17619 White Oak Drive Sunnydale, November 4th 1997
After Angel left, Xander finished watching IT then did some homework and fixed himself a quick dinner. He was very distracted, though...
{ A robot cowboy. I KILLED people while I was possessed by a Robbie the Robot! And yet, I can't remember any of it? How? And more importantly, WHY? }
Unable to figure it out, Xander yawned and eventually fall asleep on the bed. He started to dream...
In the dream, he was in the Old West dressed as a cowboy. Well, he was dressed in the same clothes he'd worn to the International Dance a few weeks ago, anyway. Good enough...
"Hello, Xander!" a very familiar male voice said, sounding amused.
Xander turned around around in shock to see the robot cowboy himself - the Gunslinger. Naturally, it has his face. "Why are you here?"
"I took over your body, fool. Draw!"
Time almost seemed frozen as the Gunslinger drew his gun. Xander did the same, but he was slower than the bad guy. And he knew it, which was why he jumped out of the way, as the Gunslinger opened fire.
The Gunslinger's bullets perforated a nearby barrel, as water poured out. Ignoring that, Xander aimed almost blindly and then opened fire himself. Unfortunately, he missed the bad guy completely - but the bullets hit another barrel of some sort. It must have been full of dynamite, as the barrel blew up and the Gunslinger caught on fire!
The robot's human-looking flesh and clothes burned, its face melting to show the intricate circuitry underneath. But that didn't stop the whacked-out android - the Gunslinger came at him, firing his gun again!
"Oh shit!" Xander dived out of the way, only just in time. Spotting the barrel of water from before, Harris grabbed it and threw it at the bad guy. The Gunslinger got splashed - which put out the flames, but also had another effect. Namely, the robot stopped moving and began to smoke, before it collapsed to the ground with a thud.
The dream ended as Xander jerked up with a freaked look on his face. "What the frack?!"
Sunnydale High School, November 5th 1997
The next morning at the school library, Xander wasn't too happy with the Scobby gang. "Okay, we need to talk."
"About what?" Willow asked, looking concerned.
"I know, okay? Angel came over to my house last night, and told me what happened during Halloween. You guys should have told me!" he said with a heavy sigh.
"We wanted to tell you, Xander!" Buffy insisted, wishing she's told him instead of Angel.
Oz sat at the table, not saying anything. Willow didn't say word either. Cordelia looked around at everyone and opened her mouth to say something, but then -
"I told everyone not to tell you, Xander," Giles said while wiping his glasses. "And before you ask why, nothing good comes from knowing what happens after being possessed, boy. You can trust me on this."
"You still should have told me, Giles," Harris replied, before he sat down in a nearby chair - trying to cool down. Xander wasn't sure if he should mention what Angel had said about the DELOS cover-up, but eventually decided not to. If the vampire wanted people (and for people, that meant Buffy) to know, he would have said something himself by now.
Suddenly wanting to be alone, Xander got up from the chair and headed for the library doors. Willow tried to stop him but he just told her, "Don't, Willow, I need to be by myself right now. I have a lot on my mind." He then exited the library without another word or a look back.
"Way to go, guys!" Cordy said bitingly. "Why did I even listen to you, Giles? He's right, you should have told him!" She left immediately herself.
DELOS lab, Westworld facility 1999
Nearly 18 months later, Jareth was putting the finishing touches into making the Gunslinger the perfect killing machine. Ethan watched as the demon also uploaded data into the CPU of the Angel-lookalike robot. This was so the Angel robot would have the real Angel's fighting skills, but be ten times more powerful and deadly.
Ethan still didn't think that was a good idea - making a minion so powerful that it would be an impossible enemy to defeat if it ever went rogue. Still, he was smart enough not to point that out to Jareth - the demon had a vile temper when he was riled up. Suddenly, it occurred to the chaos mage to wonder why Jareth had removed most of Xander's memory, so long ago. "Why get rid of Xander Harris' memory of Halloween, Jareth?"
"That boy was earmarked for something special by the Powers, Ethan. I may be powerful, but I'm not *that* powerful - and I'm not stupid enough to directly interfere with things that have Power, capital P, either."
This intrigued Ethan. "Something special, you say? What?"
"I don't know, and I don't care. I wouldn't be surprised if the plans concerning Harris failed, though - there have been rumors about the vampire with a soul losing his original purpose. Never mind - the whole point of all this, Ethan, is to kill that pesky Slayer, after all."
"Why not use the robot versions of Willow Rosenberg or Daniel Osbourne to kill the Slayer? And why wait so long?"
"Because it did not serve my interests to facilitate the Apocalypse - and those androids were made to be spies, that's all..." Jareth laughed, darkly evil.
Somewhere in Sunnydale, November 14th 1997
That night, Spike and his minions started digging close to the local Doublemeat Palace. The minions had brought the digging equipment and ground radar to find the Gem of Amara.
Instead of focusing on using the du Lac Cross and summoning the Order of Taraka, Spike been searching for the Gem to heal Drusilla. It went against his nature to do so, but Spike had heeded Dru's advice to lay low so the Slayer didn't show up and try to stop him. Still, it looked like that was about to pay off...
The ground radar picked up something buried far underground, and beeped loudly. Spike looked at the screen and told the minions, "Start digging 'ere, now!"
The undead started up their drills, digging through the ground. Some of the minions kept watch to make sure none of the blood bags in police uniform interfered. Spike ignored them - he was too focused on his sire, hopefully soon she would be restored to health!
Many hours later, the undead found a buried tomb - or maybe it was a crypt? - full with all kinds of treasures. The minions climbed down into the tomb, following Spike and Dru.
"We're rich!" said a particularly stupid minion, grabbing some of the valuables and putting them into his jacket pockets. The other minions quickly joined him, taking anything that looked like it was worth a buck.
Spike ignored them as he looked for the Gem of Amara, before abruptly snapping at the minions, "OY! Bloody gits, focus!"
"Over here, dear heart," Dru muttered, dragging Spike by the wrist over towards a large green gem in an ornate necklace around the neck of a skeleton.
"Is that it, luv?" Spike said excitedly.
"Nooooo..." Drusilla said disappointedly, before she perked up. "There!"
Spike spotted the small brass ring with the green gem she was pointing at, before he grabbed it and put it on the ring finger of her left hand. At once, Drusilla straightened up and her body glowed slightly, before she vamped out. "Spoike! It worked! I'm back!"
Spike let out a huge whoop of joy, before grabbing and kissing his undead girlfriend. "Let's pain this entire bleedin' town red with blood, pet! Starting with the Slayer, and her little friends!"
Not all that far away at her gallery, Joyce met with a killer robot masquerading as "Ted Buchanan"...