Summary: One Halloween Night changed everything for Xander. Agreeing to a contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon for power, he unknowingly unleashed great evils to the world... changing everything for the Scooby Gang. Buffy / Naruto / Andromeda / Starwars / Multiple Crossovers

Crossover: Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, objects or plots from Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, Andromeda TV series, Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 TV series, Casper the friendly ghost, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Ghostbusters, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III in North America), X-Men, Primeval TV series, Final Fantasy X-2, Highlander, Smallville TV series, Star Ocean Video Game series, Gundam Manga and Anime series, Xenosaga Video Game series, Naruto Manga and Anime series, Dungeons and Dragons, Carebears, Pinky and the Brain, Star Trek, Gurps, One Piece Manga

Book Title: Master of the Forbidden Seals

Author: Wraithrune

Chapter 12: Protector in the Shadows

"The second recorded formation of the HX-F711 type chaos portal in A.D 1998, was detected too late by Alexander Lavelle Harris, the first Seal Master. A swarm of harmless winged animal hybrids managed to cross the portal, alarming much of the world when news reports showed pig like animals with wings. They were later named Pawks, a combination of the initial of Pigs, and Hawks due to their pig like anatomy and hawk wings. The existence of Pawks had a huge impact on the world. Forever immortalizing the phrase 'Pigs can fly'."

~ Legends of the Intergalactic Watchers' Council

OoooO

3000 SA (Space Age), over Sunnydale Lagoon

"Mistress... It is as you said, the tear in space/time appeared over the coordinates you've given us." The man said to the woman beside him, a hint of awe in his eyes. Above them, a platoon of Wasp Frigate was deployed, keeping the air space clear of any unwanted intrusion. Far in the distant, a swarm of migrating Pawks, genetically altered flying pigs, skirted around the shield perimeters set by the Wasp Frigates. Around them, an army of Peace Keepers were on high alert, guarding over the land area they had fenced up.

"Good." The woman said in a powerful rich tenor voice that spoke of years of command. Her eyes looked at the sparkling shimmer of broken space/time over the waters of Sunnydale Lagoon and she smiled. "I've waited for this moment for more than 3000 years. It seemed that His calculations were correct, the tear in space/time is here, in this exact spot."

"As per your instructions, your personal frigate has been loaded with the essentials for your trip." The man rushed to say, nearly stumbling over his words. "Please Mistress, isn't there some other way?"

"Jordan, you knew the Histories, you knew what your Ancestors had to go through the first time the Powers tried to mess with our lives." The woman said, a bitter tone in her voice. A look of anger and grief flickered in her eyes. "A lot of lives were lost the first time. Lives which were paid just to fulfill some great plan of the Powers. Back then, there was no Transplanar Agreements of Non-Interference to protect the mortals chosen by the Powers to be their chess pieces, the so called Champions. The Agreements were something that only came into effect when those of us who survived the many meddling of the Higher Beings, rose to powers of our own. He however saw a way to change that, even as far as 3000 years ago."

"Bless my honored Ancestor." Jordan said bowing his head in reverence at the woman's mention of the man. "I just wish that some of us could go with you Mistress..."

"You know the reason Jordan." The woman said in a kinder voice. "Where I am going, it's a one way trip through the time stream. My very presence in the past will cause the reality to branch off, leaving this current timeline as an alternate reality. Once there, I've to stay hidden from the senses of the Powers until the right time to disrupt their plans. I only have a brief window to interfere, and once the Powers detected me, there's a high chance they'll banish me from their domains or outright kill me if they are powerful enough. I will not risk any of you that way."

"But Mistress..." Jordan pleaded but was cut off by a shake of the woman's head.

"Enough Jordan, I have made my decision. Keep safe and stick to the plan. Humanity has grown in all these thousands of years, you'll all live on fruitfully after I am gone." The woman said as she began walking towards her frigate in the distance. She turned back, giving him one last smile. "My blessings upon all of you."

Ten minutes later, the frigate rise into the air, flying straight into the space/time tear over the Sunnydale Lagoon. The space/time tear flickered violently before vanishing. Taking the last piece of humanity's Ancient Guardians with it.

OoooO

December 1998, Andromeda Inc.

