(Interesting Tidbit: Chapters 1-6 added together are the same length as my longest completed fanfic, "The Entity of Seven". Chaptering seems to be a good way for me to write a lengthy fic.)
(I went on-line searching for pics of the Entropic Cascade Failure effect in 'Point of View', and I realized that I was describing it all wrong. I'd had the effect from Earth: Final Conflict stuck in my mind all this time. Oops. I'll have to go back and edit that, or I could just say that it's different in these worlds and leave it at that.)
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Instantly, at least ten crossbows were aimed in his direction. SG-1, Xander, Harry, and Harriet hastily got out of the way, then Harry and Harriet both took out their wands and took aim.
Trig raised his hands. "I don't want any trouble," he said.
"Really?" Jack questioned. "Then why did you attack the base?"
"It was necessary. I would never have been allowed inside otherwise, and I needed your Stargate's power to penetrate the boundaries between this world and my own."
Angel mouthed, 'Stargate?' at Cordelia. She just shrugged.
"You mind running that by us again?" Buffy asked.
He smiled charmingly. "Certainly. My name is Trig. I am from the Planet Runeus, which lies in an alternate reality."
"Knew that," Angel said. "Anything else?"
He nodded. "Plenty. It is a very long story, actually."
"What do you want?" Giles asked.
"To go home. That is all. That was what I was trying to do last time, only it didn't go as planned. If it had, none of us would be here now, and we wouldn't be faced with the problem of both of them being here also." He nodded to one-eyed Xander and Harry. "I have come here now to see if I can correct things. I believe that I can get both of them back home and return to my own home world."
Everyone exchanged looks. Finally, Buffy turned back to Trig. "Explain."
He smiled, then turned serious. "Two years ago, a portal opened up on my world. I have gathered during my time here that it was the portal opened by the Hell Goddess Glory. I was sucked through it unwittingly, and then I ended up here. I have spent the past two years trying to come up with a way to return home, and I had believed that I had finally found a way. To open a second portal, I would need an enormous amount of energy, which I believed I could acquire at your base." He nodded to SG-1. "I knew that I would never get to it without some sort of force, so I hired fiveRwasundi demons to cause a temporal disturbance at your base. Their effects on time did not effect my perception of reality, and it allowed me to enter, perform the spell, and leave without interruption."
He sighed. "Unfortunately, this did not go according to plan. When I was shot, the ritual became interrupted. I believe that this is how the two young men came through. I know that they couldn't have come from my reality, but from other realities, the realities of my doubles."
"Yeah, about that," cyclops Xander said. "If you're from an alternate reality, then how come you've got a double in my reality?"
"And in mine," Harry added.
"It is because of the portal that sent me here," Trig replied. "Something happened to me as I traveled through it. Different aspects of my personality were separated into different bodies. It was a very…different experience. The other aspects were scattered among a handful of realities; I was sent to this one."
"I believe that, if I can open a portal to my home world and we could successfully travel through to it, I will be able to return both of your friends to their realities as well as joining back together with my other aspects. I know what I did wrong last time; my spell was interfered with by my doubles' spells, and I know how to avoid that this time so that we successfully go to my world only and not end up in yet another alternate Earth."
Angel looked around at his people, and Buffy looked around at hers. Jack glanced at SG-1 and just shrugged. None of this really had anything to do with him or his team, but he knew that all four of them wanted to stick around to watch. He also wanted to know just how exactly Trig had gotten into the SGC, Rwasundi Demons aside.
Buffy and Angel met each other's eyes, then turned to one-eyed Xander and Harry. "What do you guys say? Wanna give it a shot?"
"Don't think we have much choice," Xander said. "But I'm going to keep an eye on Trig if you don't mind."
Two-eyed Xander snorted at the unintentional pun. His double gave him a look.
"Why do they have to go to your planet?" Faith asked. "Can't you just send them directly to their own worlds?"
At this question, Trig shifted uncomfortably. "I do not know how," he said. "My knowledge of magic is limited, and it would take me years to find a way of opening specific portals to their realities. The knowledge is readily available only on Runeus."
