Xander's Glory 2


Summary: Answer to Djhardim's idea that Xander dress up as a certain medical student, and all that meant
Crossover: None right now…
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I see nothing!
Feedback: It would be welcome! Please!

Two long weeks later, Xander, Glory and Annie had managed to slowly but surely catch up with the demons in spite of starting out with bare feet. After they'd entered the trees, the Hyena had led the way, but as Xander had all of their memories and excellent senses, he'd quickly resolved their taking of prey whose skins could be used as moccasins.

They made fires in the occasional cave or whenever they were sure the demons they pursued wouldn't notice the smoke at night. Food proved adequate if feisty to kill, but they'd managed well enough, going from a day behind to maybe an hour at present.

Xander had outfitted himself and Glory with spears and had whittled, sharpened and fired wooden knives, showing the demigoddess basic moves in addition to how to take care of herself. They'd come across some small springs, and even a few creeks as they caught up, and as far as they could tell they still had Angel in their possession.

Xander and Annie both figured about fifteen enemy, Glory listening in and intensely reaching deep for her own residuals from the time together as well as from when she'd been climbing to power millennia upon millennia ago.

The humans toughened, and the Hyena reveled in being out on a new hunt with a new pack, weird as it was to consider it closer to Xander's consideration of what a family should be then the Hyena version. It didn't matter, they'd been One and now were Three, succeeding however slowly in their progress.

Two days later they passed another cave, into which they'd ducked when finding themselves only twenty feet from four carts and thirty demons, the rolled up vampire in sight. Leaving Annie to keep an eye out, Glory and Xander moved into the cave, to find after a few minutes that small torches were providing minimal light, and the writings on the wall seemed to be a combination of English words and mathematical signs in chalk.

"This is strange to me, Alexander," Glory said as she moved her side against his and whispered. He was only too aware of her and nodded agreement.

A moment later, quietly moving deeper into the chamber they spotted a thin female human female asleep in front of more chalk lines.

#Should we wake her?# Glory asked, nodding at the diminutive form.

#Not yet, let's wait for Annie to find something out,# Xander replied, #Take a glance around and see if anything of interest about this plane exists.#

Ten minutes pass, Anne trotting in and noting the presence of the unknown human.

#Eight of the demons and the vampire are camping about two hundred Xander-paces from the cave mouth. What have you found here?#

#A human, we thought we'd look around and wait for you, so now we'll wake her up and see if she speaks a language known to us.#

The girl woke up startled, and incoherent, especially when she realized that there wasn't any way past the two humans or their canine friend. Her babbling was impressive even by Willow standards, but Xander was able to keep up with it, especially as she went line of thought regarding the presence of hyenas in this dimension.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Xander told her as it became apparent she spoke a very fast English and wasn't a threat to them, "Slow down and very, very slowly explain where we are, who you are, and who the green guys are…"

"I'm Fred, Winifred, but everyone calls me Fred," she began, only to have Xander make calming gestures t prevent fast-babble, "I've been in this place, Pylea, for about two years I think, those were Pyleans, they think humans are cattle, so I've been hiding here since just after I got here and ran away."

"Okay Fred, I'm Alexander, this is Glory, and this is Annie, and we mean you no harm. We're chasing after some Pyleans that have a …an associate of ours…and seem to be taking him somewhere, now is there a place where they'd take him if they considered him important enough to carry him for two weeks?"

"A-across the valley there's a fortress and village where the priests would decide."

"What type of priests?" Glory asked, eyes narrowing slightly in concentration as she tried to remember more about Pylea than that it was the back area of the back areas of the demon dimensions, and nearly human-friendly, but without any real value.

"They seem to worship deer, sheep and either a dog or wolf, I think," she replied as Annie sniffed in disdain at the appreciation of a lesser canine.

"Could that have been the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart?" Glory asked with childish glee at a possible way out.

"Yeah, I suppose, since I really didn't stay around long enough to learn about their religion."

"Glow?" Xander asked, sensing a history he wasn't really catching yet.

"My lawyers in LA, their Senior Partners are big demon lords in this section of the multiverse, they tend to infiltrate established forms and assume preeminence, and are mostly non-corporeal except in their core realms. If we can find high enough priests, they might be able to portal us either back to your world, or at least one from which we might find away.

