Disclaimer: Don't own Buffy, Joss Whedon does.
Just a collection of shorts and drabbles that I need to get out of my head and pinned down on to paper so they stop bothering me.
As a writer for Buffy Fan fiction you seem to HAVE to do a Halloween fic at some point, Even though the main parts will be the same, Xander gets costume. Xander becomes Costume. Xander or Giles confronts Ethan, Xander Keeps powers Slight change in history.
So here's my attempt at one that goes a little differently then normal.
Short Summery: "If you're going to play 'let's pretend' on old hallows eve… why not aim a bit bigger..."
Ethan watched as the friends of Ripper wandered round the dusty little shack that was his shop. He was going to make sure they all left with a costume from here, it wasn't fair to his old friendship with Ripper to only leave a job half done. The skinny little American boy was staring at some soldier combats at the back.
Ethan slinked up silently. "Like what you see?"
The boy blinked up at him. "I can't afford it."
"Well as you are my 500th customer I can afford to let this go at a lower price."
"Really?" A gleam appeared in the boy's eye. "Just this or anything else?"
"Did you have something else in mind?"
"Well you offered the deal. And if you're going to play 'let's pretend' on old hallows eve… why not aim a bit bigger…"
Interesting. "Bring what you want to the counter."
Ethan watched the boy for a while hunting around in the back. Picking up random bits and pieces before muttering and moving on as though unsure of what he was actually looking for. After about five minutes the two other girls paid for their outfits and left. Another 10 minutes past before the youth brought a random assortment for Ethan to look over.
"A business suit?" That's disappointing. "This is your idea of big Mr…?"
"Call me Xander man, and no you gotta cash me in for these coloured contacts and hair dye as well. I know it's not obvious but you'll love it! I'm going for subtlety. And none of that 'Hey I dressed up as myself' crap"
"Indeed. That'll be $5.00" Ethan drawled packing up the items. "I suppose it will work as long as you visualise the character as you put on the suit… don't suppose you'll drop me a hint will you?"
"Thanks. And by the Devil you'll love it."
"Oh… um. Wow. It's great. What is it?"
Buffy looked at the smartly dressed grinning Xander with a little worry. Everyone else seemed to be dressed up in traditional Halloween costumes but Xander was dressed seriously his hair gelled and dyed red like it was on fire and…
"Contacts? You're wearing contacts Xander?"
"Just call me Luke for tonight."
Willow descended the stairs. "Who are you supposed to be?"
"No thank you"
"But you have to help! You're really a boy named Xander, it's his body and-"
"My dear just because someone physically looks like one soul does not mean they are."
"But it's the costumes-"
"Then take them off."
"What?"
"Take. Them. Off. The costumes are the focuses for this power, just strip your friend naked and she'll be back to herself." The Xander shaped being started examining his hands turning them this way and that while Willow blushed bright red.
"Oh… naked?"
"Naked."
"But um ghostly hands remember? Couldn't you…"
"You are a ghost of yourself correct?"
"Yeah."
"Your costume is based off the ideas you had when you put it on. You can hypothetically do just about anything you've ever seen a ghost do. With the amount of horror films your teenage mind has absorbed, you could be invisible, touch things, become incorporeal and even possess people. I'm sure you will think of something eventually. Now don't bother me again, I have a world to explore"
Willow -eeped and was apologising even before she fully possessed Lady Buffy, shivering as she tried to ignore the sound of the Lady's voice screaming in panic and fear inside Willows head. Willow forced the possessed body to walk back to Buffy's house and lock herself in the bedroom. Then she forced the Lady's hands to remove the Victorian dress and petticoat from Buffy's body. Suddenly the screaming stopped. And the voice in her head spoke again…
Willow?!
"Oh god buffy!" Willow quickly fled from the body trying in vain to cover her eyes with see through hands. "I was just trying to end the magic and get you to be the slayer again, I'm really sorry and I never looked it was Xander's idea, well not Xander but the Xander person that he has become like you became the Noble woman and I'm the ghost and I'm really-"
Buffy tried to cover herself up with the ruined Halloween costume, "Willow will you stop babbling and help me find some clothes!"
Suddenly the door to the bedroom burst inwards and a figure sprung inwards assuming a fighting position.
"Buffy are you okay I heard scream-" Angel stood stock still staring at the scene of Buffy's clothes in tatters and the ghostly figure of Willow hiding behind her hands. "umm… I… err…"
Buffy turned white and red before screaming "GET OUT!"
Angel backed out of the empty doorframe, watching as the ghostly Willow emerged from the wall next to him. Both stared at each other before the vampire managed to get out, "okay so what is going on here?"
