Buffy Summers, Champion of Grayskull
Episode 8: Good Wolf

See chapter 1 for disclaimer!


As she moved the tip of the sword was for the briefest of moments pointing directly toward the smaller wolf. And in that exact moment a bolt of energy was suddenly released, arcing out from her sword and hitting the downed creature. She stopped, confused, and thinking that she had just flash-fried an innocent creature that had saved her life less than a minute ago. Only she was wrong.

Because what happened next was even more extraordinary.


She had never before seen this particular sight from the outside. Sure, she had been the recipient of the power of Grayskull many times now, had felt the effect of the transforming lightning on her own flesh. But she had never seen it happen to somebody else before. And certainly not a four-legged someone.

The lightning bolt released from her sword was a good deal smaller than the one she had used to flash-fry blue guy's face, but it should still have sufficed to kill just about any living thing it hit. The wolf that had saved her life wasn't killed, though. Quite the opposite. The lightning surrounded its grey-furred body and the wolf grew larger. In less than a second it was easily twice as large as the demon wolf that had thrown it around like a toy, as big as a riding horse. It also looked strong and ferocious enough to take on a demon wolf pack all by itself.

"Wow," she said, looking at the giant wolf her sword had somehow created. "That never happened before."

"What is going on," Giles asked, still busy fending off one of the demon wolves himself.

"I... I'm not sure, Giles, but I think... I think I just found a new friend."

The giant wolf her lightning had created proved her words right a moment later, swatting aside the demon wolf that had just used him as a chew toy with ease. He then threw his head back to let loose a tremendous howl that sent the other demon wolves scurrying for cover.

"Nice," she said, even as she ran to the aid of her Man-at-Arms. Having time to really focus on the attackers for the first time, she definitely picked up the tell-tale stink of the Horde-taint. Whatever these things were, there was nothing natural about them. Which left her with no qualms to put her sword to good use.

One swift sword-strike later she had cleaved the wolf attacking her friend in half. Looking back, she saw that her new buddy had effectively squashed another one, while having knocked at least two more aside like toys. The wolves, apparently deciding that there was less lethal prey to be found somewhere around here, chose the better part of value and retreated into the underbrush.

She remained crouched for a long moment, sword in hand, scanning the surroundings with all of her mystically enhanced senses. The putrid aftertaste of the Horde-breed was slowly receding. They seemed to be safe for the moment. She rose, putting the sword back into her spine sheath.

"I think we're clear for the moment," she told Giles.

"Uh, B..., I mean, milady, there is a very, very large wolf right behind you."

She smiled at Giles' fumbling not to reveal her name to the child in his arms, who certainly had other things on her mind right now, while at the same time slightly miffed that he was once again calling her 'milady', which he knew she hated. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the giant wolf coming closer to her.

"Don't worry, Giles. He's on our side."

"Are... are you certain of this?"

The wolf came up to her and she raised her hand, scratching it behind one huge ear. The wolf tilted his head to allow her more access.

"Pretty certain. He saved my life, Giles. And I don't think the Sword of Grayskull would give a power boost to just any old doggie that came along."

Giles' eyes widened, as he was obviously trying to wrap his mind around what had just happened.

"You mean... I saw and heard the lightning bolt, of course, but I didn't see... it did... this?"

"Yeah, it did," she replied, her hand still in her new friend's fur, looking into those big wolf eyes. She tried to remember what she knew about the behavior of wolves in the wild. Was meeting their eyes a good or bad idea? She really didn't know off the top of her head.

"Thank you for saving me," she just said. "But why did you? You risked your own life for mine."

Suddenly her head seemed to swim a bit and she could feel some kind of connection forming between her and the wolf, somehow carried across the power they shared. She could feel his thoughts, though they were hardly thoughts in the way humans thought of them. His mind was a jumble of impressions, smells, basic concepts of survival, hunting, and pack. She could feel his sorrow as the idea of 'pack' went through her mind. Images of blood and dead bodies, sorrow of family lost.

"Those demon wolves?" she asked, trying to interpret the impressions she got. "They attacked your pack, didn't they? Oh, you poor thing. They killed all of them except you, didn't they? Only you got away and you've been following them ever since."

A profound sense of loneliness, so strong it nearly made her cry, impressions of running through the forest all alone, looking for revenge, looking for some sort of purpose in a life where everything he knew had been taken from him. Wolves weren't meant to be alone. Then coming upon this battle, seeing the demon wolves that had taken his family about to take another life. A strong sense of purpose, he wouldn't allow that to happen. Not again. Never again. Not even if it killed him.

