Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Thanks again to Oxnate for beta-reading, and putting up with me and my delays on this fic.

This Year's Boy

By Kylia

Chapter 13

February 25th, 2000

Park, Los Angeles Suburbs

Xander was trying not to let himself celebrate just yet - there was still more to do, and given his track record with magic, there was every chance that actually switching back to his body could go wrong.

Still, watching Faith walk towards them slowly, wearing his body, Xander couldn't help but hope that things were going to be sorted out soon. That, possibly with a few complications they could sort out, he'd be back in his body by this time tomorrow and things could go back to normal.

Though, I suppose having had a woman's body for a few days will at least give me some insights. Anya had made the point herself, though specifically with sex in mind. But honestly, just... all of it. Xander had already realized that he was never going to look the same at bras again, and he was just thrilled this was going to be over before- before Faith's body had its period.

Even thinking about it made Xander wince internally.

Norvosian tried once more to shift position, to try to escape or maybe he just wanted to get more comfortable, and Xander used his uninjured arm this time to push down on the vampire's shoulder, squeezing hard. Norvosian let out an angry hiss of pain and stopped moving, for the moment.

Okay, so maybe I'll miss the strength, Xander had to admit to himself as Ed and Faith started to get closer, about to pass each other. Sure, Xander really was used to being the normal guy, and he wasn't totally helpless against a vampire if he had to fight one, not after years of practice, but...

Well, Slayer Strength really was kind of awesome.

Faith passed Ed, and then she moved, using his body - a large shard of plastic came out of her pocket, sharp at one end, and she tried to jab it at the demon's eye. But Xander couldn't focus on that; because while all that had been happening, Collins, the watcher-goon boss, had already pulled out a concealed gun from under his coat and fired twice at one of Wolfram and Hart's security people, getting him in the torso. The armor the security guard was wearing was not enough to stop him reeling backwards and doubling over - and then Smith and Weatherby had weapons and fired as well, one getting Ed in the back, the other hitting another one of Wolfram and Hart's people in the leg.

But before Wolfram and Hart's goons or anyone else, even Xander, could react the air in front of Angel seemed to shift a little, and a demon - some vaguely human-shaped, scaled thing with claws and backwards legs - appeared slashed the vampire across the face and chest.

And then everything really happened at once - Xander dropped to the ground as more bullets started flying, kicking Norvosian away from him and hopefully into the path of a bullet. He looked for his friends, watching Willow and Tara drop as well. Willow was trying to cast some spell, maybe. Buffy had let her hostage go and had grabbed the demon attacking Angel from behind, pinning one arm and trying to prevent it from clawing at her.

Wesley, clearly late to the gun party, had dropped into a crouch, Cordelia behind him, pulling out a concealed gun himself. Did everyone bring a concealed weapon? What the hell is with guns and people in this city?!

Faith had also dropped to the ground, Ed next to her, bleeding, the shard of plastic having gotten his eye anyway. Xander had no time to tell if Ed was dead, or even the state of his body, because then Norvosian was on him and everything else dropped out of focus.

"It's time for payback, bitch." Norvosian had managed to break one hand out of his chains by what looked like snapping his wrist, which let him free the other arm with a handy chain still attached, which he swung at Xander.

Xander grabbed the chain on instinct, stunning both the vampire and himself (holy shit!) and tugged, pulling the vampire towards him. The vampire stumbled and fell to one knee. Xander threw his own knee into the vampire's face, sending the guy onto his back. Xander lept-drawing a stake from his back pocket mid-air-and landed on the fiend, dusting the drug dealer with an ease he'd only experienced since switching bodies. And by sheer chance, as he crouched, a bullet flew where his head had been, missing him by a second. Xander took stock and realized he needed cover before one side or another shot him.

The Lawyers had already taken cover behind a park bench, their security goons that were still standing having crouched or moved behind trees. Willow and Tara were crawling away from the fighting, towards a different bench.

Buffy and Angel were off to the side, out of the line of fire as they still fought the demon with the claws - Buffy had been cut along the arm, maybe, it was hard to tell - and...

