Chapter Thirty Four: Demon Hunting
Wesley woke up and looked around him. The room was dark with just a little light coming in from a window on the other side of the room. Once again Wesley had woken up at the start of what was by now a very familiar time loop. There was a certain advantage in not remembering the previous time loops he thought. This was becoming very boring, very quickly. This time he didn't bother repeating the actions he had taken previously except for getting up off the bed.
Wesley and Eve had discussed their predicament during the previous loop. They had decided that they were on another world or in some sort of temporary pocket universe. There were certainly not on Earth nor on Kallistien. Wherever they were, it looked at first sight something like LA but it clearly wasn't LA. The whole facade ended just a few streets away. After that there was an empty wasteland stretching away as far as the eye could see.
The reason why they seemed to be in some version of LA, Wesley had decided, was probably because of who they were. He believed that the time loop created its reality from the tools it had available. Wesley and Eve had both lived for some time in LA before coming to Kallistien. The false LA seemed to be a mixture of the areas that Wesley and Eve were most familiar with, the areas they remembered the best, with the notable exception of the places where they worked and lived.
Whatever power had sent them to this place would have done a good enough job to fool them had they been unaware of the time loop. It was their knowledge of the repetition of events, and their ability to explore the whole area rather than repeat a predetermined set of actions, that had enabled them to recognise the falseness of the whole setup.
Neither Wesley nor Eve had been able to come up with any reason for why Wolfram and Hart might have put them 'on ice'. What was the big important secret that Wolfram and Hart didn't want revealed? Wesley hadn't so far mentioned it to Eve but he had begun to wonder if they had been put where they were for a quite different reason.
There was such a thing as a Kakasta demon he had recalled, a demon that was sometimes also called the Arachne demon. This demon was like a demonic spider, although not in appearance. It captured its prey and incapacitated it for later consumption, just like a spider tying up its captives in spider silk and keeping them fresh for when they were wanted.
Is that what had happened? Had they been captured by a demon and placed in the demon's larder for future consumption? Is that what this time loop trap was all about, a way the demon had for holding them captive? And if so what was the demon doing now? Why hadn't it just killed them straight away? Were the other people in and around this hotel real people who had been caught in the same way? Or were they simply part of the false surroundings, part of the background detail? They certainly seemed to be real people.
Wesley had a possible answer to one point. The demon, if such it was, would now be free on Kallistien, a world of magic, a world of magic users. This was the sort of prey it would be especially keen to kill or capture. Demons generally were most attracted to those with some sort of magic or supernatural power of their own. That was one of the reasons why witches and slayers generally 'happened' across rather more demons and vampires than came the way of an ordinary person.
Wesley and Eve would be minor morsels by comparison with the various magic users back on Kallistien. In any event the demon might have been able to power itself from the magical energy in Cordelia's wand. It might be full up and might not need to feed again for a while.
As far as Wesley could recall, the details of how this type of demon operated were obscure and he had been trying to remember all he had ever read about it. What he really needed was access to his books to see if his surmise was correct and to allow him to research the demon and its weaknesses.
As Eve once again entered the room Wesley glanced up at her. Whatever the truth of the matter, the big problem remained the same. They had to get away from this place somehow or at least send out a cry for help so that somebody would know where they were. If he was right about the demon, but they weren't able to escape, then sooner or later they had the problem of how to deal with it when it eventually returned to consume them.
"There's one thing we haven't tried yet," said Eve. "One source of magic that we still have available." As she spoke Eve pulled out her amulet and stared at it. "These amulets are magical. They're probably what's allowing us to be aware of the fact that we're in a time loop. Without the amulets I expect we'd just go on reliving the same day over and over again, without knowing it was the same day. Do you think we can use them to break free somehow?"
Wesley pulled out his own amulet. "Maybe we can," he replied looking at it. "I believe Tara can tune into the amulets somehow. But the problem is she can't orb to another world and she might not be able to hear us anyway, if we're a world away. She should still be on Kallistien and it looks like we're on another world altogether. We've got to work out the best way to use the amulets."
"It's a pity we don't have somebody with us who knows all about magic spells and things like that isn't it," said Eve sarcastically. "Now if we just had somebody who knew magic without having to look it up in books all the time."
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"Well if Jagerat's given us the right Gate address then it should work," said Phoebe to Willow. "He says Marduk got it from one of the spies he had with Apophis's people. Just so long as Apophis and his witches aren't expecting us."
Phoebe, Willow, Buffy and Xander were stood in front of the Stargate aboard what had been Marduk's flagship. Also present were Teal'c and a team of Jaffa recruited from those who had served Marduk. An SG military team under Colonel Marker was also there to provide security.
Rather than continue to risk themselves in space where they could suddenly be exposed to sunlight, the two vampires, Angel and Drusilla had returned to the planet, via the Stargate aboard the ship. Darkness had now fallen in Demantine and they would be able to lend a hand in the continuing battle for the city against Apophis's Jaffa.
