"Odds and Obstacles" by Ryley Breen aka Shadow Master
email: ryleyunderscorebreenathotmaildotcom
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material shown herein. They are the rightful property of their individual creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write for my own personal enjoyment and whatever enjoyment the readers experience reading my work.
Note: I have decided that since, again, DragonHulk didn't tie down any particular point in the timeline for the Marvel half of things I will have this one take place in a reality similar to the X-Men movie-verse with the obvious exception that Xander 'Nightcrawler' Harris doesn't become a pawn of Stryker. Mostly because this saves me some work and because the Scarlet Witch aka Wanda Maximoff didn't appear in the movies. As for the BtVS universe I think it's easy to tell this will take place in Season 4 just before more details become known about The Initiative.
Odds and Obstacles
Elm Street Cemetery, Two Months After 'The Worm Turns'
"Heads up, 'Crawler! Big and Ugly heading your way!" Wanda yelled from a position twenty feet away.
"Thanks, Scarlet!" Xander said as he teleported with a puff of brimstone behind the two demons trying to rush him from behind.
She had to smile at that name he'd given her but she had to admit it did kind of fit, considering her preference for red clothing. It wasn't necessarily the case that she refused to wear anything else but, rather, that she was just so used to wearing the color that she never really took the time to experiment with anything else. It was the color red that she had first been clad in when she had been taught how to harness her powers under Agatha Harkness. For almost as long as she could remember, she had lived at her mentor's cottage outside of Salem and learned to use the strange probability altering power she had. At least that was the theory that Agatha had often stood behind when she'd inquired as to the nature of her abilities but there were a few times when the elderly woman seemed less sure of herself. There had been a few times when she'd tried to question the woman on that but her mentor would either brush her off with more lessons or say she was off to do some errand. It had been less than a year since she'd last seen her wise teacher and she felt slightly guilty about leaving without letting the elder Harkness woman know. It wasn't that she hated the woman or that she was not grateful for all that she had been taught, but she wanted to learn more than was possible at the cottage. So, one night, when Agatha was away in town visiting one of her friends, she packed her things and left for her future.
From there she had put as much distance as she could between herself and the cottage, knowing that it would make tracking her down more difficult. However, upon reaching the state of Texas, she realized that mere distance was not enough if she wanted to truly evade her mentor's Sight. Whether it be on the other side of the country or the other side of the world, it would matter not to a woman of Agatha's skill and power. Thus, she had sought the one place where her location might be obscured if not outright hidden from the spells of mystics.
The Sunnydale Hellmouth.
It was also the last place that Agatha would think she'd go after so many lectures about the danger of a magic user being corrupted if they chose to reside on one. Not only did using magic on the Hellmouth taint the caster with every spell but it also tempted the user to tap into it for more power. Those that succumbed to that temptation often lost their way in the darkness, few ever finding their way out and, in some cases, even desiring to leave its embrace. Thus, before she entered the town to attend USCS, she used what she had learned to create three talismans that would help protect her from the taint of the Hellmouth, should she be required to perform sorcery or use her own powers. A belt with several talismans incorporated into along with interwoven warding spells, a set of gloves that no darkness can penetrate and a headdress to protect her mind. After creating them, she entered Sunnydale and enrolled at USCS as a student determined to learn as much as she could both in the classes as well as outside of them. She chose math especially for the purpose of gaining new insight into her powers since understanding mathematics would aid her in manipulating probability.
It had been a few months into her classes that she met the blue skinned, demonic-looking young man currently laying into a group of demons with his sword. She had been so surprised by his sudden appearance in front of her that she had been unable to attain the necessary focus for using her powers. So she'd gone with a more practical approach to the situation and used her math book to knock the yellow eyed being senseless. It was only afterwards that she recognized him as a dark figure she'd seen hanging out in various streets outside the girls' dormitory. After a brief discussion, he told her that he only hung out there to help two of his friends out where he could. From there, almost as if Fate were pushing them together, they continued to bump into one another for the next two weeks. It wasn't until she was attacked by a demon and rescued by Xander that the rest of the tale was revealed to her. She learned that he had once been human and had fought alongside his friends to keep the evil of the Hellmouth at bay. During his trip abroad for the summer, he rescued a woman from being used in a sacrificial ritual to summon a demon named Mystique. While he succeeded in saving the woman, he was touched by Mystique briefly and, over the course of several days, transformed into his present appearance. He returned to Sunnydale in the hopes of being returned to normal by his friends but, due to the ineffectiveness of the spells used, his friends jumped to the conclusion that he was a demon posing as their friend. A fight ensued and so Xander had spent the last couple of months helping his friends out in the hopes that they would see the truth.
Hearing all this, the two of them entered into a friendship of sorts with her looking into his condition to try and find a way to turn him back to normal and him being her information source on the things that went bump in the night in Sunnydale. As for why she was helping him deal with a group of demons at the moment…well, to be perfectly blunt, Xander'd been showing her his teleportation power and she got a little ill. So they stopped in this graveyard so she could recover and wound up stumbling into some kind of ritual. Xan recognized it and immediately jumped in to put a stop to it and she wound up getting involved when one of the demons decided she was a threat. It was mere chance that she'd taken her gloves, belt and headdress along for the ride but, nevertheless, she managed to get all three on in time. That pretty much brought things to where they were right now, half the demons suffering from a case of death by sword slash or found themselves a little tied up with vines. At the moment, she was fine and was just waiting for Xander to finish with his two sparring partners before they left for their off campus apartment.
That was another thing that was unique about their relationship.
When she'd left Salem, she'd withdrawn her entire life savings from the local bank and pawned a few bits of jewelry that Agatha had given her on birthdays. None of the items were magical, of course, and she kept the ones that meant the most to her but it was a fact that money didn't grow on trees and that it was necessary to live. However, living her way across the U S of A wasn't cheap and proved to be quite problematic since it seemed that she had a distinct lack of paperwork to back up her existence. Apparently, whenever her parents dropped her off with Agatha in Salem, they forgot to file the proper paperwork with the U.S government because no one was able to find a trace of one Wanda Maximoff. A visit to a local forger and hacker was able to rectify that particular mistake but it had also cut into her savings big time. As a result, when she'd arrived in Sunnydale and enrolled in USCS she'd been forced to live out of a motel rather than in one of the established dorms in order to save some money. It hadn't been nice, especially with the owner of the motel confusing her chest with her eyes so often, but until she made more money she didn't have a choice.
