"Leaves in a Windy Mind" By Shadow Master
(BtVS/Multiple Crossovers)
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted characters contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and/or associated companies. I make no money from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my works. Therefore it'd be appreciated if I wasn't sued or issued a court order to cease and desist or anything like that.
Note : Don't worry. I'll firmly state what the crossover is at the start. As for why I'm doing this it's partly to get rid of some plot bunnies before they get too big. I've already got so many stories in progress and unfinished that even I realize that I can't afford to slip up and add more to the pile. So this'll be similar to my old Drabble collection entitled 'Dreams and Ideas' in that each chapter'll be big enough to satisfy my inner muse but won't progress further unless enough reviewers want it to.
Note 2 : If there is a Drabble that you want to see continue into a part two or even evolve into a full story state so in the review. I am even open to receiving suggestions on where to take it next, pairings and plot twists. I will not guarantee that the suggestions will be used/implemented but if it spikes the interest of my muse enough you might get your wish.
Note 3 : As always positive reviews are welcome, constructive criticism will be considered but not necessarily acted on and negative/bashing reviews will be ignored or used as motivation to keep going. I don't care you if some readers don't like my stories and think they're garbage. If I only get a handful of positive reviews then that's enough for me to keep going.
Chapter One: Can One Who is Strong Fall?
(BtVS/Nanatsu no Taizai)
Sunndale, California
Ethan's Costume Shop
The Afternoon Before Halloween Night
Xander's POV
~Figures.~ He thought looking down at the empty bargain bin where he'd been hoping to find a cheap toy gun to go with the fatigues he'd purchased from the army surplus store, ~Snyder decides to give us an extra dose of venom before we leave and I bet he was counting on slowing us down enough so that all the good stuff would be gone when we got here.~
The troll was a spiteful, vindictive, pain in the ass that lived to make everyone around him miserable and God only knew how he was able to get away with his abuses of power. Personally he figured that he had some pretty nasty dirt on whoever the various complaints got funnelled through and in exchange for keeping quiet the dirt stayed buried. Almost made him wish that he could dig up some dirt on Snyder so he could get the impotent little man to leave the Scoobies alone. Too bad he knew he'd suck at covertly finding stuff out and odds were high that the troll was an old hat at it and had been doing it ever since he figured out no one would do what he wanted otherwise.
As scary as it was to say it he actually found this to be a good reason for him to put more effort into his schoolwork so he could graduate on time and leave the foul man behind him.
For now though he had to focus on figuring out what he could do to put together a decent costume AND get back to the school in time to get his batch of brats. He wasn't being mean or anything but he knew what kids were like at that age because he used to be that old and remembered it well. Adults like to think that kids that age are just a bundle of energy with a few bad habits but the truth of the matter was that kids at that age knew how to play the angles. They knew what they could do to get what they wanted, what behaviour would get them out of trouble and get away with it scot free every time. Sure some kids were better at it than others but he knew better than to assume that the kids would be perfect little angels or even mostly well behaved kids.
Plus with the sort of luck he tended to have he'd wind up getting the worst of the lot.
Snyder might even help make that happen if he got ahold of the elementary school kids' records before hand and singled out the ones with the most notes to their parents.
~Okay…so I can't be a soldier like I wanted or at least not one that made it out of boot camp so what else can I be.~ He thought as he looked about the store for something suitable.
All he'd managed to get from the army surplus store was a pea green shirt, camo pants and boots. He'd wanted to get a camo jacket to complete the outfit but the clerk said that they didn't have one in his size and the only sizes they had were for…bulkier men. By bulkier of course the guy meant men with quite a bit of muscle mass to their name to the point of giving action stars known for their muscles some competition. Odd since he'd always figured that when it came to military uniforms and the people that wore them conformity was the name of the game. Be like everyone else, don't stand out and always obey orders. Of course that could just be fiction since it wasn't like he'd ever set foot in boot camp much less spent any time with people in the military.
Whatever!
It was as he looked around that he spotted something that gave him an idea.
Walking over to the far wall he saw hanging from several hooks pieces of armour, both the leather kind as well as the metal kind, and he wondered if he dared take the risk. In various comic books and cartoons the makers often chose to mix and match costume pieces from various styles and most of the time they looked good. Sure some thought had to be given to what would go best with that since you didn't want to put anything together that looked like a costume piece bin barfed on someone but it paid off more often than not.
It often depended on the aesthetics of the creators versus the aesthetics of the customers and how well they lined up.
Looking at what he had to work with the first thing he grabbed was a large shoulder piece that looked like it had some sort of coat of arms on it. It was a little large and looks like it could double as a real shield but he didn't think it was so big that it'd look ridiculous on him. Next up he grabbed smaller pieces that looked like they'd cover everything from the ankles up to just past the knees and thankfully the insides were padded for comfort. Imagining what he'd look like with the two pieces of fake armour on he decided all he needed was one more armour piece and a weapon and he'd be good to go.
~Hmmmm….got the legs covered and one shoulder so what else is there?~ He thought looking over the pieces of armour.
Duh! The chest was what he needed so he began to look through the various bits for something that'd be good for his chest but not completely obscure the army shirt he had underneath. After all his idea was to mix modern day soldier fatigues with armour pieces from a knight or a mercenary's suit of armour back in medieval times. If he completely covered up the shirt then there'd be no real purpose to the mixture since the only modern part visible would be the pants. He finally managed to find a piece that would cover his chest but not his stomach and found that to be an acceptable compromise.
Now all he needed was a weapon but since there were no guns for him to use he'd have to go with some sort of melee weapon.
Hearing Buffy and Willow gush about he knew he probably didn't have a lot of time left before they settled on their choice he sped up the pace. He came across swords but that was a little too predictable for a knight and the spears looked to be a little too plain looking for him. What else was there?
It was about then that he spotted something that just seemed to click with him and when he picked it up he was pleased to feel that it had quite a bit of heft to it for a fake Halloween prop. It wouldn't be a pain to carry about and it looked good enough that it could pass for real so long as you were far enough away from it.
"This'll do nicely." He said having found all the bits and pieces for his costume and so he made his way to the cashier counter.
"Well this is certainly an odd pile of accessories young man." The clerk said as he rang up each item, "What exactly are you pretending to be?"
"Not exactly sure. A soldier of some kind but not your garden variety one." He replied still trying to form a picture in his mind as well as something of a backstory, "An elite. A famous one that fights battles his own way. Other than that…does it really matter? It's just for one night after all."
"I suppose so. Hmmm…" the clerk said before reaching over to grab something from a box that was sitting off to the right, "…how about adding this to the costume? It's not a costume with something to hide your face after all."
Looking at the accessory he had to admit that while he hadn't thought it necessary to go that far with his costume it did look good when he imagined himself with that accessory on him.
"Sounds like a plan to me!" He said nodding in agreement, "Ring it up with the rest."
