Buffy Z Episode 20: Apocalypse Now!

by TD Master

Episode 20 of Buffy Z. An asteroid threatens the survival of mankind. Xander is the only one left who can stop it. Will he?

Episode 20: Apocalypse Now!

Super Saiyan 3; Our Last and Only Hope?

by 3D Master (3d.master@chello.nl)

web site:

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its characters do not belong to me, but Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy Productions. Dragonball Z, its characters and the concept of the Saiyan race belong to Akira Toriyama.

Reminder: Xander Super Saiyan 2 Theme: Glenn Campbell - Four Horsemen

Xander Super Saiyan 3 Theme: PPK - Resurrection

Notes on SS3 Theme:

When you here the song you're probably going, "What!?" Now bear with me, I know it doesn't sound anything like what you would think a cool theme, just too much boink, boink. I know this, but I'm thinking about a complete remix of this song. Strip a lot of the techno away, keep the few more ethereal parts, and not the first, but the second high pitched sounds that sound like they are made with that instrument, made with a few plates, on a standard and you hit them with this stick, you know, the instrument Famke Janssen taught Picard how to play for a ceremony in that TNG episode. Now add some guitar and drum sounds, and mix in a little from the Super Saiyan 3 Ascension music by Bruce Faulconer from the English show, and you've got what I have in mind. The pings give a suitable eery sound that reflects the awesome, scary power experienced by those who can sense energy, while the ethereal parts give testimony to the balance needed and the deep depth inside his being a Saiyan has to reach for the third level, while the faster parts really give an idea of the simple rawness, the brutal primitiveness (those ape-like eye ridges, and reaching beyond Oozaru) of this new level.

On with the story.

Previously on Buffy Z:

Then Xander shot up into the air and tested his speed and power. After two minutes he stopped and said out loud to himself, "Incredible I'm at least a thousand times more powerful now than I was before . . . I did it! I'M A SUPER SAIYAN!!!!!"

*****

Cell, too preoccupied with keeping one beam from vaporizing him, didn't notice Gohan's Kamehameha until after it was fired. "What!?" he exclaimed in shock and looked down, seeing doom speeding towards him. "NOOOO!!!" he roared and tried to deflect Gohan's beam as well, but against the two of them, he didn't stand a change. The two beams connected and a few seconds later there was nothing left of the so called perfect being.

No longer needing the energy stored in the massive sphere, Xander moved his arms apart and stretched them toward the sky, and letting it all flow into the depths of space harmlessly.

*****

"You're finished Glory. Let me demonstrate," Xander said and attacked with a punch that Glory blocked. The leg Xander kicked to her right knee at the same time was totally unstoppable for her. The crack that followed made it clear Xander had broken her knee. Glory face contorted in pain as she instinctively grabbed for her knee, giving Xander the opportunity to give her a powerful blow to the nose. Glory's head snapped back as black blood flung from her face. Xander followed up with a double handed overhand punch that sent her down to the ground like an anvil. Xander flew after her and started kicking her in the stomach with a downward bicycle kick. Just before Glory smashed into the ground, Xander grabbed the collar of her ripped robe and hissed at her, "You do understand you never stood a chance, do you? I've been fighting you with only a tiny fraction of my power." Then Xander let her go and gave her an extra powerful kick using both his feet, making Glory crash into the ground. He flew up immediately, and pointed both his hands down and formed a big energy ball as he yelled, "ANNIHILATION ATTACK!" He sent the energy ball down toward Glory. Slowly, but steadily its speed increased.

Glory staggered to her feet with enormous difficulty. Every part of her body hurt. Then her attention was drawn upward by something. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw the energy ball coming directly at her. The next moment it impacted and exploded with enough power to vaporize Glory completely.

*****

"Please read the verdict out loud," the judge announced.

The man stood up and read, "On the charge of escaping prison without due reason . . ."

*Here it comes,* Faith thought dejectedly. With her luck, her confession, what else could it be then . . .

"Not guilty."

"What!?" Faith whispered to herself, disbelieving for a moment, then her mood went down again. There were still more charges.

The man continued, "On the charge of break-in and entering: guilty."

Faith felt her stomach constrict in fear; she didn't want to go to jail, but it seemed that that was what was going to be. "On the charge of stealing: guilty." Faith zoned out, she was going to jail and that was it. Her lawyers looked disappointed. Xander was still looking expectant, this whole trial wasn't so much about the verdict, as the sentencing.

"Thank you, ladies and gentleman of-" the judge started when he was interrupted by the foreman.

"Your honor, we as members of the jury have something to say," the foremen interrupted him. The judge looked at him surprised, and before he could protest, the foremen continued. He pulled a sheet of paper from somewhere and read what was on it. "We know this is unusual, but we the jury found that this whole trial was unusual. A young impressionable girl, who is treated badly all through her life, finds herself at the mercy of manipulative power hungry mayor, which in turn caused her to slip into a deep dark hole of evil and later on that of a coma. Total disregard of any procedures when it came to trial, courtesy of a corrupt police officer who wants to keep Faith as the big bad, so he can continue his illegal practices. Therefore we believe we should recommend a sentence, and that sentence would come down to a total of one point two years in prison for all of her crimes. Minus time already served, the remaining time would come down to exactly . . ." the foreman looked back up from the piece of paper. "Nothing." The courtroom was silent and stayed that way, too captivated by what was happening.

The judge looked the jury over once, and answered, "I'm taking the recommendation, with a few amendments. Ms. Williams . . . Ms. Williams!"

*****

"Galeck Gun Fire!" The third beam blasted away as well. Xander stood back a bit, and told them, "There now you try."

Dawn stood looking at her hands uncertain. Buffy was a little bit bolder. "Kamehameha!" The beam sputtered away before it could even leave her hands. "Damn," she muttered.

Xander grinned, "You'll have to work on that one. Seven years before I perfected that one. I hear it took Krillin about four, the guy who created the Kamehameha took fifty years. This won't be as easily done as flight, or blasting a little ener- . . ."

"Galeck Gun FIRE!!!" Faith screamed off to the side. She had turned away a little, looking at her hands for a couple of minutes figuring it out. Deciding the tree to the right of the house was a good target, she had aimed and fired. Xander turned around, and his eyes went wide along with the others. The Galeck Gun shot forward perfectly on target. It hit the tree and exploded. The tree disintegrated and the whole Scooby Gang got showered with its remains. All of them covered in sawdust.

Faith looked stricken at the destroyed tree. "Oops!" she said, scratching her head embarrassedly.

*****

"Good," Sandra answered and then her irises and pupils started glowing golden. The decagram glowed right after that, golden, with mixtures of pink and white. The energy slowly came off the ground, and formed a standing decagram. Then the two pentagrams that it was made up out of started twisting in opposite directions. The mist on the floor ignited and covered the room in a thick haze of smoke. The pentagrams went faster and faster, causing a rapid wind to form, the smoke got sucked into the double pentagram. The women's hair blew around their faces, Tara's and Willow's eyes wide with amazement. The smoke glowed the moment it came into contact with the plasma, and became part of a rapidly twisting glowing ball of energy. Then the walls and the floor of the basement started glowing, and then that energy was sucked into the ball of energy as well. Finally once the basement was normal again, except the ball of energy in the middle, said ball slowed down. Eventually the two pentagrams stopped to form a decagram again and then blasted down into the still formed drawing on the ground. The edges of the drawing glowed as it absorbed the energy. Then, with a final flash of light, that made Willow and Tara blink, that too disappeared, and everything was calm again.

"There," Sandra said, smiling widely. "Now that this room is cleansed and balanced, we can start your training. Sorry that took so long, never had so much conflicting and demonic energy in one room before."

"This whole town is infested with demons, they are all drawn to the Hellmouth," Willow explained still wide-eyed. "It's a dimensional gateway straight to Hell, it's beneath what once was Sunnydale High, a mile from here."

Sandra blinked and said, "No wonder."

*****

Xander hung in the air, taking most of the power of the shockwave, following his energy blast. He looked up, squinting his eyes at the fire and dust hanging in the air. Did he do it? That was the problem with rocks, they had no chi to detect. Then the smoke was pushed aside and revealed the heavily scarred asteroid, going straight down at great speed, heading for him. He rapidly blasted aside, instantly joining his three friends who had managed to stabilized themselves.

*DAMNIT! NO, I FAILED!* He screamed in his head as he saw the asteroid careen by, taking notice of how he had blasted off the forward forty or so meters, still leaving about six hundred. The blast had also significantly slowed the rock down. Xander's eyes widened when he saw that. *One chance!*

Before either Buffy, Faith, or Dawn could protest, he blasted off, directly behind the asteroid, and gaining on it. His teeth gritted as he drew upon every last bit of energy and speed he could get out of his body. He felt pain surging though his body as he passed through the asteroid's turbulent backwash.

"Xander!" Dawn called out stricken as she watched what Xander did. The other two girls watched as the golden glow around Xander identified. Details quickly became impossible to tell as distance limited their eyesight.

Xander had finally worked his way through the turbulence, now inside the asteroids wake, getting to it was easy. He started twisting on his own axis rapidly, pushed his hands forward and formed his energy around them in a point acting like a drill. He impacted on the rock, and then started drilling himself into the asteroid.

Cracks started to form in the asteroid now, golden light emitted from them. Dawn remembered a question on her last physics test. She shook her head, as much in a negation as denial. "No, he can't do that, he won't do that. He would have to transfer its momentum to him."

*****

Finally he landed with extreme pain onto a street. More bones, and bloody wounds were inflicted on his body. The street cracked under the pressure, and pieces of asphalt were thrown up along with a small dust cloud. Once it cleared, it showed that Xander had managed to reduce his speed, so only a crater of a few meters had formed, instead of a crater a hundred meters wide, and leveling several buildings with the ground. Inside this crater Xander lay still, except for his head slumping, and his eyes closing.

