Chapter Twelve
17 August 99
Xander had spent the last ten days setting up a home of his own in Sunnydale. Xander got a hold of a immortal accountant that happened to be living in L.A. at the time and set up a account for him using a Company that Xander had created back during the Viet Nam war when he had wound up with some war booty, the company existed only on paper. The accountant using that company was able to help Xander invest the money and gold that he had liberated from the "farm". During this time. Xander visited Joyce and talked her into letting him become a silent partner in her gallery and Xander backed Giles when he bought the magic box. Xander on a hunch had talked Joyce into having a scan on her brain, Xanders nose and instincts told him that she was sick and the illness was in her head, they found a small tumor that would be easily removed. The surgery was scheduled for September. During this time Xander only got to talk to Willow on the phone, her parents for the first time in 15 years had actually stopped running around the world long enough to visit the stranger that lived in their home, their daughter and were hosting a family reunion. Buffy was "visiting" her dad for the summer, which amounted to seeing him about three times and the rest of the time she was on her own, she actually was checking up on her investments in Europe and recovering from Hellmouth overload, that all Immortals get if they spend to much time on a hellmouth.
Xander was patrolling the cemeteries in his armored form, he had been doing it in his human form the other ten nights using the sword that the Immortal that Max had killed. Xander had found it under the dumpster behind Max's bar the next day after the fight, so Xander kept it. It was a slow night he had found only two vamps and they were newbies that had just crawled out of their graves, that's when he heard Willow running and calling for Oz, it was the first night of the full moon. Xander saw Oz in full were form running thru the park below him and just ahead of him behind some bushes, was a teenage couple in full lip lock, and a block behind Willow and catching up fast at full slayer speed with a trank rifle in her hands was Buffy. What a way to make an introduction.
Willow was scared, not for herself but for Oz if he killed anybody as a werewolf, she didn't think he could handle that well. Oz had hit the door on his cage just right tonight to shatter the already weakened lock on it and had gotten loose, she had been walking up to the mausoleum that he used with the calf's heart for him when she saw him leave, not thinking she had ran after him, only to realize she didn't had the trank gun. If only she had been able to leave her house earlier, darn family reunion.
Buffy had been just entering the cemetery when she had seen Oz take off with Willow in full pursuit, without the trank gun. Buffy had ran over to the mausoleum and got the gun and them at full slayer speed ran to catch up before something bad happened.
Xander couldn't have timed it so perfectly if he had tried, he dove down and had himself positioned between the kids and Oz just as he jumped over the bush between him and his prey. Both Buffy and Willow saw a shadow drop down behind the bush just as Oz leaped over it and they heard his surprised yelp, some kids scream and Oz growl in frustration. Just as they both came around the Bush together they heard a Darth Vader type voice say "Bad doggy, no supper for you to night", that's when they saw an amazing sight. There stood a man or demon in black armor with bat like wings, he was about 7 feet tall and the way Oz was starting to whimper in fear was inhumanly strong, since he was holding a squirming Oz in one hand with ease and Oz's claws weren't even scratching the armor. Both Willow and Buffy could feel the power just rolling of the guy as well as the cold air.
As Xander stood there holding Oz he noticed three things. The two spirits that were in conflict in Oz, that Willow was an Immortal maybe a little over a year old and that Buffy was suppressing her Quickening to a point that it would be invisible to any other immortals in the area. Oh this was going to be a long night, might as well stir things up and get things out into the open and if we don't kill each other them go talk to Giles, First Oz, Using his ability to feed, he freed Oz's soul from the mental cage in his mind that the wolf puts him in for three nights of the month and showed them how they could merge and become stronger and faster, in a way become a Lycan.
Buffy and Willow stood there scared not sure what to do, so far the Black Knight, they recognized him from the news report from several weeks ago, wasn't really hurting him and the teenagers were long gone, That's when things got interesting. Oz stopped whimpering and got a glased look in his eyes when the knight looked at him in the eyes. The Knight gently laid him on the ground and stood back and watched Oz. Buffy was about to demand what the hell was going on, when Oz started to change, he stood up and grew taller, nearly as tall as the knight, all of his fur except from the top of his head and pubic areas became thinner and finer and his skin turned black and his head took on a more wolf like appearance. As Xander watched the change he wondered if this wasn't how the first Lycan came to be, because the vibe he was getting from Oz was an immortal life force that he had felt off the Lycan he had fought in New York. When Oz's soul embraced the wolf spirit he felt a peace come over him and when he opened his eyes he was almost eye to eye with the Knight and from the voice in his head he knew it was Xander who had just save the kids and himself, all he could do was nod when Xander asked his questions. Willow and Buffy got one more shock when the Knight in his Vader voice asked Oz by name his questions.
"So Oz are you all there and in Charge now?"
Willow just about fainted when Oz nodded yes.
With a sigh Xander turned to Willow and Buffy, "Now that that's taken care of now you two," Looking at Willow, "So Willow notice anything different about your self over the last two years or so?"
"No? What do you mean different?" answered a scared and confused Willow. From her answer and what he sense were telling him Xander knew she didn't have a clue and the way Buffy had moved into a protective position that she knew.
"Buffy and Oz when did you notice a faint aroma of Ozone coming from Willow?"
Buffy looked a little surprised and had unconsciously turned and took a sniff of Willow, she hadn't really noticed, Willow was sniffing her self as well. She had never noticed the smell from other immortals since she had always felt their quickening first.
"I don't smell anything" said Willow
"I do" said Buffy "I just never really noticed before."
That's when Oz surprised everybody by talking with some difficulty.
"SHE HAS RALWAS RAD THE SMELL RAS FAR RAS RI RNOW" (Just think of a deeper and rougher Scooby Doo.)
"So what if Willow smells of ozone maybe it's her magic" said Buffy starting to get a little Bitchy "what dose it have to do anything?" then she said "Ethan's Halloween that's when I first smelled the ozone."
"It means that as long as Willow stays on the Hellmouth or on Holy ground, she is safe from the other people like her, and before you ask Willow is what is called Immortal, she died that night that she was a ghost and when she recovered she was immortal she can't permanently die unless someone cuts her head off and she will forever look 16, 17 for after an immortal's first death their aging stops and why I say she's safe is the fact that her kind fight in a bloody and sick game for power, a duel, one on one where the winner walks away with the power of the looser, know as the quickening and the only way a winner gets the power is to take the head of the looser. There are three simple rule to their game, the fight is one on one, no fighting on holy ground of any kind and there can be only one in the end. And I could explain more but Buffy could explain it better or should I call you Sita."
They where all looking at Buffy when he said that and they all saw her go pale.
"What dose he mean Buffy?"
"You should have been training her Buffy."
"WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DO YOU OUR NAMES?" Screamed Buffy
Xander saw that she was about to loose it and attack, so he did the only thing he could think of and hoped Buffy and Willow didn't kill him, He held up his hand in a I surrender sign.
