The Executioners

Title: The Executioners

Author: CaliaDragon

Fandom: Buffy/Anita Blake

Category: AU

Warnings: Shooting and language.

Spoilers: Halloween/None for AB

Disclaimer: Neither Dawn nor Xander or any other character here
belongs to me.

Feedback: On List or at caliadragon (@) myself.com

Archive: Any list I send it to and those with prior permission

1/1

Beta’d by me and Spell checker. I’ll repost it when my beta gets a
chance to go over it.

AN: This is to Joyful, sorry about the forward.

Rating: R

Summary: Xander and Dawn go as two of his favorite characters.

*POV shifts after the possession.


Dawn stood in front of the mirror a picture of happiness and
excitement. Tonight she and the boy she loved were going out
together. Of course it was only Trick or Treating, and they were
stuck with a bunch of other kids, but none of that mattered to Dawn.
Xander wanted her with him tonight. That was what mattered. Joyce
had agreed, much to the chagrin of both Buffy and Willow. Though,
for different reasons. Willow wanted Xander’s attention, while Buffy
didn’t want to drag her little sister along with her.

Xander had been adamant though, Dawn was coming with him. Joyce had
agreed and that was all that mattered to him. Dawn loved Xander, no
matter what else was happening in his life he always made time for
her. Buffy never told her anything and let her live in the dark
about the boogies of the night, but Xander told her. He warned her
about what to expect and her told her what not to do at night. To
Dawn Xander was her guardian and her friend.

Xander had even changed his original costume of a soldier to one that
would match her own. They were going as Anita Blake and John Burke
from a series of books that he loved. Dawn didn’t know much about
the characters, but she did know that she loved the out fit that he
had picked out and they had both ended up with fake weapons. He had
told thatthat both characters hunted monsters and were the boogie men
of the night creatures. They had both thought it was hilarious. He
had even bought a fake goatee to wear.

She barely held in a squeal as the front door rang. Xander was here!
She ran out of her room and nearly ran over Buffy as she raced to be
the one to let him in.

When she reached the base of the stairs she saw that he was already
inside. The pair grinned at one another and Dawn giggled as he
lifted her into his arms. “Dawn, patrol, you ready to raid old
people and stock up on candy?” He asked with a grin. She nodded
fervently, making Joyce laugh.

Xander looked up and smiled at both Buffy and Willow. Dawn blinked,
that wasn’t what she thought Willow would be wearing.

Xander greeted both girls and teased them, before Dawn kissed her
mother good-bye and let Xander lead them awBy the the time they got
away from the school, both Xander and Dawn were already wishing they
could ditch the kids. Somehow Xander had ended up with a real group
of brats.

Everything was going off without a hitch, despite the brats, Dawn had
already scored a lot of candy and they were thinking of turning back
and taking their group back to the school, when the spell that Ethan
Rayne had been cooking up took affect. One minute they were Dawn and
Xander and the next, they were Anita and John. The most powerful
Necromancer in the world and the most powerful Voodoo priest in the
world.

“What the fuck?” Anita growled before looking around her in
confusion.

“How did we end up here?” John growled, before sweeping Anita to the
side and drawing his gun. He shot the beast that was trying to
attack them and watched as it spun away and ran.

“Where the fuck are we?” Anita growled as she drew her browning.

“I don’t know, but I sense powerful magic here, and the dead.” John
told her calmly.

“Where are Jean-Claude and Richard? I can’t feel them!” Anita said
slightly panicked.

“I think that’s because we’re not in our bodies,” John told her
calmly. Anita glared at him, but said nothing. Her friend irritated
her with his ability to remain calm and rational, despite the
provocation to get pissed and kill everything in sight.

John smirked at her and looked around him. “Some of these are
human’s that are spelled,” he told her calmly. Unlike Anita his
affinity for magick was second only to his animator abilities.

“That’s just fucking brilliant!” she snarled.

“Is that one real?” she asked pointing to a ridged and golden eyed
creature chasing a small child.

“Yes,” John answered as he shot the creator through the heart.

They both smirked as it exploded and ash flew everywhere. “I think
disposing of the bodies is a lot easier here,” John said with a
smirk. Anita just snickered.

“Xander! I need your help! Buffy’s gone ditsy!” Willow said as she
ran up to Dawn and Xander. The pair turned to face her and she came
to a shocked halt as they both spun to face her and aimed a weapon in
her direction.

