Chapter 1

Daddy's Little Secret

Xander let out a heavy sigh as he felt the sun's rays hit his face and skin. Cracking one of his eyes open, his suspicion was confirmed, when he saw Alfred opening up the blinds in his room.

"Good morning, Master Alexander." Alfred greeted, already knowing that Xander was awake.

"Good morning, Alfred." Xander replied with a groan as he got up out of bed. For almost nine years now, he'd tried to get Alfred to loosen up and at least call him Xander but to no avail.

"Would you like to eat breakfast this morning sir or will it be your usual Twinky?" Alfred asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. After all these years, he still couldn't believe that someone would ask for a Twinky as a breakfast item.

"I'll just take the Twinky, Al." Xander said as he started taking clothes out of a mahogany mini dresser. After taking out some grey sweatpants and a matching top, he put them on and started to strecth. "Hey, Alfred where's Bruce? I need to talk to him about something important."

"I'm sorry, young sir but after a business meeting that he has this morning, he has to leave town for about a week." Alfred answered. "But if you truly need someone to talk to, you know that you can always come to me." he said with a smile.

"It's just this dream, I've been having. Alot of my memories of when I was young are just so fuzzy. I keep remembering monsters. And...and this guy with blonde hair and a messed up face. Alfred when you and Bruce found me, I...I can't remember much but was there a red headed little girl there?"

"Yes...yes there was." Alfred confirmed. "I'm glad you don't remember much from that night, because it was horrible... simply horrible." he said as he remembered all of that blood. The scene looked even worse than when Bruce's parents were murdered. "But I'm afraid that what you need to know about that time of your life needs to come from Master Bruce. But what I can give you is this." he said as he reached into his pants pocket and took out an old withered wallet.

"Ohh... so Bruce has you giving me my allowance now?" Xander asked as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation for Alfred to drop him some C-notes.

"Not exactly." Alfred said with a smile as he reached into the wallet and took out a piece of paper. As Xander took the offered piece of paper he found it to be a photograph. A photograph of himself at the age of probably seven, another little boy and the girl he had dreamed of in his nightmares. They all had smiles on their faces and were hugging, as if they were having a good time. As he flipped the photograph over , he saw that the names read Alexander, Jesse, and Willow age seven Sept. 2,1988.

"We got that out of your real father's wallet." Alfred said snapping Xander out of his thoughts. "When we found you down that alley, Master Bruce took your fathers wallet to see who your parents were and we found that picture."

"Why does the date seem so familiar?" Xander asked as he put the photo in his pocket.

"It was the day before your parents were murdered." the old butler answered. "Now enough of this dreadful talk. I'll call Master Bruce later today and let him know that you must speak to him." and with that Alfred was out of the door.

The rest of the day Xander had spent exercising in the family gym room. He didn't want to become big and chiseled like Bruce, so he spent most of his time doing aerobic exercises. As he sat down on the floor to do his cool down routine, Alfred suddenly entered the room.

"Dinner is on the table,sir." Alfred informed him abruptly. "Now, I must retire for the evening. If you need anything, I'll be back later tonight." he said as he left the room.

"I've had it with this." Xander muttered under his breath as he threw his sweaty towel to the floor. "Today, I'm going to find out what you and Bruce have been hiding from me."

Forgetting all about dinner, Xander stealthly followed behind Alfred. Seeing that he was going downstairs, he decided to hide upstairs and to see where the older man was going. As he looked down he saw that Alfred was going to a door that Bruce had told him as a child to never try to enter.

Alfred distinctly felt as he was being followed. Looking behind himself, he saw that he was alone. 'I must be losing it at my old age.' Alfred thought to himself with a chuckle. "I wonder if Master Alexander is eating dinner?" he muttered to himself as he approached a door.

"No, I'm up here, Al." Xander called out, making the older man look up at him.

" Just checking, young sir." Alfred said as he opened the door.

