Repost FIC: Terra Australis Incognito 16-18/29

["Tony McD" <o163210@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: Terra Australis Incognito 16-18/29 
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: I'll be posting the entire series in sequential order over the next week or 2. The stories are (in order) Terra Australis Incognito, La Vita Nuova (written by Kirayoshi), Let the Games Begin (also by Kirayoshi),Bucket Full of Sunshine, Trinity's Child, and Destiny's End.

 
Chapter 16
 

Xander looked at David.

 

"What do you mean 'we'? Why am I coming with you?" Xander said.

 

"I need another person to be there in order to do this. I can't contact theDreamtime Spirits by myself." informed David.

 

"Ok, but why me?" asked Xander.

 

"I can't take Willow or Buffy for reasons that will be clear when you come with me tonight. I also want to give you the chance to find out your purpose in life. I want you to talk to the Dreamtime Spirits and maybe they can give you some idea of a direction in your life. I really think that it woulddo you a world of good." David told him.

 

Xander began to object but stopped. *Maybe he's right. I guess a sense of purpose would be nice. I got nothing to lose.* Xander thought.  

 

"Is it dangerous?" Willow asked David, afraid for Xander's safety.

 

"Dangerous? Willow, I've saved my best friend from death, had a all an out and out fight with a witch and her Slayer lover, helped reverse a destructive spell, and killed an evil demon who killed dozens of heavily armed soldiers and kicked me through a window. On the scale of things, this is the least dangerous thing I'll do all week." smiled David.

 

"Can I talk to Xander alone please?" David asked the gang. They all got up and left, leaving Xander and David alone.

 

"What do you want to talk about?" Xander inquired.

 

"Do you believe in fate and destiny?" David asked.

 

"Hello. Best friends with the Slayer, you know, 'The Chosen One'?"

 

"OK. Stupid question." David said with a smile. "You want to hear my views on fate and destiny?"

 

"Yeah, sure. Go ahead.

 

"I think life is kind of like a big city and your own life is like driving through it. You have free choice generally to go in almost any direction you choose. Left, right, straight ahead, whatever. The roads you choose are up to you. Sometimes the choices you make lead you into situations where youhave no choice. Like being in the right hand lane and the sign says 'righthand lane must turn right'. Then you have fate. It's kind of like being ata certain place at a certain time, no matter what you do or where you go. How you react to fate largely determines your destiny. Destiny is just that; the destination. The end of your journey. No one knows their destiny."

 

"Then sometimes you have a legacy. A legacy is kind of like someone coming to their destiny and leaving you rough directions on how to finish the restof the journey. It influences people that come after you. When you see theDreamtime Spirits, remember that they can give you guidance, sometimes tell you of fate, but never of destiny. Fate is not the same as destiny.

 

"All right then. When do we go see the Dreamtime Spirits?" Xander asked.

 

"We'll leave at 11 tonight. There is a place a couple of miles out of town that would be perfect."

 

There was a moment of silence.

 

"Xander?"

 

"Yeah David?"

 

"Whatever is attacking you guys is my fate. I can feel it." David's voice grew small and distant. "I've also got the feeling that it is also my destiny." whispered David.

 

Chapter 17
 

Xander and David left just after 11 that night. David had cooked up a Thai Curry Chicken that the gang had wolfed down. Giles had convinced everyone that it would be best if everyone stayed at David's tonight. 

 

Whatever was after them saw that together the Scooby Gang was a danger so it would be safest if they stayed together as much as possible. He also suggested that Buffy and Willow get some sleep because when David and Xander returned there would be an all night research session. Buffy didn't object. She was asleep seconds after her head hit the pillow.

 

David drove into the hills behind Sunnydale and turned up a dirt track. Xander dozed as David followed the track as it led through a plantation of tall trees. The jeep hit a bump in the road, waking Xander. He looked around as they drove past the ghostly white trees.

 

"Where are we?" asked Xander.

 

"In a eucalyptus plantation about 10 miles out of town." informed David.

 

"A what?"

