Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Thanks to Oxnate for beta-reading. Any mistakes left are mine and my choice.

This Year's Boy

By Kylia

Chapter 10: Upsides

February 25th, 2000

Low-Rent Apartment Complex, Los Angeles

Xander had heard of some whacky drugs in the world, and he had to say, Orpheus took the cake - the whole triple-layered absolutely absurd cake with the fancy pink decorations on white frosting or whatever.

Shoot up and you only get high when you feed yourself to a vampire? And then of course in following up on that line of questioning, he'd found out that there were actually places people could go to pay to get bitten by a vampire. Not just in L.A. but in Sunnydale, no less!

Even more surprising that Giles had known all about it - the whole Council had - and had never done anything about it, or even mentioned it as a thing. Giles had claimed that the Council considered such places a very low priority, given the nonlethal nature of the business.

Once he got his body back and this was all sorted out, Xander was going to make a bunch of homemade molotov cocktails and burn the place down to the ground during broad daylight.

Well, maybe get Buffy to go in and make sure there were no humans sleeping off a suckjob or whatever the hell you call paying a vampire to drink your blood.

Objectively, Xander knew that it was probably about as harmless as anything involving a vampire could be, but the whole thing was way too close to those goth vampire wannabe posers back in Junior year for comfort.

And I'll bet once in a while a vampire goes too far and kills someone anyway. Especially in a place like Sunnydale.

When you got right down to it, Xander had absolutely zero interest in giving any benefit of the doubt to any vampire. Not counting Angel, and that was only by the barest technicality of having a soul. And even then, Dead Boy only got a little bit of that.

But all that was for later because right now, there was an Orpheus dealer - no, sorry, drug kingpin -to take alive. Well, undead.

The group had split up - Angel, Wes, and Cordelia had gone with that Collins guy to capture the deceptively named 'Ed', while Buffy, Giles, and Willow had gone to deal with the Sahrvin demons just outside the city limits, accompanied by the crazy watcher goon, Weatherby.

And that left himself, with Anya, Tara and the third watcher goon, Smith. Smith, at least, didn't give Xander the vibe that he'd be as happy to shoot Xander as help him, unlike his crazy buddy or his jerk of a boss.

Tara was along for the spell to help keep the kingpin a prisoner once they got him, but according to her, she didn't have a lot of experience with the fighting, magically, or otherwise. They could work with that, but it did mean Xander was basically going into the fight alone, apart from having Smith for backup. Anya wasn't useless in a fight, but even as a demon she hadn't bothered to get into fights much when she could just teleport away as needed.

Less bad than the other two or not, Xander didn't trust the guy as far as he could have thrown him even if he didn't have Slayer Strength right now.

Xander got out of the car Smith was driving. They were a block away from the hideout, and it was broad daylight, so no immediate threat of being attacked.

"I hope this works," Xander muttered under his breath.

"Assuming all three teams capture the clients alive, it should," Anya said, sounding quite cheery at the thought. "Pretty much everything Wolfram and Hart does is in defense of their power or their cash flow."

"And three clients are enough to get them to make a trade?" Xander asked.

"Wolfram and Hart has a reputation for reliability," Anya explained. "D'Hoffryn even did some business with them occasionally, and he's very picky about the people he works with." Xander had heard that name a few times, mostly in passing - apparently he'd been her boss as a Demon. Like, in a straight up modern employer sort of way. She'd even had wish quotas she'd had to meet.

"So they don't want word to spread they just let three clients die any more than they want to lose the money," Xander could at least add two and two together, most of the time.

"Are you sure about this, Xander?" Anya asked, looking at him, a hand on his upper arm, eyes meeting his. She looked away.

"Define 'sure'?" Xander asked, forcing out a bit of nervous laughter. He took a breath after a moment, then moved one hand across his body to gently wrap around hers where it lay against his arm. It felt very different to hold Anya's hand in this body, but the basic principle was the same.

