No lies 4 (Re-post and re-writen)
For fun not profit.

Cookies - it all boils down to the cookies. If we
hadn't eaten the cookies then none of this would have
happened. At least that was what Dana hoped. She was
sitting on her front porch swing looking at nothing.
Xander had been gone for over 3 weeks now. It all had
started innocently enough.

flashback

Xander and Dana sat in the library, a thin film
of sweat on both. They had just completed their
afternoon work out. Linda was sitting across from
them, with a plate of Cookies and glasses of milk in
front of her. Linda pushed the treats over to them,
and with a smile.

"Go ahead, eat up," Linda smiled again, "you need
to keep your strength up."

Xander looked at his girl, then at the cookie, then
again at his girl. The look on his face was that of
a wounded puppy, but he was a gentleman and wouldn't
eat before her. Dana just smiled and shook her head
at him, then took pitty and got a cookie. Linda had
been around for a week and was growing closer to Dana every
day. But Linda and Xander would move farther and
farther apart, they would fight of how to kill demons
and vampires. She would go to the book's point of
what was written, then Xander would tell her how Buffy
killed this one or that one.

Which in itself was bad enough. He was always
talking about her and Willow too. But she knew that
he loved her, and she needed Linda so he would cool it around
her.

He would leave when Linda and Dana talked. They
would talk, every day. Sometimes about Slaying, and
other times about boys as long as Xander wasn't
brought up it went smoothly. They even had a
conversation about Slayers in that special time ofthe month, Xander had only heard the beginnings of
that conversation and ran for the hills while the
women watched him, each with a smile of their own reasons.
Dana thought it was cute that he could talk about
just about anything else, but talk about a natural
body function and he was off and running back to the
shop classes. If she guessed right, that was his hiding
spot, the one place in the school that he would not
run across Marv or his crew, not that he was afraid
of them but he really didn't need another fight on
his record. While Linda saw it as a weakness, if the
boy would run from a conversation, then he might
break in an important moment.

And that was how it went from day to day. Til one
day, Both Dana and Xander where eating cookies.
Right before that they had been talking about their
date coming up this Friday. Then...

Dana was sitting next to her friend. Nothing more,
just a girl friend with guy parts. And Xander was
sitting by the girl he loved but he would never tell
Dana because he knew she didn't love him. He would
help her out on her missions and training. But he
knew she would never be his.

All the while Linda sat back and watched them. She
hoped this was the right thing to do. And it seemed
to be, at least that was what Mr. Travers told her.
We didn't need another uncontrolled Slayer on our
hands. So it was up to her to bring her in. Soon it would
be all right, Dana would be Slaying, and she would be
the Watcher that she was always meant to be.

End Flashback

While Dana sat on the swing thinking about what
happened, Xander was sitting in the back room of the
Kit Kat Club. All around him were women in all matter
of dress and un-dress. It was heaven. He might have
given up on the female species, but he still liked to
look at them. And if had time he would help himself
out. But those were few and far between. On the road
with three stripping party girls you don't have much
time to yourself. And then to hear them talking! Notto mention what they talked about! He was surprised he
never passed out due to lack of blood flow to his
brain.

It was his first morning that sat the tune for the
whole trip. It was kind of agreement that nothing
would happen between them, in the room at least. It
was a safe zone, no sex and no one else would be
brought in. You could sit around nude all day nothing
would be said. As long as it wasn't done as a tease.
And if you found someone that you wanted you got
another room.

So on the first morning to say Xander was shocked was
an understatement. He was half asleep. On a fold-a-way
bed they got for him. He would not sleep in a bed with
a girl he had just met. So Darla and Lisa shared a bed
while Debbie had one to herself. As he became awear of
his surroundings, first he noticed that the girls
were up, then as he made his way to the bathroom he
noticed that Debbie and Lisa were not wearing
anything, one was bent over her suitcase looking for
clothes, the other was sitting in front of the mirror
doing her hair. It left more flesh exposed in one
moment than he had seen in all his life. He quickly
moved into the bathroom only to find Darla soaking in
the tub. She had a headphone on and her dark hair was
plastered against her head which was bobbing to the
beat of some unheard music.

Xander just looked at her and turned around, all
thoughts of using the bathroom leaving his head. He
looked at Debbie. She had just finished her hair was
watching Xander's face, trying, without much success, not
to laugh at him.

"Huh bunb huh?" Xander said what thought at the time
that was the height of the art of human communication.

Lisa looked at Debbie, with a smile, "We broke him?"

"Either that or Darla does something unusual in the
bath," Debbie said with a snicker.

"What? No! Its. Just. With. The. No. Clothes. And.Things. Out," Xander stammered in a confused and
worried voice.

"Xander what was the first rule I told you about on
this trip?" Lisa asked.

"No hanky panky in the room," Xander asked looking at
the giggling women, which caused things to bounce in
the nicest ways.

"Yes, that's the first rule," Lisa started, "no sex
in this room. It's a free zone. Xander, we make a
living taking our clothes off. That doesn't mean sex.
There is an element of sex in it. But not here. We can
walk around nude and nothing is said nothing is
implied. If you want sex you find it elsewhere, and we
will do the same. You don't bring friends here and
neither do we. We're all grown ups here. If you and
one of us has a hook up, then you do it somewhere else
and don't bring it here. The same with us.
Understand?"