"Thank you, my friend," she said, rubbing her face against the giant wolf's flank. "You did save me. I'm really in your debt."

More impressions, pain from the battle, determination even in the face of death from the far, far stronger foe. Then the light and the power. He didn't understand it, but he knew it came from her. Made him strong. Made him able to kill the slayers of the pack. Enemies of the new pack. Enemies of his alpha.

She smiled, even as she blushed a bit at the idea that the wolf now considered her his new alpha. "You got a new pack, my friend. I promise you."

"Eh, are you... are you talking to it?" Giles asked.

She glared at him. "He's not an 'it', he's a he. And he saved my life, and by extension yours as well, so show some respect, okay?"

He raised his hands, taking a step back. "I didn't intend to offend, sorry. I was just... I am just amazed. You somehow transferred a portion of the power of Grayskull onto this…, this wolf. This is unprecedented, I believe."

"Don't ask me," she just said, shrugging. "I have no idea how and why this happened. I'm just glad it did."

"Is that... is that your doggie?" a small voice asked suddenly.

Reminded of the presence of the girl, she turned to look at Marie, who was trying her best to crawl into Giles' chest, it seemed. She was looking at the giant wolf with some trepidation, but she seemed to understand on some basic level that he wasn't one of the monsters that had taken her daddy from her.

"Yes, Marie, he's my friend. He's not a doggie, though. He's a big, big wolf. A good wolf, though. Not a bad wolf."

The wolf growled in agreement, letting his tongue hang out. Marie actually managed a small giggle.

"I think we should bring Marie home now, Giles," she said. "And then..."

"Wait," the girl yelled. "What about David? We've got to find David!"

Right, there had been two missing children. They had only found one. Another one was still out there along with at least a few of those demon wolves. Not to mention that there were no doubt quite a few Park Rangers and volunteers still out there looking for the missing children, not a clue that they were heading into very, very dangerous circumstances.

"Okay, Marie. Giles here will take you home. I and my new friend here will go look for your brother David." Having an idea, she added "you don't happen to have anything belonging to David on you, do you? Something my friend here could maybe use to track him?"

The girl thought hard for a moment. "Uh... Davie loaned me one of his gloves when mine got ripped." She pulled off her right-hand glove and handed it over to her.

"Think you can work with this, buddy?" she asked, holding the glove under the wolf's nose. Truth to tell she wasn't sure how good a wolf's sense of smell rated against a dogs, but she figured it couldn't be that bad. The wolf sniffed, then yelped in what she figured was an affirmation.

"Okay, Giles? You take care of Marie."

"Gladly, milady," he said, smirking a bit. Yep, she hated it when he called her that, but with her true name being out of the running... she really needed to think of a good name for herself when she was in this form. If only so Giles wouldn't have any more opportunity to call her 'milady' ever again.

"Get rid of the smug, old-man-at-arms!" she grumbled, even as Giles led Marie down the slope and back towards civilization. She turned to look at her wolf buddy.

"Okay, wolfy, lead the way. I'll try my best to keep up."

He gave a long look that seemed to communicate his doubt that she could. Looking at his long legs, she kind of doubted it himself, ability to run at 200 miles per hour or not. Jacked up on the power of Grayskull Wolfy was probably at least as fast as she was and given that he had four legs to run on, plus being kind of evolutionary designed to hunt in forests, he could probably outpace her with ease. And speed could be essential. And looking at how big he was compared to her, she really would like to...

"Or I could... you know..."

The wolf rolled his eyes and made a short motion with his head, telling her to just get on.

"WHEEEEEEE!"

The Champion of Grayskull did not make such noises, that much was for sure. No way, no how, not ever. Hers was a sacred birthright and all, one girl in her generation worthy to wield the sword of the legendary King Grayskull and call upon his power to defend the world from the evil taint of the Horde. That did not go together with "WHEEEEEEE!", not even slightly.

"WHEEEEEEE!"

She was sitting on the back of a horse-sized wolf, her hands clenched into the fur of his neck to hold on. Wolfy was speeding through the forest at speeds she knew she couldn't have matched on her own two feet, all the while searching for the scent of a lost little boy and keeping an eye out for demon wolves, too.

