Chapter Thirty Five: New Arrivals
Clunk! Another missile hit the spaceship without exploding, thus proving that their protection continued to work. The expansion of the magic spell to a short way into space outside the ship had been a success of sorts. The Earth witches who had previously worked for Marduk were now working hard to maintain the spell preventing explosions or the operation of modern weapons both in the ship itself and in the area immediately outside. The Kallistian witches who had come aboard as part of the attack on the ship had now returned to the planet to take part in the battle going on down below.
The advantage of the magical protection was that it had kept the ship intact and prevented it from being damaged or destroyed by the overwhelming fire power of Apophis's fleet. The disadvantage was that the spell could only be maintained if the ship was not moved. A test had revealed that if the ship moved in space it did not take the surrounding neutralised area with it.
Moving the ship left it temporarily vulnerable to attack because the spell had to be freshly extended to the space outside every time and it had no affect outside the ship until it was once more stationary. A particular danger in this situation was the sort of enemy missile that exploded before impact, one which was set to explode in close proximity to the ship.
A further unwelcome discovery had been that the protection spell prevented the ship from firing its own weapons against the enemy. They simply didn't work. Jack wasn't pleased about that but on balance he recognised that the magical protection was a good thing since their ship was massively outnumbered.
The overall situation would have been a standoff if this had been just a ship to ship conflict but everything was on a much larger scale than that. Apophis's whole fleet was unharmed and most of it was still being used to support his attack on the planet. It could also be used to bombard and destroy the planet whenever Apophis gave the order.
The allies now in control of the spaceship had been told about the groundside attack by Apophis's forces. They believed that all the time Apophis thought this ground attack might be successful he was likely to hold off from bombarding the planet. What Apophis most likely wanted above everything else was greater access to magic power by gaining control of Kallistien and all of its magic users.
So long as Apophis had a chance to achieve that, he was expected to continue his attack. If it got to the stage where he no longer had a chance to achieve such control then he would most likely cut his losses and destroy what he could not possess, in order to prevent it from being used against him.
"What we need is a way to defend the planet from destruction by Apophis's fleet," said Jack. "Some way of shielding the whole planet. Either that or some way to take down the whole Goa'uld fleet. Until we have that, all we can do is keep the battle down on the planet going. Winning could be as bad for the Kallistians as losing."
"Well if we just hold on long enough, Daniel and the witches might come back with the answer," said Sam from her position beside Jack at the ship's controls. "They've been gone quite a while now. They might be back soon with the secret of how the Kallistians got rid of the Goa'uld the last time."
"Yeah, how exactly does that work?" asked Jack. "Can't they go for like a year and still come back just after they left? Does it mean it's bad news they've not come back yet?"
"I spoke to Rupert Giles about that," said Sam. "It's like everything else. The more you do, the more power it takes. Don't use more magic power than you need to or you might not have enough when you really need it. The Halliwells saved power by arranging it so that when they got back the same amount of time would have passed here as they spent in the past.
"Well I hope Daniel's OK. It's not like he can send us updates I suppose. But we don't even know if the big secret, whatever it is, is something we can still use, even if they come back with it right now," said Jack. "Remember, we always thought it might just be some sort of uprising which took the local Goa'uld by surprise. We can't afford to rely on somebody magically appearing with the solution to all our problems. And I bet the ancient Kallistians never faced anything as strong as Apophis's fleet."
"There's the attack that Teal'c, Willow and Buffy are making on Apophis's flagship. That might work." said Sam. "If they take out Apophis the way we took out Marduk we can still win."
"Well their attack might help," said Jack. "But even if they take his ship what's to stop Apophis transporting over to another ship and continuing the fight from there? It's not like they've got Tara with them this time with her orbing and everything. You know Apophis, he's always got a last minute exit of some sort ready."
"And if he does start to lose ships he could cut his losses and start the bombardment," said Sam. "So we still need a better way to defend the planet."
"But at the moment we can't hurt them and they can't hurt us, all we can do is sit here and blow raspberries at them. Great!" said a frustrated Jack O'Neill. "We can't even move the ship and ram them. There must be something we can do to help defeat Apophis. This guy's our enemy. We can't just sit here and let the others do the heavy lifting."
