madimpossibledreamer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
madimpossibledreamer) wrote2021-01-23 11:58 am
madimpossibledreamer) wrote2021-01-23 11:58 am
Entry tags:
Your Truth is What You Wish For
It's less common, but Xander also gets shot sometimes.
This does assume some long-term effects from having plagas even after it being removed.
You should still recognize some of these Slayers.
(half-crack: meanwhile, leon is like, xander, stop being competent, it's distracting me from the fact that i'm trying to be mad at you)
Main Points:
Buffy/Devil May Cry/Resident Evil/Background NCIS Crossover
Chapter Summary: Leon and Xander plan their joint mission.
Word Count: 2235
Rating: Teen
Pairing: Leon/Xander
Warning: Xander needs to stop startling armed people (he gets shot this time). He is fine, since he's like Dante, but thought I'd mention it.
The outfit suits him, Leon reflects, as Xander holds a hurried conference with his agents. On anyone else, it’d be ridiculous, but the red leather suits the otherwise outlandish looks like a glove. It’s clearly an old favorite, and he’s probably worn it into battle before, given the worn looks and stitches—not going there, Leon reminds himself. The female agents are actually wearing real armor—the men, too, actually. The only one not is Redgrave. But then, with his—Leon still feels a bit off-balance, thinking about it, glancing down at his knife, cleaned like nothing had ever happened—with his healing, it’s not like he needs body armor or whatever.
He glances back, and there’s a single blue eye staring at him in concern. It’s a little heartwarming, but all he does is nod back. I’m fine; stop worrying about me. It’d…hurt less. But then, maybe that’s not the point.
Just a small smile in return, and then Xander claps his hands. “All right, gather ‘round, boys and girls, it’s time for show and tell.” He points to one of the new recruits. “Name?”
“Babej,” he responds pretty quickly, concerned.
“Babej,” Redgrave repeats. “Could you grab one of your virus tracker gizmos? Just to prove to everybody we’re not infected before we begin.”
They’re all very calm and cooperative when it comes to the scans. Leon stands close enough he’s putting Babej on edge, but he needs to know, needs to see this with his own eyes. It’s pretty clear when the results come back negative. He’s not sure if that makes him more or less at ease, but it’s…a relief, he supposes, to know.
“Now that’s out of the way…we’re here because one of your teams flagged something you don’t have experience with and we do. Specifically, they noted a few Minos—those are snake demons—and Blades—those look like, uh, your Hunters?” He glances at Leon with a raised eyebrow.
Who’s he to ignore an invitation? “Those are lizard-human hybrids, with giant claws. Quick, ugly bastards.”
“Those would be the ones.” Xander’s…oddly cheerful about this. “Though Blades wear some armor on the head and carry around a shield. They can definitely bash you, but they’d rather see a little blood, so they’ll probably try to claw you instead. I’ve been told fighting them is similar, but I can’t speak to that. Just go for the belly and you’re good, but they’re pretty good at getting the shield in the way. And they can shoot their claws at you. Their arm will swell beforehand, so you’ll see the attack coming. Minos can extend their spine through slits in their skin, and while they could poke a few extra breathing holes that way, they prefer to try to grab you and squish you to death. They can’t extend the bones while moving, though, because it’ll get caught on things. They also sport big fangs, but you probably won’t see those unless they try to eat you. They’re also fast when their spine is tucked in, but tend to have a few issues navigating in rocky terrain due to their size, so we’ll probably want to get them to follow us over here.” Xander points to a spot on the map, and it’s strange, seeing him businesslike. Leon’s not sure he’s ever seen that, but then, why would he, if he’d only seen him on his days off? “The utterly weird bit is that while Blades could probably be convinced to help out in the interest of spreading chaos for Mundus, Minos tend to, well. They’ll pop in, take a few humans during nesting season, leave meat for their hatchlings, and otherwise not bother. I have absolutely no idea why they’d help protect equipment—oh yeah.” And there’s that embarrassment he’s gotten to know well. “Might’ve already been in your briefing, but it was a recent, blurry photo. Isabelle?”
