Title: Episode X-IV: A New Force
Author: DhampyrX2
Genre: Halloween remix, the sequel to Halloween, Episode X(ander)
Series: Xander: Twilight Lord of the Sith
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe
Summary: Here's the beginning of my 'Xander: Twilight Lord of the Sith' sequels.
Timeframe: Surprise/Innocence
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.
Xander, as he had many times before over the last weeks, checked the circuit connections on the project he was working on. He had to admit that despite the intrinsic need he had for the updated technology he was developing, there was also a certain amount of solace to be found in it. He often wondered just how much of that came from his link with his Master, and how much was related to the fact he liked working with his hands. In the end, he supposed it really didn't matter.
With a small sigh and a proud grin, Xander completed the last circuit, then went over all of them with his newly constructed hydrospanner, to test the connections. He was pleased to see it all seemed flawless, even as he wondered how he had lived without a spanner before.
Oh well. I guess there's nothing left to do but test it., he thought to himself, glad for the distraction from recent events. The Force user, closed the case, hit a switch, and suddenly, his creation came to 'life'. The device was a small metal sphere, grey in color, with several copper emitter barrels distributed across its surface. Xander tracked its sensors by moving his hand back and forth, making sure the shaky repulsor system he had designed would hold.
Finally, he stood and went for the last test, as he activated a green training saber he had with him. The second the sphere sensed the lightsaber blade, it began to dart back and forth erratically, before it finally started shooting low level, and quite painful, stun bolts at him. He blocked a series of ten of them almost unconsciously, before he realized with elation that his new remote trainer was a complete success.
Unfortunately, that elation distracted him as the remote flew behind him and zapped him right in his posterior, making him jump in the air, and emit an embarrassingly girly shriek at the sensation.
"Damned sithspit piece of bantha poodoo." he spat at the device in annoyance, even as he reached out with the force and deactivated it, before levitating it back to the table. "Man I'm glad nobody was here to see that." he said to himself, as he rubbed his rear with his right hand, as he held his now deactivated saber in the left.
As the future Twilight Lord began to clean up his workroom/lab/place he lived now when not with the Scoobies, his mind drifted to recent events, in spite of his wish to avoid them. Angel had tried to attack them all over Halloween, which was really more of an annoyance than a threat, now that Xander had equipped Willow, Oz, and Cordy with blasters. So far, the vampire knew better than to go near Joyce, and even if he forgot how stupid that would be, Giles had almost deciphered the spell to rescind vampiric invitation.
On top of the irritation that was Angelus' little gifts like dead roses brought about, there also the confrontation that had occurred outside of Buffy's as he watched it, blaster in hand, and lightsaber tucked under his coat...
/Flashback/
"Well, well, well. Look what I have here. This is just perfect. I was looking to do something for Buffy...well /to/ Buffy actually, for the holiday. But I think finding you dead and gutted in her room will just be a perfect gift." the vampire sneered from the shadows behind Xander, trying to terrify him.
The vampire was shocked when the boy in question just turned slowly to face him and rolled his eyes. "If you want to be sneaky, Deadboy, you should really cut back on the hair gel. I could smell you8 for the last five minutes." Xander said, his voice laced with annoyed contempt.
"Oh, Buffy's little soldier is going to act tuff instead of showing how scared he is. How nice." Angel sneered sarcastically.
"Do I look or smell scared, leach?" Xander asked evenly, as he raised his blaster, making Angel take a step back.
"I guess you're real brave hiding behind that toy, Xander." Angel responded angrily.
Xander's reply was cut short by a second voice off to the side. "Oh, but Kitten is still hiding ever so much, Daddy." Drusilla said, as she watched the proceedings with wide eyes wonder.
"What?" both males said in tandem, before glaring at each other comically.
Dru giggled as she elaborated. "Mummy's Kitten is hidin' behind so many masks. He hides 'is light an' 'is darkness in a harlequin's mask so that the Slayer an' he friends don't see the power within." she said, looking off into the distance.
"I really did drive you crazy." Angelus replied in a disgusted whisper, upset at her gibberish about Xander being powerful.
"Oh, but Daddy, can't you see the pretty twilight in him? The stars live in his very veins, they do. They whisper to him even more then they can to me, only 'e knows 'ow to whisper back and make them dance with him." Dru said as she twirled in place.
Xander, knowing he had to distract Angel before he actually made any sense from what Drusilla said, cut in then and said, "That's nice and all, Dru. But I'm kind of busy shooting Captain Forehead to death with my blaster. So please excuse me."
Angel knew that discretion was the better part of valor, and turned and ran before Xander even finished speaking, although he did get a grazing blast in the left leg that made him tumble over as he ran. The vampire never stopped at the searing pain, though, and kept on running, even as a second red blast burned into his right shoulder as he crawled into the nearest sewer tunnel. He never considered the fact Xander had shot him from well over seventy meters away, and with unerring accuracy.
