YAHF: Flying Thunder God (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Mortal Kombat)
"Have there been any other side effects?" Giles asked.
Xander was the one who answered. "I have a much better understanding on how the higher planes work."
"How, Raiden was a fictional character?" Willow asked. Both Buffy and Giles were both looking skeptical.
"Who exists in many forms across the multiverse," Xander pointed out. "Lord Raiden, as we know him, IS an Elder God, just not one that typically resides on our particular Earthrealm." None of the others looked all that convinced. Xander rolled his eyes. "Look, if it hadn't happened to me, I'd be skeptical too, but I do have some evidence to back up my claim." He raised his right hand and lightning surged through his fingertips as his eyes began to glow. Before the others could speak up, he did. "And don't bother trying to remove my powers. They're now a permanent part of me." Xander chuckled. "I wouldn't want to be Ethan Rayne."
"W-Why not?" Giles asked warily.
"Because he managed to do something no other mortal has ever done. Something that was strictly the dominion of those who exist on a higher plane of existence," Xander informed him. "He bestowed the powers of a god on a mortal."
"He's hardly the first," Giles pointed out. "And he had the help of Janus."
Xander snorted in amusement. "It doesn't work like that Giles. Whether you're going through a divine or demonic ascension, at its very basic core all ascensions are founded on the same principles. There are trials that have to be overcome, rituals and rites that have to be undertaken. Ethan Rayne bypassed all of that and will likely have the higher powers on both sides out for his blood. The fact that he did it accidentally is largely irrelevant, but might earn him some leniency- depending on who gets to him first."
"What about Janus? He was the one that powered the spell," Willow inquired.
"Sanctioned like you wouldn't believe. Loss of privileges, definitely," Xander told her.
"That doesn't sound fair," Buffy complained.
"You wouldn't think so," Xander commented, "But the only thing worse they could do to him would be a loss of divine status, which is a last resort punishment. A god's power and worth are judged by what they can influence. That is especially true for minor gods like Janus. By limiting his sphere of influence, they're limiting his very being."
"And you, Xander?" Giles asked Xander, looking him straight in the eye.
"What about Xander?" Buffy asked Giles as she looked between the two men. When neither spoke, it was Willow who put together the pieces.
"You mean Xander's getting punished for this too?" Willow asked. "But why? He's a victim in all of this!?"
"Ethan did it by accident and Janus was his unwitting patsy," Xander pointed out. "I chose the wrong costume to wear. My punishment is eventual ascension- if I survive that long."
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked.
"The fabric of reality is made up of four opposing, interlinked, primordial forces: Good and Evil, Order and Chaos, with a small zone of neutrality where everything is balanced," Xander explained. "Each one is fighting for dominance at any given time on any and every plane of existence in every second of everyday. Most of the damage done is on the highest planes of existence, which is why the higher beings aren't able to come down and give us a hand. Where the real fights are, however, where the battles that mean the most happen are on the lower planes. That's partly why the guys upstairs try not to interfere if they don't have to and why their plans generally suck for all involved when they do. They're thinking big picture and can't relate to us in any way because they've forgotten what it's like to have been us at one time, provided they existed as lower beings in the first place. Being here with you guys, fighting the good fight, gives my life real actual meaning. The more powerful I become... The less useful I'm going to be."
"And there's nothing we can do?" Willow asked as tears threatened to spill down her cheeks.
Xander shook his head sadly. "Ethan's punishment for granting unauthorized godhood to a regular mortal is bad enough... I'd hate to find out what they would do to the poor mortal who stripped a divine being of their power without divine consent."
"Do you have an idea as to why Ethan's spell affected you more than the others?" Giles asked.
"I dressed as an Elder God, a very powerful Elder God who as so far beyond the power threshold intended for his spell that I'm surprised Ethan didn't get hit with some sort of backlash," Xander told him. "You can't touch the pure essence of divinity as a regular mortal and remain unchanged. The changes left behind in others are likely to be more subtle."
