Shado of the Covenant

by Myrddin le Jinn

(former penname Myrddin le Fay) - At sixteen, Shado (her taken name) ruled London's underground. A protector and villain. She liked her life the way it was. Then she met the wizards that threw her away and hated her for existing. She is crowned: Queen of the Covenant of Witches, and finds her twin sister, and together with new allies they will build their forces to save the world.

31. Sunnydale

Authors Note: If you want to read a version with some more graphic lemon scenes, search for me on Archive of Our Own dot org forward slash users forward slash OutlawRealms, thanks for reading.

Shado of the Covenant

Chapter 31

Sunnydale

It was dark and kind of creepy to tell the truth. Sunnydale California was a name of irony in Shado's honest opinion. She had already moved past three creepy cemeteries on her way to find a local inn that might be open at half eleven at night. It shouldn't be too hard. Back in London, she remembered that hotels were open 24/7 in some places. Anyway, half eleven wasn't that late, so she shouldn't have to feel concerned about where she would get a good night's rest, even if she had to squat in some unused building, she would be happy, as she could get her business done by the next morning anyway, if she ignored Glory and the Slayer, which she didn't want to.

Shado had just phoned home and spoken with Rose on her cell phone. She sounded as if she was having a great time, and thanked her for Narielle, as the demoness has an amazing tongue, and Ginny, as she was on speaker, seconded that while Narielle said it was her pleasure too. It was a shame Rose and Ginny couldn't have come with her, to keep her company, and enjoy the vacation, but things were a little more complicated than they would have ever liked, especially with Ginny, but she was happy they were having fun.

Hiding Ginny from her 'family' was step one of Shado's and Rose's plans to save her from her whack job, Dumbledore worshiping family, but at least, though she hated admitting it, her twin brothers were okay guys, and stuck with her. But then the Weasley twins were closet genius, and they could see bull-crap when it was presented as the 'right thing'.

Next, they had to get Ginny adopted into Shado's family, like a sister of sorts, and magical lore would easily arrange that if everything was done right. It was just that they had to wait awhile while Amelia and some other agents fast tracked the papers, and had them approved before Dumbledore found out and taught Arthur Weasley how he could stop it from taking place, but they had back up plans in place.

Because magical lore was ever changing, arranged marriages were not enforceable. Just because the magical people didn't change with popular opinion, or take opinion in from the 'non-magical-world' didn't mean that lore of magic didn't. The magical lore in many respects was sentient and watchful, from what had been studied about it, and was like an intangible and incorruptible god or goddess, or something like that, and it shifted and changed with all branches of magic all around the world, probably even celestial magic too.

It came into being, thousands of years in the past where powerful witches and wizards (who essentially could have been called God-like that was how much more powerful they were) needed something to keep them in line, give them structure; the world needed some order to the chaos, and therefore it was borne unto the world. Back then, there was no magical world, and they lived, hidden amongst the muggles in a world where magic and gods, and all that weird stuff, even to non-magical people was commonplace, and respected rather than just feared. That was the first mentions of the Covenant of Witches, and the Order of Warlocks, though the latter had since gone extinct because the then queen some few centuries back destroyed the Warlocks for a crime that had been lost to time, and many Wicca survived to rebuild the covenant after the war. It came as a bit of a surprise that The Covenant was older than some of the gods she realised likely existed or still exists. That was all some weird stuff, and she so wanted to test her magic against a God of Magic, just to see whether she matched up.

But that was beside the point, no one back then would have ever imagined that the magical world would exist full of magicians hidden unmoving with the rest of the world, so the magical lore didn't move on to just watch the magical world, but muggle too, and evolved through that, watching over the whole world, and taking the safest and most evolutionary leap, as it never saw people for their gender, it saw reason to free girls and women from Magical Lore forcing anything on them. Books were made, and still were made that updated themselves every seven years, whether the mage liked the additions or changes or not. They were vast books full of unknown pages, but they were smart so that you could ask the book what you wanted to know, and it would find the pages for you.

Shado had wondered why all magical books couldn't be that clever, but then that was likely asking for much too much from them.

But anyway, back to marriage. Dumbledore would have never been able to marry Shado off to anyone; least of all, she would have killed them. But both parties had to agree since around the 60s, and either pure-bloods who had been betrothed didn't know they could refuse, or it was a family honour thing, and they were brought up to think it was a good idea, even if the male party was so much older than the seventeen-year-old girl. But there had always been ways out of anything. The warlocks had tried to squish the witch's rights, but the covenant had been smarter than them, and then whatever the incident was brought some weirdo gender war that sounded like both sides were being unreasonable dicks. They had originally been close, but with the sexism and the like, they grew apart, and then shit hit the fan.

It was kind of gross and creepy thinking about how backwater that could be. The human race had moved on passed that kind of thing, well most had. However, Shado and her people could use that to marry Ginny into another family if they stopped her making her her adoptive sister. They were thinking about one of their of age, seventeen-year-old girls, as it was a surprise that same sex marriage had never been illegal in the magical world, and was actually quite a lot more frequent than she would have thought, and it was strange thinking that with magic two people of the same gender could in-deed have a proper family without jumping through hoops.

Five percent of all marriages in the magical world each year, or just below that were gay. However, even then they saw the problem with marrying Ginny to a seventeen-year-old. None of them had families in enough power for Dumbledore and the ministry to back down, but Laurel Greengrass did, and though it was a weird conundrum, and Laurel didn't actually want to marry again, she agreed to it anyway, for Shado, and they couldn't ask Lily to do it, as her divorce would take a while, and she was still trying to overcome her trauma.

Anyway, that was a last case scenario. Hopefully their plans would work out smoothly and then Ginny would no longer be a Weasley, but an Evans like Shado, and then kissing would be even naughtier, kind of, or a Greengrass, and then that would be really weird, and confusing, but Laurel would look after her.

Shado couldn't help but laugh as she was passing yet another graveyard and rolled her eyes; that people would still want to live in a town like it. However, her eyes flickered up to see a surprise. There were several men exiting the graveyard and circling her while, she came to a stop almost amused with them, as they were much weaker than the two demons she killed last night, and thought they would hurt her, but they were in her way and she could see the lights ahead where a main street lay with, hopefully a motel or something. Shado was told there was a place near the train station, but dam some places that didn't put up signposts for visitors.

"Now look what we have here boys', its dinner!" one of the men foolishly said as his rough face went from blue eyed moron, to yellow eyed moron with bumpy brow, face, and fangs, reminding Shado of a Neanderthal, and she wondered why she never teased Angel about that, and made a mental note for if she saw him again, and wondered whether the vampire thing brought of that primitive side, and could explain the look, maybe?

The vampire hissed at Shado as he charged, and she punted him in the nuts. He cried out as he came to a stop, and the other men winced as they heard his bulls crack before she grabbed his hair and broke his nose on her knee. It exploded with blood as he was crying before blue flames engulfed him, and he burst into dust.

Shado turned to the men, eyeing them each in turn as she flexed her muscles, and lime sparks danced across and around her arms, flicking off her fingers, and arching to the ground, lightening the dark alley, and causing the vampires to step back for a moment looking concerned.

Shado narrowed her eyes dangerously, "so which one of you bat fuckers is next?!" she demanded and the vampires took further steps back, as they took stock of what they had stumbled onto. They had run into a bigger bad than any of them could hope to be, and they didn't even know whether running was an option, as big-bads tended to not be human, so they were probably screwed with this human one, and human big bads likely liked killing them, especially powerful sorceresses that they may have accidently pissed off.

One man saw no choice, and charged charged; vamping out, as Shado had heard it was nicknamed by youth culture these days, while she noticed something nudge her foot. It was a piece of wood and she kicked it up into her right hand and thrust it through the vampires' chest; he was dust, a second later as she pulled the pointed piece of wood from his chest. She had always wanted to stake a vampire with a piece of wood since seeing Angel doing it; it looked cool, and it was.

The remaining vampires looked at Shado in horror and took further steps back before two of them went all bumpy faced and were dust a moment later. Shado was quite disappointed. Vampires, well most seemed to be complete weaklings. It was annoying; they were beneath her, and yet the fools still didn't understand that, or they did, and just knew she was going to kill them anyway, so they wouldn't lose anything trying to kill her.

"You know, I really don't like you guys," she said pointing her left hand and there was a clap of thunder as she fired a shock-wave of green energy. They were blast back into the wall and held to it before they cried out further as she shot blue steel binds at them, securing them to the wall with shackles around their ancles and wrists. "You guys stay put, watch the sunrise." She giggled as she walked away, amused with their future demises.

"Ah, come on, please; looking for evil minions? We're your go to guys!" one of the men cried out, trying to plead.

"No thank you;" Shado said with a mocking grin. "I already have the whole Covenant at my beck and call if I needed something, and they're not incompetent idiots," she said waving them off with a shrug, laughing as they annoyed the hell out of her, and bothered her, which was their grave error in judgement.

It was a blessing for her when she was out of earshot of those losers. Why would she want or need vampire minions? More still why would she need or want men vampire minions? It was just how crazy the world was that they didn't understand how awesome she was, and they weren't, so they would be dust come morning, and Shado took pleasure knowing that she had probably saved the lives of many innocent people.

Shado was walking around a corner into the main street twirling her new stake when she heard a commotion inside a nearby building. It looked like it was disused office space as it had a 'to let' sign high up for everyone to see with a phone number to call for 'more details'. Shado paused when she was near the building. She was going to try peering in through the window to see what was going on when the sidewall crumbled, and exploded out.

Jumping back and away, Shado battered a few bricks away with her hand and lost her poor stake before the bricks hit her. She let it go. She could get a new one another day. She stopped on the side of the road, as she looked down as the dust settled to see a small blonde girl... umm...-young woman. She was pretty, even with a bloody and bruised face with her hair tied back into a ponytail. She was wearing blue jeans, and a white top with a stylish black leather jacket and white trainers.

The late-teen-early twenty girl was on her stomach coughing up blood, trying to drag herself up while another blonde, taller, older looking and quite super model hot walked out of the hole in the wall. Her hair was long to her shoulders and curled. She had blue eyes and wore tight jeans and red pumps with a blue top that accentuated her assets nicely.

"Well now Buffy!" the woman spoke to the blonde on the floor with a sultry voice. "It looks like I finally get to end the pesky little Slayer!" she said whimsically while 'Buffy' tried to move away from her, fear in her blue eyes.

The woman leaned down to grab her only to scream out as she was struck with a stream of lime electricity. She crashed into a sidewall. The wall toppled down, collapsing on top of her and she didn't seem like she was going to get up.

Shado quickly ran to Buffy as she looked up at her through blurry eyes, and she carefully helped her up to stand with her arms around her neck. Buffy was wobbly, and she was so tired she could barely support any of her own weight.

"Come on, let's get you out of here," Shado said quickly as she didn't fancy having to get rid of any more vampires, or worse, daemons. "That bitch isn't getting up after that!" she said but the blonde looked back to the rubble in doubt, and it caught Shado's attention as the bricks burst up and the woman was back, glaring at Shado with frizzled hair, licking a spot of blood from her lower lip, enraged. Shado did seem to have a talent for pissing certain types of losers off.

"Oh... that was supposed to kill you!" Shado commented offhandedly. "So, let me guess, Glory, the hell goddess? Well, I can say you do have the hot goddess vibe going for you. Well, it's either that or Victoria Secret has been giving her supermodels super powers."

"So, the Slayer isn't the only wise cracking hero wannabe!" Glory said coolly as she straightened out her hair, clicking the cranks in her neck. She eyed the new super powered girl warily, but she felt unconcerned. "Who are you?" she demanded, incensed at the audacity of these freak abnormal humans getting in her way all the time. "If you knew I was here you should have stayed away from Sunnydale!"

"Me...? I'm the Awesome of all Awesome, that's going to take that pretty little head of yours and detach it from that fine looking body of yours!" she replied with a twisted grin as her emerald eyes lit up brightly with golden light.

Shado adjusted Buffy in her arms as she was leaning on her to stay up just to glare at Glory in loathing.

"Though," Shado continued whimsically, "I'm only here because there is something in town I want, I can't let you murder cute girls who save the day! Girl heroes are just too awesome and should be treasured by other girl heroes, and get to have lots of fun reaping vengeance on their enemies, and the fools who would hurt them or their girlfriends for their own greed, ignorance, or stupidity, and maybe shagging those cute girls a little… or a lot too!"

"Then I'm going to have to kill you, witch!" Glory replied mockingly as she flittered at incredible speeds. Shado had to dodge back while throwing Buffy out of harm's way where she collapsed to a grassy area next to a small tree with a hiss of pain.

Glory paused where Shado had been a moment before, fist out in a strike. She looked surprised that Shado had managed to avoid the hit before Shado moved in, and smashed the wind out of her, as her fist hit her gut, and folded her over, and they heard the cracking of ribs. Glory was fast, but she didn't suspect the attack as Shado didn't like to beat around the bush, and actually knew how to fight.

Glory was strong and fast, and normally she had no match, so she didn't have technique, so when Shado's right knee crashed into her nose, blood blew out as she cried further, and flittered back away from her new foe, holding her nose while blood streamed through her fingers with one hand and her ribs in the other as she felt them taking their time trying to knit back together, but she didn't have self-healing powers, and though she knew she would heal, she had never been hurt like it before, She had an enraged look of astonishment in her eyes before that look became nothing but fury. It looked like she couldn't believe anyone could ever hurt her, especially a human, and there, just a brief flash; they saw fear, and panic.

However, Shado gasped as Glory suddenly had her fist buried in her gut, and she coughed up blood before she took her bearings and grabbed Glory's wrist, and arm, holding her fast, amused that Glory tried and failed to break her ribs, but it still hurt like a bitch. She had been so fast that she caught Shado of guard, but she didn't know how to fight, and certainly didn't realise that she should have moved back straight away after hitting her new foe, probably because she had expected Shado to go flying, but Shado's centre-line with gravity shifted as an automatic response to keep her steady.

Shado could feel her bloodied smirk as she sparked. "Ever hear this one?" she asked as her smirk turned into a huge grin. "Pika... CHU!" she laughed through the pain. Then they were lit up in yellow, buzzing and singing, exploding with yellow and white lightning. Glory screamed in agony for several moments before she gritted her teeth, still buzzing in pain she lifted Shado up on her fist while she held her still, and then Shado's back sunk into the concrete beneath them as Glory slammed her down.

It hurt like nothing Shado had ever felt before, as magic coursed and flowed to protect her, and augment her fortitude. She had always been the strongest, and maybe fighting a super strong hell goddess in close quarters was a silly idea. The electricity went out and Glory tossed Shado away like a worthless doll where she skipped across the road, and hit a fire hydrant the other side, tearing it from its foundation, water exploded up, soaking her. It was refreshing as she landed, embedded into the boot of a car; the alarm went off making her head hurt more than when she hit the road.

Shado was blurry eyed, as she needed to get her baring's, grab the other girl and run, as she knew that sometimes listening to the flight part of your brain over the fight part was a good idea. However, she looked up to see Buffy had somehow gotten up and a second later, she flew across the street and crashed into Shado, knocking the wind out of her for the second time. Shado was certain she wasn't getting up again after the beating she had received, and Shado could already feel her own bruises and injuries, and she couldn't heal fast enough, as she channelled magic to more important parts, and tried to shake away the fog in her head so she could apparate away now she had her new friend already.

Glory was across the street, smirking as she sauntered over, but still holding her ribs, she let the blood flow from her nose. Shado held Buffy tight in her arms as her wand was in her hand like it had always been there.

