The first thought that struck Xander was the fact that he didn't feel any different. He always thought that if he ever became a vampire (a recurring nightmare he had ever since he'd learnt of their existence and when he'd had to stake Jesse) that he would be able to feel it. When he ran his hands over his chest he felt no activity, no vibrations from the heart, lungs or organs of any kind, and it was then that he realised that he wasn't drawing breath any more. He still had a soul, though, and one that made him suddenly think of the girl with red hair he had seen a few moments before and he realised he had to find her to see if it was Willow, a familiar face to help make sense of all the madness and mixed emotions he was now feeling.
Dashing around the corner he found a sight he wasn't expecting. Willow had her face buried in the young brunette's neck just as pints of blood were seeping out of it at an alarming rate.
"W-Willow?" he cried out as the sight of her feasting sickened him to his stomach.
"Xander?" she looked up with her full vamp face on, flashing a bloody grin when she saw him, familiarity and happiness evident through the mask she seemed to be wearing. "Want some?"
"No I, uh, just ate," he told her, thinking on his feet and words falling out of his mouth awkwardly. "Football player. You know how those fill me up. Because, as you know, I can't get enough of the blood, so tasty and not at all like ketchup."
Xander realised then that it wasn't just the blood and the poor dying victim that made him feel ill. He was more sickened by the sight of her once beautiful face twisted and deformed into a mass of wrinkles and bumps. Briefly he wondered if that's what she would look like in old age - not a pretty sight - and if that's what it does to her, then what would being a vampire do to someone like his grandpa? Every feature of his face would probably be wiped out whenever he fed.
"You feeling okay?" Willow said. "Sure you don't want?" she asked, holding out the limp victim like she were offering candy. "She's not dead yet, makes it more tingly and fresh. I don't like it when they die, loses the tang, kinda like flat coke."
"No, I'm good," he replied, appearing slightly flustered. "Just banged my head chasing some young virgin."
"Poor baby, I'll kiss it better for you," Willow purred, striding over and planting a kiss on his lips.
Xander felt many emotions but the passion of the kiss didn't register with him. Willow's lips were cold and numb, reminding him of the times in his early years when he used to practise kissing on his hand. He could feel the death in her. She moved her arms around his waist and lower, slipping one hand down the side of his trousers, making him lose what little concentration he had around her.
"Sh-shall we go somewhere else?" he asked, removing her hand, not wanting to continue at the present time when his head was swimming with so many thoughts.
"My boy's shy all of a sudden," Willow said with a smile, bringing her cold hand up to his face and trailing her fingers down his cheek in a way that made him shiver. "Okay, let's get into the mood first," she smiled, taking his hand and leading him through the streets towards The Bronze.
The Bronze was swarming with vampires fighting, drinking and making out with each other. Not much has changed here, he thought, apart from the fact that the patrons are now the undead and they had the living chained up like animals. The club was filled with screams, something the vampires seemed to thrive on judging the excitement and blood-lust on their faces, coming from every corner of the club. The cries filled the air, the victims begging for mercy or for death, for an end to the pain and torture and agony.
To say that Xander felt nervous walking through the various creatures of the night was an understatement, even with the reassurance he was giving himself that he had nothing to fear at the present time as he was now one of them. As they strode through it was clear to him that their incarnations really owned the place. Willow seemed to be really at home here - quite popular, actually, meeting and greeting people, commanding their respect from her very presence, which left him feeling a little proud of her, even if this Willow was a vampire. He had always thought that she deserved better from the people in their supernatural little town, at least now she was getting that. What surprised him more was the fact that they seemed equally pleased to see him, too. They were also afraid of him. He could feel it radiating from them, something his vampiric nature could detect easily. He liked that feeling.
"Willow, Xander, hey," a distinctly familiar male voice cried out from a sofa a few feet away from them. "Xander, mate, over here!"
Xander turned around to see the smiling faces of Spike and Drusilla clearly enjoying themselves.
