The bell above the Magic Box door rang, heralding the appearance of two very strange looking customers. The male was dressed in what seemed to be a dark, ancient plated armor with black wolves-heads with dragon bodies down the sides, a flowing cape of crimson and gold trimmings and a weird looking black hat with a pointy tip slouched forward. He was brandishing a Dacian Falx that glimmered with an otherworldly light, looking as if the light was being sucked into the metal. The woman was the exact opposite. She wore light clothing with silver and gold chainmail interwoven with leather and cloth. She had a glimmering bow strapped to her back as well as a quiver and short sword at her hip. Both of them had statuesque builds and carried themselves as royalty. His hair was cut short and his face was covered in a trimmed beard, while her long-flowing blonde hair was billowing as if from a breeze.
“Welcome to the Magic Box and may you spend much of your money on our quality merchandise,” said Anya from behind the register, unfazed at their strange appearance.
Just as the man was about to speak, the door to the training room flew open and a pissed off Slayer with a broadsword burst in the room and took a fighting position in front of the now amused looking couple. Behind her came the Watcher and Riley, both armed and ready to act, although Riley stopped for a moment to gape at the woman’s long shapely legs covered just to mid-thigh by her strange attire.
“What are you and what do you want? Apart from some fashion tips, ‘cause the amazon and viking look? Sooo out!” she said with a frown and an appraising look.
“The term spitfire doesn’t seem to do justice to this one, does it, my dear?” the man started to chuckle. His accent was strange, something that only Anya might have ever heard during her travels, yet somehow familiar.
“Stand down, child, we are not here to cause harm,” the woman said after elbowing the man in the side – a move that seemed to get the desired response even with the armor covering his body.
“Then may I enquire what your presence here is about?” Giles said as he fidgeted nervously, wishing for a chance to polish his glasses that he’d just discovered had a small smudge in a corner.
“Since there is a lot to tell and I have an aversion to repetition I suggest you have a… Scooby meeting is the term I believe you use?” At Giles’ curt nod the man went on, “Say tonight at 10 PM? And make sure to have Joyce, Dawn, and Spike present also.” He said with the same amused tone.
“What, so you can ambush us?” Riley piped up. Buffy had said she sensed major power coming from the front of the Magic Box so these were clearly Hostiles and the only way to deal with them was to get rid of them as soon as possible, not standing around having conversation. But of course Buffy wouldn’t listen to him. Not like he was trained to take care of such tings. Really, if she just listened to him and not to her incompetent friends, that whole mess with Dracula could have been averted, and she wouldn’t have been tainted with that vampire’s touch.
“Is that what they teach you in your army? That enemies announce ambushes ahead of time? No wonder Pearl Harbor came as such a shock then, is it?” said the man, laughing. “Listen, we came here to make an appointment, not start a verbal sparring session that you would undoubtedly lose. So now that we have extended our invitation to a nice round of not-so-round table chat, we’ll be off and we shall return tonight,” the now all-business voice stated.
“Giles? Do I make with the fighty or what?” The Slayer wasn’t happy about how things were going. She still had the feeling she was supposed to fight with the man, but not the woman and that made her confused. And a confused Slayer was a cranky Slayer!
“Yes, well… You have not even introduced yourselves, so all talk of later meetings is, as of yet, in question.” Giles was really trying to gain his bearings with the rapid way things were deteriorating.
“Excuse my companion. His manners must have been left in another dimension. I am Bendis and this is Zamolxis.” ‘Damn him and not letting me know what the plan is, now what do I say we’re doing here? Having fun at the expense of mortals? That wouldn’t go down very well with this group and I certainly won’t fight my own Slayer, now will I?’
“As I have already stated who, what and why we are will be explained tonight. Any further discussion at this moment is as pointless as it is annoying. So if you’ll excuse us, good day!” There was a flash of something in his eyes that could only be described as dark and foreboding for anyone that dared step into his path.
“No go, first you make with the ‘splainy, then I decide if you need slaying, then we talk!” Buffy was getting more on edge with every single second her raised sword was ignored by this Z-whatsis that all her senses were screaming at her to try to take down. What was it with evil people and this calm way of ignoring her threats like she wasn’t their greatest enemy?
“Slayer, did your Watcher not teach you any patience at all? Let us just say we are… associates of the Simp…. I mean Powers that Be!” he amended after another well-placed elbow from Bendis. “Let us out it this way. I am not at liberty to discuss our business here at the present time any further and I’m sure you have your research cut out for you trying to figure out who we are and what we want, right? I can see Giles just aching to hit the books! And anyway, Anyanka could tell you a thing or two about us, isn’t that so?” he said while raising his eyebrow at the ex-vengeance demon in an inviting manner.