The most shocking thing for Xander with the encounter was not Angel's flight to safety. It was Drusilla's laughter and clapping at the sight of the blaster bolts as they tore into her sire's flesh.
"Oh that's was marvelous, Kitten. Even better than that the Judges hurtful little play. Daddy will be ever so cross, now." she said, although her voice seemed oddly happy at the thought of Angelus' anger.
Xander turned the blaster on her then as he said, "End of the line Drusilla."
Dru didn't seemed bothered in the least at her impending demise as she said, "You know better'n that, my Twilight Knight." she said, her voice taking on an almost hypnotic quality.
Xander realized with some shock, that she was utilizing what felt like a variation of the Jedi mind trick on him. Of course his own Force sensitivity, coupled with his training, shook off that effect with relative ease. "That won't work on me." he said evenly, even as he marveled at her execution of it. How could a dead corpse touch the Force like that?
"It already has, Kitten. Now you know just how I hear the stars like you do." she replied in a tone reminiscent of a proud child. "You'll try to ignore it, but you know what the stars say is true. That's why we'll have so much fun together, Kitten. I look so forward to seein' your glowy claws of light an' unseen hands workin' their magic." she added with a seductive grin, before turning and wandering off into the night.
/End Flashback/
Xander swore as he went over the encounter in his head for the umpteenth time since it happened. Why had he let her go again? The shock of her tapping the Force, even as erratically as she did, couldn't have been all of it. Could it? Yet, the thought of shooting her in the back the way he did Angel never crossed his mind. What the hell was happening to him?
He shook his head in irritation as he tried to banish the ponderings for a time. He had enough stress with the way he had pushed Willow and Oz together backfiring as Oz got turned into a werewolf. Their relationship, one he had fought hard behind the scenes to bring about, was solid now, but it also put Willow in added danger. Xander cursed the circumstances, he dared not call it his luck, for he knew there was no such thing, as he left CRD. Willow and Oz's relationship was in for a rocky road of danger he wanted her safe from, something the pure Force signature and calm demeanor of the new lycanthrope would have hopefully insulated her from...
The young man growled in frustration as even his own thoughts were getting clouded with doubts and recriminations. He needed to get home and meditate.
Two nights later, Jenny Calendar smiled as she began to run the programs to hopefully translate the texts to restore Angel's soul curse. Things were going remarkably well for the young Romani teacher. She was patching things up with Rupert, Buffy's ire at her seemed to be cooling, and Xander was showing her some basic Star Wars level programming languages on the side. The things she'd be able to do with them once she mastered them made her a bit giddy with anticipation.
Heck, the universal translator program Xander had helped her with was translating the texts with far more accuracy than she could have hoped for, and she was meeting with software developer next week to begin to try to market a version to sell to the government. If the deal went through, then the royalties alone would leave her comfortably wealthy for the rest of her life, and would allow Xander to have investment capital to develop more of his inventions.
Her musings were cut short by a voice from deeper in the classroom...
(OOC: It's late, and the flashback took longer than I though, so I take a shortcut as I suggest you just insert the typical scene from 'Passion' up to the point Miss Calendar takes off out of the room.)
Xander was halfway to his lab after a short patrol for vampires while Buffy and Willow Angel-proofed their houses when he felt it...a tremor in the Force. Something was happening that required his attention. He immediately changed direction and took off at a run, using the Force to increase his speed without even thinking about it.
Meanwhile, in the factory, Drusilla looked up from where she was reading her tarot cards. "Oh dear, I warned Daddy about makin' Kitten too cross." she murmured to herself.
"What's that, love?" Spike asked from where he read the paper in his wheelchair.
"Daddy and Kitten are going to clash again, Spike. And this time, Kitten's goin' to use 'is hurtful claws. I fear Daddy won't be comin' 'ome this time." she replied in a mildly worried tone.
"You mean the Poof's going to get offed?" Spike asked in mildly pleased interest.
"He might not be comin' home at all." she reiterated, as she drew another card.
Jenny ran for her life through the halls of the school, cursing herself for not carrying one of Xander's blasters with her as she worked. Now she had lost her computer, her translation of the curse, and if Angel caught her...
Her contemplations were cut short as she ran into a body that felt like a brick wall as she literally bounced off it. The Romani woman let out a scream, as she was certain she had been caught and was about to die. She looked up into the face of her undead executioner, and let out a cry of, "Xander?"
"You alright, Ms. Calendar?" the teen asked as he reached down to help her up.
"We have to get out of here! Angel found out about the spell and destroyed my computer. Now he's..." she said frantically, only to be interrupted.