10 minutes later. And a detailed but unenlightening explanation later, Angel was left shocked at what the shy little Willow had done to help out her friend. He also felt slightly jealous, but he would never admit it. Angel managed to get his thoughts in check and started to ask whom Xander dressed up as, or at least what the costume looked like, only for Buffy to emerge from her bedroom in full battle gear.
"I don't care who Xander turned into, I'm going to kick their arse!"
The Xander shaped Being was in fact just completing his second orbit of the world. It was a funny dimension that he found himself stuck in. Heaven and Hell as Democracy's? It was mind boggling and honestly quite stupid. There didn't seem to be a creator about, at least one that the Xander being could detect. He wasn't the prodigal son here so it could simply be that he was cut off from the divine knowledge. But wasn't it perfect? A whole little universe filled with good and evil and all the little people stuck in the middle, no god or divine plan. A nice little retirement dimension.
The Xander being once again examined his body, still annoyed at the vessel he was stuck in, he lacked power while in this body, he missed being a construct of will and energy. He sighed, it was time to talk to this Ethan human and find out exactly what was going on. Perhaps he could stay though, or at least get free entry now and again.
The Ethan human was waiting in a dark corner of his shop, fully amused by the chaos he had invoked in the town. The Xander being walked through the wall behind Ethan, ignoring the sudden gasp and clattering of movement. He walked right up to the Janus Bust examining it closely.
"This has to be a joke." He turned to the shocked human on the floor, "there is no way a small god such as this managed to pull me here."
"What are you? The boy only bought a suit-" The man was obviously going to be of little help, silly mortals hated things not going to what they deemed 'part of the plan' The Xander being took little time to locate the memories that the human spoke of.
"Ah yes the boy never told you his idea for a costume, a pity, you could have avoided this whole mess Ethan." He ignored the shock splayed on the human's face, there was nothing the man could tell him that he, the dark prince, did not already know. He knew that now.
Turning around the Xander being grasped the Bust of the small god Janus, it took the work of moment to open a vein in Xander's body and draw a pentagram in the blood of his host. The bust of Janus was placed in the centre. It still needed some small sacrifice to be completed. After a moment of consideration he turned back to Ethan, smiling as he noticed that the old man was attempting to use a banishing spell.
"Now old man, that won't help." A quick wave of a hand disrupted the magical flow of energy. "I believe, mortal, that you owe me, for the crass act of summoning me without permission. I have need of something you have, so you will understand if I take my payment now."
Before Ethan could re-act the Xander Being had plunged a hand through the old man's rib cage. He watched as his own heart was pulled from his chest leaving a ghastly opening of ribs and guts. As his vision turned black the old man heard the words, "consider us even, Ethan Rane."
As the life left the human, the Xander Being placed the still beating heart in the centre of the pentagram and turned his eyes skywards, arm to the side and head thrown back issuing a summoning of powerful proportions.
"Janus, Master of gates, doors, beginnings and endings. I Lucifer, the angel Light-bringer, Lord of Hell and prodigal son of the great god Yahweh, do call you forth. Step through the world and speak with me on matters of life and death, I do demand it as justice for the wrong done to me in your name."
Lucifer repeated the words again and again; anointing himself in ancient magic, calling down a god was hard work. But then suddenly the words would not come and his eyes opened, in the middle of the cluttered shop hung a three dimensional mirror carved like gemstone. His little god was here. His reflection spun and turned in the gemstone mirror before turning fully to face him.
"It is… Sacrilege… for a mortal… to call upon us" The reflection spoke in halting sentences as the light bit into the mirror.
The Devil's gaze hardened as he stepped close to the gemstone. "I am no mere mortal little God, though your followers actions have bided me here. I care little for your sacrilege or preferred methods; you will find however that I care a lot about justice and vengeance. I ask only once, what was your part in this travesty."
Light reflected of the surface again as the gemstone was suddenly distorted, twisting the images it showed until both Xander's and Ethan's faces were shown in a horrid merging. "We… we see no travesty… only humour… little mortal… in that you believe you are Lucifer!"
The distorted reflection smirked in a savage mockery of humour. But Lucifer did not laugh, he reached forward, hand passing the surface of the gemstone until he was gripping the reflections throat in his hand. The small god gasped and twisted becoming more panicked as it's efforts went unnoticed.
"My dealings are in Death little God, and if you have no answers for me we will see how easily you pass over."
"No! Hold… We do not permit it." The god squirmed again, until tears crept out of its eyes and bloody trickled from its nose. "Please… please lord Lucifer… we… we did not know."
"What do you know?"
"We are… much decayed… less power then of old… powerful being… offered us more power… in exchange… for the acts done… this night."
"You did not know I would be sent?"
