"An Heir with Character" by Shadow Master aka Shadow Master

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Disclaimer : This is to plainly state for all to see and read that I do not own the characters from either Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Anime series InuYasha. I got this idea by reading a Christmas drabble written by Simone of the Zordiak as part of the drabble series entitled 'His Greatest Gifts'. I won't give away too many details but suffice it to say that due to a 'little spell' done by Willow Xander winds up being transported through space and time to the warring states era of Japan in the InuYasha universe. That was not all though as he discovered soon after his arrival that he was in for one helluva time.

Look for the fic at "Twisting the Hellmouth" ?no5911&chapter3).

In any case I intend to use the basic facts from the drabble to form the basis for this fanfic and see where it leads me. As with my other two new fanfics entitled "Xander Unlimited" and "Black Wing" whether or not I continue this fanfic past the first chapter will all depend on what type of response I get. Therefore if you enjoy this first chapter then please submit your reviews or send me an email.

Now lets go on to see how this mother of all screw ups started …

An Heir with Character England, Three Days Before Christmas, 7:00p.m

"Merry Christmas Willow!" Xander said as he welcomed his bestest bud to the new headquarters for the newly reformed Watcher's council.

It had been nearly a month since he had last seen his wicca friend and while she had been off around the world tracking down newly activated Slayers with her magic he had been using his skills as a carpenter to fix up one of the lesser used estates used by the Watcher's led by Quentin Travers. It been left by itself for a little over ten years and thus had fell into a sort of disrepair as a result with broken windows and weak floor boards being chief among the damages he had to deal with. Remarkably things like electricity and plumbing were more or less intact and the place was heated by a furnace in the basement so they didn't have to worry about bills piling up heating the place. There were still some things left to do but with most of the main areas like the living room, dining room and kitchen done he and Giles had decided to take a break from all of the heavy labor and prepare a little surprise for the girls when they got home. He had almost been worried that they wouldn't make it in time but someone must like them in the higher realms and he bet that it was Cordy.

His mood almost dipped as he took Willow's coat along with Faith and Buffy's to put them in the closet but he managed to keep his care-free face on. It had only been two months ago that they had received word from Wesley that Cordelia Chase, an honorary Scooby who had been in a coma ever since she had been used as a vessel for the Demon-Lady Jasmine, had passed away. While he had known ever since the fluke years earlier between him and Willow had forever destroyed any chances he and the former Queen C of Sunnydale High School had for a romantic relationship she had still been his first girlfriend. The news had hit them all pretty hard and for a few days they held what Giles had called an Irish Wake in which friends and loved ones of the family told stories about personal experiences they had with the fallen one. It helped to lighten the heaviness in their hearts and once the cloud of gloom had been lifted enough they went back to their quest to resurrect the Watcher's Council to be what it was meant to be. Now they were back again just in time for the holidays to enjoy each others company and take a breather from their long term project for some well earned R&R. Wood and Andrew would be arriving later and the only late comer would be Kennady who was on the other side of the world training some newly called Slayer in Japan. That meant that for at least a little while the core members of the Scooby gang were back together just like in the old days. After that thought passed through his head he almost slapped himself for saying something like that in present company. It was just like using the W word but ten times worse as some supernatural being whether it be heavenly or demonic in origin always uses such thoughts to stir up some excitement.

Deciding to change the subject quickly he turned to Buffy and asked "So Buff what's new and exciting in the world of the search for the newly Chosen?"

"Well Willow managed to zero in on two new Slayers in Africa but we .. uh .. had a little trouble getting our message across to them." Buffy replied while seemingly becoming very interested in the food on her plate.

