Minako
I woke up lying on a blue velvet fainting couch, back out in the main elevator room. Theo carefully helped me sit up, then handed me another mug of hot chocolate, which I drank gratefully. According to Igor, Slayer was a powerful Persona, one I simply wasn't strong enough to truly summon yet. But now that I'd called her out of the Sea of Souls, she'd be with me, lending me her strength even when I couldn't actively call her out. I had to admit, I did feel a little less alone.
Finishing the hot chocolate, and another few of the spice cakes, I finally said goodbye to Igor and Theo– though I noticed Igor's goodbye was "ogenki de," stay well, instead of the more final "sayonara." Then I headed back out through the main doors and into the stairwell. I took a quick look back over my shoulder, and wasn't exactly surprised to see the doors weren't there anymore. One deep breath, and I continued my descent.
Another two floors brought me to the bottom of the stairway, and I carefully pushed the door open. The corridor down here was just as bright and polished as the ones upstairs, but it seemed quieter somehow. Or maybe it was just that the rumbling of the generator had gotten to the point where it swallowed everything up into something that didn't even seem like sound anymore.
Somehow, everything felt like it should be darker and grimier, even though it absolutely wasn't. Absently, I noticed that all of the doors were labeled, like in a lab or a hospital, but it was all gibberish, whatever it was.
A sudden gust of cold air blew over me, and I pulled my naginata out of wherever it had been stored, almost on instinct. There was something off about that air, maybe the way it smelled. Like disinfectant and emptiness, although how emptiness actually smelled, I couldn't actually tell you. And it seemed to be coming from the room through those double doors ahead of me. Great.
Gripping my naginata with both hands, I used my knee to push one of those doors open and stepped into… uh. An operating theater, maybe? There wasn't a table, but I could see a balcony full of seats up above, lots of nasty sharp instruments hanging on the walls, and in the center of it…
Okay, this had to be an Auditor. It looked basically like a gray hooded cloak with nobody in it, just sort of hanging there. I could see inside it, sort of– the inside disappeared into darkness, like it was deeper on the inside than the outside. No arms, no legs– down by the floor, the cloak just sort of turned into a gray spreading fog, kind of like those videos I'd seen of fog machines, the ones with dry ice.
Anomaly. You do not belong here.
I had to blink. I hadn't… heard it talk, it was more like I was remembering it having spoken. No memory of voice or tone, just information. It made my head spin, a bit. Still, it's not like I needed any help figuring out that it didn't like me. I held my naginata ready, but didn't move just yet.
Anomaly, you are a threat to the Order. Stand by for deletion.
"I don't think I will," I replied. "But… if you're so hot on Order, why are you helping a group called the Chaos Empire? Isn't that kind of the opposite of what you want?"
You are in error. We do not serve any except the cause of Order. The Chaos Empire wishes the cessation of life, with all its attendant disorder. Existence will become ordered, determined by mathematics and gravitation, without the strange attractors called "emotion" and "magic." This will allow the quantification of reality to continue with greater efficiency.
"That's horrible!" I tightened my grip on my naginata and aimed it at the Auditor. "I won't let you take away all the wonderful things in life just because it makes it easier to measure things! So your job's a little harder, live with it! The rest of us do!"
Anomaly, anomalous thrice over, there are plans you know nothing of, powers you do not understand. Accept stasis, and accept your fate.
With that, it lunged at me, moving like a drop of ink through water. I sliced at it with my naginata, but it eeled away from the blade at the last minute, zooming up to the ceiling. It hovered there for a second, then began spitting balls of some sort of energy at me. It didn't seem very good at predicting my movements, though, and I managed to dodge every one of them.
For a second, it just hovered there, then flowed into a screaming dive, turning itself into a spike as it came. I didn't try to parry it, just rolled out of the way and let it hit the floor. It stuck for a moment, and I managed to get two good hits in before it pulled itself away.
Several shards of something that looked sort of like ice came flying at me out of the hood. I managed to dodge all but the last one, which sliced through my jeans and tagged my leg. It didn't hurt, just went numb, and a quick check showed that while I was scratched, I wasn't bleeding. But that leg wasn't responding very well, which meant dodging was going to be a little harder next time.
