Author's notes: I was banned, now I'm back.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
Buffy and the rest of the Scooby gang burst through the Summer's house door.
"Mom?" Buffy immediately shouted.
"Buffy?" came the answer from the direction of the living room. Seconds later the eldest of the Summer's woman ran to the entrance and hugged her daughter.
"Are you okay?" Buffy asked her worried. "Did he do anything to you?"
"No I'm fine. He left a few minutes after our phone call," she told her. But then she spotted Xander standing a bit aside from the group.
"Oh Xander," Joyce said and left the hug. She went to Xander and threw her arms around him.
"Hi Joyce," Xander whispered.
She loosened her grip on him and took his face in her hands. "Is it finally over?"
"Yeah it is," he answered her question.
"Wait a second. What's going on here?" Buffy asked confused.
But it was Giles who spoke up. "Well, I think I should explain a few things. But that could take some time. To give you all the short version: Xander did not really work for the Mayor. He went undercover so he could find everything out about his plans."
Buffy and the rest were now clearly confused.
"What? Where? Who?" she started, but turned her attention to Xander.
But he lifted his hand in surrender.
"Sorry Buffy. I think Giles should explain everything to you, so you really believe it," he said and went in the direction of the still open door.
"And where are you going now?" she asked.
"I have to go to my apartment. I have the suspicion that the Mayor will not be too pleased about my change of heart. I should get my stuff before he sends a few vamps to take care of that," he said and walked through the door.
"Xander, you can't.," Buffy started, but remembered that this was the same Xander Harris that took out six vampires without problems. "Just be careful, okay. The Mayor maybe has won this round, but that doesn't mean that he won't take revenge on you."
Xander turned around with a smile on his lips. "You are right Buff. The Mayor won this round, but I made sure that he would have to pay a lot for this victory," Xander said and left a confused Scoobie gang behind him.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
Mayor Wilkins sat behind his desk, the Box of Gavrock beside him when the phone suddenly rang.
"Hello?" he answered the phone.
"Yes, am I speaking to Mr. Richard Wilkins?" came the voice from the other side of the line.
"Yes, you am. How can I help," the Mayor asked.
"I am Mr. Daniels from the Red Cross and I wanted to thank you for the great donation we have received from you."
"Donation?" the Mayor asked confused.
"Yes. Don't you remember? You donated ten million dollars to us. I must say Mr. Wilkins, I have never seen such an act of unselfishness in a long time."
"What?" the Mayor shouted "Ten million dollars?"
But before the man on the other side could answer the Mayor had already slammed the speaker on the cradle and was furiously tapping on his keyboard of his computer.
He immediately checked his bank accounts. But with fear he realised that seven of his ten Swiss bank accounts were completely empty. The money of three of them was transferred to several welfare organisations, the rest to various accounts on the Cayman Islands.
"Oh, I must say Alexander. I'm impressed," he said and threw the monitor from the desk.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
Xander parked his SUV in front of the Summer's Residence. Luckily for him the Mayor was too occupied with the aftermath of his little bank robbery to care about him.
He left the car and walked up to the house, only to see a certain blonde slayer sitting of the stairs of the porch.
"What are you doing here, sitting all by yourself?" he asked her and sat down beside her.
"I'm waiting for you," she replied.
Both sat in silence for a few seconds.
"So, did Giles inform you about my undercover work?" he asked.
"Yeah he did."
"And?"
"I didn't listen to it."
"Why not?" Xander asked confused.
"I want to hear it from you," Buffy explained. "Your story. I want to hear it from you."
Xander waited a moment before he continued. "You sure?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Where should I start." he asked.
"Start at the beginning."
"Okay. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..," he joked
"Xander," she said him but smiled at that.
"Okay the beginning," he said and became serious. "I think it all started on Valentines day last year."
"Drusilla?" she asked.
"Yeah, Drusilla. You also know that after I staked her, Angelus shifted from trying to kill all our friends to only trying to kill me."
"Yeah I know that. So what happened then."
"Well I knew that you couldn't protect me 24 hours a day. And after his fifth try to kill me I decided to something. So I went to Amy. I knew that she practised witchcraft. I saw her once doing something to Ms. Beakman so she shouldn't have to give her homework. So I asked her if she could do me a little favour."
"I don't understand. How could Amy help you?"
"You remember Halloween? Me turning into a soldier." Buffy nodded at that " I asked her to restore those memories."
"Xander.," Buffy started but was immediately interrupted.
