Xander curled up in bed and tried to stifle his sobs. Pain lanced all along his sides and up his face, ugly blotchy bruises already forming. He flinched as a glass liqueur bottle shattered against his door. His father screams muffled but oh so audible.
He grabbed a pillow and pulled it over his ears, trying to block out the sounds and winced at the pressure on his face. He felt so helpless, so weak, so insignificant.
Everything his father had said.
"Please....help me" Xander didn't know who he was asking, God maybe, he just asked. For help. For the strength to help himself. For it all to go away.
"Please...." they were just whispers, pleads, but something heard.
It wasn't God.
Xander prodded his bruised face with a sick fascination, to feel the pain, a pain that hurts, but not in the same way other pain does. It's kinda like a medal to him, to a child any injury is something to show off, it's like saying "See how much I can take, see how tough I am" and if anyone winces in sympathy, it feels like praise, cause it's only a bruise now, it hurts, but not like other pain does.
Xanders third grade teacher bends down to get a better look as he passes Xanders table, and sucks a hiss in through his teeth as he sees the shiner and surrounding bruising Xander seems so proud of.
"Geez, how'd you manage that one Alex?" the sympathy in his voice was clearly evident. Xander grinned up at him.
"Went to pull a door open when mom, pushed it open. Bang, door knob in the face" He grinned again. The bruised area of his faced went a shade darker as the muscles in his face moved.
"Ooooh, I bet that one hurt. Oh well your tough, you're alright now" The teacher smiled at Xander, seeing the childish pride in the boy swell with his words of praise.
"Yep" answered Xander as the teacher walked on to the next table of kids in his class. He didn't know why his invisible friend had told him to tell his teacher that, but if he always got words of praise from it, he didn't mind.
His invisible friend seemed all that more real for it to.
Xander bruises are gone, now just slight yellowish discoloration's on his skin. He's playing football at lunch, just a bunch of boys, not even enough for one whole side, but they make do non the less.
He watches as Jesse is tackled, and he himself is tackled in turn for his loss of concentration. The ground hit's hard, and for a moment he feel his head ring. The kid who tackled him is moving on already as Xander starts to pick himself up. By the time he's up and running they're already setting up to go again.
The resultant play has Jesse roofing the ball.
"Ohhh man" his sentiments a echoed by all those playing but he can tell that Jesse's sorry about it. Others dont think so.
Jesse receives a few shoves, a couple of batters that he takes without much fuss. It's the fat kid though that starts the trouble. He doesn't know when to stop and continues with the hassling. Pushing, punching, looks like it was his ball. A few of his friends stand back waiting for him to finish and follow.
* Hit him *
Jesse s protesting. The fat kids shove puts Jesse down. Jesse scowls up at him and gives him a boot to the shin. The kid kicks back, hard. Repeatedly.
* Dont let him do that *
Xander didn't know he'd picked up a rock. He knew when he hit the kid though. Just as Jesse started crying.
* There, there, THERE! * Xanders other friend routes him on, as he hits the kid it the chest with the rock.
Arms wrap there way around him, pulling him off the kid, the kid lashes out with a fist, it's hurts, but it doesn't hurt that much.
The arms behind him let go, the person obviously not willing to hold him down to get beaten. The boys grapple at each other, too close to do anything but yank on hair and try to gouge out cheeks with stiff thumbs. The other boys weight starts to tell.
*THERE!!!* His friend is motioning to the rock on the ground. Xander reaches out and grasps the rock, but suffers as his opponent sharp, dirty fingernails dig into his cheek.
The rock knocked two teeth out and the boy stops fighting. Xander backs up and gets to his feet, he can feel blood coming from his nose and cheek. The other boy is on the ground, blood pouring from his mouth, nose and fore head. His hands clutch at his mouth and he lets out a pain stricken screaming wail. Xander turns and looks at Jesse, than back again.
"For Him".
He wasn't talking about Jesse.
Large bruises are scattered all over Xanders face are worn like a medal. Most aren't from the fight.
The teacher gives him a questioning look.
"He got a few in, But I got him" That same triumphant grin.
"That you did"
Xander struts out of the principal office. A grim look on his face. Jesse and Willow take up flanking positions in the hall.
"What did he say?" Willow was a little worried. This last fight could be the straw that broke the camels back.
"I get to stay..." Willow sighed in relief "...but if I get caught fighting in school again I'm gone, no warnings. Plus I got another three day suspension"
"But what are you going to do about Mats big brother? He'll kill you for beating up Mat" Jesse just stated what everyone in the school was thinking, Mats brother was in year eight, a whole two grades higher than Xander. Xander didn't stand a chance.
"I'll just have to fight him out of school"
Xander limped over to the park bench, Jesse and Willow supporting him on either side. He gave a hacking cough than spat out some blood before looking back over his friends shoulders.
"For him" He whispered. His other friend just looked smug.
"Holy shit man, you beat up a high schooler" The disbelief and wonder in Jesse's voice was evident. Just as evident as the worry and admiration in Willows eyes. All though no one knew, she had a thing for bad boys. She pulled out a small first aid kit as they sat Xander down. She loved playing doctor, and with Xander she got more practice than most.
Xander hissed slightly as she dabbed some disinfectant on his lip. She gave a small laugh. Than continued on his large variety of hurts
"You just got the snot beat out of you and this hurts you?" she asked with a small smile. Jesse just laughed outright at the comment, still not believing Xander had done it.
"Yeah well, your my only weakness Will. Now come on, one of Mats friends just got on the phone and I dont want to know who he rang"
They helped him limp off. Leaving Mat leaning over his big brother as he tried to wake him up.
Xander limped up to his front door, waving goodbye as Willow and Jesse headed home. His father opened the door before he reached it, and supported him, helping him inside to the couch.
"Who was it this time?" his father had changed over the last three years. He had actually become pretty proud of Xander. Having a child that could hold himself in a fight and beat most kids his age into serious injury seemed to make him proud, made him feel like more of a man Xander thought.
Xander only did it because he needed to do it for "Him". He didn't know why. It was just an urge. And he loved the rush. Every fight was exhilarating. He loved it. But that didn't mean he was a bully. He never picked on people weaker than him, never. Once he beat a person, he didn't rub it in, just left them be. They weren't worth it anymore. He always looked for people stronger than him. But he didn't start anything. Probably why he hadn't been kicked out of school yet. He'd just select a person and just watch them, sooner or later they'd bully someone, or say something they shouldn't have and he'd be there. With a word that would start them, or a fist to protect a victim.
He'd become a bit of a hero with the geeks, nerds and freaks.
"Mat Cauthons big brother" His father gave him another strange look than grinned like a lunatic.
"Well done boy, dont let anyone push you around"
"Dad it's not like that"
"Sure it isn't, and you tell that to anyone who asks, they started it" he got up and fished around in the ice box before pushing an ice pack onto Xanders forehead.
Xander went to say something, but decided to keep his mouth shut. His relationship with his father was fragile, and even though his dad supported him for the wrong reasons, he loved every second of it. It was a precious thing his dads support, his dads time, his dads love. It saddened him some times.
Xander was brought out of his thought as his dad gave him a tap on the shoulder.
"Hey, I got you something" his smile was a rare thing.
He pulled up Xander from the chair and dragged him into the little used garage. Junk lined the walls, not leaving enough room to get the cars in, but a new red punching bag hung from the ceiling. Xanders eyes lit up. He couldn't think of any other kid at school who had a punching bag. And it wasn't even his birthday, or Christmas.
"Thanks dad" He beamed the smile only eleven year oldes could at him and gave him a hug.
"Thats not all !" From behind his back he pulled a pair of knuckle wraps smiling all the time. Xander gave an excited whoop and his dad showed him how to put them on. On his eleven year old hands they went half way up his fore arms, but he didn't care. He stepped up to the bag and begun to punch it, as if he'd hadn't just returned a fight.
This was the best gift Xander ever received from his father. And the best thing his Father ever could have done for him.
Xander strolled into the halls of Sunnydale high, late as per usual for Thursday mornings. This morning he had ancient history first, which meant Mr. Macallister. Which means all he had to do was walk into the room, find the roll and tick his name off because Mr. Macallister was never at school until after first break. If any of the other staff said anything, the old coot would just start screaming at them. None of the staff said anything, so he just showed up late every day.
A blonde stepped out of the Principals office right in front of him, rummaging through her bag. The collision sends her small frame sprawling.
"Oof"
"Ahh crap I'm sorry. You alright?" Xander stretches out a hand and helps her off the ground before helping her pick up her stuff.
"No problem, I really should look where I'm going. Ironically I was looking for the map the office gave me." she gave an embarrassed smile
"New ?" Xander asked before picking up a stake looking at it quizzically than handing it to her with a shrug. She snatched it quickly stashing in her bag. Hoping that not saying anything will make it go away.
"Yeah, I was looking for umm room..." She glances down at a slip of paper she just picked up "... E 3?" She gave him a questioning glance.
"Unlucky, thats a chem. room." He smirked at her than pointed up the hall. " End of the hall than right, you cant miss it. Well not after the seniors lit the door on fire last week." He gave a chuckle. The mention of fires and school made the blonde pale slightly but she recovered well, settling her folder in her arms she tossed her hair slightly.
"Thanks ahh?" the prompt was universal.
"Xander. It was nice to meet you ....?"
"Buffy" gave him a parting glance before heading up the hall at a brisk pace.
* You'll have to watch her..... for now. She's special *
"I know. I felt it too" "Xander, what are you doing out of class?" Flutie seemed to of caught Xander outside his door. Xander didn't seem worried. Flutie was a lot better than his grade school principal.
"Macallister" Thats all he needed to mention.
"Oh... well.... just go to class, cant have you just wondering the corridors"
Ancient History was the only class that willow, Jesse and Xander had together. So as he entered the room he just sidled up to them, joining their conversation.
"well look who's decided to show up to class" Jesse's comment was met with a playful shove from Xander.
"Lay off. I was talking to the new girl, definitely something." Xander didn't mean the something that seemed to have Jesse drooling at the moment.
"Looks like you'll have bragging rights." Willow shot in. " Your the first to talk to her."
"So whats the dirt?"
"Her names Buffy."
"And?"
"Sorry didn't manage to grab her bra size Jess, but if you ask real nice I'll bet she'd tell ya"
"Yeah, with a knee to the groin" Said Jesse dejectedly.
"That'd be my answer" Piped in Willow.
"Yeah but we dont have to ask you, we already know yours" The boys smirked at each other as Willow's face temperature went into meltdown and her eye's widened.
"What? How?" she hissed at them both. Clearly embarrassed.
"And that brings me to me to my next question. I need help with the math."
"Whats in it for me?"
"Confidentiality Ofcourse" He said with a smirk. Willow knew Xander and Jesse wouldn't tell. She wasn't even sure they knew. But she played along anyway by pointedly giving Jesse a stare. Xander reached over and grabbed Jesse in a headlock.
"Dont worry he wont say a word" he gave Jesse a nookie just emphasize his point as Jesse tried very unsuccessfully to get away.
Willow took her time looking as if she was considering her reply.
"Ok, but you'll need "theories of trig""
Xander kneeled down and rustled through his bag. He pulled out a small bag after he was done.
"I'll have to go to the library" He handed willow the small bag "Next time you sleep over try to remember your laundry" He gave her a smirk. She turned beet red a she found out how accurate Xanders and Jesse's information was when she glanced in the bag. The small bag quickly disappeared into her own.
"Dont worry, Xan washed it." Jesse really should learn when to keep his mouth shut. "Right after I went through it all"
Jesse's head made a dull thud when it came into contact with willow's thrown steel stapler.
Xander wandered up into the library just before first brake. His English teacher had let him go a bit early to get the book he need for his study period with Willow. Xander had just made himself a very large distraction in English until the teacher sent him out.
The library was deserted. A bit musty and dark with that distinct book smell. Dust particles could be seen floating in the light coming through the big window on the right which seemed to shine right on that long wooden table in the center of the room. It made for a nice effect.
He looked about for the librarian, but decided he'd just get the book himself. He really didn't want to be caught in the library especially by the Librarian. The guy was probably the loneliest person on earth stuck in here, and Xander, even though never meeting the guy, had already mentally labeled him with weirdo status.
The maths section wasn't that hard to find and he stashed the book into his bag, just as the first break bell was heard.
He was just about to leave when his friend motioned him to a few old dusty books up the back, on an almost hidden shelf.
* This one *
Xander reached out and grabbed the book in question. The writing on the front was in some weird language Xander couldn't read. But he didn't have to.
"Okaaayy"
The book seemed to flip open itself, calmly almost, until it reached a page. A page with his friend on it. He looked at the page, his friend, page, friend, page, friend. He pointed at the picture. His friend nodded at the unasked question.
The picture in the book showed a small being, which was all xanders friend was, reaching only mid thigh on Xander. The being was well muscled and blood red. Arms were elongated with sharp, long fingered claws at the end. They hung next to knees with bony spikes that bent backwards, his legs ended with sharp taloned claws, that were a cross between dog and bird feet, thick but evenly spaced. His friends face was beautiful in it's arrogance, with high cheek bones and a vicious smirk that hid sharp yellow fang-like teeth. A forked tongue ran across it's lips. It had a large fore head that led up to where two broad horns emerged and curved back over it's head, flowing like hair. It's whole being just screamed wrong, or would of had they been able to see it.
His friend hadn't always been like that. When Xander was younger, he had just seemed like a floating red cloud that talked to him, helped him and kept him company. It's image had changed so slowly that Xander hadn't noticed. The slightly fearsome look it possessed now didn't disturb Xander though, his friend had always been there, and the advice it gave him never steered him wrong.
His friend motioned to two other books. Xander grabbed them and was just about to leaf through them when a familiar voice rang through the library and was this time answered by the librarian.
Xander friend motioned him to bag the books and listen to the conversation.
"Okay, what's the sitch?" buffy demanded as she burst through the library doors
"Sorry?" The librarian walks on down from the stacks, giving Xander a little fright as he relized how close he was and that he hadn't noticed him
"You heard about the dead guy, right? The dead guy in the locker?"
"Yes." Buffy dumps her bag on table and heads up the stairs, talking all the time.
"Cause, it's the weirdest thing. He's got two little, little holes in his neck, and all his blood's been drained." she steps right up to him, almost daring him to confirm her suspicions "Isn't that bizarre? Aren't you just going, ooo?"
Xander started to lean forward, this was getting interesting.
"I was afraid of this." said the librarian clearly not intimidated by the girl.
"Well, *I* wasn't! It's my first day! I was afraid that I was gonna be behind in all my classes, that I wouldn't make any friends, that I would have last month's hair. I didn't think there'd be vampires on campus. And I don't care." All her rant was missing was her shaking her fist at him at the end.
Xander had to stop himself from snickering at that. Vampire's? please! He glanced down at his friend though and saw the mask of rage on his face.
"Then why are you here?" his smirk and question catches her off guard
'Librarians got her there' thought Xander looking on, mentally changing his opinion of the librarian.
"To tell you that... I don't care, which... I don't, and... have now told you, so... bye." Buffy turns away to go, ego deflated.
"Is he, w-will he... rise again?" He was desperate to keep her here.
"Who?"
"The boy." stated library guy, matter of factly
"No. He's just dead." There was disappointment on her face.
"Can you be sure?"
"To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood. And then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just gonna kill you. Why am I still talking to you?" Buffy seems to relize that she's supposed to not want to talk to this guy and turns to leave
"You really have no idea what's going on, do you? You think it's coincidence, your being here? That boy was just the beginning." That turned her around, annoyance clearly plastered on her face.
"Oh, why can't you people just leave me alone?" she was defiantly getting frustrated now.
English poses slightly before beginning.
"Because you are the Slayer. Into each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all the world, a Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires..."
Buffy interrupts him
"...with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil blah, blah, blah... I've heard it before, okay?"
"I really don't understand this attitude. You, you've accepted your duty, you, you've slain vampires before..." The English guy seemed really confused now.
"Yeah, and I've both been there and done that, bought the T-shirt and I'm moving on."
"What do you know about this town?" he says walking into his office
"It's two hours on the freeway from Neiman Marcus?" buffy questions tiredly.
"Dig a bit in the history of this place. You'll find a, a steady stream of fairly odd occurrences. Now, I believe this whole area is a center of mystical energy.." He comes out with a pile of books in hand ".... that things gravitate towards it that, that, that you might not find elsewhere." He finishes placing his books on the table
"Like vampires." She frowns as he starts piling the books up in Buffys arms.
"Like zombies, werewolves, incubi, succubi, everything you've ever dreaded was under your bed, but told yourself couldn't be by the light of day. They're all real!" He emphasizes his words by placing more books in Buffys arms
"Cool! But, okay.." She starts handing him back the books. ".... first of all, I'm a Vampire Slayer. And secondly, I'm retired. Hey, I know! Why don't you kill 'em?"
"I-I'm a Watcher, I-I haven't the skill... " He's seems rather flustered by the idea
"Oh, come on, stake through the heart, a little sunlight... It's like falling off a log." Buffy see's right through his lame excuse
'Who are these weirdoes?' Xander continues to listen in from his hiding place
"A, a Slayer slays, a Watcher..."
"...watches?" she deadpans
"Yes. No!.." He starts setting down the books "... He, he trains her, he, he, he prepares her..."
"Prepares me for what? For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to spend all of my time fighting for my life and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? Go ahead! Prepare me." Buffy looks pissed, and stands there waiting for a reply. One isn't forthcoming.
Buffy sighs angrily before turning and walking out the door.
"Damn!" Book guy curses to himself before following.
Xander stands up, shouldering his bag.
"Okaay, that was weird" he hurries out of the library to meet up with willow and Jesse.
Xander wandered towards the Bronze casually, nodding to a few people hanging about the entrance. He started to fumble around in his pocket, for the cover when Buffy barged into him.
"I'm starting to think you dont like me" Buffy looked at him puzzled.
"Oh, um, did you see Willow come by this way with a guy." she spoke hurriedly.
"No, but hey, Go willow, finally hooking up"
"No it's not like that, she's in trouble." That got Xanders attention.
"What happened? Who is it? I'll kill them if they hurt her" Xanders voice had changed suddenly becoming harsh and gravelly.
"No! it's alright I can handle it" Buffy tried to move passed him but he grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around to face him. He peered down into her face as if looking for something before straightening and asking
"Vampire?"
"What? How did you..? Oh never mind. Do you know where'd she'd go?!" Buffy was getting frantic trying to find and save one of her few potential new friends.
Xander looked thoughtful for a moment before a stern " Follow me"
"Come on! Come on!" Xander was trying to hurry Jesse along but his friends feet had decided to stop co-operating. Getting away was only made more difficult because Willow couldn't support their friends weight on her side, and he kept slipping down to his knees.
"I'm trying man." Jesse seemed to almost begin to run with them but only made it a few feet when his legs wobbled again, causing him to go down on one knee, almost pulling both his friends down with him.
"Willow let go of him" said Xander finally getting tired of the situation.
"What? why?" Willows words came out in a harsh high pitched panicked voice as she struggled with their current situation. Xander doesn't answer her he just grabs Jesse from her arms, hoists him over one shoulder and begins to run.
They didn't get far.
That girl vamp he'd seen at the crypt being pummeled by Buffy stepped out of the darkness fifty foot ahead of them. Xander turned as Willow whimpered to see two other vamps covering there escape. All three started to close in.
"Jesse, can you stand?"
"I think so" Xander sets Jesse down on his feet. His friend wobbles slightly but manages to keep his balance, giving his head a slight shake as if to clear it.
"Willow get behind us" Xander quickly pushes willow behind him and Jesse as the back up away from their attackers. Xander reaches out to the nearest tree and breaks off a thick branch, than snapped off all the foliage attached to it.
"Nice stick you've got there"
"Not gonna do you much good though" The attackers are within taunting distance and the two men take full advantage. But the girls seems to be sniffing the air and looking for something. She seems to stare right at the spot Xanders friend is and frown slightly.
Xander doesn't say a word he just grabs hold of his improvised stake a little harder than steps forward bringing his arms up in a loose guard. The vamps laugh and one comes at him, casual like.
Xander lashes out with a couple of hard lefts before smacking the vamp right in the eye with a heavy hook. The vamps head is snapped back but when he looks back, he doesn't look phased. In fact he just smiles at Xander. Xander takes a step back before fainting with his right and lashing out with a savage kick to the vamps knee.
The problem is, with feints, they have to be going to block to fall for it.
The vamp just lifted his and caught it on his calf. Then smiled.
Xander got worried.
The vamps fist flashed out faster than he's ever experienced before, smacking him solidly in the chest hard and knocked him back on his ass a couple off feet away.
Xander was used to taking hit's, hard hits, but it felt as if his entire rib cage had been twanged like a guitar string. He couldn't get air into his lungs. And from his position on the ground, he didn't see things going anywhere but to hell. The chick vamp had smacked Jesse around easily, his friend was already on the ground, unconscious. Willow was trying to run but the other vamp had grabbed her wrist and was pulling her to him, a leer shone through his tainted visage.
He was hoisted up into the air by his attacker, feet dangling off the ground.
"Too bad you'll never get a chance to do better" The arrogant sneer accompanied his gloating. He moved in to bite him, just as Willow screamed.
Xanders knee came crashing into vamps conveniently positioned groin when it's fangs were inches from his neck. The vamp dropped him like a sack of potatoes before bending over and grabbing hold of Xanders victims.
Xander slowly got to his feet and walked over to the vamp who was still groaning and holding his marbles.
"I dont need a second chance" he plunged his stake into it's back. The vamp almost looked grateful as it dusted. Almost.
"For Him"
He quickly turned towards where Willow was and found her talking to Buffy, Of the other two vamps there was nothing to be seen
"Where's Jesse?"
Xander shuffled into his room. Depressed, aching. He tore his shirt off and grimaced at the large fist shaped bruise on his chest. He sat down on his bed and put his head in his hands.
He couldn't believe it. They got Jesse. His best bud. He's just gone. Like that.
Why ? Because he wasn't good enough to save him. It was his fault. He's done it so many times before, saving him from bullies. If he'd only been faster, stronger. Like Buffy.
His little friend seems to read his thoughts.
* Dont worry. You will be. You'll be stronger. He will make sure of it. In fact, it has already begun * He pointed at the mirror hanging on Xanders wall. Xander looked at his reflection, he knew something was different but he couldn't see it. He got up and had a closer look.
His eye's, it was his eye's.
They had changed. Not much but they had. His brown eye's now had small red circles in them, with definite black outlines around them. they seemed to be arrayed in triangle, one at the top of each of his eye's and two others spread evenly at corners. Three dots per eye. They were all located in the colored brown of his eyes.
* Now you can read these.. * his friend held up the book, opened to the page with his picture. The script all around the picture was still indecipherable to Xander. But the words written in blood behind that. That he could read.
He turned and looked at his friend.
"Your name is Glyndaf, Glyndaf the servant of Him"
"....Waiting for the animals to die out, and the old ones to return."
Xander looked away from Giles speech and gave Glyndaf a questioning look, from under his dark glasses. His friend nodded, confirming everything Giles was saying.
Anger began to well up in Xander. He hated this. After what Giles had just told them and what he'd read last night.... He knew his best friend was dead. Dead or turned.
'Please him, let him be dead'
"So whats the plan? We saddle up right?" asked Xander. He was eager to get some payback, and hopefully bring his friends body back.
"There's no 'we' ok. I'm the slayer, you're not"
"I'd thought you'd throw that back in my face. Do you really know who you're talking to?" Xander really wasn't use to being put down. He wasn't about to start taking it.
"Who? The lone ranger?" came the sarcastic reply.
"Ahh Buffy, Xanders probably been in more fights than you have. He's fought nearly every jock in the school, and won."
"And hey, at least I'm still pretty" Xanders anger was starting to get the better of him. That last remark of his seemed to make Buffys blood visibly boil.
"Want to try your luck and step up then?" Buffy stepped right up and try to get in Xanders face. It really didn't work as she was almost a foot shorter than him. But she glared up at him anyway.
Xander glared right back at her. He knew he couldn't beat Buffy yet. But he wasn't gonna let her push him around.
He gave her something that was half smirk, half sneer and cracked his neck to the side.
"No. Not yet." He stepped back, the tension in the room almost visibly reducing as he did so.
"I didn't think so" Her arrogance was astounding.
"Buffy you may not want us out there fighting with you but we want to help. There has to be something we can do?" Willow was almost pleading with Buffy.
"There is. You can help me research this harvest. It seems to be some preordained massacre. Rivers of blood, piles of dead, hell on earth. It's quite charmless. But I'm a bit fuzzy, however, on the details. It may be that you can wrest some information from that dread machine"
Everyone looked at him.
"That was a bit British wasn't it?"
"Dont worry. Me and that dread machine have much in common" said Willow with a smirk.
"Then I'm out of here. If Jesse's still alive, I'll find him." With that she left.
Xander paced a bit. Just getting angrier as he did so. He finally snapped and kicked the small metal waste paper basket into the wall with a wordless yell. Causing Giles to give him a very reproaching look that he just ignored.
"Dont worry Xander, Buffy will save Jesse. You dont have to worry. As she said she's the slayer."
"You think thats what I'm upset about!?!" He swung around to look Willow in the eye's. "I'm upset because my best friend is Dead. DEAD Willow!"
Willow stared at him with unbelieving eye's.
"Do you really think vampires are just gonna grab Jesse and take him home for a cup of tea? Not even you are that naive ?!" The words came out harsher than he had wanted them too. He saw Willow lower her head and just knew she was about to cry. He cursed himself and bent down and enveloped her in his arms. She obviously hadn't come to terms with the past couple of days events.
"I'm sorry Will, I didn't mean it. It's just ..." he trailed off. The words didn't need to be said. She just looked up at him, tears streaming down her face, and nodded and they hugged each other with renewed vigor. Holding on to what was left of their past lives.
He found Buffy pretty easily. For 300 yards the hidden tunnel from the crypt ran straight ahead. The tunnel got to dark for his glasses half way down, so he just had to hope she didn't notice his eye's.
Buffy gave a small startle as he gave her a tap on the shoulder.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Looking for my friend"
"Listen I told you, I'd handl.."
"You really think I'd do nothing? That I'd sit up there while my friend is down here?"
Buffy turns and continues down the tunnel with an angry yell.
"Aagh You are so annoying. And to think thought you were a nice guy"
"Hey I'm a nice guy! Your just stubborn"
"Aaagh. Look just stay behind me and stay out of my way. You probably didn't even bring a cross or anything" She waved a dismissive hand his way.
"I'm a quick learner" he said holding up a stake and cross. Buffy seems a bit put off and just continued down the tunnel.
Silence reigned as they searched.
The tunnels started twisting, they took several side tunnels and got a bit twisted around before they found Jesse.
"Jesse!" Buffy gave a short shout in enthusiasm and rushed over to him. He gave a small groan and managed to get to his feet as she rushed over to him. Xander stood back watching.
"Are you alright?!" she asked the really obvious question, with the really obvious answer from someone lying in a sewer.
"On an epic level...No" he groaned one hand clutching his back, the other his head.
"Ahhh Buff" Xander nodded towards the dark figures approaching them on several fronts. Their pale yellow eye's visible in the dark.
"Lets Go" They dragged Jesse along searching for they're way out. Vamps seemed to pop out of the woodwork every where. Forcing them down side tunnels .
"They knew you'd come, they said I was bait" spurted out Jesse
They were completely lost. Yet they still ran.
"Hey I recognize this place! They brought me down this way. Come on." Jesse suddenly rushed ahead, leading the way.
Xander wondered why Buffy didn't notice, why someone who they found unconscious on a sewer floor, and who had just been kidnapped by vampires was able to run ahead of them.
Jesse led them into a dead end room.
"I'm sure they had brought me this way?" He seemed to be pulling of confusion rather well. The Vamps had already blocked off there retreat back up the tunnel. "We cant fight our way back through that many" said Buffy a bit worried, looking around. She grabbed hold of the steel door to the chamber they were in and started to try and close it. It gave a sharp screech as the heavy door scraped the ground.
"Help me!" Xander and Jesse ran over and they begun to get the door closed. It was just about shut just as a vamp got an arm through the gap. Buffy smashed her fist into the arm and it recoiled and they got the door shut. Lock slammed in place.
"That won't hold them for long" Buffy started to look around for another way out. "Help us find another way out!"
"Yeah, just a sec." Buffy looked at Xander quizzically, as he looked his best friend up and down. The banging on the steel door seemed to fade into the background.
"Whats wrong Xan?" Jesse asked innocently.
"For Him" Jesse eye's widened as he heard those words. He knew what they meant. He vamped out just as the stake pierced his chest, his mouth opened in a silent scream.
Xander leant in.
"Sorry..... brother" it was just a whisper. Softer than the sound of the ashes hitting the ground.
Buffy gaped. She hadn't known.
"Lets go" Xanders words seemed to break Buffy out of her stupor. The banging on the steel door seemed louder than before.
Willow looked up as Xander and Buffy entered the library. She looked at Xanders face and she just seemed to crumple. Xander rushed to her side and just held her as she cried, kissing her forehead and murmuring comforts.
Buffy looked on at them in sadness. Sad for them. Sad she couldn't share that moment with them.
Giles also looked down at them in sorrow.
He finally walked over to Buffy and pulled her to one side and started whispering furiously to her about the coming harvest.
"Any idea where this little get-together is being held?
"There, there are any number of possibilities"
"The Bronze. There going to the Bronze" Xander startled them both with the hatred in his voice. "We'll kill them all" Willows tear stain face was a mask of rage.
Willow scared them.
Xander sat in a chair in the library blankly staring at the book Giles had laid out in front of him, so he could help with the current research on The Harvest. For all intensive purposes it looked as if he was reading the book. And had been since school ended 20 minutes ago.
He wasn't.
He was talking to Glyndaf about staking Jesse and the upcoming battles to stop the harvest.
* You are doing well Xander. He is pleased by your struggle against the infected. He realises how difficult it was for you to destroy your friend. He is rewarding you greatly * Glyndaf smiled up at Xander as he spoke. The boy was showing great potential. His offerings of battle to his master over the years had been but small victories, yet many. But the offering of the destruction of an infected to Him, was a great offering indeed, especially from one so young. And if the information the watcher was correct, he was about to get the chance to offer Him the destruction of a prophecy. There were very few offering better than that.
"How?" Xanders reply was quiet, not wishing the others to hear him talking supposedly to himself.
* That is for the Master to decide but it is all ready happening, I can see His touch all over you. * Xanders eye's widened under his glasses. What if it was something visible? He didn't want the slayer finding out. He quickly got up and made for the nearest toilets, they had a mirror. He could check himself out there. Three steps from the library the pain hit him like a sledgehammer, putting him on his knees. He struggled to his feet and started off again, crouched due to the pain, realising how little time he had before his reward took place.
Willow saw his collapse through the swinging library doors.
Xander crashed through the bathroom doors, still half crouched from the pain. He would have sworn his bones were on fire, and his muscles, and organs, and skin, and hair. He stumbled up to the wash basin and stared at his reflection. His red dotted eyes blazed back at him, his glasses lost in his rush to get here. He couldn't see anything different, but the pain hadn't stopped yet. Suddenly several parts of his body screamed agony at him. His forearms and elbows, his hands and his shoulders. The pain it was so intense, he'd never felt anything like it before.
His knees gave way and he slid down the basin to end up sitting at its base, he gave a soft cry of absolute pain before curling up in the fetal position and lying on the cold, filthy bathroom floor.
The pain slowly began to fade.
Willow bent down and picked up Xander sunglasses off the floor. She looked around for any sign of him but there was nothing to see.
She was definitely worried about him. It wasn't just like Xander to bolt from the room like that. Or for that matter be floored for no apparent. She was worried about him. He'd just been forced to kill their closest undead friend. That had to be screwing with his mind. God knows it was scaring the crap out of her. She was worried about him. He was now, sad to say her only friend. Sure, Xander may have been popular with a lot of kids, even if he wasn't friends with them, but that didn't mean it rubbed off on her or Jesse, and she'd only just met Buffy..... And then there was the fact she loved him.... She was worried about him.
A soft cry caught her attention from up the hall. She rushed up to were she thought she'd heard the sound but didn't see from which throat the cry was torn. She glanced about, looking for anything, she spotted the guys toilets just as a small moan came slipping past its door.
