Glory-ous Homecoming
Summary: Set in the Glory-ous verse. Miraculously Xander survived the Scoobies' defeat at the hands of Glory and Kal and now, years later, he returns to Sunnydale to find...well not what he was expecting.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
'Welcome to Sunnydale'
The sign remained as he remembered it.
From where he stood the town remained as he remembered it.
It can only mean one thing in his mind. Buffy won. Otherwise he wouldn't be here. Nothing would be here. The whole world would have perished.
It had taken him years to get back here. Now he had a few hours more walking to do to reach his destination. With that in mind he takes the first of the final steps of his journey home.
The Summers Residence...
Looks just like he remembers actually...more or less. Few small differences here and there. If anything it looks better maintained than he remembers as if they are better off. He would hope they would have been doing good in his absence.
He knocks on the door and waits.
When it is opened he has to smile at the now 19 year old young woman before him. She had definitely grown up during his 5 year absence. "Dawn," he speaks her name.
Dawn's eyes widen in complete shock. "Xander?" she asks at a whisper.
"Yeah it's me," he confirms.
Dawn leans forward, looks around nervously before yanking Xander inside the house and slamming the door. "What the hell are you doing here?!" she hisses.
Xander frowns. "I come back from the dead after 5 years and all I get is a 'what the hell are you doing here?'" he complains. "Really nice welcome Dawnie."
Dawn glares at him in a way Buffy would be proud of. "You shouldn't have come back," she says with a sad shake of her head.
"I had to," Xander says, still really confused about Dawn's reaction. "Now don't I get a hug?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Xander...how did you survive? Last I saw of you was Kal throwing you over the horizon," Dawn recalls the events of the final battle against Glory.
"I landed in the Pacific actually. Woke up on a deserted island, injured but alive."
"Is that how...your eye," she points at it.
Xander rubs the patch over his now missing eye. "Yeah. I lost it."
"How did you survive? The impact alone..."
"Should have killed me," Xander fills in. "We Harrises are a tough breed."
"No you're not," Dawn contradicts him.
"Ok. No we're not but I did survive and I survived on that island until by chance a boat stopped by a few months ago and picked me up. Been working my way home ever since."
"Y-you didn't go to your house did you?" Dawn asks, panic in her tone.
"Ah no. Not yet. Wanted to check on my two favourite girls first. Where is Buffy?"
"Oh Gods," Dawn groans, her hands covering her face.
"Dawn?" Xander queries.
Dawn peers from behind her hands, eyes laden with moisture. "You have no idea, no idea at all do you?"
"Dawnie getting worried here," Xander admits.
"Xander on your way here did you talk to anyone?"
"Like who?"
Dawn takes him by the arms and squeezes tightly. "Did you talk to anyone?!" she demands to know, her tone hard.
"Well there was this one person I bumped into."
"Then She knows. She knows you're here. She can see everything through them. I'm sorry."
"Sorry? You're making no sense Dawn."
Before Dawn can explain the front door opens.
Xander turns round with a huge smile. "Buffy!"
Buffy marches up to him.
Xander opens his arms, expecting a hug.
Buffy gives him a right hook and knocks him out with a single punch.
"Was that necessary?" Dawn complains.
"Orders from her Most Glorious, Gracious, Benevolent..."
"Yeah, yeah. Blah, blah," Dawn mocks. "Ugh, I can't believe they programmed you with that nonsense."
"I live to serve Him and Her. You know this Dawnster."
"Don't call me that!" Dawn snaps. "You are not and never will be my sister!" she practically screams.
'Buffy' shrugs.
"What did They say?" Dawn asks.
"To take him to the Mayor for now. They'll decide later what to do with him. They were 'busy'."
Dawn rolls her eyes. "Yeah I felt the tremors." She sighs. She hates this but has no choice. It's simply something she no longer has. "I'm coming as well. That's not up for debate."
"That does not contradict any of my protocols or directives," 'Buffy' relays.
"Xander! Wake up!" a voice yells at him and then someone slaps him. He jerks awake to find himself in the back-seat of a car with Dawn hovering over him. "Did you slap me?" he asks incredulously. "And did Buffy punch me?"
"No. Buffy did not punch you."
"I kinda think she did," he argues, rubbing his jaw.
"No. It's...complicated and I'm not the one to explain it. We're here."
"We're where?"
"The Mayor's office."
