"With Great Change Comes Great Responsibility" by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Tenchi Muyo! Universe/Elements of Outlaw Star/Others)

Email: ryley(underscore)breen

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are some readers who enjoy my work. Therefore I would appreciate it if no legal action were taken against me. I can assure you that even if you bled me dry of every cent I had and sold off all my possessions you probably wouldn't make even a quarter of your legal fees back.

Note: In terms of Timeline this begins during the final episode of BtVS season three and after the conclusion of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki but before the start of Tenchi Muyo GXP. As for the Outlaw Star Elements I will be cherry picking things to incorporate from my story based on my original plot outline and what seems interesting at the time.

Note 2: Deviations from canon are part of what makes fan fiction stories great so if you don't like things like that I suggest you look for another story to read. While I will do my best to respect the source material and keep the characters acting the way they should my top priority is telling the story I want to tell. Remember I do this for fun. Not because I'm being paid or because I want to turn this into a job where I'd get paid. This is a hobby for me, a way to have fun, and nothing more.

Note 3: Positive reviews and constructive criticisms will be gratefully received. Flames, bashing reviews and people generally just out to spread their hateful/venomous attitude around will be ignored.

With Great Change Comes Great Responsibility

The Temple of the Choushin

Local Time Immaterial But in Multiverse Earth-031097 it would be New Years Eve 1981

Lady Tokimi's POV

It was a common belief among those of the mortal races on the lower dimensional planes that she and her sisters were above such things as boredom, frustration or any other duress associated with work. This was nothing new since it was to be expected that the mortals would assume that beings so far above them would be beyond them in every way possible.

To bad they were wrong.

Being an all powerful higher being partially responsible for the creation of the multiverse only magnified the accumulated stress a sentient being would build up over time. Normally she'd deal with it by stirring up some trouble somewhere and using whatever happened next as a form of light entertainment. Unlike her normal efforts of introducing chaos and conflict in an effort to reach the goal set by herself and her two siblings, the events she brought about for fun were only casually planned. After all, it was so much more fun when there were a few surprises mixed in with the plot she'd written. However in this one instance she didn't think that such a diversion would be enough to escape the work-related stress she'd built up over the last couple of millennia or so.

No, she needed something original, something bold, and if possible something that would cause her sisters no end of aggravation for a few centuries. Some would think that Washu would be oblivious after reducing herself so much and being locked away by Kagato but she knew he brainiac sister still possessed enough cosmic awareness to know what was going on. True, the amount of awareness was proportional to the magnitude of the event but, considering the fact that she would be involved, she was certain that pompous pink sibling would be FULLY aware.

As for Tsunami, she was fused with that Juraian princess, one of several possible futures they'd been aware of in the beginning, but there was no way her sister would miss her descent from the temple. The fact that the fused Choushin wouldn't be able to just come after her in a flash to interfere with her fun would no doubt cause the blue haired being great stress and distraction. At most her sister might try to contact her telepathically to inquire as to what she was up to.

Frowning a bit at that, she realized that she might need to make some concessions and sacrifices in order to keep her sisters from completely casting aside their mortal roles. Descending at her full power would just make a mess of that plane of existence, setting back their eternities-long work, to say nothing of the damage to the mortal races themselves. Sure, they could just reset things but, given the cosmic nature of their mission to bring about the creation of a being even stronger than they, it was quite likely that some variable would be thrown off one way or another.

While she might be looking for a way to have some fun and get away from her omnipotent work, that didn't mean she was willing to inadvertently add more to her workload.

Hmmmm… what to do, what to do… she thought as she began working on the details. I suppose the simplest thing to do would be to store most of my powers here at the temple and descend in a form only a little more powerful than a member of the Juraian royal family.

It galled her to be forced to do this since she didn't share the inclinations of her sisters to assume a mortal form to search for what they all wanted. To her the odds of finding a superior being while limited in mortal form were ridiculously against them and they would fare much better from an ascended position like her own.

Fortunately for her this would only be a temporary descent and loss of power.

She would be sure to retain the means to ascend once more, as well as a means of making bothersome pests buzz off, but that would be it.

With her personal particulars handled, the only thing left was to pick a universe and, more precisely, a planet in that universe to look for something fun to do. It'd have to be primitive enough that they wouldn't have the technology to discern anything as being off about her but also had to be advanced enough so as to allow her to find something to suit her tastes. It would also need to be far enough from the Juraian Empire that Tsunami wouldn't be able to use trickery to arrange a quick trip to her chosen planet. Given the size of her sister's little empire, that didn't leave a lot of places for her to go but then a thought occurred to her.

Why not go and give THAT planet a little visit?

After all, the last time that the three of them met to debate how to bring about their chosen result, one particular planet was found to have promise as a possible origin point. Sure, she would prioritize her own fun, but it couldn't hurt to take a look about the little mud ball for some sign that their speculation had genuine substance. A little bit of fun and little bit of casual work was precisely what she needed to let all the stress she'd built up bleed off.

Very well… Earth, here I come! she thought with a grin of anticipation.

Another Location

The Same Time

"You do know there's no way you're going to pull this off, right?" his cousin asked rhetorically from his right side.

"Don't be so pessimistic, Aiden!" he said, brushing off his cousin's concern. "As far as the folks back home are concerned, you and I are 'exploring' the outer edges of the empire for the greater benefit of our people. Very upstanding, very responsible and best of all completely above reproach by even the more hard ass of Dad's advisors."

"Until one of them decides to backtrack the signal from your 'reports' to here," Aiden said, not letting up even a little.

"Not a problem! That's the reason I sent your lieutenant there in a ship," he said, quite pleased with how much thought he'd put into the plan. "All communications will be routed through her ship and, since she'll be moving, it'll really look like I'm exploring where I'm supposed to be exploring."

"Assuming she doesn't run into trouble or assuming your parents don't send someone to confirm you're where you're supposed to be," Aiden said, sounding like he was determined to be a stick in the mud as the phrase went.

"Please! Most of the empire has already been charted thoroughly, leaving practically nothing left," he said, getting a bit irritated at the wet blanket. "Plus the empire is so big there's no way any sufficiently advanced civilization hasn't heard of it. They'd have to be insane to so much as shoot in the general direction of one of our vessels. As for my parents sending someone to check up on me, they won't do that unless I miss one of my regular check-in reports. So quit worrying! You're killing my good mood."

"Very well, cousin," Aiden sighed, no doubt realizing that he was going to have his fun whether he liked it or not. "I can see now that the only way to minimize the damage is to be your escort. So where, precisely, are you planning on going to 'have fun'?"

"Well, I thought I'd take a peek inside that non-interference preserve our stuck up neighbors have been quietly keeping tabs on," he replied, remembering how he'd come across the location. "There's nothing more fun than finding out what some cocky morons are hiding and then releasing the information to EVERYONE who can hear it. Plus, if it's so interesting to them, then I guess I can find something to interest me, too."

"Stuck up neighbors… you can't possibly mean THEM!" Aiden exclaimed as he realized just what kind of mess his cousin would be getting them into. "Our empire is at best a quarter the size of their empire and no one that's challenged them in the last six hundred years has come even close to winning!"

"Our empire might be smaller but we make up for quantity with quality," he said, fully confident in the strength of his empire. "As for the rest, that's just because no one of our royal bloodline has given it a try. Besides, most of the territory those idiots hold is empty space or resource settlements. If you condensed everything to the minimum area needed to house their real population then we'd be pretty much equal."

"And their ships, their ROYAL ships, what about them?" Aiden asked, sounding like this was the deal breaker for him.

"I… will admit that they're not BAD as far as warships are concerned," he replied, grudgingly admitting that a fight between the warships of his people and THOSE ships would not end well even in victory. "But they don't have that many of them and they're almost exclusively the property of the top members of the royal family members. The odds of them sending one out to handle our TINY incursion is ridiculous and it is far more likely that they'd send out one of their long range law enforcement craft. Those kind of ships we can easily handle and that's assuming they even find out I'm there in the first place."

