*****
Part 10:

"Hello Mother."

The words echoed through the room and in a single eyeblink everything was different.

When L-Sama had heard the words, she had rushed forward and was now holding her child in a tight embrace. It had been so long for her.

Angel, Wesley and Cordelia were starring at Xander in shock as he claimed the Ultimate Power of the universe to be his mother.

Ares was smiling indulgently, secretly hoping that he would be allowed to claim his own halfmortal children after the battle was over.

***

She was holding him in her arms, finally. L-Sama was happy. To be finally able to hold her child, her only child, it was something so wonderful she could not describe it. And yet she knew it would have to end soon. Her son had a destiny to fulfill and she still had to wake his friends and unite him with his mates. Reluctantly she released him from her arms.

"~You remember everything now, my Child.~"

Xander nodded. All the heartbreak of his former life, all the times with his friends and the loneliness after they were gone, L-Sama's offer and the feeling of safety as she had carried him inside her.

"What about my friends? Are they awake, too?"

She shook her head.

"~Not yet, Child.~"
"~We had hoped to have more time to prepare everyone.~"
"~But the Forces of Light and Darkness have chosen their hosts-bodies~"
"~quicker then we thought they would.~"
"~I'll wake up your friends in a moment.~"
"~They all are needed on the Field of Decision.~"

L-Sama stretched out the fingers of her right hand and ribbons of golden power started to float away, each of them searching for a specific soul and waking the small seedlings deeply buried in the subconscious, returning to them what had slept so long.

***

Angel screamed as his demon was unceremoniously kicked out of his body to make place for his true self. His mind was filled with dragons and wolves, with power and darkness and with memories of a life so long and strange that he couldn't really compare it to anything.

Then the pain was over and automatically his hand closed around his staff as he straightened up and looked around.

***

Responsibility was filling Wesley's brain. Responsibility had made him take the leadership of the clan, responsibility had lead to his death. And yet he wouldn't have done anything different. His body was changing, internally and externally. He knew that he now could take on an other form, his real form, but he didn't, this room was too small.

***

She had been a queen. A real queen. Living in a castle, having servants and everything. But that hadn't been important. Fashion hadn't been important and status hadn't been important, just the continued happiness of her people. Cordelia realized that her old self was a lot more mature then her now self and yet she couldn't help but grin a silly little grin. She had been a queen, wow!

***

Giles had been talking to Spike when the golden light hit them both. He had been worried when the chipped vampire claimed that the Slayer was running around in Sunnydale with weird glowing eyes.

But nothing like that mattered anymore, when the memories of not one, not two, but three different past incarnations reasserted themselves into his brain. Three different existences with one and the same body. A body he felt returning to him.

***

Spike was not very happy. First the wanker's of the Initiative had taken his bite and now the Slayer was running around like she wanted to personally ring in the apocalypse. Hell, her eyes had scared him silly and he wasn't one to be frightened easily.

Then the light hit him and he suddenly was awash with strange memories. She was a temperamental girl, always carrying a mace with her to hit people that annoyed her. Filia, that was her name and she liked tea, pottery and weapons... and she was a dragon. A real dragon. Spike looked up just in time to see Giles change into someone else. Someone she knew. Her foster son, last of the Ancient dragons. Then the light released Spike.

The first thing he noticed was that he couldn't feel his demon anymore. The second thing made him completely forget about the first one: he wasn't a he anymore, he was a she!

Spike screamed.

***

Oz winced silently as he was dumped unceremoniously on his behind. He looked around and found himself in an only all to familiar graveyard. Somehow he had gotten back to Sunnydale, but how? Did Willow do a spell to bring him back? He doubted it.

His doubts were forgotten when the light surrounded him. Memories of a rather childlike character filled him. A man-child, not very bright and yet the best swordfighter on the entire planet. One who had been traveling with a redhead for a long time before he had settled down and married his one true love.

"Sylphiel," he whispered as the light vanished again.

