Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Oh My Goddess!

Brimstone Rising

In Hell all you can do is scream. All around him he heard the damned scream and his cries mixed freely with theirs.

Although they constantly burnt his skin, it wasn't the flames that tormented him. It was the faces. The faces never stopped appearing before his eyes. His family, Drusilla, Jenny Calendar and so many more. The faces of those he'd killed and the lives he'd ruined endlessly danced before him, glaring and accusing. He shouted apologies and begged forgiveness but it never came. The only thing that ever came was more pain.

"Well, well, lookit here," cooed a female voice.

He looked up and though the flames he saw a woman approaching him. She wore pants and a jacket of black leather and a necklace of animal teeth. Her skin was tanned and a mane of dirty blonde hair flowed past her shoulders. Between her eyebrows were two angry red colored lines that looked like war paint. The marks went to the top of her forehead at a slight angle. Just under her eyes were two more red marks. These were two triangles sitting atop each other that pulled back toward her ears in such a way as to give them a vaguely tiger-like appearance.

"It looks like I've found a fallen angel," grinned the woman. "Don't worry, kid. We've got loads of fallen angels around here. You'll fit right in."

"Who?" he rasped.

"Aw, you mean you don't remember me?" asked the woman in a fake hurt voice. She then struck a cheesecake posse and grinned at the man. "I can't believe you'd forget someone as lovely as yours truly. Then again, life in the Pit isn't exactly conductive to good memory."

Another face flashed before his eyes. She had been a nurse named Margot. He'd killed her and an entire tent full of wounded Confederate soldiers in Mississippi in 1863, just after the surrender of Vicksburg. He remembered the way she had screamed as he fed on the injured men before turning on her. He remembered the way he'd laughed just before sinking his fangs into her neck.

"Another flashback?" quizzed the woman. "Must have been a bad one from the look on your face. Get used to that, slick. From the looks of things, you're going to be seeing them from now until Ragnarok."

"Who are you!?" he screamed.

"You still don't remember?" sighed the woman. "Well, I'm sure it will come to you sooner or later. Try and think about it when the faces off all those innocents you slaughtered isn't taking up your time."

The woman then turned and began to walk away. "I'll check with you again sometime and see if it has come back to you. But no hurry. If there's one thing the Damned have it's time. They don't call this 'eternal' damnation for nothing."

As she continued walking he could hear the woman's staccato laughter blister his ears. "Nya-ha-ha-ha!"

Once the laughter faded he began to scream again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He awoke with a jolt. It took him a moment to realize that he wasn't in Hell anymore but in his own bed.

"Just a dream. Just a dream…" Angel repeated to himself. After taking a moment to realign himself, the vampire climbed out of bed and ran a hand across his brow. Angel took a moment to be thankful that vampires didn't suffer from cold sweats.

A glance at a nearby clock told him it would be dusk soon. He hoped that a few hours on the streets of Sunnydale patrolling for other members of the undead would make him feel better. Secretly, he doubted it.

Still trying to shake off the dream Angel headed for the library of the abandoned mansion he called home. Perhaps some time lost in the words of great writers would make him feel better.

Twenty minutes later Angel had found a book of Irish poetry and doing his best to chase the dream from his mind.

The Second Coming

By

William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Angel frowned, decided not to even bother with the rest of the poem and tossed the book aside. "Thanks a lot, Yeats," he muttered. "That was just what I needed to hear right now."

Surrendering to fate, Angel turned his mind back to the dream and the woman with the marks on her face. He knew he knew her from somewhere. His time in Hell (or wherever that horrible place had been) had damaged him body and soul. Since his return to earth his body had healed, but his mind still bore many scars. Not the least of them being the lose of some fragments of his memory.

Long past the setting of the sun Angel sat, trying to recall where he knew the blonde woman from.

Then it came.

"Mara…" he whispered.

And then it was gone again. Whatever he had managed to dig up from his mind had slipped away as quickly as it had come.

"Mara. Her name is Mara…"Angel whispered to himself. Somehow, in his heart, he knew that name meant trouble.

~*~*~*~*~*~

On the other side of the world, in a quite suburb of Tokyo, there sat a small Shinto shrine. One thing made this shrine different from all the others that dotted Japan. That was the fact that this shrine was home to one very ordinary college student and three very divine beings. The student was Keiichi Morisato, lover of all things motorized and student at the nearby Nekomi Institute of Technology. The divine beings were Urd, Skuld and Belldandy, the Norse demi-goddesses of destiny.

In the living room of the house attached to the shrine a stunning woman with long platinum hair, bronze skin and three blue, triangular marks, one just above her nose and the others under her eyes, on her face was watching TV. She was watching it while floating three feet off the ground.

-click-

"--continuing mission, to seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before!"

-click-

"—yet another riot erupted at Tomobiki High today when its most infamous student, Ataru Moroboshi, is alleged to have--"

-click-

"—awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can--"

-click-

"That which has never been achieved, the path to becoming one with God; the Human Instrumentality Project."

-click-

"--a shadowy flight into the world of a man who does not exist."

"By the Almighty, there's nothing on!" howled Urd. Frustrated, the goddess floated to the floor and began to sulk. "We get more channels all the time and there's still never anything good on."

It was then that Keiichi stuck his head into the room. "Hey, Urd, what's all the shouting about?"

"I'm bored, that's what," muttered the goddess. "There's nothing to do around here! I'm so board I'm climbing the walls!" To illustrate her point Urd turned herself upside down and floated to the ceiling.

"Sounds like a case of cabin fever to me," said Keiichi.

"Cabin what?"

"Cabin fever. It means you've been inside or in one place to long."

"And what's the cure for cabin fever, oh wise and all-knowing Dr. Morisato?"

Keiichi grinned slightly at Urd's joke. "If you want me to tell you you'll have to come down here. Looking up at you like that is giving me a crick in my neck."

Bemused, Urd did so. "Okay, Doc, what's the prescription?"

"It's pretty simple. You just need to get out of the house for a while," prescribed the mortal man. "Go on a vacation or something."

At those words Urd's eyes lit up. "Hot damn, you're right! A vacation is just what I need!"

Keiichi took a step back nervously. Whenever Urd got this excited about something it usually meant trouble. On the other hand, a few days without Urd's interference might just give him some time to get closer to Belldandy.

"So, uh, just where is it that goddesses go on vacation?"

Urd stopped dead in the middle of the pirouette she'd been doing. "Hhhmmm, good question. We didn't get much time off back when we were maintaining the Yggdrasil System.

"Let's see, I want to go someplace where I can work on my tan. Maybe a little sightseeing and some clubbing. Oh, and booze. Wherever I go the booze has to be good. And, of course, TV. I just can't enjoy myself without TV!"

Keiichi scratched his chin and tried to think. There had to be someplace on earth that could fill all of Urd's requirements. After a few moments he snapped his fingers. "I'm no travel agent, but what about Los Angeles?" he suggested. "Plenty of sun and beaches, lots of nightlife, plus, it's the entertainment capital of the world."

"L.A., huh?" mused Urd. "Yeah, now that I think about it that does sound pretty good. It's been a while since I was in the States."

With a flash of light Urd transformed the green silken Chinese dress she had been wearing into a purple tanktop and black miniskirt. From nowhere she produced a pair of sunglasses that she slipped onto her face.

"When Belldandy and Skuld get back from the store tell 'em where I've gone and that I'll be back in a few days."

"Uh, Urd, maybe you should wait until they come back so you can talk this over with them. If something where to happ--"

Urd sighed and placed a finger on Keiichi's lips, stopping his protest. "Anyone ever tell you that you worry to much, Keiichi?" she asked. "Jeez, after I get back we're going to have to come up with a vacation for you. You certainly could use one."

Keiichi boggled.

"Anyway, nothing's going to happen," assured Urd. "Trust me." With that, she blew Keiichi a kiss and then jumped into the TV screen. In a blink she was gone.

After a moment Keiichi strolled over to the TV and turned it off. "After all this time it still amazes me when she does that," he muttered. "'Nothing's going to happen. Trust me.' Famous last words, Urd. Especially for around here."

With a resigned sigh Keiichi turned and headed for the garage. He hoped that Urd was right and that a few hours tinkering with the engine of his motorcycle would chase his worries away.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Josh Garcia stretched and let out a long yawn. He took a swig from his can of Pepsi and returned his attention to the book he'd been reading, The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson.

"Hey, Lucy, I'm home!" called a new voice.

Josh looked up to see his friend and fellow geology student, Winston Coleman, stroll into the lab, a pair of McDonalds bags in his hands.

"My apple pie had better damn well still be hot," muttered Josh as he put his book away.

"Gripe, gripe, gripe. That's all you ever do," teased Winston as he unwrapped a burger. "You really should get more sleep. All these late nights are making you irritable."

"Maybe so," grumbled Josh while shoving some fries into his mouth. "But the credit hours and experience I'm getting in here are worth it."

"Experience?! You call this experience? All we do is sit around here and watch these machines do nothing. I swear, the Seismology lab has got to be the dullest place on the whole UCLA campus!"

"I like the quite," said Josh. "It gives me time to work on my thesis. Which, if I may be so bold, is what you should be doing instead of sitting around on your butt playing Pokémon on your Gameboy."

"Thanks for the advice, mom," snorted Winston.

Josh's retort was cut short by a flurry of activity from the machines in the lab. "Hey, Winston, what were you saying about this being the most boring place on campus?"

"Shut up."

Soon the two students were soon busy pouring over the computer's data. "Well, it looks like we just picked a minor shaker," concluded Josh. "From the looks of things it was just barely a 2.4. Have you located the epicenter yet?"

"I'm just getting that information now," answered Winston. "According to our readings, the center of the quake was right under some town called Sunnydale."

Josh let out a whistle. "Sunnydale? Prof. Jurgens mentioned that place in class last month."

"Yeah, I remember that," said Winston. "About sixty years ago a big one hit out there and swallowed half the town, right?"

"Right. But with a shaker this size I don't think we have to worry about that happening again. I'd say everyone out there slept though this one."

"Envy them," sighed Winston. "It may have been a small quake, but Prof. Jurgens in still going to want a full report on it. Better go make some coffee. I think we're going to be at this for a while."

Josh nodded and went off to find the coffeepot.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"We're home!" called a cheery voice. Keiichi glanced up from the homework he'd been doing as Belldandy and Skuld, their arms loaded with packages, entered the living room.

"Hold on and I'll help you with those," called the young man as he scurried over to the two goddesses.

"Where's Urd?" demanded Skuld. "A lot of this junk is for her. The least she could do is help us carry it."

"Uh, Urd's sorta gone right now," informed Keiichi as he took a bag from each of the two.

"Gone? Gone where?" asked Belldandy as she ran a hand though her chestnut hair.

Keiichi was beginning to feel a bit worried. He knew how deeply Belldandy cared for her sisters and hoped she wouldn't be upset at him for his role in Urd's leaving.

"You see, Urd was complaining about being bored," began Keiichi. "I suggested that get a change of scenery or take a vacation or something. I was pretty much just joking."

"Go on," prodded Belldandy.

"Well, Urd loved the idea of a vacation. She started going on about how she wanted some place with sunshine and nightlife and TV. Off the top of my head I suggested Los Angeles. The next thing I know she'd changed into an outfit of the cover of Vogue and had jumped though the television."

"Good," beamed Skuld. "No Urd for a while sounds great to me."

"Skuld! That's a terrible thing to say about your sister," admonished Belldandy. "I wish Urd had waited for us to come back. A family vacation to Los Angeles sounds wonderful."

"Actually, the impression I got was that Urd wanted to take this trip alone," supplied Keiichi.

"Aw, who cares what Urd wants?" said Skuld. "As long as she's in California she won't be around here to pick on me or boss me around."

Belldandy gave her sister another reproachful look. Skuld's face reddened and her eyes fell to the floor. "Sorry, sis," she muttered.

The older goddess nodded and headed into the kitchen. "If Urd wants some time to herself then we shall respect her wishes. Once she gets back maybe we can look into going somewhere together."

"A vacation?!" squealed Skuld in delight. "That'd be fun! Even if we had to take grumpy old Urd with us."

"It wouldn't be a family vacation if we didn't take Urd *and* Keiichi with us," called Belldandy over the sounds of her beginning to prepare dinner.

Skuld ran a hand though her raven hair and scuffed her foot on the floor in embarrassment. "Oh, of course. It wouldn't be a family trip without him. No, sir!"

"Thanks a lot, Skuld," grumbled Keiichi.

Inwardly the Japanese man sighed. When she'd first shown up Skuld had been somewhat hostile toward him, blaming him for "stealing" her beloved older sister away from the young goddess. In the months since Skuld's attitude toward him had mellowed greatly. Though he didn't openly admit it, Keiichi had begun to feel like an older brother to Skuld. This was due in no small part to the fact that the girl reminded him of Megumi, his own younger sister.

"I hope Urd will be okay," said Keiichi as he returned to his algebra homework. "America is a crazy place, and from what I hear, L.A. is the craziest place in the whole country."

"Don't worry about her," dismissed Skuld as she began to tinker with one of her ever-present mechanical devices. "Urd may be a big 'ol pain in the butt, but she can take care of herself."

On that Keiichi was forced to agree. He nodded and then turned back to his work.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Los Angeles is a city of many landmarks. But none is more famous than the Hollywood sign that lays nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains just outside the city proper. Every year thousands of tourists flock to see this icon of the entertainment industry. But tonight the sign played host to perhaps its most unusual visitor ever.

"Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars…" sang as soft voice. Perched atop the D in the Hollywood sign Urd gazed down at the city with a smile.

"I always did like that song."

As the lights in the metropolis below continued to twinkle the goddess began to kick her legs back and forth like a child on a swing. "Keiichi was right. Getting out of the house was just what I needed. For the first time in a long time I don't have Belldandy or the brat looking over my shoulder. That means it's party time! Look out, L.A.! Urd is in town and she's gonna make you shake like no earthquake ever did!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sunnydale, California

The next day

"I'll go with bizarre lifeform from the planet Metaluna," said Xander.

"I'll say castoff from a failed experiment at cloning the Toxic Avenger," countered Buffy.

"I'm guessing some kind of slime mold," continued Oz.

"I don't think slime molds come with little bits of…fruit, I think that's fruit, floating in them," commented Willow. "Or maybe that's pork."

It was once again time for lunch at Sunnydale High and the Slayerrettes were busy trying to discern what the latest addition the cafeteria menu, "Sunnydale Surprise," might be. So far any classification for what the sticky green substance on their trays was had proved elusive.

"I'm telling you guys, I really think the lunch lady is trying to kill us," said Xander as he began to prod the goo with a fork. Much to his surprise the fork suddenly became stuck.

"The sad thing is that in this town that's actually a possibility," mused Oz.

"Can we please talk about something besides homicidal faculty members?" sighed Buffy. "Stuff like that reminds me of the time Coach Marin tried to feed me to the swim team."

"New topics are good," agreed Willow. "Say, did you hear about the earthquake last night? It's supposed to have hit right under town."

"There was a quake last night?" asked Xander as he continued to struggle with the Sunnydale Surprise. "So how come I'm stuck in this academic prison instead of digging myself out from under the rubble of my house? Which, upon reflection, sounds like a lot more fun than the geometry class I have next period."

"Oh, it was just a little quake," informed Willow. "A 2.4, I think. That's like baby size when it comes to earthquakes."

"I hope it's just a normal quake and not some nasty gross monster belching," said Buffy.

"This is California, birthplace of all your favorite natural disasters," shrugged Oz. "You can't start thinking that every bad thing that happens in this town is because of the Hellmouth."

"He's right," nodded Xander who was still trying to liberate his fork from his lunch. "This could just as easily have been the underground mole people testing their secret earthquake machine before they launch their attack on the surface world."

The others stared at Xander.

"What? After vampires, zombies, androids, fishmen, killer eggs and mummies are underground mole people so hard to believe?"

"Xander, you really need to spend less time down at the comic book store," teased Buffy.