*****

She spun around her axis, hitting, and blasting every rock she considered big enough to do serious damage. Buffy close by was doing the same, a little further Dawn as well, but focusing on smaller rocks.

Aware of one falling piece of debris behind her, Faith bashed it with her elbow, shattering it instantly. Her eyes widened and she grabbed her elbow, pulling herself around. "Funny bone, funny, funny bone!" she yelled out in irritation and pain.

"Ouch!" Buffy called out, grinning at her fellow slayer glad that didn't happen to her. "Oh, fuck, Faith!" Buffy yelled, pointing up.

Faith turned to look where Buffy had indicated and saw a meteorite forty meters across slowly descending. Faith's eyes widened at first, and then grinned. She raised one hand and said, "Exploding Destructo Disc!" She threw the disc and a short distance hence it started losing cohesion. Faith quickly closed her eyes and concentrated. The disc returned to a proper disc. Buffy watched as the disc cut through the rock, then once the middle ball disappeared into the giant piece of debris, it exploded into a million small pieces.

"Yes!" Faith exclaimed with satisfaction. They continued their desperate battle with the almost unlimited number of flying debris for another hour before they finally ran out.

*****

Xander opened his eyes. Everything in his body hurt. He looked around confused, until his memory returned to him and he recognized a hospital IC ward. More patients were lying in the other beds. Xander groaned, pain lancing through his body as he sat up. Something had awoken him. He checked a few drawers of his night stand. Relieved at finding his clothes there he started disrobing, and met obstacles. For a moment he looked at his arms, then ripped the IVs and other medical equipment off his body.

*****

"The new asteroid has previously been in the first's shadow, and has only been detected a half an hour ago, since all people's attention was on the crisis at hand," the reporter on screen said with a terrified face. "It has the same course and speed as the first, but is slightly more to the east as the first. It is heading straight for where Oklahoma City is now like the first. It's radius has been determined at 6 miles, which . . ."

*****

Military base, north of Oklahoma City

" . . . means exactly what?" the general asked, looking directly at the scientist in front of him.

"The extinction of the human species, sir," the scientist answered. "If it isn't diverted, or destroyed, we are all dead."

*****

Sunnydale

"And it will impact in about three hours, by then it should impact in California or just west of it," the reporter almost whispered with wide eyes.

"Bloody hell," Spike exclaimed as he heard the reporter.

The witches just looked at the screen with mouths agape.

~~O~~

And now the continuation:

Military Base

"Options?" the General asked roughly. Around him the room was filled wit busy people and frantic calls, people operating sensor screens, and reading through computer readouts.

"If we had a year to plan this . . ." a scientist said. Quickly calling up NASA headquarters. The more minds on this, and the more expert those minds, the better chance. "I've got NASA on speakers."

"Options!?" the General asked more roughly this time.

None, NASA answered.

"Come on, people! You're the experts here! Give me something I can work with. Anything; no matter how big of a longshot it is!" the general yelled out in frustration.

There is nothing, General, NASA answered, the man's voice booming around the room through the speakers. The asteroid will crash within three hours. We can't get a shuttle or a rocket ready within at least three days. And even then, the fire power needed to destroy this asteroid would probably irradiate the planet, not to mention the time it takes to calculate the exact positions to place the nuclear charges, and drilling the holes. It can't be done in three hours.

"What about changing its course, make it miss the Earth," the military scientist asked.

Still don't have the time to send the nuclear weapons up there, the NASA scientist answered with frustration. Nor the time to calculate the exact positions of the bombs, which are more difficult to determine than a simple destruction. Besides, it's too late, the asteroid has already passed the critical point, it can't be pushed aside to miss the Earth.

The general looked thoughtfully at one of their screens, showing the two slayers and former key hanging in the air, looking up at the asteroid in frustration and defeat. "What about them?" the General asked pointing at the three girls.

You mean the girls? the NASA scientist inferred.

"Yes," the General said.

"From what I can see they're exhausted, and out of energy, sir," the military scientist said, the fear in his voice easily apparent. "Besides, they don't have the power to destroy that thing, not even the guy with the golden glow had that power. He used up everything he had to destroy this smaller one, and from what I can gather he died doing that. If he isn't dead, he's out of commission."

"I'm not talking about destroying the asteroid, I'm talking about pushing it aside," the General explained.

Not possible, the NASA scientist said.

"Yeah, but then, them floating in air, and the rest they did, is also not possible," the General bit back bitterly.

You don't get it, the asteroid has passed the critical point, the NASA scientist started explaining. Now you no longer only have to fight the asteroid's speed and direction, but also Earth's gravity. It takes ten times more energy now to push it to miss the Earth, than it does to destroy it, and we just establish they don't have anywhere near that energy.

"What if we use Earth's gravity to our advantage?" the military scientist asked, rubbing his chin pensively.

What do you mean? NASA asked.

"What if we push it just enough so Earth's gravity captures the asteroid and puts it into an orbit?" the military scientist suggested hopefully.

NASA stayed silent for a moment, then said, hopeful, It's too close for a permanent orbit, they could only be able to pull of a decaying orbit . . .

"That would buy us time right?" the General asked, in his voice hope laid carefully as well.

"A few hours, a day, two if we're very lucky," the military scientist said.

The General got a determined stare, "Can you choose its impact site?"

General, it doesn't matter where it impacts, where all dead, all of humanity that includes the US.

The general paced back and forth, "I get that, but if ours and/or the Europeans space capability isn't destroyed in the initial blast, we might just have the time left to send a small remnant of the human race into space to colonize Mars or something; we'd survive!?"

That's actually quite possible, the NASA scientist said, with hopeful appreciation. That's a lot easier than we make it out to be on the Discovery Channel. This is classified, but Mars is very much alive, it'd be like the Himalaya, but it takes much less effort to get a habitable dome structure on Mars than to destroy an asteroid.

"I don't think we have the luxury to determine its impact site at this short a notice, one chance is probably all we've got, but we'll see what we can do," the military scientist said gravely.

"Good, get cracking, and get me captain Meadow. He's had the most experience with these . . . beings, he needs to communicate with them, tell them what we've come up with," the General ordered. He was back in his element.

*****

Faith, Buffy, and Dawn floated in the air, looking up at the asteroid with helpless expressions. Dawn and Buffy looked back down all of a sudden.

Buffy was shocked as she muttered, "That's Xander."

Dawn looked back up, and said, "I vote we do what Xander does and get out of here as fast and as far as we can. We load up on necessities, take Xander's space ship and get the hell off this planet."

"No," Faith said with authority. "Xander is hurt, you must have felt it, and we don't have the speed needed to get out of the way, or to his ship . . . Neither does Xander. We're going to fight this thing or die trying."

Buffy looked astonished. Who had put her in charge? Not to mention, looking at Dawn's reaction, since when could Faith be in charge, and be so convincing at it.

Faith turned to look at the two young women with her for a moment, and said, "Up." The three blasted upward until oxygen became an issue.

"Ok, you have a bright idea?" Buffy asked the younger slayer. Faith looked at the asteroid, still out in space - but rapidly coming closer - for a moment, then turned to look at Buffy.

"No. You?"

Buffy was taken aback by the look in her junior's eyes. They were filled with fear and a longing for someone wiser, older to tell her what to do. Buffy was at a loss, and snook her head. She had no idea either, the dread in the pit of her stomach was almost tangible, as if it would tear itself a way out her body and start running. Buffy saw Faith's face harden with resolve, even though the fear remained.

"Well . . . here goes-," Faith started, but was interrupted by an F16 flying by. It turned around and slowed down as much as it could. The pilot gestured back and forth between him and them.

"I think, he wants to communicate with us," Dawn said, with wide eyes and breathing hard.

Faith blinked. Circling her hand, she gestured 'go ahead.'

The pilot pointed upward, then held up two fists and let them smash together, after which he held up three fingers and drew an 'h' in the air. The three girls looked confused.

The jet moved past them, and thus it circled around. The pilot repeated his gestures.

"I get it, impact . . ." Dawn exclaimed in revelation.

Faith had gotten a hang of the pilot's gestures, and joined Dawn in the last part of the sentence. " . . .in three hours."

While she nodded her understanding, Faith gestured again for the pilot to continue. The pilot pointed at them, then at the asteroid, and then brought his fists up again, this time he circled one around the other. Then he repeated it again, before he had to make another U-turn.

Faith figured it out first as the plane made its turn. "I think he wants us to try to push it into an orbit," she said with a glimmer of hope. Buffy and Dawn nodded in understanding. Once the turn was complete, Faith pointed to the pilot then to them, after which she extended an arm, hand flat and waved it around. She hunched up her shoulders, arms out in an 'I don't know' gesture, then drew a clock and made another 'I don't know' gesture.

The pilot gave a thumbs up, then a 'follow me' gesture. The plane made sharp turn and flew off.

*****

Meadow looked back and was pleased to see the three girls following him. He still could hardly believe the three girls were flying through the air and keeping up with him even though he wasn't going at super sonic speeds. He checked the coordinates that command had given him. Once there he gave a burst with his afterburners, marking the spot with a cloud of smoke.

Meadow turned his plane around, and watched the three girls hover above the cloud, looking expectantly at him. Good, they had understood.

"Meadow to command, we're ready. I need direction, and corrections once they're firing," Meadow asked via the radio.

Standby.

*****

"Well," the General asked his scientist.

The man turned to look at him and nodded.

"Where?"

"Impact site, Philadelphia," the man answered him.

The General nodded, and then made a go-ahead gesture with his head.

*****

"We'll have to make these very powerful, but very low intensity," Faith said slowly, looking up at the asteroid with an intense gaze. "We don't want to waste energy burrowing into the asteroid, we want to push it aside."

She turned her head and looked at Meadow in his plane. He held up three fingers on each hand, and then drew a small circle just above where he had his hands moments before. Faith gave him a thumbs up and said, to the other two girls, "Thirty-three degrees." Buffy and Dawn nodded. Faith placed her hands along side her body and said, "Galeck Gun Fire!" Faith moved her hands in front of her, and a small narrow beam, almost see-through blasted from out them. It quickly left Earth's atmosphere and entered space. A short while later it impacted on the asteroid. Most, if not all of the energy bounced off the asteroid, forming a small ring of energy moving away from the rock.

