Sunnydale, Ca.
The Magic Box
~~*~~*~~*~~*~~ "She's using again Giles. I know it." Xander told the group assembled around the table at the magic box. He had called everyone, sans Willow, there to talk about the strange things that had been happening around town and the fact that Willow was never around anymore.

"I have felt an increase in magical fields lately. I thought perhaps now that the Hellmouth was closed I was feeling more witches…" Giles said trailing off. He had tried so hard to help Willow get her balance back.

"I saw her go into Rack's this morning on my way to school," Dawn announced as she walked towards the group. She had thought about skipping class to tell Giles but knew it would lead to lectures and decided to wait until after school. It wasn't like there was anything they could have done(its really not necessary to add anyway).

"I won't have her living at the house, even if she is hardly there anymore, if she's going to be using magic like this again." Buffy hissed furiously.

"We're going to have to confront her. She may not have been ready to leave England. We could possibly send her back to the Coven." Giles said.

"I think we should call Wesley. He's good with the magic. If she tries to go all magical on us, you and Wesley could hold her back until we can reason with her," Xander said to Giles.

"I think that's a good idea," Dawn responded.

The door blew open slamming against the wall causing everyone to jump. Turning to look at the doorway they all saw Willow, black hair and eyes, floating into the Magic Box.

"Oh you do, do you?" She hissed as she raised her arms and held her hands palms out, fingers pointed up and began to chant in ancient greek.

In this time and in this hour
I call upon the ancient powers
To aid and protect me
To return those
Who would oppose
To time of fathers long forgotten

At exactly the same moment as the Magic Box was filling with a gray swirling fog so was Angel's office in L.A. seconds later a large boom sounded and all the glass, in both places, was blown out. When every thing settled Willow stood alone, a triumphant grin on her face. Little did she know that she had mispronounced a word in the spell instead of sending those she now considered her enemies to the beginning of man, she had sent them to a powerful time of gods and heros, and began a prophecy that would destroy her.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~
Somewhere up there
The Elders council
~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

"We must send the Charmed Ones back to help them. They cannot be left there; it will tip the balance in favor of evil, quickly." The Elder informed the white lighters present.

"Why did you not send someone to stop her?" asked a young white lighter, still in training.

"It has been done Elder, however in our haste we failed to completely control the time vortex. Leo and Wyatt were sucked through as well," The white lighter gasped, still weak and out of breath from the effects of casting such a powerful spell so quickly.

"That is fine Bella, they can only aid in the charmed ones mission." The Elder spoke. "Come young ones, it has been asked why we did not send someone to intercede when we knew she would do this. I shall answer this to those who wish to know. The time of the Prophecy has come."

"Are you certain this is it, my friend?" another Elder asked.

"I am. Alexander is their son, as it was then it is happening now, he has been sent back. He will unite them; bring about his own birth and their return," He answered. "Now for the story…"

Several white lighters settled around the table to hear what promised to be a very interesting story.

"In a time that man believes to be myth, gods and hero's walked the earth. This is no myth for I and the other Elders lived our mortal lives then. Or rather as mortal as we could be; for we are the heroes of tales, protectors of mankind. I was once known as Hercules, Son of Zeus, Immortal Demigod." The Elder said as he lowered the hood of his robes.

"I was once known as Xena, Child of Ares, Warrior Princess." (`and' and `too' are sorta redundant. Pick one. I suggest this) She too lowered her hood.

"I was once known as Autolycus, Son of Hermes, King of Thieves. "Auto grinned as he shoved his own hood back.

"I was once known as Iolaus, Son of Hades, Lord of the Immortals" Iolaus spoke and slowly pushed his hood from his head.

"And I was once known as Aurora, Daughter of Hecate, First Mortal Witch" Aurora bowed her head as she slipped the hood back, when she raised her head all could see the solid violet color of her eyes.

"When the Twilight was upon the gods they called us to them and endowed us with gifts that would help us aid the future protectors of mankind. They asked that we watch over their descendents." Xena continued after all 5 had revealed themselves. "Each and every one of you is descended from those gods, although it has been thousands of years and generations since their blood entered your families."

"A prophecy was for told of a time when the children of forgotten fathers, hidden from the twilight, would travel the times to make right that which went wrong, to bring forth the god of Peace and release the gods from their slumber so that the world would once again know their protection and guidance. I once fought against these gods for I did not see all they did to protect and nurture mankind. When the twilight came and the gods began to weaken and sleep, when their control over the people and the world lessened and died out I saw, to my horror, mankind would turn on itself and destroy the world. The world is polluted, filled of senseless violence, hate, wars for no true reason, children starving. The gods shall come again and though it will take time these things will be denied the existence they never should have had. Should we have interceded and sent someone to stop her, we would have stopped the very prophecy that will save us all." Hercules finished. (its sorta unnecessary)

~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~
Small Temple
Somewhere in ancient Greece
~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Ares was incredibly bored. He was listening to petitions in a little village that was almost too small to honestly even support a full temple. They probably should have had a shrine or something. In fact Ares himself had only been here once before when it was dedicated to him. And the only reason he had come today, if he were honest, was because Joxer would be passing through this town and he never missed a temple or shrine. Xena thought he had a horrid sense of direction when in truth he got 'lost' every time he was near a temple, for which Ares was extremely grateful. It was always nice to see the man he loved without the I-hate-gods-especially-Ares group he traveled with. Now if he could just figure out how to convince Joxer to love him instead of the blonde mouth.

