The Book of three: Homecoming Part 4c
By Phoenixgod2000
Beta- Greywizard. Thank you
Authors note- this is going to be the last part for a while, as I turn my
to finishing my BTVS/batman Halloween sequel, darkest knight. Hope you
enjoy it.
New Cast- Sybil Raven.Julie Strain (bulked up)
Feedback- yes please. I didn't get that much for the last part. That
makes me sad (
***
Graham whirled around, bluish bolts flying from the twin barrels of his blasters. The Turok Han he was aiming at disappeared into a cloud of dust. Calmly, the soldier turned to the next one, and then to another one after that. His lungs burned as he fought, his entire body continuously in motion as he surveyed the battleground around him.
His mind was clear as he laid down a field of killing fire that kept the vampires away from him. Everything seemed so clear, the details of the battle standing out perfectly in his mind. The Turok Han circled silently around him and his few remaining soldiers. Of the eight others who had started with him, only three survived uninjured, and two others were alive but unable to fight.
Three weren't going to be moving ever again.
From the corner of his eye, Graham saw Amy disappear beneath a storm of black flame. Suddenly, everything started to slow down. He saw a flare of whitish light within the black flame surrounded the young witch. Instinct told him that she would not last beneath the onslaught. His earlier words began to echo in his mind.
Without thinking, Graham shouted to Angel. " Cover me!"
The vampire nodded grimly and launched himself into the mass of Turok Han. Graham broke free of his killing circle and rushed to the place were Catherine Madison was calmly engulfing her daughter in flames. As he headed towards the two, Graham began firing bluish bolts of power from his guns at the vampiric sorceress.
Catherine wrinkled her nose in contempt as she spared but a single hand to raise a shield, which absorbed the blasts. With barely a passing thought, she reflected the bolts back towards Graham.
Although he managed to evade most of the blasts, one of the reflected strikes grazed Graham and stunned him.
Gritting his teeth, Graham pushed past the pain, as he had learned to do many years before, and kept running forward. Dropping his shoulder, like the collegiate offensive lineman he had been, Graham barreled into Catherine, knocking her flat on the ground and away from Amy.
The aura of black flame ceased, revealing a disheveled Amy, kneeling on the ground, with only the faintest halo of the blocking shield still clinging to Amy's form.
" You will pay for that, little soldier," Catherine hissed. She rolled to her feet with the predatory grace unique to vampires, her eyes slit with fury and her lips twisted into a snarl.
" Get out of here, Amy! Take the other guys and leave. Now!" Graham said, his eyes never leaving the vampiric witch. The young witch nodded hesitantly. Intent on giving his people as much time to escape as possible, Graham jumped on Catherine again and started punching her with one hand, while fumbling for his wooden-tipped baton with the other.
The sorceress flung him away with a blast of telekinetic power. Blind with rage, she never noticed that her daughter, Cordelia, and the remaining soldiers as they fled the scene. She focused all her attention on the downed soldier.
She threw out her hand and hissed, " Pain!"
Graham groaned as his nerve endings instantly burst into what felt like fire. His muscles spasmed in agony and he arched his back. Blindly, he reached out, searching for his blaster and praying that it had been dropped within reach.
After what seemed like forever, his hands closed on the grip of the weapon and he raised it. Catherine smiled at the trembling soldier. It was plain to see that it took all his concentration just to hold the weapon straight.
" It doesn't have to be like this," she cooed. " You can stay young, healthy and strong, forever. All you have to do is nod your head and the pain will end."
For an absurd moment, Graham entertained the possibility.
" I don't think so," he finally forced out. Squeezing the trigger, he fired a full strength bolt into Catherine's face. She shrieked in surprise when the bolt struck her and she clutched at her face with taloned hands.
Graham struggled to his feet and hesitantly started to move as fast as he could away from the wounded vampire.
He had moved no more than fifteen feet before a blanket of dark flame suddenly enveloped him.
***
Sparks flew up as steel hard vampire claws crossed the Damascus steel of Xander's scimitar. The battle between the two raged fast and furious. Xander was careful to stay away from the deadly claws of the master vampire. The natural weapons-crafted by blood magic- would heal fiendishly slow, even on Immortals.
Around them, the battle slowly began to dissipate as the soldiers and Scooby's began to turn the tide away from the vampires.
Dog Tag's grin split his face as he fought the ancient immortal to a stand still. He bled from many small wounds, but his skin had deflected all but the most savage of blows by Xander. One of the powers he gained from becoming a master was the pale skin with the strength of marble.
In turn, Xander bled from several wounds that resisted being healed by the power of his Quickening. Knowing that the vampire before him was every bit capable of dealing a deathblow to the Immortal, Xander pressed the soldier vampire hard, forcing him back.
Dog Tag frowned as he stumbled a little. Shifting one claw back into a hand, he reached behind his back and pulled out a gun he had concealed in the small of his back. Throwing himself into a roll that carried him away from Xander, Dog Tag began firing at the wounded Immortal.
Xander wove a net of flashing steel with his sword and sparks danced around his body. Dog Tag kept on firing, his long years of practice giving the vampire deadly aim, but he was unable to see how many shots were hitting because the sparks and smoke was obscuring his vision.
When the gun emptied and the smoke and sparks cleared, Dog Tag gaped. Xander still stood, his smoking sword held loosely in his hands.
Xander had deflected all of the bullets with his blade.
" That was a little irritating." Xander said, smirking. He advanced forward holding his sword out. " Look around, your men are dead, those things have all been destroyed. You are alone."
Dog Tag growled. " Those were good men," he snarled. We'd been together a long time. There'll be a reckoning, boy. Once we get the shield up and running, we'll *own* the Hellmouth. And you'd best watch out, 'cause then your ass will be mine."
This time it was Xander's turn to growl. He ran forward and swung his sword through the soldier vampire's neck.
Or, at least, that was the plan.
As Xander swung his sword at his opponent, Dog Tag dissolved into a pale mist. In a rage, Xander waved his sword ineffectually through the fog, the blade harmlessly passing through the wisps. The cloud then began to rise into the air.
" Willow!" Xander shouted. " Wind!"
***
Willow's eyes widened when she saw the vampire dissolve to mist. Everything the past three years had taught her about vampires and the Hellmouth told her that what she just saw should be impossible.
Vampires simply could not do that.
Then Xander shouted for wind and Willow's mind snapped back to the present, as she fingered the Kabalistic amulet that was Xander and the women's gift to her. Weather was a difficult arcane art to master, because it invoked all four of the classic elements.
Eyes narrowing, Willow fixed her face in her classic resolve mode and began to chant in the primal tongue of the creator. Drops of sweat appeared on her forehead as she bent all her magical might to creating a witch wind.
Slowly, the wind began to pick up and whip Willow's hair. She continued chanting and the wind began to slice through the fog that had been the vampire. She took the smallest moment to smile at her victory, but after a moment, her smile faltered.
Another power was countering her magic. She could feel something at the edge of her senses clamping down on her energy. The wind flickered and weakened. Willow poured more energy into the spell.
" You are not going to beat me," she muttered.
The mysterious 'Other' opposing her apparently begged to differ. Its energy rose and fought Willow. She fought back, tooth and nail, but the other being simply had more power. Slowly, the wind began to die and the vampire fog managed to drift away, unharmed.
Even as the wind died, the being pushed further, using the channels opened by Willow's use of magic to attack her.
Willow choked up. A presence started to close around her. Darkness filled her lungs and she sank to her knees. Pain fired through her nerves and Willow marshaled all her strength to drive out the attacking force.
She failed.
The redhead slumped to the ground, unconscious. Buffy was at her side a second later and tried waking up the flame-haired Wiccan. Worriedly, she felt Willow's neck for a pulse and found one that was weak and thread-y. She could see Willow's eyes twitching beneath the closed eyelids.
" Come on, Will, wake up," she murmured worriedly.
" Let me try." Xander suddenly appeared from nowhere and knelt beside the girl who was once his oldest friend. Buffy watched in bewilderment as Xander found a spot on her neck and pressed down hard. Willow's body jumped.
" What are you doing?" Buffy demanded. " That's making her worse!"
Xander began to talk softy as he found a second spot on the base of her wrist. " Most people don't know this, but magic runs through a person's body just like the impulses in a person's nervous system. It gathers in points called chakras. They're sort of mystical nerve clusters. When a person cast spells, it opens up the chakras and makes them more vulnerable to psychic attack." Xander, with all his training in emotion control, could not keep a note of worry from creeping into his voice. " Don't you die on me, Will," he demanded in soft voice, " If you do, you'll never get your Barbie back."
