Categories > TV > Buffy the Vampire Slayer > Priest of Rathma
Xander, Priest of Rathma A YAHF Crossover of BtVS and Diablo 2
by Jasruv Lundux
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Naruto, or Diablo 2.
=== beginning of Chapter 03 ===
As the Necromancer Xanmortan began his new quest, others in the town of Sunnydale were also being affected. Willow Rosenberg, who would not normally of been affected after deciding not to wear the ghost costume she had bought at Ethan's store, had been transformed by her gifts from Xander into the persona of Redwisp the Flame Sorceress. But unlike Xander who had envisioned Xanmortan as different person from himself, Redwisp was how Willow expressed herself in cyberspace. Willow might be meek and nerdy in real life, but within cyberspace she was a most definite mover and shaker in the elite hacker and programming communities. So Willow didn't lose her memories, merely had the memories and skills of her favorite character within the game added to her own.
The confidence she felt when using her computer as Will O' The Wisp, Redwisp, or any of her other online aliases came forth and merged with her everyday persona even as the magical skills integrated within her mind. She had already begun to sneak looks at Giles's books in order to learn magic, something that caused her to shudder now as memories of corrupted mages and Sorceresses from the world of Sanctuary ran through her mind. While Willow knew at some level that the game wasn't real, the memories of how badly some of her fellow students had been warped by demonic taint and sometimes by the all too human temptations of power were enough to make her shudder. Without the knowledge she now had, she knew that she could have fallen into evil all too easily, especially trying to learn in the tainted environment of the Hellmouth.
Turning her mind to current matters, Willow could feel her mana building up as she drew power from the heat in the air around her. Her mana capacity hadn't stabilized from the transformation yet, but it already was larger than her Redwisp memories would indicate was normal, at least without a lot of powerful magical items boosting her. She knew that she had to be careful as she only had her Orb and one magical amulet instead of her normal set of magical items. The fact that she had no potions and no real expectation of finding any meant that she would have to be wary against even relatively weak creatures, although she could could feel the reassuring tingle of healing from the amulet that Xanmortan. . . no Xander, had made for her.
That thought lead to her female best friend Buffy and the realization that she had dressed as a helpless noblewoman. She had to find and protect her and then find Xander! Although if Xander had been transformed into his character as well, he should be fine for a while as at least he had more equipment. Powerful equipment at that if what he had given her was any indication.
Willow proceeded down the street, using her Telekinesis to throw the transformed children out of the way as she went. Her newfound knowledge of magic gave her no clues as to the details or weaknesses of whatever spell was used to perform the transformations that she could see. After she collected Buffy and met up with Xander, they would have to go get Giles at the Library. He would know what was happening.
==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ====
As the transformation overtook Buffy, a great conflict arose between Ethan's master spell and the copy created by Xander's currently indestructible dagger that had been formed from another enchanted bust of Janus. Xander's mental image of Buffy wouldn't allow her transformation to make her helpless while Ethan's mental image when he had enchanted the dress would. Physically, Ethan had a powerful link through the dress itself while Xander only had a link through the charm he had made and given to her. But Xander had powerful links through both his unrequited love for and friendship with her, as well as the fact that he had literally breathed life into her months ago.
The master spell would normally(if that term could really be applied to chaos magic)have burnt out the lesser focus but that was impossible as the dagger was rendered indestructible because of the power of the master focus. This led to a ever increasing drain on Ethan as he was both the mortal anchor and source of the master spell, causing him to pass out as his hair turned white from the titanic energies that were unexpectedly being drawn through him. (AN:Quick show of hands, does anyone really feel sorry for him? Didn't think so. On with the story.) This feedback loop could have led to an explosion of chaos magic that would have blown open the Hellmouth and sank most of California into the sea.
But instead, the energy bleed off from the conflict, which had rendered Buffy ethereal until resolved, had drawn the attention of the deities who both guarded and guided the Amazon nation in the far distant realm of Sanctuary. They all sent avatars to investigate the powerful disturbance and were alternately amazed by and enraged for the young woman that hung insensate in the ethereal pocket before them. They had read her life and knew that the draw on them came from the gift of her friend who had sought to protect her. The charm would grant her all the skills that their Amazons learned and received from them. They had seen her change from the spoiled brat she had been into the young woman she was now when she was unwillingly chosen to be the Slayer. Through her they followed the stories of the Slayers back through time and saw the mostly senseless loss of young women throughout the ages of this world, almost all of whom they would have been proud to count as Amazons.
Athulua's avatar spoke to the other avatars of her pantheon.
“We are decided. We will offer this young woman Our help. Kethreyes and Iwill make the offer while you control the chaos surge from the conflict.”
