Chapter Four
Anya was on the point, as the saying went, of having a cow. To be honest there were only forty or so demons that she had been on anything like friendship terms with. Sure, there were a few ex-boyfriends and ex-lovers muddled up in there, but she didn't invite those, only those that she genuinely liked. D'Hoffryn, her boss, then there was Halfrek, a fellow vengeance demon, Gefkali, another vengeance demon that specialized in the spurned men more than women or children, dozens of others.
What she was having so much stress over though, was that ten minutes ago Buffy had dragged Xander off into the back room and they were still back there. Joshua, 'stupid Archangel,' was trying to distract her by getting her back to the guest list, but she was not to be misled. The moment that Buffy stepped out of the back, followed closely by her fiancée, Anya was in full "overreact" mode and stalking up to the pair of friends.
Joshua, seeing that there was nothing that he really could do, just sighed and sat back to enjoy the show.
Buffy saw Anya coming, knowing full well what was on her mind, and Joshua's reaction to it, laying back with his arms behind his head and a bemused sort of smile on his face. She glared at her eldest brother, but refrained from comment, choosing to deal with Anya's doubts first before moving onto castrating her "angel."
The moment that Anya was within two feet of her, and had opened her mouth to start accusing and shouting at the love goddess, Buffy grabbed the blonde by both arms and stepped forward herself. She put her mouth next to the woman's ear so only she could easily hear what she had to say, and whispered urgently, "Anya, we have to talk. Come with me to the back room, don't say anything, just trust me. We really have to talk about some things. And Anya, he's my brother. For once, believe me when I say 'ewwwww!'"
Anya, surprised by the action, just nodded and followed her soon-to-be sister-in-law to the back room. Xander was just as surprised as anyone, but he managed to catch Buffy's eye before she and Anya disappeared. She squinted her eyes, and then pointedly looked at him, and then shifted her gaze to Joshua. Xander turned to look at the Archangel, seeing him relaxed and almost smug looking. When his thoughts caught on to what Buffy had been hinting, he smiled. A fun smile, well for him anyway.
Joshua observed the whole transaction, and would be lying if he said he wasn't just a little disappointed. When he caught Buffy's look at Xander, and the boy's subsequent smile afterwards, he began to feel a bit more on the nervous side. When Xander came over and sat down next to him, still wearing that humorous smile, Joshua began to grow suspicious.
"So, J-man, lets talk about guests," Xander started. "Now Tyra Banks is simply one person that must attend…"
* * * *
In the back room, Anya and Buffy were just standing in the middle of the room, staring at each other. Actually, staring is too soft a word. Try boring holes into one another with their glares. Buffy, while at the moment the more powerful of the two of them, her glare was little compared to the full fury staring that Anya was sending her way. Anybody with a quarter of a brain could see that she was pissed at the goddess, leaving Buffy with absolutely no doubt with her powers.
"Just say it Anya," Buffy said after several minutes' tense silence.
"You're trying to steal him away from me aren't you!!?" Anya loudly accused.
Buffy just chuckled quietly and shook her head ruefully.
"No Anya," Buffy answered. "If anything, I'm trying to drive you two even more together. What Xander and I talked about, specifically, he'll have to tell you, but for the most part I just tried to quiet his doubts. I want you two to get married Anya. I want you to be my sister-in-law. And above all else, I want you two to be happy, and 1,000% sure of your feelings for one another. Xander, now more than ever before, knows that he loves you and only you Anya. He felt it before, he even knew it before, but now, now he has absolutely no doubt. He loves you Anya, and he wants to marry you today. He wants you to be happy, and believe it or not, when you're happy, it makes him happy."
The former Slayer's statement silenced Anya. "Are-are…are…you sure?" the ex-demon whispered huskily.
Feeling the girl's emotional conflict, Buffy smiled and took a tentative step forward. When Anya showed no sign of anger or fear, she quickly crossed the divide between them and took the mortal woman in her arms.
Anya just latched onto the contact like a lifeline, burying her head in the shorter blonde's shoulder. She was so wrapped up in the moment that she barely heard Buffy's next words. "I am so sure Anya. The absolute last thing that Xander wants to do is hurt you. He loves you so much. Trust him Anya. Believe it or not, he loves you just as much as you love him, possibly more. He's just worried about upsetting or maybe hurting you. Xander…Xander Harris has had a hard life. His parents barely ever acknowledged him, and when they did it was only to knock him down. He's lost friends, he's had heartache and he has learned what it is like to be the one to hurt after being the one hurt for so long. He found his family, a family that loved him like one is supposed to, in Willow, Jesse, me, Giles, Cordelia, and maybe even Angel. In Cordelia, while they were involved in this life, he found more of a sister than anything else. In you though, in you Anya, he's found a mate. A woman that he loves with all his soul, and yeah a woman that is compatible with him in bed. He doesn't love you like a member of his extended family Anya, he loves you like a wife. Think about that for a while."
