Defintion of Human
Round 1, Part 2
StarWindDancer

Xander woke slowly to the rhythmic jostling of movement and the clack clack of shoes on linoleum. His eyelids seemed to have doubled since he knew he had raised them but it seemed as if he was looking through a dark curtain to the passing lights above. He tried to remember back, tried to think how he could have gotten here but all he could remember was pain. No memory of what or where he was, just a jumbled lump of pain in his memory.

Looking around, he could see a tall thin woman in a white lab coat to his side. An IV itched on his arm. Two people walked on the other side of him, an amalgam of colors, like green tress and autumn leaves.

Ug, hospitals, he hated hospitals.

Some vamp, or demon, a nastie whatever must have gotten the better of him, though he didn't remember being out on patrol. That must have been where the pain came in. But before he could try and remember more he was in cold air with noise that pounded into his head. It felt like falling, being tossed into the cold, hard wind. Into the pit of darkness.

-oo0oo-

The door was only open for a minute. Bright lights flooded his world and the soft breeze of fresh air surrounded him as the tomb door was opened. Alex tried to make a break through it but living walls pushed him back. He tried scrambling through the legs of soldiers, anything to get into the light and out of this hole but he was weak. He barely noted that they brought something in and dumped it to the side; his whole attention was on that open door.

The soldier holding him back, dragging him back from the door over the rough concrete floor grunted, whooping him across the head before retreating into that blinding light.

Clang.

The door shut hard, a dull church bell of doom.

Alex didn't remember much after that, just a whole lot of yelling and cursing, screams until his throat was horse. He remember banging on the door, scratching at it, hoping that the door didn't catch and that if he pulled just right... he might have a chance.

Unfortunately forever didn't have an end and the door stayed stubbornly closed.

-oo0oo-

Scully turned back from another group, shaking her head at Mulder as they reconvened at the bar. They'd hit every place a 20-something, recovering teen would hang out and still they had no luck. The case had pretty much gone from an investigation into the paranormal into a missing person case.

"Great, Mulder would probably label it an alien abduction." Scully thought to herself. Not that she really minded those, though those type cases left more questions then answers, and of course, those type of cases usually started out as alien abductions, then got... interesting.

"Any luck?" Scully asked over the wailing sound of the Brittany Spears clone on stage. Mulder looked a little too smug for her comfort.

"Nope, not a single person has seen Xander Harris the last 2 days."

"And we're happy about this why?"

Mulder rolled his eyes. "They knew we were coming, they removed the evidence before we got here, at least they think they have. He's only been missing for less then 2 days, which mean we have a chance. They're still cleaning up and we have a chance of getting something still fresh."

"Despite that, Mulder, it means that someone is missing, and knowing your cases, in trouble. We need to touch base with the local authorities and officially file him as missing. Maybe they would also have some other things, put us on the right track."

"Not me, I called it..."

"Huh?"

"I called it. It's not me that's going to inform the local police that Xander Harris has been kidnapped by aliens!" Scully said sarcastically, poking fun at one of Mulder's favorite diagnosis.

"Don't be silly, he wasn't kidnapped by aliens," Mulder said as he exited the club. "He was kidnapped by grays, not aliens. Grays are exhaled earthlings while aliens usually drool and speak in bad Texas accents."

"Bad Texan accents?"

"Yeah, like in..."

There was a load *kthump* off to the right, stopping Mulder in mid sentence. Both the agents had their Sigs out and were making their way cautiously down the ally.

More grunting and thumping could be heard, then growls and a high-pitched voice throwing non-sequitors out amid the thumps.

"Every time a ..." *kthupmp whack* "... bell rings, an Angel... " *Pow pop* "...obeys his Pavlovian conditioning..." *Olf ug,* Grrr, *Pop Thump* "...and sits to brood."

Clapping could be heard then a familure voice. "Brilliant, luv, just brilliant."

"Hey, I don't see you helping."

Mulder and Scully saw a petite blond in a brown leather jacket throw a large man against the wall. As one, the duo raised their guns, pointing to the attacking girl.

"Freeze."

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

"Freeze, put your hands up and put down your weapon!" Scully yelled, advancing to go check on her victim.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the British voice said. Scully looked over and could see the blonde Idol twin seated on a stack of crates. "We're the good guys. And that's a bad guy."