"Yeah, but..." trying his best to look her in the
eyes.

"If you want to walk around like this, you're free to
do so. Just no sex."

"But what if I..." he said glancing down.

"Ok, that's normal for the first few days anyway.
Just try not to think about sex," Lisa said grinning
at him.

"Lisa, I am a guy, the floor makes me think of sex."
Looking anywhere but at the women.

"Xander, I understand." Then she said with a grin,
"We might fix that problem later though, just in
another room."

"Uhbubhu?" Xanders eyes snapping back to her. While
Debbie started to laugh again. Her brother was right
about Xander: he was funny.
In the back of Xander's mind. He was thinking about
Dana and Buffy. He had held out for them. And both of
them had thrown him away. Both wanted just to use him
on their terms. He got nothing but his heart broken
with both of them.

Well, Xander thought, fuck them, I am going to
have fun. By the time this trip is over he was going
to be a new man and no one was going to use him again.

Trasker's Home
Three weeks ago

Dana was in the shower, she had been in there all
morning. She had felt that dirty. That damned
spell. Soon Xander would be showing up to give her a
ride to school. She would tell him everything. He
deserved nothing less. She hoped he would forgive her
for what she had said and done, although she had had
no control over it. Someone knocked at the door.

"Dana? Honey you ok?" It was her mother- it was the
third time this morning.

"Yes, I'm okay, mom," Dana called back. Getting out
of the shower she looked at herself in the mirror; no
she didn't look any different. But last night she was
a girl, now she was a woman. And she killed someone
who was having sex with her. Unprotected sex at that.
God she still felt dirty, but she couldn't hide out
any more. She didn't know what bothered her more, the
sex or the murder. No, it wasn't murder, he had been
hurting her.

How she didn't know, but the Slayer side of her felt
an attack, so what she did was fight back. And it
wasn't sex, but it wasn't rape either, she had wanted
to have sex with Marv, she knew that, but if someone
hadn't played with her mind there was no way she would
have done it with Marv. And Xander . . . someone did
the mind deal with him to. She just wanted him to hold
her, let her cry - let her make up for what she had said.
But he's not here now, she thought looking at the
clock beside the sink, but he soon will be! She
started to grab her clothes and rush to get them on.
She had cut back on the suggestive clothes that she
had worn for the first couple of days. Now she wore
clothes that the old Dana wouldn't have worn but not
that bad. She rushed down stairs, only to see her dad
walking in the door.

"Tell Xander he needs to move his bike," Harry told
his daughter. Between both Helen and Dana he had
gotten to where he could at lest talk about the kid,
still didn't like him, but could talk about him.

"Xander's not here," Dana told her father confused.

"Well, that motorcycle of his, is behind my car."

With that Dana took off out the door.

There, behind her father's car, was Xander's prize
bike. A piece of tape held a note to the mirror of the
bike. Her hands shaking, she opened the note.

(Dana, First off, I do love you, and didn't want
you to see Marv because of that. But there is
something wrong with the guy, he uses and hurts
people. And I cannot stand by and watch that. So I
will be leaving.

This is not to hurt you. And as you said yesterday,
you have plenty of friends here, and I only have you
and the way I see it I lost you last night. I know
once you give yourself to him there will be no chance
for us. So I am out of here. And I leave you my heart
and my soul. You didn't want my heart, but you always
were wanting to drive my soul, so I leave it with you.
Take it to school, sell it, whatever you wish. But
enjoy it, and know that I will love you forever.

P.S. don't look for me, you won't find me,
by the time you read this, I am long gone.)

After reading the note then re-reading it. She knew
he knew what had happened, but not everything. Shejust fell to her knees crying til her father came out.

flashback to the day before

The spell had taken a little longer than Linda
thought to change his memories but it had finally
taken hold. He thought of her the way he thought of
Buffy. But he lost some of the loyalty somewhere, but
that was of no matter. He was not the important one.

He was just the sidekick.

Now when Linda had started on Dana. It was another
long time before she had completed the memory
alterations. Now she was no longer in love with that
twit. He was just a friend. And soon that too should
be removed. It wouldn't be long, if she keeps dosing
Dana before she could remove him from the picture all
together. Then after Dana was removed from her
parents, she would be in the control of the Council.

The next day after Xander dropped Dana off at school,
Xander had tried to talk to Dana about what they were
doing Friday night. He had tickets to a concert, but
Dana said she had other plans.

Later that day he found out from Sherry, one of
Dana's friends had let slip, Dana was going out
with Marv.

It seemed that Dana had called him last night. And
after a little while agreed to a date. Her parents were
even okay with it. As long as it wasn't him. Helen
still liked him, he knew that, but Harry hated his guts.

But the news about the date had been crushing to
Xander. Here he was sitting on the side lines again.
Just like the star crossed lovers Buffy and Angel.

Now he was watching Marv and Dana. He didn't know if
he could do it again.