'Maybe Xanders got the runs?' It's amazing what thoughts cross your mind when you're stressed.
Willow gave a small knock on the door.
"Xander are you in there?" another moan "Are you alright? I'm comin in OK?" She was hoping for a refusal but it didn't come. She cracked the door open slightly, not wanting to embarrass her friend if he was indecent for any reason. She couldn't think of any reason he would be, indecent that is, but decided to err on the side of caution anyway. Plus she didn't want him knowing she'd seen him indecent if he really was indecent.
Xander lying semi conscious on the floor pushed all thoughts of decent and indecent out of her head and she rushed in to his side. She skidded to her knees at his side and started shaking him by the arm.
"Xander, Xander! Come on Xander talk to me" her voice was panicy .
"Willow?" Xander croaked.
"Oh thank god! Xan you just lie here, I'll go get help" she was about to break for the door when she felt Xanders firm grip wrap around her arm.
"No! I.. I'm all right... Just help me get out of here."
"But Xander, your hurt, you need help!. I'll go get Giles" She slipped her resolve face on. Xander saw it and cringed slightly.
"Look Will, you can take care of me, it's not much. Just please don't tell them. Please just this once?" It was the closest to pleading she'd ever heard from Xander. Her conscience and feelings waged war within her, all brought live to the world via Willows face. It showed she wasn't really happy with her final decision.
"Fine, but you've got a bit of explaining to do."
"Sure thing Will" Xander seemed to be getting better before Willows eyes, as he gave her a small grin. Though she did admit that wasn't hard if you're found curled up on the bathroom floor.
She bent down and grabbed hold of his shirt and arm, trying to lift him up. Xander did most of the work though, grabbing hold of the sink and hoisting himself up. He grimaced slightly as she put his arm over her shoulder and helped him out of the toilets into and empty classroom next door. She sat him down on one of the desks.
"Don't move till I get back" He gave her a small nod and she rushed out of the room to get her first aid kit from her locker.
Xander sighed and stared down at Glyndaf.
"What happened? What was with all the pain?"
Glyndaf looked annoyingly pleased.
* You have indeed been blessed! * The little messenger smiled wickedly, running his forked tongue over his little sharp pointed teeth * The master has given you new weapons to continue your fight and what marvellous weapons, and new armour to protect your still soft body *
Xander gave himself a little look over, the only thing he saw was bruising.
"Where?" His little friend walked over and grabbed a hold of his hands and held them up in front of him.
Xander glanced at his hands, instantly seeing the change. His knuckles had little patterns on them, small eight pointed stars could be seen on them with a small four sided triangle protruding out of the centre of each that formed a sharp spike on his knuckles when he clenched his hands into fists.
"Cool"
* They are his symbol * Glyndaf then clenched Xanders fist tight and twisted them side ways. Xander felt, what felt like his skin peeling, although it felt rather pleasant, just above his elbows. Glyndaf pushed Xanders arms towards him.
Two black curved bones shot out the back of Xanders elbows, almost skewering him. He quickly snatched his arms out of Glyndafs hands, shocked. The curved bone blades didn't go away though.
"Holy shit" he glanced down at his blades. They were coloured a dull black and looked really sharp, on both sides. They were just shorter than his fore arms so were about a foot long and curved around so that when he straightened out his arms the sharp points touched the back of his shoulders, and when he bent his arms they stuck straight out like an extension of his forearm. Each blade was about and inch high but only 5mm thick.
Xander suddenly heard Willows footsteps echoing quickly down the hall.
"Shit! How the hell do I get rid of them?! And what the hell am I gonna tell Willow?" His voiced had changed to a panicked hiss.
Glyndaf reached out and seized Xanders hands again, tightened them into fists again but twisted them the other way this time then pushed his arms back, all the while telling Xander...
* Just tell her the truth! Willow won't do anything that would get you harmed! Or reveal your secret...She loves you too much. You could even ask her to join you in the worship of Him. *
Willows footsteps were getting louder.
"What?! I don't want to drag her into an eternal battle, I don't want her hurt. She's not strong enough anyway"
* You think she's safe now that she knows what's out there?! At least under his watchful tutelage she will learn how to defend herself. And don't sell Willow short! She has other strengths He admires...... And at least you wouldn't have to do it all alone *
Willow entered the room, First aid kit in hand, to find Xander looking down at the floor. A most thoughtful, almost sad look on his face.
"Xander are you alright?" Physically he was looking alot better, though large dark bruises were appearing all over his body. She was worried about his feelings.
"Yeah Will, I good" He looked up at her, steeling himself for what he was about to tell her. She came closer and grimaced at the size of the bruises forming on his arms. She placed a hand on one of the larger visible ones, Xander placed his own on top of that. Willow looked up at him.
Xander kept his eye's closed.
"Willow I've got something to tell you... but first I gotta know, you trust me right?"
"Ofcourse I do? Why?"
Xander paused gathering his thoughts.
"Will, you've heard me say 'For Him' after a fight right? Haven't you ever wondered what I was talkin' about? Or who I was talking about?"
"Well you've usually been helping someone out, I just thought you were talking about them..... It wasn't them you were talking about was it?" She looked down at him a worried frown prominent.
"No, I was dedicating the fight.. my victory.... to Him.. to my God."
"Xander, no offence but dedicating something to God isn't a thing you really need to stress over.."
"Not that God"
"OooKaaay"
"I don't know my Gods name, I only know that he wants me to fight, and for my victories he rewards me"
"Xander.... do you hear voices? In your head? Telling you to hurt people? If you do... please don't hurt me." Willow was starting to look a bit worried but she said the last bit kind of jokingly. Still.... she threw a glance at the door.
"Well I hear voices, but they're not in my head..." His hand gripped hers slightly harder "...But they haven't told me any lies." He tilted his head up and looked at her in the eyes.
She looked puzzled for a moment, blinked a couple of times and took a few steps back, Xander let her hand go, not willing to hold her against her will. But he looked at her sadly as she backed away from him in fear. He should of suspected this, with that has happening in the last few days... It was a big thing to ask her to accept.
"Xander... what's wrong with your eye's?"
"It was a gift, from Him. I got it after I staked that vamp the other night... you know when we lost ......... You believe me don't ya Will? You saw my eye's before than, you know they weren't like this before?" Xanders voice was full of sadness and desperation. Willow felt suddenly guilty that she would ever think Xander would hurt her. Seeing how worried he was about how she felt about something just proved he was still the same old Xander. She stepped back up to him.
"I believe you Xander" She did. Full heartedly.
He gave her a beaming smile, grateful for her acceptance.
They were both silent for a while, neither knowing what to say.
"Did it hurt? Did it hurt when your eye's changed?"
"Actually I hadn't known it had happened until they were pointed out to me. The only time it ever hurt was today"
"Thats why you collapsed?"
"Yeah"
"Some reward"
Xander had to grin at that "yeah"
"Uh, Willow, there was one more thing..."
"Hmmm?" she looked at him thoughtfully.
"My 'God'... he knows about you.... which is nothing bad, but now... now that we know about vampires and demons and stuff. If you ever want to learn how to fight, to protect yourself or get, you know, revenge.... We could always do this together. He...he says that you've got strength... lots of it.... and that he'd help you bring it out, to learn how to use it..... if you really wanted to."
"Xander, you know I'm Jewish, and.. and me strong? I could barely help you into this room"
"It isn't like that. You don't really have to give up being Jewish, you just, fight for him is all. And you do have strength; it's just not that kind of strength. And hey, you're the only person in school that could ever stare me down. Thats gotta count for something "
Willow looked at Xander. Thinking it over. Did she really want what he was offering? Strength? To learn how to fight? She knew she was angry now, wanted revenge for Jesse, but what about later? Would she be able to stop? Would she just walk away from all this... this save the world stuff? Would she be able to live a normal life? Xander seems to have so far, but what about later in his life, or hers if she chose to? She would be doing it all with Xander... they would share something just between the two of them.
She really didn't know what to do.
"I'll think about it" she re focused her attention on Xander to see him giving her the most grateful smile she'd ever seen.
"That's the best I could of hoped for.... And Willow, thanks for not bein weirded out. You're a true friend." That caused Willow to blush.
"Come on, let's see if we can fix you up." Xander gave her a nod and she came back to look at the bruises on his arms. They were tender but seemed to be fading already. She rubbed some cream with a name Xander couldn't pronounce into them, saying they would heal faster now.
"Alright show us the ones under your shirt"
"What ones?"
"Xander Harris you are a horrible liar, Now show me those bruises!"
"Ohhh you just want to see me with my shirt off" Xander teased knowing full well what Willows reaction would be.
"Ahh no, I mean yes, cause I need to see all the bruises and no because I'm not all smutty and such and it's not like I haven't seen you with your shirt off before and no I wasn't spying it just happened that the camera was pointing that way and dad made that many copies not me he just gave them to me" She blushed very deeply, coming out of babble mode as Xander pulled his shirt off, chuckling all the while.
His chest was a mass of bruises, all seeming to follow the structure of his bones. On the plus side they seemed to all be fading rather fast.
"Hey Will, get with the rubbing of the cream all ready"
"Oh HA HA not a chance" She passed him the tube of cream before glancing at his sides.
"Ahhh Xander... when did you get tattoos?" Willow was staring at one of his shoulders but on the other was an exact copy of the tattoo she was staring at. Both were the 8-pointed star with the pyramid in the middle, and even as Willow watched the star seemed to spin around the pyramid.
"Umm, I guess just now. You know with the reward thingy" Xander shrugged.
"Do you know what they do?"
"Umm.." Xander looked to Glyndaf.
*Right now your guess is a good as mine. His work always serves a purpose. They'll probably be used with another gift down the line *
"... right now, they just look pretty, but somewhere down the line they'll probably be used with another gift."
"Oh" she was staring in fascination. Just below the symbols on his shoulders the tattoos began again. They flowed down the back of his neck before swirling out to just passed his shoulder blades, just before curving back to his spine where they curved and flowed around and down the centre of his back, finishing at a point just before his pants line. "You know, there's more on your back"
"Huh, really?" Xander was just about finished rubbing the cream in.
"Yeah.. Actually, they look pretty cool."
"Bonus" Tattoos weren't phasing Xander much. Not compared to the blades in his arms anyway. He handed the cream back to Willow before hopping up. He looked a lot better, normal almost, though the bruises were still there. When he pulled his shirt on you couldn't see them though.
"Here. You'll probably need these," said Willow, handing back his dark sun glasses " But I don't understand why you don't wont Buffy and Giles to know about your gifts. You could probably help them fight and all"
"Buffy would probably kick my ass if she saw me like this. You know, she's the slayer! Killer of weird things!" Xander explained as they headed back to the library.
"Missing operative word here! VAMPIRE slayer"
"Yeah but you heard what Giles said before. She'd probably go "demon, Kill it!""
"You don't know that!"
"I'd rather stay ignorant. Better safe than sorry" Xander said just as they went through the library doors. They almost ran into Buffy as she came looking for them.
"Hey I was wondering where you guys got to. I was just about to come find you guys"
"Just needed to talk about a few things." Xander covered.
"Oh"
"Jesse" Willow put in. Her face showing all the hatred she had shown before. Buffy gave her a sad look.
"Listen, me and Giles could probably handle the rest of the research thing if you two wont to head back home. You know, have a bit of a rest before tonight. We could meet up here again, around six?"
"Sure thing Buff." Came Xanders gloomy reply. He hadn't wanted to be reminded of Jesse.
"You sure you guys want to help tonight... you really don't have to. In fact I'd rather if you didn't. I don't want to see you guys getting hurt."
"We'll be there..." Started Xander
"...Whether you want us or not. Tonight's for Jesse." Finished Willow earning a look from both Xander and Buffy, though Xanders was a lot more encouraging.
"Well.... I wouldn't want anybody else with me" Buffy saved, giving them a smile.
"See you tonight Buff"
"Yeah, bye Buffy"
They wandered back out the library towards the entrance of the school. On the stairs out of school..
"Xander?"
"Yeah Will?"
"We'll do it together?" She took his hand in hers and smiled up at him. It took a lot on her part to do that.
"Yeah Will, We will"
Xander and Willow pushed through the Rosenburg's heavy front door. Dumping their bags in practiced habit in the hall before moving onto the kitchen, to "defeat the munchies".
This practiced ritual was usually performed in high spirits but with a missing member it felt hollow, like they were just going through the motions.
Willow placed some cups on the kitchen bench as Xander raided the fridge for a bottle of juice. He turned to fill them but stopped, bottle halfway to the first cup... of ...three.
Willow was staring at the cup as well. Jesse's cup.
"He's never coming back is he Xander? We'll never see him again." Than more quietly "We'll never fill that cup again..." Willow's voice sounded detached, almost lifeless. Xander could see the tears in her eye's and knew there were some in his as well. He quickly blinked them away.
He started pouring juice again.
"No, we wont see him again Will." He looked at the third cup for a moment before filling it. "But we'll always fill this cup."
They looked at each other for a moment, than downed their glasses, and left the room.
A glass of juice sat on the kitchen bench, in front of an empty stool and warmed in the afternoon sunlight coming through the kitchen windows.
And a friend was remembered.
"So Xan, what do ya think of Buffy?" The pair were currently lounging around Willows bedroom. Xander, draped on his back over willow's bed, while she herself was lounging in the chair by her desk.
Both were trying their hardest not to think about Jesse.
"She's nice... a bit of a looker too.." Willow frowned slightly "... But she's kinda bossy, probably cause of that slayer gig. That's gotta be a mind trip."
"Finding out the fate of the world rests on your shoulders will do that." Willow was staring out the window, absently swinging the swivel chair back and forth.
Xander followed her gaze to find her staring at the horizon. Staring at, where in minutes, the sun would touch.
"Hard to believe that stuffs out there isn't it?"
"Yeah... and to think we lived here all our lives and never knew we lived on the mouth of hell." She sighed and looked over at Xander. "We have to help her."
"I know Will. We will help her. If we dont keep her alive...we all die" Xander was looking over at the horizon now. A sad look on his face. The sun had touched and was beginning it slow trek down behind it.
Willow shivered.
"Xander... You said before..that...you could teach me to fight?" Xander looked up at Willow and laughed good naturedly.
"I dont fight Willow, I brawl. I could teach you that if you really wanted but I doubt you'd like it. But dont worry we're going to be taught to fight. He's gonna teach us. We'll learn together."
Xander looked at a spot next to him on the bed, before laughing out loud again.
"But He does want me to get you fit .....softy."
Willow looked slightly embarrassed but mostly angry.
"Hey! I'm fit. I'm just not...Athletically minded!" She threw a pillow at him.
"Will, dont worry. It wont be much. You just have to come running with us a couple of nights a week, do some stretching, push-ups, sit- ups, and some sets on the bag at my place." Xander rattled off his weekly exercise routine.
"You call that not much?!" Willow almost shouted at him.
"Dont worry! It'll be fun" Willow just rolled her eye's at him.
"Will? Do you still want to do this? You really don't have to if you don't want to." Xander had flicked to serious.
"I do Xander. I want to be able to help." There had been no hesitation in Willow answer. Even though her reasoning was different to that she had told him, mostly anyway.
"All right.....Well I guess it's time for initiation. Hand us a candle?" Willow reached out and pulled a pink decorative candle down from the top of her desk before handing it to Xander.
"Cute" Xander dead panned. Willow smiled at her small victory.
Xander pulled a small silver lighter out of his pocket and flicked open the lid. There was a quick scratching sound as he sparked it up.
"When'd you get that?" Willow asked nodding at the lighter.
"Dad lost this one about six months ago. Tore the place apart looking for it. I found it in the garage last week, and he's already got a knew one so I decided to keep it." He said giving the little lighter a quick grin as he lit the candle.
He felt around under the bed for a moment before pulling a pencil up and started scratching the eight pointed star and pyramid symbol into the candle.
"Hey, that was my favorite one" Willow whined as he carved up the candle.
"Well you picked it so naaah" Xander emphasized his 'naaah' with a poke of his tongue.
"hmmph"
"Stop being such a cry baby, you've got plenty of candles" he waved a hand at the top of her desk where bunches of colored candles stood.
"Here" He handed her the lit candle. "Alright now all you have to do is say 'I fight for Him' than blow it out"
"That's it?" Willow asked suspiciously
"You were expecting a virgin sacrifice perhaps?" He grinned at her.
"Well no, but, it just seems a little.... I dont know...cheap?" she said searching for the word.
"Dont worry Will, He doesn't ask for anything except you fight for him. This is just kinda recognition of that I 'spose"
Willow gave him a look before shrugging and ...
"I fight for Him" and a blow and it was done. She looked around expecting something to be different.
"Nothing happened" She sounded a bit disappointed .
"Sure it did. I can see it already." And he could. Right next to Willow it looked like a small blue cloud was forming up. It slowly darkened to a deep blue before expanding into almost a sphere shape the size of a cars tyre. A small flash of light ended the phenomenon and left floating there was a creature maybe 4 inches shorter than Glyndaf.
This creature was covered in sleek sectioned black and blue armor. It was supported by four long sharp legs that bent like a spiders above it's body before coming back down. They ended with sharp points that, if it made a sound in this dimension, Xander was sure would make 'Click' sound whenever they touched the ground. Another two of the appendages were held out in front of the creature and seemed like they could be used as weapons or another set of feet. Behind the creature writhed nine whip thin tails. Each ended in what looked like little claws that held small glowing stones. It's head was low, lower than the bend in it's long legs, on a short neck that shot up from it's low torso. A single, wide, sharp horn flowed over it's head. It's mouth was a maze of mandibles and teeth. But it's eye's held unmentionable wisdom.
Like Glyndaf this creature just seemed wrong, but unlike Glyndaf this creature screamed speed. Thin appendages, that seemed so fragile betrayed their agility.
Where Glyndafs form screamed inevitable and final destruction, this creature was the very essence of a quick, painful strike.
"Xander, why is there a red cloud floating next to you?"
"Hey, see I told you there was a change. This is Glyndaf, That so called voice in my head. You wont be able to see him real well until you dedicate a few fights or until you get your 'eye's'." He made a gesture towards his face.
"Say 'Hi' Glyndaf" To Willow it actually looked like he gave the cloud a nudge and it moved forward a bit.
*Hello Willow. It is a pleasure for me to finally be able to talk to you* said Glyndaf in his strangely kind voice.
"Ahh hey, umm nice to meet you too. How long have you wanted to talk to me anyway?"
* Well, I've been with Xander since he was about six... so it's been quite a while. *
"Huh really?"
"Ohh enough about Glyndaf" said Xander cheerfully. "You've yet to talk to your familiar" Xander pointed to the blue black creature next to Willow. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on the way you see it, it still looked like a blue cloud to Willow.
*Hello Willow. I am Crytex. He is very pleased you have decided to fight for him. And I to serve you* The voice was the thick, deep and cultured voice of a women. Again it seemed remarkably friendly.
"Ahhh hi" Willow seemed a bit shy, nervous, freaked out she was talking to floating clouds. Xander noticed.
"Dont worry about them Willow. They're here to help. Even though this may seem a little freaky and they look a bit terrifying, they'll be nothing but helpful and never steer you wrong. Though they may egg you on to fight a bit, they'll be your knew best friend." Xander spoke with the confidence of someone use to a situation. Willow had stopped listening after terrifying. Though the mention of best friend saddened and enraged them both.
"Terrifying?" Though they still looked like clouds to Willow, the word had got her a bit ultra nervous, wondering what was under the cloud.
"Willow calm down. They wont hurt you. Anyway, what were you expecting? They're the servants of a god who wants nothing but battle, were you expecting bunnies or something?" Xander was giving her a reassuring grin, though she could tell he was laughing just under the surface.
"Oh you would have to find this funny." Willow glared at him. But he just grinned back at her and got to his feet. She gave him a worried look.
"What are you doing?"
"Going home to get ready, it's almost time to meet Buffy"
"You cant leave me here with... it." She looked at her cloud "No offence"
*None taken*
"Dont worry Will. She'll look after you. Do you really think I'd leave you alone with her if I thought you'd be hurt?" He gave her a knowing look, heading for the door.
"Well no it's just...."
"Dont worry Will, you'll be fine. I'll come by and pick you up in half. Bye" And the door was shut behind him.
Willow looked at her cloud awkwardly.
"Soo... um... what do you think I should wear to a pre ordained slaughter?"
It was just settling on full dark when Xander walked up Willows drive. Her parents cars were parked in the driveway. He shifted the bag on his back and pulled his glasses down again to hide his eye's from the porch light before knocking. Willow was at the door rather quickly.
"Where have you been? You should have been here ten minutes ago" She sounded a bit cross.
Xander took a step back though before answering noting Willow clothes. She had on a pair of baggy jeans maybe three sizes to large for her, in fact they might have been Xanders. She had a nice blue T- shirt on with a denim jacket probably a size to small for her. The arms and shoulders fit her ok but it only came down to her mid riff, probably an inch above her belly button. The jeans were cinched at her waist with a nice yellow hemp belt, silver buckle reflecting the light, and Xander could see she had her black leather school shoes on.
All in all, a far cry from Willows usual soft wool attire.
She looked good. Very good.
Xander gave here a long wolf whistle in appreciation.
"Nice duds Will" Willow went VERY red but smiled, before looking cross again and smacking on the shoulder.
"Dont change the subject! You're late!"
"Hey hey, I picked up some supplies" He jiggled the bag. "So hurry up or we'll be late" He grinned his goof ball grin at her. She glared back at him but stepped out the door.
"Mum I'm off."
"Okay. Have fun"
The two were already on their way. The response from Willows mom was identical every time.
"So whats with the clothes?" Xander asked as the walked towards the library, both keeping a look out for anyone that could be a vampire. Both nervous now they knew they should be keeping a look out.
"Actually the jeans and the jacket are yours, you left them here ages ago and haven't bothered to pick them up" Willow explained.
"No I meant why are you wearing them now? What happened to your usual ensemble?"
"Oh, Crytex suggested I wear them. Said they were hardier than my other stuff." And than more quietly to herself "And would get your attention"
*And mission accomplished* said Crytex so only Willow could hear. Willow proceeded to grin like a maniac.
"Soo you two are hitting it off then? I told you it would be alright" said Xander matter of factly.
"Yeah, actually you were right. Crytex is really nice. It's just a bit hard to not talk to her in front of other people. If my parents saw me talking to thin air they'd freak"
"It's gets easier, but it's probably harder for you. You're not young enough to play it off as an invisible friend."
"So you mean Glyndaf was your invisible friend all those years ago?"
*The one and only*
"Oh you cheat." She smacked him in the arm, grinning "All those time we played hide and seek, and you found us cause 'your invisible friend helped'. You really did have an invisible friend to help you!"
Xander grinned un-repentedly as they walked up the school steps and laid a hand over his heart.
"Guilty as charged" he chuckled out. Than grinned at her as they headed down the empty halls of Sunnydale High..
Suddenly Xander couldn't help it. After whats happened to Jesse, talking to Willow like this. It was just such a relief that between them nothing had changed. That they were still best friends.
"Will, you have no idea how great it feels to be able to share this with someone. I dont have to keep things all to myself. It's just so...." Xander stopped looking for words and just turned, grinning all the while, and lifted Willow off her feet in a hug and spun her around. They were both laughing when he set down.
"Glad to see you two so happy just before we go into a massacre" Buffy scared the crap out of them.
"Aaargh Jesus H. Christ Buff, you scared the shit out of me."
Willow was too busy trying to breath to make a remark. Xander rubbed her on the back for a minute.
"Are you guys ready?"
"Yeah were good."
"Where's *gasp* Giles? *Gasp*"
"He's getting the crossbow he'll just be a sec."
"Crossbow?" Asked Willow starting to get a bit nervous. She was just starting to realize this would be a fight in which she could die. She had every right to be scared.
"Cool" Xander on the other hand was used to going into fights. He knew how to control his fear... well he knew how to hide it better than Willow.
The library doors burst open and Giles trotted through, crossbow cradled in his arms, a few bolts held precariously in one hand, a book in the other.
"Everyone's here? Good. Lets go shall we?" Giles had a no nonsense air about him. He had a rather vivid idea of what would happen if they failed tonight. He wasn't about to let that happen. They all started heading for started heading out. Willow dropping back to talk in low murmurs with Buffy. Xander walked ahead of them with the G-man.
"Need a hand ?" he asked as Giles almost dropped everything, trying to juggle them into a better position.
"If you dont mind" He handed his book to Xander, and got a better hold on the crossbow.
"Do you mind if I just...?" he motioned the book towards his back pack.
"No no go ahead, I really dont know why I brought it with us actually" Giles gave off a nervous chuckle " I must have read the passage six times already"
"Hey, if it makes you feel any better" Xander told him with a shrug as he put book in his bag, it clanked as it fell among the bags other items.
"What have you brought ?" Giles looked at Xanders bag curiously.
"Just some useful odds and ends" he opened the bag to give Giles a look.
Inside were a few crosses, about half a dozen stakes, a large kitchen knife and a seven hundred mill J b bottle full of holy water.
"Got a priest to bless it on the way over. For some reason he didn't seem to worried about doing it" Xander looked puzzled at that for a moment " Oh well, if holy water dont work that bottle will. You ever been brained with one of them before? They'll put you down just well as any baseball bat" He told him as they headed out towards the faculty car park and the piece of scrap parked in the middle of it.
"Actually Yes I have, in my younger days that is.... but don't worry, holy water works."
"Just like in the movies hey?"
"Yes actually, well except for the whole garlic thing."
"Damn, guess I didn't need to take those garlic capsules after all. Oh well, no making out for me tonight."
Giles gave him a strange look.
"Yes..... quite"
They all piled into Giles car and headed towards the Bronze.
The trip was made in nervous silence.
Xander and Willow held hands the entire way.
Giles car stopped a block away from the Bronze. It's occupants sitting in silence for a moment. Just...waiting. The consequences of what they were about to do hung heavily in their minds.
"Lets go" Buffy snapped them into action. All almost launching themselves out of the car and striding purposefully towards the 'Bronze'.
When they didn't see anyone on the door, they knew their suspicions had be correct. This was the place.
Buffy rushed to the front entrance, trying to open the thick metal door.
"Where too late! It's locked."
"Can you break it down?" asked Willow. Buffy gave the door an appraising look.
"No, not this. We'll have to find another way in. You guys try the back entrance, I'll find my own way in.
Xander hit the back door with his shoulder before turning to the others.
"No luck" he said before bending down and examining the lock.
"There's got to be another way in!" said Giles frustratingly.
"I'm not sure..." Willow said uncertainly.
* Willow, take Giles around the corner for a second * said Crytex firmly
Willow had to stop herself from answering back but gave the cloud a questioning look.
* Dont worry, It's only for a second, Xander knows what he's doing * Willow nodded in the affirmative, than silently berated herself for the slip.
"Giles, there might be another entry this way" Willow said to Giles while heading for the corner. Giles looked at her hopefully before following, not noticing Xanders absence for the moment.
Xander himself was ready the moment Giles rounded the corner. He jammed his elbow up against the gap in the door, lined up directly with the just visible deadbolt.
"God I hope this works and doesn't brake my arm blade thingy"
* Dont worry it'll take something a lot tougher than that bolt to break one of your blades * Glyndaf assured. If Glyndaf hadn't been with Xander all these years, Xander would have laughed at him.
As it is, Xander still closed his eye's as he clenched his fist and moved his arm slightly backwards.
His blades were getting easier to use. He had practiced a bit with them at home that night. Just sliding them in and out. They were starting to get the feeling of another limb, were you didn't have to think about it half the time, they just did it.
The blades never made a sound as they shot out of his arms. The only sound was a small 'thunk' as they carved through the deadbolt with ease.
Xander smiled and opened his eye's before sliding the blades back in and yelling...
"Guys! I got it!"
Willow and Giles returned to him shouldering the door open. Willow giving him a broad smile, and Giles an approving nod. He smirked at both of them.
"Come on, Party's just gettin' good" he said in his best corny actors voice.
The three strode through the door, to find things not as they would have liked. Their grins disappeared
Buffy was up on stage, fighting a huge Vampire with a star on his head, the anointed. Several dead were sprawled all over the stage. Other vampires occupied the room, maybe three or four, two seemed to have taken advantage of the situation and started to have a snack.
Willow and Xander stopped and stared at the scene for a moment, the dead and the vampires the most prominent in they're minds. They didn't even notice Giles begin to herd the crown out the door.
* Can you see what they've done? * Began Crytex to both Willow and Xander.
* They did that to Jesse * Added Glyndaf.
* They took away your friend * They're blood was boiling. Anger rising.
* Your BEST friend * Xander handed Willow a cross and stake and grabbed a couple of stakes, tucked them into his belt, then lifted the bottle of Holy water into his hand than dumped his bag.
* Made him one of them * They started forward.
* Corrupted him * Anger turned into rage.
* Ruined him *
* Stole Him *
* KILLED HIM * That pushed Xander over the edge. With a roar he surged towards the closest vampire and swung the bottle of holy water with all his might! The vamp looked up from it's corpse of blood to take the bottle of holy water to the face. There were simultaneous 'Cracks'. That of the vampires nose and the other of the J B bottle smashing open due the impact with the vamps skull. The vamp reeled, yelling it's pain, and tripped up on it's previous 'Juice carton' and fell to the floor, writhing and smoking.
Willow stood over it for a second, letting it burn before, with a brutal, if slightly awkward stab, dusted it.
"For Him"
Xander hadn't stopped his momentum. He rushed towards the next vamp, scooping up a wooden stool in his rush and hurling it towards the vamp. The vamp struck it in mid air, splintering the stool, only to see Xanders screaming form a lot closer.
Xanders first fist caught the vampire in the cheek, his know sharp, pointed knuckles tore a gash right through it. You could see it's fangs through the hole. The second caught it on the collar bone, carving a deep cut of flesh from it. Xander tried to keep his punches coming faster and faster, to keep the vamp reeling. His anger fueling his blows, he almost got away with it.
Pulling a fist back to punch again, it was suddenly caught by a very strong hand. Too strong a hand. His arms were grabbed and locked behind his back. A dead voice in his ear.
"Your gonna hurt before you bleed" The vamp Xander had been beating on, was on it's feet again. Grinning ferally. Xander bucked around in his captors hold, trying to free himself, but was easily held tight. The first punch caught him on the chin, it should of broken his jaw but didn't. The second just below his left eye. Than the vamp started to alternate, face, guts, face chest and so on in rapid succession. Xander clung to consciousness, his hatred and anger and the pain not letting him slip under. His head was ringing. Someone was talking to him. Willow? No not Willow, another friend. He caught an image of Jesse just standing there, not ten feet away, smiling at him and tapping his elbow. His head rocked from a blow and he was gone. Then it was Glyndaf, yelling at him and tapping his elbow.
It finally sunk in.
Summoning the last of his strength, and all of his anger. Xander roared and surged up clenching his fists and arms. Suddenly he wasn't being held anymore, and it wasn't him who was screaming. Realizing what had happened, Xander crouched and spun at the waist, elbows out. His blades took the now armless vampires feet off just above it's knees. It screamed some more and toppled backwards into a puddle of it's own blood, screaming and writhing to it's limited extent.
The other vampire couldn't believe what had just happened and stood there dumbstruck. Xander took the moment of opportunity and from his crouched position, jammed a bladed elbow into the vamps gut. The vamps mouth snapped open in silent pain and surprise before it grabbed hold of Xanders arm. Xander rose, and the blade rose with him, sliding maybe six inches further up the vamps torso before the screaming creature halted Xanders movement with pain strengthened limbs. Xander tried for a moment to keep the blade going up, but changed directions and slid his blade down, down, down out the vamps groin. The creature collapsed as one leg stopped working and it passed out from the pain.
Xander tiredly pulled out a stake and staked the defenseless vamp and turned and did the same to his appendage-less friend.
"For HIM!"
He sunk to his knees, and started panting. He could feel his face swelling already and blood running from a dozen cuts on his face. His chest felt like a massive bruise, he felt as if he should have some broken or cracked ribs but luckily he didn't.
He still smiled. He had won. They had not.
God it felt good.
He looked up suddenly, hearing Giles yell.
