Chương 25: Ch.24
The next few days flew by and Willow spent more and more time with Tara. She seemed to preoccupied with her new witch friend to even think about the as I will it so spell. Seeing as how it was no longer a problem I continued classes like usual and picked up my more interesting hobbies aka magic studying and demon lore, again.
As our finals for this semester came to a close I picked up extra classes and wrote my thesis for each class I was taking just make sure I was ahead. I planned to get my masters degree by this time next year.
I already had the know how for most of it while the rest was just a brush up on what I'd learned years ago mixed with a new perspective curtesy of one professor Walsh.
Say what you will about the cold sadistic bitch, she made one hell of a teacher and was very opinionated on the subject. It helped that she actually knew what she was talking about as she practiced it in her actual day job or should I say night job.
She made a proper sociopath as she only actually cared about anyone as far as they serve her purpose. Some would make the argument that she actually cared about Riley but that only ever went as far as him being her favorite human experiment.
Cutting that thought short I focused on what I wanted to accomplish next, making more money. As it was my main source of income was from playing the stock market. While that was all fine and dandy, it didn't provide me with the kind of money I needed to take my magic studies further.
At best it allowed Alice to shop happily enough whenever she wanted. No, I need a better source of income or at least, a faster source. Thinking on it for a while I left instructions with Faith and Alice to ensure Buffy doesn't mention us to her new boyfriend.
I took the first flight to Texas where I started buying up land and mineral rights all over where I smelled oil. After a couple weeks of that I had the land tested and received several offers from oil companies to dig it up.
I waited for the offers I knew were coming when I bought a particularly large piece of land just outside of Corpus Christi. The oil company in question, Exxon Mobil, secretly owned by Wolfram and Hart, made their offer and a generous one at that for it and all the plots of land I owned.
I signed the contract and made sure they were libel for any and all business conducted on those properties. After that I flew to Africa where I spent a couple weeks digging up all the major deposits of diamonds I knew about and buying the rights to each of said mines.
It was a rather tenuous relationship I developed with the government as I had to grease a lot of hands as it were. The local African warlords were constantly coming to cause trouble until I turned them into woman with a simple spell.
Then their own men turned against them and well, they became bush wives after a fashion. After that I released the spells and they killed most of their own people. They stayed away from me and my dealings in Africa for a time at least.
With that I managed to dig up nearly forty tons of raw uncut diamonds. The biggest of which was the size of a smart car. I'd found that one in a valley where a dormant volcano had been. It took a while to dig out without actually touching the diamond itself but I'd managed using my own visions as a where not to dig guide.
After I completed my task I bought a couple cargo planes and shipped all the diamonds I'd dug up to a warehouse I'd bought in Sunnydale. As a parting gift to Africa I did a couple runs around the major villages and used my gifts of nature to rapidly grow forests of fruits and vegetables.
Miles of food grew over night seemingly out of nowhere. I smiled when I heard their praises before stepping onto my private jet and flying back to Sunnydale. When I arrived Alice and Faith were both there waiting at the airport.
I saw there worried expressions and sighed. "What's wrong?"
Alice looked to Faith who said. "The watchers council sent a wet work team to end me and start their next slayer in training. If Alice hadn't seen it I'd be dead now."
I stilled before calmly asking. "Where is the team now?"
Alice grew more worried before answering. "They are visiting Giles in the hopes that he can help draw her out of hiding."
I nodded before heading straight for the car. Alice grabbed my arm saying. "Don't, please."
I stilled for a moment and told her. "You know my policy. The moment they went to harm one of you their lives were over."
Alice sighed. "At least hear them out."
I nodded. "Very well, I'd like to know their reasoning as well."
Faith filled me in on the happenings since I'd left. The gentlemen came to town and she helped Buffy fight them off and kill them. Her voice had been taken since she was out on patrol that night with Alice. If they'd been inside the house the wards would've protected them.
