CHAPTER 2
The Following Takes Place Between 1 AM and 2 am
On The Day Of The Autumnal Equinox.
Undisclosed Location
On The Outskirts of Los Angeles
Cabot had been afraid that he would have not been able to find it, despite the fact that it had been exactly where the speaker for the Great One had told him it would be. It hadn't helped that it had taken so long to dig it up. A less single-minded person would have given up hours before but he was a zealot through and through.
He dialed the number that he had been given. It only rang once before he got an answer. "It's Cabot."
"You have the artifact?" asked the man without preamble.
"It was where you said it would be."
Brief silence. "Griffith Park. 1:55 A.M. Be there and you will get what is coming to you." Click.
The speaker was going to pay him a large sum of money for what he was doing. Some people might say that he was getting far too little for what he was about to help bring forth. To him the money was secondary. What mattered was that the Great One came. This was merely a bonus.
He looked towards the city. Under normal circumstances, it would have taken him nearly an hour to get from where he was to Griffith Park. But he had the conviction of the mad and knew that such things as traffic lights and speed bumps would not burden him at all.
He began walking to his motorcycle.
1:03:12 --- 1:03:13 --- 1:03:14
Buffy was the first to recover. "So the latest apocalypse is due to arrive on September 21 and we don't have any idea its coming until September 17?"
"That's correct." said Fred.
"I'm trying really hard not to look at you, Wesley," said Buffy, sounding extraordinarily pissed.
"I realize that we came to this late-- " said Wesley.
"Late? Late? "Xander slammed his hand against the table. "True or False: When we took this job one of the arguments for it was that we had access to nearly every prophecy and ancient text ever created."
"That's basically right." Wesley was beginning to appear as flustered as he had when he first dealt with Buffy and her friends.
"So how is it possible that this particular Armageddon almost happened without us knowing it?"
"The attorneys fucked us," said Willow bluntly
Everyone was momentarily struck dumb; Willow almost never used profanity.
"That's basically what they did," Wesley agreed. "They said that we would have access to every prophecy or ancient text ever written."
"And how did they mislead us here?" Gunn asked in a tired tone.
"Molochi's work was never written. It was carved," answered Giles, "on dozens of stone tablets. We've spent the last three months using Wolfram & Hart's resources to track them down. If we had been on our own, we'd still be looking for them."
"And the reason it took us four days to learn this was?" asked Angel wearily.
"Much of Molochi's work was written in a degenerate form of Turkish very different from the ancient languages." said Willow. "I had to reprogram many of our translating programs to make it legible."
"So even with all the resources of the most powerful institutions in the world, we still only came out slightly better than if we'd been back in the library," said Buffy bitterly. "God bless modern technology."
"All right, concentrating on the fact that we do have access" Robin said calmly, "do we have any idea of how this apocalypse is going to start?"
"Well," everyone looked toward Fred who began speaking in her scientific reasoning rather than her rambling girl tone, "Molochi expends most of his energy on what the end of the world will look like than why it's ending, but there are some words and phrases which indicate who is going to be involved and what will happen." She looked even grimmer, if that were possible.
"And?" asked Gunn
She took a deep breath. "There are a lot of references…that can only refer to us." Fred stopped. "Well, not me specifically, but Buffy and Angel and, you know -- the ones prophecies get written about."
Buffy and Angel were the least surprised; they had long since gotten used to prophecies involving them.. The others were clearly more than a little bothered by it. "And what is it we are supposed to be doing?" Buffy asked.
"That's just it," said Wesley. "We know it refers to some of us but not who. There is a reference that a woman with great power shall be vital to one side, but…there's a problem with the translation."
"There's a word, 'jasundi', that can mean 'warrior woman' " Willow said " which could mean a Slayer. Or it could mean 'sorceress'-- which could mean me." She sounded a little disturbed at this last possibility. "In the context of the prophecy, it could mean either one."
"And that's not the only one," said Giles. "There is also a reference to the 'somnilera', one who was asleep but is now awake.' The obvious reference is to Buffy, but the way that it's phrased, it could be Faith or maybe someone else entirely. Again, it's not clear."
