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.
"Visiting hours are over," Faith said.
"Well, I'm pretty much family," the vampire shot back.
"Yeah?" she retorted. "Why don't you come back during the day? Oh, gee, no, I guess you can't."
"If I decide to walk into Harris's room, do you think for one microsecond that you could stop me?
Faith hesitated, then raised her right hand, clenched into a fist, "Actually? Yeah." The ring flashed with green energy, and she shot him a challenging look, "You saw what I did to the Judge. Care to try your luck?"
Angelus glared, then turned and stalked off, "Tell him I stopped by."
Faith breathed sigh of relief as the vampire disappeared around the corner. That had been... tense. She hadn't been able to find the power battery, and her power ring had been pretty much dead since she took care of the Judge.
She'd been bluffing him completely.
"So, what did you do to the Judge, Faith?"
She started, then spun, "Xander! You're awake!"
"Seems so," he said. "So, again, what'd you do to the Judge?"
"I, uh, used my ring," she said. "Ripped him to pieces and dropped his head and legs on Jupiter, his torso on Saturn, and his arms on Neptune. All that juice, I didn't know what it might do if I dropped him in the sun."
Xander nodded thoughtfully.
"Good job, poozer."
Faith blushed.
"Now, what have I missed? And could I get some water?"
"...and with you getting stabbed and Kendra gone missing-"
"Kendra? Missing?" Xander interrupted. "What happened?"
"Spike and Drusilla captured her right around the time you were stabbed," Giles explained. Faith had called the Scooby Gang up, and after the first round of hugs, he had asked the others to wait outside while the Watcher filled him in on what had happened while he was comatose.
"Shit," Xander swore. "I should've-"
"There was nothing you could do," Giles said firmly. "She's all right, so don't start blaming yourself for it."
Xander relaxed, "So you rescued her in time."
"No."
"Huh?"
"They let her go," Giles said.
"That doesn't make any sense," Xander frowned. "Why?"
"All we know is what Kendra could report before she and Sam Zabuto returned to their post in Cleveland. She said that Drusilla convinced Spike to release her after she drank from her. She said that Drusilla said that it would make her kitten angry."
"She did, did she?" Xander blanched.
"Yes. Since then, she's apparently taken great pains to make sure her victims survived. The hospital has had a sharp jump in survivors from 'wild animal attacks' and 'barbecue fork accidents.'" Giles noted Xander's pallor and frowned in concern, "Are you all right? Do you know what that means? Angel had no idea."
"No," the young Green Lantern choked out. "Not a clue." He shook it off, "So who assembled the Judge?"
"Faith told you about that?"
"She may have mentioned it, yeah," Xander said. "So who put the Giant Atomic Smurf back together?"
"Spike," Giles said. "He appeared to be working alone. For whatever reason, he and Drusilla appear to have, ah, parted ways since Kendra was released."
Xander nodded, "Figures."
Giles frowned, "Wait. How did you know what color the Judge was?"
"Um... lucky guess?" he offered.
"You knew," Giles glowered. "You knew this would happen!"
"Yeah, I did," Xander said, glowering right back, "but seeing as how I had the power to handle it myself, and no one believed me about anything else anyway, I figured there wasn't much point bothering anyone else with it." He then shouldered past the Watcher and left the room before he could argue the point.
"Xander!" three voices echoed as Xander suddenly found himself tackled and pinned back up against the door by three bonecrushing hugs. He blinked. It was Faith, Tara, and Willow.
He said the first thing that came to mind.
Naturally, this involved a good taste of his foot.
"A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead. The trifecta. Score!"
Tara blushed and backed off, though she didn't stop hugging him. Willow and Faith, for their part, thwapped him in unison.
"Ow!"
Willow took a deep breath, and Xander steeled himself for a Willow rant... only to have one ear deafened as Faith began berating him.
"What the hell were you doing?!" the other Green Lantern snarled. "How on Earth could you get yourself gutted like that?! For cryin' out loud, Xander! How the f--- could you let anyone get the drop on you like that, you f---ing moron?!"
"Erm, nice to know you care," he blinked dumbly.
