A Demon Reborn
Chapter 001 – All Hollow's Eve, and a Demon's New Heir
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What if, right before that fateful Halloween, Xander chose a different costume, one chosen from one of Giles' demon encyclopedias? How will not only Sunnydale, but the Universe fare with Alexander Harris, the heir of the Underworld's strongest Demon?
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Xander sighed as he walked into the library. Buffy had saved his ass earlier from Larry, but he had overreacted and ranted too her that she had hurt his reputation (and on that point, first, when did he ever gain one beyond being the King of the Cretins, the Lord of the Losers, the Forerunner of the Freaks, and all other titles along the same lines, and secondly, when did he even CARE about reputation beyond the Cretins/Losers/Freaks titles!) and stormed off. When he had cooled off, however, he realized that she was just trying to help, even if it showed that she thought he couldn't stand up for himself.
As he looked around the library, he pushed that thought out of his head and remembered why he was here. His mother, on one of those few sober moments, decided that it would be good to donate to charity, and gave all of her and his father's too small clothes to a neighbor who had joined the Peace Corps to give to the natives. That would be fine by him, if not for the fact that, one unnoticed by her, the military fatigues that he was going to use for Halloween had fallen into one of the boxes, and by the time he had noticed and asked her, the neighbor in question had already left Sunnyhell.
While moaning about his loss, he decided to go to the library. For some reason, looking at the demon-y books calmed him, even if he told the others otherwise. One secret he had was that he liked to learn, and was actually smart. He kept it hidden for a few reasons. His dad considered smartness a sign of a wimp and tried to make him tougher via beating, so that was a good reason, and by the time he learned how to fake a report card any sign of smartness would be classified as cheating, so that was another reason to fly under the radar.
The final reason was good ol' Willow. Xander saw how she was competitive with that, and she prided herself on being the smartest. If Xander showed how smart he actually was, she would try harder and harder to get smarter and be the best and Xander knew how she and the rules actually were, as shown by her hacking. He knew it was good for everyone for the Xan-man to be dumb. Unfortunately for him, it seemed that Giles had moved his calming demon-y books that were in English somewhere else.
As he scanned titles of various books for new or old ones, a bit in other Human-spoken and written languages besides English (unfortunately, the only language he knew besides English was Klingon and a little Spanish), a bit of texts he could just sense they weren't of Earthly origin, and, unfortunately for him, none so far in English, he accidently knocked off one of the books, one that he hadn't noticed before. When he bent down and picked it up, he yelped in pain.
"Damn thing scratched me!" He said out loud. One his left index finger, there was a dot of blood, like when you donate blood. While he was looking at his finger, he didn't notice the cover of the book glowing for a second, the glow getting brighter around the blood, before it disappeared, the blood vanishing too.
"Hello? Is anyone out there?" Xander cursed as he heard this and saw shadows moving in Giles office. He knew that if Giles caught him and found out what he was up to he would be in trouble. He wouldn't understand without explaining and that was not going to happen. Quickly, he picked the book up and seeing as he couldn't see a quick place to put it that wouldn't be spotted as moved and investigated, he decided to test his luck with the new, finger-pricking book. He quickly ran over to the doors and out, shutting it just as Giles walked out.
"Huh, that's weird…"Giles said to himself. "Guess I'm just hearing things." He wandered back into his office.
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When he had got outside he stopped running and looked over the book, he saw that it was in English.
"Huh. That's weird. First one I've seen in English since Giles moved his other books, and a new, not read one at that. I thought for sure at this point that Giles kept all of his English ones locked up somewhere. I guess not though... well, at least I'll be able to read this. That would suck if I had almost got caught for nothing."
As he flipped through the book (Titled "Guide to the Underworld and Beginner Magic" by Penny Halliwell), he saw that it was, like the title said, a guide of sorts with tips to show whether that you had Magic, along with notes on a variety of demons, both demonic species, and singular demons. As he flipped towards the back, he saw that the book had a note halfway through that wasn't written by the Penny person, but someone else as shown by the writing style (he should know, considering he had to forge his parent's signature for times when he need their signature and they were drunk off their ass). The rest of the book was written by the same person who did the note, along with a few others.
The note was pretty much letting whoever read the book that they had found it when a demon was hurled through dimensions by something, and that it had the book along with a type of knife called an athame and other odds and ends. It was also said, to his surprise, that only a magic user could open it, and to anyone that wasn't a user just saw a cookbook (and a detailed one with working recipes at that!).
"Does this mean I can use magic?" Xander said in shock. He looked at his watch out of habit and jumped. "Ah crap ah crap ah crap! I'm late! I was supposed to meet the girls at the new costume place an hour ago! I'm screwed." As he ran off, he stuffed the book under his shirt.
