Chapter Thirty Six: More Key Events
"What do you mean 'gone'? Gone from the house? Gone from Sunnydale? Gone for good?" demanded Lilah. "Where's it gone and how? Be specific!"
Lilah's question was directed at the elder of the three mages who were working for her. The mages were based in a house near to the Sunnydale Slayer HQ and had spent the past few hours working spells aimed at the Key. On being brought to Sunnydale the mages had confirmed Lilah's suspicions that the Key was still in Sunnydale. They had later been able to narrow this down to somewhere inside the house or grounds of the Slayer HQ.
On Lilah's orders the mages had been trying to transform the Key back into its original form so that it could be used as the focus of the proposed mystical barrier to permanently separate the Earth from Kallistien and at the same time prevent the Goa'uld from ever returning to Earth. After a long period of non-stop spell casting the three mages had suddenly stopped.
"They've sent the Key somewhere through the Gate," said Maybourne. "You must have known there was a risk they'd do that. Despite what your geeks claimed, Miss Summers and her friends must have discovered what you were up to. That or she's simply taken it somewhere else by disappearing in a swirl of lights again."
"I told you, that couldn't have been Dawn Summers, not the real Dawn Summers," said Lilah. "She can't do that sort of thing."
"No?" said Maybourne sceptically. "You might be right but even if you are, one of her friends can do it. What's to stop one of them disappearing with Summers and the Key?"
Lilah turned back to her chief mage. "Well? Is that what happened?"
"The Key's definitely not on Earth any more," said the mage. "If it was we'd still be able to detect it, however faintly. We'd still be able to continue with the spell. They can't know what we're doing. They shouldn't be able to detect it until it's too late. It must be a coincidence that it's been taken off world. We'd know if somebody had teleported away with it to somewhere else on Earth. They haven't."
"Let me get this straight," said Maybourne. "We've told these people we're interested in this Key. We've surrounded their place and cut them off from communicating with anybody outside. We left the Stargate in there as the only way out but your people don't think they suspect anything. Huh! Your guys might be high up in the mumbo jumbo business but they come up short in the thinking department."
"You told me they wouldn't be able to take it though the Gate or send it off world through a portal," said Lilah menacingly to the mage.
"They shouldn't be able to. The energy of the Key and the energy of the Gate aren't compatible," said the mage. "You can't put the Key through the Gate or a magic portal without major consequences."
Oh yeah thought Maybourne. You guys know it all don't you? That's why you're working as flunkies for Lilah Morgan. But a glance at Lilah's face put things into perspective. Hm, he thought. Lilah's not the sort of person you want to cross. Even if this guy doesn't know what's going on it's probably more than his life's worth to admit it. That's the trouble with making your people scared of you. They don't want to give you any bad news.
"Now just a minute," said Lilah, starting to get really angry. "You told me it would be impossible to send the Key through the Gate but now you're saying if they do it there'll be major consequences. So it is possible? They might have done it?"
"Well possible yes, but nobody in their right mind would..." began the mage.
"Transport," interrupted one of Lilah's people looking up from her position at a nearby desk. "Somebody just did a magic teleport out of the building."
"Was that when the Key disappeared?" asked Lilah.
"No, this only just happened," said the woman making the announcement. A tall, very thin and rather grey faced individual. Maybourne was not sure she was entirely human. "This was some time after the Key disappeared."
"Which direction?" asked Lilah. "And how far?"
"West, and just a couple of miles," replied the woman. "That's about where the police station is located."
"That's OK," said Lilah. "We've got that covered." If somebody tries to bring the Sunnydale Police into this again we'll get plenty of advance warning she thought. Lilah turned back to the mage.
"I hope they've taken the Key through the Gate to Kallistien," said added suddenly, completely changing her mood and becoming upbeat. "That'd be perfect."
"Because?" asked Maybourne.
"Because what the mages have started with the Key will work just as well there as here," replied Lilah. "I've got a few contacts on Kallistien and I'll soon know if the Key has arrived."
But what about the major consequences thought Maybourne. Anyway that does it, I'm not going any further with this until I know a lot more about Wolfram and Hart. After everything else that's happened we now have wizard flunkies and off world contacts. Am I being played by some Goa'uld or other off world threat? Time to have a long chat with Miss Lilah Morgan and find out exactly what she is up to.
Maybourne turned to look straight at Captain Wright who was stood on the other side of the room. He gave a slow and deliberate nod and watched while Wright talked to the two agents with him. One man left the room and the other moved towards Lilah Morgan with Wright. But Lilah Morgan was well aware of what was going on.
"Before you do anything you'll regret you'd better speak to Senator Kinsey," said Lilah who was also looking at the approaching Wright and his colleague. She held out her cellphone to Maybourne. "He's waiting for your call."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"I panicked," said Willow as she slowly sat up. "Sorry guys," she added with her old guilty smile as she looked around at the group. "I just teleported us somewhere because I thought we were all going to be blown up."
"You saved our lives Will," said Xander getting to his feet. "Again. No need to apologise. We're all glad to be here, wherever here is."