***

Something had to be wrong with Willow. Tara was worried for her new friend. They had met regularly for the last few weeks and Willow had been always on time. But not today. Actually she couldn't remember seeing the redhead the entire day and she should have, they had classes together and Willow never missed a class.

All the thoughts and worries were forgotten when the light came. The light that woke the memories of a shrine maiden and healer priestess. Shy, unselfish and so in love.

Tara barely noticed the grow-spurt she just had had or the fact that her hair was now of a bluish black. All she knew was that her love was somewhere close and waiting for her and she couldn't let him wait any longer.

***

The taint in her powercenter was vibrating. Something was happening. Then the power was there, power of the same energy that tainted her. It was invading her, changing her, rebuilding her body and mind. She remembered all the foolhardy things she had done, all the enemies she had beaten. And her death, the coward that had stabbed her from behind.

Had Willow been angry before, now she was livid. And now being able to control her powers, she set into tearing down the Initiative piece by piece. First she unlocked the holding cells, releasing all the captured demons, then she started chasing the idiots that had brought her here, Fireballs crackling in her hands. Nobody, absolutely nobody could lock down the poster child for chaos and destruction!

*****
Part 11:

Xander watched, half excited, half worried, as L-Sama's power reawoke the sleeping parts hidden deep in his friends souls. He was excited, because he knew the beings that were sleeping inside them, had called them friends in another life and yet he was worried, because he remembered only all to well how he had felt when his body had been forced into a new/old form and his mind had been swamped with memories of another life. Now his friends would have to work through the same changes. But he would be there for them, he would help them and then he wouldn't feel so alone anymore.

Angel was groaning and his attention was drawn back to his changing friends. He watched them carefully. Outwardly Angel wasn't changing much, but Xander knew this to be a lie because of his astral senses. To them Angel was changing rapidly. Changing into someone very familiar. When his hair grew down to his chin and changed color to a purplish black, when Angel's hand closed around a very familiar staff, Xander knew. And wasn't it funny that sleeping in Angel's soul had been one of the most feared mazoku of his previous life, one that could make Angelus appear like a cute fuzzy kitten. Xellos, general and high priest of the Dark Lord Xellas, the Greater Beast. And even while he had been rather annoying and downright dangerous sometimes, he had been one of his best friends later on, because he knew about the loneliness an extended life could bring with it.

From Angel, his eyes wandered to Wesley. And like Angel, he immediately recognized the old friend within him. Tall standing, with an aura of power and responsibility, with long blond hair and broad shoulders, Xander remembered the Dragon Lord in an instant. Milgazia, ruler of the Golden Dragons of Dragon Peak, protector of the Clair Bible and loyal friend. Other memories tried to push to the fore, but with remembered ease he pushed them back. Xellos and Milgazia, he had wanted to be more than a friend to them, but he had never dared, had never tried, too afraid he would even lose their friendship. It figured that it had happened in this life, too. Only this time he had been the annoying one and Angel/Xellos the silent broody type.

Still musing about the strange ways of fate he looked towards Cordelia. He was surprised by the fact that he wasn't really surprised. Cordy had always been a queen, well a spoiled princess sometimes, but if she was like anything as the Amelia of his old life, she would become a good and regal queen in her own time.

He turned around to L-Sama, who was standing beside Ares now.

"The others..., are they...?"

"Your other friends are on the place of battle. They are in Sunnydale, waiting for you." Ares answered his question. "But before you can go back to Sunnydale, there is something that must be done first." Ares stood up, walked towards him until he was only one or two feet away. "You have to stop hiding your feelings and join with your mates."

"Mates?" Xander asked confused.

"Yes, mates. Death incarnate and Life incarnate. The two opposite forces that will balance *you*, so you can balance everything else."