The next day after school, Xander was waiting for
Dana. She told him that she didn't need a ride home
that day, that she had gotten a ride from someone
else. And Xander had a sinking feeling he knew who.

"Dana," Xander started, "I heard you're going out
with Marv on Friday."

"Yes," Dana said looking at Xander she hoped that he
would be okay with her and Marv. But from the look on
his face she could see that was not to be the case.

"He's bad news, Dana. I mean look at all the girls he
has used in the past, I don't want you getting hurt by
him."

"I know about the girls, but he told me he's changed.
And I believe him," she said looking at him. Something
was wrong with this but she couldn't put a finger on
it. She shouldn't be fighting with Xander, she trusts
him. And Xander felt the same way, something was
wrong, but he didn't know what.

"Dana, don't do this," Xander begged her. He knew if
she went out with Marv something would happen to her,
something bad.

"Why?" Dana's unease as to what was wrong was turning
into anger, just like her father. Rage would slip in
and she would do things she didn't want to do.

"Just trust me," Xander looking around, "there's
something not right about him. Hellmouthy."

"Oh," Dana said with a shake of her head,
"Hellmouthy? Are you sure? Maybe it's that you want me
for yourself? I know how you feel about me. But I
don't feel that way about you. So please, if
you value our friendship, you'll back off and let me
have a life or you'll need a new best friend. Make a
whole bunch of new friends seeing as you only got me
here." As Dana said that it felt so wrong, like
someone else was talking for her, or at least giving
her the ideas, it didn't feel like that came from her.
"This is so not about me!" What she had said hurt him,
caused him to think once again about the blonde Slayer
in Sunnydale. How she felt about him and how he had
felt about her. There was no way that he would go
through that again.

"Well, it's not about me. I know what I want and how
I can get it. And I am very sorry it's not you. So
please back off, dude."

"Yeah," a voice behind him said. "Back off, dude."

Turning around there was Marv. He pushed Xander aside
and put his arms around Dana's shoulders. "You ready,
babe?" Marv asked looking at Xander the whole time. He
didn't know what was going on, it had the smell of
magic, but he was not going to turn down a meal like
Dana, he could smell she was pure, a virgin. And that
was a meal that was really hard to come by lately.

Xander just stood there. A growl building deep in his
chest. If either Dana or Marv heard it they gave no
sign, and if they had looked back at Xander they would
have seen him seem to grow bigger with his eyes
flashing green. Then seem to sink back into himself.
After that he just turned an walked to his bike. He
had decided he was not going to be a slayer's bitch toy
again.

End Flashback

Moony's Strip Club

Xander sat in the back of the club, he was too young
to go out front of the club and watch the girls dance.

But he could sit in the back, the girls told the
managers that he was Darla's little brother, so they
okayed him staying. A few had been a little weirded
out that the brother of a stripper would want to watch
his sister dance, and by the flirting that went on
between them.
Tonight the girls were going all out in the club.
They would call men that they liked from the area and
would have them meet at the club. And tonight they had
hit the motherload of men. It looked to be a long
night alone for him. It had happened once or twice so
far. With luck it would keep happening. He liked the
girls but they got to him a lot. The only guy with
three horny girls that lived the clothing optional
life style.

As he sat in the backroom he heard someone come down
the hall. And stop outside the room he was sitting in.

Then the door opened. There stood one of the girls
that worked here, she was crying. A bruise on her
face.

"Hey," Xander began, "What happened?"

"Nothing," she said too fast. Then she walked over to
one of the lockers and started to clean it out.

"You sure?" The smell of fear strong on her. He
looked at her locker door. 'Cheri' was written on
the door.

"Yes, just had a fight with my boyfriend."

"Some fight, Cheri," Xander said walking toward her.

"How?" Then looking at Xander "He only does this
when I am bad," she said in a small voice. Xander
stood taller to the girl, it seemed that he just grew
bigger.

His eyes flashed green, then turned darker. As he
remembered about his father, only doing things to
him because he was bad. Xander leaned into the girl
and took a deep sniff of her, she drew back from him,
fear rising stronger in her. This kid wasn't normal,
she had seen some of the strippers in St. Louis act this
way. You just backed away and they left you alone.

There got it, Xander thought. As he caught the
man's scent on the girl.
"You stay here," Xander said looking at her. "I'll
be back."

With that Xander took off out the door at a trot.
If anyone had seen him moving down the hallway they
would not have been able to tell if it had been
human or animal. The muscles just didn't seem to move in
their normal order. In the back parking lot he found
him.

A big, balding fat guy with sweat stains on his
shirt. A beer in one hand. He was leaning against a beat up
car.

"Hey, you waiting for Cheri?" Xander asked.

"Yea, what's it to you?" Xander could smell the
stench of stale beer and sex on the guy.

"She's a nice girl."

"She's a whore that's holding out on me," he said,
standing up, and looking at the young kid standing
in front of him. He didn't notice that a small growl was
coming from the kid. "She should have been out earning
some money at a frat party, instead she's here."

"So she wants to dance for the men here instead of a
party, big deal."

"Not dance, boy, spread those legs of hers."

