Title: Xander Harris: Year One (Chapter Nine)

Author: Randall Stone

Disclaimer: All characters are belong to someone else.

Summary: Some are born to destiny. Others make their own.

Notes:
Spoilers: S1-4

Continuity changes: Hopefully everything will be explained in the
text. One note- Veruca tragically stepped in front of a bus the
day before she was going to be turned into a werewolf, so Oz will
be hanging around.

We have now left the Season 4 continuity. Only events described
or referred to directly in this fic should be assumed to have
occurred.

All B/R fluff and B/R angst will be taking place off screen. The
astute reader may inquire as to what B/R interaction this leaves to
be shown. The answer: not much.

Category: B/X, a little B/R early on
Rating: PG-14- nothing worse than what's on the show.
Feedback: Yes please.

*****

Willow yawned as she turned the page in her chemistry text book.
She was using her wolfsitting time to get some studying done. She
glanced at the clock. Ten pm. Xander was late.

Willow had just turned back to her book when she was interrupted by
Xander walking in to the basement. He was a little out of breath.

"Hey Wills, sorry I'm late."

"No biggie. Thanks for taking over the wolfsitting. I wouldn't
ask, but-"

"I know, big chemistry lab tomorrow. And a tired Willow and
dangerous chemicals are a bad combination."

"Exactly."

"It's no problem. It's Sunday night, I don't have a date, and I've
got two liters of Jolt and my all Rush mix tape. You go get some
sleep."

Willow saw that Xander had in fact brought a whole pile of tapes
with him. One of the perks of hanging out in a musicians' house was
that you got to use their sound system. Even the backup unit they
kept in the basement was better than anything Xander had ever owned.

"Thanks again." She smiled at Xander. "And try not to wake the
neighbors."

"Hey, they knew what they were getting in to when they moved in next
door to a band." Xander wilted under Willow's glare. "OK, OK, I'll
try. G'night, Will."

"Good night."

---

Anxious to make sure that Oz was all right, Willow was up before
dawn the next morning. Her worst fears seemed to be coming true as
she approached Oz' house and heard some kind of caterwauling and
howling coming from below.

Willow raced down the stairs as quickly as she could, bursting in to
the basement to find Xander... singing? Singing along with his tape
at the top of his lungs. As she recovered from the shock, she could
make out the lyrics.

"... like to meet his tailor." Xander pointed at the wolfed out Oz,
who howled along with the refrain. "A-wooo, werewolves of London!
A-wooo, were-"

Xander was cut off when the music suddenly stopped. His grin turned
sheepish when he turned to see Willow glaring at him.

"Alexander Lavelle Harris! What have I told you about teaching Oz
tricks?"

"Not to do it."

"Exactly! He's not your pet."

"I was thinking, you know, there's nothing like good music to soothe
the savage beast."

"Xander, your singing is nothing like good music."

"Oz likes it. Look, he's upset now."

Willow looked over at the werewolf, who did seem a bit put out.
Suddenly unsure, she looked back at Xander.

"Well..."

"Here, why don't you sing the next bit." Xander walked over to
start the tape again. "Lighten up Wills. It's not like we're going
on tour."

---

LATER THAT DAY

Buffy was looking for some late afternoon canoodling when she let
herself into her boyfriend's room. She expected him to be home-
classes were done for the day, and the creatures of the night
weren't due out for hours. She didn't expect to find him in the
middle of packing away his personal belongings.

"What's going on?"

"Buffy. I got transferred."

"Were you planning on telling me before you skipped town?"

"I was going to see you once I got packed."

"So you're just leaving?"

"Pretty much, yeah. I don't have much choice."

"You could tell them no. Stay here, with me."

"I can't do that. I have my orders-"

"They say jump, you say how high, right? Come on Riley, you know
there must be something fishy going on here."

"Maybe, maybe not. I can't prove anything, Buffy. The higher ups
know what I know, and they still want me reassigned. I don't have
the information that I would need to make the decision."

"But what if you leave and people die here because of it?"

"What if I refuse to leave, everything is fine here, and people die
somewhere else because of that? I don't just follow orders because
I'm some unthinking idiot, Buffy. They could have a real need for
me somewhere else."

"What about us? I'm asking you to stay, for me."

"You expect a six week relationship to trump years of service?"
Riley sighed. "Maybe it would, if this were some kind of true love
fantasy romance. But it's not."

"What?!"

"Look Buffy, you're an amazing woman, and I can already feel myself
starting to fall in love with you. The problem is, you're never
going to feel that way about me.

"Look at when we started dating. I was Joe Normal, the rebound guy
to help you get over Parker. Then we found out about each other,
and it was a bonus that we didn't have to keep any secrets from each
other.

"But you've never really been attracted to me for me. I've just
been a handy piece to slot into a gap in your life."

"So it's not you, it's me?"

"No Buffy, it is me. I'm just not the right guy. That's not your
fault.

"It's a lot better that you get this speech from me now than I get
it from you a year from now. I think it's better that we end our
relationship now, while it can still be a good memory."

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"I guess, yeah." Riley sighed. "I'm sorry it had to be this way."

"So now you just ride off into the sunset?" Buffy didn't try to
hide her bitterness.

"You have to do your duty, and I have to do mine."

---

Buffy stalked through the night, eager to find something to pummel.
Unfortunately for her, the vampires seemed to be laying low tonight.
Her frustration level had just about peaked when she crested a hill
in Shady View cemetery and saw a fight up ahead.

A vampire was fighting some kind of shadowy figure. The vampire's
opponent was difficult to see in the dim light, but Buffy could
make out its red eyes. As she watched, the figure dodged a punch
from the vampire, then grabbed its hand and yanked it forward in a
nifty move that impaled the vampire on the stake held in the
figure's other hand.