“Oh, yes, the Gods of the Afterlife and Hunting of ancient Dacia. I thought you looked familiar, although when Hoffy told me about you he said you’d gone into hibernation. Are your people reborn? And if so, aren’t they sad to come back to this plane? I thought they died for you happily. Although why anyone would forego orgasms is…”
“Anya, that’s enough information for now, thank you!” Giles cut off the happy ramblings that threatened to veer off into familiar uncomfortable territory.
“Gods… seriously? What, didn’t get enough virgins sacrificed or something and you had to take Whistler’s job? Why are you here? And where is that weasel?” Now the Slayer was getting jumpy. How was she supposed to take on Gods of all people… or whatever…
“This is stupid. Why are we listening to them? Just slay them and let’s get back to training!” All this crazy talk about Gods was a bit too much for Riley to take.
“If they are indeed who they claim to be, they are the representatives of Buffy’s bosses as Chosen One and you will let us decide what course of action we’ll take, Agent Finn!” Giles let just the right amount of Ripper bleed through his normal demeanor to make the boy shut his mouth for the moment.
“Entertaining as your misconceptions and petty squabbling may be, we have things to do, people to see, worlds to save and all that. So without further ado…” And with that, Zamolxis grabbed Bendis’ hand and left the shop before anyone could move a muscle to stop them, leaving a fuming ex-soldier, an aggravated ex-watcher, a still pissed-off ex-Chosen One (because there were really Chosen Two) and a bored ex-demon in their wake.
“Buffy, what the hell is wrong with you? You said there was something really wrong about them before you even saw them and now you let them just walk out? No wonder YOU got staked on patrol last week. And what was all that crap about Gods and all that nonsense, Anya? There are no such tings! And don’t you have something better to do than get on my case instead of telling your Slayer to go slay, Giles?” In his almost murderous rage at being taunted by clearly subhuman things, Riley didn’t even care he was shouting as loud as he could and alienating everyone still left in the shop.
Just as he was about to get some pretty angry retorts, the door opened once more letting in a doughnut-carrying Xander alongside Willow and Tara who wanted to practice some spells since their classes for the day were over.
“So what’s the what with the posturing, guys?” said an oblivious Xander while setting the box of goodies on the research table.
“Riley was just endangering his chances of getting orgasms soon by yelling at everyone and making me lose count of the daily money by making me uneasy with his accusations.” Anya, despite her words, was calmly counting the money in the cash register.
“Ahn…”
“Yes, well it appears we have quite a bit of research to do on a couple of beings calling themselves the Gods Zamolxis and Bendis. They have just visited us and demanded that we hear them out tonight. Although why they would also ask for the presence of Joyce, Dawn, and Spike I cannot begin to fathom.” Giles was rubbing his glasses clean in an effort to ease his need to chastise his Slayer’s boyfriend who was really getting him riled up. He was really beginning to wish for some more mature companionship, these children having a clearly bad influence on him.
Buffy, still shocked at Riley’s outburst, was torn between being really pissed off at him for what he said and the desire to try to patch things up with her supposedly-normal boyfriend. Still upset about the two Gods appearance, she chose to just ignore everyone, grab a doughnut and busy herself with chewing.
Riley on the other hand, was getting even madder at being so casually dismissed so he stormed out of the shop banging the door in his wake. Buffy decided she was pissed off enough to ignore the stab of guilt that came when Riley slammed the door behind him.
“Whoa, what crawled up his butt and died? And what’s this about a couple of Gods wanting something from the Evil Dead?” asked a bewildered Xander.
“Is this them?” asked Willow, who was already on her laptop, searching the net for information.
Everyone congregated around the two witches to see what they had found. And indeed, there they were, side by side, although with much less clothes on than in real life for Zamolxis and with a spear instead of a bow for Bendis. Thank God for small miracles.
“It would appear that our… guests for this evening are indeed Gods of the ancient Dacian and Thracian people, of whom the Dacians were a part of, located in Eastern Europe on the lower Danube. That would put them in current day Romania.” Giles started his customary lecture only to be interrupted.
“Isn’t that the place where Angelus was cursed?” asked Willow
“That was also where Dracula came from, right?” Buffy had a deepening frown on her face. Being reminded of two of the three vampires that had gotten their fangs in her neck (albeit one she had forced to drink) was not conductive to her trusting these intruders into her town.
