I Said No
FireHorse
The Initiative was back.
It had already been a wild night. People had been disappearing, and they
finally figured out why. A nest of vampires had hired a tribe of Q't
demons as security. It was a tidy arrangement; since Q'ta were ghouls,
the vamps paid them in the bodies of their victims. Everyone ate well,
and there was no trail of bodies to give them away.
They finally found the nest at the edge of town, in a mouldering
Victorian house straight out of Great Expectations.
Within ten minutes of the start of the fight, it was obvious why the
Q'ta were Hell's bodyguards. They were good. Really good.
Everyone was there. Xander and Giles were defending the witches, who
were chanting for all they were worth, drawing the occasional glowing
figure in the air. Giles was fighting or spelling as required, stepping
into the circle to chant and out again to fight.
Buffy and Riley were back-to-back and doing a lot of damage. Attacking
Q'ta were tripping over the bodies of their comrades, fallen in a gory
ring around the pair.
Spike was everywhere, reveling in the violence. Calling warnings,
taunting demon and vampire alike, moving like a cat, vicious and fast
and graceful.
It was touch and go for a while, but when the fight spilled out of the
house and onto the large front lawn, the tide slowly turned in favor of
the Scoobies.
Their first warning of the Initiative's return was Spike's "Bloody
fuckin' hell!" Four smallish helicopters dropped, nearly silently, out
of the sky and settled lightly on the lawn. Camouflaged figures poured
out, and five minutes later, the only ones standing were human. The
fight was over.
Or maybe not. The Scoobies were herded, politely but firmly, into a
loose circle in the center of the lawn. A ring of soldiers surrounded
them, weapons pointed down, but clearly at the ready. Spike was being
held by two soldiers, a third one standing by with a stake. He struggled
briefly, but stopped at a sign from Buffy, who tried to move closer to
him.
The soldier that grabbed her got more than he bargained for. In quick
succession, she put an elbow in his sternum, a knee in his face and
doubled fists between his shoulder blades. He collapsed to the ground
with a thud and a wheezing gurgle.
"Dust him and die." Buffy's voice was cold steel.
The soldier with the stake swallowed hard but said, "And he'll still be dust."
"You can see him in hell, then." Moving much faster than the soldier
expected, he found himself stake-less and on the ground, with one of
Buffy's no-nonsense 'slaying boots' firmly on his crotch.
The tense silence was broken by a voice barking "Stand down!"
A man, older than those present, including Giles, pushed his way through
the crowd to stand in front of Buffy. Xander noticed that he had no rank
insignia on his uniform; looking around, he realized that no one did.
Still, this man was clearly in charge.
"I said stand down!"
In charge of everyone but Buffy, that is. She looked at him coolly. "And
you are?"
"General Anthony Harrolsen, U.S.Army. And you are Buffy Summers, Slayer.
Rupert Giles, the Slayer's Watcher, semi-officially. And this thing here
is escaped Hostile Seventeen, known as William the Bloody." Apparently
the rest of the Scoobies were too unimportant to mention.
"And you're here why?" Buffy had still not removed her foot from the
unfortunate guy on the ground.
Xander couldn't quite quell a grin at the sight of Buffy, calmly
carrying on a conversation while still stepping on the soldier's crotch.
The grin grew when he caught Spike's eye. Spike was clearly enjoying the
show, lounging against the soldiers holding him.
"To enlist you in the United States Army. The problem with the original
Initiative was that they ignored the presence of the Slayer, and were in
turn brought down. I don't intend to make that same mistake. My
superiors agree. Therefore, you will all come with me."
The sudden rush of voices was cut into by General Harrolsen. "You have a
choice. Us, or a bullet. No one is leaving here otherwise."
Xander knew something was happening, he just didn't know what. The
babble of voices and shouting receded, until it was like hearing a party
from three rooms away.
Something inside him, enormous and nameless, rose up. It filled his
head, filled his being, like a balloon being blown up inside of him.
Tara, hugging Willow, looked up at him sharply, then bent to whisper in
Willow's ear. Spike felt it too, and tried to catch the Slayer's eye,
but she was busy arguing with the general.
As if from a distance, he heard the general clearly.
"Dust this one first, then shoot anyone who isn't going. We leave in
fifteen minutes."
"No." Xander hadn't raised his voice above a conversational level, but
it rang through the air, silencing everyone.
"What did you say, boy?"
"I said, no."
"Who are you, boy, that think you can tell me what's going to happen?"
Another soldier stepped forward and whispered in the general's ear.
"Ah. Alexander LaVelle Harris. The donut boy, nobody special. And what
are you going to do to stop us, donut boy?" The general's voice was
dismissive, his gaze already going back the others. "What are you
waiting for? I said dust him!"
"And I said, *no*" The nameless power grew in him until he felt swollen
with it.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Reaching inside with his
mind, something...twisted. The power left in a rush and he sagged to his
knees like a deflating balloon.
The 'foomp' of inrushing air was the only sound that marked the
disappearance of the helicopters. Flattened grass from under the skids
marked their position, but the helos and the crews left to guard them were...gone.
Buffy looked at Xander, then took the opportunity to disarm the soldier
holding the stake to Spike's chest. Grimacing in disgust at the blood
now splattered on her shirt, she pushed Spike behind her, backed them
both into Riley and took a defensive stance. Spike, remarkably, stayed put.
"Who are you, boy, and what have you done with my men?" General
Harrolsen was livid, but didn't have the sense to be afraid. "This is
magic, right? You distracted me, and the witches just made it *look*
like they're gone. You'll pay for that."
Seizing Tara by the hair, he yanked her out of Willow's embrace and
threw her to the ground. He pulled his service revolver from its holster
and cocked it. Before he could aim or fire, Xander spoke again.
