Brothers in Arms

Disclaimer: own nothing you recognize.

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Xander looked over at Kate, gripping his tranq pistol loosely in his right hand. Kate was right beside him, and all they were waiting for was the signal from Remy and James. They had infiltrated the Hall safely, with only a small skirmish between themselves and armed guards, none of which had been able to get a shot off before they felt a slight sting in their shoulder or neck. For humans, the small amount of acidic substance would only provide a slight stinging. For a vampire, the acid would erode them to dust.

'You ready,' he saw her mouth to him.

'Sure,' he said with a lopsided grin.

'I'm happy for you and Faith,' she looked happy, too, 'Everyone deserves someone to love them.'

Before their silent conversation could continue, however, the echoing thunder of a gunshot pierced their ears. The two snapped into action and kicked the door down, just as Remy and James descended to the floor, a dust pile near the Mayor, who was on his knees in the center of a pentagram. Nearby was a cage with an armed vampire inside.

"What is the meaning of this," Wilkins demanded, only to be silenced just as the quartet lined their weapons up against him.

"We know what you're up to, you bastard," Gambit said, malice evident in his voice.

"Or, should we say 'Olvikan?'" James smirked.

His face visibly paled.

"Now, here's the interesting part," Xander picked up from there, "We know all your secrets so…do you really think there's any chance in Hell that you're going to live past tonight?"

The Mayor frowned at that. He understood that he was a villain but, the way these children spoke to him. It was deplorable, disrespectful. Someone should give them a lesson in manners. Unfortunately for him, they had the guns and, thus, the advantage in this battlefield. …And he had no idea how to get out of it.

"We won't kill you," Kate said with a smile, all too sweet, "We're just going to walk away."

Without another word, she opened the cage, allowing the vampire freedom. Without a moment's worth of hesitation, it emerged from its place and swung its sword up. The last sensation the late Mayor Richard Wilkins (I, II, and III) felt was a sharp pain in his forehead, then…darkness.

As the vampire let his sword go, James lifted his shotgun up and pulled the trigger. Vincent collapsed into a pile of dust.

"…Well," Remy said pleasantly, "That was fun."

"I was expecting something more…" Xander scratched his head to come up with the word.

"Epic," Kate suggested.

"That's the one!" He nodded his thanks to her, "So, let's-"

"GUYS," James interrupted him as he stared down at his phone, "We need to get going, now! Wes left a message, he and Mr. Giles were taken hostage by those vamps the Slayers were hunting."

"…As I was saying," Xander continued on, as though he hadn't heard them, "Grab your stuff and let's vamoose!"

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Buffy felt a hand grab her arm and she reacted instinctively. She grabbed it and tossed the being into a dumpster. Faith, who was the nearer of the three due to the fact that Willow was trying to burn one of the remaining vampires, came up with her stake at the ready and pulled her arm back to swing it home, only to be stopped as a body full-on barreled into her. Thinking it was a vampire, she reacted by thrusting her stake out and jamming it into the creature's thigh. Before she could finish the job, however, the body's voice forced her to a stop.

"FAITH, NO!"

She pulled back and focused in on the world around her. Right atop of her was the young man that she had decided, against her better judgment, to take on…one Xander Harris.

"X," she scolded as she helped him stay upright by placing her arm underneath his, "What the Hell do you think you're doing, man! You could've been killed!"

"Faith," she turned her gaze to Kate, who was helping the figure who Buffy had thrown into the garbage bin up, "This is Finch, the deputy mayor…and technical mayor, now."

She stared at the suited figure before her in complete shock. She had almost staked him…she had almost killed him!

"Oh, God," she muttered in disbelief, "I almost killed him."

"You didn't," Xander whispered to her, his voice reassuring, "And that's all that matters."

"What happened," Buffy asked as she and Willow came down the alley and, upon seeing Xander's injury, jumped to a conclusion, "FAITH! You attacked Xander!"

