I - I can remember, standing by the wall, and the gun shots above our heads.  And we kissed, as though nothing could fall, and the shame was on the other side.  Oh, we can beat them, forever and ever, then we could be heroes - just for one day.

David Bowie  "Heroes"

Title: We Could Be Heroes(15/?)
Rating: R-ish
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Timeline: Season 2 Halloween onward
Pairings: Most canonwise, Xander/Faith
Crossover Material: Assassin's Creed
Spoilers: General BtVS and AC ending information
Summary: After Halloween, Xander finds himself with the knowledge of the assassin Altair Ibn La-Ahad and the decision to either use these new skills to help his friends or not.  But not everyone is very happy with that arrangement...

Mary finished the last of the filing and tucked it into her desk, which sat in the cramped little entrance hall to the building that housed the Watcher's Council.  Daughter of one of the older families of Watcher's and she had been shoved here at this desk taking phone calls because she violently and loudly disagreed with several pieces of policy.

Smiling, she rose and pulled on her overcoat, buttoning it closed, and then reached for her umbrella hanging on a nearby hook.

No one even thought to watch her.

Let them regret that decision!  That and every other, including shoving her aside when she knew she was right and what they did to those girls was wrong.  What they were doing to Miss Lehane even now was wrong.

Her smile turned cold and bitter as she turned towards the front door.  She walked through it and left it open as she stepped out into the rainy night, opening her umbrella wide.

There was a flicker of movement in the nearby shadows and she gave a slight wave before taking off towards her flat.

She trusted Rupert would rescue that young woman – how, she didn't particularly want to know or care.  She'd seen his records herself; she knew of his youth and of Ripper.

There was a reason Quentin Travers feared him and had sent him to the Hellmouth.

Smiling, Mary murmured, "Lord be with you, Rupert," before she pulled her umbrella down close to her to shield against a gust of wind and bustled on off into the dark night.

Giles pushed the door open, glancing within, then entered.  Xander, cloaked and cowled, followed him in first, looking not a bit annoyed by the wait they'd had in the rain until Mary had left.  After him came Shawn, who was scowling but that was understandable somewhat since it had been revealed he was a firestarter – more specifically, as Giles explained, he had magic that only focused on fire which was a rare thing – with Dev close behind him, his magic twisted arm uncovered to reveal the somewhat draconic shape it had been turned to.  Phoenix, looking not at all put out by the weather, came in wearing a death's head smile and Athan was the last of the party to enter, firmly closing the door behind them.

The moment the lock made contact, the building's wards went up and instantly a wailing alarm began to sound.  Dev smiled and said, "Go, go, I'll handle this here."

As he dropped to the floor in the center of the room and began to drawn on it with a marker, Phoenix took two strides forward and kicked open the closed door that led to the rest of the building.  Two shocked Watchers stared at her as she smiled then lifted the shotgun that was holstered around her waist and fired.

"I love carnage," she purred then looked over her shoulder, blood spattered across her face.  "Shall we, lover?"

"You go ahead and play, Nix," replied Athan with a smile.  "I'll be with you in a moment."

The olive-skinned woman smiled then darted through the doorway over the two bodies, her mad cackle of laughter drifting back to them between the cracks of her shotgun.  Athan shook his head then turned to Giles, asking, "Where will she be?"

"Holding cells underneath the building," replied the former Watcher.  "You handle up here.  Xander and I can deal with anyone below."

"You sure?"

Athan was surprised by the sudden look at came into the man's eyes – a look that wasn't too dissimilar from the one that was always in his wife's eyes.  He then smiled and growled, "I'll take that as a 'yes'," before he strode through the door after Phoenix with his twin Desert Eagles drawn.  Shawn looked after him then at Giles and Xander before turning towards the still drawing Dev.

"Is that a permanent marker?"

"Striking against the man," intoned the mage seriously as he finished his work.  "Now shoo.  Everyone else is off killing someone already.  Go set someone on fire while I butcher these wards."