"The Mayor's office?" Xander queries, more confused than ever.
Dawn sighs. "I'll explain once you meet her."
"Her who?"
"Xander! You're not dead!" the Mayor of Sunnydale exclaims merrily.
"Anya?!" Xander splutters out in complete surprise at seeing the woman behind the desk.
"That's what it says on the door! That is what it says right?" Anya asks.
"Uh yeah," Xander confirms. "How are you...you look great!" he proclaims. In fact better than great. Maybe his memory is playing tricks but she does look even better than he remembers.
Anya beams. "Well thank you. Immortality is a boon ain't it?"
"Immortality? Are you a Vengeance Demon again?"
"As if," Anya dismisses that. "It was simply a reward for my loyal service to my Goddess."
"Uh Anya," Dawn raises her voice. "I haven't had a chance to explain any of it yet. Ms Nuts and Bolts here," she points at 'Buffy', "laid him out before I had a chance."
"Nuts and bolts...she's the Buffybot!" Xander cries at the realisation.
"I see," Anya says, collecting herself. "Yes. She's the Buffybot."
"And the real Buffy?"
"Dead," Anya answers it simply.
Xander feels a sting in his heart, a large, painful one. "How?"
"Glory. How else?"
"But Buffy stopped her right? She sacrificed herself stopping her."
"No. Xander," Dawn says, her voice heavy with grief. "Glory won."
"I need to sit down," Xander says as he collapses into a chair. He takes a few moments to collect himself. "If she won why are we all still here?"
"Because Glory never intended to go home. It was all a game to amuse herself," Dawn lays down the truth.
"We never stood a chance Xander. Glory had been freed of her prison. She was restored to her true full Godly self," Anya fills in.
"H-How did Buffy...?" Xander asks.
"Glory called lightning down from the sky and fried her," Anya continues, knowing this is painful for Dawn to remember.
"And after? What happened with Giles? And well, you?"
"Glory gave him and myself a choice. Serve and worship Her or death. Giles wouldn't serve her."
Xander looks at her with disbelief as it clicks into place what happened. "You sided with her!" he screams in fury.
"Don't take that tone with me, Xander!" Anya shouts back. "I was facing a full-powered Hell God!" Her voice softens. "I didn't want to die. I wasn't ready to," she says with a tremor of fear. "Do you know the sort of place I would go to if I died Xander? I was a demon for 900years. I know the sort of Hell I would suffer and ok I was afraid. Alright! I was afraid so yeah, I got down on my knees and pledged myself to Glory. Go ahead and lay one of your moral judgements on me if you want. Frankly you can't say anything Dawn hasn't already."
"That's true," Dawn says with a weary acceptance. "But I'm no longer in a position to judge," she says with a tad of shame.
"What does that mean?" Xander asks her.
"It means 5 years is long enough to discover I have a breaking point."
Xander looks at her with puzzlement and deep worry. "Dawn I..."
"I serve and worship Them just like Anya does, Xander," she explains it.
Xander shakes his head. "No. You wouldn't," he says in denial.
Dawn chuckles sadly. "I'm afraid I do."
"Glory's controlling you or brainwashed you."
"Yes to both actually," Dawn admits.
"Then we need to get you out of here."
Anya rolls her eyes at his idiocy. "You don't think she didn't try in the last 5 years you complete moron. She can't leave."
"Literally I can't leave," Dawn expands on that. "Glory has tethered me to her. Like with a magical, invisible elastic band. It's fine as long as I stay within the town limits but the second I step outwith them the band snaps and yanks me back to her. I found that out the painful way because like Anya said I did try to leave...many, many times actually. Glory and Kal just let me drive myself insane trying, knowing I couldn't get away from them until I gave up. As for the brainwashing...well it's been 5 years they've had to work on me. Glory could have snapped her fingers and made me her slave but they went for the more amusing approach of just waiting until my spirit broke and I submitted. And I have submitted. I may gripe and say a few insulting things about them but in the end they are my Gods. I belong to them."
"I refuse to believe that," Xander says.
Dawn rubs her head and looks to Anya. "Was he always this thick?"
"Kinda was," Anya confirms.
"Why did you date him?"
"He was a Viking in the sack," Anya says with a wicked grin. "Ooh you think our most benevolent Gods will grant me one more night with him before they...you know," Anya asks making a cut-throat gesture about Xander's fate.