"Fuck it," Shado muttered as she pointed her wand, and Glory stopped, confused. "Avada Kedavra!" Shado roared out in hate, and she was surprised it did anything. Shado had only looked up the killing curse out of curiosity, as she or her sister or they both had survived it, and Shado had had it thrown at her a few times since then too.

The beam of green was unstable but it hit Glory, and she flashed emerald, dropping to her knees with blood drooling from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. She looked dizzy, and sick, but she was most certainly not dead, as Shado had planned. Though, that was likely a goddess thing, but it at least hurt her, as she was almost ghost white, and in too much pain. Glory looked furious before something bubbled in her hand; her skin morphing and contorting; she went wide-eyed, spilling more blood.

Glory sneered at Shado before she flittered off, running away, she smashed into a corner of a wall, and screamed bloody agony before roaring in pain as she pushed herself back up and was gone. Shado smiled a little, as she knew Glory wouldn't let them go next time, but Shado would be ready to vanquish her by then, as she knew what to do to kill her now. That bitch would be pulled from the poor bastard bound to her. Shado would release her from her prison, and break her power.

Shado felt terrible, as if she had been run over by a car, but then she did hit a parked car. This was a lesson to her. She wasn't always going to be the strongest, so she had to fight smarter, and in stronger company, but she knew that if she didn't try to fight hand to hand, the bitch would have already been dead. She smiled bloodily down at the unconscious Slayer, as having a Slayer on the team sounded like a good idea. Shado groaned as her wand returned to her pendant, and held Buffy tightly, as she created a ward that should protect them until Buffy's people got to them, as it would only let those who wanted to save them through, before she finally lost the fight to stay awake.

Shado woke with a start. She groggily sat up sharply, as she let her mind process what had happened. Something wet had been on her forehead but fell to the covers, as she was in a bed somewhere. She looked around, surprised to see Buffy next to her still sound asleep with a wet cloth on her head, and looked to see one on her own lap. She was in some blue pyjamas that someone placed on her.

The sun was shining through the closed curtains, and when Shado looked to her side, she saw a startled red haired young woman with a blonde. They couldn't be any older than Buffy, young college student age at the most. They were pretty, and sweetly looked very concerned with their wellbeing.

"Yo, hey, wet cloths really aren't my thing, but I'm dandy with wet hotties like you two!" Shado quickly declared, feeling right as rain and naughty, giving them both a wink while they were both blushing brightly before Shado slid out of bed, stretching the cranks from her body, and did take notice of the blonde eyeing her pendant as it hung from her black collar to her chest on a black cord.

"Hey, you shouldn't be out of bed!" the red head said looking her over, as she noticed something. "Wait... your bruises, and... well it's all healed, but it's only been several hours," she said in awe.

"Yeah, yeah, I heal fast!" she informed her before looking to the side dresser where her phone was sitting with her purse. "Where are my clothes, and who undressed me?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

"Umm... we did; you were both soaking wet from the hydrant!" the red head replied quickly. "You could have caught a cold. Sorry the PJs are a bit big; they're mind, and I always preferred them bigger, and I haven't worn them too much, and you're pretty small, like me, I guess. Your clothes are still being dried, but your phone and purse are okay. Some of the money got a little soggy but we dried it on the radiator and put it back, but what are you doing with over two thousand dollars on you?"

"Oh, umm... didn't know how much I would need," she replied, waving it off as nothing, pleased they were trustworthy. "If I needed more, I have my bank cards…"

"Is this, really the real deal?" the blonde asked suddenly as she reached up and her fingers touched the Shado's pendant. "It's different. Sealed within some kind of magical focus. I've seen it in a book, and it had a sense about it, like this does. Where did you get this? This is the symbol of the Covenant of Witches, and this is the genuine article. It has to be. I checked it, and it's one hundred percent the real deal, and worth a fortune, and the power… I tried to take it, and it wouldn't let me."

Shado rolled her eyes and the blonde reluctantly let go. "I'm the Queen of the Covenant of Witches, stupid head!" she replied playfully while the blonde and the red head went wide eyed, and paled, as they looked the odd girl over more carefully. Though, that would explain how a girl of her youth could go toe to toe with an evil bitch hell goddess, and draw.

"Anyway, I know Buffy's name, but you guys are?" Shado asked them, as she was getting curious about them now. Shado could tell they were both together, and sleeping together, but that was just obvious observation, so she needed more. She could take a wild guess, but she knew when to be polite, and when to take liberties in some private lessons from Professor Strife.

"I'm Willow, and this is my... friend, Tara!" the red head said with a small smile.

"You know, you can say girlfriend!" Shado said, amused while they looked uncomfortable with her bluntness. "I'm gay too, so, I'm good, ladies," she told them shrugging, nonchalant.

"Oh," Tara said timidly before smiling. "So, you're really the leader of the Covenant?" she asked while Shado nodded. She had been forewarned that the covenant was quite famous throughout the world, and apart from half of western Europe (thanks to Dumbledore), witches around the world would die to get in. "How do we plead an application?" she asked while looking eager, and even Willow shared her look as she likely thought over the potential too.

"Oh, you have to be a witch, Wicca, sorceress, or whatever, or whatever magical, mysticism thing or, you know? And a girl, and mostly gay!" Shado replied as that wasn't all to it, but the most important, to her at least.

"Well, we kind of fill those requirements!" Willow said with a nod.

"Also, there's a Joining Ceremony, with cake and vows, and magic!" she added as she shrugged. "We haven't had one yet since I took over, but it's planned for a few days before school starts next summer, so the Twentieth of August, Greenwich Mean Time in Ireland. If you want to join, you're more than welcome to try?"

"Really...?" Tara asked in awe while Shado nodded her head. Of course, Shado could sense their magic since she was so close and they weren't suppressing anything. And though Tara was gifted; that was nothing compared to Willow, not that she was a super-witch, yet at least, or anything, but had a lot of energy, more than Tara by a fair margin, and talent like them was always welcome. "So, what is the ceremony like? I read that it would take place with lots of other witches, and a big joint spell to seal the deal, and kind of open or something."

Shado laughed, rolling her eyes. "Let's see, Erika was telling me more about it, and it involves some symbology!" she said while they nodded eagerly. "Then all of the present members will form a circle around the new recruits, but since I'm the new queen, they're all going to be re-initiated. But anyway, the new girls will be wearing mana woven white silk robes, and swear their loyalty to the Covenant and me, under the magic, and two things can happen, you die a fiery death for swearing an oaf you don't mean, or your robe dissolves away leaving you naked, to bare no secrets from your sisters. You have to be naked under the robes or the symbolism doesn't work very well, and then they have to take their element test; you know, fire, wind, water, earth, then all the sub elements like lighting, or ice, and sub elements are taken in by the four main elements, normally the element that is greater, because subs are-."

"They're a mage born with two elements that combine!" Willow answered eagerly. "Like lightning, your element is fire and wind, so where do you go?" she asked, eagerly. "Oh, sorry, we caught some of your fight with Glory, and saw you use lightning to fight."

"Wind according to the test," she replied, shrugging. "My element, if you can call it that, is actually space, which for some weird reason is also a combination of wind and fire, leaning toward the void, which is a centre focal point-."

"Between the two governing forces, of Chaos and Order," Willow interrupted again eagerly. "But the void isn't really in the centre as its more of a five-dimensional map, and so complicated I haven't found a book where anyone can explain it well enough, just that the fourth dimension is time, and the fifth is magic."

"Wow, I have a smart one here," Shado said eager. "Cute and smart, you'll do very well with The Covenant," she praised and was surprised the older girl looked pleased, and her girlfriend smiled, proud of her. "Anyway, I've only just found out that leaning into the magic of your elemental affinities can make you stronger, and space is a pretty weird one. My sexy twin sister, has gravity, which is-?" she asked in amusement.

"Fire and… Earth?" Tara asked thoughtful, and getting a nod was rather pleased with herself as that was a rather tricky one as it could have been fire and wind, which would have been her next guess.

"Well, anyway," Shado said with a smile. "You can call me Shado if you want, outside of official business, as I don't mind. I'm Shado Umbra!" she said shaking both of their hands readily. "It's a nice Christmas holiday you guys are having! Already the twentith, and having to deal with some bitch hell goddess. Ever think about squeezing open this Hellmouth and shoving her in?"

"No!" they both said with identical looks.

"We... just throw her into a hell dimension we can open without the key she's looking for!" Willow said with a wide smile. "Then we're rid of her for good, and all would be right with the world, or a little less hectic until the next big bad comes along. Shado, you are a genius!"

"I know!" she replied, smirking while they laughed, "but, you should do some research on it first, and I have a plan-B on the table for it that won't work, and probably try not to piss any other gods off, because I don't want to have to fight The Monkey King or something, if it can be helped," she finished to some laughter, as none of them would ever use the definitive terms 'doesn't exist' ever again; they've seen so much weird shit. However, they all heard a groan from the bed and turned to Buffy.

"Ow!" Buffy mumbled, rubbing her head and blurrily looking to them. "Did somebody get the number of that bus that ran me over?"

"Buffy!" Willow said with a relieved sigh as she went to her side. "You're so lucky, if Shado hadn't saved you, you would be dead... again."

"I got the hell kicked out of me!" Shado added, trying to keep from pouting as she failed her heroing that day, she would be more awesome the next and kick Glory's, glorious arse, and maybe make her wear some anime cosplay with cat ears and tail, and keep her as her pet.

"Y-you're that girl!" Buffy grumbled, looking around. "Where is everyone, Dawn, and... why am I wearing pyjamas?"

"You were soaked from the hydrant, so we had to change you or you would have a cold as well as bruises!" Willow reprimanded. "We've been worried sick about you, going off and fighting hell goddesses!"

"Oh, sorry," she mumbled, looking down at the sheets where her head cloth had fallen.

"Well, Shado gave us an idea that might just get rid of Glory for good!" she added cheering the blonde up. "We give her just want she wants, and send her off the planet, but it won't exactly be the hell dimension she wants, but any would do! So, we just open the Hellmouth a smidgen enough to fit her through, and then lob her in!"

"You can do that?" she asked in surprise.

Willow shrugged her shoulders. "All of the big bads we've fought except a very few have opened it at some point to let things in, so I don't see why it wouldn't work the other way!"

"Alright, let's get on this, but first we should see what Giles thinks; he does have a lot of experience with this stuff," Buffy agreed, nodding. "But first-first can the girl with super strength and quicker healing than me, please carry me to the bathroom, as I am dying for a pee and my legs still feel like Jell-O."

"Umm... sure...!" Shado replied with a grin, as this would hopefully be amusing as she helped her into her arms. Buffy had a few years on Shado, but she was so easy to carry, bridle style, as she was so short.

"Oh, and Willow...!" Buffy called as Shado was carrying her out of the room, as the door had been opened. "If you guys are going on vacation to Ireland for the summer; I'm coming too, and maybe get a break from all of this crap!" she said, turning to Shado. "I can watch this thing, right?" she asked hopefully as she gestured which door was the bathroom of the house and Shado opened the door without disrupting her much.

"Umm... have you ever given magic a try?" Shado asked her thoughtfully.

"Well not really!" she said with a shake of her head.

Shado frowned in thought as she sat Buffy on the toilet. "Okay, I'll do you a deal, learn one Wiccan spell from Willow and Tara and I'll let you join too! I'm the boss. It's my prerogative to do what I want, and you're a Slayer, so that will ease the older women down, and if you can learn one spell, many more would be within your grasp…!"

"But I don't think I'm kind of gay!" she said, blushing. "I was a little out of it and half asleep but I heard what you guys were talking about. Then, I doubt I would be able to light a candle with magic, let alone perform a proper spell."

Shado laughed, shaking her head. Buffy was started as Shado placed her right pointing finger on her lips and with a spark she pulled back, and Buffy's breathing had increased as she licked her lips as she felt the tingle still.

"Then why do you look at Willow like you do?" Shado asked, as she hadn't missed that look; it was the look of love mixed with guilt and regret. Shado had grown up having to be observant, and able to read people, so she saw that look, and wasn't sure that Tara didn't know as Buffy couldn't always stay guarded, and would likely let her mind wander some times. "My sisters girlfriend is an empath, so I've picked up a few things from watching her, but growing up where and how I did, I had to look beyond the surface. Anyway, I think that if you can't perform a simple match charm, I would be shocked, especially with all of your supernatural potential.

"Your problem is, Buffy, that you believe that there is such a thing as impossible. Me, I think I'm more inclined to believe in the improbable, which is the impossible waiting to happen. Maybe deep down, I'm quite the optimist-I think everyone can do improbable things given the guts to give it a try. If you fail, then at least you tried, but maybe, sometimes, if you fail, try again and again, and never stop until you've done it. It is like giving the world the finger!"

"You're pretty wise for what, fifteen years old?" Buffy replied with a grin.

"Seventeen in July," she answered, and Buffy winced as she always hated when people under-aged her when she was younger. "I've had a hard life, and I've grown up fast, and I already have arch-enemies, cool huh?"

"Not really, but can you, you know, wait outside for me? I think peeing in front of you would be a bit too embarrassing," she said while Shado laughed and grinned, winking at her before leaving her to herself and closing the door.

Shado turned to see a brunette girl closer to her age come charging up the stairs. She came to a stop in front of Shado in surprise. She was pretty with pale blue eyes wearing beige hipsters, and a white top, bare foot with a nice bust; she was younger than the others were, maybe a year younger than Shado at the most.

"You're that girl!" the girl said, pointing at Shado accusingly.

She pointed back mocking her. "You're; I don't know, but if you want to show me to your room, we could have some naughty but fun, fun because you're smoking girl!" she suggested while wiggling her eyebrows and she blushed a tomato red.

"That isn't funny!" she said, pouting while folding her arms across her chest while Shado was laughing at the cute girl, and was totally not joking, but whatever. "Is Buffy okay; how the hell did you do that thing with the lightning, and that Pikachu joke was epic!"

"Thanks, I thought it was awesome!" she agreed, offering her hand to shake. "Shado, and you would be... let me guess, Dawn, the Slayers sister!"

"Y-yeah, umm... nice to meet you!" she said, shaking Shado's hand, and startling at the slight spark before they let go, and Dawn narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "I am not falling for that stupid spark thing from Twilight when I know you're a witch!"

"Worth a try," she replied, shrugging impishly. "And your sisters in the bathroom, still injured so I was carrying her..."

"I think I can walk myself now!" They were interrupted as the door was pulled open and Buffy was soon leaning on Shado to keep herself up. "Well, okay, with a little assistance-."

"Buffy!" Dawn said in worry. "If you're still hurt you shouldn't be wandering around without help!" she declared as she moved around them to help Shado walk Buffy back to her room.

"The world just got weirder!" Shado said with a sheepish grin as they returned to Willow and Tara, helping Buffy back into bed. Shado crawled in with her and took her place with her head cloth, grinning. "So, get back to pampering us, we're still so poorly after fighting an evil goddess bent on killing everyone because she's a bitch."

"Now that is milking it!" Dawn said with a grin. "Oh, owe, my head is hurting!" she said very unconvincingly and crawled into bed next to Shado when she pulled the cover up for her while they giggled.

"Dawn!" Willow complained with a small smile before everyone was laughing with them.

It was a few mornings later when Dawn Summers, the Slayers younger sister yawned when she woke, but startled, and yelped as she looked up into beautifully stunning emerald green eyes before sighing in relief.

It had been a few days since Shado joined them, which was cool. It was nice to have a girl her own age to hang around with.

