A Legacy of Chaos

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement – sadly Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Stargate: SG-1 and EVE Online belong to Mutant Enemy Productions, MGM and CCP games respectively – I am simply borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.

Author Note: As always my thanks to Keiran Halcyon for his help with this story.


Chapter Five

Wolfram & Hart Main Office

Los Angeles, A Short Time Later

Holland Manners was not having a good day.

He'd been woken up at a most ungodly hour this morning by a phone call, at home, from one of the Senior Partners. Something that was never a great experience as they had this bad habit of talking in booming, evil voices down the phone line from whichever hell dimension they happened to be in at the time. It was such a cliché and one that was always, always guaranteed to give any human being who heard it a nasty headache. The partner in question had directed him to come into the office at once as something had happened that should not have. Of course, he'd dressed and come in at once, ignoring his wife's protests about how he should come back to bed.

He'd arrived to be confronted with chaos as the night staff had been running around like a bunch of headless chickens when he'd first walked in through the doors. It had taken him the better part of an hour to restore some form of order to the office and establish just what it was that had gotten everyone here in such a panicked state in the first place. It turned out that all the seers in the office had instantly died at the same moment an incredibly powerful wave of magic and something else had washed over the planet. It hadn't been the normal, somewhat gory, death that seers used by the firm usually suffered. There had been no heads exploding from trying to channel too much power, instead each seer had looked like they had been struck by lightning that had reduced them to smouldering lumps of human shaped charcoal. And it hadn't been just this office seers who had died that way, the seers in all the other offices and around the world had all suffered the same fate. Someone or something had wanted - and succeeded - in blinding the firm to whatever had happened.

If that weren't bad enough, many of the dark mages - and the handful of warlocks that Wolfram & Hart could call upon had also perished. The mages burned the same way the seers had been and the warlocks – well as usual with them, they'd been burned to ashes by magical fire the moment they had died. The Circle of the Black Thorn was also reeling from the event with two of its heaviest hitters having also been killed in the event. He'd spent much of the day trying to contain that mess as the loss of two of its most powerful members had started a small civil war among Black Thorn as various demons fought one another to determine who would fill the two big holes punched in their ranks in the event. What is it with demons and thinking more with muscles than brains, he thought not for the first time, lamenting the fact that aside from very rare individuals demons were more likely to use their muscles than use their brains to solve hierarchical issues.

While he'd been doing that his subordinates, especially Lindsey McDonald and Leila Morgan, had been doing their best to trace the source of the event that had caused so much chaos in the firm's ranks. So far, they hadn't had much success beyond finding out that the wave had originated somewhere in Sunnydale but beyond that they hadn't learned anything. The complex concealment spell Wilkins had cast on the town when he'd founded it nearly a hundred years ago and anchored to the Hellmouth to prevent the need for constant reapplication, preventing it. They'd tried asking Wilkins for information, but he hadn't been able to help, or he wouldn't help for some reason known only to him, unfortunately they couldn't do anything to compel him to answer them. The old warlock was far too powerful for that, drawing a great deal of magical strength from the dark aura of the Hellmouth.

And then there was that bloody space station he'd seen on the television. A space station that had appeared over Neptune at almost the exact same moment the event had taken place, and which now really threatened to derail the plans of the Senior Partners. They'd worked hard over the years to prevent humanity from expanding into space, suppressing or destroying certain technologies, encouraging the government to reduce the funding to NASA and so on, it wouldn't do after all for the Senior Partners to take over this world and add it to their interdimensional empire only for the people to have slipped away. The re-emergence of the long thought lost Stargate had already threatened to derail the plans, they'd thought they had dealt with that – that Kinsey had succeeded in eliminating that problem – only for the blasted Goa'uld to do in that plan with an attempted attack. The station's appearance only added to the problem as by now the whole bloody planet knew of its existence and were attempting to contact whoever was in charge on the station.

"I wish I knew so I could persuade them to destroy that thing," he muttered aloud, "after all everyone has a price."

