Title: Full Circle of Life
Chapter: The City
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: First Four Series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy. I would buy the show but I am broke.
Summary: Buffy's death results in a paradox. Years later Buffy and Xander are uniquely cursed by a demon; can they survive to fulfil a destiny that had already come to pass? (Not a post Gift Fic.)
AN: No Glory, no Dawn, and no Dracula. Riley died in the big battle *_* means Spell, '_' means thought "_" means speech.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Location: Unknown
Date/Time: Four Days Later, Noon
Buffy and Xander came across a well used dirt road and decided to take a break. They had been walking from dawn to dusk for the last four days, mostly living off the dried meat from the village and whatever eatable plants they could find. They were having something to eat when Xander spotted a dust cloud down the road.
"Buff." He said, indicating the direction.
Both their bodies tensed, ready to fight or run. The last twenty years had hardened their bodies, not that they were soft from living almost two decades on the Hellmouth, adding muscle and strength and more than negating any loss of strength or speed as a result of physically ageing to thirty- five.
Xander took up a visible position on the road, one of his spears at the ready, while Buffy hid behind one of the large boulders beside the road. When the group causing the dust trail came into view, Xander saw that they were a merchant train, with pack mules. After Xander surreptitiously signalled to Buffy, she rose and joined him on the road.
"Ho, the caravan." Xander called in the language of the village.
This caused the caravan to stop and answering calls came back in several different languages, tried one after another, that Buffy and Xander did not understand. One man came to the front, he appeared to be in charge, and Xander tried the universal sign for travelling, walking two fingers along the back of his arm and pointing to himself and Buffy.
The man seemed to understand the gesture and invited them to join the caravan. After looking to Xander for a second, Buffy nodded and they joined with the merchant train, travelling along the road.
********
Location: Several Miles Down The Road
Date/Time: Same Day, Early Evening (Say 8pm)
Buffy and Xander were sitting around a campfire with the leader of the merchant caravan, a slightly plump, balding man called Rupert, which, needless to say, disturbed Buffy and Xander deeply, and his family. Rupert's wife was a willowy woman with raven black hair called Cassandra and his daughter.
The daughter was about fifteen years old with long brown hair and light blue eyes, reaching was about Buffy's height (AN: I know I said no Dawn, but think Michelle Trachtenberg) who's name was Catherine. From the moment Catherine laid eyes on Xander she seemed to be infatuated with him. Because of this infatuation Catherine endeavoured to teach Xander, and Buffy because the two were rarely apart, how to speak her language and the language of The City, a common language that was completely unique and that everyone who had contact with The City knew.
********
Location: The Gates Of The City
Date/Time: Three Months Later, 6:45am (One Hour After Dawn)
The last three months had been. interesting. Buffy and Xander had quickly picked up both The City language and the native language of the merchants, while the caravan had travelled its trade route and was only now reaching The City. Catherine had not been pleased when she had found out that Xander would not stay with the caravan, rather he would stay with Buffy.
Catherine and her father, Rupert, had been interested to hear about the village and, once they found out what commodities the villagers needed and what they could trade, they intended to add the village to their next trade route, having learnt the language from Buffy and Xander. Buffy and Xander followed the caravan through the towering gates into The City until they reached a warehouse, where Rupert gave them their share of the profits from the trip and tried to convince them to stay one last time.
********
(AN: Due to the timing issues of the story, I will dispense with the Location and Date/Time tags for the moment and reintroduce them when they become appropriate.)
The City was spectacularly unique, with towering domes down to humble little apartments. It was as if the entire population of LA, Washington DC and Tokyo had been picked up and dropped down in ancient times, letting their imaginations run wild when it came to architecture. The City was unlike any other human habitation of the time.
Unlike everywhere else, which still used the barter system, The City minted and used currency, certain things, such as accommodation, could only be purchased or rented with City coins and there were City merchants whose sole order of business was to convert goods into currency and currency into goods.
It was a law of The City that no currency passed outside the gates, to that end all the coins were enchanted so that Mages, one of the two sects of magic users in The City, could detect the presence of coins and there was always at least one Mage with the guards at every gate. The vast majority of magic users worked for the City military.
There were the Mages, who worked with offensive and detection spells, fireballs and detecting coins at the gates being minor examples, and they were used as support type units in combat.
The other sect of magic users were the Clerics, who specialised in healing and defensive spells, such as shields for buildings and such, and many Clerics also knew how to heal with plants and herbs. While most Clerics worked for the military and helped out in The City when they were available, some Clerics had devoted themselves to the citizens of The City, setting up permanent clinics in the housing suburbs.