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As he wandered into the store, he could see that a good chunk of stuff was gone, and most of the crowd that was left was taking stuff up to the register as he watched. As he sighed and started to look around, he could see that it would pretty much be a lost cause. He wandered around for about five minutes before he was tapped on the back.
He yelped as he spun around to face a middle-aged man (most likely Ethan from the store's name) who looked to be British or at least European.
"Is there anything I can help you with young man?" The guy (confirmed to be British, considering his accent was the same as Giles') asked Xander.
"Well for starters, you could not sneak up on me like that!" Xander said.
"Sorry. Do you have an idea on what you want? Also, since you and the other five here are most likely my last customers, whatever you buy is $20 max."
"Well…" Xander said kind of stunned about the discount. "I don't really have much of an idea since I thought I had a costume until…wait a minute!" Xander remembered a certain being in the book that had caught his attention.
"Hey, uh Ethan right? Do you have a piece of paper I can sketch a quick pic on? I don't think I could describe it well enough to work." After being given a piece of paper and a pencil, he sketched out a rough drawing of the being's clothes. "Do you have something or things that could look like this?"
After being handed the drawing by Xander, Ethan blinked in shock. A day or two ago, he had done a quick ritual to get an outfit which could cause the most chaos. The clothes that appeared, and the drawing were the same. Of course there were some flaws, but that was most likely the boy's drawing. Ethan hadn't seen anyone yet who he thought could pull off whatever chaos the outfit would provide, but the boy has not only known about it or something like it, but when he scanned the boy, he could see the chaos this boy attracted in waves!
"Uh… luckily enough for you, I do have an outfit like this. It's in the back however, so it'll take a minute or two to get it. Let me go get it." As Ethan wandered towards the back, Xander smiled.
"Score one for the Xan-Man!"
When Ethan came back, he saw that Xander had put some fake set of facial hair (just a 5:00 clock shadow) on the counter as well, paid him and left. As Ethan waited for the other customers to finish however, he wondered. From the second he saw the outfit from when it appeared, he knew he had seen it somewhere before, he just couldn't think of what. He knew it was something from when he was younger, but he was drawing a total black.
"Well," Ethan muttered to himself as he looked around, "I know I'll think of it later."
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Joyce Summers sighed as she looked around. It was Halloween and her girls were upstairs getting dressed, along with Willow. Buffy was wearing some kind of 17th or 18th century frilly noblewoman's dress that looked, in her opinion, utterly atrocious, while trying to convince Willow into an outfit that looked like she should be patrolling Bourbon Street in New Orleans at night for tips. Willow, however, had seemed to be trying to stay with the classic sheet ghost, while her little Dawn was acting as the Devil's Advocate for both sides and instilling chaos whenever it liked like they were going to calm down.
Meanwhile, her little Dawn, to Buffy's shock and her humor, was going as Alice from the various Alice in Wonderland stories. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, which was surprising, considering that it was a little early for people to come for candy. As she walked out of the kitchen towards the door, she wondered how Buffy was able to get her into a costume as well, especially considering who it was.
She opened the door and gazed in shock. It was Buffy and Dawn's friend Alexander, but he was wearing leather-ish pants and some kind of leather coat that closed with a set of descending horizontal strips of leather. Under the coat she could see what looked like black turtleneck. He had also got a fake set of facial hair (including sideburns) that looked like he hadn't seen a razor in a day or two, and to top it all off, he had either found a wig or cut his hair into a pseudo-buzz-cut. In all, the look kind of suited him, other than the fact he now looked like he was from the Middle East and not America. However, she did have to wonder about something…
"Well hellooo Mrs. Robinson!" Xander said, adding a wolf whistle to try and get his point across. "Wear that again next Halloween and I'll make sure to be the Batman to your Catwoman."
"Xander!" She said blushing as she smacked his arm. "There are two things I should say. One; even if you could get a real Bat-suit, I am so out of your league. Secondly; is there any reson why you dressed as Oded Fehr?"
"Who?"
Before Joyce could tell him of Ardeth Bay and Carlos Olivera, her oldest walked down the stairs. After a bit of bantering between the two and a minute later Willow, her young Dawn came down with the force of a thousand stampeding elephants.
"Xander!" She shouted as she got him in a flying hug, almost knocking both of them down in the process. After a few minutes more, Willow, Buffy, Xander, and Dawn were out of the house, trooping off towards the high school.
Joyce sighed as she went back into the kitchen. A night alone with occasional trick-or-treaters without either of her daughters there with her to help keep her sane. Joy.