The quiet one produces a photo for them to pass around, and Landon whistles. “That could be the Umbrella logo, boss.”
The zombies in question are a few of the average types, plus the dogs. Zombie dogs are never fun to deal with.
“That, plus the amount of demons and zombies around, makes me think that they’re being used as guards. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I never liked being told I had to wait to dig in.” That grin is practically wolfish. But then, Leon’s seen those goofy features turn into something a whole lot scarier recently, so…it doesn’t seem as weird as it had.
“Go back to the part where you’re talking fairytales,” Boren scoffs, and here it comes.
“Remember, I’m not infected, and also we were called in to help you out.” Even having seen it once, Leon’s not really ready for the speed of the change, though it is interesting to watch the jacket mould itself to the demonic body.
A few shots ring out. “Stand down, that’s an order!” Leon yells, but he’s ignored. Another shot. Boren. Landon looks conflicted but lowers his rifle, and Babej is shaking. Freaked out. Leon has to charge in and wrestle the weapon out of Boren’s hands before he’ll stop firing.
“He’s a monster,” Boren states, voice on the edge of mutiny. “And he’s done something to you, sir.” The timing does look kind of suspect, doesn’t it? Leon can’t stifle the wince. From their point of view, he’d only started acting oddly once he’d seen Xander.
He feels a little better about his own reaction, though. They’ve been so conditioned to immediately fire at anything that doesn’t look human. And by how unmoved Xander is (he hadn’t flinched or staggered at all), he’d been expecting this, so it was a common reaction. It hurts—he wants to be the last person to have hurt someone he cares about, even if they’re not dating—but if he thinks about it a different way, it does say his defensive instincts have been finely honed after all these years.
“But I’m clean. As are my agents. You might not like the way I look, but when I’m in there taking the claws to the chest instead of you, you’ll be glad I’m standing on your side.” That annoyed tone better fits the angry distortion and rumble, Leon reflects. Redgrave holds it for a second longer, lone angry white glowing eye staring into Boren, before he lets it go. “The only reason I’m even showing you in the first place is, well, two reasons really. One: so you’ll know what to expect. Yeah, I’ve seen pictures of your BOWs or whatever you call them, and they’re truly hideous, but demons and devils are a little different. Some of them are even friendly, but given that this group pretty much ate through the locals they deserve to be blown to Kingdom Come. Second, so you can do your jobs and not get all friendly fire mode. Actually, no, three. Because my agents, awesome as they are, are more enhanced human than anything. If you shoot them, that would be bad. I’ll know if it’s on purpose, and if it is…” he takes a deep breath. “If it is, I’ll pull every string I have until you’re dishonorably discharged and tried for murder or attempted murder.”
“I’d back that up,” Leon agrees. “We’re supposed to work with these people. The higher-ups okayed it—don’t try to tell me they didn’t know, Boren. I’m sure they knew, and I’m going to have a talk with them about proper briefings.” Because he can spread around the anger. Hunnigan wanted to make sure he still knew how to shoot a shotgun and didn’t think it was relevant to mention this. And even if she didn’t know…someone did.
A single blue eye glances over, inclines his head in the direction of Leon’s people, and. Oh. Oh. He nods back.
Smoothly, like no transition was needed, Xander continues, “You’re aware your commander’s enhanced, so give it a rest with the xenophobic nonsense.”
Boren huffs, but the argument about his superiors seems to have done the trick. “All right, but I’m filing a complaint.”
“Get in line,” Leon mutters under his breath, and catches a quicksilver smile crossing Xander’s face.
A group of three, including the two other men of Redgrave’s people, move away. “Couple of us are witches. We’ll be using spells to attack and heal or shield.”
“As for teams…it’s probably best to have at least one witch with each group, and it’d make sense to have some of my people in each team for some close combat capability. Beyond that…you know your people, Agent Kennedy.” He’s trying to be completely professional, but he wasn’t lying about the lack of experience with inter-agency cooperation, either. It’s pretty standard for the commanders to work out teams between them.
