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 3

Xander was standing in a place that could only be described as empty. Gray mist so thick he couldn't see his feet swirled in a cool layer that reached above his knees. Wherever he looked, he could see no landmarks of any kind, only thick mist that squirmed and pulsed like a living thing, forming mounds and pits in no visible pattern. There were no visible sources of light; everything was just bathed in an eerie silvery gray glow. No sound could be heard except what seemed to be a chorus of silent, wordless whispers Xander could barely hear if he strained to listen.

"Hello?"

Hello? Hello? Hello.. llo.. lo.. .o..

Xander jumped, startled, when only distorted echoes and the whispers answered.

"Is somebody there?"

Somebody there.. dy there.. there.. ere..

He heard only the echoes and the low ambient whispers that seemed to stay frustratingly just outside his hearing range.

"Answer me!"

Answer me.. swer me.. er me.. me..

He thought he saw a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye and spun only to face more mist. Slowly the mist some yards away from him rose into a mound at least eight feet high- then Xander realized there was a figure inside the mound. Xander stood his ground, transfixed as the figure took a step forward, piercing the mist.

Silver and black leather gleamed as Xander realized he knew the man- from the picture he'd seen that fateful night. A vest of black and silver leather armor covered his broad chest and shoulders and he wore black and silver leather trousers held up by a black leather belt with several leather pouches set into it. The light glittered dully against his dark steel armguards. His face was curiously neither young nor old; he looked young but at the same time exuded an aura of experience and might. His jaw was strong, his nose straight, his hair standing up in a short layer on top of his head. His golden eyes gleamed and as light caught the amulet on his neck the tiny ruby set as its eye seemed to glow with an inner light for a short moment.

Skye stood up to his full height of six feet and crossed his arms, giving Xander a calm look.

"You.." Xander hissed. "Who are you?"

Skye raised a single, coal black eyebrow. "I think you know the answer to that question, young one." His voice was low and deep, with a slight, unplaceable accent.

Xander glared. "I know your name, Skye of Deathwing Clan, if that even is your real name, but that's all I know. I know you aren't a Human- what are you?!"

A low chuckle sounded. "Straight to the point.. At one time I could have been called a Son of Dachar, or a dachardal'wynn. Now.. I am naught but an echo, a fraction of memory, the ghost of what I once was.. and what you could be again."

"You speak in riddles.. Where are we? What is this place?"

Skye shrugged. "This is no place.. it is a state of mind, the core of your existence, your.. soul room, in lack of a better name. It is what you will it to be. You cannot control it yet, thus the Void appearance." Skye's expression darkened. Behind him other dark figures could be seen appearing in the mists, shapeless but approaching slowly. "There is little time, Alexander LaVelle Harris.. now you must listen, and listen well. What has happened to you has not been seen before but once and the results can be dire if you do not learn to control your potential. What has been molded together cannot be split apart without destroying both.. what powers you have received from me, both those you already have and those that lie dormant, cannot be removed without tearing your very soul asunder in the process. You must draw out those powers, learn to access them and tame them lest they destroy you and all those you hold dear. You must seek.. and learn.. and remember, hatchling." At the last words Skye locked eyes with Xander, who found himself stunned as the gold in Skye's eyes spread out, turning them into solid gold with narrow cat-slit pupils.

----

In the real world Xander's eyes snapped instantly open, startling the living daylights out of Giles whom had just leaned over him to check him over.

"I remember." Grunting, he rose to find himself on a cot in a more secluded corner in the library. The world swam in his eyes for a moment as he stood up, ignoring the Watcher. He felt curiously hollow inside for a moment and realized his run through the town had consumed more energy than he had expected.

Grunting, he rose to find himself on a cot in a more secluded corner in the library. The world swam in his eyes for a moment as he stood up, ignoring the Watcher. He felt curiously inside for a moment and realized his run through the town had consumed more energy than he had expected.

"I've got to get home.."

Giles stared at him. "Xander, are you.. are you feeling quite all right? Maybe you should lie down for a moment."

Xander shook his head, nailing the Watcher with a golden look. "No, Giles, I'm fine. I just need to get home.. there's something I need to do.."

Giles just stared at his retreating back as he left the library, heading for home.

----

The lights were out as Xander finally got back to his house. He fished his keys out of his pockets and proceeded to sneak in. The stench of alcohol hit him like a physical blow the moment he opened the door and he had to retreat for a moment, gagging and gasping for clean air. Either his old man had really pulled himself over this time or one of Skye's leftover abilities had been an enhanced sense of smell.. possibly both. Shrugging, Xander navigated his way to the stairs neatly sidestepping mounds of empty beer cans and bottles and other unmentionable junk in the process (trying to breathe as lightly as possible on his way). He could hear heavy snoring from the direction of his parents' bedroom and kept as quiet as possible. Old man Harris could get nasty if someone woke him up.

