THE FOUR HORSEMEN

The Summoning 2: The Four Horsemen
by Leana Effrenus
***************

"Cool."

"Wow."

"Neat."

"Huh."

The four voices merged into one, yet each knew who was thinking what and how they were feeling, it was disconcerting in as much as it really wasn't, it all felt perfectly normal and natural to have three other voices inside their heads, speaking as one yet still separate. When they actually had time to think about it they realised the strangest thing was knowing so much, everything they had ever known separately was meshed up into one collective intellect, like a network of computers, each holding their own data but with instant access to the others, like Angelus knowledge of torture, Willows spells, Spikes literature and Xander's tactics, though the biggest surprise had been the Hyena, none of them had known that Giles had merely caged the spirit, not removed it, he had only been able to remove the power of its influence over Xander, and the vampires were particularly impressed with its unbelievably vicious streak as well as its instincts and senses. As they were fundamentally four parts of the same entity it was strange on the odd occasion when they disagreed on something, the most telling of these disagreements was on the first night when Ares showed them their room. They were given a suite in Ares temple on Olympus and the three men were discussing who would sleep where, there were four beds, one in each corner, and all three of them wanted the northern bed as the four corners corresponded with the compass, they were so busy with each other that they shut Willow out of their minds, ignoring her, after about five minutes she got fed up with this and decided to sort it out herself, so she went into the living area and called on Ares. As he appeared before her she dropped to one knee, head bowed, left arm across her chest and her right hand on the hilt of her sword.

"My Lord Ares, I am yours"

Ares smiled at her, he Athena, Hades and Strife all shared the pleasure of these mortals devotion, and were devoted to them in return,

"What do you require Childe?"

Willow looked up with a grin.

"My Lord, the other children can't play nice, I think we need new sleeping arrangements, I have an idea, if it pleases you?"

Ares could easily read the image she was projecting and laughed out loud, that finally got the others attention and they knelt as Ares and Willow entered their room.

"Oh it definitely pleases me Childe, enjoy."

With that he clicked his fingers and the previously white room with four single beds was suddenly Black and red with one enormous four poster bed, covered in black and red silk, sat in the northern corner. There were dozens of big red throw cushions on the thick pile black carpet and on the four walls were their symbols, a pentagram for Pestilence, a railroad spike for Death, an penitent angel for War and an omega for Famine, and in the middle of the floor there was the sign of the Four Horsemen, all four of their personal signatures interwoven into a sign of the apocalypse, all in blood red relief against the black walls and floor. Ares smiled at their stunned yet grateful expressions,

"You are new to this life, as you grow stronger you will become one with each other, Pestilence was able to call me without any of you noticing, if you had thought instead of acting you would have known her solution as soon as she did, and should have completed this transformation yourselves, though not with my style and flare, this is the sign of the Four Horsemen, not four people who happen to ride together, you are one now, get used to it and make use of it, now, don't you have some bonding to do?"

With a huge smile on his face and debauchery in mind Ares clicked his fingers and was gone. The men looked at Willow and each other and grinned, they were finally starting to think together, they were stripped and on the bed in moments. As the four began moving around each other on the bed the first thing they noticed was the added sensations from the others, the most amazing of which was the anatomical difference, when Willow rubbed up against Angelus body she felt the amazing sensation of his cock growing hard and straining against her and the men felt the hard rub of silken flesh against the tender warmth of her center. The four spent hours just revelling in the sensations of each other's bodies, and the orgasms running through them. The feel of a hard cock against flesh, or another of its own kind, the sensations of a foreskin slowly moving up and down its owners shaft, or the touch of a skinless head on a moist center, something only Xander had experienced before. Ares looked in on his Horsemen and grinned, they couldn't possibly be any better than this, so wrapped up in each other and their senses that he could have taken the bed away and they would never have noticed, he definitely had to make it a rule, no sex outside of Olympus, it would leave them to vulnerable, but for now they deserved all the fun they could get, it would be the only emotional outlet available to them for quite a while.

The training of the Four Horsemen took almost forty years; they were instructed in all forms of fighting and warfare, and lots of other fun things! They learnt of the military histories of thousands of different dimensions, strategies, strengths and weaknesses, weapons old and new and magic's that they had never dreamed possible, they would be working in all the dimensions, though rarely on earth or the few others which had their own Champions, most dimensions didn't have the likes of the Slayer and The Powers That Be to help and call Champions so they were there instead. For obvious reasons most of the things they learnt were not in English, so they learnt every known language in all the dimensions they would visit. The Gods had told them that they would know when they had completed their learning, their bodies would tell them, but they failed to mention just how!

