Something cold and long dead slowly dripped off Xander Harris's face as he walked the streets of Sunny Dale. The only clothing on him was a pair of black blue jeans. His chest is bare as are his feet. In his arms are the once vibrant and loving woman that he'd asked to marry him.
Her eyes are still open, glazed and unblinking looking off into the night sky. She's dressed in hospital clothes, a nightgown that's splattered with her blood and other bodily fluids.
It's a wonder at 9:00am in the morning that the sight of a young man covered in blood carrying a dead women didn't cause a bit of panic, but he walks on down the street and no one gives him a second look.
He walks, in a daze only half aware of the world around him all the way to Rupert Giles' house.
Only Giles, the ex-watcher is there to greet him when he walks in the door. And for a moment the two men just stare at one another.
One at this point too numb to feel anything, the other too shocked to say a word.
Without uttering a word Xander softly places his former bride to be on the English man's couch. Then he simply turns and begins to walk towards the front door.
"Dear lord, Xander. How...how did this happen?" Giles finally gets over the shock enough to speak. He walks over to the prone body in his living room. He's only a foot away from her before Xander springs into action.
"Don't you touch her!!! Don't you fucking touch her!!!" He grips the older man by the throat very tightly and pushes him back against his living room wall knocking over a chair and a few books.
"Xan...Xander, let go." The ex-watcher wheezes out. The young man's grip around his throat is ironclad and Giles is sure if he doesn't bring the young man back to reality he's going to choke him to death in his very own house.
Those dark brown eyes once full of joy and mirth stare back at him now void.
Eyes, people say are windows to the soul. And if that's true then at this very moment as Giles looks into a boy he'd gladly call a son, he's aware of only one think, there's no one home.
Abruptly Xander releases him and Giles falls to the ground gasping for air. The young man then turns back and starts his journey towards the door.
"P.... please, Xander! How.... who did this to her?" The English man chokes out. He's sure Xander heard him. What he doesn't act as if the boy cares that he asked at all.
But one word was spoken as he exited Giles' house, one word that would forever change the course of so many lives, one word that would follow Xander Harris all the days of his life.
"Initiative." Then he was gone.
It didn't take him more then a few minutes to get to his parent's house, less then that to kick in the basement door. He headed for his bed first then he pushed the bed out of the way and retrieves a pair of black lockboxes that were hidden underneath.
Xander then types in the combo and opens the cases. Inside the first box is a pair of 9mm Browning Llama automatic pistols. The second contains a pair of Smith & Wesson. 357 revolvers and enough ammunition for all four weapons.
The container also holds a leather shoulder strap for the Brownings and four clips ammo, as well as a waist hoister much like an old gunslinger would wear.
His face is stoic as he places the revolvers around his waist. Then he walks into the bathroom and wets a washrag and cleans off the blood covering his chest. After his chest and face are clear of the red sticky blood that only moments ago coated him he walks back into his bedroom.
The young man still numb from the neck up grabs a black t-shirt from his closet. When he's fully dressed he grabs the Brownings and slides them into the hoisters on his shoulders.
Then like a ghost he walks back into the night without a sound. All this was done in minutes with his ever-present blank look on his face that was in a word chilling.
He walks like a man with purpose down the sidewalk towards UC Sunny Dale. The few people he meets on the way cross the street to get out of his way. Even a handful of vampires look at him strangely and subtly changes direction as to get out of his path.
The braver vampires and a few demons follow him. Wondering where this human is going and why he's armed to the teeth.
Thinking they'd get the drop on him the vampires split into two groups, one to attack from the front the others to attack from behind him. As they creep up on the lone man no one expects to hear gun shots ring out, and vampires falling to the ground clutching their wounds screaming.
Thinking if they move fast enough they can tire him out all at once they rush at him. Only to find themselves on the ground like the others; their bullet wounds smoking.
"Fuck, it burns!" A nearby vamp shouts out. This was a very foolish thing because it gets Xander's attention. He walks over calm as death and fires a single round into the demon's heart. It promptly bursts into dust.
The others who were close enough to witness this try and crawl away to safety only to find their knees and elbows shot as well. So now crawling is out of the question.
They can only lie there and wait for their executioner to make his way to them and put them out of there misery.
The demons that had only followed watched all this from the shadows pleasantly glad they weren't foolhardy enough to follow the tainted vampires into their battle. Once the ash and gun smoke had cleared they retreat back into the night to hunt easier prey.
Once seeing that all the vampires have been dealt with Xander reloads and continues on his way.
"What's the big deal Giles calling me like this? It's my night off I thought we talked about this?" Buffy calls out to her watcher with an agitated tone in her voice.
