Pain was the first thing she noticed. Xander tried to open her eyes but her vision swam and she was forced to clamp them shut again. After several long, dizzy moments Xander felt as if the world had stabilized enough to open her eyes. What she saw was not comforting.

Xander immediately noticed that she was upright with her arms chained to the rock wall she was against. The dizziness she'd felt moments before had kept Xander from realizing she'd even been standing. A quick jerk on the shackles showed they were secure.

Things got worse as Xander looked around. The goddesses and the other Scoobies were also chained to the wall. Buffy looked furious and was struggling with her own restraints to no avail. Angel was doing the same but cursing colorfully as he did so. Urd, Giles, and Belldandy were silent but each seemed deep in thought. Skuld, looking sweaty and a little tired, had apparently also been trying to free herself but was now taking a breather. Giles was chained to the wall to Xander's right and was giving the teen a familiar worried look.

"Are you all right, Xander?" asked Giles. "You took quite a nasty blow to the head. We were starting to get rather concerned."

"I feel like the floor of the gym after a basketball game but I'll live. What's going on? Where's Mara?"

"Gone for the moment but I suspect she'll return to start her ritual soon."

Giles tilted his head towards the center of the room where the large pentagram was now surrounded by five tall candelabras. A few dozen sinister-looking black candles were glowing with crimson flames. On the other side of the cavern the earth elementals stood sentry in rocky silence.

"This is looking bad," gulped Xander. "Any ideas?"

Giles shook his head. "I'm afraid not. And that's not the end of it. It seems there's been another player in all this behind the scenes until now."

"Damn if this night doesn't just keep getting better and better."

Giles nodded. "I'd say that at least things can't get any worse but with this being Sunnydale and all it's almost certain that they can."

Just then Sigyn and Mara entered from the room that had previously be been the Master's throne room.

"The appointed time is almost at hand, Mara," said Sigyn in a brisk tone. "You've done well. I am most pleased."

Mara smiled. But it was not her usual smile of sadistic pleasure. Instead it seemed to a smile of true happy satisfaction. "Thank you, Lady Sigyn. It's…been a long time since you've said something like that to me. Hearing you speak like that again…"

Sigyn turned to Mara and placed her right hand against the demon's cheek in a motherly fashion. "It's as if things were as they once were so very long ago," finished the goddess wistfully. "This is as it should be. For soon we shall right that ancient wrong that was done to both of us. What once was shall be again."

Mara closed her eyes and raised her right hand and placed it on Sigyn's outstretched arm. "Aye," she replied softly. "Things shall be as they once were."

Sigyn broke away from the demon and headed towards the pentagram. "Before we begin the spell let us inform our…guests of the glorious event they are about to be witness to. I would see despair on their faces before we commence."

"Hey guys, the villain is going to explain her master plan to us," mocked Buffy. "Be sure to take notes. This might be on the test."

"Don't speak that way to Lady Sigyn, you little bitch!" snarled Mara, crimson energy crackling in her eyes for an instant.

Urd and Belldandy had been stunned silent since Sigyn had entered the room. It was Belldandy who found her voice first. "Sigyn…I can't believe it. It's impossible."

"I know what you mean," said Urd. "But it's her, sis. It's her. But I've never seen such a look of---"

"Hatred?" interrupted Sigyn. "It is strange for you to see such a feeling in my eyes, isn't it? Once, when things were different, hatred was unknown to me. But that was before. Now hatred is the fire that keeps me going. Seeing the looks on your faces when I present my hatred to the cosmos shall bring me great joy."

"Lady, who the heck are you?" demanded Skuld.

For a moment Sigyn actually seemed taken aback. But she quickly regained herself and again a wistful smile came to her face "Ah, sweet Skuld, I see the changes time has wrought on you have made you forget me. How sad. We were close once long ago."

"You're screwy in the head! I've never seen you before in my life! All that stuff with you and Loki and Baldr happened when I was too young to remember."

"So you're name is Sigyn and you're mad about something. Why don't you get some therapy?" snapped the Slayer as she again jerked on her chains. "Now do you want to tell us what you're after? And I really hope it's not S&M."

"Despite your impertinence if you will be patient I shall tell you what it is I want," replied the goddess. "But first I wish you all to know how this glorious moment came to be."

Sigyn then cast a knowing gaze at Mara. "Pay attention, dear. Even you are unaware of much of what I have done to bring about this moment. From what I know of your more recent…escapades a lesson on working from the shadows would seem to be in order."

Mara looked openly puzzled. "I don't understand what you mean, my lady."

The goddess only smiled vaguely. "I know. Watch and learn, young one.

