Author notes: Sorry for the long wait in the update of this story. I hope you will enjoy this chapter.

As some of you already guessed, my depictions of Lucifer and Gabriel owe a lot to the movie 'The Prophecy.'

- Dillon home, Sunnydale, Saturday 5 November 2011, 08:40 -

"Dad just called," said Aphrodisia as she entered the living room. "Mom's flight was delayed because of bad weather, but they expect it to land soon. He should arrive before noon with the others."

"A pity they cannot just teleport from LA," said Amy while she squinted to look through the disassembled gun barrel that she was cleaning.

The fallen goddess was currently sitting cross legged in front of the coffee table, the pieces of a pistol spread on a rag before her. As for Buffy… Aphrodisia went to her, noticing that the Slayer was observing the family pictures hanged above the fireplace.

"Your aunts and uncles?" asked the blonde, pointing at a picture with three couples and three little girls, some big building standing behind them.

"Not by blood but I always considered them as such. The two guys have been my dad's best friends since high school. The one looking like Aragorn is Lukas Ditchik and my godfather. The other one is Gabriel Kendall. As for the women, this is Lily Ditchik, Michelle Kendall, and Mom," she said while pointing respectively at a red-haired, petite woman, a busty, athletic blonde, and a brunette.

"So, I suppose the kids are you, Gwen, and Harmony. Where was this taken?"

"Milwaukee. We were at the Gen Con."

Buffy frowned. She had heard about that particular convention from Willow.

"Gen Con as in… Dungeon and Dragons Gen Con?"

"Yes. Do the names Andrew Wells, Warren Mears, and Jonathan Levinson ring a bell?"

"I think Xander mentioned that they were among the biggest nerds in Sunnydale High."

"Well, my dad and his two friends were like that back in high school. Not that my mom or my aunts minded, you may note."

"That opens possibilities," said Amy.

"What do you mean?" asked Buffy.

"Well… Sure, Jonathan is a huge Star Trek geek and I mean Sheldon Cooper level of geek. But I am also pretty sure he was already dabbling in sorcery before Halloween. As for Andrew… I'm not sure about him but his big brother Tucker was also dabbling."

"If you mean by that that my parents may have dabbled too… doubtful," replied Aphrodisia.

"Yes, but this being Sunnydale and I mean the old, mean Sunnydale, you better ask. Speaking of asking… if your dad is like that, how did you end up with Cordelia?" asked Buffy.

"First, Dad's social status is a lot higher now than when he was in high school. Apart from Aunt Lily, who is a doctor, our parents all work in the software company they founded during the nineties. They do mostly security stuff and it really took off in the last decade. Then… well, teenage rebellion can go many ways. For me, it was deciding not to be choice material for the next Big Bang Theory casting to keep with the Sheldon Cooper analogy. Instead, I became a shallow, popular girl. As for Cordelia… most of the Cordettes, me included, would have turned on her at the first sign of weakness."

"And now, with Halloween?"

"For now, it's holding, but some alliances are bound to get more importance, like mine with Amy and you. Speaking of it, Dad told me both of you are invited to the barbecue we will have at noon. I'm just supposed to go shop for groceries and get the beast running for when they arrive. Aunt Lily and Aunt Michelle will come too."

"Just so we don't have any surprise, can you give us the who's who?" asked Buffy.

"Sure. Uncle Gabriel and Aunt Michelle are… matching their first names even more if you get my drift."

"Joy and happiness," replied Buffy at the thought of having dinner with two Archangels.

"Then you will be happier with the two others, as they are from our side. They are Lucifer and Lilith."

- American airspace, Saturday 5 November 2011, 08:45 -

Sister Lori Henderson smiled at her young charge as she chatted amiably with the woman sitting in the alley side of their row. She was happy to see Tara so lively. When the girl's mother died a year ago, she had been a wreck left to suffer at the hands of her abusive father, who tried to convince his family that Tara was part demon.

They have no idea how wrong they are…

She banished the thought. This was a very serious matter: one they would only explain to Tara when she was an adult and hopefully wise enough not to become arrogant because of it. What was important for the moment was that thanks to this, the Knights of Saint Jude had kept some tabs on the Maclay family. They had been warned quickly of the demise of Tara's mother. Sister Lori had been sent immediately, with orders to extract Tara and a full new identity as an Italian citizen for the girl in her luggage.

Tara had been wary of her, of course, thinking that the nun was going to do nasty things to her, maybe try to exorcize her. Lori had then done something that left Tara completely flabbergasted: she cast a spell. She then proceeded to tell the young witch about her order. She told her how being an Exorcist among the Knights of Saint Jude did not have the same meaning as in the rest of the Church, how her Order had always welcomed white magic users thanks to special exemptions from the Pope.

Of course, Tara had replied that she was a Wiccan, but Lori had told her it wasn't important. Tara knew that there was an unvoiced 'for now' in that statement but she had no other good solution, and the sister was the first to show her kindness since her mother's death.

