Avatars
by Kirayoshi
Here There Be Dragons
[reviews]
Chapter Two
Here There Be Dragons
Anya twisted a lock of hair around her finger, dejectedly looking around the stock of Giles' magic shop. She wondered if Xander would have minded her first choice of costume for the party tonight. He had said that the theme was historical figures, and Lady Godiva was a historical figure, right? She later rejected the idea; remembering the cute way that Xander would hyperventilate whenever she attempted to display her naked body in public. Oh well, it's a good thing that Willow wasn't using that Joan of Arc costume she wore last year. A few alterations, and it fit quite well. And she'd have just enough time to get home and try it out.
She had agreed to wait for Xander here, but she found the surroundings boring. Giles had been thrilled earlier this week when he received a new shipment of celtic paraphernalia, which was now occupying a spot near the front door; books on Irish legends, tarot cards, Celtic crosses, all lining the shelves in an orderly fashion.
Anya found most of what humans called magic to be indescribably dull. As a former demon, one who lived for over a millenium, she knew what true magic was about. She had access to artifacts that could give a man his fondest desires, or cast him to the pits of hell. Or, as was often the case with humans, both at the same time. She had long ago decided that what humans regarded as magic was merely conjuring and sleight of hand. Smoke and mirrors.
Which is why she was constantly amazed by Willow, although she'd never admit that to anyone else. When she first met her, she recognized her as a vessel of great power. That was why she tried to recruit her to help locate her pendant, the one which gave Anya her demonic powers. Willow didn't know it then, but she was powerful. And now that she and Tara had become orgasm friends, her powers had grown almost exponentially. She was on the verge of becoming one of the mightiest people on this planet, and Anya had started to regard her with something akin to awe. All that power, inside such an innocent vessel.
The front door was opened suddenly, disturbing the windchimes which hung from the ceiling in front of the door, causing them to clatter against themselves in a merry music. Giles and Xander burst in, Giles heading for the back room, Xander for the phone. "Xander," Giles instructed, not even noticing Anya at the counter, "keep trying to raise Buffy, I'll start pouring over the codices."
"On it, G-Man." Xander picked up the phone and started dialing.
"We need to save the world again, Xander?" Anya asked in a bored tone of voice.
"Yeah, something like that," Xander said.
Anya puffed a lock of hair out of her face. "So, no sex tonight?"
"You know the rules, Anya," Xander answered, slightly irritated. "First we save the world, then sex. I'm funny that way, I tend to get performance anxiety if I'm worried about impending Armageddon."
Anya nodded, accepting Xander's statement. "I'll go help Giles find what he's trying to find." She slipped into the backroom, leaving Xander manning the phone.
After a few futile minutes of calling Buffy's number, only to get her answering machine, Xander decided to call her mother. But the second he put the handset on the cradle, the phone rang. Xander picked it up immediately, saying, "Magic Emporium, Xander speaking."
"Xander! Thank God!" Joyce Summers cried on the other end of the phone.
"Mrs. Summers?" Xander asked. "Hey, I was just about to call you. You wouldn't happen to know where Buffy is, would you?"
"No, Xander," she answered frantically. "I've been trying to get her on the line, and I just keep getting busy signals!"
Xander grimaced as he heard her. "Yeah, we've been trying to call her too. We've only gotten her machine. Something wrong, Mrs. S?
"Something's very wrong, Xander. Is Mr. Giles there? I need to speak to him."
"Sure, Mrs. S." Cupping the mouthpiece with his hand, he shouted toward the back room, "Giles! Buffy's mom wants to talk to you."
"Mrs. Summers?" Giles poked his head out of the door, and beckoned for Xander to give him the phone. "Rupert Giles here."
"Giles, something terrible happened. Dawn disappeared."
Giles thought for a second before responding; "Are you saying that she's missing?"
"I'm saying that she's disappeared! She was here one second, gone the next! A flash of light, and she was gone! I kept trying to call Buffy, but--" The rest of her statement was drowned out by a fit of hysterics.
"Joyce, please, calm yourself. Something like that has happened to Willow and Tara. We're trying to contact Buffy, and I'm trying to research what's happening. I assure you that we'll get to the bottom of this."
"I hope so," Joyce answered weakly. "I'm just scared for Dawn."
"I understand," Giles said. "I have to ask, however, did Dawn say anything before she disappeared?"
"Uh, she said she wasn't my daughter, she said she was someone called Thespia."
"Thespia," Giles repeated. "I see. That at least gives me something more to go on. I have to get back to the research. I promise you that I will contact you as soon as I have news."
"Thank you, Giles," a desperate Joyce said. "Good luck."
"Brave heart, Joyce," Giles tried to console her. "We'll find her." He replaced the handset, and headed back to the books. "Willow said something to me a few months ago," he thought aloud, "about her efforts to contact the goddess Thespia with Tara. She wasn't successful, but--"
A sudden flash of white light broke his concentration, and he rose to his feet, thunderstruck. The figure that emerged from the radience was a familiar face and form, but there was something wild about the set of her dark hair, something unearthly in the gleam of her eyes, an alien knowledge resting on her brow.