My servants, I summon you!"

There was a flash of crimson light and when it faded Wally and Zack stood a few feet from the pentagram. When they saw Sigyn the pair immediately fell to their knees.

"Mistress, how may we serve you?" asked Zack, his eyes cast respectfully at the ground.

"Whoa, what the hell!" gasped Mara who then pointed at the pair and turned to Sigyn. "They're the two humans from the bus station in L.A.! Hearing the fat one talk about Sunnydale is fat gave me the idea to come here."

His eyes still on the ground Wally grimaced at the word "fat." Beside him Zack smiled briefly to himself.
"You're coming to the Hellmouth was key to my plan, Mara," informed Sigyn. "To escape the notice of those who would try and stop me I could not contact you directly. I but could locate you and bring the idea of coming to Sunnydale to your attention. I know of your history with this place and was certain that you would need but a nudge to return here."

Mara blinked a few times and then chuckled. "Cardinal rule of the trickster; make them think it was their idea. Well played, my lady."

"Like you, I learned from the very best," said Sigyn. "Now, my loyal servants, show our guests your true form and I will enlighten them as to your role in this grand scheme."

"Aye, mistress," chorused Wally and Zack before standing. Then the duo closed their eyes and whispered a word in a strange, flowing tongue. Crimson energy formed an aura around the two and then quickly faded.

While their physical frames had remained the consistent everything else about the pair had changed. Their hair had become white and flowed well pass their shoulders and their eyes were a malicious red. The pair's features had become sharper and their ears were decidedly pointy. Most striking was that their skin which was now the color of obsidian.

"Svartálfar!" gasped Belldandy.

"Uh, clarification?" said Buffy.

"They're elves," replied Urd. "Dark elves from the land of Svartálheim."

"So not the living in trees and baking cookies kind of elves I take it?" quipped Xander.

"Dammit, I am tired of that stereotype!" snapped the elf who had called himself Wally. "No, we don't make cookies or shoes or toys! The dark elves are powerful warriors, human, and don't you forget it!"

"We're actually more like the dark elves of your fantasy literature," informed the elf who had used the name Zack. "Like Drizzt Do'Urden, but, ya know, evil. Funny the sort of stuff dice-rollin' nerds can get right sometimes, isn't it?"

"Allow me to introduce Wyri and Zhat," began Sigyn. "Despite their fondness for bickering and speaking in the vernacular they are actually quite capable and unflinchingly loyal to me.

Sigyn strolled a few paces towards the goddesses at looked at them smugly. "Moving on, you goddesses doubtlessly are wondering why it is that that you cannot free yourselves from those chains."

"Don't treat us like we're stupid, Sigyn," growled Urd. "These would have to be magical chains to bind goddesses. Damn powerful ones at that. Where did you get these?"

"From the dwarves of Niðavellir, of course. It was not easy to have these chains forged in secret. But I knew powerful forces might try and stop my plan and so these chains were made so that they were strong enough to bind even a god."

Sigyn looked at the goddesses with an acidic gaze. "As I'm sure you recall that's something I am very familiar with."

"Hey, Urd, you enjoyin' learning how Prometheus felt?" taunted Mara.

"Mara, do be quite. I still have things I wish to say," chided Sigyn. "As I've told you, there are parts of this plan which I have not shared with you yet. For instance, of all the spells you can cast why did you choose a chaos burst?"

The demon quietly thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "The idea just kinda came to me. I hadn't though about the book that had the chaos burst spell in it for years. But after I decided to go to Sunnydale the idea just came to me like a bolt out of the blue."

"And do you still think that such an idea was mere chance at this point?"

"Er…"

Sigyn laughed deeply and richly. "Do you recall, Mara, when you stole that bag of sleep sand from a sandman?"

The demon nodded.

"The sandman's master, Morpheus; the god of sleep, was most displeased with his carelessness and punished him severely. Not surprisingly that sandman hates you with a fiery passion. That hatred so blinded him that I was able to use it to make him my pawn.

"I sent Wyri and Zhat to him claiming to be agents of another whom you had wronged. They provided him with magical sand I made myself and told him it would influence your dreams and fill your heart hatred of your fellow demons. He was told that you would quickly be driven mad and would lash out at other demons that would eventually destroy you. He was suspicious at first, but agreed when Zhat convinced him your end would be the start of a greater gambit against demon-kind."

"That's quite a lie, my lady," said Mara with a small smirk. "But I'd have never gotten that sand from him with that sandman wasn't rather guidable."

"The best lies are the ones that are almost true, Mara," replied the goddess with a thin smile.