Xander just looked down. Then with a brutal side
kick to the man knee, causing him to go down. The
man fumbled at his waist band. Pulling out a pistol, and
started to aim and were Xander was only to find him
gone. Pulling himself the guy looked around.

"Come out, you fuck!" he screamed out looking
around. He heard a growling noise all around him. Then a
short bark that was almost a laugh. He put all his
weight on his good leg, trying to look in every direction
at one time. Again, that laugh, he had heard it
before. Some nature show, about hyenas came to him. The freak hada hyena out here. Fuck the girl, I'm out of here. Then he
backed up to his car.

The shadows seemed to move around him, causing him
to spin toward it. Only made him put too much weight
on his damaged knee, causing it to give out and down he
went. Then he heard running feet. He pulled himself
up just in time to see a figure jumping at him. Landing
on top of him knocking the gun away from them.

"You know I hate bullies," Xander told the man, as
he pulled him up. Looking at him deep in his eyes.
"And drunks." With a fast strike knocked him back to the
ground. Then drew back and kicked him in the
mid-section, causing the man to lift off the ground,
and all the air to rush out of his lungs. Several
cracks of rupturing ribs were audible, along with a
painful scream.

"Did you know that I lived in a house with two
drunks?" he continued, still in a clam voice. Then
he kicked the guy again. "I never could fight back. I mean how? I
had nowhere to go. And I would lose my friends, but now
I don't have to worry about that, got no friends to
lose. So I can fight back." He kicked the guy a few
more times. "Yes, I know you didn't do anything to me. But like
I said, I just hate, bullies." Looking down the man, Xander
noticed he was out like a light.

Xander didn't know how long he had been out. Was it
the first kick or the third? Bending down, Xander
started to go through his pockets. Xander found and took the
man's wallet, a switchblade knife and two clips for the pistol.
Inside the wallet was two thousand dollars. He then
went over to the pistol and picked it up. It was a Desert Eagle .50.

Looking back at the man, knowing full well he
couldn't answer, Xander asked, "What the hell did you need a gun
like this for, you sick fuck?"

He turned to walk back into the club. Cheri was
sitting in the changing room. She looked up as
Xander walked in.

"Here," Xander said, handing her the money, "thedick's in the back. You need to get away from him."

"But," Cherri said looking at the ground, "He's good
for me. Takes care of me."

"Cheri, he's a bully and is pimping you out."

"No, I am not a whore!" fire in her eyes. "I just
like having a good time."

"Well, he gets paid for your good time." Xander
looked Cheri in the eyes. Cheri looked at the money,
she believed Xander. But this was all she knew.

"What can I do?" she asked in a small voice.

"Anything you want, take the money, it's not much
but it's a start." Xander kneeled down in front of
her. "It's not a lot, keep dancing if you want. But get
away from guys like that, they're users. Go find a
home."

"I can't go back there. Not now."

"Yes, you can. It will be hard, but you can do it."
He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. Then
got up and walked out. At the door, he turned.
"Sometimes, home is all you got, I lost mine, don't
lose yours." With that he left and was on his way out,
he told the bartender to tell the girls he was going to the
hotel.

He had enough of the fun for the night.

Boston, Omega control

Harry was having a wonderful day; the punk was gone.
Sure his daughter was broken up about it, but hell,
she was out on a date with that Marv guy last night.
Got home a little late, but as long as she was away from
that troublemaker. It was ok, she wouldn't do it
again. He was researching some reports on some
terrorist cells. To see if they had made anyin-roads into the USA. Helen was working over on the
top floor, working on the same thing. But while he
was looking at arms deals, she was working from the
finance point of view.

He noticed that Mr. Trilby was in his office across
the way, and inside was his daughter. What's Dana
doing here? Harry thought.

Inside Trilby's office

"I couldn't talk to anyone else," Dana was saying.

"Ok, so you killed this boy?" Trilby asked, he was
tying to get the facts straight on this.

"Yes, sir," Dana replied in a small voice.

"This was after he raped you?" You could hear the
rage in his voice, the thought of someone doing that
to this young woman.

"Yes, no... it wasn't rape," Dana sat back confused,
"I didn't want it to be him, but someone messed with
my mind and I forgot - about Xander. He was the one I
wanted to be my first."

"So someone altered you mind? Could it have been
Xander trying to do something and he ran away
because it didn't work?"

"No, Xander would never do anything like that!" Dana
got up and started to pace the office. "Xander cares
for me. He would never do something like that, he
even left me his bike. Besides, he already had me, what
would he need to mess with my mind for?"

"Ok," Spence said. The kid's in the wind, that was
unfortunate. He would have to make a few calls
about that. The boy knew too much to be left on the
street.

"Can you help me find Xander?" Dana said with ahopeful voice.

"Yes, I'll see what I can do about it," Trilby
paused. "What did you do with the body?"

"I hid it." Her voice going went lower, not looking
up.

"Ok, I'll handle it." He had got a report this
morning from some Doctor Wash or Walsh something
that had information on the Slayer and demons.

