Fic: I Am What I Am (59/67)
Chapter 32: The Unveiling
Xander and Cordelia came through the double doors of the library without fanfare. Xander was first, holding the front of a very large weapon's chest, with Cordelia holding it up from the rear. They were both dressed to impress, although Xander's clothing was purely Cordelia's doing, and not at all what he'd choose to wear on his own. As it was, both were showing off their newly toned and muscular bodies.
"Wow," Willow whispered as she stared, momentarily stunned.
"Right there with you," Buffy said, blinking in astonishment.
Two solid months of intense physical labor, training, and working out had quite an effect on Xander and Cordelia. Buffy stared slack-jawed at Xander's muscular, if somewhat pale form, and then swallowed hard. Seeing Xander in person was quite different from "seeing" him via her link with Faith.
Willow's staring seemed to alternate between newly-buff Xander and newly-buff Cordelia, but eventually her stunned shock was overwhelmed by happiness at seeing her oldest friend in the world.
"We come bearing gi- Oof!" Xander was cut-off mid sentence by a red blur as Willow nearly tackled him with a fierce hug. "Ack," he croaked as she hung off his neck. "Nice to see you, Wills. Uh, do you think you could let up for just half a second so I can put this thing down?"
"Please!" Cordelia groaned. "It weighs a ton!"
"I got it," Buffy said, grinning a bit shyly as she took the large chest from both of them, hefting it easily over her shoulder. "Uh, I'll just put it down over here."
"Okay," Xander smiled, caught once again in the locking arms of Willow Rosenberg. "Then you march right back here for hugs, got that missy?"
"I missed you so much!" Willow exclaimed, hugging him tightly. "I've barely seen you for months!"
"Sorry Wills, had to be done, you know?"
"I guess."
Xander grinned and hugged her back. "Well we're done now, and I'm sticking around for a while. No more trips, no more locking myself in the basement for months at a time. You'll be sick of me in a week, I guarantee it."
"Nuh uh," she said, shaking her head. "Never."
Buffy moved awkwardly back over to them and stood watching them for a moment. Then Xander lifted his eyes and gestured for Buffy to come over. "Come on, Buffster. This is quality Willow hugging here. You can't pass this up."
Buffy grinned and Willow moved sideways to let her into the hug. Buffy had to struggle not to cry as she was smushed between her two best friends in the world. "I missed you too," she said in a muffled voice against Xander's chest.
"Me too," Xander grinned. "It's good to be back. If I'd known I'd have hot action like this, I'd have called this whole thing off weeks ago!"
Buffy smacked him in the chest playfully and pulled back. Willow wiped tears from her eyes and stepped back as well. She turned and saw Cordelia smiling at them wistfully. Cordelia beamed at her.
Then she was nearly thrown off her feet as Willow tackled her as well. "Uh, Willow? You and me, we don't really hug very often."
"We do now," Willow said, going into what she thought of as resolve-face. "I missed you, and you're my friend, right?"
"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I guess we are."
"Then you get hugs," she said, nodding with finality. "Plus, you're Xander's, um, apprentice now, right?"
Cordelia's smile widened. "Yup."
Willow sniffed once and pulled back too. "It's good to see you again."
"Thanks," Cordelia said, glancing up and down. "Wow, nice outfit."
Willow grinned. "Really?"
"Totally," Cordelia said, a little awed. "Are those shoes Dagnan?"
"Yup!"
"I am way impressed."
Willow's grin raised the happiness in the room tenfold. The four of them stood there grinning at each other for a few moments before Buffy spoke.
"Uh, Faith's on her way," she said. "And I paged Angel a few hours ago, he should be here soon too. Actually, everyone's kind of heading over soon."
"How's Oz?" Xander asked Willow, jumping up on the counter to sit down.
"Kind of depressed," Willow admitted. "But better. At least we found out about the bite before the full moon, so he hasn't, you know, been out killing people or anything."
"That's good," Xander said. "Maybe I'll talk with him and Giles about it later. There are some techniques he might be able to use to control things somewhat. He actually learned some of them on his own in my timeline."
"Really?" Willow said with renewed hope.
"Yeah. I don't know them all, but I know they're out there, and maybe we can work something out between me and Giles. Oz is coming tonight, right?"
