Chapter 9

The Following Takes Place Between 8 AM and 9 AM on the Day of the Autumnal Equinox

Even though he had only been working on the security department for two months Xander had had serious doubts of the security of the Wolfram Hart building. It wasn't just that so many people and demons, including many of the people now working here, had managed to get into the building without being caught, but that there were so many possible entrances and exits that it were impossible to guard under normal circumstances. Furthermore, out of deference to Angel, many of the vampire detectors had been removed. The building's vulnerabilities had made Xander certain that eventually something bad was going to happen.

He was not, however, gratified that this was being proved in spectacular fashion as vampires and demons began smashing at the windows around the stairs near the front of the building.

"Isn't this glass supposed to be shatterproof?" he yelled to Gunn.

"Supposedly nothing human can get through it," Gunn answered. "Which makes these dudes…" He didn't have to finish the sentence.

"They love semantics here, don't they?" Xander barely had enough time to get out this witticism before the glass broke.

Thank the Lord I don't have to repair this, he thought to himself as bad guys began streaming in.

The first vampire in made straight for Gunn, who was more than ready. In less than twenty seconds he managed to disarm it and knock it against the wall. Xander finished the job by knocking it down and staking it through the heart. Xander barely had time to turn around before he saw that two demons were climbing in through the window.

"Great, it's raining monsters," Gunn said as he saw another vampire coming through the window above them.

"Hallelujah," Xander said to himself before beginning to fight them.

Had the demons been of the caliber that they had fought at the diner and the Hollywood Bowl, they would have been neck deep in shit. As it was it took a lot of effort for Xander to knock one of the demons back out the window. He didn't even have enough time to notice if it was dead before he had to deal with the third.

Xander couldn't ID the breed of demons. All he knew was that it was red, short and fast. It easily managed to dodge the sword he was swinging. There was no help to be found from Gunn. He was busy with a vampire. So when the demon managed to knock the sword from Xander's hands and bore down on him with its sharp claws, he thought he was dead. And he kept thinking that ten seconds after the demon fell back with an arrow in its neck.

"You just gonna lie there?" said the figure with the crossbow.

Xander turned and when he saw who had saved him, he yelled. "Oh crap. Not you!"

Andrew stood a few feet away. "Come on! We need to stop the rest of them."

As they ran, Xander couldn't help but ask, "You're not gonna make me your bitch now, are you?"

8:05:09 - 8:05:10 - 8:05:11

When the power had gone out Fred had been pulled in six different directions: what had to be done and how soon. First, she told the two Slayers watching Justine to stay put no matter how crazy it got. Then she ran to Giles and made sure that he was getting as many people as he could to help secure the building.

She then got Kennedy, Cho-san and a third Slayer, whose name escaped her, to take Dawn and guard her with their lives- she was pretty sure that this attack was an attempt to grab the girl who was the Key. Finally, she headed for the sub-basement to try and get the power back on.

Despite feeling scattered about the whole mess she was still thinking rationally. Since the subbasement was probably the point of entry, it was likely going to be teeming with monsters. So she had gotten the best back up she could find. She had called for Faith.

"I guess this is what they call divide and conquer," the dark-haired Slayer said as they ran down one of the staircases. "Boy did I just use the wrong phrase."

"Depends on who you're referring to," said Fred. "Us or them."

"Let's hope it works for us and doesn't for them."

Fred nodded. They went down another floor before something occurred to Faith. "Did you call B or Angel?" Fred looked at her. "Hey I know I'm good but, considering the stakes, we need our A-team."

Fred had thought of that. With great longing. "As much as we need them, stopping this raising has to be our number one priority."

"Even if we all end up dead?"

Fred looked at Faith.

"Wish I hadn't said that," the slayer responded

"Especially if we all wind up dead." Now Faith sent her a look. "Wish I hadn't said that."

By then they were in the basement stairwell. And they were not alone. A vampire leapt into their path. Faith threw a couple of punches and knocked it down the staircase.

Where at least half a dozen vampires and demons were waiting.

"We have to go into that?" Faith sounded curious. Not concerned or alarmed, just curious.

" 'Fraid so."

Faith took out a stake. "Then what are we waiting for? Ready?"