“We’ll discuss that. Let’s figure out our strategy.” Leon beckons Xander to the map, and he comes over, ducking his head shyly again. Yeah, they’ll definitely have to discuss this. Later. “I need to know your people, too, Redgrave.”
He recognizes that sheepish smile, too. It’s a little surreal all over again, seeing it out of context. “Oh. Right. Sorry.” They gather around the map, all five of Leon’s people and all seven of Xander’s. “Nobody splits up the Safar twins.” Each of them raises a hand when their name is mentioned, and while a little too school-age for Leon’s taste, it’s certainly effective. “Andrea’s scores on hand-to-hand and close-range weaponry are outstanding, and Maria’s our best shot with a crossbow. As for the others, Isabelle’s good at the stealth kills. Sierra—”
“I’m the worst.” She looks slightly miserable, like she’s trying to disappear into the ground, and—yeah, there’s that protective compassion Leon could predict. They really do know each other pretty well at this point, don’t they?
“It’s true her performance scores are lower than the others,” he agrees reluctantly, glancing at Leon’s team briefly before focusing all his attention on Sierra. “…but you’ve improved a lot, and you’re still stronger and faster than most army guys.”
Maddox perks up. That’s right; he’s got a thing for strong women, doesn’t he? “Could we have a demonstration? Say, you picking up our box of equipment over there?” Also, he’s trying to weasel out of work. Right. Leon will give it to him; the man can multitask.
Xander shrugs, amusement dancing in his eyes. “It wouldn’t hurt for you to have a better idea of what we’re capable.”
Isabelle smiles encouragingly, and the twins (it was one of the twins that mentioned the cute agent comment, Leon notes) start a pseudo-cheerleader routine, and one of the witches gives her an encouraging push, and Sierra blushes and goes over and...and lifts the box without much effort.
Maddox’s mouth falls open, and he looks like he’s starting to form cartoon hearts in his eyes. Leon shakes his head. The man can flirt later. “That’s a pretty good indication of what you meant when you talked about ‘enhanced’. I’m strong, but that would definitely be a little harder for me.” Even for the ‘weak’ one, she’d made it look easy—and he doesn’t miss the worried look Redgrave casts in his direction. Being thought of as the vulnerable one is an odd experience. Just to demonstrate, he walks over and takes the box, grunting. As he’d mentioned, he can lift it by himself, but it’s definitely more work than it had been for her. As he’d hoped, Xander looks slightly more reassured by the demonstration.
“As for the witches, again, they can all do everything, but Fariha specializes in fireballs, Florian subscribes to the ‘best offense is a good defense’ policy, and John’s the best healer I personally have on my roster.” He shrugs at Campana’s raised eyebrow. “Us commanders might have a ‘calling dibs’ system.”
“Can firearm shots go through the shields?” Boren asks, finally getting to the point where he’s the professional Leon knows he can be, which is why he got picked for his group in the first place. (Of course, at that point he hadn’t known Redgrave would show up, but the point remains.)
“They’re one-way, or they wouldn’t be much use,” Florian explains, French accent thicker than the rest of Redgrave’s people.
“It’d make sense to put Maddox, Campana, and I with Florian and Maria to snipe, and Andrea to catch any that get through, probably from this rocky area here.” Boren pokes a spot on the map.
“As for a closer range group, boss, you and I are pretty good at that. Isabelle and Sierra would fit right in.” The agent in question smirks silently but doesn’t actually say anything, while Sierra looks shocked that she’d be picked.
Redgrave is studying the map, eyes narrowed. “I think the best thing would be to have a group to pull the enemy. Your average zombie’s slow, but everything else is going to be fast. John should probably stick with your group, Kennedy, and I’ll take Fariha, since she’s a current member of the Indian Track Club.”
“I’m decently fast,” Babej offers nervously.
“If you slow us down, I’ll fireman carry you rather than leave you to be eaten,” Redgrave reassures him with a slight smile. “All right, we’ve got our assignments, unless there are any objections?”
