Chapter Twenty Three: Full Circle
Since the vineyard was already on their check out list Buffy had not so far mentioned what her grandmother had told her and Dawn about the Battle Scythe. With the magic users still absent and Faith still in LA she was faced with the decision to put off heading to the vineyard or once again leaving Kennedy to almost quite literally hold the fort. Since she felt it important to get hold of the Scythe as soon as possible she spoke to Kennedy. Kennedy rebelled.
"Look," said Kennedy. "I've done what you wanted up to now but I'm a slayer too. I think I've shown that I know what I'm doing. If you want a slayer to stay home then fine, but it's your turn. You stay here and I'll check this place out."
Buffy realised that Kennedy was right. It wasn't fair to leave her 'babysitting' again. She'd earned the right to have her turn at handling something like this herself. The trouble was all Buffy's instincts were telling her she had to be there herself or things wouldn't work out.
Buffy knew it might just be a case of her not wanting to let go, of not trusting somebody else to do what she wanted to do herself but she couldn't be sure. She knew that a slayer had to act on her instincts. If she didn't and things went wrong she would never forgive herself.
"OK," said Buffy. "You can come. I'll ask Jenny to take charge here. If anything happens she can fetch us back straight away."
Jenny agreed with the proviso that she might be called away on Whitelighter business. If she received such a call she had to respond straight away. If she didn't somebody could die. In that event Buffy agreed that Vi would take charge with Rona as her deputy but Vi should use her cellphone to call Buffy and Kennedy straight away if that happened.
"Why don't we all go?" asked Rona. "It all worked out OK when we went to close the seal and anyway you're going in daylight. That should help if there are any vampires there."
"Yeah," said Vi. "We're veterans now, just like my granddad was after Dieppe. We can handle them. Bring on the Bringers."
Buffy was pleased at the growth in fighting spirit amongst the potentials but was reluctant to use the potentials in this way. Although she didn't say so her main reason for taking the potentials with her to the school that night had been because she hadn't thought it safe for them to stay behind at the old house. Even so had she realised what she would be up against she might have left them behind anyway.
Buffy still considered that her main job was to keep the potentials safe. From what she recalled of movies with big battles it always seemed to be the attackers who suffered most of the casualties.
"Your time will come but not this time," said Buffy. "This is strictly a get in quick and get out again operation. If possible we'll do it without anybody seeing us."
Before she left Buffy gave last minute instructions to the potentials. "Don't let The First freak you out. Don't forget it can pretend to be me, Tara, Jenny or anybody else who was technically dead at any time."
Not unexpectedly Xander too insisted on coming. "In that case," said Buffy, "you can provide the transport."
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The five other women sat around the pentagon that had been drawn on the floor, with Willow in the middle. They had been chanting for half an hour and were beginning to flag, more from boredom than anything else. The frustrating thing was there was no visible indication as to whether they were wasting their time or not. Any success they might be having as part of the world wide Wicca effort would be in events happening thousands if not millions of miles away.
At last Willow brought proceedings to an end. Everybody stood up and stretched. Tara walked over to Willow and they embraced. "Let's get straight back to where it's warm and dry," said Tara. "We can leave all this stuff where it is for our next stint if we need to do one. There's nobody here who's going to interfere with it and we've stopped up the gaps that let the birds get in."
Tara orbed back to the hallway of the Halliwell mansion with Willow and Dawn before returning to pick up Cordelia, Anya and Amy. When Tara returned from her second trip the Halliwell sisters had also just ended their session and were coming down the stairs from the attic. Piper volunteered to get everybody something to eat.
"Where's Fred and Giles?" asked Dawn but almost immediately she saw them sat together on the couch in the living room studying the screen of a lap top computer. She walked over to look at what they were doing.
Fred and Giles were clearly concentrating hard so Dawn said nothing to disturb them, just tried to make sense of what they were doing from looking at the computer screen. Phoebe came over and stood beside her. "What are they trying to do?" whispered Dawn.
"They're seeing if they can find out what's happening to the meteor," said Phoebe. "They're seeing if they can find anything that could give them a clue. Fred knows some people who know some people who deal with the Hubble Space Telescope."
"But that won't be any good unless they have the Hubble pointed at the right part of the sky," said Willow joining them.
