Prosperax (PG: Mild Profanity)

[Altoz]

SUNNYDALE: October 2002:

"There's no doubt about it, Tara. Your morning sickness is indicative of only one thing- you're pregnant."
"But Doctor Norton, I'm a lesbian. I don't do boys. And I haven't snuck off to an IVF clinic without Willow's knowledge."
"Yeah, and all Tara's spells related to her heterosexual virginity still work properly, so I know she didn't."
"It's a side-effect of your recent journey to the so-called "Wishverse", Willow. On that world, DNA works differently. Some genetically capable women there can impregnate other women. When Willow returned from there, she had the ability to impregnate you. And there's nothing wrong with the embryo. The question is, what do you both want to do about it?"
"I want to become a mother." Tara said without hesitation
"In that case, I do too. Hey, wait until the others find out!"

RAVELLO DRIVE: That Evening:

Doug raised an eyebrow but knew instantly when Willow and Tara entered the room:
"So what are you going to call her?'
"We're going to name her after a late mutual friend. Alexandra. "
"I'm going to be an auntie!" Dawn exclaimed, hugging both witches.
"How?" Buffy inquired, curious.
"It involves the Wishverse, residual effects from it and parthenogenesis."
"Ah. I was sure there had to be a perfectly good explanation."
"Sorry, Buffy, We didn't mean to upstage you. What's going on?"
"Doug, Oz and I found something weird happening out on Hangmans Point."
"Ancient demonic temple thingy." Oz elaborated.
"There used to be one there, apparently, Millions of years ago, before humans were around.:" Willow explained
"Prosperax, you mean?" Doug said, sighing.
"Why is this town so full of bad demonic remnants?" Dawn asked.
:"Thaumaturgic, interdimensional vulnerability" Tara explained.

EARTH- FN 203:

Vamp Xander and Amy Madison looked downward, Amy was pensive: "What is it, sweetheart?:
Amy scowled before heading toward their table:
"It's about my employer. They want to try out something different, something about it being an alternative strategy, in case I 'don't work out."
"Prosperax. Wow."
"It's too showy and ornate. They'll know that there's something bad coming down." Amy replied.
"Relax, sweetheart. You're on a world where there are vampires and no slayers. At least that means I can keep you safe. Except when it comes to that interfering vamp cop Nick Knight and his goody two shoes accomplice Janette Descharmes. Why are the vampires here so weak and morally conflicted about what we need to do to survive?"
Amy sighed: "I wish there were witches here. At least magic works properly, though."
"And at least they can't follow us here. We're safe, for the time being."


HANGMAN'S POINT:

Prosperax snarled: "Why did you bring me here, without the proper disciplines and rites?"
"Because I need you for a specific contingency." A shadowy figure said.
"It will mean my abilities are weakened and shrivelled and not as great as they would have been."
"You are a weak shadow of a senior goddess. Do not try my patience or I will return you to the Hadeans."
Prosperax nodded reluctantly: "I can destroy this planet. Is that what you want?"
"Not within the proper discplines and rites and I will not let you do that. Yet. However, that magnitude of transgression is not what I require from you."
"You mean that you dared invoke me merely to kill the slayer and the witches that accompany her? Have a care."
"Enough of your pretensions! Do as I have requested and you will be liberated."
It dematerialised, leaving the senior demon with her malignant thoughts.

HAMMERFELL PARK:

"Something's way off about this whole Prosperax thing." Oz commented.
"Yeah, as in why didn't she try to bombard us with bad nastiness when she came into existence? Or just eviscerate us? Either she's holding back..." Buffy commented,
"Or her powers are limited?"Willow said in a moment of clarity.
"Right, which would be the case if someone did a cheap and nasty spell to invoke her and didn't dot the i s and cross the t s."
"This definitely isn't Glory." Buffy noted.
"Yeah, or any of the entities that punch in the same class like Illyria. Tara, are there any methods that we can use to corral Prosperax and send her back in a hurry>"

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Altoz]

PART TWO:

Buffy and the others crept toward the temple, which extended significantly into the air.
"So we can't teleport in?"
"Non-Euclidean geometrical thingummy." Willow confirmed
"The question is, why has someone invoked a second-rate wannabe demonic goddess like Prosperax?" Doug added.
"Okay, time for some heavy lifting..." Buffy ran forward and kicked in the doors, splintering them easily:
"That's weird..." Oz commented as they stepped inside.
"Don't enter! It's a trap!" Tara yelled, from Ravello Drive where she was protecting Dawn from any abuse of her abilities as the Key:
All to no avail, as Buffy, Willow, Doug and Oz disappeared into the void inside the unholy shrine.

