The Manor

Piper stood watching Paige pacing back and forth across the dinning room. "He has lost it completely lost it! Going after the demons who attacked the slayers? That man must have a death wish!" Paige yelled

"No remember what Leo said? Theses are Xander's charges and he just lost five of them. He feels like he needs to do something to avenge them. Before we showed up he wouldn't be able to do much except help Buffy prepare for the big evil. Now however he has all of these powers and feels like he should use them to give a more direct way of destroying the ones who hurt his charges. What would you do to the demon who killed me or Phoebe?" Piper asked.

Paige stopped and turned towards Piper, "I would hunt them down and slowly kill every one of the sons of bitches. But wasn't he the one who said that we need to step back and look at the bigger picture?"

The girls jumped up when they heard a voice say "And who said I wasn't both taking my vengeance and looking at the big picture at the same time?"

Turning they saw Xander leaning against the door frame. Paige ran over to him and gave him a big hug. Blushing she backed off and said "So what did you find out?"

Laughing Xander strode over to Piper and gave her a slightly smaller hug. "Well there are no longer any demons that are able to say that they survived a fight with a slayer. And also that you have a demon in the crystal cage set up stairs who is TOTALLY cut off from the mystical world."

Piper gave him a shocked look while Paige said " There are people in the house you should inform BEFORE you bring a threat into there house you know!"

Xander gave them his cocky grin. "Ya, but he IS no threat. I used what you told me about demons combined with what Cole has been teaching me to cut him off from not only his powers but also any outside powers that do not come from me. I have him totally helpless. And I also made sure that no one can get into your attic except with their own two feet."

"That would have been a useful addition to our own measures if we didn't need Leo to orb into the attic every five minutes. " Piper said

"Relax Piper, I fused the spell into a crystal of my own and it only affects the area around it for about 15 feet. You will be able to remove or move the spell to whatever part of the house you want." Xander told her as they moved up the stairs toward the attic.

They opened the attic door to see a demon in the crystal cage. Piper and Paige recognized

the demon instantly. "Barbas!!! You brought the most powerful demon after the source into our house???" Piper yelled turning to face Xander.

"Whoa!" Xander said holding up his hands in front of him "All I know is that he was in on the attack on the house and that my lighting balls couldn't kill him out right. Don't worry though his powers are sealed so he can't do more than make faces at you."

Piper turned around and sure enough that was exactly what he was doing. "Alright, but a the first sign of trouble I want him out of here or dead you understand Xander?"

"I would never risk Paige ,or you, if I didn't think that I had the situation under control Piper." Xander walked up to the cage and peered in "Now I want to know more about the demons who sent you to kill my girls."

Barthas just sneered at him and said "You can never defeat me. Should you destroy me my mistress shall just revive me once again. So do you worst you half breed."

Xander's face twisted into a look of pure fury. Pulling his hand back in the gesture he saw this demon use before his hand started to glow. "Whoa, I can see your worst fear! Your fear is to be subject to your own power." Turning he asked Piper and Paige "So how dose he use this power to induce fear into others?"

Paige replied "He aways seems to just will it and then wave his hand toward his target."

Xander smiled "Now that seems easy enough," Turning back toward Barthas "Now I will give you one more chance to talk without suffering."

Barthas just sneered at Xander. Xander waved his glowing hand toward the demon and Barthas screamed. After a moment Xander turned the power off and asked him if he was ready to deal. Barthas gave him a pained no and Xander turned on the power once more.

After about an hour of being subject to his own power Barthas said "FINE! No more! Please! Ill tell you everything you want to know!"

Xander smiled and said "There, see? If you would have just said that at the start of this then we would have saved us and yourself so much more trouble. Now who besides my mother is pulling the strings here?"