"They do," said Fred looking up. "The word about the meteor seems to be out, at least within the astronomy community. It's a bit of luck that the Hubble was already in a good position to look in the right direction."
"So what's..." Cordelia broke off as she was hit by a vision. It was not like one of her old excruciatingly painful visions so it did not knock her over but what it showed shook her.
"What did you see Phoebe?" asked Paige and Cordelia realised she was not the only person to have a vision at that moment. Did she see what I saw she wondered?
As it happened Phoebe and Cordelia had not had the same vision. In fact Phoebe had seen nearly the same vision as she had seen originally. The vision still showed the death and destruction that would happen when the meteor hit. Phoebe was certain that the spell casting had had no affect and would have no affect on the approach of the meteor.
"I'm not surprised Pheebs," said Prue. "We had to try but we're trying to move a small world. I know we've got a lot of power but that would take a fantastic amount of power. We've got to try something else."
"So what does that mean?" asked Anya. "Have we been wasting our time because if there's no point in going back to Pigs' Island I'm not gonna be sorry."
"What about all those other magic users around the world?" asked Amy. "Do you mean all of that had no effect"
Phoebe shrugged. "I suppose not," she said. "Did you get the same thing Cordy?"
"Nope," said Cordelia. "What I saw was the Hellmouth. It's the Hellmouth that's pulling in the meteor. Somebody or something's got the Sunnydale Hellmouth all revved up to pull in this meteor. Until we do something about the Hellmouth, something permanent, we'll never stop it."
"Good Lord!" said Giles who was still engrossed in the screen of the lap top.
"Is that 'Good Lord' because of what I just said or is it a 'Good Lord' of your own?" asked Cordelia.
"One of my own I'm afraid," said Giles.
"We always get a 'Good Lord' from Giles when he finds out something important," said Willow to Phoebe.
"And it's usually something bad," added Anya.
"Well come on then Giles," said Dawn. "Don't prolong the suspense, there are people here who could turn you into a toad if they get annoyed."
"Well, according to the space telescope scientists the meteor isn't a danger to us," said Giles. "It'll come a lot closer but it'll still miss by a long way."
"Well they've got that wrong," said Phoebe. "It's coming all right."
"Yes, I have no doubt it is," said Giles. "But it's not coming yet. What I mean is it will only hit the earth if it's diverted from its present path."
"The Hellmouth!" said Tara. "That's what Cordy's vision's telling us. We've got to stop the power of the Hellmouth from being used to draw in the meteor."
"So if we stop this Hellmouth being used to divert the meteor it'll continue on its way without doing any damage?" asked Prue.
"Exactly," replied Giles.
"It's that same old song again," said Cordelia. "We've got to shut down the Hellmouth. How many times have we tried to do that?"
"Let's make this the last time," said Willow.
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Lilah Morgan arrived at her office early. After the past few days she was looking for some good news. Good news that is about the whereabouts of Jasmine. Last she heard nobody knew where in the world she was at the moment. Perhaps she's gone to some other world thought Lilah, somewhere the opposition isn't so tough. Huh she thought, I must be coming down with something. That was actually optimism.
Lilah hadn't seen Eve since she had walked away after the encounter with Faith. Lilah was quite happy about that. She had suspected that Eve was being groomed to take over from her. Anything like a black mark against Eve was good news for Lilah.
As Lilah left the elevator and walked across the foyer she thought it curious how happy everybody seemed to be. Even old Robinson had a grin on his face. Lilah nearly stopped dead in her tracks, struck by a dreadful suspicion but instead forced herself to continue walking. She carried on straight past her office towards the door to the stairs. Out of the corner of her eye she saw through the glass that a number of people were gathered in her office.
"Miss Morgan," called her secretary Janet as she passed by but Lilah just quickened her pace. She heard the secretary call again just before she made it to the door. Lilah knew she couldn't outrun many people there so she deliberately went upstairs in the belief that any pursuit would go down.
Sure enough Lilah heard the sounds of pursuit thundering downstairs as she desperately rushed upstairs. Where to go, where to go? Obviously Jasmine had control of the building and that meant she controlled all the eyes in the building. Two floors up Lilah reached her immediate destination, the red library. This had no exit to the outside but she couldn't stay on the stairs for long and at least the library didn't usually have many people around.