"Oh..." Xander managed to reply. He was stunned. Mates? Two of them? But who would want to be mated to him? Deep inside he knew this was the experience of his old life, making him so glum and depressive, but he couldn't help it. He *had* been a freak, an unlovable, unsocial and rather lonely chimera and before he had been turned back into this freaky existence, his time as a mortal boy hadn't been rather happy. His parents had hated him, he had been a looser at school and the experience he had with girls were not so nice. Let's face it, he thought angrily to himself, no matter what you are, you are still the one at the sidelines, the one who will never be loved back.

He stiffened and his head hung low as he came to this conclusion.

***

Angel was feeling strange, really strange. The changes in his body, the loss of his demon and the new/old memories assaulting him, it all left him wishing for some quiet time to figure it all out, but he knew he didn't have those time. Not yet anyway. His new senses could feel something big building up in the direction of Sunnydale. Something that had to be stopped.

Something Xander had to stop.

His thoughts abruptly changed towards Xander. His secret obsession. During his last life, when he had been the beast priest, his master hadn't given him the permission to take a mate. Quick fucks, yes, but no serious relationships had been allowed. And he had wanted the chimera to be more than a quick sexual adventure. He had wanted him to be *his*. Mind, body and soul, he had wanted him, but it wasn't meant to be as he had died, leaving Zelgadis/Xander completely alone.

Then, when he had met the boy in this life, he had been drawn to him like a moth to a flame. His joy and happiness had attracted him, but it didn't remain at that. The more he learned about the boy, the more he had wanted him. Even when he had lost his soul, when he had been the now banished Angelus, he hadn't killed him when he had had the opportunity. No, that hadn't been his plan, would have been too easy. He had wanted him in his twisted, demonic way.

A wave of misery washed over him, not his, but Xander's. It was strange to feel peoples emotions again, strange to feed of the negative emotions. He remembered doing it, but that had been in an other life, another time. The misery became stronger and he shuddered. No matter how good it tasted, he never wanted to feel that from Xander again.

He had to do something about it.

***

She watched, pleased as one of the mates decided to act on his feelings.

Now she only had to give the other one a tiny nudge and then her child would never be alone again.

*****
Part 12:

Wesley's head was swimming with information. Milgazia, he had been Milgazia, a golden dragon. Not only a dragon, but the leader of his clan. One of the few survivors of the attack of the Greater Beast's general. And now he was Wesley, ex-watcher and co-worker of Angel, Angel who obviously had harbored the essence of the mazoku that had nearly wiped out the golden dragons single-handly. He didn't know if he should laugh or cry, this sounded so insane, yet was the truth. And from the way things appeared, it looked like Angel was one of Xander's mates. This was so unfair. In his last life, the laws of the dragons had kept him from the chimera and now it looked like he would loose to Angel in this life.

Wesley sighed and watched the scene unfolding before his eyes.

***

Somebody was touching him. Touching him, gently, like a caress. Surprised Xander looked up, straight into the normally closed eyes of the mazoku. Demon eyes met demon eyes and he couldn't really believe what he read in the eyes of the other. Xellos was, well he was Xellos, eternal trickster, keeper of secrets and mysterious priest. And in this life, as Angel, he had the complete star-crossed lovers thing with Buffy going... a small part of him wondered if Buffy had harbored one of his friends as well, but he couldn't really think about that now. Not when Angel was touching his face like this. It felt like... like... he couldn't compare it to anything, it felt better than anything else. Long, slender finger ghosted over his face, caressing the stones around his eyes and at his jawline. He shivered and leaned into the touch, wanting to feel as much as he could get.

"You know," Angel was so close to him, that the air of his words tickled Xander's sensitive ears, "in my last life, Xellas, Greater Beast-sama had forbidden me to take a mate. She wanted all my attention concentrated on the work I was doing for her. I saw you. I wanted you. Yow were so young, so unique. So full of life and spirit, yet you always his it beyond a mask of indifference. I could feel it, you know. I could feel your feelings, your emotions. For the longest time I watched you. And I wanted you. So badly I could taste it. But I wanted you for more than was allowed to me. I wanted you as my life-mate, my bonded one."

