Title - What He Has to Do

Author - Andrew Parkinson (parkinson_aw@powerup.com.au)

Summary - An out of place Xander has a decision to make

Spoilers - If you don't know what happens up to Buffy 5.16 then I would

suggest not reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. I'm just borrowing them for a

little bit. .

Feedback: Yes Please

Dedicated: To Cynthia, Adrian and Erin.

Part One

The blinding luminescence that emanated from the orb, lit up the woods, bringing daylight in the night, with each pulse. It floated behind Krostoff and provided a almost unreal glow to the events unfolding in its presence. Whatever the orb actually was, Buffy didn't want to find out. Not now. All she knew was she had to get it. It was powerful, too powerful to be in demon hands, and the prophecies had told her it would be pivotal in the coming months as she faced her strongest challenges yet.

Giles had, so far at least, no success in actually finding out how the 'orb' would be pivotal. Whether it would be good, bad, or just pretty. But it was powerful, and quite capable to channeling unimaginable power. Why it was in the hands of Krostoff, was another puzzle that Giles and the Scooby Gang had yet to unravel.

Krostoff, himself was a mystery. He had showed up last night and tried to kill Buffy. Research only provided a couple of cryptic clues. That he was a master of Dimensions and realities. And that he uses a magic chant to transport himself from area to area.

Suffice to say the Scooby Gang went into this battle severely under-prepared. Luckily for them, they had become good at fighting against the odds. Tonight was no different. Krostoff's minions had been dealt with early, leaving the scaly covered demon on his own. He was an imposing sight. Standing nearly seven feet tall, scales covering his whole body. His eyes seemed to glow a incredibly light blue, quite a beautiful colour in itself, but put together with his own package, it added just a little bit of icy evil to his persona. What was also different was the way he fought. He didn't chase Buffy. Instead he stood their letting his orb fire away, as if he was waiting for an opening.

If they didn't need the Orb the gang would have just walked away. But they needed it, so they stayed.

"Buffy, look out!" Giles shouted as the orb spewed forth another discharge. Each discharge looked like the orb was sending out liquid, ignited by the depths of hell. It's red discharge covered a few metres radius each time it spat it out, and you needed to be alert. Giles's warning was timely, allowing Buffy to quickly roll out of the way of as the liquid hit the ground behind her. The liquid was yet another unknown. It didn't burn the ground, trees or anything else it, hit. They had no idea of what its effect would be on humans, but they also weren't keen to volunteer to find out.

As Buffy rolled away, she moved quickly over to where Willow and Tara were crouching behind a tree.

"I can't get near it," Buffy said with a great deal of annoyance.

"We can't get any of our spells working. There's some sort of mystical energy dampening all of our power," Willow replied.

"He's strong, Buffy." Tara added.

Buffy gave them both a moral lifting smile, "I know. But we'll think of something." Buffy ran over to Giles and Xander, wondering exactly what they would think of. At that moment she was coming up with a great big blank.

"Giles! Willow and Tara are powerless. We need to get the orb, before I forget how good of a dodge ball player I was, and get splurged on."

"I know. Unfortunately we seem to be out of ideas," Giles admitted, his original plan having failed due to Willow and Tara lack of success.

"You need a decoy, Buff," Xander said preparing to get up, before being forced back down with a heavy hand attached to a slightly annoyed slayer.

"Xander, No!" she said, her eyes telling him not to argue.

Unfortunately in that short time when Buffy wasn't paying attention to her enemy, Krostoff had moved closer, coming with in ten feet of the slayer.

Giles was the one who noticed first, "Buffy look out!"

Buffy turned at Giles yell, and immediately saw the danger she was in. Getting to her feet she moved forward, kicking out at Krostoff with one of her patented spin kicks. Buffy however was having one of those nights when everything was not going 100 percent. In this case her timing was off slightly. The error, causing her to miss Krostoff's jaw.

Krostoff grabbed Buffy's ankle as it flew past his head, and pulled her towards him, her head banging on the grass as hid did so. The blow almost knocked Buffy out of it for a moment, but she was able to stay conscious, if a little incapacitated.

"Buffy!" Xander yelled as he got up and ran at Krostoff. He didn't believe he had any chance of defeating the demon in front of him. All he hoped was his distraction would give Buffy enough time to break free. He charged at the behemoth in front of him, kicking out at where he believed its knees would be, hoping that gravity would take care of the rest.

The effect was immediate as Krostoff dropped Buffy and fell to its knees. The bellow that screamed out of its mouth echoed for seconds after in the woods. It was a deep guttural yell that shook the trees and branches around the clearing.