Blonde pointed across the ally where big, tall, and ugly was shaking himself out of the stupor. Scully could see his face was distorted, glowing yellow eyes and very large front canine teeth.

Mulder gave a girlie scream before dropping his gun.

"Tha's the way ta' show 'em," blonde said, nearly dropping off his perch laughing.

Scully kept her head and kept screaming at the advancing lug.

"No, this" petite said, "is the way to do it." She pushed her steak through the vampire's heart, causing him to turn to dust feet away from Scully.

Mulder looked up from the ally floor, after having picked up his gun to see the last little bits of dust settle.

"Cool, do that again. I didn't see."

"What was that... that... thing," Scully asked.

"Um, a biker?" The petite blonde said.

"It...He...er...may have been a biker but its also a..."

"Vampire!" Mulder exclaimed as he rushed to the ashes, sifting through them. He tried to grab the wooden stake from Buffy but she moved back from him quicker then Mulder could reach.

"Great, luv, not on'ly do ya' kill a vamp in front of civvies, ya' kill one in front ta' Fibby civvies too."

"Fibby, as in law FBI government agent type people." Buffy exclaimed as she sheathed her stake and walked over to a fallen mace over by a dumpster. "First commandos and now FBI. What next, the Mexican army?"

"Prefer a Canadian Mounties me self. Look right spiffy in those red surges, they do."

"I so don't want to..."

"Excuse me," Scully said, interrupting the blondes' banter, "but Vampires?"

"Sure, Scully, she staked the biker with a wooden stake and he dissolved to dust. I have lots of files on this phenomenon. It's probably one of the main reasons we haven't ever gotten a specimen to study."

"Files, on Vampires? What are you, a Watcher or something?"

"Mulder watches alright..."

"Scully..." Mulder shook his head but jumped back onto the subject rather quickly. "So you kill Vampires? Every night? Is there lots of Vampires in the area? I wonder if they took Alexander Harris."

"Xander?" Quick as lighting, the petite blonde had Mulder in a headlock; his head so far back that his vertebra would snap, instantly killing him. Mulder had a quick moment of panic before relaxing, knowing that the girl was started and obviously knew Mr. Harris. Scully raised her gun, ready to take Buffy out at her first move but Mulder waved his partner off. She wasn't really hurting him, just holding him really tight. "What do you know about Xander?"

"We came here to investigate paranormal activities."

"In English..." Buffy rolled her eyes.

"It is English, oh, right, Blonde." Mulder continued despite the two's protests, "We came to investigate Alexander Harris, the only person to survive experiments by his swim coach in High School. All the rest of the Sunnydale swim team has either disappeared or died of an autoimmune disease. We've been trying to locate Harris and it seems that no one has seen him in 2-days."

"Spike, I thought you were living with him?"

"Nope, whelp kicked me out 'ta there a week ago. After him an' the chit broke up. Said he needed time 'ta think. I've been sleeping in The Magic Box, in 'ta basement. 'Ta Watcher has a spell, keeps out baddies an' the like. They can't see in with magic or techno stuff. Safest place in Sunny hell."

"So Xander's missing! Why didn't anyone tell me!" Buffy exclaimed, letting go of Mulder. Scully stood next to her partner as he straightened his clothing, taking a surreptuous glance to make sure there wasn't much bruising or anything.

"We didn't tell you any thing 'cause the Watcher an' me thought you and Red would go all wonky. The whelp's just getting some texts of Dru's. Stuff I hid from her wos right dangerous, it was. I trust 'ta Watcher with them but not Red. She's like to turn me into a newt or something. O' course it took you 2 days to see that he's gone. A right good mate you are, hump!"

"But Xander, he would tell me..."

"Whot, that he was goin' on a secret mission for me and the Watcher, get some books to track down those Commandos?"

"Commandos?"

"Yeah, we have a bit of a army ant problem. Kidnapped Spike here a while back, did some Pavlovian stuff and now big bad here has no bite."

"Big bad? So you mean Spike here is..."

"...a biker. Good goin', luv, just tell everyone 'm a vamp why don' ya. Make it Spike huntin' season all official like."

"Oh, every day is Spike hunting season," Buffy pressed herself against Spike, using her steak to draw designs under his chin.

"You're a vampire?" Mulder approached the two to get a closer look at Spike. "You don't look like the other vampire. Are all vampires all deformed like that? Is it just him? Or are you different because of the Commando people? Did they change your appearance?"

