Judgement Day
Chapter Two (Part A) of Three
A Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Terminator 3 crossover by Antonio Cabañas
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and all related characters were created and are owned by Joss Whedon. Terminator and all related characters owned by C2 Productions.
E-mail: borg31de777@yahoo.es.
Spoilers: Buffy to season 7, Angel to season 5, although probably would qualify as AU. Great spoilers for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Author Note: I am following my own Terminator timeline in this story. According to my timeline, The Terminator is set in 1980 (John Connor being born in 1981), Terminator 2 in 1993, and Terminator 3 in 2003. I know that there are inconsistencies, but this is my best attempt to reconcile them.
I wish to thank my beta-reader, Carycomix, by his help and support, and I wish to thank Shadowhawk the info that he provided me about the world of Terminator (and his own creation, the T-900).
Summary: two days before the Judgement Day, Buffy, now in San Francisco, began to have dreams about the incoming war.
ONE DAY BEFORE THE JUDGEMENT DAY
Los Angeles 00:47
- ...so that is all of it - said Angel to the others.
- That explains some things. - said Gunn. - I have heard in the streets that a lot of demons and vampires have left the city. I could ask some questions... -
- Ok. Do you know some hackers, by the way? -
- Yes, although I don't like them specially, they are a bunch of freaks. -
- I think that you could ask them some questions about that damned computer virus. I suspect that it could be related to Skynet. -
San Francisco 01:21
Willow sipped her tea while she considered what she had been told by the spirit of Sarah Connor. They had to know when it was going to be the Judgement Day, and if it was on their hand, avoid it. Skynet. That was the key. A secret military project, she wondered if Riley might know something about it.
- Am I interrupting something? - said Xander when he entered the kitchen.
Willow smiled and shook her head.
- Sit down, please. I was thinking about the things that Sarah Connor said to Angel and me, and wondering if Riley could know something about Skynet. After all, Skynet was... is supposedly a secret military project. -
- I doubt it. If it's so secret the security clearance must be really high to be briefed about it. - the odd look that Willow directed to him made him add almost defensively. - Hey, I have read a lot of Tom Clancy. -
- Oh. - said Willow. - Where is Buffy? -
- She is taking a nap in her bedroom. -
In Buffy's bedroom, Buffy was sleeping, but she wasn't having pleasant dreams.
She was dreaming of downtown L.A. Noon on a hot summer day. The lunchtime crowd stacked up into a wall of humanity. They moved in herds among the glittering rows of cars, jammed bumper to bumper. Heat ripples distorted the torrent of faces. The image is surreal, dreamy... and like a dream it dissolved to the image of a city in ruins by night. The same spot as before, but now it was a landscape in Hell. The cars were stopped in rusted rows, still bumper to bumper. The skyline of buildings beyond had been shattered by some unimaginable force, like a row of kicked-down sandcastles. Wind blew through the desolation, keening with the sound of ten million dead souls. It scurried the ashes into drifts, stark white in the moonlight against the charred rubble. She saw a heap of fire-blackened human bones. Beyond the mound was a vast tundra of skulls and shattered concrete. The rush hour crowd burned down in their tracks. The dream images carried her to a playground... where intense heat had half-melted the jungle gym, the blast had warped the swing set, the merry-go-round had sagged in the firestorm. Small skulls looked accusingly from the ash-drifts. She heard the distant echo of children's voices... playing and laughing in the sun. A silly, sing-songy rhymed as she advanced slowly... - how? was she a bodiless spirit in this dream? - ...over seared asphalt where the faint hieroglyphs of hopscotch lines were still visible.
Her gaze came to rest on a burnt and rusted tricycle... next to the tiny skull of its owner. Then she heard a female voice speaking:
- 3 billion human lives ended on the war that the survivors of the nuclear fire called the Judgement Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare, the war against the Machines... -
A metal foot crushed the skull like china.
She looked up, and saw a humanoid machine holding a massive battle rifle. It looked like a chrome skeleton... a high-tech Death figure. Its glowing red eyes compassionlessly swept the dead terrain, hunting.
