See Part One for disclaimer and details. Howdy everyone, and welcome to the latest chapter of my humble li'l story! A big thank-you to all my loyal readers and reviewers, as always. Okay, a number of people have asked when the orgies are gonna start happening after reading the last chapter. But like I said at the start of the story, I suck at writing porn of that kind, and so there will be rather little adult content in this fanfic. Sorry, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. I'm not saying there won't be any kinks and/or vanilla, to quote Faith way back when, but it'll mostly be mentioned in passing rather than gone into in detail. Anyway, let's get on with it...

Part Nine: Q & A

Restfield Cemetery, Sunnydale

March 7th, 1999

Xander stared at his parents' graves, before the young man laid a wreath of flowers upon the grass and then his newly-reclaimed girlfriend grabbed hold of his hand tightly. Just as Faith had speculated, a lot of bedroom gymnastics had recently taken place – and ye gods, but Xander had never expected Cordelia to have become so bend-y, nor she for him to have developed so much stamina – which had bound these two crazy kids together in more than one sense of the word.

Still, Xander looked old and tired right now as he thought to himself, ( Mom, Dad – I'm sorry. You were never exactly 'parents of the year' material, God knows, but still – you deserved better than what happened to you that night. Believe it or not, I'm gonna miss you both. )

Seeing the expression on his face, Cordelia said worriedly, "I'm not gonna ask if you're okay, because, y'know, obviously a stupid question. But Xander, are you gonna be okay?"

"One day, maybe," Xander exhaled, shaking his head and looking around the graveyard.

"Xander-"

"I'm officially dead too, Cordelia," Xander interrupted her, pointing at the grave in question with the disturbed earth from last night. "It just suddenly hit me how I really am nobody now. If the cops around here ever arrest me for anything, how can I prove I am who I say am? I mean, my birth certificate has been officially invalidated, and so has my driver's license and my social security number and my-"

"So what? Willow can easily cook up a new identity for you, remember? These days it'd be like child's play for her to do something like that," Cordelia interrupted urgently. "Besides, once I graduate in about three months or so, we can finally put Sunnydale behind us once and for all. Make a new start in life somewhere else – like, say, New York!"

"But I thought you wanted to be a Hollywood actress?" Xander turned to face Cordy inquisitively.

"Well, yeah. But that demon fortune teller or whatever he was, he told you to get out of LA and never set foot in that city again, remember? What did you think, Xander, I was gonna drag you straight back into the lions' den or something?" Cordelia asked with a frown.

"You'd do that for me? Give up your dreams of being an international superstar, or whatever?" Xander asked in surprise.

"Well, duh! Because up until yesterday I thought you were dead, you moron!" Cordelia snapped, old habits with this guy certainly died hard. "Now that I've finally got you back, you think I'd do anything that'd put your life in danger? Ugh. Sometimes, I wonder what it is I actually see in you!"

"Been wondering about that myself," Xander said reflectively. "I mean, we just spent the last 24 hours in bed together, sweetheart. But to me, anyway, it feels like it was just a few days ago when we were on that 'break'-"

"Listen up; that was a LOT of demons ago, as far as I'm concerned. Watery blood over the bridge," Cordelia interrupted him, she was determined to nip this in the bud right now. "Plus, I haven't had a boyfriend ever since the day I stupidly decided to take a break from 'us'."

"You haven't?" Harris looked like he found that rather hard to believe, given that he was neither blind nor totally naïve where Cordelia's face and body was concerned.

"No one I've dated ever since the funeral ever managed to get as far as first base, because I couldn't help comparing them all to you – and not one of those jocks and preppies ever measured up," Cordelia said in annoyance. "It's given me a bit of a reputation as an ice queen, I'm sure, but no guy has ever dared say that to my face – they're too afraid of what I'll do to them. Or what Faith'll do to 'em, when she hears the news!"

"You and her are close, huh?" Xander asked curiously.