Mulder reached out to gently run his finger over Spikes eyebrows, tracing down to his cheek, near his mouth. A bolt of electricity ran up Spike's spine. The tough was so soft, so gentle and so curious. He turned into Mulder's enquiring fingers, purring gently.

Mulder yanked his hands back like Spike's skin was burning him. The last person he heard purring, the last person who he'd touched and reacted like that was Alex, Alex Krycek. Unwanted thoughts churned in the investigators mind, thought he desperately wanted to avoid.

That way laid danger.

Switching back to the subject at hand, "commandos? They're doing experiments, on the people here."

"Not quite," Spike said, getting back to business, forcing his mind back to distracting Buffy and the FBI from Xander pursuit. "They been experimenting on 'ta demons in town. Seem 'ta want avoid the humans round here."

Mulder took Scully's elbow, leading her a few feet away, not knowing the Slayer & the Vampire's hearing made no difference to their precaution.

"Scully, sounds like the Consortium *is* here. Maybe they're trying to find a way to harness the demons to fight the grays."

"I don't know, Mulder. I don't trust them, especially that Spike person. A vampire, really, a mixed up Goth with a blood fetish." Scully shook her head, ready to get back on track. "Besides, the consortium are *working* with the grays. Maybe they're trying to learn more about them to eliminate them as a threat."

"Hmm, you could be right. Either way we should look into this. Sounds like they have a permeate base here. Maybe something tangible we can get on them," before Scully could protest, get back to the missing person problem Mulder was calling at the two, trying to get as much information as he could on the commandos and what they were doing.

Buffy mentioned that the commandos were typically seen around the college campus made over-eager Mulder insisted that the duo lead him there.

As the group started to the Campus, where Spike appeared after he escaped from the Commandos. Scully looked over at him, knowing that the bad boy blonde was just that. Bad news and he was hiding something. He was obviously lying about Xander's where about to this Buffy girl. Judging from her reaction to Xander's disappearance, maybe it was good that she and Mulder were investigating the young man's disappearance, rather then the chaotic Buffy.

Trying to catch Mulder's eye, give him a warning about her suspicions made her see that she'd probably be the only one looking for Xander Harris. Mulder's eyes were already cast to other places, dark places of hidden military agendas and old green-eyed enemies.

-oo0oo-

"Hello, anyone there?" Xander asked, his voice echoing in the darkness. He could tell he was in some type of dungeon, a cell. Though it felt somehow larger, different. Almost open air. Of course hearing his echo it may also be a large dungeon. It was so dark he couldn't see a thing, well, almost. He could almost swear he saw something. It wasn't lighted or anything like that, he just knew where it was.

He slowly got on his hands and knees to crawl over to it, wondering if it was some weird magical fire or something. It kind of glowed in this nothingness, like after images of the worksite when he closed his eyes for a second. Getting closer, he revised his opinion of it, or rather, a him.

It looked like a sprawled out body. Xander hesitated for a bit, wondering if it was some demon sleeping, intent on keeping him for a snack. But then when it didn't move, he crawled forward to investigate.

It was a man, a normal human, non-demoney type man, as far as he could tell. He was kind of cold and clammy but not vampire cold. Xander could attest to that. They put a new meaning to room temperature. No, the strange guy was probably cold from sleeping on the concrete and a bit clammy from the sheen of sweat he was covered in. From time to time the guy would shiver and whimper in his sleep, like at the beginnings of a nightmare. He'd move his hands, almost like searching for something.

Xander felt around, trying to see what was around. He discovered a door, of which the man was leaning against. Xander tried it, looking for handles, hinges, anything but only felt slight scoring of metal on the heavy door, other then the ridges, the door seemed featureless.

There was no warning when the strange man woke up, as far as Xander could tell, he was asleep and the next moment clinging to him so tightly that Xander wanted to revise his non-demoney diagnosis and opt for some tentacle demon, like Thra'tars. He was babbling so much that even years of interpreting Willow-speech didn't help.

Of course, when the man started crying, huge wracking sobs, Xander could interpret those quite clearly. That he could under stand, he'd been there himself, stuck in closets where he knew his drunken father wouldn't look, wishing for a shoulder to cry on.

"No problem, mister, I'm not going anywhere."

-oo0oo-

Next in line is...

Chad