Willow nodded. "Yeah, we were supposed to go out to dinner, but we're doing this instead." She grinned proudly, happy that she had a steady boyfriend, especially one like Oz.
"Sounds good," Xander said.
Buffy was frowning at Cordelia. "Did you get a tattoo?"
Willow glanced at her. "Oh my god! How did I not notice that?"
Cordelia grinned. "You like it?"
"It's uh, unique," Buffy said diplomatically. She frowned. Faith had seen Cordelia the day before, and there'd been no tattoo on her face then.
"It's pretty," Willow said in a fascinating tone. "But when did you get it?"
"Get what?" Jenny Calendar asked as she and Giles entered the library. They were arm in arm, and Giles looked quite relaxed and happy. Most of the teenagers tried not to think about why that might be. "Oh, and hello."
"Hi, Jenny," Xander smiled, giving her a hug and Giles a firm handshake. "Giles." Cordelia gave both a hug, after which both adults frowned at her.
"My word," Giles said. "Is that what you were asking about?" He gestured to Cordelia's face.
"Yeah," Buffy said.
"Do you like it?" Cordelia asked, smiling. Jenny leaned forward to examine the tattoo.
"It's quite nice, actually. You don't often see facial tattoos."
"For a reason," Giles frowned. "Though I'll admit the artwork is quite intricate. It must have been, er, rather painful."
"Just the pain of understanding truth," Cordelia said enigmatically, grinning at Xander.
"I beg your pardon?"
"It's not a real tattoo," Cordelia admitted. "It's actually part of my weapon."
"Is it really?" Giles asked, intrigued.
"Is what really?" Kendra asked as she and Jonathon arrived.
"Is Cordelia's new tattoo actually part of her weapon," Buffy explained. There was a brief pause in the conversation as Xander and Cordelia gave their hugs and handshakes to the newly arrived couple.
"Oh my," Kendra gasped after she'd hugged Cordelia. "This is the tattoo?"
"Yup. You like it?"
"It's beautiful," she said truthfully. Then with marked concern, "It's permanent?"
Cordelia shook her head, eliciting a few sighs of relief from the others.
"Dat's good," Kendra nodded. "In dat case, I tink it's wonderful."
Cordelia beamed at her.
"Hey," came a voice. They turned to see Oz strolling into the library, his hands in his pockets. "What's up?"
"Hey Oz," Xander smiled, and they shook hands. "Good to see you."
"Likewise," Oz said. "Been a while. You doin' good?"
"Yeah."
"Good. You look good Cordelia. Very...Buff."
Cordelia grinned and flexed her arm a little, she was not grotesquely muscular, but had a nice tone and fitness to her. "Two months of working out and lifting heavy metal."
"Better than listening to it," Oz joked. He moved over to Willow and gave her a quick kiss. "Hey beautiful."
"Hi," she whispered, blushing slightly.
"Interesting choice with the tattoo," Oz remarked, turning back to Xander and Cordelia, putting his arm around Willow's waist.
"It's not permanent," Willow explained to him. "It's part of her weapon."
"Oh yeah? That's cool."
"Yes, um, speaking of weapons," Giles said, clearing his throat.
"A little eager?" Xander said with a grin.
"Just slightly," Giles admitted with a childlike grin. Jenny rolled her eyes.
"You wouldn't believe how many times I catch him practicing with his foil in the living room," Jenny laughed.
"Well we're just waiting on Faith and Angel."
"Faith's coming in now," Buffy said, and sure enough, four seconds later Faith came through the doors.
"Hey guys," she said, not bothering to hug Xander and Cordelia, as she'd seen them both yesterday. "Nice tat."
"It's not perm-" Cordelia began.
Faith tapped the side of her own head. "Yeah I know. Buffy-Cam, remember?"
"Oh yeah. I forgot you guys got even better at that creepy brain stuff," Cordelia frowned.
Faith grinned and sat on the edge of the table. "So do we really got to wait for Angel?"
"No," Angel said as he stepped out from behind the stacks. "I'm here."
"Good, we can get started then, since everyone's here," Xander grinned excitedly. He couldn't wait to show the gang their weapons.
