Chapter 14 - Bring on the Night (Part 4)
Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.
Author's Note:
WOW! I have had almost as many reviews since I put up this last chapter as I have from the previous twelve chapters combined. Some of you have started to read for the first time since then, and have been devouring the whole series. So here's what I'm going to do. I've been working on writing another story, but I'm going to abandon that for now until this is finished. And, I'm going to commit to writing a new chapter at least every week. They may come more frequently sometimes, but at least one new chapter a week.
Also, a few people have called me on a few discrepancies. As far as the alternate universe goes, the only thing really non-canon about the timeline is that I got the year wrong when I calculated it. As a result, in my universe, the dates are a little mixed up for the different 'verses. Although Buffy actually ended in 2003, the date is 2004. All events happened in chronological order as canon, the show simply started a year later. We're about on-track for season 7 of SG-1 though. However, the Roswell timeline is actually several years early as Roswell ended in 2005, and this is set two years after the end of Season 3 of Roswell.
Explanation of canon: As far as I could, I tried to keep everything canon right up until the beginning of season 7 of Buffy near the point where the Roswell gang meets the scoobies. After that, anything could have changed. Minor changes: Anya never returned from being a vengeance demon again, since the Roswell gang arrived right after Help, and they had a lot going on and didn't really experience what happened during 'Selfless'... so Anya just got back into the Vengeance game with a vengeance, so to speak, and is out of the picture. The First, being Evil incarnate, is everywhere, and thus has no trouble making deals with Ba'al. Yes, Max and Liz are married. Obnoxiously happily. Jesse isn't in the picture anymore - at the end of Roswell season 3, Isabel and Jesse actually broke it off just before Isabel left on the road trip with the rest of the gang. So when she meets Xander, she's been single for two years.
Somebody requested this and I kept forgetting to put it in, so without any further ado:
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
The Original Scoobies
--
Buffy Summers - the Slayer
Dawn Summers - mystical Key and Buffy's little sister
Alexander Harris - Human, recently Hybridized by Max
Willow Rosenberg - Human Witch
Rupert Giles - Human Watcher
Spike - aka William the Bloody - Vampire, in possession of The First
Robin Wood - new Principal of Sunnydale High
Andrew Wells - Human captive of the Scoobies
--
The Roswell Gang (New Scoobies)
--
Max Evans - Antaran Alien Hybrid - former king of Antar
Liz Parker Evans - Human, Hybridized by Max
Isabel Evans - Antaran Alien Hybrid - former princess of Antar
Michael Guerin - Antaran Alien Hybrid - former Antaran general
Maria DeLuca - Human, recently Hybridized by Max
Kyle Valenti - Human, Hybridized by Max
--
The SGC
--
General George Hammond - Human, Commanding officer of the SGC. Reports directly to the President
Colonel Jack O'Neill - Human, Commanding officer, SG-1
Dr. Daniel Jackson - Formerly Ascended Human, Linguistics officer, SG-1
Major Samantha Carter - Human, genius, Science officer, SG-1
Teal'C - Jaffa, Combat specialist, Goa'uld specialist, SG-1
Major Paul Davis - Public Relations Specialist, SGC
--
The FBI Special Unit
--
Agent Barnes - Goa'uld, possible member of the Trust
Agent Franco - Goa'uld, possible member of the Trust
--
The Asgard
--
Thor - Asgard, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet
Heimdall - Asgard, Scientist, genetics specialist
Loki - Asgard, Scientist, genetics specialist
--
The Goa'uld System Lords
--
Anubis - Ascended Goa'uld, using advanced technology to conquer territory
Ba'al - Goa'uld System Lord, empowered by The First
--
The Big Bad
--
The First - incorporeal malevolent force hellbent on, well, just Hell bent, really
Bringers - the first's minions. Formerly human, now mystically empowered slaves
Turok-han - ancient Vampires. Mindless killing machines
That's an awful lot to keep track of! Did I miss anybody? On with our story!
Buffy opens the kitchen door and walked in, engaged in conversation with Giles. "...the others just yet. It'll give us a chance to-" she stopped, seeing the other girls currently filling up the kitchen.
Kennedy swallowed her spoonful of cereal as Buffy came in. She smiled sheepishly at Buffy. "Sorry about the British Invasion," she said.
"We've been up for hours," Molly said as she spread jam over her toast.
"4p.m. London time," Anabelle explained. She then took a sip from her mug full of tea.
"Are you all right?" Kennedy asked. "You look..."
"Oh. Yeah," Buffy said. Giles and Michael entered behind her and she shut the door. "I'm OK. I just got into a fight is all." The girl nodded as Buffy looked to Giles and added, "You want to tell me with what?" Taking of her coat, she hung it on the hook by the door, and the turned again to Giles, waiting for his explanation.
