Xander Harris was having a really bad year.
After the destruction of Sunnydale, the new Scooby Gang, which now included Kennedy, since she was sleeping with Willow, had decided that he was too much of a liability, and cut him out of the main group.
Which meant they dumped him and his stuff in the first town they went through on their way to Cleveland. To his amusement, actually happened to be in Oxnard.
No one seemed to stand up for him. And for some strange reason they thought that Andrew would be better help than Xander was.
And for some reason it didn't hurt as much as he thought it would.
[I will dedicate and sacrifice my everything for just a seconds worth of how my
story's ending. And I wish I could know if the directions that I take and all
the choices that I make won't end up all for nothing.]
They thought if he wasn't hanging around them, he wouldn't be in any danger of being killed by vampires or demons.
Xander went hunting by himself wherever he went. He refused to be told what to do by the people who left him behind. They knew he had nothing left in the normal world. Without Anya, he lost his will to live a normal life.
[Show me what it's for make me understand it. I've been crawling in the dark
looking for the answer. Is there something more than what I've been handed?
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer.]
But to every positive thing that ever happened to Xander, he always seemed to get twice as much bad luck.
That bad luck happened about a month after the Scooby Gang left him. Xander went on a simple hunt, a single vamp, a very easy kill since it was a newbie. But he fell for the bait that led him to a group a vamps that were waiting for fresh meat, which, unfortunatly, was him.
[Help me carry on.
Assure me it's ok to use my heart and not my eyes to navigate the darkness.
Will the be ever coming suddenly?
Will I ever get to see the ending to my story?]
He was laying on the floor of an abandoned warehouse. Blinded by his own blood that got into his good eye. Chained to the wall and waiting to die.
No one ever took Xander Harris seriously, not even demons he faught against. They tore off his eye patch and laughed at his scar.
Xander never liked being laughed at, but at the moment he was too weak to do anything about it.
[Show me what it's for make me understand it.
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer.
Is there something more than what I've been handed?
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer.]
Xander heard a noise, someone or something entering the abandoned warehouse. The unmistakable sound of a vamp being dusted.
[So when and how will I know?........]
The other vamps were growling at the intruder, as she made her way towards their captive that was chained to the far wall.
Xander heard the person's footsteps coming closer to him. He was able to smell the ...perfume? ... her scent. It was a strange and beautiful scent, something he's never smelled before.
Hell, Buffy never smelled this good.
Xander felt a soft hand take a firm hold on his arm and pull him up into a sitting position.
"You must be hungry," the sultry female voice spoke to him, "here, eat this."
'I need a fucking doctor, and she wants me to eat?' Xander thought to himself.
[How much further do I have to go?
How much longer until I finally know?
Because I'm looking and I just can't see
what's in front of me,
in front of me.]
The strange woman gently nudged the fruit in her hand into Xander's mouth.
He had no other choice than to eat the strange yet tasteful fruit that was being given to him.
Xander instantly felt his strength returning.
He ate more of the fruit.
The more he ate, the stronger he became.
The blood, he was covered with, disappeared. He didn't feel the stickiness of the dried blood anymore, as his vision of his right eye returned.
Xander looked up, right into the beautiful face of the strange lady that saved his life.
He stood up and turned to face the small group of vampires that were standing to the side silently.
Xander rushed to the nearest one, and twisted its neck.
"Holy Shit," Xander barked, as the vampire's head was completly torn off by his own bare hands, and what was left of the vampire turned to dust.
The remaining group of vamps, stared wide eyed at what they had just witnessed, before sprinting off for any exit they could find, to get away from what used to be their food.
Xander was about to give chase, when the strange woman laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Let them go for now," she said, "there are some things I have to teach you about who you really are."
She held onto him as they disappeared in a shower of golden light.
[Show me what it's for make me understand it.
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer.
Is there something more than what I've been handed?
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer.]
"Thanks for letting us crash here," Buffy said.
"No problem," said one of the sisters, although Buffy wasn't quite sure which one she was.
Buffy Summers still could not believe that it has been ten long months since the destruction of the Sunnydale Hellmouth. And even though they were able to stop the hordes of Turok-Han from bringing destruction into their world, they still had many battles ahead of them.
The latest fight had taken them to San Francisco.
Them being Buffy, along with Faith, Giles, Willow, Kennedy, Wood, Dawn, and Andrew.
They all sat down in the living room to watch some television before turning in for the night.
They found there was nothing to watch after ten minutes of flipping through channels. They changed the channel once more, to Mtv, there usually was something good on that channel, before admitting defeat.
"*Finally, today is the day of the world premiere music video of a new group called Evanescence," the man on the tv said, "but recently their guitarist left the band for reasons unknown, and that has left the rest of the group in search of a new member. And now for the moment we've been waiting for.*"
Both the San Franciscan and ex-Sunnydalian groups were eager to hear something knew, after their hard fought battle earlier that day.
Evanescence
"My Immortal"
Fallen
Written by
Alexander Harris
Wind-Up Records
'It can't be him, could it?' ran through the minds of the entire Sunnydalian group.
[I'm so tired of being here
Suppressed by all my childish fears]
Both groups were in awe of the black and white music video as well as the singer's beautiful voice.
[And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave]
'It can't be,' both Buffy and Willow thought as they saw someone they felt looked familiar, although all they showed was his back.
['Cause your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone]
They wanted him to have a normal life, it hurt them to see him getting himself hurt while patrolling with them, risking his life night after night.
[These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase]
"Xander?" yelled Buffy and Willow at the same time.
And there he was, in black and white, right in front of them.
"You know him?" asked Phoebe
"Yeah," Willow answered absently.
[When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears]
"He's kinda cute," said Paige.
"Eeww, gross," Buffy gagged.
"What?" Phoebe replied, "It's the eye patch. It makes him look... dangerous."
[I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me]
"Phoebe always seems to fall for the bad boys," Piper jumped into the conversations.
[You used to captivate me
By your resonating mind
Now I'm bound by the life you left behind]
"Xander is alot of things," Buffy said, "but bad isn't one of them."
[Your face it haunts
My once pleasant dreams
Your voice it chased away
All the sanity in me]
"Yeah," Willow threw in her two cents, "Xander's the complete opposite of bad. He's a total goof ball."
[These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase]
"And just look at him," Buffy continued to put down her ex-friend.
[When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears]
"Yeah," Willow jumped in, "all he's doing is walking around."
[I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me]
"Exactly," Buffy cut in, "he's not even playing an instrument."
[I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
But though you're still with me
I've been alone all along]
The moment after Buffy had made her comment, the song broke out with tunes blaring from the guitars and the set of drums.
"You were saying?" Phoebe shot back at the blonde Slayer.
The Scooby Gang stared in shocked silence as they watched Xander expertly play the electric guitar he was carrying.
[When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears]
Paige and Phoebe stared as they continued to watch Xander in the music video. He had form fitting clothes that were showing off his well muscled body.
Buffy and Willow couldn't believe what they were seeing. Xander was supposed to lead a normal life, not become rich and famous.
[I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me]
As the song came to an end, the last thing that was shown in the music video before it faded to black, was Xander, leaning against the wall with his face turned to the left so that it hid his eye patch.
"Someone is jealous," Paige sang, when she saw the looks on both Buffy and Willow's faces.