Chapter Eight.

8.

The demon disappeared in a cloud of white smoke as the musket ball hit it under the chin and blew the top of its head off. It crumpled to the ground at Xander’s feet as gobbets of brain, bone and blood landed on the sandy soil like soft rain. Catching movement out of the corner of his eye he turned to confront yet another demon; he jabbed forward with his ‘bayonet’ stamping his leading foot on the ground as he forced the hellspawn back. From deep in his memory bayonet drill rose to the surface; he brought the butt of the musket up and smashed it across the monster’s jaw knocking it onto its back. Recovering quickly he came back en garde before stabbing down and killing the demon outright.

Looking around for another opponent he saw Lindiwi dispatch the last two standing demons with economical thrusts of her spear. Breathing heavily Xander grounded his musket and leant on it for support, he eyed Lindiwi warily. She was breathing heavily too and Xander fought to keep his eye off her breasts as they rose and fell in time with her breathing. She recovered quickly and when it looked like she wasn’t going to leap on him he walked over to stand next to her.

“Well that was easy,” he gasped still a little out of breath.

“It was?” Lindiwi turned to face him with a look of disappointment on her face.

“Yeah,” Xander nodded his head, “I’m not bragging, but some of the fights I’ve been in were a lot harder than that,” he smiled at the disappointed girl, “I mean I’m still standing and conscious,” he laughed. “Yeah, that was an easy fight,” he paused and looked around at the creatures that littered the ground, “maybe it was too easy…”

As he spoke one of the ‘dead’ demons moved.

0=0=0=0

“HEY!” Buffy called and waved her arms at the old man on his throne trying to attract his attention, “Seeing as you’ve got us here could you at least try to stay awake?”

Glancing over to where Willow was working to open the barrier guarded by Faith, Buffy shifted her position further away from the duo. The old man woke up and looked down at Buffy an annoyed frown on his face.

“You could at least tell us why we’re here?” she began quickly not giving the old man time to look around.

“Oh that’s easy Miss Summers,” he gave a dry chuckle, “you’re here so I can see you die…”

“Well that’s original,” Buffy muttered under her breath, and then aloud she added, “Why?”

“Quite simply Miss Summers,” the old man leant forward in his chair as he gazed down at her a malevolent gleam in his eye, “you and your friends are in the way of my plans and I need to be rid of you.”

“What plans are these?” Buffy moved a couple of paces further away from where Willow was working; she could feel the old man’s eyes follow her. “Not world domination is it? I mean everyone tries for that and y’know…it’s not all its cracked up to be, there’s a lot of paperwork to do that no one ever mentions in the job description.”

“HA! Nothing so crass,” the old man chuckled evily, “no my plans are a lot simpler. I want power true, but I want to be the power behind the throne as it were, much safer…less of a target than say being the Emperor of the World,” he gave a laugh that quickly turned into a cough.

“If I were you I’d see a doctor about that,” Buffy pointed out with mock concern, “but you’ve not told me why you brought us here.”

“I knew that you would always try to thwart my plans…

“My god,” Giles whispered in Buffy’s ear, “we’ve got a gloater.”

“A what-er?” she glanced sharply in Giles’ direction.

“A gloater,” explained Giles, “you must have seen them in films.”

Buffy looked at her old mentor completely mystified by his musings. “Huh?” she added.

“It’s the old,” Giles put on a fake ‘evil villain’ accent, “‘before you die Mr Bond I’m going to tell you every detail of my overly complicated plan’…you see? A gloater; loves the sound on his own voice handle this right you can keep him talking for hours.”

Giles patted Buffy on the shoulder and gave her a proud ‘atta girl’ smile.

“What? Yeah? Right…” Buffy looked from Giles to the old fool on the throne and wondered who was maddest, “Sorry,” she tried to concentrate on the man on the pile of boxes who was still talking, “what was that, I wasn’t listening.”

0=0=0=0

Standing back to back Lindiwi and Xander watched as the demons closed in on them…again.

“But we killed them once!” complained Lindiwi taking a firm grip on the spears in her hands.

“Yeah well demons are tricky like that,” Xander once again wished for an M16

It took a moment for him to realise that not all the ‘dead’ demons had got up; three still lay on the ground and looked as if they were going to stay there, what was different about them? His eye fell on the demon that he had shot at close range…he’d shot it through the head. That must be it, destroy their brains and they were dead…period!

