The new big bad…and the kinda naughty
Carnage had wrecked the Magic Box beyond recognition and the outside world didn't seem to take notice of what had been going on for on the outside the building was seemingly untouched.
Giles was motionless in the air, his body paralyzed by some unseen force that Tara controlled with a wave of her hand.
"Well this is boring, it would appear that Xander and Anya have forgotten about you…can't say it surprises me. I mean Xander is practically the Zen Master in the art of ditchery and Anya…well she actually did surprise me. You'd think she would have come back for what's left of the cash register…cha ching!"
It did however deeply worry Tara though she didn't want to admit it as she looked in the eyes of Rupert. There wasn't much left inside him to beat out, he was almost completely drained of his magical essence and life force. She shook her head in a scolding manner at herself. Maybe I shouldn't have drained him so fast, he looks like one of those puppies down on 14th street that seem to know they are a minute away from never being worth more than a second glance. A surge in power filled the air, a new power had formed and it was more power than Tara or any person in the planet had.
"Hmm…. Maybe just maybe you have been cooking up a scheme all along. It upsets me that you wouldn't tell me this Rupert," Tara walked closer to him and folded her hand on his face squeezing his face like a child, "we used to be so close I could tell you everything and now you are so silent."
Tara released his face and walked right towards a pile of burning wood and wall insolate. She reached down almost touching the fire's edge. She smiled as it flicked against her skin, the sensation of the burn made her feel almost sensual as she brought her hand back towards her.
"Just like my Willow…she had such a fire didn't she Rupert?"
Tara looked onward at the fire awaiting a response of some sort from him, a gasp, a wheeze, something that would alert her to his presence but this time there was no sound. Paranoid that something was up, Tara turned her heels quickly to face Giles and a blue-haired being stood to face her.
"Who the hell are you?"
Almost as quickly as the words escaped her mouth the being seemed to phase through space to be directly in front of her. Before Tara could react the being brought her hand forth and seemed to prepare a blow but instead flicked Tara in the face with enough force that Tara was pushed back at least three yards. A smile on the creature's face made Tara all the more furious, the creature seemed to be mocking her to no end.
"Huh…that's some digit strength you have there demon."
Tara's words angered the creature as the smirk from her face soon hardened into a glare.
"I am no demon you archaic little shrew, I am beyond the scope of which your feeble little mind could comprehend."
Tara nodded and took a few steps forward to regain the ground she had lost.
"Feeble? Well I don't know if I like that word from you lips. I would think that a demon such as you could sense power when it is before you very eyes."
Again the creature stepped forward.
"I remember that power…I recall it residing in the wolf the ram and the heart they were weak in my day…barely above the vampire. Which reminds me of what I came here for."
With a clap of thunder Willow and Anya stormed through the side entrance to the Magic Box with the same spell Tara used, held Drusilla, Xander, and Spike in animated suspension in the air. Tara's eyes widened and she took a step back. Her red eyes flashed in anger and then softened like they did once before as the color shifted to their old brown.
"Oh my god Willow…but how?"
Willow glared at Tara but her hardened face turned to sadness quickly as she gazed at Xander's vamped face. Tara was equally saddened at the sight but remained unfazed by what was happening around her.
"Illyria, did you get her?"
Illyria cocked her head to one side and maintained her battle stance as she stared at Tara watching for any movement.
"The mortal woman is in my control…now enlighten me as to why I should not eviscerate her as she stands before me? In my time her crimes would have merited such rewards. She stinks with magic…like the repugnant odor of all humans placed in a small citadel in way of the sun left to rot."
Willow walked to her side and Anya stayed with Xander and the others. Tara backed away at first but then lunged forward at Willow and began to hug her and cry. Willow stayed motionless.
"Oh Willow…I missed you so bad and when they took you away from me…Warren…Giles, I just thought I would never see you again."
"And you won't if you continue this path Tara. I only am here in the flesh to help you come back to me baby."
Tara's body stiffened and she took a step back.
"But I did all this for you and now that you're back I thought you and I could leave here and we would be together."
