I'd have whined more about the Faith thing but hey what's the point. She liked Spider-man not Xander; I had other concerns. The weird guy who killed the leader of Donnie's were-pack for one thing. If Faith taught me what happens, when you live for vengeance then the Punisher taught me what happens when your need for vengeance lives longer then you.
It was the death of a war buddy of Sunnydale High's Janitor, Sam, which restarted the hunt. The dead man was running from something that had scared the crap out of him before shooting him multiple times.
Willow had liked Sam and Xander remembered the old man well, when things had been bad at home, Sam had created an assistant janitors post just for the morose young boy. IF Sam needed their help they would deliver and he really needed help.
The gang staked out Sam's place that night. A huge creature, tall, hulking with a battery of rifles strapped to its back, tore its way out of the ground, and attacked the house. The Scoobies hit the deck with Angel taking a few shots protecting Willow. Realizing that the gang would not let him near the old man The Punisher swore vengeance and vanished as quickly as he had appeared seeming to drop back into the earth.
The ammo they dug out of Angel's body was a weird mix. A mystical combo of metal and organic, like it was alive or had been when the round had fired. Giles ran every test he could think of then convinced Willow to run a few more.
They had begun a search. The first clue was a complaint filed about an assault on a serviceman from back east named Frank Castle. The man had died under mysterious circumstances and some people claimed Sam and friends of his attacked Castle outside a bar on the night he was found dead in his home.
Someone murdered Castle and His family. Sam pleaded his innocence to Willow and Xander claiming that A well-dressed man had paid good money to have Castle beaten. A warning, he had told them, to stay away from his virginal daughter A warning, Sam and his friends had delivered most efficiently. The beaten Castle had still been alive after their attack and they had left him near the bar. Castle had somehow gotten home where later that night someone had killed him and his family. Sam had no idea who nor any clue as to how or why it was done
Willow and Giles confirmed that Castle had no other family. Now his wife, she was connected, very connected. Part of an old-blood magic clan whose exploits went back centuries. Her father was a magus of great power who was still alive. Sam looking at a picture identified Daddy as being the man who had paid him to lay the smack down on his son-in-law. Buffy offered to meet the mage and after she refused his help Xander confessed that Spider-man had met the Punisher previously. Giles insisted on Buffy putting aside her misgivings and contacting the web-slinger for help. Xander promised to try to get Spider-man there as well.
When Buffy arrived for their secret meeting with the mage, Spider-man was already waiting for her.
"So you decided to show." Buffy sneered
"Well can't have someone thinking that you are the best that Sunnydale has to offer." Spidey sniped. "So what's the scam, El Slayerino. "
"Powerful magical clans, feuding since before we were born, hell, since before some countries were born. Recently a demon like the one you saw has been striking at both sides and anything or anyone else that gets in the crossfire. "
"So your thinking that we offer to save his witchy-ass and he'll give us info to take out the big bad, nice plan I'll let you know how it turns out."
"Oh no this is my action you are strictly back-up."
"Relax Buffy I'll be too busy outshining you to steal your spotlight." Xander could not help but notice that his normal puppy dog persona vanished under the mask of Spider-man.
Their arguing stopped when two men came out of the shadows. A warlock named Cirrus Boldger and his brother Anton. Buffy recognized some of the fetishes on Anton's coat. They marked him a Necromancer.
"This is the protection offered by the Council of Watchers. The rebellious Slayer and a demonic avatar."
Cirrus laughed at the mystified Buffy. "Your companion has been marked by Arachnis, the Spider-god. He should be dead by all rights but I presume this is the source of his powers?"
"I owe it all to clean living and good hygiene." Spider-man joked. Under his mask Xander was unnerved that the mage could tell so much with but a glance, could he tell that it was Xander under the mask?
Anton laughed silently while his grim-faced brother continued. "It is good that you do-gooders have finally taken a stand in this fight." Cirrus said arrogantly
"What's he talking about." Spidey asked
Buffy shrugged "Council has avoided these little battles for a long time apparently anyone with brains does. Guess the thought of a centuries old cat fight get people nervous."
