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That's what the Watchers will say about me a thousand years from now in whatever huge chronicle they compile about the world... that is assuming there's a world left in a year's time or so. Xander shrugged. Right now thing weren't exactly looking hot pocket warm and yummy. Xander had seen dozens of friends die growing up but there had always been a sort of bubble of invincibility that even if some of them might die as long as Buffy was around... they'd win in the end. Now that was gone.
Faith might be dead.... Xander shook that thought away from his head. She wasn't dead. After all, Angel went to Hell... for a few hundred years... okay that's not a good thought either.
Mattie's reaction to her death hadn't been particularly helpful either, admittedly she'd dumped her boyfriend Derek for Xander and he'd rewarded her by sleeping with Faith. Xander was pretty sure he was in love with Faith now and it wasn't a whole lust thing... she was darker than Buffy and way wilder than Xander had ever been but he felt the same strength and desire to do good despite screw ups in her... and Xander liked that.
"Okay God... Okay buffy... okay..." Xander sighed, not knowing who could save her if she was in trouble, but hoping nontheless.
Until he felt a whack on the head and fell forward unconcious. The Kobayame warrior who'd been following him silently emerged from the shadows from behind him and dragged Xander Harris' unconscious body feet first into the sewer system of Sunnydale.
"*You'll make a fitting sacrafice boy. Father Lao has been looking for you...*" the vampiric Ninja muttered.
* * *
"The Scuracur were orginally a group of Venetian necromancers, Buffy, who were involved in the Fourth Crusade to plunder ancient evil Byzantium texts fot the great treasures that lay within. It is believed that their leader at the time, Roland, upon discovering some powerful texts, went off into the desert to find the secret concealed city of the Harbringers. Conjuring the First, a pact was struck which elevated them above all other evil sorcery societies... perhaps giving them the ritual to conjure him on the Earth that could only have conceivably survived through them," Derek said, walking through the catacombs with a torch raised high ahead of him, illuminating the walls.
"That's all happy nice, Derek, but it doesn't explain why we're stuck in the middle of Indiana Jones' worst nightmare," Buffy muttered, splashing a spider off her shoulder while Derek cushioned with telekinesis. The walls of the catacombs of Verlan were covered in ancient new Christian symbols and many that predated the faith, from the time these tunnels were used in the service of Mithras. The Christian sect simply recognized those who fought evil wherever it dwelled. However the massive ammount of interred skelatons didn't help the creepiness.
"It's... nice... in a not so nice creepy way," Willow added, staring around her.
"Don't sweat it. This place looks no worse than the cellar at Chez Giles." Jannele smirked patting Willow on the back while winking at Angel from behind.
"You had some odd parents." Buffy frowned.
"Tell us about it." Derek sighed, shaking his head. "The Ancient Christians who were a pacifistic offshoot of Judaism...."
"That one I knew," Buffy interrupted.
"Not long after Saint John's revelation, they made preparations for the End Times which supposedly were not that far off. One of those preparations was a book of wisdom that contained a set of spells, dealing with counteracting the powers of Darkness Incarnate and a purely good way to open a gateway to the nether realms... Though in order to extend it as far as we intend to - we have many places yet to travel." Derek sighed.
"So why exactly haven't the watchers robbed the dead until now?" Angel spoke staring at one of the skelatons sleeping peacefully on the earth. "If it's so powerful, I mean..."
Derek sighed. "Because whoever picks up the book will be utterly annhilated.if he is not absolutely pure of heart. Unless the end times have come that is..."
Willow walked up beside Derek, while everyone winced at Derek's description of the risk they were taking. There was a slight echoing sound as Willow walked up and Derek checked the wall they'd reached. "There should be... AAHHH..."
His voice was cut off as the floor gave way beneath both of them.