Xander was quite certain that there was something he had forgotten. Something important... But so many things were happening at once that it was more than a bit chaotic at their new Headquarters. First they had to deal with the new arrivals and explain things to them. Then Xander, Giles and Rommie had to sort through this tangled mess and find some ways to provide for the newcomers. Temporarily living quarters were set up and the discussion quickly moved back to the discovery of Stargate Command and what to do about it.

By the time the meeting was over, everyone was beginning to settle down. Master Chief had retired to his bed fairly early. Rommie had mysteriously vanished a few moments later. Andrew with his Star Wars fanboyism had latched onto Anakin and had begun showing him the various higher technologies that he with Forge's X-men abilities and Rommie's help had begun building.

Xander, Willow, Buffy and Cordelia had taken upon themselves the duty of keeping Rogue and Green Arrow company as they spent the night watching copies of the more famous TV shows as part of the two's induction into their world. Wolverine had requested to take a look at the grounds they own, and thus Angel had obliged, leading the wiry man on a tour around the old airport compound. Surprisingly Jonathon had followed the two. The quiet boy apparently had a bit of hero worship for Wolverine of the X-men comics.

Three hours and two Star Wars movies later, just as dawn was breaking and the weary group was preparing to settle down to rest, Xander in a stroke of clarity finally realized what had eluded his mind for the past hours.

Chaotic energies had been released when Anakin and the others had broken through the Halloween pocket dimension. The first time chaotic energies had been released into their world, a portal to the past had opened and a dinosaur had stepped through.

Xander's blood ran cold as he pondered what might be released this time after so many hours where the portal had remained undetected.

"Oh shit." Xander swore as he jumped out of the couch he was sharing with Oliver Queen, aka the Green Arrow, and Willow, causing the two of them to stare at him in shock. "We're in deep trouble!"

OoooO

December 1998, above the waters of West Sunnydale Beach

The shimmering broken pieces of lights hung above the tepid waters near the West Sunnydale Beach. At this late hour, no one was around, and thus no one saw when the broken pieces of light gave a shudder and disappeared.

If Earth's technologies were powerful enough to pierce through layers of powerful cloaking technologies and invisibility spells, they would have seen an elegant silver and white frigate, the size of a bus emitting a wave of powerful energy that collapsed the portal which had been hanging above the waters of West Sunnydale Beach only moments before.

But no magic or technologies of this current Earth were able to detect the ship, and thus no one noted its departure as it streaked upwards into space.

OoooO

Jenny Calendar rubbed tired eyes as she finished the spell casting for the third time. She was not a powerful witch, but she was quite certain that her scrying had covered the boundaries of Sunnydale.

Grabbing her handphone, she noticed the faint light of dawn shinning in the windows and stifled a silent groan. It had been a long day. She had only gotten two hours of sleep after reaching home before being awaken shortly by a call from Xander who was in panic mode. It had slipped everyone's minds that the arrival of the new arrivals had released a lot of chaotic energies into the world. The last time it had happened, a dinosaur from the distant past had come to town...

The phone rang in her ears, Jenny covering a yawn as she waited for Giles to pick up.

"Jenny?" Giles voice came through as the call connected.

"Giles, I've gone through the scrying three times. Not even a single hint of magic that felt chaotic in nature showed up." Jenny said tiredly, struggling to keep her eyes open. A late night and three sets of vigorous spell casting had drained her. "Did Xander and the others find anything when they search the town?"

"They are still out combing the streets, but so far nothing. Xander's not able to detect anything either." Giles said in a weary voice. "Harper's keeping a watch on the local news for any strange... events, so far there's nothing of importance."

Using her free hand, Jenny began clearing her ritual components even as she tried to jump start her tired mind to think of something that might help the current situation.

"Giles, do you think that the chaotic energies, if it was even there tonight, dispensed naturally on its own?" Jenny asked, toying with the thought. It would explain why she had not detected anything through mystical means. "Anakin and the others have already been in our world for hours before Xander realized another portal might have formed from their unorthodox arrival."

"That could very well be the case." Giles admitted wearily. "But Xander will not rest until he had combed every part of Sunnydale to make sure nothing unusual come through this time. Rommie and the others are with him, they will be able to keep pace with him and protect him in case anything happen. In the meantime get some rest Jenny, you've been a big help already. I'll keep a watch at HQ and wait for the group to return."