Shado was giggling while Dawn let her heart calm down as Shado was staying in her room with her on the spare camp bed, but never stayed there, opting to sleep with Dawn, which was kind of nice and comfortable. Shado managed to make Dawn feel safe and forget about the evils out to get her. Dawn knew Shado could and would stop them and put the fear of her into the things that would go bump in the night.

Shado was curled up tightly to Dawn's side; her beautiful face hovering above hers while she stroked Dawn's brunette hair. Shado was odd in many ways, but so refreshing. Dawn couldn't help but feel enthralled by Shado's magnificent eyes. She had the most amazing smile Dawn had ever seen, and she had always thought that Willow's smile couldn't be beaten, but maybe this was a draw or something.

"Hey there, good looking!" she chirped and gave Dawn a sneaky morning wake-up kiss on the lips, but she didn't mind; it was quick and nice. It wasn't like having a big sister who wasn't all melodramatic and too in her own world of evil, monsters, and no love life to notice her, and Dawn loved the attention. Dawn even returned the soft kiss, blushing as she did every morning Shado had woken her up.

"You ready for the day?" Shado asked, but Dawn was sure she was joking as Dawn was still so sleepy and would have loved nothing more than to spend all day in bed with this odd yet sweet, and dangerous girl doing nothing but watching TV, and eating snacks. It would be Christmas soon, and there was something special she wanted to give her new friend, something Shado made no secret that she wanted from her.

"I don't think I can do this magic thing," Dawn told her sheepishly. Dawn wanted to join the Covenant too, even though it took a little while for her sister to reluctantly agree that being apart made everyone safer, as Dawn would always have places all around the world to go where she would be safe and taken care of, especially if something happened to Buffy. "I think Buffy's doing much better than me!" she complained as Shado giggled and lay half on Dawn, using her breast for a pillow, cuddling her while she wrapped her arms around her in return.

"She hasn't lit the candle yet either you know. You just need to listen to Willow and Tara and you'll get it eventually," she replied with an amused voice. "You never know you might pick up the talent. I'm sure Tara and Willow would love having another Wicca to play with and do some cooler spells together. From what I gather from this type of magic, it's more about communing with the world...umm...-accessing higher brain functions through use of knowledge to manipulate the planets magic. So, the more of you, the stronger and better the spells, but that's not to say a single Wiccan can't be powerful alone."

"So, it's like I have to become a psychic?" she asked thoughtfully when the door barged open and a sleepy Buffy still in her PJ's was dragged in by Willow and Tara who were fully clothed and ready for the day, and in high spirits.

"Exactly...!" Willow agreed with a smile. "I'm glad someone was paying attention."

"Come on, Will...!" Buffy was complaining while Shado and Dawn sat up in bed rubbing sleep from their eyes, smiling as Buffy was a big complainer in the mornings. Willow and Tara had to wake her up, knowing that Shado would have already woken Dawn, saving them a bit of time to just come and get them for breakfast, as Shado would have been happy cuddling Dawn all morning in bed. The two Wicca would then drag them off for magical studies as they called it.

"It's only eight thirty!" Buffy continued pleading, but her pleads would fall on deaf ears as they had since the first morning they started their studies in the occultic use of planetary manipulation, as Willow called it, as if it was all science and not cool mysterious powers.

"Don't be such a cry-baby Buffy!" Willow reprimanded with a large smile as she was enjoying being in charge for a change. This wasn't slayer business, but magical stuff where Willow shined, and from what Shado said, Willow had a great bit of power, or potential she supposed; much larger than Tara's, which Dawn found surprising, but Shado wanted it kept quiet so she hadn't told anyone.

"To join the Covenant of Witches with us you have to be a witch, or at least know how to do some magic!" Willow said rolling her green eyes. "It's a great chance for you and Dawn to have powerful backing, support, and funding beyond anything you could have now. They are powerful-ish, and only growing in power since Shado took over. Not to mention the wealth that could help us with our evil killing and stuff. They can offer financial backing, and extra support, maybe even set up a way for us to get paid for slaying."

"I know, but I'm still sleepy!"

"But Shado went out slaying last night!" Tara smiled as she reminded Dawn's silly sister. She was worse than Dawn at times, and she was supposed to be the responsible adult.

"You had us up until one in the morning!" she added in her defence.

"Can you augment strength with your kind of magic?" Shado suddenly piped in looking thoughtful as she knelt next to Dawn on the bed. "The affinity I chose to master is augmentation. I'm normally stronger than everyone else, as I've been doing it long enough that my body got stronger from that alone, but to survive falls from huge buildings or punches from hell goddesses, I augment my strength, my bones, my skin, even my internal organs, and my magic. But could someone like Buffy, who fights with her fists, be able to use this magic to do the same?"

"Well, yeah, I don't see why not!" Willow agreed, which surprisingly wiped the sleep from Buffy's face as she paid attention. "Then with magic, she could protect her body for a limited time, depending on her natural and magical limits, if she needed to surpass her natural limitations, as it will take a while before we can check to see what magical affinities she might have!"

"Okay, let's get started, so I can kick Glory's teeth down her smug throat!" Buffy declared, pumping her right fist into the palm of her left hand, determined to get results today by the look of her.

"Well, that woke her up!" Dawn said with a grin while she climbed out of bed with Shado right beside her, and gave her friend a grin at her slyness, as she always knew how to motivate Buffy, and this one would likely last.

It had been a few hours and they were in the lounge, having moved some stuff around to draw some focus symbols on the carpet in; amusingly Shake 'n Vac, so that it could easily be vacuumed up and not leave a mess. It was large around so Buffy and Dawn didn't need to sit in it, and to help with their magic they had taken off their normal clothes for blue robes made out of a silk that conducted magic, like a conduit.

That meant that Dawn and her sister were nearly naked, which was embarrassing as Shado teased Dawn a lot from where she lay on the couch wearing some tight beige hipster with her belt on her hips, and tight white tee shirt, but that was all, as they didn't need shoes inside. However, Dawn had embarrassed myself a little as she had been a little daring and flashed her butt to Shado (who seemed to appreciate the peak), as the robes were only thigh high.

Buffy and Dawn were sitting opposite each other with a long candle each with a wick in a candlestick holder. They held their hands over theirs using the methods that Willow and Tara had been drilling into them so that they could will it to ignite. Apparently, that sort of magic was easy beginners' stuff, but only should be practised with teachers who knew what they were doing, and who could put out potential fires, which was likely the main reason.

Willow had left Tara in charge while she had to rush off to get something. She was rushing so fast she hadn't even mentioned what yet, so Dawn was curious, which was a little distracting. She had work harder as Buffy was in her eagerness to get stronger had started making her wick glow slightly red at the tip, proving she could do anything when she put her mind to it, or had the proper motivation to actually want to succeed, and beating a bitch hell god to death was really good motivation apparently.

"Wow, check that out Dawn!" Shado commented with a grin and Dawn was startled to see the tip of her wick had started glowing a faint white and grinned widely.

"That's very good, Dawn!" Tara agreed in praise as she was kneeling outside the circle between the sisters, giving them steady encouragement as she was such a gentle person when the door opened, and they all looked up to see Willow had returned carrying a cage with a little black rat in it.

"Hey, Shado!" she said lifting the cage up with a pleased smile, showing off her pet, not that Shado seemed interested to meet it, and Dawn couldn't blame her as Shado had told her about a certain filthy rat she had captured a few months back. "This is Amy; she... well, we… well, okay, she," Willow gestured to the rat, "accidentality turned herself into a rat about two years ago to escape an angry cursed mob trying to burn us at the stake, and I can't seem to change her back. I don't think transfiguration is my thing!" she said taking some blame and responsibility.

Shado stared at the little rat for a while, and Dawn was shocked by the news, but she watched the rat huff as Shado's lips twitched before she burst out laughing, holding her tummy as it was probably hurting. However, Buffy was also holding in some snickering, but Dawn was sure Amy's predicament wasn't news to her, but then if it was 'that' Amy she could be a little annoying, and Dawn wondered what happened to her; maybe her time as Willows pet rat would be humbling.

"Oh – that is a classic, but I can't turn her back!" she declared as she took some deep breaths to calm down, wiping tears from her eyes, and the little rat looked down in sadness. "I've only had one term of transfiguration lessons, and I'm not very good at it to tell the truth. I could probably undo the spell on myself, but not someone else, and it seemed that whatever she did must have sealed the spell, or it would have worn off within a few days; a week at most from what I have learned."

"So, there's nothing you can do for her?" Willow asked sadly.

She shrugged thoughtfully. "Sure, there is. We can just post her to someone who can undo the spell."

"We post her?" Willow asked while either the rat, Amy looked up in hope or 'are you freaking kidding me'. She looked down at the rat as Shado nodded. "You want to be human again, Amy!" she reprimanded while the rat settled down with a sigh, which was really quite cute.

"Okay, let's see here!" Shado said as she grabbed a pen and notepad from the side and wrote something on it for a few minutes before folding the paper. "Elektra," she called out as she hopped up of the couch and a few moments later, she burst in.

She blazed out of crimson sparks. It was a magnificent swan sized birds, and Dawn had a feeling it weren't a swan, but a phoenix, as it was so much more, even if there were magical swans. It blazed with sparks and landed as a cute girl with weird coloured skin, and crimson hair appeared, wearing a school uniform of red and black robes, skirts, shoes and blouses with a patch on her right breasts with The Covenant symbol of a shadowy angel and devil intwined as lovers.

The girl was cuddling with Shado in moments, actually purring while she stroked her soft looking hair affectionately like someone would their pet, and she had a tail swishing out as she spoke in sparks and fizzes of static, and Shado replied to her in English, and reprimanded her for not using English, as she had to learn, and she sheepishly apologised in a broken English. It took Dawn a moment to realise though, that this girl was her pet, as she had to stop her, as she licked Shado's face across her lips and nose, but Shado didn't seem to mind. Dawn figured that whatever she was; she was in an animal form more than human, or just as much as human, and some of those qualities rubbed off on her, and she forgot herself, as her crimson tail seemed to wag behind her.

"Okay, I'm pleased to see you too!" Shado agreed, kissing her eager lips, which was sweet as she melted in happiness, as she hugged her master, so she was obviously very loyal, and a loving pet. Dawn couldn't even get a kitten in fear it might return a vampire kitten or cat one day, which seemed unlikely, but just in case she figured, she would keep that quiet because vampire cats likely hadn't been tried before, just in case it actually worked.

"I have a job for you okay; a delivery!" she continued, and her fanged mouth grinned in happiness, as they she stepped back, letting her master go, and in a flash of red light she was dressed as a post-girl with The Covenant crest on the front of her cap, and her left breast.

"A Cloud Nymph...!" Tara said in awe when Dawn realised they were all looking for an answer to that question. "She's so pretty!" she declared which brightened her spirits, as she looked to Shado with questioning eyes, and she nodded, and before Dawn realised it, she was enthusiastically greeting Tara while she smiled and patted her head.

"Squeak squeak!" the little rat Amy still in her cage drew their attention, and Dawn almost laughed as she wondered whether she enjoyed Willow taking her out of her cage and cuddling and playing with her. She thought about how weird that would be when Amy was turned back into a normal girl, and how awkward that could be.

"Okay!" Shado said, and Elektra pouted before she was standing to attention. "Here; this is Amy, be careful with her," she said as Willow offered her the cage, and she took it carefully.

"Now, Darling," she continued as she passed her the note. "Take this note and Amy the Rat to Professor McGonagall, and make sure she reads the letter. McGonagall will then call you to bring her home when she's human again. I know you can't travel with a human this far, but you can at least get her to the floo at the house, and then floo to Rockne Street in Sacramento. You can stay for a bit if you want after, and I'll call Ginny to let her know you're safe, and to tell her and Laurel to prepare!" she said and she looked overjoyed while Shado whispered something to the rat just before they burst away in red sparks.

"What did you say to Amy?" Willow asked as she shook her head.

Shado shrugged. "The fidelius house location or she wouldn't get in to use the floo to get to Sacramento. They can easily use the US Knight Bus to get back to Sunnydale if that bus has the guts to get this close, otherwise they'll have to ride the train-."

"Fidelius...?" Buffy and Dawn asked at the same time.

"It's a secret, normally a location hidden within someone, without it you wouldn't be able to see the place, let alone get in," Willow answered with a knowledgeable nod. "I've only ever read about it. I thought it would have been a good idea to hide this house, but it's really complicated and would require three people who... well would be capable of understanding it at least. It needs one person to seal the secret inside of, and two to cast the secret to them. They would automatically be allowed to know the secret unless omitted once they leave the house with an added bit of the warding spell that the Secret Keeper can perform, and it would make them forget even warding the house as well as where it was and anything to do with it."

"Well anyway!" Shado interrupted with a smirk. "Shouldn't two of you be trying to light your candles?" she asked, amused as Buffy sulked a little but didn't complain, and Dawn caught Shado looking down the top of her sisters' robe, winking at her, Dawn blushed but not before Shado gestured Willow and Tara as they had looked too.

"Buffy!" Dawn complained as she rolled her eyes. "Your robe has come lose and we can all see your boobs!" she informed her and she looked down at herself, and blushed a little, but shrugged as she tightened the belt, covering herself.

"Hey, I have nothing to be embarrassed about!" she replied with a smug grin. "Looking is to flatter a girl with an unspoken compliment!" she said while she and Shado laughed and the other two witches suppressed giggles while Dawn sighed, but she supposed in a way she was right.

It had just turned five that afternoon, or evening; Dawn guessed it didn't matter what she called it really, it was just 5pm, and she and Buffy had gotten dressed out of their robes as they were all going to meet with the others at the Magic Box shop that her sisters Watcher owned. They wanted to talk about stuff to do with getting rid of Glory somehow, so once Shado finished procrastinating and pulled on her socks and trainers after fetching them from that trunk of hers that seemed to carry everything, and then some they headed out.

They had just walked passed a graveyard. Dawn was holding Shado's right arm close to her chest, and she was pleased it was still light out so they didn't have to go the long way around to avoid any pesky vampires. It didn't take them long to get to the Magic Box, and it was locked up for the evening but they got in through the side door.

"You know this reminds me of why I'm in town!" Shado said suddenly as they were led in by the stuffy librarian type, Giles, Buffy's Watcher while a blonde girl was sitting on the store counter filing her nails without a care in the world, or thought in her head, and Xander was sitting at a table by the books eyeing Shado warily as they hadn't met yet.

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked, but Shado just waved her off and walked up to the blonde on the counter, Anya, letting Dawn go by herself. Anya could be so annoying, and she was so full of herself it wasn't even funny.

"Hey, you're Anya, right?" Shado asked as Anya just nodded as she looked from her nails to Shado. "Okay, so I'll have one Valiant Rod please!"

Anya looked down at the girl and laughed. "We're closed, go away, and I doubt a little girl like you could afford it anyway!"

Shado raised a black eyebrow in response and challenge while everyone paused to watch. "I see," Shado replied before pulling out her purse and flipping it between her fingers it turned into a leather pouch. She then pulled out a single gold coin and flipping it in the air, and greed being her centre, Anya hungrily watched it twisting, and went to snap it up, but Shado was too fast for her, as she swiped it back.

"So, you have one measly galleon!" Anya complained, sticking her nose up. "The exchange rate from galleon to the dollar is thirty-seven dollars to the galleon! You don't have enough so go and play with Dawn and leave the grown-ups to grown-up talk!"

