The concept for this story was given to me by robert lints .1980, slightly tweaked. Like many of my stories, it's a Stargate crossover. Xander and Cordelia are together and this starts at the end of the battle against the Mayor and involves the road trip. I hope I can do your idea justice, Robert.
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"Congratulations on a campaign well fought, Buffy." Giles said, in the aftermath of their victory against the Mayor.
"Why are you congradulating Buffy? Xander did most of the work getting us to this point and all of us helped." Cordelia said, in her usual forthright manner.
"Buffy had the most important job." Willow defended her. "Plus, it was her idea in the first place."
"But Xander convinced everyone to fight, he came up with the actual battle plan, he built the bomb and he led the battle. Buffy pissed the mayor-snake off and made it chase her and Giles set off the bomb. Giles should be congradulating all of us, not just Buffy. Reminds me of when we beat the Judge. Xander came up with that idea and he and I risked our freedom to get that rocket launcher, while Willow and Oz covered for us. Buffy pressed a button and let Angelus go and he killed a bunch of people. Giles just gave her credit then too. Where's our credit? We do alot of the work and never get any acknowledgement from you, Giles."
"Buffy's the Slayer." Giles said, as though that explained everything and as far as he was concerned, probably did.
"Makes her the Captain of the team, but without the team she'd have been dead a long time ago. Oh, that's right, she was. She ran off on her own and got herself dead. She didn't stay that way though. Xander convinced Angel to help him find her and did CPR and revived her. Did she ever thank you for that?"
"No." Xander said. "Come on. I'm tired and we still need to get packed before our road trip."
"Fine, I'm just saying, she and Giles could learn to be grateful. It's not like she actually fights alone, like Giles keeps saying she's supposed to. If she fought alone, she'd have stayed dead." As they headed for the rebuilt convertible Xander's Uncle Rory had sold him, neither noticing Buffy and Willow glaring at them or Giles looking befuddled.
The next day was a glorious sunny California summer day. Xander drove over to Cordelia's family house, which was really more of a mansion, to pick her up. Once there, he loaded her bags into the trunk of his car and they set off on their fun filled summer vacation.
Which lasted exactly twenty six miles before the engine fell out of the car and the car's momentum carried them over the engine and tore up the undercarriage and sent them careening into the woods next to the highway. They came to a sudden stop in front of a rocky cliff face. Cordelia was unconscious from the impact and Xander wasn't much better. He stumbled out of the car and around to Cordelia's side of the car. Knowing something of first aid, especially after the last two and half years, he did a quick assessment. Nothing seemed to be broken and aside from a rapidly forming bruise and knot on her forehead from the airbag, she seemed fine. Xander eased her out of the car and onto the ground, careful not to jostle her.
"Come on Cordy, honey, wake up. Show me those beautiful hazel eyes of yours, yell at me or something. Anything but lie there like a lump, scaring the Hell out of me." Xander said anxiously.
Cordelia started to stir and then opened her eyes. "Xander, what happened?"
"Uncle Rory didn't do as good a job as he thought in rebuilding that car. Something fell out of it from the engine compartment and we ran over it. I'll let you express our opinion on that, the next time we see him."
She glared half-heartedly at him and said. "Don't worry, I will."
"Can you stand up?" Xander asked. "And do you have your cell with you? We need to call for a tow."
"Let me try." With Xander's help, Cordelia shakily got to her feet. "My cell's in my purse." She told him.
"I'll get it." He said, moving towards the car, stumbling slightly as pain registered in his head. He'd been so focused on Cordelia, he hadn't noticed he'd been injured as well. He fell against the rocky surface of the cliff face and to both his and Cordelia's surprise, fell thru the surface.
"Xander!" Cordelia yelled and jumped forward. Reaching out, she felt the surface and was again surprised, as her hand passed right thru. "Must be some kind of Magic." She said and moved forward. The wall ate Xander and she was getting him back. She passed thru and into something remarkably Hi-Tech, even futuristic.
"Wow. I was thinking that was some kind of Magic, but from the looks of this place, now I think it's something else entirely." She said, looking around.
"I agree. I don't really recognize any of this equipment. I mean, I can guess, that those are computers of some kind, but I've never seen anything like them. This kind of reminds me of an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, where the primitive inhabitants of a planet find humans have been observing them from behind a shielded cliff face. They're so primitive that they think Captain Picard is a god. Maybe someone has been observing us or maybe even the Hellmouth. That would be freak worthy, indeed."
"I don't like the idea of someone watching us, Xander." Cordelia said.
"Neither do I." Xander said. "Especially since they don't seem to have done anything to help us deal with the crap that comes from it." He walked toward the wall, passing a marked area on the floor. As he did so, lights came on. He stopped near the wall where something was sticking out of the wall, with some sort of rounded layers to it. Suddenly it activated and before he could react, hand like objects reached out and grabbed his head. A bright burst of rainbow colored light shown on him for a moment and then the hands let get of him. Cordelia yelled his name as he slumped to the floor, unconscious.