Somewhere on the road

The girls were sleeping while Xander drove. They had
a day or two to reach their next job. Lisa and Darla
had spent the day calling people to meet them at the
club. And it looked to be another big night. Xander
was feeling out of sorts, his mood wasn't the best, but
he tried not to show it to the girls. They didn't
deserve it, they had been good to him. Better than
most people. And it was fun when they stopped to eat
somewhere. All eyes were on them the entire time
they were there. And Xander would eat it up, all the
years as the clown and the nerd were gone. He was
this darkly handsome man traveling with three beautiful
women, some of the waitresses would give him their
numbers before he would leave. It was nice for a
change. He had told the girls his 18th birthday was
coming in a few days. He was told they would take
care of the party, the only thing for him to bring
would be his stamina: he would have a night he could not
forget.

The next day, after the girls got off from the club,
they headed back to the hotel. Xander had already
left and was sleeping when they pulled themselves in the
door. A few minutes later there was a pounding on
the door. Lisa and Debbie had already passed out on
one of the beds, while Darla was in the shower. So
Xander pulled himself to the door. Outside where three verydrunk collage boys. Linemen from the local school's
football team, looking for the girls.

"Hey," Xander started, "they're off the clock. Come
back in the morning. They have a show at lunch
before we leave."

"Listen, little guy," the biggest one said, a
lustful grin on his face, "Get out of the way, they owe more
than a dance after all the money we gave them."

"Guys, I just got to bed, I've been driving all day.
Come back in the morning. The girls will talk to you
then." He started to close the door. But the big man
pushed it back open.

"We are not here to talk. We paid them enough, it's
time for them to spread those legs."

"I really wish you hadn't said that," Xander said.
Before the guys knew what was happening, he was on
them. These girls were not whores. And no one was
going to treat them that way. The fight was short
and brutal. The three drunks were alive when he
finished them, but that was all that could
be said about them. He had been cranky all day, and
the fight had helped. The hotel manger would say
nothing about what happened to the guys. Just one look
at Xander while the fight was going on was enough for
him to know that he didn't see anything that night.

When Xander had returned to the hotel room. Lisa and
Debbie still had not woken up. He had thought that
the fighting would have awoken them, but that was not
the case. Cuddled up together, they were sleeping in
their clothes. Xander just crawled back in bed and was
asleep before Darla was out of the shower.

The next morning

Xander felt something soft on his chest. It was that
feeling that woke him up, he was laying on his bed,
and a soft weight was on his chest. He looked up atthe bed across from him. There Debbie and Lisa were
watching him.

"So stud," Lisa said humor thick in her voice, while
Debbie was just smiling, "Got something to tell us?"

The first thing that went through his mind was that
they saw the fight, then the weight moved on him
again. Turning his head he saw red hair on his
shoulder. Red hair? he thought.
Then it hit him, Darla's in bed with me!

"Darla's in bed with me?" he said at the same time
as he thought it.

"Yep, she is," Debbie said, "looks like she got her
own teddy bear."

"Or would that be a Xander bear?" Lisa added.

"Guys, guys, why is Darla in bed with me?" Xander
asked, as far as he knew she wanted to sleep on the
cot. The girls decided that is was only fair that they
switch off so Xander would get the bed sometimes. And
tonight was Darla's turn on the cot.

"I don't know, lets ask her," Lisa said. "Yo! You
redheaded hussy, wake up!"

The redhead in question only mumbled and slid
further under the cover, while grabbing tighter on
onto Xander.

"Not letting my Xandybear go!" Darla said as she
snuggled into him.

"XandyBear?" Xander and the two other girls said at
the same time.

"No sex," Lisa said, "Rule one, remmber?"

"Hey," Xander said, "No sex guy here. She's the one
that crawled in bed with me."

Debbie looked over at Xander. Over the last week,while the girls would often go nude, Xander would
never be completely nude. He always had worn shorts at least.
And last night he had slept without a t-shirt on.

Staring at his chest. "Wish I thought of that
first," Debbie said.

"Well, join us," came the reply from under the
covers.

And from then on, poor Xander ended up sleeping with
beautiful strippers. Every night from then on he
would go to bed alone only to wake up with at least
one girl in bed with him. He heard everything from,
"you're warm", to "I had a bad dream," for reasons they
would be in bed with him. He thought it was just their way of
making him feel welcome with them, not that they didn't do
that all the time. What with the nude sleeping and
the walking around and just about anything else they
could find to do nude. He felt very welcome. But
none of them crossed the rule one line. No one had sex. Yet.

"The Game has taken an unexpected turn. Don't you
think?" the male being asked his counterpart.

"Yes," the female said, looking across the playing
field at him, "You altered my piece."

"No, you opened the door, I just took advantage of
it." The smile could be heard in his voice, it had
been a long time since he had be able to outdo her.

"To what end is this change that you have brought
about in him?"

"I just brought the beast and the warrior up. It's
up to him. how far they come. But it is possible
that he will become unplayable." Which was not a bad
thing from his side of the game, remove this piece and the
other would go as well.

"We will see."

The real world

Dana was sleeping, but not peacefully. She had been
dreaming all night, well not dreams, nightmares. All
her dreams this night centered on Xander. How he was
dead in an alley somewhere or that he was being hurt
by something. Then something happened in her dreams
something that hadn't happen before. She was
somewhere else, and Xander was standing in front of
her, but as he stood there were shadows moving in on him.
He looked at her and smiled, but then the shadows
rolled over him. When they pulled back a new Xander is
standing there, and this one smiles too, only now,
it's like that of a killer looking at prey.

