Repost FIC: Terra Australis Incognito 10-12/29

["Tony McD" <cdreramius@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: Terra Australis Incognito 10-12/29 
AUTHOR: Tony McD (o163210@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to Joss Whendon, Mutant Enemy, WB and 
others. This is for fun, not profit. 
SUMMARY: Buffy, Willow, and Xander have their lives turned upside down and embark on a new destiny together. (B/W/X). First of my Terra/Trinity/Destiny series.
SPOILERS: AU around season 4. 
RATING: R (for language)



Authors Note: David McWray is based on a real person (and close friend) serving in the Australian SASR. Godspeed my friend, and may you return home safely.

 
Chapter 10
 

The next morning Xander sat on Giles' sofa as Giles fixed some tea. "So what's the deal, G Man?" asked Xander.

 

"I'm worried about things between you, Buffy and Willow." Giles said sitting down across from Xander. Xander for his part looked uncomfortable with the subject.

 

"Look, Buffy and Willow have gone off to college and that normally puts a bit of strain on friendships. But it's no real big, Giles." Xander said.

 

"Xander, I've noticed how this has effected you. Just because David, Buffy and Willow don't get along doesn't mean that things between you and the girls needs to be bad as well."

 

"Giles, things were bad before David showed up. Even in high school they saw me as more of hindrance than a help. Then they went to college and I didn't and they decided that they didn't need a loser like me any more."

 

"You are not a loser and they do need you. Together you three are a powerful force for good. Things are bad now but they don't need to be. Please go and talk to them. Explain how you feel and you'll find that they still need you." Giles told the young man.

 

"Maybe." Xander mumbled.

 

"No, you will go right now and talk to them this instant!" Giles barked. A little reluctantly Xander got up and left.

       

Xander knocked on the door at Buffy and Willow's dorm. After he got no answer, he wandered down to the common room where he saw the two girls sitting with their backs to him talking. They were alone in the common room and hadn't noticed Xander enter. He stopped to listen in on their conversation.

 

"I saw David the other night at the pub. He had one of Xander's shirts on, can you believe it?" Buffy asked.

 

"God! Not only is David a loser, he wears another losers' shirt as well." Willow chimed. Xander paled.

 

"Between GI Joe try hard David and Xander, King of Losers it's enough to make a woman vomit." Buffy told her lover.

 

I know, it's hard to believe that I actually loved Xander once. Thank heavens I came to my senses." Willow said rolling her eyes. Buffy smiled seductively at Willow.

 

"Anyway, less looser talk, more kissing!" Buffy said. 

 

Xander watched as Willow and Buffy started kissing and running their hands over each others body. He backed out of the room then ran.

 

Pain. He felt nothing but pain as he ran. His soul, his heart had been shattered, burnt and crushed. The two people he loved most, the two people he would die to protect had just destroyed him. All the pain he had kept hidden, years of pain of all that had ever hurt him now ran through his veins; the feeling was like fire.

 

*No more.* He thought as he entered David's place. David was still at the Initiative. He ran down to the armoury.

 

*It ends now. No more pain.*

 

He tried to open the armoury door but was so worked up that he couldn't enter in the code. He looked around and saw an extension cord on the workbench. Xander fashioned a crude noose and fastened it to the overhead beam. Standing on the stool he placed the noose over his head and kicked the stool over. He dropped a few inches and the cord tightened.

 

"WHAT THE FUCK!!!!" David yelled. David lifted Xander up and struggled him out of the noose. Xander was fighting him, balling his eyes out.

 

"Let me die! Just let me die!" cried Xander as he curled up in a ball on the floor. David picked him up and took him to the lounge room and put him onthe sofa. Xander began thrashing about and screaming. David kept him on the sofa with one hand while he dialled the phone with another.

 

"Hello?" Giles said picking up the phone. He could hear the screaming in the background.

 

"Dad! It's me! Come to my place right now! Xander tried to kill himself!" David heard the phone being slammed as Giles bolted for the door.

 

"What happened?" Giles asked as he entered the lounge room. Xander was still thrashing about and moaning.

 

"I don't know. I came home to find him hanging himself. He's been like thissince I got him down. What could have caused this?"

 

Giles felt sick.

 

"I told him to go and talk to Buffy and Willow about their friendship" Giles wanted to die. 

 

"Something bad must have happened to the girls and Xander must have found them." Giles said feeling dead inside.

 

"Xander! What happened? Tell us what happened!" David said shaking the boy.Xander kept thrashing and moaning.

