Fic: What They Deserved (B:tVS/MCU; gen)
Aug. 15th, 2019 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedibuttercupT/Gen; B:tVS/MCU; 900 words. Canon divergence for Avengers: Endgame. For ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
twistedshorts.
It wasn't a guarantee. But it was a chance.
Title: What They Deserved
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.
Rating: T/PG-13
Spoilers: Very post-series for B:tVS; canon divergence for Avengers: Endgame.
Notes: No comics canon. Taking pieces from an old scrapfile to propose yet another fixit....
Summary: It wasn't a guarantee. But it was a chance.
Xander straightened a little in his chair, shifting into Watcher Harris mode, and glanced down at the notepad balanced on his knee to refresh his memory. "There's been no sign of the demon yet, though I did find the place where Spike came ashore all those years ago. He was always pretty recognizable, even without his coat, especially here-- pale skin and bleached hair kind of stand out in this part of Africa. There were plenty of witnesses at the docks; enough that some survived the Blip, and the bartender at the local demon club remembers him passing through.
"After that, though, he pretty much disappeared out into the desert. No one I talked to seems to know anything about a demon in a cave, or trials, or vampires getting their souls back. If anyone ever did, they didn't survive Thanos' idea of balance. The only thing they would say is there's a mysterious shaman out there somewhere, and that everyone who ever goes to see him either comes back crazy, or not at all."
"I gather this shaman isn't in the Watcher databases either?" Giles' frown grew audibly deeper.
"Of course not," Xander's mouth curved in a bleak smile as he glanced back up at his smartphone's camera. "Since when is anything ever easy for us? It sounds like the guy we're looking for, though. And the best part is? At least some of the stories date from after the battle in Wakanda."
On the other end of the line, Giles drew a deep breath, then let it out. Xander had been half afraid, up 'til that moment, that Giles would still tell him to back off and wait; but he could tell by the grim set of his jaw over the video call that the G-Man was as tired of sitting back and waiting as he was.
"It's certainly more than we've had before. It's been months since the surviving Avengers resurfaced; whatever plan they might have had has clearly failed, and there's been no word from Director Fury. At this point, I'm ready to declare our agreement with him null and void."
In Xander's opinion, they never should have made the agreement in the first place; but back when the Council had been mostly a bunch of brand new Slayers and a scattering of Watchers at both ends of the age spectrum trying to patch their shit back together, while SHIELD had been a massive organization with agents and resources to spare, it had seemed to make sense that they would assign the alien business to the larger organization and the supernatural business to the other. Never the twain shall meet, even when the lines got a little vague, like with Loki and the so-called Scarlet Witch; even when SHIELD disintegrated, leaving scattered pockets and the Avengers as primary response teams. If their powers were of alien origin, the mundane heroes were the one to deal with them, and that was that.
Ever since the big purple guy intent on doing a Glory had shown up, though-- well, the Avengers had dropped the ball, and everyone else had paid the price. Including each and every living Slayer. Xander had heard the selection was supposedly random-- but someone, or Someone, had obviously had their thumb on the scale when fifty percent of all living creatures had abruptly disintegrated. Probably rhyming with burst weevil, to judge by the fact that virtually all of the darker-natured demons had made it through. Luckily, that seemed to have included their target.
"I'm going to take that as a yes, Xander, you may venture into the desert and petition the scary demon for a wish, then," he replied, flippantly.
"Xander--" Giles began, then paused, his expression pained.
It had been a long road since teenaged Xander had first met the erstwhile Sunnydale High librarian, but some things hadn't changed, and getting the older man to talk about his feelings was still one of them. "Don't worry," he replied with a shrug. "It's not like I can make things any worse, right?'
"This is hardly the time for a joke," Giles replied; but he did smile, which had been the whole point. "Are you certain you wish to do this? We may be light on personnel, but for a task such as this, I am certain we could find another volunteer."
By which he obviously meant himself. Yeah, no. "Does a vampire drink blood?" Xander replied. "Look. Maybe we wait it out, and the Avengers do get their act together. The coven says there's a fraction of a chance. But I'd rather make our own odds, and know I did everything I possibly could."
Giles sighed, then gave a resigned nod. "Buffy would be proud."
"Will be proud," Xander insisted, then gave a wave and reached for the End Call button. "See you on the flip side, G-Man."
"Don't call me--"
+
Sixty seconds later, Xander walked out the door, headed for a certain area out in the desert.
+
Six days after that, before a quiver in the quantum realm had a chance to disgorge its accidental passenger-- time wound back on its spool, to the month before the first Stone had been taken.
It wasn't a guarantee. But it was a chance.
Xander picked himself up off the floor of a cave, dusted off his aching limbs, then fumbled for his phone.