* * *
Amu was Death, the Greeks had described the Four Horsemen and he was the one who would bring death by intellectual evil... Death in all froms that required planning. Death that required skill. Death that required focused, pure, unadultered hate. Amu had that hate and it filled him with every concievable blasphemy that was imagined by man... remaking him into the image of the Slayer's destruction.
Now though it is time to prepare....to train....to make ready for the spiritual moment that will turn the glory of a sucessful kill into the power of a god.
Amu did a kata with the Sun sword before kicking in the air at the imagined presence of Buffy Summers while spinning through the marble colums he had set up through the building. Encircling them and making each spin with perfect acuracy cutting the pillars in half before he stopped, the sword inches from the neck of the lead black robed Harbringer.
"*You disrupt my training, Plague,*" Amu said walking back to the fire burning warmly in the chilly Italian warehouse he had rented while tracking Buffy Summers. The Black Dragon removed some boiling tea from above the fire while gulping down its stinging sensation, shattering the cup against the wall when he was done.
"Your spiritual health does not interest us," the third Harbringer intoned, unlike other mystics Amu did not need or desire to learn these beings names. They were corruption incarnate and that was enough to know they were allies... if not desirable ones.
Calm, Amu. They are one horseman together, and even a foe one-third your strength is worthy to speak to, the Black Dragon thought.
"We need you to track down and destroy the one known as Faith, a Slayer," the Second Harbringer said with a deep drone.
"*I already am hunting my prey. One of the very few in the history of all men who has escaped my sword. An abomination to the holy evil that is the vampiric race, and a Slayer whose name is known to me better than that of this Faith.*" Amu frowned as his words echoed with their medieval Japenese dialect.
The final Harbringer hissed "The Sslayerr is a dangerrr tooo usss alll Amuuu offf Clan Kobayammma. Thisss Faaiiith isss currentllyyy a morrrre immmportaant Kill thann the oone withh the golddden haairrr anddd herrr lover. Youuu mussst dessstroy herrr or the fuuutturre of thee Darknnesss isss innn doubt."
Amu grabbed his black robes and slipped them over his form while taking the Moonblade. "*Tell me where she is and she will die. I can then continue the honorable work for the First I have been doing since assasinating the Russian.*"
"New Orleansss." they spoke as one.
* * *
The Mayor's private meditations were rarely broken by anything disturbing. It was a period of focus on his inner energy that allowed him to be just the jim dandiest evil that had ever walked the Earth. Concentration on the innate depravity of the spirit and absence that formed all the greatness of the First allowed him to quicken his accumulation of power though, sadly, no force on this plane or the next could hasten its completion.
*MAYOR WILKINS,* a voice spoke from beyond in the Hellmouth chamber. The room, once home to the Master and Trick, now filled with 666 illuminated candles and the awesome resonating power of darkness.
"Yes, my master." The Mayor smiled, looking up, opening his hands as the ever shifting presence of the First took the form of someone that Rupert Giles had not long ago loved, Jannah Kalderash. She looked worse for wear in her form but was still quite beautiful.
"Our joining goes well... and even now I can hear the sweet song of the world uniting together in mutual embrace of war. Already you have brought forth and assembled a great army for me my Avatar. Yet however you have failed to destroy the Champions... who even now scurry across the surface of the planet in a feeble attempt to destroy me." The First spoke, her every voice whisper an incarnation of the purest embodiment of evil.
"Where the Kobayama have failed master the Legion will not. Kasia or Amu will bring the head of young Miss Summers and that little... well, I don't want to say slut but she is... Faith won't be far behind." The Mayor assured her.
"Quite right... forgive me though if I have my *own* methods of dealing with them in the works. Rupert Giles will come first... that will not be difficult. I am merely a physical form in this plane until we are joined, capable of only mortal dreams fufilled... but that will be enough. Send word to your recruiters throughout the world, to the Scourge and other Demonic Orders that only those loyal to Hell are to be allowed to live to see my arrival. Vampires, Pure-Bloods, Halfbreeds, Witches, Werewolves, Fairies, Spirits, and all which refuse to kneel to me... kill them. The faithful must have their reward." Jenny Calender's visage grinned while she put her hands on the Mayor.
