Disclaimer: Disclaimer for all of the story can be found before the Prologue.
A/N: I'm drowning in schoolwork! My own fault though, I need to get my ass in gear and actually do something. I have no idea when the next chapter will be done. I've got some of it written but there is a long way to go before it's finished.
Many thanks to Infie, Maia and Merlin The Enchanter. Also a massive thank you to everyone who have taken their time to give me feedback.
Please let me know what you think.
"The original Slayer is most likely out patrolling the cemeteries of Sunnydale. The new Slayer, called Faith, is as far as we know still in the hospital. There are rumors that she might have regained consciousness but no one we talked to was sure about that. If she is conscious she might be moved from the hospital with short notice and be taken somewhere we can't reach her."
Marcus nodded thoughtfully as Marcel finished his report. He'd known that one Slayer was at the hospital and had altered his plans to compensate for that. If she'd wake up and was to be moved it could ruin some careful planning. Originally he'd planned to grab both the Slayers at the same time to avoid one of them getting a warning of what was coming. Now he would have to change that though. If they moved the hospitalised Slayer out of the country he'd never get his hands on her, and that was a loss he wasn't willing to make.
"Marcel, take five others with you and raid the hospital," Marcus ordered. An attack on the hospital had been planned but it wasn't supposed to happen for another two days. They needed blood and the hospital had a fair supply of that. The extra large refrigerators in the basement of his house had been installed just for that purpose, to store the blood from the hospital. If they did the raid now or in two days wouldn't matter in any other way except that it alerted the Slayer that something was happening. It didn't matter now though. They needed both Slayers and if the only way to get one was to alert the other one then so be it.
Six of his children quickly left to go to the hospital and Marcus withdrew to his chambers. He didn't like changing his plans but he'd learned to be flexible, it wasn't often something happened just as you had planned it.
"So what do you think of our new friends?" Xander asked as they made their way through yet another cemetery.
"It's really cool!" Willow said happily. "I can't even imagine the technology needed to create something like them. And did you see the way Alec moved? It was like looking at a movie on fast forward."
"Yeah," Xander agreed. "And they surely didn't save money when they designed them. I mean, look at them. They're perfect."
The two girls gave him an odd look, Willow's cheeks turning slightly red in the darkness.
Xander turned his head to face them when they didn't respond and noticed the looks.
"Umm, Xander. Is there something you forgot to tell us?" Buffy asked carefully.
Xander gave her a puzzled look before his brain caught up with his mouth and he remembered what he'd said. "Uhh.. I don't mean like that," he tried to explain.
"Uh-huh."
"Really, I mean. They're good looking and all but. No, wait. Max is good looking and if I was into guys I'd probably think Alec was but I'm not and I'll just shut up now."
"Good decision," Willow giggled. "But I understand what you mean."
Buffy raised her eyebrows.
"Uhmm, never mind," Willow spluttered.
"Anyway, it's good to have them here," the witch added after a minute of silence.
"I don't trust them and I don't want them here," Buffy muttered.
"Why's that?" Xander asked. If Buffy didn't trust them he sure as hell didn't want to leave Faith alone with them.
"I don't know," Buffy trailed off. "It's just… We don't *need* their help to take care of a few vampires. Why are they even here?"
"Just be happy they're here to help," Willow said cheerfully. "It'll make it easier for us."
"Yeah, but…" *She* was the Chosen One. It was her responsibility to deal with vampires and other uglies.
"You're just pouting because Alec kicked your ass," Xander grinned.
Buffy glared at him. "I'm *so* not!" she snapped, ignoring the little voice in her head that was telling her he might be right.
"We're going to have to help them if they're staying here," Willow said. "They need somewhere to live and work. Oh, and maybe they could go to College with us after the summer!" she said happily.
Buffy rolled her eyes. She would never figure out how Willow could find school so exciting.
The discussion was interrupted when they were rushed by a group of vampires. There weren't many of them but enough that Buffy couldn't take them all at the same time.
Mitch was in a bad mood. In fact he hadn't been this pissed off in a very long time. Not only had he and his three minions been knocked out the night before but they had been so by two humans! Either someone had lied to him when they said the Slayer was a small blonde or she'd changed hair color. There was no way anyone but a Slayer could have beaten all four of them.
He and his minions were prowling through one of the cemeteries, looking for a snack, when he heard the sound of voices coming from the other side of a crop of trees. Smiling in anticipation he gestured for his minions to follow him.
The voices belonged to three humans who were carelessly walking through the dark cemetery. Oh well, if they were that stupid. He couldn't see the dark haired Slayer from the night before and there were no signs of the guy who had been with her either. Things were looking up.
The humiliating experience last night had taught him something about cautiousness though and he ordered his minions to attack while he hung back and watched.
Buffy dodged a clumsy haymaker from a small vampire and punched him a few times in the chest before she spun around and kicked him in the head. The vampire went flying into a tombstone that broke under the impact. Xander was there in an instant and staked the dazed vampire.
They'd only been patrolling for a short time but had already seen more action than they had in the past three days combined. Lots of vampires were out hunting in the night and the Scooby's kept themselves busy. Luckily most of the vampires seemed to be relatively young and inexperienced and didn't give them too much trouble.
Willow managed to stake a vampire that focused a little too much on Buffy and took a look around to see if there were any more fangfaces nearby.
Buffy was fighting half-heartedly, her mind not entirely on the fight as her thoughts kept returning to Faith. She dodged another vampire and took off after it when it started to run away. She quickly caught up with the fledgling and made short work of it. Her Slayer senses picked up on another vampire nearby and she spun around to go after it.
Xander had been keeping an eye out for more vampires as Buffy went off chasing after the one that tried to escape. When he hadn't seen any he'd turned around to watch Buffy fight.
Something he shouldn't have done.
The vampire caught his neck in a vice-like grip and bent his head to the side, sinking its fangs deep into the flesh. Xander brought his elbow back as hard as he could, catching the vampire in the ribs. The vampire barely grunted but the movement caused his fangs to rip at the wound.
Afterwards Buffy couldn't remember moving. Willow told her she'd looked almost like Alec when they'd been sparring earlier. She reached Xander and the vampire in record time and threw the vamp off her friend. The vampire had already got a decent meal and had no intention to brawl with a pissed off Slayer. It took off in a dead run and had almost reached the safety of the trees when a hurled stake caught it from behind, thrown with such a force that it almost went straight through the undead body. The dust formerly known as Mitch fell to the ground.