Faith. Xander stayed low to the ground, but looked, trying to find Faith, find his body - and his breath caught as he couldn't see it. His blood already pumping, heart already beating hard in his chest, as he caught a glimpse of Faith absconding off with his body, running into the playground equipment.

Oh no you don't! Xander, without thinking, jumped to his feet again, running towards Faith - and then blinding pain in his leg and he fell to the ground, barely catching himself with his good hand, pain ringing out in his shoulder and he realized he'd been shot in the leg, or grazed or something and Faith was getting away and-

FUCK!

February 25th, 2000

Park, Los Angeles Suburbs

Even if you were to put a gun to her head, Cordelia would not have been able to say which had happened first - she'd been keeping her eyes on Collins, knowing he was up to something, and seen him and his fellows draw their guns, but she had not expected Faith to pull out some piece of sharp plastic, broken off something else and try to stab Ed in the eye with it.

And while she'd known Wolfram and Hart would try to pull something-because, you know, evil- an invisible demon appearing and attacking Angel was not at all what she'd thought they'd pull.

The moment the bullets started to fly, Cordelia dropped to the ground, not remotely stupid enough to try to stay standing. Wesley crouched and reached into boot, pulling out a gun of his own, something small, though Cordelia didn't know guns well enough to know what it was.

"Were you in on this!?" Cordelia demanded, finding the idea of Wesley working with the Council that fired him so unceremoniously hard to believe, but-

"Gods no," Wesley replied hurriedly, shouting to be heard over the sound of the gunfire and fighting. "I just came prepared,"

"You know how-?" Cordelia demanded, but then cut herself off when Wesley held the pistol in both hands and fired off three shots in rapid succession, two of them hitting the torso of one of Wolfram and Hart's security people, sending the man staggering back under the force of the blows.

"Yes," Wesley replied coolly, in answer to her question, then fired again. "There's a tree behind me. Take cover!" Wesley ordered.

"Go!" Wesley barked and Cordelia leapt to her feet and ran quickly towards the tree, darting behind it and peeking out, watching the action. She saw Willow and Tara, the blonde witch, crawling away towards a bench. The lawyers were hiding behind another bench on the far end of the combat zone, and everyone with a gun was trying to take some sort of cover or minimize their size while shooting at each other.

Angel and Buffy were fighting the claw-demon, which apparently hadn't gone invisible again, and Xander was running off towards the playground equipment - and then Cordelia bit her lip as she saw Xander fall, blood on his leg. Come on! Sure, she didn't really like her ex-boyfriend, but she didn't just want him to get shot. Again!

Cordelia let out a gasp-scream as an errant bullet clipped the tree, making it shake. Someone had to have called 911 by now, right? This was a nice, normal suburb of L.A. Middle class and upper middle class at that, from the look of the Park.

In other words, not a place with bullets being fired on a regular basis. So the police would be here soon, right?

Of course, even if police cars were coming, she might not hear the sirens until they got close, and they couldn't just wait for that. But with bullets flying, there wasn't much Cordelia could actually do. She bit her lip, watching Xander struggle to try to get to his feet without getting shot again. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a light coming from Willow and Tara and turned to see the two of them, crouched behind the bench, chanting something - she couldn't make it out - hands moving, something glowing red between them, and then - Willow's eyes glowed for a moment and red light flew out at the Wolfram and Hart goons, hitting one and sending him flying into another goon - the Watchers and Wesley took the opening to shoot at the guys who fell.

Cordelia took the opening to go to Xander's side as he pushed himself upwards a bit. Cordelia tried to help him get into a sitting position - she didn't have any first aid stuff with her now, but she could just rip off a part of Xander's pants and tie it around the wound...

Fun sides of a Sunnydale Education, you know how to do a makeshift bandage if you have to.

"Xander!" She pressed her hand to his injury - it was bleeding, but at least it wasn't gushing. Still, from the way Xander was holding his shoulder, he'd aggravated it in the fall, and then there were his ribs. Cordelia almost didn't envy Faith the pain she'd be in when she got put back in her own body.

