See Part One for disclaimer and details. Thanks as always to all the reviewers and people who have sent feedback. Unfortunately though it is time to announce that this fanfic is coming to an end, there's only one more chapter to go after this one. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the read.
Part Seven: At One Stride Comes The Dark
The outskirts of Sunnydale, California
April 17th, 2000
11:12 pm
The black Dodge Desoto roared its way into the town built upon the Hellmouth, skidding to a halt just past the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' signpost. The driver had been tempted to smash his vehicle through the sign, mostly for his own amusement and old time's sake, but events over the last few months had made him a bit more circumspect about drawing attention to himself.
Spike quickly got out of the car and looked around, surveying his new surroundings. The vampire had just arrived back from Los Angeles where he had been staying ever since last year. William the Bloody hadn't actually intended to stay away for so long, but one thing had led to another and it was only now that he had come back to take care of unfinished business.
Namely, that chip in his cranium.
"Home sweet home," Spike smirked to himself, lighting up a cigarette. ( Said it before, and I'll say it again most likely. Sod it, the magnificent poof may be a complete wanker, but Angel was bloody well right when he said that I should go to Hell. Hmm, might look up that little twit Harmony before I get settled in. Haven't had a decent shag in ages, after all. )
So saying, Spike got back into his car and took off down the street, tires smoking from the sudden acceleration.
The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California
April 18th, 2000
1:21 am
Xander and Cordelia were in bed together, sound asleep after a hard day's work.
While Xander had followed the path he'd always been meant for, Cordy's life was very different right now from what it would have been under other circumstances. For example, the April Fools storeowner had been so impressed with his employee that he had promoted her to the rank of senior manager not long ago. Because Miss Chase knew fashion, and all the customers who came into her store left looking much better than what they did coming in. Cordelia earned her new salary by keeping up with the latest trends and making a decent profit while selling at very competitive prices. Even Aura, Kate and Aphrodesia had started shopping there lately.
Yes, Cordelia had a job that she really liked, now that she didn't have to wear a nametag any longer. The young woman had a nice home too, not to mention a boyfriend who was everything she could ever ask for in the sack and then some. It was almost like living in Barbie's dream house.
But there was a snake in paradise. Namely, all the unwanted Slayer psychic stuff.
Cordelia's eyes suddenly snapped open, and she slowly and carefully got up out of bed. Xander shifted a little, unconsciously sensing her departure, but he still remained asleep. Walking as if she was hypnotized, Miss Chase went to the bedroom closet and opened it.
After she did so, Cordelia stepped into another world. The Sunnydale High School of the past.
Suddenly finding herself fully clothed, Cordy looked around as she walked down the main school corridor. Just like Cassandra relishing a vision of an intact Troy, or Eve gazing happily at the Garden of Eden, Queen C sighed in true pleasure as she strolled around in her former domain. Even though she knew it was all gone now, and that this was merely some sort of a dream, Cordelia truly appreciated this little blast from the past; this opportunity to relive her glory days.
"How do you know what you know?" Cordy heard a vaguely familiar female voice say from inside the computer lab as she passed the open classroom door.
( What? Who said that? ) the girl asked herself in surprise. Cordy stopped and peeked inside, seeing someone and something that instantly made her flesh crawl.
The long-dead Computer Science teacher, Jenny Calendar, sitting at her desk and doing a Tarot reading.
"You have to know what to look for," Jenny said cryptically as she placed the cards in the standard positions. "And Tarot is simpler than casting bones, or reading tea leaves."
This was beginning to freak Cordelia out more than a little bit. "Uh, Ms. Calendar? Not to point out the obvious, but you're dead-"
"And you're not supposed to be here," the dream version of Jenny pointed out, turning over the first card. It was the Star. "That should have been your destiny. Well, either that or the Fool. Take your pick."
"I don't get it," Cordelia replied, momentarily annoyed at the perceived insult. "What's this all about?"
Jenny turned over the second card. It was the Chariot. "Free will, it's the most precious ability imaginable. It's what allowed him to find that crystal in Los Angeles. What'll let him go back and change things."
"Who's 'him'? And go back where? Change what things?" Cordelia demanded at once.