"But there is a third individual called the 'lakuta,'" said Wesley, "whose presence is important but I'm damned if I know who."
"Another confusing noun?" asked Robin.
"It refers to 'the one who shall decode'. So it's possible it could be referring to one of us, but…we… don't…" Willow trailed off. An expression of pure alarm appeared on her face. "Oh my God."
"What?" asked Wesley.
"The phrase. It also translates to 'one who shall unlock.'"
Fred and Wesley looked confused, but anxiety appeared on Giles' face. And suddenly Buffy realized a fear she had hoped had gone away.
"You're saying--" Giles began.
"-- it could mean 'key,'" said Willow.
The others looked confused. Except for Xander. "Are we saying--"
"It could mean me."
Everyone was caught by surprise. No one had seen Dawn enter the room.
1:17:25 --- 1:17:26 --- 1:17:27 --- 1:17:28
Somewhere in Los Angeles
The meeting was in forty minutes but he knew that this call had to be made.
"Thompson?" It wasn't the other man's really named but who cared?"Do you have it?" the voice said without preamble.
"I'm about to make the pick-up. Will you be ready when I have it?"
"We finished our own excavation three hours ago. It will be in your hands by the deadline."
"And the other thing we talked about?"
Pause. "We are making preparations. You will have it when you need it."
"She's not going to like this."
"In that case you'd do well to remind your boss that we all work for the same master, and that all of our interests will be served."
"Just be there on time." He hung up and proceeded to his destination.
Despite all of the discussion that the Sunnydale people had with the LA crowd no one had talked about the full story behind Dawn's existence. This had been mainly because of Dawn's desire to, as she had put it, "not have people look at me like I'm some kind of freak." Because she wanted Dawn to be as comfortable as possible, Buffy had opted not to tell anyone who didn't ask. The rest of them had acquiesced to Buffy's wishes.
As confused discussion filled the room, Willow was beginning to wonder if that had been a good idea. Now there was a whole lot of explaining that had to be done and very little time to do it in. It would also cause Dawn a lot of pain but, sadly, it was low on their list of priorities.
"What do you mean Dawn is 'the Key'? How the hell is that possible?" Gunn demanded. "And don't tell me it's more of that metaphor crap, 'cause I'm getting sick of people being things instead of people."
"Don't call her that." Willow was affronted. "Don't talk about her like she's not in the room. That's exactly what we had wanted to avoid."
"There are stories about this," Wesley said, have seemingly slipped into the kind of "Watcher musing" that Giles had been fond of in the early days. "Stories about objects being converted to human forms to protect their power."
"It's more complicated than that," Giles said. "And you can't think of Dawn that way; it's not fair."
"Look," began Buffy, "I realize that this is an awful lot to lay on you all at once. And I know that it's a very complicated story--"
"The Key was a device used to open the gates of all dimensions. Glory, a powerful hell god and a real mental case, wanted it to return to rule over her home dimension. It was protected for centuries by an order of monks but Glory found them. In order to keep it safe, the monks sent it to Buffy and in order to make sure that she would protect it with her life they made it human -- a sister. They took the memories of Buffy and basically everyone who had been important in Buffy's life and altered them so that no one would know that Dawn had only existed for a few months instead of fifteen years." By now the entire room had shifted their attention from Dawn to Andrew. Who continued to speak calmly. "Dawn had no idea of her own previous existence until four months after Buffy learned about it. The others managed to keep it secret until Tara got drained by Glory. The rest you know." Andrew looked at Buffy who seemed at a complete loss for words. "I leave anything out?" he asked casually.
"How… how…" Buffy stumbled around.
"One month into my project on the history of Sunnydale, I asked Dawn to explain what her role was in the whole Glory affair," Andrew said calmly. "It wasn't an easy conversation to have but she got through it like -- and I'm using the correct word when I say this -- a champion. Her only request was that I not tell this story until it was absolutely necessary. I think this qualifies, right Dawn?"
"I won't pretend" sounds like you, not Andy.
Dawn was looking at Andrew with a level of admiration that not normally associate with the young nerd. "I'd say it does. Thank you."
