Adam nodded to the vampire. "I was programmed to kill demons, but my last order was to 'Kill Everything'. Since you do not have a heartbeat, you cannot be considered 'alive'. Therefore, it is not required of me to kill you. Seek parameters: live prey."
Spike smiled widely. "You only seek out things with an 'eartbeat?" Then he grinned maliciously. "Come with me, mate. I've got jus' the targit for you."
"Go ask you're master, apprentice." Dante whispered harshly.
Angelo vanished with an anguished scream.
Xander launched Ragnarok up into Phantoms unprotected belly with both hands, embedding it to the hilt, and forcing it further.
The whole sword vanished inside the monster, Xander's hand following it, and quickly his arm. As the burning of the lava hit his exposed skin, he Triggered involuntarily, forcing the blade deeper still with his change.
Mundus, aware of his new servants failure, called Phantom back to the Hell he had come from.
.
.
With Xander along for the ride.
"NOOOO!!" Dante's scream rent the air, the sounds carrying for miles, and continuing in people's ears long after Dante had become silent.
Giles and Buffy stood shell-shocked, unable to fully comprehend what had happened. They watched, in awe as Dante Triggered involuntarily, his pain becoming a physical thing that battered their minds as he took to the air and spiralled into the sky.
Then he, too, was gone.
"You LIED TO ME!" The words cut the air, or they would have, had there been any air to breath in the intense heat of Mundus' Lair.
Mundus seemed unimpressed. "I told you want you needed to know. I even told you what you wanted to hear. But never, for one second, little 'Black Angel' , think that I, the Lord of All Hell, will allow you to rebel against me. You serve, or you die."
Angelo ground his teeth inside his helm. Finally, he spat out, "Very well," and stalked off.
Mundus mused to himself in the privacy of his chambers. "In many ways, humans are learning from the Darkness without truly knowing it. But even God knows that only Death is the fit price for Traitors."
If someone deserted from Hell, they would forever be marked as a target. The same happened in Heaven. An Angel fell, and its Death Warrant was out before they had even walked through the gates.
Xepto entered the chamber. "What of my son, master?"
Mundus smiled. It was not a pleasant sight. "He will be entertained by our Indoctrinators for a time, my dear. and if that does not work, then. he will be thrown into the endless pit."
No emotion flickered behind Xepto's dark eyes, and she, like Angelo turned away and walked out.
Mundus clicked his fingers, and immediately a small servitor Devil appeared at his side. "Watch them. I do not trust them."
"Does any Devil trust another?" asked the Devil, before wincing away at the flash of anger Mundus aimed at it.
"Fetch me Nathan. He has a lot of explaining to do."
Ethan Rayne was extremely unhappy. He had received a communiqué from his brother, Nathan, that he was going to be in Sunnydale and wished to see him. After his last visit to Sunnydale, he had no wish to be anywhere near that town, perfect location for Chaos magic or not.
When he had finally arrived, he could not find his brother anywhere. He did not look at the lower quality motels, as he knew for a fact that his snivelling Watcher Twin would never lower himself to sleep in anything but the best. After hours of waiting in the hotel bars, he had grow despondent, and given up.
Then, he had felt the biggest surge of power since his misguided- yes, he thought of his Halloween stunt as misguided, mainly because of Ripper showing him the error of his ways- summoning of Janus.
He had driven to the centre of the surge out of interest, and he been forced to beat a hasty retreat when he saw the carnage. The fact that his old roommate and his Slayer were standing, shell-shocked at the destruction only increased his want to get as far away as possible.
He had felt the power fading away as he drove from Sunnydale, but then, inexplicably; it began to rapidly. too rapidly for Ethan's liking, get stronger.
That was how he found himself in his current situation:
Hanging by the scruff of his neck, like some flea bitten mongrel dog, as his attacker soared into the sky.
Ethan began to feel ill as they continued to climb. he had never been a good flier, even in a plane, and frankly, the seating for this trip was far below his usual standard.
Dante, still Triggered, had sensed an aura similar to Nathan's, and had pounced. He had been in the ionosphere, the very edges of the atmosphere, but he was on Ethan's hired 4x4 in seconds. The roof, as reinforced as it was to survive rolls without crumpling, was not designed to repel angry Half-Devils out for vengeance, and took Dante a blink of an eye to tear through, and drag Ethan out from inside.
The 4x4 in question had gone over the edge of a cliff when its driver vanished. Ethan had only been able to watch, and wonder how on earth he was going to explain the loss of the vehicle to the rental company. If he survived this encounter, anyway.
He finally found his voice. "Have you any particular reason that you have kidnapped me, or was this purely a social visit?"
Dante, his Devilish features twisted in a snarl, looked down at the snide question. He did not reply, except to shake Ethan violently for a while, to remind him exactly who held the man's life in his hands while they were in the sky.
The Chaos mage quieted. His mind ran though all the possible scenarios that could come from this predicament.
Finally, three words came out of his mouth, without him thinking about them.
"This. is bad."
Giles and Buffy approached the crater left from Phantom's disappearing act with nervousness in their every action.
"Where. where did they go?" Buffy asked Giles quietly.
Giles shook his head slowly in wonder. "I have absolutely no idea."
"How will we be able to find out?" Buffy whispered. She was still awed by the fight she had seen.
"I don't know that, either." Giles admitted.
Something glinting in the rubble caught Buffy's eye. "Giles, what's that?"
Giles looked into the crater, and followed Buffy's arm pointing to the item when she raised it to help. "I'm. not sure. Shall I go and have a look?"
Buffy shook her head. "Nah. I'll go. On account of being younger." She grinned cheekily at him.
Giles cautioned her. "Be careful. The ground may still be warm in places. Especially since it was demonic."
"Ah. I'll be fine."
Buffy began to make her way carefully down the edge of the crater, slipping at one point, and from then on, going along on her hands and knees.
"Careful, Buffy!" Giles hissed as he saw her slip.
She reached the area where she thought she had seen something, and looked up at Giles. She gaped as she realised that the crater was a lot deeper than she thought it was when she had been looking down it from the edge.
"Is everything alright?" Giles asked as she gaped up at him.
Buffy was nonplussed for a moment. "Uh. yeah. It's just that this is way deeper than I thought it was!"
"It looks about 15 feet or so from up here. What does it look like to you?"
"Um. only about. uh. The same. But in metres." Buffy turned away.
Rummaging through the bits of tarmac and concrete, Buffy eventually uncovered the item that had caught her eye. "Giles!" she called up. "Uh. it' s a gun."
"A gun?" Giles repeated.
"Yeah. In fact; two."
"So pick them up, and we'll get back to the Magic Box." Giles said.
Buffy nodded. "OK."
The next thing Buffy knew, she was flying backwards away from the guns, screaming at the top of her lungs. She landed with a pained thump on the rubble behind her, and picked herself up slowly. "Oh." she moaned, "so you don't want to come, eh?"
"Buffy!" Giles hissed again, "be careful!"
Buffy gave a dismissive wave over her shoulder, "yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time."
She approached the guns again. This time, she did not pick them up, but kicked them gently.
No response.
"Giles?" she asked, "throw me a rag, or something."
Giles rolled his eyes. "I haven't got a rag, Buffy. You can borrow my jacket, if you wish." He shrugged out of his tweed jacket, and threw it down the hole to her.
"Thanks." She mumbled distractedly.
"No problem." Giles replied.
Using the sleeve of Giles jacket, Buffy picked up the first pistol, and jammed it into one of the pockets. She did the same with the second, and shrugged the jacket on to climb back out.
"What happened?" Dawn snapped as Giles and Buffy tried to explain what they had seen, and what Giles had been involved in.
Giles had to consciously stop himself from shrinking back at the anger Dawn was radiating at the two of them.
"I get in a fight with some vampires in an alley, and get rescued by this incredibly cute guy, who, by the way I think for a while might actually be another vampire, only to get these," Dawn gestured to her back, and the ugly gouges in it from the Blood Goat, "when I stop my rescuer from becoming a scythe decoration, and then get thrust into the arms of another guy I don't know by the rescuer. who, coincidentally, is Xander. a hard, heavily armed Xander who doesn't take no for an answer, but Xander nonetheless. and dumped here, where Willow and Tara patch me up."
Dawn turned to the two, "which, in case I haven't said, I'm extremely grateful for," she turned back to Giles and Buffy, "and then, yadda, yadda, yadda, you lose THEM?!"
"Not to mention the 50 foot deep hole in Park Drive, that I'm sure the authorities will really enjoy." muttered Giles.
Dawn held a finger und his nose. "No, that's not the topic of the day! The topic of the day is, and let me recap this one more time: how did both Xander and the extreme hunk go missing at the same time, and only minutes after said white haired hunk dropped me here?"
"Dawn," snapped Buffy sitting forward, "I hope you aren't getting a thing for older guys!"
Dawn fixed her with a withering glare. "Oh, please! Like either of them are going to be as old as Angel? Or had you forgotten him already?
Buffy sank back into her chair, "Dawn, you know that isn't fair."
Willow stepped in. "Buffy, this isn't about Dawn. We're trying to find out how you brought two guns that no one can touch," she gestured to the table on which the two guns had been hastily dropped with Giles jacket still around them, "here, and where the owner or owners went. And I want to know what happened to Xander!"
"Xander isn't important here!" Buffy almost shouted as she began to stand.
Willow gestured, and Buffy's rear landed painfully on the chair. "Stay." Willow commanded, like Buffy was a dog.
"Like Hell I will! Willow; let me go! Right fucking now!"
Willow looked unimpressed. "Be silent, unless either I or Dawn ask a question."
Buffy's mouth clamped shut so fast she bit the tip of her tongue.
"Much better." Willow said with satisfaction.
Tara touched her shoulder nervously. "Um. don't you think that was a bit much?"
