It might have taken nearly nineteen years, but Beth was beginning to notice a trend in witchcraft. Because it seemed that every time something super magical happened, they somehow all ended up in the woods for some reason. Now, she wasn't saying that witches were boring or anything (they could curse her from a distance after all and she was taking no chances), but it never hurt to mix things up. She'd take a Chuck-E-Cheese ball pit if she could.

"Dammit bugs!" she hissed, swatting away another overly large beetle thing that thought it the bestest idea to just fly around her face and to try and land in her hair.

"You okay?" the sound of Nadja's voice filtered through the tree line some distance away. They were all huddled out in the darkness, standing in a large circle around Maea, who was somewhere in the center of them. Willow had suggested that it was probably better if they all gave Maea some room. After thousands of years of having her powers tamped down, the energy explosion was likely to be bordering on dangerous. She likened it to a toddler who'd been given chocolate. In other words, expect mass destruction.

"I'm fine, I just wish nature had less crawly things!" Beth complained. "Couldn't we have done this somewhere else? Maybe like a place that will recover from a flash fire a lot easier?"

"Magic is natural. Your aunt will have a better time utilizing her abilities if she's in a natural environment," Zack explained from somewhere close to Willow. "Sorry, but for this, the parking lot of a Safeway is not a good option."

"I felt like that was a dig," Beth said to Nadja. "Was that a dig?"

"I dunno, do you normally engage in fistfights in grocery store parking lots?" she inquired.

"Well, it's not like I choose the locations," Beth argued. "I go to the demons, you know, not the other way around!"

"I thought we were supposed to be silent," Daniel remarked.

"You are," came Maea's deadpanned response. Beth could hear the disappointed look in her words.

"Alright, I'm going to start," Willow called out.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Nadja asked. "I was the one who went through the list with Maea. There were a lot of ways crossed off. All of them, actually."

"Drogyn the Battlebrand was very specific," Andrew commented.

"You mean useless," Beth muttered, rolling her eyes.

"The only way to unbind Maea is to use some of her own godly power against her," he continued. "And since we don't have Maea's weapon, the slayer scythe should work all the same."

"We don't even know if that actually is a god weapon," Nadja reminded him. "And you said Drogyn told you some sort of ritualistic dance was involved! And then when you gave us an example, you did a rendition of the cha-cha slide!"

"Oh, he's just gotten joke-y in his old age," Andrew commented.

"You didn't even notice!" she groaned.

"Even I am aware of what the cha-cha slide is," Daniel added.

"If it's alright with the rest of you lot, can we start?" Spike asked irritably. He, even more so than Beth, didn't want to be stuck outside in the woods. First off, there were a bunch of nasties likely running around, not to mention all the weak humans just standing about, gabbing on about entirely unrelated things (even if he did think Andrew thinking that the cha-cha slide was a part of some great ritual was terribly funny).

"Yes please," Buffy muttered, holding onto the slayer scythe. She was standing beside Andrew, not exactly a place she wanted to be. On his cue though, she was to lift the scythe and direct it towards Maea, whom she had a clear shot of. Apparently, it meant to work as some sort of conduit to unbind the god. Buffy wasn't entirely sure she understood the spell, nor was she certain Willow wasn't using a tweaked version, but with nothing else to go on and the constant reminder of Virothan's strength, she was willing to give it a shot. She only hoped she didn't get fried in the process.

"Does everyone have their lines?" Willow asked the group.

Beth glanced down at her index card, looking at the non-English words on the page. She was pretty sure the language wasn't even from this planet, though thankfully her aunt had provided phonetics to help her sound it all out. Otherwise, she'd probably turn Maea into a pizza or something.

"Yeah, what happens if I flub them?" Nadja questioned.

"Indeed," Daniel agreed. "You are aware I speak only two languages, neither of which are presented on this page?"

"You'll be fine," Willow assured, though she didn't feel assured at all. If what the tomb had told her was correct, this could be a particularly finnicky spell to cast, seeing as the subject of the spell was a very powerful being. She didn't think it'd blow up in their faces, but that left a lot of room for other bad-but-not-so-bad things to happen. Well, here she goes!

Beth listened as Willow began to speak, her tone sounding ominous in the dark woods. The words sounded almost hollow as she spoke them, her tone low and wispy. At Andrew's cue, everyone else joined in and soon Beth could make out something glowing through the woods. She thought maybe it was Maea, which would mean something was happening, but as the glowing increased, she actually realized it was her aunt, who was now projecting enough light that she could make out everyone else around them. She could see Daniel's eyes go wide as Willow began to take on an ethereal quality, though he didn't stop speaking. Her parents looked doubly more concerned though, Buffy's face taking on a hard look. And then Beth remembered her Aunt once went all magic-crazy and tried to destroy the world. It was possible none of them would live to see the threat Virothan posed.

A great tremor broke out from the ground underneath them, nearly sending Beth to her knees from the quake. It threw off her chanting, along with Nadja's.

"Uh, is that supposed to happen?" Nadja squeaked, pointing at her aunt. There were dark, almost sickly curled lines appearing across her face which Beth was pretty certain were her veins (well, that's not good).