The lesser deities nodded their assent and left the ethereal pocket to calm the chaos surge while the offer was made. Athulua and Kethreyes touched Buffy's forehead and exerted their will to awaken her as this world's Buffy and not as the generic useless noblewoman or as a copy of one of their own amazons. She would have to make a choice about what would happen next.
Buffy's eyes opened as came awake in a state of unusual calm. She took in the forms of the apparently human man and woman before her although her Slayer senses were registering unbelievable amounts of power coming off of them. She waited for them to speak as she noted that she was completely unable to move and therefore at whatever mercy they possessed. She somehow knew that they intended her no harm even though she had no real basis to reach that conclusion.
“Buffy Summers, Daughter of Joyce, due to the machinations of a chaos mage, Our attentions have been drawn to this place and to you. We have looked into your history and the history of the Slayers who came before you and found you all to be worthy of Our gifts. We wish to offer you the choice to accept Our help for both you and your sister-Slayers. But Our gifts come with the cost of responsibility. Our ability to manifest on your world will be far more limited when the current chaos subsides. If you accept Our offer, you will bear the responsibility to pass on the skills given to you by the charm of the one you know as Xander to the other young women who might become Slayers. If you choose to decline Our gift, then the skills will fade after the chaos subsides.”
Buffy considered the offer and as she did, she found herself remembering the fighting skills and the associated Amazon culture that went with them. The ability to add fire, lightning, and freezing cold to arrows and spears. The abilities to dodge and avoid enemy attacks as well as to pierce darkness and find weak spots on enemies. All of these and knowledge of tactics and strategy as well as a sudden appreciation for the vital support that Giles, Willow and especially Xander had given her already.
“What exactly are you offering and at what cost besides the responsibility of passing the skills on?”
The duo before her touched her mind with Their's and showed her. Buffy considered carefully for several apparent minutes as she now knew that time here was passing far more quickly then back in Sunnydale before giving her answer.
“I accept your offer.”
With those words, the power of the deities in front of her filled her briefly before retreating. Buffy waited for the rush to subside before raising apoint.
“What am Isupposed to do when I get back? I'm not carrying any weapons besides the stake that Xander turned into a charm.”
“Even during this chaos, there are limits to how much we can intervene on your world. However, your dress now bears Our Blessing for the duration of the spell, it will protect you as much as a set of plate mail. We have placed a weapon within the backpack of your friend Xander. You will need to address him as Xanmortan until the spell ends but We have contacted him even now so he will be expecting you. The only other advice We can give is that there will be many changes in your world after tonight and both of your friends will be changed more than most. Help them even as they have helped you, because We were not the only beings to be drawn to your world by the chaos. Remember also that the position of The Slayer has already passed to your successor. Now you are the first of hopefully many Amazons who will rectify a long broken balance in your world. Teach your future sisters well. Farewell and Long Life to you Buffy.”
The pair then exerted their divine will to resolve the conflict between the two chaos foci in favor of Xander's dagger. Buffy's form vanished back into the material world and the two amazonian deities vanished as well to take care of certain other matters before the spell was ended and they lost the ability to make active changes in the world of their new Amazon.
==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ====
Buffy materialized in the exact position she had been in when the spell had begun. Only a handful of seconds had passed by in Sunnydale while she had been gone and the street had already dissolved into chaos as the transformed children and adults ran around and attacked each other as much as those who hadn't been transformed. She only had the dress she was wearing, which she could feel the Blessing on, and the stake that Xander had given her which had turned into a magical charm for tonight. Most of the fighting skills she now knew required the use of either spear or javelin type weapons or at least a bow of some type. That left only her passive avoidance skills and two other magics that she could use. She could feel the store of usable magic within herself through the skills she now had and it was barely enough to use the calling spell.
Feeling she needed the backup, Buffy called for one of Athulua's Valkyries to aid her. She felt the mana almost completely drain out of her as the glowing female warrior appeared next to her but she didn't expect the sudden crash of knowledge about her that hammered into her brain. The glowing black woman next to her that wore chain mail and wielded both spear and shield was the spirit of Nikki Wood, a Slayer from the 70's who had died of a broken neck at the hands of Spike.
Buffy was briefly horrified that she had disturbed the rest of one of her predecessors but could feel the humorous negation from Nikki. The glowing woman tried to speak but was unable. Buffy realized she could feel Nikki's frustration over some kind of empathic link. No actual thoughts were being transmitted but she could feel an overwhelming relief from boredom emanating from the dead Slayer. Nikki gestured with her spear towards the chaos around them in clear invitation. Buffy noticed the surrounding creatures had left a space around the two of them.