Faith turned to look at Meadow who pointed upward with his finger. Faith raised her beam a little. Meadow gestured to stop and then pointed downward. Faith slowly lowered her beam, until Meadow again gestured to stop. Then he stretched out his arm and lowered the front end. Faith made the angle of her beam more shallow. Stopping in the right position, Meadow signaled 'perfect'. Faith released the full might of her energy with a yell. The Galeck Gun increased in size instantly, although the intensity stayed the same.

Buffy joined alongside her and performed similar movements with her hands. "Kamehameha!" The energy beam erupted, sparkled and blinked out. "DAMN IT!" Buffy screamed in frustration. As on Faith's other side Dawn fired a simple energy beam alongside Faith's Galeck Gun, Buffy started again. "KAMEHAMEHA!!" Once more the energy beam formed, and once more sputtered out of existence. "NO!"

"Leave it, B, just fire something," Faith told her fellow slayer gently, but with command in her voice. Even more frustrated, and hating herself for doing as the object of a lot of her hate told her to, Buffy fired an energy beam that soon joined the other two on the asteroid.

Faith turned to look at the pilot in his F16 that was circling around them. He showed all five fingers of one of his hands, and then drew an 'H', in the air.

"Five hours!?" Dawn exclaimed in shock. "That's two hours too long, and I can't keep this up for five hours, Faith. A half hour at most, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty . . ."

Faith brow furrowed and then with a scream released even more energy into the Galeck Gun. Buffy followed suit with her own energy beam. The group turned to look at the jet and its pilot. He held up four fingers, drew an 'H', held up all ten of his fingers, followed by another five, and then drew an 'M'.

"Four hours fifteen minutes," Buffy said defeated. "We can't do this."

Faith kept firing. "I will die trying, fighting," she said hollowly, feeling the loss. She had come this far, and now a simple rock would end it all. "I won't give up. I won't."

All three of them felt it, they looked in the direction and they saw a small white dot appear on the horizon. Over the course of minutes it slowly grew, until it finally coalesced into a chi flame with an Asian man in side.

"Sorry, I late," he said in broken English. He was breathing hard, he was obviously exhausted. Whether his speech was from lack of knowledge or a much needed short hand to spare his energy, or a combination of both neither of the three stunned girls could tell. "Long flight Tibet, almost ten hours." He assessed what they were doing, the state of the city below, and quickly decided on what had happened during his flight over here. He joined them and despite his exhaustion fired an energy beam up at the asteroid, helping to push along.

Faith looked at the fighter plane, and its just as astonished occupant as they were. Three hours fifty-five minutes he signaled. Faith grimaced and put even more of her energy into the beam. Her body strained as she did so, arms gently trembled under the exertion.

"I . . . pleasantly surprised," the Tibetan told them with a gentle smile. "I thought, I only one, who can do this."

"So did we," Buffy told him, and looked with the rest at the fighter jet. Three and a half hours, till completion. Two hours and forty six minutes till impact, he signaled afterward.

"Still not enough," Dawn said stricken. She had tried several times to increase her energy output like Faith had, but had found it impossible to do so. She had simply reached her limit, at least without hurting her own body, which would only mean she would break down sooner.

*****

Spike stalked the room back and forth. He hated this. He should be out there helping. He couldn't care less about the people in Oklahoma. He couldn't care less about the people of the world. But his own hide, now that was something else. It didn't help that the others were selflessly risking their lives to save all of their lives, that included his, which meant he would be in their debt, and he hated being in anyone's debt, even if he had no intention of ever paying off that debt. Before this, all their motivations of keeping him alive had ultimately been selfish, what could he do to help them if he stayed alive. This wasn't. That bastard Xander, and his goody two-shoes sidekicks, could just as easily decide to screw this planet, or even this dimension and take his friends in deep space or across the dimensional barrier for a new home. But no, he had to save their lives, and thus his.

He looked out the window, through the shades and saw a blurred image of the sun. Nature was laughing at him. The sun, nature, is what kept him locked in here, and nature had sent that asteroid, right in the middle of day time. Nature, the great equalizer. Nature didn't give a shit about good or evil. Nature didn't give a damn about the fight between light and darkness. And nature couldn't care less about some old halfwits claiming this planet was theirs and not the souled people dominating it now. If nature decided you had lived long enough, it wiped you out. Gods, humans, demons; it didn't matter. Anything and everything that depended on a certain level of life on the planet for survival could be wiped out with ease. This was its ultimate demonstration. Success this time or not; there were weapons out there that nature could wield which would make this little asteroid look pathetic in comparison. Spike had to grin at the irony. What if the master had succeeded in opening the Hellmouth properly and unleashed hell on Earth? That hell today, would have come to the same crashing end as the relative paradise that Earth was now. His grin widened as he imagined it: the monsters crawling around the Earth, having a fantastic buffet at eating humans and animals and whatever else they could find, all cheering, and patting themselves on their backs for their triumphant return, until they pointed up and said - with dumb looks in their eyes, still picking human flesh from their teeth with human bones - 'Hey, what's that light?' BOOM! Spike laughed out loud, it was just too funny.

"What's so funny?" Willow asked the vampire with narrowed, angry and frustrated eyes.

"Oh, nothing," Spike answered, unable to keep the grin of his face. "Just a little ironic contemplation on the nature of the bloody universe."

Willow looked as if she wanted to argue with him, but then turned back to the television, as the dread over the situation returned full force.

"A-are they trying t-to destroy it?" Tara asked nervously to no one in particular. The implication lay heavily in the air: there was no way they could destroy this much bigger new one, they would fail miserably at their attempts.

"No, you bloody halfwit!" Spike screamed out his frustration. He saw Tara flinch back. These people were so stupid. How in blazes had they managed to beat him and everybody else anyway? Oh, right, Xander, cold blooded strategist, and Giles with the right book with the right information to point them in the right direction. Even if they wouldn't have been able to beat whatever, Xander would have revealed his true nature earlier, like he finally felt necessary with Glory. It must have been torture on the guy constantly deciding whether or not he should release his power. Waiting to see whether they would come save him when he was captured. Constantly struggling whether people, the Slayer mostly, could pull through without his help. And the failures, Jenny Calender, Faith's fall from grace, that Jesse guy he had talked about. Especially, as like Spike himself, Xander was a predator, a warrior, he would have smiled as he crushed the Master's skull into paste, laughed heartily as he tore his, Dru's and Brood Boy's bodies limb from limb, smirked as he gleefully would have used the Mayor's snake form in a nice game of jump the rope before skinning it alive and have enough snake meat to barbecue for the rest of his life . . . torture huh? Perhaps there was something good about Xander's powered up state after all. Not to mention he had just found some new ammo to potentially use. For an imperceptible instant an evil smile flickered across Spike's face, before his frustration returned and continued reaming Tara's ass verbally. "Not all the women in this house hold are as stupid as you, they are trying to push it aside."

"Hey!" Willow exclaimed angrily, gathering Tara in a comforting hug. "You leave my girlfriend alone. She is not stupid!"

Spike was about to sink his verbal fangs in the redhead, when Sandra got up and said, "Let's go. We can help with this." The vampire and the two lesbian witches looked at the teacher witch, who walked toward the basement entrance. Suddenly jolting to life, the three of them quickly followed her.

Once down inside Sandra took position on the north peak of the decagram drawn on the ground. Willow and Tara took their positions a third of the circle away from.

"Hey, can I help?" Spike asked with a disinterested tone, still standing halfway up the stairs.

Sandra contemplated for an instant and then pointed a quarter of the circle away. "East," she ordered quickly. Spike jumped down the rest of the way, off to the side of the stairs, displaying his 'cool'. As Willow scooted over toward, west, and Tara to south, Spike took his position. "You won't be able to do much, but we can draw upon your life force, however much or little a demon infested corpse may posses. Willow, Tara, we don't have the luxury of using only a third of our power now, we'll have to draw upon everything we've got. We'll come down crashing after this, we can't use magic for at least a week, no matter how much our bodies crave it." Willow and Tara nodded.

"Guardians of the watchtowers of the north!" Sandra exclaimed raising her hands into the air. Willow and Tara followed suit, so Spike did the same. "We beseech thee!"

"We beseech thee!" Willow and Tara cried out in unison. Instantly a bolt of lightning formed through them, making a circle. Spike jerked at the power, and looked surprised as the others hardly seemed to notice. Willow's eyes had turned black, while Tara's were an ethereal, deep navy blue. Sandra's eyes had remained unchanged.

"Guardians of the watchtowers of the south! We beseech thee!"

"We beseech thee!" The lightning intensified.

"Guardians of the watchtowers of the east! We beseech thee"

"We beseech thee!" The decagram began to glow and slowly a mist rose up.

"Guardians of the watchtowers of the west! We beseech thee."

"We beseech thee!" The whole cellar was quickly turned into a light show. On top of what was going on, energy now burst upward from the decagram and surrounded them in a sphere of light. It spilled out over them, rising higher, and engulfing the entire ceiling.

"The danger we face threatens the entire world!" Sandra cried out. "It threatens to explode, and take the world with it. Of all the powers of light and darkness, we beseech thee!"

"We beseech thee!" Willow and Tara cried out again.

"Repel this threat now!"

"Repel!" Willow and Tara together again.

"Refuto calamitas!" Sandra called out in Latin.

"Refuto!" the lesbians repeated.

"Barra Telal! Barra Uggae! Barra Hebat!" Sandra called out, this time her chosen language was Sumerian. The power picked up, started to rotate rapidly, and violently around the cellar.

"BARRA! BARRA! BARRA!" As Willow and Tara called out the words, the energy increased even more and the sound of the rotating energy and the wind caused by it, almost started to overpower the witches exclaims.