"No, I'm not really ready to go diving into a vampire nest, even in broad daylight, all by my lonesome. Plus there'll be a few humans there." And any or all of them could have guns. And with the humans, he couldn't just stake them and be done with it.

"But... we have to do it, and doing it all at once or close enough makes sense," Xander finished, taking a deep breath. He wished he'd paid more attention when Giles tried to teach Willow and Buffy about the basics of meditation, but since he had no magic power and wasn't a Slayer, the whole thing had seemed like a waste of time to him better spent snacking, trying to not get completely buried by homework or just reading a good comic book.

Jokes on me. Always the butt-monkey, one way or the other.

"Besides," he laughed, pulling his hand away from Anya's. "Borrowing Faith's body does have the advantage of making it so much easier to stake vampires." And the rush of adrenaline from a fight felt more fun too. One on one against a single vampire hadn't even felt that much of a challenge. No life or death, no real danger. Just a rush.

"It certainly does make you better at fighting," Anya agreed. "It's a pity we can't find a way for you to keep that part of things when we put you back in your body." She pursed her lips thoughtfully, "You know, there are certain spells, or potions that could be used to boost your strength-"

Xander held up a hand, making a 'na-na-na' sound to cut her off. "Let me stop you right there, Ahn," Xander smiled even as he said it, mood improving a bit as he distracted himself from what was coming up even for a moment. "If there are two flavors that mix worse than that time when I was eight when I decided to try to pour orange juice over my cereal because the milk had gone bad, it's magic and one Xander Harris."

He shook his head. "I'll count it lucky if Willow and Tara's katra spell puts me back in my body without anything going wrong." He trusted the two of them, but like he said - magic and him? Not very mixy at all.

"Just a thought," Anya shrugged cheerfully. "Anyway...if you're sure, I suppose we should get moving."

Xander nodded and he turned away, walking back towards where Smith and Tara were waiting. This whole thing really meant nothing to her, and he appreciated that she was here at all, helping out.

Tara handed him a dagger she'd borrowed from Angel's collection of weapons, a small glowing symbol on the hilt now.

"I... it took a bit of doing, but if you stab the vampire, he- he should stop moving. Paralyzed, for at least an hour," Tara said, looking away, hiding her face behind her long hair a little.

Xander took the hilt of the dagger. "Thank you." He gave her a smile. "This really has nothing to do with you, so - thanks."

"It's- it's nothing. Just a basic transference... it won't stay on the dagger forever," she stammered out, repeating sounds a few times. "That would take a lot more time. And... I- well, you're Willow's friend and I'm Willow's- I'm Willow's friend, so... I'm- I'm happy to help."

"And I'm happy to have your help," Xander nodded, sticking the dagger and it's sheath into his pocket.

"Here," Xander looked up and caught what Smith tossed before he even realized something had been thrown at him. He blinked and looked down at it, the few errant facts left from the soldier memories telling him it was kevlar body armor. A little big for him, it looked like, but it would do.

"Don't go thinking it will make you invincible, but it'll help," Smith cautioned.

"Thanks," Xander said, genuinely grateful to the guy, no sarcasm needed. He slipped it on over his torso.

"Weatherby would probably just let you get shot and render this all moot, but he's barmy, so," Smith shrugged. "This whole bloody exercise is to help you, so better to keep you alive."

"I'm touched," Xander said, now back to a bit of sarcasm. Smith put on something similar. "Do you guys go against people with guns often?"

"More often than Slayers do," Smith confirmed. "Most demons don't like guns, but the ones that do, or have human minions with guns - you've got to be prepared."

"So what sort of guards can we expect?" Xander asked. Part of him wanted to ask how often Slayers went against guys with guns. Should Buffy have a kevlar vest for those semi-rare situations? "Your boss said you guys were spying on this Victor guy?"

"Gathering intelligence," Smith corrected. "But reports say he should only have a few humans around on the exterior during the day. Norvisan and his vampires are all in the basement. That's where they make the Orpheus. He does the heroin and cocaine elsewhere, mostly all humans at those places."