Willow was waving more people through the exit when she heard Giles yell out. She turned to see a female vamp grappling with him. More precisely the vamp that had taken Jesse the other night. Giles was struggling for his crossbow, which was held between them
Willow snarled at the back of the creature, and started to power towards it, stake raised. Confidence from her earlier staking racing through her head. She was a foot away, ready to strike the creature down, just as it was ready to take a bite out of Giles, when the vamp suddenly spun around and raked a taloned claw across her stake wielding arm. Willow felt herself spun with the blow as she dropped her stake. Than felt herself thumped in the back by the vamp. The blow sent her sprawling five feet away, landing hard on her elbows and knees. Her jaw thumped against the flaw and she felt her lip split.
"WILLOW!"
"WILLOW!" Xander surged to his feet as he saw Willow take the hit. He saw the vamp glare evilly at Willow's prone form, while holding Giles in one hand.
Xander recognized that vamp and charged forward.
"Did you think you could just walk up and stake me child? Did you think I was that STUPID?!" the vamp hissed at Willow. Suddenly Giles took advantage of the vamps lack of interest in him, and smashed the steel capped butt of the crossbow into her face. Her grip on him was lost and she staggered.
"I am not a child, but I certainly think you are rather stupid" The vamp growled at him before smashing through his crossbow with a backhanded blow.
It was a good comeback.
Until Xanders charging form slammed into her, sending her smaller frame into the ground. But Xander had slowed down since his beating and only managed to get one blow in before she struck back with a blow that lifted him clear off her. But than it was Giles form that crashed into her, pinning her. He held her long enough that Xander was able to get a hold of her again. Grabbing one of her arms while Giles grabbed the other, both holding her while desperately trying not to be bitten.
Neither could reach for a stake, for even letting up just a bit of pressure would allow the vamp thrashing in their grip to rip them to shreds.
"Willow, get up! Come on, we need help!"
Willow groaned and rolled over when she heard Xanders call for help
That had hurt.
She laid like that, stunned for a few moments, her arms and legs stinging from the impact. Her head was ringing and her vision spinning. She clenched her teeth than rolled back onto her stomach before letting out a cry of pain as she pushed herself to her hands and knees, and felt tears stream down her face.
That had really hurt.
She lurched to her feet slowly, steadying herself as a small feeling of vertigo passed over her. She quickly made her way to her dropped stake before rushing to Xander and Giles aid.
* Go around to her head so she cant kick at you * suggested Crytex as Willow approached the thrashing vamp, who was currently cursing Xander and Giles in colorful, descriptive ways.
She made her way round and crouched down, looking the vamp in the eye's.
"You killed a friend of mine you bitch!" She raised the stake to finish the job, tears in her eye's.
"Wait!" said Xander suddenly ordered tensely. Willow gave him a questioning look, clearly surprised. Giles was doing the same just much more intensely.
"Crack her in the skull once for me" Willow smirked at him in a very xanderish way before smashing the vamp in the teeth with the blunt end of the stake. It didn't really do anything more than piss the vamp off some more, but it was the thought that counts.
Willow proceeded to stake the vamp good.
"For Him" so quiet, only the dying vamp heard it.
The second the pressure was gone, Xander scooped Willow up in his arms, hugging her fiercely, before pulling back and looking her up and down.
"Are you aright? Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?" Worry was evident in his voice.
"Everywhere, but I'll be alright, what about you? You look like crap" Xander smiled and looked mock hurt.
"I like to think I'm rather good looking" she rolled her eye's at him.
Giles suddenly crouched down next to them, looking at Willow. He quietly added.
"Thank you Willow, you saved me tonight" he gave her a kind smile which Willow returned brightly. Suddenly they all ripped around upon hearing a window shatter.
Up on stage the large vampire was cowering, a bright light shining down on him.
"It's in about nine hours moron" Buffy staked him with finesse'. She stared around for a moment looking about the mostly empty club before spotting her friends. She hopped down from stage and trotted over to them.
"Hey guys, you all okay?" she asked in a rather perky blond tone.
"Were good Buffy..." the others nodded "... I've got no idea how I'm gonna cover this up from my parents though" said Willow worriedly, flashing a hand towards her split lip.
Buffy seized her by the arm dragging her away. "Dont worry, you are know talking to the after battle make-up queen! I've covered up so many split lips it's in my blood. All you need to..." Willow tossed a glance back Xander and Giles, half confused, half smiling. Xander gave her a little wave before turning to Giles;
"Soo, you any good at stitches?"
Xander showing up to the Rosenbergs house for breakfast on Saturday morning was a regular occurrence. He'd been doing it since they were old enough sleep over and get up a six to watch morning cartoons in matching footy PJ's.
Lucky for the Rosenbergs he didn't rise that early anymore.
He gave a quick knock on the front door before going on through into the kitchen. Willow caught him at the kitchen doorway. She was wearing some ridiculously large and dark sunglasses, a dark blue skivvy and a long blue skirt.
"Oh ahh Xander come her, I've got something to show you" The words came out awkwardly as she threw a quick glance at her parents at he kitchen table.
She dragged him up to her room.
"What am I going to do? I cant go out like this!" She took off her glasses to reveal remarkably similar eye's to those of Xanders. Xander gave her a reassuring look and a congratulatory...
"Go Will! It took me forever to get my eye's"
"That's not whats bothering me Xan! How am I gonna cover them up?" Willow was getting frantic.
"Dont worry Will," he said reassuringly, "we'll just get you some nice shades, for example." With flourish Xander pulled from his pocket a very nice pair of dark glasses, remarkably similar to those he wore now. Small, black reflective lenses on a nice thin, silver frame. He placed them delicately on her nose.
"Ohh Very nice" Willow Turned around to get a look at them in the mirror.
"Xander, these are great! But they must have cost a fortune. I'll pay you back every cent."
"Dont worry, Ian Stanley got em for us for nothin. His dads an optometrist ya know."
"So he what... Got them for you just like that?"
"Well he offered after I beat up Luke Salakas for him"
"Xander!!" Willow couldn't believe what her friend had done.
"Dont worry, that was in seventh grade. I just called in the favor is all" Xander explained.
"Oh well OK" replied a relieved Willow. Luke had been such a dick that year.
"So you seen Crytex this morning ?" Xander asked amusement in his eyes, as he slumped down in Willow computer chair.
"YES. Scared me half to death, but I guess I'll just have to get used to it"
"That you will. Hey... wanna see Glyndaf?"
"I'd better, dont want me freaking out and screaming in public. I woke my parents up this morning, with the screaming that is. Blamed it on a bad dream."
"Bit old for that, dont ya think. But hey, if it works..." He gave a shrug, " Hey Glyndaf! Come here buddy" Xander gave a whistle.
* I'm not your dog Alexander * Complained Glyndaf walking through the wall into the room. Willow eye's bugged and she took a step back, but she handled it rather well.
"Ah hey Glyndaf" She gave him a small nervous wave. He must of noticed because he struck a pose, forked tongue running across his lips as he examined a sharp claw and pretended to pick at a nail. He than stared her straight in the eyes.
* Good morning Willow * He added in his deepest voice. Willow almost squeaked.
"Stop that you!" Xander through a pillow at him that flew inconsequentially through him but managed to stop him posing.
* You know your a bad influence on each other dont you? * added Crytex, coming out from, rather poetically, under the bed. Both stuck their tongue out at her. In tandem.
Willow started laughing, she couldn't help it.
Xander gave her a mock glare.
"So anyway, how'd you fare up after last night?" he asked curiously, changing subjects quickly.
"I'm still sore, my elbows and knees hurt from were I fell, and my lip still hurts and my arm, Oh and there's this one spot on my back, that hurt so much last night"
"Give us a look" Willow turn round and lifted the back of her skivvy. Half way up was a large bruise, Xander sucked in a hiss when he saw it. Slightly further up though was what intrigued him. He smiled and very gently ran a finger over Willow's new tattoo tracing the outline. He smiled as she shivered and goose bumps covered her back. It felt kind of nice that he had this effect on his friend. His very female friend. He waited until she was just about to shiver again and quickly pulled the shirt back down.
"Well you have a massive bruise were you got hit yesterday, are deciding to spend the day bra-less...," she turned and slapped him on the shoulder, he just laughed ".. and, AND have decided to join the world of those with permanent body art"
"WHAT?!"
"Hey, dont worry it's just a small one, right in the middle of your back, no one will notice." He proceeded to watch a rather comical viewing of Willow trying to look at the middle of her back over her shoulder in the mirror.
Willow grunted in frustration, "What's it look like?"
Xander lifted up the sleeve of his shirt and pointed to the one on his shoulder.
"Just like this only smaller, about the size of..." He searched around her room for a reference. He snatched up a small round candle off her table and showed her the bottom. "...This." The candles base had a diameter of about seven centimeters. She didn't look very relieved. So he decided to tell her she wanted to here, something he wanted to tell her.
"Dont worry Will... It looks very sexy" Willow stopped her struggling for a moment, peering at him.
"Really?"
"I think so" She gave him a soft shy smile in return and stopped trying to look. A kind of awkward silence followed as they both smiled kinda nervously at each other.
"So umm what did you end up getting?" Asked Willow, trying to break the silence.
"Huh?, oh Glyndaf said I got a bit faster and stronger, oh and I got some nifty writing on my blades" Said Xander, rather proudly.
"Your blades?" Willow asked giving him a questioning look.
"Oh thats right, I haven't showed you them yet have I? I got them the other day. You know at school." Xander made to slide his blades out but stopped suddenly. "All right Will, this is one of those don't scream moments." She gave him a nod.
He clenched his fists and pulled his arms back. His black bone blades slid out of his arms, silently and quickly. Willow gave a small gasp.
"Oh my god" She gazed at them as Xander waved them about gingerly. "Don't they hurt?"
"Nope, dont feel a thing, well except when I got them." Xander said easily. Willow came forward cautiously and grabbed one of Xanders arms, holding it still while she examined the blade.
"Careful, they're pretty sharp" Willow glanced up at him, amazed, before looking back down at his blades.
All along the black blades there was now writing. Blazing red runes that seemed to glow under their own power. They drew the eye and directed it to the next rune, flowing down the blades. They seemed to be engraved on to the blades, but as Willow ran a cautious finger down the flat of the blade, she couldn't feel them.
"Glyndaf said all my bones are black like that now, says it makes them really strong, almost unbreakable. So hey, no more skateboarding injuries." Willow was examining Xanders elbows, where the blades emerged. His elbows skin seemed to have folded sideways when the blades emerged.
"Will I get Blades like this?"
"Probably not, Glyndaf reckons you'll be a different fighter to me. No surprise there, but you'll get other things....Oh which reminds me, here" He pulled a book from his back pocket and handed it to her. Than slid his blades back in.
"Whats this?"
"Dont know, I cant read it. But Glyndaf said you could. I've got one of my own, I'm guessing it's kinda like an instruction manual. Mine kinda explained some stuff, about Him, some of his gifts, weapons, legends, that sought of thing." He explained off handedly. "Oh and it's written in blood."
"Okay ewww but thanks"
"No prob, now come on, lets get some breakfast. Oh and you may want to change... Today we go running"
Willow finally noticed his sweat pants and shirt and groaned.
Willows thighs ached. Her feet were sore. Her arms protested every movement, and her lungs burned. But she kept on running, because he hadn't stopped.
"Will it always be like this?" She panted out as they rounded a corner and started jogging into the park. Xander looked at her for a moment, barely sweating, which annoyed her to no end, before answering.
"Dont worry Will, in a few weeks you wont even feel tired after a jog like this."
"No I meant our gifts! Will we always be getting these changes or what?" They headed towards a couple of benches.
"Well, you may get maybe one more big change but after that it'll start to slow right down. I think anyway. I mean, killing a vampire, big thing in His books. But you do it over and over again he'll just get bored. Especially if he gave us so many gifts that we could kill them in seconds." He explained as they stopped at one of the benches and started to stretch out and take a breather.
"So what will happen then? We kill vamps for him, and fight for him and he gets bored so we get nothing?" Willow felt kinda jipped.
"Think of it as brownie points Will. For every vamp we kill or fight we get in, we get one day of training, or a tiny increase in speed and strength, or go into the running for a nice new car. But dont worry, we'll find something stronger than vamps, something that'll tickle his fancy. This is the mouth of hell, there's hopefully gonna be a bit of variety."
"You really want to fight something stronger than a vamp?" Willow asked incredulously as she sat and held his feet as he started to do some sit ups.
"Yeah Will, I do" He got to the top of a sit up and gave her a serious look, "You're rather new to this so you dont really feel it yet. You get an urge to fight. To test yourself against something stronger and stronger. And when you fight everything else disappears, it's just you and them. It starts to feel really.... good." He shook himself out of his thoughts and started his sit ups again. "Than again it just might be me."
"Well it's probably all those male hormones" She gave him a playful smile and a poke in the gut "You and your girls, cars and fighting."
"Are you telling me that you dont want to be my girl?" He smiled at her.
"Ahh umm Noo" Willow stumbled from word to word, put off by his question.
"Good" He grabbed her arms and hauled both of them to their feet.
"So what did you have planned for today?" Xander began as they started walking back to Willows.
"Well I was going to go shopping with Buffy for make up. After last night I think I'm gonna need it."
"Last night?" Xander looked puzzled as he tried to remember something he should have done last night.
"Crap, I forgot to tape Babylon 5! Please tell me you got it Will?" He put on a show of desperation.
"Hmm I think I did, but I may lose it if I have to run home" she gave him a mischievous grin.
"Easily fixed" He grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her over the shoulder before she could react, and started running. Willow let out a squeal as she bumped around on his shoulder, giggling all the time.
"Xanderrr!!!"
And so the year continued...
Xander and Willow continued training, each receiving little private lessons from their familiars. Willow was introduced into magic, Xander into mental attack and defense skills, and meditative healing. They helped get Amy her body back from her body switching witch of a mother. Miss French was chopped into tiny bits by Buffy though, Xander wasn't saved, by a queer stroke of luck he had decided to play hooky the day Miss French had asked for volunteers. Unluckily the anointed one was still missed by the gang.
The incident with the pack though, That was a strange one.
"Whoa, I'll handle this," Xander gave Buffy a confident grin "It's what I do".
Xander ducked under the yellow tape partitioning off the Hyena exhibit and strode after the schools complement of bullies. Glyndaf fell into step next to him.
* You know he wont reward you for this * "Yeah, but it aint always about that. Some times you do it cause you want to. That and it's the right thing to do and all that crap", he added that last bit as an after thought.
They continued down the walkway, passing through ripped tape barricades, until they came upon the actual enclosure. Kyle and his friends were holding Lance over the railing.
Xander strode up to them, absently cracking his knuckle. He reached forward and grabbed Kyle by the collar, lifted him to his toes and tossed him away from Lance.
"You guys were really looking for a beating now weren't you?" Lance made good the distraction and made for the exit, he'd thank Xander later.
Tor and Kyle turned to Xander, slight trepidation in their eyes. Xander had a bit of a rep. Still their female friends were there, they weren't backing down.
"Well if it aint captain geek. Here to save his little buddy"
"Ready to save the day again?" The sarcasm in their voices wasn't lost on Xander.
"No actually, I just felt like beating you two to bloody messes." He cocked a fist.
Than it happened, the Hyenas eye's flashed and suddenly Tor and Kyle's did the same, so did the girls.
Xander felt the magic flow over him, It felt just like when he received a gift from him only more, only...dirty, and wild. He didn't like it. When it suddenly slammed into him and he fought it. He felt another mind, a simpler, but powerful mind try to overlap his. He pushed it back but it surged forward again. He felt himself fall to his knees. He was vaguely aware of Kyle and his group laughing at him. But his entire being was now focused on his fight He pushed and pushed and fought, using some on the mental techniques Glyndaf had taught him, pushing the other mind inch by mental inch out of his mind until it was gone, the tension popped like a soap bubble. The mind was gone... but only for know, he could still feel the magic flowing over him.
* Xander! XANDER! Get to Willow now. Xander can you hear me? * Glyndaf was sounding worried, which scared Xander. He'd never heard, Glyndaf worried. Xander managed to nod weakly. He felt like crap. His entire mind at the moment was clenched like a fist. Ready to fight and defend against, the mind when it tried to take over again.
Xander felt a bead of sweat run down his forehead.
* Xander, Go to Willow, she can help * Xander didn't answer. He just climbed to his feet and stumbled out of the room, and out of the enclosure. Willow was sitting on a low wall across from the entrance waiting for him. It seemed Buffy had moved on. Glyndaf rushed ahead and told her and Crytex what had happened. Willow rushed over to him.
"It's in my mind Will... It's trying to take over my mind" Xander grated it out through gritted teeth.
"Oh ah well I can help. It think. No I know.. I know. Dont worry Xan. Just hold tight"
Xander felt the presence preparing for another assault.
"It's coming again Will" He let out a groan.
* Do it now Willow! Kasta kundow posrite *
"Ahh Kasta Kun-dow posrite" Willow's pronunciation was a little off but her concentration was correct so the spell still worked. Willow felt the small flop of her stomach that told her it had worked.
* Well done Willow, first go this time too * Crytex congratulated her. They had been practicing spells all afternoon yesterday, and Willow had had a bit of trouble executing them first time around, simple as they were. Xander was standing there dumbly but obviously not tense or scared. In fact he showed no emotion at all. It worried Glyndaf, he couldn't feel Xander anymore.
* What did you do to him!? I cant feel him at all! * Said Glyndaf angrily, Willow took a step back.
* She did what was necessary, She froze all magic on him. A relatively useful spell though it is rather weak * Stated Crytex coolly, coming to Willows defence.
* But that includes his soul! He'll be an emotionless doll until you reverse it. *
* Which is just as well. He'll be much easier to handle until we can trap the animals mind and free him. Dont worry, we will reverse the spell... I doubt I could stop Willow from doing it anyway *
"Why didn't you know about the spell?" Willow cut in curiously. She was wondering why Crytex would know the spell, while Glyndaf wouldn't. She assumed both Xander and her were learning the same things.
* I'm a Warrior Familiar, not a battle mages familiar * stated Glyndaf in an angry impatient tone.
"Oh Ok." Willow carefully took note of that information.
* Willow will you be able to get him back to your house directly after school? * Asked Crytex * We'll be able to fix him up there *
"I think so, but how will I get him to do anything?"
* Dont worry, right now he's like a computer... You just have to tell him what to do, but to be safe be kinda specific, and keep him away from most people so they wont realize something wrong * instructed Crytex.
"Oh ok, that shouldn't be too hard"
* Hmm this could... I'll meet you there. I have things to see to * Glyndaf kinda just phased out in front of them.
"Weird"
"Whats wrong with Xander?" Buffy asked curiously, leaning over the busses seat to talk to her friend.
"Oh ah He's umm just a bit steamed.... you know, about what Kyle and his buds were doing to Lance" Willow gave Xander a nudge in the ribs, trying to get him to take up the conversation. Unfortunately he just turned and looked at her blankly.
Buffy was kinda oblivious.
"Well dont let it get you down Xan..." She gave him a heavy pat on the shoulder, "I'm sure you beat the crap out of them for it" Xander just turned and stared at her blankly. Willow lent over and almost silently whispered in his ear.
"Smirk and nod" Xander did as he was told, unfortunately he had yet to stop smirking and nodding after a few minutes. Buffy was giving him a rather queer look.
"Stop that" he did. Unfortunately he stopped everything and after a few minutes started to turn purple.
"Breath you idiot!"
"Okaay, and the weird award goes to..." Xander's behavior, while it being far from his fault, was really starting to get on Willows nerves, so it was with what seemed like no falsehood that she was able to tell Buffy..
"Dont worry, he's just doing it to annoy us. He's petty like that sometimes" She gave him a glare that would have set him alight if she had that gift.
"I always thought he was bigger than that... Oh well thats men for ya" Buffy stated, completely ignoring the fact that Xander was sitting right in front of her.
"Tell me about it, I mean come on the least they could do...." Willow began to lead Buffy off topic, letting Xander sit in his silence, staring out the window dumbly, silently gaining the nickname of window licker.
Crytex watched silently, laughing on the inside as she heard a couple of the funnier comments being said about Xanders strange behavior. They were lucky Xander was like he was, he'd rip them a new one if he was around right know.
* Look what I found * Glyndaf stated rather smugly appearing next to Crytex. She glanced up to see what he was holding. It was a small brazen collar, sharp spikes around the outside, it's small latch undone. Glyndaf was smugly spinning it around his finger.
* You know those are useless without......Oh * Crytex had to stop when Glyndaf held up the crystal she was just about to mention.
* It's amazing what you can find floating around the Hellmouth * Glyndaf stated smugly.
* Are you sure Xanders up to it. He'll still have to fight it off *
* Dont worry I have full confidence in him, and if by some chance he doesn't manage to beat it back, than he's not really worth it, is he? *
* He wont be happy if you lose him, neither will Willow *
* He wouldn't be happy if we let a chance like this slip through our fingers, and Willow cant do anything about it *
* She can refuse to complete the spell *
* Thats why we wont be telling her about the spells risks will we?.......Will we? *
* Are you sure this is what Xander would have wanted? *
* You haven't been linked to him, haven't been around him long enough. You have no idea the way he craves power, the chances he is willing to take. We can thank his father for that. * Glyndaf explained * The only reason he hasn't been out there every night, with OR without the slayer, hunting the infected is her * Glyndaf nodded in Willows direction * If he didn't think how much it would hurt her if he failed, how much she needs him, how much it would affect her. He'd be out there *
* Dont worry, soon she will feel it and they may both go hunting *
* But until then, we do what we can *
Both paused in their conversation, and stared up at their two charges.
* They have great potential, dont they? * Crytex's question was more of a statement.
* Yes, and when they finish their training..... *
* IF they can survive their training * Crytex cut him off
* They will be unstoppable *
By the time they reached her front door, Willow was probably only three hours away from having her own, personally programmed Xander bot. Of course her throat was rather sore due to the immeasurable amount of "IF, THEN, ELSE" and "CASEWHERE" statements she had been feeding him. But thanks to such statements he would survive the rest of the day.... His breathing on a repetitive 'In Out' loop, waste disposal and danger recognition was up and running.
Xander walked into her front door with a loud thump.
Ofcourse there were still a few bugs to be worked out.
She unlocked her front door and got Xander to follow her into the kitchen.
"Get the juice from the fridge and place it on the kitchen bench" she ordered as she herself went to the cupboard an retrieved three cups. She took the juice from the counter as Xander stood there, looking on like an idiot as Willow filled the three cups and than drunk hers. She stood there a moment, leaning against the bench top, glass held lazily in her hand as she just stared at the cups. Emotion filled her face so she didn't look like the idiot Xander was doing such a good impression of.
She suddenly looked up at Xander, a sparkle in her eye's.
"Oh this is too good an opportunity to pass up"
What followed was several rolls of film containing enough blackmail to cover the rest of Xanders life. Photo's of Xander in compromising dress(es), positions, poses and quite a few written documents with his signature on them, Oh and one blank check.
Willow didn't realize it, but she was acting out a living memory to her lost friend.
* I'll tell him you know * Glyndaf told Willow. They were currently in her bedroom preparing for the spell that would save Xander.
"That's okay, I still have a few hiding spots Xander doesn't know about"
Glyndaf gave a knowing grin.
* Are you quite sure about that? * His grin faltered when Willow smiled back with a grin the equal of his own.
"Quite"
She looked back to what she was doing, lighting a few candles in specific places. Xander was sitting in the middle of an intricate pattern made in colored sand on the floor. The Collar and crystal were currently sitting in a plate of blood. Blood courtesy of the defrosting steaks in the sink.
Willow picked up the spell she had written down ten minutes ago. Basic animal depossesion spell Crytex had said. She had handily sounded the words out rather than spelled them, easier to know which way to pronounce them that way. She started to sound the words out in her head, trying to get the first few lines memorized.
"Alright, I think it's ready" she let out a heavy sigh "Here we go"
She reached over and grasped the collar, than held it over a circle of fat red candles. "Buoondasa macaar lanorn" Her stomach did a little flip as she felt the spell start to work, the candle flames started to get brighter.
"Carlond oombasa olorn" She glanced down quickly at the spell, to get the next couple of words right in her head. The candle flames were white now.
Willow lent over and grasped the crystal.
"Cundow talgak semeer" she placed the crystal into a little recess in the collar. The flames from the candles were floating about a foot above their candles. Shining brightly like little bright white magnesium flares.
"Praduk nook raadak nulk nakaine!" even one as inexperienced as Willow with magic could feel the pull. As soon as she uttered the last word, the crystal created a magic vortex, albeit small, but still dangerous. Sucking swirling pulling all magic towards it. The flames dancing around her flew straight into it, and Willow could feel it pulling at her. She felt like she was being plucked at from every direction. It was pulling at her soul. Unraveling 'her'.
* Willow! Put it around Xanders neck NOW! * Willow didn't need prompting twice. She reached over and clasped the collar around his neck. She watched in brief amazement as the catch fastened itself than disappeared, smoothing over to become indistinguishable from the rest of the collar. Suddenly the sucking stopped. The vortex was gone?
* No, it is now stopped by our earlier spell * Crytex explained, doing the whole creepy reading her mind thing.
"What was that? It felt like it was pulling my soul into it" Willow rubbed her chest, just above her heart.
* That is the vortex thats gonna trap the animals spirit in the crystal *
"But what about the collar? How we gonna get it off Xander?" Willow questioned in a light voice. She was starting to feel very tired.
* We'll tell you after you've rested. You did very well today Willow, He's very impressed, You'll probably earn an increase in power after that. A small one but you'll feel it. Now lie down in bed and rest * Crytex told her in a proud, kind voice.
"What about *Yawn* Xander?" she asked collapsing into bed.
* We'll stick him in the guest room * Answered Glyndaf, knowing no one would care if Xander crashed there for a night.
"Kay, night" She was asleep in seconds.
Crytex and Glyndaf stared at each other than down at a blank Xander.
* How the heck are we gonna manage this? *
Willow awoke with a yawn, eye's fluttering open. She stretched and sat up in bed and scratched her head. She looked around....something looked different to her. She couldn't pick what it was though it was subtle.
"Crytex? Why does my room look different ?"
* You just aint use to waking up at lunchtime on a school day *
"Ohhh nooo"
* It's just one day, it wont hurt *
"That's not the point. I was going for perfect attendance. And yes I know how nerdy that sounded"
* Oh well, at least we can finish the spell on Xander. You'll probably have time to meet Buffy at the end of school too *
"Yeah I guess. And I can finish all that extra credit stuff as well. Did my parents say anything?" questioned Willow.
* They thought you'd just left early *
"Oh....alright. I'll just clean up and we can finish up Xanders spell" There was no hiding the note of disappointment in her voice and for once, Crytex couldn't think of anything to say. She just gave Willow a supportive smile as the girl went off to shower.
"So how are we gonna get that collar off Xander once the spells done?" Willow called through her bathroom door.
* Well we dont really. Well at least Xander wont want to *
"Huh?"
* The spell we cast trapped the beast in that collar. Giving Xander control again. But as long as he wears the collar, the beasts magic, it's spirit, is under his control. It will help him. Strengthen him, increase his senses. That sought of thing. Though the help is a shell of a thing *
"Well I can see why Xander may want to keep it on, but whats the shell thing about?" Crytex could hear the shower turned on.
* Well, once this beasts magic strengthens him, he wont grow any stronger. Well not till he actually reaches that point in strength himself. Put it this way. Xanders strength and speed and all that is.... water in a tube. His peak, a float at the top of that water. As Xander gets stronger the water rises and so his peak rises as well. But what the collar will do is raise the float, raise his peak mark off the water to maybe a foot higher. He will eventually get stronger but not until the water below the float rises to meet it. Without the collar, his peak will go down to what ever his natural strength is at the time. *
"Oh OK" she heard Willow shout over the sound of the water. Crytex left her to her shower.
"Ok this is it." Willow let go of her anti-magic spell, mentally cutting the magic strings that supported it.
The effect was immediate. Xander groaned and arched his back off the bed he was lying on. Willow could literally see the sweat bead on him. His breaths came in desperate snatches and she could see his neck muscles go taught as he tensed up.
"Whats happening?" Willow was frantic. This wasn't supposed to happen.
* Xander has to fight the beast off. The spell can't to do all of it. He has to finish it *
Xander felt life snap back into his body.
'Damn that was freaky' he thought just before he felt the beast assault his mind.
Xander tensed instantly, throwing up mental walls around his consciousness. The beast smashed through his first walls easily and Xander felt himself giving ground. He threw up tougher, larger walls, and they slowed the beast down but didn't stop it. His moment of laxness when reawakening had cost him. He was constantly on the back foot. He felt himself being bullied out of his consciousness. Further and further down, and suddenly everything was a swirling sucking vortex. Sucking him back quicker. He grasped for anything that could halt the beast. Memories flashed through his mind. But they held no help. Xander knew he was losing. Soon it would be all over. Resignation. No life. No Willow. No Glyndaf. No Him.
Black anger flooded through him. This thing was gonna deprive him of all those things. He'd be damned if he let it finish him off without him at least causing a little heart burn. He abandoned all attempts at defense and felt himself start sliding all the quicker. He felt where ever he was going approaching and knew the end was near. He built up his mental strength, which he still didn't get how he did. It was like gathering something to himself. He felt it build up, higher and higher. It'd never been this easy before. The hyena spirit broke through his last wall, and he just released it all at once. He didn't even bother to form it.
It was at this point in time that the age old saying 'The best type of defense is a good offence' came into play.
The Hyena, hunter by nature wasn't used to being whacked around. Xanders attack sent it sprawling. Xander surged forward, surprised by his success. The pulling stopped and he found solid purchase in his consciousness. He quickly threw up some walls which he knew would hold, and began to expel the other mind once again. Slowly moving forward. First inching, then by feet than metres (All mental frames of reference ofcourse). He felt it start to back away easier, and easier. He realized that it was know caught in the vortex. He felt it fling one last desperate attack at his wall. Hoping to catch Xander the way he did it. And then it was gone. All of it. Xander couldn't feel the magic around him anymore.
He relaxed and sighed in relief before opening eye's he hadn't realized he'd closed.
Willow watched Xander thrash around, from his initial arch off the bed he had rolled onto the floor, knocked the bed from place and pushed over a small cabinet. But he seemed to be calming down. He was thrashing and twitching less now.
She bent down to steady him. Xanders eye's began to glow a dull yellow.
"No..NO!" Suddenly his eye's slammed shut again and he thrashed about again, harder then the first time. He knocked Willow sprawling, her head hitting the wall. She lay there dazed for a moment, before looking at Xander as he seemed to have a fit.
"No...." tears were in her eye's.
The fit was slowly winding down but Willow wasn't going near him again. Not after what had just happened. She curled up against the wall and gripped her throbbing head. She had failed. Her best friend was possessed by an animal. She lost another friend. Tears began to stream down her face, she couldn't take it. She was all alone, and that thing in her friends body was going to waking up. She began to shake, deathly afraid.
Slowly the crystal in the collar began to glow yellow, it stayed like that for a few moments until it suddenly flashed. The white crystal was now a golden yellow. And Xander was stilled.
Slowly, she saw him begin to relax. He laid himself out flat, arms sprawled out around him. He let out a breath he had been holding in a loud sigh and his eye's fluttered open. His normal brown eye's with black and red circles.
His head lolled to one side tiredly and he stared right at Willow, a worry creased his face as he noticed she was curled up against the wall, head in hands.
He tiredly rolled onto his side and crawled over to her. He reached out a hand to touch her on the shoulder, but she flinched away.
"Please dont hurt me" she pitifully spoke from behind her upraised arms.
"Will? Whats wrong? It's me!" Xander spoke softly, trying to reassure her. She hopefully peaked out from behind her arms. Before shaking her head. She'd seen his eye's glow yellow. It wasn't him. She flinched back as he raised his hand again.
* It's him Willow, I can feel him * Spoke Glyndaf, frowning slightly at Willows weakness.
Willow looked at him hopefully, before looking at Xander again. His hand was slowly descending upon hers. She let it touch this time.
