Chapter Seven: Counter Attack
Back at the Halliwell Manor Prue Halliwell was not happy, not happy at all. "You do realise what's happened don't you?" she said to her sisters. "We're now on record, on record with the US Military. I know we had to destroy those little replicator things but this could be a problem for us in the future."
"How exactly?" asked Phoebe. "Those guys are good at keeping secrets. It's not like the Stargate Project is all over the news."
"And it would be if the press heard about it," said Paige. "I haven't even seen anything about it on the net either. I looked just now."
"No," said Piper, "Prue's right. We're talking about the government here. Do we really want to be on their radar? Do we want to be brought in every time there's something they can't solve any other way?"
"It's not just that," said Prue. "There are good reasons for witches to work in secret. Once people know we exist they worry about us, they worry about the power we have and they start blaming us for things they don't like."
"I see what you mean," said Phoebe. "And there could come a time when they want us to do something and we say no, so suddenly we're the bad guys. We deal with demons and the supernatural. They might ask us to do something about human conflicts and we can't get involved in that."
"Exactly!" said Prue. "We've got to think about this carefully before we go back to the Stargate people."
"There are also those NID people who took Phoebe," said Paige. "They know about us, or at least about Phoebe and me."
"Yes, they know something about us that's for sure," said Prue. "But they probably don't know a lot about us. There's not really much we can do about that."
"We could do one of those magic monk spells that we heard about from Willow," said Piper.
"If there's no alternative," said Prue, "but I hope we don't have to. I think those cleaners deal with the little information leaks. They might be the main reason why most people always look for mundane explanations whenever possible."
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When the sisters returned to the SGC the next day they turned up at the gate rather than orbed directly inside and then asked for a closed door meeting with General Hammond and SG-1.
"Look," said Prue, "we're happy to help you with this Replicator business but don't get the idea we're available for other matters."
"Dire, world threatening supernatural emergencies only," said Piper.
"We'll keep your secrets about the Stargate but you've got to keep our secrets as well," said Prue.
"Nothing in your reports about magic, witches or anything like that," said Paige.
"And no more witnesses to what we do than absolutely necessary," said Prue.
"Do you think we're nuts?" asked Jack. "If we always put down everything we saw and did in our reports the men in white coats would have taken us all away long ago."
Jack found General Hammond looking at him.
"You know what I mean Sir," said Jack, trying not to look guilty. "No secrets from you."
"I hope not," said General Hammond. "We'll have a little talk when we've got the time." After I've had another run through of the SG-1 reports he thought.
"The point is the term witch-hunt isn't just a metaphor for our family," said Phoebe. "We know the sort of thing that can happen when people get scared."
General Hammond and SG-1 agreed to the sisters' requests with one exception.
"I'm not keeping any secrets from the President," said General Hammond. "I'll make sure that nothing goes in the reports but if the President asks questions I'm not going to lie and I will carry out his orders."
With that sorted out Prue explained her plan and the reason for the bundles of herbs the witches had brought with them.
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"It's in the basement all right," said Angel. "There are about a dozen people down there. Half of them seem to be these Jaffa people and the rest are technicians of one sort or another." Angel was reporting back after he and Gwen had scouted out the building in Seattle which reportedly housed the Stargate portal to other worlds.
Tara had tried to orb off to speak to Cordelia only to find that she was unable to do so because she was not able to home in on Cordelia. She found that either Cordelia was being hidden by powerful magic or she had left the world altogether. Since she knew that Cordelia wasn't dead she concluded that she was probably another victim of the round up of witches by Marduk's Jaffa.
Willow and Tara had gone to LA to consult with Angel and explain to him what was happening. Since Cordelia was meant to be visiting her family he had not known she was missing. Now Angel, Gunn and Gwen had joined Willow, Tara, Xander and Kennedy in Seattle. Fred, Connor and Lorne had remained in LA to keep an eye on things there.
Willow had refused to allow Dawn to come because it would mean she might miss school. Anya and Amy had temporarily moved to Slayer HQ in order to look out for the place and be with Dawn. They also kept an eye on the captives who were being kept in the basement in suspended animation with a stasis spell.