Lori knew it wasn't completely fair. She knew that Tara, like the other young wards of the Order, was in constant contact with the Knights and that the Order's doctrine was part of her cursus. She knew that the ones who would actually walk out to live their own life once they had their diploma were rare. Most joined the Order, either taking their vows like she did or wearing the black of the lay brothers and sisters. Yet it was better than the alternative, better than leaving these young people alone with too much power and too little guidance, better than letting them become malefici that the Order had to put down.

If things go wrong… we need to renew our treaty with the druidic circles in Ireland. Tara could be an ambassador.

"So, you live at an orphanage?" asked the woman.

"Yes, Mrs. Dillon," replied Tara. "It's in Italy, in the Abruzzo."

"Do you like it there?"

"Yes… I have plenty of friends and… the orphanage is also a school."

"I suppose you are one of her teachers?"

"Not directly," said Lori. "I sometimes give seminars, but my main task is to go help priests in… problematic areas. Tara is accompanying me on a short mission as part of a school project."

Lori remembered the cardinal's words on the matter. Officially, Tara was just another of the magically active wards of the Order. While he did not like to put her at risk, they had to maintain the illusion and it was customary for trainees of Tara's age to accompany a team on low-risk missions. In this particular case, Lori had reasoned that Tara's gift of aura sight would be a boon and that in the worst case, they would keep her at their rear base while she led the contact team in Sunnydale.

"So… California?" asked Marlene.

"Something about gangs on PCP, the local priest was a little vague. Do not worry, I must meet with some colleagues in Los Angeles before we go there, and we will keep Tara safe."

Lori thought about the few things she had learnt about the woman while listening to her conversation with Tara. Her name was Marlene Dillon, and she was some kind of scientist. She had been in Washington to see her father and was now going back to her home. One thing had sparked her interest: Marlene was living in Sunnydale.

Should we warn her? Did the Lord put her on my path so that I may save her? Does she know the truth or is she just going back home, ignorant of the changes that happened with Halloween?

She decided against saying anything. The risks were too important.

- LAX, Saturday 5 November 2011, 09:05 -

Things were easier in the nineties…

Maximilian Dillon had a thought for the now mostly disused Sunnydale Airport. Officially, economic crises and companies 'rationalizing their operations' were what killed most traffic to it. You only saw the occasional cargo or private plane there these days. When you looked a little better, though, some darker causes started to appear, like the fact some vampires considered flight attendants a delicacy. It wasn't only the airport, though. Sunnydale was dying and its doctor – or rather Mayor in this case – was lying to the city, pretending that everything was fine, and just pumping political morphine into the patient to hide the symptoms.

He remembered when Mammon had called him on the matter and told him that the numbers just 'didn't add up.' So, they had started to dig, and they had discovered a few things. The first was that the Richard Wilkins estate had controlling shares in a good part of Sunnydale's enterprises. From his meetings with the demon clans from the Undertown, they had learnt that Sunnydale had an occult master. What had worried Mammon was that investments were being pulled out of the town, starting roughly five years ago. The general impression they had was that the Mayor knew that the town would have a major problem soon and he was discreetly moving things out. Thanks to Belial's very long experience in political backstabbing, he was also pretty sure that the crisis was not only expected but that the Mayor would be the one triggering it.

His whole problem though, was that he did not yet have a solid enough case to go to Satan with it, only hunches and second-hand evidence. He needed to know what Wilkins's original plans were. He also needed to know how much becoming the One-Eyed Bastard had changed him and his plans. Once he knew enough, though… Belial often snickered at the fancy legend Odin had weaved about how he lost his eye. The Elder Shedu had excellent – one could say causal – reasons to know the truth.

He caught his own reflection in a nearby glass wall and detailed it. No more flannel shirts for him but a classy black suit and elegant shoes shining like a mirror. Black curls that cascaded freely on his shoulders. He was nonchalantly leaning on a walking stick that would have met the approval of a Victorian Lord. With his face now freed of the thick glasses he wore before Halloween gifted him with perfect vision, he was… quite dashing. He just thought that he would go for a goatee to complete his image, something light like the one of Dorian Gray in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie.

He delved a little into his supernatural senses. From what he knew, humans with the talent to detect auras had it as hijacking another sense, typically superposing it to normal vision. Shedim and Elohim had however dedicated parts in their brain for that, making them fully separate senses. He quickly found the signature of the friends who accompanied him this morning, but he was soon distracted by the sweet lust of some of the women around as they looked at him. He mused about fanning these flames until he made them orgasm from the simple spectacle of his person.

He quashed those thoughts. He wasn't Belial, but an ascended human called Max Dillon who inherited a lot of things from Belial. Sure, his life had taken a sharp turn since Halloween, but he wouldn't lose himself into that man. He knew that some of the bad press Belial suffered in human myths was just Elohim propaganda, including that little bit of manipulation that ended with his name meaning 'worthless' in Hebrew. It remained that Belial was worse than James Bond when it came to his relationships with women. He, on the other hand, was happily married with a wonderful woman.