It's only when she gets into his house that she sees what's wrong. Willow is clutching her girlfriend Tara tightly as they stand over Anya's body. Rupert is in the kitchen sitting at his table drinking a cup of tea and looking off into space with a haunted look in his eyes.
"Giles? What happened?" She asks but he either didn't hear her or didn't care to explain. So she looks towards her red-haired friend and her lover. "Willow, what did this? Where's Xander?" The slayer demands.
"Buffy, I don't know. Giles called us and when we got here she was just laying there.... she's covered in blood." Willow stammered. She might not have liked the girl now lying before her, but she sure as shit didn't want her dead.
Buffy cast a questioning look towards her watcher only to find him still gazing off into space.
She then walks over to her friends and pushes them safely out of her way before she leans over and tries to check for a pulse. "Don't touch the body!!! He.... he doesn't want it touched."
Giles' words shock everyone most of all Buffy who falls back before touching Anya with her bare skin. Willow releases her girlfriend and walks over to him. "What did this? And who doesn't want the body touched?"
The English man seems to war with himself before answering their questions. "He...he doesn't want her tampered with. He made it very clear when he did this." He puts down his collar to show off a bruise that looks as a lot like it had been made by a human hand.
"Jesus, who did that Giles? Who left her here? God damn it answer me, what killed her?!?" The slayer shouts at him, her face getting red with her anger.
Giles turns to his slayer with a look of pure venom and he points his finger at her accusingly. "It's your fault! We trusted you. You brought him and those bastards into our lives and look what they've done. They've murdered her and now he's out and he's going to do god knows what to them." His voice is so low and quiet that it would be easy to miss the hard cold tone within it.
Buffy backed up still not understanding what had happened. "I don't know what you're talking about. Tell me what happened." When in doubt throw orders around.
Giles, in a very Ripper moment, stands up and slings his teacup across the room and it smashes into the wall. Then in one quick motion he flips his kitchen table over before walking right up into the slayer's face.
"Don't you get it? Can't you see? Riley! Riley and his damned Initiative did this to her!" He shouts into her face.
She's so shocked she falls back onto the ground and he looms over her threateningly. "No, he...no they didn't. Giles you're wrong they didn't do this." She tries to say but he just chuckles coldly.
"Oh no? Tell that to Xander! When he gets back tell that to him. He walked right into my home with her body clutched tightly against his chest. Covered in her blood! Tell him, because he's the only one that knows for sure and he says they did it. And right now his word means a lot more then yours."
Giles' statement shocks everyone to the core. To think that the Initiative is to blame for Anya's death, it's enough to send a cold shiver down everyone's spines. They'd all been in contact with one or more of the soldiers.
"Wha… no! No Giles, it… it isn't true! They didn't, they couldn't have!" Buffy refused to believe it. There was no way her boyfriend could be guilty of this, no way.
"Wait, Xander? Where's he going? Why isn't he here?" She finally gets off the ground and stalks towards her watcher demanding answers. "Where is he Giles? He's not going..... he wouldn't go after Riley." She says.
But the look on Giles' face is enough of an answer. She pushes him out of the way and starts running towards the door.
"Buffy! Where are you going?" Willow shouts after her.
"I have to stop him, Willow. Xander doesn't know what he's doing. I have to warn Riley." She yells back.
With her departure only Willow, Tara, and Giles are left in his house. The ex-watcher makes his way over to one of his lazy-e-boys and sits down.
"Giles why aren't you doing anything? If Xander's going after Riley we have to stop him. He could...he could get himself hurt." The redhead tells him.
He looks up at her with an almost surprised look on his face. "Hurt? Get himself hurt? If you're going to worry, worry about what he's going to do to Riley and his friends when he finds them."
"But, Buffy's going to stop him. She's going to get there first and explain how this is all a misunderstanding." He once again looks at her in surprise.
"Are you daft? Misunderstanding? Anya's guts are hanging out of her body!" He shouts out at her. "Those bastards cut her into bite-sized pieces! There's no misunderstanding."
Willow looks hopelessly towards her girlfriend for some word on what to do, but Tara's lost looking at Anya's glazed over eyes.
"Buffy will get there first. She'll stop this." She tells him totally in line with what she'd said. His only answer was to look up at her and laugh.
He laughed for a few moments before pinning her with his stormy eyes, "Buffy left on foot. Xander left an hour ago. I think it's safe to say he'll beat her to them."
Of course Xander knew it would do him no good to walk straight into a heavily guarded building with dozens of armed soldiers.