********
Buffy and Xander were walking idly along a street near one of the gates. In had been almost a week since they had parted with the merchant caravan and they had no income, but their share of the profits had been enough to get them accommodation and they were right for the next few weeks for living expenses.
As they approached the gate they heard the sounds of fighting and, based on subconscious instinct from Sunnydale, they drew the weapons they always had on them and ran to the sight of the fight. When they arrived at the gate they saw ten guards against ten demons. Four of the guards were down and only one of the demons.
Xander instantly ran in to pull out the only downed guard that was not dead while Buffy laid into the closest demon. When the guard was clear, Xander plunged into the fight. Buffy had taken down one of the demons while Xander had been helping the guard, and the other guards, realising they were outmatched were going two on one against three of the demons, while Buffy and Xander, fighting back to back, took on the remaining five demons.
By the time the guards had taken out their demons, Buffy and Xander had gotten three of the five, and they kept them distracted while the guards ambushed them from behind. Xander took stock of the losses, two fighters and a Mage dead, another fighter seriously injured and probably going to die. Of the six remaining guards two were injured.
Taking charge, Xander sent the two wounded, and the seriously wounded, guards to the closest Cleric, he also sent one of the guards to report to the barracks for replacement and another Mage. The five remaining guards looked at Buffy and Xander in concern, here were two fierce warriors, one obviously capable of command and caring about his men, and, while each was capable when alone, when together they were nearly unstoppable.
When the replacements, a full changing of the guard, arrived they also brought an officer. When the officer heard what had happened, he instantly asked if they wanted to join the military and fight the demons. With little hesitation they accepted.
********
Buffy and Xander were on guard duty, a tedious routine but, as they were in charge, not an unpleasant experience. The watched as a small group approached the gate. It was obliviously a family, the mother was a middle- aged, about forty, woman with long brown hair and blue eyes, and the father, about the same age, had sandy hair and green eyes.
The daughter, about fifteen years old, had her father's sandy hair, styled like her mother, and her mother's blue eyes, while the boy, about ten, had his mother's hair and eye colour but his father's slightly darker complexion. Both of the adults seemed familiar to Buffy and Xander but they did not instantly recognise them. The same could not be said for the couple.
"Buffy, Xander!" they cried out in unison and grabbed the surprised duo in bear hugs, embarrassing them in front of their troops.
"Oh my God! It is grate to see you, Xander. You guys look great. In fact you haven't aged a day." The woman said, enthusiastically at first then fading to bewilderment.
"Um. Thanks." Xander said, confused.
"You don't remember. Of course it has been twenty-five years." The woman said before mimicking a teenage girl. "Run away with me Xander. We'll see the world and be rich and then you'll forget about the little bond."
"Catherine!?! You cheeky little sod." Xander said. "Well, it's been a while. You look great. And this is.?"
"Gabriel?" Buffy said, having mentally de-aged the man twenty-five years. "Gabriel who loved to listen to the hunting stories and whittle my stakes? Let me guess. Catherine came to the village to trade. At first you hated each other but over time it grew into love. Am I close?"
"Unnervingly so. Allow me to introduce our children, Elizabeth and Alex." Catherine said, motioning to the children. "Kids, this is Uncle Xander and Aunty Buffy. We told you about them."
"Hello." The children said nervously.
"Nice to meet you. Look, it's great to see you again, but you got to move along. Contact us and we'll talk some time." Xander said, with a grin.
The family smiled and moved through the gate, leaving two happy time- travellers and a group of confused guards.
********
Buffy and Xander stood side by side in the front ranks, swords at the ready. On Xander's left stood Janet, Alex's granddaughter while on Buffy's right stood Michael, Elizabeth's great-grandson. For the last seventy-five years, Buffy and Xander had been friends and looking out for Catherine and Gabriel's family, long after the couple themselves had died.
Stretching to either side and behind them stood the armies of The City. Ranks of infantry, mostly armed with swords, several deep stretched the length of the field, bordered by a river on one side and a cliff on the other. Behind the Infantry, on a slight raise, was rank after rank of Archers, with the mass of Calvary at the top of the raise as the reserve force. At the opposite end of the field was an army of demons, every type imaginable and in no particular organisation stood waiting, then a call cried out and the demon army charged.
