See Part 1 for Disclaimer and other information. Again, thanks to all those who have reviewed! I'm into the home stretch now on this one, just one more chapter to go. So, please keep thefeedback coming!
Part IV: Consequences
Cleveland, Ohio. The next day
A meeting was taking place at the school, one that the inner circle of the Scooby Gang had been called to attend.
The people gathered were waiting for Willow and Giles to show up, since Rupert was the one that had summoned them all here. The group in the meanwhile had split up into a few mini-groups, that began to chatter and laugh; Faith with Robin, Dawn with Oz and Andrew.
Buffy Summers sat alone, though. Thinking about the one and only Xander Harris.
Back in the 20th century, right after Cordelia had vanished, Buffy had felt that if she had just been on the ball that damned night – maybe the vamps wouldn't have gotten her best guy friend's girlfriend. And then later, when Xander had disappeared too, the blonde Slayer had thought she'd failed AGAIN – and had constantly beaten herself up over not watching out for her male pal better.
And yet when the miracle had happened, and both teenagers had been returned to the land of the living – Xander had reacted so...negatively to her. The fear on his face that first day on the plane, for one thing – okay, Buffy knew that she had overreacted over Willow getting hurt and lost her senses for a moment, but in the past – Xander would have forgiven her for the slip in a heartbeat...
( Or would he have? It gets so hard to remember now, what life was really like back then. Have we all really changed that much? Or is it Xander who's changed, so much that he just didn't fit in here anymore? )
It was a hard question for her to answer, since Buffy still felt guilty and overloaded from the responsibility of having activated all of the Potentials to full Slayer status. Still, after that nasty business with her boyfriend getting his head chopped off, Ms. Summers had been ready to call out a Slayer blood hunt on his killer; until Wood had suggested that she wait till after they'd seen the security video footage.
As it turned out, he and Giles had asked Andrew to install a hidden camera in Xander's room, as a security precaution. And while the ACLU might have gotten purple with rage over learning about a stunt like that, it made perfect sense from a security standpoint – especially when dealing with a complete unknown like a 4400.
In any case, everyone had seen Xander's version of events being validated; as The Immortal had, indeed, tried to unjustifiably murder him. And no matter how hard Andrew tweaked the footage, the tape just couldn't properly show what was going on – when Harris had gone into high speed at that moment...
Buffy sighed to herself. It had been almost impossible to accept that her honey could have done something like that, but like it or not – he was dead now, and Xander was gone. AGAIN. Only this time, it had been by his choice.
Suddenly, Giles and Willow entered the meeting room. "Ah, good afternoon, all," the Watcher muttered, as he put some papers down on a nearby desk.
"What's up, Giles?" Dawn asked at once.
"We, uh, we might have some news. And it, it kinda concerns Xander," Willow said, a little apologetically.
The brunette Key said nothing, she just quickly walked out the door. That part of her life wasn't a favorite topic of hers these days, for no matter how hard he'd tried not to – Harris had constantly managed to upset Dawn when his memories of the past had clashed with everyone else's, about her presence in Sunnydale then.
"I better go make sure she's gonna be okay," Andrew said to the group, before the story teller started running after the teenager like a faithful puppy.
"So what's the sitch, G?" Faith asked, sitting on Robin's lap very comfortably.
"Yes, well, perhaps Willow can best explain the first part of it. She's the one who first discovered the information, after all."
The redhead blushed a little. "Well, you guys know how I hacked into the NTAC computer system?"
"I thought you quit doing that, after they beefed up security following the 4400 name leak," Oz asked simply. "You said you didn't want to lead them back to us here at the school?"
"Right, right, but today I took a calculated risk; and it really paid off! See, uh, recently, this guy named Marco's been pushing a pet theory of his around the water cooler. Something he calls the ripple effect," the redhead responded.
"What's that mean?" Robin asked at once.
"Uh, it's a whole big picture kind of thing," Willow tried to explain. "See, there was this 4400 guy called Orson Bailey; he killed someone called Adam Kensington, almost without meaning to. And this other guy Carl Morrissey, well, he was a well-intentioned but hapless vigilante who ended up dead-"
"Still not getting the whole big picture thing," Oz interrupted.