"I know, a stupid idea. But I only wanted her to manifest those memories I already had. I just wanted to have a little edge against Angelus, when he might get me without you backing up."
"You sound like it didn't work right."
"Yeah. There was a little variable in the equation that neither Amy nor I have considered."
"And that was."
"The Hyena."
"Oh," was Buffy's only answer.
"Yeah 'Oh'. Somehow the dormant abilties of the hyena supercharged the spell. Instead of only getting the basic abilities I got the whole package. All his skills and his memories are now up here" he explained and tapped with his finger at his head.
"Memories?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah, I remember all the missions he went on. Believe me, the nightmares were proof enough." Buffy now looked worried at him "It's not as bad as it sounds. The first few months were the hardest, but now I can sleep through a whole night without waking up."
"And the Hyena?" she asked.
"What about it?"
"You said that the Hyena supercharged the spell. Did you also get something from her."
"Yeah. But don't worry. Most of the abilities were spent for the spell and what's left is not that much. My senses are a bit sharper and my reflexes a bit faster. But that about covers it. And my senses are only a bit above a normal human. The only thing I really kept were the healing abilities. Like I said, most was used for the spell."
"Now I understand," Buffy finally realised.
"What do you understand?" Xander asked.
"How you were able to take out both Spike and Angel."
"Yeah it was quite a show," Xander said and chuckled at that memory.
"But even that doesn't explain the events of the last months."
"Yes, but that was only the beginning of my story. After the whole Angelus thing I left for my Road trip.. I don't know what Giles told you about that. Let's just say that I got a bit of equipment and a lot of chances to test my new abilities."
"And then you came back."
"Yeah I came back. I can't say that I was very happy about you trying to keep me out of danger, but I got enough action on my little journey, so it was good to relax for a while."
"We just wanted to protect you. You already lost your parents. We thought you would maybe try something suicidal if we took you with us on patrol."
"I see. You have never really met my parents Buffy. They were a loss, okay, but not a great one. And I would rather admit that I find deadboy attractive than doing something suicidal in memory to my parents."
"So when did you start working for the Mayor?" she asked
"I was getting there. You see, it all started after the little incident with Mr. Travers."
"Xander.."
"Buffy, you wanted to know how I started working for the Mayor. Let's keep the ethical conversation for another time, okay?"
"Okay," she agreed.
"So you didn't want me in the group, as long as I didn't get my priorities right. So I started to patrol on my own." He paused a second and noticed that Buffy didn't seem surprised. "Seems like Giles already told you about that part. And on my patrols I heard that there was a new boss leading the demon community. But no one knew who he was. The only information I got was that Trick was working for him. So I searched for Trick and one night I got lucky and found him. He planted a trap for me but I was able to kill him and his vamps and get the information I needed. After that I went back to Giles and told him what I found out. We agreed that the Mayor possibly knew about everything going on in town, including our group. So he came up with the plan of me going undercover, so we could find everything out about his plans. And it worked."
"What did you do during that time?"
"You remember the books of Ascension?" Again she nodded "Well, after the Mayor told me about the books I informed Giles about them. We wanted to meet at the demon's place, but we missed each other and so Giles got the books. We later met at his place. We agreed that we needed the books, but it was also important that the Mayor continued trusting me. So we made copies. We went to a computer shop and scanned them and burned them on CD."
"So you made these copies?"
"Yeah. After that Giles went to LA to see if he could find anything else on the Ascension. I really believed you when you said that he ran in trouble. And that also was a believable plot to get the books and give them to the Mayor. There was only one little thing that messed this plan up."
"Willow."
"Yeah. I didn't really think that she would find it out. So I was busted. Bad luck." Buffy now had a look of guilt on her face.
"I shot you," she said quietly.
"Oh, the crossbow bolt, Xander said and chuckled. "Yeah, that was sure a shock, seeing me pulling it out of my chest."
"I'm sorry."
"Buffy, there is no need for that. Remember, I was there when you threatened Angel, that if there was the slightest indication that he was Angelus again that you would stake him. Giles and I, we knew, that if you found out, my health would be in possible danger. Because of that I had the vest. This night I thought that you all were in LA and that Angel left the mansion. And even when I was sure I wore the vest."
"That doesn't change the fact that I shot you."
"Yeah, but I knew what I was getting into. I knew that there was the possibility that I would be killed by either the Mayor's men, you, Faith or Angel. Believe me, Giles told me that you felt guilty bout the whole thing," he told her and laid an arm around her shoulders.
