"A Light of Hope From Days Past" by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Green Lantern/Marvel Universe)

ryley[underscore]breen

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever nor do I intend to change that in the future. I write because I enjoy it and because there are those that like reading my works. Therefore I would greatly appreciate it if you refrained from taking any legal action against me. I can guarantee you that your legal costs will easily be ten times whatever you might get from me.

Note 1: Timeline-wise this'll take place during the year 2000 in the Marvel/BtVS universe. That means if you want to know when this happens in the published Marvel Comics titles check the small print on the first few pages for anywhere from a Jan 2000 to a Dec 2000 copyright. As for the GL universe shown in the beginning it'll happen near the end of an alternate 'Wrath of the First Lantern' story arc.

Note 2: As always if you are a reader who doesn't like it when writers deviate even a little bit from established canon then I advise you to turn around right now. While I will do my best to stick as close to canon as possible NOTHING will get in the way of me telling the story I want to tell. I will change and modify anything I need to in order to tell the story I want to tell.

A Light of Hope From Days Past

Reality 010513

The Center of the Universe, Oa, Headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps

The End, Ganthet's POV

They had failed.

In every way possible the self-appointed Guardians of the Universe had failed.

Unlike many who were confronted with failure as complete as this, he had no trouble trying to find where he and his brethren had gone wrong because there were quite a few moments in their lives where they made mistakes. The problem was that he and his fellow evolved beings had thought that the reason for their failure lay in their operatives or tools rather than in themselves. They had tapped into the emotional spectrum and at first thought to create an army of warriors; that had ended in disaster when the first recruit to wield it went insane and nearly rewrote all reality. They thought that emotions were the source of the problem so they stripped it from their souls and created emotionless robots called Manhunters to instill law and order into the galaxy. This turned to disaster when a programming glitch implanted by their fallen brother Krona caused the Manhunters to wipe out every sentient in sector six-six-six.

It was monstrous, a crime that had forced his comrades to wipe all mention of it from the Book of Oa.

Nevertheless, the madman's point had been made: robots were not suited to bringing law and order to the galaxy. They lacked the emotions that would let them fully utilize the power of the Central Power Battery and, without emotion, it was impossible to feel empathy for others and that was necessary in order to dispense justice.

It was then that they created the Green Lantern Corps.

It had been decided that their newest force of soldiers would be made up of living beings possessing free will and strong moral character. With the ability to channel the green spectrum of energy that was willpower through their rings, members of the Corps were limited only by the power capacity of their rings, their willpower and their imagination. Nevertheless, they made sure to put certain safety protocols into the rings in order to ensure that the potential for abuse of the power was kept to a minimum. No one with mental instability would be able to use their ring, the power would be incapable of affecting the color yellow, rage would drain power from the ring at an accelerated rate and a necessity to recharge the ring every planetary axial rotation.

For a time it seemed to work, with law and order gaining in dominance across all thirty-six hundred sectors of space. However, when crisis after rebellion brought the Corps to the brink of irreparable extinction, a change came over his brethren where they began to question if their new fighting force was still viable. More controlling factors, such as the creation of the Alpha Lanterns, with the intent of making them an internal affairs department that would ensure that another Hal Jordan or Sinestro would never get out of hand again, modifications and amendments were also made to the Book of Oa in order to address what the Green Lanterns could or could not do. However, as other Corps, groups that harnessed the other six elements of the emotional spectrum, emerged, the age old prophecy of the Blackest Night came up for discussion with increasing frequency during Guardian meetings. His kin believed that the other Corps that appeared needed to be shunned or, if they became an increasing disruption, to order their immediate apprehension and imprisonment in the sciencells. In the case of the Sinestro Corps or Atrocitus' Red Lantern Corps, he had no objection to such treatment but the others had been potential allies in his mind.

He was alone in this sentiment.

In the end all the changes and actions taken to prevent the Darkest Night proved to be useless as the dead rose and, under Nekron's direction, sought to return the universe to absolute darkness. It was the combined efforts of members from each Corps and the manifestation of the white energy that saved the day rather than the sole actions of the Guardians of the Universe and their Green Lantern Corps. He had hoped that, in the aftermath of this, his kin would realize that their objective of universal peace and order could be greatly aided by accepting help from the more like-minded Corps but instead the reverse happened. His kin became more stubborn than ever before that emotions were to be suppressed and the other Corps were all potential threats to the galactic order they wished to create. However it wasn't until the calamity that was the return of Krona and his seizing of the manifestations of the emotional energy spectrums that talk began of replacing the Green Lantern Corps with something 'better'.

In order to silence his protests once and for all they used their combined power to forcibly strip him of all emotions in the single most horrendous experience he had ever known. With the one dissenting vote forcibly overturned, plans began to unleash The Third Army of the Guardians starting with their removal of certain pieces from the universe. Hal Jordan was removed under the pretense of what happened with Krona, namely Jordan managing to override several of the rings protocols to slay their mad brother, while using the unexpectedly inducted Sinestro to dismantle his own Corps. Kyle Rayner, someone he'd considered a son of sorts, had managed to escape immediate imprisonment but, with the label of rogue Green Lantern attached, they believed no one else would aid him. The Alpha Lanterns were dealt with through the subtle manipulation of John Stewart and Guy Gardner while other plans were being put into motion to deal with both of the humans. One after another every human Green Lantern, as well as the more dangerous members of the other Corps, were dealt with until on Earth they gave birth to their new 'soldiers'.

Though calling them that was a stretch of intergalactic proportions.

Utilizing the energy from the First Lantern and combining it with their own flesh, they created an organic construct that would serve as the first of their Third Army. This first one had no will of its own and was merely an extension of the minds of he and his brethren, obeying orders given without hesitation. They had no mouths so they could not speak, even if they wanted to. They had no heart so they could feel no emotions whatsoever. Their glowing green brains were exposed as a sign that they were under the control of others. However the most terrifying feature was how they could create copies of themselves merely by coming into contact with another sentient. Much like a virus, their DNA would infiltrate the subject's bio-matter and rewrite it at an aggressive pace, transforming the sentient from individual to a member of the Third Army in under five minutes. These.. .creatures could tear through the constructs of virtually any Lantern as well as the protective skintight fields that surrounded them and, once contact was made, conversion occurred far too fast to be countered.

At first they had the Third Army operate covertly so that they could build their numbers up without attracting the attention of their predecessors until it was too late. However, when it became clear that news of the Third Army was going to get out sooner rather than later as they'd intended, they chose to selectively reveal the truth to the Green Lantern Corps. All Lanterns were summoned back to Oa for 'inoculation' against the new threat when in truth they were paralyzed in preparation to undergo conversion into members of the Third Army. It was then, though, that the rogue members of the Corps chose to act, with those off world coming in rings blazing alongside their allies and those still on Oa, disrupting the paralysis that kept those Lanterns on Oa under control. All at once a battle broke out that had them backed up against the proverbial wall, forcing them to draw even more power from the First Lantern in order to turn the tide.

This proved to be a terrible mistake.

With the strain that they were putting on the prison of the First Lantern, the madman chose that moment to break free, making an already bad situation worse. With the ability to alter reality due to his exposure to the First Ring and the combined energies of the emotional spectrum, the power to drain emotional energy by exposing sentient beings to potent memories from their past and his obvious insanity, Volthoom was a force unlike any that'd come before.

Helpless alongside his kin as they were imprisoned in an energy field, they could only observe as the ghost from their past as he went about tormenting the more notable Lanterns. The villain tempted them with the possibility of changing tragic events of their past, tormented them with the possible ways their defining moments could have otherwise happened and, during it all, absorbed the energy produced to make himself stronger. However, as was the case with most who coveted power, Volthoom was not satisfied with what he'd gained from the Lanterns on or above Oa and had departed in a flash of light.

The reason for this became clear hours later when the madman returned with the Great Heart and promptly used its power to not only boost his power to new heights but also to thrust back into him and his colleagues the emotions they'd stripped from themselves millennia ago. It had been overwhelming for the others as they had not experienced any emotion in thousands of years but he had fared better due to the item he held within him. Though 'better' did not mean 'good' as the memories of what he'd done since his kin had robbed him of his emotions left him awash with guilt, grief and self-loathing. It had been at that point that he would not resist if someone desired to harm him, be it physically or mentally, because in his mind he deserved it. In fact, at that moment he'd predicted that Volthoom would brutally remove the precious item he carried within him since it was the next logical step in madman's plans to reshape reality to suit his whims.

It was then, though, that the first ray of hope pierced the gloom that had seemed stronger than the Creator himself.

Volthoom chose to return to the cosmos to devour even more emotional energy from the sentient beings of the galaxy.

