Title: Dancing Around Love (8/13)
Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link. Plus, archived at http://fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=62966
Rating: I'm gonna go say R for semi-explicit sex.
Spoilers: Up to As You Were and Forgiving, plus an alternate reality I'm considering writing.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to the almighty Joss. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: What if Buffy wasn't the only one with an illicit affair?
Author's Note: Okay, this part includes mainly W/X and some A/X, along with (alternate reality) character deaths. You have been warned.
* * *
Anya teleported to Sunnydale and found herself in what looked like a warzone.
"What in the world...?" she wondered as she looked around. Many of the buildings were reduced to rubble. Those that weren't stood abandoned in various states of disrepair.
Then she heard it. The sounds of battle. Gunshots rang out into the night, and the screams of the terrified, hurt, or dying echoed through the otherwise still air.
She spun on her heel and ran toward the source of the sound. She had to find out what was going on.
She rounded a corner and found herself in the thick of a running battle. About a dozen men and women rushed past, firing various weapons ranging from crossbows to assault rifles at the vampires and demons and -- that looked almost like Adam! -- that pursued them. They were dressed in camou fatigues and body armor and weighed down by bulging satchels and other bags.
Recognizing one, she grabbed his arm, "Xander! What's going on?"
He jerked around, and she started in surprise. Three long scars ran down his face.
Claw scars.
"Anya?" He recovered quickly, his hand dropping to his belt, and he threw something at her, which she caught reflexively. She blinked dumbly at the cross, and he said, "Good, you're not turned. C'mon!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her along, even as he braced the M-16 against his shoulder and fired a burst at the Adam-lookalike with his other hand.
She suddenly found herself with her back pressed up against the wall of a building. Xander ejected the spent magazine from his M-16 and slapped in a fresh clip. She watched in fascination as he slid open the underslung grenade launcher and loaded a 40mm grenade into the tube.
"Fire in the hole!" he shouted before he whirled back around the corner, bracing the assault rifle against his hip, and fired the grenade launcher down the street. "Scatter! Meet back at base!"
He ducked back into the alley and grabbed Anya's wrist. Given the amount of firepower he was carrying and what he was running from, she wasn't about to argue. After only a moment's hesitation, she followed.
* * *
Finally, after leading her through so many twists and turns that she lost count, Xander came to a halt outside a chain-link fence barricade. Nine of the other ten who had been with him earlier also approached. He looked around, "Where's Chavez?"
One of the women, a blonde with her hair tied back in a ponytail, shook her head, "He didn't make it. The hybrid got him."
"Damn," Xander muttered, "I thought I'd nailed him with that grenade." Looking up, he said, "Kills?"
Most shook their heads, but one nodded and said, "One vampire with a molotov."
Xander nodded, "Let's go. You guys get the goods to storage and get some rest while I give the G-man the prelim."
There was a round of acknowledgements, and he turned and led them to the gate, which swung open slightly. A looming male figure stood just inside the fence, scanning each of them as they passed. The burly guard raised the assault rifle in his hands and pointed it at Anya.
"Relax," Xander said, waving the guard's gun away, "she's with me."
The guard nodded and lowered his gun, replying with a thick Austrian accent, "Understood."
As Xander led Anya one direction while the other four went in another, she finally recognized the compound. It was the Army base Xander had once stolen a rocket launcher from, back before she had first come to Sunnydale.
"Was that Arnold Schwarzenegger?"
"Not exactly. We got a guy here who builds robots. He modeled them after Arnie's role in the Terminator movies."
"Oh."
He led her to what had to be the base's command center and stepped in. Giles was sitting behind a desk inside, poring over a map of Sunnydale with numerous pins stuck in it.
"Giles, we're back."
The Watcher looked up, and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw Anya. "Anyanka?"
"Ran into her on the way back. We lost Chavez and Wong, but we got most of what we need. We dusted seven vamps total, killed two Fyarl demons, and put a couple dozen more bullet holes in one of Adam's hybrids. Also scored a near miss with a grenade on him before we fell back. Anya's out of the loop, so I figured you should brief her on the sitrep."