The Four had been trying for days to master tan extremely intricate spell, it would allow them to protect and hide a person or group from anyone and anything, it was the hardest thing they had done so far, they had to combine not only their minds, which was natural by then, but also their spirits, as they successfully completed the spell for the first time they fell to the floor unconscious. Athena, who had been giving this particular lesson, called the other three Gods. When Ares, Strife and Hades appeared they looked at the Four and Ares said,

"Well, that was quick, the Fates thought it would be several more decades before they mastered their unity."

The others smiled and watched as the physical changes began. The most obvious outward change was their hair, they had all taken to wearing it shoulder length but now it was jet black, only the last two inches of the feathered ends were blood red, a tattoo appeared on their backs, the sign of the Four Horsemen, almost covering each of their backs, and each of their personal signs appeared on their right upper arm. The biggest changes had been physiological, they had had each others strengths to counter any weaknesses, like the vampires inability to move in the sunlight, which was counter acted by the mortals imperviousness to it, and the mortals lack of strength, countered by the preternatural abilities of the vampires, but now they had finally accepted the linking of their spirits as well as their bodies and minds.

The Gods decided it was time the Four had a break, and the opportunity to deal with their former lives, for though forty years had passed for them, it had only been a year for their friends. The Gods knew that the only weakness the Horsemen now possessed was the 'Sunnyhell' group, which now encompassed the LA group, they had to put their feelings too rest, of protect them, either way, the problem had to be dealt with, if someone found out that they could be used against the Horsemen it would be a disaster, so far only the Gods themselves knew of the 'Summoning' and they planed on keeping it that way until this last threat was taken care of, it wasn't as if they couldn't spare the thirty of forty years it would take for the mortals to die naturally, now that the Four had been summoned they would live indefinitely, unless something came into being in the future that could defeat them, and it wasn't as if there was anything on earth that could be considered a threat to them.

When the Four woke up their murmurs of appreciation were music to the Gods ears, they knew they had finally succeeded, they looked at each other and nodded in gleeful acceptance of their new appearance, along with the tattoos and hair their clothes were identical, the soft black leather of the trousers and waistcoats were form fitting without being constricting and were all laced up
with red leather ties, and Willow noted gleefully that she didn't even need a bra! They each wore a wide leather belt, ebony hilted double-edged, clip point dagger tied down on the right and a long bladed cavalry sabre on the left. As they stood up the Gods each clicked their fingers and a quiver appeared on each of their backs, hung diagonally from shoulder to hip, the black leather inlaid with their personal signs in the contrasting red, the only relief from the all over black except for their hair, these quivers would never empty and the arrows, made from holy trees and with pure silver heads would never fall out, they had a perpetual supply of the weapons. The fingers clicked again and a small metal cylinder appeared in each of their right hands, as they gently squeezed and tilted them they telescoped out into a four feet Bo staff, they knew this weapon, it was one very few had heard of and even less seen, each was enchanted by the oldest known sorcerer, they knew that when they twisted it in just the right way a string would appear and it would become a long bow, they also knew that all the weapons were enchanted, only they could touch them without pain, and only the Four could wield them without dieing, they would also return to their masters at a thought, making them impossible to loose.

"It's time you had a break, go back to Sunnyhell and enjoy yourselves."

The Four couldn't help but snicker at the use of their own nickname for their old home, but none of them could deny the urge to go back, just to see everyone once more. With the grins on their Gods faces they knew they were ready for a good time, and left before they could change their minds. They quickly sparked to the Bronze where their old friends were most likely to be and walked up the last bit of street, not even considering how threatening they looked walking side by side, Pestilence and Death flanked by War and Famine, dressed as they were, even without the weaponry, which they could recall at a moments notice, except for the Bo's which never left the little loop in their belts specially made for them, they walked in unison down the street, the Four Horsemen would have no trouble in this town, the demons could feel the power radiating from them and even the humans could feel a 'Don't mess with us' vibe, the four apparitions of obsidian and garnet appearing to literally own the very ground they walked on. When they reached the Bronze the door men quickly opened the doors for them and stepped as far out of their way as possible as they walked past the lines of people waiting to get in as first Pestilence and Death then
Famine and War swept into the club and made for the bar. When they reached the bar Pestilence ordered four shots of Glenfiddich and waited for Buffy to come and find them, they didn't wait long.

"My God, Willow, Xander, is it really you? We didn't think we'd see you again, where have you been, what have you done?"