Xander didn't know what to do. His friend was terrified of him. And to think he'd almost given up. Let that beast win. With his friend sitting there curled up. He hated himself for his weakness. He'd make it up to her. He'd show her it was him. Show her everything.
He reached out towards her and this time she didn't flinch back. He gently laid his hand on hers, and he linked his mind with hers. It was a form of mental attack, the linking, something Glyndaf had taught him, but he instead of attacking her psyche, he flowed into her mind and touched their thoughts. He felt her instant awareness, and gently he stumbled through sending his thoughts to her.
˜ It's me Will. It really is. ˜ And he opened himself to her. Let her see everything that he is. Let her know everything he felt, how he felt... about her, himself.
Willow gasped as she felt Xander open himself up to her. And she knew him intimately. She felt the complete sorrow he had for letting her feel like she was, the deep hatred he had for his moment of weakness, but most of all she felt the love he had for her, and only her. He was laying his deepest darkest secrets out for her, to see if she wanted. He gave his trust to her completely.
She sensed the complete happiness he emitted when she flung her arms around him, and cried her happiness into his shoulder.
There were no two closer people on earth at that moment.
The rest of the whole Hyena possession crisis went kind of smoothly after that. They arrived at school later that day to find the school mascot had been eaten as well as Mr Flutie, but Buffy was already hot on the trail of the four students, and they managed to get them unpossessed. Especially when Xander knocked two of them out by throwing them into a wall when only Willow was watching. He was enjoying the super strength.
Finding out that Buffy's mysterious Angel was a vampire, well... Xander and Willow had to be held back until Buffy explained the whole soul deal. Didn't really mean much to them, especially since Xander still wanted to fight him anyway.
Willow was rewarded big time when she discovered a demon on the internet. The gang used her as bait to lure it out into the open. Though it's new metal body managed to knock Buffy around and eventually out for the count, it discovered that Xander and Willow weren't as helpless as they seemed.
Buffys punches created large clangs as they impacted on Moloch's armored metal body, though they did little to harm it. Her kicks were equally ineffective as they only managed to put her off balance, as Moloch's 700 kilo chassis was very difficult to move. That didn't stop her from trying though as she ducked another of the machines slow yet powerful strikes and came up swinging. Though she failed to see the other metal claw though descend on her shoulder with a crunch. She fell to one knee under the pressure only to meet the demons computer synched metal knee with her face. The impact flung her back several feet, before she hit the a wall and slid to the ground, she gradually made her way to her feet as the metal clad demon lumbered over to her.
Ten feet behind her, two friends were torn between helping her and revealing their secret.
"You know I was really expecting more of a challenge from a slayer" Gloated Moloch in a kind voice.
"I'm not even warmed up yet Arnie" replied Buffy as she pulled a fire extinguisher from the wall. The heavy items base staggered the demon as it impacted on his head with a rather large amount of force. Smiling at her small victory Buffy began to swing the red canister in increasingly heavy blows. Moloch couldn't block most shots raining in on him due to his rather slow motions, and finally a blow to his leg managed to put him on his metal backside. Buffy standing over him triumphantly, smug grin in place and a now scarred and battered canister held high ready for the final blow.
"I'll be back my ass!" was her final verbal jab as she brought the canister down. That final verbal jab is what cost her.
Moloch in that time managed to get an arm up to block the blow. The resulting impact caused the fire extinguisher to explode rather violently.
Buffy was flung like a ragdoll into the nearest wall head first. There was a large crack and she didn't get up.
Xander had flung himself over Willow, the instant the explosion happened. Several shards of shrapnel caught him in the back and shoulders, but didn't cause any serious harm, as his super hard bones stopped all of it from going to deep.
Willow looked up at Xander from her covered position and saw him grimace in pain. Eye's squeezed closed and teeth gritted. He stayed like that for a moment before he opened his eye's a slither. He saw Willows look of concern and horror so he smiled tightly at her before simply telling her to get Buffy.
She nodded and he rolled off her, allowing her to rush over to their downed friend.
He stood silently, grimacing slightly as embedded shrapnel pulled at muscles. He reached over and pulled a 2 inch piece out of his back and tossed it to the floor. CO2 floated all around them from the extinguisher. He couldn't see Moloch through it's white haze.
"Is she all right?" He yelled to Willow over some sirens that had started to blare. Another bit of shrapnel fell to the ground.
"She unconscious. And her heads bleeding, but I dont think it's a fracture." Willows replied in a voice that rather calm compared to what her voice was like in the beginning.
Xanders sensitive ears picked up the whirring of machinery, as he got the last major piece of shrapnel out of his shoulder. He'd have to get Willow to get the rest out later.
"He's coming again Willow" He warned her as the gas finally started to settle and disperse. He extended his blades and tensed himself. Mentally preparing for battle. He waited like that until he made out the massive bulk of Moloch through the thinning gas.
'Man this is gonna hurt'
"For HIM!" Xander let out the cry and charged straight at him. Moloch stood ready and at the last minute raised a large metal claw. Xander side stepped at the last minute, claw whistling passed his head, and put himself against the wall of the narrow corridor they were fighting in. Putting a boot against the wall he launched himself at Moloch, and him having considerably more mass than Buffy, managed to stagger him. It did leave him, unfortunately, in a heap on the floor, dazedly wondering if he missed and hit the opposite wall.
He came to his senses just in time to roll out of the way of a stomp that cracked the concrete where his head had been.
He rolled away and to his feet, rising to face Moloch again.
"Hard bastard aint you"
"Very" came the kind reply.
They both started towards each other again, Xander started throwing punches that left small knuckle shaped craters in Moloch's armor, before dancing back out of Moloch's range, though after several successful strike his hands were bleeding rather profusely. Testimony to the strength he had put behind the blows, that had affected his opponent so little.
"You have very little chance against me human. You and all your friends will die. It is inevitable."
Xander refused to answer, instead coming in to land several hard kicks against Moloch's joints. He wobbled slightly, but nothing other than that. Well... that and smacking Xander right in the face and onto the ground several feat away.
Xander rose, blood dripping from a large cut on his cheek and could already feel the familiar feeling that his face was swelling up. He stuck out a hand to steady himself against the wall. Once the room stopped spinning he'd have another go.
It didn't stop spinning soon enough, and Moloch started to smash Xander around the cranial region...... repeatedly. He managed to throw himself clear, but after the hits he took... the blood was in his eyes and he knew there were several large lumps on his head. The room was awfully bright and loud.
And all he felt was anger. All he thought was fight.
He knew his mental attacks wouldn't do any good here. No mind for him to connect with, just a hard drive.
All that was left to him was the fight, with brute force.
And that is how he would fight, and a tiny part of Xander knew, that was how he would die.
He pushed himself forward. Faster. He ducked under a haymaker swing, and drove his elbow blade in the androids 'gut'. As hard as he could. Harder.
There was an incredible screech as the blade went through Moloch's thick armor, sliced easily through whatever was in him, and came out the other side a half inch.
They stayed like that, motionless, just for a moment. Moloch's system searching for damage. Xander trying to get the feeling back in his arm after the shock of the impact.
Just a moment.
Moloch looked down at Xander. Xander looked back up.
"Missed"
The blow caught Xander right in the face, threw him clear across the hall, ripping his blade out of Moloch. He hit the ground hard but still slid several feet on his back. He lay there, still for a moment, then started breathing again. He proceeded to cough hard. The blood in his mouth proceeding to spit out .
He eventually stopped coughing, and proceeded to roll onto his hands. It what seemed like a superhuman effort he managed to lever himself up onto his hands and knees. He stopped there and just watched with bloody fascination as his blood poured out of his mouth and nose. It tickled his lip slightly, as his limp was now numb and tingly. And he watched his blood pool before him.
Willow watched in horror.
She was watching her friend get beat to death. He was going to die because of that metal monstrosity. But he wouldn't stop fighting either. He wasn't going to give up, wasn't going to retreat. He would fight until he was a bloody pulp quivering on the ground or he won. He would do it. For Him. And for her.
She wasn't going to let him.
He was levering himself to his feet against the wall when Moloch started after him again. Willow stood up. Put herself between Xander and Moloch's slow unstoppable steps.
"Willow.....noo" Xander managed to bubble out as he saw her put herself between the two.
"Willow move out of the way. I dont want to hurt you. I love you." Moloch's voice was the same kind tone.
Willow just stared at him. Completely focused. Her lip curled up in a snarl. She started moving her hands about her in very precise motions. Practiced motions.
They couldn't see it but she was weaving a spell. Pulling energy from the air and herself. A spell she stopped just short of completing.
"Fuck you" She finished the spell.
A point of light, tiny, appeared in front of her. Very quickly though, small sparks ran across it's surface, enlarging it. It took maybe three seconds until it was the size of a tennis ball. That was all Willow could do. She hoped it was enough. She gave the ball a small push.
Hundreds of small of bolts of electricity leapt from the ball, in every direction. They then curved around and shot straight into Moloch. He let out a electronic screech of pain, as blue fire leapt from his joints and plastics melted.
Willows ball of electricity was getting smaller every moment and the look on her face was one of absolute strain as she tried to pull more and more magic out of the herself and the area.
There was a sudden flash as Moloch's body as internal circuits fried. Willow collapsed immediately afterwards. Blood dripping from her nose and eye's. Xander rushed over to her and pulled her up to him. Got to her just in time to hear her whisper.
"For Him" With that she blacked out.
Xander had had a great time getting both Buffy and Willows unconscious forms out of the facility. Especially when the guards showed up. He had a fabulous time carrying both of them out on his shoulders and through the fence.
It hadn't taken much to explain to Buffy what had happened. Her last blow, while knocking herself out as well, managed to destroy Moloch as well. She accepted it whole heartedly.
Willow and Xander had come out of it all right as well. Willow just needed to spend a day and night sleeping in bed, and she was good to go. Xander though had to spend a couple of days in a healing meditation, to get back to peak strength. It wasn't all in vain though. After they had recouped Crytex had led Willow into the school oval and got her to dig in a certain spot. Got herself a shiny magic bracer. And when she said the magic words Willow got herself a nice glowing, see through, magic kite shield. Blocked pretty much anything Crytex had said. It was attached to the bracer and was pretty much weightless. Best of all, it looked like a piece of jewelry so she could wear it everywhere. She also got herself a nice magic power boost.
Xander got himself a strength and speed boost, though he was still a way off his collars enhancements. But he got himself something while wholly impractical for fighting, would eventually be necessary. And he still got a fight out of it.
Glyndaf had led Xander to the south edge of town, to a small wooded area. Led him to a run down, two story brick house. A few broken windows, front screen door hanging off it's hinges, lawn un kept, and everything in need of a good paint.
The place stunk of vamps.
Xander proceeded to clean the place out. The place now needed it's floors washed, thanks to all the ash and blood on it.
"What are we doing here Glyndaf?" asked Xander as he rested on the houses back steps, a can of coke he snagged from the fridge in hand.
* This is your reward *
"What?" he asked confused
* The house *
"Glyndaf, no even He can give me a house just like that. There's the whole legal owner ship deal with wills and deeds and documents and stuff"
* He knows this, that is why you are yet to receive a reward for killing those vampires. Follow me * Glyndaf led Xander back into the house, up to the second story than into the attic.
The place smelt of mould and dust. Several spots on the roof had holes in them. The place was scattered with boxes of junk, old furniture and a couple of paintings that had seen better days. A couple of birds fluttered out a hole in the roof as Xander stepped through the mess.
Glyndaf led Xander to a cloth covered cabinet. Under the sheet was a nice simple wooden cabinet. Xander opened up the first draw. Inside was a shoebox full of old comic books in plastic covers.
"Hey I haven't got this one" He said off handedly flipping through the collection.
* Other draw Alexander * said Glyndaf tiredly.
Xander opened the next draw, to find a small leather portfolio.
"Hey, what do you know? Wills and deeds and documents and stuff" he stated in an unsurprised monotone.
* And I do believe Willow has the skills to make the necessary arrangements for this property to fall into your hands *
"Oh joy, now I get to pay taxes"
Willow had felt kind of jipped that Xander got a house and all she got was a magic bracer, that was when Xander mentioned that the house was probably meant for both of them, and that He put more value into things used for combat than houses and stuff. She had been able to make the arrangements though, she had had to do them over several weeks to ensure she didn't get caught. Xander spent that time fixing things up a bit. He managed to get the garden to look respectable, with cut lawn and weeded garden. Fixed up the fence out the front, nailing it back together in a none to shabby job. Even gave it a lick of paint. Most of the stuff he did though was limited to the stuff he found in the houses garage. Luckily whoever had owned the place before had figured themselves a bit of a handyman and he had most of the stuff he needed.
The comic book collection though. That had been a surprise. Several very old and very good condition comics were found at the bottom of that shoebox. Very valuable comics.
Xander, himself being a collector, knew of this. So when a comic book convention was held in LA, he and Willow made the trip up on the weekend and set up shop. The trip back was full of Willow exclaiming at how much people would pay for some old pieces of paper. Both though, were screaming with joy.
They'd brought in about fifty grand (give or take a couple of grand) in cheques. Several of those comic books could have been sold for more but Xander was looking for a quick, assured sale. They had been given several odd, suspicious stares, but Xander brushed off any questions by telling them that his grandfather had left them to him and he wanted to sell them.
They set up an account the very next day. Putting 40 grand into the account, and getting the other ten invested. That still had left them with about one and a half grand left. They went shopping of course. Willow had grabbed Buffy and gone clothes shopping, Xander went entertainment shopping. Got himself about three hundred dollars in CDs and a really good walkman.
It had been a good weekend.
"If it isn't the great producer!" Buffy sat herself down next to a thoroughly stressed Giles. Xander and Willow sat together just behind the pair.
"Had to see this to believe it." Xander added leaning forward into the conversation.
"Oh. You three." Replied very non-plussed. He should have expected this.
"The school talent show. How ever did you finagle such a primo assignment?" Buffy asked curiously, knowing well Giles dislike of all students other than those of present company.
"Our new Führer, Mr. Snyder." Stated an annoyed Giles.
"I think they call 'em 'principals' now." Willow quipped.
"Mm. He thought it would behoove me to have more contact with the students. I did try to explain that my vocational choice of librarian was a deliberate attempt to minimize said contact, but, uh, he would have none of it."
"Giles, unto every generation is born one who must run the annual talentless show. You cannot escape your destiny." Buffy needled.
"If you had any shred of decency, you would have participated, or at least, um, helped."
"Nah! I think I'll take on your traditional role... and watch!" The irony was not lost on Buffy
"And mock!" joined in Xander, enjoying the hazing they were giving Giles.
"And laugh!" Willows final shot got them all chuckling.
"O-kay..." Buffy started, sobering up "...I think maybe we better leave our Mr. Giles to this business he calls a show." The three of them got up and started back up the aisle. Principal Snyder is waiting there for them.
"Principal Snyder!" Buffy exclaimed in unwelcome surprise.
"So. We think school events are stupid, and we think authority figures are to be made fun of." stated Snyder very matter-of-factly.
"No! No, we don't. W-unless you do." Stated buffy, panicked at being caught out.
"And we think our afternoon classes are optional. All thr.....You left campus yesterday" Snyder looked kinda dazed for a minute before refocusing right on Buffy. Literally ignoring Xander and Willow.
"Yeah but we were fighting..." Buffy stopped herself.
"Fighting?" Snyder question, he could taste the blood in the water.
"Not fighting" Buffy back pedaled somemore.
"Real anti-social type aren't you. You need to integrate into this school, Ms. Summers..." stated Snyder with a smug show of superiority. ".... I think I just found an eager new participant for the talent show."
"What?!" Buffy exclaimed, horrified. In the back ground, Xander was motioning Willow to stay quiet while quietly moving them away.
"I've been watching you. Always getting into one scrap or another."
"Well, we're really, really sorry, but about the talent show, pleeease, you can't make us..." Buffy starts.
"My predecessor, Mr. Flutie, may have gone in for all that touchy- feely relating nonsense, but he was eaten..." interrupted Snyder "You're in *my* world now. And Sunnydale high has touched and felt for the last time."
Xander had to clamp a hand over his and Willows mouths to stop from laughing out loud at that last comment. Buffy just looked horrified as Snyder left her in his destructive wake. She barely acknowledges Xander and Willows' wave as they left the hall.
She collapsed into her original seat next to Giles and looks at him for sympathy, of which she received nothing but a smirk. She gave an angry pout.
"Can you believe him! Now I've got to come up with something for the talent show... And he didn't even get Willow and Xander to do it with me, he barely even noticed them. I tell ya, he's singling me out" she complained.
"Ofcourse he's not, it's just your own fault for getting caught" Said Giles frowning. She was right, he hadn't noticed Xander and Willow. Which he really should have. They were standing right next to her.
He cast a worried after them.
Xander and Willow burst through the hall doors, laughter already bubbling out of them.
"'Sunnydale high has touched and felt for the last time'? Where was I when it was touching and feeling, cause I missed out big time!" Xander exclaimed as they headed for the student lounge. Giggling all the way.
"Whats better though is Buffys in the talent show now! We have to go" Willow said mischievously.
"Ofcourse we're going. Can you scope your dads' video camera? This has to be a moment for the ages." Xander told her.
"No problem. I'm just glad we dont have to get up there... By the way how did you do that?"
"The whole forgetting we were there thing? Well..." He gave her a smug grin.
˜ I've been practicing ˜ he spoke into her mind.
"Cool" she said simply, as they entered the lounge, heading straight for the vending machines.
"It's still pretty hard to do though. Takes a lot of concentration." He told her while getting a candy bar.
Willow thumped the side of her drink machine in a practiced motion Xander had showed her. She'd only just become strong enough for it to work though, but she was thoroughly pleased with the results as the coke popped out the bottom.
"So what are you doing this arvo? You sticking around to help Giles with the study?" Willow asked as they collapsed onto the well used chairs of the student lounge, chewing and sipping respectively.
"Nah, I'm going over Andrews. Got himself a car the other week and me and Steve-o are going to go tinker with it"
Willow just rolled her eye's.
"What about on Friday? You free that night? Cass is throwing a party, open house, it'll be cool" Xander asked Willow.
"I dont know Xan? You know I'm not one for parties."
"Ohh come on. I promise if you dont like it we'll go and patrol or something. It'll give you a chance to show off all those new clothes you bought the other" He pleaded with her.
"Ohhh Ok, but if it's bad, we go ok?"
"No prob"
They sat in a comfortable silence before looking at each other and swapping snacks.
"Wanna come up to the house on Saturday...."
"Oh ahh Mr Giles. I was wondering if you could help me with something."
"Yes, ahh um Mark. What is it?" Giles struggled to remember the students name. More worried about the performances tonight.
"I was wondering, could you calculate the speed that my guillotine blade would be traveling when it struck it's 'victim'?" Mark made little hand comma's when he referred to victim, smirking slightly.
Giles looked at the boy, wondering why an obviously eager student was stuck in the talent show.
"Ohh um, yes, if you calibrated the units of weight correctly, it would be possible to calculate the ah, velocity at the point of impact."
"Hey, your pretty smart Mr. Giles. Um, can I just ask one more favor?"
"Ahh, yes go ahead."
"I need you to be in my performance tonight" stated Mark kind of sheepishly.
"What?!" Giles manners slipped slightly.He had meant 'I beg your pardon'.
"Please? There's no one else. You dont have to say anything, I do all the talking. Come on, please, I wont be able to do the performance otherwise."
Giles stared at the boy, toying with the notion of just flat refusing him. Mark must have read his face wrong, because he gave him a hopeful smile.
"Ohhh all right" Snyder would be on his back if he did let the student fend for himself. That and he had very little to do for the rest of the night. Being in this performance had to be better than watching the others for the sixth time.
"Thanks Sir... Well, we better set up than." He handed Giles an armful of weights and led him over to the guillotine.
"What will be my part in the performance?" Asked Giles curiously.
"Ahh your my victim for the night" Said Mark while carefully setting up the weights. He started pulling the very sharp looking blade up on the rope.
"Could you set up that melon, I want to test her out" Giles complied placing the melon in place and watching in fascination as it was very swiftly sliced in two
"Oh My."
"Cool huh" Giles looked at the young man curiously. This generation had a very weird definition of what was cool.
"Yes...ahh very cool" Applause could be heard from the stage.
"Better set you up, we're only a couple of performances away" Mark pointed out, lifting up the blade again and tying it off.
"Just make sure that blade is secure" Giles nervousness as he laid upon the table brought a grin to Marks face.
"Dont worry..." he said double checking the knot." ...It's very secure." He gave a carefree chuckle, rubbing his arm.
"Are you sure there's no one else to do it?" Giles asked nervously. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. It didn't really seem so good with the blade hanging over him like it was.
"My assistant called in sick. More likely chickened out. Dont worry though, I do all the talking" he clamped down the guillotine guard over Giles forehead before locking it with a small padlock.
"Shouldn't that be around my neck?"
"No this way it slices off your scalp and your brains just come ... pouring out" Mark started tying straps over Giles chest. Giles grunted as Mark pulled the final strap extra tight.
"Ahh, What exactly is the trick?" Giles suddenly cant remember Marks audition.
"Trick?" asks Mark evilly as he disappears from Giles' line of sight.
"Mark?" Giles is worried now. A sudden thunk and Giles realizes what is happening. He lets out a soft whimper as he see's the blade quiver above him. Giles tries to convey some meaning of authority when he asks for mark again but his voice wobbles. Just like that blade right above him is right now.
*Thunk*
The blade shines under the stages hard white lights. White like Giles eye's.
*Thunk*
The blade slips a couple of inches and Giles flinches. He can imagine Mark rising the hatchet for the final stroke. The time in-between seeming impossibly long.
Sudden quick footsteps can suddenly heard, followed equally by several thumps and groans, at which Giles flinches every time.
"Ewww" That had to be Buffy. Relief floods Giles like a burst damn. He was saved, his slayer would save him.
He heard the rope snap and saw the blade descend with an earry slowness and his terror returned a thousand fold.
His life flashed before his eye's.
Xander pounded into back stage as fast as he could behind Buffy. He knew Willow was a couple seconds behind them. He's be with her without his collar, and even still, Buffy got there seconds before him.
He arrived to find her battling with Mark. Or more like the demon that he had know as mark for the last couple of years. In the background he recognized Giles strapped to a Guillotine. He saw the Rope holding the blade of the guillotine.
He saw the rope snap.
He leapt for the rope, and tried to catch it in mid air as everything seemed to slow down.
He missed
Xander watched as the world slowed. He was still rushing forward towards the Guillotine, it's blade dropping smoothly, slowly, inexorably towards Giles head. He saw the sweat beading on Giles forehead. He saw the rope he had missed barely a second ago swirling, lessening as it was sucked up by the Guillotine.
He didn't realize he had flung himself forward until after he'd done it. The Guillotine rushed up all the quicker.
He started to realize he'd reach it before the blade hit. Just. He didn't know what he'd do when he reached it. He had no idea. It was instinct which made him act the way he did. His arm un curled, and fist clenched he put it between the blade and Giles head.
The world sped up.
The blade crashed down into his arm. Cutting all the way to the bone with a searing pain. Luckily it didn't go through. His bones able to hold what Giles's skull could not.
His arm slammed down onto the wooden guide under the weight of the blade. His blood already rushing from his arm at an alarming rate. Xanders hand dangled uselessly at the end of his arm, tendons, nerves and muscles cleanly cut.
All this before he skidded to his knees at the head of the guillotine.
Giles stared up at the descending blade, paralyzed as it seemed to take it's time in bringing his death.
He really wished he could blink, close his eye's and banish the sight of his own death. Couldn't do it though. He had to go the mans way, staring death in the face, the completely terrifying way.
"Oh dear " Great last words in anyones book.
A fist entered his very limited field of vision followed by a wrist than a bit of forearm and Giles started to wonder who was stupid enough to do such a thing, even as another part of him yelled at him to be bloody grateful anyone would act that stupid for him.
The blade was remarkably silent as it went into this stupid arm, well until it hit the bone. At such point it made the sound of a coke can being kicked, that metallic pong, but the sound only lasted a second. Less.
Giles felt warm drops splatter on his fore-head, cheek and than saw them on his glasses. He felt more when he saw the fist continue down towards him with the blade and thudded into the guide that was securely attached to his head.
He had the supreme pleasure of watching said hand go completely limp as even more pleasurable blood dripped onto his face. He even had the joy of listening to one very familiar scream of pain and horror. But most of all, he had immeasurable happiness of one who was still breathing.
Anyone watching would have swore Xanders eye's turned white as he let loose a scream of unmentionable pain, disbelief and anger. He looked down at it again before yelling again and seemed to writhe on the spot as he foolishly tried to pull his arm free.
Giles watched as even more blood spurted on his face, almost covering his glasses and flowing in runnels down his cheeks and nose.
He heard the scream again and the half an arm above him jerked around violently.
Even more blood fell.
His blade whipped out of his good arm and with strength he didn't know he had he smashed his arm and blade through the Guillotines uprights just above the blade. Wooden splinters flew in all directions. Metal guide rails bent, buckled and shattered or were sliced clean through. The uprights toppled sideways, twisting as it fell, catching Giles in the side.
Giles joy at survival quickly turned to horror as an arm and large black blade shattered the uprights of the guillotine. A small shard of wood embedded itself in his cheek and he felt something else go into his hand.
His eye's widened in shock. That blow, Any blow that shattered the guillotines now teetering uprights was enormous. It told of a supreme strength, it ...*Ooof*
The uprights toppled and it's edge caught Giles in the ribs. Pain blossomed.
More blood fell on his face
He saw the hand come back and grip the top of the Guillotines blade, and with a yell ripped in violently out of the arm.
Giles glimpsed a ravaged open wound, and the sight of black bone. And more blood.
Thankfully the arm disapeared rather quickly.
Xanders good hand reached over and gripped the top of the blades in steely, sweat slicked fingers. With another pain filled yell he ripped the blade free, of his arm and the Guillotine. With the last of his pain induced strength he hurled the blade away as hard as he could.
He collapsed weakly holding his arm as Willow rushed to his side.
"Oh god Xander!" Xanders eye's were closed so he couldn't see her tears as she saw the huge open wound of torn flesh and muscle. It was so red! . He heard the tears in her voice, right next to the worry and panic.
'Xander?!' That was Xanders arm. Oh God! Willow didn't know!
"Willow! Willow! Get away from him! Willow?" She wasn't listening, her own raised voice and her worry for her friend completely masking his yelling, blood spurting from his mouth at every word.
What did she mean could he heal it ? Who's she talking to?
"Whats going on?"
"Oh um Xander. Xander ! Will you be able to heal this?" Willow didn't get much of a answer out of him. She swung around until she found Glyndaf.
"Will he be able to heal this if I seal the wound?" She shouted at him.
Glyndaf paused for a moment before answering.
* He will, But it will take a week, week and a half maybe and it'll leave a scar....* Willow had stopped listening after 'He will'. She bent low and spoke loudly in Xanders ear, hoping he was listening through his writhing groans.
"Xander I'm gonna have to seal your wound... It's gonna hurt okay?" He didn't say anything but she saw him grit his teeth. She gripped his arms just above the wound with one hand. Her other hand held palm up in front of her. She focused her will on it. Drawing on the surroundings with her magic. All the lights in the school dimmed slightly. The light they gave off now was cold. Even the super hot stage lights seemed chilled.
Willows hand glowed from and inner light. A hot red inner light. Heat shimmered off it, though Willow felt none of it . She focussed on it for a second more before grimacing and looking back down at Xanders wound. She slid her normal hand up over the wound and squeezed. Xanders breath hitched and he let out a tight moan. Willow squeezed harder and pulled the wound haphazardly closed. A look of pure disgust on Willows face as she did this. She would remember this next part for the rest of her life.
She slapped her searing hot hand down over the wound. It sizzled and stank and steamed, but the parts seared together. Xander shot up the instant her hand touched the wound. His hand moved quicker than she thought possible and snaked in under her chin finger splayed to wrap up her throat and crush it. But it stopped centimeters from touching her. He looked her square in the eye's with his pain white eye's. Even still, the black dots were still visible. Willows eye's were full of fear and horror at what was happening and what she was doing but, behind that there was a steel that told of how much she had to do this. Do this for him, or he loses maybe his life.
His blood pooled around her feet.
Giles had been around enough magic to know a spell was being cast. The hairs on his hands and neck always stood on end. He struggled in his bindings but they didn't budge.
He heard who he assumed was Xander suck in a groaning hiss. The hiss turned into something not natural after that and Giles smelt the stink of burning flesh, he fully expected to hear someone yell out in pain but heard nothing.
The burning hiss lasted several long seconds more before it cut off suddenly followed by a soft thump.
He heard what he assumed was someone throwing up.
Xander didn't yell out in pain as Willow kept her hand on the wound, it sizzled and popped in the background, he seemed beyond pain now. All he did was shake, the hand around her throat most of all, but still, it never touched her.
Willow suddenly became aware of wave of pain lapping at her mind and realized it was his. She quickly removed her hand from the wound. A black ugly scorched mark now where the but was. It still leaked blood and there were several large blisters but it was closed. Xander had fainted from the pain as soon as she had taken her hand away.
Willow stared at her hand in disgust. Bits of Xander had fried to it. She turned and threw up. In doing so she became aware of Giles yelling at her.
"Willow! WILLOW! get me out of this! Whats happening?! Willow?!" Fear and panic was imbedded in his voice. Willow stood and looked over at him. His face was covered in Xanders blood. He sputtered it as he spoke and it completely covered his glasses. He was strapped down in several places, padlocks locking several of the straps.
"Hold on Giles" She rushed over to his side, pulled fruitlessly at one of the locks before muttering a word and blasting away the piece of wood the lock was attached to with a large crunch. She did the same with the rest of the locks and Giles struggled himself free. Quickly wiping his face clean.
He took several steps back looking at Willow in confusion and a little bit of fear. Than down at Xander. Xander with the large black blade coming from his forearm.
"What.. What are you?!" He asked nervously, gratitude for saving his life and a hatred for demons breed into him and nurtured by the council warring.
"Giles..." Willow started forward but stopped when Giles took another step back.
"You need to help me with Xander" Willow asked again but got only a light scowl in reply.
"No until you tell me what you two are!" Willow stood there shocked. Xander had been right, they were being judged demons from the get go. Her shock quickly simmered into anger.
"Giles?!" She asked one more time but Giles courage was quickly returning in the face of what he saw as only a small girl looking demon.
"Get back!" He almost spat the words at her.
"Fine! Be that way!" She focused her will on the air around them. Her magic seeping into it. Giles collapsed as a hidden hand thumped him in the back of the head. Willow glared at his unconscious form for a moment before turning back to Xander. Glyndaf was leaning over him.
"How long till he comes too?" absently she noticed a crash from Buffys fight.
* A couple of minutes, He's already started the healing. He'll be a sore boy in the morning * Glyndaf seemed to sigh and give a small shake of his head * What am I gonna do. He cant stop himself from getting knocked around *
* You did well tonight Willow * Crytex spoke up * You did very well under pressure, you should feel proud * Willow blushed slightly.
* Come on, we need to get these two away from here. If the slayer doesn't get to suspicious, Xander might be able to fix things with the Brit * As if in answer to his words, Xander groaned. * Willow grab his collar, you'll need it to move these two * Willow was about to question how to get it off when it clattered to the floor next to Xander after a touch from Glyndaf.
"'Kay" The collar was loose around her neck and hung slightly but the instant the clasp was done she felt the change. Her magic attuned senses felt the power seep into her.
It felt like a rush.
* Quick, the slayers almost finished the demon * Willow reached over and hauled Xander to his feet and tucked herself under his shoulder. He was heavy and there was no less strain lifting him up than if she had tried it without the collar, it was just she could do it now.
She started to drag him closer to Buffys fight. That area of backstage was empty and closer to the exit. She wouldn't see what was left of the guillotine and all of the blood from here. She sat him down against the wall, careful to avoid his still protruding blade, he looked awfully pale and she wondered if she should stay with him.
* I'll look after him. Go get the Brit * Glyndaf filled in for her.
She gave him a quick nod and rushed back for Giles. He was still out like a light. But his height made her dragging him a bit more difficult. She laid him out next to Xander in the next section, before quickly pulling stage curtains over the opening. Obstructing the view of the Guillotine.
