In space, Name means everything

Author: Michael Wilson <wyrdradio[at]yahoo.com>

Rating: R

Disclaimer: Joss, Mutant Enemy, and a lot of other people own the characters from Buffy and Angel. The characters from the Union-Alliance series of books belong to C. J. Cherryh. I get nothing by writing this except maybe some kind words of encouragement and a few cheers... at least I hope.

Spoilers: BUFFY: All seasons through mid to late season 7 - AU because of certain points (Anya never became a Demon again but she did sleep with Spike.

Halfrek was never killed.) BOOKS: Sometime after Finity's End or during it.

Summary: During a night drinking with Anya, Xander lets something slip and ends up somewhere else with no way home.

Author's Note: This is a Buffy UA series crossover story.

" " is for speech while * * is for thoughts. # # is for alien languages.

Distribution: If you like it... please feel free to place it on your site... but please tell me first.

Additional Author's note: I changed the timeline a little to advance it to mid Season 7 because of a necessary plot point.


Part 1

Xander stared at the glowing green liquid in his shot glass and smiled. It was such a nice drink and he wished he could remember what it was called. He looked across the table at Anya and smiled.

"Ahn, what's this stuff called again?"

Anya turned toward Xander and glared. They're weren't together anymore and she felt that his pet name for her was off-limits now. He shouldn't be using it anymore... plus she was busy trying to seduce the lovely young man the next table over who appeared to be well off.

"Absinthe... and don't call me Ahn. You're not allowed anymore."

Xander nodded.

*Absinthe... very tingly drink. Makes my head all swimmy.*

Xander grinned and drank the rest of his drink in one swallow then refilled the glass.

"Why can't I can you Ahn, Ahn?"

Anya growled under her breath at Xander and turned to look him in the eyes.

"You can't call me that anymore, Xander, because you dumped me... at the alter. I'm a free agent now and if you would shut up I could maybe get this rich-looking man at the next table to buy me a drink."

Xander feeling very loose and free, nodded and motioned to the man in question.

"Young warrior! By right of Klingon honor I, who has besmirched the lady's honor, do request/order you to buy her a drink... or else I'll let loose the Shadows upon you and none will be able to halt their destruction of your soul."

The man wrinkled his nose at Xander and backed away, running out of the bar. Anya watched in shock and then glared at a very drunk Xander.

"You ruined it! I almost had him then you had to go on and on with your stupid Sci-fi crap and you scared him off!"

Xander shook his head, too drunk to see she wasn't joking.

"My sci-fi memorabilia isn't crap, Ahn. It's precious. It's the most precious thing to me."

Xander paused and smiled.

"I love everything having to do with science fiction.

I'd live in a world of spaceships and space stations if I could."

Anya started to say something but was stopped by a hand covering her mouth. She jerked and turned to see Hallie staring at her. Hallie shook her head and motioned for Anya to remain silent.

"... fighting pirates and spending liberty at a station. It'd be so cool."

Anya closed her eyes and prayed that Xander wasn't stupid enough to go any further, not with Hallie there.

"... why, I sometimes wish I could go live on one of those family ships and visit all those new worlds and stations.."

Hallie grinned evilly and her face shifted to look all veiny.

"Done."

Anya jerked her mouth free and gasped.

"Hallie no!"

A flash of light filled the room and Xander vanished.

Anya turned to Hallie and glared at her.

"What did you do?! Where is he?!"

Hallie grinned smugly at Anya and shook her head.

"He's somewhere his little friends will never find him. You can thank me later."

Anya stood up growling.

"Thank you! Thank you! Why the fuck would I thank you?!"

Hallie frowned.

"You hate him."

Anya shook her head.

"I don't hate him, Hallie. I love him! I'll always love him. I made myself human... FOR HIM! God, you're such a little bitch!"

Hallie sputtered in confusion.

"But.. but.."

Anya glowered at Hallie.

"BRING... HIM... BACK!"

Hallie backed away and swallowed.

"I.. I can't. He's beyond magic now."

Anya's face fell at that moment and she sat down.

"No..."

Hallie frowned and moved to embrace her friend.

"It's ok. He's in a good place. I made sure of that.

He's smart... well, smart enough. It's all out there and open for him. All he has to do is just be observant enough to take what's offered."

Anya glared up at Hallie and frowned.

"Explain!"

Hallie nodded.

"Well... you see... it's like this..."

*****

Xander felt like he was suddenly dunked into liquid nitrogen. His body spasmed and he spun in mid-air as he suddenly appeared 10 feet above the ground. He fell as gravity got a hold of him and plunged face first into the hard metal below him.

*Ow... this metal is hard...*

Xander blinked and looked at the flooring in front of him.