She heard the sounds of roaring turbines. Searchlights blazed down as a formation of flying patrol machines passed overhead. Somehow she followed them toward the jagged horizon, beyond which she saw flashes, and heard the distant thunder of a pitched battle in progress.
Suddenly she found herself in the midst of the battle. Human troops in desperate combat with the machines for possession of the dead Earth. The humans were a ragtag guerrilla army. Skynet's weapons consisted of tank-like robot gun-platforms, flying patrol machines like the ones that she had seen before, four-legged gun-pods, and the humanoid terminators in various forms.
She seemed to be in all places, because she was seeing events in different places of the battle:
Explosions! Beam-weapons firing like searing strobe-light.
A gunner in an armored personnel carrier fired a LAW rocket at a pursuing flying machine, bringing it down in a fiery explosion.
Another APC was crushed under the treads of a massive robot
A team of guerrillas were in an intense fire-fight with terminator endoskeletons in the ruins of a building. Three terminator endoskeletons advanced, firing rapidly. Another (complete cyborg), with flesh ripped open and back broken, groped for a rifle on the ground.
A four-legged gun-pod overran a human firing position. Soldiers were cut down as they run. Fiery explosions lighted the ranks of advancing machines.
In a blasted gun emplacement at the edge of battle, a man watched the combat with night-vision binoculars. He wore the uniform of a guerrilla general, and a black beret. He was still amid all the running, shouting techs and officers. The man lowered the binoculars. He was forty-five years old. Features severe. The left side of his face was heavily scarred. A patch covering that eye. An impressive man, forged in the furnace of a lifetime of war. The name stitched on the band of his beret was Connor. She seemed to lose herself in those grim eyes when suddenly...
...she awoke.
She took a deep breath and got up of the bed.
- John Connor. Who could have said that would be him? - said Buffy smiling sadly.
On the kitchen Xander and Willow were now talking about what they could do:
- I know a witch here, in San Francisco, who is something like a seer. - said Willow. - Maybe I could ask her if she has had some premonition regarding the Judgement Day. -
- That's an idea. - he paused, thinking - I'm wondering... You know, some months ago I worked with a guy called John Connor in Baja, but he didn't strike me as a future leader of the people. He seemed more like the type that lives on the run, today here, tomorrow there... -
- Hello! - said Buffy, entering the kitchen, and then said abruptly - I have had another dream. -
She proceeded to tell them about the dream that she had just had, and finally added:
- ...but the most curious thing is that I recognised him. -
- Do you know John Connor? -
- Yes, it was years before I became the Slayer. He was the new kid on the block, given by the social workers to a childless family, because her mother was a psycho, if I remember correctly. He disappeared at the same time that his guardians died. All of this fits with the info that Sarah gave you. -
- Yes, but how that can help us. -
- Well, John usually hung out with another guy, Tim something. I don't know what happened to him, because we moved to Sunnydale. But I know somebody that maybe knows, although it's too early to call her. -
Los Angeles 02:12
Angel entered the nightclub. It wasn't one of the places where he liked to be, but even with the upcoming apocalypse, the work had to continue. He was following the track of a quite nasty demon, which had killed at least three young women last week. If Wesley had identified the demon correctly, this night the demon would have to kill again or be destroyed by the forces that had summoned him.
Some minutes later he located the demon, which had his next victim in tow. They were heading to the door, and he followed them. The woman, who could have been 19 or 20, followed the man toward a nearby building. The demon, Wesley had said, put his victims in some sort of thrall to avoid resistance.
Fortunately the demon had left the door open and Angel, silently, entered the building. It was a warehouse for a nearby club. Then he heard a scream. He ran toward it and found the demon, with his real bug-like appearance. The woman was fallen, screaming as the monster neared her. Angel launched himself to knock down the demon. They started to fight, and the demon was stronger than he was, but his objective was not defeat him, but distract him enough time to let the forces that had summoned it to do their work. Minutes passed as Angel dodged the hits of the demon, using his superior speed and agility to stay outside of his reach. As the alarm on Angel's clock beeped he said:
- Your time is up. -
A yellow mist began to envelop the demon who started to scream, but was soon cut off when the mist enveloped him fully, at the same time that a munching sound could be heard from the mist. When the mist dissipated, only the clothes of the creature, stained with green and yellow fluids, remained.