Confusion again grew on Mara's face. "Almost true?"

"Oh, the sand was most assuredly magic but it was not meant to drive you mad. It was to plant the idea of a chaos burst in your mind. A sandman was the perfect courier for this because even to gods and demons sandmen are but wisps of shadows."

"Like a subliminal message," said Urd. "Did you hear that, Mara! She's messing with your head!"

"Shut your cake hole, Urd!" snapped Mara.

The goddess glared at the demon. "Dammit, Mara, I'm the one on your side not her! Can't you see that you're just another pawn to her!"

Sigyn looked at Urd contemptuously as she placed a hand on Mara's shoulder. "Not a pawn, you lazy, drunken, libertine. Mara is a knight. A knight in service to her queen."

"True queens don't brainwash their knights," spat Urd.

Mara shrugged nonchalantly. "We demons don't see mind games between friends quite as negatively as you uptight celestial sorts do. Honestly, Urd, you always did take some things way too personally."

A rather vicious stream of profanity was Urd's only response.

"Putting young Urd's vulgar mouth aside I shall continue," said Sigyn. The goddess again put her hand to Mara's cheek. "You see, my dear, an idea was not the only thing concealed within the sand. When I made that sand I added a bit of my own blood to the mixture. As I expected, doing so put a little of me with within you."

"Kinky," quipped Xander. Everyone ignored her.

"Have you not noticed a change within yourself, dear Mara?" asked Sigyn. "Have you not noticed that your thinking is clearer? That your power is stronger than it has ever been? Most importantly, have you not felt the hatred you feel for those goddesses over there, the ones who betrayed you, burn hotter than ever before?"

Mara blinked in confusion. "I…I do hate them. But, my lady, Urd and her sisters have never betrayed me. I don't understand what you mean."

"It's called projecting," interrupted Buffy. "Again, I suggest therapy."

Sigyn paused for a moment to collect herself. "Despite her crude way of speaking the Slayer is correct. It was I you three betrayed. Not Mara."

"Sigyn, if you're referring to what I think you mean you must understand th--" began Belldandy.

"There's nothing to understand!" howled Sigyn, crimson energy flaring in her eyes for a moment. "You three and all the gods betrayed me! In the darkest moment of my life, I asked for one small thing and all of you turned your backs on me and left me to suffer."

"I have no idea what you're talkin' about, you freak!" retorted Skuld. "What are we supposed to have not given you anyway?"

Sigyn glared at Skuld. "Mercy," she said simply. "Because of the hate in the hearts of the gods I and those I love suffered. But tonight that suffering shall end and the cosmos shall be repaid a thousand fold for what they have done to my family."

"Please don't let this mean what I think it does," whispered Giles just loudly enough for Xander to hear.

The angry goddess turned to in the librarian's direction and smiled. "Oh, but my presence here does mean what you fear. I can see in your eyes that you've guessed. You are a smart one for a mortal man."

Sigyn strode proudly over to the front of the pentagram before turning to her captives and smiled a smile that chilled goddess and human alike. "I have waited for this night across the eons and now my heart's greatest wish shall come true! Tonight, my husband, Loki, shall be free again!"

The goddesses each gasped, Angel's scowl deepened and Giles grew visibly paler.

"Even I know that's not good," said Xander.

"Gee, you think?" mocked Angel.

"I really hate being the only clueless one here," said Buffy. "A little 411 please!"

Sigyn chuckled to herself. "Do enlighten your charge, Watcher. It won't do for one of you to be witness to this moment and not fully understand its magnitude."

Giles turned to Buff and began to speak quickly. "Loki is the Norse god of trickery and husband of Sigyn. Loki grew jealous of his brother Baldr, god of innocence, beauty, joy, purity, and peace, and arranged his death. As punishment the other gods bound Loki to three slabs of stone, placed a serpent over his head so that its venom would drip onto him. Sigyn chose to stay by her husband's side and collected the venom in a wooden bowl. But eventually she would have to empty the bowl when it fills up. When that happens the searing venom drips onto Loki's face. The pain from this is said to be so terrible that his writhing creates earthquakes.

"It is also said that one day Loki will break free of his bonds. He will then lead an army of frost giants against the gods of Asgard in a war called Ragnarök that will eventually bring an end to the entire universe."

"Wait!" said Urd. "If you're here who's tending to Loki? If that venom was hitting his face there should be quakes the world over right now."

"I recruited Angrboda to handle that for the moment," informed Sigyn.

Buffy, Angel, and Xander looked at Giles. "Angrboda is Loki's mistress," he clarified.