"Looks like your number one fan's back again," Willow snorted.
Spike, beer bottle in hand, dropped a plate of chicken wings onto a nearby table, leapt up and walked over towards them. "Xander, thought I'd missed you, been waiting in here for a bleeding hour and a half. Me and Dru are going for a Chinese later, boatload of tourists from Hong Kong are expected around midnight, you up for it?" he asked.
Xander had never seen Spike look so happy, and it definitely unnerved him. He still remembered Spike's last visit to Sunnydale when he had kidnapped Willow and him, wanting to force her into casting a love spell over Drusilla to heal their split. Remembering the events made the anger swell up inside him. Spike and Drusilla seemed to be still together wherever he seemed to be now, which surprised him a little, but he had the urge to land a fist on the blonde vampire's grinning visage.
"I don't think so, Spike," Xander replied sarcastically. "Now run along and play elsewhere else will you? Preferably somewhere hot or pointy!" he said, grabbing Willow's hand with force and walking away.
"Oh, I get it! That's a good one, mate, zinging the Brit!" Spike cried out excitedly. "I like it! You got me good! Top bloke, that. Top bloke. Gotta love that guy," he said to anyone that could hear him while Drusilla seemed annoyed at her partner straying from their seat.
"So glad you finally got rid of him," Willow said. "Always said he should be staked. I mean, what kind of loser would want to stick around here for two years?"
Spike's been here for two years! Xander thought to himself. Then, as the rusty cogs of his brain began to turn, he realised,if Spike never left Sunnydale, then this must be an alternate reality, one where he and Willow were vampires and there was obviously no Buffy around. He had guessed on an alternate reality when he first arrived. It was either another dimension, some kind of scary future, or even a dream. When he looked closer at Willow's outfit – not that he could stop looking at it - he recognised the leather clad ensemble from the time her vampire doppelganger had turned up a few months ago, and somehow he figured he was in her world now.
"Hey, wicked Willow!" a girl shouted out from the other side of the room. She was a tall black brunette wearing a figure-hugging maroon dress and Willow seemed to know her.
"Deadly Deena, sexy as ever," smiled Willow walking over towards Deena, putting her arms around her waist and giving her a deep kiss.
Xander wasn't sure where to put his eyes. Does becoming a vampire make you gay now? He asked himself. It would certainly explain a few things – all the leather, for example. It took all of his willpower not to stare at the two girls making out, especially when one of them was his best friend since forever, but one tiny glimpse seemed to eradicate all memories of a childhood Willow from his brain momentarily.
He tore his eyes away, looking in another direction and hoping to see someone else he could talk to, at least for the time being. Searching the crowd he caught a faint glimpse of a man over by one of the pool tables, Jesse. Xander rubbed his eyes in disbelief but upon his second look the man had vanished. Willow and her friend seemed to be getting more intimate by the minute, so he decided that now would be a good time to do a looking around. He walked away in the opposite direction and saw the last person he expected, Nancy the missing student, sitting by the bar.
"Nancy, is that you?" he asked, walking up to her.
"Xandie, hey, come to buy me a drink?" she asked, seeming to recognise him instantly.
"No, I…" he began, looking for a logical way to voice his question. Eventually, he realised that now was hardly the time for tact. "Hey, this may sound funny, but did you arrive here a couple days through some kind of slime black hole thing?"
"Yeah," she said, surprised. "Hey, how did you know about that?"
"Same thing happened to me," he mumbled, sounding somehow embarrassed.
"All I remember is being in my dorm room when this really gooey creature thing crashes through and, like, starts chasing me round the place," she explained with excited hand gestures. "If the warden found out I would've been in, like, sooo much trouble. I ran and hid in the kitchen, slime all over me, which was just ick. My best pair of pumps, too. It took me into some dark room and I just prayed and prayed that I could just disappear, and I just…did. I woke up here and…you know?" she said with a coy smile and fluttering eyelashes to jog his memory.
