“Damn.” Xellos muttered loudly.
     “I beg your pardon?” Giles looked up from his dry mythical-demon and otherwise ancient abnormality textbook.
     “Nothing, nothing.”  Xellos waved Giles aside, and looked as though he was focusing on something mentally.  “Look, I have this feeling that my slayer may be a little…late for her awakening.”  Xellos frowned, which was an absurdity in itself.  “At least, her proper awakening.”
     “Well, I have been trying to locate some information that may prove useful against…against…say, what are we up against?”
     “Slight technicalities, shall we say, prevent me from being able to reveal that to you at this time.”
     “That’s what you said, before, but I will not tolerate being led around by the nose by the likes of you.” Giles was turning red with frustration.
     “Ne, ne, Rupert-kun, you shouldn’t get yourself worked up about silly little difficulties.  When the time is right, you will be informed.”
     “And I suppose you took it upon yourself to decide when the time is right?”
     “You amaze me, Rupert-kun.” Xellos spoke gravely, as he clutched his over-sized staff.  “You live in a world that few people are aware of and less even dream about.  You deal with worlds and dimensions of good and evil.  Do not limit yourself to this Earth or to mortality or to me.  I am nothing without Xellas or my Lord.”
     “Who?”
     “If they wish you to know, I will tell you.  But they do not as of yet, and I doubt they will soon, so for now you must trust what I have told you.  It is all you have.”
     As insane as the freaky little man was, he had a point.  Giles didn’t know what their new enemies were, and he wasn’t going to be told but it’s smarter to play with lit dynamite than to take a chance when demons and hell are involved.
     “Very well then.  All I have found on the word you suggested, Seiyluun, was the Genie of Seiyluun.
     “Be a shiningly good Samaritan and read out that little paragraph, would you?  My eyes aren’t what they used to be.”
     Giles believed him and read from the book.
      “It says, ‘Thousands of years ago, on the real Earth, the first Earth, there were four legendary warriors.  The first and most powerful was a childlike sorceress that was rumored to have been favored the almighty supreme Lord of Chaos and Balance, the Mother of Creation and Harmony and Black Magic, the Lord of Nightmares.  The second served as her bodyguard, and although he worked without magic, he wielded an ancient, magnificently powerful sword called the Hikari No Ken, or the Sword of Light.  The third was young man that had been cursed with powerful magic and strength, while at the same time the body of a horrific demon.  See picture C.”’
     Giles directed his attention at the picture in the side panel marked C.  It was labeled ‘Xalgods’ and depicted a shoddily altered illustration of the Hindu god, Shiva.
     Giles cleared his throat unnecessarily and continued.  “ ‘The fourth an final permanent addition to this band of travelers was a young girl driven by the Glory of Justice, The Divine Truth.  She sought to right wrongs and harmonize the world.  Five years after the group had been traveling together, the most powerful sorceress cast a powerful spell that corrupted Earth One, and killed her instantly.  Her body disappeared, and her friends were left to their own devices.  Destiny states that 2016 years after the sorceress cast her last deadly spell, the affects of it, evil and apocalyptic, will envelope the Second Earth, corrupting all life eternally.  Legend also states that although two of the members of the traveling band went on unaccounted for, it was noted that a Priest of the time sealed the fourth one away in an ancient book, casting a binding spell upon her, so when the time came and the apocalypse drew near, that there may be someone to aid the war against the powerful magic from so long ago.’”
     “Well,” Giles concluded.  “That’s all very well and good for a fairy tale, but what has that to do with the task at hand?”
 He noticed something quite large and pink and white out of corner of his eye.  He turned and almost swallowed his tongue when he discovered that a small teenage girl in a glorified translucent Arab costume hovering in the lotus position slightly above the text he had just finished reading.
     "Hello there!”  She said cheerfully.  “My name is Amelia Wil Tesla Seiyluun, Destroyer of Evil and Genie Extraordinaire.”
     The curious sound Giles was making and the sound of Amelia’s voice brought Buffy’s groupies rushing to see what was wrong.
     “Does anyone else see an Egyptian slut?” Xander blinked several times, but the girl showed no signs of fading away tauntingly, the way all the other girls that wore too little did.
     “Excuse me!” Amelia sweatdropped.  “I’m a GENIE, and-.”
     “Oh, baby, you can make my wishes come true.”
     “Cradle robber.” Cordelia muttered.
     A four-foot, metallically binded, leather and bronze tome materialized in Amelia’s hands.  “Chapter five, section two, article three of the Genie Code and Conduct Manual states, and I quote, ‘No intimate and/or sexual contact is to be made, orally or otherwise with any human, non-human, animal, inanimate object.  No suggestive language, flirtatious remarks, demeaning or derogatory communication is to be exchanged between Genie and Master, and no form of verbal or cyber sex is permitted for any reason or circumstance.’”
     “Eternal celibacy sucks.” Willow commented dryly.
     “Anyway, Xander is not your master.  Giles is.”  Xellos pointed out.
