Date written: Wed 7 Oct 2009
Author: Starway Man
E-mail: theop at hotkey dot net dot au
Disclaimer: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar, Kuzui, Fox, WB and UPN; I don't own 'em, and I never will. I also do not own any other characters from any television shows, movies, comics, videogames or literature that I might use. This work is meant merely for enjoyment, and no profit is being made off of it. Some of the text is from various TV episodes or movies or comics or videogames or literature, and so does not belong to me of course.
Rating: Overall R, with mostly PG-13 parts.
Symbols: " " denotes speech, ( italics ) specifies thoughts, and # # indicates phone voice.
Main characters: Xander, ensemble
Warnings: There is some violence, bad language, character death and mention of sexual situations in these stories.
Author Notes: A couple of years ago Night Hunter MGS (a.k.a. Matt) wrote an awesome series of stories called "31 Days of Xanderween" (http://www .fanfiction .net/s/3813208/1/31_Days_of_Xanderween), where he published one Halloween fic for each day of October. I was inspired enough to want to do my own version of the concept, and he has graciously allowed me to use his idea for this series of fanfic stories.
Author Notes 2: More than one person has mentioned to me that in the previous story, Klaatu acted out of character based on his actions during the 1951 movie. I will freely admit I was a bit iffy about including certain material in the fanfic that I got from the "The Day The Earth Stood Still" novel by Arthur Tofte (© 1976, Scholastic Book Services, NY) that was replicated in the 2007 movie; I thought it would work, given Klaatu's character in the book and films, but obviously I was wrong. Mea culpa, mea culpa! Anyway, onto this story which was the result of reading the fanfic known as "The Manchurian Slayer" many years ago, I don't remember the name of the author but if you're reading this, thank you for the inspiration to write my own version of the concept. Thanks also to everyone who's reviewed and sent feedback on this story series so far, I seriously appreciate it!
Acknowledgments: My thanks of course to Matt for allowing me to dabble with his original idea this way. Also, my deepest gratitude to all my beta readers – Francis Eugene, Greywizard, American Soldier and Nodakskip – for all their help in getting these stories finished on time!
Classification: Alternate Universe, Angst, Crossover, Romance, YAHF
Summary: Thirty-one versions of Halloween, Xander-style. Fic-a-day series.
Title:31 Days of Xanderween Part Deux
***
Story 7: The Xanchurian Candidate
Somewhere in a higher dimension
October 30th, 1997
At one time the entity known as Janus had been the god of gates, doors, beginnings and endings. In ancient Rome he had been worshipped at the beginning of the harvest, at marriages, at births, etc. etc. This was due to the fact that with his two heads seeing into the past and the future, the humans had often attempted to curry his favour for the brief time that their lives lasted upon the mortal plane.
Ever since 2000 years ago though, Janus had extended his 'portfolio' so to speak. Primarily, he was now the patron of the division of self. Male and female, light and dark, yin and yang. The deity had relatively few worshippers in this modern age, but tonight he could feel one of his high priests performing some propitiatory rituals in order to invoke chaos and disarray upon the living earth.
Intrigued, Janus looked forward in time a little with one of his two heads and saw a mortal creature that attracted his interest. An avatar of chaos, almost, the male human was a destroyer of prophecy and would become an army soldier the very next night, when the high priest's spell was put into effect. Looking further into the future, as well as the past, Janus was amused by the mortal's odd notions regarding free will...
And so, the god decided to mess around with the human's destiny a little.
***
Somewhere on the streets of Sunnydale, California
October 31st, 1997
At the same time that Janus' high priest, the chaos mage named Ethan Rayne, was preparing to cast his spell and turn everyone into whoever they had dressed up as, Xander was walking down the sidewalk with his band of sugar-hyped little kids. The young man thought, ( Jeez, but the Hellmouth is turning people into complete misers these days. I can't believe Mrs. Davis gave the rug rats nothing but toothbrushes, and me a deck of playing cards! )
The Slayerette idly took the pack of cards out of his pocket, and flipped open the box. The card on top of the deck was the red Queen of Diamonds...
And at that moment, Ethan's spell hit everyone in town like a tidal wave.
Under other circumstances, Xander would have become a generic soldier, a Vietnam War veteran fresh out of the jungle basin at To Noc Wah. But now, thanks to Janus' interference with Xander's destiny, he became – someone else.