After she met Xander, though, and got to know him a bit better, they decided that since they both wanted a better place to live and neither of them had the money to pull it off on their own, that they'd pool their money into one pile and live together. They'd managed to get a pretty decent two bedroom apartment although, according to Xander, the only reason the rent was so low was because Sunnydale had a high mortality rate. So for the last five weeks they'd been living together and, as far as roommates went, the son of Jessica and Tony Harris wasn't anything like his parents. His cooking was pretty good and a step up from the take out she'd been living off of since she left Salem and he didn't complain (much) when it came to doing household chores. Add to that the fact that he was willing to go to such lengths to mend the bridges between him and his friends and she'd have to say he was a pretty good guy. Maybe even worth going out on a date with down the road.
Maybe.
"Well, fair damsel, the demons have been smited and the world saved once again from certain destruction." Xander said, doing his best imitation of a swashbuckling hero.
"With some help from your dazzling side-kick, of course." She said, playing along with the routine.
"Of course! The daring Nightcrawler and the scintillating Scarlet Witch always share in the glory of victory!" Xander said before looking at the sword on his hand, "So what do ya think? Keep it or sell it with the rest of this stuff?"
Casting a quick spell of seeing, she looked at the assorted talismans, weapons and armor that lay strewn about. Most of it was tainted with demonic energy and, thus, no reputable fence would buy it unless they cleansed it first. However there were a few trinkets here and there that had a more neutral slant to them so they'd grab those and leave the rest behind.
"Most of it's tainted but there are a few things that Mr. Flanders will buy off us." She replied as she began to pick up those items that were safe, "It won't get us much but it should be enough to pay the bills for another month or so."
"That slim, huh?" Xander asked rhetorically before he tossed his sword over his shoulder and grumbled, "Stinkin' demons and their taint! Can't even keep it off the good stuff."
With that he began to help her gather up the neutral items and, ten minutes later, they were off to the local magic fence Mr. Flanders to haggle the man for as much money as possible.
&
The Edge of the Cemetery, Same Time
"This is Red One. Targets are now exiting the cemetery." Spoke a man watching the young woman and HST walking towards the west entrance/exit, "Orders?"
"Follow but remain hidden." Came a female voice from the headset the man had spoken into, "Wait until the primary target is alone then you may proceed with the specified capture program. Remember to get it right the first time."
"Roger that. Red One over and out." Spoke the man before the connection between him and his C.O was severed.
Turning to the two men behind him, he quickly gave them the hand signs that explained their next move and, like the trained soldiers they were, they understood perfectly. As one cohesive unit they left their watch point and followed the designated targets from a safe distance. They'd first spotted the primary target a month ago and had, so far, only been ordered to observe it rather than capture it immediately. This had turned out to be a wise course of action because while the other animalistic HSTs were dumb as a ton of rocks, this one actually showed some intelligence from time to time. Coupled with its ability to teleport and none could dispute the fact that they would have to be clever if they wanted to capture it efficiently. Fortunately, after a month of watching its movements and cataloging its habits, the top brass back at HQ had come up with a smart plan for snagging this beastie.
Weapons primed and night vision goggles on, they stealthily kept pace with their prey waiting for the moment when the teenager would leave. HQ wasn't sure what she was since the only non-human thing about her was that she seemed to have abilities similar to magic. However, since magic didn't exist, the current theory was that she had to be a mutant of some kind and, while some members of his team wouldn't have minded a two for one, they'd been told in no uncertain terms that mutants weren't in their jurisdiction. They were Stryker's territory so the most they could do was pass along the teenager's description along with what they knew of her abilities.
Surprisingly enough, the thought that their target might also be a mutant never crossed their mind.
Whether this was by choice or by accident, only time could reveal.
&
Outside the Warehouse Location of Mr. Flanders' Fencing Set-up
One Hour Later, Xander's POV
"I still say you could've gotten another fifty bucks out of him on that last piece if you'd just pushed him a little harder, Wanda." Xander said as they exited the warehouse where the local fence of magical items did business.
"Maybe, but seeing as how Mr. Flanders is the only fence in town that we can reliably trust to play straight with us, I think we should just accept what we can get." Wander stated as they began to head for the more populated areas of Sunnydale, "Unless, of course, you want to try fencing this stuff to Willy the Snitch?"
"We'll stick with Flanders!" He said, not wanting to have anything to do with the spineless rat aside from intel on the latest big bads to come to Sunnydale.
"Figured you'd say that. So, you want to grab some take out and head back home?" Wanda asked as they turned onto the less traveled sidewalks in order to minimize the creeping Xander would have to do to stay out of sight.
"You go on ahead and grab me a double cheeseburger." He said before turning into an alleyway, "I'm going to see if I can catch up to Buffy and the others and help them finish their patrol. Shouldn't take me more than an hour or so."
"Heh. You never cease to amaze me, Xander." Wanda said with an amused smile on her face, "It's been, what? Seven months since they chased you out of their lives and six since you started helping them with their patrols in secret? Most guys would've given up by then but you keep trying."
"That's because I'm not just a stranger to them. I'm their friend even if they can't accept that right now." He replied, not letting his own waning faith in his friends show itself in his words, "And that means that I have to keep trying and no matter how long it takes, have faith that they will see the truth someday."
"Yeah, well, they're idiots if they can't see their friend beneath that blue skin of yours." Wanda stated firmly before resuming her walk down the street, "See ya later!"
Waving goodbye for a moment, he then trotted into the alleyway before climbing up the wall like a certain wall crawler he'd seen in the latest Daily Bugle newspaper. It had been an ability he'd literally learned on the fly the day that the final exorcising spell had failed at Giles' place and he'd been forced to dodge one determined Slayer. It had been during on ill timed leap over the blonde Slayer's head that he found himself heading for the wall and in a reflex action put both hands and feet in front of himself. The impact pretty much happened as expected but when the fall to the floor never showed up, he opened his eyes and found himself sticking to the wall. While at first he had written it off as dumb luck but, after a fight with some vampires, he did it again when he reoriented himself after a throw and landed facing the ground on the side of a crypt. From there on he did what he could to incorporate it into his fighting with the demons and his wall crawling ability helped him perch on the top of tombstones and stuff.
Once atop the building, he began to head in the direction of the cemetery he figured the gang would be at. Back during their final year in high school, Wesley had gotten into a super efficiency kick and had actually plotted out their entire patrol schedule for a year. Color coded charts, graphs and other things were employed to explain how his plan would make for a more efficient manner of keeping Sunnydale safe. Surprisingly enough Giles actually backed the plan and, while there had been a few changes made, he was fairly certain the gang still used the schedule. It was probably one of the few things that the ass kissing replacement Watcher had come up with that was actually pretty good. It didn't stop anyone from treating him like a plant or an idiot, but even he agreed that it'd take more than a good patrol schedule to make him respect that kiss up. Still, at least it let him keep track of his friends and catch up with them the few times he overslept a little at his and Wanda's apartment.
