Chapter 24: Dear Brother
11th of October, 9:00 PM, 140th avenue, Queens, New York
It had been a week since Kate disappeared, there had been no trace of her or of Harth and Amy. All searches had come up empty. Sam had been inconsolable, and the tension at the house could be cut with a knife. Patrols where to quiet, and everyone was on edge, expecting the world to crumble around them at any moment. But so far nothing had happened.
No matter what Melaka tried, Sam had not come out of his room for the last four days, retreating back into himself. This evening was no different.
Melaka considered everything that had happened and felt a bit guilty, if she only had enough courage to give Harth the poke, then none of this would have happened. But the memories where to sharp, the happiness she had with Harth to profound. She did not know if she would ever have the strength to kill Harth. How does one kill his own twin brother?
Then Melaka remembered that there was a big change that Kate was a vampire, something she hoped for Sam's sake was not true. But then and there she promised that she would be there for Sam, whether he had the strength to kill Kate or not, she would always support him. Just as Sam had supported her when she had failed to kill Harth.
Willow had not stopped tracing the portal, but was unable to come to any conclusions. Magical sweeps looking for magical activity had turned up nothing. Melaka hoped Willow would pick up something soon, she did not know when Harth would put his plan into motion and hoped they would be in time to stop it.
"Come down to eat something Sam." Melaka said for the umpteenth time trough the door.
"Not hungry." came the answer. Melaka had brought Sam something to eat the whole week, but always tried to get him downstairs to eat, but he would not come out of his room.
"I'll get something to eat for you then." Melaka said while standing up and moving downstairs to the kitchen.
In the kitchen she saw Xander, Dawn and Buffy sitting at the table, Willow was probably searching for magical signals.
"Sam still won't come out of his room?" Buffy asked in a worried tone when Melaka came into the kitchen.
"No, I will just get him something to eat, as usual." Melaka answered sadly. Buffy nodded and looked down miserably. It must have been eating at her that she could do nothing to help her kids.
"Any news?" Melaka asked without real hope.
"No, nothing." Buffy answered in that same miserable voice.
"I checked my former seat, nothing there." Xander said shaking his head.
Melaka waited patiently while the pizza she had for Sam was in the oven. She was about to go back upstairs with the pizza when Willow came down the stairs in a hurry.
"I got contact! Harth has started the ritual, it will be done at midnight!" Willow shouted.
"Where?" Buffy said standing up in a hurry.
"Lex Building." Willow answered quickly.
"Melaka, get Sam and meet us in the slayer base pronto!" Buffy ordered. Melaka did not even think to disagree and hurried up the stairs, the pizza forgotten.
"Sam, get down now, Harth has started the ritual, we fight!" Melaka shouted trough the door.
At this the door quickly opened and Sam came hurrying out. He did not look good, but he looked determined. He already had his sword sheathed and his small hand ax on his belt.
Melaka quickly followed Sam down to the slayer base.
When Melaka arrived in the slayer base all screens where already on and Kennedy was shouting orders for the slayers to gather. Buffy however looked unbelieving at one screen on which Satsu was standing with a very worried expression on her face.
"What do you mean? We can't get close to the Lex building?" Buffy shouted.
"I don't have scouts in that area, the fastest we can get there is going by portal to the former seat of the vampire king." Satsu answered.
"It is a 36 minute walk from there to the Lex building." Kennedy said, while displaying the route on a map.
"And let me guess, the big mojo is going down on the roof?" Buffy asked exasperated.
"Yes." Willow said with a bit of panic in her voice.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Get a move on!" Buffy shouted.
Melaka was surprised how effectively the slayers could be called to attention. At Buffy's command at least 100 slayers moved trough the slayer base to the portal room. Melaka quickly grabbed the scythe replica she had received two weeks ago and followed, but Buffy held her back. "Melaka, I want you with the main group, together with Sam." Buffy said.
"Main group?" Melaka asked. Wondering what her plan was.
"Yes, Willow, Sam, Dawn, Xander, you and me are going a different route then the rest of the army." Buffy said with an odd twinkle in her eyes.
"Kennedy does not dare to open a portal so close to the ritual site, due to interference with the technology we use for that. However Willow does not have that limitation." Buffy continued smirking.