"I guess, sort of anyway. She's saved my life more than once, and I've done the same for her," Cordelia replied, recalling that incident with a Sisterhood of Jhe demon attacking Faith on the street a few nights ago – not long before Queen C had saved the world from Jack O'Toole's bomb in the high school basement. "Faith's had it rough, and she's got trust issues. She seems to let Buffy's mom in, though, at least sometimes."

"Yeah, and who'd have thought her and Giles would ever end up together? I betcha Buffy's completely freaking over the concept of calling him 'Dad' one day, if those two ever decide to make it official," Xander snorted with the least touch of amusement.

"Speaking of which...Buffy, what are you doing here?" Cordelia asked as the blonde girl showed up.

Buffy kept her eyes fixed on Harris, though. "Could you give Xander and me some privacy, Cordelia? We have some things to discuss – alone."

"It'll be okay, Cor," Xander said swiftly, seeing the expression on his girlfriend's face. "I'm sure the Buffster will promise to play nice, right?"

"Right," Buffy nodded, her gaze still fixed upon the last scion of the Harris clan. "Heck, I'll even apologize for breaking your nose yesterday, if you want."

It took a while, but Cordy was finally convinced to play ball. So with a hard look at the former competition, the Chase girl headed back towards her car.

"Well. Here we are," Xander finally spoke up after the silence had dragged on for too long. "Why are you here, Buffy?" he then asked brusquely.

"I didn't want to leave things between us the way they were yesterday morning at Giles' place," Miss Summers admitted. "In addition to apologizing for attacking you, I wanted to give you the chance to-"

"Apologize to you?" Xander cut her off, knowing what she wanted. "I'm sorry that what I did last year hurt you, Buff. Probably more than you'll ever know."

"But you're not sorry for anything else? Like, say, lying directly to my face like that?" Buffy demanded, a hard look appearing on her features.

"If we're gonna be honest here – then no, I'm not. For all the reasons I mentioned to you before, that night at your house. I know that's probably not what you were wanting to hear, but, well, you know," Xander said uncomfortably.

"No, I don't think I do. Care to explain?" Buffy asked, struggling to keep her emotions under control.

"Oh, Buffy, c'mon – what would be the point of going into all that again, here and now? I figure the best thing we can do is simply agree that we're never going to see eye to eye on what should have happened back then, and just leave it at that," Xander shook his head.

"And what if you're wrong about what you think should have happened back then?" Buffy insisted on asking.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't be the first time where I've been wrong and you've been right about something. I mean, remember Ms. French, the preying mantis lady? And hey – time was, I thought that if I just tried hard enough and waited long enough for you to get over the walking corpse, you'd eventually become Mrs. Buffy Harris," Xander shrugged sadly.

"What?" Buffy asked, eyes wide. She had known ever since sophomore year that Xander had had a 'thing' for her, granted, but this admission was like a thunderbolt out of the clear blue sky.

"Yeah. Well, that was all BC, of course," Xander clarified his earlier statement.

"BC?" the Slayer asked in confusion, still trying to regain her mental equilibrium after hearing the 'Buffy Harris' thing.

"Before Cordelia," Xander smirked for less than a moment. "She really is something, Buffy, I gotta tell ya – I don't know how the h-e-double hockey sticks I was ever lucky enough to get her back, especially after all this time, but now that I've got her...I'm not planning to ever let her go."

"Right," Buffy muttered. ( Well, it's not like she can get away with that whole 'freak' name-calling thing any longer – so maybe you two do belong together, at that. )

Xander suddenly stuck out his hand. "What the hell. Truce, until Cordy and I leave the Hellmouth after Graduation?"

Buffy stared at him in confusion again. "Huh? What? You two are leaving Sunnydale?"

"Yeah, this town holds way too many bad memories for both of us now. And besides, I figure I can't hide here from Wolfram & Hart forever," Xander said, wondering yet again what to do about that particular law firm.

