New Divide

Title: water

Author: MerKat

Fandom: SGA/BTVS

Pairing: John/Rodney Ronon/? Tayla/Kanaan

Summary: It’s Hell on Earth. General Xander has seen many bad things and knows that as long as things keep happening the way they are blood will not stop spilling. Willow can fix it after all these years of suffering, there’s only one catch a sacrifice is needed. It’s Earth or his life.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything within the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer or Stargate universes. I plan for there to be same sex romance within the story. If you do not wish to be exposed to that kindly move on to another story. I apologize a head of time for any spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes.
Hyena speak in Xander’s head {. . .}
Soldier speak in Xander’s head [ . . . ]
Fish speak in Xander’s head < . . .>
Anyone’s mental speak ‘. . .’

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As the days poured into weeks and summer started leaning heavily into fall Xander fell into a routine. Life was now all about the basics for him. Food, shelter, water, and sleep, and as it got colder and closer to winter, warmth. Since Xander was now living off of the land he was losing the round softness in his face and his curly hair grew down to his shoulders he was starting to look like a scrappy little waif. Walking on his little patch of sand Xander shed his clothes and slipped into the cool water of the creek. The small gills on Xander’s ribs barely moved but functioned fine for short swims. Although his skin was more resistant to water logging, his teeth were sharp and jaw strong, had a second set of eyelids to protect them from salt and debris, and could stay under water for a good hour at most, Xander could never see himself living in the water. But a small part of him still yearned for the deep currents, the thrill of snatching up prey among the waves, the peace away from land. Xander cursed genetic memory and the instincts of the mermaid. Diving under the water Xander moved like a fish and let those instincts take over. He darted back and forth in the deep parts of the water for over fifteen minutes without surfacing. Magical upgrades were useful at times. He lost himself in the physical motions and in old memories.

~ “Willow . . . I don’t know about this.” Xander shook his head as he watched the redhead pour powders into bowls and liquids into a boiling pot.

Willow gave Xander a half crazed look. “Xander people are dying! We can’t keep ourselves holed up with our little army of slayers like scared chickens while the demons win and hurt people.”

Xander bit at his lip, they were hardly chickens. “But magical upgrades, Will? Magic has a price, more so now that it’s all tainted and dark and twisty.” Xander brushed a battered hand over Willow’s cheek where black veins were just starting to form. “How are your eyes? Can you still see ok?” The thought of his Willow tree going blind with magical poisoning scared Xander bone deep and made him shiver with a cold that could not be warmed.

Willow shrugged off Xander touch and blinked her watery green eyes. “I can still see. I use my own inner power mostly. I only call on the Earth or another power for big stuff like strengthening the wards that connect the safe houses.”

“Andrew is supposed to transfer to this safe house with a small group of slayers. He’ll be here tomorrow.” Xander said hoping to cheer up the wilting witch.

“Four slayers, two watchers, a witch, and six survivors. You and I both know they might not make it here from across town. Cleveland is not that big of a place since the hellmouth exploded but it’s still a lot of distance for them to cover. They could be torn apart like Vi’s group was.”

Xander closed his eyes in pain. Eight slayers mauled and ripped apart just a street corner away from the safe house. Their frightened cries still echoed in Xander’s dreams and the sight of body parts flying like confetti still made him gag. “We’re smarter now Willow. We have look-out spells, holy weapons blessed by priests, and when the angels are about we go under ground.”

“We’re smarter now?” Willow shook her head as she started adding things to the pot and started chanting. Xander watched the black veins on her cheekbones move like little worms under her smooth skin and closer to her eyes. Willow blinked her watering eyes as the brew began to glow. “I’m not going to force anyone to drink my upgrade potion but I did tell people it might help them survive. Everyone has something in them that makes them special or just a little different Xander, every edge we get can help us.”

