Disclaimer: Same as the previous chapters.

Chapter 7

Andrew was in the car with Buffy, Wally and Dick, he was trying to sleep but he couldn't; he felt like something was about to break open and he kind of missed Xander when a flash of memory hit him.

He was walking down a hallway when he saw a brown headed girl walking towards him and pulled him into a corner saying, "Hey Andrew, I got some orders for you; they came from Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies."

"What orders Kennedy?" Andrew asked as he took a look at the note, 'They're sending me to Gotham City by myself, to find a slayer that was just detected.'

"Yeah," Kennedy said, "I guess they think you've earned a chance to do this by yourself."

Andrew smiled brightly and ran off but as he ran off he heard her talking on the phone, something about... he couldn't quite hear her.

He woke up and looked at Buffy and said, "Did you guys send me here? To find something called a Slayer?"

Buffy froze, she looked at the other two men in the car and neither of them were paying attention. She shook her head and said, "Honestly, Xander and I only found out after you left as Kennedy had informed us you left and…" suddenly she gasped, "Are you starting to remember?"

Andrew looked confused, he shook his head and said, "Bits and pieces: I was in a big castle," Buffy smiled and nodded, "There were a lot of people around."

"Good," Buffy said, "Just go at your pace," and held Andrew close to her, "Don't try to remember too much."

He nodded and went back to sleep as she held him, Wally looked back and smiled a bit, 'He looks so happy right now and maybe he could heal.'

Andrew went back to dreaming and he was walking around in a large empty black area, he felt alone when he saw a flash of white light and saw Tara smiling at him gently. She walked over and said, "You're never alone Andrew and I got permission to restore your memories to you, if you want that is."

"I guess so," Andrew said, "But I'm not sure I want to take the easy way out."

Tara looked at him and said, "It's like this; you need to remember and I want you to remember who you are."

Andrew nodded and she rubbed his head and said, "Remember Andrew, remember everything, I'll be here with you so nothing can hurt you."

Buffy saw Andrew fidget slightly in his sleep and go still again, his eyes moved rapidly underneath his eyelids.

"Oh god!" Andrew collapsed underneath the memories that were crushing him; his absent parents, Jonathon, "Oh great god," Andrew sobbed, "I killed him!"

"It's alright," Tara said, "You're earning your redemption and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"But," Andrew sobbed, "I killed my best friend, how could Buffy and Xander even care about me?"

"Because," Tara said, "They honestly like the man you've become and because you weren't looking for the easy way out to redeem yourself and trust me, redemption isn't easy. If it was then everyone would be earning it."

"So, did I deserve what the Joker did to me?" Andrew asked, "I mean I did kill someone."

"No, you didn't deserve an attack like that," Tara said, "In fact no one deserves to have that done to them. Now," Tara said, "Wake up."

"Come on Andrew, wake up," Buffy said, "We're stopping for lunch."

He woke up and said, "I'm hungry, like really hungry."

As they walked into the diner and they sat at a table and Buffy watched Andrew order his favourites and she said hopefully, "Do you remember something?"

Andrew looked up and said, "Buffy, I'm starting to remember everything now and everything I did."

Buffy froze and said, "Andrew, are you alright? Remember, you're a different person now, you aren't the same troubled person who wants to become a super villain."

Wally and Dick looked at each other, Buffy smiled and said, "Let's just say that he made some mistakes in the past and I personally don't think they should be held against him."

Dick looked surprised and he thought, 'He just remembered things just like that? How does that happen? It seems kind of odd.'

Buffy simply smiled and said, "Sometimes miracles happen and this might be one of them, right?"

"Uh huh," Wally said, "Hmm, its Buffy, right?" She nodded and Wally grinned, "Are you single?"

"Oh, umm, yeah," Buffy said with a blush, "I am single."

"Good," Wally said, "Just asking cause I'd like to show you the sights of Keystone and besides, there won't be much to do unless you want to watch us play video games."

She smiled and said, "Um, sure, that would be good." As their food came she watched Andrew carefully, she was praying that his memories were not returning all at once but she was going to stay by his side tonight just in case he remembered too much, too fast.

