Witchfinder Chapter 1 By Joseph Black
Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.
Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.
Authors note 1: This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale and continued in Imhotep's Key. It would be helpful to read those fics first.
Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this ' anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this [ it's some ones thoughts.
Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.
Character List For ROS
Washington DC
Name Position
Jack Ryan
President of the United States
Ed Foley
Director of the CIA
Mary Pat Foley
Deputy Director Operations CIA
Tony Brentano
Secretary of Defense
Robby Jackson
Vice President of the Untied States
Arnie Van Damm
White House Chief of Staff
Dan Murray
Director of the FBI
George Winston
Secretary of the Treasury
Pat Martin
Attorney General
Pierre Alexander
Surgeon General
Lt. General Micky Moore Joint Chief of
Staff
Colonel Joshua McCloud Commander:
Initiative
Scott Adler
Secretary
of State
Andrea Price-O'Day
Head of Presidential Secret Service Detail
Ben
Bascome
Secret Service Agent
Dr. Ben Goodly
National Security Advisor
Robert Conrad
Night Supervisor National Recognizance Office
Pete
Cruvel
Informant for Bob Holtzman at Andrews AFB
Tom
Messinger
Head of IT department at Washington Post Newspaper
Olivia (Sally)
Ryan Jack
Ryan's oldest child
Jack Ryan jr.
Jack Ryan's second child
Katie Ryan
Jack Ryan's third child
Kyle Ryan
Jack Ryan's fourth child
Dr. Cathy Ryan
First Lady of the United States. Ompthomolic Surgeon
Ross
Maritn
Day Supervisor at National Recognizance Office
Pat
O'Day
Roving Inspector for FBI
Tanner Gaudru
Bob Holtzman's editor at Washington Post Newspaper
John
Plumber
Television Reporter with Fox News
Oscar Opgood
Intern with Washington Post Newspaer
Pedro De la Hoya
Diplomat with Mexican Embassy in Washington DC
Agent Sissy
Loomis FBI Agent, Andrew
Wells Control
Scoobies:
Buffy Summers
Senior Slayer
Xander Harris
Willow Rosenberg Witch
Anya
Jenkins
Ex-Vengeance Demon
Rupert Giles
Watcher
Dawn Summers
Buffy's younger sister, The Key
Andrew Wells
Sort-of-Scooby, Guestage.
Molly
Potential Slayer, Niece of Allistair
Stanley
Annabelle
Potential Slayer
Kennedy
Potential Slayer
Rainbow:
Brig. General John Clark
Commanding Officer of Rainbow
Major Domingo 'Ding' Chavez
Commanding Officer Rainbow Team 2
Major Peter
Covington
Commanding Officer Rainbow Team 1
Lt. Colonel Allistair
Stanley Executive Officer
Rainbow
David Peled
Rainbow Electronics Expert
Lt. Kenshin Hiedoki
Rainbow Team 1
Paul Bellows
Rainbow Psychologist/Profiler
Staff Sergeant Ciquala Thompson
Rainbow Team 1 Sniper
Sergeant Frank Miller
Rainbow Team 1 Machine gunner.
