I'll be honest, this was my hump chapter. It's been a long time since I saw any of season 2 of Buffy and I had a tough time figuring out how this should all go down, hence the long update time. However I think I did a reasonably good job and I've got the next few chapters planned out, so they should go a bit quicker. Thanks to everyone who left a review for the last chapter.
Anyways, on with the story!
Chapter 11
Xander, with Johnson, Mendez, and Monetti looked at the glowing green portal ahead of them. The huge swirling vortex was now large enough to drive a tank through, and was a mix of small red streak and an angry, almost glowing green.
"You know," Xander said with some dismay, "when I woke up this morning this was not how I imagined my day would go."
"What, the part about the huge inter-dimensional portal, or the part where you side-swiped that parked car?" Cortana asked lightly from his head.
"That was totally not my fault! He did not check before opening his door!" Xander yelled back.
Buffy and Angel walked over to the group. "So what do we do?" Buffy asked.
Xander looked to the corner of the room and saw Whistler. He nodded and gave Xander a two-finger salute, then turned and walked out.
'Yep,' thought Xander. 'Not at all what I imagined.'
Xander walked into the library that morning to see Giles talking on the phone.
"Yes, yes I understand. Thank you." He set down the phone and looked at Xander. "I just received word that the curator of the museum is dead, and the artifact has been stolen."
"Do we know who it was?" Xander asked.
"No, they have no idea, but from the information supplied by Kendra and her Watcher, we can say with some conviction that it was Acathlta."
Kendra and her Watcher had arrived the day before, forcing Xander to take precautions to avoid being found out as a Spartan. He had serious concerns about doing so, especially after Whistler's warning. "What is Acathla?" Xander asked warily.
Giles tooked off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Acathla was a demon, who could suck the world into Hell, or at least a Hell dimension, with a breath. Fortunately before he could complete his task, a knight ran him through with his sword, killing him. However if the sword is removed, he will complete his task."
"Giles, I think something else is going to happen here. Last night I got-" Before he could finish explaining, Kendra and Buffy walked through the doors of the library. Giles shot Xander a meaningful look and he fell silent, cursing his luck.
"I just got a message from a vampire," Buffy announced. "I'm going to meet Angel tonight, we're going to end this once and for all."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Giles asked. "This could be a trap, in fact it most likely is."
"Yes, but if I don't go, what if he kills someone. Giles, I have to go, he's made sure I don't really have a choice." Buffy replied.
Kendra turned to her. "Take my lucky stake," she said, handing a sharp, dark piece of wood to Buffy. "I call it Mr. Pointy."
Buffy took the stake, feeling it out. "Nice weight, and thanks." She nodded to Kendra and was gone.
Xander, Giles and Kendra stood guard as Willow, with the help of Oz and Cordelia, attempted the spell to return Angel's soul, which had been found the day before. Xander, with only a sword in hand and a stake in his belt, felt woefully unprepared. Mentally berating himself, he realized that he had come to rely a little too much on his armour, on his weapons. He remembered a time, or the Chief remembered a time, at least, when they'd had no shields, when their suits were bulkier and did little to protect them from anything more than a glancing blast from a plasma rifle. Still, he couldn't help feeling unprotected.
Kendra was looking more alert than before. "Vampires!" She called in her accented tone. Seconds later the doors to the library were thrown open by several vampires who walked in. Meanwhile several more came from behind, perhaps having crawled through windows. Angelus must have warned them about Xander, because five vampires jumped him, effectively forcing him away from the rest of the fight.
Xander spun, slashing away in a controlled frenzy, but he knew it was going to take too long. Too late they'd realized that the trap wasn't for Buffy, it was for them. He ducked under a swing by a vampire and swung his sword, hacking off the vampire's leg at the knee. Before it had even finished falling backwards, Xander had staked it and rolled away from a kick aimed for his kidneys. He got to his feet but the three remaining vampires pushed him back, forcing him further away from the fight. Over their heads he could see that Willow had taken a nasty hit to the head and Kendra was a busy as himself. He continued to blunt the attacks of the three vampires, but could gain no ground while all three were on the offensive.
Quickly all three stopped and looked at each other. "Angelus was hoping we'd find you without your armour," this middle one said, "but just in case he gave us these." The three vampires all whipped plasma pistols scrounged from Covenant battles. The middle vampire grinned. "Seems a shame not to use them."
