Chapter Twenty One: Assault

Buffy and Dawn had agreed to spend Monday with their grandmother. "Whatever happens," Buffy said to Dawn as they left the house, "we must get her to leave town."

The morning was taken up with shopping with Grandma Summers taking the opportunity to buy presents for her granddaughters. This was followed by a leisurely lunch.

Grandma Summers shook her head and smiled. "I remember my grandmother always treated me as if I was ten years younger than I really was," she said. "And here I am having to keep telling myself you're both grown women. I nearly suggested going to the park for the afternoon or taking in the cartoon show at the cinema."

"Well we could..." Dawn began but then saw Buffy looking at her. "But of course we're much too old for that," she finished.

"So I'd better talk about the real reason why I'm here; the vampire slaying," continued Grandma Summers.

Buffy didn't quite splutter but she swallowed her mouthful of coffee in one gulp. "Vampire slaying? What do you mean?" she said.

Grandma Summers smiled. "I suppose it turned out for the best in the end but if it hadn't it would have been all my fault," she said.

"What...what would have been your fault?" asked Dawn giving a puzzled look at the equally puzzled Buffy.

"Haven't you ever thought it strange you were never identified as a potential slayer," said Grandma Summers to Buffy, "and given the same sort of early training as other potentials are given?"

"How do you know all this?" asked Buffy.

"I'll come to that," said Grandma Summers. "It was my fault. I had your name taken off the list, the list of potential slayers before the Council assigned you a watcher."

"How did...why?" began Buffy.

"There are so many potentials and most of them remain just that, potential," said Grandma Summers. "That's no sort of life for a young girl. I thought it was such a long shot, lightning striking twice and all that, that I had your name taken off the list."

"You were a potential, grandma?" asked Dawn.

"Oh no," said Grandma Summers, "not me, my sister. Only she didn't stay a potential. She became The Slayer. She was called Dawn as well you know. She looked a lot like you. I still miss her."

Buffy was stunned by her grandmother's revelations. This was the first she had heard of another slayer in the family. Dawn was equally stunned. She wanted to ask lots of questions about the previous Dawn Summers, Dawn Summers the Vampire Slayer but then realised it would have been Dawn Gregory, her grandmother's maiden name. Anyway Dawn could see that her grandmother did not have happy memories about the loss of her sister so she kept silent.

"I can understand why you did what you did," said Buffy. "But I don't understand how you were able to do it. Were you on the Council?"

"Oh no," said Grandma Summers. "They'd never have the likes of me on their precious Council. No, I'm one of the Guardians."

This produced blank looks from both sisters. "Guardians?" asked Buffy.

"The Guardians are women who...well I suppose we watch the watchers," said Grandma Summers. "Most watchers are pretty decent and devoted, like your Mr Giles, but every now and then we find it necessary to take action. Mostly we just watch and only become involved if things really get serious."

"Like now?" asked Buffy.

"Exactly like now," said Grandma Summers. "Oh don't worry, I've seen things a lot worse than this a few times and we're all still here."

"So how exactly are you going to become involved?" asked Dawn. "And I don't think you explained exactly how you got Buffy off the Council's list."

Grandma Summers handed Buffy a piece of paper with an address on it. "This is a vineyard about ten miles south of here," she said. "Go there and look in the basement. There's a slab in the floor at the south end you can move aside. In the hidden room underneath you'll find a Battle Scythe. It's a slayer weapon and you'll find it very useful in dealing with all your enemies."

Buffy handed the piece of paper to Dawn. "That's one of the places mentioned in Kate's reports," said Dawn. "You were going to check it out. I bet it's where Caleb was going. We'll probably find a lot of Bringers there."

"Now the rest of what I have to say is for Dawn only," said Grandma Summers. "I'd like you both to say nothing about me or the guardians to anybody. It's really important that nobody knows we exist. That includes slayers, watchers, potentials, everybody. Tell everyone you had a dream about the scythe."

"I'll think about it," said Buffy. "I'm long past making open promises to people who try to control me, whoever they are."

Buffy stood up, leant forward and kissed her grandmother on the forehead. "Please leave Sunnydale today, before dark. It's not safe for you here. Dawn, I'll see you back home, before dark."

"Don't worry, either of you," said Grandma Summers. "As soon as we've finished our little chat I'm taking a taxi to the airport." Buffy nodded and walked away.

"So what do you want to talk to me about?" asked Dawn.