"That's because I haven't mentioned yet how Kensington's company was perpetrating this, like, massive fraud, that would've seriously cost the taxpayers tens, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars – which came to light after the murder. And I've learned that since Morrissey's death, his neighbours have formed a committee that's protecting the streets, and cleaning up their neighborhood..." Willow replied.
Giles injected, "The incidents themselves were just catalysts for change, so to speak, thanks to those people sent back with their special powers. Positive change, in those two cases-"
"So what about the stuff regarding that 4400 serial killer, that was on the news a while ago? 'Cause what that asshole did couldn't be described as 'positive change'," Faith spat out in disgust. "And trust me, I oughta know!"
"Again, you need to consider the ripple effect. Those hate crimes, the bombings carried out the other day and the attack against that 4400 gated community? They were all committed by the brothers of a murder victim, o-of that serial killer. So The 4400 went from being a threat in the public's eye view, to becoming persecuted victims-" Willow explained.
"So what was Xander's ripple effect?" Buffy's voice spoke up for the first time.
The room went quiet for a moment, as everyone stared at her. "Ah, Buffy..." Giles started to say.
"I'm not an idiot, Giles – I can put two and two together, just as well as anyone else in this room. When Xander publicly got kidnapped that day by Wolfram & Hart – sure, you could argue he paved the way for that whole sympathy thing, with the rest of The 4400. But that's not the whole story by a long shot. So what did his killing The Immortal bring about?"
Rupert sighed, reluctant to speak to his semi-surrogate daughter of what he'd only recently discovered. "I've, um, learned of a power struggle in the demon underworld that's started recently, ever since i-it became common knowledge that your paramour was no longer amongst the living. A number of...black hats, if you will, have entered the arena and started slaughtering one another's forces – in their attempt to gain control of all The Immortal's assets. Enemy combatants that the new Council is ill-equipped to deal with, h-have been dying – or at least ceasing to remain a threat," he finished up.
"God damn! Talk about your ripple effect," Faith said with a sense of wonder.
"Makes you wonder about that prophecy too," Robin nodded. "What Harris junior is actually gonna do, one day..."
"That's why we have to find him," Ms. Summers said firmly. "All of that's far too important for us to just let Xander wander around the country, doing God only knows what..."
Giles said nothing, but looked worried towards his Slayer. ( And just what are we going to do if Xander doesn't WANT to stay with us, child? Chain him up again? Kill him? I suspect nothing less would eventually suffice, given what he's capable of now... )
Mount Rainier, Washington. Late November, 2004
Cordelia Chase stood where all The 4400 had appeared out of a ball of light three months ago, and looked around her. There were a number of people engaging in conversation, but Cordy wasn't ready yet to join them.
Her mind drifted back onto the recent past. After departing her parents' new home (and good riddance to it, in her view), despite the astronomical odds – Cordy had encountered her old flock of sheep, at a mall where she'd stopped to stock up on items for the trip to Washington.
"Oh my God! Is that Cordelia!" Harmony's unmistakeable voice had called out in the Starbucks establishment. And true enough, it had been.
Just like with Xander's encounter on that plane with the Scoobies though, Cordy had been shocked to see her popular friends now six years older than her. And the worst part was finding out that, down to the last airheaded specimen, they had all become trophy wives; all the things her one-time followers had wanted to do in high school, become doctors or lawyers or whatever, had changed to sitting by the pool while their rich husbands went on "business trips"...
And the infamous lack of tact that Cordelia Chase had always been famous for? It had not been appreciated by those spoiled twenty-something women, not at all. Stirring up as it did bad memories of last year's mad dash out of town, before Sunnydale went the way of the dodo.
Still, before they had finally left her in disgust, the former leader of the pack had gotten in quite a heavy blow about the sheep definitely needing to do more to hide the crow's feet and age lines; so the memories of that encounter weren't all bad, as far as the brunette girl was concerned.