He was standing behind Xander now, one hand caressing the tip of one pointed ear, the other was possessively wrapped around his waist.

"I knew, sooner or later she would allow me to take a mate, I was waiting for her to do so. Waiting and watching you. Then finally, she said I could take a mate after the war. You know which war I mean. The second big one. The second Kouma war. I don't know what killed me, yet I lost my life on the battlefield, so close to my personal goal, but I left you behind. Unclaimed. Then, when I met you in this life, you were so young and I believed that I had no right in seducing you. I had been evil for so long and felt like I would taint everything I touched. No, I didn't deserved you. So I took up with the Slayer. And I lost my soul and my demon had gone completely insane. You know, I went over the entire curse afterwards, after my return from Hell. True Happiness, as the gypsies meant it, was to sleep with a virgin woman."

Angel shrugged and Xander could feel the movement through the hug.

"What can I say, the curse was obviously made by gypsy men, otherwise I would have lost my soul the moment I realized I was back from Hell, that was a true moment of happiness for me. By then I thought you hated me and so I finally decided to leave."

The arms around Xander hugged him closer to Angel's frame.

"But now I can feel you and I don't feel hate. Just longing and need and despair. But there is no need for despair. I want you, have wanted you for a very long time."

Xander was turned around so that he now faced the ex-vampire. One gloved finger was outlining the shape of his lips.

"You know, I always wondered, what your kisses would taste like. And now I'm myself again and I am free of Greater Beast-sama. Free to love you."

And Angel lowered his head to kiss the chimeric youth.

Tendrils of multicolored light appeared around them, wrapping them in a cocoon of light and power and Xellos' staff, floating half-forgotten behind his owner, started to shake. Then a three foot long scythe blade shoot out of the red jewel that was topping his staff.

"~Behold of the Power~"

L-Sama declared dramatically.

"~Behold of the Power of Death Incarnate~"

*****
Part 13:

Angel shivered as the multi-colored energy coursed through him, changing him anew and binding him to his life-mate. It felt good, powerful, strange yet familiar. Like he had felt something like it before. And then he noticed that both Xander and Wesley were emitting small amounts of power with similar energy patterns. When he turned to L-Sama to ask her about those patterns, he received his biggest shock. The Golden Chaos was emitting power on a level so high and with a pattern, so complex that he felt it was beyond his comprehension. The War God, standing next to her, was emitting power on a level similar to his own and with a similar pattern. Patterns, that looked like simplified versions of L-Sama's complex one. His legs almost gave out as he made the connection.

"You are... I... the pattern..." he managed to gasp out.

"~Your observation is correct, young one~"
"~You are a power now~"
"~Like Ares is and Wesley will be~"

"What?!" Wesley felt faint. He couldn't have heard this correctly. It was impossible.

"~You have heard this right, young Wesley~"
"~As Angel here is Death Incarnate~"
"~You are his Opposite~"
"~Life Incarnate~"
"~For Death without Life is only Destruction~"
"~And Life without Death is Stagnation~"
"~Both need the other to balance themselves~"
"~And both are needed to balance my Child~"

Her open hand pointed towards Xander, who was still half-embraced by Angel.

"Xander?" Wesley asked half in shock. He was meant to be the second mate to Xander! He was going to have him! Even if he had to share with Angel, but that wasn't such a hardship. The dark ex-vampire was someone he could learn to love rather easily. But back to the topic at hands.

"Is Xander a power, too?"

"~Yes and No~"
"~He is my Child~"
"~Born out of me~"
"~Flesh of my flesh~"
"~Soul of my soul~"
"~He is a new being~"
"~Something that had never existed before~"

L-Sama stopped, paused for a moment before she continued.

"~Everything that is, comes through me~"
"~The Powers, the Planets, Suns, everything~"
"~I am Chaos~"
"~I am everything~"
"~There were only two states of being~"
"~Chaos and Not-Chaos~"
"~Nothing in between~"
"~Whenever both states met, there were violent clashes~"

"~Alexander~"
"~My Child~"
"~He is meant to be the In-Between~"
"~Balanced by two opposite Powers~"
"~Balancing everything~"
"~But this has to be his choice~"

Now she looked square at her Child.