"What about Doyle?" Faith wondered.
"Uh, what about him?"
"Oh, he's uh, he's kind of been hanging around a lot. I guess you wouldn't know."
"Yeah, sorry. No weapon for Doyle."
"Maybe he could have Protective Heart," Faith suggested.
Xander shrugged. "If it'll work for him. Matter of fact, I'd feel a lot better about him being around if he could use it. It'd mean he's a decent guy."
"It'll work for him," Faith said confidently.
"Okay, we can check that out later. For now, uh, I guess we can start with Cordelia?"
"Yeah!" Cordelia exclaimed, excited at the prospect of showing off Subtlety. The others all murmured their agreement.
Cordelia stood tall, and walked into the center of the room. She twirled, as if to show she held nothing behind her back, and grinned broadly at the others. She pointed to her eye.
"Abracadabra!" she said with an air of showmanship. There was a brief flash of light, and suddenly she was holding Subtlety with both hands, the massive sword appearing almost comically large in her hands.
"Holy shit!" Faith spat. "Now that's a fuckin' sword!"
Cordelia grinned and pointed to her eye, the tattoo now gone. She held the sword easily, if improbably, in one hand. "Pretty cool, huh?"
Everyone agreed that it was.
"That's not all it does though," Cordelia explained. "I also got this whole regeneration thing out of it. Teacher, I mean, uh, Xander thinks it's kind of like a low-level Slayer healing. Plus, it lets me tell if people are telling me the truth or not. Isn't that totally awesome?"
"It's...Big," Oz pointed out.
"He's right," Buffy nodded. "It is very big."
"Yeah, thanks," Cordelia rolled her eyes.
"I-It's like the Ultima weapon," Jonathon whispered reverentially. "You're like Cloud!"
"Uh, what?"
Xander leaned in close to her ear. "Video game. Guy had a big sword."
"Yours is bigger though," Jonathon said helpfully.
"It'd kind of have to be," Oz said.
"So wait, you can tell when people are lying now?" Buffy asked. Cordelia nodded. "Oh God. That's horrible."
"Hey!"
"I'm sure Cordy'll be very careful about who she uses it on," Xander assured them. He turned to Cordelia. "Right?"
"Yes, Teacher," Cordelia said dutifully, not quite realizing that she'd responded to him in such a way. The others gave her curious looks, but Cordelia didn't notice. She looked back to Buffy. "I won't be all super-inquisitive girl or anything. Just tell me if you don't want to talk about something, and I'll leave you alone." She looked to Xander. "Good?"
He smiled slightly. "Good."
She beamed.
"How come mine doesn't do that?" Faith and Buffy both said at the same time. Neither was really sure who had the thought first.
"Everyone's different," Xander said. "As we're about to find out. You guys ready for your weapons?"
"All of us?" Willow said in tentative voice.
"All of us except Willow," Xander smiled at her. "Per her very wise request."
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked, turning to Willow. "You didn't want one?"
Willow shook her head. "I've already got more than I know how to deal with. Magic is more than enough for me."
Xander grinned at her, and Giles made a wordless noise of being impressed.
"Very wise of you, Willow."
Jenny smiled at Willow as well. "I don't think I could have hoped for a better decision, Willow." She put her arm around Giles's waist. "We didn't do too bad a job as teachers, did we?"
Willow turned red and looked at the floor, suddenly very self-conscious, but she was grinning with pride as well. Faith punched her lightly in the arm. "You kick ass, Red."
Willow, struggled not to cry, and quickly said, "Okay but you guys have to leave me alone okay cause if you're any nicer I'm going to start crying!" Then she put her face in her hands and tried to pretend they weren't there as she ran through her mental exercises.
Xander clapped his hands together and rubbed them expectantly. "In that case, I declare it time to start handing out the goodies. All agreed?"
They all were, of course. Cordelia quickly let Subtlety vanish in a flash of light, her tattoo returning over her eye.
"I'm thinking we'll go with Kendra first," Xander said. Kendra squealed happily, and Xander noticed she was holding hands with Jonathon. Xander gave him a surreptitious thumbs up, and Jonathon grinned sheepishly back at him.
He turned to Cordelia. "Ms. Chase, if you would do the honors?"