Fred set her modified taser rifle to full blast. "Let's boogie."

And in they went.

8:09:24- 8:09:25- 8:09:26- 8:09:27

Roderick- the vampire whom Angel and Wesley had captured- was not proving to be the font of information they had hoped to find. He insisted that he had been hired by Harmony to be part of a mission that involved the destruction of Angel-Slayer Inc. and that they were involved in a program of some magnitude. That was all they had managed to get from him despite their enormous patience. At least by their standards.

"We don't have time to dickering around," Angel said, lifting Roderick by the collar. "So for the last time, where are Harmony and Ethan Rayne hiding?"

"I'm telling you I don't know!" screamed Roderick. Ten seconds passed before he yelled again, this time from the agony of having his head slammed against the car.

"Where are they?" Angel repeated.

"I'm telling the truth! Harmony told me that we were going to wreck you and your band of do-gooders! That's what she called you!" he frantically added as Angel prepared to slam him again.

"How did she meet up with Ethan Rayne?" Wesley asked in a detached tone.

"Thompson- Thompson must have introduced them!"

"And how did she know Thompson?"

Roderick looked at Angel as if he was insane. "Thompson worked for Wolfram Hart!" he said.

"Tell us something we couldn't have figured out by ourselves," said Angel. "And it had better be relevant or the pummeling resumes."

"Wolfram Hart…has an executive liaison with the demon community of L.A." said Roderick. "They hire us to do dirty work that absolutely can't be connected to the firm. After…after everybody at the office was killed by that…that rockhead. Thompson was the new guy."

"So Harmony met this man Thompson through a blood ritual." Wesley stated.

Roderick shook his head. "I don't know for sure. All I know is that a couple of weeks ago she said she was going to make a new world for vampires, destroy you guys at Angel-Slayer and get her old boyfriend back all in one swoop. She said that this guy Thompson was going to help her put the pieces together."

"And this apartment?" Angel pressed.

"It's where everybody met. They held meetings here and I guess they put the plan together here. This is the only place that Harmony, Rayne and Thompson would meet."

"Then what were you doing here?" Wesley asked.

For a moment, it seemed Roderick wasn't going to answer. Angel was about to hit him again when he spoke. "When they came up with this plan, they knew you and your gang would come running. They knew you'd look for them so they gave you some places to search."

A sickening feeling entered Wesley's stomach. "The vampires and demons we ran into, the ones we found so easily- they were there to keep us busy while the rest of them—"

"Goddammit!" Angel slammed his fist in the wall just to the left of Roderick. "Where are they?"

"I don't know. Only a select few were told the main details." Roderick was starting to sound smug despite his position.

"If you don't tell me—" Angel started.

"-I'm dead?" finished Roderick. "News flash: I'm dead no matter how this plays out. You dust me or they dust me. Really doesn't matter." Now he did grin. "Want to hit me some more?"

Angel lifted his fist up, then let it fall to his side. Roderick was right. They were at a stalemate.

Suddenly Wesley's phone rang.

8:15:19- 8:15:20- 8:15:21

Buffy had been starting to worry. She had tried twice to contact Angel-Slayer and nobody- not Xander, not Giles, or Dawn- was picking up the phone. Feeling a little desperate, she called the last person she wanted to in a situation like this.

Her ex.

"Yes?"

"Wesley, are you and Angel all right?" she asked.

"In a manner of speaking. We managed to find this hideout, but Ethan and Harmony were nowhere to be found." Wesley sounded on edge. Buffy figured they hadn't been met by the welcoming committee. "We did, however, find that Wolfram Hart has their fingers in whatever the two of them have planned."

"Why those lousy- No I can't even pretend to be surprised that those assholes are involved," Buffy said.

"Any luck on your end?" asked Wesley.

"Yes and no. We found the truck but Harmony and Ethan weren't in it."

"Damn. Any clues where they might be?"

"Robin's checking it out."

"Where are you?"

Buffy took a deep breath. She wasn't wild about telling Wesley the next part. "Just outside the USC dorms."

She let it sink in.

"That's- Connor's going to school there."

"Thank you, Wes. Angel told me the details," Buffy sighed.

"Do you think- They promised that Connor wouldn't be in any danger."