"Crap," Buffy muttered as Andrew jerked her back, suddenly not sure where things were going. Maea was still standing in the center, unaffected, her eyes locked on Willow.

"Is that normal for her?" Maea inquired.

"We need to get her to stop chanting," Buffy said. "She's losing control—again."

"I don't know if we can stop her," Andrew said.

"Watch me," she muttered, throwing her scythe before tackling Willow to the ground. Both women fell in a heap to the dirt, startling Zack, who snapped back to reality. The light from Willow cut off and the forest all fell back into darkness.

"What happened?" Zack asked, head jerking around.

"Did you seriously miss all of that?" Nadja asked incredulously.

"I—no. Maybe. Yes."

"Buffy, why'd you do that?" Willow grumbled, sitting up. She was no longer glow-y and her face was normal, which made Buffy relax.

"You went all vein-y Willow again," Buffy told her. "I think you were going a little punch drunk on the scythe's magic."

"I wasn't even using the scythe!" Willow defended, though she reached up to gently touch her face.

"I do not mean to interrupt, but I think the spell isn't over," Daniel commented, pointing. Buffy might have thrown the scythe earlier, but it hadn't landed. Instead, it was suspended midair, much to everyone's amazement.

"Uh, now is that supposed to happen?" Nadja asked. "Is anything that just happened supposed to happen?"

"Willow wasn't using the scythe's power," Maea said, stepping closer to the it where in lay suspended. "She was using mine."

"Oh, um," Beth started, unsure of what to say. She warily watched as Maea stepped closer to the weapon. "Maybe you shouldn't tou—"

Too late. Maea's hand reached out and grasped the scythe. She heard the silence one experiences before a bomb goes off, before she was thrown off her feet by an immensely powerful wave of heat.

"Nadja!" Beth called, as she covered her face with her jacket. "Daniel!" While she would recover from any burns, she didn't think her very normal, non-magical friends would.

The heat finally stopped and Beth uncovered herself, standing up slowly.

"Beth?" she heard her mother's voice call out, concerned.

"I'm fine," she replied, looking around for her friends.

"Oh my gosh, are my eyebrows still there?" Nadja called out and Beth saw her come rushing over, fingering the skin above her eyes.

"Yes, they're there," Beth replied humorously.

"That was unusual," Daniel said. "Where's Maea?"

"She's gone?" Beth asked, walking toward the center of their circle. Sure enough, Maea was gone. The scythe was stuck up out of the ground, right in the center of a patch of crispy leaves.

"Um, Aunt Willow?" Beth asked.

Reconvening together, Willow looked none the wiser. "Ah, Andrew?" she asked, passing the question along.

"Is she dead?" Nadja whispered.

"I don't think that was supposed to happen," Andrew commented, pulling a book out of his bag and flipping through the pages.

"Seems to be a theme of tonight's evenin'," Spike muttered.

The group was shocked out of their confusion when a bright burst of light above them lit up the woods, sending long shadows across the ground. They flickered, like a fire, and Beth looked up to see streams of fire lit over the sky.

"Oh, Wills," Buffy sighed, looking tired.

"Now, that I did not do!" Willow claimed, though she didn't look entirely convinced herself.

"Yeah, that's because Maea's doing it," Beth realized, noticing a dark center from where the streams of fire converged. "God of Fire, right?"

"Oh my goddesses," Willow murmured. "I did it."

"Well, what's she doing?" Nadja demanded to know, hands on hips. "We've got work to do and what's she doing? Playing around!"

"She can fly?" Zack asked, eyes wide in amazement.

A few moments later, Maea finally came back down, landing just a few feet from them. The first thing Beth noticed was that the bracelets that had been used to bind her were gone, likely burnt off during the initial spell.

"Sorry about that," Maea apologized. "I had to go up in fear that I would only end up burning the entire forest down, including everyone in it."

"Thanks," Andrew said. "So, it worked then?"

Maea nodded, raising her hands. "It has been a while since I have ever felt like this. I—I have forgotten what it meant to truly be myself." She looked up at Willow and Beth almost expected her to start crying. After all, she'd been trapped, confined for thousands of years, with no hope of ever breaching her prison. She'd given up a long time ago, subjecting herself to endless deaths in an attempt to escape. And somehow—paired with the slayer's scythe—Willow had done it. And no one actually knew how.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Buffy asked, an almost motherly look on her face.

"It does," Maea agreed. "You were—you were a slayer before the Council was reformed, weren't you?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I was."

"So the cruciamentum—" Maea started, but then stopped herself. There was a look exchanged between Maea and Buffy, one that although Beth couldn't read, she knew was profound. She didn't think her mother would be concerned about Maea anymore.

"So you think you can take your brother now?" Zack asked, breaking the moment.

Maea looked over at him, a wide grin spreading across her face. On anyone else, Beth would have been worried, but with Maea, she knew exactly what it meant: revenge.

"I may not have my prized weapon, but that does not mean I will not tear Roth limb from limb as he begs for mercy," she stated, a purely evil tone in her voice.

