Author's notes: Zeria, you should have got that email. Let me know.

Enjoy!

Chapter 3

They reappeared in the sitting room ten minutes after Chris had left.

"So it really does exist." Chris mused.

"Where have you been?" Leo said from behind them. Chris flinched, turning around.

"My fault, Leo." Kaia said quickly. Chris blinked; when had she switched from Tara to Kaia? "I called him. I asked him to come help me."

"Your friends got a Whitelighter for a reason." Leo reminded her.

"Yeah, but they don't let just anyone up there. Look, I'm sorry there was no one here for ten minutes. I was…" she stopped, blinking. "Ow. I had to help my kids, Leo."

Leo frowned. "You Ok?"

"No, that's all catching up with me now. Are you still mad?"

"No."

"Good, so I don't have to keep defending us?"

"No." Leo repeated.

"Oh good." She swayed and would have fallen if they hadn't caught her, one on each side.

"Kaia." Chris said, hurriedly lowering her to the couch.

Connor and the sisters came in from the other room; Connor slipped past Leo to hunker beside the couch, watching Kaia carefully. Leo, after a brief word with Chris, orbed out again.

"Chris, where have you been?" Piper demanded.

"Rescuing me." Kaia coughed, rolling onto her side. "Sorry, Piper. I didn't mean to steal him away."

"You Ok?" Paige asked.

Kaia looked at Connor. "They're repeating themselves."

"They're worried about you." Connor told her.

"Right, yeah…no, Paige." She glanced at Paige. "I'm not. Not unless the room actually is swirling around." She looked at Connor again. "Where did you come from?"

"Somewhere else."

"Oh. Ok." Apparently satisfied with that, she leaned back against the arm of the couch.

"Uh…" Paige hesitated, not sure how to ask.

"We call it loopy." Connor was talking mostly to the couch. "She gets like this when she's…out of her element? When there isn't any plants or whatever around. She was like this a lot in LA last year."

"Is she Ok?" Phoebe asked.

"She's not hurt, if that's what you mean. She's…disconnected. And if we don't figure out how to stop those demons it'll just get worse."

"Oh!" Phoebe picked up her laptop and held it out to Chris. "Wes sent this. Buffy's Slayers have been coming across those mini guys as well, and they haven't managed to kill any of the big guys."

"Those are the red ones?" The screen showed a map of the world, marked with red and blue dots.

"Yeah. The blue ones just die. Like the first one we hit."

Connor caught the edge of the keyboard and tilted it so he could see. "Can you change the map?"

"Change it how?" Phoebe asked.

"Put Ireland right in the middle."

Chris frowned, but Phoebe was already fiddling with the screen and he kept silent, waiting. After a minute she held it out to Connor again.

"Do you have a marker?" he asked.

"Uh, sure." She found him a marker and watched with some concern as he drew on the screen. "What are you doing?"

Finished, he let go and Chris studied the mark before turning it back towards Phoebe. Connor had joined the red dots together, ignoring the blue ones totally.

"Is that…that's the triquetra. Why would they be using that?"

Chris shook his head. "It's not the triquetra. It's a Celtic symbol. Close, but not the same."

"What's it a symbol of?" Paige asked, leaning over Phoebe's shoulder to look at it. It was very close to their symbol, but the legs pointed down at an angle instead of straight out.

"Eternity. No beginning, no end." Chris glanced at Kaia. "You hearing this?"

"Yeah. Not very original, Chris." She shifted, trying to see the screen. "Can I see?"

"Why are they using that mark?" Chris insisted.

"I don't know." she said irritably. "May I see, please?"

Phoebe balanced the computer on the table and Kaia studied it for a moment before taking the marker from Connor. "Sorry, Phoebe, for writing on your screen." She marked three spots and gave it back.

Phoebe and Paige studied the marks; two blue dots and a red one. "What are these?"

"Power points." Kaia said dreamily. "Like…reservoirs. To catch the overflow. Take them out, makes the job easier for you and harder for them."

"One of those is the invulnerable one." Paige pointed out.

"I know." Kaia agreed. "Even the other two will help." Glancing away, she muttered, "Just not enough."

"If you want them not to know what you're saying, you shouldn't use English." Connor told her.

"I wasn't?" she asked in surprise. "I mean, I was?"

"Not enough?" Piper asked.

"It'll help. I just…if we can't come up with a way to stop the red guys it won't matter. It'll just take them longer to do what they're doing."

Piper looked at Paige. "You have more potion?"

"Upstairs." Paige agreed, heading for the stairs.

"Good." She glanced at Phoebe. "Let Wes or whoever know, and we'll go handle this."

"On it." Phoebe agreed.

Piper glanced at Connor. "What about you?"

He looked at Kaia, who had lost interest again and was…apparently making a cat's cradle with imaginary thread. "I think we're staying here."

"OK. Well, we won't be long. These guys are easy enough." To Chris, she added, "You ready?"