"I say thee nay!" retorted Xander. "Mock not my comics or I shall smite thee with mine hammer, mighty Mjolnir!"

This time the whole cafeteria turned to give Xander a quizzical look.. The young man's face turned red and he suddenly became intensely focused on his plate.

On the far side of the room Cordelia Chase rolled her eyes. "Why did I ever allow that geek within sight of me? I must have been possessed!"

Back at the table of the Scooby Gang Buffy and Willow tried not to laugh but failed. Oz, as always, remained unflappable.

"Tis some foul plot by mine evil brother Loki to bedevil me," grumbled Xander.

"I guess you guys are right," said Buffy. "There's no point in worrying about the quake now. If it was just Mom Nature working out a kink then no big. But if it was some monster or mole people or whatever, they'll show up sooner or later. And if they do I'll do my slayage thing and afterward we can all go out for cheese fries."

"The classic formula," grinned Willow. "Sounds good."

It was then that the bell rang and rang and the presence of academia returned.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Los Angeles, California

One hour later

"Blood, sweat, tears, fear, loathing, urine and smog. Smells like humanity."

The author of those words stretched and then went back to leaning against a wall in one of L.A.'s more dingy bus stations. Her name was Mara and she was a demon first class, unlimited. As a general rule, demons are rarely in a good mode. Unless they're up to something evil that is. And while Mara was up to no good (she wasn't a first class, unlimited for nothing) it was doing little to improve her mood.

"Damn goddesses," Mara grumbled. "Damn Urd most of all! Thanks to her my plans for the Lord of Terror are dust. And to make things worst I'm in deep with my bosses back in Niflheim. I'm lucky they didn't cast me into Helheim after that fiasco. Not even the Gods can return from there.

"Even so, I can't believe I've been busted down to this. Doing Faustian deals and tempting mortals to sin. This is rookie stuff! I should be back in Japan coming up with ways to the goddesses and that wimpy mortal they're shacked up with miserable!"

Mara stopped her ranting for a moment to spit on the floor. Due to the spell she'd weaved around herself none of the humans in the area noticed. To them she was simply not there. "I guess I should be grateful I got assigned to Los Angeles for the duration of my 'probation'. There're plenty of people in this burg who're glad to sell their souls for a little taste of fame. And with all the greed, lust and vanity already floating around, getting mortals to sin is a snap. This job may suck, but at least it isn't too demanding."

"Bus 17 from Glendale now arriving," blared the PA system.

"Ah, fresh meat," grinned Mara. "Folks new in town are always ripe for plucking." Still grinning the demon headed for the passenger unloading area.

Mara leaned against a column and watched the passengers get off, looking for any easy prey. Third off was tall red haired kid who sported a purple shirt and blue shorts. "Hhhmmm, that one looks promising. At that age mortal males have more hormones than brains. A little push in the right direction and this boy could start some serious trouble. My favorite kind."

"Zack! Yo, Zack!"

Mara turned to see a chubby blond boy running up to the first kid.

"Hey, Wally," greeted Zack. "Thanks for coming to pick me up."

"No problem," said Wally. "But I was sure surprised when you called. Aren't classes still going on back at your college?"

"My former college you mean. I dropped out and there is no way I'm going back. In fact, I never want to set foot within ten miles of UC Sunnydale again."

Mara's ears suddenly perked up. "Hhhmmm, Sunnydale. Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time…"

"Why'd you drop out?" asked Wally. "I hear UCS isn't a bad school."

"Wally, you're my cousin so please take my advice on this," implored Zack. "Stay as far away from Sunnydale as you can. That town is just bad news. People disappearing all the time, weird murders and all kinds of other creepy stuff happen constantly there.

"I'm telling you, I have no idea what my mom and dad were thinking when we moved out there two years ago. 'Lower crime rate' my ass! South Central on a Saturday night is safer than Sunnydale at high noon on a Sunday."

"Take a pill or something," grumbled Wally. "It couldn't be all that bad."

"Remind me to tell you just how many kids at Sunnydale High died while I was going there last year," snorted Zack. "And to think I hoped all that weird stuff might be over when I graduated."

"It didn't?"

Zack shook his head. "My roommate back at UCS disappeared after about a week of classes. He left a note saying college was to much for him, but he didn't go home."

"So what? College can get to people. So the guy just took some time off be on his own."

Again Zack shook his head. "That's what I thought at first. But his parents came by hoping I might have an idea of were he might be. When I showed them the note he left behind they said it wasn't his handwriting. That really freaked the hell out of me."

"So that's why you dropped out and decided to try and enroll in UCLA?"

"Yeah, anywhere is better than Sunnydale."

"If you say so," shrugged Wally. He and Zack then grabbed the redhead's bags and headed into the terminal.

"Heh, sounds like Sunnydale hasn't changed a bit," grinned Mara. "I wonder…" With a contemplative look on her face Mara vanished.

In the terminal Wally and Zack looked at the space the demon had just occupied and then gave each other knowing glances.

"It looks like she took the bait," assessed Wally.

"So it seems," said Zack. "The first part of the plan is a success. The boss is going to be pleased."

Wally and Zack's eyes briefly flared crimson before they too disappeared.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Sunnydale High

"Hey, Giles, you here?" called Buffy as she pushed open the doors of the school library.

Giles, seated at the checkout desk, looked up from the papers he'd been reading. "Right here, Buffy. Was there something you wanted?"

"Nothing in particular," began the Slayer. "But I've been having a case of the creppies ever since I heard about the earthquake last night. I was hoping you could do your patented Giles look-stuff-up thing and see if anything with tentacles and an attitude is due to pop out of the Hellmouth this week."

"I could recheck the Pergamum Codex, but none of my research has turned up any indication that we're due for any major supernatural activity," said the Englishman as he sipped from his ever-present cup of tea. "Also, we've seen no unusual activity among the local vampire population for weeks. At this point I'm willing to say that the earthquake was a totally natural occurrence."

"So it was just SoCal doing the shimmy shimmy shake and not Pumpkinhead getting ready to pop out of Hell?"

Giles had no idea what Buffy had just said and decided not to ask. "Er…no. I'm quite sure it was just an earth tremor."

"Coolness," grinned Buffy. "So what's that you're reading? The latest issue of English Librarian Quarterly?"

"That doesn't arrive until next month," replied Giles as he moved the papers to allow Buffy a better look. "I'm just looking over some reports from the Watchers Council. It's seems that there was a rash of strange happenings just after that meteor shower a few weeks ago."

"Meteor shower? Please don't tell me I'm going to have to start worrying about being replaced by a pod person every time I go to sleep."

Giles momentarily considered a witty rejoinder but quickly decided it wasn't worth the effort. "No, no pod people. Just some very odd phenomena, most of it centered in Japan for some reason. Skies going dark in the middle of the day, reports of a colossal wolf running about Chiba Prefecture, a great ring of light in the sky and the unexplained destruction of the Makuhari Messe Convention Center."

"A giant wolf?" said Buffy. "I thought in Japan it was supposed to be giant lizards and moths. So what's deal with all this weird?"

"The Japanese government is being rather tight-lipped about the whole affair, especially the leveling of the convention center," continued Giles. "They're blaming most of this on rare atmospheric occurrences caused by the meteor shower and mass hysteria. The Japanese branch of the Watchers has been investigating, but have yet to reach any conclusions."

Giles took another sip of tea. "It's quite a shame about the Makuhari Messe Convention Center. It was quite a lovely building the last time I saw it."

At that Buffy boggled. "You mean you've been the Land of the Midnight Sun? And when were you going to share this with the rest of the class?"

"It's the land of the Rising Sun," corrected Giles, automatically. "The Land of the Midnight Sun is Norway. But yes, I've been to Japan before. I studied there for six months as part of my Watcher's training. I never brought it up before because…well, I don't like to discuss my past. Plus, it has never been relevant to anything we've had to deal with.

Buffy mentally kicked herself. She knew that his past was a sore spot for her Watcher. Smooth, girl. Real smooth.

Giles was again taking a drink of tea. "Marvelous country Japan. Delightful people and lovely tea. Did you know that in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony--"

"Uh, I've got, like, an avalanche of homework tonight," interrupted Buffy. "Thanks for the 411, Giles. See you tomorrow."

With that, the Slayer beat a hasty retreat from the library.

Once Buffy was gone Giles allowed himself a small grin. "Nothing scares an American teenager more than being given the chance to learn something." Still smiling, the Englishman again reached for his tea.

~*~*~*~*~

A site seen by every tourist to the City of Angels, the Capital Records Building is one of the most famous skyscrapers in the Los Angeles skyline. Sitting on top of this landmark, a laptop in front of her, Mara was reading.

"Well, there's no shortage of information about Sunnydale up on the DEMONet," mused Mara as her figures danced across the keyboard. "I wonder what's been going on there since my last visit."

For the next ninety minutes the blonde demon sat, reading though all the information on the vampire-plagued town. Once she was done Mara stood, stretched and began to pace. "From the looks of things, life in good 'ol Sunnyhell has gotten a lot more interesting in the last few years. Due in no small part to the arrival of the Slayer."

Mara stopped her pacing for a moment to look back at her laptop, which currently had a picture of Buffy on the screen. "Hhhmmm, she's prettier than the last one. Tough too from the looks of things. She managed to somehow kill the Judge. Last time he was loose it took an army to stop him. This one got the Master as well. Shame about that. He was one of the few vampires I had any respect for. Hell, this little bottle of peroxide with legs even offed Machida, Eyghon, Moloch and quite few other big name demons. I'll give her credit, she's good."

"Good, but not perfect," grinned Mara as she continued to pace. "Under her watch the Hellmouth has been opened a number times. True, in each of those instances it was only for a very short time, but that's not important. What matters is each time the Hellmouth was opened it poured more of the power of Hell into this plane. That makes Sunnydale the perfect place to cast all sorts of fun spells if you want to give them an extra kick. Ideal for the little party I've been thinking of throwing."

Mara stopped pacing and pulled a large black book from under her jacket. On the cover, written in a language that no human could pronounce, were the words The Big Pop-Up Book of Apocalyptic Magick.

"Mom always did give me the best presents when I was a kid," chuckled Mara.

But the demon's laughter was cut short by a sudden urgent beeping from the laptop. With a growl of annoyance Mara trotted over to see what was going on.

She studied the screen for a few seconds and what she saw did not make the demon happy. "There's a divine being in Los Angeles?! The Powers That Be in Heaven couldn't be onto me already. Damn! This could ruin every--" Mara stopped as the computer suddenly brought up some more information.

"I don't believe it," muttered the demon. "I know that energy signature. It's Urd! But what in the Nine Worlds is she doing in L.A.?"

Now feeling a bit nervous Mara again began to pace. "Could the Powers That Be in Heaven know what I'm planning and have sent Urd to stop me?" she wondered. Mara then stopped in her tracks and threw her head back in a deep laugh.

"What was I thinking? Of course the Powers That Be didn't send Urd! If they knew what I was planning they'd have sent someone *competent* to stop me!"

Slowly, a grin began to spread over Mara's face. "Hhhmmm, now that I think about it, this could be a stroke of good luck. Ever since they cost me the Lord of Terror I've been itching to get back at those damn goddesses and now fortune has dropped one of them right into my lap.

Mara grin kept getting bigger. "Oh yeah," she sneered. "This is going to be to perfect. Watch your ass, Urd! Mara's got herself a plan!"

With a final blast of staccato laughter Mara and her computer vanished.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

While separate from Los Angeles proper, the city of Santa Monica is still forever linked with LA. This small but famous city is a treasure throve of condos, trendy eateries and one very famous stretch of beach.

Josh Garcia hoped he wasn't blushing. It wasn't as if a woman had never blown him off before. Not that he was bad with women. No, of course not. He'd had a number of girlfriends over the years and was still on good terms with most of them. Josh Garcia wasn't bad with women at all. It's just than no one can hit a home run every time they step up to the plate. At least that's what he told himself.

"Oh, crash and burn," chuckled Winston Coleman from his position on a large beach towel.

"Shut up," growled Josh as he sat down and looked out at the Pacific Ocean.

"Touchy."

"Cork it. I don't know how I let you talk me into coming to the beach. I should be back at school going over those earthquake reports with Prof. Jurgens."

"All work and no play makes Josh a grouchy boy," said Winston. "Look man, if it makes you feel any better I saw that woman shoot down five other guys before you tried your luck."

Josh turned his head to have another look at the woman who had rebuffed him. She was tall, had a long mane of platinum hair, bronze skin, and a curvaceous body set off in every way buy the yellow two piece she wore. Much to the envy of just about ever other woman on Santa Monica Beach.

"I guess that one was just out of my league," Josh.

"You and me both, buddy," agreed Winston as he stood and brushed some sand from his bathingsuit. "Come on, there's a shop nearby that sells really tasty ice-cream and I'm buying."

"Sounds good to me."

With that, the two set of in search of solace and sprinkles.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Nearby, laying in a tanning chair only a few feet from the Santa Monica Pier, the object of Josh's failed advances watched the two wonder off.

"Oh yeah, I've still got it," grinned Urd as she took a drink from the margarita in her hand. "Not that there was ever any doubt. But it's nice to know I can still make men drool."

Enjoying the sensation of the margarita flowing past her lips, Urd adjusted her sunglasses and shifted her position in the chair a bit. "Ah, now this is just what I needed. I'll have to do something nice for Keiichi when I get back home. Maybe one of my special love potions for him and Belldandy. As a surprise, of course …"

Still in a state of utter contentment, Urd reached down beside her chair and turned on the small portable radio that lay there. Instantly, a woman's voice and twangy guitar filled the air.

I'm a bitch

I'm a lover

I'm a child

I'm a mother

I'm a sinner

I'm a saint

I do not feel ashamed

I'm your hell

I'm you dream

I'm nothing in between

You know you wouldn't want it any other way

Urd grinned and raised her margarita into the air in a mock toast. "Sing it, sister!"

I'm a bitch

I'm a tease

I'm a goddess on my knees

When you're hurt

When you suffer

I'm your angel undercover

I've been numb

I'm revived

Can't say I'm not alive

You know I wouldn't want it ANY other way…

As the guitar began to fade there was but one thought on Urd's mind; It doesn't get any better than this.

-SPLASH-

"WHAT THE HELL!?!" howled the goddess as she felt something icy splash on her. As she whipped off her sunglasses at looked down at her torso Urd saw that she was covered with sticky, slushy red ice.

"A Slurpy?! Who in Hell would have the guts to dump a Slurpy on ME?!"

"That would be me, I'm afraid," called a voice.

Urd looked up to see Mara, sporting a black bikini, looking down on her from the railing of the pier. She also noticed the empty Slurpy cup in the demon's hand.

"I'm so sorry about that, Urd," apologized Mara in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Can you ever forgive me?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Unaware of the two higher being within their midst the people visiting the Santa Monica Pier continued on with there lives. A sand sculptor pondered which color to use next in his latest work, a tourist from Oklahoma paid ten dollars to have his photo taken next to a cardboard cut-out of C-3PO, a group of kids poured quarters into the games in an arcade, someone threw the remains of a hotdog at a street mime and two German businessmen complained about how hot it was. In short, just another day in paradise.

Urd however, was to pissed to notice any of that. A bit of magick had cleared the remains of the Slurpy from her body but cleaning up had done nothing to improve the goddess's mood. "Bad enough Mara makes my life at home miserable. Now she has to ruin my vacation. This time she's gone too far!"

At this range Urd had no trouble sensing Mara's energy. Within moments she found her quarry at the very end of the pier, gazing out over the Pacific.

"Sorry about the Slurpy, Urd," cooed the demon as she turned to face the goddess. "You know me and my butter fingers."

"Cut the crap, Mara!" snapped Urd. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"You mean you're not glad to see me?" asked Mara while faking hurt. "You wound me."

"I'll do a lot more then wound you if you don't knock it off!"

"Fine, fine," sighed Mara. "Truth is I'm here for the same reason you probably are. Just a little R&R. I have to say, I think I like this city. It's much easier to get a tan here then it is back on the Shore of Corpses back in Niflheim."