"Xander, there is another thing that is bothering me. Have you killed anyone during all this."
"You mean a human.?" She nodded "No, not one. Finch was killed by vamps. I was out of town during that time. And on my other jobs I did nothing but, for example killing a rival demon or eliminating a trouble making vampire."
"But the watcher team.."
"Yeah, but I didn't kill them. I was long gone when the vamps started their work," but Buffy still looked at him. " What do you think I should have done? They wanted to kill me and I had no other choice."
"I understand that. But that doesn't change the fact that it was an ugly sight."
Both were silent for a few seconds, before Xander continued.
"Well, the last part was the Box of Gavrock. I told Giles about it and you guys got it from the airport. But the Mayor kidnapped Willow. So we had the whole exchange thing going on. But we got her safe and the Box in our possession. But I didn't suspect that the Mayor knew about my work and ordered an assassin."
"Yeah, that was surprising," Buffy agreed.
"Well, that was my story so far," Xander finished.
"Who else knew about this thing," she asked him.
"Giles, your mom and Angel" Xander told her.
"Angel?" Buffy asked with disbelief.
"Yeah. Giles told him after the debacle with the books. So he wouldn't try something stupid like killing me to spare you that."
Again there was a long pause before the conversation continued.
"I really thought that you were on the other side," she admitted. "The only one who didn't think so was Cordelia. She said she could understand your intentions, with us treating you so bad."
"Yeah, Cordy. She has a way of looking behind the façade of people."
"But she was right: We really treated you bad."
Xander sighed before he answered. "Yeah, you really did. But even despite that, we are friends. And friends forgive each other. So Buffy, I forgive you. I forgive you that you were not the best friend and I even forgive you that shot me. But do me a favour, learn from your mistakes, and don't repeat them"
"Promise," she told him.
"Good. But I think I also have to apologize. I really can't imagine what sent you guys through, with me joining the darkside."
Both looked at each other and finally Buffy threw her arms around him and hugged him hard.
"I'm glad that you are back," she told him.
"I'm also glad that I'm back," he admitted.
After a moment they ended their hug and both stood up.
"We should go inside," Xander proposed. "I think they are already waiting for us."
"Okay," Buffy said and opened the door. A few seconds later Xander followed her into the house.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
Buffy and the rest of the Scooby gang burst through the Summer's house door.
"Mom?" Buffy immediately shouted.
"Buffy?" came the answer from the direction of the living room. Seconds later the eldest of the Summer's woman ran to the entrance and hugged her daughter.
"Are you okay?" Buffy asked her worried. "Did he do anything to you?"
"No I'm fine. He left a few minutes after our phone call," she told her. But then she spotted Xander standing a bit aside from the group.
"Oh Xander," Joyce said and left the hug. She went to Xander and threw her arms around him.
"Hi Joyce," Xander whispered.
She loosened her grip on him and took his face in her hands. "Is it finally over?"
"Yeah it is," he answered her question.
"Wait a second. What's going on here?" Buffy asked confused.
But it was Giles who spoke up. "Well, I think I should explain a few things. But that could take some time. To give you all the short version: Xander did not really work for the Mayor. He went undercover so he could find everything out about his plans."
Buffy and the rest were now clearly confused.
"What? Where? Who?" she started, but turned her attention to Xander.
But he lifted his hand in surrender.
"Sorry Buffy. I think Giles should explain everything to you, so you really believe it," he said and went in the direction of the still open door.
"And where are you going now?" she asked.
"I have to go to my apartment. I have the suspicion that the Mayor will not be too pleased about my change of heart. I should get my stuff before he sends a few vamps to take care of that," he said and walked through the door.
"Xander, you can't.," Buffy started, but remembered that this was the same Xander Harris that took out six vampires without problems. "Just be careful, okay. The Mayor maybe has won this round, but that doesn't mean that he won't take revenge on you."
Xander turned around with a smile on his lips. "You are right Buff. The Mayor won this round, but I made sure that he would have to pay a lot for this victory," Xander said and left a confused Scoobie gang behind him.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
Mayor Wilkins sat behind his desk, the Box of Gavrock beside him when the phone suddenly rang.
"Hello?" he answered the phone.
"Yes, am I speaking to Mr. Richard Wilkins?" came the voice from the other side of the line.
"Yes, you am. How can I help," the Mayor asked.
"I am Mr. Daniels from the Red Cross and I wanted to thank you for the great donation we have received from you."
"Donation?" the Mayor asked confused.