"We could use the teleportation equipment to put people onto Apophis's ships," said Sam. "Back up what Phoebe and the others are doing. But we don't have that many people up here at the moment and we need the ones we've got in case Apophis pulls the same trick on us. Maybe we could get the Kallistians to launch a big attack from Marduk's captured bases using the equipment Marduk's got on planet."
"From the reports we've been getting I think the Kallistians need everybody they've got to fight off Apophis's Jaffa down on the planet," said Jack. "I don't think they could go for that at the moment, even if they wanted to. What we really need are a whole lot of troops from home. The trouble is, that would blow the whole Stargate project wide open to the public. Mass panic, aliens coming to get us, all that sort of thing. Not a good idea. But maybe there's something else we could try."
"And that is?" asked Sam.
"How about we ask the witches to transport bombs or missiles onto Apophis's ships?" said Jack. "The witches might be able to do a magical teleport or do it by opening a few of those magic portals that Willow uses. We could aim a bomb at each ship and try to take out Apophis's whole fleet at pretty much the same time. Even if he got away through a Gate he'll have lost his fleet and won't be able to conquer or destroy the witches."
"But if things are that easy why haven't we been receiving bombs from Apophis?" asked Sam. "He's got witches as well. He doesn't know we've got protection from explosions. You'd think he'd at least give it a try. And he wouldn't need to bother firing all those missiles at us. I don't think many witches can do what Willow and the Halliwells do. They seem to be in a class of their own."
"No, that's not right," said Jack. "The Goa'uld had witches who opened up portals to snatch people from Earth so they could do the same again to attack us here. And I think they've being using magic portals to move troops around on the planet. I expect Apophis has got his witches busy with the battle on the planet, that and protecting his ass from our witches, just like Marduk did."
"You're right," said Sam. "Now I come to think of it didn't Marduk's witches do some of the snatching themselves? Some of the witches we rescued from Marduk might be just the right people to do what you want."
"It might be like batteries," said Jack. "If you haven't got a big powerful one like Willow or one of the sisters, a bunch of less powerful ones might be just as good. Anyway I'll soon know. I'll have a word with them."
"Better not call them batteries," said Sam. "And you might have trouble asking the witches to transport bombs. As I recall they're not too keen on that sort of thing, not the Earth witches anyway. Would you like me to have a word with them?"
"Not too impressed with my diplomatic skills eh Major?" said Jack. I wonder why, he thought, as if I didn't know.
"It's not that sir," said Carter. "It's just...
"It's exactly that," said Jack. "And you're right. You have a word with the witches. I'll stay here and blow some more raspberries."
"Message from Colonel Marker," interrupted Sergeant Paisley. "He's lost contact with the team that went through the Gate. The Gate suddenly lost connection with Apophis's ship and Teal'c's not responding to communications."
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Piper's suggestion was that at least one of them should return back in time and meet their previous selves when they first arrived in the past outside the castle. They could inform their previous selves of all that had gone on. This would enable them to avoid the mistakes that had caused them to become involved in past events.
If the second time around the time travellers simply restricted themselves to being observers, which had been the original plan, then they would not alter the time line. All the changes brought about by their actions and presence in the past would be avoided and everything would be reset back the way it had originally had been.
"Why observers?" asked Paige. "Why not tell them to go straight back to the future? We now know the Key was used to expel the Goa'uld back in the past. We also know we can't use the Key back in the future. If they, if we, stay here we're just wasting our time and there's always a risk we'll get dragged into events again and alter the time line again."
"She's got a point," said Piper. "And Glory's a pretty powerful witch. It won't be easy watching what she's up to without her knowing about it and that could change things all over again."
"You're forgetting one thing," said Prue. "Don't you think it's significant that Lissie is just like Dawn? Lissie and the Key are not the same thing. Perhaps Dawn and the Key are not the same thing. Maybe there's a way to separate Dawn from the Key and then use the Key in the future?"
"Well you can tell Buffy and Willow all that," said Piper. "Because I'm certainly not going to."