Buffy watched the face of her downed friend. Nothing Xander was doing seemed to be working. Willow lay, too still, on the ground. In the background, she could hear Forrest and another soldier talking on the radio, summoning help, but she ignored the conversation. Nothing mattered, except for the still body of the first friend she made in Sunnydale. " It's not working, Xander."
" I know." Xander looked at Buffy with a dark expression in his eyes. " Whatever is attacking her isn't giving up. I'm going to have to do something a little more drastic."
" Which is?"
" This." Xander Harris, the Immortal Trojan warrior and general, was one of the most ancient Immortals to still walk the earth, and he knew many things. He might have no skill with magic, but he had learned a great deal of the manipulation of breath and the energy it controlled, what the Chinese called chi. It wasn't quite the same as magic, but a skilled practitioner could accomplish many things that would seem magical to the unskilled.
One of those things was the ability to enter the astral plane.
Xander closed his eyes and, suddenly, his form slumped against his friend. Buffy stared in horror at Xander's prostrate body. Her eyes narrowed and she made her way to the soldiers talking on the radio.
" I need to call Cordy." She told Forrest.
The black officer shook his head. " Civilians aren't authorized to use our radios," he told the blond Slayer snidely.
Buffy grabbed Forrest's shirt and jerked his face down to her eye level.
" I'm not asking."
***
Amy, Cordy, Angel and the handful of surviving soldiers ran as fast as they could, the screams of Graham chasing them away. Tears traced their way around Cordelia's sculpted face. She had known that Graham was going to die, but even after more than three thousand years of seeing destines fulfilled, she still could not bring herself to accept the death of anyone as necessary to the tapestry of the multiverse.
For Amy, there was simply grief and guilt. Graham had sworn that he would keep her safe and he had, at the cost of his own life. Mingling with the emotions surrounding Graham's demise, were the thoughts about her mother. She was back, no longer trapped wherever she had been since Amy's sophomore year of school. And she was both more powerful and more insane than ever before. Her strength had made a mockery of Amy's powers. Catherine had deflected Amy's fire with hardly a thought, while Amy's shield barely stood against her mother's black fire.
As Amy ran, the fear she felt about her mother began to change and darken into hatred. Memories flickered through her mind. Her mother telling her she was fat, worthless, a useless sack of flesh. Her mother hadn't done a single kind thing for her in all her memory. Unseen by all, the spark of Amy's pyromancy that lurked within her soul began to blacken and char.
Hatred was the greatest fuel for a fire-user's power. And the most corrupting.
Finally, the group began to slow as they put a good deal of distance between themselves and the witch vampire. The survivors looked at each other. None of them had managed to escape unscathed from the battle. Even Angel bore wounds that would take some time to heal.
The crackle of the radio startled the group. The radio operator spoke quickly into the mike, giving a swift assessment to the person on the other line. Eyes widening, he quickly handed the small microphone to cordelia.
" The Slayer wants to talk to you."
Cordelia took the mike and listened in shock as Buffy relayed the events that had just transpired. The seer began to swear. Loudly.
" I'm going to kill him," Cordelia muttered. " But first, I'm going to grab his ass off the astral plane and then I am going to make him sleep on the couch for a month." She knew that Xander, despite the ability to travel to the astral plane, wasn't very strong there, because he had no gift for magic. Only his formidable willpower and the strength provided from his Quickening gave him any sort of edge in the mental plane. And whatever was attacking Willow was going to be much stronger than her erstwhile husband.
Cordelia Harris gave the long-suffering sigh recognizable to all women who've had to bail out their husbands, who didn't think things through.
" Listen," she told the others. " I have to do some magic and I need you to protect my body. I should only be gone for a few minutes." When the others nodded their understanding, she sank to a full lotus position on the ground, for once, heedless of the damage she was doing to her clothes. She took a few deep breaths and her eyes glowed white for a moment. Her chin dropped to her chest.
The moment Cordelia's mind vanished, Amy started to walk away. She called back, " Angel, tell Cordy that I've gone back to my dorm room."
" It's not safe to be out. There are still vamps around," Angel reminded her.
Amy smiled and twin flames burst in her eyes. " I doubt that will be a problem."
Angel stepped back in more than a little fear. He had never felt comfortable around Amy and the expression on her face frightened the souled vampire. It was completely devoid of feeling.
Turning around, Amy walked off. Angel failed to realize that Amy's fire was as black as her mother's heart.
***
Tara knelt in the blood stained alley in shock. She noticed Faith's charred leather jacket and remembered that Faith had mentioned how much she liked that one.
Faith was a god. There was almost nothing that could hurt her on the level that she was picking up in the alley. There was so much ambient pain; she was getting flashes, despite trying to clamp down hard on her gift.
" There's no way she could have lost this much blood and survive," Riley whispered. " No way at all."
Tara looked up in confusion and then remembered that riley and the others thought Faith was simply another Slayer. He had no clue about the ambrosia or Faith's divinity.
" Slayers are tough," she answered delicately. " I've seen Buffy lose more and be well enough to fight in a few days." A small lie.
Riley looked skeptical. He looked around and listened to the far off sirens. " We can't stay here. Even in Sunnydale, the cops are going to notice this," he told the others. " If, IF, Faith is still alive, we'll look for her later. We need to get away right now and meet up with the others, first, and assess our losses from the Op."
Tara wanted to argue but knew that what Riley was saying was true. Besides, she wanted to check up on Amy. She could feel that something was wrong with her love. She nodded her agreement with the solider, and the group disappeared into the night.
***
The astral plane was a plane of the mind. Strength could not be found in the arm or the leg. It was a matter of will power. A person was only as strong as their thoughts. It was a place without borders and boundaries. It was a place for spirits and demons.
A place for gods.
The Astral plane surrounding Sunnydale and the Hellmouth was tainted a dark reddish color. The auras of all the livings lit up the Hellmouth like a pattern of stars. And that night, fading stars represented the dead and dying of the riot that had taken place that night.
Hungry black mist surrounded the red energy that was Willow Rosenberg. Tendrils attached to whitish stars that hung within Willow's aura. The mass pulsed as the dark cloud fed on Willow's lifeforce.
She tasted like strawberries.
Unnoticed by either force was the Hyena that loped along the star lined path. The Hyena was translucent, except for the tracery of blue lines that gave it form. Lightning crawled along its body and it's eyes narrowed when it saw the dark cloud devouring the witch.
With a mighty bound, the Hyena leapt into the black mist and latched onto it with jaws strengthened by love for the starry red mist.
The tentacles shrank and retreated. The red mist strengthened as the dark force momentarily stopped feeding. The black mist swarmed like a cloud and quickly wrapped around the Hyena. The darkness seemed to pulse with pleasure as it fed on the Quickening of the Hyena.
The Hyena struggled against the mist with all its stubbornness and instincts, but it was no match for the dark mist. The struggles slowed, then stopped. The Hyena hung motionless.
It was then the white mist arrived.
Along with the white mist came the unpleasant sensation of timelessness and power. The dark mist felt the weight of destiny approaching and it seemed to curl in on itself. It could remember its beginning, before it had power, and it could taste the possibility of its ending. It could feel the possibility of it not existing.
The mist recoiled and shrank. The concept of its own mortality shook the mist to its core. Although it had been thousands of years since it last had a body, it knew that its time was coming. And this new visitor, that brought with it such disquieting images, frightened it.
The darkness fled before the approaching white mist.
The blue Hyena weakly loped to the side of the starred filled red mist and slowly licked the red mist. The red mist felt love and safety emanate from the predatory creature.
The red mist faded away slowly, till only a ghost of its memory remained, imprinted on the terrain of the Astral. The Hyena turned around and felt itself surrounded by the white mist.
The two beings felt each for a moment, wallowing in the naked display of emotions to one another. It was impossible to hide how you felt about another being while in the astral plane. Emotions were as easily felt as skin was in the real world.
Then they both turned away and disappeared.
***
The darkness gradually lifted from Willow. She blinked, because the streetlight now shone directly in her eyes. She focused on the two faces in front of her and they resolved themselves into Buffy and Xander.
" Whaa." she groaned weakly, " happened?" She pushed herself up off the concrete with trembling arms. She felt as though she had just run a marathon. All her muscles shook and she could feel emptiness inside where her magic reserves should be.
