Gruesome ghouls and grisly ghosts, wretched souls and cursed hosts, vampires bite and villains creep, demons scream and shadows sleep. Blood runs cold in every man, fog rolls in and coffins slam. Mortals quake and full moon rise, creatures haunt and terrorize!
Pain suffused her entire being, shudders of it rolled through her soul. A bright fireball still blinding her vision as bricks broke at her back, her ribs breaking and shattering into a thousand pieces. Her lung's being pierced and shredded by her own bone. Darkness replacing the bright light and then, finally all sound seemed to fade out, light becoming black, loud becoming quiet.
Then, there was nothing but inky, cool blackness washing through her, soothing her soul and tired body.
She hung in that black pool of ultimate night for an eternity she was sure. Then, when she thought that she had been forgotten, that purgatory, heaven and hell were in fact mere myths suddenly where there was none, there was light. It blinded her at first, but her eyes strangely quickly got used to it.
It was a blinding whiteness that veiled everything, black to white like a negative image, something she was well versed in.
Then after what seemed like several years of waiting a blur formed in the blinding white light. At first it was only a dot far away, there was no such thing as a horizon in this white place, but if their had been, then it was where the dot would've been. After several eons of waiting the dot grew, first it was the size of a golf ball, then as it neared the ball became elongated into a cylinder the size of a tennis ball tube. Then it continued to grow, from a stand up bin, to a free standing pillar and once it reached that stage, other shapes were visible. A neck, arms and legs, the flash of white between the moving limbs now visible. Hair was next, not individual strands but the general outline of a classic de-mob style that seemed familiar to her weary eyes. Then as the form came ever closer, colors became apparent. First, a white robe, only visible because of the markings around its edges. Sandy colored hair and then twin pools of bright blue. Not as bright as her own perhaps, but still easily visible. Then a tan complexion and a flash of white teeth in a sad smile.
"Hello" the form said when it judged it was within earshot. The male voice echoing strangely in the white place.
"H. H. Hi" she said, her voice didn't crack despite the lack of saliva in her mouth.
"I'm sorry about this, for the wait. I've only just found out what happened. And what they want you to do now." The familiar form said in an equally recognizable voice.
"Leo?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes; Prue, It's me."
"Where am I?" Prue asked looking around the featureless white expanse.
"This" Leo said holding his hands out and twisting around, "Is a staging area"
"Staging area. What happened Leo, are my sisters alright?"
Leo smiled sadly, "Yes, they're fine. You; died Prue."
If it were physically possible she would've blanched, "Died?"
Leo just nodded.
A small half smile flickered on her face for a moment, "I guess that demon hit me harder than I thought" she said sardonically. The smile froze and gently slipped away, there was a loss in her eyes that made Leo's guts twist. A tear fell down her porcelain colored cheek and her shoulder's shook with silent sobs as the full meaning of Leo's words became clear. "Will they be okay?" she asked, her voice filled with sadness.
Leo nodded, "They will, eventually"
"They're strong" Prue said her shoulder's squaring, "They'll make me even prouder!" she declared.
Leo nodded, "I'm sure they will."
Prue looked at him for a few long moments before his others words caught up with her. "What who want me to do?"
"The elders, they have an offer for you."
"What is it?"
"They're offering you a chance to carry on helping people Prue."
"Be a white lighter?" she asked incredulously.
"In a manner of speaking" Leo said with a pained voice.
"Huh?"
"A situation is developing even as we speak. One that could give us huge problems latter on."
"Shoot"
"There's a chaos mage in a small town called Sunnydale. He's going to turn everyone into their costumes for Halloween"
"Halloween, how long have I been here?"
"Just under a year" Leo told her straight.
"Jesus"
Leo smiled, "That mage will turn someone into his costume and in the process bring about possibly the end of days"
"Wow, Armageddon"
"Not quite, we're talking about the end of space and time as we know it. That mage doesn't even realize what he's doing."
"It's the mage that does this then?" Prue asked, already figuring out how to stop him.
"Not directly." Leo said. "There are two other things you need to know about that town, hopefully this will help me get this cleared up. One, it's on a Hellmouth, a mystical convergence, a weak barrier between this dimension and the one known as Hell."
Prue winced, "That's bad!"
"That's the least of it. There's a slayer down there, protecting the Hellmouth. It's not due to be opened for several years yet, at which time, well they aren't sure what will happen. But because of the Hellmouth and the chaos mage's spell an independent entity is about to be created." Leo said, his tone grave.
"This... Entity how bad are we talking?"
Leo laughed and Prue frowned, "That bad hey?"
Leo just nodded, "Could be" he said, "However that said, there is someone you should meet." he said and waived his hands in the air. In front of him, between Prue and himself appeared a viewing pool. "This is going to be your charge"
"Cute" Prue said, "A little young though"
"Right now he's just turned 18, though he thinks he's 17" Leo told her. Off of Prue's look he continued, "He's adopted, though he doesn't know it yet. As sometimes happens, another birth certificate was issued with the wrong date. In fact the fact he's adopted is what makes this so complicated."
"How?" Prue asked, looking down at the young man who was to be her charge, he was walking down a street at night, hands in his pockets and seemed to be whistling a tune.
"Because he is descended from one of the oldest Romany houses, one that hales all the way back to Transylvania" Leo said with a grimace, "He's a born witch, though there is a seal on his liens magical abilities"
"Why?" Prue said, a natural witch herself, the mere thought made her shudder. Then movement in the viewing pool caught her attention.
Leo followed her sudden distraction to its source and smiled grimly. "This is it" he said and with a wave of his hand sound appeared.
Xander heard the yell and reacted instantly. He took to his heels and ran towards the source of the noise down one of Sunnydale's many side alleys, his hand's came out of his pockets and they both came out with a stake.
"What's he doing?" Prue asked in confusion.
"Just watch" Leo told her, "This is where things get interesting."
Xander kept running, even as he saw the three vampires holding down a man in a sharp suit one was about to bite down. He jumped without a sound, hitting the group in its center, sending them all to the floor, including their prey. As the confusion of limbs tried to sort itself out Xander wasted no time at all in plunging his stake down with an almost animalistic rage. He was pissed off and he wasn't afraid to share his anger with the undead blood sucker's currently flailing around beneath him. Not every hit resulted in a dusting, but every hit did end up on a vampire. After a few seconds of frenzied work Xander was laying on top of the man he'd come to save, his stake raised in anger and his eyes blazing.
The man he'd just saved looked up at his young savior with a little fear in his eyes until the most harmless lopsided grin made itself known on the younger mans face.
Xander stood up and held out his hand for the man.
The business man, for that was how he was dressed hesitantly at first and then with growing confidence reached out for the offered hand. He was then pulled to his feet with surprising ease.
The two men looked at each other for a moment before the younger broke the silence, "It's not safe after dark sir" he said respectfully.
"So I guess" the elder replied with a smile, "Thank you."
"That's okay, all part of the service" Xander said snapping off a sloppy salute. He then turned to leave, coming to a halt at the older mans voice.
"Wait"
"What's up?" Xander asked looking back at the business man.
"Here" the guy said reaching out and taking Xander by the hand, he passed off a roll of notes.
"No, I can't accept..."
"... You will, I don't know what they were, but you saved my life. In my book, that's worthy of reward."
"I don't do it for any reward" Xander said.
"Even more reason to reward you then." The elder man said with a smile, "Thanks, and if you ever need anything" he paused and pulled out a business card and passed it to Xander, "Call that number. Erh..."
"Xander, Xander Harris"
"Xander, tell them you're name and I'll get back to you straight away."
Xander glanced at the card, "You work in Arms?" he asked, recognizing the brand name.
"I certainly do." the elder man said, "I was just passing through on my way to LA. That's the last time I do that" he said with a laugh.
Xander nodded, "Well, thanks" he said.
The elder man smiled warmly, "No thank you. Wish there was more out there like you kid"
Xander smiled somewhat self consciously, "I gotta go. Thanks for the money. You really didn't have to."
"I know"
Prue smiled, "Seems like a good kid."
Leo nodded, "He is, a little rough round the edges, but given time he could either be the biggest helper of mankind ever or the worst threat."
"What?" Prue said looking back down at the good looking young man, "He's just a kid"
"After tonight he'll be well over 400 years old with a wealth of occult knowledge in his head." Leo told her.
"And this is the guy you want me to watch out for."
"No, this is the guy we want you to guide and work with." Leo said.
"I thought the idea was to remain secret"
"It is, but this is an unusual situation. After tonight he'll see straight through you, so there is little point in trying to hide."
"Damn" Prue said, "After tonight, can't I go down now and stop..." she trailed off as Leo was already shaking his head.
"No, as I said he could go either way, if he stays on the side of the angels, he could be a great help to the cause"
"If not?"
"You'll have to put him down" Leo said with a serious expression. "But we're hoping that doesn't happen"
"They don't know?!"
"No!" Leo told her honestly. "The entity he becomes is masked from us. The future from 8pm tonight is totally blind where he is concerned."
"This entity who is it?"
Leo smiled, "I'll answer that; later. Right now we have a lot to get through and very little time to do it."
Xander glowered to himself as Willow and Buffy drooled over the dress the proprietor of the store was expertly selling to the blonde haired slayer. "Angel this angel that" he said with an angry tone, "Ohh Angel don't I look fluffy, just like the girls you used to drain."
He looked around the store with anger looming under his normally good natured outlook. "I'm starting to think Hyena boy was right" he murmured starting to look around the store for a costume. He'd tucked away some of the money he'd 'earned' the night before, but he'd saved some for tonight. Before the troll Snyder but pay to his plans he intended to wow Buffy with his costume choice.
His lips lifted in a smile as a thought occurred to him. "She wants dark and mysterious hey?"
A cleared throat disturbed him. He turned to find 'Ethan' sneering down at him. "Can I help you?"
Xander looked at him and then down at his casual attire, most of which had seen better days. He knew how he must look, but then his folks didn't exactly splash out for clothes that often. He had what he had and that was it. Except for tonight.
Xander smiled and pulled himself up to his full height some inches above the aging shop owner's own height, "Yeah, you can. I need a red dust jacket, black suit Gothic style. Red fedora, orange tinted John Lennon glasses and some big ass replica guns."
Ethan looked back down Xander's attire, "That would be an expensive order to fill."
Xander just smiled and pulled out a bundle of notes. He'd been 'VERY' well paid for his nights work. "Just juice me up, I'll worry about the money"
Ethan smiled obsequiously, "Of course sir!"
Joyce summers started at the knock at her door. She'd been expecting the knock to come, but she had become concentrated on some paper work in the kitchen. Her daughter and her red haired friend Willow were upstairs getting ready for Halloween.
Moving stiffly for a moment before her natural grace caught up with her she moved out from behind the kitchen top she'd been working on. She walked through the lounge and to the front door, she glanced through the spy hole and was slightly put off by what she saw, or rather didn't. All she could make out was a blood red hat.
She opened the door, "Yes?" she said politely.
The hat slowly tipped up, long hair showing and then the glow of twin orange lenses and a fanged and somewhat mad grin. "Hey Mrs S"
"Xander?!" Joyce asked in surprise, "Wow!"
The grin became more the one she was familiar with, lopsided and even though she would never admit it out loud, sexy as hell. She stood back from the door, and allowed the red clad man to set over the threshold with a swirl of his long dust jacket.
"Who are you tonight?" Joyce asked.
Xander gave that same insane little grin he'd worn before and pulled out the biggest gun she'd ever seen. "Under the name of God; To ones who have been turned into the living dead without a will. Eternal Night shall be granted; Amen!" he intoned with a deep and foreboding tone of voice, the huge hand cannon if it had been real would have been far too heavy for him to hold up.
Joyce looked at him for a moment then shook her head, "Nope, drawing a blank."
Xander smiled again, this time with warmth, "Not a surprise Mrs S it's a character from a Japanese Animi."
"Ohh, I've heard of those, but I've never watched one. So what's this character like."
"He's the ultimate badass. Ohh, sorry Mrs S."
Joyce smiled, "That's alright Xander, just don't do it again." she said tongue in cheek. She noticed that the line of his shoulders suddenly relaxed as if he'd been expecting a sharper, possibly more physical retort. Hiding her frown she turned at the sound of Buffy's swishing dress and smiled. Her daughter looked like a million bucks and change. Almost as good a costume as Xander in fact. In fact, now that she thought about it, the two costumes seemed to be almost the same time frame.
"Duchess Buffy, Wow and wow again. I totally renounce Spandex" Xander said with a tip of his hat.
Buffy looked Xander open, her jaw falling open slightly, "Wow yourself" she said, "That's some outfit. Red is so your color"
Xander chuckled slightly, "Thanks I think. Hey is willow ready, we're running late."
"Yeah wait till you see; Casper!"
Ethan Rayne, chaos mage and erstwhile friend of certain English watchers locked his front door with a large smile. Then with a manic chuckle he slapped his hands together and rubbed them together with glee, "Finally, it's time."
He walked quickly through his shop into a back room. Then he stepped up to a curtained off area and pulled back the heavy drape in a single movement. There was a table with a bust on it, a bust of Janus the multi headed Roman god.
Ethan knelt before his statue of Janus. He pressed his hands together and winces in pain. He pulled them apart his palms bled freely.
"The world that denies thee, thou inhabit." Ethan dabbed the blood from his hand over his right eyelid. "The peace that ignores thee?" then he dabbed some over his left eyelid, "?thou corrupt." Then he quickly made the sign of the cross on his forehead.
"Chaos. I remain, as ever, thy faithful, degenerate son."
Willow walked her brood up to the door with resignation, so far the night hadn't actually been too bad, the kids where fun and every house that they had knocked at had given them some candy. A kindly old lady opened the door and smiled down at the kids, "Oh what lovely costumes. Are you all little monsters?" she said with a smile at Willow who was nodding.
Suddenly Willow felt a little feint and grabbed onto the door frame. "Now what have we got for you" the old lady said digging around in a large bucket full of candy. Suddenly she felt the bucket being tugged on.
"Now, Now, wait just a moment" she said looking at the suddenly realistic costumes, "What?" she said as one of the mini demons jumped up and ripped off her glasses.
Willow started forward with a weak, "Hey" but suddenly she felt too weak to go on and promptly dropped to the floor like a stone. The mini demons gave a collective snarl and pulled the old lady down.
Across the street looking bored Buffy Summers, the slayer of Sunnydale also feinted dead away folding up onto the floor with a little sign and the creaking of whalebone. Her band of pirates all cheered and took whatever valuables they could before running off flourishing what had been plastic cutlass's but where now steel and deadly sharp.
Power flowed through the night spreading across the town, working chaos's will. The trouble with true chaos is that it's chaotic. No one, even Janus himself knew what was going to happen. It was worse when you didn't do your planning properly. If he had, then Ethan Rayne would not have died. Power flowed through his body and then to the bust of Janus, the focal point of the spell. From there it flooded the streets of the supposedly sleepy town of Sunnydale. Everything was going to 'plan' right up until the moment the wave of magic hit a man wearing red and black.
Then, it all went to hell. More and more power was pulled from the source until Janus himself actually noticed what was happening. He'd empowered the spell, thinking that it would take very little juice to actually perform. Then as power funneled straight into the dark haired man currently bowed down on the floor the draw actually became noticeable.
Xander screamed in pain as his body changed; his hair grew at an accelerated rate, until it was at his shoulders. Blood filled his iris's and turned them red. His teeth moved in his mouth and pushed the fake fangs out, real ones coming out behind them. Then a dog like protuberance was pushed out of his body, it had eight eyes all the same blood red in color as his now were. Another formed from the other side, and another and another until there were several of the freakish limbs sticking out of his body. Then the faded away into mist, but the fade didn't stop there, it continued on, taking Xander's body with it. Once his body had totally faded into mist it then sprang back into solidity then it appeared to melt, becoming as blood red as his eyes until finally there was nothing left but a puddle on the floor. Suddenly the bloody puddle leapt back into the form of a man and exploded into a shower of bats. The bat milled around in a muddle for a few precious seconds before being sucked backwards into the shape of a man again.