That's why he wasn't going to the Initiative base. He could kill ten soldiers, or a hundred and it wouldn't do any good. There would always be another Initiative.
That's why he had only two names on his hit list. Any others that got in his way were just cannon folder. Maggie Walsh, and Riley Finn were his targets. They were the ones to blame.
The professor was the one who over saw all experiments. She was guilty for what they did to his Anya. And Riley? He was the one who gave them Anya.
He was the only one who had any idea what she was before being his girlfriend. And that's why they took her. All because she used to be a demon.
The dark haired young man walked down the street with a purpose. He knew what had to be done, and he knew that there was only one way for it to end. No one else would help.
In fact as far as he was concerned those that should help were only a step away from being his enemy as well.
Buffy was to blame for Anya's death as much as any of the soldiers were. She knew nothing about that bastard Finn. All she cared about was getting in his pants. 'The whore,' he thought bitterly.
He trusted her. They'd all trusted her, and time and time again she'd let them suffer for her lovers.
First it was Angelus. She let him roam the streets of Sunnydale for months, he raped, tortured, and murdered with no one to stand in his way. The only reason why he was stopped was because he would have sucked the whole world into hell.
Now there's Finn. Just a good old boy who thought that humans were the only true people, and that the other species were animals.
As far as Xander cared vampires, zombies, demons, they were the enemy. He agreed with Finn on that and that alone. But Anya was innocent. Anya was human, 100% human.
She had hopes, and she had dreams. And one day she would have been his wife. And Riley had killed her. Murdered her like she was just another animal on the street that he could plow over with his car.
The only reason that Buffy wasn't on his hit list was because she had once a long time again been his friend.
Finally he arrived, UC Sunnydale. No doubt Miss. Walsh would be there reading over and grading her students' work. He could see her in his minds eye; sitting at a teacher's desk hunched over looking at papers.
Almost like there wasn't a thing in the world wrong. Like she hadn't allowed an innocent girl to be tortured by her doctors. That she hadn't allowed his love to be brutalized like that.
His face was stoic like stone, Xander Harris walked down the pavement towards the school. He had an appointment, and didn't want to keep the good doctor waiting long.
Maggie Walsh was indeed sitting behind her desk grading papers.
The day had been long, and her students still didn't seem to be absorbing the information like she wanted. She'd known Sunnydale UC wouldn't be the best college, but she'd expected more then this.
Then there was the work at the Initiative. Her lab techs were still having trouble creating the right balance of drugs in her soldiers' blood streams.
If they missed a dose they'd go into withdrawals. But the drugs still didn't seem to be making them as strong as she'd like. They were nowhere near as powerful as a single vampire, or the slayer.
The teacher scowled at her work as she thought about Buffy Summers. At first she allowed Riley to go out with the young slayer as a reason to watch her.
Miss. Walsh had heard tales about the slayer, but Buffy was the first she'd come by. And she was a total disappointment. Other then her powers, strength, speed, endurance, she wasn't much of anything.
All she did was breeze through things like they were nothing. She didn't seem to care about anything more then boys and clothes. And the only reason she slayed, it seemed, was because she was bored, or just wanted to kill something.
A disappointment. She had half a mind to have Ms. Summers brought in to the Initiative and see if they could learn what made her so strong. 'SNAP'
That loud noise brought her out of her musing. "Who's there?" She demanded.
Her only answer was silence. After a few minutes of hearing nothing Walsh was ready to think that her mind was just playing tricks on her. That is until someone called out to her. "Miss Walsh?"
The tone was cold, enough to make the teacher shiver. Of course it had to be a vampire, and without a thought she pressed the button under her desk to alert her soldiers.
"Yes?" She called back; still not seeing whom it was out there. More silence, and the feeling of eyes on her, watching her. And it wasn't a pleasant gaze either. She could almost feel the malice in his gaze.
"You are who?!?" She demanded loosing her patience. A figure no more then five feet from her position came into view. And she was surprised she hadn't seen him.
After all the class room wasn't that dark. But he seemed to be. Almost like a walking shadow. It was un-nerving. 'Had to be a vampire,' she thought with a sinking feeling in her gut.
"Vengeance." He whispered so quietly that Walsh almost thought it was the wind. But before she could question his meaning he pulled out a Browning and blew the back of her skull out.
The only noise in the classroom was that one shout, then nothing. Xander left much like he entered, quiet and unseen by anyone. Even more quiet then the soldiers that showed up a few minutes later.
The only evidence that anything had happened at all was the still form of Maggie Walsh, and her gray matter that had been smeared all over her blackboard.