"It shall be done... the blood of the Hellspawned and Magical shall run like a river." The Mayor nodded.
The First grinned and dissapeared to torment her first target.
* * *
Oz shuddered in his bed while Ocean smiled, kissing him on the ear to keep him asleep. The presence of her master was disturbing his newly enhanced senses and she did not want him to bear witness to the craven elder evil that was about.
Lord Taraka, Prince of the Rhodintor, and founder of the assasin's order that bore his name, appeared as a tall figure, eight feet tall, with the head of a ram, large claws, and tough hide. The essense of ancient inhuman power about him was tangible, as he nodded at his slave in a cruel mockery of deference.
"Daughter of the seas..." he grated in a curiously sing-song voice. "Expecting me you were?"
"I was, my master," Ocean whispered, deeply terrified.
"Good. Came I to inform you - the signs for the End Times have arrived. Suspended are all contracts. Am making a summoning for all warriors mine to return to the Retreat in plan for the glorious final Armageddon that is to come." Tarraka spoke with a deceptive tone, a seeming naivete that belied his thoroughly frightening grasp of all events. Ocean knew he longed for the day when he could hold a royal court openly as he did when the ancient demons walked the Earth.
"Am... am I to return to the Retreat too, Lord Tarraka?" Ocean confirmed dreadingly, unconciously feeling Oz's hair as she willed him to sleep.
"No," Tarraka said simply. "You are to bring over the werewolf you have seduced. This either, or kill him."
Ocean stared in shock. A conflicting ammount of emotions running through a form that while resembling human was never nor ever shall be. While many emotions were alien to the mortal mind there was one that was truly knowledgeable to those who have felt the stirrings of protectiveness and horror that come with love.
Tarraka felt these emotions inside his servitor and was amused. "Forget not, young Ocean, that three thousand years ago, when humanity was still warring with itself with weapons of bronze, led I a campaign against your dimension... a campaign that resulted in my finding your people... so helpless.. so magical--" the ancient demon deliberately enjoyed the horrifying memories he brought up in the terrified spirit.
"I... remember... Lord Tarraka," she spoke weakly.
"Good. Over one hundred and eleven million souls was I able to capture inside the crystal globe which lies at the heart of my chamber... I feed off their lifeforce to increase my strength and prepare for the day that will allow me to use the energy to dominate the continents of this dimension again. However they are STILL ALIVE and if you, chosen champion of these people, Ocean, wish to KEEP IT that way you will nottt let emotions interefere with your assignment."
Tarraka chuckled while his presence faded away and Ocean cried true tears of horror at what must be done... the risk that had to be taken.
For my people.
* * *
Spike smiled, tossing the priest down on the ground. Dru and he had found him wandering out of his parish late at night and it was just a bloody good stroke of luck. They had been leading him to a nice picturesque location along the waterfront full of bugs, aligators, and other unpleasant lifeforms that Drucilla loved.
"Dru baby are you absolutely SURE you want a church wedding?" Spike sighed grabbing the priest's cross and tossing it into the Mississipi while it left an ugly mark on his hand.
"Oh yes, can't you see the lovely flowers? The Moon shall be your best man and the Earth shall be my maid of honor while every living mortal creature about us bears witness!" she smiled waving her hands about "I see such a glorious future of fire and destruction...." Dru smiled falling on her knees.
"Yeah ummm Dru the whole fire and destruction thing isn't quite our bag anymore recall?" Spike had gotton into a fight with three demons before word had gotton around New Orleans he wasn't in the mood for games. It seemed everybody had gone sodding loco with the Avatar Business becomming either Master type cultists or frightened little gits cowering in the shadows.
