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Chapter 3 - Adam

Dimension: 165 - Earth
Date: 4th July 2001 AD
Country: USA - California
Location: Sunnydale - UC Sunnydale - Campus
Time: Afternoon

Tara was walking back to her dorm across the patch of grass outside the main building. She decided that it is such a nice day and as she didn't have any more classes today, she would sit under her favourite tree (no it is not a Willow), a very old oak that must have been over a thousand years old. As she approached the tree, she saw a very expensive black shoe protruding around the tree.

Oh god, not a body, please not a body.

As it had been quiet for the Scoobies lately, she expected to find a corpse. It was never quiet for the Scoobies. She slowly leaned around the tree, and as she moved around, the shoe disappeared and a second later the Guardian walked around to face her and bowed his head.

This time he wore no cloak but a black shirt and tie, with a black business coat covering it and a pair of black leather gloves. That all together made Tara think that he looked very sexy, and as she was gay, that was saying something. Tara was so surprised she fell backwards over a root.

She closed her eyes as she fell, when she didn't hit the ground she opened her eyes cautiously and looked around. She saw the Guardian's face mere inches from her own. He had caught her before she hit the ground.

Thank God. That would have hurt. But he couldn't have moved that fast. It's not possible. Wow, he really does have nice eyes.

"Th...thank you" Tara stuttered getting transfixed. Looking in to them, she could see how deep they went. They were the eyes of a person who had been through an awful lot, the eyes of a person who had seen too much; they were haunted eyes; they had experienced pain, sadness and loss. When she realizing she was staring, she looked away. The Guardian smiled in understanding and stood her up.

"You're welcome, Miss Maclay."

"T...T...Tara's fine," she stuttered.

"As you wish...Tara." He smiled. "You don't need to be afraid of me, Tara. I'm not going to hurt you."

I'm not worried about that. I hadn't even thought of that. I'm just trying not to stare at you.

"I'm s...sorry. I'm always like this," she explained nervously.

"Come sit with me," he suggested as he picked up the books that she had dropped as she fell.

Okay Tara be careful. Don't let your guard down. Try and find out all you can.

Tara cautiously sat down beside him and took her books which he had placed beside her and clutched them to her chest. After a long pause the Guardian spoke but faced forward looking into space.

"I understand you are nervous and uncertain about whether you can trust me or not and I don't blame you. I wouldn't trust you if I hadn't been watching over you all."

Was that an insult or a compliment?

"H....how long have you been watching m....me?" Tara asked.

Oh God, I hope he wasn't watching me when I've been with Willow.

The Guardian turned towards her. "Like I said yesterday, I have been watching over you since you were born. Don't worry. I respected your privacy. I watched you just enough to ensure your safety. I have seen the important roles you will all play in times to come."

SEEN!

"You're a Seer!" Tara said, shocked by what she had just heard and by the fact that she had not stuttered when replying. It was then she noticed he was turning a small silver disk with a hole in the middle over between the fingers of his right hand. The disk appeared to have carvings on it, not runes but lines emanating from the centre and others joining points where they hit the outside edge, and others that seemed to originate from the crossover points. As it didn't seem important, she saw no reason to ask what it was.

"Partially," he said, turning back to look at the sky and forcing Tara to regain focus. "I used to be able to see specific time frames, but now I can only see snippets and I cannot control when I see them. For example, I have seen clips of things that will happen in a years time and I have seen snippets of time for the next five minutes. The closer the period of time is, the clearer I see it. It only comes into full focus about a minute before it happens, if that, and even then I don't know when each event is going to occur... It all depends on how much power I have at the time."

How much?

"Isn't your power level fixed?" asked Tara, now becoming more confident.

"It used to be," he said slowly. Realizing she had hit a nerve Tara decided not to ask more on the subject, but the Guardian continued. "A long time a go when I was created I was almost omnipotent, but I saw something that was to happen and I realized that I must only keep a fraction of my power with me, because if I didn't it would be very dangerous." His tone stated that that line of questioning was over.

I don't think I'll mention that again. I should think about getting information out of him. What else might the others want to know?

"Guardian, I...."

"Adam," the Guardian interrupted.

"Pardon?" Tara said

"My name is Adam," he elaborated. "Too many people call me by my titles. Having someone actual call me by my name for once would be nice. After all, I've barely been called it...fifty times in my fifteen billion years of existence as the Guardian and that's only if you do not count the time I spent in the Timeless Realms."