Why do you resist, Anomaly? This existence brings so much pain and sorrow, why do you cling to that which harms you?
It sounded genuinely confused, and I laughed a little, as I tried to get feeling back into my leg.
"Because I want to live! I want to get back to Buffy, I want to see the sun come up! I want to eat ramen noodles and ice cream– not together, ew. I'll take the pain for all the good things. I don't want my parents to be forgotten– I want to live for them! And I don't want to let that man down. He died to make sure his daughter could live, and I won't give up and let that be meaningless!"
This is nonsensical. All life is meaningless. It exists because it exists, for no other reason.
"That's because we give it reason," I said, not yelling anymore. "Like a shape in a cloud, I decide what my life is for, and I say it's for living. For making people happy. And if you can't understand that, then you're far sadder than I will ever be." That leg wasn't getting any more movable, so I braced the haft of my naginata on the floor and pointed it at the gray shape.
"Come if you're coming, you discount Ringwraith. I am Arisato Minako, daughter of Arisato Masato and Arisato Sakura. I am the right hand of vengeance and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to the Netherworld. God sent me."
Tou-san had enjoyed Western science fiction, and I was pretty sure Ivanova-sama wouldn't begrudge me stealing her lines for this.
The cloak swooped around and around, obviously trying to make me dizzy, but I just waited and watched for it out of my peripheral vision. With the speed it was going, it would have to slow down if it wanted to come at me from behind, which meant I'd have just enough warning when it didn't come back into view… there!
I could almost feel a second pair of hands over my own, guiding the naginata as I pivoted on my good leg, slicing the blade down through the incoming cloak and sending it exploding outward like a dust bunny dropped off a building. The gray mist swirled around me for a moment, then disappeared.
My leg suddenly erupted into pins and needles, and I may have said a few words my mother would have been very unhappy by. Still, I could move it again, which meant I could get moving again.
Then the entire building shook from some type of explosion, and I almost thunked my head against the nearest wall. Could I just get five minutes? Please?
Swearing under my breath, I limped through the door on the other end of the operating theater, and out into whatever mess was waiting for me this time.
Buffy
The Black Gate was exactly what it sounded like, a set of double doors like the ones Minako and I'd gone through earlier, except jet black and set in a wall of red whatever. Oh, and big enough to let four motorcycles zip through in two by two formation without slowing down. Because we didn't, Ghidora just raised a hand and the doors flung themselves open in front of us. I could see that he and Red Rider were readying their swords, so I did the same. Off to my left, White Rider had pulled his bow, despite the fact that meant taking both hands off the handlebars. Apparently the bike having started as a horse meant it had some kind of autopilot? I dunno.
Then we were breaking through a pair of red double doors out into a brilliant white day. Luckily, Slayer vision compensates for light very quickly, so I wasn't blinded for more than a second. This was good, because the roadway was blocked by what looked like an actual military checkpoint, complete with black and white striped pole across the road itself. Golden energy flashed from the front of Ghidora's bike, and the pole went kablooie, as a couple of the teddy bears from earlier flung themselves to safety. We went by pretty fast, but I still heard at least one of them snarling, probably calling down plushy curses on our entire houses.
Behind us, I could hear more motor sounds, explosions, and high-pitched screams, as the squads that had come with us started digging in to cover our retreat. Yes, I am studying tactics, Tony kind of insisted. Right along with the Sun Tzu. Slayage is more like guerilla warfare than standard battle, but the knowledge still comes in very handy.
Right now, we were basically doing a hit and run. Element of surprise, overwhelming the defenders with power and speed, ideally getting what we were after and getting the hell out before Erebus could mobilize more than a token response. None of us thought it was going to be that easy, but you started with your plan and then made adjustments to it on the fly. That was why armies had generals at the front carrying out the commands of civilian authorities in the rear.
