Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. Capcom owns Devil May Cry, and DMC 2. I don't.
Title: Better the Devil You Know…
Author: Paradigm Shifter
Feedback: I guess I'm reduced to begging again, hmm? Please?
Rating: R.
Notes: I'm still getting used to a new keyboard (on a laptop), so if there are more errors than usual, I'm sorry. (I writing this the day after chapter 10, which was complete yesterday… I just separate my posting times, otherwise there's a flood for about a week, and then nothing for months…)
One of my favourite mistakes with this new k/b is to double tap 's'. I try to get the mistakes, but a few slip through…
Crossover: Devil May Cry / Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Continuity: DMC1, not 2 (except for a few enemies). Xander's road trip. That's pretty much it. Enjoy.
*
Mundus looked up from his work as he felt a shift in the scheme of things. A servant rushed to see what ailed one of the Lords of Hell…
When asked, Mundus simply replied, "It is coming…"
*
Dante ducted behind a desk as bullets ricocheted around him. He had managed to get out of the containment area, through skill and stealth, and he had to admit quietly to himself, mostly by luck.
He even managed to get to the armoury and secure Alastor, alongside Ebony and Ivory, but then found himself trapped in the secured area.
He could escape, or he could break his rules about killing humans.
What a choice…
*
Xander was stalking angrily down the pavement, berating himself on why he thought anything would be different this time around. Buffy had a boyfriend, and a group of people who would die for her, and she also now apparently had a younger sister.
He was deeply engrossed in his own self-deprecation that he didn't acknowledge a scream from an alleyway until it sounded for a second time. Then he took off running.
Xander didn't know what was going to happen, so drew one of his pistols and Ragnarok, before coming to a halt in the mouth of the alley and laughed his head off.
A young teenager, probably no more than fifteen, was winning against a small group of vampires. The vampires didn't seem too pleased about this, but the girl wasn't giving them much of a choice.
She sprayed one in the face with a squirt of what appeared to be holy water via a small water pistol, from the way the vampire screamed at its sudden application, and thrust a cross into the face of another. The third, the apparent smart thinker of the group, hung back, frightened to get too close.
It had its back to Xander, who snuck up behind it and wrapped an arm around its neck before shooting it through the heart with his gun. Watching this display was certainly improving Xander's mood. The girl could most assuredly take care of herself.
The vamp that now had cross burns on his face, cut his losses and ran. Unfortunately for him, it was straight into the waiting Xander.
"Hi." Said Xander quietly as the vamp stopped uncertainly. His deathly quiet voice was easily audible over all the other noises in the alley. He raised his pistol.
"Bullets don't work on…" The vampire never got a chance to finish what he was saying because Xander shot him.
"Don't they?" Xander asked belatedly, confused. "You know, I rather think they do…"
The girl chose that second to thrust the bottom of her cross into the vampire's heart, dusting it. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she noticed Xander. "I know the Slayer!" she called out in alarm at the still form in front of her, silhouetted, by the streetlight flooding into the alley from behind him.
"Easy…" said Xander. "I wont hurt you."
"But what's your definition of hurt?" she asked suspiciously.
"Any form of physical or mental pain, including scraped knees and twisted ankles, but excluding hickeys… they're just marking territory." Xander stopped, and smirked.
"You could have helped." She said accusingly.
Xander frowned. "Why? You were doing fine! Besides, I did help." He gestured to the two piles of dust at his feet.
"What are you?" asked the girl. "Who are you?"
"Me? I'm nothing, and nobody. I don't matter. But I rather think that you do… to some parents somewhere and possibly some siblings." He motioned with his arm. "So home you go."
"Um…" the Girl didn't seem to like that topic too much, "you haven't even told me your name…"
"That's not important."
"It is to me…" the girl said. "I'm Dawn."
Xander's eyes suddenly became haunted. "Summers?"
Dawn looked frightened for a second. "Yeah. That's right."
"Sister of Buffy 'I'm right and you're wrong' Summers?"
Dawn frowned at the insult to her sister, but it was right. She said dryly, but with a hint of a giggle, "Unfortunately."
"Do both of us a favour. Don't tell her you met me."
"Who are you?"
