Author's Notes: Here we are, Chapter Two and a look at the Buffy side of things; I hope I've captured the Buffyverse character's essences correctly, it's been a while since I've watched any of the series so if I've made some errors in characterization then please let me know. I suppose I should also note that this AUinverse picks up roughlya week and a halfafter the season seven episode Lies My Parents' Told Me and goes AU from there. I have plans to introduce Faith as the show did in a later chapter, and there are also certain plans to include more character moments between Buffyverse characters, but don't expect to see Caleb in this. He'll get a mention, but he's not exactly pulsing any more, if you catch my drift; which is why Skeletor, Beastman and Mer-Man kind of took his place. (Not just for Crossover goodness, there is a plot behind all of this jarring change to the way things were supposed to go in Season Seven; however once we reach the ending I have a feeling hard core Buffy enthusiasts might not like how my version of Season Seven ends... Though I can't really be sure of that.)
Anyway; I look forward to more reviews, perhaps now that you have something more to go on you'll be able to tell me how you like the direction I'm going with this, the usual disclaimer applies in this situation, and so we continue...
Elizabeth Anne Summers, who happened to hate that name and preferred the nickname Buffy; whose origins are steeped in mystery and remain unknown to this day… Or so she would have you believe; was currently bored out of her mind as she sat in her counselors' office at good old Sunnydale High. With more and more people evacuating the town due to the uneasy feelings being passed around there weren't a lot of kids left to teach, let alone help deal with typical emotional distress; which actually made her wonder why the school was even still open.
Sighing she tossed a paper ball into the trash bin and scored another ten points for her imaginary team.
"Knock, knock." Principal Wood called out from the doorway; Buffy jerked in her seat startled at the sudden interruption and turned to face the man who signed her paychecks. He was actually the son of a former Slayer killed by Spike; and was harboring mixed feelings about the ensouled Vamp being stashed in Buffy's house, he was also a very handsome African-American who stood roughly six foot eight inches give or take, had a tendency to wear an earring, andsported a slight mustache.
He was also bald; seemed to like wearing plain suits that still managed to accentuate his attractiveness and had a slight charm to him, of course he was at least a far cry better then Principal Snyder had ever been.
"What's up?" Buffy asked smiling.
"I'm afraid the school board is going to close us down in another day." He returned with a sigh. "Not enough students." He elaborated for the sake of clarifying things; even though he knew Buffy probably was smart enough to figure that out.
"These things happen…" Buffy countered picking up another balled up piece of loose leaf and handing it to him; he smiled and tossed it at the garbage bin. "It's better if they get out of town anyway." She added with another sigh of her own; the current situation was highly stressful and she really didn't think she could handle it much longer without breaking down.
"Any luck?" Wood asked; Buffy shook her head.
"The Bringers are getting more aggressive; it's getting harder to keep the girls safe, and I'm no closer to finding a way to stop the First's plans." She admitted; Wood really didn't know what to say to that, and before he could even attempt anything a scream was heard down the hall followed by a very out of place growl.
The two adults shared a knowing look and ran out of the office; at the opposite end of the hall was quite the horrific sight, a teenage boy lay on the floor bleeding from a very nasty leg wound. Standing over him was a very strange looking demon; it wasn't something Buffy had ever seen before, nor could she recall seeing it in any of the books she'd actually done research in over the years. He; for it was obviously male, was covered in a thick fur mostly subdued reddish in color, his face however belied a sense of intelligence she'd never seen in a demon before and he had very sharp looking teeth. He was wearing some sort of dark brown leather ankle guards with attached spiked knee guards, and a matching colored guard on each elbow; which was small enough not to hinder mobility. Twin sick green smaller spiked metal wrist guards and a matching green belt-like thing, with darker green furred loincloth combination rounded out the modest clothing on the hulking gorilla-like demon. Other then this there was no distinguishing marks or clothing with one notable exception; the large shaggy mane which draped upon his shoulders and hung down to his stomach; accompanied by strange bone-like protrusions that might have been the teeth off of large carnivores, mane however wasn't the right word to describe what she was seeing. It looked nothing like a lion's mane; for it wasn't attached to his head or neck as that animal's mane was known to do, it looked more like some sort of pelt from a trophy, but it attached to his body and was clearly his fur. Buffy shook aside her insecurities about not knowing what she was looking at and adopted her resolved face; now was not the time to try to classify the beast.