"Yeah, exactly what would you think if somebody wanted to experiment on your little sister?" asked Paige glaring at her eldest sister.
"I'd say no of course," said Prue. "No way, no how. But I'm not talking about experimenting. I'm just saying we should find out what happened, what originally happened before we changed things. It might be important back in the future. It might one day be important for Dawn to know the truth about where she came from. And anyway Dawn might be able to use the power of the Key herself if we can find out enough about it."
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"It didn't work," said Prue as soon as she materialised again. "It's as if I wasn't there. I was like a ghost, an invisible ghost. They couldn't see me and they couldn't hear me. I couldn't change anything. I couldn't even pick up rocks to throw at them, at us. I was completely insubstantial."
"That's weird." asked Piper. "It should have worked. Did we do the spell right?"
"I think we've gone too far," said Paige. "We've done too much time-travelling in too short a time. Maybe there's a limit. Maybe after a certain point, once everything's been well and truly screwed up, it just doesn't work properly any more."
In the end Prue had travelled back to when the five time travellers had first arrived in the past. She had intended to tell their previous selves exactly what had happened along with their thoughts about Lissie and the Key. It would then be up to their earlier selves, including Faith and Daniel, to decide whether to remain in the past as observers or whether to go straight back to the future with the knowledge they had been given.
But the plan hadn't worked so the changes to the time line which the travellers believed they had introduced hadn't been wiped away. They were still faced with the possibility that they could not now return to the future themselves because their future no longer existed.
Lissie had still not been told by the sisters where they had come from and what they were trying to do. Although her knowledge would all be wiped away if the reset was successful they were still trying to minimise how much they affected events in the past. Lissie was surprisingly accepting of this since she had previous experience of dealing with Kallistien witches and they never told you anything they didn't have to, especially since the Goa'uld had arrived.
However although she had not been permitted to hear what the sisters were talking about, Prue's failure in whatever she had been trying to do was obvious to Lissie so she went over to join the sisters. She had an idea which she now explained. "Were you all at the ceremony when Glory tried to activate the Key?" she asked. "Did you see what happened?"
"Uh huh," confirmed Prue. "Why?"
"Was there any sort of an energy discharge from the Key?" asked Lissie. "Do you know if the Key was woken up?"
"If you mean the sudden green glow then yes," said Prue. "It was very bright for a second or two."
"I was afraid of that. I thought the Key had been activated, or at least partly activated. I felt it happen while I was a prisoner. That's probably why your plan didn't work, whatever it was," said Lissie. "Once the Key wakes up all the rules change."
"What do you mean change?" asked Paige. "How does it change things?"
"Well, and I'm not too sure about the details because a lot of knowledge has been lost," said Lissie. "But the Key's a pretty strong focus of power. When it's awake and nearby it makes some things difficult or impossible. I think it's got something to do with travel to other worlds. If you were trying something like that you've either got to use the Key to open the way or shut it down first before you use another method. If you want to shut down the Key then somebody who knows what to do has to follow the right procedure to do it."
"We knew the Key had something to do with travel to other worlds or other dimensions," said Prue. "But does it have an affect on time as well as a space?"
"Time travel?" asked Lissie, her eyes going wide. "Is that what you guys were trying to do, travel in time?"
"We'd rather not go into that," said Piper. "Do you know how to close it down?"
Lissie nodded, "I'm the keeper. I'm responsible for it. When the time comes I'll know what to do."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Paige.
"It's because I'm the keeper," said Lissie. "Once I've got the Key I'll know how to deal with it. I can't give you a procedure but once I get hold of it I just know I'll be able to close it down. The Key and the Keeper are linked. I can't explain it but I've had these feelings about it ever since my mother died and I became the keeper. Help me get hold of the Key. I'll shut it down and you should then be able do whatever it was you were trying to do."
Of course thought Lissie. If you knew what I knew about the Key you wouldn't let me anywhere near it.
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It had taken several attempts before the people in Sunnydale were able to establish contact with the main Kallistian Stargate. Thankfully in that time Dawn, who remained unconscious, did not seem to be further affected by whatever it was that the Wolfram and Hart people were trying to do. She looked to be fine, just asleep.
