Azure Halloween
Summary: Crossover with something of my own invention Halloween fic. Things will never be the same again for Xander.
Disclaimer: Buffy belongs to Fox Interactive and Mutant Enemy. No copyright infringement intended. Anything not recognizable as someone else's work most likely belongs to me. Mitts off.
Chapter 2
Xander sighed, curled in a comfortable half-sitting-half-lying position on his bed, his expression thoughtful. At some level realized he was nearly brooding and a brooding Xander was not good- heck, a brooding Xander was against the laws of nature- but things in general weren't good. He had a good reason to be almost brooding.
FLASH
Screams in the night, animated skeletons, stench of blood and terror, crush the bones, RIP, TEAR, PROTECT…
FLASH
Xander winced and pressed his palms to his pounding temples. Ever since the cursed Halloween night two weeks ago he'd been.. different. Ok, so Willow had been checking the walls on the first few days in case she could phase through them and Larry the football player, who had dressed up as a pirate, had been going 'Arrrrrrr!' until Snyder gave him detention, and Buffy could suddenly speak old French, but.. something had happened to him. Sometimes he'd remember things he knew had never happened to him and sometimes he'd get these odd flashes of memories that mercenary, Skye, had somehow left behind.. along with a few other things. The braided ponytail was easy enough to get rid of, but his eyes.. they were still the odd shade of golden Skye's had been, with no signs of returning to normal. At least people thought he had contacts- explaining that his eye color had just changed overnight could get.. interesting. For once the SDS- Sunnydale Denial Syndrome- was actually of use to him.
That wasn't the least of his problems. Xander had no idea who this 'Skye' had been, but he hadn't been your standard issue Human. His memories from that Halloween night were foggy at best but Willow had told him she'd seen him throw the mace he'd had hard enough to wreck a car, or instantly destroy a vampire. He could vaguely remember fighting a demon that would've normally eaten him for breakfast... and he had come inches away from dusting Deadboy Junior with some kind of a lightning ball spell. He had a sneaking suspicion that the entire 'mercenary for hire' thing had been a facade for something, but what?
Which brought him to the third point. Most of the costume- the leather armor, the amulet, the gauntlets, boots and trousers- had turned back to normal when the spell had ended. The mace- which was obviously enchanted- hadn't. It was now solid black steel, decorated with silvery runes, and every now and then a jolt of electricity would arc between two spikes with a nasty snap and a puff of the sour smell of ozone. He had to use both his hands to just lift the damn thing and every time he tried to pick it up it would give him a nasty zap for his troubles. He had finally nicked a pair of rubber gloves from the kitchen and hauled it to the back of his closet, wrapped it in a thick layer of plastic bags and buried it under a mountain of laundry to silence it.
The freakiest part yet was that.. he was growing. Xander could only guess that whatever lingering essence Skye had left behind was trying to strengthen him. Whatever the reason, he had already gained an inch in height. He was slightly stronger now, slightly faster and slightly more agile. His growth spurt had suddenly made him want to move, to run or jump or something to get rid of his excess energy, so he had made a habit of running around a few blocks after school, well before dusk and as far as possible from abandoned warehouses and other possible vamp-nests. Every day he could run a bit faster and further before tiring, jump a little higher and lift a little heavier things, and there seemed to be no end to it. The changes were slow and gradual.. He wouldn't have had noticed anything if G-man hadn't recruited him to help with some new books he had ordered. What really frightened him was the fact that even his jaw muscles were stronger now.. and that his canines, on both his upper and lower jaw, were slightly lengthened, too. They still weren't anything like vamp fangs but he now had officially one of the freakiest grins he'd ever seen. Lucky him no one seemed to notice that. Xander really hoped he wouldn't have to visit a dentist in the near future.
At some level Xander knew he should've been happy now that he was becoming something actually useful to the Scoobies- Buffy was, after all, the Slayer, Willow was a witch-in-training, and Giles was a Watcher, but Xander.. well, he had been just a normal Human- and he had no idea why he now thought 'Human' with a capital H- teenager. But now that he was getting powers of his own.. he wasn't sure if whatever he was.. maturing.. into even was Human.