"Four seconds from..." Xander said doing a calculation in his heas as below, Alfred started to walk into the other room. "Now!" Xander shouted out as Alfred disappeared inside and the door began to close. Xander then leaped from the bannister, grabbed the chandelier, swung to a large tapestry, slide down and into the passageway as the door slammed shut.

Unable to stop his momentum, Xander barreled through a dark doorway, tumbled down the long stairway onto the floor of a cave. Bats shreiked at the sound of the noise and flew about wildly in the cave. Getting up off of the dusty floor, he stood and saw Alfred standing in a lab looking area with expensive equipment and computers. The two then stared at each other in utter disbelief.

"Alfred what the hell is going on here?" Xander asked as he began to walk around the lab. Before Alfred could speak, Xander's eye's fell upon a black suit of armour in a glass display case. Getting a closer look he saw the symbol of a bat on the chest of it and a helmet piece with long horns sticking out of it. "You've got to be kidding me." Xander said aloud as he whirled around to look at Alfred. "Bruce is Batman?" he asked.

But then it all started to make sense. All the nights Bruce would stay gone, claiming to be at business meetings. And especially all those times he had come home with unexplained brusies all over his body. Xander had alway's suspected that Batman was rich, because of all of the weapons and stuff that he had, but Batman being Bruce. Snapping out of his musings, he saw that Alfred took a seat by the computer console and began talking.

"As you know, Master Bruce was no older than you when his parents were murdered." Alfred started, getting Xander's full attention. "What you don't know is that it did something to him. Something in his mind had snapped that night. He went all around the world on a self destructive path, but he also learned and trained as a ninja, under a man named Ra's Al Ghul. After he returned to Gotham, he saw how corrupted it was and he decided to do something about it."

"But why didn't he tell me?" Xander asked, feeling a little hurt. "Why want he let me help."

"Because he loves you." Alfred replied with a smile. "He thinks of you as a son and he only wants the best for you. By letting you join him in this fight, would be like letting you surrender into the darkness that he is in. A darkness that he himself can't escape."

"But why has he been training me?" Xander asked. "All those martial arts lessons, the acrobatics...why."

"What else is a father to do with a son, but teach him what he knows?" Alfred asked. " I never told anyone this, but before I became a butler to the Wayne family, I used to work as a detective for a secret organization in London. So when Master Bruce's father died, I took it upon myself to teach him my detective skills."

"I need to get out for awhile." Xander said after taking in all of what Alfred had told him.

"Of course." Alfred said as he stood up from his seat. "I'm sure Master Bruce wouldn't mind if you took one of his cars." Alfred told him.

"That's just what I was thinking." Xander said with a mischevious grin as he looked over and into the massive cave and saw a domed sleek, black, and powerful vehicle.

fifteen minutes later

Wayne Enterprises

A powerfully built white man with dark hair and liquid brown eyes, probably in his early thirties sat at his desk and listened too one of his employees drone on about one of his projects. He let out a sigh of relief though, as his private line beeped.

"We'll talk more about this later, Lindsey." Bruce said to the man hurriedly. Getting the message the exec took his breifcase and walked out of the room.

"Yes Alfred." Bruce said as he pushed a button and a small monitor popped out of his desk.

"Sorry to bother you, sir." alfred said as his face appeared on the monitor. " I have some rather distressing news about Master Alexander."

"Is he all right?" Bruce asked with alot of concern in his voice.

"I'm afraid Master Alexander has... gone traveling."

"He ran away?" he asked, wondering if maybe Xander had felt lonely because he was never around.

"Actually, he took the car."

"He boosted the Jag?" Bruce asked in relief "Is that all?"

"Not the Jaguar. The other car." Alfred said hoping that he would get the hint.

"The Rolls?" Bruce asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, sir. The other car!" A beat. Then Bruce closed his eyes and let out a sigh. Finally after nine years Xander had found out his little secret.