Willow looked back at Buffy, who was sitting ramrod straight and perfectly still and silent on her chair. The situation hit her in the face. "Oh, Buffy! I'm sorry! I overreacted!" With one and movement, the spell was released, and Buffy flew out of her chair, eyes wild and scared.
She stood with her back to the counter of the shop, and panted, her eyes fixed on Willow. "Don't do that again."
Willow nodded miserably. "I'm sorry."
Tara stepped in. "Buffy, this isn't about Dawn or Xander. This is about what happened."
Buffy seemed to calm down as Tara took over. "I don't know what happened."
"Giles?" Tara asked quietly.
Giles shook his head. "I am afraid I do not know, either. We brought those guns back, because they were where Xander and that Phantom vanished. What happened to Dante, I don't know either. He screamed,"
"We all heard that," Dawn said with a smirk, "it broke some of the glassware."
Giles shot her a glare for interrupting, but softened it, "and then he simply flew off into the sky."
Tara frowned. "Um. flew off?"
Giles looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Yes. Dante is a. Half-Devil. His father was one of the Devil-Knights."
A chorus of "huh's?" and questioning looks met this revelation head on, except for Buffy, who looked up hopefully.
"So I can Slay him, right?" She asked hopefully.
"NO!" Giles snapped, before looking distinctly uncomfortable. "Dante doesn't like his secrets to spread. Even if you don't understand what I just told you, never tell anyone."
"So. who can we get answers from Giles?" Dawn asked. "If neither you nor Buffy know where they went, who would know? Who might know?"
Giles slipped back into the mindset of Ripper, the only one that would allow him to survive what he would need to do to get answers. "I don't know," he lied easily.
"Great!" Buffy said sarcastically. "So we might as well all go to bed?"
Giles nodded. "Yes. I'll stay here to tidy up some of the glassware."
As they all left, his eyes had a strange glint to them. And an odd smile graced his face.
The hand hit the bottom of the receiver, flicking it out of the old cradle that Dante insisted on using, and causing it to spin in the air. It was plucked out of its fall by a dainty hand, and held to an ear hidden by a fall of blonde hair.
"Devil May Cry?"
"Hello, is that Trish?" Giles asked.
"No. It's the Energiser Bunny." Trish said down the phone, annoyed, before demanding, "Who is this?"
"My name is Rupert Giles, ma'am."
"None of the 'ma'am' shit, OK? You know my name." Trish sighed
"Certainly, Ms. Energiser Bunny." Giles cracked.
"You're a funny man, are you?"
"I assure you, Trish, that I need your help." Giles said quickly, in case she decided to put the phone down.
"Yeah, you and the rest of this shit sandwich of a world, mister."
Giles took a breath. "Dante's gone missing."
Silence reigned. Both of them got wet. [A/N: rain? Get wet? Get it? Or is it lame. don't bother to answer that, by the way.]
"He's what?" Trish's deadly quiet voice asked.
"He's gone missing." Giles repeated.
Trish bluffed down the phone, "Dante's always going missing. it's his second hobby! What makes you think this time it's serious?"
Giles held the earpiece of the phone away from his ear. "Because he soared off into the sky in Devil form, after seeing what I assume to be the death of his partner."
The absolute silence told Giles that he had hit a nerve. Finally, Trish's voice came back to him, "where was this?"
"Sunnydale." Giles answered.
"Oh. no." Trish breathed, "the Hellmouth."
"Quite."
"Are you sure Xander is dead?" Trish asked quietly.
"He vanished, after he killed a giant spider. He was underneath it at the time."
"Phantom?" Trish snarled, "how many times are we gonna have to kill you, Phantom?"
"But I believe him to be dead," Giles continued.
Trish sighed. "Nah. he's not dead, just having an all expenses paid trip to the other side of the Hellmouth."
"Oh my." Giles breathed, "How can we get him back?"
Trish shrugged, knowing full well that Giles wouldn't be able to see it. "Pray?"
"Luck?" Giles countered.
"I don't think so, Mr. Giles. You work with Dante long enough, and you find out one very painful fact: when you want Lady Luck to smile on you the most, you find out she is not a Lady. She's anything but. Normally, you find out that she's a hooker. and you've just run out of cash."
"And on that enjoyable note, I shall have to hang up. I thought that you would want a heads up on Dante, though. He told me that you'd want to know if anything ever went wrong."
"Thank you, Mr. Giles." Trish held the phone to her ear until she heard the click.
"Damn it, Dante. what on earth possessed you to do that? And Xander? If you can hear me, you idiot, you'd better be all right."
In the chamber, Xander screamed.
Xepto snarled in the darkness of her own realm. When she had first seen her son, her first impulse had been to annihilate him as a source of competition. He had been with Dante at the time, and had an aura of destruction surrounding him. Her son, indeed.
"Mother?" Xander stood struck dumb at the sight of the one Devil that looked like him.
Xepto answered coldly. "Son."
Dante stepped through the archway, and his eyes widened. He gripped Xander's shoulder and tried to pull him away. "Xander, we have to go!"
Xepto frowned, but the expression seemed so much more than that. "Xander?"
"It's my name. Alexander." Xander replied.
"The Protector of Humanity." Xepto mused to herself, as much as spoken to him. "How quaint. And to think, you are to be their downfall."
With Dante leading him away, Xander stalked off with one final snarl. "Not if I can help it."
It was such a shame he was half human.
Still, Xepto had certainly enjoyed her time on Earth, remaining hidden for three decades before finally choosing the man who was to spawn the new hope of Hell.
And then it all went wrong.
She fell in love with him.
The woman smiled. "I love you…"
Her lover kissed her deeply, before pulling away and looking into her eyes. "I love you too."
"What's wrong?" Xepto in human form asked.
"I… um… I have to ask you something…" her lover seemed nervous, as well he might, if he knew he had spent the last year with a Devil. "Will you…"
He swallowed, "will you marry me?"
Xepto smiled.
Since then, she had spent aeons of Hell time repaying her debt to Mundus for her failure. She had not killed him, and a shifter had been forced to assassinate him, by taking her form.
"Laura?"
"Yes, love?"
"What are you doing?"
"I'll let you into a secret, lover… I'm going to kill you."
"Laura? Why?"
The shifter leaned close to Xepto's husband. "I'll let you into a secret, lover…" she whispered seductively, repeating her earlier words, before plunging a serrated Devil-blade hilt deep into his gut, and twisting it viciously. "I'm not Laura."
˜
When Xepto, or as her husband had known her, 'Laura', got home, she found her love dead in a pool of blood. His blood.
The memory would remain for a long, long time…
For Eternity.
It, the fact that Xepto, the only Female Devil-Knight had failed in the execution of one of her duties was one of the most closely guarded secrets in the pits. Despite her rebellion for love, Xepto still maintained her power: through mistrust, lies and deceit at every turn. The Devil-Knight that had been known for her viciousness became infinitely worse; each Devil that displeased her spent a long, long time meditating on their failures in the Endless Pit. Only Mundus himself was more feared, Nero Angelo was simply a short distraction while Dante caused trouble.
Time flows differently in Hell. Each minute, like an age. But too; each aeon was but a second.
This twisted fact, Xander knew all too well. His torturers delighted in showing him those he had left behind with his selfless sacrifice. He learned, too, that he was far more interesting to them than Angel had been.
Souls were interesting to torture, but there was a limit. You only had so much time to punish and torment them before they finally realised that now they were no longer in a body, they had no real reason to feel pain. Once they realised that, none of the tortures worked any more. They had served in purgatory, and could move on.
The souls of those who had been turned could be tortured for longer. Until the vampire within their body completely removed the last links, the final tenuous threads that bonded the soul to the body were gone, the torture could continue. When the Demon infesting the body finally succeeded, the soul vanished from Hell, to walk eternally in the Elysian Fields.
Xander.
He was different.
A Devil.
That was also human. In addition, he was still alive when he came through the gate. Fortunately, he had been so badly injured by Phantom's demonic fluids, that he had been unable to put up much of a fight. If he had, this might be a different story… he might be ruling Hell, with an Iron Fist, after destroying Mundus, and eliminating all who dared to stand against him.
In one reality, he was.
In another, he had been killed in the first initial attack in the Museum, so long ago. Dante had never had a partner, and had eventually fallen a few weeks later. Trish died in a lone assault to regain his body for a decent burial.
Fortunately, this reality was neither of those.
However:
Xander presented a remarkable first for Mundus. A possibility he could not turn down. Angelo had been dark of Soul already, having rid himself of his humanity through rituals and arcane rites. Dante was too much the Paladin. The good guy. Xander, on the other hand, would be the perfect assassin, the lone agent of Hell that could go anywhere… do… anything.
Kill… anything.
But.
This all hinged on one vital design, one simple idea: that Xander could be turned to serve Hell. That surely, does not sound impossible, does it? There are many ways a person can sell out others. By coercion. By torture. By appeasement. By bribery. By love.
But.
Xander… wasn't cooperating.
Too many 'buts'? Too many 'ifs' and 'maybes'? Mundus thought that too. Which is why, after a particularly vicious session with his 'keeper', Mundus paid Xander a visit.
Xander turned a bloodied head toward the sound. Mundus entered through the archway. Stopping next to the bound and spread eagled captive, he looked down at him with a mixture of hatred and speculation.
"Why can you not cooperate?" Mundus boomed. "It would be so much easier for you."
Xander spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva at him. It sizzled as it touched Mundus skin, and evaporated quickly. "If you think I'll serve you, you're mistaken. Go to hell!" Xander spat out another mouthful of blood, before continuing. "Oh, I forgot, we're already here."
"Very amusing." Mundus snarled. "You are quickly draining me of patience. You might think that Devil's have none, but that is not true. We have much patience for things that are worthwhile. You were worthwhile. You could have been useful. But your stubborn refusal to serve leads me to this…"
Mundus snapped his fingers, despite the fact he did not need to. It was the look of the thing.
