Chapter 9 – Revelations – Part II

Buffy, Xander and his new pet, Ares, arrived at the Slayer's house some time later. Dawn was at the living room, sprawled on the carpet, two books opened and her notebook right under her chin, her attention completely focused on something in one of the books. Ares suddenly jumped in front of them, going straight to the teen. Dawn jumped up on the first lick from the dog on her face.

"HEY! BLERGH! Stop! Stop! Damn, dog, STOP!" she managed to hold the licking husky away from her face. Xander and Buffy were at the door, laughing their guts out. "Who is the DEAD owner of this demon dog?" Dawn asked, struggling to keep the tongue away from her face.

"I believe you are, Dawnie." Xander answered, in between laughs. Buffy looked at her friend, typical 'I'm-not-gonna-take-care-of-a-giant-furball!' scowl in her face. Xander gave her a good look, and stopped laughing immediately. Not wise to piss the Slayer off.

Ares finally stopped struggling, and he sat right in front of Dawn, obediently. Dawn gave him a good look, and he, to Xander's eyes, nodded to her. Dawn lifted an eyebrow, in what Xander might call Sorceress' fashion, and looked to the dog's new owner. Xander only grinned, slightly. The actions were so quick and simple that Buffy didn't noticed a thing.

Dawn assumed her 'role' as a teen, and asked. "So, who's the dog and what's the occasion?"

"That's Ares, Dawn, and he belonged to a couple who used to live here in SunnyD. And the occasion is nothing special, only that he decided to follow me this morning." Xander answered, plopping on the sofa. Ares slowly walked to him and sat over his feet.

"Used to?" Dawn asked, curious.

"Vamps. Tonight, I hunt." Buffy answered, face set. Dawn looked at Xander, who only shrugged.

"So, you guys hungry? Ordered some Italian. There is a beef lasagna for you, Buffy, and some leftovers for you, Xander, if you want."

Xander's stomach gave his characteristic answer, growling furiously. He deadpanned "I'm not too hungry, but since you are such a nice lady, I think I'm gonna accept your suggestion, my dear." He said, raising from the sofa in the direction of the kitchen.

"Could you heat mine up? I'm gonna take a shower, Giles wants me to return to the library to train." Buffy spoke while already going upstairs.

"Sure."

They ate in silence, the only sound were those of the cutlery and Dawn scribbling in her notebook. Ares was asleep in the rug. Xander finished his dish, looking at the dog.

"Damn, gonna have to buy dog food later on. And see his license. And damn, where he's gonna sleep? My house is out of question, at least for now."

Buffy raised her head from the food, looking at the dog. An idea was forming on her head. She didn't want to leave the dog, but she couldn't take care of him either.

"Hey, I have an idea." She spoke, grabbing hers and Xander's dishes and placing them in the kitchen's sink. "The dog can sleep here. ONLY sleep" she spoke louder when Xander and Dawn rose to speak. "Rest of the day he's yours, Xander, I believe you can look out for him. And he sleeps in the basement, there is enough room. If you want to set up a nice place for him in there, go ahead. But if he messes mine or Dawn's clothes your and his ass are grass. Got me?"

The teenager was astounded. He surely wasn't expecting that.

"Y-yeah, I got you. Thanks, Buff." He answered, seriously.

"Least I could do for a friend, and for that couple."

"Nothing you could do, Buffy. You can't save everyone."

"Yeah, I know. Doesn't make me feel much better." she spoke, face downcast. "Look, gotta run. Giles' gonna un-starch the tweed if I'm late."

"Sure. Tell him I said hi, ok?"

She was opening the door, and she almost had her nose knocked on by a small hand. It was Willow, with her backpack in hand.

"Oops, sorry, Buffy." the redheaded wicca reddened considerably.

"Hey, no prob. Gotta go, stuffy and punctual English mentor-father figure is waiting."

"Oh, yes, I know. Tell him..."

"I said hi. Yeah, I know. Bye." She had walked a couple of steps when she turned back to Willow. "Remember, patrol buddy tonight, girl."

"Yes, I remember. Gonna meet you at the library near sunset, 'k?"

"'k. Bye."

The Heirs sat at the sofa, while Dawn, in her "Sorceress-mode" as Xander mentally nicknamed the action, looked to a place far in her mind's past.

"I didn't have time to cry for my failure and error. Before I could make another move, S'kor had Teela grabbed by Lyn, and he was threatening me..."

Adam was crying, he had lost his sister, his world was ending. He didn't understand. How could the magic fail her? The Royal Castle was in ruins, and he didn't knew if his parents were dead or alive, his sword and her sister's were in possession of two Mon, his only way of escape was entrenched on Grayskull and none of the Masters had appeared.

Damn, how could they have made so many mistakes? Teela didn't have to suffer all this, all it would take was a confession. And he had trusted her enough to know that, if he were the one to tell her the truth, none of this would have happened. But it wasn't the secret identity he was scared of, was it?

But none of this mattered anymore. Teela had betrayed all of them, and if he knew S'kor, and he was adamantly sure that he did, no one had survived in the Castle. His parents, dead. Duncan, dead. Orko, dead. Cringer, dead. Everyone he knew and loved, dead. And the woman he had loved was dead also, if not in body, then in spirit.

He looked at Swiftwind with the corner of his eyes. Without her sister to hold the power, he was back to a normal horse. At the moment, he was at her body's side, as if protecting it. Damn it all to Hell! If he could release himself, S'kor would be a dead man.

"Sorceress, open the Castle. I know you would do anything to save your daughter. So, open Grayskull to me and I'll let her go." S'kor yelled over the dead calmness of the air. No sound was being made. No bird chirped, no wind chimed, nothing. It seemed as if Eternia knew that the end was coming.