“Guess they know better than to mess with two Slayer's, huh?” Buffy snarked to Nikki.
Nikki responded with a roll of her eyes and an empathic sense of laughter before they both headed out to find Willow and Xander. They broke up countless brawls between the transformed as most of the normal people had found some kind of shelter already. Buffy using primarily punches while Nikki was taking care to knock out and stun the transformed rather than kill them with her spear.
Buffy had been surprised the first time she had punched someone and the impact point had caught fire briefly. Then she remembered that Xander had said it was a burning charm when he had given it to her. She also noted that her strength, agility, and stamina seemed to still be at Slayer levels although Athulua and Kethreyes had said that her successor was now the Slayer. She also retained her martial art skills which was agreat help until she could get her hands on some decent weapons.
The two continued this way as Buffy searched for her two friends, until they noticed someone who had worn a Frankenstein costume go flying across the intersection ahead of them followed by a horde of various monster kids that were fleeing something. Buffy and Nikki stared at each other for moment before bracing themselves and carefully approaching the corner to peek around. What they saw staggered them both.
A small slim redhead was walking calmly down the street, waving a rod with a large crystal orb on the end at the kiddy monsters that were too aggressive to run away and launching them several dozen feet away down the street before they got close enough to touch her. The air around her wavered with a pale light as mist fell away from her in thin wisps. One particularly fast monster managed to get close enough to hit her, opening a gash on her blocking arm.
The monster however was instantly covered in frost and shook with chills that prevented it from dodging the blow that came in retaliation from the orb. There was a small explosion at the point of impact and the monster was thrown several feet back to lay unmoving on the grass of a nearby yard. Even as Buffy watched in dawning recognition, the wound on the woman's arm visibly healed with the blood vanishing back into the skin leaving no trace of the wound just moments later. They could hear her shout to the people behind her.
“Get inside and block the doors and windows if you want to live people! I can't protect you if you're going to keep meandering about like a gaggle of brainless geese!”
The collection of people in tattered remains of costumes hurried to obey the powerful sorceress who Buffy only now recognized as Willow. Buffy came around the corner and approached her transformed friend with Nikki following close behind her. Willow happily cried out when she spotted Buffy.
“Buffy! I'm so glad I found you safe.” She rushed up and hugged Buffy while taking in the glowing woman behind her.
“So I take it your not the Lady Useless I was expecting if you have a Valkyrie following you around. Let me guess, Xander's charm did something unusual?”
“Yeah, big time. Apparently his charm conflicted with the intentions of whoever enchanted the dress. The resulting magical ruckus drew the attention of the Amazonian deities and they offered me a choice. I accepted and so I'm now their representative in this world instead of becoming Lady Useless. Since most of my new Amazon mojo can only be used with weapons, I called for a Valkyrie to watch my back. I got a surprise though. Willow meet Nikki Wood, the spirit of a slayer who died in New York in the 70's.”
Buffy gave Willow afew moments to grasp the concept before continuing.
“Since there aren't any Amazons in the past of this world to become Valkyries, it looks like I can call on the spirits of past Slayers to appear as Valkyries.”
“Wow. That's really heavy Buffy. Is she like, ok with the whole temporarily back from the dead thing and everything?” Willow asked quietly.
“She can't say anything but I've got this whole feeling her emotions thing in my head and she seems to have been bored where ever she was. She has really enjoyed being back in action again even if she had to pull her blows when we were breaking up the monsters as we came over here.”
“Well, thats. . . good, I guess.”
“Anyway, how do we find Xander? I want to find him before we get Giles to research how to break the spell. Athulua said that the chaos was drawing the attention of others besides them and she seemed almost nervous about it. I would rather not find out firsthand what makes agoddess nervous.”
Willow looked thoughtful for a moment before she replied.
“I can draw his attention if I cut loose. Frankly though, I'm not terribly worried about his safety. Based on what he gave us and what I know about his character's gear, I don't think there is anything in town that could significantly bother him, as long as it doesn't take him by surprise.”
Buffy reviewed what she knew about Necromancers from her Amazonian memories before she replied.
“Will, if you're right about that, then I'm kinda worried about those he encounters tonight. Athulua told me to call him by Xanmortan and not Xander until after the spell ended. I'm thinking that Xander isn't in control of the character like you are and his character might not realize that these are temporarily transformed kids and not Fallen. What if he kills some of them in order to get the corpses he needs for his spells?”
Willow was shaken by this for a moment. If Xander's character thought the town was under assault by Fallen, he might very well do just that. She also knew how that could destroy him when they ended the spell.
“Stand back Buffy. I'll send up a signal that he will have to respond to!”