Zack blinked before nodding appreciatively. "Well, I'm now suddenly very glad I'm on your side."

"Virothan is going to get creamed," Nadja said, almost giddily. "You know, I didn't really believe we'd make it until now. And now, now I know that he's getting his royal tush kicked from one side of the galaxy to another. Bet he never thought us mere mortals could do something like this."

"Oh, big brother is in for the biggest of surprises," Beth cackled. "A slayer army and his newly powered-up sister? He's never going to see it coming."

-.-

Abechius wasn't known for his ability to plan ahead. It had been his sister, Maeaonis, who had been regaled for her ability to strategize. Even Virothan, in all his senseless paranoia, planned ahead to ensure the best plan of action. But as for Abechius? No, he never did such a thing. He enjoyed living in the moment, taking things as they came. It wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knew him that he had only chosen to spare his sister's life just moments after he bound her. If he had thought ahead, he would have realized that Virothan would eventually find out, as nothing remained secret to his older brother, and that he was therefore better off not sparing her. But he hadn't, so he didn't. And now he had those repercussions to deal with, which were currently down with the battalion, preparing to make haste to conquer a new world.

From his vantage point, his fate looked sealed. He did not doubt that Virothan, though having found use for him as of recent, would exact some sort of revenge on him for the betrayal. After all, their sister was out of the way and he was still going after her, not wanting to leave any loose ends. And Abechius was really starting to feel like a loose end.

So here he stood in the armory, debating his choices. He stood at a crossroad, the paths diverging into the clouded distance. He couldn't see the ends of the roads, so he had no foreknowledge of which would lead him safely and happily to the end. An impossible choice now defined his future, and he had no idea which one would work out better for him.

He had not taken out his sister out of spite; in fact, he had very few emotions for her to begin with, let alone really anyone in his family. Virothan was older, but he rarely fulfilled the role of an older brother. Their sister had mostly stayed out of his way, as she had found him distrustful and childish, taking up most of her time with their father. That in turn meant that their father had little time for him. The only person he'd ever really liked was his mother, but even he had not been her favorite. So, none of his actions against his sister were like that of Virothan's, who saw her as the sole competition to earning their father's favor. Where she had stood, Virothan had wanted to be. So, when Roth had asked him to handle it, Abechius had no problem handling it. So why had he spared her? He had not real feelings for her, no familial bond. But in that moment, when he realized he had overcome one of the greatest warriors of their time because she had not viewed him as a possible threat, he felt no rush in the conquering. Roth would have reveled in it, as he was wont to do. But Abechius felt nothing, so he simply ripped a hole through the dimensions using her sword and kicked her through it. He hadn't even bothered to see where she ended up (though that ended up getting answered anyway). And after that, he had been fine. He presented the weapon to Roth and all had been well. Roth got what he wanted and Abechius went back to his normal life. That was supposed to have been that.

But now? Well, he'd like to think he'd grown some in the last few years, enough so that he now knew of the falling dominoes. He never cared for Maeaonis, but there was nothing for Virothan either. It all came down to him now.

"Abe!" Turning his head, Abechius saw the shadow of his brother on the hallway wall, coming closer with each step. He turned full body as Roth came into view, his expression hard. He was prepared for war.

"What are you doing?" Roth asked, his tone irate. He still didn't trust Abe not to go off and ruin his plans, so he still wanted the younger man in his sight. It didn't take him long to realize how hard that could be.

Abe shrugged nonchalantly. "I needed a place away from your men," he said. "Though I knew if I wandered too far, it would upset you. I figured this would work as best as any."

Roth gave him a long, hard stare before finally directing his gaze around the armory. Most of the weapons stored here were of the mortal kind, along with the armor. "I never expected you to pick such a drab room," he commented.

"Like I said, I just wanted a place away," Abe told him. "Is your army nearly ready?"

"Yes," he answered. "They are expecting an invasion. Judging from the original scavenging group, it will not take long to overcome their current leaders. And with what you have told me of these 'vampire slayers,' need I say we will be even better equipped?"

"I told you I haven't a clue how many of them there were," Abe reminded him. "I only tracked a few before I came back to you."

"It is unnecessary," Roth told him. "My armies now know what to expect. I have already told them to leave our sister-look-alike alone."

"She will be expecting you to target her," Abe said.

"I know," he agreed. "I expect that. But she'd not going to be prepared, is she? Without her full strength, and especially her weapon? She has no hope of defeating me."

"As I expected," Abe replied. "We leave at dawn tomorrow?"

He nodded. "You will be prepared?"

"As prepared as I can, not being a soldier or a general," Abe said, sending him a mock salute.

Roth glared at him before turning on a heel and striding out of the armory, going off to finish up what was needed before the invasion. The kingdom was up in exultation as their High King prepared to once more expand their lands and show his great strength and leadership. Abe just thought he was stroking his own ego (he was).

Sighing, and hoping this wasn't going to come back and bite him, he walked out of the armory and toward the family gallery. He'd chosen his path, now he could only hope it all worked out.