Too Start Again

I don't own BtVS

Prologue

Xander ran, dodging round abandoned cars and rumble, in a street in downtown New York, which now looked like a set of a Resident Evil film. He tried to ignore the fact that there were hundreds of demons following them. Five, that was all that was left of his group, their had been ten, seven of them Slayers, when they left an hour ago, to get to where Willow was, now there was just him, Andrew, Dawn, Michelle and Julia.

Suddenly the was a cry of pain behind him, and Xander turned in time to see Andrew impaled on three spikes though the right side of his chest, the spikes were attached to the arm of a demon. Reacting on instinct and the demons head rolled away with one swing of Xander's axe. Andrew slumped to the ground blood staining his lips with every breath. Andrew looked down at the holes in his chest.

"Oh, god," he said. Xander went to help Andrew up. Willow should be able to heal him, when they got back.

"Come on, you'll be as good as new when we get back." He said. Andrew shock his head.

"No," he said. "I'll just slow you down."

"Don't go all noble on me," Xander said. "It doesn't suit you." Suddenly Andrews eyes were filled with a fire Xander had never seen.

"You have to get there, you have to change this, this isn't how it should be!" he said. "Besides, I always wanted to die a hero." With that Andrew brought out a grenade. Xander stared at the man in front of him, he'd changed a lot since Sunnydale.

"You're a crazy SOB, you know that?" Xander said. Andrew chuckled, which quickly turned into a hacking cough, covering himself with more of his own blood. The ever increasing growling and snarling reminded them of the lack of time. "It's been an honour," Xander said, surprising himself, with how much he meant it. He and Andrew, against Xander's better judgement, had become friends over the last year, the year of Hell, literally. Andrew smiled and Xander thought he glimpsed a little of the geek that he'd first met all those years ago, as Andrew brought a sluggish hand over to the grenade and looped a finger thought the pin, at the same time as bring it close to his chest.

"Today's a good day to die," he said, his voice barely louder then a whisper.

"That it is," Xander said, before he turned and ran to catch up with the girls. He caught up with them quickly as it seemed they had stopped to wait for him. Dawn looked at him and saw that he was alone.

"Where's Andrew?" she asked. To answer her there was a loud explosion from where Xander had came from, followed by some equally loud roars of pain. Xander winced, it wasn't a pretty way to die, but a lot better the the majority of people had, in the last year. Dawn's eyes went wide when she realised what the explosion meant.

"Come on we got to keep moving, that wont keep them long," Xander said and they set off again.

Everything had been good for the first four years after the Hellmouth in Sunnydale had been closed and the activation of the potential Slayers. The Watchers and Slayers Council had been set up, and hundreds of Slayers had been found and trained, they were even beginning to push back the darkness. But no one knew, until it was too late, that like all other systems, when they sealed off the Hellmouth, the dark energies had no where to go, and with no realise valve, the pressure was mounting. Then the pressure became too great and all the smaller Hellmouths opened at once. In Cleveland, Hong Kong, Manchester in the UK, one in the Sahara, one just outside Moscow, one in Argentina and one in the Vatican City. In the months following that there was chaos, millions of people were killed, before the WSC and the magic users of the world got organised and fought back. They started to contain the demons to roughly a fifty miles around the Hellmouths.

Then the governments began to panic, and China dropped a nuke on Hong Kong in an attempt to stop the evil from spreading. The massive amounts of, non-magical, energy realised into the heart of a Hellmouth, caused a chain reaction, which resulted in all the Hellmouths being permanently wedged open. Buffy, Angel and Giles had been killed in Hong Kong when it was nuked. Faith, Robin and Spike were killed in Manchester just weeks later. Xander and those with him, don't know anymore than that, as shortly after that civilisation broke down and end of the human races domination of Earth began. That brought them to where they are, the last survivors in the city of New York, they didn't even know if there was anyone else out there, they could be the only humans left. It was not something they could fight, as the war had already been lost. Hell had came to Earth and there was nothing they could do save it now. But there was hope, Willow had been working on a spell, their last hope.

Xander and the girls finally made it to the fortified police station, which they were using as a base at the moment. He passed Riley and Gunn on his way in.

"Is just the four of you?" Riley asked. Xander nodded.

"Yeah, no one else made it," Xander said.

"Shit," Gunn said. Death was part of life now, it was rare to go a day or two without a death, and even the Slayers were dying on an average of one a week. It was a bad day.

"Where's Willow?" Xander asked.

"Second door on the right," Gunn said, "she's been really agitated." Xander nodded to them and walked to the room. As he opened the door he was attacked by a red blur.

"Oh, god, Xander! I was so worried, could feel all this death and I didn't know if you were OK. But you're here and OK, so that's OK!" Willow said in a rush. Xander hadn't hear Willow babble in so long it was a breath of fresh air.

"Hey, Wills. I'm alright. How about giving me some room," Xander said. Willow moved back and seemed a bit embarrassed by her reaction to seeing him. Xander could see beyond his friend that the room was set out for some serious magic. There were arcane symbols and candles and things Xander couldn't begin to identify.

"Have you got it?" She asked.

"Yeah." Xander said pulling out the amulet. "I hope it was worth it, a lot of people died for it." Willow looked down, looking sad.

"Yeah, it's the last thing I need for the spell, with this as the focus we can start it now," she and walk to the circle.

"Right now?" Xander said. "Shouldn't we wait, so I can say bye to everyone?" Willow was about to respond when the lights flickered above them and the sound of gun fire could be heard. The demons were attacking again. "Ok, so maybe now would be good. What do I do?" Willow sat down in front of the large circle, which was surrounded by runes and other symbols.

"Just sit in the circle, I'll do the rest," she said. Trusting Willow, Xander sat in the circle. He knew the basics of what they were doing, he was being sent back in time, to change what happened, so the Hellmouth wasn't sealed therefore stopping the others from being opened. Willow started to chant, and nothing happened for a moment, before the candle flames flared and turned green, then the room seemed to be filled with static electricity. Willows chanting got louder and the flames got brighter, the symbols on the floor around him started to glow. He started to feel light headed, dizzy and a little sick. There was an explosion nearby and Xander felt and sharp pain in his chest. He looked down and saw tip of something sticking out of his shirt right where his hear was. The first thing he thought was shit, then, the spell was meant to be used on the living. He looked up to see Willows horrified face before he felt the agonising pain of his soul being ripped from his body before it's time.

Xander came into awareness, he would have opened his eyes if he had any, but he didn't. He was aware that he didn't have a body at all, but he was being pulled somewhere. He looked round he was in a bedroom, and there were two people in the bed below him. He recognised them, they were his parents, but they looked much younger then he ever remembered them being. He didn't have time to think on this as he felt a jerk, and he was heading towards his mother very fast. He hit her in the stomach and passed though her tissue, a very disturbing experience. Soon he was floating in front of a small bundle of cells, slowly dividing within a membrane. Was that him? This wasn't meant to happen! He felt a very powerful need to touch the cells. Before he could he felt the presence of another, soul. Is that what he was feel? He didn't know this was way too strange. But right now both he and this other soul were trying to touch the cells at the same time. The cell's membrane quivered before splitting in two. Xander didn't have time to wonder at the creation of twins, for that must be what had just happened before he felt another great tug and he hit the cells, he felt himself merge with the physical body and the world when dark.

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