Putting down the phone, Jenny did as Giles instructed and sunk into her couch, too tired to move to her bedroom. She would be fine after she recovered from all the weariness and magical exhaustion, but as she drifted to sleep, she prayed that nothing too sinister was unleashed this very night.

OoooO

"Well that's a perfectly good waste of my time." Cordelia snapped as they returned back to HQ after three hours of scouring the small town of Sunnydale, for any portals created by chaotic energies. "If not for all these walking about, I will still be in bed having my beauty sleep."

"Come on Cordelia, it's not as if Xander didn't have a perfectly good reason for us to be searching around town." Buffy was saying, trying to pacify the girl. Behind them Xander cringed from the glare Cordelia sent him.

"It did give us a chance to show everyone around Sunnydale though." Jonathon spoke up helpfully as Anakin and the rest of the newcomers trailed behind him in normal Earth civilian wear. He held up his hands, showing off the bags of steaming hot pancakes. "At the very least we managed to get breakfast."

"But it's strange, I wondered where the chaos energies went to." Xander said just as Giles got up from the couch to greet them.

"That's something we'll need to work on." Giles said as the group began setting the food on available tables, rounding up the area with chairs. "We'll probably need to come up with some mystical means to detect chaos energies in the future. In the meantime, Leia has completed another squad of Starspies. I've already sent them out to comb the town for any things out of the ordinary."

"Then it's lights out for me after breakfast." Willow said wearily. "Thankfully it is weekend, I think I'll just sleep in one of the spare mattress we bought back from all the furniture shopping yesterday evening."

"Yeah, good thing Ms Calendar actually have the foresight to order extra furniture and mattress on top of what was needed to house all of you guys." Buffy said, her eyes shifting to John and Anakin. "I think I'll also join you Willow, after I've gotten some food into me."

"Well everyone's probably tired after such a long night. With all that have happened the previous day, we'll need to be refresh and alert to carry out the plans we've agreed upon, as well as make more preemptive decisions for the coming futures in Sunnydale." Rommie said as everyone began gathering at the long table, lying out breakfast. "All of you rest after this, I'll keep watch for any unusual activities in town."

"Hopefully there wouldn't be another crisis again." Cordelia grumbled. "These few days are killing my social life. First we have those comics with our futures, then we found out about aliens and what not, and now our group has gotten bigger. Things are just happening too fast!"

"I am sure everything will be fine." Buffy said tiredly. "Demons, magic, aliens… we've already gone through all of them… What else can happen?"

OoooO

Colonel Marshall Sumner's face was impassive throughout the whole debriefing. He did not showed one shred of emotion on his face, even as shock and a hint of fear about what he now knew shook the core of his soul. Across the table, the legendary General Talbot, known in the upper circles of the army for surviving several high profile black ops missions, was observing him calmly after he had dropped the bomb shell on him.

When his latest commission had been suddenly terminated, with a request for him to head down to the United States Special Watch Group headquarters located at the outskirt of Los Angeles immediately for his new assignment, Sumner had been shocked and confused. He had thought he must have pissed off someone higher up in order to be reassigned all of a sudden. He had not expected to find himself tasked to take over the Spook squad of the United States.

"Demons are real…" Sumner managed to drag out of his dried lips. It had taken an impressive amount of control for him to regain his nerves after seeing the videos of the experiments done on the sub-terrestrials by the Initiative, a special secretive group set up by the Army, currently located in the desert of Los Angeles outskirt. The Initiative was originally formed to look into ways to combat the sub-terrestrials. Sumner managed to hold in a snort. Only pencil pushers would come up with a term like sub-terrestrials to describe demons.

"Yes, and Mayor Wilkins of Sunnydale had been our most important supplier of them for the experiments." General Talbot said neutrally, though a flicker of distaste crossed his eyes at discussing the experiments. "However, in light of recent events in Sunnydale. The Army has conducted investigations into the Mayor and discovered that he is most probably a dark sorcerer who has survived for hundred plus years without aging. It has been discovered that several senators are actually in the Mayor's pockets, or at least charmed by him magically, to be his supporters."