The first thing Xander noticed when he entered his room was a faint smell of ozone that grew stronger as he opened the door to his closet. He could feel a tingling sensation all over his skin as he threw aside the laundry he'd buried Skye's mace under. There was a puff of bluish-gray, acrid-smelling smoke as he uncovered the mace. Steady streams of blue-white energy criss-crossed the metal surface, bathing the room in an eerie blue glow.

Xander reached out to grab the handle but paused inches before making contact, suddenly hesitant. From what he could remember the mace had been blessed by powerful forces and had been bound to Skye in a way.. just grabbing it couldn't have been too smart a move. Xander frowned, straining to remember..

Then it clicked. The mace was unique, keyed to obey only Skye's commands, but.. Skye had given it a name, something to command it with. Now if the Skye's essence within him was just powerful enough and he remembered the command words..

"Stormhammer?" Nothing happened save for a short pulse of warmth from the weapon. Xander frowned again, thinking..

FLASH

Fire and thunder, thick smell of smoke, a beautiful hammer seemingly made of lightning and clouds.. twisting, shrinking, reforming.. a black-and-silver spiked mace..

FLASH

Xander gasped as the memory fragment slammed into his mind, jerked and snatched the mace up by the handle. A feeling of hundreds of tiny needles began to swarm their way up his arm, a warning to let go..

Xander swallowed heavily and spoke two words left behind by the memory. "Zor'schrann!"

The needles stopped, seemed to flicker for a moment and disappeared. For a moment, nothing happened.. until the handle began to feel warm to his hand. Without any warning whatsoever the mace flared with a blinding blue-silver light that would have made Xander drop it except that it seemed to be glued to his hand. With a low crackling and sizzling sound streams of thunder reached out from the weapon and wrapped up and around his arm, disappearing somewhere near his shoulder. A feeling of warmth spread through his entire body as the streams vanished into his flesh, the light flickering out. As a low thrumming hum was emitted from the mace Xander found himself grinning like an idiot, only one word running through his head.

Mine.

----

Spike was smoking a fag all by himself when he heard the telltale sound of the door to the lair slamming. That by itself was nothing unusual but then he heard a soft moaning babbling, the noise Dru made when deeply disturbed, and he had to get a grip on himself not to just jump up from his wheelchair and go to her. Gritting his teeth, he instead rolled his wheelchair down the corridor and nearly ran into a teary-eyed, wailing Drusilla. She almost bowled him over as she leapt into his arms the moment she saw him, sobbing like a child.

Spike held his arms around her and made low comforting sounds. "Dru, love, come back to Spike, sweety.. What happened?"

For a long while there was no answer. Then she whimpered and drew back, looking at him with bloodshot eyes. "Spiky? Spikey?"

"It's me, love.. Can you tell me what happened?"

Dru sniffed again. "I saw my Kitten.. but Kitten isn't just Kitten anymore.. I saw the dragon, Spikey! It burns so bright.. I couldn't see my stars.. they're melding, growing, becoming.. it's waking up, Spikey! And it's so angry!"

----

A/N: This would be the perfect place to stop a chapter.. Lucky for you people, I've got this little voice in the back of my head saying 'keep writing, you idiot, keep writing'.

----

A single shaft of golden sunlight pierced the windowpane, little by little inching its way up pale skin. Finally it found purchase in a pair of tightly closed eyelids. After a moment they twitched , then suddenly snapped open, revealing a pair of eyes glittering like freshly polished gold in the sunlight. The pupils shrank in size until they were little more than pinpricks of black against the light.

With a groan Xander sat up, rubbing his eyes and stretching until something popped in his back. Slowly his sleep-ridden brain processed what he was seeing and found something wrong with it. If he had just last evening watched the setting sun from the same window.. what was it doing there now?

Xander's first coherent thought was 'You slept so long you missed school, idiot! Snyder's going to kill you for this!'. The second, that promptly overrode the first, was 'It's Saturday, you moron.' Right after he'd.. acquired, in lack of a better term, the Stormhammer he'd gone to bed and, apparently, had slept soundly enough to completely miss his alarm clock.. or he hadn't missed it, to be exact, since the clock itself was nowhere in sight and there was a small pile of shattered plastic and electronics on the floor next to his nightstand. Xander looked at his right hand and found faint marks on it like he'd punched something with it.. hard. ..Nice going, Xan-man, you killed your alarm.. Y'know, that kinda explains why Buffy's buying herself a new one about twice a week.

Memories of what exactly had happened last night began to filter into his mind as he was beginning to wake up properly. He reached a hand under his bed and felt smooth, cool metal that sent a tingle through his arm at the touch, the mace stashed there vibrating slightly to the touch like a purring cat. Xander gave a wry grin. Buffy's the Slayer, Giles is the Watcher, Willow's the witch-in-training.. and I've got a really big mace. Go Light!