Ares was startled out of his introspection when a sudden burst of light ended with someone landing on top of him, followed by the thumps of several other people landing on the marble floor of the temple. The man in his lap scrambled up and began to apologize for landing on him. Chaos reigned in the temple as priests, worshipers, and the strangers all began yelling to be heard over the others.

"Silence!" Ares bellowed. Everyone stilled and stared at the God. Ares ordered his high priestess to clear the temple of all save the strangers.

"Who are you?" Ares asked looking at the boy who had landed in his lap. There was something strange about the boy, something familiar.

"*Me*?" Xander asked, swallowing hard and staring at the very tall dangerous looking man in front of him. At the nod he received he began to babble "I'm Xander.Sorry I landed on you, I mean, it wasn't really my fault. Its not like I could control where I landed what with the spell and all but all the same I am sorry. I hope you weren't hurt. No? Well that's good, um, you wouldn't happen to know any magic would you? Or maybe where we could find some spells or anything really, that might help us go home cause I really can't miss work. I really love my job, and this wasn't exactly a planned trip and -" (I know its Xander Babble. But as long as you mention that he didn't stop to breath I think it will be ok to use correct punctuation)

"Xander! Breathe!" Giles barked at the boy noticing the rather amused look the stranger was wearing as he listened to Xander's un-ending speech.

"I'm Rupert Giles. This is Buffy Summers and her sister Dawn. You've met Xander Harris and there was another, but he doesn't seem to have landed with us." Giles introduced everyone.

"So does someone want to explain how *my* key ended up human and what it, excuse me, she's doing with a slayer, a chaos mage, and a godling?" He had finally figured out why the boy had seemed familiar but he couldn't for the life of him understand why anyone would have bound his god spark. " How did you get here anyway?" Ares inquired.

"*Your* key?" Buffy asked.

"Godling?" Dawn questioned.

"Chaos mage!" Xander squeaked looking around for Ethan.

"Oh dear," Giles murmured as he polished his glasses.

Taking a deep breath Giles told the man in the throne about Willow and the spell she cast. He was assisted in his story by the various members of the Scoobies whenever they felt he'd left out some important detail.

"Well I suppose I'll have to take you to Olympus. In the future witches maybe able to create time portals but in the here and now it takes at least six gods to create a stable portal." Ares said with a sigh.

"Olympus?" Giles asked in awe.

"Which god are you?" Xander asked with a grin.

"God of War," was the reply.

"But not all evil ending the world god of War? Right?" Buffy asked as she sent him a pleading looking. She didn't think she could survive another battle with a god. She was just so tired. She had barely survived Glory. And if it hadn't been for Spike catching her in the last moments before she hit the ground she would have died.

With an amused snort Ares answered her. "Right no ending of the world."

"Excuse me what did you mean *your* key?" Dawn asked she really didn't want to be taken from her sister.

"I created the key to open and close dimensional doors. Basically, you are what I used to lock Dahok from our dimension."

"Then why did Glory say the key belonged to her?" Buffy question still unsure of what was going on.

"I don't know this Glory you're speaking of," Ares answered.

As Ares finished speaking there was a commotion in the outer temple and the heavy doors to the audience chamber began to open.

"I'll be real quiet I just want to leave my offering. I'm sure Ares wouldn't mind," Joxer told the priest plucking at his sleeve.

"Let him in," Ares said to his priest as the man he had come here to see in the first place tried pulling away from the man holding onto him. In true Joxer fashion, ended up face down on the temple floor when the priest obeyed his lord.

With a soft chuckle Ares stepped forward to help Joxer to his feet.

"Ares!" Joxer said happily

"Daddy?" Xander whispered.

Everyone turned to look at Xander.

"Xander?" Giles questioned.

"I was 4 when I was adopted. My dad had to leave me. I don't remember why. Just that he was crying, he told me he loved me and promised that I'd see him again. Somehow this isn't what I thought he meant." Xander replied not taking his eyes off of Joxer.

"Xander be reasonable we're at least 2000 years in the past. That man can't possibly be your father," Giles told him.

"Actually," Ares said "Xander is a godling. Although his god spark is bound…"

"Bound?" Xander interrupted.

"Asleep," Ares supplied before continuing. "As I was saying Xander is a godling which means that if Joxer *is* his father, at some point in the future Joxer will most likely take a god or goddess as a lover and they will produce Xander."