"~On the field of battle~"
"~The Site of Light and the Site of Darkness will approach you~"
"~Both will justify their Existence and ask you to join their fight~"
"~I can help you with your decision~"
"~That has to be your own~"
"~But either way it will influence the Existence of Everything~"

She fell silent, stepped forward and hugged Xander close to her. To her finger, his hair was soft and his skin not as dense as it felt to the fingers of his soon-to-be lovers. L-Sama could feel his mind whirling and she could also feel memories of old hurts and abandonment's trying to dig through his mental walls, to influence his final decision. But as she had said, she couldn't help him with that, it had to be his own choice.

"~Don't plague yourself with what might have been~"
"~Or what might will come in the future~"
"~Release your thoughts from the endless circle~"
"~Join with your second mate~"
"~Embrace your destiny~"
"~No matter what will happen~"
"~I am already proud of you~"

She smiled as she nudged a suddenly very shy Wes towards him and as the multi-colored energy bound Life to Balance and Death and Wesley received his staff, formed like an Egyptian Ankh, she started to fade from their view. It hurt her a little to go now, but she was Chaos and if she stayed on the mortal plane for too long, she would cause great imbalances in the powerflow.

"~I will see you again, Child~"

She whispered before she unraveled into fast vanishing bands of gold.

***

Xander was a bit dazed. First the joining with Angel as his life-mate, then his mother's revelations and the joining with Wesley as his other life-mate... it was all a bit sudden. But all this was forgotten the moment the connections to his mate had fully formed. It was the moment when something inside of him stated to bubble and boil. Something very powerful. At first he fought against it, tried to suppress it deep inside of him, but the force was too strong to be put away and too violent to simply let loose. What to do?

Carefully his let a small drizzle of the power raise to the surface of his being and then infused it into the links to his mates. Slowly, but steadily he raised the level of the power until the bubbling inside him died down.

When he opened his eyes, the world around him had changes... or was it him, who had changed so much? He didn't know and for the moment he didn't really cared. The way it was now felt right to him and he knew that no matter what was coming next, he wouldn't face it alone. His being vibrated with the mental connections of two others who couldn't be any more different, but exactly their differences made them perfect for him. For the first time in two lifes he felt whole and so alive.

Ares stepped to them.

"You are in balance now. I really hope you can put an end to that battle, it is the only war that really shouldn't happen, with the End of All and so on. Well, are you ready? ... Here we go!"

The room was brightened by a blue flash of light and when it dissolved, Angels living room was empty.

*****
Part 14:

She wondered where it had all gone wrong. One moment she was sitting in her office, reviewing the files of the civilian demonhunters, the next one the alarm klaxons in the entire base had started to howl and the earth was shaking. The base was under attack and she couldn't figure out why, how or even who it was that was attacking.

Prof. Walsh was not having a good time as she watched her best soldiers running around like headless chickens. Someone had opened all the cages and now the hostiles were free to do whatever they wanted to do. Some of them where hunting the personnel from the Initiative, wanting to take their revenge, others simply wanted to flee, making the chaos even worse.

And still she had no idea who had done it... and how.

A shrill scream disrupted her train of thought and when she looked into the direction where the scream had been issued, she paled to a ghostly white as she witnessed a huge, furred and horned hostile eating one of the Initiative's scientist... alive.

At this moment she realized that she wasn't safe in this building anymore. The cages were open, her men helpless and dramatically outnumbered and none of these hostiles had yet been chipped. The only hostile that had been chipped had escaped and afterwards she'd into recapturing him and into finding and capturing the blue hostile.

Now here she was and all of her hard work had been for nothing, had it? Of course! Why hadn't she thought about this sooner? Even if he wasn't really finished yet and not even close to perfect, A.D.A.M. would protect her. With quick steps she rushed to the door to room 314 and the few seconds the system needed to identify seemed like hours to her as she saw several hostiles coming into her direction.