"Hey, Buff....?"
(x-posted on twistedshorts and on AO3)
twistedshorts.It wasn't a guarantee. But it was a chance.
Title: What They Deserved
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.
Rating: T/PG-13
Spoilers: Very post-series for B:tVS; canon divergence for Avengers: Endgame.
Notes: No comics canon. Taking pieces from an old scrapfile to propose yet another fixit....
Summary: It wasn't a guarantee. But it was a chance.
Xander straightened a little in his chair, shifting into Watcher Harris mode, and glanced down at the notepad balanced on his knee to refresh his memory. "There's been no sign of the demon yet, though I did find the place where Spike came ashore all those years ago. He was always pretty recognizable, even without his coat, especially here-- pale skin and bleached hair kind of stand out in this part of Africa. There were plenty of witnesses at the docks; enough that some survived the Blip, and the bartender at the local demon club remembers him passing through.
"After that, though, he pretty much disappeared out into the desert. No one I talked to seems to know anything about a demon in a cave, or trials, or vampires getting their souls back. If anyone ever did, they didn't survive Thanos' idea of balance. The only thing they would say is there's a mysterious shaman out there somewhere, and that everyone who ever goes to see him either comes back crazy, or not at all."
"I gather this shaman isn't in the Watcher databases either?" Giles' frown grew audibly deeper.
"Of course not," Xander's mouth curved in a bleak smile as he glanced back up at his smartphone's camera. "Since when is anything ever easy for us? It sounds like the guy we're looking for, though. And the best part is? At least some of the stories date from after the battle in Wakanda."
On the other end of the line, Giles drew a deep breath, then let it out. Xander had been half afraid, up 'til that moment, that Giles would still tell him to back off and wait; but he could tell by the grim set of his jaw over the video call that the G-Man was as tired of sitting back and waiting as he was.
"It's certainly more than we've had before. It's been months since the surviving Avengers resurfaced; whatever plan they might have had has clearly failed, and there's been no word from Director Fury. At this point, I'm ready to declare our agreement with him null and void."
In Xander's opinion, they never should have made the agreement in the first place; but back when the Council had been mostly a bunch of brand new Slayers and a scattering of Watchers at both ends of the age spectrum trying to patch their shit back together, while SHIELD had been a massive organization with agents and resources to spare, it had seemed to make sense that they would assign the alien business to the larger organization and the supernatural business to the other. Never the twain shall meet, even when the lines got a little vague, like with Loki and the so-called Scarlet Witch; even when SHIELD disintegrated, leaving scattered pockets and the Avengers as primary response teams. If their powers were of alien origin, the mundane heroes were the one to deal with them, and that was that.
Ever since the big purple guy intent on doing a Glory had shown up, though-- well, the Avengers had dropped the ball, and everyone else had paid the price. Including each and every living Slayer. Xander had heard the selection was supposedly random-- but someone, or Someone, had obviously had their thumb on the scale when fifty percent of all living creatures had abruptly disintegrated. Probably rhyming with burst weevil, to judge by the fact that virtually all of the darker-natured demons had made it through. Luckily, that seemed to have included their target.
"I'm going to take that as a yes, Xander, you may venture into the desert and petition the scary demon for a wish, then," he replied, flippantly.
"Xander--" Giles began, then paused, his expression pained.
It had been a long road since teenaged Xander had first met the erstwhile Sunnydale High librarian, but some things hadn't changed, and getting the older man to talk about his feelings was still one of them. "Don't worry," he replied with a shrug. "It's not like I can make things any worse, right?'
"This is hardly the time for a joke," Giles replied; but he did smile, which had been the whole point. "Are you certain you wish to do this? We may be light on personnel, but for a task such as this, I am certain we could find another volunteer."
By which he obviously meant himself. Yeah, no. "Does a vampire drink blood?" Xander replied. "Look. Maybe we wait it out, and the Avengers do get their act together. The coven says there's a fraction of a chance. But I'd rather make our own odds, and know I did everything I possibly could."
Giles sighed, then gave a resigned nod. "Buffy would be proud."
"Will be proud," Xander insisted, then gave a wave and reached for the End Call button. "See you on the flip side, G-Man."
"Don't call me--"
+
Sixty seconds later, Xander walked out the door, headed for a certain area out in the desert.
+
Six days after that, before a quiver in the quantum realm had a chance to disgorge its accidental passenger-- time wound back on its spool, to the month before the first Stone had been taken.
It wasn't a guarantee. But it was a chance.
Xander picked himself up off the floor of a cave, dusted off his aching limbs, then fumbled for his phone.
"Hey, Buff....?"
(x-posted on twistedshorts and on AO3)