Then the thing that had been Xander Harris looked out on the night with a smile. White gloves flashed inside of the long duster and pulled out two huge guns, one black which was the biggest and the second was nickel plated and only slightly smaller than the first. They barked twin death and blew out two massive holes from two unlucky demons that had been trying to blind side him.
Once they turned to dust red iris peeked over twin orange lenses and looked up at the moon. "It is a nice night" he declared with a hint of a European accent, but in perfect English.
Willow searched the streets for any sign of her friends. So far, she was coming up with a big fat blank.
The loud retort of a fire arm would've given her a heart attack except for the small fact that she was, at least currently, already dead.
She span at the sound and before her brain had caught up she found herself running TOWARDS the loud gunfire. Normally, this was not a reaction she'd ever consider herself capable of, but there she was running straight into possible danger. Though, she had to admit to herself, it was unlikely they could hurt her. She had after all just ran through a car.
When she got there her jaw dropped. Xander was standing dead still; one hand out to the side, his other straight forward, looking right at her in an entirely different direction. The hands moved as if on a pulley and BANG, the two biggest guns she had ever seen shouted their death towards two demons.
She watched, horrified, when they virtually exploded into small chunks as the giant rounds slapped into them with the force of an oncoming comet and send entrails and gore spraying around their bodies even as they fell. "Xander!" she said in a shocked voice.
Xander tipped his head forward slightly and looked over at her, twin blood red eyes where there had been brown looked at her. She didn't particularly like that look, it was as if he was surveying something under a microscope. "Be gone Spirit" he said in a slight accent.
"Xander! It's me Willow"
"What do you want little tree?" he man asked a somewhat maniacal smile taking up residence on his face.
"Xander, don't you recognize me?"
"Who is this Xander of whom you speak?" the dark man asked, then paused his head titling to the side. "Xander..." he said "That is familiar to me" he continued. "How come I to this place?"
"I don't know," Willow admitted, glad she was getting somewhere and that the hand cannons he was holding had dipped slightly. "But we have to find Buffy, she'll know what to do."
Without warning both guns pointed at her and barked in quick succession to each other. She was sure of it this time, wherever her body was had just wet itself. "What?!" she asked. Glad she was incorporeal.
The man just nodded his head over her shoulder to where three ghoul like creatures were slipping into goo on the floor. She briefly wondered how two bullets had taken out three, till she noticed one was behind another.
"Come little tree, lead me to this Buffy"
"Erh, can you NOT call me that!?" Willow said with a flush of annoyance.
The dark haired man just smiled that disturbing grin again and followed her without another word.
"AHHHHHH!!!!!"
"Buffy, Buffy!" Willow said running over to the obviously distraught slayer, "Are you okay?!"
"DEMON!" Buffy cried out, pointing at a moving car as it glided past.
Xander, or whoever he currently was, just chuckled in a deep voice at that and lent casually back against a parked car.
Willow glared at him, so far she wasn't much liking Xander's choice of costume. Not even she, his best friend, knew who the hell it was but he was an ass. As soon as this was over, Willow promised to herself that she'd make damn sure Xander Lavelle-Harris got the sharp end of her tongue.
"Okay, your name is Buffy" Willow said softly, hoping to calm the distraught woman.
The woman stopped her hyper ventilation, "None but my father may call me that, you may call me Lady Elizabeth. If you must address me at all, Harlot!"
Willow's eyes blazed with emerald anger, but she kept herself in check for the sake of the situation. It was obvious to her now that they had been overtaken by their costumes. She really needed to talk to the one person that may be able to clear this up. "Look, let's go back to yours"
"My estate is nowhere near this accursed pla..." she was cut off when Xander suddenly appeared and with surprising slowness knocked her flat with a right cross.
Willow looked at him with total shock written across her face as he stooped and picked up the insensate form of Buffy. "I've always hated noble women." the dark man responded to her unasked question and strode off down the street.
Willow glanced at her companion, "I'll be back in a moment, then we'll figure out a way into the house."
She slipped through the wall, suppressing a shiver as she did so and looked around the dark living area. Buffy's mom had obviously gone out. She turned to fetch her companions and yelled when she walked straight through the broad form of Xander.
"Ohh tickles" he said with a chuckle and another maniac's smile.
She whirled back around, that had been the single most horrible feeling in her life, "How?" At his smile she gave up any hope of figuring out what had happened and instead asked the one thing she REALLY couldn't figure out. "Who are you anyway?"
"My name is Alucard" Alucard said dropping Buffy onto the couch and taking a seat facing the door. Then he crossed one leg over the other and settled back with a slight smile on his face.
Willow just looked at him for a moment, the name meaning absolutely nothing to her. "Fine, look Alucard, I need..."
Willow was cut off when a scream cut through the night, she frowned, "I know that scream" she said, mostly to herself and ducked her head through the front door. Once she saw what was happening she quickly ducked back inside. "Alucard, that's Cordelia, you must help her."
Even with those orange glasses and hat in the way, his entire body screamed, 'Why?' at her.
"Now damn it" Willow said stamping her foot.
With a tired sigh Alucard pulled out his gun and pointed it at the wall, then it tracked across the room until it was pointed at Willow and he pulled the trigger.
Cordelia was having a BAD night. The party she had been on her way too had bombed, then when she had left to go to the bronze a flurry of small demon creatures had attacked her car and forced her to abandon it the other side of town. She had then been chased buy big and hairy all across town. Not something she really wanted to do in four inch heels, but it was that or... whatever it wanted to do with her.
Suddenly there was a loud crack boom of sound, and Jo-Jo the dog faced boy dropped to the floor with half of its left side missing. Then there was a scream of rage that drew her attention back towards Buffy Summer's house. With little else to do she ran across to it, hoping the bottle blonde would at least know what to do. It seemed she usually did in these situations. Weird seemed to hang around her like Xander Harris did.
In fact, she would be willing to bet it was all his fault anyway. She slowed as she came up to the door and saw a large smoking hole in it and then jumped slightly when Willow walked through the door like it wasn't there.
"Quickly, inside" Willow said walking back through the solid looking door.
Deciding that it must have been the trick of the light Cordelia did as she was told for once and opened the damaged door and slipped into the house. She saw, upon her entry, what looked to be Buffy out for the count on the couch. Willow was yelling heatedly at Xander who was sat calmly on a chair with the biggest gun that Cordelia had seen in her life.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?"
Alucard just continued to smile at her his red eyes glinting with humor.
Willow took a long steadying breath and turned back to Cordelia, "Okay, your name is Cordelia and you're not a..." she trailed off when she looked at her costume, "Cat?!"
"And you went mental; when?" Cordelia asked looking at Xander and wondering just how this was his fault this time. He wasn't sat like Xander, in fact there was an air of danger about him now that thrilled and scared her in one swoop. She shook of those thoughts and turned back to the spluttering Willow as she went on about costumes.
Rupert Giles, watcher and librarian, spat his tea over the desk as Willow waltzed through the wall like it was a perfectly normal thing to do.
"Willow, what the devil..."
"No time" willow cut in with uncharacteristic sharpness, "Everyone has been turned into their costumes for the night" she said curtly, "We NEED to stop it now"
"Calm yourself for a moment, now how did you come to this conclusion?" Giles said.
"Did you not SEE me walk through the wall?"
Giles narrowed his eyes, "That I did, there is however no need to be quite so rude about it."
Willow took a few long breaths, "Sorry, it's just that Xander in his current guise is driving me up the wall!"
"Who did he go as, and for that matter where is Buffy!?"
"Buffy is out for the count after Xander floored her. He say's his name is Alucard"
Giles sort of shrugged, "The name means nothing to me, other than it?s..." he trailed off blanching white, "Dracula inverted"
Willow suddenly paled as well, "That explains walking through walls" she said, then shook her head to clear it, "That doesn't matter, we just need to stop this and worry about the stupidity of dressing like a vampire latter"
Giles nodded, "That's true, now; where did you get you're costumes?"
"Ethan's" Willow replied. "Except Cordelia, she got her's from Party town"
"Is she her costume?
Willow shook her head, "No, she's still Cordelia." Willow said and continued to herself, "Unfortunately"
"Ethan's..." Giles said trailing off his face becoming set, "Where, perchance is this shop?"
Willow looked a little worried at the expression on his face but otherwise ignored it, "I'll show you"
"No!" Giles said sternly, "Just tell me and get back to Buffy and the others."
Willow nodded and set out to do just that.
BANG!
Cordelia was entranced, whoever Xander was, currently, was one scary dude. He wasn't even looking where he was shooting those damn huge guns, instead just popping off round after round into the walls and demons that stood beyond that point. The only odd thing was he wasn't shooting the smaller ones, they were left unchecked. But she had to be honest, a quick wrap around the head with the baseball bat she'd found and they were no longer any sort of problem.
BANG!
Angel walked out of the shadows from the kitchen and was nearly beheaded by when Xander turned and pointed the large gun and pulled the trigger without pause. Luckily, he managed to duck under the line of fire.
"Hey!" he said.
Alucard shifted his aim.
BANG!
Angel looked straight into twin red eyes as the bullet flew past him and for the first time in centuries felt fear.
BANG!
"Weak Demon Trash" Alucard Spat, "But there IS something different about you" he said in a lilting accent that sent tremors of fear down Angel's spine.
BANG!
Another bullet flew over his shoulder and then...
BANG!
Another backwards from their position.
Alucard glared at the lesser being with the contempt it was worthy of in his eyes, "Why should I not kill you where you stand!"
"He's good" Cordelia jumped in, "A good Vampire" she said, prompting a surprised look from Angel.
Alucard looked at her, freezing her to the spot. She wondered if she was about to die for a moment before he smiled at her with that insane grin she was coming to know.
BANG!
Cordelia nearly lost control of her bladder, but the bullet was not intended for her.
"We need to get out of here" Angel said hefting Buffy in his arms.
Alucard just looked at him and nodded, it was true he was running short on ammo and didn't seem to have much on him. He didn't like to activate his seals unless necessary so retreat at this time was the better option.
"Janus. Roman mythical god." Giles said with a sigh, "Primarily the division of self. Male and female, light and dark.
Ethan walked in from the back room, apparently unconcerned at the arrival of his new guest.
"Chunky and creamy. Oh, no, sorry, that?s peanut butter."
"Ethan!" Giles said with a weary shake of his head, "I should've known"
"Well I take pride in my work" Ethan said with a smarmy smile.
Giles moved faster than he had any right doing at his age and thumped the shop owner across the face with a devastating uppercut. Ethan's legs lifted from the floor slightly over balancing him and sending him tumbling backwards to land HARD on the floor.
"The Spell" Giles said cleaning his hand with his handkerchief, "How do I end it?"
Ethan turned his head to one side and spat out a mouthful of blood, "Why would I tell you tha..." he was cut off when Giles's foot met with his ribs in a horrifying crunch.
With the exception of Alucard; Angel, a now awake Buffy, Willow and Cordelia backed away from the approaching vampires. They had dived into the warehouse to get away from the vampires, unfortunately, they had tracked them to their hiding place and promptly trapped them in it.
Spike Smiled, "Well, isn't this grand" he said with a mocking tone of voice. "If it isn't my grand poof Angelus"
Alucard turned slightly to look at Angel with a mocking grin, "You MADE this?!" he asked, "Why?"
Spike's smile disappeared at Alucard's mocking tone of voice, "Shut up droopy" he snarled.
Alucard smiled, as insane as always but this time there was an edge in it. "Get back over their with your little friends" Spike ordered him.
The No Life King's smile didn't falter as he just 'MOVED'. Not even the vampires in the room could follow it, the movement had been so fast. Where Spike had been standing, there was now Alucard. His white gloved hand in a knife-hand from where he had just thrust it straight through Spikes chest. The floating dust around him cloaked him for a moment, until his red eyes became visible through the miasma that had been William The Bloody.
The vampire's all looked at each other, they had joined with spike to have some unusual Halloween fun. Normally, they would stay in out of the way. Tonight, they had been convinced to come out. They truly wished they'd stayed in.
Alucard blurred from one to the other, creating dust clouds where ever he stopped. None of the vampires stood a chance. Except the last, because Alucard stumbled slightly and tripped over his own coat tails.
Giles drew back his foot to attack the Chaos Mage once again, who held up a hand and croaked, "The Bust, destroy the bust."
Giles let the kick rip anyway, sending Ethan into the land of nod. Then with a nasty smile he moved over to the Bust of Janus and lofted it high over his head and brought it back down throwing it to the floor.
As it cracked and exploded apart the energy it was channeling exploded from it, leaping from the spot on the floor of its demise straight over to Ethan. He lasted 10 seconds under the onslaught of so much power before his body was atomized before Giles's shocked eyes. With the caster and main focal point removed the energy leaked out into the atmosphere, sending up a green lightning fork which bounced off of the clouds and streaked back to earth.
As Alucard stood the roof above his head was blown away in a single nanosecond and he was pummeled by the lightning bolt, green energy infused into his body and earthed into the floor all around him. Once the bolt disappeared, he was left standing, smoking slightly but none the worse for wear.
Buffy stood removing her wig and looked around, testing her jaw, "Who hit me?"
Giles looked down at the spot of ground that had held his erstwhile friend Ethan with shock written across his face. He knew spells, had cast them for a long time. What he had told Buffy when they had dealt with Amy's mom was a big ole fat lie. He was a caster of some experience, and THAT was not supposed to have happened.
Despite the fact that he had just been laying into him, Giles felt sorrow at loosing Ethan in such a way. Then, when one dealt with Chaos, one should expect the unexpected.
With a sigh Giles turned away from the blackened patch of ground and set off in search for his charge and her friends.
Xander looked around him, watching as the demons turned into little kids. As Wolves and Monsters turned back into real people with a detached air. He felt inside of himself, a presence seemed to lurk at the edges of his subconscious, something that felt RIGHT somehow, natural in a supernatural way. It was indescribable, literally he had no words for that feeling.
Angel looked over at him, there was a hint of knowing in his eyes. Xander assumed he could feel that Xander wasn't quite as he had been before. Buffy was also looking at him, but her eyes were angry. He assumed that someone, most likely Cordelia had told her that it was he that had hit her. He knew that Willow had told the Cheerleader on the way over here.
Buffy stalked over to him, "Why did you hit me?" she asked.
The universe hung in the balance for a moment as Xander decided what to say and in the end discretion won out. "I can't remember" he told her.
He watched the anger bleed off of her and she smiled at him, "You too huh" she said before turning back to Angel. Xander smiled slightly, he should've expected that. That she would turn back to angel.
Luckily, no one noticed that his smile wasn't the normal Lopsided Xander-Smile of old. This one held a hint of the crazy in it.
"Come on, let's go find Giles. Tell him that Spike's dust" Buffy said, "Cordelia, can you get these kids back to the school?"
Cordelia nodded and began to shepherd the kids into the open leaving Xander standing alone in the ruined warehouse.
His grin deepened slightly as he whispered to himself.
"Under the name of God, to ones who have been turned into the living dead without a will. Eternal Night shall be granted; Amen!"
Prue looked around her as the scenery solidified back into something that didn't resemble a lava lamp with a grim expression on her face.
'They' had set up a cover for her. She was going to be teaching; history of all things, but she was lucky in the respect that her time at Bucklands would stand her in good stead for that. A place had also been set up for her, she wasn't sure who these things were done, but they had been done.
She'd been trained and tested to within an inch of her life. All in a 'null room' as Leo insisted on calling it. Where down here an Hour had past for every month of training. Eight months had passed for her, to eight hours down here. In other words some time. What they hadn't prepared her for was the 'feel' of Sunnydale. It was... Disgusting to her personally, and to her new White lighter Instincts. It was of little surprise to her that White lighter?s rarely came here. When they did, it was more of a through here than actually come here. She couldn't blame them one tiny bit for that.