"Right away." The clerk said and a few moments later he had everything he'd need for his costume.
Walking over to Buffy and Willow he looked at the costume that had them gushing but couldn't keep from rolling his eyes at the frilly dress. He honestly didn't see what girls liked about pre-electricity fashion and with both of them being a part of the girl power generation it didn't make sense to like something that came from a less progressive time. Still he could easily figure out that the costume was meant for Buffy and that the person she wanted to wear it for was Deadboy.
~Another contradiction I can't make heads or tails out of no matter how hard I try.~ He thought before coughing to get their attention, ~Girls are weird.~
The Day After Halloween
Sunnydale High School, Library
Willow's POV
"GILES! EMERGENCY!" She yelled as she pushed through the doors of the library.
"Calm down Willow!" Giles said looking about as though afraid of attracting attention, "It might be the weekend but there are still plenty of faculty members and custodians about. Now what seems to be so urgent?"
"It's Xander! I think he's in trouble!" She replied before holding up the very thing that sparked her fear, "I found this in my mailbox this morning but the metal had been busted and…well…look!"
Looking at what she'd found in the damaged mailbox she still felt the dread that she'd felt then. In her hand was a piece of paper but by some means it'd been blackened at the bottom but she couldn't figure out how it'd been done. On it was written a message that looked like it'd been done in a hurry as well as by someone not used to using a pen.
'Willow….help…come to north forest…Xander'
It looked like whoever'd written the message had wanted to write more but kept writing nonsense only to scratch it out.
At first she'd thought that it might've been Xander who'd left the message but that didn't make sense since she knew he new how to use a pen. He also wouldn't have had any trouble writing her a complete message and that assumed that he didn't just tell her what he wanted her to know to her face. To her mind that could only mean that something happened that was preventing him from doing either and that meant trouble.
"Have you tried calling Xander at his home?" Giles asked sounding like he was considering the possibilities.
"Um…no 'cause his house has been having phone trouble for awhile now." She replied keeping to herself the truth.
The truth that the Harris home only sporadically had their phone hooked up and that would only be because Missus Harris worked a ton of extra hours. It was the only way Xander's family could offset the drain that Tony Harris' drinking problem and once in a blue moon employment. Just like Xander she refused to call that man a father or even a husband and it was downright criminal how the man treated his family. How he managed to avoid getting arrested for one thing or another she'd never comprehend.
"Well then it's possible that he's perfectly fine." Giles said sounding like her preferred this possibility, "Someone could simply be playing a prank in poor taste on you."
"OR Xander could be in trouble!" She insisted refusing to simply sit back to see if things got better on their own, "Maybe something from last night did something to him."
It wasn't an unfeasible possibility.
Last night was supposed to have been a quiet night for the supernatural but it turned out to be chaos with everyone turning into whoever or whatever they'd dressed up as. She was still a little fuzzy on the particulars but apparently the owner of the costume shop where they'd bought everything had been behind it all. From how he'd reacted when she and Giles had shown up it looked like he'd done it all for a good laugh.
A LAUGH!
How many people had been hurt by those unable to control their actions?!
It was bad enough thinking about it when just random people in Sunnydale were potentially hurt but if Xander…if Xander was another one.
They had to do something NOW!
"Doubtful. While I will admit that I have not done a complete examination of the spell that was cast what I did see strongly indicated that it was designed to end at sunrise." Giles said taking his glasses off to clean, "Have you felt any lasting effects?"
"No…well I tried when I woke up back in my body and after got out of bed but I was solid enough." She said before reaching out to touch the nearest wall only to prove incapable of passing through it like a ghost, "Yep still solid."
"While I was not familiar with all the costumed people affected by the spell on our way to the costume shop if anyone had retained anything from their costume we would know by now." Giles said sounding like he'd seen some worrisome things last night, "The odds of Xander having something linger in him from whoever he dressed up as is remote at best."
"Kinda like the odds of camping outside on a Hellmouth sometimes and surviving." She pointed out knowing her best friend better than most, "Or being picked by a giant praying mantis demon? Or an Incan mummy caring about him enough to choose getting resealed over draining him dry of his life force?"
"I will admit that he has rather unusual luck and amazingly manages to survive despite the odds saying he should not but…" Giles said before his mind went down the same path, "…very well. Let me gather a few things and we'll be off. Just to be on the safe side."
It only took a few minutes for Giles to gather the items and ingredients he felt would be needed either to help Xander or bring harm to the ones who'd left her the note. After that they made their way to the parking lot where Giles 'classic' was parked and for a moment she thought about suggesting that they call a cab instead. While she was sure that Giles' car had been great back in its prime she'd seen it run in the here and now often enough to know that someone on a bicycle could keep up with its top speed. In the end though she decided that waiting for a cab would take so long it'd nullify the advantage of speed that it'd give them.
Once they were underway she began to wonder just how bad Xander's situation currently was. She and Buffy had met up with him at school in time to be given their own group of elementary school kids but his costume had been a little odd. A mix of modern soldier clothes and pieces of armour more at home on a knight from the middle ages it didn't clash too badly and the backstory he gave her was pretty clever even for him. It'd been one of the things that always made her smile when they'd been growing up. For all that she had the book smarts and did well in school no one could spin a tale with as much imagination and excitement as Xander. Sure he'd stuck to cliches every time she'd asked him to include some romance but she was never left unsatisfied by the stories he told her.
When the spell had hit last night though she hadn't seen so much as a single sign of him even though they hadn't been too far apart from one another with their respective groups. She'd wanted to find him at once but when Buffy started screaming she'd gone to the Slayer figuring out that having a heavy hitter along might improve their odds. Imagine her surprise when instead of finding a strong warrior woman capable of kicking demon butt she found a scared spitless noblewoman who was scared of everything around her. It'd taken her a long time to convince the noblewoman to trust her, she had to trick her into believing that she was some sort of spirit charged with aiding her as penance for a sin, but in the end she'd managed to steer her friend towards safety. There'd been a few close calls and in the end she'd been forced to get Buffy into a church when Spike showed up but even then it almost hadn't been enough.
Not once during that entire time did she see Xander or hear anything that had her think of a soldier doing his thing.
Now she was wondering if she should've searched on her own once Buffy was safe inside the walls of the church.
A short while later they arrived at the forests to the north of Sunnydale but when she got out and looked about she couldn't help but feel as though something was wrong. Growing up she'd been by the forest many times and even as a hiking trip in elementary school but now it looked like it hadn't seen a drop of water in over two weeks. Dry leaves were dropping to the ground and if one listened you could hear the sound of the trees creaking with the blowing of the wind. Honestly it sounded like if the wind doubled in its strength every tree in the forest would snap like a group of dry twigs and every leave would fly off like it was a hurricane. Taking a moment to focus on her sense of touch she also noticed that the air felt different than it normally did as well.
