Chapter Four: Under Attack

Buffy woke up with a rush and sat up. She looked rapidly all around but all was quiet except for the breathing of Faith in the next bed. Buffy slowly got out of bed, walked over to the window and opened the drapes. The window however was blacked out. Paint or something had been used to cover the glass in order to make it impossible to see out. Buffy was tempted to break the window or force it open but for the moment decided not to.

As Buffy turned back away from the window she saw that Faith was now awake and getting up. "OK," said Faith. "Give me a clue. Where are we? What's going on?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," replied Buffy who was continuing to look around the room and noticing the very oddly styled furniture. Are we in an old part of Europe she wondered.

Buffy remembered the events leading up to the confrontation with the two armed men in the room at LA Airport. She remembered pushing the Homeland Security Agent out of the room and watching Faith press the button on her cellphone signalling for Tara to come and pick them up.

Events had then taken an unexpected turn. A yellow vertical circle had winked into existence in the middle of the room. It had immediately rushed towards Buffy and Faith. It was some sort of portal to elsewhere because after the circle had passed over them the two slayers had found themselves in a different room with the circle behind them.

Buffy remembered there being people in the room but her memory had not gone any further. Both slayers had been hit by something resembling an electrical discharge and had been knocked unconscious. Now they had woken up in what looked like a cheap hotel bedroom.

"Let's go exploring," said Faith. "We might be able to find whoever gave us those shots," she added ominously.

Faith tried the bedroom door. She was all prepared to force it open but was surprised to discover that it was not locked. Outside in the corridor was a tall, beefy armed guard who it seemed had just arrived at their door.

"You're awake, good," said the guard. "Come with me. They want all the witches downstairs."

"All the witches?" mouthed Buffy silently to Faith behind the guard's back as he walked away down the corridor, seemingly having no doubts that the two women would do exactly as they were told.

Faith shrugged but decided, like Buffy, to follow the guard to find out what was going on.

At the end of the corridor was the start of a wide back and forth flight of stairs going down. As they approached this staircase they began to hear noises coming from below: shouts, the sound of automatic gunfire, a scream and a loud boom that rattled the windows and was probably an explosion outside the building.

The guard rushed forward and looked down the stairwell only to be hit by an electric type blast from below and knocked down. As he fell onto the stairs a figure appeared running up the stairs whilst the noises of a battle downstairs continued.

"Cordy!" said Buffy as she recognised the figure running towards them.

"Buffy? Faith?" replied Cordelia. "We've got to get out of here, come on!"

Cordelia ran past the slayers and towards the other end of the corridor, Buffy and Faith followed. As they approached the door at the other end of the corridor it opened and two large men dressed in dark robes came through the doorway.

"Halt!" ordered the first man. Both men were carrying long poles which were presumably weapons because they both pointed the swollen ends of their poles towards the three women.

Buffy had no intention of stopping and went low, skidding into the two men and bringing them down like a bowling ball hitting skittles. Faith was right behind her and she delivered knock out blows to the two men. However the men were rather tougher than expected and the blows did not knock them out. It took a few moments longer and a few more slayer punches from Buffy and Faith before the men stayed down.

"Come on!" said Cordelia who was now in the doorway at the end of the corridor, a doorway which led to a back staircase. As she spoke a blast hit the ceiling above her, fired by one of a number of robed men who had appeared at the other end of the corridor and were now charging towards them.

Cordelia seemed to know where she was going, so Buffy and Faith followed her as she rushed upstairs.

"Why upstairs?" asked Buffy catching up to Cordelia.

"I'm heading for the roof," gasped Cordelia. "I think I can teleport us away from here but I want to have a look outside first. I don't want to land in the middle of the ocean."

"Stop!" said Faith. By now the women were two floors above their original level. Faith, who had picked up one of the pole weapons, now used it to smash through the blacked out window on the landing. "Will that do?" she asked as sunlight streamed in.

Cordelia went to the window and Faith continued to knock out broken pieces to make the view outside clearer.

"Hold tight!" said Cordelia holding out her arms. Buffy and Faith both put their arms around Cordelia and she began to chant.

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"So this NID lot have got something to do with Buffy and Faith disappearing," said Willow, "and this other lot..."

"Homeland Security," said Xander.

"Homeland Security, tried to kidnap Amy and Anya," completed Willow.

"But the NID guys were unconscious," said Kennedy. "They may not be the ones responsible for Buffy and Faith disappearing."

"But it might have been Buffy and Faith who knocked them out," said Dawn.

Tara had explained to Xander, Anya and Amy what she knew about the disappearance of Buffy and Faith. Xander, Amy and Anya had explained what had happened to them.

They had all three been at the Magic Box and Amy and Anya were getting ready to shut up for the day when two men in suits had walked into the shop. They had claimed to be from Homeland Security and had demanded that Amy and Anya come with them.

Xander had asked if they were making an arrest and if so he would call a lawyer. At this the two men had pulled out guns. Since the Magic Box had a full protection spell the witches and Xander knew that the guns wouldn't work. The witches had therefore refused to go with the agents and Xander had announced that he was calling the police.

