Disclaimer: Don't own them, but Jason is mine.

A/n: Sorry it took so long, but I've been having some personal problems... Anyway, I'm gonna try to make this a multicrossover, but I could use some help... Anyone who has decent ideas or thoughts, feel free to share them...

******

Chapter 5

-- Trouble --

It didn't take long for the Slayers to regain their senses and hurry outside. They didn't know just who those guys were, but obviously, they didn't know about vampires very well if they thought they could easily handle them. Well, that, or they had some other advantage...

When they reached the place where they could hear the fight going on, they were rendered speechless. The one that had been introduced as Jarod was hammering away on the vampires like they were puppets. Jason stood a few meters away, looking at the fight with a smile on his face. Faith, being the one who recovered first, silently walked to Jason, taking care not to disturb Jarod. He was up against 3 vamps and while he looked like he was well holding his own, if he should become distracted, the vamps could gain the upper hand. Not that it would do them any good when both Buffy and herself were here, but still...

"Hey." She silently said when she reached Jason.

"Hey yourself." he said back.

"How is he doing that? Hell, I mean, it looks like it doesn't cost him any trouble..."

"Oh, but it's costing him trouble, let me assure you. He's simply never done anything like this before. You see, Jarod is a pacifist at heart and would normally never harm anyone, unless they truly deserve it. But seeing as how he believes the dead should remain untouched and as these vampires don't have a soul, I believe he's letting go of all his frustrations he normally keeps bottled up. He caught his fair share of hits, but he'll come out as the victor."

"He's never done this before??" Buffy asked, having reached the duo in time to hear the explanation.

"No, he hasn't. This is the first time he's putting his training in practice. And for someone who only learned how to truly brawl two days ago, I'd say he's doing very well for himself."

"He only learned how to fight two days ago?" Buffy asked.

"Yep."

"And you expect us to believe that? With the ease that he's taking on those vamps, he must have had at least some years of experience in fighting. No way that anyone is that good after two days." She stated. No even her, who had Slayer abilities, could have learned how to fight in such a short amount of time.

"Jarod learns really fast. And I mean really fast. He has an unusual talent that allows him to learn anything in an impossibly sort amount of time. I think that if you gave him a book about the mechanics in a car, he'd be able to put his own designed car together the next day."

"Really?" Faith asked with wonder in her voice.

"Nope." They heard Jarod grunt as he ducked under the punch of a vamp. "If you gave me that book in the morning..." Duck, retaliate, "then I'd be designing the car..." Sidestep, high kick, duck, sweep, "while I was reading the book and I'd be putting it together..." Punch in the face, "in the afternoon." Then he produced a stake from his jacket, one that Jason had given him earlier, and put in trough the heart of the undead creature. He quickly finished off the remaining two vamps and dusted himself off afterwards.

"Phew, that was intense. Never knew they'd be this strong or fast." He said as he reached the others.

"You didn't know vampires where stronger and faster than normal men?" Buffy asked, unable to believe that he didn't know that and still fought the way he had.

"Well, I knew they were stronger and faster, but I didn't think they would be this strong or fast."

"They were somewhat older than newborns, so they had the advantage of experience on their side. Didn't help them very much, but even so..." Jason remarked.

"Huh? How did you know that? Never mind, I don't wanna know. At least not now, cause I'm getting cold here."

Buffy was about to say something when both men suddenly tensed and began looking around.

"What is it? What's wrong?" She asked.

"Someone's coming. And he feels very familiar somehow..." Jason slowly said.

"Feels? What do you mean by that?"

The answer to that question wouldn't be answered for some time to come, since at that moment, a rather large, disgusting looking demon dropped from the roof next to them on the ground. It growled at them, but rather than attacking, it turned and made to run. It probably would have gotten away, if not for the fact that something slammed it into the wall. Then another figure, human this time, or at least as far as they could tell, dropped from the roof, dressed completely in black, with it's back towards them so they couldn't see it's face.

Whoever it was, it appeared that it was male, if his build was accurate. He stood up from his crouched position and walked over to where the demon had fallen after being slammed into the wall. Jason didn't know what was going on, but one thing he did notice. He could feel the telltale tingle that came over him whenever he was near or used Khaydarin Crystals. He could feel the power of the Void, the power of the Dark Templar from whom he had learned so much and owed even more. That meant could only mean that one of the two, or possibly both, was in the possession of a Crystal. He couldn't allow an unknown person to hold an artifact which possessed such potential danger.

