Buffy Summers, Champion of Grayskull
Episode 9: Body Guards

See chapter 1 for disclaimer!

"Oh, how about Orion? Orion like the hunter… and the star constellation, too. Orion sounds like a cool name for a wolf."

Walking along the corridors of Eternia Springs High School, Buffy was considering the latest idea Willow had come up with for naming her new four-legged companion. For the moment he was suffering under the not terribly original moniker 'Wolfy' and she had promised him she'd come up with something better. Which was turning out a bit harder than she had originally thought.

"Not bad, but... I'm not sure I'm feeling it. Doesn't really fit him, I think. Too... something."

"Too something? Please don't go into too much detail here, Buffy."

Buffy smirked, glad to see that the shy redhead she had befriended her first day here (and almost seen killed the following night) was beginning to warm up a bit and be more outgoing. A week ago she would never have dared tease Buffy (or anyone else under the sun except perhaps for Xander and Jesse) even in this very mild way, but things were beginning to improve. Slowly.

"I just need a name that really fits him, you know?"

"We'll think of something. Have you... I mean... does your mom know about your new... okay, I'm not going to call a big wolf who magically turns into an even bigger wolf a pet and, by the way, I really want to see him in his other form soon, okay? So... what do we call him? And does your mom know?"

Buffy was getting better at following Willow's stream-of-consciousness way of talking. "Nah, I haven't introduced them yet. Mom is still pretty spooked from what happened two days ago and I think I need to give her time to get over almost being eaten by a wolf before I can bring up the idea of adding a wolf to the family. He's staying in the forest near the town for now."

She herself was still rather spooked about that night herself, actually. When she had come upon that clearing and saw that it was her mom being attacked by the demon wolves, something inside her had just snapped and she had torn into the beasts with a vengeance. She was still down that they had been too late to save that one man, but at least her mom, the other guy, and little David had been okay. And she'd never gotten there as fast without Wolfy, so not only did she owe him her own life, but also her mom's. Wolfy didn't see it that way, of course. To him her mom was pack and pack protected each other. It was really that simple for him. Which was just one more reason she had quickly grown to love the big doggie and needed a really good name for him.

Willow looked up as Xander approached them. "Hey, Xander. Did you think of a cool name for Buffy's wolfy friend yet?"

The boy looked at them, seeming very distracted. "What? Uh, sorry, no. I was... have any of you seen Jesse?"

Buffy frowned. "No, no I haven't."

Willow shook her head as well. "Me, neither. I thought he was still in the hospital. We visited him... what, two days ago, didn't we?"

"Yeah, but apparently he was released that same evening. I assumed he'd stay in bed for a few more days, but when I called his parents they said he was up and about. I haven't seen him school yesterday, though, and not today, either."

He was clearly worried and now Buffy was a bit as well. "Maybe he just needs some time to himself? I mean, the Beast-Man nearly strangled him. That's not exactly something you forget after a few days."

"Sure, but I can't seem to reach him or visit him or anything. If I was a paranoid guy I'd think he was avoiding us."

Buffy shrugged. "How about we go by his house after school? Look in on him. And if he's not there, we can try and find him. Eternia Springs isn't that big, after all."

Xander gave her a grateful smile. "Thanks, Buffy. I'm probably just overreacting, but with everything that's been going on these... man, it's been just over a week, hasn't it?"

"Seems so much longer than that," she agreed as Xander fell into step with them. A week seemed like so short a time, but a lot had happened. Anyway, they were on the way to the library. Giles had told them that the Eternal Council had sent something for them which would aid Buffy. Maybe they had found out something about the blue guy or what exactly had been done to this entire region.

"Did you talk to Zoar about your new wolfy friend and how you managed to empower him?" Willow asked. "I mean if anyone should know more about this stuff, the guardian spirit of Castle Grayskull should, right?"

"No luck," Buffy replied, shrugging. "The bird-lady has been silent ever since the tussle with blue guy. I don't think she was even in the Castle the last time I was there. Giles doubts me, but I'm sure she has a place in town somewhere."

"Makes sense," Xander agreed. "Who would want to hang out in a drafty old castle all the time? I doubt she even gets cable up there."