"Then let's get started," Angel said.
Trig smiled. "Wonderful. I will need a few things. Once I have them, we can begin."
He started to walk down the steps. He slipped on the second one and fell on his behind. The confident air he'd expelled since arrival had abruptly left.
It startled everyone. "You okay?" Fred finally asked. When everyone looked at her, she just shrugged.
Trig hastily got to his feet and smiled shakily. "Great. Don't worry about me."
Harry and Harriet exchanged glances. Somehow, if he really could be trusted, they doubted that he would be able to get Harry home at all.
-----
"So, this spell is the same one you used the last time?" questioned Kennedy.
"Almost," Trig answered. "It is exactly the same except for a few small details. It is obvious that I was not precise enough in my desired destination the last time I attempted this. I must be more careful this time."
It was 9:50 PM. They had ten minutes to go before the spell could be performed. The Farewell Party that the Trainee Slayers had put on for Ron had ended not long ago. Before the party, they'd passed the time watching the Harry Potter movies and had even gone to the theatre so Ron could see the third one.
Everyone had been more fascinated by what Ron had to say about the movies than in actually watching them.
"I never realized just how bad Harry had it," Ron said after watching the opening scenes of The Sorcerer's Stone. "I'd like to give Dudley a nice kick in arse. With Harry's temper, I'm surprised he never actually did it himself."
Ron guffawed. "I remember him telling us about setting that python loose. Now I wish I was there more than ever!"
"Hey, that's not how you get into Diagon Alley! You're supposed to tap the wall above those trashcans!"
"Told you," Vi said, turning to Diana. She extended a hand. "Pay up."
Diana grumbled and handed her five dollars.
"Harry's bloody rich!" Ron said with astonishment. "I knew he had money, but not that much. With that money, could he buy every story in Diagon Alley, and those don't come cheap!"
"Really? He has that much?" Buffy asked.
"Well, maybe not that much," Ron said. "But, still!"
Comments like these continued throughout the rest of the movie and into the other ones.
Ron discovered two things for certain from watching the movies: primarily, it both creeped him out and fascinated him that his first three years at Hogwarts had been made into movies for anyone to see. He felt that a lot of those moments should've been kept private, and it made him uncomfortable to watch them himself. Events in the movies happened a little differently than he remembered them; sometimes it was the dialogue, other times it was the locations or the sequences of events, but everything was pretty much the same. He knew that hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of people had seen these movies, and it just boggled his mind to know that anyone knew that much about him or his friends.
Secondly, he realized that he really did have a crush on Hermione, if his actions of the past five years were anything like they were in the movies. Sure, maybe he knew it along, but that didn't mean he wanted to admit it to anyone, least of all himself. He didn't think he'd ever been as obvious about it as that Rupert Grint fellow was making him look, but if the movies were any indication, then Hermione might like him back.
At least Dawn didn't act too mad about it. She was really attractive and great to be around, but she was still just too old for him. She was turning nineteen while he was only sixteen, and soon enough he'd be back in his own dimension. He had better chances with Hermione.
And now, he'd be leaving this reality in less than ten minutes. At the party, some of the Slayers had given him their copies of the Harry Potter books and one of the British Slayers gave him her copies of the first two movies. Dawn had given him a picture of her and a group picture of everyone. They would be the only souvenirs he'd be taking back with him.
"I'm coming with you," Dawn said.
"What?" Ron said, startled from his thoughts.
"I'm coming with you to Runeus, just to make sure Trig follows up on his word. Buffy and Willow are coming, too. Trig's already agreed to help us get back here, and even if he doesn't, we'll find a way. We've got this spell that some friends of ours used to get to and from another reality. It might work for us, but it's a lot more dangerous than Trig's spell, or so Willow thinks, so it's only as a last resort."
Ron smiled. "Glad to hear it," he said. He'd been afraid that he'd have to go to an alien planet alone.