Dawn shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe. Depends on Their mood I suppose."
"If the tremors earlier are any indication it'll be a good one."
"Ok stop talking about me like I'm not here," Xander complains. His mind having a hard time processing this to say the least. "And how can you be so casual about this all?"
"What part of spirit broken didn't register?" Dawn asks him.
"And I chose to serve Them voluntarily, remember," Anya reminds him.
"And it's been 5 years Xander. You adapt. Really it's not so bad once you recognise Them as your true deities. I mean I live in a nice house, have their protection, plus immortality like Anya here. They let me live as I please for the most part as long as I pray and serve Them."
"And Anya as Mayor?" Xander asks about.
"They installed me," Anya says with a shrug. "I mean They run this town. Yeah we have the whole pretence of elections and such so as not to draw anyone's attention but they're rigged and I'm the public front that allows Them to stay behind the scenes."
"Glory wasn't a behind the scenes person," Xander argues.
"Kal's changed her," Dawn tells him. "They're actually really sweet together but have no fret. They have plans. Glory is a God who needs to rule. They're just taking their time about it...well time to a mortal. A blink of the eye to Immortals."
"I...I've come back to some freaky Bizarro World!" Xander exclaims. He just couldn't see anything of the people he once knew. Ok Anya yes. Dawn, no.
"You really don't know the half of it. Not even close."
"And Tin-girl here?" Xander asks, nodding his head in the direction of the Buffybot who has been sitting, looking almost inert.
"All part of the cover. Kal fixed her up. As far as anyone else might know Buffy Summers is alive and well. It keeps people from asking too many questions."
"What people?"
"Dad and Angel mostly but the Child Welfare people too...well until I turned 18 anyway."
"So...that's it? You've just given up?" Xander questions them.
Anya lets out an annoyed sigh. "Xander, they're Gods. You can't hurt them. They have an army and soon they will set out with it to conquer this planet."
"What army?"
"Their children."
"Children? What children?"
"Oh dear Gods," Dawn mutters. "Were you always this stupid?" she asks him plainly. "Lord Kal is a man. Lady Glory is a woman. Do the maths," she tells him, slightly snidely.
"Ew!" Xander complains, making a face.
"Not really. They're all kinda gorgeous actually," Anya reflects with a dreamy smile. She turns to Dawnie. "Remember when the first ones hatched?"
Dawn nods. She sure does. That was something.
It had been what? 2 years since Buffy's death. On the surface nothing much about Sunnydale had changed but behind the scenes Kal and Glory had been making their preparations for their future conquests.
To aid this they had rigged the last Mayoral elections and had Anya installed as Mayor. This brought the resources of Sunnydale's local government under their control.
The other preparations included many, many, many more breeding cycles and many, many more offspring all placed in secure facilities being tended to by Glory's minions. Course Anya's position as Mayor also helped. By now there were thousands all in differing stages of development.
Speaking of Anya and Dawn as well they had been summoned to that warehouse where they first were told and shown Kal and Glory's offspring. They are led inside to find their Gods are already present, standing by the leather-like spheres which had now grown in size to be easily able to contain a fully grown adult.
"My Lady Glory, my Lord Kal," Anya greets them with a respectful bow.
Dawn simply folds her arms and looks irritated. The days where she would spout off insults had passed. She tired real hard not to think about how close she was to giving in to...to this. For the first year she had tried repeatedly to escape Sunnydale and warn someone of what was happening but found that escape was literally impossible.
Glory had cast some sort of spell on her that tethered the two. For as long as she remained within the town limits she was free to go anywhere she wanted but try and leave and the tether would snap her back like a rubber band.
Eventually even someone as stubborn as Dawn had had given up trying to escape.
And you know it wasn't so bad she guessed. Kal and Glory made sure she was well looked after and protected. Sunnydale's less friendly 'residents' wouldn't dare touch her for if they did then the wrath of a God would descend upon them.
Dawn frowns. Did she really just think this wasn't so bad?
'They murdered your sister, dammit,' she tries to remind herself. 'You hate them. Hate them. You will not become Anya. You will not give up your self-respect and prostrate yourself before them. You will find a way, one day, to stop them.'
Dawn tries to repeat that over and over in her head. She won't give in. She won't give up.
"There you are!" Glory cheers, sounding almost giddy. She actually giggles. "You're just in time," she declares.
"Time?" Anya queries.
