Part 5:
Dawn recounted the events of the previous night in her head as she headed towards the Magic Box. She had gone to visit her mother's grave alone, despite her sister's warnings not to venture out at night without someone (specifically Buffy or Spike) to accompany her. There she had met an old friend, which would have been perfectly normal if not for the fact that Xander was supposed to be dead. She had been attacked by a vampire, and would right now be dead or worse, a vampire herself, if it had not been for Xander's Dawn-saving shenanigans. And to top it all off, her sister had not come home last night, and considering her sister's occupation, was never a good sign. {Good thing today is a Saturday, I so do not need school right now.}
Dawn stopped short as she noticed her surroundings {Hey, I don't remember these shops on the route to the Box.} Finally realizing where she was, she turned around and groaned. It seems that while she was having her internal ramblings, she had passed the Magic Box and had continued on walking. {Great, now I have to back-ass-track two whole blocks.} "Way to go, goofus." she muttered to herself, hoping that passers-by would not think her loony.
Dawn opened the Magic Box door, to be greeted by an overwhelming smell of incense. Ever since Amy had taken over the Magic Box, she had insisted on giving it a "more exotic atmosphere, to attract more non- hellmouthy clientele." This would be fine with Dawn, if it wasn't for the fact that the smell of incense was so powerful that it gave her a headache every time she was in there for more than five minutes.
"Welcome to the Magic Box, where we serve all your supernatural needs!" Amy chirped from behind the counter, her head buried in one of Giles 's huge supernatural tomes. Her voice would be considered way to perky at anytime of day, not to mention 10 in the morning. "How may I help you?"
"Yeah, do you have any slayer slash older sisters in stock? Mine didn't come home last night." Dawn deadpanned, trying to hide the worry in her voice.
Amy's head shot up at the sound of Dawn's voice. She was wearing a witches hat straight out of 'The Wizard of Oz', another one of her hair- brained 'exotic atmosphere' schemes. The sight of her in that oversized clichéd hat never failed to make Dawn giggle a little, no matter how many times she had seen it. It was almost as funny as that one time Amy had made Buffy wear it. She smiled warmly towards Dawn.
"Oh, hi Dawnie. We had a rough one last night, and when we got back here we were to tired to do anything but sleep. Sorry we didn't call, but Buffy and Spike were hurt so we had our hands full."
{You weren't the only one.} "Buffy and Spike are hurt? are they ok? Where are they?" Dawn could and would not mask the worry in her voice anymore.
As if on cue, a groggy, still half-asleep Buffy staggered out of the training room situated at the back of the shop. "I'm awake, Aims. I'll have the eye of newt back in the jar in. . ." Buffy stopped short when she realized that there were two sets of eyes boring down on her, one pair filled with slight amusement, the other pair filled with worry.
"B-Buffy, are you okay?" Dawn said meekly, noticing the bandage on the back of the slayer's head.
Dawn's voice snapped Buffy out of her sleep induced state, and the memories of the previous night came flooding back. "Yeah Dawn. Slayer healing kicked in. Im as strong as an ox. . . . with a giant ox-sized headache." Buffy rubbed her head with her left hand while her right hand was handed a cup of coffee from Amy.
"What about Spike?"
"Oh, he's in the basement." Amy answered. "He went in there at sunrise. He's fine too. Got shot in the chest a couple. . . of hundred times. Luckily bullets don't kill vampires."
"That big bad really did a number on all of us didn't he? What was his name again? Donut?" Buffy added.
{Bullets can't kill vamps? Then how did Xander dust that vamp yesterday?}
"Dante, Buffy." Amy corrected. " Speaking of Dante, I've been doing a little digging and found some very intriguing information pertaining to the new big bad."
"Please go on, Giles," Buffy bit out sarcastically as the three of them took a seat at the round conference table. "You know how I 'intrigued' I am by all this demon info. And besides, what makes you think that this Dante guy is anything more than Demon-of-the-week material?"