"Mara, just how dumb do you think I am?" muttered Urd. "You don't really expect me to believe you're not coming up with some plan to get back at us, especially me, for what happened with the Lord of Terror, do you?"

The blonde demon rolled her eyes. "Of course, I'm planning my revenge on you damn goddesses and your little pet mortal too. What kind of demon would I be if I wasn't? It's just that I've got bigger fish to fry right now."

"Oh? And what kind of fish what that be?'

"Sorry, Urd-baby, but that's my secret for now," grinned the demon. "But let's just say thing are starting to look real sunny for 'ol Mara."

With a final grin and burst of laughter the demon vanished leaving only the slight smell of brimstone behind.

"Dammit," cursed Urd as she turned to look out at the sea. "I know that smile. Mara only smiles like that when she's up to something REALLY nasty. But what am I going to do about it?"

The goddess stood there for a long time, gazing out at the Pacific Ocean and thinking. Eventually, she reached a conclusion.

"I need a drink."

With that, Urd also vanished.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The disappearance of the demon and the goddess went totally unnoticed by everyone one the pier. Everyone but two young men who were far more than they seemed.

"Well, now isn't this interesting?" commented Wally as he munched on a corndog.

"That's hardly the word I'd use," said Zack after taking a drink from his can of Diet Sprite. "Thanks to that damn Mara, Urd and her sisters are sure to stick their noses into this. The last thing we want is for the three Norns to know what we're planning. This could ruin everything the boss has been planning for."

"You're so negative," sighed Wally. "The boss has been planning this for ages. It's going to take a lot more than the Norns and a Slayer to stop the plan."

"My, aren't we confident?"

"Yes, I'm confident! The boss hasn't steered us wrong yet. Besides, once the plan succeeds Mara and the Norns will be easily destroyed. The Slayer even easier. I'm telling you, the boss's plan can't fail."

Zack was silent for a long moment. "I suppose you're right. After everything the boss has been though, the interference of three demi-goddesses and one Slayer can't count for much. Still, we'd better let the boss know about this. Who knows? Maybe this little wrinkle can be turned to our advantage."

Wally simply nodded. The pair's eyes again glowed red and they too vanished.

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was another night in Sunnydale. For most people that meant curling up in front of the TV, reading, or some other relaxing activity. For Buffy and Angel it meant taking on a half dozen vampires with a punk rock fetish in one of the city's many graveyards.

"I'll eat your eyes!" one vamp with a yellow mohawk and a ripped Sex Pistols T-shirt shouted.

"May I just say eeewwww..." retorted Buffy as she nailed the creature with a kick to the gut. "Oh, and FYI, Sid Vicious, the whole Mad Max look is WAY out of style."

"You'll paying for joining up with the Slayer, you ugly sonnova bitch!" shouted a vamp with piercings all over his face as he charged Angel.

"Ugly? Says the guy who's been making out the a tackle box," quipped Angel as he caught his attacker by the arm, flipped him to the ground and staked him. Behind him Angel heard the telltale sound of another vampire being destroyed. Angel smiled.

A few minutes later there were five less vampires in the world.

"Hey, weren't there six suckfaces when this fight started?" asked Buffy as she scanned the graveyard.

Angel nodded. "There was a girl with these five. She must have slipped away

when her friends started to eat wood."

"Which puts her a whole ten IQ points above all the other vampires in Sunnydale. Uh, present company excluded, of course."

"Thanks. Now that we're done here maybe we should head to Rice Field Cemetery. I was there yesterday and saw some evidence that someone may have been skulking around."

"As much fun as trolling for skulkers sounds, can I talk to you for a second?"

Angel wasn't sure he was comfortable with the tone of Buffy's voice but he bade her to continue.

"First off, I guess I should thank you for going on patrol with me tonight," began the Slayer. "I know you've been dealing with...stuff since you, uh, came back. But tonight you seem kinda...distracted. Is everything okay?"

Angel avoided Buffy's gaze. Damn that girl could be perceptive. "Bad dreams. That's all," muttered the vampire.

"I thought I was the one with the exclusive on freak nasty dreams around here."

"It wasn't a dream about the future. I was dreaming about when I was...away. There was a woman who said I knew her but I can't remember..."

Angel shook his head and took a few steps away from Buffy. "On second

thought, why don't you handle Rice Field. I'll track down that stray vamp."

"It's still early. We could track her down together and then head over--"

"Actually, I'd really prefer to handle this solo," interrupted Angel. "I need some time to myself."

A pained look flashed across the Slayer's face but she tried to hide it with a quick nod.

"Thanks." Angel then turned and headed for the north gate of the cemetery. After watching him for a moment Buffy moved toward the south gate.

"Buffy?"

The Slayer turned.

"This may be nothing, but could you ask Giles to see what he can find on the name Mara. Just to be on the safe side."

"Sure."

Without another word Angel vanished into the night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As she ran though the streets of Sunnydale Courtney Wilkes thought back on what had just happened. Dave, Cody, Paul, Todd and Nelson were dead. Staked by the

Slayer and her pet turncoat vamp.

"Damn you, Dave. I knew that we should have stayed in Encino," spat Courtney

as she turned down a sidestreet. "I told you this was a bad idea but you wouldn't listen. 'The Hellmouth will rock!' you said. 'Don't worry about the Slayer. If she gets in our way I'll eat her eyes!' you said. I always knew you were a dumbass, Dave."

The fleeing vampire dashed down an ally and hid behind a dumpster. For several minutes Courtney sat unmoving, looking for any sign of pursuit. "Guess I lost 'em," chuckled the creature as she ran a hand though her hair. Hair that was bright purple with neon green bangs.

"You may have lost the Slayer and Angel, but you've been found by us," informed a voice.

The vamp whipped around to see two men, one blond and dumpy and the other tall and with red hair standing behind her. "Oh goodie. I missed dinner," snarled female vampire as she vamped out. "Now who wants to be the entree and who wants to be dessert?"

Wally and Zack looked at each other and snickered.

"Bite me," smirked Zack.

"If you insist!" growled Courtney as she charged.

Zack merely raised his right hand and spoke a few archaic words. A streak of red energy flew from his palm and struck the vamp in the chest. Courtney fell to the ground, twitched a few times and then lay still.

"They're certainly not making vampires any smarter these days," remarked Zack.

"Couldn't we have found one with better taste?" asked Wally. "I mean, look at this freak."

"Looks aren't important here. The boss said for us to grab a female vamp and that's what we did. Besides, with what the boss has planned for her--"

"Yeah, yeah, I guess you're right," interrupted Wally. "Let's get out of here. I wanna grab some dinner."

"You're always thinking of food. No wonder you're so fat," teased Zack.

"I'm not fat! This is muscle!"

"Newsflash, chubby, muscle don't jiggle when you walk."

Wally retorted with a few choice words about his companion's mother. Zack

just smiled. In a burst of red light Wally, Zack and Courtney vanished.

Moments later Angel appeared at the mouth of the ally and looked around

fervently. "I'm positive she ran this way. This ally is a dead end so she couldn't just vanish. And what the hell was that flash?"

Angel spent several minutes going over the ally but found nothing. In frustration he cursed and delivered a brutal kick to an unlucky garbage can. Feeling a bit better Angel decided to go find a place he could be alone with his thoughts.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tokyo, Japan

There's an old saying that when the cat is away the mice will play. A similar thought was going though Skuld's mind as she plopped down in front of the TV. But it was a bit more like "While the bossy, TV-hogging older sister is away, Skuld will channel surf!"

-click-

"It's GI Joe against COBRA, the enemy, fighting to save the day! He never gives up! He's always there! Fighting for freedom over land and air!"

-click-

"Oh no! It's Lina Inverse!"

-click-

"I am Justice. I am the Night. I am Batman!"

-click-

"In the name of the Moon, I'll punish you!"

-click-

"Autobots, roll out!"

-click-

"To protect the world from devastation."

"To unite all peoples within out nation."

"To denounce the evils of true and love."

"To extent our reach to the stars above."

-click-

"M.A.S.K. is the mighty power that can save the day! Come see the laser rays fire away!"

"I love cartoons," giggled Skuld.

It was then that the front door flew up and Urd stumbled in. "Hoist the mainsail! Batten down the hatches! Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow! Warp factor six, Mr. Sulu!" shouted the goddess.

"Urd, you're home!" yelled the young goddess in surprise. It was then that Skuld noticed that her older sister's eyes were bloodshot and swimming in and out of focus. "You home and you're…you're totally plastered."

"Hey! I'm not as think as you drunk I am!" slurred Urd as she waved a finger in her sister's face.

"Right. And I'm a Chinese jet pilot."

"Don't sass me, Scully, er, Skuld," growled Urd. "Now where's Belldandy and Kento, uh, I mean, Kensuke, no, that's not it. Aw, hell! Where's Belldandy and the short, uptight guy we live with?"

It was that moment that Belldandy and Keiichi came in from the kitchen.

"What's all the noise—Oh, Urd's back," said Keiichi. "And she's smashed. I guess someone had a good time on their trip."

"Hey, I didn't go stinkin', Ah mean, drinking just for the sake of gettin' drunk!" retorted Urd blearily. "It's Mara, you know? She's up on, uh, up to something. So I'm gotta be at full power for when she shows up here."

"Mara?!" gasped Belldandy. "Oh my."

"You bet your ass 'Oh my,' sister!" proclaimed the blonde goddess. "So we'd gotta be prepared. Belldandy, go take a nap! Skuld, start scarfing ice cream and don't stop till ya freakin' burst!"

"If you say so!" beamed the youngest goddess as she dashed for the kitchen.

She made it all of three steps before Keiichi grabbed her by the collar. "Dream on, Skuld. Dream on."

"Meanie!" huffed Skuld.

"Urd, before we do anything perhaps you could tell us just what happened with Mara," said Belldandy.

It took almost an hour, and a large pot of black coffee, but eventually Urd managed to recount the story of her encounter with Mara in Los Angeles.

"Damn," cursed Keiichi. "It's only been a few weeks since that whole Lord of Terror mess and already Mara is looking to make our lives miserable again. Why the hell can't she find someone else to bother?"

"If what Urd said is right, she just may have," said Skuld.

"Even is she has it won't last long," muttered Urd who was finally able to put together coherent sentences again. "She made it pretty clear that she's going to pay us back for destroying the Lord of Terror. Pay us back big time."

"I wonder if that has something to do with why she was in Los Angeles," mused Belldandy. "After all, Southern California is quite far away from her normal territory."

"So now that we know Mara's up to something what do we do?" asked Skuld.

"I don't think we're in a position to make any decisions now," said Belldandy. She went over to where Urd sat and gently pulled the older goddess to her feet. "Once Urd has had some rest we'll talk some more and try to figure something out."

Then, ignoring her sister's half-hearted pleading, Belldandy led Urd off to her room.

"I think I'll head over to Otaki's place," said Keiichi. "Maybe I can borrow some more of those good luck charms of his to put around the house."

As Keiichi headed off to do that, Skuld went to her room. She had some thinking to do.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Can you smell that? Can you smell it in the air? It smells like FREEDOM!"

Willow rolled her eyes. "Calm down, Xander. We do have a full day of classes ahead. And then we're only getting out for the weekend."

Xander shook his head sadly as he and Willow strolled up the steps of Sunnydale High. "Ah, Will. Sweet, school-loving Will. You just don't get it, do you? For three, count them three, glorious nights we shall be free of this academic Bastille. Free to revel in the glory of being young! Free to let our youthful energy push us to new limits! Free to--"

"Free to hang out at the Bronze just like we do every weekend?"

"You really know how to put the brakes on a good Dennis Miller-esqe rant, you know that?"

It was then that the two caught site of Buffy approaching them. "Hey, guys. What's up?"

"Xander was making a speech about how it's our sacred duty as teenagers to hang out at the Bronze. Or something," informed Willow. "It was majorly inspirational."

"That's me, Inspiration Guy," grinned Xander as he ran an imaginary comb though his hair. "Tony Robbins beware."

"Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but our usual exciting night of hanging at the Bronze is sorta off. For tonight anyway," said Buffy. "I talked to Giles and the library just got in a bunch of books on all things creepy and he needs us here tonight to help him get them organized."

"Say, did you hear that?" asked Xander. Buffy and Willow listened for a moment and then shook their heads. "That was the sound of our Friday night getting shot all to hell."

"Sorry, Xander," apologized Buffy. "This isn't my idea of a dream date either, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do."

"Yeah, yeah," muttered Xander. "I guess I can beat the Bronze's Darkstalkers game again some other time. But what about you, Will? Aren't the Dingoes playing at the Bronze tonight?"

"They are, but I can't go," sighed Willow. "Mom thinks I've been spending to much time with Oz lately so she made me promise not to go to the Bronze tonight."

A mischievous grin then spread over Willow's face. "Of course, she never said anything about the rest of the weekend."

"Oh, plotting ways around the folks' rules," cooed Buffy. "So finally your inner James Dean begins to show."

Willow shrugged and smiled. "My folks are going out of town this weekend. This freedom has pushed me into having a little of the naughty bad fun."

"That's my girl!" cheered Xander. "I knew sooner or later she'd go Dark Jedi on us. Why soon we'll have this little vixen staying out past curfew and not rewinding tapes before taking them back to the video store."

"Don't give the girl any ideas, Harris," growled a surly voice.

The trio turned to see Principle Snyder standing behind them. "I would appreciate it if you two deviants would stop trying to corrupt one of the few students this school can actually be proud of," said Snyder. "While I'm sure Ms. Summers is on the express route to a correctional facility and that Mr. Harris has a bright future as a switchyard hobo ahead of him, Ms. Rosenburg is another story. Of the three of you she's the only one who I'm sure will end up doing something other than sucking the very lifeblood out of this nation. As such, I would appreciate it if you two would pedal your mental poison elsewhere."

Xander was about to respond with a retort that surely would have gotten him suspended when the bell rang.

"Thanks, Principal Snyder. I think," stammered Willow as she clamped a hand over Xander's mouth. "I guess we'd better get going."

"Yeah, economics class waits for no one," added Buffy. Together they managed to drag Xander off before he could say anything.

Snyder watched them go and then shook his head in disgust. "Kids. They should all be sterilized."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Situated in the lowest level of the universe is a region of icy fogs and mists, darkness and cold. This land is called Niflheim, a word that in ancient Norse meant "house of mists". It was in this place that Mara made her home.

Now most people would expect the home of a demon to be a cave or some Gothic-style castle. Mara, however, had opted for a condo. And so it was that a condo than would fit right in on any sunny beach around the world had came to be built in Niflheim. It sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking Nastrond, the Shore of Corpses, where the massive serpent Nidhogg would routinely emerge from the sea to feed on carcasses. Off to the west one could see steam rising from the great spring Hvergelmir.

Since Mara spent a lot of her time on the Earth the place was empty most of the time. But the demon still appreciated the fact that she had a little place of her own where she could get away from the pressure of being a demon. Or, as was currently the case, grab some much-needed sleep.

Within the bedroom of Mara's house lay a coffin. While not exactly typical demon behavior, Mara preferred to sleep in coffins. Not because of any desire to present a fearful image. There were much better (and more fun) ways to do that. Mara slept in coffins simply because she found them comfortable.

With a grunt Mara pushed open the lid of the coffin, climbed out and stretched. Still feeling a bit stiff she headed for the door, her wrist and ankle bracelets, being all that she had on at the moment, clacked as she walked. With a small crackle of demonic power Mara formed her usual black outfit around her body.

"Coffee. Need coffee," muttered the demon as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

After a sufficiently large caffeine jolt Mara found her way the balcony where she began planning her next move. "Good, good," smiled the demon as she studied her laptop. "It'll take awhile to get everything set up, but when it's ready I'll be able to cast a spell that will shake the earth!"

Still smiling, Mara grabbed her computer and vanished.