“The brains!” Xander called as the demons got closer and closer reaching towards the humans with their sharp talons.

“What?” Lindiwi looked over her shoulder at Xander.

“Stab them in the head; I think that kills them permanently.”

Not waiting for any further explanation Lindiwi attacked the advancing demons, dancing through their ranks and stabbing up into their throats with her spears. She moved like a brown blur faster than Xander had ever seen her move before, he stood watching in awe as she cut down demons left and right. He was so distracted that he almost failed to notice the demon that was moving in to disembowel him. At the last moment he smashed it in the mouth with his musket butt before stabbing it in the eye and through to its brain with his bayonet.

0=0=0=0

“You see Miss Summers,” the old man croaked, “I knew I could never fight and win against you and your friends in anything resembling a fair fight.”

“True,” agreed Buffy as she studied her nails, she would really need to get a manicure when all this was over.

“So I had to get you all here and in my power…”

If he does the maniacal laughter thing, thought Buffy, I’ll rip his head off and… She never finished her thought as she was interrupted by a fit of coughing from the old man.

“So,” he gasped trying to control his breathing, “I had to lure you here, and the best way of doing that was to make Mr Harris disappear...”

“Yeah about that,” Buffy butted in, “where is Xander?”

“He’s safe…for now, and somewhere you’ll never find him MAW-ha-cough-splutter!”

“You really should see someone about that cough.”

Buffy took the opportunity to glance over at Willow and Faith, Willow still appeared to be working on the barrier and Faith was looking bored while she fiddled impatiently with her sword.

“You see,” the old guy really did like the sound of his own voice, Buffy rolled her eyes like a bored teenager, “he's lost in the past where he will die as will you all when he never existed!”

“Huh?” Buffy scratched the back of her head and looked at Giles who was stroking is chin while he thought over what he’d just heard.

“Bollocks!” announced Giles after a moments thought.

0=0=0=0

“You’ve killed all my demons,” Fudo stood on a rock in front of Xander and Lindiwi tears of frustration running down his cheeks, “you stupid girl you’ve ruined everything!”

The stupid girl had indeed ruined everything, he’d set his trap so carefully and she’d even walked into it for him, but she’d proved too strong even for the demons that he had called; and that stupid white-man with his musket; and the voices in his head telling him to kill the white-man…everything had been spoilt…it just wasn’t fair!

“WHAT?” Xander couldn’t believe his ears.

“FUDO!” shouted Lindiwi as she took a step towards the boy, “Stupid boy! What have I told you about wandering off?”

“Stupid boy indeed,” Bhekizitha materialised in a swirl of dust and dead grass, “but it would seem a very powerful one.”

“YOU!” the boy turned all his venom on the old shaman, “you killed my mother and left me an orphan, I hate you, I hate you!” he stamped his feet in rage.

“I did?” Bhekizitha scratched his head and looked slightly bewildered, “when was this?”

0=0=0=0

“Bollocks?” the old man stood up unsteadily and looked down at Giles, “Bollocks?” he repeated.

“Yes, bollocks,” agreed Giles going into full Watcher mode while Buffy looked on in something approaching prime, “correct me if I’m wrong but…” Giles took a deep breath, “You sent Xander Harris into the past to be killed so that we’d never meet him and die at whatever points in the past where Xander would have touched our lives or saved us in some way?”

“Yes,” the old man spoke uncertainly as if he was trying to spot the flaw in his otherwise perfect and diabolical plan. “At some point in each of you’re lives Xander Harris has saved each of you or set you on the path of righteousness! Without him you would all be dead! MAW-HA-HA!” this time the old man got to the end of his maniacal laughter without having a coughing fit.

“Rubbish,” Giles pointed out reasonably, “everything you said about Xander is true, but you missed one very important point…”

“No! Never I-I planned everything so-so…” the old man stammered into silence as he looked at Giles in confusion.

“You pratt!” Giles shook his head in disgust, the quality of ‘Big Bads’ just wasn’t what it used to be, “To have any effect on the here and now you needed to kidnap and kill Harris before any of us knew him. Killing him in our present, no matter how far you sent him back in time, will have no affect what-so-ever on our present because, you blithering idiot, he’s ALREADY DONE IT!”