Xander looked at Willow a little lost. “Will . . . it’s only been a month. You don’t talk about Buffy or the others and now for the past week you haven’t talked about stopping this!” Xander pulled open a window blind to show a burning sky with winged demons gliding in the air and standing by their window and at the edge of their wards a zombie that looked more like grounded beef then the woman it once was. She moaned and extended a bloody stump that was once a hand out to them, her milky blue eyes pleading. “Oh, god! Is that one of your apprentice witches? Why is she out there? Why is she dead?” Xander asked in a freaked out voice.

Willow looked outside her eyes dark and a little sad. “She went mad and tried to kill everyone, I blasted her. She was one of the main witches holding up our defenses, very little of her own power but had a strong pull on the Earth. I think madness and a killing rage is the final stage to what I’m calling witch madness. It’s real scary.” Willow picked up a magic book and started flipping through the pages till she got to the one she wanted.

Xander snapped the blind closed and looked at Willow with big eyes. “And you want to do a big spell on anyone who would participate?! How much magic would it take? It could hurt you a lot!”

Willow slammed the book and threw it across the room. “I’ll be fine! I’m going to use my power and some from Hecate. Earth magic will hardly be involved.”

“The key word is hardly here Willow. Magic is hurting you and the dozen witches learning from you!”

Willow grabbed Xander’s arm, his injured arm, a deep laceration that went right to the bone. Xander hissed as Willow squeezed and barely stopped himself from passing out. “You got that when you left the safe house to find survivors. If the demon had been interested in killing or maiming you then this arm would be gone! Instead the demon wanted to rape you! It almost did!” Willow growled as she let his arm go so she could stir her bubbling brew.

Xander cradled his arm to him as he looked at his dearest friend and only family over. “Is that what this is about Willow? THAT incident? The demon’s dead. Kimberly got him. You know the Xena-wannabe slayer that loves leather and swords. He’s dead and I’ll be more careful next time I leave the safe house. Promise.” Xander touched her slender back making Willow twitch.

“It was luck that saved you . . . you’re my only family left Xander. If you die I don’t know what I’ll do . . . I might do something bad, real bad . . . I need stronger people out there with you when I can’t be there. I wish you would just stay safe but I know you . . . You can’t help but help people. With my upgrade spell some of the people here will be able to defend themselves better. Some have a bit of demon blood and others are hellmouth tainted like you, Xander. T-this could help you too.” Willow looked at Xander hopefully. “I know there are traces of the primal and the soldier memories in you. This spell can make um stronger, make you stronger.”

Xander stepped back and away from Willow. “You could bring out some bad things in people Willow. My hyena wanted to EAT people; I ate a pig, tried to rape Buffy, and tried to hurt you. The primal was bad news.”

Willow looked at Xander with wet pleading eyes as she held out her now finished potion. “Not the way I’m bringing them out. Their purpose and function will be keeping you alive and helping you, Xander. I studied and looked over my work with a fine toothed comb. It will work. Their purpose would be to help everyone survive.” She handed Xander a small glass bottle with sizzling blue liquid inside. “Drink it.”

“Willow . . .”

“Please Xander.” Her eyes filled up with big fat tears he could not refuse.

Xander sighed and tipped the bottle back into his mouth. The liquid felt cold as ice but bubbled on his tongue as he swallowed. “It taste like grape juice.” The cold grew inside Xander’s stomach felt like he was slowly freezing from the inside out; it got so cold it started to feel hot like a burning coal. Xander moaned with discomfort as he slowly slid to the dirty floor.

Willow followed him to the floor and held his head in her lap as he twisted with pain. “Shhh. Xander it’s ok. Don’t fight it. The potion needs to work through your body, don’t fight it. It will be over soon.”

Xander blacked out to the feel of Willow carding her fingers through his hair and chanting a spell that made the potion in his blood feel like monsters clawing his insides.

It could have been minutes or hours but Xander awoke with a pounding headache and a very dry mouth. Willow smiled at Xander from her spot on the floor by him. “It worked. Your eyes have the hyena green under the brown!” Willow lifted Xander’s hand up to show him thicker slightly pointed nails. “The primal even shows physically. Look! They’re real sharp when they come out.”