Xander smiled and pushed back a stray lock of hair. He looked like he had aged several years in only a few minutes. Lines stood out in sharp relief around his eyes and fatigued showed in them. " You left yourself open to magical attack, and something decided to seize the opportunity. Cordy and I sent our minds to the astral plane to save you." His eyes flicked over to Buffy. " Thanks for the call to Cordy, Buffster."
Buffy smiled back cheekily. " Don't thank me, yet. Cordelia sounded *pissed*."
Xander looked pained. Cordelia's tongue had only sharpened, after three millennia of practice, and she could be *very* cross when she thought he was risking his immortal neck. He foresaw a long period of couch sleeping, unless he appealed to their lusty better third, Faith.
Forrest walked up to Xander, an unusually grave expression on his face. " Xander, Riley's on the phone. He wants to talk to you."
Xander read the expression on his face and shuddered. Forrest wasn't the warmest guy but there was sympathy etched on his face. He took the phone, " Xander here."
# Finn here. We got ambushed outside the murder scene. Faith wandered off right before the fight. She disappeared and there's lots of blood. Too much blood. #
" What?" Xander sat down hard in the middle of the street. The chaos around him vanished and his chest tightened. Faith was missing? " That's not possible."
# I'm sorry Xan. She w-is a hell of a woman Xander but there must be three liters of blood in the alley here. She's a tough Slayer but.#
" Riley."
#Yeah? #
" Shut the hell up." Xander snapped the radio closed. Buffy and Willow wandered over cautiously. They could tell Xander had gotten bad news, but not what was so bad.
" What happened?" Buffy asked. Willow just put her hand on Xander's shoulder.
" Faith's missing," he answered dazedly. " Lots of blood. Riley thinks she's dead."
Willow and Buffy traded looks. Tentatively, Willow asked, " Can, uhh, can Faith even die like that?"
Xander shrugged. " Vampires, no." He smiled. " Not a vampire's been turned that can give Faith a challenge. But something else." Suddenly, he stood up and closed his eyes.
Xander winced as he felt the rage and fear in Cordelia's mental voice. It was a twin to his own.
Long Pause
Xander could feel the shame in Cordelia's mind. That period of time wasn't easy for her, and she hated being reminded of it and her moment of weakness.
There was a long pause, and then Xander's voice came again. Xander's mind sent a soothing thought through the connection to Cordelia, then broke off his mental connection and refocused on Buffy and Willow.
" Forrest," he called out. " I need to go home. I'll meet you at the base in one hour, and we can plan what to do next."
The black soldier merely nodded as he conferred with the other pair of teams
He turned to Buffy and Willow. " You two come on."
"Where are we going?"
" Off to war."
***
Amy made it back to her dorm room in record time. Students had gathered in the pool hall to watch the news about the Sunnydale riots, but she ignored them. She made her way to her small cubical that she shared with another girl, who was out of town for the week.
Quietly thinking that she was grateful for the lack of prying eyes, she went to her bed and pulled out a small wooden box from beneath it. The box was without seams, and Amy was forced to dive deep into her mother's memories for the command word to open it.
Magic was emotion. It fed off the feelings of the caster, which is why mages needed to have a great deal of emotional control. Leakage could seriously disrupt or change spells. It was kind of like the Force from Star Wars, in that respect. Dark emotions could swallow a caster whole, while positive emotions could lift up a caster to heights undreamed of. Amy was feeling very dark, indeed, at that moment.
Amy opened the box. She had realized that she was going to have to learn some of the dirtiest magical tricks her mother knew, in order to fight on any sort of level playing field with her. She had resisted doing it for so long because she was terrified she could end up like her mother, but now, after being face to face with her worst nightmare-her mother back and turned- she realized that she couldn't play softball anymore.
Inside the box was a leather-lined tome. It was the Book of Shadows for the entire Madison line. Most of the spells in there were benign and ones that she had already learned. The real power of the Madison Book of Shadows was the pyromantic techniques that had been passed down from Madison daughter to Madison daughter for more than five centuries. The ability to manipulate fire was the only ability the Madisons ever manifested. Most of those techniques were dark, ways to manifest fire that drew on the darkest emotions in the human spirit. Black fire, the draining fire, the clinging greenish balefire, these powers and more were all possible using the dark arts of Madison fire magic.
And it was high time she learned all of them.
***
Faith woke up in the darkness. Her whole body ached in ways that it hadn't in centuries. Cold iron manacles bound her wrists and ankles to what seemed to be a stone wall. Not even the smallest trace of light could be found in the cell.
Faith couldn't remember the last time she had been captured by an enemy. The last thing she remembered was the bitch vampire casting a spell and her skin bursting open like ripe fruit. She could remember her fading consciousness as torrents of blood rushed from her body. Hell, she didn't even know why she was still alive. Even gods could be exsanguinated-it was just damn hard to do it to one.
On top of everything else, she had a monster of a headache. Her temples throbbed in time with her own heart.
She tested the iron bonds around her wrists. They were solid and, at her baseline level of Slayer like strength, they were unbreakable. Faith attempted to tap into her divine power and snap the iron. It was something she knew she could do. She had, after all, performed greater feats of strength for longer periods of time in the past.
Except, nothing happened.
Faith frowned and next attempted to invoke a simple power, to see in the dark. She reached inside herself and tried to tap into the divine spark. It was an ability she had invoked a thousand times over the years and it never failed to work.
Until now.
Absolutely nothing happened. Faith couldn't even feel the power start to work. It was like something had damped down her divine power.
Then, in a moment of absolute terror, she realized what had happened. It was the strangely familiar headaches that tipped her off.
It was her Slayer sense going haywire due to the enormous quantity of vampires being around. She hadn't had her Slayer sense triggered in more than thirty two hundred years. The divine spark had driven out the remaining embers of the Slayer spirit.
Suddenly the slayer spirit was back again, which could only mean one thing.
The divine spark was gone.
Faith was mortal again.
***
It was a sad group that made its way back to the Harris mansion. Each was lost in their own thought.
Xander was simply devastated at the thought of losing Faith. After three thousand years of being together, one of the few things that scared Xander was the thought of losing either of his wives.
Cordelia was simply ashamed of how poorly her visions had served the Initiative and the Scoobies. Her powers were normally much more accurate. She didn't know how she'd ever show her face around the Initiative base again.
The others simply turned over in their minds the horrible debacle that had resulted from the simple mission. Never had the Scoobies had a evening turn out so badly.
When they reached the front gate, they noticed that the riot didn't seem to come this far into the town. No fires lay burning; no cars were crashed in the middle of the street, and no bodies lay in the streets, savaged by Turok Han and run of the mill vampires. The whole area was eerily silent with the distant echoes of helicopter whirling and police sirens heard in the distance.
Xander stepped to the locked gate and swiftly tapped out the code that deactivated both mechanical and magical defenses of the Harris Mansion. The group stepped through, their thoughts turned grimly to their lost friend and the many slain soldiers. The night was not supposed to have ended this way.
Xander was worried, although he kept his face schooled in an emotionless blank. Although his heart wailed at the thought Faith might be dead or dying, he could not let those feelings overwhelm common sense. Wordlessly, Cordelia caught his hand and he shot a grateful smile to the exiled Power.
When they reached the front door, Xander and Buffy were struck by the Buzz and that told them an Immortal was nearby.
" Xander." Buffy called out warningly.
" I know," he replied. Willow looked at them in confusion, and he clarified. " Buffy and I can feel another Immortal, but we don't know if it's a friend or not. It's usually not," he added grimly to Buffy.
Buffy stepped forward, but Xander held out his arm. " I'm your teacher, Buff. It's my job to go in first." The Slayer narrowed her eyes at the perceived slight against her fighting skills, but she silently stepped back and Xander walked through the entry way first. One thing that Xander has already taught her was that slayer strength and speed mean squat to someone with centuries of muscle memory and training on their side.
Xander drew his sword and quietly glided down the hallway. He motioned for the others to be silent and cocked his head, testing the air with his keen nose.
Buffy was surprised to see Xander narrow his eyes in distaste, but slam his sword away. He sighed. " It's okay. I know who it is." He turned and told Cordy, " Alex is here." By his tone, this 'Alex,' whoever they might be, wasn't high on Xander's list of favorite people.
Cordelia look surprised. " Why would Alex be here?"
" Lets go find out." With shoulders set like a warrior going off to his death, Xander led the group to the library. Where Buffy was subjected to the most disturbing sight she had ever seen in all her years as a Slayer.
Giles sat in a deep leather bound reading chair, a tall brunet in a shirt that had more cloth missing than present straddling him, while Oz looked on in quiet amusement.