With a sigh and a quick look around Prue headed off towards her new apartment and new life. Her heels clicking on the pavement as she walked seemed to help her think. She had been told that she wasn't to see her sisters, and that it was a HUGE rule that couldn't be broken. The only way she could go to SFC was if, and it was a big if; her charge went there and called for her whilst there.
A noise caused her to spin around, jarring her out of her thoughts she saw the one thing she could have done without seeing on her first night. A vampire, its demonic form showing its anger at the night that it had gone through. It was one of Spikes, but had been lucky enough not to be there when Alucard had decimated their ranks. He was however, lucky to be alive anyway, because he had been the one to impart the knowledge of Spikes death to Drusilla. He was badly burnt from the holy water and badly needed some blood to help him heal.
Prue reacted instantly, old reactions kicking in as she unleashed her personal power and sent the Vampire flying across the road straight into a picket fence and dusting on impact. She looked down at her hands in shock. She'd been told that her powers wouldn't work anymore.
Apparently Leo had been wrong about that.
Smiling slightly at having at least one thing familiar to her Prue increased her pace towards her new home. After all, she had work in the morning, not to mention a class full of kids to teach.
Xander opened his eyes which were suddenly assaulted by an excessively bright light. His ears were filled with a horrible sound that raked finger nails across the chalkboard of his senses.
His hand flashed out and hit his Alarm clock, obliterating it in a single hit and most importantly, silencing the horrible noise. Then he glared at the source of light and was confused to find it was his window. Which, was covered in thick drapes, thus his confusion. The light leaking through wasn't normally enough to cause him to feel like someone was trying to stiletto his eyes out.
He slipped out of bed and in a sort of daze got dressed. Then just before he slipped out of the door, not even bothering with breakfast he slipped on a pair of sunglasses and stepped out into the Californian sun. Squinting slightly he walked down the street wondering why everything was so damn LOUD!
"Now Miss Warren" Snyder said with a smile that made Prue's back shudder, "This is your classroom."
Prue tried to ignore his droning voice, how such a man had been allowed anywhere near the young were a mystery to her. "Ah, talking of retro-bates, here's one now" Snyder said, cutting into her ignorance of anything he was saying.
She turned slightly at his gaze and looked at her charge. In the flesh for the first time. He looked, better than the day before when she had seen him preparing for the Halloween night. In fact, he looked like someone else had dressed him. He had on black clothing, a strange mix of modern style and personal preference of his costume. He wasn't wearing a hat, nor in fact a coat. Not that it was much of a surprise in the Californian heat. He was wearing the orange John Lennon glasses and somehow had kept his long hair. Which, she had to admit, looked incredible on him.
"Stow it Quark, I'm in no mood" Xander said continuing to walk past without a glance.
Snyder sputtered for a moment before shouting after him, "Detention" and turning back to Prue.
"You see what we have to deal with!" he said, not noticing Prue's amusement nor the bird Xander had flipped him.
Snyder just continued his rant leaving Prue to wonder if the guy ever shut up.
Xander walked into the library and glanced around, the sounds of breathing hit his ears like a gale force wind and he turned towards the source of the sound. He saw Jenny Calender sat on a desk, one leg crossed over the other. The scent of her filled his nostrils and the vitality of her life force blinded his senses for a moment. He could hear her heart beat. It was then that Xander truly realized that he'd been given an upgrade. Last night had been last night, he'd wondered if he'd dreamed the whole thing. Now, it seemed, he had proof that he hadn't. Unless it was normal to want to bite his favourite teacher.
"Hello Xander" Jenny said with that smoky voice he'd always found so attractive about her.
He smiled slightly, a strange half smile that flashed an elongated canine.
Jenny frowned, "You've still got some of your costume on" she said after a moment, "Get up in a rush did we?"
Xander laughed slightly, a baritone chuckle that wasn't of the norm for him and that sent a thrill through Jenny's body. Now that she came to think about it, he was holding himself differently as well. There was confidence in his stance, power in the set of his body. His entire being seemed ready to explode into action, whilst at the same time being totally relaxed.
"Are you okay Xander?" Jenny asked slipping off of the desk and sauntering towards him.
"Yeah, well, maybe" he said looking around with a pensive expression.
"What's the matter?"
"Is G-Man around?"
Jenny shook her head, "He's not in yet."
Xander let out an annoyed sigh, "Right of course not"
"I was just waiting for him. If you like you can join me for a coffee" Jenny said with a smile.
Xander just nodded still looking around, occasionally squinting up at the windows. "Damn its bright today" he said when Jenny came back from Giles's office with two cups of coffee.
Jenny glanced up at the windows, "Its not that bad" she said, her dark eyes creasing in concern. "Did you get caught up in the fun last night?" she asked, leaning back against a desk.
Xander nodded, "Yep"
"What do you remember?"
Xander drew in a deep breath and looked at the techno pagan, "Everything."
"Really" Jenny asked with shock, "Most people who go through a spell like that loose their memories."
"I think..." Xander trailed off, gathering his thoughts, "I think I may be a special case."
Jenny raised an eyebrow, "Whys that?"
"Because of who I went as." Xander said, he trusted Miss Calender almost as much as he trusted Giles. So, why not tell her is what he figured.
"Who?"
"Alucard, from Hellsing, it's a jap..."
"... I know" Jenny said, shock written across her face, "I've seen it."
Xander actually smiled at that, "Really?"
"Yeah!" Jenny said, "Why so shocked?"
"Just didn't see it" Xander admitted, "its kinda cult."
"Does that mean that last night, a true Nosferatu walked the earth?" Jenny said suddenly excited and not in a good way.
"Yep. But there's more" Xander said.
Jenny looked at him expectantly.
Xander drew in a deep breath, "Something happened last night, something even weirder than turning into our costumes. I think..." he broke off again.
"Go on" Jenny said moving forward and rubbing his arm.
Xander looked over his glasses at her and she gasped in surprise. "I think I've been changed somehow" he said with a chagrined smile.
"My god, Xander!" Jenny said eying the fangs he was sporting, "I'm so sorry" she told him with real feeling behind her words.
"Why, I'm not even sure what's happened yet" Xander said.
"Fangs, red eyes..."
"Red Eyes?" Xander asked.
"Did you even look in a mirror this morning" Jenny asked with exasperation.
Xander chuckled, "Mirror, what's that?"
"I see, well, you have long hair, fangs and blood red eyes." She told him looking him over closely.
For once, her nearness wasn't distracting him and for a change he had more important things to worry about than his teenaged libido.
"Okay" Jenny said after a long moment, "Let's think about what we're dealing with here."
"Okay" Xander said.
"Sit" Jenny ordered him, taking a seat next to him as he perched on a table.
"Okay, so what do we know? Alucard is Dracula, he was given the name Alucard by Van Hellsing himself right after he sealed his powers?" Jenny began.
"Yeah, I think so."
"He's not evil; exactly, but he's not exactly the most nice guy either" Jenny said with tongue in cheek, "So that fits nicely."
Xander smirked at her, "Thanks Miss Calender, you're making me feel so much better already"
Jenny smirked right back at him, "So, Alucard could what, change into a flock of bats."
"That weird Dog thing"
"A Hell hound"
"That weird Multi headed dog thing"
"Not sure what the hell that was." Jenny admitted with a laugh.
"Mist, he can change into mist" Xander said remembering.
"Yeah, and he's big with magic" Jenny said.
"He can come back from pretty much anything!" Xander said getting into it now.
"He also needs to drink medical blood, which I'm guessing means human donated blood."
Xander's face fell, "Oh yeah, Yuk!"
Jenny clicked her fingers, "He can tele-port"
"Move stuff with his mind" Xander said, "All of which, is why I think he's cool and dressed like him in the first place. Well, sort of."
"Buffy?" Jenny asked.
"Where?" Xander said looking around.
"No I meant..." Jenny trailed off at his grin, "Funny"
"Yes, it was. But I realized something last night."
"Oh?"
"Buffy and me; we're never going to happen. She's so into dead-boy it ain't real." Xander said with a sigh, "And truth be told. I'm kinda moving on." Then he smiled insanely at her, "Maybe into older women"
Jenny smiled back at him, and tossed him a wink, "In your dreams."
"Every single night my white wave" Xander said with a chuckle. "So, now we know what we're dealing with, what do I do?"
"See if you can manifest any of those powers"
"O...Kay" Xander said with a nod, "What first?"
Jenny shrugged, "Mist?" Then she frowned, "How do you know Jenny which is short for Jennifer which basically equates to White Wave?"
Xander opened and closed his mouth a few times, "Ahh hell" he said eventually, "Seems I picked up more than the possibility of a few abilities then"
"Mist" Jenny said with certainty, "Try mist"
Giles walked into his library and stopped dead.
"Jenny?" he asked stunned, "What the devil is going on?"
Jenny looked up from absently petting the HUGE dog that was draped across her lap, its tongue hanging out from between massive canines. Unlike Alucard's hellhound, Xander's had only two eyes, but they were red, which was more than enough to freak out the normally unflappable Giles. "Hey Rupert" she said with a cheeky grin.
"What in gods name is that?"
"This, it's just a dog" Jenny said innocently. Tickling it behind the ears and causing Xander to groan or in this state whine pitifully.
"How did it get in here?" Giles asked, "And why are its eyes red?"
"It walked, and I have no idea"
"Jenny, come away, it could be demonic"
Xander yawned widely, flashing lots of very sharp looking teeth in the process. Giles darted over to the book cage and pulled out a baseball bat.
"Jenny come away!"
"Rupert" She admonished him, but shifted so she was free of Xander's lupine form. She took a stance between Giles and Xander, "You really don't want to do that" she warned him.
Giles looked at her as if she was mad, and moved around her, and swung the bat. It was meant as a move to scare off the animal.
Xander caught the bat in his mouth, long teeth snagging it and trapping it completely. Giles let go and backed himself and Jenny away.
"Rupert!" she tried again.
Xander crunched down on the bat, snapping it in half easily and did so, smiling. Giles was sure of that fact, it was certainly smiling at him.
Jenny rolled her eyes, "Come on, you'll be peeing on me next, snap out of it!" she told the large wolf like animal. "I think that form brings some baggage along for the ride, come on change back!"
The hellhound rolled its eyes and started to shift before Giles's shocked eyes.
Then after a shifting arrangement that was impossible to describe where their was a hellhound lying on the table, there was now a Xander lying on the table. Still smiling insanely at them.
Jenny smirked, "Bad dog!" she said to a chuckling Xander.
"B.B.But?" Giles began.
"More happened last night than you thought" Jenny said with a laugh. "We have an unsealed True Nosferatu walking the earth for the first time since the dark ages."
Giles took off his glasses and attempted to polish them into oblivion.
Prue looked out at her class, who were all looking at her expectantly. This is not what she had hoped for when they said she would be teaching. In fact, she wasn't actually sure what she was hoping for, but a class this large? She felt like she was giving a speech, not teaching a class. How did they expect her to be able to impart knowledge with that many students. One to one was the best way to teach, but she knew that it was also highly unworkable.
She looked at a pair of sunglasses, orange tinted circular glasses, and noted that her charge was finding this hilarious.
She was frozen to the spot, virtually stage frightened to death. She took a deep breath and then through herself into it.
"Please open your books to section 3" she said, proud at the way her voice showed none of her fear.
'Right' she thought to herself, 'that?s that started, now how to make contact with my charge!'
Buffy looked up from the stretch she was currently pushing into at Giles's insistence. Her slayer? ness kept her trim and taught with muscle as well as flexible. Giles, however, insisted that she keep pushing that ability to be better and better. She normally didn't mind, physical activity kept her relaxed. However, her SlayDar had just gone right off the scope.
"Giles" she called out, "Stake"
Giles just looked at her, "Buffy, its day time"
"Something big bad and dangerous is about to come through that door" she said with a tense voice.
Giles shook his head and tossed her a stake, until it occurred to him that he had asked Xander to stop by to do some research with him on his condition. "Buffy, hold" he called out as the door swung open to admit one Xander Harris.
"Xander?" Buffy said incredulously looking at the length of his hair.
"Buffy" Xander said with the same tone. "Can it really be you!" he told her grinning like a loon. "Tell me Buff, see any CAR-DEMONS lately"
Buffy glared at him, "Get in here, quick. There's a big bad coming." she glanced at him, "And take that wig off already."
Xander did as he was told and stood behind the blonde slayer with that crazy grin on his face. Well except for the wig bit, it wasn't like he was about to tear off his own hair.
Buffy watched the door like a hawk as Giles and Xander exchanged amused glances. "So is it close?" Xander asked leaning into her slightly his voice a purr.
Buffy shivered slightly, "Yeah, real close"
Xander chuckled into her ear, "There's some stuff you've missed out on milady."
"Xander stop that, you're distracting me. Shhh already"
Xander just shook his head and jumped up onto a desk and dropped down into a chair the other side, legs already crossed. Then he settled back to wait, ignoring the glare Giles was sending his way.
Giles cleared his throat after a few more moments of glaring at the utterly unrepentant Xander. "Buffy, Xander is correct, there are things we must discuss"
Buffy rolled her eyes, "Fine, what" she said keeping watch over the doorway.
"It's me" Xander said simply. "That honking great blip on your Slaydar. It's me, I know this because you're pinging a good one yourself on mine."
Buffy turned round slowly, fixing him with a stare, "What?" she asked hefting her stake slightly
"I'm the big bad" Xander told her, "In fact, I'm the ultimate bad next to the prince of darkness himself of course."
"Oh Xander" Buffy said sadly as she attuned her senses to verify what she was being told.
"Hey, now wait" Xander said, "I'm not actually BAD!"
Buffy looked utterly lost so Xander turned to Giles for help.
"Buffy, last night had some lasting side effects for Xander."
"Who were you anyway?" Buffy asked relaxing, slightly.
"Alucard"
"Huh?"
Xander looked to the sky, "Does no one read comics anymore?" he asked.
Buffy looked from Xander to Giles and back again, "I don't get it?" she asked.
"It's simple, honest" Xander said, trying not to roll his eyes, "I'm now the No life king"
"What's that again?" Buffy asked biting her lip.
"Are you playing me?" Xander asked.
Buffy shook her head, "No, why?"
"Whatever, it means, that I'm un-dead"
"So you're a vampire?"
"Sort of, in fact in the canon of the series I took the character from I'm THE vampire"
"Right, so I'm not slaying you why?"
"Well for one thing I've got a soul; I think" Xander told her, "Second, I doubt you could"
Buffy just looked at him.
"No, I'm serious. Alucard is/was would be, whatever, he?s virtually unbeatable in his unsealed form and guess what??
"What?"
"I'm unsealed. The only 'seal' I have is the fact I'm still mostly human, where as he was not. We're just lucky I WAS sealed as Alucard last night! He didn't like the human race much, well except for a few, like Integral and Walter."
"Who now?" Buffy asked with a sigh.
"I'll give you some research material later on." Xander said, giving up. It wasn't that she was dumb or anything, in fact she was the opposite, but this entire situation was light years beyond anything they had to deal with before.
Buffy looked at Giles, "This is for real, it won't wear off?"
Xander looked at Giles as well, he hadn't thought of that.
"I think not" Giles admitted, "Although we can't really be sure. I think this is something that Xander will have to come to terms with." he smiled slightly, "On a VERY long term basis"
Prue Warren, or Halliwell as she had been known, hovered just outside of the library door. She had been given an excuse to make cursory contact with her charge. He had left his bag behind in class. Now all she had to do was drop it off to him. She took a deep breath and stepped into the library.
Her first impression was that the library looked a little better equipped than she would have thought. For one thing, there appeared to be a training dummy out in full view upon which a blonde haired girl was wailing. Her moves slick and precise in such a way that they would've made Phoebe jealous.
