See Part One for disclaimer and details. Welcome to the latest chapter of the fanfic! As always, we owe big-time thanks to everybody who's sent in reviews and feedback: we have been, are, and will continue to be grateful for it. You provide the inspiration for us to keep going with the writing! But having said that, it's time to start wrapping this story up – there's just this, the penultimate chapter, and one more to go. So please tell us what you think of...
Part Fourteen: What Will Be, Doesn't Have To Be
Outside the new Angel Investigations agency, Osgood Boulevard
June 21st, 2004
Cursing under his non-existent breath, Spike grabbed the heavy blanket from the back seat of his car. Covering himself up as best he could, the ensouled vampire then got out of the vehicle, slammed the car door shut and then ran for the front doors of the building as fast as his legs could carry him.
To be honest, Spike wasn't really sure why he was here. He'd gotten a call from Harris, telling him that they needed to talk. Ordinarily, he would have just hung up after a choice insult, but then the bloody git had mentioned Dawn's name – and bugger it, but that was a trump card both men knew that Spike couldn't ignore. So here he was, cursing and smoking slightly, but nonetheless present inside the detective agency.
{ All right, Harris, where the flamin' hell are you? } William the Bloody thought grouchily, looking around the lobby. Place looked ridiculously crowded for a Monday morning, too. { C'mon, where's – ah, hang on! }
"Oy! Slayer – uh, Faith," Spike hastily corrected himself, as way too many heads turned in his direction. He walked up to the brunette in question and demanded, "Where's the glorified bricklayer?"
"You talkin' about Xander, Spike?" Faith raised an eyebrow. "Or do you prefer 'dust pile'?"
"Yeah, whatever," Spike said impatiently, ignoring the threat. "Look, ya know where he is or not? I got things ta do today, so I don't wanna waste any more of my time around 'ere th'n I absolutely have to!"
"Cordelia's office, last I saw," Faith gestured with her head. "They were in a meeting-"
"Right, thanks," Spike interrupted her, already moving towards the office in question.
"Hey, Spike? Ya might not wanna go in there," the second oldest Slayer shrugged, staring at William the Bloody's departing back.
"Why not?" Spike tossed over his shoulder, not bothering to stop or even slow down.
"Him and Queen C have got visitors."
The peroxide-blond vampire, quite frankly, didn't give two hoots about that. He just wanted to get this over with, and find out what the useless wanker wanted to tell him about the Nibblet. Knocking once on the door and not even waiting for a reply, Spike strode into Cordelia's office –
And found himself staring at Giles, Willow and most important of all, Buffy.
"Oh, sodding hell..."
Cordelia's office, Angel Investigations
A moment later
Xander did his best to keep the smirk off his face, as Spike barged into the room and then stopped dead (pun fully intentional) at the sight of Buffy. He tried, he really did try to keep his face 110% smirk-free. The best he could manage was about 98%, though, as the situation really was that funny; and through no real fault of his own.
After waking up for the latest go-around earlier this morning, Xander had decided to follow his plan of being 'subtle' about the situation. Thus, he hadn't done anything different so far to what had happened during the original Monday in question, apart from phoning Spike as soon as Angel had left the building.
Seriously. He'd just listened as Cordelia had told him that Angel had quit his job, and was planning to head east with Connor and his son's girlfriend. He'd used the wheelchair until the doctor had given him the okay to stand up on his own two feet again. He'd bidden farewell to Melissa the nurse like he'd done the first time, and he'd gone into Cordelia's office along with everyone else and listened as Buffy and Willow had started on their speech. The one where he was going to come back to England with them, and they were going to take care of him from now on.
Luckily, they hadn't gotten very far when Spike had barged into the room and then uttered his classic comment...
"Hey, Spike. Wasn't expecting you 'til later," Xander said, shrugging slightly.
"You invited him here?" Cordelia demanded, looking at Harris suspiciously. "Why?"
"Wanted to talk to the guy about Dawn," Xander replied, shrugging again. "Figured she might listen to him instead of me, y'know, since she's so pissed at me right now."
Spike was paying no attention to the conversation; he was focused entirely on the woman he loved. "Buffy, I-"
"No. Please don't make this any harder than it has to be, Spike," the blonde Slayer interrupted, looking uncomfortable. "Look, I know you still have feelings for me – but like I've said before, that doesn't matter. I'm with someone else now."
