Xander paused high above the graveyard as he moved to follow Buffy out into the night, looking down he saw what had caught his attention away from following her. Below was a single grave, away from the others, bathed in soft moonlight away from the shelter of the trees that most of the graves were provided with. A small pile of pebbles were easily visible even from this height and without reading the marker he knew who the grave belonged to.
"Oz," he whispered out loud, lowering himself down to ground level he took a moment just to look at the grave in sorrow. "I'm sorry, I should..." He paused, not knowing what he should say or do, everything he could come up with seemed inconsequential compared to the fact that Oz had not only died, but he had actually missed the funeral. "It shouldn't have happened like this." He said softly, moving his gloved hand up to run his finger across the cold stone.
"It was nice," Buffy said from behind him softly, moving up behind him she put one hand on his shoulder and looked at him with sad eyes. "His funeral was last."
"Last?" Xander asked in puzzlement before his brain pieced it all together. "How many?" He asked quietly, not actually wanting to know the answer.
"Seventy four, including Oz." Buffy said, her voice so soft it was almost lost in the night breeze.
"Because Ethan came here," Xander said quietly but firmly. "Because of me."
"No," Buffy said firmly. "Xander, Ethan made his own choice, this wasn't your fault."
"I should have been here, should have stopped him." Xander frowned in anger before taking his glove off and placing his hand on the grave stone marking Oz's death. "No more, I'm through hiding. No one else dies because of me."
"Xander..." Buffy started to argue but stopped as Xander clenched his fist and a plume of emerald fire shot upwards from the gravestone before settling down to a bright green marker in the centre of the top of the gravestone.
"This is when it all changes," Xander whispered to the gravestone before turning back to Buffy. "We're through hiding in shadows, letting people die before we act. No more."
"Xander, we can't..."
"Can't we?" Xander frowned, pointing at the grave. "One death, seventy three more," He spread his arms out to indicate the graveyard. "How many could have been saved? A dozen, fifty? All of them?"
"I... I don't..."
"Not just here Buffy, think about it. I saw the future, that's where I was. Taken there by someone to show me what I needed to see." Xander explained. "The corps were there, hundreds of them. Patrolling planets and solar systems all over. I flew through New York with a Green Lantern and nobody batted an eyelid Buffy. This is when it starts, it's the right thing to do."
"The future?" Buffy asked, raising her eyebrow. "Are you sure you didn't just get knocked on the head or something?" She asked, almost in jest. "You're serious?" She asked when she saw the look in his eyes.
"No more Buffy, no more." He said before shooting upwards in a blaze of emerald light faster than Buffy's eyes could follow.
"Xander..." Buffy whispered out before taking off herself and heading back to Giles, he needed to know what had happened, what she knew Xander was thinking.
It wasn't rage or anger running through his body as he soared across the flat desert planes of Nevada, more willpower, pure will. The will not to let anyone else loose someone, no more deaths, not if he could help it, and he could. Bank robbers weren't an issue, car hijackers, bombers, terrorists. He could stop them all, he knew that. He just needed the will to do what needed to be done, and being faced with Oz's death had given him the push he needed to do it right.
Accelerating himself he arced back on himself, he knew where to start, the closest city there was to Sunnydale. He'd been so intent on starting as soon as possible that he'd actually taken off without a plan of where he was going to start or what he was going to do. But Los Angeles glimmered in the distance, the glow of the city lights making a soft golden glow in the night horizon.
"This is for you Oz." Xander whispered as he forced himself faster through the night towards the city in the distance.
"Giles," Buffy shouted as she opened the door and ran into the house. "Giles!"
"Yo B, what's up?" Faith asked as she came out of the kitchen. "See yours is back too, great isn't it?" She grinned, noting Buffy's costume and ring softly glowing on her finger.
"It's Xander, he's gone." Buffy exclaimed as Giles came down the stairs. "Seriously, I think he's going to do something stupid."
"X only got back half an hour or so ago B, where's he gone?" Faith asked, putting her glass of coke down on the side and flashing into her own costume in case Xander needed her help.
"I don't know." Buffy said softly. "It was too fast, I couldn't follow him. Giles, he's going to do something, I know it."