What could this mean?
"How odd. Vegetation natural to California has evolved over millennia to co-exist with its weather and environmental conditions." Giles said as they proceeded into the forest, "Only a significant climate change or an abnormal amount of time without water should cause this forest to wither. Even then it should take weeks not twenty-four hours."
To her mind this could only be confirmation of her fears that something abnormal was afoot with Xander and so she kept her eyes open and her head on swivel for anything noteworthy. Journeying deeper into the forest they began to see signs of not only plants being affected by the strange phenomena but also the animals. Not that they found animals quivering on the ground or walking about on trembling legs looking like they were dying of thirst. More like they didn't come across a single animal from a bird on a branch to a rabbit on the ground the entire time. Granted the latter would run away before they'd get close enough to see anything but birds tended to be fine so long as they were on a high enough branch.
But she didn't see so much as a single feather never mind an actual bird of any size.
"Be careful Willow. Animals might not be intelligent but their instincts are quite reliable when it comes to fleeing from danger of any sort." Giles said sounding wary himself, "If all the animals have left this area it does not bode well at all."
"No need to worry about that G-Man." Came Xander's voice from a little ways ahead of them, "It's just me."
The voice was unmistakably Xander's but there was a quality to it that didn't belong at all but she was at a loss to explain what it was. Nevertheless now that she and Giles knew where he was the two of them ran forward towards the source of the voice both of them intent no doubt on getting some answers. If there was trouble than they needed to know what form it'd taken so that they could stop it but if there wasn't then she'd demand to know why Xander had dragged them out here to the middle of the forest.
What she saw when the last obstruction was put behind her though had her screeching to a halt, going positively red in the face and immediately turning away.
"Yeah…I know." Xander said sound only half embarrassed, "But honestly it's not like I had time to do anything about it."
One Month Later
Sunnydale High School Library
Xander's POV
"Are you sure this is going to work Giles?" He asked looking down at the amulet hanging from a strong looking chain around his neck.
"Honestly? No. But it is the best I could acquire in such a short span of time." Giles replied looking tired from the sheer amount of effort required to activate the amulet, "As for how effective it will be we shall have to wait and see. As it is I don't believe Snyder is going to believe your 'sudden serious sickness' excuse to explain away your month long absence any longer. Even with Willow accessing the hospital records and persuading some of the staff to support the lie every deception has its limits."
True.
After the meeting in the woods it'd become clear that he wouldn't be able to resume his old life like nothing happened. Against all odds something of who he'd turned into Halloween night had stuck with him and to be perfectly honest a part of him was scared. There was no mistaking the power he now had within him now but when it'd started to grow within him and affect the word around him he'd known what he needed to do. It'd been a near thing, writing down a note and dropping it in Willow's mailbox, but he'd managed to do it and get to the forest before he became impossible to overlook.
From there it'd been a waiting game but oddly enough despite having not had a thing to eat since the lunch on the thirty-first he hadn't felt even a little hungry. The only theory he'd been able to come up with was that the power he'd gained from Halloween was acting as a substitute for the energy given by food. When Giles and Willow arrived though he couldn't help feel a little embarrassed since his new power had pretty much reduced his clothes to nothing. What was even worse was that he couldn't even accept Giles' initial offer of his jacket since it wouldn't do any good. In the end Willow had been forced to face away from him before they started with the Q&A to figure out what precisely had happened.
He'd told them all that he could but it wasn't a whole lot.
Much of what he could recall was fogged up with the emotions of the person who'd seized control of his body for most of Halloween night. The only thing that'd come through loud and clear was that the man wanted the night to end with every fibre of his being. Was he afraid of the dark? Or was it that he knew what preyed on the unwary at night? He hadn't been sure then and still wasn't sure.
They did find out one thing for certain: by some unseen means the power increased and decreased in response to something.
It'd taken almost an entire week of testing and chanting to find out what but when they'd figured out the details it'd pissed him off for more than one reason.
He'd FINALLY gotten a power that he was certain could ash some vamps and make demons think twice about messing with him and he COULDN'T use it!
The other thing was that due to how the power manifested it'd be impossible for him to be around anyone past a certain level. It'd been hard enough that first day after Giles and Willow had found him in the forest but they'd managed well enough. However after a week of time they learned that his power was actually getting stronger as time passed instead of staying within a certain range. Giles had theorized that whatever power had been placed within him had been akin to a seed that'd been planted within him and that with time as well as the right nutrients it will grow. Before long it became impossible for either Giles or Willow to stay close to him and the effect he was having on the forest grew as well. In the end it'd been Giles who'd recommended that he relocate to the desert close to Sunnydale stating that there'd be fewer visible signs to give away his presence.
From there he'd been forced to sleep during the day while getting things done at night making sure to strip down during the day before putting his clothes a good distance away from him. It'd been an intensely embarrassing situation for him but fortunately the Scoobies agreed thus making it a priority to figure out a way to make clothes that could survive his growing powers. Sources had been contacted, books had been read, but in the end they'd found a potion treatment that could be put on clothes to make them resistant to damage or destruction. It resisted physical attempts at damage by being extremely stretchy without affecting the feel of the fabric or its appearance. As for the non-physical means of being destroyed the person who'd come up with it had been a mage so it'd only been logical to make it so that magic couldn't harm the clothes easily either.
They hadn't known if it'd be enough to counter the growing power within him but in the short term it'd looked to be enough. He'd put his clothes on and even when the power had been at its peak strength for five days straight nothing had happened to them. This success had encouraged the Scoobies to look for a solution to the problem of being around others and thankfully there'd been more material to work with. There'd been countless entries in various books of ways to suppress the power of an individual either with magic or potions so all they'd had to do was fine one that checked all the right boxes with his problem. It'd meant a lot of long nights with him being the one to do most of the work since the rest, even with the usual Sunnyhell problems to deal with, still needed to get some sleep at night. He on the other hand needed to make sure that he returned to the desert every morning about an hour before sunrise in order to keep from harming anyone.
The end result of that research was the medallion around his neck and the three hours of chanting that it'd taken to activate it.
He could feel it weighing down the power within him and what he felt did make him believe that they just might've found a viable solution. It wasn't a painful weight but neither did it feel like it wasn't up to the task. Nevertheless Giles was right in that the only choice they had now was to wait and see. Would the power within him grow to a level where the medallion couldn't keep it in check or would it succeed as they all hoped?
Of course that brought them to the final problem but thankfully it was an easier fix that Willow was working on with the books Giles had provided. It would essentially be a glamour that would make everyone who looked at him see the old Xander even if the truth was that he was quite different. He'd still need to be careful because the illusion wasn't solid and a careless movement on his part would clue in the people around him to the truth of his changes.