She turned back to find Xanders eye's open and him staring at her gratefully though she began to feel the waves of pain lapping against her mind.
"I owe you three now" He smiled at her. She smiled gratefully back before answering.
"Just making up for all the times you saved me the last couple of years of school." She said crouching down next to him. "Can you walk?" He closed his eye's for a second before nodding. He levered himself up with the wall, wobbled for a second, than straightened. He looked at his arm sourly.
"Tell Buffy I tripped saving him" He scowled lightly while nodding at Giles.
"How did you know?" Willow asked confused as she noticed Buffy hurrying over. Xander mouthed 'Glyndaf' at her before sticking his arm behind his back.
"Hey Buff, killed any demons lately?" Xanders act came on suddenly and fully, surprising even Willow with his ability to change roles so quickly.
"Mmm..." she nodded demurely "What happened to him?" She asked nodding at Giles.
"Fainted dead away" Xander filled her in quickly. Buffy turned to give him a quirky smile before worry crossed her face.
"Are you okay Xand? You dont look so good" Xander waved her off with a goofy smile.
"It's cool, Just hurt my ankle. Tripped saving him" Buffy shook her head in mock worry, smiling at him.
"Cid?" Willow asked quietly. Buffy swung around to shake her head sadly.
"Gone to a better place."
"Oh" Awkward silence ensued.
"So we dump the G-man in his office for the night and lucky for Buffy, me and Will make another trip to the emergency room. You lucked out Buff, we wont get to see you lovely performance."
"Oh no, not that" Buffy replied in heavy sarcasm, as Xander hobbled over to Willow and laid his good arm over her shoulder and they started for the door.
"Dont worry guys. I got the video recorder set up before all this happened" Willow made the parting all the more sweet.
Giles awoke slowly, the first thing he felt was an aching in his back and head. He knew where the pain in his head came from and right now he was guessing the pain in his back was from sleeping on his office bench all night.
He squinted harshly as light poured through his office window onto his face. He sat up slowly, taking his glasses off in the process and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Ahum"
Giles almost fell off his desk as he looked up to see Xander and Willow standing in his office. Their back to the light and dressed in dark colors they cast rather imposing figures to Giles's morning cup of tea depraved mind. A fact only made more so by Giles quickly resurfacing memories of last night.
"Morning Giles" Xander started with a rather flat tone. A superior smirk gracing his face.
"Hey" Willow usual friendly smile and voice were present.
"Good morning...ah... How did the uh talent show end up last night?" Giles hand slowly curled under his desk and grasped the hilt of the dagger he kept strapped there.
"Hey thats our Giles. Always with the funny and then the trying to kill us." Giles covered his surprise at Xander knowing what he was doing by spinning around and hurling the knife at him. His aim was slightly off and the blade hurtled instead towards Willows head.
Xander calmly plucked it out of the air.
"Thats not very nice Giles" Xander used this point to advertise his now two working hands by tapping the handle of the blade into his other hand.
"What do you want?" Giles voice came out steely, almost covering his fear.
"Things the way they were before you found out" Willow said simply as she lowered her shades giving Giles a good look at her eye's.
"I'm afraid that wont be happening. If you harm me Buffy will find out and hunt you down. If you dont harm me I'll tell her anyway."
"Why would I want to hurt you after saving your life last night? No, I think we'll take the third option."
"There is no third option Xander, you two are demons, spawn of hell, Buffy will slay you"
"Thats Harsh Giles" Willows voice sounded of the hurt.
"Yeah, we prefer enhanced humans, but enough talk. Just talking to you now is hard enough." Xander straightened himself and took in a deep breath. He pulled all his skill into his mind, built it up tightened his grip on it and focused on Giles.
Giles stumbled as words imprinted themselves on his mind. Instructions. Orders that he could not disobey.
YOU WILL NOT REVEAL OUR SECRETS. YOU WILL NOT HARM US. WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS AND YOU WILL TREAT US AS SUCH.
The words bounced around his skull, repeating louder and louder. He groaned and fell to his knees, a pain growing behind his temples.
"Lets go get some breakfast Will. He's gonna be a while" With that Xander and Willow walked out of the school into the early morning to find themselves some McDonalds for breakfast.
Things with Giles remained strained after the incident. He never treated Xander or Willow any differently than he had before, he couldn't. But they never grew any closer either. There was a tension between them that just wouldn't go away, and it did little to reassure Willow and Xander. They went to greater lengths to keep their secrets hidden. They stopped patrolling with Buffy (Which Buffy didn't think to hard about, exclaiming that she rather'd they didn't come with her and run the risk of getting hurt), and began patrolling by themselves.
That began another change, Willow slowly began to feel the need, the pull to fight. It frightened her somewhat. She had to really stop herself sometimes. Especially when Cordelia made one of her snide remarks, the temptation to freeze her solid than melt her down into a shallow puddle on the school linoleum floor was rather huge, but she was able to hold back. Mainly because of the patrolling and training she did with Xander. It turned out beating the crap out of a punching bag/vampire ( albeit while Xander was holding it and giving pointers ) was great for stress relief.
Anyway though, the school year continued. Xander continued to work on the house, ever so slowly getting rid of the rotting corpse smell and mould. Willow kept an eye on their savings and investments, making sure things weren't invested where they shouldn't be and taking cash out of the savings account for quick investments for good returns. She got quite good at playing the stock market.
All through it all they got that little bit stronger as they faced every weird thing the Hellmouth threw they're way. Gaining enough skill that the average newbie vamp became no problem, they could even take on two newbie vamps at once and still come out relatively on top. What really developed most was their team work. Together they worked together in such unison, a perfect match of anger and brute force mixed with mystical knowledge and power. Together they could probably take on Buffy... and still lose, but they'd give her a run for her money.
The two just seemed to know each other so well they could predict each others moves, know how each other would react before they knew themselves.
It kinda creeped Buffy out.
"Sometimes I think you're about to finish each others sentences"
Willow and Xander just grinned mischievously at each other.
"Who..."
"...Us?"
"Never..."
"...Happen"
"Okay thats just creepy" said Buffy, absently blowing her hair out of her face as she looked over the musty book she was reading to give them a stare, only to find both of them giving her the exact same look back at her.
Beads of sweat were running down Giles forehead as he struggled against his mental restraints for perhaps the millionth time. Hoping to break his mental restraining order and point out the obvious (to him anyway) truth to Buffy. He couldn't even manage to frown at Willow and Xander yet but it wasn't going to stop him from trying.
Xander looked up slightly from the inane chatter he was having with Willow and Buffy as he felt a little mental tug. He glanced slightly at Giles, catching his eye with the movement. He didn't smirk at the man, he didn't relish this power over him, he wished he'd never had to do it, but he gave a small regretful shake of his head and sured up the blocks in Giles mind.
Giles anger radiated off him in waves as he felt the restraints beefed up. He raged inside himself at his... his enslavement. And for the damn boy to act so damn noble about it, so fare. He wished to shout and yell and beat the boy to a bloody pulp but he couldn't' do it.
And it was his disability to do anything that wriled him the most.
His inability that made him rage.
"So Buff, anything big on patrol last night? No super monsters?" Xander asked reverting his attention back to the conversation.
"Super monsters?"
"You know... Like if someone made a vamp out of Batman" He added a goofy smile to the end.
"Corny" Willow giggled.
"Very, but no. No super monsters. Barely any normal monsters for that matter. Whats up with that Giles? I thought you said this was the mouth of hell?" Buffy asked in the irritated-over-nothing teenager way.
"Well I'm not quite sure actually. With the ah Master around I would think that activity would increase. Ah perhaps we've hit a lull..."
"Lull? LULL? Did anybody else hear lull because lull means night off and night off means Bronze" Buffy interrupted.
Willow raised her hand. "I heard lull"
"Me too"
"Great! We Bronze tonight"
"... Or he could just be bideing his time, planning something. It's in these times, Buffy that you should be extra careful, patrol extra hard, keep an eye out for anything!"
"I will be Giles, I'll be watching over a significant proportion of Sunnydales youth. But to do so successfully I'll need to blend in. You know dress up, dance, have a good time?"
"Dont confuse the man Buff, he doesn't know what fun is. Well fun not involving Miss Calendar anyway" Xander shot in.
"And with that 'eww' we leave. Come on Will, we can make each other up at my house" Buffy started making her way for the door, Willow and Xander in her wake.
"'Kay. Meet you there at eight Xan?" Willow asked as she followed Buffy down to their lockers.
"No prob ladies, catcha"
Back in the library.
"Bloody teenagers"
And so that night the three bronzed. Angel showed up, looking for Buffy, and they did the whole tortured moody love stare thing while talking in soft whispers. Xander and Willow laughed quietly to each other as they watched them before getting up to dance together.
And the night went on. They hung out, danced, shared a plate of chips, let Buffy go on slaying breaks as she dragged vamps from the dance floor and out back were she showed them her wood.
Normalcy ensued.
"Ooooh"
"You shouldn't have drunk so much last night Will" Xander informed her, way to smugly, as they jogged through Sunnydales parks.
"Stop rubbing it in" Hissed Willow, eye's closed into slits trying to block out what little light dusk was forcing into her brain.
Xander had got Willow to come to another party with him last night. Which wasn't really hard now as it was a while back. Willow had started enjoying going to parties.
As she was seen at more and more parties (especially with Xander) more and more people talked to her, and she had started to enjoy talking and hanging out and dancing. Alcohol freed up a lot of inhibitions with her and she got to talking to nearly anybody. She was a regular on the party scene now.
"Hey just think of it as pay back for all the times you've said it to me"
"Still you didn't have to drag me running"
"You ain't getting out of our work out just because you got a hang over. Be thankful I let you sleep in"
"Ohhhh. It ain't fair! I only had..." Willow paused for a second as she tried to remember how many drinks she had last night. "... Four cock sucking cowboys!"
"Actually Will, thats probably only what you remember. I think you had a couple of Quick fucks after that, and I had to keep you away from a bottle of Galiano the rest of the night."
"Ohhhh. I'm never touching another drop of alcohol for the rest of my life!"
"Dont say that. You just gotta learn to drink in moderation... and keep away from Keatyn. She's the one who got ya drunk."
"Noted."
They jogged on for a few minutes in comfortable silence. Winding their way through Sunnydales streets and cemeteries and parks. Just enjoying each others company in the waning light.
The dropping of a baseball bat on cement drew Xanders slightly acute hearing and he absently started listening harder.
"You dropped that catch Billy" A gruff voice of and adult.
"Yeah... Sorry" A young kid, didn't sound too worried.
"You lost the match"
Silence.
"You lost the match for the entire TEAM!" The adult voice was angry now and Xander could detect a very slight slur to them.
Xander changed direction of their jogging and headed towards the sound. Willow followed suit, though she couldn't hear anything yet.
He heard the bat scrape against the cement and started to speed up. Willow gave him a glance but didn't say anything.
"It's * your * fault we lost"
* Thud *
"Aaagh" Even Willow heard that. Xander pulled away. He sped as fast as he could towards the sounds. Two more thuds urging him on. He sprinted into Sunnydales little league baseball fields and into a small concrete dugout.
He came across a man, middle aged and over weight. He was standing over a boy about 12, he had a baseball shirt on, a large 19 on the back. The boy was cowering into a corner, one arm protecting his head as the other was held weakly out in front of him to fend off the blows. Xander could already see blood on his face and dirty marks on his shirt where the bat had hit.
The man raised the bat once more, bat coming over his shoulder. Xander grabbed the end of the bat from behind and yanked it out of the mans hands. He spun around in anger and raised his fist at Xander.
"Who the fuck are you?! Get out of here!" His shouts stank of cigarette smoke and cheap booze. He made a lunge for the bat but Xander brought it out of his reach.
'Your useless boy' The old memory flashed through Xanders mind.
'It's your fault'
'Worthless little shit'
' * Thud * *Thud* * Thud * ' The situation sparked so many memories... so many bad memories. But Xander was different now. He knew he wasn't worthless. He knew this kid wasn't worthless. He knew he hadn't been able to fight back, he knew this kid couldn't either. He hadn't is now he could.
The man swung at Xander now. Xander took a step back and the man wobbled on his feet as his fist past through air. Absently he heard Willow arrive on the scene.
Xander took hold of the bats grip in one hand and swung it into the mans side. The man crumpled in a loud woosh as the air was expelled from him. He gasped for breath on his hands and knees as Xander just stared down at him with hate filled eye's.
"Do you like beating people weaker than you?" Xanders voice was low but gravelly in anger.
"Does one miss catch mean this much?... That you should beat a little kid with a baseball bat?" The man looked up at him, his face red with anger, alcohol and embarrassment.
"This isn't *gasp* any of your business"
"NONE of my BUSINESS?!" Xander practically screamed it as he smashed the metal baseball bat through the concrete wall of the dugout. Bits of concrete cinder block flew in all directions. He left the mangled bat in the depression.
"If someone beats on a little kid, it's everyone's business you Fuck" He grasped the guy by the front of his shirt in one hand and lifted him off the ground until his feet dangled and with a yell, twisted and hurled him into the concrete wall of the dug out.
The loud crack on impact and the way he shattered the wooded bench as he fell on it attested to the pain this probably caused.
Xander just stared at the groaning heap on the ground before turning back to the kid. Willow was kneeling by his side already checking him out.
"Is he alright?"
"I think he's got a fractured cheek and he has at the very least bruised ribs" Willow had to talk over the boys crying. Xander didn't blame him.
"Give us a look at him." Willow moved obligingly to the side, casting an unreadable look at the crumpled heap that was the boys attacker.
"Kid? Kid your gonna have to trust me. Do you trust me?" The boy, pretty out of it, just nodded.
Xander sat his hand on the boys shoulder and cast his mind through the contact into the boys body. He felt a little resistance and probably would have been stopped if the kid wasn't concussed. His mind separated from the boys, Billys mind, and focused on his body, his mind looking at the damage done. Willow was right the boys cheek was fractured as well as one rib, and there was all the bruising. Rage almost distracted him from what he was doing but he refocused on the job. He willed the body to fix the damage, to heal the injuries, and quickly. Under the influence of Xanders mind, Billy's body went into overdrive as all of his body's resources were focused on the injuries. Xander could see the fractures knit together a million times faster than they should have, bruising and swelling dissipate in record time. He knew Billy had a concussion but he wasn't going near the boys brain. Who knew what he could muck up if he tried anything there.
With a quick check of the injuries after they had healed he pulled himself out of the boy. He suddenly realized he was on his back, his limbs stiff from lying on the cold concrete floor, it was dark now and a worried Willow standing over him. He felt like crap as well.
"Wont be doing that again for a couple of weeks"
"Xander! Are you alright? You passed out after you went into the boy and I couldn't wake you up and I was so worried and it was getting dark and..." Willow gave up trying to babble herself out of concern and just attached herself to Xander, tears in her eye's.
"Dont worry Will, I'm okay! I'm sorry for worrying you, I didn't know it was going to happen myself." He rubbed her back soothingly. "On the plus side... How you doing kid?" Willow looked over at the boy to find him sitting up with little difficulty, no sign of any bruising or any other injury for that matter.
The kid rubbed his head for a second, than his eye's tiredly.
"My head hurts, and I'm tired and hungry... What did you do?" The kid replied with slightly wide eye's.
"Just cured what ails ya. Do you live far from here?" The boy shook his head than grimaced.
"Do you think you can walk him home?" he asked Willow quietly she gave a quick nod.
"But what about you? Are you alright?" her concern was evident in her voice.
"I'm fine............ I have something to do..." He stood up and walked over to the man who was now quivering in the corner and snarled at him. "... and I dont want you to see it." The man groaned.
"Xander?" Willows voice wavered slightly as she asked the unspoken question.
"Just take the kid home. Make sure he gets a meal in him" Xanders voice had gone emotionless. Willow had never seen him like this. Never seen him this angry. She knew how this would affect him, knew about his childhood. She thought about trying her resolve face but new it wouldn't work. She just nodded sadly if not slightly scared. She turned and helped the boy up and made off at a brisk pace.
Xander waited until they were out of sight.
"I'm not going to kill you..." the man let out a short quivering sigh "...But you wont survive the night" the man curled up on himself again.
"You've done the worst thing anyone could possibly ever do. What would have happened if we hadn't come by ? Would you have killed that boy because he dropped a catch? Put him in a coma? Or disable him for the rest of his life?" He smashed the man in the head with a backhanded fist.
"Did it make you feel big? Putting him down like that? Anymore of a man?" He hit him again. Xander grabbed hold of his foot and dragged the man out of his crouch in the corner. He clawed and kicked and yelled trying to get free but Xanders grip was like steel.
"No dont hurt me please dont hurt me. I'm sorry please" The man began to sob pathetically. Xander smacked him across the face again before gripping his hands behind his back and reaching into his pockets. He found the mans keys and wallet. He gave the guy a hard kick in the back and sent him sprawling back into the corner.
Xander opened the wallet and found a picture of the man with his family. He had two girls. Xander recognized one from school. He threw the wallet back at the man.
"Mr.Edwards. Your family is the only thing stopping me from breaking you legs and leaving you here for the night" Xander stated coldly.
"Please dont" The man was sobbing again. It was pathetic.
"Shut up!" Xander looked at the mans key before clicking the lock button on the car remote. He saw the blinkers flash on the only car in the lot. Xander reached into his own pocket and withdrew a flick knife. The mans sobbing increased. He approached the man. He cringed back but couldn't do anything to stop Xander giving him a few shallow slashes to his arms and chest.
"God you're pathetic! Now listen. I'm giving you a chance... However slim that is..." Xander carefully wiped the keys down on the edge of his shirt. "... You find your keys before anything finds you and most likely eats you, your free to go. But just remember there are worse things out here than the stuff that eats you." Just to prove his point Xander slid his blades out of his arms. The runes glowed a bright blood red, and cast just enough light to outline the blades in the dark. The man wet himself.
"Oh for fucks sake!" Xander turned and hurled the mans keys into the middle of the dark field. The man skittered hastily after them.
"Oh and dont forget, I know where you live!" Xander shouted as an after-thought.
Counter to what Xander had told the man, he didn't leave him to die. He hung discreetly around the edges of the field waiting for the inevitable vampire or demon that was attracted to the scent of the mans blood or the pathetic wails he let out every so often. He dispatched them quietly, working off his anger. Though he did let one lone vampire reach the man. He was just about to shred the guy to pieces when Xander acted. Slamming into the vamps mind and implanting some false info.
"Well well. Haven't had a kill this easy in weeks" The vamp smiled as the guy crouched on the ground spun around wildly to stare in horror at him.
"I swear, you humans get dumber by the minute" The vamp gave a light chuckle as he bent down and gripped the man by the shoulders. Effortlessly lifting the man to his feet as he tried to scream at the sight of his game face.
"Thanks buddy. You were... convenient" The vamp lunged in, intent on ripping his throat open but stopped millimeters away. He pulled back his pale face a lot whiter.
"Shit...... something worse..." He dumped the guy on his ass and high tailed it as fast as his undead legs could carry him.
The man wet himself for the second time that night as he cast around in the dark searching for the unseen horror, whimpering sadly, before his search efforts redoubled.
Xander laid back on the freshly mown grass of the house. Lazily watching the clouds cross the sky as he soaked up the sun. He dozed on and off all morning. Just another lazy Sunday afternoon.
He felt Willow wander onto the back porch before he heard her. She was getting pretty good at moving quietly. She stood there, slightly nervous with indecision. A question on her lips that she was sure she didn't want to hear the answer to.
Xander felt slightly hurt that she didn't know him as well as he thought she did.
"He's alive... though he should be dead twenty times over."
A small sigh of relief was his only reply
"He wont beat on another kid ever again though."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Willow asked softy as she approached where he was laying.
Xander paused for a second trying to figure whether he did want to talk about it.
"I'd rather not... I dont feel any guilt for what I did. And if I dont talk about it, I wont think about it and if I dont think about it, it'll be forgotten in a week."
Willow nodded silently as she laid herself down next to him, pillowing her head on his bare shoulder as he put an arm around her shoulders. They laid like that for a comfortable couple of minutes.
"This is nice" Willow stated in a sleepily happy voice.
"Isn't it?" he began to idly play with a strand of her hair as she traced the tattoos on his chest .
"Billy asked what we were last night..." She gave a smallish giggle " I told him we were angels"
Xander gave a single chuckle before he glanced down at her head.
"What have you done to your hair?" he gently pulled together a few strands of black hair.
"I went over Buffys this morning, she streaked my hair black. You like?" she glanced up at him.
"Pfft Nooo" he said playfully.
"Hey!" She gave him a playful swat.
"Nah seriously, it looks good on you" he gave her a sincere smile and she blushed prettily at him, before she settled back into the crook of his arm.
"This is nice"
Spring came upon Sunnydale high in a flurry. Students prepared for end of year exams ( much to the delight of Willow and the dread of everyone else ), the summer holidays were eagerly anticipated, and the annual spring fling dance was coming around. There was also that nasty incident with the invisible girl Marcy. Though luckily it wasn't as bad as it could have been...
"Can anyone say 'Gulp'?" The only reply Xander got was a short yet very identifiable giggle and the slamming of the metal door.
"Really should have seen this coming huh ?" Willow replied casually even as the sound of gas was beginning to be heard. Giles rushed over to the boiler, handkerchief already coming up to cover his mouth.
"She's snubbed out the pilot light" He stated worriedly. Xander casually pulled out his silver lighter and tossed it to Giles.
"Light it up than" he told him as Giles gave him a surprised look.
"But the gas..."
"It's only a 30 seconds worth in a large room. We'll be alright if you hurry" Willow interrupted him in a calm manner, clearly not frightened at all. Giles gave a quick nod after looking at her in stunned silence for a moment and lit the pilot light.
Xander and Willow gave a small smirk when flame burst from the pilot light in a little 'whoosh' singeing Giles' knuckles.
"Oh yes, it's all very funny" He said, giving them an irritated look as he gave a small blow on his knuckles.
Xander and Willow just smirked some more before Xander held out his hand absently and caught his lighter as Giles returned it.
"So you wanna do it or me?" Willow asked Xander, motioning towards the door.
"Oh I'll do it. No need you blasting away the entire door when it's only a dead bolt" He told her, absently rolling up a sleeve. His blade extended from his elbow with the same eerie quietness as it usually did. He slowly fed the blade through the gap between the wall and the door, slightly under the deadbolt, and with a quick jerk, lifted his arm and sliced cleanly through it.
He pulled the blade out and waved it at Willow, grinning all the while.
"I love these runes, keeps the bloody thing as sharp as an oxy torch on steroids" He stopped grinning as he saw how Giles was standing stiff as a board as far away from them as he could manage.
"For gods sake! We aint demons you bloody moron! We aren't gonna cut you up into little bite sized portions." It seemed that fear for his life was able to bend the rules Xander had imprinted on him ever so slightly.
"W-what are you than?" Giles asked in a rather fearful voice.
"Gods gifted!" Xander told him loudly as he opened the door and strode out. Willow was a couple of steps behind him but she stopped at the doorway to give Giles a pitying look.
"You've just gotta wonder which god now" Willow quickly followed Xander.
"Oh"
Xander strode quickly down Sunnydales halls, fully intent on finding something and killing it. Most of the students in the hall for lunch seemed to sense this and stayed out of his way. He could feel Willow following and knew she'd catch up but he wasn't in the mood to slow down right know. He needed to work off some anger.
As he approached the library the doors swung open and Angel stepped out. He looked both ways before spotting Xander and heading over to him.
"Xander, have you seen..."
"Fuck off dead boy. I aint in the mood" Xander told him, ever one for telling the vamp the blunt truth, as he brushed past him and headed for the school entrance
Ofcourse, Angel really wasn't one for taking crap from people. He put up with the dead boy crap for Buffys sake, but the boy had taken it a step too far.
"Hey!" Angel grabbed Xander by the shoulder in strong fingers and tried to spin the boy around.
Ofcourse, Xander really wasn't one for taking crap from vamps. He put up with dead boy for Buffys sake, but the blood sucker had taken it a step too far.
He spun slightly with Angels grip and snarled at him while raising a hand to the vamps chest. He gave a really hard shove, up and out. It lifted Angel off his feet and heavily into the wall a couple of feet away.
"I said fuck off" Xander turned on his heel and started off again. Angel stood there stunned and just watched him leave. He was still like that as Willow walked up sweetly .
"Sorry about him. He a bit angry about something. What were you after Angel?"
"Ahh oh umm do you know where Giles is?" He asked kinda put off.
Willow pointed down the hall.
"Down the hall, he should be heading back this way in a minute but he's probably still in the school basement."
"Um thanks Willow" Willow just smiled in response.
"See ya later Angel. I'll say hi to Buffy for ya." Willow started off after Xander again.
"See you Willow............... That was weird."
Willow found Xander sitting under a tree in the playground, his head in his hands. The destroyed bench close by testament to his frustration and anger over the lasting tension with Giles.
"You wanna talk about it?"
"........... I'm sorry Willow"
"For what?"
"Dragging you into this. Putting you in this position. Were you cant tell anyone. Have to keep hiding what you do" Xanders voice was almost a whisper as he spoke to her.
Willow was silent a moment before she answered.
"You gave me the choice Xander. I chose. It isn't your fault how Giles acts. You shouldn't feel bad about what he thinks about us. We've become better people. We do productive stuff, we save lives." She sat down next to him and put a supportive hand on his arm.
"I just worry some about you Will... I see the fear in his eye's when he looks at us, I know the fear and the hatred when he thinks it. And it hurts me and I cant stand to see it hurt you too. You dont deserve that. We dont deserve that. And I'm thinking thats all we'll get. I love you too much Will, I never wanted you to have to live with this... I'm sorry I ever gave you that choice... I'm sorry that I was selfish enough to offer that to you." There were no tears in Xanders. He hadn't cried since he was five and it would take a lot more than this to make him start. But Willow could hear the sincerity in his voice. The regret. The love.
"Xander, I dont regret what I've become. I'm glad you offered me the choice. I'm pretty sure you dont regret what you've become either" Xander gave a silent shake of his head "I know that if people found out they would fear us. People fear what they dont understand. But you know what? I dont care. I couldn't give a rats ass what other people think. Cause I've got you. And you've got me. And we care for one another. And I really dont need anything else besides that."
Xander looked at Willow and he knew she was right. He stared at her and he didn't need anything else. She was everything. She was all that mattered. And he needed for nothing else.
"How do you make everything so right?" He gave her a small smile.
"It's a gift" She gave him a large happy grin, the tension broken.
Xander smiled right back at her before he slowly cupped her cheek. He held it there for a few moments before leaning in and gently kissing her on the her lips. It was a chaste kiss, just the touching of lips. But it felt... wonderful, just right, perfect.
Xander sighed, slightly disappointed but not surprised.
"Looks like Buffys not showing up tonight" He said loudly, competing with the band on stage at the Bronze. He and Willow were going to meet Buffy here tonight to hang out but it seemed like they'd been blown off again.
"You cant really blame her, she's got the whole slaying gig. She probably just ran into some vamps." Willow said taking a small sip from her drink, peering over her glasses at him.
"Yeah, I guess" He gave her a bit a smile and absently rubbed her leg with his under the table.
"So... You wanna go to the spring fling together?" Xander asked non- chalantly.
"Sure" Willow replied, equally suave. Well for the moment anyway. Xander didn't stop staring at her, a small smirk on his lips, as her own smirk grew bigger and bigger till it was a full blown smile and girlish giggle was added to the end.
The moment was only ruined by, ofcourse, Cordelia.
"I didn't think it could happen but geek girl just got geekier."
"Thats my girlfriend your talking about there, Cordelia!" Xander bit in quickly seeing the frown form on Willows face.
Cordelia seemed slightly taken back. Sure, Xander and Willow were an unofficial couple around school. Both having first dibs on each other and both excluding everyone else on offer. Sure everyone knew they were a couple but nothing had been said. But she herself had never expected it to be said.
"You could of done much better Xander. 'Much' better." Cordy replied, leaning in and completely ignoring Willow. Xander seemed rather unfazed as he stared into his glass and swirled around the last of his coke.
"If you leave now Cordelia, I wont give your boyfriend a black eye for the dance." He finally gazed up at her. She had stood back up straight shock and disbelief. He wouldn't dare! She said as much.
"You wouldn't dare!" Xander just smirked at her.
"Hmmph" Cordelia made a quick exit, scowl and mobile firmly in place.
"How do you do that?" Willow asked, practically glowing after Xander had called her his girlfriend.
"Do what?"
"Beat Cordelia like that?"
"Oh thats easy! All you got to do is act better to her. Act her superior, like she cant touch you. Pisses em off royally. You can to, all you got to do is get a little self confidence."
"Yeah but I cant threaten to give her boyfriend a black eye" Willow pointed out.
"You can threaten to give Cordelia a black eye"
"Like she'd believe me" Willow replied with a small frown.
"So, thats when you make her believe and give her a black eye" Willow straightened a little at the thought, a small grin spreading over her face.
"Yeah" Xander gave a small laugh.
"There's one thing you got to learn about life. It the most ferocious that always gets ahead. Whether it be in a fight or an argument, it's the one with the most guts that comes out on top. As long as you've got the guts to stand up to someone or something, even if it's smarter or stronger than you, if you've got the guts to take what ever it throws at you and not flinch, you'll always comes out on top."
"Xander logic for the day?" Willow asked dryly.
"Got it in one. Now come on. The night is young, the music loud, and the vamps heading out the door" he nodded over Willows shoulder as he said the last part. She turned and looked herself. A couple of guys where ushering a girl and her friends out a side door into the alley.
"How can you tell?" She asked even though they were both already moving to follow.
"Their thoughts sound different, they sound kinda like an echo, very hard to hear too... That and it's the biggest cliché ever. I'm mean look around, there's people making out all over the bronze, who would take someone into the alley to make out?" He explained as they headed for the door. Xander fished around in his pocket for a stake and saw Willow doing the same in her small purse. They paused at the door, and took a deep breath, both trying to calm their excited nerves.
* Willow, pull your hair back. * Crytex suddenly spoke up, giving a final pointer.
* Dump the jacket Xander * Glyndaf piped in as well.
* Really you two should know this by now *
"Yeah yeah" Xander said quickly stashing another stake into the back of his pants. He grabbed Willows purse and wrapped it up in his jacket and tossed them both into a dark corner by the stage.
They both gave each other excited, nervous smiles.
"Never gets boring does it?" Willow just shook her head.
"Lets go"
They quietly slipped through the doors, stakes held low. They found the girls, about six of them, being herded down to the dead end of the alley by two vamps with their game faces on. One looked up as they came through the door.
"Piss off or I'll rip your throat out" The vamp glare at them over his shoulder, expecting his game face to scare them off.
"Now thats a face only a mother could love" Xander quipped as they made their way towards them.
"I said. Fuck. Off." The vamp turned to face them fully the other glancing back at them. Xander gave a hard glance at the first vamp.
"Billy? Billy Consim? Is that you?" Xander suddenly asked squinting slightly.
"Xander? Is that you? Hey it is you. How you doin buddy?" The vamp suddenly smiled, slipping out of it's game face.
"Not bad. Hey Will, it's chess club Billy." Willow gave a small wave.
"I remember, we haven't won a tournament since you disappeared ya know." She stated.
"Oh really. Hey it's nice to know your missed" In the background the other vamp was rolling it's eyes at the current situation as he watched the girls.
"Yeah we're sorry about this" Xander told him now idly picking his finger with his stake.
"What? This?" Billy waved a hand at his face as it morphed back into his vampire visage. "Dont be man. I feel great, never been better. And hey, picking up the chicks now " He gave Xander a sly smirk.
"No no, not that. Sorry about this" Xander lunged in quickly, lodging his stake in billys un beating heart. He turned to dust like so many old oreos.
"You prick!" The other vamp stated annoyingly before stepping in and taking a wild swing at Xander. Xander just managed to duck the swing, it whizzing centimeters over his head. Xander quickly lifted his foot and planted it in the overbalanced vampires gut and gave a huge push. The vamp flew up and out, straight into the alley wall, a few feet from where Willow was waiting. Willow instantly nailed the vamp with a few hard elbows to the sternum before staking it.
The both turned and looked at each other for a moment before simultaneously...