"We find the best way to recruit new guardians is to chose suitable close relatives of a slayer," said Grandma Summers. "That's how I was recruited."

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Cordelia had only just fallen asleep when she was awoken by banging on the door. She stood up and started towards the door only to be forestalled by Connor who got there first. It was Lilah and Eve was with her. They hurried into the room as soon as the door was open.

Gwen and Amy had also dozed off but they had also been woken up by the noise. "What's up?" asked Cordelia. "Has she broken out?"

"Not yet," replied the agitated Lilah, "but it won't be long now."

"What makes you say that?" asked Gwen.

Lilah explained that all of her mages had upped and left suddenly about ten minutes before without any explanation whatever. Lilah was convinced that it was part of a plan by Jasmine.

"She's done something to divert them," said Lilah. "She'll be coming out soon. Whatever you've got you'd better get ready to use it."

Connor went over to the window to look at the hotel. Cordelia turned to Amy. "I'd better call Tara..." she began but cut off as she saw an orb in progress. It was Tara herself and she had Faith with her.

"That was quick," said Cordelia. "I was just about to call you."

"Why, has something happened?" asked Tara.

"No, but it's gonna, and quite soon," said Amy. "All the Wolfram and Hart magic users have left."

"I'm afraid you need to leave as well," replied Tara, "you and Cordy. There's a big crisis and we need all the magical talent there is."

"You can't take them away," said Eve. "You'll leave us with no magic users at all."

"If this isn't a crisis what is?" asked Gwen.

"Believe me, this is worse," said Tara. "Much worse."

"But this is a set up," said Lilah. "It's Jasmine using her power to divert all the magic users. It's gotta be."

"You may be right but we still need to go, right now," said Tara holding out her hands to Cordelia and Amy. "I'll explain as soon as we get there."

"And I'll explain for the rest of you," said Faith.

Rather reluctantly Cordelia and Amy took Tara's hands and she orbed the three of them away. Faith explained what Tara and Jenny had explained to the people in Sunnydale about the meteor and the need to save the world by diverting or destroying it.

"Save the world?" said Gwen. "By the time they do that Jasmine may not have left much of a world to save.

"So you're here to hand out orders again then," said Connor. "What's the brilliant plan this time oh mighty slayer?"

"You're not very good at the sarcasm are you?" said Gwen to Connor. "The brilliant plan worked brilliantly last time as I recall."

So that's a Slayer thought Eve. She doesn't look like much. I bet I can take her. "It better be brilliant," said Eve, "because if Jasmine gets out we're all dead."

"Shut up!" ordered Lilah.

"Or what?" said Eve. "You gonna sack me? They might as well know. Nothing like a little extra incentive."

Everybody in the room stared at Eve as she explained what Lilah had told her about the senior partners and their decision to destroy the city if Jasmine got out of the hotel.

"Well that's the plan then," said Faith. "We go in."

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Tara orbed into the Halliwell home with Cordelia and Amy, the last of the Sunnydale magic users. Once there Tara explained to Cordelia and Amy why they were needed and the full background concerning the threat of the meteor to the world.

Already present in the house were the Halliwell sisters and Leo plus Willow, Giles, Anya, Dawn and Fred. Dawn wasn't a magic user of course but in view of her background as a mystic 'key' Willow and Tara felt it wouldn't hurt to have her take part in the spell casting in case she was able to add any power to the mix.

Fred was very much not a magic user but Willow had thought it a good idea to invite her along as well in view of her knowledge of physics and mathematics. At present Fred, Willow, Giles and Prue were having a detailed discussion about the projected path of the meteor and the most efficient way to deflect it.

"No, no, no," said Fred. "If you do that you'll be wasting a lot of energy. What you need to do is slingshot it around the moon and into outer space."

"But won't that mean letting it get a lot closer before we do anything?" asked Prue. "That's a pretty scary plan. If it goes wrong we won't get a second chance."

"And it might go wrong Fred," said Giles. "Nobody knows if we'll be able to do it at all, let alone as late as that."

"Isn't there any way we can destroy it altogether?" asked Willow. "I thought the idea was to at least whittle it down a little."

"We've had second thoughts about that," said Prue. "If we break it up we're likely to have a lot of large pieces still coming this way. It'll probably be even more difficult to deal with a lot of meteors than it will be to deal with one big one."

"Rather like being bombarded by a lot of bombs instead of one big bomb." said Giles. "From the point of view of destruction and loss of life the result could be much the same."

