"Lord of night, Earthshaker, Great Destroyer, hear my summons and answer. Here is a world, ripe for destruction, and thus I offer it to you. Come forth, and destroy the Slayer and this world!"
The earth shook. The light dimmed, blocked by something vast and terrible. The Slayer cursed. The sorcerer laughed madly in his triumph. The Watcher hopelessly searched his mental store of knowledge for something that might help them here.
And somebody sneezed.
The sound was so out of place that you could have heard a pin drop, and as eyes became accustomed to the sudden gloom, they made out the immense, shadowy, semi-solid black form of the Destroyer, eyes gleaming a dull crimson. The Slayer eyed it, trying to think of a way to take it. Taking down the sorcerer was out since he was safe behind his circle of magical Can't-Touch-This-ness. Now that was going to be a pain. But she'd learned from the First that it's just plain impossible to kill something that's not solid.
Mister See-My-Demon-Mwa-Ha-Ha laughed triumphantly. "It is over! Know your defeat!"
"Why should she?" said a new voice.
Everyone glanced around wildly, but the sorcerer recovered fastest, not caring who had spoken. "Now, Great Destroyer, take them all!"
"Huh? You— you are talking to me, aren't you?" the shadowy hulk wasn't moving, but Buffy found her attention drawn to the base of it, and this time she made out what looked like— A boy? In the middle of it?
The kid looked annoyed. "You seriously managed to summon me" the word echoed with strange harmonies in it, "without even a contract, and you actually think I'm willing to do what you want?"
"You are the Great Destroyer?!"
"I guess you could call me that. Not like it's my name or anything, though, I wouldn't give my name to you anyway," he scowled at the sorcerer and paced around a bit, catlike, eyeing her and Giles. "So, you two, why did this guy summon me? And how can I get back? Its dinnertime, Gil's cooking, and I promised my little sister I'd be there. "
Buffy found herself echoing the sorcerer's thought. This was his 'great destroyer?' She'd think he'd dialed some celestial wrong number, but the kid had said he could be called that. She didn't know what to think.
The sorcerer recovered. "Take them! Take it all! Let it all be destroyed!"
"Not interested. Is that all you can say?"
"Pretty much," she quipped.
The boy stopped his circling. His eyes narrowed.
"And he even managed to show my shadow," he glanced up at the hulk above. "Well then," the hulk became a bit more solid, its misty shape somehow familiar. "You who stand before me, seeking destruction," two voices at once spoke, and somehow they were the same, the light voice of the boy and one that sounded like judgement, as that great hulk looked down at the sorcerer, its movements mirroring the boy between its feet, "My power shall destroy you, as you desire."
Chains erupted from nowhere, rattling and wrapping around the man. He screamed and struggled as they passed right through his circle of magical Can't-Touch-This-ness and plucked him up, holding him spread out, bound like a sacrifice in one of Giles' geek myth books. Whasshername andra-whosit, food for the sea monster. The hulk and the boy —somehow the same, it was him— wrinkled their nose.
There was a flash, and as the scream became piercing the boy and his shadow turned away. Dust fell to the ground where the sorcerer had been. "Be banished from the worlds for a hundred of the hundred rounds, and know your shame in torment until you may come again, unknowing of anything, as is the fate of all mortals."
The hulk faded away. The boy nodded pleasantly to Buffy and Giles, who were staring in shock. "I'm sorry you had to see that, but I hate it when idiots try to control me. You were trying to stop him, right?"
Was the safe thing to say here yes or no?
"Ah," she heard Giles begin, but the boy grinned sunnily.
"At least, that's what his shrieking told me. He didn't like you two much. But since you were trying to stop him from using my power to destroy this world, I think I like you. Sorry for the trouble!" he waved and turned away.
"Wait! What are you going to do?"
He looked back. "I'm going home. Its Ada's birthday and nobody makes strawberry chiffon cake like Gil!" One hand slashed at the air, and a seam appeared in it. It glowed gold as it widened, and he backed up two steps, then dove through it. It closed behind him with a snap-hiss.
Buffy stared after him. "Strawberry chiffon cake?" she said plaintively.
"Little sister?" Giles added, sounding stunned.
What just happened?