Almost.

Xander mouthed some words. It took a moment to realize that he was speaking and her ears were ringing from all the gunfire. "Faith's getting away!" Xander shouted, getting past the ringing. In the back of her mind, she hoped the hearing loss wasn't permanent. One good thing about hunting vampires is that everything is usually pretty quiet. "Just - stop her, please, Cordy!"

Cordelia just nodded, unsure if a Slayer's more sensitive ears would be able to hear anything over the gunfire and took off running towards the playground equipment, hoping she was moving quickly enough to catch up to the psycho. She jumped over a low-hanging railing around the playground equipment, running through them to the far end, ducking under a little bridge-thing and then over another railing, ending up close to the exit to the park. She was further from the gunfire now - which seemed to be dying down anyway - and she could hear police sirens. Or was that just the ringing in her ears still?

But no sign of Faith.

Cordelia pulled up short - trying to put herself in the place of the crazy bitch. She'd tried to stab Ed in the eye, had stabbed the guy in the eye, but what had she been trying to do? Was she just running for the sake of it? Hadn't her plan been to steal Angel's body, get herself out of Xander's?

But that wasn't an option. She'd just been trying to escape. So where would she -

Cordelia bit her lip. This would be a great time for a skull-splitting vision, guys! Cordelia thought angrily towards the Powers that Be, but they weren't obliging. The entrance to the park was near a couple side streets, and it came down to picking one at random - Cordelia ran to the left, hoping she hadn't guessed wrong.

February 25th, 2000

Los Angeles Suburbs

I am going to kill Xander so many times for being so fucking useless at everything, Faith thought to herself as she pulled up short a few blocks from the park, doubling over, hands on Xander's knees, sucking in great gasps of air. Okay, so the guy wasn't completely out of shape, but if she'd had her own body - hell, even before she'd become a Slayer, she could have run so much further than this. Run circles around this body for fucking hours.

The idea that maybe her running form in a different body was just bad never occurred to her. She straightened up, still breathing heavily, trying to figure out what the hell she was supposed to do now.

Escape had not been her plan - she'd hoped that when she killed that fucking demon they were trading her for, there'd be confusion, chaos, something - and then she could make them kill her. She hadn't thought that she'd be able to get away, but she could deny Xander his body back, take the win away from those fucking Lawyers, stick it to B and all her self-righteous friends.

But escape - she'd never thought she'd have been able to pull that off. Not with all those people wanting to keep her from doing that.

But when the chance happened, she took it. She ran and ran and here she was in the middle of a fucking suburb, and she had no clue what the hell she was supposed to be doing now.

If I could get another one of those bodyswappers that the Mayor gave me... or got someone cast a spell for me...

But she didn't have anything like that, and she didn't know how to find someone who could cast the spell and make them do it.

Wouldn't be so bad to just... keep running? Faith could keep going, find a way out of L.A. and just... live? Sure, she'd have to get used to peeing standing up forever, and having no power, but she'd be free of the Council and the Cops and she'd subject Xander to have to deal with being a girl forever.

Serves him right for screwing this up. If that idiot had stayed captured by those goons from the council, none of this would have happened.

Okay, that worked. Wasn't as nice as being in a body with some real power, but with enough magic out there, she could find something later.

Taking another breath, Faith looked around, trying to figure out where to run. She needed to get further from those losers, which meant she could just keep running straight. She took one last breath and started moving, jogging quickly, saving her energy for a run if she had to.

She crossed another street, down another block and tried to think about her options. She had no money, so she'd have to get some. In her old body, she could have just waited for some creep to come up and try to pick her up before kicking him in the balls and taking his wallet. That wasn't an option, but she could get some cash the easy way if she picked her targets.

She pulled up short at another four way intersection.

That's enough of a head start, right? They're all too busy fighting each other. Faith did not need to find herself lost in suburbia. It would make -

Wait.