"I completely renounce my plans for a dirt bike or a quad," she resolved. "I don't know how this happened, Wolfy, but I bow before the superior wisdom of the powers of Grayskull."

Suddenly the wolf paused, his nose close to the ground.

"You got something?" she asked, now completely serious.

He just yelped in reply and took off, even faster than before. She did her best to just hold on and prepared herself, for while she couldn't trace the scent of a lost child, she was fully capable of sensing the taint of the Horde-breed that were coming closer once again.


Marlena Glenn-Summers had a very, very bad feeling about this. She couldn't really say why. So far everything seemed to be going relatively well for a change. After nearly a full day of flying, including two refueling stops, they had apparently finally lucked out. A couple of volunteers had called in, saying they had found one of the missing kids. The boy, David, was alive, but injured, so they were asking for a chopper to fly him out as the far better alternative to carrying him for two hours plus over rocky terrain in what would soon be complete darkness and aggravating his wounds along the way.

Marlena had been closest. Truth to tell she had been about to head in as well, seeing as the sun was quickly dipping below the horizon now. Sure, she could fly in the dark with instruments, but the odds of spotting something down there in that mountainous forest were going from pretty bad to impossible. And landing, don't even get her started on landing. She could do it if she had to, but no pilot really wanted to land his chopper on uneven, unknown terrain in the dark if it could be helped.

Thankfully it wasn't full dark yet and the volunteers had marked the clearing where they were to rendezvous with flares. If they could just get this over and done with before the sun fully set and the place would drown in pitch darkness, she'd be fine.

She had a very bad feeling, though. She'd flown rescue operations in the Middle East and evacuated wounded soldiers under fire. She'd flown ambulance choppers into gang territory in LA to fly out shooting victims while a gang war was going on just one street corner away. So yes, she knew bad feelings. She knew them in spades. And she was having them right now.

Setting the chopper down in the clearing, she quickly scanned the surroundings. The tree line was pretty close, the clearing being just big enough for her to attempt a safe landing. She could see the two volunteers, one of whom was cradling a small bundle in his arms. She quickly took off her head set and, after making sure she had her gun safely tucked into her shoulder holster, stepped out of the chopper.

"Bring him here," she yelled over the noise of the spinning rotor blades.

The man who carried the boy came over, ducking under the blades, and carefully deposited his precious cargo on the floor of the chopper's passenger cabin. Mountain Hoppers didn't really do medical evac all that much, so their choppers were a far cry from the specialized rescue craft Marlena had flown in the past, but they did carry standard first aid equipment. Marlena got a warming blanket out from under the seats and wrapped it around the boy, checking him over in the process. She was paramedics trained, after all. The boy had several gashes that were just beginning to scab over, as well as quite a number of bruises. He also looked exhausted as hell and was probably seriously dehydrated after more than a full day on his own, lost in the woods.

"We taped over the worst of the cuts," the man told her, "and got some fluids into him, but I think he needs to be in an emergency room as soon as possible."

"I'll have him there in fifteen minutes, tops," she promised. "What about you two?"

Two additional adult passengers would slow her down a bit, but not seriously so. The man shook his head, though. "There is still a missing girl somewhere out there. We're gonna keep it up for another hour or so at minimum."

"Good luck then," she said, meaning it from the bottom of her heart. She couldn't even imagine how she would feel if Buffy were lost somewhere in these dark woods.

She was busy strapping the boy in when she heard the scream from behind her. Turning around, she saw as the other man, who had remained back, went down under a huge mass of fur and teeth. And there were at least three more shapes who hadn't been there a minute ago, separating from the darkness of the tree line and coming directly toward them.

"Oh my God," she whispered, but instincts honed during her time in the military prevented her from freezing up. She quickly reached under her jacket and drew her gun, clicking off the safety in the same motion. The man beside her was fumbling for the rifle he had tied to the side of rucksack, but she knew he would take too long.

Lining up on the nearest wolf, she quickly squeezed off three shots, nicely grouped into the center of mass. She hit her target, she was sure she did, but from the lack of reaction the wolf showed, she might as well have been shooting blanks.

A moment later there was no more time to think. The wolf was upon them and had apparently decided to go for the bigger prey first. The man had managed to get his rifle loose, but there was no more time to line it up for a shot. He just managed to get it between him and the attacking predator, meaning that the giant teeth closed around the barrel of the weapon instead of his throat. The rifle splintered, but held. He still went down under the charge of the attacker, though.