The oldest person currently in the library cleared his throat and attracted the blonde's attention. Who then glanced at Prue and stopped fighting it and leant on the dummy with a nonchalant air. "Hi" she said perkily.
The elder man Giles, Prue knew stepped up to the plate as it were, "Erh ... Miss Warren, can we help you?"
Prue beamed at him with a killer smile, "Actually no, I was looking for" she glanced at the bag, "Xander. I have his bag. I was told he'd be here."
"Really?" Giles said sounding surprised. He was on two counts, if a student had told the newest teacher that Xander hung here, the students were obviously more aware of what went on than he thought. Two, that Xander was well known enough for said person to direct Prue to the library in the first place; again, it was likely the students did actual notice what went on after all. Now if only they could get the police to notice as well.
A presence shifted. It was the only way that Prue could describe it. One minute she had sensed a vague fuzziness directly in front of her, the next she was looking at Xander sat casually in a chair. "Xander?" she asked, smiling again.
Xander stood fluidly and smiled charmingly at her, without showing his teeth she noticed. He didn't however come forward to take the bag from her. Instead Buffy seemed to stiffen slightly and then walk over and take the bag from her and tossed it to his hand instead. She noticed Giles looking at her with a curious expression.
Buffy shrugged off the look, "He asked if I'd get it for him" she said, unaware that it had been mentally.
Prue dipped her head, hiding her smile as Xander chuckled and Giles sighed.
Buffy looked between the two of them with a confused air about her, but didn't comment further.
Just then the air moved behind Prue as the library door swung open to admit a stunning brunette that Prue had yet to meet. "Ah, Miss Calender. This, this is Miss Warren. She just joined us here today, you missed the meet and greet staff meeting." Giles said by way of explanation.
Jenny Calender smiled at the new comer, "Hi there and welcome to Sunnydale high. How you holding up?"
"Great thanks" Prue said in response, smiling back at the computer teacher.
"You'll fit right in here, Rupert lives in the past" Jenny said with a smirk.
"Well, I.I. wouldn?t say that exactly."
"Eww, old people flirting" Buffy said with a roll of her eyes.
Xander chuckled that dark chuckle again, "Jenny isn't old" he commented gaining a smile from Miss Calender, "Can't say the same about Giles though," he continued gaining a grown from Giles.
Prue smirked slightly, enjoying the banter and light feeling in the room. It reminded her of her sisters and the back and forth they used to share, between demon attacks that was.
"I've got to ask" Prue said after a beat or two, "Why is there a Martial Arts Training Dummy in the library"
"Buffy is training for the all state championships. It's extra curricular so they won't let her practice in the gym. This is the next largest space" Xander, of all of them, told her. The lie tripping easily from his lips, almost too easily in fact.
Prue knew it was a crock, but took the explanation anyway, "Xander, I also noticed that you seemed a little weak in some areas of history. If you need any help, don't hesitate to call on me, okay?"
Xander just smiled at her, again showing no teeth. "Thanks' Miss W"
At that Prue just nodded at her fellow teachers and left the library, deciding not to push her luck.
As she left she just made out Buffy saying, "Did she just hit on Xander?"
Blushing furiously Prue beat an even hastier retreat.
Back in the library Jenny's eyes were dancing as Giles sputtered and once again proving how much he had changed in 24 hours Xander was just chuckling slightly sat back as he had been before. Unmoving and almost invisible.
Deciding to have some fun of her own Jenny looked back from the door to Xander, "Well, he is a good looking guy" she said.
Buffy glared at her in shock and Giles continued to sputter. Xander just laughed harder.
Jenny mentally marked one up for herself and reached into her bag. Retrieving a squashy bag she tossed it at Xander. "Head's up"
Xander caught the bag without even glancing at it. Then when he did finally look at the bagged blood his heart started to hammer and blood fizz. He bit into the bag and began to drain it with gusto. He was, VERY, hungry.
After a moment or two he looked up to see that everyone was watching him with varying degree's of disgust written on their expression. "What?" he asked.
"That's gross, you know that right?" Buffy said.
"Quite" Giles agreed with a nod of his head.
Xander smiled, "Think yourself lucky. Alucard seems to feed from bag's like Capri Sun drinks either that or humans if they take his fancy. Just think yourself lucky that Jenny is standing way over there" he said then blushed. "Erh... Thanks Miss Calender" he said in relation to the blood bag and trying to pretend his mouth hadn't just run away with him.
Jenny, for her part, was laughing her ass off. Whilst Giles was back to sputtering and Buffy, was looking at him strangely.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing." Buffy said, "I was well, just wondering about that new teacher. You remember what happened the last time a teacher showed some interest in you?"
Xander winced, "You mean when one of my deepest darkest secrets was spread around our little group?"
Buffy snickered at him.
"Sound's interesting, what did I miss?" Jenny asked.
"If ANY of you tells her, I'll rip their arms off and beat them to death with them. I can do that now you know?" Xander said a fixed mental grin on his face.
Normally a threat such as that from the normal human of the group would have made any of them laugh, but considering that he was now at least as strong as Buffy if not more so, then even she took him seriously.
Besides, there was something 'odd' about his smile.
Of course, there was one person who did not yet know what he was capable of and said person slipped out from the stacks. Having used the sewer entrance he was out of the sun the entire way. Which, considering it was Angel, was a very good thing. "He's a virgin" he said matter of factly as he stepped out of the gloom.
Buffy smiled radiantly, "Angel!" she said excitedly.
Xander glowered up at the Vampire as he walked fully into the library and Jenny tried not to laugh. "I think that's a wise choice" Jenny said after a few moments of composing herself.
"Choice?" Xander asked incredulously, "Who said anything about choice?"
Buffy in the meantime had crossed the distance separating her from her undead paramour and engulfed herself in his arms.
Xander looked back to Angel as Jenny lost her battle with her laughter, "Shouldn't you be out burning on a stake somewhere?"
Angel just glared back at him as Buffy did the same.
"What do you want Freak-Boy?" he asked, prompting Jenny to laugh harder, the only one that actually got the reference.
"Why is he here?" Angel asked, "Shouldn't you be getting your diaper changed?"
Xander went to reach into his voluminous dust jacket before realizing where and who he was. That and the guns, like most of the towns costumes had turned back into their true form. In the case of his massive guns, plastic. Without the ultimate retort to hand Xander had to make to with words, "Boy I've got you beat by 200 years easy. You don't want to go there, believe me."
Angel's brow creased in confusion, "What?"
"Xander's been undergoing some urm; changes" Giles filled in, trying to stop the usual pissing contest the vampire and well, vampire got into.
Jenny, Xander suddenly noticed was not laughing any more, in fact she was looking at Buffy with a little worry in her eyes.
"...pipsqueak" was all Xander caught of what Angel has said as he had been concentrating on Jenny for a moment, there was something off about her, some sort of great sadness about her all of a sudden. Considering she had just been laughing, it was worrying him.
Xander looked at Angel, he hadn't heard it all, but from the tone of the final word, not to mention the word itself, he knew it was an insult. In a blink he was standing behind Angel and his hand started to move of its own volition, two fingers pointing into a spear and arm thrusting. Luckily he caught the motion before he dusted the souled vampire and stopped it.
Alucard was as volatile, if not more volatile that even he was, the combination of that and Alucard's basic hatred of anything that wasn't a true vampire made it even harder than normal to deal with the demonic vampire. Soul or no soul. Xander gave him, or more correctly Buffy, a break. Instead he just changed into his lupine form and growled in a hair-raising fashion instead.
Angel stiffened and turned very slowly to look down at a huge wolf like creature that was baring its teeth at him. Apart from its size the one thing that caught his eye, was the creatures red eyes.
"Buffy, move slowly away" he said with a tight voice.
Buffy did as she was told, not knowing that it was in Fact Xander, only Giles and Jenny knew some of the things that Xander was now capable of.
Giles took of his glasses and began to polish them, but was in fact hiding a grin.
"Heel!" Jenny said and clicked her fingers. Xander stopped growling and looked at her, tilting his head from one side to the other before padding over to her, causing the big bad vampire and slayer to back away quickly.
"Miss Calender!" Buffy said casting about for a weapon big enough to deal with that large animal. "Be careful"
Jenny reached down and tickled Xander between the ears, "It's just Xander" she said with a duh tone of voice.
"Oh" Buffy said, accepting the explanation at face value as she had some prior knowledge of the situation.
Angel, to his credit, took the news surprisingly well. "I'm a dead man" he said, "He nearly killed me on Halloween. What he going to be like now he's got the power and his memories."
"Dead" Buffy said matter of factly, "At least he will be if I tell my Mom who made those holes in our house"
Xander whined and tucked his tail between his legs and hid behind Jenny.
Giles looked at Angel, "So why, are you here?"
Angel looked a little startled, like he'd forgotten in all the excitement before nodding, "Oh yes, there's a new witch in town, a powerful one as well. She sent a vampire flying across a street with a flick of her wrist according to the word on the street."
Xander shifted back into human form and peeked around, or more correctly, over Miss Calender's head. "New teacher?"
"New Teacher!" Buffy replied with a nod.
"Let's not go off half cocked here" Giles put in.
"So, what say I get some extra tutoring" Xander suggested, ignoring the librarian.
Buffy shook her head, "No way. You could get hurt"
Xander just looked at her.
"Oh, I'd forgotten for a sec there. Will you, be okay I mean?"
"If I'm not, all you'll have to do is bleed on my ashes" Xander said with a mad grin.
Prue looked up at the knock on her classroom door and smiled when she saw who it was. "Come in"
Xander walked into the room, wincing as the sun facing window spilled its load of bright light into his eyes. "Hey, erm, Miss Warren. I was wondering if I could like take you up on your offer. For some reason, they like us to actually pass classes around here."
Prue smiled at him, 'Here's your chance' she told herself, "When is good for you?"
"I'm bombed all day" he said leadingly.
"Tell you what" Prue said leaping onto her chance. "Come round my place tonight. I'll write the address down for you" she said pausing to do just that, "Say around 8?" she told him passing off the note paper.
Xander took it from her with an easy smile, "Thanks" he said, "You have no idea what this means to me" he told her, the smile becoming a little darker.
"That's fine, anything I can do to help I will" she told him.
"Do I need to bring anything?"
"Just yourself. I've got paper, books and all that stuff at home."
"Thanks again" Xander said, taking his leave of the raven haired teacher.
Xander arrived outside of Prue's address dead on time, dressed as he had been for school, the only difference was the addition of his red dust jacket. It flapped in the wake of his passing as he walked down the small path to the front door. He paused slightly before lifting the knocker and letting it drop, once.
He waited a few moments before the door was answered and almost let out a sigh of relief. Prue was dressed in casual jeans and shirt. If she'd turned up to the door in an evening dress, or a sexy little Versace number, he would have been really worried. Worried about getting his head bitten off or perhaps fertilizing some egg sacks or something equally as gross and disturbing. It briefly occurred to him that his life wasn't like other peoples before he turned his full attention to Prue.
"Hey there, come on in" Prue said with a smile, stepping back and allowing the teenager to enter her home.
"You shouldn't do that" Xander said automatically.
"What that's that?" Prue asked
"Invite anyone into your home, especially after dark; not here" he told her with an intense look into her eyes. Intense despite the fact he was wearing orange shades.
Prue admonished herself, she knew that. But, it did fit in with her newbie status. Not that she actually needed to keep cover with Xander. Not once she had told him who and what she was at least.
First, she had to ease into that, it wasn't like she could just spring it on him.
Xander waited until the door had closed behind him before turning back to Prue and smiling at her manically. "So, witch huh, how's that working out for you?"
"I'm worried" Buffy said with a sigh.
"He'll be fine" Jenny told her as she leafed through a musty old book with distaste.
"You seem very sure of that!" Buffy said.
"I am, if he's got even one tenth of the power of an unsealed Alucard, there is nothing in town that could stop him."
"What about hurt?" Willow asked tensely. She had been filled in on what had happened to her oldest friend, and after getting over the minor hurt that he hadn't gone to her first, she was more worried than anything else.
Jenny nodded, "He could be hurt yes. Killed, unlikely."
"Hurt is bad" Willow said sagely, "I don't want my best guy friend to be hurt"
Jenny rolled her eyes, "Honestly you'd think he was made of glass or something"
"You're being very blah about this" Buffy said eyeing the dark haired beauty with distrust.
Jenny Calender shrugged, "What can I say, I've seen things, besides I know the character." she paused and pursed her lips in thought, "And Xander" she finished.
"Oh really?" Willow said in indignation.
Jenny ignored the tone and answered the question. "Yes he reminds me of some of the members of my tribe" she said.
"Tribe?" Buffy said, leaping on the strange phrase.
Jenny silently cursed herself before thinking quickly, "That's what we used to call a gang of us back at college and after it. One of them became a cop, he had that same steel that Xander does. He used to risk his life on a regular basis but his grit and determination kept him alive against the odds."
Buffy seemed mollified by her explanation and Jenny breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Prue did a remarkable impression of a fish for a few moments before smiling and shaking her head, "That was quick."
"Had a tip off" Xander said slipping into an Alucard type stance of nonchalant readiness.
"Okay, well you got me. Now what?"
"That depends on you."
Prue tipped her head to one side, "How so?"
"Are you evil?"
"Nope"
"That's always a good start. Why are you here?"
"That's a bit more complicated" Prue told him, "Why don't we go and sit down, I was going to tell you tonight anyway."
Xander nodded and was led into a small but comfortable looking living area. It was a little sparse, but then he knew that she had only just moved to town. He took an offered seat and looked at the raven haired beauty expectantly.
"Do you want something to drink?" she asked feeling more than a little nervous under his intense gaze.
Xander nodded again, still not speaking. It was one of the small changes made in him already. He now didn't feel the need to fill silences the way he had before.
Prue bustled off to get a drink and Xander raised an eyebrow at not being asked what he wanted, not that it mattered, it was just unusual.
A few moments later Prue came back in and handed him a mug and sat across from him with a coffee mug clasped between her hands.
Xander looked down at the liquid refreshment he'd been given and almost dropped it. It was as well he didn't. Blood took a lot of washing out.
Jenny dropped the book she was perusing in shock.
"What is it?" Buffy asked, thanking god for a distraction.
"Oh nothing almost fell asleep" Jenny covered, turning back to her book and re-reading the passage she had just read in total shock.
Once she was sure she glanced around, "G-Ma... Rupert?"
"Hmm, yes?" Giles asked, missing her slip.
"I'm going home, can I borrow this?"
"Yes, of course. Do you need a ride?" he asked pleasantly.
"Nah" Jenny said collecting her stuff and dropping the book in her bag she quickly left the library.
"Strange" Buffy commented idly, turning back to the mindless research they were partaking in. She preferred action to this, "Giles, I'm going on patrol" she said.
"Of course Buffy, do be careful"
"How'd I guess?" Prue said with a smile, off of his shocked reaction. "I didn't I was told"
"Who by?" Xander asked, stunned but not showing it.
Prue jerked her head upwards.
Xander frowned, "The light told you?" he asked in a play along with the crazy person tone of voice.
"No!" Prue said with a sharp laugh, "The Elders"
"And they are?"
"Higher beings. I'm a white lighter, I've been sent here to help and guide you." Prue said, just going for it.
Xander chuckled, "Yeah, sure you have. So, where do you keep your meds?"
"You're friends with a vampire slayer and the idea of a guardian angel is too much for you?" Prue asked bewildered.
Xander's face became sharp. "A what?" Usually the first thing that people of power, or demons wanted to do when knowing about a slayer was to kill her.
"I know all about Slayer's, witches and you"
"Okay, so say I buy this insanity. Why would anyone want to 'help and guide' me?"
"Because you are now a very powerful person. The Elders want to, essentially, lay claim to you before the other side does."
Xander eyed her for a long moment. "Have any proof?" he asked matter of factly.