Xander sighed. He had to tell the truth. "Alexander Harris."
*
"Xander?!" Dawn practically screamed at him. "Oh my God!" She flung herself at him bodily. "What happened? You just vanished on us! On me!"
Xander was at a loss for words. "Well… uh… you see I… um… had this little… fight… with your sister…" he swallowed and tried to breath in. "Could you… let go of me, please?"
"Fight?" Dawn looked more dangerous than Buffy in one of her, 'kill first, don't bother with questions' moods.
"Yeah." Xander said weakly.
"And that's why you left?"
"Yeah."
Dawn scowled. "Oooo… I'm gonna get her… she lied to me!"
Xander whipped his head up suddenly and stiffened. He spoke slowly and carefully, and Dawn was more than a little frightened at the sudden change in her hero. "Dawn. Get to where you need to be." He turned out of her embrace, drawing Ragnarok as he went. "Now."
"But…" Dawn started.
"NOW!" Xander roared at her. "Don't stop, and don't look back! GO! NOW!"
Dawn ran, but looked back to see Xander swing at a shadow that suddenly coalesced out of the wall of the alleyway.
Another appeared behind him. "XANDER!" Dawn screamed.
*
Xander spun at Dawn's shout of his name in time to see a Death Scythe aiming for his head.
Ducking, Xander extended his free hand and used it as a pivot on the ground of the alleyway. Fighting ethereal creatures is no fun, especially as you can't use your own mass against them, or sucker punch them when they aren't looking.
Xander lashed out with Ragnarok, and succeeded in catching a Death Scythe with the tip. The creature quickly retreated into the wall, allowing its companions to concentrate on Xander, who was currently trying to ignore the clamour of three sentient weapons in his mind. All of them wanted a go, and only one was able to release the blood lust it felt.
Dawn screamed again as winged beasts began to descend out of the sky, flapping their way to the already outnumbered Xander, and looking worse than the things he was already fighting. Dawn took a stumbling step backwards in terror as a manhole cover shifted to the side and small monkey like creatures began to pour out.
As much as he hated to admit it, the sheer volume of enemies that began to swamp him was overwhelming Xander. Taking a leaf from Dante's book of tricks, he sent Ragnarok spinning away, cutting into more than a dozen of the creatures as it went, and drew his twin pistols.
The cacophony of shots began to echo in the alleyway as Xander fired at anything that moved. The mystical bullets did equal damage to the corporeal and ethereal creatures, scything though their ranks and despatching many.
Xander turned suddenly at a scream from the street. He couldn't allow innocents to be hurt by the creatures that were attacking him.
The street had three people standing in it. Well, one standing, and two running as fast as they could. Dawn stood in the middle of the almost deserted street as a young couple ran away as fast as they could.
"I thought I told you to run!?" Shouted Xander as he shot another of the monkey like things.
Dawn shrugged, and tried to look appropriately guilty.
Seeing their targets attention on something other than them, one of the Blood Goats took this to mean that she meant a lot to the half-Devil, and flew toward her.
Xander's eyes widened with relief as he saw one of this opponents flying away. Until, that is, he saw its new target.
"DAWN!" Xander screamed, "get down!"
Dawn dropped to the road, and felt talons tear at her back as the winged beast pulled up from its near suicidal dive at her. As Xander neared her, she asked him far more calmly than she felt, "what the hell is that thing?"
"It's a Blood Goat. I wont go into the reasons now… and hopefully not ever, but… LOOK OUT!"
Xander fired a few more rounds at the Blood Goat, before rolling to his feet and pulling Dawn up after him.
"You any good at running?" he asked her.
Dawn shook her head. "Not really."
Xander's face was deadly serious, but the look in his eyes, despite the situation, was joking. "Then you better learn. Fast."
Xander took off down the street, half pulling, half dragging Dawn after him.
*
Dante pulled himself out of a manhole exit from the sewer to flop onto the road and sigh in relief. God knows why a black op like that had an emergency exit into the sewers, but who was he to reason why? All he wanted to do was escape, which, thanks to the sewer system, was easier than it first appeared. The he twisted his head round and got to his feet in a crouch at the sound of running feet. He was still technically a fugitive, after all.