She smiled back, and the two of them turned back to watch the preparations. They'd set up shop in the smaller gym, the one right next to the larger one on the ground floor. It was big enough for the portal, and it didn't have big, high windows like the other gym. Dawn and Ron stood in the corner of the smaller gym. Trig knelt in the center. Buffy stood near the door, while Kennedy and Willow stood near the middle of the wall.
"So, you going to talk to Hermione when you meet back up with her?" Dawn asked after a moment.
"Huh?" Ron asked, startled again. "Um…tell her what?"
She slapped his arm. "That you like her, stupid."
"Oh. Um…I guess." He wasn't even trying to deny it anymore. After being teased mercilessly over it during the movie marathon, he'd finally admitted it. "I guess she feels the same way about me, huh?"
"Probably, if she's anything like the Hermione from the movies or the books," Dawn said.
Ron nodded. "She is," he said. "'Least, the she acted like her." He squared his shoulders. "Yeah."
"Hey, Trig," Buffy called, catching everyone's attention. "It's 9:55 PM."
"Better get started," Dawn said.
"I am ready," Trig said.
He placed his right palm over the wooden bowl positioned at his knees. He picked up the knife with his left hand and used it to prick the partially healed scar on his right palm. Everyone winced. Surprisingly red blood dripped from the wound and into the bowl. When the first drop hit the bottom, the symbols on the bowl's rim and on the knife's handle glowed eerily red. Trig began to chant.
As more blood filled the bottom of the bowl, the symbols' glow changed from red hot to yellow to piercing white. Trig's voice never wavered, belying the nervous manner he'd projected so far and giving way to the experienced spell caster beneath.
In fact, Willow thought he was acting a little too experienced, especially since he himself had stated that he didn't have much knowledge about magic, his own or anyone else's.
/ He's not wavering, not even once, / Willow commented, using just a tiny bit of power to project the thought to Buffy, Kennedy, Dawn, and also Ron. / This has to be the second time he's had to do this spell and he's acting like he's done this sort of thing for years. /
/ Got it, Will, / Buffy assured her. / Everyone keep an eye out. Willow, any way of looking through the portal to make sure that Runeus is safe for us to go to? /
Willow bit her lip and shook her head, looking across the room at Buffy with an apologetic shrug. / Sorry, no. /
Ron, meanwhile, was staring at Willow and Buffy both. / Hey! You people are in my head! How do you do that? /
/ It's okay, / Dawn assured him. / Willow cast a spell that lets us communicate mentally. It's harmless. /
/ Wicked. / Ron said, impressed.
The portal took form in the air, slowly growing in size until it was touching walls, ceiling, and floor. Once it had, Trig stopped chanting and careful got to his feet, picking the bowl up from the ground with his right hand and keeping a hold of the knife with his left fist.
"I guess this is it," Dawn said.
"Looks like it," Ron said, suddenly wishing that he hadn't eaten all of that food at the party. It hadn't been very pleasant the last time he'd been shot through a portal, and he had a feeling that it would be worse on a full stomach, just like it would feel flooing on a full stomach.
Dawn tightened her hold on her sword. She saw Buffy raised the Scythe and Willow hold up her axe. Willow and Kennedy exchanged one last parting kiss. Kennedy would be staying behind; she would technically be in charge of the camp until Faith arrived from out of the country the next day. Hopefully, they'd be back before then, but they had no way of knowing that.
"Ready?" Dawn asked the redhead beside her.
"As I'll ever be," Ron replied. "You?"
Dawn shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. "Yeah."
Trig glanced around at them before stepping forward and into the portal. Buffy, Dawn, Willow, and Ron followed.
-----
In order to 'work around' Trig's magic, Agent Rosenburg needed lots of potion-making equipment as well as the bowl and knife Trig had used during his first attempt outside of Diagon Alley. She wouldn't be able to do the spell until ten the following morning, and she and Alex would be spending the majority of the night cooking up the potion she needed to integrate their own magic with Trig's.
