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Disclaimer: All BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon. I am merely borrowing them and will return every single one unchanged. The only ones I own are Stefanie, Ivory, and (technically speaking) Alex. Hope you enjoy.
Author's Notes: For those of you who are expecting another Buffy and Angel story, I am sorry to say that this one centers more on Xander, Willow, and Cordelia. Nevertheless, I hope you find it enjoyable. Thank you.
Prologue
It should have been just another normal evening for her. Do the usual rounds around Sunnydale at night, stake a vampire or two, and go home around midnight for some quality time with her family. But such was not the case this time around, Buffy Summers learned as she arrived back at the loft she and her fiance, Angel, had moved into a while back.
So much had changed in the past seven months since Buffy, the vampire slayer, had become a member of the very race she had sworn to destroy. But it worked to her advantage that she was a slayer, for that was what had prevented her from becoming a soulless, violent creature like so many others.
Angel, the 246-year-old vampire she loved with all her heart, was much the same as her, but he had become that way through different circumstances. Nearly eighty-six years back, he had made the mistake of feeding on a young Romany girl, and the elders had punished him by giving him back his humanity. He had been regretting his evil deeds and had sworn never to repeat them since that day.
Angel and Buffy had first met here in Sunnydale shortly after she and her late mother had moved to town. At the beginning, Buffy had been expecting a fresh start and a retirement from her former slaying duties in Los Angeles. But after a few meetings with her then-elusive informant boyfriend and her Watcher/mentor, Giles, and learning that her new hometown was crawling with vampires, Buffy had soon found herself wielding the same old stakes and crosses.
And somewhere along the line, in the first few months, Buffy and Angel developed an attraction to each other through his occasional meetings with her. By the time she discovered his true nature, Buffy had already fallen in love with him and vice versa.
Initially, he and Buffy had almost killed each other thanks to the machinations of Angel's old flame, Darla. But it was the strong bond between them that made both fall short of doing so, and had driven Angel to subsequently plunge a stake through Darla's heart when she had gone after Buffy with two loaded pistols.
For the years that followed, Buffy and Angel had attempted to have some sort of working relationship off and on. But what sealed it permanently was when she got pregnant with Ivory, their beloved ten-month-old daughter. And now, with a wedding looming large in their future, neither she nor her fiance could possibly be happier. All that was left was trying to discover a way for her and Angel to become mortal again, and life would be perfect.
Just then, Buffy was distracted from her thoughts as she neared her new apartment, by the yelling that was going on within. She stood and listened a moment, recognizing one of the voices as Angel's and the other as her usually shy, soft-spoken best friend, Willow Harris. And from what she could hear, they were arguing something fierce; she couldn't really make out what they were saying from this standpoint.
Buffy rushed inside, looking back and forth between her two friends; both had yet to acknowledge her presence and continued to quarrel. Willow's face was red with fury, almost matching the color of her hair, while Angel merely looked hurt and ashamed.
"You should have stayed out of it!" Willow was shouting at him. "You can't know what it was like to come back to an empty home and find out that my marriage was built on a lie!"
Angel couldn't even look her in the eyes, signaling that he must have done something extremely awful. "Xander's love for you was genuine," he replied quietly. "I had nothing to do with it other than making him realize it."
Instead of having a calming effect on her, his words only made Willow more furious. She stepped forward to slap him across the side of the face, while Buffy stared on in disbelief. Was this really the quiet, meek friend she had known for nearly six years?
Finally, Buffy spoke up. "What's going on here?" she asked in bewilderment, catching the attention of her true love and her best friend.
Willow took a step towards Buffy. = "Let me create a scenario for you," she said. "Two years ago, my childhood friend, the boy I'd loved secretly for a long time, barely knew I was alive because he was so hung up on you. Then, for some mysterious reason, that literally changes overnight, and Xander is totally crazy about me."
Buffy remembered the incident of which Willow spoke. All four of them had been gathered at her old Victorian house that night for a sort of sleepover: her, Angel, Willow, and Xander. When they had gone to sleep, everything had been relatively normal, and the next morning, Xander and Willow couldn't keep their hands (or rather, lips) off each other.
"What does that have to do with anything though?" Buffy asked. "We never figured out what caused it, so why rehash it now?" Then, she looked at Angel curiously, an inkling of the truth coming to her as she observed his guilty expression.