"Get with the words preacher-boy," Spike sighed looking at the priest praying for his life. Maybe he'd contact Jasper or some of his other friends who weren't exactly hot on this whole Apcolypse thing, in fact he might find more vampires cool on it than not, after all any with half a brain had to realize in Hell the whole halfbreed thing was not exactly a turn on. At least not to anything with more than two arms and legs.
"De... De... Dearly beloved we are gathered here today on this..." the priest began before Dru interrupted with a very venemous hiss.
"Tonight," Dru said softly "Say it right or your going to meet your father."
"We are gathered here tonight on this joyous occasion to bind...."
"Spike," William the Bloody said.
"And..." the Priest continued hoping that the obviously insane vampiress answered as well.
"Drucilla." She smiled, "I'm Drucilla, Queen of the Stars."
"In the bonds of holy?" the Priest asked continued before Spike nodded a why not "Matrimony...." the priest continued.
The ceremony was so wonderful that Spike even let the priest go, they had bigger fish to fry on their honeymoon.
* * *
Derek sighed, looking up above himself while checking on Willow. They had fallen down a good fourteen feet into a sub-cavern of the catacombs which looked to be full up to one's ankles in water from some underground source of moisture.
"Yuck," Willow sighed sitting down in a pile of mud, her dress stained.
"Hey guys are you okay down there? I'm coming..." Buffy shouted from the hole they'd fallen from before Derek waved up.
"Buffy, it's alright. You continue checking upstairs, this catacomb obviously has several levels. Watch for pitfalls... we'll cover more ground if we split up." Derek sighed while waving up to Buffy, he was anxious to get out of these caverns even if they were safe.
"Here, let me help you up." Derek said, offering his hand to Willow, who gladly accepted it.
"Err, Derek are you sure that's a really good idea? I mean, you know... not to insult your religion or anything but this place gives me... you know, the wiggies and, uh, can we just stay near Buffy??" Willow implored Derek and he nodded. The place was holy and he believed they weren't in any danger but it was wrong to unnecessarily subject someone to discomfort.
"It's okay, Willow, we'll find Buffy, Angel, and Janelle down here through a passage up. I won't let anything happen," Derek said with honestly conviction. There was a little of gentle jabs at his being a knight in his family... now only containing Rupert Giles, (a man whom he had been raised to hate but now viewed as the father he never had,) and his sister who while mischievous was still of a good heart. Derek never discouraged them and indeed they were all that was left of their legacy.
Perhaps why I fell in love with Cordellia so quickly was because I always wanted to believe in love at first sight, he chided himself getting his still burning torch and walking further through the catacombs. The walls were now depicting murals of prophecy from the endtimes including the Anti-Christ, the Whore of Babylon who was a beutiful young woman, and the Champions who united their hands against the First in his dark domain. The world burning was not though a encouraging image nor the many demons depicted against the heroes of light.
"Oz and I used to go through places like this all the time," Willow mused sadly while Derek looked at her oddly. She was obviously still reeling from being abandoned by someone she'd deeply cared for but it was... a little odd to be reminded of it here.
Best to be comforting, Derek thought.
"All men are scum. How could Oz do this to me... how could you do this to your fiance Mattie?" Willow moaned crossing her arms before narrowing her eyes at Derek in a very accusing glare.
Or not. Derek changed his mind.
"Mattie may well have found her own comfort in the arms of Xander Harris Miss Rosenburg and it was over before I... had my crush on your friend Miss Chase. We were never in love, we were just friends - who thought we should have a romance since there were no better canidates." The fact that she was the daughter of the woman who killed his father played on Derek's mind but he didn't believe she should be held accountable, anymore than Mordred under Arthur, Luke should be under Vader.
"Xander? Really?? I thought Faith and h... boy, romance sucks. I mean... yeah, romance sucks." Willow looked forward. "Did I say that?"
Derek shook his head staring through an open doorway to a chamber where an ancient Christian Bishop sat still looking as young as he did when he died two thousand years past. A man of fifty with long white hair, he held in his palms the book they sought. The smell of lilacs filled the air and Derek sighed, putting the torch in a holster on the doorway's side for it. It was annoying they'd lost their flashlight batteries.
