Chapter Twenty Five: Into Battle
The plans had been agreed, the teams organised and the assignments given. By general consent Buffy was accepted as overall general in chief. Also by general consent the aim was to shut the Hellmouth and shut it for good. This meant dealing not only with The First and whatever Bringers, demons, vampires and uber-vampires it could muster but with Jasmine and her followers including the Wolfram and Hart people. Nobody knew whether they would also be up against Glory and her minions.
Surveillance of the High School over the previous two days confirmed that it had been converted into a fortress. There were guards on all entrances, humans by day or at least those who looked human and others at night. Quite clearly the plan of the enemy was to protect the Hellmouth until it became time to use it to pull in the meteor. Once the meteor had devastated life on Earth, particularly human life and civilisation, the vampires and demons would emerge to take over the ravaged planet.
Sunnydale now seemed to be deserted both by humans and by vampires and demons with the exception of the Scooby Gang and its allies on the one side and the forces defending the Hellmouth on the other. This exodus appeared to have gone completely unnoticed by all the news media, including local media in the surrounding towns. There was not even any chat about it on the web. This created a great deal of puzzlement amongst the Scooby Gang and its allies.
"If The First's got enough influence to control the news it must be a lot stronger than we thought," suggested Xander.
"I didn't think anything could control the web to that extent," said Fred.
"But if it's that powerful why hasn't it won already?" asked Paige.
It was Leo who explained what was going on. He advised that the coming fight between the Forces of Light, represented by Buffy, Angel, The Charmed Ones and their friends and allies, and the Forces of Darkness represented by The First and it's allies had been designated a 'Contest of Champions'. This was a very rare event and had only happened on a few occasions in the past. What it meant was that the Powers of Light and the Powers of Darkness had agreed to isolate the battleground from the rest of the world.
"The rest of the world?" queried Willow. "What about the Hellmouth? Can The First get help from the Hellmouth or does it have to stick with what it has here already?"
"I'm afraid the agreement only affects this world," said Leo. "We can't rule out the Hellmouth being used to bring in more demons. It's up to us to stop that."
"You said this had happened before," said Buffy. "What happened on the other occasions?"
"Oh come on," said Cordelia. "Even I can work that out. We're here aren't we? That means the Forces of Light won the previous fights."
"Um," said Leo. "It's not as simple as that. The Powers of Light and Darkness work on a much longer time scale than we can imagine. There have been occasions in the past where the Forces of Light have been defeated and the Forces of Darkness have dominated the world."
"The old ones," said Wesley.
"Yes" said Leo. "That was one such time. We have to make sure something similar doesn't happen again."
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The attack was set to begin at dawn. Since the Forces of Light were to be the attackers it was agreed that they might as well fight in daylight, as far as possible. Before the attack however a great deal of preparation was necessary.
Willow, Tara and the other magic users had not been able to duplicate the Battle Scythe but they had 'improved' the weapons that everybody would be using. They had made the weapons stronger, sharper and less likely to break or be damaged. In addition the Whitelighters had blessed all the weapons.
The hope was that one touch or one nick on a demon or vampire, of whatever sort, would prove fatal in the same way that holy water destroyed vampires. Even if it didn't quite work like that it was hoped that there would be some benefit from what was done.
The only exceptions were the sword and knives that Angel would be carrying because a quick check confirmed that he could not lay hands on the enhanced and blessed weapons. Angel himself pointed out that this was all to the good because it meant that vampires and demons would not be able to pick up and use any weapons dropped by the Forces of Light in the course of the battle.
Willow had been able to devise a spell to temporarily endow the potentials with the power of a slayer. "Why not everybody else as well then?" asked Dawn. "Why not make everybody here a slayer, at least for this battle?"
"Because it wouldn't work," said Giles. "Potential slayers aren't just ordinary people. They're potential slayers because they have the ability to hold the slayer power. Try to put that sort of power into somebody else and you'd probably end up killing them."
The other main preparation was magical. The information obtained from Lilah and surveillance had shown that the Wolfram and Hart teams had modern weapons deployed to protect the school. It wouldn't matter what powers the attackers possessed if they were all mown down by machine guns and rockets before they even reached the school.