"So the guy's a cheater? Doesn't really sound like the sorta guy enduring centuries of misery would be worth for," teased Buffy as she looked at their captor.

"You do not understand the ways of the mighty," replied Sigyn, icily. "He is a god. His is one of the Aesir. He is to be allowed his…dalliances."

"The earthquakes that have been happening in Sunnydale recently. That wasn't just nature. That was Loki!" accused Angel.

Sigyn chuckled as she turned to regard the vampire. "My, my, the leech has more than fangs in its head. Yes, my husband knows he will soon be free. He struggles with all his strength to be free as he as not done in so very long. The small tremors you have felt are nothing to the wrath that burns within him. Once he is free the gods and this realm of yours shall pay for his suffering."

"I get why you're mad at the gods but what did we ever do to you?" yelled Xander.

"Personally, you mortals did nothing to me, little girl," mocked Sigyn. "But the gods care for this world and you mortals. That is reason enough to bring chaos and ruin to it."

"So everyone has to suffer just because the gods punished your murderer husband and you didn't have the good sense to leave him," said Buffy, hotly. "Talk about a selfish motive."

"Oh, but that is not all they did to me," hissed Sigyn. "They took I and Loki's sons, dear Narfi and Váli, turned them into wolves, and set them upon each other. Váli tore his own brother to pieces!"

The enraged goddess glared at Urd and Belldandy. "They turned my children, my innocent children, into beasts and watched as one slaughtered the other! They condemned me to watch my husband bound in chains and endure pain so awful in would make a god scream!

"At Loki's trial I cried and begged for mercy for my family. But not one god or goddess would say a word in our name. No one spoke when Odin declared that not only must Loki be punished but his sons as well! But oh how they gathered to watch and cheer as the sons of Loki rended each other to ribbons.

"Not even you three, who I loved as if you were my own, would speak for me," Sigyn continued, her gaze shifting from goddess to goddess as she spoke. "Of all the gods and goddesses in Asgard I thought surely you three would stand by me. But you betrayed me just as all the other gods did!"

Silence loomed heavy in the room as the goddesses looked at each other and the vampire, the Slayer and the ordinary human looked on.

It was Urd who spoke first. "It was a different world then, Sigyn, you know that. Justice had to hard and brutal because that's what the universe was. We cared for you as much as you did for us. But Baldr's death was like a dagger in the heart of all of the Golden Realm. Even after all this time I've still never felt such despair. Baldr was the light of Asgard."

"Do you think we weren't hurt by what happened?" said Belldandy. "Do you think that we didn't care about Narfi and Váli? Do you think our hearts didn't break when you chose to stand beside Loki and try and spare him some of his pain even knowing that meant you'd have to leave Asgard, and us, until Ragnarök? Because, I swear to you, we were suffering too."

At her sister's words Urd's face grew adamant. "What Belldandy says is true. But that didn't change the fact that Loki had to be punished. He had to be punished no matter what."

Sigyn strode to the Norn and leaned in until their faces were just inches apart. "Even if that price was my family?"

Urd did not blink. "Yes. Even if that was the price."

Sigyn stared long and hard at Urd for a time. Eventually she stepped back and crossed her arms. "It seems I was mistaken. The Urd of old is still within you. The drunken buffoon has not replaced the warrior and daughter of the Golden Realm."

"I'm goddess of the Past," said Urd, coldly. "I invented old school. Let me out of these chains and I'll show you Urd the warrior."

"I've seen Urd the warrior and was not impressed. Or have you forgotten that it you who are now in chains?" retorted Sigyn.

Sigyn then turned to Mara. "Enough with this storytelling. My tale has been told and now it is time to begin the ritual."

Mara nodded and moved to stand on one side of the pentagram while Sigyn positioned herself on the other. They raised their hands high in the air and began to chant quickly in a brusque tongue older than any ever spoken by mortals. Crimson energy flowed from the top of the pentagram which immediately flowed through the lines of the symbol, the energy blazing and cracking like fire. As the chanting continued the same energy haloed Sigyn and Mara's hands and glowed in their eyes.

The dark elves feel to their knees and prostrated themselves in the direction of the pentagram and the elementals looked on as silent as ever.

Suddenly, with the brightest flash of light yet and roar like a tornado, the ground under the pentagram vanished leaving only an inky black hole.

"I so do not want to see the white rabbit that would come out of that hole," gulped Xander.

"Now is not the time for jokes!" chided Giles.

"It's either jokes or I wet myself."

"Then by all means continue."