"Xander!" Willow screamed, as the events of the past seconds finally registered in her shocked mind. She reached her oldest friend at the same time as Buffy bent down to check on the barely conscious boy.
"We have to get him to the hospital," Buffy said, half panicking.
Buffy hauled Xander up from the ground and started to jog with her friend in her arms. Willow struggled to keep her pace as she tried to stop the bleeding with her hands. Luckily they hadn't been far away from the hospital and it wasn't long before they ran through the doors…
… right into scenes straight out of a nightmare.
Alec moved silently in the darkness, quickly slipping from one shadow to another. The night was unusually quiet and he could easily pick up the sounds from the moving soldiers. They were good, he had to give them that, but they weren't genetically engineered and that put them at a major disadvantage.
He took position in a shadow and waited. His mind had already slipped back into soldier-mode and he reacted according to years and years of training. He slowed down his breathing and heartbeat to the point where he would be hard to detect for a fellow transgenic. To the ordinary soldiers he was nothing more than a black hole in the night. Impossible to detect unless you stumbled on him.
It didn't take long before the first soldiers entered the garden at the backside. Alec stayed motionless as he waited for the others to show up. He could hear them move and realizing one of the pairs was slightly behind the others he slipped away in the shadows.
The two soldiers had found their route blocked by some thorny bushes and they'd been forced to circle them, losing a minute of time while doing so. If they'd had the time to do proper recon something like this would never have happened but that dipshit Travers was too damn impatient to listen. For not the first time this day the Councilman was silently cursed by the soldiers.
The point man of the two quickened his steps slightly and avoided a graveled area that would cause him to make unnecessary sounds if he crossed it. The second soldier altered his direction slightly to follow his comrade when he felt a something press against a nerve-cluster at the side of his neck. He never had time to react before he lost consciousness and was gently lowered to the ground.
Alec carefully placed the black-clad soldier on the ground and moved to take out his team mate. He couldn't care less if the man was hurt or not but he didn't want him to make any sounds as he hit the ground. The second soldier was about ten meters in front of him and seeing no point in delaying his move he quickly blurred the distance and knocked the man out.
Two down, two to go, the soldier in him noted as he disappeared into the shadows.
Max had taken up position in a tree, deciding it was the best place to hide on the front side of the house. She could easily hear the approaching soldiers and her eyes penetrated the darkness without a problem. The two pairs were moving closely together as they approached the house. None of the soldiers were wearing night vision goggles, she noticed. It was probably a good move as they would be useless once they reached the lit house anyway.
The two pairs of commandos neared the tree she was hiding in and she stopped breathing to minimize the risk for discovery. The pair to the left appeared to have their main focus at the street and the surrounding garden, covering their rear and sides as they advanced. The pair to the right had their focus on the house and their intended target.
The right pair passed under the tree slightly before the left and Max took the opportunity to drop to the ground in-between the pairs. She landed with cat-like grace on the ground and was moving within a split second. One of the rear-guards was walking backwards while covering the street and she took him out much like Alec had taken his first opponent. The man slumped to the ground and she quickly knocked out the second soldier in the pair.
Unfortunately for the X5 the soldier's weapon hit a stone as he fell and a metallic *clang* broke the quiet.
Max cursed under her breath as the two advancing soldiers spun around to investigate the sound and spotted her. She took a dive under the barrels of their guns and was on them before they had a chance to react. It didn't really matter how good the opponents were as long as they were human. The fight lasted all of three seconds before the black-clad men were knocked out flat on the ground.
Max quickly scanned her surroundings and spotting no threat she dragged the four unconscious men together. She searched them for anything useful and her eyes lit up as she found two pairs of handcuffs.
"Oh yeah," she whispered as she arranged the bodies. Thirty seconds later the four men were locked together with two pairs of handcuffs and Max too a step back to admire her work. Good luck trying to get out of that mess, she thought with satisfaction as she started to circle the house. Time to see how Alec handled his part.
The male transgenic in question was both disappointed and amused. The norms were good, that much was sure. They were moving silently for norms and given the chance they would most likely be decent opponents. It was just that compared to the X5s they were no challenge.
He let out a low sigh as he lowered the thirst unconscious man to the ground and slipped up behind his colleague. With a quick, smooth motion he pulled the soldier's knife out of the sheath on his leg and placed it against the man's throat. His other hand snaked around the soldier's head and covered his mouth.
"Shhh," he whispered quietly. The man stiffened with surprise and shock but wisely didn't try to break lose. Alec removed his hand from the man's mouth and quickly removed the earpiece and mic. He needed to ask a few questions without alerting the last two men. Alec quickly identified the radio equipment and switched it off.
A second later he spotted Max as she carefully peaked out from the shadows at one side of the house. He flashed her a quick hand signal and she joined him.
"Any problems?" Alec asked quietly.
"Negative," the transgenic soldier responded before her face split in a wide grin. "Like taking candy from a kid."
Alec smiled back at her, pushing the soldier part of his psyche down a bit. "Yeah, I know. I'm a little disappointed actually. I'd hoped they would be a littler more of a challenge," he grinned.
Max's eyes twinkled with amusement and she had a witty comeback ready when the man Alec was holding in a tight grip almost growled. Her amused expression vanished in an instant and her face went blank.
To any onlookers the change was apparent and suddenly Tim Duncan found himself wishing to be anywhere but where he currently was. He had *no* idea who these kids were, and judging from what he'd seen and experienced he wasn't sure he wanted to know. He hadn't seen anything happen, hadn't even heard a thing, and it looked like he was the only member of the team who was still on his feet. He wasn't sure if the others were dead or just immobilized but he *was* sure that it only depended on if these two had wanted them dead or not. He involuntarily shivered as he looked down into the dead eyes of the girl in front of him.
"There are two more of you somewhere around here," Max said in a flat voice. "Where are they?"
The response was nothing but silence.
"You have two choices," X5-452 informed the man. "One: You tell us what we want to know, we knock you out and you'll leave with your friends very soon. Two: we gag you, tie you to a tree and leave you for the first vamp that finds you. Then we find the last two the hard way and send them packing."
Alec found himself shivering as he listened to Max. He'd never really seen her act as a soldier before and if this was any indication of what she'd been like he understood why Lydecker had been so proud of her. With some serious training she could have been formidable.
"I think you better pick alternative number one," he told the soldier.
In the end self-preservation won out and within a minute Duncan was rendered unconscious and joined his fellow soldiers on the ground. The two transgenics disappeared in the shadows and quickly found the last two men on the Council's team.