Phoebe had made preparations to do her spell again, the spell that would force the Stargate on Apophis's flagship to connect with the Gate aboard Marduk's ship, even if it was currently connected to another Gate. The plan was to use the Gate as an entry point into Apophis's ship to launch a surprise attack on the ship and take it over.
"OK, dial up," said Phoebe when she was ready, and Teal'c began dialling. As it happened no spell was needed, the connection to Apophis's Stargate was established in the regular way without any difficulty. The thing to do now was to test things out to see if there was a barrier or some sort of ambush in place at the other end. It hardly seemed likely that they would be able to simply walk onto the other ship unchallenged.
As soon as the connection was confirmed Willow stepped forward. "Search!" she commanded and a tendril of force extended out from her outstretched right hand. Willow kept concentrating and the misty line of magical power stretched and entered the Stargate in front of her.
The others waited and watched Willow while she closed her eyes in concentration. After about ten seconds Willow suddenly stepped back and waved her hand to dissolve the tendril extending into the Gate. "OK, it seems alright to me," she said. "There doesn't seem to be any barrier in place and I don't get any impression of a reception committee in the immediate vicinity. I think it's quite safe to go through."
Without waiting for any replies, and showing full confidence in her powers, Willow stepped into the Stargate, closely followed by Buffy, Xander, Phoebe and Teal'c. The other Jaffa would remain behind until Teal'c signalled for them to join him. Colonel Marker and his team would remain on guard back on Marduk's ship as security against unwelcome arrivals.
The sight that met them was a surprise. It wasn't a surprise that Apophis's people in the Gate room were frozen in time by Willow's magic. That was just what she had intended. The surprise was that there were only two Jaffa in the room and unarmed Jaffa at that. For some reason Apophis did not have much of a guard on his gate to prevent unwelcome visitors from boarding his ship.
"There's something not right here," said Buffy. "Even if they weren't expecting us they should have raised the alarm when our Gate connected to theirs. Everybody remain on alert. It shouldn't be this easy. Not with a battle going on."
"Perhaps most of Apophis's people are down on the planet fighting the battle," said Xander. "We might just have found an unguarded back door."
"I hope so," said Buffy. "But Jack and Sam say this Apophis is a very devious character so we can't assume anything."
By now everybody was ready to move out of the Gate room and launch the attempt to take over the other ship. Teal'c moved over to the door controls and was about to open the door before signalling for the other Jaffa to join them through the Gate when he was stopped by Phoebe.
"Wait!" insisted the witch. "Don't touch anything yet." Everybody looked at Phoebe who was staring at the two frozen Jaffa who were in the room.
"Have you had a vision?" Willow asked Phoebe.
"No, but I might be able to get one before we go any further," Phoebe replied.
"Why not do one of your truth spells on these guys?" suggested Xander.
"That would take too long," said Phoebe.
"Anyway they can't tell us what they don't know," said Willow. "And they might not know what Apophis's got planned."
"But I if I grab hold of one of these guys I might be able to get a vision find out what's going on," said Phoebe. "I might be able to find out if there's some sort of trap waiting for us. Of course when I touch him he's gonna wake up."
"No he's not," said Buffy who walked over to one of the frozen Jaffa and delivered a knock out punch. The punch released the Jaffa from Willow's magic freeze and at the same time knocked him unconscious.
Phoebe now knelt down alongside the fallen man and took hold of one of his hands in both of hers. She concentrated on using her gift to try to get a warning about what threats were ahead of them. The vision came quickly and it was only moments before Phoebe straightened up again.
"I just saw a spaceship blowing up," said Phoebe. "Not Apophis's big flagship, just a much smaller ship."
"OK, so we don't get into any smaller ships," said Buffy. "We've been warned."
"How do we know we're not already on a smaller ship?" asked Xander. He turned to Teal'c. "What do you think? Can Apophis move his Gate to another ship?"
"He could indeed," replied Teal'c. "And once he received word that we had come aboard that ship..."
"He'd blow it up," finished Xander.
At that moment the whole room was shaken by an explosion.
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"Well I'm not pussyfooting around these people any longer," said Cordelia. "I'm going in the front door. If they don't like it, too bad. I'll kick it down if I have to. I just hope some of them try to stop us. I've just about had it with Wolfram and Hart."
"Well I," began Giles who paused momentarily as the noise of an explosion sounded from the fighting in the north of the city, "I don't suppose the local authorities, the Kallistians, are going to arrest us for breaking in but a little more subtlety would probably be best. We don't want to spend time explaining ourselves to the police when there's a powerful demon on the loose."
"I think the police have got other problems at the moment," said Tara looking in the direction from where the sound of the explosion had come. "But I've been thinking about the demon. Don't we need to know the demon's name before we can do that spell to put it back into a book?"