Okay, so Xander was nowhere near as strong as she'd been before, but he was reasonably in shape. And Faith knew all about how to break and enter. So she could pick a place and break in, take some jewelry, some cash, maybe a credit card or two.

Can't use one for long, but just enough...

She'd have to deal with the cops again, but only if someone saw her. So she just needed to find a place where no one was home, or something like that.

She could do that.

Faith walked a bit further down the street, looking at driveways. Most of the houses had garages, so she had to be careful. The first house she passed had some big honking pickup truck, full of bumper stickers that made it even more clear whoever owned the car had a tiny dick they were compensating for. But overcompensators usually didn't stop with a truck, so whoever lived here probably had guns.

She skipped that one. The next one had no car in the driveway, but it did have a garage.

I could check inside the garage... maybe... She didn't have any lockpicks or anything she could really use to break the door open, but if it wasn't locked, she could start there. Or maybe look for a window.

Options.

Faith was about to walk up to the garage when she heard footsteps running in her direction, fast on the sidewalk. Tensing up, Faith turned and in the streetlights just down the block a bit, was Cordelia, running after her.

Really? The sight of the cheerleader running towards her like that was surprising enough she was still for a moment, not getting why she was running off alone trying to help Xander get his body back, not after what the loser did to her. Didn't she get rebar through her gut over that? Something like that, Faith hadn't actually been there for it when it happened.

But she was only paused for a second before Faith started running, picking up the pace - but again, Xander's useless fucking body betrayed her, and she stumbled, nearly faceplanting on the sidewalk, catching herself with her hand but still, falling. She pushed herself back up onto her feet in time for Cordelia to grab her arm and try to hold on.

"You're not getting away, Faith," Cordelia snapped, but Faith grabbed Cordelia's hand and ripped it off.

"How the fuck did you catch up to me?" Faith snapped.

"I just put myself in your shoes - what would a psycho idiot do?" Cordelia growled, watching her. "The others will catch up, and you're not going to get away."

"Yeah, sure," Faith shook her head, mind racing. Queen C doesn't know what the fuck she's talking about. "Give me your money and maybe I let you walk without breaking your nose."

Cordelia blinked, staring at her. "You... really?!" Cordelia laughed, and Faith felt her cheeks heat. She lunged, trying to grab Cordelia - she managed to get her shoulder, but Cordelia, with some effort, managed to kick at Faith's leg, forcing her back. Faith held on and dragged her with her, and the two of them fell backwards, landing on the lawn next to them.

Cordelia tried to punch her, but Faith managed to roll out of the way, pushing herself back onto her feet.

"Okay, so let's start by breaking your nose, and maybe I can add in your arm."

"Did you forget you don't have Slayer strength any more?' Cordelia's voice made Faith clench her teeth, the cheer-bitch not taking her the least bit seriously, smile like she was sharing some private joke at her expense.

Growling angrily, Faith punched her, and Cordelia managed to duck under the blow, barely, the move sloppy - but then so was Faith's punch, and she almost overextended on the punch, catching herself at the last minute and pulling back.

"I don't need Slayer strength to be stronger than you," Faith countered, and she avoided an attempt by Cordelia to kick at her leg again, easily. She punched Cordelia again, this time catching her on the shoulder and sending her staggering back and nearly falling on her admittedly very nice ass. For a moment, Faith contemplated running, she had an opening, but the thought was gone from her mind.

There was no one else here yet, which meant no one else was coming. Faith owed this bitch a broken nose.

Besides, sure, her daddy lost all his money but I'd bet she has something worth taking.

Faith rushed at her and grabbed Cordelia's arm, holding tight enough to make the girl cry out in pain, and twisting at it, trying to pull it around Cordelia's back, pin her, but she couldn't manage that much - Cordelia tried to claw at her eyes with her free hand, and Faith had to let go with one hand, grabbing Cordelia's other hand by the wrist.

"Really, 'Queen C', after all that time in Sunnydale, didn't you maybe learn how to fight better than this?" Faith sneered.