Buffy chuckled. "Yeah, and I wouldn't want to know what calling a cleaning service up there would cost. The castle is seriously in need of a makeover. I tell you, some paint and a throw rug or two would do wonders for the place."

She was still laughing as they entered the library, but two steps in she stopped, staring at the very strange sight before her. Usually Giles pretty much had the library to himself. Occasionally a student would stray in, but that was not a frequent occurrence. Right now, though, four more people were present. Two men and two women, all of whom immediately whirled to face her and assumed what she easily recognized as combat stances. Giles stood with them.

"Eh, Giles?" she asked, waving at the newcomers.

The two guys were serious eye candy. Both were pretty tall, somewhere in their mid- to late twenties, and seemed to have no shortage of muscles. The two women were not that short, either (then again, pretty much everyone was not-short from her perspective, she admitted) and looked like coiled springs, all streamlined muscles. She figured they were in their early twenties, but it was hard to say.

"Ah, Buffy. You are just in time. May I make the introductions. Comrades, this is Buffy Summers, the Heir and Champion of Grayskull. Buffy, these are your Guard."

As one all four relaxed upon hearing her name. Then they did something that Buffy had not expected and which made her very, very uncomfortable. They all dropped down on one knee, put a fist to their chest above their hearts, and bowed their heads.

"We pledge to protect and serve the Heir and Champion of Grayskull," they intoned in unison, "from now on until the day death takes us."

Buffy stared at them, wide-eyed. No one said anything for a seemingly eternal second. Even Xander was completely dumbfounded and he was not normally one to forego a funny remark or sarcastic comment.

"Eh... nice to meet you, too," she finally managed. "Giles, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?"

Not waiting for an answer, she dragged him away.

With just about 8,000 inhabitants Eternia Springs was far from a big town, especially when compared to places like Los Angeles or even Fresno. Still, the vast land west of the Sierra Nevada was dotted with quite a few even smaller settlements, some of them having only a few hundred inhabitants to their name, if that much.

One such micro village was on the far side of Lake Rakash, called Orange Cove and boasting slightly above 300 citizens. A small group of people – using the term loosely – were currently observing it from the shores of the lake.

"Place is barely worth calling a settlement," one of the men said, his voice sounding strange, almost as if he was busy gargling at the same time. "Couldn't find a town with more people?"

"We don't want many people, idiot" the sole woman in the group responded bitingly. "Just enough to draw a little attention, but not too much of it."

The leader of the group said nothing, just observed the small village for a moment, and then gestured his people forward. His purple cloak was flapping in the wind in a not entirely natural way as they made their way down the street.

Buffy all but shoved Giles into his small separate office beside the library and slammed the door shut behind them. Her Man-at-Arms seemed somewhat confused as to her obvious anger.

"What was that all about?" she hissed.

He gave her a questioning look. "Pardon? I did tell you that your own personal Guard would be arriving soon, did I not?"

"Okay, first off, 'soon' is not exactly a very exact term, you know? A little advance warning would have been nice like, oh, they'll be here tomorrow, instead of letting me walk into a room and suddenly finding four grown people doing the kneeling and oath-swearing in front of me."

Giles gave her a considering look. "Is it that last part you are actually having trouble with?"

She wilted a bit, shaking her head. "Giles, they... they knelt before me. And they swore to... they basically swore to die for me. I don't want people to die for me. I don't want people to serve me. I'm just... I'm just me."

He put a hand on her shoulder. "I am sorry, Buffy. It seems I have once again forgotten how little you actually know about your destiny and role in life as of yet. You are the Heir and Champion of Grayskull, milady, and that means more than just wielding a magical sword and fighting off a few Horde-breed here and there."

She looked up at him, miffed that he had once again called her 'milady'. "I thought that was pretty much it. Draw the sword, kill the baddies."

He shook his head. "Buffy, you are the Heir of Grayskull. The successor of a king, who at one time ruled all of humanity and united them against the threat of the Horde. Grayskull wielded the very power of our world against the Horde demons and tied it to his name. Now these events are long forgotten by most men, but the world itself remembers. And we of the Eternal Council remember."