"What?" He looked up, startled. "Yeah. Sure."

Paige came back downstairs. "Got it!"

"Good. Phoebe?"

"Ready." Phoebe agreed.

"OK. Chris, you know where we're going?"

"Yeah."


Twenty minutes later they were back; Phoebe had gotten slimed somewhere along the way, but apart from that they were more or less in one piece.

Kaia was asleep, or dozing, when Chris came into the sitting room, and Connor was leafing idly through the Book.

"You probably shouldn't do that." Chris warned him, glancing back towards the kitchen.

"Why not? It's just a book."

"No, it's the book. The sisters won't like it if they see you with it."

Connor closed it and slid it back onto the table. "Doesn't mean anything to me anyway. Potions and spells. Should try fighting once in a while."

"Some of these guys don't die." Chris said.

"Everything dies."

Both looked at Kaia. "Even her?" Chris asked softly.

"Everything else." Connor amended.

"She's not looking very well."

"She can't die. You understand that? She'll be the last living thing on the planet." He looked up at Chris. "You get that?"

"Even if the end of the world is tomorrow?" Chris asked.

"Even if."

Kaia sat bolt upright suddenly, flailing wildly; Connor ducked and caught her hand, trying to calm her down.

"Tara, what is it? Calm down, tell us what's wrong. Tara?"

Chris caught her other hand, steadying himself against the couch. "Kaia, stop. Tell us what's wrong."

"The water…" she gasped.

Chris dropped her hand and turned to the TV, switching it on. Connor watched him, still holding Kaia's hand.

"…And following the inexplicable death of all plant life early yesterday, officials are baffled by the apparent evaporation of all sea and river water…"

Chris clicked the TV off again. Kaia was rocking slowly back and forth, keening very softly.

"Kaia." He hunkered in front of her. "Listen to me."

"I can't stop it…" she whispered, eyes locked somewhere over his shoulder.

"Stop trying, then. Kaia, stop." He gripped her shoulders, holding her still. Absently, she shrugged him off, sending him crashing into the table.

"Tara!" Connor said, letting go of her to help Chris up. "You might not want to grab her like that." he added to Chris.

Kaia started speaking urgently, and Connor turned back to her. "It's all gone, she can't find it, she can't stop them…" he translated. "Everyone's going to die, we have to stop it…"

"We will." Chris said quickly. To Connor, he went on, "What language is she speaking?"

"Languages. Two of them. Irish and Animarian. You'll get to know them, eventually."

"What's going on?" Piper asked from behind them.

"The end of the world." Chris replied. "All the water's vanished."

"What?"

"Seas, rivers…all of it."

"I need the phone." Kaia said from behind them. Chris turned to look at her.

"Why?"

"Phone, Chris." she insisted.

"Kaia, you aren't…"

"Just give me the goddamn phone, Chris!" she exploded. "Let me do this before I forget what the hell I need!"

Connor rose to his feet, eyes dark and troubled, and glanced at Chris. The Whitelighter was furious, face gone very pale.

"Get it yourself, you need it that badly." He turned away, brushing past Piper. "I'll be upstairs. Trying to help."

Piper looked back at Kaia. "What the hell was that?"

"I didn't…" Kaia shook her head. "I wasn't thinking, I need to…I have to make the call, and I can't concentrate long enough to even remember why anymore…I'm sorry, Piper, I shouldn't have said that, I know."

"Don't apologize to me, go apologize to him!"

"I ca…I have to make the call."

"Why? Who are you calling?"

"Merrick." She glanced at Connor.

"Why?" Piper insisted. "What's so important?"

"I need to ask him to open the Animarium to Buffy and the others who are fighting on our side." She turned to Connor again, looking desperate now.

"The Animarium's protected." Connor explained. "Plants still grow there and there'll be water. The Slayers and the others could rest for a while."

"But not if Merrick and the Princess don't open it for them. Please, Piper, let me use the phone." Kaia asked softly.

Piper stared at her for a long minute before handing her the phone. "Thank you." Kaia murmured, dialing it quickly.

"I'll go after Chris." Connor offered.

"No, I'll…Merrick? No, I know, listen to me. You need to ask the Princess to open the Ani…no, not to everyone, just to the Slayers and the…can you please stop interrupting me, Merrick? I know what it means. Look at the world, Merrick. How long d'you think they can last?" She was silent for a long moment. "I'm not too fond of it myself, actually, but it's the only thing I can think of. I can't reproduce it on earth. There's nothing I can do, and without it the Slayers won't last long enough to stop this." There was a long silence, until she said softly, "Please, Merrick, don't let my kids die."

After a moment she held the phone out to Connor and looked at Piper. "Where'll Chris be?"

"He going to do it?" Piper asked, gesturing to the phone.

"He is. Connor'll work it out. Where's Chris?"

"Probably in the attic."

"Thanks." She slipped out of the room, leaving Connor behind.