Auther: Magnus.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but this story. X-men and the concept of
mutants are Marval's. Btvs belongs to Jason. I own nothing. Poor me.

The next few days were tense. Giles and Willow were all over the
fact that the powers Xander had, hadn't left him. Nor had the
memories of the owner of the armor's life.

It took a lot of research to figure out what Ethan had done.
Changing the teen's very genetic code was something Giles would
never have believed the chaos mage powerful enough to do.

Which prompted Xander to explain the x-gene and how it had branched
off from normal humans.

And it was in depth too. Almost like it was a professor in the field
explaining it, and not a 17 year-old teen. It wasn't that Ethan was
powerful; it was that he was cleaver.

Only one gene was what separated humans from mutants. So, if he got
someone to wear the costume, that person's gene would have to
change, the magic made it so.

But genes don't change back; his body didn't see anything wrong with
its existence. And it couldn't be taken away since neither Giles nor
Jenny Calendar knew of a way to do so.

Even if Xander wore the costume of a normal human, and the spell was
cast again he'd still have those powers. Magic and science don't
mix.

And besides that things weren't the same between the scoobys. Buffy
was the only one who didn't seem bothered by all this but the others
were.

Giles took it hard when the young teen told him about the memories
he now had. He didn't tell them about Eric, that wasn't any of their
business. The watcher took the news hard, clasping the teen by the
shoulder sadly before retiring in his office.

It was just another reason for him to hate Ethan. Forcing that into
an innocent young man's mind, making him see those things. Giles
swore he'd have Ryan's head for it, and the others thought he was
being dramatic, but Xander knew that the watcher had every notice to
cut the mage's head clean off his shoulders.

Willow didn't take it too well either. She was Jewish, and her
grandmother had been in the camps. She'd seen the pain in her eyes
when she talked about it. Seen the inner torment in her
grandmother's eyes as she thought about the past.

It was the same pain in her best friend's eyes now. A faraway look,
he might have been standing right beside her, but she knew in his
mind he was miles away.

Besides the memories he still had the powers. And they were awesome.

There were few things the dark-haired teen couldn't do now. He could
fly, could throw around cars like they were nothing, and he could
kill vampires or demons with a thought.

It was because he could affect their blood. Blood has iron in it;
anyone that went to school knows that simple fact. And now Xander
could control metal, all metal.

He could very well lift a person just by touching the iron in their
blood. And if he could touch it, he could stop it in their veins.
Which killed demons in moments. Vampires weren't so different. It
wasn't hard for him to find their hearts and smash them, resulting
in the vampire turning to dust without anyone so much as touching
them.

It was a frightening sight for them all. Such rare power, that
seemed to know no limit. That and his inscrutable expression as he
killed them with nothing more then the wave of his hand.

Before when Xander had staked a vampire he'd bragged about it, or at
least showed pride in himself for doing it. But now? It was like
he'd been carved out of stone. His face showed nothing of his inner
thoughts or emotions.

Something that put Giles and Angel on edge. Neither liked not being
able to tell what he felt. Before they'd never given it much
thought, but now the teen was a walking powerhouse.

Which led to some problems.