Her behavior automatically clued in Giles and him that something bad and potentially catastrophic had occurred that they were likely going to wind up paying for later had happened on Buffy's trip with Willow to Africa. Knowing they weren't likely to get any straight answers from Buffy both men turned to Willow who was the only other person who would be able to tell them what happened. Willow looked at their inquisitive faces and was visibly torn between telling them what they wanted to know and being a pal to the blonde Slayer by keeping her mouth shut. In the end she decided to give them a neutral summary of what happened that hopefully wouldn't get them in too much trouble. Apparently the two new Slayers that Willow's magic had detected in Africa belonged to one of the more back-to-basics-no-technology-remote tribes. It had taken both she and Buffy days to get to the tribes' land and when they had gotten there they had run smack dab into the language barrier as no one in the village spoke any of the more commonly spoken languages in Africa. Willow had been a bit leery about doing any translation or language spells in front of them without knowing anything about their superstitions or religion. So Buffy had gotten the bright idea of trying to mime everything to them in the hopes that actions would speak louder than words. Both of them agreed that for a time some of what they were trying to say was getting across but then Buffy had taken an axe they had brought with them on the off chance that they encountered a demon and lopped the head of a wood carving of a person. After that things had gone downhill as they were both run out of the village with little more than what they still had in their back packs by a number of spear wielding tribesmen.

For a moment Giles, Faith and himself had just sat there looking back and forth as they tried to alternately trying to picture Buffy trying to mime the calling of the Slayer and the two of them running for their lives while being chased by men with spears. The first snicker came predictably from Faith who looked like she was about to keel over with laughter any moment. Giles was a bit more composed about it but Xander could tell that he was laughing on the inside. As far as he was concerned he wanted to join with the majority and laugh at the mess that they had made for themselves but he decided against it. Instead he decided to back them up or at least give the people in the room someone else to laugh at.

"Well look at it this way Buff at least I wasn't there to make matters worse." , he inserted subtlely with his patented grin, "Knowing my luck I probably would have desecrated a sacred alter or somehow wound up insulting the chief's lovely daughter!"

As they first looked at him with shock and then began to tremble a bit before bursting into laughter told him his plan had succeeded. He always did things like that, used self-depreciating humor to lighten the mood or take some of the heat off of a friend. Not many guys would actually be willing to make themselves look like idiots to cheer up a friend, none who wanted to be seen as manly men but he figured that ship had already sailed for him. The best he could do was put this embarrassment to good use and cheer up his friends at the same time. They spent the rest of the night doing pretty much the same thing until a little past midnight when most of them decided to head to bed. Willow though said she wanted to head to the lab/library to work on a project she had been toying with since they had first set up shop in this place. She hadn't given them all the details but said that it basically was just a little spell with a few modifications that she thought would help them in their work. Giles had been a bit leery of this given Willow's history with magical experimentation but he knew Wills wouldn't do anything to harm them and said as much to G-Man. The Watcher reluctantly agreed stating that Willow had come a long way in controlling her magic since that whole Dark Phoenix state she had been in.

As for him he decided that he would take advantage of his access to the bank accounts of the former Watchers Council and watch some satellite TV. Giles had sputtered a bit when Xander had originally bought it but when the Zeppo had pointed out how it would help them keep an eye out for any new Slayers as they would undoubtably draw attention to themselves. After all not every girl would use the gifts that a Slayer received for the 'good of mankind' like Buffy and at least some would use them for less than ethical gain. With reasoning like that Giles had been forced to admit that it was a wise investment although access to the literature channel seemed to tilt his opinion of the luxury just a little. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone of course. Tonight though Xander was going to partake in one of his little closet hobbies (SO not what you are thinking) and quickly flipped through the channels until he found what he was looking for and laid back on the couch to enjoy the show.

Nothing like seeing a little Anime to take the edge off the day! he thought to himself as he watched the intro to 'InuYasha' on the screen.

He had always liked Anime since he and Jesse had first started watching it when they were kids but as he got older and that 'cartoons are for kids' frame of mind became a problem he had been forced to be a bit sneaky when he wanted to watch his favorite shows. Willow knew because she had caught him in his basement bedroom watching a 'Tenchi Muyo!' marathon one day but she had promised not to tell anyone if he would make an honest effort of getting a job. He hadn't succeeded until after the ascension of the Mayor but he thought Willow was more after the actual effort put into it rather than the end results. In any case once he had gotten an apartment of his own with Anya it had gotten less bothersome to watch what he wanted. When the trouble with the first had started he had been forced to put his viewing habits on hold to deal with the numerous repair jobs at the Summers' home and minion mashing missions but now he was free. Therefore he was going to start catching up on his shows and see what he missed while they had been trying to put their respective lives back together. First up was InuYasha with the heroic hanyou kicking demon butt and still managing to make it look like he was a total tough guy. That and the fact that he was able to kick the butt of a certain snobby Inu-Youkai Lord just like he had wanted to do to numerous seniors during high school and a few demons that had treated him like a weakling back in Sunnydale. Granted a portion of his mind realized that the writers of the stories probably weren't being very realistic about the fights and tilted things in the half-demon's favor but it didn't matter to him. The fact that someone considered an outcast by both the in crowd and the out crowd could make name for himself and do just as well as either side was inspiring for him. After all he wasn't a braniac like Willow was and at the same time he wasn't a real good fighter like Robin Wood or Buffy but he still managed to contribute something to the team.