Sergeant Cory
Unger
Rainbow Team 1 Assualt
Warrant Officer John Benton
Rainbow Team 1 Command Sergeant Major,
Staff Sergeant Keefe
Johnson Rainbow Team 1 Assualt
Staff
Sergeant Buford Summers Rainbow Team 1 Assualt
Sergeant
Ardel Sherwood
Rainbow Team 1 Sniper
Feldwebel Trauguti Blatter
Rainbow Team 1 Assualt
Sergeant Evgany Lushilov
Rainbow Team 1 Assualt
Paddy Connolly
Rainbow Team 2 Assualt
Ettore Falcone
Rainbow Team 2 Assualt
WO Eddie Price
Rainbow Team 2 Command Sergeant
Major
Loiselle
Rainbow Team 2 Assualt
Scotty McTyler
Rainbow Team 2 Assualt
CWO-4 Carl 'Badger' Cole
Rainbow Helicopter Pilot
Initiative Team 3
Major Riley Finn
Commanding Officer Team 3
2nd Lieutenant Samantha
Finn Executive Officer Team 3
Graham
Miller
Team 3 Squad Leader
Bob Crugen
Team 3 K9 Handler
Ginger
Team 3 K9
Ed Trusken
Team 3 Radio Operator
Sharon Laraopold
Team3 Medic
Tony Baker
Team 3 Rifleman
Charlie Bigford
Team 3 Rifleman
Sunnydale
Ranger Roger Broadman
Chief of Rangers Central California District
Ranger Stephan
Moham
Forest Ranger Central California District
Ranger Josh Lake
Forest Ranger Central California District
Daniel
Carlton
Forest Ranger Central California District
Jim
DeSousa
Forest Ranger Central California District
Gerry
Johnson
Owner/Operator of Gerry's Sporting Goods
Dr. Sandra
Sanchez
Emergency Room Surgeon, Sunnydale General
Thomas
Sanchez
Dr. Sanchez's son
Brieanna Sanchez
Dr. Sanchez's Daughter
Carol Picket (Casandra)
Receptionist Sunnydale FBI
Frayne
Murphy
Special Agent in Charge Sunnydale FBI
Susan
Conners
ASAC Sunnydale FBI
Jurgis Ewel (Cadmus)
Reporter, Sunnydale
Press
Kit
Student Sunnydale High School, Junior
Scoobie
Carlos
Student Sunnydale High School, Junior Scoobie
Dr. Russell
Davis
Head of Nightshift Sunnydale General Hosp
Lt. Jonathon
O'Connell
Head of the Sunnydale PD Nightshift
Officer Owen
Thurman
Sunnydale PD Nightshift
Gideon Scott
Mayor
of Sunnydale
Andre' De Vries
Sorcerer, Head of Sunnydale School Board
Peter
Langford
Wizard, Apprentice of Andre' De Vries
11 ACR
Major General Merion Diggs
Commander 1st Armored Division
Colonel Duke
Masterman
General Diggs' Operations Officer
Colonel Nicholas
Eddington General Diggs' Chief
of Staff
Cindy Stewart
General Diggs' Occult Expert
Colonel Al
Hamm
Commanding Officer 11th Armored Calvary Regiment
WO
Billie Lee Guthrie
Scout Helicopter Pilot 11th ACR
Captain Jack
Preston
Commanding Officer 4th Troop (Helicopters) 11th
ACR
Misc:
Conrad Raynes
Screenplay writer, gossip source for Bob Holtzman
Sir
Basil Charleston
Head of British
Intelligence
D'Hoffryn
Leader of the Vengeance Demons
Hank
Summers
Buffy and Dawn Summers' father
Major Shelia
Decker
Proposed CO for Sunnydale's Army Base
Dr. Clarice
Golden
Psychologist
Lady Lara Croft
Tomb Raider
Bad Guys
Elisabeth Elliot
Former National Security Advisor,
Liaison to
Initiative
in Sunnydale
Trifurcates
The First Vampire
The First
Big Bad
Brigadier General Thomas
Leader of Rouge Initiative Group
Billingsly
Captain
Carl Iverson
General Billingsly's Aide
1630 Revello Drive
Sunnydale,
CA
07Nov2002
02:45 Hrs.