Xander arched up from the platform he was tied to in agony. Every muscle in his body tensed at once, every nerve firing. A scream came from a torn throat, and Xander realised that it was his own. Eyes rolled back and bones snapped as muscles continued to strain.
Then it stopped.
It all stopped.
For what seemed like years, all Xander could feel was the beautiful surcease of pain. He revelled in the loss of agony, rejoiced in lack of stinging hurt.
Then he realised something.
Mundus stepped out of the chamber. "Let's see how he copes with a few millennia of that."
The man walked through the door of the 'Devil Never Cry' Agency, and tapped nervously on the floor with the cane he held in his right hand to announce his presence.
"Hang on a minute!" A female voice shouted from behind another door. "I'll be out in a sec, make yourself at home!"
The man stood where he was. After his run in with one of the employee's here, he was in no way going to give anyone who worked here any trouble.
Trish walked through the door, and stopped, looking at him. "Is this about a job?" she asked cautiously. "Cause we can't take any more right now."
He shook his head. "No, ma'am." He began.
He stopped as Trish muttered, "Don't you start too…"
"Pardon?"
Trish shook her head. "Sorry. I'm a bit distracted right now."
The man nodded. "Let me introduce myself. I am Jason Whittaker. I… ran into one of Devil Never Cry's employee's a while ago."
Trish looked at him hard. "You were on the pay of the government, correct? You chased Xander."
Jason looked down. "Is that his name?" Jason swallowed. "I am afraid that I misjudged him. Our employer at the time turned out to be the very thing that we thought we were fighting… a demon."
"Well, you're half right, anyway. Xander told me all about this… his… decision." Trish had no way of knowing if this guy was on the level or not, and this was the only way she could think to test him. According to Xander, this man, Jason, had seen his suited boss after Xander had defeated him. What he said now would decide Jason's continued breathing privileges.
"Right. He had to shoot our 'boss'." Jason sighed. "That guy looked human, I swear! But after… after… God, it was fucking disgusting! I liked to think of myself as jaded, but damn, that took the cake. That… lizard…" he shivered as he trailed off.
"What did you want?" Trish asked. He had passed the only test she could give right now.
"I want to help."
Trish looked pointedly at his cane. Jason followed her gaze, sighing before Trish said, "Unless that's not really needed, there ain't a whole lot you can do…"
Jason reached into his jacket with one hand, and drew it out slowly as he saw Trish shaking her head with a pistol raised.
"Formed this group, with a few old war buddies after that mess. I decided I'd never face that sort of shit again… or at least, I wouldn't do it alone." He laid the card he had taken out of his pocket on a nearby table, and stepped back.
Trish slid the gun away again. "Thanks."
Jason continued, "you can contact me via the number on the card. If it isn't me, tell whoever it is 'Xander called' and I'll get back to you. But it's usually me. I can't fight the good fight no more." He tapped the cane against his leg. "The X-man might have killed that thing, but it's buddies were none too happy… if it weren't for the cops, I'd not be here. As it is, they got the others first. They were all moving, I was totally out, so they thought I was dead. Cops scared 'em off though."
Trish winced. "I'm sorry."
Jason shrugged. "Nothing you can do about it. It's my own damned fault for going along with it… 'get power, get glory as the saviours of the world!' so they said. Hah! Some power," Jason said bitterly, "some glory."
Jason sighed. "Ah, well… I'd better get going. Call if you need." He walked out stiffly.
"Thanks," Trish said quietly, "thanks."
"You're sick, you know that?" Ethan spat at his captor with a hatred he had not felt for any being, past or present. Or even, to some degree, the future.
Dante, standing in his human form, smiled nastily at him. "I know. But you're worse, so I'm really doing the world a favour."
Ethan wriggled in his bonds desperately. "Killing me wont help, I didn't do anything!"
Dante edged closer to the chaos mage. He spoke with a low voice, chilling in its capacity for naked contempt. "Killing you might not help. But it'll sure feel good."
"You can't kill me." Ethan almost whimpered in fear, "I've seen my death… you don't kill me!"
Dante drew Ivory, and pointed it at Ethan's chest. "You're so sure of that? Are you? Really?"
Ethan looked down at the pistol as Dante squeezed the trigger slowly, the end of the barrel hovering over Ethan's heart.
Dante whipped the pistol away, and re-holstered it while spinning away, his coat flaring as he turned. Ethan sighed out the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. Dante spoke to him, a careless tone in his voice. "Yep. You're absolutely right. I don't kill you. I'll leave that for someone else to do…"
Ethan, knowing that he was not going to die, regained some of his previous bravado. "So, you're going to baby-sit me until the time comes, then? You make me sick, half-breed! A Devil who cannot embrace the legacy he has been given on a silver platter!"
Dante wheeled so fast he was a blur. Eyes wide, he snarled as he closed on the bound man. "Do not lecture me about Legacies, human," he roared, "my legacy is more than you would ever comprehend!"
"A legacy of cowardice. Your father…"
"DO NOT LECTURE ME ABOUT MY FATHER!" Dante roared inches from Ethan's face.
Ethan paused, but then continued. "Your father proved he was a coward when he turned against those of this own…"
Dante had to visibly calm himself. "That shows me the depth of your lacking, mortal. My father, the 'Traitor'…" he spat the word, "save the lives of every pitiful human on this forsaken planet. Including your miserable family's."
"Where is my brother?" Ethan asked out of the blue.
"He is serving Mundus. If you don't know him, I suggest you look him up." Dante sneered at the bound man, and stalked away.
In the darkness of his prison, Ethan raged at the unfairness of the world. But, a worshipper of Chaos should have known better.
After all…
…that is Chaos.
Spike pointed at the shop from a across the street, and spoke to his companion. "That's it, mate. The Slayer's little hidey-hole. Just a word of advice though: be careful… she's taken out more than you. She's taken out the Judge, and that is one evil son-of-a-bitch that I thought no bint would ever be able to kill.
Adam looked at the shop, and his optical circuits focussed on it in more detail. "There is a weak point in the wall at the corner… we should be able to irreparably damage the structure by attacking that one location."
Spike looked sick. "We?" he asked with a hint of worry.
"You gave me the target, certainly you must want them also?"
Spike capitulated. "Yeah… I do. It's just… every time I go after that crazy bitch and her little troupe, I get my butt handed to me… now, I don't know about you, but my rep can't take much more of that, before I lose my status."
"Status is so important to you?"
Spike looked at Adam incredulously. "Well, yeah, of course!" he said, "I chased a Slayer for nearly a year before I killed her once!" Spike calmed down.
"I've got five of the cows, y'know." Spike confided.
"Most interesting." Adam's vocal unit did not allow for emotional undertones, but Spike could tell the words were dripping with the mechanical equivalent of sarcasm.
Adam turned and began to walk away. "But surely, if each time you terminate a Slayer, the next is called?"
Spike nodded as he followed. "Yeah. So?"
Adam stopped, and looked at the vampire. "Then killing one simply makes your unlife harder by bringing in fresh blood, so to speak. It would be much more efficient to injure and capture one, and then make sure she is forever on the cusp of death… a harmless, bottomless well of Slayer blood."
Spike thought about this. "Well, yeah… but that kind of eliminates the whole fun of murdering a Slayer and leaving her body for some poor bastard watcher to find in his cupboard."
Adam sighed. Or he would, if he could. Some people could never be taught. "It does not compute. It is entirely illogical."
And he stalked off, leaving Spike staring after the demon/cyborg hybrid.
The dark.
The silence.
The aching lack.
The sound.
The light.
The past, buried in the future.
Xander screamed until his throat was raw.
He couldn't feel it.
Xander walked through the halls of Sunnydale High. He looked round at the corridors, and the people milling around in them. Larry and the rest of the football players on one side, with the Cheerleaders and other hangers on, while the 'less desirable' remained separate and disorganised.
"This is wrong…" Xander said to himself.
"What's wrong, Xan?" Buffy's voice asked from behind.
Xander jumped, and turned to face one of his two best friends with a mock scowl. "Don't do that, Buffy! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Buffy grinned, unrepentant. "Nah… you're much too young for a heart attack!" at a shout, she turned round, "come on Xan, here's Willow."
Xander trailed after his blonde friend.
"This is so, so wrong…"
…
Xander sat in his first class. He looked around with wide eyes at the people with him. His eyes fixed on Buffy, next to him, and Willow, the seat next to her. "Something's wrong…" Xander said to himself.
"What's wrong, Xand?" Buffy asked as she leant over to him. "You're failing this class already, you should pay attention!"
The teacher noticed their conversation. "Mr. Harris! Do you have something you wish to debate with the class?"
Xander's attention snapped to the teacher, instead of his failing attempts to decide what was going wrong with the picture he was seeing. "Um… nothing, Ms. McCormack, nothing."
"Then would you kindly refrain from holding private conversations."
"Certainly, ma'am." Xander replied, relieved he would not be sent to visit with Snyder.
The rest of the class passed without incident, except for the nagging at the back of Xander's mind that something was wrong.
…
The Lunch Hall was packed. There was nowhere to sit. Xander put an arm round each of his friends. "Where shall we have lunch, ladies? I hear the Quad is a nice open place to visit at this time of year…"
Buffy nodded, "Yeah, Xand. Sure. Just let me pop to the Library and fill Giles in on what happened last night on patrol."
Willow chipped in. "I need to ask Giles about a spell. I'll go with you!"
Xander shrugged. "Sure, why not? It's not like I've got anything better to do, I'll go annoy the G-man."
…
The three friends entered the Library. Xander could feel a strange sensation on the back of his neck. "This is wrong…" he said again.
Buffy elbowed him in the ribs. "You're been saying that for the whole day, Xand. Unless you can give a reason why, I can't help you."
As Buffy and Willow talked to Giles, Xander wondered away into the stacks.
