"Are you sure this is the place, Amon?" Caly asked. He would have never suspected the Immortal Guardians to live in such an unimposing house.
Amon rolled his eyes at the other Hell-god's question. "Of course, I am. Not everybody has to live in a huge, grand palace like you, Caly."
"Are you insulting my ancestral home, brother?" Caly teased.
"Who are you, and what are you doing outside my house?" a male voice growled from the shadows.
"Ah, one of the Immortal Guardians," Amon said with a bow. "I am Ptolamony, and this is my brother Calypun. We are here to speak to you about Glorificus and the Key."
"If you touch the Key, I'll hunt you till the end of time," Spike snarled.
"Good going, Amon," Caly goaded his brother Hell-God. "Get on the Guardian's bad side with one sentence." He turned to the bleached blond vampire, and he attempted to reassure the other male. "We're not here to harm the Key."
"You're not?" Spike studied the two men.
"Oh no, we're here to help." Caly nodded vigorously.
"Hope so, because you two are dressed really weird." A blond woman stepped out the shadows to stand next to the male Guardian. "You're weird even by Sunnydale standards.
"We are the Hell-Gods that cast Glorificus out. We bound her powers when we did," Amon said. "She has somehow managed to get those powers unbound. Even now she searches for the Key."
"Let's take this inside. I'm Buffy, by the way. This is Spike." The Slayer turned to walk up the sidewalk towards the porch.
"We're please to meet this dimension's Immortal Guardians." Amon bowed slightly.
The two Guardians and the two Hell-Gods went inside the house. After they were settled, they started to discuss the situation at hand.
"Glorificus has already been defeated in many dimensions including this one as you both well know," Caly informed Spike and Buffy. "She's gaining power elsewhere, but the Key will be stronger."
"Stronger how?" Buffy looked concerned with the news.
"As the Guardians travelers touch and change the dimensions, the Key's power will lodge into one being," Amon said softly. "Until that one being has all the power. Somewhere the red tree has unmade a Key, and this event has thrown disorder throughout all the dimensions."
Spike and Buffy started at the Hell-Gods. Buffy remembered how Willow's threat of hurting Dawn had set her heart racing with terror, while Spike still felt the guilt of deserting his girls when they needed him.
"This Key will have the ultimate power to vanquish Glorificus to a hell with no escape." Caly paced back and forth, his white robes and red curls swirling around him. "This is paramount to the dimensions. If Glory and the First Evil can team up, there is the possibility to unleash a force stronger than either of them."
"I don't like the sound of that," Buffy muttered in a worried voice. She remembered how hard it was to defeat both of those enemies by themselves. Together they might just be impossible.
"I doubt any dimension with established Guardians has to worry." Amon nodded. "At least not at first. Unprotected dimensions will be attacked first."
"What can we do to help?" Buffy gave Spike an uneasy glance.
"We must bind Glorificus in this dimension," Caly answered. "However we are unsure of her host body."
"An intern named Ben, but he's not here yet. I checked already." Buffy bit her lip as she tried to remember everything she could about the man, and it turned out, it wasn't much. "There wasn't really anything that stood out about him. There was the spell that made it so we couldn't remember he was Glory, of course. Spike was immune." She gave a weary chuckle. "Too bad we didn't know that sooner. Besides, I thought you guys made the host body."
"We did, but over time she has been able to alter him." Amon bowed to the Slayer. "We thank you for your time, Buffy Summers, and you as well, Spike. We will return when we've found our sister Hell-God. Watch for us. Come, Caly. We have much to do." The two Hell-Gods disappeared in the wink of an eye.
"That was weird, but informative," Buffy muttered. "I suppose we need to tell Giles."
Spike nodded in agreement. He just wished the Hell-Gods had told them more. He wanted to be better prepared this time. Past enemies teaming up were bad news. Now all they needed was Angelus! Better not jinx it, mate, Spike thought to himself. The bleached blond vampire had an inspired thought. "Why don't we go talk to that lawyer bint, luv? Maybe she knows something about what's goin' on."
"Oh, or get a message to ourselves." Buffy giggled. "That sounded funny."
"Yeah, my thoughts exactly," Spike teased. "Are you reading my mind?"
Of course, I am, baby. Buffy wiggled her eyebrows at her mate.
Minx.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Okay, how did we do that?" Buffy stared at the three dead creatures. Their exploded heads steamed as their ice-cold blood hit the warm California air. "You honed in on the evil, and I killed it with a word."