Buffy then guided the woman over to the couch that Giles had set up in the corner and sat her down. She then stood up and was about to turn to the exit when she stopped. "I'm going to get some supplies and rent a hall for the wedding. I'll be back in a little while. Just call my name if you need me Anya. And if Ripper shows up, be sure to warn him that I will be back and that I'll be listening for your call. Okay Anya?"
Staring blankly off into space, Anyanka only nodded. Frowning, Buffy teleported out, hoping that the woman's fears truly were unjustified and that she could help lay them to rest before the ceremony that night.
* * * *
The second that the Love goddess had truly left the store, there was a sound of muted thunder, and a blue cloud, shaped like a man, suddenly appeared and reformed with a flash of a ball of lightning in it Ripper. "Hello luv!" he greeted in a very bad fake English accent.
"Hello Ripper," Anya greeted tonelessly, sounding depressed.
"What's eating your goat sweet thing?" Ripper asked, dropping the fake accent and sat down beside her on the couch. Anya didn't respond at all to his presence. After a minute or more, she finally answered him.
"I'm scared that I'm going to lose Xander," she said huskily.
Ripper felt an uncharacteristic pang of sympathy when he heard the pure emotion in her voice. Taking a risk, as Anya might scream for Buffy at any second, Ripper scooted closer to the former demon and put a gentle, fatherly arm around her. She easily leaned into him and began to cry.
"Oh Anya," Ripper whispered, a touch of the Englishman he used to be seeping into his tone.
They just stayed like that for several minutes, Anya just crying into the god's lap, and him just holding her, letting her cry. Finally, the mortal managed to get control over her emotions and stopped crying and sat back up.
"What makes you think you'll ever lose the boy scout?" Ripper asked as though the crying session hadn't even happened.
"Boy scout?" she asked.
Ripper chuckled. "My nickname for my do-gooder cousin. He's the God of Justice, I'm the God of War, more often than we're brought together, we're on the opposite sides of the spectrum. But he's still my cousin. As much as I get on the bad side of my family, and as much as we openly oppose one another, we're still family, and we care for one another. No matter what. Though I think I went a bit too far with teasing Tara like that…"
"Teasing?" Anya exclaimed. "From what Buffy and the others said, it was more like raping!"
Ripper lost the sympathy in his posture as he tried to keep his temper at being accused by a mortal. "No Anya, believe me, if I wanted to rape Tara, there would be no mistaking it. All that was, was the same as Mohan demon showing a Malaga its crest of fertility. Believe me, the only harm done is emotional, and with the slut around, it won't be a problem."
"Slut?"
Ripper shrugged then whispered, "Buffy." Anya nodded her head, understanding the reference, "Ahhh," she mouthed.
"Now why do you think you'll lose Xander?" Ripper asked again.
Anya just shrugged her shoulders beneath his arms and looked down again. "I am going to. In one way or another. When Xander gets his godhood back, he's not going to be him anymore, he'll be something…somebody else. I've already lost Giles, I…I don't want to lose Xander."
Ripper sat back a little. "But you haven't lost me Anya, I'm right here."
Anya rolled her eyes. "Please, you, Buf-the slut, and the archangel have all said the same thing, the awakening changed you. You aren't Giles. Though Giles didn't really like me that much, and we fought a lot, he did give me a job. And there was that promise he made me. Ripper…he cared about me. And other than Xander…nobody has cared about me in a…long time. And Ripper, I've known others like you. Beasts, demons, dark wizards, and other things that knew the power of cruelty. I…I touched it myself. Ripper, you don't care about anything. You don't have emotions, a heart, to care about me or any of us. Giles did. He loved Buffy, and me, and he treated Xander like a son. And he would sooner cast himself willingly into hell before calling Buffy a slut."
Ripper was silent. He removed his arm from the woman's shoulders and stood up. "True."
Anya expected more, but the god remained silent. They remained like that for another ten minutes before even moving again. Anya stood up and stepped to behind Ripper.
"You'd better go, in case Buffy heard me."
"I'd rather risk her wrath at the moment," he quietly answered.