As luck would have it the library was deserted. In fact had Lilah but known it the whole floor was deserted. Jasmine had not yet consolidated her control of the building and was currently having groups of staff visit her in Lilah's office.
Gasping for breath Lilah arrived at the elevators. As she stood waiting for the elevator she pulled her gun out of her purse and stood ready. She had decided to shoot if there was anybody or anything inside the elevator when it arrived. Lilah didn't know if Jasmine yet had control of everybody else in the building but had decided not to take any chances.
In the event the elevator was empty and Lilah was able to make use of her executive key to make sure it didn't go anywhere she didn't want it to. She had already decided not to try to escape the building through the underground car park or the front office as both would be full of Jasmine's minions. Instead she continued her upward journey.
The top floor of the building was the executive suite where Lilah sometimes stayed overnight but she stopped one floor short. Once again she had decided to avoid an obvious move despite the short term advantages of using the defences and weapons that were up there. Besides Jasmine might be there before her.
Lilah exited the elevator and immediately headed for the stairs once again and succeeded in arriving on the roof without seeing anybody. As she headed for the nearest emergency line Lilah saw movement to her right and fired without slowing down. It was one of the two roof guards. The other guard was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he's downstairs meeting the new boss thought Lilah or perhaps he's looking for me somewhere else.
In recent years emergency lines had been connected to nearby buildings to assist in evacuation in case of fire or terrorist attack. The roof guards were trained to help people use the equipment but all the permanent staff had received training as well. Lilah had privately decided she would be too terrified to ever use this means of escape but she was on her way to the next building before she remembered to be scared. Any more scared than she already was that is.
As she exited the harness on the nearby building Lilah knew she had to keep moving and moving fast. A lot of people would have seen her sailing across the gap. As she headed for the stairwell she pulled out her cellphone.
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Buffy, Kennedy and Xander went in over the back wall of the yard surrounding the vineyard buildings. They circled the buildings and saw no sign of life but decided to take no chances.
"Remember," Buffy had warned. "We're here to get in, get the scythe and get out. We're not looking for a fight, not this time." On the way to the vineyard Buffy had briefed Xander and Kennedy about the scythe although she had managed to leave out the bit about her grandmother and the guardians.
Since the scythe was in an area below the basement they looked for a low level entrance and found one at the back of the main building in the form of a small window at ankle height which obviously provided light to the basement. Here Kennedy showed an expertise previously unknown to Buffy and Xander by producing a glass cutter and silently cutting and removing the window pane.
Buffy and Kennedy had no difficulty in squeezing through the small gap. Xander succeeded in getting through thanks to a strong tug from the slayers. Having reached the basement the three of them looked around. They were in a poorly lit wine vault containing hundreds, maybe thousands of barrels, presumably full of wine.
The basement was enormous, obviously extending not just under the building but under much of the surrounding area as well. From the far end of the vault came the sound of a regular pounding noise and from the same direction could be seen flashing lights.
"Well looky here," said Caleb walking out of the gloom on the right. "Look what the cat's dragged in."
"Ignore him," said Buffy. "It's The First. We've got to move quickly." With that she started to run to the far end of the vault followed by Kennedy and Xander. That should be where this scythe is she thought.
Behind the three runners The First stood and watched them go and then disappeared.
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Once again the bird had flown. Lilah had watched the evacuation of the Wolfram and Hart building from a nearby vantage point powerless to do anything. At last they arrived. A car pulled up at the kerb across the road and both Faith and Gwen got out. They don't look like Jasmine's merry men thought Lilah who decided to go ahead with the meeting. She walked out of the building and across the road.
"You're too late, she's gone," said Lilah.
"So you said on the phone," replied Faith. "Any idea where?"
"How do you expect me to know?" asked Lilah. "Every time I set this office up somebody or something comes along and wipes it out again. I've got nobody left."
"Ever get the idea you're on the wrong side?" asked Gwen.
"Get in!" ordered Faith. "Let's see what Angel thinks."
"He's back to normal?" asked Lilah.
"Oh yeah," said Faith. "Those amulets of Willow's are pretty powerful stuff."
The three women got into Gwen's car. About fifteen minutes later they walked into a motel room already occupied by Angel and Wesley.