Buffy’s heart swelled with pride; that was her Watcher at his best, she particularly liked the ‘blithering idiot’ part.

“I’m through!” cried Willow from the other side of the warehouse.

Running through the hole Willow had made in the barrier Faith leapt from crate to crate as she climbed up to where the old man stood in stunned silence, she ran her sword through his heart again and again, the old man just laughed at her.

“You can’t kill me!” he chortled, “I might have screwed up my plan to kill you all but not this spell. You see I’m slightly out of phase with the real world…so you can’t kill me HE-HE!”

“Oh crap,” breathed Faith in disgust, “not more Star Trek crap.”

Looking around in panic Faith realised with relief that no one had heard her Star Trek comment; if anyone ever found out she was a closet Trekker she’d never live it down.

0=0=0=0

“YOU DON’T REMEMBER!” Fudo screamed at the old man and hurled a fire ball at the shaman.

Lifting up his staff Bhekizitha fended off the ball of magic and sent it to bounce off the rocks. Hefting her last throwing spear Lindiwi brought it to her shoulder and sent it flying towards the boy wizard. The spear struck the boy in the chest and went clean through him. Clutching at the spear shaft in shock Fudu collapsed first to his knees and gazed accusingly at Bhekizitha before collapsing onto his side and died.

Walking over to where the boy lay Bhekizitha scratched the stubble on his chin and shook his head, he turned to look at Xander and Lindiwi.

“I really don’t remember killing his mother you know?” he looked down at the boy again and stared hard into his face, “No, I don’t recognise him at all…but then I am getting old and my memory isn’t what it was.” The old shaman sighed as he stood up straight he turned his gaze on Lindiwi, “Thank-you for killing him my girl that was a good throw…well done.”

Lindiwi beamed with pleasure.

0=0=0=0

“Well done Faith!” Buffy sprinted up the crate dais to join her sister slayer; the old man lay dead on his chair and as he had died his magics had rapidly faded.

“Hey thanks,” Faith stepped away from the corpse and held up her hands in denial, “but I didn’t touch him.”

“But I…”

“Yeah I tried but he had this ‘out of phase’ crap going for him, I couldn’t touch him.”

“Wonder how he died,” Buffy looked at the body trying to see if there were any wounds to explain the man’s sudden death.

“Heart attack?” suggested Faith.

“Maybe that cough got him after all,” Buffy grinned, “I told him he should see someone about that,” she wrinkled up her nose at the sight of the old man, “yuck…he looks like he’s over a hundred,” she shivered dramatically before starting to search through the old man’s pockets. After a moment she held up a wallet, looking inside she found a driving licence.

“Fudo Abidemi,” she turned and looked down to where Giles was helping Willow up towards the throne, “Fudo Abidemi, name mean anything to you?”

“Not a thing,” gasped Giles a little puffed out from his climb.

Willow sat on the dais next to the throne and held her head in her hands.

“You okay Red?” Faith knelt down next to the witch and put her hand on Willow’s shoulder.

“Yeah I’m fine,” she lied, “I just need a good nights sleep is all.”

“AH-HA!” cried Giles, who had been poking about behind the throne; “if I can…” there was the sound of breaking wood.

“What cha got Giles?” Buffy eagerly moved around to the back of the throne where Giles was kneeling pulling books and objects from under the throne.

“Looks like he kept all his magical paraphernalia close at hand,” Giles handed Buffy a couple of old books, “Looks like a spell book and a journal and…”

Giles pulled an ivory staff about two feet long from under the chair; he studied it for a moment or two.

“I think this what he used to send Xander into the past,” he handed it to Willow, “what do you think?”

Examining the staff closely Willow nodded her head, “Could be,” she admitted, “but I can’t do much with it here I need my books…and please,” she looked pleadingly at Buffy, “I’ve gotta sleep,” again she buried her head in her hands.

“But Willow what about Xander?” Buffy wanted to know, her voice edged with panic.

“Fuck Harris!” Faith turned angrily on Buffy, “he’s big enough and ugly enough to look after himself! And didn’t this creep say he was safe…”

“For now!” answered Buffy as she and Faith faced off.

“Buffy!” Faith took a deep calming breath and took hold of her anger by the throat and shook it, “Buffy,” she repeated calmer now, “look can’t you see Willow’s in no shape to do anything just now? She needs to rest, and this time-stuff is weird so it probably doesn’t matter when she gets Harris home.”