~It'll probably make me look even more like a spaz to everybody.~ He thought groaning at the hell he'd have no choice but to walk through, ~Not that I had much of a good rep to begin with.~
"Here's hoping nothing bad happens." He said turning his focus away from the medallion, "Camping out in the desert is about as much fun as it sounds."
That being not at all.
"So long as you are careful you should be fine." Giles said sounding optimistic, "The power of the medallion grants it a measure of durability beyond what is possible with modern science can accomplish but it is not indestructible. While others exist and its makers are still capable of creating more it will be much harder to acquire a replacement with any amount of expediency."
"What're you saying? Don't drop it?" He asked wondering why Giles thought he wouldn't be careful with something so important.
"I am saying that until a way is found to return you to normal so that you do not require the medallion anymore I believe it would be best if you…stepped off the proverbial battlefield." Giles replied sounding like he knew how his words would be taken, "While you should be safe enough during the day past experience atop the Hellmouth makes it quite possible for us to encounter something capable of destroying it. Why they would do so I cannot say but we cannot afford to take the risk."
His heart rebelled at the idea of being benched from fighting the good fight alongside the other Scoobies. He cared for them too much to risk them coming to harm because he wasn't there to help and he still had the promise he'd made on Jesse's grave. He'd promised that he would protect Willow and do everything he could to avenge his adopted brother's death by killing as many vamps as possible. However he couldn't ignore the words of the man that he considered a father and he had to admit that losing the medallion would put him back in the desert during the day. That would cause more than a few problems since like G-Man had said they'd been pushing the sickness card with Snyder as far as it could go. If he disappeared again during the school year there were precious few excuses that'd fly with the troll and even fewer that the Scoobies would be able to make stand up to scrutiny.
He'd be expelled from school for sure and Tony would probably declare him dead as soon as possible to collect and waste whatever life insurance might exist for him. Then Tony would sell every possession still in his room leaving him literally with only the clothes on his back to his name.
Simply put he had more to lose by risking the medallion on the battlefield of Sunnyhell than he did by staying away from trouble.
"Fine. I'll stay fray adjacent. FOR NOW." He said making his feelings on the matter clear, "But you'd better spend every spare moment you can scrape together to find a way to fix things. If you have to get rid of this power then do it. I want to do more, to help more, but if this power's too much of a hassle then I don't want it."
"I assure you that so long as there is not a more pressing to deal with I shall devote all the time I can to finding a way of undoing what Halloween has done to you." Giles said with the sort of resolve that could not be doubted, "I have already made ample progress in my examination of the spell responsible. With sufficient time determining a way to reverse the effects is achievable."
He would trust this man.
He would trust the one that he considered a surrogate father figure.
Yet he could not shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach that it would all come down to a choice. Whether it would be a choice he would need to make or a choice someone else would make he didn't know.
He truly hoped that the right choice was made not just for himself but also for everyone else.
Two Months Later
Walking Away From Spike's Lair
Buffy's POV
"Are we REALLY sure about this plan?" Xander asked as the Scoobies began to make their way back to their vehicles to get to the mall.
"It's the only one we've got Xander." Willow replied sounding like they'd been over this a hundred times.
It'd actually only been something like fifteen or sixteen but it definitely felt like a hundred.
"Indeed. Despite out best efforts to do otherwise none of our research has managed to help us devise an alternate way of dealing with the Judge. Even your suggestion about something 'assembled' rather than 'forged' is somewhat questionable since forged could just as easily mean 'created'." Giles said upon arriving next to his 'classic', "As such our only option is to think 'outside the box'."
Yeah she had to agree with that.
She was as much a fan of the direct approach as Xander was and had actually been interested in firing the rocket launcher he thought he could get from the nearby army base but Giles had talked her out of it. 'Forged' really could be just and oldie version of 'assembled' so that pretty much crossed off all modern weaponry from consideration. Fortunately though Willow had come through with another possible route that they could take and best of all the supplies hadn't been hard to come by.
The delivery system…well…it was actually pretty good considering how quickly they'd been forced to piece it all together.
"And you're sure we'll be able to hit the demonic Smurf? It'll kinda be pointless if we can't." Xander said not quite willing to sign on just yet to the plan.
"As long as we catch him by surprise it'll work." Willow said showing surprising confidence in her invention, "This will in no way be forged or assembled but it should be enough to completely destroy the Judge."
She'd seen enough action movies to know what the stuff could do once it was put to use and once it was on the Judge it'd at the very least make him run home with his tail between his legs. However she agreed that a surprise attack was pretty much the only way that it'd work. The 'package' wouldn't be going through the air very fast so even a normal person would be able to dodge it if they saw it coming. More than that Angel…no…Angelus might recognize the ammo if he spotted them too soon.
Everything depended on getting the first shot to land successfully!
If it didn't…then the only thing she could do was do everything she could to buy Willow the time she needed to prepare another shot. She'd need to do everything she could to keep the Judge, Angelus and the minions focused entirely on her so that they didn't circle around to attack Willow and the others. She didn't quite know how she was going to do that but she figured a good start would be to lay into them with anything and everything she could while firing some grade A burning remarks that no vamp could ignore. She'd have to keep out of arm's reach of the Judge because she definitely wasn't in the mood to feel THAT again especially since they didn't know how much the puzzle demon had gassed up since she last saw him.
A part of her thought that if the first shot failed they should just run away to come up with a plan B somewhere safe but the part of her that'd been the Slayer for more than two years told her that'd be stupid. The Judge got stronger the more people he turned into piles of fresh ashes so running away to save themselves would only mean facing a stronger demonic Smurf later. When added to the fact that Giles said that eventually the demon wouldn't need to touch humans to kill them and this was their only chance to slam on the brakes before it became more than they cold handle.
It took them a little over twenty minutes to get to the mall (mostly because Giles' so-called classic couldn't even match the posted speed limit much less go over it) but when they arrived they could already tell that they were late to the party. In front of two of the entrances into the mall were vamps and that could only mean that Angelus was already inside with the Judge harming who knew how many people.
She didn't need to speak once the car came to a stop because all of them already knew that time was running out fast and they couldn't afford to waste even a second of it. With resolve in their strides and weapons in their hands they advanced striking at the vampire guards mere seconds after being noticed. Once they were inside it didn't take long for her to lead them to the best spot for their strike against the Judge. One of the benefits of being a mall rat and an avid shopper was that she knew every square foot of the place as well as the quickest ways to get from point A to point B. As such they arrived at the centre of the chaos soon enough…
…and it was worse than she'd imagined.
Despite all that they'd learned about the Judge she'd still held out hope that they'd be able to get to the mall in time to prevent any deaths. She'd tried to convince herself that with things happening so quickly Angelus and his fang gang couldn't be more than a step or two ahead of them. Looking down at the food court from the second level though she could no longer hold onto that optimism as she witnessed the last of what had to have been twenty people fall to the ground as blackened ashes.
