“Can you smell that? Can you smell it in the air? It smells like
FREEDOM!”
Willow rolled her eyes. “Calm down, Xander. We do have a full day of
class ahead. And then we’re only getting out for the weekend.”
Xander shook his head sadly as he and Willow strolled up the steps of
Sunnydale High. “Ah, Will. Sweet school-loving Will. You just don’t get
it, do you? For three, count them three, glorious nights we shall be
free of this academic Bastille. Free to revel in the glory of being
young! Free to let our youthful energy push us to new limits! Free to--”
“Free to hang out at the Bronze just like we do every weekend?”
“You really know how to put the brakes on a good Dennis Miller-esqe
rant, do you know that?.”
It was then that the two caught site of Buffy approaching them. “Hey,
guys? What’s up?”
“Xander was making a speech about how it’s our sacred duty as teenagers
to hang out at the Bronze. Or something,” informed Willow. “It was
majorly inspirational.”
“That’s me, Inspiration Guy,” grinned Xander as he ran an imaginary
comb though his hair. "Tony Robbins beware.”
“Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but our usual exciting night of
hanging at the Bronze is sorta off. For tonight anyway,” said Buffy. “I
just talked to Giles and the library just got in a bunch of books on all
things creepy and he needs us here tonight to help him get them
organized.”
“Say, did you hear that?” asked Xander. Buffy and Willow listened for a
moment and then shook there heads. “That was the sound of our Friday
night getting shot all to hell.”
“Sorry, Xander,” apologized Buffy. “This isn’t my idea of a dream date
either but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.”
“Yeah, yeah,” muttered Xander. “I guess I can beat Metal Gear Solid
some other time. But what about you, Will? Aren’t the Dingoes playing at
the Bronze tonight?”
“They are, but I can’t go,” sighed Willow. “Mom thinks I’ve been
spending to much time with Oz lately so she made me promise not to go to
the Bronze tonight.”
A mischievous grin then spread over Willow’s face. “Of course, she
never said anything about the rest of the weekend.”
“Oh, plotting ways around the folks’ rules,” cooed Buffy. “So finally
your inner James Dean begins to show.”
Willow shrugged and smiled. “My folks are going out of town this
weekend. This freedom has pushed me into having a little of the naughty
bad fun.”
“That’s my girl!” cheered Xander. “I knew sooner or later she’d go Dark
Jedi on us. Why soon we’ll have this little vixen staying out past
curfew and not rewinding tapes before taking them back to the video
store.”
“Don’t give the girl any ideas, Harris,” growled a surly voice.
The trio turned to see Principle Snyder standing behind them. “I would
appreciate it if you two deviants would stop trying to corrupt one of
the few students this school can actually be proud of,” said Snyder.
“While I’m sure Ms. Summers is on the express route to a correctional
facility and Mr. Harris has a bright future as a switchyard hobo ahead
of him, Ms. Rosenburg is another story. Of the three of you she’s the
only one who I’m sure will end up doing something other than sucking the
very lifeblood out of this nation. As such I would appreciate it if you
two would pedal your mental poison elsewhere.”
Xander was about to respond with a retort that surely would have gotten
him suspended when the bell rang.
“Thanks, Principal Snyder. I think,” stammered Willow as she clamped a
hand over Xander’s mouth. “I guess we’d better get going.”
“Yeah, economics class waits for no one,” added Buffy. Together they
managed to drag Xander off before he could say anything.
Snyder watched them go and then shook his head in disgust. “Kids. They
should all be sterilized.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
Situated in the lowest level of the universe is a region of icy fogs
and mists, darkness and cold. This land is called Niflheim, a word that
in ancient Norse meant "house of mists." It was in this place that Mara
made her home.
Now most people would expect the home of a demon to be a cave or some
Gothic-style castle. Mara, however, had opted for a condo. And so it was
that a condo than would fit right in on any sunny beach around the world
had came to be built in Niflheim. It sat on the edge of a cliff
overlooking Nastrond, the Shore of Corpses, where the massive serpent
Nidhogg would routinely emerge from the sea to feed on carcasses. Off to
the west one could see steam rising from the great spring Hvergelmir.
Since Mara spent a lot of her time on the Earth the place was empty most
of the time. But the demon still appreciated the fact that she had a
little place of her own where she could get away from the pressure of
being a demon. Or, as was currently the case, grab some much needed
sleep.
Within the bedroom of Mara’s house lay a coffin. While not exactly
typical demon behavior, Mara preferred to sleep in coffins. Not because
of any desire to present a fearful image. There much better (and more
fun) ways to do that. Mara slept in coffins simply because she found
them comfortable.