"What do you mean?" Giles inquired with great interest.
"Take Willow, for instance, she spent the entire evening as her own spirit," Xander explained. "Her changes would be less physical and more metaphysical. In all likeliness, she'll be more sensitive to spiritual energies, which could potentially raise her magical potential by an order of magnitude while leaving her more susceptible to outside influences."
"What does that mean?" Willow asked with great concern.
"It means that if you decide to learn magic, you could easily become one of the most powerful witches in the world without putting in as much effort as most others would," Xander told her.
"On the other hand," Giles interjected. "It also means you should exercise even more caution than most when learning magic. Many prodigious practitioners of the craft are destroyed by their own hubris, thinking that their superior skill can substitute for a firm grounding in the basics of magic and that their superior power is able to overcome the affect of any potential consequences of their actions."
"So, in other words, if you decide to learn magic, be extra careful with what you do with it," Xander added. "In fact, consider last night your first lesson as to what could go wrong with magic. Trust me when I tell you you do NOT want to end up like Ethan."
"It would probably be best if you tried to steer clear of chaos magics in general. Their affect on their practitioner and everything around them can be unpredictable even under the most controlled of circumstances," Giles pointed out.
"That goes for some darker magics too, if you can avoid them," Xander spoke up once more. "If nothing else, make sure you know a few cleansing rituals to rid yourself of the taint from dark magic."
"What about me?" Buffy asked with a hint of nervousness.
"At a guess, since you went as an ordinary noblewoman, your changes would be more subconscious and less noticeable, even if we were actively looking for any sort of changes," Xander told her. "Except for maybe being able to speak french as if you were born to it rather than learning it as a second language, organizing high society balls and stuff like that, I doubt you got all that much. I suppose we'd have to do something if you gained an unreal heightened sense of entitlement."
Giles hummed in thought. "I suppose there's nothing to it for now. We'll have to deal with the changes as they come at us."
"That's life for ya," Xander commented looking worried.
Willow looked at Xander in concern. "Are you all right?"
"I will be... It's just... I'm having a bit of an identity crisis. A lot has changed since yesterday," Xander replied honestly. "I've got at least a couple of centuries worth of memories and am no longer sure who I am anymore."
Xander scoffed at the Watcher in dark amusement. "Do you honestly think you can hurt me with that trinket? You're messing with forces you can't even begin to understand."
Faith honestly thought the long white hair with white robes was overdoing the god-look a bit. However, if he could back it up... It was one thing, however, to hear about Xander being a God. It was another thing to see him in action.
Post smiled viciously. "We'll just have to see!" She thrust the ordinate glove latched to her arm towards Xander, sending a powerful bolt of electricity at him. However, the young godling simply batted it away with no visible effort.
"I'm a thunder god, bitch!" he fiercely declared as he raised his hands sending two even more powerful jolts at the faux-Watcher. Both struck the Watcher in the chest and she ended up sailing through the air, slamming unforgivably hard against the wall behind her. "And this is true power!"
Post screamed in agony as bolts of lightning lanced through her entire body.
Faith remained frozen in fear and awe at the power Xander was casually able to wield, trying to will herself to move. However, she was completely unsure if her goal was to simply stop Xander or help Post. Gazing across the room, she noticed both B and Fang having the same dilemma.
Xander then stopped, lowering his hands. A few errant jolts of electricity surged through Post, who was still shaking as if she was in the middle of a seizure. He slowly approached Post, his fist charged with lightning with a dark look in his eye that shook Faith to her very core.
Swallowing her courage, she shakily stood and called out to him. "Xander..."
He turned his glowing red eyes to her and got an unpleasant shock when he noted just how terrified of him she was. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. "I'm sorry." He was then enveloped in a blindingly bright light and disappeared in a flash.
Faith met Buffy's equally terrified gaze and knew the senior slayer was also wondering just how deeply Xander's time in Acathla's Dimension had affected him.
"Do you really thing we can do this?" Faith worriedly asked Xander, who was sitting next to her on the roof of the high school, both of their feet dangling over the ledge.