They were too late to save the people but even as her guilt and sorrow threatened to pull her into their depths she knew that the only way to atone was to make these the last lives the Judge ever took. Turning to Willow she could see that her friend was being pulled at from the inside by the same emotions as her but was having a harder time of shaking them off. Grabbing the redhead by the jaw and turned her head so that they were looking at each other right in the eyes.
"Willow! Shake it off!" She said as forcefully and quietly as possible, "Put your invention together. Hurry! We don't know how long they'll stay here before finding more people to kill. We need to stop this NOW!"
"R-right…RIGHT!" Willow said before setting the bag she'd been carrying down with Giles doing the same, "I need three minutes for assembly and two more before it'll be ready to fire."
"Five minutes. I can do that." She said before turning to the others, "Watch her back so she can finish. That blue meanie isn't leaving here in one piece."
"Damn right he isn't!" Xander said raising the axe that had once been part of his costume only to become a real combat capable weapon, "Do your thing Buffy. No Dustbuster food will get to Willow."
Giles had once described it as what'd happen if you took a traditional epsilon axe and a simple wood chopping axe before exaggerating it for Hollywood purposes. There was even some engraving work on it that according to her Watcher served no practical purpose in battle and to the best of his knowledge had no magical significance. Still it'd proven to be good at chopping and was sturdy enough for even her to use so it would be up to the job of helping Xander keep Willow safe.
Without hesitation she leapt over the railing of the second level to drop to the first level before pulling two mini-crossbows from where they'd hung before firing them at two fledges. Hitting the hearts with pinpoint precision they dusted in seconds effectively bringing the focus of the rest of the band of evil to bear on her. So she decided to do what she normally did in this sort of situation albeit with a bit of unease squirming in her stomach.
"I hope you know you just ruined my ENTIRE week." She said making it sound like they'd only ruined her favourite outfit, "I'm pretty sure you dusted my history teacher and I really needed to pull off an A in his class to pull my grade up."
"Well, well, well. I thought we'd have to hunt you down lover." Angelus said with a tone that defiled every spoken word, "As for the history teacher I wouldn't worry much. In fact I'm sure that the Judge here'll be all to glad to make sure you never have to worry about a single thing ever again. Right big guy?"
"Indeed. The dead worry about nothing." The Judge said sounding quite interested in flambeing her.
"Sorry. Been dead already. Didn't like it." She said before charging forward at full Slayer speed, "How about you?"
Her ONE chance at surviving until Willow was ready to fire was to present herself as a target that could not be hit due to its speed and unpredictable movements. Even if the Judge had regained much of his power he was obviously a brute strength type of demon who relied on overwhelming power to vanquish those he'd chosen to kill. As such things like quick reflexes, precision attacks or the ability to predict the movements of a foe were alien concepts to the demonic Smurf. If Angelus was the one with the power she might've had reason to be worried but he wasn't so she had a chance.
A few seconds later the infernal gold lightning energy lanced out to strike her but it couldn't catch her if even she didn't know where she was going more than one second in advance. It was a challenge of endurance to see just how long she could keep up the break neck pace while performing all manner of acrobatics to evade the Judge's efforts to kill her. She also couldn't do any flips that'd leave her in the air for too long or else she'd be a sitting duck for one of the Judge's attacks. Still pushing off anything solid allowed her to change directions much faster than if she'd relied solely on the friction between her shoes and the floor.
She didn't know how much time had passed so far but she knew that she needed to add something new to her actions because when she felt the power of the Judge on her skin even lightly then that was a sign that it was getting too close. It was then that she remembered that the Judge's power could only burn those that had humanity in them and a wicked grin showed up on her face.
Putting forth a momentary burst of speed in order to give herself the time she quickly looked about the area in order to get a lock on all the minion vamps in the area. She'd already known that Angelus would post them at every way in or out of the food court in order to make sure the demonic Smurf could eat his fill so there had to be quite a few. By the time she had to start moving again she'd spotted five minions she could get to relatively quickly with the rest being so far away it'd give away her purpose if she tried to get to them.
~Time to get some 'help'.~ She thought before darting for the nearest minion.
Most people might think that she intended to use the vampire as a shield but then they'd be pretty stupid since she was pretty sure the Judge could shoot his blasts right through them. Instead once she got close enough she grabbed the vamp and with her best effort threw him through the air at the Judge. She had to smile at how the act had taken the demon by surprise and so the minion succeeded in slamming into the Judge. It didn't knock the monster off of his feet but it did force a few back steps. Moving for the next minion she soon repeated the effort figuring that if she could keep this up for another half minute or so Willow would be that much closer to being ready to fire her invention.
She got to about the fourth minion before the Judge finally expressed his anger at the tactic this time lashing out at the entire food court at once rather than a stream directed specifically at her. Only Angelus, Drusilla and the two vamps that were next to them were spared while the other minions in the room were dusted from the sheer power of the attack.
As for her Lady Luck did her a solid since with instinct guiding her action she'd reacted quickly enough and contorted her body enough to evade a direct hit.
But it hadn't been enough to save her from a glancing hit.
With pain she figured was akin to someone pressing a red hot poker fresh from a fire against her arm she found herself knocked to the ground. Once she recovered enough of her senses she could safely say that while no bones were broken and a concussion was unlikely she was going to be one big bruise mixed with a nasty burn for a few days. Still when death by lightning didn't occur a few seconds later she looked towards the monsters with the most reason to want her dead.
"Not bad lover! Really! I had no idea you were so fast…well I did but not that way if you know what I mean." Angelus gloated walking towards her, "But it seems that all you've done is piss the big guy off and make him extra famished. Guess who he wants for his next meal?"
"But why would he want to eat you and psycho-babe? I have it on good authority that vamps taste like shit." She said forcing herself to get back to her feet.
"Feisty to the very end! Nice." Angelus said casually before letting his game face show, "I'll make sure they put that on your tombstone."
"You first asshole!" Came Xander's voice before a volley of five small softball sized objects flew through the air towards the Judge while a sixth was thrown right in Angelus' way.
She'd done it.
She'd bought Willow enough time!
Once they'd reached the conclusion that an assembled weapon wouldn't be good enough to take down the Judge it'd been Willow that had suggested they use chemistry to win. More specifically she'd suggested that they create thermite using supplies from the chemistry class and some bits from the school's auto club. It'd surprised her a bit that the school even had an auto club until Xander had informed her that it'd been created back when Snyder had been vice principal and only on the grounds that the class maintain his car free of charge. The troll had even somehow managed to rig it so that the expenses for keeping his car in tip top condition came out of the pockets of the Sunnydale Board of Education's pockets. Thanks to this it'd been easy to mix a good amount of thermite leaving Willow to simply come up with a way to get the stuff on the Judge without anyone needing to get close.