Willow Rosenberg sat in her room and watched as the Buffybot did its Power On Self Test. She had been surprised when General Clark had approached her about fixing it. When she had said, that if she could get the parts, she would be able to fix it in a couple of days the General had gone to Buffy with a request to purchase the robot. Buffy had looked dubious until he had explained that if they got it up and working they could use it as a decoy when Billingsly and the Initiative hit town. It would at least give them a fifty-fifty shot of The Initiative going after the wrong Buffy. That explained, Buffy had no problem with selling them the busted 'bot, but Dawn had raised a stink; so in the end they had rented it to Rainbow for a dollar plus repair costs. The parts had arrived two days ago and Willow had gotten the Buffybot back together during rest breaks from doing translations for Pat O'Day's problem in San Francisco. Looking the information he had passed along Willow had begun to suspect that the serial killer that had been dubbed 'Witchfinder' wasn't a poser. Anya had managed to get a copy of the Books of Ascension. Willow hoped she gotten the last couple of translations wrong so she had asked Dawn, whose Sumerian was a lot better than hers, to double check that she was right. She glanced over at Kennedy, who had become bored with Willows tinkering and had crawled into bed and was softly snoring.
Willow had been surprised when she had gotten back from Washington to find that several of the new Potentials had already arrived. Kennedy had been in charge of sleeping assignments and Willow found herself with a roommate who was also gay. Willow had resisted at first, but had remembered what Tara had told her in the Antechamber, and she and Kennedy were starting to feel each other out.
Willow checked the Buffybot and found it was about a quarter of the way through its POST so she, as she was want to do when she had some time, went over again what had happened in Washington DC last week.
Dr. Sanchez had not wanted to release her, especially with Willow claiming to have met her dead lover while she had been wrapped. The doctor had wanted the hospital psychologist to look the young redhead over. Buffy had taken the Doc aside and, after a brief argument, convinced her that Willow was okay to leave. When Willow had asked what she had said to the doctor, Buffy had told her that she had pointed out to the Doc that if she wanted to help them, she needed to keep an open mind on what other members said happened to them. It hadn't been a total victory, Doc Sanchez had gotten Willow to agree to report any recurring nightmares, or hallucinations, or if she had problems falling asleep. To get out of the hospital, Willow was almost ready to sign over her first born, so she readily agreed to the doctor's terms. A quick stop at the house to pick up clothing and she and Andrea were off to the airport.
The President had insisted that from now on any official traveling to or from Sunnydale was going to be done by VC-20, so there was none of the hassles normally associated with air travel. This was the first time Willow had flown in a private jet, well a private style jet, the crew of this one was in the Air Force, with a Colonel flying the plane and the stewardess had a lot of stripes on her arm. Once they had gotten to cruising altitude she had asked if they wanted anything to drink. Willow would have killed for a latte, but Doc Sanchez had been adamant, no caffeine for twenty-four hours to give the drugs that were in her system a chance to clear. She asked for a Sprite, while Andrea got a Coke. They enjoyed their drinks for a couple of minutes then Andrea asked, "Do you want to sleep, or do you mind answering some questions?"
Willow, who felt like she had slept for a week, replied, "Ask away."
Andrea began asking many of the same questions Ding had asked when he had been trying to get a handle on what magic could and could not do. But, soon her questions drifted into more specific questions on how magic could be used to protect the president, or how it could be used to attack him. Willow answered to the best of her abilities, but soon Willow began to feel out of her depth.
Andrea soon realized that she was dealing with a very gifted amateur. She should have expected that though. Willow was largely self-taught, and the problem with that approach is a person could well be very knowledgeable about what they did know, they often didn't know what they didn't know.
Willow obviously felt the same way because finally she suggested, "Buffy said that Lt. O' Connell, back in Sunnydale, knows some members of the American Federation of Wizards, he could probably put you into contact with someone who would know more about this stuff."
Andrea nodded and made a mental note to call O'Connell tomorrow.
"I'm sorry I can't be more help," Willow said sheepishly.
"Don't be sorry," Andrea replied, "I know a lot more about this stuff now than I did when I started.
Willow popped her laptop open and started working on something. Andrea sat and read through some reports until she heard Willow sigh. "Anything I can help with?" She asked the redhead.
"What do you know about the Witchfinder case?" Willow asked as she read.
"Just what Pat has passed on, they are up to four dead with the fifth just going missing," Andrea replied.