Jenny turned over the third card, and Miss Chase gasped. It was the Death card. "Whether you're a king or street sweeper, sooner or later, you dance with the Reaper," the computer teacher quoted from the Bill and Ted movie, looking her companion right in the eyes.
Cordelia now had a severe case of the creeping horrors. "Are you saying, I-I'm supposed to die...?"
Jenny turned over the fourth card. It was the Lovers. "This is what makes the world go around," the undercover gypsy remarked, resuming the cryptic act. "It can save you or damn you, the most wonderful and the most terrible things are always done in the name of love. As it is now, so it has always been, and so it always shall be."
"Huh?" the brunette teenager looked completely confused.
Ms. Calendar turned over the fifth and final card. It was Strength. "This is what you'll need. Don't hide behind masks any longer," Jenny said to her companion, a small smile gracing her features as the undercover Romany gathered up all the cards. Jenny then stood up and told Cordelia, "Please tell Rupert that I love him. Always and forever."
Cordelia shrieked as she saw Jenny burst into flames and the entire world suddenly went black, then she found herself back in her bed as she awoke from the dream. She jerked upwards, more than a little freaked. The young woman looked around panting, her heart beating wildly as she strove to calm down. "Oh my God..."
Xander was awake by this point and said urgently, "Cordy, what is it? What's wrong?"
"Slayer dream." She then proceeded to fill him in on everything while it was all fresh in her mind.
Xander frowned, grabbing a pen and paper and making a detailed summary so as to discuss it with Giles later. "Okay. It's nearly two o'clock in the morning, what do you think? We call G-man now, or wait 'til a decent hour?"
Cordelia collapsed backwards onto the mattress. "I think it can wait," she muttered. "You call him first thing in the morning, and tell him I'll come see him during my lunch break tomorrow."
The Giles residence, Sunnydale, California
Eleven hours later
"When are you going to help me get rid of all the freaky Slayer crap, anyway? Because it's been nearly two months, Giles, and I can't take much more of this!" Cordelia ranted as she paced around the apartment.
"I, I'm sorry, Cordelia," Giles said apologetically. "But, uh, w-with that new Slayer, Kennedy, well, there's been a number of complications..."
"Such as?" the young woman demanded.
"Well, um, her family is very rich, er, N-new York royalty almost. Her assigned Watcher found it very hard to even make contact with her, and when he did..." Giles trailed off. "Well, let's just say she refused to believe any of it, and he was summarily thrown out of the house and warned not to come near her again. The Council's sent someone else, a-and they're working on convincing her of the truth, but it's not like anyone can just grab the Slayer by the hair and force her to come to California," Rupert finished up.
"I'LL convince her, the little 17-year-old brat," Cordelia said heatedly. "Gimme her number and I'll talk to her myself. Make her get her butt over here, and take back what belongs to her!"
"I don't have her number, unfortunately. And I very much doubt that, that you could say anything to Kennedy over the phone that she hasn't already heard before and dismissed as utter nonsense," Giles told her rather wearily. "Now, um, shall we return to the topic at hand? The dream, I mean."
Miss Chase seemed to completely deflate for a moment. "Fine." Then she went on, "I, uh, I dreamed about Ms. Calendar last night."
Giles repressed a pang of misery at the thought of his lost love. "Go on."
"I think...I think she was a symbol. Something for me to focus on during the information download," Cordelia said thoughtfully. "She said some things...some pretty disturbing things, actually, while she did the Tarot reading."
"What things?" Giles asked at once.
Cordy let her resurrected Solitaire memories guide her thoughts in interpreting the dream. "She said I had to know what to look for. That can be taken two ways; one, that there's something here that we should know about but don't, and two, that something's gone missing and we have to find it. Personally, I'm leaning towards option number one, since this is the Hellmouth and all."
"What else did Jenny say?" Rupert pressed his younger companion.
Cordy frowned. "Something about how I wasn't supposed to be here."
"Not supposed to be here in Sunnydale?" Giles asked in confusion. "Why?"
"I'm not sure, but given what else she said, the other cards I saw..." Cordy took a deep breath. "Uh, Giles...is time travel possible?"