"Well I guess Harmony and Ethan didn't get the memo. For all I know, Connor may have nothing to do with this prophecy. They might just be getting him for mischief."

"That's…not impossible."

Now to deal with the other problem. "Wes, when was the last time you checked in with the guys at home base?"

There was a pause. "About twenty five minutes ago. Is there—"

"I haven't been able to get anyone on the other end for nearly half an hour." Buffy looked at the truck. "I'm beginning to get worried."

"Damn it." There was another pause. "I know that you're concerned but-"

"Yeah, yeah end of days. Can't leave our posts. Yadda yadda yadda," Buffy said. "I know about duty and leadership, but if our friends are-" She stopped. "We really are doomed if they're gone."

There was another pause. Finally Wes sighed. "Use your own judgment. But Buffy- "

"I know. Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Buffy hung up.

While she waited for Robin, she prayed- she didn't know who to- the others were all right.

8:21:27 - 8:21:28 - 8:21:29 -8:21:30

It shouldn't have taken so long to cut through the flock of evil doers in the sub-basement- after all, Faith was a Slayer and the rifle Fred was using had been very effective in killing vampires. However when they managed to get through the first wave and into the sub-basement proper, Fred realized she had not taken into account the layout of the floor.

Two things were working against them. First, there was the relative narrowness of the level: The vampires were fighting in very close quarters which would have made it easy if they had been the only ones in the room. However, since Faith was fighting them, it was very difficult to take a shot without risking serious injury to the Slayer. Second, the fuses and power boxes were located near the middle of the room. A stray spark from a blast and the whole basement might go up like a box of matches.

Fred had been forced to use her gun as a club, telling herself she could repair any damage to the mechanisms, and began to form an attack pattern with Faith: she would stun the monster with a blow to the head or other extremities, then Faith would move in and stake the monster through the heart.

This worked on the three vampires and one of the smaller demons. Unfortunately, the last two were proving far more formidable because both had armored skin—one had a plate-like head, the other had protective covering around its chest. The established pattern obviously wouldn't work. Faith was occupied with Mr. Steelhead, leaving Fred to deal with the other.And considering that it had her nearly boxed in a corner, she was in trouble and she knew it.

"You know, they told me that the people who worked here were the best and the brightest," it said, mockingly, as it just missed her head with a right cross. "I don't think you're much of either."

Fred had one last play. There was almost no way she could miss at her range. A medium powered blast from the gun would probably bake him like a potato—assuming of course that the gun could still fire and that the wiring in the walls didn't burst into flames. Considering that she was certainly dead otherwise she decided to scrap the scientific method and experiment in an uncontrolled setting.

"Well I may not be the best," she said as she whirled the taser around and set it to medium power, "but you're going to be…" She said a silent prayer and turned the rifle on. "…the brightest."

By the time she said the last 't' in 'brightest' the taser had fired. The shot hit him square in the chest. Within fifteen seconds the beast was motionless and the room smelled of fried hair.

As soon as she was sure the creature was dead, she ran to the other side of the room. Faith had fought the guy with the cast-iron head into the doorway but, from the look on her face, she seemed to be getting tired.

Fred began to charge the taser but before she could fire two things happened almost simultaneously. The monster began leaning to its right, away from the door. A split second later, Faith drove the stake she was carrying into the soft underbelly on his left side. The monster held up his left arm as if he was going to point at her and fell dead.

"Nice slaying, Faith," Fred said as she closed the distance between them.

"Thanks," said Faith. "But I don't deserve the cred." She was looking outside the room.

Where Xander was standing with a crossbow in hand. Only then did Fred see the arrow in the creature's neck.

"That's twice today my life has been saved by someone with no super powers," said Faith. "The universe is trying to tell me something."

"Well I'm telling you that there's a shitload of demons still up there and we could use help," Xander said calmly.

Faith looked at Fred. "Can you get the juice back on?" she asked.

"Yes and this I can do by myself. Go."

Faith went out the door. Before she left, she looked at her. "You're a good fighter, Fred."

"Thanks." she said.

"But your wordplay sucks." The Slayer left leaving Fred to consider this.

8:28:49 - 8:28:50 - 8:28:51

Despite having been captured by the enemy, being guarded by two very strong women, and that she was tied and handcuffed to a chair, Justine still thought that her keepers were the ones in trouble and not the other way around.