"What?" he asked, confused.
"Remember, I saw you that night?" she asked. "You, y'know, siphoned me," she told him, her low voice full of innuendo.
"Do you mean sired you? I sired you? Me?" Xander stuttered. "And you're a vampire?"
"Yeah, you," Nancy said slowly moving her hand down Xander's chest. "And my offer that night is still good if you wanna cash it…"
"Hey!" a snarl came from behind them. Willow was standing there and glaring with her full vampire face on.
"W-Willow? I was, was just…" Xander stuttered.
"Boss wants to see us, now!" growled Willow, taking his hand and leading him away.
She turned back once, Xander noticed, to give Nancy one more glare, one that left him in absolutely no doubt that this Willow was definitely different to his Willow. He watched as the other girl shrunk away, obviously more than a little afraid of the redhead.
"Y'know, back there, we were just talking," he tried to explain. "It was nothing, really."
"Baby, why would you want her when you can have me all to yourself?" Willow purred. "Especially when any night now she could meet with an accident…"
"Well, w-what about Deena?" he asked. "I don't think I like you two kissing like that," Xander said, trying in vain to stand up to her, even though he worried that his fear was showing through. He knew his vampire persona wouldn't take stand for anything and that was the person he had to be now, even if it was only for survivals sake. Then he realised…this was his chance to be the person he had always wanted to be – minus the vampire part – and in this world there'd be disappointment from his friends to deal with, no recriminations, no regret, and the thought of it certainly appealed to him.
"I thought you liked that," Willow said, cutting through his thoughts. "Deena's going to join us later too for fun-time," she told him, a grin that spoke volumes on her face as her hand traced his chest through the tank top he was wearing.
He grinned back at her. "That's alright, then, as long as—"
"Willow! Xander! Hurry along!" A fearsome voice rang throughout the club.
Xander had the shock of his life when he saw an elderly, gruesome vampire snarling out of a back room. A vampire that looked suspiciously like the Master.
"Goody, school time!" Willow said excitedly.
Xander shuddered as Willow led him into a room that reminded him of his time at Sunnydale High. Not that he wanted to be reminded of it at all. Maybe it was the five rows of desks that were laid out in front of the blackboard that did it. Or maybe it was the fact that some of other students were the exact same people he had gone to school with, and the teacher at the front of the freaky version of the classroom was Mr Moody, his old science teacher.
Mr Moody stood beside the Master, looking thin, pale and ill, wearing a plaid jumper and round spectacles, holding some chalk and a pointer in his hand in front of a bunch of disorganised assembled students, the ones Xander didn't know ranging from the young to the old. Xander felt a sliver of sympathy in his gut for the man, but not enough to warrant anything more lingering and substantial, which worried him.
The blackboard in front of the class caught Xander's attention from his musings about his new vampire state, the lesson topics certainly not the same as he remembered from his old teachers classes. Instead of the scientific terms the Willow in his world loved to learn and memorise, it was headed with subjects such as 'Enemies', 'Killing', 'Hunting' and 'Turning'.
It was about then that Xander noticed himself and Willow labelled up to give the hunting lecture.
"Fresh meat, boss?" noted Willow.
"An immature rabble, ripe for slaughter by the White-hats, unless we can drum some sense and instinct into them! They already have the hunger and the bloodlust now they need to be able to control it and use it properly!" snarled The Master.
"So this is like Vampire High?" Xander asked.
"If you must call it that then I suppose, yes," the Master snapped. "Why are you questioning me? It was your idea, was it not, Xander?" he replied.
"My modest baby must've hit his head hard," Willow cooed seductively in Xander's ear, her hand trailing up his arm to absently twirl some of his hair around her fingers. "Drummed all the memory out."
"If it brings more ideas like this one then I'll be glad to pound it into the earth until daybreak," the Master smiled, a hideous and disturbing sight to someone who had been fully human only a few hours ago. "Our numbers are swelling and a much smaller percentage have been taken from us since classes began for the fledglings, and I owe it all to Xander's cunningly evil mind."
