Title: Legends No Longer

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Up to Gift in Buffy.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: Do not own Buffy. I would buy her and Tara but I am broke.

Summary: AU. In a Post-Apocalyptic world where Demons control half of the Americas, two warriors with a legendary past they would rather forget but never can get an opportunity to fix things from the beginning.

" " denotes speech, ' ' denotes thought * * denotes Song Lyrics.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ladies and Gentlemen. There is no cause for alarm." Luke began as the spotlight came up lighting his demonic visage. "Well, actually there is cause for alarm, it just won't do any good."

"I'd rethink that if I were you." Buffy said, strolling into a lit area away from Luke.

"And why is that?" Luke asked, sneering at the little girl.

"Look down." Buffy said casually.

Luke looked down and saw an arrow appear in his chest, piercing his heart.

"Crap." He said as he turned into dust.

"Ready?" Buffy seemingly asked the air, as she drew the short sword and a Beretta.

"Always, but we should take care of the Type 1's first." Xander said, indicating to the vampires as he emerged from his shooting position under the stairs with the Katana in one hand and a large knife in the other.

"Fine, but you owe me a back rub." Buffy pouted.

The worked well as a team, working their way through the vampires that tried to swarm them. Several were temporarily taken out of action by Buffy's shots to their knees and shoulders. A blonde, female vampire, that Buffy vaguely remembered was called Darla, managed to get Buffy's sword away from her, knocked across the room, and she had no room to draw another weapon.

"Buff." Xander called, hurling the Katana, then drawing a stake.

Buffy caught the flying Katana in a spin, which she used to holster her Beretta and use as windup for the decapitating swing that ended the life of the four hundred year old offending vampire. By this time, Giles and the rest had gotten all the civilians and non-combatants out and were closing in with crosses, stakes and Holly Water on the vampires that Buffy and Xander were effectively corralling. The vampires were quickly and mercilessly killed by the surrounding warriors, decimating the vampire population that would take months to recover.

"Well, that was bracing." Xander said calmly.

"Bracing? That was fucking scary." Jesse said, his hands shaking slightly.

"That was a warm up." Buffy said trying to give the Katana back to Xander.

"Keep it. You were always better with that thing than I was, even with the shoulder." Xander replied.

"Yeah, well you don't do too badly for a guy with one leg." Buffy shot back with a grin.

Xander grinned with her for a second, but then his expression fell.

"At least we survived 'Blood Rain'" he said quietly.

Buffy and Xander closed their eyes and lowered their heads.

"Giles, what are the.?" Willow began before being cut off.

"Slush Willow." Giles whispered. "They are remembering the dead."

Giles had seen that posture before, sometimes among those he had run with during his Ripper days, but more often in the bars of London when the Army or SAS soldiers would bar hop to commemorate the fallen. The irony was that all the dead that Buffy and Xander were remember were alive, some of whom were not even teenagers yet.

********

Block. Spin kick. Dodge. Xander lost himself in the motions of sparing with Buffy. He could forget the fifteen years of hell he had fought, his abusive parents, and the years in agony from his injuries. He could forget damn near everything, except the glassy film that had replaced the pain in Buffy's eyes some nights when he had pushed down the plunger on the needle and pumped enough sedatives and pain killers into her small frame to take down an army of whales. He pushed himself harder trying to forget that look, when everything he loved about the blond Slayer drained out of her and was replaced by a chemically controlled zombie by his own hand. The harder Xander pushed himself, the harder Buffy pushed herself, trying to wipe the memory of the stump of his left leg that ended just below the knee and the deep and painful wounds that had covered his back, all sustained while he was trying to protect her from the things she should have protected him from.

As Buffy and Xander mutually tried to forget the past by beating the crap out of the one they loved, Giles was running Jesse through his training regime to get him ready to fight. Giles was currently running guiding Jesse through a Tai Chi routine to help the boy focus his energy and later would help him with basic hand to hand techniques. In the three weeks since the aborted Harvest, Jesse had shown real promise.

Willow and Jenny Calendar were sliding their chairs between the six computers that were running searches in the small computer bay that they had set up in a corner of the library. The searches ranged from potential demonic activity to the elusive Miss Maclay to hacks into certain military and government systems that may have pertinent data or files on a list of names supplied by Buffy and Xander. Having the internationally renowned hacker known as Redwood, wanted by almost every country in the world for computer crimes, including the UN, who also had a reputation for being uncatchable, and a Techno-Pagan Gypsy running their computer systems, they had no worry about getting caught.