 

"It's no use, he can't tell us anything." David told his father.

 

"We need to know what happened!" Giles insisted. David ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

 

"There is some magic I can use to find out. It opens a link between his mind and mine. It will also have the effect of draining most of that emotion from him," informed David.

 

"Is it safe?" Giles asked. He didn't want to lose both of them as well.

 

"For him, yes. For me, well, it's worth the risk." David said. 

 

He closed his eyes and placed his hand on Xander's head. Instantly David was assailed be pain. Xander's pain. He saw the reason for his pain, all the hurt Xander had ever suffered. He years of abuse from his father, the loss of friends. The betrayal from Buffy and Willow. Xander loved them more thanlife itself and they had destroyed him. Xander was strong but they were soclose to his heart and soul that what they had done had destroyed him. David screamed and pulled his hand away.

 

"What." Giles started to say but David cut him off.

 

"Bitches! Buffy and Willow are alive!" David yelled. He got up and went to the armoury. Xander was peaceful and sleeping now. David returned with two pistols and his shoulder holster.

 

"What are you doing?" Giles asked his son. David put on the holster and started to check his guns.

 

"They did this to him! Those fucking bitches did this to him!" yelled Davidas he holstered the weapons and put on a coat.

 

"Who did this? Where are you going?"

 

"Buffy and Willow did this to him, Dad! I've fucking had it with those two fucking bitches. Now they are going to pay." David said in a cold hard murderous voice. 

 

He was gone before Giles could stop him.

 

Chapter 11
 

A naked Buffy laid down next to a naked Willow. She marvelled at the witch's perfect skin and ran her fingers through her red hair. They kissed, and as they did so, Buffy knew that this was going to be the best sex of her entire life. Buffy rolled over and pinned Willow down beneath. Buffy laid a trail of kisses down Willow's stomach.

 

SMASH!

 

The door flew open to reveal David. It was instantly clear that he was pissed off to epic proportions. He entered the room.

 

"YOU FUCKING BITCHES!!" David roared.

 

Buffy for her part was mega pissed at David for bursting in like this and ruining the moment between her and Willow. She leapt up and attacked David.

 

She kicked him in the head twice and let rip with a good half dozen punchesfor good measure. However it was no good as David, furious and with magic flowing through his veins, just took the pounding and smiled. He unleashed a hail of punches and ended with a roundhouse kick to the head that sent Buffy flying.

 

Willow watched as David pounded on her lover. Her anger boiling, Willow summoned up her magic and sent the TV flying at David's head. David's head snapped round as the TV approached it. He held out his hand as if he was stopping traffic. The TV stopped in mid air. He closed his hand and the TV imploded as if a giant hand had crushed it. A flick of his wrist sent an invisible force slamming into Willow, sending her crashing into the wall beside Buffy, who was now up.

 

Buffy launched herself at David, still a little stunned but even angrier than before. She went to axe kick him. David blocked the kick and punched Buffy in the groin. Pain exploded in her, she doubled over and held herself. David grabbed her head and kneed her in the face. Then, still holding her head, he head butted her and threw her at Willow.

 

"This ends now!" He told the two girls who were laying on the floor. He knelt down and placed a hand on each of their heads. He closed his eyes and opened the lock he had on the pain he had absorbed from Xander.

 

Pain. All the world was pain. The beating Buffy took was mere physical pain. This was an assault on the heart and soul. Images of Buffy and Willow flowed through their minds. The pain, the soul-destroying pain inflicted on Xander crashed over Buffy and Willow like giant waves at the beach. All the feelings Xander had ever kept bottled up now made the girls howl like tormented demons.

 

As he channelled Xander's pain into Buffy and Willow, David became aware ofsomething being fed back to him from the two girls. It was a tone, a musical note. Clear, pure, heavenly. Powerful. He stopped channelling.

 

Looking at Buffy and Willow curled up and tormented with grief, David felt a little sorry for them. His anger gone, he wondered at the tone he had heard. He left the room, closing the door as best he could before heading to Xander's place. He was going to move Xander's stuff into a room at his place. To start the healing process, Xander needed to get out of his parents basement.

 

 

Chapter 12
 

David entered the room where Xander and Giles was. Giles sat in a chair opposite the unconscious Xander, pretending to read a book. Giles was worried.He was worried about Xander, he worried about David. He worried about Buffy and Willow. Their strange behaviour towards Xander coupled with the fact that David had stormed out of here brandishing guns and swearing revenge, only deepened the worry lines on his face. He heard movement behind him.