He kept his leaps as low and short as possible, since he didn't want to attract unnecessary attention to himself, and the few times when the gap between buildings was too far for him to jump he teleported. He figured initially that it'd take him only a couple of minutes to make it to the cemetery where the gang would be but that was before he heard a woman's scream. Stopping before he reached the edge of the building, he tried to figure out where the outcry had come from but only had a vague direction to go by. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you looked at it, a second cry tore through the night and this time he knew exactly where it was coming from.
One block away behind Little Mario's restaurant.
Changing course and 'porting to the rooftop of the restaurant it took him only a moment to take in the situation and he was a little relieved at how easy it'd be. From the looks of things the woman was just being attacked by a couple of ordinary human street thugs rather than a vampire or a demon. While human crime in Sunnydale was somewhat rare on account of the fact that most crooks became food for the demons or turned into newbie vamps it did happen from time to time. Most of the crooks were on Shark's payroll though and that was because only with the Shark's protection could they operate in Sunnydale and not get eaten. In any case most of them were common street thugs with very few if any possessing something similar to skill when it came to fighting. He should be able to wrap up these two and be finished in five minutes tops and on his way to hook up with the gang afterwards.
Leaping down from the roof, he landed on the shoulders of the first thug and then did a half donkey kick to nail the guy behind right in the face. Then, while thug number two was momentarily out of the picture, he hopped off thug number one before delivering a strong kick to the back of the guy's knee. In a stroke of good luke, the guy let go of the woman and that made it easy to spin him around before throwing him over his shoulder into thug number two who was getting his head together. He smiled at the sound of two dimwits hitting the ground with twin groans and definitely saw a silver lining to his current condition. Had he been human and tried something like that, he would've been in way over his head and probably gotten pummeled. Now though he'd better go and see if the lady was alright and could make it back home on her own. Hopefully he'd get something a little more heart warming than screams of 'DEMON' or 'MUTIE'. Turning around he barely had time to feel two tiny things hit his chest before many, MANY volts of electricity were sent through his body. He couldn't think, couldn't focus, and so he couldn't teleport away to safety because as he found out the first time he had to be able to think of where he wanted to go.
Falling to the ground, his body randomly spasming with the lingering electrical charge, the last thing he saw was the woman revealing her hair to be a wig and the fact that she was actually a he.
&
Afternoon, The Next Day, Wanda's POV
He didn't come home last night. Wanda thought as she tried to follow the route she believed he would've taken to catch up with his friends, That is definitely not like him. He usually comes back a little after midnight and then sleeps clean through to noon. This isn't right.
She had been a mess of worry when she'd woken up on the couch this morning to find Xander still not home, despite the fact that it was a serious break from his usual routine. If there was one thing a person could attribute fairly safely to her friend, it was that the blue skinned boy lived by a predictable pattern of living. He woke up, he ate, he killed time doing chores or watching TV until nightfall and then left to hook up with his friends without their knowledge to fight the darkness before returning home to fall asleep. The cycle repeated itself over and over again with the only reach changes happening at random times depending on what life threw at them. A new movie playing at the theatre? He'd wait until later at night to patrol. An Apocalypse in the works? He'd do whatever he could to figure it out and make sure the right info got to his friends. However, to her knowledge, there hadn't been any serious rumblings in the demonic community recently or if there had been, Xander hadn't said anything to her about it. Nor had she herself felt anything amiss magic-wise aside from the usual darkness that was always present on the Hellmouth. It had been this lack of answers that prompted her to start looking for him by attempting to track his movements. She'd tried a tracking spell but it hadn't worked like it was supposed to.
It should have acted like a compass, pointing her in Xander's direction but instead it had just spun wildly only pointing in any direction for a brief moment before resuming its spinning. Therefore she had been left to look around the old fashioned way on foot and, so far, all she had to show for it was a lot of circumstantial evidence that could wind up just being her projecting her desires onto the environment. However, it was when she inspected the rear of a restaurant that Xander liked that she seemed to get her first real clue. Signs of a struggle were present, indicating a fight had happened here recently and while it could've just been a vamp attack there wasn't any sign of blood in the alley. While the bloodsuckers were smart enough to find some place out of the way to feed, they weren't really diligent when it came to cleaning up their own messes. If the mess around her had been from a vampire attack, there'd still be a body here or the area would've been taped off by the local P.D. The cops might've been an incompetent bunch of assholes when it came to stopping the vamps but they were pretty efficient when it came to cleaning up the mess afterwards. It was when she spotted a tuft of blonde hair sticking out from between two garbage bags that her worry evolved into dread.
Pulling on the hair, she was somewhat grateful that there wasn't a body attached to it but, when she discovered that it was a wig, the dread returned. If she was right and her imagination wasn't messing with her head, then it looked to her like someone had pretended to be a mugging victim here. If that had happened last night then she was sure that Xander wouldn't have hesitated to dive right in to save the day like the white knight he swore he wasn't. While she didn't think that some two-bit thugs with smarts enough to pull a deception like this could beat Xander, this was by far the best lead she had. Taking her gloves and headdress out of the backpack she'd taken along with her when she left the apartment, she put them on and prepared to use some magic to find the truth. With her focus attained and her memories consulted, she cast a spell that would use the wig as a focus and allow her to view the most recent events surrounding it. As the spell took effect ghost like images began to appear around her showing the people that had been in this area in the last twenty-four hours. She could see the restaurant staff putting out the trash, she could see a couple of vampires cutting through the alley on their way someplace and at long last she saw what happened to Xander. From start to finish she watched how three men had set a trap that her friend had walked unknowingly into and, judging from what she could see, they were military.
The question is what do I do now? She thought as she cancelled the spell and took a moment to think things through, While knowing what happened and who did it is progress, it's useless unless I know where to find them.
Over and over again she consulted what Xander had told her about his patrols and about what he'd overheard his friends talking about without their knowledge. While she did recall scattered bits of info about some commando group being in the area, she didn't know any of the details past that. In the end she cursed herself for telling Xander she only wanted to know about potential threats to herself rather to be told the entire big picture from beginning to end. It was just like that time that she botched that spell for Agatha and nearly burned down the house because she wasn't aware of one or two important details. Now, though, it was more than just her life on the line, it was Xander's and that meant that failure was not an option. It took her less than a second to figure out who she had to talk to and so, without delay, she set out for the apartment of one Rupert Giles.
Ten minutes later she was at the door to the apartment of the man whom Xander considered a surrogate father and, for a moment, hesitated. They didn't know her, Xan had never introduced her to them, and she was going to walk in there and demand that they tell her everything they knew about the commandoes in the area? Not exactly the sort of plan that would have gotten a proud smile from her mentor but it was the only option she had left. Knocking gently on the door, she waited for it to open and, after a few moments, it did to reveal a man in his late forties or early fifties with glasses and a definite Brit look about him.