Shado's eyes lit up with gold light, which cause Anya to deflate slightly. "I assure you, you old hag that I could buy this whole store if I wanted, and that would be pocket change!"

"How dare you call me hag, or old!" she demanded right back as she jumped down from the side in a fuming temper. "I don't care how much money you have, just get out!" she demanded, and Dawn was sure that Shado was going to kill her or at least beat her up a little.

Shado looked like she was thinking for a moment before her eyes scanned something in a glass case in the counter, and before Anya or anyone could stop her, her right fist went through the glass and came back with a white and blue metallic looking rod of some kind. She then looked up at Anya with a smug smirk, mocking her, and daring her with golden light lit in her green eyes.

"Then I'll just take it, and you won't get a knutt for it bitch!" she said before turning to the others. "I'll see you guys later, and you were right Will, Anya really is a complete bitch!" she said, pausing before looking the blonde over more, "doable, but complete bitch!" she added before storming out, and Dawn blushed as she was sure that Shado only left because she was playing a game, as she was normally more about wordplay.

"You think I'm a bitch?" Anya demanded turning to Willow before pausing, "a-and doable…?" she asked calmer before she started panicking while Willow looked uncomfortable. "T-that girl just stole a twenty-thousand-dollar staff, we've got to call the police!"

"And say what?" Buffy asked with raised eyebrows. "A super powered witch stole your magical staff because you wouldn't let her buy it when she carries thousands of dollars in her purse, and you were too stupid to take the money...?"

"And technically the staff is mine!" Giles added, looking at her in reprimand before rubbing his eyes tiredly. "So maybe you should go and apologise and perhaps beg her to pay for it; the broken display cabinet will be repaired at your expense for insulting her in the first place. You're not always going to get a customer who folds to your eccentricities."

"But Giles!" she whined childishly. "How was I supposed to know that she was that wealthy...!? I just thought she was one of these stupid backwards wizards! Anyway, she can just come back here and wave her wand, and fix the case!"

"Anya!" he commanded in frustration, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Just go and find her, and beg if you have too, now more than ever we could use all the help we could get! And we can't afford to let such expensive rare items just up and walk off without being paid for."

"Okay, okay, geez; I'll go find her!" she said sulking before she stalked off out of the side door after Shado, and Dawn really hoped Anya didn't get hurt by being her usual rude self. Dawn honestly didn't think she knew any better because of her long past and history as a Communist Vengeance Daemon, now turned greedy capitalist.

Giles turned back to the rest of the crew after taking a deep breath, "okay, I've had a hard long think about using the monsters' usual plans for Armageddon to dump Glory out of our world by opening the Hellmouth, but after some research, I honestly don't believe it would work. She is just too strong and would likely break back in within a week-."

"W-well I had an idea," Dawn piped in quickly before they just decided the old-fashioned beat her up method would have to do, and she was pretty sure that Shado gave her the idea, but it needed to be said. They all turned to her with Giles looking sceptical, but she was surprised that Buffy was listening and not treating her like a stupid kid, but maybe that was Shado's influence, as the girl wasn't much older than her. "I umm mean, can't we change her... she's supposed to be trapped in some humans body by day, and then by night she becomes her, but couldn't we split them apart and split the power too… or even break the power?"

They all stared at her strangely for a moment. "It could be possible," Willow said slowly while even Giles nodded in agreement. "But; I'm sure it would kill the human; the host wouldn't be able to handle all of her sealed godly powers without her to hold it in check. But we could pass it to someone whose body was capable of withstanding the stress… though, that probably wouldn't work… or possibly create a magical vice to store the power, use it like the core of a staff or wand. Then… or maybe send it into the planets Life-stream, or into the gap. But this would be big magic, and we would need to capture Glory in her proper form for long enough to finish, and there would be no guarantee that the human wouldn't die anyway just from the shock and pain of having her removed."

"After this, will she stay-down if I shoved a sword into her chest?" Buffy asked the practical question.

Willow looked to Giles for the answer but he didn't look like he had one either. "I don't know," he said, "but she should do! Ripping her powers apart she wouldn't be anything more than a new Slayer, or there about in strength, and should be mortal. But this could theoretically only be done because of her imprisonment within a human, otherwise she would have her full powers and we would have been killed already, and the world destroyed, if something else didn't intervene. We'll have to do a lot of research and hopefully we'll find something.

"It would be capturing her, and then keeping her captured that would be the main problem!" Giles added with a sigh. "If it was that easy, we could have just captured her and locked her up forever," he said warily.

"So, we're done now?" Dawn asked while they nodded. "Good, Buffy and I need to get back to our lessons or we'll never get into the Covenant!" she said as she took her sisters hand and dragged her off, hoping their two teachers would follow, which they did, quickly giving Giles twin shrugs as they followed them.

"Hopefully, Shado will be home soon," Tara said worriedly. "It's getting dark and it looks like it's going to rain soon!"

Dawn looked up to the sky and couldn't help but feel like the dark clouds were somewhat ominous, but then living in this town when were they not?

Meanwhile, back in Ireland, at the front gates into the Covenant stronghold, which was the only part of the place visible because of the wards, and looked like a massive mansion in and of itself, and Ginny Weasley, or Emi Con, as she was going by was annoyed. She had only chosen a weird name because she had met a weird girl with a weird taken name, and Shado had taken her name, so why not? It was part emotion and part con, because she could con people's emotions. She thought it was clever for a spare of the moment name change because she didn't want to be left out of all of the fun, even though she couldn't be controlled by her given name, it was added protection anyway.

She had met the weird Irish girl by chance. Well, they were apparently neighbours, and from the bell intercom system that blinked up on the residence's phones because of an app, she was considered mildly dangerous, but non-hostile, so Ginny went to meet her and see what she needed in person. Valkyrie Cain had inherited the house down the dark path from them from her uncle. It just so happened that she was a mage. She had owned the house longer than Ginny had lived at Covenants Stronghold, and had a weird thing for fire magic and necromancy, as they got to chatting. Though, Ginny didn't think the dark-haired girl had ever tried to raise the dead before, so that was a plus for a budding friendship to grow, though she was sure that wouldn't have stopped Shado or even Rose from making friends, especially since the girl was cute.

The girls' friends' car had broken down, and she had lost rock, paper, and scissors to go and ask to borrow the use of the neighbours' phone, as neither she or her friend had charged their phones, and the batteries had died, and neither had electric controlling magic to attempt charging them. Ginny supposed these things happened sometimes, as her phone would have died a million deaths without magic, as she was that forgetful sometimes, and made a note to put that clever little seal on her new friends' phone to help her out with never needing to charge it again.

However, it had been by chance that some lunatic had chosen to attack Valkyrie and Ginny as they were out front of the huge gate house mansion by the front door, talking as they realised each other was magic, and they were getting along rather well. Laurel and her daughters weren't in, as they went shopping for groceries, and the visiting teachers had classes to prepare, so ventured back and forth between the house and school, and Professor Strife, was corrupting Hermione, and Hermione seemed to be madly in love, if their phone calls were anything to go by, so Ginny couldn't have been happier that she finally got some happiness.

Rose had just taken a quick shower, as she had asked to try something really weird, and had been covered in Ginny and Narielle's pee, and Ginny was pretty sure Shado would be disappointed she missed Rose experimenting in something weird, and Narielle was helping her wash, so they probably wouldn't be out any time soon, and last, Lily was keeping herself busy by making lunch, as she was a rather good cook, and apparently, that had helped her get even better grades in potions than Snape had.

"Do you know this guy?" Ginny asked as she summoned a bow staff from the wall mount in the hall, as her wand was in her room, and they kept several magical staffs on the wall for such occasions, and she had been working on summoning and banishing without her wand as they could be most useful for self-defence, and not the most difficult to grasp without a wand. "How'd you get through our wards, you dick?!" she demanded while Valkyrie was surprised, as she saw Ginny use magic of a kind she hadn't seen before, and was secretly eager to learn something like that, as summoning something from one place to another would be mighty useful, as using air magic to do that took so much more effort. Though, the outside wards were rather obvious, they weren't impenetrable, he would never get though the front door, and never make it any further, even if he did try to force his way.

"Umm… nope, never seen this one in my life!" Valkyrie quickly said as she shook away her thoughts for now while her dark eyes glared at the man, and she clicked her fingers, creating a fireball in each hand. "I do tend to attract trouble though, so I suppose he's after me, but I couldn't think of anyone who wants to kill me right now, and if they did, they would want the pleasure themselves."

"Actually, don't know who either of you are!" he replied with a gruff voice. He was a large built man who could give Hagrid a good arm wrestle, and probably win. "I'm here to kill the Queen of the Covenant of Witches, so where is she!" he demanded gruffly.

Valkyrie looked confused as she stood straight and defiant in her long black coat, trousers and tunic. "I've never heard of her. Do you have a description?" she asked, trying to not sound like she was mocking him, even though she was a little.

"Sixteen, black or red hair, highly dangerous!" he replied with a growl.

"Shado's in California, dealing with a hell goddess!" Ginny said, rolling her eyes. "If I weren't going to have to kill you for pissing me off, she would have loved to beat you to death for thinking you alone would be enough to kill her! I guess, it will be best to get this over with as I haven't killed before, and the thought is kind of scary, but she is my queen."

"You, kill me!?" he demanded, laughing, "little empathic fool," he laughed as he turned to leave only to stop as he realised, he was trapped in shadows and turning his neck Valkyrie had him trapped with shadows pouring from her ring.

"Nice trick," Ginny said appreciatively.

"Thanks," she replied, smirking smugly.

"Now who hired you?" Ginny asked as she moved around the man, but she could see, she knew, nothing she did would convince him to talk, as he might as well be dead; he had no empathy, and no fear, and all those scars showed he knew tremendous pain. She rose her staff, and went to say some words when he flexed his muscles and burst free of Valkyrie's magic, staggering her, and advanced on Ginny when a blast of air smashed into him, and threw him into a wall where he crashed down.

"There you are, Valkyrie," came the smooth male voice. "I expected you to borrow the phone, not get into a fight with an assassin. Phantom Breaker, it has been a long time since I've had the pleasure."

The large man pulled himself up and glared hatred. "Skulduggery Pleasant!" he hissed his loathing.

"Did you resurrect a skeleton?" Ginny asked as she turned to Valkyrie.

"What? No. Of course not," she replied quickly. "He was already like that when I found him, even down to the snazzy suits, and hats."

"I actually found you, Valkyrie," Skulduggery quipped as he ignited a fireball in each hand, and aimed his eye sockets at the large assassin. However, before he could move or say anything, vines burst up and around the assassin, tangling the man, and squeezing tight, even gagging him, he tumbled to the ground.

"Ginevra, sweetie, what's going on?" Lily asked as she stepped out of the door wearing an apron over her robes, "who's that mean looking man, and… wow, is that really Skulduggery Pleasant? I thought you were like a myth or something?" she asked as she placed her wand away.

"Myths, unfortunately, sometimes turn out to be true," he said as he let his fireballs burn out, "and this is Phantom Breaker, an assassin."

"He came looking for Shado," Ginny said.

Lily frowned as she redrew her wand and aimed it at the assassin with a cold glare. "You dare think you can try to take my daughter away from me?" she demanded in spite. "I won't let anyone take her from me ever again!" she said coldly as Shado was kind enough to her, loved her enough to call her at least every morning, (to her), and always answered Lily's texts within half an hour as long as it was a reasonable hour for her, since they were in different time zones.

"Now-now, Miss?" Skulduggery asked as he took a concerned step forward.

"Evans. Lily Evans," she answered.

"Miss. Evans, please try not to do something you'll regret," Skulduggery said. "Mr. Breaker here has been tortured rather thoroughly before, on many occasions, and has never broken, and you don't want to be a killer, do you?" he asked, and she was surprised as he withdrew a handgun and pointed it at Breaker's head. "I on the other hand, already have blood on my hands, and have a score to settle with this bastard, and he has a Death Warrant granted to special cases by the English and Irish Sanctuaries. You young ladies might want to avert your eyes," he said but none of them did, and he squeezed the trigger, and the man stopped struggling, as his forehead blew out.

"Gross," Valkyrie said as she and Ginny looked away, and kind of wished they didn't watch the man being executed now.

"Could I trouble you to look after Valkyrie, for a short while?" Skulduggery asked. "I'll be back once I have delivered the body to the Sanctuary," he said as Lily lifted her vines and they burst away, and he picked the large man up, and slung him over his shoulders before pausing. "My engine won't start, and I don't think I could get away with taking a dead body by taxi."

"Well, I could take you," Lily said to his surprise. "I can apparate us, and if you leave give me your keys, we can have your car towed to a garage for you, and I'll have it fixed, since you so kindly dealt with that problem for us?"

"That would be wonderful, thank you," he said, and Lily took his arm, and then they blinked away.

"How did she teleport?" Valkyrie asked in awe. "I kind of thought Felicity was the last teleporter?"

"Different magic, different rules," Ginny said while shrugging. "I have no idea how it all works, but it's kinda silly, and the Lore of Magic is probably taking the piss out of us."

"So, what's this Queen of the Covenant business about?" Valkyrie said as that sounded like easier material than some godly Lore thing that Skulduggery had confused her with when she first started learning magic.

"Leader of the Covenant of Witches, one of my best friends!" she said, gesturing the front door. "Come on, you can meet my girlfriend, and Narielle, as they're probably done cleaning up, and Narielle, is totally a sexy demoness," she said in smugness while Valkyrie's eyes widened.

"A real demoness?" she asked while Ginny nodded smugly, "but… anyway, about this Covenant business. I've not heard much about the real deal, but, umm… how do I join the Covenant?" she asked, curious as it was worth a listen even if she didn't try to get in, as that kind of power could make certain douche bags back down in her future, as an S-Class detective.

Ginny grinned, and took her new friends' hand, and led her into the mansion before closing the door, and moving her mouth next to the girls' ear and whispering a secret that would wow her new friend into an excited mess, as the high-tech-modern-castle she couldn't see, revealed itself through the back windows.

While, Ginny was introducing Valkyrie to new wonders, at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall was just thinking about heading to the Great Hall for lunch when she was surprised when she wasn't surprised as a young female visitor burst into her office at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, she wouldn't have expected one of Shado Umbra's familiars to have brought her a rat, and she quivered thinking of the last one they had found. Elektra looked pleased with herself, as she placed down the cage on her desk with the agitated animal in it and passed her a letter.

She read it over, more surprised the more she read while sighing as she looked at the rat and shook her head before turning back to the red-haired nymph. "That will be all; I shall call you when she is fit to travel home," she said while she nodded, and was gone within a blast of electricity later. McGonagall would secretly admit that familiars like her were more useful, and certainly more practical than any owl, or even a phoenix.

McGonagall sighed as she picked up the cage and left her office in a swift motion. "Some people need to read the warnings in books before they think about such dangerous magics, as self-transfiguration, or any kind of human, or even animal transfiguration for that matter Miss. Madison," she reprimanded the rat. "I am Professor McGonagall, head teacher here, and transfiguration mistress. I shall take you to see our school medi-witch, Madam Pomfrey before undoing your foolhardy spell," she finished reprimanding before they reached the hospital wing where the medi-witch rushed out of her room when she saw her.

"Is everything okay, Minerva?" she asked quickly. "It's not one of, Lady Shado's lot, is it?"

"Not, really, Poppy," she replied with a sigh and lifted up the cage for her to see.

Pomfrey looked closely at the rat. "I see; a student, but I don't see why-."