"No," the ex-Watcher said at once. "Not as far as I'm aware, anyway. Why do you ask?"
"Ms. Calendar said something about 'him' going back and changing things," the brunette replied. "I don't know who the heck she was talking about, but she also said..." she broke off. "I mean she picked up the Death card, Giles. And it doesn't necessarily have to mean human death, like I first thought. It, it might also mean the death of one possible future. So, you're SURE that time travel is impossible? Under ANY circumstances?"
Giles opened his mouth to reply, but he visibly hesitated before saying 'no'. Cordy picked up on it at once, "What? What is it?"
"It's nothing-"
"You have 'but' face," Cordelia said at once, and noticing Rupert's look of annoyance she added, "Hey, I just meant that you were about to say 'but', not that your face looks like someone's ass! Now spill, okay?"
The Englishman shook his head. "Many years back I read an account of a mythological crystal that millions of years ago belonged to one of the Old Ones themselves. That pure demon was purportedly capable of travelling through time, you see, a-a-and used it as a navigational aid and booster, as it were. There were even rumors that the crystal had been found somewhere in Europe during the Dark Ages. But as I said, it was all just hearsay and rumour; the artifact was never actually proven to have ever existed. Now, was there anything else from the dream that you can remember?"
( Crystal? ) Cordelia asked herself, remembering what Ms. Calendar had said. ( No, forget it. Giles is probably right; it's all just a myth. ) "Uh, Computer Lady also said that basically, I have to be strong. And...that she still loves you," the brunette finished up in embarrassment. She decided not to mention the spontaneous combustion as it was still too gross for her to contemplate, let alone talk about.
Giles took off his glasses and started polishing them. "I see. Um, Jenny didn't happen to say why you needed to gather your strength, I take it?" He avoided the other part of the message like the plague.
"Nope," Miss Chase replied simply. Just then there was a knock on the front door, and the working girl checked her watch. "Damn it! I've gotta go, Giles, my lunch break is almost over. I'll see you later on tonight, okay?"
"Yes of course." Giles let Cordelia out before telling the person who was offering subscriptions to 'The Watchtower' that he wasn't interested.
Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California
April 21st, 2000
9:50 pm
Riley Finn sat alone in the semi-darkness of his new home, a makeshift camp in the midst of the high school ruins. He was a man without a job or a calling anymore, as he was now considered a traitor by the Initiative.
It had all started when Oz had come back to town, and Riley had learned from Buffy that he was in fact a werewolf. Looking back on it, Finn knew he hadn't dealt well with that little tidbit of news and his girlfriend had been rightfully pissed at his attitude, even calling him a bigot. Later, when Oz had wolfed out upon learning Tara was Willow's girlfriend and then been captured by the Initiative, that was when it had all pretty much exploded in Riley's face.
Oz had been turned into a lab rat by order of the new commanding officer, Colonel McNamara, despite Riley vouching for the guy and stating he was no longer a threat. Annoyed at the scientists' attitude, Finn had decided to smuggle the captive out; but they had gotten caught. Oz had been thrown back into his cage, and Riley was put in the brig to face a court martial for his actions.
Maybe he might have been able to talk his way out of it, it was unlikely but still theoretically possible. But then Xander and Buffy had shown up to stage their own rescue mission and Riley had decided to join them in getting Oz out of there. Finn had initially been very surprised to hear Xander speaking with a British accent, and even more surprised upon learning that Giles had temporarily unleashed the James Bond memories, something Harris had personally requested in order to help his friend.
Then Special Agent Finn had finally realized just how deeply from grace he and his people had fallen, when he heard Xander talking to Colonel McNamara:
"The moment you decided you could torture someone and get away with it just because you had some flimsy legal right to do so, that's the moment you crossed the line, Colonel. I can remember what it's like being tortured myself, you should know. And while I may not be authorised to kill you, here's something that'll make you think twice about ever doing something like that again."
McNamara's screams had echoed throughout the Initiative before Sunnydale's version of Agent 007 had tossed Oz to Buffy. The white hats had eventually made their escape via the Initiative elevator. The good colonel had promised Harris and Finn that they were both dead men just before the foursome had left, despite the pain from his yanked-out tooth and bleeding gum.