"Thanks for the info, Alfred. I'll be right there." Bruce said as he fell deeper into his leather chair. "Capsule." Suddenly the chair seat dropped, fast, sliding into a transport capsule, that opened up in the wall behind him. The capsule shot through an underground tunnel, lights whipping past at near super-sonic speed. Speed and time readouts appear on the windscreen beside the craggy face of Alfred Pennyworth. "Alfred..."

"I already have his location pin-pointed, sir."

"Thank you, Alfred.

Arkham Square

The sleazy part of town

'Ah the Gotham night life. Neon, traffic, and sleaze.' Xander thought to himself as the Batmobile cruised into the center of the strip. A group of flashy low riders then pulled in front of the Batmobile. They hydraulic up and down competitively. Hitting a few buttons the Batmobile wipers sweep the windshield. The bat-foil opened and closed. But, finally pushing the right button the car hydraulics higher and faster, but a bit wildly, Xander was barely in control. The low riders, put to shame, peeled out.

"Suckers." Xander said with a laugh. "This is the batmobile, baby." Suddenly a scream cut through the night.Then a teenaged girl suddenly ran for her life up ahead, chased by six gang members into a dark alley.

"Looks like the Dark Knight has work to do tonight." Xander said as the Batmobile peeled out after her.

The Batmobile screeched into the alley just as the thugs had the girl surrounded, pushing her back and forth between them like a rag doll. As they noticed the batmobile, the thugs suddenly tensed up. The door slide open and from the smoking hatchway emerged Xander dressed all in black. Needless to say, that got the Thugs' attention. They let go of the girl.

"Who the hell are you?" the leader of the gang yelled out to him.

"I'm Batman." Xander said in a low, ominous voice. Then he looked down at himself and back at the thugs with a lopsided grin. "Damn, did I forget to dress again?"

The thugs growled and then close in on him. One rushed Xander while another swung a chain at his head. That proved to be a big mistake.

"Chains?" Xander asked with a raised eyebrow. "That's so passe'." Xander's quipped as his hand shot out fast, grabbing the chain. He open palmed the thug in the chin, then whipped the chain into the gut of the other big guy .

"The Caped Crusader strikes again. Sans cape, of course." Xander said with a shrug. Two more rush him. Xander leaped up with a viscious flying front kick, knocking one down, then hitting another on the return with a spinning back fist. Xander then stared at the still concious thug and smiled.

"Is your will up to date?" Xander asked the last Thug, who looked like he was about to piss his pants. He then took a look at Xander and what he had done and took off running. "I could definitely get behind this super hero gig." Xander said as he nodded to the awestruck girl. "Ma'am." He said as he started towards the car.

"Wait!" the girl called out as she moved close to him. "You forgot the part where you kiss the girl."

"Right." Xander replied, putting on his full Wayne family charm. As he leaned in, happy to oblige they suddenly heard screams and shouts as the thug who got away came racing back into the alley, followed by maybe thirty new gang members, all wielding bats and chains.

"Uh-oh." Xander muttered under his breath as he pulled the girl behind him, getting hyped up for war. Suddenly a dark figure flew out of the night. Batman, on a wire, swung into the group, sending them scattering in all directions. The bad guys race off. Even the girl Xander saved.

The Batmobile revved up and raced to Batman as he fixed Xander with a glare.

"Hi dad." Xander said with a little squeak in his voice. Batman just growled and lifted him by his collar and dropped him into the passenger seat. Surveying the scene again, he hopped into the other side.

Batcave

"What the hell were you doing out there?" Bruce growled as he took off his mask and threw it forcibly to the floor. "You could have been killed."

"Says the man who wears a rubber suit." Xander shot back at him. "When were you going to tell me about this?"

"Never." Bruce said calming down a bit. "What I do down here isn't your concern."

"Not my concern!" Xander shouted. "I have nightmares almost everynight of the person that killed my family. You have the perfect setup for me to have my revenge and you say it's not my concern?"