"Hecate, stoße den Fels weg!"

"Stoße weg!" Willow and Tara again called out the verbs if Sandra's sentence, the energy vortex increasing in strength.

"Methu Marduk!" Sandra's pupils disappeared, her eyes turned completely white in this final part of the spell.

"Methu!" The final words were repeated and the energy suddenly burst outward. Spike felt himself go rigid in the energy, briefly wondering if the witches had actually managed to rival Xander's first transformation or whether that was just an illusion on his part. Instantly he became aware of pushing energy reaching far beyond the house, even though he didn't see anything actually leaving the cellar.

*****

San Francisco

Halliwell Manor

"Are you guys certain this Se watchamacallit is so bad?" Paige asked at the other three witches fearfully.

"Yes, every prophecy says so. Both the demons and the Elders say so, there is no doubt about it. Why?" Prue asked nervously, arms across her chest.

"Well," Paige asked, afraid of sounding stupid. "Why would he risk his life trying to save lives? From what I can tell, he might very well be dead." Paige turned to look at he tv, showing the asteroid, military aircraft, and four points of light high in the sky.

"Flex his muscles, show off his power, slowly toying with everyone before finally destroying us all," Cole mentioned from a side seat.

He seemed calm, but Phoebe knew better, she could see it in his eyes. "Or this might actually be big enough to threaten the Sedra Soli's life. Then destroying the rocks before they destroy him is purely selfish."

"I'd buy that of this one," Paige pointed at the screen, that was still showing the Apocalypse stone. "But not the first, one destroyed city wouldn't kill him. Not to mention why does he have friends, or minions and why would they risk their lives?"

Phoebe was at a loss for words, could they be wrong about this? Was this the solution that the bigger powers they were told would handle the Sedra Soli, had come up with? Were they willing to destroy all life on the planet if it meant saving their own asses?

"Look," Piper said angry with frustration. "Until I see proof otherwise, and I'm not in the least bit, I'm assuming this is all just a set up, and this bastard is not hurt at all, and laughing his ass off somewhere."

"I agree," Leo stated calmly. "I wouldn't be surprised if he brought the asteroids."

"That bad huh?" Paige asked with a grimace.

Phoebe wobbled at the sensation and called out, "Whoa." She saw her fellow witches do the same, obviously this was not something only she could feel. Magic! Not the raw energy she had started to feel better and better over the past few months, this was magic, and lots of it, and her sisters felt it too. They all looked in the direction it came from: the direction of Los Angeles.

Then another burst, this one from right here in their own city, not as powerful as the first but close enough. "They are helping trying to push aside the asteroid," Phoebe whispered in awe. She looked at her fellow sisters.

Prue quickly made the decision, not liking it, probably helping their enemy, but the way she saw it, they had no choice. "We can't keep out of it, we help as well."

*****

With a sudden relief, the three girls and Asian man felt the strain lessen.

"What the!?" Dawn called out. "Are you feeling the same thing?"

Faith felt the lessening of the strain as well, and something else. What was it? She checked it out, looked down. For some odd reason she could feel the general direction of the source, even through the energy pushing the asteroid didn't strictly have a source. "That's magic energy," she said, coming to the right conclusion.

Buffy's eyes widened in recognition, "That's Willow, Tara, and their new teacher!"

"Yeah!" Dawn screamed aloud with happiness. There was another burst, and their load became even lighter. "Wait a minute!"

"That's the ones who tried to kill Xander," Faith said with wide eyes, surprising herself, she didn't know she had been able to differentiate between energies back then already.

Then there was another burst pushing against the asteroid, and another, and another. The four of them looked with astonishment at where their sixth sense told them it was coming from. From the US, Canada, South America, Europe . . . soon from all over the world there were magic spikes all pushing against the asteroid.

"All right!" Buffy exclaimed, "We just got help, we might just have a chance!" The four of them looked at the jet still circling them. The pilot signaled fifteen minutes.

"I don't know if fifteen minutes is possible for me," their surprise guest told them. Faith looked back to the asteroid with determination. They were going to win this, no doubt about it.

Time moved on, every minute they kept going it became more difficult. Every minute their limbs trembled more. Every moment they become more hungry and thirsty. After twelve minutes, the Asian backed off.

"Sorry," he said. The girls looked at him, he didn't look good, as if he would drop from the sky any moment. "Nothing left." He slowly floated down, they watched as he steered himself toward one of the helicopters still floating below.

The girls looked at the pilot in the jet. Three and a half minutes he gestured. Determined they continued onward. The three energy beams firing continuously, never once hiccuping.

Finally the jet pilot started counting down. Thirty seconds . . . twenty-five seconds . . . twenty seconds . . . nineteen seconds . . .

******

Halliwell Manor

The four witches were standing around the pentagram in the attic. Their hands raised to the sky, energy circled around them rapidly. Their bodies trembled and shook.

Leo and Cole looked on with worry. Trying to get to them now, would probably kill them. They had never seen the Charmed Ones exuding such power. They had both called upon the power of three, as the four corners of the Earth.

Their power waned, and the witches' knees buckled, dropping them unceremoniously to the floor. "We're out," Prue managed before she and the others fell asleep.

*****

Summers' Residence, cellar

The violent vortex still flew around the three witches and vampire. But that didn't last long. Moments later the energy disappeared and the four of them collapsed to the ground, they too were spent.

*****

"No," Buffy whispered with dread. She felt the magical peaks disappear around the world. The strain of pushing the asteroid rapidly coming back to full capacity.

Faith looked back at the pilot. He signaled five minutes. Faith increased the energy to the Galeck gun a little and looked back. Four minutes he signaled. "Keep going, guys," Faith said, her body trembling. "We've got to keep going. We're all this world has got left. Don't give up! Don't give up!"

Dawn nodded, biting her lower lip, as her body trembled more and more. Four minutes became three, then two and a half. "I'm out," Dawn muttered. She stopped firing, and saw the last of the beam she had made continue onward until it reached the asteroid and was gone. Buffy and Faith looked at Dawn who floated downward.

"Dawn," Buffy said concerned but kept up her beam. She saw Dawn maneuver herself slowly toward the same helicopter as the Asian had gone too, mostly letting Earth's gravity do the moving for her.

"Don't bail now, B. The Chosen Two are the only ones that are left," Faith said to Buffy with urgency. "We've got to keep it together." She looked at the pilot, they were back at three minutes.

"I know that. I'm not stupid," Buffy told her angrily, body trembling under the exertion.

"Really?" Faith asked, surprised. "I always thought you were. Angel definitely thinks so, and Xander . . ." Buffy looked at her slack-jawed. " . . .well, he definitely thinks I'm smarter than you."

"BITCH!" Buffy screamed at her. Faith realized that she had annihilated the bonding, or whatever it was that had allowed the two of them to work amiable together during this event, but it was worth it. Buffy's anger drove her power up. Her chi flame became a little more intense, her energy beam grew along with it. Faith smirked with satisfaction at the added power. Buffy's look grew more angry as she saw the smirk.

With a glowering Buffy, the two hung in the air, firing their energy outward. Their bodies hurt and trembled. They fought onward though, never letting up.

As the power drain increased, Buffy's anger slowly ebbed away. "Faith," Buffy called bitterly. "I can't keep this up much longer."

"You have to! You must!" Faith ordered her, feeling the strain on her body increase as well. She looked back at the pilot. "One more minute, B. Just keep it together, bitch! Come on, blondie. Don't tell me you're out already. You're the Slayer after all, this is your sacred duty, your destiny. One more burst of effort. You always did go home early to fuck your boyfriends, leaving me to the clean up duty!"

It hit home, Buffy's beam intensified again as the look on her face darkened. Faith had used the speech to rile herself up as well. Getting angry herself about the half truth, her own beam intensified. "Just a few seconds more!" Faith yelled, as she felt the trembling in her body intensify. She knew neither Dawn nor the Asian guy had trembled so much as the two of them did now. They were on their last reserves.

"I'm sorry," Buffy said eventually, to one in particular and everyone at the same time. The beam stopped, quickly growing shorter, as no new energy was being supplied. Shaking the blonde slayer dropped from the sky, using the last tiny bits of energy left in her to point herself toward the first helicopter she saw.

Faith felt the strain on her body suddenly increase, launching a pain through her body. Tears sprang forth from her eyes involuntarily, and she felt them poor down her cheeks. She looked back quickly. The pilot signaling forty-five seconds. She could feel his despair. It poured of his mannerisms like an avalanche. Whatever hope he had earlier it was gone now. He didn't believe she could do it alone. Faith bit her lips, she agreed with him. How could she last another forty five seconds, if with Buffy's help, she felt like she could barely handle the time needed then. She felt like a failure, she felt like letting the guy in his plane down. She would let everyone on the planet down. She would let her friends down . . . again. The tears that started to form now were not of pain. She felt her energy plummet to inexistence. Her chi flame started to flicker.

*I believe in you Faith,* a voice suddenly sounded in her mind. Had that been Xander? Raiden? She didn't know, and at the moment she didn't care who it was. How could anyone believe in her, if she didn't even believe in herself?

*Stop wallowing in your self pity!* a new voice screamed at her. She knew that voice. It was her own voice. *It's what helped to go evil in the first place. Believe in your self or not, it doesn't matter! For once in your damn life stop curling up like a little kid every time things are going to get tough, and do what has been a burning desire in you from the moment that bitch mother first beat you into a pulp. Fight back! Truly fight! Not this oh, look slayer powers, kill demons, fun, good sensations, slay some more. Fight, damn you! Fight for real! If your slayer powers are gone, than use your human ones!*

Faith had no idea from what part of her psyche that had come from, but somehow it did the trick. Barely a second had passed since the pilot had announced she still had forty five seconds to go. Thoughts could speed along at great speed, and when adrenaline speeds the brain up, it goes even faster. Faith screamed out her anger. She'd be damned if she gave up now, so close to succeeding. Her chi flame burned bright and steady again, the Galeck Gun grew in power. She looked to her left. Twenty-five seconds he indicated to her.