"You're angry."
"No. Remember, I don't have emotions. I could say that I'm hurt, but that would indicate that I have weakness, that I am weak. I'm not. I'm a god, I'm invincible. The only reason I fear Buffy is because she is my princess. I have no choice but to do everything she says, and she has the power, as a direct member of the high royal family…to kill gods."
"What?" Anya was alarmed.
Ripper just nodded, not turning to look at her. "Only her, Joshua…and Willow have that power. Not even our parents. Willow protects our realm, from invasion, from threat, and above all, from other gods. Joshua is an Archangel, the chosen of our Realm. Buffy… Buffy's the princess of the gods. She is the leader of our family, the one that is truly a god. Our parents are above us, as is Joshua. Willow's our protector, our knight, our…" chuckle, "our Special Guardian. Buffy. Buffy's one of us. The reason she hasn't gone insane with the title of Princess, why she hasn't already killed me and every other god, is that she's the Goddess of Love. She feels every single bit of emotion that humanity can feel. Every one. And she loves them, and us, for it. I don't know how she does it."
"When did this turn into about you?" Anya asked after another stretch of silence.
Ripper gave her a roguish grin and only shrugged. "Most things end up being about me in one way or another eventually."
Anya and Ripper shared a few laughs over that statement, but it was very short lived. They spent several more minutes in silence before Ripper decided that he had better ways of spending his time and turned to look Anya in the eye. "So… Is there anything you need right now? Anything I can get for you?" he asked, almost afraid of the answers.
Anya just shrugged. "For right now, just make the same arrangement that Buffy made with me, that you'll show up whenever I shout your name or ever need you, OK?" Ripper nodded, giving her a respectful grin, because her voice sounded like she was ready to collapse at any minute from the emotional exhaustion that she was feeling.
"See you later…luv…" Ripper chirped as he disappeared in the flash of blue cloud and light.
* * * *
Out in the Magic Shop proper, Xander and Joshua were still discussing guests to have and not to have at the wedding, and ofcourse where the wedding would be, but Joshua said that Buffy was handling that. Spike had already left with Dawn, promising to spend the day with the "lil' bit" and Willow and the new Tara were by the main counter. Willow was still trying to figure out how best to relate or even talk with her former lover, her daughter, but above all her friend, once again.
"So, uh, what…what's it like?" Willow hesitantly asked Tara.
"What do you mean?" Tara asked, knowing exactly what she meant.
Willow smiled and nearly giggled. "What's it like being a goddess? I know, I know, I was with Buffy all yesterday, but she really wasn't that much a help in explaining how it felt. She just kept saying 'You'll have to feel it for yourself to really understand it.' So spill tranquil girl, what's it like?"
"Tranquil girl?" Tara asked, confused by the term.
Willow smiled brighter. "It's Buffy's nickname for you. She told it to me yesterday after I kept pestering her about what kind of goddess you were…well I guess I should say are now, huh?"
Tara did giggle as she remembered what Willow had reminded her of about her aunt. "Yes, I remember now. I never did find the reason that she continuously called me that vernacular day after day. Yet after the first few centuries…I suppose that it grew on me and became a term of affection more than a silly euphemism."
Willow just stared at Tara. "Huh?" she grunted.
Tara looked chastised for several moments before looking up and saying simply, "I do not mind if you call me Tranquil girl Willow. Buffy calls me that because it is sort of a family name. Though obviously, you have more intimate terms of affection for me."
Willow turned actually redder than her hair. "I…you…I…but…" Finally Willow remembered that even though she may be a goddess, she still needed to breathe and forced herself to continue to do so. When she had regained her composure she looked seriously at Tara. "Well, I just thought calling you 'Lamb drop' in public would be kinda embarrassing. Ya know?"
Tara blushed furiously at Willow's following mischievous grin. "You would not dare!" Tara hissed.
Willow just deepened her grin and shrugged almost casually. "Oh I don't know. Maybe I should tell them about the time that we got drunk and I called you that and you started singing "The song that never ends". Then I joined in, and I think we finally passed out because the next thing that I remember is waking up with you in my arms."
Tara's flush began to match Willow's hair as she lowered her eyes in remembrance of the act in her mortal life. Finally she decided to just avoid the topic entirely by returning to what their conversation had started out on. What it felt like to be a god.
