Chapter 5

AN: Combining a few eps here, so there's going to be a little bit of explanations towards the end.

(Library)

"It's… a hand?"

"It's actually a forearm, wrist AND a hand, Buffy."

"Semantics."

Xander looked at her idly, "You WOULD say that, as I'm the one keeping it from your throat."

She patted him on his extended arm, making sure to keep away from the blue, grasping hand, "And I thank you for that." Once she was about ten feet from the arm, which was TRACKING her, she looked at Giles, "Um, answers?"

Giles was busy gaping and muttering, "'ohgoodLord'-'s," so the answer came from Willow, "Um, Buffy, this is bad."

… okay, not much of an answer, really, "How bad, Wills?"

Willow fretted for a second as she looked at a book before she got out, "Um… very?"

Giles managed to get back into the now for a moment as he growled out, "Yes, Willow, I do believe 'VERY' covers this situation nicely. Xander, put that thing back in its box."

Xander manhandled the … hand… back to the box and slammed the lid down on top of his own arm, cutting it off as he sprouted two new hands to chain it up. A few seconds later, silver liquid seeped out of the box and slid towards Xander, who absorbed it, "How bad is 'very bad', Giles?"

Before Giles could say anything, Buffy quipped, "That was quite 'handy' of you, Xander."

Xander shot her a dark look and sprouted four hands from his torso, all of which were sporting the same one-finger, not-nice gesture at her, "Well, Giles?"

"That is the arm of a demon known as 'The Judge', Xander, a demon that is capable of destroying all human life on Earth. Is THAT 'very bad' enough for you?"

Xander blinked twice before he frowned, "Methods of destruction?"

Giles shook his head, "The last time this happened, the Judge was stopped by dismantling him and taking his body parts to the four corners of the world to be buried. I'm not sure if he CAN be destroyed, Xander."

Xander sighed, a useless gesture as he didn't need to breath, and thanked whoever was listening to him that both Aura and Jenny were not present, as one was off to a funeral of her great-grandmother and the other was in the hospital, sick with the flu (which she had picked up from someone in school). "I'll keep an eye on it until you come up with a better solution, Giles."

Buffy shook her head, "No, Angel can-"

Xander cut her off, "No, he cannot. Even vampires have to sleep, Buffy – I'm a machine. I don't." He then smirked in what a human might call a slightly bitter fashion, though it was a programmed reaction to circumstances, "For once that actually works for us."

"I agree with Xander, Buffy," Giles said after a few seconds of thought. "Add to that, Angel's actions as of late have been… suspicious. Do you know where he is right now?"

In response to this, the lights kicked off.

Xander looked around, his vision switching through every spectrum he could access in two seconds, and then stopped at the door, "Come on out, Angel."

The door opened and Angel strode through the doors, a smirk on his face, "How'd you know it was me?"

"I could analyze the scent from the excessive hair gel from here." Something was off. Angel, even though Xander still thought of him as a cowardly prick, wasn't prone to wearing the smarmy look he was wearing at this point.

Angel snapped his fingers, "Foiled again, I see." He sat on the edge of the table and looked at the jumping box, "Sorry I'm late, I had… other things to see to."

Giles coughed, "Yes, well, as you are here, perhaps you can account for your recent actions?"

Angel smirked a little, "Could I? Yes. Will I? No, as I don't think that's any of your business."

Xander slowly formed his hand into an axe, not liking how this was going, "And why not?"

Angel gave him a smirk, "Don't trust me?"

"Not really."

Angel laughed, "You see? That's what I like about you, Harris. You don't trust anything I say." The vampire got off of the table and smirked, "Then again, you're a machine, so you don't do things like 'trust', as that's a FEELING."

Xander lashed out with his arm and pinned the vampire to the desk, "Alright, who are you and what have you done with Angel?" He ignored Buffy's shriek and Willow's gasp, but he went on, "Angel is a lot of things, but he's not a smarmy ass like this – who are you?"

"He is Angelus." He looked over and saw Jenny enter the darkened library, her face drawn, worn and pale, and her vital signs all over the place, "He is the monster that is Angel without his soul."

This made Buffy quiet up as Willow and Giles helped Jenny into the room, but it did nothing to quiet Angelus, "Ah, yes, the clan Kalderash bitch. If your family had not warded your room, I would have enjoyed turning you." He grunted as Xander rotated the blade in his gut, "Damn you, boy."