"That ponce, the Immortal?!" Spike snarled, fighting the desire to go into vamp face and just barely succeeding.
"Watch it, William. That's my boyfriend you're talking about," Buffy growled in reply.
"Boyfriend?! That bloody pedophile is just using you, luv! Don't you ruddy understand, he-" Spike's rant was abruptly cut off, as the Summers woman grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall. "Urk-!"
"Don't," Buffy told the vampire warningly. "For old time's sake, I'm gonna pretend that I didn't hear that. But you call my honey that again, and I'll tear your head off. No – first I'll rip your convenient carrying handle out by the roots! The one located down south, if ya know what I mean?"
Again, Spike fought the urge to go into vamp face as Buffy let him go and he rotated his neck a bit. "You have changed, haven't you, luv? Time was, you weren't this afraid of the truth. Guess that immortal berk really does have you completely dazzled, eh? Cor blimey, not even Dru took this long ta see through his act..."
"What are you talkin' about?" Buffy demanded of her ex-lover.
Spike shrugged. "The Immortal. Every time he shows up in my unlife, I either lose my girl, get hunted by an angry mob, or get thrown in prison for tax evasion-"
"No, I meant that crack about the truth! What truth?" the blonde Slayer demanded angrily.
Spike stared at her. "Don't tell me ya didn't know? Bloody hell, that immortal git's been around a long time. He's seen and done everything, he's even had his own harem of women more than once. And way I heard, some of 'em were as young as eleven or twelve years old..."
"What?!" Giles, Willow and Cordelia all exclaimed at the same time.
"YOU'RE LYING!" Buffy yelled, looking shocked – and lethally angry.
"No, I'm not," Spike said softly. "Look, ya have ta understand, things were different back then. I mean, nobody approved of it, but in some places? Being a king, or even a liege lord, meant that you could do pretty much whatever you wanted with the kiddies-"
"Shut up, Spike. I don't want to hear your lies any longer," Buffy interrupted harshly, her eyes almost glowing with volcanic fire, and looking like she was barely preventing herself from staking the ensouled vampire.
"M'not lying. Just telling you what I heard hundred-odd years ago, luv," Spike replied, shaking his head. "I'll grant you, gossip was that the bloody arse never actually forced himself on any of his brats. Still, reckon he never needed to – competition being what it is, them little girls woulda been climbing into his lap soon as their bodies started up their monthly cycle. Or maybe even earlier, for the more determined ones – not like that sort had anything else going for them, izzit? Can ask Rupert what life was really like for harem women back then, fer sure he'll tell you it wasn't what you'll see on the bleeding History Channel-"
"SHUT UP, SPIKE!" Buffy screamed, before drawing her stake – but then she angrily stalked out of Cordelia's office, after throwing the weapon down to the floor in a violent rage. Willow and Giles followed after her, looking concerned; a moment later, Cordelia followed after them. Leaving Spike alone with Xander.
"Gee, that was real smooth, Spike," Xander smirked at him. "Been reading that book on how to win friends and influence people lately, huh?"
"Up yours, Harris," Spike replied heatedly, turning around and beginning to head for the office door himself.
"I wouldn't chase after her yet, if I were you," Xander drawled, as Spike turned to stare back at him. "She's madder than hell right now, and Buffy's not gonna listen to anything you have to say. Take it from someone who's been there – I mean, there was a reason I never mentioned any of that stuff to Slay-gal during our last meeting in Rome!"
"You knew?" Spike narrowed his eyes at once.
"Sure. Some of the old Council's records survived the big boom thanks to that asshole Caleb, and I collected myself a few sources before I quit the Watchers. Hey, some people – and demons – are, like, born to gossip," Xander shrugged. "But that's kinda irrelevant right now. You and me, we got other things to be concerned about."
"You're talkin' about the platelet, right? M'not your bloody go-between, Harris. Why should I help you?" Spike demanded scornfully.
"Because deep down, you're not like Angel."
"Eh? What's that s'posed to mean, then?"
"Exactly what it sounds like," Xander said patiently. "Think about it, Spike. Way I see it, that guy didn't do any of his life- or world-saving stuff simply because it was the right thing to do...Angel did it all to score points with either the Powers or a girl, or provide for his kid when Connor was just a baby, or to keep his crew close to him."