Once battle was joined Xander's higher mental functions shut down. Xander recognised only three types of entities, friend, Enemy and Buffy. The first and, especially, the third were to be protected and the second type was to be mercilessly cut down. The battle raged and Xander ran on pure instinct, running on adrenaline. Suddenly there were no more enemies to fight and Xander dropped his arms, exhausted as his higher faculties returned and his first instinct, as always was to search for Buffy.
He quickly found her about ten paces to his left, the opposite side to which she started the battle, and his gaze soon found Janet and Michael, bot alive and well, however the field was covered with many dead, both human and demon. The victory had not come cheap. Involuntarily a shout of triumph rose in Xander's throat, quickly taken up by the other soldiers. A shout to prove that they were still alive.
********
Buffy and Xander, along with the rest of the patrol, moved quietly through the trees, bows at the ready. There had been reports of demonic activity in the area, so their unit of rangers, cross between archers and trackers, had been sent on a recognisance mission. They had spotted a demon encampment and were on their way back to base to report.
Buffy signalled three of the other rangers to return a separate way, taking the other ranger with herself and Xander. When Xander noticed that they were being followed, he motioned for Buffy and the other ranger to keep going while he silently climbed a tree. When the demons passed under Xander, he dropped from the tree firing his arrows.
He took out the main party quickly, but had failed to notice the trailing demon archer, until the arrow went into his side. As he dropped to the ground another arrow flew over his head, from the front this time, taking out the demon. Buffy quickly slung her bow and picked Xander up, running through the forest, speed more important than stealth.
"Don't you dare die on me Xander." Buffy told him, slipping into English in her worry, a language that they had not spoken in over two hundred years. "How do you expect me to face the rest of time without you."
Running at full Slayer speed, Buffy quickly made it back to camp, calling for a Cleric as she entered. When the Clerics took Xander away, Buffy quickly moved to their tent. When she entered she completely broke down crying.
She had once to Willow that when Angel broke up with her she felt like she was dieing. Now the thought of losing Xander was a million times worse, however she attributed that to the fact that they had fought side by side for more than two centuries, denying the possibility that she loved him.
********
Xander swung his horse, its shoed hooves tearing at one demon as his sword took another. They would have to pull back as they were being overwhelmed.
"Fall back." Xander shouted and the Cavalry started to retreat.
Out of the corner of his eye, Xander saw Buffy's horse go down. An arrow through its side. Xander carved his way through to her, cutting down any demon in his path. When he reached her, he pulled her up behind him.
Buffy winced in pain as the arm he used to hoist her up had a deep slash in it. Again he wheeled his horse, hooves flashing and he carved his way out of the demonic horde and to escape with his troops. Every soldier deeply respected both Buffy and Xander and knew that if you were in their unit, you were more likely to survive.
They also knew that Buffy would never leave a battle without Xander and Xander would never leave any troops behind. The Cavalry rode hard, leading the chasing horde of demons into a trap of arrow fire that Xander and Buffy had planed beforehand, just in case.
********
Buffy and Xander stood in the Royal War Room. They were military advisers to the King. The War Council was deciding what to do about the increasing numbers of demons that had been sighted when a messenger came in.
"Majesty, latest reports from the scouts. They managed to capture a demon and during interrogation it mentioned that a high level demon was about to be summoned. It is called Mahkesh and is said to be formidable." The messenger said.
Buffy and Xander paled at the mention of Mahkesh. Although it was a long time ago they remembered what Giles had told the on Prom night. That the Hell Hounds had been bread during the Mahkesh Wars.
"Majesty. I suggest we call up all reserves and mobilise the military." Buffy said.
"Why?" the King asked, intrigued by the seemingly rash statement for the very seasoned General.
"Sir. Trust us. Mobilise and do it now. It might just be enough." Xander said.
"Ok. Now you're scaring me. You two are not known to be rash. What's got you so concerned." One of the King's chief advisers said.
"A major war." Buffy and Xander said together.
Everyone was shocked. They all knew some version of Buffy and Xander's story, and had heard many different tails about the pair. They knew that if they were scared, any sane person should be terrified. Buffy and Xander turned and walked out of the War Room and down the corridor. After a while Buffy laughed bitterly.
"What?" Xander inquired.
"Xand, can you ever forgive me?" Buffy asked.
"For what?" Xander replied, confused.
"For taking five hundred years and facing a catastrophic war to realise that I love you." Buffy answered.
Xander just stood there for a minute stunned.
"About bloody time." Xander said with a chuckle and they walked off down the corridor laughing.
