The notes of the guitar echoed throughout the room one by one, building gently; acoustic, emotional, touching. The voice, soft, male and British, sang each word with love, his timbre infusing every lyric with respect and awe:
"When the Earth was still flat,
and Clouds made of fire
Mountains stretched up to the sky, sometimes higher,
Folks roamed the Earth like big rolling kegs,
They had two sets of arms, they had two sets of legs,
They had two faces peering out of one giant head,
So they could watch all around them as they talked, while they read,
And they never knew nothing of love,
It was before the origin of Love."
There was a slight cough that cut through the darkened room. On the wall opposite was thrown a Powerpoint slide that depicted a flat green and blue world.
Click.
"And there was three sexes then,
On that looked like two men glued up back to back called
The Children of the Sun,
And similar in shape and girth,
Where the Children of the Earth, they looked like two girls rolled up in one,
And the children of the Moon looked like a fork stuck on a spoon- "
Click. Click. Click.
"Damnit, Willow! I thought you said any idiot could use this useless machine!" Giles shouted into the shadows.
"Yes. I did say that, sort of. In a way that I meant that anyone could use it, if they weren't a moron, but it's very dark and I'd hate to have my words taken out of context and used against someone when it wasn't really, probably their fault…"
"It's okay, Will- I'm secure in my moronocity. I'm licensed in three states," Xander flicked the lights on and walked back over to the laptop. "And despite my not having a future as Powerpoint projector guy, I'd like to know how this is educational…"
"This is about the Gods of the Olden-" Giles began.
"This is about you seeing i Hedwig and the Angry Inch /i four times this week at the Sunnydale art house." Xander pointed out.
"That does not diminish its instructive value." Giles sulked, gently stroking his guitar.
"Focus! Please." Buffy cut in. "Not the projector, Will. Giles, you promised to tell us more about where Glory came from, preferably without the minstrel narrative."
"Very well," Giles put down his instrument and walked over to the main table. "I can see when I'm not being utilized to my full potential…"
"He's not going to bring up the whole 'philistine' thing again is he?" Anya groaned. "I'm okay with it, I like being a philistine. It's kinda sexy if you look at it from the right angle, but can we get this over with? There are customers, outside, with money. And may I point out, that's something we don't have a lot of these days since demons keep trashing this place-"
"Yes, all right!" Giles cut her off. "Fine. Back to the story. Earth is old, very old, as you are aware. But the universe was once much younger and new."
"Oo!" Willow raised a hand excitedly. "Is this a young teen world gone wrong story-"
"No, it is not. The story begins much earlier than that, pre-Lifetime, in fact." Giles glowered. "As any chemist will tell you, this world is not the first. The sun is young, but not that young. Stars are like ovens, when they form and as they burn they create certain elements. There are elements in our solar system that can not have been made by our present sun, before the worlds we know were born. There was another, younger sun, with a different set of worlds in orbit, that held life much different than what we know."
"Mulder, this is a pile of shit." Scully routed desperately through the diaper bag looking for a pacifier as the baby screamed and screamed. "There's no way of knowing what the first solar system looked like, let alone who lived on it."
"Ouch." Mulder rocked the infant back and forth, making coo-cooing noises. "It's just a story. Anyway, born out of Chaos was a goddess, who gave birth to the seas and the mountains and the sky-
"And she married her own son, castrated the ruling god; I know my mythology, however much you're twisting it. What I don't understand is-"
"What's going on here?"
"Sorry, Kermit. I promise the chickens will be gone by tomorrow. It's just the Fab Five are coming over to renovate the theatre and Camila and I wanted to do something special for Carson."
"No," Kermit reached for the phone, "What's going on here? Why are we talking like this?"
"Oh," Gonzo said, shooing some chickens out of the way. "Cultural narrative. The Watchtower incorporates cultural figures to help the user adjust to the environment or provide answers to any of their questions. But it's only good to plus or minus three decades."
"Excellent, Smithers. But what is the turniped-nose vaudevillian buffoon trying to say?"
"Well, sir, it seems that the last solar system was destroyed violently, and there was only one survivor, who embedded herself into our world, forever hiding from the destroyer of her children."
"Hiding? In my precious earth? Who is this anti-establishment soil-dwelling harpy?"
"Gaia, at least that's the name that will make sense to you. Sidney, its very important that she not be found. The creature that destroyed her race and the old worlds has been hunting for her for four billion years." Marshall looked nervous. "If found, she won't be able to stop it from destroying this system all over again."
"Marshall, this thing, this destroyer, what's it called? Does it have a name?"
"Every culture has a different name for it, from one side of the Universe to another. It feeds of the very essence of a planet, sucking it dry of life. Culling its way through reality. But we do know that in legend it was called-"
"The Ruiner." Tegan, her black talons dripping with blood and ether, hoisted the shadowy figure out of the Doctor's chest, out from the flesh and into the light. The twisting and thrashing blackness spit sinuous tendrils that raged and flailed against Tegan's battlesuit, as if fueled by all the demons in hell. Turlough rushed to the Doctor's side, who had curled up into a bleeding, fetal ball. Tegan held the creature up by the neck, and stared it in the face. "Get the hell off my planet bitch!"