And the next hours will determine if it stays so… no, I mustn't think like that. I will find a way to convince her. Continuing without her… I cannot accept it.

He took out his wallet and looked at one of the pictures in it. It had been taken twenty years ago, the day after he met her, by his friend Lukas Ditchik. They were sitting side-by-side, and he was running her through the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. It had been taken during the Gen Con 1991 and he had met Marlene while watching her mop the floor with her adversary at a board game called 7th Fleet. She had told him that her dad was in the Navy and that he loved playing strategy games with her, including pretty complex war games. He had managed to stutter something about trying D and… things had just clicked together. Then, there had been that little issue with the Grimoire…

"You look thoughtful," said a man who had more than once been confused with the actor Christopher Walken. "Coffee for your thoughts?"

He handed him a Styrofoam cup and Max winced a little as he took a sip. He knew very well that kind of coffee. It was the kind that had carried him through some late-night debugging sessions at his office. Since Halloween though…

"To think I used to like that…" said Max in Enochian. "Where is my Italian espresso when I need it? As for your question, I was thinking about the Grimoire. I'm betting that her first question will be to ask who excavated it."

"I'm not taking that bet, Max. You remember how it was?"

"Yes. There was always that temptation for just one more spell…"

"We were lucky to be able to stop in time."

"Not luck. We had Marlene and Lily. They convinced us to stop being morons and to seal it for good."

"I wonder if the fact they were not from Sunnydale helped. Maybe that apathy field that was there before Halloween made us oblivious to the risks."

"Sorry for leaving so abruptly," said Lukas Ditchik, a gift-wrapped jewelry box in hand as he walked to rejoin his two friends. "I just saw a necklace Lily would love… so I gave in to temptation."

Gabriel Kendall rolled his eyes while Max smirked. The three of them had been friends since high school, a nerdy trio who suffered together against the jocks. All three of them had been computer science geeks who dabbled in hacking. During their college years, they had an idea about creating their own software start-up. It had been mostly a dream for Max who, despite his technical prowess, thought it would be safer to just find a job in a large company. Marlene had been the one to stir them, to incite them to realize their dream, recruiting Michelle to handle the public relations part while she did the heavy math to come up with brand-new encryption algorithms for their security software.

"Pricey," said Gabriel, eying the box.

"It's not like we're lacking money, plus she deserves it. No offense, Gabe, but your Elohim colleagues have given her some grief at the hospital."

"You have to admit, O Morning Star, that Lilith being a pediatrician is rather ironic."

"I will admit it, brother-in-law" replied Lukas in a soft, velvety voice.

"Hush, you two," said Max with a smirk. "Or I'll snitch on you to Belldandy. I am sure that she will love to give you a lecture on good relationships…"

Lukas visibly shuddered while Gabriel made a comical display of looking offended. Halloween had somewhat complicated their relationships, but their friendship had endured. His own position as Belial was relatively simple. Belial was a first generation Shedu, brother of Hild, and the Prince of the Baphomet Compact. Lukas now… his very name was even more subject to hate among the Elohim than the one of Loki. Nobody had forgotten how Samael became the first Eloah to defect to the other side, renaming himself Lucifer in the process. That he may have been justified in doing so was immaterial. Samael's sister, Mikael, had tried to wash the stain on her House's honor in blood during the whole war.

"We will have to talk about what happens to the company," said Gabriel. "We all have more… responsibilities since Halloween. For now, things are running, but…"

"Usual Thursday meeting then," said Lukas. "Hopefully Marlene will be one of us by then."

"Amen to that," said Max, smiling as he saw the small, reflexive wince on Gabriel's face.

- A few hundred meters from Belial's position, nearly at the same time -

The master vampire was old, maybe one of the oldest. He was so old that he wasn't able to shift back to human shape and his hands were clawed and his feet cloven. He had seen many things during his unlife. He had tangled with several Slayers, always killing them. And yet… a mere human had defied him and lived to tell the tale.

His hand fell on the cross-shaped scar on his right cheek, remembering the sting as the nun pressed her rosary against him. Normally he would have shrugged it off, but this cross… he had never felt anything like it. Later, as he sought information about her, he understood. Sister Lori Henderson was high in the hierarchy of the Knights of Saint Jude and her rosary held a sliver of wood of… something he had not believed to exist.

He remembered that time, during the reigns of the first Roman Emperors. He remembered the repeated rebellions in Palestine and that strange prophet. He had met a demon who told him to stay away from him, that his gaze was to demons what the one of the Judge was to humans. He had not believed him, and he had been too busy elsewhere to care. Yet, he had seen how the teachings and memory of that man had become a force shaping human civilization itself.

