Ch.36

The potentials were afraid but Kennedy, the one with the most attitude, asked. "Just who are you? You want us to believe you fought an army of super vamps and you're old as dirt."

I brought out my claws and they stopped at her throat as I grunted. "Not really caring what you think, but insinuate I'm a liar again girl and you'll find out how I survived the hard way."

She swallowed and said she was cool or whatever before backing off. My claws retracted slowly and I grunted, telling Buffy. "The First must've taken the remaining few and rebuilt an army of them in it's dimension. These are different, tougher and more durable. War like and savage, like the First was trying to mimic my animal side by tinkering with their insides."

Buffy asked. "If the First was around back then why didn't it try to take over the world then."

I grunted. "It did."

That shut the potentials up and Buffy asked what stopped it. I sighed. "A champion of the powers that be. Her name was Cassandra Rayne and she was a knight as well as a blacksmith. With the help of the powers she forged a sword called Hope's Dagger out of some impossible things. The light of the sun, the breath of a fish and similar things the powers that be helped her gather. With it she led an incursion into the First's dimension and used it to banish the First, scattering it's essence to the four corners of every dimension in this reality. It took thousands of years before it could even reform enough to play the fake ghost it does now."

I leaned against the counter. "I've no idea how it regained access to earth nor why now, but I do know that Cassandra never returned and none that went looking survived. I never went myself because I didn't see a point, but I'm guessing they were slaughtered by Turok-Han even after she succeeded in shutting the First down. The Ten Rings only concerns itself with earth simply because they never had the manpower to wage a war against evil in all the other hell dimensions and realities."

The potentials asked about the Ten Rings while Buffy just told them it was an ancient secret society of demon hunters I founded back before Columbus found the new world. I huffed. "Try before the sands of Egypt were ruled by pharaohs."

Kennedy nodded. "So we have backup, that's good."

I shook my head. "Backup isn't coming. They have nearly three hundred thousand members and they're fighting demons all over the world. The west half of the US is on their own and handled by champions of the powers that be mostly. The Ten Rings don't play well with others because they believe in wiping out all evil, not managing it like the Powers that Be. They're absolute in their mission and will kill evil human dictators or evil witches as easily as they kill demons. By the by, they are the ones responsible for killing Hitler."

"They only made it look like a suicide because he was human while many of his subordinates weren't. Rasputin was the same, working with a cult of vampire worshippers. History has countless examples of their actions that leave no real traces. I trained them well and set them loose because this world needed them and my presence would attract the eyes of the powers and Whistler who was responsible for trapping me in the past to begin with."

Kennedy asked. "So help isn't coming then?"

I shook my head. "No, but if you're worried about one or two Turok-Hans and some Bringers you can go back to sleep. They're nothing to worry about so long as Buffy and I are nearby. Besides, once Spike's finished healing he'll be useful so long as the First doesn't trigger him."

That night Annabelle ran off and Buffy gave chase, ending up with the beating of a lifetime while I was forced to stay and protect the two potentials remaining. When they returned with her, I put the watch on her and tapped it twice as the full suit covered her unconscious form.

I told them in a grunt. "She'll be fine and so long as she can learn to fight with the suit on, not even the Powers That Be could physically harm her. It's durability rivals my own, plus it can fly, heal the wearer and cloak, going entirely invisible sound and all while making calls to boot. It doesn't do much for me durability wise because my skin is already that tough when magic is infused into my body and I heal near instantly alone, but for her it'll be like giving a tigress wings."

The entire suit adjusted to her form automatically. Xander asked why I didn't give it to her before and I shrugged. "I never thought she needed it. For that matter I have weapons from the prison worlds that the Ten Rings found. I hadn't thought of them before because she never seemed to need more than what she had before to win her fights. Heck, she didn't even use the Troll God hammer that would turn the skull of a Turok-Han into meat paste or the orbs I got her for her birthday that bestow Glory level strength and invulnerability."

Xander stopped mid though and face palmed saying we were all so dumb. I shrugged. "Speak for yourself. I knew all this and figured she didn't need it because the rest of you never brought it up, including her."

He grunted and Giles asked as he came in from the car. "Right, what else you do you have that might be of use?"

I shrugged. "I've got pretty much every weapon this world has twice over. From Excalibur to the Glove of Myhnegon and a bunch of axes down to these."

I set the gem of Amara on the table, the two slayer scythes and two more set of orbs of Nezzla'Khan. I told them what the orbs were and gestured to the rest including the three gloves filled with infinity gems. I told them with a grunt. "The spell the Gemini coven used to make duplicate worlds was insanely powerful and relied on pulling magic from a celestial event, two covens of dozens to hundreds of witches and the magic in the earth itself as well as an entire line of witches going back thousands of years. Through that they were able to make two exact copies of everything down to the powers of the infinity stones."