Demons had come to open the hellmouth but found Giles had destroyed the word of Valios last summer. Faith and Spike believe it or not, had killed them. Giles's old friend Ethan Rayne had come to town and turned him into a demon for a day.
Alice had reversed the spell with Willow's and Tara's help while Faith had beaten the chaos sorcerer unconscious. Buffy has joined the commandos for a short stint before nearly being killed by Walsh's schemes. And finally after Walsh was found dead a cyborg demon was on the loose killing and studying things at seemingly random intervals.
By the time we arrived at Giles's place they'd filled me in on the basics. I went inside expecting to find Giles being held at gun point but instead he was having tea with the bastards. When they saw me they didn't really react but when they saw Faith they pulled out their guns.
The one sitting across from Giles spoke. "This I didn't expect Rupert. The slayer on the run just shows up here with a vampire. The vampire's been invited in before no less."
I snorted as Giles looked caught between relief and anxiety. "Are they your friends Giles? Do I need to play nice as I kill them or do you want to tell me what the hell is going on?"
I ignored the brits with guns and focused on Giles who spoke. "This is Collins, Smith and Weatherby, they've been sent to either get Faith and Buffy to work with them or ensure the next slayer is called. By all means be as gentle with them as you'd like."
I nodded as it was his signal to me saying they were fair game. I turned to the two pointing guns at Faith and Alice. I moved before they could react and knocked the guns away before knocking them out.
As the last one stood up I told Alice. "Take Faith and wait outside."
Faith tried to argue but Alice shook her head stopping her. I faced the last of the hit squad and his gun as they went outside. He fired a few shots into me which I shrugged off. I growled and partially shifted to my eight foot tall hybrid form and ripped into him.
His screams were drowned out by the music Giles put on just as I began to shift. I left him alive but only just and very broken to boot. When I finished pulling the last scream of agony from him I shifted back to my human form and grabbed the towel Giles offered.
I grunted and told him. "I'll deal with them and heal him when I've got some clothes on again. For now though-."
I waved a hand and grew vines that hog tied my captives. I walked outside to the car and grabbed my spare clothes out of the trunk. After grabbing a quick shower I came back into the living room to see Alice had healed Weatherby, the one I'd torn into.
She was sitting next to Giles and Faith while Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies had arrived. I grunted at their looks. Xander commented. "I gotta say I'm not liking the new decor your leaving around."
He gestured to the blood all over the place where I ripped and clawed at Weatherby. I snorted. "Wait a little longer and it'll change to something that'll turn your stomach."
I turned to the three man hit squad. "That's enough playing asleep. Each of you can stop pretending or I'll rip off something that'll make you're day far less pleasant." They came awake instantly from there sleeping facade.
Weatherby for all his bravery merely said. "The council will send another team once we're dead."
I chuckled. "Then perhaps it's time I go see the council in person and give them and your families the same treatment I've given you? No? Don't like the idea of someone going to your home and killing everything you hold dear?"
Buffy spoke up. "That's enough Ryan. They're caught, there's no need to play with them."
Weatherby spoke up. "Then kill us and get it over with."
I snorted. "I'd love to but you see, they seem like me more when I don't kill humans. How about I drop you in a demon dimension. I hear Quar'toth is lovely this time a year, or maybe Pylea. The demons there use humans as slaves there from what I hear. They even have nifty collars that explode if they're tampered with."
Anya spoke up. "It's true, they have this stick they prod the humans with that electrocutes them. It's designed to cause the most agony possible without knocking out the slaves. Quar'toth on the other hand is infested with pure demons and is filled with the cries of dying creatures in the dark. It doesn't have much in the way of fun but I hear it's a nightmare even for pure blooded demons. It supposedly has a few old ones hiding inside its darkest regions."
The human assassins didn't react but Xander did. "Anya hunny lets leave the details for never. The last thing I need is another nightmare filled night."
Buffy looked to Faith who asked the bound humans. "So which will it be? Nightmare of endless torments or human slaves for the rest of your life as torture dummies?"