"What kind of demon is that?" Wood asked out of the side of his mouth; though he didn't show itdue to the ammount of clothes he had one covering up the scars,he was still healing from his scrap with Spike about a week and a half previously and didn't relish having to fight the massive eight possibly nine foot tall brute, it was hard to tell his height since he was hunched over.
"Don't know." Buffy began her eyes narrowing at the sight of the kids' blood on the demons left hand claws. "But he's so going down." She stated before charging recklessly down the hall; the hulking brute, who happened to be well aware of the Slayer and Principal scrutinizing him, smirked causing his fangs to glint in the sickly neon light of the hall.
Buffy tried to drop kick him in the chest; he avoided her flying leap in a highly fluid motion and grabbed her by the leg in one massive paw as she passed by, she would not give up though and proceeded to punch him repeatedly in the stomach and chest trying to get him to release her. With each punch he seemed to grow more amused; and Buffy was forced to hide her concern, for her bones and limbs actually jarred with each impact causing stabbing pains to run up into her shoulder blades.
"Heh, heh, heh… Looks like Skeletor was right." He remarked in a guttural voice filled with the occasionaly raresnarl. "When we only found those other pathetic girls and the old man at your house he figured you had to be somewhere in this puny little village." He continued with a pleased smirk. "Just my luck I found you first, a shame I don't have time to play with you, but Skeletor was adamant about lettin' him handle you personally; so here's the message." He informed opening his other tight fisted hand revealing a crumpled picture of Buffy, Xander and Willow. Buffy's eyes narrowed angrily; somehow this demon had gotten into her house, and if they hurt any of the potentials or her friends then he'd really know the meaning of the word pain.
"Relax." He began seeming to pick up on her growing rage. "We didn't actually hurt anybody… Too much." He revealed grinning wickedly. "Skeletor just wanted to get your attention; he'll be back tonight to finish what we started." The beast finished with a deep throated laugh before tossing Buffy into the nearest collection of lockers; she crashed into the metal hard enough to dent it and injured her back in the process, she slumped to the floor in obvious pain.
The gorilla demon laughed loudly as he leapt out the nearest entrance leaving a secretly frightened Slayer behind; she had failed to injure him in any fashion, and just who was this Skeletal person? Buffy groaned as Principal Wood rushed to help her up; she brushed his aid aside however, her pride already wounded.
"What was that all about?" Wood wondered eyeing the fallen picture briefly; Buffy shook her head and eyed the still swinging doors.
"Trouble." She replied simply. "End of the World level trouble; I think the First just stepped things up." She added with a wince as she applied too much pressure to her twisted ankle; she had to get home quickly, find out what had happened there before it was too late… She was just glad Dawn had been here with her today; if anything had happened to her, she didn't know what she'd do.
The Sorceress looked up in surprise as Adam, Adora and Marlena arrived within the grand throne room of Castle Grayskull; surprise because she hadn't expected the queen to be with her children.
"Marlena; your presence is unexpected." She remarked; the queen nodded with a small smile.
"I understand, but if there are dangers to Eternia I feel the need to know." She returned; the Sorceress nodded in silent understanding and floated down from atop the throne, the Sorceress was an ethereal beauty, almost ageless in appearance despite her true physical age. She was dressed in a green and golden armor heavily influenced by the ancient Aztecan cultures; at least that's what Marlena always was reminded of whenever she stood before this woman. The white skirt-loincloth combination did little to cover the woman's shapely legs; Marlena always felt that perhaps her wardrobe could stand an improvement even with the mostly brown almost knee high boots and green metallic knee guards, considering that her sixteen year old son tended to spend an awful lot of time within the walls of Castle Grayskull, as himself and his alter ego He-Man.