"Glad we're not going there then." Xander looked down at the body armor. "This isn't exactly inconspicuous."

"Not sure your body could do inconspicuous, mate," Smith pointed out, grabbing a few pistols, sticking one in a holster under his arm and another on his belt. "Better news is no one's likely to call the LAPD once things start."

"Well, you've got the guns, so why don't you go first until we get inside," Xander made an 'after you' gesture.

Sure, he didn't think Smith would shoot him - especially not after loaning him kevlar - but he wasn't going to take any chances.

Smith shrugged and went ahead first, Xander behind him. Anya and Tara were staying a distance back, but they didn't stay with the car. Both of them had stakes and holy water.

"One man at the door here on the side, with many a few others. All told, around ten vampires in the basement," Smith explained.

"If he's some big bad kingpin, why does he have so few guys protecting him?"

"This isn't the hellmouth. Here, vampires have to at least try to stay under the radar - especially if they dabble in crimes that attract the attention of normal law enforcement. A small army would be noticed. He has dealers and enforcers, but keeping track of them can be difficult to say - a lot of the humans who distribute and sell his cocaine and heroin are more mundane criminals of existing gangs," Smith explained. They reached the building and walked around the corner, approaching the side door.

One man, wearing a long, loose T-shirt and jeans, both a bit dirty, his arms covered in tattoos, stood by the door, smoking a cigarette. He dropped it to the ground immediately and grabbed a gun from under his shirt, pointing it at them.

"Who the hell are you?" He demanded, already pulling a cell phone from his pocket.

"Someone here for your boss," Smith replied. "I'm here to make a deal, and she's my bodyguard,"

"Right. Make a deal, and she's your goddamned bodyguard." The man laughed, "And that's why you're both armored like you're fucking SWAT. I don't know who the hell you think you are, with your fancy little accent, but the boss only makes deals on his time."

"I could have you on the ground in one punch!" Xander protested, somehow feeling offended at how dismissive the idea of him being a bodyguard was. Even given that 'his' nor especially strong looking body wasn't actually his.

Though after he said it, Xander realized the thug might give him the chance to prove it, thinking it was so ridiculous, and sure enough:

"Really, bitch?" The man scoffed, and spread his arms wide, "Sure. Give it a shot-"

"Gladly," Smith pulled out his gun and fired quickly - to the thug's credit, he did react to the gun being pulled, but not quickly enough to avoid the bullet going into his thigh. He dropped to one knee on the ground, half-screaming in pain. He tried to level his gun at them and fired, but the bullet went wide and missed them both. Even as that shot ricocheted off a brick wall nearby, Smith fired again and winged his arm, making him drop his gun.

"You're lucky I tend to use shotguns," Smith replied coolly. "I was aiming for your kneecap and shoulder." He kicked the pistol on the ground away from the thug.l

"What the fuck do you want?"

"As I said, we're here for your boss," Smith replied, his British stiff upper lip shit apparently stopping him from being bothered by shooting a man.

Xander had barely had time to react - mentally and emotionally, anyway - to watching Smith deal with the guy. He'd just... shot him. Like it didn't matter.

How many humans has this guy killed?

Like... evil humans existed, yeah, hell, one of them had been Mayor of Sunnydale for a hundred years, and then that psycho bitch Walsh had tried to kill Buffy while making Frankenstein for the Digital Age.

But still.

Murder. Assault. Real crimes, and real human people - even a drug dealer's goon - getting hurt.

It was one thing to know the Council was cool with just... killing people like that.

It was something else to see it in action.

So if they'd just decided to 'kill Faith'... what, some sort of bullet to the head and dumped in a ditch situation?

"Could you take this gentleman's phone from him before he calls his boss? I'm sure his friends heard the shot and are on their way." Smith asked politely.

Xander stood there for a moment, but then he nodded and walked up to the guy, ripping the phone he was trying to dial out of his hand and dropping it on the ground, stepping on it and crushing it under his heel. The thug tried to grab his leg - but it was a simple matter to kick his hand away.