Abruptly he looked up as he felt something shiver through the building something that made his skin crawl. What the hell, he thought as it came again and this time, he got the distinct feeling that something was happening, something else was changing and it was the Senior Partners themselves who were doing it. He looked around in confusion until an alarm began going off an alarm that he had never, ever thought he would hear. An alarm that no senior executive of Wolfram & Hart had ever thought they would hear.

The alarm that indicated that the mystical self-destruct of this office, and every other office, had just been activated.

"No, no they can't," he exclaimed leaping to his feet a microsecond before he felt a sudden, intense heat in his chest. He cried out in horror as he realized what was about to happen a moment before the heat spread across his body and turned into searing pain as his whole body erupted into hellish fire. Faintly he heard screaming, both his own and the screams of everyone else in the office, as everyone was consumed.

Then he knew no more.


Around the world, in every single Wolfram & Hart office, the same scene repeated itself as the Senior Partners – having thoroughly assessed the situation and determined that this dimension was lost to them for the time being – decided that the time had come to cut their losses. Within seconds it was over as the last of their direct employees was consumed, body and soul, and harvested by them. Moments later the outline of every Wolfram & Hart momentarily shimmered then simultaneously collapsed in upon themselves and became nothing more than piles of dust and broken masonry.

Watching from their hell dimensions the trinity of demon lords known as The Wolf, The Ram and The Hart observed the results of their decision. It was an unfortunate development but one that had been inevitable as they knew who had interfered with the spell, knew and to this day feared them, which had made their presence untenable. They had only one thing left to do to complete they're retreat, albeit a temporary one as they could always wait a few centuries before rebuilding their foothold as they had done before, from this dimension.

Combining their formidable power they simultaneously annulled all the contracts that the various humans in that dimension had signed with them, not really caring – or even truly thinking – about the consequences for all who had engaged the services of their now dead law firm and its unique associates. That done the evil triumvirate completely closed all their connections to the lost – at least for a time as the greed of humankind could always be counted on to eventually give them even the smallest of openings to begin a return – dimension and turned their attention to the other dimensions where they had influence.


Congressional Offices

Capitol Hill, Washington DC

Senator Robert Kinsey was not in a good mood. He had not been in one since President Marcel had cancelled the shutdown order on Stargate Command and not only that he'd increased the operations budget and was allowing them to recruit more people to their ranks. Unfortunately given the attempted attack on Earth last week by the Goa'uld Apophis, an attack that SG-1 – damn them all to hell – had foiled when they'd blatantly disobeyed the shutdown order, made it impossible for him to stop the resumption of Stargate travel. Neither his associates in the coalition of power brokers and businessmen who referred to themselves as The Trust or Wolfram & Hart had been pleased to hear that but they at least understood that he was kind of limited in what he could do about that right now. Especially as he knew that President Marcel had the Secret Service watching him like hawks, just waiting for him to do something that would allow the president to take direct action against him.

And now there was that bloody alien space station orbiting Neptune.

How the bloody hell did we not notice that thing was there before now, he thought not for the first time since he'd first learned of the station's existence several hours ago now. It was a question that he knew a lot of people in the government and military hierarchy were asking themselves, especially as a station as big as this one seemed to be was not something that anyone could build quickly. He also had to wonder just why someone would build a space station in orbit of Neptune as to the best of his knowledge there was nothing worth the obvious expense out there. Nothing worthwhile to us but who knows how an alien mind thinks, he thought mentally chiding himself for forgetting that aliens might not necessarily think the same way a human would, wouldn't have the same needs or motivations as a human either.

A sudden sharp pain in his chest brought him out of his thoughts. What, he thought a second before the pain came again and he doubled over, clutching at his heart. Eyes widening in a combination of pain and panic he realized that he was having a heart attack, frantically he reached out and pressed a button on his desk that would bring his secretary running. Another wave of agony exploded in his chest drawing a scream of pain from his lips, it was getting hard to breathe and darkness was beginning to encroach upon his vision.

