Chapter Two
"Come again?" Alexander asked the two gods.
"Can't, you're not touching me, " Anya whispered huskily.
Everybody spared a withering and disgusted glare at the sex-obsessed ex-demon. "Anya, your scary," was muttered, surprisingly by Dawn. What was even more surprising was Xander's lack of correcting remark that commonly followed Anya's moments of embarrassing tactlessness.
Instead, he came up beside her, kissed her deeply and silently, but teasingly whispered back, "I…wasn't…talking…to…you……" giving her a wet kiss between each of his words. When he turned back to his "siblings" she was left smiling and humming with a happiness that she had rarely known while she had been human, and even then it was only when she was with her Xander.
"Now, back on topic," Alexander continued with a steady voice. He repeated his expression of confusion and reiterated, "Come again?"
Joshua sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose wearily. Buffy smiled brightly in approval of Xander's actions with his betrothed. Finally, Joshua answered the question, "Another god will be awoken after Ripper. Specifically some twenty minutes after him. Unfortunately, we can't tell who it will be. Too complicated."
"But…but…but your…your GODS!!" Alexander shouted desperately.
"Xander," Anya wrapped herself around her fiancée, "What's wrong? I know, from partial experience, what Joshua is talking about, trust me. When ethereal energies are building and combined with other conflicting ethereal energies, it's nearly impossible to separate and completely, let alone accurately, identify the sources. I mean the only ethereal beings that could do it with any hope of success are angels or archangels. And on the level of power that this archangel is describing, I'm impressed that they can identify their own energy signatures in the buildup."
Everyone was staring at the ex-vengeance demon after her brief explanation, the absolute most that she has made in a real compliment, while Alexander was feeling an enormous swell of pride that his girlfriend, his fiancée, knew about this stuff and had actually explained it without insulting anybody, and in fact complimenting his brother while showing concern for his own well being all at the same time. Speaking of which…
Kissing her in reward for being so smart, Alexander relieved his honey's fears, slightly, by sharing his own. "You're so smart," he stage-whispered after finishing their kiss. "But to be perfectly honest An… It's just…it's just that…I'm kind of afraid that it's gonna be me that gets my godhood back, and…and I'm still not sure what its gonna be like. After Joshua explained about the whole 'mortal can't come, gods only' rule or whatever it is last night, I've kind of thought out my priorities. And you know what?" he whispered conspiratorially, "You, my little Anyanka, you were at the top of my list. Now let me finish," Alexander said as Anya opened her mouth and as her eyes began to mist over.
"Ever since I first met you, you were rude, tactless, selfish, and full of yourself. I'd like to think you've evolved a little since then," he hastily added before anyone could comment. "Now, you're outgoing, you're caring, your still a little selfish, but hey aren't we all? Also, you are not afraid to speak your mind and you aren't afraid of what others think of you. You say you love me? I believe you with all my heart and soul. So…will you believe me when I tell you…that I love you too?"
"Two weeks ago, I asked you to marry me. Two weeks ago, you said yes. Yesterday, we find out that most of us are gods from another dimension. So, I know you're gonna hate me for this, but youwannagetmarriedtoday?" he asked in a rush at the end.
Before Anya could answer though, Buffy, grinning, decided to interrupt the most adorable display of love that she had ever witnessed, and being a Love goddess, that's saying something. "Xander? It's not you."
Alexander was still staring into Anya's eyes, awaiting his beloved's answer as she stared right back into his. When they heard, and understood, what she had said, both blinked and took a second to think it over. Believing that Xander had asked to marry her today only because he would get his godhood back, Anya hung her head down and put the mask of apathy back on. Alexander himself turned to stare at his best friend of more than five years, and also his sister, in disbelief.
"What? H-heh-how… How…?" the dark lanky haired man stuttered.
Buffy easily translated and gave him the technical answer first. "Admitted, there is a huge amount of power building up…but. But there is not that much power building up. Joshua and I have identified Ripper's energy, and that's plenty power in its own right, but if it was one of the primary gods, or that is to say one of the gods born directly under our parents, then we would have been feeling earthquakes for over an hour by now. In short, it's one of our kids, and of those in town, there aren't many options."
