"Black Wing" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen
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Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the BtVS universe as it is the property of Joss Whedon. Nor do I own anything that has appeared in or bears the Marvel Comics symbol or is considered their property. I am just letting my imagination run wild and so far it is coming up with some pretty decent stuff. In any case do not show up at my door looking for money because I barely have enough for myself much less any to pay off law suits or even hire a lawyer for a law suit.
Note: I am not sure where these flights of fancy are coming from but I've recently had a real itch to write some BtVS/Xander/Crossovers. Personally I blame it on my reading of the fanfics at 'Xander ) since there are many good crossover fanfics there with one Xander LaVelle Harris as the main character. Needless to say those inspiring crossovers mixed with my own demented imagination are making for some scary and yet interesting ideas. As with my most recent fanfic crossover idea whether this story progresses past chapter one to chapter two depends entirely on the response I get from the readers via their reviews. So if you like what you read then please review the fic or send me an email to let me know. Well enough of my prattle, here comes your worst nightmare…….
Black WingGreyhound Bus, Headed East, Late Evening
If I have offended any diety, god or goddess in this life or a previous one I just want to say that I am so sorry! Xander thought to himself as he watched the landscape pass by outside the window of the bus.
He had been asking himself some variation of that question for the past week and a half he had been on the road but had yet to receive any kind of answer much less a divine one. Still he was certain that the only way he could have had a streak of bad luck this bad was if he had royally pissed off someone with the ability to affect luck and chance. In any case it was a bit of bad luck that had delivered him into his current screwed up situation and the only reason he wasn't venting was because that was what some evil cult wanted. Wait! He was getting ahead of himself a bit there. This could all be said to have began about two months ago or so when he and the Scoobies had been in the middle of the whole Mayor snafu. Faith had just fallen to the dark side after accidentally killing the deputy mayor and her plan with the Mayor to drag Angel back into becoming Angelus had just fallen through. Not that that wasn't a happy moment for him that they had managed to put one over on the new (or old depending on your perspective) big bad on the block. What had been bugging him after that was that Buffy, Giles and Deadboy had kept the rest of the gang out of the loop on their little 'Angel-becoming-Angelus-but-not-really' plan. Logically he understood why they couldn't let the entire group in on the plan because they needed the group reactions to be believable and none of them were award-winning actors. He knew that now but at the time he had been angry and more than a little annoyed which unfortunately was what led him to his current situation. It had been about a week after Faith's betrayal had been made public that they had come across a rumor that a dig funded by the Mayor had uncovered something important. It was apparently so important that not twenty-four hours later the entire dig team disappeared without a trace and the local police declared the entire area around the dig site off limits to all but city personnel authorized by the Mayor himself.
Whatever else you can say about Dickie-boy he can't be all that bright. , Xander thought to himself with a small grin on his face, A group of people hired by him go missing and he didn't think that would not only catch their attention but also cause them to sneak into the restricted area to see what he was up to as well.
That was exactly what they had done once all attempts by Willow with her computer and Buffy with Willy the snitch to find out what was going on had failed miserably. Apparently this situation was unique in that the Mayor was going to rather extreme methods to keep a tight lid on what had happened to the workers at the site and what it was that had Wilkens' knickers in a twist. Usually all the hygienic man did was just put the word out that something was his and all the demons were instructed to keep their distance. This usually led to the curious among both the humans and the demonic to try and sneak a peek at what was so interesting as well as the revving up of the local rumor mill. In this instance there had been nothing at all, not so much as a peep from Sunnyhell's demons or from the files of the human residents. That of course caused Giles to almost clean his glasses out of existence at the possibilities for apocalypse that bit of information inspired in the G-Man's imagination. In any case they had waited until midnight and then snuck into the site which was surprisingly vacant of guards of any type he had been able to see. Unfortunately he had walked right into an unseen one in the form of a magical barrier that gave anyone who had the misfortune of bumping into it a rather hefty electrical shock. He had fortunately been yanked back before he had been turned into a complete crispy critter but it did make the rest of the gang look at him as though he shouldn't be there. This had caused him to worry about a repeat of the whole 'stay out of slaying' thing they had tried a couple of weeks back. That coupled with the fact that Buffy had thought them so incapable of fooling Faith before she showed her true colors had made him determined to show that not only did he belong in the group but that he could pull the big save as well.