"Uh--Dawn?" Giles hazarded a guess. Hearing Dawn's name, Anya stepped out of the back room, to check up on Buffy's sister. Anya had been aware of Dawn's adolescent crush on Xander, and was prepared to make sure that it didn't progress any further.
"Rupert Giles," the young girl declared, "you must aid me. The avatars are on the loose."
Giles stared hard at Dawn, uncertain what to make of her declaration. Xander, ever to the point, asked, "Avatars? Aren't they a new brand of luxury cars?"
"The avatars of Marduk and Tiamat," Dawn said tonelessly. "They have been called to the mortal world. And their war will spell the doom of all life."
Her words hung over their heads like a Sword of Damaclese. Giles' brow furrowed in concentration. He recalled Willow declare herself the avatar of Marduk, and that her enemy was the avatar of Tiamat. What was the connection with what happened to Dawn?
He addressed Dawn solemnly, hoping she could shed some light on the matter. "You call yourself Thespia. Am I right?"
"You are correct, mortal," she said simply. "I am the servant of the Powers That Be."
"May I ask why you have taken the form of the Slayer's sister?"
"The slayer has no sister," Dawn answered. "I have created this fiction to better travel in the physical world."
"Hookay," Xander shouted. "This is getting freaksome, Dawn. What's going on here, really?"
Dawn regarded Xander with the manner of someone facing a mosquito who had dared to bite him. "I am Thespia!" she shouted at him, and some unknown quality in her voice, some uneartly aspect of her facial features, some terrible gleam in her eyes, made Xander tremble. Even Anya, who had seen much that was fearsome in her centuries of life, cowered before the young goddess. For there was no doubt in any of their minds, that was what they were dealing with.
"Thespia," Giles asked quietly. "How have you done this thing? Why do you appear before us as a human named Dawn Summers?"
"I regret the necessity of deceiving you," Thespia answered, in a voice as clear as a dream of forever, "but it was required of me to assume a shape that would go unnoticed around the Slayer. I created the identity that you call Dawn Summers, and inserted myself in your world. I affected the time stream, permitting my birth in a physical body, so that I may better monitor the progress of the mortal called Buffy Summers and her destined soulmate, Willow Rosenberg."
Anya raised an eyebrow at this revelation. "You mean that the powers that be have an interest in Buffy and Willow becoming orgasm partners?" Giles and Xander covered their eyes at this statement, embarrased that Anya would ask such a direct question of a goddess.
If the goddess was offended, she didn't display it. "I fear that there is more to it than that. They have been singled out for a terrible destiny. They have become the avatars of two dark gods, Marduk and Tiamat. And they now prepare to face each other in battle, to the death."
"Whoa!" Xander interrupted. "No way Buffy's gonna try to kill her best friend!"
"She is no longer Buffy," Thespia answered, "any more than her friend is Willow. They are now the avatars of the gods. Marduk and Tiamat sent their messengers to the physical world to mold and manipulate them over the past year, and now their transformation is complete."
"Hey," Xander asked suddenly. "For those of us who missed a few pages, mind filling us in on who Marduk and Tiamat are?"
"Sumerian dieties," Giles explained, shifting into full Watcher mode. "Marduk was an giant man, representing order, while Tiamat was a hideous dragon, who delighted in chaos. According to Sumerian custom, they frequently warred against each other, uncaring of the fates of the mortals who labored on the earth that became their battlefield."
"You are correct, mortal," Thespia agreed. "Their battles have shaped the surface of your world many millenia ago. It was the will of the Powers That Be that I be appointed custodian of the balance. To insure that Order and Chaos stayed evenly matched."
Xander blinked, disbelieving at what she had said. "Hey, but we fight for order here. Right? I mean, chaos is bad, right?"
"Is it?" Thespia challenged. "Order can be stasis, or fascism. Chaos can be freedom or creativity. Without one, the other has no strength. Without either, the balance is lost."
Anya's face shot up with understanding. "It's like when that Toth demon split you in two, Xander," Anya explained. "One of you was suave, the other one was scruffy. But if one of you died, the other one would die as well." Thespia nodded approvingly at Anya's statement, pleased that she understood.
"And order and chaos are about to face each other," Giles intoned, "in the bodies of Buffy and Willow..."
"And should either side win," Thespia finished Giles' sentence, "the world is doomed."
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The littered ash of a hundred vampires who dared to cross her lay strewn in her wake. She stalked along the sidewalk, unseeing, uncaring. Several people walked near her, or around her, only to be pushed aside without thought or remorse. Two people suffered broken arms, one complained of whiplash, shouting that the attacker would hear from his lawyer. She didn't notice.