Suddenly Alexander deflated from the tension that had built up within him. "Ok," he muttered in pure relief. Then he turned back to Anya, who was still holding her head down some, while Joshua asked to no one in particular, "How did we get to this subject again?"
"So?" Alexander asked quietly to her. She looked up, surprise clearly etched into her face. "Wh-whu…what?" she stuttered in utter confusion. Smiling, Alexander asked once more, though a little slower this time, "Do you want to marry me…today?"
Blinking rapidly, as though to see if this were real, Anya stood in shock for a couple seconds, while all the girls in the room smiled or giggled in amusement. While the guys all looked at their watches, manifested or not, at almost the exact same instant. Anya shook her head and then, staring into his eyes, she asked in a soft voice, "Could you ask me that, just one more time?"
Smiling even wider, Alexander abbreviated, "Marry me, today? Right now even?" With tears forming in her eyes, Anya put her arms around his neck and pulled him in for the best kiss they'd had since…well, last night. "Well, not right now," Joshua muttered, but everyone heard him. Buffy elbowed him in the gut and harshly whispered, "Shut UP!"
When they came up for air, Anya was nodding almost non-stop and kept repeating, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes…." After they broke apart, by maybe a foot or less, everyone, except Spike, Ripper…Rupert, and Joshua, who was rubbing sore ribs, all came up to congratulate the two, and at the same time plan a wedding in less than twelve hours. But with two, maybe even three gods and an Archangel, it was argued that it would not be that much trouble.
However before any of the 'white wedding' obsessed people could get anymore revved up than they already were, Joshua tried to bring them back to the reason they were all here in the first place.
"Ahem," he tried loudly clearing his throat. No response.
A little louder, he tried again. "Ahem!" Only Giles and Spike paid him any heed.
Growing irritated, and it clearly showing on his face, Joshua let out a burst of underlying power and shouted at the top of human lungs, "SHUT!! UP!! AND!! BE!! QUIET!! AND LISTEN!!!" That more or less got their attention as all talking immediately ceased, everyone in the room just stood and stared at the seemingly quiet and gentle young man they had met yesterday, and Buffy was the quietest of all. After a minute, it was clear that everyone was waiting for Joshua to continue, either with his tirade, or the reason for it.
Gulping silently, and blushing furiously, the Archangel tried to save face by stepping up to the large meandered group. They parted faster than the Red sea until he stood before the engaged couple. Extending his right hand before Xander he muttered, audibly enough, the words, "Congratulations Alexander. You have my full support and if you need anything for the wedding, all you have to do is ask."
Then he calmly turned to Anya and leaned forward and down a little until he was at eye level with her. He brought up her left hand with his right and gently and gentlemanly kissed the back of it and looked her in the eye as he said quite clearly, "Welcome to the family Anyanka. I'd love to be the one to support both your marriage and passage to Anton, but luck would have it that somebody else has already beat me to the punch, as the saying goes."
At everyone's confused looks, Xander was the first to ask, "Huh? What do you mean Joshua?"
Glancing around at the confused looks, Joshua just shrugged and walked back out to where they all could see him unhindered. "Well…I found the loophole that Buffy wanted me to find," he answered succinctly. At the further confused looks traveling about the room, rolling his eyes to the high heavens, Joshua let out an exasperated sigh before elaborating with, "She wanted me to find out how Dawn might actually be able to go with her and the rest of us gods when we go back to our own Realm? Anya told Xander and the rest of the people there in the Principal's office yesterday?" As he mentioned this everyone's faces lit up with remembrance inspiration. He slumped with the exaggerated relief of finally forcing the idea into everyone's heads.
"So what is it? What's the loophole?" Dawn asked in her childish curiosity.
Joshua just shrugged and looked over at Buffy. He then tapped on the watch that he had manifested a few moments ago. She manifested her own gold charm watch and looked at the exact time. Her eye bugged at whatever she saw, and without saying a word she vigorously nodded her head at her older brother. He nodded back briefly and then closed his eyes in concentration.