The man closed in on the demon and lifted his arm in its direction. Gravity suddenly seemed to abandon the creature as it became airborne. The man lifted his other arm and made as if he was about to break something over his knee. He pulled his hands apart in a quick motion and the demon was torn in two pieces. The legs wetly fell down and began dissolving almost instantly. The torso fell too, but it didn't dissolve. The demon was still alive, but wouldn't be for long. The man swiftly walked up to him and used whatever power he had used to lift the demon in the air to punch the torso flat against the ground. A disgusting cracking sound could be heard as the demon was literally flattened against the ground. Fluids of all kinds, blood, gore, squished organs, burst from the now almost flat body, effectively and totally destroying whatever life had remained in the body part. Soon the remains began dissolving as the legs had done, leaving nothing but a somewhat blue-green puddle behind. That too began shrinking slowly and soon nothing would remain of the former demon.

The man turned towards Jason and the others. He looked familiar, even with the dark sunglasses he wore. Suddenly, Jason recognised the form of the jaw, the general outline of the face. But it couldn't be...

"Jarod?" He questioned. Jarod turned to look at him, confused.

"Not anymore. I go by Jay now." The man answered.

"But it is you, isn't it?"

"Yes. I am the one you know as Jarod. I'll explain everything, but can we please go somewhere a little less public?"

"Uh, sure. Let's go to our place." He suggested. Jay nodded once. Jason looked at the two slayers and looked back at the newcomer.

"They can come if they want too." He said.

"Want to come?" Jason asked the duo.

Faith shrugged and nodded. After all, nobody was waiting for her and the motel room she stayed at was something she wanted to see as little as possible. Buffy didn't look to certain. Her mom knew she was with Faith at the Bronze, but she had no way of informing her mother that she would be going someplace else. A flicker of movement caught her eye and her hand caught the cell phone Jay had thrown her way. She looked at it and then at Jay.

"Go ahead, call your mother. Tell her that you'll be staying with Faith tonight or something." He said. At this, Faith sharply looked at him, but since Buffy's back was turned to the younger Slayer, she missed it. Jason and Jarod however, didn't. Buffy looked at the cell phone again and made a decision she hoped she wouldn't regret later. She punched the number of her house and waited for her mom to answer the phone.

"Hello?" She heard her mother's voice.

"Mom? Hi, it's me. Uhm, Faith isn't feeling to well and I don't like to leave her alone in the motel. Is it ok to stay with her tonight?" Buffy asked in her best acting voice.

"Faith's not well? Can't you bring her here?" Her mother asked.

"She says it's only her stomach and doesn't want to walk all the way to our house. I really don't want to leave her alone mom. Can I stay?"

"Well...Ok, but only this once. And if things get worse, you bring her here, understand?"

"Yes mom. I understand. I'll see you tomorrow, ok?"

"All right. Tell Faith I hope she gets better soon."

"I will. Goodnight mom."

"Goodnight Buffy." And with that, Joyce hung up the phone. Buffy disconnected too and shut the phone down. She tossed it back at Jay, who caught it swiftly and pocketed it.

"I can go." She said. Then she turned to Faith. "My mom told me to tell you to get well soon." At this, Faith laughed. Jason and Jarod smiled, Jay allowed a small grin to appear on his lips, but it vanished almost as soon as it had come. Jarod lead the way, Buffy and Faith followed close behind, quietly talking about how Jay could have defeated that demon. Jason chose to walk besides Jay, hoping to start somewhat of a conversation, but it appeared that Jay wasn't in the mood for small talk. So he left him be and simply walked in silence next to him.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the house Jason and Jarod have claimed earlier that day. Once all of them were inside, Jarod led them to the living room. Faith and Buffy shared the sofa, Jarod sat in a one-person couch with Jason on the armrest and Jay sat in the other one-person couch. He looked pretty tense and had yet to take off his jacket or even his sunglasses.

"Why don't you make yourself comfortable? It can't be very good for your eyes to keep those glasses on where the illumination isn't all that great." Jason remarked.

Jay snorted. "The reason why I keep my glasses on is that I don't want to scare or shock you. My... eyes aren't something pretty to look at."

"How so?" Jarod ventured.

"I lost my eyes some time ago and they had to be replaced. Unfortunately, at that moment, we lacked to proper medical facilities to do so and my eyes had to be replaced by cybernetic implants." And at this, he took off his dark sunglasses. Dark red stared at them. It didn't look like he had eyes at all, but like they put red glassy orbs in his eye sockets.

"As you can see, I wear the glasses with a reason. What you can see of my eyes is only the ruby-quartz protection layer. Behind it are the real implants."