Then he noticed who one of them was.
Xander Harris.
"Xander?" he shouted, "what's going on?"
Xander did a double take as he saw Dante crouched in the road, and them ducked as a circular saw like weapon came for his head. "I don't know where the Hell you've been, man, but I'm glad you're back!"
"I got… distracted by some unwanted friends…" Dante started, but Xander shook his head and cut him off.
"Later! We've got bigger things to worry about right now."
Dante shrugged, before pulling Ebony and firing at a Mortfinis that got too close. "Where the hell have all these things come from?"
Xander shrugged, and thrust Dawn into Dante's arms. He spoke to Dawn. "Get to wherever you'll be safe. Dante'll look after you." He turned back to the tidal wave of monsters that were quickly approaching.
Dawn looked at Xander's back. "But…"
Dante shook his head, and pulled her away from the flood. "Come on. Where do you want to be?"
"But…" Dawn said again, before slouching slightly and giving up. "I few streets down, on the corner. The Magic Box."
Dante nodded. "Xander! I'll meet you there!"
Xander turned as he fired a shot, and shook his head. "No way, I'm not welcome there."
Dawn looked at him in surprise and anger. "You'll be killed if you fight all of those things!"
"Better than having all of you die when they break into the Magic Box, kiddo. These things aren't like vampires. They don't need an invitation." He dodged another strike from a Terreofinis, and somersaulted over a slash from a Death Scythe.
"GO!" Xander's order was not to be argued with, even from the man that was, technically, his employer.
Dante scooped Dawn up in his arms, and took off. Dawn struggled in his grip, and Dante fixed her with a glare. "If you want to die by those things, fine, keep struggling. If, on the other hand, you want to live… stop squirming so damn much!"
Dawn stilled.
As he turned a corner, Dante risked a look back. Xander looked round at that instant, and their eyes met. Understanding and sorrow showed in their eyes at the last words they spoke, and Dante shivered as Xander dodged a strike without even seeing it.
Dawn looked over his shoulder. "What?! What's going on?!"
Dante sighed. "Nothing." He nodded to Xander, and vanished from his sight with Dawn.
Dante felt the flash of power as Xander Triggered out in the open, and lowered his head. He whispered to himself, "I'm sorry…"
*
Dante vanished round the corner after his head nod, and Xander turned all of his attention to the fight. Seeing the tides of devils he was facing, he closed his eyes for a fraction of a second and released the power.
For the first time since his return to the Hellmouth, Xander let the darker side of his nature free. It revelled in the release it was given, and changed his physical form before the eyes of any onlookers. Not that there were.
Muscle and height were added, quickly making Xander stand at nine feet tall. Lightly tanned skin paled, before darkening in microseconds to jet-black. Medium length brown hair grew out to shoulder length and lightened to painfully bright white. His nose flattened in, and disappeared, leaving an expanse of empty skin where it had been. Hands with long fingers grew longer, becoming talons, and curling completely around his twin pistols. Deep brown eyes turned completely black, and then the pupils began to glow green; in a way it looked as if his eyes had emerald fire burning within them. All his teeth lengthened and sharpened, and Xander threw his head back to roar. Two streamlined black wings burst out of his back, dark green veins pulsing as they did so, and flapped once, airing, before furling up once more and vanishing. Finally, skin grew lumpy in places, and parted to reveal small horns, which formed armour of a sort.
Ragnarok raged at its uselessness, and of its own accord, flew from its sheath and embedded itself in the chest of a large demonic wolf that had been preparing to leap.
Then Xander moved. Devils fell to his guns and his blade as by will alone he controlled the forces that would have given even Dante pause. Sparda may have been the blade wielded by his father, but Ragnarok was not named the Doom of the Gods for nothing…
*
Nathan writhed as his body changed further. Finally, he screamed in agony as his flesh split open and more limbs appeared. Muscles moved under the skin, changing where they were attached and how they moved, before calming again.
This was not what was meant to happen. Nathan looked down at his hands… all six of them. Two were those he had before, still normal, human, except for the sickly grey colouring that now tinged them. The others were not so much arms and hands as spiny appendages. They ended in vicious looking hooks.