"For Him!" The both let out a loud whoop of satisfaction as well.
"That was great Xan, we've never got two so easy before" Willow said estatically, almost bouncing on the spot.
"I know 'ey. And we didn't even..." He trailed off as he turned and looked at the frightened girls still at the end of the alley. They all looked pretty young.
"Ahhh ummm They were both on drugs, yeah drugs, so many drugs that they spontaneously combusted and turned to dust" Willow nodded eagerly trying to back up Xander s lie.
"Bullshit" One up the back of the group stated as they started to get their courage back. Xander let out a annoyed sigh.
"Fine, they were vampires." Xander stated sarcastically before glaring at them. "What the hell do you want from me? Get back in side!" He waved a hand at the side entrance and thankfully the girls seemed to decide they'd rather be in there than out here.
"Thats gratitude for ya" Willow stated dryly as she put an arm around Xanders waist and steered him for the door. Xander put his arm over Willows shoulders.
"Well at least we found out that vamps are a lot easier to stake when taken by surprise..."
"And a lot harder when they're not" An unknown voice from the end of the alley interrupted. Xander and Willow both looked up to find four vamps at the end of the alley. They'd probably sent Billy and his friend to get the food for them.
"Reckon we can take em Will?" Xander whispered.
"I'm not sure..." Willow replied as a now familiar feeling came over her "But I want to find out." Xander grinned at her before reaching up and taking off his collar.
"Here, you can use this... Just in case" He handed it to Willow as they slowly backed up from the approaching vamps. She gave him a grateful smile as she put it on. They spread out slightly.
"You ready to do this Will?" Xander asked as he grabbed his other stake, now holding one in each in each hand, point down.
"Hopefully" she stated before mumbling a few words. A dull glowing Kite shield made an appearance on her left arm, and fire began to dance around her right fist. One of the vamps paused at seeing this, but after receiving a glare form his buddies continued on.
"Good" Xander started off. Running towards the vamps as fast as he could, his blades sliding out as he went. He didn't really have a plan, right now it was crash tackle as many as you can and hope your blades do a bit of damage while your at it. As it was he managed to catch two of them and take them to the ground with him. They hit with a heavy thump, luckily Xander landed almost directly on top of one of the vamps and his landing was slightly softened. The vamp reacted quickly though and Xander felt it's arms come up to wrap around him almost immediately after they hit. Xander rolled to his as soon as he felt the arms come up and was gratified to hear a scream of pain as he felt one of his blades bite into something. His yells joined it's seconds later as the other vamp he'd tackled kicked him in the gut with enough force to flip him over twice before he hit the ground again.
He almost lost it there, struggling for breath, seeing the vamp come after him again. He did lose it but in a completely different way. He lost himself to the rage that came with every fight, the one caused by pain and just pain. He screamed and relished in it.
As the vamp tried to kick him in the chest, he rolled with the blow. Pushing off the ground as hard as he could and spinning the instant before the blow hit. As such, the blow didn't hurt nearly as much and was enough to propel Xander, spinning, up to his feet.
He stumble backwards into the alley wall as the vamp kept coming. It threw a killer right straight at his head that only just missed, cracking the bricks next to Xanders ear. Xander ducked slightly and nailed the vamp with two hard lefts under his arm before viscously hacking at it's ribs with his left blade. It did little damage but caused the pain that Xanders rage was demanding.
The vamp though, was no fledgling . He'd been around about twenty years so he wasn't about to let pain destroy him. As the boy pulled back his arm for another hack, his danced back a step and let the strike pass through air. He then shoulder checked the youth into the wall and viscously grabbed a handful of hair and smashed his face into the bricks.
Xander grunted heavily as his face hit the bricks. That had hurt. Internally he screamed and yelled and rage and something clicked. Something that had been given to him but he'd never know about. Never been able to use.
The Hellmouth generates enormous amounts of negative energy. It's what draws the demons to the place.
Rage and hate feed of negative energy, your own personal negative energy. Xanders rage started feeding off the Hellmouths energy at that moment. It drew it in and absorbed it and made it something tangible.
Xanders teeth gritted as his head hit the wall again and his rage grew. His eye's began another change, it's whites discoloring as red seemed to bleed into it, until his eye's were just red black and brown.
The vamp drew back to slam Xanders head into the wall one more time. But suddenly the youths neck stiffened to the point were he was having trouble just trying to inch it towards the wall. His arms spread out and he started to push himself off the wall, with an incredible show of strength. The vamp gave up trying to hold him, and nailed him in the ribs several times. The youth didn't seem to feel them.
Xander couldn't feel the blows to his ribs. In the back of his mind he knew they were happening, but just didn't care. All that he felt, all that mattered was the berserker rage he felt. And he yelled it out, he released it, he let them feel it.
The runes on his blades glowed so bright they hurt to look at, and soon, the air around Xander began to glow their blood red as well. His scream went on, but suddenly changed and the yell became deeper and far louder than suddenly snapped into silence. The glow around Xander suddenly flickered and died. Than burst back into existence around Xander and shot out. It threw the vamp several feet away and continued to expand for several feet until it faded from existence. But in the few seconds it tenths of a second it took for this to happen Xander was already moving.
Xanders teeth were still clenched in anger as he moved around a slow world. The vamp that had been thrown off him almost floated a foot off the ground, ever so slowly heading towards the ground. Xander ran over to him and kicked his as hard as he could back into the air, he swore he could almost see his shoe imprint on the front of the vamps chest as he kicked it in the back, and all he felt was satisfaction at it.
The vamp rose up almost gently, and Xander was ready. He grasped his hands together over his head and slammed his blades into the rising vamp. The glowing blades slid so easily into the vamp, all the way up to Xanders elbows. With a violent twist of his body and arms, Xander wrenched the vamp into three separate parts in a spray of blood, gore and dust.
Xander suddenly turned his gaze on the other vamp he had tackled earlier. It was kneeling, screaming in slow motion as one hand wrapped around an almost stump that was it's hand. It's hand hung uselessly on a flap of skin and muscle as blood flowed ever so slowly from the stump. Xander kicked it in the ribs and felt with great satisfaction, it's chest cave in, seconds before it flew almost head first into the wall of the alley. It's head hit at an angle but it didn't stop it from shattering with the force of the impact and painting the wall a new color. Brain matter grey.
Xander saw Willow battling her last vamp, both seemed to be looking at him. Even that seemed slow.
He began to intervene, when it hit him. A crippling pain. Like every muscle in his body suddenly cramped than burst into flames. The pain and heat were so intense that he knew, even through his rage, that he was going to black out.
The world sped back up, or he just slowed down, either way, the ground still hurt when it rose up and hit him.
Willow watched as Xander rushed into the fray, but decided to proceed with slightly more caution than his enthusiastic leap. She pulled power from the winds as she formed a large invisible fist that knocked the closest flying vamp flying even as he stared at the human foolish enough to rush a group of vampires.
His friend paid slightly more attention and was able to close on Willow before she could gather the concentration to form another blast. Willow knew it was coming and with very quick move, smashed her shield into the vamps face. Thanks to the fact that she was currently wearing Xanders collar, the blow had a considerable amount of force behind it. Enough force to cause the rather large crack that was the vamps nose breaking. The vamps instinctively clutched it's nose with a loud yell of pain as blood sprayed forth.
Willow used the vamps small distraction to mumble a few words and focus on her free hand. The fire that was leaping around it suddenly focused into a bright point of red light an inch above her knuckles. Willow turned back to the vamp with the broken nose and with quick harsh blow embedded her fist in his stomach. When she brought her fist back the red spark was gone.
The vamp began to scream even louder as it's hand went from it's nose to it's sides. Suddenly red lightning lept from it's mouth and begun to leap all over it's body. The vamp began to sizzle as a sickening stench started to float off it. Willow could see it's eyeballs begin to boil an instant before it turned into dust.
And through it all she felt one overriding emotion. Exhilaration. The rush. That was it. Nothing else. No anger or fear. Just exhilaration. Willows main weapon was her mind. She didn't use emotion to dictate her moves. She couldn't control magic if she let them. Just cold calculation. It was a devastating combination.
Focus and exhilaration.
As soon as she had seen the first vamp vanish into dust she turned to locate the other, just in time to raise her shield as a metal pipe tried to take her head off. It bounced off her shield harmlessly, but was quickly brought down again and again as the vampire forced her back. Every strike on the shield sent a painful jar up her arm, stopping her from gaining focus, and each blow seemed to increase in strength as the vamp tried to smash away her shield. Willow had to bring up both hands to support the shield.
And suddenly they were both buffeted against the wall.
They both turned to watch in fascination as a blur kicked up a falling vampire, and with bright blades that almost left an image burnt into their eyes, rip the vamp into three with a spray of gore.
Suddenly, vamp lying on the ground catapulted into the wall just next to Willow. It's head ending up with the consistency of cookie dough on impact. It dusted. And just as quickly, Xander collapsed onto the ground.
Willow didn't waste anytime staring. She reached out and snatched the metal pipe from her stunned vamps hands and with a back handed blow shattered his kneecap. Her next blow to his head knocked him out and onto his face, but only moments before she bent down and staked him.
"For him." She only muttered it as she rushed to Xanders side. Quickly kneeling down to examine him. Large bumps were already forming on his forehead and on top of those were large cuts that were currently leaking blood. Other than those she couldn't really see anything immediately wrong with him.
"What happened to him? What did he do?" She asked swinging around to look at Crytex and Glyndaf. What she saw was perhaps shock or awe but she couldn't tell. She'd never seen those emotions on the twos faces before.
* He.. he skipped a level... *
"What?! What do you mean?" Willow asked confused.
* Willow... Xander just accessed a power he didn't, shouldn't have had. It's way beyond his level of power... it's impossible. He shouldn't have been able to do that! * A stunned Crytex informed Willow. Glyndaf on the other hand was grinning like a demon in a nursery.
* I knew it! The kids a prodigy! *
* Are you kidding? He almost killed himself using it for that, what? second? *
"Killed himself?!" Willow butted in alarmed.
* Child, theres a reason Xander wasn't meant to be able to do something like that. His body is no where near ready to be able to cope with the strains the power causes. His muscles, heart, lungs... They aren't enhanced enough yet to be able to cope, he almost burnt himself out *
* But the fact that he was able to do it anyway! He is blessed! HE must of really taken a shining to the boy * Glyndaf added excitedly.
"How long till he wakes up?"
* Minutes... *
* But it will be days before he is anywhere near fighting shape again * Crytex interrupted.
* You underestimate his abilities! * Glyndaf almost spat at Crytex, annoyed at her lack of vision of what this could mean. * He will be up and fighting fit at most in 2 days... Quick Willow, run in and get Xander a coke and something full of sugar. There's a ten in his coat pocket. * Willow gave a quick nod before casting a regretful look at leaving Xander out in the open but hurried off anyway.
As soon as Willow was through the side doors, Crytex angrily turned to Glyndaf.
* You use these children to harshly and fill their heads with stupid ideas! You see to much in this... *
* And you not enough!... * Glyndaf spoke back hastily * Cannot you see the potential these two have? *
* You speak as if they are a resurgence of our ways! They are only two! *
* Two where in thousands of years there were none! *
* And you would use those two so recklessly? We both know something big is going down. They haven't seen so many vampires all week let alone in one meeting. Not since the harvest have so many vamps been together in one place. The master is mustering his forces, you know it, yet you send them out anyway! *
* I do not send them anywhere! They know the risks yet go anyway. Anyway would you stop them from going into a fight? Would you risk His wrath? * Crytex had no answer to that, but was luckily saved by a moan from Xander.
"Whoever took my muscles and replaced them with little balls of pain... I need them back." He weakly raised an arm as he said it.
* Stay down boy. Your running on fumes. Willow will be hear in a second with some food * Glyndaf told Xander firmly.
"Good, I could eat... something really big. Alright, someone stole my bag of wit." The side doors burst open and Willow rushed out, a large coke in hand and an arms full of chocolate bars.
"Hey Will..." Xander muttered weakly as Willow squatted down next to him and held the cup up to his lips.
"You alright Xan?" She asked concerned as he carefully took the cup in hand and painfully sat up.
"Ask me again in a couple of hours" He told her as he took another large gulp of drink and unwrapped a candy bar. "By the way. For him. I dont think I got a chance to say it before I passed out" He inhaled the bar of chocolately goodness. "Oh Will your a savior" He told her gratefully as he started on the next bar.
"What was that anyway?" He asked turning to Glyndaf, before taking a large bite of the next bar.
Glyndaf darted a quick glance at Crytex to see her watching him with concern before answering.
* Something your no where near ready for Xan. * Xander shrugged the explanation off, more concerned with the third candy bar in his hand right now. He took another bite before offering a bit to Willow. She accepted gratefully.
"Some night hey Xan" She said to him, smiling between chews.
Xander smiled back at her toothily, showing all the chocolate in his teeth.
"One of the best. But I reckon we should head home, I'm beat." He absently rubbed a large bump on his forehead. Willow just grinned at him before kissing the bump.
"Me too. Come on, we'll get our stuff and you can walk me home"
"Ohh. Do I have too?"
*Thwack*
Xander walked Willow up to her front door. The light on the porch was left on for her, and Xander grabbed her just before she headed in. Curling an arms around her slim waist and kissing her gently... well at first anyway.
As they broke away, both smiling at each other, Xander noticed a little blood trickling out of some cuts on Willows arm.
"What happened?"
"Oh my bangle cut into my arm is all. Moron didn't realize he couldn't break my shield." She told him.
"Easy fixed" He slowly and very gently linked minds with her, she was barely aware he was there, and slowly sped up the healing process on her arm, directing the her body to focus on the area. It didn't heal up in front of her eye's but the bleeding stopped.
"It'll be good by morning. Walk you tomorrow?" He asked as he held her hand, gently rubbing a thumb over her knuckles.
"I have a free first. You don't."
"So?" He gave her a cheeky grin, but she couldn't bring herself to berate him over it.
She leant up and gave his a small kiss on the lips.
"Night" And with that she quietly slipped inside.
Xander just sighed happily and grinned. Then winced and groaned as he started his way home. He hadn't let Willow know how bad it hurt. No need to worry her, he'd be moving fine if a little weakly tomorrow.
He cast around a searching for a second. He wasn't in the best of shape to take on a vamp. He wandered up a few houses before darting into someone's back yard and scaling the back fence. He groaned with the effort, but knew he had to get home a soon as possible, and this way would be twice as quick. He limped out of the next houses front yard but sped up as a dog started barking a couple of houses down.
'This is gonna be a long night'
Xander stumbled into his room at about ten. And almost instantly collapsed on his bed, groaning in relief at being able to get off his feet.
* Dont get too comfortable, You know what you have to do *
"Cant I just sleep? I'll do it in the morning " Xander whined.
* I know you aint that dumb Xan. You know something big's going on. What if it's tomorrow and you aint ready? * Glyndaf told him.
"Yeah yeah alright" He sighed heavily and sat up, mumbling under his breath about how he never got to be lazy anymore. He fished around under his bed before pulling a small chest he'd made in shop out. Inside was half a loaf of bread, a couple of candy bars, cans of Pepsi, and a couple of pieces of fruit.
Xander had learnt pretty early on that it was better to supply his body with what it needed to repair, other wise it tended to take apart other things for what it needed, namely muscle mass. On the plus side he'd never need to diet, when he set his body to healing like this, it tended to drain his fat supplies for energy rather quickly.
Xander took a mouthful of half stale bread, than a mouthful of warm Pepsi.
"I think I need to restock, or get something where I can keep this stuff" He complained idly.
* When the house is up and ready to move in you wont have these troubles *
"I guess" he took a bite out of a slightly bruised apple, glaring at it...
"I really need to restock"
He polished off the rest of the bread and two more apples before he sat down and began. Just as he was getting his concentration up he heard his TV flick on.
"What you doing? I need to concentrate. Turn it off!" He glared at Glyndaf.
* You need to be able to do this while there are distractions. There will eventually be times when you wont have a nice quiet room to come back and recuperate in * Glyndaf explained calmly.
Xander still wasn't convinced.
* Look, try it for an hour. If your not making much progress I'll turn it off and we'll try it some other time, ok? *
"Finnnne" Xander rolled his eye's and settled in again.
"This is gonna be a really long night"
"Morning Xan"
"Ahh here's my favorite Willow" Xander snagged Willows waste as she came down the stairs and pulled her down into a kiss.
"How d'ya sleep?" He asked as he put her down.
"Like a baby, and look..." She held up her arm "Not even a mark"
"Are you questioning my workmanship?" he asked with false hurt. "Cause you know there's no refunds" Willow laughed before grabbing his hand.
"Come on. We got to get to school. See ya Mom!" She almost dragged him out the door.
"So did you feel that quake last night?" She asked as they started down the street.
"We had an earthquake? Man I was really into the trancy healing last night" He said tiredly.
"Did you get much sleep last night? You look pretty healthy?" Willow asked concerned.
"My bodys just finishing up, but it was a no go on the sleep front. Dont worry though, I'll just ditch class and sleep in the library for a bit."
"Xander, you know you shouldn't be skipping out on so many classes" Willow whined gently.
"This close to the summer break, I'm not really worried. Heck, I'm thinking of dropping you at school and heading up to the house, see if theres any damage from the quake. Plus there's a mattress up there. I could crash for the rest of the day and be good to go by tonight. By the way, we're gonna have to start sinking some funds into the house. I can only repair so much, we need professionals to fix the roofing and some of the electrical and plumbing. Plus there's furniture in the place but it's pretty seedy. If we're ever going to move in..."
"Whoa! Move in?" Willow interrupted, shocked.
"Yeah Will, that's usually what you do with houses." Xander stated matter of factly.
"Well yeah I know that. I just guess... The idea of moving in together... It just never occurred to me before." She spoke slightly shocked as the idea slowly bloomed in her mind.
"Big thought huh? We'd be all adult like... Scary" They walked on in contemplative silence for a few minutes, just thinking about the implications of their thoughts.
Xander sucked in a quick breath before giving Willow a reassuring smile.
"We dont have to worry about that now. Probably wont be for a while anyhow. But I'm just saying we might want to look at getting that stuff fixed." he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Yeah I guess your right. But could you please stay at school today? It'd be pretty boring without you" She said giving the puppy dog eyes.
"Oh alright, but no guarantees on the whole falling asleep thing. There's very little on earth right now that could keep me from dozing off."
"Wow. That was boring" Buffy sighed as she, Willow and Xander came out of biology.
"That was so boring, I couldn't even fall asleep. In fact, I'm really starting to think it wasn't boring at all. It was the next thing." Xander stated out loudly.
"The next thing?" Buffy asked confused.
"Yeah, you know; "Normal, slow, boring.... the next thing""
"Even I was bored. And I'm a science nerd" Willow pointed out, really expressing how boring that class was.
"Dont say that" Buffy told her, concerned at they way her friend put herself down.
"I'm not ashamed. It's the computer age. Nerds are in. They are still in right?"
"Only the pretty ones" Xander assured her before giving her a kiss on the forehead, she smiled gratefully up at him.
Buffy stared at the two.
"Up to public affection now?" She asked, raising and eyebrow.
"We've decided to jump on the officially dating bandwagon" Willow told her happily, leaning back into Xander.
"Asked her to the springfling" Xander explained "Plus it has nice perks. By the way Buff you coming or what?"
"I dont know, I wouldn't want to be a third wheel and all"
"No ones asked you?" Xander asked slightly stunned.
"What about Angel?" Willow asks.
"He really doesn't seem like the dance type Will."
"Hasn't asked you yet has he ?" Willow asked completely seeing through her cover.
"No. But if he knows whats good for him he'll ask soon."
"Dont worry Buff. He probably has already. Just really really cryptically. He'll just outright say it soon enough."
"Willow!" Willow looked up as Cordelia Chase flagged her down and started to stride over.
"Willow! I really like your outfit!" She stated in her usual snide tone.
"No you dont. What do you want Cordelia?!" Willow asked quickly, really not liking being in Cordelias presence. It meant that others of the air head brigade were close by.
"Well actually they upgrade you to freak on the fashion scales" Cordelia said, uncharacteristically glancing at Willows new clothes "But anyway, I need a favor"
'Upgraded to freak, yay for me!' Willow thought dryly
"What do you need?"
"Well the Bronze wont let us use their sound system, and I need someone who knows how to hook one up. If you could show up tomorrow morning I'd be really grateful. I'd talk to you at the dance and everything."
"Sure, whatever Cordy" Willow said dryly.
"Here at Ten than? Thanks" Willow sighed in relief as she walked off and started over to Xander who was currently sleeping on the student lounge couch.
"Hey hobo, wake up" She gave him a gentle nudge and he jerked awake and looked around.
"Huh... oh hey Will whats up?" He looked down and brushed off the rubbish so nicely placed on him by passing by students. A group of guys hanging in one corner started to laugh so he gave them the finger. Willow gave a small laugh and mentally noted to never fall asleep in public.
"Nothin much. If had known you were this tired I would have let you go up to the house and sleep."
"Hey, no biggy. I'll just go this arvo. Wanna come with and scope out the attic. Might be pirate gold" He gave her an innocent smile.
"Yeah ok, but only till 4. I've got an appointment at the hairdressers. Gotta look good for the dance" She gave him a cool smile.
"What are you getting done?" he asked curiously.
"I dont know for sure... I'll decide when I get there. Ask Buffy for a few pointers"
"Cool..." The bell went off in the background "Ah well, off to maths and more sleep." He gave her a quick kiss "Catch ya at the gates". They got up and headed off to their last class.
Willow gave a small groan as she shifted another box in the houses attic. It thumped loudly as she dropped it on the ground, sending up years of collective dust into the air. She absently blew her hair out of her face as she checked the box.
"Got an.... Encyclopedia set."
"Box of records" Xander replied absently as he leafed through the assorted music atrocities.
"Man this guy was into the classics... Bach, Beethoven, Meatloaf" He said to himself absently before pulling out a moody blues album.
"Who would have thought someone would of had so much junk in their attic?" Willow asked as she looked around the attic.
The attic was full of old furniture, a couple of headless manikins and a birdcage. One entire corner was filled with boxes and another had paintings staked up against the wall.
Sunlight was filtering into the room through the hole in the roof. Normally, Xander had the hole covered with a piece of tarp but they needed the light, since the wiring was faulty and not a single globe would work.
"They probably didn't believe in throwing anything out, my grandpa was like that.... Hello, what do we have here?" Xander exclaimed as he pulled out a frame. Willow looked over curiously to see several, distinct military medals in the frame. Xander also pulled out a couple of framed black and white pictures of several soldiers. They were laughing and smoking in what looked to be a ruined building.
"I wonder which one he was?" She asked sadly as she was reminded of the reality that the house they were currently... well not occupying, but owning, belonged to a war vet. Someone who survived war just to be made a meal back home.
"Not sure" Xander replied as he pulled an old pair of fatigues out of the bottom of the box and stared at them solemnly. He put them back in after a moment and scanned the piled boxes before idly flipping a couple away. On clanged as it hit the floor, and a few tarnished knives and forks popped out.
Xander finally found what he was looking for and pulled a long wooden box out from under the pile. It was about 4ft long and 1 wide and made out of a scared, stained pine. Xander found a couple of clasps on the side and popped it open. A rifle and pistol sat in neat recesses.
"Woah" Willow exclaimed softly as she peered at the almost antique weapons.
"No kiddin" Xander replied, carefully pulling the pistol out of it's recess and examining it. It smelt of metal and oil.
"I wonder what kind they are?" he asked absently as he looked it over.
Willows watched started beeping suddenly, and she almost swore as she looked at the time.
"We'll find out later Xan. I gotta go." She exclaimed as she rushed over and grabbed her books and bag from against the wall.
"Hey, it's cool. Hair dressers right? Ring you tonight?" He asked as she made for the stairs.
"Sure" She gave him a quick kiss "See ya"
Xander smiled as he watched her go before returning to the guns. He looked at them for a short while before pulling them up and handling them slightly. Boyishly he pretended to shoot the broken lights out with them before he placed them carefully back in the case. He popped the case up on a rafter out of sight.
"Might as well go for a run" He said absently to himself as he put the tarp back up and dusted himself off. He started for the stairs before stopping and heading back to the boxes. He reached down and pulled the pictures of soldiers out of the box.
He just stared at them for a moment. Trying to imagine what it had been like, who they had been.
He popped the picture up on the desk before leaving.
Willow groaned as she and Cordelia arrived at Sunnydale high. Again.
They were just returning from the bronze after meeting up this morning. Returning because Cordelias' boyfriend had forgotten to take the gear over to the bronze yesterday afternoon.
Normally she wouldn't be too annoyed. She knew Kevin was kind of lax and had probably forgotten. No biggy. But what was grating on her nerves was Cordelia. On and on she went, and it was either Kevin is so sweet or Kevin is such a moron. Couldn't the girl make up her mind ?
She was seriously starting to think that being ignored by Cordelia was better than being noticed.
Heck, it <was> better.
"Oh, Kevin said he'd bring everything to the bronze last night. He promised! We'll never get everything ready on time now"
"Dont worry Cordy. He probably just forgot. It's really not that big a deal." Willow explained, trying to get her to calm down.
"Uh, you dont understand...." Cordelia told her giving her a dumb look " I'm not mad. He totally flaked on me. On me! And I dont even care. God help me, I think it's cute"
Willow should have noticed something was wrong when Crytex dropped of a couple of steps back. She should have noticed from the faint smell that she had slowly begun to recognize as death over the previous months.
But she was human. She wasn't on watch 24/7. So it shocked her.
"There they are!" Cordelia explained as they walked up to the av room. "They're watching cartoons. Thats so cu.... That's not cute. That's annoying. I'm annoyed"
Willow noticed the bloody handprint on the TV and slowly she focused on the room. An icy chill ran through her as she realized what had happened. She grabbed Cordy by the arm.
"Come on, I uh..... need to show you something Cordy" The shock had entered Willows voice and it was obviously a lie. Cordy looked at her strangely, before snatching her arm back from Willows surprisingly strong grip.
"Geez, cling much?! You can show me later. I need to 'council' my boyfriend on his conduct" Cordelia told her cattily as she strode on. Willow darted on ahead of her and put her self between Cordy and the door way.
"Cordy no, You dont want to...." Willow knew her efforts to save the girl from the sight had failed as Cordelia's mouth slowly opened with shock and a hand went up to her mouth. She silently stared onward, staring at the carnage.
Willow herself turned and looked fully at the scene. She felt a scream rise in her throat but all it came out as was a whimper. She had seen the dead before when her and Xander arrived too late. Seen the victims of a vampires draining.
She had begun to feel she was tough enough to look upon them and not toss her cookies, not lose her cool, not scream and run.
She had yet to see though, Vampires play with their food. And she found herself dearly lacking. For right now she wanted to do all of those things
Cordelias scream broke the silence.
Xander looked at the cut in the timber he had just made and smiled. He was currently in the houses garage cutting some lengths of timber to repair a window frame. Since he wasn't going running with Willow today, on account of the dance and her helping Cordelia, he had decided to come up to the house and do some more work.
He made a small mark on the panel and placed it in the bench vice before picking up a plane. He was just about to start when he sensed Crytex approaching. He smiled, maybe he and Willow would be able to spend the morning together after all.
* Xander! Willow needs you * Crytex spouted out as she rushed through the garage door.
Xanders face quickly changed to concern as he hastily dropped his tool on the bench and headed out the garage, almost braking the garage door as he slammed it in his haste to get to Willow.
"Where is she? What happened?" He asked as he started bolting down the drive. Glyndaf and Crytex kept pace easily.
* She's at the school. Vampires broke into the school last night and killed a group of students.... They mutilated the corpses. Willow and Cordelia found the bodies *
"Shit!" Xanders worry doubled and he put on another burst of speed and urged himself to go faster.
Xander arrived just as the first ambulance did. He didn't stop running though. He crunched through the front doors without slowing down as he sped towards Willow. Close enough now to feel the cold shock of her thoughts.
She was sitting on the cold grey chairs that were spaced between lockers. Eye's wide, face emotionless, she stared into nothing. Cordy was laying down next to her. Crying. Willow was cradling her head in her lap. Autonomously stroking the taller girls hair. Cordys eye liner had smeared.
Willow looked up at hearing his pounding footfalls. She stared at him blankly as he got closer. Her emotionless mask fell away from her as he reached her. Her thin drawn lips quivering open, her eye's frowning as tears rushed to the fore. She reached out like a helpless toddler and he reached back and hugged her to his chest. Her heavy sobs wracking both their bodies. He felt Cordelia's arm snake around his shoulders and he spared and arm to wrap around her shoulders as her tears came anew.
He linked into their minds though they didn't know in their sadness. He shared it with them, the sadness. And with the sharing he lessened it.
The first paramedics rushed past.
"They're all dead" Xander just nodded.
"They're gone. People we grew up with... People we talked to... They're just gone... I talked to them yesterday. I'll never be able to... to do that ever again...."
Xander nodded. There wasn't much he could say. So he just nodded
"They took them away from us Xan... Just like Jesse. It shouldn't have happened... not again. Not to people we know. Thats why we have our powers, so this wouldn't happen... It's our..." Willows voice slid between grief and anger as she tried to decide what she felt. When it turned on herself ...
"Dont say that! Don't you ever say that..." Xander gripped her tightly by the arms and stared into her eye's. "Will... Do you honestly believe we can save them all? Our powers aren't here so we can save them. We have our powers because of who we save, because of the fighting we do that saves people. We do everything we can, but we cant do everything. People die everyday, everywhere. Lifes unfair... It isn't our job to save lives Willow. But we do it anyway. We just have to think of the ones we do save."
Willow stared back at him.
"Who are you trying to convince?" Willow told him before breaking down into tears and hugging herself to him again. Xander put his arms around her again and gently rubbed her hair and back.
Willow was right. He did feel responsible, he did feel it was his fault. No matter how much he shrouded it with common sense, he felt at fault. He finally understood how Buffy felt.
The power to save yet not save them all.
"We do everything we can Will, thats why we fight"
Buffy came later on that day. Xander let her and Willow talk in private, but he kept close. Never severing the link he kept with Willow. It kept her from feeling most of the grief and stopped Xander from killing one of the paramedics that kept asking if he was ok. It balanced them both out.
He couldn't believe this had happened. He knew these people. They shouldn't have died. It stirred something within him. Twisted in him like a wound. And scared him. By god it scared him. What he was feeling.
He was scared by what he was feeling. Sure he felt grief over his dead friends. What scared him wasn't that, or fear for other friends. It was the fact that it wasn't his overriding feeling. Wasn't what was affecting him the most.
He was scared because he was feeling disappointment and anger. Because he hadn't been here for the fight.
Because he hadn't been here to make offerings to Him.
Xander pounded the bag in his garage hard, trying to leave everything behind. He didn't want to think about today. So he was losing himself in some violence. Not the healthiest thing to do but it worked.
Thump. Thump thump thump.
He and Willow had decided not to go to the dance tonight. Neither really feeling up to interacting with others. Instead he was going to meet up with her later so they could release some pent up emotion on some unlucky vampires.
Thump. THUMP!. Thump thump thump thump. Ring......... ring.
'Stupid phone' Xander thought wiping himself off and going inside to grab the phone.
"Hello?"
"Okay, so this master guy tried to open the Hellmouth. But he got stuck in it, and now all the signs are reading that he's gonna get out, which opens the Hellmouth, which brings the demons, which ends the world" Ms Calendar repeated to make sure she had it right.
"Yes, that uh about sums it up" Giles replied as he bundled together a bunch of weapons.
"The part that gets me though is where Buffy is the vampire slayer. She's so little." Jenny said some what disbelievingly.
"Do you know how to get in touch with this, uh, Brother Luca chap?"
"Hmmm. as far as I can tell, no one can. He's disappeared. Did send out one last global though. A short one."
"What did it say?" Giles asked quickly, eager for any information they could gather.
"Isaiah 11:6 which I dutifully looked up"
"' The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf, the lion and the fatling together, and the little child to lead them'" Giles rattled off easily.
"So Luca thinks the annointeds a kid?" Jenny asked incredulously
"If the vampire that Buffy killed was in fact not the anointed, than it may well be" Giles said thoughtfully as he thought the implications through.