"What the-" He screamed at the force under the kick, and Xander realized he might have just fractured or broken the bone.

Well, he's a drug dealer's goon - a vampire drug dealer - so... Xander didn't find himself feeling that much sympathy for the guy.

"Shut up, and next time, find yourself a less sunlight-averse boss," Xander rolled his eyes. He approached the door and turned it - it was locked. Rather than try to search the guy for a key, he just kicked the door in, revealing the dilapidated interior of the apartment complex, but it was the stairs down to the basement that drew his attention. Pulling out a stake, Xander went first this time.

I'd really rather he goes first, but... vampires, Slayer strength... don't really have much choice.

The basement was actually in better condition than the rest of the building, from what little he'd seen on the ground floor - it was clean, and the light didn't flicker after he turned it on, pulling a cord. There was a hallway with a few doors on the sides and one on the far end.

In the car, Xander had looked at a picture of Norvisian - he was apparently only a decade old, as vampires went, but had gone from low-rent dealer and street muscle to drug kingpin in that time. He was pretty distinctive, going off of the several tattoos, including one on his neck of a howling wolf. And he was bald. So assuming he hadn't gotten tattoo removal or grown a lot of hair recently, Xander would - with any luck - recognize him.

"I don't suppose you have any idea which room the boss is in?" Xander asked Smith, but the man shook his head. "Worth a shot."

One of the doors opened and someone stepped out, a thin, kinda pretty-looking chick with long, stringy hair. She was about to say something when Xander held up the stake he'd been holding. If she was a vampire, she'd know what the score was.

Sure enough, the chick's game face came out, fangs extending. "Who do you think you are, the Slayer?" She snarled.

"For the moment, yeah, I do," Xander answered, running towards her. The vampire pulled a gun and aimed, but Xander got to her first and pushed her hand up - the move would never have worked without slayer speed, strength or reflexes, but it did work, and the bullet hit the ceiling, digging a bit into the concrete. Xander was a little too busy to notice, however, kicking the vampire in the chest and sending her into the room she'd been in - a small TV hooked up to a Nintendo console, of all things, with what Xander was pretty sure was a game of Mario Kart on it.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's Bowser stalled in a car on the grass, Xander was able to idly notice before the vampire lunged at him, trying to grab his shoulders.

"Everybody-we've got -" The woman started to scream as Xander pushed her arms away and punched her in the shoulder,sending her spinning, and cutting her off for a minute. Xander kept it up, punching again and knocking her into the wall. Her arms were up, covering her chest from an easy staking.

She's better than some of the vampires in Sunnydale. But not good enough. Xander hadn't even broken a sweat, and when the vampire tried to punch him, he ducked, punched her gut again. The blow sent her sprawling backwards and to the left - she crashed into the TV and sent it falling over, the screen shattering as it hit the floor, leaving her wide open atop the wreckage. Xander took the opening this presented, staking her in the heart, pulling the stake back at just the last second so it didn't dust with her.

I... god, I really am gonna miss this. Adrenaline or some sort of innate slayer-ness, Xander felt jazzed up just from the one kill, and ready for more.

"Chrissy! Chrissy!" A voice called out, then a snarl, and the sound of several bullets firing off - Smith shooting a vampire that quickly came down the hall, several bullet holes in the chest, but nothing stopping him. Smith was punched in the side and he staggered into the wall, but Xander was already moving. He grabbed the vampire, punched him in the face, and was about to stake him when he saw another vampire coming from the door on the far end, a gun in hand.

Undead shield, coming right up.

Grabbing the vampire by the front of his shirt, Xander held him in front of him, facing the vampire shooting at him - the body shook and the vampire, trying to fight back and escape Xander's grip,

"Harris, down," Smith suggested, and Xander took the advice, dropping to the ground in a crouch, dropping the vampire and staking him as Smith fired off several shots at the newest vampire - one connected with the vampire's skull, and left a bloody mess of his face and head.

Even being undead didn't save you from feeling that sort of pain, and Xander ran to the vampire before he could recover, stalking him too.