"Not really" Prue admitted, "But I'm willing to prove it to you over time"
Xander smiled, "That's not all that reassuring"
"No" Prue admitted, "I can prove I'm a white lighter I suppose" she said thoughtfully.
"Okay, but then I don't really know what a white lighter is now do I?"
Prue let out an annoyed huff of air, "This, is not going as well as I had hoped."
Xander chuckled again, "Well, at least this was a new experience for me." he told her.
Prue frowned questioningly at him.
"The last time a teacher offered to 'teach' me out of hours, she tried to eat me." he admitted with a laugh.
Prue laughed with him but was more than a little weirder out that he found it so damn funny. "Look bottom line, I'm here to help you.
It's up to you if you take that help."
"I'll take any help I can get" Xander admitted, "What can you do for me?"
"Help you to learn magic"
"I can't do magic."
"That was only true until the spell, it lifted the seal on your magic."
"Oh Alucard stuff, okay that makes sense I guess."
"Not what I meant. The spell, when it lifted the seal on Alucard due to no Hellsing's around to be the focal point. It lifted the seal on YOUR magic as well. You're a born magician, or witch. Whichever you prefer."
"What?" Xander said not even trying to hide his stunned expression this time. "My family is about as magical as my sneakers"
"Your REAL family is very magical. Or they were anyway."
"Real family?" Xander asked, "You do know a lot about me don't you?" he asked rhetorically.
Prue just nodded.
Xander sat back, relaxing in the Alucard way. Legs crossed eyes intent and body immobile. "Okay Miss Warren..."
"... Prue... at least out of school you can call me Prue."
"... Prue... Say I'm being talked around, and that I believe you can teach ME, of all people magic, what else?"
"I'm here to be a sort of guide. I know, personally, what can happen if you abuse your powers. My sisters and I saw the consequences of our actions luckily and learnt from that. I hope, with my help, you never have to worry about that. I can help you stay on the side of the angels, and believe me with the power you're now packing, it's so easy to fall to the dark side."
Xander smiled at the reference, "Okay, let's try this on a trial basis." he said, it wasn't like he had anything to loose. If it turned out that this Prue was playing him, then he'd put her back into whatever hole she'd crawled out of. If, however, she was on the level it was just more help for their team.
"There is one catch" Prue said slowly. "I'm not even sure it's possible. It certainly didn't work out well with us." she paused, realizing she was babbling slightly, but the sheer presence that Xander now exuded was; heady to say the least.
"Go on?"
"You can't tell your friends about me. I've only been allowed to tell you, because, well, they knew you'd figure it out anyway."
"It wasn't me that twigged you were a witch"
"No, but given time with your new abilities you would've. If not for your 'source' you would never have found out."
"Huh, you're probably right. Okay, I haven't got a problem with that on one condition."
"Shoot"
"If we need help, major help, I can call you in. I'll tell the guys that you checked out, that you are a witch but of the good variety and just want to be left to yourself. That will make them happy. But, if we need extra power...."
Prue nodded, "Any time you need me; call my name. I'll be there in a flash."
Drusilla wiped her eyes, blood streaking her pallid complexion as she did so.
She had been crying ever since she had felt her sire childe bond with Spike break. It had only increased when she had been told the one who did the deed had yet to be punished. If she wasn't so weak she would deal with them herself, rip out their entrails through their nose most likely would be a good start.
Dalton shuffled into the room, his eyes excited and his very bearing was verging on insanely happy.
"Mistress" he said with a toothy smile, "I think I have found a way to bring you back to your full strength"
Drusilla smiled at him hypnotically, "Dalton" she cooed, "My dearie, you've made mummy a happy girl"
Xander stepped out into the cool night and looked up at the stars.
"It's a nice night" he commented, flashing his quickly becoming trademark, insane grin.
He walked away from the White lighter's house and quickly made his way back to the library.
Willow looked up as Xander walked into the library a smile starting on her face before it vanished to be replaced with a hurt look. She was still smarting over not being included in the earlier revelations.
"Where is everyone?" Xander asked the library as a whole.
Giles looked up and smiled slightly, "Jenny went home, Buffy is patrolling." he answered then asked a question of his own, "How went your tutoring?"
"Fine, she is a witch but a white one. I found that out through some questioning during my tutorial."
"Oh, very well then; that is something at least. Do you think..."
"That she'll help if we need it. Certainly, she has an idea of what's going on in town that I found out quickly, but mostly she want's to be left alone."
Giles nodded, "Very well; if you wish you may help us..."
"No, I'm tired I think I'll head home" Xander said quickly backing away and virtually fleeing from the Library.
Giles frowned at his retreating back. "Honestly, you'd think I'd asked him to walk on hot coals"
Once Xander was free of the school he smirked to himself and shifted forms into a flock of bats and took to the night.
It was a sound like wet leather hitting rock, and Jenny's attention quickly shifted from the book she was looking at back to her door.
Then there was a loud resounding knock, just a single knock before the quietness of her home was returned. Picking up a stake that she habitually kept by the door and a cross, also there in case. Jenny glanced through the peep-hole and almost screamed when a red iris looked back at her.
Knowing of only one person with an eye like that Jenny flung open the door, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she demanded angrily, her heart still flapping around in her chest.
Xander smirked at her, "Hello Miss Calender"
Jenny sighed, "You may as well call me Jenny; you've been doing it all day after all" she said, stepping back from the door and allowing him entrance. Being who he was, Xander needed no invite.
He stepped through the threshold and smiled at her, "Sorry for stopping by so late" he told her.
"That's okay, but I was..." she glanced back at where a computer was scrolling through a document written in an ancient language.
"Huh" Xander said walking over to the PC, "Not of the Dead, nor or the living" he intoned reading straight from the document.
Jenny paled, "You can read that?"
"Yeah" Xander said, "It's an Alucard thing." then he frowned, "What I want to know though is why you have Angel's soul curse?"
Jenny paled further as Xander walked towards her, "The elders of the tribe that cursed angel would never have let an outsider have this?"
She backed up against her own sofa and dropped down sitting in it, looking up and the angry lord of vampires with fear.
"Who are you?" he asked her sternly. Taking off his glasses so that his Red eyed glare had its full intimidating effect.
"Janna Kalderash" she answered without realizing it. Her mouth running away with her, at Xander's hypnotic insistence.
Xander smiled, "Kalderash..." he whispered, a fleeting memory passing through his mind, fed by Alucard's memories. "They hail from Wallachia, between the Carpathian Mountains, the Danube and the Black Sea." his fangs flashed, "They served me well" he continued his voice taking on a thick hint of accent.
Jenny was frozen to the spot, suddenly remembering just how scary the character of Alucard really was and wishing she'd left the door closed. This wasn't supposed to happen, she was supposed to remain incognito. She was also a little stunned that even in fiction, her people's ties with the old country still haunted them.
"Janna" he said, that accent still in place, his eyes blazing blood red, "Why are you here?"
"Angelus" she was forced to answer.
Xander nodded, "Of course, it was you who cursed him. Your people anyway. You come to make sure the curse holds? You Romany, I love you dedication to vengeance." he told her with that mad smile of his.
"But that's not what I want" Jenny told him. "It makes no sense"
Xander titled his head, "How so?"
"The curse can be lifted if he is allowed to feel even a fleeting moment of true happiness."
Xander sighed, "Idiots!"
Jenny had to agree with that one, and since Alucard or rather Dracula was even now their monarch... She couldn't take umbrage at his tone either.
"That's what I'm trying to do, I'm trying to find a way to lock Angel's soul in place."
Xander turned and looked at the scrolling text, "I can translate that for you if it helps?"
Jenny smiled at him, and the fact that he had relaxed enough to regain his American accent. "That would help."
"I will do it now if you want, but first I have some questions."
Jenny smiled, "Shoot!" she said, thinking that he would want to know some more about the spell etc.
"Do you know what a White Lighter is?"
"A White lighter?" Jenny asked, "That's some sort of guardian angel I think; why?"
Xander paused in his answer, on one hand he had told Prue that he would tell no-one, on the other. He needed to check a few details before he believed her. There was also a voice in the back of his mind telling him to trust a member of the Kalderash clan as they had served him so well in the past. Jenny had also been the first one to find out about him and his new abilities and had even gone as far as to help him test them. She had also fed him, and Xander liked that she'd done that, with no prompting from him and had no qualms about him doing it either.
"Why?" Jenny repeated.
"Because, I met one tonight"
Jenny's eyes widened, "Oh, they usually don't 'come out' to people"
"I'm her charge, apparently"
"Oh, oh. Then that is even rarer from what I've read about them." Jenny told him, "Did she say why?"
"She told me that once I had come fully into my powers that I would've seen straight through her anyway."
"I take it we're talking about this 'witch' that you were checking out tonight."
Checking out had been bang on, Prue was a goddess. Not that he was about to tell Jenny that. "Yes" he replied, in an even tone.
"I see, well. You're her charge, did she say why?"
"Apparently I'm a natural born witch" Xander said with a shrug.
"Oh?" Jenny said squinting slightly to view his aura as she had been taught so many years ago. She quickly, 'tuned' out as it were, it was just too damn bright to look at like that. "It has nothing to do with Alucard?"
Xander shook his head, "Not the way she tells it."
"Well, has anything strange ever happened to you?" Jenny asked, "Things lifting up and moving on their own, people suddenly catching on fire?"
Xander laughed, "Yes, and yes. But I know for a fact that none of that had anything to do with me."
Jenny blew out a breath and settled back more comfortably in her chair, "Your parents?"
"I'm adopted" Xander said with a sigh. It wasn't something he normally talked about. He knew of course, no one else did, but he knew. Tony Harris loved to tell him his real parents didn't want him either and that he'd been abandoned when he was a baby. All of which was a precursor to telling him how grateful he should be. Like he would be thankful for ending up with the Harris's. That's just something he'd always dreamed of; not! So admitting it was difficult for him.
Jenny surveyed the young man for a long moment steadily. "You've had too much happen to you lately, it's a lot for a seventeen year old to take on"
Xander laughed bitterly, "That was something else I found out tonight."
"What?"
"I'm eighteen, just turned. My Birth certificate was duplicated in the wrong age when the 'adoption' went through. I just wonder how the hell the social worker allowed the Harris's ever to become parents. Let alone messed up like that."
"Happens, at least I've heard of it before" Jenny said mildly. Then she frowned, "What about school?"
"What about it?"
"Are you going to stay in school? You're old enough to leave."
"Yeah, I'm going to need a GED if I'm going to get a job..." he trailed off looking sad, "That's not going to happen is it. Who would hire a vampire with red eyes, long hair he can't cut and fangs!"
"You can't cut your hair" Jenny said then shrank a little under his glare, "So not the point, okay; but you should finish school anyway. It doesn't just teach you math, it also helps prepare you for life"
Xander barked out a laugh again, "Or unlife anyway." Jenny said after a moment of shared laughter. "Look, there is no reason why you can't have a comparatively normal life"
Xander, though wasn't listening he was thinking to himself. "Life" he whispered.
"Yeah" Jenny said mistaking his word for agreement, "You could get night work or something solitary maybe"
"Or..." Xander said after a pause, "I could do something totally different" he said with the beginnings of an evil smile.
"I'm not sure I like that smile" Jenny said slowly.
Xander shook it off instead moving over to the computer, "Can you get me a hard copy of this?"
"Sure, why?"
"Don't like computers" Xander told her, "Prefer a pen and paper"
"Bleh" Jenny said with a laugh, "You're almost as much of a relic as G-Rupert."
Xander chuckled again, "I'm starting to rub off on you" he told her, looking over the top of his glasses, his red eyes twinkling with humor.
Jenny's heart skipped a beat before she reminded herself that this was 'Xander' for god's sake. Instead she brushed past him to the PC, causing Xander to draw in a sharp breath.
"Ohh the stars sing so pretty like about my daddy" Drusilla sing songed as she whirled around, before flopping back down onto a chair, "He's going to help his little girl get all big and strong."
Dalton nodded with a stupid grin. Watching Dru when she was in one of her moods was hypnotic, and for the first time, she had taken him to her bed last night and shown him what books and scrolls had never been able to.
"Dalton luvee, tell mummy again who we're going to get daddy to come to the party?"
Dalton moved into the insane vampire's embrace and smiled down at her, "The Slayer"
Drusilla made a face, "Oh, nasty slayer. I don't like her at all"
"None of us do mistress."
"Then, when I'm all better and I've eaten my greens. I'm going to kill the loopy Luv" Drusilla said with an air of menace entering her madness.
"Who?" Dalton asked. He then cried out when Drusilla's claw-like nails scratched four lines across his face, unseating his glasses and spraying blood everywhere.
"Shhh, bad boy; Mummy wasn't done!" she said wagging her finger at the bleeding vampire; before smiling serenely and beginning to hum to herself.
Dalton waited for a while to see if Drusilla was going to actually continue, but apparently, anything she had to say she was saying to herself.
"Buffy; Buffy Summers?"
Buffy turned around at the sound of her name and a beaming smile crossed her face, "Ford!" she said jumping up from her chair in the students lounge and diving in for a hug. "I don't believe it, what are you doing here?"
"Matriculating"
"Huh?"
"My dad moved here, I'm coming here for my senior year"
"Wow" Buffy said her grin threatening to cut her face in half, "That is so cool."
"Eh, hi" Willow said meekly but with a smile from behind Buffy.
"Hey there, I'm Ford" Ford said.
"Willow; is me" Willow told him taking his offered hand and shaking it gently.
Ford looked at the final member of the trio, the one that had yet to speak. He was sat legs crossed and hand propping up his face, he seemed to be asleep.
"That's Xander." Buffy filled in.
"Is he awake?" Ford asked in an aside to Buffy.
"He is," Xander answered from the chair, immobile as ever. "Hi" he said almost as an after thought. Something was giving him the wiggings about this guy, there was just something off about him.
Buffy leveled a mild glare his way as Ford shifted uneasily under the scrutiny in was now obvious he was under. Xander ignored her completely instead trying to place where the strange feeling was coming from.
Then it hit him, there was something about his smell that seemed off, he smelt like... like 'death'.
Now; Xander stood and walked over to the young man and glared down at him, "Who are you?" he asked.
"I told you Xander, he's Ford. Don't be such a sleaze" Buffy said sharply.
"This guy isn't right" he stated flatly, watching as Ford blanched slightly, hiding his reaction well though, Xander would give him that.
"Xander!" Both Willow and Buffy said at the same time, "Come on Ford. Ignore Xander, he's not good with actual people!" Buffy continued dragging away Ford with Willow trailing behind them.
Xander growled slightly, causing half the students that were anywhere near him to move swiftly away, and the other half to make a dash for it. He looked around at the now empty lounge and had to agree with Buffy, he wasn't so good with people any more. Strange, because he used to be well known for it. He then noticed that he wasn't actually the only one there. There was one other, "Cordelia?" he asked.
"Dweeb" Cordelia shot back looking up from the magazine she had been leafing through. "Where'd everyone go?"
"They ran away" Xander said with sad tone of voice. He was starting to see the possible bad parts of his empowerment.
"From you?" Cordelia asked with a laughing sneer.
"Yeah" Xander told her honestly. After all, he figured she'd seen enough weird shit around them now to know that Sunnydale was weirder than normal. Halloween was a prime example.
"Why; you're about as scary as being savaged by a duck!"
Xander chuckled at that, then walked over to the seated Queen of Sunnydale and knelt before her. She raised a brow at him, "What," she asked, "are you doing? People could see"
"There's no one around" He told her dipping his glasses down and flashing her a full smile, teeth and all.
"Oh god" Cordy said backing up the back of her chair in an effort to get away from him.
"No; wait!" Xander said, briefly stuck at the oddity of the situation. Was he that desperate for company that he was trying to stop Cordelia Chase, Bitch Queen of Sunnydale High from running away from him. "I won't hurt you, I'm not like the others"
Cordelia looked into his red eyes and saw the truth of what he was saying. "What happened to you?" she asked with uncharacteristic concern on her face.
