Big-Bad-Kyubi- Some of that is intentional

Xander held the phone away from his ear, though Willows voice could still be heard plainly, the tone annoyed and confused.

"What do you mean that you have Nicole!"

He held the phone back up to his ear, "Well, I think that I found where Silver Sonic came from, and well I ended up with a few things that came out of it as well, got another cool toy as well, still trying to figure out enough about Nicole to use her effectively," he responded, "Just come over here, should be easier to show you."

"Sure," the redhead responded, "I'll be right over."

"See you then," Xander replied before the line went dead, "He was wondering where his parents were though, normally they were out drinking, but even then, it wouldn't be this late."

He leaned back in the recliner, eyes staring at the sword and the computer lying on the table. His mind kept on flashing to the ruins of the army base, people, people that he never even met, had died because of him, because of Sonic. Silver Sonic had killed them all, destroyed everything there to get his attention. Hundreds of peoples blood now stained his hands, it was his fault that it happened and the consequences were also something that he had to own up to.

Suddenly he felt very tired, worn down, and a thought crossed his mind, who had sent the thing after him? Surely Robotnik didn't exist here, and if that was the disabled Silver Sonic, and it had come through the same distortion that Nicole and the sword had come through, someone had to activate it and set him as the target.

He absently rubbed the bruise on his forehead as he thought.

Whoever caused it would pay, he would see to that.

His eyes fell on Nicole, causing him to pick the computer up, sliding her from the belt case and activating her.

"Nicole, analyze sensor data from the thirty minutes before I activated you earlier," he said, the pain audible as he spoke.

"Analyzing," the computer responded, "Analysis complete, dimensional transition due to the influence of an unknown Class Zero being."

"Nicole, explain the classification system?"

"All beings are classified according to their power level, normally from one to ten, a class zero being is one who does not fit the scale, current class zero beings are Hyper Sonic, Turbo Tails, and Super Knuckles."

"So this is an oh crap situation?" Xander asked, "Or something more along the lines of bang we're all dead one?"

"Insufficient data to process query, please enter more information."

Xander's mind flashed back to what he had heard in the library, Janus. His mind remembered the information from elsewhere, a movie he had seen. Then it clicked, a reference fro a Bond movie, and then his heart sunk, Janus was a two faced Roman god.

"Nicole, process listed Class Zero's as Class X, only up to their highest listed power level, and compare the entity to the new listing."

"Entity is listed as Class Zero."

"This is not good, give my current odds against the Class Zero at my highest current level."

"Victory odds negligible, chance of survival, one in one hundred."

"That is so not what I wanted to hear."

The doorbell rang and Xander rushed to answer, expecting it to be Willow, but he was wrong.

Two police officers stood there in uniform.

"Mister Harris?" the first asked, a young woman, he guessed in her mid twenties, asked.

"If you're looking for my dad?" Xander asked slowly, "He's not here."

"Sorry, she meant," the other said, a middle aged man, as he glanced down at his clip board, "Alexander Harris."

"Ah," Xander responded, "That's me, what's up?"

"I'm sorry to be the one to have to break this news, but your parents died earlier today," the female cop said slowly, "The news chopper covering the incident earlier today hit the bar they were at, according to what we uncovered, the other one had cut them off for the limit."

"No," Xander whispered, "They can't be..."

"I'm sorry son, would you like us to wait with you until someone can pick you up?" the older cop said softly, his hand now on Xander's shoulder.

"No, but thank you," Xander responded, "A friend is coming over, I'll be alright until then at least."

The cop nodded and stepped back, "You'll need to come down to the station tomorrow to sign some papers and see identify the bodies, your old enough to be on your own, especially judging by those two, so don't worry about that part."

"Thanks," Xander managed to say as the police officers walked off.

His head was spinning now, he'd lost far more than he had thought possible. He finally managed to sit down on the couch when he heard the doorbell ring again.

Slowly, he made his way over to the door as the bell was rung again.

Answering it, he saw Willow and gave her a weak smile.

"What's wrong," she asked, she hadn't been his closest friend for her entire life to not recognize his mood.

"They're dead," he whispered slowly, "Mom and dad, the police just told me that they were at Willy's when the chopper hit it."

"Xander..." the redhead started as the black haired boy sank into his chair.

"Yeah, I know they weren't the best of parents, but it still hurts," Xander responded, "And it's my fault!"

"How the hell do you think it's your fault?"

"Silver Sonic shot the chopper down during his rampage, it was trying to draw me out!" he yelled, "If I found out about it earlier, I could have stopped him from killing people, he killed all of those soldiers just to get to me!"

"How can it be your fault?" Willow asked, "That machine was sent after you because of who you are, but think about it, you help people, everyone that you can help in situations that a normal person would go running and screaming in the other direction from, someone doesn't like that, it's what we learned from those comics you used to read all the time."

"Yeah, but those were comics, this is real, and I failed those people, tell me, is it worth it, is it really worth it to do this when it seems to draw in even worse things when the price of failure is so high?"

"Is it really so bad to have the rewards of remaining alive another day as compared to either losing your life or the world ending?"

"When you put it that way, it isn't so bad, but I still feel the pain."

"The pain is what reminds us that we're human, it helps us feel that we're still alive."

"When did you get so smart Wills?" Xander asked with a grin briefly across his face.

"I've always been smart, you just thought it only applied to school," she shot back, prompting another grin, "But it's not bad to feel sad for what you couldn't prevent, just don't let it consume you."

Thanks Wills," Xander said softly, "I don't know where I'd be without you."