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Los Angeles, California.
November 22, 1998
In one
sense only, that wasn’t true.
The
man who had the scarred face of Xander Harris had at that moment been in
the City of Angels, which was why Willow had failed to summon him with
her magic mojo.
But
the thing was, even though he may have had the body...this guy certainly
didn’t have Xander Harris’s mind.
When
the boy had arrived the way he did into that demon dimension, it had
caused quite a ruckus; but then everything quickly became business as
usual again, as the demon overseer “Ken” – who should have been slain by
Buffy, months before – instantly enslaved him.
The
bottom line was, in order to survive, mentally Xander had to completely
change gears. The “normal guy” of the Hellmouth wasn’t equipped to
withstand years of demon imprisonment and keep his sanity intact, much
less have any hope of escape...
But
the soldier persona of a Vietnam army veteran at the back of his mind
was.
Xander
had buried himself in those Halloween memories and instincts, trying to
remember everything he could about the POW military training. And after
about a year – or an hour – the soldier persona took over completely,
and eventually engineered a plan to get both himself and his
group of civilian captives loose.
The
problem was, now that he was free, a lot of difficulties were about to
hit Soldier Guy.
As
when he reported to the closest U.S. army base, giving what he thought
was his name, rank and serial number, no one believed his story – least
of all the Officer of the Day.
“Look,
fella, I’m telling you – there’s nobody in the service by the name of
A.L. Harris, matching your physical description. My people have checked
every computer record – twice! And that serial number you quoted? It
belongs to some guy who died in South Vietnam, during the 1970’s...”
The
military officer looked pissed. “I don’t know what kind of gag you’re
trying to pull here – but if you’re not off my base in about 30 seconds,
I’ll have you thrown into the guard house or something! Now get lost!”
Chapter 9