Rating:PG-13

Chapter 3 - A new world

September 2003, unknown planet

Willow was the first one to reach the other end of the wormhole. She was shivering from the unexpected coolness that took over her body. "Observation number one. Whatever it is, it's not water. And I feel like I just made a trip across the Antarctic in my pyjamas." Willow mused, turning around to see the others were obviously feeling the same. Most of them were shaking and the word ice lolly appeared in her mind when she saw Dawn's face.

Connor was the only one who didn't seem affected at all. As soon as he exited the gate he unsheathed his favorite small sword, surveying the surroundings with a deadly glare and prepared to behead anything that didn't suit him. Not that the rest of them wasn't armed. The gang rummaged the Council's armory before they left and was took a large variety of weapons. Buffy was the only one except Connor who refused to carry a firearm. She was holding the Scythe in her hands, had a crossbow hung over her left shoulder and a stake in a sheath on her tight. Faith was armed with a broad sword and a staff weapon. Once they found a description how to activate it in the Council's reports the staff soon became Faith's favorite weapon. It was perfectly balanced and one shot was enough to make a vampire illuminate the surroundings like a Christmas tree. Kennedy had a HK-CAWS shotgun - an experimental German rifle with a devastating effect when fired at a short range and capable of fully automatic fire. Her secondary weapon was a M24 sniper rifle. Xander and Dawn were equipped with a Steyr-ACR, an excellent Austrian weapon, one of the few based on plastic design instead of metal. Xander also carried several fragmentation grenades. Vi was armed with H&K-G11 assault rifle. Giles decided to take only a Desert Eagle, a pistol he was familiar with from his times as Ripper. Each of them also carried a knife. Originally Willow didn't want to take a firearm either. She had more effective ways to defend herself but Buffy insisted on taking at least a pistol. She was probably right. They had no idea if her magic will work the same way on this world as it had on Earth.

Buffy watched as a small flame appeared above Willow's hand. It started to grow larger until it formed a sphere. Willow waved her hand and the sphere flew into a nearby stone, shattering it to thousand pieces.

"That's a great way to make a good first impression Will." Buffy stated. "Maybe we could wait with throwing fireballs at the locals till we actually meet them and they try to eat us or sacrifice us as heretics or something like that."

"I was just checking my powers." Willow replied with a sheepish grin. "I feel a little weaker then usual but it will pass."

"Good. Because I have a feeling we might need your abilities."Buffy nodded, looking around for the first time. They were in the middle of a large valley. She could see mountains on the horizon and a sea or possibly a big lake on the other side. Most of the land was covered with forest but in a circle of about 100 meters around the gate were no trees at all. The only other object besides the Chappa-Ai was a stone pillar covered with writings. Giles, Dawn and Willow went to examine the symbols but didn't recognize the language. The pillar was broken in it's middle like it was hit by a lightning, the higher half was lying three meters away from the pedestal. There were also pieces of what maybe used to be a white crystal scattered around the pillar.

A path led from the gate towards the forest. Many footprints on the path indicated that The Scoobies weren't the only ones using the gate. Connor being the only experienced in reading trails examined the path and smirked."I think we have demons to hunt. There are two types of footprint on the path. The first is similar to our own. I think it belongs to the locals. It comes from the forest and stops 20 meters from the gate. Then the same footprints lead back to the forest but their tips are deeper, which means they were running. The second type comes from the gate. It's much deeper and definitely not human. One human did come from the gate though. Maybe he is their prisoner."

"Or maybe he is the one commanding the demons."Giles suggested.

"One way or another we will take them down."Buffy replied, with a determined expression. "Willow can you feel them?"

"No. Either they are too far away or they can cover their presence or the man who came with them is a wizard and he might be blocking my senses. I guess the best option is to follow their trail."

The group followed the path and soon entered the forest, which to their surprise wasn't as large as it seemed to be when they were looking at it from the gate. After only five minutes they found themselves on the other side and facing a medieval city. The buildings were a combination of two Earth's architectures with thick stone walls typical for the Romanic build and lancets usually used in Gothic churches and cathedrals, their average height was about 15 meters, divided into three floors with thatched roofs on the top. The city was surrounded by fields covered by bundles of cereal straw, but they couldn't see anyone working on them. Plows, flails and other pieces of agricultural instruments were lying around like their owners threw them away in a hurry. Also there was no smoke coming from most of the chimneys, which made the city seem even more desolate.