Buffy spoke up just before they could answer. "Or you can go back to your council and tell them the next time they send a team to kill us they'll be joining you there for a one way trip."
Wetherby spoke first. "We'll deliver your message."
I felt annoyed and a sudden urge to do violence so I walked over to Wetherby and bent kneeled in front of him. I stuck my claws into the back of his neck and yanked him into my mind instead of wading through his mind. I brought him to the edge of my trap where I kept my prisoners and asked him. "You can feel it can't you? What's inside there?"
He was trembling as I continued. "Of course you can. You see, I've imprisoned two old ones inside my own body and mind. You needn't look farther than this dimension to find living old ones. Tell your watchers council that the next time they send someone after those I care about I will unleash them and all their horror onto this world. I am a reasonable man so I'll leave you with this warning and one more."
I released him back into his own body before saying out loud to the room and them in particular. "Tell your council that the next time they do something this stupid, I'll pay a visit to the deeper well and unleash what you all have kept there. The world be damned, I'll watch it all burn if you ever touch what I care about again."
Wetherby didn't speak but Smith did. "You crazy bastard, you'd doom us all."
I nodded. "You'd doom me to an eternity of pain so I'd easily do the same for you. You see, I'm not a nice man, hell I'm not even a good man at times, but one thing I am is and honest one. Fuck with me and I'll keep my promise. You humans can die screaming if you want to pick this fight."
With that I shifted my hand and cut the vines tying them up. They left under the gaze of the two slayers and my very serious face. When they were gone Buffy asked. "Deeper well?"
I sighed. "Not all things can die. Gods can given the right circumstances, hell, pure blood demons can, but old ones cannot. What do you think happened to them once the first slayer kicked their asses?"
Xander raised a hand. "I know this one, didn't they all leave this dimension?"
I snorted. "No, quite a few of the stronger ones fled that's true, but for the majority, they were cut down and sealed away. The mystic's of the time created a prison of sorts that runs through the very center of the planet where they stored the weakened old ones after the final battle. The old ones are there, in the deeper well, stored until either humanity falls or they are released to fight in the final battle, the actual apocalypse."
Buffy asked. "Who'd be stupid enough to release them?"
I sighed. "They have no real loyalties Buffy. They are sentient greedy bastards that wish to be feared and worshipped, but in the end like the slayer line, they are bound to this plane. Should the apocalypse happen, goddess forbid, they will be released to fight on our side. They are the final defense against things far worse out there in other dimensions."
Giles frowned. "And here I was led to believe they were the worst of the worst."
I chuckled. "Not even close. There are beings out there that would simply eat this dimension and all its inhabitants if they could. Besides, this planet is special and they were imprisoned here for a good reason. You should be asking a better question, what out there could make the shadow men, the ones that turned a helpless girl and many others into killers and monster slayers, keep such creatures here instead of sending them to other dimensions."
Giles took off his glasses before Xander asked. "What was it?"
I grimaced. "Twilight."
Giles actually dropped his glasses now and turned to me without them. "That's not possible, it's a myth, a fairy tale."
I snorted. "Twilight is very much a real and dangerous threat. Even my fathers fear it's coming and when I mentioned it to them they actually stopped resisting their cages for a moment and one of them is just a mass of essence with no real thought process other than kill and destroy."
Buffy asked. "What's twilight? Other than a time of day."
I waved a hand and Giles told them. "Twilight was or is a living dimension. It consumes realities and unleashes hordes of demons on the worlds it conquers. Said worlds tend to fall rather easily as the demons it unleashes are completely under its control. It is without question the end of the world, the apocalypse to end all apocalypses. Should it ever come to this dimension theres very little we could do to stop it, but it can't."
I chuckled. "Until a certain prophesy is fulfilled it has no access to this world. But once it is, that's it, game over."
Riley spoke up. "Weren't those demons trying to start the apocalypse?"