- Are you well? - asked Angel to the woman fallen on the floor while he was helping her to rise up.
- Yes. What was that... thing? - she said, and began to tremble.
- There are things that mankind is not meant to know, miss... -
- Ander... Anderson, Liz Anderson. -
Angel carried the woman to her home in his car. When she was getting out of the car, Angel gave her a business card.
- Take this. If you have any problem, call me. -
San Francisco 02:39
- And the next objectives? - said the man in an emotionless, almost machine-like, tone to grey-clad demon standing before him.
- I have dispatched a squad to deal with the three witches, master - answered the demon.
- Excellent. - answered the man in the same emotionless tone as before.
The demon was nervous. What kind of being was his new master? After the disaster of L.A., almost four years ago, the Scourge had been almost disbanded, and a year ago, he appeared, taking over the organisation and sending them to kill witches and psychics all over the world. His office was never at more than 10º C, and the chamber where he rested was refrigerated like a freezer. What kind of being was his master? he repeated in his mind. He wasn't human, he was sure of this, whatever his semblance might be, and sometimes he thought that he had seen a red shining in his eyes.
Traffic jam near L.A. 04:27
The car was trapped in the jam, as it had been for a few hours. Apparently the computer virus that had been spreading through the net last days had chosen this night to wreak havoc in the semaphore control systems of L.A.
Giles was using the time to think. Buffy had told him the gist of what Sarah Connor had said to Willow when he called Buffy's flat. He knew that he had heard part of that story before, somewhere. He took his cell phone and searched one of the memorised numbers, and called.
Los Angeles 08:36
The guys of the FBI had provided the Finns with a secure phone and Riley was going to call somebody that he knew in the NSA.
- Bob? It's me Riley. I'm in an assignment just now... A Top Secret thing, sorry... Listen, have you heard about something called Project Sky Net? ... Sam overheard something about it some weeks ago and now
it had been mentioned again. And frankly, given the context, I'm a bit nervous about it . . . You'll consult with your superiors. Ok, if they want to check my security credentials, tell them to call general Jackson in the Pentagon. -
Buffy Summers flat. San Francisco 09:07
- Hello? Kate Brewster? I'm Buffy Summers...Well, do you remember that guy from the school, Tim? ... Yes, the one that was always with John Connor... He was killed in a gang shootout the year after I went to Sunnydale? ... I have to locate John, and Tim seemed to be my best option. So, I have to try another way. And what has happened of late? ... You and Scott are engaged? When is the wedding? ...-
Buffy and Katherine Brewster chatted about banalities for a few minutes before Buffy put the phone back on its cradle.
- Bad luck? - said Willow.
- You could say it. - said Buffy.
San Francisco. 10:09
- Why everything that happen to us have to be so weird? - said Buffy.
The house where the witch that they had come to see lived with her sisters had... disappeared. They had talked with the neighbours and a police officer that was investigating the event, and it seemed that before dawn, somebody had attacked the house and when the police had come, the house was no longer there. Even the foundations had disappeared.