She'd explained how Trig's magic worked; she and Trig had had long conversations about it before Trig's betrayal. Afterwards, Willow had been asked why she couldn't just do the same spell if she knew how to do it. She replied, "Trig's magic is rooted into his world's, and it's strong even across realities. I couldn't use it directly if I tried, because my magic is rooted in this world's and the two just don't mesh. I have to go about it in a roundabout way or else we would get nowhere."
Dumbledore wouldn't be accompanying them, nor would Mr. or Mrs. Weasley. Despite their wishes otherwise, the three of them were just being watched too closely by too many people. They didn't want anyone getting wise to what they were doing. Neither elder Weasley would let their younger children go, either; they somehow managed to convince Fred and George to stay with Ginny, but they couldn't stop Hermione from going, nor could anyone else. She was determined to go and wouldn't let anyone convince her otherwise.
Hermione didn't contact her parents. With any luck, they wouldn't even know about her being gone. She was staying with the Weasleys for the rest of the summer, after all, and she didn't owl them every day. If they did find out, she knew that she would be grounded for life, but she couldn't just stay behind. Not when both Harry and Ron were out there in who knew how much danger. She wouldn't forgive herself if anything happened to either of them. If only she'd stopped them from going near Trig, somehow, then none of this would have happened. Harry would still be mourning for his godfather and acting stubborn and careless, and Ron would keep acting clueless about his own feelings toward her and she would stay frustrated over all of the signals from her that he didn't notice.
Accompanying Hermione would be Moody, Shacklebolt, Tonks, and the American Agents. The six of them needed to get as much sleep as possible before their trip, but Hermione found it hard to sleep. Instead, she spent the majority of the night worrying about her two friends. After lying awake in bed for an hour or so, she gave up. She got out of bed and headed out the door and down the stairs to the kitchen.
The light was still on. Hermione found Agent Harris and Agent Rosenburg seated at one end of the table. A huge cauldron rested on the table between them. Over thirty containers of spell ingredients were scattered across the surface of the table. She walked in just in time to see Willow add eye of newt to the mixture.
"Hello, Hermione," Alex said, making her jump. She blushed in embarrassment. She'd forgotten about his eye, but of course he'd be able to see through things and in all directions with it, just as Moody did with his own magic eye.
"Hello," she answered. "I'm sorry. I couldn't sleep."
Willow hadn't even glanced up from the potion. She was concentrating too highly on her work. Alex turned and smiled warmly at her. Hermione felt herself relax.
"It's alright," he consoled her. He motioned to the chair on Willow's other side. "Wanna come watch the show?"
"Sure," Hermione said, jumping at the opportunity. She'd heard Willow's explanation of the potion, but she still wanted to witness its making.
Willow glanced up as Hermione took her seat. "Oh, hi," she said, smiling.
Hermione smiled back.
Alex and Willow took turns working on the potion as Hermione watched. She tried to compare it with her knowledge of Potions but found it difficult. The concoction was unlike anything she'd ever seen or read about. The Agents were very helpful. They explained what every ingredient was for as they added it.
After an hour or so, Hermione went back to bed, feeling reassured that everything would go according to plan.
Back in the kitchen, Willow rested her head on her arms. After a few moments, she was snoring. Alex smirked at her as he worked. In another two hours, the potion would be done, and then both of them would be able to sleep.
Five minutes later, Willow was mumbling in her sleep. "Giant frog. Alex, look out! It's coming out!"
Alex raised an eyebrow at her. "Coming out of what?" he queried, wondering if he would get a response.
He did. "The portal! It's humongous! It'll wipe out all of the flies, then move on to the cats!"
Alex paused and stared at his sleeping partner. The witch certainly had some very strange dreams.
He picked up two vials and poured in their contents simultaneously. With a small bang, a thick cloud of smoke rose up from the cauldron.
Willow abruptly woke. "Save the Siamese cats!" she cried as she lifted her head. Then she blinked and glanced around. "What?"
"Relax, Willow," Alex assured her. "It was just the potion."
"Oh. Are we done yet?"
"No, unfortunately," Alex said. "We really should have had one of these things in reserve, you know."