Willow backed up afew steps as Buffy and Nikki quickly stepped away. Willow then concentrated and began casting Fire Walls that hung in the sky above them. This wasn't something that could happen in the game but it was possible for her now. She arranged the Firewalls above her into the shape commonly used by the magi of Sanctuary as a sigil for alertness. Her Redwisp memories told her that even Necromancers knew of the sigil and its use for rallying the lost. She was careful to stagger the creation of the walls so that she could replace them as each one faded out. She was draining her mana pool faster than even her Warmth skill could replenish it, but kept replacing the walls until she noticed what looked like a Bone Spear lance through one of her walls. Judging by what she could see of the angle, whoever had launched it was close.
Willow quit renewing the Fire Walls and caught her breath as she waited for them to go out. Then she pointed her left arm to the sky, palm facing up, and used her Inferno skill. A plume of flame jetted over 60 feet into the air, lighting up the surroundings almost like daylight. She carefully monitored her mana and relaxed slightly as she noticed her mana recovering. Her use of Inferno was only slowing down her mana recovery and not causing a drain of more mana then she could recover.
Willow relaxed as she gloried in the use of Redwisp's favorite skill. Not Inferno per se, but rather the area of fire magic. She had limited herself to electrical and cold attacks earlier simply because they were her weakest attacks and she didn't want to kill those transformed by magic. Plus, her fire magics would likely cause way too much collateral damage to use on city streets.
==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ====
As the three teen demon fighters were meeting under the light of Willow's upwards pointed Inferno spell, across town at the gallery of Joyce Summers, the last hostile youma was expelled by Lady Tsunade of the Village Hidden by Leaves. As she clapped her hands together to clean off the dust from the animate mummy man she had just thrown out, she thought back to what happened earlier.
Tsunade had been in her office handling some of the paperwork that had piled up since Sarutobi-sensei's death, although some of it had apparently been ignored by him for some time before that. She had sensed something that felt like some strange Genjutsu overtake her before she could defend herself. She had then found herself in what looked like aparty at an art gallery as some of the people there were transformed into weird youma. After performing a Kai release to see if it was an illusion, she had acted to protect the people who hadn't transformed from the ones who had been transformed into something hostile.
Even as she had fought she had extended her medic-nin trained chakra senses to examine all those present and found a strange energy present that had twisted the people into their current forms. Now that she had amoment of relative peace she examined herself and found what she had half expected to find. She found that same energy twisting around inside of her body, no the body of the woman who had been transformed into her. Further examination would have to wait, as she noticed the crowd beginning to turn into a mob from fear. She performed a simple sleep jutsu and watched as everyone, including the ones who had transformed into peaceful beings, slumped to the floor.
Not bothering to speak, Tsunade then used some simple earth jutsus to block the doors and windows before she turned her attention internally once more. She slipped into a meditative trance and she attempted to contact the mind of the woman she appeared to be possessing. She found the woman's mind to be unresponsive but her memories were accessible. Ignoring her qualms about invading the woman's privacy, Tsunade skimmed through the woman's memories for information about the situation they were both in.
She found signs of memory tampering and corrected it to find what had been hidden. She saw the memory of her daughter claiming to be some magical warrior chosen to fight kyusetsuki or blood drinking undead monsters. She also saw as some individual with what Joyce's memories identified as a British accent used a memory altering jutsu to force Joyce to send her daughter to an institution for the insane and to eventually move to this town called Sunnydale. The man's jutsu also forced Joyce to ignore everything that Tsunade recognized as signs that her daughter was fighting a secret war. She could even identify those who fought with Buffy from Joyce's memories. Xander and Willow both had the shadows in their eyes that came from violence and the loss of loved ones in battle, shadows that Tsunade knew all too well from fellow villagers in the time of the War.
Tsunade knew that whatever jutsu was used to transform the people was likely to be only short term and that her mind would likely fade away with it. She refused to allow this tragedy to continue. So she began using her jutsu to transfer her knowledge of medicine and chakra use to the part of Joyce's mind unaffected by the transformation jutsu as well as the knowledge she had uncovered. Tsunade knew that Joyce was strong enough to help her daughter if she had been permitted to know about her fight. Joyce had been raised in a land at peace and didn't understand the sacrifices that came with war were ultimately less than if evil was unopposed.
It had taken Naruto to make Tsunade understand that lesson and she was resolved that Buffy would not suffer as he had. Naruto had been shunned as a child without knowing why and Buffy was being emotionally separated from her mother because of this Slayer destiny she bore. Tsunade transferred her reasoning to Joyce's mind, hoping that she would accept the lessons it had take Tsunade decades to learn.
