"I hate my life," Xander muttered as he moved slowly down the streets of Raccoon City, always on the lookout for anything that moved. In one hand he held a battle-axe that he kept in the trunk of his car, in the other he had a Beretta that he had gotten off a dead cop.
As the young man cautiously moved down the he looked back on the events that had led him to this moment.
"You're better off without her Xand," Buffy said, doing her best to comfort her friend who had just been dumped by Anya.
"Maybe you're right," Xander sighed "But you're not changing my mind," the young man continued as he loaded another bag into his car.
"But why do you have to leave?" Willow asked in a childish tone. "We need you here,"
"Will, it's not like I'm never coming back, I just want to try and finish the road trip that I started." Xander responded as he put his last bag into the car and closed the trunk.
"Hoping to get past Oxnard this time?" Buffy asked, amusement in her voice.
"Yup," Xander answered as he threw an axe into the back seat.
"What's with the axe?" Willow asked.
"Well, you never know what could happen, so I wanna be prepared," Xander replied. "Well, that's everything," the young man said as he closed the back door and turned to face the two girls.
"You take care of yourself Xan, we want you back in one piece," Buffy said as he moved forward and hugged her friend.
"Will do," Xander replied as he returned the hug.
"Write us," Willow said as she joined the hug.
"You got it,"
With his good-byes said, Xander let go of his friends and climbed into his car and started the engine. With a last wave goodbye Xander was gone.
˜˜˜˜˜˜End Flashback˜˜˜˜˜˜
"When am I gonna learn that road trips are bad things?" Xander asked himself as he heard the loud moans of the zombies coming closer.
Not wasting anytime the young man began running in the opposite direction of the moaning sound, hoping to either find other survivors or to at least make it out of the city alive.
Running down a small side street, Xander quickly came to a stop as he saw two zombies at the other end of the street slowly moving towards him. Turning around to run back the way he came the young man saw that his escape route was blocked by three more of the undead.
"Aw shit, so much for saving ammo," Xander muttered as he raised the pistol and took aim at the two zombies farther up the street, he had luckily discovered earlier that the most effective way to kill them was shooting them in the head. Two quick head shots later the two zombies fell to the ground and stopped moving, clearing the young mans escape path.
After running for close too ten minutes the young man slowed down to catch his breath and take stock of what he had. Quickly ejecting the magazine from the pistol he saw that he had three round left as well as a spare clip he had found, his battle-axe, and a bottle of water he had grabbed from his car.
Leaning against a nearby wall the young man opened the top of the bottle and quickly took a few sips before screwing the top back on and standing up. As he was preparing to head out Xander heard a growling sound farther up the street and the sound of heavy footfalls.
Quickly ducking into the shadows of a nearby doorway, the young man soon saw what was making the noise. A large creature, standing close too seven feet tall with a large, lipless mouth showing off its teeth. In one arm it carried a mini-gun and in the other a large rocket launcher.
Xander's heart froze in his chest when the large creature stopped and looked in his direction. The young man froze and began praying that the large creature straight out of a nightmare wouldn't notice him. A couple of minutes later the monster turned and began walking down the street, either not noticing the young man, or not caring.
Letting out a breath he had noticed he'd been holding the young man waited until the creature was out of site before running like a bat out of hell in the opposite direction.
"That was far to close for comfort," Xander said as he slowed down and surveyed his surroundings.
A quick look around showed that the young man was standing out side of the local police station. Hoping to find better weapons in case he ran into the large monster again, the young man quickly moved to the doors and slowly opened them.
After a quick look around and not seeing any possible threat, the brunette walked into the large, desk filled room. After quickly searching through the desks and various cabinets and not finding anything he then walked through a door in the back of the room.
Looking around the hall that he stepped into Xander noticed several doors. The young man then walked up to the door nearest him and pushed it open. Before the he had a chance to look around the room, a zombie jumped at him from the shadows and quickly took a bite out of Xander's arm.
Quickly pushing the undead off of him, the young man grabbed his axe and brought it down upon the creature's skull, effectively killing it.
"That was close," Xander muttered as he wiped the axe blade off on the zombie's shirt before inspecting the bite on his arm. "Doesn't look to bad," he muttered as he ripped off a piece of his shirt and tied it around his arm.
Half an hour later, after a search of the station that only resulted in another spare clip for his gun, the young man was once again traveling the streets looking for a way out of the city.
"There's got too be a way out of this city," Xander muttered as he walked through a small park and back out onto the street.
Upon hearing the moaning sounds of zombies around him, the brunette stopped and raised his axe and Beretta and slowly looked around. Soon five zombies appeared from the shadows and began to move towards the young man.
After using the last three rounds in the magazine he tried to reload but saw that he wouldn't have enough time. Dropping the gun, Xander brought up his axe and quickly ran towards one and decapitated it with the ease of someone used to cutting of heads.
Turning, Xander saw that the second zombie was about lunge at him, quickly jumping to the side the young man was able to dodge the monster, he then quickly brought his axe down the monsters head, ending it's existence.