Xander raised an eyebrow. "Now's a helluva time to be getting cold feet, Faith."
"I know... It's just... Isn't there anymore we can do?" Faith asked.
"I'm all tapped out until The Ascension," Xander replied. "I've given you guys a path to follow. It's up to you guys to make it work."
"It's gotta be frustrating having all that power and not being able to do anything," Faith said.
"You have no idea. I have to be careful when and how I intervene. I spent 300 years in Acathla's Dimension as a lesson in noninterference because I didn't let Buffy send Angel through the portal."
"I'm surprised you don't hate them or at least resent them," Faith commented.
"I did," Xander admitted. "For the first 50-60 years or so. It was probably a good thing you found me first."
"You know, I gotta ask, if you spent so much time in hell, why do you still look as young as the rest of us?" Faith inquired.
Xander snorted. "You know, I'm actually surprised that question hasn't come up sooner."
"Really!? No one else has asked?" Faith asked incredulously.
Xander shrugged. "The probably figure it's a 'god thing', and they wouldn't be wrong."
"So you can control what you look like- change shape and all that?"
"Sort of... There's big limitations to it. I can't choose to look like another person, but I can choose to look how young or old I look," Xander informed her. "I can also change into a giant super-charged eel."
"An eel?"
"Yeah..."
"Really!? An eel?"
"It was Raiden's Animality form!" Xander defended himself.
"But... An eel?"
"Giant super-charged eel!"
There was a brief pause.
"It's still an eel." Faith said in a faux-innocent tone.
Xander sighed. "It's not my fault my animal form isn't something cooler."
"An eel?"
"Faith...!" Xander complained.
Faith burst out laughing hysterically. "Sorry, Sparks."
Xander gaze her a fond, but sad look which was quickly replaced by a look of chagrin before she could notice. "Yeah, yeah... Laugh it up!"
"Seriously, though..." Faith commented with a few more giggles, which were already made worse by the stern look she got from Xander. "So if you can sort of control how you look, what's up with the whole white hair thing."
Xander's good mood dimmed significantly. "My scars are more than skin deep."
"Xand?" Faith asked in concern.
"I spent 300 years bound and trapped in a hell dimension, Faith. That sort of thing leaves its mark, even on an Elder God," Xander told her.
"Bound?" Faith asked.
"I interfered in the designs of The Fates one too many times when I zapped Buffy and Angel and made the big sacrifice myself and since I was no longer mortal, The Fates could retaliate more directly and stripped me of my powers when I entered the portal. Despite being able to fight on Buffy's level without my powers and being armed it still didn't take long for the demons there to subdue me," Xander said, staring blankly ahead, as if he were reliving the experience. "Despite being powerless, I made my first escape attempt sometime within my first 10 years. I was... Punished... Harshly."
Faith gripped his arm in comfort, snapping him back to reality. "Xand, you don't have to do this."
"No, I don't, but I..." Xander hesitated and swallowed hard. He suddenly looked like a caged animal.
"Xander?" Faith asked in concern.
"I'm immortal Faith. I don't age, not like the rest of you," Xander said, making no sense to Faith whatsoever.
"I'm not getting you. What are you trying to say?" Faith asked.
"It's just that... Faith, I..." Xander stumbled.
"Oh, no! No! No! No! No! No!" Faith shouted with a terrified expression on her face, hoisting herself from the ledge. "NO!"
"Faith..."
"No! We've had a good thing goin' between us! Just... No..." Faith crossed her arms and walked away from Xander, keeping her back to him.
There was a roar of thunder and a small explosion where lightning struck the ledge. Faith ducked her head when she started being pelted with small pieces of debris. She turned back to see that Xander was gone as well as a large portion of the ledge, the remnants of which were charred.
"I-I'm sorry, Xand..." she whispered into the wind.
Power surged through Xander as he approached the giant serpentine form of the Mayor, his eyes glowing crimson. He ignored everything except his target and everything that approached was zapped to dust by the electrical discharge field Xander was putting out.