Shawn smiled then shrugged as he did realize that he and Dev were alone now.  Pulling out a cigarette, he lit it with a flicker of flame along his fingers then slouched into the building after his more insane companions, idly nudging a not quite dead corpse with his foot and turning it to ash in an instant.

"I love being me," he muttered then moved on.

She couldn't remember ever being in so much pain.  Not even her mother had put her through this much hell.  She hadn't been that vindictive a bitch.

They'd punched her.

Kicked her.

Spit in her face.

Ripped out her hair.

Screamed at her.

Bit her.

Broken her fingers.

Her toes.

Torn one shoulder out of its socket.

Broke the other arm in three places.

Both legs shattered, knees busted to bits.

Ribs cracked and digging painfully into her.

Chest aching – it hurt to breath.

It hurt to move – to be moved.

And still they kept coming.

She'd lost any real sense of them beating on her long ago.  Now it was like watching a movie – she could almost believe they were beating on someone else.  That battered face and body wasn't hers…couldn't be.  She didn't look like that.

"Bitch!"

The wail of the alarm made them stop and a sliver of hope invaded the pain and agony that had almost broken her.

"X-Xander?" she breathed through bloody, cracked lips.

A kick in the ribs answered her, the voice of one of her tormentors snarling, "Shut up, bitch!  You worthless bloody whore!"

The pain consumed her, fire pouring through her torso, and the darkness consumed her again.

"…worthless bloody whore!"

Xander heard the shout on the other side of the door and slowly pushed it open, wondering if the hinges would squeak.  When they didn't, he moved inside…and froze.

Was…

Was that broken heap of blood and shattered flesh on the floor Faith?

No.

No.

He was moving before he realized it, cold rage burning in his veins.  Any lingering idea of stealth vanished in the wake of it and he drew the short sword from across his back, striking the closer man as he turned across the face.  As he went down screaming, blood streaming into his eyes, Xander lunged after him and slammed the blade between ribs into his heart.

The other man – the one that was closer to Faith; that had been torturing her this time – turned now.  Saw him.

He felt the bite in his shoulder as something was thrown at him but he brushed the pain away like a fly.  On his feet in an instant, he lunged forward and the man stumbled back, terror in his eyes, before Xander slammed into him.  Both fell to the floor in a tangle and he could hear the man screaming, begging for his life.

"No," he replied coldly, not even recognizing his voice as he drew the hidden blade and stabbed it into the waiting throat.

There was a sound of footsteps in the hall even as the alarm faded away suddenly and Xander was on his feet, stepping back towards the wall that would half shield him from sight of the doorway.  He knew it wasn't Giles because they had gone in opposite directions down here in this hell to search for Faith and he couldn't be back by now.

So another tormentor…

He gripped the blade still extended into his hand hard as his eyes fell on Faith again, seeing her struggling to breath.  The cold rage flowed over him again and he bared his teeth as he reached up to push his hood back.

Whoever came through that door next would fucking see their killer!

The footsteps suddenly stopped and he heard a gasp that signaled they'd seen the first body with his blade still in the man's heart.  Spinning from around the wall, he lunged and shoved the newcomer back through the doorway he stood in back up against the corridor's wall.  As he drew back his arm, ready to strike, he paused in recognition.

"Travers," he growled, eyes narrowing.

"H-Harris!" exclaimed the man, looking at him in terror.  "I-I…"

"You thought you could take her and capture me," snarled Xander.  "Thought I'd come in here alone and just fall to your weak little men.  You and your cowards who hide behind women!"

Travers somehow gained a little courage despite the thumb digging into the base of his throat from the hand keeping him against the wall and the blade that rested against his jaw.  "Don't you do just the same?" he asked.