"No… please… have mercy…"
"Show me!" Lucifer stepped back, releasing the god from his hold. "Show me this power you were given to unwittingly transport me to this dimension."
As the windows cracked and the ground shook Lucifer knew this to be old magic. The blood started to fall upwards in a mockery of physics. Ethan's body decayed to dust in a matter of seconds. The gemstone cracked and a whirlwind hit the shop, costumes and clothing being pulled in a torrent around the small god, while Lucifer basked in the carnage and chaos eyes wide in joy.
"Mine!" he rose from the ground, wings of light spreading out from Xander's body. "This is my energy!"
The magical plane shifted, the whirlwind began to circle away from the gemstone, leaving Janus shrieking.
"Hold! It is ours… our payment… you will kill us… if you take it."
Carnage stilled as the wings of light rose from Xander's body, forming into a being of beauty and fallen grace. The light shifted again until the form had a body and mouth. Angelic wings flapped as this new body of light turned to the gem of Janus. "Then return unto the dreams from whence you came little God."
With those simple words the gemstone cracked and shattered, the winds died completely and the floating clothes and objects clattered to the floor.
Xander awoke slowly, thinking he had must have been drinking because of the splitting headache he now had. Only once he opened his eyes did bits and pieces of memories return to him. Memories arose, of strength, and will power enough to shape suns. The heart of the late Ethan Rane finally stopped beating as his gaze finally focused, the blood and horror of having your own body taken over caused Xander to choke and heave until he had thrown up all over the floor.
"Alexander Harris."
The words softly spoken caused Xander to freeze. His body twisted until he looked upwards into the angel above him, a being made entirely of light and held together by will power. The angel bent downwards placing a finger upon the teenager's forehead.
"As the Lord laid his protection on the first born Cain so do I lay my protection upon you, Son of Adam." Pain built in Xander's forehead until he nearly passed out from it, only to find himself held up by the arms of the angel, no, not an angel, Xander remembered now. This was no angel! This was his costume, the suave and intelligent Lord Lucifer of Hell!
Lucifer smiled as Xander gained awareness. "No demon or being of evil may touch you young Alexander." Spoke the Devil. "I have my own honour, and your body hosted me against your will while I was trapped inside it. For that act, you shall forever be under my protection."
Wings of light flapped once, twice, and then the devil was gone, to world unknown. Xander breathed deeply for a moment, pushing down a panic attack. Then he scrambled about, looking for a mirror. Eventually his hands fell upon part of the gemstone big enough to reflect his face. Pulling his floppy hair aside Xander saw the mark that still burned bright red, the scar was that of a pentagram, crude but simple.
Did this mean he was cursed? Was he doomed to hell? He was marked by the greatest evil in Christian religion! What was going on? Questions, questions and more questions arose but the darkness in the shop gave no answers. A giggle escaped his lips, then another, and another. Until Alexander Harris was laughing madly, tears streaming down his face, still kneeling in the gore of the remains of the shop.
Footsteps cluttered down towards the shop growing louder until the Scooby gang burst into the building.
"Oh god!" Someone threw up.
"What happened here?" A pair of hands was shaking him. "Xander! Xander! Snap out of it!"
An older voice pulled the hands away. "He's in shock."
Xander's vision blurred as Buffy slapped him. He choked again, and nearly screamed or cried or laughed again he didn't know.
Giles pulled him to his feet, "Xander, you need to focus, tell us whom you dressed as."
Xander blinked once, and again, before whispering "The Devil." And pulling his hair back, he stuttered,"He marked me."
Lucifer strode through the gates of Hell, or at least the gates of the major hell dimension in this universe. He already trailed a procession of smaller demons. They didn't know what to make of him.
He almost felt sorry for his dimensional counterpart, the small Devil, Hell had been forced into a twisted version of democracy where you assassinated your way up. There was too many small gods, to many demons. In this dimension by the time Lucifer fell from heaven with the new Christian religion, there were already thousands of more powerful demons.
Thus this dimensions Lucifer had been stuck in the lower echelons of Hell, never rising. Never ruling. A shame.
The Lord of Hell had already killed his counterpart. There could not be two Lucifer's. Ever.
What had that stupid human writer wrote? Better to rule in hell then serve in heaven. What idiocy, there was no ruling anything in a dimension with an omniscient god. But here! Here where there wasn't any all-powerful being…
Here he could truly do his will. Without his father looking over his shoulder. He would topple heaven and hell and command them both.
I could conclude the story but suffice to say, having the devil in the Buffy-verse things would go badly very quickly. I only drafted out an ultimate ending for a fight between the first evil and Lucifer, and Lucifer stating what the first evil REALLY is. If people are interested I'll whip up a conclusion, if not I have more shorts that are eating at my brain.