Cordelia smiled her best model-smile, doing her best Vanna White impression as she gestured dramatically at the weapons chest. She flipped open the top, careful to not reveal the contents, and pulled out a long, curved scabbard made of polished oak. In her hands she held what looked to be a beautifully designed katana.
"This is Honor's Grace," Xander explained. "This is your sword."
Kendra blinked in amazement and stood up carefully, and moved over to Cordelia. She glanced back at the others once before looking back. "It's beautiful," she whispered as Cordelia handed her the weapon. She placed her fingers around the wrapped cloth that covered the hilt. The grip was perfect, as she'd been expecting, but the feeling of rightness surprised her. She'd never felt this way holding Protective Heart.
"What does it do?" she asked.
"You'll have to tell us," Xander said. "You're the only one that can tell." He looked up at the others. "That goes for everyone, by the way. If you can't figure out what yours does right away, don't worry, you'll figure it out eventually, and I'll give you some ideas for testing."
Kendra licked her lips, and in one smooth motion, drew the blade. Xander blinked, and suddenly Kendra was gone.
"What the hell?"
Xander and Buffy spotted her first, both whirling to look at the other side of the room. Kendra stood there with an astonished look on her face.
"You're okay!" she exclaimed.
"What? Of course we're okay. You teleported!"
Kendra shook her head. "No. No I didn't. You all, you all froze!"
She stared at the beautiful katana in her hands. The hilt was wrapped in red cloth, and the blade contained similar runework to that found on Companion or Tommy and Tammy.
"It was a few seconds, none of you moved, dere was no sound, no movement. It was as if..."
"Time stopped?" Jonathon suggested. The concept wasn't too new to a sci-fi fan like himself.
"Yes," she whispered. "Amazing."
"Well I guess we don't have to guess what power Honor's Grace has," Xander said. "That's uh, that's definitely a good one."
"I'll say," Buffy said, just a little jealous, until she felt Faith's amusement at her envy, and realized she had a pretty good power with Companion.
Kendra made her way back to the table and took her seat, sliding Honor's Grace back into its scabbard. "Tank you Xander. Dis is amazing."
"Hey! I helped too!" Cordelia reminded her.
"Of course. Tank you as well Cordelia. Dis is a wonderful gift."
"Oh you're totally welcome!" Cordelia grinned. "It was nothing, right Xander?"
Xander rolled his eyes. "Maybe not nothing, but you're very welcome Kendra." Then he looked around at the others. "Who goes next?"
Giles stood a little taller, clearing his throat. "I believe the phrase, 'Age before beauty' applies here."
Xander chuckled slightly. "You got it, Giles." He turned and bent down to reach into the chest before Cordelia had a chance to. He rummaged for a moment, and pulled out a glittering silver blade. A glittering silver blade that looked eerily similar to...
"Companion?" Buffy said in astonishment, actually glancing down to the sword on her hip to be sure it was still there. Xander smiled wryly and held the short sword aloft. It was nearly identical to Companion, save for the lack of golden highlights, and anyone trained in such things would notice some differences in the runes.
"Um, Xander?" Giles said, frowning. "I, uh, I thought we had agreed that a rapier would be best for m-"
"Relax Giles," Xander said. "This isn't yours. Did you forget you're not the oldest guy in the room?" Then he casually tossed the sword across the room.
Angel caught it easily, and the only evidence that he was surprised was the quick blink he gave before examining the sword.
"This is mine," he said. It was half a question, half a statement.
"It is."
"It looks like..."
"I know," Xander said with a slight frown. "Read into that what you want. Maybe it's that you two are uh, similar. Or maybe it's just that you're both really good with short swords."
"What's it called?"
"Solitude."
Angel snorted. "I guess it fits."
"It's kind of rare in that I had something kind of specific in mind while I forged it. It's specifically made for you, in that it's for a vampire. It's a fire elemental sword. That means it should have some fire based properties, as well as the ability to protect you from fire. Maybe even from roasting in sunlight, but I don't know for sure on that. What I do know, what I made damn sure of, is that without your soul, it's going to ignite you in an instant."
"Good," Angel said.
At the table, Buffy was staring at the sword in shock, and trying to figure out what it meant that Xander had made Angel a sword that looked almost exactly like Companion.