"Already, here. I have to admit, this is more than I expected to find. I get two kills for the price of one." the vampire interjected with a maniac grin as he walked calmly toward the pair.
Xander stared coldly at the vampire, as Jenny shrieked and tried to pull him away. "Shouldn't you be running off like a man-bitch right now, vampire?" he asked in a dead tone as he raised his blaster.
Angel scowled at the boy as he responded, "I'm not going to run this time, kid. Your toy might hurt like hell, but I can still get close enough to break your damned neck and rip you to shreds. You're dead this time.", before he began to run at Xander in an erratic pattern to avoid as much fire as possible.
Xander shook off Jenny's hold as Angel came at him. In the split seconds he had before the vampire reached him, his mind went over all that he and his friends had faced because of him. Angelus had murdered several people since his release, reduced Buffy to an emotional wreck, and threatened all of the repeatedly. Now, he was threatening Willow, killing her fish, drawing pictures of Joyce, and came within an eyelash of killing Ms. Calendar.
His anger and rage at the thoughts of the vampire's actions, and the possible outcomes they could have brought under different circumstances, seemed to break a seal within the boy. His eyes boiled over in rage, before going emotionlessly cold, as he dropped his blaster to the floor.
He ignored Jenny's screams to explain what he was doing as he held out his right hand, and drew his lightsaber into it with the Force, as he pushed Angel off into the lockers at the end of the student lounge area with his left.
Xander activated the saber then, lighting the darkened high school lounge and nearby halls with an eerie red glow. "I've had it with you Angelus. You've been an irritating pest since Buffy screwed your soul out of you. You've threatened and annoyed us like a damned mosquito that refuses to leave after repeated swats. Now, you're threatening a woman that was like a mother to me, a girl who is like a sister, and you damned near killed a friend that also happens to be the girlfriend of the closest thing I have to a father. I think it's time I showed you what my Master does to idiots who threaten his family." he spat in a coldly furious tone.
"What the hell?" Angel asked as he rose from where he had been flung.
"You think you're the Big Bad, Angelus? That you're the thing that goes bump in the night? I'll show you darkness. You try to scare us into submission. You use fear as a weapon. Well fear is of the Darkside. You use fear like a club, with all the finesse of a rampaging rancor. You're a useless fool without any understanding of what power really is." Xander said as he walked toward the now retreating vampire.
Angel tripped as random objects like chairs and trashcans either slammed into him, or slid behind his legs seemingly under their own power. "This isn't possible." he repeated like a mantra, as the suddenly far too frightening Xander Harris advanced on him.
"I'll show you the /power/ of the /Darkside/." Xander spat angrily. He smirked as the vampire picked up a trash can and hurled it at him, as he sliced it in half with his lightsaber. All angelus had accomplished with the move was to scare himself further.
"What's the matter, Deadboy? Feeling...inadequate?" he asked evilly.
The vampire took off at a dead run then, trying to outrun what he was certain was his death. As he ran, Xander smirked and waved his free hand. Suddenly, the soda machine ripped itself from its resting place, and slammed into the Scourge of Europe into a wall with deadly force, pinning him there and trapping it beneath it, even as he fell unconscious from pain.
Xander smiled at his handiwork as he deactivated the lightsaber, and fastened it to his belt. He looked back at Jenny, who was staring on in open mouthed shock, and smiled at her. "Well, I think he's going nowhere for a while. What do you say we look through what's left of your class and see if anything is salvageable?"
"Xander?" she asked in shock, as she backed off a bit in fear. "What was that?"
Xander shrugged and smiled boyishly as he replied, "The Force is strong with this one." as he pointed ho himself.
"Uhhh...okay." Jenny replied, still worried.
Xander sighed then as he said, "Look, I'll explain it more completely later, but we should really check your room first, to see if your translation program can be retrieved. Then we can work this out and I can beg you not to tell the others."
Jenny nodded then, figuring that after her own deceptions that Xander at least deserved the benefit of the doubt until he explains. As she calmed down for a second, she looked up in shock and exclaimed "Rupert!"
"Uh Miss Calendar, that might not be the best idea. I don't think he's really ready to accept something like..." he began to respond.
"No! I was supposed to meet him at his place after I finished up here. I've got to call him." Jenny explained.
"Oh. Go G-man. Well, then, how about we check your room, then I'll go put Deadboy on ice somewhere safe until we can work the spell, and you can go meet Giles." Xander's suggested.
Jenny actually blushed a bit at Xander's reply as she asked, "And your explanation?"
"I'll fill you in with what I can while we check your room, and then I'll give you the rest in full tomorrow at school. Full story, scout's honor." he answered with a goofy grin.
Jenny, who was still quite flustered and not thinking totally clearly, just nodded and replied, "Okay. I guess that works."
As they made their way to her class, Xander began with, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..."
End Part 5