The Eternal Champion arrives in Sunnydale

By

Harry M VanHoudnos III

I own none of the characters in this story. All characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer are owned by Mutant Enterprises and used without permission. The character of Elric of Melnibone and his runesword Stormbringer, are the property of Michael Moorcock and used without his permission.

A/N This story takes place in Season 5 of Buffy, towards the end of the season, shortly before the final battle with Glory. WARNING: CHARACTER DEATHS IN THIS STORY!

Summary: When an unusual alignment occurs, Elric of Melnibone arrives in Sunnydale! What will this result in for the Scooby Gang?

It was a typical evening for the Scooby Gang. Buffy, trying to recover from the loss of her mother was going after vampires left and right! Mr. Pointy was getting a hard workout this evening. Finally, Buffy headed back to the magic shop to check in with Giles.

As she arrived at the store, she found Giles pouring over a number of old, dusty books. "Hey Giles, what's going on?" she asked.

Giles raised his head from the books that he was reviewing. "Oh, hello Buffy. I was just reviewing some interesting astronomical material that Willow found. It seems that we are in for a very rare and unusual conjunction tonight. It's said that on this night, several of the dimensions that border ours will overlap," the Watcher stated.

"And what does that mean for us?" Buffy asked, not understanding what was going on. Giles looked at her, wondering if she truly were blonde, or if she was a bleached one from the way she acted at times.

"It means that we could see beings from worlds that we normally do not see. We could even see people from the world where Willow was a vampire," Giles answered, seeing that that got through to Buffy.

Buffy remembered that particular incident very well! It had been a shock seeing Willow as a vamp in the red and black Corset, with the high heel boots, and then seeing normal Willow in her sweater and jeans. "So, we might have visitors from somewhere else?" Buffy asked her Watcher.

Giles nodded. "More than likely. And there is no telling where they may come from: The planes may be ahead of us, behind us, or even, completely different than what we are used to. So do be careful Buffy," he told her.

Buffy nodded. For all her blonde looks and her dumb blonde attitude, she did take her job seriously. She left the magic shop, and headed towards where Tara and Willow were talking and going over material in several of the thick books that Giles had for research parties. A few minutes later, the door opened again, and Xander and Anya came in. Xander was a normal looking young man with dark hair and a habit of making jokes that took the tension out of the air when need be. Anya, used to be a Vengeance Demon by the name of Anyanka, before Giles had destroyed her power based, leaving her as a teenager, but with all the memories of the centuries when she had been a demon. She was tactless at times, a bit of a greedy person where money was concerned, but still willing to help out with the research.

"Xander, if this shop is going to make more money, we either need to expand the hours of the shop, cut down on our expenses, or raise prices" Anya said as she headed toward the cash register to check the days receipts. This was a daily thing with Anya, wanting to make sure that all her money that had been made that day was in the register. When she was satisfied that the money in the register was appropriate, she closed it, and turned toward Giles. "What is this about a dimensional convergence tonight?" she inquired.

Giles turned toward the former vengeance demon. "As I was telling Buffy, there is supposed to be a convergence tonight. And we should expect visitors," he told Anya, as she looked on with interest. "Unfortunately, we have no way of telling who might show up," he stated.

Anya nodded. "I've seen a few of them in the past. They can be VERY nasty, especially if it's a dimension that the Lords of Law or the Lords of Chaos are involved in. If it's Chaos, anything can happen and usually does. If it's Law, then it can be very dry and stale, with nothing happening at all. So let's hope that none of them interact with us" Anya stated as she headed toward the books.

"Just what did you mean by The Lords of Law and Chaos, Anya?" Xander asked his Hawaiian shirt loudly on display as he moved towards her. Xander knew that Anya did not mention things like this lightly, so he felt it was better to be informed.

"The Lords are VERY powerful beings, one could almost call them gods" Anya answered. "They do need invitations to go to certain planes, but once they do get there, they try and take over the plane. If it's Chaos, then people change into things that would boggle the mind. Just envision all this money coming to life and walking all over everything is one example" Anya told the group.

"Or maybe, bunnies arising and walking on two legs?" Buffy suggested, drawing a major death glance from Anya, who HATED rabbits with a passion!