Soft Reset
By Vanilla Tiger
AN: Five thing that never happened to Andrew Wells. Mucho thanks to Fabfor
the beta.
Feedback to fitchers_bird@yahoo.co.uk
1. Half-Life
The emergency crisis meeting at the Summers' house was interrupted by furious knocking at the door providing was a welcome break. They were getting no closer to finding out where this Key was and how to stop Glory getting her skanky but well-manicured hands on it than ever.
Well, it had been welcome until Buffy saw just who it was.
"Tucker Wells," she greeted him with obvious insincerity. "I'm so sorry, but I'm a little too busy to deal with you and your psychopathic issues today. If I didn't kick your ass enough before the Prom, I'd be happy to schedule you in at some other time."
"It's not about that," said Tucker sullenly. He sighed and then grudgingly added, "We need your help." Buffy caught sight of some young blond kid skulking around the corner, obviously terrified.
More for the stranger's sake than for Tucker's, she invited them in. She hoped that she wouldn't regret it.
"So who's he?" Buffy asked, indicating the boy whose fear had only seemed to increase on coming inside and was clinging to Tucker like a shadow.
"My kid brother," Tucker replied as they entered the living room. "His name's Andrew."
Willow had just caught the tail end of the conversation and was obviously confused. "I never knew that you had a brother."
Tucker smiled cynically. "I don't." He then proceeded to explain the whole mess. "I figure you've come across Glory by now, being the Slayer and everything. You've probably been wondering what someone like her is doing in a hole like Sunnydale."
Giles leant forward intently. "This is about the Key."
Tucker nodded. "I had to use up a whole lot of favours to get this info, but what I found out was those monks decided to hide it in the most unlikely place."
"In the form of an innocent," said Giles, more to himself than to the room.
Nevertheless Tucker replied. "You don't get much more innocent than him. Or annoying, but that's a whole other matter." His voice contained no malice as he jerked his head over to where Andrew was quietly chatting to Xander who had gently taken the newcomer under his wing.
"I'll protect him from Glory. Don't worry about that." Buffy meant it. The gratitude was clear on Tucker's face, even if he tried to cover it with disclaimers designed to show just how little he really cared.
Such as: "Just figured I should tell you. It's not like I care if the little brat gets himself squashed by some bitch on an insane power-trip."
Andrew had started paying attention and was obviously unaware of the subtext. "Hey, quit saying stuff like that or, or… I'll use my awesome Key power on you!"
"Please. What you going to do? Unlock me? Oh I'm so scared." Tucker bit his nails in the traditional gesture of mock-fear.
"You should be, nimrod. One of these days you're going to see what I can really do," the boy warned. "Who knows what mystic forces lie deep within me?"
His brother remained unthreatened. "Whatever, monkey boy. Like you could do anything to me."
"Don’t call me that!" whined Andrew.
This pattern of arguing seemed routine to the pair. The tension slipped away as they softly slipped into their old roles.
Buffy looked at the squabbling siblings and breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God she was an only child.
2. Command and Conquer
He sits quietly on the stairs and hopes/fears that someone will notice him.
This is his house every bit as much as it is Tucker's, he has every right to be here and if Tucker uses that voice on him one more time, he'll be lucky not to wet himself. And then how would he look in front of Tucker's friends?
He could so be a wicked supervillain. He's been practising demon summoning and he's way better than Tucker is. The Slayer didn't interfere with his flying monkeys. His evil plan actually worked, unlike some so-called geniuses who keep stealing his comic books and always blame him for drinking the last of the juice, when Andrew doesn't even drink that much OJ anyway.
He fantasised about being down there sitting around the table with them. No; not just with them, but as one of them. In some alternate timeline where Tucker had gone some place far far away and Warren and Jonathan were his friends only.
Especially Warren. Jonathan will speak to him if no one else is around and the silence grows too awkward, but generally he just follows Tucker's lead and ignores Andrew. Warren, however, has started talking to Andrew recently as if he actually cares what the younger kid thinks. He sticks up for him whenever Tucker's bullying gets too intense. He doesn't say anything directly, but he manages to distract Tucker long enough for Andrew to flash him a grateful smile and run away.
Andrew used to wish that he was Warren's brother, but that thought makes him uncomfortable now.
Below an argument has started, spiralling away from the original game of D&D. Every night, Warren manages to challenge Tucker's authority in a way that makes Andrew want to sigh. "Just whose house are we working from anyway? And which one of us managed to get rid of the M'Fashnik demon?" Tucker growls toward Warren, who surely would have found a comeback if that weasel Jonathan hadn't stepped in.
"Tucker's right. Can we just leave this and get back to the game now?" Tucker smirks, knowing he holds all the advantages in this situation.
Outnumbered, Warren is left with no choice but to surrender and the game continues. As superior as the engineer's skills are, he needs to the others to cope with the mystical side of all their plans. Otherwise, Andrew knows that the argument would have ended differently.
At some point Warren notices Andrew's constant gaze upon him, and then all Andrew can see is his smile.
3. Unreal Tournament
"This needs to stop."
Andrew gazes up at the man, and tries to figure out just where he is. He cocks his head from one side to the other and watches the figure shift before him.
Warren. Dr Reynolds. Warren. Dr Reynolds.
"We are all very worried about you, Andrew," says Dr Reynolds.
"Seriously dude, you’re freaking us out here, " says Warren.
Warren is a genius in all the ways that Andrew wishes he was. There are things that Andrew knows better than him, but somehow Warren makes it seem as if those don’t really count. Engineering is harder than demon summoning, the minutiae of The Invisibles worth more than that of The Authority.