A feeling of dread began to spread in Buffy's belly as she listened to her Man-at-Arms. "Giles, you... you are talking nonsense. Okay, I get that King Grayskull was the big kahuna back in the day, but we don't have kings anymore today. I mean, yeah, some people have kings, I know, in some countries on other continents far away and such, but not here. And certainly not kings of the entire world. I got the shiny sword and all, yes, but that's it."

"No, I am afraid that is far from it, Buffy. I know that, as an American, the idea of a monarchy is very much foreign to you. There are much larger forces at work here, though. The very magic that gives you your power through the sword is part of your birthright. Why do you think the sword doesn't work for anyone else? Because the living spirit of the world itself, the essence of the Goddess, has recognized you as Grayskull's heir. Meaning you are this world's protector, this world's champion, and in all things that matter, this world's queen, no matter whether or not any country recognizes that fact."

Buffy could do little but look at him, stunned. Her brain refused to process what he had just said. Okay, she had somehow managed to wrap her brain around the fact that she was the one girl in all the world capable of wielding that damned magical power sword. That, however, was a far cry from accepting that, according to some magical powers older than anything else in the world, she was supposed to be a queen, too. And right outside that door were four people who had just sworn their very lives to her. And they had meant it, she could tell.

She shook her head. This was all wrong. Her fingers ached for the touch of her sword, her skin seemed too small and she longed for the flash of lightning that would make it fit right again. The Champion would be able to handle all this. There would be no doubts, no fears, just the unshaking confidence that she could take care of whatever came her way. She wasn't the Champion, though. She was just Buffy. Small, weak little Buffy who certainly didn't deserve to have people swear their lives to her service. She wasn't good enough for this.

"I am sorry for unloading all of this on you so quickly," Giles said softly. "In an ideal world you would have been brought much more gradually into your role. There have been quite a few Champions throughout history who never had to face anything worse than a few weak Horde-breed, who never saw Castle Grayskull manifest on this plane. Unfortunately you are not one of those. You are the Champion in difficult times. But I am sure you will be up to the challenge."

Buffy looked down. "Well, that makes one of us then."

Suddenly she tensed. Something was wrong. Giles was saying something, but she didn't hear a word. There was a roaring in her head and suddenly she was seeing things that were happening far, far away. A small village, flames, explosions, screams. And dark figures moving through the carnage.

Champion, the voice of Zoar rang through her mind. Innocents are in danger from someone using the tainted power of the Horde.

Her mind returned to the present and she looked at Giles again. "Trouble!"

Storming out of the office, she was reminded of the presence of her new Guard, plus Willow and Xander. And the fact that she still had classes this afternoon. Well, at least that last part was easy. Innocent lives in danger trumped mandatory school attendance. As for the rest...

"What's up, Buff?" Xander asked, seeing her worried face.

"Someone is trying his hand at casual slaughter," she replied, heading for the library exit and her locker, where she had stashed a certain sword.

Wolfy, can you hear me? she did her best to project her thoughts. We have trouble brewing and I'm going to need your help.

An affirmative woof echoed through her mind and she could feel her new friend approaching as fast as his feet could carry him. Now she just needed her sword and she could be there in...

"Where are we headed, milady?"

She blinked, suddenly finding four people walking alongside her with a fifth, Giles, trailing only slightly behind her and two more, Xander and Willow, two steps behind him. Right, there were people. Quite a few people.

"Look, guys, rule number one. No calling me 'milady' or anything similar, ever! No matter what! I'm Buffy when I look like this and... and I'm still trying to think of a name for my other form, but it will not be 'milady' or anything similar. And... what are your names, anyway? I didn't hear them over all that oath-swearing and kneeling."

The taller of the two women was walking on her right, long black hair trailing behind her and a smirk spreading on her face. "Buffy, eh? Okay. I am Faith Lehane, captain of your Guard. These are Ampata Gutierrez," she nodded at the other, Mexican-looking woman, "Graham Miller," the slightly shorter, stern-looking man, "and Riley Finn," the bigger man, who looked like the model of the corn-fed American All-Star athlete.

"Okay, thanks for the intro dump, but I've got somewhere to be. We'll talk later."

Faith shook her head. "No way, your highness," she smirked as she said that, "we're your Guard and if you're headed into danger, we're coming with."