Sergeant First Class Raymond Shaw blinked, then he quickly put the Queen of Diamonds back into the pack and shoved the box of cards into his pocket. He subsequently aimed his weapon around at the hostiles in his vicinity, only to have his jaw drop down in surprise when he noticed child-sized monsters instead of North Koreans or Red Chinese soldiers.
Shaw shouldered his rifle, scanning for a target, when he saw a young teenage girl running in his direction and shouting, "Xander! Xander!"
"Who the hell are you?!" the U.S. army sergeant demanded, which caused the female teen to come to a screeching halt at the sight of the huge gun being pointed directly in her face.
"It's me, Willow!" the scantily-dressed redhead said at once.
"I don't know anyone named Willow. Now where on God's green earth am I?" Shaw wanted to know. This place looked vaguely like the United States, which to his mind was quite plainly impossible.
"What? Xander, quit messing around. This is no time for jokes!" Miss Rosenberg said scoldingly.
"Do I look like I'm joking to you, Jo-san?" Shaw used the slang word for a Korean whore.
"Joe who?" Willow asked before shaking her head, dismissing it as irrelevant. "Xander, do you really not know me?"
"The name's Shaw. Raymond Shaw, Sergeant, U.S. Army," the soldier identified himself, as the night's adventures began for the founding members of the so-called Scooby Gang.
***
17619 White Oak Drive, Sunnydale, California
November 1st, 1997
Xander sat upon his bed, playing with the deck of cards and thinking about all the fun antics with regard to the previous night. He held the Queen of Diamonds card up to his face, and let his mind recall everything about the warrior he'd been turned into for a few hours.
Xander could remember an infantry patrol near the front lines which had turned into a complete nightmare for Shaw and his platoon, during the height of the Korean War. He could remember shooting and killing the enemy, trying to save his men and his captain from the guns of the North Korean infantry. Xander could remember Shaw's agony over being unable to save two members of his unit, and his pride at being nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honour by his C.O., Captain Ben Marco.
It was too bad for Xander that he had never read the book or watched the film known as 'The Manchurian Candidate', which had come out in 1962. If he had, he would have known that all those memories were fakes, the result of Communist brainwashing. He would have known that far from being the 'kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life', Ray Shaw had been a cold, sad, and unsociable loner.
Harris would also have known that Shaw had been brainwashed to go into a hypnotic state with a subconscious trigger, one that made him obey orders without question and with no memory afterwards of his actions.
Xander might also have been able to guess that that trigger was now firmly buried in his own psyche, just awaiting the right code phrase to be activated.
***
The Bronze, Sunnydale, California
September 28th, 1998
The nightclub was packed as people laughed, mingled and enjoyed themselves that night. Xander Harris was not amongst them, though.
He just wandered about fairly aimlessly, keeping one eye on the group consisting of Willow, Oz, Angel and Buffy and the other on the lookout for enemy vampires. He knew that the Slayage crowd was wishing he would join them, but the young man was sick and tired of being the fifth wheel amongst the two couples and preferred to stay away, at least for tonight.
It had all started last year, after being possessed by the ghost of Sergeant Raymond Shaw. The nightmares had made Xander defensive and irritable, even if Shaw's knowledge and instincts had occasionally come in handy for the Scooby Gang's activities. But there had been other consequences apart from that; much to the displeasure of a fallen Power That Be, last November Harris had simply hot-wired Giles' car in order to look for Buffy after the Order of Taraka had come to town to kill her.
Instead of getting involved with the girl named Cordelia Chase, in more than one sense of the word.
"Check out Slut-O-Rama and her Disco Dave," Xander heard Queen C say to her group of sycophants and followers, as he turned around to where the brunette cheerleader was indicating. "What was the last thing that guy danced to, K.C. and the Sunshine Band?"
Xander frowned, as the harpy of his existence had a point for once. The girl's dance style was fairly contemporary, but the guy was dancing way too fast for the music, with an unmistakable 1970's disco influence. His suspicions aroused, Harris noticed the pale skin and thought to himself, ( Oh yeah, could be that guy doesn't thrive on sunshine... )
Xander then saw the girl gesture to the guy that they should go outside. After saying goodbye to a friend of his, Disco Dave quickly escorted her out of the establishment. Momentarily wondering whether or not to summon the others, Xander decided against it as time would be a factor if the female teen was about to become a midnight snack.