"Do you possibly think you can defeat me!" the demonic form of Mayor Wilkins shouted down to the Thunder God. "I am a god!"
Xander sent a controlled jolt of electricity at the former mayor-turned-demon, who roared in pain, but was forced away from the students fighting back against the vampiric horde. Another jolt sent the mayor crashing into the school. The Mayor regrouped and lunged towards Xander who promptly hit him again with an even stronger, prolonged surge of lightning. "No, I am a god."
Xander then raised his hands in the air, and storm clouds gathered above the mayor, lightning surging, thunder rolling. Suddenly, dozens of lightning bolts streamed down from the sky, each striking that mayor, one after another. The Mayor thrashed around in pain, unable to move as more and more electricity surged through his body, searing his skin. Xander then brought his hands down and dozens turned to hundreds, if not thousands. It seemed as if the many individual bolts turned into one large on as the converged on the Mayor, who let out one last pained roar before a flash of light blinded everyone.
When everyone's vision returned, they were met with the sight of an angry looking Xander Harris looking menacingly at the attackers, his eyes still glowing a menacing red, breathing heavily, electricity surging through his body. Behind him, the scattering ashes of the recently vaporized Old One blew away in the wind. "Leave."
The invading vampires, suddenly very terrified for their very existence, immediately went into full retreat.
The rest of the Scoobies began to hesitantly converge on Xander, however, they were stopped when Xander raised his electricity encased hand, palm out, pointed directly at Faith.
"Xand..." Faith said helplessly.
"What do you think you're doing!?" shouted Willow who stepped in front of Faith, much to the surprise of everyone present as the budding wicca's animosity towards the dark haired slayer was well known.
"Willow... It's... This is something I have to deal with," Faith told her.
"But you're not! And neither is he! You two have been dancing around each other since you found him," Willow snapped, not moving from her place between Xander and Faith. "A little flirting here, a bit of innuendo there... Both of you spending practically all of your free time together until the other day."
"It's... Complicated..." Faith replied.
Willow sighed. "Of course it is, but whatever happened between you, it shouldn't have to come down to this!" She then turned her attention to Xander who still hadn't moved or depowered. "What happened to you, Xander? What happened to the sweet guy that was always there for me, defended me, who shared his crayons with me and always held me up when I was feeling down?"
"He went to hell, Wills... I haven't been him in three centuries and if you guys didn't spend so much time acting as if nothing had changed, you'd have noticed that," Xander spat.
"How could we? You wouldn't let us in!" Willow argued. "You pulled away from all of us, even me! The harder we tried, the harder you pushed us back. The only person who could get through to you was Faith, so we did what you wanted and gave you your space!"
"And look how well that turned out," Xander sneered. Faith flinched.
"Xand... You're hurting, I get that. I also get that none of us can ever truly get what you're going through. But Xander, I cried myself to sleep for a month after you went through that portal," Willow stated, tears welling in her eyes. "I can't go through losing you again and that's exactly what will happen if you do what you're about to do. Faith made a mistake, one she's been constantly regretting since what happened between you two happened. Don't let it destroy you."
"She... I was healing Wills, and she was a big part of that. She... She got me and didn't judge. She didn't shy away from what happened to me or walk on eggshells around me whenever it came up in conversation. We... I... I didn't feel worthless or useless with her," Xander replied.
"I know, Xand. And you're not. Not to her or me or any of us! You killed a full blooded demon, an Old One. Someone who was useless couldn't have accomplished that, god powers or no! And you're not worthless either. You never have been, even when you were just plain old Xander!" Willow insisted.
"Then... Why..?" Xander asked.
"Because I was stupid and scared," Faith spoke up. "I freaked. This thing between us... It's different from anything else I've been through. More intense. It scares the hell outta me how much you can hurt me without even lifting a finger. I... I'm scared Xand, of what this might mean for the both of us."