"I know enough to deal with you," Cordelia tried to bring up her knee, but Faith saw it coming - the move was telegraphed out the fucking wazoo, whatever that was, and she avoided it, pulling Cordelia with her.

February 25th, 2000

Los Angeles Suburbs

Xander managed to get to his feet maybe a minute after Cordelia ran off after Faith, wrapping a long scrap of cloth from his pants around the minor wound. It hurt like a bitch, and standing on his leg hurt even more, but he knew he was damn lucky. But by the time he was on his feet, the fighting had slowed down - the gunfire paused a moment - letting them all (faintly) hear the police sirens coming towards them.

As if to punctuate that the fight was over, Angel managed pull the demon's arm behind it, hard, and there was a sickening crack as bones broke - Buffy took the opening to kick it in the face, sending it reeling to the ground, and Angel finished it off with the expedient of just stepping on its neck and holding.

Xander might have thought it excessive if they weren't talking about a demon that had tried to kill them.

"So I guess this was your plan?" Angel called out, looking to the lawyers behind the bench on the far end of their security guys. Only one of them was actually down, and maybe not dead, Xander couldn't say, but several of the others had gotten shot. As had crazy Weatherby, with Smith giving him first aid for a bullet that had gotten him along the arm.

"Well, a plan," The woman, Lilah admitted. "We didn't expect your friends to bring guns."

"Not the vampire's friends," Collins countered, shaking his head. "Just hate Wolfram and Hart more." He looked to Weatherby and Smith. "Smith, get Weatherby out of here, I'll catch up with you both at the safehouse." He looked back to the lawyers, "Unless you want to have to do more cleanup than your jobs are worth to your bosses, I'd say it's time to call this a draw, no?" Collins didn't wait for a response, he just turned and started walking away from them, while Smith helped Weatherby to his feet.

"You think we're going to just let you walk after you killed three of our-" One of the two guy lawyers shouted, but the other one elbowed him in the stomach hard enough to make him double over.

"We'll have to handle this another time," he said in a polite Texas drawl. Then he spun and punched the other lawyer in the face, dropping him to the ground. He looked to one of the security guys. "Put a gun in his hand, and let's get out of here."

Xander blinked for a moment, wondering what the fuck that was, but he didn't have time to wonder about that. He had to go after Faith!

With the sirens getting even closer, everyone moved quickly out of the park - Xander only managed to move fast because Anya was at his side helping him.

"You guys get to the cars, I need to find Faith," Xander said, starting in the direction he'd sent Cordelia in. "Cordelia went after her,"

"You sent Cordelia after-"

"No one sends Cordelia anywhere she doesn't want to go, Deadboy," Xander snapped at Angel.

"I'm going with you," Angel wouldn't brook any argument, and honestly, Xander didn't care. He was in too much pain to waste any time. But then they were all setting out. Willow and Tara got into the car with Giles, following, while Angel took the lead, going out to the park exit Cordelia and Faith would have taken, and heading to the left.

"You can smell her?" Xander frowned, hearing what sounded like Angel sniffing. Was a vampire's sense of smell really that good?

Well, Oz could do pretty well near the full moon, so... maybe?

Angel raced off ahead of them rather than answering, but Xander moved as quickly as he could, Anya unable to keep up, so he broke off from her, biting his lip against the pain. And then a car zoomed by, not Giles's.

"Xander, slow down!" Anya called out, jogging a bit to catch up to him. "Angel will catch Faith just fine."

"I'd really rather not owe Angel for getting my body back," Xander admitted, then he let out a hiss, "Okay, that sounded less stupid in my head."

"I'm not sure how it could not sound stupid," Buffy pointed out. "We'll get your body back, but you got shot, Xander."

"It's just a graze!" Xander protested, but he let out a sigh and nodded, slowing down. Angel was still in sight ahead, barely, but he'd been running straight, so it was just a matter of following, Buffy taking the lead and Anya back to helping him. He wasn't quite limping - the leg worked just fine, but it still hurt, so he was taking lighter, smaller steps, moving slower than he wanted.