There were two bright flashes of light, one a gray-blue mixed with Joshua's pure white, and the other a deep Royal Red mixed with the same whiteness. After everyone's eyes started working again, they saw Joshua holding two swords of similar, but at the same time vastly different styles.
They both were just over three feet long from tip to the pommel, with a leather strap hilt seven to eight inches long. That was where similarities ended. The sword in Joshua's right hand seemed to glow in an aura of red power and was quite beautiful. The blade was double-edged and curved to the point at the tip. The guard was a bronzed gold color and flared like phoenix wings on either side of the sword. Each tip of the "wings" also had bright fiery rubies, possibly red diamonds, on both sides. The pommel was round and held a much larger version of the red crystals, which also shown through on both sides. At the center of the guard at the top of the hilt was a symbol that only two there could recognize, though Xander was definitely feeling a strange attraction to the sword. Like a magnet, not a moth.
The other sword seemed to glow in the bluish aura, though it was faded through with gray. This sword also double-edged, but it seemed more scuffed, more rounded. Like it had been put through very much use over its years. It was a dark blade, almost all could see or tell that just from looking at it. The guard looked like obsidian crystallized bat wings that extended to each side, and the hilt was just as black. The pommel, for those that could see it, was a similar crystallized black skull. All in all, while the red sword looked beautiful, the blue sword looked just as deadly. And despite that, Giles was just as attracted to this blade as Xander was to the other.
"I don't think I have to tell you which sword belongs to who," Joshua commented, tossing the black hilted sword to Giles, who easily caught it, and the golden hilted one to Xander, who had to untangle himself from Anya before clumsily catching the beautiful weapon.
Xander brought the sword up to eyelevel and stared at it. Anya came up beside him and joined him in staring at it. As much as she knew it represented Xander's life changing and the possibility of her losing him, she could not deny how beautiful it was. Plus, she too felt a small tug of attraction for the weapon. Joshua made note to remember that.
"So, uh, what do we do now?" Xander asked, continuously staring at the sword in his hands.
Joshua shrugged and answered, "Just keep them with you for now. You'll figure it out when it's time. Don't worry. Trust me," he added when they looked up at him.
"All right Joshua, that's taken care of," Buffy spoke up. "Now get back to the loophole you've found." That brought everyone's attention back to the archangel.
Joshua nodded and began to explain what he had found out.
"It is really rather simplistic, which is probably why I didn't see it at the very first," he began. "Basically it works in several different ways. Mortals can travel and company, or go with, the gods if even just one of three things applies. First, children. If you have children here and want them to travel with you and live with you wherever that may end up being, they are allowed to go with you, you being their sponsor."
Joshua paused at the looks he was getting from around the room. "I know in this case it doesn't really apply, but I have to make sure you understand all the options. All right?" They grunted and gave general sounds of approval. Joshua nodded himself and continued.
"Next, is if they are blood kin, like a close mother or father, or as this case is, sister. Now before you celebrate, the third option is for you to be married to each other, preferably before your godhood reawakens." He finished, looking at the pair soon to wed.
"So that means…?" Anya trailed off.
Joshua, smiling broadly, nods and proceeds with, "And I will be happy to conduct the ceremony myself. Can't get much more authority on it than an Archangel, can you?"
Anya suddenly squealed happily and gave her husband to be a big wet kiss on the side of his cheek and then ran forward and draped herself from Joshua's neck. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou-thankuthankuthanku!" Anya started saying over and over again to the Archangel.
"You are more the welcome Anyanka. Now, to the wedding business…" Joshua was saying before he was suddenly interrupted.
A sound louder but similar to thunder sounded through the small magic shop, quickly followed by a very large gust of wind that made yesterdays seem like a warm spring breeze. Another sound of thunder passed before anybody could register what was happening.
"What's happening?" Willow shouted over the wind as she covered her face from it.
Buffy and Joshua, seemingly totally unaffected by the change in environment looked to the only other person in the room unaffected by the rapid change. Giles. Everyone that could looked where the two gods were staring, and saw for themselves the change of Rupert Giles into the creature called Ripper. He was for the moment surrounded by the central cone of the wind and a blue hue of lightning and the thunder invoked by it surrounded him.