Dealing with the modern weapons of the defenders was the task assigned to the Charmed Ones. They would cast a spell which would disable all modern weapons in the area of the school. Basically they would aim to maintain an area where such weapons simply did not work. An area where explosions would not explode, where guns would not fire, chemicals would not react and where only purely mechanical weapons like swords, knives and bows would be effective.
The spell would be cast by the four Charmed Ones immediately before the attack. It was felt likely that the Forces of Darkness would have their own mages who would immediately work to nullify the spell so the Charmed Ones would remain out of the battle and look to keep their spell going.
To protect the Charmed Ones from attack whilst they were spell-casting two of the newly charged up potentials, Chao-An and Colleen were to stay out of the attack. Buffy had suggested that Dawn be one of these stay behinds but Dawn had successfully scotched that by pointing out that she was one of the few people who knew her way around the new school and she would therefore be needed inside.
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Buffy put her cellphone in her pocket and turned to Willow. "They've done it," she said. "We can go now."
From her position within the building closest to the front of the school Willow raised her hands and began chanting. As she did so she tried hard to clear her mind of concern for Tara. Tara had her own job to do and she'd be all right. Willow continued her chant and reached a quick climax.
A sudden irresistible wind blew up and struck the front of the school. All the windows shattered and blew in as did the main front double doors. With any luck the defenders behind those windows and doors would be at the very least temporarily disabled.
As soon as the doors sprang open Buffy led the charge forward. Right behind her were Rona and her team of slayers. Temporary slayers maybe but for the time being, apart from their relative inexperience, fully as strong and dangerous as any slayer had ever been. Holding their enhanced weapons they followed Buffy inside. Trying to keep up with the slayers were Giles, Xander, Anya and Amy.
Inside the front entrance to the school all was chaos. Chaos that was for the defenders with rubble and bodies strewn around but all according to the plans of the attackers. Buffy halted and Xander and Giles came up on either side of her. Meanwhile Rona and her team worked on the fallen defenders to ensure that they stayed fallen and quickly struck down those few who had been able to struggle to their feet or showed any sign of being able to recover.
"Well that was easy," said Amy who so far hadn't had to do anything.
"Make the most of it," replied Anya. "There was never gonna be much fighting up here in the daylight. It's down below that we'll really have to fight."
At that moment a strong earthquake struck. The whole building shook and lumps of plaster fell from the ceiling and walls. The quake however subsided and for the moment there was no serious structural collapse.
"Yeah!" said Xander punching his fist in the air. "That's one for modern earthquake proof building codes and zero for the bad guys."
Unbeknownst to Xander that wasn't the whole story.
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Cordelia, Angel, Faith and Tara stood together at a window overlooking the front of the school. Together they watched the launch of the attack. As Buffy and her team ran forward Cordelia, Angel and Faith took hold of Tara's hands and arms. "Let's go!" said Faith.
An instant later they materialised on the second floor of the school in one of the classrooms overlooking the front entrance. Beside them Dawn and the rest of Angel investigations appeared courtesy of Leo and Jenny. Having helped with transport Tara and Leo disappeared to other duties. Tara to join Willow and be available to help with casualties downstairs and Leo to rejoin his wife and her sisters. Jenny remained in case of casualties amongst the attackers upstairs.
The classroom had been devastated by Willow's gale. All the bodies, dead and injured, seemed to be human. They were presumably Wolfram and Hart people. From the items strewn around they were in the nature of a SWAT team with plenty of weapons and ammunition.
As had been agreed beforehand no time was wasted on debate about what to do about the enemy. The team quickly disposed of those who showed signs of reviving. As this task was being completed the building was shaken by a strong seismic shock.
"Keep going!" said Angel as he saw the others hesitate. There'll be worse than this before we're finished."
As the shaking stopped Angel, Faith and the others, directed by their guide Dawn set about their assigned task which was to clear the upper floors of the school and prevent the enemies there from attacking Buffy and the others downstairs.
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Across the road from the school Willow watched the attack go in with Kennedy and Wood. Tara materialised by her side and gave Willow a quick smile. Willow smiled back. So far so good she thought, all according to plan.
