Chapter 4
 
“Hey Buffy.” Dawn said, pulling handfuls of cornflakes from the box and shovelling them, dry, into her mouth.
“Where were you?”
 
“The moon.” Buffy answered.
 
“Liar, you were out with Spike again, all night. I bet you…”
 
“Buffy.” Joyce walked into the kitchen, looking- in Buffy’s opinion- way too awake for this time of morning.
 
“Hey Mom.”
 
“I can cook breakfast, if you haven’t had any?” Joyce suggested.
 
“I will never turn down a Mom-cooked breakfast.” Buffy said, enthusiastically.
Buffy began pouring juice. “I want some too.” Dawn said.
 
“You’ve eaten.” Buffy motioned to the crumbs all over the counter.
 
“Have not.”
 
“Dawn…” Buffy cut off as the phone began to ring. She sighed, picking it up.
 
“Buffy?” Kris’ voice came over the phone.
 
“Kris? What’s wrong.”
 
“We found it!” She exclaimed, excitedly.
 
The blood rushed from Buffy’s face. “What?”
 
“The temple, Faith found it!”
 
“Alright, I’ll be there right away.”
 
Buffy phoned Willow then headed to her watchers’ house.
 
“Buffy.” Giles said in a pleasantly surprised voice.
 
“Is Kris here?”
 
“Yes, yes, she’s right through here, come in.”
 
Buffy followed Giles and found Kris pacing the room. “Buffy!” She raced over to the other slayer. “I can show you where it is, Faith is there already.”
 
Buffy nodded as Kris grabbed her weapons bag, slinging it over one mesh clad shoulder and almost running out of the door.
 
It was a half hour walk, but in the forests on the outskirts of Sunnydale they found Faith, she was leaning on a tree, looking bored.
 
“Hey, B.” She said as the other two approached. “It’s through here.”
 
They pushed their way through some bushes and Buffy was looking at a small, pyramid shaped temple that she knew all too well, from her dreams.
 
“Okay, I’m going in.” She said, pulling blonde hair from over her face.
 
Faith and Kris exchanged a look.
 
“Listen, I can deal.” Buffy insisted. Somehow she knew, instinctively, that it was her responsibility alone to enter the temple.
 
Inside the temple was lit by torches, it had an ancient feel and was thick with dust. Buffy pushed through some cobwebs, spinning around, startled when a voice spoke.
 
“You are early my dear.”
 
Buffy realised that in one corner, shrouded by shadow was an old woman, long, white hair falling down her back, ancient wrinkled skin somehow beautiful with it’s age.
 
“Early? That’s a new one, it’s usually ‘you’re too late, muhahaha.’”
 
The woman smiled gently, reaching behind her. “You came for this.” She stated, parting a curtain to reveal a chunk of rock on the floor, an axe type thing embedded into it.
 
Buffy looked sceptically at it. “Super cliché much?”
 
“It is important that only the slayer can pull it from here. It is a powerful weapon, housing the very essence of the slayer.”
 
Buffy sighed, pulling on the handle, the weapon came easily from the stone. Buffy admired it, it was well balanced, a stake on one end, a big axe on the other. As she held it she felt a sense of power, it belonged to her.
 
“Hey, Buffy, are you all right?” Faith called into the temple.
 
“I’m fine,  I’ll be right out.” Buffy promised, turning back to the old woman- she was gone.
 
 …………….
 
Ethan paced his small room, how to do this? Obviously the slayer was very attached to her friends from whatever other world she had been in. A link like that was as powerful as any magick, he could play on that. A nasty look crossed his face. This time he would dispose of the slayers’ friends immediately after she was gone. By the time the next slayer was called he would own Sunnydale and all of the power it possessed, the world would change, and he, Ethan Rhane, would revel in the chaos.
 
He snapped his fingers, lighting several candles. Head lowered he intoned. “Arkhon, the great, come to my aid, reunite ‘The slayer known as Buffy’ with her friends from the Other world, aid me in this, please, oh Arkhon.”
 
A flash of light filled the room, flaring from the building as Ethan fell to the floor in exhaustion.
 
……………..
 
“Rikku?” Yuna called, walking into the room, clad in a very short, lace skirt and a blue top with a very low V neck and open at the bottom so that it was only really closed at the front in one section. It had light blue frills around the edges, on the left hand side the frills were very long and layered so that they formed a half skirt.
 
Rikku looked up. “Are we going somewhere?”
 
Yuna shook her head. “Nowhere special, I just thought that we both should do something. They are gone, but we are still here, we shouldn’t forget them but… we need to keep living, I think anyway.”
 
“Lulu tell you that?” Rikku asked.
 
“Maybe..” Yuna said.
 
“Let’s… let’s go to the sphere theatre. They can record some of our memories of them, it might be fun?”
Yuna looked around Rikku’s room, memories… that’s all that was in here, Aurons’ sword, spheres, but… Maybe it was a good idea.
 
“Yes, let’s.” Yuna nodded.
 
Rikku stood up, picking Spike’s coat up off the chair and putting  it on. Yuna looked at what the other girl was wearing.
 
“I think… maybe you should…” Yuna looked at what Rikku was wearing.
 