The glance wasn't lost on Willow. "Because Angel let it slip what he did, and it found it's way back to Xander," she replied bitterly, fixing her gaze back on the silent vampire. "Angel didn't fill you in, did he, Buffy? How he and I met in your kitchen after midnight for snacks way back when? How we talked about things, namely my attraction to Xander? After the events that occurred the next morning, I completely forgot about it."
At this, Angel spoke up, still unable to look Willow in the eyes for more than a second. "I wanted to do something nice for her," he said to Buffy. "So I snuck up to Xander's room after she had gone back to sleep and gave him a few subtle subconcious impulses that would kick-start their romance."
"Which you had no right to do! You shouldn't have played with his mind like that!" Willow snapped. "Now, because of you, Xander's run off, and I have no idea where he is or if he's coming back. All he did was leave me a note saying our marriage was a mistake!"
Buffy cut in here. "Whoa, time out... Xander left you?" she asked her friend in disbelief.
Willow dug a scrap of paper from her purse, handing it to Buffy to read. The slayer skimmed it quickly, then looked up at her friend in shock. "Oh, Willow, I'm sorry."
The red-head calmed slightly at this, stepping forward to hug Buffy tightly. "I'm scared I'm not going to see him again," she said, a sob in her voice. "Why did this have to happen, that he and I should find out this way, from Cordelia Chase of all people!"
Cordelia was another high school friend of Buffy's and the most self-centered person she ever knew. So it hardly came as a surprise to the slayer to know that Cordy hadn't given it a second thought before spilling the beans.
During Buffy's hesitation, Angel took a step forward, laying one hand gently on Willow's shoulder. "You're right," he said quietly. "I shouldn't have interfered the way I did, and I'm truly sorry for it... But it's not too late to set things right. If we can find Xander, do you think you could convince him that this hasn't all been for nothing?"
Willow took a step away from Buffy and looked down at herself, a small smile coming to her lips. Resting one hand over her stomach, she said, "Right or wrong, Angel, what you did has had some benefits."
Buffy reached up to wipe the tears from Willow's eyes, knowing instantly what the words and the gesture meant. "Congratulations," she said, her tone bordering between serious and joyful. "You and Xander will make wonderful parents."
Willow crossed her arms. "We still have to find him first," she said, her demeanor once again that of a quiet, timid young woman.
Buffy smiled, moving to get her jacket and tell Angel to stay to watch over Ivory. To Willow, she added, "I think I know exactly where to look..."
While Buffy and Willow began what would be a wild goose chase, Xander was just attempting to open his eyes, seated in his car on the side of the road. As his gaze came into focus, he became aware that the right side of his forehead was throbbing with pain and the front end of his car was curled around a signpost.
Xander awkwardly reached for the door handle next to him, feeling dizzy as he tried to think what had happened. Vaguely, he remembered being upset over something that had happened earlier today and wanting to go to an old hangout in the woods outside Sunnydale to sort things out.
Xander stumbled from the car, lying sprawled on the gravel shoulder for a few moments until he regained enough of his senses to move. Once that had happened, he stood, hanging onto the car for support as he walked around to the back.
Here was where Xander began to sense something was off. He turned to look at the size and shape of the car, realizing that it wasn't the one he had been traveling in before he crashed. And, ridiculous as the concept seemed, he began looking around for another vehicle that might resemble his. But there was no sign of one.
Xander wasn't given long to ponder over this, however, as he noticed a set of headlights advancing in the distance. He took a few faltering steps onto the road, waving his arms to be seen by the approaching driver. And, much to his relief, the car began to slow.
Once it had stopped, Xander walked over and peered in, his eyes focusing on the man sitting in the driver's seat. After a moment, feeling a chill, Xander stood up straight and began to back away in fright, as the other man (Ethan Rayne) got out of the car and started towards him.
Xander knew from experience that Ethan was a crafty and dangerous man in his forties who studied and practiced the Black Arts, even though Buffy had had more run-ins with him than Xander did personally. But none of that seemed to apply here; when he looked close, Xander could see that, for once, Ethan looked genuinely concerned.
The last thing Xander was aware of was that his nemesis was referring to him as Alex, almost questioningly. After that, the younger man collapsed to the ground, his mind losing its fragile hold on the light...