But then, not too long ago, he had felt the searing heat of the nun's rosary and seen the sliver of wood in the tiny glass vial at the center of the item. He had remembered the Middle Ages and its fascination for relics. He had understood what it was: a fragment of the True Cross. A mere fragment of wood soaked in two millennia old blood had given him a wound that was only barely starting to heal, two years after the fact. A human had done this to him, Kakistos!

Of course, he had checked churches after this, looking for other fragments but they had nowhere near the same power. According to a sorcerer he consulted, they were either fake or had not been conserved properly. The rarity of such items had given him an idea that would grant him revenge. Today he was ready. The nun had been spotted by one of his vassals taking a plane to this city and he had been near enough to come wait for her. He turned toward his assistant, a dark-skinned vampire in a pricey, modern suit. He was checking one of these new smart phones.

"Her plane has landed. She must be getting her luggage back now," said the vampire known as Mr. Trick, while pocketing his phone and taking out an ancient-looking compass.

Kakistos nodded. The compass was instrumental in making sure the nun would not escape him. Ironically, her cross would be the thing dooming her as the compass would home in on the strongest source of holy power in the area.

- Arrivals, LAX, a few minutes later -

Marlene's eyes scanned the crowd, looking for her husband. She first spotted Gabriel, clad in a black duster coat over jeans and a white shirt, then Lukas, black slacks, red T-shirt, and leather jacket. That the three of them were here was nothing too unusual but where was Max? Then the stunningly beautiful man in the black designer suit standing next to Gabriel waved to her and her mind finally connected the dots. Her husband had just pulled a Clark Kent on her.

She had been trying to convince him to wear contacts for years but never had much success. Her husband had inherited a perfect bishonen physique and had been bullied a lot because of it. So, he had hidden himself behind the thickest, ugliest glasses he could find. Not anymore.

While she savored the view, reveling in the thought that this piece of eye candy was hers, her eyes then fell on the walking stick he was leaning on. She would definitely have some words with him. She knew that cane, Max had bought it for a Cthulhu by Gaslight LARP years ago. Thankfully, most security people in the airport would not even think about checking that and he wasn't trying to pass the security checkpoint. It remained that a sword stick, even an unsharpened one, was a concealed weapon.

Calm down. Nobody noticed it, so don't bring attention on it.

"Is this man your husband?" asked Sister Lori. "You seem…"

"Seeing him in a suit is rare occasion."

The nun nodded. Somehow, this man made her think of an angel painted by Botticelli. She found herself thinking that Marlene was a lucky woman and she wondered what her life could have been if she had taken another road, one leading to a husband and children of her own. She banished those thoughts as she pondered Marlene's words: seeing him in a suit was a rare occasion. Yet the man seemed… uncannily at ease. She made a sign to Tara, pointing the men and the teenage girl nodded, activating her aura sight.

"Hi, honey. Did you have a nice trip?" asked Max as the two groups reached each other.

"Yes, in great part thanks to Sister Lori and Tara. Sister, meet my husband Max and my friends Lukas and Gabriel."

"Pleased to meet you," replied Lori.

"Hi," said Tara meekly.

She let the sister handle the conversation while she looked at them all, putting the training the Knights had given her to good use. Marlene first… she was human, but her aura had something of a faint taint. She made a mental note about it. Lori had not briefed her fully on the mission but from what she said, there was something special about that town called Sunnydale.

The three men now. Their auras seemed muted. It could mean that they were particularly weak, but Tara knew better. Her training had included facing various kinds of aura cloaking spells and she was pretty sure this was what she was seeing. For most people, even Sister Lori, that would have been it, but Tara had a gift. The cardinal had once told her that she had the eyes of an angel, because she knew how to see the truth of things.

She pushed forward and marks flickered on the three men's faces, finally setting in full. Blue for the one with the black coat, red for the two others. Forward again, looking at Marlene's husband. She barely muffled a gasp. Her training had taught her to recognize various kinds of magic and… it felt like black magic and yet it didn't. Black magic had that dirty, slimy feeling for her. It felt like the darkness under the bed, the one you guessed to be full of monsters. Not here. Here it was… pure. She could see the black magic weaving around him like beautiful flames. It was warm, comfortable, like a fire you wanted to lie near, naked on the fur in front of the fireplace, basking in the heat while you slowly caressed yourself.

She blushed, not knowing where the fantasy had come from, and her eyes fell on his. Those were ancient eyes with inhuman depths. In those eyes laid the promise of unspeakable pleasures. All she had to do was to offer herself, body, and soul. She could feel her body reacting. She had never looked at boys with lust, preferring the soft curves of girls, but for him, she would make an exception. She took a step toward him, stifling a moan as her legs rubbed together.

"Hello, Tara," said Gabriel.

"Wha… what?" she asked, coming back to her senses.

He was looking at her, smirking. She focused her sight on him. Anything to look away from that dark flame drawing her in like a moth. Light poured into her eyes. White, pure. Even the holiest of relics she had seen at the Abbey were mere candles compared to the bonfire in front of her. She squinted, trying to see through the light, trying to see the real him. White feathers and… music, maybe a trumpet.