 

"A eucalyptus tree plantation. Eucalyptus trees are native to Australia. Apparently the hills around here were prone to erosion since the soil was so poor here and pretty much nothing would grow here. However eucalypt trees thrive in poor soil. The down side is that they liked it too much and becamea bit of a pest. Then they discovered that the eucalypt has medicinal oil in its leaves and the wood very strong and hard so now they are cutting them for wood and the oil." David told Xander. He stopped the car.

 

"We walk from here."

 

They got out and started to walk through the trees. Clearing the trees Xander saw that they were headed for a hill that had been cleared except for a cluster of trees at its summit. David held a bag that contained the necessary things for the ritual. As they neared the summit Xander's curiosity got the better of him.

 

"OK, what am I supposed to do that Buffy or Willow couldn't?"

 

"It's not a matter of couldn't, it's a matter of wouldn't. You'll find out." David grinned as the reached a small clearing in the trees at the top of the hill. He put the bag down and started to clear a patch of earth. "We need some wood for a fire, after we get it lit then I'll explain what is going on." said David. The pair gathered wood and David arranged it in the clear patch of earth.

 

"You going to light it using fire sticks?" Xander asked, remembering a thing he learnt in his brief stint as a Boy Scout. 

 

David just looked at him like Xander had said 'this cheese will not protectyou'.

 

"No. This is the 21st Century. I use my lighter." David said as he pulled out a battered Zippo lighter and started the fire. The light it produced made their shadows dance and the smell of the burning wood was sweet and calming.

 

"So what do you want me to do?" Xander asked.

 

"I need you to use these clacking sticks." David said as he pulled two wooden sticks that were covered in white paint dots.

 

"All you need to do is tap them together in a rhythm like this." David demonstrated for Xander.

 

"Then as you do that I'll perform the ritual and call upon the Dreamtime Spirits to embrace us."

 

"What will happen then?" Xander asked.

 

"We will travel to the Dreamtime. Remember that the spirits will appear in a form that you are best able to understand and accept. For example, they appeared as figures from Ancient Greek mythology to the ancient Greeks and as angels to Christians. It's just a matter of what you are comfortable withand can relate to." David told Xander.

 

"OK, now strip." David said. Xander looked at him in panic.

 

"What?" Xander said, not quite believing what David said.

 

"Take your clothes off."

 

"No way!"



"You have to."

 

"Why?"

 

"You must enter the Dreamtime in the same state as you entered this world. Which means you have to be naked. So now you know why Buffy or Willow wouldn't do it. Don't be such a baby." David said.

 

"But..."

 

"Oh bloody hell! I'm into women, OK? Trust me you have nothing that I haven't seen elsewhere. Just hurry up and stop fucking around!" David groused.

 

The two stripped and placed their clothes at opposite ends of the clearing.David turned around and saw Xander.

 

"Holy Shit!" David cried out and pointed.

 

"WHAT?" Xander yelled.

 

"Get a load at it! It looks like a baby's arm holding an apple!"

 

Xander tried to cover himself. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Xander screamed.

 

"Sorry mate. I just got to ask something. You had sex with Anyanka?"

 

"Yes!" Xander said, not happy at all.

 

"I think you got her back for a thousand years of making men suffer." Davidsaid with grin.

 

"Can we just get on with this and stop talking about Little Xander?" asked Xander. David gave him the sticks and they commenced the ritual.

 

David threw a handful of dirt into the fire then drew pictures in the ground, all the while chanting. He then placed a heap of eucalyptus leaves on the fire, creating a huge amount of sweet smelling smoke.

 

"Lawurl bohrre-na nardal labld-ndi jut-di dongo-yan dei marluga walbararri.Dongo-yan dalmerilal giyakgiyak gugiwu gawor-ubawo gitjjiya gapbut langitj-gun wordow-ma." (Spirit of the Dreaming, we ask for your wisdom, old man of the Milky Way. Knowing of yesterday, today and tomorrow the truth, man who goes by night bring about the Dreaming.) At that moment there was a flashof white light.

 

 

Xander found himself standing next to David. The first thing Xander noticedwas that they weren't naked any more. The next was their location. They were standing in a lightly wooded area. Small bushes grew in the red earth and silence gripped the night.

 

"Where are we?" Xander asked.

 

"The Dreamtime." David said. He pointed up into the sky. "Look." David toldXander. Xander looked up and gasped.