There were squads of foot soldiers mobilized to stop us, and seriously weird ones at that. I cut down a giant slug-leech-fluke man right out of the X-Files, and I could see White Rider's arrows poofing a bunch of the green Gumby-things that had gone after Minako. I heard a canine yip and looked over in time to see Red Rider cutting through a thing that looked like a dog crossed with a ferret crossed with Casper the Friendly Ghost. Meanwhile, Ghidora was swinging a broadsword that bisected a plant-person thing, cutting it off in mid-shriek.
Breaking through the line of defense, we screeched to a halt in an open courtyard, backs to the doorway, and quickly dismounted. None of the small fry seemed interested in following us in here, which did not make me particularly happy, but you went with what you had. Settling Dyrnwyn in my back sheath, I dismounted from my motorcycle, which promptly turned back into a horse and nuzzled me looking for more treats.
"You seem to have made a friend, Slayer," Ghidora observed, dismounting as well. His horse wasn't nearly so affectionate, I noted.
"Hardly surprising," he continued. "Pale Rider and his steed both greatly appreciate a master of their art. As do I."
I snorted. "There's these things called 'boundaries,' Smaug, maybe you've heard of them?" He smirked, but didn't reply.
"Resistance will be stiffer inside," Red Rider noted, hefting his sword as he considered the steel double doors in front of us. I stretched, then drew my sword again.
"Maybe we should knock?" I asked innocently.
Ghidora bowed extravagantly. "Lead the way, Slayer. Red Rider and I will follow, and White Rider will bring up the rear– if that meets everyone's approval?"
It did, and taking a deep breath, I kicked the front door in and we were moving. Now we were dealing with hallway fighting, something I was a lot more familiar with. Waves of blonde, blue-eyed fembots in black and white uniforms tried to stop us. Their hand to hand wasn't as good as their ranged combat, though, and once we closed to melee range, it was all over for them.
After God knows how long, we reached the edge of a pit that seemed to go way, way down, possibly all the way to wherever socks that escaped the laundry ended up. I looked over at White Rider, who was quickly becoming my favorite, just for the aura of "Done With This Shit" he radiated.
"I don't suppose this is for air handling?"
He snorted. "I believe this is a… pressure release? For Erebus's power. It is an unstable creature, a son of Primordial Chaos. Unlike my Queen, who holds herself balanced, or our… esteemed ally, whose eruptions of violence and destruction are all carefully planned and harnessed to an end, Erebus cannot contain itself, and would destroy its own surroundings without a vent."
Ghidora and Red Rider moved to join us, and Red Rider pointed at a wall with one bony finger. "Hand-holds. Vent or not, this shaft is made to be traversed."
I rolled my eyes. "Of course it is, this is an evil lair. If this is an air vent, it's even more expected for us to sneak in that way." I sighed, tugged my jacket back into place, and carefully lowered myself over the edge, feeling for the first hold with my boots.
The other three followed me down, and finally, after way too much time, we hit bottom. I shook out my hands as I looked around at the six doors spaced equally around the walls. "Anybody got any thoughts, or should I just start with 'eenie-meenie-meinie-moe?'" I asked.
Before anyone could answer me, though, there was a loud noise and a rumble that seemed to shake the entire building.
"Hmm," Ghidora commented mildly, looking at the ceiling. "It appears the shelling has started."
I glared. "You are shelling the building we are in?" I demanded. "Isn't that a little counterproductive?"
He shrugged. "We'll survive. Worst case scenario is that it all collapses on top of us and we're warped back to our home realms."
"Uh, problem with that, I'm not native."
The smile I got had fangs in it. "Oh, you're one of mine, Slayer, you just haven't acknowledged it yet. Trust me, though, if you die here, it'll be far more evident. But decorporealization hurts like hell, so I'd rather find your ward and get out."
King of Ruin, hell. More like King of Incredible Dickery. But before I could say something probably undiplomatic, one of the doors opened and a small figure entered. Bedraggled, limping, and leaning on the shaft of some type of spear, it took me a second to realize it was Minako. Then I pretty much teleported over to grab her up into a hug.
"B- Buffy?" She sounded so surprised, but she hugged me back just as tightly.
