The Other Side

By Oxnate

Disclaimer: Do not own Buffy or Underworld. My title this time comes from a Bruno Mars song – The Other Side. To find out why, you can google the lyrics (You go 'bout your day baby, While I hide from the sun). Do not own the song either.

Just go ahead and accept the retcon that the Underworld series came out sometime before the Halloween episode.

YAHF. Xander thought his outfit would be ironic. But it stopped being funny when he got stuck. Now he gets to see the world from the other side.

Chapter 1.

Xander regained control of his body as the Ag round smashed the statue of Janus. He had been in the library when Giles and Willow had figured out it had been Ethan that had cast the spell and had easily outraced Giles' aging Citroen here. And the shopkeeper had been easily... encouraged to tell him how to end the spell.

And now Xander was back in control of his own body. Except that he felt weird. And the gun in his hand still felt very real. "What's wrong? Why is this gun still real?" he demanded. His eyes turned ice-blue and he felt his fangs elongate. "I'm still a fucking vampire. You had better change me back!" he warned. He had to enunciate carefully with his fangs out.

He heard the front door open and turned towards the sound. Ethan took the opportunity to try to escape. Xander stopped him by the simple expedient of stomping on a leg, snapping it. That that was probably not something the old Xander would have done flashed through his mind briefly, but he squashed it. Introspection could wait. He raised his gun and waited until the intruder followed Ethan's scream.

Giles came through the curtain wielding a 2X4, Xander let his gun drop.

"Xander? Or Alexander?" Giles asked mentioning the name the Death Dealer had given them.

"It's me, Giles. I broke the statue, like he said, to end the spell. I'm back in control, but I'm pretty sure I'm still a vampire." Xander explained.

"Ethan Rayne." Giles said. "I might have known. This stunt stinks of you."

"Hello, Ripper. Still playing mild mannered watcher, are you?" Rayne smirked.

"How do we break the spell on Xander?" Giles growled threateningly.

"That wasn't my doing." Ethan insisted. "Go outside and check for yourself. The spell should be ended."

"I don't believe you." Xander growled and raised a foot to stomp on Ethan's broken leg again.

"Xander!" Giles stopped him. "I'm afraid he's probably telling the truth. Willow's spirit disappeared not long before I arrived here, hopefully back to her own body. Also, honesty always has been one of his few redeeming qualities."

"The truth tends to create more conflict than lying does." Ethan admitted. "Lying is for those who want the easy way out."

"I'm about to give you the easy way out." Xander warned, his eyes flashing blue again.

"Xander, please let me handle this." Giles said calmly. "You don't need to be here for this."

"Giles, I have the memories of a vampire who fought a war against werewolves for 350 years. I can handle anything you're going to do to him. In fact, I'll probably do worse once you're done." Xander turned to Ethan, "So, what's it going to be? Do you want to confess to the nice watcher-man? Or would you like me to show you what a Death Dealer can do to a mere human?"

Ethan went very pale at that. "Rupert! I swear, the spells were on the costumes and it was all linked through the statue. It would have petered out in another hour, but breaking the statue should have returned everything to normal. Unless..." he noted the damage to Xander's clothing. "Did you drink any blood?"

Xander looked a little sheepish.

"Xander!" Giles admonished.

"Not from people. Well, not directly. I was injured, so I broke into the hospital and stole a couple bags." Xander explained.

Ethan nodded eagerly now that the conversation was going in a not-Ethan's-fault direction. "It could have been your vampire healing taking over your body. Or it could just be that Janus was angry at you for breaking his statue and decided to leave you like that."

"How do I change it back?" Xander demanded.

"I really don't know." Ethan said sadly. He really wished he did know so he could get out of this. As it was, he had a feeling only Ripper's presence was keeping him alive and in one piece for now. "That's really more Ripper's area than mine." he tried to pass the buck.

"I don't know either, Xander. Yet." he placed a hand on his shoulder. "But please put him down."

Xander was surprised to find that sometime during the interrogation, he'd stopped glaring down at Ethan and had instead picked him up easily and pressed him against the wall. He let go.

Ethan didn't fall far and tried to take all of his weight on his good leg, but couldn't help let out a hiss when his broken leg hit the ground rather hard on its own.

"Come on, Ethan. "I'll drive you to Hospital." Giles threw Ethan's arm over his shoulder. "We'll work on fixing this later. I should warn you, if you try to escape, I'll send Xander after you."

Ethan eagerly agreed that he wouldn't leave town until Xander was fixed.

"Xander, I suggest you lay low for the day and meet us in the library after sundown. I shall explain things to Buffy before then so she doesn't try to... um, Slay you." Giles said as the two Englishmen left.

Xander was pleased (and also a little worried) to find out that an Underworld type vampire didn't need an invitation to enter a house. Or at least not his own. He'd have to test that on another house. He grabbed a bag, stuffed it with clothes, toiletries, and the small stash of money he'd been saving for a road trip after graduation. He also grabbed a cross out of habit then dropped it quickly. He tested it several more times before he was sure that, yes, crosses did not burn him. Which was good. Proof that he wasn't a demon would be handy for not getting staked.

Slipping silently back out the window he'd come in, he was pretty sure his parents would never even know he'd been home. He wondered for a second how long it would be before he was reported missing, if ever.

Xander made his way across Sunnydale at night and he was surprised at the detail he could make out in his new form. It was like someone had turned the starlight way up, it was clear as day out even though there was a new moon tonight. Or clearer, since daylight would probably be fatal to him from now on. He mentally went over the ways he'd seen vampires die in the Underworld movie. Sunlight, for sure. Beheading for sure. Massive trauma from gunshots, probably; though it looked like as long as he could find protection from the sun and some blood, he could heal from most wounds. Still, it wouldn't do to count on that and he didn't want to be experimented on to find the outer limit of what could be healed. ...Maybe he'd turn Cordy and let Buffy experiment on her? He grinned at the thought.

"Kitten's lost his way." a voice mewed out of the darkness.

Xander spun to face a person he hadn't even heard approach. Drusilla. He instinctively reached for his gun, then stopped. This breed of vampire was more resilient to bullets than he was. And he hadn't thought to pack a stake.

"Gone through the looking glass, he has. Like Alice. Trying to find his way home. But you can't go home." Dru said. "Never to see the sun again. Come with me Kitten. Let me show you the freedom the darkness brings."

Xander set down his bag, opened it, pulled out the cross, and showed it to her. Dru went to game face, hissed, and jumped backwards. Xander replaced the cross in his bag and stood back up. He showed her his unharmed hand. "I'm not like you. And I don't want to see you again." Once she had run off, he turned back the way he had come.

He stepped up to the door, hardly believing he was there again. He raised his hand and knocked. A few seconds later, it opened. "Hi Angel. Would you mind if I crashed here for the day? Kinda got myself turned into a vampire."

A/N: Yes, there really was a new moon on Halloween 1997. I found that out when I was looking up the Sunrise times for the next chapter.

Please review.