The door opened with its characteristic hiss and she slammed it shut after her. Then she released a shuddering breath of release. Safe, she was safe here. She opened her eyes.

The feeling of safety abruptly left her as she starred at her own creation that was looking back at her with red glowing eyes.

***

Spike was not happy. You could say he was downright and bloody pissed. At the world at all and specially at the tosser that had done this to him. Whoever that was.

Angrily he started to rub his head, only to encounter the longish blond hair that grew there now instead of his normal short and bleached one. He nearly had another fit. He, what a lie! He, Spike, Bad ass, Master vamp and Slayer of Slayers, he was a bloody she!! A FEMALE. Spike could feel the back of his dress moving and nearly screamed in frustration. Not only was he a she now, no he was a bloody nonhuman, nonvamp, tailpopping dragon-she!

The memories of a past life tried to bubble up inside of him, but he suppressed them ruthless. He was the only one in his head, even if it was a female head. This body was his and he wouldn't tolerate any intruders!

Then he felt it, a tugging feeling. Something was urging him to go to a special place, something would happen there. He was needed there.

Spike wasn't one for long outdrawn plans. He shrugged and went into the direction the tugging feeling lead him.

***

He was Giles, Rupert Giles. He had to remind himself of that fact. His name was Giles, not Val Agares, not Valgaav, not Valtira. And yet he couldn't deny the fact that in the seconds or hours he had been in the golden light, his body had changed. But still, his name was Rupert Giles, he had been a watcher for the last 24 years. He couldn't be an ancient dragon. He simply couldn't.

Buried in his mental mantra, he never noticed that he had stopped to wander around randomly and was now walking straight into one direction. Always hanging on one single thought, that he was Giles, Rupert Giles.

***

Oz was happy. He was home, where he needed to be and he was with his love, his true love.

On one level Oz knew he had never seen the girl before and he had no real idea why she was the One for him and yet the memories of a life he had lived before where rather clear in that point. Sylphiel and he had lived together, happily married until he died in his old age. And now they where here, in this new life, with two different sets of memories. He wasn't the one he had been in his other life. Gourry had been rather simple and childlike until it came to swordfighting. He had been the best swordfighter on the planet. Now he wasn't dumb like in his last live, only a bit lazy sometimes. And still madly in love with the beautiful girl in his arms.

A flash of light interrupted his thinking. When his eyes had cleared he saw several people standing not too far away. They looked familiar, yet he couldn't really place them.

The blue guy stepped for. "Oz, Tara. You are here!" He said with Xander's voice.

"They are all coming." Another man stepped to him. "They are drawn to this place, the battle will be here."

What battle, Oz thought, before the arrival of a blond and seriously angry woman captured his attention. There was something about her that was disturbingly familiar.

The blonde stormed right to the man with the closed eyes and the scythe.

"I should have known that you were involved in this you bloody wanker!" She screamed in his face while swinging a mace. "It wasn't enough what the wankers at the Initiative did to me, but no you had to add your own fan-fucking-tastic touch!"

Xander gasped at her in shock.

"Spike?"

***

Willow felt something was needing to be done. Inside her, power was welling up and she closed her eyes... and released it.

*****
Part 15:

The ground started to shake as huge amounts of power were forced into the earth and bedrock. Inside the corridors and rooms that made out the Initiative, everything was going to hell.

Gaia watched silently as the young redhead pushed more and more power into the ground, reshaping the bowels of earth at the necessary points. She didn't like having others playing with the physical manifestation of her, far too often humans had damaged her in the past, but in this case, she was silently helping the child, mentally guiding her spirit and wordlessly pointing out the places where the redhead needed to push.

Slowly the earth opened, like a budding flower, releasing the underground section of the Initiative, spitting it out like something very foul. When the last of the complex had been ejected, the ground slammed shut again, smoothed over as if all this had never happened.