Personally he didn't think it very likely.

While it was true that those high and mighty neighbors of his were keeping tabs on that area, he didn't think that it was SO important to them that they'd send one of their best and most powerful ships. After all, if there was anything of true value in that area, there'd be a tighter security net and one permanent patrol group circling the entire area in order to keep people out. Nothing he'd heard of or seen personally suggested anything more than a few scattered automated listening posts run by programs decades old, if not older. With such trivial obstacles it would be all too easy to slip into the area unnoticed and have a good look around.

A good look around AND some fun if he had anything to say about it.

Yep! My plan is foolproof! he thought as he moved to tell the navigator which course to plot. Nothing can go wrong!

Eighteen Years Later

Early June of 1999

Sunnydale, California

The Courtyard of Sunnydale High School

Alexander 'no middle name admitted' Harris' POV

"Am I late? Did we fight?" Willow asked, arriving at her seat next to him and Buffy.

A sure fire sign that Willow was worried and anxious at the same time was when she failed to realize that if the fight had started before she'd arrived there was no way she wouldn't know. There'd be screaming, roaring, lots of wounds and probably a few dead bodies littering the ground. Since there wasn't any of that and everything was normal, obviously the fighting hadn't started.

Still, he didn't begrudge her for feeling the way she was.

They were after all about to face off against what for all intents and purposes would be a Kong-sized demonic snake with only a hastily armed and trained army, as well as an off the cuff plan. Sure, it was HIS plan and he was pretty sure he'd covered all the bases, but with only half-assed soldier memories to work with he couldn't be absolutely certain. Still, one of the things you could always say about the Scooby gang is that they were quick to adapt to unexpected changes in circumstances and think on their feet. Besides, even if his plan didn't work perfectly, it should still do enough damage to Wilkins for them to stand a fighting chance with any plan B, C or D they came up with.

Not a great chance but at least it'd be a chance.

It was more than most people got in Sunnydale.

"Well, what a day this is. A special day," Mayor Wilkins said, reading from his three by five cards. "Today is our centennial, the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Sunnydale. And I know what that means to all of you kids. Not a DARN thing. 'Cause today something much more important happens. Today you all graduate from high school. Today all the pain and work and the excitement is finally over and what's a hundred years of history compared to that?"

Snore fest! he thought, never having understood the need for older people to go into long winded speeches like this. Just get to the point already and transform!

"My god… he's gonna do the whole speech." Buffy gasped in shocked realization.

His mood took an even deeper turn as he realized that the blonde Slayer was right. He'd been sort of expecting that the transformation would happen during the time the Mayor was standing in front of the podium. The idea that he'd have to sit through an entire boring and completely too long speech before getting down to business… there was only one opinion to be had.

EVIL.

Buffy hit it right on the head with that one to be sure. Only a truly evil man would put teenagers through an ultimately meaningless and boring speech before turning into a monster to devour all of them. Sure, he'd gotten used to the various forms of evil present in the world, more so since meeting Buffy, but this was approaching ruler of hell levels of evil as far as he was concerned.

"For all of you it may be that there is a place in Sunnydale's history, whether you like it or not. It's been a long road getting here. For you… for Sunnydale. There has been achievement, joy, good times… and there has been grief. There's been loss. Some people who should be here today… aren't," Wilkins said a moment of regret and sadness that looked remarkably real for an act. "But we are. Journey's end. And what is a journey? Is it just… distance traveled? Time spent? No. It's what happens on the way, it the things that happen to you. At the end of the journey you're not the same. Today is about change.

"Graduation doesn't just mean your circumstances change, it means you do. You ascend… to a higher level. Nothing will ever be the same," Mayor Wilkins said as darkness fell over him and everyone else outside. "Nothing. And so as we look back on… nnggh… on the events that brought us to this day… argh."

Looks like the curtain's about to rise, he thought as he covertly patted the area of his robe where his weapons were concealed. Time to rock and roll.

Indeed he could practically feel it in his bones, the unholy energy beginning to build up and ooze outwards and, to be honest, it was making him feel a little sick. Not enough that he'd be forced to sit out the graduation fight but he'd definitely not be pushing his body any harder than he had to lest he aggravate the ill feelings further.

"We… guh… we must all…aaahhhh!" Mayor Wilkins yelled as he gripped the podium in order to remain on his feet. "It has begun. My destiny. It's a little sooner then I expected I had this whole section on civic pride… but I guess we'll just skip to the big finish!"

With that the consistent building up of energy exploded into action even as the horrible man that'd both founded and ruled over Sunnydale ceased to be a man and became something decidedly not human. It was sickening to see as flesh stretched, warped and transformed from what anyone would consider normal to something only a demon would consider ordinary. In fact… with the sudden increase in hell energy… the sick feeling within him quadrupled in strength almost to the point he knew he'd have trouble even walking.

Nevertheless he knew that the gang was counting on him to lead the other students while Buffy tricked the Mayor indoors to ground zero so he resolved himself to keep his afflicted body's condition to himself. It wouldn't be the first time some teenager pulled the tough guy routine and did his best to keep others from finding out how sick he really was. He just needed to fight smart and do his best to direct the students effectively throughout the battle.

"Now!" Buffy shouted, letting all who'd been briefed on the plan know that the time to act was now.

With as much normality as he could manage he threw off his graduation gown and brought up the axe he'd chosen from Giles' armory, forcing his stance to remain strong despite the flip-flops his stomach was doing.

"Flame units!" Buffy commanded, causing two students to begin unleashing streams of fire towards the giant snake that used to be a human warlock.

"First wave!" he yelled, causing those with crossbows to take aim. "FIRE!"

With that order the crossbow bolts flew through the air but, much like the gang had been expecting, only one out of every ten actually pierced the demon snake's flesh. All the others struck someplace too hard or too durable to do more than leave pin pricks before falling to the ground but then again the plan had never been to kill it with bug bites. The reason behind the barrage was to anger and aggravate the Mayor so that when Buffy made her move he'd be less inclined to think and more inclined to act on his emotions.

With a little luck by the time he clues into the truth it'll be too late to do anything except think 'shit', he thought even as the Mayor lunged forward and gobbled up a student whole.

The fighting raged on even as he and Buffy co-lead the troops to combat the forces of evil that surrounded them, calling for charges then retreats as was necessary, but soon enough the time came for the next phase of the plan.

"Fall Back! Get back!" Buffy yelled from atop one of the chairs before turning to Willow. "Go!"

"Good luck!" Willow said before running off to join the force fighting the vamps attempting to prevent the Mayor's meal from escaping.

"Xander! Take'em down!" Buffy ordered before she went off to fulfill her own part in the plan.

"Everyone, hand to hand!" he ordered, causing those wielding crossbows to drop them in favor of a cross and a wooden stake. "Everyone! Lets go! Move! Move!"

Unfortunately for him he wasn't able to move as quickly as the others because the first time he tried he almost fell over, nauseous. In any case he managed to get to the rear of the combat group facing off against the Mayor's rear forces and immediately he went to work directing where best to send the student soldiers.

"Right flank close in. Close!" he ordered but became irritated when Jason and Paul didn't obey. "That means you two! You guys are right flank!"

The two teens immediately hurried to obey but to him it was a sure sign of the weakness of a hastily assembled army as well as one made up of civilians. They had no training, no discipline, and were simply putting all their effort into the fight hoping to come out alive. Already he'd witnessed students perish either at the hands of Mayor McSnake or his vampire henchmen and it scarred his soul. It was easy to bear the guilt of not saving those he heard about in the newspaper or secondhand from Buffy in the library but to see it happen right in front of him… that was something completely different.

The Soldier within him told him that in war casualties were inevitable and that all you could do was promise to do better next time.

It didn't make him feel any better.