Barthas proceeded to tell Xander everything, starting from the very first meeting that Echidna called. When he reached the part about his father Xander turned a little pale and said "Well I guess its something that we get to do as a family at least"

Piper and Paige took him downstairs and started to comfort him. Unseen by either them a lamp in the attic morphed into a demon. Walking over to the cage he told Barthas "You should not have told them about the Mistress's plan. Now I am supposed to take you to her so she can have a nice little chit chat with you." He kicked the crystal aside and grabbed Barthas before he could escape. Picking up the crystal with the anchor spell on he he tossed it out the door and down the stairs. He and Barthas shimmered out to the under world.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Paige heard something hit the bottom stair and walked over to it. Bending over she reached down and picked up the crystal. Turning she asked "Xander, isn't this the crystal that you bound the anchor spell to?"

Xander looked up and saw the crystal. He leaped up and ran over to her grabbing the crystal "Yes, Barthas has escaped!" He ran up the stairs towards the attic with Piper and Paige in tow. They entered the attic and saw the empty cage. Xander let loose a turret of language that even turned Piper's ears red.

Turning he told the girls "I need to go back to the Hell mouth and talk to Cole about what Barthas told us happened to Leo. Maybe I can devise a way to reverse what Anthony has done to him." He walked over to Piper and Paige and gave them a hug. He then stepped back, tossed the crystal out the door and shimmered out.

Underworld

Queen Echidna sat on a throne looking down at a broke and bleeding Barthas. "You know that the only powers you have are the ones I gave you. Why did you tell my son my plans concerning his father?"

Barthas looked up and said "All I did was what you wanted. You should have saved me from the beating those demons gave me. You were right though, he did try to use my power on me. Thank you for granting me immunity from it. Please will you heal me now my mistress?"

Echidna smiled and held out her hand. An green glowing orb shot out of her hand and hit Barthas in the chest. All of his wounds were gone and he looked once again like his old self. Standing up he bowed. Tony Harris entered the room at that point and said "My Bride, the materials are ready for us to begin." He walked over to her and helped her out of the throne, giving her a deep kiss. They both walked out to see a huge ruby sitting on a dial in front of the Grimore. Smiling they walked over to it and the ritual began.

The Hell mouth

Xander simmered into his room just in time to hear a large and loud bang from Willow's room. Fearing another attack Xander ran next door and straight though the door. Inside he saw Willow and Cole sitting there with a 40 pound weight between them. Willow jumped up and said "Your back! Cole and I were just practicing making this weight fly around the room." she ran over to him and hugged him. Pulling back Willow then gave him a punch on the arm. "Next time take the time to OPEN the door and not destroy it. I know you can fix it with a wave of your hand but don't forget thats what led me down the path to the darkside."

Xander looked a bit sheepish "I thought you were under attack. Hey bro!" Cole stood up and walked over to him. Xander shook his hand. "I need a bit of advice and some information from you."

Cole looked at Willow "This sounds like a Brother to brother talk in the making. Could you give us a few minutes alone please?"

Willow nodded and walked out of the room, the door flying back together as she left. Turning Xander started to explain to Cole what had happened to Leo. Cole thought It over and said "It sounds like you father was into quantum mechanics right? Well he brought it over to the magical world. It sounds like all he did was replace our Leo with one from an reality that closely matches ours. The source had a power that could do that but his powers would have been destroyed along with me."

Xander sat down and asked "Where did the source get his powers form though? Who did they come from originally?"

Cole sat down next to him and said "Well demonic powers are normally passed down though fathers and mothers to their children but there are other ways to gain them as well. Although the demonic parents could remove them if they were powerful enough"

Xander sat stright up and said "Wait, didn't you say that Echidna was the one demon the source dared not order around? What if the reason he didn't order her around was because she was his mother too? What we are facing might just be one of the fist demons ever to walk the earth"

Cole looked shocked at Xander "That might just be it. No one can remember when Echidna came into being she just was always there. This just got a whole lot worse."

Xander looked at Cole and said "And I though that my day was bad already. Now I need to go explian to the sisters that my mother was the one who gave birth to the whole race of demons. At least I can tell Piper that I have a plan on how to turn Leo back into a white lighter again." Xander put his face into his hands and groaned.