander she knew would have said, and as corny as it sounded, it made her hurt all the more inside.

"You killed him, you know?" Xander whispered, moving closer.

Buffy stepped back.

"He cried allot. Begged allot."

"Stop this."

"He called out your name every night, thinking you'd save him." He shook his head. "He should have known better. Nothing is more exacting than a Slayer's vengeance."

She clenched her teeth. "I tried to find you. I put everything I had into finding you!"

That tight smile was back again. "And what do you know? It was worth nothing."

Behind her, Buffy heard footsteps clomp along the pavement. She couldn't turn and look at her two friends but knew that they had slowed to a stop.

"Xander?" Willow's voice was on the edge of tears. Her breathing was hard and strained.

Faith was unusually silent.

"Aww… you guys," Xander said in mock appreciation, "you didn't all have to show up for me."

"Xander, are you okay?" Willow asked.

"Gee, Will, what do you think the obvious answer to that question is?"

Buffy turned to her. "It's not him. Don't listen to him."

"Oh it's me. And it's not. Anyway you slice it, old Xander is gone. And I'm here; more or less to spice things up."

Faith grabbed her stake out of her pocket. "You going keep yapping or am I going to need to make you shut up?"

"Oooh, somebody's feisty tonight. Think you've got as much energy as that night in the kitchen? I know old Xand liked that."

Faith seemed unperturbed by the comment. "And plenty more where that came from."

Buffy grabbed Faith's arm. "No. That's enough."

Xander pretended to wipe his eyes. "Oh that's too bad. I was just hoping one of you would have the guts to take a stab at old Xand. I expected too much."

The rage was steadily working its way through Buffy's system. This darkness had a hold on him. She couldn't fight him, especially when she felt so vulnerable. 'This is all my fault…'

"You're right. It is." he said.

'He can read my thoughts.' She slowly rose her eyes to him. "Xander, please…"

"No matter how many times you say the magic word, it's not going to work." Faith interrupted, swallowing uneasily.

Buffy ignored her. "I know this darkness has a tight wrap around you and that it's not going to let go of you easily. But you have to understand that I never gave up on you and I'm not about to start now. And if I have to knock some sense into you in order to bring you back, then so help me God, I will."

He laughed. "Poetic. But it didn't rhyme."

"I've got one for you." Faith said, an eyebrow perking. "What rhymes with 'life'?" She flicked out a long switchblade.

He straightened up. "At least one of you gets the idea." He clapped his hands once.

Out of the shadows, the demons in the tunics suddenly appeared, their lemur-like appearances instantly making chills race along Buffy's spine.

From behind Xander, the cloaked leader came. Just as she reached him, she drew back her hood. She was beautiful with dark hair and a flawless pallid complexion. At first, Buffy wondered if she was indeed a vampire. Somehow she didn't give off that vibe. She was something else.

Xander smiled as she approached and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Been catching up, have we?" the woman said.

Buffy's jaw was clenched so tightly she wasn't aware that her teeth were gnashing together. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'll say, Xander, they are awfully rude for being friends of yours."

"Answer the question, bitch." Faith growled.

"I go by Amelia."

"What did you do to him?"

Amelia giggled. This time though, Xander didn't join in with her. He seemed strangely dumbstruck.

"Every imaginable torture that you can conceive."

Buffy stared at the pavement. 'Xander… forgive me… I didn't mean to…'

"My favorite parts, of course, were the lobotomies." Amelia continued, and stroked the stitches on Xander's face with a finger. "Always such a fun time investigating the human brain; changing things you don't like the look of…"

Buffy's stomach did several spins. She was going to be sick.

"Oh, well, we'll finish this conversation some other time. When you're feeling up to it." Amelia added, and put a hand on Xander's cheek. "Ready to go home?"

Her old friend looked at her and for moment's Buffy hoped that some little bit of him had survived, even if it was just a penny sized piece. Instead, he answered, "I thought you'd never ask."

With a snap of her fingers, they both vanished into a mist.

The creature's around them snarled and formed a ring slowly condensing around them.

Willow's frantic gasps told Buffy that she couldn't take all of these monsters at once.

Buffy didn't even know if she could keep her head in the game for long enough to concentrate.

Faith was the only one who seemed ready, clutching the knife in an offensive pose. "Just give me a reason, boys."

In the distance, the accelerating engine of a car grew louder and louder. Suddenly, a light blinded them from behind them, growing stronger and stronger with each passing moment.

The lemur demons shrieked in pain and tried to cover their eyes as they ran for the shadows. Faith jerked forward in an attempt to strike one. It was ready though and kicked up at her, catching her off guard. She fell against the pavement next to Buffy. "Damn little monkey." she groaned.

Someone was beating on the car horn ecstatically, the light becoming so hot now that it hurt for Buffy to try and look at it. Putting a hand up to shield her face, she recognized the bespectacled face behind the steering wheel.

Howls echoed into the night air as the creatures vanished into the shadows, their noises slightly resembling a hyena's, something that only made it harder for Buffy to think about all that had just happened.

Stern as ever, Rupert Giles exited the car.

Another figure stepped out on the opposite side. Buffy felt her entire being collapse at the presence of her younger sister, Dawn, her face drawn and sadness pulling at her brows. Buffy grabbed hold of her, throwing her arms around her slight figure.

Giles stared after the last escaping demon forms. "We should all get back to the house. We can come up with something there."

Everyone was slow to move. Not even Faith wanted to get up from her place on the ground but she did after a minutes time. Willow wordlessly pushed into the backseat, her eyes in a complete daze. Buffy made her way into the passenger seat while Dawn took a place in the back.

As Giles turned the car around, Buffy found her eyes traveling to the side view mirror, to the dingy alley that they were leaving far behind. That would forever and always now, be the place in her memory where the Alexander Harris she knew had died.