"Yes? May I help you?" Giles asked, confirming his Brit status with his accent.
"Mr. Giles, I need your help. A friend of mine has been kidnapped and I have it on good authority that you know something about those that have taken him." She said, deciding to mix a bit of the truth with a lie.
"I-I am not sure I understand what you are trying to imply. I'm just—" Giles said trying to play convincingly dumb to the stranger.
"I know what you, Willow Rosenberg, Buffy Summers and others do at night, Mr. Giles." she said, obliterating anything that would keep this meeting from going forward, "I also know that you're aware that several groups of commandoes have been spotted both in Sunnydale as well as the USCS campus. I need to know everything you know about them because I am positive that they are the ones that took my friend."
This naturally left the Brit a little at a loss for words since this perfect stranger, i.e her, had just claimed to know that they fought demons at night. Based on what Xander had told her of the man, the former Watcher would either continue to deny that he knew what she was talking about in the hopes she would go away or he'd invite her in for further discussions. She was somewhat gratified when he stepped aside, a universally known non-verbal invitation, and gestured for her to come inside. Nodding with a smile, she entered to find all the Scoobies, as Xan had called them, in attendance plus two that she didn't recognize. The first was a shy blonde that sat next to Willow and the other was a young blonde guy a couple years older than most of the college freshmen present. However there was something about the way he moved that instantly had her on her guard.
"Well, perhaps you could elaborate a bit on your situation Miss…?" Giles asked as he closed the door behind her.
"My name is Wanda, Wanda Maximoff." She replied before debating on just how to explain things, "My friend…Kurt came to visit me awhile back and once he found out what the nightlife around here was like decided to see what he could do to keep the streets safe. He isn't an amateur, neither of us are, since we were both taught by people knowledgeable about the supernatural so most times he was okay patrolling. Last night, though, he didn't come back."
"If he didn't come back last night then how do you know the commandoes got him?" Buffy asked, being marginally polite to the stranger.
"Because I managed to find the place where they grabbed him by taking the route I figured he must have taken." She replied before removing the wig from her backpack, "I was able to cast a spell that let me see the things this wig has witnessed in the last twenty-four hours. It showed me everything."
"Wait! You can do magic?" Willow asked with interested eyes making it clear she'd be interested in learning the spell.
"Yes. While Kurt was taught more about how to use weapons, my teacher centered her teachings more on the magical side of things." She replied careful about what she said so she wouldn't reveal too much.
"Very well, then. Proceed." Giles said before putting a couple of feet between her and him.
Holding the wig out in front of her she curled her middle and ring finger inward until they touched her palm while leaving her pointing finger, pinky and thumb fully extended. Whispering the words taught to her by Agatha Harkness, she enchanted the wig to replay the events she saw in the alley in full 3D holographic form. As she had already seen the series of events play out she decided to watch the reactions of the various people in the room instead. From Giles she could see academic interest, an analytical mind and a look of recognition that let her know she recognized Xander as soon as the image of her friend appeared. He definitely looked like he was treating the entire scenario that was being played out in front of him objectively. Next came Xander's best friend Willow, who also was quick to identify her friend but seemed torn between what she wanted to believe and what she'd seen when they'd tried to return Harris to normal. Hopefully with a bit of reasoning, the young Wicca could be counted on to be of aid rather than a neutral party. The unknown blonde next to her was a more difficult ready due to her shyness but she had a hunch that whatever direction Willow went in the blonde would follow. However it was Buffy that she was the most concerned about. While there was a hint of concern for the blue skinned fellow being holographically projected by her magic, it looked like the bottle blonde still believed that Xander was just a demon pretending to be her friend. Whether this was because she didn't want to admit she was wrong or really still believed in her original position was debatable.
However it was the look she got from the unknown blonde man that caught her attention the most because the look of recognition he had wasn't focused on Xander but rather the ones capturing her friend. While that could just be recognition of the commandoes that had been seen by the Scooby gang lurking around Sunnydale, she didn't think so. It wasn't until she ended the holographic display and saw the reluctance and anxiety on his face that she knew for certain that this man knew something about the soldiers that had abducted her friend. Narrowing her eyes at him, she pretty much ignored the others as she walked over to him since she didn't want anyone getting in her way if she had to 'persuade' him to tell her where Xander was.
"You look like you have something to tell me. Would you know where those three took, my friend?" she asked politely but with an edge of steel underneath.
"Not really." Replied the man but the look in his eyes plainly told her he was lying.
"Perhaps this can refresh your memory." She said before she used her magic to throw him back against the wall and pin him there.
As predicted, Buffy was the first to take offense with this, confirming what Xander had told her about the Slayer preferring older men for some reason. However the girl didn't seem to realize that frontal tactics wouldn't work against someone with magic on their side. With a flick of her wrist and a flash of her magic, the Slayer was flung against another wall but rather than be held by her magic tendrils of stone reached out from the wall and wrapped themselves around her. While she doubted that the restraints would hold the proverbial Chosen One for very long, it should be enough for her to finish her Q&A session with the blonde man.
"Now let's try that again okay? Where is my friend?" She asked before using her magic to press the young man against the wall harder, "Where did they take him?"
"I'm not telling you anything!" The young man replied, clearly intent on resisting her to the very end.
"Maybe not right now but there's not a man alive who'll let his dignity be torn to shreds for a secret." She said with a smile as she recalled a rather effective way of making men give in to her demands, "Trust me when I say you won't lie to me more than four times."
With that she brought both hands to bear on the man and, once her fingers were in the right position, she cast the spell she'd used on a particularly troublesome merchant years before. The blonde man glowed a soft brown for a moment but then that glow faded until there was nothing left visible to the naked eye.
"Looks like you need to practice your spellwork a bit!" Buffy snarked from the wall before resuming her struggling.
"On the contrary, bottle blonde, the spell worked flawlessly." She said with a bit of hostility in her tone, "Watch and see. Now I'll ask you again: where is my friend?"
"I'm not—" began the young man before a distinctly uncomfortable look came over his face.
The reason for this quickly became apparent as the front of the man's mans quickly became soaking wet and, judging from the smell, it wasn't fresh water. Just about everyone curled their nose at this but she managed to keep a smile of confidence on her face.
"As you can see, buddy, every time you refuse to answer my question, your bowels will punish you for your defiance." She said as her smile grew in size, "The greater the defiance, the larger the…discharge. So unless you want to soil Mr. Giles' apartment, I suggest you co-operate. Where is my friend?"