"They're about to hatch," Kal replies.
Both Anya and Dawn look stunned. They knew this day was coming but yet, somehow, are still surprised that it is here.
One of the eggs begins to wobble.
"That's it. Come and say hello to Mommy and Daddy," Glory encourages her offspring, her eyes full of eager anticipation.
The skin splits open and what appears to be a human hand covered in slimy goop reaches out. A second hand follows as whatever is inside pushes out. The egg tears further as a human looking male, covered in slimy goop emerges.
Even covered in goop as he is it is plain to see he is tall, fit, powerful, perfectly sculpted in body and face, with dark hair atop his head.
Glory actually squeals in delight. "Oh Kal, look. He's perfect isn't he!" she gushes over their first born.
Kal saddles up behind her and kisses her neck. "Of course he is. We made him," he says, pride and love in his eyes and voice at seeing his children born.
The male looks at his parents. His mouth starts to open as if he is trying to figure out how it works. "Mmm-Mother. Father," he says his first words.
"Aron," Kal names him. He and Glory had been going over names for months.
It isn't long after that the next offspring is breaking free. A female with red hair who is as equally perfect in physical shape and looks who gets named Kira.
Over the course of the next hour all the eggs hatch producing an equal number of male and females, all as perfect as their siblings. The scabby demon minions of Glory are soon buzzing around them like bees, bathing and clothing them, while spouting off endless adulations.
And Glory and Kal are just overflowing with love for their new children. It's so weird to see from Glory especially. You would never expect it from her. In truth the her from before she met Kal wouldn't have been able to feel like this let alone happily express it. She's had children before but she never cared for them. Not like this. They were tools to achieve her goals. Live, die, it meant nothing to her.
But her children with Kal...the feelings they produce within her are beyond even her near infinite ability to find words for.
And more is what they represent. A step closer to her and Kal ruling this world as is their right. Glory is almost tingling with the anticipation. It's been too long since she got to wage war and indulge in bloody conquest.
But still she needs to be patient a little longer. That first breeding session had only produced a few dozen but there was a reason for that. They would be the first-born. Slightly...different. Special. The...Generals of Glory and Kal's army while their other children were more like the common soldiers. Of course common is not a word you can apply to any of them. They are a new species. Part Kryptonian-Part Hell God and almost as powerful as their parents. One of them alone could probably conquer the planet and soon there would be thousands walking the Earth….and when all their children are born this world will fall.
One might use the word 'Overkill' here except where Glory and Kal are concerned that isn't really a word that exists in their personal dictionaries.
Besides Earth is only going to be their first conquest. They are so many more worlds to take Glory almost salivates at the prospect. Millions...Billions bowing down in her presence. Worshipping her. Worshipping Kal.
Ok, she's more than a little turned on right now. Might be time to go breed some more kids.
Kal is a little more focussed than his Beloved is at the minute as he turns to Anya. "Madame Mayor. There's something we need you to do."
"Like?" Anya queries.
Kal smiles that smirk. The one like he's laughing at a joke only he gets. Anya's been around him long enough now to know this is gonna be...interesting.
Anya lets out a dreamy sigh. "They really are gorgeous you know," she says in relation to their Most Divine Beings' kids.
"You only say that because you're banging them," Dawn accuses.
Anya snorts. "So are you."
"I know," Dawn says with the same dreamy sigh Anya had just used.
"You guys are creeping me out," Xander says, looking at the two girls as if seeing two complete strangers.
"We're women Xander. We have needs and our Gods were gracious enough to make sure our needs are met," Anya explains it matter of factly.
"And then some," Dawn reflects.
"Ok this is some sort of parallel world I've fallen into," Xander says, desperately fishing for an explanation as to how these two can be like this.
"Xander, if you've met anyone since you returned you know what we're talking about. They're inhumanly perfect."
Well there was that one guy he bumped into and yeah, he was a gorgeous guy. "So that's it. You've just converted?" he asks in complete disbelief.
Anya sighs, sits down and crosses her legs, her skirt rising up, exposing her legs...which gets Xander's focus. "You do not understand Xander. I'm sure you're sitting there thinking about somehow saving us from ourselves or something or warning someone. It's far too late for that on every front. In fact it's already over. The world just doesn't know it yet."
"What does that mean?"
Anya gestures at the view out the window. "It's all a pretence Xander. Everything you see in Sunnydale is just a facade of normalcy so that no-one sees what is coming."