Only moments after the demon had gone another figure appeared on the balcony. He wore a brown hooded robe and had chalk white skin. The man was smiling.

"So my part in this grand scheme is ended," said the man. "Go, demon. Go and revel in our own cleverness while you can. For when all is reveled you will see that you have been nothing but a puppet. And when this revelation comes to you, know that I will be rejoicing. Laughing in the knowledge that my revenge on you is complete."

A wicked grin still on his face, the pale man then vanished.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Tokyo, Japan

It was some hours later and night had fallen on the city. But cloistered in her room Skuld had failed to notice this. Instead, she sat staring at her computer screen. She'd spent the last few hours trying to figure out what Mara was up to with no success.

"Another dead end," scowled the little goddess. "According to HEAVENet, there's plenty of supernatural activity in Los Angeles, the last place we know Mara was. But none if it is really unusual for what you'd expect to see in a city that size."

Skuld hopped away from her desk and began to pace. "Okay, so maybe whatever Mara is after isn't in LA proper but someplace close by." As soon as those words left her mouth Skuld stopped dead in her tracks. "Yeah! I bet that's it! Just call me Sherlock Skuld!" Beaming with pride the goddess climbed back into her chair and began to pound at the keyboard with great fervor.

But a few minutes later that fervor had greatly died down.

"This is hopeless," sighed Skuld. "In an area like Southern California there's supernatural stuff floating around all over the place. I've got to find some way to narrow things down."

Skuld then settled her chin into her hands and began to turn Urd's story over and over again in her mind.

But let's just say thing are starting to look real sunny for ol' Mara.

"'Sunny?' Could Mara have been giving Urd a hint as to what she was up to? Maybe as a challenge for us to try and stop her?"

Skuld shrugged. "Aw, who knows what that sleazy 'ol demon thinks. This is a longshot anyway. They don't call it 'sunny Southern California' for nothing."

The goddess then worked the computer, ordering HEAVENet to cross-reference supernatural activity in Southern California with the word 'sunny.'

"Only one entry found?" mused Skuld as the answer came up. With another shrug she clicked on the entry and began to read. As she read the little goddess's eyes got bigger and bigger. This was not good. This was very, very not good.

"Belldandy!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Damn, this thing is heavy," complained Keiichi as he struggled with the large turtle statue in his arms. "I hope this thing is as lucky as Otaki said. We've had enough unwanted visitors lately."

With a final grunt of exertion Keiichi deposited the statue by the house's front door. He then stepped inside only to be confronted with a chaotic scene. Skuld held a long computer printout in her hands and was talking at hyperspeed. Belldandy was trying to calm her younger sister down while Urd looked on in mild amusement.

"Look! Just look at this!" shouted Skuld as she shoved the printout into Belldandy's hands. "If this is where Mara is this could be really big trouble! Why didn't anyone tell me about this before?!"

A look of concern on her face, Belldandy began to look over the papers. "Oh my, Sunnydale! This could indeed be very bad."

"Sunnydale!?" squawked Urd. She then dashed over to Belldandy and began to read over her shoulder. "Crap! If Mara is in Sunnydale we could be looking at a major disaster here!"

"Will someone please tell me what the hell is in this Sunnydale place that's so damned awful?!" yelled Keiichi.

"Hell is right," muttered Skuld.

Urd shot her a look before turning to face the Japanese man. "Vampires, Keiichi. That's what's in Sunnydale. Vampires and the Hellmouth."

"Vampires?!" boggled the college student. "You don't really expect me to believe in vampires, do you, Urd?"

"You know that goddesses and demons are real," reminded Skuld. "Are vampires really that much more of a stretch?"

Keiichi was forced to concede her point.

"Perhaps an explanation is needed," suggested Belldandy. As she began her tale the goddess's face became still and her voice very low. This worried Keiichi in a way he didn't like to think about.

"This world is older than you know, Keiichi, and contrary to many mythologies, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons, demons walked the Earth, and made it their home, their Hell. In time, they lost their purchase on this reality, and the way was made for mortal animals. For Man. What remains of the Old Ones are vestiges: certain magicks, certain creatures…"

"Vampires," said Keiichi.

Belldandy nodded. "The last demon to leave this world fed off a human, mixing their blood. He was a human form possessed—infected—by the demon's soul. He bit another and another…and so they walk the Earth, feeding. Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out and the Old Ones to return."

"And by Old Ones you do you mean things like the Elder Gods and all that H.P. Lovecraft stuff I had to read about in Literature class?" quizzed Keiichi.

"That's exactly what she means," informed Urd. "But Lovecraft only had a vague idea of what kind of beings live on the Other Side. If Mara were to crack open the Hellmouth Cthulhu, Azathoth, Dagon, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth and all their pals would come pouring out looking to party and Man would go the way of the dodo."

"Okay, so I understand vampires, but what's the Hellmouth?" asked Keiichi.

"I'll field this one," said Urd. "The dimension where a lot of the demons live, Hell, call it whatever you want, exists outside this one. The Hellmouth is the place in this realm where the barrier between the two worlds is weakest. Energy from Hell has been seeping into this world for centuries. This energy attracts vampires and all sorts of other evil beasties like moths to a flame."

"And someone built a town on top of this place?" gaped the young man.

Urd shrugged. "Go figure, huh? The place was shunned for generations by most of the local American Indian tribes. Even the Spanish conquistadors avoided the place. They called it 'boca del inferno'. Literally, 'the mouth of Hell'. The Hellmouth".

"So how come no one told me about all this Hellmouth stuff!?" demanded Skuld.

"Because you're still just a kid," teased Urd. "When you're a big girl you get to learn about this sort of stuff. Who knows, maybe in a few years we'll even tell you where babies come from. If you can handle it."

Skuld blew a raspberry as rebuttal.

"Stop it you two!" chastised Belldandy. The other two goddess knew that when she used that tone of voice, which was rarely, she meant business. "Given what we've learned I think what we must do is clear. We must go to Sunnydale and find out if Mara really is there. If she is we must stop whatever she's planning before anyone gets hurt."

"Uh, I got a question," said Keiichi in a slightly embarrassed voice. "Why don't you call the, uh, Almighty and let him know what's going on. Let him sort it out."

Urd shook her head. "No can do. We don't even know for sure if Mara is in Sunnydale. We can't go to the Almighty with just suspicions. For him to intervene we'd have to have absolute proof that we were staring down the barrel of the Apocalypse."

"Urd's right," agreed Belldandy. "For now we must handle this." She then turned and looked at Keiichi. "Of course, because of your wish I cannot leave if you don't want me to."

Keiichi had a look of worry on his face. "How do you think I feel, Belldandy? Of course I don't want you to go running of to Draculaville, USA."

Belldandy's face fell.

She then noticed Keiichi's hand on her shoulder. She glanced up to see him giving his most reassuring smile. "I don't want you to go, but I know you have to. Somebody has to stop whatever Mara's up to and I know you three are the only ones who can do it."

Belldandy leapt forward and gave Keiichi a hug. "Thank you for understanding, Keiichi. I promise to be back as soon as I can."

Keiichi hugged her back. "I know. Just be careful."

"Relax, kid," assured Urd as she flipped on the TV. "It'll take a lot more than Mara and the Hellmouth to stop the Norn sisters. Trust me, we'll pop over to Sunnydale, kick Mara's ass and be back before you realize we've gone."

Urd flashed a V for Victory sign and then jumped though the screen.

"I need water to transport myself," said Skuld. "I'll just use the bathtub. See you soon, sis." The littlest goddess then gave the pair a reproachful look before heading off.

"Are you sure letting Skuld go with you is a good idea?" asked Keiichi. "The Hellmouth sounds like a dangerous place. Maybe she should stay here with me."

"That thought crossed my mind as well," admitted Belldandy. "But we couldn't have destroyed the Lord of Terror without Skuld's help. I think her inventiveness may be of great help to us."

The goddess then gave Keiichi one last smile before floating into the air. "Goodbye, Keiichi." She then flew into a mirror mounted on a nearby wall and was gone.

"Bye, Bell-chan."

Keiichi looked around the house, suddenly aware of just how quite it was and just how alone he was. Urd and Belldandy's stories flashed back to him and he shuddered.

"First thing tomorrow I'm going to buy some crucifixes. And some garlic. Definitely some garlic."

Keiichi Morisato got very little sleep that night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"It's times like this when I wish I'd become a grocer," sighed Giles as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. The Englishmen stretched and collapsed unceremoniously into a chair.

When he'd learned the school would be getting a new shipment of books, some school related but most from the Watcher's Counsel, he'd been very excited. But when ten very heavy boxes showed up at the school loading dock his excitement had considerably dimmed. Single-handedly moving the boxes to the library had taken all morning and a nasty toll on Giles' back. Right now a rest was most definitely in order.

"Either that new stuff arrived or a bookmobile exploded in here," joked a youthful voice.

Giles looked up to see Buffy glancing around the library with mild interest. "Ah, Buffy. Come to help an old man with his books, have you?"

"Sorry, Giles, no time. I just came to let you know that Xander and Willow will be coming by to help out this evening. Oz has some stuff going on at the Bronze tonight, but said he'd try and duck out early. I'll be by after I do a quick patrol."

"Very good," nodded the Watcher. "Do tell the others I appreciate this. Under normal circumstances I'd handle this myself. But Principle Snyder has made it rather clear than he wants all these books on the shelves by Monday and there are so many books…"

"It's cool," shrugged Buffy. "So what did the Oprah's Book Club send us this month? I take it we're not talking about Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys stuff here."

"Quite. The Watcher's Council has been surprisingly generous this time. They've sent us some very rare tomes including The Tragedies of Jusenkyo."

"Didn't they make us read that in English Lit. last year?"

"Doubtful," sighed Giles. "There are only seven known copies in the whole world. You see, in the Bayankala Mountain range of China's Qinghai Province, in the shadow of Mt. Quanjing, there is a place called Jusenkyo. My Mandarin is rather rusty but I believe it means 'Training Ground of Accursed Springs' or something similar.

"There are hundreds of springs at Jusenkyo and there is a tragic story of someone or something drowning in them associated with most of them. Tragedies contains the story of what happened at each spring. Including the most famous story, the one involving the Spring of the Drowned Girl."

"Cursed springs? Very Steven King," mused Buffy.

Giles ignored her. He was in his element now. "We've also gotten Legends of the Yoroiden which is about nine magical suits of armor. Great Magicks of Other Worlds is a guide to some the astonishingly powers spells used in realms outside our own. It contains a rather lengthy section on the mythological 'Dragon Slave'. That is a spell so powerful that it's said to be able to level whole cities with just one casting. It's also said that the spell's most famous caster, Lina Inver--"

"As fascinating as all this is, I've got to go," interrupted Buffy. "It's pizza day in the cafeteria and if I don't get back soon Xander will declare my slice abandoned and eat it."

"Sorry," muttered Giles as he cleared his throat. "I'll see you tonight then."

"Check." Buffy then turned to go.

That was when the ground began to shake.

~*~*~*~*~

Not far away, in Sunnydale's Weatherly Park, three goddess were on the hunt. To help them blend in the goddesses had traded in the clothes they'd wore in Japan for something more in tune the local culture. Urd now sported a white tanktop and denim cut-offs. Belldandy had chosen a red shirt and a pair of clam diggers. Skuld had opted for a T-shirt that read "Planet Hollywood Tokyo" and some cargo shorts.

"Boy, look at this place," said Urd as she looked around. "Your typical All-American suburb. SUVs, yuppies, kids, coffeehouses, mailmen and strip malls. Kinda hard to believe people who're living at the gates of Hell could go around acting so normal."

"Things may seem normal on the surface, but Sunnydale is more than it seems," answered Belldandy. "I can feel the current of evil that flows though this town. Perhaps the people that live here know that something is amiss but don't want to admit it."

"Yeah, I feel it too," nodded Urd. "Sunnydale is quite the little Village of the Damned, n'est-ce pas?"

"So now that we're here how do we find Mara?" inquired Skuld. "I don't like this place. It makes my skin feel all crawly."

"That's the Hellmouth, kiddo. If it makes you feel any better it's doing the same thing to me," informed Urd. "As for how we find Mara, all we can really do is poke around and look for anything unusual."

"That's it!?!" howled Skuld. "That's your plan?! Just walk around until we stumble across Mara!?"

"It's not like that, you brat!" snapped Urd. "I know Mara. Trust me, if she's in this town it won't be long before she does something that says 'Mara is here!' in great big letters."

"Stop it, the both of you," interrupted Belldandy. "While it's not want I'd want, Urd's right. If she is in Sunnydale it won't be long before Mara does something to make herself known to us. Until then we must keep our eyes open and be patient."

"She'd never pass up a chance to do something rotten to us," added Urd.

"But isn't there some way we could track were she is?" asked Skuld.

Belldandy shook her head. "Under normal circumstances if I was within a certain range I'd be able to sense Mara's energy waves. But now we're practically on top of the Hellmouth. All the demonic energy around here is interfering with my senses. Now I'd have to be almost on top of her for me to sense Mara."

"This sucks," pouted Skuld.

"Buck up, small fry," said Urd. "I'm sure Mara will do something we can trace to her before long."

Then the ground began to shake.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sunnydale High

Cordelia smiled as she looked into the mirror of the girl's bathroom. Eyeshadow-perfect. Hair-perfect. Lipstick-hhhmmm. That could use a touchup. Cordelia retrieved the appropriate tube from her purse and began to apply it with expert precision.

Then the ground began to shake.

Startled, Cordelia's hand slipped leaving a clown-like streak of lipstick running along the right side of her face. The fashion maven saw this and gave a brief squawk of outrage before taking shelter under the sink.

"This is all Buffy's fault," groused Cordelia. "I don't know how, but I'm sure somehow this is all Buffy's fault."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I'm telling you Yogi would win," insisted Xander. "He is smarter than the average bear after all."

Oz shook his head. "I'm still going to stick with Magilla Gorilla. Gorillas are really strong. Just look at what King Kong did to New York. Plus, he fought Godzilla. No bear ever fought Godzilla."

Xander gave an exasperated sigh. "Will, you're IQ Girl. Settle this for us. Who would win in a fight between Magilla Gorilla and Yogi Bear?"

Willow, caught with a mouthful of pizza, looked startled. She chewed, swallowed and then scratched head. "Uh, well, I was always partial to Huckleberry Hound myself. But--"

Then the ground began to shake.

With speed found only in native Californians the trio ducked under the cafeteria table. "What did I tell you? Underground mole people and their earthquake machines," said Xander.

Oz and Willow ignored him. They were to busy holding hands.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In the dark of the mansion Angel sat trying to read. He was having little success. The vampire had woken up with a deep sense of foreboding that he'd yet to shake. Pushing those dark thoughts to the back of his mind Angel again began to read.

"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here."

The vampire sighed and tossed the copy of Shakespeare's The Tempest aside. "You're not helping either, William. Maybe I should switch to Dave Barry."

Then the ground began to shake.

Angel was surprised, but with inhuman speed he dashed to the safety of a nearby doorway. In general he rarely worried about natural disasters. But the mansion was old and he didn't relish the idea of an instant suntan if the roof were to cave in.

Then, as quickly as it came, the quake was over. A quick glance at the ceiling satisfied Angel that the roof was still intact. He then returned to his chair. "A bad feeling. Definitely a bad feeling…" the vampire muttered.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"That was fun," muttered Urd once the ground had stopped shaking.

"You got a weird idea of fun, lady," said a new voice. The goddess turned to see a Hispanic man in a jogging suit standing behind them.

"That's the second quake to hit Sunnydale in the last few days," continued the man. "I don't know about you, but I hate the damn things. It's crap like this that makes me wish I'd never left New Jersey."

A worried look danced across Belldandy's face. "You mean there've been other earthquakes around here recently?"

The man gave her an odd look and then nodded. "You must be new in town. Yeah, another shaker hit around 2:00 a.m. the other night. But it was so small it didn't even wake my wife and I up."

