FIC: Warrior... Slayer (2/?)

["Shadow" <Shadowlander1@xxxxxxx>]

Title: Warrior... Slayer (2/?)
Author: Shadowlander
Email: Shadowlander1@xxxxxxx
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters commonly associated with
Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Xena: Warrior Princess; they belong to
others and are used without permission. No copyright infringement is
intended.
Archive: The usual places all others ask first.
Pairing: Faith/Willow; Xena/Gabrielle
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Nothing really major that I'm aware of, although if I'm wrong
please let me know. This is just further proof that I do not take
boredom well.

WARRIOR... SLAYER (2/?)

Sunnydale, California
Fall 1998 -

"Willow Rosenberg: research girl extraordinaire and novice witch...
computer geek and wannabe spell-caster is more like it", the young
redhead grumbled as she trudged home in the early morning hours after
another all-nighter at the Library researching the latest demon threat
to the hellmouth. "Great", she groaned about halfway into her walk home
as it started to rain. 'Maybe I should have accepted that ride from
Giles after all', she berated herself picking up her pace. 'But no I
just had to prove that I could take care of myself', she said to
herself, 'stupid Faith and her sneering. She's just jealous because I
can use a computer and read three other books at once.' A growl from
somewhere behind her brought her out of her silent ramblings on
dark-haired Slayers and their bad-girl attitudes. "Thank you, my life
was growing kind of boring", she said casting a quick glance skyward
before turning to face the source of the growl, one hand reaching for
her trusty stake that Buffy made her carry everywhere. And found
herself faced with three fast approaching vampires in full game face.

Letting her backpack drop to the sidewalk, she gripped her wet stake in
one hand and tried to remember everything she had learned over the
summer while acting as the substitute slayer while Buffy was off trying
to find herself after that whole mess with Angelus and the hellmouth
nearly opening and destroying the world. Only to stop slacked jawed as
the lunging vampires suddenly froze, after a moment she also noticed
that the rain had stopped too... in mid fall. Everything just
stopped... everything except for her, because she could still feel her
pounding heart trying to beat itself out of her chest. "Oh this can't
be good."

"Really? It can't?" a voice calmly said, as a figure stepped out of the
shadows, "you wanted to be lunch for the undead?" Taking one look at
the huge being coming toward her, she did that only thing she could
think of, she plunged her stake into its chest. "Ouch!" the creature
grunted after a moment pulling out the stake, "was that really necessary
little bit?" It questioned in a shocked voice, handing the stake back
to her and rubbing its chest dejectedly.

"Oh sorry", Willow replied, after a moment taking back the stake
absent-mindedly, "reflex... er, what are you?"

"Oh forgive me, I am Alexiares guardian of divine justice", the creature
introduced itself with a little bow.

"Guardian of divine justice", Willow repeated, taking the time to get a
good look at the being standing in front of her. He was big, standing
at a good 6"8" give or take a few inches, with a little black goat-tee
covering his chin and gray skin... or was that fur? It was kind of hard
to tell, but it was his eyes that captured her attention the most, they
were sky blue and seemed to glow from within from some internal power
source.

'Not many humans know of me", he said with a wide grin, "I sort of help
out the more established gods and goddesses of justice around the
world." He finished in a stage whisper, a secretive look in his eyes.

"So you?" she questioned waving a finger around the general area.

"Stop time? Oh no I'm not responsible for this, messing with time is
'so' not my department... I'm just here to escort you to someone who
really wants to talk to you."

"Talk to me? Why?"

"Not sure... Eon didn't tell me, just said it was really important that
she got to talk to you... before you became a happy meal for the three
stooges of the vampire world over there", he said, jerking a thumb in
the direction of the frozen vampires. "You know most vampires do have
the sense to get in out of the rain... or is that sun? I can never keep
that one straight, again not my department, but I can assure you that
these particular vampires will not be sneaking up on you after you talk
to
Eon." He finished, his eyes glowing briefly, "it is time for their
final judgment, they are very disappointing as demons, you know?"