All that aside, however – when Cordelia had finally arrived back in Seattle, she hadn't been entirely sure what to do. Reporting in to the Department of Homeland Security one day, though, she had encountered Richard Tyler; who had taken her to meet with Lily Moore. And the two women had cried on each other's shoulder about how their lives had changed so much, and how it was all so unfair...
Well, from there the three had eventually met Jordan Collier, a rich returnee from 2002; and one who had taken the other three 4400's in, giving Richard a job in his security department. And Collier had been fascinated to see what Cordelia could do, with her power to freeze things by touch...
The possibilities were endless, he'd told her. Masses of liquid toxic waste could be made solid, and easier to handle and dispose of. Or Cordy could save any number of companies the expense of buying and maintaining large refrigeration units, if it could be figured out how her talent worked.
She could also help cryogenic units lower temperatures to try and maintain transport of donated organs; or hire herself out for work in desert areas to maintain more temperate environmental conditions for the field teams, and basically name her own price there...
But all of that meant little to Cordelia. Primarily because she still hadn't been able to find any trace of Xander, anywhere.
It had indeed turned into an obsession for the girl, as her father had accused. And the worst part was the 18-year-old really knew it, too. It wasn't just that Harris was her ex, or that he was the sole contemporary link to the life she'd lived before her abduction...
It was a LOT more than that. Like it or not, it was the big L-word territory, as she'd thought to herself the night she'd disappeared during 1998. And finally, Cordelia decided to talk to her friends about her issues.
"Girl, it sure sounds like you got it bad," Richard told the ex-cheerleader as he held Lily tightly; these two had officially become a couple about a month ago, and were now eagerly looking forward to raising her unborn child together.
"Well, I already knew that from Quarantine," Lily smirked, as she absently ran a hand across her pregnant belly.
"I just wish I had never bitched at him about Faith like that! I also wish I could tell him how sorry I am..." Cordy vented. "And you know, I never really bought into that whole thing about how 'just one moment can change your life forever', but if I'd never shared that kiss with Xander in Buffy's basement that day...would I have ended up just like Harmony, and the others? Become some bimbo that's eventually going to be dumped by an ex-husband, when he has his mid-life crisis?"
"Well, something happened to you to prevent THAT from ever coming about. Just like the rest of us," Richard commented.
"Yeah, I guess," Cordy told her friend, as she looked out at the peaceful water of the lake. "To tell you the truth, though, I kinda think all that was because of him too."
"You think Xander was the reason for your abduction?" Lily asked with a frown. "Why?"
"Well, for the life of me, I can't think of any other reason why I would have been picked to be a 4400!" the young woman exclaimed. "I mean, the only things special about me back then were my looks, and my family's money! Xander and his...freaky life are the only things that could have made me takeable-"
"None of us know for what reason we were taken," Lily told her reassuringly, again touching her stomach with a brief caress. "Don't sell yourself short like that."
"I'm not," Cordy told her. "But now, I can see just how suck-y my life would have become! I mean it's not like Cordelia Chase would have ever been able to do anything to save the world, if I'd never been abducted back then..."
She suddenly looked back to Richard and Lily, and noting their happiness decided to let it all out. "And I don't know why, but I just feel like Xander and I are meant to be together now, more than ever..."
About a quarter of a mile away, the object of her affections was talking to an older gentleman, as the two men walked along the edge of the lake. "Gotta tell you, I honestly don't know why I even came back here," Xander declared, before looking across the water's surface.
"None of us do, young man," the elderly 4400 replied. "But this place can be thought of as being the spot where we were all reborn, from the ashes of our previous lives. And it's got to be more than mere random chance that we all just showed up here, with plenty of room for everybody..."
"You're one of those 'this is all happening for a reason' people, aren't you?"
"Everything happens for a reason, in my opinion," the older returnee told the teenager. "We may not be able to always see it, but it's still there – hidden somewhere. Look at my cousin Earl; he spent his whole life being the nastiest man I ever knew. But then after everything he went through in the Vietnam war, he entered the priesthood! He was running a homeless shelter, last time I saw him back in '82..."
