Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. I do not.

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Title: Lost Immortal: Chapter 2

Rating: Oh, hell. Everything I write is R, cause I don't know what the ratings mean. However: MULTIPLE CHARACTER DEATH!!!

Pairing: No real pairing. Just very slight Buffy/Angel, Willow/Oz, Xander/Cordelia, cause they were the pairings when it was set… kind of, anyway.

Feedback: Yeah!

Continuity: Up to Graduation. (Season 3 Finale) Then goes totally off track, no road trip, no Angel and Cordy leaving. But, in one respect, they do…

Follows Lost Immortal Chapter 1 (duh!)

Notes: This is a diversion to get me writing again, after being thoroughly disheartened by the progress of a novel I'm (trying) to write.

*

Sunnydale, 2201.

Xander hunkered down in the ditch by the side of the road as a vampire patrol passed by. If he wanted to enter Sunnydale, he would have to be extremely careful, making sure nothing and no one saw him, lest it all be for naught and the demon caught him.

As the idly gossiping 'squad' of four vampires passed, Xander let out a slow breath. It seemed, to him at least, that few vampires could actually sense him, and the ones that could were far too old to be interested in being a demon upstarts lackey. Grimacing to himself, Xander moved slowly in the direction opposite to the vampires, and approached the Sunnydale city limits.

*

As a second vampire patrol neared where he was crouching, Xander froze again. While he was unfound, he may as well try to remain that way.

Shit, thought Xander, at the best I'm going to have about six hours there, then I'm gonna have to try getting out again. He smiled grimly, and checked the sword that he held carefully above the sludge and stagnant water that resided in the bottom of the ditch.

But at least I'll be able to take out my frustrations on the way out. The only 'surviving' member of the Scooby gang felt tears try to escape as he thought of what little he had heard coming from Sunnydale over the past century, but his teacher had been correct, he had not been ready.

Truth be told, he still wasn't ready, but at least he might have a chance now.

Quietly standing, checking all the while that another patrol had not arrived, Xander rolled himself out of the ditch slowly, so as not to make noise or risk falling back in with the weight of sludge soaking his clothes.

If I survive this night, mused Xander silently, I'm gonna have a hell of a cleaning bill.

With that thought, he stood up on the road and trotted off to his destination.

*

*

*

Xander knelt by the side of the graves in Sunnydale's 'Sunnyday' Cemetery.

He looked down at the cracked and broken gravestones and a cold dread filled his gut. The graves of all his friends, Buffy, Willow, Oz, Cordelia, Giles, Joyce, Dawn, torn apart, the ground that they had been laid in desecrated by what had killed Xander in the 'beginning' or what would probably be more accurate to call the 'end'.

Rising to his feet again, Xander moved off for a short while, to attempt to find his own grave, the one he had forced his way out of so many years ago, with no knowledge of what he was, or what was going to happen. Xander considered it some sort of private miracle that the first immortal he encountered was not a 'head hunter' because with his normal luck, it should have been.

But no, it had to be him. Sean Whittaker, himself technically a young immortal, at only 40 years at the time of first meeting him. Sean had almost as much of a vendetta against the world and its dark side as Xander did, only this vendetta was focussed on a criminal kingpin, who had murdered him because Sean had got too close to answers during an investigation.

The kingpin in question died shortly after Xander met Sean, a 'victim of his own greed' according to news reports. Xander knew differently. Sean had gone out that night, with a serious look on his face, and a clean blade. He came home that morning, with a satisfied look and a blade in dire need of cleaning. Never stupid, despite what some would say, Xander could put two and two together, and indeed got the expected four.

92 years after that night, Sean had fallen to an unnamed headhunter, who Xander had promptly cut down like an unwanted tree. The quickening had faded to quickly to nothing, giving Xander no help as to who had killed his mentor.

None of that mattered now.

*

Xander reached his own grave, filled in and grown over again since his clawing out of the wooden box. The headstone still stood, slightly crooked, with the fruit of decades growing on the surface. Deciding to leave the dead in rest, especially if it was him, Xander returned to his friends memorials…

*

An hour later saw, or rather heard, 2am toll on the town hall, and Xander standing, merely looking at what was left of his friends. Remembering why he had taken such care to come here, Xander reached inside his trench coat, and extracted the seven white roses he had bought for this. Xander never understood the intricacies of the 'language of flowers' and as such just chose to get the same flower for each grave.