The most defining features about this woman were the highly stylized headdress reminiscent of an avian species of some kind and the large white feathered wings that swept out from her back granting her the gift of flight. These wings were not a perfect white, but more of a white with gold russet undertones upon the feathers; Marlena was always impressed by these wings and of course the long golden staff that showed the woman's station, but part of this came from her own cultures background.
"Then know you shall." She stated turning to regard both champions of Eternia with a very concerned expression. "A creature… Most certainly a great being of unspeakable evil has taken Skeletor from Eternia, I can not classify this entity; it is elusive as though not of this realm. I have scoured the universe and discovered Skeletor is now on Earth." She informed; Adam and Adora's expressions were ones of uncertainty, shock and partial joy. Marlena was frightened after all Earth had been her home once; long ago before she found her way to Eternia by accident, and she feared for its' inhabitants.
"What can we do?" Adam asked; instantly recognizing that he and his sister would have to resolve this problem in some way.
"We have to go to Earth." Marlena returned in a soft tone startling her children with the ferocity in her tone and emphasis on the term we, the Sorceress agreed with this assessment and swiftly chose to expand upon the simple response.
"It is the only way; you must journey to Earth and somehow bring Skeletor back to Eternia before he can cause too much harm, already the balance of your mother's home world has shifted." She informed gravely; Adam nodded accepting her words at face value, Adora however was still new to the ways of Eternia and harbored some uncertainties.
"Can we even fight Skeletor so far away from Castle Grayskull and its' powers?" She wondered cautiously; the Sorceress smiled once more and placed a hand briefly upon the slowly recovering teenager's shoulder.
"The powers of Grayskull can help you wherever you may be within this universe; all you need do is call upon the Elders and they shall come to your aid, as you do now." The ethereal beauty replied; Adam eyed his sister briefly with quiet surprise, he really never thought about that before, he always assumed the powers of He-Man would be his as long as he possessed the sword of power.
Shaking aside his concern he turned to his mother already beginning to formulate a plan; Skeletor would be in a world he did not know after all, it should be relatively simple to defeat him.
"You'll have to tell the Masters that we've gone on a special mission with He-Man and She-Ra." He began; he still felt strange about his mother at last knowing the secret Man-At-Arms had constantly instilled caution in him about sharing the secret, but there was little he could do when Hordak blasted him with the Dark Matrix's' energies.
Marlena shook her head cutting him off before he could say anymore; Adam trailed off confused.
"You've never been to Earth before; you're going to need a guide." The queen countered; Adam looked worried, with his father dead he was even more protective of his mother, even though she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
"But mother; if there's danger you could be hurt, or worse." He stated his voice cracking slightly with the fear of losing another parent; despite all he'd done as He-Man he was most definitely not ready to assume the mantle as King of Eternos. Marlena smiled softly and drew closer to her son reaching out to caress his cheek as a mother often does with her children.
"Relax Adam; I can help you and I can handle myself, remember the Snake Men?" She asked with a brief chuckle; Adam knew he couldn't convince her otherwise, even his father had, had trouble convincing the queen to remain behind when danger was close. Reluctantly he bowed his head deferring to her wisdom; Adora seemed anxious, but kept her feelings to herself.
"How will we get to Earth?" She asked; she really hadn't much cared for her mother accompanying them, but she knew better then to change the queen's mind, she hadn't known her mother as long as Adam, but she still noticed how stubborn she could be at times.
"I shall use the power of the Elders to send you where you are most needed." The Sorceress stated gripping her staff tighter and folding her wings closer to her body steeling herself for the amount of energies she'd be channeling through her. "Stand closer together if you will." She requested waving her free hand to express her request further; Adam and Adora moved to stand on either side of their mother and Marlena took each one by the hand.