Nathan passed through the threshold of pain that any mortal creature could withstand, and still did not pass out.
A voice spoke in his mind… this is the deal you invoked, little human. Now take form as my servant… and destroy those annoying half-devils before they destroy you!
*
Phantom smashed his way out of the hotel, destroying half of the building as it did so, and feeling a disturbance a short way off, thundered in the direction it came from.
*
Margaret Walsh walked purposefully into the room that no others were allowed into.
314.
It was time to use what they had to end this threat once and for all. Adam would destroy any and all demons it encountered; including that 'Slayer' that was popular myth among the vampires and demons in the area known as Sunnydale.
She pressed a button on the computer keyboard on the desk, and watched as a wall slid up to reveal the Adam charging and repair centre. Truth be told, it was only for the initial construction of the demonic hybrid, as it was self-repairing and, hopefully at least- almost totally invulnerable.
Walsh stepped over to a keyhole in the wall, behind a glass box that was meant as protection for it, and smashed the glass. She extracted a key from her pocket, and pushed it purposefully into the hole.
Then, with a quiet, click the key was turned.
Adam felt a surge of power go through its circuits, and stepped off of the pedestal that he had been on.
It looked round the room, and it's gaze settled on Margaret Walsh. "You're wish, Mother?"
Walsh looked proudly at her 'first born'. Her prototype; her triumph. She gave it an order. One that, in hindsight, was terribly broad, and terribly lethal. But as they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
"Kill everything."
Adam took a moment to digest this order. "You are certain, Mother?"
Walsh looked angrily at Adam. "Yes! I am sure! I gave you an order! Now carry it out!"
Adam looked sorrowfully at his mother. "As you wish."
Margaret Walsh died before the first scream could be uttered…
*
Dante hammered on the door of the shop that his passenger had indicated so hard that its hinges protested at the strain. He heard a noise from inside, and an irate blonde girl that looked none too happy yanked the door open.
"What the hell do you want?!" she screamed at him.
Dante swung Dawn off of his back and thrust her into the blonde. "Take her."
Buffy almost dropped Dawn she was so surprised, and turned back to see the man getting ready to run.
Dawn hissed as Buffy hugged the cuts on her back, and pulled away. Buffy's eyes widened as she saw the gouges in Dawn's back, and grabbed Dante's arm hard, and squeezed with all the Slayer strength she could muster. "What did you do to Dawn?"
Dante turned back to her, with murder in his eyes. "If you don't let go, my partner could die. And that might make me break my cardinal rule."
"Oh, and what is that?" asked Buffy sarcastically.
"Don't kill humans." Dante deadpanned. He wrenched his arm free. "Now get off me!"
Buffy went to grab him again, and discovered a pistol pressed against her temple.
"What are you gonna do? Shoot me?" she sneered.
Giles stepped out of the back of the shop. "What is taking so long, Buf…" he saw Dante, and the obviously near murderous Slayer in a standoff, "oh my…"
Dante looked up. "Ripper! Can't say that its good to see you, but could you get this crazy bitch to back down?"
"Buffy, go back in with Dawn." Giles voice held no room for argument.
"But…" began Buffy.
"Go in."
"But…"
Giles lost his temper. "Bloody GO IN! NOW!"
Buffy shot both Dante and Giles a mutinous look, but finally acquiesced.
Dante drew his second pistol. "Thanks. Got to go save my partner."
"Xander?" asked Giles.
Dante looked back, surprised. "Yeah."
Giles reached behind the counter. He drew out a wicked looking axe, then knocked a box to the floor and extracted an old six-shooter. "What are we waiting for?"
Dante turned and ran. "Nothing."
Giles marvelled at the sheer speed that Dante put behind his movements, and followed at a slower pace. It was not deliberate, but Giles wasn't as young as he used to be.
*
If truth were told; if it wasn't such an unfair fight, Xander would have been having the time of his life.
He ducked, dodged and weaved, raining death on any that dared get near enough to him to pose a threat. Normally, he would also pick off a few of the longer-range devils, but if he concentrated on one of them long enough to kill it, the nearer things would have torn him to shreds.