"Yeah, it's me," I responded, cheek against her hair. "You look like crap, kiddo."
That got a laugh. "I kind of feel like it," she answered. "Can we go home now?"
"Oh, I like her," Ghidora commented. "Obviously takes after you, Slayer. Perhaps I should take her as a page?"
I turned, making sure I was between him and Minako as I did so. "My little sister, no touchy," I replied lightly. My glare should make it clear that I was dead serious, though.
Ghidora actually startled, then laughed. "Ah, you don't know? Slayer, that child is no more real than we are, in the sense of physical existence."
"Say what?" I blinked. Behind me, I could feel Minako's grip tighten on my shirttail, sticking out from beneath my jacket.
"She's a thought-form, Slayer, an image of what might have been, arisen from the depths of the world's dream. No more real than that vampire version of your friend you fought once."
Clenching my fists, I counted to three and held onto my temper. "I don't believe you," I said levelly, "but even if it's true, it doesn't matter. Vamp Willow made it into our universe; I can find a way to do the same for Minako. She's my little sister, and I'm not giving up on her, no matter what."
Before Ghidora, or Minako for that matter, could react to my words, though, the entire chamber started to shake. The door on the farthest side of the chamber from us shuddered, then melted away into a greasy black sludge, and from it, a truly nasty shape started to rise. Two heads, one at each end of a four-legged body… except the front legs were human arms, and maybe the back too? The heads were human skulls, with red glowing eyes, and a pair of horns, kind of like the ones on a bull. Shadow bubbled around its … screw it, I was just going to say 'feet,' it wasn't wrong.
"Erebus," Ghidora said dryly, drawing a golden broadsword out of nowhere. "How good of you to join us."
Minako
Well, one good thing about the arrival of that… that thing. It meant that I didn't have any time to think about what that blond man had said to Buffy-neesan about me not being… real. Which didn't mean it wasn't still nagging at me, but I was making myself give all my attention to the giant monster. And also keeping my knees from buckling under me, because I could almost feel the waves of despair radiating from it. I'm not ashamed to admit I was still hiding behind Buffy-neesan, a little, even as I raised my naginata.
Both of the cloaked skeletons had pulled their weapons already, and they, the blond guy, and Buffy-neesan moved to form a sort of a line between the monster and me. Erebus just stood there, watching us, as from the door behind it came a flood of those Auditors, swarming up to circle above those two sets of horns.
"What the hell are those?" Buffy-neesan didn't seem to be aiming the question at anyone in particular, but the blond man shrugged.
"I don't know, Slayer. I've never seen anything like them before… and in my case, that covers a very, very long amount of time."
"They're Auditors," I said, moving out to stand on Buffy-neesan's left. I wasn't going to hide away from this– it wasn't like there was anywhere safe for me to go if our group lost. "They're made of Order, want to freeze the world so it stops being illogical, so they can measure it easier."
"Ah." The blond man's voice was so cold, it seemed to be dripping liquid contempt. "Bureaucrats."
I thought I heard a snicker from the crowned skeleton, but it was hard to tell.
Your explanation is accurate, but incomplete. Once quantification is achieved, reconstruction and repair of this flawed implementation will commence. The system will function properly, rather than under this… mish-mash of patches and work-arounds.
Somehow the Auditor - or Auditors, I couldn't tell if that was from one of the swarm or all - made "mish-mash" sound like the worst curse word I'd ever heard.
Buffy-neesan tilted her head. "Thought Omnibus here was all about the Chaos. Why partner with the anal-retentive brigade?"
Much like the Auditors, Erebus didn't actually talk. Unlike them, though, it didn't implant a memory of its words in our heads. Instead, a wave of feeling rolled over us like high tide at the beach, carrying meaning with it.
Emptiness. Void. Despair. Formless chaos, spun out into worlds of light and harmony, endless music of the spheres, crystalline notes of music– and no passion or joy anywhere, only the empty, cold perfection of perfect Order. A perfect world that would have no place for the despair and hatred that was Erebus.