Suddenly a shot rang out, turning around, Xander saw that the third zombie was crumpled on the ground, less than a foot away from him. Looking up from the corpse he saw that the shot came from a dark haired woman in a short, black skirt and blue tube top holding a gun and standing next to a black pickup truck with several more people in it.
"You ok?" the woman asked as she holstered her gun.
"Yeah, thanks for the help," Xander replied as he walked over.
"You've been infected," a red haired woman said as she got out of the truck and walked over to him.
"What are you talking about?" Xander asked in confusion.
"You got bit, you're infected with the T Virus," she answered.
"T Virus?" Xander asked in confusion.
"Yeah," the dark haired woman spoke up. "It's what's responsible for all of this," She explained.
"You mean that all these zombies are roaming around because of a virus?" Xander asked.
"Yup," the red head responded.
"And I am now gonna turn into one of those things," he asked.
"How long ago were you bitten?"
"Bout a half hour ago," Xander replied.
"Then your lucky," the red head replied as she walked back over to the car.
"How so?"
"It's not too late to cure you, get in the car," the dark haired one said as she climbed into the drivers seat.
Seeing that he had no other alternative, Xander bent over and grabbed his Beretta and climbed into the car after throwing his axe in the back in order to avoid hurting someone. Looking around he saw that the other occupants of the car was a black man wearing a tan colored coat, a taller, white man in combat gear, and a little girl in a school uniform.
"Give me your arm," the red head told him as she put a small vile containing a green liquid into an injector.
Reaching out his arm towards the woman she grabbed it and stuck the needles into his arm, and injected the liquid into him.
"There you go," she said as she let go of his arm.
"Thanks," Xander said as he inspected the small holes left from the injection.
"So what's your name?" the dark haired woman asked.
"Alexander Harris, but you can call me Xander," the young man responded. "And you are?" he asked.
"Jill Valentine," she replied.
"I'm Alice, and she's Angie Ashford," the red head said, as she gestured to the little girl.
"I'm L.J.," the black man said.
"Carlos," the other man said.
"Nice to meet you," Xander said.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's with the axe?" L.J. asked as the young man.
"Well, growing up where I did, it was always a good idea to carry a weapon around," Xander replied.
"How come your so calm about all of this?" Alice asked, interest evident in her voice.
"This isn't the first time I've dealt with zombies, and knowing my luck, probably won't be the last, although the other two times it wasn't a virus that made them," the young man explained.
"What are you talking about?" Jill asked.
"Long story," Xander replied. "So, where are we going?" he asked.
"City hall," Carlos responded.
"Why, what's at city hall,"
"A helicopter that we can use to get out of here," Jill responded.
"That's good, I was beginning too think that there was no way outta this city," Xander replied with relief.
"Just to let you know, we can't just climb onboard and fly away, we have to take it by force," Carlos told him.
"Things can't ever be easy can they?" Xander asked as he slumped down in his seat.
The rest of the drive was spent filling Xander in on what had happened, and what they would have to do in order to escape the city before the Umbrella Corporation destroyed it with a nuclear missile.
Soon the truck pulled up to a stop in front of City Hall, the group of survivors quickly got out and headed towards the building. It wasn't long before Alice spilt off from the rest of the group and disappeared into the shadows.
"There's a group of guards up ahead," Jill whispered to the group as they slowly approached them.
"Something tells me we don't have to worry about them," Xander said while staring at one of the walls of the large building.
"Why do you say that?" Jill asked.
"That's why," Xander responded as he pointed at the figure of Alice running down the wall.
A few seconds later, the super powered red head had leapt into the air and attacked the group of guards, effectively killing them or rendering them unconscious, save the one which Carlos killed with his throwing knife.
It wasn't long before the group had killed all the guards surrounding the helicopter, but as they tried to leave a larger group of soldiers showed up being led by a man Xander didn't recognize. As it turned out Alice did, seeing as he was the one that injected the T Virus into her, resulting in the altering of her cellular structure. Another prisoner of the group was Angie's father, who was very grateful too see his daughter again.
The soldiers quickly took away their weapons before tying their hands behind there back, save for Alice who he kept free. A few seconds later the large monster Xander had seen earlier came walking out of the shadows.
"Discard Primary weaponry," Cain told the large monster, which immediately obeyed. "Fight him," the man said, turning to Alice.
"No," Alice responded, resolve in her voice.
Cain, in response, pulled out his side arm and fired, less than a second later Dr Ashford fell dead from a bullet in his brain.
"And he was important to the company, just think of what I'll do to the rest," Cain said, facing Alice again.
"Fine," the red head responded.
Alice then slowly moved toward the Nemesis while the large monster moved into a classic boxing stance. Seconds later the two advanced beings were locked in combat.
While the fight was going on between Alice and the Nemesis, Carlos was able too pull out his knife and quickly began to cut through his bonds. Soon the former Umbrella employee was free; he then discreetly tossed the knife to Jill who also cut through her bonds.