Giles nodded, "Get some rest, Xander. I'll fill her in."
"See ya, G-man," he gave a lazy wave -- much more like the Xander that Anya remembered than the precisely military and deadly efficient attitude she had seen just moments ago. Turning to Anya, he said, "I'll be in my quarters. Giles'll give you directions."
He turned and left.
And Giles began to explain.
* * *
Xander headed toward what had once been the officer's barracks. It now housed those survivors who still had family or had children, allowing them to stay together in the suites. The single people remained in the barracks, divided by gender.
Because he'd led them at graduation, most of the others had insisted he take the general's suite. It felt wrong, somehow, to have such luxury when others could appreciate it more, so he'd taken in the Maclay sisters too to assuage his guilt.
He smiled. Tara was supposed to be giving her sister another magic lesson tonight. He wondered how that was going.
* * *
The Key-made-flesh threw her hands up in frustration, "Why won't it work?!"
Tara, sitting across from her, shot her a disapproving look, "Remember what I said about concentration and calm? I know you want to help, but you won't be able to help much if you can't stay calm enough to cast a spell."
Dawn Maclay sighed and nodded. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She tried again.
* * *
"It's very simple, really," Giles said. "At the Ascension, we had rigged the school to explode, but we couldn't find a way to lure the Mayor into it. Buffy, Oz, and Cordelia died, along with half the graduating class." He looked up, "It's probably to your benefit that you left. It was a massacre."
"What about after that? What about the Initiative?" Anya asked bluntly.
Giles winced, "I'm surprised you heard of them. The Initiative had some... ulterior motives. We'd managed to hurt the Mayor -- it took him months to recover -- but one of the Initiative projects, Adam, got out of hand. He instigated a human-demon massacre and built an army of hybrids like himself." His shoulders slumped, "If only Buffy had survived. I'm certain we could have stopped him. We found a spell that might've worked, but we needed a Slayer to cast it."
He turned and sighed, "Willow and Xander met Tara and her sister, Dawn, at college, before the Adam situation and the Mayor's recovery eliminated any chance of a normal life here."
Anya blinked at that. *Of course, with Buffy dead, the monks would send the Key somewhere else!*
"In any case, we later learned that a hellgod named Glory would be pursuing Dawn for... reasons best left unsaid. She never appeared, though, so I suspect the Mayor or Adam dealt with her."
"I see," Anya nodded.
"When Adam and the Mayor began warring with each other, the humans who survived the initial skirmishes gathered here," Giles finished. "And now I must ask: Why did you come back?"
Anya bit her lip, "Because of Xander."
He nodded, "I see. Well, I'm afraid you're likely to be... somewhat disappointed."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll see soon enough."
* * *
Anya knocked on the door to Xander's suite, and it swung open, revealing the man who had betrayed her. "Hey, so did he fill you in?"
Anya nodded as she stepped inside, past the shotgun leaning against the wall next to the door. "It's bad, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but we can't give up," Xander said. "I don't want Buffy growing up in a world like this."
"Buffy? I thought she was dead."
"She is," said a familiar voice. Anya looked up and saw Willow cradling a baby in her arms. "He's talking about our little girl here. We named her after Buffy."
"Your...?" Anya stared, stunned. She shook her head, "I don't believe this. I granted the wish that brought us to this miserable little hellhole, and _you_ two are together?! I just can't win, can I?"
"What?" Xander shot her a Look. "_You_ did this?" His eyes flicked past her for a split second, and it took her a moment to realize he had been gauging his chances of getting past her and getting the gun.
Suddenly, she heard the wailing of an alarm. She looked up, "What's that?"
"It's the base's air raid siren," Willow said, her face pale, her voice low and tremulous as she unconsciously shifted her grip protectively around the baby. "We're under attack."
* * *
Author's Postscript:
Don't worry, folks. This is not going to turn into an AU 'fic. Well, not anymore AU than it already is, anyway. We'll be back to the usual mess soon enough. This bit just kinda got too long to put in one part.
Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link. Plus, archived at http://fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=62966
Rating: I'm gonna go say R for semi-explicit sex.
Spoilers: Up to As You Were and Forgiving, plus an alternate reality I'm considering writing.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to the almighty Joss. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: What if Buffy wasn't the only one with an illicit affair?
Author's Note: Okay, this part includes mainly W/X and some A/X, along with (alternate reality) character deaths. You have been warned.
* * *
Anya teleported to Sunnydale and found herself in what looked like a warzone.
"What in the world...?" she wondered as she looked around. Many of the buildings were reduced to rubble. Those that weren't stood abandoned in various states of disrepair.
Then she heard it. The sounds of battle. Gunshots rang out into the night, and the screams of the terrified, hurt, or dying echoed through the otherwise still air.
She spun on her heel and ran toward the source of the sound. She had to find out what was going on.
She rounded a corner and found herself in the thick of a running battle. About a dozen men and women rushed past, firing various weapons ranging from crossbows to assault rifles at the vampires and demons and -- that looked almost like Adam! -- that pursued them. They were dressed in camou fatigues and body armor and weighed down by bulging satchels and other bags.
Recognizing one, she grabbed his arm, "Xander! What's going on?"
He jerked around, and she started in surprise. Three long scars ran down his face.
Claw scars.
"Anya?" He recovered quickly, his hand dropping to his belt, and he threw something at her, which she caught reflexively. She blinked dumbly at the cross, and he said, "Good, you're not turned. C'mon!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her along, even as he braced the M-16 against his shoulder and fired a burst at the Adam-lookalike with his other hand.
She suddenly found herself with her back pressed up against the wall of a building. Xander ejected the spent magazine from his M-16 and slapped in a fresh clip. She watched in fascination as he slid open the underslung grenade launcher and loaded a 40mm grenade into the tube.
"Fire in the hole!" he shouted before he whirled back around the corner, bracing the assault rifle against his hip, and fired the grenade launcher down the street. "Scatter! Meet back at base!"
He ducked back into the alley and grabbed Anya's wrist. Given the amount of firepower he was carrying and what he was running from, she wasn't about to argue. After only a moment's hesitation, she followed.
* * *
Finally, after leading her through so many twists and turns that she lost count, Xander came to a halt outside a chain-link fence barricade. Nine of the other ten who had been with him earlier also approached. He looked around, "Where's Chavez?"
One of the women, a blonde with her hair tied back in a ponytail, shook her head, "He didn't make it. The hybrid got him."
"Damn," Xander muttered, "I thought I'd nailed him with that grenade." Looking up, he said, "Kills?"
Most shook their heads, but one nodded and said, "One vampire with a molotov."
Xander nodded, "Let's go. You guys get the goods to storage and get some rest while I give the G-man the prelim."
There was a round of acknowledgements, and he turned and led them to the gate, which swung open slightly. A looming male figure stood just inside the fence, scanning each of them as they passed. The burly guard raised the assault rifle in his hands and pointed it at Anya.
"Relax," Xander said, waving the guard's gun away, "she's with me."
The guard nodded and lowered his gun, replying with a thick Austrian accent, "Understood."
As Xander led Anya one direction while the other four went in another, she finally recognized the compound. It was the Army base Xander had once stolen a rocket launcher from, back before she had first come to Sunnydale.
"Was that Arnold Schwarzenegger?"
"Not exactly. We got a guy here who builds robots. He modeled them after Arnie's role in the Terminator movies."
"Oh."
He led her to what had to be the base's command center and stepped in. Giles was sitting behind a desk inside, poring over a map of Sunnydale with numerous pins stuck in it.
"Giles, we're back."
The Watcher looked up, and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw Anya. "Anyanka?"
"Ran into her on the way back. We lost Chavez and Wong, but we got most of what we need. We dusted seven vamps total, killed two Fyarl demons, and put a couple dozen more bullet holes in one of Adam's hybrids. Also scored a near miss with a grenade on him before we fell back. Anya's out of the loop, so I figured you should brief her on the sitrep."
