Date written: Thu 1 Oct 2009

Author: Starway Man

E-mail: theop at hotkey dot net dot au

Disclaimer: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar, Kuzui, Fox, WB and UPN; I don't own 'em, and I never will. I also do not own any other characters from any television shows, movies, comics, videogames or literature that I might use. This work is meant merely for enjoyment, and no profit is being made off of it. Some of the text is from various TV episodes or movies or comics or videogames or literature, and so does not belong to me of course.

Rating: Overall R, with mostly PG-13 parts.

Symbols: " " denotes speech, ( italics ) specifies thoughts, and # # indicates phone voice.

Main characters: Xander, ensemble

Warnings: There is some violence, bad language, character death and mention of sexual situations in these stories.

Author Notes: A couple of years ago Night Hunter MGS (a.k.a. Matt) wrote an awesome series of stories called "31 Days of Xanderween" (http:// www . fanfiction .net/s/3813208/1/31_Days_of_Xanderween), where he published one Halloween fic for each day of October. I was inspired enough to want to do my own version of the concept, and he has graciously allowed me to use his idea for this series of fanfic stories.

Acknowledgments: My thanks of course to Matt for allowing me to dabble with his original idea this way. Also, my deepest gratitude to all my beta readers – Francis Eugene, Greywizard, American Soldier and Nodakskip – for all their help in getting these stories finished on time!

Classification: Alternate Universe, Angst, Crossover, Romance, YAHF

Summary: Thirty-one versions of Halloween, Xander-style. Fic-a-day series.

Title:31 Days of Xanderween Part Deux

***

Story 1: Just Another Bug Hunt

Ethan's Costume Shop, Sunnydale, California

October 30th, 1997

During the middle of the 20th century, Halloween – or All Hallows' Eve as it is otherwise known – became a very popular holiday in many parts of the world. Its roots lay in ancient British autumn festivals for warding off evil spirits and celebrating the harvest, including the festival known as Samhain. Today, Halloween was celebrated every year on October 31st. In the U.S., it's a night for children to dress up in costumes, often as ghosts or witches, and go from door to door asking for sweets or candy.

But as far as Alexander 'Xander' Harris, Slayerette and Sunnydale High junior year student was concerned, the whole 'dressing up in costumes' thing totally sucked.

( Stupid Principal Snyder just HAD to insist on costumes for kiddie escort duty tomorrow night, ) the boy thought resentfully to himself, as his female friends Willow Rosenberg and Buffy Summers started to gush over a red noblewoman outfit in another corner of the store. ( Man, I just can't seem to catch a break. Three guesses who the Buffster is gonna wear that for, and the first two don't count... )

Xander was, of course, thinking of the one and only vampire with a soul, the creature known as Angel. He was a rival for Buffy's affections and, therefore, someone who the male teenager didn't exactly like much. Even if privately, Harris had to admit that, at times, Dead Boy was useful to have around. Like whenever there was a potential apocalypse happening. ( What's the plural of that, anyway? Apocalypses? Apocalyptii? )

Xander shook his head at his own thoughts and went to get what he'd come here for, but the wool-gathering had cost him dearly; a seven-year-old boy gotten the last toy rifle out of the discount bin whilst he'd been thinking to himself. Xander looked inside, and saw that the only thing left was a funny-looking weapon that didn't appear to go with his army surplus fatigues at all.

( Oh, what the hell. ) He grabbed it anyway, and went up to the front counter to talk to the proprietor of the shop. "Uh, 'scuse me? I was just wondering what kinda gun this is, exactly. 'Cause, see, I'm planning to dress up as G.I. Joe tomorrow night."

Ethan Rayne, for that was the Englishman's name, frowned as he spied the weapon. "Just a moment, let me consult my notes..." He reached under the counter and pulled out a sheaf of papers, continuing to frown as he read them. Ethan looked up to Xander again and said, "I don't have much on that particular gun, I'm afraid; apparently, it's a copy of a movie prop from some film or another that came out about ten or eleven years ago." Ethan looked Xander right in the eye, "I'll let you have it for two dollars."