"Oh."

I wonder what his other titles are.

"You had a question," he pointed out.

"I was going to ask how you become the Guardian."

He looked at her with those big brown eyes and smiled. Tara felt like she would melt.

Focus Tara, focus. Don't sigh or go all dreamy. Just look at him and listen. Oh God, it's impossible.

"Good question. I have been waiting for someone to ask me that for millennia."

Please no compliments. It makes it even harder.

"Well as you no doubt have read, I was originally human and I lived on a world much like this. The only difference was mine had no magic, no demons, no vampires, nothing." He stopped and sighed. "On the fourth of February 2005 at four o'clock in the evening, my universe was decimated."

Decimated!

"What could destroy a universe?" Tara questioned worriedly

"A war of Gods." Adam sighed. "My planet had been chosen to be the battle field for the war for exactly the reasons that my world is different to yours: it meant no intervention. When the forces of Light and Dark unleashed their power, my universe was left in ruins. The only place in my universe that still exists was my home planet and that is only because that was where the Gods actually fought. The blast whipped out everything else and left my planet in ruins...Realizing what they had done, the Gods decided that they themselves could never make war again, so it was decided to create to champions to fight the war for them. I was chosen because it was my home world that was destroyed and I was the only person not to run from the destruction as it came.... I was taught how to fight, how to use magic. I received training from The One himself," he said proudly.

One?

"Excuse me. The One what?"

"The One. The first God, the one who created all the other Gods and gave them people to rule over. He was the only God not to enter the fight as he knew...well I call him a he, in reality he doesn't have a gender...his power was too immense. The champion for Darkness was The First...he has been around since evil was first created, when we fight I will command all the forces of Good and he all the forces of Darkness, it will be the greatest battle ever. Even the clash of the Gods will be insignificant in comparison."

When he had finished Tara just stared at him in disbelief at what she had just been told.

Wow.

"Oh," was all she could manage to say. Adam chuckled in response then pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time.

Wait...how many hands has that watch got? I'm sure I saw at least six.

"I'm afraid I have to go. It was nice to talk to someone for a change," he explained. "I'll see you again soon. Good day," he said, bowing his head before he walked off.

Why does he have to be that much of a gentleman? It makes it even harder to concentrate.

Tara sat there for about 20 seconds before she realized what she was doing. She looked up in time to see Buffy and Willow walk up to her.

Look normal. Look normal. Don't blush. Whatever you do, don't blush.

"Tara, are you okay?" Willow asked as she crouched beside her.

"I'm fine.... I...I was talking to the Guardian," she explained.

"Are you okay? Where did he go?" Buffy asked the second question without waiting for an answer to the first.

"That way," Tara gestured.

"Come on," Buffy urged as she started walking in that direction. They trailed after her.

I hope he doesn't see us. He'll probably be angry that we followed him.

As they turned around the building corner into the car park, they were in time to see the Guardian gracefully step into what looked like a dark blue sports car (anyone who knew British cars would recognize it as a very well kept Jaguar E-Type) and pull away.

Buffy sighed in defeat.

"Buffy," a voice called.

Looking up, Tara saw Giles' car approach with Xander and Anya in the back.

That can't be a coincidence.

"Perfect timing, Giles," Buffy said as she jumped in to the front after pushing Willow and Tara. Their greetings weren't heard as anything other than yelps at being pushed in to a very cramped space, although Anya was not complaining from her new position on Xander's lap.

"Follow that car."

Sensing the seriousness in Buffy's voice, Giles did so without question.

"So what did he tell you?" Buffy asked, turning back to Tara.

Over the next 15 minutes, the conversation was recapped by Tara. It wouldn't have taken that long normally but Buffy's business face made Tara stutter more than normal. After she had finished speaking another long silence would have started if at that point they had not pulled into a driveway outside a large mansion.

Looking around they could see that they were just on the edge of Sunnydale, so on the edge in fact that the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign was just on the other side of the Mansion.

The mansion was old, well kept, with a neat garden and driveway. The Guardian had walked up to the door and had gone inside.

"Come on," urged Buffy as they all crept up to the front door they slowly opened it (which no one even noticed wasn't locked) and crept inside. The interior was awe inspiring. The floor was covered with a royal looking red carpet and a large set of stairs directly in front of them (the type you would expect in a large old fashioned house) rose and split into two, leading off to the left and right. The entire area was lit by candles, as it was dark now.