The man himself seemed totally unaffected by it. In fact he seemed to be reveling in it, whilst he continuously stared at the sword in his hands. Finally, as the storm within the building seemed to reach its highest peak, a bolt of pure energy shaped like lightning formed within the blade and then somehow transferred to the body and in the next moment, Giles was surrounded by a blue glow, like the turmoil of thunderclouds, and lightning energy coalesced into a ball in the center of his frame and slowly traveled up it until it reached his head. As it did, all the winds in the room seem to be sucked right into him.
When it was finally over in the next second, everybody took a moment or two to gather themselves after the event they had expected but never this soon. After they were all steady, as one they looked to the new occupant of the room, whom had taken Giles place in more than just one way.
One thing to be said about Ripper, as devious, manipulating, and cruel as he may be, he is quite the looker. Before everybody stood a young man of Giles' height, similar build, but more muscular than Giles' ever was. He had dark, slicked black hair and dark eyes that were blacker than bottomless pits. His dress was vastly in contrast to the Watcher's tweed and subdued earthen tones. Starting from his feet, he wore black. Leather shoes, leather pants, a silver chain around his waist that he wore like a belt, and his shirt was little more than a black silver-studded velvet vest that covered his back, shoulders and left his prominent muscular chest open to the air.
Smiling wickedly, Ripper twirled his sword on his wrist before fitting it into the scabbard at his waist, attached to the chain-belt. Then he turned to the group staring at him and smiled wickedly once more. He laughed a deep-throated chuckle before stretching out, as though he had just woken from a long nap. Then, in a voice completely devoid of an English accent, he exclaimed, "Oh MAN! It is so GOOD to be out and about again!"
Gulping softly before he spoke, Xander asked, "Giles?"
Ripper turned his attention full on the boy that had spoken to him. He grinned again. "Oh man, I have been waiting for such a long time to do this!" he exclaimed as he raised his left hand at Xander, made his hand into the shape of a gun, and "fired" off a bolt of blue energy that hit the man in the chest, knocking him back, out of Anya's grasp. "XANDER!!" she shouted automatically.
Then she saw what Ripper had actually done to him. She couldn't help grinning, but managed to hold back the giggles. Buffy, Willow, and Spike didn't.
"What?" Xander asked at their sudden laughing, absently rubbing his chest where the bolt of energy had hit him. That was when he noticed that his shirt had changed texture. Looking down, he saw it wasn't only his shirt that had changed. He was now wearing an exact copy of Giles' tweed suit, right down to the underwear.
"Oh bloody hell, what has happened?" Xander cursed in a flawless English accent. He stopped at the sound of his voice and spoke again, "My voice. What has happened to my voice? What the bloody hell did you do to me you buggerer?"
Buffy broke out into full giggles and had to be held up by her brother to keep from falling over. Joshua kept a straight face, Willow was struggling with her facial features, Spike was already on the floor rolling around, Anya had on her concerned face, either because she didn't find it funny, or couldn't see that it was supposed to be funny. Dawn was in the same boat as Willow, but Ripper just had that same smug, evil-looking grin on his face.
"Change me back you stinking Yank!" Xander shouted.
In Giles voice, Ripper responded, "And prey tell, Xan-man, why on Earth would I want to do that?" He chuckled some and then continued in his new youthful, non-accented voice, "Now you know how it feels kid. I had to endure three times the embarrassment trapped as I was inside Rupert, and I will have you know, Xan-man, I really, and I mean I really hated being called G-man." Ripper's glare gave Xander no doubt as to his words truth and Xander decided that he did not want to piss the War god off. At least not until Xander could actually fight back fair.
So biting his lip at the retort in his mouth, Xander just huffed and clicked his tongue once and then turned back to his sister and older brother. "Will you two please help me out here?" he begged. "I just promised Anyanka-" he stopped talking and tried again, "Annnnn-yanka. Anyanka. Bloody hell, why can't I call her Annnnn-yanka? Bloody Hell!! I promised my fiancée that I will marry her today and I am not bloody about to do so dressed like the bleedin' Watchers and spouting off at the mouth like a English Lit. Professor!!"