By the time the group had freed themselves the battle between Alice and the Nemesis had reached an end. Alice had been able to impale the monster on a piece of metal sticking out of the wall, but found she couldn't kill it because it used to be her friend Matt the only other survivor of the hive incident.
"Pitiful," Cain said as the Nemesis pulled itself free of the metal bar and moved to retrieve its weapons. "Kill her," Cain told the monster.
The Nemesis pointed its gun at Alice and seconds later bullets were flying, but instead of it's target being the red headed woman, it was the guards holding her.
Seeing that the Nemesis was now helping them, the group sprang into action, Carlos and Jill immediately attacked the guards holding them and stole their weapons and began to open fire on. Xander jumped up and elbowed his guard in the gut before grabbing the tazer/rod weapon on his belt and jamming it into the guard's neck.
The young man then grabbed the dead guard's pistol and dived into cover, narrowly avoiding the hail of bullets coming at him, before returning fire, all the while very thankful that he had spent hours ingraining the soldier memories into his mind.
Thing looked to be going okay until two more helicopter arrived, these ones carrying weaponry. Without waiting, they opened fire on Alice, only at the last second to have the Nemesis jumped in the way and block the bullets. That large monster then raised his rocket launcher and fired on the first helicopter. The rocket hit the cockpit and exploded, causing the vehicle to spin out of control and crash into the second one.
Alice, seeing that a large chunk of flaming debris was heading for her quickly ducked, unfortunately the Nemesis being slower did not have time to move and was struck by the large piece of metal.
Cain seeing that the tides had turned quickly ran into the copter that he had arrived in, only to be confronted with a gun wielding L.J. Looking around and seeing that all the soldiers were either dead or unconscious, Xander quickly ran for the helicopter, followed by Carlos, Jill, and Angie.
"Alice come on!" Jill yelled to the red haired woman who was staring at the dead Nemesis that had just saved her life.
"C'mon!" Carlos yelled.
"Rest in peace Matt," Alice said to herself as she got up and ran to the helicopter.
Once Alice was on board the vehicle rose into the air. Seeing that Cain was still onboard Alice grabbed him and dragged him to the opening in the back.
"Killing me won't make things better!" Cain yelled as Alice pushed him to the opening.
"No, but it's a start," Alice responded with venom in her voice as she pushed him out.
The major quickly fell to the ground, and upon impact, broke his leg just as a horde of zombies broke through the gates and began to rush towards him. Grabbing a gun from a nearby body, he began to shoot at the undead but after realizing there were too many of them pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger.
CLICK
'Shit,' Cain thought as the zombies dived down on him and quickly began to devour him.
The large helicopter began was quickly moving away from the city as the nuclear missile launched by Umbrella swiftly moved toward the city. Soon the missile detonated and the helicopter was then trying to outrun a nuclear explosion.
"Hold on to something!" the pilot yelled as the shockwave hit them and made the helicopter start to violently shake.
As the shaking grew worse a metal pole broke free of its holdings and began to fly towards Angie. Alice, seeing this happening, moved in front of the little girl and was impaled through the chest by the pole.
"Uhh," Xander groaned as he returned to conciseness. "Someone get the license plate of the truck that hit me," he mumbled as he sat up and rubbed his head.
Looking around, the young man saw that the helicopter was lying in ruins about twenty feet away from him and vaguely remembered that after Alice had saved Angie's life the helicopter had crashed. He quickly checked him self over for injuries and saw that apart from his aching head, he had several bruises and cuts across his arms and legs.
Seeing that he hadn't received anything serious he stood up and began to look for the others. A few seconds later the young man found Jill lying face up in a small pool of water.
"Hey, C'mon wake up," Xander said as he crouched next to her and gently shook her.
Soon the former member of S.T.A.R.S opened her eyes and began looking around.
"You okay?" Xander asked as he helped her stand up.
"Been better," she responded as she gained her footing.
"We need to find the others," Xander said as soon as he was sure Jill wasn't badly hurt.
"Right,"
Soon the two had been able to find and revive everybody, except for Alice, who was lying on a rock, a large hole in her chest and part of her hair burned black.
"What do we do?" L.J. asked as he stared down at the woman.
"There's nothing we can do right now," Jill answered, sorrow evident in her voice. "It's only a matter of time before Umbrella comes looking, we need to be far away by then," the woman explained as she turned and began walking away.
"She's right," Carlos agreed as he cast one last look at Alice's body before following after Jill, followed closely by L.J. and Angie.
Xander stayed for a second longer to say a prayer for the dead that Giles had taught him after Jenny's funeral before turning and running to catch up with the group. Soon all that remained was the ruins of the helicopter and the body of another lost friend.
After three hours traveling through the woods surrounding the Arklay Mountains, the weary survivors of Raccoon City finally reached the edge of the forest and saw that they were on the outskirts of a small town.
"Thank god, a town," Jill commented as they began walking down the street.