"I can open a portal close to the site, I know the Lex Building roof, there are quite a few positions where we can sneak up on them, I'm hoping to open a portal in such an area." Willow said just before she closed her eyes in concentration.
After what seemed like minutes Willow shouted out "Portus" and a portal appeared.
"Go trough, but be ready for anything!" Buffy warned.
"Moving trough this portal might be disorienting, if we arrive in the middle of them we won't be in a condition to fight." Willow cautioned. This where not things Melaka wanted to hear, but she was ready for anything.
The group moved quickly trough the portal, the moment Melaka entered the portal she felt as tough she had been clobbered on the head. When she opened her yes she saw that they all had arrived safely on an out of the way corner of the roof she knew so well. Buffy motioned for them to be quiet when she pointed to the same spot where previously multiple portals had appeared.
Sitting cross legged on that spot was Harth, chanting in some ancient tongue Melaka did not understand. Amy was holding his hands and sitting across from him, also chanting in the same language. Kate was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Kate?" Sam asked. Melaka wanted to know the same thing, but dreaded the answer.
"There is someone up there." Buffy said pointing to the building opposite them, they all could see a shadowy figure standing with it's arm's wide, but no one could make out the person's futures. It was hard to see if it was Kate or someone else. Melaka hoped that it was someone else.
"The barriers are failing, they will have the ritual complete before midnight if they keep going like this!" Willow warned. Just as Willow had said this a great rupture appeared in the air and demons the like Melaka had never seen came trough. They where to late.
"Get ready for the fight of your lives!" Buffy warned. Melaka nodded at this and charged towards Harth while Willow charged to Amy. Sam followed Melaka while Buffy launched herself at the demons. Xander and Dawn where both firing their crossbow into the mass of demons.
Harth looked up just in time and was able to roll out of the way, while Willow and Amy had jumped of the building and where fighting in mid-air. Magic crackling everywhere. Sam and Melaka meanwhile where circling Harth while he got out a ray-gun.
"Ah, Mel, I wondered when you would show up." Harth said mockingly.
"I came to finish you Harth!" Melaka said bravely while childhood memories threatened to overcome her. Sam however did not have that problem and charged to Harth, but Harth was to quick for him and dodged and shot his ray gun towards Melaka.
Melaka got out of her stupor quick enough to dodge and pull her own ray gun and fired it in the direction of Harth, but it missed. This dance of death continued for several minutes in which the slayers had finally arrived to help fight of the stream of demons still coming trough the crack in the air.
After a couple minutes of this one of Melaka's shots finally found their target and Harth was knocked back. Melaka took advantage of this and held her scythe to his chest.
"Going to kill me Mel?" Harth asked without any trace of fear in his voice. Again childhood memories threatened to overwhelm Melaka, but she steeled herself for what she had to do.
"Yes, I should have done this ages ago." Melaka said while bringing the scythe down hard. Harth, her twin brother disappeared forever in a cloud of dust.
Melaka sagged and started crying. She had finally done it. She had killed her own twin brother, she had finished it.
"And now start the waterworks." a mocking voice said from behind her. She felt herself being pulled up and felt something sharp held against her neck. She realized that it was a sharp nail. Melaka could not reach any of her weapons they had been dropped when she killed Harth.
"Kate!" Sam shouted from beside Melaka. she was roughly turned and looked into the fearful face of Sam.
"Ah, Samuel, how nice of you to join us." Kate said mockingly.
"So, they did turn you into a vampire." Sam said sadly.
"Yes, and it is glorious! The power I have now, it is better then I expected!" Kate said with triumph in her voice.
"The end of the world Kate?" Sam asked in horror looking towards the rift in the air.
"Not the end of the world Sam, the end of time. The only thing it takes now is one little death, and all will crumble." Kate said with menace in her voice while she quickly cut her nail across Melaka's abdomen. Before Melaka could yell out she was thrown on the ground, and surrounded by some magical force field, she was trapped and dying.
"Let's dance Samuel, let's dance till the end of time." Kate taunted while she got in a battle stance, Sam doing the same with something Melaka had never seen in his eyes before, pure fury. All Melaka could do was watch while she slowly bled to death.
"Which should be soon." Kate finished while Sam charged.