Buffy finally found her voice, "How did he lose his soul?"

Jenny groaned as she sat down, "Magic. His restored soul was taken by magic, Buffy. The only person or thing we could find with that kind of ability is his childe, Drusilla. Only she or someone she could hire could have possibly broken our curse."

Buffy snarled at this, "Damn it! Why won't she leave us alone."

"Because she wants her 'Daddy' back, blondie," Angelus said with an edged grin. "Now, if you'll get this pathetic over-charged calculator to let me go, I'll see myself out."

In response to this, Xander shoved his other arm through Angel in the form of a battering ram and in his shoulder, "I think not, vampire."

Even as Angelus howled in agony, Buffy stalked over and smacked Xander, "Stop that! You could hurt him!"

"He wanted to turn Jenny in her hospital room, Buffy," Xander explained with a programmed note of exasperation in his voice. "He gets no sympathy from me, and shouldn't get any from you."

Buffy shook her head, trying to keep the upper hand on this, "But she could restore his soul!"

Jenny shook her head, "No, I cannot, Buffy. I do not have that power, and the spell has been lost over the past century. I'm sorry, Buffy."

Buffy opened her mouth to say something, but Angelus' pained scream stopped her. She turned in time to see Xander lifting Angelus off of the ground, ten feet away from him, and slowly start to spread his arms apart. She WANTED to stop him… but something deep within her stopped her as the sounds of crackles and snaps started to fill the room.

Willow, Giles and Jenny watched with a morbid fascination as Angelus was literally ripped apart by the T-1000 that was wearing Xander's face. Never before had they collectively felt so afraid as they did after one look at the dispassionate face upon the Terminator.

Xander, for his part, looked at Angelus one last time before he removed the arm that had pinned the vampire through the gut and, after morphing it into a blade, arced it up and severed the head of the Master Vampire as if it were connected to his body via wet tissue paper. He watched the body turn to dust and rain down upon the desk, table, chairs and floor of the library without even batting an eyelash, "Subject: Angelus… Terminated."

He turned and looked at the others, about to say something, but lurched as an error message flashed in front of his eyes – something was wrong, VERY wrong.

"Xander? What's happening?" He looked up at Willow even as his vision began to fade in and out, "Are you okay?"

Xander tried to speak… but nothing came out as his body began to lose cohesion.

The others watched with the same morbid fascination they had displayed with the destruction of Angelus as Xander, the T-1000 that wore the face of Alexander Harris, turned into a puddle of liquid metal and spread across the floor, as if it were an ice cube melting on a hot summer day.

Buffy, Willow and Jenny all screamed at once.

(Elsewhere)

Xander's eyes snapped open and he shot to his feet, jerking his head around – where was he?

"You are in our realm now, lower being." He looked over and saw an old-fashioned bench that the English had and still used for the judges to sit at, only instead of craggy old men in sissy robes and white wigs, there were six robed figures, their faces covered, and none of them appeared to be happy.

"This trial of Alexander Harris is here-by called to order."

Xander arched an eyebrow, "Trial? What am I being charged with?"

One of the robed figures raised a hand, "SILENCE!" Xander felt his lips seal shut, "You are charged with the disruption and destruction of our plans, lower being. This… trial, as you call it, is a mere formality."

Xander concentrated and his lips unsealed, "I see – guilty until proven innocent. Who are you?"

Several of the figures sat back at this but nodded after a moment, "We… are The Powers That Be. We have been placed in charge of this realm and, in the instance that you have destroyed our plans for the being known as 'Angelus', you will be tried."

"Then maybe you need your heads checked. Why don't you try the one who removed his soul in the first place – if it had not been removed, I would not have Terminated him."

One of the figures nodded at this, "He speaks the truth. It will not save you, but you speak the truth."

Another of the figures spoke, the same voice being used as were for all of them, "The ones responsible will be punished accordingly. It is your fate that you should worry about."

Xander snorted, "If you think I'm going to let a bunch of robed sissies who can't get off their ass and do the job themselves to dictate my fate, then I think YOU need to be on trial – for criminal stupidity." His chest suddenly burned and he rent the air with a scream as white-hot pain shot through his entire being.

After a few minutes, the pain stopped and he looked up at the robed beings, "Bastards." He got to his feet and squared his shoulders, "If this is a trial, where is my defense council? Or are all of your 'trials' in a kangaroo court?"