No one speaks up. “Grab your equipment, and let’s get this show rolling.”
This does assume some long-term effects from having plagas even after it being removed.
You should still recognize some of these Slayers.
(half-crack: meanwhile, leon is like, xander, stop being competent, it's distracting me from the fact that i'm trying to be mad at you)
Main Points:
Buffy/Devil May Cry/Resident Evil/Background NCIS Crossover
Chapter Summary: Leon and Xander plan their joint mission.
Word Count: 2235
Rating: Teen
Pairing: Leon/Xander
Warning: Xander needs to stop startling armed people (he gets shot this time). He is fine, since he's like Dante, but thought I'd mention it.
The outfit suits him, Leon reflects, as Xander holds a hurried conference with his agents. On anyone else, it’d be ridiculous, but the red leather suits the otherwise outlandish looks like a glove. It’s clearly an old favorite, and he’s probably worn it into battle before, given the worn looks and stitches—not going there, Leon reminds himself. The female agents are actually wearing real armor—the men, too, actually. The only one not is Redgrave. But then, with his—Leon still feels a bit off-balance, thinking about it, glancing down at his knife, cleaned like nothing had ever happened—with his healing, it’s not like he needs body armor or whatever.
He glances back, and there’s a single blue eye staring at him in concern. It’s a little heartwarming, but all he does is nod back. I’m fine; stop worrying about me. It’d…hurt less. But then, maybe that’s not the point.
Just a small smile in return, and then Xander claps his hands. “All right, gather ‘round, boys and girls, it’s time for show and tell.” He points to one of the new recruits. “Name?”
“Babej,” he responds pretty quickly, concerned.
“Babej,” Redgrave repeats. “Could you grab one of your virus tracker gizmos? Just to prove to everybody we’re not infected before we begin.”
They’re all very calm and cooperative when it comes to the scans. Leon stands close enough he’s putting Babej on edge, but he needs to know, needs to see this with his own eyes. It’s pretty clear when the results come back negative. He’s not sure if that makes him more or less at ease, but it’s…a relief, he supposes, to know.
“Now that’s out of the way…we’re here because one of your teams flagged something you don’t have experience with and we do. Specifically, they noted a few Minos—those are snake demons—and Blades—those look like, uh, your Hunters?” He glances at Leon with a raised eyebrow.
Who’s he to ignore an invitation? “Those are lizard-human hybrids, with giant claws. Quick, ugly bastards.”
“Those would be the ones.” Xander’s…oddly cheerful about this. “Though Blades wear some armor on the head and carry around a shield. They can definitely bash you, but they’d rather see a little blood, so they’ll probably try to claw you instead. I’ve been told fighting them is similar, but I can’t speak to that. Just go for the belly and you’re good, but they’re pretty good at getting the shield in the way. And they can shoot their claws at you. Their arm will swell beforehand, so you’ll see the attack coming. Minos can extend their spine through slits in their skin, and while they could poke a few extra breathing holes that way, they prefer to try to grab you and squish you to death. They can’t extend the bones while moving, though, because it’ll get caught on things. They also sport big fangs, but you probably won’t see those unless they try to eat you. They’re also fast when their spine is tucked in, but tend to have a few issues navigating in rocky terrain due to their size, so we’ll probably want to get them to follow us over here.” Xander points to a spot on the map, and it’s strange, seeing him businesslike. Leon’s not sure he’s ever seen that, but then, why would he, if he’d only seen him on his days off? “The utterly weird bit is that while Blades could probably be convinced to help out in the interest of spreading chaos for Mundus, Minos tend to, well. They’ll pop in, take a few humans during nesting season, leave meat for their hatchlings, and otherwise not bother. I have absolutely no idea why they’d help protect equipment—oh yeah.” And there’s that embarrassment he’s gotten to know well. “Might’ve already been in your briefing, but it was a recent, blurry photo. Isabelle?”
The quiet one produces a photo for them to pass around, and Landon whistles. “That could be the Umbrella logo, boss.”