A shrug. "But you? Looked after Dawn, went out on patrol with the old Sunnydale gang, and even covered for Ahn at the Magic Box once or twice. Sure, most of the time, you did what you did in order to get into Buffy's panties – don't even think I've forgotten about the attempted rape – but much as I hate to admit it, you actually helped out that summer while the Buffster was dead, without looking for any sort of reward."
Harris drew in a deep breath. "That's why I'm hoping you'll do the right thing again now. Find Dawn after sundown, and talk to her. Help her get over the anger that she's got going, as a favor to me, Dawn – and even Buffy."
Spike stared hard at him, and then swept out of the office without a word.
UCLA campus, Los Angeles
Later that night
Xander kept to the shadows, maintaining sufficient distance from Spike and Dawn that the human would remain unaware of his presence – even if Harris was sure that the vampire knew he was following them. That telltale smirk and eye-roll he'd seen earlier had been all the proof he needed to be sure of it.
The day hadn't passed quickly, or at least not quickly enough for his liking. But keeping to the plan he had established at the start of this go-around, Xander had visited the same bank he'd gone to on Monday Prime, and he'd also conducted the same inspection of the hotel he'd done back then. He'd told Cordelia of his decision to stay in Los Angeles, and even watched While You Were Sleeping with Vi and her sister Slayers again.
About the only thing he'd done different (apart from calling Spike) was helping Wesley figure out that Andrew was missing. Hey, the guy was a twerp, and had willingly been part of the 'conspiracy' concerning Cordelia – but Anya had died fighting alongside him. Plus, Wells was also a fellow comic book enthusiast, and Klingon speaker. Not enough of them in this world.
So, business as usual – before heading out to find Dawn and Spike. It had been tempting to bring Faith along for tonight's adventure – having a super-powered hot-looking chick at his side did make for a nice ace in the hole – but in the end, Xander had decided against it. One, because Faith didn't do 'subtle' very well; and two, if anything went wrong, Gunn would kill him if his girlfriend ended up hurt or dead.
And not to be squeamish, but he'd already done that thing twice and had no desire to break Buffy's record on coming back from the dead.
{ Come on, Ethan, } Xander thought to himself, clutching the baseball bat he'd purchased earlier from a pawn shop. { I know you're out there somewhere, buddy boy. So show yourself, already! We both know you're running out of time, here... }
True enough; and so, eventually and inevitably, the mage appeared to kidnap Dawn as part of his dastardly plan. To which end, Rayne hit Dawn and Spike with his favorite spell to incapacitate his targets – the 'clementia nigrum'.
"Buffy," Spike murmured, immediately lost in a daze as he saw nothing but his true heart's desire in front of him.
"Mom," Dawn echoed, likewise lost in a vision of the long-dead Joyce Summers.
By this point, Xander was already in action. Slipping his old black patch over his eye – his right eye – he ran towards Dawn and Spike and Ethan, determined not to let the British wizard escape with his prize.
No frickin' way. Not again. Never again.
Ethan became aware of Xander's running footsteps when Harris was less than fifteen feet away. Smirking slightly, Rayne then chanted in Latin, "See with your heart!" before waiting for the man to be overcome by the spell; the same way Spike and Dawn had been.
The shock and horror on Ethan's face when it didn't work, when a grim-faced Xander kept running straight at him, lifting the baseball bat and hitting him directly in the face – knocking the sorcerer out cold – had to be seen to be believed.
"Spike? SPIKE! Snap out of it!" Xander yelled at the ensouled vampire. When that didn't work, Harris shrugged and – possibly taking a bit too much pleasure in the act – slugged William the Bloody right in the face, making the undead guy fall flat on his back.
"OW! What the bloody-" Spike spluttered, trying to figure out what had just happened as he struggled to get up.
"Come on, Spike, get up! Dawn's still out of it," Xander barked out, as he yanked off the eye-patch and threw it away.
"Wot? Ah, bollocks!" Spike cursed, as he witnessed the Slayer's sister talking to – her mum, from the sounds of it. "What the bloody hell happened?"
"Magic trance spell," Xander replied, picking up Ethan's body and putting it over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. "Had to punch you in order to make you wake up, but I sure as hell don't wanna have to do that for Dawnie."
"Yeah...oh, cripes! Come on, Li'l Bit, snap out of it!" Spike said urgently, focusing entirely on the girl and not even noticing as Xander walked away with the unconscious Ethan. "Listen, I don't want to hafta use force..."