"Okay", Willow said with a shake of her head, taking his offered arm,
interested in seeing what was going to happen next, silently wondering
if she had not, in fact, fallen asleep in the Library and was dreaming
all of this. Giving the young redhead an encouraging smile, the two
disappear in a flash of light.

***********************

Elsewhere, the Palace of Eon -

"Easy", Alexiares said steadying Willow after the two appeared in a
flash of light.

"W-where are we?" Willow questioned taking a look around herself in awe.
The two had appeared on a terrace of some kind, a very large and
imposing palace looming over them on one side, around them was space, an
endless sea of stars and comets and just everything.

"The crossroads of time and space... and well just everything. Nothing
anywhere happens without Eon first knowing about it", Alexiares said
proudly with a chuckle, suddenly remembering that Willow was seeing all
of this through the eyes of a mortal and was a bit overwhelmed by
something that was pretty normal for him. "Hey... don't worry about it,
nothing bad is going to happen to you... Eon just wants to talk to you",
he assured her, "oh good they are here."

Looking in the direction he had indicated with a nod of his head, Willow
watched as three women approached them from the direction of the palace.
"Ladies may I present Willow Rosenberg", he said formerly, "Willow, the
one wearing the 'Byte Me' t-shirt is Tapestry, the guardian of all that
is, was, or ever will be. She also acts as the guardian of order, next
to her in all the leather is Chaos, the guardian of change, and finally
this is Eon, the guardian of time and space... and the owner of this
place."

"Nice to met you kiddo", Chaos said with a sultry smile, a small ball of
energy glowing faintly in one hand, "hey, do me a favour... say bang."

"Huh?"

"Amuse her", Alexiares said with a laugh.

"Okay... bang", Willow said a bit hesitantly as she watched Chaos throw
the little ball of energy into the air toward a small patch of
nothingness she had not seen before. Only to jump back in surprise as
the ball exploded in an array of light and colour, adding a new patch of
stars to the sea.

"Yes!" Chaos cowed merrily, a bright goofy looking grin plastered
firmly across her face as she admired her work. "I love starting things
off with a bang."

"Er... what just happened?"

"Nothing much... you just helped create a new universe is all",
Alexiares couldn't help but say with a grin of his own.

"You have to pardon my sister... little things amuse her", Tapestry said
with grin giving the young mortal a wink.

"Hey! You're just mad because you didn't think of it ol' orderly and
boring one."

"I couldn't of been an only child", Eon groaned with a shake of her
head, "you have to forgive my sisters, we do not get many visitors...
and they do tend to get overexcited when they are creating."

"Oh that's fine... I get the same way when Giles' let me look at his
'forbidden' magic books"; Willow said trying to get into the swing of
things. 'Face it Rosenberg, you couldn't live on the edge even if Buffy
was there giving pointers.'

"Hey, don't think things about yourself like that", Tapestry admonished,
"we can read your thoughts little one, comes in handy every now and then
in our line of work. However, as the immortal bard once penned 'to thy
own self be true'... if you're not a live-on-the-edge type person, don't
worry about it... you have less of a chance of falling off and breaking
something." She finished with a smile.

"Hate to interrupt... but we got to get back to work", Chaos said, eager
to begin the long process of change and evolution in the newly created
universe circling serenely above them, she really loved this part.

"Of course, Willow if you'll come with me, I can tell you why I sent for
you", Eon offered leading the young redhead into the palace.

"Eon is really going to stir things up... isn't she?" Alexiares asked
watching the two enter the palace.

"Oh yeah she is... isn't it great?" Chaos replied, with that goofy grin
of hers plastered firmly in place.

***************************
Inside the Palace of Eon -

"Can I ask you a question?" Willow said following the guardian down a
long corridor lined with doors.

"Sure"

"Where do all of those doors go to?" She asked, with an arched eyebrow,
they all couldn't be lead to more rooms the place was huge enough from
what she had already seen.

"Oh those... they lead to various realities, all of the doors here do...
they are the portals I use to help maintain my wards. Even I don't know
where most of them lead too, not all realities need as much maintenance
as others do."

"Your wards?"