On arrival in Seattle courtesy of Tara's orbing, the gang had scouted out the building identified as housing the Stargate. Gathering nearby after dark the gang had waited whilst Angel and Gwen had entered the building to look around.
"We can get everybody in quietly," said Angel. "They won't know we're there until we arrive in the basement and make our move. Then we can take them all out."
"Security system's pretty old," said Gwen. "So long as we don't wake up the guys on the front desk they won't know we're coming."
"I could do a sleep spell for the whole building," said Willow. "Then we can just walk in the front door."
"Better not," said Kennedy. "Whoever's on the other side of the Stargate might be able to detect something's wrong. They might have units on the other side ready to come through. Couldn't Tara orb us inside?"
"I could but I'm trying to keep the orbing for when we really need it," said Tara. "I'm not meant to be seen by anybody who doesn't know about Whitelighters so I have to be careful. I have to be sure I don't appear on a security tape."
"You'd better save the magic to use against the Stargate itself," said Xander. "The first thing you do you'd better shut it down, stop anybody coming through."
"Block it off rather," replied Willow. "We can't afford to damage it. It might be the only way we have of getting Buffy back."
And Faith and Cordelia Tara added mentally as she smiled to herself. There was never any doubt where Willow's priorities lay.
They discussed for a while longer before deciding on a plan. Angel and Gwen would lead the gang inside, making sure to avoid the security devices. Willow, Tara, Xander, and Kennedy would go with them.
Willow and Tara would avoid getting involved in any fighting if at all possible in order to concentrate on trying to take control of the Stargate. Gunn would remain outside to watch for and warn of any new arrivals.
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"OK," said Prue, standing up from where she had been sitting of the floor of the Gate room with her sisters. "We're ready to go."
"Plenty of smoke but I haven't seen the mirrors yet," muttered Jack to Daniel.
"You're not supposed to see the mirrors," replied Daniel smiling.
"Do you um, really think this is going to work?" asked Sam looking dubiously at the chalk circle on the floor of the Gate Room which Paige and Phoebe were rubbing out and the wisps of smoke still in the air.
"Well sometimes things do go wrong..." began Piper.
"But usually they don't," said Prue firmly giving Piper a mild glare. "Not in recent years."
"This from the woman who accidentally turned herself into a man and then a dog," Piper whispered quietly to Phoebe.
Not quietly enough because Prue heard and turned to glare at her sisters. Piper just smiled back. Not quietly enough for Teal'c's sharp hearing either. He said nothing as he wondered whether Piper meant what she said literally or whether she was making some sort of in joke.
Sam looked at Jack and Jack shrugged. She knew he believed that nothing had happened but there was really no alternative to hoping that the witches' plan worked. Anyway they would soon find out, seeing was believing.
Prue had explained that she believed the only way to be sure of stopping the Replicators was to go to the planet from where they had launched their attack but to go there 'before' the attack, that is to say use time travel.
"If we do this right we can get there before they use their Stargate to infest other planets," Prue had explained. "We will still have to let them launch their attack on Earth to avoid compromising the time line but once that's over we can destroy them and stop them going anywhere else."
"But supposing they used their Stargate to go somewhere else before they attacked Earth?" Daniel had asked.
"Or they have other Stargates already and the attack was launched from only one of their bases?" Teal'c had pointed out.
"All valid points," said Jack. "But unless we go and look see we'll never find out will we? As the General said, one step at a time."
"We can work our way back through time to other planets if necessary," said Phoebe. "We're all prepared to do more time travel spells." But I hope we don't have to she thought. This could get really complicated and be very easy to mess up.
The sisters had now completed their spells. If all went according to plan, when the Replicator planet was dialled up it would connect to a time about 24 hours before SG-12 went to the planet, in fact before the original robot probe had been sent through the Gate to check out the conditions.
Jack now turned to the control room. "Dial up!" he called. "All ready here."
The familiar surge came out of the gate and Jack lead the way forward. "OK, let's go people," he said holding his gun at the ready. "Now we've got witches with us perhaps we're really off to see the wizard this time."