With a grunt Mara pushed open the lid of the coffin, climbed out and
stretched. Still feeling a bit stiff she headed for the door, her wrist
and ankle bracelets, being all that she had on at the moment, clacked as
she walked. With a small crackle of demonic power Mara formed her usual
black outfit around her body.
“Coffee. Need coffee,” muttered the demon as she rubbed the sleep out of
her eyes.
After a sufficiently large caffeine jolt Mara found her way the balcony
where she was studying her next move. “Good, good,” smiled the demon as
she studied her laptop. “It’ll take awhile to get everything set up, but
when it’s ready I’ll be able to cast a spell that will shake the earth!”
Still smiling Mara grabbed her computer and vanished.
Only moments after the demon had gone another figure appeared on the
balcony. He wore a brown hooded robe and had chalk white skin. The man
was smiling.
“So my part in this grand scheme is ended,” said the man. “Go, demon. Go
and revel in our own cleverness while you can. For when all is reveled
you will see that you have been nothing but a puppet. And when this
revelation comes to you, know that I will rejoicing. Laughing in the
knowledge that my revenge on you is complete.”
A wicked grin still on his face, the pale man then vanished.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Tokyo, Japan
It was some hours later and night had fallen on the city. But
cloistered in her room Skuld had failed to notice this. Instead, she sat
staring at her computer screen. She’d spent the last few hours trying to
figure out what Mara was up to with no success.
“Another dead end,” scowled the little goddess. “According to HEAVENet,
there’s plenty of supernatural activity in Los Angeles, the last place
we know Mara was. But none if it is really unusual for what you’d expect
to see in a city that size.”
Skuld hopped away from her desk and began to pace. “Okay, so maybe
whatever Mara is after isn’t in LA proper but someplace close by.” As
soon as those words left her mouth Skuld stopped dead in her tracks.
“Yeah! I bet that’s it! Just call me Sherlock Skuld!” Beaming with pride
the goddess climbed back into her chair and began to pound at the
keyboard with great fervor.
But a few minutes later that fervor had greatly died down.
“This is hopeless,” sighed Skuld. “In an area like Southern California
there’s supernatural stuff floating around all over the place. I’ve got
to find some way to narrow things down.”
Skuld then settled her chin into her hands and began to turn Urd’s
story over and over again in her mind.
But let’s just say thing are starting to look real sunny for ol’ Mara.
“‘Sunny?’ Could Mara have been giving Urd a hint as to what she was up
to? Maybe as a challenge for us to try and stop her?”
Skuld shrugged. “Aw, who knows what that sleazy ol’ demon thinks. This
is a longshot anyway. They don’t call it ‘sunny Southern California’ for
nothing.”
The goddess then worked the computer, ordering HEAVENet to
cross-reference supernatural activity in Southern California with the
word ‘sunny.’
“Only one entry found?” mused Skuld as the answer came up. With another
shrug she clicked on the entry and began to read. As she read the little
goddess’s eyes got bigger and bigger. This was not good. This was very,
very not good.
“Belldandy!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Damn this thing is heavy,” complained Keiichi as he struggled with the
large turtle statue in his arms. “I hope this thing is as lucky as Otaki
said. We’ve had enough unwanted visitors lately.”
With a final grunt of exertion Keiichi deposited the statue by the
shrine’s front door. He then stepped inside only to be confronted with a
chaotic scene. Skuld held a long computer printout in her hands and was
talking at hyperspeed. Belldandy was trying to calm her younger sister
down while Urd looked on in mild amusement.
“Look! Just look at this!” shouted Skuld as she shoved the printout
into Belldandy’s hands. “If this is where Mara is this could be really
big trouble! Why didn’t anyone tell me about this before?!”
A look of concern on her face, Belldandy began to look over the papers.
“Oh my, Sunnydale. This could indeed be very bad.”
“Sunnydale!?” squawked Urd. She then dashed over to Belldandy and began
to read over her shoulder. “Crap! If Mara is in Sunnydale we could be
looking at a major disaster here!”
“Will someone please tell me what the hell is in this Sunnydale place
that’s so damned awful?!” yelled Keiichi.
“Hell is right,” muttered Skuld.
Urd shot her a look before turning to face the Japanese man. “Vampires,
Keiichi. That’s what’s in Sunnydale. Vampires and the Hellmouth.”
“Vampires?! You don’t really expect me to believe in vampires, do you,
Urd?”
“You know that goddess and demons are real,” reminded Skuld. “Are
vampires really that much more of a stretch?”
Keiichi was forced to concede her point.
“Perhaps an explanation is needed,” suggested Belldandy. As she began
her tale the goddess’s face became still and her voice very low. This
worried Keiichi in a way he didn’t like to think about.
“This world is older than you know, Keiichi, and contrary to many
mythologies, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons, demons
walked the Earth, and made it their home, their Hell. In time, they lost
their purchase on this reality, and the way was made for mortal animals.