For a moment Giles thought he’d have to stop a fight between the two senior slayers, not something he relished.

“Faith’s right…” Giles put his hand on Buffy’s shoulder, “Willow’s got to rest, I can do some research and…and well, I think we all need to calm down a little.”

Looking from slayer to watcher Buffy pursed her lips and then sighed loudly, “Yeah okay,” she admitted before climbing down the pile of crates and storming out of the door.

0=0=0=0

“Look what they did to my shield.” Lindiwi picked up her battered shield and examined it closely, “Hmmm,” she said after a moment or two, “maybe I can get someone to repair it.”

She shrugged and walked off to retrieve her spears.

“Well Xander-Xanderharris,” Bhekizitha came over to stand next to Xander and looked up at the sun, “after our little adventure here I think its time to get you to Rorke’s Drift and back to your own people. Not that it hasn’t been good to have you with us but…but I feel you don’t belong here.”

“You’re just so right,” smiling at the old wizard Xander looked around at the hillsides and sighed. “So, you really don’t remember Fudo’s mother?”

“Not as such,” the shaman shook his head, “I do remember having to kill a witch who was terrorising the countryside around where she lived about ten years ago. But-but I never heard she had a child.”

They had reached the end of the gully and were once again walking slightly up hill through the grass towards this place where Bhekizitha was sure Xander would find help. As they walked Lindiwi pointed to two white-men on horses who had appeared about two hundred yards away.

“Look! Look!” cried Lindiwi skipping between the two men and pointing at the horsemen, “Maybe we won’t have to take you all the way to Rorke’s Drift after all.”

“Indeed,” Bhekizitha shaded his eyes as he looked towards the horse men, “Hmm they look Dutch to me, maybe…!”

Xander saw a puff of smoke burst from the rifle in one of the horsemen’s hands, followed by a wet ‘Thud!’ which was in turn followed by a muffled bang. Bhekizitha groaned and fell to the ground to stare sightlessly at the sky, a large red hole in his chest. Lindiwi screamed in rage and horror as she stared, eyes round with disbelief, at the body of her friend and teacher. Snarling with rage she started to run at the horsemen pulling her arm back ready to hurl one of her spears.

“NO!” screamed Xander as he tried to follow her through the long grass.

Before he had taken more than a couple of paces there was another shot and Lindiwi was blown off her feet to lie bleeding in the grass. Running over to the girl Xander fell to his knees and cradled her head in his lap, by some miracle she was still breathing.

“CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE YOU BASTARDS!” An English sounding voice came to his ears.

Xander looked up to see a third man ride between him and the two gunmen.

“I told you not to fire!” the third horseman held a large pistol in his hand and pointed it at the two riders.

Looking down at Lindiwi Xander saw her eyes flicker open and stare up into his, she tried to smile at him but her face contorted in pain as she moaned and turned her head so he couldn’t see her distress.

“I-I know the one-girl doesn’t live long Xander-Xanderharris…”

He wiped the blood away that stained her lips; he’d seen enough wounds in his life for him to know that it was only her slayer stubbornness that was keeping her alive.

“Do-do’y think I fore filled my destiny?”

“I’m sure you did,” he stroked her forehead and smiled down at her.

“Did I fight well, as good as your one-girl?”

“Yes Lindiwi you fought well…” he tried to stifle the sob that threatened to make his voice break.

“Like a lion?” she whispered so softly Xander had to bend over her to hear her.

“Yes, just like a lion,” he ran his hand over her eyelids and shut her eyes, she had already gone to the place were all slayers go in the end.

He sat with her head in his lap and watched through blurred eyes as his tears mixed with her blood, he almost didn’t notice the horse and rider gallop over to where he sat.

“Oh my god sir!” the rider brought his horse to a rapid halt raising a great cloud of dust around him as he jumped down and joined Xander by Lindiwi’s side. “Is she…?”

“Dead…” Xander looked up at the man through tear blurred eyes and thought how strangely he was dressed.

The man wore a dusty red jacket and dark blue trousers, his once white sun helmet had been died a dirty brown colour, and the brown leather belt around his waist supported the holster for the pistol that he held limply in his hand,

“I’m so sorry,” the red coated man sounded genuinely upset, “I told those ignorant Dutch bastards not to fire but… She was the one-girl…the slayer wasn’t she?”

