It was a well known fact that a Xander was ruled by his stomach. To come between a Xander and his food was among the worst crimes possible, right along side Murder and world domination. At least that was how Xander saw things, which meant his cast needed to die, and to use a Giles-y term, Very bloody quickly.
He pouted a little and rested his chin on his fist as he waited for Bella to bring his food. It wasn't that he wasn't grateful to his cousin for helping, it was because he was hungry. The hair on the back of his neck prickled and he looked up, eyes scanning the cafeteria until he located the feeling. He noticed the mysterious stud first as he followed along behind Rosalie and the other three.
"Spotted the Cullen's have you?" Jessica asked quietly. Xander blinked, that explained why they'd looked familiar, the eyes and skin tone.
"Cullen's?" Xander frowned as Bella finally got back with his food, he thanked his cousin as she set his tray down in front of him.
"Dr and Mrs Cullen's adopted kids." Jessica lent over the table a little, her voice quieter. "See the blond two, That's Rosalie and Jasper Hale, The big guy, that's Emmet, And the little dark haired girl is Alice. It's really weird, their all like together. Except for the other one, he's Edward, he isn't interested in anybody." Jessica gossiped.
"Together as in a foursome?" Xander eyed her, making a note of the tone she used. It sounded like she was jealous of one or more of them.
"No! but Rosalie's with Emmet, and Jasper is with Alice." She told him before sitting back.
"They probable got together before they where adopted, no big." Xander shrugged as the Cullen's got closer to their table, they where practically stalking through the cafeteria, blatantly obvious that they weren't your normal human. He couldn't help but run his eyes over Edward, at least he had a name for studly-come-jump-me. Xander wanted to bang his head off the table, apparently his libido haven't understood the topic of acceptable criteria to like and had upgraded Edward from tasty to fuck-able. Spot wasn't helping matters any, honestly his own body was attempting mutiny. Either that or his body had the right idea and his brain was slow on the uptake. Being that he'd never been one to follow normal rules, especially high school social rules, he brought his index finger thumb to his mouth and gave a piercing wolf whistle as Rosalie passed his table. He made a note of the wince all five of them gave, mentally rubbing hands together. 'my dear Watson, I do believe there is a mystery a foot' He mentally cackled as the Cullen's turned.
"Rosie I'm hurt, did you forget me already?" He gave Rosalie his best puppy eyes, batting his eyes at her cheekily.
"You don't quit do you?" Rosalie drawled, a faint smile tugging at her lips. Xander put one hand over his heart and lifted his other solemnly.
"I can honestly say I've never quit anything in my life" he promised, he dropped his hands folding them on top of the table " been kicked out of and runaway from however is a completely different matter all together." He grinned at her. She rolled her eyes but couldn't help the smile.
"I thought I told you not to call me Rosie, Al." She eyed him.
"Err, didn't I tell you?" He asked worriedly, she wasn't the only one who frowned at him. "I don't take order's very well." He told her solemnly. Rosalie rolled her eyes again, her smile getting a little bigger.
"Who's your friend Rosalie?" The little pixie asked, leaning into Jaspers side. She had a smile on her face, a warm one as she looked at him.
"Harris." He got to his good leg and held his hand out. "Xander Harris." He gave his imitation of James Bond. She took his hand with a smile, her hand as cold as Rosalie's had been, on a whim, he lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles suavely. "And you are?" He asked charmingly as she giggled softly stepping back to Jaspers side, the blond mans arm going around her waist.
"Alice." Alice answered, peeking at him under his lashes. "Your charming." She told him with a smile.
"Not usually, but for pretty girls I always make an exception." He grinned at her. "Of course if I didn't my tiny blond friend would kick my ass." He added. Everyone seemed to look at Rosalie, wondering if it was her he was talking about, and if it was how she would handle it.
"I hope your not calling me short Al." Rosalie eyed him.
"Me call you short?" Xander blinked at her. "Nope, your tall and very nicely put together, but you would probably rip me in two and feed me to stray dogs, while Buffy would just kick my ass, she's a bit squeamish." Xander informed her. The Cullen's all blinked at him, half of them looked about to talk.
"This is your friend with the sword because she doesn't like bow's right?" Bella asked with a frown.
"That's the one." Xander nodded, he turned back to the Cullen's and paused at the shrill ringing, almost jumping as his ass began to vibrate. It took him a moment to remember Charlie had gotten him a phone for emergencies. So far only Charlie, Bella and the Scooby's had his number.
He frowned, pulling it out, checking the caller I.D, he recognised Willows number immediately and put it to his ear as he answered. Why would Willow call in the middle of school, she wouldn't usually. Unless it was bad.