She had known the power failure was coming, she knew what her colleagues had planned and she realized that she could be the difference in what happened here today.

The second Burkle and Giles left the room, Justine seized the opportunity. Utilizing strategies that she had been working on ever since that other English asshole had kept her prisoner, she began working free of the ropes. She had been a little nervous that two Slayers were watching her but it had become quickly obvious that these girls hadn't yet honed their abilities to keep a close watch. (In fairness they were also distracted by the confusion and violence not a hundred yards away)

Working herself free while appearing to be captive took she longer than she had thought it would. But as the black slayer walked closer - Justine didn't know her name and frankly didn't care - and the white one left to check on the violence outside, Justine knew that the time had come.

"Hey hon," she said in what she hoped was a submissive voice, "I'm awful thirsty."

"Suck your own sweat, bitch."

Justine burned but kept it in check—she wouldn't have to for long. "You gimme a drink I'll tell you what's coming."

Apparently this Slayer was as stupid as she looked because she turned to the table to get her a glass. The second she turned, Justine moved.

In two quick upward movements she was free of the ropes. Her hands were still cuffed behind her but she was out. The black Slayer reacted fast, but not fast enough. In one quick move Justine kicked her hard in the jaw. She went down fast.

Now that she was up she pulled her wrists apart. A normal girl would have broken one if not both wrists, but Justine's strength and adrenaline helped her do it without feeling a thing.

She looked over the body for a weapon and found a small dagger very quickly.

"Regina, we got—" The other guard came into the doorway and never finished her sentence. This one's reactions were faster than the others but weren't quick enough. Justine moved as quick as a cat and in a swift motion stabbed the white Slayer in the chest. Justine pushed her body towards Regina's (was that her name? didn't matter) without a second thought.

"Tell Wesley I said hello," she said to the barely conscious Regina. And then she was off into the chaos.

8:34:15- 8:34:16- 8:34:17- 8:34:18

Spike had been back in the mortal coil for less than three hours and he still had no idea why. He didn't know why they had kidnapped him and Willow, he had no idea how Harmony could have masterminded this (or anything), and he had no idea where the bloody cavalry was. But what really cheesed him off was that even though they had brought him back from who knew where, the guards and the leaders of this plot were treating him and Willow as though they were luggage. Harmony and Ethan (the guy in the suit had disappeared a while back) hadn't said two words to them since they had gotten here and the guards were the typical strong, stupid type. Spike wanted answers and he wanted them now. And now that Ethan had left for unexplained reasons he decided to try what he hoped would be the path of least resistance.

"Harm?" No answer. "Harm?" Time to swallow his pride. "Snuggle-bunny?"

Even though Harmony was fifty feet away, that got her attention. In a matter of seconds she was walking towards him.

"You remembered," she said, a smile crossing her face. Spike thought he'd succeeded- until she stopped a few feet away and kicked Spike in the stomach. "Don't you ever call me that again."

This wasn't going to work. He tried another tack. "Harm, we once cared about each other."

"Bull-fucking-shit. First, I was your replacement for Drusilla, then I was your Buffy substitute. You never cared for me one day in our entire relationship." She was practically in his face. "Do you know how many months I spent in therapy because of what you did to me?'

This was almost as startling his being held hostage by her. "You went to a shrink?" he asked incredulously.

For a moment the old Harm was looking at him. "Well I turned him first. Despite what you may think I'm not a complete idiot."

A thousand sarcastic rejoinders came to mind, but he managed to push them back down. "If you hated me that much why did you go to all this trouble to bring me back?"

Harmony gave a dry laugh. "Well, aren't we feeling important today, Mister I'm-the-center-of-the-Universe? We didn't need to bring you back. We needed the jewel you were wearing in order to make sure the sunlight didn't burn all the vampires." She fixed him with a look of disdain. "You were just…leftovers."

Spike wasn't sure what to say to that. Willow, however, had found her tongue. "But the prophecy says…"

"The prophecy says a lot of things. But even if it called for a vampire with a soul- and that depends how you translate it- news flash! We already have one."

This was a little much for Spike. "Angel? That bloody sod stops apocalypses, he never starts them."