"Deal!" Xander said immediately, as he handed over his money. It was either this or detention at Sunnydale High School until Christmas, after all.

As Xander started to make his way out of the store with Willow and Buffy, who had bought a ghost costume and the noblewoman outfit respectively, Ethan tried to recall more about the toy weapon – and the movie from which it was derived – which the young punk had just purchased. After all, the British man had cursed everything in his store so that his customers would become whoever and whatever they dressed up as tomorrow night; and he didn't want his own safety compromised after all the 'fun' started.

But try as he might, Ethan simply couldn't remember anything more about the movie in question. ( Well, never mind. That's the good thing about chaos; it's rather like a box of chocolates. You simply never know what you're going to get! )

***

Somewhere on the streets of Sunnydale, California

October 31st, 1997

Corporal Dwayne Hicks, a Colonial Marine who had been sent to the planet LV-426 a.k.a. Acheron to find out why contact with that colony world had been lost, had utterly no idea what was going on as he straightened up – only to see complete chaos erupting all around him.

The soldier already knew that something about this situation wasn't right, since he had been severely injured by one of the xenomorph aliens on Acheron whilst he and Ellen Ripley had been in an elevator heading for their drop ship. Hicks had shoved his pump-action shotgun into the alien's mouth and blown the creature's head apart, but the damn thing's acid blood had splattered all over him and put him down for the count. Dwayne had a vague, agony-filled memory of Ripley dragging him out of the complex and Bishop, the Company's faithful human-looking android, attempting to keep him alive long enough to be put into stasis; but after that, there had been nothing.

At least until now, that is.

"What the hell?" Hicks muttered, glancing at his uninjured body. He then noticed that it wasn't HIS body. For starters, it looked a hell of a lot younger; not to mention he was also out of uniform, since he was wearing some kind of ill-fitting olive-green material completely different from the uniform he'd previously been wearing. "What's going on here?"

Just then, a red-haired female teenager came running towards him. "Xander! Xander!"

Hicks quickly swung his standard-issue weapon around to cover her, which was now a real version of the toy Ethan had sold Xander yesterday. ( Goddamn, where did she come from? ) "That's close enough! One more step and I open fire!" Dwayne barked out, falling back on SOP 'til he knew what was going on – or a Marine Corps superior showed up to tell him what to do.

Willow skidded to a halt, a look of confusion and disbelief on her face. "Xander, what are you doing?!"

"Lady, you got me confused with someone else, 'cause my name ain't Xander. It's Dwayne Hicks – make that Corporal Dwayne Hicks, Colonial Marine Corps." He briefly looked around, "Now where the fuck am I?"

Willow looked scandalized at his use of the f-word, before realization set in. "Corporal Hicks? As in, Hicks from the "Aliens" movie? Oh my God! You've been possessed by your costume, just like everyone else!"

"Huh?"

Just then, a loud female scream was heard from not far away. "BUFFY!" Willow shouted, before racing off towards the source of the screaming. Deciding to play a hunch, Hicks took off after her.

They soon came across a black-haired woman dressed like nothing Dwayne had ever seen before, well – outside of an ancient history hologram, maybe. The dress was centuries out of date, and the Marine saw that the woman was screaming at the sight of a couple of monsters across the street. ( Not good. Not good! )

"This could be a situation," Dwayne muttered to himself, as he raised his futuristic rifle.

"Buffy, what do we do?" Willow instinctively turned to her best friend, the nominal leader of the trio who traditionally took charge at times like this. Unfortunately, the noblewoman simply fainted, leaving Hicks and Willow to fend for themselves.

The Marine calmly started shooting at the monsters. He didn't aim to kill, just to scare them off as they had made no overtly threatening moves so far; and until he knew more about what was going on, it was better to err on the side of caution.

"No, wait! No guns! There are a couple of little kids in there!" Willow ordered Hicks with the firmest tone she could manage, as the monsters ran off.

