This was the first fanfic I ever wrote.
I started it back in mid-Season 4 BTVS/Season 1 AtS when it became clear that Certain Issues were never going to be addressed on the show. I finished it during S5/S2, but incorporated very few elements from those seasons. Riley does not become a self-destructive idiot. Phantom Retcon Girl does not appear to undo the first four seasons, and Joyce Summers doesn't die before her sins find her out. For all intents and purposes, consider this timeline to diverge after the end of S4/S1.
Also, if you'll recall, the Powers That Be and the Lower Beings were still fairly ill-defined at that point, so I chose to use gods, angels and demons from real-world mythologies. Hope that doesn't offend anyone.
It began with a light.
A single, tiny, point of light. No more than a pinprick, really.
But it was still a light. A taint on the pure, perfect darkness. Change in what was eternal. Light speared into the void beneath reality, and somewhere, deep in the infinite depths, something that envied and hated the light saw, and roused.
Something unspeakable began to climb toward the world.