=== end of Chapter 03 ===
by Jasruv Lundux
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Naruto, or Diablo 2.
=== beginning of Chapter 03 ===
As the Necromancer Xanmortan began his new quest, others in the town of Sunnydale were also being affected. Willow Rosenberg, who would not normally of been affected after deciding not to wear the ghost costume she had bought at Ethan's store, had been transformed by her gifts from Xander into the persona of Redwisp the Flame Sorceress. But unlike Xander who had envisioned Xanmortan as different person from himself, Redwisp was how Willow expressed herself in cyberspace. Willow might be meek and nerdy in real life, but within cyberspace she was a most definite mover and shaker in the elite hacker and programming communities. So Willow didn't lose her memories, merely had the memories and skills of her favorite character within the game added to her own.
The confidence she felt when using her computer as Will O' The Wisp, Redwisp, or any of her other online aliases came forth and merged with her everyday persona even as the magical skills integrated within her mind. She had already begun to sneak looks at Giles's books in order to learn magic, something that caused her to shudder now as memories of corrupted mages and Sorceresses from the world of Sanctuary ran through her mind. While Willow knew at some level that the game wasn't real, the memories of how badly some of her fellow students had been warped by demonic taint and sometimes by the all too human temptations of power were enough to make her shudder. Without the knowledge she now had, she knew that she could have fallen into evil all too easily, especially trying to learn in the tainted environment of the Hellmouth.
Turning her mind to current matters, Willow could feel her mana building up as she drew power from the heat in the air around her. Her mana capacity hadn't stabilized from the transformation yet, but it already was larger than her Redwisp memories would indicate was normal, at least without a lot of powerful magical items boosting her. She knew that she had to be careful as she only had her Orb and one magical amulet instead of her normal set of magical items. The fact that she had no potions and no real expectation of finding any meant that she would have to be wary against even relatively weak creatures, although she could could feel the reassuring tingle of healing from the amulet that Xanmortan. . . no Xander, had made for her.
That thought lead to her female best friend Buffy and the realization that she had dressed as a helpless noblewoman. She had to find and protect her and then find Xander! Although if Xander had been transformed into his character as well, he should be fine for a while as at least he had more equipment. Powerful equipment at that if what he had given her was any indication.
Willow proceeded down the street, using her Telekinesis to throw the transformed children out of the way as she went. Her newfound knowledge of magic gave her no clues as to the details or weaknesses of whatever spell was used to perform the transformations that she could see. After she collected Buffy and met up with Xander, they would have to go get Giles at the Library. He would know what was happening.
==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ====
As the transformation overtook Buffy, a great conflict arose between Ethan's master spell and the copy created by Xander's currently indestructible dagger that had been formed from another enchanted bust of Janus. Xander's mental image of Buffy wouldn't allow her transformation to make her helpless while Ethan's mental image when he had enchanted the dress would. Physically, Ethan had a powerful link through the dress itself while Xander only had a link through the charm he had made and given to her. But Xander had powerful links through both his unrequited love for and friendship with her, as well as the fact that he had literally breathed life into her months ago.
The master spell would normally(if that term could really be applied to chaos magic)have burnt out the lesser focus but that was impossible as the dagger was rendered indestructible because of the power of the master focus. This led to a ever increasing drain on Ethan as he was both the mortal anchor and source of the master spell, causing him to pass out as his hair turned white from the titanic energies that were unexpectedly being drawn through him. (AN:Quick show of hands, does anyone really feel sorry for him? Didn't think so. On with the story.) This feedback loop could have led to an explosion of chaos magic that would have blown open the Hellmouth and sank most of California into the sea.
But instead, the energy bleed off from the conflict, which had rendered Buffy ethereal until resolved, had drawn the attention of the deities who both guarded and guided the Amazon nation in the far distant realm of Sanctuary. They all sent avatars to investigate the powerful disturbance and were alternately amazed by and enraged for the young woman that hung insensate in the ethereal pocket before them. They had read her life and knew that the draw on them came from the gift of her friend who had sought to protect her. The charm would grant her all the skills that their Amazons learned and received from them. They had seen her change from the spoiled brat she had been into the young woman she was now when she was unwillingly chosen to be the Slayer. Through her they followed the stories of the Slayers back through time and saw the mostly senseless loss of young women throughout the ages of this world, almost all of whom they would have been proud to count as Amazons.
Athulua's avatar spoke to the other avatars of her pantheon.
“We are decided. We will offer this young woman Our help. Kethreyes and Iwill make the offer while you control the chaos surge from the conflict.”