Angel stared at the blade for a moment, and it suddenly ignited. He almost dropped it before he realized the flames did little more than tickle him. "Wow. Neat trick." With a thought, the flames died away. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it," Xander said. "Seriously. Don't."
"You got it," Angel said with a wry grin. Xander tossed him a simple leather scabbard, and Angel silently strapped it on, sliding the sword called Solitude into it. Then he leaned back against the bookcase, and remained silent.
"Okay Giles, you're up next." He turned to Cordelia. "If you would do the honors."
Cordelia slipped on her Vanna White smile again and waved her hands in front of the chest as if she were modeling it on the Price is Right. She knelt smoothly and then lifted a sword out of the chest. It was a long, thin rapier with a sparkling silver handguard, etched in Celtic knotwork. She smiled as she moved over to Giles, presenting him with the sword, as well as a leather scabbard.
Giles took it reverently, feeling the perfect weight and balance of the blade. It was exquisitely designed, and the grip was absolutely perfect. He had not, without doubt, ever held such a perfect weapon. He stared at it in fascination for a moment, and then experimentally swished the blade through the air, grinning.
"It's called Wisdom," Xander explained. "I didn't have anything specific in mind when I made it, except that you're a mage, so don't be surprised if it helps you with your casting."
"This is magnificent, Xander. I'm not sure I'm able to properly thank you. O-Or Cordelia," he added, nodding at the ever-smiling girl. On a whim he uttered the words to a simple light spell, and was pleasantly surprised when he found the sword seemed to pulse in his hand. A shimmering ball of blue light appeared directly above his head, and he could clearly feel that he used less of his personal power reserves than usual in casting the spell. "Truly magnificent."
He allowed the ball of light to hover overhead for a few moments before he dispelled it with a thought. He grinned the grin of a schoolboy at Jenny, who rolled her eyes in amusement and hugged him with one arm. "I bet you can't wait to play with that."
"I look forward to hours of swashbuckling this evening," Giles confided to her in a low voice. Jenny laughed merrily.
"So what do you say we do all the mages at once?" Xander suggested. "Jon-O, that puts you next."
"Me?" Jonathon squeaked. "I'm not really a-"
"Not yet," Xander said. "But I got this feeling you'll be pretty good at it, eventually." He grinned knowingly.
Cordelia once again dramatically removed his weapon from the chest. Jonathon's was a long metal staff. The point was sharpened, and the top was fashioned into the sculpted figure of a bearded wizard casting lightning from his hands.
"It's made almost entirely for a mage," Xander explained. "It's not really made specifically for fighting like the others. I hope that's okay."
Jonathon nodded in amazement. He didn't really fancy the idea of being a fighter anyway. Cordelia handed him the staff, and he held it carefully, as if he were afraid it might break.
"It's called Backbone."
Jonathon gazed at it. His very own Wizard's Staff! Was there ever a cooler thing in all the history of the universe? Absolutely not. He turned back to Kendra, unable to wipe the grin off her face.
"I wonder what it do-ahh!" Jonathon cried out as Backbone suddenly jerked in his hand, and green lightning erupted from the top of the staff. It cascaded across the room, heading straight for Xander. Cordelia and he both moved with the reflexes they had practiced, but it made no difference. The lightning tracked him easily, and slammed into him.
"Holy shit!" Faith cried as she jumped to her feet. Xander dropped to one knee, and gasped as the lightning faded. The others rushed over to him.
"No," he gasped. "I'm okay." He blinked, and shook his head. "Wow. That was a rush."
"What happened?" Willow asked with concern.
"I'm not sure, but I-" he paused, and frowned. He looked at his finger, and tugged at the small bandage wrapped around it. The flesh beneath was completely healed. "Huh. Wouldja look at that?"
"What?" Buffy asked.
"I think Jonathon's got himself a healing staff," Xander said.
"My word," Giles exclaimed. A staff capable of accelerating anyone's healing would have no end of usefulness on the Hellmouth. He wondered how serious an injury could be healed by the weapon.
"Hmm," Xander said. "I wonder how badly hurt you could be and still get healed by this thing."
Giles smiled inwardly as Xander echoed his own thoughts.