She leaned in on him and hissed quietly, "And just what the hell did you expect us to do with you laid up like that, huh? You didn't even show me how to get the damned power battery. I was lucky I had enough juice to deal with Smurf Dredd and get back!"
"Smurf Dredd," Xander repeated and grinned. "I like- ow!" he broke off as she thwapped him again. Rubbing his head, he said, "And anyway, what's this about not teaching you how to get the battery? I'm sure I did..."
"No, you didn't!"
"Of course, I did!" he argued. "I had the schedule laid out in my head and everything! I was going to show you right after I checked out Oa!" He blinked, "Huh. I guess I didn't get around to that yet, did I?"
Thwap!
"OW! What was that for?" Xander sputtered, shooting a mock glare at the most recent thwapper.
"I d-d-didn't w-w-want to f-f-feel left out," Tara stammered, backing away from him. "I care about you too, you know."
"Hey," Xander said, holding his arms out. "C'mere." He pulled her into a comforting hug and began murmuring quietly into her ear.
Faith stared and leaned over to Willow, "Look at him. He just eats it up."
"He's Xander," Willow shrugged. "I've never found a more surefire way to get Xander snuggles."
"Hmm," Faith mused, "maybe I oughtta give it a try."
Willow stared at her, "You're not serious, are you?"
"What?" she challenged. "You think I can't do a scared little mouse routine?"
"Nope."
The door to Xander's room opened, and as Giles stepped out, Xander looked over his shoulder and asked, "Oh, by the way, Giles, got a question. Who's been paying the hospital while I was here?"
"Mrs. Summers," Giles replied. "She's at an art show in Los Angeles right now."
"Really?" Xander's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Why?"
"She's been given legal custody of you."
"Gah?"
It didn't take Xander long to find Angelus. He had made a mistake, though, going for the Crawford Street mansion at first, but it didn't take him long to realize his error, and he was back at the warehouse.
And that's when the ring's power flickered.
"What the hell?" he muttered. "Ring, explain power loss."
"Defensive measures were taken to protect bearer from hostile attack," it chirped. "Threat was identified as Der Kindestod, designated by Corps for termination for child murder, and neutralized."
He heaved a sigh. Well, that was one less thing to worry about. As the senior Green Lantern, Xander held the authority over the Corps as a whole, and he'd mentally listed all possible opponents that would need slaying in the near future, including Der Kindestod. Unlike in the comics, the power rings were not restricted from killing unless the target was helpless. Now, though, it meant he'd have to confront the master vampire the old-fashioned way. He found a wooden crate and broke off a makeshift stake, then carefully slipped into the warehouse, listening to the sounds of metal clashing against metal.
There they were. Buffy and Angelus, dueling with swords.
"You don't attack my friends," Buffy declared.
"Oh, please," Angelus sneered. "You can't kill me. You had a perfect shot at the mall, and you couldn't do it. You really think you've had enough time?" he taunted.
"She won't need it."
Buffy blinked as Angelus suddenly crumbled to dust in front of her. Behind him was...
"Xander!" she dropped the sword and hugged him, then pulled back. "Why did you do that?"
"You know it had to be done, Buffy," he replied.
"I should have been the one to do it!"
"Yes," he nodded solemnly. "You should have. But how long would it have taken you to do it, Buffy? Do you know? I do. Forty-two dead, including Miss Calender and Kendra. Willow in a coma, me with a concussion, Giles tortured, your mother threatened, and the world about to end. That is what it took before you were willing to end it last time, Buffy."
"That was last time!"
"And I made sure it wasn't going to be this time." He turned away and added quietly, "Besides, I made a promise, Buffy. I made two promises."
Author's Postscript:
Ahem, the two promises, in case anyone forgot, are:
"You're gonna die. And I'm gonna be there"
--Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 2.18 Killed By Death
"Fine, but if you lose your soul, Deadboy, I'm going to dust you"
"Promise"
"Cross my heart"
--Emerald Spark, Chapter Three
And I cannot stress enough that if you like my BtVS/DC crossovers, you really need to read Cobra's Journey of a Hero.