Even better than that, the psychotic chose to release him and the others, albeit only after draining them of all but the minimal amount of power. The reason the madman gave was that even death row prisoners deserved some time out in the yard before they walked their final mile. The truth, he'd known, was far simpler: Volthoom didn't believe they could do anything to stop him with most of their power gone and their minds crippled by emotions they hadn't felt since the beginning. When added to the fact that the Lanterns scattered across the surface of Oa weren't in much better shape, the reality warping human had reason to be confident.

However the choice would prove to be his undoing.

Mustering as much resolve as he'd been able to, he began to look for ways that he could make the most of this opportunity but within the first hour could only come up with one possible plan. They could not hope to defeat Volthoom using conventional warfare and tactics. The gap in power between the two sides was simply too much to overcome, even if they found hosts for the entities that embodied the various parts of the emotional spectrum. If they did that then at most they could manage a stalemate for a few days before the battle tipped in Volthoom's favor. Therefore it became necessary to think of something a little more unconventional that held the best chance of successfully undoing the many wrongs that had been committed.

He chose time travel.

If the right information could be sent back to the right time period, then everything could be changed and perhaps ensure that some mistakes were not repeated. He and his comrades had long since learned the particulars for travelling through time but had never dabbled in it themselves due to the unforeseeable consequences. They'd even done what they could to discourage or sabotage the efforts of others who'd chosen to delve into the same region of science but, every once in a while, someone managed to slip past them. In his case, though, he knew that all the necessary components to construct his own temporal archway existed on Oa, so that part of his plan would merely need time.

The second part of his plan was a little more complicated.

The plan entailed sending all the information necessary to alter the course of the future through the portal to the person best capable of making use of it. This was no small amount of information and that meant that the method of storing it would have to be either big and simple or small and sophisticated. The archway he would be creating could not be large because that would take time he very much doubted they had, so small and sophisticated it was. In the end he chose a container that would be able to have a say in whether or not it divulged the information it contained, as well as give the recipient a means to keep the unworthy at bay.

I never thought I would literally apply the human phrase 'cough it up', but it was necessary, he thought as he looked over at the simple green ring that hovered in the information transference field. If I can send that through the archway along with the information, it will be a major blow against Volthoom.

The final part of the plan had been the hardest to gain and, to be honest, he considered it nothing less than a miracle that he got as many of them to agree as he had. With the power the enemy possessed, he was under no delusions about how long it'd be before his plans became known and then the madman would come in force to stop him. The odds of him being able to successfully transfer the ring through to the past without help was slim and he'd known it. Therefore he'd been forced to seek aid from anyone and everyone he could to form a defensive barrier between the room where the archway resided and Volthoom. It wasn't easy, considering how thoroughly the Lanterns had been defeated in their initial encounter with the psychotic man, and even harder considering their collective animosity towards him, but they found reasons of their own to help him.

Some did it because they conceded that there was no way that Volthoom could be defeated using power rings and constructs, no matter how many there were.

Some did it because his returned emotions had at least partially restored their trust in him.

Some did it because they didn't want any scheming going on behind their backs and didn't want anything major going on without having a say in what happened.

It was Sinestro who insisted that representatives from each Lantern Corp be permitted to download messages into the ring to be transmitted the moment the object reached the desired time period. He discerned that the man of Korugar wanted this so that the existence of the ring as well as the information it contained could not be kept secret. One by one the messages were beamed into the First Ring, with instructions that matched Sinestro's stipulation and, once all were convinced that the messages could not be deleted or blocked, they agreed to buy him as much time as they could. How long that would be was anyone's guess but he would be grateful for whatever he could get.

His head snapped to the side as a light on the wall began to flash red at regular intervals.

He's coming. He sped up his efforts as best he could without making mistakes. Long range Oan satellites have picked up his approach. He is not too concerned. His mistake!

Indeed, with the power that Volthoom possessed, it would've been all too easy simply to teleport into the room but the man's sense of fun no doubt found it amusing to show them how useless their living wall truly was. It would be a mistake because he'd sensed Sinestro merging with Parallax and then Kyle merging with Ion. That was encouraging as it would give him more time but he did not allow this to slow his pace because, even with the power the two men possessed, it would not be enough to deny the enemy victory.

He did his best to ignore the sounds of battle that penetrated the walls of the room, the bits of ceiling that sprinkled down on his head, and dots of energy he could sense disappearing every couple of seconds. He worked like a man doing the most important task of his entire life, efficiently using his time to assemble the archway as swiftly as he could. When the hardware was assembled he began loading the software necessary to operate it, making only minor modifications in order to ensure the machine would do what was needed. In time, though, the sounds of the Lanterns fighting with every ounce of strength they possessed became impossible to ignore, especially the screams that cut through the air. Some he could not match to a name but many he could and his face twisted with grief with each one that he heard, with one or two requiring that he take a moment to steady his hands before continuing.

Just a little more time. I just need a little more TIME! he thought as he began the startup sequence for the archway.

When he watched the event horizon of the temporal archway began to manifest, his feeling of hope grew and with confident fingers he entered the desired date, time and location he wished the ring to go. However it was as he reached for the ring that the hope of many was put in peril as something crashed through the ceiling of the room before impacting the floor behind him. Turning, he needed to wait a minute for the dust and debris to settle but what he saw when both did nearly broke his heart.

It was Arisia.

What was left of her, anyway, because her battle against Volthoom had left her seriously injured, with one arm seared clear off and a wound to the left side of her head that had destroyed an ear as well as rendered the eye on the same side completely blinded. Miracle of miracles, though, she was still conscious and, even as he watched, was struggling to get back to her feet, the protective field generated by her ring barely visible to the naked eye. Either her ring was running on fumes or her mind was barely remaining coherent enough to will the skintight field to remain in place. Neither boded well for the young Graxosian but it was a testament to the strength of her willpower that she hadn't lost consciousness already.

"Y-you… have to… h-hurry, Ganthet," Arisia gasped as she took one unsteady step towards him after another. "T-there's only… a… a dozen of us… left. H-he's coming…"

Then, before he could use his power to levitate a chair over to her, an encompassing blast of energy dropped from the ceiling, enveloping the young woman and reducing her to a pile of ash in seconds. Immediately after the blast dissipated, the one who fired it floated down through the hole in all his horrible glory. A grey body with a visible nervous system composed of all the colors of the emotional spectrum identified the person as Volthoom and, when the face came into view, the madness was clear to see.

Knowing that time was running out he telekinetically pulled the ring to his hand even as he fired the most powerful energy blast he was capable of directly at the madman. It caused him to feel dizzy for a moment but it couldn't be helped if he was to get the ring through the archway successfully. As fast as his little feet could carry him he moved towards the curtain of energy since he no longer possessed the strength to send the ring through telekinetically. His breathing was heavy but all the air left him when a pencil-thin beam of energy pierced his body, causing him to cry out in pain as he fell to the floor then slid a foot or so.

"I really don't know why you bothered, Ganthet," Volthoom said casually as he strode forward. "You're powerless. All your toy soldiers have been turned into mulch and you can't even walk anymore. What do you really think you can do now?"

"I would've thought… someone like you… would know better, Volthoom," he bit out as he inched closer to the archway while using his body to keep the ring from being visible to the psychotic. "One person… CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!"

With all the strength he could muster he threw the charged and data-carrying ring at the archway's event horizon, praying that the Creator of All would not abandon him in his time of direst need.

"NNNOOOOOOO!" Volthoom cried out since he no doubt recognized the First Ring.

However the judgment of a man overcome with emotion was notoriously poor and the First Lantern proved to be no exception since, instead of grabbing the First Ring, he fired a blast at the generator for the archway. No doubt Volthoom had intended to shut down the machine before the ring could enter the event horizon but the man obviously knew nothing of high technology. As a precaution against his foe sensing what he was up to, he had asked ten of the Lanterns to donate a portion of their ring's energy to power the archway. He'd been concerned that, if he tried to tap into the main power grid of Oa or the Central Power Battery, that it'd be like firing off a signal flare to Volthoom's senses. Under normal circumstances this turn of events would not be a problem but the sheer amount of energy the madman had sent at the power absorbing unit was far more than it'd been designed to handle.

It'd trigger an overload.

Even knowing this, though, he was helpless to do anything but watch as various spots of the archway sparked and arcs of energy danced about it in a dazzling light show. More than that, the curtain of energy that represented the divide between the present and the past grew in luminous light until it was blinding to all present. When it all ceased ten seconds later, he looked back towards the temporal archway to find a blackened, broken mess of hardware that would require considerable work to repair. Neither he nor Volthoom, though, were concerned with the status of the archway but rather the location of the First Ring, causing both of them to search the last place they'd seen it. When nothing came up, the psychotic let out a bellow of rage and energy that obliterated the building, with the only safe place being the eye of the storm where he was.

It had worked!

The ring was gone and most likely travelling through time and space to the one person he trusted to use the information in it wisely.