When she finally paused to draw breath they spoke,

"Slayer."

As they looked at their one time best friend/nemesis/girlfriend/protector they were momentarily confused, the conflicting emotions running threw them were as bad as Ares had known they would be, they were simultaneously felling a whole range of them, love, friendship, fear, hatred and amusement were only the strongest of them, they were all remembering each others pasts and finding it hard to deal with it, but not for long, together they were emotionally even stronger than Ares had thought possible, they shut down the emotions and dealt with the logic, Buffy was the Slayer, she helped them in their work, she was fundamentally a good person but flighty at best, so she was no threat, as such, but no friend either.

All four had their backs to the bar, elbows resting on the wood, left leg out slightly and supporting their weight, the right bent at the knee, toes on the floor and heal tapping indolently on the rail behind them, they no longer even noticed that they moved in unison, their actions mirroring each other, and had forgotten how much it discomfited some people. Buffy did not look happy to see them any more.

"What are you guys?"

Buffy's voice was wary but hopeful, she didn't want to fight her friends but if they were a threat to humanity she would deal with them any way she had too.

"We are the Four Horsemen, you have nothing to fear from us, we only came back to visit, we're on a break."

Buffy was stunned, all four voices had spoken together again, it didn't take her long to realise that they were no longer the friends she had seen disappear a year ago, they were now one entity, like four limbs working from the same mind, she soon found that she was almost right, the Four were still separate, they could function perfectly well alone or in smaller groups, to be to interdependent would be to invite disaster, if one were to be incapacitated they would all be useless, but they were connected, her Willow was the soul, Xander the humour, Spike the heart and Angelus the mind, but they were all the logic and the passion and all capable of the others 'speciality', and they were almost invincible as the Four, and considering their combined knowledge before they went away, even without anything they could have learnt, she was glad they were not a threat! Especially when she found out some of the things they had learnt!

"So, any plans to ransack the town while you're here?"

She asked with a cheeky grin. They answered with their own grins.

"Not this time around."

Buffy pulled a face,

"That is way too weird guys, can't you speak alone?"

Pestilence turned up the grin and answered,

"Of course we can, we just don't very often, actually we don't talk much at all, but when we do it's usually together, it just feels right that way."

Buffy grinned again,

"Well, humour me, please, you all look weird enough without sounding it to, Giles is gona freak when he sees you, you know he's gona ask a zillion questions don't you?"

The Four nodded at her,

"Shall we get it over with then?"

Death asked, Buffy turned to him and grinned even wider,

"You're that impatient still? I would have thought someone would have knocked that out of you by now."

His grin was feral, and mirrored by the other three,

"Many have tried Luv."

Buffy laughed and they all joined her, when they calmed a little she said,

"So, you got transport or are we walking?"

"Oh, we don't walk."

Angelus voice always did send shivers down her spine, and it still did! She looked at him then the others as they all grinned maniacally, they felt the room shift and blue/black sparks flew around them all as the Four sparked them straight to Giles' front room, almost giving the man a heart attack in the process. He looked at them all laughing at his shock, took off his glasses and carefully cleaned them then looked them each in the eye,

"About time you got back, what with the sulking and reminiscing I was close to leaving."

They looked at him, still grinning, then as his lips started to twitch as he held back his smile they all leapt forward and engulfed him in a huge hug. They may have had conflicting memories of Buffy but they all agreed on the Watcher, even Angelus had seen him as a father figure, of course, that wasn't necessarily a great thing while he was insane, but the demon its self really admired him and was more than happy to be back near him, and Giles was more than happy to have them back, though very wary of Angelus. They finally let him go and he straightened his jacket before carefully looking at each of them again, his eyes rested on War.

"It's nice to meet you while you're sane Angelus."

The Four shook their heads,

"We are the Four Horsemen."

"I am War."

"I am Death."

"I am Pestilence."

"I am Famine."

"We are no longer as we were, we are one, we are Four."

Giles nodded, and unlike the Slayer, he knew exactly what they meant, War was no more Angelus than Angel was, the Angelus they met had been insane, completely without reason, even the 'original' Angelus was not like that, ok, he was a blood thirsty demon, but there was a vast difference between vicious and cruel, and he had never been cruel, not until he had lost his mind. Then the questions began!

"So, I've been researching since you left, but all I have found are a few oblique references to the Apocalypse and the rest was theology, so you'll have to fill me in!"

The smile on his face was worth any amount of questions to the Four, he was in heaven, with his own personal access to something nobody else knew a lot about, and they all knew he planed on writing the book, and they were willing to help him too.