And that possibility terrified him. Especially now that Deadboy was Killer Deadboy, could they afford losing one of the Scoobies? Even him, the self-proclaimed Zeppo, could be useful, but if whatever he was becoming was hostile.. Could they handle two enemies at the same time, especially if Skye was as powerful Willow had made him seem?
Xander shook his head, sighing again. Possible metamorphosis aside, his current problem, however, was the fact that Skye's leftover information seemed to be affecting his personality as well. Most of it seemed completely harmless- like the fact that he now had a new soft spot for children, an insane caffeine addiction and a strong dislike of large insects- but Willow seemed to be suspecting something. Every now and then she'd be staring at him when she thought he wasn't looking. That made him nervous, since.. Well, if Willow told Buffy she thought he was still possessed, the Slayer's first reaction would probably be 'How do we kill it?'. That couldn't be good for him. If Willow knew he was worried, he'd have to calm down and resolve this on his own. He couldn't tell the rest of the Scoobies of his.. condition.. at least not yet.
He heard the sound of a car driving past the house and looked outside, watching the evening sun fall slowly. It was time to patrol.
----
Xander carefully slid a hand on his crossbow, checking it was properly loaded for the thirteenth time in the last half an hour. Willow was slightly behind him, to his left, Xander could hear her breathing if he tried hard enough; Buffy was leading them along the graveyard path four or five yards ahead, a shortsword in her right hand, a stake in her left and several others clipped to her belt. Xander was armed with his crossbow, the bolt casing slung across his right shoulder, four stakes and a triplet of small vials of holy water strapped to his belt. Willow had several stakes, a crossbow and a cross on her. Apparently Skye had left behind an instinctive habit of making sure he knew exactly where his allies were and what weapons they were packing. Xander decided that was one of the good habits he'd received. One of the not so good ones was that every time he heard something unusual his hand went instinctively over his shoulder looking for a mace that was not there. Willow kept giving him odd looks for that.
It was three hours into their usual patrol route- the one that took them through most the graveyards and parks in Sunnydale the shortest way possible- and they still hadn't seen anything. Willow seemed happy anything hadn't tried to eat them yet and Buffy looked slightly ticked. Xander himself was nervous. Vampires usually didn't bother to wait when a potential meal- namely them- was nearby. They'd go for the kill- what humans could stand up to them, anyway?- and they'd get dusted. Something was wrong, Xander could feel it, and it was driving both him and what was left of Skye up the walls. he nearly hoped a vamp would pop up just so he could take out his pent-up energy on it.
There was a slight rustling sound to his right and without thinking Xander spun around and pulled the trigger. The bolt sailed into the darkness around them with a faint whistling sound. Moments later there was a hollow thwack sound as the bolt sunk deep into an unsuspecting oak.
Buffy stopped and gave Xander a look. "Way to go, Xander, you just slayed your first tree. Geez, tense much?"
Xander pulled out a second bolt and reloaded the crossbow, glaring at the Slayer. "I'm not tense, that was an evil vampire tree.. I don't like this, Buffster. It's too quiet."
"See, maybe that's where you're wrong, Xander" Willow piped in. "Since there aren't any vampires around it's so quiet and since it's quiet we aren't being attacked and I think it's nice for a change, I mean, with no vampires.."
Xander gave Willow an unblinking, steady look. Willow stammered on for a moment before giving Buffy a deploring look. "Tell him to stop Buffy, that look is just too.. too.. not Xander!"
Xander rolled his eyes. "What I was saying is that something's up and we don't know what, and that's making me edgy. Something's even more wrong than usual here, and that can't be good."
He sensed them before he heard them. All the hairs on his neck stood up like the time that freaky mace had zapped him. The feeling of inherent wrongness around him intensified so suddenly Xander felt slimy or dirty like he'd just been dropped down a manhole. There was the slightest crunch of gravel beneath a heavy boot to his left and he let loose a second bolt without even bothering to aim. His bolt whizzed through the night and as it disappeared from sight there was a surprisingly soft thud and a startled grunt that broke off abruptly into the soft pitter-patter of falling dust.
Later Xander would remember that moment as the second everything went to Hell- figuratively speaking, of course, though you never knew at the Hellmouth. Hisses filled the night as glowing amber vampire eyes burning with unholy hunger flickered to sight everywhere around them. There were at least twenty of them, men and women, young and old, all with their vamp-faces on.