The jogger then glanced at his watch and made an annoyed sound. "It's been nice chatting, but I've really got to be going. You ladies have a nice day. But watch yourselves after dark. There are a lot or weirdoes in this town and they all seem to come out at night." The man then gave a friendly nod and jogged off.

"I bet that guy doesn't have any idea just how weird some of Sunnydale's 'weirdoes' are," snickered Urd.

"True," nodded Belldandy. "But the fact that there've been more quakes like the one that just happened worries me. Something about that quake felt…unnatural."

"Yeah, I felt it too," concurred Urd. "Something is rotten in Denmark. Or Sunnydale as the case may be."

"Do you think Mara caused the quake?" inquired Skuld.

"I don't believe so," answered Belldandy. "Causing earthquakes would push even a first class, unlimited demon to their limits. Even a spell to make a small quake like this would be extremely difficult to cast and cost Mara massive amounts of energy. Then she'd have to rest for a very long time to her strength back. This just doesn't seem like something Mara would do."

"She could do it if she was granting a mortal a wish," noted Urd. "Then she'd have the power of Hell behind her. But I can't see anyone using a wish for a little tremble like that. Plus, Mara's never been big in the wish granting department."

"So if the earthquake wasn't natural, and Mara didn't cause it, who did?" asked Skuld.

Urd shrugged. "Just toss that on the pile of mysteries we have to solve."

"Perhaps if we split up we could scour the city more quickly," suggested Belldandy.

"The 'ol Scooby Doo 'Let's spilt up, gang!' deal?" grinned Urd. "Sounds good to me. Heck, once this is all over we'll probably find out that the bad guy is the mean old man who runs the amusement park."

"I don't believe Sunnydale has an amusement park."

"You really need to watch more TV, Belldandy. Anyway, I'll take the east part of town and you two take the west. We can all met back here around 8:00."

Belldandy nodded. "Eight then. Be careful, Urd."

The eldest Norn grinned and flashed the V sign. "Relax, little sister. It takes more than a measly Hellmouth to beat Urd, goddess of the Past."

With that, Urd vanished.

"Come, Skuld," said Belldandy. "We have much to do."

"The game is afoot!" proclaimed the little goddess as the two set off.

~*~*~*~*~

"Its moments like that that make me oh so glad in live in California," grumbled Giles once things had settled down. The Watcher then cast his gaze around the library to inspect the damage. The shelves had miraculously not fallen over, but many books now littered the floor. Giles was also fairly sure he'd heard his favorite teacup crash to the ground.

"Well, it seems I have even more work to done now," sighed the Watcher as he turned to look at Buffy. To his great surprise she was standing absolutely still and her face seemed slightly pale. "Buffy, are you alright?"

The Englishman's words brought the Slayer back to reality. "Oh, uh, yeah. I'm fine."

Giles felt the worry in his stomach raising. "Buffy, please, I've been your Watcher and your friend to long not to know when something is distressing you. You're old enough to know that hiding whatever is wrong will only make it worse. Please, tell me what's bothering you."

For a moment Buffy considered continuing to assure Giles that nothing was wrong. But she realized the truth of the older man's words. Hiding it really would only make things worse.

"It's just that these earthquakes are freaking me out a bit," began the Slayer. "Yeah, I'm a born David Lee Roth California girl, but quakes in Sunnydale aren't the same as the ones in LA."

Giles brow knitted in confusion. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

Buffy gave her Watcher an inscrutable look. "The last time a earthquake hit Sunnydale, before the other night I mean, I…died."

Giles mentally kicked himself. "Of course, when the Master rose." Buffy nodded. "So this would explain that case of the 'creepies' you mentioned the other night?" Buffy again nodded.

Giles adopted his most fatherly voice and placed a comforting hand on the Slayer's shoulder. In some back part of his mind the Watcher reprimanded himself for not picking up on his charge's feelings sooner. All her strength, courage and training sometimes made it far to easy to forget that, at heart, Buffy was still a seventeen-year-old girl.

"Brave heart, Buffy," said Giles. "I can certainly understand why these quakes would unsettle you, but you're the strongest person I've ever met. I know you won't let whatever fear you may have control you."

Buffy managed a weak smile. "I'm really the strongest person you've ever met? I don't feel all that strong right now."

"Yes, you are," assured Giles. "You've shown enough heart and courage for two Slayers. It is because of you that the forces of Darkness have not claimed our world. Since becoming the Slayer you've faced more challenges than anyone could have ever guessed and you've always come out stronger for it. I'm very proud of you, Buffy."

Buffy's smile grew stronger. "Thanks, Giles. With pep talks like that you should be coaching the Lakers."

"And give up the glamorous lifestyle of a librarian? Never."

It was then that the school PA blared to life. "Attention students and faculty, this is Principle Snyder. As should be glaringly obvious we've just been though a small earthquake. Don't think for one second this is going to get any of you out of class. Anyone caught trying to skip out will be suspended. That is all, maggots."

"Aw, he called us maggots," sighed Buffy. "He really does care."

Giles made his favorite puzzled expression. "Unless there's been a major change in the English language that I have not been made aware of, 'maggots' is usually considered an insult."

The blonde girl gave a small laugh. "I guess you must have missed the last student assembly. Principle Snyder referred to us as 'Generation Feces'. For him 'maggots' is almost a term of endearment."

The Watcher chose not to say anything.

"Well, I think my hour is up," said Buffy as she turned to leave. "See you tonight."

"Till tonight then," replied Giles.

He watched Buffy until she had vanished out the doors. In spite of himself Giles felt a bit of fatherly pride rise his chest. He then sighed and turned his attention to cleaning up the library.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Several hours later the world had turned and night now cast its shadow over Sunnydale. In Weatherly Park Belldandy sat on a bench waiting patiently. A few feet away Skuld was pacing angrily.

"It's ten past eight already," groused the young goddess. "Where the heck is Urd?!"

"I'm sure she'll be here any moment," Belldandy said.

Skuld made a rude noise. "Yeah, right. She probably found a bar and is--"

"Oh yea of little faith," called a voice. The two sisters looked up to see Urd strolling toward them. "Show a little trust in your big sister, will ya, Skuld. I may not be a good little solider like Belldandy, but I do have a sense of responsibility."

Skuld rolled her eyes. "Really? Since when?"

"Listen, brat! I'll have you know--"

"Don't you two start again," ordered Belldandy firmly. The other goddesses, sufficiently chastised, stopped. "We don't have time for this sort of foolishness. Urd, did you find anything?"

Urd shook her head. "I thought I was onto something when I found an abandoned factory on the outskirts of town that was giving off some bad vibes. I checked it out but the place was deserted. I'd say some of the local vamps must have used it as a base for a while. Other than that I got nothing."

"We didn't come up with anything either," reported Skuld. "Now what?"

"I've been thinking about that," began Urd. She then pulled a pocket TV from behind her back and tossed it to Skuld.

The young goddess gave it a dubious look. "What's this for? Now isn't the time to be watching TV!"

Urd gave an exasperated sigh. "It's not for watching TV. It's so that I can find my way back to wherever you are."

"You're leaving us? To go where?" asked Belldandy.

"It seems to me Mara's keeping a lower profile than normal," said Urd. "So just sitting around waiting for her to show herself isn't going to work. While I was poking around town I remembered an old acquaintance of mine. He's pretty in tune with the netherworld's grapevine. If anyone would know what Mara's up to it's him."

Belldandy looked unhappy but nodded. "If you're speaking of who I'm thinking about then you may be right. I may not care for him personally, but he does keep himself very well informed."

"Who? Who? Who are you talking about!?" squealed Skuld. "Will one of you tell me who you're talking about?"

"No," informed Urd sharply. She then reached over and turned on the TV in her sister's hand. "You two watch yourselves. It's night now and that means that every thing that goes bump in Sunnydale will be out looking for trouble."

"We'll be all fine," assured Belldandy. "Just watch yourself."

Urd gave the middle Norn a salute and then dived into the TV. Once she was gone Skuld snapped the device off and stuffed it into her pocket.

"Who's Urd going to see? What does he know about Mara? Why don't you like him?" inquired the goddess of the Future.

Skuld wasn't sure but she thought for a moment she saw Belldandy bristle. "I would really rather not speak of it. Let's just say that the last time the man Urd is going to see and I met things became…unpleasant."

It took all of Skuld's self-control not to boggle. She'd always thought that Belldandy got along with everyone. Everyone but Mara, that is. Though still burning with curiosity Skuld decided not to push the matter.

"So now what?"

"Now I believe we fight," replied the older goddess as she cast her gaze behind Skuld. The little goddess whipped around to see a gang of seven vampires emerge from behind some trees and surround them.

"Looks like someone forget to tell these girls that it's not safe in the park at night," joked a vamp in a camouflage jacket that seemed to be in charge. The others laughed at their leader's joke.

A hard look made its way to Belldandy's face. "Obscene creatures," she muttered. "Leave us or be destroyed!"

This brought another round of laughter from the vampires. "What are you going to do, little lady?" snickered the leader. "I don't think you've got any wooden stakes stashed in that outfit of yours."

"Then I guess it's a good thing I brought plenty for all of you," called a new voice.

Everyone looked to see a short blonde girl, a stake in each hand, standing atop a bench a few feet behind them.

"Who the hell are you?" snarled one of the creatures.

The girl rolled her eyes. "You mean you creeps haven't heard of me by now? I must fire my publicist. Anyway, I'm Buffy, your friendly neighborhood vampire Slayer."

At those Belldandy's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Slayer?"

The head vampire was clearly not impressed. "You two, get the bimbo with the toothpicks," he ordered. "The rest of you can have the brunette. I want the little one."

At their leader's behest two of the vamps charged Buffy and were quickly engaged in combat. Four others moved to separate Belldandy from Skuld and began to move in. The leader made a lunge for Skuld but she ducked out of his grasp.

Only feet away Buffy drove and elbow into the nose of one of her attackers. He stumbled back cursing while the other one charged her. The Slayer pivoted and with lighting speed slammed a stake into the vampire's heart turning him to dust.

"She is the one," murmured Belldandy.

"Hey, sister, pay attention while we're killing you!" snapped one of the vamps.

The goddess gave a small sigh. She then held her hands a few inches apart and began to chant.

O, Light of Heaven

Power from Above

Gather in my Hand

to Destroy this Evil!

A ball of light quickly formed between Belldandy's hands.

"How the hell--" began one of the vamps assigned to attack her.

The goddess then launched the ball of light at the creatures, impacting one of them in the chest. Instantly blazing white energy raced though the monster's body and for a moment his skeleton could be seen. The vamp didn't even have time for a scream before he was destroyed. Then the energy jumped into the bodies of the other members of the undead wiping them out in the same fashion.

Seconds before Buffy had managed to dust the other vampire that had attacked her. This left her free to witness Belldandy's magick. "Wow, a vampire zapper. Cool," mused the Slayer.

Meanwhile, the lead vampire had stopped trying to grab Skuld and was now contemplating the fact that he was all alone. He hastily reached the conclusion that he was in a lot of trouble.

"Hey, ugly, did you forget about me?"

The vamp turned to see Skuld leaping at him, her lucky croquet mallet now in hand. Before the creature could respond the little goddess brought the mallet down on his head with satisfying CRACK!

The vampire's eyes bugged out so far Buffy thought for a moment they were going to pop out of his head. "Ouch," squeaked the creature before he turned to dust.

Buffy boggled.

"Very good, Skuld," applauded Belldandy. "You handled that vampire just like it was a Yggdrasil bug."

Skuld beamed with pride.

"Uh, excuse me," interrupted Buffy. "But would you mind if I asked who you are and how you wasted those vamps. With a croquet mallet no less."

"It's a magick croquet mallet!" huffed Skuld.

"Be nice, Skuld," reprimanded Belldandy. The goddess then turned to face the Slayer. "I know this may be a bit hard to accept, but my sister and I are goddesses."

Buffy gave the other woman a quizzical look. "Goddesses…right."

"We are so goddesses!" insisted Skuld. "I'm Skuld, goddess second class, limited."

"And I am Belldandy, goddess first class, unlimited," said Belldandy.

Buffy hesitated, unsure of what to do. The women's story about being goddesses seemed totally outlandish. But she'd seen Belldandy work what was clearly some very powerful magick and the girl had destroyed a vampire using only a mallet. Whoever these women were, they were powerful.

"You're right, this whole 'goddess' thing is pretty hard to buy," said Buffy. "I don't supposed you've got some ID or something do you?"

"We do have licenses, but they're not the sort you carry around," informed Belldandy. The goddess then slowly lifted off the ground and didn't stop until she was floating ten feet above the Slayer. "Is this proof enough?"

Buffy started at the woman in the sky above her tried very hard not to boggle. Since becoming the Slayer she'd seen many strange things but this had to be on of the strangest. "Well, it's a good start. Would you mind coming down and telling me what you're doing in Sunnydale."

"Of course," answered Belldandy. She then gently floated to the ground and landed gently beside the blonde girl.

"Isn't my big sister just the coolest?" grinned Skuld.

Buffy gave the girl a polite smile.

"As I said, my Skuld and I are goddesses," began Belldandy. "We came to Sunnydale with our other sister, Urd, looking for Mara, a demon we've had trouble with in the past. We have reason to believe that Mara is in Sunnydale coming up with some plan to get revenge on us. Since this town lies atop the Hellmouth, we're worried that she might accidentally unleash some evil force she may not be able to control. Thus putting this city and possibly the world at risk."

Belldandy's eyes focused squarely on Buffy. "But you know about things like this, don't you? About demons and the Hellmouth. You're the Slayer, aren't you?"

Buffy was taken aback. Stories about the Hellmouth and Slayers weren't common knowledge among people who didn't move in supernatural circles.

The Slayer gazed intently into the eyes of the woman before her who claimed to be a goddess. Over the years Buffy had stared into the eyes of more vampires and demons than should could count. In the eyes of each one she had seen evil. She saw none of that in the eyes of Belldandy. In those eyes she saw only goodness and ancient power.

Some instinct deep inside told Buffy to trust the self-proclaimed goddess.

"Yes, I'm the Slayer. But you can just call me Buffy."

"Pleased to met you, Buffy. As I said, I'm Belldandy and this is my sister, Skuld."

"A pleasure to met you," greeted Skuld as she performed a passable curtsy.

"So you said this demon you looking for is named Mara?" inquired Buffy. In the back of her mind she recalled the conversation she'd had with Angel the night before. He'd mentioned the name Mara then. Now two women claiming to be goddesses had turned up also mentioning the name Mara. This was starting to look bad.

"Yes, Mara's her name," answered Belldandy. "We've been looking for any sign that she may be in town, but have had no luck. Urd left us just a few minutes ago to talk to a…contact of hers who may be able to help."

"I've got a contact or two of my own. He's no Deep Throat, but Giles is the king of looking stuff up. If anyone can help you figure out what Mara's up to it's him."

"This Giles, is he your Watcher?"

"Yeah, but how did you kn--" Buffy trailed off as realization hit her. "Oh, right. If you know about Slayers then you'd know about the Watchers too."

Belldandy simply nodded.

"Slayers and now Watchers. Will someone tell me what's going on?" demanded Skuld.

"We will later, I promise," assured Belldandy. "Right now I think it would be best if we were to speak with this Giles person as soon as possible."

"Good thing for you I was just on my way to see him," said Buffy. "Just follow the yellow brick Slayer."

As the trio headed over a though crossed Skuld's mind. I'm sure Mara was hinting at coming to Sunnydale. But where is she and what's she up to?

~*~*~*~*~

While Buffy and the goddesses were battling vampires, the object of their search was only moments away from making her grand entrance.

At the Bronze Oz sat in the converted storeroom that served as the "dressing room" for the club's acts. A few days before a club owner from Los Angelus had called saying he'd heard good things about Dingoes Ate My Baby. Explaining that he would be passing though Sunnydale on business Friday the owner asked if it would be possible to see the band perform. Since the Dingoes were on good terms with the owners of the Bronze they'd managed to secure use of the club for a few hours before it opened. The other members of the band were now in the main club area grabbing a quick dinner. Oz, who had already eaten, had opted for a little alone time in the cramped dressing room.

