First off, thank you to everybody who has sent feedback to my story so far... It is very much appreciated.
Second, I may in the not too distant future be needing the help of someone who can take a phrase in English and turn it into Latin... If anyone reading this is so skilled and willing to help I'd be very grateful if you could drop me a line.
It pretty much goes without saying that I'll give you a mention if you can help me... but just in case it doesn't: I will.
Also, you'll probably get in on plot spoilers for the story. (don't know whether that's a bonus or not)
Anyway... enjoy the story and keep with sending the feedback. :-)
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The tunnels beneath Sunnydale were a quiet place. Following the defeat of the Master the majority of the vampire population had chosen alternate dwellings. Today though, those tunnels had the honour of offering a home again.
The globe of light drifted around the corner and into the chamber that had been home to the master almost a year ago. A moment later a man confidently strode round the corner after it. Slight of frame, but none the less imposing for it. Dressed almost entirely in black, the only thing that stood out about his wardrobe was the style of it. A jacket, light in weight but not colour, waistcoat, shirt, well tailored trousers and obviously expensive shoes completed an ensemble of sorts. The light from the globe cast dark, deep shadows, making his eyes resemble to black, bottomless wells of darkness. This wasn't too far from the reality.
Following him two figures stumbled round the corner, obviously struggling to keep pace with him on the less than friendly terrain. They had a chance to catch him as he stood at the mouth of the cavern, observing intently as the orb swept around the cavern in majestic arcs, illuminating it for him to see. As the two figures entered into the illumination of the orb, it could be seen what they were.
Vampires
As the three of them, two vampire, one human studied the chamber one of the vampires spoke.
"Malek....Master." It said uncertainly to the human. "This is... A church."
Malek scowled with distaste before addressing his minion. "I know that. It's also where hell itself touches this world. My destiny lies down there."
"But... The crosses." It protested. "We can't go down there."
"You will go down there." The coldness in his voice was more threatening than any amount of anger could be. "Or I will drag you down there and crucify you on one of those things."
Cowed, the two vampires began to traverse their way down into the cavern. Malek squinted as he identified a partially burnt down candle in the chamber. Investigation with the orb revealed many such candles throughout the chamber. With a flourish of his hand a myriad number of hisses was heard as all over the chamber candles sprung to life, offering sufficient though still meagre illumination. Pulling the hand of Tyrael out of a pocket on the inside of his jacket, he advanced down into the chamber himself. Above, he allowed the orb to dissipate, the chamber darkening only slightly in it's absence. From further into the chamber he heard a howl of pain. From one of the vampires running into a cross no doubt.
He smiled.
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Robert sat in his chair by the workdesk, Buffy leaned on the worksurface that bordered the meagre kitchen area, and Willow sat on another chair that had been rescued from a corner of the room.
"Now the council, they believed they'd killed us." Robert said, partially through is discourse on what had happened. "Not quite though. From my understanding there was about five of us left at that time. A few years passed, and our numbers dwindled further. The only specific I know is that my master became the last about ten years ago."
"What about you?" Willow asked.
"Seven years." Robert replied. "And it's about a month since I became the last."
"As interesting as it is, it hasn't told us anything that we need to know." Buffy complained. "What about the hand? Also... The one what? And why is it Willow?"
"So far as I can tell, the hand was taken by Malek. I'm still trying to figure out why exactly." Robert addressed the first question.
"Okay....."Buffy started. "...Who?"
"Oh boy..." Robert sighed.
A glance from Buffy convinced him to continue.
"My master found Malek's ability a year after he found mine. He learned faster than me. That is to say that he found his natural limits first."
"Limits?" Willow questioned.
"You already know that only those with the highest magickal attunement can master our magicks. A part of that dictates how powerful you are. You can train to better harness the power you have, but no amount of training will increase that base power."
"So?" Buffy remarked.