TBC.
Chapter: The City
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: First Four Series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy. I would buy the show but I am broke.
Summary: Buffy's death results in a paradox. Years later Buffy and Xander are uniquely cursed by a demon; can they survive to fulfil a destiny that had already come to pass? (Not a post Gift Fic.)
AN: No Glory, no Dawn, and no Dracula. Riley died in the big battle *_* means Spell, '_' means thought "_" means speech.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Location: Unknown
Date/Time: Four Days Later, Noon
Buffy and Xander came across a well used dirt road and decided to take a break. They had been walking from dawn to dusk for the last four days, mostly living off the dried meat from the village and whatever eatable plants they could find. They were having something to eat when Xander spotted a dust cloud down the road.
"Buff." He said, indicating the direction.
Both their bodies tensed, ready to fight or run. The last twenty years had hardened their bodies, not that they were soft from living almost two decades on the Hellmouth, adding muscle and strength and more than negating any loss of strength or speed as a result of physically ageing to thirty- five.
Xander took up a visible position on the road, one of his spears at the ready, while Buffy hid behind one of the large boulders beside the road. When the group causing the dust trail came into view, Xander saw that they were a merchant train, with pack mules. After Xander surreptitiously signalled to Buffy, she rose and joined him on the road.
"Ho, the caravan." Xander called in the language of the village.
This caused the caravan to stop and answering calls came back in several different languages, tried one after another, that Buffy and Xander did not understand. One man came to the front, he appeared to be in charge, and Xander tried the universal sign for travelling, walking two fingers along the back of his arm and pointing to himself and Buffy.
The man seemed to understand the gesture and invited them to join the caravan. After looking to Xander for a second, Buffy nodded and they joined with the merchant train, travelling along the road.
********
Location: Several Miles Down The Road
Date/Time: Same Day, Early Evening (Say 8pm)
Buffy and Xander were sitting around a campfire with the leader of the merchant caravan, a slightly plump, balding man called Rupert, which, needless to say, disturbed Buffy and Xander deeply, and his family. Rupert's wife was a willowy woman with raven black hair called Cassandra and his daughter.
The daughter was about fifteen years old with long brown hair and light blue eyes, reaching was about Buffy's height (AN: I know I said no Dawn, but think Michelle Trachtenberg) who's name was Catherine. From the moment Catherine laid eyes on Xander she seemed to be infatuated with him. Because of this infatuation Catherine endeavoured to teach Xander, and Buffy because the two were rarely apart, how to speak her language and the language of The City, a common language that was completely unique and that everyone who had contact with The City knew.
********
Location: The Gates Of The City
Date/Time: Three Months Later, 6:45am (One Hour After Dawn)
The last three months had been. interesting. Buffy and Xander had quickly picked up both The City language and the native language of the merchants, while the caravan had travelled its trade route and was only now reaching The City. Catherine had not been pleased when she had found out that Xander would not stay with the caravan, rather he would stay with Buffy.
Catherine and her father, Rupert, had been interested to hear about the village and, once they found out what commodities the villagers needed and what they could trade, they intended to add the village to their next trade route, having learnt the language from Buffy and Xander. Buffy and Xander followed the caravan through the towering gates into The City until they reached a warehouse, where Rupert gave them their share of the profits from the trip and tried to convince them to stay one last time.
********
(AN: Due to the timing issues of the story, I will dispense with the Location and Date/Time tags for the moment and reintroduce them when they become appropriate.)
The City was spectacularly unique, with towering domes down to humble little apartments. It was as if the entire population of LA, Washington DC and Tokyo had been picked up and dropped down in ancient times, letting their imaginations run wild when it came to architecture. The City was unlike any other human habitation of the time.
Unlike everywhere else, which still used the barter system, The City minted and used currency, certain things, such as accommodation, could only be purchased or rented with City coins and there were City merchants whose sole order of business was to convert goods into currency and currency into goods.
It was a law of The City that no currency passed outside the gates, to that end all the coins were enchanted so that Mages, one of the two sects of magic users in The City, could detect the presence of coins and there was always at least one Mage with the guards at every gate. The vast majority of magic users worked for the City military.
There were the Mages, who worked with offensive and detection spells, fireballs and detecting coins at the gates being minor examples, and they were used as support type units in combat.
The other sect of magic users were the Clerics, who specialised in healing and defensive spells, such as shields for buildings and such, and many Clerics also knew how to heal with plants and herbs. While most Clerics worked for the military and helped out in The City when they were available, some Clerics had devoted themselves to the citizens of The City, setting up permanent clinics in the housing suburbs.