The woman was busy kissing Giles face. His glasses had half slid off his face and he was too busy reciprocating to realize anyone had entered, at first.
At first.
Upon noticing that he had an audience, Giles paled and thrust the woman off, causing her to drop to the ground with a resounding Thump! that would have caused a less shocked group to burst into peals of laughter.
" I-I-I can assure you," Giles stammered, as he jumped to his feet. " This is not what it appears to be."
***
" So, who called a bloody meeting?" Spike yelled as he hopped the last few steps down into the inner sanctum of the Temple of Amara. He wore his customary clothes, minus the leather coat that had been his trademark for the past twenty-five years, and looked severely put out.
He found the entire group of recently elevated Master vampires, along with their servants, meeting inside the cavernous heart of the temple, standing around the well of blood that dominated the center of the room. Turok Han crouched along the edges of the room, just outside the radius of the magical light that illuminated the chamber.
" I did, Spike." Catherine Madison stood in front of her sire, displaying none of the servile attitude that had characterized her previous behavior. Drusilla stood next to her, jerkily hopping from one foot to the other as she stared at the sorceress.
" Granddaughter's been bad," she whimpered. " Lying to the stars she was, the stars and Miss Edith."
" What did you do to Dru?" Spike growled.
" Nothing," Catherine replied calmly. " She can merely feel the coming of the Master." The vampire sorceress cupped her hands together and an angry red-black orb of cracking energy appeared between her hands. As soon as the orb coalesced, she hurled it into the well of blood.
The Master vampires stared in fascination at the well, hoping to see something in the churning turmoil, as the blood began to bubble.
" What the 'ell are you talking about, you crazy bint?" Spike hissed. " I'm your bloody master and sire."
Catherine smiled cruelly. " Do you really think that all of this has been *your* idea, Spike? You? The vampire with such a short attention span, you couldn't come up with a decent plan and pay attention long enough to follow through, and kill the Slayer? Not very likely," she snorted in derision.
Extending her hands to encompass the room and all of the vampires, she spoke loudly enough for all to hear clearly. " No, my true master has been pulling you strings and the strings of your pathetic little girlfriend."
Spike stepped forward, but Dog Tag and Thomas Thorne stepped between him and Catherine. " Spike," Thorne cajoled, " Don't do anything stupid. The master will be coming soon and as the holder of his ring, you will be given a special place in his council."
" Of course," Dog Tag rasped, " If you don't, we'll just have to find someone else." He let out a sharp laugh. " Gee, I don't know how we're going to do that."
" He's coming," Drusilla, whimpered, " all fierce and dark, he is. He's going to be so hungry and Miss Edith doesn't want to be eaten all up."
The bubbling of the well of blood began to increase and grow more agitated. A single huge Bubble grew and expanded. A dark form could be seen huddled inside the bubble.
The vampires seemed to understand that they needed to move back and, as almost one being, they took a step back while they watched the happenings.
With a pop that startled both the master and servant vampires, a grayish black form crouched at the rim of the well of blood. Stringy gray hair hung from a head that only seemed vaguely human. Skin hung slack on a form that looked starved and dry.
But despite its withered looking body, the being totally captured the attention of the vampires. All of the Masters present could feel the power radiating from his body. It almost felt like a drug designed to get their demons high. It was intoxicating.
Shadows flew off the walls like black silk ribbons and wrapped themselves around his body, thickening into deeply folded robes. The ancient vampire unhurriedly stood up and met the gaze of each of the vampires. His face was impossible to discern from beneath his hood of shadows. He made a swift arcane gesture and several screams rent the air as nearly a dozen of the lesser vampires standing around simply burst into dust. The dust hung in the air for a moment and then flew towards the ancient vampire as if attracted by magnets.
The watching vampires couldn't see the exact transformation, but the figure before them quickly swelled and his body rapidly gained weight and filled out. None of the vampires could yet see his face. They started to become nervous as they started to wonder whom, if anyone else, was going to be next.
" They were weak," the ancient vampire said, answering the unasked question. " I will not tolerate weakness among my disciples." The vampire's voice came out smooth and strong, with a deep bass tone that reverberated through the underground hall.
" And who are you mate, that you get disciples?" Spike's cocky tone carried through the hall. The vampires surrounded him parted like the red sea when the mysterious vampire approached. Spike shifted nervously as his cocky demeanor evaporated before the other being's quiet malevolence.
The vampire drew back his deep hood and everyone gained his or her first good look at the powerful vampire who had so mysteriously appeared before them. He was a tall barrel-chested African man with dusky black skin and long gray hair, more akin to a lion's mane, which hung past his shoulders. His eyes glowed with wisdom and power. Most of the vampires in the crowd involuntarily shifted into game face as the demons inside them grew in strength
Reaching out, he grabbed Spike's ring hand and rubbed a calloused thumb over the green gem-capped ring. " It has been a long time since I have seen that ring, William," he said quietly. " It saved me you know. It saved me when the slayer came with her army. When my body was destroyed, it kept me safe." He released Spike's hand and captured his gaze with a fearsome stare. He looked out over the crowd. " It is good to see so many of my descendants gathered here." His voice carried clearly over the group. " To answer your question, William, I am Amara."
" Your God."
***
Buffy stared in awe. The others, with the exception of Xander and Cordelia, were in a similar state of shock. Seeing the buttoned down Englishman in such a compromising condition was a shock. It went against everything they saw their mentor to be. Especially since the woman appeared to be enjoying herself.
Willow was the first to get over her shock. She stared hard at the woman for a long moment. The woman was definitely stare-worthy. While not a classically beautifully woman, she was definitely striking.
First of all she was tall. Now that she was standing up, everyone could see that she stood as tall as Xander, an inch or so above six feet, and that was in flats. Secondly, her body straddled the line between feminine beauty and unseemly muscle. Her shirt left enough exposed to see that her back and abdomen were exceptionally lean and ripped. Thick muscles, which would not have been out of place on a female bodybuilder, rippled along her arms. Leather pants clung to legs that were sculpted pillars of strength. Her hair hung in an ebony cascade of ringlets. And her face was a combination of fine bones, high cheeks, and sculpted facial muscles.
But it was her eyes that were the most captivating. They were the color of copper pennies and seemed to be set perfectly within her tanned and fit body. And they were boring into Xander with barely restrained hostility.
" I've seen you somewhere before, but where was it?" Willow mused aloud.
" Rolling Stone," Oz helpfully supplied.
Willow snapped her fingers. " That's right. You're the lead singer of that new all girl rock band, Snake Charmer. Sybil Raven. You're supposed to be really good."
" Voice like Melissa Ethridge, guitar chops like Jimmy Hendrix, and a body like a porn star." Sybil added, smiling. She looked to Xander, and in a voice dripping with sugary falseness, she said, " I'm shocked, simply shocked, that you wouldn't keep up with my exploits. After all I thought I was your favorite."
" I never taught you to be so open," Xander replied calmly, although his voice was laced with bitterness and pain. " It's stupid for an immortal to make themselves famous. We depend on secrecy."
She shrugged. " I like music and I suck at keeping secrets. It's how I met Ripper here, back in the seventies. He was quite the hard core little rock rebel, back then."
Buffy interjected. " You knew Giles back, back when he was.you know."
" A pissed off wanker," Sybil laughed. "Yep, I did." She looked fondly on the Englishman, who had since recovered his equilibrium. " And when I came here to borrow a book of prophecy and ran into Rip, looking all yummy, well."
" In front of Oz," Xander yelled, exasperated. Around this woman, he seemed to lose all traces of calm centeredness he had displayed since he got back to town.
" I didn't mind. I love her band," Oz answered. " Plus, still trying to get that E-flat diminished nine and when the girl said she learned how to pick from Jimmy and Slash." He shrugged. " I'll live with a lot."
" Besides, when, exactly did you get the right to tell me what to do?" Sybil challenged. " Oh wait, that's right. *Never*," she continued bitterly, her coppery eyes boring into Xander.
The others could sense that this had the feeling of an old argument. Cordelia just stared in sadness as she looked between the two of them.
" Xander, who is this girl? She's clearly more than just some musician. Is she an Immortal like you and Buffy?"
Xander just nodded.
" Aren't going to tell them who I am?" Sybil challenged. " Worried they won't love you anymore, after they find out what kind of person you really are?"
Xander just sighed. " I don't have anything to hide, Alex. I only do in your mind." He turned to look at the group and met their gaze, one by one. All of them had the same question burning obviously in their gaze. " Gang, Giles," he said. " This is Alexandra Harris."