"Pat asked me to look to see if I could figure out if it was just a normal psycho doing it, or if it might be someone more up our alley. So far, I haven't been able to give him a definitive answer and another woman died while I was wrapped up."
"Have you found anything?"
"Maybe, I found something that makes me think that we might be dealing with an Ascension. But it was so vague that I want to pin it down more before I said anything, err, forget I said that."
"What's an Ascension?" Andrea asked, not willing to let it go.
" A person turns into a pure demon, really ugly. I've only been to one and it wasn't pretty. The Mayor of our town turned into a sixty-foot snake at graduation. Our class was going to be his first meal."
"There is going to be a sixty-foot snake popping up in San Francisco?"
"No, it's defiantly not the same ceremony, but there are lots of ways to ascend. Anya is trying to get me a copy of the Books of Ascension, or at least a translation, so I can see if I'm right. I really hope that I'm wrong."
Willow continued to work right up to the time that the stewardess came back and advised them to buckle up. Willow looked out and watched as Washington passed under the planes wings. "Are we landing downtown? She asked.
"Sort of, we are coming into Reagan National Airport," Andrea replied.
"Have you made arrangements where I'm going to be staying, or do I have to do that?"
"We've taken care of that, we like to look for people who are doing favors for us."
The plane had to circle for a couple of minutes, but Willow soon found herself on the ground and in a black Suburban being whisked through late night Washington traffic. She didn't get a good look at the sights, and she hoped she might steal some time to look through the Smithsonian before she headed back to Sunnydale. All to soon the car pulled into the parking lot of what the sign said was the Treasury Department. "You keep bunks in there?" She asked the agent.
"Kind of," Andrea said in a 'won't you be surprised' voice.
There was a man dressed in a suit, wearing an ear bug, waiting for them. He greeted Andrea, reached over and grabbed Willows luggage, then led the way toward the building. Inside of the lobby, the guard on duty greeted Andrea warmly and held out an ID card to her. She took it and looked at it briefly, then handed it to Willow. "You'll have to wear this at all times Willow," she said.
Willow looked at it and it and saw that it was a White House Visitor's Pass, made out to one Willow Rosenberg. It even had a decent picture of her. "Where did you get my picture from?"
"We got that picture from Buffy while you were kidnapped so searchers would have an idea what you looked like on the chance that Anck-Su-Namun moved you in the open somewhere and someone saw you. I just had them use it to make you a pass. That will allow you access to most places in the White House, though you will need an escort in any but the public areas."
Willow nodded that she understood and followed Andrea to a bank of elevators. She was surprised when Andrea pressed the down key rather than the up, but didn't say anything. The trip was a short one and Andrea led her out past another guard station and into a white-tiled tunnel. About halfway across the tunnel there was a black line in the tile on the wall, on one side it said, 'Treasury Building', on the other it said, 'White House.' About a foot past that line Willow almost gasped as something took a real good look at her, a right down to her soul look at her, and didn't find her wanting. She thought that that was a good thing. Andrea noticed her hesitate and turned with an, "Are you okay," look on her face. Willow just nodded that she was fine and continued walking. On the other end of the tunnel there was another guard station, and once again everything was gone over. Willow wondered how much of this security was because of Andrea being the head of the Presidents Security Detail, and how much of this was simply they way they did things. Judging by the smoothness that they went through the drill she suspected the latter.
After another elevator ride Willow found herself in the White House. Waiting for them was a harried looking man in a LL. Bean shirt. "Ms. Rosenberg? I'm Arnie Van Damm, the President's Chief of Staff. He's sorry that he couldn't be here to greet you in person, but he and the First Lady are at a State Dinner that they could not get out of. He's instructed me to get you settled in, and make sure you have everything you need to do your survey. Also he and The First Lady would like to have diner with you tomorrow night, if that's acceptable?"
Willow gulped, the President of the United States wanted to have dinner with her? She hadn't even voted for him.