"Wills?" He asked with a frown. A loud string of babble hit him in a heart beat, worse than Willow on espresso's after an all night research party and hyped up an too much sugar, the sinking feeling got worse.
"Will's sweetie, Breath ok, even I can't keep up with Willow-hyper-babble." He ordered, leaning to pick up his back pack. Another stream of babble hit him, only this time he could decipher it. Several words jumped out at him. "The what-what of the who? And who is Kendra?" He demanded grabbing his crutches. Xander felt the colour drain from his face as Willow explained.
"Are you ok?" Bella frowned looking at him. Xander frowned.
"One second Will's." He spoke into the phone, before lowering it, looking at his cousin. "I've gotta bounce, I'll see ya later ok." He promised, eyes sweeping the table and the watching Cullen's. with out another look he hobbled from the room as fast as he could, carrying his crutches as he put the phone back to his ear. "Go on Will." He offered as he left the cafeteria.
Xander dropped his bag as he entered the Swan residence, crutches falling to the floor he hopped to the stairs. He knew he had read something on this order before, he moved up the stairs as fast as he could. What he wanted to know was why Spike and Dru would send assassins after him if he was off the hellmouth now. Hopping to his room, he moved straight to his book shelf, locating the Paladin codex and yanking it off the shelf. He dropped onto his bed as he flicked open the book. Looking for the section on notable Order's and Covens. He found the section easy enough, searching through until he found the bit he wanted
The Order of Terakka is a guild of assassins with over two thousand years of history. It is the only guild of it's kind in the known dimensions, in that the guild has beings from all walks of life, from humans to Gnarled gnomes. While the Order is steeped in secrecy, one crucial thing about them is that they never tire. Once a bounty is taken, the Order will not stop until it is completed.
The only known way to identify a member of the order is their ring with the Terakkan seal, which all members must wear. The seal is their only common mark of identification. Even though all order members wear the seal, it is still almost impossible to identify a Terakkan assassin.
Only one being is known to have survived the Terakkan's, a Pulluchi demon in the early thirteen hundreds, when the bounty was withdrawn. Since Terakkan's are quick to fulfil a bounty, no one else has lived long enough for a bounty to be withdrawn.
The most notable kill's attached to the Order of Terakka cross the known dimensions. For Example President's Lincoln and Kennedy where both shot by a member of the Order of Terakka…
Xander swallowed heavily as he slammed the book shut, eye's flicking around the room. He set the book down and lent over the side of his bed, his fingers fumbled for the trunk he knew was there, scratching at air until they hit the cool lacquered wood. He snatched the trunk out, heaving it up onto the bed next to him.
He fumbled with the latch before throwing the top back, looking at the contents inside. Taking another look around the room he got to his feet, reaching into the dark wooden box to pluck out his second favourite weapon after the longbow.
He gripped the hard handle of the large battle axe, lifting it out easily. He ran his eyes over the deadly, live edge of the blade, testing it with the pad of his thumb. Nodding, he grabbed the leather sheath, setting the Battle axe on the bedspread to wrestle the shoulder rig on.
He adjusted the buckles on it before picking up his axe, settling the heavy weight into it's home. With an assassin on his as, he wasn't going to take any chances, especially since Terakkan's came in all shapes and sizes. There was no room for error if he wanted to live long enough for Giles to work his magic. And the idea of waiting on Angel to call off the bounty as head of his line didn't quite sit right with Xander. With that in mine he began pulling blades from the trunk, a wooden one, one made of blessed silver, and the final general purpose blade, a steel blade with veins of iron, bronze, and gold. It made a flimsy blade usually, but it was good to have just in case. If wood or blessed silver didn't take care of it, one of the four elements in the blade would. The knives he strapped in easy to reach places, but places he could hide them.
The last thing to get unpacked was his Long bow, still folded it went into a small shoulder case with a quiver fill of carbon shaft arrows with an assortment of tips and the all important survival. If anything, the patrolling on the hellmouth had taught the Scooby gang the importance of being prepared. It was funny how something as a pen knife of a bottle of water could help in the surreal situations they had found themselves in.
Xander was no pro by any count, he was lucky to survive as long as he had with no formal training and only minimal on the job training, but even so, he'd learnt tricks that would help keep him alive a little longer, and he'd learned them hard.
He didn't have a plan as he left his room, but he knew that if the assassins where in Sunnydale, they would be in Forks too. He picked up his school bag and crutches from where he'd dropped them, moving to stuff them inside the hall closet. With one last check of the home, he locked up and left heading for the dense woods that surrounded Forks.
