Chapter Five: Into the Woods

Rupert Giles put the phone down and leant back in his office chair. I really miss those days back in Sunnydale he thought. All I had to think about then was the end of the world on a regular basis. Now I've got quarterly reports, council meetings and all the internal politicking and backstabbing that seems unavoidable in any big organisation.

Giles's mind drifted to his most recent telephone chat with Willow when she had updated him about all the recent events on the other side of the ocean. Since special precautions were in place Giles and Willow or sometimes Giles and one of the other Scoobies were able to talk freely without fear of being recorded or overheard.

Giles was now trying to persuade himself not to simply take the first plane out and throw himself back into the adventurous life of the Scooby Gang and in particular try to find out what had happened to Buffy and Faith. He was worried but he knew he wouldn't do it. He was sorely tempted but he didn't know anybody in England he would trust to take over control of the New Council.

Yes, he had a lot of fine people coming through but it was early days yet and he had nobody who'd worked at the sharp end. Nobody who'd worked with a slayer and knew at first hand what it was like. He was determined that the New Council would never go the way of the old one. It would never again be staffed by ambitious career people who just regarded slayers as a means to an end. As far as he was concerned that meant keeping some sort of control himself for a good while yet.

In any event Giles knew that there was no going back. He and the others couldn't go back to their cosy little group centred around the local High School ever again. Everybody was older, they'd all grown up thank goodness even though there had been times when it looked likely that none of them would live that long.

One person who did have the experience and the contacts to take over running the New Council was of course Wesley thought Giles. He's come a long way since I first met him in Sunnydale. It's like he's a completely different person. It just shows what difference a little front line experience makes.

Perhaps that's what I should do with some of these eager trainees thought Giles. Give them some time in the field, some time to mature. I really should have a watcher permanently assigned in Sunnydale since the three slayers use that as their base. Giles made a mental note to do something about that before too much longer.

Giles had already asked Wesley to spend more time in England and had been refused. Wesley can see himself being bogged down in paper work the same as me thought Giles. He's due to get here tomorrow with this Eve and his two potentials. I must remember to sound him out again, you never know.

"Oh to hell with it" said Giles out loud as he stood up even though he was alone in his office. I'm going home he thought. I'm in charge. I don't have to work late every night. I won't do anybody any good if I work myself to death. In fact it was already late by the standards of most of the workers at the New Watchers Council HQ. Giles put on his jacket and made his way through the largely empty building and down to the basement car-park.

As Giles walked through the basement he didn't notice a large vertical yellow circle open in the air behind him. As if looking around, the circle remained stationary for a few seconds before starting to move. It was now following Giles. As Giles stopped by his car to get out his keys the circle rushed forward and flowed over him. The circle stopped. Now there was no Giles, just the circle. After a couple of seconds the circle winked out.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Trees, trees and more trees," said Faith as she returned. "Well sort of trees. But I found water."

Faith was referring to the woodland in which she, Buffy and Cordelia found themselves. The trees were definitely trees but of a sort that had never grown on Earth. The most obvious difference was the colour of the leaves, none of which were green and many of which were distinctly blue.

Cordelia had successfully teleported the three of them away from the building which was the scene of some sort of battle and taken them a considerable distance away into a wood. Cordelia had learned the teleportation spell from Willow. She had known it would be painful but she had thought that once clear of the building she would be able to call Tara for a healing.

It was only on arrival in the wood that the three women had realised that they were no longer on Earth. Cordelia had nevertheless tried to call Tara but unsuccessfully and she had then passed out. In the hours that had passed since then Buffy and Faith had taken turns in exploring their immediate surroundings.

"I'll give Cordy another hour," said Buffy looking at her watch. "If she's still asleep I'll carry her to the water. Still no signs of life?"

"Nah, just the endless trees," said Faith sitting down opposite Buffy. "I'll climb one in a minute, see if I can see anything. We're gonna need more than water before long."

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" said Cordelia waking up. She held both hands to her head. "It'll hurt a little she said. A little! Just wait 'til I see Willow again."

"Perhaps it hurts because you didn't have that stuff that Willow and Tara used," said Buffy remembering the teleportation spell that had been used against Glory, "or because you did it on your own."

"Maybe, maybe," muttered Cordelia half to herself. "We'll definitely have a little talk about it."

Cordelia carefully sat herself up and leaned back against a tree. Over the next few minutes, whilst trying to keep her head as still as possible she told the two slayers what had happened to her and they told her their story.

Cordelia had also been kidnapped by a yellow circle portal which had appeared in her room at her mother's house the night before when she was about to get ready for bed. From the description, she had been transported to the same room as Buffy and Faith and like them had been knocked unconscious by the discharge of some sort of energy weapon.

Faith had kept hold of the pole weapon that she had taken from one of the fallen robed men. Now she looked at it lying on the ground between them and wondered if it might be the very sort of weapon that had been used on them.

Like Buffy and Faith, Cordelia had been fetched from her room, a room that had also been occupied by another woman called Margaret, who had similarly been snatched by the yellow circle. Cordelia and Margaret had been taken downstairs about an hour before the battle began.