She charged forward, intending on doing her sister Slayer major harm, her anger fueled alongside feelings of bitterness at herself for not being there to take charge, at Faith for doing something so idiotic, and at Xander for being where he wasn't needed, all her thoughts of previous events be damned! What was happening now was too important. Before she could kill the poor excuse of a Slayer, however, she saw something fly out in front of her. It exploded upon impact against the ground, sending her reeling backwards and into the worried looking witch. She stood up quickly, hardly winded by the small blast, and was about to charge again, only to be intercepted by Xander's friends: Remy, his hands both filled with glowing cards, James, his shotgun pointed unwaveringly at her, and Kate, her own crossbow trailed against the Slayer.

"Think, Slayer," James shouted to her, his British voice filled with frustration, "She's supporting him, and that guy you threw into the dumpster is still alive…as in, breathing!"

That forced her to a complete stop. The guy hadn't been a vampire? But, then why did he grab her? And why had Faith stabbed Xander?

He must've been running and bowled into her on accident, she thought to herself.

"What were you thinking," she yelled at Xander after coming to these thoughts, never once truly thinking about the situation, "Coming down an alleyway filled with vampires! Were you thinking!"

"SHUT UP!"

The voice, surprisingly, came from a studly vampire charging down the alley towards her, a look of complete rage upon his face.

"Angel," she felt her spirits uplift as she saw her lover, only to have them plummet as she realized it was he who had shouted, "What-"

"Enough, Buffy," he snarled at her, his anger momentarily overtaking his love for her, "What Xander just did was incredibly heroic and he deserves more than your casual dismissal of him."

"What," she asked, outraged at his attitude, "What did Xander do, aside from run into a fight like an idiot!"

"He prevented Faith's killing of a man," that made her start, "If he hadn't ran into her, he would be dead right now."

"I saw his face," she turned around as she heard the Zeppo answer the unspoken question, "I don't want the death of a man, even one such as he, on her soul."

Buffy stared at him in complete shock, her gaze completely missing the looks of incredulity and disgust coming towards her from all there, save Faith and Xander, who were staring into each other's eyes.

"You did that," Faith asked, her eyes teary from his concern, "For me?"

"Finch is a part of the Mayor's, or deceased Mayor's, plot, so…yeah," he threw her a lopsided grin, only to have it disappear as she latched onto his lips with her own. The two kissed for a few moments, only to have it come to an end as Xander remembered why he and the others were there, "Listen, Giles and Wes got kidnapped by those vamps in the warehouse."

"We need to get them free," Gambit finished up, "Listen, mon ami¸ you need to get to a hospital before you get hurt any worse than you already are. Leave this one to us."

"I'll take him," Faith stated automatically.

"I'll take him," every eye there turned to Angel, "Willow, you come with me, and help keep an eye on him," he pointed to Finch as he said this.

"Here," James tossed the undead the keys to his SUV, "Take my car. And don't touch any of the buttons on the dashboard…or a few…bugger it, don't touch any buttons that Xand says you can't."

"…OK," Angel stared at the suited spy curiously.

He walked over to Xander and put his arm behind the young man's back, helping in keeping him upright, and the two slowly made there way out of the alley, Xander glaring at the blonde Slayer on the way out, who refused to meet his gaze. Willow waited nearby for Finch, who came at Kate's pointed behest quickly. As he went ahead of her, she turned around and stared at Buffy, who stared back, her eyes pleading for understanding. The witch, disgusted, just turned away and followed her friends.

"…Let's go," Buffy tried to take control of Faith and Xander's friends, only to have them form a circle around her, their eyes filled with barely contained hatred and distrust.

"Listen here, girl," Kate sneered at her, "Xander is the best man that I have ever had the honor of meeting. I trust him with my life, as do we all. I could care less about you and, that's just from meeting you but…when Xander told us about you, all the things you've done, I just couldn't believe it. You," she invaded the Slayer's personal space, causing her to back up a few feet and into Remy, "Don't order us around. We'll follow him and Faith, the witch, Willow, even that guy, whoever the Hell he is, but we won't follow someone who treats their best friends like shit!"

The two men nodded, feeling that Kate had personified their opinion of the blonde Slayer. Kate backed away and turned to go rescue the Watchers, her two friends right behind her. Faith lingered for a moment, her gaze flinty. She stalked up to the Slayer, who had to remind herself to not quiver in fear underneath her scorching eyes, though she still did anyway.