"Halloween"
"Oh god, don't tell me you still have that gun?"
Xander laughed, feeling lighter just by talking to her, "No, they turned back to plastic. These" he said pointing at his fangs, "and these" he indicated his eyes and hair, "Stayed around, along with some other stuff"
"Like what?" Cordy asked, relaxing back in her chair.
Xander glanced from side to side and then before her startled eyes shifted forms into his lupine guise.
"Wow" Cordelia said with remarkable calmness, "Now change back, you're drooling on my Jimmy Chu's"
Xander did as was requested, ending up in exactly the same position as before. Then he glanced down and noticed that her Magazine wasn't. Or rather it was, but inside, hidden away was an old looking book. "A little light reading?"
Cordy followed his gaze and let out a sigh, "Okay, you caught me. Are you going to tell that English guy on me?"
"Why?"
"Because I stole a book"
"Why did you steal it?" Xander asked.
"Well, weird stuff keeps on happening and this looked like it might have a few answers." Cordy admitted.
Xander smiled, "You're more than just a pretty face ain't you Cor"
"Pretty, excuse me I'm astoundingly Beautiful; didn't you know!" she told him with that flood light smile she was so well known for.
Xander laughed and smiled for the first time that day. "Thank you" he told her honestly.
Cordelia looked at him bemusedly, "What for?" she asked.
"For making me smile, I've been down today and you helped me to feel better. Thanks for that, thanks for just being you." he told her as he stood fluidly.
Cordelia actually blushed slightly at that, and was very glad none of her sheep were around to see it. Even if Xander's status had been on the rise lately, what with his ties with the slayer, or as most saw her the protector and having saved a few people himself. Then, more recently there was this new look of his. The long hair was drool worthy on him, even though most of the jocks called him gay for it, while most of the girls thought it was a wig. Now, she had found out that it was real, that was something to tell the others. But, despite, those facts, she would be dethroned if they knew some of the thoughts she'd been having since he had saved her from that fire and Chris Epps.
"Also, if you want to know what's really going on; come with me" Xander said holding out his hand for her to take.
Cordelia looked at it then him, before just getting up.
Xander smiled slightly and with a nod let her out of the Lounge.
Billy Fordham watched them go with a large smile blossoming on his face. He knew that coming here to find his old friend, who he knew was the slayer, was a good idea. Now he even had a lead on an actual vampire. He was glad he'd managed to give Buffy and the red head the slip. If he hadn't he would have never had the chance to live on.
"Hey Jenny" Xander said as he walked in with Cordelia at his side.
The two 'adults' turned from where they had been virtually nose to nose with each other, both looking flushed and not in a good way. They had, up until the two teenagers, well one teenager and one Nosferatu, walked in been fighting tooth and nail.
"What's going on?" Xander asked, as Jenny promptly burst into tears, her anger having no other vent.
She ignored him and pushed past the two before beating a hasty retreat from the library.
"What's going on?" Xander demanded in a harder tone.
"I don't see that is any of your business" Giles said stiffly, his eyes flashing with anger.
"I think we'd better come back later" Xander said quietly to Cordelia and backed out of the library with her his willing hostage.
"What was all that about?" she asked mostly herself.
"I'm not sure but I have a horrible feeling I know. Look I'll catch up with you later okay?"
Cordelia just nodded, "Whatever" she told him airily.
"Thanks Cor" he told her flashing his canines unintentionally when he smiled his old lopsided smile at her.
With that he ran off down the corridor in the direction that Jenny had taken.
Leaving Cordelia to fan herself slightly. Oddly enough even with fangs, or perhaps because of them, his smile did things to her.
"Hey" Xander said sitting down next to the dark haired teacher. They were in the empty bleachers out on the football field. Jenny had come out here to cry a bit, think a bit and generally get her shit together before her next class.
"I'm sorry Xander, I'm not in the mood for company right now" she told him sniffling as she did so.
"Tough" Xander told her, "This is my fault isn't it."
"What makes you say that?" Jenny asked with a sharp laugh. "The world doesn't revolve around Xander Harris you know"
Xander winced but pressed on. "It was me who pressed you to tell him about your heritage"
Jenny nodded.
"It was me who told you to tell him about why you were here."
Jenny nodded again.
"It was me who convinced you he'd be alright about it all."
Jenny nodded, then turned towards him with fire in her eyes, "Yes it was WASN'T IT" she yelled. "IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU I'D STILL HAVE A RELATIONSHIP!" she shouted, prodding him hard in the chest.
Xander just nodded, "I'm so sorry Janna" he told her, his native, or Alucard's native accent, preferring her true name. "I misread him" he found that when he was feeling emotional his new native accent slipped out a bit. "I'll talk to him" he said moving to get up.
"YOU WILL NOT!" Jenny said sternly. "That, that ass hole, I wouldn't have him back now"
Xander frowned, "Why not?"
"He said things, hurtful things. Things I'm not about to forgive.
Trumped up librarian."
Xander chuckled.
"What's so damn funny?" Jenny demanded with a scowl.
"You must care about him a lot to be this pissed."
Jenny sighed then smiled slightly, "Yes. I did"
"It's that bad?"
Jenny just nodded, "Yes, he said things about my family and roots I would never have expected from him. Things he had no right to say. He doesn't know the full story about the curse by the way. I didn't have chance to tell him."
"He said things about the Kalderash clan?" Xander asked his accent now quite thick. There was crackles of power pouring off of him, tendrils of miniature lightning danced in his hair.
"Xander, calm yourself. This is my fight not yours" Jenny said with a raised eyebrow.
Xander took a few calming breaths, but was still angry. He was at least no longer making like a pylon though. "That's not true. You're my friend, you've been good to me, better than anyone else has about this. I owe you. Besides, my memories have me protecting your clan on more than one occasion. It's part of me now."
Jenny flashed him a smile, "Well, thank you, but I'll deal with this. I think the best way is to dump his scone eating hide as soon as possible"
"If you're sure. What about an abject apology?"
Jenny's eyes were hard, "I'm Romany, I'm pissed, what do you think?"
Xander had to laugh at that and did so with a shake of his head, "Okay, I could mount his head on a spike?"
Jenny laughed then paled, "You're kidding right?"
"They didn't call him Vlad the Impaler for nothing" Xander told her with dancing eyes.
"Why?" Jenny suddenly asked.
"What?"
"You've known Rupert longer than you have me. Why are you taking my side?"
"Because yours is the right one, and I dunno I feel an..." Xander trailed off and waived his hands around a bit, like he was fishing in the sky for the right word. "Affinity, sort of, with you."
Jenny smiled at him again. He was really starting to like that smile, "Thanks" she told him. Then she laughed, "I don't suppose you want to go see some monster trucks. I've got two tickets that I've got nothing to do with any more."
"You were going to take GILES to a monster truck derby?"
Willow nearly fainted when there was a knock at her window. No-one did that any more. Not since Xander had grown up and stopped coming over when his parents fought. So she was even more surprised to find out that it was in fact Angel at her window.
""Oh! Angel! What are you doing here?" Willow asked in surprise.
"I wanted to talk to you."
"Oh, well?" Willow trailed off gesturing for him to enter.
After a moment she looked at him, "Well?"
Angel grimaced, "I can't. Unless you invite me, I can't come in."
"Oh!" she said nervously, "Well, okay, I invite you. To come in." She turned around and saw her bra lying on the bed and pounced on it, shoving it behind her back quickly flushing red.
"If this is a bad time, I.."
Willow cut him off, "No! I just? I'm not supposed to have boys in my room." she told him weakly.
"I promise to behave myself." Angel said with a smirk.
"Okay. Good." she said with a nod of her head.
"I guess I need help." Angel began
"Help? You mean like on homework? No, 'cause you're old and you already know stuff." Willow babbled.
"I want you to track someone down." he said nodding at her laptop, "On the Net."
Willow smiled, happy at being able to actually help him out, "Oh, great! I'm so the Net Girl."
"I just want to find everything I can. Records, affiliates, I'm not even sure what I'm looking for yet." Angel admitted
"Good. What's the name?" she asked, her hands hovering over the keyboard.
"Billy Fordham."
She lifted her hands from the keyboard and gave him a pensive look, "Angel? If I say something you really don't want to hear, do you promise not to bite me?"
"Are you going to tell me that I'm jealous?" he asked running a hand through his styled hair.
"Well, you do sometimes get that way." She said with a small smile.
"You know, I never used to. Things used to be pretty simple. A hundred years, just hanging out, feeling guilty? I really honed my brooding skills. Then she comes along. Yeah, I get jealous. But I know people. And my gut tells me this is a wrong guy."
"Okay. But if there isn't anything weird?" she said tapping away before trailing off with a 'look' on her face, "hey, that's weird."
"What?" Angel said enthusiastically
"I just checked the school records and he's not in them. I mean, usually they transfer your grades and stuff, but he's not even registered." she said slowly, double checking her results.
"He said he was in school with you guys, right?" Angel asked, looking over her shoulder.
"Let me just see if I can?" Willow began, only to be cut off by her mother calling up the stairs"
"Willow? Are you still up?"
"Go!" she said to Angel, then in a louder voice she replied "I'm just going to bed now, mom!"
Angel walked back out onto the balcony as Willow held the window up for him "Come by tomorrow at sunset. I'll keep looking." she told him in a hoarse whisper.
"Don't tell Buffy what we're doing, all right?" Angel said as he climbed out onto the ledge.
"You want me to lie to her? It's Buffy!" Willow asked in a worried tone of voice.
"Not lie no" Angel said, "Just don't bring it up until we know what's what."
"Okay. It's probably nothing." Willow said hopefully.
"That'd be nice." Angel said dropping out of the window.
Willow turned back to her laptop with a worried expression on her face.
"Willow!"
Willow span around and as she saw who was walking up to her began to fidget nervously.
"What's up?" Buffy asked
"Nothing." Willow said with all innocence.
"Do you wanna hang? We're cafeteria-bound."
"I'm gonna do work in the computer lab on school work that I have, so I cannot hang just now. Hi, Ford." Willow said in a rush.
"Morning." Ford said with a pleasant smile.
"Okay, Will, fess up."
"What?" Willow asked with a worried tone and expression.
"Are you drinking coffee again? 'Cause we've talked about this." Buffy asked with a laugh.
"It makes me jumpy. I have to go. Away." Willow said taking the ball Buffy had handed her and running with it.
"Nice girl!" Ford said with a smirk.
"There aren't two of those in the world." Buffy replied with a fond shake of her head as she and he walked back into the school.
"Xander, and what can I do for you?" Giles asked as he noticed the true vampire enter the library.
Xander just stared levelly at the elder, in theory, man.
"Xander, whatever is wrong with you. I don't have time for your games today so if you'll..."
Xander cut him off with a single spoken word, "Apologize"
"What?" Giles said, momentarily confused.
"Miss Calender, apologize"
"THAT is NONE of your business" Giles said, his anger flaring.
"I'm making it my business."
"Did she send you here? Is she sending children to do her dirty work now? Typical gypsy"
Xander frowned, his eyes hard with anger, "You have a problem with Romany?"
"I do"
"What?"
"I don't see..."
Giles was cut off by Xander appearing before him and then lifting him by the throat. "Talk" he suggested with fangs flashing.
"Now see here" Giles croaked out.
Xander put him down and pushed the elder man into a chair. "You see, yesterday I had to stop a woman from crying her heart out because of some of the things YOU said about her heritage. Now I don't know what your problem is, but I do know it's not her mission here"
Giles wilted under Xander's glare. Something he wouldn't have believed was possible before Halloween. "When I was in London, in my youth. There was a tribe of gypsies running a black market" he began, rubbing his throat to get his voice back.
"What were they selling?"
"Children, or rather, parts of children" Giles replied tartly. "So you'll excuse me if I don't like them"
"Fair enough, what tribe?"
"Sorry?"
"The tribe, what tribe?"
"I don't see your point?" Giles said.
Xander's eyes narrowed. "What?" he growled, "You don't even know do you? I never took you as being a bigot before Giles."
Giles sighed, "I'm not, but at the time it effected me greatly. Colored my responses to certain things."
"You're a fucking adult now Giles. Act like it and think before you say something dumb."
"I don't appreciate being talked to like that" Giles said calmly. "You are after all a student, and I a teacher. If someone were to overhear us, they would reach the wrong conclusions"
Xander sighed himself and nodded, "Sorry Giles, but I am not sorry about why I was talking that way. You NEED to apologize to Janna"
"You know then?" Giles said ignoring the order and focusing on Xander's use of Jenny's real name.
"I do. It was me who suggested that she should tell you. I never thought you'd be such an ass hole about it."
"Xander" Giles said in a warning voice.
Xander railed in his anger; with difficulty. "I wouldn't normally get involved, but she's my friend, you're my friend. I don't like anyone hurting my friends, least of all another friend. This isn't like you Giles."
"No, it's not" Giles admitted, "But you didn't see what I saw"
Xander looked into the older man's eyes and saw how it had affected him. "I can see that, but the Kalderash are good people Giles. You know there are hundreds of tribes, at least I assume you did"
Giles shook his head, "Actually, no I didn't. But I do now. I'm not an oracle Xander, I don't know everything. And after my... experiences in London in my youth I had no wish to learn anything about them."
"Well, I suggest you do. For two reasons. One, it MAY help you to get Jenny back and secondly, I want to know the tribe that did that. Because they are going down."
Giles shivered at Xander's aura of anger and general demeanor and was thankful, for possibly the first time that he was on their side.
"I gotta warn you though Giles, you really hurt her."
Giles nodded, "I will attempt to explain myself." he paused then looked at the weary looking Xander, "Thank you, I needed that kick up the arse"
Xander laughed and nodded, "Yes you did. Just don't do it again." he said with a half smile.
"Xander" Giles called out as the young man turned to leave. "Is everything well with you?"
Xander breathed deeply, "No, no it's really not"
"What's the matter?" Giles said in a soft tone.
"I'm a vampire Giles" he said with a sad tone, "A fucking vampire" he finished as he walked away. "I fucking hate; fucking vampires!"
Giles watched him go, remembering his jocular words from a year ago. Also remembering the look he had glinting in his eye when he said those words. It hadn't occurred to him, to any of them that being what he was would affect Xander at all. In retrospect, that was a bloody stupid thing to miss.
Xander walked down the one of the many corridors of Sunnydale high with a glum feeling in the pit of his stomach. If he were honest with himself he'd have to say that it wasn't all bad. His new abilities were cool and all, but he was still a vampire. Ever since Buffy had first turned up in town and he'd had his first taste of the real night life he had hated vampires. Now he was one. It was a mind fuck and no mistake alright, but at the same time he wasn't one. The 'Alucard' part of him hated these demonic vampires almost as much as the 'Xander' part did. Hated them mostly for being so damn inferior, for daring to exist and not be true Nosferatu.
It didn't help that he was also damn hungry, he hadn't eaten anything since the day before and since he'd used a fair few of his abilities he was hungry as hell.
He wasn't sure how he ended up there but he found himself standing outside of the computer lab, home of Jenny Calender. It bothered him slightly at how much he found her company to be comfortable now. He knew it was partly because of his Alucard memories and partly because he found her attractive, but then he was a young man with the hormonal baggage to go with it. The Kalderash were one of the few groups of humans that Alucard would bother with once he had 'ascended' to be the No Life King. Humanity was not his favorite thing in the world, he saw them as dishonest and had suffered betrayal at their hands. So to say that he trusted a group of humans apart from the Hellsing group was REALLY saying something.
"Miss Calender?" Xander asked softly as he walked into the room. Luckily it was between classes and the lab was empty.
"Xander!" Jenny said with a large smile, "What can I do for you?"