Xander had been the one to show them the way then leading them to a room where Snyder often tossed various things he'd confiscated from students. Sometimes it was for a good reason while other times it'd been done just because the impotent Nazi had been in a bad mood and saw a target of opportunity for venting. As a result everything from magazines to boom boxes to things pranksters had put together to have some fun could be found within. In Xander's opinion it'd provide ample materials and perhaps inspiration for Willow to come up with a delivery system. As it so happened things had gone even better than they'd hoped since after being given a chance to look around Willow had been like a machine zipping around the room and grabbing odds and ends. In fact she later said that most of what she needed for what she had in mind had already meed assembled and just needed to be modified for range with some added 'oomph' to make sure the thermite reached its target.
Seeing one glass container after another smash into the Judge either in the face or the chest she felt it was safe to say that the high school genius had done it again. However it was when a single canister followed the initial volley that things got interesting. Willow had wanted to rig something that she could put inside each of the canisters holding the thermite so it'd be ignited on impact but there hadn't been enough time. Thus they'd been forced to make the ignitor of the reaction into a projectile all its own and seeing it hit the Judge who'd only gotten his arms halfway into position to blast she was rewarded for all her efforts.
In the space of two seconds the thermite that'd covered the Judge's upper body and head was ignited lighting up the area around him as the reaction generated incredible heat. According to Willow thermite when ignited was hot enough to burn right through the armour of tanks used during World War Two and for most of the Cold War. Considering what that armour was designed to stand up to that was mighty impressive and the Scoobies were confident that no matter how tough the Judge and his armour were it wouldn't be able to stand up to that. It'd burn right through him either killing him or at least disassembling him into pieces and that'd be good enough for them.
"Is that it? Is that all you can bring to bear against me?" A deep voice asked that stilled her joy and caused her disbelief to skyrocket.
Instead of screaming in pain or falling to pieces the Judge reached up with his hands and began to wipe the burning thermite off of his body like it was harmless dust. That was insane! The Judge had been around at a time when the best humans could manage were things like Greek fire so it'd been understandable that those things hadn't been enough to kill the Judge. But thermite could burn up to four times as hot as Greek fire could and if it could burn tank armour than flesh of any kind should've been unable to offer any resistance at all.
How!?
"You think fire however hot can kill me? I am not like these lowly dregs you have slain up until now human." The Judge said as he wiped the last of the thermite off of his body, "I was BORN in hell! I am a PUREBLOOD demon! Even if I am not as powerful as those that once ruled your world I am beyond your ability to slay. Now…DIE!"
With more speed than she'd seen the demon use thus far he flung an arm in her direction and with her Slayer eyes she could see the lethal energy emerging to strike her down. She tried to move, to dodge, but the glancing blow from earlier had chosen a poor place to leave its mark since it was on the dominant leg she often relied on for bursts of speed. As a result this time when she tried to get out of the way a spike of pain stalled her efforts and she knew that the pause had taken from her the seconds she had need to get clear.
She was going to die.
"BUFFY!"
Before she could even register the name the voice belonged to something slammed into her knocking her clear of the attack only for whatever had deliver the impact to be struck instead. Dazed from her own landing it'd taken a few moments before she was able to look back the way she'd come and when she did one of her worst fears was realized.
Xander, one of her normal friends, was slumped up against the wall his entire torso blackened indicating that it'd been him who had knocked her clear and taken the hit.
Xander was dead.
Even if he hadn't been reduced to a pile of ash like the rest of the Judge's victims that didn't mean that he was alive. It was more likely that the Judge could selectively choose whether to consume someone, turn them to ashes or simply kill them. The demon had been angry with her and so it was feasible that he hadn't considered her worth feeding off of and so instead had chosen to kill instead.
"Well at least he was good for something in the end, eh Buffy?" Angelus asked sounding quite pleased with the sight of the dead teenager, "Then again this doesn't really change much. Just means he won't have to see you and I'm guessing the rest of your little band of losers die in front of his eyes."
She wanted to snark back, wanted to say something defiant, but she didn't exactly have a lot of ammo to work with. The thing they'd been betting the fate of the world on had failed them, she was injured, Xander was dead and there hadn't been enough time to come up with a backup plan in case the thermite failed. The only things anything of them would be able to do now were acts of defiance born of doing whatever seemed like a good idea at the moment.
"This is where it begins Buffy." Angelus said sounding impeccably confident that it was all over with, "You, your friends and all of humanity will be burned away in less than a month! Best of all I'll have front row seats to all of it! The screams, the chaos and humanity trampling over each other just for a few seconds of life. Face it: you've lost."
Willow's POV
It was all over.
She'd done her best to come up with a way to stop the Judge and it hadn't even left a mark.
Worse than that Xander was…he was…
She couldn't even finish that thought as he legs gave out causing to plop onto the floor all feelings of hope and defiance leaking out of her like a rain barrel with dozen holes in it. Even if they made a run for it it'd mean leaving Buffy to fend for herself and that was assuming they could make it to an exit before the Judge killed them. They couldn't fight the Judge since they'd already established the fact that no weapon they had would make even the smallest of dents in the demon never mind actually kill it.
In the end all any of them could do was make their peace with the universe and await death's cold embrace.
"My friends and…humanity'll…ungh…burn?" Asked a voice that she never thought he'd hear again, "Who decided that?
Almost faster than she could comprehend she got back to her feet and almost leaned dangerously over the railing to get a completely unobstructed view. Her logical mind filled with its facts told her that what she thought she'd heard couldn't possibly be what she thought it meant. Her heart, her soul, however grabbed hold of the hope the words represented with a strength only matched by the gods themselves and that only the Creator of everything would be able to undo.
What she saw…it made her feel like she was going to burst with joy and relief because getting up off the ground like he'd just gotten tossed there by Larry was Xander. He was ALIVE! ALIVE! The joy she felt from this one fact completely drowned out her more logical side that was both trying and failing to come up with an adequate explanation for this. It insisted that Xander was the ordinary one of their group and therefore it was impossible for him to have survived a direct hit from the Judge's attack. Even with what'd happened to him Halloween night and the lingering effects it shouldn't have been possible for him to-
"Where's Xander's medallion?" She asked her mind locking onto one very important thing without warning.
With her best friend's shirt incinerated into scraps by the Judge's attack there was nothing to hide the medallion that Giles had put into place to suppress the growing unknown power within Xander. Her eyes looked everywhere it could possibly be from the point of initial impact with the Judge's attack to the path her best friend had taken through the air before hitting the wall.
Nothing.
"People'll trample over each other just to live a little longer? Who decided that?" Xander asked once more on his feet with his preferred axe still gripped firmly in his hands.
"I did and that's how it's going to be." Angelus replied sounding a mix of irritated and confident as he spoke, "Guess God really does love fools and idiots 'cause you should be dead boy. No problem though. Dumb luck only lasts so long and to keep you alive I'd say you're all out of it now."