Instincts not his own flared, causing him to immediately zero in to his right just in time to see a vampire charging at him, no doubt discerning his inner weakness. Fang Faces were scavengers, parasites, and, while they might not have evolved like mortal animals, they had developed the necessary senses as well as instincts for discerning prey from a crowd. Bringing up his axe, he waited to see how the bloodsucker would strike first and, the moment he had enough clues, he launched his counter attack while evading injury himself. However, even as he struck, he could feel the exertion cause the ill feelings within him to sap the strength from the blow resulting in barely a scratch.

Dammit! What the hell is going on?! He scrambled to negate the vampire's efforts to harm him. I've been on the Hellmouth all my life and been fighting baddies for the last three without getting sick like this.

Whatever the cause, if he couldn't run away or fight back, it was only a matter of time before the vamp sank its fangs into him.

The only chance he had was for Buffy to get the Mayor to the library as soon as possible so that Giles could blow him up with the explosives they'd stuffed into that area. It was a universal adage that if you took out the leader of an enemy army, the soldiers would often suffer a decided drop in morale and that could very well cause the vamps to scatter.

He seriously hoped it did because he wasn't going to last very long otherwise.

Almost instantly afterwards he heard the crashing and destructive sounds that could only be a King Kong-sized snake slithering its way through the internal corridors of the school. As fast as Buffy was and, with Wilkins no doubt close behind her, it would take the pair less than a minute to reach the library.

Four seconds after that, if all went according to plan, BOOM!

I can do it! I CAN last two minutes! he thought fiercely as he continued to spar with the vampire seeking to end his life.

With a goal set he began to work a plan out in his head to maximize what he could do in his ill state while minimizing the risk to his life. He had no idea how successful the plan would be but it was better than just winging it with such a method having a mixed results aspect to it. Despite this, though, the near misses and close calls kept coming, with the ill feelings dancing within him not helping the situation in the least. When unexpectedly an opening showed up for him to do serious damage to the bloodsucker, he did not hesitate to go for it in order to turn the fight around.

Too bad that was precisely when G-Man set off the explosives, sending a shockwave as well as debris in all directions, throwing him off his balance, causing his biological condition to worsen. Tumbling to the ground he felt for sure that he would wind up tossing his cookies within the next twenty seconds but he knew this would not help him in his fight. Doing his best to mentally command his body to settle down and hold off discharging his stomach contents until later he began to work his way back to his feet.

Unfortunately the vamp had other plans.

The fang face hadn't been thrown as bad as he had been by the explosion and therefore had recovered sooner, allowing it to attack quicker. As a result he was at once on his back, using what little strength he had in his arms to keep the corpse from biting him in the throat or just snapping his neck. Too bad it was proving to be a little too much and, as the vampire's open jaws drew closer to his neck, a flame of defiance and anger manifested within him. Of all the things that might've spelled his end, the one thing he had refused to let it be was death by vampire. He refused to go out like Jesse had! He refused to fall at the hands of those who had taken his chosen brother from him and that he'd sworn bloody revenge against.

"GET…THE…FUCK…OFF…OF…ME!" he growled as the flame within him evolved into an out of control inferno of destruction.

Whether it was the adrenaline boost or something else entirely, he felt strength beginning to return to his body, causing the bloodsucker's advance to first slow, then to completely freeze in place. This surprised the member of the undead but he didn't care because, in his anger, all that mattered to him was getting the demon infested corpse off of him. Determination and focus honed his emotions into a concentrated stream of energy but, rather than settle for simply pushing the vampire off of him, he let it explode forth with the mightiest yell he could. The vamp flew off to the side and without thinking he rolled onto his hands and knees before reaching for his axe to finish his foe off.

His forward momentum, however, stalled when he saw the vamp shakily rise up onto its hands and feet while above it there was a visible crack in the tree it had obviously been thrown into.

To throw something with the mass and weight of a human corpse hard enough to create such a crack… for normal human strength that would be impossible. Even taking into account the near superhuman strength one got from an adrenaline surge during a life or death situation, it shouldn't have been enough to damage the tree to such a degree.

"What… what the fuck are you?!" the vamp asked, sounding thrown as though being confronted by something it'd never encountered before.

For a moment he was tempted to give into the mood of the moment and say something like 'I do not know' but he also knew that, regardless of whatever strength he now had, it wouldn't last. Sooner or later it'd fade and, knowing his luck, it'd probably be sooner. Therefore, with as much speed as he could manage, he charged towards the recovering vamp, axe in hand, determined to end the existence of his hated foe. The undead being tried to get into a position to defend itself but it proved to be too little too late as, with a single chop, he decapitated it. Watching it turn to ash, he felt some satisfaction but he was also determined to aid in the mopping up of the dead mayor's forces while he still had the renewed strength in his body.

Or at least that was the plan before a rumbling noise caught his attention in a vise grip.

Turning towards the school as the rumbling noise was matched by shaking in the ground, a bad feeling began to rise up within him as his subconscious came to a conclusion that his conscious mind hadn't come to yet. Unfortunately reality wasn't the most patient sort and it leapt right to the grand entrance in the form of a large serpentine form rising from the rubble that was once Sunnydale High School.

"No…way…" he managed to mutter in disbelief at the still living ascended mayor.

In the blink of an eye his mind went through everything from the composition of the explosives to their placement within the school until finally confirming the estimated strength at ground zero. It didn't make sense! Giles was certain that the last time a demon of this sort was killed it'd taken a volcanic eruption complete with lava and toxic gasses. In an effort to recreate that, he'd worked with Willow to create the most powerful explosion they could with what they had on hand, taking into account how to use the school to force the power inward rather than letting it go outward. By all accounts and Willow's extensive calculations, the ascended mayor should've been hit with enough lethal force to kill him giant form or not.

So what the hell was going on?

"Golly gee! To think you children had thought up such a violent trick," Mayor McSnake said in a distorted yet evil voice. "Still, they say a good jolt to the system is an excellent way to warm a new body up so you have my thanks for that. Now… shall we begin the banquet?"

What were they going to do now?

Giles' POV

"Um… we got a plan B, Giles?" Buffy asked, looking up at the demon snake form of Wilkins that actually looked like it'd gotten a bit bigger than it'd been back in the courtyard.

"Not as such," he replied as his stared dumbfounded at the mighty demon they'd failed to slay.

Indeed they'd pinned all their hopes on the explosion killing the Mayor that they hadn't thought to come up with a fallback plan if that failed. To be brutally honest, he'd been of the opinion that if such a massive and controlled blast failed to kill the ascended Richard Wilkins then nothing short of a nuclear blast would fare any better. Sadly they didn't have access to one of those and, even if they'd been on good terms with the Council, arranging a nuclear strike on Sunnydale would've been… difficult, if not potentially a way to make matters worse. In the end there was only one thing they could do at this point.

"Get to the others. Order everyone to get to their vehicles and get as far from Sunnydale as possible," he ordered, bitterly disliking the taste of the words coming out of his mouth. "With luck at least some will survive."

"Survive? You mean…" Buffy said, her mind clicking in realization of what her ex-Watcher was ordering.

He was ordering the evacuation of Sunnydale.

It was a bitter pill to swallow that, after all their victories these past three years this would be their first terrible loss. However it was unavoidable. They had nothing with which to counter the giant serpent and remaining would only result in what was basically suicide. If they ran, if they pushed their cars to their limits, then at least there was a chance that some of them would get so far away that Wilkins wouldn't pursue them. Even if he'd ascended to the state of a true demon, that did not mean that Wilkins could just slither about the world doing whatever he pleased with impunity. There were numerous organizations both demonic, aligned with the light and neutral established throughout the world. While some were new, others were quite old and, as was expected, with age came great power.

He speculated that the reason why knowledge of the Ascension process was almost impossible to come by was because various organizations actively moved to eradicate it. Any books, scrolls or other methods of passing on the information were destroyed while anyone who chose to make the attempt were quietly assassinated with all of their work eradicated. The one that Anya likely knew about was likely one of the few that just barely managed to slip past the various organizations that in the past.