The zombies in question are a few of the average types, plus the dogs. Zombie dogs are never fun to deal with.
“That, plus the amount of demons and zombies around, makes me think that they’re being used as guards. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I never liked being told I had to wait to dig in.” That grin is practically wolfish. But then, Leon’s seen those goofy features turn into something a whole lot scarier recently, so…it doesn’t seem as weird as it had.
“Go back to the part where you’re talking fairytales,” Boren scoffs, and here it comes.
“Remember, I’m not infected, and also we were called in to help you out.” Even having seen it once, Leon’s not really ready for the speed of the change, though it is interesting to watch the jacket mould itself to the demonic body.
A few shots ring out. “Stand down, that’s an order!” Leon yells, but he’s ignored. Another shot. Boren. Landon looks conflicted but lowers his rifle, and Babej is shaking. Freaked out. Leon has to charge in and wrestle the weapon out of Boren’s hands before he’ll stop firing.
“He’s a monster,” Boren states, voice on the edge of mutiny. “And he’s done something to you, sir.” The timing does look kind of suspect, doesn’t it? Leon can’t stifle the wince. From their point of view, he’d only started acting oddly once he’d seen Xander.
He feels a little better about his own reaction, though. They’ve been so conditioned to immediately fire at anything that doesn’t look human. And by how unmoved Xander is (he hadn’t flinched or staggered at all), he’d been expecting this, so it was a common reaction. It hurts—he wants to be the last person to have hurt someone he cares about, even if they’re not dating—but if he thinks about it a different way, it does say his defensive instincts have been finely honed after all these years.
“But I’m clean. As are my agents. You might not like the way I look, but when I’m in there taking the claws to the chest instead of you, you’ll be glad I’m standing on your side.” That annoyed tone better fits the angry distortion and rumble, Leon reflects. Redgrave holds it for a second longer, lone angry white glowing eye staring into Boren, before he lets it go. “The only reason I’m even showing you in the first place is, well, two reasons really. One: so you’ll know what to expect. Yeah, I’ve seen pictures of your BOWs or whatever you call them, and they’re truly hideous, but demons and devils are a little different. Some of them are even friendly, but given that this group pretty much ate through the locals they deserve to be blown to Kingdom Come. Second, so you can do your jobs and not get all friendly fire mode. Actually, no, three. Because my agents, awesome as they are, are more enhanced human than anything. If you shoot them, that would be bad. I’ll know if it’s on purpose, and if it is…” he takes a deep breath. “If it is, I’ll pull every string I have until you’re dishonorably discharged and tried for murder or attempted murder.”
“I’d back that up,” Leon agrees. “We’re supposed to work with these people. The higher-ups okayed it—don’t try to tell me they didn’t know, Boren. I’m sure they knew, and I’m going to have a talk with them about proper briefings.” Because he can spread around the anger. Hunnigan wanted to make sure he still knew how to shoot a shotgun and didn’t think it was relevant to mention this. And even if she didn’t know…someone did.
A single blue eye glances over, inclines his head in the direction of Leon’s people, and. Oh. Oh. He nods back.
Smoothly, like no transition was needed, Xander continues, “You’re aware your commander’s enhanced, so give it a rest with the xenophobic nonsense.”
Boren huffs, but the argument about his superiors seems to have done the trick. “All right, but I’m filing a complaint.”
“Get in line,” Leon mutters under his breath, and catches a quicksilver smile crossing Xander’s face.
A group of three, including the two other men of Redgrave’s people, move away. “Couple of us are witches. We’ll be using spells to attack and heal or shield.”
“As for teams…it’s probably best to have at least one witch with each group, and it’d make sense to have some of my people in each team for some close combat capability. Beyond that…you know your people, Agent Kennedy.” He’s trying to be completely professional, but he wasn’t lying about the lack of experience with inter-agency cooperation, either. It’s pretty standard for the commanders to work out teams between them.