"You have to excuse Max. He practically toned it down to zero, but you are a very talented girl and you saw through his shield. So, I preferred to stop you before you did something embarrassing."

Tara blushed, remembering, no, feeling her arousal. It was back under control, but it was still there. She looked back at Max but… something was wrong. Everything was moving in slow-motion except her and that man called Gabriel. Even worse, it was as if the light had dimmed, and only he stayed properly lit thanks to his aura.

"How?"

"I am talking directly to your soul, and we can do that a little faster than by making air vibrate. As for the next question you are going to ask, I am one of the people Sister Lori was sent to investigate, visibly counting on your sensory gifts. Now, you are good, better than you think. Piercing Max's veil like that… ouch!"

"Ouch?"

"For most people? Ouch as in Semele ouch. Google it. So, as we are likely to meet again, I will give you some homework. I want you to think about the word Nephilim, Tara. Also, I want you to ask yourself this question. Was it really a bad thing for the humans to be chased out of Eden? Could it have been a part of God's plan, just like a child has to leave his parents' house to find his own way in the world? And then, what of the snake? Think well Tara. There will be a test."

Light shifted and the people around started to move normally. Tara watched silently as Marlene and the three… beings said goodbye and left, only nodding back shyly when waved at.

"Tara, what did you see?" asked Lori in Italian.

"They're not human. The man with the black coat… I think he's an angel."

- On the way to the parking, at the same time -

As they walked toward the parking lot, Lukas made a sign to Gabriel and they slowed down just a little, letting Marlene and Max take some advance.

"Why did you do this?" asked Lukas.

"She was scanning us and got a face full of Belial's aura. The reason her brain didn't fry is because she's a Nephilim."

"Not a first generation then."

"No. I only had time for a cursory exam, but I think she got most of the spiritual aspects but almost none of the physical ones. Still, she's prime ascension material. By the way, the nun considers her with genuine affection, the daughter kind, not the pet one."

Lukas nodded, feeling relieved. Lucifer remembered all too well what happened during his world's history. Sure, some had thrived, giving birth to dynasties, but they were the lucky few. For most of the others, words like monster or child of sin had been used. The Church of this world seemed to have taken a different path. The question that remained, though, was why?

A few steps forward, Marlene was smiling. Someone who had only met her husband professionally would not have believed the man walking next to her was Max Dillon. She knew better. She knew why Max was often an insecure wreck who wanted nothing more than to blend into the background. First it had been his father who, out of homophobia, set up very high expectations on the girly boy and did not hesitate to resort to violence when Max did not meet them. Later, he became a favorite pick for the school bullies.

But, under the right circumstances, a very different Max shone out. She had played with him during the whole Temple of Elemental Evil campaign and his elf rogue had definitely not been an insecure wreck. Since then, sometimes resorting to stratagems like having him join LARPs, she had worked on letting this man out of his shell for good. Success had been incomplete… until now. She started to fantasize about all the naughty things she would do to him tonight, to celebrate this victory… maybe they would even get lucky, and she could get started on this second child they wanted.

- In the maintenance tunnels under the airport, at the same time -

"They changed direction," said Trick as he compared the compass with the airport's blueprints.

"Where are they going?" asked Kakistos.

Trick thought quickly. The original plan had been to determine where they went and ambush them at their hotel or something like that, relying on their hired Fyarl muscle in case a threshold caused problem. Now, they had an opportunity… he didn't like to operate by day but given how restless his boss was, he would have to take the risk.

"A covered parking lot, lots of shade. We can be there before them," he said, checking his map of the service tunnels.

- One of the airport's parking, a few minutes later -

Max was dreading the two hours and so of driving they would have to face before reaching Sunnydale. He knew that he needed to be patient, to follow the plan. They would have a nice family day and he would break things to her gently, tell her that he would accept her choice, but not until she knew all the facts. He knew her well and while the promise of immortality would not weigh much for Marlene, full access to Shedim technology was a whole different matter.

They had almost reached the car when he sighed, cursing Murphy. A group of 'people' had exited a service door and were heading straight toward them. Of course, none of them were human. They stopped, a dozen meters away from them.

"Where is the nun?" asked a vampire that seemed really old.

"The compass is pointing at him," replied a vampire of African descent in an expensive red velvet suit while staring at Gabriel. "He must have a relic on him. One as powerful as the nun's cross."

"Oh, boy!" said Lukas, facepalming. "Gabe… should I tell you something about good deeds left unpunished?"

Gabriel had a sheepish look. The spell he had used to talk to Tara's soul had obviously been enough to have the vampires' detector lock on him.

Max was scanning the monsters' souls, or whatever passed for it for vampires. The old one was Kakistos, a monster turned during the Greco-Persian Wars. He could see all he had done, how he reveled in torture and mutilation. He could easily imagine the horror the young Tara would have gone through had he got his hands on her. Belial felt the ice of the Cocytus snare his heart. This would end today.