Riley Finn was almost mad with rage.
Someone had murdered his teacher, his commander. Maggie Walsh had been like a mother to him, when his own couldn't be there. She'd guided him, taught him. Everything he was he owed to her.
And now she was gone. Slain by some worthless bastard that didn't see the greatness that was now taken from the world at the lose of Professor Walsh's death.
"Agent Finn, we've got the area sealed off. There are check points set up all around the school, we'll find whoever did this." One of the nameless soldiers in the Initiative informed him.
It took all he had not to lash out at his fellow soldier, but it would do him no good. So all Finn had the heart to do was nod crisply and go back to overseeing the police and the other officers going over the crime scene.
The most disturbing thing about all of this as far, as Riley was concerned, was that it seemed that a human had killed Maggie. For demons didn't use guns, and vampires wouldn't have just shot her, no. They would have fed from her.
A human being was responsible for her death, and Finn would do all in his power to hunt this person down and see that they suffer for their crime. After all, the labs could always use another...'rat'.
But he was having a problem figuring out just who could have done this? Who could have hated her enough to murder her like that? Maggie was a wonderful person, a brilliant doctor.
Maybe it had been an angry student? One that had failed her class and decided to take it out on the teacher?
Riley couldn't think of anyone like that. Due to the late professor's orders, the Initiative had checked out everyone that was in Ms. Walsh's class before the first term started. None of the students fit the sort of cold hatred that it would take to commit such a horrible crime.
Yes there were a few violent ones, even some with criminal records, hell even his girlfriend did. But not a single one had ever shown that they could be capable of such a thing.
It just didn't make any sense. Had someone put a hit on her?
"Agent Finn, there's a Buffy Summers here to talk to you." The police officer's words brought the young man out of his musings. "Should we tell her to leave?"
"No, let her in." Finn ordered. Maybe Buffy would know something about this? She had after all lived in this town for years, and as a slayer no less. She'd know more about the dangerous people here then anyone else.
The blond haired slayer had all but thrust herself into her boyfriend's arms. Glad that she wasn't too late to save him, warn him. When she'd seen the yellow tape surrounding the school Buffy had feared the worst.
That maybe Xander had gotten to Riley.
"Buffy, its Professor Walsh. She's dead." He told her. She needed to know, and then he could ask her who she knew that could have done something like that.
Buffy looked almost sick, "Oh god! How.....how could he have done this?!? It was a mistake. It has to be. Riley, you've got to tell him it was an accident!?!?" She pleaded with her boyfriend.
"Wha? What are you talking about? What accident? Who is he? Who did this?" He questioned not understanding what she was saying. But she'd sat 'he', how could 'he' do this? She knew the person responsible.
Fresh tears began to spill from the young slayer's eyes, "It.....he didn't know what he was doing! He thinks you killed Anya, but you didn't! I know you couldn't have." She clung to him in desperation.
Riley let the name echo through his mind, Anya? Anya. The demon turned human, yes he knew about her. They'd learned a lot about demons from dissecting her, but who was this guy Buffy was talking about?
The watcher, Giles? Could he have killed Maggie?
"Who did this, Buffy? Who killed Professor Walsh?" He demanded.
Riley had to know, had to make the guilty party suffer for what he'd done.
"Oh god, Xander! He.....he didn't mean it! Something's wrong with him! He thinks the Initiative killed Anya." She screeched. Still having a problem believing her Xander shaped friend could do such a thing.
"There's something wrong with him, Riley! Something happened to Anya and now he's lost it. You have to go, get away from here. He's dangerous!" She begged him. Buffy couldn't lose Riley like this.
"Harris? That bastard murdered Professor Walsh?" His minded raged. Riley had never trusted that piece of trailer trash, and now he knew why. Harris, that fucking piece of shit!
He grabbed his radio, "All points, all points. We have the name of the suspect, Xander Harris. 6ft tall, dark brown hair, brown eyes.
Consider armed and dangerous, bring him in alive if you can, dead if you have too."
Buffy just shook her head, "No! We have to help him, there's something wrong with him!"
Riley turned to her with a snarl, "You're god-damned right there is. He killed Maggie, shot her like a she was nothing. We're going to bring him in and I for one will do everything in my power to see that he gets the chair!" He yelled.
With a morbid chuckle, Xander watched as Buffy and Riley had their little argument.
The blond slayer thought there was something wrong with 'him'! Like it was out of the realm of common sence to want to kill the bastards that had murdered his Anya.
The chair, huh? That's what Captain Cardboard wanted to do to him? Well now, the dark haired youth thought to himself. That does give me an idea or two.