“Xander? Dawn?” she asked worried.

“Sorry, you have us confused with someone else, spirit.” John told
her.

“Or she thinks we’re the people who’s bodies were inhabiting,” Anita
told her friend. Willow nodded shak

“Oh, right.” John said with a laugh.

“Anita and John?” Willow asked.

“Yes,” they answered in unison.

Willow shook off her shock and looked over to where Buffy was
screaming at a car. “I need your help to get her over to the
library. I kinda don’t have any ability to touch anyone and our
friend Giles can help us figure out how to stop all the screaming and
the grr.” Willow told them much to the amusement of the two
executioners.

Anita walked over to the brunette that was shrieking in terror and
grabbed Buffy by the arm. “Unhand me peasant!” Lady Buffy said
huffily.

“Would you rather die, like most of the people out there?” Anita
asked brutally.

Buffy burst into tears, but aloud herself to be led off. Along the
way to the library they ran into both Cordelia and Angel. Willow had
been stunned by both Dawn and Xander’s reaction to Angel. “Do you
know you have a curse on your soul?” Anita asked blandly.

“I can get rid of that,” John said blandly and muttered several
incantations. Cordy, Willow and Buffy just looked around them in
stunned silence. Once minute Angel was all uncertain and the next
moment he was sexy and confident. Willow was really glad that she
was a ghost, cause she was certain that Angel would have been able to
smell her excitement and arousal.

Cordy merely whistled. “Of course you would be even hotter when
you’re no longer an angst machine! To think you’re wasting all of
that on Miss Slayer of the Universe!” Cordy groused before they
started walking off again.

John and Anita shared a grin, they liked these people. Okay they
liked all of them, but the noblewoman. She was a whinny pain in the
ass!

John and Anita froze before they could get all of the way to the
library. “I know where the spell is coming from, go to the library;
we’ll handle it from here.” John told them as the two spun away and
started to the costume shop. They other four were forced to watch as
they ran away. Angel watched for a minute and then smirked slightly.
The two possessed children didn’t see the hunger for them and the
power they represented, nor did the three young girls standing around
him.

---

Dru had been twirling around happily, when she suddenly froze, her
eyes straying to her SpikeThe The world has changed my Spike. Daddy
is free, but chained. He will come to us and I will be strong again,
the executioners walk among us, we mustn’t leave our pretty abode or
we will die. Such power they have, the little light and my sweet
kitten. They are ours as we are theirs. Daddy will not like his
future for the light will destroy him if he does as his insides tell
him to do.” With that word of warning she went back to twirling in
circles a happy look upon her face.

Spike watched his princess and smiled, she was one of the best things
that ever happened to him. He would see her healed even if it meant
killing Daddy Dearest and everyone in this god forsaken town.

---

John and Anita walked through the shop calmly and as silently as a
ghost. When they reached the back, they could see a man kneeling in
front of a statue of chaos. Anita scowled and looked at John who
nodded; the spell was being fed by the statue. Anita looked at her
body and grimaced while John grinned. Anita was smaller than she
normally was and in no position to be able to take out the chaos
mage. John however was.

Ethan never knew what hit him. One minute he was knelling and the
next minute he was in terrible pain and lying face down with the
beginnings of a terrible headache. When he woke later the n
mor
morning the stahad had been destroyed and he had a bullet wound in
his left shoulder.

---

Xander looked around him in confusion for a moment, before turning
his attention to Dawn and the look of horror on her face. She had
been about to kill Ethan when the spell had ended from the
destruction of the bust. Thankfully she had only shot hn thn the
shoulder. Xander walked over to her as she dropped the toy gun and
turned to face him. Xander lifted her into his arms and they left
the shop together. They needed to find the kids and the other two
girls. Though remarkably they could remember everything from the two
spirits that inhabited their bodies, both John and Anita were real
people. The lives that they had lived were different from the books
that Xander had read, but also similar.

It was nearly an hour before they e toe toe to meet up with the
others at the library. Giles, the returned Buffy, Angel, Willow and
Cordelia were all relieved to see them and the other children. After
making sure the kids were with their parents. Dawn and Xander walked
into the library with the others.

“What happened? Who was doing the spell?” Buffy asked from where she
was perched on a table. Like the others she noticed that Xander had
yet to release Dawn.

“The guy that we bought our costumes from, we broke some statue and
we came back.” Xander told her, though they could all sense that
there was something more that he wasn’t saying.