But Buffy was right, it really was a stupid thought. Angel had gotten a demon claw across his face already for this, so he already owed the friendly neighborhood vampire for his help, and... really, Xander just wanted his body back.

February 25th, 2000

Los Angeles Suburbs

Okay after this, I'm getting better at self-defense. She'd picked up a few things, surviving Sunnydale and working with Angel, but Cordelia had had it up to here with getting her ass kicked, which, judging from the smirk on 'Xander's' face, was about to happen. The smirk looked totally out of place on her former schoolmate's face too, all bitter and sarcastic and cruel. Xander was a doofus, thoughtless and impulsive, and he could get angry, but cruel wasn't really something you got out of him, most of the time.

And he didn't smirk.

Cordelia struggled against Faith's grip on her wrist, trying to pull away, but to no avail.

"Let me go!" Cordelia snapped, trying to kick at Faith again, aiming for the leg, but Faith avoided it - but she let go of Cordelia's other arm, at least.

But Cordelia didn't get to do anything with the momentary freedom, because then Faith used her now free hand to punch at her face - Cordelia only saw it coming at the last minute, and she tried to twist her head out of the way -

And the next thing she realized, she was on her ass on the sidewalk, pain on the lower part of her face, she was tasting blood. She brought a hand up and realized she'd split her lip.

"Not so smug now, Cordy?" Faith sneered. "I told you I was gonna break your nose, now let's see what else I can break, hm?" Faith pulled back her leg, about to kick her in the face and Cordia tried to scramble away, or to her feet or something - but before she could manage that, there was a dark-blur and Faith was on the ground, gasping, and Angel was in front of her, helping her to her feet.

"I'm fine, mostly," Cordelia let out a breath. "Thanks." She let out a long breath, and watched Faith try to get to her feet - Angel grabbed her before she could, pinning Faith's arms behind her.

"It's really not worth it to keep trying," Angel shook his head, but Faith tried to kick at his leg - Angel raised an eyebrow, as if it didn't bother him at all.

"Let's go," Angel put his other hand on Faith's shoulder and pushed her forward, still holding her wrists together with his other hand. "Don't make me break your wrists."

"Oh, like you'd mind doing that anyway," Faith snapped, sounding like she was trying to goad him. "Not like you wouldn't jump at the chance to hurt Xander now that you have the excuse."

"I don't really care," Angel shot back blandly. "Xander's the one who hates me, not the other way around."

The screeching of a car coming to a halt just ahead of them stopped Faith from saying anything back. It pulled onto the lawn of the house they were in front of - if the person who lived there hadn't woken up yet, that had to have done it, right? Not to mention other houses.

The lead guy from the Watcher's Council, Collins, stepped out.

"You found her," Collins remarked, looking at Faith -well, Xander's body - like she was a frog in biology class, ready to be dissected. And also, ew, thank you for reminding me of that, brain. Okay, given all the demons she'd met and the close-up looks at L.A.'s sewer system she'd gotten, that really ranked low on a list of all the gross things she'd seen, but still.

"I did," Cordelia said, not admitting that it was basically sheer luck which way she'd gone. She brought her hand up to her still bloody lip again, frowning.

"Xander's behind with her body," Angel.

"The witches too?" Collins raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Angel nodded, and Faith tried to break free again.

"When you switch me back, I'm going to kill you all," Faith nearly yelled.

"No, you really won't," Collins replied in a clipped tone. Then he pulled his gun out of his coat again, flipping off the safety. "Guns are a remarkably effective weapon against Slayers. They can't outrun a bullet." A block away, Cordelia could see Xander in Faith's body, with Anya and Buffy, and Giles's car driving slowly alongside them.

Then a gunshot rang out. Then another. Angel let out a sound of pain, and there was the sound of a loud thump.

"Of course, they work just as well against a normal human." Collins added dryly, and Cordelia paled as she turned a bit and looked down at Xander's body, bullets in 'his' chest, blood quickly staining the sidewalk.