Willow shook her head and a tear of light fell from her cheek.
"I can't be with you…not like this. With time and growth I will be able to reunite with you on the spirit plane. But I'm dead baby…no magic can bring me back for good."
Illyria scoffed and walked towards Tara.
"What kind of lord did you expect to become? Your weakness makes me ill to no end. Here on this mystical receptacle...this hell mouth, so much power at your disposal and you quibble at its price. You are not a ruler you are a crying child weeping at what has already rotted through."
Willow raised her hand and gave a reprimanding look at Illyria.
"Remember, helping her helps you so don't speak to her like that if you wish to rule this world."
Anya stood silent as Illyria spoke, keeping her eye on the unconscious vampires that floated just above her shoulders. Giles was on the ground and was also deep in the realm of the unconscious. Anya felt hordes of guilt and remorse for what had happened to Xander and Giles. So much pain all in one day made her scream on the inside.
Illyria soon picked up on her grief and quickly turned to face her.
"Grief…I'm watching human and half-breed grief and it's like offal in my mouth. What is it that makes you walking and talking piles of muscles and bones so prone to such weaknesses? It's sickening, I can only hope that when I rule this dimension once more that I have enough power to rid myself of your kind."
Willow kept her stance with Tara, keeping her eyes deadlocked on her lover's. But she was not deaf to the words, which escaped the old one's mouth.
"And you shall…just stick to the plan."
Tara couldn't stand not being able to know what they were talking about. She had tried to read both Illyria's mind and Willow's but couldn't get into either. Out of frustration and anger she shouted.
"What plan are you talking about?! You yell at me for trying to bring you back and you stop me for what? To let some cougar of a demon take my place?"
"Tara…"
"No! Don't speak to me! I love you and I am going to have you back. I need you back!"
Some far off dimension where Cordy lay dying.
The winds howled as the deep red sky twisted and turned with the three suns that occupied the realm Cordy had awakened in her clothing was torn from the travel and landing. She had been ripped through time with no mercy or care as to how she would arrive into this strange world. She looked up and saw that there were trees above her head and they seemed to be moving passed her. Or rather they seemed to be being passed by her. She hadn't gotten up and the fast that she was moving without any of her will frightened her. She immediately lifted her head and saw a scorpion-looking demon dragging on her back.
"What the! Get your hands off of me you monster."
The demon didn't so much as look back at him and continued to walk. Cordy only got more and more annoyed as he dragged her like she was a less than human plaything that he could pull this way and that way.
"I said let go of me!"
Cordy kicked and tried to use her magic she had as part of being a higher being but it was failing to follow through. The demon snickered and tightened his grip on her legs and pulled with a bit of force.
"Your magic tricks won't work here breathing thing…you are for the master."
At first Cordelia had thought she had returned to Pylea but there was no one master there, and here it seemed he was talking about one master. That and she knew that unless Pylea's skies changed with the season, the sky wasn't red. Pylea was much like earth in many respects., blue skies, green forests and lots of busy inhabitants consumed with the need to progress. But as Cordelia looked around as her abductor carried her away to some unknown place she saw nothing but death and a land lain waste by the harsh atmosphere. She struggled and fought to free herself but it was useless. The demon only ignored or replied to her screams and kicks by striking her. It seemed like a long time had passed as Cordy and her abductor made their way through the dead forests and endless catacombs in mountainsides. Then they stopped abruptly at a stone wall with glyphs and carvings etched on its surface.
"We're here meat bag…"
He picked up Cordy and stood her up so her body faced the wall. Cordy had seen these types of glyphs before but only in Wesley's old volumes and scrolls of magic. She didn't however know what they translated to.
"What the hell are we doing here…I may be a prisoner but I deserve to know."
The demon turned to her and glared with its horrific features twisting with its anger and annoyance.
"You have no right's meat bag now silence so I can work my magicks!"