Xander breathed deeply as he looked at his thicker nails only to feel something flutter under his shirt. He jumped right up off the floor and pulled at his shirt. “That’s not all.” Xander brushed his finger over delicate flaps of skin and lifted one to show healthy red gills. “Oh, damn. I got mermaid bits.” Xander was about to panic and maybe do a little ‘See what you did!’ to Willow when voices started whispering in the back of his head.
Water splashed and the ocean rolled. Whispers of water and freedom, of the deep and the hunt, flowed into him. He shivered.

[I’m here for you, Sir. Whatever you need.] The sound of a riffle being racked echoed and he could feel the weight of the gun, smell the gun oil. Memories of mud, blood, and gun fire washed over him like a thick fog. He KNEW he could fight and it felt like a blanket of confidence placed on his shoulders.

{We are pack, I protect pack. Protect mine.}The smell of dirt, blood, and heat hit Xander’s nose like a sledgehammer. The feel of grass under padded paws, strong legs powering through vast open land sent a thrill through him. A yippy laugh sounded and echoed deep in his soul.

Xander was no longer alone in his head. ~

Willow had done her spell for twenty four people, twenty five including Xander, and in doing so she lost her sight. She lost her sight but strengthened their base by adding six shifters, three primal cats, ten people with demon like traits, and five people with warrior memories. Some gained more then one trait like shifting abilities and past memories and others more then one type of demon trait. Two people out of the spelled group couldn’t function with the changes, a girl who gained demon blood lust and taste for human flesh had to be put down and an older man who had so many past lives downloaded into him he went catatonic. And Xander turned into hyena/fish-boy with vast military background.

Xander took one more speeding lap under water then surfaced with a splash. In his head Xander’s inner fish-boy was happy as a clam and calm. It was rare that Xander’s inner cold blooded shark man was happy since most of the time the creature thought everything but water and food and Xander is unimportant. Swimming to the bank Xander got out of the water to feed his dying fire.

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In the sky thunder sounded and clouds churned as they darkened in color. A big storm was starting. In an instant the land went from dry to wet as rain started pouring heavy from the clouds. Xander backed up toward his cave home as the icy sheets of rain pounded the ground. He felt like the world got instantly smaller as rain fell like walls of water blurring the landscape. Xander watched the water start to rise in his creek with a little bit of worry. Would the water burn out his fire? Would the creek reach his cave and food? Was the cave safe from wetness? Not wanting to leave unless he had to Xander moved inside his home away from home and huddled into his jacket for warmth. Outside the rain beat down on the ground and drowned out all sound like a thousand drummers making a loud and wild hullabaloo. Xander fell asleep to the sound of rushing white water and imagined a thousand demon monkeys crashing drums and symbols together.

It felt like minutes but it must have been a couple of hours since he fell asleep because it was pitch black and still raining like hell. Xander blinked sleep from his eyes and looked around for something anything that could have awakened him. Inside his head Xander’s constant if annoying companions were on edge. There was a new noise among the thunder and splash of water . . . it sounds like . . . Xander tipped his head to the side and tried to figure out what the sound was. More thunder? A tree falling? No not unless the tree is rolling. A tree in the water? Maybe, but the creek isn’t nearly deep enough—unless . . .

Xander looked toward the entrance of his little cave with wide eyes. Water was trickling in and the creek was no longer a creek but a raging river! A river with angry white water that thundered over the land like a stampede of horses. Inside his head Soldier and Hyena were having a tizzy fit they were shouting ‘Get out of the cave!’ and ‘Run!’ while Fish swam around in his mindscape happy as can be. Fish did not fear water. Getting to his feet Xander put on his jacket and started shoving his scattered weapons and random food items in his many pockets, he had just wrapped his hand around the handle of his gun when a sledgehammer hit him. A wall of white water crashed into his cave and tossed him against the wall and up against the not so high ceiling. Xander blacked out for a moment when his head slammed into a rock and awoke to the sight of a large tree branch seesawing itself in his cave. Ducking under water Xander watched through his second eyelids as the tree limb crashed again and again against the walls of the cave, it thrashed like a trapped animal. With his heavy coat Xander was hardly able to move around but he managed to pull/crawl across the bottom of the cave and squeezed passed the leaves and smaller branches of the wedged tree limb. The moment his body left the caves pocket of water Xander was swept down the raging river. Digging his fingers and feet into the silt covered bottom Xander tried to slow himself down but he might as well have been pulling against Hercules and Samson both with all the good it was doing him. He was swept down like a little spider in the bathtub. Helpless.