"Yes. Don't you remember? You donated ten million dollars to us. I must say Mr. Wilkins, I have never seen such an act of unselfishness in a long time."
"What?" the Mayor shouted "Ten million dollars?"
But before the man on the other side could answer the Mayor had already slammed the speaker on the cradle and was furiously tapping on his keyboard of his computer.
He immediately checked his bank accounts. But with fear he realised that seven of his ten Swiss bank accounts were completely empty. The money of three of them was transferred to several welfare organisations, the rest to various accounts on the Cayman Islands.
"Oh, I must say Alexander. I'm impressed," he said and threw the monitor from the desk.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
Xander parked his SUV in front of the Summer's Residence. Luckily for him the Mayor was too occupied with the aftermath of his little bank robbery to care about him.
He left the car and walked up to the house, only to see a certain blonde slayer sitting of the stairs of the porch.
"What are you doing here, sitting all by yourself?" he asked her and sat down beside her.
"I'm waiting for you," she replied.
Both sat in silence for a few seconds.
"So, did Giles inform you about my undercover work?" he asked.
"Yeah he did."
"And?"
"I didn't listen to it."
"Why not?" Xander asked confused.
"I want to hear it from you," Buffy explained. "Your story. I want to hear it from you."
Xander waited a moment before he continued. "You sure?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Where should I start." he asked.
"Start at the beginning."
"Okay. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..," he joked
"Xander," she said him but smiled at that.
"Okay the beginning," he said and became serious. "I think it all started on Valentines day last year."
"Drusilla?" she asked.
"Yeah, Drusilla. You also know that after I staked her, Angelus shifted from trying to kill all our friends to only trying to kill me."
"Yeah I know that. So what happened then."
"Well I knew that you couldn't protect me 24 hours a day. And after his fifth try to kill me I decided to something. So I went to Amy. I knew that she practised witchcraft. I saw her once doing something to Ms. Beakman so she shouldn't have to give her homework. So I asked her if she could do me a little favour."
"I don't understand. How could Amy help you?"
"You remember Halloween? Me turning into a soldier." Buffy nodded at that " I asked her to restore those memories."
"Xander.," Buffy started but was immediately interrupted.
"I know, a stupid idea. But I only wanted her to manifest those memories I already had. I just wanted to have a little edge against Angelus, when he might get me without you backing up."
"You sound like it didn't work right."
"Yeah. There was a little variable in the equation that neither Amy nor I have considered."
"And that was."
"The Hyena."
"Oh," was Buffy's only answer.
"Yeah 'Oh'. Somehow the dormant abilties of the hyena supercharged the spell. Instead of only getting the basic abilities I got the whole package. All his skills and his memories are now up here" he explained and tapped with his finger at his head.
"Memories?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah, I remember all the missions he went on. Believe me, the nightmares were proof enough." Buffy now looked worried at him "It's not as bad as it sounds. The first few months were the hardest, but now I can sleep through a whole night without waking up."
"And the Hyena?" she asked.
"What about it?"
"You said that the Hyena supercharged the spell. Did you also get something from her."
"Yeah. But don't worry. Most of the abilities were spent for the spell and what's left is not that much. My senses are a bit sharper and my reflexes a bit faster. But that about covers it. And my senses are only a bit above a normal human. The only thing I really kept were the healing abilities. Like I said, most was used for the spell."
"Now I understand," Buffy finally realised.
"What do you understand?" Xander asked.
"How you were able to take out both Spike and Angel."
"Yeah it was quite a show," Xander said and chuckled at that memory.
"But even that doesn't explain the events of the last months."
"Yes, but that was only the beginning of my story. After the whole Angelus thing I left for my Road trip.. I don't know what Giles told you about that. Let's just say that I got a bit of equipment and a lot of chances to test my new abilities."
"And then you came back."
"Yeah I came back. I can't say that I was very happy about you trying to keep me out of danger, but I got enough action on my little journey, so it was good to relax for a while."
"We just wanted to protect you. You already lost your parents. We thought you would maybe try something suicidal if we took you with us on patrol."
"I see. You have never really met my parents Buffy. They were a loss, okay, but not a great one. And I would rather admit that I find deadboy attractive than doing something suicidal in memory to my parents."
"So when did you start working for the Mayor?" she asked
"I was getting there. You see, it all started after the little incident with Mr. Travers."
"Xander.."
"Buffy, you wanted to know how I started working for the Mayor. Let's keep the ethical conversation for another time, okay?"
