How Long Until I'm Free?

[madimpossibledreamer]

(I legit don’t remember if soda actually ever came up as a topic of discussion with the Modern Assassins so if I’ve gotten this wrong, sorry, we’re handwaving it.)
also xander is actually older for once. This is weird. In a good way, I think, but still. Weird.

Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Assassin's Creed (Beginning's End)
Summary: Xander has the answers to Rebecca's questions, and she is taking this seriously, but it's also the perfect opportunity to tease him.
Word Count: 1784
Rating: Teen
pre-Shaun/Xander

        Rebecca was expecting Xander to come talk to her sooner or later as the only Assassin present who can currently speak English. She didn’t quite expect him to walk in with Shaun trotting at his heels like a well-trained dog, and when she reaches out a hand to pet him, Shaun turns his head and shies away. She raises a judging eyebrow at the bartender, who at least has the decency to look a little sheepish.
        “I asked him for moral support. I think he’s taking it seriously.” He takes a deep breath, close to dancing on the spot in anxiety. “And, well. I probably shouldn’t have, given, y’know, the two of you should kind of be a united front. I’m just...really nervous, and it’s not like he’s going to understand absolutely everything we’re talking about anyway.”
        Okay, fair, she can pitch him an easy hit to start. “I thought you called these things ‘cabins’. Pretty sure only Escher would call them that.”
        His grin is thankful as he heads to the fridge, Shaun following silently, watchfully. Like a guard dog. “We took Euclidian architecture out back, shot it, and buried it in the yard. Soda?” Which is...actually really interesting, because the one time it had come up, Desmond had asked for a pop. It’s not definitive, of course, but it’s an interesting data point all the same—and despite their attitudes, that’s what Rebecca and Shaun work on, data.
        “Energy drink, actually. Through these veins runs pure caffeine.” She flexes, and Xander rolls his eyes and throws her one anyway—aww, yeah, they’ve got one of the better brands, score!
        “I really probably shouldn’t be enabling this. I know better,” Xander complains, then sits in one of the more comfortable seats. Shaun eyes it, like he’s trying to judge if it’ll enable him at all for a new career as a lap wolf, and seems to decide against it, sitting down in arm’s reach. She sits in one of those comfy chairs, too.
        “So, um. Apologies in advance. I absolutely am going to make a bunch of inappropriate jokes because I’m nervous.” He kind of lets his arm dangle into Shaun’s fur. Shockingly, Shaun doesn’t lean in to try to encourage pets or anything—he is trying to be serious about this, as serious as he can look while he’s still got a really fluffy face.
        “So, you were probably actually asking the ‘how’. I can’t give you everything there, mostly because I don’t actually know, myself. I’m not magic guy, here.” He sighs. “The Isu, who surprisingly are not behind everything, just a lot of things, knew magic. Some of them, anyway. And yeah, it is magic and not just really, really advanced tech. We called in our tech support for that one.”
        Shaun starts growling the second Xander mentions ‘Isu’, though he quiets a little as Xander pets him. So he does still get some words.
        “One of them that specialized in magic was Janus. Two-faced Roman god of doorways, beginnings, and endings. Well, more like he specialized in bridging magic and tech. The Isu used to basically do brain scans to copy their minds, but it required a physical and magical scan and a DNA sample to really get a working clone. That might be part of why Juno’s so off, by the way—yeah, she’s always kinda been a bitch, Hercules got that one spot on, but this is wrong even by her standards. And when Desmond used the Eye in the Grand Temple, one of the failsafe measures was a scan.”
        Oh. Oh, god. No wonder they had so much trouble isolating the Bleeding Effect. “You’ve got Desmond’s memories,” she breathes out, trying to decide whether or not to launch herself across the room to hug him.
        The pained smile is really, really familiar, and now she knows why. “The two of you always could run circles around the rest of the Brotherhood. Not just his memories, though—remember, they did both scans, and the Temple kinda had DNA on tap for anyone to snag, for a bit, so I’ve got the personality imprint, too, on top of my own. And we can go into the details of how that differs, later. The Animus is kinda based on that tech, but it’s imperfect, obviously, because it’s humans trying to replicate it without understanding it. The longer story involves a really memorable Halloween. I’d planned on going as a soldier. Cheap costumes do not make my wallet cry, and I really, really hate trying to dry leather, so…” He swallows. “Chaos mage cast a spell turning a bunch of people into their costumes. Except he decided to dedicate it to Janus. Janus, meanwhile, being a meddling dick of godly levels, decided that Desmond got a raw deal and this was the perfect chance to pay him back.” He can’t look at her anymore, and Shaun has basically shoved his entire body into Xander’s legs, trying to ground him. “So instead of a soldier, Desmond woke up, post-Temple, in Halloween 1997.”