They slowly walked up the stairs. At the top where the stairs split, there was a painting upon the wall. The painting must have been at least six foot tall and four foot wide. It was a portrait of a woman, who appeared to be between 18 and 20 years of age. She had straight red hair that flowed down to the middle of her back and the most beautiful pale blue eyes. She was wearing a simple white gown and she was standing at an angle looking out of the painting, with a smile of pure happiness on her face. The portrait almost seemed to radiate her beauty.

It was at this point that the men discovered what the girls felt every time they looked at the Guardian, but this was much more intense. If the girls had classified the Guardian as an angel, they would have had to call her a God. She was by far the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. She was so beautiful that even the girls stared in awe and Anya and Buffy considered the possibility of following Willow and Tara's example.

"Wow," was the only word any of them managed to say. In this case, Buffy said it.

After about five minutes of staring, Buffy managed to snap out of the paralysed state they were all in, although she didn't know why. She would have been content to stare at that painting for hours.

"Guys, GUYS!" she yelled in an attempt to snap the group out of their transfixed state, in the end she resorted to pinching them and as she was the slayer it HURT.

"Owww, BUFFY. What did you do that for?" Xander complained.

"We have to keep moving," she said firmly, so they all very reluctantly moved up the stairs. St the top, corridors stretched in both directions, the floors also covered with red carpet. All the doors were large and strong, made out of solid oak.

The group began carefully searching the long landing and its rooms, after number 20 all they had uncovered was a lot of posh quest rooms that none of them would mind staying in permanently.

When they got to another door two floors up they discovered a huge room still decorated in a grand style but with a huge curved bay window stretching along the far wall, the rest of the room and walls were covered in every type of musical instrument possible, including some none of them had seen before.

"Wow," said Anya. "He could sure earn a lot playing these all the time." Which caused all the others to turn.

"I think you missed the point here, An," explained Xander

They moved into the room and examined the instruments. When they reached the window, they were all shocked to see what could only be described as a British country garden, the sort you see in pastel colour paintings. There was an apple tree halfway down a long lawn, with flowers and hedges lining the borders. In the hedges, every type of British garden wildlife resided. It really was a picture out of a novel.

"It looks like home," Giles said happily through almost teary eyes. His eyes also showed longing.

"Come on. We must go," Buffy again urged.

The next room was filled with every conceivable hand-to-hand weapon. At the end of this room was a door. They walked up to it. You could tell from looking at it that if you tried to force your way in, you wouldn't be able to, but Buffy tried anyway, after trying the handle she attempting to put her shoulder through it.

"Ouch" complained Buffy staggering back before running at it again.

....and again

"Buffy, your making to much noise," said Giles.

She tried twice more before finally accepting what Giles had said.

The door hadn't moved an inch.

They moved to the next door along the corridor. Like the last, it was filled with weapons, but this time all for long range use and again there was a door on the far wall. This time Buffy knew the result and didn't even try.

The next was a library even bigger than the one at UC Sunnydale. There were books everywhere. Willow and Giles were almost drooling. It was very hard to drag them away.

The next room was the most confusing, yet as soon as they entered they realized that they were walking on grass and looking around they saw trees and plants. It appeared to be a small garden. There was a natural waterfall in the corner and a stream. Around them were ancient trees. If at this point they had been asked, they would have called this the most beautiful place on Earth.

"How can...we were," Buffy started turning back to the door, which from this side looked like a stone arch.

"It's beautiful," commented Willow.

"But how, how can it?" Buffy tried again.

"We can find out later," Giles interrupted leading the way back through the arch into the hall.

Finally they came to the end of the corridor where there was a large set of double doors. They tentatively opened them and walked in.

This room looked like a lounge, a very large one. It had a bay window and a balcony against one wall. This room had a warm glow about it and it wasn't just because of the fire in the huge hearth, although it didn't seem to radiate heat. As they walked in, they saw bookcases lining two of the remaining walls, the wall containing the fireplace had the traditional crossed swords and a couple of landscape paintings above the fireplace.

The room contained one large armchair and two settees that would seat three each. They were arranged with a table in between and the fire making up the forth wall. There were also a few plants in the corners along with some hard back chairs. A grandfather clock and a mini bar lined the remaining wall.

As the others walked around, Willow dropped down into the armchair and sat on its edge.

A fairly familiar voice said, "If you would be so kind to remove yourself from my lap."