As they ate Dick was asking all sorts of questions and Buffy made a point of giving Dick a glare if the questions were a bit too nosey, especially if it was about council business.

Dick nodded at the answers and decided that Andrew was just trying to leave his past behind and besides, that woman wasn't going to let him ask too many questions.

Andrew was eating his burger looking at the others, the memories were coming back slowly but he had lingered on his mistakes like how he let Warren manipulate him into loving him, he felt Buffy's hand on his knee and she smiled at him.

"Well," Wally said, "We'll stop for the night here; I think we've been on the road long enough."

The others nodded agreement and Dick said, "So, we'll split between two rooms?"

Buffy nodded and they paid for their dinner and headed to the next door motel, Andrew was waiting by a door when Buffy came by with a key for them and she dragged him into the room to talk to him about what had happened to them while he had been gone.

Andrew looked at Buffy and said, "Okay, memory loss aside: why is Xander so dark recently? I mean he has a dark side but I haven't seen him this bad."

"Well, in the months you were gone," Buffy said sadly, "It was bad for us; first we had to help Angel with Wolfram and Hart, he made a deal that went badly."

"Is Spike alright?" Andrew asked, "I liked him, he was funny."

"Yeah, he's alright but," Buffy said, "We lost Wesley, one of Angel's friends gave up and left and Angel nearly lost his son."

Andrew looked confused, "His son! He said with confusion, "I thought vampires couldn't have children?"

"Normally they can't," Buffy said, "But his son, Connor, is a miracle child and we've been reading up on prophecies about him but other than the fact that they suffered a lot of losses they are alright now and LA is safe."

Buffy noticed that Andrew was still unsure about why Xander was so much darker natured, she sighed and said, "Xander's like this because when we went in, we went in with an army of slayers; quite a few from Sunnydale and more we found later and we came with back with ten of them."

Andrew winced with pain, 'That had to be hard,' he still couldn't remember too much as the memories that were coming back were jumbled and he was still trying sort the real ones from others.

"So," Buffy said, "Xander took the losses hard, really hard. It made him bitter, angry and Giles actually ordered him to Africa so he could blow off steam, he came back more grim but he was calmer but he would do things that the old Xander wouldn't think of doing before."

Andrew's eyes began to tear up and Buffy moved over to calm him down, Andrew looked at her and said, "Xander really shouldn't be like this, I always thought he would be better than this."

"People change," Buffy said, "If you had been with us you might've have changed too. Xander became more aggressive and he's become very protective of everyone in the NWC and he's willing to kill. Okay, there was a young slayer that lived with an abusive family and well," Buffy said, "It's just a good thing that the people in the village actually stood with Xander when the police arrived and when it had gone so long without contact with you, he got more aggressive."

Andrew looked at her and decided that he wasn't sure if he liked aggressive Xander, he liked the sweet kind Xander he had seen in Sunnydale.

Buffy smiled and said, "You know what? I miss the old Xander too; the new one is a bit dark for my tastes."

"Now, what about Willow?" Andrew said, "I haven't heard anything about her."

"Hmm," Buffy said, "She's still with Kennedy and that's all we know, Kennedy doesn't let anyone near her alone, hell I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen her but we see Kennedy all the time."

"Kennedy?" Andrew said to himself, "She's the one who told me to come here; she said that you guys told her to tell me to go."

"No way!"Buffy screamed, "Xander and I were dead set about anyone going to Gotham by themselves, we were going to send a fully trained team, not one guy. Hell, Giles even said that we should wait."

Andrew looked confused as Buffy knew she was going to have words with Kennedy right after she was done here and it wasn't going to be a good talk either.

"I hope that Xander's alright?" Andrew said, "I know he's a big tough watcher man now but is he ready for what the Joker can do? I don't want him getting hurt or worse."

Buffy smiled sadly and said, "I just hope he's careful."

TBC

A/N: Soon I will write about what Xander does to the Joker, the Joker will live but it won't be a pretty life.

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