Chapter Thirty Two: Fighting on Several Fronts
"I'll try a healing but I'm not convinced what's happened to you is the same as suffering an injury or catching a disease," said Tara. Tara had orbed to join Cordelia in response to her call. Cordelia had explained about what had happened with the Wolfram and Hart book and the demon transformation infection as well as the disappearance of Wesley and Eve. Tara told Cordelia about the successful outcome to the attack on Marduk's spaceship.
"You'd better not touch me," said Cordelia. "You might not be immune to whatever it is yourself. I don't want you to turn into a demon."
"I'll try a healing anyway," replied Tara. "I don't actually have to touch you to do one. Hold out your hands please."
Cordelia held out her hands, palms up and Tara held out her own hands, palms down a few inches above them. She concentrated on feeding her Whitelighter healing power into Cordelia through her hands. Finally she put her hands above Cordelia's head and then slowly moved them down to the ground, making sure to apply healing to Cordelia's whole body, head to toe, before finishing.
"Thanks," said Cordelia. "I feel fine. But then I felt fine before you did anything. Do you know if it worked?"
"No, I don't," said Tara. "But there's something else I want to try as well. First we'd better destroy that wand in case you're right about the wand spreading the infection."
"I'm sure I can do that myself," said Cordelia and she started to gather her glow power inside her.
"Make sure your power only goes in one direction," said Tara. "Away from you. Don't let any of it flow back to you. That way it shouldn't be able to change you into a demon or re-infect you."
Cordelia concentrated and then sent a fast burst of power at the wand. She immediately cut if off and protected herself from any back blast. The wand burst into flames and was quickly consumed. Not even ashes were left behind, just a small burnt patch on the tiled floor.
"OK," said Cordelia. "So far so good. What next? Any ideas about how to find Wesley and Eve?"
"Before we think about them there's something else I'd like to do," said Tara. "What happened seems to be something like a curse, a curse that gets passed onto others. Old spell books sometimes contain witches' curses. That might be what happened this time. I'd like to try a spell to make sure any curse has really gone. Sit down on the floor, over there away from the torn up pieces of the book."
Cordelia did as Tara directed. Tara then found a crayon on the nearby desk and drew a pentagram on the floor around Cordelia but did not complete it. She left one corner unfinished. "That's to allow the curse spirit to get out," explained Tara.
Tara didn't have any magical supplies with her so she had decided to try a Halliwell type spell and adapt the curse release spell that she already knew into a rhyming chant in an effort to increase its power. She went through the wording several times, muttering some of it out loud but never completing it so as not to invoke the magic prematurely.
"Do you want me to join in?" asked Cordelia. "Will that double up the magic power?"
"We'd better not risk it," said Tara. "You're the one who's been infected. If there is still a curse spirit inside you I need you to be ready to complete the pentagram as soon as the spirit has been expelled. It can't exist for long on its own. If you complete it quickly after the curse has been expelled the pentagram should protect us until the spirit fades away."
Tara began the chant, at the same time walking around Cordelia, but being careful to remain within the pentagram. If she had had supplies of the right herbs available Tara would have scattered them over Cordelia. In their absence the circling served the same purpose of making Cordelia the focus of the spell.
As Tara completed her first circle Cordelia felt a sudden and brief chill. Well something's happening she thought. The second circle caused Cordelia to feel a sudden and intense flush. The third circle brought things to a climax. Cordelia shuddered all through her body as if she was being vibrated by a road drill and then she was back to normal.
"Quick!" ordered Tara. "The pentagram. Complete it"
Cordelia leant forward and drew in the last piece of the pentagram with the crayon that Tara had passed on to her for just that purpose. She then started to get to her feet but had only reached her knees when she found herself hugged tightly from behind by Tara.
"Stay still!" ordered Tara. "Look!"
On the other side of the pentagram, floating at about head height, was a small black cloud. A cloud that seemed to have a face in it. As Cordelia looked, the face became uglier and uglier in fact it became the quite frightening face of a demon. Suddenly the cloud darted forward straight at the two witches.
Cordelia flinched. She might have flinched backwards right out of the pentagram, which was probably what the curse spirit intended but Tara stopped her moving at all. She held firm to Cordelia as the black cloud came up against the barrier of the pentagram and recoiled back.
After that it was a question of waiting for the cloud to fade away. It launched several more attacks, some of them accompanied by a high pitched wailing, but each attack was weaker than the last and none of them were able to penetrate the pentagram. Gradually the cloud thinned, finally it faded away altogether. At last all was quiet, no more curse spirit and no more wailing.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kennedy arrived in the main witch council chamber just as a magic portal opened in the middle of the room. At once an armoured Jaffa armed with a staff weapon leapt through. Kennedy went into attack mode at once.
The Jaffa landed and began to level his weapon at the nearest targets, three witches who were getting to their feet from their position at the conference table. He only became aware of the fast arriving Kennedy at the last moment just before her flying kick hammered into the closed helmet on his head. The Jaffa was knocked across the room unconscious to crash up against the wall.