"What I do isn't about revenge." Bruce said sadly. Xander glanced over his shoulder at a framed headline. The Wayne murders.

"Right, Bruce. Whatever you say." Xander said nonchalantly. Bruce then grabbed him hard and pinned him against a wall.

"This isn't a game." Bruce said lowly. Xander then pushed him off, harder.

"Back off, man."

"You don't understand. It's an addiction." Bruce tried to reason. "You fight night after night, trying to fill the emptiness. But the pain's back in the morning. And somewhere along the way it stops being a choice. I want better for you." Bruce said after a beat.

"Save the sermons about how great you want my life to be, okay, Bruce? You don't get it, do you? This is all your fault. If you had gotten to that alley just a little sooner you could have saved my parents." Xander said in a huff as he stormed out. Bruce just stared after him with tired eyes.

"I can't fucking believe this." Xander raged as he threw some clothes into a gym bag. "I waited all my life to get revenge on the person who took my life away from me and Bruce..." suddenly there was a light knock on the door, interrupting Xander's thoughts.

"Go away!" Xander shouted as tears stung his eyes. Instead the door opened and Alfred walked into the room.

"Are you going somewhere, young Master?" Alfred asked, once he saw Xander's bags.

"Yeah, I'm getting out of here." Xander said not meeting his gaze.

"Where are you going?" Alfred asked.

"I don't know, just anywhere but here."

"I know that you and Master Bruce have problems but you have to believe that he cares deeply for you. But I want you to have this then, should you still decide to leave." Alfred said as he threw a manilla colored folder on his bed.

"What is this?" Xander asked as he eyed the folder skeptically.

"It's something very important to you." Alfred replied cryptically. Xander looked at him nervously and then just picked up the folder and looked into it. Once he did it fell numbly out of his hands as he saw a black and white picture of the man who had killed his parents.

"His name is William the Bloody." Alfred answered his unasked question. "After we took you in, Master Bruce spent almost a year trying to track him down, but to no avail. We did find out some other things however, like the fact that demons and vampires are real. That man in the photograph, just happens to be the latter." Alfred informed him.

"Why haven't you guys told me this before?" Xander asked, finally getting a hold of himself.

"Because..." Alfred started with a sigh. "Master Bruce didn't want you to get involved in the nightlife. As I know he told you, he only wants the best for you."

"That's the problem, Al." Xander said finally meeting his gaze. "I'm already in this fight. Now tell me something, where is this guy?"

"We don't know." the wise old butler replied honestly. "The last known place we could recall that he was in is the place of your birth. Sunnydale California."

"Then I have to go there, Alfred. I have to go there and kill him." Xander said as he unclenched the fist that he was unaware that he had made. "That's the only way for my nightmares to be over."

"As you wish, Master Alexander. I'll call the board of education tomorrow and inform them that you want be returning to Gotham private school, after the summer. I'll tell them that you will be relocating to Sunnydale." Alfred said as he walked back to the door.

"There is however the fact that you are not of legal age to move out on your own yet. You'll have to get written permission from Master Bruce in order to make the move to Calfornia. I'm sure that he'll sign it for you though." he said as he walked out of the door. Before he closed it, Xander called out to him.

"Hey, Alfred!" Xander yelled.

"Yes, sir?" he said as he popped his head back into the room.

"Thank you." Xander told him. Alfred just nodded his head and closed the door.

Once he was alone, Xander picked the picture of Spike up off of the floor and stared at it for a few seconds. "Alright, William the Bloody, you had better get ready for me." he said to himself as he balled up the photo and threw it in the trash can.

New york

Sametime, in a crypt

A beautiful dark haired woman, layed in bed asleep with a man wearing all black and blonde hair laying beside her.

"My kitten has found his darkness." Drusilla said in her sleep. "Don't worry, mommy will make it better."

A/N this is before season one of Buffy starts so, Dru and Spike aren't in Sunnydale yet.

TBC...

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