 

The sky was awash with stars. Thousands, tens of thousands of stars twinkled above them. Xander remembered the happy times that he and Willow spent out in the backyard. They used to lay on their backs and look at the stars. Willow would tell him the names of the constellations and some of the stories behind them. They would often imagine that they were floating in a sea ofstars. They were happy times. Before Buffy. Before vampires. Before the realization.

 

But something about it was wrong. It was hard to pick out the constellations from all the stars. Then it struck him.

 

"My God! The stars are upside down!" Xander exclaimed in awe.

 

"No. They are as how they appeared in Australia tens of thousands of years ago. Come. We are expected." David said and headed towards a campfire in the distance.

 

They arrived at the fire and there was an old Aboriginal waiting for them. David spoke to him in his native tongue. David nodded and turned to Xander.

 

"He tells me that they are waiting for you through those wattle bushes." David said, pointing to a stand of bushes, 9 feet high and with beautiful yellow flowers.

 

"Who's waiting for me?" Xander asked his friend.

 

"Go and receive your guidance. I will be here finding what is hidden. Go and find your purpose. Go." 

 

Xander left David and the old man and started to make his way through the wattle bushes. He emerged into bright sunlight. He found himself at a waterhole that was ringed by trees and had a waterfall descending from the rock face above the clear water. It was warm and very peaceful and Xander felt more at home than he had ever felt. He looked at the waters edge on the far side and saw them. Three of them. They walked towards him and as they got closer Xander recognized them. Jenny Calendar walked hand in hand with two young girls. One was blonde and the other had red hair. Both looked about 7 or 8 years old. The blonde looked kind of like Buffy, but there was no doubtwho the redhead was. Willow. Jenny let the girls go and they ran to Xander, nearly knocking him over and hugging him fiercely.

 

"Xander!" The two little girls cried out. Dumbfounded Xander looked at themand then hugged them back. Tears poured from his eyes, the happiness of the moment too much. Jenny came up to him.

 

"Hello Xander." She said. Xander looked at her.

 

"How...?" he started but words failed him. Jenny bent down and spoke to thegirls.

 

"Buffy, Willow. I need to talk to Xander for a little while. Why don't you two go and play? Maybe you can find Xander a present." With a giggle the two girls ran off to some rocks by the water.

 

"Miss Calendar, what... I mean how... ur... why?" Xander babbled.

 

"You want to know of your purpose? What your reason is in life?" she asked him.

 

"Yes." whispered Xander.

 

"They are the reason, they are your purpose." Jenny said pointing to Willowand Buffy. Buffy started to chase Willow and Willow started screaming.

 

"Buffy! Stop chasing Willow around with that frog." Jenny called out to thegirls. Buffy put the frog in the water.

 

"What do you mean?" he asked.

 

"Look at the girls. What do you feel?" she asked him. He looked at them.

 

"I love them. I feel like I'm their big brother. They mean everything to me." The two girls came up to Xander.

 

"We've got something for you." Buffy said. She held up a three-leaf clover.She smiled as he accepted it from her.

 

"That is what we are, Xander." Buffy told him. Willow held up her hand.

 

In it was an opal. Black with a rainbow of colours exploding from it as thesun shone on it. Xander accepted it from Willow. "Keep it always. You willneed it one day," she told him.

 

"Thank you. These are the best presents." He told the girls. They giggled and ran off to a log at the other side of the clearing. Jenny took Xander bythe arm and led him to a large rock. They sat together. 

 

"You want to know what you are? You are saviour, protector, and father. When the time comes, do not doubt yourself. Reach within and bring forth that for which you are. Buffy and Willow have given two gifts. I also will give you two gifts. The first is magic to show the others what is to come." Jenny touched Xander's hand. A white glow moved from her hand to his.

 

"The second is memory. For a hundred thousand years the Aboriginal people passed down their magic and lore by word of mouth. They never developed writing but needed to preserve their collected knowledge. So they had magic that enabled some of them to remember everything. The perfect memory. The Yhi-ja. This gift was handed down from generation to generation. Like Albert gave this to David, I give this to you." she touched his head.