Buffy exchanged a look with Joshua, who just shrugged, and Buffy nodded and turned back to Ripper. "Change him back Ripper. That's an order." Buffy monotoned.
Ripper snorted at her and scoffed. "Until we're home, luv, I will not take orders from you or Joshie there. So deal with it…"
"Change him back Ripper,"
Xander immediately changed back into his other clothing in a blue flash of light and he apparently lost the accent too. The order had come from Anya of all people, which surprised most of the people in the room beyond words. Xander was not one of them.
"An, (thank you he whispered to God) how did you get…him to change me back. Because I'm real grateful, I was just hoping you could teach me how to do that so I…" Ripper cut him off.
"Boy shut up!" he ordered. "Rupert promised me that he would help me in anything that I needed help in, no matter his form until you all left for this Anton place. I just now realized that that basically meant I could order Ripper around and he would do it. No complaining about it either. And I don't like you threatening not to marry me Xander," Anya explained.
Ripper scowled, but he didn't counter the statement. Xander and Joshua were rather surprised by this information, but Buffy held a knowing smile on her face. Willow wondered what was going on in the Love goddess's head.
Xander then became preoccupied with keeping Anya happy and reassuring her that they would be married today. They just had a lot of work to do. "Ok, Anya," he began after she was reassured. "First things first I guess. Are there any like…demon…family or, uh, guests that you want to invite? Cause, while if this were under any other supervision I would be totally against it, but I figured with a War god, and an Archangel and a former Slayer turned goddess, we might actually be able to handle them. Well?"
Anya bore a look of deep thought, for her, for several moments before shrugging and draping her arms around her love's neck. "Oh, I guess if it would really be anyone, it shouldn't be ex-boyfriends should it?" she asked mid-answer, Xander's face gave her the answer. "Well, then D'Hoffryn, he was the one that turned me into a vengeance demon, I guess that would kind of make him my ex-boss. Then there was this Trandoshan demon I knew…"
Xander turned desperately to his older brother, "Uh, Joshua, you want to take care of this list? Please? Pretty please?" Joshua rolled his eyes, but nodded and stepped forward, a pad and pencil of paper appearing in his hands as he walked. "Oh, before you get started Anya, is there anybody specific that I would need to teleport cross-country or anywhere in particular for? Spike, you are allowed a couple guests I'm sure."
Everybody just kind of stared at him, and then he hastily began writing down a list of names, but stopped at the second. "Not allowed to bring back the dead for a wedding of non-champions Buffy."
"Darn," cursed the goddess. Joshua quickly finished the list he had received from everyone's minds and then turned his full attention to Anya as she began to list out possible guests that were of the demonic variety.
"So what are you gonna take care of Buff?" Xander asked, glad that the Archangel had helped him out of the pinch of dealing with the guest list and therefore seating arrangements.
"Decorations, food, wardrobe," she answered automatically.
Xander could have hit himself upside the head. "Oh. Yeah, sure," he muttered over his oversight.
Ripper was watching the whole scene with a disinterested air. The shop wouldn't even open for another hour. It was only 9:27 anyway. Suddenly, Ripper felt a presence that he had not felt since…well for a really long time. And it was getting closer. Ripper, now attuned to them, could feel the energies around him gather even more so and felt them building as the presence grew ever closer. He didn't stop the truly evil smile that came to his lips as he recalled who this presence was at the moment, and what fun he could have while she was still mortal. In the next moment, the door opened one more time, the bell ringing announcing the arrival of the source of the presence that had Ripper in such a good mood.
* * * *
Tara walked into the store, surprised to see everybody there already. Except for Giles. Tara thought it strange briefly that he was not there, but soon her entire attention was brought to the single stranger in the room. A dark man that exuded on every level an evil presence that made one want to run screaming into the night. She also noticed that he seemed to really like black leather.