So he followed them out of the club, and a little way down the street. As Xander watched the duo vanish into the nearby alley, he thought to himself in despair, ( Oh man, if that guy's a vampire then that girl is in deep shit! )
"Hey!" Harris heard the femme shout, as loud noises started to come out of the alley. Xander started running as he withdrew his stake, and he arrived just in time to see the guy vamp out and say, "Stop struggling. This won't hurt!"
But then something amazing happened.
Breaking out of his chokehold, the girl elbow-jabbed her assailant directly in the face. The vampire staggered back, as the raven-haired beauty jumped onto a crate. She then executed a jumping roundhouse kick to the vampire's face, knocking him down to the pavement.
"Hi there. Need some help with the vampire?" Xander asked her, stake in hand and able to see how the girl wasn't even sweating from her exertions.
"Nah, I got it under control," the female teenager replied, even as the bloodsucker came up behind her and grabbed her by the shoulders. She snapped her head back to head-butt him in the face and grabbed onto his arm. "I'm Faith."
"I'm Xander," the boy replied, even as he watched Faith twist the vampire around and shove him into a section of a nearby chain-link fence. "Wanna borrow my stake?"
"Thanks," the young woman snatched it out of his hand as the fight resumed. She easily ducked a backhand strike from her opponent, and hit the vamp in the gut with a hard punch. The fight continued for nearly thirty seconds before the girl finally raised the stake and jammed it cleanly into the bloodsucker's chest, jerking it back out afterwards. The vampire instantly crumbled into ashes.
"So how did I do?" Faith asked the stranger with a smirk.
"My opinion? You could have finished that guy off a lot earlier," Xander told her with brutal honesty as the smile ran away from the girl's face. "You were stronger than him, a better fighter than him. You shouldn't get so caught up in the moment that you lose sight of the bigger picture – it's the best way I know of for getting hurt or killed. And just for the record...you are a vampire Slayer, right?"
"Right," Faith nodded carefully, getting a weird vibe off this guy. "How do you know about Slayers?"
"I've met three of them in my time," Xander shrugged. "Buffy, Kendra and now you. And funny thing is, all of you – smoking hot babes. What's with that, I wonder? Almost makes me think the Slayer essence has gotta be male or something..."
"You knew the Slayer before me?" Faith cocked her head slightly, trying and failing to suppress a smirk.
Xander's smile became somewhat forced. "Not very well, I only met Kendra a few times. But I was right there when Drusilla killed her. Dead Boy dusted that crazy vampire bitch afterwards, though, so at least Kendra's been avenged – for all the good that'll do."
"Dead Boy?"
"His real name's Angel," Xander shrugged, with a lot less malice in his voice than there would have been in a world where said vampire had lost his soul nine months ago. "I call him Dead Boy on account of, well, he's the one vampire in this world who's a good guy. He's Buffy's boyfriend too, if you can believe it."
"Say what?" Faith asked, flabbergasted. "You've gotta be shitting me!"
"Nope, no shit," Xander shrugged again. "Funny story involving gypsies, a curse and a way-stupid 'happiness clause' that we only just found out about in the nick of time. Giles can fill you in on the details, if you're interested."
"Giles?"
"Buffy's Watcher," the male teen replied. "You got a Watcher too, right?"
"Mine's in England," Faith said – a bit too quickly for Xander to believe her. Raymond Shaw had heard soldiers lie to him that way whenever they wanted to grab some extra shut-eye or get out of latrine duty or whatever. "Retreat or something, I dunno. That's why I came here, I wanted to look up the legends Diana told me about."
"Right," Xander drawled, as Faith finally handed him back the stake and he stuck his arm out. "Let's go see the G-man then, Faith. I'm sure you guys will get along great. Well, just as long as you don't call him funny names like I do..."
Faith shook her head, looping her arm around Xander's as she let him lead her out of the alley. She checked out her companion along the way, and came to the conclusion that he wasn't too hard on the eyes at all.
( He's actually kinda cute. I wonder if this guy is seeing anybody? )
***
Downtowner Apartments, Sunnydale, California
October 27th, 1998
Faith Lehane was feeling pretty lousy, all things considered, as she lay on her hotel room bed reading a magazine.