"Thought I might find you here."
Riley jumped up off of his sleeping bag to find Forrest Gates pointing his blaster directly at his heart. "Forrest-"
"Don't say it," the black man cut him off. "I swear, it's taking everything I've got not to just shoot you and drag you back by the heels. Now where's the HST?"
"HST? Who are you talking about, Oz?" Riley asked. "You know who he is, Forrest, he used to be a student-"
"That was before he became a monster, damn it!" Gates tried not to shout. "What's the hell's the matter with you, Rye? That bitch got you so messed up you can't even tell the difference anymore?"
"You talk about Buffy that way again, and one of us definitely isn't gonna leave here alive," Riley said with a flinty look, and Forrest almost took a step back at his tone. "As for Oz, he left town the very same night he escaped from the base, and good luck to him. Funny thing, though: Oz isn't a vampire or a demon, he's a legitimate U.S. citizen who got tortured by his own government. And if the press should get wind of what happened-"
"SHUT UP, DAMN IT! Stop trying to make us look like the bad guys here!" Gates yelled, stressed and angry.
"Then tell me, what else have we become, if not bad guys? Our first C.O. created a homicidal monster and treated us like a bunch of toy soldiers. The latest one refuses to even use the word 'mercy' in his vocabulary. Xander was right all along, the lack of oversight was a huge mistake," Riley said, shaking his head.
"Turn around, and put your hands behind your head," Gates growled, trying not to think about what he had seen Xander say and do that night. It had severely challenged all his preconceptions about magic and witchcraft, and the soldier's ability to live in denial had started to disintegrate. "After I cuff you, we are going back to the Initiative and you are going to spend the next sixty years in a military prison."
"You're not actually serious, are you? You were there the other night, Forrest. You heard McNamara tell me I was a dead man for trying to do the right thing, what Dr. Walsh supposedly recruited us for," Riley said scornfully. "I go with you, and within 48 hours they'll find me having hanged myself in my cell or whatever. And you can't tell me that I'm just being paranoid." He paused, and looked his former lieutenant right in the eye.
"You've met my parents, man. They know that you, me and Graham are serving here together. They'll look for you after the funeral, and they'll ask a lot of questions. We both know Graham won't cover for you on this one, not after it all goes down the way I expect it will. So how exactly are you going to justify your actions to my mom and dad, knowing beforehand what was going to happen to me?"
The blaster shook in the Initiative agent's hands as Forrest tried to curb his feelings of rage and frustration, not to mention his reluctant agreement with Riley's assessment of the situation. ( How in the goddamn hell did things ever become this fucked up- )
As famous last words went, they were somewhat fitting for someone in Forrest's situation as hands grabbed him from behind and a pair of fangs descended into his neck.
"NO!" Riley yelled, as Harmony began to feed. Scrabbling madly, the fugitive found a cross that Cordelia had recently left him – and that was why Harmony was here right now, she had tailed her former best friend to their former high school – and Finn used it to make the female vampire back off.
"OW!" the undead blonde complained as Forrest staggered off to the side. "Hey, get that thing away from me. Geez, rude much?"
"You okay?" Riley asked Forrest, his eyes never leaving the vampiress in front of him.
"Yeah, just – just gimme a minute, man..." Gates was woozy from the blood loss.
"We may not have one, vampires usually travel in packs. So wake up and focus," the former Alpha team leader said sharply, as Forrest struggled to comply. "Who else is with you on the hunt tonight?" Riley then demanded of Harmony.
"No one. God, but you're annoying," Harmony said as she backed away. "And FYI, your friend tasted so lousy I bet he'll give me food poisoning or something. So what are you guys doing here, anyhow? Who the hell would want to live in this dump...well, who wasn't a total retard anyway?"
Harmony finally noticed Gates was starting to aim his blaster at her, and with an unusual burst of intellectual prowess the blonde ditz understood that hanging around here for much longer probably wasn't the wisest move. She vanished from sight, leaving Riley and Forrest to stare at one another.
