Chapter 9

~Watchtower~

Xander slowly woke up, and found that he was sitting at the table in the conference room, while Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Zatanna, were all in a corner of the room talking animatedly. Batman shot him a look as Xander lifted his head, but did not say anything, simply going on with the conversation.

Xander swallowed hard, it was a bit much to take in. These were people that he had always regarded as simple creations of fantasy were real, live breathing beings. And he knew a hell of a lot about them. ~okay think. I am in a different dimension, obviously one where the comic books I read are about real people… or the real people inspired comic books.. not sure which. So.. I am in a world where Batman is real… wonder if I can meet Batgirl.. hell wonder if she is Oracle yet.. if not.. can I stop that? Hmm… lots of questions. How the hell did my life get to this point, that this, even dealing with Joker, is preferable to what I left?~ Xander thought back to what had happened to the group in the six month since Sunnydale fell into the sink hole.

~musings on the past~

It hadn't started off so bad, everyone working to make things better, find a place to live, and give everyone time to heal. Robin had been pretty badly wounded so Faith was less a part of what slowly happened, as she was focused on helping Robin heal. Maybe that was part of why she disappeared when she did. He had gotten a construction job that was paying decent money and that was the main income for everyone. Then there had been an accident on the site; he had been hurt pretty badly. It was funny in retrospect; he got hurt worse in a normal accident than he ever had fighting the bad guys. Maybe that was when it changed. He was in the hospital for a week, nothing broken but internal bleeding that took a while to heal. When he got home everyone was rather solicitous of him, always there to help, and make sure he was not alone. It was nice at first but rapidly got smothering as he slowly exercised to get back into shape. Finally he got to the point where he was getting up at 3 am, when most everyone was crashed from a night of patrolling to go to the gym he had helped set up in the basement, to work out, alone.

A few of the slayers had developed crushes on him, as he was the only visible male around in the right age range. He gently pushed them off, but Buffy occasionally teased him about having a harem of slayers around to choose from. At first it was funny. But then it changed. He had met a nice girl at a coffee shop and had asked her out, and to his amazement she accepted. It was proof of his bad taste in women. While she was not a demon she was a lure for a gang who liked to rob and beat people. He made it out with only a few bruises but when Buffy and Willow saw him it really hit the fan. He understood they were worried about him, but they went a bit overboard. And it did not help when one of the younger slayers from a farming background mentioned she would be more than willing to 'service him' in a second. At first that was a just a joke, but so many new people coming in heard it that it started being treated as if it was really there, if he wanted it. Xander never asked, mainly because he did not want to know, but he began to suspect the older slayers were telling the younger they should sleep with him if he wanted it. It was the only thing that could explain some of the really weird looks he got from the new ones. Like all things, if it exists long enough, you start to believe it, and soon most of the slayers along with Buffy and Willow all believed he could be serviced, if he asked. Xander was slowly dying inside and just became quieter and quieter, barely talking to the newer slayers, scared of what they might say. Buffy and Willow had gotten to the point where they felt like they controlled everyone. None of the Slayers said boo to them, and Giles and Robin were often in England dealing with 'Council' matters. So there was no one there to guide them in a different direction. Xander tried, but when he did he got the "oh.. you just don't understand Xander, you have to trust we know what is best, after all we are the chosen ones with powers." So when Zatanna arrived it seemed like an answer to a prayer, and one he leapt at.

~end musings~

"OKAY!" that should brought Xander out of his mental fugue and he looked up at the quartet across the room. Batman stalked towards him, ending up looming over him with a gleam of frustration in his eyes. "We have decided to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you are going to have to answer a lot of questions, under the lasso, and then we will decide what to do with you."

Xander swallowed "you know the movies made you seem much nicer, I think Frank Miller had your attitude down… you can be rather scary."

Batman blinked "Movies… they made movies about us?" He was thrown for a loop, usually people being favored with his 'I will make your life hell' attitude, pleaded for mercy.

"Well about you and Superman there… they were talking about a Wonder Woman movie… but haven't gotten that far. Um.. sure I can answer your questions… one question first.. is Barbara still Batgirl, or is she Oracle?"

Batman froze shock rippling through his system, overwhelming desire to strangle the young man in front of him, Oracles' identity was probably a more closely guarded secret than most, but he answered Xander, his voice having the warmth of liquid nitrogen. "Oracle"

Xander sagged a little. "Damn.. would have been nice if I could have prevented that. Okay… where is the lasso… ask away."

Batman blinked and unfroze, ~he wanted to stop it… maybe.. maybe he is what we wanted, but I still want to know what he knows~ "Diana all yours." Stepping back a little, watching Xander with all his renowned detective skills. ~out of shape (by Batman's standards decent for us lazy Americans), one eye, young but old, has a caring nature, even of people he once thought were fictional characters, Zatanna likes him and she is not taken in easily, why him, why this young man to help with the plague of Slayers?~ Batman's mind turning over the facts he had, watching and waiting to see what else the questioning would reveal.