The Watcher took off his glasses and began to polish them nervously. "Yes, Buffy, but don't you think we should, uh, discuss this... privately?"
"You mean, not in front of the next generation? It's no time to coddle them, Giles. Welcome to the war room, guys."
Anabelle fished for a moment in her pocket. She came up with a notebook and flipped it open, then clicked her pen and got ready to write. Kennedy responded by rolling her eyes.
"Uh, what you fought was a vampire, but it was, um, something more than that," Giles explained. "It was a Turok-Han. As Neanderthals are to human beings, the Turok-Han are to vampires. Primordial, ferociously powerful killing machines, as single-minded as animals. They are the vampires that vampires fear. An ancient and entirely different race and, until this morning, I thought they were a myth."
"So, The First shows up, and now this? You think it's a coincidence?" Buffy asked, knowing his answer, but wanting to hear him say it.
"I think it's more likely that the Turok-Han is here as an agent of The First."
"Um," Anabelle cut in shyly. "D-did you slay it?"
"No," Buffy sighed, "it's still out there, somewhere."
"What's it want?" The question came from Molly this time.
"All of us dead." Buffy was tired from a night without sleep, and it was showing. "But for now it looks like sunlight is keeping this UberVamp away."
"So, until sunset, I suggest you get some rest. A few hours sleep will do a world of difference."
"No sleep today. Can't."
"Oh, come on, you're exhausted," Michael complained.
"Ah, it comes with the gig. Somehow I don't think taking on prehistoric evil comes with nap time." She rolled her eyes at the overprotective boys and turned to address the other girls. "Sorry, Potential guys. I know you came a long way, and you wanna get into it, but the best thing you can do right now is just sit tight, wait it out. I'm gonna go to work, see what I can find out. I'll be back before sunset."
"How do you plan to research something as ill-defined as The First?"
"I have the best plan ever!" Buffy said.
At that point, Max and Liz appeared in the kitchen in a flash of light. Liz had a grin from ear to ear.
"Welcome back," Buffy said, hugging Liz.
"Maxwell," Michael said, saying hello in the stoic, guy way.
"Michael." Max returned.
"You're very smiley," Buffy said. "You didn't join the thousand-mile-high club, did you?"
"No," Liz said. "I'm going to do genetic research with help from aliens and their advanced technology."
"Wow," Buffy said, taken aback. "You sure get a lot done in fifteen minutes."
The others began to get up. Kennedy had arranged the sleeping arrangements to sleep with Willow, but the Potentials had already been up for hours. Willow got out of bed, and went into the bathroom. Dawn followed, going to the sink to wash her face and wake up a little before brushing her teeth to get dressed. Buffy was already occupying the shower, since she had to get ready for work. All the girls in this house sharing a bathroom... and it was going to get worse. Willow reminded herself to ask Xander to see if they could get another bathroom installed.
As they all went about getting ready for their day, Dawn was annoyed that she had to go to school while the other girls didn't. Of course, she thought to herself, at least this time I'm not the one with a big target on me.
After everybody had had their breakfast sorted out, they all went their separate ways. Buffy drove Dawn to school, the greater part of the Roswell gang got into the van to return to the motel, and Xander and Kyle, who'd been hired by Xander weeks before, went to work.
"So you slept with her, huh?" Kyle asked Xander as he tightened a screw with the power drill in his hand.
"Yeah," Xander said. "Michael got really upset with me."
Kyle. "He's protective. Plus, in his last life, he used to be married to Isabel."
"I see. They never..."
"Not in this life," Kyle said. "They're more like brother and sister than anything else."
"Whew," Xander said, relieved.
Kyle gave him a wry grin. "Don't worry. I'm sure that right now, Isabel is telling Liz and Maria all about it, giggling like a schoolgirl."
"You really think so?" Xander asked.
"No."
Buffy sat at her desk. She was currently engaged in a phone call with Willow. She paused talking to take a swig from the large cup of take-away coffee next to her computer's keyboard. Buffy stared blankly at the screen which showed Google, and the cursor currently following the word 'evil' blinking like a good little cursor. She hit the enter key.
"Yeah, well, I already re-checked the basement," she told Willow over the phone. "Wait, you know, hold on, I'm gonna try something." She typed in something else, and hit enter again. "Maybe The First isn't ready for modern technology." She signed as Google came back. "Displaying results 1 through 10 of 900,517. OK, I gotta narrow this down. I'll call you back?" She nodded at whatever Willow said next. "Yeah."
Robin Wood walked out of his office, and peered over Buffy's cubicle wall, trying to catch her eye. "Manifestations of evil?" He watched as Buffy continued to type into the search field... "In... the... movies." He looked askance at Buffy. "You're searching for evil movies?"