"Where shall I begin?"

War asked, Giles looked at him and grinned,

"At the beginning of course!"

The Four laughed with him for a while, then War turned to the other three,

"You may as well go with Buffy and catch up with everything, then Giles can concentrate on what I tell him without trying to hear me above all of you, don't forget to congratulate Soul boy, Apollo is greatly pleased with him."

Buffy was about to complain, just a little for appearances sake, when they sparked her out of the room with them and went to catch up, they spent a few hours in the Bronze before sparking to L.A. to see the rest of the gang and spent the entire night regaling each other with more and more ludicrous stories as the night past into day and the alcohol passed in to them. Giles smiled at
War and began,

"So, what did they teach you first?"

War knew that Giles knew what he was talking about and knew he would want to record everything, so he sparked up a dictation machine and several tapes, as Giles saw them he laughed, and thanked him profusely before beginning to question him in earnest. Trying to ensure he left nothing out War still occasionally laughed for no apparent reason, until Giles asked about it,

"I was just getting to that, we are telepathically linked, all that we know, we know together, Buffy was just telling them about Oz and the chew toys, I thought it was funny."

He looked slightly abashed at this, it didn't really seem polite to be laughing at a conversation Giles couldn't hear, and then Giles grinned,

"Yes, I had a few good laughs at that one my self, anyway, you were telling me about the protection spell?"

"Yes, there is a much more powerful version but we only learnt that one yesterday, we have spent the last forty years trying to perfect our unity to manage that most powerful spell, with it we can hide and protect anything, well, I think the limit is a planet, the spell basically removes the object, weather it be a penny or a planet, from the aggressors mind, anyone who seeks to harm them can not find them, and even if they attempt to trick an innocent into leading them to them, it wont work, and it protects them from accidental or natural harm, of course, a spell like that leaves us weak, and it will last up to a hundred years if we don't remove it, but it would take us a full week to recover from something as large as a planet, obviously, the smaller the easier, but we all need to be together, and it leaves us too vulnerable, so we won't do it unless there is no other choice, the problem is, anything dangerous enough for us to need to us it would probably kill us while we recovered, so it would really only buy the protected a hundred years, but at least they would have
that."

Giles looked at the man he had known as friend and enemy and knew that they would sacrifice themselves for others if that was what it took, he just hopped it never came to that. The two men talked well into the following day and about three hours after sunrise Giles finally realised that War was sat in the sun.

"My God, your not a vampire any more!"

War grinned,

"Yes I am, but Pestilence and Famine aren't, their strengths are our strengths, I explained this earlier, I obviously didn't explain it well enough, the joining has given each of us the others strengths, and they in turn cancel out our weaknesses, Death and myself are vampires, that gives the others our strength, speed, agility, and fangs, actually I cant wait until the Slayer sees Pestilence in game face, it's going to be hilarious, Famine has given us his strategic and tactical knowledge as we as his feral instincts which were actually better than ours, and Pestilence gave us her Craft, as well as her tolerant and forgiving nature, which balances out the feral quite nicely, she is the reason we are all so 'nice' without her soul and Famine's humour we would be a very different entity all together, the Gods knew what they were doing when the Summoned us."

Giles looked perplexed for a moment,

"How do you mean, Xander's feral instincts?"

War grinned,

"I have never met a creature that could mix humour and a vicious feral nature like him, all we ever saw before was the child, a very funny child yes, but a child all the same, and nobody bothered to look any deeper, except Pestilence, but she knew him from the start, his instincts were all that kept him alive in the family he had, we share everything now, and we all wept over our pasts but Famine gave us the biggest shock, he is the first in a long time to have two Gods claim him, Lord Strife could not ignore his humour and mischief, but my Lord Ares could not pass up such a vicious nature, he could have been made for them, and then the Hyena possession just improved on it, why did you think the alpha male chose him? It was no accident I can assure you, that boy rivals even me, and his humour, it blows even Deaths mind to think about it too hard, sick doesn't cover it, he can laugh at anything, and get you to think it's funny as well, its amazing."

Giles was stunned, totally, absolutely speechless, War was sat reminiscing with a huge feral grin across his face and Giles was glad he didn't know what he was remembering, then he noticed the shadows and turned to the window, the sun was almost set!

"Good Lord, we've talked the entire day away, where has it gone?"

Then he looked at the tapes he had accumulated, and grinned.

"I guess I have enough to go on for now, eh?"

War grinned then his eyes grew wide in shock and he cried out in mock dismay,

"Gods no, their going clubbing, this is going to be great, you really can't miss this G-man, we can join them now, they've found a nice place and are buying in the drinks, what do you want?"