"You keep saying Xander is a godling. That Joxer who is, I assume, not a god will take a godly lover and produce Xander. But Zeus was Hercules father and Hercules was a Demigod not a god," Giles said.

"If Zeus had given birth to Hercules he would have been a god. Any Child fathered by a god or goddess and carried by a mortal would be a Demigod and any child carried by a god or goddess would be a god or goddess themselves."

"Umm. You keep including both sexes in your statements. How can god's carry children and a goddess father them?" Buffy asked.

"Oh I know!" Joxer said enthusiastically. "gods and goddess are neither male nor female actually, they are, umm. Well I am not sure what they are but they take whatever corporal form they please. That's how Zeus could be that bull that time and can we just say that was gross even just hearing about it," Joxer trailed off as he saw that everyone, except Ares, was staring at him in shock.

"The Xander babble! Buffy said in a rush "Giles, he has the Xander babble," she said again swinging around to face her watcher.

"Yes it would appear that he does," Giles replied.

"Well Hercules is on his way to the temple shall we move this conversation to Olympus? I'd really rather not hear what evil plan I've come up with this week and how it involves all you innocents." Ares said rolling his eyes. "Coming with Joxer?"

"Yes! I mean, sure. Ok. If you think I can help," Joxer answered.

Ares smiled and the room filled with a deep maroon light as he transported everyone to Olympus.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Somewhere in Tartarus The Underworld ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Wes?" Angel called into the inky blackness that they seemed to have landed in.

"Here, Angel" Wes answered.

"Well it's not often that my children come for a visit before they die…" Bacchus said as he watched a group of people trying to see through the darkness of Tartarus. With a snap of his fingers, several torches lit throughout the room revealing the dark god on his thrown.

Angel stared at the man for a couple of seconds before looking around for his childe. "Spike?"

"Yeah, mate" came a very quiet and sad sounding response.

"What's wrong?" Angel walked towards Spike.

"You do know that, that is the god Bacchus… right? And that he's been dead and in Tartarus for thousands of years. Which makes us officially dead and I am still a ghost down here and you all still have some kind of corporeal form?" Spike attempted to lean against his sire and of course slid right through him. And of course despite everyone knowing that he was a ghost Angel tried to catch him.

With a deep roaring laugh Bacchus decided to put their minds at ease. "No one's dead. Not even the ghost is truly dead."

"What do you mean I am not truly dead? I died… sunlight and all… but ok let's forget all about the whole vampire thing… there's the whole Hellmouth collapsing on me thing." Spike responded as sarcastically as he dared to his god.

"Vampires are not truly dead. If you were then you would all be here. The only god with dominion over the dead is Hades. Therefore, I couldn't truly create a dead creature. If I did it would be Hades to command, not mine. I'm assuming that things have changed wherever you come from. However, in the godling's case, his god spark combined with my amulet and the fact that someone loves him enough to call his soul and demon back out of the amulet means that he is still technically alive."

"I was there when he came out of the amulet. No one called him out of the amulet. He just came out," Wesley said.

"Listen here, mortal. Who do you think created that amulet? I am telling you someone called him forth from the amulet! It wouldn't be some big spectacle. Some one who loved him unconditionally and wanted him in the physical world touched that amulet and felt pain at his loss." The god growled at Wesley before mumbling to himself "Stupid know-it-all humans. Think they know more then the gods. Just like Herc the Jerk running around and ruining things with out asking why we're doing them."

There was a loud boom and a swirling black smoke in the center of the room.

"Hades" Bacchus nodded his head in greeting.

"There are living people down here. I came to see what was going on!" Hades informed his cousin.

Bacchus looked at his children and the other people with them and asked what they were doing there.

"Not a clue," Spike said cheerfully. Bacchus explanation of his ghost like form made his day. He new that Angel was the one who had been holding the amulet before he came out of it. That meant that his sire loved him and he was a very happy childe.

Angel was staring at Spike. He was really surprised that Spike seemed so happy about the explanation of amulet and his form. He couldn't help giving an amused smile as Spike answered the gods.

"Well there will be nothing that Bacchus will be able to do for you. Since he is dead his powers do not extend beyond the underworld." Hades informed them rather coolly

"I'd like to know how to give Spike his body back if at all possible and since my Lord Bacchus is the one who created the amulet…" Angel trailed off letting everyone finish the sentence in their own mind, `There were still things that only Bacchus could do.' Angel wasn't sure why the slight Hades had made against his god had bothered him so much but he couldn't just let it go without some kind of response.

Bacchus once again gave a roaring laugh before grinning at Hades. "They are my children. Dead or not, I can still grant them gifts and powers. I can still free them or condemn them. I am still their god my dear cousin. They are still my creation and mine to control. I maybe trapped here in Tartarus but what I have already sowed is mine for eternity. You know that."

"You may have one day. Then I will return to send them to Olympus. From what I can tell not only do they not know how they got here, they have no clue how to get back and they are not from our time." Hades growled before disappearing in a cloud of black smoke.