Gray

[lit_gal]

Gray
After having her world destroyed by the Winchesters, Eve wanted to rebuild her family. She claimed a soul with his own dark power and his own moral gray.  He would be her champion.  Hopefully. Xander just wanted to go home, preferably before the hunters Sam and Dean Winchester caught up with him.

Chapter ONE ::   Chapter TWO ::    Chapter THREE :: Chapters 4+5 ::  Chapter SIX ::  Chapter SEVEN ::  Chapter EIGHT :: Chapter NINE ::  Chapter TEN ::  Chapter ELEVEN : Chapter TWELVE :: Chapter THIRTEEN :: Chapter FOURTEEN :: Chapter FIFTEEN :: Chapter SIXTEEN :: Chapter Seventeen :: Chapter Eighteen :: Chapter Nineteen :: Chapter TWENTY :: Chapter TWENTY-ONE :: Chapter TWENTY-TWO : Chapter TWENTY-THREE


Xander learns a little more about this world, and he plays nice with Dorsey, which is the least he can do considering what he did.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Xander tilted his head to the side to watch Dorsey walk in. He opened his mouth to ask where Spike was, and then closed it again. Maybe he shouldn’t go letting the military people know that he was big with the eavesdropping. So instead he asked, “Do you plan on ever feeding me? Maybe starving me to death is giving you a few chuckles.”

Xander watched as Dorsey flinched. “I suppose that depends on what you eat. We’re out of virgins.” Dorsey drew himself up and crossed his arms. He was a scary looking man when he put his mind to it, and Xander could feel him strengthen his resolve. He wanted to keep a professional distance from Xander.

“I was kinda hoping for burgers and fries,” Xander said, and he felt a big chunk of Dorsey’s resolve crumble. He wanted to see Xander as a monster, but he couldn’t quite do it. “But maybe lots and lots of burgers and fries because I’m really, really hungry,” Xander added.

Dorsey looked at the guard. “Head down to the mess and grab a half dozen burgers and as many fries as you can get the cook to let you have.”

“Yes, sir.” With that, he vanished out the door, taking his very dirty fantasies with him. Apparently he had more than one that featured the gray-haired leader, whose name was O’Neill, and some blond archeologist. Some very male blond archeologist. The guy had some dirty, wrong thoughts.

“Are you going to unchain me so I can eat them?” Xander asked, raising his arms away from his back.

Dorsey took a step closer. “Truthfully, I’d like to, but I think you know that’s not going to happen. I have one of the best trained units in the entire military, and you threw my guys around like puppies.”

“That doesn’t say much for military training in this universe,” Xander answered.

Dorsey let his head fall forward for a second, and Xander could taste the distress. The guy wanted to help him. Hell, he was starting to feel like a bully for not helping. Xander glimpsed a hint of the past, a skinny black kid alone in an almost all-white school in Colorado. His single father had always pushed Dorsey to win by being better than everyone else, which hadn’t been great on the making friends front. Dorsey really hated bullies.

“I never wanted to hurt anyone,” Xander said softly. “Spike is huge about the whole with great power comes great responsibility, not that he’ll admit to quoting Spiderman. Those guys attacked us.”

“And you didn’t stop after they went down.”

“Hey. Wait. Spike broke that one guy’s neck,” Xander said, “but you said that you arrested them.” For a half-second, Xander didn’t understand, but then the words drifted into his mind. “You have a sarcophagus. Hey, that’s totally cheating. And it means we didn’t hurt anyone. Much. Permanently.”

“Yes, you did. Corporal Benjamin has already maxed out the allowed time in a twelve month period, which is why he’s on rotation here on earth, and the sarcophagus can’t cure Cooper, who you seemed to drain of energy. Both are still in the infirmary, and I have a dozen more men nursing bumps, scrapes, and wounded egos.”

“Oh. That.” Xander cringed. “Sorry. I get a little…”

“Homicidal?” Dorsey offered. Xander could feel Dorsey’s mental defenses begin to rebuild.

“Panicky,” Xander corrected him, and big cracks appeared in those newly rebuilt defenses. Dorsey hadn’t expected that. “I mean, I only got whammied a couple of weeks ago, and my first stop was to run straight to Giles for help, and that worked out about as well as you’d think. Spike had to rescue me.” Xander sighed. “In my universe, Giles is pretty much the closest thing Willow and I have to a parental unit. Her parents are so busy trying to make her be perfect Willow that they pretty much don’t see the real her, and my parents love vodka way more than me. As a kid, I would call home to let them know I’d be late from school because we were researching another end of the world, and I’d have to give them my name because they were too plastered to recognize my voice.”