" My daughter."
***
Special Guest Star..
.James Earl Jones as.
. Amara, The God of Vampires
***
Graham whirled around, bluish bolts flying from the twin barrels of his blasters. The Turok Han he was aiming at disappeared into a cloud of dust. Calmly, the soldier turned to the next one, and then to another one after that. His lungs burned as he fought, his entire body continuously in motion as he surveyed the battleground around him.
His mind was clear as he laid down a field of killing fire that kept the vampires away from him. Everything seemed so clear, the details of the battle standing out perfectly in his mind. The Turok Han circled silently around him and his few remaining soldiers. Of the eight others who had started with him, only three survived uninjured, and two others were alive but unable to fight.
Three weren't going to be moving ever again.
From the corner of his eye, Graham saw Amy disappear beneath a storm of black flame. Suddenly, everything started to slow down. He saw a flare of whitish light within the black flame surrounded the young witch. Instinct told him that she would not last beneath the onslaught. His earlier words began to echo in his mind.
Without thinking, Graham shouted to Angel. " Cover me!"
The vampire nodded grimly and launched himself into the mass of Turok Han. Graham broke free of his killing circle and rushed to the place were Catherine Madison was calmly engulfing her daughter in flames. As he headed towards the two, Graham began firing bluish bolts of power from his guns at the vampiric sorceress.
Catherine wrinkled her nose in contempt as she spared but a single hand to raise a shield, which absorbed the blasts. With barely a passing thought, she reflected the bolts back towards Graham.
Although he managed to evade most of the blasts, one of the reflected strikes grazed Graham and stunned him.
Gritting his teeth, Graham pushed past the pain, as he had learned to do many years before, and kept running forward. Dropping his shoulder, like the collegiate offensive lineman he had been, Graham barreled into Catherine, knocking her flat on the ground and away from Amy.
The aura of black flame ceased, revealing a disheveled Amy, kneeling on the ground, with only the faintest halo of the blocking shield still clinging to Amy's form.
" You will pay for that, little soldier," Catherine hissed. She rolled to her feet with the predatory grace unique to vampires, her eyes slit with fury and her lips twisted into a snarl.
" Get out of here, Amy! Take the other guys and leave. Now!" Graham said, his eyes never leaving the vampiric witch. The young witch nodded hesitantly. Intent on giving his people as much time to escape as possible, Graham jumped on Catherine again and started punching her with one hand, while fumbling for his wooden-tipped baton with the other.
The sorceress flung him away with a blast of telekinetic power. Blind with rage, she never noticed that her daughter, Cordelia, and the remaining soldiers as they fled the scene. She focused all her attention on the downed soldier.
She threw out her hand and hissed, " Pain!"
Graham groaned as his nerve endings instantly burst into what felt like fire. His muscles spasmed in agony and he arched his back. Blindly, he reached out, searching for his blaster and praying that it had been dropped within reach.
After what seemed like forever, his hands closed on the grip of the weapon and he raised it. Catherine smiled at the trembling soldier. It was plain to see that it took all his concentration just to hold the weapon straight.
" It doesn't have to be like this," she cooed. " You can stay young, healthy and strong, forever. All you have to do is nod your head and the pain will end."
For an absurd moment, Graham entertained the possibility.
" I don't think so," he finally forced out. Squeezing the trigger, he fired a full strength bolt into Catherine's face. She shrieked in surprise when the bolt struck her and she clutched at her face with taloned hands.
Graham struggled to his feet and hesitantly started to move as fast as he could away from the wounded vampire.
He had moved no more than fifteen feet before a blanket of dark flame suddenly enveloped him.
***
Sparks flew up as steel hard vampire claws crossed the Damascus steel of Xander's scimitar. The battle between the two raged fast and furious. Xander was careful to stay away from the deadly claws of the master vampire. The natural weapons-crafted by blood magic- would heal fiendishly slow, even on Immortals.
Around them, the battle slowly began to dissipate as the soldiers and Scooby's began to turn the tide away from the vampires.
Dog Tag's grin split his face as he fought the ancient immortal to a stand still. He bled from many small wounds, but his skin had deflected all but the most savage of blows by Xander. One of the powers he gained from becoming a master was the pale skin with the strength of marble.
In turn, Xander bled from several wounds that resisted being healed by the power of his Quickening. Knowing that the vampire before him was every bit capable of dealing a deathblow to the Immortal, Xander pressed the soldier vampire hard, forcing him back.
Dog Tag frowned as he stumbled a little. Shifting one claw back into a hand, he reached behind his back and pulled out a gun he had concealed in the small of his back. Throwing himself into a roll that carried him away from Xander, Dog Tag began firing at the wounded Immortal.
Xander wove a net of flashing steel with his sword and sparks danced around his body. Dog Tag kept on firing, his long years of practice giving the vampire deadly aim, but he was unable to see how many shots were hitting because the sparks and smoke was obscuring his vision.
When the gun emptied and the smoke and sparks cleared, Dog Tag gaped. Xander still stood, his smoking sword held loosely in his hands.
Xander had deflected all of the bullets with his blade.
" That was a little irritating." Xander said, smirking. He advanced forward holding his sword out. " Look around, your men are dead, those things have all been destroyed. You are alone."
Dog Tag growled. " Those were good men," he snarled. We'd been together a long time. There'll be a reckoning, boy. Once we get the shield up and running, we'll *own* the Hellmouth. And you'd best watch out, 'cause then your ass will be mine."
This time it was Xander's turn to growl. He ran forward and swung his sword through the soldier vampire's neck.
Or, at least, that was the plan.
As Xander swung his sword at his opponent, Dog Tag dissolved into a pale mist. In a rage, Xander waved his sword ineffectually through the fog, the blade harmlessly passing through the wisps. The cloud then began to rise into the air.
" Willow!" Xander shouted. " Wind!"
***
Willow's eyes widened when she saw the vampire dissolve to mist. Everything the past three years had taught her about vampires and the Hellmouth told her that what she just saw should be impossible.
Vampires simply could not do that.
Then Xander shouted for wind and Willow's mind snapped back to the present, as she fingered the Kabalistic amulet that was Xander and the women's gift to her. Weather was a difficult arcane art to master, because it invoked all four of the classic elements.
Eyes narrowing, Willow fixed her face in her classic resolve mode and began to chant in the primal tongue of the creator. Drops of sweat appeared on her forehead as she bent all her magical might to creating a witch wind.
Slowly, the wind began to pick up and whip Willow's hair. She continued chanting and the wind began to slice through the fog that had been the vampire. She took the smallest moment to smile at her victory, but after a moment, her smile faltered.
Another power was countering her magic. She could feel something at the edge of her senses clamping down on her energy. The wind flickered and weakened. Willow poured more energy into the spell.
" You are not going to beat me," she muttered.
The mysterious 'Other' opposing her apparently begged to differ. Its energy rose and fought Willow. She fought back, tooth and nail, but the other being simply had more power. Slowly, the wind began to die and the vampire fog managed to drift away, unharmed.
Even as the wind died, the being pushed further, using the channels opened by Willow's use of magic to attack her.
Willow choked up. A presence started to close around her. Darkness filled her lungs and she sank to her knees. Pain fired through her nerves and Willow marshaled all her strength to drive out the attacking force.
She failed.
The redhead slumped to the ground, unconscious. Buffy was at her side a second later and tried waking up the flame-haired Wiccan. Worriedly, she felt Willow's neck for a pulse and found one that was weak and thread-y. She could see Willow's eyes twitching beneath the closed eyelids.
" Come on, Will, wake up," she murmured worriedly.
" Let me try." Xander suddenly appeared from nowhere and knelt beside the girl who was once his oldest friend. Buffy watched in bewilderment as Xander found a spot on her neck and pressed down hard. Willow's body jumped.
" What are you doing?" Buffy demanded. " That's making her worse!"
Xander began to talk softy as he found a second spot on the base of her wrist. " Most people don't know this, but magic runs through a person's body just like the impulses in a person's nervous system. It gathers in points called chakras. They're sort of mystical nerve clusters. When a person cast spells, it opens up the chakras and makes them more vulnerable to psychic attack." Xander, with all his training in emotion control, could not keep a note of worry from creeping into his voice. " Don't you die on me, Will," he demanded in soft voice, " If you do, you'll never get your Barbie back."
