Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.
Rating: Just a little bad language.
Spoilers: Anything and everything.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.
Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.
Then I got this idea.
"So, when do I get to meet the rest of the Corps?" Faith asked. Currently, they were flying to Sunnydale, courtesy of Green Lantern Airlines. Faith's power ring had used up its charge less than an hour after Xander had found her, so his ring was bringing them there.
"I am the rest of the Corps," Xander snorted. "So far, it's just the two of us, another couple of people I've got my eye on, and one power battery between us all."
"What?" she sputtered, her face paling. "A-and you... it picked me?" Her voice rose about two octaves as her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.
"Yeah," Xander replied quietly. "Just us."
"What happened?"
He shrugged, "It's a long story, poozer. I'll tell you when we get there. Right now, though... do you believe in vampires?"
"Faith, this is Rebecca Maclay-" Xander began.
"Baxter."
Xander blinked, "Huh?"
"I'd rather go by my maiden name now," the older woman said. She extended a hand toward Faith, "I'm Rebecca Baxter."
"Yo," Faith shook her hand.
"Oh," Xander nodded. "Well, Tara, Ms. Baxter, this is Faith Lehane, the newest -- by which I mean, the only other -- Green Lantern."
"A pleasure to meet you," Rebecca said.
"Um, h-hi," Tara waved shyly.
Xander bowed and gestured toward Tara with an exaggerated flourish, "And this is the adorably cute Tara Baxter."
Faith cocked an eyebrow as Tara's faced reddened. Rebecca watched the interplay with... interest. Xander remained oblivious.
"No shit?" Faith asked. "The future? Seriously?"
Xander nodded. "I've got memories up until around oh-eight. That's when I got tossed into the wrong universe. I was in Africa, trying to stop an apocalyptic ritual, and I got shifted to a version of the DC universe."
"But how did you get from there to here?" Rebecca asked.
"Halloween," Xander shrugged. "A chaos worshipper cast a spell that turned everyone into their costumes. I dressed as a Green Lantern and wound up turning into myself. Since I knew the power ring would revert when the spell ended, I used it to create a second one and call my power battery to me. That broke the spell..." his voice dropped "...and damn near me..." he cleared his throat and continued, "...and here we are now."
He hadn't told them everything. For example, he'd left out little details like Faith's stint on the dark side and the fact that Tara and Rebecca were both very, very dead; he'd also taken care to avoid mentioning the various... relationships... that had developed -- or would develop... whatever -- on ye merry olde hellmouth. All he'd done was paint some pretty broad strokes -- apocalypse this, armageddon that -- and when they'd met each other.
"Xander?"
Xander had used up his road trip fund to put a down payment on the house he'd set up Faith and the Mac- the Baxters in. He had some plans to come up with more funding, but for now, that was all he needed. Tara and Faith had headed to bed, and Xander was on his way out.
He turned, "Yeah, Ms. B?"
"I died in the future you remembered, didn't I?"
"Um, what makes you say that?" he asked.
"You didn't recognize me when you... intervened," she said quietly. "So you and I never met in the past timeline, and the only way that would happen after you've known Tara as long as you said you did is if I was dead."
Xander looked away.
"How did I die?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "Tara never said. Or at least not to me. All I know is that you died when she was seventeen."
"She turned seventeen two weeks ago."
"I know," he said quietly.
Rebecca nodded thoughtfully. "I can't imagine that the rest of the family would just let her stay here," she said, finally. "Why didn't they come for her?"
Xander turned and flashed her a feral grin, "Oh, they did. We made sure they left without her. And hey, I was dating an ex-demon, we had a vampire on the team, and Buffy's the Slayer. Even if she... you... were demons..." he trailed off and shrugged. "Not a big deal for us."
"Well, you go get some sleep, young man. It's a school night, after all."
Xander nodded and walked off without a word, stopping only slightly for a second when he realized that she'd just ordered him to bed, and he was following said order. He'd only done that with Joyce before.
This... was going to be strange.
"C'mon, Buffy. You know Xander can't keep up a lie for long," Willow said encouragingly. I just hope he really was lying, she added silently. If not... she glanced at Buffy worriedly.