"Maybe it would be best if you started with the beginning. I think that I'm beginning to suspect a little about what is going on, but that can't be said for the rest of our friends here." Jason remarked.

"You're right, I should begin at the beginning. All right, as mentioned before, I am Jarod, but I'm the Jarod from 180 years in the future." He quickly held up his hand to silence any remarks and continued. "It all about started 50 years back in my time, when more of us came in the world. By more of us I mean people who are genetically different from normal human beings. The normal people felt threatened by those who had gifts or abilities that they did not have. They felt as if we were trying to take over from them, which, by the way, we didn't. We simply wanted to live our lives, but it seems that it couldn't be done. Over the years, more disturbances arose and our kind was being discriminated. As time went on, thing became more violent than ever, until finally, 30 years ago, humanity declared war upon us. We were driven from our homes, hunted down like animals. Many were captured; even more were killed in senseless battle. Those captured were tortured for information about whereabouts of others. They didn't live long after capture, but the existence they led was unbearable. I was captured once myself, and experienced the horrors first hand." He slightly rubbed his left forearm and hand. He looked at Jason and Jarod. "I'd like to tell them what we are. I want to show them a little of what they did to me, but to understand the full implications of it, they have to know what we are. You don't need to worry, they can be trusted with the knowledge."

The two men looked at each other and seemed to silently debate whether or not to give in to the request. Finally, they both nodded. Jay nodded too and turned to the Slayers.

"Both Jason and I are Werewolves. Unlike your friend Oz, who was bitten by one, we were born a Werewolf. There are differences between Werewolves that are born and those turned into one, but one thing that we hold in common is our weakness towards silver. We can wear silver as jewelry and so on, but when it comes in contact with our blood, or something else from the inside of our bodies, it turns into a deadly poison for us."

While he talked, he removed his jacket. He rolled up the sleeve of his left arm and took off the glove that was on his left hand.

"When I was captured, they wasted no time in trying to extract information from me. When I proved to be uncooperative, they resorted to bigger means. They found pleasure in separating my hand from my arm while I was fully conscious." At this point, he showed his left arm. At first sight, nothing seemed abnormal, but then he reached to somewhere around the middle of his lower arm and stripped off the artificial skin that hid his mechanical arm and hand.

"At first, the pain was excruciating, but I was partially able to shut down my pain nerves with a technique I learned during the war. However, due to my exhaustion and shock, the technique wasn't as effective as it should have been. I could still feel the pain as they slowly sawed through my wrist. When they were done, they threatened to continue this until I told them what they wanted to know. To further encourage me to speak, the sprinkled silver powder over my wrist. The powder was absorbed into my system and began to destroy the rest of my arm from the inside out. The pain was excruciating, pain ignorance technique or not. Luckily for me, Jason and a group of friends busted down the installation they had been using as headquarters. If they had been somewhat later, I might not have been here. They brought me back to our home, a city hidden deep within the Earth underneath a mountain chain and only accessible by Portal. We had lost most of our resources during the course of the war and lacked the time needed to put me into a regeneration tank in order to re-grow my hand. Instead, the doctors had to remove part of my lower arm to rid my body of the silver and attached a cybernetic arm and hand instead. They also injected me with a stream of nanoprobes to speed up the repair of my internal organs as my captors had seen to it that I was beaten to the point where I couldn't make an escape anymore, even if the base was deserted. The nanoprobes did more than repair the damage as they began to swarm my body and began to improve it. They transferred body fat in muscle tissue, enhanced my nervous system and upped my speed. Finally, they created a probe production center in my cybernetic arm and they settled there until needed again. When I woke up, I was twice as strong and fast as I had been. My reaction time had improved by 40%. But while they enhanced and repaired most of my body, they could not repair the brain damage I got due to earlier radiation exposure. I used to have pretty strong telepathic skills and now I can hardly make contact with another mind, even a telepathic one. Also, my ability to concentrate has dropped severely."

Jay paused a bit before continuing.

"I realise that I'm giving you a lot of information, but you need to understand what they are capable off and what they were willing to do. They aren't afraid to use radiation weapons. And it's not only us mystically enhanced humans, like werewolves and other shape shifters. People with mutations were targeted as well. And so were witches, mages, wizards and any other magic user, simply by association. Anyone who didn't classify as 'normal' human being was their prey."

All present in the room looked horrified. While Jason and Jarod, and even Faith to a certain extent, could rely more on personal experience, Buffy could hardly fathom the thought that one human would willingly and deliberately do things like that to another human being. She lived to protect the people that didn't know about the dangers that lay under their world, she fought to keep the normal people alive and now she hears that they declare war upon people that are somewhat different?