"Hello?" Xander called quietly. The last thing he wanted was Buffy to think he was cracking up, and banning him from Slaying.
"Hello?" Echoed back at him.
Xander spun on the spot. "Don't play tricks, guys, it's not funny!"
Something touched his shoulder. Xander turned again, and fell backwards screaming at the sight of a nine foot tall jet black demon with glowing green eyes and small horns down his arms. He scrambled to his feet, turned, and ran.
"Giles! Buffy! Willow! There's a demon in the stacks! Help me!" He flew down the rows of books, and fled into the main body of the library. Giles, Buffy and Willow turned to him, and smiled.
"Relax, Xan… you're dreaming…" They said in unison.
Xander walked through the halls of Sunnydale High. He looked round at the corridors, and the people milling around in them. Larry and the rest of the football players on one side, with the Cheerleaders and other hangers on, while the 'less desirable' remained separate and disorganised. All seemed slightly unreal. Less than solid. Or perhaps, more that solid.
"This is wrong…" Xander said to himself, worried.
"What's wrong, Xan?" Buffy's voice asked from behind.
Xander jumped, and turned to face one of his two best friends with a mock scowl. "Don't do that, Buffy! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Buffy grinned, unrepentant. "Nah… you're much too young for a heart attack!" at a shout, she turned round, "come on Xan, here's Willow."
Xander trailed after his blonde friend.
"This is so, so, so wrong…"
…
Xander sat in his first class. He looked around with wide eyes at the people with him. His eyes fixed on Buffy, next to him, and Willow, the seat next to her. "Something's wrong…" Xander said to himself.
"What's wrong, Xand?" Buffy asked as she leant over to him. "You're failing this class already, you should pay attention!"
The teacher noticed their conversation. "Mr. Harris! Do you have something you wish to debate with the class?"
Xander's attention snapped to the teacher, instead of his failing attempts to decide what was going wrong with the picture he was seeing. "Um… nothing, Ms. McCormack, nothing."
"Then would you kindly refrain from holding private conversations."
"Certainly, ma'am." Xander replied, relieved he would not be sent to visit with Snyder.
The rest of the class passed without incident, except for the nagging at the back of Xander's mind that something was wrong.
…
The Lunch Hall was packed. There was nowhere to sit. Xander put an arm round each of his friends. "Where shall we have lunch, ladies? I hear the Quad is a nice open place to visit at this time of year…"
Buffy nodded, "Yeah, Xand. Sure. Just let me pop to the Library and fill Giles in on what happened last night on patrol."
Willow chipped in. "I need to ask Giles about a spell. I'll go with you!"
Xander shrugged. "Sure, why not? It's not like I've got anything better to do, I'll go annoy the G-man."
…
The three friends entered the Library. Xander could feel a strange sensation on the back of his neck. "This is wrong…" he said again.
Buffy elbowed him in the ribs. "You're been saying that for the whole day, Xand. Unless you can give a reason why, I can't help you."
As Buffy and Willow talked to Giles, Xander wondered away into the stacks.
"Hello?" Xander called quietly. The last thing he wanted was Buffy to think he was cracking up, and banning him from Slaying.
"Hello?" Echoed back at him.
Xander spun on the spot. "Don't play tricks, guys, it's not funny!"
Something touched his shoulder. Xander turned again, and fell backwards screaming at the sight of a nine foot tall jet black demon with glowing green eyes and small horns down his arms. The demon reached for him with its eyes flaring as it neared him. He scrambled to his feet, turned, and ran.
"Giles! Buffy! Willow! There's a demon in the stacks! Help me!" He flew down the rows of books, and fled into the main body of the library. Giles, Buffy and Willow turned to him, and smiled.
"Relax, Xan… you're crazy…" They said in unison.
Xander walked through the halls of Sunnydale High. He looked round at the corridors, and the people milling around in them. Larry and the rest of the football players on one side, with the Cheerleaders and other hangers on, while the 'less desirable' remained separate and disorganised. Cordelia looked over in his direction, and pointed out the looser. Harmony, Aura and the rest of the Cordette's giggled on the cue.
"This is so wrong…" Xander said to himself, his arm twitching with nervous tension.
"What's wrong, Xan?" Willow's voice asked from behind.
Xander jumped, and turned to face one of his two best friends with a mock scowl. "Don't do that, Willow! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Willow grinned, unrepentant. "Nah… you're much too young for a heart attack!" at a shout, she turned round, "come on Xan, here's Buffy."
Xander trailed after his red headed friend.
"This is so fucking wrong…"
…
Xander sat in his first class. He looked around with wide eyes at the people with him. His eyes fixed on Willow, next to him, and Buffy, the seat next to her. "Something's wrong…" Xander said to himself.
"What's wrong, Xand?" Willow asked as she leant over to him. "You're passing this class with flying colours already, you should pay attention!"
"Huh?" Xander asked, "don't you mean failing?"
"Yeah," said Willow, "that's what I said! Pay attention, Xander!"
Xander frowned, but didn't have time to reply, because the teacher had noticed their conversation. "Mr. Harris! Do you have something you wish to debate with the class?"
Xander's attention snapped to the teacher, instead of his failing attempts to decide what was going wrong with the picture he was seeing. "Um… nothing, Ms. Murphy, nothing."
"Then would you kindly refrain from holding private conversations, or I will be forced to send you to the principle."
"Certainly, ma'am." Xander replied, relieved he would not be sent to visit with Snyder.
The rest of the class passed without incident, except for the nagging at the back of Xander's mind that something was drastically wrong.
…
The Lunch Hall was packed. There was nowhere to sit. Xander put an arm round each of his friends. "Where shall we have lunch, ladies? I hear the Quad is a nice open place to visit at this time of year…"
Willow nodded, "Yeah, Xand. Sure. Just let me pop to the Library and fill Giles in on what happened last night on patrol."
Xander paused, and thought about this sentence. "Un… don't you mean…"
Buffy chipped in. "I need to ask Giles about a spell. I'll go with you!"
Xander collapsed on himself. "Ah, hell, why not? It's not like I've got anything better to do, I'll go annoy the G-man."
…
The three friends entered the Library. Xander could feel a strange sensation on the back of his neck. "This is so fucking wrong…" he said again.
Willow elbowed him in the ribs. "You're been saying that for the whole day, Xand. Unless you can give a reason why, I can't help you."
As Buffy and Willow talked to Giles, Xander wondered away into the stacks.
"Hello?" Xander called quietly. The last thing he wanted was Buffy to think he was cracking up, and banning him from Slaying.
"Hello?" Echoed back at him.
Xander spun on the spot. "Don't play tricks, guys, it's not funny!"
Something touched his shoulder. Xander turned again, and fell backwards screaming at the sight of a nine foot tall jet black demon with glowing green eyes and small horns down his arms. He scrambled to his feet, turned, and ran.
"Giles! Buffy! Willow! There's a demon in the stacks! Help me!" He flew down the rows of books, and fled into the main body of the library. Giles, Buffy and Willow turned to him, and smiled.
"Relax, Xan… you're insane…" They said in unison.
Xander turned around. The demon was right behind him. It reached behind itself and pulled a gun.
It pointed, and fired.
"Relax, Xan… you're insane…" They said in unison.
Xander turned around at a noise behind him. The demon was following him. It reached behind itself and pulled a gun, before reversing it and holding it out.
Xander reached for it, mesmerised. As his fingers closed around it, the world became green.
And he screamed.
"Relax, Xan… you're insane…"
"Relax, Xan… you're insane…"
"Relax, Xan… you're insane…"
"Noooo…!" Xander wailed, "I'm sane, I'm sane, I'm sane…" He repeated it like a mantra, as much to convince himself as anyone around him. If he repeated it, it might become true…
Dawn snuck into the storeroom of the Magic Box. She was looking for one particular box, in which Giles had locked the two items she was interested in. "I know they're here somewhere…" Dawn said to herself as she searched.
Reaching up to a shelf above her head height, Dawn's fingers closed on a handle, and pulled. "Is this it?"
The whole shelf fell to the floor of the storeroom as Dawn tried, unsuccessfully to remove the box. Giles voice came through the door. "Are you alright? Dawn?"
Dawn cursed quietly and shouted back, "Yeah, Giles, I'm fine! I just knocked some stuff off a shelf!"
"Be more careful!" Giles admonished. "For yourself as much as the stock."
Dawn nodded absently. "Yeah, yeah…"
A box on the floor caught her attention. "That's it…" More cautious now, especially after having seen the results of Buffy's attempts to pick the weapons up, Dawn knelt next to the box, and opened the lid with awe.
"Wow…" Dawn breathed, "these are amazing…"
She reached forward, and brushed a finger along the barrel of the one closest to her. "Guns this impressive deserve names…"
[We have names.]
Dawn jerked back as the voice spoke in her mind.
[Take us to our Master.]
Dawn winced at the command. And it was a command. She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't. I don't know where he is…" Dawn sighed as she realised she was talking to a pair of guns. "I'm cracking up… its all this time with Buffy. It has to be."
Dawn collapsed completely as a barrage of pain overwhelmed her mind.
[Master! Pain!] An inhuman scream ripped through her mind. Dawn realised that it was the guns.
"Wha… what?" Dawn struggled to ask.
The guns refused to speak again.
Xander stepped through the doors of Sunnydale High. His eyes were hidden behind dark glasses, and still everything he saw hurt his eyes.
It all glowed green.
Dully at first, getting brighter as time passed.
Time passed.
Holding his hand in front of his eyes, Xander staggered round the halls with eyes squinted at everything.
People avoided him, looking at him as if he was crazy.
Cordelia walked past, with some scathing comment to which the Cordette's dutifully giggled at. Her lips moved, but no sound came out.
Xander turned away, unaware.
