Chapter 3

The Quest

"God damn it's cold!"

Spike was in the snowy mountains of Tibet, he was on a quest to find his inner self, to get rid of the demons inside him. He had been hiking the mountains for day's searching for an ancient temple where troubled people go to seek the advice of the elder monks. He had passed a few villages where they were kind enough to provide him with animal blood. He looked up at the night's sky and he saw that the sun was beginning to rise.

Oh crap! Spike thought and he quickened his climbing pace.

The sun was getting higher now, he was beginning to sizzle so he tried to climb even faster but his foot slipped and he plummeted. Spike managed to grab a ledge, climbed into a large cavern and ran into the darkness away from the sunlight. He felt great relieve after his skin stopped smoking and cooled down.

"Thank God!" he sighed.

He sat down on a smooth stone and lit up a cigarette. He missed Buffy. He missed her wonderful golden hair, her soft skin and her gentle touch. She was everything to him, but he needed to do this, he needed to find himself, to discover his destiny.

"This is for you Buffy…"

Suddenly he felt something hard and blunt slam on the back of his head, he staggered onto the floor.

"OWW!" he screamed.

"Hey."

Spike tried to get up but the man hit him again on his back and he fell to the ground. He turned around and he saw who it was. Oz.

"Oz? What are you doing here?"

"I was gonna ask you the same thing." He hit Spike again.

"OWWW! Stop!" Spike pleaded, "What the hell are you doing?"

"It was you wasn't it?"

"Me? What did I do?"

"The village on the other side of the mountain, you killed them, killed them all, the women, the children… everyone."

"No! No I…"

Oz moved to hit Spike again.

"Wait… hear me out… I can't kill people, I've got a soul now."

"Prove it."

"How the bloody hell can I prove it?"

"You'll let me tie you up."

"No I wouldn't, I've still got dignity you know."

Oz tried to hit him again but Spike held up his hand and said, "Fine…. Fine."

A few minutes later, Spike was tied up at the hands and legs by some tough rope. Oz sat opposite him looking at him with his usual emotionless and cool expression.

"So, why are you here then?" Oz asked.

"I'm here to find this guy, he's a monk, I want to find out how to stop the pain."

"What pain?"

"The screaming and crying of all the people I killed when I had no soul. You can never imagine what it's like."

He said nothing but nodded in acknowledgement.

"Well, what have you been up to then?" said Spike trying to make conversation.

"I'm not a werewolf anymore. Cured."

"How?"

"I met this really powerful witch who killed the wolf inside me by saying this incantation."

"Why haven't you been back to Sunnydale to visit the Redhead?"

"I have my reasons."

"You know, she's become quite the witch now, one of the most powerful on earth."

"Really?"

"Yep. She tried to destroy the earth but she's herself again now."

Oz starred at him, "She what?"

"Some geek called Warren shot Tara, you know Tara right?"

"Yeah."

"Well she died and Willow turned evil, skinned Warren and tried to destroy the world, came real close too."

"Oh my God."

"Don't worry, she's better now. Learned to control her magic and stuff. Oh and she saved the world from the First Evil, that was a hell of a battle."

"Seems like I've missed a lot."

"Yeah, you going back to Sunnydale? I'm sure Red will be glad to see you."

"Might do, as soon as I've done one final task."

"What task?"

"I'll tell you later."

They spent hours walking through the caverns, Spike didn't know why but he knew that something evil was at the end of it, he could practically feel its presence. It was something powerful and darker than anything he could imagine.

"Were are we going?" Spike asked

"I said I'll tell you later," said Oz.

"There something evil in these caves…"

"I know."

"What is it then?"

"Demons."

"What demons?"

"The first demons."

"Right… I've never heard of these demons…"

"No one has, just the mages who lived in the village which was destroyed. So I have to destroy the temple so nothing can ever release them."

"And then we go back? Back to Sunnydale?"

"What about your quest?"

"Bugger it, I can't be asked."

"Fair enough."

They had reached the temple after hours of walking through the dank bat infested caverns. The temple was huge, it looked like the entire mountain was hollowed out just to make room for it. There were marble columns that reached up as far as the eye can see, the floor was tiled with orange marble which reflected the magnificence of the temple and right in the middle was a pedestal with four small pillars around it with large black stones on top of them.

"So wolf boy, how do you suppose we destroy this place?" said Spike.

"I'll need your help," said Oz as he pulled out a knife and cut the ropes that bound Spike, "Do anything suspicious and I'll stake you."

"You know I could kill you right now, the only reason I won't is 'cause I've got a soul."

Oz pulled out a loaded crossbow from is backpack and pointed it at Spike's heart.

"I'll shut up now, what do I have to do?"

"I'll need to get some explosives or a spell or something, anything to bring this place down."

"So where are the nasties you talked about then?"

"They're imprisoned in those black stones, whatever you do, don't touch them."

"Fine, just hurry up, I don't like this place."