Her body started trembling with even more violence.

Twenty seconds. . .

Her chi flame began flickering again. Her arms trembled, causing her to use up precious energy keeping the beam straight.

Ten seconds. . .

The beam itself started wavering as her chi flame completely disappeared.

Nine seconds. . .

More wavering.

Eight seconds. . .

"NO!" she screamed in defiance, reaching down in the deepest depths of her being. The beam steadied.

Seven seconds. . .

The grimace on Faith's face betrayed her pain and anguish.

Six seconds . . .

"Won't fail," Faith muttered in defiance.

Five seconds . . .

Faith bit her lower lip in concentration, trying to keep all the pain and shaking in her body from causing her to stop firing.

Four seconds . . .

Faith had reached her limit. The firing of the Galeck Gun stopped. Depleted of energy barely able to move, truly giving it her everything. Faith started falling from the sky.

*****

Meadow's eyes widened in horror as she saw the girl stop firing and start to drop from the sky. He looked up at the shortening beam and counted off of his hand, eyes widening with hope.

Three seconds . . .

Two seconds . . .

The beam was visible, still on a course with the gigantic asteroid, growing shorter by the moment. Only a small tail of the beam left.

One second . . .

The last of the beam hit the asteroid, the endpoint of the beam resembling a fountain. Then the beam was gone.

"Did she do it!?" Meadow screamed into his comm system. Silence greeted him. "Meadow to base, well, did she!?"

"Come on!" he demanded but no answer still.

Then the other side erupted in cheers and the scientist's voice came over the comm. "They did it. We have an extra day and a half!"

"YES!!" Meadow roared with a wide grin. He looked down and saw Faith still plummeting to the Earth. He guessed she was a lot worse off than her friends and quickly dived downward. He moved his left wing underneath her, moving downward only a slightly less fast as Faith herself. Meadow watched as the dark-haired girl hit his wing gently, and then clasped two hands around the edge of the wing. He watched her look at him questioningly. He held up his right hand, outer three fingers up, thumb and index finger together in a circle; perfect! He saw her smile and then with her right hand, as she held on with her left, she depicted to him: grabbing a utensil and scooping something up and then taking it in her mouth, drinking something, and finally the hand alongside her cheek, indicating sleep. Meadow gave her a thumbs up.

With urgency, he practically yelled into his comm system, "Meadow to base! We're coming in. Prepare food, drink and beds, they need to recuperate!"

*****

Sunnydale

Anya paced back and forth, back and forth, through her and Xander's apartment. Worry lined her face. She hadn't felt Xander anymore after she left Buffy's house hold, apart from one message that he couldn't contact her, because it would waste too much energy, so she shouldn't worry. Yeah, right, that only made her worry more.

Suddenly she stopped moving, and looked out the window. Was she imagining it, or . . . Yes! A small light . . . a very pale light. She dashed outside and waited worriedly. The small light grew bigger, and bigger. Once she could identify a silhouette inside it, the light started flickering in and out of existence. With every flicker the silhouette, that was slowly gaining the familiar shape of her fiance, fell downward, making it appear, as if it was going across stairs. She hugged herself close, one hand moving up to her mouth, where she pushed a half fist against her skin.

Finally he was above the lawn belonging to the apartment building, only about a meter away from her, and level with her face. Then, Xander just dropped to the ground. "Xander!" Anya shrieked, wide-eyed. She watched in shock as Xander propped himself on one eyebrow with extreme difficulty, reaching out to her with his right arm. He seemed barely able to keep himself up.

"Anya," he groaned out weekly. "Regen . . ." Then he collapsed on his unsupported side and rolled over on his back, unconscious.

"Xander!" she screamed, and grabbed him by his shoulders. She then started pulling him along with difficulty. Things became even tougher pulling him up the few steps to the door leading inside. "Damn it," Anya muttered in frustration. "I should have brought Spike, he could have just thrown Xander easily over his shoulder."

She fumbled with the door with her elbow, and managed to get past it. Then she dragged him along, repeating the process with the door to their apartment. Grunting she pulled him along across their living room. "Sometimes I wish you weren't all musclely, just a little figure stick would make this much easier," Anya said in frustration, pulling on Xander's body. Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening, and gently put Xander down. Quickly she walked over to his feet and as she pulled his left leg from behind the couch, she said, "Or one of the witches, they could have just cast a levitation spell."

Back to his other side, she picked him by the shoulders again and pulled him along. Finally she reached the room with the regeneration tank and pulled him up to the tank. She quickly pushed the button Xander had shown her once and the glass oval cover slid aside. She looked at the three steep ladder-like metal steps and contemplated how to do this. She turned Xander around with some effort, and tried to pulling him along by supporting him on her shoulder. Realizing, as she stepped onto the first step, this wasn't going to work, she shook him and called out loud, "Xander, wake up! You have to help me, you're too heavy!" When he didn't respond, tears sprung in her eyes and tried again. To her relief she more felt, than heard him groan. His left hand moved out and grabbed a hold of the tank's edge, his knuckles whitening with effort.

Anya called upon every little bit of strength she could muster, and gritting her teeth. Groaning, she pushed Xander upward, taking one wobbly step at a time. Then another one and she finally managed to hang Xander on his stomach over the edge, Xander's own miniscule efforts just enough for her to succeed. She pulled back and placed her hands on his ass, showing some uncharacteristic restraint, fueled by her adrenaline, she pushed him up and over. Then she climbed into the tank herself, and started undressing him, while attaching all the wiring, and tubes as Xander had shown her. The last thing she did, was fit the mask on his face and mouth.

Once done, Anya climbed back out, kicked the pile of clothes aside, and closed the hatch with the appropriate button. She looked at the control panel and got a momentary panic attack. "Think, Anya, think!" she admonished herself. "You know how to do this, he's shown you." Tentatively she pushed one of the buttons and the read out showed several English words. Xander had translated the messages from Saiyan for her and the other's benefit. "That's the right message," Anya muttered, and smashed her right palm into her forehead in an attempt to jump start her memory. "Come on! Remember! Think, you stupid woman! Uh . . ." She pushed another button, and another choosing the type of healing needed: everything. Anya closed her eyes and squinted, *What now! You know this, damn you!* Her face lighted up, and pushed three buttons rapidly after one another. "Yes!" she exclaimed with a big grin and pushed the big green button.

She heard a gurgling sound; the tank was being filled with the nutrient solution. She quickly got up on the steps and looked inside. Anya blinked once, watching the green, gooey, see-through liquid rapidly filling the tank. Once it reached above Xander's eyes, she saw his face relax, and she took it as a sign that she hadn't screwed up. A few moments later, once the tank was completely full, the tank came to life, emitted a low hum.

"Great, Anya! You rule!" she patted herself on the back, and then her face became sad again. She climbed down and grabbed a chair. She sat it in and looked up at a naked Xander floating in the tank. "Please," Anya whispered, tears springing from her eyes. "Let it be enough, I don't want you to die."

*****

Later that evening

General Morgenstar looked at the screens, showing the three girls and one Asian male sleeping in their newly appointed bunks. The nerve center was a jumble of noises. People all over the place were busy making calculations on how best to tackle the crisis. 'It wasn't just us,' he remembered them telling. Practically every magic user in the world had helped push that asteroid into its present orbit. Sooner or later that statement would change his world view, and that of everyone else in here completely, not to mention their astounding abilities themselves, providing of course, they survived the coming day. And that meant, that at the moment, there was no time for philosophy, they had the potential destruction of the species to avert.

He saw Beddow get into a disturbance with the local intelligence officer on the screen. He was going to take a look himself. As he got up, he remembered how the four had eaten. He had never seen anyone eat like that. Of course, he had never seen anyone do the feats they did without technological aid either, they must have burned an incredible amount calories, and had to replenish them.

*****

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Lieutenant Beddow said, from his chair overlooking the girls and the Asian. For some reason he felt very protective of the girls.

"Removing the masks," Lieutenant Marquise, the intelligence officer said. He continued moving his hand to Faith's mask undisturbed.

Beddow got up, crossed the distance instantly and grabbed the man's hand. "The hell you will."

"I give the orders here when it gets to national security, and if we survive this we cannot afford not to know their identities," Marquise told him bitterly. "Especially seeing as none of them are willing to give us their real names, or where our mysterious Asian guy comes from. The registries of the development countries there are undoubtedly nowhere near as complete as ours."

Beddow kept his hand tight around Marquise's wrist. "They are risking their lives to save all our butts. If they believe the best way for them is to keep their identities to themselves, then so be it. Ever heard of the right to privacy? It's in the constitution. We don't have the right . . ."

"Right!?" Marquise interrupted Beddow angrily. An instant later his gun was trained on Beddow's face, at the same time he got Beddow's gun at this face. "God damned, idealist fool. This ain't no comic book were the super heroes are always good and always come to our rescue. If they ever decide to turn against us, we must have a way to neutralize them." The three guards in the room looked at each other, not knowing what to do.

"If they decide to turn against us, I hate to think of what we did to piss them off . . ." Beddow answered him, looking in the other's eyes. "Because I don't think it's something I could stand behind, like betraying everything we stand for, like trampling on people's rights, or start a war without provocation and reason . . . I'd probably join them."

"Why are you so certain they have our values and are on our side, for all we know they think Hitler is a nice guy and he should have won World War II," Marquise answered Beddow, not once wavering his own glare.

"Because they are different, and haven't shown themselves without trying to protect our lives. Hitler gassed people just for being Jewish, he would have gassed them as well," Beddow explained his reasoning, he had had time to contemplate the question. "These people just want to be left alone, they don't want crazy reporters at their door, religious nutcases trying to burn them at stakes, or government, paranoid freaks like you trying to lock them up, blow them away, or cut them open, trying to figure out how they tick."