Cordelia and Margaret had met two other women downstairs. In the brief time they had to chat together they discovered that they were all witches and had all been kidnapped in much the same way.

"They think we're witches as well," said Faith. "That's what that security guard called us."

"So why do they want witches?" asked Buffy.

"Power," said Cordelia. "When I got to talk to one of the guys in charge he claimed to be a Government Agent. He never said anything about being on another world." Buffy and Faith looked at each other. They had already explained to Cordelia what had happened to them.

"They've found out some witches have real power and they want to control it," continued Cordelia.

"How?" asked Buffy.

"By controlling the witches," said Cordelia. "I didn't realise it at first but all the other women did exactly what they were told to do. I don't know if it's drugs, magic or something else but they're all under control."

"So why didn't it affect you?" asked Faith. "Are you too strong for them?"

"I'm still wearing one of Willow's amulets," said Cordelia. "The one that stops anybody else taking control of your free will. It's hidden by magic so they wouldn't even have seen it while I was unconscious."

"That explains why that guard just assumed we'd follow him," said Buffy. "They must have given us the same treatment. Since we're also wearing Willow's amulets..." Faith nodded. "We've got protection too."

"So if one lot are Government Agents who were they fighting?" asked Faith.

"Dunno," said Cordelia. "Somebody attacked but nobody told us who it was. When the fighting started we were all told to stay where we were. I decided not to and ran upstairs when nobody was looking."

"I can't see this is really an official Government operation," said Buffy. "Not unless it's somebody else's Government." But a nagging thought intruded: What about the Initiative? That started out as a proper Government operation and look how that ended up.

"Perhaps the other lot are the local natives and they don't like us being here?" suggested Faith.

"I don't like us being here," said Cordelia.

"We need a plan to get us home," said Buffy.

"Well I've got to get some more rest," said Cordelia with a deep sigh as she lay back down on the ground and closed her eyes. "Make sure that plan includes a nice meal and a bath."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If they hadn't found a wide path before it got completely dark they would have had to stop an hour ago and wait for daylight. Stumbling about in the woods during the day was bad enough but there's nothing darker than a wood at night thought Buffy. Or at least that was what she thought before the three moons came up and gave enough light to resemble a deeply overcast day.

Buffy could tell that Cordelia was really tired, she'd stopped complaining. They'd soon have to stop anyway to give her more rest but Buffy wanted to go on as long as possible in case there was a chance of finding somewhere to stay and something decent to eat. Those rabbit thingies that Faith had caught hadn't exactly been a feast.

Faith had experimented with the pole weapon, first of all using it to hit nearby trees. She had then graduated to aiming at small wildlife, which had raised objections from Cordelia.

"Don't you want to eat then?" was Faith's response which put an end to Cordelia's objections.

One to stun, two to kill seemed to be the way it worked but even so it was a cumbersome weapon for the untrained. It took a great deal of practice before Faith was able to stun three small animals. Having done the hunting and with Cordelia once again sleeping or pretending to sleep Faith had been successful in passing over the cooking duties to Buffy.

Earlier in the day Buffy had climbed one of the taller trees at the top of a hill to look for landmarks. She had been able to see that they were inside a large wood which, using the position of what she thought was the afternoon sun she assessed as stretching away West, North and East.

To the south Buffy had seen several columns of smoke and had concluded that they marked the site of the battle. She had been debating with herself whether to propose to the others that they head back in that direction when a large flying machine passed over the wood heading towards the smoke.

The massive flying machine was several times larger than the largest air liner on Earth and presumably had a considerable number of people aboard. It had been closely followed by a dozen smaller, individual flyers about the size of Air Force fighter planes.

There was no firing of weapons as far as Buffy could see, so the smaller flyers were presumably escort rather than opposition. As she continued to watch, the large machine had descended towards a landing point somewhere near to the smoke columns.

A conference between the three women had produced a unanimous decision to head in the opposite direction to the smoke and flying machines. If they found nothing to the north they would consider heading back south once Cordelia had recovered her full magic strength. They had therefore headed north as far as they were able, using the sun as a guide and helped by periodic sightings from tall trees.

As they continued their journey in the gloom to who knew where, Faith took the lead with Buffy helping Cordelia. Suddenly Faith stopped and hissed to the others: "Listen!"

Buffy and Faith stopped and listened to hear the sound of hooves coming nearer.

"Get off the track!" ordered Buffy. She grabbed Cordelia's arm and helped her into the woods to the right of the path. Faith chose left and decided to keep going a little way before stopping and lying down.

The horses, because that indeed is what they were, alien planet or no alien planet, came closer and slowed to a stop. From the noise it was clear that it wasn't just one rider but at least half a dozen. Buffy was able to see them through the foliage that she hoped was hiding her and Cordelia.

"You can come out," said one of the riders, a slim, dark haired man in a dark brown uniform. In fact as Buffy looked closely the riders seemed to be a military unit of about eight men. The speaker was presumably the officer in charge.