One of the agents had then attempted to shoot Xander. When his gun didn't work his colleague had tried to use his gun but of course that didn't work either. Amy had then applied a sleep spell and the two men had fallen to the floor unconscious.

"So where are these men now?" asked Kennedy.

"We left them in the shop," said Amy. "They've probably woken up by now. We were gonna call you guys but we saw there were more of them outside so we went out the back way and came here."

"Wouldn't you have been safer staying there with the protection spell?" asked Willow.

"That's what I said," replied Anya. "If those men do anything to the shop..."

"You should have called me," said Tara.

"It's OK," said Amy. "I made sure they couldn't see us. We were in no danger."

"But you'd all better stay here tonight," said Dawn.

"I hope they're not real Homeland Security Agents," said Xander who turned to Anya. "Are you guys up to date with your taxes?"

"Taxes are the IRS," said Willow. "Totally different bunch. Much more evil."

"Of course they're not real government agents," said Dawn. "Government agents don't just go around shooting people."

"That depends on the government," said Anya. "I've known a few governments..."

Anya was interrupted in what she was about to say by the sounding of the security alarm indicating that a stranger had entered the grounds and had left the main path leading up to the house.

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"That's OK," said Willow, "I will, thank you," and she shut the front door. Lying rat she thought and went into the surveillance room where Tara, Dawn, Xander, Kennedy, Anya and Amy were gathered.

The visitor had claimed to be a Homeland Security Agent. He was not one of the same men who had attempted to abduct Anya and Amy but Willow knew those same two men were waiting in a car outside.

Willow strongly doubted that the man and his friends were anything to do with Homeland Security or any other official organisation. She had only had a short time for research before the man had rung the bell but the ID did not look the way she thought it should. However as far as she could tell the NID ID's were genuine.

The agent said he had called to see Buffy to clear up a security matter. He said that Homeland Security, on checking their records had found that their records for Buffy leaving the country and returning didn't match.

Willow had realised that this might in fact be true because Buffy had sometimes been orbed by Tara or Jenny and sometimes had travelled normally. Must remember to tell everybody about that when I get the chance she had thought. These guys might be bogus but they might have access to real Homeland Security records.

As Willow walked away from closing the front door and into the main lounge she muttered to herself. "Must remember to speak to Giles sometime soon." She looked at her watch. Eight hours difference, he'll be asleep. I'll do it in the morning she thought.

Willow had told the agent that Buffy was out of town but had agreed to ask her to contact him when she returned home. Of course she had no intention of doing any such thing.

The agent had tried not to be obvious but to Willow it had seemed clear that he was checking out the security precautions in force at the house. The alarm had been set off a short time before by one of the other agents looking around the house from the outside before going back to his car and his colleagues in the street at the front of the building.

"What are they doing now?" asked Willow as she entered the surveillance room.

"They're still sat in the car outside," replied Kennedy who was sat at the control desk. "Your guy's joining them."

As they watched the monitor Willow's visitor got into a car already occupied by two other men. Minutes passed and the men remained in the car. There was no way that they could know they were being observed because precautions had been taken to conceal the various CCTV cameras.

"They seem to be just talking," said Xander.

"They're probably talking to the other three guys out back as well," said Dawn.

"He's telling the others about what he could see of our security arrangements," said Willow. "He had a good look." As she said this she smiled at Tara and took hold of her hand. Tara smiled back. Everybody in the room knew that there was no way the agent, or whoever he was, could have seen anything of their main security precautions.

"Does that mean they're coming in?" asked Amy.

"I hope so," said Willow. "We might then have a chance to find out what this is all about. They'll probably wait for a few hours until it's really quiet."

"After what happened in the Magic Box they're probably being cautious," said Xander. "Otherwise that guy would probably have pulled a gun on you," he added to Willow.

"It would have been the last thing he ever did," said Willow darkly, remembering all over again her reason for hating guns. Tara quickly put her arm around her partner.

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"Don't worry," said Willow. "They won't remember a thing."

All six of the agents had entered the house, three from the front and three from the back. Now all six were lying on the floor of the basement unconscious. They had all been made unconscious by Willow soon after entering the house. Now Willow proposed to wake them one at a time and use a truth spell to question them. Suddenly and unexpectedly two of the men were conscious and jumping to their feet.

"Now that shouldn't happen..." began Willow, puzzled rather than alarmed. She would have been seized by a large hand belonging to one of the agents had Tara not orbed her away just in time. Willow found herself in the surveillance room with Tara and Dawn who Tara had grabbed with her other hand before orbing. Anya and Amy were already there keeping an eye on things.

Back in the basement Kennedy and Xander were discovering that the two men were not simply capable of recovering from Willow's spell unexpectedly quickly but they were also quite formidable in combat.

As a man made to grab her Kennedy delivered the sort of punch which would have knocked out a heavyweight boxer. Her opponent, the size of a heavyweight boxer, was simply rocked back and then delivered his own blow to knock Kennedy across the room.

Xander found himself facing an opponent who was only slightly the smaller of the two 'agents'. The man knocked Xander aside and then went towards the pile of weapons on the table. Four of the men had been armed with guns but the two men who had awoken had possessed hand weapons of a type quite unfamiliar to anything seen before by any of the Scooby Gang.