So for the next two hours he watched the episodes with contentment but eventually the fatigue he had worked up putting this house back together took its toll and he decided to call it a night. Before he did though he was going to take a stroll past the lab/library to see what Willow was up to and try to persuade her to get some sleep as well. He knew that sometimes when his favorite little redhead (that wasn't Dana Scully) got wrapped up in some project or other that she tended to forget about little things like sleep. He had found her more than once using an ancient tome of Giles' as a pillow after their all night research sessions. Needless to say the tweed wearing gentleman nearly had a heart attack when he saw her sleeping on one of the most rare volumes in his collection and afterwards made sure that there was a pillow within arms reach next time it happened. Needless to say Willow found a pillow much more comfortable than some leather bound book and as it didn't cause G-Man to have a panic attack it was all of the good.

When he reached the lab/library he could still hear activity going on inside so he guessed that young miss Rosenberg still had a full head of steam in her. He shook his head in amazement at her friend's boundless energy when she was on one of these little projects. True her place in the Scoobies kept her pretty busy but when she had the time she was always trying out new spells she had read about or occasionally trying to mix spells to see if she could invent one of her own. However after the last two wound up blowing the windows out Giles had insisted that she show him her research before she did anything serious. The sounds coming from the lab though led him to believe she was definitely doing something serious which meant she was trying to do something special for the gang for Christmas and prove she could do it by herself at the same time. A voice at the back of his mind was telling him he should go get Giles before something explosive happened but another more manipulative voice was telling him to take a look. Surprisingly the more persuasive voice sounded a lot like Cordy so he caved in and opened the door rather than listen to the voice of reason and get Giles. He could never say no to Queen C when she was alive so a voice in his head like hers kinda had an unfair advantage.

When he stepping in he could see Willow sprinkling some kinda dust on rock that looked suspiciously like the biggest ruby that he had ever seen in his life. Around the not-ruby were several scrolls and books arranged in what to him was a chaotic mess but what he was sure Willow thought was well organized. She didn't seem to have noticed that he was there and he decided it was probably best that he keep his distance from the thing-a-ma-gig that she was working on until she did and explain everything to him. After all the last thing he wanted was to distract her at some crucial point and wind up causing her to turn into a toad by accident. Since just standing there was boring he looked over the various documents and books she had spread out over every table and tried to make what sense of it he could. He couldn't pretend to be able to make sense of even half of it but the numerous nights he had gone through Giles' books had given him a strategy to understand the incomprehensible. It didn't make him a genius but it did let him know when he had discovered something useful or crucial to whatever crisis they were currently facing. From what he could tell the scrolls seemed to deal with teleportation spells and some transfiguration spells meant to change a person's clothes. He smiled as he imagined what Buffy would do if she found out about this spell and the fortune it would probably save them all in clothes if they could get it to work. He still wasn't sure what Willow was planning to do with a teleportation spell and a transfiguration spell but he had to admit that the possibilities were intriguing.