Faintly he heard the door to his office, followed half a second later by his secretary's scream of horror as she realized what was happening. He barely heard her race back out, no doubt to summon EMTs as well as the first aider assigned to this floor, the pain was too great for him to do anything but try to draw in another, desperately needed breath.

He felt himself slipping out of his chair to the floor, through gathering darkness he could see the ceiling of his office and that one blown fluorescent light that he'd already been waiting a week for building services to fix. Another wave of pain came from his chest and he felt the life beginning to drain out of him, the worst pain of the lot came…

…and then everything went dark.


Calex Research & Development Site

Sunnydale, California

That Same Time

Buffy Summers wasn't sure she knew what to feel as Giles' old, and painfully slow, car pulled up outside the closed gates of the CRD plant. She was torn between hope that the person who had called them here really was her Xander-shaped friend and fear that it wasn't him but someone, or something, that had just used his image to get them to come to the old CRD facility for its own nefarious reasons. If that was the case, then whatever supernatural nasty it was would meet its end under her fists or through her wielding one of the numerous weapons Giles had sequestered in increasingly impossible and improbable positions in the car.

Climbing out she waited for Giles and Ms Calendar to join her when they did so she led them towards the CRD facility and the hole in the perimeter fence that made getting access to the derelict building much easier. They stepped into the cooling shadow cast by bushes and trees that were ubiquitous for commercial facilities all over town. Sure, it looked nice but as had become her habit she kept her ears and slayer senses peeled for any sign of a vampire or other supernatural beastie trying to sneak up on them using the ornament foliage as cover. It wouldn't happen during the day of course but habit was habit and it was one that kept her alive on the supernaturally infested night-time streets.

As they reached and passed through the gap in the perimeter fence and were on the sun-baked concrete path that surrounded much of the abandoned plant. She wasn't entirely comfortable being here again, especially given that the last time she'd been here she and Xander had almost gotten gassed to death by the enthralled followers of the demon Molloch – which had included Willow. Something that she knew caused the nerdy redhead considerable embarrassment to this day. She pushed aside the memories of Molloch and instead focused on leading Giles and Ms Calendar to a more shaded side of the building as she very much doubted that Xander would want to stand out in the full glare of the hot mid-afternoon Californian sun. If it really is Xander, she thought.

Arriving at the back they found him waiting for them.

Buffy came to a stop and studied the person before her as he saw them and began approaching. He was dressed much as he had been last night, wearing armoured looking trousers, sturdy black boots with a grey short sleeve shirt and a black armless leather-like jacket. He definitely looked like Xander though as she peered closer she noted his features were a bit older so he looked to be in his twenties and he was significantly more athletic looking sporting the compact yet muscular build of a professional gymnast or martial artist. As he moved, she got a look at the holster on his right thigh in which she could see another of the pistols he'd used last night to kill Spike. The look of total shock on the blond master vampire's face as he first caught fire then turned to dust after being hit by the plasma bolt was one, she would always remember.

"Okay we're here," she said, still not entirely convinced that the person before her was indeed an adult version of Xander Harris.

"That you are Buffy," Xander replied and Buffy blinked at the different sound of his voice. It was a little deeper than she was used to, and his accent was completely different to anything she'd ever heard before and having grown up in cosmopolitan LA she had heard a lot of different accents in her time. "So how do you want to proceed?"

"Well first off you can tell us why you look different, Xander," Giles said taking charge as they'd discussed how to approach this meeting during the journey here.

"Fair enough as I said to you in the holo-call the body you saw before was a clone, or rather that spell that changed me into a capsuleer turned my original body into a clone. This body is also a clone just an adult version of me," Xander replied, "all my clones are adult versions of me. My guess is it's because the person I was turned into was like all capsuleers, an adult when he went through the conversion process.

"Before you ask, I also sound different because of Alexander Zenakori," Xander continued.

"Who?" Buffy asked.

"The person I was turned into," Xander explained before tapping his head, "all his knowledge and memories are up here and part of me now. Just like the cybernetic implants are. It has affected me in a few ways that I am not entirely comfortable with but I'm getting used to it."