The growl that escaped the young blonde's mouth was response enough to trigger the spell and, seeing as how a distinctly different but no less foul smell manifested, it looked like the man's back door was now showing what it had to offer. This tested even her determination but she was certain that at most the man would defy her one more time before caving in.
"That's two, big guy. Trust me when I say that you don't want to make it all the way to four." She said with a feral smile on her face, "It's never pretty."
Another look of defiance was all she got for her efforts and knowing what was coming next she took a BIG step to the right. A good move on her part since five seconds later it was shown that defying her three times meant projectile vomiting was the penalty that had to be endured. Once she was sure that everything that could be expelled was expelled, she moved back into her previous position in front of the heavily breathing young man.
"Now, I'm sure you've been very brave and that all your commando buddies would be proud of the defiance you've shown but it's time to throw in the towel." She said while covertly casting her eyes about the room, "Just tell me where my friend is and it all ends."
She made a show of turning around but then stopped halfway and turned to look at him.
"Oh, and just so you know, defying me for the four times results in you pissing, crapping and throwing up all at once." She said before she put a look on her face that told everyone she actually wouldn't mind if that happened, "So what's it going to be soldier?"
"We think the Initiative is located beneath Lowell House on the USCS campus!" Willow blurted out, apparently coming to the conclusion that she didn't want to see a man piss, crap and puke at the same time.
"Thanks!" she said before heading to the door of Giles' apartment.
"Hey! What about us!?" Buffy asked with concern since she no doubt didn't want to stay pinned to the wall.
"Oh don't worry. You should be able to break free on your own eventually and, as for the soldier, he'll drop to the floor in about twenty minutes." She replied over her shoulder as she walked past a tense Giles, "As for my little 'truth spell', it'll wear off completely in about an hour once I'm out of range. He might still be occupied with the toilet afterwards, though, but thems the breaks."
Just as she was about to cross the threshold of the apartmentm she felt compelled to say at least one more thing before leaving.
"You knowm I don't know why Xander has such faith in you guys. Every time I ask himm he tells me he's sure you'll take him back if he helps out enough on patrol. It's been months since you chased him out and I can tell just by looking at you that you still think he's a demon pretending to be your friend." She said making it clear she thought Xan was wasting his time, "Did it ever occur to you that maybe you guys just weren't strong enough to change him back? Or maybe that Xander was changed so thoroughly thatm as far as your spells were concernedm he was back to normal? Looks to me like you jumped the gun and assumed the worst. Some friends you all turned out to be!"
With that she headed for the Lowell frat house on USCS campus to rescue someone who she was beginning to think was entering boyfriend territory.
Huh.
&
A Short Distance Away,
Inside a House Across the Street From Giles' Apartment Complex
Same Time
"Damn! Remind me not to piss that lady off!" Alexander Pierce declared with true honesty in his voice.
"Smart choice. According to the background check, she's been learning mojo for the past ten years from one Agatha Harkness of Salem." Daisy Johnson said as she watched the power mutant sorceress walk out of the range of their hidden cameras, "If she blows her top, and given what she'll see at the Initiative, I think she will, there's not going to be much left when she's done."
"Better let Fury know." Pierce said as he activated the portable communications device that would encrypt the transmission and link them directly to the heli-carrier.
It only took a few seconds for the screen to reveal the man who was probably privy to ninety percent of the world's secrets and had a good idea what the remaining ten percent are like. African American, a patch over his left eye and a goatee made him look like a frowning Samual L. Jackson but no one, of course, said that to his face. Looking at their boss and head of the organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D, reflex had them wondering if they'd screwed up some how given how he was looking at them. Then they realized that this was pretty much the look their boss had on all the time when he was on duty. Most figured it was the one eyed man's way of keeping discipline but others believed it was metaphysically impossible for Nick Fury to smile.
Evidence existed to support both theories.
"Report." Was all Nick said without looking at either agent specifically.
"Scarlet Witch, aka Wanda Maximoff, has managed to pry the location of Alexander LaVelle Harris, aka Nightcrawler, out of Agent Finn and is en route to the Initiative." Agent Johnson said before she began to transfer the video, audio and thermal recordings of the confrontation, "She's miffed at how the Slayer and her crew haven't seen the truth about Harris and I doubt her mood's gonna improve once she sees what goes on in the Initiative compound."
"And Walsh's status?" Fury asked starting to look displeased for real.
"Despite orders from the higher ups to cease and desist all work related to room three fourteen, our inside guy has been able to verify that she has disregarded the orders." Pierce replied with a feeling in his gut that things were about to get interesting, "While he hasn't been able to gain access to the room again, the flow of materials, both organic and metallic, support the stance that the project is still being worked on."
For a moment Fury said nothing but when his eyes focused on both of the respectively they knew it was go time.
"Get your people geared up and ready to move on the Initiative. Surround but do not move in until I give the word." He said in a tone that did not speak of promising futures for the personnel attached to the Initiative, "We'll be there with reinforcements inside of thirty minutes to shut the place down."
"What should we do about Finn and Harris' old friends?" Johnson asked while her partner Pierce got on a separate line to contact the other agents in Sunnydale.
"Make contact and inform them that the U.S government is shutting down the Initiative due to serious deviations in their mandate. Don't mention S.H.I.E.L.D specifically and make sure your patches aren't on when you meet with them." Fury replied after a moment's contemplation, "Also tell Finn if he co-operates in every way possible with taking his former comrades down, he'll get a reduced sentence and might be able to resume his military career once he's out."
"Got it." Pierce said hiding his surprise that Fury was willing to cut any member of the Initiative any slack.
With that the connection was cut and it was time for them to get a move on if they wanted to clamp down on the Initiative before things went too far. Both of them knew that the second Wanda Maximoff learned the true nature of the Initiative, it wouldn't take her long to figure out what Walsh intended to do to Harris. Looking at each other, imagining the kind of chaos that would ensure, neither could entirely suppress the shudder that the chill going down their spines caused.
&
The Elevator Leading to the Main Initiative Complex, Forty-Five Minutes Later
I hope this guy has good health insurance. Wanda thought as she maintained an invisibility spell about her body.
She had figured that the entrance to the commandoes' HQ would have a lot of precautionary security devices in place so just barging in there wouldn't work. Thankfully, though, she had caught two soldier boys heading down in the elevator and had been able to hitch a ride without either of them noticing. She was worried that they'd discover her presence, even with her being unseen by naked eye and by electronic eye, but so far she'd seen no sign of that. No alarm, no sudden stops and no poisonous gas in response to her presence. If they were waiting for her to enter the complex itself before locking down the elevator, then they'd be sorely disappointed with the outcome of the strategy. After all, it would only take a little effort with her power to alter probability to unlock the elevator if she chose to go back up that way. As for their weapons…well…that'd be a bit trickier since she'd have to see them in order to use her power on them but she'd manage.