After a moment the grin turned into a frown as Xander went through the dream he'd had after passing out. 'You must draw out those powers, learn to access them and tame them lest they destroy you and all those you hold dear..' It'd help if I knew what powers I'm supposed to receive. I suppose there's the increased strength/speed/stamina thing and the enhanced senses, but.. what else? It seems like.. there's a dark aura surrounding this entire town, cold and eerie.. It's like hundreds of tiny ants crawling under my skin, but when I'm around vampires, it's so much stronger.. Mere thought of the squirming feeling of taint Drusilla had emitted around herself made him shiver. ..I can sense the undead? That's handy, but there's got to be more.

Sighing, Xander leaned back and closed his eyes, concentrating on the sense of darkness he could feel even now that the sun was up- his 'spook radar', he nicknamed it more or less affectionately. The sensation was, now that he was paying attention to it, no more pleasant than sticking his entire arm into a vat of oily and stagnant water. He couldn't help shivering again. Oh, eurgh.. and Buffy has to feel this all the time, what with her Slayer-sense and all.. I need a shower after this. I really do.

After a while Xander had no idea how long he'd been trying to keep up his near-meditative state but he was beginning to get used to it- a little like how he could see better in the dark after adjusting to it. The feeling of taint he'd tentatively connected with the Hellmouth was like a layer of oil on the surface of water, and it felt stronger northwards- incidentally, in the very direction of Sunnydale High. He could feel faint pockets of darkness that felt more dense, in lack of a better word, and figured those were vampire and demon nests- how far they were, he couldn't tell. What was really interesting, however, was a faint tingling sensation he couldn't quite place that felt close to him. Very close.

Still with his eyes closed, Xander stood up, reaching a hand towards the feeling. After a few steps his hand hit the wall. It felt like there was a stream of something inside the wall he was sensing. He slid his fingers carefully against the wall, following the stream.. until his fingers met plastic. He opened his eyes to see what he had found..

The light switch.

Xander blinked. 'You've got to be kidding me..'

----

Twenty minutes later Xander was sure of it- he could sense electric wiring. What use of that particular power could be to him was beyond him, but it was something. If he came close enough to a cable he could sense it as a slight tingle; if he closed his eyes and concentrated hard enough he could sense the individual cables as streams that combined in the main switchbox and from there disappeared into the main network.

Confused, hungry and feeling a headache coming on, Xander shook his head and allowed his 'spook radar' fade, thinking hard. Enhanced strength and speed were pretty much a given among the supernatural, right along with enhanced senses, but the ability to sense the undead and electricity weren't that common.. or so he hoped. He'd never thought he'd see the day he'd admit it, but he needed to visit the library.

------I know this may seem like a short chapter, but it seems like I've hit one of those parts of the story that are a royal pain in the rear to write.. I'll be writing more as soon as I can, although the fact I should be getting my copy of Metroid Prime 2 may slow things down :-P

Thanks to everyone that reviewed this story! Frankly, I'm surprised that this story has turned out this popular.. 13 reviews of chapter 2 made my day. Thanks guys!

Jwolf: Yeah, I'd say a fully-grown dragon could be a little too much.. Not to give anything away, I think I can safely say that a full dragon is out of the question. As for the rest.. you'll just have to wait and see.

This is not a Story File: :winces: Would you believe I forgot entirely about the Judge? Anyway, Xander will be gaining slowly most if not all Skye's abilities.. and yes, Skye is the Dragon, and the Monster.. well, that would be telling, wouldn't it?

Malaskor: Yes, I think Skye could be fitted into D&D with some modifications (I'm a Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights player myself) although he isn't from any game or book- he's a figment of my imagination :-) And thanks for reviewing, I'm glad you like it.

Mercva: I'm glad you like it. I like similar stories myself, such as The Dark Scribbler's Jedi Harris, so this type of story is relatively fun to write.. and I don't like revealing all my tricks in one go. Xander and company will be in for some surprises.. I'll be keeping an eye out for that fic, btw.

Quinn: Absolutely! Thanks!

DaBear: Skye is a character from a series of crossovers I've been writing (but have yet to submit any of them, so don't bother looking for them). And yeah, dragon hybrid comes close, but I'm not telling anymore ;-)

Peterv: Skye is an entirely original character, and, well, your wish (or holler) is my command..

Aaron: Oh yes, surprises will be forthcoming, and I'm glad to know you like this.. Thanks for reviewing!Red-jacobson: I'm a Neverwinter Nights addict, and I tried to make his description seem a little AD&D-ish although I've yet to actually recreate him in a game :-)

Layce74: Heck yeah!

Kimcc: Glad you like it, and thanks for reviewing!

M.Kearney: Thanks for reviewing, and here you go!

James: I'll be trying, though I'm not that good of an angst writer.. We'll just have to see. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!