"I… would suggest that… you take the seconds… we… likely… have left to pray to whatever god you have, Volthoom," he said with a satisfied smile on his face. "Quite soon the temporal wave… resulting from the changes made in the past will… reach us, changing everything. You're going back to your prison!"

The look of utter fury on the madman's face was priceless, making the pain he was experiencing feel inconsequential by comparison. He idly wondered what his last image of the man would be before the timeline reset itself to match the changes made in the past but he knew it wouldn't matter. When all was said and done, he would not remember the horrors of the past few years since they would hopefully be replaced with better times, along with unharmed friendships.

All that was left to do was wait.

It was only after a minute passed with everything remaining just as it had for the past four hours that doubt began to creep into his heart.

It should've happened by now, he thought as he mentally did math that would leave most sentient scientists agape. Temporal corrections always occur shortly after the traveler arrives at the destination. What's going on?!

"My ring is gone… GONE!" Volthoom snapped with barely contained fury. "However you've failed, too, Ganthet. The timeline is unchanged. I REMAIN!"

As the seconds ticked by without anything happening, he could not dispute the words being spoken to him and could only guess what might've happened. The overload from the First Lantern could have caused the ring to overshoot its destination. It could've vaporized the ring the moment it touched the event horizon of the archway. Whatever happened, the one thing that could not be disputed was that his plan had failed and all the sentients that'd put their faith in him. The only thing to surpass the heights to which he'd allowed his hope to soar was the depths of sorrow he now plunged to, knowing it'd all been for nothing.

"Aren't you going to spout some heroic platitude, Ganthet?" Volthoom asked mockingly as he shifted from anger to malicious humor. "Aren't you going to make one final charge of defiance?"

"Even if I had the power to, Volthoom, I do not know," he replied as all thought of taking action faded from within him. "After everything that's happened, after all these deaths… I failed… I've lost everything I cared about. I have nothing left."

"No. You still have one more thing to lose, Ganthet," Volthoom said as he stretched out his right arm. "Let me fix that."

BTHOOM!

Earth 616, Eight Thousand B.C

The North Western Hemisphere

No scientist saw what happened that night.

No local ones existed for it was an age where superstitions and what would be considered mythologies one day were considered the one unquestionable truth.

No non-terrestrial scientists were present for this star system was not considered important enough to warrant a permanent presence and at this time none of them were present.

Therefore none could see as space twisted like fabric being scrunched up by an invisible hand, and then turned counter clockwise before a jagged piece of light appeared in the center of it all. Five seconds later a tiny speck of bright green light exited from the center of the phenomena before shooting towards the planet at speeds that would later be compared to the top speed of an SR-71. It wouldn't have taken an observer, had there been one, long to determine that the green speck of light was heading for the western seaboard of North America. As the burn of atmospheric re-entry began to manifest, the touchdown point was narrowed down to the state of California and afterwards to the area that would one day be called Los Angeles. However, just as it was on final approach to Los Angeles, something happened that seriously affected the light's trajectory, causing it to wobble erratically.

In the end it missed its original destination by quite a bit and hit the ground a little under two thousand miles per hour as the car drove northwest of its intended landing zone.

Slamming into the ground, it penetrated into an underground cave before it finally came to a stop but, as it tried to rise into the air once more to reach the spot where it had been programmed to go, its sophisticated onboard sensors showed it a curious fact. Several of the primitive monitoring systems and technologies it'd been told to hide itself from were absent from its scans, along with several notable landmarks that would've been used by its secondary navigation program to reach its destination. As per standard protocol it began a comprehensive scan of everything within range of its sensors and then compared it to what existed in its records. It concluded that something had occurred to drastically affect the temporal co-ordinates of the archway, resulting in it being deposited decidedly further in the past then it should've been. By its calculations it was a full ten thousand years prior to when it should, making reaching its intended recipient impossible. Therefore it computed the various scenarios and strategies at its disposal, looking for the one with the highest probability of it reaching its programmed recipient successfully. After careful consideration it determined that placing itself into stasis and reducing energy consumption to the minimum required in order to preserve the data stored on it held the highest probability of success.

Descending to the dirt floor it initiated stasis protocol while ensuring that passive security procedures would be observed for the duration.

Thus all evidence of the arrival of the First Ring vanished from sight and, as the centuries went by, nature did its part by covering it was dirt. The dirt then changed to stone and, with the energy that was oozing from the dimensional rift close by rolling over it, no one ever found it…

…until the middle of October 2000 A.D., that is.

Sunnydale, California

The Magic Box, Late Morning, Buffy's POV

"Where do you want this, Giles?" Xander said as he carried in another crate of magic stuff brought in from the delivery truck out front.

"Just put it on the counter, Xander," Giles replied while walking the room with a checklist. "I'll get to it just as soon as I finish confirming a few items here."

"Sure," Xander said as he began to move towards the counter.

While the Magic Shop had items in stock when her former Watcher had purchased it to run himself, much of it had to be thrown out due to a poor shelf life and the amount of time that'd passed since the business had last been ready for customers. She'd heard him grumble a few times at the cost of replacing the stock but never enough to make him consider throwing in towel when it came to running the Magic Shop. It just meant that it was fortunate that the previous owner of the place was dead because otherwise there'd be a well-prepared British lecture heading his way on the matter of proper preservation methods for magical ingredients. According to Giles, this was the last shipment for the next few months and had asked Xander for help unloading everything and stocking the shelves. This had been a good thing, considering what'd happened just last week: Anya'd left town and wasn't expected back anytime soon.

Apparently the woman wasn't satisfied with Xander's lack of ambition in his workplace, resulting in an argument that'd left her friend a drunken mess that'd taken both her as well as Willow a day or two to put back together. In the end it became clear that the former Vengeance Demon had only viewed the four year member of the Scooby Gang as a source of pleasure as well as profits rather than what many had hoped was love. It had been hard for her friend, who'd no doubt hoped that his relationship with Anya would be better than the one with Cordelia, but that did not come to pass. It was one of the reasons Giles had asked for Xander's help at the Magic Box since it was hoped that this distraction would help the young man out. The rest of them had other things planned to help their friend get over being dumped, with various activities and tasks that would keep him busy but not arouse his suspicion. Her mother had even gotten in on it by asking Xan to babysit Dawn later this week while she went out of town 'on a business trip', since those two always got along together great. A night together watching movies and munching on junk food would be a great boost for her guy friend's mood and keep her from having to babysit the brat instead.

Don't get her wrong, she loved her little sister and would do whatever it took to keep her safe, but the little midget just got under her skin like few others could sometimes.

As for why she was at the Magic Shop… she'd kinda broken something important back home and was hiding out until her mother calmed down to talk things through rationally. It'd been a TOTAL accident and, really, if it was so valuable her mother should've known better than to put it in the hallway upstairs between her room and the bathroom. She'd been half asleep due a long night of slaying and before she'd realized what was going on she'd tripped, knocking the piece of art over and causing it to shatter on the floor. Needless to say she'd gotten dressed and slipped out the back window the instant her mind identified the remains as something her mother had told her had cost quite a bit to acquire.

She figured it'd be safe to go home in time for supper.

Hearing the sound of a cell phone ringing, she looked about to see whose it was only to be a little surprised to find it was Xander's. Sure, he'd gotten a decent paying job in construction and, thanks to a side effect of the Feraly Gemimi thing they went through recently, got a promotion, but she'd figured it'd be a while before he got all spendy with his new cash flow. Watching as her friend took out his cell phone, she only listened in for a minute before realizing that it was work related, causing her to turn back to the magazine she'd been reading. While she'd made an effort in the past to show some interest in construction work, if only to give herself something else to talk to Xander about, she just didn't have the brain for it.

The call took about five minutes to finish but when it did she could tell something was up.

"I'm afraid I'm gonna have to bail on you, G-Man," Xander said as he set down everything he hadn't entered the shop with. "That was the boss on the line. Says he wants me on a job just outside the city limits past Paris Street. The client bought a lot of land cheap out there and wants an apartment complex set up there ASAP."

"Really? Where is this land precisely?" Giles asked, sounding not opposed to this turn of events but rather mildly interested.

"Someplace called White Sands Oasis," Xander replied after a moment's thought.

"Interesting. Still, I would advise you not to become too invested in the project, though," G-Man said with a nod of his head.

"Why? What's wrong with the place?" Xander asked, sounding worried.

A sound response seeing as how some places in or around Sunnydale tended to be a demony death trap of some kind.

"Er, well, nothing harmful from what I can recall," Giles replied before the looks from everyone else in the room prompted him for elaboration. "When I learned that I was going to be stationed in Sunnydale five years ago I did some research on the area. Though there was a glaring number of omissions in the files, suspicious ones at that, I did see an entry about the area you are going to. Apparently it possesses a sort of unique energy field that makes every demon breed that entered the area wish to leave it within a few hours. No explanation given."

