This Fire Burns…Always!!!

Summary: Xander discovers something old and powerful.

Disclaimer: own nothing.

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Lori walked deep into the cave as she followed the vampires, a slight quiver flowing inside her that had nothing to do with the damp cold as she did so.

What are ye doin', ye dumbass?! Ye shoulda followed Xander back out!

Aye, shoulda, woulda, coulda, quit bitching about it. These'll let you thru, but no one else. There's a reason for it, and ye hafta find out what it is.

God damn it, after this shit is thru, I am getting SO high.

Sighing to herself, Lori focused her attention on the vampires before her, receiving a surprise as she realized that two of them had disappeared. That surprise gave way to a mixture of fear and curiosity as she saw the remaining vampires start to go down a tunnel which she had never seen before. Taking a deep breath, she hefted the sword up and prepared herself to summon up angry thoughts then run like Hell. Steeling herself, she walked into the tunnel.

It was a narrow corridor carved into the cave, so narrow that Lori actually had to reposition herself so that she was sliding through it rather than walking through. The vampires, however, were deathly thin and therefore easily capable of walking through it. As she came out, she moved aside quickly to allow any other vampires passage, though she still kept her grip on the sword firm in case they suddenly became violent.

She took a moment to examine the room that she was inside now. It appeared to be a large stone throne room, the kind which she suspected someone like Queen Maeve would have had. There was no throne, however, but there were three pedestals in the center of the floor. As the vampires took up positions alongside the walls, she walked further into the center of the room to examine what was on the pedestals.

The one furthest to the left held an ancient looking crossbow, with the drawstring all but evaporated and the metal along the bow completely rusted over. The wood had long since been decimated by termites and insects, along with rot from all the moisture in the air. She sincerely believed that were she to pick it up, it would crumple in her grip.

The next one was a large boulder-like mace secured by an equally ancient looking chain. The boulder held no spikes or anything that she would expect to be on a mace from those times, but the boulder uniquely appeared to be made of solid rock, and she could find no place for the chain to be attached to it. The boulder, it appeared, had swallowed up the chain so that it could be sued in such a manner.

The last, however, was the most interesting to her. It was a scroll, sealed up with the symbol of Rohan of Kells, Draganta, with a large flaming sword inside the center of it. She knew, somehow, that this scroll held the secret to whatever madness it was that had occurred in her life since Xander's appearance.

Sighing to herself, she looked around once more and, seeing nothing else, decided that she could take the bow and mace in one trip, but not the scroll. It was too valuable to try and take with anything less than two hands. She set the sword down beside the pedestal, and reached out to grip the bow.

The moment she touched the bow, she felt as though her body had become weightless. Then, she was blinded as a white light enveloped her, spiriting her away to God knows where.

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Oz drove his van fast and hard as his instincts were telling him that he was needed. He had no real idea what was going on, but this was not the first time he had followed his friends into that kind of situation. Besides…Willow was there, and whenever Willow was in danger, he was there to protect her. It was the male and the wolf in him that drove that, and it was one of the few things the two could ever agree upon.

As he took the exit that would lead him up to Shea's Castle, however, his instincts took a complete 180. All of a sudden, while the wolf inside him had been itching for some violence, now it was begging him to turn around and run as fast as he could. He slowed down on the road, but did not stop, listening and smelling as best as he could in the rain. He could smell the rain, the desert, even several small animals around…but he could also smell something else. It was a sweet seductive smell, like perfume or pheromones, but it was also the salty smell of the sea…and more…it was the smell of blood and death that accompanied the two.

He drove on, though, and he withdrew a knife that he had brought along, preparing himself for what he saw as inevitability. While the wolf was still begging him to turn back, he knew that he would do no such thing.

Suddenly, a sound erupted into his ears, forcing him to come to a stop as he grabbed his head in pain. It was a high-pitched singing of some sort that he had never heard before. It was sickening to his stomach and made both his wolf and himself want to hurt something, but it was also sweet and sensual in a way he could not define. A large part of him wanted to hear that sound forever, but he wanted to find whoever was doing that and rip their throats out much more than anything else.

He opened his eyes wide as the sound came to an abrupt end, and looked out onto the road. Standing before his van in the glow of the headlights was a young woman, a very pretty and naked young woman. She was staring up at him with a sweet smile that Oz did not believe for one instant. The wolf inside made its presence known again, and this time Oz felt the difference physically as the sensation of the change began to take hold.

The wolf had begged to leave, and now it was trapped in a corner…and it was lashing out.

Oz looked into his rearview mirror, seeing that his face had become much furrier and his eyes were now black pits of death and rage. He could see that his nails had become sharp talons as fur covered them. He took a deep breath to calm himself, then looked back outside.

The woman was not there.

Suddenly, his entire van shook as something impacted it from his side. He felt himself fly into the passenger's side. The feeling of being trapped multiplied by this and, as the driver's side door was ripped off its hinges, the change took full effect. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was a large blue fish-looking thing with razor sharp teeth, and then he felt the wolf take him.

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Shelly ripped the driver's side door off its hinges with little effort, and she licked her teeth in anticipation of the meal inside. It overjoyed her to take the will of a person with her voice, but she had never eaten someone before. It would be an experience.

She looked inside and her smile became a frown. The boy inside was staring at her with the black eyes of the wolf. That was not the way it should be, she realized. He should be completely subdued by her voice, but that was most definitely not the case. She focused all her attention on the boy as the change finished, and let out a sound to entice him into her power.