Willow took hold of Tara's hand determined that they would remain as close together as possible through the coming fight. As it happened it was just as well that they were linked because at that moment the ground shook.
For those without magical senses the earthquake might have been a co-incidence but both Willow and Tara knew it was not. It was the first counter attack by the Forces of Darkness. They would be quite happy to collapse the whole building and destroy all the attackers inside even if it meant killing any of their own people who were still alive at the same time. It might have worked had Willow not acted immediately.
"Still!" commanded Willow. At the same time she and Tara knelt down and placed their free hands flat on the ground. The earth movement and the noise associated with it gradually subsided. No major damage and hopefully no casualties but it had been a close run thing. Coming so soon after her other spell Willow was sure she would not have had the power to quell the earthquake without Tara's support.
"I'd better see if anybody's hurt," said Tara who orbed inside. Since Willow had no intention of letting go of Tara's hand she went with her.
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Anya and Amy stood in front of the door to the basement and began their spell. As far as anybody could tell all resistance had stopped in the rest of the school. As she waited for the spell to be completed Buffy talked on her cellphone to the other groups. Everybody was deployed and ready.
Even without specific warning from Leo and the Halliwell sisters the example of Anyanka had shown Buffy and the Scooby Gang that it wasn't just the good guys who could teleport. A sudden attack from an area previously cleared was therefore expected and prepared for.
Angel, Faith and their team remained upstairs and continued to check out the rooms up there. Rona and her team were on guard downstairs and ready to follow Buffy into the basement. One change to the original plan was that Kennedy with Wood and Vi's team of enhanced potentials were now staying outside the school. They remained on guard in case of an attack from elsewhere but clear of the school as a reserve in case it was brought down on the heads of those inside.
The other change to previous plans was that Willow and Tara were now on guard to counter another earthquake spell. This left Amy to lead the next magical attack which is why it was she, with Anya's help, who was carrying out the next spell.
At last the spell was complete. The spell concentrated the sunshine entering the school windows and doors and focused it on the door to the basement. Buffy now moved forward and delivered a savage kick to the door. The door collapsed inwards and Buffy, in a blaze of light entered the basement closely followed by the others.
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Outside the school the second counter attack by the Forces of Darkness was getting underway. Now that there was no longer any need to husband resources The First had called out all of its remaining Bringers. They began pouring out of the buildings surrounding the school and began to head towards the school entrance. Either the town had not been as empty as had been assumed or the Bringers had been moved close to the school from elsewhere.
Seeing what was happening Kennedy called Vi and her team into a defensive block at the school entrance. While she had the chance she reported developments on her cellphone to the other groups.
Individually the Bringers were not very formidable but they had the advantage of numbers. They did not attack at once however but gathered in a mass some fifty yards away from the slayers, allowing their numbers to continue to build up behind them as more and more Bringers arrived.
Kennedy began considering her tactics. She quickly rejected attacking herself. Running into the mass of Bringers would result in many casualties amongst the Bringers but would almost certainly isolate the slayers from one another in the much larger mass of Bringers. This would prove fatal for at least some of the slayers. Sticking together was the only way they were going to get through this.
Suddenly arrows began to fly from the upper windows of the school. Some members of Angel's team were joining the fight by shooting into the Bringers. The casualties that this caused created a stir amongst the Bringers and now they began to move forward.
As the Bringers closed the gap between them and the group of slayers a bright light appeared in front of them causing them to stop. The brightness slowly diminished to reveal three women standing between them and the slayers: Jenny, Faith and Cordelia.
Whether or not the Bringers were surprised by the sudden appearance of the three women they gave no sign as they started forward in silence once more. Kennedy, Vi and the rest of their group started forward to join the three newcomers but stopped as glowing began once again.
The first glow had been produced by Jenny's orb. The new glow however was produced by Cordelia. Unlike previous occasions when Cordelia had shown her power, this time she seemed to be in control of what she was doing. After discussion with Tara and the other witches Cordelia now had a magic wand.