"Well than we need to warn her" Jenny said quickly
"I dont intend involving her at all" Giles told her resolutely.
"What do you mean?" Came the confused reply.
"If Buffy faces the master tonight than she will die" Giles explained
"Than who's going to face the master? It has to be Buffy surely"
"Buffys not going to face the master. They are." With that Giles pointed at Xander and Willow as they emerged from the stacks. Both seemed to be exuding an air of grief and anger but bore surprisingly passive faces.
"Giles you cant be serious! They're just students!"
"We are slightly more than just students Ms Calendar" Jenny ignored what Xander had just said, taking it as just false bravado. A reply to un intended insult.
"Giles...These are your friends...." Giles interrupted her, anger blazing in his eye's.
"And I would sacrifice a thousand friends to give her a chance..... She WILL not die tonight!"
"He's not lying you know" Willow pointed out. Ms Calendar shot her a helpless look before turning back to Giles.
"The master will kill them. What makes you believe they will stand any chance at all?" She asked him desperately.
"They...I...Uh....I cant tell you!" He shot a short glare at Xander. "But the fact is, they will face the Master. Even if it is just forestalling the inevitable. But if it gives Buffy just minutes more, than it is worth it!"
"Shit!" Xanders loud curse made them both look up in confusion. They found him staring across the room towards the library doors. Through the doors they caught a fleeting glimpse of Buffy running.
"Will, stay here. I'll try and catch her" He said out loud as he bolted out the door.
The squeak of the library doors swinging on their hinges was only broken by Giles fist hitting heavily on the desk.
"Damn!"
Buffy couldn't believe what she was hearing. It filled her with a deep anger yet a great love for the man that was going to sacrifice his and her two friends so that she could survive, but by his own omission, perhaps only minutes more. And she couldn't believe her friends were willing to go through that for her.
She wouldn't let them. She cared for them too much. She was destined to die this night. She let them die as well.
She'd miss them.
She lent the tiniest bit against the library doors. It barely mad a sound yet Xander seemed to hear. He looked straight at her in his uncanny way, with the a stare that said he knew exactly what she was thinking. She saw the alarm blossom on his face and knew she had to go now.
She ran.
Xander burst forth from the school into the cool night air and searched around frantically. Not a single sign of her. He may be pretty fast, but he was no where near slayer speed.
"Fuck!"
Buffys short heels made a sharp clack as she dropped herself into the sewers. She quickly pulled a stake and cross from her small bag before she hurled it away. She could sense vampires very near.
Her eye sight adjusted quickly to the dim light. A small boy was waiting for her. He looked kind of surprised.
"Help me?" He asked quietly. An actor, he aint.
"It's ok, I now who your are". The anointed held out a hand. Buffy felt a deep desire to swat the hand away and torture the small being with her cross for hours. She culled the desire quickly and gave the demon her hand.
She had resigned herself to her fate.
"She's gone" Xander said dejectedly as he returned to the library.
Giles glared at him vehemently.
"You were supposed to stop this" He almost yelled through clenched teeth.
"We were meant to do nothing! We are here because we chose to be. Because we chose to help buffy, and we still will. This doesn't change a thing."
"Ahh I think I'm missing something here!" Jenny spoke up.
"No your not!" Xander told her stiffly.
"No I'm not" Jenny said calmly before sitting down again although she seemed surprised by her own words. Giles stared at her before swiftly shifting his baleful glare at Xander.
"You bloody pillock!..."
"Anything to stop us from getting found out Giles. Now sit down and shut up!" Giles legs buckled of their own accord, putting him in his chair.
"Good now I'll go and try and stop her from doing something stupid. You try and find a way to stop this. Something very big is going down Giles and we do not have time to argue." He turned to Willow, she was giving him a disapproving stare. He ignored it. "Do you think you can keep an eye on these two?"
She gave a short nod.
"Yeah but how do you intend to find buffy, or the masters lair for that matter?"
"I wont but I know some one who can. Angel." He moved over to the weapons pen and grabbed a short blade and sheath. "I'm borrowing this" He told Giles. He gave Willow a long look before sprinting out the door.
Xander jogged quickly towards the bad side of town, towards Angels place. He had belted the short sword on upside down around his waist so the most of the blade was covered by his jumper, only the handle poking out the bottom. The sheath had a couple of clips to hold the sword in so no worries about it falling out. Unfortunately it chaffed like a bitch. But that wasn't what he was worried about right now. He was more worried about the glare Willow had given him. He was in the crap now. He hadn't meant to be that harsh with Giles and Jenny, he hadn't even meant to use the skill on them. The anger at the situation, the death of the students was still with him though, it had just happened. He'd have to be more careful in future.
* You're just getting more powerful is all * Glyndaf filled in as he kind of floated alongside him.
"Yeah I guess" He said quietly as he came to the small complex he had followed Angel to one night. He had done it around the time his presence had been made known to him and Willow. A precaution for buffys sake.
The place was a couple of storys high but had a level partially underground . No doubt to tend to some of Sunnydales seedier types. The front door was one of those buzz in types but was broken and looked to have been for some time. Xander headed automatically to the lower section of the building and started to sniff slightly for Angels stench. The Hyena collar gave him slightly higher senses but it wasn't a huge increase. Luckily vampires had a smell of death about them that was easy to pick up. It pulled him down the dark grey corridors about halfway. He lost the scent there and had to back track a couple of doors before he was sure.
He knocked. Waited a few moments. Knocked again. Nothing.
'Oh well' he thought evilly as he shouldered the door. It swung open jerkily to reveal a trashed apartment. The smell was almost overpowering. He forced himself to take a couple of steps in and look around.
"Damn" In the next room, a pale white body lay sprawled on the couch. The young women's body was unnaturally thin and flies landed on her without reaction. A needle dangled from her arms.
"Junkies" Xander shook his head and closed the door behind him. He than headed over to the next likely door in the hall. More cautiously this time he searched the room for minds before hand. Yep this was Angels place alright. The quiet vampires mind was present. Xander knocked hard. He faintly heard a couch creak and soft footsteps through the door.
"Oh it's you. What do you want?" Xander tried to remain civil, he really did.
"You covering old antiques, but hey, we dont always get what we wished for. Now come on. I need you to show me to the masters lair."
Angel scoffed at him.
"The master would kill you before you could breath..."
"I dont really care. But I think that buffy would appreciate the back up."
"What? Buffys gone to the masters lair?" Angel slumped down on to his couch sadly. "She'll be dead before we could reach her" Xander had had enough, anyone would think he didn't want to help. He reached down and grabbed Angels shirt in one hand and hauled him to his feet and against pushed him gainst the wall while he pulled his sword out from behind his back and held it pointed at Angels gut.
"Dont you even care for her?! She's out there dying and your here moping. Show me the fucking way or your dust where you stand!" Xander rethought his words for a second. "Better yet, how about I hack off you arms and legs and you can spend the rest of your unlife as stumpy?"
"Do you really think you could do it boy?" Angels asked as he brought his hands about and yanked himself out of Xanders grip. The sword never faltered though, and Xander just smiled at him and looked him squarely in the eyes, letting Angel see his fully.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure....Mr hesitant" Xander wasn't happy about revealing his secret to Angel. But it was either this or skill demand him to, and it took a hell of a lot of power to do that to a vampire as old as Angel, more than he was willing to expend right now. But Angel wouldn't tell, he had damned himself by hesitating to help Buffy. Now Xander new something that Angel didn't want told.
That made Angels eye's widen and he nodded slowly.
"Good now get going, we dont have all night"
Willow Giles and Ms. Calendar are huddled over books all trying to find out more info on what was happening. Suddenly in frustration Giles throws his book down.
"Calm down Giles" Willow told him shortly. "We just have to think about this objectively."
"Yeah" Jenny piped in " We got to think about what we know..... So what do we know?"
Giles sighed and stared at them both before deciding to play along.
"Well we know that the master will rise and uh...The other vampires know he's coming, they will be his army..."
"Do you think they'll gather at the Hellmouth?" Jenny interrupted causing Giles eyebrows to lift in realization.
"Well, the last time the Master tried to rise he sent a bunch of vamps to get him fresh blood" Willow continued with the line of thought.
"Well, where did that go down?"
"The Bronze" Giles said quickly.
"The dance!" Willow pointed out
"We have to warn them" Giles said with growing dread. They may already be too late.
"No...." Jennies words stopped him "If the master does rise you have to find a way to stop him. Stay here and concentrate on demon killing. Me and Willow will warn them."
"But..."
"Face it Giles, you just drive to slow" Willow shot at him as they left.
"Stop looking at my neck dead boy"
"I was not looking at your neck!"
"I can read your mind Dipshit"
"That was you?! Get out of my head!"
"Only if you stop looking at my neck. Now which way?"
"What if they get to the Bronze before we do?" Willow asked anxiously casting a look behind them as Ms. Calendar fished around in her bag for her keys.
"Ahh I dont think that will be a problem" Jenny said as she looked about, stopping to a halt.
"There behind us too" Willow said excitedly with just a bit of worry. She hadn't seen this many vampires ever. She hadn't thought Sunnydale had this many.
The hoard of vampires were slowly closing but were still a few hundred feet away. It gave Willow just enough time to summon all her power.
"Ms Calendar, when I say so... run back to the library"
"What?" Jenny asked worriedly as the vampires got closer.
"Dont argue, just do it!" Willow told her loudly turning to face her.
Jenny could feel the waves of power emanating off Willow. And even if she couldn't, the way Willows hair suddenly started to rise and spread out, even as it moved about as if in an unseen breeze.
"Ready?" Jenny could only nod as they both started to back away towards the library.
"Alright....................Go! Now!" Jenny started to run as Willow started to move her arms and follow at a bit slower pace behind her. The vampires started to move to cut off their path of escape almost immediately.
Willow was drawing everything she could into her to do this, she hoped it was going to work. More importantly she hoped she'd be able to make the door before she collapsed.
Finishing up her silent spell, she flung her hands out. Iridescent bolt of electricity flowed around her hands for a moment before shooting out in straight lines from her palms. The bright bolts curved and struck the ground about ten feet in front of Willow but seemed to bounce almost immediately. It forked as it 'bounced', both her beams splitting into two as they continued on to bounce and fork again and again, on an on until it seemed to fence in a safe path for her an Ms. Calendar to reach the school doors. Iridescent lightning fences.
Unfortunately Willows pace slowed almost immediately as the magic drained from her. She tried to ignore the instant fatigue she felt as she shoved her hands behind her to seel of the path. Bolts now leaping around her and down the path.
She really hoped she'd make the door.
Xander stopped suddenly and looked up at the ceiling. He could feel Willow up there. Feel her waning. He knew what she was doing and wanted to go to her, to fight with her. But he knew he'd never make it and he was needed elsewhere now. He hardened his heart and did the only thing he could do. He sent her support and courage through their link and hoped it was enough.
A sudden flare of light from an adjoining tunnel though interrupted him.
"Shit!"
"He's already on his way up" Angel expanded.
They both rushed down the side tunnel into what looked like a natural flood chamber. The broken barrier cast glittering lights through the chamber, adding to the light from the candles.
And Buffy Summers lay face down in a pool of water.
Motionless.
<insert dramatic pause>
Both men ran down to her, Angel quickly pulling her out of the water and rolling her onto her back. He pressed a hopeful ear against her chest hoping to hear breathing, or a heart beat.
Nothing.
"She's dead."
A vamp threw itself against Willows barrier as she passed but was quickly reduced to dust in a fiery light show as the other vamps growled at their impotence. Though it all still might have been in vain.
Willow was only barely half way to the doors and already she was stumbling. Blood had started dripping from her nose as she struggled to channel more power from the winds that carried it into the spell, but it was getting increasingly difficult. The main reason was that the spell was not meant to do it's current job. It was an attack spell meant to be released not held and supported this way.
Willow stumbled a few more steps. She was almost there. She could see Jenny and now Giles at the door, calling her forth even as they assaulted the vamps closest to the door with crossbows. Smartly most vamps steered clear of that area.
Just a few more feet now, but willow could tell she wasn't going to make it. Already the spell was flickering as she stumbled to her knees. With a final sputter, it fell apart. And she was left staring, bloody faced, arms hanging weakly her sides, at a horrified Giles and Jenny as the vamps took a moment to gloat and smile with their deformed faces.
Xander swallowed. He hadn't wanted to hear those words. But there was still hope.
"Maybe not. If she drowned we could resuscitate her. CPR!"
"You'd have to do it though. No breath"
"Bullshit. You dont know how to do it." Angel had the honor to look sheepish but Xander wasn't paying attention. He had already started. One breath. Push push push.
Yet even as he continued on, hope was fleeting. He couldn't sense any life in her. Nothing. Her mind wasn't there to feel. But he kept trying. Until SHE disappeared. Willow vanished from their link. Willow never vanished. Not even when they were sleeping.
"no...NO..NOOOOOOO!" Xander completely forgot about Buffy and flung his mind towards Willow. He saw her, kneeling, staring, tears and blood running down her face. He saw the vampires closing in, Jenny and Giles staring with impotent fear.
He reached out and touched Willows mind, sharing himself with her. She looked up slightly at his touching of minds and such a hope blossomed in her that Xander did not dare disappoint her.
He flung himself from his body and into the river that was the skill magic. He felt his being start to be tugged apart by the magics rushing currents as he pulled more of it to him than mortally possible. He felt a euphoric feeling as he became one with the world, his being spreading out along his magics currents and channels. He almost completely forgot about his role in the sheer high of it. Yet he still held to Willows mind if not his own.
Back in the cave Xanders body gave an idiotic grin and collapsed bonelessly to the floor, drool sliding from the corner of his mouth. Mindless. Buffy lay next to him.
And yet he continued to pull the magic to him. More and more until he gained what he needed. A point where he was so imbued he became god like for a single moment. He touched every single mind in a mile radius of his body.
Every vampire he touched felt their mind sucked from them and into the skill as their bodies fell to the ground motionless.
He buffeted against the Masters mind yet even his god like status could not break through the mental wards and walls of one so ancient.
He swept through Jenny, Angel and Giles mind, and with a thought removed any evidence of his or Willows abilities.
And finally his being focused on Buffy. With every fibre of his being he forced it to work. This was not the gentle healing he often did with Willow. This was a healing of brute force. He gripped Buffys heart in his mental hands and pumped it forcefully. He pushed her lungs to inhale and exhale, and with a touch of the skill, he jump started her mind.
And finally he settled on Willow and showed her exactly how much he loved her.
And as his mind finally dispersed like foam at the beach in the river of magic that was the skill. He let out one last thought.
'For Him'
'For Him'
As Xanders last thought echoed throughout the skill, he felt the last of himself disappear into the pure joy of the skill. He was one with everything. No pains. No worries. Just Joy. There was no Despair. Just oneness.
Back in the cave, even as Buffy and Angel started to stir, his body just sat there with an idiotic grin on it's face. Drool running down it's lips. A large mindless babe.
On the surface Willow knelt. Tears of dispare running down her face as she felt the one she loved disappear, and worse yet, felt the rejection his final seconds euphoria caused. His final thoughts of love to her, eclipsed by the bliss.
In the skill.
Xanders mind floated among the rivers of magic. His mind fathomless. Everywhere. All. Content. He was nothing yet everything at the same time. He was thoughtless. And by god it felt magnificent.
At some point, Xander couldn't tell, it could've been days, hours, weeks, seconds, but at some point, some of his mind started to .... collect. Just little bits at first, slight notions of who he was. But as they collected something else drew the rest of him to them, building his mind, putting it back together. And suddenly he was whole. His mind anyway, he could feel no link to his body. He was lost in the skill.
It was than that violent anguish rocked his mind as he lost the euphoric feeling that nothingness had granted him. The bliss that being one with the skill had given him was gone. He tried to fling himself back into it, to recapture the feeling. But something held him back. Contained him. He let out a mental cry of anguish and need.
He battered against his captor. Craving release to regain the bliss that he had felt. He fought with the determination of a junkie after one more hit.
He may as well have battered against a mountain.
The equivalent of a mental cuff to the back of the head stunned him to a stand still.
* Alexander.... You're lucky that I like you * The being that spoke was fathomless just like Xander had been. And yet, retained itself. It projected a feeling more than an image that, if Xander had of been paying attention, would left him feeling most inadequate as a warrior.
* Let me back! Please, I'm sorry. Just let me back *
The being seemed to give a amused sigh.
* Humans... always so melodramatic. Now stop that boy. I will not tolerate this childish behavior. It is not befitting of a warrior of mine *
The being did something and the craving lessened slightly. Xander was able to take stock of what was being said to him and finally took note of the being that was before him.
It projected feelings of excitement, and pain, sadness, glory. Strength, toughness, fury, battlelust and a skill in all things deadly that was beyond imagining. And yet it also felt like it had a firm grip on reality. Like it knew what life was like. And most of all it felt like a purpose.
* Yours?...........! Him!!! * Xander mentally went down on one knee and bowed his head. All thoughts rushed from his head as the reality of speaking to his God sunk in.
HE smiled smugly at Xanders behavior.
* It has been a long time since I have been showed such respect, young one. But rise. I have little use for you now. I must send you back to your body *
* No wait! * Xander spurted out, forgetting his place. A fiery anger blazed from Him for a moment * Please...* But quickly subdued. * There are so many questions I wish to ask... *
* Be quick about it boy. You've brought some vampires into the skill, and I have so yurned for a fight! * The last part was said with such a relish and excitement that Xander could hardly bare to hold Him back. But his questions were so important that even he could tempt his gods ire. Unfortunately, now given the chance to ask a question all seemed to flee his mind.
* oh ah umm Training! Yes, ah um when will we get some training... oh um Lord * Xander got the impression that his god look down at him with a thoughtful glance.
* Yes. You do seem to be all power and no skill dont you? * He said the words not mockingly yet one could have taken them that way. It was a mere stating of the facts.
* I will arrange it. Now go, you are needed... oh and by the way, do not do this again. I wont save you next time * and with bull like strength, he easily swatted Xander back into his body.
Xander shot up from his position on the floor. Gasping in a lung full of breath. He had just met his God. More to the point he had spoken to him.
"Woah"
<groan>
Xander quickly looked over, and spotted Angel. Pulling himself off the ground. Realization hit Xander like a freight train. It had barely been seconds. It had felt like he had been in the skill for days. Days and days of perfect happiness. The temptation to reach out and leap into the skill again flooded his mind. He desperately fought it down as he thought of his friends. He could already feel Willows sadness seeping through their reconnecting link. Even though just the memory of that bliss made his body crave for it, it also disgusted him at the same time. The image of the dead junkie flashed through his mind.
He was not going to end up like that.
Buffy suddenly gave a small groan.
'Thank god for that' He thought as he gently rolled her onto her side as she coughed up the water. At least his surrender to the skill had worked it's purpose.
"Ahhhh, what happened?" Angel asked as he was quickly at his side.
'Oh ummm. Quick say nothing happened' Xander sub conscious filled in even as the lie formed on his lips.
"What are you talking about moron? Nothing happened!" Xander hoped he had added just enough insult to it that he wouldn't ask anything else.
Angels quick shake of his head, as if to clear it, confirmed a mission accomplished.
"Ahh...... Xander?" Xander quickly averted his attention down to Buffy as she looked up at him.
"Dont worry Buff, you'll be alright. Just lie down for a moment." She looked at him quizzically for a moment than at Angel before brushing Xanders restraining hand aside and standing up gracefully.
"No... I feel different. Strong." She said staring off into the distance before quickly spinning around to face them. "Lets go"
Willow couldn't believe it. He was gone. He had saved her and just disappeared into happiness. She started to cry even as Jenny and Giles rushed out and grabbed her under the arms and hauled her forcefully into the library. They didn't even seem to notice all the brain dead vampires littering the ground. It was if they couldn't see them.
"Dammit girl pick up your feet!" Giles yelled at her as she collapsed to the floor of the library. He and Jenny were quickly piling furniture and equipment in front of the library doors. Willow knew it was pointless. She had felt what Xander had done, and right now, the only vamp around was the Master. It was like Xander had imprinted the scene upon them.
'But Xander doesn't have the power to do that...' she thought somewhat confused.
She kept watching as they moved the photo copier in front of the doors. Making no move to help. She was still exhausted from using her magic, but could feel her physical energy returning quickly, though she didn't think as to why. What was the point anyway? Xanders was gone, Buffy was probably gone too, she was drained of her magic. The master was going to kill them and there was nothing they could do about it.
She stared dejectedly at the ground from her kneeling position. Purposelessness setting in even as she watched a crack in the tiled floor appear next to her. It shattered out into hundreds of smaller cracks that continued to grow and get bigger.
'What the?' She turned and followed the cracks back to the source than screamed. The intent to stay alive suddenly burning within her.
The creature was huge, taller than Giles and wider than the research table it had shattered upon it's arising. Three heads that seemed to be all mouth and teeth, oozed puss and ichor as they swung around and let out a terrifying scream that foretold of a thousand years of painful death. It's necks were long and slimy, a brackish green color that did little to hide the hideous tumors and leering, demonic faces that pushed forth. Tentacles pushed forth from the creature as well, black with hideous white suckers, they lashed about for purchase, wrapping around what ever they touched and starting to haul the creature forth.
Willows first scream was echoed seconds later by Jenny's, than by Giles yell of surprise.
Giles was the first to react though, grabbing a large broad axe from the library counter even as Willow scuttled backwards. He ducked under a swiping tentacle hacking at it ineffectually as it passed. He closed in quicker now, ducking under a surprisingly quick bite at him before rising and sinking the axe into one of the beasts skulls. It unfortunately, was stopped by the creatures thick boney skull and the beast screamed in rage as the tentacles suddenly seemed to make a concerted effort, lashing Giles heavily sending him skidding across the tiles into his offices wall.
He didn't get up.
Willow rushed to his side, summoning her shield as she ran. Se was stopped though as Jenny screamed again and was dragged quickly past her. One of the heads lowered jaws wide as it prepared to devour her. A multitude of tongues running disgustingly over it's yellow, chipped teeth.
Willow leapt after her, and dashing in front of her, brought her shield down as hard as she could upon the tentacle. It passed through it disgustingly easily, as the tentacles were revealed to have the consistency of warm lard.
The little demonic heads on the beast screamed a high pitched wail as the limb spurted ichor and Willow dragged her computers teacher away.
< CRUNCH! >
"Shit!" Willow really didn't swear that often, but that had come from the stacks. Someone had found the other way in. She really didn't need that right now.
Jenny screamed once more causing to look quickly over to where the women was screaming. The tentacles had found Giles and several were lifting him up in the air towards the nearest mouth. He still wasn't moving.
Willow rushed over to the library counter, skidding under a flaying tentacle as she reached the weapons bundle Giles had wrapped up before. She rushed back to the corner she had left Jenny in and pressed a large dagger and crossbow into her hands.
"Look after yourself!" She turned back to the creature and hefted a short swords similar to the one Xander had taken. She flung the sheath away, raised her shield and smiled.
"I'm coming Xander" She dashed towards the creature.
She'd go down fighting.
Xander and Angel crunched against the door leading to the stacks. Buffy had led them back to the surface shortly after her resuscitation and had gone after the master alone. Xander had rushed to Willow, Angel in tow but they'd found the front doors barricaded and had only succeded in creating a small gap neither could fit through.
So that was why they were both at the back door, breaking it down. The screams inside were not very comforting.
"One more dead boy. Come on!" They both heaved as they slammed their shoulders against the door. It gave the heavy crunch of splintering wood as the locks broke and they shoved the door open, the bottom of the door scrapping against the floor.
Xander was drawing his blade even as he sped through the stacks of books and arrived at the railing of the top landing. Black tentacles had wrapped around the rail in several places and were already tearing the rail from position. Xander didn't even stop to look around as he leapt over the railing, bringing his sword down in an overhead chop. Several of the ropy appendages fell squirming to the ground even as he thumped to his feet, instantly rolling as a head flew overhead, crunching into the place he had just been.
He rolled up to one knee and ran his blade across one of the beasts necks. The demon illicited a scream of anger and pain as ichor spurted out the cut.
"Xander!" Xander could hear both shock, confusion and great amounts of joy as Willow called out his name. Unfortunately, being in such close quarters with a terrifying hellbeast, he wasn't able to return her sentiments at the moment.
"Explain later, fight now" He yelled as he jumped back out of reach of the daemons heads.
"Xander. Help Giles!" Willow called again as she hacked at another tentacle.
Xander looked up to see a sea of newly erupting tentacles wrap around a tentacle covered lump that he assumed was Giles. They were slowly drawing the bundle into the one of the mouths. But suddenly his attention was diverted as he felt a gathering of skill magic. He looked up for a moment towards the source to see the master drawing Buffy closer with an outstretched claw.
He glanced between the two. He'd never get to Giles in time to be able to save him and Buffy. And if he helped Buffy he'd never be in time to save Giles.
There was also the fact that if he went into the Skill now... he might not be able to make himself come back.
Sweat trickled down his forehead as indecision fought within him. But in the end the overwhelming urge to fight won out.
Xander flipped his sword up and caught the handle in a reverse grip, before casting it like a very very small spear at the demons head. The force with which head thrown it could have easily pierced a concrete block, so it had no trouble with the beasts head.
Almost instantly a third of the ever increasing number of tentacles collapsed to the ground as the head flopped to the ground. The other two heads cried out in agony and fury and started to move about twice as fast. Angel had managed to grab Giles body though and was currently dragging his unconscious form from the motionless tentacles.
But to all that Xander wasn't really paying attention. His eye's were clenched shut, and his teeth ground together as he waged a defense for Buffy with the skill.
The Master had his skill wrapped around Buffys throat. It wasn't literally, but that was what he was making her body feel. Xander tried instantly sever the link between the Master and Buffy but the Masters hold was like steel. He tried prying it from Buffys mind to no avail, he even tried sending the opposite impression to Buffy but the masters Skill was not like his. The Masters skill was not something taught or something he could train in. For the master it was simply an extension of his body, not his mind. As such he could not be distracted or mentally fought. If his body made the motions, the Skill obeyed with a strength of ages.
And Xander had very little that could combat that, The Masters mind was to well guarded and that had been when he had become one with the skill. Right now, he didn't have nearly that much power backing him up, heck the only help he was getting was, from what he assumed, was Buffys natural slayer defenses. But they were pitifully weak... But maybe he could amp them up?
He grinned grimly. He could do it. Yet even now he could feel it. The pleasure of letting go was lapping against his mind. A constant distraction that a few hours ago he could have brushed aside without a thought. But after sampling the it pleasure......
He mentally shook his head as he channeled the skill into her defenses.
Nothing happened.
He pushed more power into them.
Still nothing. Was he even skilling at all?
Buffy and the Master were inches apart now, he could feel it.
He pushed all he could into her mind.
Nothing.
He opened his eye's and stared up at them. Eye's aghast as he realized he had failed. The Masters hand was around her throat as he stared into her eye's and undoubtedly said something evil.
Xander was stunned as Buffys defenses suddenly burned into existence as she tilted her head for a second and punched the master in the face. He sighed in relief.
"Ahh Xan, honey... little help please?" Xander took notice of what was going on around him again. Willow was exhaustedly slicing in front of him as several tentacles tried to get to his former still self, several were already lying at her feet. Angel had grabbed Giles's lost axe and was trying to get to the other heads but there were too many tentacles now.
Xander suddenly notice the red glow emanating from the whole the creature was emerging from and the increase in temperature.
'Crap'
He weaved his way over to the weapons locker and grabbed a small axe before beating his way back to an almost overwhelmed Willow.
"Willow, get behind me and rest" He almost yelled at her seeing her clammy and pale face, even her shield had dissapeared. She nodded in exhausted acknowledgement and took a step back as Xander stepped up with a downward hack that severed the nearest tentacle. Jenny suddenly appeared next to him and cut down another tentacle with her large dagger. He gave her a small smile which she returned rather shakily.
Shattering Glass suddenly broke all their concentration though, as the Master fell through the skylight. He seemed to fall in slow motion to everyone watching. But fall he did, onto the largest spike of the table shattered by the creature he awoke. Kinda ironic.
His body started to turn to dust even as the demon was drawn back into the Hellmouth. No one except Willow and Xander could feel the magic start to be sucked out of the room and down into the Hellmouth. They had both been drawing on it, the power of the Hellmouth, both without knowing. They felt it drain from their bodies and both almost collapsed with exhaustion. Xander had to physically hold Willow up as she stumbled and almost fell.
The both helped each other lower themselves to the floor, as they both gasped for breath. Both had never used their powers so much in one night before.
"They dont know about our powers, or what I did. So just play along" Xander whispered between breaths, grabbing her hand, as they watched Jenny and Angel tear Giles out of his now dead restraints.
"Shut up!" She sobbed into his chest as he held her. " You left me. You went away to a better place and left me here all alone!" It was all she could do to whimper into his chest as sleep claimed her by force.
"I know baby" Xander told her just as quietly before kissing her gently on her head. "I'm sorry"
"ohhhahh... What happened?" Giles groaned as Angel and Jenny scraped rapidly melting tentacle off him.
"You were thrown into a wall by a seven foot Hellbeast" Jenny told him as she handed him his cracked glasses, a frame falling out even as he took them.
"Oh" Was all he could managed as he put his battered glasses on with one hand and felt the top of his head searchingly with the other.
"He'll be alright, just needs some rest" Angel said as he hauled Giles to his feet. They all spun around though, as the library doors squeaked open slightly. Buffy squeezed through the small gap in the hasty barricade.
She stood there, in her rather nice white dress, slightly muddy around the edges, eye liner running just a bit. Red scratches over her chest. She looked like shit but still looked better than everyone else present. She gave a quick look around the room before her thinly drawn lips broke into a smirk.
"Hey, imagine seein you here Buff." Xander spoke up as she walked into the room, standing up tiredly while gently holding Willow "I thought you had that whole date with death thing going"
"He was a bit of a drag so I ditched him."
"Good choice" Giles spoke up, giving her a light smile. They all started to gather round her as she strode towards the Masters yellowish clean skeleton.
"Master?" Angel asked.
"Yep" came her simple reply. They just continued to stare at the skeleton. Each lost in their own thoughts.
"So... What now?" Ms Calendar finally spoke up.
"We just saved the world. I say we party"
Xander waved awkwardly as the others drove off to the Bronze. Willow was still sleeping in his arms as he gently turned towards her house and headed up the drive.
It hadn't been hard to excuse himself and Willow from the others Apocalypse after party. As with Giles, he had claimed exhaustion for himself and Willow and Miss Calendar had dropped them off at Willows place.
He cradled Willow like he would a little girl. Her arms were wrapped around his neck sleepily as her head rested against his shoulder. Her legs were wrapped loosely around his waist as an arm under her bum held her up. If he'd been thinking about it, he might have found this position arousing, especially after the movements she made as he took the few steps up to her front door. Yet his mind was entirely elsewhere as he reached up into a little hanging pot plant for the spare key.
He couldn't stop thinking about the averted apocalypse. He couldn't stop thinking about his little skill miss-adventure. He couldn't stop thinking about his meeting with Him. And he couldn't stop thinking about Willow.
He couldn't stop thinking about the hurt he'd seen on her face, when she'd told him he'd left her. Couldn't stop thinking about the fear she had felt when she had even thought about it.
Did she really care for him that much? He knew he shouldn't be surprised yet it still shocked him that anyone could care for him that much. It stirred strange feelings in his gut that he actually meant so much to anyone.
Willow stirred as he fumbled with the key in the lock, and he let her slide down to her feet but had to catch her again as her knees buckled under her. She mumbled as he caught her.
"Sshhh, don't worry Will. Almost home." He told her gently, finally getting the door open and nudging it open with his foot. He scooped her up sideways and stepped quietly through before nudging the door closed with his foot.
He eventually made it up to her room, thankfully without bumping her against the wall. Nudging her door open with his leg he gently carried her over to her bed and laid her down. Sitting tiredly down next to her for a second. He absently kept an ear out for any sign that they'd woken her parents.
"Home now?" Willow suddenly asked quietly. Her eye's relatively bright as she looked up at him from her pillow.
"Oh, Now you wake up?" The way she stared at him told him that right now, he had no right to joke with her. He glanced down away from her and at his hands in his lap. Absently he noted a bit of demon ichor staining his jackets sleeve.