"Well since our enemy has given themselves to the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart your council would do well to side with us against them."
Cirrus was explaining his cryptic statement when Spider-man felt the flaring that was his spider-sense." We have company," he whispered
"Is it Gun Boy, " Buffy snapped.
"No not from the ground " He looked around "from above.". Forms dropped out of the shadows to land surrounding them. Cloaked warriors who moved unnaturally fast.
"The Hand." Cirrus cried out, "Brother, we are betrayed."
"Not by me" Buffy called and attacked the warriors. The warriors pushed Spidey's speed and reflexes to their limits.
Suddenly he was back to back with the Slayer, trying to fend off two warriors at once. A blade lanced into the chest of one of his attackers. Buffy had stabbed him. "Don't thank me, thank Xander." She grumbled
Xander spotted a warrior sneaking in from her blind side he webbed up the attacker and punched him. She looked at him amazed, "Saving the Slayer is good for my Karma. " he laughed
She smiled slightly and they waded into their diminishing army of foes with gusto.
Soon the one or two still awake or alive fled the building. Cirrus smiled triumphantly. "An excellent debut for our new partnership."
"Then why is my Spider-sense still buzzing." Spidey looked around. The ground began quaking and then ripped open. The Punisher sprang from the ground backhanding the wall crawler who was still reeling from the first battle.
Buffy instinctively moved to fight the zombie who slapped her aside. She crashed into Anton and the two went rolling to the ground.
Cirrus began gesturing. Power flowed from his hands to strike the Punisher sending him rolling across the floor but he quickly recovered.
His guns tracked the warlock who began running Spider-man tried to climb to his feet but one of the guns swiveled and shot him though the leg. The rest opened in a hail of fire, multiple shots hitting the warlock. Cirrus sank to the ground. He was dead.
Anton was fighting to get out from under the Slayer but she covered him with her body. The Punisher moaned. "Enough innocents have died protecting your darkness, another time Mage." He sank into the ground leaving Anton screaming for him to come back. Buffy trying to hold the demented mage down and Spider-man wondering how Xander would explain away the gunshot wound in his leg.
It turned out not to be a problem, he healed fast and by the following morning he could hobble around on the leg. Angel was in the midst of his weekly weapon cleaning when Xander asked for help binding the leg. The vampire used every healing trick he knew. They were looking at the effects when Buffy came bursting through the door.
"You guys will not believe what happened, the mage Spider-man and I saved last night, he told us the whole story and Willow did some checking and confirmed everything. You have to get to the library." She looked at Xander and Angel "what are you two doing?"
"Exfoliating" Angel lied
"Waxing." Xander said
"God how dumb do you guys think I Am. " she sat next to Xander "Xander Fencing is dangerous. You can have accidents like this all the time. You should practice with me. I'll go easier on you then Angel will."
"Fencing,"
"Well duh, I can see the fencing swords sitting on the counter and that spot is where he always tried to get an easy hit on me. You have to parry and then step around him he's usually off balance for a second."
"Yeah, fencing accident danm you are good. " Relief flooded Xander's soul
"Of course, now get going. Giles says this could be big."
Big indeed, the necromancer told his tale and it was a sad one. Feuding clans often bred hatred and vile hatred at that; the exception to that rule was Anton's niece, Cirrus' daughter. A healer and elemental named Valerie. Valerie had fallen in love with Frank Castle. When Cirrus had found out that Val was carrying Castle's child he was enraged. Anton secretly sent the couple away for their safety. Leaving Cirrus trying to find a way to curse his new stepson but old magic protected the new couple. Moreover, Val was a powerful witch in her own right. To get at Frank, Cirrus would have to withdraw that protection. He had done so, hiring men to bet the luckless Castle as a warning. That same night, the Clan's enemies used the brief opportunity unwittingly created by Cirrus to strike. Killers hired by The Wolf, The Ram and the Hart found the rest of the Castle family. The beaten Castle arrived home to find the Killers finishing with his wife and baby and then they turned on the already weakened man.