Buffy laid a hand on Xander's shoulder, and spun him round. She looked annoyed. Her mouth moved, but Xander could not make out a word. She finally snorted at him in disgust, and turned toward Willow.
Willow started talking to Xander. He couldn't hear her either.
The students all headed toward their next class, Xander stood dumbly as the flow moved around him.
As each person passed, and moved further away, they began to fade.
The world faded into the green.
Xander looked down at his hands.
They were the hands of the demon. The Devil incarnate. He was the Devil. A Devil.
The green darkened, turning inexorably black.
Seconds before Xander himself vanished into the dark swirl, he screamed.
…
…
He didn't hear that, either.
Adam stood in the sewer. He did not need to sit down; he never got tired. He never needed to eat; he only needed to recharge his solar batteries every 48 hours. There were more than enough opportunities for that in this town.
"So… we must obliterate the Slayer?"
"Yeah, mate… that's what I said. We gotta kill the bint before she gets wise to us."
"How will this coincide with the goals?"
"Huh? Goals?" Spike asked dumbly, "you play football?"
"Error. That does not compute."
Spike swore silently. "Alright, you piece of crap, Soccer! Understand now?"
"Negative. You fail to make sense, and are therefore a liability. Liabilities must be eliminated." Adam extended an arm, on which three vicious spikes were suddenly crackling with electricity.
Spike backed hastily away. "Whoa! Hold on there! You need me!"
"Negative." Adam intoned.
"You can't get close to the Slayer without me! I tell you what, get this chip out of me 'ead, an' I'll personally show you my own brand of pain for that bitch…"
Adam seemed to think for a few seconds. "Very well. Chip removal protocol engaged."
Adam approached Spike; arm raised and gripped his head in a death grip. Spike twisted for a second, before his head was pinned in place by a large hypodermic like projection entering his skull. He passed out from the pain as the chip was removed, electrodes and all.
*
[Nonononononononononononono……]
Xander stepped into the main hall of Sunnydale High. As people turned to look at him, it was a tidal wave of horror.
The first girl screamed in fear, causing others to scream out loud. Soon, there was a stampede away from him.
Buffy's voice came from behind him. "I don't know who or what you are, but you're not welcome here!"
Xander spoke, explained to her that it was him, Xander. Only to realise that he hadn't made a sound.
Buffy charged.
Xander fell back under the attack, which was obviously an all out assault against an enemy. He blocked one punch, that he was sure would have taken his head off if it connected, and countered in a vain attempt to survive.
As his fist connected, Buffy's head exploded like an overripe melon. The world faded to darkness as Xander collapsed to the ground, looking in horror at his best friends headless corpse.
Buffy's voice came from behind him. "I don't know who or what you are, but you're not welcome here!"
Willow joined in. "Yeah!" She back up as fast as she could when Xander turned to look at her.
Xander spoke, explained to her that it was him, Xander. Only to realise that he hadn't made a sound.
Buffy charged.
Xander stood firm from the vicious attack, which was obviously an all out assault against an unknown enemy. He blocked one kick, that he was sure would have taken his head off if it connected, and countered in a vain attempt to survive. He twisted Buffy's leg hard, and was sickened as he heard her scream. It did not quite mask the <snap> that her femur made, though.
Pivoting, he spun Buffy in the air and sent her flying into Willow. The two landed in a heap against the wall, Willow's head cracking against the plastered concrete.
He stalked over to the semi-conscious pair, and picked each up by their throats.
Cartilage and bone cracked under the assault of Xander's grip, and blood flowed slickly down his bare arms.
His mind rebelled, and Xander dropped the bodies of his two best friends. Falling to his knees, Xander covered his eyes and wept.
The world faded again to darkness.
Xander stood opposite Buffy; outside the Mansion that Angelus had placed Acathla.
His mind said one thing, his mouth another.
"Willow's trying the curse again."
[No!] Screamed his mind, [Kick his ass! Kick his ass! That's what I wanted, what I meant to say! What the Hell's going on?!]
"Thanks, Xan…" Buffy said gratefully, "but you're lying in your head."
"No! No, I'm not! I swear I'm not!" Xander gibbered as Buffy stalked toward him, stake raised.
"Yes you are, Xander! You're worse than Angel could ever be! At least he has no control over what he's doing!"
Buffy stabbed the stake into Xander's chest, and screamed as he reached for the stake embedded in his heart. Tearing it out, Xander looked at Buffy, and realised that he was looking down at Buffy.
Down a long, long way at Buffy.
He looked at his hands. They were claws. The stake was gripped in a taloned fist, and he realised that he could see more than just colour. It was the whole spectrum. More than mere visible light.
He stared at his betrayer.
At Buffy.
Xander snarled, and threw the stake to the ground.
"Enough!"
The roar sounded loud in the night, but continued to echo even as Buffy and the world itself dissolved into nothing.
The voice was sexless, and full of contempt. "You are nothing."
It spoke again. "You are less than nothing."
A second voice joined in. Female. "Worthless piece of shit…"
The first voice, male now, spoke again. "You, you scum, have no right to bear my name! To think I made you."
Xander felt himself speak, heard the words without the virtue of using his ears. "You didn't."
Xander stood dumbly as Faith stripped quickly and efficiently before him.
"Come on, Boytoy," Faith said huskily, "I'll steer you round the curves…"
She reached for his hand, and Xander stood stock still as she touched it before her eyes widened and she backed off in terror.
"Demon!" Faith screamed as she dived off the bed toward her jacket, and the stake it contained in the pocket.
Xander stepped toward her, desperate to show her that he wasn't a demon.
The scene faded before he reached her.
"Demon!"
"Demon!"
"Devil!"
"MURDERER!"
"Nooo…!"
Xander's father congealed out of the darkness. "Fucking waste of space."
A second voice came from behind Xander, coming from the opposite direction to his 'father'. "You are not wanted, drunkard."
Xander spun, thinking that the voice was talking to him, but the speaker walked calmly past him, not even looking in his direction.
"You deserve to burn in Hell for the tortures you have inflicted on my son."
Xander spoke to the first, the man he knew as his 'father', pointing at the second man. "He did."
"He did what?" asked the first man.
"He made me. With my mother."
The second man turned to Xander. "You need to accept who you are. What you are."
Xander shrugged. "I do."
"No, you don't. You are more than them." The man waved to his parents.
"And them." He waved to images of the Scoobies.
"And them." He waved at a picture of Dante and Trish.
"Decide who you are, before it's too late."
The scene vanished as Xander blinked.
Xander stood in the darkness. He did not know how he knew he was standing, but he also knew that it wasn't simply floating in the black.
He stood.
It just happened that the floor was the same colour as everything else.
Out of the blackness, four figures walked. Four of the most prominent aspects of his persona. Four partitions of his mind.
There were more, but they did not appear except when bidden. These were there all the time, the insidious dark sides of his mind, waiting for an opportunity to escape. To hurt those he loved.
Dante.
Trish.
All the innumerable people he had met and helped with Dante.
And yes, even the Scooby's.
Yes, even his betrayer. Although that might be too strong a word. Buffy.
He spoke. The words echoed back to him from the other four Xander's.
"Who am I?"
"Who am I?" The words echoed in the darkness, bouncing off unseen walls to be mirrored back at the four speakers.
"Who are you?" Xander asked the second.
"Who are you?" the second Xander asked in return.
"I am Xander."
The other three smiled. "So are we."
Angelo stepped into Xepto's realm.
"What do you want?" Xepto snarled at the Knight of Mundus. She was in no mood to deal with lackeys of the Dark Lord.
"I come to ask a truce. My brother has shown me…" Angelo paused in thought, "the error of my ways. I wish to correct what I have done."
"Why come to me?" Xepto asked out of interest.
"Because you betrayed, and yet were not cast down. How?"
Xepto smiled, and lacking a nose, it was a discomforting sight. "I have my ways."
Angelo spoke simply. "I know what Mundus is doing to your son. I wish to stop it. I will need help, and secrecy."
"How will you help?" Xepto asked, "you will but make it worse."
"I can get him out. If he survives what Mundus has trapped him in, he will emerge more powerful than ever, but fatally flawed: who gets to him first will mould his mind for the rest of his life."
Xepto leaned forward. She had no power over what Mundus was doing to Alexander. She did not even know what was happening. "What is Mundus doing?"
Angelo seemed pained for a minute. "He has trapped him in his own mind. Obviously, despite his power, he has not fully come to terms with what he is. Until he does, he will remain trapped, forever sealed off from his body. It is something we cannot help him with, but while he is as such, detached from his corporeal form, we have an advantage:"
"And that would be?"
"We can move him."
"Move him? Where? Certainly, nowhere in Hell is safe."
"We must return him to Dante."
"Dante!" Xepto spat. "That emotionless reject? Why should we expect him to help?"
"Xander is his partner. And he is far from emotionless. His partner has saved him numerous times, they have a bond… but as Xander comes into his power… Dante gets… darker."
"Darker?"
"Yes…" Angelo said, "Darker. It is strange, but it as if with his partners form, comes some form of contamination. Dante is becoming that which he fights against."
"Stare into the Abyss…"
"And the Abyss stares back into you. I understand that. But it is different. Dante had fought for so long… why is it only beginning to affect him now?"
The two Devil Knights looked at one another across the distance of Xepto's realm. Eyes, hidden within their helms, nevertheless met. Silence gathered, until one spoke.
"Much rests on this."
The other nodded. "I know."
Giles needed to talk to Dawn in private. Telling Buffy of Dawn's little adventure in the basement would not make for good family interactions. She had stumbled out an hour ago, and was far from coherent for that time.
Giles also realised that forcing information out of her would not work, and make her resent the group more than she already appeared to. This could be said: her crush on Xander had not lessened, and indeed appeared to be getting stronger. Absence makes the heart grow fonder? "Dawn… what were you doing in the basement?"
Dawn looked nervous all of a sudden. "What? Basement? What basement?"