     “M-me?  And have I to do with it?  I did not rub a lamp or make a wish or any such balderdash.”
     Amelia grinned stupidly and bowed before her new master.  “All you needed to do was read that passage from the Book.”
     “That’s preposterous.  Anyone who ever read from that book could have set you free and at least a thousand irresponsible students could have released you at any time.” Giles frowned at his genie.
     “When do you think the last time anyone signed out that book was?”  Xander asked pointedly.
     “I still think it’s all too easy.  I have had my fair share of genie experiences, and I’ll be the first one to admit, I don’t much care for mischievous sprites or the likes.  They’re very tricky, always taking the side road, cutting corners, misleading people with false words and illusions.  I don’t like it at all.”
     “The fact of the matter is, Rupert-kun, no one asked how you felt about it.  This genie-master business is a give and take relationship, although granted, you do much more of the taking.  Use this little gift to your advantage though; in a situation like the one we are about to embark on, a genie is no nuisance.”
     “I suppose so.  But for the sake of Buffy and Sunnydale.” Giles sighed in resignation.
     “So, what are you going to wish for?” Cordelia’s eyes lit up as she mentally recounted all the glorious possibilities owning a genie would consist of.
     “I suppose first and foremost, I ought to wish that the other Slayer arrives right now so we should get things underway?”
     “NO!” Xellos intervened very sharply.  “Absolutely not, you will not waste a wish on the pre-ordained.  It will be, because that is the only way that it can happen.  One thousand different separate destinies all amounting to the arrival of the Slayer.  She will come; of this I have no doubt.  Use a wish for something we need that is not so certainly at our disposal.”
     “Master?” Amelia made huge puppy-dog eyes, waiting for conformation that he would change his wish.
     “Very well then.  I suppose it really is more practical to wish for more wishes.  Genie, I wish for an infinite number of wishes.”
     Instantly, the disproportionably huge tome reappeared in Amelia’s hands and she scowled at Giles from behind it.  “Chapter two, section two, article six of the Genie Code and Conduct Manual clearly states: ‘At no time, and/or location or will a Master be permitted to wish for more than three wishes.  Under no circumstances, emergency or otherwise, will a mortal be granted excessive wishes.  No personal preference will be made by Genie to master, denoting to gender, age, weight, race, hobbies, physical appearance or personality traits.  Wishes are non-transferable, non-exchangeable and will not be reimbursed by the personal Genie or U.G.U.”
     “Oogoo?” Willow exchanged a mortified look with Xander and Cordelia.
     “U.G.U.  The United Genies Union.  They mailed my copy of the Genie’s Code and Conduct Manual just last decade.  I barely had time to read it before I was summoned by Giles-sama.”
     Giles looked at the manual with revulsion.  “Is that entire manual an overblown list of provisos?”
     “Not overblown at all, but yes, it is a rulebook.”  Amelia’s eyes shot heavenward at the giddy notion of strictly formatted regulations.  The law was a divine, divine thing.  Without it there would be no righteous truth, no order and certainly no justice.  It would be chaos.”
     “Merciful Jesus, what can I wish for?”  Giles felt as though he was going to explode, and if he didn’t he would strangle Xellos.  By some twisted, sick turn of events, Giles was positive it was all Xellos’ fault.  Perhaps if he did explode he could come back as a ghost and haunt Xellos and slowly drive him even further over the edge.  Yes, that’s what he’d do.  It was the funny farm for Xellos once Giles got through with him.
     “Whoa…this isn’t the soccer field, is it?”  An awkwardly tall, vacant-looking young man with very long blonde hair had stumbled his way into the library a few moments ago and had been watching the goings on with disinterested confusion.
     “Can I help you?” Giles turned in frustration to the boy.
     The kid seemed to be lost in a simple little world of this own.  “Now, this is a book place, not a soccer place.  If I could only remember the directions on how to get to the soccer place…”
     “What’s your name, son?” Xellos leaned towards the boy with exaggerated inquisitiveness.
     “Umm…Gourry, yeah, Gourry Gabriev.”
     Xellos got up and extended a friendly hand for Gourry to shake.  Gourry paused stupidly looking at the hand, and then finally decided what it was for and pumped it eagerly.  “Yes, yes, my name is Xellos Matallium.  Pleased to meet you.”
     “For heavens sake, Xellos, we have enough on our plate right now without this big lug.  Young man, do you mind?” Giles folded his arms irritably.
     “Mind what?” Gourry’s mind was on what two guys who seemed very eager to be left alone with four underage girls in a dark library on a Saturday were up to.
     Xellos turned back to look a Giles, hanging his head as if to say ‘tsk, tsk, tsk’.  “Well, it seems obvious that this boy knows too much.  He’ll create a citywide panic that we just can’t afford to have right now.  Our only option is to recruit him to our side.”
     “Our only option, huh?” Giles stared out a window that one really could not stare out of considering that it was boarded up from the outside.  “Very well then.”
 
 

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