"See it that way. Now, they are facing us," said Max, unsheathing his swordstick, "and not a fair maiden and her guardian. Vampires! I will be your adversary!" he concluded, saluting with his sword.

"I can prevent us from being disturbed," said Lukas, "but nothing over class three."

Marlene had been trying to recognize any of their LARPers' acquaintances under the masks, thinking this was a well-organized stunt. It would not have been the first time Gabriel pulled off something like that though he had gotten wiser with the years. She was proud to see Max so confident in public, but she was tired. She thought about telling them off, saying that she was tired just wanted to go home when the men in gray-skinned, horned costumes rushed forward. Then Max started to move.

On the other side, Kakistos was frowning. He had not reached his current age by being unable to read his adversaries and his instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong. The woman seemed normal, but the three men were not what they seemed. Now the three Fyarls Trick had hired to handle threshold-related issues were charging as the one who seemed to be the chief defied them. He decided to observe for a few seconds. Near him, Trick was internally saluting the man who just defied them for the impeccable taste of his suit. His nose had caught a faint scent of brimstone and he really hoped that these men were not some kind of higher demon and his suite on their way to Wolfram and Hart's HQ.

"Ma…" started to say Marlene, seeing her husband move to intercept the three costumed men's charge.

She looked aghast as Max flowed under one of the men's attempt to grapple him while using the scabbard in his left hand to trip a second one. He seemed tiny and fragile against the linebacker-sized man but all she could see on his face was his smile. He rotated, inverting his grip on his sword while it swung on a perfect arc behind his back. Orange blood started to pour from the torn throat of the… creature.

The third one tried to reach for him but again he flowed with impossible grace, taking a step back and thrusted with his sword, the blade once again in standard grip in his hand. The second creature fell, orange blood spilling from a spot on his brow, just a little above his eyes. Her husband had just pulled a 'Botte de Nevers' in front of her.

How… the Grimoire. The Superstar spell, thought Marlene, fighting the nervous twitch on her left eyebrow.

"My, my," said Max, covering a yawn with his left hand as he stabbed the first Fyarl who was still sprawled next to him. "Maybe I should improvise some poetry while fighting to make dispatching your minions less boring, Master Vampire. But maybe the great Kakistos is afraid of facing someone… as 'worthless' as me?"

She watched with horror as the most deformed of the remaining monsters moved so fast that he was only a blur. She suddenly realized that she was behind Max compared to that thing and that he… her husband didn't even try to dodge. He just raised his left arm and blocked the charge, an exasperated frown on his face as his sleeve was shredded. The fight started in earnest, claws against sword, Max using his reach and skill to offset the creature's monstrous strength.

The remaining creatures, vampires if she believed what her husband said, were moving around, trying to surround them. She noticed Gabriel moving forward, his hand darting to hold the face of one of the creatures. It immediately started to scream as its flesh burst into bluish flames. It didn't stop the others, quite the opposite, but it seemed to have fulfilled another objective. They were focusing on him, ignoring Lukas and her.

She looked at Lukas. He was humming softly, and it was like the shadows vibrated around him, following the sound. She had a look at someone maybe a hundred feet away. He was calmly putting luggage in his car, completely oblivious to them. The more she looked at those shadows and the less the fight held interest to her. Everything was normal… these are not the droids you are looking for…

She startled, feeling Lukas' hand on her shoulder. It was as if a veil had been lifted from her eyes and she clearly saw a red mark on his brow, like some tortured eight-pointed star. She looked back at the fight.

"You killed Harry! Go to hell!" yelled a female vampire while trying to get a swipe at Gabriel.

"Heaven, darling, heaven," replied the Archangel. "At least get the zip code right," he added, putting the first two fingers of his right hand to his mouth, and making an almost negligent benediction gesture in her direction, setting her on fire.

In the outskirts of the fight, Trick had been trying to find out a way to act intelligently when he stopped dead in his tracks. He knew that quote and he would have paled had there still been blood in his undead veins. A Christopher Walken lookalike who registered as the holiest item in the area and quoted the Prophecy movie? Another looking like Viggo Mortensen with the shadows clinging to him in strange ways? A metrosexual man who said he was 'worthless' in such a way you could hear the quotes and who fought Kakistos to a standstill? Trick had culture. He had read Milton.

"Oh, this is not good. This is not good at all…"

He gulped. Best case, they were just powerful demons playing at being Gabriel, Lucifer, and Belial. Worst case… they were the real deal and the only reason the Archangel had not incinerated them on the spot was because they were trying to limit the magic to a minimum. He decided that discretion was definitely the better part of valor and used the chaos to retreat toward the maintenance tunnels.

Kakistos was fuming. The only adversaries that had given him so many problems had been experienced Slayers, and his two sorcerer allies had slaughtered his minions. He had had to have a weakness! The woman, yes, he had taken a wound to protect her.