Xander felt quite proud of himself – well, his vampire self at least. But then, he figured they were the same person, minus a soul and plus a little bloodlust. At least one version of him was doing well. The undead always seem to get the breaks in Sunnydale, he thought, thinking briefly of Angel's relationship with Buffy before turning his attention, like Willow and The Master, to the lesson.
At the minute Moody was lecturing, very unsteadily, on the enemies they should look out for. Three pictures were pinned up onto the blackboard portraying Giles and Oz in various obscure poses, obviously taken via some kind of surveillance cameras.
"…These two White-hats are the most dangerous of the resistance forces we have encountered so we…" Moody trailed off with a stutter as he noticed one of the students had a hand in the air. "Yes…whoever you are…?"
"Kevin," replied the vampire. Kevin was well built with blonde hair and dark eyes, wearing a Sunnydale Razors jacket and fidgeting in his seat so much it made Xander want to get up and slap him.
"Yes, Kevin?" replied Moody.
Xander turned to the Master to gauge his reaction, and he saw the older vampire begin to silently seethe with rage at the thought of someone questioning his teachings, albeit through Mr Moody.
"Yeah," Kevin continued. "Why didn't we just kill these guys when we took their photos? If we got that close to them, why didn't we capture them then?" he asked.
"Dude's got a point," piped up his neighbour, a slim vampire dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans. "They can't be that tough, and why white hats? That's like totally pointing them out to us."
"W-well you see it's v-very simple," stuttered Moody.
"Do not question your teachings, young one!" roared The Master. "I am willing to overlook impertinence if something useful is brought to the proceedings, but this foolish chit-chat doesn't interest me. The White-hats are our enemies and all that you need to know is to be wary of them! Although at this moment in time I'm willing to hand you both over to them tied together with your own intestines! Now don't interrupt classes again!"
Both Kevin and his neighbour went strangely quiet which to Xander indicated more of a teenage strop than through actual fear that The Master would carry out his promise. Newly vamped, they probably felt stronger, and it was obvious that they didn't like having to answer to someone else.
"He's totally mad that we're gonna kill them and he hasn't," whispered the neighbour. "He's probably scared of us."
"I bet we could take him," Kevin laughed in a hushed tone. "Just look at him, ugly old guy, bet he has to put a false set of fangs in before he feeds off anyone".
"Yeah, we could totally get medieval on his medieval ass," laughed his companion.
Both felt their seats yanked backwards and they found themselves looking up at a smiling Willow.
"Tch tch, naughty boys," she taunted in a sing-song voice. "You bad-mouth the boss and it'll go on your permanent records."
At the back of the room, close to where the boys were sitting, piles of old bar stools were stacked up. Willow let the chairs drop to the floor, grabbed one of the idle stools and broke off two of its legs, throwing one to Xander in the process. To his amazement he caught it perfectly, and he found himself at her side in next to no time, standing next to the two young vampires with a thrill running through him like a bolt of lightning.
Willow took her weapon and swiftly thrust it through Kevin's heart and waited for Xander to do the same. It didn't take him long to dispatch the second vampire in a similarly quick way, and the embrace he received from Willow in reward was enough to keep the thrill going.
"Class dismissed!" Willow said with an evil glare that warned the rest of the assembled fledgling nightcrawlers.
"Loyalty!" boomed The Master. "Such loyalty within my ranks is necessity rather than choice if you wish to survive here. I do not make a habit of killing my underlings so early in their afterlives, but it helps to keep a healthy amount of fear buzzing through the air. Look to Xander and Willow for your inspiration, my children, and you shall not put a foot wrong."
A silence swept throughout the class while they took in The Master's words and his two henchmen returned to his side.
"Well done, you have pleased me," he growled to them once Moody had begun the lesson again.
"Pleased enough to let me have time with puppy?" asked Willow, her face lighting up.