That being said, it was quite probable that at least half of them had precautions in place should their efforts to outright prevent an Ascension fail.

Wilkins would expect that as well and would not make a move beyond the borders of Sunnydale until he had some idea of the threats that would be sent his way.

Then, of course, there was the fact that mankind had progressed quite a bit since the time of the last Ascension as well as the ancient time of the Old Ones. The weapons of mass destruction that had been created in the last hundred years at least would be more than enough to eradicate Mayor Wilkins at these early stages after his transformation. Perhaps later on, once the former human had grown more accustomed to his serpentine form and explored the powers only found in Old Ones, a bit of expansion might be justifiable.

Bottom line? Now was the perfect time to make their escape.

"Sadly, yes. Defeating Wilkins is no longer an option for us," he said with defeated eyes. "Now the best we can hope for is survival. Survival and the hope that another means of defeating him will present itself at some point in the future."

He could see the stubbornness flicker in her eyes but it didn't last long and then she nodded before running for the main courtyard to carry out his orders. Seeing this, he began to make his way to the parking lot, intent on getting his own car ready since the more cars they had going, the more directions they could scatter in. The best way to increase everyone's chances of survival was to give Wilkins as many targets to pursue as possible rather than clump everyone together in a signal convoy. It might be cruel to use innocent people as decoys and distractions but it was the only plan he could come up with only a few minutes notice.

I hope the old girl has one last race left in her, he thought after arriving at his car. It certainly would not do for her to stall before we reached relative safety.

Getting in he wasted no time inserting the key and going through the normal process of getting his classic car up and running. He sent a prayer of thanks to whatever god might've been watching over him when it started on the first try and immediately pulled out of his parking spot, heading for the stairs closest to the courtyard.

As he approached he could see that the volunteer fighting force that they'd assembled had managed to dust most of the vampires Wilkins had gathered to keep his 'meal' contained. It saddened him to see that only half of them were still alive, with the rest having been slain or were in the process of having their blood sucked dry from their throats. He imagined that Wilkins had ordered the fiends to abstain from feeding but expecting the undead minions to obey was like expecting Xander to commit to rigorous study.

Still, if as many of those present were to get away as possible, he needed to at least temporarily remove the vampire minions from the equation. Thus he aimed his car for the rear of the enemy formation and pushed up the speed as high as he dared, ramming into them. The dents would be considerable but, considering the lives at risk, a damaged classic car would be a small price to pay.

"Everyone! RUN! Get to your vehicles!" he yelled out his window before shoving his passenger side door open. "Hurry!"

With all the speed of someone fleeing for their lives the humans present obeyed him, running for their vehicles with all due speed. Buffy, Willow, Xander and Oz squeezed into his car but predictably Cordelia left for her car, probably not trusting his to be quick enough. As soon as the doors to his car closed he moved forward, deftly avoiding the fleeing humans even as he made for the street closest to where they were. As soon as he was free of obstructions he shifted his way through the gears even as he pushed the accelerator closer to the floor. As much as he'd like to ease the old girl into her top speed, he seriously doubted that Wilkins would be so accommodating. Right now he had to push things as far as he dared and maybe a bit more if the teenagers under his charge were to stand any chance of surviving this.

"Running away? That sounds like…" the ascended mayor said in his inhuman voice, "…FUN!"

His heart chilled at the sound of that, as though feeling the cold hand of the grim reaper himself grasp it within his chest. Nevertheless, even as the sounds of destruction filled the air like an out of control train wreck, he focused entirely on driving to the best of his ability while also maintaining a grasp of just where the Mayor was. Running wouldn't do them much good if the demonic snake somehow managed to blindside them before they passed the city limits.

"I am SO glad I managed to convince my mom to leave town today," Buffy said even as she tried to prevent what was going on to rattle her any more than necessary. "There'd be no time to stop by my house to pick her up."

"We would make time if she were there," he said firmly, not wanting Buffy to regret more than she needed to. "Nevertheless, we are indeed lucky that she heeded your warning and left Sunnydale. Would that we the other students were so lucky."

When they'd initially gathered the students to explain the battle plan, he had recommended to each of them that they find some way to get their parents out of Sunnydale for at least two to three days. Most had looked as though they would do just that but the rest looked skeptical as to their chances of success without providing their parents with concrete proof of the supernatural. Given the time constraints they were forced to work with that was unfeasible, so they had been forced to leave it up to each student's aptitude for persuasion. Given that some had come with the clear intent of fighting alongside their children, it was clear that some had indeed been quite persuasive but not in the way he had hoped.

Indeed, if more had left as Missus Summers had, perhaps there would be fewer deaths to remind him of his failure to plan more thoroughly.

"Giles? Are you sure your car can handle this?" Willow asked as his car creaked rather noticeably as he went around a corner quickly.

"While I will concede that that this is more 'action' than it is used to seeing, I am confident that my diligent maintenance will ensure that it will carry us to safety," he replied as the sound of explosions and destruction mixed with the inhuman roars of the Ascended mayor. "Anything past that… I cannot guarantee anything."

"It's better… than nothing," Xander said, sounding a little strained at the moment.

Not that he could blame the lad considering all they had been through in the last hour alone.

Coming around a corner so fast that the tires screeched, he could finally see the length of road that'd take them to the 'you are now leaving Sunnydale' sign. Once they were past that sign they would officially out of Wilkins' territory and hopefully in the clear for the foreseeable future. Glancing in the rear view mirror, he could see the monstrous form of the mayor lunging at some poor souls on the ground before working his jaws, as though chewing something. He shuddered to think of what the poor souls were going through but forced his mind to remain centered on escaping the territory of the terrible enemy.

Out of nowhere his car seemed to slam into something, halting it in its tracks as though it'd rammed right into a concrete barricade. His mind was scattered and pain lashed out throughout his body like water in untamed rapids, only regressing after what seemed like an eternity even though it likely was only a minute or two. Once his mind organized itself enough he opened his eyes, or more precisely one of them since he'd apparently been struck in the face in such a way so as to cause significant swelling around the other eye. Following his initial thoughts of ascertaining the wellbeing of the others, he turned his head despite the pain it caused him.

What he saw troubled him enough that he immediately moved to remove his seatbelt so he could have more freedom of movement.

Buffy, who'd been in the passenger seat next to him, was dazed and, unless he missed his guess, her right arm appeared broken in two places. Slayer resiliency would ensure that even with only one arm she would still be able to move about and perhaps even fight, but in the end that mattered little. Looking over his shoulder he could see that Xander, Willow and Oz were a little better off, if only because of the padding of the seats and the fact that they'd had the forethought to wear their seatbelts. Oz was the best off, only showing minimal signs of his head impacting on the back of the seat and would likely be in the best state to move about of them all. Willow looked as though she was only just barely retaining a grip on consciousness while Xander looked like someone who'd been trying to get over a hangover, only to be thrown on a theme park ride that focused on spinning riders VERY quickly.

Basically it looked as though he could vomit at any moment.

While normally he could be quite distressed at the thought of someone's lunch being dumped in mush form on the floor of his classic car, there wasn't much point to it now.

"What… what happened…?" Buffy asked after her mind cleared sufficiently.

"I am not entirely sure," he replied as he tried to force his door open. "However it is clear that remaining here will gain us nothing. Let us get everyone out of the car first and then proceed from there."

With a grunt of agreement Buffy used her only good arm to shove her door open despite some protesting metal mechanisms, even as his exertions finally got his door opened. Stepping out into the open air, he staggered somewhat as his fresh bodily injuries protested the action but he pushed such opposition aside before moving to open the rear door to get Oz out.