He darted toward her. The black sorcerer was busy weaving illusions, making sure they were not disturbed. He would not have time to react… he fell on his face. Something was holding his legs. It was a tendril of dark red fire that was coming out of the left hand of the 'worthless one.' It was as if the blood of the wound he had given him was burning and extended to reach him.

"I would have preferred to give you a warrior's death, Kakistos, skill against skill. By attacking my wife, you lost that right. I will put you to death like a rabid beast. Adieu!"

The tendrils of fire started to creep on him, burrowing through his undead flesh, consuming everything in their path until they speared through his heart and reduced him to dust.

"One of the vampires escaped," said Lukas. "The one with the aetheric detector. I will go after him."

"I will take the car then," said Gabriel. "I will leak just enough energy to give him a clear vector of me going away so that he relaxes."

"Stop!" yelled Marlene now that things seemed to be a little more normal. "You will…"

"Honey, you have my word. I promise I will explain everything about this once we are at home," said Max, hugging her.

She felt his warmth and the nagging doubt, the one that this man wasn't her husband but some kind of body snatcher left her. The way he embraced her was too familiar, reminding her body of his tenderness when they made love.

"And how will we go home if Gabe is taking the car?" she said, basking in the familiarity of the embrace, using it as an anchor against the madness around her.

He smiled gently, nodding toward Lukas. She gasped as she saw him wave at them… just before dissolving into a flock of crows that disappeared into dark corners of the parking. She remembered that movie. Of course, given who Gabriel and Lukas looked like… and given their respective names, there had been countless Prophecy jokes at the office. For a brief instant, she pitied that… vampire. Lucifer was on his tail.

Dark flames that didn't burn engulfed them as Max deployed his own power.

- Dillon Home, Sunnydale, Saturday 5 November 2011 10:12 -

Marlene's mind was racing. During that second or so, she had felt movement and the strange flames around her. The flames weren't important, she decided. It was just a kind of special effect, a personal signature. That glimpse she had gotten as they wavered for a mere instant, this vision of an impossible space that her senses could barely interpret, now that was important. Sure, there was some deep-rooted instinct that was telling her she was lucky that it stayed at that, that any longer exposure would probably mean ending like one of Lovecraft's characters. For that part of her, basking into the comforting familiarity of Max's arm around her shoulders was much more important.

The flames died around her as the sensation of weightlessness subsided. There was a floor under her feet, a carpet. She escaped his embrace and turned to face him, distractedly recognizing the living room around them as theirs.

"Max! We're at home now. What were those… things?"

"Vampires. The horned ones were Fyarl demons."

Years ago, she would have scoffed at that, saying that they weren't in an RPG. It had been before Max found that book at a garage sale. He had thought it to be a joke, in the same way there were fake versions of the Necronomicon. The problems started when they decided to try the spells in it. Thankfully, after some near catastrophes, they had been scared enough to seal it away. Last she knew, it was bound in cloth washed with holy water, in a box full of salt which was itself walled in the basement of their office building.

Since then, they had moved on with their lives, not wanting to even think about the supernatural. They had apparently managed but there was one door that they could never close again. Because of the Grimoire, the existence of vampires was not something she could just dismiss. Faced with monsters, the temptation of getting it out of its cache was great. Her current guess was that one of the boys had a similar idea and decided to act on it.

"Where is the Grimoire?" she asked.

"Still where we sealed…"

"Guess we have our reply about Aphrodisia's parents knowing about the things that go bump in the night," said another voice near them.

She looked sideways, seeing her daughter standing in the entrance with two other girls and carrying grocery bags. One of the girls was petite, with wavy blonde hair, the other one a brunette. All three of them had red marks on their face similar to the ones of her husband.

Marlene was fully realizing how strange the scene looked from the outside. She had just teleported with her husband in their living room after an encounter with something decidedly not human. Even more, neither her daughter nor her friends looked surprised at seeing them. Her daughter… something was wrong there. Her daughter was in her rebellious phase and for her it meant becoming a cheerleader. There was no way she would wear a cat ears tiara in public and they didn't have one like that in their cosplaying gear anyway. Intrigued by the detail level of the item, she walked forward, leaning and touching.

"Mom… it's embarrassing," said Aphrodisia in a half-purr.

"They're real…" said Marlene, a hand moving on the side of her daughter's head and noticing the lack of any human ear there.

Images of Patrick Stewart in a wheelchair and talking about evolution flashed through her mind, soon removed as she remembered magic was the likely culprit. This led her to another passage, this time from Harry Potter.

"Honey… you didn't try to do some kind of Polyjuice potion and…"

"No, Mom. I… had a problem with my Halloween costume."

She walked back, looking at her mutated daughter and noticing the cat tail swaying slowly behind her. Whatever happened, Aphrodisia seemed perfectly at ease with her changed body. She also noticed the way the brunette girl put her hand on her daughter's shoulder, assuring her of support in a way that was maybe more than just friendly.