"The barriers between alternate universes and time itself... can't have
everything running together, things would be more confusing then they
already are in most places", Eon explained with a grin, knowing that a
longer more detailed explanation could wait for another time... they had
other matters to attend to at the moment. "To be on the safe side,
don't go opening any doors, all the 'safe' rooms are door less." She
advised with a bigger grin as the two walked into the main hall, where
Eon tended to conduct most of her business with her rare visitors.

Looking around the largest room she had ever seen, Willow noticed that
two other people were also in the room, a blonde woman in a pinkish near
see through dress sitting in a low-backed chair with a tall dark-haired
man standing behind her, one hand resting comfortably on the woman's
shoulder. "Good you two made it... how was the trip? Instantaneous?"
Eon asked, trying out those "people skills" Athena had told her about
once.

"Eon... now is not the time for you to practice being social",
Hephaestus said lowly trying to remain calm for his beloved mate's sake.
All he wanted to do was get this whole mess over with so he could get
back to his forge and doting on his daughter... after fifteen thousand
yeas he was certain he had a lot of doting to make up for.

"Heph, has anyone ever told you that you take things way too serious?"
Eon questioned playfully before turning to the redhead next too her.
"Willow, I would like for you too met Aphrodite and Hephaestus, they
have waited a very long time to see you again."

"Again?" Willow questioned, confusion clearly written on her face, a
faint stirring in the back of her mind telling her that she should know
the two, that they were very important to her.

"Let me tell you a very old story not known to many mortals. It is a
story only told by the gods to remember the strength and power of love",
Eon began
with a wave of her hand creating two chair, signaling Willow to take one
while she took the other. "About, oh I think, fifteen thousand years
ago, give or take a few centuries, there was this goddess who had became
very jealous of Aphrodite over there. So much in fact that she played a
trick on the Goddess of Love, she cursed her to never be able to give
birth to a daughter. As curses go that isn't too bad", she said
choosing to ignore the growl from Hephaestus. "She got away with it
too, no one knew of her tampering until one day on Mount Olympus she
happened to be eavesdropping on Hephaestus and Aphrodite who were off in
a secluded spot talking about having a daughter after having so many
boys.

As you can imagine the vengeful goddess was having a grand time
laughing her head off over the whole matter, unfortunately in all her
merriment she forgot that she wasn't alone on Mount Olympus. While she
was gloating, Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, who happened to be
passing by, over heard her. Demeter was outraged over the whole thing
and immediately told her brother, Zeus, the King of the Gods, of the
goddess's cruel joke. When called before the other gods the vengeful
goddess refused to remove the curse... not even the threat of being
thrown into Tartarus for all time would get her to relent. Zeus had no
choice, the goddess had defied his command so down to Hades' realm she
went until she would remove it. Hephaestus and Aphrodite were
devastated, all of their hopes and dreams it seemed rested on the
actions of a jealous goddess.

In his grief the God of the Forge locked himself away in his beloved
volcano
forge were he poured his grief and his love for the beautiful Aphrodite
into a
sculpture. You see he was not going to allow the goddess to have the
last laugh, he was
too proud for that and his love too strong. Upon completion he took the
sculpture
back to Mount Olympus where he proudly displayed it for all the gods to
see. It was a statue of mother and child, made of the purest marble in
the entire known world. It was Aphrodite holding the child that they
would never have thanks to one vengeful act. When the Goddess of Love
herself got to see the sculpture it is said she was so over come by its
beauty that she cried... not something Aphrodite is ever known for mind
you. When her tears touched the marble infant, her love for her
husband, and his for her, broke the curse where once was a stone child
was now a living one."

"Wow."

"Wow indeed", Eon said with a smile, "in honour of Demeter who
discovered the cruse, the happy parents named the child Sito, it means
'giver of grain' it was the time of the harvest on earth you see.
Although the child does go by a different name now, she is called
Willow."

End Part Two.

The Sito myth is of my own invention... while Sito is a surname for
Demeter and does mean 'giver of grain', there is no such other goddess
by that name that I am aware of.



Shadow -
Dir. of Pub. Safety of the SECLGA and Chief Dungeon Keeper.
Vampire Teddy Bear and Flying Fox {Fruit Bat} of the Woods Outback.
The Big Bad and Little Comma.