Fortunately it looked as though, while the front doors had suffered some damage, the rear ones were barely scratched, allowing for easy opening. Once done he gently yet swiftly helped the young man of few words out before the two of them carefully pulled Willow out, laying her on the grass a short distance away. While the fact that she was successfully managing to retain some measure of consciousness was a good sign that she might make the full trip for the time being, someone would have to carry her to wherever their new destination turned out to be.

When he turned around to begin the process of helping Xander out of the car, however, he suddenly found himself flung backward by two hands sending him tumbling to Willow's side. When his motion stopped and he looked back the way he'd come, fear overcame him to see that his car was blocked from sight by the massive form of the very demon snake they'd been fleeing from. That fear was soon paired with sorrow when a severed arm dropped from above, clad in a shirt sleeve identical to what poor Oz had been wearing mere seconds ago.

"NNNOOOO!" Willow cried out at the sight even as he raised his gaze to look into the inhuman serpentine eyes of Wilkins, who looked down on them with a bloody maw.

"So this is what werewolf tastes like. I'll have to see what other rarities Jacob's restaurant can offer me," Wilkins said after swallowing the remains of Daniel 'Oz' Osborne. "Hmmmm… I wonder what a budding wicca tastes like. Shall we find out, Miss Rosenberg?"

No… NO! It could not end like this! Not after all they'd suffered and all the effort they'd put into protecting the innocent from the forces of darkness.

Even though as a Watcher he'd been trained to accept that death could come at any time, the thought of losing another of the group that he'd come to see as his own children was unacceptable.

"Rrrrr!" came a deep and feral growl from within his car.

Apparently someone, or rather something, had the same opinion as him.

However, even with the primal growl, nothing prepared him for what happened next.

With every second that passed something within was increasing in size and before too long was proving to be too big to fit inside the vehicle. Nevertheless, instead of being constrained by the metal and prevented from getting any bigger, his classic car instead began to distort in form as the growth inside refused to be impeded. Before long metal was torn free from the frame revealing to all just what the hell was going on.

Of all the things I thought I might see THIS was not one of them! he thought to himself as he beheld the beast-man that was losing his humanity even as he watched.

At first he thought that somehow Xander's under the weather condition had resulted in some magical malady, something quite feasible given the energies Wilkins' Ascension, but he was at a loss as to how to classify this. He'd almost classify this as lycanthropy but that condition only occurred during the three days of the full moon and, even if the eclipse met some requirement, it wouldn't explain why Oz had remained in human form.

Then, of course, there was the fact that Xander was taking on decidedly feline characteristics and was growing bigger with every passing moment. To his knowledge there was no recorded variation of werewolfism that turned a human into a half cat, half human being, much less increased the victim's size to such a large degree. Even when Oz changed, his size and mass only increased minimally with the more profound change being a repositioning as well transformation of human flesh. When he finally concluded that the transformation had come to an end, what he beheld could not be considered human in the least. Instead he likened it more to the images he'd seen of the largest cat on the planet, the liger, except he felt confident in his estimating that Xander's new form was at least double the maximum height on record. With teeth big enough to double as fence posts in terms of size, his mind was barely able to retain its equilibrium as he tried to comprehend HOW this had happened.

Two seconds later he had something a little more current to focus on for it was then that the giant liger-like feline that had once been an ordinary human named Xander Harris launched himself at the mayor. The shock the ascended mayor had no doubt felt at the sight of the transformation wore off just barely enough in time to move his body out of the way of the lunging giant jungle cat. However the moment Xander touched down on the ground it took him seconds to turn around and once more surge with feral intent. This time the transformed Warlock was not able to evade and, much to everyone's surprise, the claws Xander now sported were sharp enough to cut deeply into the pure demon's skin.

"AARGGH!" Wilkins roared in pain even as his tail lashed out to swat Xander back to the ground. "You'll pay for that!"

However the tail attack looked to only temporarily daze the teen turned liger and so, when the Mayor attempted to take a bite out of the feline, all the warlock got was a mouth full of dirt. Proving himself the quicker and more nimble of the two due to his smaller size, Xander was able to go on the attack before Wilkins could turn his serpentine gaze back the way he'd come. This time, though, instead of a simple claw slash, the founding male member of the Scoobies instead chose to use his claws to get a firm grip in the pure demon's flesh so he could take a bite out of his foe. This proved to be a bit tougher than cutting three perpendicular lines into the demon flesh but, with a monstrous growl, Xander succeeded in tear a good sized clump of foul flesh from the giant snake's body.

This, however, proved to be the final straw however for, when Wilkins finally set eyes on Xander, something happened that he had thought the warlock was weeks away from being capable of executing.

In one second the eyes of the giant demon snake glowed.

In the next second crimson lightning shot across the distance between the ascended mayor and the large feline, striking the latter with enough force to send his surrogate son flying backwards.

"XANDER!" Buffy cried out in fear for the life of one who had been her friend for three years.

"Rrraagghh! To think that a mere animal was able to harm me!" Wilkins declared with anger even as he sent a few more bolts of crimson lightning at the transformed young man. "A thousand years of suffering would not be enough to compensate me for the trouble!"

Dust, dirt and debris had long since obscured Xander making it impossible for him to discern the young man's state but, judging from the effectiveness of the first strike, he could imagine that it was not good.

Not good at all.

If one strike was enough to send Xander flying backwards at high speed, then the barrage the teenager was now being hit with was most likely breaking bones with every impact. Even if the young man's new form made him more durable than any ordinary mortal creature, there was no way Xander would be in any state to continue fighting.

Indeed he would consider it to be a true blessing if the lad was somehow still conscious at the end of the barrage.

It was a minute later that the torrent of crimson lightning came to an end, though whether this was because the mayor was satisfied with his word or had run out of magic, he did not know.

However, it was as the dirt, dust and debris had more than halfway settled that the universe chose that it hadn't had enough fun with his preconceptions about what was possible. From out of the cloud came four glowing objects arrayed in a semicircle, with identical spaces between each of them each in the loose shape of a cat's fang. When the materials flitting about the air completely dispersed he was flabbergasted to find that what he was seeing were not material objects emitting a bright blue glow but rather constructs of blue energy. More than that, behind them he could see that Xander, while not in pristine condition, was far better off than he'd originally expected after seeing the attacks fired his way.

In that very moment it was proven all too clearly why a mind running on instinct could act quicker than a sentient thinking mind could.

Before even HIS mind had recovered from the impossibility he was seeing, Xander charged with easily three times the speed he'd shown thus far, heading directly for Wilkins. Frantic with fear the mayor let loose another barrage of crimson lightning but, instead of knocking Xander back, the demonic assault either missed entirely or was deflected off to the side by some invisible barrier the energy fangs were generating. Thus it came to pass that, with a mighty roar and a burst of speed, Xander leapt towards the head of the demonic serpent, the fangs on the right side cutting clean through it mere seconds later.

"Im-im-impossible…I was…to be…all…power…ful…" Wilkins managed to get out before his brain finally caught onto the fact that it'd been carved in two.

Then, much like any other living being whose mind was no longer capable of doing its job, the serpentine corpse collapsed to the ground, with the top half of the head falling to the side. For a moment he waited, wondering if some unknown ability found only in Old Ones would somehow save the mayor, but when nothing happened after a full three minutes he released a breath he'd been holding.

It was over.

Despite the death, destruction and unbelievable phenomena, the battle that'd started at Sunnydale High School was over. A part of his mind knew that the death toll would be catastrophic, likely in the hundreds, but the majority of his brain was simply overwhelmed with relief at having survived. Against a pure demon undiluted by countless years of mixing with lesser species, they had miraculously survived with only one casualty to mourn. Considering all that Anyanka had told them and what he'd managed to find out, this was indeed cause for great joy.

However, when the four energy fangs vanished, he suspected that any parties would have to wait a few weeks.

Much like the numerous videos he'd seen of someone suffering from lycanthropy transforming during a full moon, he watched as Xander reverted back to his humanoid form.