"Buffy was telling the truth Willow. One cannot easily describe what it is to be one of the chosen of the heavens. To each, their experience is unique, true, and unto themselves," Tara cryptically confessed. "I myself feel the power that I truly hold at my fingertips, yet I also feel so many other things that no human can ever feel without knowing true peace. I feel the turmoil in your heart over losing me as I once was. I can feel the confusion and fear Anya has in her heart over the way things have turned out. I sense the frustration of Joshua dealing with Xander, and at the same time the pure joy that Spike is feeling at being free from unwanted control. The government chip," she explained at Willow's confused look.
"Buffy, however, feels things far wider and infinitely more diverse than what I feel. And true, she would feel more power and responsibility than I do because she is the Princess of the gods. The truth Willow, is that none of us can tell you what you will feel when you receive your powers once more, we can only tell you what it feels like to be us with our powers. I am sorry."
Willow just shrugged again and smiled. "Don't be. Now…what's it like to be a god?"
Tara just openly smiled and began to laugh as she looked at the girl that would be her mother come the day. And she told Willow what it was like to be the Goddess of Peace.
* * * *
Over at the table, Joshua was getting ready to either strangle Xander or blow him to smithereens. So far, there were over forty names on the guest list, and they didn't even have a clue as to how much room they'd have in whatever sanctuary that Buffy still had yet to find for them, no mention of the hall where the reception would have to be held.
"No man, I'm serious, why can't we have Cindy Crawford and Tyra Banks there? Heidi Klum would be good too, but I don't speak German. Well, not yet anyway…" Xander was saying.
"Xander, do you have any idea what you're about to go through?" Joshua interrupted.
Xander stopped his rant and genuinely looked at his older brother. "In more ways than you know Joshua. In more ways than you know. But can't I at least humor some adolescent fantasies before I tie the knot? Where do you think that phrase comes from anyway? 'Tie the knot'? Willow thought it had something to do with this Wicca ritual called a 'hand fast', and from the description, it would kinda make sense…"
"Xander!"
"Uhh, yeah. OK, family only. Actually how about this, we leave out my dad and you give me Tyra Banks? How about that?" Xander tried to compromise.
"What?!" Joshua looked at him like he was crazy.
Xander shrugged. "We leave my dad at home, which I'm sure is where he'd rather be anyway, and we give his invitation to Tyra Banks instead. Besides, she'd at least be nicer, not to mention sober."
Joshua was now totally confused.
He put the list and pen down, the invitations in the mail the moment the name was on the list. Also, Tyra Banks, Cindy Crawford, Kathy Ireland, Heidi Klum, and Yasmine Bleeth. And just above Tyra's name was David Hasslehoff. The list disappeared, the invitations were all already out.
"Xander…from the…way…that you describe your father, I, uh, I take it that you two don't get along to well?" Joshua hesitated in asking. Xander just gave him a look that shouted "DUH!!"
"Um, may-maybe I can help out in that regard. That is if you're willing to talk about it?" Joshua offered.
Xander suddenly looked down and Joshua knew immediately that he would rather not talk about his father, but Joshua could tell when an issue needed to be covered. Or else there may be consequences that nobody could have foreseen. "Xander?"
Over by the counter, Tara stopped talking and looked straight at Xander. She could feel the torment of his soul, and because he was her Uncle and a very close friend, she felt it all the clearer. Her position as the Goddess of Peace demanded that she immediately do everything in her power to resolve the conflict of pain and fear in Xander's heart.
"Tara?" Willow asked, concerned at how the blonde had just stopped and was now staring at her best friend.
Tara just grabbed Willow by the wrist and almost dragged the redhead over to the table where the two men sat. Tara instantly took the seat next to Xander, while Willow, confused at what was going on, just took the seat that Joshua offered beside him.
"Xander…what is the problem? I can feel your pain from some deep wound. Please, allow me to help you," Tara near begged, while Xander and Willow looked at her as if she'd just stripped naked and offered to organize the groom's bachelor party.
"Huh?" Xander finally got out past the lump in his throat.
Joshua, seeing Xander's confusion over Tara's statement tried to explain. "Xander," he started, "Tara is the Goddess of Peace. Peace is…for lack of any better term, the lack of conflict. When everything is just calm and, well…peaceful. You get what I'm saying?"
"Yeah, sure. Totally. I'm right there with you!" Xander enthusiastically responded, his eyes glazed over. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?" Joshua asked, deadpan. "None whatsoever," Xander answered in an identical tone.
Joshua took a deep breath and let it out as a heavy sigh. "All right. Tara's the Goddess of Peace. Much the way that Buffy is the Goddess of Love, and Ripper the God of War. With me so far?"
