Xander-Hog Day 4
Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...NO money is involved.
I looked in my book and wondered again at what I was missing...and I thought I found in the list Willow helped me with...a man who could help me out. If not, I was a fan anyway, and one of the few that Willow and I had appreciated rather than me and Jess.
I grabbed the keys, money and car, driving immediately home. I snuck through the front door to my room and got the books. Stealthily grabbing the money out of Tony's wallet, I hit the road immediately and straight-away made it to Ethan's shop with plenty of time.
"Can I help you again, young man?" the annoyed chaos mage asked. "I'm just about to close."
"Yeah, man," Xander began, "I'm supposed to go to a costume party later with a bunch of soldier-geek friends, and wondered if you could make me a WW2 signal corps guy. Oh, and promote me from private to corporal?"
"Well..." the shopkeeper grimaced tiredly, until Xander placed forty dollars on the counter next to his books and such, "I suppose I can find something..."
About fifteen minutes later Xander was leaving the shop, dressed out and equipped as a World War Two soldier, but without all of the insignia he'd wanted. Still, he'd keep the books in his rucksack, maybe they'd be enough, after all one of them was signed. 'Hmmm, and where did this book in my pocket come from?'
Reaching the school with plenty of time, Xander headed into the library to check on Phil again. He was doing fine, though Buffy and Willow were a bit put out with him over not meeting them as planned as he met up with them at kiddy pick up.
"Hey, I needed to improve my costume," Xander replied, coming over to them, as they rolled their eyes, "Now I'm World War Two soldier guy. Look, guns and everything."
He could feel the change. One minute he was laughing with Maria at an annoyed canary. He was on leave in Naples and had met this goddess, delicate as a flower, and as beautiful as June. Eighteen years old with chestnut hair.
'Now I'm wherever I am,' he sighed, gripping his carbine and looks at the unfamiliar piece. 'What is this thing,' he thinks, checking it over and quickly appreciating the differences and ease of use. Looking through his gear, he finds many magazines, a few wooden stakes and bottles marked holy water. 'What the hell...'
"Xander!" a working girl in stunning clothes yelled to him. "What's going on!"
Realizing she was speaking to him, he quickly checked the area for krauts or other American troops, and finding none turned his attention back to the pretty redhead. 'I hope Maria's alright,' he thought, 'and not caught up in this...'
"Yes, miss," Xander responded to her demands for attention in a soft Texan voice, "what's the situation, and how can help?"
"It's me, Willow!"
"Like the tree, young lady?" Xander smiled politely while continuing to keep alert, "I don't know any Willow."
Willow was about to yell at him when she noticed he seemed very alert and the look in his eye was one she'd only seen in her Uncle Hiram's eyes when he talked about his experience in Viet Nam.
"You don't know me?" Willow asked, quietly, "Xander, listen to me. I'm on your side, I swear! Something crazy is happening. I was dressed as a ghost for Halloween, a-and now I am a ghost. And you were supposed to be a soldier, and now I, I-I guess you're a real soldier."
"You expect me to believe that?" the man with Xander's faced asked her plainly. "Where am I anyway?"
"You're in Sunnydale, California and—"
A monster appears across the street, growling at them. Xander points his rifle at it. It runs away as Willow jumps in front of him.
"No! No guns! That's still a little kid in there!" she shouted, her attempt to push the gun away ineffective as her hand passes through it.
"What the—" Xander began, unsure of himself, only to have Willow cut him off.
"Ghost costume, now ghost, remember?" she asserted. "We just need to find...Buffy!" She runs across the street over to Buffy, the soldier behind her. "Buffy! Are you okay?"
Xander fires off a couple bursts from his M-16, leaving his familiar carbine slung over his back.
"Nice weapon," Xander approved, "I don't know if it can take the mud of Southern Italy like my carbine, but nice." Xander lowers his rifle.
"Buffy, are you alright?" Willow asks the blonde Lady, "Are you hurt?"
"Buffy?" the Lady asks in confusion, looking at both of them without recognition. "Who's Buffy?"
"She's not Buffy," Willow exhales, thinking. Xander takes Buffy's hand and helps her up.
"Well, how about a safe place for the two of you?" Xander asks. "After that I carry out a recon. You seem to be the only one with an idea of what's going on."
"Who are you?" Buffy asks, concerned and a little suspicious.