Gaia sighed. Her work was done here for the moment. She would come back later, if there was a later, to repair the damage of the surface and of the cave system she had so lovingly designed so long ago.

***

She stood in front of the newly unearthed complex, her eyes glowing silverwhite and she was smiling. Inside was the other, the one she had to fight, her opposite. And he was coming, she could feel it.

***

Spike was about to rip into his sire when the ground started to shake. With wide eyes they watched as the formerly hidden Initiative complex arose from the earth to rest in the open.

"It's about to start," The man who had introduced himself as Ares said.

"What? What the fucking hell is going on here?" Spike screamed in frustration.

Ares sighed, but it was Xander who answered his question.

"They say it is the final meeting, the ultimate battle between Good and Evil."

Spike opened his mouth, but it seemed all words had left him for he stood there speechless and rather silly looking with his jaw almost on the floor.

***

He ignored the woman, huddled in a corner in his room, she was unimportant. The only thing that mattered was that he was finally free. Free to meet his other, free to battle and to win.

And A.D.A.M. stepped out of the door.

***

They could feel it, the coming of two opposite forces. It burned in their blood, wormed its way through their scalps, itched on their skin and made their hearts race.

Then the first of the two vessels appeared on the battleground and those who knew her couldn't help but gasp at the changes in the slayer.

Her eyes were glowing solid white and a misty nimbus of manifested power surrounded her, forming the shape of a ghostly dragon. Buffy's face was completely devoid of emotions and looked like craved out of ice. Her fingers ended in sharp talons now and on her back were two bat-like wings in the same gleaming white as the nimbus around her.

And she had a tail.

The sound of someone opening a door made them turn around and they saw the second power set foot on the battleplace. None of them knew him or had seen him before, they would have remembered.

He looked like a wild mixture of human, demon and cyborg and his eyes were a solid red. The nimbus around him, of a ghostly red color, was forming a dragon as well. None of them knew if his tail, wings and talons were part of the alteration by the power that had invaded him or naturally his.

He stepped forwards. "\The time had come/"

Buffy met him in the middle of the field. "/This will end today.\"

And without further words both opponents lashed out at each other.

***

Xander knew he should do something. If his mother was right, then he was born, created to stop this from happening. But how?

The backlash of the power created by the fighting of the two hit him and he knew he had do something quickly for the world wasn't meant to take blows of that kind of power.

Xander stepped forwards.

Both opponents turned towards him.

"/Greetings, Child of the Golden One.\" The White power said formally.

"\We've awaited your appearance./" The Red power said no less formally.

"/We knew, no matter how long we fight,\"
"/The battle will be decided,\"
"/By the decision of the Chaos Child.\"

"\You have to make the choice/"
"\Between the two of us/"
"\Which one of us shall perish/"
"\And which shall prosper./"

"\Chose me,/" the White power said,
"\For I am the Goodness of the World./"
"\Chose me and I will wipe out everything Evil and Foul./"
"\Chose me and the World will be without pain and darkness./"

"/No, chose me,\" the Red power said,
"/Because, while I'm the Darkness, I'm pushing forward Evolution.\"
"/Without me, there will be only stagnation.\"
"/Without me, no one would learn.\"

Both forces gave each other the evil eye and then turned back to Xander.

"/\The Time has Come./\" The said together.
"/\The Time to choose./\"
"/\Make your Choice, Child of Chaos,/\"
"/\Lord of Destiny/\"
"/\Worldchanger/\"

And Xander stood there.

******
Part 16:

His thoughts raced. What could he do, which decision was the right one? With a look of utter helplessness Xander turned to his friends. They were all here. Tara, who once had been Sylphiel and Oz, the reborn Gourry Gabriev. Willow, the calmer form of Lina Inverse, but as powerful and sometimes as impulsive as her former self. Spike, who didn't look very happy to be returned to Filias body and Giles, the Ancient dragon Valtira, foster son of Filia and last of the race of the Ancient dragons. A role, very fitting for the rebellious ex-watcher. Xander's eyes wandered onwards, to his mates, standing side by side, each with the symbol of their office and holding hands.