"I heartily agree, believe me," Willow said. "At least we remembered the other potion to pacify Trig."
"At least there's that."
Willow glanced at the stairs. / Anyone awake and listening in? /
Alex used his x-ray eye to check. / Yep. The twins are still awake. They've got something dangling from their ears. I think they're listening in. /
/ Great, / Willow thought sarcastically. / At least they're not coming with us. What are we going to do with the ones that are? /
Alex shrugged. / We don't have to do anything. They want their friends back, and if that means taking over Trig's operation for whatever reason, they'll be glad to help. Still think we can take him? /
Willow sighed. / In his home environment? Not so much as if he was still here, but that pacifying potion should help. / She shrugged. / We'll know one way or another tomorrow. /
-----
After a hearty breakfast the next morning, everyone assembled once again in the Weasley living room. Willow set the cauldron down on the floor and sat cross-legged on one side of it. Alex sat across from her. Both chanted in Latin as they raised the wooden bowl and dropped it carefully into the cauldron. The bowl submerged and the surface of the potion shimmered with an inner light. It reflected off of every surface about the room.
They chanted some more as they dropped the knife into the concoction. The surface of the potion glowed brighter. The beams of light shone about the room in a frenzy of motion, making everyone sees stars as blinding light beams flashed past their eyes.
Alex and Willow spoke in English now. "Come to us, rays of light. Make for us a door. Unseal this portal, out of sight; make it whole, once more."
The beams of light turned their brilliance up toward the ceiling, merging to form one huge beam. The light on the ceiling altered until it took on the form of one of the symbols on the bowl and knife.
The ground shook, the Earth protesting to this combination of foreign and local magic. Willow and Alex repeated the rhyme, their voices raising as the quaking increased.
"This is going to take some explaining," Percy muttered to himself, certain that there would be questions about an earthquake in England.
A reddish portal took form in center of the beam. It slowly turned purple then blue as it grew in size. The quaking continued, knocking books off the bookcase and portraits off the wall.
Alex and Willow cautiously got to their feet. "We'd better go!" Alex shouted over the noise. "The quake should stop after the portal's closed!"
Hermione, Tonks, Shacklebolt, Moody, Alex, and Willow hurried through the portal. A moment later, it closed. The quake subsided.
The cauldron fell to its side. The potion, the bowl, and the knife had been all been absorbed completely. The cauldron was now empty.
-----
Trig knelt in the middle of the Hyperion's foyer. Everyone was there, watching. The twenty Slayers-in-Training minus Harriet that had survived Sunnydale's collapse stood on the second floor landings. Harry and Harriet sat on the sofa that had been pushed to the side of the room. The two Xanders and Anya sat on the stairs. Gunn, Fred, and Angel, and Wesley stood in front of or behind the counter. Buffy stood near to Angel and Willow, Kennedy, and Faith stood next to the Xanders and Anya. Andrew stood with the others slayers on the landing.
Some of them had to stay behind to keep an eye on LA and the Slayers, but the rest planned to go through the portal. Among those staying behind were Wesley, Faith, Kennedy, Andrew, Wood, Dawn, the Slayers-in-Training, and SG-1. All of those leaving were armed with weapons and/or wands; now all there was to do was wait until the portal was opened.
It didn't take long for Trig to get the portal open. Within moments it stood open before them, ready and waiting for them to step through it. The portal was huge and looked like it could have easily sucked them all through if it could.
Buffy sucked in a deep breath and glanced at Angel. "Everyone who's coming, let's get a move on," the vampire said.
Both Xanders, Anya, Gunn, Fred, Angel, Buffy, Willow, Harry, Harriet, and Giles stepped forward, ready to follow Trig through the portal.
"Wait!" Tasha, one of the Slayers, called down from the second story landing. She held up her walkie-talkie. "Outside guard says there's a group of twenty demons headed this way. They request back-up before the demons break in-"
The Hyperion's front doors suddenly flew off their hinges, splintering their frames and sending the doors flying through the air. Harry and Harriet both raised their wands while Willow raised a hand. Harry and Harriet shouted, "Aresto Momentum!"