The Marine paid no attention to her, until the redhead got right in front of him. Impatiently, Hicks went to shove her out of the way, but his hand just passed straight through her ghostly form. The corporal drew back, surprised. "What the hell? What are you, a hologram? That's it. What's going on here?!"

"Xa- I mean, Corporal Hicks, please listen to me. I'm on your side, I swear! Look, something crazy is happening. I was dressed as a ghost for Halloween, a-and now I am a ghost-"

"Lady, there's no such thing as ghosts," Hicks interrupted, continuing to scan the area just in case the monsters came back.

"Never mind that right now!" Willow scolded him. "Anyway, you were supposed to be a soldier, and I, I-I guess now you're a real soldier...?" Willow trailed off hopelessly, seeing the doubt on Dwayne's face. "A Colonial Marine, y'know, from that movie?"

"Movie? What are you talking about?" Hicks didn't know where this conversation was going, exactly, but nothing he'd heard so far had reassured him in any way.

"Aliens. It was a great motion picture in its day," Willow supplied helplessly. "Uh, Xander, if you're really Corporal Hicks now...what do you remember? Like, like, do you remember that part of the film where the aliens were blown up after everyone left the planet for the Sulaco, and then Ripley blew the Alien Queen out of the airlock? No, no, you wouldn't remember that, because you were unconscious by then...oh, wait, in the end you were placed in stasis, along with Bishop, Ripley and that little girl Newt as the ship headed back to Earth..." Willow babbled.

Dwayne Hicks, normally composed and as cool as a cucumber even under the most hellish of combat conditions, just gaped as the hologram or whatever she was finished up, "...before you were killed at the start of the next movie, when everyone crashed on that prison planet Fury-something and you were impaled by your own flight harness within the sleep capsule."

"Uh-huh. And I'm supposed to believe that?" Hicks shook his head, wondering how on earth Willow had come up with such a fantastic tale. "Man, I gotta be having one wacky dream from all the drugs Bishop must have pumped into me..."

"This isn't a dream! Look!" Willow gestured at a passing car. "The year is actually 1997, and everything you think is real – it isn't! Now please, you gotta help Buffy," Willow gestured to the unconscious Slayer helplessly. "I can't do it, 'cause I can't touch anything! Help me take her home? Please?"

Not knowing what else to do Dwayne simply shrugged, slung the unconscious noblewoman over one shoulder while keeping hold of his rifle and began following the redheaded hologram to a place of relative safety.

***

1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale, California

Not long afterwards

Dwayne Hicks really wished he was just about anywhere other than here right now – well, with the possible exception of LV-426, of course.

After arriving with the Sleeping Beauty and the working girl hologram at an antiquated-looking residence straight out of the history vids, Hicks had started to wonder whether he actually was dreaming or not. After all, he had seen his own reflection in the mirror, and it was not the same face he habitually saw every day. And a photograph in the house of the body he was currently occupying, posing alongside the two femmes he was with right now, had only confirmed that something really weird was going.

There had been too many close calls with too many rampaging monsters on the way to this place as well. ( Okay, just keep it together Marine. You're all strung out, and with good reason. But you gotta stay frosty, and alert. The civilian is counting on you, and you can't afford to let one of the things outside get in here! )

All of a sudden, he heard female screaming outside the front door of what the hologram had called 'Buffy's house'. Hicks went to look out the window and cursed, "Shit! I'll be right back!" He opened the door and ran out to rescue the newest civilian to enter his life, reflexively pulling the door closed behind him.

The scared noblewoman possessing Buffy, who had woken up again by this time, ran over to Willow and said, "Surely he'll not desert us!?"

Willow, who was starting to grow tired of the noblewoman's annoying habit of wanting the big strong man to defend her virtue, just shook her head. "Whatever..."

Hicks soon arrived back inside with the brunette teenager named Cordelia Chase – a cheerleader, a fashion queen, a spoiled rich girl with deeply hidden layers, and a fellow classmate from Sunnydale High who'd dressed up tonight as a leopard-like cat. She did not appear to be in a happy mood, and that was putting it mildly.