Said thumb dug into his throat deeper and he choked as he heard the growled response.  "I don't hide behind women and let them do my dirty work.  I don't abandon them.  I don't pit them against master vampires on their eighteenth birthday just so you can weed out the ones that don't play by your rules!  I fight with them, at their sides, them at mine – as equals."

There was a pause then he heard, "You're the one that got the rest of those groups on our trail."

"What?" gasped Travers as the thumb withdrew, allowing him to breathe again.

"Wolfram and Hart came to see me," hissed Xander.  "And the Order of Teraka has been hounding our trail since Arizona.  You called them on us."

"And how would you know that?"

"I caught Wesley on the phone with you, remember?  He left Sunnydale when we did and didn't come back here so I know he smartened up.  He didn't tell on us.  Neither did Giles.  Nor Buffy.  So it was you, Quentin Travers, who has hounded our steps from California to Georgia.  You who gave me the allies who are now tearing ribbons through anyone else in this building."  Travers shuddered at the cold smile that twitched at the young man's mouth.  "You who forced me to my first human kill.  I had really been hoping not to have to actually become that much like Altaïr.  And then you took the woman I'd give my life for, who I would tear down this very Council for."

"That," finished Xander slowly, "was a grave mistake.  All of them.  But the last sealed this moment and your death."

"W-wait!" exclaimed Travers as he felt the blade bite into his skin, blood trickling down his neck.  "I-I'll stop them!  Everything!  Just…"

Xander shook his head slowly, eyes narrowed.  "You can't stop the sand storm once it gains its fury," he said softly.  "All you can do is find cover and pray you survive.  You can't stop what you've set into motion."

"Th-then why kill me?"

"Because you took her," spat Xander.  He then twisted his arm and slashed the blade across the Watcher's throat, stepping back as the blood spattered across his clothes.  Travers slowly slumped down against the wall to the floor, his eyes wide with terror as the blood flowed from his torn neck over him.  He looked up at the young man standing over him once, mouthing something, then his eyes went glassy.

Giles came onto the scene as Xander stood glaring down at the body and looked between both.  Then he asked, "Faith?"

"We can't move her," Xander breathed, eyes not drawing away from Travers.  "She's too hurt.  Need a stretcher or something to get her out of here."

"I'll find something," said Giles.  He reached out to gently grip Xander's shoulder, drawing his attention to him.  "We will get her out of here."

Xander nodded then turned to walk slowly back into the room as the man ran off in his search.  Slowly he moved towards the one broken body still alive in the room and crouched down next to her, gently reaching out to touch her matted and bloodstained hair.  When she jerked away from the touch, eyes wide with an animal terror, he wanted to kill Quentin Travers a second time.  And a third, a fourth.  He wanted the man to suffer more for doing this.

"Faith," he managed to choke out through the sudden lump in his throat.  "Its me.  You're safe.  I'm here."

"X-Xander?" he heard softly in a low broken voice.  "S'really y-you?"

"Its me, I promise.  We're getting you out of here."

"The…the…"

"They're dead," said Xander firmly, gently touching her head.  "They're dead, Faith."

He saw her blink through the one eye that wasn't swollen shut then the tears came, sobs tearing through her and obviously causing more pain.  His own tears came as he forced himself to stay where he was, to not draw her into his arms and try to comfort her.  She was too broken for him to touch her.

A noise in the doorway made him turned and there was Giles again with Athan behind him, the two of them angling a door torn off it's hinged through to serve as a stretcher.  The other man's eye widened at the sight of Faith then he went to business, carefully helping Giles and Xander lift her onto the door.  Her little cry of pain at the movement tore at all of them then Xander realized she had gone unconscious again – not a good thing when she was so injured.

"We have to hurry," he growled.

"We will," assured Athan.  He then nodded to Giles and they lifted up the door, Xander walking beside it to keep Faith steadily on it.  As they walked, he tried not to let the fear of them getting this far and finding her and her dying now as they tried to get her out of this hell consume him.

She couldn't die.

Not now.