Buffy recovered from her shock and confusion. "I know that this is a lot to put on everybody right now and that we don't have time to deal with this, but we need to get past it if we're going to handle whatever it is that's coming our way." She turned to Giles. "What else does the prophecy say?"
Giles, who had managed to collect himself after the interruption, began again: "Like all prophecies it is extremely general but there are three critical people who will play vital roles in the events of the day: the jasundi, the somnilera and the lakuta Assuming that they are who we think they are, they will play a crucial role involving the 'malefactum'', the great evil force that shall try to overrun the earth."
"And this great evil force is?" asked Angel.
"Again the details are sketchy but," Wesley explained, "if the prophecies are to be believed, whoever's behind this shall attempt to summon two forces that will help bring about the fall of man. These rituals are time dependent. If they are not completed at the exact time, the malefactum will not be able to be raised -- at least not for several hundred years."
"These rituals: do we have a place and time?" Buffy asked.
"We're not sure where, but they are very time specific," Fred said. "The first one, the 'dysoniptia' can only be performed at the crack of dawn. The second, the 'eutrasia' must be done when 'the sun and the earth are halfway through their journey.' That means it has to be done at 12 noon."
"As if traffic at the lunch counter wasn't bad enough," said Xander. "Am I the only one who thinks that these are awfully weird times to be having dark rituals?"
"It does seem a bit odd," agreed Giles. "The blackest rituals have almost always been associated with darkness. To have them occurring in the light of day, one wonders what that say about the nature of this evil to begin with."
"So what, now we're thinking that this thing is actually pretty good as evil things are?" said Gunn.
"No, it's definitely bad. " Leonard spoke for the first time.
Willow asked, "Do you remember something else from the vision you had?"
"I don't know anything new but I do know one thing for sure."
"What's that?" asked Willow.
"The vision I had, the battle I saw all of you fighting and losing -- it was dark out. Night had definitely fallen. I don't know if it was something the evil had caused or whether you had somehow failed in stopping this 'raising' thing from happening but come the night you will be fighting this thing."
There was a long pause. "Well, then there's only one thing to do," Buffy siad.
Everyone knew what she was going to say but they waited for her to say it anyway.
"We have to stop these raisings."
1:32:39 --- 1:32:40 --- 1:32:41 --- 1:32:42
"Of course we're going to stop these raisings," Xander said trying as he usually did to stay upbeat. "I've only got one tiny question."
"How are we going to stop them if we don't know where they're taking place?" Robin asked. "Kind of on my mind too."
"Do we know anything about where they have to take place or what is needed for them to be performed?" asked Buffy.
"Hell, do we even know who's going to be doing all this or is it just that great mass of evil that seems to come together every year or so?" Gunn was starting to sound frustrated again.
"Most dark rituals don't need to be performed in any specific place unless they involve something specific from it-- a graveyard or a church, for example." Giles was starting to go into lecture mode. "If you're inventive enough a person can perform a blood ritual in a cafeteria."
"Great." Now Lorne spoke up for the first time." So that narrows the location to basically anywhere in L.A.. " He put his head in his hands. "Please tell m we have at least some ideas on the how and the who."
"We actually have a pretty good idea as to one group that will probably play a major role in whatever events are coming today," Wesley said, turning to his left. "Fred?"
Fred adjusted her glasses as she usually did when she was nervous. "Beyond the fact that it's a great evil, we don't know much about the malefactum. However, we do know that there are several cults, demon and human-based alike, that want to see this particular evil triumph. And according to our computers there are at least three based in Los Angeles."
"Los Angeles wouldn't happen to have its own Hellmouth, would it?" Xander had gotten everyone's attention, a rare occurrence for him. "I'm just saying there's an awful lot of demon traffic even for a city as diverse as L.A."
"No Hellmouths, but there are a lot of places where the atmosphere around this dimension gets a little thin." said Lorne.
"That's what draws the big E here." said Xander thoughtfully.
"It's also one of the reasons that its so easy to open a hole in this reality," Fred said, reflecting a little.
"Can we get back to the point?" Angel was starting to sound impatient, but he had a good reason. "Fred, these cults, where exactly are they?"