"Let go of me, dweeb!" Cordy hissed at Hicks, who was man-handling her not too gently.

"The name's Dwayne," Hicks replied coolly, before letting her go and checking the window again. "Dwayne Hicks."

"What? Wait a...what's going on?" Cordelia demanded, looking around at the Library Loser Crowd as she called them in private.

"Okay, your name is Cordelia, you're not a cat, you're in high school, and we're your friends. Well, sort of," Willow qualified that last one rather awkwardly.

That just earned the redhead a haughty stare. "That's nice, Willow. And you went mental when?" the buxom brunette demanded.

Willow didn't get it. "You know us?"

Cordelia looked annoyed as she replied, "Yeah, lucky me! Now what's with the name game?"

Quite frankly, Miss Rosenberg didn't know where to start on answering that one. "Well. Uh, a lot's going on..."

"No kidding!" Miss Chase cut in. "I was just attacked by Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy. Look at my costume!" She showed everyone present her torn costume sleeve. "Do you really think that Partytown's gonna give me my deposit back now? Not on the likely."

Hicks took off his green shirt, and all three girls present got an eyeful of the muscular arms, plus the washboard abs and pecs. The Colonial Marine offered the cheerleader his outerwear, and she accepted with a strained thanks. Her eyes lingered on Xander's body a little too long for just a casual innocent glance, though.

( Hello, this is not salty goodness. This is Xander Harris, loser extraordinaire! And don't you forget it! ) Cordelia chastised herself for the sudden rush of hormones that almost made her go weak at the knees.

"Okay. You guys stay here while I get some help..." Willow started to say.

"Help? Help from who?" Hicks demanded at once, since the hologram hadn't said anything so far about possible reinforcements around here.

"Uh, Giles I guess," Willow replied hesitantly.

"Giles?" Hicks and the noblewoman asked at the same time, before glancing at one another. "Who's Giles?" Dwayne then demanded.

"He's the head geek that you losers hang out with," Cordelia put it in her own special way, frowning over how 'Buffy' and 'Xander' didn't know who the British Watcher was.

"Uh, she means he's the librarian at the high school which we all attend," Willow explained hurriedly. At Cordelia's look she added, "I-it's like amnesia, okay? They don't know who they really are, because they're possessed at the moment. Just sit tight-"

"Wait!" Hicks commanded, freezing Willow in her tracks. "Possessed? What the hell do you mean by 'possessed'? Have we been impregnated by the aliens?"

"WHAT?" Cordelia looked at the person inhabiting Xander's body like he was completely insane. "Have you totally lost it? There's no such thing as aliens, doofus!"

"I already told you, the name's Dwayne," Hicks snapped at her, actually causing Cordy to take a step back. "And girl, you don't know shit about what I've seen and done lately; the goddamn things took out my entire squad within the last twelve hours..."

Without warning Hicks then whirled around in a graceful ballet of movement, somehow unslinging his weapon and taking aim with the barest minimum of fuss and bother.

"Hold it right there!" the Colonial Marine shouted at the black-clad figure of Angel, whose eyes were wide from staring down the barrel of the biggest rifle he'd ever seen close-up. "Now identify yourself, or I will shoot to kill!"

Willow immediately got in front of the vampire, as Cordelia and Lady Buffy backed away in fright. "Put that down! This is Angel. He's a friend, a good guy!" the ghost said.

"Good guys aren't that quiet when they walk into the room," Hicks grated out, his instincts telling him that he was in the presence of a predator, a possible danger to the group. "Now, Angel, or whoever the hell you are, I wanna introduce you to a personal friend of mine. This is my ten millimetre M41A pulse rifle, with over-and-under thirty millimetre pump-action grenade launcher. Start talking and make it good; or quite frankly, I'll blow your goddamn head off."