"What do you mean Xander," Giles asked.

"And what cybernetic implants," Jenny added looking at Xander with interest.

"I mean I have to force myself to speak English now," Xander replied, "it's not my native tongue now, instead like Alexander I normally speak Gallentese."

"I've never heard of that language," Giles commented.

"No reason you would, it's a language that isn't from this reality and in any case does not exist yet and won't for about ten thousand years give or take a millennium. You have to understand that Alexander's time is twenty-five thousand years from now and in another reality to ours."

"Fascinating, can I hear a sample of it?"

"Giles, can we get back on track," Buffy asked, making her Watcher assume a chagrined expression as he realized he'd been drifting off into his fascination with languages. "And Xander you didn't answer Ms Calendar about the cybernetic implants."

"Most of them are on the nanoscale thus they aren't visible, Buff. But if you want to see the visible ones then by all means take a look," Xander replied before slipping off his jacket and then taking off his shirt. Buffy felt her cheeks warm slightly as she beheld his naked muscled torso before Xander turned so they could look at his back. Her eyes widened when she saw extending down from the nape of his neck, along the length of his spine a series of circular metallic sockets a centimetre or two in diameter.

"What!" she breathed crossing the remaining distance between them and hesitantly reaching out to touch one of them, it was cool to the touch though with an oily feel and there seemed to be no seam between the socket and his skin. She was only faintly aware of Ms Calendar joining her in examining the implants running down Xander's spine.

"What are these things Xander," Jenny asked after a few moments of examining them, prompting Xander to turn back around and put his shirt back on.

"They're interface jacks connecting to neural relays that connect to implants in my brain," Xander told them both, "when in the hydrostatic capsule cables connect to them, then the capsule connects to whatever ship I am in allowing me to control it. In a very real sense of the word when I, or any other capsuleer, is connected to a ship they become the ship."

"Incredible I have heard about research into mind-machine interfaces but nothing like this," Jenny breathed in amazement as the kind of interface that Xander was talking about went way, way beyond anything she'd ever heard about or even speculated to be possible.

"While very interesting maybe we should get back to the reason we are here?" Giles suggested the technological talk being too much for his somewhat technophobic mind. "We need to do the identity spell."

"Yes, yes we should," Jenny agreed after a moment, as much as she wanted to ask Xander more questions about his cybernetic implants and how the connection with a ship would actually work and what it felt like she knew it was important that they finish verifying his identity first.

Xander made a face at the thought of being on the receiving end of another spell so soon after the last one which had turned his world upside down and inside out. "What spell," he asked. "You know my luck with magic is not very good."

"It's a very simple spell," Giles explained as he fished in a satchel that Xander hadn't noticed the Watcher had brought with him. From the satchel he produced a simple crystal sphere about the size of a tennis ball. "You just need to hold this for a few moments while a certain incantation is read out and it will show us if you are who you say you are. The image it shows is based on your soul image not your physical image now so in theory…"

"…if your soul is that of Xander Harris it will show you as you were before last nights chaos spell," Jenny finished, making a mental note to ask Giles later where he found that particular spell as while she was aware of such magics it was an unusual spell to say the least though not one that was particularly difficult for even a novice magic user to cast.

"Alright," Xander said, hesitantly taking the orb from Giles. "Now what."

"Now you just stand there a moment," Giles told him before saying the incantation. "Spiritibus de terra, et luna in caelo voco te, ostende mihi hunc hominem est verum identitatem."

The moment the last syllable of the spell left Giles lips the crystal orb Xander was holding lit up with a brilliant white-gold light moments before dissolving into a billion spots of light that glowed like golden fireflies. The lights swirled around Xander for a second or two before shooting away from him and gathering over the palm Giles held out. Whereupon they changed, forming into an image of Xander as he had been only twenty-four hours earlier.

Then with all the fuss of a bursting soap bubble they vanished, their task completed.

"Well that is pretty conclusive," Giles said a note of genuine relief in his voice. "You are who you say you are."