"Now, all we need is a motel or something," Xander said, adjusting the sleeping Angie he was carrying.
"That looks like one up ahead," L.J. said, pointing to a building about a block away.
"Let's hurry then." Carlos muttered as they increased their pace.
At the same time at the site of the crashed helicopter an Umbrella retrieval team was carefully moving barley alive body of Alice, the man in charge, Dr Isaacs, was already forming in his mind the plans he had for the nearly dead red head. However, all of this was unknown to the group as they retrieved the keys to their rooms.
"Okay, we got three rooms, one with two beds and two with single beds," Carlos said as he checked the keys.
"Angie and I will take one of the single rooms," Jill said as Carlos handed her one of the keys.
"So, who gets the other single?" L.J. asked.
"I don't care as long as I get a bed I can sleep on," Xander responded as he passed off the sleeping Angie to Jill who then walked into her room.
"We'll flip for it," Carlos told them as he picked up a quarter he saw on the ground. "You two first and then me against the winner," Carlos said as he held up the quarter.
In the end, it was Xander that one the single room and L.J. and Carlos that ended up sharing. As Xander looked around the room he saw that it wasn't exactly the best of rooms, but it was a few steps above the shit hole Faith had been staying in last year.
After taking a quick shower to wash away all dirt and blood that he had accumulated over the past day, he then moved to the bed was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
A few hours later, Xander slowly opened his eyes and looked around the room he was in with a confused look before everything that had happened within the past day came back to him.
"I guess it wasn't a dream," he muttered as he pulled on his clothes as he walked out the door and over to the door to Carlos and L.J.'s room.
After standing outside the door for a second and listening, he figured out that the occupants were still asleep judging by the snoring sounds he heard. He then moved in the other direction to the door too the girl's room, after hearing the sound of movement inside, knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" came Jill's muffled reply.
"It's Xander," he responded.
"Come in," Jill yelled.
"You shouldn't do that," Xander said to the former S.T.A.R.S as he walked in into the room.
"Do what?" Jill asked, not looking up from the gun she was cleaning.
"Just invite people in like that, it can be dangerous," Xander responded as he sat down on the bed next to a TV watching Angie.
"How so?"
"Long story, I'll tell you later," Xander responded as he looked over at the TV and saw that the little girl was watching some cartoon about two little kids and the Grim Reaper.
"Okay, now is there a reason for this visit?" Jill asked as she finished cleaning the gun.
"Yeah, I saw a grocery store about a block or so away, thought I'd go on a food run," the young man explained.
"You actually have money on you after all that happened?"
"Well, I spent most of it on the rooms, which I expect to be reimbursed for, but I've still got my trusty check card and plenty of money in a checking account," Xander explained.
"That's good," Jill replied.
"Yeah, so I was wondering that since I am going to get food, if you have any special requests?" Xander asked.
"Not really," she responded.
"All right, I'll be back soon," Xander said as he stood up and started heading for the door.
"Can I come?" Angie asked as she turned off the TV.
"I don't see why not," Xander replied.
"Be careful," Jill called out as the two stepped out the door.
A few minutes later the two were walking down the aisles grabbing box's and bags of food and throwing them in a cart.
"Can we get this?" Angie asked as she held up a box of cereal.
"Sure," Xander replied as the little girl threw the box into the cart.
"Can we get these?" Xander asked the little girl as he held up a box of Twinkies.
"Of course," Angie responded with a laugh.
The two then continued throwing things into the cart in silence for the next few minutes but it wasn't long until Xander broke it.
"How you holding up?" Xander asked the recently made orphan in front of him.
"My father was just killed and we barely escaped a city full of monsters," Angie responded.
"So, bad then?"
"I have no home now, no place to go,"
"Hey, of course you have a home," Xander told the little girl as he bent down in front of her.
"Where?"
"With Me, Jill, Carlos, and L.J, we're in this together for the long hall kid, and there's no way we'd leave you alone," Xander explained.
"Really?" Angie asked, tears starting to form in her eyes.
"Just call me uncle Xan," he answered as he wiped away the tears.
"Thank you," the young girl responded as she wrapped her arms around him in a hug.
"Anytime, now we should finish shopping, the others are probably hungry," Xander said as he stood up.
The two then continued too walk down the aisles gathering food. Twenty minutes later they had finished they're shopping and were back in Jill's room at the motel along with Carlos and L.J.
"So what do we do now?" L.J. asked as he munched on a bag of chips.
"We have to find a way to bring Umbrella down," Jill responded, sipping from a bottle of water.
"But how do we do that?" Xander asked.
"With this," Jill answered as she pulled out the tape that Terry had made before she was kill by the mini zombies in the grade school.
"That's the tape that the one reporter you told me about made," Xander said.
"That's right, Terry videotaped everything, we leak this to the press and they'll be all over Umbrella," Jill explained.
"So we have a plan," Carlos said as he grabbed a Twinkie out of the box.