About a month ago, everything had seemed to start off so well. After Xander had introduced her to the group, everyone had pulled together to help her kill the vampire named Kakistos; the evil THING who had tortured Faith's Watcher to death and made her watch while he did it. Miss Lehane had saved Willow's life one night as well, when her werewolf boyfriend Oz had gotten loose from his cage during a full moon.
But then, as far as Faith was concerned, everything had started to go downhill fast.
First, there had been that debacle known as Slayerfest '98, where a bunch of asshole vamps and demons had tried to murder her and Buffy. Then there had been that demon named Lagos, who had almost succeeded in killing her as well. But the worst part had been that bitch named Gwendolyn Post; supposedly her new Watcher but actually a black hat who had played her for a fool – even calling her an idiot to her face before trying to kill her with the Glove of Myhneghon.
At that moment there was a knock on the door, and Faith put aside the magazine and got up. "Come in."
Xander came into the room. He briefly looked around, "Nice digs. Well, if you like cockroach-infested hellholes."
"What are you doing here, Xander?" Faith asked simply.
"I was worried about you, of course. Faith, what the hell are you doing staying in a dump like this?" Xander wanted to know, looking around the room in disgust. "There's no invitation barrier, for one thing. What if some vampire comes in while you're sleeping, and drains you like a milkshake? Geez, I can't believe that Giles is on board with you staying here..."
"Jeeves doesn't know where I live," was Faith's flippant reply.
"What? But that's impossible. Giles was assigned to be your Watcher as well as Buffy's, how could he not..." Realization suddenly hit the young man with a two-by-four. "Geseki! Dol dae ga ri!" he cursed in Korean, calling Giles a very stupid man amongst other, less polite things.
"What?" Faith didn't get that last bit.
"Never mind. But I am SO gonna chew his British ass out for this!!" Xander said angrily. "What the hell is wrong with that guy? He didn't come around and personally check out where you were staying? I can't believe he'd be so, so...dumb!"
Faith shrugged. "Isn't really his fault. I told him I was okay with where I was living here in Sunnyhell, and he took my word for it. Guy's got a lot on his plate 'n all."
"That's no excuse in my book!" Xander took a deep breath. "But that can wait 'til later. How are you coping after the Wicked Witch of the West almost electrocuted you tonight, not to mention everyone else?"
The obvious concern regarding Gwendolyn Post's betrayal instantly made Faith uncomfortable. "Five-by-five, I guess."
"Bullshit," Xander told her succinctly, much to the Slayer's surprise. "And where'd you learn that old aviator signal code, anyway? I know what it means, but I doubt anyone else around here would!"
The Chosen One hesitated before saying, "I visited my dad in jail shortly before I left Boston. He mentioned it to me, before the guards dragged him away." Faith frowned, "How about you?"
Xander exhaled. "Sit down, I've got a story to tell you."
Faith sat, and subsequently heard the whole fantastic tale of Halloween almost precisely a year ago. How everyone had turned into their costumes, and he had become Sergeant Raymond Shaw for the night. How he could still remember everything concerning those Halloween memories.
Then Xander took a deck of cards out of his pocket and said, "I had these on me the night I got possessed, and I kept 'em as a souvenir and a good luck charm." He withdrew the Queen of Diamonds card and presented it to her. "I want you to have this, it's the Red Queen. My personal favourite. Maybe it can be your own lucky charm, huh?"
"Yeah, right," Faith snorted. "Comedy, so – so..."
But then she noticed Xander's face go completely slack and expressionless. All because Raymond Shaw's trigger phrase – the Korean words 'comiday su su', which thanks to her Boston accent had been close enough to 'comedy, so so' – had been used in combination with the Queen of Diamonds card.
"Xander?" she asked, confusion clear in her voice.
"Yes," he responded with a flat, emotionless voice.
"What's up? How come you're acting like this?" Faith didn't get it.
"I'm awaiting orders," was the brainwashed teenager's reply.
"What? You gotta be kidding me," the teenage Slayer snorted.
"No. I'm not kidding you," Xander said simply. "The code phrase is the first key, which you've provided. The Queen of Diamonds is the second key, to clear the mechanism for my assignment."
"What? And your assignment? What's your assignment?" Faith asked, starting to get a funny feeling that her male acquaintance honestly wasn't messing around with her, after all.
"Whatever you tell me it is," Harris said.