If I had known what was going to happen I would have just turn around and headed home that night but hey then that wouldn't have been me. he thought to himself as the events of that night played out before his eyes.
Once they had gotten past the barrier they had arrived at the main dig area not five minutes later to see what apparently there had been a party plan and yet again their invitations had gotten lost in the mail. At the center of the dig area an obviously artificial stone alter had been placed there and at the top was apparently what this who mess was about. It was a Japanese sword of some type that looked vaguely like your generic samurai sword but there were enough differences that it would not be mistaken even by a laymen as an actual samurai sword. For one thing it was made of a shiny black like metal that kinda looked like those black crystals he had seen in Giles' shop. I think they were called cassitorite crystals but then again they could be called Chris Rock crystals for all he knew about rocks. As well as the substance it seemed to be made of it looked too perfect in its construction, it looked as though it was all one piece rather than a metal blade attached to a handle. Lastly of course there was the fact that whenever he centered his concentration on it he got this feeling to the very center of his soul that could only be described as fear. The sword was just sitting there half encased in solid rock and it was giving him a distinct case of the heebie-jeebies right then like nothing the vampires or other demons had ever managed to do to him. He could tell by looking at the faces of the others that they were experiencing the same sensations he was and by the look on the former Watcher's face he knew more than the rest of them had and knew how bad this was for the world. He had explained that based on the arrangements such as the torches set at specific places around the alter and the fact that Richard Wilkens was dressed in some fancy robes that this was likely some sort of empowerment ritual.
Buffy had of course asked the obvious question of why the Mayor would need to do an empowerment ritual when he was already virtually invulnerable to all manner of attack. Giles could only speculate that the Mayor was intending to go back on some deals he made with certain powerful demons and needed the boost in power to kill them. In any case they could all agree that whatever his intentions there was no way they could allow this ritual to succeed. Unfortunately it was right about then that the shit hit the fan and the Mayor proved to be a lot smarter than they had originally thought. All at once at least twenty vampires appeared from the darkness led by Faith and before any of them knew it a full-fledged smackdown was in progress. Needless to say none of them were enjoying themselves as they each had roughly three vampires a piece to deal with and Buffy dealing with the bulk of them all at once. Faith surprisingly stayed out of the fighting preferring apparently to stand guard near the alter next to the Mayor who looked as though he was pray in some sort of dead language in front of it. He wasn't able at the time to discern anything more as a vampire managed to score a lucky shot and send him to the ground. It had been a hectic couple of minutes but he had eventually been able to stake one of the vampires he had been paired off with and drive the other two temporarily away with two crosses in either hand. That momentary victory however was foreshadowed by the fact that he sword at the head of the alter was beginning to glow a distinctly unfriendly color. Where before it had simply been a weird sword embedded in solid rock it was now a weird sword embedded in rock that seemed to be burning at the center of a black inferno. As if someone had come along and soaked the sword in gasoline and then tossed a match with a black flame at it everything within two feet of the sword was ablaze. It had been then that he had known that whatever the Mayor had been planning it was about to reach its climax which was certainly not of the good.
He could see Buffy off to his right trying to fight her way to the alter past her group of vamps but Faith also had taken notice of this and was moving to intercept her rival. Xander knew that Buffy could handle the vamps easy enough but by the time she managed to K.O Faith chances were that the Mayor would have completed whatever he was doing. Taking a look around he found that Willow and Oz were fighting back to back trying to keep their vamps off of each other while Giles had resorted to using the cross and stake combo. None of them were free at the moment and by the time they were it would be too late which left him in the unenviable role of being their last hope. That was definitely a sure sign that the world was doomed as he had heard Giles remark a few times when things had gotten really tense. Add to that the fact that he had still felt determined to prove himself and he didn't hesitate to make a run for the sword. He had deduced with his own usual form of logic that perhaps if he could grab the sword and run like mad away from here then the Mayor wouldn't get his power up. It was not the most well thought out plan, heck he had determined that it was a hop-skip and a jump from insanity later on once he had a chance to think it over but at the time it seemed like the thing to do. When he had reached the alter he noticed that ol' Richie Wilkens seemed completely oblivious to his presence and he figured that whatever ritual was going on it was taking all the warlock's concentration to perform. That of course was fine with him as it meant no uber-whammy in the chest and gave him a chance to do his hero thing. Looking at the sword encased in ebon flame he had then tried to determine the safest way to get it without reducing his hands to burning stumps. Finally he settled on taking one of the heavy looking metal poles with a torch placed at the top and began to slam it into the rock just below the sword itself. He figured that if he could break away some of the rock it would be easier to wrench the sword out and make off with it. His machinations did not go unnoticed however as he could hear Faith yelling at him to stop and trying to get away from Buffy to do just that but thankfully the Buffster was able to keep her occupied. That of course did not stop Slayer one from yelling the same things about stopping what he was doing and getting away from the seemingly uber-powerful sword.