Buffy had not time however to take in a class on acoustics. Taking advantage of the crouching demon, she started laying into it, each kick and punch wearing Krostoff down further. As he became weaker, Krostoff realised he couldn't afford to stay any longer. There would be other times, but the reserves he had left were needed to transport himself away. Furthermore he knew he needed the energy boost, the chant would give him, to escape both The Slayer's hands and to grab back the orb. Closing his eyes, he started chanting. Buffy almost missed it, as it's chant was softer than the sounds of her blows on his body.

"Buffy, he's trying to leave," Giles said, as he heard the chants. "Willow grab the orb."

Willow got up from behind the tree and ran over to grab the orb, from where it had fallen.

Buffy had stopped pummeling Krostoff, believing him incapable of fighting back. But suddenly he stopped chanting, and rose to his feet in a fraction of a second. He raised his hand towards Willow and suddenly the orb flew out of Willow's hand. Once he had the orb in his own hand again he looked down at Buffy, half-snarling, half-laughing. "Till we meet again, slayer,"

Buffy had no idea what was happening. She couldn't believe that he was just going to give up. What was worse he had the orb again. Without thinking anymore she jumped at him, but was met with a hand around her throat.

"You fought well Slayer. He could have left. But now you come with me. Lets see how you like the Time Winds" Krostoff 's voice resonated in Buffy's ears and she suddenly felt the world spinning.

As Giles and the rest of the Scoobys looked on, ribbons of energy formed around Krostoff and Buffy, swirling in a clockwise pattern reaching up to a point a few metres about them in the sky. White in colour, the energy ribbon was tinged with orange streaks, providing a colourful if forbidding spectacle. As it started to pulse, the Scooby's noticed that Buffy and Krostoff started to fade in and out. Xander quickly looked at Giles for a solution, but saw that he was just as stuck as he was.

"Giles!" Xander shouted, indicating they should try something,

Giles nodded, and charged at the pair, but was thrown away like a rag doll as soon as he hit the energy ribbons. Xander cursed under his breath, hoping that something he had seen on a TV show may work. He moved closer, feeling his anxiety grow as Buffy continued to fade in and out of existence. He didn't charge at the energy field, instead he slowly pushed his way through it. He could feel his body moving through the swirling particles, until he was inside with them.

Xander was lucky that Krostoff was busy trying to keep Buffy under control, otherwise he didn't want to think about how easily the floor wood have been wiped with his body.

It may not have been the nicest way to incapacitate someone, but at that point Xander had run out of ideas. He forced his finger into Krostoff's eye, not stopping till Krostoff yelled out in pain. As he dropped Buffy, Xander pushed her out of the energy swirl, throwing the orb out behind her.

"Boy!" Krostoff yelled at him, the force of the wind gushing from its mouth knocking Xander to the ground. "You want to take her place. Feel free." Looking back at Buffy who was getting up from outside, the energy ribbon he yelled at her, "you won't be able to save him slayer. It's too late. He won't survive."

"Xander!" Buffy yelled, not believing the events unfolding in front of her. She rushed forward and tried to get back into the energy field. Xander and Krostoff only seemed to be partially there and Buffy could tell whatever Krostoff was doing was about to come to a conclusion and that may mean losing Xander to wherever Krostoff was going to. She forced her hand through the field, till she reached Xander's hand. The first two times she tried to grab hold of it, her hand went through his, as if he no longer existed in their reality. Xander's scream, sounding like he was being ripped apart from the inside, only spurred her on to keep trying. On the third attempt she grabbed it and yanked him out just as the energy field imploded, taking Krostoff with it.

At the exact moment Buffy pulled Xander out, the energy ribbon imploded and the combined forces caused Xander to sail across the clearing till he landed near some bushes 10 metres away. Buffy, Giles, Willow and Tara rushed over to him, hoping that neither Krostoff nor the landing had done any permanent damage.

When they got there, they all gasped. Xander was fading in and out, ghost like. For a few seconds he was whole, then transparent, and then whole again.

"Buffy," he softly croaked out.

"We're all here Xander," she replied.

"Are you okay?" he asked weakly.

Buffy forced back a tear, hating the fact Xander asked about her before himself. "I'm fine."

"The orb?"

"We have it, just rest, till we find out what's happening."

Something inside Xander told himself that wasn't an option. "No time, Buff." Xander couldn't really see any of them now. As much as he was fading away to them, they were fading away to him. He hoped this wasn't the end, but if it was he needed to say a couple of things. "Willow" he called out.

Willow knelt down by Xander and laid her hand on his chest, not pushing for fear of her hand going through his. "I'm here."

"Tara, take care of my her..." Xander's words like his body faded out this time.

"Tell Anya I love her ...." He continued as he faded again.

"I love you all......"

and again as the fades got quicker.

"Giles, Dawn...."

And again.

"You are.....

This time he did not fade back.

End Part One