"Look, I know mom wants to gather and make with the merry tomorrow night, but with everything that's going on-"
"This is exactly what you need." Willow cut Buffy off. "A 20th Birthday party with-with presents and funny hats, and-and those candles that don't blow out." She said while sitting down at the table and looking at the Slayer. "Those used to scare me." Willow leaned over toward Tara.
"Me, too." She smiled.
"I just don't think this is the best time to break out the party piñata. We need to stay focused if we're gonna find a way to stop Glory."
"We're going up against a god. And actual mightier-than-thou god." Xander moved his hands a little.
"Well, you know what they say: the bigger they are-"
"The faster they stomp you into nothing." Anya raised her eyebrows. Everyone gave the ex-demon a look.
"She's right. I've thrown everything I've got at her, and she just shrugs it off."
"Then we have to find something heavier to throw." Willow suggested.
"That might pose some difficulty. From what the Council's been able to discover from the Book of Tarnis and-and other sources, Glory and two of her fellow Hell-gods ruled over one of the more seriously unpleasant demon dimensions."
"There's more than one?" Tara asked.
"Oh, there are thousands of demon dimensions. All different." Anya nodded.
"All pushing on the edges of our reality, trying to find a way in."
"I guess Glory found one. The question is, why?"
"There's nothing to indicate that here. Just vague references to chaos and destruction." Pops got up when the kettle began to whistle.
"Okay, so, we know where Glory's from. What do we know about her?" Buffy questioned. "You know, she's tough, yeah, but no bolts of lightning, no blasts of fire. Shouldn't a god be able to do that kind of stuff?" She glanced at each of us.
"Usually, yes. But, um, being in human form must be severely limiting her powers."
"Sort of like how I can't breathe fire unless my body is at a certain temperature." I piped up.
"Yes. An-And all we have to worry about right now is that she's immortal, invulnerable, and insane."
"A crazy Hell-god? And the fun just keeps on leaving!" Xander shook his head.
"What I've been able to gather, her living in this world is....seriously affecting her mental state as well. She's only been able to keep her mind intact by extracting energy from us." Then Pops glanced at me. "Well, from-from the human brain."
"So she's-she's a brain-sucker?"
"She, um, 'absorbs the energies that bind the human mind into a cohesive whole.'" Pops pointed to the file while reading. "Once drained, all that's left behind is, uh-"
"Crazy people."
"Which is, I'm afraid, why there's been a marked increase in the ranks of the mentally unstable here in Sunnydale."
"At least vampires just kill you." Tara said.
"We have to find a way to stop her." Buffy rose to her feet.
"Oh, well, Tara and I can work on some tactical spells." Willow offered.
"I can do some research. I know way more about demon dimensions than Giles does." There was a pause. "Well, I do." Anya looked at Pops.
YOU ARE READING
Unknown Factors (Book One)
Fanfiction[18+; Use an age indicator in YOUR BIO to confirm you're 18+ if you want to follow/comment or you'll be blocked for safety purposes] Despite Giles's efforts to let his adoptive daughter have a happy life, he couldn't quite stop the Watchers Council...
