Disclaimer: Still not mine. Just having a little fun with the universe.
Chapter 10
"Dee," Anders started.
"What?" Anders could almost hear icicles forming on her words as she whirled around to glare at him, "Anne has April, I turned my sister into a vampire and an ex-God wants to destroy the world. Exactly what do you have to say that can make that all better?"
Anders let his head drop, knowing that there wasn't a damned thing he could say. "Nothing. I can't say anything," he admitted, "but you have to keep fighting."
"Why?"
"How about because if you don't, we're looking at the end of the world as we know it?"
Dee spun back to face the door, "wrong argument, Anders. If you're going to send someone to save the world, it's a good idea to make sure that they care if it's saved." She took a step towards the door.
"Well, if you don't care about the world, how about April?"
Dee stopped. "Newsflash, Anders. She's dead."
"What if she weren't?"
"She is." She spun around to face him.
"Are you sure about that?"
"The long fangs were a dead giveaway."
"I'm not so sure about that." Anders told her.
"Anders, you have five seconds to explain yourself before I beat the explanation out of you." She stalked up to him, standing imposingly before his desk, "and you know I'll do it," she added menacingly.
"Everything we know about Vampires, everything that has ever been written about them says that the person being sired has to choose the unlife."
"So?"
"April didn't choose."
"Not to point out the gaping flaw in your logic or anything, but regardless of whether she chose, she's a little too fangy to be of the living," Dee pointed out.
"Maybe not," Anders pressed, "what if she's not a real Vampire?"
"Um, fangs?"
"No, I mean, what if she looks and acts like a Vampire, but really isn't?" Anders pushed through her objections, "this isn't something she chose, this is something she was forced into."
"So what?"
"So, maybe we can force her back."
"How, exactly?"
"I don't know. It talks about drawing the soul into a vessel of some kind. Now, according to everything we know about souls, it wants to go back to be a part of April. That changes a little if the person getting the soul is dead, it has to be forced back into the body. But if April's not really dead, then her freed soul should want back into her body."
"So I break a jar and my sister's all better?"
"Well, it's probably not that simple, but basically, yeah."
"So, all I need to do is coax Anne into telling me where she's stashed my sister's soul, and free it." Dee muttered sarcastically.
"You may not even have to do that."
"So, how exactly am I supposed to know where it is?"
"Talk to Oz."
"Oz?"
"Yeah. His ex-girlfriend has some experience in locating wayward souls."
********
"Willow Rosenberg."
"Hi, Will."
It took a moment before Willow spoke again. Unsurprising, since she'd had practically no contact with him since she'd asked him to set up a base of operations on the San Diego hellmouth, almost thirteen years ago. "Oz?"
"Yeah."
"How…" She paused a moment, "Why are you calling?"
"I need help. Your help," he added.
"Mine?"
"I need you to find a soul for me."
"Did Angel…"
"No, not this time. I need you to find my Slayer's sister."
"Oz, we're about to face Armageddon, here. I can't exactly go looking for missing persons right now. Can it wait until the war's over, assuming we win?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"'cause my Slayer's the one who's standing on the front line of that Armageddon you're talking about."
There was a long silence on the line, "Oh my God," Willow whispered, "You're in San Diego?"
"You put me here."
"I'd forgotten." She whispered, "Or I-I thought you'd moved. I'm not sure which."
"The last Slayer in San Diego got turned, and she's grabbed April's soul. I think she's planning on using it as a bargaining chip. 'Join us and I'll give your sister her soul back' type of thing." Oz explained.
"Sounds familiar."
"I don't know if she can push back Osiris, even if April's freed. But I can guarantee you that she won't be able to if there isn't at least a chance to rescue her."
"I'll do it."
"Can you? I mean, do you need something of April's to connect to her or something?"
"A possession will only connect me to her body, not her spirit." Willow explained, "But I'm already connected to the souls of all the Slayers in the world, which means that I'm connected to your slayer's sister. Sisters, brothers, they share a part of each other's souls."
"Thank you."
"What's her name?"
"Deena Chlopan." He told her.
"And the sister?"
"April."
"I'll cast a basic locator."
"How will we know when it works?"
"You'll know." He couldn't help but marvel at the seemingly sudden increase in confidence she had since he'd known her back in High School.
"Will, thank you." The words seemed so inadequate. The kind of words you'd use for someone who'd opened the door for you.
"Oz?"
"Yeah?"
"If it gets really bad…"
"It will get really bad." Oz interrupted.
"But if your Slayer can't stop it, will you promise me to get out of town?"
Oz shook his head automatically, realizing that she couldn't actually see him. "If Dee can't stop this, getting out of town won't make any difference."
"Just… be careful."
"How's Kennedy?"
"She's okay, but the fight's getting harder. We've got an army of Slayers put together, and we're going to try to make our stand at Fort Calgary. If we can stop them from pushing as far as the Husky Oil Tower long enough, it may give your Slayer the time to end this."