"One minute head start, that's the best I can do," Forrest muttered, torn between duty and friendship. He couldn't look at his former commander as he said that. The dizziness was starting to wear off, and the African-American was afraid he wouldn't be able to go through with the offer if he couldn't even justify it to himself and the new boss after he got back to the base.
Riley didn't hesitate. He grabbed one or two essentials and bolted.
The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California
April 22nd, 2000
8:10 am
Xander had a headache and tried to tune out the depressingly regular argument taking place between Cordelia and Buffy. Miss Summers had come over to discuss the situation now that she and Harris were at the top of the Initiative's shit list, but some choice comments from Miss Chase had turned the discussion into an all-too-familiar barrage of insults.
Xander rubbed his forehead. Ever since the night Giles had released the James Bond personal memories and afterwards suppressed them again, Harris had felt a bit out of sorts. As a wise man once said, if you cage the beast for long enough it gets angry, or as the late Maggie Walsh would have put it, Xander could feel his id battling with his ego and superego for control.
"Okay, time out. Judge Xander requesting a recess here," the young man interrupted before the argument between the two girls degenerated into a full-blown wrestling match worthy of pay-per-view. "I just want to say something before all the hostilities resume, okay?"
"What?" both women said in unison, before glaring at one another.
Xander said slowly, rubbing his forehead again, "Buffy, Cordy, you two actually have a lot in common-"
"Do not!" Summers and Chase said again in unison.
"You both used to be cheerleaders. You both get the Slayer dreams. And from what I remember, Buff, you once freely admitted that you were the Cordelia Chase of Hemery High," Xander said as Cordy looked annoyed and Buffy looked embarrassed by the comparison. "Look, I'm not asking you to be best friends, but please, for me. Can't you both just get along, or at least be civil to one another?"
Both females looked ready to tear him a new one, but luckily Xander was saved by the bell. The telephone rang and he went to answer it. "Hello? Hey, Will. What? What's he doing there? Oh, I see. Yeah, what the hell, we'll be over there soon. I'll try to think of some other place he can stay. Bye." He hung up and said to Buffy, "That was Willow. Riley's at Giles's place. Apparently the Initiative found him at the high school, and he had to run for it. It was the only safe place he could get to, so now we gotta stash him somewhere else."
"Great," Buffy muttered, worried about her boyfriend and heading for the door as Xander grabbed his coat and Cordelia her purse. "What else could go wrong today?"
After the past four years, the blonde Slayer really should have known better than to say that on the Hellmouth.
UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale, California
The same time
Not far away from Lowell House, Ethan Rayne checked his watch. It was time.
The warlock had recently arrived back in Sunnydale, after making a pit stop in Los Angeles and making the find of a lifetime in the Metropolitan Museum. Guided by a picture he'd seen in the newspaper, Ethan had found something that he'd previously been sure had been complete and utter poppycock. So after acquiring his new prize, Rayne had done a great deal of research for the next few weeks before returning to the Hellmouth.
The British man had subsequently bargained for the acquisition of certain 'assets' of a scumbag magic dealer named Rack. A number of customers-slash-magic addicts had been disguised with glamours to look like demons after Rack had mystically tagged them for Rayne and, like the Trojan horse of old, the Initiative had taken those people in and locked them up in their containment facility.
After the standard ritual of anointing himself with blood, Ethan chanted in Latin, "Beatum sit in nomine Janus. Patris lux et nostrae, evoco vestram animam. Nobis monstra quod est infinita potestas. Fiat voluntas tua!" ( Blessed be the name of Janus. Our father of light and darkness, I invoke thy spirit. Show to us that which is infinite power. Thy will be done! )
Elsewhere, the dark magicks began to build up within the disguised prisoners, rising to such levels that the false demons became the supernatural equivalent of suicide bombers. Their bodies exploded with such force that entire cellblocks were simply vaporised. Over ninety percent of the Initiative personnel were killed or wounded as the mystical blasts engulfed the entire base.
It was a slaughter, just as Ethan had intended.
The underground facility as a whole wasn't utterly demolished, but it came pretty darn close. There was no sign of the carnage above ground apart from a brief rumble that everyone quickly dismissed as a minor earthquake typical of southern California. But down below, there were scattered bodies and body parts everywhere, human and demon alike.