After making himself as comfortable as he could in a folding chair, Oz opened his backpack, grabbed his Discman and began to root though the half dozen or so CDs in his pack. After a few moments he selected one. "Black Sabbath's Greatest Hits. Gotta love the classics."

Oz removed the CD from its case and was about to place it in the player when suddenly the CD seemed to jump from his hand. The disk flew a few feet though the air, stopped, turned itself mirror-side up and then began to float.

Oz's eyebrows arched but remained calm. "My CD has gone UFO. Wild."

It was then that a hand shot up from the CD. Oz was startled and fell out of his chair. "Wild" was beginning to look like a major understatement.

While the teenager watched a woman with dirty blonde hair, a necklace of animal teeth, a black leather outfit and red marks on her face emerged from the CD. In his time in Sunnydale Oz had seen a lot of strange things and managed to keep his cool. But everyone has their limits. Oz outright boggled.

Mara looked at Oz.

Oz looked at Mara.

"Boo!" said Mara.

Oz flinched.

Mara snickered, lowered herself to the ground, grabbed the CD she'd emerged from out of the air and looked at it. "Nice choice," complimented the demon. "Looks like those self-righteous religious groups were actually on to something when they called this stuff 'devil music'." Mara then crushed the CD to pieces.

"Who are you?" fumbled Oz, worried that he might end up with the same fate as his CD.

"Name's Mara, kid. Demon first class, unlimited." Mara suddenly got a puzzled look on her and she squinted at Oz for a moment.

"Hey, kid, you're a werewolf, aren't you?"

Oz managed a nod.

A smile appeared on Mara's face. "Good 'ol Sunnyhell. The place hasn't changed a bit." The demon then brought a hand to her mouth and blew the werewolf a kiss. "See ya around, Fido. Mara's got herself some business to take care of."

In a flash Mara was gone, leaving only the faint smell of brimstone behind her.

Oz pulled himself to his feet and ran a hand though his hair. It was orange this week. "Whoa. I gotta call Buffy."

Just then a voice from the club called out. "Oz! Yo, Oz! Get yer ass out here! It's showtime!"

Oz cursed. The club owner and the rest of the Dingoes were waiting. With a sigh the teen realized there was no getting out of this. As he grabbed his guitar Oz hoped that the audition would be short. And that his delay in telling the others about Mara wouldn't be a costly one.

~*~*~*~*~*

New York City, New York

On maps of Manhattan you'll find it listed as West Mid-Town. But the residents of the area have for decades given it the colorful moniker of Hell's Kitchen. Due the high crime, poverty and drug trade in the area many people feel the name was well chosen.

Located in this section of the city is a bar with the rather odd name of Soma. The residents of the area do not drink here. In fact, if you were to ask them they'd say that they'd never so much as seen anyone go inside. Upon further questioning one might learn that the bar had been there as long as anyone could remember and, for reasons they couldn't explain, no one even knew anyone who had ever been inside.

This is by design. Or more accurately magick. For Soma is a place that caters to magicians, witches, occultists and beings that are not human. In the City That Never Sleeps it is a place where those who move in shadows and speak in tongues long forgotten can go, relax, have a beer, watch some baseball and swap spells.

"Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice…" blared the TV.

The screen filled with static for a moment and then Urd floated out. The goddess landed and cast her gaze around Soma's barroom. To her surprise the place was empty except for two men sitting in a corner quietly talking. Both had failed to notice her arrival.

The first man was clad in a dirty sportcoat and a battered fedora. The other man sported a normal shirt and slacks and a tan jacket that looked reasonably clean.

"So I say to Aries 'Aries, man, just put down the ax and we can talk about this.' But Aries, what with being a God of War and all, he ain't having none of it. So he swings the ax at me and damn near takes off my head. But he swung just a little too hard and gets a bit off balance. So I run around and nail him in the back with a couple of kidney punches! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The other man nodded politely, clearly not believing a word of it.

The first man continued on oblivious to the arrival of Urd and his drinking companion's disbelief. "So I just nailed Aries with three kidney punches, right. Well, just like that guy folds like a cheap card table. Heh, some freakin' God of War, huh?"

Urd began to clap. "Bravo! Great story. It would be even better if it wasn't a steaming pile of crap."

The two men looked up to see the goddess striding over to their table and taking a seat. "You're one to talk, Urd," said the first man as he took a puff off his cigarette. "That story was just as true as some of the tall tales I've heard you tell."

Urd gave the man an amused smile. "You haven't changed a bit, Whistler."

Whistler shrugged. "I'm like Coke. A winning formula you just don't mess with."

"You've always seemed more like Billy Beer to me but whatever," said Urd. She then looked at the other man at the table. Urd took mild satisfaction in the fact that the man was trying to look at her cleavage without being obvious about it. "So, Whistler, who's your friend?"

"The name's Doyle," introduced the man in a noticeable Irish brogue. "It's me great pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms. Urd."

"Just Urd is fine. Well, it's nice to know that Whistler knows at least one person with some social ski--" Urd trailed and stared at Doyle. Something about him was making her senses prickle.

"The answer to your question is that he's half human and half demon," informed a voice with a English accent.

Urd turned to see a man with dirty blond hair in a worn trenchcoat strolling out of the men's room. He was somewhere in his mid to late thirties, sported black slacks, a white shirt and black tie under his coat. "Hello, Urd. It's been a while," greeted the man as he lit a cigarette in a well-practiced fashion.

Urd shook her head, bemused. "John Constantine. Why am I not surprised to see you here?"

Constantine smiled slightly as he took his seat. "I'm like a bad penny that way. Always turning up where you least expect."

"So what brings you to the Big Apple?"

"I could ask the same of you," replied John.

"Business," sighed Urd. "Or more accurately, Mara."

"Mara? What's she up to now?" asked Whistler as he took a swig from his beer.

"Nothing good, I can tell you that," muttered John. "That Mara's a nasty one."

"No kidding," nodded Urd. "I've got reason to think she might be in Sunnydale."

John made a sour face. "Shite! Sunnydale? That's the town on top of the Hellmouth, innit?"

"That's the place," confirmed Whistler. "Mara in Sunnydale. Damn, that's a disaster just waiting to happen. You got any idea what she's up to?"

Urd shook her head. "Not a clue. Actually, I was hoping you'd heard something. You always seem to have your ears pressed against all the right keyholes."

Whistler took another puff from his cigarette. "Sorry, but the last thing I heard about Mara was than she was in hip-deep with her bosses back in Niflheim over that Lord of Terror escapade. How you dealing with that, by the way?"

The goddess hesitated for a second. "I'm dealing. Not the best experience of my life but I'll get over it." Urd then looked at Doyle. "Hey, Irish, you've been awful quite. You know anything about Mara?"

Doyle seemed taken aback for a moment then shook his head. "Sorry, no. I try to avoid demons like that as best I can."

Urd then turned her attention to Constantine. "What about you, John? Seen any weird signs on the 'ol Synchronicity Highway?"

The Englishman also shook his head. "'Fraid not, luv. Believe me, I wish I did know somethin'. I still owe that demon bitch some payback from the last time I got dragged into one of her messes."

"Dammit!" cursed Urd as she slammed her fist into the table. "Mara's still several steps ahead of us. Belldandy isn't going to like this."

Whistler shifted in his seat and looked uncomfortable. "Uh, so how is your sister? I haven't seen her in a while."

Urd gave Whistler a withering look. "Still plenty pissed at you if that's what you're asking. Even if she won't admit it."

At that Doyle arched his eyebrows. "Oh? I've heard a story or two about Belldandy in my time. She's supposed to be one of the sweetest beings alive. What could our boy here do to make such a kind lass mad?"

"None of your damn business, shamrock," glowered Whistler.

Urd grinned at the man's discomfort. "You really want to know? Well, some time back those two were at a party I was throwing and Mr. Manners here tried to feel her up."

"He tried to cop a feel off Belldandy?!" squawked Constantine. "You perverted bastard! How could you do that to a nice little thing like her?! I ought to kick you one right in the bollocks!"

"I was drunk!" protested Whistler. "And I apologized later."

"You only said your were sorry after she knocked your sorry ass though eight dimensions," snorted Urd.

Whistler winced and rubbed his jaw. "I can still feel that punch when it rains. And it was only five dimensions."

Doyle snickered.

John, however, let out a loud and long string of laughter. "Serves you right, you bloody twat. Still, it's a bit hard to picture a nice girl like Belldandy doin' somethin' like that. Even to a arse like him."

"Don't sell her sort," warned Whistler. "An iron fist in a velvet glove. That's Belldandy all right."

"True," concurred Urd as she stood. "John, Whistler, it's been fun seeing you again. Nice to meet you Doyle. But I've gotta get back to Sunnydale. The Almighty only knows what trouble Belldandy and Skuld have gotten themselves into without their wise and beautiful older sister to watch out for them."

The three men called out some good-byes as Urd head back to the TV. Just as she was about to dive in the goddess stopped and turned back to the others. "Before I go, John, you never did tell me what you were doing in the States. London is your normal beat."

Constantine took a moment to light another smoke. "'S his bloody fault," said John as he pointed to Doyle. "Him there has visions. From the 'Powers That Be' he says. Shite, I've had some dealing with those same powers and I'll tell you that they're all bastards."

"Yeah, you're on the blacklist of a lot of people upstairs," nodded Urd. "So why are you helping him out?"

"Turns out the half-breed there is a friend of me old mate, Brendan Finn," replied John.

"And since any friend of Brendan's is a friend of mine…" smiled Doyle. A deadly serious look then crossed the man's face. "But jokes aside, John's helping me out because if he doesn't a whole lot of people are going to die."

"One of his visions said there's somethin' nasty brewing in Los Angeles," clarified Constantine. "It also said that I'm the only one who can put a stop to it. Since I thought it'd be a good idea to have the Powers That Be owing 'ol John a favor I agreed. 'Sides, it's been ages since I had a proper seaside holiday and LA sounds a lot better than another trip to Blackpool."

"Never dull moment for you, John," mused Urd. "You guys take care. I gotta run." With that, she dived back into the TV.

"Good luck yourself," said Whistler as he took another drink. "You may need it."

"And just what do you mean by that?" inquired Doyle.

Whistler looked uncomfortable again. "What I told Urd wasn't a 100% true. I did hear something about Sunnydale recently. Rumor is that someone powerful and bad has something cooking out there."

Constantine narrowed his eyes. "So why didn't you tell Urd that, you turd? That could be Mara you heard about."

"Relax, Limey," snapped Whistler. "First of all, it wasn't Mara. The way I heard it was that it was someone a lot bigger than she was. And the reason I didn't say anything to Urd was that it's not a story I put a lot of stock in. You both know how demons love to BS. I hear stories about guys plotting stuff for the Hellmouth all the time. Most of the time they turn out to be nothing but crap."

"Bastard," snorted Constantine. "Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be anything. 'Cause if anything happens to those girls, especially Skuld, I'll be taking it out of your arse."

"And if something does happen with the Hellmouth, we'd best pray the Powers That Be are on Urd's side," added Doyle.

"And the Slayer," said Whistler. "Let's hope Urd has both the Powers That Be and the Slayer on her side. If she doesn't, then the world could be in for a really nasty ride."

~*~*~*~

Sunnydale High

As promised Xander and Willow had arrived at the library and were helping Giles sort though the books. At least Willow was. Something else had grabbed Xander's attention.

"Hey, Will, remind me to stay really, really far away from this place," exclaimed Xander as he held up The Tragedies of Jusenkyo. "This Jusenkyo place sounds like something right out of the Twilight Zone. Listen to some of the weird springs at this place. Spring-of-Drowned-Panda, Spring-of-Drowned-Piglet, Spring-of-Drowned-Cat, Spring-of-Drowned-Duck, Spring-of-Drowned…Yeti-riding-a-Bull-holding-a-Crane-and-Eel?"

"Xander, you're making that up!" accused Willow.

"I am not! Look, it says so right here."

To appease her long-time friend Willow looked. Much to her surprise the listing was just as Xander had said. "Wow, Spring-of-Drowned-Yeti-riding-a-Bull-holding-a-Crane-and-Eel. Boy, that's weird even by Sunnydale standards." Willow took the book from Xander and began to flip though it. Something about the stories of Jusenkyo seemed to draw the novice witch.

"Spring-of-Drowned-Octopus? How did an octopus get into the mountains of China? Spring-of-…" A puzzled look crossed Willow's face. "What's an Akane?"

"Having fun are we?" asked Giles as he stepped out of his office.

The duo jumped a bit in surprise. "Sorry, Giles," apologized Willow. "But Xander found this really cool book and we got distracted."

"Can you believe it? Me actually reading a book that doesn't have Spider-Man or the X-Men on the cover," joked Xander. "This Jusenkyo place must really be magic."

Giles put on one of his mildly annoyed looks but secretly he was pleased. Anything that could get teenagers into learning was perfectly fine with him. "Looking at The Tragedies of Jusenkyo, were you? I must admit it is a rather fascinating tome. If you found that interesting, Willow, then you may want to have a look at this," said Giles as he held a small leather-bound book.

"What is it?"

"The diary of one of the last century's greatest Watchers, Makoto Hibiki. He was Japanese, but he visited the four corners of the Earth and recorded the legends of the all the places he visited."

"Quite the world traveler, huh?" asked Xander.

Giles adjusted his glasses and looked a bit uncomfortable. "Er, no. It seems that he just had a absolutely dreadful sense of direction. A common family trait as the stories go.

"Anyway, one of the most fascinating stories he ever came across was in his native country. According to Hibiki, 700 years ago a demon fell from the sky. For weeks the creature terrorized the countryside until one day a great ship shaped like a dragon appeared in the sky. Riding atop the dragon's back was a powerful samurai named Yosho. After a great battle Yosho managed to cleave three gems that were the source of the demon's power from its body. He then placed the gems in the hilt of his sword and sealed the demon in a cave. The sword then became the key to the seal. Should anyone foolishly take the sword back to the cave and break the seal the demon would then be free again."

"And knowing our luck it would head right for Sunnydale," sighed Xander.

It was then that Buffy and the goddesses came though the library doors. "Hey Giles, set a couple extra places at the table. We've got company."

As Willow looked at the two newcomers something gave her a faint prickling sensation. It was similar to the feeling she had when she was casting spells. A small feeling of unease began to creep up Willow's spine. Her magical abilities were still limited, but these two women were somehow setting them off. To do that, the young witch realized, meant that they must wield some very powerful magick.

Xander, however, had no magical abilities so he did not exactly share Willow's unease. But he had noticed that the older auburn-haired woman was incredibly beautiful. Under normal circumstances the sight of a beautiful woman would send Xander's mind off into any number of lusty directions. He was a teenage boy after all. But for some reason that didn't happen when he looked at this woman. For some reason she just seemed too…pure for such thoughts. That unnerved Xander in a way he'd never felt before.

Giles was also feeling uncomfortable. Newcomers to the circle the teens called the 'Scooby Gang' were rare. And when they did come it usually meant trouble.

"Hello, I'm Rupert Giles, the librarian here at Sunnydale High," said the Englishman as he offered his hand. Belldandy took it and shook politely. "Over there are Xander Harris and Willow Rosenburg. They're helping me organize some new books for the school. And it seems you've already met Buffy."

"You can drop the act, Giles," informed Buffy. "They know."

Giles did his best to look mystified. "Know? Know what?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Everything, Giles! Slayers, Watchers, vampires, the Hellmouth. Everything. And do they ever have a story to tell."

"We're goddesses," interjected Skuld, happily.

Willow, Xander, and Giles looked at the young girl as if she'd just grown an extra set of eyes.

"I know that it sounds strange but it's the truth," said Belldandy. "My name is Belldandy and this is my younger sister, Skuld. And it is as Buffy says. We're both goddesses."

The humans turned to look at Buffy. They all had a "Is she crazy?" expression on their faces.