I shook my head. "There's two different types of apocalypses, the kind that would mean the end of humans as the top of the food chain, that's the kind Buffy deals with on an almost yearly bases, and the kind that means everything, all life on this planet, animals and plants included, is wiped out. That's what twilight does."
Willow spoke up. "But it can't come here. You said it can't."
I sighed. "It can't yet, it's locked out of this dimension and for good reason, it's an insatiable living dimension. All it cares about is consuming more and more life. It's sentient as well so it can and will find ways to tempt those it can find into opening the doorway."
Giles asked. "Are you certain it's shut out?"
I nodded. "For the most part, yes. At most it can possibly contact those that are in contact with this dimension. Now that that settled we've diverged off topic. I showed my caged prisoners so the watchers council will know I'm not joking. If they come after you all again I'll keep my word and open the deeper well. In the event of your untimely demises you can rest assured that they'll suffer far worse fates than your worst nightmares."
Riley asked. "And how are you one of the good guys?"
I shrugged. "I didn't kill them, not that I didn't want to. And I gave them an ultimatum. It's on them now. If they want a war, I'll give them the final one. At the very least they'll think twice about simply trying to kill you all. Besides, they won't attempt to kill me and risk unleashing the two old ones inside me."
He shook his head. "Still doesn't sound like you're good."
I shrugged. "Never said I was. I'm just not entirely evil either. I'll help and protect humanity all day long if that's what the scoobies and and my girls want to do, but I'll be damned if I let some weak ass humans with control fetishes kill those I care about without repercussions."
Riley finally asked. "What are you by the way? I've seen hostile seventeen and many other demons but I've never even heard of something like you."
I chuckled. "I'm complicated. Just don't piss me off, then I'll be something you don't want to meet."
He stepped forwards. "Oh? What's that?"
I grinned with a teasing smile. "Your death."
Buffy pulled him back saying. "Riley, don't. He's just teasing you. Ryan, stop it."
I shrugged. "What, I can't tease the racist demon hunter brigade?"
Riley tried to argue. "I'm not racist-"
I snorted. "What is it Forest likes to say? Their just animals? You and your little military contingent hunts tortures and experiments on demons and considers them less than intelligent. From what I understand it's what the Nazi's did and like you they also had a doctor that experimented on people, Dr.Mengele I believe he was called."
Buffy huffed. "Ryan, compare my boyfriend to a Nazi again and it'll be you and me fighting next."
I shrugged. "Whatever. I need to head home and do a cleansing ritual. My recent outburst has tainted my mind with demonic energies thanks to my prisoners, I'll be in touch I'm sure. Oh and Buffy, if you do find the robotic demon on the loose, call for back up. I could use an entertaining fight. Perhaps it can last longer than a few hits before I rip it apart."
I headed to the door while Alice told them discreetly that I wasn't lying about the taint. It was setting me on edge and making me volatile. When we got back to the house I started the purification ritual. It was a form of blessing from nature that required me to bathe in holy water and a few herbs.
When I finished under the moonlight I felt much calmer. I searched my mind scape for any leftover demonic energy and found it contained in the cages now. Both my guests were grim as the ritual wiped out any taint they'd left behind before and weakened them in the process.
Feeling much better I filled out the school work Alice collected for me before heading to bed. I made sure to show my appreciation for them staying safe before letting them have their fun. The next morning, after stopping by my classes at school and turning in the papers, I headed to the magic shop to pick up a few key ingredients for making enchanted gems.
There I found Anya and Xander arguing about not having enough sex. I politely ignored them and bought what I needed. I may own the shop but I wasn't about to mess with the overhead for my own benefits. Especially with the amount of engraving and other such paraphernalia I needed to buy.
Luckily Giles was there to help me order it all. After that I headed to the warehouse that Alice had bought for me. I went over the inventory once more to confirm the amount of ingredients I'd need to get started.
A few days later my order came in and I'd got to work. Other than extra classes I was taking, I divided my time between dates with the girls, scoobies gang meetings and carving and enchanting raw gems into paragon diamonds and special magical gems.