"Excuse me?" Buffy-neesan demanded, making the world shatter around me. I shook my head to clear it, and I could see the two skeletons doing the same. The blond guy was propping himself up with his sword and looking like he might barf at any moment.
"Did I understand that right? You're looking to wipe out life in the universe because you want to commit suicide? That is the most asinine thing I have ever heard!" Being lectured by a short blonde was apparently a new experience, because Erebus actually looked shocked.
The blond man levered himself up, looking a little less green as he smirked. "It's the Death-Urge, Slayer, of course it wishes to die. But it can't. As long as life exists, there will always be death, and the urge toward it."
Buffy-neesan snorted. "Sure, everything dies. Even things that think they live forever, sooner or later, they meet their end. That's what Slayers are for, to kill the things that refuse to move on."
Your species is illogical. Why do you put up such resistance in the face of inevitability? As you say, all things must die. To begin is to end. Why fight what must happen in the end?
"I could explain for hours and you wouldn't get it," Buffy-neesan said, sounding tired. "Yeah, everybody's dying by inches, every day. That's just part of life. 'Anyone who says differently is selling something.' And one of those days, the dice are going to come up snake-eyes, and that'll be the end. That'll suck, but just because it ended doesn't mean it wasn't real, that it didn't matter. And if I can stretch things out for one more day, I will, because it matters. Everything that begins ends, but then it begins again. So I'm gonna keep fighting and rolling those dice, and I'm going to save as many people as I can. I'll keep fighting until the end, because until that end comes, it's not over."
You are insane.
Now she laughed. "You're not the first ones to say so. It kind of comes with the territory. But that's the funny thing about life– sometimes you get the same result a thousand times. But the thousand and first? A miracle happens."
Drawing her sword, Buffy-neesan pointed up at Erebus, and the cloud of Auditors both. "Last chance. Let me and Minako leave here, or we will kick your sorry– y'know, I was going to say 'butts,' but you don't have any."
You cannot destroy entropy!
"They're right about that," the blond said conversationally. "However, I believe we can damage this particular manifestation to the point that it should take, oh, roughly a decade to put itself back together enough to start whining and writing bad poetry again."
Erebus roared– maybe it really didn't like having its poetry insulted, I don't know. Above its head, the Auditors began to whip around like a cloud full of birds, flying lower and lower until they completely surrounded the thing.
"They spit energy balls and ice shards," I said hurriedly, "and can make their cloaks into spears."
Buffy-neesan squeezed my shoulder with her free hand. "Got it, kiddo. White Rider, give us air cover, would you?"
"As you wish." The crowned skeleton started sniping Auditors out of the air with what looked like arrows made of light.
"You two got any projectile attacks?" Buffy-neesan asked. The other cloaked skeleton shook its head, while the blond man smirked and snapped his fingers, sending lightning bolts out to zap the crowd of Auditors.
"Great. You can keep picking off the goons. Red Rider, do physical defense if the swarm manages to get close enough for melee. Minako, stay near him, keep yourself and the artillery in one piece."
"And what will you do, Slayer?" the blond man asked.
Buffy-neesan grinned. "What I do best– get up close and personal." Before any of us could react, she was off, cutting her way through the cloud of cloaks, heading directly for Erebus.
And then things got really crazy, and I didn't have time to watch her anymore.
Buffy
Of course, getting up close and personal was easier said than done. The closer I got to Erebus, the thicker the atmosphere of despair got, until it felt like actual physical weights tied to my legs. I had a sudden flashback to "The Neverending Story," and that horse sinking into the swamp. That's sort of what I felt like, except there was thankfully a total absence of mud and snarky elderly turtles.
I used the flat of my sword to block an iceball spat from the hood of a nearby cloak, and jammed my trusty stake right through where the heart should be on another one. It puffed into gray dust just as well as any vampire, and I continued to cut my way through the cloud of frenzied outerwear. Behind me, I could hear the sounds of crackling electricity, the twang of the bowstring, and the sound of Minako's yells as my backup continued to try and thin the herd. I didn't bother, just concentrated on the ones in my path as I finally cut through to the chewy nougat center.