Los Angeles 10:34
- Sorry for not coming before, Angel, but we were trapped in a traffic jam on the way to L.A. -
- Yes, I have seen it on the news. - answered Angel - The redhead is Shirley, the girl that you discovered in Sacramento a few months ago, isn't she? -
- Yes, she is. Shirley, this is Angel. -
- Hi, how are you? -
- Fine, thanks. - then Angel turned to Giles. - What is that so important that you couldn't tell me through the phone? -
- When I heard the name of Sarah Connor and the resume of the story that Buffy gave me, I knew that I have heard part of it in something related with the Watchers Council. -
- But the Watchers' Council was killed in the explosion. -
- Yes, but they kept copies of the archives in another place. In the last year I have been in contact with ex-watchers that had been at odds with the Council due to their methods, in order to rebuild the Watchers, and I trusted an old friend of mine with the archives. - he paused a moment and then continued. - When we were stuck in the traffic jam, I called her and asked her to check if the name of Sarah Connor appeared on the archives. -
- And...? -
- The name appeared, but she said that I had to see with my own eyes what the Council had about the matter. She will arrive at La Guardia at 13:00. - then he remembered something - Where is Faith? She also found something that could of interest to her. -
- She was in Baja, chasing a demon. She should be here around noon. -
San Francisco 11:12
Kennedy, Willow and Buddy were introduced in the office of the manager of the night-club, who was a tall and slim arrogant man, dressed with the same taste as the office, that is, none.
- He is a warlock. - whispered Willow on Buffy's ear. - Although, not a very talented one. -
- We want to talk with Dennis Galland, and ... -
- Dennis? What do you want from him? - said the manager.
- She... - Buffy pointed to Kennedy - ...and me are Vampire Slayers. You know that there is more than one now, don't you?. And she... - pointing to Willow - ... is Willow Rosenberg. - he waited a moment until the name sank into the manager's brain - I see that you recognise the name. -
Los Angeles 11:17
Riley was talking with Sam when the secure phone rang. He ran to answer it.
- Yes, I'm Riley Finn... - he listened a while - La Guardia, at noon. OK. - and put the phone back on its cradle. - Sam, they are going to send an Air Force officer to brief us about the Sky Net Project. -
Angel Investigations. Los Angeles 11:32
- Hello, Wesley. How are you doing here? -
- Hello, Giles. I'm doing quite well here, you know. But you haven't come here to ask only that, have you? -
- No, I haven't. I am rebuilding the Watchers' Council, and to that effect I have recruited the surviving Scoobies and several ex-Watchers that, like me, had been at odds with the Council due to their methods. Do you want to join us? -
- No, Giles. Maybe in the future, but not now. - he said - You have been very kind to propose that, considering what I did. -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be continued...
Chapter Two (Part A) of Three
A Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Terminator 3 crossover by Antonio Cabañas
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and all related characters were created and are owned by Joss Whedon. Terminator and all related characters owned by C2 Productions.
E-mail: borg31de777@yahoo.es.
Spoilers: Buffy to season 7, Angel to season 5, although probably would qualify as AU. Great spoilers for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Author Note: I am following my own Terminator timeline in this story. According to my timeline, The Terminator is set in 1980 (John Connor being born in 1981), Terminator 2 in 1993, and Terminator 3 in 2003. I know that there are inconsistencies, but this is my best attempt to reconcile them.
I wish to thank my beta-reader, Carycomix, by his help and support, and I wish to thank Shadowhawk the info that he provided me about the world of Terminator (and his own creation, the T-900).
Summary: two days before the Judgement Day, Buffy, now in San Francisco, began to have dreams about the incoming war.
ONE DAY BEFORE THE JUDGEMENT DAY
Los Angeles 00:47
- ...so that is all of it - said Angel to the others.
- That explains some things. - said Gunn. - I have heard in the streets that a lot of demons and vampires have left the city. I could ask some questions... -
- Ok. Do you know some hackers, by the way? -
- Yes, although I don't like them specially, they are a bunch of freaks. -
- I think that you could ask them some questions about that damned computer virus. I suspect that it could be related to Skynet. -
San Francisco 01:21
Willow sipped her tea while she considered what she had been told by the spirit of Sarah Connor. They had to know when it was going to be the Judgement Day, and if it was on their hand, avoid it. Skynet. That was the key. A secret military project, she wondered if Riley might know something about it.
- Am I interrupting something? - said Xander when he entered the kitchen.
Willow smiled and shook her head.