She gathered herself. "Giles used some of his contacts still with the old Watchers and Wesley talked with some friends he's made over the past few months. If their information is reliable, one mostly human cult is operating in Inglewood, one mostly demon is in a housing project in Santa Monica and one is operating just outside of Glendale."
"Now all of these cults are very dangerous," said Wesley, "but we believe that this last one, the Brotherhood of the Crucible, is most likely to be involved in the rituals we have discussed are in this last one. It's the only one that has both vampires and demons. Part of the rituals say that both the blood of man and demon be shed in order for the raisings to take place."
"Also vampires and demons of any genus are well known to be very resistant to the concept of working together." said Giles.
"If this cult has managed to adhere to this foreign concept, then they must be determined to bringing the malefactum forth."
"Anything that brings vampires and demons together you can count on being pretty high on the bad shit-o-meter." said Gunn. "Pretty much a given that it will be bad for anything that isn't evil."
"All right, before we decide to start chasing after vampire cults, do we have any idea what they're going to need to bring about this great evil?" asked Buffy. "Blood's going to spill no matter what happens but I'd prefer to not have a larger body count than we need."
"Yeah, is there anyway that we can be proactive?" said Faith.
Willow looked at Faith. "Proactive?" she said a little confused.
Faith made a face. "I'm using those word-a-day calendars. Can we move on?"
"Again, the prophecies are very vague," said Willow. "They talk about things such as a ring or a medallion but there isn't enough detail to figure out what exactly they're talking about. Others are specific but are located in places like Iran and India that we'd have trouble getting to by the end of the day even with all of our connections. "
"Which basically leaves us with one real possibility: the band of Tarquin." said Giles. "According to our research, it is a glove capable of withstanding the fires of Hell itself."
"Like we haven't heard that before." Said Xander.
"Hyperbole aside, it is an instrument of enormous importance to the first ritual. We know that its probably on the outskirts of L.A. itself. " Giles turned to the big computer screen in the center of the room. "Willow?"
The young witch walked over to the computer and began pushing buttons. "We've pinned its location down to within a radius of three square miles in this part of the city." A section of a suburb of the city -- mostly empty land -- came up on the screen.
"We're sure that none of these cults have managed to get a hold of it yet?" Buffy asked.
"As far as we know."
Outskirts of L.A.
Fritz knew what he was supposed to do and where he was supposed to do it. Therefore the message on his pager was simple.
BEGIN.
Having received word, he went to the place his comrade had finished digging, took out the device that he had been given and began to shovel.
1:46:22 --- 1:46:23 --- 1:46:24 --- 1:46:25
"All right. Now that we've located where we have to go, I think that we need to decide who were sending where," said Angel. "Unless there is something else you haven't told us."
"Actually, there is one more thing." said Wesley. " Fred? Willow?"
The two young women began typing on the keyboards rapidly for about thirty seconds before turning beck to Wesley. "Are we secure?" he asked in a tone he had used during his stint as head of Angel Investigations.
"For the next ten minutes," Willow said. She sounded a little nervous. "But keep this as brief as possible."
"What's all this about?" said Gunn.
"Every room in Wolfram & Hart has some form of video and audio surveillance. Willow and Fred just closed their eyes and ears-- for a while anyway." said Wesley. He took a deep breath. "All right. As all of you know, despite their promise to stay out of our way it is clear that the senior partners of Wolfram & Hart have been working, directly or indirectly, to undermine our efforts to do good. Those in charge have to have known about this apocalypse and they made sure that we didn't have access to the relevant texts until it was almost too late."
"You just said that we wouldn't have found out about it without their help," Faith reminded him.
"We know how these people operate." said Fred. "It is very possible that they would help us with one hand while blocking our efforts with another."
"So what you're basically saying is that the people in this building –" said Buffy, "the ones who came with the law firm -- might be working against us."
"We're almost certain of it," said Giles
"Jesus!" sputtered Xander. "Why didn't you tell us this before the meeting started? Don't you think it would have been better for them to not know where we're going?"
Willow looked at Xander. "They don't."
