Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.
Spoilers: Up to the end of both series.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: Xander discovers he's not as normal as he thinks.
Author's Note: THIS is certainly a rare crossover. Credit goes to Yorath for his delightful input and some suggested scenes that will appear throughout this series.
Ami approached the Hikawa Shrine with no small amount of trepidation.
The message on her Senshi Communicator and her phone and her pager and even in her e-mail was disjointed but urgent.
Something about a new enemy and a stranger who had helped them.
Since Setsuna had assured them that after Galaxia, there wouldn't be another enemy until the Great Freeze, this was rather alarming. Add in that the youma or cardian or whatever they were called this time had kept healing everything the others had thrown at it until the stranger had shown up...
Well, "alarming" was no longer an adequate term.
The Inners were there, as were Haruka and Michiru, representing all the Sailor Senshi who ranked below "planet buster" level.
No one knew where Setsuna was, and no one had wanted to disturb Hotaru, whose Senshi attacks were more of the Mutually Assured Destruction variety, and unlike during the Silver Millenium, they were only protecting one planet.
Mamoru was also present, his splinted left arm the most obvious evidence of what had happened.
Ami was the last to arrive, and Haruka waited just long enough for her to see to everyone's injuries before breaking the silence.
"Damn it, what happened?" she demanded.
"We got clobbered," Rei replied succinctly. "Usagi and I got there first..."
Flashback
"...in the name of the moo- ahh!" Sailor Moon shrieked as the youma hurled a parking meter at her.
Ten years ago, she would have whined and complained about it not letting her finish her speech, but though she hadn't been fighting in the intervening years, she had matured.
"Flame Sniper!"
The youma walked through the fiery blast with impunity. Charred flesh faded and healed before her very eyes, and Sailor Mars backed away uncertainly.
"Love and Beauty Shock!"
"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"
The twin attacks came from the rooftops on either side and sent the youma stumbling back as Sailors Venus and Jupiter landed to either side of Mars and Moon.
"Be careful," Sailor Moon warned. "It's not like the ones we fought before."
Which was true. Where their previous enemies looked vaguely female and tacky enough to be funny, this creature appeared male and actually looked somewhat threatening.
Its nostrils flared.
"Move!" Mars shouted as she leaped up, just in time to avoid being ensnared.
As near as the Senshi could tell, the youma had sneezed something at them. It hadn't hit any of them, but none of them was too anxious to know what it did.
Unfortunately, they soon found out anyway.
"Sailor Moon, look out!" Sailor Jupiter called. Sailor Venus leaped to try and get Sailor Moon out of the way, but somehow, the two managed to get entangled with each other as the mucus struck them and hardened.
"I can't move!" Sailor Moon cried as she struggled.
"Me neither!" chimed in Sailor Venus.
Suddenly, a rose seemed to sprout from hardened mucus, shattering it, as Tuxedo Kamen joined the fray.
No speech had seemed appropriate for this situation, so the tuxedo-clad warrior merely drew his cane and lashed out at the youma.
WHAM!
CRUNCH!
"Tuxedo Kamen!" Sailor Moon gasped and rushed over to where the youma had thrown the Prince of Earth into a wall.
"Hey, ugly, over here!"
Suddenly, all heads turned as a figure leaped from the shadows onto the youma, clinging to its back and stabbing it repeatedly. The youma howled and rammed its assailant against a wall, but he clung on stubbornly.
Slowly, with each thrust of the dagger, the youma's movements slowed until it finally slumped to the ground and began to dissolve.
He rose and held up the dagger, "Y'know, it helps if you know what you're fighting. That was a fyarl demon. Unless you use silver, you might as well be spraying it with a garden hose."
He was a gaijin, with dark hair, rugged good looks, and an eyepatch over...
End Flashback
"Wait!" Ami broke in. "An eyepatch? Over his left eye?"
"Do you know who he is?" Luna asked curiously.
Ami shook her head, "No, but I think I found him stumbling around outside the clinic after the fight. How badly hurt was he?"
"He acted tough," Makoto answered, "but he's definitely going to be sore for a while. I think he might've broken a rib from the way he was walking."
"Cracked three," Ami nodded. "It must be him. Where did you say the fight was?"