"A loud word." Spike twisted a finger in one of his ears. "Must be some kind of powers that come with our new status." The vampire wrinkled his nose in disgust at the dead monsters. "I sure as hell didn't have a clue about these gits the first time around."
"No hearts cut out this time," Buffy replied. "Always a good thing."
"What's next on the agenda? We still gonna talk to the lawyer?" Spike pulled Buffy towards the church tower stairs. The bodies of the Gentleman were starting to really offend his sensitive nose.
"Might." Buffy paused as she gathered her thoughts. "The Hell-Gods gave us some important info. The thought of Glory and the First working together scares me. Together, they could really end things." She continued down the stairs into the front foyer of the building.
"Well, let's swing by the lawyer's office, and see if she's free." Spike opened the front door, and he let Buffy go out first. "Then we can go have a chat with our favorite Wicca goddess."
"Tara." Buffy's smile widened and brightened.
Spike and Buffy started off towards RoseSeri Hassib's office. They were so busy talking and laughing that they failed to notice the dark shadow tailing them. Even the most supernatural of creatures could be lax when someone they're familiar with was the one thinking evil thoughts.
The meeting with the lawyer was quick. RoseSeri promised to contact the other Guardians that were already in place, and especially the traveling Guardians, to tell them what the male Hell-Gods had said. The Penhuibin hadn't liked the idea of two of the most powerful evil entities working together either. Spike and Buffy left her office with the promise if any news came across RoseSeri's desk, they'd be the first to know.
The Guardians went to the university campus next. They had nosed around to find Tara's schedule, and they planned to introduce themselves to the girl.
"There she is," Buffy whispered. "She looks kinda lost." She moved towards the other woman, and she held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Buffy. I heard that you're thinking about joining the Wicca club."
"Oh. A-are you p-part of the c-club?" Tara looked at the vibrant female from behind the fringe of her hair.
"No." Buffy shook her head with a laugh. "I'm the Slayer though. I think you'll find us a lot more genuine than those wannabes."
"Don't go scarin' the girl, luv." Spike pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against. "She's not use to us forward types."
Buffy rolled her eyes which got a faint giggle from Tara. "Ignore Mr. Snarky Pants over there. He's just being a brat." She stuck her tongue out at Spike.
"Takes one to know one." Spike smirked at Buffy's outraged huff. Then, he turned to Tara. "Name's Spike."
Tara's eyes widened before she stuttered, "Y-your aura is... is very b-beautiful." She held her hand out to shake his.
"Why thank you, Glinda." Spike bowed over Tara's hand.
"Uh oh, he's given you a nickname." Buffy grinned. "There's no going back now." She linked her arm through Tara's.
Brat, Spike sent to his mate.
You're a shirty brat, Buffy sent back, even though she was still unsure what shirty meant.
"Now, I know you're all concerned," Buffy said aloud to Tara. "But, there's a great explanation for everything. First things first." The Slayer led Tara away from the other students. "You're not a demon. Even if you were, we wouldn't care."
"I'm not a demon? You wouldn't care?" Tara glanced back and forth between the two blonds.
"Hell, no!" Spike stated emphatically. "As demon m'self, I've no problems workin' with other demons." He gave the two females a leer. "Especially one that's as fine as you."
"I'm r-really not." Tara blushed. She was so rarely praised except by her mother who was dead, and her teachers who didn't matter. Now this beautiful man was telling her that she was fine.
"None of that now." Spike shook a finger at Tara. "You're a Wiccan goddess."
Tara stared that the two blonds in confusion. She couldn't figure out why they wanted anything to do with her. Their auras were so beautiful and loving. Tara was a little ashamed to be around them, to tell the truth. When she told them that, Spike and Buffy hugged her. They told her how much they had missed her. That confused her even more.
Tara's eyes opened wide with surprise when Spike and Buffy both kissed her on the cheek. A bright, warm glow surrounded the three of them, and Tara felt at home for the first time since her mother had died.
Tara smiled shyly at Spike and Buffy's playful bantering as the three of them strolled across the college campus. When they joined an older man and a brutally blunt woman -- who made Tara's face flush fiery red with embarrassment from her stories -- she still felt at east. These people didn't make her feel small or helpless. She knew that she had found her real family. So, she let the worries of her old life melt away as she embraced her new life.