"Uh, I'm officially not the guinea pig for that one, okay, Teacher?" Cordelia said, causing Xander to laugh. Buffy raised her eyebrow at Cordelia's term.
"Yeah, no testing on that one," he agreed. "But let us know if you find any other powers with it, okay Jon?"
"Uh yeah. Sure," Jonathon said, sitting back down. He held the staff awkwardly. It was a bit hard to manage when he was sitting down. If only it were...
Flash.
Green light pulsed from where he held the staff, and suddenly he was holding a simply black lacquered cane. The head was the same bearded wizard as before, and the point was still fairly sharp, but it was now much more manageable.
"Wow."
"Whoa," Faith said. "How come these guys all get weapons that do all this fancy shit, and all mine can do is fly around and hit invisible demons?"
"And connect you mentally to Buffy," Xander reminded her.
"And turn into a giant glowing ax thing," Buffy pointed out.
"Oh yeah. Never mind."
"Okay," Xander said, clapping his hands together and rubbing them. "The last mage is our own Miss Jenny Calendar, techno-pagan extraordinaire."
"Why thank you," Jenny said with a smile, nodding her head. "I can't wait to see what you dreamed up for me."
Cordelia reached into the chest, removing a small leather holster and carrying it over to Jenny. The computer teacher raised her eyebrow and unfolded the holster, revealing two handheld daggers. Each was double edged with a dark black hilt, and looked to be perfect for throwing. She let out a little breath, saying, "Huh."
Jenny wrapped the holster around her waist. "What are they called?"
"Dusk and Twilight."
"I'm surprised you didn't call them Abbot and Costello," she said with a grin.
"The thought had crossed my mind," Xander admitted, laughing. He and Jenny had always shared a rather similar sense of humor.
"I wonder what they do," Jenny said, pulling the two daggers out at once before promptly vanishing on the spot.
"Jenny!" Giles exclaimed, forgetting for the moment his own weapon.
"What?" said a voice.
"Jenny?"
"Yes Rupert. That's my name."
"You-You're not there," Giles said carefully.
"She's invisible," Willow whispered in awe. "That's so cool!"
"I am? Oh my God, I am! Wow. This is so weird. But how do I turn it..." She blinked back into existence. "...Off? Oh. I guess like that."
She grinned and looked at Xander. "I am going to have so much fun with these."
Xander grinned back at her. "I can imagine. Don't drive Giles too crazy, okay?"
"I make no promises," Jenny said, smiling wickedly at her boyfriend. Giles groaned, recognizing there would be some odd times ahead.
"By the way, they should help you out with your magic too," Xander said. "Techno magic stuff, I guess."
"Thanks," Jenny replied. "I'll keep that in mind." She slipped the two daggers, Dusk and Twilight, back into their holster.
Xander turned back to the others. "And now, last, but certainly not least, we have the Oz-Man. Cordy, if you would?"
Cordelia reached into the chest and pulled out a squat sword. It looked a bit like Protective Heart, but much wider.
"Now no offense, but this is a bastard sword," Xander said. "It's kind of like a short greatsword."
"You saying I'm a bastard?" Oz said with a wry grin.
"No, I'm saying you're short."
"Oh, that's cool then."
"Funny you should say that," Xander said as Cordelia presented him with his sword, hilt first. "It's an ice elemental sword, kind of like Angel's is fire elemental. I call it-"
"Lemme guess," Oz said. "Cool Sword?"
"Got it in one."
Oz huffed in amusement and reached out to take the blade. His fingers wrapped around the hilt, and suddenly he staggered back, crying out in pain.
"Oz!" Willow cried, grabbing him as he stumbled backwards. He half-screamed half-roared, and his face took on the canine features of the wolf for an instant. Then there was a flash of blueish light, and Oz went limp. Willow was forced to lower him to the floor, unable to hold his weight on her own. "What's going on?" she said, panic rising in her voice.
"Oh man," Oz groaned. "What was that?"
"Oz? Are you okay?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I think so." He sat up, frowning. Then he raised his hands to his face, and raised an eyebrow. "Huh. That's a little weird."
On his hands were fitted two metallic exo-skeletons. He flexed his fingers, and found that the magical metal seemed perfectly capable of moving with him.
