Disclaimer: I own no one, most especially the characters in this story. I'm merely borrowing them and putting them through the proverbial blender I call story.

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June 19, 2011

Tara raised her head and wiped away the tears that had just escaped. She knew that Willow hadn't noticed she had been replaced. It hurt, even though she knew that the shapeshifters were almost impossible to detect. She hadn't known it wasn't Amy when she had been taken, but still... She shifted her concentration to the sleeping bodies that were now huddled against her and against Amy. She was cradling Savannah in her lap, with Jenny and Frankie snug against her and Jesse resting his head on Frankie's shoulder; Amy had Joy, Missy, Ross and Danny all sleeping with their heads on her ample stomach like a pillow. The baby was nearby, and they had been taking turns with him, keeping him as comfortable as possible in the cramped muggy space. Looking down, her eyes met Frankie's equally tear-filled ones. She should have known he wouldn't be asleep.

"What is it, Frankie?" she murmured softly. He was carefully not moving to avoid disturbing his brother, she noted proudly.

"My mommy doesn't know about me anymore," he whispered. Tara sighed. The other children didn't really get what Menckar had told them, but Frankie was as perceptive as his mother and twice as smart, and he had figured that part of it out.

"No, she probably doesn't, honey. But she will. We're going to fix this, and we're going to get out of here. Your daddy's going to come."

"My daddy doesn't know me either, cause he's from before. He's not really my daddy now."

"But he still loves you, Frankie." The boy looked at her doubtfully. "Listen, you forget how long I've known your daddy. I knew him from before, and the Xander Harris I knew then would stop at nothing to rescue the people he loved from danger. He's not going to give up till he finds us. Don't you give up on him." As the boy nodded and lay his head back down, Tara repressed another sigh. *For Goddess' sake, don't make a liar out of me, Xander.*

Menckar had told them he was planning to let Xander come to him. Tara knew he had a purpose for her, but that Amy was just being kept alive to help keep the children calm and comfortable until Xander arrived. Tara couldn't understand why. Why was it so important that Xander come? And what use did the demon have for their children? She had seen the way that Menckar had eyed her stomach almost greedily, whereas he gave Amy's much more ample middle no attention whatsoever. Clearly Xander Harris' children were important to him, but why? She held Savannah even tighter, and the little girl stirred and gave a little cry. Tara forced herself to relax.

"Sorry, baby. Mommy's not gonna let anything happen to you." Tara gave her daughter's forehead a soft kiss, all the while repeating in her head what she had said to Frankie. *He's not going to give up on us. He's not going to give up.*

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"I give up." Xander had his head buried in his hands. Spike knew about the children, which threw what little understanding he had of the situation out the proverbial window.

"Spike. What the hell are you doing here?" Buffy was eyeing the vampire coldly. Spike simply stared back at her nonplussed.

"Cordelia called me, luv. Said she needed help with the ever-increasing Harris spawn, and now I come in to this." At the mention of Cordelia's name both Angel and Buffy reacted violently. Buffy whirled to glare at Angel, who in turn glowered at Spike while stealing quick guilty glances at his wife.

"Cordelia. I thought she was out of our lives, honey," The bitterness in Buffy's tone was evident to Xander, who realized with a start that something else had been changed.

"Don't tell me Angel did the horizontal mambo with Cordelia!" he choked out. Spike snorted.

"Not bloody likely. She hasn't let anybody near her fine self since you got all sweaty with her."

"You slept with Cordy?" Angel asked, jealousy apparent in his tone. Buffy hit him on the arm, causing him to wince and nearly fall over.

"Umm...a little help here, please," Giles groaned, still supporting the slumped body of the forgotten and still unconscious Willow. Lili lifted the redhead from his arms and deposited her gently on the sofa from which Xander had just risen, moving his battered body with painful slowness. He stood over his friend worriedly.

"Is she okay?" At his soft question, Willow stirred. She blinked a couple of times and then reached up to touch his face.

"Xander...it's really you!" she cried. "You look...the same, except for, you know, the bruising and bleeding."

"Right. No, wrong. Will, this is wrong...do you remember why you were on your way over here? And where's Anya?"