"The President has misgivings about the Initiative project from the start, but he could not counter it due to the powerful influence of several senators supporting the in depth studies of sub-terrestrials. It may not surprise you to know that those senators who supported the Initiative have ties to Wilkins. We suspect that Wilkins was the one initiating the project in the background, for what purpose we do not know. We've however found evidence that reports about experiments done on the demons Wilkins supplied, have somehow found their way back to Wilkins through his senators' contacts."

"Those senators have been dealt with, and the President had shut down the Initiative at approximately 2200 hrs yesterday night. All personnel involved in the project are being investigated and isolated. He has tasked the Army to set up a new task force, a group that is meant to be the spearhead in keeping the sub-terrestrials population in United States, especially the aggressive ones, in check. The group will focus on research and combat, with no further experimentations on the sub-terrestrials being conducted. You, Sumner, will be in charge of running this task force, code named Project Hell Watch."

Sumner just gave General Talbot a sour look, he could already feel a headache coming on. The General however just snorted in amusement as he continued.

"Well, at the very least the President has a sense of humor. He's the one that named the operation." General Talbot said.

If anything, Sumner's face just looked more grim. Ending his career to head an operation that hunts the world's boogeyman was never in his plan. But Sumner had never been one to counter an order, so he just kept silent as the General continued. "Your first mission is to lead the men selected for your team to apprehend and capture Wilkins, or failing that, terminate him. But before that, contact these people on the list. One of them is from the Watchers' Council while the rest are magic users. If possible, get their help for the mission, if not, they might be able to provide you with intel regarding the Mayor and Sunnydale."

"Watchers' Council. The British counterpart of what we're doing now?" Sumner asked. The General did touch on the Council in the briefing, but not a lot of details were provided.

"The Watcher's Council is more of a research organization, with their own hit squads." General Talbot said, distaste on his face. He looked like he wanted to say more, but stopped himself. "If I have a choice, I would much rather we do not involve the Council's representative at all. But the Council representative and the magic users he has gathered have been in Sunnydale for a while. Their intel might very well save lives. Mayor Wilkins has to be a very powerful dark magic user to survive this long. You're to attack from a distance and avoid close contact. A priest and a shaman will be assigned to your team. But I'll be honest, I have no idea how useful they will be."

Sumner stifled a groan. Taking a priest and a shaman to a mission? He knew he was in his own personal hell right now.

OoooO

Rommie looked up momentarily. She had been constructing an energy scanner when one of the droids which Angel had assigned to scan the group's research documents sent a general message of job done. The droid had been scanning the Sheng Yen prophecies which had caused Buffy so much grief the past few days. The scanned and translated information was already transmitted to the central database. Since Angel was not around and Giles had already collapsed on one of the spare mattress, sleeping away like most of the others, she assigned the droid to pick up another tomb to scan and translate.

There was not much that needed to be researched currently, the Soul Curse had already been translated, and with the Sheng Yen prophecies completed, now all that was needed was to scan and translate their whole occult library into digital copies, displayed in English.

"Rommie?" Harper contacted her wirelessly. "You might want to look at the prophecies that were just scanned."

"Hmm…?" Rommie queried back as she accepted the data packet that Harper had sent her. For several seconds, she stilled as she processed the information. Then she blinked, head turning to look at the pile of mattress at the corner of the hangar where Xander and the others were lying asleep.

"Oh my." Rommie said in shock.

"Is something wrong Rommie?" Andrew asked as he approached her. He, Anakin and Wolverine had been the only three who had insisted that they were not tired. While the others were sleeping, Wolverine had been surfing the internet for more information about the world, while Anakin was meditating, or as Andrew put it, the Jedi Master was communicating with the Force. Andrew had spent a while staring at the man in hero worship before moving around the base finding things to occupy himself.

"I… I'll tell you later. Once everyone are awake." Rommie said apparently coming to a decision as she turned back to the half constructed energy scanner on the table before her.

"So what is that?" Andrew asked curiously as Rommie went about her work.

"It's an energy scanner I clobbered together with technologies and schematics from my verse and Gaia's tech base." Rommie said as she soldered two wires together. "Hopefully it will allow us to detect a wide range of energies, such as magic and those chaotic energies Xander was talking about."

"Now that's a plan." Andrew said with interest. "Is there anything I can help with?"