Cordelia's wand was in fact merely an ordinary piece of polished wood about a foot long which Xander had carved for her. Cordelia now used it in the way she had practiced to focus her witch power. The glowing was coming from the end of the wand and Cordelia now aimed this at the advancing Bringers.
Jenny and Faith stepped away from Cordelia and moved back to join Kennedy, Vi and the others. Whilst Jenny was unarmed Faith was carrying the Troll Hammer.
"What's she doing?" asked Vi directing her question to Faith.
"Magic," said Kennedy who was remembering the last time she had seen Cordelia use magic and what had happened to Harmony.
The glowing from Cordelia's wand had now reached the advancing Bringers and continued to brighten. The leading Bringers tried to move back away from it but were unable to do so because of the press of bodies behind them.
Now Cordelia's glow engulfed all the Bringers and continued to brighten until not only the Bringers but Cordelia as well could no longer be seen by Jenny and the slayers who found themselves moving backwards and having to shade their eyes.
After what seemed to those watching a long time but in reality was no more than about twenty seconds the glow began to dim until Cordelia could be seen once again. She was now sat on the ground exhausted. Jenny and Faith, quickly followed by the others started forward.
The Bringers were now milling around having lost their purpose. They were no longer silent but were talking and asking questions. In fact they were no longer Bringers but were once more completely human.
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Buffy reached the bottom of the stairs into the basement and stopped. The basement was empty. Well empty apart from Buffy, the members of the Scooby Gang, Rona and her team and a young beautiful African American woman who walked forward towards them.
"You must be Jasmine," said Buffy. "You have no power over us. You can leave through the Hellmouth before we shut it down or we'll shut you down at the same time."
"What a miserable life you must lead," said Jasmine. "All this fighting, all this hatred."
"I don't need..." began Buffy.
"Where are we?" asked Giles. "This isn't the school basement."
Buffy looked around and discovered that they were no longer in the basement but instead were in a large dark cavern. Only the central area in which they were all standing seemed to be lit by lights hanging above.
"Enjoy yourselves," said Jasmine. "You'll all be perfectly safe here when the meteor hits." With that Jasmine disappeared.
Buffy turned to Willow and Tara. "Where are we, and can you get us back to the school?"
"I've been trying to orb away," said Tara. "But something's blocking me."
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With the departure of Faith, Cordelia and Jenny and the ending of the threat of the Bringers outside, the group clearing the upper floors divided into three teams to patrol and make sure they stayed clear. Connor and Gunn were working together checking the west wing of the building, Wesley and Fred were working together checking out the east wing.
Angel stayed with Dawn in the central area. He accepted that Dawn now had slayer strength and power but he had no intention of allowing anything to happen to Buffy's little sister so he kept close to her, even though for the time being she had the speed and strength of a slayer.
In the west wing Gunn and Connor had found nothing, or to be more accurate nobody. However as Connor started to follow Gunn out of the final classroom at the end of the west corridor of the second floor he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye.
On guard and holding his enhanced sword in his hand Connor turned back and saw a young blond haired woman standing at the back of the room. Gunn, having noticed that Connor was no longer following him came back into the room.
"Darla," said Gunn. "Oh boy, just what we need."
Connor turned to Gunn. "This is Darla? This is my mother?" he asked.
"Oh yes," said Darla walking forward. "I'm your ever loving mother. How is my little boy? Brushed your teeth this morning? Washed behind your ears?"
"What do you want Darla?" asked Gunn stepping forward and holding up his axe. "There's no place for you here."
"No place for a vampire with a soul?" said Darla. "And I thought you were broad minded."
"You have a soul" said Connor. "How come?"
"Well since you ask..." began Darla."Watch out!" she cried her eyes going wide.
Connor and Gunn turned to deal with whatever had come into the room behind them to find nothing and nobody there. Before they could turn back Darla hit Gunn, knocking him out.
"You'd be surprised how often that works," said Darla to her son as she picked up Gunn's axe. She just as quickly dropped it again as it caused a burning sensation in her hand and up her arm.
Connor found himself unable to make a decision. This was his mother. The one person in the world who he had wanted to meet. He knew she was a monster, he had been told often enough by Holtz. However Connor was not stupid. He had learned that Holtz's point of view was not the whole truth. He couldn't let Darla kill Gunn but at the same time he couldn't bring himself to fight her.