Giles asked for whisky without even thinking about it then realised what he had said,

"Hang on, clubbing? I am not going clubbing thank you, you go on and I'll see you tomorrow, after I get some sleep."

War just grinned and said,

"Don't even think you'll get away with that, you gona get your self changed or shall I do it for you?"

When War waggled his eyebrows suggestively Giles gapped at him, stunned,

"Oh no, nononononono, I am staying right here with these clothes on thank you very much."

War threw his head back and laughed before saying,

"I gave you a choice, now, what do you think, leather or jeans?"

Giles started to panic, in the nicest way possible he was scared senseless,

"You wouldn't!"

War simply nodded, his eyes full of mischief, Giles started to back away but didn't get very far.

"Must be leather then, and an electric blue silk shirt, the obligatory leather duster, and your ready, and we are wearing leather and red silk, a little predictable maybe, but the classics are still the best, and it matches the hair, you really can't beat the matching hair, now, do you want to arrive by bike or by 'Spark express'? The helmets will ruin our hair so we go by Spark."

War was more and more pleased with himself and Giles was almost apoplectic with shock and fear of the dreaded 'night club', War just smiled even brighter and clicked his fingers and they were both dressed as he had 'discussed' then he clicked again and Giles felt the room shift before being surrounded by blue/black sparks and then finding himself in front of the rest of the Four.

"What kept you? And damn you look good Giles!"

Giles immediately reacted to that,

"You don't have to sound quite so shocked you know."

Death leered at him, they had got used to talking alone for the time being, thought they still thought together,

"Not shocked Luv, just very pleasantly surprised."

And the rest of the Four obviously agreed if the hungry looks were anything to go by! At that they turned as one and the doors opened for them, they swept through and almost every eye in the room turned to them, Buffy and Angel were used to getting appreciative looks from people, and even non appreciative ones, but this was something else entirely, they literally radiated sex appeal, they swept straight to the bar, people moving out of their way immediately, and picked up the drinks that Angel had already ordered for them. Once more they put their backs to the wood and leant their elbows on what was suddenly a spotless bar. The others joined them and War was introduced to Doyle and said hi to Cordelia, Angel, Oz, Wesley and Fred and quickly proceeded to aid the rest of the Four in getting them all very, very drunk! By nine o'clock the mortals were almost falling down drunk, the Four decided this was no fun, so they quietly cast a spell over them, it kept them happy and drunk without the nasty 'fall down and throw up' part, even Giles had loosened up after the first half dozen shots, enough to be leaning on the bar in a very happy place, but not nearly in need of the spell the younger mortals had needed, which just made him smile, War turned to him and asked,

"What's the joke pet?"

Giles smiled wider and queried,

"Pet? I thought that was Spikes term."

They had all settled on the Four's original names for the night after everyone got thoroughly confused the more they drank,

"It was, but 'Rupe' is just really bad, and I didn't think you'd respond well to 'Pert'."

Giles almost fell over laughing at that, and then managed to get out,

"Well, not in public anyway."

War raised his eyebrows at that,

"Rupert, you really are a bad man when you try!"

"Don't have to try, it comes naturally, just have to keep it quiet with all the youngsters around, can't give them the wrong example can we?"

War laughed and Giles joined him, they were soon holding each other up to save themselves from falling on the floor, there was just no dignity in rolling around on a nightclub floor!

"Oh I am so taking you home tonight!"

"You better had, I don't have the money for a taxi!"

Giles quipped, but they both knew he wasn't adverse to the idea, and he knew it for the invitation it was, they stayed and until the early hours of the morning when the club finally closed, and the Four had given a great floor show, several times, the four of them dancing alone would have been good to watch but the purely erotic sight of them dancing together drew every eye in the room, their bodies moving sinuously over each other, flowing to the rhythm of the music, they couldn't have gotten closer together if they had been naked. When they were all ready to go, the Four looked at each other and clicked their fingers, the main party sparking to the Hyperion and War and Giles ending up at his apartment, conveniently alone! They didn't sleep for many hours, but when they finally passed out, exhausted, they stayed that way until they were woken up by Buffy and the gang banging around trying to find the non existent waffle iron before Pestilence finally sparked one to her along with the ready made mixture, just waiting to be cooked. When the Four finally left, several weeks and demons later, they all knew they would be there for each other if they were needed, they only had to ask! These friends were no weakness, as Buffy had found, sometimes you friends are your greatest strength!

END