"Tara!" Willow exclaimed at the sight of her lover. Tara was briefly distracted by Willow's shout but welcomed it at the sight of Willow smiling at her. Tara smiled back and took a few more steps forward, but hesitated when a sudden wave of queasiness hit her, hard.
Willow came up to the timid blonde and her smile grew with every step, until she noticed that the focus of her sight suddenly looked a little green. "Tara, baby, are you all right?"
"Baby?" Ripper sarcastically remarked, amused slightly by the irony of the statement.
Joshua and Buffy both stopped what they were doing and gave the War god a glare that actually silenced him.
"I'm fine Willow, really," Tara reassured as she smiled and carefully made the rest of her way into the shop. Ripper casually noticed that she tried to stay as far as possible from him. He smirked as a plan quickly came to mind.
Willow and Tara stopped on the other side of the counter, where Tara's queasiness decreased a great deal. Looking around the room Tara noted everyone's places. Buffy was standing between Dawn and the stranger, her back to him, as she and Dawn talked about something or another. Joshua was busy talking with Anya about something over by the table. The stranger was still standing in the middle of the room, staring at her with the most disturbing look on his face. Spike was just standing off on his lonesome, looking smug about something, and Xander was walking over to where she and Willow were standing.
"Hey Tara," he greeted. She nodded in kind. "You ok?" he asked, "You don't look too hot. You look kind of pale actually. Are you feeling all right?"
Tara grinned slightly and nodded once again. "I'm fine. Just a bit queasy from breakfast I guess. Where's Giles? And, uh who's that guy?"
Tara noticed that both of her friends seemed to get nervous all of a sudden as the subject changed to the dark stranger. In fact, Xander looked downright scared. "Um, Tara, I don't know how exactly to tell you this, but," Willow hesitantly informed her, "That is Giles. His name, or rather he is Ripper, the God of War. But so far all he's done is made Xander wear tweed and look all threatening like. But he does kind of give you the willies, doesn't he?"
Tara absently nodded, staring back at the War god and somehow feeling a connection to him. Though she couldn't explain it, and she never felt any positive emotions over it or about him in general, she still felt connected to him. She didn't like it.
Ripper finally let on that he had noticed her staring back at him, and grinned a little wider. He took several steps forward and felt the power continuously build as he neared the shy little blond lover of the mortal Willow. Joshua and Buffy too could feel the power build, but Joshua was distracted by Anya, not to mention the list she was giving him, and Buffy was just silently watching Ripper, not trusting his motives in the least.
Tara gulped when she saw the god Ripper beginning to walk towards her. With every step that he took she felt her nausea increase nearly tenfold each time. Willow and Xander noticed Tara's sudden paling and her gulp, and the look in her eyes was identical to a deer trapped before a car's headlights. Willow turned to see Ripper slowly stepping towards them and felt a sudden nervousness that she couldn't explain, but certainly didn't like.
Xander, finding his courage, stepped between the War god and his best friend and her lover. Ripper looked up from his staring contest with Tara to glare at the youth that had cause him such frustration in his mortal life. The he smiled sickly sweet and in his dark voice he assured them, "Don't worry Xan-man. I just wanted to speak with the new arrival. Isn't that right, baby?" He chuckled darkly as he gave Tara meaningful glare.
"You stay away from her!" Willow snapped harshly under her breath, her eye growing dark as she subconsciously tapped into her magics. Ripper just shifted his gaze to her and smiled sickly sweet at her as well, completely unfazed.
"Tara, I do need to speak with you. If that is, you and your friends don't mind. And it is a "private" issue," Ripper stressed to his fellow god.
Tara felt the pull of his words, but not only that, she felt that same connection to this god, and she couldn't deny that she was curious about what it involved. How could she possibly be connected this god? Finally, Tara came to her decision and touched Willow gently on the shoulder, to calm her down.
"It's all right Willow, Xander. I'll be fine. Keep in mind that he's still Giles, and my uncle. He wouldn't dare harm me with both Buffy and Joshua in the same room." Tara assured.
Willow gave Ripper one final dark glare of her own before turning to Tara and her features immediately softened as she contemplated Tara's request. "Are you sure baby?" Willow asked in a softened voice. After some hesitation, spent staring in Ripper's eyes, Tara looked her godhood mother in the eye and nodded her assent.