"Did you go looking at those guns?" Giles was not stupid. He could usually determine what was going on, even if it was American teens that were those doing what he was trying to figure out.
Dawn sighed. "I guess, while you'll chew me out, it'll hurt less than one from Buffy. Yeah. I looked at those guns. Something weird happened."
"Something weird?" If those guns were dangerous… obviously more than a gun usually is, at least, they had to go, whether they were Xander's, Dante's or whoever's.
"Yeah. They… talked to me." Dawn sounded confused about it. "In my head."
"That is most strange. You mean, like a sort of telepathy?"
Dawn nodded, almost to herself, lost in the memory again. "Yeah."
"What did they say?"
Dawn shrugged. "Not much. I touched one, the bluish one. I made some comment about names… ?Guns this impressive should have names', that's it… and they… talked to me. Said that they did."
"Did what?"
Dawn looked at Giles, a strange look on her face. "Have names, Giles."
"Oh." Giles frowned. "When Buffy picked… tried to pick up, those weapons, they reacted most violently. How were you able to touch them?"
Dawn shrugged. "I don't know. You're the occult master."
Giles rolled his eyes, but was secretly quite flattered by the complement.
Dawn continued, her voice taking an almost haunted tone. "Then they wanted Xander. Asked for ?Master'. Then they screamed. It was… disconcerting. It hurt. But… not my ears. This was… alien." She looked up, and Giles saw in her eyes that she was terrified by something she didn't understand. "They were something more than, than… anything. I've ever felt…" Dawn hiccupped a laugh. "I'm being crazy."
Giles looked at the distraught teen. "No." he said, "no. I don't think you are. But we need Xander or Dante here to explain exactly what's going on." He sighed. "Until then, Dawn, I don't want you coming here any more. Proximity to those might be affecting you."
Dawn nodded silently. She stood up. "OK. I'm gonna go home then. Think of something to tell Buffy why I'm not gonna be here for a while…"
"Be safe, Dawn. Those weapons were not meant for people to wield. I know that much. Not even Slayers."
Dawn nodded again.
Dante smiled at the bound and angry Ethan. "Y'know, I've found a new trick I want to try out. It's called, ?heads I win, tails you loose'. You want to know how to play?"
Ethan growled at him.
"No? Oh, too bad. You would have loved it, too. I know you would. Come on, say you will! Be a devil! Oh, I forgot, I am, you're not. Buy a hare."
Ethan hung against his bonds. "What they hell do you want now, Dante?"
Dante paused; his joking, crazy act vanished, and in its place stood a man who had taken his rage a step too far. "I want to give you… a gift. Yes. I'm going to wrap you up for your killer. Frozen in a moment. Trapped within time." His joking side forced it's way out again. "You'll love it."
Five candles burst into flame with one gesture, and Dante smiled from outside of the area enclosed by them.
Ethan shook half in fear, half from fatigue and exposure to the elements as Dante smirked at him. In Dante's hand was a coin.
"Tell me, Ethan. Head? Or tails?" Dante's leering grin filled Ethan's whole world.
Shaking off his terror, Ethan managed to croak a reply. "Heads."
Dante flicked the coin and both watched in fascination as it spun lazily through the air, loosing momentum before falling back to Dante's outstretched hand. He examined the coin, and Ethan strained forward against his shackles to see what side it had landed on.
Dante smiled like a snake. "Congratulations, Ethan."
Ebony was out and pointed at Ethan's head before he could even blink. Ethan swallowed, and spoke. "What was it?"
"It was you're lucky day, Ethan. Heads."
Dante fired four times, the gun barking as the enchanted bullets sped their way to their target.
Ethan flinched at each report, and fell to the floor as Dante holstered his weapon.
Dante turned away, and stalked off. Five words floated back to the slowly breathing Ethan. "Get out of my sight."
Ethan, terrified, slowly got to his feet. He rubbed his wrists where the manacles had cut into the flesh, and looked suspiciously after the retreating form of the half-Devil.
"My lucky day?" Ethan took off in the opposite direction to Dante. "He shot the damned shackles off."
As Ethan stole an old motorboat to get away from the island Dante had taken him too, Dante watched, and smiled evilly after the form of the Chaos mage.
"There was no point in killing you, was there? After all, Angelo gets you so much better than I could…"
Xander looked at the other three. Where is the Devil?"
The others nodded. "He's here."
"Where?"
They seemed amused. "Everywhere."
All the Xander's suddenly shifted, and in their places stood Xander's Devil form. The Devils leered down at him, until all of a sudden; he was of equal height.
"That's good." Xander said, and heard it echoed among his other aspects.
Suddenly, they were all human again:
Xander, as a boy; nervous energy and jokes all wrapped up in the same package, hiding his real feelings within his shell.
Xander, as a man; matured, prepared, knowledgeable, but still critically dependent on what others thought of him.
Xander, as he was that Halloween; a cold, calculating killer, fully armed and aware, ready to do whatever it took to win. And win, he would.
Xander, as he had been during the hours of his possession; the Alpha, the leader of the pack. The animal with lightning reflexes and the sheer ferocity to back them up.
As Xander watched, four scenes played out behind them, and he knew that it was the future, if that aspect gained full control. All ended in pain. The boy died in a vampire attack. The man, in an accident at work. The soldier, in a war that had never been acknowledged: the one against the darkness. The Hyena, cut down like an animal for daring to be ?different'.
As the Devil forms took control again, the futures shifted once more. All showed the same scene, in excruciating Technicolor. A life spent, exhausted on the fight against the darkness, the thing that spawned the Devil, the Devil fought. Dante and Trish at his sides, saving, directing, then disappearing into the background until the next time they were needed.
Xander watched, awestruck, as he saw the future unfold.
Mundus smiled. This was going better than he could have hoped. Now… all he needed was some time.
No matter. In Hell, there was plenty of that.
Xander jumped as a silken voice spoke to him.
"It's painful to watch, isn't it?"
Xander shrugged. "I guess. It could be worse."
Body took form from the voice. A long, flowing diaphanous gown, barely concealing the body underneath, and long hair that floated about as if in a wind.
She spoke again. "It doesn't have to be that way."
The two stood in darkness, the other aspects of Xander having disappeared to give him time.
Silence can be the most deafening sound in the world.
Finally, Xander spoke. "How can it be, then? All the other routes lead to death."
The woman shook her head. "Not all. There is one more."
Xander turned and looked at her. "Show me, then."
A smile, and a nod. "Very well."
Darkness swallowed them, not for the first time.
The figure descended from the sky like an Avenging Angel.
The only difference: this one came from the other direction. The nine foot tall Devil strode purposefully toward the large building in front of it, a mansion protected by all that the most prestigious Assassins Order had.
The Order of Teraka's headquarters lay on a sprawling estate in the middle of nowhere, further contained within Indonesia.
There was no warning.
Nothing any warning could have done would have made any difference.
The Devil wasted no time, tearing into the building, ripping straight through a wall and entering the first of many passages to the Inner Sanctum of the Order.
Where their Patriarch resided.
Assassin's and trainee's all flocked to their emergency stations, flinging themselves at their death at the hands of the Devil. Nothing they did so much as slow it down: the Devil continued forward like an inexorable force of nature, impossible to stop short of a miracle.
Well; truth be told, God isn't too keen about assassins. He looked the other way.
An old wizened man stood in front of the final door, his eyes closed and a sword in each hand. "You may not pass."
The Devil smiled, and no humour was to be found in the expression. "I may not pass?" it asked in a quiet monotone.
"Return from whence you came, spawn of Satan." The old man snarled, spittle and malice flying at a hundred fifty percent.
"Remind me to get you the memo..." the Devil smirked, "Satan has been deposed."
He moved without seeming speed or swiftness, but the man collapsed to the ground, both of his blades torn from his fingers and sheathed in his spine.
"I do not want you, little mortal, but you may prove some small amusement to my Master. I am here for your Lord."
The doors exploded inwards, and the Patriarch of the Order of Teraka cowered behind his desk for a second, before remembering who he was.
The Patriarch of the Order does not cower.
From anyone.
Mustering all the courage he had within his frame, he asked loudly, "What do you want, demon?"
The Devil stepped through the smoking hole that used to be the secure door to the Patriarch. He stepped so fastidiously over the rubble that for a second, his imposing size seemed not to be an issue.
"Two things;" the Devil said with an air of menace. "Firstly, I am a Devil, not some half-breed demon. And secondly, I am here to end you, and the Order. You have displeased your Benefactor one time too many."
The Patriarch sat heavily. "What do you mean by this?"
"Taking a Contract from the Watchers Council. Honestly, you would think no one had any brains left at all, wouldn't you?"
"I never dealt with that Contract. It was one of my Lieutenants." He looked out the wrecked doorway. "The very one who you turned into a sword sheath, as it happens."
The Devil shrugged, and he began to rapidly shrink back to a more human size. His eyes pierced the Patriarchs, sending terror into his heart. "It matters little to me, Old Man. I have been sent to do a job, and I will complete it. Although... I must say, I am disappointed. I expected Teraka to put up more of a fight."
"Killing me will not end the Order."
"No... but it will be a start..." The Devil locked gazes, and for all of a second, the two engaged in a battle of wills.
One that, had the Devil not been in the mood for toying with someone, would have ended before it began.
The dried husk of the Patriarch crumbled as it slipped backwards in the chair he had been sitting in. all the liquid in his body instantly vaporised by the Fires No Mortal Could Withstand.
"It is done." The Devil spoke with finality.
An unearthly voice echoed in the room. "Good. Now... the world will never be the same..."
"Retrieve that which you lost, Devil."
One word echoed as the Devil faded from view, and the mortal realm:
"Master."
Xander stood looking at the wraithlike form in front of him.
"Pain is only an illusion, boy." The wraith stepped forward. "Only your mind can trap you, and only you mind can free you."