He ducked suddenly as a bolt of energy went over his head. "Great…" he growled, "Plasma's… just to make the day complete…"
His wings appeared and beat against the air once, taking him into the sky, and away from the landlocked beasts. Blood Goats followed his path, and clamoured with each other for the first strike.
Xander hovered in the air, his wings holding him easily as he waited; the short respite from battle fraying his already weakened nerves.
"Come on, you bastards… don't keep me waiting now…"
Almost as he was praying wound happen, three of them started for him at once.
Then, the strangest thing he even saw occurred. Two simply fell from the sky, and hit the ground with sickening crunches. The third, having lost its support, chickened out of the direct attack and wheeled off, to join the rest of its brood. Xander aimed and picked it from the sky with graceful ease.
Xander spun in his hover as he heard the deafening roar of a classic pistol from the earth below. The next thing he knew was pain as the bullet tore through the delicate membranes of his right wing.
The ground suddenly zoomed up to meet him, and Xander hit the tarmac of the road with a roar that shook the roofs for miles around, and made the children and parents o Sunnydale both, wish they were far, far away at that moment…
*
Giles arrived panting at what had to be an open burial site that had overflowed. He spotted Dante wading in with his usual lack of respect for odds, and the masses of small creatures that swamped him in.
Then he looked up.
Xander hovered above the battlefield, in full Devil form, watching a group of even more ugly demons. Giles took aim down the sights of his antique revolver, and fired. He had never encountered a demon yet that enjoyed an encounter with his 'special' rounds.
He gave a satisfied smile as he saw the bullet tear through the wing of the beast, and it tumbled to the ground. Then his eyes widened as Dante gave an inarticulate cry, followed by a stream of curses at him.
"No, you bloody fool!" Dante screamed, "that's Xander! You just shot Xander!"
Giles didn't have time to think of his mistake as suddenly he became a target for a clear third of the demons that Dante was engaging.
Giles muttered under his breath, "oh, bollocks…"
*
Dawn stood in the back room of the Magic Box, and tried to fend off Buffy's verbal assault.
"What on earth did you think you were doing out in Sunnydale at night? Shooting the breeze?"
Dawn shrugged, and winced as the gesture pulled at the cuts on her back. "Actually, I was coming to see you… but I was staking a few vamps on the way…"
She got exactly the reaction she was hoping for as Buffy's eyes widened. "I told you not to fight anything! To come and call me! I'm the Slayer, not any of you! And not you, especially, Dawn!"
Willow looked up from inspecting Dawn's back. "Um… Dawn… what did this?"
Dawn pulled a face, "Some really ugly thing that looked like a mutated goat. Xander called it a Blood Goat."
Buffy spun round, fixing Dawn with an angry look. "Xander?" she asked dangerously. "You talked to Xander?"
Dawn shrugged again. "Not so much talked, as got rescued by…"
Buffy disappeared into the small side room where the weapons were stored. "I'm going to find him. What the hell does he think he's doing, endangering my sister?!"
"He didn't…"
Buffy cut her off. "Quiet, Dawn. Don't argue with me." She walked purposefully out of the shop, a large axe in her hands…
*
Dante turned at a sound behind him, and ended up face to face with Phantom.
"Don't you ever die?" Dante asked, exasperated.
Phantom appeared to chuckle, and then pushed two of his legs into the tarmac, causing it to crack and break. "Of course not, Son of Sparda… especially when there are so many prepared to serve the Dark Lord with both their Souls, and their Bodies…"
Out of the corner of his eye, Dante saw Giles drawing a bead on the huge spider monster. "Ripper! No!"
Giles fired, Dante's warning coming a second too late, and his eyes widened as the bullet simply sparked off of the carapace protecting Mundus' servant.
Phantom turned. "Ah… so you have brought another to the game, have you, Son of Sparda? I shall enjoy feasting on his soul…"
Dante calmly fired a shot at Phantom, to draw its attention again. "Not in this life, you wont. Or in the afterlife, either. Face it, Phantom… you're old news."
Phantom seemed vaguely amused. "Indeed?" the spider hunkered down to the ground. "Perhaps you should check on your comrade, Son of Sparda?"
*