MacIntyre groaned as he woke up. His head hurt something fierce and he tried to bring his hand up to rub the sore spot, only to find that he couldn't. His hands were handcuffed behind his back and when he tried to open his eyes he saw nothing but a blindfold. He tried to concentrate on what he felt and heard to see if he could figure out where he was and what had happened. He could hear several persons breathing around him and the hard material he laid on was not the ground outside. It took a second before he recognized it as the floor in one of their vans.
"I have a message to the Council," a flat voice said and MacIntyre spun his head around, trying to locate the voice. A new spike of pain shot through his head and he let out a loud groan as he laid his head back down on the floor.
"The only reason you're alive is because we didn't want to kill you. This time you all leave Sunnydale. Next time half of you don't." The implication was clear. If they came back, half of the team would die.
"The Slayer is our responsibility. We'll take care of her and make sure she stays on the right side of the line. I advise you to not return to Sunnydale, for your own good."
The van shifted slightly as someone moved inside it and a low clinging sound could be heard from somewhere in the back of the van.
"The keys to the cuffs are somewhere in the van. When you find them you'll go directly to the airport and return to England. I don't think I'll have to tell you what will happen if you don't do this."
The back door of the van opened and the car shifted slightly as someone jumped out before the door shut once again. When everything had been silent for a few minutes MacIntyre decided it was safe enough to move and try to free himself.
Alec grinned as he quickly made his way back to the Summers' residence. He'd left the van on the road out of Sunnydale, several blocks away and he was confident that they would be gone before sunrise. If they weren't it would be worse for them, he thought as he turned into the walkway to the house and entered.
"Can somebody help us please!"
One of the young nurses and a security guard simultaneously spun around to face the main entrance to the hospital. The young man the voice belonged too stood gesturing in the doorway, trying to get the attention of someone. He looked vaguely European and from his pale face it was clear to any onlookers that he wasn't a citizen of California.
The two hospital workers both rose to their feet and headed for the entrance in a quick pace. They could see several other young men outside, one of which appeared to be carrying a young woman in his arms. As they approached the doors they could see the blood on the woman's face.
"Get a doctor down here!" the nurse called out before she ran through the doors. "Please take her inside so we can take a look at her," she told the man who carried the woman when she exited the door.
The group of vampires shared a quick look and a cold smile spread on their faces. "Thank you nurse," the one who had shouted after help said.
The security guard relaxed slightly when he realized that the emergency was of the medical kind and not something he would have to deal with. He stepped aside to clear the way through the door and watched as the small group entered the hospital.
Marcel took a quick look around the lobby of the hospital and shook his head. Why did it seem impossible to decorate a hospital and turn it into a place where you actually got some hope when you entered? Sterile white walls and a disgusting smell of disinfections appeared to be the standard for hospitals.
"You all know what to do," he told his four brothers and his one sister. He was one of Marcus favorite children and he was often trusted with leading various operations.
The vampires all nodded and the one who was carrying the woman casually snapped her neck before tossing the body away like a piece of trash.
It took several moments before the shocked humans in the room reacted and when they did it was predictably enough with panic. The nurse who'd met them by the door fainted straight away and the female doctor who'd answered her summoning screamed as she burst through the door just in time to witness the brutal act.
The security guard fumbled to get his gun out, something he'd never had to do in his 5 years of security work. He'd just got the gun out when a large hand closed over his with a vice-like grip.
The vampire tightened his grip as much as his considerable strength would allow and almost purred in satisfaction as he heard bones break. The look of surprise and horror in the face of the human was replaced by a look of absolute pain and for a moment the vampire toyed with the idea to let the man live and have some more fun with him. Marcel had given the order though and they all knew what they had to do. With his other fist he landed a mighty blow to the human's throat and crushed his windpipe before he released the man's hand and let him drop to the ground.
People were scrambling around, trying desperately to flee from the obviously drugged up gang members that had entered the hospital. Most of them wouldn't have survived if it had been a normal vampire attack, but Marcus children had a specific goal in mind and ignored the humans who thought hiding under chairs and tables would save them.
The vampires quickly spread out with four of them heading for the room where the Slayer was supposed to be and the remaining two to the room with the blood supply.
Marcel grabbed the nurse behind the desk around the throat and casually tossed her over his shoulder as he began to leaf through the patient records. He quickly found the name 'Faith' and didn't bother to check for anything but the room number before he took off down the corridor. So what if she needed some special treatment to survive? It wasn't like she was supposed to survive in the first place. She just had to do it for a couple of days until they could capture the other Slayer and perform the ritual.
The door to the hospital room was kicked of its hinges and went sailing through the air before it hit the edge of the bed and clattered to the floor. Four vampires piled into the room and stopped dead in their tracks as they stared at the empty bed.
"Where is she?" Luther growled a second before Marcel could do the same thing.
"She was supposed to be here," the older vampire growled back. He spun around and stormed out through the door, heading for the nurse's desk. He heard a moaning sound from behind the desk and pulled the barely conscious nurse to her feet.
"Faith Williams. Where is she?" Marcel asked menacingly.
The nurse's eyes rolled back in their sockets as the combination of the blow to the head and fear caused her to pass out.
The vampire growled in disgust and dropped the human to the ground. A few minutes of going through records made it clear that the Slayer had been released from the hospital the day before. She had been released into the care of a Rupert Giles, which they knew was the Watcher's name. That either meant the Slayer was taken back to England or that she was with the other Slayer. In either case they wouldn't get their hands on her tonight.
"She's gone. Everybody help Matthias and Allessandro with the blood instead," Marcel ordered.
The vampires shared a quick look before they complied. They hadn't expected everything to go smoothly, not when they were up against Slayers. But it was the first time ever they'd seen one of Marcus' plans fail completely and it made them uneasy.
Marcel was fully aware of what went through the heads of his brothers and sisters. But he also knew that not many plans survived the first contact with the enemy.
The vampires quickly reached the room with the blood supply and found their two brothers loading several carts with blood bags. With the additional help of four more vampires they quickly emptied the cold-storage room and headed for the exit.
The surviving security guards had seen on their monitors when the vampires had entered and witnessed in full color how their colleague was brutally murdered. After arming themselves with whatever weapon they could scramble they'd taken up positions in the lobby to prevent the druggies from leaving.
When the first vampire stepped out from a corridor, pushing a cart full with blood bags in front of him he found himself facing half a dozen of guns.
"Freeze!"
"Don't move or you're dead!"
The six vampires piled into the room and quickly assessed the situation. After a quick look at Marcel for confirmation they moved as one and attacked.
