InsaneJournal

“No one could’ve survived that,” breathed Tanya next to him as they stared at the wreckage that was all left of the Council house in Cleveland. Xander growled, remembering what the house had used to be – Faith’s house. The home where he’d visited her, talked with her, laughed with her, played games with a smiling Di.

Gone.

“Someone will pay,” he vowed hoarsely. “Who was in there?”

Tanya frowned and counted off on her fingers, “George, Anna, Keri, Lucas, and…” Her expression turned to terror and she finished with a gasp, “Willow.”

Xander stiffly stared at her for a moment then looked at the wreckage again. It was a flaming mess, the fire so hot even he couldn’t get close to it without fearing being burnt – Willow’s spell work. He knew it. He could smell her magic in the air now, feel it still tingling along his senses as he stretched them out.

The warning about the threat to the house had come too late for them to do anything. They had thought it would be in the old farm where Xander has slaughtered the cult sixteen years before and that was where they, he and Tanya, has been when the real threat was discovered.

Both of them had arrived at the house to find it in flames, culprits already gone.

He felt the rage flickering like flames, the Rogue lapping it up like chocolate and cackling from the darker corners of his mind. It didn’t care for Willow – never had. The only person it had even showed a smidgen of anything towards had been Faith.

Stepping quickly away from Tanya, he bared his fangs for a moment then lunged towards the car sitting by the curb. With a twist and a roar of mixed rage and sorrow, he lifted it and smashed it against the sidewalk repeatedly until it caught fire. When that happened he hurled what remained of it towards the burning house and watched the gas tank explode before it hit the ground.

“Shit,” he heard Tanya mutter and turned slowly towards the current Slayer. “You okay?”

“No,” he growled in response. He then raked a hand across his face and spat, “Where the hell’s the Council?”

“They should be here soon.”

“They should’ve been here before we were!” he roared angrily. As she took a step back, he held up a hand, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. “I’m not angry at you, Tany.”

The second Slayer Called after Faith died gave him a look that said she didn’t entirely believe that. She then pulled out her cell phone as it started ringing and screaming into it.

“Where the hell are you people?! Yes, we’re here! NO, EVERYTHING IS NOT FUCKING OKAY, YOU ASSHAT! The house is gone – GONE. No survivors! How do I know?”

Tanya slowly looked at Xander, who was growling and giving the phone the look he gave a meal when he’d gone days without blood.

“I’ve got Xander with me,” she snapped coldly into the phone. “If anyone had survived, he’d know it. Now get your fucking asses out here and get our people out of there. They deserve a decent burial.”

The phone shut with a finial click and she hissed before shoving it back in her pocket. Then she gave him a long, considering look and said, “You’re going, right?”

“If this is how the Council is run now, yes,” he replied. He then looked towards the wreckage and added, “Besides…the last two people left that I love have nothing to do with it. I have no reason to stay anymore.”

Tanya frowned, saddened by this even though she knew it would happen eventually. And, despite how much Xander tended to scare her, she’d come to like having him at her side every few months or so. He’d helped her a lot when she’d first gotten Called, too, and she would be grateful to him for that until the day she died.

“Can I still call you?” she asked softly, afraid he was going to say no.

The stony expression softened and he murmured, “If you need help, don’t hesitate to call me, Tany. I said my ties with the Council were broken, not you.”

“Will you come to the funeral?”

“Willow’s,” he answered, turning away from her. “Do me a favor.”

“Yes?” she said.

“Have them bury her at the Coven, not the Council graveyard. Underneath that big old oak.” Xander smiled wistfully and softly added, “She loved that tree.”

Tanya nodded, swearing, “I’ll make sure they do.”

“Thank you.”

He gave her a sad smile over his shoulder then he disappeared, there one moment then just gone. She sighed and sank down onto the sidewalk to wait for the Council team to arrive, watching the magical flames begin to slowly gutter and die.

And she made herself a promise that she would find out just who had destroyed the building and the people inside. Then her and Xander – just the two of them, like they’d found the building all alone together – would go after them.

They’d make the bastards pay.