Title:  Lavelle-ing The Playing Field

Author:  Vlad_the_Impish

Rating: **Adults Only!!** **Not For Work!!**

Summary:  Set in Season One after ‘The Pack’.  An old
player rejoins the game, and proves that neither Good nor Evil have home court
advantage.

Disclaimer:  I do not own the show Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, nor the characters depicted within it.  I will not make any money from
the creation of this story; it was written purely for entertainment value. 
Please do not sue.

Lavelle-ing The Playing Field

Prologue

Xander walked out of Giles' office with a smile on his
face, but had Giles seen the smile, he would have been very, very worried.  The
spirit of the hyena had gone, that much was true, but something had taken its
place, something far more powerful and potentially far more dangerous.

The zoo-keeper responsible for the whole debacle, Dr.
Weirick, had been incompetent, as proven by the way he had left the hyena
exhibit open for any idiot to go in and screw the ritual up, but that was not
the end of his incompetence.  In his haste to complete the ritual, he had not
researched it as thoroughly as he should have and had cast it incorrectly,
meaning that not only had he released the spirits of those hyenas, he'd also
allowed another spirit to take advantage of his ineptitude and escape their
confinement; the spirit of the Earth itself, Gaia.

Having been imprisoned long ago, not long after she had
helped the humans drive off the Old Ones – now commonly known as dinosaurs –
from the Earth, Gaia had been given little choice but to watch helplessly as
she had been used as the field of battle between the forces of good and evil,
the same forces that had banded together and imprisoned her for ‘meddling in
their affairs’.

Now, due to an unforeseen loophole, Gaia was free once
more, and there was no way she would be imprisoned again.  Even if both sides
joined forces once more – something that Gaia could not see happening given how
the war had gone – The Creator had decreed that they did not have the right to
refuse Gaia the chance to defend herself against annihilation.

Gaia wanted to re-exert her influence on the conflict
between Good and Evil, not because she particularly favoured one over the
other, and had often found it difficult to tell the difference in fact, but
simply because she was at risk of destruction due to their petty squabbling.

To further ensure her freedom, and to give her a direct
influence in events, Gaia had need of a Champion, and that was where Xander
came in.  It didn't really matter to her which side won, as long as she
continued to exist, and Xander would be her instrument in ensuring just that.

The Watcher's attempts at removing all of the hyena's
influence over the boy was laughable, especially as he would have been able to
have done so easily had he not allowed his skills and power to lapse over his
childhood discretions.  While in the strictest sense in the word he had
succeeded, in that the taint of the hyena spirit had indeed disappeared, the
man had made no attempt to try and repair the metaphysical damage wrought by
the experience.  His failure to rectify such a basic thing meant that the
weakness in Xander’s mental defences that had been created by the enforced
possession had not been fixed, and had left the boy far more susceptible to
further possessions, and would be affected far more deeply than normal by them.

By choosing him to be her Champion, Gaia had been able to
repair the weakness within Xander, and had fortified him in both body and mind
far beyond human norms.  What Gaia had done to Xander was not a possession in
the strictest sense of the word; it was more like the way the Slayer was Called.
 Slayers were imbued with the essence of the First Slayer, and granted the
strength, speed and skills required to fulfil their duty; Xander had been
imbued with a fraction of Gaia’s essence, with the ability to tap into more if
the need arose.  Nothing and no one would be able to influence him without her
express permission, not including The Creator of course, and Xander would soon
learn that he was now a force to be reckoned with; a literal Force of Nature.

One of the greatest threats to her existence was if the
Hellmouth were to be opened fully, and so she needed to ensure that it was
protected.  Xander would be a formidable foe to any that may try and use the
Hellmouth for their own gain, but he was but one man.  He would need others to
assist him, and fortunately he was already aware of several that could be of
help.  Of course, he needed to ensure their loyalty to him, and with her
influence and his boost of confidence, he knew of a way to do just that.