Chapter 2 – The Book Of The Ultimate Warrior

Dimension:563 – Earth

Date:20th July 2001 AD

Country:Britain – England – Surrey

Location:Pivet Drive – Little Whinging

Time:Afternoon

As the car pulled to a stop the large man who had been driving left the car, unlocked the car boot then proceeded inside the house, immediately to be followed by the equally large boy and the scrawny woman, all of whom walked straight into the house.

The scrawny boy slowly undid his seatbelt and opened the car door, lifting out the cage that contained his only companion he pushed the door closed before collecting his trunk and heading towards the house.

"BOY. GET IN HERE!"


Dimension:165 – Earth

Date:3rd July 2001 AD

Country:USA – California

Location:Sunnydale – Graveyard

Time:Early Evening

"It's all right," the figure nodded before raising his hands and lowering his hood.

Underneath was a male, around nineteen to twenty years of age, he was six foot tall, had dark brown hair and hazel coloured eyes.

It was the sort of face you would trust, even though it looked powerful, determined and wise beyond its years.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am The Guardian."

All the girl's chins except for Tara's, who was still unconscious, hit the floor and were now heading at full speed for Asia.

Wow was the main line of thought.

The men in the party were looking at him cautiously, and had the situation been less serious Giles probably would have been rolling his eyes and cleaning his glasses at the women's reaction.

After about a minute of silence, someone finally managed to say something.

"Hi," Willow greeted him shyly with one of her nervous waves.

The corners of the Guardian's mouth turned upwards in amusement.

"Hello, Miss Rosenberg."

Snapping out of the shocked state they were all in, they realized that they hadn't introduced themselves to him, yet he already knew who Willow was.

"How do you know her name?" questioned Giles, moving away from Tara to stand in front of Willow, just in case.

"Oh, I know who you all are, Mr. Giles, even though we have never met."

"Why do you know our names?" Xander asked.

A cry of pain brought their attention back to Tara who had just regained consciousness. Remembering her injured lover, Willow went back to her like a shot. "We need to get her to a hospital. She's bleeding badly!"

The Guardian moved towards her, but Buffy and the others blocked his path.

"I'm not going to hurt her. Move aside."

Slowly Anya and Giles moved out the way, Buffy and Xander held firm. The Guardian sighed and raised a hand lifting both of the floor, rendering them immobile, this seemed to annoy the pair.

"Hey, stop cheating." Called Buffy as she struggled again.

The Guardian knelt down besides Tara. He placed his fingertips on her head and muttered some words that were not English or any other language that the assembled group knew.

She immediately calmed and the pain vanished from her face, The Guardian then moved his hand down over her chest wound, which was still loosing her blood.

"This may feel a little strange," he told Tara who was now staring at him shocked.

His hand began to glow white and he closed his eyes in confrontation.

The light spread down his hand towards the wound, it engulfed the injury, Tara made a small gasp as the light brightened so much that they could not see the injury beneath it.

When the light died down, the wound was no where to be seen.

"You're going to be just fine," he said, stroking the side of her head soothingly before standing back.

As soon as he moved out of the way Willow threw herself at Tara, engulfed her in a hug.

After about a minute of stunned silence by everyone Willow stood and threw herself at the Guardian.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." Willow cried into his chest, he in return placed his arms around her to try to soothe the emotional woman.

"My pleasure." He replied, untangling himself from Willow. "I suggest we move this conversation back to Mr. Giles house. There are bound to be more vampires around."

"I concur and then you can tell us who exactly you are," Giles stated rather than asked.

"I intend to."

"Could I ask you to do one thing first." Said Xander calmly.

"Of course." Replied The Guardian.

"Could you let us down?"


Dimension:165 – Earth

Date:3rd July 2001 AD

Country:USA – California

Location:Sunnydale – Giles House

Time:Early Evening

Once they were back at Giles' house the Scoobies settled in to hear what The Guardian had to say.

Willow, Tara and Anya took relaxed postures, sitting on one of the sofas, while Buffy, Xander and Giles remained standing, still holding their weapons.