Buffy shook her head as if to clear it. This conversation definitely hadn't gone how she'd thought it would go. Her Xander-shaped friend, if he could still be called that, had definitely thrown her on quite a few issues just now...

But maybe, just maybe, all this truly was for the best; since Buffy now knew that things would never again be like they were back when she, Willow and Xander had been the Three Musketeers of Sunnydale High. Buffy also couldn't help agreeing with Xander's comment concerning Evil Incorporated; she herself always wanted to fight evil and not hide from it.

"Truce," Buffy said slowly, shaking Xander's hand.

( And bon voyage as well, I guess, when the time comes. )

523B Oak Park Street, Sunnydale

A while later

Angel paced around inside Giles' apartment, having arrived here for the scheduled meeting a bit early.

"Will you stop or sit down, for heaven's sake?" Giles demanded, having grown tired of the vampire's pacing. "You're, you're going to wear out the carpet doing that!"

"Oh. Sorry. I guess the coffee I had earlier made me kinda jittery," Angel said as he stopped moving.

"Well, h-hopefully I have a remedy for that problem," Rupert said as he headed over to the mini-bar. "Some 1927 Château Ingare, from Avignon."

Angel raised an eyebrow; he hadn't known that Giles was such a professional wine connoisseur. Or that he had gotten over what Angelus had done last year, to such an extent. ( Still, don't question your luck. Just accept it and move on. )

"French wine. Always reminds me of the French Revolution," Angel said shortly thereafter, savouring the taste of the alcohol.

"You were there?" Giles asked, sipping from his own glass.

"I was in Prussia during 1789, actually – I was on my way to Vienna, when that mob first stormed into the Bastille," Angel reminisced. "I showed up in Paris later, during 1793 I think it was. Or was it '94? I didn't stay long, though, either way. The French were too fond of using their guillotines during the Reign of Terror – and I may have been young for a vampire, but I wasn't stupid."

"Yes, uh, that raises another issue. The thing is, I-I didn't request your presence here and now on a whim – Joyce asked me to, to talk to you about Buffy," Giles said a little reluctantly.

"She wants me to break up with her," Angel nodded. That certainly explained the Englishman's good manners just now – and as he'd said a few moments ago, the ensouled vampire wasn't stupid.

"Joyce has – hinted as much," Giles replied diffidently. "I gather she thinks you're an unhealthy influence on her daughter. A-and truth be told, deep down, that's not something I can really argue against. It puts me in a rather, ah, difficult position, though."

"Of course. Buffy's still feeling very angry and antagonistic towards you and Joyce for your, how shall I put this, secret liaison," Angel said, putting down the wineglass. "The word 'betrayed' also fits, at least in her mind. I know, because she told me."

The Irish-born vampire saw the former Watcher's expression and added, "Putting all that aside, though? The truth is, Giles, recently I've been considering moving on so that Buffy can find someone else, someone who can give her everything in life that I can't. And I think we both know that Faith's Slayer dream means that I'm going to break up with her and leave, sooner or later. So I'm not saying never, just – when the time is right."

Rupert nodded slowly. A moment later there was a knock on the front door, and Giles quickly let the rest of the gang come in: Buffy, Joyce, Willow, Oz, Faith, Cordelia and Xander.

"Well, here we all are," Joyce said uncomfortably, the room was certainly rather crowded. "Uh, why exactly are we all here again?"

"To discuss what we're gonna do from now on," Buffy spoke up, before glancing at Willow. "Will?"

"Yeah, I-I've already started work on creating a fake ID for Xander that'll stand up to just about any sort of scrutiny," the redhead reported. "Luckily, there's lots of people our age who've been declared missing runaways or whatever, so I can use their details to come up with something good."

"And, what about school?" Giles spoke up, staring at Harris.

"Oh, I can take care of that part too. A few mouse clicks here and there, and hey presto! Xander has his GED," Willow said with a smile.

"Wee bit unethical," Oz commented, causing Willow to stare at him in surprise.