Angel Investigations, Los Angeles
A while later
Giles sighed as he entered the international dialing code, and then the digits for the number to the Council's London headquarters into the phone. For security purposes, he had them memorized instead of stored on paper. He couldn't understand why overseas numbers had to have so many digits, though. Good Lord, had it been set up that way simply so you'd have more chances to misdial?
Hmmm, possibly. The telecommunication companies had to make a profit somehow, after all.
{ Blast. For heaven's sake, Pryce, why won't you pick up the bloody phone? } Giles thought to himself in annoyance, after Wesley's father failed to answer. { Damn it all, but I should never even have come on this idiotic junket in the first place... }
Giles hung up, briefly wondering if he felt that way because of the feelings of guilt over deliberately withholding information about Cordelia from Xander. The head Watcher hadn't missed the boy's hostile stare after he, Willow and Buffy had arrived here, which spoke volumes about how low an opinion Xander had of him right now.
Earlier today, Rupert had figured out that if the Chase girl had died back then, Xander might have done a lot more than just quit the Council as soon as he'd found out the truth. Exactly how far the youth would have gone, had he been as enraged over Cordelia's death as Giles himself had been when Angelus had murdered Jenny Calendar – well, that was something Rupert much preferred not to dwell on. It helped him to be able to sleep at nights.
{ Bloody hell, } Giles sighed to himself, not wanting to acknowledge that Cordelia's welfare simply hadn't been a high priority with him, but unable to help doing so. He was a busy man, yes. But as tightly associated as she had been with Angel – tarred with same brush as it were – it was also way too easy for him to put the girl out of his mind as Someone Else's Problem. Unfortunately, he knew that not everyone saw it that way –
"Mr. Giles?" Wesley's voice called out, before the door opened and the Watcher stuck his inside the room.
"What is it, Wesley?"
"I thought you'd like to know, Andrew has finally been stabilized," Wes reported as he came into private room. "I'm afraid the veritas root extract won't be out of his system until at least tomorrow, though. It makes questioning him impossible until then, unfortunately."
Giles exhaled again. { Bloody wonderful. } "Did you, uh, a-at least find out what language he was shouting and ranting in earlier, by a-any chance?"
"Yes, oddly enough. Rona said he was speaking in Klingon," Wes smirked briefly.
"Good grief," Giles muttered, even though he was hardly surprised that his former aide would bother learning a language from a cheap science-fiction TV show like that. And he would have said more, but at that moment Willow teleported into the room.
"Guy, guys, we got a problem! Like, like imminent war type problem!" Willow babbled, before she grabbed the shoulders of both men and teleported down to the lobby – where Buffy and Cordelia were facing off like two Wild West gunfighters.
Well, that is, if they were female gunfighters and were wearing the latest fashion in name-brand clothing –
"Oh...I don't feel so good..." Willow gasped, before she fainted in Wesley's arms. Teleportation on that level along with passengers had left physically and magically exhausted. With Wesley grabbing one end and Giles grabbing the other, they quickly carried the witch over the lobby's couch. And perhaps somewhat tellingly, neither Buffy nor Cordelia even noticed.
"You've got a lot of nerve, coming into my house and trying to do the spoiled princess act on me! Because in case you didn't notice, I don't automatically agree to do whatever you want," the Seer growled nastily.
"This has got nothing to do with you. Xander is coming back with us to England, and that's that," Buffy growled back.
"Oh really? I'm curious, when exactly did he agree to that? Because the goof told me that he was sticking around here for the foreseeable future, earlier today. And in this case, assuming stuff that way makes an ass out of you; but not me," Cordelia riposted.
"I don't believe you. Why the hell would Xander want to stay here? Oh, wait, let me guess. The same reason he ever dated you in the first place?" Buffy replied. "Newsflash: it didn't work out back then, it's not going to work out now!"
In the blink of an eye, Cordelia went from simmering anger to enraged fury. "Didn't anyone ever tell you? It would have worked out between us, Buffy. If it hadn't been for outside interference, right now I'd be Xander's wife and the mother of his children. You're the one Xander would have abandoned and forgotten long before now. Oh, wait, he did; I almost forgot! Wasn't there a certain meeting in Rome where you said you needed real men, and not wimps like him?"