Then a voice.

"Be the light," the female voice whispered from
nowhere.

Then a light came from behind Dana, it lit a trail
to Xander. Almost like it was showing the way.

Then she woke up.

The party

It was one hell of an evening. The owner let Xander
out on the main floor tonight. It was his birthday.
And you only turn 18 once. All the girls knew him by
now. He had met a few at other clubs while
traveling.

He had talked to all of them. And treated them like
people, not things that a lot of guys do when they
find out how they make a living. And for a few he had been bodyguards. Cheri had
even shown up. Though she no longer stripped. She had
gone home and talked to her dad, and was now getting help.
She was not going to let some guy pimp her out anymore.
But she still liked the girls she knew from the clubs and
would drop by to see them. If someone had told him a few weeksago that this would be happening, he would have called them a
liar.

The only thing he really wanted to do that night was
talk to his Wills. They had talked to each other on
every birthday that he could remember. So he hunted up a
phone.

Willow was sitting up, working on hacking away at
Boston school records. She was just taking a peek at
Xander's grades. It was his birthday and she wanted
to see if he had been good when she noticed that he
had not been to school in almost a month. She pulled
up his records; nope he wasn't out sick. Just gone.

The police were looking into it from what she could find
out in the Boston PD records, but there was a weird
flag on the file. That was in no way normal or just
police, it looked hardcore. Like something her
hacker friends in New York would write. Crash&Burn
were the best at hacking, but they also made a few
bucks writing code for computer system protection.
This was some of their work. But not their
placement.

They would not put stuff like this on someone unless
they were playing games again. She
was going to hunt them up and chat to them about it when her
phone rang.

It was Xander.

"Wills?" Xander was yelling so you could hear his
voice.

"Yes, Xander?" She heard someone yell for a beer.
"Where the hell are you?"

"Uhhh, nowhere," he said in an innocent voice, just
then in the background she heard a voice on a
intercom call out, "Give it up for Chesty Melons!"

"Xander, where are you?" As she started to type onher computer pulling up a few programs, and started
to track Xander. If he wouldn't tell her, she was
going to find out. Then go and get him.

"Nowhere important. It's just that it is my birthday
and I wanted to talk to you, Is that a crime?"

"No, not a crime. But Xander, you've been out of
school for over three weeks. I am worried about
you." As she said this, her eyes where following the
programs. It had him down to the mid west.

"Something happened. I needed to get away." She
could hear a sadness in voice, something big had
happened to her best friend.

"Xander, tell me, I'll come to you, bring you home."
She really didn't care what Oz would say, or Buffy;
her Xander was hurting, But she knew Oz would be
cool with it. Hey, he might even drive me, she
thought.

"I can't. It's just my luck. So once I work things
out, I'll be back," the lost Scooby told his redhead
friend. Only then did she hear a voice, a woman's
voice, tell Xander that the girls were ready for him,
and that he didn't need anything but his stamina.

"Well, got to go. Be seeing you, can't let the
ladies wait, they've been working up to this all
day." With that he hung up the phone. And Willow
noticed where her friend's phone call came from.
It was a place called The Candy Shop. Well, that
made sense since Xander did love his Twinkies. She
decided to wait with going to get him.

He sounded like he was hurting, and she knew when
something hurt badly, he just disappeared for a
while, then he would show up. And what badness could
happen at a Candy store?

After the phone call the party really took off. That
night the bar closed early; it had been a slow nightanyway. The owner Lindy had taken a liking to the
boy. So it became a private party tonight. She
kicked out some guys that had shown up a few hours
after Xander's phone call, they weren't drinking anyway.
Just sitting and watching the boy's party start, not
that Lindy blamed them, it was a nice table to watch. A
cute guy, three cute girls and more joining as they
sat there. Any of her girls that wanted to leave could,
but most stayed. And that night Xander really put
his Harris side to work, he drank everything and
anything. He wanted to get a certain brunette
out of his mind. And the girls did all they could. He
got put in the best seat in the house and watched all
the girls strip, got at least one lap dance from everyone.
And as the night wore one the clothes got lost by the girls.
Soon he was the only one with any clothes on.

Around 2 in the morning a girl, Lisa, thought out loud that Xander
needed his clothes off to be like the girls there - and
that he should take them off like they had. So Xander had his first
dance lesson.

"Come on you can do it!" Lisa was telling him,
getting the others in on it.

"No, I can't dance," Xander said in a drunken voice.

"Come, I'll keep this up til you do," Lisa said,
then moved over to suck on his neck.

"And that's a threat?" Xander said squirming in his
seat, "How?"

Darla moved up on the other side and stared to suck
on his neck from the other side.

"Hmmm, Xandery goodness." Darla was starting to do
something with her tongue.

"Ok, ok, I'll do it," Xander said pulling away.
"But I am not good at dancing."

Debbie, who had been watching them, asked, "Don't I
get a taste to?"
"Don't worry," Lisa said to Xander, "we will help
you."

