InsaneJournal

“Christ, Giles, you okay?” exclaimed Xander as Tara handed the exhausted Watcher a cup of tea. He then glanced towards the three girls, eyebrows furrowed, and asked, “And…potentials, I’m gonna guess?”

“You would be correct,” replied Giles. “As to whether I am ‘okay’, no, I’m very far from that since we appear to be having a slight Apocalypse.”

“Yeah, we figured that out,” intoned the vampire. “Evil’s been busy in town of late – even went so far as to recruit Andrew and made him kill Jonathan.”

“Good Lord.”

Xander nodded then looked up as Faith said, “We’re still not too sure on what we’re dealing with here. Fangs has sensed Spike once or twice in town but we still haven’t been able to find him. Plus we’ve been dealing with these damn creeps running around town.”

One of the girls jumped and asked, “Bringers?”

“If that’s what they’re called, yeah,” said Xander. “Symbols for eyes?”

Giles paled slightly and sat down his cup slowly. “So they are here already,” he muttered, “I feared so.”

He then looked at them all assembled in front of him at the table: Xander alert in his chair, eyes flickering with concern; Faith standing behind him with one hand on the back of his chair and the other on Dawn’s shoulder in her seat next to him, the teenager’s hand clasped over hers; Willow looked worriedly at him from the opposite side of the table with Tara next to her, their hands clasped on top of the table. And he could feel the eyes of the three potentials behind him on him, though they kept straying away to Faith.

Bowing his head, he began to explain just what was going on.

By the time he was done, Xander was shaking with held back rage, Dawn was clutching his hand in an attempt to keep him steady, Faith looked just as ready to kill, Willow appeared horrified but resolute, and Tara bit her lip before rising with a murmur about more tea.

“So,” said Xander slowly after he had closed his eyes and taken several calming breaths, “we’re not only dealing with a Big Bad, we’re dealing with the first one.”

“It would seem so.”

“And this isn’t something we can just cut off the head of, is it?”

“I’m afraid not,” replied Giles wearily.

Dawn bit her lip then asked, “Erm…why now? I mean…if this thing’s this powerful, how come it’s only coming now?”

“It couldn’t. Even now, it is weaker than it should be. The Council hypothesized that somehow a hole was opened at some point, allowing it to come through, but thankfully not at full strength. Though the only thing that could cause a hole powerful enough to allow that would be extremely complicated and dangerous magic.”

“A hole,” said Xander slowly. Then he twitched and swung around to stare at Willow, whose clapped her hands over her mouth, horrified eyes wide. “Wills…”

“Oh Goddess,” breathed the witch. “I…oh no…”

“What?” asked one of the potentials, looking around in confusion. “Hey, explain!”

The vampire sighed and reached across the table to grab his friend’s hands, pulling them away from her face and holding them tightly in his. As she whimpered and clutched at his, he regretted every moment he had stayed away from her in the past few years. She’d needed him and he had turned away from her for what she’d done.

“Giles told you about the previous Slayer, right?” he asked, speaking to the potentials but not looking at them. He kept his eyes on Willow, telling her through them that he forgave her for what she’d done, and she smiled back gratefully before collapsing onto the table.

“Yeah…”

“Wills tried to raise her after she died.” Ignoring their gasps, he continued, “I stopped her but…I didn’t realize till just now that she was in the middle of the spell when I got there and not at the beginning. Christ…”

“I’m sorry,” gasped Willow and he shook his head, murmuring, “You didn’t know.”

He then sighed and rose, looking towards the potential Slayer’s then at the rest of them – his family. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, then opened them again.

“Well then,” Xander said slowly, “we’ve got pure evil on the warpath against us, things killing future Slayer’s in hope’s to keep the White Hats down on the count, and all that stands against them is us.”

Clapping his hands together, he gave the potentials a smile, continuing, “Looks like training is in session, newbies. Welcome to the Hellmouth in the time of the Apocalypse. Time to go to war.”

---

“Hi, Xander.”

The vampire stiffened where he stood on the roof and slowly turned to regard the figure standing behind him. He frowned then shook his head, saying, “So…I get to be the first visited by you, eh? You really think you can fool me like that?”

“Maybe,” said the First Evil as it moved forward, wearing Buffy’s form.

Xander snorted, sneering, “You got the looks but you ain’t got the soul. Oh, and I can’t smell a damned thing up here but me and the world so fuck off.”

He turned his back towards the manifestation, ready to ignore it, then it spoke again, saying, “What if I told you I could change things?”

“And why would I make a bargain with you?”

“I could make you mortal again. Make you so you could be with Faith. I could even bring Buffy back…Jessie even if you wanted me to.”

He laughed at that, laughed high and hoarsely and so hard he almost fell off the roof. Then he spun with a snarl and hissed, “I’ve made my peace with the future I face, asshole. And I know better than to make a deal with shit like you.”

The First scowled at that then pouted.

“And here I thought I wouldn’t have to resort to this.”

Buffy’s form flickered and Xander staggered back a step as he was greeted with another blonde figure, this one slightly taller than the Slayer of before with green eyes that had once shone with sharp humor. The fragments of Darien still in him – the one’s that had never entirely faded away in all the years since Halloween – screamed in rage and agony at the sight.

Arana Folwns smiled at him and purred, “Come now. I could even bring her to you if you wanted.”

“Fuck off,” snarled the vampire, voice guttural and shaking from rage. If he knew he could, he would rip off the head of this damn thing masquerading as his dead friend and the woman Darien loved. “I’m not taking anything from you, asshole.”

“You can’t seriously think you can win against me,” said the First. It smirked and finished, “I may not be whole but I can still command my forces in this world. And I will have the end I seek.”

“I’ve faced worse than you and won,” spat Xander, thinking of what Darien had faced in his time. And what he had faced – the trials of the past and those he had exhausted himself over in the future.

The First shook its head, saying, “You could give up now and never have to face a future without your family.”

He snorted and smirked coldly.

“And where,” he asked, “did you get the stupid idea that I’d sit idly by during that? I’d rather fight you on the chance that we’ll beat you than sit back and let you win.”

It shrugged lazily at that, its form shifting from Arana to that of a leggy redhead, emerald eyes shining at him. His blood boiled again as the First took the image of Kay McCouine and smirked at him with the face Darien had loved, causing those old feeling of regret and love to crash in his chest. Snarling, he turned away, head bowed and fists clenched.

“It was worth a try,” it said coolly. “You can’t win, vampire. From beneath you I will devour.”

Xander slowly lifted his head and looked at the First levelly, his eyes blood red and all the insanity of his Rogue half boiling behind the wall that held it back from taking over.

“ ‘You’ve sown the wind, now reap the whirlwind’ ,” he growled, his voice having the strange echo of the Rogue’s behind it. The quote, taken from some dark corner of Darien’s memories, seemed to shake the First somewhat. Then it straightened, brushing back Kay’s crimson hair, and intoned, “You can’t stop me.”

Then it was gone, leaving Xander on the roof alone, staring angrily at the stars above him with bloody eyes.

“Watch me,” he spat angrily to the night.