"In case you did not notice Buffy, he took out an experienced slayer, a master vampire and a powerful witch yesterday without breaking a sweat. This combined with the information I have managed to unearth about him leads me to believe that we should take him seriously so we will survive our next encounter with him. Now do you want to hear what I have to say or not?" Amy was in full 'Giles' mode now and Buffy knew she had a point. She merely nodded and pouted. {I hate it when she puts on her 'leadership' voice.}
"Thank you." Amy answered, before continuing. "I could not find any reference to Dante in the Codex or the watcher's journals, but I did find mention of him in the most peculiar place: In the Scrolls of Camelot."
"Wait a minute," Dawn piped in. "Camelot? I thought Camelot was just a fairytale. And Aims? Could you please take off the Wicked Witch head gear? It's really distracting."
Amy blushed a little, and took off her hat. " To answer your first question Dawn, yes, Camelot did exist. But the fairytales we hear are idealized versions of the true Camelot story. Let's just say that leaving his wife with Lancelot was just one of the mistakes Arthur made. Anyway, during King Arthur's reign, a dark prince was born deep in the bowels of hell. Needless to say, he was very powerful. He quickly gained power and became ruler of all seven hell dimensions. His next feat was to overtake the human dimension. His first target, Camelot. Arthur's forces were no match for his demon horde, and Arthur's own sword, Excalibur, was no match for his demon sword, Alastor."
"So did he succeed in taking over Camelot?" Dawn asked excitedly.
Amy gave Dawn an annoyed glare for interrupting her. "Well, he would have if not for one of his Dark Knights betraying him."
"So, these Dark Knights, they're like 'Knights of The Round, Demon Edition'?" Buffy chipped in.
"Exactly! This Dark Knight, Sparda, was a very unique being. Even though he had a demon soul, his soul was very compassionate, even more so than most human souls. He took pity on the humans, and joined forces with Arthur. With the Dark Knight on they're side, Arthur managed to defeat the demon horde. Sparda himself felled the Dark Prince, ending his reign of terror."
"This is all good and nice, Aims, but where does Dante fit into all this?"
"I'm getting to that!" Amy regathered her train of thought. "Anyway, after achieving victory, Sparda abandoned the demon realm to live in the human world. Even with his heroic deeds and compassionate heart, Arthur, and the people of Camelot would not recognize his valor, even rejecting him, because of his. . . uhm. . . Demon-ness."
"Whoa, that was harsh of Arthur. Talk about being under appreciated." Dawn said.
"Well, it seems that Arthur had a case. Only one woman truly recognized Sparda as the beautiful being that he was, and the two of them fell in love and got married. They had one child, a demon-human hybrid."
"I'll take a wild guess here and say this child's was named Dante." Buffy interrupted.
"Yup. But Dante was not like his father. Even with human blood within him, Dante was a truly evil being. He stole the Alastor, which was at that time in possession of his father, and murdered his own mother in cold blood with it. He then went after Sparda. After battling for three days and three nights, Dante finally managed to defeat his father. However, seeing Dante in his weakened state, Merlin managed to imprison Dante in a sealed vault. Merlin also took the Alastor and sealed it in 'The Gates of Hell'."
Buffy groaned. "You mean Merlin sealed it here? Why does everyone think that any mystical piece of junk would be safe over here?"
"Wait, Buff. I'm not finished. Merlin also transferred the soul and essence of Sparda into every generation a chosen one who is close to the Alastor. In this chosen one, the powers of Sparda will remain dormant until called upon again. These chosen people will share Sparda's fate, not being recognized appreciated for the heroes that they truly are. Merlin dubbed them as the 'White Knights'."
A wave of recognition passed over Buffy. "White Knight? Didn't Dante ask us where the White Knight was yesterday before he kicked our asses?"
"Yes he did. Looks like we have a lot of research to do. Dawn, I want you to look up any reference you can find on the Alastor. As for you Buff, I want you to look up anything you can on the White Knight." Amy commanded as she tossed a bunch of scrolls to each of them.
Buffy and Dawn groaned. It was going to be a long day.