With the small gills fluttering away under his shirt and jacket Xander could hardly make them work with the press of strong water and thick fabric. He was gasping and hardly getting enough air, in a panic Xander released the bottom of the river and fought to the surface. He could hardly tell he had surfaced since the rain was still pounding down on the ground. Gasping Xander took deep breaths inhaling both air and water. Reaching for the bank Xander’s fingers clawed at mud and couldn’t find any surface to hold just like the river bottom. Since his jacket was holding down his small form Xander had a hard time staying on the surface and sank back down into the angry white water. On the bottom Xander finally found a hand hold on some roots in an overhang. As the water rushed passed Xander hugged himself into that spot and held on for dear life. Xander watched through his second eyelids as strong currents pulled branches bigger then him and whole trees down river like they were nothing. Under water in his little safe pocket Xander watched the current act like a strong wind and rip boulders out of their muddy spots, watched trees with thick trunks sail down in the water like torpedoes, watched currents ripple like deadly serpent dragons drag away everything within their grasp. Tucking himself in like a little ball Xander watched the deadly water dragon rage with only the protection of a few roots and an overhang of mud his only protection.

When the river finally settled light was starting to filter through the water. With a wince Xander forced his cramping fingers to let go of the thick roots he had been hanging onto for three hours. ‘I got a new underwater record.’ Xander mentally thought as his body gently floated down stream.

Fish snarled as he fluttered his own gills.

Xander mentally scuffed. ‘You have super gills I have mini dinky gills that are temperamental at best. Half the time I feel like they’re going to stop working.’

Fish scuffed and started swimming away from Xander deep into his mental ocean.

‘I’m not the one that gets battered, deep fried, and served with fries!’ Xander hissed. Swimming Xander surfaced and gasped at the air. Grabbing onto the bank Xander clawed at it and slowly got himself onto dry land. “I don’t think I’ll go in the water for a while.” Xander groaned as he spit some muddy water out of his mouth. Inside his head Hyena and Soldier wholeheartedly agreed with the water avoidance. Looking around himself Xander bit his lip in worry at the unfamiliar forest.

[Swamp, sir.]

‘Hmm?’

[The whole area is wet and grassy, moss hangs from stunted misshaping trees, and the place smells like the back end of a cow’s rear. We are in a swamp, sir.]

‘Right.’ Xander winced as he got to his feet as pain flared in his head and shoulder. He felt the back of his head and it came back bloody. ‘Great. Just great.’

Hyena whined at the sight of their blood. ‘It’s fine. It’s not much.’ Xander gently probed the back of his head and found a large lump with a cut across it. He could feel blood slowly trickle down his neck and had to mentally tell himself that head wounds bleed a lot.

The trees in the swamp were weird. They still had the umbrella shape of the giant red wood like ones Xander was use to but they were shorter and drooped like weeping willows. The branches curtained around the trunk like thorn ropes almost closing the whole trunk area up from the outside. Xander crawled under one of the weeping willow like trees and started to undress. Xander hung everything on the thicker branches and huddled up against the peeling tree trunk in just his skivvies.

As the wind blew and the sun rose high and warm in the sky Xander started to get hungry. Digging through his still slightly wet jacket Xander found an empty pocket, and another, and another! Digging through all his pockets Xander cursed. He was missing all his hard earned food and some of his precious weapons. All of his throwing knives were gone, all but one dagger, he had one measly silver stake, and his axes. Looking in his inner pockets with urgency Xander sighed in relief when he found his smokes and lighter safe as houses.