"Yeah, goddesses, I know how it sounds," began the Slayer. "But I saw Belldandy crispy fry four vamps and fly not twenty minutes ago. And Skuld dusted a vampire using just a croquet mallet. Guys, I'm not really sure what these two are, but I'd say goddesses is definitely on the list of possibilities."

Willow was starting to feel her initial unease die down. None of her senses, magical or otherwise, felt anything evil coming from Belldandy and Skuld. "Buffy may be right," the redhead began. "I've read a lot about goddesses and stuff and I think they're real. If they say that's what they are then maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt."

"I know it's hard to believe but please give us a change to prove what we say," said Belldandy.

Giles was about to demand the goddess make good on her claim when Skuld made a surprised noise. Everyone looked as the little goddess pulled the portable TV from her pocket. Its case kept bulging and raising as if something were trying to break free from within.

"Looks like someone's back from her trip," observed Skuld as she flipped on the TV. Instantly Urd soared out of the device and stopped in the air above her sisters and the humans.

"Oh my god!" gasped Giles as he looked up at the woman floating before him.

Urd glanced at the Watcher and gave him an amused smirk. "Goddess. You mean 'Oh my goddess!'. Or goddesses if you want to get technical about it." Urd floated to the ground and gave Giles an appraising look. "Say, you look familiar. Were you ever on TV? Maybe a coffee commercial or something."

"Well, I was once an extra on an episode of Dr. Who but, I, er…" fumbled Giles.

"Hey, Will, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that these women just may be goddesses," said Xander who was still trying to get over Urd's entrance.

"I, uh, think you might be right," concurred the shaken redhead.

"Somebody give the rocket scientists a prize," grumbled the goddess of the Past as she turned her attention to her sisters. "Hey, sis. Hey, brat. Who are these guys and why are you two in what looks like a high school library?" Urd's eyes then fell on Buffy. A look of surprise appeared on the goddess's face. "Who's the blonde? Any why does she have ancient magick in her veins?"

"It's because she's the Slayer," informed Belldandy. "Her name is Buffy Summers and she's offered to help us. That man over there is Mr. Giles, her Watcher, and over there are her friends Xander and Willow."

"I told them a bit about us on the way over," added Buffy who looked slightly embarrassed.

Urd was busy giving the Scooby Gang the once-over. "So the Slayer is in Sunnydale. It would have been nice knowing that before we came here."

"I suppose we should have done a bit more research on this place before we came here," sighed Belldandy.

"Will someone please tell me what the heck Slayers and Watchers are?!" demanded Skuld.

"Yes, I think a round of explanations would be most helpful at this point," said Giles.

Belldandy nodded. "I suppose we'd best start with Slayers and Watchers. You see, Skuld, into each generation, a Slayer is born. One girl, in all the world, a Chosen One. One born with--"

"The strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of evil, blah, blah," interrupted Urd. "You get the gist of it. The Watchers are a secret society that has existed in one form or another since before recorded human history. They've made it their duty to help keep the monsters in this world under control. Part of that duty includes training the Slayer. The Watchers have had their main headquarters in England for the last few centuries, but they have chapters in every country on Earth."

"And this Slayer is you?" asked Skuld as she looked at Buffy.

"Right," confirmed the blonde girl. "Well, I'm *a* Slayer. There's two of us now."

"Two Slayers? How is such a thing possible?" said Belldandy.

"Okay, long story really, really, short," began Buffy. "About two years ago I fought a really nasty vampire called the Master. He managed to put the blood drain on me, killing me. Xander and…another friend of mine came along in time to give me CPR and save my life."

"But the minute or so you spent dead was enough to call the new Slayer," concluded Urd. "Wow, I've heard a lot of stories about Slayers over the years, but that's a new one on me."

"On us too," informed Buffy. A somber look then appeared on the Slayer's face "A few months after I died a girl named Kendra showed up. She was the new Slayer. But we really didn't get a chance to know her. Not long after she came to Sunnydale she was killed by a vampire named Drusilla."

"And when Kendra died a new girl was called to take her place," said Skuld. "Now I'm starting to understand."

"It's truly is a unique situation," said Giles. "The new girl, Faith, is a bit wild and something of a loner. But she's very talented. I'm sure that with the proper training she'll calm down and excel in her duties."

"'Wild,' eh? This Faith sounds like my kind of girl," mused Urd.

"Figures you'd think so, Urd," grumbled Skuld.

It was then Giles' eyes opened as if a revelation had come to him. "Excuse me, but you say her name is Urd?"

"Correct," confirmed Belldandy. "You see my sisters and I--" The goddess was cut off as Giles suddenly dashed off into the stacks. "Uh, we're the goddesses of--"

"Don't interrupt him," advised Xander. "This is what Giles lives for. Just sit back, relax and listen to the nice man's soothing voice as he explains a bunch of stuff you don't understand."

It was then that Giles reappeared, a large green book in his hands. "Urd, Skuld and Belldandy. I knew I'd heard those names before. It just took me awhile to remember where," the Watcher explained as he sat the book down on a table. He then looked at the newcomers. "You three really are goddesses. You're the Norns, aren't you?"

"B-I-N-G-O!" grinned Urd.

"Norns?" said Willow, a look of puzzlement on her face. "I think I've heard that word before."

"Okay, Giles, enough with the mystery stuff," demanded Buffy. "Will you tell those of us who didn't take Mythology 101 what a Norn is."

"Oh, yes, of course," nodded Giles as he flipped open the book. "This book is the lost volume of the Icelandic Eddas, a collection of ancient writings that provide the most authoritative source on Norse mythology known today. According to the Eddas the Norns are goddesses of destiny. They control the fates of both gods and men as well as the unchanging laws of the universe. The Norns consisted of three sisters. The eldest was called Urd or sometimes Urth. Her name meant 'fate'."

Urd smiled and gave a mock bow. "Thank you, thank you. Please, no autographs."

Giles continued unabated. "The youngest sister was Skuld whose named meant 'being'."

The little goddess said nothing but gave everyone a glowing smile.

Giles adjusted his glasses and gave Belldandy an appraising look. "The middle sister was named Verdandi. Her name meant 'necessity'."

"Wait, I thought you said your name was Belldandy," said Willow.

"Verdandi is technically my name," began the goddess. "But few people have called me that in the last three hundred years."

"May I inquire as to why?" quizzed Giles.

Urd rolled her eyes. "Looks like we get to hear the Julian story again."

Belldandy pretended not to notice. "In a nutshell the story is this. In 18th century France, in the city of Avingon, there was a young man named Julian. He was deeply in love with a girl named Lydia and she loved him as well. But their fathers were bitter business rivals who forbid their relationship.

"One day, in the midst of a horrible depression, Julian decided to visit the seaside in hopes of lifting his spirits. While he sat by the ocean he wrote a letter detailing his love for Lydia, his frustration at his father for not allowing them to be together and the emptiness he felt in his heart."

"Oh, that's so romantic," cooed Buffy.

"Sounds like the plot to some of those trashy novels they sell at the supermarket," grumbled Xander. Buffy, Willow and Urd gave him dirty looks.

Belldandy continued her story without pause. "Once his letter was done Julian put it in a bottle and cast it into the sea. As he watched the bottle float away he prayed to any deity who may hear him to help unite he and Lydia.

"Fortunately for Julian, someone did hear his prayer. It was Alpan, goddess of love to Etruscans. She was touched by his words so she passed the letter on to the Powers That Be in Heaven. The Powers were also moved by Julian's plight and so a decision was made. Because of the love in his heart, and the fact that he had led a virtuous life, Julian would be granted one wish. I was chosen to carry out this order and grant Julian his wish.

"So I descended to the earth to grant Julian his wish." Belldandy then began to look a bit embarrassed. "After seeing me appear out of a mirror Julian had no trouble believing me to be a goddess. The problem came when I introduced myself. You see, Julian was a bit hard of hearing--"

"The guy was deaf as a post!" exclaimed Urd.

"He wasn't deaf, Urd. Just rather hard of hearing," defended Belldandy. "As I was saying, when I introduced myself Julian misheard my name. He though I said my name was Belledandy."

"Belle, spelled b-e-l-l-e, is French for beautiful," informed Skuld enthusiastically. "My big sis is really beautiful and plenty dandy!"

Belldandy gave her young sister a warm smile. "Considering how happy he was to see me I couldn't bring myself to correct Julian. He quickly wished that the hostility between the two families would end. His wish was granted and soon he and Lydia were married. They spent the rest of their lives together and were very happy."

"They even named their first daughter Belle," added Skuld.

"That's story is so sweet," sighed Willow.

"So sweet it's even givin' me cavities," muttered Urd. "Anyway, to wrap this up Belldandy comes back to Heaven and told everyone what happened. As you can see, Skuld loves this story. So she took to calling Verdandi Belledandy. Pretty soon everyone was calling her that. Over the years Belledandy somehow turned into Belldandy."

"I always took it as a term of endearment," explained Belldandy.

"Well, I think Belldandy is a fine name for a goddess," commented Willow.

"I think it suits you too," added Buffy.

"A most fascinating story," mused Giles. "But could you perhaps tell us what it is that has brought you to Sunnydale.

"We think a demon named Mara might be here," said Skuld. "Belldandy and Urd are worried that she might try opening the Hellmouth or something."

Buffy's eye's narrowed. "Mara's the name Angel mentioned to me last night."

"Who's Angel?" inquired Urd.

"That's yet another long story," replied Xander. "One I'd really rather not hear."

Giles cut off Buffy's retort to Xander. "Yes, I remember Buffy asking me to look into that name this morning. I haven't had time yet for a in-depth investigation, but if I recall correctly there may be some information on her in this book."

Urd opened her mouth to say something but Belldandy gestured to her to be quite. Urd looked as if she would argue for a moment, but then nodded.

"Ah, here it is," announced Giles after a quick search of his book. "Mara, sometimes refereed to as Mahler. A Norse demon from the realm of Niflheim. Supposedly she's very fond of cruel tricks and was a favorite deciple of the god Loki."

"Oh, Loki, I know this one!" exclaimed Xander. "He was the Norse God of Mischief. He runs around in this funky yellow and green outfit and wears a helmet with these whoppin' huge horns on the front and is always saying stuff like 'Curse mine half brother, Thor. Yet again his interference hath fouled mine schemes. But I shall have my vengeance upon him anon!'."

Giles tried very hard not to roll his eyes. He failed. "As amusing as that was, Xander, I do not think it wise to believe everything you learned from reading Thor comic books as an actual lesson in mythology."

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," conceded the young man. Then Xander perked up a bit. "Wait a second. How did you know that stuff was from the Thor comics?"

Giles flushed slightly red but he regained himself. "Well, er, I was a child once myself. And the do sell American comic books in England…"

"Our stuffy book guy Giles was a comic fan?" grinned Xander. "This belongs on the front page of one of those British tabloids. Right next to the story and Prince Charles' secret wedding to the three-headed clone of Elvis.

"Hey, what books did you read?" rambled the Scooby Gang member. "No, let me guess. You liked Green Lantern. You seem like the Green Lantern type."

Giles was now looking very embarrassed. "Actually, I preferred the Flash. However, to bring this back to something remotely relative, I will enlighten Mr. Harris here will real facts on Loki."

Urd somehow surpressed a groan. This Giles guy talked *way* too much. Plus, just the mention of Loki's name brought back a lot of bad memories.

"Loki was one of the Aesir, the primary pantheon of the Norse gods. He was the god of fire as well as a shapershifter and trickster. He was also responsible for the death of Balder, the god of light.

As punishment for killing Balder, Loki was chained to three large boulders; one under his shoulders, one under his loins and one under his knees. A poisonous snake was placed above his head. The dripping venom that lands on him is caught by Sigyn, his faithful wife, in a bowl. But every now and then, when the bowl is filled, she must leave him to empty it. Then the poison that falls on Loki's face makes him twist in pain, causing earthquakes."

"That's kinda romantic," said Buffy.

"And sad," added Willow.

"Poor Sigyn," whispered Belldandy. "I remember the day Allfather Odin sentenced Loki. She cried and begged Odin for mercy for her husband. But all of Asgard was stricken over Balder's death. They wanted Loki to suffer for what he'd done. Sadly, because of her love for him, Sigyn was forced to suffer as well."

"Try not to think about it, sis," advised Urd as she placed a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder. "I know it's tough, especially since you used to be really close to Sigyn before all that happened. But we've still gotta find Mara. She's looking to pay us back for destroying the Lord of Terror and she just may be using the Hellmouth to do it. We can't let that happen."

Giles' face suddenly lost quite a bit of color. "Did you say the Lord of Terror?"

"Yep, she did," confirmed Skuld. "Mara managed to free him a few weeks ago and he went and possessed Urd. It took everything Belldandy and I had to stop him from destroying the universe."

Urd burned her hands in her face. "Thanks, Skuld. Thanks for letting strangers in on the worst experience of my life."

"I'm getting real tired of saying this," began Xander "but could I have an explanation. Who or what is the Lord of Terror? Other than the name of a movie that probably had Vincent Price or Christopher Lee in it."

"The Lord of Terror is a legendary demon," informed Giles. "A demon said to have fantastic power. Power enough to destroy all of creation. It's also said that when Lord of Terror returned to the Earth he would possess skin of bronze."

"Nevermind my long legs and tone body," joked Urd. But then her face darkened somewhat. "As much as I hate to admit it, what Skuld said is true. Lucky me, I was the one the Lord of Terror wanted to use as a vessel to destroy the universe and then remake it in his own image. As it is, we're fortunate that all that got destroyed was the Makuhari Messe Convention Center. Never mind the mess all that left the Yggdrasil in."

Buffy arched her eyebrows. "Makuhari Messe Convention Center? Isn't that the place you told me about this morning, Giles?"

"Indeed it is," confirmed the Watcher. "So it wasn't mass hysteria and such. It was actually the Lord of Terror. Fascinating."

"Uh, question," said Willow as she raised her hand tentatively. "What's a Yggdrasil?"

Everyone looked at Giles. The Englishmen looked at them confused for a moment. Realization then hit him and he reached for his book. "The Yggdrasil , also called the World Tree, is the giant ash tree that links and shelters all the layers of the universe. It is guarded by the Norns who pour water from the Well of Fate into its branches to prevent decay."

"Now that is a perfect example of why you should never believe everything you read in books," muttered Urd. "I'm a goddess, not a gardener. Before I got stuck here on Earth I was the System Operator for Yggdrasil."

"'System Operator?'" repeated Willow. "You mean like with computers?" The young witch felt her curiosity raise. Just what kind of computers did goddesses use?

"And I was the debugger," added Skuld. "Of course, Yggdrasil bugs are a lot tougher than normal computer bugs. For one thing they look like rabbits with eight legs and they move really fast. It takes real skill to fix them." Skuld then gave a quick demonstration of what she meant by 'fix' by giving her hammer a test swing.

"Do you mean to tell me that the Yggdrasil is…a computer?" demanded Giles. The Watcher had again gone a bit pale.

"Yes, it is" confirmed Belldandy. "The ancient people of the Norseland described our system as best they could using things they understood to explain what they didn't. Essentially, the Yggdrasil is the computer that runs the operations of the universe."

"The universe is run by a computer?" boggled Buffy. "This doesn't mean that Bill Gates is God, does it?"

Xander was also having a hard time buying this bit of news. "The universe is run a great big Game Boy? Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?"

Willow, unlike the others, had no problem with this news. Computers were cool. Except when there's demon with its eyes on you living inside one. "So did you work on the Yggdrasil too, Belldandy?"

The goddess shook her head. "No, I was in the Goddess Relief Office. The job of the GRO is mostly to grant wishes to people deemed worthy. People like Julian."

Xander rubbed his temples as if he had a headache. "Okay, I now declare no more learning. It's Friday, school's over, I don't want to be within 300 yards of a fact until Monday."