Ethan smirked, cleaned himself up and left the building, heading for the physical location of the Hellmouth itself. He had his reasons for going there. Now that revenge was no longer an issue his personal desires were once again the driving force for his actions. Once he got to the remains of Sunnydale High, Ethan started looking for the hole those Vahrall demons had attempted to sacrifice themselves in a few months ago. But suddenly, the chaos worshipper got a unexpected surprise. Namely, Spike and Harmony.
"Well, well, look who we've got 'ere, Harm. Guess you were right about this place becomin' a popular tourist spot 'n all," William the Bloody drawled. His newly reappointed lover had told him about her encounter with Riley and Forrest here last night after reporting in to Adam. Curious, Spike had decided to stake out the ruins, in case something advantageous would come his way.
"Ah, hello. What can I do for..." Ethan saw two game faces appear right in front of him. "...you?"
"Unless you wanna end up drained like a milkshake, mate, you'll tell us what you're bloody well up to here fer starters," Spike said with a smirk. The chip may have prevented him from being any direct threat to the human, but he had an accomplice right there beside him to take care of that part of it.
Ethan hesitated to comply, but eventually spilled the beans after some not-so-friendly 'persuasion'. The vamps learned how Rayne had obtained the pseudo-mythological crystal that was, indeed, the fabled Old One time-travel device, an artifact that had once been owned by the medieval wizard Myrrdin. That was his name in his true native Welsh, even if he was more popularly known as Merlin.
Ethan explained how, despite popular opinion, the crystal was quite real. For centuries it had been buried in the archives of the British Museum and had recently been loaned to an LA museum as a mere bauble for display. Ethan's plan had been to travel back to sixth century Wales by performing an almost-forgotten ritual which needed to be done right next to a dimensional rift like the Hellmouth. He would then return the crystal to Merlin in exchange for his elixir of eternal youth.
"Slight change in plan, mate," Spike grinned ferociously. "You're gonna drop me off just before November 10th, 1999 instead. Otherwise, I'll feed you your own eyeballs."
"Spiiiiike!" Harmony cried. "You promised to let me do all the maiming! I mean, what with that Initiative chip in your head, you can't even-"
"Shut it, Harm!" Spike growled. The platinum-blond vampire wanted to kill the stupid bint for her idiocy in almost revealing his current state of impotence, but unfortunately he still needed her to keep the prisoner in line. ( Once I prevent meself from getting taken prisoner that night though, first thing on the agenda is to finally get rid of the dumb chit once and fer all. But first thing's first. I gotta convince this ponce that I'm serious. ) "So what'll it be, ya pillock? Guts in or out?"
Ethan stared at the English vampire curiously for a moment. He suspected that Spike was bluffing about personally causing him harm, given what the other vampire had just blurted out, but it didn't really matter. His course of action was already decided. "There's no need for threats, Mr. Spike. I'm sure I can oblige you your request, in return for a little assistance with the legwork. What do you say?"
The clock started counting down towards temporal chaos – and maybe even the end of history as everyone knew it.
Just outside the remains of Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California
A short while later
The news about the Initiative's destruction had spread like wildfire along the demon information highway. Many people – humans and demons alike – were wondering who had done it and how. The 'why' part wasn't gone into much, unsurprisingly enough. Some folks thought it had been done for revenge, while others believed it to have been carried out in order to teach the U.S. government a lesson about messing with the wrong demon clan. Whatever the reason, Anya and her new partner Jonathan had sold the news to the Scooby gang at a discount price.
They had also included the less interesting news that someone with a British accent, calling himself Ethan, had been seen at Rack's lair recently, and had last been seen heading in the direction of the high school ruins.
Just like the vampires Spike and Harmony Kendall.
Giles had led the charge towards the former Sunnydale High, his younger friends right behind him. Even Riley had come along, as there was strength in numbers and what was left of the Initiative now had more important issues to deal with than hunting down one of its missing former members.
Rupert wasn't sure what they would find when they got to the Hellmouth. He was willing to bet though that whatever it was, he wouldn't like it. "Ethan, what are you up to?" Giles muttered to himself, already suspecting the truth.
