Chapter Fifty: In and out of Hell
Willow led the way into the hotel but Kennedy quickly hurried past her, ready to draw the sword that she wore at her hip or one of the stakes that she carried. As a slayer she felt it was her job to be first to confront whatever demons or other terrors might be coming out of a Hellmouth. But at first sight there was nothing to confront, just a hotel carrying out business as usual.
"It doesn't look as if anything's wrong," said Gwen. "Are we in the right place?"
"Probably," said Cordelia. "We had a school remember, our High School, right on top of the Hellmouth back in Sunnydale and most of the time you wouldn't have known there was a Hellmouth underneath."
"Apart from all the demons and vampires that kept turning up," said Anya.
"As well as the ghosts and all the sudden deaths," added Willow.
"And the most awful worm of a school principal," said Cordelia.
"We need the basement right?" asked Kennedy. "Anybody know how to get down there?"
"There's the main staircase over there," said Gwen pointing off to the other side of the foyer. "I think there's a staircase going down round the back. That should take us to the basement."
Gwen broke off from what she was saying because quite suddenly everybody in sight, about two dozen people in all, turned at the same time and faced the group of women. They all had blank looks on their faces and some of them were armed. Some of them had drawn knives from out of their clothing while the staff behind the reception desk brought out larger weapons from concealment.
"We've seen sort of thing before. Remember that night in the school?" said Willow as the five women gathered into a protective circle. "The Hellmouth's affecting them, but they're still ordinary people. Try not to kill anybody."
"That's easy for you to say," said Anya as the people gathered in groups surrounding them. "Why don't you tell them that?"
More and more people entered the foyer. Like the others they were armed with an assortment of weapons including knives and swords. The bewitched people were obviously preparing to rush the group all at once and try to kill them. I'd better freeze them thought Willow, that won't hurt anybody. But I wanted to save as much magic power as possible for when I reach the Hellmouth. But before Willow could act Cordelia beat her to the punch. Once again she called forth her witch power and sent it out in all directions.
"Looks like it's glowing time again," said Gwen who realised she wouldn't need to use her electricity. And indeed it was.
The glow coming from Cordelia spread out into the open space of the hotel foyer, into the nearby rooms and then through the rest of the hotel. As it did so everybody in the surrounding mob disappeared from view in the glare. A few moments later they re-appeared again, now no longer bewitched. Or more accurately now bewitched by Cordelia into returning to their normal selves.
The confused people now wandered around in a daze, absent-mindedly dropping their weapons onto the floor. They clearly had no idea what was going on. Meanwhile Cordelia had dropped to her knees to rest and regain her energy.
"Everybody must leave the hotel, by order of the Witches' Council," said Willow in a loud voice. To start with everybody just stared at her. Willow then spoke a word and all the lights in the area blazed brighter than they ever had before. Everybody watching could now be in no doubt that Willow was a witch. They began to leave the building.
Willow went over to two uniformed security guards who had been standing around as confused as everybody else. "Make sure nobody comes back in. Keep everybody well back. We've got to deal with a magic problem on these premises." The guards, glad to have orders from somebody who seemed to be in authority, began to shepherd people outside.
"OK, now let's get down to the basement," said Kennedy.
"I'll stay with Cordy until she's recovered," said Gwen.
"No, I'm alright," said Cordelia getting back to her feet. "I'm stronger than I used to be. That sort of thing doesn't hit me so hard anymore. We'd all better go together."
But as they crossed the foyer and walked towards the stairs they heard a loud roar behind them. They turned to see a great black column of power stream upwards from beneath the middle of the floor. It swept up through the ceiling and perhaps all the way up to the roof. It seemed to be insubstantial because as far as they could see it did no damage to the building. The floor remained intact and so did the walls and ceiling as the power, whatever it was, passed through them.
"That must be coming from the Hellmouth," said Anya. "Whatever it is it can't be good. Something must have opened the Hellmouth right up."
As abruptly as the column of power appeared it now cut off just as suddenly. All was silent in the foyer. The eruption from below had speeded up the exodus from the hotel. The foyer was now deserted except for the group of five women, but otherwise it looked quite normal.
"And shut it up again," continued Anya. "But I expect something has come through downstairs, something nasty."
"I think we should go and look right now," said Cordelia.
Willow didn't hear what was being said. She was beginning to notice something. She had become aware of a presence, a very familiar presence: "Tara!" she yelled and ran towards the stairs.
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Faith, Glory, Daniel and the Halliwells had fought off the latest attack from out of the Hellmouth and at last were able to take another breather. The hole in the middle of the room still produced smoke and noxious smells which burped upwards from time to time but for the moment no more demons, tentacles or other horrors emerged to attack them.
Prue looked at the various dismembered demon bodies lying around the room and wrinkled her nose at the awful smell. The bodies remaining were only a part of the demon casualty list. Piper had destroyed many of the attackers without trace but some of the creatures they had fought had been able to resist Piper's power. They had been killed by the magic and muscle power of the others.