The next enemy had already arrived. Kennedy, from her position on the floor took his feet out by seizing and swinging the staff weapon dropped by the first Jaffa. She then used the staff, end on to knock out her second opponent by hammering it into his metal helmet.
So far Kennedy had successfully dealt with the Jaffa as quickly as they arrived and she might have been able to continue doing so had there been only one portal but Jaffa were now arriving elsewhere in the building as well as continuing to arrive in the street outside.
But Kennedy was not alone. Her intervention had given the Kallistien witches in the room the chance to contribute to the defence. As Kennedy launched her attack against the third Jaffa to arrive one of the witches darted forward and threw a glowing ball of light through the portal to wherever the Jaffa were coming from.
A flash of light came from the other side of the portal and the portal abruptly winked out. The magical device had found its target which presumably was the witch or witches who had opened and were maintaining that particular portal on behalf of the Goa'uld. Meanwhile Kennedy wasted no time in disposing of her third opponent with a brutal low kick followed by rapid blows from the staff weapon that she continued to use as a fighting staff.
But all this was only one small fight in a much larger battle. Kennedy could hear the sounds of fighting, shouting and maybe dying coming from elsewhere in the building. After a quick check to make sure the three Jaffa would remain out for the count for some time to come she decided to leave the room to contribute to the defence elsewhere.
As Kennedy paused in the doorway she realised that there was one thing notably absent from all the noises of fighting coming from elsewhere. Something that might just give them a real chance to hold off the attack. There were no sounds of weapon fire inside the building, none of the distinctive staff weapon blasts.
That must mean the spell to prevent weapons working inside the witch HQ was still holding. The fact that the Jaffa were armed might mean they were unaware of this part of the defence. Or it might mean that the enemy witches had plans to try to counteract that spell. If I see any enemy witches they're target number one thought Kennedy.
Outside on the stairs and in the nearby rooms there were hand to hand struggles going on. The Jaffa had the numbers and the combat training but those witches who had not been surprised by the first attack were now using their magic against the invaders. Before Kennedy made up her mind as to where she was most needed one of the witches in the room behind her called out.
"Hold the door!" commanded the witch. "Stop any more of them coming in! If you give us time to strengthen the defences we can stop all this. We can close down all the portals and stop any more opening." A brief glance behind her showed Kennedy the three witches, sat cross-legged on the floor in a small circle holding hands. Now they began to chant.
So long as the Jaffa can't fire their weapons I can keep them out thought Kennedy. And being Jaffa, armoured Jaffa, they can take quite a bit of punishment she thought with relish. No need to be too gentle, not that she had been at all gentle so far. As she thought this a fresh opponent appeared from the room opposite.
Kennedy ducked right and stopped her new opponent dead with a smashing blow to the head from her staff. As he staggered back she moved in close and grabbed him by his armour in order to toss him down the stairs where he crashed into another two Jaffa coming up from the floor below, propelling all three down the stairs.
Now Kennedy could hear the sound of firing, but not weapon fire. The sound was not alarming, quite the contrary. Kennedy had heard Gwen use her electric power before. Now, from not very far away, probably the next floor down, she was hitting and taking down targets. Metal armour won't be any protection against Gwen thought Kennedy.
But Kennedy had no time for further thought. New opponents appeared from her right while behind in the conference room the Kallistien witches continued their chanting.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"There's another one," said Gunn from his seat looking at the CCTV monitors in the control room of the Sunnydale Slayer HQ. "All the ones I've seen look human but that don't mean much. They might be vampires, the NID or even Wolfram and Hart goons."
Ever since the warning signals had started going off about an hour before, most of the people present at the Slayer HQ had crowded into the control room to find out what was going on. They had discovered that the premises were being watched. The Slayer HQ had been surrounded by shadowy figures on all sides. Gunn had been able to identify more and more of these apparently human figures as he studied the security monitors. The numbers had steadily increased during the time he had been watching.
Hostile intent was assumed because somebody had done something to isolate the HQ from contact with the outside world. The land-line telephone was dead and everybody's cellphone just produced an interference noise. Internet access had also been stopped. Even the telecommunication equipment of the SGC team on the premises had been blocked somehow and that had a satellite link. Amy and Anya were currently elsewhere in the building seeing if they could break through the interference by using magic.
"Well they won't get in here," said Dawn. "Not with all the defences we've got. I'd like to see them try."
"I'm gonna dial up the Gate," said Fred. "It won't do any harm to have another way out available if we need it, just in case."
"You can't keep a Gate open indefinitely," said Major Janice Larkham who was currently in command of the SGC detachment keeping watch on the Sunnydale Stargate.
"I know that," said Fred. "But we can always redial straight away if we have to. I'd just like to keep it open as much as possible. If this is Wolfram and Hart we're dealing with they wouldn't be out there if they didn't have a plan to get past our defences."
"They must want Dawn awfully bad," said Connor. "After what happened at the school and then again when Jenny pretended to be Dawn you'd think they'd give up. They've obviously got big plans for the Key. Pity Jenny couldn't hang around. She'd give us another way out."