"Just so long as one of them isn't the Wicked Witch of the West," whispered Daniel to Sam as they followed Jack and Teal'c up the ramp ahead of the witches.
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The center of the Stargate burst into life and a wave of what looked like but couldn't be water rushed out and then back. The blackness at the centre now looked like rippling water and two of the Jaffa began walking up the ramp towards that watery curtain.
Having waited to see a demonstration of the Stargate in action Willow now decided that the time had come for action of her own.
"Freeze!" commanded Willow in a loud voice, directing her power at the two Jaffa. From her position of concealment in a gallery above the Stargate she was too far away to freeze all activity in the large open basement area below so she just concentrated on the two figures. The two Jaffa froze causing consternation amongst the others in the basement.
"What the hell is..." began the senior technician in charge starting forward from his control chair. He didn't complete his sentence as he was hit by an electrical charge as were his two nearby colleagues. They all three fell to the floor, unconscious victims of Gwen who had just appeared behind them.
The four remaining Jaffa had started forward towards their two frozen colleagues on the ramp but they stopped and turned back on hearing Gwen's attack on the technicians. They were therefore completely taken by surprise by Angel and Kennedy dropping from the ceiling amongst them.
Meanwhile Willow and Tara had made their way down to the front of the Stargate and, hand in hand, began to chant their barrier spell to block off the Stargate and prevent anybody from coming through for the time being.
Warned by Kennedy of the strength of the Jaffa in combat Angel didn't hold back as he normally did in hitting humans, nor of course did Kennedy. To achieve maximum shock affect Angel attacked in full vampire face.
Angel and Kennedy first concentrated on taking out the two Jaffa who were armed with some sort of pole weapon. Neither was given the chance to aim their weapon before being knocked down. The two remaining Jaffa, with slightly longer to react, proved more formidable.
Not formidable enough however. Having delivered crushing blows with both hands and feet the taller of the two remaining fighters found that he had not even slowed down his monstrous looking opponent. Angel shrugged off the blows and grabbed the Jaffa by the neck and threw him twenty feet up against the wall. The Jaffa slumped down immobile.
The remaining Jaffa may have thought he had the easier task against a diminutive young woman, but of course he knew nothing about slayers. He succeeded in getting in one blow from his fist but the blow, which would have struck most men unconscious or dead didn't even slow down the slayer. Kennedy responded with fast punches to the body and finished the fight with a knock out kick to the head.
Of the remaining three non-Jaffa, two elected to run, either to find help or just in self preservation. They found themselves blocked off however as Willow had already sealed the basement door. The final 'civilian' went to a nearby desk and pulled out a gun only to be hit by the electrical type discharge of an energy weapon. Xander held in his hand one of the two Zat guns captured from the Jaffa in Sunnydale.
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Giles had agreed to meet Wesley and his party at London Heathrow airport so when he didn't turn up Wesley had his first indication that something might be wrong. He had this confirmed later in the day when he arrived at the HQ of the new Watchers Council to find everything in upheaval because of the disappearance of Giles.
Giles had left instructions that if anything happened to him his strong recommendation was that the Council appoint Wesley as his successor. Wesley had mixed feelings about this. On the one hand he was flattered by it but on the other he was annoyed that Giles had not discussed it with him first. In the short term however he found it very useful as he set in train measures to find out what had happened to Giles.
To start with Wesley had decided to use mundane methods to try to find out what had happened. Thus it was that Wesley found himself reviewing CCTV security tapes from various parts of the Watchers Council HQ building for the day that Giles had disappeared.
Although Wesley had managed to pass over responsibility for his two potentials to another watcher for the duration of their stay in England he had decided to keep Eve with him in order to keep an eye on her. So far she had contributed nothing to the investigation other than to deny any knowledge of what might be going on.
"I'm not saying Wolfram and Hart couldn't have done something like snatch Giles," said Eve. "But it's not really their style. Anyway they generally steer clear of Britain because of the Council, at least this part of Britain."
"They're scared of the Watchers' Council?" asked Wesley surprised.
"No, not scared," said Eve. "But if you wanted to do something and not have it noticed would you go out of your way to do it somewhere where it might be seen by people who could recognise what was going on? There are a lot of places where Wolfram and Hart can do what they need to without doing it in front of the Council."
