Sympathy part 2/?

Disclaimer: I own damn little, and it doesn't include BtVS.
Feedback: Please.
Band This was Written To: CCR.
For: Maia and Pol. My two favorite ladies.

She stood there for a moment or two trying to collect her thoughts.

Xander… Xander is… Her mind shied away from the implications.

Finally snapping out of her self induced daze she realized that a: Xander/Lucifer was already almost a block away, and b: Buffy was… >OhMyGodBuffyIsOutHereDressedAsAEighteenthCenturyLadyAndSheWon'tBeAbleToDefendHerself>

Options were weighed and quickly discarded.

She ran.

It was kind of helpful that she didn't need to worry about running into things, as she simply went through any obstacle in her path.

"Xan… Uhmm… Mr. Devil sir, do you think you could help me?"

He turned away from the rapidly fleeing Vampires and cocked his head slightly to the side while regarding her. "Excuse me? Who did you just refer to me as?"

Willow's brain rapidly went into overdrive as she reviewed exactly what she'd just asked and who she'd asked it to.

"I'm sorry Mr. Lucifer sir…"

The being formerly known as Xander laughed for a moment and then smiled at her, his face lighting up as he did so. "It is alright Miss Rosenburg. This time."

"Uhmm… Thank you?" she said timidly. The person in front of her was not someone she wished to antagonize.

"I believe you were going to inquire of me a favor?"

"Well, you see… Buffy is somewhere out here in all this."

"Ah. Yes. Miss Summers, the Slayer. My… host is quite attached to her it seems." He stood there musing for a moment. "It's not as if she's the best of the lot… Oh well, it's not as if she's the worst Slayer ever either." He half mumbled to himself. "Add in the fact that her paramour will no doubt be sulking away somewhere and doing nothing of any importance…" He nodded once to himself and then started walking briskly away. "Well? Do come on then Miss Rosenburg, Let us fetch Miss Summers away from the evils that are the Twentieth Century."

"Oh! You know what she turned into?" Willow asked as she hurried to keep up with him.

"As I said before, You'd be surprised at the things I know."

It was a terror filled thirty minutes for the ghostly redhead as they made their way into the industrial section of Sunnydale. Willow also found herself being amazed at the fact that her companion continued to return to normality any and all children that they came across while killing every real Vampire and Demon.

"Uhmm.. Not that I'm complaining 'cause like I'm really not, but why are you…?" Her voice trailed off as she gestured at his obvious actions.

"Why am I doing what I'm doing, Miss Rosenburg? Again, as I have said before, I have received some bad press for quite a long time. Since St. Jerome in fact. Regardless of what some may believe, I am not the Christian Devil."

Willow stopped dead in her tracks for a moment. "Y-You're not?"

"No Miss Rosenburg, I am not."

"Oh." There wasn't really anything else for her to say at that moment.

"Ah… There you are Miss Summers." Lucifer stepped over the liquefying body of a G'narrl Demon as he strode forward toward a cowering and crying Buffy who was held tightly by one William the Bloody.

Willow hung back not able to move as she watched the scene unfold before her.

"Ello Mate, wotcha think you're doin?" Spike was a bit concerned for two reasons.

A: Seeing as how the friend of his soon to be third Slayer feast was obviously putting out some vibes that made him want to scream and run away, and

B: Drusilla had just got done screaming and running away as soon as she'd seen the Slayer's friend.

Oh well, at least he still had his hands around the Slayer's throat.

Correction, he did have his hands around the Slayer's throat.

One moment he had her, the next moment he was the one being held up off the ground by the throat, an almost tangible aura starting to burn around his assailant.

"Goodbye Willia…" He cocked his head to the side as if listening to someone far off in the distance. Still holding the struggling Vampire off the ground, his aura collapsed back in on itself. "You've got to be kidding me!" Xander/Lucifer shouted to the sky. "Well, would you at least tell me why?"

A pause

"No shit brother, 'I' never claimed to be omniscient, remember?"

Another pause.

"Yea, yea, screw you too."

Xanderpulled his arm back and literally threw Spike twenty feet where he meet an abrupt stoping point by impacting a wall. The sounds of bones breaking were cleanly heard in the crisp night air.

"What?!" He yelled again into the sky. "Screw you. You asked me to let him go, I let him go. You said not to kill him and I didn't. It's not my fault if the Morning Sun kills him or not…"

Yet another pause.

"Yea, it was a bad pun. Tough shit. My host is an influence on me, what can I say?"

Turning away from the now feebly crawling Vampire he made his way back towards the Lady and the Ghost.

"Uhmmm…" Willow started.

"Don't ask." He almost snarled at her as he gathered the almost comatose Slayer in his arms and started walking back the way they'd come.

After walking for a few minutes he added. "Be thankful you are a single child Miss Rosenburg. Family can be a pain in the ass."

"Oh." She seemed to be saying that a bit this evening. Then the reality of what he'd said took effect "OH!" Yep, that was definitely the word to use. "Uhmmm…Now what are we going to do?" she finally added.

"You and Miss Summers here will be staying with her Watcher at the school, while I have a discussion with a man about calling on Gods and the state of his soul."

The last part of his comment made Willow shiver in spite of herself.

end part 2

QSK