"Slow down Buffy," Giles said calmly as he walked over to the two girls. "Now, start from the beginning, what happened?"
"He found Oz's grave," Buffy said softly, explaining what had happened before Xander had taken off like that. "He asked how many others died when Ethan attacked. Giles, he blames himself for it all."
"Good lord, do you think he will attempt to bring Oz back?" Giles asked in shock, he thought he had convinced both Xander and Willow of the dangers of attempting something as dangerous as that.
"No," Buffy said simply. "Giles, he was talking like he's going to go public with it all, like he'd had enough of all the secrets."
"More power to him then," Faith said simply. "Make our jobs a lot easier if we ain't got to worry about shit like the police and all getting in our way."
"No, not more power to him Faith," Giles said disapprovingly. "Think about it, what would the mass population do if they found out there was a being with Xander's power amongst them?" He paused, letting the question sink in to both Buffy and Faith. "A man, with the power of a God. Who could stand up to him?"
"Ain't that the point?" Faith said simply. "Ain't no one going to mess with him, no one's that stupid."
"Exactly my point. How will the government react to a single man having more power than their entire army combined?" Giles said, polishing his glasses thoroughly as he tried to predict the outcome from this. "We have had enough trouble this month convincing Wesley that the sorcerer known as Ion has moved on, not to mention his suspicions about the both of you. Having the entire government breathing down our necks because of Xander is not something that would make our jobs any easier."
"Shit yo, he's right B. Xander goes public then so do we. Everyone's gonna make the connection between us, you know, green shit and all." Faith exclaimed.
"But what can we do? He could be anywhere by now, doing anything." Buffy said, trying to piece together how they could even find Xander, let alone talk him out of doing anything dangerous.
"I don't believe that will be an issue," Giles said, moving back from his antiquated television set as he tuned it in to a news channel.
"Shit," Faith said as she saw the image being broadcast.
"Shit indeed," Giles intoned as he stared at the screen in horror. There was Xander, clear as day, on live television, interfering with a hostage situation.
"Yo, turn it up." Faith said, staring at the screen as Giles twisted the volume dial.
"It is unknown who the young man is at this stage, nor how he is doing what appears to be magic. What is known is that he has entered the building by flight, under his own power, and now appears to be disarming the men responsible for... Hold on, something is happening..." The woman on the news paused as the camera panned around to the shopping centre to show Xander walking out of the broken glass doors, the crunching of glass underfoot was audible as everyone else in the scene was deadly silent.
"These are yours," Xander said confidently as he brought down the glowing green cage that was hovering behind him, containing the three men in balaclavas. Looking down he dropped the two pistols and one sub machine gun he had 'confiscated' from the men holding up the store. "I don't like guns." He said firmly before the weapons were incinerated in a bright emerald glow and reduced to molten slag.
"Wait a minute," The blonde detective who was in charge of the police presence there interrupted him as he moved to walk away from the scene. "Who the hell are you, and how did you do that?"
"The name's Ion." Xander said proudly. "And I'll be around." He said firmly before exploding upwards in a blast of green energy that lit up the area before the camera man panned back to the brunette news caster who had been first on the scene.
"You heard it here first folks. His name is Ion, but where does he come from, what does he want. Does Los Angeles have its very own Superhero now, or is this... I don't know, I can't even think how to describe it. All I can say is that he's cute and from what I saw, the criminals here have got another thing to worry ab..."
"I think that's enough," Giles said as he flicked the switch on the television, turning it off quickly. "I believe Xander has made our choice for all of us now."
"But..." Buffy said, trying to put into words what she was feeling about what had happened. She'd just watched Xander save people, that was good, she knew he had done the right thing. But on the other hand, doing it so publicly would have far reaching consequences for them all.
"Aw hell," Faith spoke up. "Yo, he's gonna need our help down there. LA is a big place ya know, and the bad guys there ain't gonna like him muscling in like this."
"You think he's in danger?" Giles asked, a bit in disbelief.
"Hell no," Faith grinned. "X can take care of himself, it's the bad guys I'm worried about. Not to mention if they start a war against X, then lots of people gonna get hurt in the crossfire."