"Well that's a good thing, right? If this place has been around for so long then the vamps and demons will steer clear of the place so me and the guys can do our work without risking our necks," Xander said, sounding puzzled as to why his new job would end quickly.

"It would be except that humans also tend to feel the same compulsion to depart the area and never come back," Giles said, cleaning his glasses thoroughly. "It takes longer, of course, a few days usually, but humans are unable to resist the inner 'gut feeling' and leave. Even if your employers never visit the construction site, I'd wager you and your fellow employees will experience the compulsion, leave and refuse to return to the area no matter what."

"You got a theory on what's causing it all?" Xander asked, sounding less worried but still interested.

"Considering the localized area of effect and the indiscriminate targeting of the compulsion, I'd wager either a potent mystical artifact or an omni-purpose ward. Perhaps both," Giles said after a few minutes of contemplation. "It's possible that something mixed happened there, a combination of both light and dark magic, that has left lingering traces that have endured to this very day. There was nothing in the files on the area to indicate who might have been responsible, so I would wager it happened well over a thousand years ago."

"That's some major mojo for it to last that long," Xander said, sounding a little intimidated.

"Indeed, however I do not believe you need to concern yourself with it. If the job you have been hired to do lacks sufficient workers then it will likely fall through forcing your employers to terminate it." Giles said reassuringly as he put his glasses back on.

"It'll be a bit of a bummer since the client's looking to throw some major cash our way but, if the place has bad juju, then I guess it can't be helped," Xan said, sounding a little disappointed in what would happen in a few days. "Well see you guys later!."

With that Xander left the Magic Shop, leaving the rest of them to help Giles get everything squared away with the current delivery.

For a moment she was concerned about her friend, even though Giles had just explained that there was nothing bad about the place. Xan didn't exactly have a lot of good luck when it came to magic and, if he was going to a place that affected people just by proximity, there was no telling what could happen. He could wind up triggering some kind of magic catastrophe that they'd feel from the Shop or something! Regardless of her friend's declaration that he would no longer be the universe's 'butt-monkey', she had to admit that reality did tend to like putting him in tough spots that he often needed help getting out of.

Maybe I should… she thought before a comforting hand was placed on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Buffy," Giles said, looking at her with a fatherly eye. "I will admit that Xander does usually have the worst luck concerning the paranormal but it will only be for a few days at most. Surely nothing can happen in so short a time."

"Giles… this is Sunnydale, remember? Boca del Inferno? The Hellmouth?" she said, looking at him like he was an overly positive optimist. "We have unlikely every day, surprises every week and the impossible every other month. With Xander the odds get suckier than usual."

"Point," Giles said, realizing that his former charge might be right.

"So we should get ready for something to happen?" she asked, just to confirm that they were united on a course of action.

"It would be prudent," Giles replied before going back to the clipboard. "I will make sure we have all the necessary ingredients for diagnostic and detection spells, as well as the more common remedies for magical or demonic afflictions. I would suggest you pay a visit to some of the older demons in Sunnydale to see if they know anything we do not about the White Sands Oasis. With luck someone the Council does not know about has tried to use the phenomena for their own benefit at least a few times."

"On it!" she said, glad to have something other than lounging around the Magic Shop to keep her occupied until it was safe to go home.

She just hoped that she didn't get any yucky demon goo on her clothes because she really liked the outfit she was wearing.

White Sands Oasis Property, Three Days Later, Early Afternoon, Xander's POV

Well, it's been two days already and so far no sign of 'get-out-of-dodge'-itis, he thought as he moved to pick up a shovel to help with the digging. Guess me and the guys have a stronger tolerance for whatever the mojo field is than most people.

Still, until the boss officially gave the job the axe, he was going to treat it just like another day at work and do his best at whatever job needed doing. So far all they were doing was digging out the section of ground that the foundation would be set in, using bulldozers and backhoes for the big stuff and shovels for the more precision oriented tasks. Until all that was done they wouldn't move onto the cement pouring or metal I-beam planting, so he figured they'd probably just be about to do it when the head honchos pulled the plug on the whole thing. They were getting paid by the hour, so it wouldn't be a complete loss.

Reaching the equipment truck, he picked up a shovel at random before walking at a brisk pace to the far side of the digging area that was almost done. Bernie and Moe had been in charge of that spot but the latter threw out his back, causing the former to help him get someplace more comfortable, leaving him to finish their work. He didn't mind as he considered both guys friends and there wasn't really anywhere else that was a man down, so it'd keep him busy until something else opened up. Sure, he'd gotten a promotion, but he still wasn't high enough up the chain of command where just sitting on his ass was an option. Plus he didn't mind working since he preferred to work for a living rather than juggle paperwork or take meetings with other suit bureaucrats, since it was just more fulfilling in his opinion.

Plus he didn't want to find out firsthand if all the clichés about suit wearing execs were true because, if they were, then he just might resign rather than have anything to do with them.

When he arrived at the place he'd be digging, he figured that it'd only take an hour or so to reach the desired depth for this particular spot. Taking the shovel off his shoulder, he went to work using the correct technique that he'd been taught by one of the senior workers when he'd first got hired on. Apparently this method of shoveling would keep the muscle strain to a minimum and reduce the chances of a injuring yourself by a fair bit. Not that he thought he had much to worry about in that department, given the shape demon and vamp slayage had put him in, but it had sounded like good advice so he'd went with it. Anything that'd keep him from losing money while he recovered at home was a good thing.

"You need any help over there, Xan?" Al asked, walking by with the wheelbarrow.

"Nah. Just need to dig down a half dozen feet or so," he replied with his usual lopsided smile. "Should be able to finish before supper, easily."

"Okay," Al said with a nod before continuing on his way.

Losing himself in the repetitive motion of shoveling, he only casually checked what depth he was so he didn't go too deep, since that'd just force him to fill the space back in and that'd be a waste of time. However, just as he thought he was reaching the final foot of digging he'd have to shovel through, he hit something decidedly harder than the dirt he'd been hitting up until then. Still, this wasn't a problem for him since it was probably just a rock that, once he dug around it a bit to get an idea of its size, he'd either carry it clear himself or get some of the guys to help. Stuff like this always happened when building something on unused land that hadn't been touched before, so he was used to it. With probing pokes chosen through intuition, it didn't take him long to determine the rough shape of the rock as well as get a good idea of how big it was.

It'll be a bit of a strain but I can probably lift it solo.

Digging a bit so he could get a proper hand hold on the stone, he soon grabbed onto it and, with only a bit of strain on his body, he managed to pick the rock up. However, the moment it got to roughly waist level, though, he felt a noticeable tremble beneath his feet that he didn't like. Looking down towards his feet only made things worse as he noticed dirt begin to slide towards the spot where the rock had been at an ever increasing rate. It was then that he realized that the rock he'd just removed had been some kind of corner stone that'd kept everything else stable and by removing it he'd set off a chain reaction. Knowing that speed was needed he dropped the rock and prepared to make a run for it but all that wound up doing was hastening the breaking up of the ground for ten feet in every direction. Before he could get more than one or two steps away, the ground gave out beneath him and, with a yell of surprise, he fell for a good few seconds before hitting solid ground.

Okay… I'm man enough to admit it… OW! he thought as pain echoed through his body and he rolled to try and get to his feet.

It was painful, he didn't think he'd broken any bones in the fall, but he'd definitely have some bruising that'd take a few days to recover from. Getting to his feet, he looked around to see where he was and found it to be a cave of some kind, with three tunnels leading away from where he was but only one of which looked like it might take him back to the surface. Looking up, he could see that he'd fallen almost a full thirty feet but, when he looked to the sides of the cave, he found that there weren't enough decent hand holds to climb his way out. He'd have to be a world class free climber to manage it and, sadly, he couldn't claim that title, so the options would be to either wait for the crew to throw down a rope or take his chances with one of the tunnels.

Best to stay put, he thought as he sat on a suitable rock. Tunnels near Sunnydale are usually inhabited and not by things that're overly friendly to humans. The guys should be along soon enough, given how long I yelled.

As he waited, though, he let his eyes wander about the cave just to keep his mind busy but he didn't really see anything all that remarkable at first. Just the usual shapes you'd expect to find in such a place, plus a few things that looked similar to things he knew, but nothing out of the ordinary. However, just as he was about to look up at the sky once again, a slight flicker of reflection caught his eye coming from a small hole about an inch from the floor of the cave. It was like light being reflected by glass or a piece of metal that was just polished enough. It was an anomaly and, against his better judgment, his curiosity was aroused enough to move in for a closer look, so he got off his 'seat' and walked towards the hole. He was halfway towards kneeling down to reach inside when dirt dropped from above and he heard the familiar voices getting closer.