Xander didn't remember falling back before he found himself back-to-back with Willow and Buffy.
"Too quiet, huh, Xand?" Buffy growled.
Xander snarled back back, his teeth bared. "So much for 'no vamps'.."
Fangs glinting in the moonlight, the vampires moved to attack and Xander found himself too busy to even try for one of his snarky comments. He got off two surprisingly accurate crossbow shots- one directly to the heart, the other right into the right eye- before the vamps were too close for him to reload. He swapped the crossbow to his left hand and snatched one of the stakes off his belt.
----
As fights went, it was a sweaty, chaotic and completely uncoordinated skirmish. The vampires were strong, but they were completely uncontrolled with no signs of any kind of teamplay- thus, they were constantly in each others way, and they couldn't all get to them once, luckily enough. The first vamp that attacked Xander was swiftly staked. Xander ducked swiftly a wild swing from the second while bashing one that had tried to sneak past him at Willow over the head with his crossbow. Buffy was swearing rather colorfully- Xander hadn't even known she knew some of those words, heck, he didn't even know what some of them meant- and he realized the vampires were concentrating on the strongest opponent so that they could pick him and Willow off more easily. For some odd reason that made him feel both indignant and really ticked off at the same time.
The vampire he had smacked shook its head, growling, and turned to face him. Instinctively Xander fell into a stance he guessed had been left over from Skye, his feed in a stout, slightly spread position, his weight on the balls of his feet and his back so very slightly hunched over. Before the vamp could react Xander had already knocked it over the head again and stabbed it to the heart with his stake when it dropped its defenses. The thwang of Willow's crossbow echoed in the night. "I got one!"
"Go Wills!" Xander shouted.
If you wish to control your fighting you need to know where to hit your opponent, Xander suddenly heard a deep, soft voice in his mind. He flinched before he realized it was one of Skye's memory fragments brought up by the fight.
For disabling blows go for the hands, the knees, the groin, the stomach, the head and the eyes. Xander brought the sharp-edged bow section of the crossbow across the face of a vampire in a swift swipe, eliciting a satisfying scream as stolen blood leaked from its blinded eyes. It brought its hands up to cup its face and Xander stabbed it in the chest. It exploded into dust in mid-shriek. Xander realized he wasn't even sweating, let alone tiring like he should have been.
For lethal blows.. aim for the throat, the neck, the chest and where the flesh is soft directly beneath where the ribs join. Skye's voice went on.
Xander sprang forward, slamming his elbow straight to the gut of a stunned vampire. As it doubled over (how it managed to wheeze without actually breathing Xander had no idea) he backhanded one to the face, surprising both himself and the vampire as the force of the slap threw it onto its back.
"Someone's been taking their vitamins!" Buffy shouted at him, staking a vampire while kicking one that had tried to sneak up on her to the nuts. Xander held back a wince of male sympathy as it keeled over. Then he staked it.
I pray to the Dragon Lord you will never need this knowledge.
Xander blinked at how weary the memory suddenly sounded. He'd thought Skye had liked fighting, guessing from his 'mercenary' occupation and from what Willow had told him.
His lapse in concentration cost him. One of the vampires got in a kick from his side that hurled him a good fifteen feet though the air. His head hit a stone barely buried beneath the grass and the explosion of pain and nausea made him nearly pass out. The stake fell from his slack hand.
Willow's voice called for him from somewhere far away as the world spun around him.. along with a voice from the dark recesses of his mind that he knew he had never heard before but he recognized instantly from Skye's memories. Sher'auch'na. Born-Of-Wind, a memory fragment translated the alien yet so familiar words.
The vampire stood over him, growling, its fangs bared in a macabre grin. As it bowed closer Xander felt suddenly a surge of incredible fury, his dizziness disappearing like somebody had flipped a switch somewhere. He bared his own nearly-fanglike teeth in a wild snarl. The vampire looked doubtful for a split second.
It was enough. Xander's hand found a vial of holy water clipped to his belt. It felt oddly warm to his hand as a single flick of a thumb popped the stopper off. His hand whipped out, splashing most of the blessed liquid directly into the face and the eyes of the vampire. There was a horrible acidic bubbling, fizzling sound and an incredibly painful yowl as the water burnt the vampire's face.