"She's right." Giles said after a moment of contemplation. "I take it both your rings are at full charge now?" He paused as both girls nodded at him. "Go, see what you can do to calm him down. Try to stay out of the camera if possible, but try and bring him back without any further incident."
"Ain't no way we're going to be able to force him to come back if he doesn't want to." Faith spoke up. "If we do, he'll just take the charge right out of the rings or something."
"Indeed," Giles said solemnly as he walked over to the kitchen and retrieved the small box from one of the draws there. "Which is why I will be accompanying you." He paused, taking the small yellow object out of the box and slipping onto his finger before pulling his long coat on. "Come on, we must try and bring Xander home before he does anything too public that cannot be ignored by the media."
"Think we're already past that," Faith smirked as she opened the front door and walked out into the night air.
"I hope you're wrong, I really do." Giles said as he followed Buffy out of the house and closed the door behind them.
"Are you going to be alright using that?" Buffy asked, raising her eyebrow at the golden ring now perched on Giles middle finger.
"I believe so," Giles said honestly. "I have practiced with it regularly now for the past three weeks, I believe I am now able to use the ring without it affecting me as greatly as it first did."
"Well, you go Darth Giles again or some shit, we're gonna have to take you down as well." Faith grinned as she hovered upwards slowly into the night.
"Again," Buffy smirked as she moved upwards to follow Faith.
"You two will never let me live that down, will you?" Giles asked as the area lit up in a soft golden glow as he moved himself up to join the two, his long coat blowing in the night wind.
"Nope," Came the answer from the two slayers as they shot off into the night towards Los Angeles, a golden blur following them through the darkness.
The tears ran freely down Willow's eyes as she ran out into the night, she'd seen the news broadcast while studying, finals were only a few weeks away now and she was intent on getting the best grades she could. Though she had been distracted by the green glow that had appeared on her television and turned it up so she could actually hear it properly.
He was back, Xander was back from wherever it was he had gone. And he hadn't even come to see her, no, he hadn't fixed anything, not Oz, not anything. And now he was off flashing his powers in front of complete strangers when he couldn't even do the right thing.
She'd grabbed her rucksack from the bed and just run off into the night, not wanting to be in her room or around anything that would remind her of Oz and how Xander had refused to do the right thing.
She ran through the night, seeing no one on the street corners. Silence was her only companion as her sobs filled the night. "Why?" She screamed out as she stopped in a park, throwing her bag down she looked at the spare stake that had spilled out of the open bad, the stake she had always carried for Buffy in case she needed it, the comic she had been reading in school before Xander had disappeared. She stared at the comics cover and in a frustrated move ran over and kicked it away into the bushes where it skidded across the dirt.
"Who won't you bring him back?" She screamed into the night, knowing in her heart that someone was listening to her, that Xander was listening. Hoping that he would do the right thing and fix it all, put it all right for her. "Do it, fix this, fix everything!" She screamed before collapsing in a heap.
She didn't notice the young girl she had seen in school a few times before standing on the edge of the park in the shadows, she didn't notice the smirk on the girls features as her face morphed into a visage ten times scarier than any vampire could have hoped to be.
"Why, why couldn't you just do the right thing?" She sobbed out. "I wish..." She paused, wiping the tears from her eyes and dragging her hand down her face. "I wish you'd dressed as someone that would put it all right." She sobbed out before collapsing her head into her hands as the tears came freely now.
The demon known as Anyanka stared down at the open comic book and the title emblazoned across the page. "Wish granted." She grinned as the wording began to glow an eerie green. "Zero Hour indeed." She laughed sinisterly before she shimmered out of existence.
Xander frowned as he flew through the air way above Los Angeles, he'd stopped two robberies now and helped in a police car chase. All in all he'd been feeling very good about himself, acting out in the open and saving people's lives, using his powers for the first time as he actually felt they should be used.
"What the..." He whispered out as he felt something ripple around him. Before he had chance to actually see if he could locate the sensation he screamed, it felt like his body was being torn apart. He screamed so loudly as he fell through the air, his concentration broken. The emerald shield protecting him and helping him fly was shattered as he plummeted down towards the asphalt beneath, then everything went black and the universe was changed forever.