"XANDER! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?! XANDER!" yelled the foreman from high above him.

"YEAH. JUST A LITTLE SORE FROM THE FALL!" he yelled in reply as he looked up at the people circling the hole he'd fallen through. "THINK YOU CAN GET A ROPE AND HAUL ME OUT?"

"SURE! JUST GIVE US A COUPLE MINUTES!" the foreman yelled before disappearing from the edge of the hole.

"Sure. It's not like I'm going anywhere," he muttered as he went back to investigating the hole.

Kneeling down, he put his eye almost right up against the hole to try and see what was inside but there just wasn't enough light getting into the hole for him to make anything out. He was tempted for a minute to just leave it at that but curiosity still had a firm enough grip in his mind that he wasn't ready to give up just yet. He decided to see if he could scrounge it out with his fingers and so first he poked his index finger in to see if it was long enough to reach it. He put it in as far as he could but he didn't hit anything that felt like anything else other than stone or dirt. Deciding that the finger simply wasn't long enough, he switched to his middle finger and poked it into the hole, hoping to have better luck this time. This time he definitely managed to find something that was not dirt or stone but rather something decidedly smooth like glass or metal. He could only get the less than half an inch to touch his finger, even with his finger in as far as it was capable of going, and he knew it wouldn't be enough to pull it out whatever it was.

If it was…just a little…closer… he thought as he silently wished that it was just a little bit closer.

Without warning something happened that he hadn't anticipated in the slightest: with all the subtlety of a firecracker going off he felt the object MOVE towards him and wrap itself around his middle finger. In shock he pulled his finger out of the hole only to find that a ring was now on it made of a green metal and it had a symbol pounded into it. It was a large circle indentation and at its center was a symbol of some kind made up of a circle with a horizontal line at the top of the circle as well as at the bottom. It was crude in a way but it almost looked like a lantern of some kind, but then again maybe it was just his mind letting him see what he wanted them to see. Looking at it, he marveled at how, despite how long it must've been in the ground, it still was shiny enough to reflect light off of its surface. He speculated for a moment that maybe someone or something had used one of the tunnels and put the ring in the hole within the last five or so years, but he couldn't deduce any logical reason for that.

If the ring had been placed there to hide, it then it shouldn't have been so easy for him to get his hands on it. There should've been a guard or some kind of defensive measures in place, like spells, but he hadn't come across anything like that the entire time he was in the cave. Therefore the only conclusion he could come to would be that either the defenses had long since turned to dust or there'd never been any in the first place.

Whatever. I don't know what this thing is and, until I do, I want it off my finger, he thought as he reached for the ring and gripped it.

It wouldn't budge.

He tried as hard as he could but, no matter how much strength he put into it, the basic feeling he got was that he'd tear his own middle finger off long before the ring would finally be pried loose. It didn't feel like it was fused with his finger or anything, or like some kind of force was keeping it in place. However that didn't change the fact that nothing was going to make the metal object come off unless special methods were used and he didn't have access to them here.

Guess I'll be paying G-Man a visit later, he thought as he finally gave up trying to remove it. Knowing my luck, it's probably some mystical bauble that'll take hours of chanting to get off.

Hearing the sounds of activity at the edges of the hole, he looked up and a moment later a rope was thrown down that ended just shy of the ground.

Time to climb out of this place.

The Magic Shop, That Evening, Rupert Giles' POV

"Well, it is certainly not something that is ringing any bells at first glance," he said as he examined the ring under a magnifying glass. "It is also quite simple in its design. Fairly unremarkable, really."

"So it's gonna be hard to put a name and a maker to it?" Xander asked, sounding worried.

"Not necessarily. The symbol is fairly distinctive and if I can scrape off a sampling of the material it's made out of, I should be able to gain an idea of its maker," he replied as he put down the latest volume he'd looked through for some clue as to the items identity. "Assuming it is not a normal, everyday ring, then the material it is made out of will give us an idea of its nature. The metals used in arcane or demonic rings are usually quite specific and are only available in certain places in the world. Once we get on a first name basis with the metal, the rest should fall into place fairly swiftly."

"Good. 'Cause I'm liking this thing less and less," Xander said, giving the green ring an unhappy look.

He couldn't blame the lad.

Given the retelling of how the young man had come across the object, it certainly did sound otherworldly in nature rather than something more commonplace. Buried in rock, in a cave, that connected to the considerable tunnel network that ran underneath Sunnydale, certainly lent some support to the theory that ring was demonic or supernatural in nature. However it wasn't ironclad since, despite what some might think, ordinary things did happen in and below Sunnydale that had nothing to do with the 'nightlife', as Buffy once called it. It was possible that the ring was a remnant of a settlement or home that existed on the land centuries ago and that the item had simply been buried as years of dirt piled on top of it.

Going behind the Magic Shop counter, he took out a small tool kit that he had set aside to examine the occasional item that someone would enter the store to try and sell. Sometimes it was a neutral or benign demon looking for some extra cash and other times it was some human who thought they'd found something valuable in their grandparent's attic chest. Granted, on the Hellmouth the odds of coming across an abnormal artifact was higher than it would be just about anywhere else, save a few other supernatural hotspots, so he saw no harm in keeping an inspection kit handy. Taking out the necessary tool to scrape off a few bits of the ring for examination and testing, he took a firm grip of the ring before pressing the tool to it and going to work.

He was a bit puzzled how, after the first half minute or so, nothing, not even the smallest particulate, came off the ring to fall into his hands. Deciding that the piece of jewelry must simply be made of sterner stuff than he'd originally thought he pressed down harder on it and added more effort to the scraping. He did his best not to make Xander feel any discomfort or pain but when more time passed without anything to show for his efforts, he seriously began to think that there was more to the ring than met the eye. This was only reinforced when he took a moment to look at the tool he'd been using to discover that the scraping teeth that should have been strong enough to get a few scrapings off had been worn own to almost nothing by his efforts. Whatever metal the ring was made of, it was VERY durable indeed and that certainly reduced the number of possibilities in his mind by quite a bit. Looking at the ring itself, he could see no damage at all to the surface he'd applied the tool to no matter how close he looked at it, both with the naked eye then a magnifying glass a few moments later. The list of materials capable of blunting his tool without so much as a microscopic scratch to show for it were few in number. If he looked for ones that were naturally green in color or could be made green through some kind of process, he was sure that the list would shrink even further.

"Well, this is certainly turning out to be more intriguing than I had originally thought," he said as he set his tools aside. "Whatever metal it's made out of it is decidedly more durable than common jewelry materials. Perhaps titanium or something more durable was used. How deep was the hole you fell into?"

"Twenty-thirty feet or so, I guess," Xander replied, sounding a little unsure of himself.

Ah the precise estimations I've come to expect from Americans, he thought fighting off a rolling of his eyes. Still, at that depth, presuming it wasn't placed there by a traveler of the tunnels, it would imply that the ring was constructed well into the past. That would've been well before titanium was first utilized for anything, much less jewelry.

By humans at any rate, but there were only scattered studies done on demon metal work and the evolution of such efforts. If it had been made by demons, then at the very least it would narrow the search options since only some demon breeds were intelligent enough to do such work. Most of those that made rings and put symbols on them were catalogued since symbols often implied membership in an organization or at least an affiliation with one.

Grabbing a piece of paper, he did his best to copy the symbol on the ring in as exacting detail as he could manage given his modest drawing skills. He then drew a rough approximation of the ring in all its dimensions, as well as the symbol on it since it'd be impossible to have the genuine article around all the time. Once he was finished he set the piece of paper aside while making a mental list of the books and other resources he'd need to consult in order to learn more about the ring. Since resigning from the Watcher's Council, many of his information sources and allies had turned their backs on him but he still had a few that didn't fear the wrath of Quentin Travers. He'd see what they could tell him while he went through the relevant materials that he had in his own possession.

"Well, this is all I can do for now, Xander. I will look into the matter and get back to you as soon as I am able to," he said, turning to the young man he considered a surrogate son. "Please inform me if anything… unusual… occurs in connection to the ring, such as glowing, more unexpected occurrences of it moving and other such phenomena."

"Don't worry," Xander said with all due seriousness. "The second this thing starts making with the weird and doing the freaky, you'll be the first person I call."

"Good," he said, reassured that the youth was giving the matter the necessary gravity.

With that the lad left and he went to his bookshelf on the second floor to begin the necessary research into the matter.

Fortunately for Xander the earlier concern both he as well as Buffy had expressed about his work location had some of his sources already researching, so it would help narrow their search a bit when he provided them the details of the ring. Hopefully the item wouldn't be something TOO valuable, otherwise the inquiries about it would attract unwanted attention from others who might be looking for it. That would cause them to come to Sunnydale or hire someone to come and steal the ring, with it being highly unlikely that they'd care about the well-being of ring's current owner.