Xander stared them down while idly fiddling with something under his shirt on his wrist. Without warning he launched himself backwards into the stacks. As the vampires fired he activated the energy shield salvaged from a Jackal, catching two of the blasts as a third one went over him. He could feel the searing heat from the blast as it passed over, then impacted on the wall behind him. He rolled to his feet and dove sideways as another volley of green plasma flew past him. Getting up, Xander reached into his cargo pants and retrieved his energy sword. He activated it as a vampire came around the corner. With no assistance from Xander, the blades sprung forth and caught the unfortunate vampire in the neck, neatly decapitating him.
As quietly as he could, Xander took a step back towards the stack, then turned around. In a very Sam Fisheresque move, he jumped, vaulting himself off the back wall toward the stack. He landed on top of it, carefully balancing so as not to knock it over. From his vantage point, Xander could see both vampires looking for him one stack over. Judging the distance carefully, Xander jumped, flipping over the stack in between them. He dove head first, using the vampires to break his fall, and knocking them all to the ground. He then again ignited the sword and quickly slashed apart both vamps. Then, hiding his weapons and hoping no one had noticed the plasma blasts or the sword, he ran back to the main area of the library.
He arrived just in time to see Drusilla finish draining Kendra, while two other vampires dragged Giles out the door. Willow and Oz were both slumped on the floor, though Oz appeared to still be conscious. Cordelia was nowhere to be seen.
Drusilla dropped the now dead Kendra and licked the blood from her lips, then turned to face Xander. She paled immediately, then in a way very unlike her, turned and ran for the doors without making a sound. Xander started to run after her, but then stopped. He pressed the button for Cortana and she appeared as a small hologram.
"Xander, what is it?" She asked.
"I need you to track the car that's about to leave the school. I don't care if you have to hack a satellite, make it happen!" Xander ordered.
"Xander, someone is going to notice this, there's no way around that." Cortana warned.
"Fine, it's gotta be done. Tell Johnson, Mendez and Monetti to suit up, I have a bad feeling about this." Xander replied.
"Done. And be careful, the police are on their way to the school." Cortana's avatar vanished.
Buffy burst through the doors of the library, and took in the scene in shock. Xander quickly grabbed her and dragged her out of the library. "We gotta get out of here," he explained, "the cops are on their way, they'll take care of this."
"What happened?" Buffy asked.
"We got jumped. A few vamps separated me from the fight, an Drusilla killed Kendra. They've got Giles, I think they're gonna get him to tell them how to open the portal." Xander got to the parking lot and got into the 240sx he had bought, or rather Cortana had bought. Just as the two of them were leaving the parking lot, flashing lights and sirens made their way towards the school.
"Cortana's tracking the car they took Giles in, but she's probably brought more heat down on herself by doing so. Governments tend to notice when one of their satellite's gets borrowed." Xander screeched to a stop in front of Buffy's house. "Get what you need and head to my warehouse."
Buffy nodded and got out. Before she could say anything Xander was driving away. Buffy turned around and almost walked headlong into Spike. She tried to hit him but he grabbed her arm and stopped her, then put up his hands in surrender. "Now now, none of that. Look, I'm just here to talk."
Xander pulled into the garage and jumped out of the car and ran into the warehouse proper. He stripped off his pants and shirt and went to the armour storage area. As he was getting into the legs, Cortana appeared in human form, followed by the Marines.
"What's the situation?" Johnson asked, all business.
Xander looked at him and smiled grimly. "Sarge, I have this gut feeling that you'll be going home today." He slid the torso of the suit over top of him and locked in into place. "I had a visit from someone last night, told me we'd be going on a little trip and that it would have something to do with Buffy. Well, her ex-boyfriend is trying to suck the world into a hell dimension and one of his minions is an insane Covenant zealot. If this isn't our cue I don't know what is."
Cortana fuzzed for a moment. "I just spoke with Buffy. She went to see Willow at the hospital."
"How's she doing?" Xander asked, picking up his battle rifle and inserting a clip.
"She's unconscious, and if she doesn't wake up soon she may slip into a coma. Oz has some fractured ribs, but he'll be fine."
"Willow will pull through, she's tougher than people think." Xander said. "You know where they took Giles."