Marlena kicked the thing – it was far too big to be any kind of wolf she knew of – in the side with all of her strength, but the wolf didn't even seem to notice. Then she had to fight for her own life, as another one was suddenly directly before her. She managed to squeeze off another shot, once again sure that she hit her target, but once again seeing no effect at all.

She managed to twist under the attacking wolf so that most of its mass went flying over her head. Its rear paws still hit her and she went down, feeling like she'd been kicked by a mule. Somehow she had managed to hold onto her gun and as she rolled across the ground, she managed to line it up with the chest of her attacker from less than a foot away.

The shot rang out loud in her ears and she saw the bullet hit the flesh. She saw it vanish into the fur, saw a small splatter of blood from the entry wound. The wolf didn't even seem inconvenienced, though. It just bared its teeth at her – so many teeth – and prepared to leap.

Oh God, she was going to die here!

A tremendous howling filled the clearing suddenly, causing everyone and everything to freeze. Marlena actually tore her eyes away from her impending death and in the rapidly fading twilight of the day she saw as... something... broke from the tree line and out into the open. Until now she had thought the wolves attacking them had been unnaturally large. Compared to that thing over there, though, they were puppies.

The newly arrived wolf had to be at least the size of a large horse and there was... was that really... there was someone riding on its back. Someone with long hair flowing behind them and holding up a... was that a sword? For a long moment Marlena strongly considered the notion that she was already dead and her poor brain was sending some random flashes through the decaying grey matter to ease her passing. Because that couldn't possibly be happening, could it?

"HAAAA!" the rider of the wolf yelled and jumped off, the sword flashing out in a blur of glinting metal, and suddenly one of the attacking wolves crumbled to the ground, now headless. This couldn't be happening. None of this. The wolves attacking them just ignored bullets and now someone was hacking off their heads like it was nothing? No way!

The giant wolf didn't slow down upon the jumping off of its rider, instead it headed straight toward the spot where the first wolf had brought down one of the two volunteers. A swipe of one giant paw sent the wolf off its victim and tumbling end over end until it hit a tree with bone-crunching force. It did not get back up again.

The wolf that had been about to munch on Marlena seemed to have forgotten all about her and leaped forward to face the new danger. Aware that she was still clutching her gun she tried to raise it, but her hand was shaking too badly. And it proved to be entirely unnecessary, too. Suddenly the wolf rider was there, the sword flashed out once again even as the wolf leapt, and the edge of the blade cut the beast open from neck to hip. A bloody mess that had been a seemingly invulnerable monster two seconds ago fell to the ground.

In the same motion the wolf rider suddenly whirled around and threw the sword. It cut through the air, spinning around like an insane Frisbee, and hit the wolf still trying to munch on the man beside her. Another severed head fell to the ground with a thud and Marlena breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the man was still moving under the dead weight of the headless wolf that was lying on top of him.

A yelp of pain from the other side of the clearing told of the fate of another wolf and then it was suddenly quiet. Marlena found herself leaning with her back against her chopper, still clutching her useless gun, and looked upon the scenery before her. Four dead wolves, two of them beheaded. One giant wolf, who was apparently trying to pick something out of its tremendously large and scary-looking teeth. One man slowly rising to his feet, the splintered remains of the rifle that had saved his life for the few precious seconds until help arrived still clutched in his hands. One other man over by the edge of the clearing, not moving. Dead? God, she hoped not.

And the wolf rider, who was walking over to recover the sword that had lodged itself into the ground. Her eyes focused on her savior and she could now make out that the shape was clearly female, though probably the tallest one she had ever seen.

"Thank you," she managed to stutter out, still unable to move.

"No thanks necessary," the woman said, sliding the big sword she had recovered into a sheath on her back. "Can you get everyone out of here or do you need help?"

"I...," she began, finally managing to unfreeze and getting back onto shaky legs. "I think so."

She could see that the giant wolf was over by the other volunteer and sniffing him. Oh God, he wasn't about to... was he? But then the wolf raised its head again and gave a sad yelp.

"I'm afraid we came too late for your other friend," the woman said, her back to Marlena. She sounded angry with herself. "Once the boy wakes up, though, you can tell him that Marie is safe and on her way back to town. A friend of mine is bringing her in as we speak."

"We would all have been dead if not for you," Marlena said, still shaky. "Those... those things..."