"…I went to him before this," she stated, causing Buffy to look at her in surprise, "To try and convince him to give you a second chance. He seemed like he'd do it," the Slayer gasped as she realized what this might mean, "But, I guess you've done blown that, Blondie."

The Dark Slayer turned away and followed the rest of Xander's friends, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

$£#

Xander remained silent as Angel drove them down the streets of Sunnydale. He snuck a few glances to the seat behind him, to where Willow and Finch were sat. Willow looked as though she were in a world all her own, and that world wasn't happy, whereas Finch was just ecstatic that his boss was dead.

"…We'll drop you at your house on the way," Xander called to the man, who nodded in agreement.

He grinned at him and turned his head back to the front. He shifted his body a little to get more comfortable, only to feel a sting of pain as his thigh touched the seat.

"You OK," Angel asked, concern evident in his voice.

"The blood's stopped flowing," he answered him, "Good wrap, Willow."

"Thanks, it's my specialty," she said with a grin, though her voice betrayed her lack of emotion.

"…What's happened to her," Angel wondered aloud.

No one needed to be told who he was speaking of.

"She said that she doesn't want to be alone," Willow responded, "She doesn't want us to die and leave her, so she pushed us away."

"What the Hell kind of logic is that," Xander asked.

"…Angelus," the two turned their gaze to the vampire as he muttered his separate entity, "He told her that she was all alone, during the last fight about Acathla…that bastard."

"He really screwed with her brain," Xander agreed, "But, why me?"

"You were the main source of opposition when it came to resouling me," Angel stated philosophically, "Maybe she identified it with usefulness. Which, let me say…I agree with you," he held up his hand to stop Xander from questioning him, "I was killing people, hurting her. She proved time and time again, to Angelus's benefit, that she couldn't do it. I didn't want to hurt anyone and, I hoped to God that she was willing to get over it just to make sure I didn't hurt anyone ever again. She did just want her boyfriend back and was willing to overlook everything that happened to see it done. And so was I," Angel said this with a look of self loathing.

"You did spend several hundred years in Hell," Willow tried to appease the wounded vampire.

"It wasn't enough," both Xander and Angel stated.

"…but, I forgive you," Angel and Willow stared at Xander in disbelief, "The sheer fact that you know, and are willing to accept the blame for it, is enough for me. For the moment."

"You aren't going to hold a grudge," Angel asked, confused.

"I only hold grudges if you repeat your mistakes," he answered honestly, "If you were to do something as selfish as sleeping with Buffy, and it's not to do with the fact that you'd lose your soul, it's got to do with the fact that she's over a hundred years underneath you agewise and that she's a vampire Slayer, whereas you are a vampire, you knowing that your relationship would be, as Giles once said, 'problematic at best' is selfish on a completely different scale. It's like a drug addict: she knows you're bad for her, but she doesn't give a damn. You should be the bigger man and put what's best for her above your feelings, as well as her own."

"Xander," Willow said quietly, "We weren't able to. You can't expect something of someone if you can't do the same. Just the same with your anger over finding out that she was hiding Angel. We were hiding our affair."

"But, us hiding ours would only hurt the people we love," Xander said, a look of self hatred deeply entrenched upon his face, "Her hiding Angelus might have ended up getting more people killed than either of us could imagine, including Oz and Cordelia. And, aside from that, we tried to stop, kept on trying…till we were caught, then we went cold turkey."

Angel grinned at that.

"Buffy said something similar," he turned at their surprised gazes, "Yes, we tried to quit. Didn't last. …She does worry about you, you know."

"I think that has something to do with it, yeah," Xander answered as they pulled up to the hospital, "But…I honestly wish she just hated me. It would be easier for all of us to deal with than this."

The two opened their mouths to say something, and closed them as they saw the wisdom in his words. Hatred is pure, whereas what Buffy was doing…was confusing, hypocritical, and simply wrong considering what she claimed. If it was hatred, then she would at least have a fairer reason.