Most of them ended up as focusing diamonds for hard spells. I sold them as I completed them for very large prices. A simple fifteen karat diamond became a fifty grand focusing crystal.
I had Giles sell most of them to his contacts while gifting a paragon diamond focusing crystal to the Devon coven as thanks for helping us. The rest of the really expensive ones were sold through the magical equivalent of a black market.
The less expensive ones, only costing around ten grand and below were in the Magic Box to be sold at Giles's discretion. It took a lot of time for me to even make a dent in the sheer amount of diamonds. On the bright side I grew better at enchanting them and carving runes while also shaping the diamonds as I went.
After the second week of doing just that, I felt a disturbance in the force, ahem, magic. One evening while I was having a stress relieving session I felt a cloak of magic hit the wars I'd put up around the house.
At first the magic's clashed before whatever spell it was dispersed and broke under the strain. The next morning a confused Johnathan came for the house and asked why his spell failed. I sighed. "Whatever spell you did was weaker than my wards. It must've been an absolute magic as it broke the moment it failed to find purchase here. Try it again and I'll rip the magic's out of your mind leaving you brain damaged."
He gave some lame excuse for trying to manipulate and brainwash the entire town. I sent him to Giles for a proper scolding before continuing my work. I begin taking more and more breaks so as to not over saturate the market.
On one such break I was invited to a party with the girls up at the Lowell house. As soon as I walked in I felt the raw energy of the demons below waking up the ghosts of the house. When Riley and Buffy slipped away for a bout of sex the energy shifted as the ghosts started feeding off of their ambient sex energy like leeches.
I sighed and went back to my own house to pick up the supplies I needed before returning and doing a mystical exorcism on the house. The ghosts were dispersed before I enjoyed a few beers with Faith and Alice.
The three of us left early to go to Giles's party at his apartment. Unlike Buffy and the rest he'd actually invited us to it a few evening s ago. It was a rather peaceful night with just us taking turns passing the guitar back and forth singing our best acoustic rock songs.
A few days later I'd finished with the largest diamond. After cutting it to shape and carving magic runes on it, it was significantly smaller at around the size of a V-8 engine. I, of course, planned to keep it for my own purposes.
When I was done with it I channeled all of my magic into it and used this opportunity to go beyond the five hundred foot deep magic well. I actually re used my own magic to hammer away at the bottom of the well pushing farther and faster than ever before.
There's a quality eye difference between my magic essence I'd personally refined and the raw magic I gathered inside myself afterwards. It even pushed me to nearly half way to the six hundred foot deep mark.
When I finished and filled up my well of magic I carried the diamond to the house before storing it in my 'man cave'. I spent a week afterwards practicing control over my magic.
One day, during a meeting with the scoobies, Oz showed up. Tara got nervous and excused herself. After Oz and Tara left I told Willow. "Don't hesitate, don't drag it out to spare his feelings, tell him as soon as possible so that he doesn't have to learn about it the hard way. He's a werewolf and eventually he's going to smell you on her. If he's unprepared it could go bad quickly and she could end up injured or worse."
I left the meeting after that and heading to my newest house I'd purchased right next door to Joyce, Buffy's mother said house. I began doing renovations and modifications to it that included enochian warding and magical runes built right into the very foundation.
I made damn sure to bless it all with magic and holy water. It would literally repel most demons and vampires while making it a holy site of sorts. I had a shrine built to the goddess Gaia in the basement along with a garden in the back yard for practicing my plant magic's.
A couple days later I heard Oz was captured by the initiative. Buffy planned a rescue mission with us scoobies and Spike ended up showing up with a way in. We went through with the mission and got Oz out but not before Riley found himself in deep trouble.
We had a stand off between us and the soldiers to get Oz out of there safely. By we I mean they as I wasn't in a nice mood to play with the soldiers. I picked up their commanding officer by the throat and told the soldiers. "Stand down or I break his neck then kill all of you for being irritating. Bunch of racist nazi's."