"So...who are you?" asked Xander.

"Like I said, I am The Guardian."

"G...Guardian of w...what?" Tara stuttered, she had been rather unsettled after her near death experience.

"Everything."

Everyone was stunned into silence.

"What do you mean everything?" Willow questioned.

"Everything." he repeated.

"You said, but what do you mean…..everything?" asked Xander.

"I'm not sure I can make it any clearer," he replied, the corners of his mouth pulling up slightly again "How about the opposite of nothing."

"Could you please define what you believe to be 'everything'?" Giles asked, cleaning his glasses.

"I would define it the same way you do, everything….the world, the plants, the people, the animals, you." He paused, but still receiving blank looks he continued "I'm the Guardian of trees, flowers, people, birds, bees, bears, bats, mongooses, ducks, dogs, frogs, fruit bats, flamingos, France. You name it; I guard it, though the last is a bit of a stretch."

"Why, France to big for ya?" Xander asked, making it sound light a insult.

"No, I just have good reason for not liking the French."

"Oh." Nodded Xander quietly.

The corners of the stranger's mouth twitched again, before he continued.

"Well while you're all stunned into silence I might as well tell you why I am here, as I am guessing you are going to ask…I originally came to America in 1981 when Buffy was born."

"What...why?" Buffy exclaimed.

"Because I knew you would be important in times to come, as you all will."

He stopped for a minute to let the others take this information in, studying their reactions as he did. Most looked worried by what they had just heard. Giles was cleaning his glasses again. Anya though looked very smug at this.

"I have been watching you…all of you since you were born and I've made sure nothing has harmed you."

"Well you failed there then," Buffy interrupted. "I've died."

"I am aware of that," he answered. "I am aware of precisely how time should unfold, or to be more precise, I can see when discrepancies occur...like tonight...Those vampires and demons shouldn't have attacked, it was planned by greater forces and should not have occurred the way it did. You are not the only ones to have been attacked, I have been chasing that group through half a dozen dimensions in which they managed to kill many Champions, luckily the size of the force had already been reduced from five times that number by the Champions they had already defeated."

He then looked away and spoke to himself though loud enough for the others to hear.

"I should have been more prepared...He has acted faster than I anticipated."

"Excuse me, who?" questioned Buffy

"The First," he said coldly. "You've met him before or at least some of you have." he said looking in Buffy's direction.

He then withdrew a gold pocket watch from the inside of his cloak, snapping it open he checked the time before replaced it in his cloak.

"I have explained enough for the time being. I know you all have questions and I will answer, just not now."

He then withdrew a very large book from his cloak, a book that should have been visible through his cloak, especially for a book that looked that heavy, though he handled it like a feather. On the front was an embroidering of a Stag. A crown and five stars surrounded the top of the deer's antlers. There were words written on the spine and top of the book. They spelt out:

Pron Tirno Daram

None of the assembled group knew what they meant.

"This book will answer some of your questions. I cannot stress enough how dangerous this book is, so do not lose it."

He gently placed the book on the table and turned to go.

"Oh and the pages that you can't read," he said over his shoulder. "Don't try to translate them, you won't be able to."

Having said this he seemed to glide towards the door but faded before he got there. The group just looked at each other a bit shocked.

Xander was the first to speak, "He's got to show me how to do that."


Dimension:165 – Earth

Date:3rd July 2001 AD

Country:USA – California

Location:Sunnydale – Giles' House

Time:Late Evening

Later at Giles' house, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara are present.

"What have you got, Will?" Buffy asked as she came in the front door.

"Thanks for knocking," said Giles.

Not even hearing him Buffy continued into the house.

"Quite a lot. His full title…or one of them anyway, is The Guardian Of Light. This guy's really impressive Buffy. He's incredible. The stuff he's done, it's unbelievable and he's even more powerful than...than...something really powerful."

"Hell of anti-climax, Will." smiled Xander.

"Well, she might not have said it very well, but she's not wrong," said Giles, looking up from reading the book over Willow's shoulder. "From what this book says, he's been around a long, long time."