To which a room full of girls exclaimed, "Yes!"
It was rare that a guy would do something like
this.

Darla slid over next to Debbie and kissed her.
"There, you got your Xander Taste."

"But I want it from the source," Debbie said with a
pout.

"Maybe later," Darla said to her friend, "he has to
sleep with us anyway. And we got another two weeks
to get to LA."

As Debbie started to say something, the lights went
down and Xander walked onto the stage. The girls
started with the cat calls. And that was the last thing
Xander could remember of that night.

He awoke the next morning with a hang over and no clothes,
which wasn't too bad.

The other thing wasn't bad either: he was in their
hotel room, and there were 12 girls from the club
there, and everyone was on the floor. The beds had been
pushed back and stood up against the wall and the
blankets were laid out on the floor. Xander slept
in the middle of and an all-girl pile: there were
breasts everywhere, and not a stitch of clothes on any of
them. Even he didn't have any clothes.

What the hell have I done now? he thought.

The next day at the library, Willow was sitting with
her boyfriend. Talking with the rest of the Gang.

When Xander came up in the conversation. Willow let
them know what she had found out about him missing.
Buffy was ready for a hunting down and dragging
party when Willow brought up that he had called herlast night, which caused the Slayer to stop.

"He called you?" Buffy asked in a hurt voice.

"Yes, I am his best friend in forever," Willow
explained to her.

"I know, but he could have called me too. I wanted
to wish him happy birthday too," the Slayer pouted.

"Buffy," Oz asked, "did you even know it was his
birthday?"

"Well, no, but I would have told him if he had
called."

The group looked around at each other - Buffy logic
at work.

"Buffy, I really don't think he wants to talk to
you, like ever," Cordy said from her seat next to
Jonathan.

"What? Why?" Buffy said, a panicky look on her face;
Xander not wanting to talk to her?

"The last time you talked to him, you blasted him
about being jealous of a murdering monster. Then
with the whole lie thing, he just won't talk to you at
all. Me, maybe, Willow in a heartbeat. The rest of
you guys? I don't think so. You all treated him badly."

"What do you mean by that?" Giles asked.

"He looked up to you guys, and you kept kept putting
his opinions down. Well, he's away. So live with
it!" the queen of Sunnydale told the Scoobies.
"Anyway how much do you know about Xander now?
Girlfriend's name? Whether he works?" She drew blank looks from
them. "Guys, I hardly ever talk to him, just an e-mail now
and then and I know that!"

"You get e-mail?" Buffy asked. She didn't get e-mail
either.
"Anyway I found out where he was last night," Willow
began, trying to get the conversation away from
'Xander doesn't talk to Buffy.' "He still has a
sweet tooth, he called from a place
called the The Candy Store. But why they served beer
there I don't know."

"Uhmm, Willow, were was this?" Oz asked, looking at
his girlfriend.

"Alabama, why?"

"Well, there are some clubs that are called The
Candy Store."

"Xander was drinking? Wait til I get him. With his
mom and dad he knows better than to drink!" Willow
started.

"Willow," Oz began again, "they're not just drinking
places."

Giles started to cough and clean his glasses, he had
figured out what kind of clubs Oz was talking about.
Jonathan had too, and was blushing. The girls were
looking at the guys trying to figure out what was
going on.

"Honey, they're strip clubs."

"Oh, that's why he had to go for the girls..."
Willow face went so red it looked like her hair
color had drained onto her face, even Buffy was
blushing, only Cordy wasn't. Hey, she wasn't IN the
strip club, why should she be embarrassed?

"I am going to kill him!" Willow said, "He doesn't
need to be in a place like that, he has a
girlfriend!"

Then she turned to Oz. "And how do you know about
strip clubs?"

With a upturned eyebrow, he said, "I'm I guy, it's
in the handbook."
"Guys get a handbook?" Willow asked with large
eyes.

At the same time as the Scoobies meeting

Dana walked into her godfather's office. She
sat behind his desk. He watched the small girl sit
down. He had been worried about her for weeks. That
bastard broke her heart, and now he had some
information on him for her.

"Dana," the spy master began, "We've intercepted a
phone call from Xander to his highschool friends."

Dana head jerk up to look at him. "Where is he?"

"Here's a transcript of the call," the Spy Master
said sliding over a file.

As Dana sat and read the file. There, where notes on
the side about background noises. And locations of
phone calls. Willow was at her home, in Sunnydale,
while Xander was at a club, The Candy Store? What
kind of club is named that? Then she read what kind
of club it was. What was her Xander doing at a club
like that? Then it sunk in: the spell! He didn't
know about her and him. He just thought that she
pushed him away.

He could be with someone else right now.

The way she had been. Damn, she wished she could
raise that watcher all over again.

The day after Xander left

Linda was sitting in her office when Dana stormed
in.

"What happened?" Linda asked. This week had gonereally well, the boy was out of her hair, and she
had a Slayer that acted like a Slayer.

"Xander's gone. Someone put a spell on us."

"Really what kind of spell?" Linda already had a
sinking feeling that she knew, but was pulling out
books to look.