"We got a positive hit on the Maclay search!" Willow, AKA Redwood, called.

Xander and Buffy instantly stopped their sparing match and went to check out the hit.

"Yep, that's her." Buffy confirmed when the image came up.

"Road trip time!" Xander said.

"Oh please! I can get us return first class tickets. How many we needing?" Willow said.

"Three. Jenny, Xander and myself. Wills, Jesse, you two will be running interference with my mom, Xander's folks, in the unlikely event that they ask and the students. Giles, you take the Faculty, keep training Jesse and I think Ripper should patrol." Buffy said.

"Wills, get us outgoings tonight, say twenty-three hundred odd. Incomings should leave at around sixteen hundred tomorrow." Xander whispered to the redhead.

"Um, Xand?" Willow said.

"Eleven o'clock tonight and four tomorrow afternoon." Xander clarified.

"Right." Willow said, madly typing away at the keyboard.

********

Jenny sat in the first class seat watching Xander and Buffy sleep. Buffy had her head resting on Xander's shoulder and he had an arm wrapped around her. The Computer Sciences teacher smiled to herself, they looked so peaceful when they slept together, displaying none of the deep seeded pain from when they were remembering things that have not happened yet, and hopefully never would, or the trashing she had witnessed when they slept separately. Slipping on the provided headset, Jenny started playing the tape that Xander had been listening to earlier by a local band, Dingos Ate My Babe, and as the lyrics began she could see why Xander had been attracted to the song.

*Feeling, I've been lost for years,
You can never understand me,
Unless you've seen those tears.
But you never get to sleep,
When I'm away, I don't mind,
The deeper that you lay,
Out of time.
Pain, I can't sleep,
Pain, I can't sleep.*

Ever since Xander and Buffy had 'Arrived', it was obvious that they had experienced things that everyone around them could not begin to imagine. Even Willow who used to be able to tell Xander's mood, blood pressure, academic standing and what he had for his last meal by just a look was finding someone that she only partially recognised. Only Buffy and Xander could understand each other because they had been through everything together, and as a result they needed each other to be close to ward away the pain in order to sleep.

*Running, running from those days,
There's another one inside me,
Guess I've gone insane.
But you always run away,
When I come around, I don't mind,
The day I'll track you down,
Run you down.
Pain, I can't sleep,
Pain, I can't sleep.*

Sometimes the memories seemed too much for Xander and Buffy, even Jenny, who did not know them that well, could see it. Some days they could barely function while other days they were as normal as could be expected on the Hellmouth. When things got to their worst, they would retreat into themselves, closing themselves off from everyone around them. When this occurred only the other one could snap them out of it, sometimes by merely being there, but on rare occasions they would have to beat each other senseless in order to get any response whatsoever.

*Don't stop, don't talk,
Do not fuck with me.
Don't stop, don't talk,
Do not fuck with me.*

The Buffy and Xander that had come back in time were dangerous, the practically exuded an aura of danger around themselves. Sometimes the group would sit around with Willow and Jesse telling stories of Xander from before, which were filled with outrageous events to which everyone would laugh. Well, almost everyone. Buffy and Xander would just sit quietly with little sad smiles on their faces, remembering those and other little events that displayed the innocence and carefree attitude that had been ripped from them. They enjoyed the memories while mourning the loss of the fundamental driving force of the memories.

*Loaded, I've loaded up this gun,
There's a killer in me.
Hoping, hope that you're the one,
But you always run away,
When I come around, I don't mind,
The day I'll track you down.
Terrify.
Pain, I can't sleep,
Pain, I can't sleep,
Pain, I can't sleep.*

Jenny remembered seeing Buffy and Xander in action and was still amazed by what she had witnessed. Each of them was deadly on their own, but when they fought together they were like liquid death, flowing and graceful yet brutal and direct at the same time. They had obviously been fighting together for so long that they moved like a single consciousness inhabiting two bodies. Combat was one of the few times that they actually seemed truly alive.

The final chords of the song drifted through the headphones, which Jenny subsequently removed and then she slumped back into her chair exhausted.

'Even the title, Pain, suits Buffy and Xander so well.' She thought as her eyes drifted closed and she joined her companions in slumber. The soft hum of the engines continued their steady rhythm as they propelled the large aircraft through the air and three of its passengers who were on their way to see a shy young witch as part of a large mission to save humanity from a future full of death, suffering and hopelessness that two of them had already lived through.

TBC.