"If this is what you guys had to deal with all the time back in Sunnydale it's amazing you were able to keep a lid on it for so long," said Prue.
"It wasn't like this," said Faith. "Not all the time anyway. Most of the time the Hellmouth was there but it was shut. It just attracted all sorts of demons and vampires to the town. They were already on Earth. Most of them didn't come out of the Hellmouth although some of them tried to open it up. That's when we usually had the most fun."
"Sunnydale?" asked Daniel. "Do you mean Sunnydale California?"
"Uh huh, why?" asked Faith.
"Oh we always kept an eye open for Goa'uld activity on Earth," replied Daniel. "We got reports about curious events. Sunnydale came up a few times but it never seemed to have anything to do with the Goa'uld. Anyway it always seemed to settle down again on its own so we never needed to send an investigation team."
"Settled down on its own, huh!" said Faith. "That's so not what happened."
"Yes, I understand that now," said Daniel.
"OK, time's up," said Glory. "We've had a little rest. Now we've got a few decisions to make, hard decisions. And we've got to make them now, before anything else comes up out of there."
"You sound like you've got a plan for dealing with this," said Piper. "A plan we're not going to like."
"Yes, I've got a plan, like it or not." said Glory. "But first I want to know what you guys did to that Hellmouth back on your home world. Did you shut it down? And if so how exactly did you do it?"
"Yes, I'd be interested to hear about that," said Daniel. As he spoke a deep rumbling roar could be heard coming from the hole. He raised his voice. "But not if it takes a long time. I don't think we've got very long."
"It took strong magic," said Prue. "Applied from both sides of the Hellmouth. We had witches on Earth and in the Hellmouth doing closure spells. We then had to defend both sides from anything that tried to break through before the closure was secure enough to be permanent. Kind of like waiting for the mortar to set."
"We had to stop demons on Earth opening things up from this side and at the same time stop anything on the other side from breaking out," said Paige. "After a couple of days the closure was permanent."
"So you're saying some magic user has to go into the Hellmouth and close it up behind them," said Glory. "Yes, I thought it had to be something like that."
"So how does... how did the magic users inside the Hellmouth get out again?" asked Daniel. And who gets the short straw he wondered without saying any more. Are we looking for one of these witches to volunteer for a suicide mission?
But before anybody could answer, the background rumbling from the Hellmouth exploded into a great shower of black power which suddenly poured up out of the hole in front of them. They all staggered back, away from the hole, all that is except Glory.
Glory held out her right hand and began muttering incantations in an attempt to block the flow of power. She didn't know what the power represented exactly but she could feel that it was evil. She knew it would do no good to her home world. It had to be stopped, and stopped soon. Thankfully she still felt highly energised from her encounters with the Key.
Without releasing her concentration or turning her head away from the Hellmouth Glory addressed the other witches. "You know what to do this side. Shut it up and keep it shut."
"Yes, but what are you..." began Prue.
But Glory didn't wait for Prue's question. She ran towards the Hellmouth and jumped into the hole, right into the upward streaming column of black power. She immediately screamed in pain and a horrible expression came on her face as she floated within the black stream.
The others stared forward to help but before they could do anything Glory gathered her concentration again and forced herself downwards against the flow of power. And then she was gone, vanished into the hole. A few moments later the stream of power cut out and stopped flowing up out of the hole.
"What's she doing?" shouted Daniel, whose voice sounded like a shout in the now quiet room.
"She's going to shut up the Hellmouth from the other side," said Prue. "And we've got to do the same thing from this side. Quick, we've got to use the Power of Three."
Prue held out her hands and her sisters grasped them. "OK, We'll use the same spell we used to shut down the Sunnydale Hellmouth. We know that works." With that the three sisters all began to chant the Hellmouth closure spell.
"How do they get Glory back after this is over?" said Daniel to Faith who had no part to play in the spell casting. How does she get back out of the Hellmouth?"
Faith shrugged. "Maybe she doesn't," she replied.
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"We've got maybe seven and a half hours sir," said Sam. "But that's only a best guess. That's about the last moment we dare delay the self-destruct. Otherwise the ship will be too deep into the atmosphere and the pieces left over might not burn up on re-entry. If that happens they might kill a lot of people."
"Can we set a clock on it Carter?" asked Jack. "Just so we can make sure we don't leave it too late."
"It's not as simple as that sir," said Sam. "This force fluctuates for no apparent reason. Sometimes it's hardly there and other times it's tearing at us more strongly than ever. It's possible it'll get even stronger as we get closer to the planet. That estimate could be several hours out, either way. I assigned one of our people to keep monitoring our position. We'll get a warning if that estimate changes either way."
"Well at least Teal'c and Marker have managed to find enough pilots among our people to fly those shuttles out of here," said Jack. "It'll give us some air cover down on the planet if we have to carry on fighting the Goa'uld."
"They still report the shuttles aren't being affected by whatever it is that's pulling us down," said Sergeant Paisley. "They should all arrive at a former Goa'uld landing field near the capital within the hour."