"Hey, Glow, it can be your world too if you want…" Xander encouraged her, "You aren't exactly expected back any time soon."

"I know that, but it still feels too different right now."

#Hey pack, back on topic.#

"So Glow, what do we need to do with these priests?"

"Get past the regular demons and force them to recognize who I am and concede what we want, Alexander, the only troublesome point will involve the vampire."

"If it comes down to it the vampire is out of the equation."

"S-so-o can I go with you when you leave?" a frightened Fred asked quietly.

"Of course, Fred," Glory assured her, then turned to the others, #Right?#

#Right.#

The next morning saw a quick packing of the very few items Fred had that were of any worth at all, but it quickly became apparent that Angel and his demonic buddies were off and gone some time in the night. Picking up the trail, it seemed that they'd headed for the fortress, so the four travelers kept an eye out and made good time by ignoring the few that got in their way, or knocking them ten feet out of the way until they got to the gate in the mid-afternoon.

"Stand down for Glorificus, Hellgoddess, on her business with the Priests of the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart!"

The guards moved forward instead, en masse, and Xander simply reenacted Hercules' dealings with television minions and began grabbing their spears and throwing them around.

"My Glory, your audience awaits you, see how they prostrate themselves in respect," Xander smirked, having been coached by Glory and Annie as to the flowery of the speech.

Several priests were waiting with curiosity in their eyes as after being forced to kill a few demon guards, Xander and Annie had routed the rest.

"Milady, the Priests, Priests, Glorificus who has dealings with your Masters and expects proper respect from your minions from this moment onward."

The Priests gazed directly at Glorificus, soon nodding in confirmation, the High Priest about to speak when Xander cleared his throat, indicated the underlings, and thence the floor.

"Oh, sorry, novitiates kneel respectfully to Glorificus…Greetings Client of the Wolf, Ram and Hart. We see you are you with changes, but Client you remain. How may we be of service to you?"

Glory nodded and communicated telepathically for Xander to reveal as her Voice.

"Glorificus bades me to inform you that after a battle against Acathla, she and her reduced and insufficient retinue, which included a normally useless pet vampire named Angelus, found themselves in this Plane. The minions of this realm without proper Inquiry did make off with the pet and Glorificus has missed her return portal. As such, she expects the return of the pet, and a portal back to the branch office with which she normally deals. So endith the words of Glorificus."

"Hmm, we will with our own reduced resources unworthy of such a Client as Yourself seek to as closely achieve your desired results, however, we just sent the vampire Angelus to its intended Destination as foreseen by minor prophecy in the aforementioned site. However, Great one, in order to fill our requirements, we have expended most of our portalists, and only a few remain capable of any portaling except to Quor'toth or a near-Earth dimension. If you're willing to wait two months, we can get you to a parallel office and they'll take it from there."

"Glorificus is very unhappy, and demands you provide for her inadequate servants as they will not easily survive in Quor'Toth. And can you manage someplace near the Plain of the Bugs?" Xander's hyena-stare into the priest's eyes unbalanced the man, and he nodded and quickly had the kneeling minions scurrying.

"Anything else, O Glorificus?"

"I find this current…form…adequate for now, but it needs a bath and appropriate sets of clothes for a trip. Do you know if any of the major Demon Lords or Lesser Hellgods are near the Plain of Bugs?" Xander pauses, and in 'his own' voice continues, "If yes, or you have no information, then traveling attire, two carts, oxen, and a few humans…unfortunately speaking ones if you have them, food for twice as long as you believe the distance requires, and outfitting as guards for the lot of them. She agrees to repay twice the standard rates when she gets to her destination."

"At once, and may I borrow your Voice while your servant attends you?"

"You may."

It took close to a day of preparations, and the little entourage expanded to include a fellow named Groosalug, four carts, and sixteen 'cows' as the Pyleans called them. Xander had managed to detect and find a small would-be resistance of six couples and after hiding eight small children under the straw, recruited four more from youths found guilty of speaking in public. Xander faked a sneer and demanded them as his newest recruits in her service, as he'd work it out of them.

The portal opened, and they found themselves in Quor'Toth, Xander immediately turning to Glory, #I can't believe they went for it.#

#Why not? I am Glorificus, I am a client and they rid themselves of troublemakers under the excuse of inadequacy. How could I claim otherwise?#

#Good point…#