Willow hesitated a little more, and then moved off with Xander to join Buffy and Dawn. Ripper immediately took their place and remained silent for several minutes, just staring at Tara, as she stared back. "Wh-what is it that you needed to talk about?" Tara asked.
Ripper just shrugged and gave her a lopsided grin that was more a smirk that anything conveying an ounce of good intentions. He remained silent for another few minutes before he leaned a little closer to her, and Tara felt the need to hurl at the close proximity to the War god. Then he whispered so that only she could hear him, "I was just wondering if my cousin was actually any good in the sack. She never really played around enough for me to get that good of an idea how she might have been in the sack. So just between you and me, baby, just how good is she?"
Tara couldn't believe her ears. This creature used to be Giles? "Whu-what?" she stuttered. Ripper grinned evilly, "Yo heard me, baby, how is she?" Tara's eyes turned hard at that. "I thought's that what you said," she shot back with a strength that genuinely surprised the warrior.
"Well, well, well," he taunted with his oily slick voice, "There's some backbone to the peace monger after all. Well, little one, just how tough is that backbone of yours? Tough enough to stand against a warrior like me? Tough enough to actually stand here any longer? You do know that it is me that is making you feel so sick, don't you? I know how queasy you must feel, me being this close to you, almost, dare I say it, intimately close." He grinned perversely down at her.
Tara glared him back in the eyes, trying to hold back on being sick long enough to make this dark creature back down in its own cowardice. Somehow she knew that he was telling the truth about how he was affecting her, though she still did not understand why.
As though reading her mind, which he probably was, he continued, "Wanna know why that is? Well, it's really kind of interesting if you want to hear it. You see, I'm the God of War. You are the Goddess of Peace. We are complete and total opposites. And, while you may be underpowered, which translates to "mortal", you make me just as sick as I make you. So, mortal, what are you going to do to make me back down and run home crying to mommy with my tail tucked between my legs?"
"Threaten to scream, or kiss you on the lips, Ripper," Tara answered with an anger she has very rarely felt. "As I understand it, that might just be poisonous to you. Maybe to me too, but I'm mortal and can be healed by the other gods here. Gods can't heal each other, am I right?"
Ripper was impressed. Her threat actually caused him to lose some of his bravado. The he smiled down on her and leaned in real close, making him want to vomit all over her, but he held down his stomach for the time being as he throatily whispered, "You know that you are still a virgin. Part of the whole god-requirement thing. I had to kill in cold blood, Buffy had to love and more or less be a slut with more than one guy. You have to be the human example of purity and peace. Maybe I should kiss you. It might just deflower you enough that I'll have less competition during the wars when we get back home."
"What do you mean?" Tara asked, curious despite how she felt at that moment.
Ripper smirked but didn't move from his position and answered her question. "We gods, back home we compete for the mortals attention. Some even for the Immortal's attention, though they mostly just pay tribute to their parents and none others. The more temples and mortals we have calling out our names for help and respect and honor, well, let's just say that the Queen C would have nothing on me during a territory dispute."
Tara looked up at the god, horrified. "You treat people's beliefs like a popularity contest?!" she hissed, outraged. Ripper's lecherous grin was her answer. She wanted to turn away, get away from the horrible beast that once upon a time was a respectable man that she had admired. She suddenly found both his arms on either side of her, preventing her from going around him without shoving him off. Tara felt like touching him might actually make her sick enough to show it, and wanted to avoid it at all costs. She didn't understand, if he was feeling the same way that she was right now, why was he even near her now? Why was he trying to keep her a close, or closer than etiquette could ever dictate?
"Get away from me!" she snapped, glaring him in the eye with a look of such hate and disgust that he almost did as she told him to solely out of respect. Instead he just leaned in a little further and effectively pinned her against the counter.
"Make me," he hissed back.
All of a sudden, all the gods in the room felt the building energy surge forward in a devastating climax that none of them were prepared for. One second sooner than that though, Tara's body exploded.