"Very well," the Mater snarled, handing Willow a key from his pocket. "Your lecture is in ten minutes, don't be late!"
Willow grabbed Xander's hand before he knew what was happening, grinning as she pulled him from the room with a look of pure delight on her face.
Willow ran through the Restfield Cemetery clutching her large canvas bag tightly. Normally, she had no troubles with the queue in the Magic Box (because there never was one), but so many people were rushing around buying supplies. The full moon brought them all out: Wicca's, hippies, white witches, devil worshippers… All of them gathering ingredients to make any number of spells that could do anything from give a love rival large boils to creating Armageddon. Willow really hoped that the end of the world would hold off just long enough for her to bring Xander back to health.
Reaching the demolished mausoleum where she had left him, her eyes quickly scanned the grounds of the cemetery for her friend. Finding nothing filled her with a huge sense of worry and regret. Was this the right place? She asked herself.It had to be. All the holes were in the right places and Sassprokasa's remains, while still melting into the ground, were recognisable enough. Even in Sunnydale, it was highly unlikely that another mausoleum had been wrecked in the same cemetery by a similar demon to the one they'd fought just a little while ago. Checking the bushes and surrounding area, she found no signs of Xander or any hints that he may have been dragged away or even killed, which she wasn't sure was good or bad in the current situation. Considering the options offered in their supernatural world, Willow felt a knot forming in the pit of her stomach as she prepared herself for the possibility that he may not be coming back.
Xander was being led by his evil lover down a series of stairs underneath The Bronze and finally along a row of jail cells. Have these always been here? He wondered to himself. Perhaps the original architect had a flash of inspiration after watching 'Frankenstein' one night. His greater worry, though, was about the puppy. Obviously, he wasn't expecting to find a cute little Dalmatian taking up cell space, so the chances were it had to be something far nastier and meaner when the owners were vampires. Perhaps it was some kind of five-headed demon dog that was keeping guard over a portal of some kind.
The last thing he expected to see amongst the dirt and chains was Angel, and not just because he had disappeared to Los Angeles on Graduation Day.
The usually well-built vampire looked much paler and thinner than normal, but there was a certain rush that passed through Xander when the souled vampire cringed as they entered his quarters. Manacles tied his hands together and further chains bound his feet to the wall.
Xander looked on as Willow proceeded to torture him with the excitement of a child let loose in a candy store, not knowing what to think or, indeed, feel. First she lit a match, burning pieces of his skin, throwing them at him from behind the bars. Opening the cell door she marched in and Angel scurried away into the back.
"Go away! Leave me alone!" he said nervously. "Tell The Master I'll-I'll do anything for him."
"No fair," Willow pouted, advancing on the crouching vampire. "Where's the fun in negotiations? Give and take, give and take…I prefer just to lay my offer out," she told him, drawing her arm back quickly and launching her fist into his jaw. "This is more of a hostile takeover though," she smiled.
When Angel yelled out in pain, spun over to the side and lay flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling, she stood over him, a leather boot on either side of his chest, a wicked glint in her eye as she lowered herself to sit on his stomach. She smirked to herself as she rested her hands briefly on his chest, her fingertips grazing the material of the already-ragged shirt, before she violently ripped it open. Then, as if from nowhere, she produced a dangerous-looking pair of pliers that she had collected earlier from the shelf of torture implements that sat on the wall outside of the cell. There was a look of glee on her face as she attached the pliers slowly to one of Angel's exposed nipples, and began to rip.
Xander's first instinct was to pull Willow off of him. Angel had never been his favourite person, but he was always glad to see his brooding face whenever there was trouble. Rushing over, he accidentally trod on Angel's hand, a thrilling sensation running through him as he felt the bones crunch beneath his boot. He watched the trapped vampires face contort into agony as Willow quickly picked up a crucifix with a flowing piece of material from her outfit, and threw it onto Angel's scarred skin, enjoying the scent of burning skin in his nostrils.
