Chapter 45 Beginning of The New World
Somewhere in England
She walked along the pathway which had been cut through the forest, silently listening to the songs of the green. It sounded much different now than it had in her time, it sounded less healthy; sicker. It was the result of the humans' impact of their 'science' on the world. The way that the humans had developed was unnatural, hurting nature instead of working with it, at least in Inanna's view anyway. She had left the entrance to the deeper well a while ago, leaving Illyria there to find a way to break through the barrier into the well. The magicks protecting the entrance were from the old times, however they were both Old Ones, and she knew that the barrier wouldn't hold up against them for long. Nothing which existed in this New World could hold up against them for long, except The First and that would soon be fixed once they got inside the Deeper Well. Inanna paused for a few moments, thinking that she and Illyria should let The First wipe out humanity for them and save them the trouble once everything was accomplished. They would then wipe The First from existence and then they'd be able to help and restore the green to it's proper health and return the world to the origins from which it had come; The Old Ones as the ultimate rulers.
Inanna shifted the thought to the back of her mind as she began to hear sounds similar to numerous thunderclaps occurring at a repetitive rate in the distance. She did not know what it was, but she was walking in the direction they had been coming from for a while to investigate. As she got closer to the source of the sounds, she could hear the distinct sounds of a battle, and she guessed that the sounds were being created from some kind of weapon. In the opposite direction in the distance, she could hear a constant rumble which also sounded like thunder. She turned to look in the direction it was coming from, and could see two objects in the sky against the colours of the dawn. She focused her eyes and she could see that they appeared to be metal birds, with humans inside them. She watched as they got closer and closer and two small objects detached themselves from each of the metal birds. She watched as the birds began to lift themselves up and pull away as the two objects raced towards the ground under their own power. She turned around as the objects passed her and headed towards the sounds to which she had been approaching before. Not two seconds later, Inanna heard the sounds of two very loud explosions and she quickly deduced that they had been caused by the objects dropped by the metal birds.
Five minutes later and Inanna emerged in the vicinity where she had presumed the battle had occurred. In front of her was what was left of a small village with bodies strewn across the ground. She moved up to the bodies for a closer inspection and the first one she came across was that of a de-cloaked bringer. As she looked around, she realised that most of the bodies were of bringers or demons, with very few human bodies evident. Some of the bodies of the bringers and demons were shredded with small holes, in which Inanna could sense metal inside. She looked at one of the dead bringers at her feet and saw that it only had a single wound; a small hole in the centre of it's head. Inanna bent down and placed her hand over the wound and in moments, she withdrew it. She brought her hand up to her face and opened her palm to reveal that a small metal object was within it.
"To think such a small object could do so much damage to a mortal," Inanna thought in her mind, "what fragile creatures these are." Slowly and methodologically Inanna began to sift through the bodies, looking for some human survivors. After ten minutes, she came across a sole body at the footsteps of what was once a dwelling for humans. It was a human body clad in a patchy green skin, and from what Inanna could sense, it was alive. Inanna bent down next to the body and placed her hand on it's chest and could feel the human respiring. She looked at it's face as it opened it's eyes, a look of terror coming across it's face. Inanna closed her eyes and concentrated, drawing energy from herself and from within the earth and pushing it into the human's body. The wounds that the human had suffered began to mend; skin sewing itself together and bones mending. Within moments, the human was completely healthy with a look of awe on it's face. Inanna retracted her hand from the human's chest and examined it for a few moments. It was male, and obviously strong. It may have even been a warrior for the humans. She examined him for a while more before saying "You'll do." She slowly moved towards the human, which had not moved since she had healed it, and placed her hand on it's head. A tiny pulse of energy moved between Inanna's palm into the human's brain and the human slumped back across the footsteps, unconscious, never to wake up again unless Inanna commanded.
One hour later and there was four more human bodies laying unconscious next to the original one, with Inanna standing before them. She looked down at the assemblage of bodies and then back in the direction which she had approached the village from. She extended her hand and with a wave, a distortion in the air appeared in front of her, quickly materialising into a portal. Looking through it, Inanna could see Illyria sitting cross legged with her eyes closed in front of the entrance to the Deeper Well, trying to get inside the barrier. She turned from the portal and picked up one of the human bodies and pushed it through the portal, and then repeated the process four more times. Once she was done, she looked through the portal and then closed it, deciding to listen to the green once more on the journey back to the entrance to the deeper well.
Summers' Base Camp - Sunnydale – California
Morale had crashed once everyone had learned the news of Illyria and Inanna's attack on the base camp. It also hadn't helped that everyone knew now that they weren't completely safe behind the barrier that they had worked so hard to construct. Wesley could tell that it was affecting everyone, including him. It didn't help matters that when they returned to the Base Camp that they found out that Darla and Druscilla had payed the camp a visit in an attempt to abduct Connor. It was, however, good news to find that Druscilla had been staked by Skye though.
"It was the Senior Partners, yes?" Wesley asked Darla as he sat on the couch in front of her. She looked bloodied and bruised, especially in the face, since Skye had spent so much of her energy on that part of her body. Darla just opened her bruised eyes as far as they could go and looked at him.
"They'll come here for me," she rasped in response to Wesley. Wesley knew what she meant. The Senior Partners would not have gone to the effort of resurrecting Darla just for their efforts to be wasted as she was captured. They would come, and in force, to get Darla back.
"Tell me how you got here?" Wesley enquired
"We drove," Darla replied, barely.
"Why are you here?" Wesley queried.
"To see my son," Darla shot back, forcefully. That was all that Wesley needed to hear. He knew the workings of Wolfram and Hart well enough to know that Darla would be in Sunnydale because they wanted her in Sunnydale, even if she didn't know it.
"You're right, they will come for you," Wesley said to her, not knowing whether Wolfram and Hart would attempt to retrieve Darla or not. "And we'll be ready for them," Wesley said.
Sunnydale
He looked down at the town which he used to call his home from the entry point on the Blackhawk helicopter. The town looked like a mess, and in the morning sun, he could see that the town was clearly abandoned. He directed the helicopter pilot over towards where he knew Buffy Summers' house was. Upon arrival over the residence, he could clearly see that the house, and a number around it, were still in their original condition, not having been rampaged through by demons, vampires or just general looters. He could also see that the houses around hers were populated with people, a lot of them, by the looks of the amount of people coming out to look up at the helicopter. Riley knew that he couldn't land, and didn't have time to stay, but he was here to offer help and support, and most of all, information, which he guessed Buffy needed. He turned around and began to shove large wooden boxes with parachutes attached out of the helicopter door. There were three of them in total, one with weapons, one with communications equipment and one with a little bit of food. From what Riley could see, the amount of food they were dropping wouldn't go a long way between the amount of people on the ground and he made the mental note that they'd need more next time. From his vantage point, it looked like quite an army which was assembling in the houses around the Summers' residence. He was very surprised when the air above the houses rippled with blue energy as the first crate dropped on top of the area. It was an energy barrier, which would obviously explain the good condition that the houses seemed to be in, in the general vicinity. He watched as the crates bounded off of the barrier and landed outside it. Satisfied that the packages had arrived safely, he ordered the pilot to turn back to where they had come from.
Authors Notes: So yeah, what are Illyria and Inanna up to? Any guesses? The next chapter will deal almost entirely with them… it could even be a 2 parter chapter. After that, we'll see some old characters return which we haven't seen in a long time. Also, just as a warning, there is going to be a mass character killing chapter coming up.. there's too many ppl running around and it's really hard to keep track of em all… I got an idea about how and when this chapter will be, so it is planned. Next update soon.
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