"I was wondering..." he paused, sighed and then tried again, "I was wondering if you had any more of that blood, and where you got it from."
Jenny smiled softly at him, "Have you not eaten yet?"
"No"
She made a face, "I'm sorry; but I don't. But I can tell you where I got it from" she apologized and offered.
Xander smiled at her, "Thanks"
"Well; surprisingly enough I got it from the blood bank"
"Thanks Janna" Xander said without thinking, "I'm..." he trailed off suddenly.
"What is it?"
"Oh nothing just had a thought"
"Quickly, call the papers" Jenny said with a laugh.
Xander stuck out his tongue and took his leave. Once he was out of the lab, he quickly made his way to the History Classroom. There was, possibly, one other person who might have some blood and save him the trouble of heading all the way across town.
"Excuse Me" Ford's voice called out to him, just as he was about to reach the class.
Xander turned to see Ford, and was hit with that strange smell again, "Yeah?"
"Can I talk to you?" Ford asked, "In Private."
Xander nodded and was led by the other man into an empty classroom. The two men looked at each other for a long moment.
"I know what you are!" Ford said finally.
"Oh?" Xander said with a smile that was edged with insanity.
"You're a vampire!" Ford said with his eyes lighting up.
"So?" Xander asked slowly.
"So!? So!? Have you any idea how happy I am to find you!" Ford said, walking around with excitement in his pace and voice. "Do you know why I came here in the first place?"
"You're dying" Xander said.
"See" Ford said pointing at him, "Do you see how blessed you are, how did you know?"
"Your smell"
"Amazing!" Ford said with joy in his expression, "I want that"
"What?"
"I want to become, I wish to ascend; to become one of the lonely ones!"
Xander looked at him in surprise for a moment then laughed, "Lonely Ones!" he asked, "Are you insane?"
"No; but I am dying. I don't have long to live." Ford said, going for the sympathy vote.
Xander glared at him for a long moment before taking off his glasses and glaring some more. "This is why you are here. This is why you're hanging around Buffy?"
Ford nodded, "It is. I'm a desperate man"
"You're a fool." Xander told him anger pouring off of him. "I'll show you how much of a fool you are" he said, his accent becoming more pronounced as his eyes virtually glowed with anger.
"Now hang on" Ford said, sensing he was suddenly in danger, "I just want your blessing; to be like you; to remain forever young."
Xander's form seemed to become more liquid, the air thick and the blazing sun outside dimmed. Protuberances appeared from his sides, his eyes became crazed and his grin grew to maniacal proportions. "Is this what you want Ford?"
Ford backed away as wolf like heads appeared out of the protuberances, which were now necks to the heads. "Immortality. Power. HUNGER!" Xander said, the last word a low guttural growl that came from his mouth and all of the wolf heads.
"N.n.n.n.n." Ford stammered, "I'll tell Buffy" he threatened.
Xander laughed, and so did all of the heads, creating a surreal surround sound effect. One of the long necks snapped out and the wolf's jaw bite at Ford causing him to yelp in fear and try to climb up the wall. "No; you won't" he said, won't sounding more like von't.
Ford screamed in a most unmanly way and ran screaming from the class room. Xander watched him go, the wolf's heads moved against him in lupine affection for a moment before melting back into his body.
Then, placing his glasses back on his face, Xander sauntered out of the room with an insane grin gracing his lips.
.:The Bronze - 20:00:.
Willow turned at the sound of her friend?s voice. "Willow!"
"Hey" Willow said, then frowned, "Where's Ford?"
"That's what I was going to ask you. He's disappeared and I can't find any trace of him anywhere. I went to the admissions office and they said he wasn't even registered" Buffy told her, "I'm worried."
"I'm sure he's okay," Willow reassured her whilst nervously clenching her skirt in one hand. Her knuckles started to turn white with the repressed need to fess up.
Just then Xander ghosted out of the shadows. Somehow looking as if he had been sat on the couch to their left, the entire time. "He ran away" he said in a soft voice that still carried over the music.
"What? Why?" Buffy asked, the beginnings of anger blossoming on her pale complexion.
"He wanted me to turn him." Xander said, then snorted, "As if!"
"Why?" Willow asked quickly, seeing Buffy starting to stand.
"He's dying," Xander said with a softer tone than before. He leant forward slightly. His eyes locked on his blonde haired friend.
"Ford..." Buffy said, paling and sitting back down.
Xander nodded, "Yep; Sorry Buffy. I know he was a friend"
"He wanted you to turn him; you said no?" Willow asked.
"Uh huh" Xander replied, one leg crossing over the other as he sat back.
"Why?" Buffy asked suddenly focusing on him.
"What?" Xander asked with a bemused smile, "Why? Why do you think. He wasn't worthy."
"Worthy?"
"Worthy, I; I mean Alucard, didn't just turn people for the hell of it. He and I sure as hell don't want to spend eternal life with Ford!" Xander said with blazing red eyes.
"Bastard!" Buffy spat at him. She stood and glared down at him. "I don't know who you are anymore!" she said. With that, she turned and walked away from him.
Willow looked at Xander, indecision in her emerald gaze.
"Go; she needs you. I'll be fine" Xander said, his tone light.
Willow shot him a smile, and shot off after Buffy.
Xander's smile disappeared and he seemed to fade back into the background. "Nor do I" he whispered to himself. The club around him at full speed, but his little bit of it seemed to hang still for a long moment.
"Is this seat taken?" a voice asked.
Xander looked up into the blue eyes of Prue Halliwell and she almost chocked with the sorrow she saw peeking over those odd shades.
The strange hanging sensation carried on for a moment before Xander smiled at her lopsidedly and pointed to the seat next to him. "Take a load off" he said.
Prue gladly sat down and looked around at the club, "Wow, some place huh?"
"It's not Vegas; but it's all we have." Xander commented wryly.
"Huh. Well, my sisters and I. When I was still, you know; alive. Had a club called P3" Prue said conversationally. She crossed her legs and sat back in the chair. Just soaking up the atmosphere for a moment. "It was the best! Even if I do say so myself" she told him with a slight smile.
Xander looked over at her, a smile starting to spread on his face, "You know; you're the only teacher apart from Giles ever to come in this place."
"I'm young, aren't I allowed to enjoy myself?" Prue asked with a slight challenge in her expression.
Xander scrunched his face up in thought, "I dunno; I mean, yeah you're young, beautiful and very attractive and all. Then, on the other hand, you're a teacher..." he trailed off with a mad grin.
Prue playfully slapped his shoulder, "Hey!" she said as she laughed.
"What's the hit for, I just paid you three compliments" Xander said with a chuckle, "One minor infraction of the insult law doesn't get me a hit."
Prue smiled at him, their eyes catching for a beat or two longer than would be normal for a teacher/student relationship. Then, as if nothing had happened, Prue looked out at the dance floor. "Is that your friend Buffy glaring at us?"
Xander didn't even have to look to know that it was so. "Oh yeah. She's a little mad at me."
Prue affected a mock horrified look, "How could it be?" she asked.
Xander chuckled again, "I scared off a friend of hers..." he trailed off then shook his head, "... I was kind of a jerk too. An insensitive one at that."
"You could go apologise" Prue said leadingly.
"Not really my style," Xander said with disturbing honesty. "I; well we actually..." he barked a quick laughed, "Don't go for the apology thing."
Prue looked at him seriously for a long moment, "Maybe you should learn to."
Xander looked at her, then nodded, "Maybe I should" he said. "You'll be here when I get back?"
"Sure" Prue said looking around, "No one my age in here to ask me to dance anyway." she added with a smirk.
"Well, I'm technically older than you. But, when I get back, would you do me the honour?"
Prue smiled at him, "Sure, if it won't hurt your 'cred'"
"You kidding. Dancing with one of the two hottest teachers in California. I'll be a hero" Xander said with a sparkling smile. Then he turned on a heel and walked towards Buffy.
Prue watched him go with a slight smile. Then she shook herself and tried to keep her gaze above waist level. The guy had the strangest way of getting under your guard when you least expected it. She wasn't sure if that was a hang over from his possession or something that was 'Xander' to the core. Either way, she was not only his teacher and older than him she was his Whitelighter. She should not be thinking about him at all, even in passing.
She watched him approach the diminutive blonde and talk for a few moments. The blonde's body language tense and angry for a long while. Then as she watched, with an ever growing smile, Buffy's body began to relax. Whatever Xander was saying to her was working. That much was obvious at least. Then Prue smiled widely as Buffy reached up and pulled Xander into a hug and surprised herself by lifting her feet into the air. Prue knew that Buffy was the slayer. So normally she decided, that Buffy would've pulled Xander down to her level. Not anymore it seemed. It was beginning to dawn on Prue, just how powerful Xander may actually be.
As far as she knew, from what she had been told at least. A slayer, essentially, had no upper limit. They were the ultimate adaptive weapon. You could knock one down, only for her to get back up and knock you on your ass. The harder you went at a slayer, the more power she could pull into herself and hit you back with. Technically, a slayer could go toe to toe with anything on earth; physically at least.
Magically, they were strong, but not impervious. In fact magic was pretty much the best way to go at a slayer. Except slayers were also, as a rule, teenagers, female teenagers. With all the hormones, emotions and fears that the condition brought along for the ride. The best way to kill a slayer was actually through the heart; and not by way of the intercostal spaces between the ribs.
With the thought of hearts in her mind, Prue found her own aching for her sisters. She missed them both terribly and the constant strain of holding herself back from going to San Francisco to see them was almost too much to bear.
A presence caused her to look up and she smiled up into the shaded red eyes of Xander. He was looking down at her with a serious expression yet with that ever present idiosyncratic grin flitting around the edges of his mouth.
"I'm back for that dance" Xander said his softly spoken words still carrying across the loud rock music. "If you're still up to it?"
Prue nodded and stood fluidly and flashed him a smile, "If you're sure I'll not ruin your 'cool'"
Xander smirked, "More likely the other way around" he commented offering his arm in an old fashioned move straight from Alucard's repertoire. Prue glanced at it with humour in her eyes and mentally shrugged, taking it and walking to the dance floor.
Xander froze once they reached it though, "Of course" he began, "There is one slight problem"
Prue looked at him enquiringly, "My old form of dance resembled an eclyptian fit, so that's out" he commented, "And Alucard doesn't do the dancing thing!"
Just then the music changed to Rob Zombie's Living Dead Girl and Prue smiled wickedly at him, "You're not Alucard" she reminded him and pulled him onto the dance floor.
Willow turned to Buffy her mouth open and a slight flush rising on her neck as she watched the elder woman and her best male friend of her entire life start to dance in a slightly provocative fashion out on the dance floor.
"She so doesn't act like a teacher" Buffy said after a moment?s contemplation. "I didn't even know Xander could dance without becoming a total spaz!" she added as an afterthought.
Not that Xander was doing all that much moving really, he just seemed to be where he needed to be to make his dance partner look good. Whilst at the same time not appearing to actually move between the two spaces.
Buffy narrowed her eyes as she noticed a small group of jock looking guys wearing UC Sunnydale jackets glaring at the couple and smelt trouble brewing in the air. Especially when the four drained their drinks and set off towards the dancing pair.
Even if it was an unusual situation Xander and Prue weren't actually doing anything wrong and were after all just dancing. So it irked a little that they wanted to get into their faces for having a good time. With a set expression she set off across the dance floor. Hoping to cut them off at the pass. Then she came to a complete and utter stop. So quickly in fact that Willow walked straight into her back. Her sharp senses probed the club and looked for the thuggish men, but there was no sign of any of them.
Prue looked up laughter in her eyes and smiled at her dance partner who was wearing that insane grin of his again. "What's so funny?" she asked.
Xander's expression didn't shift one iota as he said, "Garbage disposal" much to her confusion.
Of course, she couldn't see the four college jocks sat on the roof tied up in their underwear wondering what the hell had just happened. Nor could she see Buffy looking around with confusion etched on her expressive face.
.:Jenny Calender's House:.
The knock at her door roused Jenny from her work on Angel's curse, with a surprised look at her clock she quickly shook her head from side to side to clear the cobwebs and then walked over to her door and glanced through the peep hole. Her expression quickly slammed shut and her eyes became glittering coals of anger. The door was almost wrenched open as she glared at the knocker, "What do you want?" she demanded in a sub zero tone of voice.
Giles winced visibly at the greeting, "Jenny, I; I'm so very sorry" he said looking nervous and contrite at the same time.
Her ire boiling at a even simmer Jenny managed a curt, "You'd better come in" before she hexed him into an early retirement.
Giles stepped through the threshold and smiled a little uncertainly at the beautiful woman that was looking at him like she wasn't entirely sure she wasn't about to slap him or not. "I acted rashly and without thought"
Jenny folded her arms across her chest, her entire posture screaming for him to continue, and that it had better be good.
"It's not an excuse to say this, but rather a... a... reason for my stupidity" Giles said, nervously taking of his glasses and polishing them with a piece of cloth. "In, my erh, youth I had rather an unpleasant experience with a; a group of Romany" Giles said finally.
Jenny cocked her eyebrow at him, "Which tribe?" she asked.
Rupert winced, he really wished she hadn't asked that particular question. "Urm, I'm not entirely sure. I..." he trailed off under her increased glare, "I wasn't aware that there were different tribes until, urh yesterday"
Jenny's luminous eyes were now almost glowing with anger. "I never took you for a bigot" she said with icy calm.
"Stupidity is the root of all bigotry" Giles said with an ashamed expression.
"What happened?" Jenny said with forced calm.
"Sorry?"
"The tribe!" Jenny enunciated slowly and perfectly.
"They trafficked... parts" Giles said a flash of anger in his eyes, "Children's parts"
Jenny's eyes flashed, "And you thought that I..." she trailed off her eyes wet and her anger stealing her voice.
"No, I didn't; not truly, I just reacted with a colored opinion from my youth. I can only offer my abject and sincere apologies"
Jenny shook her head to free her eyes of the extra water and looked at Giles with a sad expression. "I can forgive the colored reaction" Jenny said after a long moment of contemplation and Giles almost smiled.
"What I cannot forgive is that thought that I would partake in such actions." she added with a trembling lip. "I thought we knew each other better than that"
"Jenny..." Giles began.
Jenny held up an elegant hand to stop him, "I'm sorry, Rupert we cannot hope to build a relationship on that sort of distrust. Perhaps..." she trailed off with a watery smile, "Friends? Maybe?"
Giles practised some of that stiff upper lip the British are famous for and managed a slight smile, "Of course, as you wish"
.:Drusilla's Lair:.
Ford slid across the floor as he was thrown unceremoniously across the warehouse coming to a skidding stop at the feet of the ethereal Drusilla herself. He looked up at her and watched the crazy loon rock gently back and forth to her very own tune.
"Mistress, this one was looking for you" the minion that had tossed Ford across the room.
Drusilla's eyes snapped straight into focus and Ford quailed from the intensity of her gaze. As quickly as the sanity had entered her eyes it left and her airy smile returned.
"Hello dearie, I do so love your aftershave" she said swaying back and forth again.
Ford just looked at her with awe in his expression and a song in his dying heart. This was more like it.
"What is it my pretty boy wants from mummy?" Dru asked sanity and madness still warring behind her eyes.
"I want immortality" Ford said simply, "I want to be like you"
"Of course you do, who wouldn't?" Dru asked pleasantly and in a blink of an eye was standing behind him, stroking his hair. Ford nearly fell over in shock but held himself in check. "But why should I do this for you ducks, what can you do for me?"
"I'll give you the slayer!" Ford said his eyes hard.
Then his expression shifted to fear as Drusilla's face shifted to its demonic guise, "But I have plans for her" Drusilla told him as she shifted his head violently to one side.
"I'm dying!" Ford cried out trying to stop the murderous intent of the vampire.
Dru stilled her motion and gave him a dainty sniff, "I know that dear" she said with a look of distaste on her face and with a sudden jerk and a loud snap; crunch Ford dropped to the floor facing down, but looking right back up at her.