However it was not a form that matched his last recollection of the young man. Granted, he'd never spent any real time familiarizing himself with Xander's form, he was NOT a poofter, but based on what little he had noticed the young man, while quite fit, did not previously have such muscle mass. True, helping Buffy with her Calling had done much to make the teenager more fit than he otherwise would've been but it'd been more of a compact fitness rather than something gained from lifting weights. This form, however, was more akin to what he'd seen of student of the more strength-oriented martial arts styles after no less than five years of diligent training. Xander's hair was also longer than he recalled and, unless he missed his guess, the lad's ears were right at the edge of what would be considered normal for a human being. Had they been any more different from what most would associate with a human being, he'd wager they'd be drawing comparisons to the young man's giant liger form's ears.

And then, without warning, the lad dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Ignoring the others as they cried out in concern, he made his way to Xander as swiftly as his injured body would permit and once at the lad's side knelt down to check his vitals. He confirmed that the young man was breathing steadily and the heartbeat was strong. Indeed, by all accounts, it looked as though it had been exhaustion rather than an injury or medical affliction that had caused the teenager to escape.

"Thank god!" he declared as Willow and Buffy arrived at his side, with the former needing the Slayer's support in order to do so.

"Is he okay?" Willow asked, her voice still thick from the grief.

"While I do not know the specifics of how he transformed and defeated the Mayor, I can see no cause for alarm," he replied honestly even as he took off his coat to cover Xander up some.

The high school graduate's clothes had not survived the transformation, after all, but thankfully the lad had collapsed onto his stomach.

No need to make this situation any more difficult than it already was.

"How… how did he DO that?" Buffy asked, marveling at the dead mayor close by as though her brain wouldn't quite accept it.

"It's a perfectly natural response for most Ctarl-Ctarl when faced with a serious threat and I'd say a giant demon snake qualifies," came a reply not from him or Willow but another person entirely.

As swiftly yet as safely as their injuries would allow, the conscious Scoobies turned to see who had spoken and what they saw was definitely not what he'd been expecting. Personally he'd been expecting a woman in her thirties dressed as one would expect an expert in, or at least someone experienced with unusual phenomena to dress. That, of course, being semi-formal attire at the very least, perhaps with a set of glasses on her nose since many equated such things with someone smart and for some an abundance of reading could lead to them being necessary.

Instead he saw a girl that could barely be considered thirteen wearing a black short sleeved shirt over a long sleeved white one along with tan cargo shorts and black shoes. Her… hair… was certainly remarkable and quite frankly reminded him of a Noh play costume wig designed to resemble the legs and claws of a crab.

Except the hair was PINK of all things rather than the normal black!

Buffy, as her instincts demanded, immediately placed herself between those she cared about and the strange girl but this was completely ignored as the thirteen year old deftly maneuvered around the blonde to reach Xander. As if to add to the absurdity of the situation, two transparent panes of black appeared in front of the girl, almost waist high, and were soon revealed to be some sort of computer. This made him wonder if the girl wasn't some sort of magic prodigy who was only shaping her spells in forms the three of them would recognize to put them at ease. The idea became harder to support when images, numbers and terms began to cycle across the screen at a speed consistent with how quickly the girl was typing. No magic used, even the prodigies, would go to such elaborate lengths just to put strangers at ease.

"Hmmmm… just as I thought. Exposure to transmorphic inter-dimensional energy destabilized the gene lock and the strain of the situation did the rest," the girl said, confirming some unknown theory posited beforehand. "Looks like the background radiation of this place also caused some gene sequences to mutate and that'd certainly explain the abnormal size of his alternate form. Bet you twelve thousand yen that when he transformed his body was somehow using energy from an alternate source to facilitate the increase in mass and keep him going until now."

"Gene lock? You mean some kind of genetic lock?" Willow asked, having an easier time making sense of the thirteen year old girl's words than he was at the moment.

"Yep. Quite common when taking a hybrid off of a quarantined world isn't possible or practical," the girl said with a nod and a crumb of approval for the astute following of the facts. "Just run a full scan and lock down all the genes belonging to the non-native life form, allowing only the traits of the local life form to manifest. Obviously they'd prioritize the genes responsible for the traits that'd make the hybrid stand out and let slip what they could in order to ensure the hybrid would live but it'd be painstaking work from start to finish."

"Quarantined world?" he asked, unaware that other dimensions referred to them this way or were under some sort of orders to stay off of it.

To his knowledge there were only scattered alliances between the various demonic dimensions and their residents with many of them only following the rules of the higher powers with great reluctance. Indeed, the mere fact that there were demon-human hybrids both old as well as new indicated that, if there was some sort of rule that demonic traits were to be suppressed in any hybrid, then it was not one widely followed.

"Look, I know you've got a lot of questions but with the warlock dead anything he's been using to keep his secrets from getting out to the rest of the world are gone now," the girl said as the computer vanished back into nothingness. "I dunno about you but I'm thinking a demolished town on fire is going to attract a lot of attention, with half of it being on anyone they find standing next to a big snake corpse. Unless you want to answer some questions from men in black suits, I suggest you come with me."

"And you are?" he asked, feeling it necessary to at least get a name to go with the girl.

"I am Hakubi Washu! The most brilliant scientist in the whole galaxy!" Washu replied in such a way that he knew without a doubt that the thirteen year old believed every word of it.

God help them all.

Rural Okayama, Japan

The Misaki House, Inside Washu's Pocket Dimension Quarters

Washu's POV

"Have a seat, you three," she said a few keystrokes to pop three comfortable chairs into existence. "I need to do some follow up scans of your friend here to make sure there aren't any surprises waiting to pop up."

"Surprises? Like what?" the blonde with the broken arm asked, not looking too bright from her point of view.

"Genetic mutations, unanticipated organ failure due to uncontrolled gene unlocking and unforeseen friction between his human genes and his Ctarl-Ctarl genes," she replied even as she initiated scans to look for signs of those potential problems. "Normally when a gene lock is undone, it's performed by professionals under controlled conditions following a step by step process to minimize potential risks. Done in an uncontrolled manner means just about anything can happen and the odds of the subject surviving are quite low."

"And Xander?" the redhead asked, sounding quite concerned and a little high strung.

Considering the mess she'd seen upon arrival, it was understandable. A rampage by a non-terrestrial snake of great size was a terrible thing to live through, especially since, to the best of her knowledge, all but one percent of planet's population wouldn't even believe such a creature even existed. If the poor girl had actually witnessed the creature kill someone it'd be enough for serious therapy to be required to heal the mental scarring.

She was no therapist, of course, so the most she could probably do would be to selectively erase parts of the girl's memory, including any subconscious records deeper in. Still, she was responsible enough to know that such extreme measures should only be utilized in the event that less intrusive methods prove useless.

"Well, it'll take some time for all the scans to finish but it looks like he has the devil's own luck in beating the odds. Preliminary results don't show any signs of genetic instability or biological irregularities," she replied, skimming through the data windows popping up on her screen. "Still, all that means is that if he does have any problems they're subtle. It'll take a few hours before I can unequivocally label him in the clear."

Three point seven hours to be precise.

Her years of scientific experimentation and research had burned into her mind precisely how much time each kind of scan needed to reach completion so she knew what kind of wait they were in for. A few more specific criteria entered into the scan programs and she felt safe to let them run without her supervision.

Turning to the three friends of the subject of her interest, she examined each one in turn to learn what she could through simple observation.

The oldest practically screamed proper conduct and academic devotee, definitely marking him as being raised somewhere in northern Europe, if her hunch was correct.

The redhead was obviously American with traces of shyness that made her believe that it was a recent development that she'd gained sufficient confidence in herself to move past it.

The blonde made her think of an odd cross between Ayeka and Ryoko, mixing both the former's pride with the latter's tomboy antics.