Whatever the wicca had been doing with the powder she was sprinkling seemed to be done and now she seemed to be doing some spell chanting to move on to the next part of her plan. Unfortunately it was then that he began to notice some strands of black begin to creep into her hair as the chanting she was doing grew louder and louder. This got him a bit worried as it meant that no only was his best friend dabbling into some dark magic but it also meant she was reaching the upper limits of her powers. Ever since her little episode after Tara was killed she had a profound reluctance to push her powers too far or to try spells that were up there in the power range. It also meant that whatever she was doing was no 'little spell' but rather a helluva a lot of magic and that could mean big trouble if things get out of hand. He slowly moved around the tables towards Willow, keeping himself from startling her in mid-chant, and decided that when the chanting ended he would talk to her and get her to explain herself. He trusted her more than anyone but even she could make mistakes and mistakes with magic were generally of the bad. As he walked along the table and looked at the open tomes and volumes he could tell that no two of them came from the same place in the world or in some cases not even the same species. This made the concern growing inside of him jump a level as he doubted anyone knew what could happen when you mixed so many different magicks together.

Eventually he made it to Willow's side and coincidentally she finished the chant she had been speaking which caused the black strands in her hair to vanish. It was then that he decided to make himself known by reaching out and putting his hand on her shoulder. Unfortunately Willow was apparently so focused on her project that the sudden appearance of a hand on her scared her out of her wits and caused her to jump around and back. He would later remark that he should have found a less sudden way of letting someone who has been concentrating for so long that you were behind them. At the moment however all that filled his mind was watching Willow bump into the table which destroyed whatever balance was keeping the giant ruby in place. With eyes surprisingly big he and Willow watched the ruby roll towards the edge of the table before they both lunged to try and stop it. Funny enough the next few moments were exactly like he had seen in countless TV shows, time seemed to slow down and each second seemed like an hour. He tried his hardest, just as he knew Willow was, to get to the ruby in time but for every step towards it he took it seemed the rock managed to stay out of reach. As it finally left the table and begin its downward plunge to the ground time resumed its normal speed. In the time that it normally took to blink the red stone hit the ground and shattered like a glass sculpture. It was in what seemed like thousands of pieces, more than one would expect from a solid looking rock like that, and whatever bad karma breaking something like that gave a person he had a feeling it was going to be delivered to him in full before too much longer.

Right on cue the shards of the ruby began to pulse with an arcane glow and as the pulses of light continued to increase little bolts of crimson energy began to arc between the fragments. He didn't need a wicca to tell him that such a sight was generally bad sign and that any sane person should be worrying right about now. Worry was definitely what was on Willow's face and she knew probably better than he did just how much trouble they were in. Deciding that the time for viewing was over he decided that the best thing they could do was get the hell out of here and evacuate the house. A bit extreme perhaps but given his lack of knowledge and abundance of experience in such matters he felt it was better to overreact and be wrong then to sit around for the big bang. Grabbing Willow by the arm he began to drag her to the door as she was still a bit out of it from the work and the accident that led to the current situation. When they reached the door she finally snapped out of it and as insane as it sounds wanted to go back to where the nasty was brewing.

"Willow what are you doing!? That thing is looking not of the good!" , he exclaimed as he tried to pull her to the door, "We need to get everyone up and out of the house before it goes kablooey!"

"No you don't understand!! If I don't stop this the entire continent is going to be wiped out!!" Willow exclaimed as she struggled even harder as a surge of adrenaline gave her some strength.

"WHAT!? You said that this was just a little spell!!" he exclaimed as he looked back at the increasingly pulsing shards.

"Okay so maybe it wasn't so little but I did all the research and checked my facts over to the hundredth degree and I was sure that I could do this without any trouble but then you came in and scared the heck out of me and made me knock the ruby off the table and now its shattered and going to cause all of Great Britain to be sucked into oblivion and" Willow babbled by way of explanation before Xander clamped his hand over her mouth to stop her tirade.

"Okay. That's bad. I get it. So what do we do to stop it?" Xander asked as calmly as he could manage in the hopes that some of that Calm would pass on to her and keep her from making this worse.

"I .. I .. don't know! The spells have been corrupted now that the ruby has been shattered! But … " , Willow said as the wheels began to spin in her head to come up with an answer, "If I completed the final phase of the teleportation portion of the spell we might be able to send the shards somewhere else!"

"Then lets hurry because I am not liking the way those shards are flashing right now!" Xander said and as one they moved for the tables and began to prepare.