Xander rested his cheek against his knee. “I didn’t even think about the possibility that Giles would go all Rambo on me. And even if he is kind of a wanker in this world, he’s still a really awesome hunter, and he’s the smartest man you’ll ever meet. He saved the world with one hand tied behind his back. And I really don’t want to have anything to do with him because I’ve had enough parental rejection already in my life, but I don’t think you should shut him out just because he was a giant idiot this time.”

Dorsey took a step backwards, and Xander thought he was going to leave. He couldn’t really come up with the energy to care, either. Instead Dorsey reached out into the hallway and grabbed a folding chair before bringing it in and sitting it in front of the bars of Xander’s cell.

“How did you get turned?”

Xander smiled, even if it wasn’t funny. “Me and women, not a good mix. Actually, Spike and women and Angel and women and just about everyone I know and women. Either there are a lot of demon women out there making childer or men are just pretty stupid and vulnerable the second someone waves boobs at us.”

Dorsey smiled. “I think it’s probably both. Demons? So, are you a demon rather than a monster?”

“The way you say demon? Nope. Not a chance. Who is stupid enough to sell his soul? Seriously? How far back on the short bus of life do you have to be to make that choice, and I’m including Dean Winchester here. I mean, I love Dean in the books, but saving his brother from heaven by selling himself out to hell? Not the smartest move in all creation. Loyal, but not smart. Spike would have kicked his ass up between his ears.” Xander snorted, and he noticed that Dorsey was trying to control a grin again. Xander felt a warm rush of affection for Dorsey, and the man’s head came up. For a second, they stared at each other. It took some time before Dorsey shook his head and the spell broke.

“What do you mean by demon then?”

“Um, powerful but not so much with the human-type creatures that got kicked out of our dimension, although apparently there’s some debate on that. Some people think that the big, all-powerful old ones got bored and moved on, and the kinda big and almost all-powerful old ones were the ones to get banished. Now humans mostly share the dimension with the ‘not so big but dreaming of power’ kinda scary demons and the not scary at all ones.”

“So, demons aren’t a problem for you?”

Xander awkwardly shrugged. “They can be when they start dreaming of badness or trying to bring the real big-bads back. Angelus is less than world-endingly bad, but he tried to use this world swallowing demon to dump the whole planet into hell. Not cool.”

“Where did he get a world swallowing demon?”

“Some museum,” Xander said with another shrug. “Giles figured out what was what.”

“What about the demon who turned you?”

Xander glanced up at the camera. They were totally recording all this, but it wasn’t like they were bad guys. Annoying guys, misguided guys, and really kind of assholish guys, but not bad guys. “She’s one of your monsters. I have no idea how, but she dragged me through some sort of portal and whammied me. Spike was not amused when he figured out I wasn’t exactly human anymore.”

“Why?”

Scratching his chin by dragging it across his knee, Xander thought about that. “Part of it is that he knows our friends won’t like it, but I think a bigger part is that he’s afraid I’m going to get out of control and he’ll have to be the one to bring me back in line, which explains why he is so very much about keeping me in line in the first place.”

“He’s afraid you’re going to kill people.”

Xander nodded. “He’s afraid I’m going to take the first bully I meet and break him into little pieces. I’ve spent a lot of time getting bullied, and Spike was sort of the same back about a hundred and fifty years ago. He seems to think that people who’ve been bullied don’t always handle power real well. And he thinks I’m going to spend the next several decades regretting it if I do lose control the way he did when he was young.”

Dorsey sighed, and Xander could taste the regret. “We want to bring Spike in here, but you’ve scared a lot of people. You really need to prove that you’re not the bad guy here.”

“You’re the ones who started shooting at me.”

“Actually, Mr. Giles’ group did that. You just had the nerve to not get your ass kicked when a dozen very well trained marines tried to kick your ass. Marines don’t actually like that,” Dorsey’s chuckle was almost friendly, and Xander could tell that it was equal parts psyops and a desire to gain information mixed with actual regret that he was causing harm.