"Calgary. A little more chilly than you're used to, isn't it?"
He could almost hear her smile over the phone line, "I miss Rio," she told him, "but Kenn and I are needed here."
"Take care of yourself."
"You too."
"And Will?"
"Yeah?"
"It's good to hear from you again."
********
"How long?" Dee didn't need to specify until what.
"Tonight. The first hellmouth which'll have nightfall after us will be the one in Calgary. He'll probably strike that one first. From there, he'll stage strikes progressively farther east until he has control of every known hellmouth on earth, plus a few we probably don't know about."
"You're sure it'll be tonight?"
Anders nodded, "every watcher on earth is announcing an army of Vampires converging on their respective hellmouths." He told her, "not one of them expects to still be alive this time tomorrow."
"So it's a war." It was a completely rhetorical statement.
"It's a war. Osiris has put an army of Vampires at every hellmouth, preparing to take control of them one by one; with the notable exception of the hellmouth here. He already has that one, all he needs is a large enough force to defend it. Frankly, he isn't expecting to have to defend it much."
"Well, it's very likely that he won't."
"What?"
"C'mon, Anders, what kind of a chance do you give me? Me, I'd say one chance in four; and that's me being optimistic."
"That doesn't matter." Anders shook his head.
"'Doesn't matter?'" Dee arched her eyebrows, "I'd say whether or not I can beat him is pretty unmoot."
"It's not important. It's not about winning or losing. It's about the fight, not about the outcome."
Dee was silent for a moment, taking that in.
"If this is to be Humanity's last hurrah," Anders said, "at least we'll be able to say we went out fighting."
"How much time do I have?"
Anders checked his watch. Four p.m.
"Calgary's an ahead of us, but nightfall is somewhat earlier this time of year. Count on about two hours, at the most. In twenty-four hours, he'll have control of every hellmouth. Within thirty-six, we're looking at a fifty-percent eradication of all humankind. He'll make Hitler look like a poodle."
Oz burst into the room, "Willow's on it. She said you'll know where to look for your sister's soul."
"Did she say how?"
"Nope, but I'm guessing a light show of some kind will be involved. She said you'd know it when you saw it."
"How about Osiris, where is he?" Dee turned to Anders.
"My money is on him being in that same building." Anders told her. "To perform the ritual, April had to be standing over what they call the 'throne of Osiris.'" He looked at her, "you must have been standing within spitting distance of his seat of power."
"So all I have to do is get in, free my sister and kill Osiris. One more miracle and I'm eligible for Sainthood," Dee commented, wryly.
"Dee, just stay calm, hold yourself together, you can beat this. It's what you were called for."
"Don't worry, Anders." Dee pressed her lips together, "one way or another, it ends tonight."
Dee turned around and walked to the door.
Anders let his shoulders slump. He felt spent. He knew there was a chance that they could win this, but he didn't think it was a particularly good chance. The probability was that he, Dee, April, all the slayers worldwide, for that matter, every human being on earth was facing death within the next week.
"So, what now?" Oz lowered himself into the chair across Anders' desk.
"Now," Anders took a deep breath, "we wait."
********
Dee knew that she was expected to when she walked up the stairs to the building she'd broken into only the night before. Whatever was happening, this was how Anne wanted it to pan out, and at the moment, she had no choice but to go along with it. There was no point in trying to sneak in; there was no entrance that Anne wouldn't have monitored.
She pushed the glass front door opened, unsurprised to find it unlocked.
She was, however, surprised to find the lobby deserted and dark. The sun had set a little over a half-hour before; it was perfectly safe inside the lobby, even with the glass-fronted building.
"C'mon, Anne," she muttered, not expecting an answer, "enough games."
An answer came anyway, "Come on, Dee. All life's a game. You know that." Anne's voice rang playfully over the P.A. system.
"So what are we playing?"
"I've always been a fan of chess, myself." Anne's voice became somewhat more serious, "how about you?"
"I used to beat up kids on the chess club," Dee stepped carefully towards the center of the lobby, pulling a single stake out from behind her back, "how about 'Twister?'"
"Not enough strategy for my liking," Anne's disembodied voice replied, "I like the thrill of pushing my opponent in one direction until she has no choice but to do exactly as I want her to do."
"You see yourself as an Undead Bobby Fischer?"
"Bobby Fischer, no. But that's not a bad analogy. They say that Bobby Fischer can picture the board twenty moves deep. That's longer than some of his games last. So a whole game could be played before he moves a single piece."
"So what?"
"The game here; the van on the highway, the strike on your doorstep, April; all of that was pieced together months ago. Now, look at you here, exactly where I wanted you." Anne's voice became hard, wicked, "welcome to the endgame."
"You think you've got me trapped? Is that why you're talking to me through an intercom?"