"She's been like this for around two years, so I felt that once I unlocked the spell and reversed it that she should at least get some medical attention before I get her home," she said. "A Wiccan friend of Miss. Umbra's was looking after her and trying to find a way to turn her back, but hadn't had any success. It was likely illegal or questionable magic at least, so they couldn't go to the MACUSA buildings in Sacramento, or New York, or Seattle, or Austin, or Tallahassee or, well, you get the point… Helena," she added the last unable to help herself and looked sheepish. "Sorry, I said all the main MACUSA locations, and couldn't help but finish it off, sorry. Anyway, they couldn't ask for help, and it does seem it was her own fault as it was self-inflicted, so Miss. Umbra sent her to me."

"Very well," Pomfrey nodded as she opened the cage, a little amused at her friend, and pulled the rat out, placing her on a bed at the end of the wing. It was quiet since there was no one else in the infirmary and McGonagall just had to wave her wand with a few words, and the girl morphed back into her proper form, only naked. She had smooth brown hair to her shoulders and lightly tanned skin, slender body, and deep brown eyes.

"Here!" Pomfrey said as she pulled off some blankets from the bed next to her as the girl was shivering and hugging herself, blushing as she was highly embarrassed being naked in front of two strange woman, even if one was a doctor. Though, she was even more embarrassed with how long she had trapped herself as a rat, when this one woman turned her back as if the spell was child's play to her. The covers were wrapped around her tightly a moment later and she relaxed into them, pulling them tightly around her to keep warm, and she felt tears prickle at her eyes, but refused to cry.

The medi-witch then began some medical scans with her wand, and tutted disapprovingly while shaking her head. "You Miss.-," Madam Pomfrey began, but paused as she hadn't gotten a name yet, and looking to McGonagall for the answer.

"Madison; Amy Madison," she answered the question while Pomfrey went and started pulling down some potions from a cabinet.

"Well, Miss. Madison, you owe Lady Umbra for sending you here," she continued. "Here; take these potions, in this order, and they'll help you re-acclimatise to your proper body!" she ordered, not giving her a choice but to swallow the yucky stuff, and she held off complaining as they were helping her where no one before had been able. "It's your own fault; kids these days; don't think about the consequences of their actions until they've lived as a rat for two years."

"T-thanks...!" Amy replied taking a shaky breath, and feeling more uncomfortable at the reprimands, but more so as they were right; she never did understand her spell work properly, and the magical healer, and transfiguration mistress looked like they were genuinely concerned for her, which made her feel worse. Maybe it was time she started thinking about things more seriously, or Willow would be proven right, and she would end up in jail, and by the look of things, they likely had magical jails to keep her from getting away by using magic. "I-I don't think I-I'll try anything like that again," she said while her voice was croaky from non-use.

"I'll have some food sent up!" McGonagall said as they heard Amy's tummy rumbling, further embarrassing her, but she hadn't eaten the fill of a human in years.

"Meat," she said quickly. "Beef, ham, chicken, anything but cheese, or worse…" she shuddered thinking about it, but in her rat form it didn't taste too bad she supposed, but that could have been because of the very few taste buds' rats had, but the thought was gross too. "W-Willow wouldn't feed me proper human food, and she kept insisting I might be sick, so I guess that was punishment too!"

"Well, you'll be staying here for a couple days at least, so I can monitor you," Pomfrey said with a nod before turning to McGonagall. "We can't risk sending her to St. Mungo's hospital where Dumbledore might try to get his grubby old hands on her to find or lure Lady Umbra, and I may not be a full healer, I am not just a nurse, and have my medi-witch degrees."

McGonagall nodded. "Yes, quite," she agreed, as that was why she was hired. "Meanwhile, Miss. Umbra is still looking for one of the rods."

"Umm… Miss., um, where am I?" Amy asked, startling them.

"This is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in the United Kingdom," she answered to Amy's surprise, as McGonagall knew she was from the States from the note, and she knew roughly, where Shado was, so she added the 'UK' bit for her. "Get some rest," she said before leaving the girl (though she was in her late teens to early twenties, she was just a girl to her), and the Hospital Wing.

It wasn't long before some strange little creature wearing a pillowcase brought Amy her food, and wow, she got to gorge something silly on everything she had missed in the past two years, and then some, as the school seemed to really treat its students more than well, and wished she could have gone to school at Hogwarts.

Then she got to look around the infirmary where the nurse gave her some hospital standard PJs, but they were better than being butt naked until she had to leave, in which case she hoped to be given some regular clothes at least.

She had heard rumours about schools of sorcery, but never really believed in them, but here one was. That was cool in her books. If Willow would have been with her, she would have probably escaped and found the treasure-trove that was the library already. That girl had a serious thing about books; not that books weren't useful, especially when they were magic books, but too much of a good thing got boring for her at least.

"Yo!" she was startled as an auburn-haired girl with silver framed glasses and green eyes skipped into the room. She must have been around sixteen or seventeen, and wore some black robes done up with some yellow lining, and she was carrying some clothes in her hands; it looked like a uniform like hers, but it showed the shirt, and blouse while leaving out other things like tie; it was the Christmas Holiday still anyway.

"I'm Erika!" she greeted with a mock bow and a wide smile as she skipped over, and Amy hadn't even gotten the PJ's on yet. Erika then dropped the spare clothes onto her. "I bumped into Professor McGonagall; she said I should keep you out of trouble, and asked whether I had some clothes you could borrow. So, get dressed; as long as I don't keep you too long Madam Pomfrey won't mind. Lady Shado sent you, so I'll be happy to show you around; being a rodent for two years; if it were me, I would want to stretch my human legs too."

"Umm… well, privacy," she said gesturing for Erika to leave her to get dressed alone.

Erika rolled her eyes. "Have you even tried moving from that spot yet?" she asked amused when Amy scooted around on the bed and realised that it would take forever to get dressed without help; she felt so stiff and unsure just moving around on the bed, and her finger dexterity was shot to heck right then. "You'll have to get used to your body silly or you'll fall flat on your face with your arse in the air, and I might get frisky and take advantage of you," she laughed while Amy's cheeks lit up.

However, she sighed. "At least pull the curtains around us; this is humiliating enough as it is!" she replied, and Erika took pity and did as she was asked. She enjoyed seeing the new girl naked, with her fine breasts and great arse and 'accidentality' cupping a feel where she could as she helped the girl get dressed.

"No underwear?" she asked, pouting.

"Sorry," Erika replied sheepishly. "My schoolhouse mates are kind of… what's the word, right; self-sufficient. So, we're not supposed to employ the house-elves to do our laundry, so I have to wait until the right time, so, I don't get caught, so I haven't got any undies to wear either," she said showing her to prove it, shrugging before she let her robe drop back down. Other than totally shaven, Amy was sure Erika was wearing a red leather skirt, was gay, coming on to her, and totally wouldn't lose; she was just that confident in herself.

That left her with option one, run for the hills, or option two, try it, she might like it, and considering her position; option two it was. Then Willow sure did seem to enjoy that Tara girl. Thinking about it, Amy wasn't sure whether Willow often forgot she was really human when she brought her girlfriend home, or whether it turned her on. She liked to think the red head girl was secretly quite kinky like that; it made her somewhat friend more fun somehow.

Amy just hoped that she and Willow were still friends, as she remembered running away, and leaving her and Buffy to fend for themselves, but she had suffered two years as a rat for the consequences, so that evened things out somewhat, and she had plenty of time to dwell on what a bitch she had been. She would just have to take that Willow had looked after her for just over two years as a good sign; not to mention having finally gotten her help because that was near certainly a friend thing to do.

"I'm probably just going to take my things to a friend who is in Gryffindor house and she'll put my stuff in with hers," Erika finished with a sheepish grin. "I'll admit I hate doing the laundry, and all those other girls chatting about things they shouldn't think about until, well, never… who wants to chat about the best magical world detergents?" she asked, ranting but Amy's mind hit on something she found more important.

"Wait, Gryffindor, as in 'the' Godric Gryffindor?" Amy asked in surprise while Erika straightened Amy's skirt for her and buttoned up her robe, as she hadn't quite re-figured out the small buttons, and from what Erika saw of spilled food, knives and forks had been evil to her dexterity.

"Yeah, he was one of the founders of this school," she said with a shrug. "He, along with, Helga Hufflepuff... I'm in her house; Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Lots of the Slytherins these days are complete jerks, but they did have 'the' Merlin, but then they went and ruined his attempted good deeds by most of them going down the hate muggles route when Merlin was a muggle rights activist."

"Okay… that is awesome," she declared while her mind was hitting overdrive. "Four of the greatest ever sorcerers, and I'm at their school, and to top it off, Merlin came here!"

"Yeah, I suppose that is pretty cool, but he was totally sexist, lets it down somewhat, but those were the times, so whatever!" she agreed with a grin. "Well anyway, Amy," she said as she finished fastening the shoes onto her feet before helping her up. "Let's get out of here. If you're feeling up to it, I happen to be the only prefect here this Christmas, so after the tour, maybe a nice long soak in the girl's prefect baths. Trust me; the only thing that could make them better would be to add in muggle luxuries, and the Covenants new remodelling hasn't been finished yet, so we can't sneak in there for a while, but it's still cool."

"Y-you mean the Covenant of Witches really exists?" Amy asked in awe.

"Of course, silly," she replied, rolling her eyes. "Shado is our new queen, and we're organising a Joining Ceremony for the summer, if you think you fit all of the qualifications, but don't worry, I'll test you out for that!" she said smiling mischievously as she helped Amy out of the hospital wing.

Erika was happy to lead Amy around the castle, watching her look everywhere in eagerness was quite amusing and childlike. She must have been like that her first time walking around the school her first year, and it was quite a bit more than spectacular back then. Now it had all gotten highly mundane and not just a little bit routine these days to walk passed something freaky and not bat an eyelid.

They had been walking around for a couple hours, and by that time Amy wasn't stumbling or staggering any longer, but seemed to be doing fine. She still held Erika's right hand with her left, fingers linked as she did still stumble slightly sometimes, but that was mainly through surprise. When she first saw a 'ghost', or imprint (she shrieked in shock) as Erika corrected as they weren't real ghosts, and any real ghost would have been 'sent', which was pretty much a magical exorcism for all intents and purposes, but referred to as a sending, which was rare in the magical world, well in magical locations.

"So how is Shado?" Erika asked once they entered the Great Hall as it was lunchtime and they were both hungry, so Erika led her to sit at her table where food was supplied. The school was quite Spartan, as not too many students stayed for the holiday. It was possible that some parents even secretly pulled out kids because they didn't want to side against Dumbledore no matter how wrong that old nutter was.

"You mean that weird witch who sent me here is really the queen, and that powerful?" she asked and Erika nodded her head in agreement. "Well, umm… she looked perfectly fine; looked like they were trying to teach the Slayer and her sister magic though for some reason," she shrugged. "Other than that... oh, she did get beaten up by a hell goddess… well, they apparently drew, which is pretty cool, being as strong as a flipping god, but I think they'll think of something to stop her; they always do!"

"O-kay, well, since she hasn't called for help, I guess she has things under wraps… and hanging with the slayer… that's cool," she replied, concerned but not overly so. She paused as she spun her head to look over at the Gryffindor table suddenly, which was the other side of the hall, and frowned as she looked at a ginger boy as he had his wand out, doing something with it that was suspicious. "Oh, really now," she commented. "If you don't put your little twig down you Dumbledore worshipping prick, I'm going to come over there and ram it down your throat!" she said, not even raising her voice, so he 'shouldn't' have been able to hear her, but he could, even Amy noticed the charm after it was pointed out.

The ginger boy didn't so much as flinch as he looked ever so smug. "Umm… who is that jerk?" Amy asked after a few moments.

"Nobody important, just a 'spy'!" she replied, shrugging and using air quotes, brushing him off as nothing, which Amy noticed with a smirk angered him quickly. She figured he was using magic to listen in on them to report back to his master. So that must have been the charm in the air; no, more like something directed at them with his wand, like those listening devices she had seen in spy movies with a dish thing, headphones, and a control on the handle.

"Oh, I figured as much," she replied to see whether they could rile him up enough to get him to anger the teachers and get into trouble, which was something she liked to do, and it seemed Erika was her kind of girl. "Just looking at him; it's obvious he wears a magical leash, and licks his master's balls because he can't reach his own!"

Erika grinned, as that was funny. "Yeah; he has about as much perception as a ripe orange, barely knows where to fall!" she said nodding her head in agreement. "His younger sister is freaking awesome though. But then there has to be at least one sane member of their family who doesn't bow before old men who want you to believe they're the next coming of Merlin without any of Merlin's morels or belief in equality. Well, equality if you were a dude anyway!" she finished while holding up three fingers, hidden from his view and lowered one, then another, and finally the last while they were suppressing giggles.

Right on, queue the ginger boy screamed in his outrage, startling the students and teachers. "HOW DARE YOU USELESS HUFFLEPUFF BITCHES TALK LIKE THAT ABOUT THE GREAT ALBUS DUMBLEDORE!" the boy roared out drooling saliva; he reminded them of a wild beast. "Albus Dumbledore is the next Merlin!" he declared arrogantly.

"Wasn't Merlin a Slytherin?" Luna Lovegood asked nonchalant, and knowingly from where she sat with her girlfriend Cassy at the Ravenclaw table, as they had their own mission at the school, so they couldn't go home. They were both dressed casually in blue jeans and blue tee shirts, though Luna wore a black shirt too that only had a few buttons done up and the baggy sleeves opened over her small hands. Cassy was smirking, and holding back a laugh as Ron turned to them in a Terra-storm rage filled to the brim with hate and loathing.

"MERLIN WAS A GRYFFINDOR!" he screeched deafeningly.

"Wow, arrogant beyond arrogant! And ignorantly stupid!" Luna commented airily. "Ask the Sorting Hat if you're really that sure because it will tell you that Myrddin Emrys. The Merlin was a Slytherin, you ignoramus. But you want to know something even more amusing? Morgan Pendragon was a Gryffindor!" she said in absolute delight.

"Huh?" he asked, blinking stupidly while many people around were snickering.

"Morgana le Fay!" she replied rolling her eyes. "A history lesson fool… while Merlin was a great wizard no doubt, and a muggle rights activist he was also a notorious sexist. Morgana le Fay was a gifted witch, and this was before the time the sorting hat was used.

"Morgana Pendragon was a couple years younger than Merlin, and King Arthur Pendragon of Camelot's half-sister. Godric Gryffindor saw her talent when she was invited with other children to join Hogwarts, so snapped her up for his house before anyone else noticed the bright and lively child, because believe it or not, Godric Gryffindor was quite the crafty, quick-witted man, and kind, best friends with Salazar Slytherin. This was long before the hat sorted by traits where the founders sought by talent.

"Gryffindor needed Morgana and her talent, and intellect for bragging rights over Slytherin having Merlin, and it would be likely in my opinion that Merlin would become Slytherins apprentice, and Morgana, Gryffindors. It was like a competition to them in a way; a friendly back and forth, which is probably why people have said they hated each other, blowing their game out of proportion, as there has never been any evidence that they were at 'war'. Neither was there proof that Slytherin was a muggle hater, just ignorant speculation made by fools, mainly because of future Slytherins, or too us, past and present giving his house a bad rep, so of course mindless people believed he was the same, but he married someone born from muggles, and had children with her. She had a family who hated her for her magic. Salazar Slytherin was rather protective of muggle-born children as he saw how his own wife's family had been, and he loved her with every fibre of his being.