The figures looked at each other for a moment before they all nodded, "Very well, whom do you choose as your defense lawyer?"

Xander grinned a little, "I choose the soul that was cursed to the vampire known as 'Angelus'. If anyone can give us answers or possibly defend me, he can." He didn't like the son of a bitch, but at least he could give answers.

In a flash, Angel was standing next to him, "Xander? What's going on?"

Xander motioned to the bench, "They want to hang me because I destroyed their plans and your vampire self – I figure you could give them and me a few answers before they still find me guilty."

Angel shook his head, "Who are they?"

Xander snorted, "The Powers That Be, the ones who have been jerking yours and Buffy's chains for a while." Xander grunted as another shot of pain filled him, but he merely flipped the panel The Finger, "Now, make with the answers."

"No. We ask the questions, YOU answer the questions." Xander glared up at the bench again and wondered, briefly, why they were considered the 'good guys' if they were so willing to be worse than the bad ones. His glare was apparently ignored as one of the figures spoke, "Tell us, lower being, who was it who removed your soul?"

Angel arched an eyebrow, "The first time it was Darla, when she turned me. The second time it was Dru, through a mage that she hired."

Another robed figure spoke, "What is your opinion of this lower being, once known as Alexander Harris?"

"He's an annoying child who should know when his betters have won." Xander made kissing faces at Angel, as if to say 'I love you too, asshole', but Angel went on, "But there is nobody I know who I would rather have at my side or at my back. He forced me into the Master's Lair to save Buffy, he has repeated defied the odds and survived, and when needed, he did what was needed." Angel looked at Xander, "I thank you for that. I'm not sure what that monster would have done if you had not destroyed him."

Xander shrugged, "I've read your file, Angel – I KNOW what you would have done. Still, I did nothing that was not within my core programming."

One of the figures looked at him, "What do you mean?"

"My name means 'protector of man', and that's what I do, only I protect my girls. I made a promise a long time ago to kill or at least stop any and all threats that could have harmed my friends, and when I became the T-1000 Terminator, that order transferred over." Xander took a breath and looked at the bench, "Of course, that doesn't mean anything to any of you up there, as I'm sure that the terms 'loyalty', 'friendship' or 'duty' have ever been something you've concerned yourselves with."

THIS got a response in the form of Xander being flung across the 'room' several thousand feet and crashing to the floor in a heap, "HOW DARE YOU SAY WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND 'DUTY'!"

Angel stepped up to bat, "If you did, then you never would have allowed my soul to be so easily removed. So far, I see no reason to say that Alexander Harris is guilty of anything save being human."

The entire board growled at him and, for the first time in several months, Angel felt fear course through him, "You tread a thin line, lower being – do so carefully."

The fear disappeared, "What makes you say that? I'm dead, remember? What more could you do to me?"

"Had the lower being not destroyed you, your body and soul were to be reunited after a time, after a certain sequence of events had taken place, and you would have been well-seasoned to be the Champion we require you to be."

"Events? What… events?" Even as Angel asked, he was sure he wasn't going to like the answer even as he heard Xander crawl towards them.

Images flew in front of them of the way things were supposed to have gone, including the deaths of Jenny Calendar, Kendra Hawthorne, the torture of Rupert Giles and the beginnings of Willow Rosenberg's magical downfall. Horrifying sights filled their eyes of the atrocities that Angelus was to have committed and, by the end, Xander was on his feet, snarling, and being physically restrained by Angel to keep from attacking the bench of 'judges'.

"Let me go! Let me go you mother fucker! I want their blood! I want to taste their spleens!"

"No, Xander, death is too good for them!" Angel barely restrained Xander long enough to look at the panel of 'judges', "Make your decisions, and make them wisely – I hope your plans fail. I hope you condemn the world to hell."

The figures jerked back at this, "Why… is that?"

"You sacrifice two innocent lives and the life of a Slayer just so that Angelus, so that I could be 'well-seasoned' to be your Champion?" Angel laughed bitterly as he let Xander go, who shot forwards and actually made it to within ten feet of the bench before being frozen, "If that is the way you win your fights, I want nothing to do with you, any of you. You're no worse than the evils you send us to fight."

AN: Alright, that's it for this part – next time… the reckoning.