"You mean...you gotta do anything I say? No matter what? Come on!" Faith guffawed. She quickly stopped, though, when Xander's expression didn't change in the slightest. "All right, what the hell – prove it. Uh...strip completely naked!"
Faith waited for him to tell her that the joke was over, but to her amazement Xander just obeyed her orders without question. In a matter of moments the young man was standing before her without a stitch of clothing on, wearing nothing but his birthday suit.
( Oh my Lord...just look at the size of that tool! ) Miss Lehane thought to herself, unconsciously licking her lips as she was hardly a blushing virgin anymore.
Fighting a rush of hormones at the sight of Xander's 'assets', Faith quickly said, "Hey, put your clothes back on!! And you're freaking serious, this shit is for real?"
"Yes," was the monosyllabic reply. Xander then proceeded to obey his latest orders, quickly and efficiently putting his clothes back on.
"Jesus," Faith muttered, finally starting to believe. "Alright, 'fess up: how did this happen? And don't skimp on the details!"
Xander told Faith the story as he knew it, how he had inherited his conditioning from Raymond Shaw when the sergeant and his platoon had been captured and taken to Manchuria during the Korean War – to be thoroughly brainwashed by the Soviet, North Korean and Chinese forces. He also spoke of how Shaw had been implanted with the subconscious trigger, and killed two of his own men whilst under its influence to prove to the enemy generals how the mind control techniques truly had been successful. Harris finished up by saying how he would have no recollection of anything, once the assignment was over and he was de-triggered.
"So, that means you won't remember us having this conversation?" Faith asked, eyes wide. "I can make you do and say anything I want, just by speaking the magic words and showing you that card, and you'll never even have a clue about it afterwards?"
"Yes."
Faith knew that she should simply tear the card apart and take her friend to her Watcher, get him the help he needed to beat this thing. But after she mentioned the plan to Xander, he simply replied, "Impossible. Thanks to the Halloween possession, my brain's been completely re-wired by chemical and surgical means. To quote Dr. Yen Lo, not only washed but also thoroughly dry-cleaned. The most likely outcome from mundane or magical meddling would be a neural short circuit, resulting in an immediate embolism.
"In other words, I'll die."
Faith was somewhat shaken by his matter-of-fact tone. "And that doesn't bother you?"
"If my assignment is to die for you, then no."
Faith sat down on the bed, wondering what to do. She knew B and Red well enough by now to figure that they would insist on Jeeves messing around with her friend's head, because those two had an annoying habit of thinking that they always knew best – which would most likely kill Xander, if Hypnosis Boy knew what he was talking about. Was she willing to take that risk?
( No way, screw that, ) Faith decided as she got up. She had never before had a male friend as close to her as Harris, and was determined not to lose him.
"All right, here's the deal. I'm gonna count to three, and then you'll wake up and be Xander Harris again. I want you to remember this conversation as well, okay? Or at least TRY to remember it, anyway. Ready?" She saw Xander nod his head. "One, two, three."
Right on cue, Xander came out of his hypnotised state as if he'd never even entered it. "It's not comedy-" he started to say, responding to the last word he'd heard before his trigger was activated. "Um, Faith? What's going on? Weren't we a lot closer to the bed just a second ago?"
"Is that a proposal?" Faith asked as a diversionary tactic. It was obvious to the dark-haired Slayer that Xander didn't remember anything, despite her orders to the contrary. "'Cause if you are propositioning me, I gotta warn ya. I don't do relationships, and I'm into both kinks and vanilla..."
Xander blushed, the male virgin having very little experience with that sort of thing due to never having dated Cordelia Chase. "Um, anyway. You sure you're okay after what happened with that whole Glove of Money-Gone thing?"
"Positive," Faith nodded. If nothing else this little episode tonight had pulled her out of that annoying funk. She then ushered her visitor out and lay down on the bed.
The Slayer had a lot of thinking to do.
***
The new residence of Faith Lehane, Sunnydale, California
February 1st, 1999
It was apocalypse season, and tonight the Hellmouth was scheduled to open. A female demon cult known as the Sisterhood of Jhe was in town, and Faith and Xander had just run away from one of them in the Harris-mobile after a particularly nasty fight on the streets.
"You think Demon Mama followed us?" Xander asked, as the door banged shut and he went to check out the window.