Although Cirrus blamed Frank for his daughter's death, Anton saw things differently. Therefore, when Cirrus commanded his brother to craft Castle into an undead engine of vengeance against their enemies, Anton secretly altered the spell.
Frank Castle would have the power to track the dark magic that had lead to his death. He would be immortal allowing him to strike repeatedly until everyone that was at fault was dead.
The weeping man explained that he blamed himself for the couples death but blamed his brother even more for not seeing that Valerie was happy and deserved a chance away from the feuding and fighting. The Necromancer had destroyed the fetishes that would allow him to compel or stop Castle. The undead creature would kill and kill until everyone tinted by dark magic, Anton included, was dead.
"I read about this Castle and he was one bad mother." Willow said quietly as the group meditated. "Special Forces and ranger trained. Even some stuff that is so classified I am scared to touch the data."
Giles nodded as he continued. "Apparently his favorite trick was to blend into the environment so well that he could appear out of the ground like magic and he was master class rated on more types of guns then I knew existed."
Xander whistled as he realized what they were fighting. "Well how do we stop him" he asked Giles.
The librarian shook his head "I'm not sure "
"And it's not our most immediate concern." Anton said softly " the forces of the wolf, ram and hart have detailed The Hand, a shadow clan to execute me. Anyone in the way, will be killed as well."
"Great a vengeful gun toting zombie wants you dead and a freaky demon ninja clan want you dead any other pieces of good news."
"Thank you for the exposition Xander" Willow smiled. "Anyway I may have a solution. Giles I want to check your magic books, maybe I can whip up something to lay Mr. Castle to rest."
"Why not get Mr. I-whammy- dead-people to do something." Xander asked gesturing toward Anton.
Giles drew his attention to the still weeping mage slumped in a chair. There would be no magic from the man this night or any other.
The next few hours, Willow and Giles poured over the Books. Eventually Anton snapped out of his malaise and helped. Willow quickly deduced the necromancer had done some complex magic to create The Punisher. She also found that telling him so in an admiring tone got him motivated to help with the saving of his life.
Finally the group met, "The Hand clan is the problem. We should take them out first." Anton insisted
"Ah no, the problem would be the undead psycho trying to off you." Xander pointed out
It went back and forth until Giles whistled loudly and shrilly. "Thank you, Xander is right."
"I am? " Xander asked shocked at Giles agreeing with him.
"For god's sake boy you aren't helplessly stupid, the reason you are right is the Punisher is the more manageable of the two threats."
Willow stepped forward "our badass boy is homing on dark energies, probably tracking the emanation of Anton's talismans and fetishes. "
"I destroyed the fetish that controls him, " Anton reminded them holding it up so they could see the shattered jewel
"But you didn't get rid of it or the rest of the ones you carry." Angel pointed out "That's how he's kept you in his crosshairs all this time, "
Buffy nodded "He's probably chose to let you live this long because it made it easier to track Cirrus as well. "
"We also know that the only person the Punisher wants to kill is Anton, the Hand clan won't be that discriminating. Giles said grimly
Buffy wanted to know how The Hand had managed to find them the previous night. Willow had a theory about that as well. "They looked for the shadow. All magic leaves some kind of impression. A concealment spell may mask an object but the right kind of spell can detect the presence of cloaking magic if not the object itself."
Anton's eyes brightened "Of course, just as a plane invisible on radar is visible to the naked eye. Its movement changes the way air flows as well, if that could be tracked the location of the plane would be betrayed astounding girl, and you say you've had no formal training." Willow basked in the glow of His comments.
"They also might have been tracking our movements." Angel muttered
"I don't know about Web-head but nobody followed me there." Buffy said defensively
Anton shook his head "It would be hard to say with The HAND, their skills at concealment and assassination made them the perfect tools for inter clan warfare. They kill without mercy and fight without pause. They are mystically connected to each other, what one sees the rest see, and if one falls in combat then his body obliterates itself rather then risk capture.
"Any other good news?"