She glared at the older woman. "Okay, 'highness' is off the table, too. And shouldn't you be doing what I tell you to do?"

"Nah, the oath goes 'serve and protect'. There is nothing in there about obeying."

Buffy shook her head, but had to suppress a slight smile at the same time. The kneeling and oath-swearing had given her major wiggins, but at the same time the newcomers didn't seem all awe and hero-worshippy about it. And considering the last few battles she had fought as the Champion, additional back-up certainly couldn't hurt. Especially back-up that (hopefully) knew what it was doing.

"Okay, fine! But just so we're clear. I'm the Champion. I got the magic and mojo and all that, so whatever we're going into, I'm going in first. Your job is to take care of whatever innocents might be in danger and prevent skanky ho witches from blasting me in the back."

Faith smirked. "That's a very peculiar way of saying 'watch my back'." She looked at the other three. "You heard the boss! Graham, get the car, we'll meet you out front."

Reaching her locker, she opened it and took out the bag with her sword, even as she turned to give her Man-at-Arms a very dark look. "A car, eh? What do you know, Giles, THEY have a car."

Giles didn't meet her eyes.

"Be careful out there, Buffy," Xander said. She could see in his eyes that he wanted to accompany them, but he had clearly realized by now that he would just be in the way. She knew he had talked to Giles about training, so maybe he would be a valuable back-up in the future. Not yet, though.

"I will, Xand. You and Will do me a favor, okay? Keep your eyes peeled for anything extra-weird, okay? Just in case someone is trying the old distract-the-Champion thing again."

"Sure," Willow said, "but if we see something, how are we to..."

The big guy, Riley, took a cell phone out of his pocket and put it into Willow's hand. "Speed dial 1 is Faith, 2 is Graham, 3 is Ampata."

Buffy glared at Giles again. "Wow, Giles, they have cell phones, too."

"I'll… ah… I'll go get my armor."

Three minutes later they had piled into a large all-terrain car big enough to comfortably seat all six of them and were heading towards the small village of Orange Cove at best speed. Buffy had unpacked the Sword of Grayskull from her backpack and was rather aware that the four newcomers were watching here.

"We'll be there in a few minutes," Faith said. "Shouldn't you... you know?"

"In a minute. Still waiting for someone."

They gave her puzzled glances. Buffy ignored them, instead concentrating on the feeling in the back of her mind. Any moment now…

"Stop the car," she ordered, almost out the door before the vehicle had even slowed. A furry shape had appeared as if from nowhere on the side of the road.

"Careful, boss," Faith yelled. "That's a..."

"That's my friend, Faith," she replied. "And you better keep back a bit. This is the part you wanted to see, but it's better watched from a distance."

Wolfy stopped beside her, tongue hanging out, barking at her in greeting. She briefly ruffled the fur on his neck, but then stood back up.

"Nice to see you, too, buddy, but we're in a hurry. Hope you're ready." She raised the sword to the heavens. "BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!"

The bolt of lightning arced down from above and hit the sword, instantly triggering the transformation. She felt her strength increasing, her body growing, and her doubts and fears evaporating. She was the Champion of Grayskull and there was nothing she couldn't handle, especially with a little help from her friends. Everything was going to be fine.

"I… HAVE… THE POWER!"

Her own transformation finished, she pointed her sword at the waiting shape of her wolf friend and the magic worked once again. A bolt of energy sprang from the blade and enveloped Wolfy in a halo of brilliance. A second later he had grown to the size of a horse and threw his head back to howl.

"Wow," she heard someone say from behind her.

Quickly jumping onto the back of her friend, she turned to her Guard. Well, they might not have been all that impressed with little Buffy Summers, but it was clearly a different matter now.

"Follow me! And remember my orders!"

Then Wolfy took off and the somewhat stunned Guardsmen and –women quickly shook off their amazement and put the car back in gear. The speed limit for this road was 55 miles per hour. Both the car and the wolf exceeded it easily.

Orange Cove came into view only a minute or so later. Dark smoke was rising into the sky and her enhanced hearing could already pick up screams. Someone was having the bad kind of party down there. Well, the party crashers were about to arrive.