Later Xander would have no accurate recollection of exactly how he managed it, but in a split second he had flipped onto his knees and pounced at the vampire, taking it clean off its feet, all the while growling like an animal of some sort. At the time all he thought of was that this unholy thing had hurt him and would have hurt his closest. He grabbed a stake from his belt and brought it down with so much force the tapered point actually buried itself in the soil before the vampire disintegrated beneath him.
He stood up, shaking his head to clear off the odd haze that had overtook him. There were only five vampires left, three against a very pissed off Buffy (no problems there) one that was being held back by Willow's cross.. and one that was sneaking up on the red-haired Scooby, too far for him or Buffy to intercept. The stake in Xander's hand was blunt from the last blow, and as Xander reached for a replacement he realized with a growing horror somehow the two spare stakes had been torn off at some earlier point.
Xander snatched one of his holy water vials, weighing it in his hand. It was about the size of a perfume bottle, like three of his fingers together, made of thin glass with a simple stopper. As he tossed it up and down in his hand the more sensible part of him- the one about survival, one that had suddenly begun to sound suspiciously like Skye- told him what he was about to do was stupid, risky and childish. At least he could blame it on the bonk on his head.
As the vampire tried to reach for Willow Xander took aim and hurled the vial at it. It hit its target dead-on (the pun was unavoidable), shattering against the vampire's head. It screeched of pain and spun towards Xander with a murderous glow in its eyes.
Xander did something he hadn't done since kindergarten. He stuck his thumbs into his ears and waggled his fingers at the snarling vampire, blowing a wet raspberry at it.
"Can't catch me, nyah-nyah-nyah!"
Then he ran, the steaming and growling vampire in hot pursuit.
----
Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was the practice he had had, maybe it was his newfound strength left from Skye or some combination of the three but Xander had never run so fast in his life. His surroundings nearly blurred around him as his shoes hammered against the pavement. He could hear the vampire following him, snarling and growling at him, and he allowed a faint sneer manifest. His plan was simple: let the vampire chase him for a moment, then circle back and lead it back to Buffy and Willow so they could dust it. If it caught up with him.. Well, he had his last vial of holy water so he could at least slow it down for a decent head start.
A low fence cut off his way as he turned a corner. He didn't even slow down; he simply jumped, landing on a dumpster, and allowed the metal cover to work as a kind of a springboard to boost his leap clear over it. He could hear an annoyed growl behind him and then rattling as the vampire climbed over it while he built some distance- though not too much, lest the beast lose track of him.. and why did he just sound like some guy from Shakespeare?
His left foot found something squishy and Xander bit off a curse, swerving and hopping to keep from tripping. Most of the streetlights on siding this particular sidewalk were out, so he had to just pray nothing too sharp would end up underfoot as he ran. On the pro side he couldn't see exactly what he had nearly stepped into.
He turned a second corner, heading back towards the cemetery. The vampire was gaining on Xander; he could hear it snarling from no less than some a fifty feet behind him. A broken streetlight gave a strobing flash just in time for Xander to see an open manhole in the sidewalk just in front of him and he jumped over it. Some ten steps afterwards he heard a behind him a startled yelp and a heavy half-splash-half-thud sound followed by heavy cursing. Xander grinned evilly, still running at a steady pace. And here I thought that trick worked only in cartoons.
He turned a new corned and headed towards an alley not too far from him. He took a sharp turn, still running, then skidding to a halt as he saw three men speaking in hushed voices further down the alley.
A sudden twinge of the same, intense dark feeling he had sensed at the graveyard shot through him and he tensed in alarm. One of the men looked up at him, nudged the two others and growled, his eyes melting into amber as the vampires bared their fangs and allowed their vamp-faces to show.
Xander blinked. "Oh nuts."
The vampires stalked towards him and he turned tail and ran.. again.
----
Twenty minutes later Xander had the sneaking suspicion he had run through over half of the streets and alleys in Sunnydale. Two of the vampires had given up after some ten minutes into the chase, but the third.. either he was really hungry or just plain stubborn. He'd tried absolutely everything from tipping over dumpsters into the vampire's path to using the classic 'draw back a branch at face level and let go' trick when they had run through a park. Xander was beginning to be slightly tired and really pissed.
