Xander Harris screamed.

They had almost literally run into the demonic being known as 'The Judge' on their way back from the military base. Looking at the other three people in the van, Xander had made a snap decision, ordering Oz to continue, Xander had jumped from the van to distract the Hell-Smurf from the others. A quick groin shot and a stake to the chest had done little more than draw the demons attention to him as the massive form had turned away from the van and given the Scooby his undivided attention.

That had been nearly three minutes earlier and after dancing around the beast for a time Xander had been blind-sided by Angelus and held still. The demon had obviously decided to draw out the pain as it was taking far longer to burn him to death than any of the others that had gone up against him, his screams of pain were loud enough to drown out the monster's own yells of glee.

For his part, Angelus struggled to hold the thrashing boy as the master Vampire could feel the young man's strength increase at an incredible rate. Finally losing his grip, Angelus struggled back to stand next to his first child as she held her face and screamed. For a moment Angelus wondered what to do before launching a powerful punch at Drusilla's face and running off with the unconscious vampire.

Let the two deal with it themselves, discretion was the better part of… well he was pretty sure it was the better part of something.

-Scene Break-

Behind the fleeing vampire, Xander gripped the massive demons neck and squeezed, he didn't know why he was still alive or who the strange blonde with the spear was but he refused to submit to some inhuman abomination (brought up out of the boring history books Giles enjoyed) by Angel of all people, shifting his hold slightly, Xander released his right hand enough to curl the appendage into a fist and bring it crashing up onto the side of The Judge's head, using the momentum of the impact to spin himself around, Xander found himself straddling the demonic form as he rained blows down.

The first blow seemed to do little more than shock the demon. The second stunned it and by the third the creature was actually feeling pain. By the time Xander landed the tenth blow, the demonic beast was dead, it's skull crushed by the force of the impacts and the demonic beast went limp.

After a moment's hesitation to assure himself of its death, Xander rose shakily to his feet and looked around, the blond was gone now as was Angelus and his warped creation of a childe.

Shaking himself unsteadily, Xander stumbled down the street towards Giles' house. The Judge had done something to him and he would really like to get back to his regular Xander shape, because while he was sure the bronze Hercules look was more intimidating, it would definitely raise questions at school on Monday.

-Scene Break-

Behind him Rota brought her sword down severing the demon's head from the rest of its body before shoving it into a bag and returning to her steed. She would bring the beast's head to the boy's father as a sign of his prowess.

Now if only she could get far enough away from this cursed portal to summon the Bifrost her day would be considerably better.

-Scene Break-

Xander managed to stumble/crawl his way up the stairs to Giles apartment as he cursed the very concept of multiple floor dwellings under his breath. He would much prefer a nice ground floor abode were vampires aren't welcome and it was easy to get inside when injured.

Finally making it to the door, Xander threw himself towards the door jam to support himself while he knocked only to miss the jam entirely and bulrush into the older man's house. Stumbling over the shattered remains of the door, Xander's strength finally gave out and he collapsed in the watchers living room.

-Scene Break-

"Welcome back Rota, I see you have managed to once again skirt the will of Odin and travel to the Hellmouth," Heimdall said with a smile as the smaller Asgardian arrived with her customary flourish.

Smiling at the massive gatekeeper Rota climbed down from Mirradin's back and took a knee. "Lord Heimdall, Far-seer, guardian of the Bifrost and first champion of Asgard, I bring news." The young Valkyrie announced formally before holding out the bag, "Your son Alexander has fought bravely this day, gaining a full measure of his strength and besting the Demonic spawn of Surtur in unarmed combat."

Taking the demonic head from her outstretched hand, Heimdall let his mind drift back to the time of the first breaking of the Bifrost; he had been trapped in Midgard for nearly a year's time and had taken shelter on the very doorsteps of his great enemies, hiding out on the Hellmouth to disguise his presence.

In that time Amora had come to him as he slumbered. While she was trapped on the far side of the Bifrost, she had sent her mind down to Midgard and possessed a willing female to be consort for the evening, neither had expected for Jessica to become pregnant.

"Go to him."

Coming back to the present and turning to the owner of the voice, Heimdall finally took note of the All Father, "My lord, I have long sworn to guard the Bifrost from all, to go would risk Asgard. Should I now abandon-." his argument was cut off by the All Father before he could really get started.

"I relieve you of your post Heimdall, faithful you have been and true. In your stead I shall have Rota hold the post," Odin announced and smiled at the squawk from the young Asgard. "For even though you did not break the letter of my law, Child of Frey you have breached the spirit of it, and for that you shall stand watch upon the Bifrost until such time as Heimdall returns to us," He ordered before turning back to the guardian, "For your service, I give you the blessing of Odin, Far-traveler, to walk where you will in the lands of Midgard, Asgard and the nine-worlds." Odin announced before gripping Heimdall's shoulder "Go to your son my friend, with my blessing."

-Scene Break-

Giles walked towards his apartment despondently, Oz, Willow and Cordellia had returned in a panic from their mission to the Sunnydale Army Base, they had come across Angelus and the Judge on the way back and Xander had volunteered to distract them while the rest fled for the relative safety of the school, on arrival the entire gang had armed themselves and set out to save Xander, even though none of them had much hope of the young man having survived the confrontation.

They had been surprised to find the headless body of the Judge lying in the street but the sad truth was there was no sign of Xander. Against his better judgment they had marched to the warehouse of Spike and Drucilla with every intention of raining holy terror down upon the heads of the undead legion within, only to find it already in flames, the vampires within having fled, most likely from whatever had taken the head of the Judge.

It was with some concern that he noticed the door to his flat shattered and a rather large drunk unconscious within.