Spike was on his own again. He really didn't like the temple, the evil presence inside it made him shiver. He needed Buffy. But she couldn't help him now. He decided to have a look around the temple, on the four sides of the temple were gigantic ancient pictures of some gruesome looking demons. One had no skin, it was just made of flesh and blood and it had gleaming black eyes, the second was a skeleton which looked like a deformed skeleton of a T-Rex but it had huge arms with bone talons and huge unfriendly spikes on it's spine and shoulders, one looked like the devil, it had deep red skin, black horns and a long slimy grey tongue and the final demon was by far the worst, it was huge and had grey skin, huge spikes all over it's back, if had huge tattered wings, a flat face with long, yellow fangs and an evil crocodile smile. These were the demons that Oz was talking about.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" said a mysterious misty voice.

Spike turned around and saw a monk, he was at least a hundred years old but his voice still sounded young and powerful.

"Who are you?" Spike asked.

"The last thing you're ever going to see child…"

Spike grunted and smiled, "You? What are you gonna do?"

The old man smiled and blinked. When he revealed his eyes, they were pure black like Willow's when she used extremely powerful and dark spells.

"Crap," Spike muttered.

"Indeed," snarled the old man.

"Who are you?"

The old man smiled again, "My name… is Chaos."

***

He didn't trust Spike, who would trust a vampire, but he was the only one strong enough to defend the stones if the thing that killed all those people was indeed planning on releasing the demons. Oz shuddered just at the thought of them. The Four where the most ugliest and most deadliest of all demons. He had seen the pictures of them inscribed on the temple walls. Zen, a mage from the village showed them to him. He said that a slayer lead an army to defeat the Four over hundred years ago when a mysterious force released them from their prison. Over a hundred thousand men died along with the slayer. A powerful witch ended up defeating them and banished them to the stones. God only knows what would happen if they were ever released again. Not even Buffy and the scoobies could stand up to them. He had to destroy the temple so these stones will be lost forever.

Zen had left a spell somewhere in the manmade caverns just incase things got bad and the protectors were killed. The only reason the temple wasn't destroyed before was because that there was a chance that the stones would be found eventually and the demons would walk the earth again.

There it is! Oz thought.

The scroll was pined up on the wall on the other side of the temple. Oz carefully took it off and put it in his coat pocket. Soon he would destroy the evil and he will return to Sunnydale to see Willow. He missed her. Even though she would never love him in that way ever again, he still missed her. Oz put his thoughts aside and made his way back to the temple.

Oz had reached the temple were he saw the last person he expected to see, Zen and he was talking to Spike about something. He walked over to them and without warning Spike ran to Zen and started to punch him. Spike was lying, he was still a full, blood thirsty vampire. Oz quickly took out a crossbow from his backpack and aimed at Spike. He shot it praying that it would hit Spike in the heart and dust him but it hit him in the shoulder, cursed and fell to the floor. Zen smiled.

"Oz! You're here!" said Zen, "Have you got the scroll?"

"Yes."

"Don't listen to him! He's Chaos! A Dark God! He'll release the demons!" shouted Spike.

Oz glared at Zen who looked bewildered by Spike's accusation. Then he shot another bolt into his arm.

"AHHH! You have to believe me!" he shouted.

"Read the spell Oz! You must destroy the temple! They are coming!" croaked Zen.

"Who?"

But Zen didn't need to answer, he heard the roars and cries of dark phantoms gliding around the temple.

"It's the dark force that's trying to release them! You must say the spell!"

Oz looked at the scroll, he didn't understand a word of it since it was written in Latin but he could read it.

"NO!" Spike screamed.

But Oz had already decided. The evil had to be destroyed even though the temple would collapse upon them and kill them all so Oz started to read from the scroll. Spike kept on pleading with him to stop, he was beginning to sound convince him but his voice drowned away as sounds echoed though his mind. When he had said the final words the screaming of the phantoms died and there was an eerie silence. He looked at Zen and then at Spike.

"Idiot," Spike muttered.

The temple began to rumble and he heard Zen laughing insanely.

"You pathetic fool!!!" Zen shouted, "You should have listened to your vampire friend over there. Now you have just enabled the destruction of your world."

Spike was right, he should have listened to him, now the world was going to be destroyed and it was his fault. Spike got up and ran to his side. Then the black stones that imprisoned the Four began to rise in the air, they glowed and shot rays of dark lightning straight into the walls where the pictures of the demons were. The pictures of the monstrous demons came to life and stepped out of the wall. The Four where back.

The Demon of Blood, the Demon of Rage, the Demon of Bone and the Demon of Darkness. These where the demons that created demons and the vampires. These were the ones that had the power to turn the world to dust. Oz had to stop them, but how? How could an ex-werewolf defeat the most powerful demons on earth?

"Well you boys are beautiful aren't you my sons…" Chaos said as he inspected them.

The demons were gigantic, about a quarter the size of the mountain and they were unspeakably ugly. Each of them had deep black eyes like Chaos.

"Come on, we have to get out of here," Spike whispered to Oz.

"But we can't we have to…" said Oz.

"We can't stop them OK, we have to regroup, we have to get to Buffy…"

"Oh, I don't think you can go to them now," shouted Chaos who could hear their conversation.

"What you gonna let you're boys kill us?" Spike asked as the demons snarled and grunted.

"No, you could seek the slayer's help by all means but they won't be able to help you…"

"Why?!!" Spike shouted enraged, "What did you do?!!"

"Me? I've done nothing of the sort… It's my brother that's going to annihilate them…"