 

"Hi Dad." David said, somewhat glumly.

 

"David! You didn't..." Giles started but David cut him off.

 

"They are OK, at the moment they are probably half way through uncontrollable crying and heading for a serious grief talk." David assured his father.

 

"What did you do?" Giles asked.

 

"There was a little punch up between me and Buffy and I made them feel someof the pain that I absorbed from Xander." he looked down at Xander. "Stillno change?"

 

Giles looked at Xander as well. He shook his head.

 

"OK. Xander is probably going to be out of it for a few hours yet which will give me time to move the rest of his stuff into one of the rooms. He has to get out of that dank little place he's in at the moment." informed David.

 

"What do you want me to do?" Giles asked.

 

"I need you to determine if Buffy and Willow are under some sort of spell. Their behaviour towards Xander just doesn't add up. If they are then you need to find out what kind of spell, who cast it, and how to reverse it. The girls will be around later tonight, I'd expect, so this has to be ready by then, OK?"

 

"I'll need to get my books." Giles informed David. David smiled.

 

"OK, get them while I unload the jeep. I've also got some books that may beof some use as well in the library." David put his hand on Giles' shoulder.

 

"Thanks Dad." he said. Giles returned the smile, happy that David felt comfortable with him being his father. Things between him and David were OK. Now Giles needed to make things between his other children better as well. Tothis end Giles left to gather the books and other supplies that he might need.

 

Willow and Buffy entered David's place, uneasy at the possible reception they would get from Xander. However their need to see Xander to make sure he was OK overcame their unease. A small voice inside of them told them that they would be happier without Xander, that he was the root of all their unhappiness. That voice was ignored for the time being.

 

They saw Giles come down the stairs and they headed to him.

 

"Where's Xander?" Willow asked.

 

"Before you see him, I need to check some things. Please follow me." Giles said. Buffy grabbed him by the arm.

 

"Where is Xander?" Buffy insisted. Giles gave her a cold, hard look.

 

"Follow me." he said in a voice that brokered no argument. They followed him.

 

They entered a room. It was lit by candles and had a symbol painted on the floor.

 

"What's this?" Buffy asked suspiciously as she saw the room. David's voice came from behind them.

 

"Before you see Xander, we need to check if you two are under some sort of spell. If you are then it needs breaking." David said. Buffy spun around, glaring at David.

 

"What the hell are you up to?" she hissed at him.

 

"I think you two are under some sort of spell and it needs to be broken." David told her.

 

"If you think for one moment that I'm going to let you use your magic on usthen..." David cut Buffy off mid sentence.

 

"This is not Aboriginal magic, it's book magic. Besides Giles here will be doing it, not me. So you have a choice, you can voluntarily under go this or be knocked unconscious. Either way it's going to be done." David said in a low dangerous voice. Reluctantly Buffy agreed.

 

"We aren't under any spell." Willow told Giles as they were moved to the centre of the symbol.

 

"Willow, if some one with powerful magic put a spell on you them you would have no way of knowing it was done, you know that as well as I do." Giles said. He picked up a book and began to recite the spell.

 

"Mare per delectanto destrani folevum paxus tentabo summum." Giles sprinkled a red dust over the two girls. A dark blue light shimmered as the dust settled on the pair.

 

"Well?" David asked Giles.

 

"They are definitely under a hate spell. I can't find out who did this, butwho ever they are they are very powerful." Giles informed David.

 

"Hate spell?" Willow asked, horrified at the thought.

 

"Yes, it intensifies any negative feelings about a person that you may haveto a point where the closest of friends can become sworn enemies. Who evercast this wanted you two to turn on Xander," said Giles.

 

"Why?" asked Buffy. Giles just shrugged his shoulders and picked up a book and started to search through it.

 

"Can you reverse it?" Willow asked. The though that some one had made her turn on her oldest friend chilled her to the bone. Giles found the spell he was looking for.

 

"Yes, I think Izard's Reversal spell would do the trick." Giles said. He began to chant and held forth a white crystal. Buffy and Willow's eyes flashed first black, then white, then returned to normal. Willow burst into tears.

 

"Where is Xander?" she sobbed.

 

"Up stairs and the second door to your left." David told them. The two girls raced up the stairs and charged into Xander's room. Soon the three of them were hugging and crying. Giles stood in the doorway and watched. They hada new and powerful enemy. But for now he smiled as the his family, the Scooby Gang, were back together again.