Dawn recounted the events of the previous night in her head as she headed towards the Magic Box. She had gone to visit her mother's grave alone, despite her sister's warnings not to venture out at night without someone (specifically Buffy or Spike) to accompany her. There she had met an old friend, which would have been perfectly normal if not for the fact that Xander was supposed to be dead. She had been attacked by a vampire, and would right now be dead or worse, a vampire herself, if it had not been for Xander's Dawn-saving shenanigans. And to top it all off, her sister had not come home last night, and considering her sister's occupation, was never a good sign. {Good thing today is a Saturday, I so do not need school right now.}
Dawn stopped short as she noticed her surroundings {Hey, I don't remember these shops on the route to the Box.} Finally realizing where she was, she turned around and groaned. It seems that while she was having her internal ramblings, she had passed the Magic Box and had continued on walking. {Great, now I have to back-ass-track two whole blocks.} "Way to go, goofus." she muttered to herself, hoping that passers-by would not think her loony.
Dawn opened the Magic Box door, to be greeted by an overwhelming smell of incense. Ever since Amy had taken over the Magic Box, she had insisted on giving it a "more exotic atmosphere, to attract more non- hellmouthy clientele." This would be fine with Dawn, if it wasn't for the fact that the smell of incense was so powerful that it gave her a headache every time she was in there for more than five minutes.
"Welcome to the Magic Box, where we serve all your supernatural needs!" Amy chirped from behind the counter, her head buried in one of Giles 's huge supernatural tomes. Her voice would be considered way to perky at anytime of day, not to mention 10 in the morning. "How may I help you?"
"Yeah, do you have any slayer slash older sisters in stock? Mine didn't come home last night." Dawn deadpanned, trying to hide the worry in her voice.
Amy's head shot up at the sound of Dawn's voice. She was wearing a witches hat straight out of 'The Wizard of Oz', another one of her hair- brained 'exotic atmosphere' schemes. The sight of her in that oversized clichéd hat never failed to make Dawn giggle a little, no matter how many times she had seen it. It was almost as funny as that one time Amy had made Buffy wear it. She smiled warmly towards Dawn.
"Oh, hi Dawnie. We had a rough one last night, and when we got back here we were to tired to do anything but sleep. Sorry we didn't call, but Buffy and Spike were hurt so we had our hands full."
{You weren't the only one.} "Buffy and Spike are hurt? are they ok? Where are they?" Dawn could and would not mask the worry in her voice anymore.
As if on cue, a groggy, still half-asleep Buffy staggered out of the training room situated at the back of the shop. "I'm awake, Aims. I'll have the eye of newt back in the jar in. . ." Buffy stopped short when she realized that there were two sets of eyes boring down on her, one pair filled with slight amusement, the other pair filled with worry.
"B-Buffy, are you okay?" Dawn said meekly, noticing the bandage on the back of the slayer's head.
Dawn's voice snapped Buffy out of her sleep induced state, and the memories of the previous night came flooding back. "Yeah Dawn. Slayer healing kicked in. Im as strong as an ox. . . . with a giant ox-sized headache." Buffy rubbed her head with her left hand while her right hand was handed a cup of coffee from Amy.
"What about Spike?"
"Oh, he's in the basement." Amy answered. "He went in there at sunrise. He's fine too. Got shot in the chest a couple. . . of hundred times. Luckily bullets don't kill vampires."
"That big bad really did a number on all of us didn't he? What was his name again? Donut?" Buffy added.
{Bullets can't kill vamps? Then how did Xander dust that vamp yesterday?}
"Dante, Buffy." Amy corrected. " Speaking of Dante, I've been doing a little digging and found some very intriguing information pertaining to the new big bad."
"Please go on, Giles," Buffy bit out sarcastically as the three of them took a seat at the round conference table. "You know how I 'intrigued' I am by all this demon info. And besides, what makes you think that this Dante guy is anything more than Demon-of-the-week material?"