It was then that he realised his foot was still on the prisoners hand, and just for a second his first thought was to quickly relieve the pain by moving away. But, this vampire Xander loved the grunts of pain coming from Angel, and he pressed his heel down, hard, into his hand again, grinding it against the already-broken bones. He continued, on and on, until a familiar feeling began in his stomach.
Guilt. Guilt that he was enjoying putting someone through this pain and torture, but in this dimension, he wasn't the same person. No one expected him to be the good and gracious Xander in this world; he could wipe the slate clean and start anew. He was also happy to comply with this image when the memories of Angelus came to mind, when he thought of how many times they had clashed back in his reality and he had come off the loser of the two. He realised that winning Buffy's heart was probably the root of it although he was loath to admit it in this situation.
As Willow carried on with her own brand of torture and maiming, Xander noticed a large silver crucifix lying on the floor next to them and picked it up via an attached chain. Must be another of Willow's toys, he thought as he matched it up to some of Angel's wounds. An idea had formed in his head and it would prove to be his most diabolical yet.
Willow frantically looked around the cemetery for any sign that Xander might still be alive, but still found nothing. It was like he had just vanished into thin air or had been devoured by something that left no trace of the body, no bones, skin or residue, and, unfortunately, she knew plenty of demons just like that. There was residue, though, she noticed, next to the putrid jelly that was once Sassprokasa. A thin layer of slime seemed to be forming some sort of pattern.
Taking a few steps back, Willow realised that it was Xander's outline. She recognised the position as the one he was lying in when she left, and there seemed to be small billows of steam rising from it. The scene reminded her of 'Back to the Future', when the time travelling Delorean had taken off and left a spinning license plate and two flaming tyre tracks in its wake, a film that she now balked at the memory of.
She thought of the first time she saw it, when she was only ten years old, at Xander's house one summer night. They were both curled up on the sofa in his basement watching the movie, sharing a large tub of popcorn and their own theories on time travel. On the ride to school the next morning they both tried to goad Xander's dad into speeding up so they could hopefully get taken back in time. Happy to indulge them, Mr. Harris did just that and ended up with a speeding ticket and $50 fine for his trouble. Years later, they laughed about it, but now it just struck Willow with a lump in her throat. Back then it seemed so naïve to believe in all of that, but nowadays they could come up against that at any time, as well as any number of demons or monsters. Now she had to work out where Xander had vanished to with not even a spinning shoe to suggest he survived.
Bending to examine the slime further, she confirmed that it came from Sassprokasa and took out a small book from her bag that was packed with notes she had made on the demon in case they got into a sticky spot. Reading through it quickly, she remembered that Sassprokasa's bodily fluid contained magical properties that reacted to the thoughts and feelings of whatever it was covering. For the most times it wouldn't work in such a strong way, except on organic life forms such as humans or vampires. Realising the state Xander was in when she left and what must have happened to him, without a second thought Willow began scraping it together and smearing it on her shoes in an effort to replicate the scene, praying it would work on her too.
She couldn't bear the thought of her sweet, innocent Xander lying in some hell dimension being tortured by monsters.
Holding the crucifix up to the light, Xander took the piece of chewing gum from his mouth that he had been readying since the idea had come to him and fixed it to the axis as firmly as he could without burning his fingers. His task completed, he began to swing the cross tauntingly in front of Angel, a smirk on his face that he was sure he never had back in his usual dimension.
"What happened to you, Angel?" he asked in disgust. "The big man. The big bad. I've read up on you. I know all about you. What you've done. Even some stuff that you don't know about yet," he told him.
"Going to tell my future, are you?" Angel replied with a growl. "Does it involve both of your heads on sticks?"
"Angelus," Xander continued without dropping a beat, "evil villain that he was got himself a soul – not that it matters, of course. Just made him emotionally weaker, made him a freak among our kind, not better in any way."