"Well, from my viewpoint, I can't see any reason for what happened!" Xander said, as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "I didn't have the best home life, granted, but at least I had some good friends. Hell, my life WAS my friends! Now, my ex-girlfriend hates me. The guy I looked up to like a father, he never even really missed me. One of my bestest friends acts like Judge Dredd, nowadays! And my very best friend ever since kindergarten, she just does whatever she's ordered to do...plus, she's gay now? Didn't ever see THAT coming..."
"It all depends on one's viewpoint," he was told, as the other 4400 struggled not to laugh. "You won't see it for a while, but you're here for something. The same as me, and everyone else here tonight."
"When? When do I see it? A few more months? A year? A decade?" Xander demanded.
"Until whenever the reason shows itself," the older man responded simply, as they came to a quiet spot. "Life's all about the journey, after all, not the destination."
"Yeah. Well, I guess I'll find out one day," Xander told the man, as the duo parted company and he went for a walk by himself down to the water's edge.
A bit later, Cordelia had said farewell to her two friends, as Lily was getting a little too cold for comfort. It was only about 36 degrees out near the base of the mountain, after all.
And Ms. Chase herself had been about to head off to her car – when she felt like she just had to stay there. She didn't know why, and what with being from southern California and all, she really was freezing her ass off here...
But still, Cordy didn't move.
And about five minutes later, as the woman looked down towards the lake – she suddenly knew why.
Xander was looking out over the water, and turned just in time to see a human-shaped missile heading right towards him. Before he even knew what was happening, the man found himself knocked down onto the ground, and his face being showered with kisses.
"Wha-?" he managed to splutter.
"Where the hell have you been?" Xander then heard his dark-haired attacker call out, as her lips finally moved away from his.
Pushing the woman off of him, Xander's eyes went wide. "Cordelia?"
"Well, duh!" the Chase girl said, annoyed. "You know any other woman who would just run up out of nowhere, and start making out with you?" Her voice then grew a bit dark, "And THINK before you answer that!"
"Well, this is only the second time," Xander stuttered, still shocked at her return into his life. "And last time we talked, you ended up getting kind of pissed at me..."
"Oh," Cordelia said, as the duo got up off the ground. "Right, sorry about that. But I've found out some things since then, about what you said that day – and, and if that guy Stein is still alive somewhere? One day, I will personally kick his ass for what he did!"
( She believes me about that now? Well, good, I guess... ) "So then, where does that leave us?" Xander wanted to know, as he started to brush the sand off of him.
"Back together?" Cordy asked lightly.
"Just like that?" Xander demanded, the bad memories from Quarantine suddenly surfacing. "I'm a lousy cheating bastard who lied about your parents, and now suddenly all's forgiven?"
Cordelia looked down. "Xander, you of all people should know how hard it is for me to admit that I'm ever wrong about something...but you were right and I was wrong about that, no doubt about it..."
He just couldn't help it; Xander instantly came over and took her in a light hug. "I always knew our first meeting after you disappeared was going to be hard..." He wiped his eyes a little bit. "I mean, time was – I was damn sure that I'd find you one day as some bloodsucker's main squeeze-"
"Me, a vampire's girlfriend?" Cordy demanded. "Who do I look like, Buffy?"
"You know what I mean, we all thought you'd become a vamp yourself – and you musta heard how it is with that whole vampire sire-childe thing," Xander said softly, not looking her in the eyes. "In Sunnydale, they liked 'em young, especially teenage girls..."
"...who can become, like, totally devoted to their sire," Cordelia remembered from one of their lessons on the undead by Giles. "Xander, come on! Vamped or not, I wouldn't have-"
"Yes you would have, Cordy," Xander told her seriously. "I never kidded myself about that. You should know, I've read how Deadboy toyed with his entire family before he slaughtered them all during the 18th century; and no way was I ever going to allow something like that to happen with you, back in 1999! Not even when your parents made me out to look like Public Enemy Number One, before I disappeared..."
There was a silence for a few moments between them, before Cordelia sighed. "I guess I was the lucky one, huh? I vanished, before everything went to hell for you-"
"Hey, I don't think luck had anything to do with this," Xander said bitterly. "Not a single damn thing, for you, me – or any of The 4400!"
