Once Upon a Time in Sunnydale
by Rach
The journey begins
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A few hours later, Buffy, Willow, Xander, Anya and Giles were in Giles' apartment. Silence had overtook them all, hardly a word had been spoken since they arrived or since they had even haerd the news. Buffy still hadn't been to the morgue and didn't think she ever could. Giles had already identified the bodies.
"Right," Xander said, standing up defiantly, "who do we kill?"
"Xander settle down," Giles said wearily "we have to sort these things out properly."
"But why some kil...kill...killed them! We've gotta do something, for god's sakes Giles we've gotta do...anything..." Xander sat back down of the sofa with a *humph* He then stood back up and ran out of the apartment and roughly kicked a nearby wall "OW!" Xander called. Anya ran after him, she still wasn't exactly sure how she should behave in these sorts of situations but thought that looking after Xander was a safe bet. He sure did need it.
Just then, the door of Giles's front door flew of its hinges in a blast of bright light and wind. The gang stood up with a start. Looking toward the light they couldn't make out much, it was to bright, but when it finally dimmed a tall, startling beautiful woman glided into the front room. She must have been around 7 feet tall, striking black hair surrounded her slender cheek bones and shocking sky-blues eyes bore down at each and every member of the room, finally settling on Buffy.
"You," she whispered, her voice was soft but had a commanding tone, so quiet you could bearly hear it but it shook inside their heads, filling their bodies with warmth. Her voice was warm but had an age-old quality to it, Buffy and the others could do no more then stand in her pressence, all of them knowing there was a higher power then all of them. Behind her, sitting on the wall with his foot painfully being cradled in his hands, Xander with Anya behind him could do no more then stare, they hadn't seen her go past them, they didn't even know where she had come from.
The woman spoke again; "You, Buffy Summers, you are The Slayer. I must speak with you."
Regrouping herself, Buffy stood tall against the stranger and with all the bravery she could muster spoke to the woman matter-of-factly. "Why should I speak to you? Who are you?"
The woman smiled at her attempts to be bold. "We must speak. You will follow me."
"No, why should I do what you say?"
"Come Buffy Summers."
"No! Tell me who you are damnit! Are you something to do with what happened to my mother. If you are I swear to god...!"
The woman was kind-hearted and she knew of Buffy's pain, but her patience was growing thin, she stared into Buffy's eyes, letting the young girl feel the force of her power and the weight of her knowledge and age. The woman didn't need to say anything, this stare alone could bend the will of even the strongest man.
"I shall say what I have to say in this room. I understand these are your friends, I understand the need for companionship though I have had none for these past centuries, but that is of no cause to you young Slayer. Sit down, listen to what I have to say."
The entire gang could only do as she asked, the woman stood tall and proud in front of audience, though her posture was strong, it bore the weight of time and though it was un-weary, the whole room knew she had said this speech countless times.
"I have no name, and have never had one. Therefore I have not one to give you. The only information I can give you about myself is that I am from a higher power, higher then what you have ever imagined and I have come here with a message. Each planet and dimension is very important to us and the balance must always be in place. However the balance here has been shifted, an evil from a time and space beyond you has escaped into this world and must be stopped. Its first purpose here is to stop the only thing that could possibly get in its way. That is you Buffy Summers. You hold a power greater then any other Slayer before you and that is of your peers here," the woman took this moment to look around the room, rewarding each member with eye contact, however resting her glance on Willow slightly longer then the others and raising an eyebrow continued in her speech; "the first thing this evil did was take the things closest to you out of the equation. This evil has honor but also a powerful hatred that wanted not only to only be in battle with you but cause you as much pain as it culd possibly inflict. I believe it will come after the rest of you before finally entering battle with Buffy alone. That is why I am here, the in-balance must be restored, therefore you have the help of myself. I shall take your friends Buffy Summers into the protectiveness of my world, then I shall give you a power that will grant you the wish to enter the world where this there are no boundries, a world where you and the evil can duel in all fairness. If you do not succeed then there is nothing more to do but to let this world suffer because of it. The fight would be over and your friends would have to return to this place before it is taken over by the evil. We are not on anybody's side here Buffy Summers we only mean to restore order." The woman then stopped once again, she frowned, obviously dwelling over a matter, the others could only take in what they have heard and stare in amazement. "No. This will not do, the evil is strong. Stronger then even The Slayer in all her glory. She shall fall at the hands of the evil. All will be lost." The Woman looked down, amazed that this was to be the end, but she knew Buffy could not defeat the evil alone, she hadn't realised this to this very moment. She turned to walk out of the door of this room and to this world, for it will not be a world for much longer.
"Wait!" It was Willow. The woman turned around again in wonderment, someone had got themselves out of her trance? "You said Buffy was strong because of us, well why don't you let us go with her? She's strong because we always help and have our own attributes, surely we sould all go to defeat this evil?"
"No young Witch, we can only let one person pass into the other dimensions."
"You with all this power can only admit one?!"
"You have a lot of bravado, ah I can sense it now...you have a lot of potential, you will do wonderful things withing your lifetime...hummm maybe terrible things aswell i can see it. But you are right, with her friends it is possible the Slayer will give this creature a good fight."
"The Slay....I mean Buffy can do more then that, her pain can cause the deaths of thousands right now."
"It is true and yes it is possible for just one more to go with her, though it will be more difficult because of it. I cannot reward you the pass, but the knowlegde to travel out of this world into the next until you find the world you are looking for, for your quest to begin and to be over. It is you Witch who I shall give this knowlegde to. Your mind and will is strong you ae the only one who can posses it. You and the Slayer shall travel until you find The Place where you shall fight The Evil."
With that, the woman gently stroked the side of Willow's face with her gracful hands leaving a shimmering light where she touched. Then with another blast of wind and bright light, the woman, Xander, Anya and Giles were gone.