"Well. This is a place where I want to spend my holiday."Dawn announced, ignoring the forsaken look, concentrating only at the historical architecture. "After we solve the demon thing of course."

"You mean that maybe they don't have a rule about teenagers drinking alcohol?" Xander nicked the real reason behind Dawn's interest.

"Yep. That's the plan."

Buffy rolled her eyes and continued towards the opened wooden gate. Whatever was going on it was going on inside. Passing the gate, she carefully entered a building that looked like a tavern. The result as was the same as the streets and fields. No one. They didn't meet a soul since they entered left the Chappa-Ai. She found just empty wooden chairs and tables, shelves filled with bottles containing strange greenish liquid. Buffy sniffed at one of the glasses, making a face of disgust. Compared to this was whisky a nutrition for infants. She went into another room, looking for clues when she heard a slender voice behind her. Buffy turned around, catching the sight of a man dressed in brown presumably linen clothes, backing away from her. She grabbed his hand, twisted it behind his back and pressed him against the nearest wall.

"Please don't hurt me! I'll do anything you want!"

"Yeah. That's why you sneaked up on me. Definitely a typical way to welcome visitors." Buffy replied, tightening the grip on his arm.

"I thought you were one of the demons. Please!"

Considering she didn't feel anything demony from him and the fact that he was too week to be a demon Buffy let the man go. He turned around, studying Buffy and the others of her group that were coming inside the tavern just at the moment. He was scared but obviously not of them. "We are not demons." Buffy tried to assure him." Why don't you explain to us what happened here?"

"Our world has always been protected be our god Thor. But then the demons destroyed his pillar. They came from the skies in their chariots of fire. Their leader's name is..."

"Vangelis?" Dawn guessed, arching her eyebrow, amused by the man's choice of words.

"Gulnar. An evil god who..."

"Oh crap. That's what we needed. Another hellgod." Xander interrupted him, nervously running his hand through the locks of his hair. "I hope it's one of Glory's brothers.", he added, his voice full of sarcasm.

"Well. They might not be as insane as she was." Giles suggested.

"I think it runs in the family." Xander declared, sounding completely sure about the state of sanity of Glory's relatives. "What can you tell us about this god?", he asked the scared man.

----

Gulnar was pleased with himself. He had a good reason to. It has been ten weeks since the unexpected explosion of the moon near Sokar's capital world destroyed the most of his fleet and even killed Sokar. He used the time of chaos on the worlds Sokar had under his control to create a base on a planet unknown to the System Lords, seizing Sokar's huge resources. The stronghold had a factory for building death gliders, staff weapons, zat guns and could even produce Alkeshs. If things went as planned he soon might be able to build Ha'taks as well and then everyone will bow before him. Yes, things were definitely looking better, but now he needed more slaves to work for him. He couldn't use people living on Sokar's worlds, because Apophis was gaining control and he knew transferring a lot of slaves would be suspicious. As usual there was another way and even though it was a high risk, it was probably the best solution. There were several systems that didn't belong to the Treaty of Protected Planets but were watched by the Asguard nevertheless. They had a pillar in front of the Chappa-Ai that caused anyone with a symbionte disappear. Gulnar had send two Alkeshs to one of these worlds, which managed to destroy the Asguard device and then he waited a week for an Asguard ship to appear, but none came. Now his way to dominate a new world was opened for him. Protected by twenty of Sokar's Unas he entered the wormhole.

It didn't take long to summon all inhabitants to the city's main square. The crowd watched as the Unas essentially tore to shreds about forty local soldiers who tried to oppose the Goa'uld. Gulnar himself was torturing another man, using his ribbon device. This one was dressed in much more expensive looking clothes then others, his cloak was a combination of blue and golden cotton, the rest of his wear was blue with an brocade ornament of an bear-like animal on his chest. "This is the fate of anyone who dares to fight against his god!" He released the shaking, looked at one of his soldiers and then back at the man. The only Unas armed with a staff weapon nodded and aimed. However before he could fire a shot was heard and a bullet bored into his skull, forcing him to drop his weapon and roar in pain.