For Man. What remains of the Old Ones are vestiges: certain magicks,
certain creatures…”
“Vampires,” said Keiichi.
Belldandy nodded. “The last demon to leave this world fed off a human,
mixing their blood. He was a human form possessed—infected—by the
demon’s soul. He bit another and another…and so they walk the Earth,
feeding. Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of
their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out and the Old Ones to
return.”
“And by Old Ones you do you mean things like the Elder Gods and all that
H.P. Lovecraft stuff I had to read about in Literature class?” quizzed
Keiichi.
“That’s exactly what she means,” informed Urd. “But Lovecraft only had
a vague idea of what kind of beings live on the Other Side. If Mara were
to crack open the Hellmouth a army of things that make Cthulhu look like
E.T. would come pouring out looking to party and Man would go the way of
the dodo.”
“Okay, so I understand vampires, but what’s the Hellmouth?” asked
Keiichi.
“I’ll field this one,” said Urd. “The dimension where the demons live,
Hell, call it whatever you want, exists outside this one. The Hellmouth
is the place in this realm where the barriers between the two worlds is
weakest. Energy from Hell has been seeping into this world for
centuries. This energy attracts vampires and all sorts of other evil
beasties like moths to a flame.”
“And someone built a town on top of this place?” gaped the young man.
Urd shrugged. “Go figure, huh? The place was shunned for generations by
the local American Indian tribes. Even the Spanish conquistadors avoided
the place. They called it ‘boca del inferno.’ Literally, ‘the mouth of
Hell.’ The Hellmouth.”
“So how come no one told me about all this Hellmouth stuff!?” demanded
Skuld.
“Because you’re still just a second class, limited,” teased Urd. “When
you’re a big girl you get to learn about this sort of stuff. Who knows,
maybe in a few years we’ll even tell you where babies come from. If you
can handle it.”
Skuld blew a raspberry as rebuttal.
“Stop it you two!” snapped Belldandy. The other two goddess knew that
when she used that tone of voice, which was rarely, she meant business.
“Given what we’ve learned I think what we must do is clear. We must go
to Sunnydale and find out if Mara really is there. If she is we must
stop whatever she’s planning before anyone gets hurt.”
“Uh, I got a question,” said Keiichi in a slightly embarrassed voice.
“Why don’t you call the, uh, Almighty and let him know what’s going on.
Let him sort it out.”
Urd shook her head. “No can do. We don’t even know for sure if Mara is
in Sunnydale. We can’t go to the Almighty with just suspicions. For him
to intervene we’d have to have absolute proof that we were staring down
the barrel of the Apocalypse.”
“Urd’s right,” agreed Belldandy. “For now we must handle this.” She
then turned and looked at Keiichi. “Of course, because of your wish I
cannot leave if you don’t want me to.”
Keiichi had a look of worry on his face. “How do you think I feel,
Belldandy? Of course I don’t want you to go running of to Draculaville,
USA.”
Belldandy’s face fell.
She then noticed Keiichi’s hand on her shoulder. She glanced up to see
him giving his most reassuring smile. “I don’t want you to go, but I
know you have to. Somebody has to stop whatever Mara’s up to and I know
you three are the only one’s who can do it.”
Belldandy leapt forward and gave Keiichi a hug. “Thank you for
understanding, Keiichi. I promise to be back as soon as I can.”
Keiichi hugged her back. “I know. Just be careful.”
“Relax, kid,” assured Urd as she flipped on the TV. “It’ll take a lot
more than Mara and the Hellmouth to stop the Norn sisters. Trust me,
we’ll pop over to Sunnydale, kick Mara’s ass and be back before you
realize we’ve gone.”
Urd flashed a V for Victory sigh and then jumped though the screen.
“I need hot water to transport myself,” said Skuld. “I’ll just use the
bathtub. See you soon, sis.” The littlest goddess then gave the pair a
reproachful look before heading off.”
“Are you sure letting Skuld go with you is a good idea?” asked Keiichi.
“The Hellmouth sounds like a dangerous place. Maybe she should stay here
with me.”
“That thought crossed my mind as well,” admitted Belldandy. “But we
couldn’t have destroyed the Lord of Terror without Skuld’s help. I think
her inventiveness may be of great help to us.”
The goddess then gave Keiichi one last smile before floating into the
air. “Goodbye, Keiichi.” She then flew into a mirror mounted on a nearby
wall and was gone.
“Bye, Bell-chan.”
Keiichi looked around the house, suddenly aware of just how quite it
was and just how alone he was. Urd and Belldandy’s stories flashed back
to him and he shuddered.
“First thing tomorrow I’m going to buy some crucifixes. And some
garlic. Definitely some garlic.”
Keiichi Morisato got very little sleep that night.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~