The security guards hesitated for a split second as the druggies ran straight into the barrels of six guns. Rage and bloodlust took over and the guards opened fire. The short barreled revolvers probably looked impressive but the accuracy of them was non existent. Combine that with security personal that for one reason or another hadn't made it through police school and the result was predictable. As Alec would have said: These guys can't hit a barn from the inside.
The vampires took a few hits which barely slowed them down. Lots of shots passed nearby though and in the line of fire were the five carts filled with bags of blood.
Security work at Sunnydale hospital went from being a relatively safe job to one of the most dangerous in the country as half of the security staff was wiped out in less than a minute. When the gun smoke had settled the lobby looked like a scene from a hack 'n slash movie. There were blood *everywhere* and the bodies of the security force littered the ground.
The vampires ignored the screams from the remaining humans and gathered what they could of the hospital's blood supply. They'd lost a lot of bags to the guard's gunfire but there were still plenty left. Without a second glance at the destruction they disappeared out the door and into the night.
Marcel cursed silently for himself. Not only had they failed to capture the Slayer but they had also lost almost a third of the blood. Marcus would not be pleased to hear that.
And on top of it all he'd got a bullet in his upper right thigh. It hadn't done much damage but it still hurt something fierce.
A few minutes later Buffy burst through the doors to the hospital with Xander in her arms and Willow by her side. The Slayer stopped dead in her tracks as she took in the scene in front of her. She'd never seen so much blood before in her life. Never.
Willow was struggling to keep up with the Slayer and when the blonde girl suddenly stopped she didn't react fast enough. She continued on for a few steps and her hands lost the grip on Xander's wound. Then the appearance of the lobby registered in the young Wicca's mind and she emptied her stomach on the floor.
"Goddess."
Buffy snapped out of her daze and continued in with Xander. "Can I get a doctor here please!" she called out, not sure if there were any idea to do so. Judging from all the blood there had to be loads of victims and most of the doctors would probably be busy already. She was more than a little surprised when two doctors immediately came running in her direction.
"His throat," the Slayer pointed out the obvious to the doctors, should they prove to be blind or something. "He was attacked by some wild animal. You gotta help him!"
"Calm down miss," one of the doctors said. "Lay him down on the stretcher," he instructed, pointing to two orderlies who'd followed behind.
Willow had recovered slightly from the shock and joined Buffy as she handed Xander over to the doctors.
"He's lost a lot of blood," the witch said in a weak voice. "He'll probably need a transfusion."
The two doctors shared a look. At the moment anything was better than someone who needed a transfusion. "What blood group is he?"
Buffy opened her mouth to answer that she had no idea but Willow beat her to the point.
"AB negative."
"Does anyone of you have the same blood group or do you know anyone who does?"
"What? Why?" Buffy asked.
The doctors shared a quick look again. "There was a gang attack just ten minutes ago." He gestured at the blood soaked lobby. "For some reason they stole all the blood."
"You don't have any blood to give him?" the Slayer went pale.
The resigned look on the doctor's faces was all the answer they needed.
Willow went into full panic, babbling incoherently while Buffy stood stunned with a look on disbelief on her face. This wasn't supposed to happen! Xander never got hurt and if he did he was as good as new again the next day!
"Max and Alec!" Willow suddenly shouted. "Maybe one of them have the same blood group as he has?"
Buffy didn't hesitate a second before she darted over to the phones to call home.
In the meantime the doctors had taken Xander away and did their best to repair the damage the animal had caused. Closing the wound and repairing the damage to the artery proved to be easier than they had thought. The wound was deep but it wasn't very wide. The weak heartbeat however was a cause of great worry. Unless they got some blood in the young man really soon he would probably not make it.
Alec walked into the house without knocking and proceeded into the living room. Max had gone inside to let Mrs. Summers, Giles and Faith know what had happened while he sent the Council's team packing. He expected the three humans to be up to date on what had transpired and was ready to explain what he'd done with the soldiers. He did *not* expect to see Faith being bodily restrained by Max while a ashen faced Giles talked to someone on the phone.
"I see, Buffy. I will ask them," Giles said into the phone.
"Let me go!" Faith yelled from her position beneath Max on the floor. She was squirming and tossing, trying everything she could to get loose, but the transgenic held her in a firm grip.
"What's going on?" Alec asked.
"It appears that," Giles started only to be interrupted by Max.
"Xander's been hurt. The hospital was hit by vamps who stole the blood. He needs a transfusion."
Giles stared at the female X5 for a second. She'd heard the other end of the conversation through all the noise here? "Yes, no one of us has the same blood group as Xander. What blood group are you two? Is your blood even compatible with human blood?"
"We're universal donors," Alec said. "I'll go to the hospital, take care of Faith," he said to Max.
"I'll drive you there," Giles said as he grabbed his keys.
"I've seen your car," Alec smirked. "It'll take too long. Follow after if you want or stay here. I'll make sure he gets the blood he needs." And with that he disappeared out the front door.
Disappeared being the key word.
The two humans didn't even see him move. The only thing that told them which way he'd gone was the door that he'd never shut on his way out.
Giles stared open mouthed at the half open door. Good Lord he was fast!
"Let me go or I'll tear your arms off!" Faith growled.
"Don't worry Faith. Alec will make sure he's all right. You can see him tomorrow when we're sure the Council's soldier wannabes are gone."
"Whatever."
It took a few minutes before Giles and Joyce had collected themselves enough to close the front door. Faith struggled against Max's grip for some time but finally gave up with a snort and a glare. Her gaze wandered to the door that Alec had disappeared out through and then back to Max.
"Exactly how fast are you guys?"
Max shrugged. "We dodge bullets."
"Oh."
Alec burst through the doors to the hospital, almost ripping the doors of the hinges. He was breathing hard from running at full speed for a fair distance and he fought to keep his breathing controlled as he walked up to the reception.
"Alexander Harris? Which room?"
The nurse looked up from her papers and gave his sweaty appearance a disapproving look. "Are you family?"
Alec fought the urge to snap at the middle age woman and settled for a more diplomatic approach. "He needs blood and we're the same blood group. Which room?"
The nurse quickly tapped a few keys on her computer and brought up the file she needed. Alec was moving even before she'd finished talking.
"Don't worry Wills. He'll be all right," Buffy tried her best to reassure the panicked redhead.
Willow had brought up a chair to the bed and was sitting as close to her unconscious friend as she could. Both her hands were clasped in a death-grip around Xander's left hand, as if she could physically keep him from leaving the world of the living. She was mumbling silently to herself and not even Buffy could make out the words even though she was only a few feet away. Whether Willow was praying or trying to make up a last minute spell, she seemed to be totally focused on her task.