Erebus was not any prettier up close. What I'd assumed to be straggling strands of a shaggy coat were actually ribs projecting from two human-like torsos welded together at the waist. The legs were, in fact, two sets of human arms, both oriented toward the front head. Which meant the both sets of "legs" bent backwards at the "knee," for that extra bit of uck.
As I got closer to it, it reached out one of those hands and tried to pancake me into the floor, but I was way faster, thank you very much. Dodging, I lashed out, but my sword just cut right through the arm like sinking through water, not leaving any wound behind. Hmm. Awkward.
Erebus let out a scream that seemed to be at least 37% laugh, maybe more. I felt my knees wobble as another wave of despair washed over me. It was useless, something whispered in the back of my head. Sooner or later, I was going to die, or worse, I was going to fail, and the things I fought would take everything and everyone away from me. Better to just lay down and let it happen now, let the end come quickly and without the pain.
"I have two words for you, 'bull' and 'shit,'" I snarled, dodging another of those awkward swats. "I'm Buffy Anne Summers, I don't back down. I died, and still got back up and killed the thing that killed me. I have faced vampires and demons, killer robots and cult members and fricking Sunnydale High, I am not going to throw in the towel just because some nihilistic collection of jammed-together mannequin parts tells me to!"
I swung at the closest arm, and this time, as I hit it, there was a brilliant flash and Erebus sent up a dissonant howl. I'd hurt it, definitely– the question was, how? Then an Auditor jumped me, wrapping me up in icy cloth that smelled of cold and dust, like an attic so old it was empty of everything, even decay. The wrapping pulled tighter around me– and then the entire thing dissolved with a high keening shriek, like flash paper somebody'd put a match to.
Sword raised, I took a second to catch my breath and figure out what the hell had happened. The rest of the Boyz In The Hoods were giving me a wide berth, obviously not wanting to go out the way their friend had. I'd felt the thing wrap closer around me, squeezing my chest and arms… wait.
I put my free hand up to my chest and felt the little cross Angel had given me years ago. I still wore it, because even with everything, I still loved him, even if it wasn't healthy for us to be together. Usually it was tucked under the collar of my shirt, but with all the fighting, it must have come out… oh.
The Auditors were Order, after all, creatures of predictability and routine. They were allergic to the nonsensical, the erratic, the messy. And what was messier than human emotions, especially that complicated snarl of things people called "love?" Symbols and thoughts were real here, and they had power. For the Auditor, touching something so full of all the things Angel and I had shared, it must have been like having a flaming sword shoved right into its heart. Or whatever the damn thing had.
And then I got it. Erebus was an incarnation of grief and malice, of the urge to die and the urge to kill. It wasn't evil– you have to be a person for that, and Erebus wasn't. More like a computer program that could understand a few commands and give a few canned responses. It was entropy, and maybe in the end, on a grand scale, it was inevitable… but here and now? It could be fought. It could be reversed.
Tightening my grip on my sword, I waded in again, concentrating hard on all the reasons I fought, not just to stop the bad guys, but to make it home again. Little things, like the sound of birds outside the window of my bedroom in the morning, or the taste of one of my mom's scones covered with butter. Big things, like looking out over the Mayor's giant snakey corpse and realizing that we'd all managed to survive not only the fight, but all of high school. I kept dodging and chopping, and with every strike at that black mass, I shoved another memory into my sword.
Hanging out with Xander and Willow at the Bronze, laughing about something stupid Xander'd said.
Another hand came rocketing at me, but this time, I met it with an upward slash of my sword and Erebus pulled back, howl increasing in pitch.
Giles cleaning his glasses as Ms. Calendar teased him about something.
An Auditor tried to get between me and my target, but it died in a whoosh of white flame and my slice still went home.
Christmas morning with Mom, exchanging gifts and laughing over yet another ugly sweater from Great-Aunt Edith's favorite boutique.
Faintly, I could still hear the sounds of battle behind me, including Ghidora using words that Minako was really too young to know, but all my attention was on the thing in front of me.
Late-night phone calls with Tony, discussing the strategy books he'd given me and just shooting the breeze.