"Yeah, big thanks from me but where are we?" asked Phoebe who, like the others, had found herself lying on the floor of an unfamiliar room. She too got to her feet. "I guess you teleported us all off of that spaceship but where did you take us, and how?"
"I just sort of jumped to the nearest place available," said Willow who winced in pain and put her hand to her head. "But I don't know where it is."
"Listen!" said Buffy. "Can you hear that?" Everybody stopped talking. A low humming background noise could now be heard.
"It's either the air conditioning, a great big humming monster or the engines of a spaceship," said Xander. "If this place is anything like Sunnydale the favourite would be the great big humming monster."
"We are indeed on a Goa'uld spaceship," said Teal'c. "The question is which one. Are we back on Marduk's ship or are we on a ship of Apophis's fleet? Are we perhaps on Apophis's flagship where we originally intended to be?"
The five travellers were in a room with one door but no windows. It seemed to be an unoccupied office room in that there were several tables, some of which contained computer terminals. Racks of shelves on two sides of the room contained some sort of tape or disc storage records. Since most of Marduk's ship was still unfamiliar to them it was not immediately obvious whether they were back there or on a completely different ship.
"Well that's easy to find out," said Willow who now for the first time got to her feet, helped by a hand from Xander. "I'll just...Ooh!" Willow said no more because as she stood up she clutched her head and fainted into Xander's arms. He caught her and picked her up before gently placing her onto an empty table in the middle of the room.
Buffy and Phoebe carefully examined Willow and made sure that she was breathing normally. Xander hovered nearby.
"Do you think she's just tired?" asked Buffy giving Phoebe a worried look. "Whenever she's teleported before, it's taken a lot out of her, even when she only moved one person at a time. Moving all of us together like that, without Tara to help, must have been quite a strain."
"Yes, she seems to be alright, just exhausted," said Phoebe. "I think we should just let her rest."
"If she's in any danger I think you should call Tara," said Xander to Phoebe. "She can heal Willow."
"If I need to then I'll give it a try, but the way Whitelighters work they're only tuned into their own charges, so it might not work," said Phoebe. "But Tara's linked so closely to Willow that if she was in any danger I'm sure Tara would be here. I'm sure Willow just needs rest."
"Unless Tara's got troubles of her own and can't come," muttered Xander quietly looking at the sleeping Willow, still worried.
"We are on Apophis's flagship," announced Teal'c suddenly. He had been looking around the room. He held up one of the record packs which he had removed from a shelf and opened. "This indicates Apophis," he said pointing to the writing on the inside of the pack. "We are in a storage room aboard Apophis's flagship. We are aboard the ship we were trying to reach."
"We couldn't be on one of the other ships in his fleet?" asked Xander.
"No," replied Teal'c. "This is definitely the flagship. I have been aboard this ship before. I believe I now know exactly where we are."
"So how did Willow manage to teleport us to a place she's never seen before?" asked Phoebe. "It doesn't usually work like that."
"Don't ask us," said Buffy. "You're the witch. Anyway Willow teleported. That's not like when Tara orbs so I guess it must work a different way."
"I guess," said Phoebe. This makes flying look pretty useless as a power she thought. I'm one of the charmed ones. How come I don't get to do powerful magic like that? I've been neglecting my studies she thought. Willow seems to be developing her powers by studying spells, that and working with Tara. I need to have a long talk with the two of them when things have settled down.
"What now?" asked Xander. "Is it safe to wait here until Will has recovered?"
"We cannot afford to wait," said Teal'c. "There is still a battle being fought. We must play our part. The lives of others depend on it."
"He's right," agreed Buffy. "But we don't have the small army we thought we'd have when we went through the Gate."
"And for the moment we don't have Willow," said Phoebe. "Even when she wakes up she won't be doing any magic for a while. We need a new plan."
"Well we don't have enough people to take over and run a ship of this size," said Buffy. "Can we disable it somehow?"
"We could try to disable the ship's engines or the ship's weapon systems," Teal'c explained. "And then there are the fliers that can be launched from the ship. To stop them from being used we would need to damage or destroy the launch deck. We need more people before we try to do all of that. Our best plan would be to destroy the whole ship."
"Not unless we can get everybody off the ship first," said Buffy. "We don't kill people. That's not negotiable."
"How many fliers are there?" Phoebe asked quickly. She agreed with Buffy about not killing people but did not want an argument to develop between Teal'c and Buffy.
"On this ship, about fifty altogether," Teal'c replied calmly. He had no intention of arguing with the others. He recognised that destruction of the ship might be necessary but the people aboard, the humans, the Jaffa, were his people. The witch people, as he now thought of them, had already found a way to defeat one Goa'uld without killing his Jaffa and Teal'c was happy to allow them to do try to find a way to do the same with Apophis.
"But of course other ships in the fleet have their own complement," Teal'c continued. "Even if we destroyed the launch deck any fliers that had already been launched could land on another ship or down on the planet and continue to take part in the battle."