The thing that was once Buffy Summers walked on, only one purpose; the place of the battle. The field near the abandoned high school, which was destroyed when a demon tried to kill the student body during graduation. The avatar was compelled to travel to this destination, and to kill any demon, any vampire, any being dead or alive, who dared to prevent her from reaching her goal. Each demon or vampire she slew, its energies were absorbed into her body, strengthening her.
Behind her, Tiamat's servant, Discord, watched with glee as Buffy cut a swath of destruction in her wake. Yes, this is what the master wanted. This is what his god planned for the world, once his avatar defeated the champion of Marduk. The thing that occupied the decaying flesh of Riley Finn marked the Slayer's progress, knowing that soon the final battle would commence.
========
"Is there any way of stopping this battle?" Giles asked Thespia.
"Indeed," Thespia answered, grateful that these mortals were able to understand the peril that their world was in. "My purpose in this world is to end their battle. But the gods have ever thwarted me in my cause. Their servants were powerful influences."
"Servants?" Xander asked.
"The ones whom you call Riley Finn and Tara. Riley Finn died several months ago, in a battle with an atrocity called Adam. As his soul fled his body, that space was taken by Discord, the servant of Tiamat. Through the Slayer's affections for Riley, Discord was able to sway her, speaking to her heart through dreams, through their physical contact. It was the same with Tara, although she is very much alive. Her mind was taken by Marduk's servant Entropy. Through the bond of love and magic forged between Willow and Tara, Entropy was able to manipulate Willow Rosenberg into being Marduk's avatar."
"But how do we stop them from fighting?" Anya asked. "I mean, they're friends normally, maybe even in love with each other--" Xander glared at Anya, who only shrugged her shoulders. "Geez, Xander, those two have been hot for each other for so long, I'm amazed none of you noticed!"
Giles and Xander stood, jaws agape, not believing Anya's statement. Thespia however looked at Anya, saying, "She is correct, mortals. Their love for each other, along with the growing powers they possess as Slayer and Wiccan, these are the reasons they were chosen as avatars. As Buffy's powers as a Slayer have grown, Tiamat knew that the battle was coming. And when Willow succeeded in casting the 'I Will It So' spell, Marduk knew that he had found his champion."
"But if they battle, the world is doomed?" Giles asked.
"Should Tiamat win, he will scorch the Earth with eteral fire. Should Marduk triumph, he will encase the world in a new ice age. Either way, all life will be extinguished."
"And if it ends in a tie?" Anya asked.
"Do you recall your legend of King Arthur?" Thespia asked. "Arthur Pendragon fought to the death with Mordred. Both slew each other, bringing about the fall of Camelot."
"Are you saying that Arthur and Mordred were avatars of Marduk and Tiamat?" Giles hazarded a guess.
"They were," Thespia nodded. "This battle has taken form in the past before. Each time, precipitating a terrible period in human history, a new Dark Age. But this battle, they mean to finish their war. And both Marduk and Tiamat desire the right to destroy this world and reshape it in their own image."
"But can they be stopped?"
"They can, only by acknowledging their love for each other," Thespia answered. "Marduk and Tiamat have always observed one rule in their battles; their avatars must be linked by friendship, brotherhood, or love. Their first battle set this standard. And that is how your world may survive.
"The first avatar of Marduk was the Sumerian king Gilgamesh. He was the ideal of Sumerian civilization, the consumate warrior and leader. You recall the legends of Gilgamesh, Giles?"
"I do indeed," Giles answered. "He faced a wildman named Enkidu, and they fought savagely for many days. But in the end, they learned to respect each other, and put aside their hostilities. They became companions and friends for the remainder of their lives together, for the remainder of their days. When Enkidu died, Gilgamesh mourned greatly for his fallen comrade."
"Precicely," Thespia answered. "As it was with Gilgamesh and Enkidu, it must be with Willow and Buffy. Divided, they are easy prey for Marduk and Tiamat. United in their love, they are powerful enough to face any threat. We must find either Willow or Buffy, and force them to remember their friendship, and to recognize the love they share. That is why they took the forms of Riley and Tara; not only to put them under their control, but to make them fall in love with them."
Giles shook his head; demons and vampires were one thing, but gods and dieties were entirely different. But he had to deal with this, if he was to help save both his world, and the two women who had become surrogate daughters to him. "Very well, Thespia," he said. "How do we find them?"
"I'm thinking that's not gonna be a problem," Xander said, as he glimpsed out the window. Giles, Anya and the diety in the child's body joined him at the window. In the distance, they saw a cloud of acrid grey smoke, and over the cloud, an enormous figure, composed of hideous green light. The light took the shape of a bloated dragon, five necks branching off from its massive body, five snarling heads glaring at the town below them, their smiles revealing terrible teeth, their eyes flashing hellish fires.
Thespia looked at the sight, her face paling. "Tiamat," she whispered. "He is here."