Harry and Harriet's spells hit the door, freezing it in place. Willow's shield sprung into being, forming a valley that the door nestled into that allowed the wand users to lower their arms.
Two demons walked through the hole in the wall that had been the door. One-eyed Xander recognized them as the same demons that had guarded the Trig in his reality: well-muscled guys with hard outer gray shells and very few weak spots.
Willow threw the door at them, knocking them back out of the hotel. Meanwhile, two more demons stormed their way through the courtyard doors. They were instantly met by a horde of Slayers descending the stairs from the second-story landings. Half of their numbers had gone down the other stairs to meet the demons pouring in through the front entrance.
Without hesitation, the Angel Investigation crew, the Scoobies, and SG-1 all jumped into the fray. A demon got tossed right at Jack and his team. Teal'c blasted it in the chest with his staff weapon. The demon staggered a bit before continuing toward them. Carter, Jack, and Daniel let loose with a stream of bullets. The first couple of bullets bounced off, but as more and more impacted, the shell cracked and the bullet penetrated the demon, killing it easily and spraying green icor everywhere. Some of the green blood hit the portal and sailed on through.
The slayers and others on either side managed to force the demons back outside in the front and back courtyards, but it wasn't long before they were losing ground. The demon's shells made them nearly impossible to kill; besides SG-1's target, only two others had been slayed which left seventeen alive.
No one took any notice of Trig during all of this. Two wooden bracelets hung from his wrists. He crossed his wrists, the right before the left, and pointed them at one group. "Bring me Dawn Summers and Willow Rosenburg," he intoned.
A cry rose up from the seventeen-year-old and redhead witch as they rose in the air and flew toward the portal.
"Buffy!" she yelled.
"Dawn! Willow!" Buffy cried, spotting them. She turned away from the fight with the demons and sprinted toward them, hoping to stop them.
Trig switched his crossed arms and intoned a word in his language. Instantly, Buffy was knocked off her feet. Her scythe flew across the room. Dawn and Willow soared through the portal.
Trig switched his arms back to the original order and pointed it again at one of the crowds. "Bring me Xander Harris and Harry Potter," he said.
Three more cries could be heard as both Xanders and Harry rose into the air and flew at the portal, passing on through it.
"Xander!" Anya and Carter cried at the same time.
"Harry!" Harriet called.
Trig turned his bracelets to SG-1. "Bring me Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter."
"No!" Jack cried, bringing his weapon up to bear. Trig quickly re-crossed his arms and SG-1's weapons dropped to the floor as Daniel and Carter flew through the air and into the portal.
Trig turned, picked up the bowl and knife, and hastily stepped through. The portal began to shrink.
"No! Dawn!" Buffy cried, picking herself up. She dashed at the portal and jumped through.
Harriet used her Slayer reflexes to sprint at full-speed at the portal, jumping through after the other Slayer just as the portal closed.
When the demons saw that the portal was nowhere, they turned and left, running out of sight. Half of their number had been killed.
"What the hell happened?" Jack demanded, furious. "And how the hell do we get that damn portal open again?"
"Where's Dawn?" Willow asked. "Or Xander - either Xander?"
"Where's Buffy and Cordelia?" Angel asked.
"They, Harry and Harriet went through the portal," Tosha said. "It was Trig. He used magic to send Dawn, both Xanders, Harry, and those two Air Force people through. Buffy and Harriet both went in after them."
"He probably also hired the demons to attack us so he could take only the ones he wanted," Wesley hypothesized.
"Worked pretty well, too," Faith said, wincing as she rubbed an injured arm.
"Damnit!" Giles cursed, turned and kicking the wall.
"We've got to get them back!" Anya cried.
"We will," Kennedy said. "We'll get them back. All of them. Then we'll cut Trig into a hundred little pieces…after we burn him alive."
"Sounds like a good plan to me," said Jack.
"To me as well," Teal'c agreed.