"What about your eyes? How did that happen?" Jarod asked. He knew that humans could have real ugly streaks, but this topped what he thought possible. He also saw that Buffy didn't look too well, so he tried to create a distraction so she wouldn't focus on the bad things she heard.

"The incident that caused me to lose my arm happened about 5 months ago. Two weeks ago, our worst fear came to pass. One of the captives must have cracked, because humanity learned about Thalamatros, our city. Even worse, they had constructed machines that could generate Portals. They had extracted the location of our city and had begun planning an invasion. We could evacuate most of the city before they arrived. You see, there are only two Portalpoints in Thalamatros and one of them is always on standby, while the other is offline. The Portalpoints are located on opposite sides of the city and to prevent that some enemy should invade our city from two points, we only allow one Portalpoint to be active at the time. We activated the second Portalpoint and opened a Portal to another cave that once held considerable resources. I was in charge of the evacuation, while Jason would see to it that the human army wouldn't find anything of interest in the city. When I radioed him to tell him the evacuation was complete, he told me to go too, that he would stall the human army."

Jay shook his head and buried it in his hands.

"I never should have listened. Just as I stepped in the Portal, I could feel a massive amount of energy being gathered in the center of the city. Jason would keep word and see that nothing of interest in Thalamatros would fall into enemy hands. He had decided that the only possibility for that was to destroy the city. Since we didn't believe in keeping weapons of such destructive magnitude in the city, he began calling forth all the magical energies he could get a hold off. Next he began summoning all the power he could draw from the Void and added that to the assembled energy mass. Then he drew what power he could get from nature itself. Entire droves of human soldiers died as the energy that kept them alive was sucked from them. By this time I had ported back to the city in an attempt to stop him from self-destructing. I failed. He detonated the gathered energy and laid waste to the entire city. The psychic shockwave caused our Pylons to overload and explode, resulting in an even greater psychic shock. That is how I lost my eyes. They were blinded by the flash at first, something I would have eventually recovered from. But the psychic shockwave made my eyes literally explode. Pure agony, trust me on that one. The physical shockwave threw me back over a distance of 30 meters until I finally hit a building, shattering the wall and my spine in the process. I could no longer feel anything in my legs and the lower part of my body, but due to the enhancements made by the probes and the probes themselves, I wasn't paralyzed just yet. I could move my legs enough to get around. I discovered that the Khaydarin Bracelet I had been wearing had been fused in my arm by the explosion. I slowly made my way to where Jason had been when he made his last stance. I had learned long ago never to rely on any single sense, so I tried to find his body, if anything was left, by using my other senses. When I found him, I was shocked beyond rational explanation that he was somehow still alive, if barely. His body was a mess. How he could still be alive, we still don't know, but he was. He did once told me that he was to dumb to quit and to stubborn to die, but this was really stretching it. I had to drag both of us back to the Portal and ported to the second cave. They put Jason in a stasis cell until they could get him medical attention. We relocated to our last resort and there they gave me my new eyes. It really wasn't needed to place the ruby-quartz as protection, but it has some unusual qualities. Such as that it makes infrared light visible. Like this."

Everyone present looked with great interest as two points of diffuse white light came on the red orbs that appeared to be his eyes. The light looked to be the iris and pupil of the eyes, except for the fact that no distinction between the two.

"This is done by projecting infrared light on the ruby-quartz. There are small projectors installed on the implants, so I can give myself somewhat normal eyes. This setting needs little concentration, and if it weren't for the power drain from the projectors, I'd probably keep them on. But with enough concentration..."

The diffuse orbs became sharper and created the illusion of a neat circle in the red orbs. It went even further as a second circle appeared in the middle of the light spot. That gave the impression of a red pupil surrounded by a white iris. It looked like he had real eyes. Suddenly, the light vanished and left empty red orbs in its place. Jay sighed deeply.

"As you could see, I'm able to generate a relatively clear image of iris and pupil, but the concentration it requires is great and the power to focus the projectors like that even greater. That and my inability to concentrate for long periods of time is why I'm unable to maintain the image very long."

"Isn't there a way to lessen the power drain for the projectors, or to have a greater power supply for them?" Jason asked. It seemed that Jay liked to have at least some semblance of 'real' eyes.

"No, not to my knowledge. The batteries, so to speak, are charged with my own bio-electric energy. They don't have a great capacity and as such are next to useless. Even at the lowest level of sharpness of projection, the power is drained in a mere 5 minutes. Then it takes at least an hour to recharge. Thus negating any possible long term use." He sighed. He had looked into the matter, but short of finding an alternate power source for the projectors, he didn't see any real solutions. He saw Buffy raising her hand, like she was in school asking for permission for something. He nodded to her.