Since their masters are demonic in nature, they have ever been the foes of the vampire Slayer on the rare occasions that brought the two together.
"Giles " Buffy whined
Her watcher smiled "relax I already have a full work up ready for you." He handed her a sheet of paper." some of their history and fighting styles."
"A dark ceremony could stop them. I am loathe to use its' power though. " Anton mused
"Whatever it is sketch it out for Willow we'll keep it as a option."
Willow and Anton began working on the ceremony of banishment. Xander and Buffy began sharpening weapons. He was working the edge into a particularly sharp sword when he felt a tingling. He was about to call to Buffy when she looked up startled and hurled the knife in her hands through the skylight of the library.
The ninja crashed through and landed on the ground the knife lodged in his throat. Xander looked at Buffy "Slayer sense?" he asked
"Cordy moment, I was looking at my reflection in the blade."
The ninja grunted and hauled himself up and looked around
"His eyes, put out his eyes or we are lost." Anton cried out the ninja gurgled again and collapsed exploding into dust like a vampire save that its all concealing uniform was left behind.
A rustling filled the library. "You know I just realized something, we should have called Faith " Buffy said
"I'm sure she'll have that carved on our tombstones. " Angel snapped
The first of them dropped through the jagged hold made by the first one. The rest made their own holes dropping into the room. Buffy and Angel launched themselves at the horde dancing and slicing with bacchanal glee. Xander considered sneaking off to switch clothes but soon he had a group of ninja to fend off. Secret identity be damned his friends were in trouble. Xander felt an odd joy at being able to cut loose with all his power and skill. He moved inhumanly fast. When he was not stabbing, slicing or decapitating; he went for the old school neck break. They barely stayed ahead of them all.
The horde descended on them like a dark rain. There were no noncoms in that room every one, regardless of skill, fought and fought hard. Willow tried out a host of defensive spells and then attack spells. Anton taught her spells that witches older and stronger then her had never mastered and she got them right because she had to. How they stayed ahead of the horde none could say but in those few moments, more Hand assassins died at the hands of team Scooby then in a decade of dark missions.
The ninja were drawing closer to Anton. Willow tried to keep them at bay but it was not going well.
Then there was a rumbling and the Punisher appeared. The being took one look at the room and then his guns started roaring. The Hand fell in droves before his weapons and unlike conventional weapons, reloading seemed not an issue with the demonic vigilante. Somehow, Castle's weapons never hurt any of the Scoobies. His apparently random shots never came close to hitting any of the defenders. The Punisher's weapons harmed only those he wanted to.
As quickly as the tide turned in their favour, it turned again. Several of the warriors converged on the Punisher lashing out at him. Soon they were again drowning in warriors. Xander did not know where they came from but danm there were a lot of them. He looked over at the Anton and Willow the two of them were conferring and Giles who seemed upset by the plan. Then Anton reached out and touched the watcher sending him to the ground in a senseless pile. Willow and he then joined hands and began chanting. As soon as the chanting began, the Hand tried all the harder to reach the duo.
"Keep them off, just for a moment longer." Anton called out
"What did you do to Giles?"
"There is no choice and there is no time for anything else. " Anton screamed then suddenly he dislodged Willow's grip and shoved her away toward Buffy.
He glowed brighter still and the Hand began slowing in their pursuit. They one by one stopped and dropped to the ground crumbling to dust as they did so. He wept and groaned his body swelling and pulsing with the power seething inside of him.
"Francis" he called "strike now and be reunited with your love. I swear I never meant any harm to come to you or her. "
The Punisher knelt and all the guns on his back locked on to the mage. None of them actually looked when the shots rang out. But they heard the high whine and felt the wind when the soul energy of dozens of Hand ninja exploded outward taking the remainder that were still alive into oblivion.
They looked around the room. It had been well and truly trashed.
They looked at Willow. "It was a soul siphoning spell their energy transferred to him the more people do it the greater the chance of survival but the soul energy of the HAND is dark, some of you might have been overcome. I guess that's why he shoved me away at the last moment. "
Giles comforted her "Do not feel bad Willow. You are at a dangerous stage in your development. Without even intending to you might go down a dark path. Consider it one of several lessons you will learn should you continue to study magic."