Faith shook her head. "Nah, odds are we're cool." She took off her jacket and said, "That bitch dislocated my shoulder, though." She tossed her jacket aside, careful not to move her arm too much. As Xander came back over to her the Slayer said, "Hold me."
He did so, slightly confused, but then the confusion cleared up when Faith audibly snapped her shoulder back into place. The young man couldn't help wincing in sympathetic pain, even if he knew Faith was the Chosen One and could shrug off injuries that would put him in the hospital.
"You okay?" Xander asked, concerned for his friend.
"Yeah, but that demon really got me wound up. I mean, a fight like that and no kill at the end, I'm just about ready to pop," Faith said, the beginnings of a smile on her face. "Wanna help me relieve the tension?"
Xander rolled his eyes, "Faith, we've discussed this before. And it's a bad idea, because we're better off friends! You said it yourself that you don't do relationships, right? Well, I don't want to ruin our friendship, and you don't want to be Miss Commitment. So no matter how beautiful I think you are, it'd be a mistake and we both know it..."
Under normal circumstances, Faith would have just let it go at that. But these weren't normal circumstances; the Slayer was hungry and horny as hell after the battle, and from what Giles had said this could very well be their last night alive on Earth. So she did something the young woman had sworn to herself never to do; she got out of the Queen of Diamonds card and said to Xander, "Comiday su su."
Instantly, Xander went into the trance as his trigger was activated. "Yes."
"You ready for your orders, stud?" Faith started licking her lips, the look of an impatient sexual predator appearing on her face.
"Yes."
"Fine. Then take off your clothes, get over here and give me enough orgasms to last for a month of Sundays."
***
The Sunnydale docks, Sunnydale, California
February 12th, 1999
Faith Lehane was, quite frankly, in a big panic.
It had all started two nights ago, when she had semi-accidentally staked the Deputy Mayor Allan Finch during a fight with a bunch of vampires. At first she had attempted to cover up the crime, but the body had been discovered and the police had talked to both herself and Buffy about it. Her suspicions that Buffy would rat her out had eventually proven correct, and Faith's attempt to blame the blonde Slayer for what she'd done had failed abysmally.
Then had come the attempted kidnapping by the new Watcher on campus, Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, to take her to England for 'rehabilitation'. Faith had easily escaped from him and his goon squad, though, and decided the best thing to do was just bail; get out of town ASAP.
Unfortunately, someone who knew her a lot better than she would have liked had been able to predict her actions. Standing on the deck of an old, rusted cargo ship about to depart Sunnydale, Faith saw Xander walking along the pier.
"You just don't give up, do you?" she called out to him, equal parts of annoyance and appreciation in her voice.
"Not on my friends, no," Harris said firmly. "Faith, please. Come on down and talk to me, okay? 'Cause I'd really like to know what the hell happened earlier on. I mean, I came over to talk to you tonight, that's it – and the next thing I know, we're having sex and Angel has hit you over the head with a baseball bat? Simply does not compute, in my opinion!"
Faith grimaced, she'd suspected that that would come around to bite her on the ass; but at the time, she'd been utterly unable to help herself. The sense of power she got from being Xander's mind controller had become more addictive than any drug could ever possibly be. "So was it good for you too, stud?"
Xander blushed, still not quite able to believe that he couldn't remember enough to answer that question. "Uh, that's not the point. The point is, how? And why?"
Sighing, Miss Lehane came down the gangplank and explained everything. She figured it was the least she could do, after all the pleasure her lover had given her lately even if he didn't remember doing it. "So, is everything clear now?"
Xander looked sick. He believed her, because it explained far too many things over the last two weeks; the funny smells on his body and clothes that he'd noticed lately, for one. Harris then started to glare at the young woman, and she inadvertently took a step back.
"You, you actually did that to me? You violated my trust like that? I thought we were friends, Faith, how could you DO something like that?!" Xander demanded.
"Hey, deep down I didn't do anything to you that you didn't want me to," Faith tried to defend herself. "See, you have this thing about how sex has to equal 'relationship', but I don't. And eventually I just...gave in to temptation, okay? I mean, you can't tell me that you didn't want me as much as I wanted you! And it's not like I physically hurt you or anything either – hell, you've been incredible in the sack as far as I'm concerned. So much that I was tempted to take you along with me tonight, but since I didn't have time to go looking for you..."
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?!" Xander looked shocked after hearing the Slayer's words.
