"You really have to hand it to them." A voice said to the assembled beings known on Earth as the Powers. "They've managed to overcome every obstacle thrown at them. Too bad they'll never know, this Soldier of Darkness nightmare you unleased on them was never intended for them." Once the Powers had watched the Anla'Shok's plan succeed in finding and successfully destroying the Soldier of Darkness.
"What, what do you mean?" One of the beings stammered out as he stared at the being standing before them. A human looking at this being would see a man in his fifties with distinguished features and a streak of gray in his hair. These beings saw something more.
"The curse, Mayor Wilkins may have intended it for the 'leader of the group responsible for him not achieving his Ascension', but you and I both know that's not Alexander Harris. You set him up, again. You arranged for that stone to be there and for that message, however unwitting Doyle was, to be delivered. And you made them think it was because of the curse."
"Testing them is our purpose, our way of helping the humans." One of them protested.
"I'm beginning to wonder if Harris isn't a prophet in the making. Remember what he said when he came out of Janna of the Kalderash People's room? That how you do something is as important as why you do something? And your how, stinks. The curse is very real by the way, but I like said, Harris and his group were not responsible for Mayor Wilkins thwarted effort to Ascend, you are.
"How do you figure that ?" One of them protested.
"He had enough Power to achieve it without Lurconis' blessing and support. He failed because when he used Magic to try to find your messenger, Whistler, you killed him. Therefore the curse is on you. And since you're the leader of your group, the nightmare promised by the curse is coming from your own mind." The being who looked like a human but wasn't, pointed at one of the group. "And your nightmare will take this form, judgement from one Higher than you."
"Why? What could we have possibly done to warrant you standing in judgement over us?" Another protested.
"Three times my name was invoked in Sunnydale, once when Ethan Rayne called on me to power his spell and I used the opportunity to seal the weakened barriers between those two realities. Later that same night when the other Alexander offered thanks to me when his Cordelia offered an olive branch and again that same night, when this Alexander offered me thanks on the chance that I was responsible for his denn'bok remaining real. I was, but I didn't expect thanks for it. But my attention was caught and so I watched. Then when the Thirdspace incident happened, Alexander offered an actual prayer to me for my support and I gave it, as much as I could. They destroyed the portal, I kept it from actually opening long enough for them to do that, while the technopagan kept the Magic being used from affecting it as much as she could. Some still got through, because there were so few of them. After that, he started wearing my talisman, marking him as one of mine, which automatically makes him off limits to you. Which you should know, just as the follower of Hecate and the wearer of the Star of David are off limits."
"But our purpose - ."
"Was never sanctioned by any god and when you interfer with the followers of a god, you should expect one to take exception to that. What's that human expression? Oh yeah, bend over and kiss your ass goodbye."
Janus was a god of protection, gates and change among other things. And by extension, a god of protectors and the Anla'Shok are protectors most of all, so when a protector watched over by a greater protector is harassed, the harasser should expect to get his ass, however incorporeal it was, to get kicked into a new incarnation.
In early June the Summers Center opened and Joyce Summers attended the dedication ceremony where Alexander Harris told those assembled that their friend Buffy Summers died when a gang member attacked her. The Center's purpose, along with the Summers Charity, would be to help teens find another way than the gangs. In time, the Rory Harris Center was opened in Los Angeles and behind the scenes, the Anla'Shok carried on their chosen purpose, destroying vampires and hostile demons. Long after the founding members retired to training the next generation of fighters, their purpose carried on. As Xander and Gunn had theorized, it took generations, but in the end, they succeeded. One neighborhood, one city, one state, one country at a time.
A/N Canonical reference, Buffy destroys Lurconis and the group rescues the babies before they can be eaten. Mayor Wilkins still achieves Ascension.