The Monsters Loose II

Righteous Wrath

It was a dream.

It was a nightmare.

It was going to happen, it was happening, it had happened.

Darkness bled into the day, the sun turned black as the deafening sound of a thousand tortured animals howled. In front of her a demon rose. Higher and higher, it's snake like body uncoiled from the husk like remains beneath it. Buffy clutched the sword in her hand tighter.

This was a good death, a Slayers death.

Then, from above, a flash of light. Like the vengeance of an old god a spear parted the sky. A bolt of silent thunder. It struck the demon, splitting it like a dead tree and pinning its snake like trunk to the ground.

Following the thunder came the lightning. His wings flared, blond hair a second sun above a comet of golden armour. He arrived. A perfect moment where all of creation paused.

The demon roared at the angel. An armoured boot landed on its shoulder-less neck. "You gave up a most precious gift for this." The angel spoke. It's voice soft, but powerful. A sound that was enough to crush mountains or raze seas. "I pity you, but there is no place for your kind in this world now." Powerful hands reached down. With broad shoulders and perfectly sculpted muscle under chainmail the angel tore the head free.

Around her people cheered. Some we're praying, weeping openly at the sight.

Buffy wept too, but not from joy. She knew the price. She knew what the angel was.

Buffy wept. Not from joy, or love, but fear.

Then she woke up.

The vision faded as quickly as it had come. She was in the Library, slumped in one of the chairs. It wasn't the first time she'd nodded off in the room, but before she'd be waked by Giles. This time he was far too busy staring at the mug in his hands to even notice. "Giles?" She asked straightening herself. "Giles?"

He blinked, "Buffy, you're awake! How are you feeling?"

"Terrible. A little embarrassed. Did I really faint?"

Giles glanced over at the counter. "Um, yes. I'm afraid you did." Buffy didn't have to guess what, or who, he was really looking at. "I have to apologise, when you and Willow tried to describe... what happened, I did not appreciate..."

"Yeah, and I was air-head noble woman at the time. I thought 20th century me could handle it. Willow did."

"When she was a ghost, Buffy. In all fairness you need a physical form to faint." Xander said from over her left shoulder. At least she thought it was Xander. Even his voice had changed. It was deeper, stronger, yet clear and sweet as a bell. It was a voice that could bring a girl to tears.

Gritting her teeth Buffy turned to face him. Her heart, quite literally, skipped. It was Xander, but clearly wasn't anymore. It wasn't just his new size, easily twice as tall as he had been. Closer to twelve feet tall and in perfect, perfect shape. His hair was a blonde she, and most of the girls she knew would kill for. No it wasn't that. It wasn't even the wings, even tightly folded they poked up over those cliff-like shoulders

No, it was his shear presence. It weighed down on Buffy like a whole planet, she could feel him. His new power, his awesome being. It was impossible to ignore and just as difficult to describe.

"Giles," She whispered, "Do you feel that?"

"I can hear you Buffy." The giant that had been her Xander-shaped friend sighed. "And to answer for him; yes he can, but not to the same degree as you I expect."

Finding her feet The Slayer stood up and on shaky legs walked up to him. "We'll fix this. She promised him. "We will, won't we Giles?"

"I... I don't know." He admitted. "When I broke Ethan's spell everyone else reverted to normal, costumes and all. I couldn't begin to imagine why Xander would not."

Xander, whatever he was now, laughed briefly. "I'm not surprised. I only have a vague working theory and it is somewhat disturbing to say the least."

"I don't like the sound of that." Buffy said carefully.

They took a deep breath. "Then listen, and decide for yourselves. The Emperor made twenty sons. Super-humans, each genetically engineered to be perfect. I dressed as the IX'th, Sanguinius." Somehow she could hear him say the numerals.

Buffy tried to ignore that and focus on what he was saying. "After the Great Crusade to reunite humanity across the galaxy and push back the Xenos threat half of the brothers, including once beloved Horus, turned on their creator. Their father. They fell to worship humanity's greatest enemy. Known as the dark gods of Chaos. The war became known as the Horus Heresy."

Buffy frowned, she'd noticed something odd. Xander's accent was slipping. She couldn't place it, but it certainly wasn't the one she remembered.

"At the end of the horrors of that civil war Horus besieged Terra and the Emperor's palace. In a last desperate gamble The Emperor lead a strike force to Horus's flagship. I... Sanguinius, was part of that attack and was the first to encounter Horus. Sanguinius and Horus has been the closest of friends as well as brothers, but the Dark Gods has twisted all that had been good and true. Turning he who had been the greatest of all our kind into a lunatic. He killed... He killed Sanguinius, separating soul from his body and casting it adrift."

"You're saying this actually happened?" Giles asked, shocked.

"Somewhere our there, beyond, yes. All things happen Rupert Giles. Somewhere." He told them. Buffy couldn't hear anything left of her friend. "When I... When Xander made his costume and the shop owner, Ethan, cast his spell it created a vessel. Drawing the soul here, like a magnet."

"And it's that soul that's speaking to us now?" Giles said. Picking up on what Buffy had.

The Angel gave a sad little smile before nodding .

"Give him back." Buffy ordered. "Give is our Xander back!"

"I fear I cannot" He said admitted. "He was strong, and despite his perceived weaknesses would have made a fine Astarties. Only his mind had not been prepared, he had no training and thus no defences." The Angel shook his head. "My arrival cast Xander's mind free from its anchors. His psyche hangs on by the barest threads and I fear whatever efforts I make to hold on to them only cause them to fray ever more."

"I don't believe you. I'll find a way, we'll find a way." Buffy insisted. "Giles, you got an exorcism spell or something, right."

"Buffy..."

"Right?" She demanded, turning on the Watcher.

He took off his glasses and polished them. "It's not that simple. I have several..."

"Then let's get to it!"

"Buffy! I do not believe he is lying." He snapped back. "Possessions are serious business. Even if I were able to find a suitable ritual in time the damage could already be irreversible. Good lord Buffy, look at him. If this spirit, for lack of a better term, can do that what do you think it has done to his mind!"

Buffy looked up, up at the Angel's perfect features and into his eyes. Willing herself to see something of her friend still there. It was like gazing into the sun, Buffy's own eyes filled with tears. "Xander?"

He wasn't there.

All she saw was the truth. The inescapable truth and the terrible compassion of a monster.

End Righteous Wrath