Persistent little sucker Xander growled to himself. He then groaned at his own, unintentional and lame pun, neatly sidestepping a patch of glass shards from a broken bottle. Moments later he heard a crunching sound and a growl of pain from behind him. That should slow him down, he thought and gave a nasty chuckle. The footsteps from behind were now slightly shuffling, clearly favoring one leg.
They were in one of the less savory sections of Sunnydale, a section dominated by run-down houses and old warehouses. Xander had long since abandoned his plan to lure the vampires back into the cemetery- Buffy and Willow were most likely not there any more, in fact they were likely looking for him- and was scanning the area for anything he could use as a weapon to take out the vampire. Then he'd find his way to the high school library where he they were bound to return sooner or later. He thanked whatever god was watching out for him that one of the perks he'd gotten from Skye was an acute sense of direction. He knew the park was about a mile to the northwest and the library was more like two miles east from where he was now.
He rounded a corner, heading southeast.. and came face with a brick wall. The alley went on for about a dozen yards before ending abruptly into the back side of a building. There was a door in the wall, but as Xander tried it, he found it locked and too strong to break through. "Nuts.. outsmarted myself again."
There was a growl from the end of the alley and Xander glanced around him, spotting a broken plank in the dumpster next to the door. He snatched it and bashed it against his raised knee, breaking it into two sharp-edged sections. He twirled his makeshift stakes, getting a feel of them, just as the vampire came into sight. It sniffed the air, growling, then grinned as it saw Xander couldn't run now. It couldn't have been more than eighteen when it had gotten turned, dressed in a biker's outfit with chains and studs all over the leather jacket. Probably a biker gang member, Xander thought, one of Sunnydale's Hell's Angel wannabes. Oh the irony.
"Aaww.. is the little human trapped?" It snarled at him.
Xander bared his teeth in a feral expression. "Ok, fangboy.. Let's dance."
The vampire chuckled. "I like the young ones.. the blood feels so fresh.. a little like my sister's."
Something in him stirred and Xander growled, a deep, rumbling sound that would've made Angelus proud. His eyes itched and burned oddly and everything suddenly seemed to become much more clear like he could see the individual specks of dust on the vampire's jacket or the pores in it's dead and cold skin. Suddenly the alley didn't seem nearly as dark as it should've been. The vampire blanched, if possible, and stumbled backwards. "What the fu-"
Something swished in the shadows behind it and suddenly it exploded into dust, the ash cloud completely covering whoever killed it from sight. Xander sighed, knowing only one person who'd kill a vampire like that.
"Thanks, Buffy.."
The dust was clearing out now and Xander nearly choked. The figure was slim and female but too tall to be Buffy. The long, dark brown hair and the old-looking black and red velvet dress told him the rest.
----
"Naughty kitten, naughty naughty!" Drusilla declared in a singsong voice, swaying towards him in a dreamy way. Her expression was playful, nearly childlike, but her eyes were the horrifying blank pools only the insane vampire-seeress could have.
"Drusilla.." Xander hissed, shaking his head. Something in the seeress was setting off several alarm bells in his mind.. somehow the feeling of darkness he got from her was swirling, flowing, ebbing and pulsing in a way that confused him. Part of him wanted to run or hide, part of him wanted to fight.. part didn't know what it wanted. "What do you want?"
Steel glittered in Drusilla's hand as she slipped a long, nasty-looking knife on some recess within her dress. "Naughty kitten!" Drusilla said again, waving her finger at him like scolding a pet that had just chewed on her favorite shoes. "The stars sing to me, my kitten sings to me.. Miss Edith says to find kitten.." Drusilla's eyes lit up with an odd glee as she stalked towards Xander. Xander raised one of his stakes in warning and the vampire giggled.
"My.. Kitten has found his claws.." Drusilla looked into his eyes and frowned. "But Kitten feels broken now, like a bag of glass and shards.. Kitten isn't just Kitten anymore.." She leaned in closer and Xander tried to lift his stake only to find he couldn't move. Drusilla's eyes were now curious, nearly enraptured by whatever she saw in his yes.