"Maybe he won't have a choice this time," Harmony said huffily.

That didn't make much sense. "What do you have planned?" Spike asked.

"Oh no you don't. Not again. I've seen 'Tomorrow Never Dies' and 'The World Is Not Enough'! You're not going to sucker me," said Harmony. "You're just going to have to wait another—" she looked at her watch- "two hours and fifty six minutes.

"And what happens then?' Spike didn't think he would get an answer but he decided to try.

Harmony fixed him with a look. " 'Then the heavens will scream and the earth shall quake. And the magnificent one shall again awake.' That's what's going to happen." She smiled. "You know I never much cared for poetry but this…it speaks to me. Does it speak to you, William my sweet?"

8:41:09- 8:41:10 - 8:41:11

Buffy tapped her feet very impatiently as the phone rang for the fourth time. It was her fifth call to Angel-Slayer. Left to her own devices she would have been tearing ass to get back to the building, but the Conner situation was such that she needed to get feedback and take-

"Angel-Slayer, Leonard Kopell," said the voice on the other end of the line.

"What the hell is going on over there?" she said without pretense. "Why has no one picked up?"

"Funny you should ask." Leonard seemed reluctant to talk.

"Leonard, this is rapidly becoming the worst day of my life. Please, don't dick around with me."

The seer exhaled. "About forty minutes ago some demons from whomever the hell is trying to bring about the apocalypse cut the power to the building and tried to break in."

Buffy had been afraid of that. "Is everyone okay?"

"A bunch of the Slayers got banged up and Gunn and Xander are going to have some nasty bruises, but basically everybody's all right.'

Buffy brushed her hand across her face and prepared to ask the question that she didn't want to. "What about Dawn?"

"She's in a room with three Slayers guarding her. She's fine."

Buffy exhaled. "Sorry, I—"

"It's okay. I understand," Leonard said. "How are things on your end? Any leads on Willow and Spike?"

"No. Angel and Wes might have had better luck tracking them down. They should be heading back to you now. They actually have a prisoner so maybe they'll get some info from him." Buffy's tone revealed what she thought the chance was of that happening. "Do you have any leads on this guy from Wolfram Hart who's working with Ethan and Harmony?"

"The powers back on in most of the building but its going to be a while before we have all of the computers back where they were before."

"Damn it." Suddenly Buffy saw Robin coming back from the student union where he had been trying to get information on Conner. "Look, we may have an idea where Ethan, Harmony and the Bean might be looking for."

"Who?"

"Conner."

There was a pause at the end of the line. "He's not mentioned in the prophecy were dealing with-"

"I know, I don't want to go into this." Buffy took a deep breath. "I've just killed an hour looking for what may be our only lead on the black hats. They came to Conner's college and I don't think it was for a pep rally. Get us back up as fast as you can." She hung up the phone and looked at Robin. "What do you know?"

"Well I finally got some use out of being a principal again," Robin said. "According to the front desk, Connor's first class is at 9:15 in Bradford Hall. It's about three blocks away."

"Then let's move." As they walked Buffy noticed that even though it was a fairly mild day, Robin was perspiring pretty hard. She shrugged it off to his running around the campus and forgot it.

For a while.

8:47:58 - 8:47:59- 8:48:00 - 8:48:01

Wesley had long since steeled himself from showing any kind of reaction when anything that surprised him happened. So when he got out into the Wolfram Hart building and surveyed the damage done, his only reaction was an almost inaudible, "Oh my."

Angel's response to these kinds of situations was usually similar but apparently today was starting to strain his patience, because when he saw the building his reaction was: "What the fuck happened here?"

Half of the windows in the stairwells had been shattered. The lights in half the rooms were flickering on and off. The walls and floors were covered with splatter that could only be demons blood. And every so often, a member of the Watchers or a Slayer passed by, bruised and battered. It was as if they were in some bizarre demonic version of the Battle of Waterloo.

Angel was busy guarding Roderick so Wesley looked for a familiar face among the new Watchers and Slayers and finally found one. "Giles? What the hell happened?" he asked.

Giles closed the distance quickly. "What happened? We were the victim of a home invasion, that's what bloody happened."

Wesley looked at the scene. "And they sent the SAS to come in here?"