"What we need to do then is to destroy it completely so there isn't anything much left over," said Willow.

"Or so that whatever is left goes off into outer space," said Fred.

"So what do you guys suggest," asked Phoebe joining the discussion. "Take over the nuclear arsenals around the world and send them off into space? That might save the world but the other consequences would be very bad politically."

"Well everything's set up for the big spell tomorrow," said Prue. "Magic users all round the world will be doing the deflection spell. If it doesn't work then by this time tomorrow we'll have to think again about plan B. I think we should leave the nuclear option as a last resort."

"Perhaps we could leak the information about the meteor and 'suggest' that the nuclear governments fire their missiles at the meteor themselves," suggested Fred. "You could then use magic to make sure the missiles get to the right place."

"I hope we can avoid doing anything with nuclear weapons," said Willow. "I'm thinking magic and nuclear bombs, probably not a good combination."

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Buffy arrived early at the meeting place for the rendezvous with Glory. In view of the absence of so many allies she had decided to come alone but Xander, as usual had insisted on coming. Buffy knew him well enough to know that he would have followed her anyway so she agreed to let him come.

Kennedy had suggested that Buffy take one team of potentials with her but she had refused as she could see no way that they would make a difference if it came to a fight with Glory. On Buffy's insistence Kennedy was now holed up at Castle Buffy with all systems and potentials on alert.

Buffy leaned back against the wall of the warehouse and put the Troll Hammer down by her side within easy reach. She had no illusions. If it came to a fight with Glory she'd find it a lot more difficult than she had the last time. However even though she didn't have the help of Willow or a robot she knew she'd progressed as a fighter herself since their last contest. She also knew that she was in much better shape all round than she had been in the lead up to the fight over Dawn.

Xander noticed that Buffy was quiet and no doubt musing on what was likely to happen. He did however take seriously the appointment he had given himself years before to lighten the load on the Slayer by lightening the atmosphere whenever possible.

"Hey, why the long face?" he asked. "You're still the hottest blonde in this town. You've got the Xan-man with you and as I recall at least half the guys in High School had the hots for you. The only guys I've ever seen with Glory were those ugly midgets. If that's the best she can do she's not even in your league."

"I don't think Glory...half the guys in High School?" asked Buffy.

"At least..." Xander broke off as an orb in progress appeared in front of them. It cleared to reveal Jenny Calendar. Buffy and Xander had found out about the return of Jenny when Giles had returned the previous day and had met her when she and Tara had arrived to explain about the meteor and to take away the magic users.

Buffy had been both happy and sad to see Jenny. Happy because Giles was happy and happy in fact to see Jenny herself. Sad because the return of Tara and now Jenny made her think of her mother who had been taken so suddenly and so much before her time.

Buffy had found time to have a quiet word with Tara and Jenny before they left. Jenny had confirmed that Joyce Summers death had indeed been permanent, that she had moved on and was happy.

"That doesn't mean she didn't love you and Dawn Buffy," Tara had said, "because I know she did, a lot. Just like I know you'll both see her again one day."

Buffy came back to the present with a comment by Xander to Jenny. "I thought you had to be with the big Wicca convention?" he asked.

"I was never a witch," said Jenny. "They don't need me so I thought I'd be more use with you guys, even if it's only for a fast exit."

"Thanks," said Buffy at the same time moving forward and embracing Jenny as the friendliest way she knew of confirming that this really was Jenny and not an imitation by The First.

"Still not brave enough to meet me on your own Slayer?" said Glory walking out of the darkness. "I recognise the poodle but who's the new girlfriend?"

"Hey," said Jenny.

"I echo that hey," said Xander.

"Let's leave out the insults and get down to what we're here for," said Buffy. "You asked me to arrange for you to leave this world. Well I agree but there are conditions."

"Why should I listen to conditions?" said Glory. "If you don't do what I want you're stuck with me and you know what that means."

"If the magic users of the world don't stop the meteor that's on the way to destroy us all it doesn't matter what you do." said Buffy. "The first condition is that you've got to wait until the world has been saved. If it's destroyed anyway I really don't care what you do."

This was the first that Glory had heard of a meteor on the way to destroy the world and her first impulse was to doubt that it was true. "How do I know this is true?" she asked but even as she asked she realised that it must be true. It would be easy enough for her minions to check out something like that. In fact her clever little demons should already know about it. If they've been keeping secrets, heads will roll she thought, quite literally.