Upon the opening of the elevator, she was treated to an underground cavern with supports set up all over the ceiling and, down below, personnel moved around about their tasks. Exiting onto the staircase that led to the ground, she gave the area below her a more detailed examination and found that the facility was geared more towards scientific research than eliminating demons. Xander had figured it might be something like that since in the blue elf's mind there were only two reasons for commandoes to be interested in demons: to kill them or to use them. It was the military mindset that dictated that something was either a threat to be eliminated or a potential weapon to be utilized as soon as possible. She agreed with him that some things were better left untampered with and that included demons and forbidden magic. Mostly this was because modern governments were just getting their feet wet when it came to the supernatural and letting amateurs mess with it was just asking for trouble. Better to leave it to those people who actually knew what they were doing than to risk the end of the world to a bunch of newbies who are learning how things work on the fly.
As she reached the ground floor, though, an unpleasant and downright terrifying possibility entered her mind despite her efforts to suppress it.
What if they thought Xander was a demon?
Immediately her mind went into near panic and it was only the thought of her see-me-not spell being affected that forced her to restrain the emotions completely. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she began to listen in on the conversations around her so that she could get some idea of where to start looking for Xander. Looking about at the same time, she was reminded of all those scenes from sci-fi flicks of evil government scientists experimenting on aliens while not caring about whether or not they were sentient. While she didn't think that there were a great many demons out there that she wouldn't mind hanging out with or even allowing to live, she sincerely doubted these people were discriminating. Fortunately for her, and, to a lesser extent, the scientists, none of the beings being dissected or dismembered were Xander because, if that was the case, then everyone here was dead.
It took her a moment but eventually she overheard two guards chatting about a new arrival last night and, based on their references to it being blue and having a pointed tail, she figured it was a good place to start. Doing her best to avoid physical interaction with anything, whether it was human or mechanical, she eventually made it to the area of the complex where the prisoners were kept. Some judicious use of her powers to make it past the card readers and she entered a seriously white hallway with cells lining both sides and some kind of glass keeping the demons inside. It wasn't normal glass, it had an odd sheen to it, but she was sure it had to have some kind of weird trick to it otherwise it wouldn't make for an effective jail cell. Walking along she only loosely catalogued the various demons that were contained within but when she reached the last cell with some equipment in it all recorded info went to dust. Strapped to a table with numerous tubes inserted near major arteries and veins was her friend and roommate Xander.
He was definitely heavily drugged and while she saw signs that he was awake, she very much doubted that he was coherent enough to think much less talk. Obviously these people were aware of his ability to teleport and were keeping him hopped up on drugs so her wouldn't be able to bamf his way free. What was worse, though, was that he wasn't in the clothes he'd been in when she'd last seen him but instead one of those drafty hospital gowns. Whether this was because Xan had fought back once and gotten his clothes torn to shreds or something else she didn't know. Whatever the reason, though, it was clear that they were treating him like a member of the more mindless hostile demon species that existed in Sunnydale.
This.
Pissed.
Her.
OFF!
Throwing subtlety to the wind, she lashed out with her powers of probability and brought into being the low probability that the glass-like substance would spontaneously shatter. Walking inside she was quick to pull out every tube she could find, even if one of them almost made her blush due to the placement, and used her magic to handle any bleeding that occurred. Noticing the alarms for the first time, she knew it'd be at best three minutes before guards showed up to stop her. While normally situations like this would have the rescuer carrying the drugged up victim to safety, sadly she wasn't strong enough to carry Xander. So with a little less preparation than was advisable, she performed a cleansing spell that Agatha had taught her after she'd…experimented with the contents of the liquor cabinet. The results quickly showed as, with a few moans and groans, Xander showed signs both of thought as well as being aware of the world around him.
"Wou'd sumwun pleez turn th' alarm off?" Xander asked with a slur, clearly still halfway under the effects of the drugs.
"Afraid that'll have to wait, Xan. Time for us to make like a banana and split." She said as she helped him off the table he was strapped to.
"I pr'fer a choc'let sundae, m'self." Xan asked as he fortunately proved he was able to at least support some of his own weight.
She didn't have time to reply to that as, two seconds later, a group of soldiers turned the corner with some kind of sci-fi rifles aimed in her direction. Looking down for a moment, she realized that in her anger at Xander's condition, her loss of concentration and the rerouting of magic towards other ends her invisibility spell had been broken. With a shrug of indifference she cast forth her power of probability at the approaching soldiers and watched as electricity arced over their bodies from their weird rifles. Apparently they had been some sort of variation on a tazer gun or something. As the three soldiers dropped to the ground, she quickly helped Xander past them and then headed for the door that she'd used to get inside. Normally she'd have gone looking for a way out of the cell block that didn't have such a high probability of encountering more soldiers but she figured since they knew she was here, there was no point in avoiding them. Besides, there was no telling how complicated the network of hallways were down here and she didn't want to get lost trying to get back to the only way out that she knew of.
Bit by bit they made their way down the hallway, she'd used to reach the cells and, just like she'd expected, they met with wave after wave of soldiers trying to stop them. Sadly for them the hallways made for more tactical areas and with no room for them to maneuver she was easily able to neutralize the weapons used against her. Grenades were stopped before they got close, guns were either jammed or broken and any soldier that tried to attack physically was introduced to the nearest wall. Needless to say it was a bit of a pain in the ass having to help Xander step over the unconscious bodies every so often but she put up with it.
It was when she entered the main area of the compound nearest the elevator she'd used that things got quite a bit more difficult. Not only did really heavy sounding doors come down behind them, but soldiers by the dozen poured out of every other door in the area with weapons trained on both her as well as Xander. By the time they'd finished forming a circle around her and her friend, there was easily a small army present, making her think that just about every soldier assigned here was present. Looking around, she tried to determine if she even stood a fighting chance of getting the two of them out of there in one piece. While it was true that she knew a few spells that didn't require a specifically designated target or eye contact, most of the ones in her repertoire did require she be able to see what she was using her powers on. With her back to the doorway that led to the cells, it meant that the soldiers were in front of her as well as on either side. It wasn't a hopeless situation per se but definitely one that would involve emptying the First Aid kit back at the apartment.
"An impressive attempt, Ms. Maximoff, but you couldn't have seriously thought you could escape from here with it, did you?" asked an old blonde woman in a lab coat, "Even if you had managed to render the subject invisible like you were, we still would have noticed the empty cell."
"Maybe." She replied while doing her best to keep her uncertainty hidden, "So, how exactly to you plan to resolve this situation? Keep in mind that I plan on walking out of here with my friend no matter what you do. I'm just curious."