Buffy sighed and her eyes drifted to the pale face of her only male friend. Her Xander-shaped friend. She swallowed a lump in her throat at the sight of her protector's helpless form. Her eyes drifted back to the door and then to her watch to start over again a few seconds later. She knew intellectually that it had only been a short time since she called and told Giles what had happened, but it felt like a lifetime ago. She didn't even know if the transgenics could help but she clung to that hope with the same furiousness as a drowning man to a piece of wood.
She checked her watch again and cursed silently. Depending on how you looked upon it time was either moving too slow or too fast. Xander was still alive but for every second that passed the situation got worse. Please God let him be all right, she silently prayed.
Willow looked up with blurry eyes as the door burst open. She blinked a few times to clear the tears from her eyes and when she saw Alec bodily dragging a nurse behind him into the room she felt the first faint traces of hope. The nurse was carrying a box that she assumed contained the necessary tools for setting up a transfusion. That had to mean that Alec could give her bestest friend blood.
Alec moved quickly over to the free side of Xander's hospital bed and sat down on a free chair. The nurse, now released from his grip, worked fast as she set up the transfusion. One of the doctors that had worked on Xander a short time earlier burst into the room a few seconds after the nurse and quickly took in the scene with a professional look.
"AB negative?" he asked Alec.
"Yeah," Alec replied, without averting his gaze from the dark red liquid that flowed through the transparent plastic tube connected to his arm.
"Thank God," the doctor breathed. "He needs more but this will at least give him a chance."
"I can give him three pints."
The nurse and the doctor both gasped. "No way!" the doctor said firmly. "I will not let you kill yourself to save your friend."
Alec turned his head and looked up from the pale figure on the bed. "I can give three pints," he stated firmly. "I've done it before and I can do it again."
The doctor started to protest but was interrupted by the small blonde who sat at the other side of the bed. "Please listen to him doc. If he says he can do it he can do it."
The doctor shifted his gaze between the two young people and sighed. The determined look in the young man's eyes and the pleading one in the girl's finally won. "Fine," he sighed. "I'll let nurse Standish stay here to keep an eye on you." Shaking his head he left the room. So the guy could give three pints without problem? Sure, with all the weird stuff that went on in this town, why not. Not for the first time he considered moving to a more normal place.
Alec let out a breath of relief when the doctor left. He knew he could give three pints without problem but he'd been afraid that the doctor would try to stop him. It was obvious that Xander needed as much blood as he could get to make it.
He watched numbers on the monitor slowly rise as Xander's blood pressure increased. Everything would be all right. He'd done this hundreds of times before and he instinctively knew it would work out in the end. Alec stifled a yawn as the last hours of tension made itself felt. Willow and Buffy were both holding Xander's other hand while intently watching their friend.
"It'll be all right," he reassured the two girls. "I'll take a nap, wake me up when I've given enough," he said, directing the last part to the nurse who was eying him nervously. She opened her mouth to voice a protest but Alec silenced her with a glare.
He made himself as comfortable as he could in the chair and closed his eyes, drifting off to a sleep he knew would be filled with dreams.
"Will it work?" Giles asked carefully. "You said you were universal donors but are you sure a normal human can use your blood?"
"Yes," Max answered firmly.
"How can you be sure?" Faith asked.
Max sighed. "I gave a friend a transfusion once to save his life. It worked."
The three others in the room could all hear the slightly different emphasis on the word 'friend' but decided to let it go for the moment.
Max debated with herself for a few seconds whether or not she should tell them about their healing abilities. On one hand it might ease their minds but on the other hand she didn't want to give them any false hope if it didn't work. As far as she knew it had always worked though.
"It'll probably work better than if he'd been given normal human blood," she said carefully.
"What do you mean?" Giles asked.
"Our blood is full with stem cells, which is a part of what gives us our rapid healing. It can help heal others wounds if you transfuse them."
"I see, how intriguing," Giles commented. "Exactly how effective would this be?"
Max shrugged. "The guy I transfused had a severed spinal cord. He was walking again when…" Max trailed off, choking back a sob. She might not have been in love with Logan anymore when he died but she still cared for him.
"My Lord!" Giles exclaimed simultaneously with Faith who used a slightly more colorful expression.
Joyce was clearly as impressed as the others but her motherly instincts immediately took over when she heard the last part. She reached over and placed a comforting hand on Max's shoulder. The transgenic tensed at the touch but took the gesture for what it was and calmed down slightly.
"Very well," Giles said and stood. "It doesn't seem like there is anything more we can do at the moment. I will go to the hospital and see how Xander is doing. I will see you all in the morning." With that the watcher headed for the door.
Faith made a move to raise and follow him but Max just shook her head. "You can't do anything now and it's safer for you to stay here."
The dark haired slayer glared at her for a moment and stormed off up the stairs. Max let out a slow sigh and shook her head. She'd have to have a talk with Faith about Xander.
"She is worried," Joyce said silently. "She cares for him but she doesn't know how to act about it."
Max nodded. "I'll talk to her. You should try to get some sleep." She silently followed Faith up the stairs and through the hall to the closed door to one of the bedrooms.
Max hesitated for a moment outside the door. Did she even know what to talk about? Could she possibly be of any help or would she only make the situation worse? Deciding to at least give it a try she knocked lightly on the door. When she didn't get a response she tried again.
"Go away!"
Well, that was about what she'd expected. Ignoring the command she opened the door and stepped into the bedroom.
Xander slowly regained consciousness. He tried to remember where he was and why he was there but came up with a blank. He slowly opened his eyes to narrow slits, partly to protect them from any bright lights and partly to try to fool any observers to believe he still was unconscious.
The room he was in was clearly a hospital room. Something was very off with it though. Instead of the white, sterile light you normally found in hospitals this room was lit with a yellowish golden glow that seemed to radiate from everything in the room. Even the walls were glowing softly yellow.
"Ah, welcome back." A voice suddenly said. He found it strangely familiar but at the same time he couldn't place it. It was obvious that the person now knew he was awake though so he turned his head and opened his eyes fully.
"Hey, X-man," Alec said with a smirk.
Xander's eyes narrowed. "Where am I? And what are you doing here?"
Alec sighed. "Now *that* is complicated. You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me."
Alec shrugged. "You're in the hospital. From what I understand you were hurt by a vamp. Buffy and Willow brought you here and the doctors patched you up. Since vamps stole all the blood from the hospital they couldn't give you a transfusion and that's why I'm here."