“The one-girl,” agreed Xander nodding his head absently.

“I’m sorry,” the man looked away from Lindiwi and up into Xander’s face, “I’m Captain Wyndham I’m attached to Lord Chelmsford’s column…I-I wasn’t aware that the council had sent another watcher to look for the slayer.”

“I’m sorta here privately,” Xander moved Lindiwi’s head from his lap and rested on the thin sandy soil.

“I say you’re an American aren’t you?” Wyndham climbed to his feet and held out his hand to Xander to help him up.

“Yes, yes I am,” he stood, still a little numbed and shocked by all that had happened.

Turning away from the Englishman Xander saw the two riders still sitting astride their horses holding their rifles on their hips. He watched them for a moment; he noted the dusty grey homespun suits that they both wore, the leather bandoliers that criss-crossed their chests and the wide brimmed felt hats that shaded their faces. Something was wrong here, something was very out of place and he was beginning to think it might be him.

“What’s the date?” he demanded turning back to Wyndham.

“Oh, I see, got a bit out of touch and lost track eh?” Wyndham took off his sun helmet and scratched behind his ear, “Let me see now…it’ll be, yes that’s it, twenty-sixth of January…”

“The year…the year!” demanded Xander.

Captain Wyndham had been a Watcher for long enough to know to answer questions however odd you might think they were, obviously this American chap was more than a little confused from being out of touch of civilisation for so long.

“Eighteen-seventy-nine old man.”

“Oh god!” Xander sat down hard on the ground next to Lindiwi’s body, “It all makes sense now,” he muttered quietly.

Placing his helmet back on his head Wyndham turned from Xander and looked up at his two Boer guides.

“Right you two,” he said in the no-nonsense tone of a British officer who’d had just about enough nonsense for one day, “get off those damn horses and dig graves for our friends here.”

He gestured towards Bhekizitha and Lindiwi’s bodies; secretly he was hoping that the two burgers would give him an excuse to shoot them.

“But they’re Kaffas!” announced the older of the two.

Wyndham levelled his pistol at the two farmers.

“Who you shot after being given express orders not to…be thankful I don’t just shoot you where you sit, now dig.”

With an ill grace the two farmers climbed from their horses and started to attack the ground with bowie knives and tin plates. Wyndham, once he was satisfied that work was progressing at a satisfactory pace, went to sit next to Xander. The two men sat together on the ground staring at Lindiwi’s body, the silence broken only by the sound of digging and the muttered curses of the Boers.

“Council sent me down here before the war broke out,” Wyndham glanced over at Xander who was still staring at where his girl lay, “we knew that there was a potential slayer around here…but we thought she might be one of these damn burgers,” he gestured to the two men who were busy digging, “Never thought it might be a native gal…damn shame.” Wyndham paused to let Xander say something but he remained silent as he leant forward to brush the flies away from Lindiwi’s wound.

“I came up with the relief column to Rorke’s Drift…been a hell of a fight there…” Wyndham lapsed into silence for a moment. “But you don’t want to hear about that do you old man? You just want to sit and mourn your slayer…I know it sounds crass old chap, but you’ll get over it…Look our grave diggers have finished, come on let’s get it over with.”

Watching closely for any sign of disrespect Wyndham had the burgers place the two Zulu’s in there graves. Next he had them fill in the graves and place stones over the raw earth to stop the wild dogs from digging up the bodies. Finally he said a short prayer over the graves…

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NEW ALTERNATE ENDING.

As Xander stood in silent prayer standing next to Wyndham; he noticed the officer’s holster was still undone and his revolver was temptingly within reach. The anger that had been suppressed by his sorrow at losing his two dear friends suddenly welled up in his chest; why should these two murdering bastards get away Scot-free? Why shouldn’t they be punished for killing his friends?

Barging into Wyndham - Xander made a grab for the officer’s pistol. Wyndham cried out in alarm as he tried to fend Xander off while at the same time prevent him from grabbing his weapon. The two Boers stood in bewildered silence not comprehending that their lives where in real danger.