 

David opened his eyes. He shook his head to clear the disorientation. He was back at the hilltop. He knew who was behind the spell. He knew what his actions must be. But there was still so much left unanswered. He wandered tohis clothes and got dressed. When he turned around he saw Xander lying on the ground. David raced over and checked him.

 

Xander's eyes were open. And they glowed sky blue.

 

"The Yhi-ja!" David exclaimed to himself. He gathered up his things and Xander's clothes, then picked up Xander and took him to the jeep.

 

"Dad! Dad!" David yelled as he entered his house. David took Xander up to Xander's room and put him in the bed. Just as David covered Xander Giles came running in.

 

"What is it?" he said.

 

"I need you to look after Xander of a while." David told his Dad.

 

"What happened?" Giles asked as he saw Xander's eyes. At that moment Buffy and Willow raced into the room.

 

"What the hell have you done to him?" Buffy demanded to know.

 

"I didn't do anything! The spirits must have given him the Yhi-ja. It's theability to remember everything. He'll be out of it for a couple of days." David told them.

 

"What's wrong with his eyes?" Willow cried out.

 

"Nothing! Don't worry! I went through it when I was 7. He'll be fine. I just need you to look after him while I'm gone."

 

"Where are you going?" Buffy demanded again.

 

"I've got to find a book and arrange a few things," he said to the angry Slayer.

 

"What about whoever or whatever cast the spell and sent the Jachyra?" Gilesasked. David grabbed his father but the arms.

 

"The demon's name is Murg Dor." David said before leaving.

 

Chapter 18
 

David sped into the night. There was much he had to do and little time to do it in. He reached for the car phone and punched in a series of numbers. When the electronic chirp told him that he had an encrypted line, he dialleda number. 


The phone that rang was the encrypted line, General Morris noticed as sleepily reached it. The general was a stocky man who lived on base alone. His marriage had failed years ago as the result of the extended absences from home that military service required. He now dedicated his life to the military as a way of protecting his 19-year-old daughter who was attending collegein Colorado. 

 

"General Morris." the general said into the phone. "Sir, it's Major McWray,the Australian Army liaison officer to the Initiative. I have an urgent matter I need to inform you of." David told the general. 


"What ever it is it had better be worth waking me for." the general grumbled. He knew Major McWray to be a fine and experienced officer, but that factdidn't make getting woken up in the middle of the night any easier. 

 

"Sir, the Initiative was attacked by a powerful HST sometime this evening. I regret to inform you that they took 100% KIA. I discovered this when I went there for a briefing with Special Agent Finn. I was able to track the HST to its nest where I disposed of it using 50 pounds of Thermite." David lied about the killing of the Jachyra. The general didn't need to know about magic or the Slayer, not just yet any way. 


"My God! 100% KIA! What kind of HST could do such a thing?" the general said, sitting up and fully awake. 




"I'm not sure but I have some slim evidence that this attack was organized by an outside group. I haven't got very much to go on but I believe that they might be heading to Europe, most likely London and then to a second country as yet unknown. I need to get to London as fast as possible to try to catch up with these people." David lied for a reason, he needed to get to England as fast as was possible, and the general could arrange faster transport than flying commercial airlines. 


"Ok, I'll try to arrange some transport for you. Where are you?"


"Sir, I'm about an hour away from March Air Force Base." David told the general. 


"Fine, I'll have your plane waiting there for you. But you are not to release any information about this incident or the Initiative operations to anyone with out my express permission. Is that understood?" ordered the general. 


"Yes sir."


"Good. When you get back I want a full report. Good luck and good hunting, Major." the general said hanging up. David hung up and decrypted the phone.He then dialled a number. 


"Hello, Albert? It's me, David. I'm coming to see you."


Buffy and Giles sat around Xander's bed reading through a pile of books, trying to find something on Murg Dor. Every now and then Xander would stir listlessly as if having a bad dream. Buffy slammed shut the book she was reading in frustration. 


"Damn it Giles! Nothing on Murg Dor in here." she said in frustration. 


"Well, go through this one." Giles said and handed her another thick tome to search through. Buffy looked up as Willow entered the room. 


"How's Spike?" Buffy asked her lover. 


"A little better, I left him some blood packets for him when he wakes up. I'm pretty sure that he'll be up and about in a day or so." Willow informed Buffy. She looked at Xander. 