Cortana nodded. "He's in a mansion on the outskirts of town."
"Alright then, let's pick up Buffy and go kick some ass." Xander said loudly, feeling far less confident than he sounded.
Buffy turned around at the sound of screeching rubber and saw the monstrous Warthog coming to a stop behind her. Rather than a gun, extra seats were mounted in the back. Buffy hopped up and took the last of the three seats. Xander punched the gas and they were off.
"You okay Buffy?" Mendez asked, seeing the down look on the Slayer's face.
"I had a fight with my mom, she found out I was the Slayer." Buffy replied quietly. "She told me if I walked out the door not to come back. And now I'm off to kill my ex-boyfriend before he ends the world. I've had better days."
Xander turned partially around. "Buffy, if you need to you can stay at my warehouse. You can get through this, and we'll help you anyway we can."
Xander screeched hard around a corner. Just ahead of him, a man was just opening his door after parking his car. Unable to avoid it, the Warthog slammed into the door, tearing it off then car and sending it skittering down the road.
"XANDER!" Cortana shouted. "Stop with the heart to heart and watch the damn road."
"Oh come on he shoulda checked before opening his door!" Xander replied as the other four occupants of the truck chuckled.
"We need to stop at the school!" Buffy said loudly over the roar of the wind. "I need a sword from the library."
Xander nodded and swerved at the appropriate intersection.
"I'll get it," Cortana said. "My purse is in there so I can just appear and walk out."
Cortana beamed out of Xander's head and, after using embedded sensors in the purse to make sure the room was empty, materialized in the library. As she headed over to the cabinet in which the sword was stored, the doors to the library swung open and Snyder walked in. He stopped cold when he saw Cortana.
"Who are you?" He demanded. "What are you doing here, I demand to know who you are."
Increasing the strength and rigidity of her hologram to maximum, Cortana closed the distance between herself and Snyder and punched him in the face. Snyder fell backwards and smacked his head on the floor, knocking himself out.
Cortana smiled. 'Damn that felt good.' She thought.
As the Warthog pulled up to the school, Cortana jogged out the main doors. She put her purse on the floor, handed the sword to Buffy, and vanished back into Xander's head.
"Everything cool?" Xander asked.
"I might possibly have punched out Snyder." She replied coolly.
"Oh that is just not fair!" Buffy and Xander complained in tandem.
Having extracted the necessary information from Giles, Angelus stood ready to complete the ritual and awaken Acathla. Up until now the plan had gone well, but he had expected that the Slayer might show up, so he was not particularly surprised when Buffy walked into the mansion. He was however surprised when Buffy walked into the mansion along with Xander, one pilot, and two marines all holding large guns. Still, a good tactician makes contingency plans for every occurrence and as such was ready for this possibility. On the balcony floor above him, several vampires including Warren Meers drew and aimed assorted Covenant weapons, training them on the group at the front door.
"You know, we really should have done a better job of cleaning up after battles." Monetti said wryly, aiming his battle rifle back.
Johnson glared at him. "I seem to recall Cortana assigning that task to you, slacker."
"Take care of tin man and the Marines, leave Buffy to me!" Angelus shouted.
The vampires started firing, forcing the Marines to find cover. Xander remained in the open, buying them time as the vamps focused their fire on him, quickly draining his shields. Xander dove away at the last second before his shields failed. In front of him he could see that Spike had attacked Angelus, but was driven off by Drusilla. Now Angelus and Buffy were squaring off, seemingly oblivious to everything else in the room. However, it seemed that somewhere in that time Angelus had found time to complete the ritual, as the sword was gone from Acathla.
Xander fired a burst into the chest of a vampire, but it did little more than slow him down. "I have an idea! Keep them from moving." Cortana ordered over the radio, then she was gone. Laying down a field of rifle and SMG fire, the Marines and Xander prevented the vampires from doing anything other than taking potshots at them. Unnoticed by the vampires, Cortana walked in the main doors. She hefted the Jackhammer she was carrying onto he shoulder and fired, launching a rocket right into the vampire's firing position. The rocket flew through to air and impacted the railing in front of the vampires, detonating. Three of the vamps were incinerated while another was decapitated by debris. Only Warren survived, but the floor under him collapsed and he was dropped unceremoniously to the story below.