The door opened up into a larger room, pipes and boilers and other shit all around, but the vampires living down here had turned it into a den, mattresses and cots, and beanbag chairs all around, the place smelling like spilled blood. Xander wrinkled his nose, then swallowed as he saw not one, not two, not even three, but four vampires all walking towards him. One had a baseball bat, another had a length of what looked like rebar, and the other two had knives.

And then at the far end of the room, another vampire. But this one, even with the game face, was quite obviously Norivisan. The neck tattoo, the bald head, the facial features, even distorted, all made it clear he was the guy.

"I thought the Slayer was in that Sunnydale place, up north," the kingpin said. He pulled a revolver out of the waistband of his jeans and pointed it at Xander. "But I suppose I'm not going to complain if the chance to kill a Slayer comes my way." He fired, shooting quickly- Xander reacted the moment he saw the gun and moved, closing the door, trying to get out of the path of the shots - a bullet came through the door, missing him, but even as he pushed himself against the wall, another one got him in the chest - even with the body armor, Xander felt a blinding pain, like being hit with a baseball bat, and he staggered.

Fuckfuckfuck. It almost felt like maybe he had a broken rib now, assuming the bullet hadn't gone through the armor, and then more bullets - the third one grazed his leg, and he bit his lip bloody against all the pain.

But Xander was able to drop to the ground and avoid the other three bullets. The door, now a bullet-filled wreck, was kicked open by the vampire with the baseball bat, and his buddies joined in.

Xander jumped to his feet and held up his arm, blocking the attack with the baseball bat and feeling it reverberate. He tried to ignore the pain, and though he wasn't able to do that, he was able to fight past it, kicking at one of the vampire's legs, then grabbing the arm of the one with the rebar and wrenching his arm, making him hit another vampire in the face with the metal before wrenching it out of his hand.

But in doing so, Xander was left exposed and the vampire with the knife slashed at his face - it didn't do more than cut his cheek, but it still hurt.

Xander couldn't do more than feel the pain and try to punch the vampire with the knife, getting him the chest and sending him staggering back into the other room.

The baseball bat hit his side, but then Xander grabbed the vampire's hand, twisted and pulled the bat out of his grasp, swinging it into the vampire's head - he swung it too hard, and it broke on the vampire's skull, but the blow still knocked him down and to the right, and he crashed into another vampire, both of them falling to the ground in a jumble of limbs.

That left only one vampire still on his feet for the moment, and looking at the wrecked stump of the bat, Xander used it to hit the vampire twice across the vace, the splinters cutting into his chest and one in his eye - the vampire's hand flew up to his face and then Xander used the stump of the bat like a stake into the vampire's chest, pulling away as he was dusted.

The vampires were on their feet again, and this time, Xander was breathing heavily, feeling sweat on his face, sliding into the cut in his cheek, which made the thing hurt even more. He heard gunshots behind him, but nothing hit the vampires, and he couldn't look behind him to see what was going on.

Fighting the three vampires proved to be a difficult prospect, made more so by his injuries, but Xander was able to keep fighting, desperation paired with the abilities of a Slayer making it so he didn't stop, despite how much his body screamed for him to, his mind, terrified by the odds was half on autopilot it felt like.

But he managed to pull it off, barely. Kicking and punching, trying to knock vampires down so he'd only face one at a time, taking an opening to stake one, then another, then the third, though by the time he dusted the last one, he'd taken more punches to the face, chest and stomach than he cared to think about - the body armor had helped a bit there too, with the hits to his torso, but only so much against the amount of strength a vampire could bring to the picture.

Knees belt, Xander was looking down, breathing heavy, blood staining his pant leg, a bit more dripping down his cheek, but the shallow cut wasn't bleeding that much. Which was good, because Xander was pretty sure he was starting to feel light headed.

He sucked in a breath and stood up straight, leg shaky. Norivisan was still standing there, where he had been, arms crossed.