"There were dozens of them." Giles said simply. "Ethan and Harmony must have a small army working for them."

A lot of questions occurred to Wes but he quickly realized he didn't have time for them. He settled for the most immediate concern. "How many of us are down?'

Giles pulled himself together. "Xander and Andrew are checking on that. Faith and Gunn are sweeping the building to see if there are any stragglers. Fred's getting the power back on, Leonard and Lorne are reassembling the troops. As far as we know there were seven or eight people wounded but no fatalities."

Wesley looked around. "So I guess things look a lot worse than they actually are."

Giles clearly didn't agree but before he could say anything, his cell phone rang. "Yes?" He listened for a few seconds. "What!" he exploded. "How the hell did she…" He put his hand to his head. "Is she still in the building? " The anger drained a little. "All right." He hung up abruptly.

"What now?" said Wesley.

"We had two Slayers guarding Justine. One's dead, the other's barely conscious. We have no idea how long she's been gone, she could be on her way to San Diego for all we know." He slammed his hand against the door. "Damn it! Now we're back to bloody square one!"

"Not quite." Wesley was surprised to find that he was so calm. "We have a prisoner from where Angel and I were attacked."

"You were attacked?" Giles asked.

"I'll give you the blow by blow later. " Wes turned to Angel. "Take Roderick upstairs and get him set up. Somehow I think pumping a vampire will be easier than pumping a Slayer."

"What about Justine?"

And still Wes was calm: "She's a bad penny. And, today of all days we know how they keep turning up."

8:53:48- 8:53:49 -8:53:50

Kennedy had been pissed off for a while. Part of it was that she had been left at Angel-Slayer while almost everyone else on the board had gone out into the city. But most of it had been her frustration and worry that Willow had been taken prisoner and that no one was letting her do anything to find her girlfriend. Fred had tried to explain that they couldn't send all of their muscle out looking for her. Though she didn't agree with that, Kennedy decided to give them the benefit of the doubt seeing as they had been doing this longer than her.

But then when she could have been doing something useful when the bad guys had hit them she was sidelined again, this time to help protect Dawn. Kennedy had known Dawn longer than she had known Fred and she knew that the girl was more than capable of taking care of herself. She didn't need a baby sitter, let alone three.

So when the sounds of fighting had come closer about half an hour ago, she had told Cho-San and Bethany to help the others in that fight. She was going to go herself but Dawn had asked her to stay- please. It was the please that did it. Dawn was almost never that polite.

So she had stayed and they had talked. When they stopped Kennedy realized that she had underestimated the girl again .And that she had real guts. Then she had gotten the call that Justine had managed to escape- and Dawn had said: "This may be our only chance."

So they had talked some more…and finally Kennedy agreed.

And now she was standing outside the room Dawn was in, half hoping that what was going to happen wouldn't.

And then it started.

Even though Fred had said that the vampires and demons had been thoroughly routed, she knew that there were some stragglers. And the sight of one lone girl standing alone was apparently enough of an attraction for the four vampires and demons that had suddenly appeared.

Suddenly she was a Slayer again as the bloodlust flowed through her. She pummeled the first vampire and in a matter of seconds she had staked him. A vampire and a silver-backed demon then tried to tag team her. She had to some quick dodging and some high kicks before she managed to knock them back. Her focus was on the one who had gotten away. So she broke for the door.

And saw a woman who could only be the rogue slayer, Justine, holding a knife to Dawn's throat with a vampire on her left.

"Get away from here!" Kennedy shouted.

Justine smiled. "Make me"

"That's not gonna work darling. If I've got the straight dope, you need her alive to complete the ritual. "

For a moment, a look of mild distress appeared in Justine's face. Then it was gone. "That's right. She gets to live. At least for a while. You on the other hand-"

Had she reacted a moment later she would have been dead. As it was the demon behind her took a big gouge out of her left arm.

They struggled and fought. In less than thirty seconds it was dead. But that was long enough for Justine and the last vampire to disappear with Dawn.

She began the chase, knowing that it would likely be futile. Knowing that Buffy and the others might flay her alive before she could explain why this had happened.

And hoping that Dawn was right about what was going to happen.

8:59:57- 8:59:58 - 8:59:59- 9:00:00