- Sit down, please. I was thinking about the things that Sarah Connor said to Angel and me, and wondering if Riley could know something about Skynet. After all, Skynet was... is supposedly a secret military project. -
- I doubt it. If it's so secret the security clearance must be really high to be briefed about it. - the odd look that Willow directed to him made him add almost defensively. - Hey, I have read a lot of Tom Clancy. -
- Oh. - said Willow. - Where is Buffy? -
- She is taking a nap in her bedroom. -
In Buffy's bedroom, Buffy was sleeping, but she wasn't having pleasant dreams.
She was dreaming of downtown L.A. Noon on a hot summer day. The lunchtime crowd stacked up into a wall of humanity. They moved in herds among the glittering rows of cars, jammed bumper to bumper. Heat ripples distorted the torrent of faces. The image is surreal, dreamy... and like a dream it dissolved to the image of a city in ruins by night. The same spot as before, but now it was a landscape in Hell. The cars were stopped in rusted rows, still bumper to bumper. The skyline of buildings beyond had been shattered by some unimaginable force, like a row of kicked-down sandcastles. Wind blew through the desolation, keening with the sound of ten million dead souls. It scurried the ashes into drifts, stark white in the moonlight against the charred rubble. She saw a heap of fire-blackened human bones. Beyond the mound was a vast tundra of skulls and shattered concrete. The rush hour crowd burned down in their tracks. The dream images carried her to a playground... where intense heat had half-melted the jungle gym, the blast had warped the swing set, the merry-go-round had sagged in the firestorm. Small skulls looked accusingly from the ash-drifts. She heard the distant echo of children's voices... playing and laughing in the sun. A silly, sing-songy rhymed as she advanced slowly... - how? was she a bodiless spirit in this dream? - ...over seared asphalt where the faint hieroglyphs of hopscotch lines were still visible.
Her gaze came to rest on a burnt and rusted tricycle... next to the tiny skull of its owner. Then she heard a female voice speaking:
- 3 billion human lives ended on the war that the survivors of the nuclear fire called the Judgement Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare, the war against the Machines... -
A metal foot crushed the skull like china.
She looked up, and saw a humanoid machine holding a massive battle rifle. It looked like a chrome skeleton... a high-tech Death figure. Its glowing red eyes compassionlessly swept the dead terrain, hunting.
She heard the sounds of roaring turbines. Searchlights blazed down as a formation of flying patrol machines passed overhead. Somehow she followed them toward the jagged horizon, beyond which she saw flashes, and heard the distant thunder of a pitched battle in progress.
Suddenly she found herself in the midst of the battle. Human troops in desperate combat with the machines for possession of the dead Earth. The humans were a ragtag guerrilla army. Skynet's weapons consisted of tank-like robot gun-platforms, flying patrol machines like the ones that she had seen before, four-legged gun-pods, and the humanoid terminators in various forms.
She seemed to be in all places, because she was seeing events in different places of the battle:
Explosions! Beam-weapons firing like searing strobe-light.
A gunner in an armored personnel carrier fired a LAW rocket at a pursuing flying machine, bringing it down in a fiery explosion.
Another APC was crushed under the treads of a massive robot
A team of guerrillas were in an intense fire-fight with terminator endoskeletons in the ruins of a building. Three terminator endoskeletons advanced, firing rapidly. Another (complete cyborg), with flesh ripped open and back broken, groped for a rifle on the ground.
A four-legged gun-pod overran a human firing position. Soldiers were cut down as they run. Fiery explosions lighted the ranks of advancing machines.
In a blasted gun emplacement at the edge of battle, a man watched the combat with night-vision binoculars. He wore the uniform of a guerrilla general, and a black beret. He was still amid all the running, shouting techs and officers. The man lowered the binoculars. He was forty-five years old. Features severe. The left side of his face was heavily scarred. A patch covering that eye. An impressive man, forged in the furnace of a lifetime of war. The name stitched on the band of his beret was Connor. She seemed to lose herself in those grim eyes when suddenly...
...she awoke.
She took a deep breath and got up of the bed.
- John Connor. Who could have said that would be him? - said Buffy smiling sadly.