********
Buffy and Xander were walking idly along a street near one of the gates. In had been almost a week since they had parted with the merchant caravan and they had no income, but their share of the profits had been enough to get them accommodation and they were right for the next few weeks for living expenses.
As they approached the gate they heard the sounds of fighting and, based on subconscious instinct from Sunnydale, they drew the weapons they always had on them and ran to the sight of the fight. When they arrived at the gate they saw ten guards against ten demons. Four of the guards were down and only one of the demons.
Xander instantly ran in to pull out the only downed guard that was not dead while Buffy laid into the closest demon. When the guard was clear, Xander plunged into the fight. Buffy had taken down one of the demons while Xander had been helping the guard, and the other guards, realising they were outmatched were going two on one against three of the demons, while Buffy and Xander, fighting back to back, took on the remaining five demons.
By the time the guards had taken out their demons, Buffy and Xander had gotten three of the five, and they kept them distracted while the guards ambushed them from behind. Xander took stock of the losses, two fighters and a Mage dead, another fighter seriously injured and probably going to die. Of the six remaining guards two were injured.
Taking charge, Xander sent the two wounded, and the seriously wounded, guards to the closest Cleric, he also sent one of the guards to report to the barracks for replacement and another Mage. The five remaining guards looked at Buffy and Xander in concern, here were two fierce warriors, one obviously capable of command and caring about his men, and, while each was capable when alone, when together they were nearly unstoppable.
When the replacements, a full changing of the guard, arrived they also brought an officer. When the officer heard what had happened, he instantly asked if they wanted to join the military and fight the demons. With little hesitation they accepted.
********
Buffy and Xander were on guard duty, a tedious routine but, as they were in charge, not an unpleasant experience. The watched as a small group approached the gate. It was obliviously a family, the mother was a middle- aged, about forty, woman with long brown hair and blue eyes, and the father, about the same age, had sandy hair and green eyes.
The daughter, about fifteen years old, had her father's sandy hair, styled like her mother, and her mother's blue eyes, while the boy, about ten, had his mother's hair and eye colour but his father's slightly darker complexion. Both of the adults seemed familiar to Buffy and Xander but they did not instantly recognise them. The same could not be said for the couple.
"Buffy, Xander!" they cried out in unison and grabbed the surprised duo in bear hugs, embarrassing them in front of their troops.
"Oh my God! It is grate to see you, Xander. You guys look great. In fact you haven't aged a day." The woman said, enthusiastically at first then fading to bewilderment.
"Um. Thanks." Xander said, confused.
"You don't remember. Of course it has been twenty-five years." The woman said before mimicking a teenage girl. "Run away with me Xander. We'll see the world and be rich and then you'll forget about the little bond."
"Catherine!?! You cheeky little sod." Xander said. "Well, it's been a while. You look great. And this is.?"
"Gabriel?" Buffy said, having mentally de-aged the man twenty-five years. "Gabriel who loved to listen to the hunting stories and whittle my stakes? Let me guess. Catherine came to the village to trade. At first you hated each other but over time it grew into love. Am I close?"
"Unnervingly so. Allow me to introduce our children, Elizabeth and Alex." Catherine said, motioning to the children. "Kids, this is Uncle Xander and Aunty Buffy. We told you about them."
"Hello." The children said nervously.
"Nice to meet you. Look, it's great to see you again, but you got to move along. Contact us and we'll talk some time." Xander said, with a grin.
The family smiled and moved through the gate, leaving two happy time- travellers and a group of confused guards.
********
Buffy and Xander stood side by side in the front ranks, swords at the ready. On Xander's left stood Janet, Alex's granddaughter while on Buffy's right stood Michael, Elizabeth's great-grandson. For the last seventy-five years, Buffy and Xander had been friends and looking out for Catherine and Gabriel's family, long after the couple themselves had died.
Stretching to either side and behind them stood the armies of The City. Ranks of infantry, mostly armed with swords, several deep stretched the length of the field, bordered by a river on one side and a cliff on the other. Behind the Infantry, on a slight raise, was rank after rank of Archers, with the mass of Calvary at the top of the raise as the reserve force. At the opposite end of the field was an army of demons, every type imaginable and in no particular organisation stood waiting, then a call cried out and the demon army charged.