Xander sighed. As far as he was concerned, they were bullies too, but saying that now might not be the best idea. Besides, they were bullying people to try and save the world, which wasn’t the same as Cordelia making unfortunately accurate comparisons between Willow and Big Bird. “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing that I wouldn’t do if I had been compromised and placed in quarantine. Follow orders, Xander. We’re going to order you to the back of the cell, order you to face the wall and then go to your knees. Then we’ll order you to cross your ankles so it’s harder for you to get up. The soldiers will wait to see that you’re staying where you’re told, and then the guard will bring in Spike. One wrong move, and they will open fire with the zats that took you out last time, and Xander, you need to understand the danger with those weapons. With a normal human, one hit stuns, two kills, and three disrupts the molecular bonds holding atoms together so completely that the person vanishes.”

“It… what?” Xander’s voice squeaked.

“Clearly you have a lot more energy holding you together than the average human, but we would like to avoid finding the line between stunning you and making all your atoms fly apart.”

Xander’s guts turned to stone.

“Hey, are you okay?” Dorsey stood up.

“No, not nearly okay. You could have killed me.” Xander felt suddenly cold.

“You were trying to kill me at that point, if you remember.”

“Well then, don’t knock Spike out. He’s really good at getting me to back off, but seriously, you risked pulling all my atoms apart. That’s… uncool,” Xander finally finished. Yes, that was completely the wrong word, but he didn’t have a good word to describe the deep wrongness of pulling people’s atoms apart.

Xander could feel Dorsey’s deep distress, but he hid it well, gazing at Xander silently with his dark eyes.

“Hugely uncool,” Xander added. “World-sized levels of uncool.”

“I’ll have someone bring Spike in,” Dorsey said, and then he retreated. Fast. Xander let his own awareness wander out with Dorsey. The man was upset by how much he liked Xander. Xander focused on sorting through Dorsey’s feelings. He really hated bullies. He hated aliens that bullied planets, and he hated demons that bullied people who felt helpless enough to think their soul was a small price to pay for a little power. Okay, Xander was fully behind that belief, not that he’d met any bullying aliens.

He was also afraid for his people, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that Xander was dangerous. Xander tried to soothe that fear. No, he couldn’t convince anyone that he was a safe, fluffy bunny, but he could honestly say that he didn’t mean to hurt people who didn’t really, really deserve to be hurt. Xander focused on that, and he felt Dorsey’s beliefs start to shift. He started thinking of Xander like one of the raw recruits who were more likely to fall on their mates than help them over the wall in the obstacle course.

Xander could handle that. He was a little graceless, so having Dorsey think so wasn’t such a big deal. However, he carefully guarded his own guilt and certain knowledge that he was going to hell. Screwing with someone’s head was so very much of the not good. However, they needed an ally in here, and Dorsey had gotten volunteered. As another less than voluntary volunteer, Xander felt bad, but life sucked like a really sucky thing.

“General,” Dorsey said, stopping short in the hall. The gray haired man leaned against a wall, and Xander felt a flash of panic, and then a quick echo of confusion as Dorsey tried to figure out why the general would cause such alarm.

He sucked at this. He really did. Taking deep breaths, Xander tried to calm himself and Dorsey’s emotions settled down into a general sense of wrong at having imprisoned people he’d promised to meet under a truce.

“So, the kid doesn’t look much like any monster we’ve seen,” the general observed casually, but Dorsey wasn’t fooled. O’Neill… General O’Neill never did casual. He only feigned it before blowing someone up. But he didn’t blow up many people anymore. Xander pushed into that memory until he found the memory of a vetala targeting Daniel. The general had hunted four of the monsters to their lair—two adults and two young learning to kill. Daniel had come out with little more than feeding scars, but the general had hit a wall hard enough to knock out a few teeth and permanently damage one of his aging knees.

“No, sir,” Dorsey agreed.

“He’s right about women. Danny always falls for the ones who look helpless.”

“Harris doesn’t look helpless, sir,” Dorsey pointed out.

“Just a little young. Was the doc able to figure out if he is as young as he seems?”

“He has the same DNA as the Alexander Harris of this universe, so he probably is twenty-five.”

“Unless he’s some sort of shifter who used that DNA to build a body or the result of one the Asgards’ damn experiments.”

“True,” Dorsey agreed, and Xander felt the frustration of being caught in the battle between the Asgard and the Goa’uld. Worse, if either side won, Earth would be in serious trouble. The Asgard considered humans gene carriers for their own species and thought of humans as a lesser race who owed them allegiance and obedience after centuries of protection and guidance. The Goa’uld considered them hosts. Xander shivered in horror. That was so not good. Add in demons, and these people had a war on three fronts.