Calm… she needed to stay calm. She was a Carrington and Carrington women did not freak out. First fact: she had long known that magic was real even if she had done her best in the last two decades to ignore it. It was not that her rational mind preferred not to have to consider the thing. It was that same rational mind that had, after their misadventures with the Grimoire, reached the conclusion that the risks far outweighed the potential benefits. Second fact: magic had just come back in her life and both her husband and daughter seemed to be deep in it. Third fact: her daughter was hanging out with two girls she knew were not part of her usual circle of friends and one may be even more.

She wasn't unhappy about that last fact. She didn't like Cordelia or the cronies that gravitated around her. The whole Chase family seemed to be composed of slimy upstarts. Michelle and she had discussed grounding their respective daughters and having them quit the cheerleading squad following some rumors that came back to them from Sunnydale High. Even if she correctly interpreted the way her daughter and that girl were holding hands… why not? She was not about to throw any stone on the matter to anybody, not after that botched love spell of Michelle's left the two of them with a lot of questions about their own sexuality.

"Sorry… I am Marlene, Aphrodisia's Mom."

"And this is Buffy and… my girlfriend Amy," replied Aphrodisia.

Marlene noticed the crimson blush that instantly spread on Amy's cheeks.

"Amy and I will put the groceries in the kitchen while the three of you talk," said Buffy.

"Aphrodisia, do they know?" asked Marlene.

"Mr. Dillon," cut in Amy. "May I see your arm?"

"It's almost…"

Marlene looked while Amy started to chant, soft light pouring out of her hands, removing any trace of wound from her husband's arm.

"Here, all set. I hope that this answers you question, Mrs. Dillon."

"It does. Let's put the groceries away and then we all talk."

Buffy watched with interest as Marlene directed them, giving short orders to all of them. As the Abaddon kept her informed about security matters, she had read some reports from her mom's office about other 'returnees.' People who knew about the supernatural had both an advantage and a disadvantage. They believed easily, but trust was all the harder to come as the Invasion of the Body Snatchers scenario was often at the front of their mind.

But not here… why? The Grimoire. She was worried about a Grimoire being unsealed. They dabbled, got burned and sagely decided to put the book away. So, she's thinking they are victim of a spell accident… which is actually rather accurate.

"Buffy, as you are in the fridge, can you take out the iced tea?" said Max. "I guess we'll need something to drink. Aphrodisia, did you already start the barbecue?"

"Not yet. I wasn't expecting you for two more hours."

"Gabriel took back the car… as for Lukas, he made a small detour, but I expect everyone to be here by noon," replied Max. "We have time to talk."

"So," said Marlene after they came back to the living room and sat themselves. "What happened?"

Max took a deep breath and started talking, first detailing how Ethan's spell bewitched people into becoming their costume. He explained how the spell punched a hole into another universe and brought Satan and the Allfather in Sunnydale. He explained the decision they both took and its consequences for the people living in the town.

"I have so many questions… first, I believe you. Only a few people know about the real you, under that shell you used to show to everybody else. So, I will work under the hypothesis that you are my husband but got a peek in the Akashic records or something like that, which explains your powers and knowledge. Second, I think I remember seeing similar facial marks on a cosplayer from some manga in a convention last spring."

"She was cosplaying Belldandy, one of the Norns," replied Max, remembering the person.

"Norn… Asgard?"

"Yes. Rather Niflheim for the other guy in my head but that's it."

"Niflheim… red marks for 'Jotunn' and blue ones for 'Aesir'?"

"Or Demon and Angels, Asura and Deva, Fomorians and Tuatha dé Danann, etc. We use Shedim and Elohim amongst ourselves."

"In the universe the 'other guy in your head' comes from, pantheons are interchangeable?"

"Rather different clans of the same species," said Amy. "It's like… a given team with people like Thor used to work in Scandinavia, another team in Japan led by Amaterasu and so on."

"Good and Evil?"

"Mostly irrelevant," said Aphrodisia with a shrug. "I mean by that that there are bad and good guys on both sides. For the rest, it's like the Cold War. Each side has an ideology, thinks it's the best and tries to influence humanity to act more like them. Elohim have a tendency to be better than us at the PR thing which explains why we're usually portrayed as the bad guys."

"God? Has Odin…"

"Odin used El back in old Mesopotamia and Canaan, but he uses Metatron with Christians. Makes things easier for him."

"Does… is there a being you would consider to be God?" asked Marlene, choosing her words carefully.

"There is a trio of beings the Shedim and Elohim know about. We call them the Sovereign Sisters. As far as we know – know and not believe, as we don't worship them – they were the ones who created the Multiverse," replied Max.

"There is also another thing," added Buffy. "The Elohim and Shedim are not some primordial impersonations of the natural forces. They're… ancient astronauts."

"How?"

"It will be better if I show you," said Max, raising his hand to reach her face. "My mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts…"