Arnie glanced at Andrea while Willow was sorting herself out, "You know where she's staying right?" Andrea nodded. "Then I'll leave you to it. Ms. Rosenberg? It was nice meeting you." When Willow nodded he headed back toward the West Wing of the White House.
"This way Willow," Andrea said, and escorted Willow up a set of stairs in the front hallway and to a door just to the right at the top. Willow found the room to be a little garish, with purple and yellow wallpaper. A large four-poster bed dominated one side of the room, with a small sitting area with a couple of couches and overstuffed chairs on the other. Willow noticed there was a picture of Abraham Lincoln on one wall, and glancing at the coffee table in front of the couch she saw some hand written notes behind a glass case. Intrigued she looked closer and was able to make out, "Four Score and Seven…," She glanced up at Andrea with a questioning look on her face.
"Yes, it's one of the original copies," She answered.
"There sure is a lot of Lincoln memorabilia in here," Willow commented.
"Probably why they call it the Lincoln Bedroom," Andrea replied deadpan.
Willow got that wild-eye look again. "He never slept in here, Willow," Andrea assured her. "That is his bed though."
"Uh, they've changed the mattress since then, right?"
Andrea assured her they had. She then explained that the bedroom did not have an attached bathroom, so if Willow had to go there was one across the hall and for her not to be surprised by the Secret Service Agents stationed outside. It was a normal precaution. She then wished Willow a good night and told her she'd see her about 0730 in the morning and asked what time she wanted to be awakened at.
"Would 6:30 be okay?" she asked. Andrea replied that she would make sure that Willow was awakened at the appropriate time and said goodbye.
Once Andrea was gone Willow spent a couple of minutes looking over the Lincoln artifacts that were in the room, then she carefully pulled the dress she was going to wear tomorrow out of its traveling bag. Seeing that it had not gotten wrinkled during the flight she draped it over one of the chairs and then she dug out her bath stuff and a robe and headed across the hall to the bathroom. It was fairly modern with a commode and a shower stall but no tub. She stripped down and jumped in the shower, as she was showering she got the distinct feeling that someone was watching her. She looked around to see if maybe they had put a camera or something in here, but didn't see anything that looked like one. She looked into the mirror and caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. By the time she'd turned her head though, there was nothing there. Putting it down to nerves, Willow put on her robe and headed back to the Lincoln Bedroom waving at the Secret Service Agent standing guard in the hallway.
She put on a pair of pajamas and turning down the sheet she crawled into bed. As she was pulling the sheets up she became aware of a pair of eyes below some tousled hair staring up at her from the bottom of the bed. She also realized she could still see the couch behind the eyes. "Well hello," she said with a smile. It was a small boy, dressed in old fashion clothes.
The boy smiled back, "Hi! The others were wondering why you are here," he explained in a serious voice.
"The President asked me to come and check out some stuff for him," she replied, not wanting to go into detail until she figured out who this was. She was about to go on when a thought occurred to her, "Hey, that wasn't you in the bathroom just now? Was it?" She said in a 'it better not have been', voice.
"Nah, that was Dolley, she likes to check out the women in the House. I'll see you around the House then, you might not see me though!" He said mischievously. He then turned and ran toward door fading out before he reached it.
Willow smiled and laid her head back into the pillow, it was nice and soft. She was reaching to turn off the light when she became aware that the eyes were back at the bottom of the bed. Cocking an eyebrow she asked, " Yes?"
"My Da says you can look, but don't touch."
Willow considered this, but when the apparition started to fade she called, "Wait, who are you?"
The young boy smiled, "Willy," as he faded from view.
Surprisingly, the nightmares that Willow expected didn't materialize; in fact she couldn't remember dreaming at all. She was awakened by a discreet knock on the door, "Yes?"
"It's 6:30 ma'am, " a soft voice said on the other side of the door.
"Thanks," Willow called as she crawled out of bed.