"Uh, what did we just spend forty minutes discussing?" asked Lorne.
"We're going to follow through with what we talked about." admitted Wesley. "What we didn't talk about is what we're going to discuss now." He turned towards Fred.
"Since we found out about this end-of-days scenario we decided that someone in the building must have some link to one of these cults. Willow and I…well, we've been working on a modified computer access program that reads the emails of any body who isn't…one of the good guys."
"It's good to know that our morality hasn't shifted in the time we've been working for the Dark Side of the Force," Xander said sarcastically.
"We developed this program from something we found after some work of our own," said Willow. "After we learned they'd been doing it to us."
"Oh," said Xander sheepishly. "Never mind."
"Anyway we found an-email from a man named Jerrod Watkins in accounting -- who didn't come into work today and isn't answering his phone -- that spoke of a coming Armageddon," Willow said. "It didn't mean anything until we checked and found out that he was a frequent visitor to a website devoted to the worship of Nathi, one of the Hittite gods."
"And this is important because…?" Buffy asked.
"In his last visit to that site -- which was less than twenty-four hours ago --" Wesley said, "the webmaster said that they would soon have the last two artifacts needed to complete the first ritual. Not only had they pinned down the location of the Band of Tarquin, but they also had just received word that the Stone of Meligan was being delivered to screen name Rev68 sometime today."
"Do we know who this Rev68 is?" asked Angel.
Willow shook her head. "There was nothing under the screen name except his email address. We tracked it back to a warehouse in North Hollywood. It's been abandoned for two years."
"Which makes it as good a place as any to hide this stone," said Buffy. "We'd better get there fast."
"Hold on," Giles started, "Buffy, you shouldn't go."
"Excuse me?"
Looked a little flustered, Giles carried on, "If we send you out looking for the stone, Wolfram & Hart will realize that we're on to their plans."
"He's right," said Angel. "It would tip our hand."
"So who do we send?"
There was silence for a few seconds before Faith stepped forward. "Put me in, coach."
"I'd argue but we have barely a minute left before they tap back in," said Willow.
"All right," said Angel. "We can't use one of their cars so we'll use mine. Who's driving?"
"I'll do it." There was a murmur of surprise when Andrew stepped forward. "No one will notice me if I disappear."
For a moment Angel looked like he might protest, then finally threw his keys to Andrew. "Don't scratch it," he said quietly
Andrew caught the keys in a relatively clean grab. He and Faith walked out the door side by side.
"All right? How do we handle the rest of it?"
Griffith Park
1:56:43 --- 1:56:44--- 1:56:45
Cabot figured that he would be kept waiting. The delay was a short one -- less than a minute -- but he knew that this was a delaying tactic used to exert control.
The car, an old blue Buick, pulled up. Two men, in a loose sense of the term, stepped out. One was a vampire -- the smell of the dead was on him. But it was the human whom he feared more. The human was stronger and far more dangerous.
"You have the Band?" the man he knew as Harvey asked without preamble.
"It's right here."
"Let's see it." The vampire was impatient.
"The money." He was firm.
Harvey took out a suitcase and opened it. In it was more money than he had seen in his life.
He managed to keep his voice level. "It's all there?"
"Would you like to count it?" The slightest bit of sarcasm entered his tone.
Cabot took out the Band of Tarquin and placed it on the car hood. "You are honorable men," Cabot said.
"Yes, that's an annoying quirk of these cults. They believe in that whole code of chivalry nonsense. These are indeed honorable men."
Cabot sensed the vampires movement a split second before it happened. He dodged it and reached for the knife that he kept in his boot. Though he was not a Slayer, he fought well for a man. They exchanged blows until he managed to sink the wooden hilt of the blade through the vampires heart. It exploded in a pile of dust.
He raised his fist in triumph--until he heard the bang. He looked down as saw that he had been shot in the stomach.
"I, however," said Harvey grimly, "am not so honorable."
Cabot fell the ground. The last thing he saw was Harvey standing over him with a gun in his hand. The last thing he heard was his voice.
"Be seeing you."
1:59:57 --- 1:59:58 --- 1:59:59 --- 2:00:00