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.