"Would you care for some breakfast?" The voice asked.
"Some scrambled eggs, sausage, and coffee would be good," she replied as she gathered up her shower stuff again. It might be a little over kill as she had just had one before she'd gone to bed, but a good shower in the morning always woke her up.
As she was leaving the shower an older African American man was pushing a cart with a covered dish and a coffee pot on it down the hall. Willow opened the Lincoln's Bedroom's door for him and said, "Great timing."
"Thanks," the man replied. "We aim to please," he said with a wink.
Willow thanked him, wondering if she should tip him? You would in a hotel, but this was the
White House and maybe you didn't? She was still trying to work it out when he turned to leave, "Don't worry about the tray, we'll get it when we clean the room."
Willow thanked him again as he left and closed the door. For a very brief moment she was to scared to touch the food, what if she spilled something? This was the Lincoln Bedroom! But then the aroma of her breakfast reached her nose and with saliva bursting in her mouth she decided if she spilt anything they could bill her for it. Willow found the food excellent, not that she had really expected it to be other wise. The real surprise came though when she took her first sip of coffee. Her eyes went wide, So that's what coffee is supposed to taste like, she thought to herself, we've been doing it wrong all this time!
Willow finished off her breakfast and was contemplating seeing if she could get some more coffee when Andrea showed up. She was dressed in a new suit, so Willow figured she had been home, but she couldn't have gotten much sleep, unless she lived down the street from the White House. She looked alert and professional though. Willow was impressed.
"Good morning, Willow," Andrea said smiling.
"Have a good sleep?" She asked.
"Much better than I thought I would. I had a visitor last night," Willow said as she picked up her coat and threw it on.
"Oh?" Andrea asked. The hallway guards hadn't logged anything after Willow had taken a shower.
"It was a young boy, said his name was Willy"
Andrea frowned; the only young boy that hung around the White House right now was Shortstop, or John Patrick Ryan Junior, as the rest of the world knew him, the Presidents oldest boy. Well there was Kyle too, but Andrea was pretty sure he hadn't gotten out of his crib last night.
Willow smiled as she saw that Andrea was trying to figure out who had been in her room, Willow decided to let her off the hook.
"It was a ghost. Apparently the local ghosts were curious about me, so they sent someone in non-threatening to ask me why I was here."
Andrea looked at the witch and cocked an eyebrow. A couple of weeks ago she would have dismissed her as a nut. Oh, sure, she had heard the stories that floated around the house, of footsteps heard where there was no one to make them. Of people saying they'd seen someone standing in a window that dressed in old fashion clothes. Heck, she had even read the reports of ghost sightings in the house, but she had never seen or heard anything herself. It was a lot to take in.
Willow went on, "He also told me his Da said to look, don't touch."
That statement gave her a big clue as to who Willow's visitor might have been. She went over to a bookshelf, and pulling a volume off of it she thumbed through it until she found the page she was looking for, "Is this him?" She asked, holding the book open for Willow to see.
A quick glance is all it took, "Yep, that's him," she confirmed. Then taking a closer look she saw that this was a drawing of Willy Lincoln, the President's young son who died of Typhus while Lincoln was president. Looking up at Andrea she said, "That means his Da is," she wasn't able to finish.
Andrea smiled, "That's probably some good advice then."
Turning serious Andrea asked, "Where do you want to start?"
"Down in the basement, I need to find the Keystone I think."
"That will be in the southwest corner of the building," Andrea replied.
"Not the Cornerstone," Willow corrected, "The Keystone."
"Aren't they the same thing?" Andrea asked, confused.
Willow shook her head as she started out, making sure her ID badge was secure, "The White House has some kind of defense mechanism in place, it has to be bound to some part of the building. It might be the Cornerstone, but I bet that they had some kind of private to-do after hours to set the Keystone, and what ever the defense is, it will be bound to that."
"Okay," Andrea mused, " Let's check out the basement then."