"So why don't Wolfram and Hart clear out of LA now that Angel and the rest of us are there?" asked Wesley.
"There's a difference between not going somewhere and being chased out of town," said Eve. "Anyway the Watchers Council you're not."
"So you don't think Wolfram and Hart want Giles so they can question him?" asked Wesley. If they are so wary about the Council that might be just what they would do thought he thought, still suspicious.
Wesley had already determined to question Eve about how Wolfram and Hart operated and what they were currently up to. That was one of the reasons for taking her to England. What she told them could be compared to what the Council already knew to see if she was telling the truth and was genuine about changing sides.
"Pu...lease," replied Eve. "You think they don't know how a slayer is chosen, how a watcher is trained? Money is a much better and more reliable way of finding out what you want to know. That way the opposition don't usually know you know it."
"Bribery?" asked Wesley. "Who exactly..."
Wesley broke off as the scene of Giles being taken by the yellow circle was now being played out in front of them. They watched in silence until it was over.
"So that's what happened," said a voice from behind them making both Wesley and Eve jump since they thought they were alone in the room.
"Jenny, hi," said Wesley who immediately recognised the woman standing behind them. "I thought you Whitelighters always appeared in a shower of light?"
"That's optional," said Jenny smiling. "It's not always a good idea to be so obvious."
Wesley introduced Jenny as a friend of Giles and started to introduce Eve.
"It's OK," said Jenny. "I know who Eve is. Giles told me all about her when he told me you were coming."
Jenny explained that she had regular meetings with Giles. In fact although she didn't say it, dates would be a better description. But she had been busy elsewhere since she last saw him. She had only found out about his disappearance a short while before.
"Any idea where that portal took him?" asked Wesley.
"Nope," replied Jenny. "But I can't find him anywhere on Earth so I'm thinking he's on some other world, in some other dimension. I think I'd know if he were dead."
"Do you know any way of finding out which other world?" asked Eve. Jenny shook her head.
"But I know some people who might know," said Wesley.
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Cordelia had agreed to join the Kallistien witches in an attack on Apophis's base. An attack which was being hastily planned by the witches and their military associates to take advantage of the disruption caused by the Marduk/Apophis battle.
Captain Brissim had offered to have Buffy and Faith taken to a place of safety while the attack took place. Faith laughed at this but Buffy glowered so Cordelia hurriedly explained that she needed both of her friends to stay and help with the attack.
"They're both experienced fighters," she explained, to the surprise of the Kallistians who were not familiar with the idea of women soldiers or fighters.
"But we need weapons," said Buffy making the point that she had no intention of staying safe anywhere. "What have you got?"
"Can you use a gun?" asked the Captain.
"No guns," said Buffy. "We prefer swords. Oh, and we've got one of those pole thingies the Jaffa use. We'll be hanging onto that."
"And knives," added Faith. "A knife and a sword each." We can make our own stakes later if we need them she thought. I wonder if they have vampires on this world. I wonder if they have their own slayer.
The still sceptical Captain took the slayers to the armoury where he introduced them to the sergeant in charge. "Have you got a couple of swords small enough for these ladies?" he asked.
"What's the use of a little sword?" asked Faith who walked past the sergeant to where various sorts of swords and knives were stacked. She picked out one of the longest and heaviest of the blades and began twirling it around as if it were a light twig, to the great surprise of the captain and sergeant.
Faith was making a point because she was quite well aware of the impression she was making on the two men. She lightly tossed the blade to Buffy who caught it easily. "What do you think?" Faith asked Buffy.
"Great if you intend fighting Sir Lancelot," said Buffy who also took the opportunity to make a few fast passes with the weapon. "You going to wear it on your back like Xena?"
"Sure," smirked Faith putting her head to one side in inquiry as she looked straight at Buffy. "If you're going to dress like Gabrielle?"
In the end the slayers opted for two more modern lightweight swords. They were of higher quality than the somewhat medieval broadswords and less inconvenient to carry around. They also each chose a pair of throwing knives.