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"The world that denies thee, thou inhabit," Ethan said to the statue in the back of his shop. He dabbed the blood in his left hand with a finger from his right hand and smeared it over his right eyelid. "The peace that ignores thee," he repeated the process except with the blood from his right hand using his left hand finger and his left eyelid, "thou corrupt." He used his right hand finger and the left hand blood again to smear a cross onto his forehead, "Chaos. I remain, as ever, thy faithful, degenerate son."
As he felt the ritual activate, his eyes widened in fear for two reasons. One, the ritual, for some reason, took more power than he had expected it to. However, he had a stock of potions nearby incase such an event did happen. The second thing was, he had finally realized where he had seen that outfit from before. It was from the book that the demon he, Ripper, and the others had killed when they were younger, the book that they added to, each with their own branch of stuff. That book had disappeared when the group had disbanded, though he had always thought that Ripper had taken it.
Remembering that he had overheard some kids from the high school talking about a British Librarian, alongside that particular being coming to life, if even just for a night, he thought it wise to get out of Sunnydale soon. Those two were dangerous, though he wasn't sure which was worse. Ripper had been a right devil when he had known him, and could only learn more over the years, but the demon could do things to you physically or mentally that were just… he ended that particular train of thought and grabbed one of the potions, and while it was working, decided that it was necessary to his well-being that he got the Hell out of Dodge, and fast.
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Xander shook his head as he slowly stood up. The last thing he remembered was heading back to the school, when he felt something that was the equivalent of a mental tidal wave slammed into him, his group of trick-or-treaters, and most of the other costumed people in sight shown by their flinching and holding their heads. After that, it was just a jumble of memories moving too fast for him to see.
As he looked around, he noticed something about his surroundings that was most likely very important. It was white. Not snow-based white, or white furniture fetish-based, or even padded psych room with matching straitjacket white, but endlessness, and it wasn't so much white, as the absence of color. Well, except for him. He could see himself, and could move his limbs, but couldn't move from his spot in the air. This was likely a good thing however, considering the fact that there was nothing below him, so he would likely fall forever or until something or someone stopped him.
"Hello?" He called out, noticing the fact that all he received was an echo. "Hellloooo? Anyone or anything there? …ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall, take it down an-"
"Enough."
"You don't have to be so mean dear brother."
"What the hell!" Xander shout as he tried to see where the voices had come from. They had sounded like they came from everywhere at once, yet from inside his head at the same time. It was highly disconcerting.
"Don't bother trying to find us. We are beings beyond you."
"Again with the meanness. However, I think our guest would like an explanation on both his location and his situation."
"Ummm… yea, I kinda need to know, preferably before my mental breakdown." Xander quipped as he tried to get his breathing under control. It wasn't every day that he woke up in a place he had decided to dub 'Limbo', and talk to a brother and sister, both of which he was guessing was a higher being then him. It was even worse for him, considering he had kind of sworn of religion after learning the truth about the things that go bump in the night. The fact was that most of what was out there had helped Xander believe that if there was a God, he had packed up and left a while ago.
"You are currently in our realm, while on Earth, time has stopped. We have done this because of a problem."
"Because of the mage Ethan Rayne, everyone was turned into their costumes for the night. Vampires would be vampires, yeti's would be yetis, your classmate Larry became a pirate. It was all supposed to wear off either when Day came, or the bust of Janus, which he had called upon to do the spell, was broken."
"However, it has not faded all the way from you for some unexplained reason. We believe it to be because everyone else had gone as something that was either gereralized, or not real, unlike your costume on both fronts. It could also be because the Mage got the costume from Janus as a way to spread more chaos."
"Ummm," Xander mumbled, " what does this have to do with me, and what does it mean?"
"You still have the memories of the Demon. You still have the powers of the Demon. You still have the consciousness of the Demon. This is unacceptable. Normally we would get rid of you for causing an imbalance, of which you have now tipped to Good and allowed Evil their own tool to tip it back. However, you have a destiny here. What, is for some reason unknown to even us. However, it is something major. Therefore, we wish to evict you from this universe for the time being."
"What! What the Hell does that even mean? Why am I having to go? Where am I going to go? When am I goi-"
"Please, be silent, just for a little bit. Even though my brother told you about that, he left a lot of things out."
"Like?" Xander said, wondering (and slightly hoping) if he had snapped and while this was all going on, he was actually wearing a straitjacket while drooling in a padded room.
"Like the fact that when we, as my brother put it, evict you, it shall not be permanent. You still have a destiny here, however because of the Halloween event, it is not right now. The 'evicting' as my brother said, will not be at random. It is not going to be to a Hell dimension. Tell me, what do you know of parallel universes?"