Xander nodded, not yet fully understanding, but getting the references. "Buffy's powers more or less fuel off Buffy's love. And it can be any kind. Physical love, familial love, sisterly love, parental, and so forth. It also, in a small abstract way, feeds off of other's feelings of love. So in order to be at her fullest, Buffy kind of wants, and has to ensure, that those around her feel love as well. It's a kind of balance system, and more or less the reason the gods exist at all."
"OK, let me see if I understand this," Xander said. "Buffy's the Goddess of Love, and therefore, she needs everybody else to be in love so she can be a goddess?"
Joshua could have rolled his eyes far enough to see his intestines. "Not exactly. Buffy, as a goddess, has to elicit certain…responses in the mortals around her. Its what a god does. Buffy tries to make people fall in love, or at the very least realize that they're in love, as much as she possibly can all the time. Ripper tries to make people fight and make war, all the time. Tara…"
"Tries…to make people…feel……peaceful?…all the time?" Xander hesitatingly guessed.
Joshua smiled brightly and the look of pride in his eyes gave Xander a sudden boost in confidence. But he was still a bit confused. "So…because I'm feeling…conflicted…Tara's trying to make me feel peaceful?" Joshua just shrugged and added, "Well, try she wants to make you feel better. And maybe conflicted isn't the right word. Maybe, confused? Worried maybe?"
Xander's eyes immediately dove to the floor. Bingo, the Archangel thought to himself. He settled a little more comfortably into his seat and gestured for Willow to do the same. She just got a little more tense, wondering what this all could possibly be about.
"It's your dad isn't it?" Joshua asked bluntly.
It was all Xander could do just to not cringe. Yet Tara seemed to sense the despair of dealing with his father, even the idea of it, brought to his mind. She placed her hand on his shoulder, and Xander couldn't deny it, he did feel better, almost as though a cool aura of pure…well for lack of better terminology, peace was emanating from where she touched him on his shoulder. It was as if it were a tangible thing that was pooling throughout his entire body. Almost instantly, at Tara's touch alone, Xander was perfectly calm.
Willow's brow creased in confusion as she saw the stress literally ooze out of her friend's body at her daughter's touch. 'Huh, and I thought that only worked on me with Tara,' Willow thought at the gesture. "Xander?" she asked aloud, questioning more at Joshua's statement rather than Tara's actions.
He looked up, almost startled, but still way too calm for him to be genuinely so. "Yeah Willow?" he said, sounding kinda strange. Like he was drugged. Now Willow was wondering about her daughter's actions. "Are you all right?"
Xander blinked a couple of times. Then he was quiet, his eyes glazing over even more than they were to begin with. Finally, he nodded. "Yeah, I mean, I guess so. I was feeling kinda stressed over having to deal with my Dad showing up at the wedding, drunk and ruining what is supposed to be the happiest day of my life and everything. Now I'm not so worried about it anymore. I want this to be perfect for Anya. Gawd Will, I love her so much. I would never do anything to hurt that woman. I…I just want everything to be perfect and I know my Dad will do everything to either destroy it, or just plain make me feel bad by either insulting my wife, my life, or my knife."
Willow and Joshua shared a confused look and asked in unison, "Your knife?"
The dark-haired man just shrugged his shoulders. "I needed something that rhymed with life and wife, and saying sword was a bit obvious, ya know?"
Joshua just nodded, going "Uh huh."
Willow resisted the urge to roll her eyes and mouth off at Xander for making bad jokes, but instead she focused on the feelings of sympathy and empathy for her longest best friend. "Oh Xander, I…I had no idea that…"
"That what Willow?" Xander interrupted, some of the drugginess in his voice fading. "That my Dad put me down every single chance that he got? That he always, and I mean always came home drunk? Sometimes, like when the tax season was bad, or his favorite football team lost while he was at the bar, or when it was just really bad did it ever develop into anything physical or could be called molesting. He did…does hit Mom still, I'm sure of it. Gawd I hate that guy."
Tara, as though burned removed her hand immediately from Xander's shoulder. A scared, almost terrified look in her eyes. Not of what she had seen, if anything, in Xander's mind, but of Xander himself. Only Joshua knew why.
"You don't mean that Alexander!" Joshua exclaimed the second after Xander had said that.
Xander, suddenly at a loss as all of his conflicting emotions came rushing back at him, leaving him a bit winded for a moment, looked up in temporary confusion before what he'd said came back to him. Shaking his head to remove the lingering effects of Tara's "Peace Touch" on him, Xander looked the archangel in the eye and said, "You're right Joshua, I don't hate my father."