"Well. Looks like you are not invulnerable." Xander observed the wounded alien from a window of a nearby house and fired again. The second bullet hit directly into the green monster's left eye and the creature fell to the ground dead.

The other Unas now knew the location of their attacker and started advancing. Faith, Xander, Giles, Kennedy, Dawn and Vi opened fire at the creatures, trying to aim at their heads, but because none of them had a real experience with firearms most of their bullets hit only the walls behind the approaching enemies. Meanwhile Buffy, Connor and Willow were coming from another street and getting closer to Gulnar and the wounded man who was still lying next to him. Willow concentrated and prepared a fireball to throw at Gulnar. "Don't kill him." Buffy reminded her. "We need informations." Willow nodded and attacked. Buffy and Connor were at her side to protect her in case a demon got too close. Her fireball flew towards the Goa'uld, but a few centimeters in front of him it hit a golden energy shield.

"Ok. Do we have a plan B?" Willow asked when Gulnar turned his attention to them, completely unharmed.

"Tauri!! You will pay for this insolence!"

"I don't know what Tauri is and I don't have any cash." Buffy wanted to add another pun, but a wave of energy threw the three of them backwards against the wall in front of which they were standing. Buffy and Connor recovered quickly, however the impact was too strong for Willow and she fell on the ground unconscious.

"Why can't you just try to bite me like a vampire? " Buffy grumbled when she loaded her crossbow. She aimed and fired, not really expecting to do any damage, but she needed to get Gulnar's attention away from Willow. To her surprise the arrow passed the energy shield and hit the shoulder of her opponent.

"What do you know? There is nothing like the good old medieval armament. Connor go help the others. I'll take care of him." Buffy ordered, loading her crossbow once more. Connor nodded and ran towards the second group.

"Idiots!" Faith swore and stopped firing at the creatures. When the fight broke out the people gathered on the square started running. Most of them choose the direction away from the battle, but approximately thirty headed right into their line of fire and into the bullets that missed the creatures. At least five of them were hit and she had no idea how serious their injuries were. The group stopped shooting and got ready for hand-to-hand combat. These demons were tough. It took hundreds of bullets to take half of them down. The small two-storeyed brick house the gang used as a fort could hardly withstand the attack of the furious aliens, but it was too late to escape. Faith, Xander and Giles chose to cover the main entrance, while Vi, Kennedy and Dawn prepared behind the other.

"Maybe the holiday thing wasn't such a good idea." Dawn noted, trying to hide how nervous she was.

"Why? The air is clean, the sky is blue, the food is ... well we didn't have time to try it but I'm sure it's great. And the best thing - no chance to get bored." Xander attempted to cheer her up.

"But a good chance to get killed.",Vi added.

The first Unas got in, ripping the main door out of hinges and was immediately beheaded by Faith's sword. Faith tried to repeat the action with the second Unas but her weapon got stuck in the creature's shoulder. When she was trying to pull it out she lost her focus for a fraction of second and the Unas plunged his claws into her arm. The feeling of blood running down her arm didn't stop her from pulling out the sword and sinking it into the creature's chest. Meanwhile the second door opened and another Unas was coming inside. He didn't stay inside for a long time thanks to Kennedy who placed the barrel of her shotgun in front of his face and fired. His body was thrown back into the other approaching creatures. On the other side of the house Giles emptied his last magazine into the nearest enemy, yet it seemed the bullets just made him more angry. He took hold of Giles's hand and pressed. The sound of a cracking bone could be heard and Giles dropped both his pistol and the knife he had in the other hand, trying to hold back the pain.

Xander saw Giles and rushed to help him. He came from behind and stabbed the back of the demon. The Unas let Giles go and swinged his arm at Xander who attempted to duck the punch. He wasn't fast enough though and the impact threw him at the nearest table. Xander saw the demon coming to him and wanted to get away, but he couldn't move, feeling sharp pain in his leg, realizing it was probably broken. The demon was already above him and preparing for a killing blow when a figure flew through the nearby window and fell directly at the monster. Connor raised his sword and slit the demons throat. Then he looked around who needed his help.