"No, boy toy. On account of we both know you'd never leave your precious Buffy and Willow behind – at least not willingly." Faith's face twisted into an ugly sneer, since her relationship with those two had truly hit rock bottom tonight. "So just go home, okay? Pretend you never found me tonight, and get on with your life-"
At that moment, Faith and Xander suddenly found themselves under attack by three vampires, led by the childe of Kakistos himself; Mr. Trick. The dark-haired Slayer found herself facing two opponents, while Trick grabbed Xander by the neck and held him hostage as he watched the battle. Faith ducked and weaved, hitting and punching and kicking the undead in the melee battle until she staked first one, and then the other.
"Not bad, I'm thinking your old Watcher woulda been proud. You remember her, don't you little girl?" Trick sneered, his grip on Xander tightening. "I sure as hell do. That old lady was QUITE the screamer."
"Let Xander go. This is between us, Trick, you pathetic asshole," Faith snarled.
"You're one to talk about being pathetic, Slayer," Trick smirked. "You forgotten the way how you ran away from Boston last year? I figure I'm actually gonna be doing the world a favour by killing you, letting some other girl who isn't a coward take over the job from now on..."
Faith strove to calm herself down, and not let Trick's words rile her up completely. She knew that Xander's life was at stake here, as well as her own...and that was when she got an idea.
Trick automatically went into his game face as he saw Faith reach into her pocket for something, but to his surprise she just withdrew a battered old Queen of Diamonds poker card. The vampire had no idea what his opponent was up to, and he instantly didn't like that feeling at all.
"What's that for?" Trick asked, baffled by the brunette Slayer's actions.
Faith ignored him. "Comiday su su. Xander, get him over here!"
To Trick's surprise Harris used an old trick Raymond Shaw had known about, slamming his heel on the vampire's instep and dropping down and forward as he tossed the unbalanced Trick over his shoulder. The vampire landed flat on his back in front of the Chosen One, and Trick just barely had time to see Faith's stake flashing down towards his chest.
( Oh, damn- )
Dust exploded everywhere, as the undead creature was finally erased from existence.
( There's officially one less vacancy in Hell now, ) Faith thought to herself in satisfaction, before noticing Xander had gotten up and was looking at her blankly, awaiting his next orders.
"Oh crap. Xander?" Faith sighed, she hadn't planned for this to happen; but it had happened anyway.
"Yes," was the typical emotionless reply from the brainwashed teenager.
Faith was about to tell him to go home and then wake up safe and sound, when she succumbed to sweet temptation yet again. As she'd said, Harris was just way too good in bed for the renegade Slayer to simply discard him that way.
"Follow me, stud, we've got a ship to catch."
***
Somewhere in Puntarenas, Costa Rica
May 22nd, 1999
Faith put down the English newspaper, frowning. It seemed that Sunnydale had been the site of a massacre recently, a lot of people had been killed at the high school yesterday during the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the town. There had also been reports of a giant snake of some sort showing up at the school, which only caused the Chosen One to shake her head in disbelief.
( Makes me glad I got out of that town when I did, I swear to God, ) the brunette thought to herself. ( Odds are I would have gotten myself killed if I'd stayed, anyway. )
At that moment, Xander came into the room. The brainwashed young man said, "I have the location of that vampire nest. According to the snitch, there are at least thirty of the undead based there. I recommend we burn it during the day, and bribe the police to turn a blind eye to the proceedings. It'd be wise to hire one or two of them as well, to take out any stragglers we might miss."
"Sounds good to me," Faith smirked. Unlike Sunnydale the cops around here knew how to play ball with her whenever the undead were an issue, and her contacts had even supplied her with the names of a few mystics so that the Tweed Brigade couldn't track her down.
"But hey, that leaves us with the rest of the night to find something to do. Well, stud?" Faith asked with a knowing leer.
After all this time, the mind-controlled automaton knew what his boss wanted without her having to give him the order directly. As the clothes went flying and Faith's screams of passion and pleasure began, the man mechanically applied himself to his assigned task. But somewhere deep inside, where the true Xander Harris still resided, there lay a dim spark of hope...
Hope that someday, somehow, he would escape his servitude and once again be free.
As he watched the two rutting animals go at it yet again, in the higher realms Janus simply could not stop laughing over his handiwork for the last eighteen months or so.
***
Next: Story 8 - May The Force Be With You