Once battle was joined Xander's higher mental functions shut down. Xander recognised only three types of entities, friend, Enemy and Buffy. The first and, especially, the third were to be protected and the second type was to be mercilessly cut down. The battle raged and Xander ran on pure instinct, running on adrenaline. Suddenly there were no more enemies to fight and Xander dropped his arms, exhausted as his higher faculties returned and his first instinct, as always was to search for Buffy.
He quickly found her about ten paces to his left, the opposite side to which she started the battle, and his gaze soon found Janet and Michael, bot alive and well, however the field was covered with many dead, both human and demon. The victory had not come cheap. Involuntarily a shout of triumph rose in Xander's throat, quickly taken up by the other soldiers. A shout to prove that they were still alive.
********
Buffy and Xander, along with the rest of the patrol, moved quietly through the trees, bows at the ready. There had been reports of demonic activity in the area, so their unit of rangers, cross between archers and trackers, had been sent on a recognisance mission. They had spotted a demon encampment and were on their way back to base to report.
Buffy signalled three of the other rangers to return a separate way, taking the other ranger with herself and Xander. When Xander noticed that they were being followed, he motioned for Buffy and the other ranger to keep going while he silently climbed a tree. When the demons passed under Xander, he dropped from the tree firing his arrows.
He took out the main party quickly, but had failed to notice the trailing demon archer, until the arrow went into his side. As he dropped to the ground another arrow flew over his head, from the front this time, taking out the demon. Buffy quickly slung her bow and picked Xander up, running through the forest, speed more important than stealth.
"Don't you dare die on me Xander." Buffy told him, slipping into English in her worry, a language that they had not spoken in over two hundred years. "How do you expect me to face the rest of time without you."
Running at full Slayer speed, Buffy quickly made it back to camp, calling for a Cleric as she entered. When the Clerics took Xander away, Buffy quickly moved to their tent. When she entered she completely broke down crying.
She had once to Willow that when Angel broke up with her she felt like she was dieing. Now the thought of losing Xander was a million times worse, however she attributed that to the fact that they had fought side by side for more than two centuries, denying the possibility that she loved him.
********
Xander swung his horse, its shoed hooves tearing at one demon as his sword took another. They would have to pull back as they were being overwhelmed.
"Fall back." Xander shouted and the Cavalry started to retreat.
Out of the corner of his eye, Xander saw Buffy's horse go down. An arrow through its side. Xander carved his way through to her, cutting down any demon in his path. When he reached her, he pulled her up behind him.
Buffy winced in pain as the arm he used to hoist her up had a deep slash in it. Again he wheeled his horse, hooves flashing and he carved his way out of the demonic horde and to escape with his troops. Every soldier deeply respected both Buffy and Xander and knew that if you were in their unit, you were more likely to survive.
They also knew that Buffy would never leave a battle without Xander and Xander would never leave any troops behind. The Cavalry rode hard, leading the chasing horde of demons into a trap of arrow fire that Xander and Buffy had planed beforehand, just in case.
********
Buffy and Xander stood in the Royal War Room. They were military advisers to the King. The War Council was deciding what to do about the increasing numbers of demons that had been sighted when a messenger came in.
"Majesty, latest reports from the scouts. They managed to capture a demon and during interrogation it mentioned that a high level demon was about to be summoned. It is called Mahkesh and is said to be formidable." The messenger said.
Buffy and Xander paled at the mention of Mahkesh. Although it was a long time ago they remembered what Giles had told the on Prom night. That the Hell Hounds had been bread during the Mahkesh Wars.
"Majesty. I suggest we call up all reserves and mobilise the military." Buffy said.
"Why?" the King asked, intrigued by the seemingly rash statement for the very seasoned General.
"Sir. Trust us. Mobilise and do it now. It might just be enough." Xander said.
"Ok. Now you're scaring me. You two are not known to be rash. What's got you so concerned." One of the King's chief advisers said.
"A major war." Buffy and Xander said together.
Everyone was shocked. They all knew some version of Buffy and Xander's story, and had heard many different tails about the pair. They knew that if they were scared, any sane person should be terrified. Buffy and Xander turned and walked out of the War Room and down the corridor. After a while Buffy laughed bitterly.
"What?" Xander inquired.
"Xand, can you ever forgive me?" Buffy asked.
"For what?" Xander replied, confused.
"For taking five hundred years and facing a catastrophic war to realise that I love you." Buffy answered.
Xander just stood there for a minute stunned.
"About bloody time." Xander said with a chuckle and they walked off down the corridor laughing.
TBC.