Needless to say in the future I promise to listen to the hot warrior women when they tell me that hitting the stone encasing a black sword is a bad idea. Xander thought to himself as he closed his eyes remembering what happened next.
He had been on his fifth strike when on the down swing the slab of stone he had been aiming at fell away to the ground exposing the side of the sword beneath it. He of course hadn't noticed this until the end of the pole was about an inch away from making contact with the sword. The two objects had hit with a boom but when Xander had finally taken notice of what he had done all he could do was watch as a spider-web crack began to form in the sword making him believe it really was made of crystal. Afterwards however he would firmly say that it had been made of pain since as soon as the cracks in the sword reached the top it shattered with the force of TNT. It had almost knocked him off his feet but he had been able to use the pole to keep himself upright and no more than a few steps further away from where he had been. However due to that proximity he was soon hit with the full force of the black flames as they seemed to leap at him from both where it had been covering the rock and from the fragments of the sword on the ground. They struck him center mast and instead of burning through him like he had thought it would it seemed to merge with him, to enter and course through his body. The part that was not of the good was the fact that it was not being particularly gentle about how it did this as his mind was overwhelmed with pain unlike anything he had ever experienced. Nothing his abusive parents had ever done to him nor the demons he had helped to fight alongside Buffy had ever caused him pain on this scale. It felt as though every single cell in his body was having something burned into it with all the subtlety of a hammer between the eyes. He didn't know exactly how long he had stood there rigid as a flag-pole screaming in agony but he did know that he eventually had lost consciousness since blackness soon obscured his vision.
He had woken before noon that same day inside of Giles' apartment with the faces the entire gang looking down at him with relief first on their faces that he was apparently alive and then shock at something else. He of course had only taken a brief notice at their reactions as the aches and pains of his body quickly demanded his attention which he voiced with a pronounced 'ow' as he tried to sit up. When Giles had attempted to ease him back down onto the couch, it was then that he noticed something had changed. For one his sense of touch seemed to be much more acute then he remembered because not only did he feel the pressure on his chest but he also felt as though he could feel the blood coursing through the Watcher's hand. He could smell an overwhelming combination of smells, some stronger while others seemed to stay in the background at the periphery of it all. What astounded him the most however was his sight, it was like he had been living all his life with a slightly transparent cloth covering his eyes and it was finally gone. Everything seemed to be hyper-detailed and all he seemed to need to do to examine something sitting in the distance was focus for a moment. Taking all these changes in was incredible but it was quickly eclipsed by not knowing what else about him might have been changed by his rather foolish attempt at heroics. It had been then that he had remembered the look of shock in their eyes when he had woken up and quickly deduced that it had to have been at the sight of his eyes. After all he certainly hadn't felt anything change after he had woken up and his eyes would have been the only things that might have been hidden while he was unconscious. Looking quickly around for a reflective surface he soon found one in Giles' very unused television screen and what he saw when he looked at the glass surface almost made him faint right there.
His eyes.