Giles nodded, "Get some rest, Xander. I'll fill her in."
"See ya, G-man," he gave a lazy wave -- much more like the Xander that Anya remembered than the precisely military and deadly efficient attitude she had seen just moments ago. Turning to Anya, he said, "I'll be in my quarters. Giles'll give you directions."
He turned and left.
And Giles began to explain.
* * *
Xander headed toward what had once been the officer's barracks. It now housed those survivors who still had family or had children, allowing them to stay together in the suites. The single people remained in the barracks, divided by gender.
Because he'd led them at graduation, most of the others had insisted he take the general's suite. It felt wrong, somehow, to have such luxury when others could appreciate it more, so he'd taken in the Maclay sisters too to assuage his guilt.
He smiled. Tara was supposed to be giving her sister another magic lesson tonight. He wondered how that was going.
* * *
The Key-made-flesh threw her hands up in frustration, "Why won't it work?!"
Tara, sitting across from her, shot her a disapproving look, "Remember what I said about concentration and calm? I know you want to help, but you won't be able to help much if you can't stay calm enough to cast a spell."
Dawn Maclay sighed and nodded. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She tried again.
* * *
"It's very simple, really," Giles said. "At the Ascension, we had rigged the school to explode, but we couldn't find a way to lure the Mayor into it. Buffy, Oz, and Cordelia died, along with half the graduating class." He looked up, "It's probably to your benefit that you left. It was a massacre."
"What about after that? What about the Initiative?" Anya asked bluntly.
Giles winced, "I'm surprised you heard of them. The Initiative had some... ulterior motives. We'd managed to hurt the Mayor -- it took him months to recover -- but one of the Initiative projects, Adam, got out of hand. He instigated a human-demon massacre and built an army of hybrids like himself." His shoulders slumped, "If only Buffy had survived. I'm certain we could have stopped him. We found a spell that might've worked, but we needed a Slayer to cast it."
He turned and sighed, "Willow and Xander met Tara and her sister, Dawn, at college, before the Adam situation and the Mayor's recovery eliminated any chance of a normal life here."
Anya blinked at that. *Of course, with Buffy dead, the monks would send the Key somewhere else!*
"In any case, we later learned that a hellgod named Glory would be pursuing Dawn for... reasons best left unsaid. She never appeared, though, so I suspect the Mayor or Adam dealt with her."
"I see," Anya nodded.
"When Adam and the Mayor began warring with each other, the humans who survived the initial skirmishes gathered here," Giles finished. "And now I must ask: Why did you come back?"
Anya bit her lip, "Because of Xander."
He nodded, "I see. Well, I'm afraid you're likely to be... somewhat disappointed."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll see soon enough."
* * *
Anya knocked on the door to Xander's suite, and it swung open, revealing the man who had betrayed her. "Hey, so did he fill you in?"
Anya nodded as she stepped inside, past the shotgun leaning against the wall next to the door. "It's bad, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but we can't give up," Xander said. "I don't want Buffy growing up in a world like this."
"Buffy? I thought she was dead."
"She is," said a familiar voice. Anya looked up and saw Willow cradling a baby in her arms. "He's talking about our little girl here. We named her after Buffy."
"Your...?" Anya stared, stunned. She shook her head, "I don't believe this. I granted the wish that brought us to this miserable little hellhole, and _you_ two are together?! I just can't win, can I?"
"What?" Xander shot her a Look. "_You_ did this?" His eyes flicked past her for a split second, and it took her a moment to realize he had been gauging his chances of getting past her and getting the gun.
Suddenly, she heard the wailing of an alarm. She looked up, "What's that?"
"It's the base's air raid siren," Willow said, her face pale, her voice low and tremulous as she unconsciously shifted her grip protectively around the baby. "We're under attack."
* * *
Author's Postscript:
Don't worry, folks. This is not going to turn into an AU 'fic. Well, not anymore AU than it already is, anyway. We'll be back to the usual mess soon enough. This bit just kinda got too long to put in one part.