Xander's shoulders dropped. "Well that's a relief," he said, "I was worried that… that I wasn't really me anymore you know. I know I'm not the person I was before the spell and I never can be that person again but…"

"… you were still concerned," Giles finished for him. "It is understandable what happened to you is something that should not have happened. The spell Ethan used should not have caused this."

"Ethan. The guy who owned the costume shop?" Xander asked.

"The same. He is what is known as a chaos mage, one I have had the misfortune of running into a few times in the past. The kind of magical mischief unleashed on Halloween is typical of him," Giles explained, "to put it simply it was his idea of a practical joke."

"Inventive but sick," Jenny commented with a shake of her head, while she had never had the misfortune to meet one, she knew all about chaos mages and the kinds of mystical mischief that they could get up to among other far worse things.

"Ethan has always been a clever one and very gifted in the mystic arts. Unfortunately, in the way of chaos worshippers he misuses the gift."

Before anyone could comment further an insistent electronic bleeping filled the air. The bleeping coming from Xander's right arm. Looking at it in surprise Xander saw a light pulsing above his hand, an indication that there was an alert on his Neo-eComm. Now what could this be, he wondered as he raised his arm and activated the unit with a thought causing both Buffy and Ms Calendar to gasp as holograms appeared above his arm. One of the screens displayed an urgent warning from the stealth bomber that was parked cloaked behind the building.

Xander groaned in annoyance as he read the warning. The bomber's computer was reporting that the cloaking field generator was beginning to overheat from the strain of having maintained the cloaking field around the ship for so long in this environment. At the current rate of thermal increase, the cloaking field would start losing integrity within fifteen minutes and suffer complete failure of the whole cloaking module within thirty minutes. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised the cloaking field was starting to suffer as it was designed to operate in space, where it could function for as long as there was power available, and not inside the atmosphere and strong gravitational well of a planet like Earth. Operating in such an environment had put the cloak under a stress that it just was not designed to withstand yet somehow it had, until now. He muttered a Gallentean naval curse under his breath as he realized what this meant.

"What is it," Buffy asked even as, thanks to her Slayer hearing, she heard Xander curse in a language that she didn't understand.

"It's a warning the cloaking device on my ship is starting to overheat," Xander said idly speaking Gallentese.

"In English please Xander," Buffy replied. Xander blinked as he hadn't realized he'd said that last part in Gallentese.

"Oh, sorry that's what I meant when I said earlier that I consciously have to make myself speak English now," Xander said apologetically. "What I said was, it's a warning from my ship. The cloaking device that's preventing it being detected by spy satellites and what not is starting to overheat. Soon the cloaking field will start to lose integrity until it reaches complete failure."

"That was Gallentese then," Giles asked. To his ears the words had sounded almost like French, though not French at the same time. Hmm, I wonder if these Gallente are descended from French colonists as it would explain why their language has a French feel to it while being a different language now having drifted away from the root language over the millennia, he mused. "And does it mean you have to leave?"

"It was Gallentese," Xander confirmed, "and unfortunately it does mean I have to go. I cannot risk the cloak failing and the government finding the bomber I used to come here. I think we can all agree that having government agents and the military crawling all over Sunnydale looking for my ship would not be a good thing."

"No, they'd be easy prey for the vampires," Giles agreed with a sigh. Not to mention the government would certainly learn of the existence of the supernatural if any of their people got turned. And the last thing we need is any government trying to mess with the supernatural either to destroy it or repurpose it for their own ends. That road never ends well, he thought mentally shivering as he recalled some of the horror stories of what could happen with governments started messing with the undead and other elements of the supernatural world that he'd been told about during Watcher training. It could get very nasty, very quickly.

"Do you really have to go," Buffy asked.

"Unfortunately, yes though it won't be forever," Xander answered, "and Giles has that QEC comms device I left at his residence. I'll call you on that later or if you want to call me, just press the green button on it. I'll tell Aura to acknowledge any signal and route it to me if I'm available, if not you can always leave a message with her."

"Whose Aura?"