"We were looking for Tara. She's been replaced with a shapeshifter," Willow answered dully. Although worried about Tara, Xander was relieved that at least that hadn't changed.

"Don't tell him anything!" Buffy hissed angrily. Xander gave her an exasperated look. She simply glared in return.

"Anya? You mean Anyanka, vengeance demon...she went back to D'Hoffryn after you disappeared." Giles' tone was puzzled. Buffy's eyes lit up as if she'd put something together.

"Cordelia summoned Anyanka to seek revenge against Angel, and she brought back Xander to do it!" she cried triumphantly. Spike just stared at her, then turned to Xander.

"Okay, everyone here has gone insane, with the possible exception of you, Harris. Care to take it from the top? By the way, you're looking all better from your little flu bug. And what did you do to your hair, you look different." Xander sighed.

"It's a really long story, but here's the short version: I'm not the Xander Harris you know now, I'm the Xander that they all think disappeared ten years ago. The Xander from now is back in the then that's my now, I mean, in the past where I'm supposed to be, only something must have happened to him and now everyone thinks I've been gone for the last ten years, Anya and Cordy are gone and the kids...I'm not sure the kids even exist anymore."

"That's the short version?" Lili asked the room at large. Buffy and Angel exchanged puzzled looks.

"The children don't exist? The hell they don't!" Spike answered angrily. "Those kids are still around somewhere, I can feel it. And Menckar's gone to an awful lot of trouble to get his grubby demon paws on them!"

"So...all of our memories for the last ten years...they're wrong?" Giles asked tentatively. Xander nodded in relief.

"Yes, exactly, that's it. I never died, I never disappeared, Giles. According to everything you guys told me earlier today, I ended up being the father to nine-"

"Ten," Spike interrupted to correct him. At Xander's puzzled look he cocked an eyebrow in amusement. "Red's girl's got one of your buns in her oven, hasn't she?"

"Tara's pregnant?" Willow's face was almost a caricature of shock.

"That's right!" Xander answered. "And now Menckar's got her. Amy, too."

"How did you know about Amy?" Giles asked furiously.

"I was there! Just now! When Lili grabbed the funky demon thing and it kept blabbing on about having created our destruction...oh, no." Xander's face had gone pale.

"What is it?" Spike asked tersely.

"Created our own destruction...I think..." Xander swallowed hard and stared at Spike in horror.

"I don't think I like it when you think," Spike responded.

"Menckar's going to do something...something that involves my kids. Something horrible."

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December 9, 2000

Despite the large number of doctors and nurses running about and the tight security surrounding him, Murk, Jinx and Dreg found it surprisingly simple to reach Xander Harris' room. It seemed that the Sunnydale medical community found it quite easy to ignore three bumpy crusty minions that appeared to be something out of a Grimm fairy tale. What shouldn't be, wasn't. And that was how they reached the door with relative effortlessness. They huddled briefly outside, Jinx and Dreg deferring to Murk to explain their next move.

"What are we to do now?" Jinx asked softly. Murk puffed up a bit in pride as he reveled in being the one to convey the goddess' wishes to the others.

"Her Spectacular Quick-Wittedness made her wishes quite clear. We are to get rid of the boy, taking him as far away from Ben as possible."

"What shall we do with him?" Dreg asked.

"We shall first remove him from the hospital. Then when we have taken him as far away from Ben as we can, we shall kill him." The other two minions nodded, then carefully crept to the doorway. Peeking in the small window, Jinx could only see a bit of dark hair over the top of the sheets.

"He appears to be sleeping. That should make it easier." Murk nodded in satisfaction.

"His affliction should keep his struggles manageable. Let us go, quickly!" The three minions entered the room and came to the bed. No movement came from the bed. Dreg reached for the body, finding it surprisingly light. He could lift it without assistance from the others, and did so, keeping it covered with the bed sheet.

"I thought the human would be heavier," he said. Murk's face clouded over. With one swift motion he pulled the sheet off of what Dreg held. It was a CPR dummy, and a female one at that. Murk hissed. They had been tricked. The human known as Xander Harris was gone.

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