"He was less than me, less than my master. Although powerful he was still the smallest of the three." Robert looked downward as he said the next words. "Although you cannot train to increase your power, there are other ways to that end."
"I'm sensing that these ways might not be the healthiest of things." Willow commented.
"Demons." Robert said. "They offer you power to you if you are willing to pay the price." He paused, more for dramatic effect than anything else. "The price is your soul. You get improved power for a time, then Demon gets your soul to play with and your body to use as their instrument. Sadly, many members of the order have succumbed to the temptation over the years."
"He made a pact?" Willow logically extended the line that Robert was following.
"He made several." Robert replied. "When my master found out about this he confronted him. Malek's power eclipsed him though. Malek left, my master never really recovered from that fight. That was eighteen months ago."
"So he's on borrowed time." Buffy put forward. "How much does he have left?"
"Weeks at most, probably less." Robert replied. "He's come to Sunnydale, stolen the hand. That means he's pretty desperate."
"So what does he want with the hand? I mean... How's it going to help him?"
"The hand plays a pivotal role in a particular ritual." Robert said. "But no-one's ever had the strength to be able to perform it. With all the pacts he's made, Malek might just pull it off."
"And this ritual does what?" Buffy asked.
"It draws power from an external source and adds it to the caster's own." Robert said. "I can only guess he's trying to push himself over the threshold. If he can make himself powerful enough, the demons won't be able to take their prize from him."
"And this of course is a bad thing." Buffy commented, the tone to her voice making it difficult to tell if the comment was sincere or not.
"Well if you count that this ritual will make him a few steps short of being a god in the process, then yes." Robert answered.
"But of course you know the power source he's going to use, and when he's going to do this ritual don't you?" Buffy raised an eyebrow as she asked the question. She knew his answer, she just wanted to make him say it.
"No I don't." Robert looked down at his feet as he answered the question. "I want to check with your watcher. He may be able to help with that."
"We can go back to the library." Buffy said. "I'm sure Giles has lots more questions to grill you with."
"What about this... 'One'?" Willow added quietly from her seated position.
"That I do now about." Robert said. "For as long as the order has existed, so has the prophecy of the rebirth and of the one. There would come a time when the order would be persecuted by their allies who had lost their way. In this time, the order would dwindle in size, eventually their light would flicker and die in the night. It is now that was prophesied the coming of the one. The one would show the way to those who had lost it, in time the one would be the rebirth of the order."
He turned to Willow. "I can say with some certainty that you are the one."
"Oh." Willow said.
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Xander looked out from the mausoleum onto the graveyard, the sunlight that still soaked the open ground forbidding him to step outside. Just fifty yards away a funeral was part way through it's proceedings. Standing nearly on the boundary between the light and the dark Xander looked back and forth between the two, the slowly fading afternoon light outside didn't look that different from the darkness on the inside.... Not from here.
"Why couldn't they have had the funeral over this way a bit?..." Xander muttered to himself as he peered over in the direction of the funeral.
"That's a stupid question." Whistler casually strolled into view from around the side of the mausoleum.
"I could kill you where you stand." Xander threatened.
"Oh yeah...... with your big pointy teeth an' all." Whistler replied nonchalantly. "And you could do a fairly good impression of the human torch while you're at it."
Xander narrowed his eyes and growled at Whistler.
"Now, the only reason I can think of for you to be here is to watch the funeral." Whistler gestured over in it's direction. "Lovely girl, she was. Went by the name of Lisa. Perhaps you knew her."
"Let me think..." Xander paused in mock thought for a moment. "Oh yeah. Now I remember... I sucked her blood out. She really was a lovely girl, tasted a bit like peaches."
In a burst of movement, Whistler moved forward and clamped his left hand around Xander's throat, carrying him back into the mausoleum until he met with the rear wall.
"Y'know, you got one hell of a mouth on you for somethin' so young." He said, pinning Xander to the back wall with one hand.