"Have you heard from Xander recently?" Buffy asked Willow as they sat on their beds and talked.
"Not in a couple of weeks, the last post card I got was from Raccoon City," Willow responded as she turned on the news and stared in shock at what she saw.
The news was currently showing video footage of what seemed to be zombies attacking people in some unknown city. It was at that time that the newscaster's voice came in.
"What was previously thought was footage of an outbreak of a deadly virus made by the Umbrella Corporation that mutates people into flesh eating zombies was proven wrong. The entire video was a hoax made by former S.T.A.R.S member Jill Valentine, Carlos Olivera, a former Umbrella employee, both of whom appeared in the video and made the false accusations, and a Alexander Harris, a citizen from a small California town who is accused of setting the whole thing up. If you see any of these three people you are advised to contact local authorities immediately," the newscaster said as three pictures appeared on the screen.
The two girls instantly recognized Xander's picture and sat in a stunned silence. They sat in silence for a grand total of two minutes before the shock wore off and was replaced by a large number of feelings, anger being a big one.
"How could Xander do something like that!" Buffy screamed in shock as she leaped off her bed.
"I don't believe this," Willow said shock.
"We have to find him," Buffy said as she turned to face the red head.
"What will we do when we find him?" Willow asked as she stood up.
"I don't know, but despite my previous outburst I don't think that Xander would do something like that," Buffy responded as she sat back down.
"Your right, we need to find out what really happened, and to do that we need to find Xander," Willow said as she walked to her desk and booted up her computer.
A stunned Cordelia sat next to an even more stunned ensouled vampire as they stared at the TV trying to process what they had just seen on the news.
"I don't get it, what's the big deal?" Doyle asked his co-workers.
"Xander couldn't do something like that, could he?" Cordelia asked the vampire next her.
"Not possible," Angel responded as he grabbed the phone.
"What are you doing?" Cordelia asked.
"Calling Buffy, she needs to know this," Angel answered as he dialed the slayer's number.
"Would someone tell me what the hell is going on!" Doyle yelled at the two.
"Well, that was a waste of time," Xander commented as he turned off the TV in the small motel room.
"Now what?" L.J. asked.
"We need to find more concrete proof I guess," Jill responded.
"Yeah but how do we do that?" Carlos asked.
"I may know a way," Angie answered.
"What are you talking about?" Xander asked the girl whom he had started to see as a little sister.
"My daddy taught me everything he knew about computers, and the Umbrella Corporations system," Angie answered.
Every one in the room all had vacant looks on their faces, except that is for Xander, who had a grin.
"Are you saying what I think your saying?" Xander asked, the grin never leaving his face.
"Yes, I can hack into their computers," Angie responded, wearing a grin similar to Xander's.
"L.G. take this and go get the best laptop that you can," Xander said as he handed the black man his check card.
"I'm on it," he responded as he grabbed his coat and ran out of the room.
A few hours later L.G. had returned with a computer that the group quickly set up. Soon the little girl was well on her way to gaining access to Umbrella's files.
"You know, I did not expect Angie to be a hacker," Xander commented to Jill from their place at the small table in the room.
"Neither did I," she responded. "You know, I believe you owe me a long story," the former S.T.A.R.S member said to the young man next to her.
"I do?" Xander asked in confusion.
"Yeah, about not inviting people in," Jill responded.
"Right, I do," Xander said.
"So start talking," Jill told the young man next to her.
"Alright, but you probably won't believe me," Xander replied.
"Try me," she shot back.
"Alright, here goes nothing," he muttered before starting his story. "I've spent the last three years hunting vampires and other various demons, my hometown was built on what settlers referred to as La Boca Del Inferno;" Xander started to explain but was cut off by Carlos.
"The mouth of hell?" the Hispanic man asked.
"Yeah, but me and my friends just call it the hellmouth, anywho, the hellmouth is a some sort of weak point in Earth's dimensional fabric that draws vampires, demons, and other evil things to it." Xander told the group.
"And your hometown was built on it?" L.J. asked.
"Yeah, the exact location is underneath what's left of my high school library," Xander responded.
"What's left of it?" Jill asked.
"Yeah, we had to blow up the high school on our graduation day in order to kill the mayor," Xander answered.
"You killed the mayor?" Jill responded in shock.
"Yeah, that comes later in the story," Xander replied with a grin.
Xander then spent the next hour telling his fellow survivors of Raccoon City all about his and his friend exploits on the Hellmouth. As he came to the end of his story, Xander looked around and saw that everyone, save Angie who was engrossed in her hacking, was staring at him with stunned looks.
"You're not making this up are you?" Carlos asked.
"Nope, everything I just told you is completely true," Xander responded.
Further questioning was cut off by Angie crying out in shock from her place at the computer.
"What is it?" Jill asked as she moved over to stand behind the little girl.
"Alice is alive," Angie answered in shock.
'Please dear God let this work,' Xander thought to himself as he sat behind the steering wheel of the black SUV.