There wasn't much in the way of buildings to Orange Cove, so it wasn't hard to find the center of the trouble. She could make out a small group of people standing right in the middle of Route 198 and several of them were blasting away at what looked like random. There were three men and a woman to the group and she was very much surprised as she recognized two of them.

"Be careful," she yelled at the Guard in the car beside her. "The woman in the group is a powerful magic caster and superhumanly resistant to damage as well."

"Any intel on the other three?" Riley asked, leaning out the window.

"I don't know two of the men," if men they actually were. Both were really big, muscular, and it looked like... was one of them green? "The guy in the purple cloak, though... if he's the same guy I met before, then he is serious trouble."

"Not an amiable meeting, I take it?" Faith asked.

"I put a lightning bolt to his face," she replied deadpan. "I doubt it endeared me to him."

"Remind me never to make you mad at me," Faith just said. "Okay, people! Ampata, Graham, you're on civilian duty. Get everyone out. Riley, you and I will take a closer look at the two unknowns."

Graham hit the brakes and the car screeched to a halt about 50 meters away from the enemy group. Her Man-at-Arms and the Guard quickly got out and she saw that all of them were armed. Faith carried a sword and a gun, Ampata had a big axe, Riley carried a rifle on his shoulder and a mace in his hand, while Graham seemed to be a knife guy, while also carrying a gun on his hip. Giles was once again carrying his trusty mace.

"Ah, our guests of honor have arrived," a voice rang out. The hood of his purple cloak obscured the guy's face, but that voice was unmistakable. Yep, this was indeed the blue guy who had gotten the lightning treatment from her. She had no idea how he had survived, but it seemed he was back and looking to return the favor.

Seeing as a surprise attack was not happening, she took her time studying the opposition. Blue guy and magic lady she had met before, but the other two were new. And yes, one of them was indeed green. In fact he looked like the love child of a human and something very fishy. Green scales covered his entire body and she was pretty sure those were gills on his neck. There was webbing between his fingers and he was holding a big sword in one hand that looked like it was made from yellow-ish corral. Okay, they had apparently reached a new level of weird here.

The other man was somewhat more normal-looking, but only when compared to fish guy. Actually he looked pretty much like someone had already killed him, only he hadn't noticed yet. Parts of his body were actually missing and had been replaced with metal, most prominently his lower jaw and his entire right arm.

A fish man and a weaponized zombie? This was certainly turning out to be an interesting day. Wasn't there some kind of Chinese curse about living in interesting times?

"I think you got turned around or something," she said, getting off her ride without taking her eyes off the four enemies. "Castle Grayskull is way over there in the Sierras. Any particular reason you're demolishing this town or is that just the cool new thing for the average evil guy?"

"There is nothing average about me," blue guy growled. "But in order to answer your question, missy, there are two very good reasons for being here today. Well, three actually, if you count the fact that it's just plain fun."

She held her sword in front of her, ready for the attack she was sure was imminent.

"And the other two reasons? Or do I have to guess?"

He chuckled, slowly walking towards her, trailed by his posse. "Well, one, I wanted to give my new employees here their first trial run. You know, nothing strenuous, just stretching their legs a bit. A little slaughter to really get into the spirit of things."

"Charming," she replied. "And two?"

He stopped and a blue hand emerged from his cloak, reaching up to draw back his hood. She couldn't quite suppress a gasp. The last time she had seen him he had been a handsome-looking man in his mid- to late thirties. Sure, he had had blue skin, but apart from that he had looked very much human. A human with long black hair and a twirly mustache, yes, but still human.

Now, though, the only thing left was a skull. A pale, beige skull that somehow seemed to still be attached to a human-looking body (blue skin notwithstanding). The empty eye holes of the skull were filled with an eerie red glow.

"Two, I really wanted to meet you again, Champion. I have a score to settle with you. Oh, and in case you are uncomfortable with calling me Master, I have a new name you can call me by now."

He threw his head back and laughed. "CALL ME SKELETOR!"

END EPISODE IX

Author's Note: Fictional Eternia Springs is loosely located where the real town of Woodlake, California is. Lake Rakash is actually Lake Kaweah and the fictional micro-village Orange Cove is loosely based on the real town of Lemon Cove. All I know of this region hails from Google Maps and Wikipedia.