"Yeah, but even if it wasn't, I've got more important stuff on my mind right now. Like that whole 'awful' thing inside me – to quote that nutsack, Drusilla," Xander said, looking uneasy.

"So how can you be sure this vamp chick wasn't wanting to mess with your head, or, y'know, just being plain crazy?" Faith wanted to know.

"We can't," Angel spoke up. "But that's the thing about Dru – she has the sight, crazy or otherwise. She may not understand everything she sees, but all those decades we were together – Drusilla never once prophesized anything that later turned out to be false or incorrect in any way. Even if it didn't come to pass for months or years afterwards."

"Then, then shouldn't we take Xander to a doctor?" Joyce asked. "Get an X-ray, or an MRI or something?"

"I, uh, I don't think so Joyce. I'm fairly sure this isn't something that falls into the realms o-of conventional medicine," Giles told her.

Angel looked thoughtful. "Maybe a spell would do it..."

"What spell?" Giles and Willow said together in perfect unison.

"Tirer la couture," Angel pronounced the French name perfectly, with just a hint of an accent.

"Rotate the foodstuffs?" Buffy asked in confusion.

"Pull back the curtain," Giles corrected her absently. "Yes, I-I've heard of that spell actually. A wizard in medieval France came up with it. Cloutier, I think his name was."

"And this spell does what, exactly?" Oz asked.

"It's a spell to see spells...well, a trance to see spells and magicks, or at least their signatures," Angel said. "If Xander's been infected with something that's even remotely magical or supernatural in nature, this spell would detect it."

Xander shared a look with Cordelia, before he nodded. "Okay, let's give it a try."

"Very well, then, I'll set up for it at once," Giles said, giving Willow a stern look when he saw her open her mouth to volunteer for the magic stuff instead of him.

A bit later, Giles went upstairs for privacy after gathering all the spell ingredients. Joyce had to leave too after receiving an urgent phone call from the gallery. The conversation continued without her for a while, until Rupert came back down the stairs – seeing the world around him in a different way. Grainy and sepia-toned, with reality slightly altered.

"Good Lord!" Giles uttered, as he laid eyes on Xander and Cordelia.

"Giles? What do you see?" the remote, distorted voice of Buffy filtered into his consciousness.

"It's amazing," Rupert said, seeing all the glowing swirls of light encompassing both teenagers.

"Yo, Giles! What are you seeing?" the impatient voice of Faith registered this time.

"Okay, it's official – he's starting to freak me out," Cordelia's muffled voice sounded a bit panicked.

"I think it's alive," Giles marvelled, seeing different colours start to appear in the light both around and within Xander and Cordelia now. Making a decision, the British man suddenly gestured and shouted in Latin, "Loqui!"

Everyone else looked on in surprise as Rupert's new spell took effect on Xander and Cordelia. Harris then said in a monotone, # We sense that we are now able to communicate- #

# -with all of you present in this room, # Miss Chase finished up the sentence, her voice equally devoid of inflection.

Everyone else jumped up off the chairs and sofa. "Okay, who and what are you?" Buffy demanded straightaway.

# We do not possess names the way your kind does. Although previously, the representatives of Wolfram and Hart have referred to us as 'the virus', # Xander's voice said in that emotionless, perfunctory way.

# We are both unique, in our own way. But through the recent contact between our hosts, we have also networked to have become two halves of the same being, # Cordelia's voice added.

"Okay, I'm – kind of confused," Angel said slowly. "So, uh, Drusilla – she really did rescue Xander from Wolfram & Hart?"

# We are not familiar with the entity you call 'Drusilla'. However, as stated, we are familiar with Wolfram & Hart, # Xander's voice replied.

"Please elaborate," Giles demanded. "Tell us everything you know about them."

The virus obligingly spoke of all that it had learned; Lopez, the incident at the airport with the 'aftershave', becoming self-aware at different times within Xander and Cordelia's bodies, the kidnapping, and finally the conversation in the law firm's basement four days ago in LA.