"About three blocks from the clinic where you work," Rei said. "None of us thought you'd still be there that late."
"Some last minute paperwork came up," Ami said with a shrug. She was expected to handle some of the grunt-work, after all, since she was still in her residency.
"I find this awfully convenient," Luna frowned. "Did you get his name?"
Ami blushed, "Uh, no. He seemed... familiar. Like I could trust him. And after I treated him, he just disappeared, leaving more than enough money to pay what I might've charged."
As she walked with her rescuer, Hotaru was torn. Somehow, she just knew that if she didn't do something, the moment she got home would be the last time she saw this man.
She didn't want that.
She'd never seen anyone who looked so... alone before. He was hurting, in more ways than one, and she sensed a sort of kindred spirit in him. A part of her was desperate to latch onto that.
More than that, he'd saved her from those monsters. It struck her as... odd, that someone, an ordinary person, was both willing and able to fight things like that.
And yet... it was like a weight had lifted. Knowing that others fought, that it wasn't just her and the other Senshi... it was a relief and, in a sense, an affirmation on what they had fought for, even if it had been years since Sailor Saturn had last fought.
She could tell by the way he walked that he was hurt, and she knew at least one way that she could make herself stand out among whoever else he saved tonight.
But she was afraid. Of how he might react, of what he might say... or do.
"You're hurt."
Xander flinched, "I'll be fine."
The doctor he'd run into - boy, that was one hell of a blunder, but he hadn't exactly been in any condition to avoid it at the time - had patched him up well, but there was only so much modern medicine could do for cracked ribs, and he had to be careful not to jostle them.
"No, wait. L-let me," she said hesitantly, reaching for his side.
Xander blinked but did not stop her.
A faint glow emanated from her hands, and he felt the pain drain away, and when she pulled back, he lifted his shirt and pulled away the medical tape.
Bruises. Fading bruises and nothing else.
He looked up and saw violet eyes filled with trepidation.
Xander smiled faintly, "Healing magic, huh? Never met anyone who could get it right before."
She blinked at him, not comprehending.
"Name's Xander," he said, extending his hand. "Xander Harris. Err, I mean Harris Xander."
"H-Hotaru. Tomoe Hotaru. You know other people who use magic?"
He nodded, "Well, yeah. You don't last long in the demon-hunting biz without meeting some people." He cocked his head and studied her expression.
Hotaru blushed slightly at the scrutiny.
"You really don't know what those were back there, do you?"
She shook her head.
"They were vampires."
"Vampires!" Hotaru's eyes widened. True, she'd seen and fought all sorts of youma that drained energy from people... but actual, real-life, blood-sucking vampires?
"Yeah. They're not too tough once you get used to fighting them: Fire, wooden stake through the heart, decapitation, holy water, holy symbols. Basically, if it worked in the movies, it works for real. Except silver. And don't rely on garlic; that'll only drive off the weaker ones 'cause of the smell."
"Oh."
They continued in silence for a moment, turning up a walkway.
"So, uhh..." Xander hesitated as they stopped at the door, "not meaning to pry, but how'd you learn magic well enough to heal with it without running into the creepy-crawlies?"
"I... I didn't learn," she mumbled. "I just... I just can."
"Cool," he nodded. "Didn't know there were natural healers. Empaths and telekinetics, yeah, but not healers."
Hotaru stared, "Really?"
"Really. I'll introduce you to some of them some time," he promised as he winked and turned to leave.
"Wait!"
He turned, "Yeah."
Hotaru reached into her purse and pulled out a small notepad. She scribbled something on it and tore the page out, "Here. Call me."
"So what happened to that fool?" asked the cloaked figure absent-mindedly.
"Killed," came the response. "By the Sailor Senshi, by all reports."
The cloaked figure's head jerked up, "Damn. So they're still around. And things were going so well too. Tsk tsk. It's so hard to find good help these days."
"What should we do, Master?"
"Nothing," he snorted.
"'Nothing'? But, Master..."
"That idiot got killed because he got bored and went looking for 'fun.' As long as we remain discreet, we have nothing to worry about."
Author's Postscript:
You ever notice how the Sailor Senshi's tactics invariably seem to boil down to "hit it until it stops moving"?