"As you've probably guessed, the elevator has been locked down and all power cut from it. The blast door that came down behind you is strong enough to keep the hostile sub-terrestrials contained even if they escaped their cells." The woman replied, sounding like she was humoring an annoying lackey, "Also while you may have been able to handle up to five soldiers at a time, I somehow doubt you'll be able to defeat over thirty all at the same time."
"Let's find out!" She said after lowering Xander to the ground behind her and preparing to unleash every ounce of power at these jackasses.
Before any of them could do anything, six violent explosions tore through the ceiling of the complex, raining stone and dirt on everything below. Neither she nor the personnel of the Initiative were given a lot of time to think things through though as, seconds later, airborne armored suits came through the holes. She'd never seen anything like them before but, judging from the sophistication and armaments, whatever the group belonged to was well financed.
"Everyone freeze! Under the joint authority of the United States government and the United Nations, all of you are under arrest!" Came the digitized voice of one of the armored figures.
"What!? Who are you?!" The lab coat wearing woman asked, clearly flustered by this turn of events, "Who the hell is your commanding officer?"
Her question was quickly answered when the door to the elevator was blown clean off its hinges. Seconds later, as the smoke cleared, a group walked out onto the platform made up of three people she didn't know and the Scoobies. The one that garnered the most attention though was the bald African American with the goatee and eyepatch that pretty much screamed 'you do NOT want to mess with me'. The three unknowns, including the one with the eyepatch, were all wearing dark blue combat suits and were definitely armed for a serious battle.
"That would be me, Dr. Walsh. Colonel Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D" Fury said making his displeasure clearly known to the woman, "I hope you like prison food, doctor, because that's all you'll be allowed to eat for the next thirty to forty years."
&
A Parking Lot on the Far Side of the University Campus, Thirty Minutes Later
"My mouth feels like something died in it!" Xander groaned as the lingering effects of the sedatives hindered his body despite the injections of the S.H.I.E.L.D medic.
"That's just the injections working their way through your system," stated the female medic as she packed away the tools of her trade. "They were pumping you full of some pretty potent sedatives and muscle relaxants so it'll probably be a couple of days before they're completely out of your system. Just treat this like cold and you'll be fine."
"I will, thanks." He said as the woman walked off to join up with the rest of her comrades.
Looking around, he couldn't believe what almost happened.
While he hadn't been entirely coherent at the time, he knew that the people that had been holding him had been the same sort of commandoes that had been spotted lurking around Sunnydale in the last few months. He was also fairly certain that they'd been experimenting on demons, given the number of lab coat wearing poindexters that had been milling about the place. Looking up, he saw Wanda, Buffy and the others approaching with a trio of people he wasn't familiar with. He wasn't sure how he felt about seeing the gang in person again because, while he still wanted to rejoin them as a Scooby, there lingered some bitterness within them about how they'd been unable to see the truth. He knew that from their perspective it had been logical to assume that he'd been a demon posing as their friend after the exorcism spells failed, but it still hurt. Nevertheless, they seemed ready to talk to him now without the overabundance of weapons they'd used last time so he would do his best to keep things friendly.
"Feeling any better, Xander?" Wanda asked, quickly sitting down on the bench next to him.
"Well, I'll probably be treating mouthwash like the best thing since Twinkies for a while but give me a few days and I'll be fine." He replied with a smile to reassure his roommate that he was going to be fine.
"X-Xander?" Willow asked clearly no sure if he wanted to talk to her or not.
"Hey Wills, Buffy Giles and…" he said before drawing a complete blank on who the dirty blonde haired girl standing by Willow was.
"H-hi! M-my name is Tara." Tara stated clearly very shy and suffering from significant self esteem issues.
"Nice to meet you." He said extending one of his two fingered hands to her.
The young lady was hesitant at first but then gave him a real smile before accepting his hand and shaking it.
"Look, Xander, we're…we're sorry about how we acted when you came back." Buffy said sounding like the words being spoken were hard for her to say, "We…we shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like we did. I…I'm sorry."
While I'd like a more heart felt apology from Buff, I guess this is probably the best I can hope for as far as her saying she was wrong. He thought before saying, "No problem, Buffy. Everyone makes mistakes."
"Indeed and you can rest assured that Dr. Walsh and her cronies will be paying for their mistakes for a long time," stated the African American with the eyepatch.
"And you are?" He asked despite the vague recollection that the man had introduced himself before.
"Nick Fury. I'm the commander of the force that shut down the Initiative and got you out of the tight spot you were in." Nick said extending his hand for a shake.
"Thanks for that. The room service was terrible, their manners were pathetic and entertainment was definitely below average." He said before recalling something during the early hours of his imprisonment, "Although it was kinda funny to see that Fyarl demon stagger around its cell drugged up to the gills."
While it was clear that the man wasn't quite sure how to take those words, the looks of amusement on the faces of the Scoobies quickly clued him in.
"I'm sure it was. However we're going to be closing down this show permanently." Fury stated before his voice took on another tone, "That still leaves us without a credible means of dealing with demonic and supernatural threats. It's clear to me that feeling ones way through isn't going to work if the innocent people are going to be protected. We need experienced people who already know what needs to be done and how to do it."
It's almost as if he's proposing something. He thought before something snapped into place in his head.
"Are offering us a job?" He asked, deciding that the best way to handle his suspicion was just to pop the question.
"While I had a few others in mind, you'd all be welcome additions to the team given your experience fighting on a Hellmouth." Fury replied with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, indicating he'd hoped the question would be asked.
It was definitely an odd proposition and, while he didn't know much about this Fury guy, the man at least had enough sense to know when not to leave things to the amateurs.
"While it would be...interesting, Mr. Fury, I am afraid that Buffy will have to remain in the vicinity of Sunnydale to keep watch over the Hellmouth." Giles said, attempting to phrase his response just right.
"Besides I like being my own boss too much to take orders from anyone." Buffy said in agreement, completely ignoring the looks of disappointed acceptance on everyone else's face.
"I've already paid for classes and Buffy might need my help." Willow said with some reluctance.
Tara didn't need to say anything to indicate where she'd be staying.
"Well, then, I guess it's just you and me, Xander." Wanda said with a smile a she threw an arm over his shoulder.