*Wait a minute... metal? Wasn't I sitting at a table a minute ago... and wasn't I drunk?*

Xander blinked. He was sober, completely sober. He looked at the checkered metal flooring before him and slowly got to his hands and knees. He lifted his head and found himself in an alley... a metal alley.

"This is so weird..."

Xander got to his feet and looked around. He could see what looked like packing crates off to his right and to his left there was what looked like a small garage for repairing engines. There was the sounds of people and other things all around him, with the loudest of them off to his right. Xander walked in that direction and found the alley he was in open up onto a large room. There were people everywhere dressed in strange clothing... and the strangest of them all was the large spaceship sitting at what looked like docks beyond a multitude of airlocks.

*Whoa... spaceships? Where the hell am I?*

Xander blinked and looked around. He saw a man nearby in what looked like a military uniform, so he walked over to him.

"Excuse me?"

The man turned toward Xander and nodded.

"Yes?"

Xander swallowed.

"Um... where am I?"

The man raised an eyebrow and frowned.

"Green Dock between berths 21 and 25."

Xander nodded.

*Green Dock... that doesn't help me much.*

"Um.. where's Green Dock? What is this place?"

The man turned toward Xander more and frowned.

"Are you ok?"

Xander shook his head.

"No, my head hurts and I don't know where I am?"

The man looked at Xander's head and noticed a thin line of blood seeping from Xander's hairline.

"Ah.. you've been jumped. Give me your ID and I'll contact your ship."

Xander frowned, confused.

"ID?"

The man sighed and pulled a chain from around Xander's neck. He stuck it into a slot and nodded.

"Alexander Harris... from the White Knight... let's see... I'll contact them and we'll get you some family to help."

Xander blinked in shock and awe.

*White Knight? Family? What?*

The man gave Xander back his ID and moved him over to a chair.

"Just rest here, Alex. I've contacted your ship and they're sending your wife to get you."

Xander nodded.

"Thanks... I feel all funny and..."

Xander blinked. His eyes widened and he stared up at the officer.

"My wife?!"

Part 2

Xander looked at the man and raised an eyebrow.

"My wife?"

The man nodded.

"Yes. She is listed as your immediate next of kin on your ID... and then her family after that. You're in luck, she was looking for you already and had just checked in with your ship when I called. She's on her way here now along with a few others of your family."

Xander blinked, not understanding how he could be married. He left Anya at the altar and she wanted nothing to do with him ever sense. He still wasn't sure why she had asked him to do out with her in the first place. She had moved on... and so had he. He loved her, that much was true... but the love he felt wasn't what it once was. To be honest, he wasn't entirely sure he had ever really loved her as much as he should have. There was always... someone else.

"Ah... here we are."

The man caught Xander's attention and motioned to a small group of people coming from further down the dock. They were in matching uniforms of silver with a band of red on the arms.

"I'm guessing that's your wife and more of your family."

Xander looked in the direction the man was pointing. They were too far away to see faces, but they looked slightly familiar.

"How do you know?"

The man smiled and pointed at Xander. He looked down at himself and found he was wearing an identical uniform. Xander snorted and smiled.

"Oh... silly me."

The man shook his head and Xander looked once more at the group and felt his heart stop.

*No... no way... this isn't happening.*

The group neared them as Xander began to tremble. A woman stepped forward and moved to Xander's side, a look of concern on her face.

"There you are, Alex. We've been looking for you for almost a day now. We've been worried sick. What happened to you?."

Xander stared at her and felt tears begin to fall from his eyes. A flood of emotion filled him and he began to shake from the soft crying that was seeping out of him.

*No... it's impossible... this is impossible. I'm dreaming... this is all a dream... a cruel, cruel dream.*

The woman frowned as she noticed the tears trailing down Xander's cheeks and moved to brush them away.

Xander flinched at the touch and cried harder.

"Alex... baby... are you ok? What's wrong?"

Xander looked her in the eyes, those loving blue eyes so full of fear right now, and felt himself lose all touch with reality for a moment.

"Baby, you're scaring me. What's wrong?"

Xander took in a gasping breath and reached out a hand to gently touch her face. He trailed his fingers through her dark blond hair, down her pale rosy cheek, then cupped her jawline delicately. She turned her head into the caress and smiled.

"Is it you?"

The woman smiled and nodded.

"It's me, baby. Are you ok?"

Xander reached out and pulled her to him, trembling from shock and the emotions making his mind a whirlwind. He wrapped his arms around her and held onto her like she were a buoy in the middle of the ocean.

"You're real... you're real... oh God, you're real..."