That was when Giles giggled. "Of course the universe is run by a computer," he said. "That explains so very, very much. London drivers, Eddie Izzard, people who won't stop talking during movies, those dreadful Australian soap operas, spam, why it's so hard to get a good scone in this country… It even explains the French."

Everyone stared at Giles as he continued to ramble.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Skuld.

"Giles doesn't like computers. Big time," said Willow. "I guess finding out the universe is run by one was a bit much for him."

"Buffy, Giles is going bye bye. Maybe you should do something," suggested Xander.

The Slayer nodded her head. "Right. Do something. Like what?"

It was then that the library doors flew open and Oz hustled in "Hey, guys, we've got trouble. I just--" The musician stopped short as he saw the newcomers to the Scooby Gang.

"Who invited the werewolf?" asked Urd.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Picture if you will an ordinary hand-held video camera. Now picture what said camera would look like if it grew legs, a tail and wings. If you can imagine that, then you can picture the creature that was currently peering though the library windows.

It had been positioned there since before Buffy and the goddesses had arrived, the lens that served as its eye recording all. Now the thing felt that it had seen enough. With a few flaps of its wings the creature pulled itself into the air. It then flew off silently into the Sunnydale night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Author's Notes: Wow, looking back I'm rather amazed that I'm been working on this story for about a year and a half. Nothing gets in the way of finding time to write like college. ;) Anyway, since I'm at what I'd consider the middle of "Brimstone Raising" I thought now would be a good time to good back and point out some of the little in-jokes and fun bits that I tossed into this story for my own amusement as much as the reader's. To do this I'll post the line I'll be commenting on in italics and under that, in regular text, my comments. And you thought commentary like this only came with good DVDs.

To kick off this tidbits fest I guess I'll start by telling you how I came up with this story's title. As you may have guessed by this point I'm a big fan of comic books. In 1995 Wildstorm Comics had an event that ran through all the titles they published called "Wildstorm Raising". The title was meant to reflect that the Wildstorm Universe, due to the crossover, would be undergoing massive change and evolution. Unlike most crossovers of this sort done by major publishers, this story really did have longterm consquences for just about everyone involved.

Anyway, I really loved the title of the story so I filled it away in that part of my brain that I have set aside for remebering stuff that's cool and might be useful later on. Now please note that this story came out about three years before I started writing fanfic. I hadn't even heard of fanfic back then.

So now jump forward to the time when I've had the idea for the story and have started to work on the plot. As is my habit, I never start writing until I have a title and the plot worked out in my head. As I'm mulling over what to call the story the title of that comic crossover from many years ago foalts to the surface of my thoughts for some reason. The "raising" part sounds cool but something was missing. Since Mara is at the core of the story I started to think of words that describe her in hopes of getting ideas. Since Mara is a demon the word brimstone came to mind. Plus, since Sunnydale is on the Hellmouth, brimstone is also a good word for the Buffyverse.

Put them together and you have our title. However, the title also has two other meanings. One, brimstone represents the power of evil that Mara's plan could unleash. Second, with brimstone representing Mara, this story shows her "raising" as a bad guy, being more cunning, ruthless and just plain evil than she was in the Oh My Goddess! manga.

Well, enough of that. Let's point out some Easter eggs.

He'd killed her and an entire tent full of wounded Confederate soldiers in 1863, just after the surrender of Vicksburg.

The surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi occurred after the Union Army laid siege to the city for several months and eventually starved out the members of the Confederate Army who had been holed up there. It was one of the key turning points in the American Civil War.

Angel actually only read the first few lines of The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats, one of Ireland's most famous poets. I only had him read that part because it applied very well to the story.

G'Kar also reads a portion of this poem on an episode of Babylon 5. I forget the title, but, IIRC, it was just before the start of the Shadow War.

The TV shows Urd was watching were: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Urusei Yatsura, Quantum Leap, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Knight Rider respectively.

He took a swig from his can of Pepsi and returned his attention to the book he'd been reading, The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson.

Hunter S. Thompson is my favorite author. In addition to The Rum Diary he also wrote The Great Shark Hunt, Generation of Swine and Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas among others. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas is right at the top of my lists for both favorite books and movies.

"Sunnydale? Prof. Jurgens mentioned that place in class last month."

The last name Jurgens is a tribute to comic book writer/artist Dan Jurgens, best known for his work on books like Superman and Thor.

"Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars…" sang as soft voice.

"Fly Me To the Moon" was one of Frank Sinatra's biggest hits. The song was also the ending theme to Neon Genesis Evangelion, one of my all-time favorite anime shows.

"I'll go with bizarre lifeform from the planet Metaluna," said Xander.

This is a reference to a famous sci-fi movie from the 1950's called This Island Earth. It's considered a classic by a lot of people, though I'm at a loss as to why. The plot is dumb and full of holes and the acting is more wooden than a Redwood forest.

The only thing about the film that I liked was that the guy who played the Professor on Gilligan's Island was in it. This Island Earth got a much-needed riffing in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, which I strongly recommend.

"I'm telling you guys, I really think the lunch lady is trying to kill us," said Xander as he began to prod the goo with a fork.

Xander's right on the money with this one as evidenced in "Earshot".

"I say thee nay!" retorted Xander. "Mock not my comics or I shall smite thee with mine hammer, mighty Mjolnir!"

Xander's clearly been reading a lot of the Thor comic books published by Marvel Comics. If you ever read interviews with Joss Whedon and a lot of the other folks who work and Buffy and Angel you'll find that many love comics, especially the ones put out by Marvel. References to Marvel characters have popped up in several Buffy episodes.

"My roommate back at UCS disappeared after about a week of classes. He left a note saying college was to much for him, but he didn't go home."

This was the M.O. Sunday and her pals used to cover up their feeding in season four's "The Freshmen".

"But I've been having a case of the creppies ever since I heard about the earthquake last night.

I strayed from Buffy continuity on this one. Buffy says that the quake that happens in season four's "Doomed" is the first one to hit Sunnydale since "Prophesy Girl" in season one.

"I could recheck the Pergamum Codex, but none of my research has turned up any indication that we're due for any major supernatural activity," said the Englishman as he sipped from his ever-present cup of tea.

The Pergamum Codex is a book of Slayer prophesy that is never wrong. It predicted Buffy's death at the hands of the Master in "Prophesy Girl".

"Meteor shower? Please don't tell me I'm going to have to start worrying about being replaced by a pod person every time I go to sleep."

Buffy is referring to the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers where aliens grab people and replace them with copies when they sleep. It's your choice if she's referring to the famous version of the film from the 50s or the 70s remake.

"I thought in Japan it was supposed to be giant lizards and moths. So what's deal with all this weird?"

Buffy is referring to Godzilla and Mothra, two of Japan's most famous giant movie monsters.

Giles studying in Japan is something I made up on my own. But we do know that Giles does speak several languages so who says Japanese can't be one of them?

Plus, in season five's "Checkpoint" Anthony Head gives Buffy the names of several martial arts moves to perform in front of members of the Watcher's Council. I'm a second year Japanese student so I can tell you Anthony's pronunciation was great.

To my unending delight, that wasn't the only time things would pop up on new episodes of Buffy that fit perfectly with this story. But more on that later.

Giles was again taking a drink of tea. "Marvelous country Japan. Delightful people and lovely tea. Did you know that in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony--"

I actually got to see a tea ceremony when I was in Nagoya, Japan in June of 2001. It really is a wonderful example of Japanese culture and I felt very honored to be a part of it. It's very traditional and just the sort of thing Giles would love.

The song Urd listens to on the radio is "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks. Normally I'm not a fan of songfics and stuff like that, but this song was just so perfect for Urd I had to use it.

"Thanks. Now that we're done here maybe we should head to Rice Field Cemetery. I was there yesterday and saw some evidence that someone may have been skulking around."

The name Rice Field Cemetery is a private joke. It's the name of a cemetery that was across the street from my high school. Not right across the street, mind you. You'd have to walk across the parking lot and the soccer field from the entrance to the school to get there. But there was only one street to cross to get to the gates. I always found it odd that I could see a place where dead people were from my seat in 10th grade English class. Oh, and Rice Field was also the name of the football field.

My high school may not have been built on a Hellmouth but it was built on reclaimed swampland. I always figured that was ironic in some way but was never sure how.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

Luna says the this all the time in the English dub of Sailor Moon. IIRC, it also pops up at least once in all of the movies in the original Star Wars Trilogy.

The cartoons Skuld watched were: G.I. Joe, Slayers, Batman: The Animated Series, Sailor Moon, Transformers, Pokémon and M.A.S.K..

Can you tell I was a kid in the 80s or what?

"Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow! Warp factor six, Mr. Sulu!" shouted the goddess.

Those are references to the classic British sci-fi series Dr. Who and the original Star Trek respectively.

"Right. And I'm a Chinese jet pilot."

Skuld is parroting Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness, another of my all-time favorite movies.

"Don't sass me, Scully, er, Skuld," growled Urd. "Now where's Belldandy and Kento, uh, I mean, Kensuke, no, that's not it. Aw, hell! Where's Belldandy and the short, uptight guy we live with?"

Urd manages to get names of characters from X-Files, Ronin Warriors and Neon Genesis Evangelion mixed up with the names of the folks she lives with.

"You really know how to put the brakes on a good Dennis Miller-esqe rant, you know that?"

Dennis Miller is a comedian best know for his wild rants and ability to shoot odd cultural references off at a mile a minute. He's also the host of the talk shoe Dennis Miller Live and serves as a commentator on Monday Night Football.

Dennis is my favorite comedian as well as a role model of mine.

"That's me, Inspiration Guy," grinned Xander as he ran an imaginary comb though his hair. "Tony Robbins beware."

Tony Robbins is a self-help guru/genetic anomaly who has gained fame and fortune by suckering the gullible out of their money.

"I guess I can beat the Bronze's Darkstalkers game again some other time."

Darkstalkers is a cool fighting game (and mediocre anime and manga) that was called Vampire Hunter in Japan. It's also one of the few fighting game I've ever beaten. I really suck at fighting games.

And so it was that a condo than would fit right in on any sunny beach around the world had came to be built in Niflheim.

While there never was a way to make it come across in the story, the image of Mara's house that I have in my mind is the La Jolla, CA beachhouse that the comicbook heroes Gen13 call home. Sue me, I'm a Gen13 fanatic.

Parts of the speeches that Urd and Belldandy give Keiichi about demons and the Hellmouth were taken almost word for word from the speech Giles gives Xander and Willow in "The Harvest", the 2nd episode of Buffy.

I really love sneaking in stuff like that.

"They've sent us some very rare tomes including The Tragedies of Jusenkyo."

Will the Ranma ½ jokes ever stop? No, they won't. ;)

"We've also gotten Legends of the Yoroiden which is about nine magical suits of armor. Great Magicks of Other Worlds is a guide to some the astonishingly powers spells used in realms outside our own. It contains a rather lengthy section on the mythological 'Dragon Slave'. That is a spell so powerful that it's said to be able to level whole cities with just one casting. It's also said that the spell's most famous caster, Lina Inver--"

Those are referacnes to Ronin Warriors and Slayers respectivly.

"Maybe I should switch to Dave Barry."

Dave Barry is a humorist whose work has appeared in The Miami Herald and other American newspapers for years. He's had loads of his colums published in books and even a TV shows, Dave' World, based of his material.

Cool fact, Nicholas Brendon a.k.a. Xander, used to be a production assistant on Dave's World before he was fired for napping on the job.

"Brave heart, Buffy," said Giles.

Peter Davison often used this line in his role as the 5th Doctor on the BBC Sci-fi sereis Dr. Who to encourage his companion, Tegan. Interestingly, during Davison's run on the show the Doctor twice fought an evil, snake-like being called the Mara.

"I thought I was onto something when I found an abandoned factory on the outskirts of town that was giving off some bad vibes. I checked it out but the place was deserted. I'd say some of the local vamps must have used it as a base for a while. Other than that I got nothing."

The Factroy is the where Spike and Drusilla lived during their time in Sunnydale.

"Anyway, I'm Buffy, your friendly neighborhood vampire Slayer."

Buffy is making a play on the line 'your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man'. It's one of the catch phrases used by the comic book hero Spider-Man. Mayhaps Xander's love of comics is rubbing off on our favorite Slayer.

He's no Deep Throat, but Giles is the king of looking stuff up.

Buffy is referring to the codename of the informant who gave Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward the information that broke the Watergate Scandel. Or maybe Buffy just saw All the President's Men, which is the film version of the story and a great flick to boot.

Sorry, X-Files fans, but in my mind she wasn't referring to Mulder's infamous informant.

On maps of Manhattan you'll find it listed as West Mid-Town. But the residents of the area have for decades given it the colorful moniker of Hell's Kitchen.

Hell's Kitchen is where Marvel Comics' hero Daredevil has long operated.

"Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice…" blared the TV.

The TV is picked up the old SuperFriends TV show. A goofy as it was, I grew up watching the show so I do have a fondness for it.

Do I even need to explain who Whistler and Doyle are?

"John Constantine. Why am I not surprised to see you here?"

John is the star of the comic book series Hellblazer. It's a great book that I really recommend.

"'Fraid not, luv. Believe me, I wish I did know somethin'. I still owe that demon bitch some payback from the last time I got dragged into one of her messes."

Here's I'm reffering to the classic Oh My Goddess!/Hellblazer fanfic "Dire Fates" by Rod M and David Tai. Rod and David were cool enough to let me tie this fic to their work and I'm grateful for it. It's was "Dire Fates" that got me into OMG in this first place. If you get the chance to read any of their work do it. It's worth it.

"This Jusenkyo place sounds like something right out of the Twilight Zone . Listen to some of the weird springs at this place. Spring-of-Drowned-Panda, Spring-of-Drowned-Piglet, Spring-of-Drowned-Cat, Spring-of-Drowned-Duck, Spring-of-Drowned…Yeti-riding-a-Bull-holding-a-Crane-and-Eel?"

Here I'm referring to Ranma ½ characters by their Jusenkyo curses. In order we have Genma, Ryoga, Shampoo, Mousse and Pantyhose Tarou. Oh, and the bit Willow read was reffering to the Spring of Akane. In a volume not yet out in English Akane fell into a Jusenkyo spring where nothing had ever drownd. Thus, it became the Spring of Akane and anyone who falls in turns into a copy of her.

"The diary of one of the last century's greatest Watchers, Makoto Hibiki. He was Japanese, but he visited the four corners of the Earth and recorded the legends of the all the places he visited."

Wow, who would have guessed that one of Ryoga's ancestors was a Watcher?

"According to Hibiki, 700 years ago a demon fell from the sky. For weeks the creature terrorized the countryside until one day a great ship shaped like a dragon appeared in the sky. Riding atop the dragon's back was a powerful samurai named Yosho. After a great battle Yosho managed to cleave three gems that were the source of the demon's power from its body. He then placed the gems in the hilt of his sword and sealed the demon in a cave. The sword then became the key to the seal. Should anyone foolishly take the sword back to the cave and break the seal the demon would then be free again."

This is the story of Ryoko from the Tenchi Muyo OAVs.

Urd floated to the ground and gave Giles an appraising look. "Say, you look familiar. Were you ever on TV? Maybe a coffee commercial or something."

Anthony Stewart Head a.k.a. Giles was first introduced to the US in a coffee commercial. I can't remember what brand though.

"This book is the lost volume of the Icelandic Eddas, a collection of ancient writings that provide the most authoritative source on Norse mythology known today."

The Icelandic Eddas are a real thing that, like Giles said, are our main source for most of what we know about Norse myth today. I madeup the bit about a lost volume, however.

The story of how Verdandi became Belldandy is also something I made up. The truth is Vs and Bs and Ls and Rs are interchangeable in Japanese. Do the pronunceation Japanese style and Verdandi becomes Belldandy.

"Who or what is the Lord of Terror? Other than the name of a movie that probably had Vincent Price or Christopher Lee in it."

Vincent Price and Christopher Lee were two of the greatest low-buget horror film actors ever.

Mara's videocamera monster popped in the Sympathy for the Devil trade paperback.