The lesser deities nodded their assent and left the ethereal pocket to calm the chaos surge while the offer was made. Athulua and Kethreyes touched Buffy's forehead and exerted their will to awaken her as this world's Buffy and not as the generic useless noblewoman or as a copy of one of their own amazons. She would have to make a choice about what would happen next.
Buffy's eyes opened as came awake in a state of unusual calm. She took in the forms of the apparently human man and woman before her although her Slayer senses were registering unbelievable amounts of power coming off of them. She waited for them to speak as she noted that she was completely unable to move and therefore at whatever mercy they possessed. She somehow knew that they intended her no harm even though she had no real basis to reach that conclusion.
“Buffy Summers, Daughter of Joyce, due to the machinations of a chaos mage, Our attentions have been drawn to this place and to you. We have looked into your history and the history of the Slayers who came before you and found you all to be worthy of Our gifts. We wish to offer you the choice to accept Our help for both you and your sister-Slayers. But Our gifts come with the cost of responsibility. Our ability to manifest on your world will be far more limited when the current chaos subsides. If you accept Our offer, you will bear the responsibility to pass on the skills given to you by the charm of the one you know as Xander to the other young women who might become Slayers. If you choose to decline Our gift, then the skills will fade after the chaos subsides.”
Buffy considered the offer and as she did, she found herself remembering the fighting skills and the associated Amazon culture that went with them. The ability to add fire, lightning, and freezing cold to arrows and spears. The abilities to dodge and avoid enemy attacks as well as to pierce darkness and find weak spots on enemies. All of these and knowledge of tactics and strategy as well as a sudden appreciation for the vital support that Giles, Willow and especially Xander had given her already.
“What exactly are you offering and at what cost besides the responsibility of passing the skills on?”
The duo before her touched her mind with Their's and showed her. Buffy considered carefully for several apparent minutes as she now knew that time here was passing far more quickly then back in Sunnydale before giving her answer.
“I accept your offer.”
With those words, the power of the deities in front of her filled her briefly before retreating. Buffy waited for the rush to subside before raising apoint.
“What am Isupposed to do when I get back? I'm not carrying any weapons besides the stake that Xander turned into a charm.”
“Even during this chaos, there are limits to how much we can intervene on your world. However, your dress now bears Our Blessing for the duration of the spell, it will protect you as much as a set of plate mail. We have placed a weapon within the backpack of your friend Xander. You will need to address him as Xanmortan until the spell ends but We have contacted him even now so he will be expecting you. The only other advice We can give is that there will be many changes in your world after tonight and both of your friends will be changed more than most. Help them even as they have helped you, because We were not the only beings to be drawn to your world by the chaos. Remember also that the position of The Slayer has already passed to your successor. Now you are the first of hopefully many Amazons who will rectify a long broken balance in your world. Teach your future sisters well. Farewell and Long Life to you Buffy.”
The pair then exerted their divine will to resolve the conflict between the two chaos foci in favor of Xander's dagger. Buffy's form vanished back into the material world and the two amazonian deities vanished as well to take care of certain other matters before the spell was ended and they lost the ability to make active changes in the world of their new Amazon.
==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ====
Buffy materialized in the exact position she had been in when the spell had begun. Only a handful of seconds had passed by in Sunnydale while she had been gone and the street had already dissolved into chaos as the transformed children and adults ran around and attacked each other as much as those who hadn't been transformed. She only had the dress she was wearing, which she could feel the Blessing on, and the stake that Xander had given her which had turned into a magical charm for tonight. Most of the fighting skills she now knew required the use of either spear or javelin type weapons or at least a bow of some type. That left only her passive avoidance skills and two other magics that she could use. She could feel the store of usable magic within herself through the skills she now had and it was barely enough to use the calling spell.
Feeling she needed the backup, Buffy called for one of Athulua's Valkyries to aid her. She felt the mana almost completely drain out of her as the glowing female warrior appeared next to her but she didn't expect the sudden crash of knowledge about her that hammered into her brain. The glowing black woman next to her that wore chain mail and wielded both spear and shield was the spirit of Nikki Wood, a Slayer from the 70's who had died of a broken neck at the hands of Spike.
Buffy was briefly horrified that she had disturbed the rest of one of her predecessors but could feel the humorous negation from Nikki. The glowing woman tried to speak but was unable. Buffy realized she could feel Nikki's frustration over some kind of empathic link. No actual thoughts were being transmitted but she could feel an overwhelming relief from boredom emanating from the dead Slayer. Nikki gestured with her spear towards the chaos around them in clear invitation. Buffy noticed the surrounding creatures had left a space around the two of them.
“Guess they know better than to mess with two Slayer's, huh?” Buffy snarked to Nikki.