"Kitten isn't just Kitten anymore" she repeated in a mysterious tone. "There's my Kitten, all broken up, and there's the little puppy.." her eyes flickered, "and there's the dragon and the monster.. all claw and bite and pain and blood and thunder.. they all want out but Kitten doesn't know how.." She leaned even closer, sniffing. "The stars are singing.. I smell your blood, so sweet and young.. it's singing to me.."
Paralyzed, Xander couldn't move a muscle as Drusilla leaned in for the bite. Suddenly the confusion in his mind disappeared, replaced with a strange sense of clarity. A growl rose through his chest unbidden, a deep rumbling vibration more felt that heard as an odd haze seemed to descend on his senses. Suddenly he felt he could move again and shoved at the vampiress, growling with his teeth bared. Drusilla flinched and backed away, her expression suddenly curious.
"There's my Kitten.. and there's the dragon.." Drusilla looked into his eyes.. and this time she didn't like whatever she saw again. Her eyes widened and she actually yelped.
"No.. No! I can't hear my stars, I can't hear Miss Edith.. I see the eye! It's watching me!"
Xander growled and the bits of wood fell from his hands and he stalked towards the babbling vampiress. She looked more and more terrified at each step, her gaze flickering between Xander and the night sky. Suddenly she threw her head back and screamed.
"It burns! Nasty eye, nasty dragon.. it's all blue and crystal and gold and thunder and fire.. I can't hear the stars.. Noooo!"
The seeress suddenly bolted, her dress billowing at each step, desperate to get away from Xander and whatever she saw. He could hear her wails long after she had disappeared from sight, screaming of burning and dragons and eyes.
Xander blinked. "That was unexpected.. I can't believe I just did that." Suddenly he shivered as the alley seemed to darken around him. The feeling of darkness he'd gotten from Drusilla and the other was fading rapidly and with it, the strange energy boost that had kept him moving the entire evening was running out. He had run for miles straight on pure adrenaline and now the threat was gone he felt the fatigue. The last thing he heard before his knees failed were running footsteps and a gasp as he saw Willow round the corner.
"Wills.. you came.." he managed to mutter into the darkness.
He knew no more.
----
"Wills.. you came.." Xander gave Willow a kind of half-smile before his eyes closed and he fell on his knees. Willow automatically moved to stop him before he could fall on his face. God, he's heavy. He must've gained some weight.
"I found him, Buffy!"
Moments later the Slayer ran to them, still sweaty after the fight. "Is he hurt?"
Willow looked Xander over once, noticing how underneath his baggy shirt his arms felt.. firm, like he had gained some muscles. From what she could see there were no marks of a fight on him.
"I don't think so.. he isn't bleeding."
Buffy picked up a sharp-edged piece of plank near where Xander had stood. "Looks like he fought off a vamp, maybe even more than one." She gave a pointed gesture at a pile of dust near the entrance to the alley. "Think we can move him?"
Willow nodded. "I think we can. Let's get back to the library."
As Buffy took a final look around Willow couldn't help opening one of Xander's eyelids and taking a peek when Buffy wasn't looking. Save for the golden contacts Xander had taken to wearing after Halloween everything looked normal, but.. the last look Xander'd given him collapsing.. It had to have been a trick of the light, Willow reasoned, but for one moment she'd thought Xander's eyes had been solid gold with narrow slits for pupils.. like those of a cat or a lizard.
---------
There you have it.. Chapter 2 is out, finally! I was kinda worried about if people would like this fic, but.. Well, four reviews for the first chapter seem nice enough :-) Just in case anyone is wondering, I'm flying this by the seat of my jeans, so delays might be forthcoming (depending on if my muses begin acting up). Anyway, onto Review Responses;
Crossedoff:Thank you! I intend to.
Suzuka Blade: :stashes plushies right next to my monitor: Thanks! I hope you like what will come next.
Harry2: Trust me, you haven't seen the half of it. I just hope I don't unintentionally create one of those 'über-Xander' fics. I mean, no offense to anyone, Xander as Goku from Dragon Ball Z? Can we say overkill?
This is not a Story File: I'm planning to, assuming I get enough reviews.. :grin:
Thanks to everyone who reviewed this fic, and remember, more reviews equal a happy author, which results in faster updates! Oh, and if you spot any weird formatting errors (such as the end of chapter 1 being entirely in italics) please drop me a hint so I can fix 'em. Cheers, see you next chapter!