"Why don't we aim to take out the boss man like we did with Marduk," suggested Xander. "If we could stop that snaky thing inside him from controlling him we could end the war at a stroke."
"Even if he's actually on this ship, that won't be easy," said Buffy. "We had a lot more support taking Marduk down and we had Willow and Tara."
"What else do you suggest Teal'c?" asked Phoebe. "You know the Goa'uld, you know Apophis and you know this ship. What's our best bet?"
"Although the Gate we entered was on another ship it is unlikely that Apophis has left himself without a Gate on this ship," said Teal'c. "Apophis will need a Gate nearby to maintain contact with his base and in case he finds the need to escape from the ship quickly. If we can find that Gate and re-establish contact with our own forces we can bring others through and proceed with the original plan to take over the ship."
"And if that doesn't work we can use that Gate to get off this ship," said Buffy. "Works for me. Now any idea where this Gate might be."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
This time the ceremony wasn't going to be in the woods. It wasn't going to be outside at all. It was going to be hidden from the Goa'uld as much as possible. It was due to take place in the large basement of a mansion house several miles north of town.
Not only was the ceremony set to take place away from any prying eyes but Glory had remembered Daniel's comment that the Goa'uld had instruments to detect energy discharges. She had therefore had preparations made to try to magically shield the area from any such detection.
Glory was aware this was probably yet another way that the time line was being changed. But she couldn't risk things going wrong now. And quite possibly they would go better now than they had originally. If the Key was used correctly there would be no need for the protection to be renewed in the future anyway. Any changes should result in a better future.
Once again Glory would be one of seven witches playing a central role but this time, apart from the witches, nobody else would be present except Daniel. Glory was as certain as she could be that the other witches, all personally known to her for a long time, were not working for the Goa'uld.
Daniel was happy to be able to observe the ceremony and fulfil the main reason for his journey to the past but he didn't know why Glory wanted him to be there. He assumed that she still wanted to keep an eye on him but he wasn't able to rule out a nagging doubt in the back of his mind. There was no indication that the ceremony would involve any sort of a sacrifice but he knew only too well that some ancient societies considered human sacrifice to be a vital part of their important rituals. He was painfully aware of his very limited knowledge of what was normal for ancient Kallistien.
Daniel had been able to persuade Glory not to go looking for Lissie, not to go looking for a showdown with the witch sisters. He probably wouldn't have succeeded since Glory was still angry about the snatching of Lissie. But time was short and Glory really had to get on with the ceremony if it was to have any chance of success.
Glory had transported Daniel and herself to the rendezvous where the other witches were waiting. Also present were the other things familiar from the first ceremony: a bowl on a tripod and a sword. A new sword, not the sword that had been shattered during the first ceremony. The only thing missing was the Key itself and Daniel began to wonder where Glory had hidden it. He hadn't seen it since the first ceremony.
"Everything ready?" asked Glory of one of the other witches.
"The uprising should be starting just about now," said the other witch. "That should keep the Goa'uld busy for a bit. Even with all their machines and weapons they won't be able to quell a world wide uprising lead by witches very easily."
"Ninurta will be pulling his double cross just about now," said Glory. "But in the wrong place. All the things I told him about have been changed, including the timing. All we need now for the ceremony is the Key itself."
In the center of the room was a large, heavy oak table covered in a richly embroidered golden cloth. A line of candlesticks and gold cups were stood on the table together with a large saucer shaped vessel from which a white vapour slowly floated upwards.
Glory now stood in front of the table and dramatically spread her arms wide. At once all of the candles caught light and whatever was in the saucer started bubbling. She now started to mutter an incantation. None of the other witches got involved so Daniel presumed that this was some sort of preparation rather than the main ceremony.
As Glory continued her chant the white vapour continued to flow from the saucer. There must be some sort of draught in the room thought Daniel because the vapour seemed to be flowing toward him and it began swirling around his head. The only other thing that seemed to be happening was that the room began to heat up. Or at least Daniel himself began to feel hotter and hotter, nobody else seemed to be affected.
Suddenly Glory turned and looked straight at Daniel, holding out both of her hands towards him. "Come!" she demanded.
Daniel opened his mouth to ask what was going on and what she wanted him to do but no words came out, just a small croak. He was now feeling really hot and was covered in sweat. Despite Glory's command he felt unable to move a step.
"Come!" said Glory a second time and now Daniel began to feel he would explode. His head felt as though it was splitting and he began feeling very dizzy.
"Come!" said Glory a third time and Daniel now lost consciousness and fell to the floor. At the same time the whole room was bathed in the pure green light of the Key. The Key that was floating out from within Daniel's body where Glory had hidden it.
Glory was careful not to touch the Key but used her power to manoeuvre it across the room until it was floating above the bowl on the tripod. She then let it slowly drop inside the bowl.
Right, phase one complete thought Glory. That worked better than I thought it would. Daniel never did realise why I kept him with me the whole time following the previous ceremony. Now do I press on with the ceremony straight away or is it worth waiting for his friends to turn up. As she thought that Glory became aware of an arrival in the next room.