"I'm sorry. I... There really wasn't much of a choice for me though." Xanders eyes continued to study the wet patch on his jacket "At that moment it was either me or you and... and ... " he finally looked up at her his eye's troubled but a wry smile on his face "Like I said, there really wasn't much of a choice"
Willow just looked into his eyes before seemingly finding the energy to sit up. There was a confused and troubled look on her face.
"You want to go back... don't you?" Xander couldn't tell if that was fear, confusion or anger in her voice. He couldn't help but look slightly guilty as he spoke his answer.
"Yeah..." he said with a slight nod "And no. I feel a need to be there, drawn to it, but at the same time I don't want to go back." He saw the confused look on Willows face and continued. " I didn't die tonight Willow, but it was close enough. I over extended myself in the skill. You know, my mind power" He tapped the side of his head. " The magic sucked me in and pulled me apart. It made me part of everything, everyone. It felt..."
"Perfect" Willow interrupted her eyes focused of something past Xander.
"At the time, yes, but now? I don't know. I'd probably say it was euphoric. Like being high or something. Looking back on it. I don't like it. It would have deprived me of so much; my friends, home, you. That euphoric feeling is what makes, tempts me to go back... but you, you are what holds me here. You are what keeps me grounded, keeps me from wasting my life. Do you understand?"
Willow seemed to judge him as she looked at him. Thankfully after a moment she nodded.
"I understand. I don't like it but I understand" She told him quietly, even as it looked like a thousand different thoughts raced through her tired mind.
Xander gave her a grateful smile. Slowly he rose to his feet.
"I'll come round tomorrow arvo?"
"No?"
"Huh?"
"Don't go? Stay here tonight?" She looked up at Xander with just the need to have him close and the small fear that he would disappear again.
He gave her a small smile before nodding.
He sat down on the edge of her bed again and started to shuck off his shoes, Willow held her own encased feet out to him and he slipped them and her socks off for her. He finally tossed his jacket and shirt off before climbing over her to lay against the wall. For a few moments they awkwardly positioned themselves comfortably, finally ending up with willow spooning against Xander, holding onto his arm that was drapped over her while his other arm was wound around her waist.
Gently Xander kissed her jaw.
"Goodnight"
He was just able to hear the whisper of her last thoughts.
* Never loose you again.... *
"So Buff's heading to LA for the summer?" Xander started up again, changing the subject.
"Yeah, she's staying with her dad"
"I bet she cant wait to get away from the slaying and Giles for a while"
"Probably…. That and her dad's funding a shopping spree"
"Man, I need to get me some guilty parents. I mean, don't have to see them half the time and they fork out the cash the rest" Xander joked badly.
"Yeah right, whatever you reckon. So anyway, you met Him in the skill ?!" Willow asked excitedly, heading back to their previous discussion.
"Oh yeah, nice guy…God…whatever. Ripped me off on my rewards for the night though. But I'll let him get away with it just this once." Xander said with false authority.
"From what you've told me, He saved your life" Willow pointed out
"Yeah, but I killed like fifty vamps! And helped stop a prophecy" He countered exasperatedly
"And you think your life is only worth 25 vamps and a candy bar?" Willow asked with a smirk on her face.
"Damn straight. And stop rubbin it in. Just cause you got a boost. You were a goner if it wasn't for me"
"You were a goner a long time ago if it wasn't for me"
"So"
"So"
"Loser"
"Jerk" They just smiled playfully at each other as they wandered on.
"This place is pretty quiet for a Friday night" Xander stated, sounding rather bored.
"Yeah we should have been jumped at least twice by now"
"I think I can oblige" The vamp casually walked around from behind a crypt and confidently leant against the stonewall. He really tried too hard to look cool.
"That you can" Xander stated happily.
* Roar * * Thump. Thump * * THUMP *
"OW!"
"What's wrong?"
"Broke a nail." She gave the unconscious corpse a kick.
"Hey hey, I don't want to be carrying him if he's bleedin all over the place"
"Sorry" She sounded apologetic
"Huh?" the vamp obviously wasn't done yet.
"Not you" * Thump *
"Ohh come on look, now he's bleeding all over the place."
"Oh sorry. Oh um…… Here?" She searched about and grabbed a plastic shopping bag that had blown up against an old gravestone.
"It'll have to do" Xander said with a sigh as he took the bag and tied it up over the vamps rather profusely bleeding head.
"I wonder why they want a live one anyway," Willow asked as Xander finished tying up the bag.
"Glyndaf said it was for some ritual, hopefully to do with some of the training we've been promised."
"Crytex said the same thing"
"Yeah well it better be quick, stargate's on in an hour" Xander stated as he heaved the corpse onto a shoulder and they headed back to the house
Glyndaf and Crytex had led them both into the woods around the house. The trees were well spaced and the undergrowth wasn't too thick so it wasn't much of a problem dragging the unconscious vamp around in the dark. But it was an effort.
They had finally arrived in an area where the trees grew denser together and an unnatural bump rose from the ground.
* See that mound. You'll have to dig it up * Xander and Willow shared a look
"Will, you told me we were gonna kill something tonight! And now manual labour? You always take me on the worst dates!" Xander told Willow in his whiniest voice.
"Go get the shovels Xander" Willow said dryly, rolling her eyes. Xander just laughed.
"Kay, back in a sec" he took off through the brush.
Willow shook her head and smiled as he left before gesturing with her hand, conjuring up a small ball of yellow light. With a small flick of her wrist she sat it in the branches above where she was leaning against a tree.
* Willow! What have I told you about doing that! * Crytex said impatiently
"'Magic is a weapon not a play thing', I know, I know, but it's only to help Xander find his way back. Anyway I'll have to put it out in a second so it doesn't burn the tree down"
* Put it out. Xander can find his way back fine… Or he'll learn. *Glyndaf spoke up from his position in the shadows.
Willow let out a long sigh.
"Fiinnne." The light blinked out in a rush of hot air.
* I really don't know why you persist in under powering spells to do things like that. You do it often enough and it'll get you in trouble. *
* Yeah and it pisses Him off royally *
"Huh why?"
* It's one of the things about fighting. Whenever you fight a fight for Him, you fight to win. Which means you fight with absolutely everything you have. Everything, nothing less. I guess he likes the honesty about it. So when you do something half assed like that with a skill he granted you for use in a fight, I guess it kinda annoys Him. *
"Oh…..ok."
* It's alright, you're new to this. I've been drilling this stuff into Xander for years. *
* Which is why he is so dangerous, to himself as well as others *
* And twice as holy as Willow will ever be… especially under your tutelage * Glyndaf sunk into the shadows and it was obvious he wasn't going to continue the conversation.
Willow waved Crytex over to her.
"What's up with him tonight?"
* Tonight you meet Him. That's what the vampire's for. He will be the vessel that holds His essence. Though it will not last for long, it will be enough for Him to talk to us for a short moment. I guess that's why he's so… stiff. He wishes to make a good impression. *
"Ok, but what was all that other stuff about?"
Crytex seemed to take a heavy breath, and looked at Willow for a long while. She glanced over at Glyndaf.
* Tell her, she'll need to know eventually * Crytex nodded.
* Willow, Xander's a lot different to what he shows you. He has been… groomed to fight since he was very young. He has been taught in the ways of Him very thoroughly. He has grown up with it as his way of life. A life he kept separate from you and Jesse. And while you simply fight for Him, you still follow the Jewish faith. He is all Xanders ever had. He's never been baptised, not for the God. He was baptised for battle, for Him. Glyndaf did it himself. He's a lot more… spiritual when it comes to Him. You know what his parents are like. He is really all that Xanders had to believe in. He's taken everything about his religion very seriously. He never holds back when he fights, every thing he fights for is for Him. *
"I never knew it was so serious for him" Willow replied softly.
* It really is. Even in a time when His was a religion widely worshipped, Xander would be considered… devoted. That's why he's so dangerous, every time he fights, it's all out, even if it's a danger to himself. I guess the reason he's never told you about all the proper stuff is that if you don't know about it, he doesn't have to exercise it with you. *
* Hopefully that will be changing * Crytex shot him a dirty look.
* As long as you keep the Jewish thing up, you wont have to worry about it *
"Oh okay, I don't think I'd be able to keep it up anyway"
"Keep what up?" Xander asked as he brushed past some branches holding a couple of old shovels.
"Oh nothing"
"Really? Weren't talking about my devotion and spirituality?" He asked with a smirk that Glyndaf echoed.
"Well uh no yes……maybe?"
"It's cool Will, I would have told you eventually, except I would have made me sound so much cooler."
Willow smiled seeing how nothing had changed between the two of them.
"Though I would like some of that blackmail to disappear" He added with a smirk as he tossed her a shovel.
"Not a chance. That's yearbook material" she said as she caught the shovel. He was already digging, a playful smile on his face.
Fifteen minutes later the sound of heavy breathing and the rhythmic sound of shovels cutting through loam was still heard.
"What I don't get <gasp> is how we managed to get <gasp> one of these sites pretty much in our back yard <gasp>"
* Don't complain. He worked it out this way. Why do you think he chose that house in particular? *
"But why one in Sunnydale of all places?" Willow asked as she leant on her shovel.
* These sites aren't really that uncommon. They are located all over the world. There was a time when battle was a religion widely worshipped. Most of the sites are still there, but they are rather simple in appearance. Those that discover them don't know what they're looking at *
< Clang! >
"Found it!" Xander said excitedly as he started digging around it with further fervour. Willow quickly joined him as they started to scrape the dirt away. Their efforts quickly revealed a rather plain, rectangular piece of dressed stone, rising from a stone base. They could see why people wouldn't know what it was when they found it. Cause it really didn't look like anything.
* Alright, tie the vamp to the stone * Glyndaf instructed them as they began to dust themselves off.
They both turned and stared at him in disbelief.
"Bud…" Xander began in a rather friendly tone, "… We just shifted about a tonne of dirt in fifteen minutes, in the dark, on a rather cold night. Can we just have a moment to ourselves to rest… Thanks, we appreciate it" Xanders tone didn't finish as kindly as it had started.
They both clambered over to the nearest tree and collapsed down together before Glyndaf could say anything.
Xander let out a heavy sigh as he lent his head back against the tree.
"Well, I'll sleep well tonight" He said covering a yawn.
"It feels like we've been fighting the entire night" Willow agreed as she leant her head against Xanders shoulder.
* You two are pathetic * Glyndaf told them with a glare.
"Hey, I'll have you know we are extremely fit" Xander replied tiredly.
* Yeah, by lazy teenager standards *
* I'm afraid he's got you there * Crytex said joining in, though, minus the glare
"Need we remind you that we <are> lazy teenagers?"
* Not anymore you're not. You are warriors of Him! The elite of the elite. You could, and Him permitting, will be eventually be the best in the world, this plane of existence even, in absolutely everything martial. You will be so fit, you could do this in your sleep! *
"I think I'll test your theory" Willow replied as she tucked herself under Xanders arm and closed her eyes.
* Aaaarrrgh! *
"Come on" Xander said, finally subsiding to Glyndafs whims. "It's not everyday you meet your god, even if it is only borrowed time" He hoisted himself to his feet, causing Willow to groan as his warmth was removed. He reached down and hoisted her to her feet.
"Now… Where'd we put the bugger?" They found the vamp still out, half buried in some of the dirt they'd dug out.
"Hey! Dust bunny!" Willow gave the vamp a small nudge with her tow causing a blue plastic bagged head to shoot up from out of the dirt.
"I'm up" Came the automatic though rather muffled response.
"Good. We need to bleed you dry" Xander felt rather strange saying that to the vamp.
It didn't sound right to the vamp either as the garbage bag turned towards him and tilted to one side.
"Wha?"
"Yeah I know, definitely not one of my best" Xander smashed the half risen vamp in the gut absently as he lifted him up. The vamp crumpled over, swearing that he'd felt a kidney burst.
"Don't worry, you wont need them in a couple of minutes" Willow informed him kindly.
"I really don't need them now it's just, you know… the pain?!" The vampire managed to wheeze as they dragged him over to the altar and threw him against the stone.
"Any particular way you want him tied?"
* No, Just to the alter will be fine * Crytex informed them.
"Gotcha" Xander reached into his pocket and retrieved some zip ties.
"Ahh, Xander, I don't think his arms will get around the stone"
< Snap! > <AAAaaaagh>
"Yes they will"
"Well they will if you break them, sure" Willow said, as if stating the obvious.
"Ok there we go. What's next?"
* Place you knife between the shoulder and neck, no not that way! Make sure it spills on the alter! *
"Alright, alright… there"
* Ok now kneel before the alter, and recite 'Hiijil'al'k evomtoo' *
"Right" Xander gently knelt down a few feet away from the alter, completely oblivious to the vampires moans and cursing. He made himself comfortable, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
Slowly, he raised his left fist up in front of his face, parallel to his body. His right fist came around in an arc and thumped into his left forearm, once, twice, before his slid it down his arm. His body slowly followed his fist down, until he was bowing by the time his fist reached his elbow. At that point, his arms arced around until they were pointing almost directly behind him, his head was barely inches from the ground.
"What's he doing?" Willow asked Crytex quietly.
* It's a ritual prayer. It is used at summoning ceremonies, performed by the high priest of the order. * Came the equally quiet reply, as Xander started… singing in a low voice. * The movements he just made, was our version of say, making the sign of the cross. It represents a warrior saluting by tapping his shield twice before bending in supplication to his superior. The prayer roughly translated is 'Tell us how to die. Teach us how to fight. Show us how to die fighting' with a few more words in there. *
"Kinda morbid ain't it" Willow pointed out.
* Back when battle was a religion widely worshipped, it was how the world was * Willow fell silent as she continued to watch Xander sing the strange prayer in a strange tongue. Curiosity piqued in her though as she saw the vampire start to twitch. She quickly trained what Crytex was calling her mage sight on the vampire.
The world changed into its magical hues and the night was no longer so dark. The trees around them pulsed with the slow green beat of nature. The moon cast a pale blue light on everything. Her own hands sparkled with a mixture of gold, green and a faint purple. Xander stood out in the night like a bonfire of red with parts of green and gold with just a hint of a dark dark blue.
The vampire itself was a curious mixture of blacks and greys with a faint aura of red. Willow followed the dull grey path it's blood lead down to the alter and saw the cause of it's twitching.
Where the blood joined the vampire to the alter, thin ribbons of red were slowly coursing. Up out of the alter and into the vampire where they spread cancerously throughout it's body. The ribbons were so thin and well defined that Willow knew they were the work of an acutely powerful and skilled being, more so than she could ever begin to be.
Suddenly it dawned on Willow what was actually happening here. She knew it was happening yet it's full import had yet to dawn on her.
They were summoning a GOD. Their GOD. A being more powerful than they could ever hope to be. And they were doing it through a simple prayer and sacrifice. She said as much to Crytex.
* The blood magics have always been more powerful than anything else. But you are right. This would not be happening if it weren't for the fact that, right now, you two are the only followers of him, and really, his favourites by default. Though I think with Xander, it's less by default than by earning it. He was the only follower for a long time and he fought a lot for Him. Started up some of the old rituals again. * Crytex explained.
By now the vampire was almost flooded with the red light. The top of its head was all that remained. Willow watched curiously as the ribbons seemed to spear in and out of the vampires leaving more and more red stains behind.
Even as she was aware of Xander finishing his prayer, she was aware of the creature changing. She quickly blinked away her mage sight and saw the vampires' body begin to run like warm wax. She had to fight not to toss her cookies and was thankful when a new image emerged quickly.
Xander could feel His presence out there. He'd felt it the minute he'd started praying. From an abyss in a void he'd felt his god answer. He could feel the power flowing up through the stone into the vamp as his god sent just a trickle of thought, a nudge of command towards it.
Carefully finishing the end of his prayer he raised his head and watched as the vamps body changed. Flesh running like hot wax, clothes sliding off, it quickly began reforming into something standing. Blood on the alter and body boiled off rapidly as the form took humanoid shape. It grew tall, taller than the vamp had been yet it's mass did not seem diminished because of it. It was sexless but well and clearly defined muscled, and its skin was a remarkably smooth and a dark deep tanned brown with no hair.
The head was a formless almond on its shoulders.
The trees overhead parted suddenly and unnaturally for a moment casting silver moonlight onto the figure. The light seemed to shimmer and ripple over its body. For the split moment that it was illuminated and when the tree's returned to cover them in shadow the figure had somehow gained an intricate covering of armour that glowed a pale silver.
The armour didn't seem too heavy to Xander yet he was no expert in the matter. It consisted mainly of a heavy chain mail shirt that came down to its knees and was cinched at the waste by a silver ring. Silver plates seemed to have been strategically placed over certain sections of the mail but the plates weren't large. A white pair of leggings seemed to have appeared as well, and they travelled down to a pair of well fitting grieves. Its wrists were covered in elegant bracers that also covered its hands with a short piece of chain mail that was held in place with a silver ring around it's middle finger.
Xander was most grateful for the full helm that covered the disconcerting blank face. Though now that the helm was in place, he could swear that he saw two tiny pinpricks of blue light where it's eyes should be.
In one of its hands it carried a small ribbed mace, the other held a large kite shield.
The figure was awe-inspiring. It radiated power, but also nobility, patience, menace and danger such that it was almost palpable.
Xander couldn't help but grin at it all. Here was his god. Here was the being that he worshipped and fought for. But also here was the god that answered his prayers, which looked out for him and rewarded his deeds. Right now he couldn't help but feel superior to all the others in the world. He had the right god.
The being glanced over the clearing with a calm yet efficient gaze. Travelling over the awe struck Willow, who seemed to have fallen to her knees in awe rather than the precautionary feelings she was having about disrespecting a god, his gaze seemed to rest upon the prostrate form of Xander, who was currently studying the ground carefully.
"I am battle, I am he who you have summoned children of battle. Rise and pay your respects to your lord" The voice was rich with command and a tone that expected to be obeyed without question. It was deep and pure and full of power that shot tingles down Xanders spine.
Instantly Xander responded to the command rising smoothly to his feet and to attention. Willow was only a second behind him.
"We humbly and deeply thank you lord for this audience, it does us great honour that you grant us this boon." The figure, which Xander now noted glowed with an inner light, let his gaze rest steadily on Xanders form having the very adverse affect of making him extremely nervous.
"Ahh Alexander we meet again. It pleases me to see you have recovered well from your ordeal, and…" The figure seemed to stare harder at him, though how he could tell he didn't know. "Have actually learnt something from it, very good"
He turned to squarely eye Willow.
"And this must be my mage, Willow" Willow seemed only to be able to squeak and nod. Battle seemed to smile behind his full helm yet how they both could tell, they were not sure.
Battle suddenly seemed to sniff the air and glance about, seemingly coming down from a position of readiness that neither had been aware he was in.
"It has been so long since I have been summoned to the mortal realms. Many seem to have forgotten the old ways. And such beautiful wars have been fought, none of which were for me. Such a shame. Yet here we have you two, my children. My resurgence, albeit a slight one, you are the first of your kind in thousands of years. My chosen."
Xanders head nearly visibly swelled at the praise as he stood just a little bit taller, stuck his chest out just a little further.
"You must be wondering why your familiars instructed you to summon me. It was for my own personal inspection. I wished to see your progress. I know all about your gifts, as you have no doubt guessed. I wished to see how well you are able to utilise them, how well you can fight unprepared, how well you fight as a team. And please take note, this will affect the training you get."
Xander tentatively stuck his hand in the air, flinching visibly as His gaze came to rest upon him.
"Yes Alexander?"
"Umm I was just wondering, ah My Lord, how are you going to… well, test us for those things?"
"A valid question Alexander. This is a rather holy spot as you probably have gathered. In fact several of my followers sacrificed themselves to me here. I'm sure they'll be willing to help me with this test" As Battle was talking, a red mist had begun to flow out of the stone. It was a red remarkably similar to blood.
It slowly wafted out from the stone and started to pool in five separate spots around the alter.
"You seeing this Willow?" Xander asked as he slowly fell into a fighting stance facing three of the pools, which seemed to be bubbling higher and higher. Thankfully he felt willows familiar weight pressed against his back.
"Unfortunately yes. You know, I seriously reconsidering the whole us needing training thing? I feel that we're doing pretty well on our own don't ya think?" The worry in Willows voice was evident but thankfully Xander could feel her power gathering around her as well.
"I think it's just slightly a few months too late for reconsidering Wills" Xander told her, quickly kicking up one of the shovels they'd been using earlier into his hands and breaking the handle at the top to give it a sharp point on that end.
The bubbling blood had now risen until all five fountains of the stuff were a few inches taller than Xander and starting to take human shape.
* Now seriously Will, are you ready for this? Because we have to focus *
* Ready as I'll ever be * came the reply as they started to use the skill to link minds.
"Right than" Xander said through gritted yet smiling teeth "Why don't you start us off than will?" His blades slid out silently.
"No problem" Willow muttered as she motioned in front of her and towards their blood red adversaries. All of them wore some form of mail though all were in serious states of disrepair, their faces arms and legs all seemed rotten to some degree, some with gaping holes in their heads or faces. Broken bones protruded from ragged gaps in soft skin, and some just had their insides hanging over their belts for all the world to see. Though strangely enough, it was the well-used and very sharp weapons in their hands that held both their attentions.
Willow began to focus her will more intently as she neared the end of her spell. If it succeeded this would be all over very quickly. Idly she wondered if she'd do as well in tests where she could die as in the ones at school. She mentally shook off the though and began the final motions of her spell.
Just as she was finishing her motions though all of the creatures raised identical shields in front of them. A familiar and nagging symbol on their fronts.
"Here we go!" She thrust her hands out in front of her and lightning thrashed from her hands towards the nearest ghoul.
The flash was blinding as it struck the things shield and split in two to strike the two ghouls on either side of it. It bounced off their shields and struck the two remaining ghouls on their shields. That's where the bolt finished.
Nothing happened.
"Oh boy" Now she remembered that that symbol created a shield against magic.
"Fizzle?"
That was all Xander got out as the nearest three charged the short distance towards him. Quickly deciding that letting three of theses things get in close at once was a bad thing, he slid his hands to ht end on the shovels handle, and using it's superior (well if you call a shovel superior) reach, swung down heavily at the closest thing on his left. Showing surprising grace, the thing ducked under the swing with a sickly grin. Fortunately the thing next to it was expecting it to parry, and thus caught the shovelhead in the hip. There was a large crack as the shovel broke the things pelvis and imbedded itself.
The thing tumbled down into the path of the third facing Xander, taking the shovel with it, but was nimbly leapt over, as its companion didn't even spare it a glance.
Xander started towards his still charging adversary, figuring it a more imminent target. It came at him slashing wildly with a large scimitar, that Xander was only just able to dodge. It was pure luck that when he dodged sideways from an unwieldy thrust that he threw himself underneath an axe blow from his other adversary. It saved his head from being split like an overripe melon. Still the haft came down heavily on his shoulder.
Thankfully he still had a mind to slam his blades furiously into the things guts before plucking the axe from it's faltering hands. Just in time too as, a scimitar caught the corner of his eye as it plummeted towards his head.
Finishing off her latest spell with a sweeping gesture, Willow quickly gained some distance between her two uninjured adversaries, and once again cursed their magical shield.
So far they'd been able to take every magical attack she'd thrown at them, be it bolts of fire or ice or even pure beams of magic. All she'd managed to do was make their shields glow a cherry red before they'd put her on the back foot. Unfortunately her defensive magic was proving as useless as her offensive magic had been, proven by the way two points in the wall of flame she'd just conjured turned blue and dimmed to nothingness revealing her two opponents walking through un harmed, shields held in front of them.
'Damn it' Given time she knew she'd be able to overload their shields. Heck, if she'd only been fighting one of theses things she'd have already done it by now, but between splitting her attacks she'd hadn't been able to focus her powers nearly enough.
'All I need is one of them off my back!'
Xander heard Willows desperate thought even as he blocked another slash of the scimitar with the haft of his axe, though, he thought grumpily to himself, he was in very little position to do anything about it.
Up until this point, he realised, they had been very lucky not to be killed. These ghouls or whatever they are, were very singularly minded in their pursuits, but thankfully lacked any imagination or deviousness. It was, thankfully, for that reason that he was able to dodge and block most of his adversaries attacks.
He'd quickly discovered that when the thing had started to swing at something, that was where it was swinging… and hard.
He had yet to see a feint or creative change of direction from his opponent. And for that he was very thankful. His very meagre skills with an axe would not have saved him other wise.
In fact, it seemed Xander had a lot to be thankful for this night. So much so that he very seriously thought about looking over at him and saying so. Thankfully he only entertained the thought for as long as it took him to realise he didn't want to give the god a reason to make this any harder.
Battle was amused at the way Alexanders thoughts were travelling. The boy knew when to keep his mouth closed. A talent that was sorely lacking in a lot his age.
Unfortunately for his followers, Battle mused, He really didn't need a reason to make this harder for them.
Xander groaned as he saw the ghoul with the shovel in its hip start to claw it's way to its feet. He really didn't need that. But he was glad to note the one he'd stabbed repeatedly wasn't getting back up.
He desperately knocked away a hard thrust with the head of the axe as he thought desperately for a way to even the odds.
'We need a miracle!' was all he was able to come up with.
His full attention was quickly brought back to his opponent though, when the thing let out a very rasping yell, grabbed it's scimitar in two hands and began an overhead swing that Xander was sure would cut him in two.
Quick as he could he brought the axe haft above his head and a two handed grip and tried to jump backwards.
Tried being the keyword of the action.
This being woods and all, the ground is surprisingly uneven, scattered with branches, rocks, tree roots and the like. You have to be very careful where you place your feet.
Xander wasn't even looking.
As he's dodged back, he's fallen over the rotting stump of a long dead tree. Yet even as he was falling, so was the scimitar. The powerful swing of the heavy blade smashed through the haft of the axe easily and would have messily taken care of Xander if not for his current state of falling on his ass. Instead it past very easily through thin air and buried itself deeply in the stump that was positioned neatly between Xanders legs.
(AN: get your mind out of the gutters people)
Xander looked at the scene in front of him as the ghoul started trying to tug the scimitar free with an open mouth before looking at the axe head and the fistful of haft it had left in his right hand and the crude stake in his left hand.
A smile quickly replaced his look of surprise. Because unlike an axe, a stake he had plenty of skill with. Quickly he lashed out with a boot and caught the scimitar-less ghoul in the head and sent it stumbling backwards. He quickly rolled back and to his feet before rushing the thing. It tried to bring its shield up in time to bash him but Xander just spun past the hasty swing and ghoul before slamming the stake in its back, through its heart and out its chest.
He quickly kicked it to the ground as its death rattle claimed it and searched about for his other foe. He found it had struggled to keep up with him and his opponent in its injured state, hobbling over from where the fight had been moments ago. Though the fact that it held his shovel in its hands worried him.
It actually looked like the thing was after a little payback.
A sound like shattering glass though spun his attention back around to find the two other ghouls smash through a glass like barrier Willow had created. They were awful close to her. Too close for his liking.
He hefted the axe head and smiled.
Willow could feel the clear barrier she had erected in front of her breaking even as she stumbled back from it. The ghouls had their shields pressed against it and where even starting to break through. They had continued to close in on her, calmly walking through her defensive walls with those blasted shields and the effort to just put a few more yards between them and herself was becoming extremely taxing.
All she needed was a little space to catch her breath and reign in more power. Unfortunately they weren't giving it to her and she was starting to wonder if she'd be able to break through even one of their shields with the current power she had left.
The barrier shattered into a million pieces as the ghouls burst through and advanced on her again even as she searching her mind for a defensive spell that would slow them down.
Her thoughts were interrupted though by a feeling of malicious joy from Xander. Suddenly one of her opponents went down with an axe head buried deeply in its face.
Her joy echoed Xanders as she focused her powers on her remaining opponent. Bringing to focus powers that she hadn't been able to when her attention had been split. From her out stretched hands a visible ball of force erupted and rocketed towards the ghoul. Once again it impacted on its shield and the strain showed on Willows face, but the ball of force didn't collapse like other spells against the shield. It sent the ghoul skidding in the dirt until it finally tripped on a tree root and fell on its back a good twenty-five metres away. The ball of force continued on and shattered a large trees' trunk a short distance behind it.
Willow was puffing like the gallows after the spell, but even than she was reigning in more power from the winds of magic. The thing would be back, and she needed to be ready. Slowly but surely as she swelled with power, she stood taller and her breathing even out as she pulled more power into herself. But by this time the thing was already getting to its feet.
Quickly searching her mind for the spell that she'd be able to finish it off she started to mumble in a long forgotten language and held a single finger out in front of her. The air began to sparkle around her as she patterned and channelled the energies correctly and slowly a small pinprick of light formed above her finger. She glanced above her and suddenly the night sky seemed a lot closer, the moon large and bight with a spattering of stars. Slowly she raised her hand and seemed to place the small star above her finger in the night sky. She than casually waved her hand at her approaching foe and the stars seemed to follow.
The tiny pricks of light seemed to fall from the sky, never getting any bigger but falling where she had gestured ever the same.
They blasted down through branches opening the clearing up to even more of the night sky.
The first three missed the ghoul but left craters the size of a basketball half in the dirt. It was notice for the ghoul who raised its shield against the sky.
Blood was pouring from Willows nose now even as she clenched her fist and extended a single finger at the shield. The falling pinpricks of light seemed to curve in the air and head directly for the shield.
It took three impacts on it to force the ghoul to his knees. The fifth shattered the shield. Only four more fell but it was definitely enough.
Willow collapsed to her knees than face first into the dirt as the spell finished. That was everything. She just lay there breathing totally and completely exhausted. A vindictive squirrel could have taken her out.
But hopefully, hopefully she had managed to impress Him.
Xander glanced over in amazement every chance he got.
'That was fucking AMAZING' he thought even as he dodged another swing. Quickly stepping in, he grabbed hold of the shovel haft before it had a chance to be brought around again. And with a swipe of one of his blades cut the ghouls hands off at the wrists.
Quickly dropping the shovel, he grabbed the stunned ghoul around the head and brought it down on his quickly rising knee. There was a wet crack. Than Xander brought one of his blades down and through the back of its neck. The thing fell quickly to the ground leaving Xander standing alone on the field.
Quickly running over to Willow he lifted her up in his arms not needing to ask her if she was ok, just knowing she was to exhausted to do anything but breath and think for the moment through their link.
Slowly he made his way the short distance back to the shrine, walking around the boiling bodies that were slowly sinking back into the ground. As he approached he cast his eye's down and dropped himself down on one knee in front of Him.
Battle just kept his gaze on them for a moment, holding the tension before holding a hand over willow and bathing her in a blue light. Her breaths became immediately deeper even as her eye's closed and she fell into sleep.
"She gave her all in battle, as did you Alexander. I cannot ask for more than that. It is unfortunate that your all is sorely lacking." Battles words started softly but ended in a short clipped tone that caused Xander to raise his eye's to his lord in question.
"You both lack any style at all, any technique. You handling of weapons was pathetic and Willows manipulations sloppy at best. You had no flare, could not properly identify your enemies or the artefacts they were using…. But you had imagination, initiative and above all luck, by the creator do you have luck, and if there is one thing that I'd like you to have it's that. Your other imperfections can be cured but luck is the one thing I cannot give." Battle told him in a slightly enthusiastic voice.
"Tonight you both earned training in the things you are both sorely lacking" Xander began to notice a change in Battle even as he gave his thanks. The inner light was dimming in him, his armour going from silver to grey.
"Talk to your familiars tomorrow, I will have it arranged." Battles body was starting to degrade, flaking into great flakes of grey ash. "Next time we meet I will expect an improvement Alexander. But know this, For ones so young you impressed me…" Battles parting words could barely be discerned from the crumbling of His body but they made Xander smile from ear to ear.
* It is a great compliment from our lord Xander, don't let it go to your head * Glyndaf suddenly spoke up from his position next to the alter. And even though the words were cautionary, the familiar couldn't hide the glee from his voice.
* You both did fantastic Xander * Crytex spoke up, her tone much more proud and motherly than usual.
"Did Willow?"
* Heard every word *
"Good" Xander said softly as he lifted Willow and began the trek back to the house, smile still plastered on his face.