Managing to free his hand from Wyndham’s Xander was able to pull back his fist and punch the officer on the nose, dazed and with blood pouring from his nose Wyndham fell to the ground, while Xander remained standing, the officer’s pistol in his hand. Only when they saw the murderous look in Xander’s eye did the Burgers realise their danger. As he raised the pistol the two Boers turned to grab their rifles that they had left lying in the grass behind them.

“BANG!” the pistol bucked in his hand and sounded like a cannon going off.

The big soft lead slug hit the older Boer right between the shoulder blades; he grunted in surprise and fell headlong in the grass his blood soaking into the sandy soil.

“NO!” yelled Wyndham from behind a bloody hand; unheeding of the British officer’s call Xander moved the pistol to aim at the younger Boer.

The Boer was little more than a boy, about Lindiwi’s age; he scrambled through the dry grass trying to reach for his rifle.

“BANG!” Xander pulled the trigger again and the bullet hit the youth in the chest; he stared up at Harris with terrified eyes, blood staining his shirt red as it oozed from his wound.

“Muttie…” he cried as the tears ran down his face.

“BANG! BANG! BANG! Click!”

Dropping the empty revolver from his numbed hand Xander looked down at his handiwork.

“GOOG GOD MAN!” Wyndham snatched the revolver from the ground by Xander’s feet and climbed unsteadily to his feet, “What have you done?”

“Only what needed to be done,” even in his own ears his voice sounded flat and emotionless.

“I mean old chap,” Wyndham sniffed as blood trickled from his nose on to his jacket, “I felt like shooting them m’self (sniff) back there,” he wiped at his nose with the back of his hand. “I mean what am I going to tell His Lordship,” he walked over and nudged the bodies with his booted foot, “when I come back sans two scouts and no slayer…hmm?”

“Tell him I shot them,” Xander walked over to the Boer’s horses that stood obediently waiting for their masters.

“Oh I couldn’t do that old man,” Wyndham broke open his revolver, ejected the spent cartridges and started to reload, “Code of the Watchers and all that,” the officer sighed as he holstered his pistol, “oh I expect I’ll say the Zulu bagged them.” He looked at Xander closely, “I say old chap but…but you seem to be going all transparent.”

Xander looked down at his hand and sure enough he could see the grass through it; maybe he had messed up the timeline so much that he was about to cease to exist. He looked up at Wyndham he was beginning to fade away too, in fact all of Africa appeared to be slowly fading away; Giles was going to be real mad about this!

0=0=0=0

Wyndham found himself standing alone; apart that is for three horses and to very dead Boer scouts.

“Well I’ll be blowed,” he said with admirable understatement, “fella’s just vanished,” he scratched his head and looked around just to make sure Xander wasn’t hiding somewhere. “Well that tops everything,” he walked back to his horse, “they’ll never believe this at the Watchers Club,” he swung himself into his saddle, “Oh well, just tell everyone we were ambushed by Zulus…I’m sure I can make-up a convincing tail.”

Gathering up the reins of the Boer’s horses he turned his own horse’s head towards Rorke’s Drift and cantered off over the hill.

0=0=0=0

Finding himself suddenly back in the lounge at the Durban Slayer House, Xander staggered and nearly fell over as Willow hit him with a full on body check. She pulled his face down to her own and kissed him passionately on the mouth forcing her tongue between his lips.

“Hmmm huum!” he said as he managed to pry Willow away from off his body; well almost she still hung on to him with both arms tightly entwined around his neck.

“Oh Xander!” she rested her head against his chest, “I thought I was never going to get you back.”

“Hey Will,” gasped Xander, “it’s nice to see you too, where’s…”

“Looks like someone’s glad to see you Harris,” came a familiar voice.

“KENNEDY!” this time Xander did fall on the floor, he pointed at Kennedy his mouth working but no words coming out, eventually he found his voice, “Y-your d-dead!”

“Who’s dead?” Faith walked into the room from the hall; she stood next to Kennedy and put her arm around the younger slayer’s waist and kissed her lightly on the lips in greeting.

“NO! NO! NO!” Xander pushed himself across the floor until he was wedged in the corner; he looked in terror at his friends, “Whaaaaaa…” He turned with pleading eyes to Willow and then at Faith…he tried not to look at Kennedy.

“Sssh, sssh,” Willow knelt down on the floor next to him, “it’s okay Xan,” she held his trembling hands in her own,” she looked over her shoulder at Faith and Kennedy’s concerned faces. “This sometimes happens with spells like this,” she told her friends knowledgably, “there’s often some amnesia and confusion when the traveller first gets back.”

