A/N From this point on whenever Xander put's on the mask of the Hunter he will be called Hunter X. Whenever Akin wears it he will be called just The Hunter since he's the original.
Chapter 10
The Killer in me
Three days later
Restfield Cemetery
Xander and the others(even the potentials) all stood around Johnathon's grave as it was slowly lowered into the earth. It had been three days since his death and Xander nearly went ballistic when he found out the First killed his friend. He had went to the caves that Willy the Snitch and the others told him to go to, but the First was nowhere to be seen.
With a look of cold rage on his face, Xander watches as they start covering his casket with dirt. As he looks up he see's a woman watching him. Stepping away from Kendra and the other's he walks up to her.
"Hello Mrs. Levinson." Xander says as he gives her a hug.
"Hello Alex." she said as she wiped the fresh tears from her face. "They killed my only child Alex. I...I should have moved out of town with Johnathon a long time ago. I...I knew things were bad here. I...I should have..."
"Don't blame yourself, Mrs. Levinson." Xander told her gently, as he held onto her tighter. "This isn't your fault."
"But..."
"No but's." Xander said as he gave her a sad smile. "I promise you that whoever did this to Johnathon is going to pay."
Hours Later
Sheila's house
The potentials all cramped into the living room as Tara talks animately to Blade. She's telling him that her and Willow have nearly fixed the UV light device. As Giles and Wood enter the room, Xander stands to his feet and starts the meeting.
"For those of you who don't know me already my name is Xander." Xander said as he began to pace about the room. "And three days ago we lost someone very important to our team. His name was Johnathon. He's not the only person I've lost over the years. Friends and people I thought of as family died because of the darkness. Even some of your own." he said thinking about Eve and Amanda.
"Well I'd just like to say that I'm tired. I'm tired of evil thinking it can just pick us off one by one."
"What are you proposing?" Giles asked, wanting to get to the point.
"I'm proposing that we go into the Hellmouth." Xander said as he looked at them all in turn.
"You've got to be kidding." Dawn said.
"That's suicide." Giles said as he stood to his feet. "There's no way for us to know what's down there."
"Xander, let me talk to you for a minute." Akin said as he grabbed him by the arm. "What are you doing?" he asked as they got from hearing distance of the others.
"I'm taking the fight to the First." Xander said as he shrugged his hand off. "I'm tired of just watching my friends die."
"So you want us all to die at one time?" Akin asked. "You know as well as I do that those girls aren't ready for what's down there. It'll be a massacre."
"What else is there to do?" Xander countered. "Just sit here and wait for the First to decide when we all die." Akin just looked at him and sighed.
"No. Me, Blade, and Kendra have been doing a little reconnaissance for the last two day's." Akin informed him. "We know where the First is hiding."
"What?" Xander exploded. "How could you do something like this and not tell me?"
"Because you've been acting strangely every since I rescued you from that hell dimension." Akin said with a shake of his head. "Few people can witness the things you saw and still be sane."
"Oh so you think I'm crazy now?" Xander asked. "Is that why you guys have been doing things behind my back?"
"No I don't think you're crazy." Akin told him. "Although with that half cocked plan you made to invade the hellmouth, you might be a little nutty."
"Hey this is my town, so it's my rules."
"In case you haven't noticed you're not the boss here. Kendra is. And she's the one that said she wanted you out of this fight for awhile. At least until you get some help for your problems."
"I can't believe she would do this to me." Xander said as he ducked his head low.
"She loves you Xander. We all do. She just doesn't want you to do something to hurt yourself." Akin informed him. "And I for one am not going to let my brother fall into the darkness. That's just what The First want's."
"Okay." Xander said a litle sadly.
"Good, now stay here and watch over the potentials that we leave behind." Akin said as he walked out of the room. Xander just smiled and sat down. At least he had somebody watching out for him. And truth be told he really did need somebody to talk to, because of the horrible things that he had seen.
"Are you really going to let dem kick you out of dis fight?" Kendra/First asked as she materialized behind him.
"How did Xander take being left behind?" Kendra asked Akin as he walked outside.
"He actually took it better than I thought." Akin said as he looked up at her. "We'll talk to him about that later though, let's just get to the temple and take care of the First."
"Why do the bad guy's alway's hang out at the wierdest of places?" Rona asked.
"My dear after all my years of fighting evil, I still don't understand it." Akin said as he gave her a smile. "And while it's on my mind, Blade catch." Akin said as he threw Blade a small all silver pole. The tip of it had a sharp blade on it. (The same weapon he used on the opening fight scene on Blade 3)
"What is it?" Blade asked as he gave Akin a questionable look.
"I call it a detacher. It's a retractable whip with a vampire killing alloy blade." Akin said with a shrug.
"Very nice." Blade said as he slipped it into his duster pocket.
"Why don't you just leave." Xander said as he sagged heavily in his seat. "I already know you're the First."