Cordy stepped up to him. "Look, I don't know about that whole abduction stuff, but I know for a fact that I was very lucky about one thing."
"And what was tha-" Xander started to say, before Cordelia took him in a deep, searingly hot kiss.
Cleveland, Ohio. The same time
Dawn Summers was reading a book in her room that night, when for some reason she suddenly thought to herself, ( I wonder what Xander's doing right now? )
That was still a very sore subject for her psyche, actually. Because it HURT so much that Harris didn't remember her, and to be honest – it had made Dawn afraid of trying to contact Cordelia Chase personally, as well. To see if she had learned anything new regarding Xander's fate.
Because there was no way the Key ever wanted to risk her former idol, who had helped teach her about the facts of life when she was 11 years old, also saying on the phone, "Dawn who?"
All of a sudden there was a knock on the door, and Faith's voice could be heard, "Hey, D. Can I come in?"
"Sure..."
The second oldest Slayer quickly entered, and shut the door. "How you doing, pipsqueak?"
"I'm NOT a pipsqueak anymore!" Dawn almost shouted, before she saw the telltale grin on the Bostonian's face. She instantly groaned, "Oh God, Faith, don't do that! I'm not a little kid these days..."
"Way you've been acting 'bout X, I'm afraid people 'round here have started to wonder."
That overly-blunt statement did nothing to endear Mrs. Wood to her heart, as Dawn said hotly, "Well, hey, I think I'm entitled to my feelings! How would YOU have liked it, if Xander had come back having no idea who you were?"
Faith grimaced. "Might actually have been preferable..."
Dawn looked at her, and suddenly knew that the rumor which had been circulating lately that she and Xander had once slept together – was all too true. "Oh my God! You two really did it back then!"
Faith grimaced again. "Why don't you say it a bit louder? I don't think they heard you in the kitchen!"
"Sorry," the brunette teenager apologized.
"That's okay, squirt. But you know, at least Robin's been decent about it – thank God. 'Cause I was kinda afraid that he would-"
"File for divorce?" the Key asked cynically. "Come on, Faith! That guy loves you, and everyone knows it. What's the real problem here?"
The dark-haired Slayer glanced at her companion, and eventually decided to confide in the younger girl. "Been contemplating the old days lately. You remember, when I was all evil and willing to do anything the boss asked?"
"I wasn't actually around then," Dawn said forlornly, the bad memories from weeks ago surfacing yet AGAIN. "But yeah, I still remember all that clearly. What about it?"
Faith said slowly, "Been thinkin' about that whole ripple effect thing that Red mentioned. Don't get me wrong, I'm five-by-five with the way things are now – great man, good digs, kick-ass job. But I was wondering – if X had still been around then...how different would my life have turned out?"
Dawn said nothing, her eyes just widened as the Chosen One went on, "Say I had never hit rock bottom like that, if Xander had been there to talk to me when I needed it. Okay, poor old Lester might still be around – but would you guys have still kicked ass on Graduation day, or what?"
The Key shook her head, "I don't know, remember – Buffy had sent me and Mom...no, sorry, just Mom – out of town then..."
"Okay, fine, different example – that late unlamented bitch Glory? If I was still a white hat then, what are the odds those monks might have chosen ME to be your big sister? Or failing that, would Willow and the others have ever resurrected B that night, if it wasn't just the Buffy-bot there guarding the Hellmouth? That whole thing with the First and all the Slayers in the world today, that mighta turned out so damn different..."
Ms. Summers didn't know what to say. But finally she responded, "Look, Faith – we can't know about what-ifs and might-have-beens, no one can. All we can do is the best that's humanly possible, with the cards we've been dealt..." Then her face suddenly got a determined expression, "And you know what? Yes, my memories of him may all be fakes...but damn it, when we find the guy again? I'm going to make some new ones with Xander, that really are real..."
Home of Cordelia Chase, Arcadia Estates, Seattle. The next day
The large duplex house appeared to look just like all the others in the rows of homes; for this was the gated community Jordan Collier had recently turned into a safe haven for all of his fellow 4400's.