"Still doesn't explain where we are," Xander said, waving at the strange looking room.
"This is where it gets complicated," Alec sighed. "I can't prove anything of this so you'll just have to take my word for it."
Xander nodded slowly.
"Right. When one of our kind transfuses someone, may it be another transgenic or a human, our blood creates a sort of connection between the two persons. I have no idea if it's actually something they wanted us to be able to do or if it was something that just happened. What I know is that it can be very helpful on missions." Alec's eyes darkened slightly as various unpleasant memories surfaced. "To be able to question one of your soldiers before he or she regains consciousness can save you lots of time and therefore lives."
"Oh-kay," Xander said slowly. "I take it you're transfusing me now and that's why we're here?"
"Yeah," Alec nodded.
"Uh… Thanks. I guess."
Alec smirked. "No problem."
"Not to sound ungrateful or anything but is anything going to happen with me once I have some of your blood?" Xander asked a little worried.
"You'll survive," Alec said.
"Well, guess that's good."
"It is. Don't worry. There might be some side effects but nothing bad," Alec added with a small grin.
"Errr.. You can't say 'don't worry' and then add something like that. It's just… wrong."
Alec laughed. "There's nothing to worry about, trust me. Besides from the fact that I have no wish what so ever to harm you, Faith would kill me if I did."
Faith would kill Alec? Did that mean she cared about what happened to him or did he read too much between the lines now? Xander let his head fall back against the pillow again and closed his eyes for a second.
"So, what should we do while we wait for the transfusion to finish?" Alec asked.
Xander opened his eyes again and looked at the transgenic, who looked bored out of his mind. "I have no idea. It's not like you need to do a debriefing or anything."
Alec grinned. "So, wanna trade old war stories?"
And with that the room around them faded away…
Max was met with the full power of a Slayer Death Glare as she stepped over the doorstep into the bedroom. It bounced harmlessly off her as she closed the door behind her.
"I said, 'Go away!'" Faith growled.
Max tilted her head slightly to one side. "I know," she said and pulled up a chair next to the bed.
Faith just stared open mouthed at the other girl. What the fuck was wrong with her. Didn't she realize she could get hurt if she pushed her. Then the rational part of her caught up with the emotionally driven and she slumped back on the bed. Even if she really *wanted* to hurt Max she probably couldn't. At least not in the weakened state she was in now.
"What do you want?"
Max hesitated. What was it really she wanted? She knew Faith needed someone to talk to and she'd figured, what the hell, she could just as well do it. In reality she really had no idea what to do. It wasn't like she'd had many serious talks with others before.
"Just came to talk," Max replied.
"I don't want to talk."
"I know." The room was silent for a minute. "Tell me about him."
"About who?" Faith said with badly faked ignorance.
Max didn't bother to answer, deciding to just look at the dark slayer until she gave in.
"I don't even know where to start," Faith mumbled after a while.
"Tell me why you like him," Max said and held up a hand to stop Faith when she opened her mouth to deny it. "I mean he seems like a nice guy and all. Maybe a little goofy and boyish."
Faith argued the pros and cons of talking with herself for a while before she decided to screw it all and just talk. If she wanted to hang around she'd have to talk to the others.
She let out a deep sigh and sat up in the bed, making herself comfortable before starting. "I don't even think he is that goofy and stuff. It's just how he acts around others. His armor or whatever."
Max raised her eyebrows questioningly.
"He hasn't said anything but I'm pretty sure he's not had an easy life," Faith said slowly.
Max just nodded. It was obvious what the other girl meant and to Max it was equally obvious that the slayer spoke out of experience.
"If it wasn't for him we'd all be dead you know."
That piqued Max's curiosity and she asked Faith to tell her.
"I wasn't there for what happened in the beginning but from what I've heard he saved B's life right away when she got here. When the Master killed her he was the one who brought her back with CPR. Sure, he's done some stupid things too but with all the good he's done…"
Faith continued to talk, describing many of the events that had happened in Sunnydale and the fights they'd fought. When she got to the fight with the Sisterhood of Jhe and what had happened that night she already had a sore throat.
"I was so dead. That bitch had me and was just about to off me y'know. Then X-man comes barreling down the road in his uncle's car and hits the demon dead on. We got away and hid back at my place. I'd been in this huge fight and hadn't got to kill anything. I was just about to pop and needed a way to unwind." She grinned. "It wasn't like I hadn't wanted to do it before though."
Max grinned back. She could see where this was heading now.
"So I threw him down on the bed and had my wicked way with him. It was pretty good too, for being his first time." Another grin. "And for a while everything was just right again." Her voice dropped to nothing more than a whisper at the end. "And then those fucking powers had to screw up my mind and I threw him out in his underwear." A tear rolled down her cheek.
Max moved to the bed and awkwardly placed her arm around Faith's shoulders, pulling the other girl to her. They sat together for some time before Faith pulled back and wiped her eyes.
"If you ever tell anyone 'bout this I'll have to kill you," she warned.
Max laughed. "Don't worry."
"Are you sure you're not attracted to him just because he's this save-the-world type?"
"No, he's not like that," Faith protested. "I mean, he doesn't even tell people of what he does. Later that night he stopped some zombies from blowing up the school when we were all fighting to close the Hellmouth." Oh shit, she then realized. "I bet the others doesn't even know it. I heard it from Willy the Snitch a few days later."
Max grinned. "Sounds like a good guy. I'm pretty sure he likes you too."
Faith's head turned around so quickly that Max was afraid the slayer would break her own neck. She couldn't hold back a laugh at the mixture of shock and hope she saw on the girl's face.
"He told you that?" Faith asked.
"Nah, didn't need to. It's pretty obvious."
A grin spread on Faith's face. "Like with you and Alec."
Max's jaw dropped. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Riiiight," Faith drawled. "You so want him, and he wants you."
"I don't want that womanizing bastard. He slept with just about every single woman in Seattle." Max growled.
Faith raised her eyebrows. "And that bothers you exactly why?"
Max's jaw worked a few times before it snapped shut and she looked down.
"Knew it," Faith grinned.
"Whatever. He doesn't want me anyway. He just wants blonde bimbos. I'm surprised he hasn't gone after Buffy yet."
"So he only ever slept with blondes?"
"Yeah."
"C'mon M, you can't be this blind?"
"What!?"
"Awww…. I'm pretty sure the girls would be beyond pissed if he started moaning your name in the middle of it," Faith grinned. "At least with blondes there's no way he can mistake the girl for you."
