AN: Hello, again, my dear readers. Here is a little blip from my muse that got stuck in my brain after reading some of the work of some of the truly exceptional fanfic authors that can be found here. It's a little rough both in the idea and the execution, but here it is regardless. I hope you enjoy it.
AN: As per usual, I own nothing. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Highschool DxD are not mine in any way, shape, or form and no profit is being made out of this. The only thing I could possibly lay any sort of claim to is the tweaked scenario, but probably not. Not that I'd really want to anyway, it would be bad form to even try in my opinion. It's just a bit of fun.
Life had not turned out like he'd expected it to. Granted, when did it ever? At least, if nothing else, he hadn't turned out like his father. Still, when he thought back on it he couldn't help thinking of his life as a strange one despite everything he had seen and done since a certain blonde Slayer had walked into his life. Now, years later, as he looked upon a ruined field littered with rubble from where he was seated in a high end viewing box next to his boss he couldn't help but find himself content with his lot in life. And even though it had taken him many years to come to grips with what he had become, what he now would always be, Alexander Harris could honestly say that he was proud-ish to serve as a devil. Well, mostly anyway. He was only technically a half-devil, because when his master had tried to turn him there had been 'too much' in him already so the piece she had used had only physically effected him enough to keep him alive and give him some perks. The creator of the Evil Piece System, Ajuka Bezzlebub, had never seen such a thing before so he tended to hound Xander to help him run some tests. Sometimes very invasive tests…Thankfully, his master ran interference for him from time to time; otherwise he would never have time for his own pursuits; or hers for that matter. Though there were still times when Serafall made him want to strangle puppies. Yeah, she was that kind of special.
*Flashback*
No, he wasn't done yet! There was still more to do! Twilight was coming and his old friends still weren't fully prepared. They may not have even known he was still alive, but he didn't care. So long as he could help keep them just a little bit safer, a little bit happier, he could deal with them having moved on with their lives. Still, his present circumstances got him thinking about how he'd gotten into this kind of mess in the first place.
After that faithful Halloween where he'd dressed as a soldier he'd begun to see the world just a little bit more differently. Having gained many of the personal memories along with much of the baggage that came with them, and most of the technical knowledge, from a now very dead Vietnam vet would do that to anyone. As a result though he started to take the fight against the Dark seriously, started training himself almost religiously using what he could remember of the soldier and what scraps of instincts were left over from the hyena. Alongside this he also started to act more and more in ways that he knew the others would disapprove of if they ever found out. So over the next couple of years he had slowly become their silent shield, the sentinel that protected them with gun and bomb and poison while they were busy protecting the rest of the world with blade and fist and magic. For years he had taken their unintentional slights against him with a smile and a light jab of his own, because he knew they still cared, and when they started to push him out of the main group to keep him 'safe' he actually welcomed it. Such an action just gave him more time to take out the plethora of threats that were constantly massing at their backs.
The biggest problems he generally had to deal with though weren't even of the demon or magic user varieties. No, they were humans on the payroll of said demons and magic users. It wasn't exactly a new idea to have a human assassin with a decent aim put a high caliber round in the head of an unsuspecting Slayer from a good distance away. In fact, that was actually one of the reasons he suspected Slayers intuitively didn't like modern weaponry, they liked to remain in as much control as they could of their lives, they liked having an alpha status, especially while in the field and modern weaponry just leveled the that field more than a little too much. Another reason it had to be him taking out these types of threats was because Slayers couldn't take out human threats without possibly going insane. The guilt was too much for them as Slayers were designed to help humanity; not to harm it. He only got confirmation of this when Faith accidentally killed the Deputy Mayor during his senior year. She had been nearer the edge than he would have liked at the time, but what happened that night didn't just nudged her over to the Mayor it practically tossed her at the man gift wrapped with a pretty bow on top.