Willow's eyes went wide. "Woah."

I nodded seriously. "Woah indeed."

Xander asked. "So what are we talking here, evil Willow level power or-"

I gave him a droll stare. "It would take a million dark Willows to make a single infinity stone copy with her at the height of her power."

Willow agreed. "Yeah, and all of them would have lost control and burned out. This is big Xander, real big. They're lucky they didn't burn themselves out just trying. It could've killed them all entirely."

I put the infinity gauntlets away and told them that the gem of Amara was for Spike should we figure out a way to remove his trigger. Beyond that, there was a bunch of weapons including Excalibur, flamethrowers and other exciting weapons. Xander chose Excalibur so I have a Ninja star to Giles. "Don't cut yourself with that, it's a dark magic artifact called the Devil's star. One cut will produce a thousand cuts on the victim. It'll kill most humans and witches, including bringers, but it'll slow down a Turok-Han or regular vampire enough to be staked or beheaded."

He set it down and said they were all extremely dangerous and powerful artifacts. I had to agree, telling him. "That's the reason they're with me and not being used by the Ten Rings. The more power they have the more tempted those in the Ten Rings will be so they gave them to me to hold onto. There are other things, but most is meant to face magical vampires, dark witches or if they're useful without being corrupted they're likely being used by the Ten Rings already in their war."

The potentials went to grab weapons and one of them nearly grabbed the Devil's star only for me to snatch it away and get cut myself. The thin mark it made was enough as cuts appeared all over me and my healing ability kicked in, healing as fast as the dark magic could make more until all one thousand cuts stopped. I put it away and grunted as I changed my shirt saying they needed to be careful because anything they touched could kill them.

Buffy stood healed in the doorway with just the watch on saying that when I was done in the shower I needed to absorb magic and make it so my body could no longer be hurt by weapons. I grunted and headed past her, touching her cheek and telling her I had a weapon for her when she was ready, Sineya's weapons, two of them. She nodded and I kissed her head before heading upstairs. When I was done with my shower, I'd overheard her speech about becoming an army I took in an ungodly amount of magic from a seed of wonder.

It was raw, pure magical essence so powerful it became semi-sentient and I absorbed three of the four that I had, two from each prison world. My eyes glowed green for a bit but subsided as I suppressed the raw magic in every cell of my body down to my hair follicles.

Buffy asked if we were good when I opened my eyes and I nodded slowly. I told her I took int a lot more magic this time, more than ever before. She asked about the scythes so I took them out and passed them to her. "They're from somewhere in the prison worlds. I didn't ask and the Richard didn't volunteer. Now that I no longer lead the Ten Rings I'm no long privy to the information. When I stayed they cut me loose and now only Robin can take control of the Ten Rings as both mine and Sineya's descendant. They'll take my calls of course, but their allegiances have shifted permanently away from me. I can no longer enter Atlantis without prior consent either."

She sighed. "They cut you off for good huh?"

I nodded slowly. "They had to, to protect themselves and this world. The Powers That Be will want them gone when the scales tip too far out of the demon's favor. To that end they're cloaked from all forms of magic and technology. They warned me not to return again without authorization when I brought you and the others there before. It is how things have to be if they're to endure."

She leaned against me asking why I'd felt different after Giles arrived. I told her of my mental break with my animal instincts and savage side because she wanted to protect Giles and I wanted to protect her while killing him which meant I had to change or I'd hurt her. She apologized and I shrugged. "It is what it is. Giles's life won't bring my daughter back and I care about you too much to hurt you by killing him when he didn't know what kind of people the watchers council were made of. My savage animal instincts will have to take a backseat for now, but if more watchers come Buffy, I won't be able to stop what happens."

She shrugged before taking my hand and pulling it around her as she leaned back into my chest. "I won't expect you to. But they're still human."

I growled low. "Humanity isn't just a species, it's a moral right they lost long ago."

She just sighed and set the scythes aside before saying they felt powerful, like they were hers. I shrugged and leaned them against the nightstand before holding her as we fell asleep. Day after day more potentials made it into town and when the First tried pretending to be one, I told it to piss off. It spooked the potentials, but when it asked what I'd do, I held up a hand and used the Carolina's grasp spell, sealing it in a magical bubble like barrier.

It screeched and fought, but I was able to hurt it if only a little as it's form briefly wavered before the spell broke. It fled as I was about to do it again. Tara asked what that spell was and I grunted. "The Carolina's Grasp. It's a spell useful for trapping and hurting intangible creatures like this world's Dracula in mist form or ghostly beings. I didn't think it would work, but it was worth a shot."

Giles and Anya left the next day to get information when Buffy brought back Rona. We found Eve's body, the girl the First pretended to be and I incinerated it. That night the Bringers surrounded the house before we led it and the girls to the thunder dome as Andrew called it. Really it was just the construction site for the new public library.