"Okay," she agreed.
"So you didn't want me in the group, as long as I didn't get my priorities right. So I started to patrol on my own." He paused a second and noticed that Buffy didn't seem surprised. "Seems like Giles already told you about that part. And on my patrols I heard that there was a new boss leading the demon community. But no one knew who he was. The only information I got was that Trick was working for him. So I searched for Trick and one night I got lucky and found him. He planted a trap for me but I was able to kill him and his vamps and get the information I needed. After that I went back to Giles and told him what I found out. We agreed that the Mayor possibly knew about everything going on in town, including our group. So he came up with the plan of me going undercover, so we could find everything out about his plans. And it worked."
"What did you do during that time?"
"You remember the books of Ascension?" Again she nodded "Well, after the Mayor told me about the books I informed Giles about them. We wanted to meet at the demon's place, but we missed each other and so Giles got the books. We later met at his place. We agreed that we needed the books, but it was also important that the Mayor continued trusting me. So we made copies. We went to a computer shop and scanned them and burned them on CD."
"So you made these copies?"
"Yeah. After that Giles went to LA to see if he could find anything else on the Ascension. I really believed you when you said that he ran in trouble. And that also was a believable plot to get the books and give them to the Mayor. There was only one little thing that messed this plan up."
"Willow."
"Yeah. I didn't really think that she would find it out. So I was busted. Bad luck." Buffy now had a look of guilt on her face.
"I shot you," she said quietly.
"Oh, the crossbow bolt, Xander said and chuckled. "Yeah, that was sure a shock, seeing me pulling it out of my chest."
"I'm sorry."
"Buffy, there is no need for that. Remember, I was there when you threatened Angel, that if there was the slightest indication that he was Angelus again that you would stake him. Giles and I, we knew, that if you found out, my health would be in possible danger. Because of that I had the vest. This night I thought that you all were in LA and that Angel left the mansion. And even when I was sure I wore the vest."
"That doesn't change the fact that I shot you."
"Yeah, but I knew what I was getting into. I knew that there was the possibility that I would be killed by either the Mayor's men, you, Faith or Angel. Believe me, Giles told me that you felt guilty bout the whole thing," he told her and laid an arm around her shoulders.
"Xander, there is another thing that is bothering me. Have you killed anyone during all this."
"You mean a human.?" She nodded "No, not one. Finch was killed by vamps. I was out of town during that time. And on my other jobs I did nothing but, for example killing a rival demon or eliminating a trouble making vampire."
"But the watcher team.."
"Yeah, but I didn't kill them. I was long gone when the vamps started their work," but Buffy still looked at him. " What do you think I should have done? They wanted to kill me and I had no other choice."
"I understand that. But that doesn't change the fact that it was an ugly sight."
Both were silent for a few seconds, before Xander continued.
"Well, the last part was the Box of Gavrock. I told Giles about it and you guys got it from the airport. But the Mayor kidnapped Willow. So we had the whole exchange thing going on. But we got her safe and the Box in our possession. But I didn't suspect that the Mayor knew about my work and ordered an assassin."
"Yeah, that was surprising," Buffy agreed.
"Well, that was my story so far," Xander finished.
"Who else knew about this thing," she asked him.
"Giles, your mom and Angel" Xander told her.
"Angel?" Buffy asked with disbelief.
"Yeah. Giles told him after the debacle with the books. So he wouldn't try something stupid like killing me to spare you that."
Again there was a long pause before the conversation continued.
"I really thought that you were on the other side," she admitted. "The only one who didn't think so was Cordelia. She said she could understand your intentions, with us treating you so bad."
"Yeah, Cordy. She has a way of looking behind the façade of people."
"But she was right: We really treated you bad."
Xander sighed before he answered. "Yeah, you really did. But even despite that, we are friends. And friends forgive each other. So Buffy, I forgive you. I forgive you that you were not the best friend and I even forgive you that shot me. But do me a favour, learn from your mistakes, and don't repeat them"
"Promise," she told him.
"Good. But I think I also have to apologize. I really can't imagine what sent you guys through, with me joining the darkside."
Both looked at each other and finally Buffy threw her arms around him and hugged him hard.
"I'm glad that you are back," she told him.
"I'm also glad that I'm back," he admitted.
After a moment they ended their hug and both stood up.
"We should go inside," Xander proposed. "I think they are already waiting for us."
"Okay," Buffy said and opened the door. A few seconds later Xander followed her into the house.