Xander turned his face into her hair and breathed in deep. He smelled lilac and honeysuckle and smiled. He hadn't been able to smell either of those for so long without crying... but now, now she was here, she was real, and she was in his arms.

"I've missed you so much... Tara."

Tara smiled and held her husband tightly.

"It's ok, Alex. I'm here. You're ok. I'm not going to lose you ever again."

Part 3

Tara stared at her husband for a few seconds before she moved to take his hand in hers.

"Alex, let's get you back home."

She turned to the man in uniform and smiled.

"Thank you for finding him. We've been worried sick and we leave in a few hours. You know how ship policy is."

The man nodded. He did indeed know, having lived through it once himself.

"You are lucky then indeed."

He smiled and then frowned when he remembered something important.

"You'll want to have your medic check him out. He has a thin trail of blood from his hairline on the left side and his eyes were a little glazed when he came up to me. I think he's been jumped. He seems to have slight amnesia about what happened to him and where he is right now."

Tara's eyes widened and she bent Xander's head down toward her. Hidden in his hair was a nasty gash that was bleeding and looked very painful.

"We'll get right on it. Thank you."

Tara turned to the two people with her, a young man with black hair and a younger woman with blond hair.

"Jon, Cassie, help me get Alex home. Jon, you grab his other side to steady him. Cass, you run on ahead and tell the Doc what's going on. Have him get everything ready."

Cassie nodded and ran on ahead, working her way through the crowd of people. Jon moved over to Xander's left side and wrapped an arm around him while Tara took his right side. Xander stared in shock at Jon and blinked.

"Jon... is that you?"

Jon smiled and nodded.

*He's not right in his head right now. Just humor him till he's better... then use it to blackmail points out of him later.*

"Yup, it's me. We're all ok here... but we need to get you home...

ok?"

Xander nodded, his mind still confused by everything going on.

"Ok.."

Tara looked at Jon from behind Xander's back and mouthed 'Thank You' to him before they maneuvered Xander down the docks toward their ship.

*****

It was a slow and strange journey for Xander, but he soon made it to the large spaceship docked at Blue-13.

*Blue Dock, Berth 13... got to remember that... but why do I have this feeling that there's something very familiar about all of this?*

Tara took Xander's hand and led him through the airlock and past a slightly familiar looking woman working the security desk. The woman waved at them then stopped a younger group of people to check their bags before letting them back onboard. Xander nodded to himself, this too seeming familiar, and walked on inside.

*This is so very familiar to me... damn it, brain... work!*

Xander felt a tug on his hand and looked up to see Tara trying to lead him to what looked like an elevator at the end of the hall.

*Tara... alive... this is just... I don't get it, but I'm not going to jinx this, whatever this is.*

It was painful and amazingly joyous at the same time for him. When Willow had introduced Tara to them, Xander had fallen for her at first sight. When he had heard she was a lesbian, his heart sank... but it didn't kill the love her felt for her. He had decided to just move on, if he could, and try to make a good life with Anya. The only problem he had with that was being around Tara all the time... it was like torture sometimes... and when she was killed, Willow wasn't the only one who wanted revenge, but now it seemed she was back... alive again... and married, to him it seemed.

*I wonder how I got this lucky?*

Xander smiled at Tara and followed her into elevator. As they rode up, Xander glanced over at her and smiled. He looked down at their entwined hands and decided that this had to be some kind of dream, and since it was a dream... then why not have fun with it. He leaned in and placed a delicate kiss on Tara's lips. When she kissed him back, stronger than he was kissing her, Xander let go of his doubts and fell into the kiss. He poured out all of his love and devotion for her into that kiss and ignored the rest of the world around him. He was so much into the moment that he failed to notice the elevator stop and only broke the kiss when hooting and whistles filled the hallway.

"Get a room!"

Xander blushed a little and looked at all of the smiling faces staring at them. He glanced at Tara and saw a stunned, dreamy expression on her face. She stood there, smiling for a moment, before she blinked and blushed herself. She stepped out of the elevator and into the hall, pulling Xander along behind her.

*My God, Alex, where did that kiss come from? It was like you hadn't seen me in a year. The emotion, the love... it was like our wedding day and night combined in one kiss...*

She looked at Alex for a moment then dragged him to the Doc's office. When they entered, she pushed Alex into a chair and grinned.

"Wait here, I'll tell the Doc you're here."

Xander nodded and smiled. He watched Tara walk into the next room and sighed happily.

*Yeah, this has got to be some kind of dream. I'm still drunk and have fallen asleep at the bar. Anya probably got me back home somehow and I'm asleep in bed or on the floor of the bar maybe. Either way, I don't really care. I just want to enjoy this...*

TBC…