"Yeah, I have a soul now and I'm more of a man than you'll ever be," Angel snarled back at him. "I can take the pain. If you had to…if you had a soul, you'd be dust within the hour."
"Bad puppy!" Willow shouted, launching another punch to Angel's face.
"Heads up, Will!" Xander replied with a malicious grin, still swinging the crucifix from its chain.
"That's a big one," Willow replied, her eyes wide with excitement as she moved away from Angel.
"Wait until you see how I use it," Xander said slowly but smoothly. He swung his new toy around with ease, throwing it with sharp precision onto Angel's bare chest. The vampire began to scream louder than he had ever heard before as the gum held it firmly onto his torso.
Willow's eyes lit up. "Ooh, that's a new move," she said. "I like!"
"Bigger really is better," Xander grinned as the smell of burning flesh filled the air.
"Last's longer, too. I could watch this all day. Takes all the fun out it, though," Willow added with a grin, turning around and licking Xander's ear slowly. "My clever baby's making me horny and now my hand's are free to do other things."
Xander wasn't listening, though, as he stood watching Angel writhe in agony, feeling a mixture of delight and sorrow. Angel was never his best friend, but to see him in so much pain was weird and it scared him that he found it so pleasing.
The Willow from his world would be so ashamed of him right now, not to mention what Buffy would think of what he was doing to the person she loved, and the thoughts of them distressed him more than anything did.
Leaving Willow's side, he gave a hefty kick to the crucifix and sent it spinning into the corner of the room, as Angel took his chance for a reprieve and scurried to the back of the cell, away from Xander and Willow, with a look of both relief and fear.
"Hey, I was enjoying the show!" Willow cried with a pout.
"Well, it's…" he began shakily, "as you said, takes all the fun out of it." He turned to look at her fully, his eyes travelling up and down her body. "I wouldn't want you get bored," he told her. "We have the rest of forever. He's not going anywhere." Turning to gesture to his victim, he saw Angel lurch towards him with a sudden burst of strength. Taken aback, Xander found himself pinned against the cage bars as Angel began to attack.
"Ready for a real fight, boy?" Angel growled, punching Xander in the stomach and slamming his face against the bars.
"Bad puppy!" shouted Willow. "Attacking your masters!"
She threw a high kick into his cheek allowing Xander enough time to scurry out of his way. He watched Willow beat Angel back and it occurred to him how bizarre the whole scene was. His timid redheaded friend besting one of the most fearsome vampires of all time. Willow grabbed a small crucifix and buried it into Angel's face.
"Willow, that's enough!" Xander cried out.
"If you don't punish them they'll never learn," she purred. "Don't you wanna piece of this? Bad boy tried to hurt my baby!"
"I mean we have to be back up in a few minutes," Xander replied quickly. "Can't keep the big man waiting."
Willow relented, got up, leaving the unconscious Angel on the ground and moved towards him, taking his cold hand in her even colder one. "We still have a few minutes, though, and torturing always makes me so horny…" she said, leading him away with a bemused expression on his face.
Willow gazed up at the night sky with all its pretty twinkling stars and thought of Xander. She wondered where he was, what dimension, time zone or even alternate reality might now house his soul. Taking slime from the remains of Sassprokasa and from the imprint left by Xander, she had covered herself from head to foot in an effort to make sure the same mojo that took him away would do the same from her. To further guarantee it, she was lying in the exact same position that he had been. The sickly smell and putrid feel of the slime made her more than a little queasy, but she tried to keep her last meal down long enough for the magic to work. She knew that she had to think very carefully about what she wished for in order to find her friend. If she thought the same things he did - bearing in mind that she wasn't entirely sure what those were due to the fragile state of mind she left him in - then she could end up the in the same place but not necessarily with him. If she concentrated on him too hard then she might actually become him, perhaps even eradicating his soul completely in the process.