Still, he would continue on being what he needed to be to keep them safe and relatively happy, but he never once allowed himself to forget just how much blood was on his hands as a result of helping to keep the world spinning. Though it didn't really hit him until one day while still in Oxnard… He'd left for his 'road trip' just like he'd told his friends he would. They were still kind of keeping him as an outsider to their Slaying activities (Though he had bugged the library and there homes a long while back with some basic kits he'd picked up from Willy.), but he had grown close to them again by the end of that last year. Still, with his road trip as a cover he was hoping to track down a few sources of information and supplies that Willy the Snitch had given him in hopes of drumming up the beginnings of his own support network. The man was a slimy bastard, but he had a vested interest in keeping humanity as the dominant species on the planet, because he knew how quickly he'd be screwed otherwise. So he'd helped Xander out under the table from time to time, kept his mouth shut, and gave the younger man a few leads he could follow throughout that summer.
Regardless, he'd only made it to Oxnard before stopping for the night because he'd started way later then he'd originally hoped. The group had wanted to celebrate late into the night and he'd agreed. The next morning he'd woken up in his hotel room and went about his regular routine until he was looking himself in the mirror and just stopped. For some reason he'd frozen when he'd caught his reflection. In that moment what he'd become over the last two and a half years really sank in. He'd known it on an intellectual level, of course, but he'd not allowed it to really reflect on how he saw himself. But right there in front of him was the proof. So many scars… Cuts, burns, scrapes, tears, and the occasional bullet hole littered his body from head to toe. But it was the scars he knew he had on his soul that were even worse. He'd killed and he'd tortured on a level he wouldn't have been able to imagine prior to that fateful Halloween night. He'd lied to and spied on those closest to him, though he suspected the Giles probably knew more about his activities then the man let on.
He was unclean. Sure, the other Scoobies had fucked up here and there, but they were still better than him in every way that counted. He didn't deserve them, didn't deserve to be a part of their lives. He couldn't stop though, he could never stop. If they ever found out they would hate what he'd become, what necessity had made of him. However, he could still let them remember who he had been to them.
That day he'd made a decision and after making it to L.A. had stolen a male cadaver about his size, weight, and skin tone as a decoy before firebombing his old car and rolling it off a street that was adjacent to a high cliff. Yes, he knew that he had left the dentals and the like that could prove that said body hadn't been him, but with all the budget cuts the LAPD and other law enforcement agencies had been going through in recent years he doubted that he'd have to worry. Mix that with the evidence he'd left to look like he'd lost control as the steering mechanism had failed he was confident that his death would be reported as he hoped.
Since then he had focused on maintaining the illusion of his demise, building his network, and keeping his loved ones as protected as he could from afar. Now there he was, a handful of years later, Sunnydale a crater, after having kept his friends and their allies safe from so many threats, and he knew that he would be almost unrecognizable to them. His hair was kept a little shorter than it used to be and his face was pitted and scarred. He also now wore an eye patch over his left eye where Caleb had gouged it out with his thumb. (The mad priest hadn't even made it to Sunnydale so it was a sacrifice well worth making to Xander.) The idiot had said that his actions had not gone unnoticed and more than a few parties would celebrate at the news of Alexander Harris' death. Oddly enough, said groups had never revealed the fact that he was still alive to those he fought so hard for. Strange, considering that such an action would have made his life extraordinarily more difficult. Still, he had known the real big bad guys would get to him eventually. People who did what he did seemed to have a universally small shelf life after all. They probably even expected him to take out his attackers before he went down for the final time. Considering that they had opened a portal to send him and his last battlefield to the Underworld and had back-up for their team's back-up to make sure the job was done right he could honestly say he was a bit flattered. They had literally needed to send him to Hell and throw some of their best his way to take him down. No way were they going to be forgetting his name any time soon.
Ha! Take that posterity!
"Hey, mister, are you okay?" he heard the voice of a young woman ask.
And just like that his dying thoughts were completely derailed. Wow, he must have lost a lot of blood, because he was definitely hearing things. Demons and devils and the screams of the damned, yes, but potentially hot women? Yeah, no, not what he was expecting… Well, maybe a little bit. "Hey! I'm talking to you, you know? It's very rude not to answer back when someone's asking you something!"