He began to grab things as Willow pointed them out and once they each had their arms full of containers or scrolls they got as close to the ruby shards as they could without getting hit by the energy bolts that were now reaching about neck high. He passed Willow the ingredients for the spell as she asked for them while at the same time keeping an eye on the shards for any sign that the crap was about to hit the fan. For a while it seemed like Willow's idea was going to work, quicker and quicker he was passing her the necessary herbs, liquids and slime she said she would need and they were almost all used up. Unfortunately that was when he noticed that the shards were beginning to light up for longer periods of time and were no longer rapidly pulsing. Whether that meant that the energy in them was becoming more controlled or less controlled he didn't know but he did know that things were coming to a close for better or for ill. They were down to two ingredients when the pulses of light stopped and the crimson light coming from within the ruby shards became constant.

"Willow whatever you have left to do you better doing because I think we made those shard angry!" he joked slightly as he looked back to his friend.

"Not enough .. not enough time! I need at least five more minutes!" Willow said as the anxiety in her voice began to spike.

"Willow I think we'll be lucky if we get one minute!" Xander exclaimed as her anxiety became his anxiety.

This only made the wicca hurry even more and he was beginning to hear what he thought were a few misspoken words and perhaps a few less than perfect arcane gestures. He didn't know what that meant as far as magic was concerned but if it was anything like he remembered doing carpentry work it usually led to mistakes and the need to start the work all over again. That meant that a possible chance for survival just went straight to zero and it was going to be a matter of seconds before those shards did their thing. The moment he realized that he knew what he had to do and why he had to do it. Grabbing Willow around the waist he used all the strength he had gained by fighting alongside Buffy and the boost of speed granted to him by the adrenaline he threw her at the door. For a moment he marveled at the lift he was able to achieve with the throw before he winced slightly at the pain he had probably given his friend as she slammed into the door and knocked it off its hinges. He hoped that she'd be safer out there than in here but that counted on the theory he had that the Watchers had put wards and protection spells on all their buildings. After all if they had been fighting demons and dark magic users for centuries it made sense that they would use better materials for construction and reinforce them with spells and talismans. He didn't know how they'd stand up to Willow's spell if it was even half as powerful as she described so giving the room a cursory look around he spotted something that might help. He grabbed a metal chest that was resting on the ground next to one of the bookcases and after getting over how heavy it was dragged it over to the shards and opened it. Tossing the contents out without paying much attention to what they were he made sure it was empty before he looked to the ruby shards, braced himself and reached out to grab the first handful.

This has got to be one of the stupidest things I have ever done in my life! he thought to himself as his hand closed around the shards beneath it.

Almost as soon as he made direct skin-to-ruby contact with the shards the energy contained within them shot up his arm and did a marathon in his nervous system. Surprisingly it wasn't really that painful, more like someone opened his veins and poured hot tub water into them which actually was quite pleasant. Of course Giles had often mentioned that magical energies that felt pleasant were actually doing nasty things to a persons insides and their mind. Keeping that in mind he put his first handful into the heavy chest and went back for some more although this second time he was a bit quicker on the pick up and put down with a little bit less on the analyzing. Each time he picked up a handful he could feel the energy coursing through him and each time he wondered if this is what people felt like when they received radiation poisoning. As he was about to place the final handful of shards into the chest the light being generated by those inside it seemed to dim to practically nothing and for a moment he wondered if he had just made a big deal about nothing. The shards were apparently waiting to catch him napping and when his caution towards them wavered the crimson energy lashed out and entered his body through the remaining shards in his hand. It was complete sensory overload as no matter how hard he tried to grasp what was going on it was ripped away from his comprehension by the energy now coursing through him. He didn't know whether it was mere moments or minutes but he could have sworn that he heard Giles' voice attempt to reach him through the mess that was now his mind.

Just as he thought he felt a vibration in the floor boards he thought to himself …And I didn't even get to finish watching the InuYasha Marathon.

With that his world went black and the last thing to go through his mind was the final scene in the episode he had been watching just moments before.

Note: Please feel free readers to point out any inconsistencies or mistakes I may have made with stuff pertaining to the InuYasha universe. I am only aware of the English dubbed version shown in North America and only up until the episode involving Muso/Onigumo being introduced. If you have any ideas or suggestions please feel free to send them to me.