The door swung open. "What the hell is going on here?" the general demanded forcefully, but with a hushed enough voice not to wake the only hopes for their survival. Dawn moaned and turned around, not waking up. The general took a step forward and prompted, softer this time, "Well?"

"General," Beddow said, not removing the gun from its position, and neither did Marquise. "He wanted to remove their masks."

"Lieutenant Marquise," the General prompted calmly.

"National Security, sir. We need to know their identities," Marquise told him.

The General barely needed a second to think, "Put the gun down, Marquise."

Marquise looked at the General. The guards, now with the General's judgement, trained their guns on Marquise. The man flicked his gaze between the five men, then slowly lowered his gun and put it away. He walked up to the general and said, "You will pay for this." Marquise stalked off.

*****

The next morning, the general was back at the nerve center, looking at the disheveled and dead tired scientist. "Report," he said.

"No country on the planet has the capacity to destroy this thing," the scientist started, calmly, he knew what he had to say. All night joining, calculations, and sensor data, from across the globe with anyone and anything that could help. "The only way to destroy it, is to drill holes in it at the right places and place nuclear weapons in them, then detonating them . . . nobody though can send a space craft up there, and drill those holes in time . . . which leaves only one option." The scientist looked up at the screen showing their four guests having breakfast, each carrying a pained expression. "We hope they can do the drilling from a distance, and then fire nuclear weapons up the holes with B2s, and hope that those guidance systems are as good as the propaganda says they are, because we can't afford even one miss this time."

The general stayed silent for a few moments, quickly skimming through reports. Riots, chaos, everywhere on the Earth among the poor populations. Only western Europe, the region of the world with the most care (financial and otherwise) for the less fortunate, seemed relatively unscathed. It seemed people there were mostly filling themselves up with alcohol, partying like crazy and had as much sex as possible one last time, not caring too much for causing destruction. He read further, the tides were out of wack, Earthquakes everywhere, a volcanic eruption here and there, and completely unpredictable weather patterns, mostly violent storms, and tornados, even in places where normally there were none. The general looked back up at the scientist, and saw his pained expression. With a silent nod he told him to continue.

"There are a few things though, highest chance of success is if we do this practically on top of Dallas in the for to last orbital pass, this afternoon at sixteen hundred and twelve hours," the scientist said. "Angle, speed, etc., etc. I won't bore you with the details."

The general quickly caught on, "That would irradiate the city." The scientist nodded. "Other options, not above a populated area?"

"Yes, but the chances of success will be severely compromised," the scientist said.

"Evacuation?"

"We tried that with Oklahoma, barely got anyone out," the scientist answered.

The General nodded. "Start preparing, and tell everyone it's the only way, not the best way," the General told him with a grim look.

"We'll need about five nuclear weapons of half a megaton yield . . ." the scientist said, his voice hung low. The general looked at him expectantly. "If our assumptions on the insides, and our calculations are correct, they should be enough to vaporize a large part, and send the rest careening down to the earth. This one is thirty times larger than the first. A few of the remains could be as big as the first. If our assumptions or calculations are wrong, nothing might happen, or we only end up splintering it in a few smaller pieces."

"What about more fire power?" the general asked coldly.

"We will irradiate a part of Earth's surface and atmosphere. Depending on exactly how much more firepower, we could irradiate the entire Earth and its atmosphere and potentially blow part of that atmosphere away," the scientist answered, his seeming calm belying his true agitation.

The general nodded, and walked away from the nerve center, quickly reaching the mess hall, and joined the table with their four guests. "How well do you think you can drill holes in that asteroid?" he asked them.

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem," Faith answered nervously, quite intimidated in the place. Part of her had been looking around to see if no one wanted to cut her open and find out how she worked.

"From here to that table over there? Four meters across?" the general asked.

"Yeah," Faith answered.

"What about the other guy? The guy with the golden glow, I don't suppose you know whether he's still alive do you?" the General asked. He watched as Faith's eyes almost teared up, she shook her head and saw the fear for her friend there.

Buffy shook her head and said, "We can't sense him." The general looked blankly.

"That means one of three things," Faith elaborated, as she saw the general's uncomprehending look. "One, he's in the gym training, two he's in his regeneration tank, or three . . . h-he's . . ." Faith couldn't say out loud, but the implication was enough.

"And those magic users you talked about?" he asked.

"They're out, it'll be a week before they can perform any major spells again," Buffy answered him, with a grim look.

"You are up and about," the general stated confused.

Dawn was the one who answered, "Raw power, simple life force, is what we use, and need to replenish: rest, food is enough. Although magic uses that power too, and needs to be rebuild, there is more to it. Magic is more complex, it requires much more. Using magic is like throwing a rock in a pond, only the pond is the Earth, and the ripples move around the planet and hit them right back. Everything comes back to you threefold."

The general nodded and got up. He walked to an intercom on the wall and pushed a button and held it. "Yes, sir," the scientist said.

"We go," the general ordered.

*****

Dallas

15:32

All right, Morgenstar to Gunslinger, the general sounded through Faith's personal comm system. She looked around her, the two other girls and the Asian were with her. Two F16s, Meadow and Beddow piloting, and two B2s flew just below them. The others had been given the comm system as well, plus oxygen masks to allow them to reach higher altitudes. Since they hadn't given the soldiers their names, the soldiers had let her come up with call signs for the four of them. She still didn't quite figure out why the military had pretty much put her in charge.

"Gunslinger here," Faith said, pushing the send button near her ear. "I'm ready, so are Blonde Fury, Nibblet and Top Dude." She saw Buffy shake her head in disdain at her name, muttering something under her breath. She looked up and looked at the asteroid still quite high above them, easily fifty miles, but because of its sheer size, it almost seemed as if she was right underneath it. She looked down, far to the east she could see a large part of the Atlantic ocean. America was directly below her, far to the west there was a small strip visible of the Pacific. The blue sphere was breathtakingly beautiful. The others were looking at the Earth as well, she had never imagined it would be so magnificent. Hard to believe it could all come to an end in only a few hours.

All right, go, you have forty minutes for five holes, the general told her.

"Right," she answered and aimed at were the briefing had told her to fire. No Galeck Gun this time, she wanted to drill a hole in the asteroid, not blow another crater on it. She fired a low intensity beam upward. Once it hit the asteroid, she waited patiently.

Two degrees left, the scientist sounded in her ear. Faith had no idea how much two degrees to the left was, but it didn't sound like much, so she moved her beam slowly to the left. Hold, right there. She increased the energy to the beam, letting it spread out, so it was four meters by the time it impacted on the asteroid and started drilling her hole. Three kilometers, remember? Stay alert, we will tell when to stop, but if for some reason we won't or can't, it's up to you.

Soon, the other four were drilling at different positions, each hole needing a different depth. Once one of them was finished, they would go and drill the last and easiest hole.

*****

Sunnydale

Ten minutes later

Xander's eyes opened, as the fluid drained away. The chamber had revived him. The tubes and other attachments automatically detracted from him. Finally the cover slid aside and a naked Xander, still dripping some of the fluid, stepped out.

Anya sat on the chair waiting, and opened her eyes in admiration of her fiance's form. His muscles gently rippled. From the table to his left he picked the towel Anya had prepared and started drying himself off. "Wow," Anya said breathlessly. Was it her imagination, or did Xander look even better then before? Perhaps it was just the dripping fluid, but if she wasn't mistaken his muscles seemed somehow sleeker, yet more . . . muscley was the only we she could describe it.

"Get me a gi, Anya," Xander said as he continued to towel off. Anya nodded and quickly ran off, coming back a minute later holding the gi and a pair of combat boots in her hands. She watched as Xander put away the towel and flared up his chi, instantly drying whatever he hadn't gotten with the towel, most notably the goo left clinging to his hair. Xander dressed; first underpants, then a loose purple t-shirt, then the beige gi-itself, pants first, finishing with the sleeveless top, tucking it in his pants, and then tying it off with a black belt. He finishing up with the boots, and tying them closed.

"Cool," Anya commented, looking at the newly, properly attired Xander. Xander smiled and walked up to her, taking her in an embrace and kissed her passionately.

After breaking the kiss, he told her seriously, while looking deep into her eyes, "Love you."

"Love you too," Anya said back, feeling all warm in fuzzy in his arms. Xander walked out the room, nudging Anya along. They went outside and the two of them stayed there for a moment arm in arm.

"Can you destroy that asteroid?" Anya asked fearfully, feeling bad omens in her body. Never before had he craved her contact so long and intimately.

Xander smirked at her, "Oh, yeah. That asteroid is gone. Humanity will survive."

"Will you?" she asked dreadfully.

Xander turned around to face her and gave her a smile. Not a smirk, Anya noted. "I promise, if there is anything I can do about it, I will live, and return to you."

Anya felt an emptiness in the pit of her stomach. He wouldn't even give her a little white lie as insurance! This could only mean things were very bad. "Don't go!" she pleaded suddenly. "We'll take the ship, live in your birth dimension. I hear the place is wonderful. We'll bring the others as well. Who knows, Spike and Angel might even be able to walk in the sun, like Angel in Pylea. You'll get to spar and fight with your king, and Gohan, and, and . . ."

Xander laid a finger on her lips, silencing her and smiled. He disentangled himself from her and with a gentle shake of his head started lifting into the air. "I love you," he said again and then blasted off.

Anya felt despair washing over her. He wouldn't even give her a reassuring lie! Suddenly she didn't want to be alone anymore. She rushed into their apartment, got her coat, locked the door and rushed back out towards the Summers' home.

Xander transformed, the golden glow bursting around himself. He went further and his hair became spikier, electric discharges were added to his golden chi flame. Then his speed increased rapidly. *Yes!* Xander thought as he assessed his new power. He had finally overcome the dimensional difference. *I'm back at the level that I had in the time chamber back in my birth dimension.*

*****

[Play Xander Super Saiyan 2 theme]

Buffy finished her drill last, having done the deepest with the exception of Faith's hole.