Cracking his eye open it took him a few seconds to realize that what he was seeing wasn't some kind of hysterical illusion brought about by a severe lack of blood via more than a few gaping wounds scattered along his body. Standing in front of him was a young looking woman who seemed to possess a near ridiculous amount of cleavage for such a petite frame. Her long black hair was made up into dual pony tails and her bright blue eyes were gazing at him in utter fascination. Oh, and she was wearing what looked like a magical girl outfit one might in a cheesy anime. They were both in the middle of his latest battlefield, him bleeding out as he sat against the ruins of an old tree and her standing in front of him while inspecting him with a scrutiny that said she thought he was the most interesting thing in the world.
It was just too funny.
His laugh started low but quickly gained strength even as it forced its way through the blood filling his lungs. He was laughing hard until he passed out, having finally succumbed to his wounds, as the strange girl looked on.
*End Flashback*
"Whatcha thinkin' about, Xander?" Shaking his head a little to bring himself back to the present he turned and examined the master who had brought him back to life after he was apparently transported directly onto her family's lands to die. Looking down at her from where he sat next to her he smiled a bit and said,
"Not much, Boss Lady. Just glad that the time I'd spent with little Rias wasn't all wasted." Indeed, he had been resurrected not long after Sona had been born, Rias having been born in the same year, and was an almost inevitable influence on both girls growing up. Well, Sona more than Rias… Apparently, that influence had thankfully spread to how the two approached combat, if how Rias and her peerage had practically decimated young Riser's peerage with military like precision. The only real obstacle she had faced was the young man himself, what with his regenerative factor and all, who quickly gave in and 'forfeited' the match to her after having been through the agonizing pain of being literally nailed to the floor via orichalcum spikes and chains being put through his limbs. Painful enough by itself, yes, and not at all helped by the fact that he couldn't escape via his hereditary abilities due to the magical properties of his restraints. However, the real kicker was when she had been nailing him down she had forced him into a cross-like position, effectively crucifying him and adding a good deal of passive holy energy into the mix. Yeah, that boy had been in a world of hurt until he'd given up… And even after he had said the words that would free her of her now previous marital obligations she had merely said "thank you" before turning on her heel and walking away, leaving her ex-fiancé to be released the game's presiding officials.
"True," Serafall commented.
"A little harsh don't you think? What in the world have you been teaching my little sister!?" This had come from Sirzechs who looked like he was barely restraining himself from trying to strangle Xander. While there was a definitely high level of respect between the two men, good old Sirzechs didn't care for many of Xander's methods, and vice versa. This hadn't always been the case though, until Xander had saved the other man's son from a rather effective attempt via the Old Faction to weaken Sirzechs overall position.
"I'll admit to her actions being a bit on the ruthless side, sure… Though you're forgetting about how Rias wishes to be seen. She wants to stand on her own two feet and create her own legend separate from yours or that of the Gremory name, and if nothing else Devils will respects power and the willingness to use it. Also, by being as ruthless as she was here she is sending a very clear message to those who might try to screw with her and those she cares for, "Don't.". As is, I didn't suggest that exact method, she came up with that on her own, I merely taught her how to leave her emotions at the door of such events and to think a little more tactically then one might see in those anime she likes so much." To this the ridiculously powerful red head with a massive sister complex just huffed a bit before crossing his arms and returning his attention back to the field where they were now just picking the young Phenex up after having removed the last spike. And if Xander didn't know any better he could have sworn Sirzechs was pouting. The man had an image of his sister and anything that sharply deviated from it in reality made him grumpy.
And just how was it his fault that Rias and Sona both had an appreciation for proper military doctrine and operation anyway? Sure Rias could have been a bit softer in her approach to breaking off her engagement, but at least she wasn't as bad as Sona was. Serafall's sister practically acted like her peerage's drill sergeant whenever they were training. Couldn't argue with the results though… Such an approach broken that Saji kid of his perverted ways real quick.
AN:So, what did you all think? If you have the time to spare, please, let me know. Questions, comments, or suggestions? Lay them on me! Absolutely hated it and have a thought out argument? That very much works too! I hope to see you all next time.
All the best,
Relim