"Xander?" Angel said uncertainly. The hostile male individual before him was acting nothing like the awkward and insecure teenager the ensouled vampire knew; and Angel got the distinct feeling that his unlife was definitely in danger, that this guy was perfectly willing and capable of 'blowing his head off'. "What happened to you? Why, why are you acting like this?"

"I'm the one asking the questions here," the soldier hissed at him. "And I don't hear the right answers soon, fella, my trigger finger's gonna get a mite itchy."

"Xander, PLEASE! Put the gun down!" Willow shouted, not noticing how Lady Buffy was edging away and heading back towards the kitchen. "I mean it! Put it down right now!"

"Newsflash, hooker hologram, but I don't take orders from you," Hicks told her roughly, shocking the redheaded ghost. "And for the record, I don't know what the hell you think standing in front of that guy is gonna accomplish. The bullets are gonna go straight through you into him, remember?"

"What?" Cordelia demanded, she now had no idea what was going on here – even if privately, she thought that Xander's take-charge no-nonsense attitude looked rather good on him. ( Okay, where the hell did THAT come from? ) the brunette asked herself in shock.

"Cordy, everyone apart from you got turned into their Halloween costumes tonight," Willow glanced at her, reluctantly stepping away from Angel. She briefly stuck her hand through Angel's chest to demonstrate, causing the vampire to leap back with a yelp. "See? I dressed up as a ghost-"

"The ghost of who, exactly? Because I'm pretty sure it wasn't Mother Teresa," Cordelia snorted as she inspected the Halloween outfit, immediately hurting Willow's feelings.

"Hey! You, Buffo or whatever your name is, where do you think you're going?" Dwayne demanded just before the noblewoman could make a break for it.

"I, I, I want to go home!" Lady Buffy cried out, the 18th century noblewoman simply unable to cope anymore with the stressful events of tonight. Her rather limited mental capacity made her plead, "Please, just let me go home?"

"Buffy, you ARE home!" Willow said with minor exasperation. She then turned to Angel, whom Hicks was still covering with his pulse rifle. "Just keep an eye on Xander and Buffy, okay Angel? I'm gonna go find Giles, and hopefully we can put a stop to all this."

So saying, the female ghost quickly vanished through a wall of the house. Naturally, the noblewoman fainted all over again upon seeing the redhead's exit.

Angel picked her up in his arms and said to Hicks, "I'm taking Buffy up to her bedroom. You can always shoot me after I come back, okay?"

"I'll think about it," the Colonial Marine replied truthfully, as the vampire took the Slayer upstairs. His aim never wavered until Angel and Buffy disappeared from view. Hicks then noticed Cordelia staring at him. "What?"

"Xander, you really aren't acting like yourself tonight," Miss Chase shook her head. "I mean, no offense..."

"Very little taken. Because for the third and last time, my name is Corporal Dwayne Hicks, Colonial Marine Corps," the soldier growled at her. For some reason this girl was really getting under his skin – unlike anyone else he had ever met in his entire life. "Are we clear on that? I mean, what's it gonna take for that particular information to finally percolate through into your skull?"

"Well, of all the nerve, Mr. Bitch!!" Cordelia growled back at him. "I take it back – apart from the Rambo 'tude, you obviously haven't changed much at all!"

Hicks was actually tempted to shoot her, when his sharp hearing caught a slight noise within the kitchen. Whirling around with that same graceful coordination Xander Harris could never hope to attain, the Marine ran into the dining area, where he saw a male vampire in full game face.

Hicks never hesitated, and began firing his rifle and spraying his target with a rain of hot lead. The hail of bullets didn't kill the bloodsucker, but the pain from the shock and blood loss effectively incapacitated the soulless demon until Angel came down to investigate and put the creature out of its misery with his stake.

"Aim for the head or the heart next time, destroying either of them is the only way to kill a vampire. Well...apart from sunlight, fire or holy water," Angel told the soldier, who just silently raised an eyebrow at him.

"Vampire?" Hicks asked neutrally.

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Here we go..."