"How? I don't even know where I am. How can my mind be the thing that traps me? I don't want to be trapped here!"
"Oh, but you do. Your subconscious hides from you, doing things that you would never dream of doing. And yet, despite the fact that it is not you, it also... is."
"What?"
"You must free yourself, boy. You are the object of your own imprisonment."
"How?"
"By doing what must be done. Your body languishes in Mundus' torture pits, while you mind is free. Release yourself from that body... from all connection to it, and nothing he can do will hurt you."
"I can't give up. I owe my friends..." Xander began forlornly.
"You owe your friends NOTHING!" the wraith snapped, plainly angered. "You owe yourself..."
Xander bristled at the rebuke, and snarled at her, "Dante... Trish? I don't owe them? They took me in, gave me purpose!"
The riposte was quick and vicious. "And look where that purpose led you! You lie dying because they cannot save you! Dante... your 'partner' has abandoned you to his enemies! He cannot save you, because you cannot save yourself!" the woman spat into the darkness. "You are a failure."
A new voice spoke in the darkness, and quickly took form. "He is not."
The speaker emerged, and Xander recoiled in horror. He was human... barely. Hideously maimed and mutated to the point where he almost didn't look like a person. If you could roll all that was ugly into one form, he would be it.
"Who... who are you?" Xander asked nervously.
"I am the opposite of her," the man said slowly. "That which is truth, rather than that which is lies."
"What is going on?" Xander asked confused.
The two looked at each other, naked hatred visible for the other in each of their eyes. "Isn't it obvious?" they both said at the same time, "you have to choose."
"Choose what?" Xander frowned.
"Truth." The woman spat with venom.
"Or lies." The man added with a soft, sad lisp.
Xander looked at the two, and his eyes showed his rising desperation. "No." he said slowly. "NO! I don't want to."
"You have to. You must." The man said.
"But I don't want EITHER!" Xander screamed as they began to fade. "I choose to stay here! It's quiet here! It's safe here!"
"Fool." The woman spat as she turned away in disgust. "I could have given you everything."
The man looked on sadly at Xander, who was now sobbing to himself. "You did not make the fatal choice, but you have still given her what she most wants..."
Xander stopped crying for a second and looked up. "What did I give her?"
The man spoke sadly. "A way into your soul..."
Xander closed his eyes and gasped.
"...and a way into your mind. To control you, without you being there."
Suddenly, all was quiet.
It was if time itself had stood still.
It had.
Xepto raged. Her realm was in tatters, the fine designs destroyed, defaced. Mundus had done this, she knew. But she could not visit vengeance on him without the aid of all Hell behind her.
The Devil-Knight may have been powerful individually, but in the archaic politics that Hell held to, the strongest ruled. That was the way it always had been: that was the way it always would be.
The most cunning, the most evil, the most powerful. Three attributes that were required to Rule.
Xepto was powerful, true. She was also ruthlessly cunning and evil to the core... no, wait, she wasn't: she had developed human feelings at one time in her existence. They were a weakness. A weakness that despite her many attempts to remove had not completely gone.
As long as her son was alive, she would not be always a Devil. In a corner of her mind lurked humanity. She shivered at the idea, but it was seductive... much like the anger, hatred and lies that her power stemmed from.
"Angelo..." she hissed, and a lackey bowed obsequiously.
"Shall I summon him, Mistress?"
Xepto shook her head, looking death at the speaker. The small demon quailed at the look, but did not flinch away. If he had, she would have killed him outright. Weak servants were not to be tolerated. While some killed their more intelligent servants, for fear of further competition, Xepto did not. Until they became a threat, she continued to use them.
"No. Let him come when he wishes. Him and his thrice damned brother will spoil all my careful planning if they do what I think they are going to... who would have thought that Sparda would still be alive? Mundus certainly kept that quiet. But still, perhaps it is for the best..."
"The Dark Knight? Alive? After all this time?" Whispers began to form around her, as her subjects and servants muttered to each other.
Xepto nodded. "Yes. The Legendary One is alive. With his wife, if the truth is to be known." A small smile broke her severe reflection. Perhaps he knew with his wife what I had a taste of...... oh, my husband, I did love you... I do love you still...
Not willing to show weakness in front of even her closest servants, Xepto vanished.
A cliff face in a desolate spot of the Irish coast knew boiling heat for a fraction of a second, as Xepto cooled from the temperatures that existed in Hell, to the more realistic ones in the 'real world'.
Xepto looked across the still sea, and screamed her rage. The sea boiled at her feet, waves crashing on the shore vaporised in the heat of her displeasure.
As the cliff crumbled, Xepto's wings unfurled and beat once, holding her in place in the air where one second she had stood on rock. She stopped her angry tirade as an answering scream came from across the sea, detected by her Devil ears.
"DANTE!" Xepto screamed again, before falling silent and waiting.
Dante felt the fabric of the world shift as something unnatural occurred.
He could feel it in his bones, that is was not far away, and something drew him to investigate. His emotional safeguards that had been torn to shreds when Xander vanished had taken time to build up.
Terrorising Ethan had been cathartic for him, allowing him to vent the rage he hadn't known he had against the man's brother. Nathan might be the watcher, and Ethan the Chaos worshipping mage, but at least Ethan had a conscience, of a sort. Nathan, now, was the willing servant of a power that would use him for its own ends, and not care one whit if he died in the process.
Something pulled at him; summoned him.
It was calling the deepest reaches of his soul. His cry of sorrow and anger was louder than he thought possible, the waves of sound cracking stone and tearing trees apart with the sheer force released.
He followed the call, his Devil form coming as he needed it, wings bursting from his body to carry him faster than the eye could comprehend.
The need was urgent; the summons could not be ignored.
Painfully, Dante knew who summoned him, and what it could mean.
Angelo sat in his own realm, a dark place with nothing but that which he created. It was barren, desolate almost to the point of non-existence.
It mirrored his mind.
Xepto had given him much to think about, as had his brother, in his inimitable way. Angelo and Dante: the apple of their mothers' eye.
Two brothers destined to be at each others throats from the moment they came of age, the rage and pain that was the heritage of the father becoming embodied in both, but only one truly able to command the power behind that rage.
Angelo, privately, was still not certain which of the two of them was the lucky one.
Was it Dante? He doubted it. He was forever destined to fight his own form; resist the powers that made him what he was.
Was it Angelo himself? He was almost certain that he wasn't the gifted one. He looked around. Could this be a gift? More like a curse.
But it was almost time. It had taken many bribes, many deaths, and much time to create an environment ripe for Angelo's move, but he intended to take it while he could.
The other half-Devil, the son of Xepto, was too important to leave in the hands of Mundus for any longer than necessary. It was already highly likely that his mind was shattered: it had been a long time since he arrived.
Everything must be carefully orchestrated. He had already lined up a nice disaster for Dante to deal with that would allow Angelo the freedom to release Xander into the world again.
The few aspects that Angelo could not take into consideration, though, was how the tortured half-Devil would react to the world. Would he remember his friends, or would something... disastrous... happen?
Only time would tell.
The cavern was filled with vampires.
Hundreds of vampires.
Adam stood on a raised dais, so that they could all see his pronouncement, and Spike stood with him. Only the countenance that Adam gave Spike stopped many of the vampires from staking him outright. He had worked with the Slayer: that was tantamount to a death penalty.
Adam turned, and he seemed to look at each vampire individually. Then he spoke.
"I want you, all of you, to begin a campaign for me."
The vampires roared in agreement.
"You will turn as many as you can. If you cannot turn someone, do not attack them."
There was another roar from the assembled vampires, but this was a quieter one. Some of the smarter ones realised that they would not be feeding as often.
"At all costs, you will avoid the Slayer. And her little groupies. Do not go near them. If you feel her coming, run."
There was some muttering in the ranks.
"I mean this completely: do not engage the Slayer. If you do, you will die. Whether she kills you, or I, it matters little. I have decreed that you do not harm her, and that is final."
One of the more stupid vampires you couldn't really call him intelligent at the best of times, and what he was about to do was suicide spoke up. "Why should we do that? We're vampires? We're meant to kill the Slayer!"
Adam looked at the vampire, and gestured him forward. Continuing to show just how foolish he was, the vampire did as he was bid, and stepped through the crowd.
Adam appraised him. "Andy, isn't it?" he asked almost kindly.
Andy nodded. "Yeah."
Adam moved lightning quick, and Andy was suddenly missing his head. The body teetered slightly, before bursting into dust.
Adam looked over the crowd. "Let that be a lesson to you. Do not argue with me."
He turned, and his arms encompassed the whole hall. "I want this town to have more vampires in it than humans! I want to be able to give the word, and every living thing in this town dies in a night! Each of you, eachofyou, is part of my plan! When I say the word, I want to be able to walk across the world, in a path of BLOOD!"
The shock rode high for a moment, before Spike took up a cheer. The rest of the cavern quickly followed his example. The initially ragged bursts became louder and more certain. This was a leader to be feared. And one that the humans had made themselves...
Within seconds, the roar was deafening. The walls, and very ground itself, shook in fear at what was to soon be unleashed...
"You."
"You."
Xepto turned away from the arrival. "I tire of these games, Dante. Either fight, or flee. But do not try my patience any further."
"I try your patience! Who..." Dante began, but Xepto cut him off.
"What? You ask 'who do I think I am?'" Xepto sneered. "As if it is not obvious, half-breed. You fight for those who can equally well defend themselves... if you did not hide the truth from them."
"People are not able to deal with the truth in this day and age." Dante replied. "Maybe once, I could have revealed everything that happened, and still happens, but now? No. There would be panic, mass genocide on scales unseen since the Campaigns."
Xepto paused, before brushing off his words. "You speak of that which you do not understand. I led the Campaigns. I know of what happened."
Dante rolled his eyes. "And yet you do nothing."