Right. Don't say a word to any of the gossip mongers, he thought, mentally x-ing out the sources he knew with loose lips or a tendency to take what they learned on one job to create a payday with another.

Risky working with those sort to begin with but when almost all of one's trustworthy contacts stop returning phone calls you had to take what you could get.

Doesn't mean you have to be stupid about it, though.

Summers Home, A Few Days Later, Dawn's POV

He's coming! He's coming! she thought as she frantically tried to find just the right combo of clothes to wear. What should I wear!?

Sure, she'd known for a couple of days that Xander would be coming to keep her company while her mother was off on a business trip and, sure, that meant that she should've had this all planned out, but now that the time was upon her she was second guessing everything. She wanted this night to be perfect, to be one more successful step towards her ultimate goal, but for that she needed to have every little detail covered from every angle known to womankind. The first, of course, was activities, what they'd be doing for the hours that her mother would be out, which had to be fun but at the same time subliminally brainwash him. Therefore she had picked movies that were sufficiently action packed that your average male would find them interesting but also ensure that they had an element of romance. While she'd been tempted to go even further and ensure that the central characters had hair colors similar to her and Xander, not to mention age similarities, she'd decided in the end that that would be a little too obvious. She'd also gotten out the 'Twister' mat, with all the requisite odds and ends since that'd prove useful in getting her future husband into compromising positions.

Especially since she'd practiced with the spin wheel to the point where she could get any color or limb she wanted with the flick of a finger.

Then, of course, came the snacks and the drinks.

She'd gone online and looked for the foods that would boost a person's libido, managing to find things like watermelon slices, black raspberries and bananas. Then there were the sweeter snacks that she knew Xander would appreciate, given his sweet tooth, like chocolate, plenty of Pepsi and of course two boxes of Twinkies. She'd use the healthy first choices in order to slip the less than healthy options past her mother when they'd gone to the grocery store. She didn't think her mother had figured it out but, even if she had, no road blocks had gone up so everything was good to go.

As for clothing, her original pick had been a sports bra (THANK YOU PUBERTY FAIRY!), spandex biking shorts with a loose fitting dress shirt that'd double as a nightgown. She'd of course wear the shirt to make it look like she only had that on and nothing else just to have some fun with him but she'd let him find out on his own that she really was wearing something more. It'd be fun to see him squirm right up until the point where he saw the truth, then it'd get interesting with 'Twister' since spandex left precious little to the male imagination. With a little luck, once he got a good enough look at her, he'd realize how MATURE she'd become and stop thinking of her as Buffy's little sister. She knew that the two biggest obstacles to her plans to marry Xander was the fact that he saw her as a kid and the sister of his best friend. Unless she made him see how grown up she'd become and how little her being related to Buffy mattered when it came to a relationship between the two of them, she was going to be stuck in the little niche he had her in.

Unofficially she knew she had her mother's blessing, even though the woman had never come right out and said anything about it. However she could clearly see the 'I approve of him as a potential boyfriend' look her mother gave Xander whenever he came over as well as the wistful look whenever she came upon either her or Buffy close together with Xander. As a result she knew that if she could just get Xan to take the first step, it'd be smooth sailing from that point onwards, with the exception of the bump in the road that was her sister. She knew that her sister would go ape at the idea of her dating one of her friends and would probably point out the age difference, even though her older sister dated an ensouled vampire who was centuries older than her while claiming he was her soulmate. She'd of course immediately point out that she was a lot closer to Xander in age then Buffy was to Angel, but then things would devolve into an argument that ended with her sister saying 'because I said so'.

In short, it'd probably take a couple of months of her dating Xander before Buffy got a clue and realized that she didn't have a say in who she dated.

HE'S HERE! she thought as she heard the doorbell, realizing that the time was up and she'd have to be satisfied with what she had on.

Taking one last look at herself in the mirror, she took a deep breath to settle her nerves before putting on a casual 'I am ready to hang out with you' look on her face. Doing her best to keep the spring out of her step, she left her room and made her way to the top of the staircase just in time to see her mother open the door to reveal Xander. She really tried but she just couldn't stop her mouth from taking on the shape of a fifty watt smile, so she stopped trying.

"Private Xander reporting for Dawn Watch, Ma'am!" Xander said mockingly with a salute.

"Then come in, private, and I'll give you your briefing," Mom laughed, sounding amused by the show.

With that her future husband, whether he knew it or not, entered the house and closed the door behind him.

"Your orders are to spend time with my youngest and make sure she has a fabulous evening but to make sure that she gets to bed at a semi-decent hour. That means no later than midnight and even that'd be stretching it a bit," Mom said with similar humor in her voice. "If there's any trouble then my cell phone and pager number are next to the phone. I don't expect you'll need to use it but it's there just the same."

"Orders received and committed to memory," Xander said, breaking out of his mock soldier routine. "Don't worry. I'll make sure she gets a good night sleep, one way or another."

OH! There are so many ways to interpret that! she thought even as her mind took a peek… a long peek… into the gutter.

She just had to say something. "I'll hold you to that," she said, causing both of the people at the bottom of the stairs to look up at her.

"Please don't say things that'll give me the wrong idea, dear," Mom requested with a slightly embarrassed look on her face.

"Who says it's the wrong idea?" she asked rhetorically.

While she had been completely honest with the implications, she decided she'd give her mother a break and let her think she was just saying things that'd get a good laugh out of all of them. Naturally her mother took the route that her mind was most comfortable with and that was that it was a big joke rather than something honest. Xander went the same route, of course, but she'd work on that for as long as it took until he saw the light and accepted that, when it came time for him to walk down the aisle, it'd be her waiting for him at the end of it.

"Well, you two have a good evening," Mom said as she picked up her purse. "Just… make sure the house is left standing when I get back."

She waited until she heard the car pull out of the driveway before bounding down the stairs and launched herself at Xander, laughing as he caught her and spun her around. Lucky for her he had sense enough to stop before she got all dizzy and emptied her lunch on his sneakers, but it was all good fun nonetheless. With Operation: Date now officially begun she pulled Xan into the living room and they got started watching the movies while snacking from the bowls on the table in front of the couch. She decided she'd start her covert seduction by sitting platonically next to him on the couch but, as the movie one became movie number two, she inched closer. Before long she was cuddled up right next to him, enjoying the feeling along with the body heat while her mind imagined it being husband and wife.

It was then that she looked down and saw the ring on his finger and recalled the talk she'd overheard her sister have with Willow and Giles about it. It'd jumped onto his finger while he was working on the job and now it wouldn't come off no matter what anybody tried, short of cutting off the finger, taking the ring off and then surgically reattaching it. From what she'd overheard, Giles was looking into the matter through his various contacts but that it'd be a while before anything substantial came back to him. To her, though, it didn't look like much, just a band of green metal with an odd lantern symbol stamped into it, but she guessed you couldn't judge a book by its cover.

I wonder what it's made of…she thought before she reached out and touched the center of the lantern symbol.

For a moment she was surprised when the symbol seemed to glow a tiny bit in response to her touch but, before she could tell Xander about it, an unidentifiable yet overwhelming sensation shot through her body like no one's business. At the same time she felt as though something was being drained out of her to someplace else and this made her afraid in a way she couldn't recall ever being before. As her field of vision panned to the ceiling a green light fell across it like a wave until everything became a shade of green varying from almost white green to almost dark enough to be black green.

The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Xander, completely covered in some weird kind of energy field, passing through the ceiling like he was some kind of ghost.

Just Outside Earth's Atmosphere, Five Minutes Later, Xander's POV

"AAAAHHHHH!" he screamed as he continued to be pulled into space, OUTER FREAKING SPACE, by the ring on his right hand's middle finger.

If he weren't so completely freaking out, he'd notice the fact that since he was in outer space he shouldn't be able to breathe, much less hear himself screaming at the top of his lungs like Buffy that time she saw the mouse (though she still swore that it was a rat) in the house. Indeed, he should be slowly freezing solid as his lungs popped and the Grim Reaper came calling, but instead he was perfectly fine except for the fact that, you know, he was in space. Had he been more coherent he'd probably also figure out that, given how difficult it'd be not to notice a human being encased in bright green energy, he'd probably gotten the attention of every major organization with satellites capable of spotting him. That'd probably lead to some searching and some questioning when he got back but at the moment it was the furthest issue from his mind.