“What else?” Willow asked, gently. She knew who the two characters
were and was worried that they had killed Ethan while possessed. She
wasn’t sure that either of them would be able to handle such a thing.

Buffy and the others gave her a look and Cordy asked what all, but
Willow had been wondering. “Who were you two suppose to be anyway?”

“Anita Blake and John Burke,” Xander answered calmly.

“The Vampire Executioners?” Giles, Cordy ad Angel all asked, much to
the shock of those that knew them.

“You read the Anita Blake novels?” Willow and Xander asked as one.

“Their funny,” Angel answered with a shrug.

Xander looked at Angel and suddenly he grinned, “You are just one big
faker! You do have a sense of humor!”

Angel just shrugged and grinned slightly. It was then that theymembmembered the spell that John had done. Willow looked at Xander and
cocked her head to the side. She looked at both of them through the
magical vision that she was developing and gasped at what she saw.
“Guys, you still have the powers of John and Anita,” she said in a
hushed tone.

Xander and Dawn gapped at one another then shrugged. They had both
wondered why they could remember the lives of the other two, but now
they knew. “You never did answer Willow,” Giles said softly. Both
he and Angel had begun to worry that the children had killed the man
responsible for their being possessed.

“We didn’t kill him.” Dawn answered, she could see the questions in
their eyes, but still she burrowed tighter into Xander’s arms. She
had the memories of a woman who killed as necessity and as a means to
helping others. She had killed humans and monsters to protect
herself and the people she loved, but it didn’t make it any easieor hor her ten year old mind to grasp.

Xander was also remembering John Burke’s life. He too had taken
human lives. In the books Anita and John barely tolerated each
other, but in the reality where they came from, they were good
friends and John was involved was also in a triumvirate. Asher and
Micah were his loves. Micah was the leader of the local
wereleopards, and had never been Anita’s lover, while Asher still
acted as Jean-Claude’s first. Their lives were still complex, but
they were best friends. They also knew that both Anita and John had
died protecting their town from the vampire council. That was why
they had truly manifested instead of just being what they were in the
books.

While Xander and Dawn were remembering the lives of the spirits who
remained inside them, the others were breathing sighs of relief that
their friends hadn’t committed murder. Not that they wouldn’t have
helped them hide the body, but they didn’t want the two innocent kids
to suffer from knowing that they had murdered someone.

“Let’s go back to my house. I’m sure Mom’s worrying about us.” Buffy
told the others.

The others agreed, but stopped at Giles’ voice, “I’m coming with you.
I think its time that Joyce was given the realities of the
hellmouth. Especially if Dawn still retains her necromancy, she
needs help controlling her new power and she will need to begin to
channel the power somewhere. Joyce can no longer remain ignorant of
what is going on.” The others agreed and everyone, but Cordy, left
for the Summers’ home.

When they arrived, Joyce was happy to see that her children were
safe. Remarkably, and to their secret delight that included both
Xander and Willow. It took awhile to explain everything to Joyce and
Angel shifting into game face, before she believed. Once she did
though they all watched the woman as she took the news in stride.
She didn’t panic, nor did she get angry. Instead she accepted and
offered to help. Buffy was practically glowing with pride for her
mother and Dawn was as well.

Giles was embarrassed by the fact that he didn’t allow Buffy to tell
her sooner. Xander and Dawn shared a secret smile between them, they
could both smell the pheromones coming off of the two older adults
and felt that theas sas something growing between the pair.

Later, after Angel and Giles had left, the four young Scoobies sat in
the living room together, with Dawn cuddled against Xander’s side and
the two girls lying on the floor across from them. They were just
relaxing and thinking about Halloween. It had changed their lives,
for the better they hoped. Both Willow and Buffy could see that
Xander and Dawn were becoming what Willow and Xander had once been.
The closeness that they shared was there and even Joyce was
encouraging it. Willow was slightly wistful about it, but she knew
that it was for the best. After all she and Buffy were getting
closer than she and Xander had been for awhile.

After awhile the four fell asleep and unknown to them Joyce came to
watch them for a moment. Looking down at the four sleeping children,
she made a vow to herself. She was going to make sure this happened
again. The only difference was, she was going to have permanent
custody of both Willow and Xander. She knew about their home lives
aft after hearing about what Sunnydale was really like; she could no
longer step back and hope for the best. Her children needed
protected and she was gong to do her best to make sure that happened.


The End