From the look on Riley's face, he had also come to the same conclusion and the former Initiative agent looked ready to tear Rayne apart with his bare hands. The white hats all ran into the one-time library...
...just in time to see Ethan finish his spell, using the crystal as a focus for the magicks.
In the air, an oval field of light appeared. The rim wavered, but the center was stable enough. The portal started glowing white as it fully stabilised, and the crystal in Ethan's hand began rippling with many different colours.
"What is that?" Cordelia asked, staring at the white ovoid.
"That, my dear, is the true face of eternity, if I may be permitted poetic license," Ethan replied with a big smile. "A portal that's my own little gateway into the past. You like it?"
"Good Lord," Giles breathed, staring at the crystal Ethan was holding and guessing correctly. ( It, it was real all along, and he bloody well found it? Oh, God help us... )
"You're responsible for what happened in the Initiative, aren't you? You're the one who somehow set off all those bombs and killed nearly all my men," Riley said to Ethan in an icy voice.
"Oh, dear, I'd best watch out. The rube's beginning to catch up," Rayne smirked in a very offensive way.
"I am going to kill you for that," Finn said simply, staring at his enemy with a frightening intensity as he drew his gun and aimed at the chaos worshipper.
"Riley..." Buffy said worriedly as she grabbed his arm. She couldn't help it as Slayers came wired to kill vamps and demons, not people. Faith's example was something never too far from her thoughts and Miss Summers couldn't just simply stand there and watch her boyfriend callously kill a human being like that.
"Why?" Willow asked Ethan, distracting him as the former commando suddenly also felt Tara's presence at his side. "Why'd you do it?"
"You really are that naïve, aren't you?" Ethan said cuttingly, before the smile reappeared. "Never mind. Time will no doubt cure you of that condition, eventually. But mark my words: those soldiers will come back to this town in force and most likely put anyone like you in exactly the same place they put me. You and your lovely friend over there," the Englishman sent a quick smirk to Miss Maclay, sensing her power as well as the redhead's.
Tara looked sick, reminded of things she'd much prefer to forget; her immediate family chief among them. She refused to look in Ethan's direction again.
"What have you done, Ethan?" Giles said in a very dangerous tone.
"You mean recently? Well, I've taken part in this amusing little crusade of yours against the vampires, old man." Rayne gestured off to one side of the room, where a telltale pile of dust was gathered. The Scoobies didn't know it, but Ethan had hit Harmony directly in the face with a ball of sunshine spell, precisely when she hadn't been expecting it. Curiously, Spike had known the jig was up and scampered off before the mage could do the same thing to him.
Ethan then said, "That and procuring my escape route out of this minor spot of bother. Don't suppose you'd care to come along? Believe it or not I'm offering you the world here, Ripper."
"The world is not enough, Ethan..." Giles said, inadvertently quoting from the James Bond movie. He glanced at Xander, who so far hadn't said a word yet.
"Ah, too bad."
"NO!!!" Xander leaped forward, having a premonition of disaster despite the gun and all the crossbows being levelled at the British magician.
Too late. Ethan incanted an obscurity spell as he dodged the bullet Riley sent his way, and he became very hard to see in the minds of all the others. Willow and Tara started to do a counter-spell, but Ethan used that time to quickly disappear through the temporal gateway.
Without thinking Xander raced to follow him, despite Cordelia's screams of protest. But he was instantly repelled at the interface, blasted backwards. The young man soared through the air and landed very painfully on his back.
Riley had run to the time gate as well, right behind his friend. To his great surprise, Finn wasn't rejected like Xander had been when he was able to stick his arm through into the depths of the white ovoid.
"Riley, no – no!" Buffy yelled, instantly knowing what her boyfriend would do. She started running forward herself, "RILEY! DON'T!!!!"
Despite her pleas, without hesitation Riley Finn vanished into the past, relentlessly chasing after his quarry.
Two seconds later, before the Slayer could reach her boyfriend, the portal simply winked out of existence.
"RILEY!!!!" Buffy screamed at the top of her lungs. "NO!!! NO!!! RILEY!!!"
To Be Concluded...