After the group had found out about Alice they quickly thought up a plan. Using Angie's hacking skills they had found the exact location of where Alice was being kept, the little girl was then able to create fake Umbrella ID's for them, then after buying new clothes or cleaning already owned ones, they headed for Alice.
That is what led to Xander's praying in a black SUV while wearing an exact replica of Carlos's Umbrella uniform, making it appear that he was just another one of their grunts, while everyone else got to pose as the high ranking employee's.
"You okay back there Angie?" Xander called out quietly to the girl hiding in the back seat.
"Just fine," came an equally quiet reply.
Looking out of one of the side view mirrors, Xander let out a sigh of relief as he saw Jill, Carlos, and L.J. lead a towel clad Alice to the car.
"Let's get out of here," Jill said as she climbed into the seat next to his.
"You got it," Xander replied as he shifted gears and pushed down the gas petal.
A few minutes later the young man slowed to a stop in front of the security gate while Jill rolled down the window and showed the guard her fake I.D.
The guard looked over the I.D. but before he had a chance to say anything a call came over the phone in the small guardhouse. Answering the phone the guard listened to the orders come over the phone from the scientist on the other end.
"Let them go," Dr Isaac's told the guard before continuing. "Activate program ALICE,"
The guard, slightly confused by the last line, opened the gate and allowed the black car to pull away and head down the road. No one knew that the second thing said by the doctor was directed at the super powered red head in the car, nor did anybody see the pupils of her eyes flash to the Umbrella logo after hearing it.
"So where too?" Xander asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Just get us as far away from here as possible, it won't be long before they realize they've been tricked," Jill responded as she turned to look at the silent Alice.
"Are you alright?" Angie asked as she popped out of the back seat.
Alice simply stared at her in silence.
"What did they do you?" Jill asked.
Again, silence was the reply that was received.
"Come on Alice, say something," Carlos said as he gently grabbed her hand.
"Thank you," was the reply from the red head before she turned to stare out of the window.
Two hours later everyone in the car had fallen asleep except for Alice, who had spent the past three weeks in a form of hibernation in order to heal her injuries, and Xander because he was driving.
"You've awfully quiet," Xander stated, breaking the silence in the car.
"You're point?" Alice asked.
"Well, with all the stuff you've been through I thought that you might want to talk," he continued.
"Where are we going?" the super human asked, changing the topic of conversation.
Xander thought for a moment about the sudden change of topic, but decided not to persist. "My hometown," he replied.
"Why there?" she asked.
"I have friends there that can help us, and not alot of people know it exists," the young man answered.
"Umbrella does," she countered.
"True, but like I said, I have friends that can help us,"
"How do you know that you can trust your friends?" she asked in a silent voice, memories of Spence and how he unleashed the virus flashing through her mind.
"I just do," Xander replied in a calm voice.
"If you say so," Alice said, ending the conversation.
After three more hours of driving with the only break being when Jill woke up to take over driving so Xander could get some sleep.
The small group arrived in Sunnydale just as the sun was coming up. Jill quickly nudged Xander awake seeing as he was the only one who knew his way around.
"Where to?" Jill asked as she drove around town.
"Turn left up here," Xander responded, pointing to a street.
Jill, following Xander's advice turned onto Crawford and started driving down it. A few minutes later Xander told her to pull into a driveway of a large mansion.
"Wow," L.J. said as he got out of the car and took in the sight of the impressive mansion.
"Who lives here?" Carlos asked as he helped Angie out.
"Judging by the state it's still in, I'd say no one," Xander replied as he walked toward the front door.
A few minutes later, after the group had retrieved the small amount of duffel bags in the back of the car, they were standing in the front hallway of the mansion. Xander stood there for a moment before walking through a side door into a larger room.
"Crap, still here," Xander muttered as he saw the large statue on the other side of the room. "I thought Buffy and Giles would have gotten rid of it by now,"
"What is that thing?" Jill asked as she dropped the bag that she was holding.
"That is the stone demon that nearly sucked the world into hell that I told you about," Xander replied.
"Oh," came Jill's reply.
"So what do we do with it?" Carlos asked.
"Nothing for now, unless one of you can pick up and move a statue that weighs a lot," Xander replied.
Before anyone could reply Alice walked up to the statue and pulled back her arm. In the blink of an eye her arm shot froward and hit the stone demon, causing it to crumble into pieces.
The rest of the group started at the red head, speechless, until Xander broke the silence.
"Raise your hand if your suddenly very scared of pissing Alice off," Xander said as he held up his hand. The rest of the group quickly followed suite.
A few hours later Xander and Jill were on the way to Giles house, the former trying to figure out the best way to explain to the watcher all that was happening.
"You okay?" Jill asked as Xander pulled the car to a stop in front of the watcher's house.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little nervous," Xander replied as he got out of the car, Jill following close behind.
Seconds later Xander was opening the door of the apartment and stepping in. Looking around the Englishman's living room Xander saw the stunned expressions of Giles as well as Buffy and Willow.