The rest of his face was the same but in place of the deep brown eyes were golden lizard like eyes with vertical black slits at the center rather than the circular ones he had been used to all his life up until now. After a five minute panic attack during which he discovered that his eyes seemed to glow when he was agitated he calmed down and it was agreed that this called for a research party to find out what exactly had happened to him. Fortunately the ritual had happened on a Friday which meant that they had the entire weekend to focus on looking through G-Man's dusty old tomes for answers. Xander had decided to stay at the Watcher's place since his even the drunks that were his parents would notice his eyes if he went home. After two full days of research they had precious little to show for their efforts, just a short passage in one book and a drawing of the sword in another with a small caption at the bottom. Apparently the sword was called 'The Blade of Kung Lung' who according to the passage in the dustier book as some sort of ancient uber-big bad from China. He was apparently a forgotten fifth Dragon King that because of some event or action he committed was slain and an effort was made to remove him from all knowledge whether it be physical or mental. All written records were destroyed and the people of the time were forbidden from ever mentioning him ever again. The only reason why the gang had been able to find this much was because an oracle during the middle ages had foretold of his rebirth through a sword crafted for him shortly before his death. Since the sword had been sought by forces of both good and evil for various reasons ranging from the sword's destruction to bringing about the black dragon lord's rebirth.
Needless it did nothing for his peace of mind to know that there was some dead dragon king inside of him much less that when the Big Bad was strong enough he would take over his body. Giles tried to comfort him by stating that since the ritual the Mayor had been performing had been disrupted by his interference it was possible that only part of the Dragon King's essence had been placed in him. If that was the case then he could fight against it and likely retain control if he tried hard enough. As for the eyes Giles had said that there were a number of concealment spells and glamours they could use to hide them and make them look normal to others. Xander gave an emphatic no to this. Magic was responsible for his current condition so there was no way that he was going to let more come his way anytime soon. After all with so little information on what this Kung Lung could do he wasn't about to allow anyone to mix mystery magic A with dragon mojo B. In the end they had settled on him wearing some dark glasses over his eyes that made it near impossible for others to see his eyes. Apparently Giles had worn them when he was younger after one of his ill planned experimentations in the dark arts had left his eyes sensitive to light of any kind. If anyone outside of their group asked why he was wearing them they would say that he had been helping Oz set up some lights for Dingoes Ate My Baby and one of them had exploded in his face. If anyone questioned why he had not gone to the hospital they would say that Giles had experienced something similar when he was young and that only a few months with the glasses on would be needed. It was true that this had only been a stalling tactic at best but it would do until they could find something better or at least until after graduation.
I should have known something would go wrong eventually when it started off without a hitch! Xander thought as he avoided the gaze of another passenger on the bus.
For the next few weeks everyone outside the Scoobies seemed satisfied with the explanation concerning his unique eye wear. Even Snyder thought that it was perfectly within the norm for the 'slacker Harris' to injure himself but still didn't let up on the detentions and tests. Not that he had been expecting any different but there had been a momentary fantasy of him automatically graduating and not having to do anymore school work. Things had progressed and aside from a few more encounters with the Mayor which surprisingly did not entail revenge on one Zeppo for messing up the ritual they finally made it to graduation. In keeping with the Xander type of luck he had been known to have it was during their battle with the newly snake-ified Mayor that his worst fear had happened. Once conventional armaments had been used up and handling Wilkens fell to Buffy he had gone with the rest of the students to mop up what was left of the vampires that had apparently been assigned the task of keeping 'dinner' from getting away. He had managed to stake four vamps with surprising ease before one had succeeded in kicking him in the face knocking him to the ground. Unfortunately it also had the side effect of breaking his glasses into itty-bitty pieces allowing anyone who wasn't occupied at the time to see his dragon eyes. This caused some to back away from him while others regarded him the same way that they looked at the vampires currently attacking them. For some this had meant death as they had let down their guard allowing a vampire to snap their necks or drain them. By the end of the battle however there were enough who had seen still living to form a decent mob but the most surprising part was when the usual case of Sunnydale denial didn't set in. The surprise only heightened when instead of regarding him as some kind of demon they called him something else that none of the Scooby gang had taken into account.
"MUTIE!! MUTIE!! Get the MUTIE!! He was probably in on the whole thing!!"