Nikki responded with a roll of her eyes and an empathic sense of laughter before they both headed out to find Willow and Xander. They broke up countless brawls between the transformed as most of the normal people had found some kind of shelter already. Buffy using primarily punches while Nikki was taking care to knock out and stun the transformed rather than kill them with her spear.
Buffy had been surprised the first time she had punched someone and the impact point had caught fire briefly. Then she remembered that Xander had said it was a burning charm when he had given it to her. She also noted that her strength, agility, and stamina seemed to still be at Slayer levels although Athulua and Kethreyes had said that her successor was now the Slayer. She also retained her martial art skills which was agreat help until she could get her hands on some decent weapons.
The two continued this way as Buffy searched for her two friends, until they noticed someone who had worn a Frankenstein costume go flying across the intersection ahead of them followed by a horde of various monster kids that were fleeing something. Buffy and Nikki stared at each other for moment before bracing themselves and carefully approaching the corner to peek around. What they saw staggered them both.
A small slim redhead was walking calmly down the street, waving a rod with a large crystal orb on the end at the kiddy monsters that were too aggressive to run away and launching them several dozen feet away down the street before they got close enough to touch her. The air around her wavered with a pale light as mist fell away from her in thin wisps. One particularly fast monster managed to get close enough to hit her, opening a gash on her blocking arm.
The monster however was instantly covered in frost and shook with chills that prevented it from dodging the blow that came in retaliation from the orb. There was a small explosion at the point of impact and the monster was thrown several feet back to lay unmoving on the grass of a nearby yard. Even as Buffy watched in dawning recognition, the wound on the woman's arm visibly healed with the blood vanishing back into the skin leaving no trace of the wound just moments later. They could hear her shout to the people behind her.
“Get inside and block the doors and windows if you want to live people! I can't protect you if you're going to keep meandering about like a gaggle of brainless geese!”
The collection of people in tattered remains of costumes hurried to obey the powerful sorceress who Buffy only now recognized as Willow. Buffy came around the corner and approached her transformed friend with Nikki following close behind her. Willow happily cried out when she spotted Buffy.
“Buffy! I'm so glad I found you safe.” She rushed up and hugged Buffy while taking in the glowing woman behind her.
“So I take it your not the Lady Useless I was expecting if you have a Valkyrie following you around. Let me guess, Xander's charm did something unusual?”
“Yeah, big time. Apparently his charm conflicted with the intentions of whoever enchanted the dress. The resulting magical ruckus drew the attention of the Amazonian deities and they offered me a choice. I accepted and so I'm now their representative in this world instead of becoming Lady Useless. Since most of my new Amazon mojo can only be used with weapons, I called for a Valkyrie to watch my back. I got a surprise though. Willow meet Nikki Wood, the spirit of a slayer who died in New York in the 70's.”
Buffy gave Willow afew moments to grasp the concept before continuing.
“Since there aren't any Amazons in the past of this world to become Valkyries, it looks like I can call on the spirits of past Slayers to appear as Valkyries.”
“Wow. That's really heavy Buffy. Is she like, ok with the whole temporarily back from the dead thing and everything?” Willow asked quietly.
“She can't say anything but I've got this whole feeling her emotions thing in my head and she seems to have been bored where ever she was. She has really enjoyed being back in action again even if she had to pull her blows when we were breaking up the monsters as we came over here.”
“Well, thats. . . good, I guess.”
“Anyway, how do we find Xander? I want to find him before we get Giles to research how to break the spell. Athulua said that the chaos was drawing the attention of others besides them and she seemed almost nervous about it. I would rather not find out firsthand what makes agoddess nervous.”
Willow looked thoughtful for a moment before she replied.
“I can draw his attention if I cut loose. Frankly though, I'm not terribly worried about his safety. Based on what he gave us and what I know about his character's gear, I don't think there is anything in town that could significantly bother him, as long as it doesn't take him by surprise.”
Buffy reviewed what she knew about Necromancers from her Amazonian memories before she replied.
“Will, if you're right about that, then I'm kinda worried about those he encounters tonight. Athulua told me to call him by Xanmortan and not Xander until after the spell ended. I'm thinking that Xander isn't in control of the character like you are and his character might not realize that these are temporarily transformed kids and not Fallen. What if he kills some of them in order to get the corpses he needs for his spells?”
Willow was shaken by this for a moment. If Xander's character thought the town was under assault by Fallen, he might very well do just that. She also knew how that could destroy him when they ended the spell.
“Stand back Buffy. I'll send up a signal that he will have to respond to!”