"So, because he had all that energy in him he was about to explode." Xander said wearily
Willow nodded "But by allowing Castle to strike him down it also released Castle from the effects of the magic holding him here."
They all turned to look at the Punisher who was standing looking at the spot where Anton had fallen "The mage is dead. So why are you still here?" Buffy asked quietly
"The spell says that killing the necromancer releases my soul if I want to pass on " his voice had a sad tone
"Well don't you want to pass on, you know, be with your wife and stuff."
"I would not go to where they are, that road is closed to me."
"Why, the lives you took were taken under compulsion " Giles remanded him
"If I had only taken those lives I would be free but I took other lives. Life the universe considered innocent. "
"The men like Sam and the others, they beat you up but did not kill you. By hunting them down and killing them…"
"They were innocent of my death I knew this, yet struck them down all the same."
"That makes no sense." Buffy snapped
"Buffy the universe doesn't make sense most of the time. " Angel said quietly " and even when it does, it is hardly fair."
The Punisher stood "But there are actions and there are consequences and there is punishment."
Willow smiled " And there is redemption, you kept the bad guys off us long enough for Anton to get the spell going. That saved the lives of my friends, that's a start."
"I feel the pull of darkness it leads me to Los Angeles there is much darkness there. Innocent lives that could be avenged. Evil that could be punished perhaps my redemption is there and then maybe I can go to Val."
The Punisher sank into the earth leaving them to clean up the mess and think up explanations for Snyder and others when students showed up on the Monday to find the library looked like a Rock concert mosh pit.
IF Buffy or Willow noticed anything odd about Xander and his newfound fighting skill they said nothing to him. They seemed satisfied that all was normal in Xander country. Angel reported to him that Buffy's only comment was that Angel had really done wonders with Xander's training. Angel and Xander agreed he should occasionally fall down, trip or look clumsy while patrolling with Buffy or Faith.
The case still bothered Xander. Therefore, when Xander was not patrolling Spider-man was. A week later he stood on a rooftop surveying the street. His senses warned him he had company so Faith was surprised when he said hello even as she come up behind him.
"Danm you are good," Faith smiled "So are you planning on taking on the whole demonic population on your own, B would like to know since retiring early is starting to look like an option. "
"Faith long time no talk,"
"Not for lack of trying I notice." Faith smiled sadly. Her sarcasm hid the hurt she felt. He had not tried contacting her in some time.
"I wanted to say sorry "
"Don't worry about it, I know the Punisher thing kept you guys on the run.
"Not about that; about other stuff. I'm thinking I came off as knowing everything. That's wrong, I'm still getting the hang of being a hero and sometimes I…."
"If you are about to apologize for stopping me from offing were-boy stow it. You were right. Killing Donnie would have been a comfort thing. WE don't kill for comfort we kill to protect those who can't protect themselves."
"Wow, that's profound."
"Ain't it though, way I figure it, I want to remember My Watcher then I could start by remembering all the stuff she taught me. I was hoping The Watchers Council would let Giles handle both Buffy and me but…. The council is sending some new guy named Wesley."
"Sounds like a stiff."
"You know but that was Xander's take on him too, according to B. Anyway I figure I owe it to My old watcher to be the best Slayer this new guy ever had to work with."
"Well you're already one of the best Slayers I've ever worked with." Spidey said quietly
Faith brightened "You've only worked with two Slayers and as far as I know you've only kissed one. " she wrapped her arms around him and held him close.
Xander was about to say something but Faith stopped his words with her fingers laid softly on the mask on top of where his mouth would be. "I know you and Xander have this complex friend thing. I do not want to screw that up. I just want you to know I already know how I feel and I can wait until you figure out that you feel it too."
"Yeah well Lady I'm getting lost while you still have respect for me. " Spider-man launched himself into the night leaving Faith to stare after him.
"Well that's the first time anyone ever called me a lady…and meant It." she smiled sadly.