It was a good job that Major Larkham had sent Sergeant Rees through the Gate with Anya, Dawn and Connor because the Gate on Kallistien was currently being guarded by an SG detail from Earth. All of the Kallistian soldiers had currently been drawn into the fighting for the city and General Hammond had sent a unit through from Earth to make sure that the Kallistien Gate did not fall into Apophis's hands. Rees was therefore on hand to vouch for them to the US officer in charge.
Dawn's recovery after coming through the Gate was rapid. Connor had laid her down on a grassy area near to the Gate. Almost immediately she opened her eyes and found that she was no longer in the Sunnydale Slayer HQ.
"What happened?" asked Dawn. "Why are we outside? And where are we? This isn't Sunnydale but it all seems familiar somehow."
Connor helped Dawn to sit up and then helped her as she carefully got to her feet. Connor and Anya then explained what had happened back in Sunnydale and why they had brought her through the Gate to Kallistien.
"You think they were trying to change me, um that is trying to..." Dawn broke off from talking to Anya and looked at Connor and then back at Anya.
"Do you think I should tell him?" asked Dawn.
"Tell me what?" asked Connor.
"Do you trust him?" asked Anya.
"Oh yes," said Dawn quickly. "Of course."
"Then it's up to you. It's your secret," said Anya.
Dawn took Connor and Anya aside so that the two women could explain things to him without anybody else overhearing. They told Connor about the Key and how Dawn had really come to Sunnydale. Connor had enough experience of the really weird not to let the facts bother him. But he was annoyed that nobody had told him about the Key before.
"I don't go around telling everybody," said Dawn. "Just those who need to know."
"And now you need to know," said Anya before Connor could respond further. "Wolfram and Hart might not know Dawn's the Key but they do know we've hidden it and Dawn's got something to do with it. They're using magic to help them get hold of it and it's affecting Dawn."
"So you've got to stay here until Wolfram and Hart have been dealt with," said Connor to Dawn.
From not very far away came a loud explosion. Sergeant Rees hurried over from where he had been talking to a couple of the Gate guards.
"We'd better get out of here," said the sergeant. "There's a big battle going on. The Goa'uld are attacking the city. The lieutenant there says south's the safest direction. The Major said I should stay with you guys and help keep you safe."
Another explosion interrupted their conversation. It came from the same direction as the first explosion, presumably not the south. But from the opposite direction to the explosions came two new arrivals. Two familiar figures who arrived at a jog.
"What are you doing here?" asked Kennedy. "Does Buffy know you're here?"
"We had to leave Sunnydale quickly," said Anya. "Dawn was being attacked by Wolfram and Hart."
"Attacked? Are you alright?" asked Gwen.
"Um, I think so," said Dawn. "But why does this place feel so familiar?"
"I dunno," replied Kennedy. "Have you got any memory of..."
"Can we please get off the street to somewhere safe before we do any more chatting," interrupted Connor. "Somewhere Dawn will be safe. Why do women always have to jaw, jaw, jaw all the time?"
Kennedy gave Connor a brief hostile stare but said nothing more before leading the way back south. Dawn gave Connor a rather more friendly look. Hm she thought. A little bit of protection is OK, it shows he cares. But if he takes it too far we're gonna have a little talk. I have to take it from Buffy, but I'm not taking it from anybody else.
"We'll take you back to the witch HQ," said Kennedy to the group. "That's the safest place in the city right about now."
"We were coming to see you guys back in Sunnydale anyway," said Gwen to Anya. "Kennedy wondered if you witches could help with what's going on here."
"Depends on the sort of help you want," said Anya. "I'm not meant to get involved in any wars, not wars of the mundane sort anyway. Now if I was still a vengeance demon I'd be really enjoying myself now. Nothing like a real war to stoke the thirst for vengeance."
Sergeant Rees gave Anya a careful look as he walked behind her as a rear guard for the group. Weird people he thought, total fruit cakes. These people can do a few strange things alright but otherwise they're on a different planet. Although come to think of it...