***

Somewhere on Hadley Street, Sunnydale, California

November 13th, 1997

Two weeks may not seem like a long time to most people. But to teenagers, who frequently find themselves completely unable to remember anything that happened during the previous week, fourteen days can often be the equivalent of almost half a lifetime.

As Cordelia drove along the streets heading for Buffy's house, she couldn't help thinking back upon the last couple of weeks and all the changes that had been wrought ever since All Hallows' Eve. She ticked off a mental list – Angel had been revealed to be a vampire; Willow had bumped into things on occasion, forgetting that she couldn't simply pass right through them; Buffy's marks in French had rapidly gone up; and Xander...

Oh boy, Xander Harris had gone through the biggest changes of all.

His posture, his walk, his whole attitude in general had undergone a complete and radical transformation. Cordelia was built to notice these things, and unlike just about everyone else present, Miss Chase knew that the high school slacker and class clown she'd known was now gone. Instead, there was a Colonial Marine just waiting to be shaped into a pure fighting machine.

As the car sped along and she turned off into Revello Drive, Cordelia admitted something else to herself. Until today had proven otherwise, she hadn't believed that Xander Harris could actually remain still for any length of time. Miss Chase knew that her old kindergarten nemesis had been the kind of person who preferred to pace around than to remain stationary, and when forced to do the latter, he would fidget the entire time, his hyperactive personality forcing him to try and move any way he could.

And yet now, here he was, sitting perfectly calm and totally relaxed in the passenger seat beside her. Xander hadn't said a word to her ever since they'd gotten into the car either. Oddly enough, Miss Chase missed the insults he used to throw at her on a daily basis. Sparring with Xander had apparently become an important part of her life, so much so that Cordy actually felt neglected when he ignored her. That in itself was a very disturbing revelation, too, at least in the cheerleader's mind.

As the car came to a halt outside 1630 Revello Drive, Cordelia knew the time for silence was over. "Well, here we are. You know, I still find it hard to believe that you dragged me out of bed this early in the morning just to give you a ride. What am I, mass transportation?"

"No, because you're not built like the APCs I remember. If anything, you're built like a brick outhouse," Xander said absently, as the two teens got out of the vehicle and Xander adjusted something within the interior of his coat.

( Brick outhouse? ) Cordy wasn't sure if that was an insult or not, which by definition annoyed her. "So what are we doing here, anyway?"

"I'm looking for a member of my squad," the former soldier said in that same absent tone of voice that was beginning to infuriate the Chase girl, since she hated it whenever someone didn't pay full attention to her. "Something I'm sure doesn't mean all that much to you, but there you go."

"Hey! I have friends, close friends, so where do you get off saying something like that?" Cordelia ranted on instinct.

"Friends? Who? Your Cordettes? Yeah right, Cordelia. Every single one of those 'friends' would stab you in the back for the price of a manicure, if that," Xander snorted, as he started to break into the Summers house via the same window he had constantly looked out of during Halloween. "And I know, because I can remember what it's like having a big group of people I could rely on whenever things got hairy. Hicks knew how to pick 'em right – he didn't get to be a corporal in the Colonial Marines for nothing, you know."

As Xander climbed in through the opened window, Cordelia reflected on her classmate's words and reluctantly came to the conclusion that he definitely had a point about one thing. Her social circle would indeed turn on her the moment they sensed any weakness within the leader of the pack. "So you still remember all that, huh?"

"Yeah..." Xander briefly disappeared from view, until the door opened to let her in. "That I do."

"I should have known. And I guess that's why your career test results said 'army officer' yesterday, right?" the young woman asked thoughtfully.

"Marine officer, hopefully," Xander replied. He stopped and faced her. "Look, don't tell anyone yet, especially not Buffy and Willow. But I intend to enlist after high school's over. Hopefully, my grades and letters of recommendation will be good enough to get into Quantico OCS; but if not, I figure I can always be a non-com and eventually work my way back up to corporal or even sergeant."