"Why don't we all go through the Gate and join Buffy and the others now anyway," said Dawn. "They won't be able to follow us there, or if they did we'd have a lot of help."
"And leave this Gate unguarded at this end? I don't think so," said Major Larkham. "That might be just what they're after."
"Wasn't it you who keep insisting we keep guarding this Gate because it might be the only way for your sister and the others to get home?" asked Gunn.
"Oh yeah," said Dawn disappointed. But when is it going to be my turn to visit another world she thought. Why should Buffy have all the fun again?
"You can't dial up the Gate your friends used anyway," said Major Larkham who had been kept fully informed by General Hammond of what was happening at the SGC. "If everything's on track that Gate is currently being kept linked to the SGC as much as possible. You'll get the busy signal. And even if you did get through you might find yourself in the middle of a big battle."
"Out of the frying pan into the fire so to speak," said Fred. "There must be somewhere else we could go if we really had to. Where do you suggest we dial?" asked Fred.
"Well we have a couple of off world bases that..." began the Major.
"You know what I think," interrupted Gunn who was still studying the screens in front of him. "The way they're spread around the perimeter. I don't think they're getting ready to attack. I think they're trying to keep everybody in, trying to stop us leaving. It looks more like a siege than an assault."
"Why would they do that?" asked Connor who moved forward to study the screens over Gunn's shoulder.
"Militarily I can think of two reasons," said Major Larkham. "Either they're waiting for more reinforcements before attacking or they intend dropping something on us and blowing us away where we sit. Just how good are your defences?"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Tell them to get out of here," said Jack. "They can't make a difference to this battle but they could be a big help back on Earth. We can learn a lot from those ships. Tell them to take their ships to Earth and report to General Hammond there."
Jack's order was directed to Sergeant Paisley who was now in charge of communications on the bridge of the captured spaceship. Jack had decided that even if the prize crews now controlling the rest of Marduk's fleet were able to operate their ships effectively in battle there was no point in throwing them against Apophis's much larger fleet. It would be a waste of lives and hardware.
"Won't you upset the Kallistians by doing that?" asked Sam. "They may want those ships themselves. They may think they're entitled to them."
"We can talk to the Kallistians about the ships later," said Jack. "But if they stay here nobody will have them. Apophis will blow them apart, and our people along with them. Anyway I don't think the Kallistians have people who can deal with that level of technology."
"But you intend to fight Apophis with this single ship?" asked Angel. Angel, Buffy and Xander had so far found themselves to be without a role in running the captured ship but they were still in the Control Center of the flagship ready to help if they were needed.
"I'm hoping the guys next door can do something to help us," said Jack. "Otherwise we're in for a tough time."
Willow, Phoebe and Giles were currently in the room next door working with the witches who had previously been working for Marduk. Jack didn't know what they were working on but hoped it would be something that would give them an edge in the coming battle.
"Message coming in from the Goa'uld fleet," said Sergeant Paisley.
"Put it on the loud speaker," ordered Jack.
"I am Apophis," said the voice of Apophis. "All who hear this should know that Marduk is no more. The shell of what he once was still walks but he is not your god Marduk. The one claiming to be Marduk is a false god."
"How did he find that out so quickly?" asked Sam.
"Magic?" suggested Jack sarcastically. Sam directed a frown towards Jack. I'd better stop doing that thought Jack or Sam's going to find some way to get back at me before long.
"Everybody hearing this should pledge their loyalty to me as their god," continued Apophis. "The men, women and children on Marduk's home worlds are now under my control and have pledged their loyalty to me. All Jaffa formerly in the service of Marduk will have an honoured place in my service. Those who resist, together with their families, will be treated as enemies and will be executed." The transmission ended.
"That's pretty clear," said Buffy to Jack. "He wants all of Marduk's people to work for him otherwise he kills their families. What a nice guy. D'you think he'll do it."
"If he's really taken over Marduk's home worlds he's probably already started the killing," said Jack. "He'll do it all right. It's exactly what any Goa'uld in his position would do, and Apophis is pretty bad, even for a Goa'uld. The Jaffa know it."
"That message is being broadcast and re-broadcast all the time," said Sergeant Paisley. "Anybody on the planet with a radio will be able to pick it up."
"Tell Teal'c what's going on," ordered Jack. "And get him to get Jagerat to send out more messages pretending to be Marduk. That message might just rebound on Apophis. A lot of Marduk's Jaffa won't like it one bit." Teal'c and Jagerat were currently working together elsewhere in the ship to ensure that all of Marduk's Jaffa got the message that they should surrender and cooperate with the Kallistians.
Buffy felt a tap on her arm from behind her. She turned to find Willow there signalling her to follow. Buffy followed Willow into the next room where Phoebe, Giles and the other witches were working. Angel and Xander, seeing what was happening quickly followed.
"It looks like there's going to be some sort of space battle soon," said Willow.
"Yeah," interrupted Xander. "I wonder where the phaser controls are."
Willow ignored the interruption. "And we've got to stop it if we can. I can't see our side wining a fight against all those other ships without some sort of magical help. I think we should lend a hand."