Placing the cigarette case and lighter back in his coat Xander sat back against the tree trunk and sighed. Picking at the strings of his leather protection bracelet Xander traced his fingers over the worn symbols of protection. It was another little thing Willow made him at the price of her health. For birthdays he got her sharp swords triple blessed and handmade stakes and she got him magical protection charms. For every major religion or culture she could think of Willow burned it into the think brown leather strap and empowered it with her magic. Protection of the body. Since the moment he strapped the bracelet on Xander had never got real sick, no matter what plague washed through their safe houses it would barely touch Xander. Xander twisted the leather around and looked at the writing burned on the inside. ‘Vile hurts do not touch the WhiteKnight and when sickness spread leather hold tight.’ Many times during the hard times Xander had wanted to share the protections like his bracelet with the other people of the safe house but would be unable to. During times of sickness the leather would synch tight sealing itself to his skin like his skin and the leather were one. Xander tightened the string on the bracelet determined that he would not loose another one of his thing again.

Putting on his still slightly wet clothes Xander left his little tree haven and went after one of his basics, food. Heading up hill Xander kept his little eyes open for animal tracks. He looked around he to see the mountains on both sides of him, he was in a valley. As he walked Xander found more normal looking trees that looked like spruce with a bit more blue then green in them. They drooped like most of the trees on this planet but didn’t umbrella out. Near one such tree Xander found rabbit droppings and an extinguished fire pit. Xander crouched by it and felt the leftover heat. ‘Whoever was here hadn’t left too long ago.’

{Be wary.}

Xander snorted. ‘Oh right. I was just gonna yell like a banshee and hope they were friendly.’

[Could be the hostiles, the Gwah?] Soldier said his voice tense.

Following foot prints uphill Xander found something unpleasant. A scarecrow. A scarecrow made of human bones, some of the bones old and bleach others newer and crusty with dry meat still on them. Four skulls tied to a many boned and wood body looked at Xander with hallow eyes. Xander wrinkled his nose at the smell of rot, it smell like home sweet hell. {Predator warning?}Hyena asked as her ears perked up.

‘You would think so huh? I’m not sure. Maybe there are tribes within the Gwah and their staking territory?’ Xander thought as he looked around and saw a dozen more such scarecrows.

[Maybe they were just trying to scare the people from the village? They face where the village is.]

‘Maybe.’ Xander walked quietly and kept his eyes open for anything threatening. Hearing the sound of thumping feet come from in front of him and behind Xander ducked through the thorn covered vines of a small almost bush like willow tree and held his breath as whoever it is stopped close to his hiding spot. Xander peeked through the vines to see twelve men facing each other. Six men were painted in white mud and wearing masks and leather armor that resembled the dead blue creature and the other six men were covered in dirty furs and brown mud. Each side had stone sharpened spears and knives and were giving off killer vibes. “You die!” Yelled one of the masked men.

“Na ya die! You I eat.” A fur draped man growled in a deep voice.

Xander stayed very still and watched from his thorn covered willow tree bush as the two groups of men started brutally killing each other. There was no order to the fight it was all about butchering the other group. It wasn’t one on one either, they attacked like starved wolves, any time one took an injury that man would be gained up on and beaten to death. Two men landed near Xander’s hid out and rustled the brush as they struggled with a stone knife. They were only a foot away from Xander as the one in the mask got the upper hand and stabbed the fur covered man in the neck. Blood spurted and the man gurgled, the dying man’s head flopped and his dark eyes locked with Xander’s. The bloody man’s eyes widened before dimming and going blank. After another minute of fighting like animals the masked men won. Three of them hooted and roared like monkeys then plopped down on the ground and started cutting at the dead men. They were cleaning them like one would a rabbit. From his hidden spot Xander watched them harvest the corpses and drag them away up the hill to where Xander could see smoke.

[Sir, I think we should double back up the river and to a location we know.]

{Back to our territory, safe. Away from the smelly hunters.}

Xander couldn’t agree more.

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