Rommie paused looking at him. "Actually… yes. Have you looked through the database on the schematics to create holographic devices?"

"Yeah, it was one of the first things I look up aside from replicator technologies. With the right materials, I can probably construct one." Andrew said with a nod. "A holographic device can be constructed with present day technologies without too much of an effort… unlike the replicator."

"Oh good, let me show you the pile of raw materials Xander had previously morph for such a project." Rommie said as she led Andrew outside of the main hangar into the neighboring one where the starship construction was taking place. "It'll be a great help if you can construct a holographic projector while I am busy with other tasks. We are going to need one of it soon."

"Is there any reason for the urgency?" Andrew asked curiously.

Rommie hesitated before looking at Andrew. "It is not for me to say… But I suspect that John will be very grateful if one is created for him. After you've given the device to him, well… you'll know the reason."

Andrew looked at Rommie for a moment before his eyes widened, his mind linking the dots. "Of course! There's not much information about the Halo game… but the game description stated that John completes his missions with the help of an A.I. named Cortana…" Andrew paused as he stared at Rommie. "Xander and the others… You didn't tell them that John is not alone did you?"

"I have verified that Cortana mean us no harm… As such, if John wishes to keep her a secret for the moment, it is not my place to reveal it." Rommie said. "And if the others bothered to look up the Halo game in production, they would have known that John is not alone."

"Well, I've no problem keeping it a secret for the moment." Andrew said understandingly. "It's going to take me a day or so to construct the holographic device. I'll work on it… and maybe find out more about the Halo game in production…"

OoooO

It was a blistering hot mid-day afternoon. As per its daily schedule, the bus from Los Angeles arrived at Sunnydale bus depot at roughly the designated time. A few of the passengers began getting off the bus. One of the passenger, a monk apparently, who had the appearance of a man still in his youth, dressed in a brown matted habit and robe, drew quite a few looks from several passer-by.

The monk looked quickly around him, his eyes fearful and skittish as he quickly made his way across the street, his hands clutching something underneath his robes. Those nearby heard him uttering some weird gibbering of phrases and quickly shield away. Sunnydale was already weird enough without the appearance of one more crazy person.

The passer-by never noticed as something glowed beneath the monk's robe, even as he turned his head towards the road leading to the center of the town.

"The Key." The monk muttered, relief in his eyes. "And also its Keeper. They're in this town. I need to warn them. I need to complete my Brothers' final request!"

Stumbling down the street, he froze as he reached the intersection of the road. "Separated… they're separated… how can this be? The Abbott told me the Slayer's supposed to protect the Key. Which is the Key? Which is the Slayer?" Fear creep into his eyes as he muttered to himself. The monk's hands shook as if he did not know what to do now. For a moment, he hovered indecisively by the roadside. Then his lips tightened as he picked a direction, stalking down the road with grim determination. The monk's eyes dart around him skittishly as he made his journey deeper into the heart of Sunnydale.

There was no time for fear or indecision. There was only the mission, to complete his dead Brothers' last request.

OoooO

Joyce Summers was on the war path as she drove her car towards Willow Rosenberg's home, with a silently cringing Dawn sitting in the back seat.

But her mind was not on her youngest child. No, her mind was occupied with thoughts of her eldest who had not returned home since yesterday morning. Except from a call during the evening when Buffy had told her she would be having a sleepover at Willow's place, she had received no other news from her eldest. One full night had passed, now it was already afternoon of a new day!

Worry, fear and anger at her daughter warred within Joyce as she drove down personally to check up Willow's place, to find out what on earth her daughter was up to. Calls to Willow's place had been unanswered, and Joyce had worked herself up to a full blown case of motherly concern by the time she pulled her car into the Rosenberg's driveway.

"Willow's place looks empty." Dawn stated unhelpfully as she peered out of the windows at Willow's house.

"Stay in the car." Joyce said tersely as she opened the car door and stalked up the walkway. She pressed the doorbell, hearing the muffled chimes of music within the house. Seconds passed and she could hear no moments within the house. Reaching out, she pressed the doorbell again, this time follow by sharp knockings on the door.

"I don't think anyone's home." Dawn said from behind her, causing Joyce to whirl around.

"I told you to stay in the car!" Joyce snapped, worry over Buffy's whereabouts was giving her a short temper.