There was still no plan hours later as Xander hiked up the steep incline. Pausing every so often to rest against a tree. Giles had promised him it wouldn't take Angel more than a few day's to recall the bounty, he hoped so. He felt bad about just up and leaving like he had. After calling Giles while he cleaned up the weapons trunk, he'd left. He hadn't written a note or anything, hoping that if any thing went to the house, they'd get the idea he'd heard and spooked. He was hoping that they'd leave Charlie and Bella alone, since he'd left no indication he was going to be back he was hoping the assassin would follow him rather that wait.
Hoping was never a plan to put faith on when dealing with situations of a hellmouth nature, but it was all he had at the moment, that and the general idea to wait it out and not get found.
Finding a small clearing, Xander decided to stop for a while. His leg was beginning to hurt again, more than the dull ache it had reduced to over the last week or so, and since he'd skipped lunch he was ravenous. After walking for several hours, he figured he could take a small brake to eat something and the clearing was as good a rest stop as he was going to get.
Sliding off his shoulder bag, he sat on stump of an old tree, coated in a thick padding of deep green moss. He dug through the bag for the space bars Willow had ordered when they'd but the survival kits together. They weren't much, and they tasted like cardboard, but they'd slake his hunger for a while. Taking a bite, Xander vowed he'd treat himself to a burger of something when the assassins where delt with.
A sudden something dropping onto his head made him flinch, jerking and bring a hand up to run a hand through his hair. The large black beetle that feel to the floor made him shudder.
"EWW!" he shuddered violently, before smashing the heal of his boot into the creature, shuddering again as the crunch reached his ears. "Gross." He muttered, taking a vicious bite from his space bar. He couldn't help it, the thought of bugs crawling on him made his skin crawl. He hated the idea of bugs crawling on his skin as bad as Spot hated the memory of flies and mosquitoes buzzing around her muzzle, and Tackelberry loathed having sand in his fatigues.
Paranoid about bugs, his eyes began sweeping the area around him, carefully watching for any that where attempting to sneak up and crawl on him. His hand rummaged in the bag for his bottle of water, pulling out a bottle, he paused to check it wasn't his supply of holy water before taking a long drink. Banishing the dry mouth the space bar had given him.
He lowered his sports bottle, eyes sweeping the clearing again. His heart lurched as they halted on dark brow. Swallowing thickly, his eyes took in the abnormally large canine stood watching him, silently. Xander could only prey this was a normal wolf. He knew there where several species of beings able to assume animal form, and since he was being hunted by assassins, he could only prey this wasn't a Terakkan sent to kill him.
He soft snap of a twig made him flinch, his eyes scanned the clearing again before dropping back to the wolf. Frowning when he noticed he no longer had its attention. The hair on the back of his neck began to lift as the wolf's low dangerous growl hit his ears. So when Tackelberry told him to hit the deck, Xander didn't ask why, he launched himself off the tree stump, spinning on his casted foot while grabbing for his axe.
Some sort of black ooze hit the stump a second after he'd left, splashing heavily. His eye's where drawn up the only place he hadn't looked. He didn't take his eyes off IT as the wolf let out a long baying howl. A summons Spot dimly told him, all their attention on the THING hanging from the canopy.
It was at least seven feet in length, a dozen or so long spindly legs that where holding it up as it held its self wedged between two tree trunks, a huge circular head with way to many eyes and thick mandibles protruding from a mouth filled with way to many Very large, Very sharp needle like teeth.
It's head bobbed as it began to click at him, and Xander could smell what ever the thing had oozed at him, a thick and acrid stench, the fizzing, bubbling noise a dim notation in the back of his mind. His battle axe felt woefully inadequate against the sheer size of the thing.
Slowly, the thing began to lower it's self, crawling down between the two trees, something shiny and silver glinting in the diminishing light as it moved. A ring Xander dimly realised, his heart pounding so hard in his chest he was certain it was trying to hammer it's way out and escape.
'Yep, body's practicing mutiny' he thought hysterically. 'why do I get the giant fuckin' bug and Buffy gets a psycho biker?' that was the one thing he really wanted to know.
The bug suddenly reared it's head back, it's neck elongating before snapping forwards like a viper, Xander reacted, launching himself to the side, hitting the ground hard with his right shoulder, more acrid black ooze spewing into the space he'd just been occupying. The acrid mass of nasty hit a tree, beginning to hiss and fizzle.
Taking his eyes of the thing only a split second as he got to his feet, he saw the stump he'd originally been sat on was now nothing more than a bubbling mass eating it's was into the earth.
"Oh fuck me!" he whispered harshly. He was gonna die by acid puke, he just knew it.
