Chapter 10. There is No Place Like Home.
In the instant that they all arrived, they all disappeared leaving the warlock to wonder where they had gone and where the octagonal crystal had gone, too. They soon appear in LA at the Hyperion hotel.
"Well, at least that worked," says Tammy.
"Do you mean that the spell wouldn't have worked?" says Spike.
"I've never tried it and I thought it would send us to where we all started."
"Kat?" says Giles as he walks over to her. Kat gets behind Buffy. "Where is the crystal?"
"I can get it back," says Kat.
"Giles, you're scaring her," says Buffy. "Back off." Buffy pushes Giles.
"Okay, Buff, you're getting a little too maternal," says Xander.
"How can you get it back?" asks Giles. "Do you even know where you sent it?"
"To a neutral state," says Kat. "Which means it's safe."
"I got it," says Tammy. "I believe the crystal has arrived in the hands of the next guardian. That's the only thing in the world that would be of neutral state."
"Sounds reasonable," says Giles.
"I would have gotten the crystal if it wasn't for Tammy," says Kat.
"What?" says Tammy.
"You said it yourself. You are evil."
"I'm with Kat on that," says Spike as he puts his arm around her.
"Spike," says Xander walking over to Kat. "You can agree with her, but get your hands off her."
"Alright," says Spike. "Aren't we touchy?"
"What we need to do is vanquish this warlock," says Buffy.
"Yeah, but how?"
"A spell," says Tammy. "That always worked in Charmed."
"Charmed?" asks Buffy.
"Never mind."
Alright then, whip one up," says Spike.
"It's not that easy," says Tammy. "We need to know what kind of warlock he is and then we can prepare a spell or even a potion."
"Or both," says Kat. "I wish we had Willo…I mean some help with this kind of stuff." Kat smiles at Giles, who knew that she was going to say Willow and he was not going to be happy about it. He was already upset that Willow knew everything before him, now everyone wants Willow to do the spells because she is wiser than he is.
"Well, to find out about what type of warlock this is, we need to summon him," says Wesley.
"Oh yeah, Wesley, we just call him up and ask him, hey what's your name and what powers do you have so we kill you," says Cordy.
"Cordy, it's our best bet," says Fred. Then Lorne comes down the stairs in his robe.
"What's all the commotion?" asks Lorne. "You're going to wake the baby."
"Sorry, Lorne," says Cordy.
"Hey, everyone is here. Are we having a party?"
All of a sudden a man appears in the shadows and both vampires felt his presence before he reveals himself. Everyone turns to face the warlock.
"Well, I love parties," says the warlock. "So, when do we get to the good part? You know, the killing." Angel quickly goes over to his weapon place and grabs a sword. He throws it at the warlock and the warlock ducks. "That was close." The warlock with his powers pulls the sword out.
"Um, how about moving?" says Xander. The sword goes flying between the crowd and everyone splits up into two sides. Connor covers Dawn for protection, next to them is Spike and Tammy, who both roll their eyes when they see each other, Buffy and Angel are at the edge of the counter watching out for the sword and they see the others on the other side of the lobby unprotected.
Kat and Xander, Wesley and Fred, Cordy, Kennedy, Lorne and Giles. The warlock looks at Kat and the sword goes flying to his hand. Then he whirls it at Kat, but Xander moves in its way.
"No, Xander!" says Kat as Xander pushes Kat behind him and the sword comes two inches away from his throat. It stops in mid air and Kat is surprised. She then looks around and sees that everyone has stopped moving. Her eyes widen and she realizes that she has the power to freeze somehow.
Suddenly a woman appears in front of her. She looks like a goddess and is dressed in all white. The woman walks over to Kat and smiles at her. She shows Kat her hand and she sees that she has the octagonal crystal in her hand.
"You're the next guardian," says Kat. "You did this?" The woman nods her head. "Oh, I thought it was me."
"You have great powers and have helped these wonderful heroes with their troubles," says the woman.
"I've never believed in alternate universes, until I met these guys, but I guess you know all about that."
"The warlock must be vanquished."
"Yeah, I'd like to do that, but not at the expenses of Xander or any of my friends."
"You may only choose one to live."
"What are you the angel of death?"
"No, but that is what must happen here."
"Can I just kill Tammy?"
"You must sacrifice either your love or one of your friends from this world. Then can you accomplish in vanquishing this warlock."
"I kind of don't like the deal. They have saved my life many times and they have saved countless of people for many years. I am not about to let them die just because you say so."
"Then something worse will happen." The woman disappears.
"What can be worse?" Time resumes again and Kat sees the sword begin to inch closer to Xander. She quickly uses her powers to pull the sword toward her. Xander closed his eyes and then opens them and sees Kat in front of him trying to pull the sword away from him with her powers.
"Oh, look at what we have here," says the warlock seeing that Kat has powers. "A little witch." He grabs her from behind.
"Xander, duck," says Kat. Xander lowers himself and the sword goes flying to the wall.
"What a perfect opportunity." The warlock takes out a knife. "To gain more power."
"Ah, come on, you don't want my powers. Get hers. She's way more powerful than me." Kat points at Tammy. She glares at her.
"You can freeze things. I don't have that power."
"Come on, aren't you sick of getting other witches powers? What powers do you have, telekinesis… "
"Much more."
"Well, I got news for you. I don't like being grabbed." Kat elbows the warlock and gets out of his grip. She runs over to Xander's side.
"There has got to be a way to vanquish this bastard," says Angel to Tammy. Tammy then receives some telepathic message and quickly heads into Angel's office. "What are you doing?" Angel follows her. "Buffy, keep the warlock busy."
"He may have a slight advantage over me," says Buffy.
"Buffy, just throw things at him," says Dawn as she grabs a mug and throws it at the warlock and it conks him in the head. He gets really angry.
"That will work."
"Nice shot," says Connor with a smile. He then grabs his dad's sword, which he left on the floor. Connor gets up and attacks the warlock head on.
"Connor, no!"
Angel in the other room hears his son's name and turns around. He quickly looks out the window. Connor is faring well with the warlock, who gets cut with the blade.
"Hurry it up, Tammy," says Angel. "My son is risking his life out there."
"Keep your pants on," says Tammy. "I'm almost done."
"What are you doing?"
"Kat telepathically told me to make a potion to bind the warlock's power."
"Can you do that?"
"Well, sort of. Never done it before, but this binds witches powers so if it works for us maybe with a little more strength it could work for him."
"Then what?"
"He's mortal and you can slice and dice if you want."
"I like that."
"You've been dying to do something like that. Gee, when they made you human didn't they give you a conscious?" Angel nods his head. "Throw this at him as close as you can." Angel nods again and exits the room. He sees his son backing up as the warlock had an upper hand over Connor, with two swords in his hand.
"Hey, you," says Angel. The warlock turns his head to Angel and Connor punches him. Angel then throws the potion. It explodes and Dawn quickly pulls Connor back down behind the desk.