The demon stretched its six scorpion-like legs and shrieked out a spell in an unknown language. It reached into its chest and began to claw as it chest cavity blue-black blood seeped from the wound and slid down. Cordelia cringed in disgust and turned her head. After the cave went quiet Cordelia turned back to the area where the demon had stood, bow there was just a gaping hole where the glyphs were. A series of random whispers flittered through the air and seemed to have no direct origin. But one whisper seeped from the hole in the wall and that was a voice urging Cordelia to walk forward. As she made her walk forward she looked around and saw no one there. There was hardly any light to allow true vision but Cordelia could see some things. After a few paces the stone torches that were invisible in the darkness instantly ignited and blazed with green flames. It startled Cordy and made her feel uneasy.
"Welcome Cordelia."
Said a voice from in front of her off in a short distance. Cordy looked in front of her to see a beautiful African American woman with a crown adorned with jewels of every kind and a few diamond here an there. She was slender and had curly dark locks that flowed just past her shoulders.
"Who are you? Why have you brought me here?"
The woman walked out into the light and more of her body was visible. She wore a dark green dress that looked like many of the designer dresses she had seen famous actresses wear at awards shows. The woman smiled at her question and walked closer to Cordy with her hand outstretched towards her.
"I have brought you here for a very special reason that will be made very clear in time. And as for your other question, my name is ever changing but you may call me Jasmine."
Back at the Magic Box in Giles's unconscious mind.
The battle between Tara and he had replayed over and over in his head and he couldn't believe he was about to fail. He had let everyone he had held dear in his mind, body, and soul down. He had lost the battle to regain Tara and he lost Buffy at the hands of Tara. The covens had imbued him with their powers and where were they now? Gone. Absorbed by the one being that didn't need anymore power. And the foretold savior of Tara, Xander, was dead and now a tool of evil that he had been trained to stop. He now saw himself standing in front of him. The watcher he used to be with his glasses on his face and a nice, but modest, suit with its patches on the elbows. Giles walked forward and tried to grab hold of the Giles in front of him as if it would change anything or maybe change him.
Desperately he tried to cling to this Giles he once was and yet he couldn't. He just kept slipping through his fingers like the ashes of the dead slayer that he was sworn to protect before Tara had incinerated her. He took a step forward and yet with every step there after the Giles he wanted to become again began to fade. He called out to the Giles he was to stop, to let him come to him and become him once more. With the resounding echoes of his voice calling after himself the Giles he saw faded completely and was replaced with the image of a frail girl. One he had seen before and desperately wanted to see again more than anything. Her blue eyes glistening in the darkness and her hair glowed like rays from the sun. All but her face was in complete sight but her face…that face was invisible. Giles called out to her to reveal herself but it was no use. His cries fell upon deaf ears and on some level seemed like they weren't even spoken. Then instead of calling out anymore and he stepped forward and slowly but surely the face began to become more and more visible. But those eyes, those haunting eyes had a familiarity that Giles had known long ago before this ugliness of the world had occurred.
"Giles…stay strong."
It was her voices…that voice that both annoyed him and comforted him many times.
"Buffy?"
"Giles you need to stay strong…the next Slayer needs you. She will be the one to stop Tara…she is the Key to her downfall and the end to all this horror."
"I don't understand Buffy…who is this slayer? I need to know…how will I train her? My body is fading and I am most likely going to die before the battle's end."
"She's been there all along Giles…we just never thought she would be the next to be chosen…it's Dawn Giles. The next Slayer is Dawn."
"But how Buffy?"
"It's destined to be Giles…she will be the most powerful slayer ever to exist. She will have the Slayer's powers as well as the mystical boost from her power she embodies as the key…guard her Giles…she is the one, the chosen, the Slayer."
Giles tried to comprehend what he Buffy had told him and as it replayed in his head but it was not the situation that was hard to digest it was the fact that he was her destined watcher. Dawn's future lay in his hands and yet it was hard to picture him being able to train Dawn when he feared he would repeat the same mistake with her as he did her own sister.
AN: well this is the full chapter I hope you all liked it and don't hate me for making Dawn a slayer. I know it's not what happens in the Buffyverse but it did here so deal with it LOL. I hope you aren't too mad and I want you all to know she may not even survive in the end so be cheered. Thanks for reading.
-Daniel