"Ahhh... come on man." The First said as it morphed into Xander's old friend Jesse. "Learn to have a little fun."
"Yeah, I'm having lot's of fun." Xander said sarcasticly with a roll of his eye's. 'Sitting down having a talk with the original evil was alway's fun. he thought to himself. "Now what do you want?"
"Jeez, you used to be a whole lot funner to be around when we were kids." Jesse/First told him. "I just came to warn you that, your girl and your little friends are going to die on this mission."
"Yeah, like I'm going to believe that. I mean there's a Slayer, the ultimate demon hunter, and a daywalker, what the hell can't they face together."
"I don't know, Xandman." Jonathon/First said with a shrug of it's shoulders. "Maybe a legion of vampires, hybrid reapers, and bringers at my temple. Oh and not to mention the girl who killed me."
"We're finally here." Kendra said outloud as she surveyed the old temple. It was funny that she spent almost four years in Sunnydale and never noticed a temple in the woods before.
"You sure are." Lissa said as she stepped out of the door of the vineyard building. "You're about five minute's late though." she said as she checked her watch and smiled. Just as they were about to run forward and get her, they hear a growl. Looking around they see twenty vampires, thirty bringers, and almost fifty hybrid reapers stepping out of the shadows. They are slowly being surrounded.
"Holy..."
"Shit..." Rona finishes for Vi.
"Alright, Principal Wood...you and de girls take on de Bringers, Giles and Akin you take de vampires, Blade..." Kendra looked around and saw that Blade was already running towards the Reapers. "Why do I even bother?" she asked herself as she and the others ran to engage the enemy. Lissa just looked at them all fighting and smiled.
"You're bluffing." Xander said as he reclined back in his seat. "There's no way you have an army that size." The First just gave Xander a knowing look. Obviously this boy had no idea what was in the hellmouth.
"Are you willing to risk the lives of your friends, to find out?" Jonathon/First asked as it blinked away.
Xander thought about that question and put a grim look on his face. As he stood to his feet he summoned power into his body and screamed. As he did so red and black fire engulfed him. As the fire dissapated he stood tall with a leather duster on and the hunter's mask.
"What's all de shouting about?" Sheila asked as she entered the room. Then she looked up and saw Xander in full Hunter garb. "Xander what's happenning?"
"I have to get to the others." Xander told her simply as he walked past her and to a weapons cabinet.
"Xander I thought dat you were going to stay here?" Sheila asked, just as some potentials, Dierdre and Dawn came into the room to see what the commotion was about.
"That was before the First payed me a little visit." Xander said as he finished loading up and turned around to look at her. "Now stay here and watch over the potentials." Hunter X said as he walked towards the door.
"How do you know dis isn't a trap?" Sheila asked.
"I'm willing to make that sacrifice." Hunter X said as his eye's flashed a milky white.
As soon as Blade engaged the Reapers he immediately took out the weapon Akin made for him. As he began to spin with the weapon in hand, the bladed whip comes out and slashes into a hybrid immediately cutting off the things head. As he continues to spin, he makes his fight seem like a deadly ballet as he continues to kill more Reapers. But still more come.
Beside him the dead sea parts as Kendra carves her way through it. She ducks, she kicks, she weaves, she rolls. And everywhere she goes, things die.
Wood and the potentials brace themselves as the silent horde of Bringers races towards them and attacks. Kennedy's sword flashes as it whips around and decapitates one of the silent monks. Wood extends his arms and two razor-sharp fighting daggers shoot out of the sleeves of his coat and into his hands. He rakes one of the knives across the chest of a Bringer, slicing it open, then pirouettes and jams the other knife through the throat of a second attacker.
Wood dispatches yet another Bringer with his fighting knives and turns to face his next attacker, only to see Annabelle get slashed across the abdomen with a sword. She staggers backward a step, looking curiously at the bloody gash across her midsection. Wood runs the Bringer through with a sword he picked up, killing him, then catches Annabelle before she can fall over.
Akin and Giles are making quick work of the vampires. As Akin beheads yet another vamp he hears a scream. As he looks over at the potentials fighting, he see's Annabelle get slashed on the chest. In mid-flip he starts to scream and just like Xander he is engulfed in red and black fire. As he completes the flip, he wears the Hunter's mask and his eye's glow white. As he redoubles his efforts to kill the vampires, he tries to make it over to Annabelle.
As the group continue's to fight, they suddenly hear the distant rumble of an engine. As they look up they see a dark figure jumping high over a tall brick wall. Almost in slow motion, as he seemed to float in the air, he whipped out two 9mm glocks and started shooting into the crowd of Reapers. With an almost dangerous accuracy, he hit twenty of them in the forehead with the bullets.
As he finally touched the ground, all of the Reapers he shot crumbled into dust. As he walked towards Kendra, she finally took a good look at him and noticed who it was.
"Xander?" she asked. Before he could acknowledge her, Hunter X looked up and saw Lissa staring at him.