"We're done," Faith said through the comm system. "It's all up to you now. We hope we can keep the debris away from the city."

Acknowledged, Gunslinger, came the reply. Firing window in T-minus four minutes thirty-one seconds.

The Scoobies hung in the air, looking up at the asteroid with dread. One chance they had said, once chance only. The pits of their stomach felt empty.

T-minus four minutes.

Suddenly the Scoobies and their honorary member widened their eyes and looked toward the west. The Asian's jaw dropped. "So powerful," he whispered in Tibetan.

Faith muttered, "Xander."

"Uh, he's already more powerful than when those witches attacked, or when he faced Loki," Buffy answered in awe.

Dawn's jaw had dropped. Then the three of them broke in giant smiles. Faith quickly pushed the send button and yelled hastily, "Abort! Abort!"

Abort! the general commanded, and the countdown went away. Report, Gunslinger, what's wrong!?

"Nothing, everything just became right," Faith answered, eyes sparkling with mirth and hope.

WHAT!?

Holy shit! Beddow exclaimed. 4.5 plus.

Meadow added looking at his radar, He's at hyper sonic speeds.

The golden orb became visible and it quickly grew bigger. And bigger. And then almost impossible for them to follow, the orb became a flame, and then with a wash of energy stopped right in front of them. Xander finally becoming visible, the flame burning bright, his hair spiky, two hairs hanging in front of his face, eyes green, and powerful electric discharges coursing around him.

"He wasn't kidding about coming back more powerful after facing near-death," Dawn said, eyes wide, then she broke back into a giant smile.

Xander looked up at the asteroid for a moment, then back at his friends and said, "I'm proud of you guys, especially you Faith." The girls broke in even bigger smiles.

"Did you contact. . .?" Faith asked intimidated.

Xander smirked and looked back up at the asteroid, "So what's the plan?"

"We drill, done," Dawn answered, indicating the asteroid, and then pointed down at the planes. "They fire atomic weaponry, and blow it up."

"How many, what yield?" Xander asked, not once taking his gaze away from the rock.

"Five, half a megaton," Buffy answered him, smiling.

Xander stayed silent for a full minute, calling on his experience with the first asteroid and all his senses. Then he announced, "Nowhere near enough."

What's going on, damn it!? the general yelled out through the intercom, We're going to lose our window soon.

"X- . . . he says it's not enough," Faith answered him with a little fear, pushing the send button, and almost slipping up. "The scientists messed up." There was silence at the other end.

"Xander," Buffy called out with fear, once Faith had let go of the send button. "This thing is thirty times bigger than the last one, and you almost died destroying that one. If those five nuclear weapons aren't enough, how can we possibly stop it!?"

Xander turned to look at her, and then broke in giant grin showing his teeth. "I'm simply going to have to become thirty times stronger than, aren't I?"

"What!?" Buffy blurted out in disbelief.

Xander looked up again, and then tensed his muscles and roared. His chi flame burned more intense, the electrical discharges multiplied. He arched his back, and put his head back in his neck. Finally he reached the absolute ceiling of Super Saiyan 2 and he calmed himself down some. The four other people floating there looked with wide eyes.

Xander, then hunched up his knees, placed his arms in a ninety degree angle at his elbows, and bend his upper torso forward. He took in several steadying breaths.

[Stop Super Saiyan 2 theme]

[Play Super Saiyan 3 theme]

Xander screamed again, his power rising rapidly, wind started whipping about, his flame became so intense his form became almost nothing but a silhouette in the bright glare. Below them, a storm started forming, and over the Atlantic a circular pattern of clouds formed across the entire ocean, indicating the emergence of a hurricane of unprecedented proportions.

Lightning started flashing in the clouds below, and in the hurricane in the distance. Red and yellow lightning bolts fired upward out of the clouds.

"That stance," Faith whispered to herself, looking at Xander. She had seen it before, when the witches attacked and on occasion during training, more often after he had defeated Loki.

"XANDER!" Buffy screamed hysterically. "You have to stop this, you'll kill yourself." Dawn looked frightened, even more so after Buffy's declaration.

"No, I don't think so," Faith told her friends, and they watched as Xander's hair started growing, for a moment not believing their eyes.

Xander's scream turned to a roar, he felt his eye brows retracting and then coming back. Below him things were getting worse. Mount St. Helens blew, the explosion audible, although not easily, especially since Xander's pulsing light and the wind and storm it generated had their own powerful sounds. The Scooby Gang looked down with astonishment, seeing the plume of ashes rapidly reaching up into the atmosphere. A second volcano, north of St. Helens, blew a few seconds later. Its plume too reached high up into the atmosphere. Far in the distance, over the horizon of the Pacific another plume reached up into the sky, although the volcano was not visible, it had to be somewhere around Japan.

Xander still kept going. "Is that all Xander?" Dawn asked scared. Buffy and Faith looked at her.

"No," the Asian said, eyes wide. "Most gravity rock. But quite a bit him."

Xander felt his hair extending another bit; the hair now about thirty five centimeters, or a bit more than a foot above his head. His eyebrows retracted again. Then his power waned, eyebrows coming back out and the hair started to retract. Xander felt defeated, he still wasn't powerful enough. Then he got angry. *NO!* he roared mentally. *I WILL NOT HAVE IT! YEARS OF FIGHTING, FINALLY BECOMING A SUPER SAIYAN AND GO BEYOND, AND NOW THIS!? FINALLY I CAN FIGHT FOR THIS PLANET FOR REAL, START THIS WAR TOWARD FREEDOM! I WON'T LET A SIMPLE STUPID ROCK DESTROY IT NOW! I WON'T!* Xander started screaming again, reaching deeper. The third level could not be reached by anger, it requires careful training and balance, but anger could provide the final drop that would overflow the bucket, and that's what it did. Xander felt himself plummet into his deepest being, a barrier shattering. He felt as if the shards imbedded themselves into his flesh. His muscles send sharp pain spikes into his brain, as the transformation started occurring. He saw the residence of the ape, and shot deeper, more primal, yet more sophisticated, to the dawn, the very core of the Saiyan's being and power. He felt like growling as he felt his browse change, absentmindedly wondering if this is what Spike and Angel felt.

The transformation complete, Xander could no longer contain himself in his hunched position, with a final scream he stretched out, arching his back, his face parallel with the ground deep below, and a powerful sphere of energy burst out from within him. First it reached the three girls and the Tibetan, and they were thrown backward, tumbling on end. Then it reached the four planes and they turned upside down, and were pushed toward the surface.

Holy fuck!! Meadow called out in obvious warning, as his jet was flung out of control. Get it under control!! Pull up!! The other pilots were too busy to answer him with a biting reply.

Faith was the first who got herself back under control. She hung face down as she stopped herself tumbling around and looked as the sphere of energy reached the Atlantic and its giant hurricane. She swore she saw it become less powerful. Then she looked down toward Dallas. That shockwave must have at least shattered most of the windows there, if it hadn't destroyed entire buildings.

[Pause Xander Super Saiyan 3 Theme]

*****

"THAT GOD DAMNED, BLOODY SON OF A BITCH!!" Spike screamed in rage as he felt Xander's power spiking. The witches, sitting down, still recuperating from their ordeal the day before, just looked stunned.

"What? What's going on!?" Anya asked frightened, sitting down as well, hands in her lap trembling.

"HE DID IT AGAIN!" Spike roared with anger, answering Anya in the process. "THAT SODDING WANKER INCREASED HIS POWER AGAIN! DOES THAT BASTARD HAVE NO LIMIT!!" Spike only slowly calmed down, in his mind he adjusted his expectations. It would take even more time now to catch up with Droopy.

*****

Halliwell Manor

The three original sisters watched the television screen, sitting on their couches. Leo had his arm slung around a trembling Piper, while Cole did the same for his girlfriend.

The bay of New York was in the background of the tv screen. Waves the size of houses slammed around, water washed into the streets, smashing everything in their path. The sky was pitch black, lighting flashed, and thunder rolled. "Riots have ceased in New York City," the CNN reporter in the foreground tried to say. He had to use all his might to stay standing and had to scream to get his message across as the wind tried pick him off the roof he was standing on. "Everybody is too busy weathering this hurricane that's moving towards New York, and even with all this it still hasn't reached us. Meteorologists have said, that his storm makes the storm that had previously been dubbed 'The Perfect Storm' about a decade ago look like a little gush instead . . ."

"Man," Prue said, clasping her hands tightly together. "This is so unreal. We face the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, but they couldn't muster anything like this."

Paige was pacing around in agitation, and said, "Oh, that so boosts my confidence. We're about to be wiped off the face of the planet, and you compare with a few demons you fough?"

"Well," Prue answered a little befuddled. "There wasn't much else to say."

Phoebe's eyes widened. "NO!" she exclaimed with horror. The three other sisters instantly switched their attention to her.

"Phoebe, what's wrong," Piper asked with concerned.

Phoebe grimace, rapidly grabbing her forehead with her right hand. A short moan escaped her lips. With every day that came and went, she seemed to be able to get more sensitive to all kinds of energy around her, and at the same time being able to handle the bigger powers more easily. Especially the times that she felt this Sedra Soli power up, it became less and less irritating. But this was just plain insane.

"Phoebe, honey!?" Cole exclaimed.

Phoebe screamed out, her body going rigid, as she pushed herself back into the couch. Clenching her teeth she managed to get out, "This is impossible. This can't be real!" Then she screamed again, writhing in the couch.

"HOLY SHIT! WHAT WAS THAT!?" The scream came from the television screen and the witches' attention was drawn to it for a few moments. "I just felt something pass through me," the reporter said, and turned around. Xander's shockwave had reached New York, and was disrupting the Hurricane's internal balance. Behind him, the ocean calmed, the clouds instantly lost some of their darkness, and suddenly beams of sunlight passed beautifully and hopefully through the clouds. A rainbow formed, only far in the distance there was still lightning. "Wow," the reported blurted out.

"You want us to fight that thing!?" Paige screamed out loud at Prue.