        “But—” That’s...the past.
        “Yeah. Needed help getting back to the future, I guess...” Xander looks so miserable that, that’s it, he needs a hug, stat. She kind of smushes him into the chair, but aside from the half-panicked gasp he doesn’t protest, just clings back desperately, and she can feel her jacket getting wet. His voice, when he manages to speak again after a few failed starts, is anything but steady. “W-we, um. Pretty sure Isu don’t experience time, not like we do. But we had fifteen years and we still didn’t manage to pull Desmond’s ass out of the fire—”
        “Go on, let it out. Pretty sure you did everything you could.” Honestly, it’s kind of shocking she doesn’t sound like a complete wreck, because she knows she’s crying, too.
        “I didn’t save him,” he repeats himself, curling into her and Shaun.
        “Xander. You had more resources than we did. The fact you didn’t pull it off meant that you couldn’t, right?” He doesn’t respond. Not for a while.
        Well. The fact that he doesn’t really is an answer, in of itself. “I, um. I’m better. I can stop using you as a stuffed animal, now.” Though he doesn’t let go completely.
        “Aww, but I always wanted to be a teddy bear when I growed up,” she teases, and the chuckle bursts out of him.
        “Rebecca, you’re the worst,” he complains, but he can’t hide the smile as she backs away, retrieves her energy drink, and sits right next to him, this time. “I had the connection, but from what we could tell it was weak, so I could sacrifice myself all I wanted, it’d probably change absolutely nothing, and then Desmond would have to follow-up, losing us an extra life, and who knows if Janus could pull off another New Game Plus. We could sacrifice a dimensional key, but, well, it’d probably just end the world in new and shiny ways. The only one who could probably pull it off would be Dark Willow, and she’d been voted more likely to end the world, so…”
        “Now that my best friend is a werewolf, I gotta ask—how similar is that to Dark Phoenix?” Maybe she should be taking this more seriously, but literally none of them are dealing, so they might as well cope instead.
        He actually pauses to somberly consider that, and finally decides on the answer, “...Yes.”
        Well, they’ve got their answers, though it’d be better if Shaun actually could understand the whole thing. And it’s entirely possible Xander’s lying to her, but she’s pretty sure he’s not, and there’s ways to check, anyway.
        “I...I’m not coming back. To the Assassins. You don’t need me, I don’t think they’ll ever trust me, and I’ve got…” he waves his hand around vaguely, which means it’s a perfect chance to ask this, too.
        “Fair enough, but you gotta realize Shaun and I will literally hunt you down if you don’t even stay in contact. On my end because you seem pretty cool.” Xander makes the mistake of going back to his soda. She could wait, but eh, it’s more fun this way. “On Shaun’s, I think because you’ve ensnared him with your wily charms.”
        He’s now spluttering, and Shaun is just kind of staring at her with an unimpressed expression. Whatever, she thought it was funny. “Rebecca!”
        “Also, your ass. Pretty sure he really likes your ass.” Shaun had asked for a wingwoman, kinda, a few days ago.
        “I know where you’re going with this, and I’ll bribe you to stop,” he begs.
        She smiles innocently. “Oh, come on. Nothing about putting the ‘ass’ in ‘Assassin’?”
        She’s actually made someone facepalm in real life. She’s putting that on her list of lifetime accomplishments.
        “I’m disowning you,” he insists, sounding a little mortified.
        And then she pulls out the question that’s been bothering her since the graveyard. “Hey, it could be worse. Because I’ve got questions about the whole harem thing.”
        If Xander could sink into the chair and get swallowed, he absolutely would. “It’s not a harem, I’m not taking advantage of anyone, and no, I’m not running a brothel, though we’re still working through navigating the fact that a few of the Slayers definitely want to do sex work, which, yeah, is actual work,” he insists, shoulders slumping. “Look, I get how it looks, okay? I get that this is the scenario pornos are made of, but trust me, you get over the novelty really quick. Ezio kinda did, but I think that was going someplace run by his sister more than anything. Personally, I started forgetting about all that when I couldn’t get a warm shower or be sure my leftovers would be left over. Logistics, as always, are the mood-killer. Second long story of the day short, magic empowered one Chosen Girl called a Slayer to murderize all the things that go bump in the night, we tweaked it so there wasn’t just one, ‘cause Many Woman Army is better than One Woman Army. There’s a hell of a lot more to it, but I figure you’d like a more coherent explanation and I’m kinda all tapped out for today, ask again later.”
        ...He really is a pretty good match for Shaun, then. Though they might need her to kick their butts in gear now and then when they get lost in the weeds.
        “I’ll let you decompress for now.” She pats his hand and wanders out. She’s pretty sure she’s seen at least one book on that subject, but now she’s got some context, so it’s time to go snooping again.