"Willow, perhaps the fact that I've recently been dumped, not once, but twice in the past week, does not make me the best authority on matters of the heart in the world. The fact that the second only was interested in me because she was possesed further humiliates... However, you're a beautiful, kind, compassionate, and most of all INTELLIGENT girl who will find someone. Never believe otherwise because the alternative is unthinkable... you sell yourself shor... mmmph." Derek's speech of truth was cut off by a kiss from Willow that enwrapped his tongue.
There was an awkward pause where Derek was hung in mid-speech before Buffy, his sister, and Angelus of Galway arrived. Derek merely feeling his lips.
"There you guys are." Buffy smiled finding them. "Ah, our dead saintly friend."
* * *
Xander felt the back of his head with a wince.
Someone get the number of that... ugly scary vampire ninja who hit me. Xander thought, seeing the Kobayama Clan warrior looking over him with his inhuman eyes as he awoke.
" "Excellent young Yoshi. I shall see to him personally." A elderly vampire walked over to Xander in long robes that made him look like Old Shang Tsung from the orginal (and classic) Mortal Kombat.
Great. I'm being held prisoner by Mario's dinosaur. Young Harris tried to make a joke while looking about. Xander was located in what looked to be a martial arts studio. In fact he recognized the place as the Sunnydale Dojo, a self defense training facility where 'Sunnydale residents could learn to fight back,' if Xander recalled the promo correctly. The day after it had opened the entire staff had been brutally murdered with their bodies drained of all their blood. It just went to show even the undead watched television.
"You are the one they call Xander, yes?" Father Lao spoke leaning so close, Xander just wished he had a stake.
"Well, mostly, my friends call me Xander..." he didn't have the courage to make the rest of his wisecrack without Buffy anywhere in a thousand miles to rescue him.
"Do not worry, young Harris, I did not bring you to this studio to die without honor. My once great clan has been devastated by your attacks both cowardly and with great courage. Where once we were a great number, now we are reduced to a mere thirteen warriors." The ancient vampire gestured behind him to a mat which had eleven lotus position Kobayame warriors next to Yoshi, who was very muscular and tall.
Great. A talking killer, and no James Bond... this gets better and better. Xander considered making a break for the door, but outrunning a vampire was like outrunning... well, a vampire.
"That we have been so shamed by your Western barbaric Gaijin ways has made me realize our clan is not the assasin order it should be... a fact drilled home by the Mayor's replacing us as his enforcers before the arrival of the First," Father Lao continued in his heavily accented English. "There is only one way to regain our honor... and that is where you come in."
"This doesn't sound like one of those 'present me your sword,' thanks for the tip things," Xander muttered shaking his head. He would never watch 'Karate Madness theatre' on local access Saturdays the same way again.
"Actually, quite similar. You will face, in battle, one of our warriors until you are slain. After which we will do the same individually to each of those who have killed one of our clan until you are all annhilated," Father Lao said, gesturing to a weapons rack. "Take pick of your weapon, honorable Xander-san. If you are victorious, you will presented with the grestest honor ever presented to a Westerner in induction to the clan. Despite your... filthy ways." Father Lao smiled. "Yoshi will be your first opponent."
Xander didn't say anything, terrified as he was, taking a Japanese training sword off the rack. It was wooden, and sharpened enough to behead. Aside from the fact that he was facing a warrior a foot taller than him who had been trained since birth... the vampires were fighting fair.
Yoshi then took a metal katana out. "You die with this."
Okay, scratch any fair play thoughts. Xander looked about taking the sword and preparing to run at the earliest oppurtunity... when a molatov cocktail fell through the skylight and landed in between him and Yoshi, setting the Dojo on fire.
"RUN, XANDER!!" Mattie screamed from above.
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