Needless to say when the crowd of twenty or more people ranging from classmates to parents who had been in attendance surged towards him he had hauled ass out of there. Knowing the back streets and lesser-known short cuts in Sunnydale he had managed to lose the mob after an hour and eventually made his way back to Giles' apartment. Giles and the others showed up ten minutes later relieved that he had managed to escape the mob but that gave way to concern as to what they would do with Xander's newfound problem. In all their planning after the FUBARed ritual they had never considered the possibility that the Zeppo would be considered a mutant if anyone saw his eyes. It wasn't as if they were ignorant about the existence of mutants or anything, one could hardly turn on a TV without some news station or program doing something on the 'Mutant Menace'. It was simply that despite the fact that mutants were becoming more and more common there had never been one in Sunnydale that they could recall. Being a relatively small town it was difficult if not impossible to keep a secret of that sort from a neighbor or classmate. Now though a portion of the town's population believed Xander to be a mutant and the information would no doubt spread fast. By tomorrow evening everyone who mattered would know and there would be no place Xander could show his face with the exception of perhaps Willy's and that just made the teen's skin crawl.
In the days that followed Xander stayed hidden out in the Watcher's apartment while the others tried to carry on as if nothing had changed. This proved to be difficult as the news soon reached Joyce as well as Willow's parents and their reactions were only slightly better than the main population's response. From Joyce it had initially been shock but then Buffy had given her mother the condensed version of the night they had crashed Mayor Wilkens' ritual and she had seen reason. In possession of all the facts she had been completely supportive and had offered to give him a job at her art gallery if he couldn't find one elsewhere. Willow's parents on the other hand fell back on religion which along with most of the country saw mutants as spawns of Satan which meant while they did not outright forbid the red haired wicca from seeing him they acted very disappointed when she did. Basically it was the same reaction one would get if discovered smoking weed or coming home drunk a number of times if not a bit worse. Xander's own parents were openly calling him a 'freak' and a 'mutie' and seemed all to eager to place themselves on the anti-mutant bandwagon. Not that the brown-haired teen really expected them to suddenly become supportive and protective of him but it still hurt when one couldn't count on family.
The toughest part for the gang came in the form of hate mail being delivered to their mail-boxes and the looks that they all got from the rest of the citizenry whenever they walked down the street. Stores where Buffy and Willow used to buy stuff from blatantly gave them bad service if not outright refusing to acknowledge them at all. While it had not gotten to the stone throwing stage with them yet it was a distinct possibility the more things went on. They all tried to put a brave face on and act like everything was normal (or as normal as Sunnydale ever got) but that all stopped two weeks prior to his getting on a bus out of town. Willow had been walking to the local magic shop to get some ingredients for a spell she hoped would make everyone forget he was a 'mutant' when she had overheard a couple of her former high school class mates taking. They were talking the usual anti-mutant jargon about mutants in general and specifically him but when they mentioned Ms. Calender's name that was when Willow's attention was really attracted. Apparently Ms. Calender's death which had for the past year and a half been labeled the result of a of 'gang members on PCP' was now being pinned on him. The suggestions went from 'I bet it was the mutie who really killed her' to 'I bet she was shagging the mutie' and ended with 'maybe Calender was a mutant'. With every remark and slur Willow had gotten more and more furious until she had exploded and proceeded to tell them off with sharpness of tongue that surprised even her. The three guys who had been talking apparently took exception to some 'mutie-lover' talking like that to them and proceeded to gather around her blocking off her escape. Noticing this Willow tried to keep up a brave front but as the danger increased so did her fear but never once did she take back the things she had said or stop supporting her best friend and mentor. Her loyalty came at a cost though as she was found ten minutes later by Buffy a bloody mess on the street with her clothes torn and bruises everywhere. Knowing that she couldn't count on any paramedics to come to their aide she had called her mother and within twenty minutes Buffy was carrying her friend into the hospital's front door. It had taken some very sharp words from both Buffy and Joyce to get them to move like they should but eventually they did their jobs and wheeled Willow on a gurney into the emergency room.