Willow backed up afew steps as Buffy and Nikki quickly stepped away. Willow then concentrated and began casting Fire Walls that hung in the sky above them. This wasn't something that could happen in the game but it was possible for her now. She arranged the Firewalls above her into the shape commonly used by the magi of Sanctuary as a sigil for alertness. Her Redwisp memories told her that even Necromancers knew of the sigil and its use for rallying the lost. She was careful to stagger the creation of the walls so that she could replace them as each one faded out. She was draining her mana pool faster than even her Warmth skill could replenish it, but kept replacing the walls until she noticed what looked like a Bone Spear lance through one of her walls. Judging by what she could see of the angle, whoever had launched it was close.
Willow quit renewing the Fire Walls and caught her breath as she waited for them to go out. Then she pointed her left arm to the sky, palm facing up, and used her Inferno skill. A plume of flame jetted over 60 feet into the air, lighting up the surroundings almost like daylight. She carefully monitored her mana and relaxed slightly as she noticed her mana recovering. Her use of Inferno was only slowing down her mana recovery and not causing a drain of more mana then she could recover.
Willow relaxed as she gloried in the use of Redwisp's favorite skill. Not Inferno per se, but rather the area of fire magic. She had limited herself to electrical and cold attacks earlier simply because they were her weakest attacks and she didn't want to kill those transformed by magic. Plus, her fire magics would likely cause way too much collateral damage to use on city streets.
==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ====
As the three teen demon fighters were meeting under the light of Willow's upwards pointed Inferno spell, across town at the gallery of Joyce Summers, the last hostile youma was expelled by Lady Tsunade of the Village Hidden by Leaves. As she clapped her hands together to clean off the dust from the animate mummy man she had just thrown out, she thought back to what happened earlier.
Tsunade had been in her office handling some of the paperwork that had piled up since Sarutobi-sensei's death, although some of it had apparently been ignored by him for some time before that. She had sensed something that felt like some strange Genjutsu overtake her before she could defend herself. She had then found herself in what looked like aparty at an art gallery as some of the people there were transformed into weird youma. After performing a Kai release to see if it was an illusion, she had acted to protect the people who hadn't transformed from the ones who had been transformed into something hostile.
Even as she had fought she had extended her medic-nin trained chakra senses to examine all those present and found a strange energy present that had twisted the people into their current forms. Now that she had amoment of relative peace she examined herself and found what she had half expected to find. She found that same energy twisting around inside of her body, no the body of the woman who had been transformed into her. Further examination would have to wait, as she noticed the crowd beginning to turn into a mob from fear. She performed a simple sleep jutsu and watched as everyone, including the ones who had transformed into peaceful beings, slumped to the floor.
Not bothering to speak, Tsunade then used some simple earth jutsus to block the doors and windows before she turned her attention internally once more. She slipped into a meditative trance and she attempted to contact the mind of the woman she appeared to be possessing. She found the woman's mind to be unresponsive but her memories were accessible. Ignoring her qualms about invading the woman's privacy, Tsunade skimmed through the woman's memories for information about the situation they were both in.
She found signs of memory tampering and corrected it to find what had been hidden. She saw the memory of her daughter claiming to be some magical warrior chosen to fight kyusetsuki or blood drinking undead monsters. She also saw as some individual with what Joyce's memories identified as a British accent used a memory altering jutsu to force Joyce to send her daughter to an institution for the insane and to eventually move to this town called Sunnydale. The man's jutsu also forced Joyce to ignore everything that Tsunade recognized as signs that her daughter was fighting a secret war. She could even identify those who fought with Buffy from Joyce's memories. Xander and Willow both had the shadows in their eyes that came from violence and the loss of loved ones in battle, shadows that Tsunade knew all too well from fellow villagers in the time of the War.
Tsunade knew that whatever jutsu was used to transform the people was likely to be only short term and that her mind would likely fade away with it. She refused to allow this tragedy to continue. So she began using her jutsu to transfer her knowledge of medicine and chakra use to the part of Joyce's mind unaffected by the transformation jutsu as well as the knowledge she had uncovered. Tsunade knew that Joyce was strong enough to help her daughter if she had been permitted to know about her fight. Joyce had been raised in a land at peace and didn't understand the sacrifices that came with war were ultimately less than if evil was unopposed.
It had taken Naruto to make Tsunade understand that lesson and she was resolved that Buffy would not suffer as he had. Naruto had been shunned as a child without knowing why and Buffy was being emotionally separated from her mother because of this Slayer destiny she bore. Tsunade transferred her reasoning to Joyce's mind, hoping that she would accept the lessons it had take Tsunade decades to learn.
=== end of Chapter 03 ===
Sign up to rate and review this story