"You better get going," the woman interrupted her. "There might be more of these things still out there. I'll check it out. You make sure the boy gets back safe to his mom and sister, okay?"

"I... yes. And again, thank you."

The woman half-turned toward her and in the last glimmer of light before the sun finally vanished behind the horizon she had a moment to see her face. Her breath hitched in her throat.

"You're welcome," she said, then did a standing leap that carried her onto the back of the giant wolf, who had walked up without Marlena noticing. A moment later they had vanished into the trees. Marlena stared after them, the face she had seen still burned into her mind.

"Adora?" she whispered.


The sun was rising above the glittering waters of Lake Rakash. They had ridden through the Sierras all night on the hunt for more of the demon wolves, but had found nothing. Now it was morning and time to head home in order to pretend to have had a good night of sleep.

"You ready for this, Wolfy?" she asked.

The giant wolf growled at her.

"Yeah, yeah, I promise I'll find a better name for you. My word on it. We have to do this one first, okay?"

Finally the wolf lay down on the ground, which she took for agreement. Going down on one knee and putting the sword tip-first into the ground, she closed her eyes and concentrated.

"Let the power return," she whispered.

She hated this feeling when the power left. The world grew smaller, dimmer, and narrower. She felt smaller. Hell, she was smaller. When she reopened her eyes the world looked like she had switched from High Definition to bad VHS quality. She hated it, every single time. The temptation to just forego this part and remain the Champion... one day she knew she wouldn't be able to resist it any longer.

A long, wet tongue suddenly brought her out of her funk as the now normal-sized wolf sitting beside her decided to lick her face.

"Hey, cut it out!" she said, scooting away from the very wet kiss.

She looked at him, even as Wolfy – yeah, a better name was coming soon, she promised herself – looked back at her with his big dark puppy eyes. Normal-sized puppy eyes. He, too, was back to his normal self.

"How are you handling it, buddy?" she asked. "You were the big bad super-wolf and now you're back to being all normal-wolf. Doesn't that... you know... suck?"

Wolfy came over and brushed against her side. Their mental connection relayed what he felt. Yes, he felt down as well. It was hard to go from being the biggest dog of all to a merely normal dog. But not because normal-dog was the worse state. It was because biggest dog was best at protecting the alpha, protecting the pack. Biggest dog could keep his newfound family safe. Something he didn't want to lose, couldn't lose. Never again.

"You're a really smart guy, you know that?" she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

His answering howl sounded suspiciously like "of course".


On the far end of Lake Rakash, too far away for even the Champion of Grayskull to sense their presence, two unnaturally large wolves prowled along the edge of the forest. Tonight they had lost their brethren. Tonight they had been forced to flee from a foe far stronger than they were. The ancestry of the Horde was but a dim memory in their genetic code, but they still felt revulsion at the mere idea that there were stronger things than them in their world, their woods.

Suddenly they tensed, as there was another presence close by. For the briefest of seconds they were poised to either attack or flee, but then they relaxed. The presence was soothing. The presence felt like home. They trotted forward, away from the safety of the trees, and towards the figure approaching on the shores of the lake.

Jesse McNally should have been scared when two giant wolves suddenly came out of nowhere and directly towards him. He was not, though. Something inside him had felt them long before his eyes had seen them. And as they approached he was not in the least surprised when they went down low and crawled on their bellies.

He crouched down and scratched their heads, smiling.

"Hello, my friends," he said, his voice with a strange, almost growling undertone to it.

END EPISODE VIII


Author's Note: Funny thing happened here. When I began writing this chapter I fully intended for 'Wolfy' to be Oz, cursed to a permanent wolf state. It would have been a thing for the story that Buffy is the only one who knows and tries to find a way to reverse it. Somehow, though, during the writing of this chapter 'Wolfy' became a character of his own, who lost his pack to the demon wolves and looked for both payback and a new pack. Trying to somehow bend that back to him being Oz... it just didn't work for me. So kudos to those who guessed that the wolf would turn out to be Oz, you were actually right. The wolf in question had other ideas, though. So we'll see if Oz comes into the story in some other way.

Until then, anyone have a good idea for the name 'Wolfy' eventually ends up with? I've got a few ideas so far, but none really clicked for me. And we're still looking for a good name for the Champion persona of Buffy, too. I love He-Man and She-Ra, mind you, but their names were really, really silly.

Until next time!