Since the beginning of time, the demonic races have gathered every
century to resolve conflicts among them and to determine the course of
their future. This centennial event was called the Dark Congress.
In
the second century b.c., however, the Dark Congress failed to resolve
their conflicts. Instead, the Congress ignited into a war that drove
wedges between the various demon races from that time until now. And
all of it began as a result of Kandida, the great North African river
demon, being nearly killed by forces in the Congress and magically
entombed in the riverbank.
But now, Kandida is free, and for the
first time in centuries, the Dark Congress is being called again. All
demon races and other varieties of supernatural creatures have been
called to gather at the Hellmouth in Providence, Rhode Island. Some
gather in hopes of resolution, some in favor of war, and Kandida is
tasked to broker a treaty and guide the Congress to peace, wherein
everyone might simply agree to disagree. And so the demons gather under
a banner of a truce.
But the demons still harbor many bitter
disagreements with one another. The Congress must have an arbiter of
these conflicts, and that someone is Buffy Summers.
Buffy is
horrified and disgusted to be included. After all, she is not a
demon... is she? She knows so little about her powers that she cannot
say for certain where they truly spring from. How can she spend so much
time wallowing in the darkness without becoming part of it? Can she
possibly agree to a truce with all the horrors of the world, and allow
them to come Providence without any attempt to stop them? And does she
have a choice?