"Pick him up and come with me!" ordered Darla taking Connor completely by surprise.
"Pick him up?" asked Connor puzzled.
"We can't leave him here," said Darla. "He's your friend so I don't suppose you want something to come along and kill him while he's unconscious do you? Anyway you can't expect your poor old mother to carry him." The last was obvious sarcasm as Darla could and had in the past passed for much the same age as Connor himself was now and was probably a great deal stronger than him.
"You do want to close down the Hellmouth?" asked Darla. Connor nodded slowly. "Then come with me!" she added and walked away.
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"They all sort of vanished," said Mary the remaining member of Rona's team in the school. She had been gathering up fired crossbow bolts and had been slow to follow the rest into the basement. She had been just in time to see Buffy and the rest disappear from near the bottom of the basement steps and had rushed outside where she found Faith, Kennedy and the others.
By now Jenny had orbed away with Cordelia. Cordelia needed time to rest so Jenny had taken her to the house where the Charmed Ones, Leo and their guards were based.
"The plan still goes ahead," said Faith. "Buffy will be back. Buffy always comes back but in the meantime we've got to stop anything coming out of the Hellmouth."
"What to stop the same thing happening to us if we go into the basement?" asked Vi.
"We don't have any magic users," said Kennedy. "They're all with Buffy."
"For the moment we don't go into the basement," said Faith. "Kennedy, you stay out here with three of the girls. I'll take everybody else inside and we'll stop anything coming up out of there."
Faith had a sudden ominous thought and took hold of Mary's arm. It was a real arm, thus proving that Mary was really Mary. "Sorry" she said. "Just checking." This prompted a round of touching from the assembled group who all knew exactly what Faith had been thinking about.
Faith pulled out her cellphone and continued. "I'll tell the sisters and Angel what's happening. If Buffy and the rest don't come back soon I'll see what the sisters can do to close the Hellmouth."
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Angel and Dawn met with Wesley and Fred. While waiting for Gunn and Connor Angel filled everybody in with the information that Faith had supplied. Everybody decided to join Faith's team once Gunn and Connor returned. However the minutes dragged by without Gunn and Connor returning.
"You guys go downstairs," said Angel. "I'll find them and bring them along."
"We all stick together," said Wesley. "We're just as worried about Gunn and Connor as you are." I am not going to be to blame for anything happening to Connor this time thought Wesley.
Dawn really wanted to find out what had happened to Buffy and the others but she said nothing as Fred chorused her agreement with Wesley. I am the only slayer with the group she thought so I'd better stick with them.
"OK then," said Angel. "Let's move."
Angel led the way into the west wing and at once picked up Gunn and Connor's scent trail. A few minutes later he led the group into the classroom where Darla had met her son. At once Angel was aware of a very familiar scent.
"Darla!" said Angel.
"Darla?" said Dawn. "Are you sure?"
"Positive," replied Angel. "Darla was here, and not long ago."
"Is this the only place she's been?" asked Fred, "because you didn't mention noticing anything before you came into this room."
"She hasn't been in the corridor outside," said Angel.
"The doorway at the back of the room," suggested Fred prompting the group to head in that direction.
"The stairs there lead down to the fire exit at the side of the building," said Dawn.
"And down into the basement?" asked Wesley.
"Well no," said Dawn. "You'd have to go back round to the other corridor where all the slayers are. That's the only entrance to the basement."
Angel led the way down the back stairs. He was concerned for his son but was also wondering how to respond to Darla. Willow had told him about the soul spell she had done on Darla and Drusilla. One thing he did decide was that he would dust Darla (again) if she had done anything to Connor.
At the bottom of the stairs there were just three ways to go: Into one of the classrooms, back towards the main entrance with its guard of enhanced potentials or out the emergency exit.
Since the sun was shining outside clearly Darla had not gone that way and the lack of news and noise from the main entrance seemed to rule that out as well. Angel was just about to suggest a search of the classrooms when Fred opened the nearby janitor's cupboard. This proved to have a ladder leading down into the basement through a hole broken in the floor.