Inside the castle, Sorceress was crying for the first time since she let her daughter go with Duncan. She had failed the Heir to Honor, and she had paid with her life, and the powerful Guardian of the Castle had paid with her soul.

Probably Teela was right. If there weren't a Castle, then nobody would try to claim its powers. So, she asked the Cosmos and the Creator of All for forgiveness while she was devising a plan.

S'kor was beginning to worry. He held the perfect hand, and the last draw had been perfect. He was free from an annoyance. The other one he still needed, for ransom purposes, but once this farce had ended, so would he.

But the other player was taking too long to move. This was worrisome. If she could stop to think, she could forfeit his attempt.

What was his surprise when the drawbridge began its descent, hitting the ground with a thud. S'kor murmured a "Thank you", while motioning for Lyn to follow him, Teela still held hostage.

The trio entered the Castle. The interior seemed normal enough for a Castle, but anyone with only a microscopical measure of mystical senses could detect the impossibly strong magic that ran through those walls. S'kor's mind was whirling with the possibilities. Eternia was too small, he could conquer the Galaxy with the power held in here. But first, he had to evict the landlord.

They arrived at the Sorceress' chamber. The pyramid had its glow dimmed, and the Seeing Pool was still. The Castle Keeper was downcast, face low in concentration.

"Ah, my dear Sorceress. Please step down, so I can seat in my rightful place." S'kor spoke, while climbing the first steps.

"Release Teela." She spoke, finally. S'kor was sensing something different about her, but...

"Ah, yes, I forgot. Lyn, if you please." He motioned for his lieutenant.

Lyn drove her free arm back, and with a mighty thrust, shoved her fingers into Teela's head. The sound was sickening, and the blood flew high. Teela dropped without a sound, eyes glazing immediately.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" The scream pierced dimensions. The Sorceress thought in running to her daughter's body, but if S'kor sat in the throne, all would be in vain.

So, she spoke the last verse of the spell.

"Did you know what my mistake was? I was too confident. Too confident that good would always prevail, and the power of good would protect us all. In only a couple of days, the Creator proved my mistake. I lost a daughter that I've never had and those who I thought as my family, my honor and my soul."

"You were only human." Willow spoke. She hadn't yet cried, but her eyes were filled to the brim.

"I think that was the first mistake. We are too fallible, our minds are not made to understand the power I used to have under me. I was more than human, and at the same time, I was less. I should have been only the Sorceress, the Gatekeeper, but I made a mistake, I became human once, and because of that, I killed an entire planet."

Xander was mute until now. He asked in a low tone, angrily. "What do you mean, 'killed a planet'?"

The Sorceress sighed. She was afraid of that, but, if the Heirs were to fulfill the prophecy, she would need to tell them everything.

"You see, in the attempt to stop S'kor to possess the powers of Grayskull, I devised a plan. I would destroy the Castle, and the energy would be released into another dimension, an empty one, causing it to implode and explode again. Think of it as a Big Bang. No Castle, no powers, no conquest, right? That was my final mistake, one that I must pay until my time comes..."

The spell was very complicated and the solution would be a final one. When the Sorceress spoke the final verse, all of the Castle's mystical energy began converging into her body. She didn't want the power to herself, she would only act as a conduit for its final destination, the empty dimension she had chosen.

"YOU FOOL!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" S'kor screamed under the mystical storm. He hastily conjured a protection spell, enveloping himself. He gave Lyn a quick look, and he saw when she disappeared in the backlash from a mystical bolt.

The chamber around him didn't even looked like a chamber anymore, it looked as if the Universe was re-forming itself. At the center of the mystical maelstrom, stood a screaming Sorceress, her body lit up like a billion lights. A giant dimensional hole formed up over her head, and she raised her arms, directing the energy to the hole.

S'kor devised one final plan. He looked at his scepter one last time, and he fell to the ground, apparently dead. The barrier vanished, and his body was struck by one of the mystical bolts, disappearing.

The plan had worked, if the Sorceress was sentient enough to see it. But her body and mind were so enveloped into the mystical energies she couldn't feel a thing in the mortal realm. She was a goddess right now, if she so wanted. But she was still rational enough to know that such power shouldn't belong to anyone. She kept feeding energy to the dimension, but suddenly, something went very wrong.

Castle Grayskull was a multi-dimensional focus of mystical energies. All of those energies were kept in check by carefully placed wards and keys. The Sorceress' spell simply cracked all the wards and opened all the keys at a single time. So, the dimensions started to crack, and to feed more energy into the already stormy mix.

That, the Sorceress had no control over. It was like protecting oneself for some light rain and suddenly be struck by a hurricane.

The spell went haywire, and the energy feed began to ebb to other dimensions. Beings that had nothing to do with it suddenly began to receive mystical energies that empowered them to unthinkable levels. Beings of Good. Beings of Evil. Energy didn't discern among those.

The small amount of control that the Sorceress still held vanished in the blink of an eye. She was still a conduit, like a wire in an electrical circuit, and until the circuit was broken, she would stay there.

Suddenly, the dimension to which much of the energy was still being sent to overfilled with it, and like a barrel, it began to spill over. And, in a dimension overfilled with energies, two things could happen. Either it would collapse unto itself and end, or it would re-create itself, in a Big Bang.

To the Sorceress' dismay, the latter happened. The energy collapsed onto itself, and it exploded in less than a second.

That was the end.

"I still had the dimensional gate opened above me. In one last attempt, I tried to close it. I succeeded, but that was of no comfort. Grayskull still had much power, and the backlash of the Big Bang was the final piece in an already unstable scenario. My body was destroyed in the backlash, and the mystical circuit was broken. The mystic energies had nowhere to go without control, so they exploded violently. The Castle was reduced to less than dust, and the planet was scorched flat by the release. Not much survived."

- To be continued -