Of course! The relevation hit Xander like a bolt of lightning. No life without death, no death without life. Now he knew what he had to do.

He turned towards the waiting opponents.

"I have made my decision."

"/\We are listening, Child of Chaos./\"

"I choose neither of you and both."

"/\That is not possible./\"
"/\One of us has to perish, so the other can prosper./\"

"You are wrong. Both of you need the other to survive. If one of you dies, so does the other. See, every yes is also a no, every light creates shadows, every good thing for one, is a bad thing for another, every end is a beginning of something new."

Xander pointed at his lifemates.

"Look at them. One is Death, the other is Life. Without Death Life would be meaningless and become stagnate and without Life Death would become oblivious. Both complete the other in an endless circle of Life, Death and Rebirth."

He stooped and took a deep breath before he continued.

"Look at yourself, at your real forms. The color might be different, yet both of you manifest as the same creature. That is because you are the same being, just different sides of the coin."

"I am Xander, reborn Zelgadiss and Child of Chaos. I balance my mates and now I will balance you."

With knowledge he didn't knew he possessed, he reached out towards the two and removed them from their host-shells. Their power surged and he almost dropped to his knees as he let it flew through him, searching for the point of balance. The earth shook ominously and thunder rolled like the heavens itself were ripped open.

***

"Shit!" Ares cursed as his powers violently flared alive. Whatever Xander was doing, it was like a war and every war fed his godhood. With his senses he could feel mircofractures in the fabric of reality and if he didn't do anything to stop them, there would be no reality left for Xander to continue his work.

He reached out with his entire power, holding onto the fabric of reality with all his might and at the same time calling out to every other deity he knew. And they came, each and everyone knowing that the entire existence of the multiverse was in danger and so they put aside their petty squabbles and helped as best as they could.

***

It felt like something inside was trying to burst through his skull while something else was attempting to squeeze his head into a bloody pulp. Unimaginable forces were tearing at him, trying to rip him apart. Yet he couldn't let it influence him. Currents of Light and Darkness were running through his veins and danced through his head. If his new/old body had been able to sweat, he would have drenched the earth with torrents of water, but since he was unable to do so, his painful clenched facial muscles were the only outward sign of his distress.

Light and Dark, Good and Evil danced through him, shifting, merging and then breaking apart again.

Somewhere there had to be a point of balance, a place where they balanced each other.

And his search continued.

***

More and more gods and goddesses appeared, each clinging to the fabric of everything, trying to hold it together until the new balance had been found.

The hundred-armed Kali, Goddess of War and Destruction was there, just like the Japanese God of Death Shinigami, the Norse God of Light Balder, Ometeotl, dual Creator deity of the Azteks and the Earthdragon Tiamat and thousand others that the watcher recognized and could name. They all where here, working together, to hold reality together until Xander was finished with his work.

***

He had, had to leave his body to balance them.

Xander knew how to do it, yet he was a little bit afraid. What if he didn't find his way back? On the other side, if he didn't find the balance soon, he wouldn't have to worry about something like that anymore.

Like a butterfly out of its cocoon he slipped out of his body to finish his work.

***

His friends watched worried as his body crumpled to the ground. A bluish mist rose from his still form to solidify into the most beautiful dragon they had ever seen.

Tendrils of white and red surrounded the dragon and it looked like he was weaving them into a pattern so complex that even the gods couldn't understand it.

Then suddenly the dragon roared and the weavings disappeared in a flash. The earth stopped shaking and the night cleared. The fractures in the fabric of time and space knitted themselves back together and after a long pause, the gods disappeared in the same manner they had come.

Finally there were only those left that had entered the field first.

Wesley and Angel rushed to their fallen lifemate. Angel could feel that he wasn't dead, Wesley felt his strong lifeforce, but he wasn't moving.

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