"I just wanted to help…" Dawn said but quailed under Joyce's fierce look.

"Stay. Here." Joyce gritted out through clenched teeth. A cringing Dawn quickly nodded her understanding. Seeing that her youngest would listen to her words now, Joyce took a quick stroll around the house, peering into the windows. Where the hell was her daughter? Where was Willow for that matter?

A startled cry of alarm from Dawn caused her to break off her attempts at snooping around, running back to the front of the house. Her eyes widened as she saw a robed man frantically pulling at a screaming Dawn towards the driveway.

"You! You are not safe here! We need to find the Slayer…" The young man was muttering in crazed speech as he pulled at Dawn who was struggling frantically.

With the stress of not knowing what had happened to her eldest daughter and now this, something within Joyce snapped. "Let go of my daughter." Joyce roared, rushing forward. The normally docile woman began to struggle with the robed man, uncaring of any dangers as she tried to wrestle her daughter free from his grasp.

"You are not the Slayer! It needs to be under the Slayer's protection." The robed man continued his mad tirade. "The spell is supposed to work. It has turned real using essence of the Slayer. What has gone wrong? I… I wish the Abbott was here!"

"Mum!" Dawn was shrieking in shock as her mother swung a right hook at the hooded man knocking him onto the pavement. By now, other people who were nearby were attracted by the commotion happening on the street, and two men had rushed forward to restrain the struggling man who had tried to make another move on Dawn.

"Madam, you and your girl alright?" One of the men was asking as Joyce shakingly hugged Dawn to her close.

"No! Let me go! Aurve kirse umena!" The robed man shouted. The two men holding him down jumped back with startled cries as their hands seemingly melt before their eyes. The robed man scrambled up, cast one frantic look at Joyce and Dawn before running down the street.

"What the hell is going on?" One of the rescuers said in shock as he stared at his hands which had turned back to normal.

Still frozen in shock, Joyce and a shivering Dawn had no answer.

OoooO

Tiredness and weariness crashed down on him. Snuggling deep in the blankets, Xander thought he heard distant shouts. Then someone was shaking him hard. Giving a groan, Xander struggled awake. Blinking his eyes open, he saw that Cordelia and a few others were already up.

Buffy's eyes were bloodshot and she was grimly holding on her sword as Cordelia pointed a finger at her and she disappeared. Then Rommie, Andrew and Anakin crowd around Cordelia as the four of them disappear as well.

"What is going on?" Xander asked as he struggled awake. He turned, seeing a worried Willow looking down at him. She must have been the one that woke him.

"The monk from the Order of Dagon, he is in town." Willow said in a terse voice as Xander came awake in an instant. "The Starspies around Dawn detected him when he approached her. They informed HQ at once. Rommie thinks this one is different from the original monk sent during the comic future timeline. His appearance is much younger and different for one thing. And he doesn't seem to have much experience with the real world. He nearly caused a scene in public, trying to drag Dawn off after him. Thankfully the Starspies didn't detect any Hell God or her minions, or even anyone that looks like the Knights of Byzantium during that time."

"The monk is here?" Xander said as he jumped up, eyes flashing in anger. "Is Dawn okay?"

"She's fine." Willow said as she followed Xander out of their sleeping area. "Mrs. Summers' driving back home with Dawn now. Buffy got Cordelia to send her home to meet them. Rommie and the others went to get the monk back so he wouldn't cause any more trouble." Willow hesitated as she looked at Xander. "Xander, I think Buffy decided that it's time to tell her mom and Dawn everything. With the monk here, Glory and the Knights of Byzantium will probably soon arrive. Joyce and Dawn need to be able to protect themselves when those two groups come knocking on their door."

"Well it's about damn time." Xander agreed with a nod. "I'll prepare the seals to extract more Halloween items from the storage dimension. Once Buffy is done, we'll outfit the two of them."

"Leia had sent out two new squadrons of Starspies to scout the town." Jonathon spoke out from the side. "She's rushing to complete another squad in an hour and the last squad by nightfall so that most of Sunnydale could be covered."

"Good, we'll need to be prepared now that a Hell Goddess is on the way." Xander said grimly. "I hope we don't have to end up killing anyone human… but if that's the only way to protect Dawn and all of us… then that's the way it is."