"It would help," said Giles. "But I think we can do without, if we have enough power available. I think between the three of us we don't have to worry about lack of magic power. But we can call on Willow and Phoebe or a few of the Kallistians if necessary. The main risk would be in sweeping up lesser demons and putting them in the book as well. That wouldn't be a bad thing in itself. We'll just have to make sure we have a nice big book."
"Wait a minute," said Cordelia. "Doesn't Angel count as a demon? We wouldn't want to put him and Drusilla into a book by mistake."
"Good point," said Giles although he didn't sound very convinced. Giles was not a big fan of the souled vampires and would not be at all upset if they disappeared altogether. "OK, we'd better try to find out which demon this is before we actually do the spell. That or make sure the vampires are well out of the way before we start."
By now Cordelia, Giles and Tara had arrived outside the front door of the darkened premises of the local branch of Wolfram and Hart. As on the previous night-time visit, from the outside there was no sign of life in the building. Tara called a small witch light and sent it through the window before peering inside. "Take my hand," she said finally. Cordelia and Giles complied and Tara orbed the three of them inside.
"Now if we meet anybody, they can answer a few questions," said Cordelia. "And if we don't meet anybody we can have a good look around until we find one of those books we want. What's so special about these particular books anyway?" Cordelia's last remarks were directed to Giles.
"Two things really," replied Giles. "Apart from the need for the book to be blank and large enough to contain the demon, it needs to be the sort of book which doesn't deteriorate with time the way a normal book would. It's quite difficult to make a book like that so we want one ready made if we can find it."
"One of those books with a lock as well if we can find one," said Tara. "A lock that can be spell protected to stop just anybody picking it up and reading it."
Giles nodded. "Yes, a lock would be useful. If necessary we can probably improvise something suitable with the right magic spells. But we must start with a blank book at least as large as the one that was destroyed."
"Well, first I suggest we try the basement," said Cordelia walking towards the stairs. "That's where the main defences were set up last time I was here. That seems to be where they keep their most important stuff."
Cordelia led the way into the basement, expecting at any time to be faced with the same sort of defence that had confronted her and the others on her previous visit to Wolfram and Hart. Giles and Tara also remained on alert because Cordelia had told them what happened before, but this time there was no attack.
They reached the large open area in the basement which Cordelia had seen before and there were the pair of high double doors once more. This time the doors were open. The three of them went inside to find a small library. Or at least it had been a library. Now it was just a lot of empty shelves.
"Looks like somebody expected a return visit," said Cordelia. "And they took precautions in case the demon thing didn't work."
"Rats leaving a sinking ship?" suggested Tara.
"A sinking ship?" asked Giles.
"Maybe Wolfram and Hart have cut their links with this world because they expect the Goa'uld to win and take over," explained Tara. "I can't imagine they would want the Goa'uld to get their hands on what was in here. Or perhaps they just don't want all their stuff to be destroyed in the battle."
"Or perhaps they expect something worse than a battle to happen here," said Giles.
"Something to do with demons?" asked Cordelia.
"It's been here, look," said Drusilla stopping beside a dead body lying in a heap on the side of the road. "She's been drained, drained of life force. It's a demon alright and a powerful one at that. She's dressed like a witch. The demon might be one of those that feed on magic users."
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Angel knelt down for a quick examination of the corpse. Nobody he recognised thank goodness. Drusilla was right. This was demon work but he had no idea which sort it might be. He knew of a number of different types that would fit the bill and there were doubtless plenty of others he didn't know about, especially if Kallistien had its own menagerie of exotic demons. "Can you still track it?" he asked looking up at Drusilla.
"Oh yes," replied the other vampire. "It seems to be stronger. Feeding probably makes it stronger. That makes it easier for me to feel it. It's not very far away now."
Angel and Drusilla had transported back down to the planet via the Stargate on board Marduk's ship. They had arrived at the Kallistien Stargate and had intended to go to the witch HQ to offer their help in the fight against the Goa'uld forces on planet. But on arrival back on the planet Drusilla had immediately become aware of a demon, a very powerful demon, in the vicinity. Drusilla had been tracking the demon through the city ever since.
As he followed Drusilla away from the body a mild breeze brought a distinctive scent to Angel's attention. A foul, undoubtedly demonic scent was now apparent to him. But he still could not identify the type of demon. They were getting closer to whatever type of creature it was they were after. Angel quickened his pace and then started running. He wanted to find the demon before it killed again.
"You're right, it's not far away," he said as he swept past Drusilla. Drusilla quickened her pace to keep up with him.
The two vampires had found their way into the commercial district of the city, an area of shops and many offices, most of them between two and five stories high. As they turned the next corner the saw a large shadowy figure smash its way through the front door of one of the buildings along the street and go inside.
"There must be magic users inside," said Drusilla. "It's still hunting prey."