“You’ve looked him in the eye, do you still hold that your first assessment was true?”

Dorsey took a deep breath and mentally reviewed the report he’d first turned in. From the first meeting, Dorsey had known there was something wrong, but he’d assessed Xander and Spike as more likely to be allies than enemies.

“Yes, sir. Harris is honest about his own faults, and he sounds more like some new recruit who doesn’t know how to use his weapons than a seasoned fighter.”

O’Neill nodded. “It would explain why he didn’t finish taking the rest of you out and escaping. However, that doesn’t mean he won’t change his mind and slaughter all of us. Keep Hathor in mind, Major.”

“Yes, sir.”

O’Neill started to turn.

“One more woman who used her wiles to try and turn the rest of us into monsters,” Dorsey observed.

O’Neill laughed. “It’s a good thing we have women on base or we’d all be screwed, Major. Personally oversee the transfer of the other one.”

“Spike, sir. Yes, sir.” Dorsey agreed. Xander had to stifle a flash of joy at the idea of seeing Spike. Actually, he was just thrilled to have evidence that Spike was alive. Maybe he and Spike hadn’t always been buds, but Spike had come for him and put up with a lot more crap than most friends would have. Robin would have shoved a suitcase at Xander and told him to hit the road two days after the rescue.

Right. He’d get Spike and then… then he really hoped that Spike had a plan. And he really hoped that Spike wasn’t too cranky about the fact that Xander had either made a minion or a childe.

Comments

Gray 24

[slashpuppy.livejournal.com]

First?

Re: Gray 24

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

You got it.

[dharma-slut.livejournal.com]

Gosh, all that discussion about those horrible and/or scary women! In a story that features two women -- one as a plot device, one in a supporting role.

I don't know if my personal nerves have just been rubbed raw by recent real life events but I am sick of listening to men talk about all the things that they think women are.

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

And I just see it as a function of character. Xander whines about scary women, but Drusilla and Darla would whine about manipulative men. It isn't boobs that are the danger, it's human sexuality that monsters trade in, in the SPN universe and the Buffy one. But Xander is rather famous for being locked into his point of view, and he doesn't see that.

On the other hand, I think Jack was tweaking Dorsey by reminding him that they all owed their lives to women after the Hathor incident.

[dharma-slut.livejournal.com]

yeah, true. I guess it's just my personal nerves rubbed raw.

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

With all the misogyny out there, I'm not surprised. Hell, even this has some scary undertones, but I think that's a function of the SPN universe. It's so unremittingly dark that I almost feel like I have to keep some of that to be true to the universe.

[shakatany.livejournal.com]

It's one of the reasons I'm not fond of SPN. All the good women get killed off but then so do most of the evil ones too. It's really too androcentric for me to enjoy.

Shakatany

PS Hmm I wonder if Don Stark exists in this 'verse (and even more I wonder what he was as he was more powerful than a leviathan).

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

I think the Supernatural universe is largely untouched right now. All the events up through the leviathans, including Dean going to Purgatory, all happened. Our boys have just not yet found those boys. So the stargate program and aliens and all that is happening outside Sam and Dean's awareness, although I'm sure Castiel and Crowley know all about it. Imagine that... Sam and Dean's allies aren't sharing all the good intel.

[emmasa.livejournal.com]

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel any better, I put up the last two chapters that will have Willow, and she has come into her own. She has become Dorsey's version of Spike--a strong person who can help him keep his demon instincts under control, and the one person who chose to buck the whole system by helping the boy escape, versus Dorsey who had a "push."

[dharma-slut.livejournal.com]

heh, I am not a very good reader these days I think! i don't seem to have much patience to wait for the denouement... I should have the brains to wait for the fic to be complete or something.

I agree with shakatany, SPN is the canon where women don't exist any longer than the writers can help. ugly, ugly.

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. Actually, no one lasts. At this point I don't even think the boys are themselves. They are so lost it's not funny. I like the first writer's idea of having the boys jump into hell together, taking Michael and Lucifer with them. It would have been the perfect poetic end. But all that masculine energy is now stained with a little feminine energy with Willow taking charge of Dorsey, so hopefully that balance will make something positive.

[dharma-slut.livejournal.com]

that's what fanfiction is for, fixing the canon's fucked up premises... at least that's what you're doing with it.