It wasn't until he passed Pluto that he'd screamed himself so hoarse that he quieted down and, as luck would have it, that was conducive to nurturing coherent thought. Naturally, though, this was when the universe decided to throw him a curveball in the form of a vortex growing out of nowhere, like it'd been a seed one moment then blossomed into a giant flower right before his eyes. In seconds he was flying into it and found himself in some kind of tunnel that zigged and zagged at random moments but never once did he accidentally slam into the walls of the tunnel. He suspected that that had more to do with the ring controlling every aspect of his unscheduled flight rather than dumb luck or something like it. He kind of wondered why the entryway to the tunnel hadn't been secured somehow by one of the Earth's governments, or at least have some kind of monitoring satellite, but then he realized that if it could grow than it could shrink as well. That meant that maybe it'd been too small to detect, or even if someone did know about it that person didn't consider it significant enough to be worth keeping tabs on it.

He figured that'd change now that he'd showed any satellite aimed in the right direction that the vortex could be enlarged and used for travel.

He didn't know how long he kept flying through the tunnel but then without warning an opening back to what could be considered 'normal space' opened up and the ring took him through it. He found himself in a star system he didn't recognize and the ring seemed to be taking him towards a seriously green planet with bits of white, presumably clouds, dotting random spots. It wasn't until he got closer, though, he noticed that there seemed to be objects in orbit around the planet but he was too far away at the moment to make out what the objects were. Another in a long line of surprises happened when some kind of holographic screen popped up in front of his face before a portion of it zoomed in on the objects, making it clear as day that it was wreckage of some kind. Most of the bits and pieces made it impossible to tell what the original whole construct was but some he could safely say were sections of spacecraft. Granted, this was by consulting his extensive knowledge of sci-fi movies, games and comic books rather than anything a scientist would trust but he still felt confident of his theory. The zoomed in area of the screen seemed to follow where his eyes looked so rather than question this, he used it to survey the orbital rings of wreckage.

Everything looked quite ancient and he imagined that the only thing that kept it all in as good a condition as it was would be the vacuum of space. If all these ships had been on a planet, the environment would wear it down to almost nothing. Once he got close enough the screen went away, probably because he didn't need it anymore, and had to look with only his eyes as the ring dragged him through the wreckage. From what little he could see there had definitely been a battle but it seemed to either come up from the planet or down to the surface. A little strange since you'd think that any group with space-borne enemies would have space flight capabilities of their own but it could mean that this planet's defense fleet had been lured away. In any case, the ring was soon taking him away from the orbital wreckage and down to the planet's surface, with the atmospheric friction causing flames to lick the outside of the energy field he had around him.

Once he got past that and the basic cloud cover, though, he beheld a sight that made him think that the battle had been a lot more lopsided than he'd thought. Everywhere he looked there were craters that would look right at home in a film involving orbital bombardment and the few places that didn't have craters had ruins that might have once been cities or factories. As the flight path went horizontal and parallel, he wondered what type of people had lived there and what they'd done to deserve being blasted straight to hell. Were they seriously bad war criminals or space mafia bosses? Had they just ticked off the wrong warlord? Whatever the case, he decided to send up a silent prayer to whoever had lived there, hoping at the very least that their deaths had been quick and painless.

Directing his gaze to the direction the ring was taking him, he tried to spot anything that looked like a possible destination point, either by the size of the city, the remaining structures still moderately standing, or something impressive looking.

He never expected to see what came up over the horizon; a giant, like bigger than any building he'd ever laid eyes on, lantern that looked to be made of the same material as the ring but without the energy or the glow. He didn't think it'd been placed there recently and, judging by the way some debris was leaning up against the lantern, it'd definitely be unusual for someone to put the thing down and then arrange the debris to make it look like it'd always been there. After a few more minutes of flight he was certain that the Statue of Liberty-sized lantern was the destination of where the ring was going but he didn't really have an idea why. The thing looked dead and, even assuming it once had a fire inside of it, what the hell was he supposed to do about it?

As he felt himself decelerate, the ring finally brought him to a stop facing the central opening that'd lead into the structure's interior. For a moment nothing happened, then, without any thought on his part, the ring raised his hand and pointed itself at the interior of the giant lantern, emitting what looked like some kind of scanning beam. It panned over every surface in range before focusing on one point inside the lantern itself.

"SCAN OF CENTRAL POWER BATTERY COMPLETE. BATTERY HAS BEEN OFFLINE FOR NINE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO YEARS," chirped an electronic, synthesized voice from the ring on his finger. "SCANS INCONSISTENT WITH RECORDED HISTORY. CURRENT DATA INSUFFICIENT FOR CONCLUSIVE SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS. COMMENCING REIGNITION PROTOCOLS."

With not even half a second delay green energy erupted from the ring and shot into the giant lantern with enough intensity that he had to close his eyes and look away or risk going blind. While he knew there was nothing he could do to stop it, he seriously hoped that whatever kind of mind the ring had that it would at least leave enough energy behind so he didn't die. The odds of this planet having an atmosphere that was compatible with humans was slim and, even if by some chance he could breathe, food would be a problem along with, oh, his burning desire to GO HOME. He got his answer a moment later when, with a discharge of light, energy and heat that came from the giant lantern actually pushed him back two dozen feet before the ring righted him and began approaching the now-lit lantern. It was an awesome thing to behold because it didn't look like the flickering flame you'd see in a fireplace, but rather like there was a decent sized light bulb in the center but it was surrounded by green goop from a lava lamp. By decent sized he meant that it was big enough that only the Hulk or the Thing would be able to pick it up off the ground, of course.

It was only a few minutes before something else came from the center of the lit lantern but it was hard to make out with the glaring light behind it. Only when the 'something' got far enough from the center of the lantern that the light was no longer an issue but he wasn't sure if it was necessarily a good thing or not.

It was a woman, mid-to-late twenties in age, wearing a dress that had billowing sleeves and a symbol that was almost identical to what was on the ring burning like hot coals on the front. She wasn't alive in the normal sense of the word because she was made up of the same energy that now thrummed inside the giant lantern but had enough detail that it would only take some diverse color to make her look real. With long, wavy hair falling down the sides and back of her head, she looked rather beautiful from his point of view but there was one truth that had him keeping his mouth shut.

Non-human women were almost universally bad news for him.

"Primary systems online. The Central Power Battery has been restored," the woman said, sounding like a soldier vocalizing her appraisal of the situation. "Running diagnostics on all systems and connected networks. Planetary network inaccessible. City network inaccessible. Orbital network inaccessible. Central Power Battery systems all green. Planetary scans consistent with last recorded readings before shut down."

Good workmanship if it's still running perfectly even after all this time, he thought as he waited to be acknowledged or sent home. So is that why the ring brought me here? To give this thing a jump start?

It was as he thought this that the glowing eyes of the woman finally registered and focused on him with almost appraising eyes. However it was when those eyes focused on the ring he had around his right middle finger that he knew he'd finally come up as a topic of discussion.

"Welcome to Oa, Lantern Prime. I am Lianna, artificial intelligence in charge of the Central Power Battery and Oan systems and the legacy of the Guardians of the Universe," Lianna said before executing a formal bow of respect. "I realize that you have questions but when your ring interfaced with the Central Power Battery, I detected a great deal of data stored within it. It is under Maltus level encryption and that is only done with information of vital importance. I need to access it."

Great! Not only am I yanked across the galaxy to jump start a big ass lantern but I'm also carrying top secret files. "How long will it take?"

"Not long. I am one of the few beings with security clearance high enough to decrypt and download the files," she replied before nodding towards the ring. "May I?"

It took him less than a minute to come to a decision and nod with permission.

Whatever was in the ring or connected to it, Lianna obviously wanted it and right now he couldn't think of a single way for him to deny her if she chose to get aggressive about it. Plus, he figured that if he proved co-operative then it might improve his chances of getting back home in one piece. A happy energy lady was a generous energy lady.

In the blink of an eye a beam of energy connected the A.I. to the ring and he watched as steady pulses were pulled from the ring, travelled along the connection until they disappeared into Lianna's body. This went on for a little over a minute before the connection shut down and the glow left the lady program's eyes, only to be replaced with a look that mirrored… sadness.

"It seems that the situation is more complex than I'd originally thought," Lianna said, sadness seeping into her voice. "I had thought that you were the Lantern Prime of this reality come at last to fulfill the prophecy of my maker at long last. That is not the case."

"What prophecy?" he asked while mentally cursing in every language he knew and even inventing a few on the fly.

Nothing good ever came from prophecies.

"To understand the prophecy you must first understand the origin of the Guardians and how they met their end almost ten thousand years ago," Lianna replied before a hologram sprung from the big battery showing a planet different from the one he was on now. "It all began on the planet Maltus, back when the universe was still young, inhabited by tall grayish blue humanoids with black hair. To their knowledge they were the first species anywhere to achieve sentience and their level of advancement was quite high. One day a group of them came upon a rare organism, a symbiote, which bonded with them, granting them abilities that many would consider god-like. Immortality, increased intelligence, cosmic awareness and dimensional manipulation just being a few of the things they gained.