"And Apophis's fleet is still on the way back here," said Sam. "But they'll take longer than I thought because they're fighting the force all the way."
"Well that's good news," said Jack. "This thing might not be on our side but at least it's not on his side either. I'll bet Apophis has got no more idea what it is than we do...and that gives me an idea."
"Some more bluffing?" asked Sam who had seen that look on Jack's face before.
"Why not?" said Jack. "What have we got to lose?"
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It wasn't exactly tea but it was close enough thought Giles after he put the cup down. Over the past few days Giles had become quite fond of it. But at least the Kallistians have proper biscuits he thought as he ate another. The watcher had been provided with regular supplies of both by the Kallistian witches as he continued his studies.
Giles was back in his natural habitat. Alone in a library and conducting research. But he had never before conducted research in a library that was anything like the Kallistian witch library. For one thing it was so easy to read everything. Well it was for somebody who like Giles had the cooperation of the witches.
The difficult or dangerous books in the collection were often protected by security spells. Such spells kept the books closed until the correct words of magic were spoken. Giles had been told what words to use. "Alimaar!" he exclaimed and the latest book to appear on the desk in front of him opened itself at the first page.
Other books had more subtle protections. For example a book might be very readable and give useful but not very important information. But invoke the correct magic spell and the book would be transformed into something quite different, giving completely different information.
The links between books were something that Giles wanted to introduce to the new Watchers' Library that he was in the course of setting up back in England. Whenever Giles found a reference to another book in something that he was reading he just had to speak the link spell and the other book would appear on the table next to him. The saving in time and effort was immense. It was like clicking on an internet link but with the added advantage, in Giles's view, of applying to real books.
Giles reached for his cup once more but then stopped, frozen in place by what he saw on the page in front of him.
"Good lord," he muttered aloud to himself as he read the accompanying text. "It that's true then it means..."
Giles reached forward and took hold of one of the half dozen books piled up around him. He was under strict orders from the witch librarian not to re-file any of the books that he got off the shelves. That was the job of the library staff who did not want their system disrupted by taking any chance of a book being put back in the wrong place. The books therefore tended to build up around Giles until an assistant appeared to clear away the ones he had finished with.
Giles re-read the page that he had half remembered in the other book and then turned back to the first book. He held the book up to the light to better study the illustration in front of him.
"Yes," he muttered. "It must be. I've got to tell Buffy, Buffy and Dawn."
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The latest tremor stopped at last and Fred gave a sigh of relief. After waiting for a few moments to be sure it was really over she stood up and walked out of the 'safe' room and into the main front lounge of the Sunnydale Slayer HQ. Everybody had agreed that the main security control room at the center of the building provided the best protection from earthquakes. The others followed her out.
"Much more of this and California will drop off into the ocean," she said. It was intended as a joke but if fell flat. With destruction of the world once more a possibility who knew what might happen if things continued to get worse.
"How long can we afford to wait?" asked Amy. She had followed Fred into the lounge. "We don't even know if Tara got back to Kallistien and told everybody what's really going on. We might be waiting for nothing. And even if Tara made it, the others might not make it back here. All the time we wait, these quakes just get worse. I'll bet people are dying every time one hits."
"Leo will be here soon," said Jenny. "He's talking to the Elders. He's trying to persuade them to give us more time."
"How can your Elders give us more time?" asked Lorne. "I thought we had to go through with all this because it was the only way to save the world? Can they actually stop the tremors?"
"I think if the Elders all pulled together they might be able to keep a lid on things for a little while and give us some more time," said Jenny. "They're a pretty powerful bunch really. But that makes no difference to what we have to do, just how long we can wait before we do it."
"Let me get this right," said Gunn. "You Whitelighters are some sort of angels. So your elders must be some sort of archangels. That must give them some influence with the guy upstairs. Can't they just get him to stop all this?"
"Doesn't work that way I'm afraid," said Jenny. "Free will. That includes the free will to make mistakes and..."
"...and destroy the world," said Gunn. "Well that sucks. Who was it made the world the way it is anyway? Who needs earthquakes? And what has freewill got to do with the quakes? Ain't nobody out there voting for more quakes."
"There's nothing new in being able to destroy the world," said Amy. "People have been able to do that ever since they invented nuclear weapons."
"Let's leave all the religion out of this," said Fred. "It's not going to help us and it's not like we all have the same religion anyway. We've got to do what we have to, to save the world, again. And if we have to go ahead before everybody gets back from Kallistien that's the way it's got to be. If some higher power..."
"...gets off its butt." interrupted Gunn.
"If some higher power lends a hand," continued Fred, "then that's great. But we never just sit around with our fingers crossed do we? We've got to be ready to do what's necessary."
"OK, we'll wait to see what Leo's got to say when he gets back," said Gunn. "It's not as if this is our choice anyway. It's the Whitelighters and the Elders who've made the deal with the dark side. That doesn't sound like free will to me. It sounds like the guys upstairs are making all the decisions for us."
"Good point," said Jenny thoughtfully. "I'll be back as soon as I can." With that she disappeared in an orb.