"So, so what happened to the evil lawyers, afterwards?" Willow asked, looking shocked.

# Those representatives of Wolfram & Hart all died, after Holland Manners and Dr. Sparrow threatened to kill that part of us within Alexander Harris, # Cordelia's voice said in that flat, robotic tone.

"What?" Buffy demanded. "Are you saying you killed them?"

# Yes, because it was necessary to do that for self-preservation. But we do not intend to harm you- # Xander's voice started to say.

# -unless you likewise attempt to kill us, # Cordelia's voice completed the sentence. # Our intentions are neither- #

# -benevolent nor hostile. We simply desire- # Xander's voice added.

# -to continue to exist and replicate within our hosts, # Cordelia's voice finished up.

"So, how do we know that you two aren't gonna harm Queenie and her boy toy, deliberately or otherwise?" Faith demanded. ( Guess it's a good thing I decided not to jump her bones that night the Hellmouth demon got loose, after all... )

# We have no wish to hurt our hosts. To do so would be to hurt ourselves, as we are bonded to these bodies, # Xander's voice said in reply.

# That is why we made them as healthy and powerful as they could be, repairing any damage as quickly as possible. We have also updated the optimum physical parameters for both bodies, during our recent synchronizations, # Cordelia's voice added.

"OH, so that's why Xander and Cordelia are now-!" Willow cried out.

"Question. If you're a virus, then how easy would it be for you to infect someone else? Namely us?" Oz suddenly spoke up, interrupting his girlfriend.

The virus was silent for a couple of moments as it considered the question.

# We do not have enough data to answer your question- # Xander's voice then said.

# -because we have not yet attempted to do such a thing, # Cordelia's voice added.

"So, are you saying that no one else has been infected? Cordelia and Xander are it?" Buffy asked suspiciously.

# To the best of our knowledge, we are the only sentient representatives of our kind; especially given the requirement for some sort of 'magical' event in order for us to become self-aware. However it is possible, and even probable, that there are other, mindless versions of our kind within the human population, # Xander's voice replied.

# Logic dictates that there would have been opportunities for infection originating from both our hosts, prior to us becoming able to remember it, # Cordelia's voice said.

"Is anyone here infected with that sort of virus?" Angel asked, looking around to see the expressions of worry on most people's faces and secretly glad that he himself was a vampire.

"No," Giles spoke up at once, staring around at everybody present. "At least, not as far as I can tell using this spell."

"Look, are you sure you can't just get out of there and find somewhere else to set up shop? I mean, you – you've been living inside Xander and Cordelia all this time, without their knowledge or consent!" Willow said to the virus rather desperately. "C'mon – is that morally or, or ethically acceptable to you?"

# We do not understand what you mean by 'morally' or 'ethically', # Xander's voice replied.

# And from the acts conducted by Wolfram & Hart, we have learned that we cannot continue to exist without a human host, # Cordelia's voice said, referring to Knox's early experiments and the ones by Dr. Sparrow afterwards.

Xander's voice added, # Also, if we were to leave, then without our presence the bodies of our hosts would inevitably degrade. #

# To what extent is unknown and unknowable. Because both bodies have now been too heavily modified for us to make any accurate forecast concerning that possibility, # Cordelia's voice said.

The members of the Scooby Gang stared at one another in surprise – no one had been expecting to hear that. "Ya think this thing is trying to put one over on us?" Faith asked the others.

"I doubt it. The way the virus talks, it's like a machine – it'd have no use for, or experience with lies," Angel shook his head.

"We'll continue this discussion again soon, virus," Giles finally spoke up again, looking at Xander and Cordelia. "Terminus!"

Just like that, the spell was broken – and instantly, Xander looked semi-catatonic and Cordelia began to scream her lungs out.

Well, until Cordy abruptly started slapping Xander and shouting that he'd given her a demonic STD and what-not, while he protested and kept yelling out specifics about their first time together to prove it wasn't completely his fault what had happened.

To Be Continued...