Standing on the Edge of Tomorrow II: The Rising Sun

Previously:

"Yeah, let's blaze," Faith said. She felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Buffy smiled, noticing the change in her. Together, they walked hand in hand out of the cemetery, neither to set foot there again during the course of their lives.

Chapter Twenty-Eight:

Kara wasn't entirely sure how it had all happened. The group had fought its way down Revello Drive, warding off hellhounds as they went. At some point, Xander noticed that Cordelia and Lucian had disappeared. That was when all hell broke loose. A swarm of hellhounds came upon them and surrounded them. They fought free, but the group was scattered and separated. They paired off as best they could and decided to meet up at the Magic Box if they could reach it. Now, Kara and Joyce were barreling down one of Sunnydale's residential streets with four hounds on their heels.

"I think I'm out of bullets," Joyce shouted over to Kara. "What should I do?"

"Run like hell," Kara shouted back to her grandmother. Though they had started out with what seemed like enough bullets, their skirmish along Revello Drive had greatly depleted them.

"Turn here," Joyce shouted suddenly as they came to an intersection. Charging ahead, they turned left and found themselves on a street perpendicular to Sunnydale's main drag. "We're on the opposite end of Main Street from the Magic Box. But we're only two storefronts down from the gallery."

"We'll wait there until we can move on again," Kara replied. She didn't know how Joyce was keeping up with her, but she had practically matched Kara's pace the entire time they had been running. Though Kara had slayer strength and speed, she was starting to tire. She could only imagine how Joyce was feeling. They finally came out onto Main Street and skidded to a halt.

Hellhounds were everywhere. Most of the storefronts were busted in. However, they could see where people had barricaded themselves into stores. For those that couldn't barricade themselves in, they simply went up to the roof. "It's right here," Joyce said, regaining her composure and leading Kara to the gallery. The front window was smashed in.

"We can't stay here," Kara said, surveying the damage.

"Yes, we can. There's a back room. It doesn't have any windows. Nothing could get in," Joyce replied. Cautiously, they stepped through the broken glass where the front window used to be. Kara raised her shotgun, ready to shoot practically anything that moved.

"I don't think there's anything here," Kara whispered. She couldn't hear anything, and though her slayer senses were tingling off the charts, she could sense that there was no immediate danger. They quickly moved to the back of the store. Joyce fished her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the storage room door. She flung it open and they stepped inside. Kara quickly shut the door and looked around, noting that the room was empty. She audibly breathed a sigh of relief.

"You okay?" Kara asked, looking over at Joyce, who had slumped against the wall.

"I'm just a bit tired," Joyce said, smiling slightly. "I don't think I've ever ran that hard in my entire life."

"I hear ya," Kara said, chuckling. "Well, we won't go anywhere for a while. I think we should stay here until the sun comes up. After that, I have a feeling we'll be seeing less of our furry friends."

"Why's that?" Joyce asked, leaning her shotgun against the wall and sitting on the floor.

"Well, most evil things don't like to be out in the sun, even if they can be. It exposes them, makes them feel vulnerable. I think someone sent them here though," Kara concluded.

"Why?" Joyce asked.

"There's so many of them and they're all working toward a common goal. Back in my old world, the demons that took over, they didn't work together. They killed as many of us as they did themselves, fighting amongst themselves for control and power. But I haven't seen any of these hellhounds attacking each other. It's like they're working together, which means that they're working for someone else, someone with a lot more power than they have," Kara reasoned.

"I wonder who that could be. Cassius maybe?" Joyce thought aloud.

"It could be. Only…I wonder how much power he has. What I mean is, I wonder if he would be capable of bringing so many demons to the earth," Kara wondered.

"He was capable of taking over your body," Joyce pointed out.

Kara smiled bitterly. "Yeah, he was. But," she said, with a gleam in her eye, "He wasn't able to sustain it. Callum forced him out, which means that Callum had more power than he did."

"Well, if it's not Cassius, I wonder who it is."

……………………..

"How the hell did we end up in the cemetery?" Anya demanded as she, Willow, and Tara screeched to a halt outside of Restfield.

"I don't know," Willow replied, looking genuinely confused. "I thought we were heading to the Magic Box."

"No, we went the wrong way down Elm. I tried to tell you, but you kept running," Tara interjected.

"Well, shit," Anya muttered. "We're all the way across town now. There's no way we'll reach the Magic Box without getting slashed to pieces."

"Guys? We should keep moving," Tara said, motioning behind them. Several hellhounds were barreling down the street toward them. Quickly scrambling over the wall, the three women landed in a heap on the other side.

"Where are we supposed to hide in here?" Anya hissed, feeling very vulnerable and slightly freaked out at being in a cemetery while running for her life.

"Don't take this as an omen," Willow said, as if reading her mind.

"Yeah, that's gonna happen," Anya muttered back.

"Mausoleum," Tara said suddenly.
"What?" Willow and Anya asked, looking over at her.

"You wanted to know where we should hide. Mausoleum," Tara replied matter-of-factly.

"No way," Anya stressed. "You want me to hide in a box with a bunch of dead people?"

"You have a better idea?" Tara asked.

"No and I think we better figure out something now. They're climbing over the wall," Willow said, pointing above them.

"Mausoleum it is," Anya said, scrambling away. Willow and Tara followed quickly behind her. They stopped at the first mausoleum they came to. Anya tried to pull the door open, but couldn't. "I can't get it open," she said, looking back at the two witches.

"Let us try," Willow said, moving forward with Tara. They pulled, but to no avail. "I think it's locked," Willow concluded.

"Well, screw this," Anya said, lifting her shotgun. Willow and Tara leapt out of the way as Anya blasted a hole where the lock had been. "It's not locked now, is it?" She said, pushing the door open. The three women quickly moved inside and pushed the door closed, blocking it with the lid of the coffin.

"I guess we're gonna be here for a while," Willow commented as the hellhounds began fiercely attacking the door.

"Seems like it," Tara replied. Anya propped her gun up against the coffin and moved over to a little stained glass window in the corner. The glass was fogged and warped, but she could see out of it. She gazed out for several moments before she caught sight of a man walking through the cemetery.

"What the hell," she muttered to herself, noting that the hellhounds seemed to take no notice of the man. Anya squinted her eyes and concentrated on trying to make out the man's face. He turned toward her and suddenly she recognized him. "Guys?" Anya said, fear staining her voice. Willow and Tara instantly looked over at her.

"What is it?" They asked in unison.

"We have a big problem."