"NOTHING?!" Xepto suddenly spun, rage on her features, hatred a palpable essence in the air around her. "I do that which I can to prevent the things I fear! You think you fight me... you think you fight the whole of Hell!" She gripped Dante roughly by his shirt, and he knew at that instant she could break him in two if she so chose. "Know this, Dante: if Hell was united, nothing on this earth nothing could stop the wave that would come."
Dante calmly raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
Xepto felt the cold of a pistol wedged against her neck, and realised that Dante was indeed a far more dangerous opponent than he first appeared: and he appeared dangerous indeed.
She dropped him suddenly, and he rolled away as she laughed in contempt. Not at him, but at everything.
Dante slowly managed to get his anger back under control. Almost growling, he ground out, "where is Xander? What have you done with him?"
Xepto looked at him in open surprise. Yes, Dante's loyalties ran deep. He felt the need to save a man he would never see again, save on a battlefield. "Do not concern yourself with my son, Son of Sparda. He is somewhere where... neither of us can free him."
Dante stepped closer, his whole body radiating menace. Even Xepto, standing feet taller and eons older and more vicious was taken aback. "Where?"
"Mundus," Xepto snarled the name, "has trapped him in a place where none but he and his fears can go:"
Dante's eyes flickered with awareness, and the two spoke in unison: "...his mind."
Dawn winced at something. Something had changed, and she knew that it wasn't for the better.
Looking around the classroom of her peers, she frowned as she realised sort of what was wrong. "Sir?" Dawn raised her hand, "may I be excused?"
The teacher nodded. "Certainly, Miss Summers."
Dawn stood, and walked calmly out of the classroom. It was only once she was out of the school gates that she took off at a run for the Magic Box.
If she was right if her feeling was right then Giles was about to have a visitor.
Dante stalked around Xepto angrily. "So. Mundus has trapped Xander. In his own mind. His dreams, as far as he is concerned, made reality."
Xepto nodded. "Yes. But it is unlikely to be his dreams... Mundus will have trapped him in a limbo state: neither truly waking nor sleeping, but unaware of what his body does."
"Can we get Xander out?" Dante knew the answer to this question, but asked it anyway. It was a vain hope that the answer would have changed.
Xepto shrugged. "Only if he wants to come out."
"What can you do?"
Xepto walked a few steps away, to watch the ocean. "I? Little. If I overtly stand against Mundus, Hell will be torn in two, true... but factions who are, as yet, undecided on which they support will be forced to choose to survive. It will lead to bloodshed on earth, whether you want it or not."
Dante spoke quietly, uncertain whether he should suggest what he was about to. "There is one person who could help..."
Xepto sighed. "And that is?"
"My father." Dante said in a whisper. It was loud enough, though.
Xepto exploded in rage. "You expect me to beg for help from him?" The glow of her eyes gained in intensity until Dante was sure they would be able to compete with the sun itself. "That... that traitor?!"
"Are you forgetting who you speak to, Xepto? I am no mortal. I might, as you call me, be a 'half-breed' but at least I know where my loyalties lie. As did my father. He followed his heart... have you so forgotten yours?"
Xepto's inadequately bottled anger rose to new heights. Launching herself at the half-Devil who had prodded that emotional wound, incoherent with the sheer fury she was experiencing, she beat him.
Dante, for his part, did little to resist. He blocked where he could, but knew full well that the power Xepto could bring to bear would far outstrip his abilities even when she was in full control of herself. As driven as she was, her strength was magnified ten-fold.
He Triggered as bones broke, allowing them to heal almost instantly. Then they were simply broken again under the assault.
"Did I hit a nerve?" Dante hissed in Xepto's face as she paused in her attack for a second. "I've never seen anyone get so..."
His words were cut off as Xepto backhanded him over the cliff, and he crashed inelegantly into the rocks below.
Laying there, he groaned.
Xepto landed next to him, still primed for a fight. "Not so able now, are you, half-breed?" Xepto taunted him in the hopes of getting him to stand and fight. "Seems you were not so much a problem as Mundus made out..." she sneered at him. "Pitiful."
"Nothing will go well for you, Xepto, if you refuse to see what is in front of you!" Dante spoke with a passion he had been unaware he had: his partner's loss and the looming feeling of failure was much of that.
"I see what is in front of me: death, despair and endless torment if I defy someone I have no hope of overthrowing!"
Dante struggled to his feet, lacking even the strength to Trigger and heal his wounds. "I don't ask you to go to Sparda that would be too much I ask that you help me to reach him."
Xepto shook her head, eyes flaring. "No. Out of the question. You would die before you even got within a years journey of Sparda's Exile."
"I have ways." Dante said quietly. "I believe I can make it."
"Then you are delusional."
"I know I am not, Xepto," Dante pressed, "all I ask is that you help. If I die, then you will have rid yourself of one opponent, and gained face with Mundus for it. If I succeed..." Dante let the words trail off. He had tried the Stick method, and now this was the Carrot. If this didn't work, there was nothing he could do...
As the door exploded inwards, Giles ducked behind the counter to avoid the shards or wood, glass, metal and brickwork. Peeking above the countertop, his eyes widened in fright and he ducked down again, muttering a prayer.
A Devil stood in the now ruined doorway. It looked around, seemingly searching for something, and its eyes locked on the door to the basement. Stalking over to it, this door likewise exploded in the same way as the front door.
Giles followed the Devil as it pounded down the steps, ready to flee if it turned toward him. Fortunately, it was too concerned over what it had come there for.
It saw the box.
Giles covered his ears with his hands as an ear shattering roar resounded.
Dawn rounded the corner to the Magic Box, just in time to see that she was too late. Her bad feeling had paid off. What had been the orderly, and above all quaintly small entrance to the Magic Box was a gaping hole covering most of the front of the building.
Dawn picked up the pace, running as fast as she could. Faster than she had ever tried running before. Something told her she had to. Of course, that 'something' feeling could, potentially, get her killed, but if Buffy could do it, why couldn't she? She vaulted over a lump of what had been the wall, and then promptly fell flat on her face because the rubble she landed on had slipped under her weight.
The roar sounded, and she shook her head to clear the ringing in her ears.
"Ow!" She complained, picking herself up and continuing to the door to the basement. "Giles?" She hissed as she saw movement. "Get out of there, now!"
"Dawn?" Giles asked in amazed shock. "What are you doing here? You should be in school!"
"Damn school!" Dawn replied vehemently. Then she caught sight of what had done this to the Magic Box. "Giles. Get out of here. This isn't going to be pretty."
"How do you know?" Giles asked, backing out of the basement, keeping both eyes on the Devil.
"I know. Trust me. That... Devil, is after Xander's guns!"
"What do you...?" Giles stopped as a thought struck him. "Oh dear."
Dawn grabbed Giles coat sleeve as he reached the top, and helped him out. "I'm too late." She muttered despondently.
"How? How could you know what happened? How did you get here? Why?" Giles fired questions at her, not entirely making sense from the shock.
Dawn shook her head. "I'll tell you in a minute. I've got to try to stop it." She vanished back in the shop.
Giles turned quickly, trying to stop her. "Dawn! Wait!" His foot slipped and all he saw was darkness...
"Put that box down."
The Devil turned at the command echoing in the room.
It saw a young teen - Dawn - and if it could have sneered, it would have done. Instead, lacking the facial features required for such an expression, its green eyes flared in warning. "Interfere not with me, girl."
Dawn stood her ground, even though every muscle in her body was trying to hold a vote to overrule her brain and have it relieved of command. "Put that box down. It doesn't belong to you."
"It doesn't belong to me?" The Devil echoed amused. "Anything I wish belongs to me. If I wished it, you would belong to me."
Dawn ignored the Devils jibe. "Put the box down."
"You can't make me." The Devil gripped the top of the box, and tore it off, flinging it against the wall behind him. Reaching into the box, Dawn heard, "at last... you are mine, again..."
"They belong to my friend. Xander Harris."
"Are you so sure, Little Girl?"
"Yes."
Both pistols were levelled at Dawn. "Want to bet on that?"
Dawn faltered, taking a half a step back in fear. "I..."
"Good."
Dawn saw the Devil pull the triggers of the guns, but after that, couldn't put the next few seconds together for a long time.
When the Devil pulled the triggers, no bullets fired. So the sudden twin explosion of its chest was a shock it was unprepared for. A pained grunt, nothing more, and the wounds were already healed. He heard two voices speaking, and a third joining in.
The third was angry.
[We shall not be used to harm one who we have sworn to protect. Not even by you.]
[Corruption was feared by us. Or fears have been made flesh.]
[FOOL!] The third was Mundus, far from happy. [FAILURE! INCOMPETENT!]
Dawn cowered back as the Devil stalked toward her, and screamed as its talons closed around her wrist. "No! Let me go! Let me go!!!"
The Devil didn't listen.
With Dawn in its grip, it vanished in an implosion of sound.
Xepto stared hard at the half-breed in front of her. Weighing the possibilities carefully, she nodded slowly. "Very well... I will set your feet on the path, Dante. I hope you succeed. I pray that you survive."
Dante nodded. "This is going to sound very strange, and feel even stranger, but thank you, Xepto."
"Don't flatter yourself, half-breed," Xepto muttered. "I'm not doing this for you."
"I know that." Dante agreed. He half turned away and looked at her out of the corner of his vision. "I think you are a better parent than you think you are..."
With that, he walked a distance away, to let her think about what they had spoken of. "I'll be back at this spot in two days. I have some things I need to take care of if I'm to be gone for a long period of time. And it sounds like it will be a long trip."
Xepto stared after him.
Maybe there was more to humans than most Devils supposed. Her husband had certainly been one of a few worthy of their races' position in the grand scheme of things.
Dante was more perceptive than she had given him credit for.
That was both admirable, and to be feared.
Which, and when, was still to be decided.