"And that bothers you because..." Xander replied, continuing the exercise in futility that was to struggle against Whistler's grip.
"Don't bother me in the slightest kid." Whistler replied. "But I can see why it bothers her."
"Won't matter." Xander said. "soon enough she'll be just like me."
Whistler chuckled. A sound that Xander found oddly disconcerting.
"You haven't quite figured it out yet, have you kid?" He asked rhetorically. "You're not like anything. You've got a soul now, whether you like it or not. And every day it gets stronger. You won't be able to ignore it for much longer."
Off Xander's stunned silence Whistler continued. "See, you got yourself a choice now. There's two ways you can go from here. Neither of 'em pretty, but that's no fault of anyone but yourself. You can carry on the way you are... Get yourself one hell of a rep. Hell, you might even do better than your great grand-sire, but you know what happens at the end of that road. Or you can start playing for the home team. Of course, I know which one you'd pick, but there's a whole half of you that ain't spoke up yet. Guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens when it does."
Xander shook his head. "So, was that for my benefit, or do you just like to hear your own voice?"
"It was for the benefit of your better half." Whistler replied, releasing Xander and starting to walk away. "We'll talk again when you're in a more peaceable mood." He finished, walking out of the mausoleum.
Xander simply glared at him as he left, not being able to do much else.
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The three of them walked down the empty corridors toward the library. Robert in the centre, flanked on one side by Buffy, Willow on the other. Under his arm he carried a single book.
"So all that magick that you do... I can do that?" Willow spoke up.
"You've certainly got the potential." Robert replied. "It'll take time to learn, but you very well could be more powerful than the greatest of us ever were."
"Wow.... When can I start?"
"As soon as possible." Robert replied to Willow's question. "Once you've been taught the basics there's very little that can't be learnt with time and practice. But for now at least, Malek is the primary concern."
"Actually, stopping Spike from calling forth Armageddon on us all is the primary concern." Buffy corrected. "This Malek character will be as screwed as the rest of us if the world gets sucked into hell, demi god or not."
"What about Xander?" Willow asked as they approached the library doors.
"Hopefully Giles will have found some way to save him." Buffy said, pushing the library doors open. "If not... I don't know that I could bring myself to slay him."
From inside the library, Rupert Giles looked up as the doors were opened. The optimism on his face soon turned to dissatisfaction though, as he saw who Buffy and Willow had brought with them.
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"So what you're saying...." Giles said somewhat distastefully. "Is that this 'Malek' Person is going to draw power from some external source into himself, and you want me to find out when and where he's going to do it."
"Yeah," Robert answered. "Can you help?"
"Quite possibly." Giles said pensively. "But I'm still trying to rationalise why I should."
"He has power." Robert replied. "And the willingness to use that power for evil. If he pulls this off, he'll have even more power. You've seen what happened at the museum, he's willing to kill to achieve what he wants." Robert paused to let out an exasperated sigh. "Either we stop him now, or it might not be possible to stop him later."
"Be that as it may, he's human. The slayer is not...."
"Don't give me that crap!" Robert interrupted Giles mid sentence. "Slayers have full sanction to kill members of the order, and you know it!"
"Actually I didn't." Giles answered, slightly perplexed. "I can certainly take a look. My research into the whereabouts of Spike's lair seems to have run aground." Giles turned to Buffy and Willow, both sitting off to one side, silently observing the exchange between Robert and Giles. "Buffy, If you could try and get some information out of your contact regarding Spike, I would be most appreciative."
"Twice in one night?" Buffy asked, surprised. "Willie's really gonna hate me."
"Even so, he's the only vaguely reliable source of information we have." Giles replied.
"What about me?" Willow asked anxiously.
"I think you'd be far better suited to staying here." Giles said. "Seeing as you may need further training, I don't feel it prudent to place you in any difficult situations."
"Oh, okay." Willow replied, looking downcast.