"Uh, yeah?" Prue answered her newly found half-sister.

Paige looked at the eldest sister for a moment and then said hysterically, "For crying out loud, Prue. He's a thousand miles away, and is incapacitating one of us with nothing but his energy." She indicated the writhing Phoebe, who's screams had died down, and was slowly regaining control. "He stops a hurricane from the same distance, what the hell do you think he'll do to us when we stand right in front of him!?"

Prue didn't answer. "Oh, great. There are times when I really wish I had never found you guys, or the magic," she said, in frustration and anger, finally sitting down.

*****

[Continue Xander Super Saiyan 3 theme]

"How can anyone be this powerful?" the Tibetan man asked out loud looking stunned at the new Xander.

The Scooby Gang looked in awe. Xander's hair almost reached the back of his knees, two hairs hung curled in front of his face. The hair gently waved about with energy. His pupils had become a slightly darker shade of green as his irises. His eyebrows were gone, but his brows had extended, giving his face a more apelike look. His chi flame was even more intense, giving off a continuous high pitched, but powerful sound. The electric discharges had become more powerful, on occasion one so powerful it sounded like a real life lightning blast. Xander's head tilted and looked at them, then smirked.

"Let me guess," Faith muttered in awe. "Super Saiyan level 3?" Dawn and Buffy looked at Xander with dumbstruck gazes.

Xander chuckled, a scary heavy, cold chuckle, then he asked, "Well? How do you like the new me?" His voice was heavier, colder, rougher, with a growling undercurrent.

Dawn managed a lovely reply, "Uh . . . wha . . . w-wow."

Xander grinned again and then looked up at the asteroid, assessing again. *Damn it! Still not enough!* he thought to himself, thinking things over, looking down at the jets who were only now regaining control and rising to the right altitude again. Xander looked back up at the asteroid and called, "Faith!" Faith reacted, looking at Xander. "How long until those missiles reach the asteroid?"

Faith asked through her comm system, and moments later she answered, "About five minutes."

"Fire them, now," Xander ordered, not taking his gaze off the asteroid.

Faith nodded. "Fire the missiles, now," she ordered. The B2's turned around their axis, pointing themselves upward, readying to fire their payload.

Xander still looked up and thought, *Vegeta, my king. I have no idea what prompted you to come up with something like this, a suicide bomb . . . but I have need of it now . . . I will have to complete that infant notion, and combine it with your Final Flash, there is no other way.* When Xander had placed his knowledge in Vegeta's mind, irrevocably he had glimpsed Vegeta's. One, two, three, four, and finally five missiles passed Xander by, and then with a scream he started powering up. His chi soured, reaching unprecedented heights. The glow around him intensified as did the lightning strikes around him. Most of the energy of his being started accumulating outside his body.

Buffy's eyes widened, this time she was not mistaken. "STOP IT, XANDER! YOU'LL KILL YOURSELF! DON'T GO FURTHER!"

*That's the whole point, Buff. There is no other way,* his mental voice reverberated in her, Dawn's, and Faith's minds. Their faces instantly showed shock as they watched Xander's continuing power up.

Faith regained herself first, as tears started forming, she beamed back, *I'll miss ya, Xan.*

*Take care of yourself and the others, Faith,* Xander told her mentally with a smile. Then he said goodbye to Dawn, *Dawnie, listen to your sister and be good you hear, Squirt?*

Dawn nodded as tears rolled down her cheeks, realizing what Xander was going to do.

*Buff . . .* Xander started, but was interrupted by the blonde.

*NO!* she screamed mentally and flew forward, placing herself between Xander and the asteroid. *I won't let you do it, we need you alive. I need you alive!*

*There is no other way, Buffy. Get out of the way!* Xander called to her, even as his power kept rising, once more fueling the storm below.

*NO! You'll have to kill me!* Buffy screamed mentally, determined to force Xander into another course of action. She knew this would stop him.

Xander answered her, with the one answer she never expected, *If I have to vaporize you to save the world, I will Buffy! Now get out of the way!* Buffy looked down into his eyes in shock. She felt his determination, and saw it there in his eyes. She felt her stomach turn, as her whole world flipped upside down. There was nothing left of he who she called her Xander-shaped friend in those cold ruthless eyes. This new level had just one thing in mind, win the battle whatever the cost. She knew instantly he would make his words true, and felt herself hollow out, not having the strength to move. When Faith and Dawn grabbed her and pulled her aside, she didn't put up a fight.

*Willow,* Xander projected, he had reached a familiarity with his friend from the beginning long ago, but had never seen a need to telepathically contact her until now. *Take care of Anya for me, and goodbye.*

Xander continued, rapidly saying goodbye, this time it was Tara, who he could reach via Willow, *Goodbye Tara, take care of Willow.*

Finally the goodbye he had been dreading the most, tears welling up in his own eyes, but he forced them back, *Anya, I love you. I'm sorry. I love you, beautiful. Live, do you hear me? Live. Just live!*

[Pause Xander Super Saiyan 3 theme]

*****

"Xander," Willow whispered, tears sprung forth from her eyes. Tara threw herself into a hug with Willow an instant later.

"NO!" Anya screamed, shaking with grief, going completely hysterical. "NO! DON'T DO IT! PLEASE DON'T DO IT! STAY WITH ME! DON'T LEAVE ME!" Anya sank to her knees, eyes wide, tears running down her face. Tara and Willow went over to her, kneeled down as well and held her, crying together, as Anya repeated, "No, no, please, don't."

Sandra had difficulty keeping it dry herself, the girls' emotional display getting to her, as well as the young man's loss, despite the fact she knew him for only a few weeks.

In the corner, Spike leisurely leaned back and grinned evilly. *That's right, Droopy,* he thought. *Now just succeed and make uncle Spike a happy puppy.*

*****

[Continue Xander Super Saiyan 3 theme]

*Goodby, Anya,* was the last Xander sent. Then he pointed his hands forward bringing them together, and then with his voice echoing around his energy, he screamed, "EMPTY FINAL FLASH!!!* Instantly a massive beam of golden energy blasted upward, bursting from between his hands, and almost instantly becoming four meters across.

Everybody present but Xander, gawked at the massive beam of energy, before the Asian regained his faculties, "Chi shields up, turn away, shield your eyes!" he screamed. His scream brought the girls out of their stupor and did as he told them.

The beam reached the asteroid a moment later, and blasted into the hole in the middle drilled by Faith earlier. The nuclear missile was half way in and was pushed suddenly forward as Xander's energy beam disappeared into the asteroid and dragged it along.

Within a second, Xander went from Super Saiyan level 3, to level 2, to level 1 and finally down to a plain Saiyan, as she shot downward toward the Earth, not having the luxury to spare any energy to keep him in place. Now depleted of energy, no more energy shot from his hands, and his arms fell aside limply. He had used up everything, except for one tiny little spark; the little bit of energy he needed to steer the beam, if he hadn't spared that, like Vegeta's original idea, it would have simply blasted outward in all directions, and be useless to destroy the asteroid. That little bit of energy though, was not enough to survive even one more hour, let alone fly, or even survive the fall. Xander smirked, falling downward, his hair gently waving about. He looked up at the asteroid with satisfaction, as golden cracks started forming on its outer surface. The next moment everything went white, and on the other side of the planet, night turned to day.

[Stop Xander Super Saiyan 3 theme]

To Be Continued . . .

The end of Xander! How will the rest of the scoobies cope!? And was it even enough? Or will the asteroid still bring about the end of the world!? And what will come of the war against the gods!? Find out next time, on Buffy Z - Episode 21: Cleaning Up!

Author's notes:

Phew, I know I could have cut this one in two parts, but I wasn't in the mood, to restructure the title and the mention of it in the last part, so I just kept writing. Till this day, most of the people coming to my web site do so via XHEHATB.net, so I've decided to use it as trailer and commercial space. About once in a while I'll post one of the episodes there; I'm thinking near the beginning, middle and end of a saga an episode, and I'll make an actual trailer for the Dana stores. It seems that most people are still at the place, despite the fact that it's pretty much gone down the drain, and that's probably an understatement. Afraid of change, I guess.

As for the episode, I tried to finish it pretty quickly, and I hope everyone likes Xander's Super Saiyan 3 transformation. Oh, and for those few who complained that Xander was too powerful and that there was no challenge for him, that here should be something that Xander couldn't beat by just screaming and powering up, happy?

The Evolution of Buffy Z

Apocalypse Now:

Spoiler alert next episode!!

S

p

o

i

l

e

r

Strangely enough, I got the idea for Xander's Super Saiyan 4 transformation long before either his Super Saiyan 2 transformation in the time chamber, or this Super Saiyan 3 transformation. Originally Xander was going to fire the Empty Final Flash at Super Saiyan level 2. I had the vague idea that Xander would go to Super Saiyan 3 somewhere later in the next saga, fighting a demon god, but had no actual scene. As the physics, and the differences between this dimension and DB's dimension became more fleshed out and clear cut, I realized that Super Saiyan 2 was nowhere near enough to take out an asteroid this size, and not much later this transformation popped in my mind, and I grinned, realizing how much more cool this transformation would be here, than any I may have created later on. Not to mention that the Super Saiyan Xander saga would ultimately end with Xander attaining all three levels of what some people call 'the true Super Saiyan levels'.

Interestingly in the first versions, Dawn would stay at home, only when I started writing it, did I realize that she really did need to be present, that this required everything they had, however little it was.

Why not make this night, and have Spike present as well? Don't know, this is always the way it has been in my head, it does help with his burst of anger at, and relaying in that, Xander's new transformation to Anya.

As for the Asian guy, we won't see him again, until much much later, he's really here only for the sole reason to show that there are a few, one or two, people, perhaps just a little more, that have learned how to use their chi in these levels as well. That when a few of those others, and this guy, later show up, you guys aren't going, 'What the!? Where the hell did that guy come form? I thought Xander and co were the only ones who could do this!'