Alexander

Author’s Note: In this universe Cordelia didn’t stick around for long. So Wesley got the visions when Doyle died, but due to Doyle’s sacrifice the visions carry no pain for Wesley… and yes the visions were still transferred via a kiss.

Xander and Alex woke up curled up against Spike, who was watching to two mortals. Xander blinked to clear his vision before looking around and noticing that Angel was missing. “Where’s Angel?” Xander asked, yawning as he snuggled closer to Spike.

“He’s downstairs, dealing with his little team.” Spike told the two mortals. “We were just waiting for you to wake up.” Spike stretched and stood, unashamed of his nakedness he crossed the room to retrieve a pile of clothing. After quickly pulling on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, Spike tossed some clothing to Xander and Alex “The cloths are Angel’s. We’ll go shopping for you two later.”

Xander quickly got dressed, only pausing for a few seconds when he saw how quickly Alex brushed and braided his hair. Alex, seeing that Xander was watching, smiled softly. “I’ve had long hair since I was little. You get pretty good at braiding it when you do it every single day.”

“Or you get annoyed and chop it off.” Spike noted as he pulled on his infamous leather coat.

Alex sighed as he pulled a plain white t-shirt on over his head. Both Alex and Xander were wearing blue jeans and white t-shirts, which made them look even more like twins then usual. “I couldn’t chop off my hair.” Alex remarked. “In my universe it was… well a status symbol of a sort.”

“Status symbol?” Xander asked as the three men headed downstairs to the lobby.

“The fact that I have long hair says two things.” Alex explained. “One is that I am a submissive mate, so there isn’t a danger in having long hair.”

“How could long hair be dangerous?” Xander asked. The three men had just reached the main lobby, where Angel was sitting at the main desk, looking through an old book.

“If Alex was in a fight it would be easy to grab and yank.” Angel remarked, looking up at his mates.

“Angel’s right.” Alex smiled at the older vampire. “The second thing it shows is that my fighting skills don’t lie in physical combat.”

At this both Angel and Spike stared at Alex in shock. “You’re a magic user?” Spike asked.

“Yes.” Alex replied. “In my universe I was adopted by Rupert Giles and Ethan Rayne.” As Alex said this he walked over toward Angel, followed by Spike and Xander.

“What do you guys do here in LA?” Xander asked, peering over Angel’s shoulders to look at the book in his hands.

“Buffy never told you?” Angel asked and Xander shook his head. “Basically we do the same thing that the Scoobies do on the Hellmouth…” Angel sighed, leaning back in his chair. “Except we get a little bit more guidance from the Powers that Be.”

“What do you mean, guidance?” Alex asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Visions.” Standing in the doorway between the lobby and Angel’s office was Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. “The Powers that Be send me visions of things which are going to happen.”

“Wesley!” Xander smiled upon seeing the young watcher. “I didn’t know you were still in the States!”

Wesley frowned when he heard the young man say this. “That’s strange. Buffy knew that the Council fired me… and that Angel hired me. I’m surprised she didn’t tell you.”

“We all thought Angel was alone in LA land.” Spike remarked, sitting on the counter of the lobby’s main desk. “I guess Miss Slayer doesn’t like sharing info.”

“But you are… er were a Watcher.” Xander remarked. “How’d you end up with Visions?”

A frown grew on Angel’s face as he explained. “There was a half-demon named Doyle.” Angel sighed, running a hand through his hair. “He convinced me to get off my ass and help someone… to help anyone I could. He originally had the visions which guided me, but he died…” Angel trailed off, his eyes closing.

“He sacrificed his life in order to save the lives of others.” Wesley answered. “I only knew him for a short time, but he was a true hero.”

“So you keep fighting.” Alex summarized, poking at the book in front of Angel. “So what are you working on right now?”

“Actually this is just personal reading. Other then that we’re doing paperwork.” Angel gestured to a pile of papers. “There was an outbreak of zombie cops a little while ago.”

The group continued to talk, catching up on what had been happening in LA and on the Hellmouth… Xander was in the middle of talking about an exceptionally strange demon that the Scoobies had run into a few weeks back when the doors of the Hotel burst open, revealing a demon with green skin, red eyes and red horns… a demon who was wearing an extremely tacky suit that somehow looked good on said demon.

“Can I help you?” Angel asked, stepping forward as the demon stared at Alex and Xander.

The demon smiled and moved over towards Angel. “Am I happy to see you… you’re still a knight for hire, yeah?” When Angel nodded the demon sighed in relief and continued to speak. “Well I’m hiring. I need you to kill something… it’s called a Drokken.”

“Drokken?” Wesley asked, moving towards the shelves of books.

“You won’t find it in your books.” The Demon noted, stopping Wesley from going any further. “It’s not from any world you ever heard of.”

Angel sighed and crossed his arms. “Then how did it get here?”

“Portal.” The green demon answered. “Right in the middle of my Steve Wonder tune! Totally threw me off, and you know how I hate to disappoint an audience…” the demon trailed off, a smile on his face. “But I digress. What’s important is that you kill this Drokken.”

“Where is it?” Wesely asked, opening a cabinet that stood near the desk, revealing an impressive amount of weapons of all shapes and sizes.

“No idea… but I imagine it’s getting pretty hungry by now.” The demon sighed, running a hand through it’s hair.