She tried to fuse them all together, reliving both his frustrations and her love for him, trying to concentrate on his soul and mystical energy as a source to hone in on. Practising magic with Giles and pursuing her own interests in Wicca had left her well-prepared for events such as these, and she found it easy to empty her mind completely and devote extreme focus to what she wanted to achieve. She felt calm, at peace with the entire world, as the sea of slime washed over her and did its work. Not even a finger flinched as she prepared for the unknown world she was about to be propelled into.
As Xander was led along another gothic-looking passageway, a number of thoughts and feelings rattled through his mind. He had enjoyed torturing Angel, and he vaguely remembered similar thoughts running through his head when the vampire had reverted back to his alter ego a few years previously. But that was nothing compared to this. Those thoughts were nothing like the ones he was experiencing now. This was a completely different level of darkness that no one could imagine, couldn't picture for a moment unless they were experiencing it first-hand.
The hunger had started, too. The craving for blood and murder was getting stronger, and while he felt like he couldn't fight it for much longer, what scared him more was not knowing whether or not he wanted to. The only conclusion that he could come to was that his soul must be slowly slipping away from him as he started to become the monster on the inside that he was on the outside. It was, after all, what he had wished for, but he had failed to take into account the consequences of it in his brief moment of madness.
Willow led him into another room, another dark and empty underground place where they were totally alone. She didn't bother to close the door, not that he was entirely sure there was one in the dim lighting, and he got the feeling that this was a regular occurrence for his vampire alter ego and this vampire Willow, but Xander still wasn't quite sure what to expect, despite her earlier words.
When she stopped and turned to him, her face was full of wanting, and there was no mistaking her intentions. She lowered her eyes coquettishly, a parody of his childhood friend, he thought, compared to her soulless nature, and she slowly wrapped her arms around his waist, drawing their bodies closer. She leaned into him, her face nuzzling his neck, and he briefly wondered how it happened, how he had become a vampire. Who turned him? Did she sire him? Or was it the other way around? He knew that it had to have happened one way or another, because sometimes, when he was undead in his nightmares, his first thought was always of her, subconsciously or knowingly. And their intimacy now…it was like they had never known anyone or anything else other than each other.
He felt her chilled lips on the skin at the base of his neck, hard from the lack of blood running through them but familiar, as she placed the lightest of kisses there. He couldn't help the unneeded breath that escaped him. He supposed it was just habit as he let out an almost inaudible moan that seemed to float in the air between them as her lips moved over his neck, her tongue leaving a trail in its wake. Initially, he had felt awkward, but he quickly relented. This may not be his Willow, but she was still Willow, after all, and he felt his unfulfilled passions filling his actions as he felt his arms moving around her of their own accord.
Her mouth reached his lips and they both became lost in the moment. So lost in fact that that he didn't bat an eyelid when she started to briefly glow green. The kiss had begun slowly, tantalizing him, taunting him with what he could never have in his world, even if the creature in front of him didn't know it. Her lips captured his and he knew he wasn't going to deny himself this. She coaxed him, opening her mouth over his, encouraging him to do the same. When he complied, he felt her tongue delve into his mouth quickly, fast and experienced and completely overwhelming.
But still, Xander couldn't help but feel that he was kissing a robot. It seemed like something cold and passionless, and he tried not to think about the fact he was technically kissing a corpse, all of those necrophilia jokes he had made about Buffy coming back to slap him in the face.
But then there was a change, a shift that took place, and there was the heat and the passion he remembered that began to seep into the embrace. Her lips became softer and more pliant, more and more fiery, blood seemed to flow through her veins once more and she became more alive, and this was what he lost himself to as he held her tightly.
The first thing Willow felt as she re-emerged was his kiss. She recognised his smell, his touch and his passion instantly and allowed herself to remain in the moment despite her disorientation.
"Xander!" she whispered excitedly, eventually freeing her lips from his, stepping back and looking into his eyes. "Xander, you're okay! You're alive!"
"So are you…" he replied, pulling her back to him and into another kiss.