"Then, Morgana started coming into her own within a few years, started beating records set by Merlin, and he got jealous that a mere girl could best him; it is unknown whether Slytherin thought like that about women, but considering he found a school with two, and his passion and love for his wife, and his protectiveness of his daughters, it seems unlikely.

"Then over the years the rivalry grew, and Morgana stepped into darker waters as she studied magic like an art or science. She wanted to know the ins and outs; the limitations, and true lore's of everything from demonology to symbology, as all magics were seen back then, and then beyond the world to the celestial and hell realms, proving her intelligence time and again to Merlin's ire. She proved many simple theories, and ideas of magic that we take for granted to this day, and even invented many mundane spells, but more importantly, she invented over three hundred and fifty medical spells and healing potions that too this day created modern magical healing, without her, who knows how far behind we could have been.

"However, Merlin grew bitter and jealous, likely because she had the imagination to look to the future. She was a futurist before its time. However, with the ear of the king and his court, Merlin convinced the 'world' as they knew it that she was a dark sorceress and therefore evil. It would ultimately lead to the end of Camelot and the beginning of the Ministry of Magic, as we now know it. Merlin went too far, and as it turned out some say that Morgana had enough of him and attacked full force, bringing an army of creatures, muggles, and sorcerers out of nowhere, unprovoked.

"But others say Merlin killed one of Morgana's loved ones that earned him her wrath, and she took down Camelot and her half-brother Arthur with him because Arthur wouldn't step aside. She took Excalibur and returned it to her sister, known more commonly as the Lady of the Lake, and made her swear that only a woman's hand could wield it if her path was honest. I don't think anyone could tell whether the Lady of the Lake changed the magic within her sword or not without finding it.

"There are many people who play ignorant to the truth behind the 'myths' and children's stories, but maybe Ronald. If you picked up a book every once in a while, instead of believing what you want to believe, you might actually learn something instead of being a fool!" Luna declared mockingly as she finished her story, glad she would be going to the Stronghold on Christmas Day, as she and Cassy had had to stay in part as they were still dealing with some renovations in the Covenant Tower, and their parents were busy over the Christmas break because of Dumbledore's evil, but got permission to leave, soon. She had nearly everyone listening intently; some students likely knew the gist of the truth, but the younger ones marvelled as their fantasy stories crumbled down around them. And some looked like the stories became more entertaining, which was good because sometimes truth could be more fun than fiction, but none of the teachers looked like the history lesson was anything but true.

"You're a liar!" Ron accused in loathing, looking around the table. "Where's Hermione; she'll tell me you're nothing but a loon, Loony Lovegood!"

"Hermione went home you moron!" Cassy snarled out, standing to glare at him in hatred for calling her girlfriend names, only she got to do that, and she was playful, and used them in naughty games that she wouldn't admit to in front of her best friends let alone in front of the remaining school. "... Because she had enough of you bullying her you spiteful little twerp! And if you go near her ever again, you'll be in for a world of pain, and that would be us being nice!"

He snorted smugly. "You can't do anything to me you stupid cow!"

"Mr. Weasley!" The voice was cold and clearly unimpressed as he turned to see Professor Strife behind him. She grabbed his arm and threw him across the floor to gasps from the students as he had finally crossed the line and started eating in a field that didn't belong to filth like him. She had him at wand point as he cradled his arm and his wand exploded with a flick of hers, causing him to whimper back in terror. "You're coming with me; packing your bags and you're expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

"Y-you can't do that!" he whimpered out with tears in his eyes.

"Oh, yes I can, and I have; this here has been in my pocket since Dumbledore and Snape had left," she said waving papers at him. "I have just had them signed by the headmistress! I will no longer have to worry about my students, mainly first year girls running to me crying about you bullying them, and with Dumbledore gone we can finally start protecting students from selfish minions like you! Now MOVE!" she ordered coldly.

He scrambled to his feet in horror as he started running with her chasing him; she was much faster than him, fitter, and it was impressive. She wasn't clunky or unused to chasing someone, she was swift and athletic while he was the clumpy mess.

Ron fled straight out of the Entrance Hall doors out into the snowy grounds fleeing towards the gates. It was a moment later that Professor Strife returned with Ron floating behind her, panting for breathe, screaming, and crying while she didn't look like she had been running anywhere as she carted him off up some stairs, out of sight and hearing range.

"Wow that boy is retarded or seriously brainwashed by this Dumbledore guy!" Amy muttered to Erika while she nodded in agreement and McGonagall managed to restore order to the hall, and everyone went back to lunch to talk about what happened and marvel about the scene. "But I never knew that about Merlin and Morgana; that was seriously petty of Merlin."

"Yeah, I suppose it was," Erika replied thoughtfully as they finished lunch. "So, want to get that bath. I've been told I give a great all-over massage!" she suggested with a cheeky grin.

Amy gulped but nodded her head anyway, embarrassed. "Umm… okay," she agreed as she wondered whether so much time as a rat made her less fussy, especially about sex, but then Erika was hot, so that couldn't break the deal, and that English accent was too sexy.

In Sunnydale, Anyanka 'Anya' Jenkins was admittedly pissed off that she had to go and apologise to that stupid girl who, secretly she would admit probably held herself back from killing her or something. Now Anya had to venture out and search for her and it was getting darker by the second, and by the time she had passed her first cemetery, the sun had set, which was quite annoying because she knew all too well how terrifying the streets could be after dark. The things that parent's reassured their children didn't go bump in the night, unfortunately did, and that was just the tip of the hellish nightmare the world truly had bumping around in the darkness.

Anya was annoyed, as she had to go and annoy a rich girl who just happened to have the guts to take what she wanted, and the power to keep it if she chose, which was more annoying because Anya liked money. In fact, Anya liked it a lot. She was kind of out just thinking about the money really. Then she supposed since the girl was slaying with Buffy and trying to help them with their hell-goddess problem it couldn't hurt to keep her sweet, or whatever.

"Hey boys, looks like dinner came to us tonight!"

Anya turned and internally groaned. Vampires always seemed to turn up at the most inopportune times, just to be annoying D-bags, and they wondered why nobody liked them. Well, that and nearly all of them were soulless murdering D-bags whole liked to drink blood or something like that anyway. She was almost certain they were soulless-blood drinking D-bags, unless some gipsies were cursing vampires with souls, left, right, and centre these days, and that was sarcasm.

"You should know I'm friends with the Slayer, right?!" Anya asked with a raised eyebrow. Though, she'd tried that before and they were too stupid to run away and Buffy did what she did best and slayed them. Vampire's these days just didn't respect the Slayer's slayer-ing-ness, no matter that Buffy had been one of the, well, the longest running Slayer, and had surrounded herself with two powerful Wicca, so she was going to last longer, maybe even grow old, which would be a first for a Slayer, and now she was apparently learning magic, which, wow, she felt sorry for them.

Anya frowned as she realised that she was disappointed that Buffy wasn't getting the recognition that she deserved, and wondered when she had started caring about the girl. That annoyed her. She had never anticipated caring about any human, let alone the Slayer. She felt queasy when she had an epiphany. She loved her friends. That was why Anya went after Shado, because she didn't want to disappoint them, as they obviously loved her even if they didn't always show it because she could admit she was more than a little annoying sometimes. She certainly didn't want to be left alone for being a bitch.

Anya had heard that before death, life would flash before your eyes, but maybe in her case, she had lived so long that she had to settle for the unspoken truth. She loved her friends. She wasn't supposed too, was she? But, she did. She had never made plans for loving anyone ever again, but again, she did, and it terrified her. She would admit (to herself at least, for now), she had been using Xander, but she hadn't done anything in ages, he was stale and weak, but she still cared about him, in a more annoying little brother sense.

She hated thinking that she might have willingly died for any one of them because love tended to be stupid, and selfless, and crazy, and she was crazy enough as it was.

"Oh really!" the leader of the five vampires asked, knocking Anya from her internal monologue with a wicked grin on his smug bastard face. "It looks like we have ourselves a plaything. The Slayer might want her back, after we've finished with her of course. Though, she'll be more compact and portable, in pieces!"

Anya couldn't help but smile a little. "Then you'll be dead soon after!" she retorted, surprisingly at peace with herself for once. Dying at such an age would be a miracle to any human. She had lived a long life, and dying after finding some kind of happiness wasn't so bad, she supposed.

The vampire was about to retort when he suddenly exploded into dust a moment later. The other vampires all looked round in horror. Shado stood behind where the vampire had been, holding a wooden stake with gold light in her eyes burning with power. She stood with a nonchalance that wowed Anya as even she couldn't be that indifferent after well, anything.

"Oh god, it's her!" one of the vampires cried out in horror. "It's that monster! It's The Goddess of Murder!" he squealed like a little girl while her eyes sparked and his friends started panicking too.

Anya had seriously never had to watch someone running after vampires to slay them before, so it was a novel experience. She had to make a mental note to say that she was friends with, Shado from then onwards if she scared the vampires that much more than the slayer. Looking it was probably because she played with them and wasn't quick in their demises. Though if Buffy did get even a small bit versed in magic, enough to augment her strength, and or throw fireballs, she would get scarier, and not all of the vampires were as stupid as them.

"I hope they weren't buddies of yours…? Anya, wasn't it?" Shado asked with a raised eyebrow, looking calm and collect, thankfully she seemed like she had gotten over being pissed at her. But then she seemed like the sort of person who was quick to get over certain things that weren't all that important.

"Umm... yeah," Anya agreed quickly. "I err... came looking for you to umm... apologise," she said quickly as she looked at the rod the girl wore in her belt. "That staff isn't actually mine, but Giles's, so I was hoping you could, you know, pay for it so I don't have to because it looks like it would go that way, and I really like money, so paying for things I don't have or want is bad. And that thing is really expensive; it would take me years to pay it off in instalments."

"I see!" Shado replied with a small grin. "And I suppose, Anya that you intend to do something for me, so that I make sure you don't get left with a huge bill, huh?"

"Okay, what do you want?" she asked in relief. She would literally do… well, nearly anything – she would wash the girls house, inside and out, and even scrub the floors – or wash her if that was what she commanded – a little short of whoring herself out was what she would do for her beloved money, though she might have considered that as Shado was quite the good-looking girl, and that would be a win-win.

"You used to be a vengeance daemon, so you must have gotten around, so maybe you've run across these wizards I've heard rumours of, at least once?!" she asked, surprising Anya as this girl was smarter by far compared to normal mystics of her kind. They wouldn't have even considered these 'rumours' to be true in their unholy ignorance of loads of freaky shit being the real deal.

Therefore, Anya allowed her eyes to narrow in annoyance, for show. She tried to make it seem as if answering her silly question was beneath her, but that seemed to amuse Shado, so Anya just chose to answer straight away and save herself the agro, or getting her cute rear kicked, or spanked, though...?

"The last family like that I met lived in New York, a year or so ago when I was, well never mind. If they're still there, they won't be hard for someone like you to find. But I wouldn't know why that would interest you, as they're all freaking crackpots! I gave a 'wish' to this annoying girl who is kind of good at heart but it takes her awhile because she is pretty selfish… well, pretty and selfish, but I guess you get the point; probably why I liked her so much, reminded me a bit of myself. She managed to undo her wish, so I suppose she could make a nice addition to your silly little club."

"Well then, all is forgiven!" Shado replied with a wide grin, startling Anya as she was an easy master to please, which startled her further and baffled her as she referred to her as her master, which was odd as she had never met her before, and she couldn't quite place why she called her master. "But what was her wish?" she asked, curious.

Anya shook that thought away as she snorted, and shook her head clear as she told her, "she had a secret crush of some stupid pop star; a girl at that, and she could never get close. Her brothers kept getting in the way of her using magic. So, she spent half a year, after her wish trying to get her attention. She wished to be from a talented musical family, allowing her to become a pop star to get closer to her crush, but things didn't turn out well and she ended up being rivals. All wish magic has messed up consequences to deal with. It was just a childish fan thing really, but she broke the wish eventually, so all was, kind of right, I guess anyway."

"Wow, gives credence to the term 'be careful what you wish for'," Shado replied, laughing about it.

Anya shrugged, "she has to be one of my most favourite wishers," she half agreed. "I always got sick of the boring, thinking inside the box girls. I never normally gave girls vengeance on brothers, but they were being a pain, and it was a slow month for me. Her eldest brother, Justin had the smarts when it came to magic, but I liked her raw natural talent. She was the practical type of learner, do by seeing, while he could self-teach from a book, but I've always thought the naturals were better, like you, and Willow."

"Please, tell me more!" Shado nearly ordered, but Anya didn't care as she ordered people around all the time, but at least this girl had the presence, strength, and power that she knew she should follow, and didn't just use her amazing looks to persuade anyone of anything. Shado was a born leader, so Anya talked about the wizard-girl for a short while.

"I'll be sure to pay her a visit when I have some free time… or maybe send her an invite," Shado said after the short while before she shrugged, and walked away, "come on, I'll take you home. I promised Dawn that I would help her out on some problem she's having or something!"

"Umm… thanks," Anya replied as she followed her, walking fast to keep up, "but why aren't you being a bitch to me anymore?" she asked, curious, before adding quickly, "not that I want you to be, but you are so unreadable it's annoying."

Shado shrugged while thinking that through. "Hmm… I guess that was too troubling. Anyway, you came running to find me, and could have ended up as vamp-snacks, so I let you off the hook!"

"Thanks, I guess!" she replied laughing while Shado grabbed her arm and pulled her to hurry up, and startling her as she would have tripped if Shado hadn't been strong enough to hold her up and pull her along at the same time.

"More vampires are going to turn up and bother us soon if we don't hurry," Shado said while smirking, and still holding Anya's arm tightly to her chest after she had caught her footing, "they seriously have no sense to just stay away from me for long.

"There was this huge black vampire guy yesterday, like seriously massive. He was the sort of guy you would expect to see on a door at a nightclub. I was just doing my thing, kicking butt, and being all Slayer-like, and he was laughing at me as I kept dodging him. He was making fun of me, and being a pervert, so I stopped toying with him, and broke his legs, just to see the fear in his eyes before I dusted him in front of his mates, and they all charged at me, like what the heck, seriously stupid! Needless to say, they were all turned into dust bunnies soon after!"

"Vampires tend to not be very bright!" Anya agreed. She was laughing, as she finally felt safe around the queen. Then Anya almost paused as she had thought queen, and actually meant it in the way it was supposed to be, which was kind of scary how willing she was to submit to the girl. Shado gave off an odd feeling off strength, but thinking about that it was the same way with Buffy, and… and though shadowed with doubt and uncertainty, Willow?

Anya had always been dismissive of Willow, afraid that she wanted Xander back, even after she came out, but lately, Anya had felt differently with her own lack of interest in him, and maybe back then she hadn't realised it, but maybe she felt that, oddity then too. It was power. Anya had always been drawn to power, like she secretly was to Buffy, but Anya had generally gravitated towards men before then because of the times she had lived through.

Not to mention, Anya had never come across a woman or girl (discounting Glory as she wanted to kill everyone) who was so strong, and didn't need nor want a man in their lives to protect them at all. They had themselves to rely on, their own power, and each other, and she was the flipping Queen of the Covenant of Witches, and even Vengeance Daemons knew back in the day to stay clear of them, unless they wanted to die. It was an amazing epiphany and all that, but it scared her as she found herself sexually attracted to Shado because of this, and in turn wondered whether the Wiccan were up for a three-way with her before shaking that off in case she got too horny she couldn't sleep later.

