A New Status Quo

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Marvel Crossover AU (Self-Made Hero: The Infinity Mirror)
Summary: Without work, Xander's slowly losing his mind.
Word Count: 925
Rating: Gen

         Xander does what he can to test the limits of his newfound power, but he doesn’t have all his equipment and it’s a bit hard to hide it from his new comrades-in-arms, so he has to deal with other things to keep him from the utter emptiness he sees behind his eyes when he closes them (nothing, not even stars, just a black hole that swallows and swallows and—)
         He acts surprised when Willow points out that he’s been up for thirty-two hours straight, jokes about miracle coffee.  He stares at walls of equations running on hologram spells, and if half of the numbers are utter gibberish, well, there’s no one else to question it.  Willow apparently ran her not inconsiderable knowledge to spellcraft, not computers.  He misses it.  Maybe he’ll teach her, to take his mind off things.
         The fact that he’s awful to know, because apparently everyone he ever cared about, anyone he dared to love, died or was evil or—
         He’s already designed fifteen new toys and almost twice as many new suits he can’t actually make at the moment without materials.  He’s going stir crazy and even movies with the gang aren’t enough to fill the void, what was Giles thinking?
         He independently verifies the information he’s been given, because he isn’t going to just take a Giles he doesn’t know at face value, not when he knows, for complete and utter certain, that he’s a vampire in another universe and an evil mastermind supervillain in another.  He tries not to be an utter ass but more like a cute little cat that keeps playing with frayed threads, because he needs to know the others’ weaknesses, where they’ll break, but he also needs to not break everything because he’s having a midlife crisis or whatever.
         Everyone gets nicknames, again.  Fresh slate.  He doesn’t know them, after all, as much as he knows them.
         Giles isn’t much of a leader, as much as he wants them all to believe it.  It’s apparently not a Watcher Giles, which is part of his problem.  This is a Giles who never grew out of his loner tendencies, a man who still flirted with chaos (and probably their archnemesis; Tony notices that slight change in tone as he talks about Ethan Rayne, who Xander still has to thank for all of this).  He gets Constantine or Butterfly (for Chaos Theory; Knight’s particularly proud of that one).
         Willow’s briefly The SS (because there’s something of Tony that just enjoys watching things burn and Willow’s eyes are no exception, though she promises that if he continues with the Nazi jokes he’ll find out whether there are any similarities after all, and the fact that it’s blunt instead of roundabout convinces him that she’s serious and he desists).  So she’s Pizza instead, which earns raised eyebrows but she doesn’t yell, so it’s fine.  (She’s nummy and a Supreme, so.)  And Bonfire, for the comfort and the fact that she burns, and he’ll try to remember that he’s not supposed to call her Witchy One or anything like that anymore because it’s apparently insulting.  (But less so than SS.)
         This Angel is really hard to read, and he misses his sidekick terribly.  He’s slightly comforted when he realizes the vampire disconcerts him like Widow, so he’s Recluse.  He never really got out of the habit of calling the guy Hulk or Big Guy, either, no matter how hard he tries to hide it or remind himself that Angel’s long gone.
         Oz, on the other hand…
         He doesn’t know any of them, never met them, and he’s still the pillar of strength and comfort with a Poker Face, so he’s obviously Rock of Ages and Lady Gaga.  He almost gets a bemused smile at that, and Xander grins and resolves to keep trying.
         Illyria would scare him if he was still capable of normal(ish) fear, but instead he keeps poking her.  He knows he shouldn’t, knows he’s dancing on the knife’s edge, but it’s a place he loves being, and the suppressed danger reminds him of the Big Guy.  So it’s Blue and Big Blue and there’s a Code Blue for when she’s out of control in battle (never mind they haven’t been into battle yet; it’s only a matter of time), and she’s Muad’Dib and on one memorable occasion she’s Cookie Monster.  She’d hated him at first, until someone (Willow or Oz, he suspects) tells her that his lack of fear is a mark of respect, too, that the more he provokes something, the more dangerous it is, and he points out while sparring (not all that seriously, they can’t afford to bring Giles’ temporary digs to the ground) that if there’s anyone he can trust to have his back, it’s a Goddess with a taste for bloodshed.
         She’s rather smugly accepted it since.  Because honestly, yes, it’s true; his respect does come in a different form than it does for anyone else.
         He’s also the one who comes up with their super names, because it seems like he does everything around here—The Witch (because it sounds cooler than Sorceror, stop giving him the eyebrow, really Willow, just ask Tara, seriously), The Goddess, The Assassin, the Knight, The Wolf.  And they’re free to come up with their own.  He’s preferential to ‘Paladin’ if only for old times’ sake.  He’s still trying to come up for a good one for Giles; The Chaos, maybe.
         But seriously, if they don’t go save Buffy soon, he’s going to lose his mind.