"We'll need appropriate attire and money as well." The queen remarked with pursed lips; the Sorceress nodded and with a wave of her staff the trio were changed, the queen now wore a forest green shirt and beige pants, a dark red purse hung over one shoulder on a thin strap and her hair had even been shortened. Of course her crown and earrings were gone; although the earrings were replaced with smaller diamond studs, she looked almost like she had the day she arrived here.
Adam received faded black jeans and a rich red muscle shirt; his wrist gauntlets were gone and a watch was strapped to his left wrist, though he didn't understand what function it possessed because it looked nothing like an Eternian time keeper. He was also wearing a long brown duster to conceal the power sword; he regarded this strange styled coat with a slight smile, it fit like a glove and looked pretty cool. Adora was dressed similarly to her brother; her jeans were blue however and she was wearing a more tasteful loose fitting violet hued baby tee, her duster was a darker brown almost black in color and her shoulder length blond hair was now tied up in a ponytail with a reddish gold hair clasp.
The Sorceress took a deep breath opening herself to the powers of the Elders and waved her staff a second time; the power of Grayskull opened a portal almost instantly, which swept the royal family up and sent them on their way to Queen Marlena's former home planet hopefully they would arrive in time to put a stop to the threat of Skeletor.
Buffy raced back home as fast as she could after recovering from the gorilla's attack; when she reached the house she found Xander outside working on the front entrance with the limited tools at his disposal, without so much as a word she barged into the building searching for an enemy that was long gone.
She searched through the entire house from top to bottom; assessing her home as though it were a fortress whose walls had been breached, three of the potentials were in Dawn's room being tended to by Willow and Kennedy. Chao-Ahn had a broken arm; Tiffany had a very nasty looking gash across her forehead and Amanda was nursing a broken foot, Buffy's eyes narrowed dangerously when she saw her charges injured.
Giles and Spike were in the basement training the remaining potentials in combat and Andrew and Anya were sitting in the corner leafing through piles of books; Buffy figured the two powerless individuals were sticking with Spike because of what happened.
"Giles what happened?" She demanded marching straight up to the Watcher and doing her best imposing Slayer face, the man sighed.
"Nothing too unsettling; unless you count an attack by two demons in broad daylight nothing." He returned rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Anya and that bloody twat have been researching for hours, but so far we have no leads on the identity of our intruders." He elaborated with a second sigh.
"Hey." Andrew exclaimed from the corner. "That bloody twat is right here." He added in a hurt tone; Giles ignored him while Spike chuckled slightly before eyeing the Slayer.
"How'd you know somethin' went down?" He asked; Buffy eyed him briefly. "I can smell the perspiration." He pointed out.
"One of them attacked me at the school." She revealed. "I don't know if it was one of the ones in the house; big red gorilla with a Tarzan fetish." She added, Anya snorted briefly before glancing up from her own book.
"Yes; that was one of them." She stated and then tossed her book aside and climbed to her feet with a look of disgust. "This is pointless; I've lived longer then anyone else here and I have never seen any gorilla demons or green scaly fish demons like the two from this morning." She informed in a snippy kind of tone; Buffy didn't know why Anya was so upset, but she didn't have time to start analyzing former vengeance demons.
"Andrew?" She prompted; the self-proclaimed former super villain wannabe shook his head. "Fine; quite researching and go restock our supplies, if we're going to be visited by these creeps again tonight I want to make sure we're all well rested and properly fed." She stated before trailing off and seeming to realize that the potentials were almost all right there and listening in on every word. "Giles can we talk upstairs for a minute?" She asked softly; the Watcher nodded and followed the Slayer back upstairs into the living room where Xander was putting the finishing touches on the coffee table, having given up on the door apparently.
"What's troubling you?" He asked; Buffy smiled briefly, Giles always seemed to know when something was on her mind.
"The one that came to the school and warned me about tonight…" She trailed off momentarily making sure no one else was around, Xander didn't say anything, but he was one of her closest friends and she could trust him to keep this secret. "He was fast Giles… Wicked fast and my punches didn't even faze him." She informed a slight hint of fear in her tone; she began to pace back and forth anxiously as Giles whipped his glasses off and began to vigorously wipe the lenses.