Buffy watched the face of her downed friend. Nothing Xander was doing seemed to be working. Willow lay, too still, on the ground. In the background, she could hear Forrest and another soldier talking on the radio, summoning help, but she ignored the conversation. Nothing mattered, except for the still body of the first friend she made in Sunnydale. " It's not working, Xander."
" I know." Xander looked at Buffy with a dark expression in his eyes. " Whatever is attacking her isn't giving up. I'm going to have to do something a little more drastic."
" Which is?"
" This." Xander Harris, the Immortal Trojan warrior and general, was one of the most ancient Immortals to still walk the earth, and he knew many things. He might have no skill with magic, but he had learned a great deal of the manipulation of breath and the energy it controlled, what the Chinese called chi. It wasn't quite the same as magic, but a skilled practitioner could accomplish many things that would seem magical to the unskilled.
One of those things was the ability to enter the astral plane.
Xander closed his eyes and, suddenly, his form slumped against his friend. Buffy stared in horror at Xander's prostrate body. Her eyes narrowed and she made her way to the soldiers talking on the radio.
" I need to call Cordy." She told Forrest.
The black officer shook his head. " Civilians aren't authorized to use our radios," he told the blond Slayer snidely.
Buffy grabbed Forrest's shirt and jerked his face down to her eye level.
" I'm not asking."
***
Amy, Cordy, Angel and the handful of surviving soldiers ran as fast as they could, the screams of Graham chasing them away. Tears traced their way around Cordelia's sculpted face. She had known that Graham was going to die, but even after more than three thousand years of seeing destines fulfilled, she still could not bring herself to accept the death of anyone as necessary to the tapestry of the multiverse.
For Amy, there was simply grief and guilt. Graham had sworn that he would keep her safe and he had, at the cost of his own life. Mingling with the emotions surrounding Graham's demise, were the thoughts about her mother. She was back, no longer trapped wherever she had been since Amy's sophomore year of school. And she was both more powerful and more insane than ever before. Her strength had made a mockery of Amy's powers. Catherine had deflected Amy's fire with hardly a thought, while Amy's shield barely stood against her mother's black fire.
As Amy ran, the fear she felt about her mother began to change and darken into hatred. Memories flickered through her mind. Her mother telling her she was fat, worthless, a useless sack of flesh. Her mother hadn't done a single kind thing for her in all her memory. Unseen by all, the spark of Amy's pyromancy that lurked within her soul began to blacken and char.
Hatred was the greatest fuel for a fire-user's power. And the most corrupting.
Finally, the group began to slow as they put a good deal of distance between themselves and the witch vampire. The survivors looked at each other. None of them had managed to escape unscathed from the battle. Even Angel bore wounds that would take some time to heal.
The crackle of the radio startled the group. The radio operator spoke quickly into the mike, giving a swift assessment to the person on the other line. Eyes widening, he quickly handed the small microphone to cordelia.
" The Slayer wants to talk to you."
Cordelia took the mike and listened in shock as Buffy relayed the events that had just transpired. The seer began to swear. Loudly.
" I'm going to kill him," Cordelia muttered. " But first, I'm going to grab his ass off the astral plane and then I am going to make him sleep on the couch for a month." She knew that Xander, despite the ability to travel to the astral plane, wasn't very strong there, because he had no gift for magic. Only his formidable willpower and the strength provided from his Quickening gave him any sort of edge in the mental plane. And whatever was attacking Willow was going to be much stronger than her erstwhile husband.
Cordelia Harris gave the long-suffering sigh recognizable to all women who've had to bail out their husbands, who didn't think things through.
" Listen," she told the others. " I have to do some magic and I need you to protect my body. I should only be gone for a few minutes." When the others nodded their understanding, she sank to a full lotus position on the ground, for once, heedless of the damage she was doing to her clothes. She took a few deep breaths and her eyes glowed white for a moment. Her chin dropped to her chest.
The moment Cordelia's mind vanished, Amy started to walk away. She called back, " Angel, tell Cordy that I've gone back to my dorm room."
" It's not safe to be out. There are still vamps around," Angel reminded her.
Amy smiled and twin flames burst in her eyes. " I doubt that will be a problem."
Angel stepped back in more than a little fear. He had never felt comfortable around Amy and the expression on her face frightened the souled vampire. It was completely devoid of feeling.
Turning around, Amy walked off. Angel failed to realize that Amy's fire was as black as her mother's heart.
***
Tara knelt in the blood stained alley in shock. She noticed Faith's charred leather jacket and remembered that Faith had mentioned how much she liked that one.
Faith was a god. There was almost nothing that could hurt her on the level that she was picking up in the alley. There was so much ambient pain; she was getting flashes, despite trying to clamp down hard on her gift.
" There's no way she could have lost this much blood and survive," Riley whispered. " No way at all."
Tara looked up in confusion and then remembered that riley and the others thought Faith was simply another Slayer. He had no clue about the ambrosia or Faith's divinity.
" Slayers are tough," she answered delicately. " I've seen Buffy lose more and be well enough to fight in a few days." A small lie.
Riley looked skeptical. He looked around and listened to the far off sirens. " We can't stay here. Even in Sunnydale, the cops are going to notice this," he told the others. " If, IF, Faith is still alive, we'll look for her later. We need to get away right now and meet up with the others, first, and assess our losses from the Op."
Tara wanted to argue but knew that what Riley was saying was true. Besides, she wanted to check up on Amy. She could feel that something was wrong with her love. She nodded her agreement with the solider, and the group disappeared into the night.
***
The astral plane was a plane of the mind. Strength could not be found in the arm or the leg. It was a matter of will power. A person was only as strong as their thoughts. It was a place without borders and boundaries. It was a place for spirits and demons.
A place for gods.
The Astral plane surrounding Sunnydale and the Hellmouth was tainted a dark reddish color. The auras of all the livings lit up the Hellmouth like a pattern of stars. And that night, fading stars represented the dead and dying of the riot that had taken place that night.
Hungry black mist surrounded the red energy that was Willow Rosenberg. Tendrils attached to whitish stars that hung within Willow's aura. The mass pulsed as the dark cloud fed on Willow's lifeforce.
She tasted like strawberries.
Unnoticed by either force was the Hyena that loped along the star lined path. The Hyena was translucent, except for the tracery of blue lines that gave it form. Lightning crawled along its body and it's eyes narrowed when it saw the dark cloud devouring the witch.
With a mighty bound, the Hyena leapt into the black mist and latched onto it with jaws strengthened by love for the starry red mist.
The tentacles shrank and retreated. The red mist strengthened as the dark force momentarily stopped feeding. The black mist swarmed like a cloud and quickly wrapped around the Hyena. The darkness seemed to pulse with pleasure as it fed on the Quickening of the Hyena.
The Hyena struggled against the mist with all its stubbornness and instincts, but it was no match for the dark mist. The struggles slowed, then stopped. The Hyena hung motionless.
It was then the white mist arrived.
Along with the white mist came the unpleasant sensation of timelessness and power. The dark mist felt the weight of destiny approaching and it seemed to curl in on itself. It could remember its beginning, before it had power, and it could taste the possibility of its ending. It could feel the possibility of it not existing.
The mist recoiled and shrank. The concept of its own mortality shook the mist to its core. Although it had been thousands of years since it last had a body, it knew that its time was coming. And this new visitor, that brought with it such disquieting images, frightened it.
The darkness fled before the approaching white mist.
The blue Hyena weakly loped to the side of the starred filled red mist and slowly licked the red mist. The red mist felt love and safety emanate from the predatory creature.
The red mist faded away slowly, till only a ghost of its memory remained, imprinted on the terrain of the Astral. The Hyena turned around and felt itself surrounded by the white mist.
The two beings felt each for a moment, wallowing in the naked display of emotions to one another. It was impossible to hide how you felt about another being while in the astral plane. Emotions were as easily felt as skin was in the real world.
Then they both turned away and disappeared.
***
The darkness gradually lifted from Willow. She blinked, because the streetlight now shone directly in her eyes. She focused on the two faces in front of her and they resolved themselves into Buffy and Xander.
" Whaa." she groaned weakly, " happened?" She pushed herself up off the concrete with trembling arms. She felt as though she had just run a marathon. All her muscles shook and she could feel emptiness inside where her magic reserves should be.
Xander smiled and pushed back a stray lock of hair. He looked like he had aged several years in only a few minutes. Lines stood out in sharp relief around his eyes and fatigued showed in them. " You left yourself open to magical attack, and something decided to seize the opportunity. Cordy and I sent our minds to the astral plane to save you." His eyes flicked over to Buffy. " Thanks for the call to Cordy, Buffster."