"With these special glasses we can see you quite clearly, both of you," he said. "We mean you no harm."

Buffy looked at Cordelia who shrugged. "I can't outrun horses anyway," she whispered. "In fact at the moment I can't outrun anything."

"Can you do anything magical if necessary," whispered Buffy.

"Only if really, really necessary," whispered Cordelia in reply. "I need more time before I'm back to normal."

"OK," said Buffy. "Let's see what they want."

Buffy and Cordelia walked back onto the road.

"OK," said Buffy addressing the man or officer in charge. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"That's just what I was going to ask," said the man.

The man introduced himself as Captain Brissim, an officer in the Kallistien army. Witches working with the Kallistien army had detected the strong magic that Cordelia had used in her teleportation spell and the Captain, with his patrol had been sent to investigate.

"We know you teleported away from the Goa'uld base so we're hoping you're on our side," said the Captain.

"And if we're not?" asked Buffy.

"That's up to our witches," said the Captain.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Once the NID people had gone the SGC sat down once again with the witches. Mary and Elise had now left. Without revealing anything about the Stargate Phoebe had told them something of what had happened in the gate room. Neither of them were interested in working with the Military and maybe coming up against something similar in future. They actually had little power beyond that demonstrated in the meeting room.

The meeting was between the SGC on the one side and Phoebe and her sisters on the other. Leo had orbed away having received a call from one of his other charges. Seeing no alternative the General agreed to Sam and Daniel explaining to the sisters about the Stargate after receiving their agreement to keep the information strictly confidential.

"You have secrets you want us to keep," said the General. "Well we'd like you to keep our secrets. Everything about the Stargate comes under the heading of National Security."

After thanking the witches for their assistance the General explained about the need the SGC had for the assistance of witches the next time they visited the world of Kallistien. "However that can wait," the General continued. "Now the Replicators have access to a Stargate we've got to move quickly to stop them destroying who knows how many worlds."

"We've got to go to the world they just came from as quickly as we can to try to stop them going anywhere else," said Jack. "If possible we'd like you ladies to go with us. You seem to have a certain way with these things."

"It may be too late to stop them," said Sam. "Even as we speak they may be using the Stargate. They may have used it before they attacked us."

"It's never too late," said Phoebe. "There's always a way. That's why I get those visions. There's always a way to stop it happening." Phoebe explained about her vision talent and about the vision she had had about the attack of the little metal monsters through the Stargate.

"Haven't we already stopped those things?" asked Piper. "Do you think your vision means we're meant to help other worlds? Where do we stop?"

"There are people, human people, on these other worlds that might be destroyed by these things?" asked Phoebe.

"Yes, on some of them there are," confirmed General Hammond.

"Then we're meant to help them," said Phoebe with certainty.

"I've an idea about how we can help," said Prue. "But I need to do a little research first. Could we all meet back here about the same time tomorrow?"

"Do we have that much time?" asked Daniel.

"If my idea works out the delay won't make any difference," said Prue.

"And we need to make our own preparations as well," said Jack. "That'll take a few hours."

"OK," said General Hammond. "We've also got to complete repairs to the Iris before we power up again. We meet again back here same time tomorrow. I really hope you can help us but even if you can't we've got to make a move ourselves then."

The witches stood up ready to leave.

"A moment before you go," said Teal'c. "Until now many here were convinced there was no such thing as a witch. A real witch with magic power." Teal'c carefully avoided looking at Jack but Daniel couldn't resist. "Is there such a thing as a vampire?" asked Teal'c.

"Oh yes," said Paige. "Vampires are real. We've met a few." She looked at her sisters. "We all have. Most of them are very dangerous."

"Is it true they don't have a reflection in a mirror?" asked Daniel.

Paige nodded. "Uh huh," she confirmed. "Some sorts. Have you seen one?" she asked. "Because down here, no sunlight, this is just the sort of place they'd love."

"It wasn't here," said Daniel. "It was in a hotel a few days ago."

"After dark?" asked Piper.

"Yup," replied Daniel.

"It was a woman," said Jack. "Mid twenties, dark hair, attractive. She said she wasn't a witch but she sometimes did magic."

"Did she have an English accent, a cockney accent?" asked Prue.

"Well yes," said Daniel, "I think she did. It was a bit strange but it was certainly English."

"She said she had The Sight," said Sam.

"She does," said Prue. "Her name's Drusilla. What did she tell you?"

"She said we'd be up against the Replicators," said Sam. "Those little metal monsters, we call them Replicators. She said we'd be up against the Replicators again soon, and we were. In fact I don't think we'd have continued to look for witches if it wasn't for what she said." General Hammond nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry about it," said Phoebe. "She's one of the good guys, well nowadays anyway."

"So she's not a vampire then?" asked Jack.

"Oh no," replied Paige. "She's a vampire alright. One of the very rare good vampires. Generally if you meet a vampire you want to run a mile, if you can."

As the witches orbed away Jack pulled out his wallet and reluctantly paid off his bets, still not entirely convinced about vampires.