Dr. Reynolds is a leader in his field, but knows next to nothing about comic books. They considered assigning him to someone more in touch with popular culture, but feared that that might just unconsciously reinforce his delusions. Monsters and magic, superheroes and supervillains.
"God, you’re pathetic!" Warren sneers at him much later on, desperately trying to goad him into a reaction.
Dr Reynolds looks down at him kindly. He speaks gently but with surety. "Look at this world you’ve created, Andrew. You may call yourself a ‘master of crime,’ but you’re hiding out in someone’s basement with people you don’t know that well from a girl who’s only barely aware of your existence. Isn’t that just a little pathetic?"
Andrew mouths the last word along with them.
He exists in two worlds, and in both of them he is barely living. He wraps his arms about his knees and huddles against the wall.
He’s got to move on, they tell him. He’s living in a lie. The other one doesn’t exist and if he would just grow up and pull himself together/realise how many people out there cared for him he would see that. Things can’t go on like this, they say to him.
He needs to rid himself of his delusions. They tell him to destroy all ties holding him to the false world, each of them meaning the other. Warren loses patience first and storms off frustrated, while Jonathan continues to plead with him to return. His parents are there with Dr Reynolds. They hold him tight and cannot speak.
On the bench were scattered their various tools: pipes, powders, bones, blowtorch. Knives. Andrew remembered his psychiatrist's words as he came to a decision and strode towards the bench. He picked up a dagger, barely noticing how right it felt in his hand. It was night in this world, and Warren and Jonathan were asleep.
In the end, he’s always been happiest creating his own reality.
4. Mortal Kombat
Think of Warren, he tells himself. You're doing this for Warren. He clamps down on the tiny voice inside of him that points out every discrepancy between his Warren and the spirit that came to him in Mexico.
He refuses to remember the first day he met Jonathan, the early days of their League of Supervillainy, the feeling of finally belonging. He thinks instead of Warren's lips against his own and reminds himself that death doesn't have to mean the end when you live in Sunnydale.
They will live as gods when his work is complete. All of them.
But he doesn't like the idea of stabbing, and when he takes out the dagger he hesitates just long enough for Jonathan to realise what he had planned.
Only Andrew can hear Warren laughing as he points out that Jonathan had never been a team player.
Like all supervillains, their instinctive weapon is talk, not action. Jonathan yells questions, trying for righteous fury but as always it just comes out as whiny, although a louder whine than usual. The nasal tone of his voice irritates Andrew, and helps him to forget the precise details of their situation enough for him to attempt to defend himself. He tries all sorts of stories to cover up his intent but Jonathan has never been as accepting of a pretty lie as Andrew.
With nothing else to lose, Andrew tries telling the truth and is astounded by the contempt in Jonathan's eyes. He was doing this for all of them after all.
Warren's there by his ear, pointing out Jonathan's ingratitude, his refusal to take one for the team. At least not willingly.
At that Andrew lunges wildly. He misses, of course, but the battle is declared. They have fought like this a thousand times before, when life had been a lot simpler and Andrew didn't know what love could drive you to do. The only difference between now and then is that Andrew has a weapon.
Oh. Make that had a weapon.
He stares in disbelief at the slash across his chest, and the way it inexplicably won't stop bleeding. Andrew strikes at Jonathan, but he has no strength and none of his blows seem to connect. He keeps trying anyway. Warren trusted him, and he can't let him down. He keeps hold as to this thought as he falls across the Seal. The Plan, he thinks plaintively, it has to work out. Otherwise… but it's getting to be too much effort to form sentences now.
Before everything fades away, he sees Warren's face and knows that he didn't fail after all.
5. Final Fantasy
Redemption hurt.
He really wishes that his first thought upon regaining consciousness could have been something pithier, more noble-sounding. Andrew wondered for the first time just how it was Buffy managed to keep quipping through all her battles, even if her lines didn't always come up to standard.
Heroes didn't whine about their own pain, though. If they suffered, they had to be stoic and broody. Whatever happened to them, no matter how they felt, they couldn’t admit to being vulnerable. None of this was as easy as Andrew thought. He was sore everywhere.
Forcing himself to think beyond the confines of his bruised and battered body, he looked around for Anya. There she was, like a Valkyrie or Xena, a vision of beauty, passion and power. On she fought, furiously screaming about bunnies.
She was all right, then. That was good. What's more, Andrew's little pep talk seemed to have done her a world of good. Quite obviously his words had rid her of all fear and inspired her to acts of glory. He sure was one great morale officer.
Maybe once he told Buffy about this, she'd start to respect him a little more. And maybe then they could all get t-shirts with their names and their official positions on them.
Cheered by this thought, Andrew got up, only to find himself looking down at his unconscious body. He hoped this was an out-of-body experience, and in the end he would return filled with enlightenment and knowledge to spread amongst the masses. Deep down, though, he knew that it wasn't. There was no way he was going to make it back from this one.
But at least Anya was still alive, and the battle seemed to be dying down. She'd get to live happily ever after, and get back together with Xander properly. They'd settle down and have children, naming the first after him. Andrew Skywalker Harris. He liked the sound of that. And every so often, they'd think of that other Andrew and smile sadly.
Andrew hoped that they'd remember him.
He felt himself fading and wondered where he'd end up. Would he get to see Warren and Jonathan again? Would they want to see him? The momentary panic subsided, and somehow Andrew knew that things were going to be just fine. His last sensation on earth was being slowly filled with a deep, overwhelming happiness.
Redemption hurt, but it also felt pretty good.