If Xander had been telling the truth, that the gypsy curse binding Angel's soul would be broken if he had a moment of happiness... well, it made a scary sort of sense to Willow. What would be the point of cursing him if he could be happy with it? But why wouldn't they have told him about it? It was also kind of odd that the future Xander remembered had him losing his soul after sleeping with Buffy. If he really loved her, why didn't the clause go off until then?
It was vaguely creepy, and the more Willow thought about it, the more it disturbed her.
All these musings were suddenly and violently shoved into a tiny corner of her mind, and a green haze tinted her vision when she saw Xander arriving.
Flanked by two very beautiful girls.
Xander was wearing a pair of khaki pants, along with an off-white button-up shirt. Over the shirt, he wore a brown leather vest, and a pair of brand-new, rugged-looking, leather hiking boots and a fedora completed the image. On his left stood a raven-haired girl whose tight halter top, equally tight leather shorts, and swaying walk positively screamed "bad girl." On his right stood a mousy-looking blonde who was wearing a knee-length cotton skirt and a sweater. The two were as different as night and day.
Xander's gaze swept across the compound, and he shot Willow a warm smile that snapped her out of her jealous haze, but the smile instantly faded as soon as his gaze met Buffy's. His face hardened like stone, and he pointedly looked away from Buffy and continued toward the school's front doors.
"Buffy, I don't think he was lying."
Buffy turned and stared at her, "You mean you believe him now?"
"Did you see the look on his face?" Willow asked. "He's furious."
"That's because I saw through his stupid trick," Buffy retorted, turning and heading toward the school. "C'mon, we'll be late."
Willow hurried after, eyeing Buffy uneasily. She shook it off.
Who are those two girls that were with him? Willow wondered.
"tHE SEED OF DOUBT HAS GROWN WELL."
"gOOD. tHEN HIS MEDDLING CAN BE COMPENSATED FOR."
"It would be... unfortunate if something like what happened to the late Principal Flutie were to happen again," Xander said coolly. He flashed Snyder a feral grin and pulsed some of his ring's power to make his eyes flash green, "After all, this is a dangerous town. All sorts of gangs prowling around, high on PCP. It would be wise of you to not do anything... risky."
"You... you wouldn't dare," Snyder hissed.
"Me?" Xander feigned surprise. "Dare what? I'm just reminding you of how dangerous Sunnydale can be. After all, I wouldn't want anything to... happen to my... favorite principal, now, would I?" His voice was positively dripping with sarcasm. With that, he left the principal's office and headed out to meet Faith and Tara.
Uh, oh, he thought when he saw Tara cornered by the Cordettes. Not good. His gaze flicked over to where he saw further movement. It was Faith, and she was making a beeline toward Tara and the Cordettes. Even worse, he thought. He hurried and overtook Faith, waving her back.
Cordelia Chase was not an idiot. Sure, she was self-centered and occasionally had her priorities a little out of whack when the world was on the line, but all in all, she was not an idiot. Which was why she was smart enough to back off on the new girl when she saw Xander storming toward them like a god of vengeance. Her hand twitched in a subtle signal, and her loyal sheep followed her lead.
Harmony Kendall, on the other hand, was an idiot. She was also self-centered, but where Cordelia occasionally had her priorities a little out of whack, Harmony usually had her priorities a little out of whack. Which was why she was both ambitious enough and stupid enough to see Cordy's backing down as an opportunity, rather than a warning.
"...hope we've made ourselves clear, you white trash fashion disaster."
"Now, now, Harmony," Xander stepped in. "Stop being jealous."
Harmony blinked for a long moment as she processed that.
"'Jealous'?" she shrieked. "Of her? Dream on, Harris!"
"Well," Xander shrugged, "I'm just calling it as I see it. After all, unlike some people I could name, she doesn't need twenty layers of make-up, a hundred-dollar pair of shoes, and a boob job to be presentable." He put an arm around Tara's shoulders and gave a friendly squeeze, "Personally, I prefer a more natural beauty." After a long pause, he added, "After all, Harmony, do you honestly think you could make this look anywhere near as good?"
Satisfied with the impact his verbal assault had made -- Harmony was now doing a wonderful impression of a goldfish -- Xander turned and left, a furiously blushing Tara in tow.
Author's Postscript:
There will be more crossovers as this continues. Just a warning.