31 Days of Xanderween
Author's notes: Almost there, almost caught up...
Disclaimer: If I own them then why am I so damn poor?
Story 24: Soul Xander
Xander practically had a heart attack when he walked into Ethan's store only for an air horn to sound and confetti dropping on his head. However, his moment of panic was quickly forgotten when the owner congratulated him on being the hundredth customer to the store's grand opening. As such, Xander was entitled to a specially made costume compliments of the store. And what a costume it was, looking like a demonically mutated set of dark plate armor. Beside it was a massive sword, practically as tall and as wide as a fully grown man with organic protrusions growing from it and an eye-like decoration set in the middle of it; it was almost like the sword was alive. It was a creepy looking costume, but impressive. Just wait until the girls got an eyeful of him!
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As Ethan's spell raced through Sunnydale, Xander's costume came to horrifying life. The armor fused with his body. A mane of red sprouted from the base of the bat-winged helmet, growing into a long plume that fluttered in the wind. His right arm grew to nearly the length of his whole body, malformed and grotesque with three grasping fingers in the form of talons at the end. The sword's eye blinked, looking around as it came to life. And his eyes, once a warm brown were replaced with a horrifying, glowing red that leaked out from the helmet's eye slits.
Nightmare, the dark knight possessed by the unholy blade Soul Edge who had killed and murdered his way across the entirety of Europe, lifted his head and gave an unearthly cry of dark pleasure. "MASSACRE!"
The bloodbath had begun.
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Willow scrambled back futilely, back finally bumping into a wall as the armored figure approached her, it's eyes glowing with the fires of hell. Tears streamed down her face as she fought to keep down her sobs. They were all gone. Buffy, Giles, Ms. Calendar, Angel, all of them murdered by this THING approaching her. The thing that before Halloween had been her best friend. "Xander, please don't..."
She was silenced by the clawed hand shooting forward and grasping her about the throat, lifting her so that the tip of the sword held in the monster's other hand was nestled gently between her breasts. The glowing eyes stared straight into hers, and if it weren't for the helmet obscuring the rest of the thing's face then she would have sworn that it was wearing an expression of extreme pleasure. It's voice was rough and raw, more animal than human as it growled at her. "OFFER YOUR SOUL!"
Then Willow screamed as the sword pierced her body and she felt the blade devouring her soul into itself.
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Xander stood amongst the ruins of Sunnydale, old crumbling buildings that had been destroyed months ago and freshly gutted tanks and armored personnel carriers that had been destroyed as little as seventeen hours ago surrounding him. He had done this, all of it. He couldn't help it, when he fell asleep the sword took over. The Judge, the mayor, the Scoobies... All had fallen before Nightmare and Soul Edge. After Buffy had died, a Slayer named Kendra came after him. Then after her came another named Faith. Then another and another and another. He'd lost count of how many after his thirteenth Slayer, a terrifying feat that no other supernatural being could lay claim to. And with every person he killed, Soul Edge became stronger as it consumed their souls.
The general populace of Sunnydale hadn't been spared either. Just four months after Halloween, nobody remained living in Sunnydale, and only one in twenty-five had managed to escape from his rampages and leave the town. He couldn't remember for sure, but he was pretty certain that he'd killed Mrs. Summers and Jesse's parents as well as his own. The military had eventually responded, at first sending two platoons. When they lost contact with them, they sent in a battalion, only to get a garbled message screaming at them for reinforcements. A little wiser this time, they sent in a full infantry regiment with tank support and attack helicopters. Only six men escaped, with five of them being committed to psychiatric care and the last one committing suicide. The military response to that disaster had been to carpet bomb Sunnydale before sending in six armored columns to grind even the dust into a fine powder. But they hadn't stopped him, nothing could.
Xander idly wondered if Ethan Rayne could have imagined that his harmless little joke would have unleashed something that nobody in this world was equipped to stop. Only a weapon master of unprecedented skill and spirit could hope to stop him and wrench Soul Edge from his fingers, and this world hadn't produced such masters for nearly three hundred years. And until such a master could be produced, a process that could take decades if not centuries, everyone who stood against him was just another soul to feed Soul Edge's thirst. A tear ran down from his eye slit and fell hissing upon the shattered concrete as his gaze turned to the direction of Los Angeles. Soon he would have to sleep again, and the slaughter would begin anew.
End Story 24: Soul Xander
Notes: ...Please don't hurt me.
Character: Nightmare from the Soul Calibur videogame series (began 1999)
Next story: Xander of Ulthwe