***
The Door to the magic shop opened admitting a tall man in a long coat. Anya put aside the shipping forms she was filling out. This looked like a customer. They tended to bring with them Money and with vengeance no longer a part of her life Anya had turned her hand to acquiring as much as she could. She was as good at making money as ever she had been wreaking havoc on the wayward men of the world. "Hello Customer How are you today have you brought with you large sums of money?"
The startled man blinked his dark eyes at her and ran his hands though his non-existent hair that had been cut short then shaved. People were often startled when Anya spoke to them. Anya pleaded ignorance of why that was the case. Anya suspected that Xander alone realized the truth. When she got people off their guard she immediately had an advantage over them that was as valuable as her powers once had been.
"Actually I'm looking for directions." The man said "I m new in town and was looking for a place called…" he paused to look at a slip of paper. "Sunnydale High, would you know where I might find that?"
Anya snorted. She was about to tell the man that the services she provided did not include giving directions to lost travelers; When the door exploded inward followed by a blond whirlwind that was Dawn Summers. She streaked to the counter asking "Anya. Buffy, Where is she?"
"In the back, Willow and Xander are on the way why are you coming back from school so late were you in detention."
"Sorta but not exactly." Dawn headed toward the back leaving the man looking quizzically at her.
"Cute kid. She is a real bundle of energy." He remarked off handedly.
"Yes she is" Anya noted and dismissed Dawn from her thoughts. "Now how much would it be worth…."
"You did what?!" Came an insane scream from the back of the store. " How many times have we told you. Do not open doorways to.…"
"I didn't do it. it was Mr. Miller…I just kinda Helped."
"Oh you just kinda helped, and while you were just kinda helping did it not occur to you that it would be kinda dangerous." Buffy and Dawn walked out of the back room area "How did you get your hands on the thing did you steal it, are we going to have to deal with this teen rebel phase again."
"I did not steal it." Dawn slapped the box on the counter. "It was right there the last time I saw it. until I found it again in my bag."
Both The stranger and Anya took one look at the box and sprang backward crying out. "What is that doing here." they then turned as one looking at each other. "You know what that is…Of course I do."
The man was backing up and thus was surprised when the door opened admitting Xander and Willow who had been talking pleasantly up to that point. The man already startled by the box on the counter turned, took one look at Will and cursed. Willow for her part shoved Xander to the side and her eyes darkening as her hands assumed a first position for conjuring. "What the hell are you doing here." She demanded.
The stranger backed away. "I don't know what this is about, but I'm not letting that box fall into the hands of the likes of you and your kind. You have no idea what you are messing with." Xander saw the man's hands were surrounded by static discharges of reddish black. A weapon had appeared in Buffy's hands and she was angling for a clear shot at the stranger obviously this was about to become full-blown anarchy if something wasn't done quickly.
"All right, all right everyone just calm down." Xander looked at the man. "Ok since you're new in town and therefore don't know; we try to avoid open mage war. It Cuts down on the cost of rebuilding this place. Now since Willis here is a pretty powerful witch and that is a Slayer behind you I think you might want to stand down."
The stranger looked at Buffy and them more importantly at the sword in her hands that was almost but not quite pointed at him. He slowly placed his hands in his pockets.
Xander than turned to Willow. Willis could you please refrain from liquefying our guest till we know who he is." At this, all eyes turned to the stranger who looked around the room again. My name is Dillon Hyles. I'm kind of a private Investigator.
"Kind of…Meaning what exactly." Buffy asked suspiciously
"Kind of -- meaning that While I still follow wayward husbands they are inevitable seeing a succubus. The run away kids I track have usually hooked up with some kind of demonic cult. Etc. etc."
Willow brightened up slightly "Giles introduced me to a friend of his in England who does the same kind of thing, a John Constantine." She told the others.
Dillon continued "I was surfing the net this morning in LA when I saw someone in Sunnydale looking for information about the Lament Configuration. Normally I would have ignored it. I mean if I guy wants to subject himself to the tortures waiting for him in Leviathan's realm that's his own danm business but I when I saw the guy was e-mailing from a school. Well condemning his own ass to hell is one thing but the thought of children ending up as Cenobite bait … I had to try and stop him. Or at least try and save the innocents that I could."
You're covered in dark energy, the only way that could happen is if you are a dark mage." Willow said suspiciously.
"What about you? You've got the stench of dark power coming off you." Dillon countered
Anya realized the problem. "You have to look closer at her. She is in a state of cleansing. She recently went evil and now she is atoning. That's going to produce a few false readings if you're doing an aura read."