"No, I'm talking to you through an intercom because I don't want to fight you there."
"You think I care where you want to fight me?"
"I'm going to do you a favor. I'm going to take you straight to me; and to Osiris."
"What if I decide to stay here?"
"Fine. See you in the new world. It should be here in about twenty-four hours."
Dee let her breath out slowly, knowing that, for the moment, she didn't have a choice. Either way, the world was probably going to end, but she didn't like the idea of sitting down and watching it happen. "Where do I go?"
A light came on at the far end of the lobby, illuminating a hallway. "Just follow the lights. If it gets dark wherever you are, you're going in the wrong direction."
********
Calgary, Alberta
Harini's grip on the wooden staff in her hands tightened. The cold November wind cut through her jacket like a knife. If you're living somewhere where the weather man knows that -40 degrees is where Fahrenheit and Celsius are the same thing, you're living in the wrong place. She'd grown up in Madras, near the southern tip of India. She'd been chosen at the age of eighteen, and now at 31, she was quite possibly one of the oldest Slayers alive. Willow had tracked her down within a couple of weeks and had taken her in to be trained. She'd been sent to Calgary shortly after she turned twenty-four and had been there ever since.
She'd never got used to the cold, though.
Weathermen in Calgary had the easiest job in the universe. The weather was so unpredictable that they could say just about anything on any given day and there was a pretty reasonable chance that it would happen. Furthermore, if they were wrong, nobody would hold it against them since, hey, it was Calgary. The temperature could, and had, oscillated between thirty below and seventy above in the space of a week. Snowing one day was very little assurance that it wouldn't rain the following one. Their most major snowfall of the last year had happened in July. The sun had just dipped below the horizon. It wouldn't be long now.
Her weapon of choice was a wooden staff with the ends sharpened. Good for both defense and offence, it also had a longer reach than most Vampires possessed. As long as concealment was not an issue, it was probably one of the most effective weapons available.
About twenty feet away, Kennedy stood, feeling the familiar weight of a large axe in her hands. There was an eerie familiarity about this, as if she'd done this before. Trying to hold an army of vampires at bay long enough for one person to make a difference. But for some reason, it felt different this time. Perhaps because she wasn't playing the central role in this fight. She was the second front. Even Willow, arguably the most powerful human being on earth, had had her role reduced to a common grunt. Their fate, whatever it was, would lie in the hands of a single slayer that nobody had really known about a year ago.
Willow stood behind her, muttering an incantation. Her ex had given her a call that afternoon. Willow hadn't told her exactly what he wanted, but if it was important enough for him to call her the night of an apocalypse after practically ignoring her for thirteen years, it was probably pretty important.
"There they are," she heard someone on her right shout. They'd lined up in front of Fort Calgary, hoping to hold back the onslaught there. The Vampires had nested a few miles out of town and would be coming straight through here on their way to the Hellmouth. They'd chosen this place to make their stand.
"Oh, goddess." Willow's voice, soft, drifted over to her as she saw the size of the invading force. It was impossible to count them all. Thousands…. Tens of thousands…. Maybe hundreds of thousands.
And they were all ready to kill.
********
Anne's trail ended at a door in the basement. The dim lights over her head flickered ominously, as if in fear of whatever lay on the other side of that door.
"Stopping already, Dee?" Anne's voice again sounded over the intercom. "Scared?"
"No, just contemplating the fact that you really need to learn to shut up."
Dee reared back and kicked the door opened, knocking it cleanly off its hinges, sending it, twisted and bent into the room beyond. She automatically squinted and turned her head away as bright light poured through the door.
As her eyes adjusted to the light, she could see two figures standing, silhouetted about twenty feet away. Anne and April.
Dee stepped into the room.
It was gigantic. The ceiling stretched a minimum of forty feet above her head. Even in the bright light, she couldn't see the far end of the room clearly. In the center was what looked like a pool, out of which painful white light poured.
"Dee." Anne smiled, then nodded at the pool, "Meet Osiris."
********
Calgary, Alberta
The Slayers charged. Harini swung around and jabbed at the nearest Vampire. He twisted smoothly out of the way, kicking her brutally in the chest.
"These are just everyday Vampires," Kennedy told herself as she smoothly ran towards the fray, "We've held our ground against ubervamps. What can these guys possibly have on us?"
She watched as a Harini stabbed again at the vampire, who dodged the blow easily; as if he knew exactly what she was going to do. He kicked out, knocking the staff free from her grip, then twisted it around slamming one of the pointed ends neatly into the center of Harini's chest. The slayer fell backwards, the long staff pointing unwaveringly, unmoving at the cold, black sky. Her face was frozen in an expression of shock, unbelieving that she had been so easily defeated.
Kennedy looked down at her sister Slayer, as if she could will her to start breathing again.
"Oh, shit."