All in all they were not the sort of people she'd expect to be friends with a Ctarl-Human hybrid. The Ctarl Ctarl had a well-earned reputation in the galaxy of being some of the strongest and most resilient warriors in known space, with their only real shortcoming being technology. Due to their warrior code and rather brutal way of fighting, their technology was far enough behind what the Juraian Empire wielded that only a few small skirmishes had erupted between the two territories. If it ever erupted into full scale war, the Ctarl Ctarl might win the groundside battles but the ship-to-ship battles in space would unanimously end in favor of the Juraian Empire.

Still, the fact that the young man had been gene locked until a few hours ago probably explained why there hadn't been any wanton destruction or potential breaking of the extra-terrestrial secrecy protocols.

"That is indeed reassuring," the European said, sounding as relieved as all three looked. "However, given the terms you are using… they sound as though your expertise lies more in the scientific than the mystical."

She smiled as she realized what the man was carefully trying to probe about. It made sense that someone living atop an inter-dimensional fissure would be more informed from a supernatural angle then a scientific one. The current technological level of the planet Earth, though, was too low for them to accurately detect much less quantify the energies commonly associated with supernatural phenomena, so it was no wonder that they would use other means. Still, as a scientist, she preferred to stick with what she believed in and so she would nip any magic talk in the bud.

"Of course. I might have dabbled in the mystic arts as a hobby when I was younger but I find science to be a lot more precise," she said, not telling a falsehood per se.

"If what we have seen thus far is any indication, it is decidedly more advanced then anything I have ever seen," the European said, not quite managing to conceal the true intent of his statements. "What country do you hail from, if I may ask?"

"None that you would be aware of and it would be a planet, not a country. The planet Kanemitsu, to be precise," she replied, citing the world she'd chosen to be 'born' on when she'd chosen to start again from absolute scratch.

"Planet? Like an outer space planet?" the shell-absent redhead asked with a look that implied that her mind was rapidly approaching its maximum operating capacity.

"Of course! You and blondie here look to be out of high school, so I'm assuming you know what the definition of 'planet' is," she said, making it sound like she was surprised they weren't still in elementary school at their age.

"That means you're… you're… an alien? Right?" the redhead asked, clearly reaching critical mass mentally.

"If by alien you mean I wasn't born on Earth and have lived most of my life elsewhere, then YEP, I'm an alien." She really enjoyed nudging the girl over the edge to watch the 'show'.

"Oh," the redhead said before her eyes promptly rolled up in her head and she fainted dead away.

A cursory examination confirmed it wasn't anything serious and honestly a little time unconscious would probably do the girl a world of good in coping with the trauma of the past few hours. It wouldn't completely solve the teenager's mental issues but it would be a step in the right direction. Hopefully once she awoke on her own she'd be a little more together and willing to answer a few questions she had regarding her friend.

As for the other two, it looked like, while they hadn't been so overwhelmed that they'd be joining their redheaded friend in unconsciousness, they did represent two extremes. The blonde's preferred coping mechanism seemed to be denial of facts she didn't particularly care for but the less than firm nature of the posture let her know that the truth was a few steps away from being accepted. They'd be tough steps, with the last two requiring the strength of an entire planet to make, but she'd make sure it happened if push came to shove.

The European, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to run back to the comfort of his library and dusty old books as soon as possible. Typical technophobe! It must be hard enough for him to be around Earth's technology that being in her lab was akin to someone being surrounded by several bloodthirsty carnivores. Still, as the most intelligent-looking of the three and likely the person with most of the information, she wanted she needed to calm him down and make him more comfortable.

So with a couple of keystrokes she erected a solid light holographic environment around them of a simple yet tasteful living room, complete with the usual furniture and windows. She was even able to replicate to a certain degree the sounds and smells connected to such an environment, using what existed in Tenchi's house as a base. Looking back at the European, she could see the stress of being surrounding with technology far beyond his understanding decreasing and in a little over a minute it was as low as it was likely to go for the time being.

"Now that we're all comfy, I hope you'll answer a few questions I have," she said, sitting down in the comfiest chair that she'd managed to create for herself. "While I have been out of the loop for a while, I think I would've been told of the Ctarl Ctarl having a connection to Earth."

"I afraid that we are as in the dark about the situation as you are," the European said, taking his glasses off to clean them. "Up until a couple of minutes ago we considered Xander to be nothing more than your average teenager with an unusual tendency to get into trouble. We had no idea he could transform like he did."

"I think it would've been a bit hard to miss a twenty foot tall giant cat," the blonde said, adding her insistence that they'd never before noticed anything odd.

She didn't see any of the usual signs of being lied to and, aside from Kagato, she'd always been the best at spotting liars.

Plus these two didn't strike her as having the best poker faces.

Mental note: invite them both for a 'friendly game' of poker with 'modest stakes' sometime in the future, she thought with a small grin and a mental cackle.

Still, it would imply that it had only been a recent change in the young man's natural environment that'd caused the gene lock to come undone. She'd have to access the records in the stealth satellites for the last two hours over the town in question to see if they'd picked up anything of interest. While not as advanced as something she could create, they did have a few sensors built into them that could give her some hint as to how the change occurred.

Over the next hour she asked various questions while answering precious few of her own since she had no reason to trust the two of them with sensitive information. There was no need for them to know about Tenchi and the others or anything about her off world connections. They'd already seen enough to raise some flags but, so long as she kept things contained, she was sure Mikami and Airi wouldn't be too mad.

Once she had enough information from them, she brought up a view screen tuned to TV channels found in California and asked them to relax until her scans were completed. In the mean time she'd go bring them something to nibble on while they watched but she'd make sure that they understood that curious snooping was not a smart idea.

She doubted that they'd have Mihoshi's luck for walking away unscathed after stumbling her way through the lab.

Two Hours Later

Washu's Lab

Xander's POV

Uuhhh! I feel like someone just put me through a wood chipper, he thought, opening his eyes even as his body ached from toe tip to the tallest strand of hair.

Opening his eyes, he flinched as the light from whatever hospital room he was in but, like usual, once they adjusted he was able to open them fully. What he saw was nothing like the hospitals he'd ever been to, both in Sunnydale and elsewhere the few times his parents decided to take him on a vacation trip. If he had to compare it to anywhere, it kinda reminded him of some of the bigger art gallery interior's he'd seen on TV, with the angular designs and big windows. Curiosity was enough to prompt him to sit up but it was then that he was informed through his sense of touch that a lot more than the room was different.

The clothes he distinctly remembered wearing to the graduation ceremony were gone and, unlike previous hospital stays, hadn't been changed into one of those gowns or even a shirt and pants combo.

Instead he only had a bed sheet to keep him decent.

A bed sheet and NOTHING else.

"O-kay… either this hospital as some really weird rules or some 'good Samaritan' decided help out," he thought, looking around to try and figure out what the heck was going on.

The more he looked, the more he thought he was about to get punked by people who were extremely skilled at constructing sci-fi stage sets. Everywhere he looked he saw something that looked like it'd fit right in on shows that emphasized exploring strange new worlds and encountering new civilizations. However no matter how hard he tried he couldn't make the connection between the gang crashing into some sort of invisible barrier and this place wherever it was. Still, aside from not knowing where he was, the fact that he only felt sore was a good thing since most people felt a lot worse after being in a car crash of any sort. Until something happened to make him think that bad luck had finally caught up with him, he'd remain positive.

First things first. He slid off the bed while keeping the sheet wrapped around his waist. Find some decent clothes THEN some good answers.

With that in mind he began to walk about his new environment, looking for anything that looked like a dresser or closet so he could find something more ideal to wear. He didn't care if it was the same sort of outfit male nurses so long as it was a step up from the bed sheet he now had around his waist. As he moved, though, he began to get an itch in his brain whenever he attempted to settle back into the idea that this was just a movie set constructed by big sci-fi fans. The level of quality, the fact that some of the controls looked like they actually worked and did something, would've cost a fortune for fans to put together and he couldn't think of any studio that'd be willing to shell out cash for something involving him.