"They became scientists and thinkers, experimenting with the new opportunities that'd been opened up to them. In some cases it led to the creation of entirely new species, among other things. However one of their number, Krona, broke a taboo that threatened all that existed. He was apprehended but not before he changed reality in ways that could not be undone. Think of it as condemning an entire region of space to a condition they never should have had and that this condition would harm them until the end of time," Lianna said as images of laboratories and a specific man's face appeared before him. "Seeing for the first time how fragile the universe was they relocated to this planet, the planet Oa, and became the Guardians of the Universe. Their goal was a simple one: to combat evil in an effort to create an orderly universe."

"They decided to police space," he said, comprehending what the A.I. was saying.

"That was indeed their intent however such a venture required the consent of the major powers of the galaxy so that their authority would be respected. If they attempted to act without the consent of these other powers they risked alienating, if not outright provoking war with these powers. For the most part their proposition of creating an intergalactic police force was met with approval however there were some who were suspicious of the Guardians intentions. Others were too prideful, believing that they didn't need help from outsiders to keep their own people safe," Lianna said as a look of recall crossed her face. "In the end it was decided a demonstration was needed in order to prove that they could do what they claimed. With this objective in mind they went to work to create five examples of the law enforcement officers that would patrol the space ways but first they needed to create a weapon for their officers to use to bring order to the galaxy.

"First they sought out a source of power and found what was called 'The Glow' but was later called the emotional electromagnetic spectrum. They determined that certain emotions generated energy and would be able to provide their officers with the power to oppose entire fleets of warships if necessary. Red rage, orange avarice, yellow fear, green will, blue hope, indigo compassion, violet love, black death and white life," Lianna said as circles with different symbols in them appeared one after another. "The Guardians eventually chose the green energy of will as the source of power for their officers of law and order since it had the least amount of influence on the wielder and can only be controlled by one who has an indomitable will capable of overcoming great fear. They harnessed this energy and placed it into the Central Power Battery, where it would continually replenish itself for all of eternity.

"Next came creating a weapon to channel this energy effectively and they chose to shape it into the form of a ring. This ring would allow them to fire blasts of energy, create energy based constructs, fly and a great many other things. Basically what the ring could do was limited only by the wearer's imagination, the maximum energy storage capacity of the ring, the need to recharge it every twenty-four of your hours, and the yellow impurity, which rendered the green energy useless against the color yellow," Lianna said, showing rings like his as well as examples of how they could be used. "It was determined that only five should be created at first and that they should be given to those that fit the criteria of what an officer of their new Corps of law enforcers should be like. It didn't take long to find these people and train them in the basic applications of their ring. Once that was done they merely waited for an appropriate situation to present itself so they could showcase how effective their officers could be in resolving a situation efficiently. They didn't have to wait long.

"Within two weeks of the conclusion of training of the five newly trained officers, one of the more aggressive space-faring species launched an unprovoked attack on a colony belonging to another race. The victims had few weapons at their disposal and only civilian defense system in place to protect themselves. They were not expected to last long against the aggressors," Lianna said as another world was projected for him to see. "The five newly trained officers were ordered in to disable the attacking spacecraft and subdue any ground forces attacking the colonists. Naturally lethal force was only to be used as a last resort since it would go against the principles of the Guardians to so readily take a life. It was a fierce battle, one of the officers lost his life, but the attacking force was defeated and the colony saved.

"It had been the hope of the Guardians that this demonstration of power and compassion would be enough to convince the major powers of how much good their law enforcers could be. Instead it had the opposite effect and caused all but one of them to declare the Guardians and their officers threats to their sovereignty," Lianna said with sadness as the projected images changed to show Oa. "A multi-empire task force was dispatched to Oa with orders to kill the Guardians, their officers and to seize the Central Power Battery. Most likely while they were impressed with how useful it could be, they thought it would be better off in their hands to use as they pleased. We defended this world and the Central Power Battery so bravely but we were overwhelmed and so our allies dropped one by one.

"The assault lasted for a full week before the last of our defenses fell but it was not a wasted effort. During those final days one of the wisest Guardians, Ganthet, had a vision of the future that made it easier for them to accept their fall. A vision of you," Lianna said before the image of a man dressed in clothes similar to her own appeared. "He left you this message."

"I greet you, Alexander Harris. I know from my vision that you rather loath the very idea of predestination as you are a firm believer of free will," Ganthet said with earnest drive. "However, I plead of you, to hear this, the final will, not only of me, but of the Oan Race, the Guardians of the Universe. I know that you see yourself in a lower measure, and that your life hasn't been an ideal one, but you have seen evil in most of its forms, not only the evil beyond the barriers of this dimension, but the evil of your own race, and the evil in your heart and those of your comrades, and held the will to overcome your fears, and through it, that same evil.

"Even as I and my brethren face our final hour, I have hope that our efforts will not have been for nothing. In my vision, a vision of a future so far ahead of our time that we are less than dust, I see a spark appear in the darkness for the first time. Then another spark, and another, until it is as if there are thousands of green flames pushing back the darkness," Ganthet said with a look of true belief on his face. "It is as the last green flame pops into existence a face is revealed. Your face."

A head is projected next to Ganthet's form and, in the mother of all shocks, it was the face of someone who looked like he probably would ten or so years down the road.

"The vision went on and I heard a voice speaking an oath that my brothers and sisters had been considering making the official one of our law officers. A promise, a mission statement, something that would make it clear to all what the Corps stood for," Ganthet said before a serious look came over his face. "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"

With that the lantern symbol on Ganthet's chest glowed with greater and greater intensity until he vanished all together, telling him that that was the end of the message.

"When the defenses fell, all but Ganthet threw themselves at the invading forces to buy him time to shut down the Central Power Battery as well as entrust his message to me. The last conscious memory I have is of Ganthet smiling sadly at me before pressing the final button to initiate the shutdown sequence," Lianna said with such emotion it made him wonder just how sophisticated the A.I. really was. "I have waited a long time for you."

"Um, sorry to… keep you waiting," he said, feeling more than a little uncertain about how to handle all this. "What exactly is it you want me to do? I mean, I get you and the Guardians were trying to do but… prophecy or no prophecy, I have never done anything like this in my entire life. I'd have no idea what I was doing beyond the absolute basics. I could just as easily screw up and ruin everything."

"As could any other candidate that was chosen for the task of continuing my creator's work. No one has seen, much less experienced, this power in almost ten thousand years," Lianna said honestly as she looked him in the eye. "And if not you, then who? I am bound to this planet and cannot leave. The most I could do would be to cast your ring to the stars in the hopes of finding a replacement once you have been safely returned to your home world. However the only criteria that the rings are programmed to seek out is an ability to overcome great fear and to possess no mental instabilities or propensity for unbridled rage. There is nothing to determine whether a potential recruit possesses leadership qualities or the knowledge needed to create an intergalactic police force. From that point of view, you are as good a potential founder as anyone else I might find."

Well, isn't that a boost to the old ego! he thought, managing to keep from rolling his eyes. I'm just as good as any other schmuck in the galaxy!

"Consider this, Alexander Harris: you have been presented with the opportunity to do something with your life that few sentient beings ever do. You have a chance to create something that will change the universe for the better," Lianna said in as compelling a voice as possible. "With the Corps you could create, you will be able to fight against the darkness you have dedicated yourself to opposing as a wave of light rather than a lone candle flickering in the wind. Indeed, if you should take anything from the origins of the Guardians, it is that great things can be born from the most humble of beginnings. All you need to do is believe in yourself."

Even with all those impressive words he couldn't help but doubt whether or not he could actually do what Lianna was asking of him. Even with all the progress he'd made since those first days fighting alongside Buffy, his father's words still echoed in his head, telling him how worthless he was and, while he fought to prove otherwise, HIS voice persisted. However it was as he thought about this that he remembered the declaration he'd made at the end of the whole Dracula mess: he was through being the universe's butt-monkey. He was through being the weak link of the Scoobies, the one that needed saving, and he'd committed himself to making himself into something, someone, better. It'd worked out a bit as he managed to hold down a decent job with a local construction company but now… now he was being asked to build something much bigger, with much farther reaching effects than he'd ever imagined possible. Maybe this was his chance to do something that'd finally get him out from under his father's thumb and prove once and for all that he was not the waste of space his father said he was.

All he needed to do was take a deep breath and step up to the plate.

"Where do we begin?" he asked, unsure if he'd just made the biggest mistake of his life or the best choice he ever had.

The smile on Lianna's face made it clear which one it was and made him return the smile.

"With this," she replied before a hum began to build up in the Central Power Battery along with an inner glow.

Then, without any warning, a wave of energy exploded up into the sky until it was almost out of sight before expanding out to the sides, covering the sky in a blanket of emerald energy as far as his eyes could see.

Well, this looks ominous.