Buffy, The vampire slayer: War with the Gods.
The Light.
The kingdoms of Heaven were in turmoil. On the mortal plain, their champions had turned on them. They had slain the messengers of the Divine Powers. This could not be countenanced; there would be holy vengeance for this act of outrageous effrontery.
The armies of the Light were gathering. The Cherubim, the Seraphim, the Angels, Archangels, Saints and the humble, lowly, denizens of the heavenly realms. They gathered, together for the first, and potentially, the last time. There was a great sense of foreboding around the realm. Something was happening. Everyone knew, but nobody knew what, except for those far higher up in the echelons of power.
A figure came to the front of the crowd that had gathered. "I speak for the Powers that be." A hush fell upon the thronging mass of figures. "We stand, on the precipice, the end of days is nigh. Soon our forces shall descend and cleanse all of the mortal worlds with the righteous fire of the Light." A cheer rose from the crowd, "soon, the Light, will burn brightly everywhere, no darkness shall remain. Perfection shall dawn upon all of creation." Another cheer swelled within the crowd and rolled forward to the smiling figure at the front of the crowd.
Somewhere to the rear of the throng, a small group looked furtive, purely because they were trying too hard not to be noticed. "Ah ain't good at stealth y'know? I've always been a thunderclap kinda girl. You could always tell where I've been, even where I was going most of the time." There was more than a hint of panic in the speaker's voice. She was trying to whisper, whilst shouting to be heard over the continuing cheers. One of her companions held out there hand for her to hold on to. "Yeah, right, best not to get separated here, ah'd never find y'all again." Her companion waved his hand as though to hush her. The main speaker had begun speaking again.
"Sadly, our champions in the mortal realm have fallen to the darkness. They have turned their backs on the Light, and even killed the two conduits sent to prepare them for the coming glory." He paused, knowing that his words would cause shock and fear, "but we will take them under our wings. They have been led astray by darkness, they shall all see the light!"
"Ah really can't see Angel and the others, turning away from the light…?" She didn't sound particularly sure of that though, her voice gave it away, "despite him being a vampire and all, he always seemed to be such a fan of the light and such, and yeah, I know I'm rambling here, but it's like, the first time I've been drafted in to a holy war type scenario."
"It's a first for anyone, alive, or dead." The woman's companion whispered. But I too am having a hard time believing Angel has turned evil, again! There's more to this than we're being told, and I'm determined to find out what." Wesley Whyndam Price, stopped and Winifred Birkel, Fred to her friends, almost fell over as she bounced into him. "The last time I was told by a third party that Angel was evil, I cost him his son. I won't be fooled twice."
The speaker was coughing, trying, with a degree of subtlety, to get the attention of the mass of people. As the crowed grew quiet again, he spoke once more. "This is a righteous war. The war that all of creation has been waiting for. We will fight for the glory of the Kingdom of the Lord."
A rousing reply of "Halleluiahs" and cries of "Praise the Lord" rose from the assembled crowd.
"Now, I can't help respecting the man for what he stood for and what he did, but right now, I'd gladly slap him down." The third of the figures finally pulled back the hood of his robe.
"Gunn! Now you hush up. That's President Lincoln up there. Or to be more precise, ex president Lincoln. But he's still a good man." Fred chided her one time lover, and closest friend.
"He's trash talkin' about Angel 's all I meant. Man shouldn't do that."
"Hush now Gunn. I think our contact is here." A robed and hooded figure approached Wesley.
"You've come. Thank you for trusting me. Come with me, we haven't much time."
"Just who are you girl?" Gunn asked as the figure began to turn away.
"I'm a friend of Buffy's. Well, more a friend of Willow's but you know, I know Buffy by default. You can call me Tara."
The Dark place.
"In the news today, world leaders are meeting today in crisis talks about the sudden upsurge in religious hate crimes around the world. The latest of which, took the entire world by surprise. The sudden revolution in Tibet, spurred on by the call of the Dalai Lama, of all people, for the people of that nation to rise up and take arms against the Chinese oppression in their country."
"In related news, the Vatican has made the shocking declaration of war on Israel. The Pontiff has, and this is a direct quote from the press release, he has 'had enough of the Israeli's blaming the Catholic church for the Jew's own inadequacies during the second world war."
"Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon, who is in New York for the crisis talks had this to say."
"If the Christian scum wishes war, then the nation state of Israel will show them who it is that is inadequate in the eyes of God."
"We will of course continue to bring you the news as it breaks. This is Trish Tilby reporting for CNN."
"Holy crap Buffy. How the hell are we supposed to stop this one? We're killing each other here."
"Yeah Xander, I was standing right here watching the news with you, and I honestly don't know what we're going to do." Buffy could see the fear in her friends eye. This was too big. How was she going to fight this thing, when there was no 'thing' to fight."
"Buffy?" Willows voice echoed down what was left of the hallway.
"In the lounge Will." Buffy replied.
"I've got something. Something big. They don't know everything." Willow had bounced into the room, Cordelia walking behind her. "You see what I've got here?"
"Yeah Will. It's the Axe, the weapon of the Slayer."
"Yeah! Now Cordy, what do you see me holding in my hands?"
"This joke was old the second time you tried it on me Willow, you're not holding anything. Did you use your telepathic juju to get Buffy to play along? That's so not fair."
"Cordy? You can't see the Axe?" Buffy asked, hope mingled with fear, but fear still had the upper hand in her mind.
"I can't see any axe. OK?"
"What does this mean Willow? Do the Powers not know about the axe?"
"That's the theory I'm running with, and if they don't know about the axe, then what else don't they know about? What else can't they see?"
"I want everyone in full research mode. I want to know about any mystical weapons, rumours of weapons, magical spells, holy hand grenades, I'll take anything right now. This could be it Willow. We could have found ourselves a weapon.