"We're friends...of your family, young lady," Xander interjected. "Miss Willow here is going to guide us to a safe place, and I'll check to make sure everything's okay."
"Okay?" Buffy asks, "Does the mean well or satisfactory? The term is unfamiliar to me."
"Yes, ma'am," Xander nodded, leading her in Willow's wake, "but we need to hurry before trouble finds us." With that they made to 1630 Revello Drive in a few minutes.
Xander entered the Summers home, scouting to secure it before the others gathered in the living room, where Buffy was looking at pictures of 'herself' on the mantel. Xander turned to the redhead.
"Okay, Miss Willow," he softly addressed her with a small smile. "I'm not one much for waiting for trouble to find me, so the best way to keep you safe is for me to go out and keep it away."
"But th-they're little kids and teenagers turned into monsters, Xander," Willow replied forcefully, "you can't kill them."
"What about the people they're hurting?" the soldier asked without rancor, "Should we just let them die?"
"No, but since they're turned into demons, maybe just hurt 'em," she considered, "demons heal really fast and you could still save people."
The soldier looked at her while considering the almost non-answer. Turning to leave, a pounding on the door and muffled shouts lead the corporal to wave Willow to the door as he aimed. Willow opened the door, letting Cordelia and Angel into the house.
"Don't shoot!" Willow ordered, "they're good guys."
"Really?" the soldier asked, looking at Angel after cocking an eyebrow at Cordelia's attire. The cold look in his eyes kept even the May Queen from saying anything as she moved further into the house. "I'm getting the same feeling from him I get before the krauts try something. One I didn't get from the little ones."
"It's okay," Willow replied, "Please, he's a good vam—guy."
"Vam?" the soldier asked, but with a head gesture indicating Angel could enter. "The truth now, Miss Willow, please."
"Vampires are real, and Angel here is the only good one," Willow quickly explained, then realized how to defuse the situation. "So when you're out there and feel the same thing...you can probably shoot. Especially if it's adult sized."
Nodding, but suspicious, Xander left.
He blasted two demons into pieces, back of the head shots at twenty yards under a street light after they'd walked right by his position. The mini-demons with them scattered to all directions, the three young women left alone with only a few bruises and scratches for their ordeal.
Aura watched as a figure briefly moved through the light after another pair of vampires across the street. "Xander?!" she exclaimed, drawing the attention of the other Cordettes, leaving them stunned as to the identity of their rescuer.
Two grenades dropped through the door and against the bar of the Alibi Room, the explosions splintering the bar into hundreds of fair-sized pieces, dusting four vampires, mauling twelve other demons, and leaving six other vampires on the floor in agony, game-faced. A dark-haired soldier burst back through the door and in a minute six more demons were dead from destroyed brains and blood loss from 5.56mm bursts, the vamps were dusted from repetitive use of a sharp stick tied like a bayonet to the end of the assault weapon. Four more demons had fled out the back with serious gunshot wounds, and the soldier raced around the room to finish off any wounded. Looking around and finding no movement, the death-giver grabbed the cash box and continued on his way. 'Krauts are tougher than monsters, I guess. Just don't let either near you.'
There seemed to be a warehouse with about a dozen demons in it, one a really scary female dancing with a doll. 'These things make the Italian Army look like Rommels...' the young corporal thought with disgust.
He'd managed to follow two demons back to the building when they'd fled the bar, and they never noticed him shadowing. Checking his ruck, he stilled had eight grenades, and four magazines for the wonder-gun. 'Okay' he thought, nearing the corner closest the main door. 'Time to show them the Patton treatment, now there was a bastard but at least we didn't have to sit in the mud for months with that one.'
He simply threw a rock over the heads of the demons, and a grenade at them as they turned from his position. Two screams and silence were the quick of it. The corporal's adrenaline finally kicked into high gear as he kicked in the door, fired two bursts into the faces and necks of a pair of vampires at point-blank range. This stopped them in their tracks and sent them to the floor in great pain. Rolling a grenade to the left, then another to the right as he ducked next to the wall, the explosions yielded four more distinct screams. The soldier rolled into the room, eight bursts of three spaced evenly to take the fight of the remaining minions, and leaving him to face across the fifty-foot room the dancing vampires. He dispatched the wounded as she drew near him, all twelve leaving the world. Her vision cleared.