Solemnly, Xander approached each grave and placed a rose on each one in turn, beginning with Buffy and ending with Willow. As he straightened up from this act, Xander heard a twig snap behind him and a voice he knew all too well echoed across the space between them to reach his ears.

Giles stood, in his habitual tweed suit, and sneered at him. "Oh, look how the boy comes to mourn for his friends. The friends he got killed. Isn't it sweet?" the last was a rhetorical question, as there was only Xander and Giles present.

Xander didn't look up, and didn't turn around. "Hello, Giles. I was expecting someone to show after I saw the graves."

"Yes, lovely isn't it! It is only a pity that it couldn't be Buffy here to greet you, but alas, she is 'busy' with our master."

Xander didn't want to know, and so, didn't ask. "How long have you been like this, Giles?"

An evil grin, reminiscent of ripper worked its way onto the librarians face. "Oh, I'd say since about a week after you left. While I'm not proud to say I was the first to fall, I am proud to say I was the first to serve our new master."

Xander still hadn't turned around to face Giles. "And how long did the others last?"

Giles laughed loudly. "Willow, Oz and Cordy," Giles used Xander's pet name for her, "all fell on the same night. And our master has chosen some absolutely delicious damnations for all of them."

Xander's face displayed his look of disgust. "Buffy? Joyce? Dawn? When did they fall?"

"Buffy lasted nearly a month. Quite impressive for such a useless Slayer…" Giles trailed off. "Joyce? Dawn? You really don't want to know…" the voice was as sadistic as it could possibly be and still be human.

Xander spun to face the shell, the abomination that his friend and teacher had become. "Tell me." He spat.

Giles sighed theatrically. "Oh, very well. Joyce, well, delicious isn't the word for her death. It was exquisite."

Xander was barely holding back an all-encompassing rage, and a strange queasiness. "Dawn?" Xander managed to croak out.

"That was the most beautiful. Years of being locked in a pit full of rat's does things to you, you know? And then, when we fished her out? She was screaming for death! Everyone had a go! And then, when our master was finished, Oz tore her apart."

Xander looked as if was going to vomit, and indeed a slight retching sound was heard. Recovering, Xander stared at Giles with murder in his eyes. "I've had enough of this, either get out of my way, and let me kill your 'master' or shut up and fight!"

"Can't have you doing that, can we?" asked Giles, walking slowly forward, and his game face shifting on as he neared.

"No." whispered Xander, almost to himself. Sidestepping, Xander cleared blade from its sheath in his coat, and prepared for a gruelling fight. Killing a vampire was not hard, but killing a vampire with one of his friend's faces was beyond difficult.

With one final silent prayer, to anyone listening that gave a damn, Xander lunged…

*

Giles saw the move before Xander had even thought of it.  Stepping sideways and twisting, the ex-Watcher who was now a vampire serving the greatest evil to have invaded Sunnydale for nearly 1000 years dodged the blade by only a fraction of an inch, then batted it down with his fist, before bringing his other hand up and catching Xander in the jaw.

Even as an Immortal, Xander could not hope to match the strength of a vampire, and recognised that fact. After landing painfully on a gravestone, the top part of the cross snapping off as his weight landed on it full force, he cursed himself silently. He hadn't wanted to get into a fight now. He hadn't wanted to even be found in this Gods-forsaken place.

What was it his grandmother used to say? If wishes were fishes we'd all cast nets…

Well, that sentiment certainly fitted his current situation well enough.

Rolling to his feet, Xander readied his blade again. If any chance presented itself to run, he would. He had done what he came to do, and that was put the memories of his friends to rest. Fighting them was not what he wished to do. Even if he had to run, with his tail between his legs, leaving something behind, he would. He couldn't face Giles or any of the others now.

He just wasn't ready.

The pain was still too fresh.

Giles charged him, intent on ending it quickly, and Xander's rapier took him in the chest, spearing his right lung and heart, and glancing off of his shoulder blade, to come out of his back at a different angle to the one it went in.

Giles collapsed onto the dirt, and Xander took off, running…

*

*

*

Giles stood, and pulled the twisted blade out of his chest. It had hurt like a bitch, but hadn't taken that long to heal almost completely. Maintaining a grip on the blade, he went over to the graves of himself and his compatriots in damnation.

Taking great care, he ground each of the roses into the dirt, making Xander's gift only a memory…

*

End of Chapter 2. Hey, what do you know! My muse is back (kind of). Not sure if I'll continue this, because, as mentioned above, it was only intended to do what it appears to have done. If you want it continued, tell me…