Sequel to Best Laid Plans
Spoilers: Bargaining Parts 1 & 2; Afterlife; & Flooded
Summary: A continuation of "To Me" and "Best Laid Plans" Ongoing, week-by-week rewrite of Season 6. My own twisted little universe. :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing more than the clothes on my back and a ticket stub from an Aerosmith concert back in '97. Joss is the man with the contract, though I'd honestly switch places with him any day.
Author's Note: This part is a bit shorter, because I didn't much like tonights episode and thusly couldn't find much material from it. But I did particularly enjoy Giles reaming Willow. That was wonderfully refreshing to see Willow scolded for once.
*CUT TO: The Magic Box, evening. Willow, Dawn, and Xander are researching while Tara and Anya are stocking the store.*
"It's temporary!"
Willow related with a big smile.
"What is?" Xander rushed over.
"Thaumogenesis! It's going to dissipate. The only way it can survive on
our plane is if it was to kill the subject of the focal point of the original
spell..." Willow said with dread.
Dawn frowned, "So it has to kill... Buffy?" Willow nodded.
"Thanks for the tip." Xander growled, his eyes pure white. In a split
second, he grabbed the heads of Willow and Dawn's heads, and brought them crashing
together. They crumpled to the ground, and he wasted no time in heading out
the front door.
Moments later, Anya and Tara came rushing from the store room to aid the two.
Tara looked at her girlfriend with worry, "Willow, baby, what happened?"
"Where's Xander?" Anya demanded.
"He was possessed..." Willow choked out.
Anya began to cry, thinking of the possibilities that could bring about. Dawn's
yelling snapped her out of it, "He went to kill Buffy!"
They wasted no time in collecting their things and pursuing him.
*CUT TO: In front of the Summers home, a short while later. Possessed Xander is standing at the end of the walk, staring up at the house.*
His eyes were still an
eerie, solid white. He looked at the house with a faint amusement. He seemed
surprised that it was such an ordinary looking house.
Deciding that time was of the essense, he bellowed loudly, "Oh Slayer.
Come out here and face your destruction." His voice carried unbelievably,
only slightly resembling the voice of Xander.
The front door opened softly, and Buffy poked her head out. She saw it was Xander,
and momentarily her guard went down. The moment, though, passed quickly as she
saw his eyes and remembered his words. She exited the house, and made he way
down the walk.
"I'm not even going to bother with the 'What do you want?'" She glared,
"Give Xander his body back."
He growled in response, "I don't think so. I like this one. He's deceptively
strong." He grinned lecherously, "I think I'll keep him."
Buffy frowned at the implication, but tried not to let her discomfort slip.
She put her hand on her hips non-chalantly, making sure she was ready in case
a fight broke out, "Are you going to get to the point of your being here,
or should I wait for you to file for home owner's insurance? Cause I can guarantee
you're gonna need it if you think you're keeping Xander's body."
"Your self-assurance will be proven unfounded, Slayer." His smile
was only broken as he struck out at her with a lazy fist. She blocked it easily
and shoved him back. He was undeterred, coming at her again with a series of
punches that were much more determined. He layed his best into her, and she
held it off as best as she could.
Which was pretty damn good. He left a large hole in his defenses, which allowed
the Slayer to get in a fierce backhand which sent him reeling. She immediately
regretted it, as Xander would be sporting a sizeable bruise in the morning.
When he looked up at her, she let out a gasp that could have woken the dead,
let alone the neighbors. Staring up at her, with cold, blank white eyes, was
Xander with a full-on game face. His smile returned, and the pit in her stomach
grew in depth by leaps and bounds. The eyes combined with the ridges was enough
to send chills down her spine.
She hadn't the time to explore possible reasons for this transformation as he
launched another volley of punches and kicks that where testing her abilities.
The fact that it was Xander attacking her was the main cause of her semi-lax
offense.
She finally got the advantage again, delivering a stunning blow and instintively
reaching for a stake in her belt. She was a half-second away from staking the
creature, when she again remembered it was simply borrowing Xander's body. She
couldn't live with herself if she'd killed him in the heat of battle when it
wasn't his fault.
All this took place in the space of a few milliseconds, after which she delivered
a solid blow to his chest and stumbled him back into the tree in the front yard
and then careening to the ground. He began laughing heartily as he got back
to his feet with assistance from the nearby tree. He leaned against it, showing
he was winded and that some part of him was still human, and taunted, "You
have quite a dilemma, Slayer. If you kill me, you kill this boy who cares so
much for you. Your destruction is in my ha..." His head snapped skyward,
as if hearing something.
A furious growl escaped his lips, and he declared, "You can't! Her death
is within my grasp! You will not..." His voice cut off sharply, and Xander
collapsed feebly to the ground.
Buffy rushed over to him, though cautiously, and examined him. She lifted an
eyelid to see his chocolate brown eyes once again residing behind them. Caught
in a moment of... something, Buffy leaned down to bring her lips to Xander's.
She wasn't sure what was causing the urge to kiss him, but she didn't feel like
stopping it.
Before she could follow through, a groggy, "Buffy?" Xander's eyes
were fluttering open, and she sprang backwards, "Buffy... why do I feel
like I was strapped to the front of a UPS truck and driven off a cliff?"
His eyes lazily latched onto her, and he smild faintly.
She slipped between a frown and a smile, before she answered, "Because...
uh, you were possessed. And you fought me."
He frowned deeply, "Ahh, that would explain the ringing in my head."