"You're the man of the clock, you are," Drusilla sing-songed, "Miss Edith says you'll keep going 'round and 'round until you accept who you are. You're the man who can deal death again and again but we keep coming back. Miss Edith says you're the one to send Dru away, so she can say that she'll see the day with the real you some day, when you accept it the voices say." Then with a sudden cold look she charges with vampiric speed across the last ten feet as a fresh magazine on automatic empties into her point-blank. You don't need wood if there isn't a heart, neck or half a head to lend cohesion to the corpse...dust covering his body and sweat-drenched face. 'Mud on the face,' the soldier grimaced with a head shake, 'Just as bad as the Vitorno in the rain.'
Eight more vampires and six really big demons were killed before he noticed the red head, Willow, following an Englishman to a closed costume shop. 'I wonder why that's so familiar?' as he heard a scream and ran to assist.
The pirate tearing off the young woman's top was just reaching for her again when the spell broke. The criminal element paused in confusion as a figure familiar to former-pirate and victim alike grabbed him by the collar and hurled him head first into the wall. 'Human or demon,' Xander Harris still strongly adrenalized and drawing on all of his military memories, thought, 'and I'm going make this guy hurt.'
The man, on his hands and knees, provide a perfect target for Xander's full-force kick to the front diaphragm. Larry had time to look in fear at Xander as he passed into unconsciousness.
"Xander?" the girl whimpered, and whispered softly. "Thank you." The young woman looked over his shoulder and down toward the mouth of the alley thirty feet away. Without really detectable motion Xander pulled a grenade and covered the hole with his finger, daring a glance.
"Well, what do we have 'ere, mates?" the blonde vampire smirked slowly swaggering toward them, "After that bloke took out eight of you at the Willy's, she would have to have Peaches protecting 'er. Looks like we'll be able to settle for these two since the slayer wasn't any fun, eh?" The vampire paused too briefly as something flew in the air toward him, the boy knocking the girl behind a dumpster. "Wha—"William the Bloody remarked as he started to move away. The explosion in the dark alley made quite the noise in the narrow space, and Amy screamed as a leather-jacketed arm flew by.
Xander threw his last grenade up and over, only two seconds left, and when a more distant stream of curses resulted, he rolled into the alley with 'his' old carbine and fired instinctively. The thwap was satisfying, but the limping one-armed form of Spike ducked behind the corner and away.
"Let's get you to a safe place, miss," Xander began, "I mean Amy. I think Buffy's house might be best."
Twelve minutes later, as they approached Revello Drive, Amy was feeling a little better in Xander's military jacket as he comfortably kept a very large in her opinion sidearm at the ready. They noticed two laughing vampires bothering a woman and a young girl as they finished fixing a flat tire.
"Xander," Amy whispered, "that's Ms. Summers and Buffy's sister."
"If this doesn't work, grab the girls and run with them to Buffy's Amy," the cold-eyed youth directed as he tore away toward the scene quickly and quietly, firearm and chair leg ready. The two oblivious newbies were just switching into game-face as a very angry Xander Harris struck them feet-first into their adjacent backs, knocking them through the gap between the Summers gals. Still standing and with two vampires under him, Xander fired twice each into their heads, then quickly staked them as his audience looked on in stunned horror, the dust leaving them speechless. Amy showed up, breathless, with something akin to hero-worship in her eyes. Dawn's look mimicked hers as both young women charged forward to tightly hug the exhausted teen.
"Xander?" Joyce Summers asked, "What were those things you saved us from?" Not able to lie to the woman whose minimal contact with him these last few months more than exceeded any memories of love and kindness in his childhood's entirety, answered truthfully, "Vampires, Ma'am. Vampires. They're real, can we talk about it tomorrow, please, I haven't had proper leave since the Sicily landings." Confused, the woman nodded and drove them as far as her house where they found Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Angel departing. Xander asked Giles if he could sleep at the Englishman's house. Looking carefully into the exhausted teen's eyes, the librarian couldn't deny him.
"Of course, my boy," Giles answered, "Of course."
Amy was starting to regale the girls with the tale of two rescues when Joyce Summers called down the walk, and followed the youth to the end of the walk. She gave him a kiss of thanks on his cheek.
"That's for saving me and Dawn, Xander. Tomorrow night, dinner, here. You'll tell me everything," the woman asserted. Xander just nodded as the others came within earshot. "Oh, and Xander? Who'd you dress as tonight?"
"Murphy, Ma'am," the youth smiled slightly, "Corporal Audie Murphy."
The look on Angel's face was priceless.