Faith was bleeding from her left arm and leg, fighting two opponents, however she seemed to be holding her own. Vi and Kennedy were both fighting one enemy. Dawn just managed to kill one demon and started to fight another, yet she had a wound on her back, looked worn out and her opponent obviously had an advantage in their struggle. Connor ran towards Dawn, getting between her and the demon she was fighting just in time to save her from being knocked out. He blocked the punch aimed at her head and cut the hand of the creature she was fighting. The Unas wanted to grab him but he ducked and sank his sword precisely into the enemy's stomach. With only four fiends left the gang had the upper hand and quickly eliminated them.

Buffy watched Connor run away and turned again to Gulnar. He sent another wave against her only this time she was prepared and ducked under it. She fired and her arrow hit Gulnar's leg. It didn't seem to bother him too much though, considering he simply took out the arrow and shot again.

Buffy realized the crystal on his right arm was the thing that enabled him to create the shield as well as shot the blasts and decided to change her tactic. She threw away her crossbow and grabbed the Scythe. Running towards him, she jumped over his next shot and swung the Scythe cutting away his right arm. Gulnar fell on his knees, screaming in pain. He looked in shock at the blonde woman in front of him.

"You have a lot to explain buddy." Buffy kicked away the Goa'uld weapon away from his healthy arm to make sure he won't try to attack her later. Then she hurried to the wounded man Gulnar tortured before. He was in shock, lying on the ground, his whole body shaking and sweating. Buffy looked around, unsure how she could help him when a villager run to her, holding a strange crystal in his hands. He placed it on the wounded man's forehead and the crystal glowed white, all cuts and scratches on the man's skin closing up.

"Nifty thingie." Buffy smiled, watching the villager hurry to the wounded townsmen and heal them the same way as his leader. Buffy noticed the rest of the gang already got rid of the other demons and was coming to join her on the square, together with Willow, who regained consciousness in the meantime. As soon as the villager was done with his friends, he used the crystal to heal Faith's, Dawn's, Xanders' and Giles's injuries as well.

"I'm Farad, the king of Taksaran.", the man Gulnar had tortured introduced himself. "In the name of all people on Risol I thank you for your help."

"You're welcome.", Buffy replied, observing the men who fought against the Unas before the gang reached the square. They definitely weren't just random villagers, but probably guards of the king. "Your men?"

"Yes.", the king nodded. "They protected me, but the demons were too strong. I don't what would happen if you didn't come to help us. How can we repay you?"

"That crystal your servant used to heal his friends.", Buffy replied thoughtfully. "Can we borrow it?"

"I'm afraid this is the only thing I can't give you for free.", Farad sighed. "The stone is holy for our people and according the old rule you'd have to defeat our champion Firon, the guard of our temple, in an axe fight and even then the stone can leave our city only for three days after the solstice."

"Really?" Buffy grinned, picking up the Scythe. "Then we have one problem solved."

----

It took only one day to arrange the duel between Buffy and Firon. In the beginnig the Risolian warrior refused to fight against a small woman, but the king insisted. If Farad didn't see Buffy defeat a Goa'uld, he would never doubt Firon's victory, but now he was anxious to see the duel. In the meantime Giles, Faith and Willow returned to Earth with Gulnar for interrogation, hoping he will explain more about the demon threat.

Buffy, the gang and a large crowd of villagers, townsmen and soldiers from all parts of the kingdom gathered at the same square where Gulnar proclaimed himself as their god the previous day. Firon, the man Buffy was about to face, was dressed pretty much as the other soldiers from his kingdom. Brown dusty leather boots reaching almost to his knees, cloth pants secured by a black belt, his torso protected by hauberk, a helmet with a symbol of a blue four-winged bird, which was the emblem of their elite troops. He carried a large double axe, it's edges in the shape of a half-moon and clearly a work of a proficient craftsman. Firon himself was almost two meters tall, Buffy's head barely reaching the height of his chest and it wasn't surprising he eyed his female opponent with a presumptuous expression spreading over his face. On the other hand, when she studied him closely, he didn't look as the arrogant fop she expected. His features were kind and sort of upset.

"You don't seem to be very enthusiastic about this fight.", Buffy greeted her rival.

"My fellow soldiers will laugh when the tale about this duel reaches their ears by the bonfire. The children and women will whisper my name when they hurl a stone to scare away a hyena.", he replied sadly. "My greatest victory shall be against a woman."

"I guess feminism didn't reach these lands yet, huh?", Buffy arched her eyebrow, more amused then irritated. "I assure you that if you defeat me, which I seriously doubt, the generations to come will remember your name as the greatest warrior of our time."