"Uh, I know it's not the all-time most kosher use of my office hours, um, but, you know, looking at some down time. And what can I say, I just love those evil, evil movies. Like Exorcist, you know, Blair Witch..."
Wood almost snickered. "Hmm. As opposed to Rob Schneider's Oeuvre."
"Different kind of evil." Buffy smiled innocently.
"Yeah." Wood took a serious tone, and gathered his best Mike Brady Lecture face. "Buffy, you know, I'm not that big a fan of scary movies, even the hokie ones. Sometimes they go to a place that I think kids could stand to avoid." Wood pulled the chair in front of her desk out and sits down. He rests his elbows on her desk.
"Well, it's not for the kids." she replied.
Wood stared through her eyes, drilling right into her. "Yeah, yeah... I'm only saying that once you see true evil, it can have some serious after burn, and then you can't unsee what you saw. Ever. That's just one opinion. I better get back to work." He stood up and adjusted his jacket, then turned to walk back into his office.
"What kind of movies do you like?" Buffy called after him.
Wood smiled, and answered without even turning around to look. "Oh, me? Mysteries... I love finding out what's underneath it all at the very end." And with that he disappeared in his office.
The cave was, as always, dark, dimly lit. Turok-Hans didn't like light, nor did the First. It was dank, but at least it was well hidden. Drusilla was looking over Spike, who was strung up for her amusement.
"Think of it as a game. A fun, funny game. Without all the rules, or any of the bothersome winning part." She cooed. Anything Drusilla said sounded loopy, but The First made it sound even more sinister somehow. "But still, there are sides," she said, touching his nose, then pointing at his chest. "You have to choose a side, Spike. Then we can fly... be free and visit all our friends as they come squirming up from out the earth!" She started dancing in glee. "I know you like a good wriggle and a giggle and a squiggle..."
"You're... not... Drusilla." Spike managed to say, reminding himself.
"No, I'm really not." With that simple declaration, she reminded him just how much more dangerous she could be than the real Dru.
"She was crazier than you." Spike mumbled out.
"Ooh, daddy. No kicking! It's almost Christmas day today and you've gone spoiling it! I've been so very good all year..." she moved inches from touching Spike's nose with her own, and a low, playful growl came out of her."But I could be bad if you like."
Spike turned his head away from her so he didn't have to look at the First wearing Dru's face. The Turok-Han punched his face, turning it back toward her.
"Bad daddy! Needs a caning. Never learned his headmaster's lesson while all the school bells ring" She mimed ringing a bell, and went off on one of Dru's crazy tangents. "...and ring and ring and ring and ring..." She suddenly bent in to whisper in his ear in a soft, seductive voice. "Choose a side. Choose our side. You know that it's delicious." She made to lick his face, but never actually touched him. "What do you say?"
Spike's eyes rolled to peer into hers conspiratorially. "Dru, luv..." he whispered.
"Hmm?" She grinned.
"Get bent," he forced out.
Dru stood up, pouting angrily. "Stupid, stubborn daddy."
Dru turned her back, holding her hands over her heart. The UberVamp continued to pummel Spike to an ever-more-bloody conclusion. With each punch and kick, Dru gyrated in time, relishing the violence of it.
"Ringing, ringing, ringing..." she mumbled to herself.
Xander was putting the finishing touches on the living room window. Dawn and Willow were in the chest behind the couch, selecting weapons for everybody. Dawn bit her lip, They hadn't seen the Roswell gang since they left that morning. They were all supposed to meet back here at sundown, and they were late. Giles had worn a path in the living room rug.
"This day's almost over." A glance at his watch confirmed that he was allowed to worry. "And the sun will go down in 17 minutes."
Xander noticed the desperate looks on the faces of the Potentials. "Hey, junior slayers, don't look so worried. I mean, sure, we don't know where Spike is, or how to fight The First, or if and when the super style vampire is gonna attack us all. However, house:" he tapped on the boarded up windows to demonstrate, "...boarded up. Now all we gotta do is trap this UberVamp in a pantry, and it's game over."
Willow gave Xander a reproving look. "Xander, newbies! Let's ease them in to the whole 'jokes in the face of death' thing."
"Who's joking? That pantry thing could work. Are you saying M. Night Shamalayan lied to us?"
Buffy turned to the Potentials, and smiled at them reassuringly. "You'll be OK."
Willow grabbed a mace from the chest, and turned to add her two cents. "OK, or even better. It's like our guarantee!"
Turning to Buffy, the witch continued, "Um, Buffy, I just, I want you to know that I'm really sorry for letting you down. You know, here before with the magic going all aah and me going all eeee and everything getting all rrrr. I wish I could help out."
"No one expects you to make everything right," the Slayer said offhandedly.
"So, I can't do everything," Willow agreed, "but I should at least be able to do something! I have so much power, but when I try to use it..."