 

"Any change?"


"No." Buffy told her. At this point Xander stiffened suddenly. His eyes opened revealing the sky blue that swirled across them. He began to speak. 


"Hello." Xander said, his voice was strange. Not the deep man like voice hehad, but almost like a child. "Hello." he said again, but this time the voice was that of a little girl. 


"Does it hurt?" Xander asked in the little boy voice. 


"What?" he said in the little girl voice. 


"Giles, what's going on?" Buffy asked the Watcher who silenced her with a wave of his hand. 


"Does your hair hurt? 'Cause it's all red like it's on fire." Xander spoke in the little boy voice. Willow gasped, she knew what was going on. 


"No, my hair's not on fire, it's just red, see? You can touch it if you want." the little girls voice said. 


"Oh. Cool!" the little boy said. 


"My name is Xander." the little boys voice said. 


"I'm Willow." the little girls voice replied. Xander smiled then closed hiseyes and slipped back into unconsciousness. 


"Willow, what the hell was that all about?" Buffy asked the Wiccan. 


"Um... When I first met Xander on the first day of preschool he asked me ifmy hair was on fire. He hadn't seen anyone with red hair before." Willow told her, stunned. The voices were hers and Xander's as they were as kids. 


"Giles, what's this all about?" Buffy demanded to know. 

 

Giles contemplated for a few moments before saying anything. "I can only hazard a guess, but David said that Xander had undergone the Yhi-ja. It is designed to give him the ability to remember everything. I'm guessing that heis in the process of remembering everything that has happened in his life.All the important things that affected him strongest he would remember thestrongest. I suppose that meeting you Willow was an important event in hislife." Giles reasoned. He was not far from the truth. 


"Oh boy. I don't know if we want to around for many more of these memory flash backs." Willow told Giles and Buffy. 


"Why?" Giles asked her. 


"Because a lot of Xander's memories aren't exactly good ones." she said, a look of concern on her face. 

The B1-B touched down in the early morning light at an airfield in England.David emerged from the plane very happy at the experience of flying in thegiant swing-wing bomber. He quickly located the car waiting for him and drove to Albert's place just north of Manchester. 


"Good to see you, David!" Albert said as he hugged the young man. The pair sat in the living room with a pot of tea and some toast on the coffee table. 


"So, what is happening with you lately?" Albert asked the young man. David told Albert everything about what had happened since arriving in Sunnydale.At the end of it Albert wore a very concerned look on his face. 


"Murg Dor is after the Slayer?" Albert asked. 


"It would appear so. Anything happening with the other Slayer?" David enquired. With the death of Faith in jail, the next Slayer had been called. 


She was 13 and she was in training in Scotland. 


"Nothing." Albert replied. He nibbled on a piece of toast idly. "So you went to the Dreamtime Spirits and among other things they told you to get a book."


"The Chronicles of Golgotha." David told the old man. 


"The Chronicles of Golgotha? Good luck getting them." Albert chuckled. 


"What's the matter?" David asked. 


"Oh, nothing. It's just that they are locked away in the Vatican Black Library," informed Albert. The Black Library was where the Vatican kept its' books which it regarded as too dangerous in the wrong hands. 


"The Vatican you say. Well it looks like I'm off to Rome then," said David. 


"Wait a minute. You think that they will just let you in there and take thebook?" Albert asked. 


"No, of course not. I'm going to nick it." David smiled back at the old man. The old man recognized the twinkle in David's eye. It was the look when he was going to do something very wrong and have a hell of a lot of fun doing it. David stood to leave. 


"Well, I better get going now." David said. 


"Ok. You look after yourself and try not to get arrested. OK?"


"All right. But I need you to do something for me." David told Albert. 


"What is it?" Albert asked. 


"Could you get hold of a big leather bound book? You know the type used forWatcher's Diaries, but with blank pages," he asked. 


"Yeah, but why do you want it?" asked Albert. 


"I need to write prophecies of what is to come. Some of it I understand. Most of it I don't."


"I'll have it ready in a day or two." said Albert. 


"Good. I'll pick it up on my way back from Rome. The only problem is I'm not sure what to call it." David said. 


"You will think of something, I'm sure of it." Albert reassured him.