Giles turned back to Robert as Buffy made over to the door and out of the library. "Now, I believe that all the relevant information I have is contained in one or two large tomes. It wouldn't be particularly efficient to have more than one person looking over them."
"In other words you don't want me nosing through your books." Robert smiled as he replied.
"Exactly." Giles said.
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Xander sat, hunched over the ancient book. looking up occasionally to scowl at his working conditions. The ritual was close to being ready despite the fact that the last two hours had yielded almost no progress whatsoever. The nagging feeling at the back of his mind was distracting him too much. Whenever he let his thoughts dwell on any of his former friends, or the girl that he had killed he could feel it intensifying.
"Guilt?" He murmured to himself. "I'm not supposed to feel guilty."
He leaned back in his chair as he thought back to what Whistler had said to him.
"You're not like anything. You've got a soul now, whether you like it or not. And every day it gets stronger. You won't be able to ignore it for much longer."
Xander was broken from his thoughts by the sound of a door opening behind him. Getting up and turning around, he saw Spike in the doorway.
"With all that bloody moping you're doing, it'll be miracle if you ever work out how to do that ritual."
"I've almost got it." Xander said, lazily sitting on the edge of the desk that accommodated the book. "One more day, tops. I should have your Armageddon ready to go by then."
"I'm almost sorry to cut into your research time then." Spike responded. "But Dru reckons we're gonna have company soon. I want you upstairs so you'll be useful if the slayer does make a move.
"What do you need me for?" Xander asked indignantly. "I didn't think you were scared of her."
"I'm not." Spike retorted almost involuntarily. "But I didn't get to be one hundred and twenty years old by being stupid. She's gonna bring friends, I might as well do the same."
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In the library, Robert sat at the table with Willow, looking over the book he'd brought with him. Giles was in his office, rummaging through all of the books he'd rather not leave out in the library in case someone read them. A pencil hovered a short distance above the table between Robert and Willow, bobbing up and down slightly as it rotated in the air. Willow looked anxiously at Robert, whose attention was focused on the pencil. Slowly the pencil descended to the table, and Robert turned to Willow.
"That was it?" Willow asked.
"That was a fairly minor application of it," Robert said in reply. "Far more than that can be done with it."
"Like what?.. Flying fatality with pencils?" Willow asked jokingly.
"That's certainly a possibility." Robert raised his eyebrows as he spoke. "But I'm supposed to be teaching you, not the other way round."
Willow smiled at that. "But how do you even begin to teach something like that?"
"Well, you look to have some experience with conventional spellcasting. "Robert said, flicking through to a particular page of the book. "That's a good start. Now you have to learn to see the effects that your spells have. Chances are that some part of you can already see that, you just have to listen to it."
"So how does that work then?" Willow questioned.
"I Have some spells that do very little apart from creating an effect that can be observed by those who know how to look. I'll cast, you'll look."
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Buffy sighed quietly as she made her way across the graveyard. Despite the inherent danger it was still the quickest way to get to Willie's bar.
Reacting to a sound from behind her, she spun around, fist ready to strike. As she realised who it was she was about to punch, she pulled her hand back as a smile spread across her features.
"Y'know, polite people don't sneak up on other people, in a graveyard, at night." She said.
"I was on my way to your house." Came the heavily accented reply. "I saw you walking, couldn't help myself. I wanted to test your reflexes."
"How about testing my face punching.." Buffy half laughed, half said. "I think you'll find it's improved. So, I'm guessing you're here because a very dark power is about to rise in Sunnydale. As opposed to the moderately dark powers that come and go without you batting an eyelid."
"This one is serious." Kendra replied. "My watcher told me, all the signs show that the end of things could be tonight if it is not stopped."
"And you couldn't get here sooner because?..." Buffy teased.
"My flight was delayed." Kendra replied flatly.
"Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad you're here." Buffy said. "You remember your friend from the bar?.. I was just on my way to pay him a visit, want to come?..."