Buffy grinned as she recognized the figure from Giles' drawing.

"Boy, have you caught me on the wrong night."

The Shadow took one look at her, turned, and took off into the
night.

---

Xander looked up from slaying the vampire to see Buffy approaching
him in "slay first and don't ask questions" mode. He turned and
ran, not wanting to suffer through another lecture, or worse- she
might just assume that he was a shape shifter and stake him anyways
if he revealed himself.

As he ran, with Buffy in hot pursuit, Xander considered his
situation. He had started out with about a fifty yard head start
and he was in pretty good shape, but he had no illusions about how
long that would last against a pissed off slayer. Briefly, he
wondered what she was doing out here- she was supposed to spend
tonight on quality Riley time, which was the only reason that
Xander was in the area.

No time to worry about that now. The direction he was running in
had him quickly approaching the west gate to the cemetery, which
was locked at night. It looked like he was going to have to try
something that he'd thought about, but never attempted.

Xander approached the gate at a dead run. Without breaking stride,
he placed his right foot on a boulder a few feet in front of the
gate and jumped as high as he could. Holding his hands out he
grabbed the top bar of the wrought iron gate and used it to flip
himself up and over, landing in stride.

Xander quickly ran a short way down the street and removed his ring.
He then turned around and was walking as nonchalantly as possible
up the street when Buffy came flying over the gate.

"Nice elevation, good posture, and you really stuck the landing."
Xander applauded. "Ooh, just a five point two from the East German
judge."

"Xander!" Buffy was not amused. "What are you doing out here?"

"Just heading home from work. Why, is it past my curfew?"

"You know it's dangerous out here."

"Sorry, I'll make sure to get your permission before I work late
next time."

"Whatever. Have you seen anybody else come over the gate?"

"There was a big demony looking thing, yeah."

"Which way did he go?"

"I didn't see."

Buffy looked closely at Xander, noticing that he was out of breath.

"You didn't see?"

"I believe in conducting tactical retreat in the face of a superior
force."

"I'm glad you're not totally crazy." Buffy couldn't entirely hide a
smile. "I'm going to keep looking for the guy."

"Want a hand with that?"

"You just go home and be safe."

"Yes, mom."

---

TWO WEEKS LATER

Adam hoped that Mother would be proud of him. She had claimed that
he needed to stay at the Initiative until the world was ready to
accept him. But Adam wanted to explore the world now.

Escaping from the Initiative had been easy enough. Mother had made
sure that he knew all the information on the government project, as
well as other useful things. He had left early in the morning, and
planned to return before he would be missed.

The exit he had taken from the Initiative had left him some ways out
of town, in a remote wooded area. Adam was walking towards
Sunnydale when he encountered a young girl. She was sitting next to
a small pond, plucking daisies and floating them across the water.

Adam crouched down next to the girl.

"Hello. I'm Adam."

"Hi." The girl turned and looked at him with the complacency of
youth. "I'm Wanda. I'm four and one half years old. Mommy says
I'm very pretty."

"Yes. I'm not."

"No." The girl looked at him for a moment, and then went back to
plucking the heads off the flowers and floating them in the pond.

After watching for several minutes, Adam turned to face the girl.

"Why do you pick the flowers and put them in the pond?"

"Because they're pretty."

---

Buffy was just sitting down to eat her lunch in the student union
building cafeteria when she heard the report from a nearby
television that was tuned in to the local news.

"Sunnydale is still reeling from news of the drowning of a young
girl on the outskirts of town. Police have not named a suspect and
the killer is still at large."

Buffy shook her head. With all the supernatural terrors that
plagued Sunnydale it was easy to forget that human criminals still
roamed the streets. She was digging into her food when the report
continued.

"In other news, police are advising residents to stay away from the
downtown core of Sunnydale, as a wild bear is rampaging through the
streets. We don't have video footage, but..."

Buffy stood and ran from the cafeteria, her lunch forgotten.

---

Adam was confused. First there was the misunderstanding with the
girl, and now he couldn't find anybody to talk to. Upon entering
the town, all of the townspeople had fled screaming before him.
Shortly after that he was confronted by what he knew from his data
files were police officers.

When the policemen had discovered that bullets had little effect on
him they had retreated, content to watch from a safe distance as
Adam wandered aimlessly through the streets, searching for a friend.

Adam was hopeful when he saw a young blonde woman approaching him,
apparently without fear.

"Hello. I'm-"

Adam was cut off when she attacked with a strength and ferocity that
caught him completely off guard.

"I know what you are. You're a demon." She continued to attack,
and Adam was soon curled into a ball on the ground. He found
himself paralyzed, unable to fight back. Was he just a monster?

The woman continued to rain down blow after blow, pausing only to
continue her diatribe.

"What's going on? I mean, did somebody decide, 'ooh, we're already
ruining Buffy's nights and most of her wardrobe, but she has some
free time during the day where she might be having fun.'

"And I gotta say, sunlight: not flattering on you. If you stuck to
moonless nights you might look a little less like a demonic freak."

Adam finally broke through his paralysis and struck back, knocking
the girl to the pavement. He fled, and was out of sight before she
could mount a pursuit.

As he ran, Adam considered. If they were going to treat him as a
monster, then a monster he would be. It seemed that Mother was
right to think that people could not be made to like him- but
perhaps they could be made like him.

*****

End part 9. I had to read through Goodbye Iowa again for this one.
The things I suffer for my work. On the bright side, reading
through Shelley's Frankentein acted as a sort of brain cleanser.
You might notice some differences between my Adam and Adam from
canon.

Note about Riley: I find that the farther away he is from Buffy,
the more likeable he is. Also, I think not having him on the Super
Soldier serum makes him more interesting.

--Randy