"Still don't get it," Xander says, confused, his one good eye wandering up Anya's legs.
Dawn rolls her eyes. Yep, he is way more stupid than she remembers. Why the hell did she have that silly crush on him again? "Apart from Anya and myself there is no-one human left in this town, Xander. Over the last 5 years all the people were replaced with Kal and Glory's children."
And recall Sunnydale's population is approximately 40,000 people. Lets just say over the last 5 years Glory and Kal have been busy.
Anya picks up the explanation once again. "My job has been to make sure it's all covered up. To make sure the replaced people vanish without trace and to give their Most Divine Children the false identities they needed to maintain the lie. It wasn't that hard really since the turnover in Sunnydale was always pretty high. The whole town, thousands and thousands of people are now the Warriors of the Gods, awaiting the moment they strike out into the world and conquer it."
"Which is almost any day now," Dawn points out.
"It will be Glorious!" Anya proclaims in sycophantic praise.
"I know!" Dawn says in the same tone.
Ok this is not some parallel world. This is Hell. Has to be. Xander can't imagine this being the real world.
The Buffybot suddenly comes back to life. "Their Most Divine Lady and Lord are here and request our presence outside," she passes on the memo.
"Of course," Anya replies in complete and unquestioning obedience.
"Anything They wish," Dawn says in the exact same tone.
"Come along Xander," Anya commands him, "and if you want some advice throw yourself on the ground and beg for Their mercy. They may just give it."
"Just possibly. Grovelling might help," Dawn suggests.
"Just who are you?" Xander asks the two girls, not recognising them one jot.
Both roll their eyes at him.
"Bring him along," Anya orders the Buffybot who roughly grabs Xander by the arm and drags him out the room and eventually out the building and there waiting in the square in front of the Mayor's office stands Kal and Glory.
Kal is dressed in regal looking robes, red and blue in colour with a strange S-like symbol on his chest. Glory is dressed in a regal white dress that seems to enhance her already immense aura.
And with them are hundreds and hundreds, more like thousands really, of their children, all in formation and dressed in uniforms of black and blue with Kal's symbol on the upper left part of the chest. Their army with which the world will fall before them.
"Well colour me surprised you are still alive!" Glory remarks glibly as her gaze takes in the one-eyed man. "Well congrats there Sport. You outlived the Slayer and her Watcher. Though in reality all that means is that you're slightly tougher than the rest of the ants."
"Yeah, I'd go with luckier and dumb luck at that," Kal feels a need to amend that perspective.
Glory nods. "Point," she concedes.
"So what now?" Xander asks, remaining calm on the outside. On the inside...who knows how to describe it. It's like a diarrhoea of emotions...and that was gross imagery even for him. "You kill me?"
Glory saunters up to him, a skip in her step, a gleam in her eye. "Well Long John, my Beloved and I did have a teensy tiny discussion about it. I mean a really tiny one because on the list of priorities you're down there with what crawls around the sewers in this town."
Kal chuckles and steps up next to the blond Hell God. "And it's good news. We've decided to let you live so you may bear witness."
"To what?" Xander asks, confused.
"To the end of your world."
"And the beginning of Ours!" Glory says with utter glee in her voice.
"But you two," Kal addresses Dawn and Anya, "are in charge of him. My Precious and I have far more important tasks to attend to."
"As you wish, Lord Kal," Anya submits to the order.
With that the two deities turn to the face the ranks of their children.
Kal addresses them. "I could give some long winded motivational speech here."
"Only if you want your jaw broken," Glory mutters.
"I repeat I could...but I won't because it isn't necessary. You all know precisely what to do. We've spent years planning this and I know you will succeed because you are the best of your mother and father combined. This is the last day humanity will lay claim to this world. They don't deserve it. They never deserved it. Take it from them."
"Or in other words make Mommy and Daddy proud by bringing these ants to their knees and making them recognise Us as their True Gods."
"As you command!" comes the uniformed reply and with that thousands rise up off the ground and into the air.
It is the end.
It is the beginning.
And for Xander this is as about as far from a Glory-ous Homecoming as one could imagine.
The End.
Author's Note: I've had this idea rattling around in my head for ages and finally decided to write it. Timeline wise it's set after Glory vs Jasmine and before Glory-ous New Universe. Thanks to everyone who has previously written reviews.