He had arrived with the others ten minutes later and didn't care one bit at the looks he was receiving or some of the slurs that were sent his way. All that mattered was that the girl who had been his friend for as long as he could remember was seriously hurt and needed him to be there. Of course this didn't mean that he wouldn't take some precautions such as wearing new black sunglasses to hide his eyes. He didn't want to do anything that would get him thrown out of there or endanger Willow so he dug deep within himself and promised himself that he would retain his cool no matter what. They waited for almost an hour before a doctor approached them to talk about Willow's condition. The doctor seemed open enough and didn't give off two many noticeable signs concerning Xander's status in town but that was the only good thing. Willow had suffered numerous bruises and cuts as a result of the assault as well as a broken arm but that wasn't the worst of it. The wicca had also received several hard blows to the back, some by blunt objects while others were obviously caused by feet and fists. The doctor had presumed that Willow had gone into a fetal position to protect herself and inadvertently exposed her back to attack. They could all tell that the doctor was beating around the bush about something and it was Buffy that finally pinned him down with the question 'what are you saying?'. The answer they got hurt them all but for the one that had known her the longest it almost destroyed him.
"I am afraid that your friend suffered severe spinal injuries." , the doctor replied with sorrow clearly in his voice, "She is now paralyzed from the waist down."
All Xander had been able to do was stagger over to one of the chairs in the waiting room and sit down before he broke down crying. It was all his fault no matter how his friends tried to reassure him that the blame lay elsewhere and the guilt slammed down on him like a mountain. It didn't matter whether or not he was there to cause it or prevent it the fact that he existed was enough to place the blame on his shoulders. It had been bad enough back when he had been normal and just a liability in battle but now they suffer by mere association with him. Who knew who would be next to suffer because of him? He sat in the waiting room for what seemed like hours completely oblivious to everything but his pain and guilt. It only got worse when Willow's parents finally arrived and were informed of their daughter's condition. Her mother went out of her mind with grief and eventually had to be sedated lest she harm herself or others. The father however reacted very differently, not with anything physical but the glare alone was enough to triple the pain that Xander felt at his role in Willow's current state. Under such torment he doubted that his friends could blame him for bolting from the hospital and disappearing into the night. He didn't really have any clear recollection of what happened during his aimless running only that he ran until he could move no more. Surprisingly he had found himself at the ruins of the high school where all his current troubles had come from. If he had never been ousted as a 'mutant' during the Mayor's failed ascension the gang would not be considered pariahs by the town and Willow wouldn't be paralyzed because of him.
It had been a week before he had gotten up the courage to re-enter the hospital with the intention of visiting Willow who Giles had told him was apparently out of the woods for the most part. Buffy had gone with him and promised to stand up for him even in front of Willow's parents if need be should someone start something with him. When he had finally entered Willow's room the sight that greeted him almost made him bolt once again as his memory of Willow the last time he saw her met the image before him now. Willow lay on the bed with all sorts of medical equipment hooked into her which only added to his ideas of how badly injured she was at the moment. What really hit him though was the assortment of bruises and stitches that marred her once blemish free face. It had been no secret especially after the fluke he and Willow had had when they had been abducted by Spike that he had feelings for her that might go beyond the close friendship they had. He wasn't as shallow as to like her for her looks but to see her like this and to imagine the emotional scarring that would no doubt result from this hurt him. He knew how much something like this could affect a person from watching the change come over his mother as his father had sunk into drunkenness. While it usually took time and more beatings to take someone strong and change them into a shell like his mother he still knew that it would take Willow time to get over this if she ever did.
As soon as he approached the bed and sat down in the chair next to it Willow seemed to feel his presence and woke up turning to look at him. It was then that he noticed that her right eye was still swollen shut and likely would take a couple more weeks before it would be back to normal. He had tried to keep things cheery like he always did when things got bad for the gang but he could tell that she was seeing right through this defense of his. He should have known that he would be able to read him as easily as he was always able to read her. His cheery resolve destroyed he started into his own version of Willow-babble telling her how sorry he was and how it was all his fault. Throughout this he was determined not to cry as he knew that it would only get Willow even more worked up and she needed all her strength to get better. When he had said all he could they sat in silence for awhile before Willow used her one good hand to lift his head up so that their eyes met. Once she was sure that his head would stay at that level she reached up and removed his sunglasses although for a moment he almost tried to stop her but could not believing her fragile. When his dragon eyes were exposed and looking into her eyes she said that it wasn't his fault but the fault of those intolerant bigots who had beat her. She had said that he was and always would be his friend and that he shouldn't dare to think anything else with her resolve face on. He let out a small chuckle as even through the mess of bruises and stitches he could still make out her patented 'resolve' face that he had always been powerless against. A warm spot filled his troubled heart as his bestest bud reaffirmed that she would always be there for him and to indicate likewise he took her good hand in his and gave her his best lopsided grin.