On the kitchen Xander and Willow were now talking about what they could do:
- I know a witch here, in San Francisco, who is something like a seer. - said Willow. - Maybe I could ask her if she has had some premonition regarding the Judgement Day. -
- That's an idea. - he paused, thinking - I'm wondering... You know, some months ago I worked with a guy called John Connor in Baja, but he didn't strike me as a future leader of the people. He seemed more like the type that lives on the run, today here, tomorrow there... -
- Hello! - said Buffy, entering the kitchen, and then said abruptly - I have had another dream. -
She proceeded to tell them about the dream that she had just had, and finally added:
- ...but the most curious thing is that I recognised him. -
- Do you know John Connor? -
- Yes, it was years before I became the Slayer. He was the new kid on the block, given by the social workers to a childless family, because her mother was a psycho, if I remember correctly. He disappeared at the same time that his guardians died. All of this fits with the info that Sarah gave you. -
- Yes, but how that can help us. -
- Well, John usually hung out with another guy, Tim something. I don't know what happened to him, because we moved to Sunnydale. But I know somebody that maybe knows, although it's too early to call her. -
Los Angeles 02:12
Angel entered the nightclub. It wasn't one of the places where he liked to be, but even with the upcoming apocalypse, the work had to continue. He was following the track of a quite nasty demon, which had killed at least three young women last week. If Wesley had identified the demon correctly, this night the demon would have to kill again or be destroyed by the forces that had summoned him.
Some minutes later he located the demon, which had his next victim in tow. They were heading to the door, and he followed them. The woman, who could have been 19 or 20, followed the man toward a nearby building. The demon, Wesley had said, put his victims in some sort of thrall to avoid resistance.
Fortunately the demon had left the door open and Angel, silently, entered the building. It was a warehouse for a nearby club. Then he heard a scream. He ran toward it and found the demon, with his real bug-like appearance. The woman was fallen, screaming as the monster neared her. Angel launched himself to knock down the demon. They started to fight, and the demon was stronger than he was, but his objective was not defeat him, but distract him enough time to let the forces that had summoned it to do their work. Minutes passed as Angel dodged the hits of the demon, using his superior speed and agility to stay outside of his reach. As the alarm on Angel's clock beeped he said:
- Your time is up. -
A yellow mist began to envelop the demon who started to scream, but was soon cut off when the mist enveloped him fully, at the same time that a munching sound could be heard from the mist. When the mist dissipated, only the clothes of the creature, stained with green and yellow fluids, remained.
- Are you well? - asked Angel to the woman fallen on the floor while he was helping her to rise up.
- Yes. What was that... thing? - she said, and began to tremble.
- There are things that mankind is not meant to know, miss... -
- Ander... Anderson, Liz Anderson. -
Angel carried the woman to her home in his car. When she was getting out of the car, Angel gave her a business card.
- Take this. If you have any problem, call me. -
San Francisco 02:39
- And the next objectives? - said the man in an emotionless, almost machine-like, tone to grey-clad demon standing before him.
- I have dispatched a squad to deal with the three witches, master - answered the demon.
- Excellent. - answered the man in the same emotionless tone as before.
The demon was nervous. What kind of being was his new master? After the disaster of L.A., almost four years ago, the Scourge had been almost disbanded, and a year ago, he appeared, taking over the organisation and sending them to kill witches and psychics all over the world. His office was never at more than 10º C, and the chamber where he rested was refrigerated like a freezer. What kind of being was his master? he repeated in his mind. He wasn't human, he was sure of this, whatever his semblance might be, and sometimes he thought that he had seen a red shining in his eyes.
Traffic jam near L.A. 04:27
The car was trapped in the jam, as it had been for a few hours. Apparently the computer virus that had been spreading through the net last days had chosen this night to wreak havoc in the semaphore control systems of L.A.
Giles was using the time to think. Buffy had told him the gist of what Sarah Connor had said to Willow when he called Buffy's flat. He knew that he had heard part of that story before, somewhere. He took his cell phone and searched one of the memorised numbers, and called.
Los Angeles 08:36
The guys of the FBI had provided the Finns with a secure phone and Riley was going to call somebody that he knew in the NSA.