She turned to stroke his forehead, “Do you remember who I am?”

“Y-you’re Willow right?”

“Yes that’s right,” Faith and Kennedy could hear the fear in Willow’s voice, they gave each other worried looks, “and I’m your…?”

“Friend?”

“No silly,” Willow forced a smile, he shouldn’t be this confused, “I’m your wife remember?”

“NO! NO! NO!” Xander held his head in his hands and started to curl himself up into a ball.

“Oh Goddess,” gasped Willow her face going deathly pale, she dashed a tear from her cheek, “this is bad,” she got to her feet, “this is really bad,” she turned to her slayer friends, “we better call…”

“Where’s Giles?” Xander cried out from the floor, “Where’s Buffy? They’ll know what’s happened…please! Get Giles…get Buffy…Willow please!!!”

Willow looked from Faith back to Xander; her hand came up to cover her mouth just as the gasp of sorrow and shock escaped her lips.

Faith took charge in an instant; she put her arm around her old friend and drew Willow’s head onto her shoulder, looking over the witch’s head at her puzzled girlfriend Faith snapped out orders.

“Kenny, call Postie tell her we’ve got Harris back but he’s hallucinating or something, tell her he thinks that Buffy Summers and Rupert Giles are still alive!”

“On it!” Kennedy left the room at high speed heading for the telephone in the hall.

Faith rocked Willow back and forth as the witch sobbed inconsolably, everyone knew the Master had killed Buffy Summers years ago and Rupert Giles had got himself killed in a futile attempt to avenge his slayer. Faith knew Xander had held himself responsible for Buffy’s death for years; she didn’t know the full story but Xander had stayed to look after Willow instead of going after Buffy.

Faith looked from Willow to Xander who was now lying in a tight ball hugging his knees; she hoped that someone could sort this mess out. Willow and Xander were her best friends; her anchors in this world, seeing the love they had for each other gave her hope that things could and did get better.

She sniffed and wiped away a tear of her own; “There – there,” she murmured softly into Willow’s hair, “everything will be just fine sweetie…you wait and see. It’ll all be five by five again in no time…you’ve got my word on it…”

THE END.

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OLD ORIGINAL ENDING.

…and with a gentle hand led Xander towards the horses.

“Come on old chap,” Wyndham helped Xander up behind him on his horse, “let’s get you back to what passes for civilisation in these parts.”

0=0=0=0

EPILOGUE.

True to his word Captain Wyndham took Xander back to the mission station at Rorke’s Drift and found him a tent to rest in, as the hospital building had been burnt down by the attacking Zulus. Curling up in a couple of blankets Xander went to sleep and when he woke up it was to find Buffy, Faith, Willow and Giles staring down at him.

Wrapping him in a slayer strength hug Buffy squeezed him until it felt like his ribs were about to break.

“Xander!” Willow jumped up and added her hug to that of Buffy’s.

“Hey Harris,” Faith smiled and waved offhandedly, “thought we’d lost you for a while back there.”

When all the women had stopped hugging him or pretending they’d not been worried about him, Giles walked over and while the girls were busy organising the ‘Xander’s back party’. Giles placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his hand, leaning in close to Xander’s ear he said.

“Well done old chap, when you’re ready to talk you know where I am.” Giles had a rough idea what Xander had been through from what he’d read in a very odd little Watchers Diary. It hadn’t made much sense to him until now, maybe this was another little mystery solved.

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After two weeks fruitless searching Xander Harris gave up looking for Lindiwi’s and Bhekizitha’s graves. There was no sign of the stones placed over their resting place and the countryside had changed over the intervening one-hundred and twenty-four years so that Xander was never sure if he was in the right place. Eventually he took a flight back home to the States.

He never spoke much of his adventures in South Africa’s past to anyone other than Giles who dutifully wrote it all down and put the story with the rest of the Watcher’s Diaries. But sometimes, when he was taking a group of junior slayers out on a vision quest into the desert he’d talk about Lindiwi the ‘one-girl’ and her old watcher shaman Bhekizitha.

When the girls pressed him to tell them more all he would say about her was that she had fought bravely to the end, just like a lion.

The End.

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