Chapter X
'We are shadowy death'
x
AN: We are nearing the end now.
Questions:
Cegorach: Cop'lann knows that there are no Eldar in the universe. He is however in the past, so if he could find a way back to his own universe he might end up in its past as well. Which would open up certain... possibilities
x
x
When he stepped inside the Library, his library, it was like stepping into a completely different world. Gone was his comfortable world of nicely ordered racks of books and indexes, instead it was like everything was covered in this strange white plastic, itself covered in strange runes.
At the center of the Library Giles could see Buffy, covered in a white tower of this strange plastic, be it with many small openings, which is how he could still see her. She had her eyes closed and appeared to be reciting something and she was holding the statue, the one they needed to smash.
"BUFFY!" Giles yelled and tried to run towards her.
Only to be stopped by an unseen force halfway, then thrown back painfully hard against a wall.
As he hit the wall Willow came running towards him, to check if he was alright.
"Bugger!" Giles groaned as he bit through the pain.
"Are you alright, Giles?" Willow asked concerned, then before Giles could reply another voice spoke.
"I am sorry for that," the voice said, sounding almost musically, "I do not hold you in contempt, Rupert Giles. You must be the only one on this miserable planet with whom I might be able to hold a decent conversation. And who knows, we still might. But for now I cannot allow you to intervene."
No longer wearing his helmet, and the upper part of his outfit, the Eldar Farseer walked into view, giving Giles his first view of the thing that Xander had become.
While physically there was still very much of a resemblance, Giles noticed that the young man he had come to know and respect had changed. Looking taller and narrower. With his upper torso nearly naked for a sleeveless shirt with a large red jewel embedded in it he could see that it was now adorned in the same alien runes as there were on the strange white plastic.
"Giles, he wants to kill Buffy so he can become permanent," Willow whispered in his ear, "He wants to make it so that once the spell ends he'll take over Xander's body."
As the implications of Willow's words sank in Giles could only utter one thing.
"Oh dear!"
x
x
WHACK!
A vicious kick from Spike sent Angel flying almost several foot into the air.
"Pathetic!" Spike said disapprovingly, "Since you got your soul back you're nothing but a shadow of who you used to be!"
KICK!
"Man! You used to kick me all over the place when you were still Angelus," Spike said after yet another vicious kick, "Put me in my place whenever you thought I was getting full of myself. And now look at ya, weak, pathetic, soulfilled."
"Then this must be really cathartic to you?" Angel groaned.
"You know what?" Spike said as he stopped and began to grin, "You're right. It really is."
"Glad to be of service then," Angel said and then threw himself into Spike, knocking the vampire over.
"Yeah, that's the stuff!" Spike said approvingly as Angel began to pound into him, "Show me what you got!"
x
x
"You can't do that!" Giles yelled at Cop'lann, "That body doesn't belong to you!"
"Is it not a Mon-keigh saying that states that possession is 9/10th of the law?" Cop'lann said back unrepentant, "I think I may have heard that once on a world or two. Besides, what is one life compared to trillions? I am talking about being able to stop the Fall of the Eldar here. To prevent the birth of Slaanesh. Is that not a small price to pay? It would even save trillions of your precious human lives as well, as the birth of Slaanesh also caused the human Age of Strife. Ending your precious golden age. Again, one life for uncounted trillions."
God! He's really going to do it, Giles thought hopelessly. What on Earth am I to say against that? Desperately Giles tried to recall what Willow had said about the Eldar. Fierce psychic race, check. Arrogance personified, check. Hated Chaos and would go to any length to stop it, check. Drew their psychic power from a demon filled place called the Warp and because of their hedonism gone unchecked had created a fourth Chaos God and…..
"Those are fictional deaths," Giles suddenly said and got up to his feet, "Your entire universe may have experienced untold misery, but it is still a fictional universe and as such their deaths have no meaning in the real world. That boy whose body you're trying to steal, he is real, that girl you're sacrificing, she is real. You on the other hand, you're just something made manifest by the out of control spell of a dead warlock. Your sacrificing lives for something that does not even exist!"
Cop'lann gave him a blank look, then he slowly made a bow of respect towards Giles.
"Bravo," he said impressed, "You use reason instead of dogma. You truly are a scholar of great ability and insight. I shall look forward to having many discussions with you in the future."
"You're still going through with this?" Giles said incredulously.
"Of course," Cop'lann shrugged indifferent, "My powers still work, therefore the Warp still exists. I may not be able to sense of any of the three existing Chaos Gods that should be out there, but I can still sense that there are many demons out there. This entire Hellmouth can be a direct conduit to the Warp, Master Giles. And in the Warp, everything is possible. Including crossing over to my own universe."
"That still means you're sacrificing real people on the off chance that you might be able to return to your own, and still very much fictional universe," Giles said back.
"Well, if you had fought Chaos for as long as me and my people have, had suffered as much as we have, and lost as much as we have, would you not try everything?" Cop'lann retorted, "Including this final last straw?"
"I suppose I might," Giles said after some thinking, "But that still won't make right what you're trying to do."
"It is not a matter of trying, it is already happening," Cop'lann said smirking.
"Then I will stop you," Giles said resolute.
"I would like to see you try," Cop'lann said and aimed his Shuriken pistol at Giles.
"Only a bully tries to beat a weak defenseless man," a new voice said, causing Cop'lann and Giles to look aside.
In the entrance to the Library stood the three Jedi. A little worse for wear, some blood now present but still ready and able.