Max just stared blankly at Faith who burst out laughing.
"Oh God. The look on your face was totally priceless."
"Shut up!"
"Nu-huh, no way!" Faith grinned. "Tell you what. You leave me and Xan alone and I wont tell B and Red about this."
The hospital room dissolved around them and they found themselves floating in the air above the assembly area of a military base somewhere. Rows upon rows of soldiers stood attention, waiting for something to happen.
Xander immediately recognized the scene. It was one of the memories of the soldier, buried deep within his own mind after the Halloween incident. This was the Soldier's first day in the army. He could remember the feeling Soldier-guy had this first day. The pride to be a part of something greater, something with the purpose to protect. He remembered the easy comradeship between the soldiers in his unit and how they'd grown closer and closer over the years until they considered themselves to be a family. Soldier-guy had loved being in the army, despite the violence and the dark memories.
Alec had no idea exactly where they were but the scene was uncomfortably familiar to him. He turned to his left and saw Xander floating in the air a few meters beside him. The younger man reached out with his arm and pointed at one of the soldiers, standing beneath them.
Alec frowned as he watched the soldier. He knew for certain that he'd never laid his eyes on the man before but at the same time he got the feeling that he should recognize the green-clad soldier. He turned back to Xander and raised his eyebrows in question.
"He's me."
"Huh?"
Xander sighed. "I have his spirit inside me. At Halloween last year a chaos mage cast a spell that turned everyone into the costume they wore. I had his used fatigues."
Alec's eyes widened. "So did you get the memories and skills and everything?"
"Yeah," Xander sighed. "Wasn't as fun as one could imagine."
"Sounds neat. Combat experience, training and experience wrapped up in a nice package."
Xander shuddered visibly. "Could have done without some of the memories though."
"Nightmares?"
"You have no idea."
Alec's eyes darkened. "I'm pretty sure I do."
And the scene changed again.
They found themselves in the assembly area of a military base. Rows upon rows of soldiers stood attention, waiting for something to happen.
Xander frowned at the sudden change and quickly took in his surroundings, trying to figure out what had happened. Then he did a double take as he looked closer at the 'soldiers' below him.
They were kids.
Every single one of them.
He drew a sharp breath and looked around for Alec, finding the transgenic floating in the air a little behind him.
Alec forced his eyes away from the scene beneath him and met Xander's look with dead eyes.
"Welcome to my childhood."
"A-Ten-Shun!"
The loud yell from one of the black-clad men on the ground caused Xander to spin around mid-air and he watched as all the kids snapped to attention. Someone who Xander immediately recognized as an officer walked out from one of the buildings and walked slowly down the rows of kids, inspecting the troops.
Xander jerked as Alec suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder and pointed at one of the kids with his free arm.
"X5-494."
"X5-494?"
"My designation. What I was for the first 21 years of my life."
Xander frowned. "Why not just pick a name?"
Alec shook his head sadly. "A name implies that you're a person. A designation, that's how you label a tool or a weapon." He turned back to watch the scene below. "And that's all we ever were to them."
Xander could feel the anger and disgust build within him. He wanted to fly down there and beat the crap out of the guards and the officers. Suddenly one of the kids collapsed without any obvious reason, his small form curled up on the ground shaking more violently than anything Xander'd ever seen. Two of the guards quickly stepped up to the fallen kid and grabbed his ankles, dragging him away like a sack of potatoes. One of the kids turned slightly to watch and got the butt of a rifle in his forehead.
"Eyes front, soldier!"
The two watchers floated down closer to the kids, slowly gliding down the rows until they came to a stop behind X5-494. The barcode on his neck was clearly visible, standing out even against the tanned skin and above the collar of the t-shirt. The only thing Xander could feel from the young version of Alec was the overwhelming urge to not do anything wrong. To not do anything that could get him punished.
The Slayerette swallowed visibly before turning back to Alec. "Where did they take the kid with the seizures?"
Alec wasn't watching anymore, his unfocused eyes lost somewhere in a distant past. His voice was flat and hollow when he finally answered. "The X5 unit was defective," he quoted the voices in his memory. "It was dissected in order to determine the reason for the malfunction."
"How. How many?" Xander asked with barely restrained anger.
"About one fourth of us before the age of twelve. By then they'd sorted out the problem and the ones who still got the seizures were treated for them."
Xander shook himself to try to stop the shivers that were running through his body. "How old were… you?" he asked, gesturing to the scene in front of them.
Alec turned his head slowly, taking in the scene as if trying to recognize the event. Finally he just let out a small sigh and shook his head. "I have no idea. We didn't know when we were born or what year it was. A week was something you kept track of to know when the next change in training routines was due. When we grew older we started to secretly celebrate New Years Eve when we learned about it from the guards. We weren't really celebrating the arrival of a new year though. We celebrated that we'd survived the past one."
The scene shifted again before either of them could say anything more and they found themselves at a shooting range. The soldier part of Xander couldn't help but assessing the skills of the young X5s as they trained with weapons that were as large as they were. The accuracy of the transgenics was astounding, and when he witnessed the consequences of a missed shot it wasn't hard to understand why. The combination of the genetics and the inhuman training was nothing short of astounding.
Still, he thought as he watched the scene below, it wasn't something that ever should have happened.
The scenes continued to change as the 'day' passed by. From the tracking exercises in the woods to the 'lessons' in the 'class rooms.'
The room was filled with young soldiers, sitting at the desks with straight backs and arms bent at ninety degrees, palms placed on the cold surface of the desks.
Empty eyes were staring from expressionless faces at the words that flashed by on the big screen in front of them.
Duty.
Mission.
Discipline.
Loyalty.
Unit.
Manticore.
Duty.
Mission.
Discipline.
Loyalty.
Over and over again with unfaltering exactness the screen changed. Ten times. Twenty times. Fifty. A hundred. Then the words started to mix with pictures. Scenes of violence from wars so brutal that the news media hadn't been allowed to cover them. Pictures of burned and mutilated bodies. Pictures of weapons and explosives and the result the usage of them had on a human body.
Xander could feel his stomach revolt at the scene in front of him and hadn't he been incorporeal he was sure he'd thrown up.
One of the X5s tried to turn her head away from the horrific scenes on the screen but a guard was there within a split second and forced her head back with a nightstick on her cheek.
Alec found himself watching over a completely unfamiliar scene. The environment was nothing new, but the soldiers occupying it were. Even though he knew his situation was as different as night and day from a normal soldier's, his mind still needed a few seconds to grasp that there were grown up soldiers going through basic training down there.