As Xander walked away in search of Buffy, who had disappeared the previous night after assassins from the Order of Taraka had come to town, Cordelia frowned. She didn't know why Xander had decided to confide in her of all people, and she also didn't know why the thought of him leaving Sunnydale and joining the military just seemed...wrong, somehow.

Unfortunately Miss Chase did not have any more time to contemplate that, as there was a knock at the front door and she answered it. Standing at the threshold was a nerdy-looking man holding up a carry-case. "Hi. Can I help you?"

"Good day, I'm Norman Pfister with Blush Beautiful Skin Care and Cosmetics. I was wondering if I might interest you in some free samples?" the salesman said.

"Free?" Cordelia said with a greedy smile, stepping back and allowing Norman – who was actually an undercover assassin for the Order – to enter the house. After she closed the door, Norman opened up the case and Cordy started looking through it with a hungry and professional eye.

"Do you have anything in raisin? I know you wouldn't think so, but I'm both a winter and a summer!" she informed him as she evaluated the products in the case.

"It's nine ninety-nine, tax included," Norman replied vaguely.

"I thought you said it was free!? Ugh, never mind. Do you have anything in the berry family?" Cordelia sighed as she pushed the case aside.

"Are there any more ladies in the house?" Norman asked, looking around.

"Oh, no, they're not home. Y'know, nothing personal? But maybe you should look into selling dictionaries, or something even less complicated," Cordelia said, figuring this guy was almost certainly doomed in the travelling salesman business.

"Cordelia? Who is this?" Xander's voice distracted the young woman for a moment. Then both of them saw a mealworm crawl across Norman's cheek and into his right ear. The former Marine instantly yanked out the sawn-off shotgun hidden inside his jacket – which he'd stolen from his Uncle Rory's gun cabinet and then modified to its current illegal status – before Xander shoved Cordelia behind him and yelled, "Run!"

Miss Chase obeyed, but she couldn't run fast enough to avoid hearing the deafening roar of the twelve-gauge as the shotgun spat out its bullet. As she headed for the kitchen and the back entrance out of the house, Cordelia heard Xander work the slide action and fire again, the noise once more deafening the young woman as she burst out of the house.

As she ran around the house and towards the front where her car was parked, Cordelia wasn't sure what to do. Every instinct was screaming at her to get behind the BMW's steering wheel and drive off as fast as she could, but...but that would mean completely abandoning Xander to the demon bug man. Could she do that? WOULD she do that?

Luckily, Fate decreed that she wouldn't have to be put into that position. As the Chase girl started the car, Harris came out of the front door frantically trying to brush a number of worms off of himself. Cordelia had been half-expecting Xander to burst through one of the windows or something, but since this wasn't the movies, the young man had elected to go with the less dramatic and more effective route of egress after emptying the shotgun directly into Norman's face.

Leaving her car to idle, Cordy grabbed the garden house and frantically sprayed Xander with water to get all the mealworms off. Although cringing at the thought of the red leather interior getting water on it, Miss Chase nonetheless didn't object when a soaked and bedraggled Xander leapt into the car and the vehicle roared off down the street.

"Just great, another frickin' bug hunt..." Xander muttered to himself as the BMW swerved left and Cordelia drove for the school as fast as she could.

***

Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California

November 14th, 1997

Things had finally gone back to normal; well, as normal as Sunnydale got anyway.

Angel had been saved from ending up dust thanks to his grandchilde Spike, and Buffy was finally free of the Order's hit team after Norman had been killed and his two fellow assassins had been neutralized as well. There was only the mopping-up left to do; which, in the case of Xander dripping water all over Cordelia's car, was unfortunately necessary in the literal sense.

"Ugh," Cordelia groaned to herself, as she inspected the damage. ( Double ugh, this is hopeless. I'm gonna have to change cars with my grandma until Daddy gets this thing detailed all over again! )

"Sorry your car got all messed up on my account," Xander's voice said from directly behind her, which caused Miss Chase to yelp and bang her head against the dashboard. Luckily, there were no other students around to witness it; it was late enough in the day that her car was the last one in the lot.