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In the Library, Willow and Robert sat around the table in conversation. Giles had been on his way out to them when the phone had rung.
"And her watcher is sure that the signs point to tonight as potential Armageddon?" Giles said into the phone.
"Yeah Giles, she's sure." the tinny voice replied. "There's a definite possible end of the world happening tonight. Who else do we know who has an apocalypse planned?"
"Point taken." Giles responded. "But are you sure you don't want any backup?"
There was a slight pause before the reply came. "No, there's trust issues with Robert, and anyone else would be more of a liability than a help. Besides, I'm not sure we've got time to wait for you guys to arrive."
"Do be careful, both of you."
"Will do Giles."
"Just one more thing." Giles said before putting the phone down. "This 'Willie' character volunteered all of this information willingly, and gave you free use of his phone?"
"Oh yeah... He's a real saint." Buffy responded. "I'll catch up with you later Giles."
And the phone went silent.
"That was Buffy?" Willow asked as Giles walked over to them.
"Yes, Kendra's arrived in Sunnydale."
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Willow asked.
"It's bad because of potential Armageddon., which most likely means Acathla." Giles replied. "It's good though, that she has someone to help her stop it."
"What about us?" Robert asked.
"We're too far away to arrive in time given the location of where this is to be happening. And we're of too little use in a combat situation." The resentment in Giles' voice was carefully veiled, but detectable none the less.
"So there's nothing we can do?" Willow asked.
"Not particularly, no." Giles responded.
"So, what did you find out about my problem?" Robert spoke up.
"Not a great deal. The ritual you referred to can be cast in the hour after midnight, no other specific conditions are necessary, besides the energy source."
"And of course you know all about the intended energy source." Robert pre-empted.
"No I don't." Giles responded with a hint of indignation. "The whole area of energy sources is somewhat outside of my expertise. Aren't you supposed to be able to 'see' these energy sources, to be able to detect them without my help?"
"Usually I can." Robert said. "But this close to the Hellmouth It's like trying to listen to your walkman when you're in the front row of the audience at a rock concert."
"Wouldn't the Hellmouth make a fairly good energy source?" Willow asked.
"In theory..." Giles said. "But no-one could possibly be stupid enough to do that."
Robert remained silent.
"I said... No-one could possibly be stupid enough to do that."
"No, he could." Robert said.
"Do you realise there's a very good possibility that he could open the thing?"
"Yeah." Robert answered.
"This 'Malek' person's gonna open the Hellmouth?" Willow asked, quite agitated.
"Not intentionally." Giles replied. "And not at all if he's lucky. But forcing the amount of energy that this ritual entails through the Hellmouth could very possibly open it."
"So Buffy and this other girl,.. Kendra. They're off on a wild goose chase while the real apocalypse is about to happen right here?" Robert said.
"Not 'right' here." Giles clarified. "If I'm correct, the Hellmouth is about sixty or so feet beneath us. It's accessible through the sewers I believe."
"We have to get there, now." Robert said. "He's gonna try and pull that ritual tonight. By the time the other two get back it might already have happened."
"I can pull up the council records of the tunnels in this area." Willow said, moving over to the library computer. "That should find us a way down there."
"They just 'let' you look up all those blueprints?" Robert asked, somewhat taken aback.
"No." Giles responded. "But that never stopped her before."
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"Y'know, I think Giles was cranky because you didn't want him coming with us." Willow said to Robert as they carefully made their way down the murky passageway.
"I'd rather that I didn't endanger either of you." Robert replied. "But he was gonna make me knock him out if I didn't take someone with me."
"So, why me and not him?"
"Well, I just get the suspicion that maybe he doesn't trust me all that much."
"Y'know, I picked up on that too. Can't think why that would be though..."
Robert turned to look condescendingly at Willow. "For some reason, you don't seem to have that problem."
