Title: The Choice – Part 1
Author: Xanfan
Rating: Mature
Pairing: various, including M/M Slash
Summary: SLASH AU Response to challenge found here http://beyondcanon.brain-insane.com/challenges.php?chalid=38. The Scoobies discover that Buffy’s resurrection has allowed the First to gain a foothold in this world. Xander is told that the balance must be restored, and the only way to do that is for a Slayer to die. Who does he choose? Buffy or Faith?
Spoilers: Up to season 7 of Buffy and 4 of Angel. Cordy never comes back from being a higher being, so, no beast master.
Warnings: SLASH, CHARACTER DEATH
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
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Xander looked into the eyes of the woman whose life he was about take. He loved her as he loved all his girls. Everyone thought he had favorites, but he didn’t. He loved them all, in different ways. All of them had become his sisters in every way but blood. He would do anything for them.
Anything apparently included killing one to save all the others, save the world. It was not fair, that he should have to do this, but he had been given the task, forced to choose. So he made his choice.
He raised a hand to grasp hers.
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Xander had been in contact with Cordelia since not long after she moved to L.A. The whole Prom dress thing had gone a long way towards rebuilding their friendship. So they had called, emailed, visited on the sly, etc, for years. Of course he had run into Angel on occasion, and they had settled into a truce-for-Cordy’s-sake/pseudo friendship that had, grudgingly, turned into a real friendship.
Anya had been highly jealous of Xander’s friendship with Cordelia, which was probably one of the reasons they hadn’t worked out. (read: horrific break-up and leaving her at the altar.) He had refused to accommodate Anya’s jealousy by being less of a friend to Cordelia.
So, it really shouldn’t have surprised him when Cordy started communicating with him from beyond.
She had shown up shortly after she had gotten all glow-y and formless, scaring the hell out of him while he was taking a shower one evening after patrol. And no matter what she said, he did not scream like a little girl. He screamed like a young woman, thank you, not a little girl.
It had taken awhile to convince him that he wasn’t crazy and that Cordelia had actually been made a Higher Being. When he was finally convinced, she nagged him, telling him he needed to contact Wesley and tell him where Angel was (in a box at the bottom of the ocean). Xander had whined, asking why she couldn’t tell Wesley herself. She'd replied that he was the only one she had been able to appear to. So, Xander, relented and called the former Watcher. Wesley had questioned Xander’s source for this knowledge, but had eventually believed him when Cordy relayed a personal bit of information about Wesley that Xander would have no way of knowing. A bit of information Xander wished he still didn’t know, but, whatever. Wesley had used the intel Xander supplied to retrieve a starved, half-crazed Angel from the bottom of the ocean.
She had told him about Willow inadvertently casting a spell on her return from England, which had made them invisible to her and vice versa. Cordy’s heads-up had allowed Xander to find Willow right before that demon had peeled off her skin.
When Angel had recovered, he had come to see Xander, to find out if Cordy was really there helping him, talking to him. Angel had asked Cordy, who was there but Angel couldn’t see her, if they had been in love.
Xander’s heart ached for Angel at her reply, “Yes, we were. But, we weren’t supposed to be. You have been one my closest friends and I will always cherish that, but I can be nothing more than a friend to you now. Move on and be happy, perfectly happy even. I pulled a few strings up here and your soul? Not going anywhere. You couldn’t lose it if you tried. ”
Angel had cried when Xander had relayed that message. Xander had found himself holding the vampire, comforting him. Then he had found himself kissing Angel. The contact had comforted both of them. Then he had found himself….well, let’s just say that they had thoroughly tested the whole perfect happiness thing. Cordy was right, the soul stayed. And so did Angel, at least for the weekend.
They had discovered, between bouts of extremely hot, wild, monkey-sex, and once they got past all the jealousy and Buffy crap, that they actually liked each other, beyond their Cordy-based friendship. They spent the weekend reminiscing over Cordelia and telling Spike tales. They laughed and cried and helped each other cope with losing the girl they had both loved. (Having Cordy give a running commentary, through Xander, helped, but it wasn’t the same.) They had real conversations about pretty much every topic you can imagine. They enjoyed each other. They had lots of the previously mentioned hot sex.
So they decided to give it a try and continued to see each other, visiting back and forth between L.A. and Sunnydale, sometimes meeting in the middle.
It wasn’t long before they had discovered that they more than liked each other, they loved each other. The L.A. crew was aware of their relationship, but they didn’t tell the Sunnydale crew, figuring Buffy just didn’t need that on her plate too.
Spike knew, but only because he was Xander’s roommate and he could smell his sire all over Xander. He was actually pretty cool with it. Oh, he teased Xander in private about it, but he never let on to the other Scoobies.
So, Willow had gotten back from England, Dawn had started school at the newly rebuilt high school, and Buffy had started her job as a guidance counselor. He and Anya had started to become friends again. Spike was living in Xander’s spare room, with a soul but minus a couple of tacos to complete the combination plate.
For weeks, around every corner was some weirdo saying, “From beneath you it devours.”
Then came the big revelation: the First was gaining a foothold to take over the earth.
Xander knew that this was bad. But, he also knew there was always a way, always a solution. They had averted more apocalypses than you could shake a stick at, they could handle this one too.
Except no one else seemed to believe that they would win or have any idea how to stop this apocalypse.
Xander wasn’t going to leave it to the last minute like they had all the others; he was going to find out how to end this now, while they still had time to plan a thorough and effective battle strategy.