"Only a Sith seeks pleasure in humiliating a weaker man," Master Sh'u said as he ignited his lightsaber, "If you are a man of honor, as you claim you are, why not take on somebody your own size?"
x
x
THUD!
As Angel's broken and battered body hit the ground, Spike's fell down to his knees almost immediately next to it, almost as battered and bruised as Angel.
For a moment neither said anything, both panting heavily, or in Angel's case trying to pant through his tortured body.
"Bugger!" Spike finally said, turned around and sat down. Then he fumbled in his pockets and pulled out a battered packet of cigarettes.
"Now that was a good fight," Spike said appreciatively, taking out a cigarette and putting it in his mouth, "One for the ages. Started off a bit half hearted but once you got your heart into it it turned alright."
Angel said nothing, on the account of being so badly hurt he couldn't speak. He would recover alright, but it would take him some time. Time he didn't have right now.
"I know, I know," Spike said as he reached out and patted Angel's battered and bruised body, "Don't feel bad. You did the best you could. Maybe if you hadn't spent the last century feeling sorry for yourself and eating rats…., but there's no dwelling on the past, right? And you did came close a couple of times."
Spike lit a bent and twisted cigarette and took a deep draught.
"Wow," he said as he deeply enjoyed his first drag, "It really is the simple things in life. The best fight of your life, first draw of a cigarette afterwards, soon killing your third Slayer."
Slowly Spike stood up and took another drag of his cigarette.
"This is where we part, old friend," Spike said and slowly began to walk towards the back door, "Don't worry, I'll be nice and kill her quickly. Least I can do for ya."
Reaching out Spike opened the backdoor into the Library and halted. He found the entire doorway blocked by what appeared to be a strange white plastic.
"What the…," Spike said surprised, then he touched the white plastic and recoiled, it felt….., not very pleasant to his touch?
"Bugger me silly!" he said both surprised and angry, "That slimy alien bastard! He tricked me!"
Behind him came a coughing wheezing that sounded suspiciously much like Angel was laughing his ass off.
x
x
"In my experience there is very little honor amongst the Mon-keigh," Cop'lann said dismissively as he faced the Jedi, "We bleed and we bleed to fight Chaos for them. And half the time those pigheaded Imperials turn on us too."
"We are not your Imperium," Master Sh'u said calmly, "and neither is Master Giles. And while I may look human now, I am most definitely Twi'lek in my own universe."
"And I am Nautolan," Knight Ralto added.
"I cannot say I recognize any of your species' names," Cop'lann said shaking his head, "Nor does it matter. You will not stop me. You may have come in a little earlier then expected but in every possible future I examined neither of you will be in a position to stop what is inevitable."
"Always in motion the future is," Master Sh'u said stoic, "That's what I was taught as a Padawan at the Jedi Temple."
"That's because your vision of the future is only limited," Cop'lann sneered and pulled forth his witchblade, "Shall we, esteemed Jedi? I am sure that if our collective fandoms knew of this battle they would be most inquisitive to find out who would win? I must confess, after what I learned from Spike about you so am I."
The two other Jedi also ignited their blades.
"So it will be the three of you together?" Cop'lann said disdainful, "Not very sportsmanlike, now is it? I thought you Jedi were supposed to be honorable?"
"Well, you do seem to have the advantage of knowing what will happen even more then we do," Master Sh'u said, then he darted forward and struck the Farseer's witchblade with great force. But his lightsaber failed to cut right through it as he had hoped.
"It will not be that easy, Jedi," the Farseer said, with plenty of vitriol on the word Jedi, then he counter attacked, "I was once a Striking Scorpion. Taste my sting!"
CRACK!
Suddenly an arrow struck the wraithbone cage in which Buffy the Noble Woman sat and embedded itself in the small statue of Janus.
Turning around Cop'lann stared at the arrow, now at the center of a rapidly swirling nexus of energy. Then he looked at the source of the arrow.
Standing in the opening of the book cage was Cordelia, and she was holding a crossbow.
"Why didn't I see…?" Cop'lann said as he felt his consciousness begin to fade, then it hit upon him. The headaches. His intense dislike of this woman.
It wasn't bleed over from his host persona, she had to be a blank!
"I feel a great disturbance in the Force," Jonathan said, no longer a Jedi Master as he looked at his now plastic lightsaber, "like a great collective let down and disappointment."
"Nice shooting, Cordelia," Giles said approvingly as he got back on his feet.
"Don't thank me," Cordelia said as she threw down her crossbow, "I was aiming for her head."
The first thing Xander did as he was himself again was to drop his now plastic sword and went to check on Buffy.
"BUFFY!" he yelled as he began to tear at the wraithbone cage. Which was surprisingly resilient and strong enough to resist his efforts.
Inside the cage Buffy looked both exhausted and passed out. But then, as Giles joined Xander in helping to get her out she opened her eyes and smiled.
"Hi, honey. I'm home."
x
x
AN: I know, I know, I really chickened out with the whole Jedi/Farseer battle. Part of me really wanted to do an epic battle between them that would do them justice. Unfortunately I don't really know enough the combat capabilities of either of them to pull it off. I know the stuff Jedi do in the movies, but the EU and games adds tons of stuff I know Jack Shit about. Same with Eldar Farseers. I know the DoW games, but what's in the codices and novels… Rather then go for something that would disappoint or create butthurt I decided to chicken out instead. But feel free to tell me how you think this fight should have gone. Just be gentle