Xander, although stunned realised that he couldn't let the man get hold of a weapon. He therefore leapt after the man and jumped on his back bringing both of them down in a heap onto the floor amongst the bodies of the other unconscious agents.

Meanwhile Kennedy had gotten the measure of her opponent and dealt with him as if he was as strong and formidable as a vampire, which he very nearly was. Even so the man was able to take considerable punishment before Kennedy was able to knock him out.

Meanwhile Tara orbed back into the room with Willow and Dawn. "Freeze!" commanded Willow, halting the other man just short of grabbing hold of one of the strange weapons. She then released Kennedy and Xander from the freeze.

Kennedy now went over to the frozen man still on his feet and knocked him down. Willow sprinkled some special dust onto all six of the agents to make sure that there was no second unexpected awakening.

Tara dealt with the minor cuts and bruises sustained by Xander and Kennedy before looking at the fallen agents to make sure that the men had not received any major injuries.

"Well whoever they are they certainly train their agents properly," said Kennedy. "That one was tougher than some vamps I've fought."

"I wonder if they really are agents?" said Dawn. "And what do they want?"

"They probably wanted to kidnap Willow," said Xander, "Just like they were after Amy and Anya. All witches see. They're some sort of witch kidnap squad."

"What's this mark on this man's forehead?" asked Tara looking up from her latest examination.

"There's another one," said Willow noticing a mark that had clearly been concealed by make-up but which was now partly visible. On close examination aided by wiping with a cloth it became clear that the two men who had woken up were each marked on the forehead with a sort of embossed tattoo.

"Anybody seen anything like it before?" asked Willow looking around the room. Everybody shook their heads.

"There's something else about them," said Tara completing her examinations and looking thoughtful. She pulled open the shirt of one of the men to reveal a cross scar on his belly.

"What's that?" asked Dawn. "It looks...eeuw."

"They've probably...," began Tara opening the shirt of the other man to reveal the identical scar. "Thought so."

"What do you think it is?" asked Xander.

"There's something inside them," said Tara who now had her hand on the belly of the second man. "Something living."

"Something that makes them stronger than usual?" asked Kennedy.

"Maybe," replied Tara. "I don't know. I've never heard of anything like it before."

"More research," said Dawn to Willow.

"More questions under the truth spell," replied Willow.

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General Hammond and Sam rushed to the control room. Jack, Teal'c and Daniel made for the Gate Room. As they approached the Gate Room SG-1 met two technicians going the other way. "What's happening?" demanded Jack.

"Replicators," answered the female technician. "They've already damaged the Iris." With that she rushed off after her male colleague.

"We need weapons," said Teal'c darting into a side passage and pulling open a weapons closet. Jack, Teal'c and Daniel quickly armed themselves and rushed towards the Gate Room.

Up in the control room the General and Sam had just discovered the seriousness of the crisis. The damage to the Iris was now sufficiently large for a flow of Replicators to squeeze through.

"I thought that was impossible?" said General Hammond. "I didn't think they could damage the Iris from the other side"

"Nor did I," said Sam. "It should be impossible."

"We received the ID of SG-12," said Captain Mangin. "By the time we tried to shut the Iris it was too late, some of those things had already come through the Gate. They started to destroy the Iris pretty well straight away."

"Can you close the wormhole?" asked General Hammond.

"Not yet," said Sam who had taken over the main control chair. "I'm working on it. They've locked it somehow."

Down below, gunfire from the security teams was destroying the Replicators as they came through but they were reconstituting themselves from the debris on the ramp below. There were therefore more and more Replicators to aim at.

The remainder of SG1 had by now arrived in the Gate Room and on Jack's orders the entrance door was closed and secured. Despite the reinforcements the defenders seemed to be losing ground to the Replicators.

"I've got to get to the self-destruct," said General Hammond. "Captain, you come with me and everybody else arm yourselves. Major, you keep..."

"Wait," said Sam. "Look."

Down below everything had stopped, people, Replicators, everything. Everything that is except a group of four women and a man who had appeared in the Gate Room plus new Replicators who continued to come through the gate.

Suddenly the moving Replicators exploded. Small explosions only but sufficient to reduce the Replicators to dust and make it impossible for the remains to be reconstituted into new Replicators. Now the frozen Replicators exploded into dust as well.

The General and Sam didn't recognise the man but they recognised Phoebe and Paige as two of the four women in the gate room. The other two were not Mary and Elise but were new. Like Phoebe and Paige the other women were short of average height, had long dark hair and were stunningly beautiful.

One of the new women continued to wave her hands at new Replicators as they came through the Stargate and it seemed to be she who was turning them to dust. The other three women now gathered together and began chanting.

Suddenly the Stargate went black as it closed down, chopping the last moving Replicator in half. This then was also reduced to dust leaving no remaining Replicators.

General Hammond turned to Sam and raised his eyebrows in inquiry.

"It wasn't me," said Sam. "I didn't close it down. I think it was the uh, witches down there. They must have broken the connection somehow."