Dillon looked at the red head intently for a moment and then blushed. "I'm sorry miss, it was wrong of me to jump to conclusions I guess your getting a little tired of that."
Willow relaxed "Well what about you. Why are you surrounded by dark magic."
"I'm not surrounded by dark magic. You're getting the read off the tattoos." He said.
Willow looked at him mystified and the man pulled down his shirt collar to reveal a set of tattoos that encircled his neck completely. The shocked look Willow gave him only got more so as he proceed to reveal that the tattoos extended over his entire body from his feet all the way to his neckline by pulling up his shirt and pant legs. Willow did another scan and saw that indeed, he himself was reading as a champion, a good guy, but the tattoos themselves were quite evil. "Who would do something like that to you and why would you let them." she asked
"It's a long story. The short version of which is that at the time I had the chance to save an innocent and the cost was having this done to me. I figured it was an even enough trade. The girl was saved and I have the single coolest set of tattoos on the western seaboard."
Willow looked closer at the design work. "I've seen this lettering before."
"Well if you are a practitioner, you might have heard of the Demonicon."
Buffy noticed that both Anya and Willow paled at this news. "What is that?" she asked warily
"It's an extra-dimensional Dark Text. Really, powerful spells and Highly Dangerous in the in the wrong hands. Willow said because only she could see the flow of text across his entire body.
"Dangerous in anyone's hands." Anya mentioned edging away from the stranger until she noticed that it was taking her closer to the LeMarchand box sitting quietly on the counter. She backed away from that as well.
Willow continued "The book can't even exist in this realm you have to pour its contents into someone and they become the vessel though which you work its magic."
"So the girl you rescued…" Xander said the truth dawning on him
"It was already too late for her but the demons promised they would let her go if I was willing to cut them a deal. I had no idea what having the words tattooed on my body would mean."
"Most white lighters would kill him on sight. Dark mages would be looking to get their hands on him. The Demonicon would allow for use of really powerful spells."
"Is there an upside to having that much evil magic tattooed on your body." Buffy asked
"Well there is the mystic knowledge that comes free. Think of it as having a library of evil knowledge in my head. All I have to do is concentrate on any one thing. And the knowledge of how to do it comes to me and I get in to Goth clubs no problem."
"That's cool." Xander muttered. I have to get me some cool powers.
Dillon snorted." There is a trade off for that knowledge. Every time I use it or any of the power that comes with it, I risk the dark magic over taking me. And, I don't get the break your friend does. Cleansing spells, blocking spells they don't do anything."
"So you aren't going to try and harm us and since you seem to have a beating heart in the right place I don't see us harming you. Why the box …what's so big about this box."
Willow for the first time looked at the LeMarchand Key and gave a scream." What The hell is that doing here"
Dawn recounted the tale of what had happened at the school. When she was done, Dillon asked her a question. "What did they look like…the things that you saw. What did they look like?"
She described the four Cenobites. When she described the Pinheaded Cenobite, Xander snickered. when she was done the tattooed man whistled. "You don't kid around do you.
You know what this things are." Buffy asked appraisingly.
"Hell has a hierarchy, a power structure. Wage slaves at the bottom middle management and upper management. The four she describes represent the cream of Leviathan's army of dark warriors. The younger ones call The Pinhead: Our God, The Flayed One. The rest have devoted their un-life to shredding countless souls. Between the four of them they have consumed and destroyed any number of people who were stupid enough to buy into the promises of the box without reading the fine print."
"They have their own twisted honor code." Anya supplied. "If you can cut a deal with them they will honor the letter of the deal."
Xander was mystified "Why would anyone want to cut a deal with guys like that.".
Dillon shrugged. "What would you do to stay alive, How far would you go. Who would you offer up to Suffer in your place."
Buffy nodded "Ok you all know the situation. Xander, mount up, you know what we will need. Willow your running magical support. Whatever they throw At us I want to be prepared."
Xander nodded in response and began gathering an eclectic selection of weapons including Crossbows and Swords while Willow headed to the stacks of books. If there were a magical defense against the Cenobites, she would be the one to find it.
Dillon straightened. "I'd like to come along I know I'm the new guy and all but I might be able to help."
"No offence Mr. Hyles but I don't know you from a hole in the ground and while your heart is in the right place. I need to have people at my back I can trust. For all we know you might have been manipulated into coming here."
Dillon nodded "I guess I have to take that."
In a few moments Buffy, Xander and Willow had left with Dawn at their heels. Anya turned and appraised Dillon critically "Come on we should get ready."
"Ready, ready for what?"
"Well if things go as they normally do not only will those three make the situation worse; but some hideous second problem will pop up that will require us to deal with both at the same time."
***