"A forget-me spell or something," Dana said as she
tore though book after book, "We forgot we loved
each other." She saw a flicker move across her
watcher's face. She knew something, the times
together she had learned to read her watcher.

"Linda, you got something to say to me?" Dana asked
as she sat back crossing her arms across her chest.

"No nothing. Lets look here," Linda said pushing a
book in front of Dana.

"I have a question for you, Linda," Dana said,
looking at her Watcher, who was doing her best to
study a blank piece of paper. "How come you didn't
notice what was going on between me and Xander?"

"What? How could I know what's going on? I thought
you had broken it off with him."

"Nope, slammed the door in his face, is more like
it." She was still looking at her Watcher.

"Well, you're single now, you can turn your energies
to slaying rather than boys and dating."

"Wouldn't say that, I had a big date with Marv the
other night," Dana said. "You could say it was that
special night most girls want to have with the guy
they love, not under some spell that takes your
free will away." At those last parts, Linda filched
again.

"You had sex with Marv?" Linda asked, this was not
what was supposed to have happened, Dana was to
become her Slayer, not go out and have sex.
"What did you do, Linda?" Dana asked, "It's written
all over your face. Just tell me."

Linda sat back, looked at her books one more time.
Then told Dana everything she did, the cookies, the
spells and what Travers told her to do. Dana
reacted much as expected. She blew through the roof,
cussed Linda and every other Watcher she had heard
or read about. Slayers were girls, not weapons, not
playthings, but people. She wanted nothing to do with Linda again.

End Flashback

"So he was at a strip club?" She knew if godfather
had wanted, agents would have been on the ground
there in lest time than it took to think. "Was he
alone?"

"No," sliding over some pictures taken through a
window. On them was Xander, and three women. The
women were kissing on her Xander, and he was just
smiling, in front of him was a cake.

His birthday, was two days ago.

"So where is he now?"

"Gone." Tribly looked a little put out by that. How
one teenage boy and three strippers could just up
and disappear on them again and again was beyond
him.

"Mr. Tribly," Dana began. "I want to thank you for
hunting down Xander, but why are you doing this?"

"Young Xander here, knows about who we are and what
we do, he knows things about your father that no one
outside of a sealed office in the white house knows.
He needs to be brought in, or taken out I want him
in. He could be a great agent in time, he has some
great qualifications."

"So what can I do?" Dana asked.
"I did some checking on the Slayer thing. It's real."

To which Dana snorted; she could have told him that.

"I want you to work for me. I'll be sending you to
Sunnydale soon. Your mom and dad will not be with
you. But you will be in contact with them and me.
Only us. If and when Xander shows up, you bring him
in. If he will not come, you call me, I will take
care of it."

The next morning

The swing Dana was sitting on, moved a little as her
mom walked to stand beside her.

"Hey, honey," Helen asked looking at her daughter,
"How are you doing?"

"Just peachy." Dana hadn't even looked up at her
mom.

"He's gone," Helen said not unkindly, "He will turn
up when he wants to be found."

"It's my fault, mom."

"No, it's that Linda's, she did it to you, you had
no control over it."

"Mom," Dana started tears in her eyes, "I did a bad
thing, Xander tried to warn me, but I wouldn't
listen. Now he's gone."

"Dana," Her mother said pulling Dana closer, "You
can't blame yourself for what happened. You had no
control over it."

"But I did mom, I said those things to him, me no
one else was there. It came from me. It wasn't me
talking, but it was. Do you understand? And I can't make
it better til I find him."
"Dana, Xander loves you, he told you that in his
note. He'll turn up and you can straighten it out with
him."

"How can I mom?" Dana looking into her mom, for her
to make in all better, "I don't even understand how I
feel about him most of the time, I love him. But if he
loved me how could he just walk away?"

"Honey, I don't know," Helen said her daughter was
hurting so much and she couldn't fix it for Dana, "When
you find him, and you will, you have to talk to him.
Find out the why and try again, if you want to, you
might not, he might not. But if you love him you have
to try."

A week later

LA, Xander stood by and watched the girls drive off.
He had had a fun couple of months with them. Now he
was alone again. They where to sell the chevy and
get plane tickets home. It was the normal routine
for them.

Then in a few months start all over again. In the
last months he was treated like part of a family
with them, and in just about every strip club from
one coast to the other was at least one girl that he had
saved or talked into doing something that turned out
good for them, from dating a guy to buying a home. And each
one left a phone number and address for him to stop
by sometimes. Even a few wanted more from him as
soon as he was legal. Not that that would happen
soon. He was kind of burned out on girls. Not in a gay way
mind you, just that he didn't want to be hurt again.
It was too much to take. This trip did help him
understand that not all women were bad, just the
ones he wanted.

School was still in; he guessed that he could get a
GED and start work somewhere. He had enough money to
last a few months, then it was back to work. He was
not going back to Boston. Or to his parents. Thoseparts of his life were over. He had Soldier Guy and
the Hyena in his head. Both wanted to hunt, to
track. Both for different reasons. But the need was there.
And he was in LA, Buffy was from around here, and
there were vampires then. Might be some now. So he went in
search of prey.