"Goddamnit. What I fucking get for turning my own people instead of recruiting older vampires," he grumbled. He held up the gun again, cocked the hammer, and pointed at Xander. "Lose the stake, girl," he growled.

"You'll shoot me anyway," Xander pointed out.

"Yeah, but I can make you die slow, or I can make you die fast, bitch. Lose the stake."

"Sure," Xander agreed, dropping the stake. He took a step closer to the vampire. No sense in taking the risk of dusting the guy. "No fair fights?"

"I didn't take over all the Orpheus in this town playing fair," the drug dealer spat. He fired, and Xander felt another bullet hit his shoulder, despite his efforts to avoid it. It sent him staggering under the force of it, and he lost his footing and landed on his ass, nearly hitting the back of his head on the ground before he managed, barely to catch himself. Another two bullets sailed over his head, and then he saw Norvisan re-aim and then Xander, body protesting even more, jumped back up to his feet and grabbed onto one of the pipes on the ceiling, pulling himself up like he was at the gym. He had no idea what he was doing, he just didn't want to get shot, but he dropped back down to the ground and avoided another bullet. His shoulder at least didn't feel broken, but it still hurt, a lot.

Before the vampire could finish shooting, Xander charged the distance, getting the vampire in the chin.

To his credit, Norvisan didn't drop, and then the two of them were trading blows, but Xander only did it to keep him at bay enough to pull the dagger from the pocket. Norivisan, back a foot now after a blow to the stomach, laughed.

"What the hell are you doing to do with that? Cut me?"

"Take you alive," Xander replied, stabbing at Norisan's stomach - the vampire punched his arm at the wrist, forcing his arm away from his stomach - but it still hit him, cutting along his side, and apparently, that was enough for the spell to work.

"Take-" The vampire started to say, and then he froze up, entire body standing in place like a character in a paused video game. He fell to the ground, and Xander saw the glowing on the hilt of the dagger go away.

Okay, well, time to get him outside then. With the sunlight still out, that meant wrapping him tight in thick blankets and running from shade to shade.

Staggering, Xander nearly fell over as everything seemed to hit him at once. Gasping, he grabbed onto the wall and stabilized after a minute.

"Xander!" He heard Anya's voice behind him and he turned to be greeted by his girlfriend hugging him tight, arms around his midsection. He gasped

"Ahn...not so tight!" He protested, that rib definitely feeling broken.

She loosened her grip, and Xander kissed her forehead.

"It's very different hugging you like this," Anya murmured, then pulled away. "Are you hurt as badly as it looks?"

Xander looked down at himself - the body armor was caved in a few places and while it looked like the wound on his leg might have stopped bleeding, he wasn't sure. But there was blood all over his pant leg, staining it pretty well.

The two shots he'd gotten didn't seem to have gone through the armor, thank all the good and mighty gods, but the spots he'd been hit still hurt. A lot.

"And then some," Xander admitted. "Can you give me a hand with this guy? We've got to get some blankets around him for when we get him outside."

"The guy from the watchers is bringing the car closer - another pair of vampires and two more humans came at him from behind, but he shot them all - I staked one after it fell over," Anya explained. "Can you carry him?"

"Mostly, yeah," Xander confirmed, hoping he really could. But with Anya's help, he wrapped the vampire in the blankets, then added a second for good measure. They'd borrowed chains from Angel to imprison the guy once the spell wore off.

Xander half carried, half-dragged the vampire, not caring about his comfort as they moved up the stairs.

It hadn't been easy, and with all the guns and...

But they'd gotten the client alive.

Xander didn't know how long it would take for the gunshot injuries - even if they were just a broken rib and the not broken but still hurting like a bitch injury to his shoulder - to heal, even with Slayer healing, but hopefully, he'd be back in his own body before that became an issue.

I sure hope so. Xander didn't look forward to fighting anyone else in his state, especially Wolfram and Hart's guys with guns. Probably better guns than whatever these guys had had.

He really, really, really wanted the exchange to go well. Fingers crossed and everything.

Of course, that also depended on how Buffy and Angel did with their little kidnappings.