It was a couple of minutes later that he finally found something that looked like a dresser and, with a little trial and error, he found a way to open one of the drawers. Finally he'd be able to get some pants and maybe a shirt to put on.

Only when the drawer finished opening he found that the contents were nothing so convenient as that.

Panties.

Bras.

Of colors and designs that had his jaw dropping and his skin turning tomato red.

"My, My! Up already and straight to my underwear drawer," came an amused female voice from behind him. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Ctarl Ctarl teenagers do go through a period of heightened heat, so it's no surprise that it's caught up to you. Still, if you really want to hit the jackpot you should check out my daughter's dresser. She's really gotten bold since she found out she liked Tenchi so much."

His embarrassment and surprise peaked even as he whirled around to see who'd spoken but thankfully his body had sense enough to make sure he didn't accidently lose his grip on the bed sheet. Upon spotting the only humanoid female figure in the area, he felt some confusion since, to his mind, he was looking at a girl who'd just hit her teens but the… undergarments were clearly for someone more mature. After all, what's the point of a bra that size if you didn't have a rack big enough to fill the cups?

"Would it be more believable that those are mine if I looked like this?" the thirteen year old asked before stunning change took place.

With a slight twinkle effect the girl began to grow, develop and, oddly enough, her clothes also changed sizes, so by the time it all came to an end she looked more like a young woman in her mid-twenties with properly fitting clothes instead of an outfit several sizes too small. Indeed, she now looked to be… BIG... enough in all the right places to make the undergarments just the right size for her.

"Why, thank you! A woman always loves to be complemented on her figure," the pink haired woman said with a grateful smile tinged with humor.

What the hell? Is she telepathic or something? he thought before a slight tremor of fear rolled through his body. Shit! I am SO screwed and not in a good way.

While having Buffy and Willow as best friends might've gone a long way to conditioning him to curb certain male tendencies, they had not completely eliminated them. As such, when he'd been evaluating the woman's now curvier figure, he'd instinctively imagined her in a brief series of steamy poses. If she was telepathic and seen all of them, he anticipated a couple of strong slaps to the face at the very least and at worst a truly cruel punishment to be delivered at a later date when he wasn't ready. Depending on how physically strong she turned out to be, it might be better to choose the cruel option.

"No, I'm not telepathic, but I have read several psychiatry papers on male adolescents and it wasn't hard to look up information on the Ctarl Ctarl either," the woman said, her smile growing a bit.

"Um… what does 'Ctarl Ctarl' mean?" he asked, not having heard the term before either in his regular school classes or during research with Giles.

"Ctarl Ctarl is the name of a warrior race from a planet in the Heifong System by the same name," the woman replied before somehow conjuring a tall black screen into the air to her right. "As for how that applies to you… well, see for yourself."

With a flicker the blackness was replaced with an image that looked to be coming from some sort of camera in order to present a live image of his appearance. Immediately he noticed several discrepancies from the last time he looked in the mirror but they were overshadowed by the features he knew shouldn't be on a human body. His ears were too big for one thing and, when he reached up to touch them, not only did he feel a bit of what could only be called fur on them but his attention was drawn to his fingernails.

Or rather what'd replaced the fingernails that were usually there.

What'd replaced them could only be considered bone white claws but, even adjusted to properly match his size, they looked to be a little bit shorter than cat claws. Nevertheless he could easily tell that they were sharp enough that, if he wanted to, it would not be beyond their ability to part flesh and draw blood.

Another thing he noticed was that, while he'd never exactly been bereft of manly body hair, he now had enough that he could easily match Tom Selleck in the body hair department. Combined with the wilder hair on his head and he looked like some sort of half beast, half man. The fact that it looked like he'd almost doubled his muscle mass since he last posed in the mirror in his room was a minor difference compared to all the others.

It was then that a possibility occurred to him that had him narrowing his eyes at the pink haired woman with suspicion in his heart.

"Care to explain?" he asked with a bit more hostility than even he'd expected.

"What? You need me to spell it out for you?" the woman asked rhetorically before taking on a more serious expression. "You are a hybrid of a male Ctarl Ctarl and a human female. Based on the results of your tests, you underwent the gene lock process on your Ctarl Ctarl genes just prior to your birth. However with your exposure to Mayor Wilkins' transmorphic shift into an Olvikan devil serpent, the gene lock dissolved, allowing your Ctarl Ctarl side to assert itself. It's a good thing it did, too, otherwise you and your friends would be in Wilkins' belly right now being slowly melted down for nutrients."

"I'm.. wha… half… transmorphic… huh?" he stuttered, his brain unable to decide what fact caused the most conflict within him.

"Basically you've always been an alien-human hybrid but your alien half has been locked away. When the mayor turned into a giant snake, he put out energy that turned the lock to dust, causing your alien side to kick in," the woman said, dumbing things down for him. "Because it did, you were able to kill the mayor before he could kill any more of your friends. Any more questions?"

Any… more…

The moment he looked to his memories to figure out what the woman meant, he was given flashes of Oz pushing both Willow as well as Giles out of the way before being captured in the Mayor's mouth. An arm… bloody, with no body attached to it dropping to the ground, followed immediately by Willow's exclamation of pain and sorrow. A surge of sadness all his own welled up within him at the loss of the only other male member of the gang and knowing the grief Willow must be feeling at the death of her boyfriend, he wanted more than anything to comfort her. If the woman could be trusted then he'd already exacted vengeance for Oz's death so all that remained was the comforting of the musician's mourning girlfriend.

"Where are they? My friends?" he asked, deciding to table his new… condition… for the time being in favor of another priority.

"Waiting for you to wake up," the woman replied before banishing the screen showing his altered state. "Since you are we can go see them but first…"

A keypad made of the same black matter as the view screen appeared beneath the woman's fingers, allowing her to tap a few keys that lit up on contact with her fingers. A moment later a folded stack of clothes appeared in mid-air before dropping to the floor at the pink haired woman's feet.

"You can wear these during your stay here," the woman said before the keypad vanished into nothingness. "I'll wait around the corner while you change into them."

Watching as she did as she said she would, he waited until he was sure he had some privacy before walking over the stack of clothes. Crouching down, he went through them all and found that, for the most part, they looked to be normal enough but bigger than his usual clothes were. This was to be expected, though, since he'd put on quite a bit more mass since his animal side did some remodeling work on his body. Grabbing the boxers from the pile, he let go of the bed sheet and quickly slipped them on before any eyes, organic or mechanical, could get an eyeful. After that came the shorts and then the tank top before ending with a set of sandals. He didn't wear sandals that much except to the beach on occasion but, if that was all he had to work with, he'd manage.

With nudity no longer an issue he walked over to the corner where the woman would be waiting and found her leaning up against the wall.

Woman? I guess if she's the one that knows what's happened to me, I should at least know her name, he thought. "What's your name by the way?"

"It took you long enough to get around to asking," the woman asked with an amused smile. "I am Hakubi Washu! The greatest scientific mind in the galaxy!"

Given the sound of her name, it made her think that she was Japanese in origin, or at least from some place that had the same custom of putting the family name first followed by the given name. In any case it gave him a starting point for getting to know what sort of person she was and if she was a wolf in sheep's clothing. If she genuinely just wanted to help then she'd be a useful ally for the Scoobies once they were back in Sunnydale. Anyone capable of feats such as the ones he'd seen thus far would go far to mitigate the disadvantage they'd be forced to deal with since the Watchers Council would no longer be supporting them.

"Harris Xander," he said, remembering to put his last name first. "Pleased to meet you, Hakubi-san."

"No, no, no, no!" Hakubi-san said before shifting back into her thirteen year old form. "Call me LITTLE Washuuuu!"

An eyebrow had no choice but to pop up at that order since, in his experience, only the eccentric or the slightly nuts insisted on being called by childish names when it came to adults.

He wasn't sure which he preferred, either for his sanity's sake or his safety.