"I don't care whether you believe it or not," said Buffy. "I'm just telling you what's happening and why we can't send you on your way yet. As soon as Willow and the others are back we'll send you on your way as soon as we can."

"You said conditions, what other conditions?" asked Glory.

"You know all about Jasmine, Darla must have told you," said Buffy. "Same as the meteor. We need to stop Jasmine before we help you. If Jasmine can't be stopped it doesn't really matter what you do."

"You think she's stronger than me?" scoffed Glory. "Puh...leese!"

"If you're so strong why don't you stop her yourself?" asked Xander.

Glory smiled. "Why should I fight her?" she asked. "I'm sure I'd win but there's all you hero types to soften her up first. Saving this world's your business, not mine."

"We're not asking for your help, but you won't get our help until we've dealt with Jasmine and the meteor," said Buffy. "In the meantime you need to tell us all you can about your home world. We can't send you home if we don't know where home is. At the moment we don't even know what it's called."

The discussions continued for a while longer about the identification of Glory's Hellworld. As they spoke a new figure joined the group.

"Well nice to finally see you at last," said Ben looking at Glory.

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"There's somebody out there," said Ingrid looking closely at the CCTV screen. "Get Kennedy." Annabelle who was Ingrid's companion on watch left the room.

Kennedy was coming downstairs having just reviewed the preparations upstairs. Rona's team was on alert up there and first aid, buckets of water, hosepipes and weapons were all prepared, the same as they were downstairs. Kennedy was certain that something was going to happen that night. There was no way the big bad was going to miss out on an opportunity like this even if it wasn't responsible for diverting so many of their allies elsewhere.

When Annabelle asked Kennedy to come to the surveillance room Kennedy pressed the alarm button on the wall of the hallway to alert everybody that this was probably it. The buzzer sounded for ten seconds and then cut out but by then everybody should have been armed and ready for action.

At first Kennedy thought it was a false alarm as she saw a single figure walk up the driveway to the front door. However Ingrid switched to the camera covering the street to show at least a dozen figures gathered outside.

The front doorbell sounded and when Ingrid switched back Kennedy looked closely at the figure outside. It was dark out but the man was now well lit by the lights at the front of the house. It was a policeman. Kennedy didn't rush to the front door. She'd earlier issued orders that nobody was to answer the door except her.

"He might need our help," suggested Annabelle.

"I don't think so," said Ingrid switching back to the view of the street. "He's not the only cop out there. Look!" Ingrid zoomed in closer to reveal police uniforms amongst the gathered crowd.

"Look at that!" said Annabelle pointing at the screen, specifically at a number of misshapen figures amongst the otherwise humanlike gathering. "It's more of those Turok-Han." Annabelle had seen them before but Kennedy and all of the potentials had been shown pictures.

"Keep watching!" ordered Kennedy as she left the room. "Keep up all round surveillance. Keep me, Vi and Rona informed," she added unnecessarily as that was the routine that she had already emphatically laid down.

The front door was being covered by Vi and two of her team, Chao-An and Molly, all armed with loaded crossbows and with other weapons nearby. Kennedy walked up to the front door and paused. The ringing had stopped but Kennedy could still feel the presence of the visitor outside. This was because it was a vampire, an 'ordinary' vampire.

Kennedy opened the door and took the fake or former policeman by surprise as he had just about decided that nobody was coming. He started to perform the role he had been given. He wasn't very good at it and his English accent made his attempt to pretend to be an American cop quite ridiculous.

"Oh hello love, there's been an accident out on the street," he began. "Would you mind if we brought in some casualties until the ambulance gets here?"

Kennedy knew a diversion when she heard one and anyway had no intention of inviting vampires inside. She quickly staked the vampire and went back inside, locking the door behind her. She immediately went back to the surveillance room.

"There's another group out back," said Ingrid. "They're moving!" and indeed they were and so was the group out front.

"Go tell Rona what's happening!" Kennedy ordered Annabelle who ran out of the room.

"Vi," called Kennedy following close behind, "They're coming from front and back. You take charge at the back, I'll stay here."

Everything now began to cut loose. A Turok-Han smashed the front door down and stormed inside to be immediately dusted by bolts fired by Molly and Chao-An. The sound of breaking glass sounded in the lounge to the right as another Turok-Han and a number of Bringers jumped inside straight through the windows.

Leaving Molly and Chao-An to guard the front door Kennedy went to join the fight in the lounge with axe in hand. As she did so she heard Rona call from above. "Keep firing, get that guy with the burning torch!"