He watched in silence, not that he had any choice, for a while and took in the various differences between what he knew from personal experience and what he saw. While the officers and drill sergeants were pretty rough and demanding he never saw any signs of physical punishment (aside from extra push-ups or more running). The soldiers weren't beaten up if they failed to perform or did any mistakes. The whole scene was almost surreal to the transgenic. Intellectually he *knew* that this was how it was supposed to be, but his subconscious screamed at him that it all was arranged to show him something that couldn't exist.
The scenes started to change and real missions in what looked like a full out war soon replaced the training. The jungles were nothing he hadn't seen before on missions of his own. The soldiers weren't as well trained or as skilled as he or his unit had been but they did their best with what they had. The man Xander had pointed out, the one he'd said was him, was the one the scenes focused on. The scenes shifted rapidly and he saw some really sick things being done by others and even more often saw the aftermath of actions Manticore would have been proud of. He saw 'Xander' be injured and then thrown back into the chaos the war was as soon as he had recovered enough to be let out of the military hospital.
All through the frighteningly real memories he watched and wondered what the fuck he was doing there and why he was seeing what he saw. The thought that foremost occupied his mind though was 'how could that be Xander'?
Magic was just impossible to understand.
Xander was stuck in a nightmare.
At least he wished it was one.
It had to be.
He was caught in a three-dimensional horror movie that made his soldier memories look like PG rated stuff in comparison. Soldiers that were nothing more than young kids with abilities he had problems to grasp were fighting wars that made the Vietnam War seem like a cakewalk.
That wasn't the worst though.
No, the worst was the deep-cover civilian missions.
Assassinations.
The horror on the faces of the nameless people who woke up with the emotionless face of a teenager staring at them from the other side of a gun. The complete lack of expression on said teenager's face as they pulled the trigger. He didn't want to watch but some morbid fascination made it impossible for him to turn away. Somehow he also knew it was important that he watched it through to the end.
The nightmare shifted quickly, playing out in a speed that was a lot faster than he should have been able to follow and yet he still caught every detail. Suddenly it all slowed down to what felt like normal speed and he knew he'd somehow reached a turning point in the life of X5-494.
It didn't take long for him to know what was different this time. For the first time ever the transgenic was treated like a human, like an equal. And for the first time ever he felt love.
Xander watched with a heavy heart how the scenes played out, how the two grew closer and closer as time passed by. He desperately wanted to intervene, to change what he was seeing, because he knew deep down that it could never end well.
494, who was posing as Simon Lehane, a piano teacher, fell in love with his pupil Rachel. For the first time Xander actually felt something from the transgenic, the cold and detached façade crackled and crumbled thanks to a power greater than the fear Manticore used to control him.
Love.
*flash*
"You understand your assignment?"
"Yes, sir. It's just..."
"It's just what, 494?"
"Sir, I can eliminate Berrisford without involving the daughter. It just seems to me the collateral damage is an unnecessary—"
"You're not in charge of this mission, 494. Your job, and your only thought, is to follow our orders."
"Yes, sir."
"Are you capable of doing that?"
Below him Alec hesitated for a few seconds before he answered. "Yes, sir."
"Because if for some reason we lost confidence in you...we'd have no need for you."
"No, sir."
"So we're clear, then?"
"Crystal, sir."
The scenes flashed by faster and faster and no matter how much he wanted Xander could do nothing but watch.
*flash*
494 plants the bomb under the car and looks down at the remote detonator in his hands as he walks away from the car.
*flash*
494 sneaks into the house and runs up the stairs.
*flash*
"Simon, what are you doing?"
"We don't have a lot of time."
"What's the matter?"
"Listen to me. You and your father need to leave town right now."
"Why?"
494 grabs her shoulders. "I'll cover for you. I'll tell 'em that you left in the middle of the night. But you have got to go now."
"You're hurting me!"
"Come with me."
"No! Tell me what's happening."
"Okay. I was sent here to kill your father."
"It was my job. You were my job."
Rachel slaps Alec and starts running down the stairs as her father calls out for her.
"Rachel!"
Alec follows her down the stairs, trying desperately to stop her. Just as he reaches the driveway Berrisford's car explode into flame.
"Rachel!"
A SUV pulls into the driveway. Inside, a Manticore man is holding a bomb remote and looks angry.
"Get in." Alec doesn't move. "Let's go!"
Two men gets out of the SUV and drag Alec into it.
*flash*
Scenes of Alec being tortured back at Manticore succeed each other and after a while blurs together.
*flash*
Xander watches a completely detached 494 sitting on his bunk in a cell. His memory has been pretty much wiped and he's not caring about anything anymore. Somehow Xander still gets the feeling that deep down in the transgenic the fire still burns.
The scene started to fade away and Xander could vaguely hear someone calling his name. He tried to hang on to the dream; desperate to know what would happen and how Alec came to be the person he was today.
Alec woke up with a start, drawing in a deep breath when the nurse shook his shoulder.
"You've given enough now," she said quietly.
Alec opened his mouth to protest but she silenced him with a gesture. "He'll be fine now, don't worry." She gave him a tight smile as she removed the needles from his and Xander's arm.
Buffy and Willow were eying him carefully, their gazes darting between him and Xander as if they couldn't decide whom to watch.
Alec flashed them his trademark grin. "He's fine," he assured them. "He'll wake up soon."
As if he'd been waiting for the words Xander started to stir and his eyes snapped open, only to close again right away when the bright light blinded him.
"Oww, lights!" he groaned.
"Xander! Are you all right? How do you feel? Does it hurt? Is there anything I can do?"
"Wounded person here Wills. Slow down."
Buffy grabbed his hand and squeezed it lightly. "Thank God you're ok Xan. We were so worried."
Xander gave them a warm smile. "Don't worry Buffster. It takes more than a vamp to take down your Xander-shaped friend. This should teach me to keep an eye on the surroundings and not only on the hot girls though."
Willow slapped him upside the head. "This is nothing to joke about Xander. You could have died!"
"Hey! As long as you can joke about it it'll be all right."
Xander turned to Alec and gave him a small, thankful nod. "Is that how it usually is?"
Alec shook his head slowly. "No, I've never experienced anything like that before."
Xander sighed deeply and took a quick look around to make sure the nurse wasn't in the room anymore. "Figures the Hellmouth would screw things around. Guess that's why I can suddenly remember everything Soldier-boy knew."
Alec raised his eyebrows. "Well, that should come in handy."
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