My words didn't sit well with them but their commanding officer still had them stand down. When we left through the elevator I told the commander. "Come after us and I'll spread your little project all over the capital. Just a simple rumor of what you people are doing here is enough to end all of your careers."
He paled by my words and I chuckled. "Don't think I'm kidding either. I'm well aware that your actions here are unauthorized and illegal by every sense of the word. You think a court martial is tough? They'll be charging your asses with treason and lining you all up to put bullets in the back of your heads."
My words brought quiet to even the scoobies as I helped Oz walk out of the elevator. When we got away to a safe distance Riley asked. "Is what you said true? Is this an illegal operation?"
I snorted. "Really? You of all people should've figured it out. When your leader is a crazy bitch illegally giving you experimental drugs and making biological super soldiers out of demon parts and human parts it's very obvious."
"The fact that you haven't even questioned your mission statement reflects poorly on your abilities as a soldier. Soldiers are actually allowed to ask questions so long as they follow orders and have a high enough clearance. After all it's your responsibility as a team leader to actually know what it is you're doing for the military."
Riley seemed shaken by my words as I continued. "While they frown on asking questions, it's not actually anything they can punish you for. As for cutting up demons, well, I'm fairly certain Oz is a civilian and odds are many others you've captured are the same. If word got out that the military was conducting illegal human experiments to create super soldiers, like I said, you'd be facing a firing squad or life in a hole so small it doesn't even have windows."
I let my words sink in saying. "If you need a place to crash until things cool off you can stay in one of the extra rooms at my place."
I turned to Buffy. "Be sure to grab an extra key from Alice."
I left Oz with Xander and Willow before heading home with my girls. The next day I heard Oz had left town again. Things seemed to mellow out from there as Spike began playing his mind games. I let him be as he steered clear of me and the girls.
From what heard the initiative was gaining more prisoners by the day. They were over crowded before, now it was just stupidly full of demons. Faith was no longer playing nice and innocent preferring to kill the demons she ran into on patrols now.
When Buffy came back from a recent patrol with a head wound and saying Forest was dead, Riley took off. Spike was being extra helpful with information as of late and sold Buffy a couple initiative disks with information on Adam and project three-fourteen.
The next morning the group caught on to Spike's games. I chuckled when they told me what he'd done. "Either all of you are really insecure or you've been to busy to stop and think about it. Either way it's pretty amusing."
Xander snorted. "Oh yeah, why didn't he mess with you?"
I sighed. "Probably because I don't give a rats ass what some demon says. Besides, he knows I'd just bitch slap his head off of his shoulders and dust him on a whim. Odds are he avoided me out of fear and survival instincts. Besides, it's more than likely Adam's plan to keep me out of it all. I doubt he'd want me down there helping either side. He needs mass casualties on both sides and any fight I picked would be one sided."
Buffy spoke up. "But you are fighting right?"
I shrugged. "That's up to you. I can either fight and protect you guys while you do the spells or do the spell and help you kick ass that way. Either way Faith and Alice want to fight the demons."
They looked to the duo in question who were sharpening knives and axes in the corner. Xander raised a hand. "Anyone else slightly terrified and feeling bad for the demons?"
I chuckled as Buffy told me. "Fine, you guys help keep the soldiers alive and kick demon asses. Just make sure to keep the fight away from us."
Just like that the plan was made. We went to the fraternity house where the secret elevator was and broke in. I partially shifted while Faith and Alice jumped on me before holding on. I jumped down the elevator shaft and when I was close enough to the bottom,I dug my claws into the walls, slowing my descent.
It worked like a charm as the girls hopped off of me and I shifted back into human form. My sweat pants held together so I wasn't completely naked at least. Buffy and the rest began their decent towards us using rock climbing equipment.
After they all arrived they had a group hug before I opened the elevator shaft's doors.
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