Just as he was about to engage her in some idle chit-chat her parents entered in the room and saw him sitting next to their little girl. The father's reaction was pretty much the same as before but the mother on the other hand did a complete one eighty and lunged at him with fury and hate in her eyes. He got up from the chair in surprise and tried to back away but before he could get very far Willow's mom grabbed the metal tray that Willows food had been resting on and slammed it into the side of his head. Surprise was what allowed the blow to hit as he could have easily dodged the attack if he had wanted to but he had to admit that a part of him felt that she deserved to take a few wacks at him. Again and again she hit him until he was sure that the tray most certainly had a few serious dents in it. All the while he could hear Willow screaming at her mother to stop and her Father doing likewise if with slightly less enthusiasm. It was only when he detected with his enhanced senses that Willow was getting dangerously excited by this display that he decided that he had to get out of there. Dodging a blow from Willow's mother he made for the door and left the hospital as quickly as he could. He had heard from Buffy that Willow had been sedated soon after his exit and was being treated with a light sedative in order to keep her from exerting herself like that again until she was stronger.
Of course Buffy, Oz and Giles were hardly trouble free on their own fronts either as they had tried once Willow had regained consciousness to get a description and name for those responsible for her current condition. It had been hard for the wicca to speak of the traumatic incident but once the names of her former classmates came out both Buffy and Giles had gone looking for them. The local cops came a few hours later but neither the Slayer or the Watcher trusted the village idiots know as the S.P.D to do their jobs right. A few trashed bars and some aggressive negotiating later they had managed to find the ones responsible and despite Buffy's inclination to visit some payback on them Giles had persuaded her to let the law handle them. Unfortunately it had been clear over the next few days despite the fact that Willow and her parents were willing to press charges against the boys that both the police and the local judge were aiming for the most lenient penalty they could get away with. Some of the officers who came by to get statements for the trial seemed to trying to come up with any plausible excuse to get the boys a reduced sentence. They even went so far as to imply that Willow had tried to blackmail the boys with death at Xander's hands if they didn't do what she said.
Xander could feel it all coming down around him, his best friend was paralyzed and beaten and it looked as though the entire town had turned against him and those he called friends. Finally it came to the point that he was no longer willing to put his friends' lives in any more danger because of how the people of Sunnydale felt about him. With the excuse that he was feeling tired and wanted to get some sleep he had slipped into the room at Giles' apartment that had been his since his transformation and started packing. He threw his knapsack onto the bed and began to fill it with various articles of clothing making sure that he had at least four days worth. With clothes packed he then took his life savings, which he had withdrawn from the bank weeks ago after the questionable glares he had got from customers standing behind him at the instant teller, and stuffed it into a side pocket. Once he had packed everything he was going to need he opened the window opposite the door to the room and leapt to the ground with surprising agility.
That of course led him to where he was now, on a bus across the country doing his best not to attract attention to himself or the fact that he wore glasses 24-7. He hadn't had a particular destination in mind when he arrived at the bus station but when he had looked up at the TV they had hanging from the ceiling and saw what was being reported he had been inspired. The reporter had been talking about the latest super battle in New York City between the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, various X-teams and some powerful entity that called itself Onslaught. Apparently there was widespread damage across the entire city and that all of the heroes with the exception of the mutant teams had apparently given their lives to end the threat. In this report he believed he had found the perfect place to disappear, a place with so many people that one more or less would not matter. Add to that the fact that he would more than likely be able to find a job in construction there and his destination was decided. It had taken almost half his savings to buy a ticket that would take him that far but he was fairly certain that he would be able to find some obscure job to take care of that problem soon after he arrived.
Now as the scenery passed by his window in the darkness of the night he wondered what the future held for him in New York.
Hopefully it wouldn't be any weirder than Sunnydale. Xander thought to himself before nodding off a few minutes later.