Balling her fists in growing rage, Buffy lashed out, "Well, that's rich coming from you! How many lousy, hurtful names did you call Xander, before and after you two broke up? Hell, how many were there during that, that insanity that was you two hooking up together? So many that I lost count! Geez, at least Anya never treated him like that! And you know that you're just a substitute for her, right? A, a second-rate consolation prize-"
"You really are that desperate to convince yourself of that pathetic little fantasy, aren't you? Because I've been inside Xander's head, you idiot; I know that that's not true," Cordelia interrupted coldly. "And you wanna hear the cold, harsh truth? If he was the same man back then that he is today...Xander wouldn't have gone rushing down into the Master's cave in order to save you from your own stupidity, Buffy. He would have forced Angel to help him take out the Master on that rooftop, and then simply recovered the body afterwards. For Joyce and Dawn's sake, that is!"
The red fog of rage descended like a thick veil over Buffy's eyes, and she might have done something she would have later regretted – had Giles, who had been listening to the venomous exchange with ever-increasing dismay while Wes was keeping an eye on Willow, not put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed tightly. { What-? }
"Don't do it," Rupert said quietly, noting the clenched fists and boiling anger in his Slayer's eyes. "Xander will never forgive you if you attack Cordelia like that, Buffy. Most likely, neither will Dawn; so as your Watcher, I-I-I strongly advise you not to make an unnecessary enemy out of both of them. It, it wouldn't exactly help your standing as the head of European operations, either; I shouldn't need to remind you that you need to set an example for the other Slayers, a-after all."
There was no telling what might have happened, if Willow hadn't chosen that moment to groan loudly and recover consciousness on the couch. And then, a few seconds later, Spike rushed into the detective agency, carrying the spellbound Dawn in his arms and immediately shouting for Willow to 'fix' her.
Deciding to call it a draw for now, with a temporary truce going into effect and ending the current hostilities, Cordelia and Buffy joined the others around the couch; their concern for Dawn briefly putting all thoughts of Xander out of their minds.
It didn't really matter, anyway; Harris had his own priorities right at the moment –
Abandoned factory basement, Los Angeles
Not long before midnight
Xander stared dispassionately at the wire cage set up against the wall. Long ago, he suspected, when the factory was still in business, it would have held tools for the workers and other miscellaneous material. Now, though, all that the cage contained was one knocked out Ethan Rayne.
The Chaos mage groaned, finally come out of his stupor. His face hurt like hell as he muttered, "What the..."
"We need to talk, Ethan," Xander said, surprising Rayne with the use of his first name. "In fact, we got quite a lot to talk about."
"Meaning, old chap?" Ethan ad-libbed, using an old magical trick to focus and block out the pain. "Ah. Alexander Harris, isn't it? And just out of curiosity, didn't you have only one eye just now?"
"Nope. Eye-patch was just to make sure that spell of yours didn't work. Unfortunately for you, British man, you're kinda predictable with regards to that sort of thing," Xander replied.
"Ah, now, Mr. Harris – there's no need for that," Ethan said smoothly, as he finally got up off the floor. "Look, why don't you just let me out of here? I'm sure that we can work out some sort of mutually satisfactory-"
"It's been a long week, Ethan, a long week of Mondays – and I am so not in the mood for your bullshit," Harris cut him off, his expression now frigid. "Your soul is dying. You think the only way to save yourself is to travel back in time to before you fragmented it, and totally rewrite the history books. You were planning to bleed and possibly kill Dawn in order to pull that off, because she's the Key and the miracle ingredient necessary for the ritual. Am I wrong about any of that?"
"How did you know?" Ethan asked simply, dropping the pseudo-friendly act.
"I told you, it's been a long week. For me, anyway. Because that spell you were planning to do? It didn't work the way you wanted it to. You set up a time loop, pal, every sixteen hours it was Monday morning all over again. This is the fifth go-around, believe it or not; it's taken me this long to figure out what's going on, and finally put a stop to it."
"Oh, really?"
"Don't expect you to believe me, but ask yourself this. How did I know you'd be going after Dawn, and tonight of all nights? How did I know how to shield myself from that idiotic spell of yours? How did I know you had a gun, and that I had to knock you out cold straightaway with that baseball bat?" Xander held up the 9mm weapon he had confiscated earlier on. "Last time we met, you shot and killed me with this. I figure afterwards you did your ritual with Dawn, and then I woke up in my room at Cordelia's detective agency all over again. So you really should have listened to me, when I told you that your time travel stunt wasn't going to work. You wouldn't be here right now, for starters."