Slayers had come and gone. They were called and they died quite quickly. But now, Buffy, and that weird psycho Dark Slayer, Faith. They weren't dead yet, and by statistics they should have been long ago. The only difference between them and those before them was the Watchers Council. With the Watchers Council mostly absent they thrived and got stronger, and with friends (in Buffy's case at least) she had a reason to fight and live, and get stronger, and it didn't hurt that she had two wicca on her side, and now The Covenant.

"Who you sayin' isn't bright, pet?"

Anya froze, as that was all she needed as she and Shado stopped together, looking to the bleach blonde vampire as he swaggered closer. Shado didn't look at all impressed with him, if anything, Anya was sure he had just signed his own death warrant. It made Anya feel weak in the knees and a little damp, as she had wanted to see Spike being staked a long time ago, as he was that annoying.

"So, you're Spike the Neutered Vampire?" Shado asked with a grin on her face, which caused Spike to stop just to glare at her.

"I'm Spike, and I don't appreciate funny girlies like you!" he declared.

"Wow, you give British people a bad name!" she retorted, amused with him. "By the by, mate, you aren't fooling me with that terrible accent."

He growled, and vamped out. He surprised Anya as he charged at them, and Shado pushed her out of the way, as she heard the crack of his fist on Shado's face, and nothing. He wasn't hurt, which meant the chip in his head didn't consider her human enough to care about protecting her, which made his fang-filled face grin in triumph. However, Anya knew that chip was the only reason he was alive.

"Looks like you're, not… hue-man, girl…?" he questioned slowly as she had just skidded back a foot and his fist was still pushing at her cheek, but she only looked angry, not hurt, and an angry shadow was always frightening, no matter how long she would live, Anya knew that as a fundamental truth.

The ex-daemon watched in awe as Shado stepped out of the punch with a grin splitting her lips in two, licking her lips, but that storm raged in her beautiful emerald eyes.

"Good!" she mumbled, rubbing her cheek. "I didn't want to kill a vampire who had his fangs removed, what would the other bad-arses of the world think of me then?" she asked him, and he stepped back.

Anya could see that Spike realised that he made a terrible mistake. The only reason he was alive before then was that he was tougher than most-lower ranked daemons, and he could no longer hurt humans, so the slayer left him alone.

Shado wasn't a lower-level being. She was a high-level sorceress who didn't like D-bags like him. He didn't see it coming as her stake flew, and stuck into his chest in a matter of moments. Anya watched, fascinated as Spike burst into dust with a stunned, disbelieving expression on his face as someone finally went and staked him. Anya was actually in the opinion that he was on borrowed time anyway, so who cared; he died centuries ago.

The dust settled as Shado's stake cluttered to the ground, and Anya watched her retrieve it before turning and giving her a marvellous grin while staking a blonde girl behind her in nonchalance before placing her stake away, looking pleased with herself as the other vampire poofed into dust without a second to register her own overdue demise.

"Okay, so… home it is!" Anya said as she rushed over to the girl and she took her right hand in her left and smiled wider. "So, everyone is going to feel quite odd hearing that you finally staked Spike."

"Blah, he was a loser!" she retorted, unconcerned.

"O-kay, My Lady!" Anya replied timidly as that was, she couldn't explain what, but on this girl's wrong side, she would never be again, and she received a huge grin.

"Maybe I'll have some time, to shag you senseless before I leave?" Shado suggested as they approached Anya's home, and the ex-demoness felt wet already, and her heartbeat sped up as she nodded eagerly, and led the way inside.

It was, a few days later, and Shado had finally paid for the rod, and even repaired the display cabinet. It was Christmas day, and it was Tara's idea. Willow Rosenberg was against it. Well, she wasn't really, but for Tara she was. She loved her with everything she was, but yes, it was true that she felt the same way about Buffy, but that was supposed to be a secret, but somehow Willow was too obvious. However, Tara surprised her by being not just supportive, but pushy about it. If Willow didn't know better, which she might not, she would think that Tara wanted her to do things because she had her eyes on another girl too, or Buffy and wanted a three-way, and that would be all fair play. They could have each other, but get to share other girls too, or something kinky like that, so maybe Shado was rubbing off a little as that did sound nice and totally fun, and super-hot.

The idea held merit she supposed, and made Willow feel really tingly just thinking about it. Buffy was her best friend, and if she was to join the covenant, she would have to like girls like that. Well, she was nearly certain that wasn't actually true, (just mainly Shado's little fantasy idea), but she didn't have to let Buffy know that, and who better than her best friend to be her first girl, and it could be an extra Christmas present for them both, as they already had a nice diner, and did the present thing, and Shado had gone out to do some monster hunting, since it was Christmas less humans would be out, so she would be out long

"I had always wondered about… you know the whole super-strength thing," Willow said suddenly as they were sitting together in the lounge. Dawn was the only other person in the house, and was in her room waiting for Shado to get home from patrolling, and scaring the shit out of the monsters. Shado hadn't gotten in yet from whatever she was doing with Anya, as the blonde went with her, likely saving her from some vampires, or killing her, or having sex with her, but Willow couldn't think about that any more.

"Oh, been fantasising about me now, huh?" Buffy replied jokingly as she wrapped her arms around Willow in a friendly cuddle. Willow was sappy like that and melted as if she couldn't do anything else, and she was certain she couldn't, and smiled, "actually… there was a time…" Buffy said slowly, "when you first admitted about Tara… that I was really jealous of her. But I got to know her and see how happy she made you. I'm still not quite sure whether that was me just being overly protective like I was with Oz or whether I was jealous that you come out and didn't want me…

"I know that seems conceited but hey," she shrugged, "Faith kissed me once," she suddenly said shocking Willow and she turned sharply in Buffy's arms to look at her better. "Well, more than once, and I kind of kissed back. She tried to take it further but… I pushed her away. I kind of regret that. I wonder whether if I had done it, she might still be here on the side of good rather than...-"

"Buffy…!" Willow quietly reprimanded, and surprising the Slayer with a soft kiss to the cheek. "You shouldn't regret not doing something just because you feel everything would be better if you had… that kind of regret is never ending."

"That isn't why I regret it," she answered rolling her eyes while wearing a sad smile. "I regret it for many reasons… but, one is that I might have made Faith happy… I'm not stupid, I know how she felt about me… and… maybe I might have been happy with her too…"

Willow sighed as she held her best friend. "I guess we're all a little fucked up in the head," she commented, laughing.

Buffy grinned slightly, "I think that's what makes us human."

"I-I just want to feel… feel some happiness, to feel like all of the battles we've been in were worth it," Willow replied as her heart was pounding painfully in her chest. She leaned in, and let her lips graze Buffy's in a gentle touch, she kissed back before pulling away with worried eyes.

"W-what about Tara?" she asked her breathlessly. Willow found it nice that Buffy was thinking of her girlfriends' feelings.

"She's game," Willow replied, smirking as she stole Buffy's lips again, and this time, Buffy didn't resist her, and gave in to the temptation. She could barely believe it had taken her so long to kiss Willow's soft moist lips.

Their eyes drifted closed, their lips worked together in sync as they finally gave in, and tasted each other.

Meanwhile, Dawn took a deep calming breath as she sat in her room waiting for Shado to get home, which was taking a while. Buffy and Willow were downstairs talking about something, or whatever it was that they did alone together, and Tara had gone to meet Amy in Sacramento by train by herself, as she had insisted for some reason on going alone, and wanted to get Amy back over the Christmas break as the trains would be rather quiet. It was just a good thing that Shado's familiar had come home, and happily went with Tara while the other two apparently went to be Amy's escorts home.

Though, she thought it would have been nice to talk to someone like Tara about her problem first. However, she looked so excited to get to go into a magical shopping district, and it would be an ideal place to get some hard to come by magical ingredients too, and Tara was good at that side of magic compared with Willow's more practical application.

Lying back on her bed, Dawn almost jumped off when the door barged open and the beautiful Shado entered, giggling. She flopped back onto Dawn's bed beside her, and didn't even bother closing the door.

"Guess what I saw downstairs!?" Shado began at the same time as Dawn spoke, "Shado, can I talk to you about something important?"

"Okay," she was quick to agree.

"What?" Dawn asked as she was curious, but Shado had turned to her with a serious expression, which wasn't a surprise, as she knew she was a serious person when the time called for it. Though, Dawn loved the carefree childish side, she had just as much.

"Don't worry about that!" she replied, brushing it aside, and pulling Dawn into a hug. Dawn couldn't help but melt into her cuddle as Shado stroked her hair the way she found she liked her too. "Why don't you tell me what you want to, so then I can tell you what I saw?" she asked while Dawn hugged her back.

"Kiss me…?" Dawn said, but she somehow made it feel like she was asking her whether she should ask her to kiss her. "I… I thought about waiting naked with a ribbon, but, I chickened out," she said looking away while her cheeks flamed brightly.

Shado looked at Dawn in surprise, but she was surprised when Shado was giggling again, back to her adorable fun-loving self. Shado flipped Dawn over, so she could sit on her lap while they sat up. Shado's lips didn't hesitate to take Dawn's as if they belonged to her, and Dawn felt she wanted to belong to her.

Dawn was in shock for a moment before she realised it was true, and Shado was kissing her proper. Her tongue slid into Dawn's mouth, and Dawn's lips and tongue moved with hers.

Dawn's arms wrapped around Shado, and she pulled her tight, down into her body, feeling every curve of this beauty beneath her, as she had her first proper kiss, and she would want many more after it, along with other things. Her body responded to the sparks she felt from her lips, turning her on. Shado pulled back, sucking off Dawn's tongue and they gasped for breath.

Shado had a wicked grin on her pretty and tasty lips as she grabbed at Dawn's chest, tugging at her clothes. "You, don't need to ask my permission, next time, just come in and kiss me!" she ordered, and Dawn would as her lips met hers again, and Shado's hands went up Dawn's top without hesitation. She knew what she wanted, and Dawn knew she wanted to let her have, every piece of her she wanted.

Dawn would have sworn that she had died and gone to heaven. She could feel Shado's strength pulsing through her lips and tongue. Their kiss only seemed to deepen further, full of lust and love. Dawn had been thinking about Shado like this for as long as she had met her, needed to feel her, for her love. Dawn could feel Shado's hands wondering south down her tender-untouched body.

"By the way!" Shado said to Dawn after maybe and hour, pointing towards the door Dawn as they collapsed naked in each other's arms, but then Dawn looked up, and squealed in shock, embarrassment, and horror.

"Buffy! Willow!"

Dawn was certain they had both been watching. They were both naked too. Dawn gulped as she realised, they had both been playing with each other while watching her lose her virginity to Shado.

Shado only smiled, and licked her lips, as she eyed the older women, "Its always some of the hottest scenes when two sisters shag each other," she said eagerly as Willow pulled Buffy into the room, closing the door behind them.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, someone else was having a good time. Ginny Weasley. She panted in exhaustion as she was in a large comfortable four-post bed with creamy white satin sheets. Her heart was pounding in her chest when two beautiful girls slid up from under the satin sheets to where her head rested on the soft downy pillows at the head. They curled up in her arms smirking at her smugly.

It was as if Ginny was on fire, and the sheets were soaked with their combined sweat, and it made their smooth skin glisten. They had been together in Ginny and Rose's huge bedroom in their freaking awesome castle, and she meant massive, castle, and it had rooms they had never imagined needing to be that large.

Since that afternoon when they woke up - well a pair of cute blonde babes woke Ginny up, the special way to a girl loving heart, since Rose was up to some mischief with Valkyrie, as they fast became best friends, and Ginny still had to hide out so wasn't allowed to join them, not that having the blonde girls to herself wasn't amazing. The Greengrass sisters from then on, just wouldn't leave her alone, not that she was complaining, as it was hot, and watching them do things to each other was always super-awesome and sexy, and having one girl's tongue in her pussy, and the others in her arse hole was just amazing, as they were almost as good as Shado and Rose together.

"Daph, Tori!" Ginny croaked out shivering as they had been eating her non-stop for the past two hours, taking it in terns, switching between arse and fanny, but nothing could stop them from alternating double tongues. "I need to rest. I can't take any more, and I'm tired, please!" she begged half-heartedly as she knew she could probably last a little longer at least.

"Girls!" Laurel Greengrass interrupted as she entered the room, only wearing a short thin silk bathrobe over her hot older body, and she was carrying a tray of snacks. Professors Lily Potter, and Professor Sinistra followed her, as Lily looked shy and sheepish, as Laurel, had seen her right, gotten her into bed and then brought her daughters in on it. They were equally dressed in sexy little nighties, carrying snacks that were more likely to be eaten off a girl, but at least they also bought drinks to rehydrate with.

Ginny gulped as the door closed behind them and pouted. "If I fall asleep at any time, just be careful with me while you're playing, and let me have at least five minutes!"

"Daphne! Astoria!" Laurel playfully reprimanded her daughters, shaking her head in mock disappointment. "Keeping poor Ginevra up for so long, you girls will be going over my lap for a spanking," she said which woke Ginny up, as she wanted to watch that hot piece of action. The sisters didn't look like they were remotely opposed, but eagerly awaiting their butts being slapped by their mother, and as Laurel got going, the slaps got harder and harder as each girl took a painful turn.

The sisters were getting as kinky as Luna and Cassy, talking of which, those nut-bar girls would be coming over to spend the rest of their holiday. They would be going to school with Ginny and the sisters on the fourth of January, so things were going to get weirder for a few days while they waited for Shado to get home. But they knew how to entertain themselves, especially with the Lily, and Sinistra visiting for Christmas and Boxing Day, which reminded her that it was Christmas, and they had said they were going to eat late as they had other witches joining, some of whom couldn't make it until the evening, so Lily must have left watching the kitchen to her magic.

Life was great, and the only thing that could make Ginny feel happier as they watched two tight bare butts, as the Greengrass sisters crawled out of the covers, completely naked, and towards their waiting mother while Professor's Potter and Sinistra sat either side of her on the bed to watch would be having Shado and Rose with them too, and Valkyrie, and-, well, she could go on.

Ginny smiled as she gave Lily a kiss on the lips, as it was the first time, she got to kiss Rose's mum, and even Shado and Rose hadn't done that yet. Lily smiled shyly and offered Ginny a bottle of water, as she was dehydrated, and downed it in one, as she had a lot of fun to be getting on with.

It was morning across the other side of the planet in a large coastal town in Japan, and for once while asleep, Hayate hadn't had any nightmares, but for the first time, she was having a dream unlike any other she had ever before, which drenched her in sweat and made her heart pound unlike anything before.

Her Goddess's right hand slid down her body and wound through between her legs, squeezing her tightly. She was embarrassed, but she didn't care. It felt good, no, more than good. She was soaking wet, but she didn't mind, she liked that. She kissed, nibbled and sucked in her lips, working around to her neck and left ear, she quivered as her fingers moved tighter on her, sliding deep within her-…

Hayate gasped, as she cried out as something happened and squirted out from between her legs. It felt incredible, and she didn't want the feeling to end while her cheeks burnt red.

The bed was soaked, and Hayate was covered in sweat, squeezing the life out of Vita as she was cuddling the girl and humping her leg rubbing 'herself' on her, which was a feat of strength as she couldn't use her legs for leverage, as they didn't work. Her eyes widened in horror, her cheeks flushing crimson in embarrassment while the girl was calling out for her to stop as she was squeezing too tight, and she felt so much power coursing through her veins, but then it stopped as she realised what she was doing, and Vita had been too weak for her.

Hayate felt mortified that she had accidentality molested her best friend, and hoped that Vita's naive charm won out and she hadn't realised what was going on. Hayate did not think that she could have 'that' conversation with Vita, let alone her other two knights without dying of embarrassment.