"Yeah, well," Buffy retorted. "Angel has been around for over two hundred and forty years an..."

"No Buffy when he says a long long time...he means it." Willow clarified.

"How long, three hundred years, four hundred?" Buffy joked.

"Fifteen..." Willow began.

"Hundred?" Buffy guessed. "Okay that is quite old but..."

"Billion." Tara finished.

If it was possible, Buffy's jaw would have dropped thought the floor.

"B...bb..." Buffy stammered "Bbbillion years?"

"You can stop catching flies now, Buffy," Xander joked and received the death glare in return.

"How is that possible?" Buffy questioned. "How can anyone look that good at that age?"

Everyone turned to Buffy.

"I think you missing the point here, Buff."

"No, I'm serious Xander how can anyone look that good being that old? I mean he's got that wonderful brown hair and that smooth face and the eyes..." Buffy trailed off.

"Those eyes," Anya agreed.

"Eyes," Willow and Tara echoed.

If you had looked around, you would have seen four girls all staring into space, with dreamy looks on their faces.

"Oh, for God's sake." Giles sighed, rolling his eyes and cleaning his glasses.

"Anya. ANYA!" Xander shouted trying to get them to regain focus.

He ended up pinching her causing her to cry out, which snapped the other girls out of their day dreams and left them looking decidedly embarrassed.

"Thank God for that. Now can we get back to the point," Giles pointed out. The girls looked blankly at him. "The Guardian!" he exclaimed exasperated, as if he couldn't take much more.

"Right, right. What have you guys got?" Buffy asked, now regaining focus.

"Like we said, he's been around a long time and apparently he used to be human before he became what he is now," Willow explained.

"What is he then?" Xander asked.

"We're not sure." Replied Tara.

"That part of the books in another language and we tried translating it but we got nowhere. I don't even recognize the language."

"Never mind. What else?" said Buffy, trying to move the conversation along in an attempt to forget her doe eyed moment a few seconds earlier.

"It appears he was created by The Powers That Be to fight The First in some gigantic battle that will decide whether Good or Evil reigns."

"The First, you mean the thing that tries to make Angel commit suicide?"

Willow nodded.

"Reign over what?" asked Anya.

"Everything," explained Willow. "It's going to be the ultimate battle and he's the ultimate warrior. He was 'trained by the Gods'," she said, reading from the book. "I mean the Powers. He's the most powerful being ever to exist. The only beings more powerful are the Powers themselves. Other than them, the only being in the same league is...The First."


"I don't trust him," Buffy announced several minutes later.

"What...why?" Xander questioned. "He saved our lives remember."

"Yes, I know, but if he is really that powerful, then why does he need us? Why was he making sure we we're safe, if that was really what he was doing? After all, we researched him and he's the person who gave us the only book with any information on him in it." Buffy said, feeling smug that she had thought of all that. The others looked just as surprised at her as she was.

"What...? I have ideas...occasionally," Buffy said almost expecting them to laugh.

"B...Buffy does have a point," Tara said, almost afraid to break the silence. "We don't know anything except what he told us and...and there were all those sections we couldn't translate."

"Yes, I think we have to be careful where we tread," Giles agreed. "Especially if he is as powerful as the book describes."

"If the book is even real. He could have faked this." said Willow uncertainly.

"Next time he shows up, I'm going to follow him to see where he goes." Buffy stated, standing to go.

"I don...don't think you'll be able to," Tara said uncertainly as everyone except Giles, who understood what she was about to say, turned to her.

"Why do you say that?" said Willow. Giles rolled his eyes in disbelief that they didn't know.

"We...wel...well last time he didn't even leave by the door." said Tara, more uncertain than ever now that she was under everyone's gaze.

Seeing the point, Buffy sat down, a bit deflated after her earlier spout of ideas.

"And he did save my life." Tara said, almost a bit embarrassed.

"I still think I should try and follow him next time anyway. If he really is that powerful, we need to know we can trust him."