"I *said*, *NO*." He had gotten to his feet. The power, whatever it was,
had been rising again, and the sudden upswell when Tara hit the ground
had sent a spike of almost-pain through him. He could still feel the
spike, anchoring him, feeding him power. He had no idea what it was or
where it came from, if it was coming from him or just through him, and
he didn't much care.
Reaching inside and twisting again, the soldiers froze, like a grotesque
game of Statue. The general's eyes bulged comically, but he, too, was
frozen. Willow immediately went to Tara, and Buffy, Riley, Spike and
Giles took up positions around them.
"I said no," he repeated mildly. "This is my family, and you can't have
them. She," nodding at Buffy, "is my sister. Willow has been my best
friend, and sometimes my only friend," he nodded at Willow with a tiny
smile. "for nearly twenty years. If you know I'm the donut boy, then you
know that my father," -the word dripped with sarcasm- "is a worthless
drunk. Giles is the closest thing to a dad I've ever had. And that
'thing' that you call Hostile Seventeen is...Spike owns my heart, and I
own his. What's the matter? Your surveillance didn't tell you that?"
Xander's smile was cold and nasty. "The others are important to someone
here, so they're important to me, too. This is my family. You can't have
them. I said **NO**!"
As he yelled the last word, startling them all, the power rose within
him, leaping from him like a big cat on the hunt. Tara Saw, and jerked
Giles down into a heap with she and Willow. Spike, too, could feel it,
and he pushed Riley into Buffy, knocking them both down, falling to lay
beside them.
Wind came from nowhere to lash them all, a cacophony of screaming voices
hidden in its howling. Xander remained standing, untouched, in the eye
of the storm.
As suddenly as it started, it stopped. They were alone. No soldiers. No
equipment. No signs of soldiers or equipment. No nothing.
Slowly, the Scoobies picked themselves up and dusted themselves off.
Looking around, they realized Xander was still standing there, in a
daze. Spike, unsurprisingly, was the first to reach him.
"C'mon, luv, let's sit down..." Xander seemed to come back to himself,
and staggered but stayed on his feet.
"Huh?" He looked around. "Soldiers go bye-bye?"
"Er, yes. Aptly put." Giles removed his glasses and polished them on his
sweat shirt, then replaced them. "Tara, are you quite all right?"
"Yes. Just a little bruised, I think."
"I'll kiss them all and make them better when we get home, ok?" Spike
snickered when heard Willow's whispered reassurance.
"Well. That seems to be the end of the Initiative." Buffy brushed her
hands off on her butt, then looked at her shirt. The blood was gone.
"Whoa, Xander. Whoever you were, I'm glad you're on our side. Sister,
huh?" She smacked him on the shoulder and glared at Spike. "How come you
two never told us about, y'know, you two?"
Spike glared back. "What, tell the Slayer her friend is shagging a vamp?
Not me, ducks, I like my unlife just like it is, thanks."
"What he said," Xander said, pointing to Spike.
"I knew."
"As did I."
Everyone turned to look at Tara and Giles.
"What?"
"And you didn't say anything?"
"How did you-"
"I could see it in your auras. And when you're physically close, like
now, there's only one aura." Tara explained diffidently.
"When I realized the prophecy meant Xander, I had to know who owned his
heart. You have to understand, Buffy, when we first read it, I thought
it meant you and Angel." He shrugged apologetically at Riley. "You still
hold a great deal of affection for one another, so there would have been
no problem. But when Tara and I translated the prophecy again, we
figured out it meant Xander. That much power had to be grounded, and
could only be grounded by love. With Anya gone, I was at a loss to
understand it, until Tara explained about Spike. Frankly, I didn't
believe her, but a simple revelation spell confirmed it. In any event,
it worked. The power manifested in the Protector, the Protector claimed
family, and publicly gave his heart to the dead. And, of course, the
Soldiers of Evil were defeated. Ah, yes, Xander, I wanted to ask...where
exactly did they go? Could you tell?"
"Nope. They're just...gone. If it helps, I can't feel them any more. I
don't think they *exist* any more."
"You still have the power then?"
"Yeah. At least, I think. I still feel *something*, like there's
something..." Xander's voice trailed off and his eyes glazed over.
Tara's eyes widened. "Uh, Mr. Giles, we should-"
A silent voice boomed across the lawn, tolling like a bell, deep tones
and high tones combined. They would never know for sure whether they
heard a real voice, or just heard it in their minds.
"YOU HAVE SERVED ME WELL, PROTECTOR. YOU HAVE TAKEN THE HEART OF ONE WHO
IS WORTHY, AND GIVEN HIM YOURS IN RETURN. IN GRATITUDE, I WILL GRANT
YOUR DESIRE."
Obviously still in a daze, Xander put his hand to Spike's forehead and
they were enveloped in a brief, fierce whirlwind. When the wind died,
the voice resumed.
"YOU ARE AS YOU WERE MEANT TO BE, VAMPIRE. AS THE HOLDER OF THE
PROTECTORS' HEART, YOU ARE HIS PROTECTOR. SHOULD YOU HAVE NEED, THE
POWER WILL ANSWER YOUR CALL, AS YOU WILL ANSWER MINE. THIS IS MY TOKEN."
A stiff breeze blew again, leaving an intricate brand on the inside
forearm of both Protector and Vampire.
"FARE YOU WELL."
This time, Xander did collapse. From his position on the ground he
looked at the mark on his forearm.
"Whoa."
That pretty much summed it for everybody. A brief round of quiet 'are
you ok's?' and then they stood, looking at each other awkwardly.
There wasn't much else to say.
Except Spike's "C'mon, luv. Let's go home."
So they did.
~*fini*~