"You really believe you can win.", he stated, clearly surprised. "Perhaps it's the purpose of your fight that gives you the strength to face your enemies without fear in you eyes? No matter who wins, the people of my homeland will celebrate the defeat of the evil god who tried to enslave us and laugh at me, because I wasn't there when it happened."

"If you were, you'd be probably dead by now.", Buffy objected. "And I certainly didn't come here to lose. Shall we?"

Firon nodded and raised his double axe for the first attack. His swing was aimed precisely at the middle of the Scythe's handle and if Buffy didn't have her slayer reflexes it would cut her weapon in a half. Buffy blocked the assault, sparks flying as the edges of their axes met. Firon stepped back to gain a more advantageous position and then he tried again, lunging forward, this time swinging his weapon horizontally with such a speed and force the blow could easily chop off Buffy's head. However before Firon's axe reached the place where her neck was, Buffy ducked and sommesaulted to get behind him. Without hitting the target, Firon lost his balance and Buffy easily stopped his attempt to regain his footing by tripping up his legs. He fell to the ground, trying to turn around and stand up, but Buffy didn't give him time to regain his previous position. As soon as he turned to his back, she kicked his axe out of his hands and brought the Scythe uncomfortably close to his neck.

"In case you wonder...", Buffy pressed the Scythe closer to Firon's skin, "...this is a good time to give up."

"I yield." , Firon managed to rasp out, stunned how quickly Buffy disarmed him. He was even more surprised when she offered her hand to help him up. The crowd began to cheer, celebrating her victory and Farad was about to congratulate Buffy for her success when Faith came running to Buffy, meanwhile alerting the rest of the gang.

"Faith you look like you have eaten a good-sized bowl of goblin fish." Buffy remarked, watching the expression on the other slayer's face. She abandoned the ring, sending short thanks to the king, excused herself and followed Faith with the rest of the group to the gate. "What's up?", Buffy asked after they passed the entrance to the square.

"Willow did a truth spell to force Gulnar give us all information.", Faith informed Buffy on the way trough the city. "Giles summoned all slayers and watchers to the gym to tell the results to every one and believe me you want to hear that."

----

Twenty minutes later all 459 slayers together with over a hundred watchers were assembled in the gym and waiting for Willow and Giles to begin. Willow started explaining. About the system of Chappa-Ai build by an alien race called the Ancients, the Goa'uld taking over human bodies as hosts, the System Lords wielding the power in this galaxy...

..."The Goa'uld have enemies fighting against them." Willow continued her explanation. "The Tauri. Humans. Gulnar described them as primitive, but he described us as primitive as well and when we first attacked him he originally thought we were Tauri so I think their level of technology is similar to ours. They don't have spaceships but use their Chappa-Ai to travel to other planets. The reason the Goa'uld didn't destroy their civilization is because their world belongs to the 'Treaty of Protected planets'. The Riitu. Aliens.Those of you who saw 'Starship Troopers' pretty much know how they look like. They are very intelligent and have technology that can match the Goa'uld. They also exist in a different phase so they are invisible to a human eye, however the Goa'uld have weapons that can make them visible. The Riitu homeworld was attacked and destroyed by the System Lords and only a few of them managed to escape. The Tok'ra. They are physically identical to the Goa'uld but they don't force the humans to become hosts. Gulnar didn't know how many of them exist. They mostly pretend to be Goa'uld and act as spies, trying to weaken the Goa'uld control in this galaxy. The Asguard. Aliens. They are the most powerful of their enemies and the Goa'uld fear them. They created the 'Treaty of protected planets' and their ships attack if any Goa'uld tries to take over a world that belongs to the Treaty. Bad news is our planet is not part of the treaty."

"So let me summarize this." Buffy interrupted Willow's lecture. "What we fought were not demons but aliens. They have superior technology and can come any time to the Earth with a fleet of deadly ships. We don't have a chance to stop them."

"So what are we going to do about it?" Dawn asked the question that plagued the minds of all people in the gym.

"Willow. You have the complete control over Gulnar right?" Buffy inquired.

"I do.", Willow replied, unaware how the control over him could help them.

"Well." Buffy smirked. "Then I think Gulnar will do us a favor."

End Chapter

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