Buffy smiled back cheekily. " Don't thank me, yet. Cordelia sounded *pissed*."
Xander looked pained. Cordelia's tongue had only sharpened, after three millennia of practice, and she could be *very* cross when she thought he was risking his immortal neck. He foresaw a long period of couch sleeping, unless he appealed to their lusty better third, Faith.
Forrest walked up to Xander, an unusually grave expression on his face. " Xander, Riley's on the phone. He wants to talk to you."
Xander read the expression on his face and shuddered. Forrest wasn't the warmest guy but there was sympathy etched on his face. He took the phone, " Xander here."
# Finn here. We got ambushed outside the murder scene. Faith wandered off right before the fight. She disappeared and there's lots of blood. Too much blood. #
" What?" Xander sat down hard in the middle of the street. The chaos around him vanished and his chest tightened. Faith was missing? " That's not possible."
# I'm sorry Xan. She w-is a hell of a woman Xander but there must be three liters of blood in the alley here. She's a tough Slayer but.#
" Riley."
#Yeah? #
" Shut the hell up." Xander snapped the radio closed. Buffy and Willow wandered over cautiously. They could tell Xander had gotten bad news, but not what was so bad.
" What happened?" Buffy asked. Willow just put her hand on Xander's shoulder.
" Faith's missing," he answered dazedly. " Lots of blood. Riley thinks she's dead."
Willow and Buffy traded looks. Tentatively, Willow asked, " Can, uhh, can Faith even die like that?"
Xander shrugged. " Vampires, no." He smiled. " Not a vampire's been turned that can give Faith a challenge. But something else." Suddenly, he stood up and closed his eyes.
Xander winced as he felt the rage and fear in Cordelia's mental voice. It was a twin to his own.
Long Pause
Xander could feel the shame in Cordelia's mind. That period of time wasn't easy for her, and she hated being reminded of it and her moment of weakness.
There was a long pause, and then Xander's voice came again. Xander's mind sent a soothing thought through the connection to Cordelia, then broke off his mental connection and refocused on Buffy and Willow.
" Forrest," he called out. " I need to go home. I'll meet you at the base in one hour, and we can plan what to do next."
The black soldier merely nodded as he conferred with the other pair of teams
He turned to Buffy and Willow. " You two come on."
"Where are we going?"
" Off to war."
***
Amy made it back to her dorm room in record time. Students had gathered in the pool hall to watch the news about the Sunnydale riots, but she ignored them. She made her way to her small cubical that she shared with another girl, who was out of town for the week.
Quietly thinking that she was grateful for the lack of prying eyes, she went to her bed and pulled out a small wooden box from beneath it. The box was without seams, and Amy was forced to dive deep into her mother's memories for the command word to open it.
Magic was emotion. It fed off the feelings of the caster, which is why mages needed to have a great deal of emotional control. Leakage could seriously disrupt or change spells. It was kind of like the Force from Star Wars, in that respect. Dark emotions could swallow a caster whole, while positive emotions could lift up a caster to heights undreamed of. Amy was feeling very dark, indeed, at that moment.
Amy opened the box. She had realized that she was going to have to learn some of the dirtiest magical tricks her mother knew, in order to fight on any sort of level playing field with her. She had resisted doing it for so long because she was terrified she could end up like her mother, but now, after being face to face with her worst nightmare-her mother back and turned- she realized that she couldn't play softball anymore.
Inside the box was a leather-lined tome. It was the Book of Shadows for the entire Madison line. Most of the spells in there were benign and ones that she had already learned. The real power of the Madison Book of Shadows was the pyromantic techniques that had been passed down from Madison daughter to Madison daughter for more than five centuries. The ability to manipulate fire was the only ability the Madisons ever manifested. Most of those techniques were dark, ways to manifest fire that drew on the darkest emotions in the human spirit. Black fire, the draining fire, the clinging greenish balefire, these powers and more were all possible using the dark arts of Madison fire magic.
And it was high time she learned all of them.
***
Faith woke up in the darkness. Her whole body ached in ways that it hadn't in centuries. Cold iron manacles bound her wrists and ankles to what seemed to be a stone wall. Not even the smallest trace of light could be found in the cell.
Faith couldn't remember the last time she had been captured by an enemy. The last thing she remembered was the bitch vampire casting a spell and her skin bursting open like ripe fruit. She could remember her fading consciousness as torrents of blood rushed from her body. Hell, she didn't even know why she was still alive. Even gods could be exsanguinated-it was just damn hard to do it to one.
On top of everything else, she had a monster of a headache. Her temples throbbed in time with her own heart.
She tested the iron bonds around her wrists. They were solid and, at her baseline level of Slayer like strength, they were unbreakable. Faith attempted to tap into her divine power and snap the iron. It was something she knew she could do. She had, after all, performed greater feats of strength for longer periods of time in the past.
Except, nothing happened.
Faith frowned and next attempted to invoke a simple power, to see in the dark. She reached inside herself and tried to tap into the divine spark. It was an ability she had invoked a thousand times over the years and it never failed to work.
Until now.
Absolutely nothing happened. Faith couldn't even feel the power start to work. It was like something had damped down her divine power.
Then, in a moment of absolute terror, she realized what had happened. It was the strangely familiar headaches that tipped her off.
It was her Slayer sense going haywire due to the enormous quantity of vampires being around. She hadn't had her Slayer sense triggered in more than thirty two hundred years. The divine spark had driven out the remaining embers of the Slayer spirit.
Suddenly the slayer spirit was back again, which could only mean one thing.
The divine spark was gone.
Faith was mortal again.
***
It was a sad group that made its way back to the Harris mansion. Each was lost in their own thought.
Xander was simply devastated at the thought of losing Faith. After three thousand years of being together, one of the few things that scared Xander was the thought of losing either of his wives.
Cordelia was simply ashamed of how poorly her visions had served the Initiative and the Scoobies. Her powers were normally much more accurate. She didn't know how she'd ever show her face around the Initiative base again.
The others simply turned over in their minds the horrible debacle that had resulted from the simple mission. Never had the Scoobies had a evening turn out so badly.
When they reached the front gate, they noticed that the riot didn't seem to come this far into the town. No fires lay burning; no cars were crashed in the middle of the street, and no bodies lay in the streets, savaged by Turok Han and run of the mill vampires. The whole area was eerily silent with the distant echoes of helicopter whirling and police sirens heard in the distance.
Xander stepped to the locked gate and swiftly tapped out the code that deactivated both mechanical and magical defenses of the Harris Mansion. The group stepped through, their thoughts turned grimly to their lost friend and the many slain soldiers. The night was not supposed to have ended this way.
Xander was worried, although he kept his face schooled in an emotionless blank. Although his heart wailed at the thought Faith might be dead or dying, he could not let those feelings overwhelm common sense. Wordlessly, Cordelia caught his hand and he shot a grateful smile to the exiled Power.
When they reached the front door, Xander and Buffy were struck by the Buzz and that told them an Immortal was nearby.
" Xander." Buffy called out warningly.
" I know," he replied. Willow looked at them in confusion, and he clarified. " Buffy and I can feel another Immortal, but we don't know if it's a friend or not. It's usually not," he added grimly to Buffy.
Buffy stepped forward, but Xander held out his arm. " I'm your teacher, Buff. It's my job to go in first." The Slayer narrowed her eyes at the perceived slight against her fighting skills, but she silently stepped back and Xander walked through the entry way first. One thing that Xander has already taught her was that slayer strength and speed mean squat to someone with centuries of muscle memory and training on their side.
Xander drew his sword and quietly glided down the hallway. He motioned for the others to be silent and cocked his head, testing the air with his keen nose.
Buffy was surprised to see Xander narrow his eyes in distaste, but slam his sword away. He sighed. " It's okay. I know who it is." He turned and told Cordy, " Alex is here." By his tone, this 'Alex,' whoever they might be, wasn't high on Xander's list of favorite people.
Cordelia look surprised. " Why would Alex be here?"
" Lets go find out." With shoulders set like a warrior going off to his death, Xander led the group to the library. Where Buffy was subjected to the most disturbing sight she had ever seen in all her years as a Slayer.
Giles sat in a deep leather bound reading chair, a tall brunet in a shirt that had more cloth missing than present straddling him, while Oz looked on in quiet amusement.
The woman was busy kissing Giles face. His glasses had half slid off his face and he was too busy reciprocating to realize anyone had entered, at first.
At first.