Buffy blinked awake, to witness a familiar and sinister figure: "Slayer. At last you've come back for more. This is where it ends." Spike said, stepping forward, gamefacing and snarling.
Doug shook his head as a particularly painful figure from his own past stepped forward- his violent alcoholic father, Gavin Mercer, with a metal studded belt:
"This is where you get payback, you miserable pretentious little faggot. You're not fit to walk this Earth with real men..."
Oz found himself surrounded by fundamentalist Taoist Lotus Zero terrorists, each aiming projectile weapons with silver laden bullets focused squarely on him.
Willow found herself facing Warren Meers: "We were mismatched, wiccan. You and me. I take you on, win and drain your magic..."

But Buffy laughed and said: "No, I don't think so. Looks like it worked, Willow." And abruptly, her form shimmered and wavered as it was replaced by that of Doug Mercer. At the same time, "Doug" disappeared, to be replaced by Buffy, who smiled at Gavin:
"Hello there. You must be the pitiful insecure sack of shit who kicked out my male best friend and forced him to turn to prostitution to survive. I've wanted to meet you for ages." Buffy brought her axe up, stopped smiling and advanced on Doug's dead father.
At the same time, "Willow" faded from her oubliette dimension, to be replaced by Oz:
"Sorry, Willow can't take your call right now. Will I do instead?" Oz removed his shirt and vest, wolfsided and snarling, stalked toward Warren, who became visibly frightened at what had unexpectedly confronted him. He backed into a corner and dropped his gun.
Finally, "Oz" recoalsesced into Willow, as it turned that her raised hands were a preliminary to a spell: "Sorry,boys. I object to being targeted by deceased members of a cult of religious fanatics, especially ones who wantonly slaughter eudaemons and werewolves. Exorcizo te hoc planum! Vade!"

In his oubliette, Doug was too busy enjoying himself, hammering the Spike simulacra:
"Give up yet?"
"I should've killed you the first time, you psycho bastard."
"Ah. See, that's the thing, Willie-mate. Someone skimped on detail, didn't they?"
"You think you're the Goddess' gift to slayage, you arrogant prick. You're nothing without your paranormal side."
"Seriously? Sorry, I've been insulted by professionals and you definitely aren't one of 'em. Added to which, you aren't the real Spike anyhow, not even his unquiet spirit. The real Spike would be unable to attack humans due to that Initiative implant in his head. And even if you're his remnant, the thaumaturgic effect would still be operational." Doug grinned.

Buffy had finished using the blunt end of her axe against Gavin, who moaned:
"You...aren't supposed to abuse... your abilities... against....humans..."
Buffy shook her head as she slammed Gavin's fake counterpart against the wall, repeatedly:
"Yeah, and I don't. Except for one thing, Gav? You're not Doug's late father. You're not even his ghost. That's right. Tara worked out that Prosperax would use particularly poignant copies of our darkest moments against us. Except... that's all you are, copies. Prosperax may be a demon goddess, but she's been weakened by millions of years of non-observance and deprivation of psychic energy. Enough to be fooled by a personae 'cast, one of the most basic spells in the wiccan reportoire."

Oz had finished wiping the ersatz blood off his upper body as Warren Meers lay, sightless, covered in his body's disteneded innards.
Willow stood and closed her eyes: "Haec divisio artificia facere! Nobis facis!"

With serpents hissing around her, Prosperax faced the intruders:
You human weaklings, do you think you can defeat a potent elder goddess from the dawn of this world's history?
"Uh, yes. Sorry, but you got things hopelessly wrong when you assigned those phantasms to take advantage of our alleged psychological weaknesses, except you couldn't even detect the fact that none of us were who we appeared to be. That doesn't sound like omnipotence to me." Buffy said, taunting the demon.
"You're going back to the Hadeans, Proz. You expended too much energy when you created those fakes and tried to gear them to our vulnerabilities. Didn't work, did it? Say bye now." Doug grinned, with his arm around Oz.
I am not defeated! I will not yield! I...

"Daemonium deam, audite sententiam Osirim lugeri. Vos transgressi estis, et defecit a me domain. Pretium est de hoc planum est in esse corporeo."

Doug cast a gaze upward as the wailing, disraught goddess was pulled back into the void by Osiris, guardian of the dead. He cleared his throat:
"Sounds like someone's been doing her homework on the Osiris jar inscriptions. Uh, that masonry does not look particularly stable."
"Yes, I was thinking the same thing..." Buffy said, as they ran for the exit. Doug and Willow warded the remains of the collapsing temple from the others as they watched them thunder into Sunnydale Bay and sink without trace as the sea swallowed them up.

At Ravello Drive that evening, they sat reviewing the days events:
"That was almost too easy." Doug commented, downing a Diet Coke.
"Yeah. I think we're agreed on that. The question is, who'd think we'd be put off by carbon copies of our darkest nightmares?"
"And why did they hobble Prosperax like that? Unless it was an exploratory mission and it was never intended to be anything more serious than that." Willow added.
"The question is, what happens when we confront the real enemy?" Buffy concluded.

THE END