- Bob? It's me Riley. I'm in an assignment just now... A Top Secret thing, sorry... Listen, have you heard about something called Project Sky Net? ... Sam overheard something about it some weeks ago and now
it had been mentioned again. And frankly, given the context, I'm a bit nervous about it . . . You'll consult with your superiors. Ok, if they want to check my security credentials, tell them to call general Jackson in the Pentagon. -
Buffy Summers flat. San Francisco 09:07
- Hello? Kate Brewster? I'm Buffy Summers...Well, do you remember that guy from the school, Tim? ... Yes, the one that was always with John Connor... He was killed in a gang shootout the year after I went to Sunnydale? ... I have to locate John, and Tim seemed to be my best option. So, I have to try another way. And what has happened of late? ... You and Scott are engaged? When is the wedding? ...-
Buffy and Katherine Brewster chatted about banalities for a few minutes before Buffy put the phone back on its cradle.
- Bad luck? - said Willow.
- You could say it. - said Buffy.
San Francisco. 10:09
- Why everything that happen to us have to be so weird? - said Buffy.
The house where the witch that they had come to see lived with her sisters had... disappeared. They had talked with the neighbours and a police officer that was investigating the event, and it seemed that before dawn, somebody had attacked the house and when the police had come, the house was no longer there. Even the foundations had disappeared.
Los Angeles 10:34
- Sorry for not coming before, Angel, but we were trapped in a traffic jam on the way to L.A. -
- Yes, I have seen it on the news. - answered Angel - The redhead is Shirley, the girl that you discovered in Sacramento a few months ago, isn't she? -
- Yes, she is. Shirley, this is Angel. -
- Hi, how are you? -
- Fine, thanks. - then Angel turned to Giles. - What is that so important that you couldn't tell me through the phone? -
- When I heard the name of Sarah Connor and the resume of the story that Buffy gave me, I knew that I have heard part of it in something related with the Watchers Council. -
- But the Watchers' Council was killed in the explosion. -
- Yes, but they kept copies of the archives in another place. In the last year I have been in contact with ex-watchers that had been at odds with the Council due to their methods, in order to rebuild the Watchers, and I trusted an old friend of mine with the archives. - he paused a moment and then continued. - When we were stuck in the traffic jam, I called her and asked her to check if the name of Sarah Connor appeared on the archives. -
- And...? -
- The name appeared, but she said that I had to see with my own eyes what the Council had about the matter. She will arrive at La Guardia at 13:00. - then he remembered something - Where is Faith? She also found something that could of interest to her. -
- She was in Baja, chasing a demon. She should be here around noon. -
San Francisco 11:12
Kennedy, Willow and Buddy were introduced in the office of the manager of the night-club, who was a tall and slim arrogant man, dressed with the same taste as the office, that is, none.
- He is a warlock. - whispered Willow on Buffy's ear. - Although, not a very talented one. -
- We want to talk with Dennis Galland, and ... -
- Dennis? What do you want from him? - said the manager.
- She... - Buffy pointed to Kennedy - ...and me are Vampire Slayers. You know that there is more than one now, don't you?. And she... - pointing to Willow - ... is Willow Rosenberg. - he waited a moment until the name sank into the manager's brain - I see that you recognise the name. -
Los Angeles 11:17
Riley was talking with Sam when the secure phone rang. He ran to answer it.
- Yes, I'm Riley Finn... - he listened a while - La Guardia, at noon. OK. - and put the phone back on its cradle. - Sam, they are going to send an Air Force officer to brief us about the Sky Net Project. -
Angel Investigations. Los Angeles 11:32
- Hello, Wesley. How are you doing here? -
- Hello, Giles. I'm doing quite well here, you know. But you haven't come here to ask only that, have you? -
- No, I haven't. I am rebuilding the Watchers' Council, and to that effect I have recruited the surviving Scoobies and several ex-Watchers that, like me, had been at odds with the Council due to their methods. Do you want to join us? -
- No, Giles. Maybe in the future, but not now. - he said - You have been very kind to propose that, considering what I did. -
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To be continued...