"In case you did not notice Buffy, he took out an experienced slayer, a master vampire and a powerful witch yesterday without breaking a sweat. This combined with the information I have managed to unearth about him leads me to believe that we should take him seriously so we will survive our next encounter with him. Now do you want to hear what I have to say or not?" Amy was in full 'Giles' mode now and Buffy knew she had a point. She merely nodded and pouted. {I hate it when she puts on her 'leadership' voice.}
"Thank you." Amy answered, before continuing. "I could not find any reference to Dante in the Codex or the watcher's journals, but I did find mention of him in the most peculiar place: In the Scrolls of Camelot."
"Wait a minute," Dawn piped in. "Camelot? I thought Camelot was just a fairytale. And Aims? Could you please take off the Wicked Witch head gear? It's really distracting."
Amy blushed a little, and took off her hat. " To answer your first question Dawn, yes, Camelot did exist. But the fairytales we hear are idealized versions of the true Camelot story. Let's just say that leaving his wife with Lancelot was just one of the mistakes Arthur made. Anyway, during King Arthur's reign, a dark prince was born deep in the bowels of hell. Needless to say, he was very powerful. He quickly gained power and became ruler of all seven hell dimensions. His next feat was to overtake the human dimension. His first target, Camelot. Arthur's forces were no match for his demon horde, and Arthur's own sword, Excalibur, was no match for his demon sword, Alastor."
"So did he succeed in taking over Camelot?" Dawn asked excitedly.
Amy gave Dawn an annoyed glare for interrupting her. "Well, he would have if not for one of his Dark Knights betraying him."
"So, these Dark Knights, they're like 'Knights of The Round, Demon Edition'?" Buffy chipped in.
"Exactly! This Dark Knight, Sparda, was a very unique being. Even though he had a demon soul, his soul was very compassionate, even more so than most human souls. He took pity on the humans, and joined forces with Arthur. With the Dark Knight on they're side, Arthur managed to defeat the demon horde. Sparda himself felled the Dark Prince, ending his reign of terror."
"This is all good and nice, Aims, but where does Dante fit into all this?"
"I'm getting to that!" Amy regathered her train of thought. "Anyway, after achieving victory, Sparda abandoned the demon realm to live in the human world. Even with his heroic deeds and compassionate heart, Arthur, and the people of Camelot would not recognize his valor, even rejecting him, because of his. . . uhm. . . Demon-ness."
"Whoa, that was harsh of Arthur. Talk about being under appreciated." Dawn said.
"Well, it seems that Arthur had a case. Only one woman truly recognized Sparda as the beautiful being that he was, and the two of them fell in love and got married. They had one child, a demon-human hybrid."
"I'll take a wild guess here and say this child's was named Dante." Buffy interrupted.
"Yup. But Dante was not like his father. Even with human blood within him, Dante was a truly evil being. He stole the Alastor, which was at that time in possession of his father, and murdered his own mother in cold blood with it. He then went after Sparda. After battling for three days and three nights, Dante finally managed to defeat his father. However, seeing Dante in his weakened state, Merlin managed to imprison Dante in a sealed vault. Merlin also took the Alastor and sealed it in 'The Gates of Hell'."
Buffy groaned. "You mean Merlin sealed it here? Why does everyone think that any mystical piece of junk would be safe over here?"
"Wait, Buff. I'm not finished. Merlin also transferred the soul and essence of Sparda into every generation a chosen one who is close to the Alastor. In this chosen one, the powers of Sparda will remain dormant until called upon again. These chosen people will share Sparda's fate, not being recognized appreciated for the heroes that they truly are. Merlin dubbed them as the 'White Knights'."
A wave of recognition passed over Buffy. "White Knight? Didn't Dante ask us where the White Knight was yesterday before he kicked our asses?"
"Yes he did. Looks like we have a lot of research to do. Dawn, I want you to look up any reference you can find on the Alastor. As for you Buff, I want you to look up anything you can on the White Knight." Amy commanded as she tossed a bunch of scrolls to each of them.
Buffy and Dawn groaned. It was going to be a long day.