"Don't, OK?"
"OK. But, you need help, Buffy. I know you, and I know you'll never admit it, but you need help."
"I'll be OK. OK, or better. It's like my guarantee." the blonde said with a small smile.
Kennedy walked up to Willow and Buffy, and defiantly interrupted with, "Hey, are we getting weapons? Trained fighters? Patton is coming? I've heard worse ideas..."
Anabelle, ever the brown-nose, said, "We'll be armed when the Slayer feels we're ready."
"I feel ready." Molly mumbled.
"You're frightened. You must learn to control your fear," Anabelle said to Molly patronizingly.
Kennedy answered Anabelle. "Hey, you know what would help with that?" She turned to Buffy pointedly. "Weapons!"
"Uh, I don't know about that..." Buffy said.
"We're sitting ducks without them!" Kennedy complained.
"We're with the slayer. Safe as houses!" Anabelle reminded her.
"Do you see the house we're in?" Kennedy snapped.
Anabelle suddenly looked very frightened. "It'll come straight for us, won't it?"
Buffy considered for a moment. "We should load them up, Giles." she said.
"Where the hell are the others?" Buffy asked.
Andrew sat tied to his chair. As Xander passed through the dining room, he started talking as though Xander was listening to him.
"Listen to me, man, I've got a bad feeling about this!" Andrew cried.
"Of course you've got a bad feeling, dude. You're-you're tied to a chair." Xander deadpanned.
"No," Andrew said, then reconsidered. "Yeah... but above and beyond that. I'm telling you that my spider-sense is tingling. This is gonna get hairy. I'm talking weird with a beard. Better untie me." He said, trying to suavely slip the last suggestion into the conversation.
"And that'll help us, how?" Buffy asked, still nervous about the Roswell gang's non-presence.
Andrew sighed, and looked up as he thought... and talked at about the same speed before any of the thoughts really got processed. "OK, I know what you're thinking. Andrew, bad guy. You think I'm a super-villain like Dr. Doom or Apocalypse or... or The Riddler. But I admit I went over to the dark side, but just to pick up a few things! A-and now I'm back. I've learned." He emphasized. "I'm good again."
"And when were you good before?" Buffy and Xander headed back into the living room.
"OK, technically, never. Touch," he called after them, struggling vainly with the ropes binding him to the chair at wrists, knees, elbows, and ankles. "But I'm like Vader in the last 5 minutes of Jedi with redemptive powers minus a redemptive struggle of epic redemption which chronicles..." He gave up on the ropes, and let out a very forlorn sigh. "These ropes itch," he mumbled.
At that moment, there was a knock on the front door. Dawn opened it, and Maria stood there, panting for breath and looking very, very disheveled. She'd been crying, sobbing as she waited for the door to open. "They got them all," she said.
"What?" Buffy's eyes bugged out.
"These two FBI agents were waiting for us at the hotel. They had some kind of stun guns, and knocked everybody out, and when I woke up, I was the only one left... Max, Liz, Kyle, Isabel, Michael... all gone!"
"Kyle..." Dawn whispered.
Xander looked down sadly, then up. "Any idea where they could have been taken?" he asked Maria.
"I only know about the White Room, I don't know where they'd take them around here." she said.
"Locator spell!" Dawn said, and ran off to get her spell kit.
"In the meantime, we've got an UberVamp to beat off," Buffy said.
Everybody looked at her.
"Eew," she said. "So not what I meant. How are we doing on time?"
Giles checked his watch. "Sunset should be any minute now. Done everything we can. And don't worry, everyone here understands that you're calling the shots."
"I just hope I'm calling the right ones," she mumbled.
"You have all my faith. And they're depending on you..."
"Giles, that's not exactly what I needed to hear right now."
Just then, Molly ran back into the room from the kitchen, and interjected. "Guys? Annabelle split!"
Buffy looked at Giles, and Giles shook his head. He mouthed the words already dead. Buffy looked very sad, and made to go out after her. She went into the kitchen and grabbed her jacked, but Giles grabbed her arm. "Buffy... she chose to leave. If you go out the rest of us will be in grave danger. Stay here, with the people who believe in you. We all need you."
Buffy hated duty, but she was a slave to it. She nodded, and headed back into the living room with the others.
Author's Note:
This is all we get for Bring On the Night. This is the last bit of canon show. There have been so many divergences at this point that the whole rest of the story could happen completely differently. Hopefully I will give you a good ride. The ending of Season 7 always seemed a little bit Deus Ex Machina to me, with Angel dropping by with the amulet, etc. My story's going a different direction, and I have SO many ideas. The current arc is dealing with the HellMouth. It's going to be AFTER that that it REALLY takes off with dealing with The First, and her Goa'uld minion Ba'al... Stay tuned!