"Uh, hi guys," Xander said to the group before a red haired missile hit his chest and latched on tight.
"OhmygodXanderit'syouwesawyouonthenewswhat'sgoingon," Willow said as she held onto the young man.
"It's nice to see you to Willow, but I kinda need to breathe," Xander gasped out, his face turning a little blue.
"I'm sorry," Willow said as she quickly let go of him.
"It's alright, I'm used to it bye now," the young man replied as he took a couple deep breathes. "By the way, this is Jill," he continued, gesturing to the former S.T.A.R.S standing behind him. "Jill this is Willow, Buffy, and Giles or G man," he said, pointing at each person in turn.
"Nice to meet you," Jill said to the group.
"Same here," Buffy replied before addressing Xander. "Now Xander, I'm trying my best not to flip out over what I saw on the news, so you wanna start taking before I snap," the blond slayer asked her friend
"Get comfortable, it's a long story," Xander replied as he sat down on the couch.
The next hour was spent telling Buffy, Willow, and Giles about all that had happened. Starting from when the T-Virus first started spreading up to the rescue of Alice. When Xander and Jill reached the end of the story the trio was staring at him in amazement.
"Wow," Buffy said, finally breaking the silence.
"Yeah," Willow agreed the look of shock still on her face.
"You know what's sad?" Buffy asked the group.
"What?" Giles asked, finally speaking up.
"Not one part of that story sounded odd to me," the blond replied before putting her head in her hands. "I've been on the hellmouth way to long,"
"Don't worry Buff, I know how you feel," Xander said as he patted her on the back.
"So this Alice you mentioned is now super powered?" Giles asked as he cleaned his glasses, still a little confused on some of the details.
"Yup, the T-Virus bonded with her and then as far as we can see, forced her to evolve into a super powerful person," Xander replied.
"Could I take her?" Buffy suddenly asked.
"My guess would be no," Xander replied after a moments thought.
"Why do you say that?" Buffy asked, slightly angry that one of her best friends didn't have that much faith in her.
"Well for starters, she smashed Acathla with a single punch," Xander replied.
"Wow," Willow said in slight awe.
"And she has extensive training in many forms of martial arts," the young man finished.
"I still think I could take her," Buffy grumbled as she fell back onto the couch.
"We should probably get back," Jill said as she stood up and straitened her skirt.
"Yeah you're right," Xander said as he also stood up.
"Are you sure you can't stay longer?" Willow pleaded.
"Sorry Will, but we're gonna be at Angel's old mansion for a couple of weeks, so you can come by if you want," Xander replied as he and Jill started heading for the door.
"Where will you be after that?" Giles asked as he stood up to show them to the door, as any good host should do.
"Somewhere that isn't Sunnydale," Xander answered, hoping that he and Jill could make it out the door before someone could ask why.
"What do you mean 'somewhere that isn't Sunnydale'?" Buffy asked quickly before her friend could get out the door.
Letting out a sigh the young man turned to face her. "What I mean is that we decided that we would stay here for a couple weeks but then we have to leave town,"
"Why can't you stay longer?" Willow asked, a small amount of sadness in her voice over the prospect that her friend might leave again.
"Because Umbrella is after us, if we stay in one place to long there is a good chance that they will find us," Xander explained to his friend.
"Xander, you don't have to worry about some big evil corporation is coming after you, we'll be here to protect you," Buffy responded.
Xander was slightly shocked about what he heard the blond slayer say, as well as slightly angered but was able to calm himself down before responding.
"Did it ever occur to you that I might not need you to protect me," Xander responded, his tone level.
"Xander you have to understand that I am the slayer, it's my job to this kind of stuff not yours," Buffy told her friend. "In fact, you should probably stay here and let those other people handle all of this."
"How can you say that?" Jill asked in anger, quickly coming to the defense of the young man she now saw as one of her closest friends.
"What are you talking about?" Willow asked in confusion.
"In case you hadn't noticed Xander is perfectly capable of making his own decisions!" the former S.T.A.R.S shot back.
"No offence lady, but we didn't ask your opinion," Buffy said to Jill in a pissed tone.
Jill was about to reply with a cutting remark but was stopped when Xander put his hand on her shoulder. Turning, she saw her friend giving her a look that said to just let it go. Regaining her composer, Jill turned and walked out the door, followed closely by Xander who was ignoring the his friends calls to come back.
"How the hell do you put up with those two?" Jill asked in astonishment as she and Xander drove back to the mansion.
"It takes practice," the young man responded with a shrug of his shoulders.
"There acting like you're some five year old that always needs to be watched!" the woman continued as Xander drove down the street.
Xander chose to remain silent after that comment and not defend his friends like he was about to do. Looking back over the past few years the young man realized that the Jill was right.
Jill's rant came to an end a few minutes later and the two fell into a comfortable silence for the rest of the drive back to the mansion. When the young man pulled into the driveway of the building Jill quickly grabbed his arm before he could get out.