"My personal AI. As for physically coming to visit again I have an idea about that but it might take me awhile to work out more of the details and I might need Giles or Ms Calendar to do something for me," Xander continued. "In the meantime, can you please do me a favour?"

"Of course, what is it?" Giles asked.

"Can you please tell Willow, Cordelia, Kyle and co that I'm still alive," Xander asked. "If they do want to talk to me, Willow certainly will and I wouldn't be surprised if Kyle will as well, you can always bring them to the QEC device and use that. Oh, and don't let Willow talk you out of not telling them, as I know she will try."

"You need not worry Xander we'll do it," Jenny said, making a mental note about the facet of Willow's personality that Xander was quietly warning them about. She had already noted the young redheads potential strength in the mystic arts, the girl had the greatest potential she had ever seen, though she was still working out how to tell her about it and how to begin the needed instruction. She would have to be sure to be firm with her and stress the importance of why things had to be done a certain way and no other way no matter how easy other ways might seem. She made another mental note to talk to Giles about it later as it was probably going to take the two of them to properly teach the intelligent, sometimes stubborn and opinionated girl the wonders, dangers and responsibilities that the gift of magic was.

"Thanks," Xander replied then he sighed. "I have to stop stalling. I will see you all later as a hologram if nothing else."

With that he started to turn away only for Buffy to grab his arm and before he could say anything pull him into a hug. To say he was startled would have been an understatement, but he hugged her back and was surprised to hear her give a few quiet sniffles. Guessing his apparent death had upset her more than she'd let on he gave her a reassuring squeeze, before breaking free of the hug and walking away knowing that he could not look back…

…as if he did so he would not be able to leave.


Watcher's Council Headquarters

London, England

That Same Time

"What!"

Quentin Travers stared in shock at the junior watcher who had just barged into his office with a report that was as shocking as it was unbelievable. "Can you repeat that?" he asked.

"Sir every branch of Wolfram & Hart around the world has just self-destructed," the watcher repeated, "and that's not all, thousands of politicians, business leaders and celebrities have begun dropping like flies all over the planet. The deaths began the moment the last of the offices mystically imploded."

"No doubt they all sold their souls to the 'Senior Partners' for wealth, power and status," Quentin said knowing that such contracts were the bread and butter of Wolfram & Hart's operations. It was a way for the trio of demon lords behind that most evil of law firms to indirectly influence the world. "When the law firm vanished, the contracts would have been annulled at the cost of their lives."

"Any orders sir?"

"Call an emergency meeting of the Council. I want everyone here within the hour."

"Yes sir." Quentin made a hand gesture and the junior watcher practically turned and raced out of the office to carry out his bidding. Once he was alone Quentin leaned back in his chair deep in thought. Something major had to have happened for The Wolf, The Ram and The Hart to suddenly decide to withdraw their presence from this dimension, something that had made their position untenable. The question is what was that event, and did it have something to do with the incredible wave of magic and something else that had swept over the globe yesterday evening? A wave that had originated in Sunnydale.

"Maybe I should get Rupert to start looking into things from his end," he thought aloud. He considered it for a few minutes before deciding against it. It could wait until after the Council met to discuss this sudden void in the ranks of the world's evil caused by the sudden loss of one of its biggest power brokers. Discuss and decide just how to take advantage of it.


Authors Note: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed the downfall of Wolfram & Hart as well as the death of Senator Kinsey. Thing is Kinsey is only one of a hell of a lot of people who are dying as a result of the evil law firm's destruction. Some of the people who will die as a result will certainly surprise you all. Who they are you'll have to wait for the next chapter where some of what has happened will be discussed by interested parties. I know that people are starting to wonder when I will really start getting into the meat of the story, that will begin soon as I only anticipate another chapter's worth of setting up needs doing so hopefully we will get to the really interesting stuff soon. If anyone is curious about the spell Giles cast, I've translated it below and will do so with any future spell castings. Until next time stay safe.

Spell translation: Spirts of earth, moon and sky I call on thee, reveal to me this person's true identity.