"… nothing." Xander said sheepishly.
"Parallel universes are universes where an event has gone a different way from an event in your world or another. For instance, your president… Kennedy was not killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, but someone else, or in another, he lived on. Just the same, The Axis could have won WWII, or Napoleon could have succeeded in conquering the world. Some worlds will look the same to you, and others would be radically different. We are going to transport you to one of these universes, not necessary one of the ones I just listed, but another universe all the same."
"Why?" Said Xander. "Why do I have to go to another universe? What's wrong with just leaving Sunnyhell and coming back whenever my 'destiny' is ready for me?"
"Because, with your new powers and memories, you have tipped the Balance towards Good. Whenever a change like this happens to Good or Bad, the other side is allowed to equal with something of their own. While you may be inexperienced, they will send someone or something that has the experience to back up the power. Therefore, before you are noticed by the Other Side, you need to be gone."
"However, since you have to do this, or be deleted from existence, we shall grant you a boon. All of your belongings, including the book you got your Halloween costume from, will come with you, along with a small apartment with the first two months paid off. This is to make sure that you make it. However, after that, you are on your own."
"Will...will I have time to say goodbye to the others?"
"Unfortunately, no. Even keeping you here this long is risky. However, do not worry Alexander. You may see them again someday. Now, goodbye young one."
"Good luck. You shall soon need it."
Before Xander could say anything else, he felt something. It felt like the Halloween mental wave thingy that had most likely been the possession. This however, felt different. It was more subtle, yet infinitely more powerful. Before he could complete his thought, he found out what it felt like to be collapsed into a point smaller than a pin's head. One second, he was there, the next; gone.
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As he woke up, he noticed a few things. One, he was lying on carpet. Two, he could hear thunder outside the windows. And three, he was in excruciating pain.
"Note to self; next time I go somewhere, I will not be getting there the same way as I got here. I will never do that again, ever!"
"Boy, if we ever meet those beings again, they will most likely do the same thing to you just for you saying that."
Xander froze. That voice, like the 'Divine Siblings' as he had decided to call the two he had encountered, he had heard in his head, like he always imagined telepathy to be, but unlike the DS, the voice was only in his head.
"Interesting. You are one of the few people I've seen who realize right off the bat that their hearing telepathy, and not spoken words."
"Annnd, you would happen to be in my head why?"
"Didn't you hear one of the voices? You kept the memories, and powers of a certain demon, along with its consciousness, which was likely done so you wouldn't kill yourself the first time you use your powers. Lucky for you I was dead, so you got the real me and not an echo."
Xander blinked in shock. "So you mean to tell me that I now have the consciousness of a demon in my head, and therefore its voice in my head, which means I'm hearing dead people!"
"Funnily enough, yes."
Xander sighed as he held his head. "Sooo…" he mumbled out between his fingers. "What do we do now? And what is your name anyway?"
"Interesting." The voice said. "You are handling this better than I thought you would. I was for sure you would have had a mental breakdown by this point."
"I lived on the Hellmouth. That's explanation enough, isn't it? If I had a mental breakdown anytime something supernatural happened, I would never make it out of the hospital. I got to say though, this probably takes the cake."
"Yes, well… I do have some ideas, but they need some work. However, my name…" Xander could just sense the grin I his head. "You may call me Zankou.
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Hello loyal readers! Zoanzon here! I'm sorry I've been offline for so long; mostly writer's block and a case of boredom, with school and my subsequent trip to Texas for spice. With that down, hopefully I will start up again. Anyway, I have noticed that in most BtVS/Charmed fics, Xander is either gay w/ Chris or Wyatt or related to the Sisters (and that ALL Harry Potter/Charmed fics, Harry is related to the Sisters or gay w/ Wyatt or Chris). Therefore, I have decided to make a new direction in this branch of crossover fics (with a twist), AND try a YAHF (Yet another Halloween Fic) for myself.
As you all see, this is the beginnings of a tale where, after Halloween, Xander is sent to another universe. However, it is not the Charmed Universe he is in. Not yet, anyway. Anyway, after something goes wrong, he is flung from one universe to another, with no control of the event. That is just a rough approximation of what will happen however, so don't get your hopes up for exactly that kind of story. Even if my muse keeps it that way, it may take a while before the flinging begins (you'll see what I mean. Muahahahahaha!) Now, everyone, I need you to review. Constructive critisim, ideas for me to implement, even just say how you like or dislike something in it. I want to know how you guys feel about my story. Well, I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but hopefully I can crank it out soon.