This is rated "T"for a reason. Violence, implied and attempted sexual assault, a favorite character turned into a vicious vampire, and language. If you can't handle those things, don't read any farther.
This is not like my usual happy fluff. You have been warned.
This story takes place during Season Four, around and during the following episodes: "The Harsh Light of Day," "Wild at Heart," "The Initiative," and "Hush." Assume the other episodes, minus Anya and Xander, take place as shown.
None of the characters belong to me, they all belong to Joss and ME. I'm just taking them out to play.
Homecoming
Chapter 2
Willow walked sad-faced through the dark campus, too caught up in grief to notice anything around her. She walked almost directly into someone, and looked up.
At Xander.
"Xander?" she managed to stammer out, her voice a squeak. "We thought you were dead."
Xander chuckled. "I am, sweet Willow." He vamped out, clamping a hand over her mouth before she could scream. A quick blow to the back of the neck and she was unconscious. He swung her into his arms, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and carried her away.
He failed to notice the black-clad figure hiding in the bushes.
Willow woke to find herself tied spread-eagled to a bed, stripped naked. The room was large, and she looked up at a ceiling crossed with pipes. Warehouse, she thought to herself, why was she in a warehouse? Why was she tied up?
Xander! she remembered. Xander had shown up, he had turned into a vampire. He had hit her!
She struggled against the ropes, drawing a deep chuckle from the end of the bed. Raising her head, she saw Xander watching her. She felt the blood rush to her face as his eyes explored her body.
"Hello, Willow," he said softly. Walking along the side of the bed, he ran his ice cold hand up her bare leg, from the ropes lashed to her ankle to her thigh.
"Don't," she gasped.
"Oh, but I think I will," he said. His hand was on her stomach now, and she tried desperately to twist away from him.
"Please, Xander, stop," she begged.
"Very nice," he said, eyes partially closed with pleasure as he touched her. "Do you know how long I've wanted this? Since Spike turned me, all I've wanted was you. Now I'll have you. As many times as I want, as long as I want. And when you beg me for death, I'll oblige. And I'll make you mine for eternity."
Willow's eyes were getting wider and wider as he spoke. "You're going to turn me?" she squeaked.
His hands were at her breasts now, and she whimpered in pain as he squeezed.
"Oh, yes, sweet Willow," he said. "You'll be mine. Forever and ever. But first, I'm going to make you scream. And scream and scream and scream. No one will hear you here. I've been practicing the last few years, you know. I know ways to make girls scream that you can't even imagine."
He lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her brutally. Laughing when she tried to bite him or twist away him.
Willow was quickly moving toward terror. What was she going to do? What could she do? Would Buffy find her? Maybe Oz…
Then she remembered. Oz was gone.
Did it really matter now if she lived or died?
Willow watched panic-stricken as Xander stripped off his black T-shirt, revealing a well muscled, pale chest. His hands were on his belt, and she jerked desperately at the ropes, making him laugh again.
She might not want to live without Oz, but she didn't want to die like this.
A noise. A scraping noise from somewhere, somewhere close. Xander frowned.
"Don't go away," he told her, smiling.
Still shirtless, he left the room.
Willow panted in desperation as she struggled with the ropes. What should she do? Suddenly, as if a bucket of ice water had hit her in the face, she remembered.
Magic.
She glanced frantically around her, spotting a jagged edged dagger lying on the table next to the bed. She refused to think about what it might be there for, concentrating instead in using her mind to lift it. It floated up slowly, quivering.
Calm, Willow, she told herself. If she got too excited, she might impale her own hand. Slowing her breathing, she guided the dagger to the ropes around her wrist, commanding it to saw at them.
"Oh, ho," Xander's voice said. The dagger fell to the bed when her concentration broke. "Someone's been practicing the dark arts, have they?"
"I hate to have to gag you, or knock you out," he said, pouting in a way that was so much like the Xander she knew that her heart turned over. "It's much less fun if you don't scream."
Anger roared into her heart, and she barked a command that sent the dagger flying across the room, where it embedded itself in Xander's shoulder. He roared in pain and anger, leapt at her, hand raised to strike her.
And then all Hell broke loose.
The room was suddenly full of men in black clothing, carrying weapons. Two of them tackled Xander to the floor, struggling with him. Another commando stripped off his black sweater and threw it over Willow before untying the ropes that secured her to the bed.
Willow huddled against to the headboard, sweater wrapped around her, while the men, whoever they were, fought with Xander.
It took all four of them, and two taser blasts, to knock out the vampire. One of the commandos levered the dagger out of Xander's shoulder and stuck it into a holster at his belt.
"Are you all right, W…Miss?" asked the commando who had untied her. His voice sounded familiar, but Willow was shaking with shock and she couldn't process who it could be. The strange man wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed, reminding her of the way Xander, the Xander she had known and loved, had held her when she cried long ago. And how Oz had held her much more recently.
Willow's clothes had been ripped off her with such violence that they were unusable. Riley discovered them in a corner when Willow finally stopped crying. Even her underwear had been shredded. He helped her pull the sweater on over her head, looking away carefully. Luckily, Willow was short, and he was tall, so his sweater covered her almost to the knees. Her shoes were unharmed, and he slipped those on her bare feet.
Willow just sat, pale, staring at the vampire as his arms and legs were lashed together and he was carried away. She seemed smaller, diminished somehow, Riley thought. He knew Oz was gone, and he had gathered from her sobbed words that she somehow knew this vampire, that he had been a friend at some point in her life.
Some friend, Riley thought to himself.
He looked around at the room, obviously prepared with care for this occasion. Dark drapes over all the windows, the bed with the ropes attached. He only hoped Willow hadn't seen the collection of knives and metal tipped whips in the other room.
"What will you do with him?" Willow asked, looking up at his still masked face.
"He'll be given to the authorities, Miss. I'm sure they'll want a statement from you," Riley said. He tried to disguise his voice, but she frowned at him as if trying to work through a puzzle.
"He's not just some kind of crazed serial killer rapist person," she said dully, turning her gaze back to the door where the other men had disappeared with the trussed up vampire. "He's a vampire."
Riley was startled. How could she know that?
"I grew up in Sunnydale, you know," she said, now staring at her clenched hands. "You don't grow up here, and know the Slay…the lay of the land, without knowing about the vampires."
Riley wondered what she was going to say when she changed her words so abruptly. But he didn't want to get into a long conversation with her and chance her recognizing his voice.
"Let's get you back to your dorm," he said.