With a look of creulty on his face, Xander watched as Lissa ran back into the temple building. And just like the hunter does it's prey, Xander followed her. Kendra made to run after them, but some more vampires blocked her path.
"That guy's better than I expected." Lissa said aloud as she ran into the bottom floor of the small temple. It looked like the First's plan to corrupt Xander's soul was working. Just as she was about to sneak out of the trap door of the temple she hears a noise.
As she looked around, she didn't see anything. Thinking she's paranoid, she goes back to trying to open up the trap door when suddenly a section of the wall explodes. Dust and wood blow into the room, blurring her vision. As the dust dissapates her eye's widen as she see's a black apparition standing in the huge hole he put in the wall. As her vision came fully back to her she saw, three red streaks going down the face of it's mask.
"So you're the one who killed, Johnathon?" Hunter X asked as he strolled into the room.
"Who want's to know?" Lissa asked with a seductive smile. Boom! Boom! Hunter X shot her in both of her leg's, instantly making Lissa fall flat on her ass. She cried out as black blood spewed out of her damaged leg's.
"Don't ever get cute with me, bitch!" Hunter X growled. "Now did you kill Johnathon or not?"
"Y...yes!" Lissa said as she started to cry. Hunter X then holster's his gun's.
"You're crying? Tell me did Johnathon cry, when you tortured him?" Lissa doesn't answer, she just lies there in her own blood and trembles and cries. Unknown to them Kendra enter's the room and watches. "When you go to hell, tell Satan I have an ass load of more bad guy's coming." he say's as he unsheathes his sword and raises it up high.
"Xander!" Kendra shout's out. But it's too late. Both Lissa's and Kendra's eye's widen as his blade cut's through Lissa's neck. As her head is seperated from her body, her true form is revealed as a gruesome pinkish creature with hairy shoulders and stitches all over it's head and nasty black shark teeth on it's lipless jaws.
"Oh God." Hunter X says as he drops his sword. His mask crumbles from his face, as he sinks to his knees. Kendra comes over to hold him, as he leans into her embrace. "Kendra what have I done?"
"It's okay, Xander." Kendra soothed as she looked at Lissa's mutilated body. "She was just a demon."
"That's just it." Xander said meeting her gaze. "I didn't know that she was a demon. At the moment I didn't care." Kendra just held onto him tighter and whispered "It's going to be okay" in his ear as he began to cry.
"Annabelle, honey are you alright?" Akin asked as he took her out of Wood's arms. It took another few minutes but they had finally killed all of the reaper's off. And they did it without any casualties.
"I'm fine now." she replied woozily as she looked up at him. As they made eye contact, she leans up and kisses him on the lips. Akin felt the passion behind her kiss, but broke it anyway.
"You're... you're delirious." Akin replied as he readjusted Annabelle in his arms. "We'll take you to the hospital." he said as he and the other potentials turn to leave. Known of them see the look of dissappointment that crosses over Annabelle's face.
An hour later
Anthony Harris walked slowly down the steps to answer the door. He didn't know what hurt more the door from getting constantly pounded on, or his head. He had stopped drinking every since his encounter with Akin, and his head seemed to hurt more than a hang over. But he would do anything to be back in the good grace's of his son and his wife.
As he opened the door, at this ungodly hour might I add, he was pleasantly surprised to see...
"Xander?" he asked. His son stood there with tears in his eye's and his head hung low. "Son are you okay?"
"Dad." Xander cried out as he fell weakly into his father's arm's and cried. Anthony just silently held his son, as he cried into his chest. As he started to close the door after Xander sat down on the couch, he noticed someone else standing on the porch. "Kendra?" he asked, still remembering her name after almost four years..
"Yes sir." Kendra said as she looped her head low, so he couldn't see her eye's. "Xander said he wanted to visit, so I was just making sure he got here safely. I'll be leaving now." she said as she started to walk off.
"No...no don't leave." Anthony called out to her. Kendra turned around and met his gaze. "Any girlfriend of Xander's is family to us." he said with a smile. "Kendra please come in." with a smile on her face Kendra walked into the house and sat down next to Xander.
Sametime
the cellar of a wine vineyard
"Dey killed me Herald." Kendra/First said angrily as she sat in her new base of operations. It had managed start to corrupt Xander, but now her right hand was gone.
"Lissa was a fool." a man with a russian sounding accent said out of the darkness of the wine cellar. "I would make a better Herald." a tall Reaper looking figure said as he stepped out of the shadows.
"Ahh, Nomak." Kendra/First said as she turned and regarded the figure. "You've finally arrived."
A/N I originally planned to kill off Sheila in this chapter. When Xander left I was going to have the First stage an attack on the house to kill off the potentials there, by using the bringers. Sheila was going to kill off all of them except one and she was going to be beheaded. She ended up saving all of the girls, but she was going to die.
tbc...
please review...
