Chapter 1: Resurrection
It was a crisp, if slightly chilly night, as Buffy, Willow, Xander and Spike wondered through one of the many Sunnydale graveyards.
"Alright, it's around here somewhere" Buffy told the others, as she surveyed their surroundings.
They were currently hunting down a demon that's claws would make many serial killers envious. Having found it in town as it was about to kill an innocent victim, they had ended up chasing it to the graveyard, the place that most monsters would end up retreating to.
The group started to spread out as they looked around for the demon, Xander himself was feeling slightly nervous as he gripped his axe. Looking around for the demon, Xander hoped that he would be lucky enough not to get attacked by the demon.
But, as usual, his luck failed dismally, as the demon happened to be hiding on the roof of the small crypt that he walked past, watching for a chance to ambush its attackers.
Xander was lucky enough to dodge the initial attack from the demon, due to the fact that it gave a high pitch cry as it attacked, alerting everybody in the general area.
Giving a shout of surprise, Xander swang his axe at the demon which embedded itself in its thick black scales, but seemingly causing no discomfort to the demon let alone any damage.
The Demon stood straight, making Xander aware of its seven foot frame, despite its rather thin appearance.
It then struck at him with lightning speed, causing Xander to dodge and only just avoid being reduced to ribbons. With his weapon still stuck in the demon, and being unable to fall back without being impaled, Xander tried to fight back, by punching the demon in the area where a human gut would be. Apart from making his hand hurt, all it seemed to achieve was making the demon a little miffed at being struck by a human.
Xander tried to dodge its next upward strike, but was unable to move fast enough, causing him to be impaled by it's dagger like claws, and was lifted in the air by the demon.
Fighting back the pain, Xander lasted just long enough to see Buffy and Spike run into view, and hear Buffy yell in alarm; before the demon plunged it claws into his heart.
Throwing Xander's body away like a rag doll, the demon turned to face its newest threats. But despite its speed and strength, it was no match for a very pissed off slayer.
Moving with shocking speed, Buffy grabbed the demon, and slammed it into the crypt, before proceeding to cave in its face with her fists, then impaling it on its own claws.
The Demon dropped to the ground, extremely dead, but no one was paying attention to it anymore, as Buffy had ran over to Xander's dead body, just as Willow had managed to catch up and reach them.
"No." Was all Willow managed to say faintly, standing stock still while staring at the Xander's body in shock.
"We…" Buffy started, before having to pause to collect herself, silent tears running down her face. "We need to get him back home; Giles will know what to do."
The drive back to Buffy's home was nothing but a blur to Willow, who only vaguely remembered placing Xander's dead body on one of the beds, before she found herself sitting in the lounge with Buffy and Spike, who were also joined by Dawn and Giles.
"To Xander" A miserable Giles said, raising a bottle in toast.
Meanwhile
In the main bedroom of Buffy's house, the lifeless body of Xander started to stir with life. In a sudden wave of pain, Xander came too, sitting up in bed.
"Was that just a dream?" He asked himself, still in a state of shock, before looking down hurriedly to check on his wounds. The first thing he noticed was, despite the blood on his clothing, he was fully healed, and secondly, his hands were covered in scars.
Giving a cry of shock, Xander ran into the bathroom that accompanied the bedroom, and looked into the mirror. The image that looked back on him shocked him to his core. It was his face all right, but it was covered in more scars then he could count, there wasn't even an inch of flesh that wasn't covered. Jerking back in surprise, Xander rapidly rubbed his eyes, before looking back. His own, scarless reflection looked back at him.
"Great." Xander said to his reflection. "Almost died, now I'm going crazy too."
Coming to the conclusion that Willow had healed him with magic, and that the hallucination was just a side effect, Xander left the room to find where the others had gone. Following the voices down to the lounge room, Xander walked in to find the rest of the gang sitting around with sombre looks on their faces.
Completely missing the implications of the scene before him, Xander alerted them to his presence by saying "Thanks for the healing Wills, but next time, could you cut down on the magic mushrooms?"
Xander the suddenly found himself being the target of five very shocked gazes before they all yelled as one "XANDER?"
Meanwhile
In a small park, the space between two trees seemed to split and distort, causing a hole to appear in the space between the trees. Three figures came through this portal. One could barely be defined as a figure, as it was only a skull that floated in mid air. The second was a beautiful woman, who looked human, except for the large leathery wings that seemed to sprout from her back. The last was a human shaped figure that seemed to be perpetually burning.
"Are you sure this is the place?" The woman asked the floating skull.
"Yes." The skull answered, slightly exasperatedly, "That damn seer told us that the chief could be found here, it had all the signs and everything."
"So you're sure, just like the last three planes that you were so sure about." The woman asked him, sounding slightly amused.
"Look, I don't see Ignus complaining about it." The skull retorted angrily.
"Ignusssss wisssshessss to find the masssster, sssso that he may continue to find thingsssss to burn." The flaming human torch told them.
"Well, he's here, and he probably doesn't remember a single damn thing, meaning that this is gonna be another pain in the ass." The Skull told them,
"Then we best start searching for him." The woman told them.
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