“What is it doing here?” Alex asked, catching the demon’s attention. “What does it want?”

“What’s it capable of?” Xander added, going over to look at Angel’s weapons and pick out one that would suit his fighting style.

“It trashed my club! My clientele! Who cares?” the demon answered turning to look at Angel. “Who are the twins anyway?”

“Xander and Alex, meet the Host.” Angel said, pointing to each in turn. “And I thought violence wasn’t possible in Caritas. Isn’t it supposed to be a sanctuary?”

“A spell like that would be disturbed by a portal appearing.” Alex explained, moving closer to Angel.

“We‘ll take care of it for you.” Angel told the Host, before turning back to Wesley and his Mates. “We can start at Caritas, do a circular search, keep moving and hop we get lucky.”

“Should I call Gunn?” Wesley asked as he picked up a crossbow from the armory.

“Maybe later, I think we’ll be okay with Spike, Alex and Xander.” Angel remarked.

Within seconds the group had left the Hotel and were standing in Caritas. Caritas was a bar for demons, vampires and such that the Host ran. The group was about to start their search when a bright light appeared in front of the stage, causing the Host to scream while Angel and Spike stepped in front of the humans in their group.

The group watched as the portal dumped out a demon who, despite looking very much like the Host, was wearing the clothing of a warrior and had a sword which he had immediately used to try and attack Spike, who was closest to him.

“Landok?” The Host asked, blinking in surprise. “Is that you?”

“You know him?” Alex asked, looking between the two demons.

“Can it really be you?” ‘Landok’ asked as Angel let him down. “Krevlorneswath of the Deathwok Clan?”

“Krevlorneswath?” Angel asked, looking at the Host.

“Of the Deathwok Clan?” Spike added, one eyebrow raising.

“I…I prefer Lorne.” The Host answered, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

“Lorne…” Angel said, trying out the name.

“Yes, Lorne… though I generally don’t go by that because…” Lorne pointed at his skin. “Green.”

Angel, Spike and Wesley laughed as Alex and Xander stared in confusion. “Lorne Green.” Angel explained, which only added to the two’s confusion. “Bonanza? Fifteen years on the air not mean anything to you?” Angel suddenly stopped and sighed. “I feel old.”

“Not alone Peaches.” Spike remarked, frowning slightly.

“Who are these people?” Landok asked Lorne. “Are they your captors?”

“No, these are my friends. Everyone, this is Landok.” Lorne explained.

“Landokmar of the Deathwok Clan.” Landok corrected, bowing slightly to the group.

“So you two are related?” Spike asked, catching the similarity in Lorne and Landok’s names.

“Cousins.” Lorne sighed.

“Your vanishing was a great mystery to our clan.” Landok stated, causing everyone to stare at Lorne who looked extremely uncomfortable with where the conversation was going. “It was hoped that you had sought atonement by forfeiting your life in the sacrificial canyons of Trelinsk…. Were you abducted into this world as I was?”

“Yes, I came through a portal.” Lorne answered.

“Then we will return together!” Landok seemed to smile, but Lorne shook his head. “You will not return home to remove the shame that you have visited upon your life-giver? Your mother’s burden is terrible.”

“Misses her little green boo, does she?” Lorne smiled slightly.

“She rips your images into tiny pieces, feeds them to the swine, butchers the pigs and has their remains scattered for the dogs.” Everyone in the room, save for Lorne and Landok shivered at this.

“Well if you’ll excuse us, my friends and I were just partaking in a Drokken hunt.” Lorne stated, turning away from Landok.

“Then I will assist you!” Landok cried, holding up his sword and smiling.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Several hours later the entire group (with the exception of Landok) was exhausted. They’d managed to catch and slay the Drokken and were busy working on getting Landok back to his world --- which was apparently named Pylea.

Alex was in charge of the magic, and at the urging of Wesley was using Xander as a ‘battery’ of sorts to help him perform the huge amounts of magic which would be required for Landok to be sent back to Pylea. So Xander was sitting on a chair in Caritas, with Alex in his lap. The two were facing Landok while the rest of the group watched in curiosity.

The brilliant light came, Landock went through the portal, which closed behind him. Angel turned towards his mates, wanting to go back to the hotel and celebrate another good deed done…

But Alex and Xander were nowhere to be seen.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Alex’s eyes opened slowly to find that he was lying on top of Xander, who was lying on the ground in a forest. Looking around in confusion, Alex quickly moved off of Xander and shook the other man until he woke.

“Where… where are we?” Xander asked, looking around the forest.

Before Alex could try to answer the two men heard the sound of someone approaching through the trees. Xander gently pulled Alex closer to himself and the two silently watched as a demon who looked like Lorne and Landock came walking through the trees, accompanied by something which looked like a werewolf.

The werewolf thing growled at Alex and Xander, while the demon looked at the two humans and smiled. “Good dog!” the demon called out. “Found me some cows.”

Alex and Xander both struggled to contain their laughter as the man continued talked to his ‘dog’ and took out something that looked like a ridding crop which he used to heard the two humans along.

In a short time Xander and Alex found themselves in a town and in some sort of market where many demons were wandering around, with humans tagging along behind them, wearing collars and rags for clothing.

“They’re slaves.” Alex whispered, looking over at Xander. “Humans are slaves.”

TBC