"Wow," Xander said as he knelt down beside them. "I've never seen a reaction like that. I think, I think you may have altered the weapon based on your being a werewolf."
"Uh, in a good way, or a bad way?" Oz asked, remembering how Xander had made Solitude capable of killing Angel if he turned into Angelus.
"A good way, probably. Angel's sword is made special for his situation. In a case like yours, your weapon is acting in your best interests."
Oz held up his hands. "This is my best interest?"
"I guess," Xander shrugged. "See if you can do something like icing your hands over or something. Something cold."
Oz shrugged and concentrated. Nothing seemed to happen.
"Nothing."
"Hmm," Xander frowned. "It might not even be ice elemental anymore. This is, hey..." He snatched Oz's hand, and stared at the back of it, tracing the metal strips that lined the back of his hand. There were tiny runes etched into each one.
"Cordy come here," Xander said. Cordelia quickly came over, kneeling beside them. "What's that look like to you?"
She furrowed her brow and examined the rune Xander pointed to. "Animal?"
Xander nodded. "Yeah, that's what I see too. We didn't put animal into Cool Sword, did we?"
She shook her head, and stared at the back of Oz's hands as well. "This one looks like, uh, predator?"
"Yeah. Look, there's protector though. That's still in there."
"And stoic," Cordelia added. "Oh, and controlled."
"I'll bet all the ones we put in there are still there," Xander said. "But some new ones got added in. That's...That's incredible."
"Incredible good?" Oz said hopefully.
"I think so. I think your weapon actually changed itself permanently, because of you being a werewolf now."
"Huh."
"Try uh, try thinking about being a werewolf," Xander suggested as he held out a hand to help Oz to his feet. "Or about being kind of animal-like, something like that. Oh, and maybe we should all stand back a little."
"Hey," Oz said quietly to Willow. "I'm okay."
She smiled sadly, and hugged him quickly before backing away. She watched him worriedly.
Oz stood in the center of the room and thought of the werewolf. Ever since he'd experienced that first night as the wolf, locked in the weapon's cage in the library, he could feel it somewhere in the back of his mind. A part of him. Animal.
Snikt.
"I knew it!" Jonathon exclaimed with giddy excitement, before anyone else could react. "I knew it! He's Wolverine!"
Oz opened his eyes and looked down at his hands. Three blades emerged from the backs of each hand, and each was a little less than three feet long. He had claws. He flexed his fingers, and willed the blades to retract.
Snikt.
They did.
"Cool."
"Gotta say," Xander remarked. "I was definitely not expecting this. Magical Wolverine claws. Who woulda figured?"
"Uh, you think there's a way to take these off?" Oz asked. Xander just shrugged at him.
"No idea. Do some practicing with it and see what you can do. Just uh, be careful not to stick anyone by accident."
"Yeah, no kidding."
"Actually, I wouldn't be too worried about that," Xander said seriously. "Like I said, it's there to help you, not hurt you. I don't think they'll pop out while you're giving someone a hug or anything like that."
"Good to know," Oz said, and he stepped towards Willow to give her a quick hug and kiss. She accepted them gratefully.
"I was really worried," she whispered to him.
"I know," he smiled back. "It's cool now though. You want to come over later and help me experiment with these?"
"Okay," she said with a shy grin.
"Well that was a pretty good finale," Xander said. "Everyone happy?"
They all were, although Oz was a bit more stunned than happy.
"Well that's that."
"Wait," Willow said. "What about you?"
"Oh, yeah I made myself one too." He turned and reached into the trunk, pulling out Cleaver II. "I re-forged Cleaver."
"Oh," Willow said, a little disappointed.
"What's it do?" Faith asked.
Xander shrugged. "Nothing yet, I mean besides cut through pretty much anything, which all of your guys weapons should do, except maybe Jonathon's. I'll have to experiment with it for a while, just like you guys. Remember sometimes there's more than just one or even two powers to a weapon. It'll take a while to really learn how to use it fully."
As if to punctuate this, a fireball flew past Xander's face, narrowly missing him, and singing just a bit of his hair. "Hey!"
"Oh," Angel said sheepishly. "Sorry."