“We’ll discuss that. Let’s figure out our strategy.” Leon beckons Xander to the map, and he comes over, ducking his head shyly again. Yeah, they’ll definitely have to discuss this. Later. “I need to know your people, too, Redgrave.”
He recognizes that sheepish smile, too. It’s a little surreal all over again, seeing it out of context. “Oh. Right. Sorry.” They gather around the map, all five of Leon’s people and all seven of Xander’s. “Nobody splits up the Safar twins.” Each of them raises a hand when their name is mentioned, and while a little too school-age for Leon’s taste, it’s certainly effective. “Andrea’s scores on hand-to-hand and close-range weaponry are outstanding, and Maria’s our best shot with a crossbow. As for the others, Isabelle’s good at the stealth kills. Sierra—”
“I’m the worst.” She looks slightly miserable, like she’s trying to disappear into the ground, and—yeah, there’s that protective compassion Leon could predict. They really do know each other pretty well at this point, don’t they?
“It’s true her performance scores are lower than the others,” he agrees reluctantly, glancing at Leon’s team briefly before focusing all his attention on Sierra. “…but you’ve improved a lot, and you’re still stronger and faster than most army guys.”
Maddox perks up. That’s right; he’s got a thing for strong women, doesn’t he? “Could we have a demonstration? Say, you picking up our box of equipment over there?” Also, he’s trying to weasel out of work. Right. Leon will give it to him; the man can multitask.
Xander shrugs, amusement dancing in his eyes. “It wouldn’t hurt for you to have a better idea of what we’re capable.”
Isabelle smiles encouragingly, and the twins (it was one of the twins that mentioned the cute agent comment, Leon notes) start a pseudo-cheerleader routine, and one of the witches gives her an encouraging push, and Sierra blushes and goes over and...and lifts the box without much effort.
Maddox’s mouth falls open, and he looks like he’s starting to form cartoon hearts in his eyes. Leon shakes his head. The man can flirt later. “That’s a pretty good indication of what you meant when you talked about ‘enhanced’. I’m strong, but that would definitely be a little harder for me.” Even for the ‘weak’ one, she’d made it look easy—and he doesn’t miss the worried look Redgrave casts in his direction. Being thought of as the vulnerable one is an odd experience. Just to demonstrate, he walks over and takes the box, grunting. As he’d mentioned, he can lift it by himself, but it’s definitely more work than it had been for her. As he’d hoped, Xander looks slightly more reassured by the demonstration.
“As for the witches, again, they can all do everything, but Fariha specializes in fireballs, Florian subscribes to the ‘best offense is a good defense’ policy, and John’s the best healer I personally have on my roster.” He shrugs at Campana’s raised eyebrow. “Us commanders might have a ‘calling dibs’ system.”
“Can firearm shots go through the shields?” Boren asks, finally getting to the point where he’s the professional Leon knows he can be, which is why he got picked for his group in the first place. (Of course, at that point he hadn’t known Redgrave would show up, but the point remains.)
“They’re one-way, or they wouldn’t be much use,” Florian explains, French accent thicker than the rest of Redgrave’s people.
“It’d make sense to put Maddox, Campana, and I with Florian and Maria to snipe, and Andrea to catch any that get through, probably from this rocky area here.” Boren pokes a spot on the map.
“As for a closer range group, boss, you and I are pretty good at that. Isabelle and Sierra would fit right in.” The agent in question smirks silently but doesn’t actually say anything, while Sierra looks shocked that she’d be picked.
Redgrave is studying the map, eyes narrowed. “I think the best thing would be to have a group to pull the enemy. Your average zombie’s slow, but everything else is going to be fast. John should probably stick with your group, Kennedy, and I’ll take Fariha, since she’s a current member of the Indian Track Club.”
“I’m decently fast,” Babej offers nervously.
“If you slow us down, I’ll fireman carry you rather than leave you to be eaten,” Redgrave reassures him with a slight smile. “All right, we’ve got our assignments, unless there are any objections?”
No one speaks up. “Grab your equipment, and let’s get this show rolling.”