Title: In the Shadows of Twilight

Author: DOKChairman

Time/Spoilers: I have no idea when this takes place.  However, everything after season six is fair game.

Summary: There is no summary.

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own the rights to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all of its characters.  I own nothing except the story.

Author's Note: This idea has been plaguing me for a while and I just needed to get it down on paper.  For those of you who have been reading my ongoing story, And the Saints Boweth Before the King, I am not stopping it but I am taking a hiatus of sorts.  I will occasionally post new parts for that story as I focus on this one.  Don't worry I am good at multi-tasking.

Author's Note #2: Warning!  This story is a hard R.  I have always wanted to do a more serious, more realistic, and darker story for the BTVS universe, and this is it.  There will be violence, language, sex (sometimes), and other adult themes.  If any of these things offend you, or just not your cup of tea, do not read any further.

Chapter 1

An excerpt from the book Chaos:

            War is the lifeblood of our people.  It creates havoc, death, and destruction.  Without war, there is no chaos.  And without chaos, our people become stagnant and dull.  Condemned to a lifetime of mediocrity and order, our people will surely die out.  Chaos makes us stronger, it gives us the will to live, and it gives us a reason to live.

            One must worship chaos to truly understand it.  Make it part of your life, embrace it as you would a member of your clan.  Share your blood with chaos, and it will surely reward you for your faith.  Only war, and by extension, chaos can truly make you alive.

-Greshak Bar, Chaos Mage, circa 1350 pre-war

The hills of Choradan were steeped in legend.  Going all the way back to the beginning of the great civil war between the peoples of Ezraki, the hills had seen countless battles between the two great armies.  It was during one battle, the Battle of Kalu, that the hills had their reputation cemented for all time.

            In the battle, the great Judicator Kalu led the forces of Order against the armies of Chaos and defeated them soundly.  Over a hundred thousand men fell that day in the hills of Choradan.  The grass had been stained red with the blood of the fallen, and the ground scorched beyond repair.  Even now, four hundred years later, the hills had still not recovered from the scars of that day.

            Unfortunately for the hills of Choradan, the grim situation that they faced was only about to get worse.  For once again, on the hills known for their violent history, another battle raged across their landscape.

            Two great armies, the armies of Order under the leadership of the Judicator Rak and the armies of Chaos under the leadership of the Chaos Mage Gresham Bar clashed across the hills.  They were fighting for supremacy, for the right to call their way of life better than any other.  For three thousand years the two forces have waged war against the other, neither side ever gaining a clear advantage over the other.  Today was no different.

            The battle had begun during the early morning.  The first rays of the sun had just graced the hills with their presence when the two sides had lined up along their respective battle lines and prepared for combat.  This time it was the followers of Chaos who possessed the hills of Choradan.  Of course to the armies of Order, that was unacceptable. 

            With a loud clashing sound, the two great armies met, and the battle begun.  Judicator Rak himself led the charge against the armies of Chaos.  It was a great battle, seeing many different feats of heroism, but in the end the forces of Order were defeated.  Judicator Rak had been slain, killed by a sword through the heart, and the armies of Order left the hills of Choradan less thirty thousand men. 

            The Chaos Mage Gresham Bar led the celebration of his armies all through the night.  They had defeated the heathen followers of Order and had earned the right to posses the hills of Choradan for the next hundred years.

            For you see, these were no ordinary hills.  Every hundred years, on the day of the Setting Sun, a portal appeared.  This portal led to a thousand different dimensions on a thousand different worlds.  Because of this portal, every hundred years, the two warring armies clashed for the right to posses the hills and use the portal.  Whoever controlled the hills, controlled the portal, and whoever controlled the portal controlled a thousand different worlds.

            Every cycle the influence of each victorious side grew a little more.  The portal would take them to a new world, and they would then conquer it, enlisting its inhabitants and its resources in their fight.  It was a lengthy process that each side wished could be made shorter.  For the people of Ezraki had used up most of their world during their civil war and they needed new worlds to exploit.  Each side was as bad as the other, but the armies of Chaos were growing steadily worse.

            After studying the teachings of his great ancestor Greshak Bar, the Chaos Mage Gresham Bar had discovered a way to lengthen the amount of time the portal stayed open to indefinitely.  It was the reason why the armies of Chaos celebrated so joyously.  They had finally discovered a way to get an advantage over their foes.  Soon they would be victorious and chaos would spread across all dimensions.

            In his writings, Greshak wrote of a mystical portal on a world called Earth.  This portal possessed unimaginative power, and if it was opened properly, its power could feed the portal in the hills of Choradan for all time.  Gresham Bar intended to use the portal of Choradan to travel to the world of Earth, open the mysterious portal called the Hellmouth, and finally he would have the means to defeat the worshippers of Order.

            It was a glorious day indeed.  Chaos ruled Ezraki, and soon, Gresham knew, chaos would rule the Hellmouth.  He would see to it personally.