Suddenly, the wolf, as if it knew what she was doing, lunged forward and rammed into her, sending the two flying out into the desert. They rolled several feet away as the wolf bit at her, trying to kill her. Shelly growled out in pain and anger, and grabbed the wolf's back and threw it off her. The wolf flew several feet, rolling along the desert as it hit the ground, only to come back up to its feet and charge at her, teeth and claws flashing in the night.

Not to be outdone, Shelly let out a roar of rage and charged, her blue skin flashing in the night as she made for the wolf. The wolf did not let up in his charge, and neither did she.

When they met, Shelly drove her claws did into his flesh as he drove his fangs into her scales.

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Lori stared out into the air with a heavy heart, realizing that she was nowhere near the cave that she had been in mere moments before. She could see all of her hometown from where she was, so she had a good idea of where she was. She was on the cliffs that bordered the ocean, on the highest peak. She walked several feet, trying to get her bearings, and came to the very edge of the cliff. She looked down, seeing that she was at least 600 feet in the air, and that there was no way down.

"…Well, that's fan-fuckin'-tastic," she muttered to herself, "Ugh, lass, what've ye gotten yerself into this time?"

Sighing to herself, she adjusted her grip on the weapon inside her hands. As she did so, however, she noticed that it was much more solid than it had previously been. She held the crossbow out and examined it. While before it had been a rusted rotten piece of junk, it was now somehow restored to its prior wonder. The weapon was strong, made of steel with golden parts at the head and the bowstrings, along with golden plates along the sides with runes carved into the gold. The wood was now polished oak, exceeding strong from what she could tell and very light in her hands. While she suspected that the weapon should weigh a lot more in her hands, she felt as though she could carry ten of them.

She hefted the weapon up in her arms and positioned it carefully, aiming through the scope that was atop it as she did so. She reached up and grasped the bowstring, pulling it back easily as she felt no resistance. Once she heard the string lock into place, she took aim again and pulled the trigger. The string flew out from its place at such a great speed that Lori nearly lost her grip on it.

Sighing to herself, the Irish lady sat down on a large rock and contemplated what was going on. According to the legends, Queen Deirdre of Kells had had the same crossbow, called the Whirlwind Crossbow, and it was capable of sending out purple bursts of concentrated air that were capable of sending a man flying into the air…literally.

She sighed as she realized what those implications meant…she was the one who had taken the crossbow, and as such, was sent to these cliffs…that meant only one thing…she was here to face the guardian of the Mystic Armor of the Air. That meant she would have to face Sonora Sky, the Lightning Bat of Temra, Lord of the Night Storms.

She wiped the sweat from her brow as she wracked her brain to try and recall what Deirdre had done to defeat him, but she could not remember it. Sighing to herself, she did realize that in order to escape the cliff, she would have to face Sonora Sky. That meant that she would have to figure out how to work the crossbow…and fast.

She came to her feet, deciding that the weapons must all work on a system of emotions. Otherwise, they would have no control over what the weapons did. So, until that certain emotion was felt, the weapons were nothing more than ordinary weapons.

She steeled herself and pulled the bowstring back into position, then took aim. She closed her eyes and focused all of her energy on a negative memory, summoning up all the hate that she could…then, she pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

"What," she said aloud, confused as Hell.

At the very least, the bow should have let loose as it had before. Instead, nothing had happened. Lori was beyond lost at this point, but she knew that she had to figure out what was happening.

"Ok," she said to herself, "The sword works by channeling hate from the user into it. Since hate did pretty much nothing…no, wait, it didn't do nothing…it caused the bow to stop working altogether. So…wait…if it stopped working, then it stopped working for a purpose…to ensure that someone full of hate could not operate it. Alright, then, so if hate makes it stop…maybe the opposite of hate will make it work.

"Oh, God, that's the stupidest thing I've ever said in me life," Lori said to herself.

Sighing, Lori realized that it was really the only idea that she had. So, with that thought in mind, Lori hefted the weapon up again and focused…she focused on her sisters, on her brother, her granddad, on her first boyfriend, and her first girlfriend and she even focused on Xander. As she felt all the love she had build up, she also felt the familiar sensation of that emotion being siphoned out of her…only, this was different. While the sword sucked all the hate out and purified whoever it was that was using it, the crossbow instead absorbed the love and…mimicked it, for lack of a better term.

With newfound confidence, Lori smiled to herself and pulled the trigger. As she did so, a purple burst of air flowed from within the chamber, and it flew up into the sky where she had aimed it.

Lori smiled again, noticing that the bowstring had not come loose from its position. That meant that she could use it however often she liked.

As she took aim again, deciding to test herself with the weapon, Lori thought on why such a weapon would require love to operate it. The answer came to her immediately. In the olden times, women were not expected to be warriors and, if they were, they were expected to hold the fort and to kill only if absolutely necessary. The crossbow was not a weapon meant to kill anyone, it would take a lot of air to kill someone…the crossbow was meant to merely subdue them. So, what better way to ensure that the crossbow would do no real harm than to have its source be the emotion of love?

She tried it a few more times and, once she felt that she had a grasp of it, decided that the time had come for her to face the Lightning Bat. She turned to the cliff, noticing with a frown that the storm was coming back…a more frightening thought gripped her, however, as she realized that it could very easily be the Lightning Bat himself.

Sighing to herself, she summoned forth all the courage and love she had and walked forward until she came to the center of the cliff.

She raised her weapon high above her head and shouted out, "SONORA SKY!"