"Uhm, you sort of used a lot of terms that I didn't quite understand. Would you mind explaining them?" She asked. He could see that both Faith and his younger self were interested as well. However, Jason seemed to be in thought about something.

"Sure. I'm guessing some of them would be Portals, Portalpoints, Khaydarin Bracelet and Pylons, right?"

"That about sums it up..." She murmured.

"Ok. I'll start with Portals. Portals are a means of travel for us, and anyone who learns to summon one. They are entirely natural and can be summoned by magic or technology. They can appear by themselves as well, but hoping one will pop up just when and where you need it, just isn't a great way to use them."

People grinned at that comment.

"Portalpoints are items that can be used to secure the exit ending of the Portal. It's not strictly needed, but is a whole lot safer. Cause you can summon a Portal and pretty much chose where it ends, but that ending can still shift from its location. Imagine that you open one just in front of a wall, to avoid opening one in an open area. The exit shifts somewhat and drifts into the wall. Do you see what would happen when someone would travel through? They'd reappear within the wall, effectively killing them."

"Ah, that would be...bad..." Buffy said.

"Indeed. You can also create a passageway between two Portalpoints. There isn't much that differs from using a normal Portal, except that both ends of the passage are stable and the connection can be set up near instantaneous. You also travel a little faster, but not enough to make a real difference. Ok, what's next? Uhm...ah, the Bracelet."

He rolled up the sleeve of his right arm and showed the bracelet, about the length of his entire forearm. Only, it seemed to be ingrained into his arm itself.

"I was wearing the Bracelet when I went back to stop Jason from self-destructing. It has a few minor magical enhancements like speed and strength upgrades. I was hoping the speed boost would get me to Jason in time. When the explosion happened, it somehow fused with my arm, making it a part of me. There doesn't seem to be any difference by having it permanently attached to my arm, with the exception that I can't take it off anymore. You can see that the markings are still intact, thus leaving the enhancements active. However, the Crystals that are placed on it as focal point for the enhancements are slightly cracked. In time, they will crack further and eventually break. The Bracelet will lose its power when that happens. And I will lose my edge in battle when that happens."

Jay sighed.

" Oh well, nothing to be done about it. And last we have the Pylons. In short, they are the things that provide us with power in Thalamatros. They're a unique form of power and one that I know little about. All I know is that they draw their power directly from the astral plane and create a field of power that we use to power our systems."

By the look on Buffy's face, he could see that she didn't understand a word of what he just said. As was to be expected. He could see that Faith was interrested, but was trying hard to look bored. Why she did that, he never understood, but it seemed that Faith wanted to appear dumber than she really was. He also saw that she was tired.

"I see that some of us are getting tired. I think it would be best if we retired for the night. Tomorrow is a new day and we need to be well rested for it. Tomorrow is a full moon and if I recall correctly, you have a cage in the schoollibrary where Oz is 'guarded' when he goes through the change, right? Why don't we meet then and we'll talk further."

"Agreed, but first tell us why exactly you're here now." Jason said, finally coming out of his own thoughts.

"I thought that would have been obvious. The future is a horrible place where I come from. I'm here to prevent that future from occuring." Jay said with a grave and sad voice.

"I figured as much. but let's keep that for tomorrow. Now, about sleeping arrangements. Buffy, Faith, if you want, you can spend the night here, if you don't mind sharing a bed, that is. There are three bedrooms, so I figured, the both of you sharing one, if you stay. Then Jay can have the second one and Jarod and me will share the last. Any objections?" Jason asked

Getting none, he stood and bid them all a goodnight. The others rose too and went to their assigned bedrooms. Soon, everyone in the house was asleep. Everyone, but Jay. He lay in his bed, contemplating his mission. And it's consequences...

******

Starcraft and everything from it belongs to Blizzard. I'm only using the setting and items from the game for entertainment.

Sorry it took me so long to post this, but I had messy stuff going on. Life, they call it... Anyway, tell me what you think and if you have any ideas for the story or thoughts for crossovers, let me know. I might just use them, but no guarantees...

Aiwan, my friend, I'm shocked in you! Werewolves are no curse, they're people like you and me, only they have something extra in their genes that makes them somewhat hairy three nights a month. Besides, it's not because one is a werewolf, that one is evil...

To Pete: If I wanted to stay true to the show, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction, now would I?

REVIEW!!!