"Guys, get Giles!" Xander ordered, moving forward and grabbing Warren. He lifted him by his neck, but Warren only grinned back at him.
"You're too late, infidel. The portal has been opened and this planet, then this galaxy will be cleansed!" Xander looked behind him to see that the portal was opening, but something was wrong with it. It was red, but a small, glowing green was spreading inward from the edges.
"You and your kind will be burned off the face of this world, and all worlds. The glory of the Covenant is everlasting." Warren hissed.
Xander stared coldly at him. "You stupid son of a bitch," Xander tossed Warren to the ground and grabbed the energy sword. "Did you even play Halo? There is no Great Journey! The Halos just wipe out all life! Are you so stupid that even peering in from the outside you can't see that?"
Before Warren could reply, Xander brought down the sword, severing his head. He turned around to see Angelus stagger, then look around in confusion. He turned and saw Giles approaching with Johnson supporting him. "His blood," Giles said weakly, "his blood is the key to closing the portal."
Xander's eyes widened and he turned in time to see Buffy tell Angel to close his eyes. "Buffy NO!" He shouted, stopping her. "It won't work, Warren did something to the portal, it's not going to suck us into hell, or at least the one it's supposed to."
Buffy lowered her sword, a look of enternal gratitude on her face.
Xander, with Johnson, Mendez, and Monetti looked at the glowing green portal ahead of them. The huge swirling vortex was now large enough to drive a tank through, and was a mix of small red streak and an angry, almost glowing green.
"You know," Xander said with some dismay, "when I woke up this morning this was not how I imagined my day would go."
"What, the part about the huge inter-dimensional portal, or the part where you side-swiped that parked car?" Cortana asked lightly from his head.
"That was totally not my fault! He did not check before opening his door!" Xander yelled back.
Buffy and Angel walked over to the group. "So what do we do?" Buffy asked.
Xander looked to the corner of the room and saw Whistler. He nodded and gave Xander a two-finger salute, then turned and walked out.
"You either go home or to my warehouse. Patch things up with your mom, check up on Willow." Xander replied. "I, apparently, go on a road trip this summer." He turned to Angel. "Look, I don't like you, but what happened wasn't your fault. That said, if this happens again I will not hesitate to kill you. Am I clear?"
"Perfectly." Angel replied, nodding.
"You, in my head," Xander pointed at Cortana. "Everyone else, lock and load."
"Xander, you don't have to do this." Buffy pleaded. "We need you here."
"Buffy, I am begging you, put that in writing and send it to the Powers That Be." Xander joked. "I'll come back, I promise."
With that, Xander, two Marines and one pilot walked forward into the widening portal. They were sucked into it, and it started to quickly shrink. After a few seconds it had disappeared completely, leaving only Angel and Buffy standing in the wrecked mansion. They stood there, watching the place where Xander had disappeared for a while in silence, the only sound coming from the wind whistling through the broken windows.
Perhaps it had to do with the relative mass of each of the soldiers, or perhaps it was simply part of the PTBs plan, but none of them appeared in the same place, or even at the same time. Mendez appeared first, at a hangar in New Zanzibar. Smiling at being dropped in her element, she ran for the nearest Longsword fighter, strapped herself in, and took off to join the fight.
Monetti also appeared on Earth, but he appeared twelve hours later and thousands of miles away near Toronto, Canada. However he was able to call for a pickup, claiming his ship was shot down. He too soon joined the battle.
Sergeant Johnson appeared aboard Commander Keyes ship as it was reaching the second Halo. No one seemed to notice that he had simply appeared, or they chose to ignore it.
Xander however did not appear until much later. In fact, he did not appear until very close to what was the end of Halo 2. And so it was that when Master Chief John 117 beamed aboard to Forerunner ship just as it was disconnecting from High Charity, he came face to face with a very short Spartan that he did not recognize as one of his own.
Xander felt a weird spinning sensation as he entered the portal. There was a bright flash of green light that blinded him for a second. When his head and his vision cleared he was standing in some kind of corridor, and there was a very large shotgun leveled at his face, which was being held in the hands of a very menacing Master Chief.
'Welcome to Hell, Xander, welcome to Hell.' He thought to himself.
End chap 11Hope everyone liked the chapter. I hope to have the next one up a fair bit sooner. Thanks for reading and please leave a review!