"What am I gonna do if I can't even fight these things?" She demanded.
"Looks to me like the First has brought in the muscle it's always bragged about." Xander quipped bitterly. "Maybe if we could bring Angel and his group in to help." He mused out loud; Buffy pretended she hadn't heard that and rounded on her former mentor.
"Giles; the Turok-Han was bad enough, but this… I can't fail again; if I lose the First will destroy the Earth." She rambled releasing emotions she didn't know had been bubbling around; Giles obviously didn't know what to say to that, he knew Buffy was under tons of stress lately. The First's open challenge towards the balance that had always been enforced was unsettling to say the least, and Buffy really wasn't ready to handle this level of evil's power unleashed; or at least he believed so privately.
"I'm telling you guys it was like something out of a sci-fi or fantasy epic." Andrew exclaimed as he, Anya and several potentials suddenly appeared from the basement. "And if we can't find them in our demon guides then maybe, just maybe they're like aliens or something." He added with a big goofy hopeful grin; Buffy shot him a glare because he was interrupting a personal discussion, but just then both Dawn and Principal Wood came home to find the front entrance still smashed in… Well the debris wasn't there, but it was obvious something a lot bigger had busted down the door; and both Buffy and Wood had seen it earlier.
"Ok Giles; I want the potentials armed at all times, all of them." Buffy ordered burying her insecurities in the role of leader; a role she was comfortable with and could deal with right then. "Spike's going to be invaluable if… When they show up; so try not to kill him Wood." She added glancing briefly at the Principal, now ex-principal actually if the school was closed. "And you two." She added shooting a glare at Anya and Andrew. "I thought I told you to get more supplies."
"What's going on?" Dawn demanded; Buffy shook her head.
"It's nothing." She replied lying in an attempt to protect her sister from the truth; turning she headed for the kitchen.
"Like hell it's nothing." Xander spoke up with a sharp glare. "They're going to come back; and I think everyone deserves to know the truth." He added pointedly leveling his gaze upon the slayer; by now Willow was standing in the stairway eyeing her friends with a brief look of concern, she could tell she'd missed something.
"Not yet Xander." Buffy returned in a soft almost pleading tone of voice. "Not until we know who they are and what exactly is going on." She added steely resolve snapping back into place with minimal effort.
"What's to know?" Anya asked innocently. "The First got some new big bad level demons; Buffy can take care of them easily." She added in a casual tone of voice tinged with deep conviction; Buffy lowered her head briefly, allowing a moment of weakness to slip through.
"Ahn." Xander warned adopting her nickname.
"That's not good." Dawn interjected before anyone else could speak. "But like Anya said, Buffy can handle'em." She added shooting her sister an encouraging smile; Buffy got a haunted look on her face before taking off looking for something or someone to hit, she couldn't let the team down, not like this and not now.
"Did I say something wrong?" She wondered turning to eye the others confusedly; Xander and Giles shared a knowing look, but said nothing they didn't feel it was their place to go against Buffy's wishes even in such a situation as this.
Unseen outside Mer-Man was crouched in one of the larger sized trees; he smirked, with his hearing he'd heard every word being spoken in the house. Time now to let Skeletor know the target was home; and get his scales wetted again, it was far too dry on this planet for his tastes… Then again he didn't know about the ocean not far away because Skeletor had kept a tight leash on his minions, if he had known he might have had a better opinion of the place. Flipping out of the tree backwards he rushed off; he just hoped he could remember how to get to that stupid vineyard exactly, whatever a vineyard was.
To Be Continued... In the next chapter the royal family of Eternia arrives on Earth, Andrew and Anya spend some time together fetching supplies and Mer-Man attacks, but He-Man makes his first ever appearence on Earth, how will Skeletor handle knowing his hated foe is here? Find out in the next exciting, action oriented chapter.