"She doesn't know anything more than she told us on the phone," said Gwen.
"Or so she says," added Faith.
"Who's Jasmine got with her?" asked Angel. "What's their capability? We're likely to be up against them before long."
Lilah shrugged. "How do I know? I don't know who she's eaten and who she thinks is useful."
Faith grabbed Lilah and slammed her up against a wall. "Cut the crap!" she said. "Just assume she's got the intelligence to keep anybody who would be of any use. Take a long shot and assume she's only eaten the post sorters and floor cleaners."
Faith released her hold and stood back from a rather shaken Lilah. "Well there were no magic users in the building, you know that," said Lilah. "That leaves security guards, swat squad, special ops squad and the science guys and of course quite a few lawyers, secretaries and so on."
"The science guys," asked Angel. "What have they got? Chemicals, drugs, explosives, what?"
"I don't take any interest in the details," said Lilah. "I'm strictly a results gal myself. Anyway they're bound to have a few things I don't know about yet. That's the way those people always work."
"That all?" asked Wesley sceptically. "What about the Seers, the demon squad and the in-house vampires?"
"Oh them," said Lilah.
Faith once again took hold of Lilah and pushed her against the wall. She stared intently into Lilah's eyes. "You don't look the way Jasmine's people do but I suppose you might be faking it. Do you have a reason for playing games with us or is it just habit?"
"Careful," said Lilah sarcastically. "You don't want to kill another human being."
Faith gave Lilah a close eyeball to eyeball stare. "I don't need to kill you, just take you to meet a few of your sometime friends at the nearest vampire hangout and turn my back for a minute or two. I think I'd be doing a public service. Of course I'd stake the vamps afterwards."
Lilah took a deep breath and nodded. Faith let her go and stepped back. "OK," said Lilah. "Three H'raag demons and one Ixtell plus four house vampires." Over the next few minutes Lilah provided details of the Wolfram and Hart personnel and capabilities. Wesley asked questions and made a written record of all that was provided.
"Is that it?" asked Gwen. "Because you've said nothing about the bomb."
"Oh yeah," said Faith. "Why are we still here?" Faith looked at the puzzled Angel and Wesley. "Lilah told us that if Jasmine got out of the Hotel the Senior Partners would nuke the city."
"Sounds to me like Jasmine's made a deal with the Senior Partners," said Angel to Lilah. "And they hung you out to dry."
Gwen left with Lilah to take her home. Nobody trusted Lilah and the decision had been unanimous not to tell her anything, just see what she could be persuaded to tell them. After that it was agreed that it would be safest all round if they didn't have Lilah around. Even Wesley, with his history with Lilah knew not to trust her. She might be out of the loop with the Senior Partners at the moment but he was sure she'd take any opportunity she could to get back in their good books.
"So what's the latest with Gunn and Connor then?" asked Faith looking out the window at Gwen and Lilah getting into the car.
"No change," said Wesley. "They're still going in the same direction."
Faith and Gwen had been able to restore Angel, Wesley and Lorne in short order after leaving the hotel. They had then all set out to find out what they could about the whereabouts of Jasmine. All that is except Gunn and Connor who had been set to watch Wolfram and Hart.
It was Lilah's dramatic escape from the Wolfram and Hart building that had alerted Gunn and Connor to something happening inside. Together they had followed the Wolfram and Hart convoy as it left the building and headed out of the city. They were still following. Gunn driving, Connor making regular cellphone reports.
"Definitely Sunnydale then," said Faith.
"Oh yeah," said Angel. "Looks like it's all coming to a head at the Hellmouth. Not just Jasmine but everything else as well."
"Everything else?" asked Faith.
"Cordy called," explained Angel who proceeded to tell Faith what he had been told about the Hellmouth and the meteor. "When Gwen gets back I'll phone Cordy back. She said she'd ask Tara to take us to Sunnydale the quick way."
"What about Lorne?" asked Faith. "Isn't he coming"
"We're leaving him to mind the shop here," said Wesley. "As he's a demon it's best he doesn't get too close to the Hellmouth."
"The Hellmouth again," said Faith smiling. "This is where we came in. Plenty of vamps and monsters, what more could we ask for?" she paused and smiled. "When we win do we get a ring?" she asked.