Rikku looked down, she was wearing a yellow version of the bikini Buffy had worn that day. She nodded, pulling a short, greenish yellow skirt on.
 
Yuna nodded. “Let’s go.”
 
The sphere theatre was fairly quiet inside. Yuna enjoyed the stillness, her life had been so busy since she had defeated Sin. She was glad that the people were happy, but.. she needed time, to think, to feel. So many of her guardians she had lost, and other lives had been lost as well. The theatre began to glow, Yuna turned to see which sphere Rikku had put on, but Rikku hadn’t come in yet, she was still purchasing one. So where was that strange glow coming from? She shielded her eyes as the glow became brighter, she fell to the ground and into oblivion.
 
………………..
 
A wide plain, brightly coloured flowers blooming large and vibrant. The mist from several waterfalls falling thickly over them, it would have been quite dark if not for the pyreflies which floated, thickly and aimlessly through the beauty. They were thoughts, a jumble of memories and emotions but they didn’t, in themselves, think. Occasionally someone would stand high above, calling on one of them and for an immensely short period of time they would return to consciousness. But this never lasted long. A strange glow seemed to build up, glowing brighter every second, and as quickly as it had appeared it was gone. Though it would have been impossible to count them, if somebody did they would have noticed that there were less pyreflies than there had been. But nobody did.
 
Somewhere something stirred, memories spinning in lazy circles began to form a cohesive line, jumbled feeling slowly formed thoughts, questions. A feeling of disembodiment became a sensation of cold, of wet. And in one of the richer parts of town a boy burst out of the water, pulling himself to the edge of the swimming pool, climbing out and shaking ferociously, like a dog.
 
………………
 
“I need to be directly over the hellmouth.” Willow explained.
 
“There.. there’s more power there, we can tap into it.” Tara explained.
 
Buffy was feeling uncharacteristically bubbly. “I can’t believe we’re really going to do this.”
 
“Did you tell Mr Giles?” Kris asked.
 
Buffy nodded. “He made inspirational speeches.” She explained. “He also said…” She looked at Willow. “He said to be careful, something like, ‘blah, blah, unprecedented, blah’ and ‘blah, unknown danger’ so now you know.
 
“I think… I think we can do this.” Tara said. “Willow, she has so much power… and I’ve been practising, so I can help.”
 
“Tara.” Willow admonished. “you’re just as strong as me, maybe stronger, you have been doing magick far longer than I have.”
 
“That’s what I mean, you’re a natural.” Tara said.
 
Willow scooted closer to her, leaning her head on Tara’s shoulder. Buffy smiled, then clapped her hands. “Okay, so, we can do this. When and.. well, we already know the where.”
 
“The high school.” Willow nodded.
 
“Maybe, tonight?” Tara asked.
 
“That’s good.” Bufffy nodded. “I can tell my Mom…” She trailed off, she stayed out most nights without telling Joyce. “Well, we can organise stuff.”
 
“Cookies?” Willow awsked, she turned to Tara, excitedly. “It can be like a campout, magick and cookies.”
 
“And you.” Tara said, smiling softly.
 
Buffy and Faith exchanged a look. Faith knew why Buffy wanted to do it so soon. She hadn’t told any of the others that she planned on going back, the slayers and Spike were the only ones who knew.
 
They turned, hearing a voice on the stairs. “Thanks a lot.”
 
A second later the door opened and Anya entered, carrying a bag of cookies.
 
“Anya?” Willow asked.
 
“Your Mom’s great, look, she gave me cookies.” The girl answered.
 
“What are you doing here?” Willow asked.
 
“He’s ignoring me!” Anya stated.
 
“Who?” Willow frowned.
 
“I thought you were ignoring him?” Buffy said. “Xander.” She told Willow who looked like she’d already worked it out anyway.
 
“I was, it is my right to, as a wronged party I was supposed to ignore him, but he can’t ignore me back! Who are you?” She added, turning to Kris and Faith.
 
“I’m Kris.” Kris offered Anya a hand, clad in a black, leather, fingerless glove.
 
“Kris.” Anya ignored the hand. “If you see Xander tell him that I’m tired of not having sex. But don’t tell him I told you to say it.” She opened the biscuits and began to eat them.
 
“Xander?” Kris asked.
 
“One of Buffy’s friends.” Faith explained. “He’s not that great in bed anyway.” She shrugged.
 
“You.” Anya looked at her. “You’re Faith!”
 
“Uh huh.” Faith said dryly.
 
Anya huffed. “Well, I have to go, a demon materialised in my shop, he’s quite attractive, I haven’t met one like him before.”
 
“There’s a demon in the Magic Box?” Buffy said, sarcastically. “That’s a shock.”
 
“He is very nice.” Anya said, proudly. “Stop by later and talk to him, try to get him to buy something, though I doubt he’ll answer you, he doesn’t talk much. It’s refreshing to meet a man who’s not ‘me, me, me’ all the time.” Anya turned around, taking the biscuits and leaving.
 
“Well.” Buffy said breaking the silence following her departure. “I guess I’ll go. I might check out Anya’s mystery demon.”
 
“It sounds like she already is.” Faith said dryly as Kris smirked.
 
“We’ll meet tonight, just after sundown.” Willow said.
 
“Alright, I’ll see you guys.” Buffy waved, leaving
tbc