While he did, for a moment, think about saying no he realized that even if the Scoobies could now see the true him beneath the blue skin it didn't change two things. The first was the fact that even if he could hang with the gang again his appearance would make it difficult if not impossible to be with them outside of work. Granted, he'd been able to cope half decently in the past couple of months but it pretty much required that he live like recluse or restrict his leisure time to places demons also frequented like Willy's. Still, it was beginning to get to him and only Wanda's company had managed to keep him in good cheer. The second thing, though, was that if Fury was going to put together a demon/paranormal division, the Sam L. Jackson wannabe was probably going to gear them up with stuff similar to the robo-suits. While some might think that such advanced technology would make demons quake in their scales he knew it just meant a bigger screw up if they didn't have someone with some actual know how on the team. So, all in all, there was only one thing he could say with regards to the Scarlet Witch's statement.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Wanda." He said with his trademark lopsided smile.
&
One Week Later, Room #13 of the Motel Belonging to Mr. E. Nigma, Evening
I hope I'm doing the right thing. Willow thought as she went through her preparations one more time.
It had been a week since Xander and his friend Wanda left to work for that Nick Fury Colonel running the government's anti-demon division. During that time she had the chance to review what Wanda said after prying the info from Riley and, while it made her feel pretty bad, the lady had a point. They had been so confident when they'd tried to restore Xander, so sure that they had all they needed to help him, that they never even considered failure as a possibility. Now that she looked at the situation objectively, the points Wanda raised were valid. Considering that the cultists were using sacrificial magic to try and bring the demon Mystique into this world the monster had to be pretty powerful. When you added to that the criteria for most exorcism spells was to remove the foreign elements in a person's body, the spells wouldn't work if they considered the alterations to Xander's body to be 'natural' for him. Thus, armed with this information, she'd looked through Giles' books every night this week looking for the right potion or spell to turn Xander back. However, no matter how hard she looked, none of the spells looked reliable enough even though they didn't have the foreign elements part in them.
That left her with only one choice and she had to say she was feeling kinda wiggy about it. Checking the arcane circles that were drawn on the floor of the room, she made sure that every symbol was correctly drawn as well as necessary for her objective. She also checked to make sure the various charms and protective amulets she wore were activated, since they'd be her second line of defense. Her plan was to execute a modified version of the ceremony those cultists used to bring the demon Mystique into this world. She would be using herself as the vessel for the power as well as the knowledge with the intent that, once she gained enough of both to help Xander, she would terminate the spell. The protective circles, charms and amulets were all made with the intent of denying Mystique from achieving anything more than a thirty percent hold on her body. In fact, if her calculations were accurate, the demon would have to work a great deal to even get that far. While the demon might be powerful, there'd be a limit to how much power it would be able to channel through the portal and into her thanks to her circles. She had left nothing to chance and had even placed the means of terminating the spell into the palm of her hand.
Literally.
It was a simple glass sphere but, as it was the focus for the spell, all she'd need to do if things got out of hand was shatter it. It would terminate the connection to the dimension Mystique resided in and any excess energy that remained would bleed off into the atmosphere. She, of course, would retain the power and the knowledge for a week or so before it entirely disappeared but that would be long enough for her to find Xander and change him back. She knew that even if she changed him back, he'd probably want to continue working for Colonel Fury but at least if he was human, he'd have less of a reason to stay away from the Scooby gang. He might not have said it in so many words but she knew her friend well enough to know that deep down Xander was still angry with them over chasing him away when he first got back to Sunnydale. It had been the theme of many a nightmare that, rather than chasing away a demon trying to pose as her lifelong friend, she had actually ran off the genuine article. Now was the time for her to atone for that mistake!
Standing between two lit candles she began to chant the words that would bring into being the portal to the realm of Mystique. It was difficult and required quite a bit of effort but she was gratified to see a black whirling portal form at the center of her three arcane circles. Quickly, as she knew that she had not a moment to waste, she placed her hands on the outer most circle, causing a cascade effect that activated all three. It was a good thing too since a pair of malevolent golden eyes immediately appeared from within the portal. No words were spoken but the eyes told the redheaded wicca all she needed to know. The demon was curious about what she was doing. The demon made promises of great power and influence if she would allow it to fully enter the realm of Earth. The demon promised that all her deepest desires would be fulfilled if she placed her trust in it.
It even promised to turn Xander back to normal.
However Willow's long years of fighting on the Hellmouth had served her well because she resisted the words and ideas being placed in her mind. Chanting once more, she cast the spell that would draw Mystique's power and knowledge through the portal and into her own body. Putting all her heart and soul into the effort she could feel the target of her work resisting her efforts but that only made her try that much harder. It became so difficult for her that her awareness of what was going on aside from her mission was lessened greatly. She was not aware of the fact that her skin was growing more and more blue by the second or that her hair was becoming an unnatural shade of red. All that mattered to her was completing the spell and then terminating the connection before the demon found a way past her defenses. Pain. Pain from casting the spell got so bad she nearly lost her focus but there was a strength in her that was more powerful than anything anyone in Sunnydale had seen before.
However it was as the spell reached its maximum output that something unexpected happened.
While it only started out as a smell she soon discovered that the symbols that empowered her mystic circles were beginning to burn away. It wasn't just the inner circle or the second one out from the center, but all three at the same time! Looking back at the golden eyes that pierced the darkness of the portal, she could feel the demon's rising glee as the only things keeping it from coming completely through were disappearing. Fearing what might happen if she waited any longer, Willow brought the glass sphere in front of her and prepared to crush it. However as she sent the command from her brain to the hand that held the sphere, she was shocked to find her hand not responding. Again she commanded it to crush the sphere before the demon could finish wiping out the arcane sphere's hindering it. It was only then that she realized that somehow the demon had infiltrated her body somewhat. Not enough to seize complete control but enough to keep her from foiling its plan to enter this world and take possession of her body. Frantically she doubled, tripled and quadrupled her efforts to crush the glass sphere in her hand but nothing happened. Looking up and seeing the last few symbols that made the final circle work begin to fade away, she decided that the time for finesse was over and so with a grunt of defiance she slammed the glass sphere into the floor. In perfect synch the final symbol of the outer circle vanished, the demon Mystique leapt from the portal to claim it's prize and the sphere shattered on the floor beneath her hand. All at once a blinding light erupted from the point of contact and a terrible demonic scream cut through the air for all within a five block radius to hear.
When the light within the room faded all trace of the magic circles, the portal and the demon were gone. Only Willow remained kneeling where she had been from the beginning, a dazed and fatigued look on her face. With what meager strength she had left, she crawled over to the bed in the motel room and climbed into it because she was bone dead tired with sleep the only thing on her mind. Perhaps it was because of this that she failed to notice that her eyes were now completely golden and gave off a light unnatural glow. If she had noticed this she would have been worried since nothing in her research or preparations had mentioned anything like that as one of the possible after effects. It would also explain why, in the darkest recesses of her mind, a sinister voice cursed her name and vowed to one day claim all that Willow possessed for its own.
However that is a tale for another time.