"This is looking bad," said Angel. "Buffy, if we don't get out of this, I need to say--"

"Don't go there," interrupted the Slayer. "We've said goodbye enough. And we're not going down this easy." Buffy then began to pull on her chains again.

"Any ideas?" asked Urd to her sisters. "Because I'm fresh out."

"Oh, if I was loose I'd teach Mara and that nutjob a lesson!" huffed Skuld.

"I'm afraid we can only trust in the Almighty to provide a way to stop this," said Belldandy. "Faith is our only weapon now."

From somewhere deep within the pit came a howl of rage and pain. Then there was the sound of clanking chains.

Sigyn and Mara stopped their chanting and gazed at the pit. "My husband stirs! Already the chaos we shall soon bring forth loosens his bonds!"

"Sigyn?" came a deep, horse voice from the pit.

"Master?" whispered Mara.

"It is Loki!" gasped Belldandy.

"Aw, damn, is this bad!" gulped Urd.

"My husband!" cried Sigyn. "We have woven the spell. We need only wait for the power of the chaos burst to gather. Once it is released you will be free again!"

"My beloved, I knew you would free me! Hurry so that I might be free again! Hurry so that I can exact my revenge! Hurry that I might bring Ragnarök to this unjust universe!"

"Yes!" replied Sigyn. "Only after the cleansing fire has wiped this tainted creation of an existence away can a new and better world be born! It is time to fulfill your destiny, my love! Be the spark that starts the fire which burns away everything!"

"Did he say Ragnarök?" said Skuld, her voice strong with panic. "That's the end of the whole universe!"

"No, it can't be! Now is not the time for Ragnarök!" cried Belldandy.

"In Sunnydale it's always time for an apocalypse," quipped Buffy as she continued to pull at her chains. "It's kinda like jell-o that way."

"Mara, can't you see they're both insane!" shouted Urd. "It's too soon for Ragnarök! You know this! You can't want this!"

Sigyn fixed her gaze on Mara. "Did you not swear to Loki, your teacher who treated you as a daughter, that you would fight at his side come Ragnarök? Do you not want revenge on those in Asgard who always looked down on you because you were born a demon? Do you not feel the call of chaos and destruction in your very blood?"

"I do," began Mara, hesitantly. "But, my lady, you never said…now is not meant to be the time for Ragnarök! To begin Ragnarök too soon would mean the end of all things. There would be no world of any kind once the old one was swept away!

"Lies!" retorted Sigyn. "Lies told by cowardly and corrupt gods who feared the better world my husband was prophesied to bring about when the universe was still young!"

"She speaks true, Mara!" called Loki as the sound of chains grew stronger. "Stand by my side once more. Let us show existence chaos it has never known before it dies!"

"You know that that if Ragnarök starts too soon it'll mean nothing but oblivion for gods and demons alike!" cried Urd. "You have to decide, Mara! What you chose to do right now will decide the fate of the entire universe! You have to choose right now!"

The demon looked at her onetime friend chained to a wall, desperation filling her eyes. She looked at Sigyn who was gazing at her with mania in her eyes. In the pit below Loki bellowed again and the sound of chains grew stronger still.

Mara gulped.

To be continued…

Author's Notes: Yes, I know it's been an age since I updated. This chapter, even though it's short, proved to be a real struggle for me. I ran into some plot problems I hadn't expected, had to do some more research to make sure the Norse mythology was correct, and tinker with the dialogue quite a bit.

Even though I love to write exposition this chapter had more of it than any other in this story. I had to lay everything out here and that also proved a challenge. Hopefully I managed to make all the threads from the previous chapters tie together.

When I first read the myth of Sigyn I knew there was a potential story there. But I was already well into plotting this story when I got the idea to incorporate Sigyn into the mix. I had to have some believable reason for why Mara was suddenly so formidable and an outside influence like and pissed off goddess seemed just the ticket.

Yeah, it meant breaking from the timeline and not having Glory be the first goddess the Scoobies would have to fight. But I can live with a slight change in the Buffy timeline for the sake of a story.

I'm sure the revelation about the true nature of Wally and Zack was a surprise. But if you look back over the story you'll notice that, except when they're tricking Mara, they never refer to each other by those names. The dark elves in fantasy worlds are loosely based on the ones from Norse mythology and I thought it would be to use them and have them be like the dark elves of fiction.

Drizzt Do'Urden is the most popular of the fictional dark elves and hails from the Forgotten Realms universe. I strongly recommend the story where Drizzt is introduced, "The Dark Elf Trilogy". Anyone who likes fantasy should really enjoy it.

Anyway, after all that talk it'll be time for big action in the next chapter. It will be out whenever I finish writing it and not before.