Ethan was suddenly worried, even though he didn't let any sign of it show on his face. He also decided to accept what he'd been told, at least on a provisional basis. "So what are you going to do, dear boy? Kill me in revenge for something I haven't even done, at least not in this timeline? You're not the type."
"That's debatable," Xander shrugged, recalling what Cordelia had told him about the killer instinct in his psyche, thanks to the remnants of the Vampire Xander from the Wish world. "Truth is I was responsible for three people dying when that musical demon called Sweet showed up, but I've never killed anyone on purpose. Still – when you were hired to bring me out of my coma, did they tell you that doing that would send Cordelia back into Dreamland, and later kill her? Because I would have shot you in the head and never lost a moment's sleep over it afterwards, if you'd succeeded in killing my girl back then."
"Ah. Of course. And no, my employer didn't tell me that, believe it or not," Ethan said frankly, briefly cursing Eve's memory.
"Oh, I believe you. Just like I'm sure it wouldn't have made any difference to you, even if you had known," Xander replied. "Exactly how much time have you got left, anyway? Before your soul finally goes bye-bye?"
"Not long. Twenty-four hours, maybe as much as thirty-six," Rayne replied, not liking the new direction of the conversation.
"Then listen up; I'm gonna do you a favor." Xander came up to the cage and tossed the gun inside; watching as Ethan hastily picked it up and pointed it at him. Harris then said, "There's one bullet in there. I suggest you use it wisely."
"What do you mean?" the wizard demanded, rattling his cage with his free hand and discovering that he was effectively trapped inside. "And why did you give me my gun back?"
"You figure it out, Ethan. No one knows you're here. And you can scream for help all you want, no one's gonna hear you. So the way I figure it, you have two choices; one, you can kill me, and end up trapped in here all alone. And less than two days later, you'll become...what's the best word for it? Oh yeah, like my bud Mohamed would put it, a soulless abomination," Xander said candidly. "And once your carcass expires soon after, you'll cease to exist in every sense of the word. As for option number two, well, to sorta quote Dickens – 'tis a far, far better thing you'll do, than you've ever done before..."
"What? Do you honestly expect me to take my own life that way?!" Ethan exploded, finally lowering the gun as he stared at Xander in disbelief. The memory of an old conversation with Eve, where she had suggested killing himself in order to save his soul from oblivion, suddenly appeared in his mind – before Rayne mercilessly shoved it away.
"It's totally up to you, dude. Either way, you're going to die," Xander shrugged. He saw Ethan's face tighten up, but pressed on regardless. "There's no way you're gonna get out of that cage alive. And even if you did, there's no way you'd get anywhere near Dawn again, not in the little time you've got left. Wouldn't be any point, anyway – you'd just screw up, and trap us all in that damn time loop again."
Harris looked Ethan right in the eyes. "Like I said, choice is yours. But whatever you decide to do? Hasn't been a pleasure knowing you."
Xander turned his back on the Chaos mage and headed for the basement stairs. For a moment, he wondered whether doing Ethan this sort of 'favor' was the right thing to do –
Nah. Screw it. Even if his soul was predestined for Hell thanks to all the bad shit he'd done, including killing Riley in cold blood, that was still better than the other option. Cordelia had definitely had a point when she had stated in one of her letters that it was more important to save souls, rather than lives. Besides, if Ethan hadn't done what he did, Xander knew that he and Cordelia wouldn't have ended up where they were now –
The seconds ticked by, each one worse than the last. Harris could not help anticipating being shot and killed, and he knew that if that happened, there would be no do-over afterwards. Dead meant dead and gone, this time around. But there was no reason to stay and tempt Ethan to open fire, once the man realized he couldn't talk his way out of this.
{ I want to live, } Xander suddenly realized as he walked, fully expecting Rayne to shoot him in a fit of uncontrolled rage. { I don't want to die, because I actually have something to live for now. Hell of a time to realize what that mystical trance spell during the previous go-around really means... }
Much to his surprise, nothing actually happened as Xander finally opened the basement door and started climbing up the stairs. He could feel Ethan's eyes tracking him, until the door was shut behind him. As Harris reached halfway up the stairs, he heard the muffled sound of a gunshot – and he assumed that the dying wizard had made the only choice he could, to avoid his upcoming fate of complete non-existence.
"Hope you save me a seat by the fire, Ethan. Odds are I'm going to need it."
To Be Concluded...