Tara squinted her eyes in suspicion at Xander, Joshua noticed this, but waited for Xander to finish. "But I come as close to it as humanly possible. Aside from the reason that he's my father, that I've always loved him, wanted him to be proud of me, that even in my own deluded way looked up to him at very few moments in my life, give me one single good reason that I shouldn't hate him Joshua." Xander was near-shouting now, so obvious was his anger that anybody would accuse him for his feelings for a father that sooner wish that he'd never be born.
Joshua just shrugged and looked down. He knew as well as Xander that he couldn't provide Xander with any one good reason. He looked up. He could provide him with several obvious and great reasons as to why Xander Harris didn't hate his father, Anthony Harris.
"Well, one, you don't hate him. Despite everything that he's done and that has happened to you. Then there's the fact that you know that you are better than him and you genuinely want him to be a better person, and above all a better father. And you have caught glimpses, rare glimpses I'll admit, of the man he truly is, a man that you and any other man would admire."
Xander did roll his eyes as he settled back into his seat into a rather lazy, slothful kind of pose. As though he knew exactly what Joshua was saying, had heard it all before, and just wasn't listening anymore. "You know Joshua," Xander started. "I used to think the exact same things about him. It never held. He always did something the next day, or the next hour, or even the next minute to prove all of my hopes for him were dead before they even left the ground. That man cares nothing for me, and I stopped caring for him a long time ago."
Willow now understood the fear in Tara's eyes. She had never heard her friend speak with such…anger or…venom before. Not even about Angel, and everybody knew what Xander's opinion of the souled vampire was. Willow unconsciously shrunk away from him as she saw the look in his eyes. She couldn't help but shiver at the coldness that seemed to be ingrained there. Then she saw the uncertainty flicker through his chocolate brown orbs, and she knew her friend wasn't completely gone. Xander had the heart of an angel. He could love everybody, even a man as undeserving as his father on this Earth.
Willow leaned forward and just hugged her friend. She gave no warning, said no words, she just hugged him. Even Joshua was surprised by the action, but he smiled as he figured the reasons. Tara just kept her gaze on Xander. The fear had left when he started to speak his opinion of his father, to be replaced by a deep concern, which remained even as Willow embraced him. What was surprising, was that Willow's hug seemed to have the same effect Tara's Touch had, at least outwardly it appeared so.
"Alexander, that is not true. I felt the pure love that you hold for your family. All of your family. I know what it is you fear Alexander. Let me be one to assure you, even if you were not my Uncle Alexander, you would not succumb to that fear. Anya, and many others, would help you pull through and succeed not only in life, but in spirit." Tara said.
Willow released Xander as they turned to the (still) toga-clad blonde goddess and said, "Huh?" at the same moment.
Joshua began chuckling, until he realized something. "Hey, you called Anya, Anya! How come you call her by the shortening of her name and you call the rest of us by our proper names, huh?"
Tara looked confusedly at her uncle. "I do not understand. Anya is her name, is it not?"
Joshua nodded. "Yes it is, but her proper name is Anyanka…"
Tara interrupted. "No, Anyanka is the name of a vengeance demon. Anya is the name of the mortal girl. Yet if she wishes me to call her Anyanka, I will do so."
Xander and Willow turned as one back to Joshua. He met their gazes' head on and shook his head, holding the bridge of his nose between his fingertips. "Trust me, you do not want to know," he told them. They chose to believe him and decided not to ask.
Author's Notes: Sorry it took me so long to add this chapter, but at least you didn't have to wait six months (heh, heh) But I kind of need some help now. You see, originally I had the whole list of gods written out. Now I've…kind of lost my notes. But here are the positions that I have filled: Xander, Buffy, (Giles)Ripper, Cordelia, Tyra, Gunn, Tara, Crow, Willow, Oz, Amanda, Ellen, (Helen and Hellan stayed behind in Anton), Buffy's first, Spike, Darla, Alexandra, (Jessica Alba)Maxabl, Jennifer "Love" Hewitt, Liam, Xander's son, Cordelia's daughters, and Ray and Will her sons, and Tyra's four children. Those I know. I need help/suggestions on "who" can be the other gods. Please keep in mind the "name" thing so either make the TV show apart of this universe, or make it an actor. To see the names of the other gods, or what children there are, please read my first story "Buffy: The Love Goddess" Part Seven. Thank you for your support and aid. Review if you must, but for suggestions I (heh) suggest that you e-mail me directly.