"Well you're right about luck Deadboy but it's you that's run out of it." Xander said before light began to emanate from the head of his axe, "Ya see the medallion I've been wearing hasn't been blocking whatever's been making the energy inside of me stronger. It's been suppressing that energy like an anchor to keep it from rising above a certain level. Guess what happens now that it's gone?"
The answer came moments later when before their very eyes Xander's body began to grow not only in size but also muscle definition. With every second that passed she was beginning to wonder how much longer the potion treatment on Xander's pants would last and if it'd really be a bad thing if it failed. By the time it all looked to be done Xander had gone from being almost six feet tall to almost being ten feet tall with every bit of it evidently being muscle. Her best friend was so tall and…big… now that the axe he'd been holding had gone from being something you obviously needed both hands to wield to being a one handed weapon.
All in all he looked like a guy that could cut anyone he wanted to into two pieces with one swing of his axe.
"So you've gone from puny to a bumbling meathead. So what?" Angelus asked even though she thought she heart a splinter of worry in his voice, "You're still human and that means you can still burn."
"You first." Xander said before raising his axe over his head, "Sacred Treasure Release!"
Instantly the light that'd been emanating from Xander's axe went from being little better than a glow in the dark blue ball to being so bright she almost had to look away. However what she witnessed happening next caused her to will herself to keep watching as Angelus burst into flames as though he'd been exposed to the light of the sun. She could even peripherally hear the screams of Drusilla and the sole surviving vamp minions as they too were set ablaze by the light coming from Xander's axe.
And then it was over as every vamp burned to ashes in the space of five or six seconds before dropping to the ground a little trail of smoke rising from their remains.
"An impressive display of power human but destroying those bugs means little to me. At best I feel content that I no longer have to humour their leader's wishes." The Judge said not sounding all that sad about the loss of his vampiric entourage, "Now free of them I can proceed to burn humanity from this world at my discretion."
"Getting rid of Deadboy and his gang was my pleasure." Xander said striding towards the Judge with confident footfalls, "Getting rid of you? That's just getting the job done."
"Do your worst. No weapons forged by man can harm me and your sunlight does little but annoy me." The Judge walking forward to meet his opponent, "No matter what special properties your axe possesses it was still forged by humans."
"Ya know I thought that too but when I got my little thirty second nap, thanks for that by the way, I found out that Halloween did a lot more than let me turn into a literal adonis." Xander said as he came to a stop less than three feet from the Judge, "Oh! How rude of me! I forgot to introduce you to my axe. Divine Axe Sekhmet meet the Judge. Judge? MEET DIVINE AXE SEKHMET!"
With a single swing that was almost too quick for her to see Xander swung his axe in a horizontal strike that cleaved the Judge in two without any visible resistance. Indeed the force of the blow caused the demon's upper body to fly through the air until it hit one of the support pillars for the upper level. The demonic Smurf flopped to the ground with only one arm still whole with the other one having been severed at the elbow. Even reduced to half the threat he used to be the Judge still had life in him but instead of the usual unshakable confidence she could see that the demon no longer believed he could win with ease.
The monster likely didn't think he'd survive the next few minutes if he had any intelligence at all.
"N-not…possible! HOW!?" The Judge asked as a bellow even as he tried to retreat from the advancing Xander.
"Let's just say that losing that anchor on the power inside of me cleared up some memories that'd been pretty foggy up until then." Xander replied coming to a stop in front of the Judge and raising his axe to deliver the final blow, "And yes as you've probably figured out Divine Axe Sekhmet no longer qualifies as a weapon forged by a human. Goodbye."
With that Xander brought the axe down and with a cutoff exclamation of desperation the Judge's head was split into two like an overripe melon its gooey insides spilling out all over the floor. Pulling the axe back and showing that it'd even gone a few inches into the floor Xander took a step back before stopping and focusing on the Judge's remains. She guessed he was waiting to see if it'd really done the job of killing the Judge or if he'd overstated the potency of his axe. When nothing happened for a full minute, not even the slightest sign of continued demonic living, her best friend seemed to relax.
And that is when steam began to rise off of his body, just a little at first, before long becoming enough that he was almost completely obscured by it. What she could make out was his outlining shrinking like someone had hit rewind on a recording of his transformation minutes ago but was doing it at half speed. In the end when the steam vanished Xander was back to the size and muscle definition she was used to and looking a little worn out. Without saying anything to the others she ran for the stairs and managed to arrive at his size just as Buffy finished hobbling to the bench next to him.
"Xander! What was that? How?" She asked unable to decide what question she wanted answered first.
"It's pretty much like you heard me say to the Judge." Xander replied sounding like he'd just gotten out of a tough gym class, "When the medallion broke all the power that's been building up in me sprung up letting me become a bodybuilder's goal in life. As for the axe, well, I'd noticed back when I was camping out in the desert that no matter how long it stayed in the sun it never got warm or hot to the touch. I just thought that it'd been turned into some kind of metal that was very heat resistant."
"I take it that was not in fact the case." Giles said slightly out of breath from the effort of keeping up with her.
"No. Not only did my brief trip to la-la land clear up some memories from Halloween but I got clued into what'd been done to the axe I'd used as a prop." Xander replied bringing the axe up so it'd be more visible, "Turns out the Roman god Janus and the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet are buddies and decided to collaborate Halloween night."
"Dear lord!" Giles said in shock at the implications.
It was important enough when a God was powering a spell that turned everyone connected to the magic into whoever or whatever they'd been pretending to be. To learn that another deity from another pantheon of gods had helped out her 'buddy' it implied that something big was afoot though whether it'd be a good thing or a bad thing was anyone's guess.
"The axe can apparently absorb the power of the sun and store it to be released whenever I say the magic words. All those days it spent in the desert with me it was literally soaking up the rays." Xander said setting the axe down next to him, "Only a month's worth though. Kinda why I'm back to being me-sized instead of Mister Muscle."
"But I thought with the medallion gone all the power inside of you got loose." Buffy said sounding only slightly befuddled, "If you had thirty days worth of sunlight in that thing you'd think it'd last longer."
"You'd think so but according to Sekhmet or one of her messengers anyways the power inside of me is connected to the sun." Xander said sounding quite disappointed, "Once the sun starts going up the power goes up and hits its limit at noon before dropping back down to zero at sunset. Losing the medallion and having the axe with me might've given me a freebie but if I want to go all steroid at night in the future then I need to charge the axe up quite a bit."
Hearing this she now understood why Xander was disappointed.
With a bit more info on his powers she could easily say that Xander would've been a vampire's worst nightmare if he could use them whenever he wanted. But if the power only came out during the day then short of kicking in the doors of vampire lairs and hiding places while the sun was up then it was almost useless. Still if the axe had been enchanted to absorb sunlight and channel that energy into Xander then he could still be a big help if he tapped into his power at the right time.