Erebus was starting to retreat from me, but it didn't seem capable of actually running. Instead, it shrank back against the wall and seemed to be looking for a way out.
Scritching Godzilla on Kingman's Bluff, sharing pieces of pain with a man I'd just met and felt like I'd known forever.
Dyrnwyn was blazing white now, despite the black color of the steel, and I could almost feel it throbbing in my hand. Taking a deep breath, I lunged forward, putting all my strength behind one memory, burning white as a magnesium flare.
Minako smiling at me like a sunrise as I offered her my hand. In that moment, I knew I was going to get us both out of here alive, and nothing on or off Earth was going to stop me.
My sword swung up as I lunged, slicing Erebus's underbelly from neck to… well, neck. Normally this would result in disembowelment, but as Erebus was literally gutless, all that happened was a sudden flood of blackish-red mist, as the entire creature melted into a puddle of nothing, screaming like the Wicked Witch of the West the entire time.
Panting, I stood there staring at the blade in my hand as it slowly faded from blazing white to glossy black again. "Draw Dyrnwyn, only thou of noble worth," my brain rambled, "to rule with justice, to strike down evil. Who wields it in good cause shall slay even the lord of death."
Then an eight-year-old guided missile hit me, a forehead thunking against my collarbone as arms wrapped around my waist.
"Oof, missed you too, kiddo," I said. Stowing my sword in my back sheath, I hugged her back just as tightly. Ghidora ambled over to the both of us, but before he could say anything, the entire building started to shake.
"Oh for fuck's sake, he was a load-bearing monster?" I demanded of no one in particular.
White Rider put two bony fingers to his mouth and whistled piercingly. Which, I had absolutely no clue how that worked, but I heard a distant whinny, and four motorcycles came zooming down the shaft to land in front of us. I quickly mounted the gray-green one, Minako hopping on behind me and holding on tight. Then we were off, riding up the walls of the shaft as if gravity was only a suggestion. And who knows, in a place like this, it might have been.
We reached the surface and shot down the hall, zooming out into the white city just as the building behind us collapsed into the kind of smoking rubble any fantasy movie would be proud of. The area was curiously empty, none of Erebus's goons or Ghidora's anywhere to be seen. Slowing down, I pulled into an empty plaza and stopped, the other three bikes stopping along with me.
"Well, Slayer," Ghidora said easily, "It would seem my boon to you has been fulfilled."
"So has your price," I pointed out. Minako was still hugging tight to me, and I didn't think she was going to let go any time soon. I was totally okay with that.
He accepted that with a nod. "Do you still intend to claim your little dream from the Underworld?"
I narrowed my eyes at him. I had heard the legend of Orpheus, I had a pretty good idea what he was insinuating.
"She's mine," I said, more calmly than I felt. "My sister, by heart if not by blood. If something yanks her back here at the last minute just to be a tragic dick, I will come right back in after her. And anything in my way will not like it if I do."
White Rider coughed. "In that case, my lady, may I offer my services as escort? Her Majesty Queen Nyx would speak with you and your sister, before you depart."
Ghidora looked from White Rider to me, then over at Red Rider. The other skeleton raised his hands as if to say he wasn't getting involved in this, thanks. Ghidora frowned, then shrugged and bowed.
"Then I wish you and your sister safe journey, Slayer," he replied. "I am certain you and I will be meeting again. Until that time, stay well… and do tell your brother I said hello."
He revved his engine, and he and Red Rider took off down one of the empty streets, off into the white haze.
"Dick." That quiet little word came from directly behind me, and I almost choked on a sudden gout of laughter. White Rider snickered, then sobered.
"If you'll follow me, Lady Buffy, I will guide you back to Nyx's realm."
He snapped his fingers– which, how he did that, considering that they were bone, I don't know– and his motorcycle turned back into a somewhat grumpy-looking white horse. I felt the bike underneath me quiver for a second, then calm down. Then White Rider wheeled his horse around and galloped down another empty street, and Minako and I zoomed after him.
Nyx definitely had some 'splaining to do.