"And after everything, did it not occur to you that you might have the same power over me, that you could hurt me just as badly!" Xander asked accusingly. "You did hurt me!" The electricity in his arm intensified.
"And hurt herself just as much!" Willow argued. "Whether either of you will admit it, you both love each other. If you didn't, this wouldn't be happening. So if you want to destroy the source of what little happiness you've had in the last 300 years, go ahead. But you're going to have to kill me first. I won't watch you destroy yourself."
"No! I won't let you die for me, Red!" Faith informed her.
"You act like I'm giving you a choice!" Willow shot back.
"I'm a Slayer and I could easily move you out of my way!" Faith told her. "This was my fuck-up and I deserve whatever happens because I was too much of a dumb-ass to let myself feel what I feel for him! You're not the only one who loves him, but I am the one who hurt him and I won't let you pay that price me, because you're worth a hundred of me, the gutter trash from the wrong side of the tracks!"
"You're not worthless," Xander said to her. His eyes stopped glowing and his arm had dropped down to his side. No longer did he look like a Lightning God of Vengeance, but a saddened teenager whose head was bowed in shame. "You... You mean a lot to me."
"You mean a lot to me too. To all of us," Faith replied softly. "I-I'm sorry."
"I know. I'm sorry too," Xander told her. "I'm leaving."
"When will you be back?" Faith asked in trepidation.
Xander shook his head. "I don't know. Wait for me?"
"As long as I have to," Faith answered, much to her own surprise, without a single ounce of hesitation.
Lightning struck Xander and he was gone.
Faith, meanwhile, crashed into Willow's arms, sobbing. "It'll be all right. You'll see." She whispered to the distraught slayer.
"You're a god too, right? Can't you stop her?" Buffy asked Xander.
Xander grimaced. "Not a good idea Buffster. The physics of this world couldn't handle it."
"Why not? You took out the Mayor," Willow inquired.
"Forget 'world of cardboard'," Xander stated. "More like a 'world of thin leaflet paper'. We're not talking property damage. We're talking a complete rearrangement of the entire landscape if not destruction of an entire continent."
"The Mayor had only recently transformed," Giles pointed out. "He hadn't had the chance to truly come into his power. Glory, on the other hand, trapped in a mortal vessel as she is, is still a divine being of substantial power and experience. Many of this world's most catastrophic disasters can be attributed to divine forces colliding against one another."
"Damn..." Faith said.
"Me fighting her is definitely last resort, especially if we want to keep the damage to a minimum," Xander told them. "I'll confront her if I have to, but doing so will have dire consequences."
Buffy was looking worried as they made their way to Glory's tower.
"We'll save her," Xander assured her.
Faith looked troubled. "How much trouble are you gonna be in after everything goes down?"
"A lot less than if I were to just let Dawn die and have the world end without doing everything I can to prevent it from happening," Xander replied.
"I don't want to lose you," Faith told him.
"I know and if everything goes to plan, you won't," Xander said comfortingly.
"Speaking of which, what exactly is this plan, mister?" Willow asked suspiciously.
"Just something I have to do to keep the collateral damage down," Xander replied. "You guys keep Glory's minions busy and grab Dawn. I'll handle the Wicked Bitch of the East."
"What aren't you telling us, Sparks?" Faith asked.
"Do you trust me?" Xander asked.
"More than anything. But I can't help but think something is about to go horribly wrong," Faith said worriedly.
"Then let's hope it doesn't," Xander replied.
"You again," Glory spat. "You here to stall me again? While I'm still like this, you can't touch me Thunder God and even if you could, you'd risk hurting those pathetic insects you seem so fond of!"
"I know what I'm risking better than anyone one. I only hope they can forgive me one day, but you've given me no choice, I can't allow you to destroy Earthrealm," Xander stated firmly, his resolve as hard as iron.
And just what do you think you could possibly do to me?" The Hell Goddess asked with no small amount of incredulity.
"I challenge you..." Xander said as lightning surged through his body, his eyes glowing white. "To Mortal Kombat!"