"Well then I guess Sunnydale's got a new hero." She said smiling at the door this opened for her best friend, "Vamps and demons better watch out!"
For a moment it looked like he'd remind her about him not being able to use the power during the night but like he expected his mind clicked the truth into place easily enough. There were just as many Hellmouthy problems during the day as there were at night and if the axe could absorb sunlight then maybe it could also absorb some of his daytime power as well. If it could then he wouldn't need another medallion to be around normal people and might even be able to stop using the glamour that caused others to see him as his pre-Halloween self. Depending on how much energy the axe could absorb the time might soon come that he could claim the title of Sunnydale's strongest defender.
If that didn't separate him from the stigma of being the son of Tony Harris nothing would.
A Mansion on the Outside of Mid Rahina, Egypt
Roughly the Same Time
~There. It is done.~ She thought before dismissing the image of the new scion of Uriel, ~The seed has fully taken root and grown up out of the dirt.~
Walking away from the mirror that she'd used as a medium she proceeded to the stairs and descended into the basement. It was heavily warded with items of power that any mortal magic user would gladly flay their family alive for that kept the undesired from knowing what happened within. Many would consider it overkill but if they knew the stakes at risk and the goal that she along with her allies strove for they would not think of it that way.
The truth of the matter was that the world was a much darker place than it should've been, then it could've been had history unfolded a little differently, with those who stood above all making every effort to keep it that way. The goal was professed to be 'balance' with the costs of actively combatting the darkness with the intent of casting it out forever being exaggerated in order to scare those who would need to support decisive action. The truth however was more selfish and quite uncaring when it came to the suffering it inflicted on those who lived on Earth peacefully.
Efforts had been made to enlighten her kin as well as the other families but the current heads of each of them had opposed them. At first it'd merely been dismissive comments about how they were seeing more than what actually existed but when that failed to dissuade her and her allies official commands had been issued not to pursue the matter any further. The look in her leader's eyes when he spoke those words had left no doubt in her mind that if she defied him the consequences would be dire indeed.
After conferring with her allies back then she had been informed that the other leaders had ordered much the same thing: do nothing to defy those who stand above them.
Fortunately for them or at least for those with the predisposition there were many ways such an order could be interpreted and some of those ways left them room to maneuver.
Upon reaching the basement she went about the steps to establish a connection to three of her allies using the most secure method they'd been able to come up with. To those not aware of the truth it would look to be nothing more than mystical communication between four strong but all too mortal mages. As an added precaution against eavesdropping they'd made it so that at the first sign of unauthorized listening the connections would be cut. Much like how the thinnest of threads would snap at the slightest pressure brought to bear on it so too would the mystical line of connection break at the first touch of outside activity.
It'd been maddening for the first century or so but once it became clear to the unwanted listeners that all they would accomplish was wasting their time they'd ceased trying. Every once in awhile though there was a random attempt but neither she or her allies believed it to be the work of their kin or the ones who stood above them all. Far more likely that it was the work of a mortal mage or perhaps one of the organizations who often looked for new things they could use to further their own agenda.
One by one coloured flames manifested above the alters that had been made for this specific purpose showing that a connection had successfully been made. From the flames smoke rose but unlike natural smoke it was not uniform but rather it was utilized by unseen hands to be molded to form three separate heads each unique in shape. No further details were added but this was done on purpose so that even if someone managed to tap into the connections with the lightest of touches there'd be a limit to the information gleaned on the identities of the four.
"How did it go?" A male voice asked from above the alter with Roman design elements.
"According to plan my friend." She replied with a modest grin, "Alexander Harris has taken his first steps towards fully claiming his heritage as well as the gifts we bestowed upon him last Halloween. The Judge is dead and so too are both Angelus along with Drusilla."
"Oh to have seen the looks on the faces when their chosen pawn went up in smoke!" The Roman crowed with delight at what his imagination provided, "If they'd been humans I bet their faces would've gone red with fury!"
"Indeed. It would've been most amusing." A woman's voice said from the alter that looked like it came straight from the Orient, "However we must not let such things distract us. With the Scion of Uriel now able to affect events that occur around him they will not be as laid back as they used to be."
"While most of their focus will indeed be on young Alexander they will be more inclined to investigate other strange oddities that pop up." The man speaking through the smoke above the Viking style alter said with wariness, "One may be on the path but six more are still works in progress. It'll take time before they are ready."
"It will be difficult but it's still possible." She said still confident in the mission, "Remember that Alexander lives atop the Hellmouth and it is expected to be something of a hotspot for at least the next five years. Combine that with the scion's ability to defy the plans of those who stand above us all and they will be quite distracted. As long as we keep from doing anything flashy and time any big actions for moments of crisis in Sunnydale when Alexander acts upon his nature we can still succeed."
"I hope you're right. Finding those who possess the desired lineage was almost beyond us while abiding by their restrictions." The Oriental woman said conveying the weight of their efforts, "If they discovered the remaining six before they are ready they will almost certainly eliminate them even if they did not know of our plans. Only those with ties to old power have any chance of challenging those who stand above us."
"We all know the stakes and what is needed." The Norse Man said with the necessary seriousness, "Pass the word to the rest of our alliance. Let them know that the first has been born and to be ready to more aggressively nurture the remaining six. Those who stand above us will not put up with Alexander's interfering presence forever especially now that he has gained the means to shatter their plans beyond even their worst projections. If the others take too long they may well succeed in eliminating him before the necessary work is done."
"It shall be done." The Roman man said with a nod.
"It shall be done." The Oriental Woman said with a nod.
"It shall be done." She said with a nod, "For a world with limitless possibilities."
With that the connection was cut leaving her alone with her thoughts.
A plan born more than two millennia ago was only now beginning to blossom and would require more time before it would reach its full glory. Should they succeed the grip of those who stand above them would be shaken off and with their newfound freedom she and her kin would ensure that they never re-established it.
Destroying limitless possibilities simply because some of them were terrible was unforgivable. Convincing their foolish leaders that balance was the better option instead of victory was ridiculous. She would see the two millennia long reign of oppression come to an end even if it cost her every speck of her divinity to see it done.
So promised Sekhmet, goddess of war and healing, with every fibre of her being!
For those of you still uncertain Xander wound up dressing up as the Lion Sin of Pride Escanor from the anime/manga 'The Seven Deadly Sins' or 'Nanatsu no Taizai' as it's called in Japanese. There's a wiki that's easy to find if you google it should you wish to know more. Yes I do plan on filling out the roster with the remaining six members of the group each possessing abilities either identical or similar to the characters they're standing in for. Any suggestions? They don't have to be BtVS or Angel the Series characters. So long as the source (movie/show/game/et al) that the character comes from can feasibly exist in the same reality/dimension as BtVS I'll consider it. C YA!