Alpha turned to face him.“It’s funny that it should end this way. The same way it began nearly twenty years ago with your mother and I.”Alpha raised his hand. Two long, black claws protruded from each wrist.“Interesting. It appears that the Womb’s abilities vary from person to person.” He lunged at Xander, claws outstretched. Xander barely managed to dodge it.“You’re too late anyway,”he laughed, cocking his head toward the reactor.
Xander turned and saw red numbers flashing on the control station’s screen. It looked like it had been lifted from an old clock radio. They were counting down, and were fast approaching the minute mark.
“The core is set to expose itself. The Womb will allow me to survive that blast, but not you... and not anyone in that pathetic town of yours.”
Alpha jumped toward Xander, propelled by powerfully elastic legs. He flew through the air, growling deep in his throat. Xander was barely able to jump out of the way. Alpha’s claws tore at his flesh, causing blood to splatter onto the walls. Xander landed on a metal walkway that led to the reactor. He got up, holding his side and started a limped run for the control panel.
0:59
Alpha turned to face him and saw what he was trying to do. With one fluid motion, his body stretched so that it was in front of Xander, towering over him. He was all that stood between Xander and the timer. Alpha slashed at him again, this time ripping through his stomach. There was a gaping hole there now, he could feel it pulsing and seeping. Could feel the blood splashing down onto his legs. He drew back to punch Alpha, but he caught the attack in his palm. Alpha squeezed on Xander’s fist, blood running from his knuckles. Then with one quick heave, he threw Xander back against the wall.
0:40
Blood gushed from a cut on his head as he tasted the coppery tang of it in his mouth. He spit out a tooth onto the metal floor. Beads of sweat began to roll down his face as the reactor powered up. He opened his eyes to see Alpha crouching in front of him. He opened his mouth, showing his monstrously pointed fangs. Alpha jumped at him with mouth open wide, biting down on Xander’s leg. He screamed in terror as the creature’s many rows of teeth acted like a chainsaw on the flesh and bone. He kicked at Alpha with his free leg and finally managed to beat him off. Alpha drew back a bit, growling.
0:20
Xander felt like giving up. Giving in to the monster before him. His guts in his arms, his blood on the ground... it was his time. He let out a final breath. Then, he thought of her. Of Sara. Of a conversation they had had once.
CHAPTER TWELVE:
OUT
Xander lay on the ground, broken and beaten by Grendel, who was Sara’s current boyfriend.
“When are you going to stop doing this?” she had asked him, using his shirt to wipe a bit of blood from his lip.
He looked up at her, smiling. “I guess when I start winning fights.”
“Not that,” she giggled, wiping more blood from his forehead. “This. Chasing after every boy I go out with like some... jealous father.”
“Oh,” Xander said, looking downward. “I guess when you start going out with reasonable guys.”
“What do you mean?”
“Gee, I wonder. Grendel, Derek, Sud, Tommy, Jamie, Travis, Cecil... the list goes on. Guys that are... Okay, but they don’t deserve you. You deserve someone special. Someone who’ll treat you right and make you feel good and... and not look at you like you’re an object. You’re better than you think you are, y’know. You deserve better.”
She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “That was the nicest thing anyone ever said to me.” She smiled. “Make me a promise.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t ever give up.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t ever stop protecting me. And when I finally do find that guy you were talking about, protect someone else. The world needs a protector, Xander.”
“I promise.”
“Don’t ever give up
“Don’t ever give up
“Don’t ever give up
“Don’t ever give up…”
“I won’t,” he said aloud. As Alpha lunged at him, Xander reached into his pocket and pulled out one of Genblade’s daggers. He thrust out, giving it every ounce of raw power he had left. The blade sunk deep into Alpha’s right side, then ripped across to the left. As Alpha ripped at Xander’s back, Xander reached his hand into Alpha and ripped it out. The pure essence of the Black Womb. That black and gray, smoldering lump of organ.
Alpha’s eyes went wide for an instant, before shrinking back into small white marbles in the middle of his face.
The blackness lost its hold on him all at once and fell from of his body, splashing through the grates of the catwalk and down into the nothingness below. His toothless, cancerous mouth took a deep gasp before he went limp and fell to the floor. His stomach, muscles and skull were all exposed again. As Xander watched, each one seemed to sputter and die on their own.
Wincing, Xander pried open the edges of the wound that Alpha had slashed across his stomach and pushed the Womb organ inside. Black tendrils spat out of its porous surface and latched onto his large intestine, pulling itself into place and pouring out so much blackness that it flowed freely from the opening in Xander’s side and out onto his legs.
His heartbeat doubled, then tripled, then began to beat so fast that it sound more like static in his ears than a drum. Only it wasn’t his heart, at least not his human one. He could feel it pulsing and moving in his side, bending and kneading itself to spread more