[shakatany.livejournal.com]

So Dorsey is now either Xander's minion or childe? Since Spike was wounded in the encounter did they give him blood so he could recover? Interesting that you created a 3-way universe that isn't the canon'verse of any of the three shows (as I was reading this I had a moment of what if - what if Xander ran into Airman Harris *g*). Looking forward to more.

Shakatany

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

Dorsey is Xander's childe. Xander had drained Dorsey to the point that he wouldn't have survived without an infusion of power, and Xander then shoved a lot of power back into Dorsey.

And I think this is closer to the SPN universe than anything, but I agree that I'm sort of off in left field on all these universes.

[chaoskir.livejournal.com]

How great! You brought my favorite characters in here! Great chapter! Thank you!

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

[hawk-soaring.livejournal.com]

Love this. So I have SG-1 and SPN to look forward to as well. Can't wait to see how you manage to integrate it all into one coherent whole. :)

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

There is more SG-1 for a few chapters, and then hopefully we'll get back to the SPN. I'm not sure how this turned into a three-way, but *shrug*

Late to the party, but glad to be here

[catservant66.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm. Hope this bunny takes steroids and inspires a burst. Can't wait to see what happens next!

Re: Late to the party, but glad to be here

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

I can feel the burst coming on. Either that or I've been writing so many random snippets that I have about three more chapters half done, so yes, I think a spurt might be coming. Although with work, spurt may mean one chapter a day. We'll see.

[zazreil.livejournal.com]

Ah things are looking up. I think Xander will be happy to have Spike tell him I told you so.

When is Jack and Dorsey going to realize the Xander mentioned the Sarcophagus? Of course they did know Xander read minds so maybe it wont alarm then anymore than they are already alarmed

Zaz

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

Xander just wants Spike back, even if Spike is in a truly bad mood, and Spike is going to have a reason to be in a bad mood.

And I think whatever weird thing Xander does, they'll put it down to mind reading.

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

Well, at least Xander one ally on his side. I don't know about Willow.

Oh! And I so look forward to him and Spike meeting again.

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

That ally might not want to be on Xander's side, but he is.

[seadragonlady.livejournal.com]

Spike is going to be beyond cranky me thinks. Loving this.

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

Oh hell yes.

[dustandroses.livejournal.com]

I feel kind of sorry for Dorsey. No one likes to be manipulated, and digging around in a man's brain is SO not cool. Not that I'm blaming Xander for doing what he needs to do to get the hell out of the mountain. I just hate to think that Dorsey may get left behind when they're through with him, and not understand what has happened to him. If he's a minion, it may not be as big of a deal. But if he's a childe, he's the first of the new monsters with which Xander is supposed to populate this world. According to Eve, anyway. This could be huge with the bad.

I'm looking forward to seeing Spike and Xander in a small cell together. This should be fun. NOT! Does Dorsey expect Spike to feed Xander the hamburgers and fries? Because I'm sure Spike would like to shove them somewhere, but I doubt very much it would be Xander's mouth at this point. *g*

And where did they get the Alexander Harris of this universe's DNA? Obviously they don't know where he is, or they wouldn't have let Willow go to some jail trying to find her Xander. Or hopefully they wouldn't. Who knows. I'm lost on that one.

Looking forward to the next chapter already!

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

Xander is bumbling through this, and unfortunately, Dorsey is not a minion. If you read the attack chapter, you'll see that Xander almost totally drained Dorsey before pushing energy back into him. And yeah, I don't think it's fair that Xander did that to him, but it wasn't fair for Eve to turn Xander. This universe is all kinds of unfair.

This universe's Xander Harris died in the earthquake, and we know others died at the same time, so it's likely that the authorities would have collected DNA from his apartment in order to identify any bodies they recovered. I figured that the SGC would have found a way to get ahold of it.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

A lot of confusion, for me, in this chapter.

Xander didn’t understand, but then the words drifted into his mind. “You have a sarcophagus. He read the guys thoughts? I totally missed this and had to go back to figure out how Xander new about sarcophagii (which I probably totally misspelled).

I like Dorsey.

Xander felt a flash of panic, and then a quick echo of confusion as Dorsey tried to figure out why the general would cause such alarm. Wait. Xander is still in Dorsey's head?

And he really hoped that Spike wasn’t too cranky about the fact that Xander had either made a minion or a childe. Um, is that Dorsey?