Upon noticing that he had an audience, Giles paled and thrust the woman off, causing her to drop to the ground with a resounding Thump! that would have caused a less shocked group to burst into peals of laughter.
" I-I-I can assure you," Giles stammered, as he jumped to his feet. " This is not what it appears to be."
***
" So, who called a bloody meeting?" Spike yelled as he hopped the last few steps down into the inner sanctum of the Temple of Amara. He wore his customary clothes, minus the leather coat that had been his trademark for the past twenty-five years, and looked severely put out.
He found the entire group of recently elevated Master vampires, along with their servants, meeting inside the cavernous heart of the temple, standing around the well of blood that dominated the center of the room. Turok Han crouched along the edges of the room, just outside the radius of the magical light that illuminated the chamber.
" I did, Spike." Catherine Madison stood in front of her sire, displaying none of the servile attitude that had characterized her previous behavior. Drusilla stood next to her, jerkily hopping from one foot to the other as she stared at the sorceress.
" Granddaughter's been bad," she whimpered. " Lying to the stars she was, the stars and Miss Edith."
" What did you do to Dru?" Spike growled.
" Nothing," Catherine replied calmly. " She can merely feel the coming of the Master." The vampire sorceress cupped her hands together and an angry red-black orb of cracking energy appeared between her hands. As soon as the orb coalesced, she hurled it into the well of blood.
The Master vampires stared in fascination at the well, hoping to see something in the churning turmoil, as the blood began to bubble.
" What the 'ell are you talking about, you crazy bint?" Spike hissed. " I'm your bloody master and sire."
Catherine smiled cruelly. " Do you really think that all of this has been *your* idea, Spike? You? The vampire with such a short attention span, you couldn't come up with a decent plan and pay attention long enough to follow through, and kill the Slayer? Not very likely," she snorted in derision.
Extending her hands to encompass the room and all of the vampires, she spoke loudly enough for all to hear clearly. " No, my true master has been pulling you strings and the strings of your pathetic little girlfriend."
Spike stepped forward, but Dog Tag and Thomas Thorne stepped between him and Catherine. " Spike," Thorne cajoled, " Don't do anything stupid. The master will be coming soon and as the holder of his ring, you will be given a special place in his council."
" Of course," Dog Tag rasped, " If you don't, we'll just have to find someone else." He let out a sharp laugh. " Gee, I don't know how we're going to do that."
" He's coming," Drusilla, whimpered, " all fierce and dark, he is. He's going to be so hungry and Miss Edith doesn't want to be eaten all up."
The bubbling of the well of blood began to increase and grow more agitated. A single huge Bubble grew and expanded. A dark form could be seen huddled inside the bubble.
The vampires seemed to understand that they needed to move back and, as almost one being, they took a step back while they watched the happenings.
With a pop that startled both the master and servant vampires, a grayish black form crouched at the rim of the well of blood. Stringy gray hair hung from a head that only seemed vaguely human. Skin hung slack on a form that looked starved and dry.
But despite its withered looking body, the being totally captured the attention of the vampires. All of the Masters present could feel the power radiating from his body. It almost felt like a drug designed to get their demons high. It was intoxicating.
Shadows flew off the walls like black silk ribbons and wrapped themselves around his body, thickening into deeply folded robes. The ancient vampire unhurriedly stood up and met the gaze of each of the vampires. His face was impossible to discern from beneath his hood of shadows. He made a swift arcane gesture and several screams rent the air as nearly a dozen of the lesser vampires standing around simply burst into dust. The dust hung in the air for a moment and then flew towards the ancient vampire as if attracted by magnets.
The watching vampires couldn't see the exact transformation, but the figure before them quickly swelled and his body rapidly gained weight and filled out. None of the vampires could yet see his face. They started to become nervous as they started to wonder whom, if anyone else, was going to be next.
" They were weak," the ancient vampire said, answering the unasked question. " I will not tolerate weakness among my disciples." The vampire's voice came out smooth and strong, with a deep bass tone that reverberated through the underground hall.
" And who are you mate, that you get disciples?" Spike's cocky tone carried through the hall. The vampires surrounded him parted like the red sea when the mysterious vampire approached. Spike shifted nervously as his cocky demeanor evaporated before the other being's quiet malevolence.
The vampire drew back his deep hood and everyone gained his or her first good look at the powerful vampire who had so mysteriously appeared before them. He was a tall barrel-chested African man with dusky black skin and long gray hair, more akin to a lion's mane, which hung past his shoulders. His eyes glowed with wisdom and power. Most of the vampires in the crowd involuntarily shifted into game face as the demons inside them grew in strength
Reaching out, he grabbed Spike's ring hand and rubbed a calloused thumb over the green gem-capped ring. " It has been a long time since I have seen that ring, William," he said quietly. " It saved me you know. It saved me when the slayer came with her army. When my body was destroyed, it kept me safe." He released Spike's hand and captured his gaze with a fearsome stare. He looked out over the crowd. " It is good to see so many of my descendants gathered here." His voice carried clearly over the group. " To answer your question, William, I am Amara."
" Your God."
***
Buffy stared in awe. The others, with the exception of Xander and Cordelia, were in a similar state of shock. Seeing the buttoned down Englishman in such a compromising condition was a shock. It went against everything they saw their mentor to be. Especially since the woman appeared to be enjoying herself.
Willow was the first to get over her shock. She stared hard at the woman for a long moment. The woman was definitely stare-worthy. While not a classically beautifully woman, she was definitely striking.
First of all she was tall. Now that she was standing up, everyone could see that she stood as tall as Xander, an inch or so above six feet, and that was in flats. Secondly, her body straddled the line between feminine beauty and unseemly muscle. Her shirt left enough exposed to see that her back and abdomen were exceptionally lean and ripped. Thick muscles, which would not have been out of place on a female bodybuilder, rippled along her arms. Leather pants clung to legs that were sculpted pillars of strength. Her hair hung in an ebony cascade of ringlets. And her face was a combination of fine bones, high cheeks, and sculpted facial muscles.
But it was her eyes that were the most captivating. They were the color of copper pennies and seemed to be set perfectly within her tanned and fit body. And they were boring into Xander with barely restrained hostility.
" I've seen you somewhere before, but where was it?" Willow mused aloud.
" Rolling Stone," Oz helpfully supplied.
Willow snapped her fingers. " That's right. You're the lead singer of that new all girl rock band, Snake Charmer. Sybil Raven. You're supposed to be really good."
" Voice like Melissa Ethridge, guitar chops like Jimmy Hendrix, and a body like a porn star." Sybil added, smiling. She looked to Xander, and in a voice dripping with sugary falseness, she said, " I'm shocked, simply shocked, that you wouldn't keep up with my exploits. After all I thought I was your favorite."
" I never taught you to be so open," Xander replied calmly, although his voice was laced with bitterness and pain. " It's stupid for an immortal to make themselves famous. We depend on secrecy."
She shrugged. " I like music and I suck at keeping secrets. It's how I met Ripper here, back in the seventies. He was quite the hard core little rock rebel, back then."
Buffy interjected. " You knew Giles back, back when he was.you know."
" A pissed off wanker," Sybil laughed. "Yep, I did." She looked fondly on the Englishman, who had since recovered his equilibrium. " And when I came here to borrow a book of prophecy and ran into Rip, looking all yummy, well."
" In front of Oz," Xander yelled, exasperated. Around this woman, he seemed to lose all traces of calm centeredness he had displayed since he got back to town.
" I didn't mind. I love her band," Oz answered. " Plus, still trying to get that E-flat diminished nine and when the girl said she learned how to pick from Jimmy and Slash." He shrugged. " I'll live with a lot."
" Besides, when, exactly did you get the right to tell me what to do?" Sybil challenged. " Oh wait, that's right. *Never*," she continued bitterly, her coppery eyes boring into Xander.
The others could sense that this had the feeling of an old argument. Cordelia just stared in sadness as she looked between the two of them.
" Xander, who is this girl? She's clearly more than just some musician. Is she an Immortal like you and Buffy?"
Xander just nodded.
" Aren't going to tell them who I am?" Sybil challenged. " Worried they won't love you anymore, after they find out what kind of person you really are?"
Xander just sighed. " I don't have anything to hide, Alex. I only do in your mind." He turned to look at the group and met their gaze, one by one. All of them had the same question burning obviously in their gaze. " Gang, Giles," he said. " This is Alexandra Harris."
" My daughter."
***
Special Guest Star..
.James Earl Jones as.
. Amara, The God of Vampires