Primarily because many in this world were starting to react as humans had always done since the beginning of the species, when something different was in their midst. They feared it.
As such, Cordelia and Xander had to go through two checkpoints to get into this neighborhood, and Harris took note of several heavy-duty weapons in one of the guardhouses when they drove past the front gates...
It was not overkill, either. One attack aimed at killing all the 4400 possible, had just been stopped by NTAC a short while ago after all.
But anyway, Harris had expected maybe a late dinner and some serious talking the previous night. Until Cordelia had revealed that she had bought a pack of condoms, when they had stopped for gas on the way back from the mountain...
The young woman had then simply said that she was tired of waiting, and that she just knew that they were destined to be together. And any argument Xander might have had against that was forgotten, the moment she'd dropped her clothes to the floor; just like Anya Jenkins would have done long ago – in a timeline that one of the Powers That Be would have much preferred to bring about.
Right now though, Ms. Chase was lying naked on top of Xander, in her bed, leaning down and nibbling on his right ear. "Oh, God..." she purred. "I swear, I really wish we'd done that a lot sooner!"
"Honestly?" Xander teased, as he tickled her in a very sensitive area.
"Yessss!" Cordy managed to get out, as she batted his hand away. "Because back in my old bedroom, we did just about everything else..."
Xander's answer was stalled, as Cordelia got fully on top of him. She then moaned deeply, as she lowered herself onto her boyfriend. Soon both of them were done with the talking, and were very much into the rhythm of each other's body movements...
But suddenly, something happened that neither of the returnees was even remotely expecting.
Xander's new ability kicked in, without him even knowing it. And he witnessed something else, when he figured out what was happening; whilst before everything and everyone around him slowed down so much they stopped from his point of view, this time – everything EXCEPT Cordelia did so.
She just gripped him tighter, and the young man saw his partner throw her head back in sheer ecstasy. The expression on Ms. Chase's face was one of pure pleasure, too – and it was damned lucky neither of them was a vampire with a soul, as a moment of perfect happiness might also definitely be a factor here...
Sometime later, Cordelia lay panting next to her guy in the bed. "Holy cow, Xander...but that was wayyy better than anything I'd ever dreamed possible!" the brunette girl smiled in dazed contentment. "Tell me that wasn't your 4400 power – and please, promise me that'll happen again every time we have sex?"
"I don't...every time?" Xander asked the sweaty, naked woman beside him. "Cordy, look, I don't know – this has never happened before. I mean, I've never had anyone else come along for the ride with me..."
"Well, believe me, it was worth it!" Cordelia told him happily. "It was like it just went on, and on, and on!"
Xander honestly didn't know what to make of that. His first time with Faith had only lasted seven minutes, and he had later been kicked out of her room in his boxers...but now Cordelia was trying to catch her breath, as she pressed up against him? "Well, uh, guess I did something right then..."
"Right?" Cordelia looked at him like he was crazy. "Xander Harris, if I had any of Oz's old chains that he used for those three nights of the month back in Sunnydale – you wouldn't ever be allowed to leave this bed!"
Xander had no joke or smart remark to respond to that, and he was willing to bet many men wouldn't have. "Ah, well, I do need to get up to get rid of this..." So saying the male teen grabbed the used condom, went into the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.
Because, while he might have been completely overwhelmed by Cordelia's desires ever since last night, that didn't mean Harris had forgotten all about that damn prophecy either...
Somewhat drained and tired, the young couple were soon sleeping soundly next to one another in Cordy's bedroom. Neither one knowing that another unexpected thing had happened, during their recent lovemaking.
Although condoms are great for birth control with normal people, neither the male nor the female returnee were in fact 'normal' anymore. And when Harris's power had activated itself and encompassed Ms. Chase that way, the massively fast movements that had blurred them to the outside world had also torn open a small hole in the tip of the condom...
And Xander's seed had found plenty of fertile soil, within Cordelia's womb.
Prophecy. It always turns out to be such a complete bitch, whenever someone's determined to get around it...
To Be Concluded in Part 5