She helped him get to his feet, "Please tell me you won..."
She shook her head, "Mr. Possessive Guy fled the scene before I could beat
him... if I even had an idea how to do that." A moment of silence passed
between them, as they avoided each other's eyes. She spoke up suddenly, "Xander,
I'm so..."
"BUFFY! Get away from him, he's trying to kill you!"
Buffy shook her head, "Been there, done that, Wills."
Xander felt the sore spot on his cheek that was stinging annoyingly, "And
I'm still working my way back from next week." Buffy smiled apologeticly
at him, as Anya rushed by and tackled him.
"Xander! You're back!" She rained kisses down on him with a fury,
"I was so scared you were going to come here and get killed by Buffy."
Buffy watched on with narrow eyes, until Willow got her attention. "Buffy,
are you okay?"
Buffy nodded in response, "Nothing hurt on this Slayer."
"What happened?"
"Well, Xan showed up, all Poltergeist 3 and everything, and started fighting
me..." She looked at Willow, "And then it got weirder."
"That's possible?" Xander said after getting up off the ground again.
"Totally... I knocked him down once, and when he got up... he was all fangs
and ridges like our favorite Sunnydale co-habitants." They all gasped audibly,
"That's what I said! So we fought a little bit more, and then he looked
up at the sky, had a little personal argument... and then I guess his lease
was up." She looked troubled by a thought.
"Buffy, did something else bad happen?"
"No, Wills... it was just... there was something familiar about it..."
"About his out-loud internal monologue?" Xander asked, standing over
Buffy's shoulder protectively, with Anya clutching herself around his waist.
"No," She repeated, "It was the way he fought... it was just...
like I'd been there before." She shrugged, "Maybe I've just had one
too many fights and they're all overlapping in my head."
Willow frowned and lost herself in thought. Tara prodded her gently to get her
to talk, "We're going to have to research some more... I've never heard
of a possession where this has happened... it's so confusing."
"We better get somewhere with that ward spell in place. I wouldn't want
any of us to get possessed and trying to kill Buffy again soon."
Xander groaned, "I think I've done my one-time deal. Another Buffy ass-kicking
and I'll probably never have kids."
"Oh, whatever would we do without little Xander's running around?"
Buffy drawled with sarcasm.
"Fine, mock my lineage, Buff. I'll show you when there's an army of cute
little brunettes running around screaming for their Aunt Buffy." None of
them noticed the strange look Buffy got on her face. Before the thoughts got
any deeper, Xander broke though them, "Well, I do believe Ahn and I are
going to go home and have some dinner."
"Which button on the speed dial is it tonight, Xand?" Willow joked.
"I'll have you know, I am an accomplished cook of culinary delights and
I... fine, it's the chinese place." He managed to successfully elicit a
laugh from all of them.
"We're going to have to wait for Giles to get here to help us re-ward the
Magic Box and our houses, but we can at least research and figure out why it
didn't work tonight."
"I just *l-love* those late n-night study sessions." Tara said. They
all looked at her in surprise.
"Tara just made a joke. I do believe I'm proud." Xander said, hugging
the small blonde for effect.
Willow chuckled and pulled her girlfriend along with her, "We better get
going."
Dawn started to follow, until Buffy grabbed her arm, "You, young lady,
are heading inside the house to do your homework and go to bed."
"But..." She looked at Willow and Tara anxiously.
"But nothing. I'm in charge, remember? Dawnie, I don't want you to slack
off in school like I did... you've gotta do great things not involving demon
slaying." Without further protest, she dragged Dawn into the house by the
hand.
*CUT TO: Xander and Anya's apartment. They're washing dishes after finishing dinner.*
"Ahn, there's something
I want to talk to you about..."
"Xander, I don't like that tone... please don't let this be something bad..."
He pulled her over to the table, "No, Ahn, it doesn't have to be bad."
He tried to pull his thought's together, "With Buffy having so much trouble
with her bills..."
"I told her to start charging!" Anya declared, proud of herself.
"Yeah, Ahn, I know... in other situations, that my be reasonable... but
this is Buffy, and she's a Slayer. Not exactly something that lends itself to
an hourly charge." He stroked the back of his hand against her cheek and
looked at her pleadingly, "I was thinking maybe we could... lend her some
money, y'know just until she got back on her feet and found a steady job."
Anya looked mortified, "You want me to... give *her* my money?"
"Yes," He said simply, "With the money we have coming in from
my construction work and what you're going to be getting from the Magic Box...
we're going to have more than enough to pay our bills as well as her bills,
and still have some left over for spending."
"But... it's *our* money. She needs to get her *own* money."
He sighed, "Ahn, there's a thing called charity..." He stopped, "God,
Buffy would kick my ass if that's what she thought it was," He thought
for a moment, "It's called giving of yourself to help others... to help
your friends. We're going to have more money then we'll know what to do with.
It won't hurt us any to give some of what we have in order to help Buffy."
Anya tried desperately to come up with a valid arguement against giving away
her money. She knew it was futile as soon as he started using what Willow would
call a 'resolve face.' He always used it in matters that concerned Buffy. Reluctantly,
she let out a sad sigh and replied, "Alright... but as soon as she gets
herself a good job, no more!"
He smiled widely, "Thank you, Ahn... I'm so grateful I didn't have to use
the resolve face." She tried not to laugh, when he continued, "Now...
the trick will be convincing Buffy this isn't just a handout."