"Ow!" she yelped before Cordelia turned around to face her companion. "And hey, if you think that some lame-ass apology like that is gonna be enough to make up for all the inconvenience you've caused me? Then you've got another think coming, mister!"

Much to Cordelia's growing ire, Xander only smirked slightly. "C'mon, Cordelia. If you're gonna be a member of the Scooby Gang from now on, then you gotta be willing to be inconvenienced every now and then."

"Right, 'cause I'm constantly hoping that your little leper colony will be my best friends. Oh, and that my first husband will be a demented chainsaw murderer," Cordelia retorted.

"Well, deep down I always suspected that you were into kinks when it comes to your choices in men. Darryl Epps and those demon-worshipping frat boys do come to mind, y'know," Xander replied, before raising both hands in surrender as he saw the cheerleader about to erupt like Mount Vesuvius. "Okay, no more about that, I promise. I just wanted to say thank you for helping me take care of Norman the bug man yesterday, and I'm sure your noble sacrifice of a pot of glue and a decent pair of shoes will also be recorded for posterity within the Watcher diaries."

"And so they should be!" Cordelia nodded, choosing to ignore the semi-sarcasm.

"Right." Xander began to turn away.

"Xander, wait. I – I have to tell you something," Cordelia said, suddenly hesitant. "What you said yesterday outside Buffy's house, that stuff about having someone to watch your back in a fight? Just for the record, I don't think I qualify."

"Why not?" the young man asked curiously.

"If you hadn't come out of the house when you did, I'm pretty sure I would have driven off and just left you there," Miss Chase confessed, feeling simultaneously ashamed and pissed at herself for admitting to such a low emotion. "I would have hated myself afterwards, but I was so scared...and when I saw you covered with all those worms..."

"Well, here's the thing. You could have left at that point, but you didn't," Xander shrugged slightly. "Lots of people would have, you know. Of course, if you're gonna be a member of my squad, then that's gonna have to change. I mean if I'm gonna be willing to die for you, then you're gonna have to be willing to die for me as well."

"What? What are you talking about?" Cordelia demanded, getting behind the wheel as she gestured to Xander to get in as well.

Harris buckled up as he said, "We've still got over a year and a half to go before high school's over, Cordelia. So I'm looking to expand the Scooby ranks before we all finally graduate.

"And the first person I'm hoping to recruit and train...is you."

"WHAT?!" the society princess almost shrieked as she slammed down on the brakes, throwing them both towards the dashboard as the car screeched to a halt. "ME? You've got to be kidding. Xander, I thought you hated me as much as I hated you!"

"Past tense, see – that's quite the giveaway," Xander noted, as Cordelia finally started up the car again and drove off the lot. He had no idea where she was headed, and he suspected, neither did the Chase girl herself. "Look, Cordelia, I know you almost as well as I know Willow. We may not be friends, but we've known each other all our lives, and that's how I know that despite appearances – you're smart. You're determined. And you'll conquer your fear soon enough with the right training."

Xander went on, "I won't sugar-coat this for you – I plan to get hold of a lot of advanced weapons and take the fight directly to the vamps, whether Buffy and Giles like that idea or not. Rebuild my M41A pulse rifle, as well as stuff like the M56 smart gun..." He saw the look she shot him and clarified, "I intend to start a war, and you have to decide on your own if you want to be a part of it. The choice is up to you, and Cordy – it'll probably be the hardest decision you ever make in your entire life. But you know what? I made my choice straight after I met Norman yesterday, when I decided which path my life was gonna take. And I don't regret making it, either."

Cordelia's mind was whirling as she started driving down Main Street, as well as starting to contemplate the choices that were now opening up before her.

And somewhere up above in a higher dimension, the entity that would have been called 'Jasmine' wanted to start screaming in rage at how all her scheming and planning had suddenly been neutralized by a Colonial Marine, of all the rotten luck.

***

Next: Story 2 - Ship Ahoy