Drusilla then smiled, "Someone get me some ribbon" she ordered, "Mummy's got some wrapping to do!"
.:Jenny Calender's House:.
"You called, I'm here" Xander said, as he stood in front of a furious and strangely even more gorgeous than usual Janna as she looked up at him and straight in the eye with distaste dripping from every syllable she spoke a single word. "Rakeeshi"
Xander narrowed his eyes, "That rings a bell"
"From your memories of the Kalderash I'd bet" Jenny said, "They almost wiped out our tribe when our monarch, the price Vlad of this dimension turned them on us because we would no longer do his bidding."
"That didn't happen to the Kalderash under my, I mean Alucard's protection."
Jenny smiled, "I didn't think for a minute it would. But there is, has always been, a blood feud between the Kalderash and the Rakeeshi"
Xander nodded, "Yeah, I remember now. I scorched earthed them in my dimension shortly after my ascension to the No Life King" he shook his head with a chagrined smile, "I mean Alucard did"
"Yeah well I did some checking after Giles left, those children he was so upset about were the generation before me, which is why there are so few of us now. Killed and sold by the Rakeeshi" Jenny spat, her Romany blood was screaming for vengeance. Then she pierced Xander with a cold hard look, and then rattled something off in ancient Romany that made even the newly implacable Alucard-lite turn white.
"Janna" Xander said, his inherited accent slipping back in due to his formality, "What you ask, you ask of a fictional character, you've already said that the Vlad in this dimension choose the Rakeeshi over your tribe"
Janna Kalderash seemed to fold in on herself, "You deny me then?" she said slumping down backwards onto the couch and looking glumly back at him.
Xander shrugged helplessly, "I don't know what to do. You've invoked an ancient bond with me and the part of me that is Alucard will not, could not refuse you. But he's not real, I am and I don't know if I can do;... that!"
Jenny looked at him cryptically for a long moment, "I'll give you anything you want" she said bluntly, then she stood and seductively walked towards him, "anything!" she told him looking into his eyes and making her meaning obvious.
Xander's eyes flashed angrily, "I may look like a teenager Janna, but I stopped being one a week ago!"
"You want me, I've seen it in your eyes" Janna insisted.
"Wanting and taking are two very different things" Xander said with an edge to his voice.
"Very well!" Janna said her eyes defiant, "You leave me no choice" she told him.
"What?" Xander started to ask before a warm liquid was splashed across his face as Janna slid a razor sharp knife across her palm and flicked the blood in his face.
"Qui Qui, Mustum Absque" she chanted in a low voice that seemed to come from a much larger throat than she in fact owned.
She finished chanting as a wind started to whip around the small living room, "The Kalderash must have their monarch back!" she said with a sad look in her eye.
"I'm sorry Xander, I really did like you. I wish you'd taken my offer." she then gave a sad laugh, "It would've been much more pleasurable for us both."
She told him as the room dimmed around her until she was the last thing that Xander could see. Then she faded too and blackness took him, yet even as he slipped over the edge of that abyss he managed to yell a single word. "PRUE!"
Across town Prue jerked in the shower as hot suds entered her eyes from her hair and water slick hair flapped around her head. "Oh shit!" she yelled up at the ceiling.
Diving out of the shower to her bedroom she searched around for something to throw on trying to see past stinging eyes and soap suds.
"Bet Leo never has this trouble" she grouched to herself before giving up and grabbing a robe and disappearing in a cascade of blue lights.
Janna had time to sigh and drop to the floor into a slouched lotus position before heavenly lights appeared from nowhere and deposited an enrobed Prue in her living room.
Prue looked around seeing a prone Xander and then glancing around, "Hi" she said seeing Jenny Calender, one of the people that she had been told was on the side of the angels.
Jenny/Janna didn't even look at her, "Hey" she said listlessly.
"Do you know what's happened?" Prue said take charge attitude evident even wearing a robe and still wet from the shower.
"Yes" Janna said simply, "I've killed a friend" she said in a dead voice, "But vengeance must be served" she added with a hollow laugh.
"Killed!" Prue said reaching out to her charge with her senses and white lighter abilities and finding that he registered as he always had to her. Which wasn't necessarily a good thing of course. She had to try anyway and knelt at his side. "No Jenny he's still alive" she said holding her hands out over him a soft white glow emitting from her palms.
"That's not Xander anymore" Jenny said blankly.
"Oh, Jenny snap out of it, who is it. What have you done?"
Jenny blinked back tears and looked into the flashing blue eyes of Prue, "I've brought him back"
"Who brought who back?" Prue said, running her hands up and down Xander's prone form, trying to heal, trying to sense, anything but sit there uselessly.
"Dracula" Janna Kalderash said, "Prince Vlad Teppes, Monarch of Wallachia and the lord of the Kalderash Tribe. The only one who will hear my call to arms, to the blood oath bond we share"
Prue blanched, which with her complexion made her almost translucent. "What do you mean?"
"I've found them" Janna said her eyes burning and her teeth flashing, "I've finally found the Bastards that decimated my tribe for two hundred years and only Alucard can help me."
"You're not making any sense" Prue said, she concentrated on Xander's inert face and watched his eyes move around behind his closed lids. "It's like he's asleep"
"Not for long, then I'll have to pay the price of vengeance, but the tribe will be avenged"
"Now what are you babbling about?" Prue snapped at her, then looked back at Xander, "But Officer, She seemed like such a nice quiet school teacher" she mumbled to herself.
Click, Click, click, shuffle.
Swoosh, and the movement of air were Xander's first clue that he wasn't in Kansas anymore. A pair of hands gently but firmly grasped his lapels and forced him into a sitting position. He opened his eyes and looked directly into an almost matching set of blazing red irises.
"Hello young one" Alucard said with an insane smile.
"Holy fuck!" Xander said snapping wide awake, "This, this can't be happening. Can it?"
Alucard smiled and stood smoothly and looked down at him. A white gloved hand reached down and waited for Xander to take it.
Xander did so, a feeling of surrealism washing through him as his costume choice helped him to his feet with a single powerful jerk. They were dressed almost identically, except Alucard was wearing the full regalia and Xander was wearing a more modern version of the clothes. Strangely he wasn't worried, yet. "What's going on?"
"More questions young one. Have you learned so little since Halloween?" Alucard said in a mocking tone, his accented voice sounding highly amused.
"Hey, this shit isn't easy to get used to. You've had hundreds of years of practise" Xander pointed out.
Alucard peered over his orange lenses and shook his head with mock sadness. He turned away and walked over to a chair that was in the bare room that only now Xander was starting to realise they were in. Moving fluidly Alucard sat down and waited for Xander to approach.
Xander looked at him steadily before emulating his movements and sitting in a chair that drew up behind him out of no where. Alucards fangs flashed slightly in a small smile as the two powerful beings looked at each other steadily for a long drawn out moment. Alucards smile slowly grew as time passed. In the meantime Xander had been thinking hard. "I get it" he said finally. "She thinks to call you out to do her dirty work, replace me as the dominant personality?"
Alucard nodded slowly.
"So why aren't you?"
Alucard rolled his eyes and waited for Xander to work it for himself. In the meantime a smoking cigarette appeared in his drooping hand which he brought to his lips and pulled on. The ash end glowing brightly for a moment, the sound of the burning plant and paper loud in the oppressive silence.
"You can't?" Xander guessed.
Alucard just looked at him for a long moment.
"Yeah, that's what I thought" Xander said.
"Then why waste time asking?" Alucard asked whilst looking at Xander like a stern father. "You are a true nos feratou, the first since time in memoriam yet you prattle on like an infant. It disgraces me." Alucard said his tone had no bite, his words were doing that, only too well on their own.
"Okay, but there is one thing I don't get for real" Xander said, hiding the sting of Alucards words, "Janna, I know she's Romany but what she is asking of me. It's genocide. I can't do that, you may be able to, and I know you have no real love of humanity, but I'm still more human than vamp" Xander said, his anger rising slightly at the end of his rant.
The next thing he knew he was on the floor looking up at a very angry Alucard with a smoking gun in one hand. Xander looked to where his arm had been, "Ow!" he commented mildly.
"Do not degrade us both by thinking of us as you do those unworthy bastards you fight!" Alucard said, suddenly calm and smiling even as Xander bled on the floor.
Concentrating slightly Xander regrew his arm and stemmed the bleeding. He had fortunately worked out that this was not a real place. Though, in all honesty he could've taken a shot like that in the real world and done the same thing. "I see your point" Xander said with a quirk of his lips in wry humour. "I think you could've put it a little less loudly though"
Alucard chuckled darkly and sat back down another cigarette smoking gently from the side of his mouth.
Xander looked at the offending tube of burning weed, "You know I wish you wouldn't smoke in here. I could get, brain cancer of something" he said tongue in cheek.
Alucard didn't react except to wait silently once again.
"You're not taking over because you're not really here, you're a fiction of my mind brought to life through chaos magic. I get that, I get that whilst your personality could become dominant you won't do it because as much as we hate to admit it we have a code of honour. I get we have to help Janna, I can't go out and slaughter an entire tribe though. We can't commit genocide"
Alucard cocked an eyebrow at him, "We can and we will"
Xander opened his mouth to reply but Alucard cut him off, "Silence young one. I will show you why it will be so."
"How, this isn't your dimension, is this even real?" Xander said at his sudden shift in scenery. Around him there was a burning camp and screams rent the night. Off to the left a wet gurgle signalled the end of another life.
Alucard looked around a smile growing on his face, "This is memory, your memory"
"What?" Xander asked in confusion.
"You have heard of past life experiences?"
"Of course... Holy shit, I better not be one of the Rakeeshi" Xander spat. Just because he didn't want to wipe them out didn't mean that he liked them.
Alucard smirked but didn't comment instead he just walked Xander through the dying camp. It was strange, Xander could feel the heat from the blazing tents and hear several nasty dying sounds, but so far he had seen no one.
Then Alucard led him out into a clearing, where there was a large bonfire burning. There was something slightly off about the blaze though it was burning a bright emerald green, the branches that it was made up of, were not in fact wood but bone, a dreadful smell of burning pork filled the air and had Xander seen this a few scant weeks ago he would already be loosing his metaphysical lunch. Even with his new fortitude he felt bile rise. "Oh god" he breathed.
Alucard looked at him with a hint of amusement, "God doesn't live here anymore" he said. "Look there" he said pointing off over the other side of the gruesome pyre. Xander looked forcing himself to remain detached. Even as the blaze shifted and a head on fire came rolling out from the pyre. The head of an infant.
"This can't be real" Xander said eyes fixed on the figure that stood smiling evilly at the blazing funeral pyre.
"Look within yourself Young one, you will see that this is from your past. Racial memory and past life experience rolled into one terrible package."
Xander did and saw the truth of it even as it lit a fire in his heart, "The Rakeeshi"
"And me" Alucard said also fixed on the familiar figure, "Or this dimensional version of me."
"This is still the past, as bad as it is, does the end justify the means?" Xander said trying to be logical. His eye blazing with emotion.
Alucard smiled at him slightly, impressed despite himself, "Watch on young saviour"
Dracula turned and beckoned off to one side, two Rakeeshi guards pulled two kicking and screaming forms into view. A man and a woman. They looked very familiar. "Janna?" Xander said in shock.
"And you. You are the tribal leader at this time, your name means saviour of mankind now, and then it was of the tribe. Janna was to be your wife in the morning; her name is Alcaria, which means favoured of the gods in the old tongue. You can see why" Alucard added with a slight smirk. The death and horror to their direct left now, didn't seem to affect him at all. It was all Xander could do not to look at the horrid thing.
Dracula turned to greet his latest guests with a feral smile, "Hello grandson" he said to Xander's past life self.
Xander span to Alucard, "What?"
"It is true, you are of my line. In both realities possibly, I know not. In my reality you were killed by the Rakeeshi in battle. In this, Dracula is already a vampire." as Xander looked at him Alucard smiled and nodded, "Yes, young one, a vampire of the demonic form, not of the Nos Feratou. Inferior pond scum and degrading to even watch." Alucard spat on the floor at his feet, "If only I were able to touch him, I'd rid this dimension of him now"
"The Rakeeshi, they look a little off, not vampires though" Xander said peering at the guards that were holding the other Janna and he down as Dracula stalked towards them.
Alucard snarled at them, his face twisting into a rictus of hate, "They are no longer human. They made a deal with Dracula the night before. He petitioned the dark gods on their behalf. They are shades, living as humans but without souls from birth to death evil and animalistic. Their leader only thought to protect the tribe against the Kalderash, who at the time were more powerful and had vowed blood oath even then. Dracula of course double crossed them. They are now his eternal slaves."
"No longer human?" Xander asked his eyes growing hard as diamond as one of the guards threw the woman he knew as Janna Kalderash to the floor.
"They have no souls, yet live and breathe as if they were human. Their atrocities are only matched by their master, the false one there"
Alucard said his tone dangerous.
"You said from birth they are evil. How is that possible?"
Alucard hawked and spat in anger as Dracula walked to his grandson and with a sudden movement impaled him on a spike and hauled him into the air. His bride to be screamed in horror as the past Xander looked down in shocked horror at her. "I misspoke. Actually Shades are grown"
Alucard said narrowing his eyes as Dracula turned to look down at the mussed beauty sobbing at his feet.
"No" Xander whispered as his double did the exact same thing even as he slid slowly down the pike he was impaled upon. "No!" Xander said
Suddenly the view shifted back into the non-descript room. Xander turned back to the implacable Alucard, "Take me back" he growled.
"You've seen enough, it is passed and has already happened. There is nothing you could do."
"TAKE ME BACK!" Xander roared the entire mental construct warping around him as his anger grew.
Alucard smiled, it wasn't an insane grin, nor was it mocking it was a very, very nasty smile, "You wish to watch as the false one brutally rapes her?" he asked, "Then shares her with his Romany guards? Or perhaps you wish to see what they leave behind for her father to find? The extra holes they made so the entire tribe could take a turn at her bleeding mutilated carcass?"
"NO!" Xander shouted, "Shut up!"
"I've seen it young one, it was done to her, she was alive when her father found her you know"
"STOP!" Xander said, "NO more"
"She only had one word to say" Alucard pressed, walking towards the shaking being he resided inside, "Do you want to hear it?"
"NO" Xander yelled.
"Vengeance!" Alucard whispered, "Vengeance"
"No!"
"Yes" Alucard purred, "They aren't human"
"No" Xander said, like he was realising it.
"They follow a vampire, an inferior copy, the scum of demon kind. Yet you still refuse to do your duty"
"My Duty?" Xander said fuzzily.
"Duty, honour" Alucard said smoothly.
Prue stalked in front of Janna as the strangely quiet woman stood over Xander's body. "Tell me how to reverse it!" she demanded.
"I can't" Janna told her with an empty tone.
"Honour, Duty" Xander repeated looking up at Alucard, "To the tribe, to my people?"
"To our people, our subjects, our loyal beloved ones. The people I loved so much we took a bride from" Alucard said stepping forward and meeting the younger mans furious gaze, "Honour to our Oath!"
"The Oath!" Xander repeated his voice stronger than before.
"What Have You Done?" Prue demanded shaking Janna by her shoulders, "Tell me now or so help me I'll..."
"The Oath, Vengeance" Alucard whispered fiercely.
"The Oath." Xander said his voice now hard as adamantium, "Vengeance"
"VENGEANCE" Alucard shouted
Back in the real world Prue was cut off by her own scream as Xander did an amazing approximation of a cheesy vampire movie and came to standing without bending, standing up behind the woman that had been for a short time Jenny Calender and was for ever more Janna Kalderash.
"VENGEANCE!" he said in a horse whisper that carried like a shout and made the hairs on the back of Prue's neck stand on end.
Without looking back Janna Kalderash just smiled a small, sad but satisfied smile.