"What?" Xander asked, confused as to why his friend was not letting him out of the car.
"You know, if you want to stay here with your friends, non of us would blame you," Jill told her young friend.
"Thanks," Xander replied before looking the other occupant of the car in the eyes. "But I have no intention of leaving you guys."
"Good, it's nice having someone with a semi decent sense of humor around," the former S.T.A.R.S responded as she climbed out of the car, Xander following close behind.
"Besides, if I did leave, who would teach Angie how to do the Snoopy Dance and eat a Twinkie the right way,"
The only reply Xander got was a laugh as the two walked through the front door of the mansion.
As Xander and Jill walked in the front door they quickly had to duck in order to avoid a large piece of stone flying through the air.
"What the hell was that?" Jill asked as she stood back up.
"I have no idea," Xander replied as he walked into the room the stone had come from.
Upon entering the room Xander stopped dead in his tracks and stared in amazement at what he saw. On the other side of the room stood Alice, now dressed in loose jeans and a T-shirt instead of a sheet, with several large pieces of what the young man assumed was Acathla, spinning around her head.
"Glad you two are back," Carlos said as he walked over to them.
"What is she doing?" Jill asked, gesturing towards Alice.
"Apparently Umbrella did more then just make her stronger and faster," Carlos replied.
"No kidding," Xander shot back as Alice began to lower the stones to the ground.
"I think I can also melt peoples brains," the red head said as she walked over.
"I am suddenly very afraid of you," Xander told Alice, who simply replied with a smirk.
"Where are Angie and L.J.?" Jill asked Carlos, now over the shock of seeing Alice moving things with her mind.
"L.J. is sleeping upstairs and Angie is taking stock of what food we have," Carlos answered as the group started towards the kitchen.
When they walked into the kitchen the first thing that Xander noticed was that is was a lot cleaner then earlier, the second was Angie sorting through and putting away the different kinds of food they had.
"Hey kiddo," Xander said to the girl he now saw as a little sister as he sat down at the table.
"How did it go?" Angie asked, looking up from her task.
"Let's just say not to good and leave it that," Xander replied as the other three people in the room sat down.
"So, what do we do now?" Carlos asked the group compiling to Xander's request.
"We need weapons," Alice quickly answered.
"Any idea where to get some?" Jill asked, directing her question at Xander.
"No, but I think I know someone who does," the young man replied.
"Who?" Carlos asked.
"Willy the Snitch," Xander replied before turning to Alice. "How do you feel about scaring the piss out of someone?"
"I'm okay with it," the red head replied with a grin.
"This is the place," Xander told Alice as he pulled the car too a stop in front of the seedy bar.
"Nice place," Alice replied, sarcasm evident in her voice.
"Let's go," Xander said as he got out of the car and checked that the pistol he brought with him was loaded.
Walking into the bar Xander saw that the place hadn't changed much since the last time he was there. There were still dark corners and even darker booths, as well as various different demons around; the only thing new was the stench that lingered in the air. Spotting Willy at the bar, the so-called Zeppo and super powered red head made their way over.
"Hey Willy, how ya been?" Xander asked as the greasy looking man in front of him.
"Harris, haven't seen you here in awhile, whose your friend?" Willy responded, suddenly very nervous.
"That's not important right now," Alice said to him as she leveled a glare at him. "We need information,"
"On what?" Willy asked, suddenly wishing he could turn invisible.
"Where can we get some weapons?" Xander asked.
"I have no idea," Willy quickly responded.
"Oh really?" Xander asked and received a quick nod from the bar owner. "Gee, that's to bad. Alice," Xander said, turning to the red head, who quickly put her lashed out and grabbed Willy by the collar and pulled him closer.
"Now listen real close Willy," Xander said in a dark tone. "If you thought the slayer was worst thing to happen to you, you're dead wrong. My friend here broke Acathla into thousands of pieces with a single punch, and probably has enough mental strength to melt your brain," the young man told the sweating, terrified man.
"Really?" Willy asked in a terrified voice.
"Yeah, now are you sure you don't know anything?" Xander asked in a sweet voice.
"You know, I just remembered that I know a guy that can probably help you out," Willy responded. "If your friend here will put me down I can get you his address,"
Xander thought for a moment before nodding to Alice, who quickly pushed her captive back into the wall. He then quickly scrambled to the paper and pencil on the bar. Writing down the address, he handed it to the young man in front of him.
"Here ya go," Willy said nervously.
"Thanks a lot Willy," Xander said as he took the paper and started to walk for the door, Alice following behind. "You should probably take a few days off man, you're looking a little pale," the young man said over his shoulder as they walked out of the bar.
"Is he always that cowardly?" Alice asked as the two reached the car and climbed in.
"Pretty much," Xander answered before turning to look at her. "But you got to admit it was funny as hell seeing him there about to piss himself."
Alice simple smiled in response to her friends joke while trying to silence the voice in her head that was telling her to reach across the seat and rip the smiling man's head off of his shoulders.