Disclaimer: I own no one and
nothing, especially the characters in this story. I'm merely borrowing them for
the pure pleasure of messing with their lives.
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"What?" Xander
asked in utter confusion and panic.
"I'm not asking
twice," Lili returned, her eyes shining in anticipation of the upcoming
kill.
"Where am I?
I'm here. You're sitting on
me, and I think you're about to kill me."
"That game's over.
Stop the bad playacting, we know you're one of Menckar's shapeshifters!"
Amy called out vehemently.
"Shapeshifter?
If I was a shapeshifter, this is not the shape I would pick...I mean, I
like the shape, it's a Xander-shape, Xander who is me, but I might want to try
on some other shapes, like maybe one of those wrestling guys that Anya likes on
TV...you know, if I could, which I can't, because I'm Xander!"
"Guys, that really
sounds like Xander," Willow murmured doubtfully. He looked at her with frenzied hope in his expression.
"Yes, it does, it does,
because it is Xander...please tell the nice Slayer to climb off of your bestest
bud, would you, Will? Cause it's
kinda hard to breathe down here," Xander moaned.
"I...don't know, Xan.
It could be a trick, and Amy's tests say you're not you, you know?"
Willow answered guiltily. He turned
his head to look at Anya, who was looking at him fearfully.
"Ahn, you know it's me,
right? I may not remember the past
ten years or so, but before that...ask me anything, honey..."
Anya looked doubtful, but after a moment she smiled confidently.
"What punishment did I
bring upon Linus the Elder after his wife caught him with his sister?" Anya
smiled and added conspiratorially to the others, "It was really good, such
a naughty, naughty man." Xander's
face fell.
"Linus the Elder...Linus...good
old Linus...good old naughty Linus...I'm so dead," he moaned.
"I have no clue what you did to Linus the Elder, Linus the Younger,
or Charlie Brown's best friend. I'm
sure you told me the story, but there are so many men you've...smitten...I don't
know them by name," Anya
stared at him for a long moment, then nodded to Willow.
"That's Xander.
He always pretends he's listening when I tell my vengeance demon stories,
but he never is. One of the minions would have known the answer, because, you
know, I'm famous still," she added with more than a little pride.
Giles and Lili both looked confused, and Buffy stepped in, addressing
Lili confidently.
"Let him up.
If it isn't Xander then you can kill him later."
With a certain degree of reluctance Lili slowly moved off of Xander's
prone form, still holding the knife at the ready.
She offered him a hand with a grunt, and he took it, moaning a bit when
she hauled him roughly to his feet.
"If this is the real
Xander, then why did the test results show differently?
I mean, there were some DNA traces but nothing like it should be..."
Willow had turned to Amy as she said this. She suddenly startled everyone by beginning an incantation.
Giles and Buffy each grabbed one of her arms.
"All concealed, now
revealed...all concealed, now revealed..."
"Willow, stop!"
Buffy shouted.
"Have you gone insane?
We're in a hospital, do you want to get arrested?" Giles asked more
softly, through clenched teeth. Willow
ignored them both and continued to chant, never taking her eyes from Amy, who
startled the others by turning to run. Lili
released Xander and ran after Amy.
"All concealed, now
revealed...all concealed, now revealed..." Lili had already grabbed hold of
Amy as Willow's spell took effect. Xander
gasped with the others as Amy disappeared, a small grayish green-skinned demon
in her place. Struggling in Lili's
arms, the genderless shapeshifter regarded them all scornfully.
"What have you done
with my wife?" a very pale Giles asked, his teeth clenched in anger.
The minion laughed scornfully.
"My master had uses for
your witch. I've taken her place
for some time; you were easy to fool."
Spying security guards coming to check on the commotion and probably the
unauthorized use of magick, Lili dragged the shape-shifter into the closest
room, which happened to be Dawn's. The
others followed, Xander bringing up the rear.
No one was paying attention to him any longer in the wake of this new
development.
"You...you set me up.
You wanted me to kill Xander. Why?"
Lili asked, holding the knife firmly to the minion's throat.
"I'll tell you nothing.
The master's brilliance allowed for my failure in this.
You will know his revenge. You
have already created your own destruction."
"For some one who's
telling us nothing, you sure do talk a lot," Buffy drawled.
At that moment Anya sneaked a worried look at her husband and gasped.
"Oh my
God...Xander!" All eyes turned
towards him, their faces filled with surprise and some measure of alarm.
"What?
Oh, please tell me we're not back to the whole 'not Xander' thing,
because I don't know if I can..."
"No, Xander...you're
definitely Xander...but you're not the same Xander," Willow said slowly.
Xander gave her a puzzled frown as Buffy fished a mirrored compact out of
her purse and wordlessly handed it to him.
"You're the Xander we
knew ten and a half years ago. Except
for the big bruise on your forehead, but I remember you had that after the
accident. Xander I don't think you
lost your memory after all," Buffy stated.
"But if I'm here, in
the future, then the future me is..."
Xander trailed off as all looked at the minion.
From its triumphant silence it was clearly not planning on speaking
further.
"I'm afraid...I think
the Xander from this time might be back in the past," Giles said shakily.
He couldn't stop staring at the minion, but he was making an obvious
effort to stay focused on the problem at hand.
"Time travel?
I didn't think that was possible," Lili stated.
"There are some
spells...oh my God, Giles! If
Xander is in the past, and he's been infected with HVE..." Willow trailed
off, a look of horror on her face soon mirrored by the others as they caught her
train of thought.
"He'll die," Anya
whispered.
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