“Yes, that is correct, Buffy. Most ancient vampires have, at one time, passed through that part Europe, just as much as they have passed through Rome or Paris,” Giles felt the need to point out. It wasn’t hard to follow the thought process that his Slayer had gone through. If the two Gods came from the same place linked to people that have played such an important role in Buffy’s life, then they must be somehow also connected and perhaps they were also evil. This time, however, he was inclined to offer them the benefit of a doubt… but only just. “As I was trying to say…” and off came the glasses for some thorough polishing, “Zamolxis was considered their main deity, sometimes their only deity, associated with the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter, while Bendis was associated with the Greek Artemis, or the Roman Diana. Zamolxis is said to have taken leave of his followers and hidden under a mountain and to have emerged two years later to show the people the meaning of reincarnation and immortality. His faithful were only too happy to die for their country and their beliefs, considering the time spent in the mortal world as a sort of Purgatory, only after death being able to experience true happiness. They also had messengers for the Gods that were willingly sacrificed by throwing themselves on spears after memorising the messages from the people for the Gods.”
“Really not liking the sound of that G-man. Those sound like some loonies to me!” Xander mumbled past his third doughnut.
“I asked you not to refer to me in that dreadful way. But yes, it does appear that this was a rather bloodthirsty god, despite his almost-messianic message.”
“So is that why my spidey-sense went all wonky when he came in? He’s evil or something?” Buffy was still a bit uneasy about the power surge she had felt earlier and even more so about the almost conditioned feeling of “must-slay-now” that had come over her at the sight of the self-proclaimed associate of the PTB’s.
“Not as such, no. As for Bendis, she is considered the Goddess of the Hunt and of the Moon. From what is written here, they both seem to be powerful warriors in their own right, but nothing indicating outright evil.” Giles was now chewing on one of the stems of his glasses. For all the time they spent on his face, one would think they were there just for giving him something to do with his hands, not aiding his eyes.
“So how do I kill them?” at Giles’ disapproving look, Buffy amended, “If we like, you know, need to.”
“You don’t!” said Anya to the surprise of everyone.
“Ahn, don…”
“Anya, is there something you would like to add to what we’ve found?” Giles had that look in his eye that only meant one thing – he needed pen and paper, and fast! Tara recognized that look, so she went and retrieved them, earning herself a grateful look from the ex-librarian once she handed them over.
“Well, from what D’Hoffryn said, they’re eternal. And I don’t mean like Nazi Germany was supposed to be eternal, and I told Saranja that they wouldn’t last even with her help, but like ‘they were here from the beginning and will witness the end’ kind of eternal. Now that I think about it, those are the only Gods Hoffy ever made that statement about.” With a frown that was gone a second later, Anya went back to counting the money from the shop.
“Yes, well… I would suggest we continue our research while Buffy informs Spike about the fact that his presence is needed. I’ll call Joyce and tell her to join us in a little while.” Giles was too busy writing everything down to notice the frown on the Slayer’s face deepening into a scowl.
“Fine, I’ll get him, and then I’ll try to find Riley again. But if this all turns out to be some trick, I’ll hold you responsible for my mother and sister being in danger.” And on that cheery note, the Slayer stomped away – a thundercloud almost visible over her head.
“So, anybody wanna tell me what was up with Riley?” asked Xander, still uneasy about the “super-couple” stomping away each on his or her own.
“I believe that Agent Finn was stating that we should all defer to his superior knowledge of dealing with demons and dangerous situations when he was verbally shot down by Zamolxis for making stupid assumptions. Also, it appears he’s finding it difficult to take orders from either me or my Slayer when it comes to dealing with said demons and Gods. Unfortunate, really!” Ripper was still bitter over the boy’s audacity. ‘How dare that young upstart from a Nazi-like organization that at one time threatened my Slayer’s life and almost incarcerated me for good presume to order me around? If he were not Buffy’s boy-toy I’d show him exactly what my opinion of his bloody colonial ideals is!’
“Whoa, G-man, chill!” Xander said raising his arms in surrender.
“I told you not to call me that!” spat Giles, though a bit more subdued.
The Wiccas exchanged uneasy looks with one another, and continued pouring over the sketchy data about the Gods-that-came-a-knocking.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Second installment ready entirely due to Kristi's efforts. Really bled the story until she got it to sound right. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter End Notes:
So that's the first contact scenario. Thoughts, ideeas?