"Master Hayate! Master Hayate!" Vita was calling out and Hayate let her go (no matter how much she might have wanted to keep on going, damn her hormones). Vita flopped next to Hayate panting for breath almost as much as she was. Hayate didn't know what had taken hold of her. She took that Vita didn't flee out of bed as a good sign that she hadn't realised what was going on.

One moment Hayate had been talking to Vita. They went to sleep in Hayate's bed together as usual. Then things were different from previous dreams. Hayate saw her again. The Goddess. The queen. She was someone special, but Hayate didn't know how or why. She was kissing and touching another girl, and there were two older girls too. It made Hayate feel weird and tingly, and then something happened, they were doing 'naughty' things, and Hayate wouldn't admit it but it looked like fun, and then, it was like Hayate was in that other girl's body exploring these things with her.

Then Hayate woke up in the state she was in with the soft morning light of the winter holiday slowly shining through the curtains, as she realised it was Christmas Day. She could barely believe it. She knew it was all happening somewhere else because her imagination was not that vivid, or 'naughty'. She was certain before then she wouldn't have thought about doing naughty things with girls, but wondered whether she could get those thoughts to leave her alone now.

"M-Master Hayate?" Vita questioned in that endearingly cute way she tended to do as she pulled herself up to her knees and looked over at her mistress in worry. "There's nothing to be ashamed off, wetting the bed if you have bad dreams," she said, thankfully not realising that to Hayate it was a shameful good dream.

"I won't tell the others," she continued, "and we can clear this up right away, but… it smells weird, and nothing like pee!" she said taking some curious sniffs while Hayate tried not to look at her in too much shame and embarrassment, as what she did was worse than wetting the bed with her friend in it.

"You must have had a really weird bad dream this time Master Hayate," she continued babbling, but the dream wasn't bad, it was nice. Hayate had never felt so good before.

Hayate looked into Vita's worried eyes and managed a reassuring smile. Vita called Hayate master a lot more since her dreams had been getting odder, and she knew she couldn't keep her mouth shut for long because she needed to know. Hayate needed to protect her knights, and she could just feel it in her heart that they were doing something bad, just for her, and she couldn't stand the way she could feel their pain, and know their unquestioned, unbound love for her.

She knew, she would have to be brave for her knights, and look out for them, and she would have to say no, because if she didn't, she wouldn't want them to get into trouble just for her.

She wouldn't be able to live with that.

She needed them so much.

She loved them with all her heart.

Hayate pulled her surprised friend into her arms and held her tight. "I… order you," she spoke and Vita tensed. "Please, I love you so much, Vita. Please. Please stop it. I can't lose you!" she cried out as she cuddled her beloved Vita.

"But… but Master Hayate, you will leave us!" Vita replied, not even trying to feign innocence or ignorance anymore.

"If that is my fate!" Hayate replied. "Then that is my fate. I… I will not have My Knights doing wrong, or hurting anyone for me! That is an order!" she commanded as tears trailed down her eyes.

"Noooooo!" Vita screamed while holding Hayate tighter, "Master Hayate, please!" she begged looking up at the door as it was open with the other three standing with tears in their eyes, the red head collapsed to her knees, sobbing, as they knew they couldn't disobey her direct orders.

Back in the United States, Tara had honestly felt a little weird pushing her girlfriend into the bed of another girl, but also pleased, as she knew how much they cared for each other. She was hoping it would lead to some fun with Buffy and Willow for her in the future, which she would admit was a little perverted she supposed, but she would openly admit that Buffy was hot, and with a slayers body, well, it brought to the forefront naughty thoughts, many naughty thoughts.

She chose to head to Sacramento to pick up Amy because it would give both best friends some time alone so that they could do whatever they wanted to each other, and it sounded like a nice plan, and since she would get there the next day, she heard they had some wonderful Christmas events over the holiday, to enjoy with Amy and Elektra. They needed some rare ingredients, also, and if she couldn't find some in the potion supply store, she knew that she could order it, or ask the goblins as they dealt in the black market behind wizard's backs.

Plus, she hadn't travelled much, if at all for a long while, so it would be nice to get out. And she had Elektra escorting her, and helping take a few short cuts with her magic. Shado would have just blinked away, and then back in minutes, if that, but Tara was happy to show she also had worth.

Her train stopped in Santa Maria, and she had to wait until early the next morning for the next one to arrive, which would take her too San Luis Obispo, and then she Elektra could take her the final leg of the journey, by lunch time, and she had a portkey that Shado made to bring them home.

Tara had just booked into the okay priced travellers lodge, and got a bit peckish. It was dark outside, but not Sunnydale, so she felt safer venturing out, and leaving Elektra curled up on the bed in the form of a cute rusty furred husky, as she could call her at any time. So, she could grab a bite to eat (bringing something back for her adorable companion) before she would return to her room, and retire for the night. However, that might have been a rash choice on her part when she was heading towards a part of town with some restaurants, and passing by an unusually empty park, she heard a noise.

It was a groaning and mumbling sound followed by the sound of hurried, nearly frantic running and moving. Then she heard the gunshots ringing out through the night. She was startled, and for a moment, she was going to run away and hide, or get back to her hotel room because she would want nothing to go with gang violence.

However, she would need to be brave if she was going to join the Covenant, and she wasn't sure it was gang violence, it could be someone who needed help. She knew the Covenant was supposed to protect people or something like that. It was a part of what made them so legendary, and she was certain that the groaning wasn't somebody injured but something else. She could sense the mindless hunger as she concentrated, and didn't hear more than one gun going off.

While Shado had been around, though she hadn't been around long, Tara and Willow had been practising some fire magic while teaching Dawn and Buffy magic, among other things, so – well, okay, fire was all they really got to practice as it was such an easy element to utilise. If someone was fighting a daemon they might need help, and it sounded like they weren't fairing too well, and if she could save a life, then that was a good thing, as long as it was a good person.

She readied herself and brought her magic to the forefront of her being, readying to throw flames at a moment's notice, and forgetting to call Elektra, which would have helped. She rushed around some trees, and into the park. It was nice, and would have been better during the day. It would have been even better than that if there was not some huge fat fleshy thing chasing a brown-haired girl while she shot at it with her handgun. It made Tara think that rarely the US's lax gun laws (or a gun for everyone) came in handy, for the girl at least.

The creature was slow but it spat out some kind of green sludge that looked poisonous as it poofed up in a green cloud of horrid acidy dust. It looked like it had boils of red and flesh all over its husk of an oversized body.

Tara looked around and saw three more things, but these were different. They wore clothes, and looked almost human, except they had that same puss of boils and flesh covering their faces. They weren't moving as they lay still on the ground, and their face-blisters were smashed, so they must have been like shells rather than flesh.

There were several more 'people', and they looked like they had started decaying long before they were killed. There was just two of them left while the girl had been trying to dodge and shoot them while dealing with the fat one, but they saw Tara and changed target, and charged at her.

The young Wicca was startled for a moment as they charged. She looked into their lifeless eyes before going through the motions. She clicked the fingers on both hands. She refused to be useless anymore; she would prove her worth to her friends, to her new family. Flames blazed to life, erupting up and forming into orange and crimson fireballs floating within her palms.

She threw her flames before the creatures got close. They fell back from the power of the flames and withered on the floor, screeching as they ignited in flames. However, she didn't have time to watch them end as she looked up. The girl had gotten too close to the fat monster, and it had grabbed her, opening its mouth, which she had overlooked before, it went to bit the girls' throat out with blister-teeth.

Tara panicked as she shouted, "mutolinquo!" And waving her left hand the girl was retched from the creatures grasp and knocked away. It wasn't a very powerful spell, but it had been more than enough as the girl dropped to the ground a few feet from the beast, losing her gun somewhere, and looking confused as she got her wind back after the creature had stolen it.

The young Wicca ran closer while the creature turned its attention from the girl to her before stopping and with a click of her finger's, flames erupted as the fat monster headed towards her, and throwing her hands out fire burst forth. The flames tore out and splashed into the non-fire-resistant monster, and in a few moments, it dropped to the ground in a smouldering husk of its former demonic might, steaming, dead, or properly dead at least.

The girl could only stare at Tara in awe, as she had never seen anything like it before. She was still on the floor. She brushed back her auburn brown hair as it was falling in her eyes. She left it framing her face in strands in a ponytail at the back. She had pale green eyes, and didn't look much older than Shado was. She was wearing beaten blue jeans with a filthy tee under her red, white, and black striped coat with a brown backpack. The girl was filthy with some cuts on her face, along with some bruises, and she looked hungry and exhausted.

"Are you okay?" Tara asked kindly.

The girl shook her head clear and rushed to her feet, looking around to see the burnt-up things, as Tara knew to be safe, she had to destroy the rest as was the right thing to do with any zombie like monster.

"How-how did you do that… with the fire?" she demanded while keeping her guard up.

"Would you believe me if I said I am a Wiccan!?" she asked with a kind smile.

She shook her head, frowning, "what's a Wiccan?" she asked in curiosity.

"A witch, I suppose," Tara said, which caused the girls eyes to widen as she understood what that was.

However, her eyes narrowed in suspicion after a few moments. "Witches are things of fairy tales. They aren't real."

"But these daemons are, why not witches?" she asked kindly.

"The infected have been around since before I was born!" she retorted, rolling her eyes, "where have you been, they rule the world now!"

"How did you get here?" Tara asked in concern, as she tried not to think of all those dead people.

The girl looked around, frowning, "I don't know… where I was had… well, didn't look like this. The path wasn't neat like that and…" she looked up in awe as a huge passenger plane was flying overhead. "W-well, I found this old book," she said scrambling to pull it from her backpack. "It was in a cave, and I wanted to read it, and it had this with it," she said, showing Tara a pendant with a the five-points of the pentagram from around her neck, with beautiful golden script in the black metal that seemed to burn, before stuffing it back in her top. "I left the cave, and got attacked by the infected. I don't know what happened, but there was a huge flash of colour while I was fighting for my life, but I didn't have a moment to try figuring out where it came from or anything."

"I see," Tara said looking at the book as the girl held it up for her to see, "The Grimoire of Demonology!" she said in horror as she read the old magical text on the dusty beaten thick leather-bound book, but she saw the words scramble to show another name too. "The book of Shadows… somebody must have sent it to another reality, but it used you to return; the book is rumoured to have every known weakness of every known daemon within, and the spells used to defeat them, or something like that, nobody really knows. But a lot of those spells could be considered pretty nasty, and most grimoires are very hard to destroy, some maybe even impossible like the fabled Book of Shadows, that seems to have chosen you as its new master-."

"So-so this is some kind of magic book?" the girl asked, baffled.

"Yes," Tara agreed with a nod, "and I would bet that your pendant is the key," she added as the book had a similar rune and writing on it going over a powerful looking sealing latch that had no actual key hole, ending in burnt gold.

"But I was just going to cut it open later," the girl commented, glaring at Tara.

Tara could only offer a reassuring smile. "You would have had to use a blade as powerful as Excalibur to stand a chance of getting that open without the sealing key. The book may have chosen you to be its guardian, and brought you to its home because you have a greater purpose, here, or maybe...?" she trailed off in thought.

"T-this isn't my world, is it?" the girl asked in worry, trying not to panic as she was starting to believe in all of the craziness that was going on, after all before the infected people wouldn't have believed in them.

"I believe that is true," Tara replied, trying to be as understanding as possible as it must be an odd situation. But then if these zombie things had destroyed her world, and the human race brought to near extinction, by the sound of it, and the girl was certainly in a nicer world, even if there were too many daemons around to count, and the world was on the brink of destruction by a hell goddess, and there was likely something bigger coming after that, knowing their luck. "I am Tara. I am friends with some very connected people, and they can help you, if you would like?"

"Ellie!" she introduced herself wondering when the shock would hit before something came to mind, "do you have umm, video arcades here?" she asked hopefully, "I've always wanted to play one."

Tara smiled and nodded, "better yet, machines to play inside at home, I'm sure Shado would be kind enough to get one to play!"

"Cool!"

"Not when you're going to be lunch!"

They spun around to see three men with bumpy faces, yellow eyes and fangs before a red-haired girl with red tail, and crimson dress flashed into being between them, and Ellie, and after some flashes of crimson electricity like laser beams, the men burst into dust with looks of horror on their faces.

"Vampire's!" Ellie mumbled in awe. "This is so freaking awesome!"

Tara's face fell. The girl was cute in the survivalist kind of way. To have seen such horrors that vampires didn't scare her in the least. She would have to show Ellie the wonders of a world beyond the terror of hers, and look after her.

"What are you?" Ellie asked eagerly looking over Elektra.

"I… Elektra," she replied brightly. "Master, send, protect, Miss. Lady. Tara."

"Elektra is a Cloud Nymph, to be easy about it," Tara said while Elektra smilingly nodded. "She's not very good with her spoken English, but she can understand us just fine."

"Wow, can I learn magical laser beams?" Ellie asked eagerly.

Tara smiled and shook her head. "I don't know, but I'm sure you must have magical potential for the Book of Shadows to have chosen you for its master."

"Awesome… so will you teach me?" Ellie asked hopefully while Tara nodded and frowned as Ellie looked down suddenly. "I won't see Joel, or anyone else again, will I?" she asked in worry.

"Its unlikely, I'm afraid," Tara said, and then swept the girl into her arms where she collapsed and spent the next half an hour crying as everything crashed down on her where Elektra snuggled in behind her. "Come on, you need to take a shower, and we'll grab you some new clothes, and something to eat on the way back to the inn," she said, "but first, can't leave potential plague monsters' corpses for just anyone to find," she said drawing her phone, and calling home.

Shado had placed, Tara on hold while she made another call, and they waited five minutes before three older women turned up. They offered to apparate them the rest of the way, but Tara said they would be fine, and offered to let them take Ellie back to Sunnydale, but she wanted to stay with Tara and Elektra, so they left the new women after watching them use magic to make some scans, and then dissolve the bodies into nothing, and sending out search and locate spells just in case, and thankfully couldn't find anymore before they parted, and wished them luck, with further instruction for Elektra to protect the new girl too, as she was the new master of a Lost Logia, which were apparently Ellie's book and pendant, combined, and would look forward to seeing what she would do with a bit of training, and honestly, Ellie couldn't wait.

It was an hour later and Ellie was awed as she was stuffed with something called hotdog and fries, and had onions and an amazing sauce, but then, after having met so many people living peacefully, and even witches, and knowing she was going to learn magic, it was all overwhelming.

Then Ellie saw the hotel room, and soon the shower poured down over her bruised, and tired naked body with water at a perfect temperature, and Tara smilingly babied her as she was naked in the shower too, and using the soaps and shampoos to scrub Ellie clean, and they wouldn't have to worry about running out of hot water either, and Ellie was still so awed that she wasn't as embarrassed as she should have been having her new teacher touching her in intimate areas, as she had just stood and stared at the shower, and lighting, and everything in amazement, and found it difficult to clean herself, even though at nearly fifteen she should have not stood for such childish pampering, she loved every moment of it.

"I'm so lucky," Ellie said while looking over her beautiful saviour as she had never felt so clean, and Tara smiled at her, and kissed her forehead with a cheeky wink.

Ellie blushed as she turned away in shyness, and smiled sheepishly at Elektra as she took the form of a rusty coloured dog, and lay on the drip rug on the bathroom floor watching them protectively.

"Thank you," she said, directing her gratitude to them both.

to be continued…