All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.
"No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are."
WHISTLER:
BTVS S02E21 "Becoming Pt1"
She remembered how they came for her.
Illyria watched over the corpse of Buffy Summers as her mind drifted backwards to her first meeting with the Slayers of Arrakis. She remembered. Thousands of years ago she was still on Earth. Angel, Gunn, Spike and Wesley, especially Wesley, were gone. For years, she lived alone in a cave in the Arizona desert. Alone in her cave that night she felt something tear a hole in space-time. The energy of it awakened long dead memories filed away millions of years ago.
Illyria crept along the wall of her cave until she found the entrance. She could see dark shapes moving on the rocks below. She counted at least twenty intruders. They were definitely coming her way. Illyria had no doubt that agents of the Wolf, Ram and Hart were coming for her head.
"Is this how they challenge me?" She thought with contempt. "They come at me in the night to slip a dagger in my back. They have no honor. I will kill them and spit on their graves."
"Sovereign!" A woman's voice called out from the rocks below. "The daughters of Sineya have need of you!"
"Slayers!" Illyria thought. She was being hunted by slayers. She didn't know whether to be insulted or angry.
Illyria spoke to the darkness.
"The slayers have become bold or stupid. You would dare disturb she who was the embodiment of battle and the ecstasy of death! You would disturb she who commanded millions into battle!"
"We have one last battle for you Old One." A slayer said in the darkness. She lit flair. The blood white light illuminated the dark face of Surayya Rasta Atreides. Even from a dozen meters away Illyria could see the orange glow of their eyes. They were under the joining spell. The sheer power of the Destroyer looked out from their eyes.
Illyria stepped back a little. She didn't even know she had flinched. Surayya continued to speak as she made her way up the cliff side wall.
"Ragnarok is approaching." Surayya said. "The Twilight of the Gods is here. " She said referring to their plan to lure the Old Ones to "Her Graceful Measure" and release the Destroyer upon them.
A girl appeared in the mouth of Illyria's cave. The night was moonless. Her form was only a shadow in the inky black night. Illyria felt the power that radiated from her. Illyria struck first. Her fist shattered the cave wall sending rocks into the valley below. Surayya pivoted. Her biology sped up by a factor of ten thousand fueled by a spice derivate special to only the slayers. Surayya's foot slammed into the side of Illyria's head knocking her against the cave wall. Illyria waved her hand stopping time. Surayya stepped through the energy field in real time. She held the blade of her scythe against Illyria's throat.
"Not today, Old One." She said. "Today, the source of your power is the source of my power." Surayya leaned in close to Illyria and whispered to her. "Join us in the Gotterdammerung and you will live, join us and you will be restored."
Other slayers had made it to the cave. In the dark, all of their eyes glowed with a unearthly orange-white energy.
"What would you have me do slayer? Illyria muttered in contempt.
"To raise a god, you must kill a god." Surayya said. "To release the source, we need the head of a Hell-god."
Illyria thought for a moment.
"You want me to kill Glorificus?" She asked. Illyria began to see the bigger pattern. Glorificus was an insane hell god. She was one of the original One Ones that had refused the summons to return to the source. Her brain was special. It could eat away at the magics that held the Destroyer bound in his tomb.
"Do it yourself!" Illyria said as she moved to stand up. Surayya rushed in, grabbed Illyria by the throat and pushed her back down. Her thumb pressed in on Illyria's windpipe.
"Only a god can kill a god, permanently." Surayya hissed into Illyria's ear. The other slayers were approaching. Each held a scythe in their hands.
Surayya spoke with menace in her voice. "I guarantee you Illyria, we can cause you pain."
Illyria considered her options. She swallowed her pride and agreed.
Illyria returned her mind to the present. Now she was here on the "Sietch Tabr" with the ancient corpse of Buffy Summers. She could see Arrakis growing larger in the ship's view screen. She looked back and forth between the view screen and the Buffy corpse. She knew what the Destroyer was planning. Her kind didn't have much time left in the world. Illyria ran her fingers gently over the desiccated cheeks of Buffy and thought to herself.
"This truly is the twilight of the gods."
Surayya walked the ground where the man in her vision had stood. Her raven black hair blew in the wind as she knelt down to examine the ground where he had stood. Days ago, thousands of people had died. Surayya had seen in her vision, a young man with the face of Xander Harris press a button and thousands drop dead. She was here to investigate.
"What happened here?" She asked herself. Something shiny caught her eye. It was a small coin. It looked custom made. It must have fallen out of the attacker's pocket. On one side of the gold coin was the silhouette of a woman's face. On the back of the coin were the letters "BTVS" and the words in Latin "Is servo orbis terrarum multus" loosely translated it read " She saved the world..a lot."
Surayya knew who she was after or more accurately the origins of who she was after. The cult of Buffy was alive and well. The only question that bothered her was, why would the scoobies kill ten thousand people?