"That's my mother talking." Willow said. "Self appointed guardian of oppressed people everywhere. It doesn't sound like you trust him a great deal either though."
"It's nothing personal, but he IS watchers council."
"Yeah, but Giles isn't like, evil watcher guy. He's Giles..."
"Shhh."
"No, I really think you need to hear this...." Willow responded.
"No, we're getting close... we need to be quiet." Robert hissed.
"Oh." Willow mouthed.
Robert looked round the corner down the tunnel. The two vampires were at the end, their attention focused on the happenings inside the chamber that was at the end of the tunnel. Robert held a hand out backwards toward Willow, and a stake that Willow had produced from a bag she was carrying was placed in it. Robert turned his head back to Willow momentarily to see that she also had a stake of her own.
Robert held the stake out in front of him on his outstretched palm. When he removed his hand the stake remained in the air, bobbing up and down ever so slightly. With his hand Robert made a pushing motion away from himself. The stake started moving through the air. Slowly at first, but increasing in momentum as it closed the distance between him and the vampires.
The first vampire never knew what hit him. Knocked from it's footing by the impact, it fell face first down into the cavern. The body was dust before it hit the ground.
The second vampire snarled as it turned to face the threat. Robert purposefully strode down the corridor toward the vampire, Willow just behind. After a short exchange of blows the vampire fell backwards onto the floor, it's footing lost. As Robert stood over the vampire ready to kill it he became aware of another presence in the tunnel.
Turning to face this new aggressor, Robert gasped as he saw what it was. The thing that advanced toward him, despite having a human shape was devoid of almost all features. The furious assault that Robert launched against it seemed to be to no effect as the thing shrugged off even the most powerful of blows. Willow stood helpless during the proceedings, unable to join the attack because of the narrow confines of the tunnel. The thing itself half heartedly blocked a portion of the incoming attacks, whilst effecting an attack of it's own. After one particularly nasty punch Robert slumped, unconscious to the floor. Willow crouched down to Robert, staring up hatefully at the thing, but without the resolve to fight it herself.
After a moment or two, the surviving vampire groaned as it got up from the floor. The featureless enemy seemed to dissolve into nothingness and a figure came walking down the tunnel.
Smiling as he approached, he said to Willow. "Ah, I see you have more sense than your friend here."
"You're Malek aren't you?" Willow questioned.
"Much more sense." Malek corrected himself. "One wonders why you came here in the first place. Loyalty is such... flimsy grounds on which to endanger your life."
"What... Was that thing?"
"Full of questions. Unfortunately I don't have time to answer them all." Malek addressed the vampire. "Carlos, take them to the cage, and don't kill them. If you do, You'll be the first thing I kill when I'm done here."
The vampire nodded, taking all of Willow's weapons and tossing them casually to Malek. Malek turned and walked back toward the cavern. The vampire ushered Willow, and carried Robert roughly off down a side tunnel.
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"This is the place?" Kendra asked as she looked up at the mansion.
"Sure looks that way." Buffy replied, producing a stake from careful concealment. "What do you think about entry?"
"Main door is too obvious." Kendra replied. "We might need surprise."
"Speed works for surprise." Buffy said. "And we so don't have time to go climbing over the walls like Spiderman."
"True." Kendra said, producing a stake of her own.
Spike stood in the main room, Acathla stood, proudly inanimate in front of the fireplace. The sword protruding a good three feet from it's chest. He glanced to either side, making sure that Xander and Dru were in the right places: Concealed from the main entrance to the room, but not more than ten paces from Him.
He looked up at the crashing noise. Watching as the main doors, swinging raggedly inward, silhouetted the two slayers in the doorway.
"I am so going to kill you..." Buffy said with quiet determination as she and Kendra advanced toward Spike.
"I'm already dead luv..." Spike said, gesturing to Xander and Drusillia who stepped out to enclose the two slayers in a rough semicircle. "But don't get jealous, You'll find out what it's like soon enough."
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