The police of Sunnydale just walked by him, as if they didn't notice the dark haired young man who looked so much so like the description the army guys had just given out.
But it wasn't too much of a surprise. After all, this was Sunnydale. To protect and ignore was their motto.
Shivers of need pulsed up and down Xander Harris's spin as he stood no more then twenty feet away from Maggie Walsh's dead body, and the soon to be late Riley Finn.
It would be so-o-o-o easy to pull out one of his guns and just blow that fucker away. Easy … but not gratifying. He owed Finn pain, fear, horror, and screams.
Killing him now, like this, shot down like some deer in the forest, it'd just be too easy. And Anya deserved more then that. She deserved her vengeance.
His ladylove had dealt out death and pain in the form of a wish for over a thousand years before becoming a human being again. Vengeance was her art, her calling card.
What she'd lived and breathed for longwe then he'd ever live. He would do this for her. He would kill Finn and anyone else that got in his way. That would be his last act for Anya.
The last thing he could do for her, so that her soul might find rest.
And deep down the killing didn't really bother him. Which was an interesting concept.Being a Scooby meant that you 'didn't' kill the humans. It was sort of a rule.
And just a year ago if push came to shove, Xander couldn't have done it. Couldn't have murdered some one so coldly.
The guilt would have done him in. Just like it had Faith.
But not now, now in this moment? Right now there was no guilt, no fear for his immortal soul. Nothing inside him said, 'no don't do this. Its wrong.'
All there was, was a need to end this. To make Riley suffer like Anya had suffered. Maybe when this was all over, and he was still alive, maybe he'd feel that guilt. Maybe.
Just not right now.
"Ti-i-i-ime is on my side, yes it is." The song came to him now, and in this instant and place it suited his mood just fine.
"Ti-i-i-ime is on my side, yes it is. Well you've been saying how you want to be free, but I'll keep coming back. I'll keep coming back." With a smirk Xander turned around and headed off into the night. It wasn't time yet.
"To-o-o you."
"Ti-i-i-ime is on my side, yes it is."
Across time at the home of Rupert Giles.
Willow and Tara had left a few minutes ago. Off to help Buffy in her quest to stop Xander from killing anyone. Or in their minds, 'not to get hurt.'
Giles let out a sour and contemptuous laugh at the last part. The watcher had no problem with how hurt Xander got or not. Not now.
These weren't demons or other hellish creatures he was going after. They were flesh and blood humans.
And Rupert remembered how easy it was to kill humans.Back in his young in London, he'd killed his fair share of people � in bar fights, in battles against warlocks and the like, even once when summoning a demon for some kicks.
It was so painfully east to snuff out the life of a single person.
"Well, more power to ya, mate." He slurred. Having picked up a bottle of hooch and doing his damndest to get shit faced. Anya was still in his living room. And he needed something to wash out the smell of blood.
It cut deep, this chain of events - Anya dying, it being Buffy's fault, Xander loosing his bloody mind. It was just too damned much all at once.
He'd never thought of Anya as one of his children. She was after all about one thousand and fifty years older then him. But Buffy and Xander were his kids.
That's what he'd thought of them since they'd left high school. And since high school he'd worried about Buffy more then he did when they were in the same building for eight hours a day. She hadn't grown up at all.
Still making messes and running away from them. Still turning to her latest conquest to make it all alright. And he'd turned a blind eye to her failures.
After all, isn't that what a fathers supposed to do? Look away from the bad, and only see their good?
But Giles couldn't do that right now. Because of her actions, one of his other children was harmed. Xander.
Out of them all, he'd been the hardest on Xander. Trying to toughen the boy up for the real world. Doing his best so that he'd grow up and mature.
And out of them all, it was Xander who had grown up the most. Gotten a job, a life of his own outside of slaying. A girlfriend. And he would have gotten a home a family, of that Giles was sure.
The dark haired youth was the one he didn't have to worry about. The boy had proved to be strong.
And now he was out there doing God knows what to those fucking pillocks that had murdered his girlfriend. And Giles didn't know how to feel about that.
He couldn't condemn his 'son' for his actions. Rupert would have done the same thing. And deep down that bites at his soul, because the boy had proved to be his son in spirit, if not blood or deed.
People were going to die tonight. The Englishman had no doubt about that.
The only thing he wondered, the only thing he had any doubts about was...Wither or not he'd call the police on his son, or open his doors and let his rest his head here.
Or worse, if asked, would he go out there with him and shed the blood of that damned commandos? In his soul, Rupert Giles knew the answer.
He just wondered wither or not his own Smith & Wesson was still loaded.