Chapter Thirty Seven: In the Dark
"Well that was a complete waste of time," said Cordelia as she led the way back upstairs. A thorough search of the Wolfram and Hart basement had revealed nothing. They had been able to find no information about the escaped demon and had not been able to find books of any sort, blank or otherwise. The basement had been completely cleared out. Wolfram and Hart seem to have moved house.
"I suggest we go back to the Stargate," said Giles. "We can return to Earth and Tara could perhaps orb us over to the Watcher HQ to get a suitable book for the demon capture spell."
"Not yet, I can't leave Kallistien without Willow," said Tara, or rather I won't leave Kallistien without Willow she mentally added to herself. "She might need me and I wouldn't be able to hear her back on Earth. Don't you think we should search the rest of the building before we give up?"
"That could take a long time," said Cordelia. "All those little offices. Is there any way we could use magic to speed things up?"
"Well I suppose we could we could try a..." began Giles doubtfully but he broke off as the light coming from above was suddenly blocked out by a large dark figure which appeared at the top of the stairs.
"What on earth is that?" asked Cordelia stepping back and trying to concentrate her power, or on Kallistien she thought. "Phew! What a stench!"
"Watch out!" shouted Tara as the figure rushed down the stairs at them.
Cordelia was unable to bring any of her power to bear before the figure cannoned into her and she was knocked backwards. Cordelia would have fallen all the way to the bottom of the stairs had she not been caught by Giles who was on the stairs behind her. Above her there was a sudden roar from the unknown creature as if it was in great pain.
"Back!" yelled Tara and now the darkness dramatically disappeared. Cordelia looked up and saw that Tara had jumped forward and was on the stair above her. From somewhere Tara had produced a sword, a flaming sword and she now held this out in front of her. It lit up the whole area. Tara made no attempt to swing the sword but held it firmly in both hands as a barrier to the large creature looming above her.
The creature, which was obviously some sort of demon, was too large to slip past Tara's sword in the space left on either side and was obviously reluctant to leap forward and injure itself. Injure itself again that is, because Tara had already drawn blood from the chest of the creature when she drove it back.
The creature was truly hideous, even for those who were familiar with the grotesque appearance of many types of demon. It was about nine foot tall and broad shouldered. It had a vaguely human shape in that there were two arms, two legs and a head but the resemblance was very approximate.
The mouth took up a large part of the face and was filled with dripping, blood red fangs. Equally dangerous were the long claws on each hand but the most striking feature was the eyes, also blood red and shining with black flecks. This was not simply another sort of dangerous animal. The eyes clearly showed the dark intelligence of the creature, the sheer malevolence of the demon.
The demon tried to reach past the sword and get to Tara but had to jump back onto a higher stair as Tara suddenly pushed the sword forward, keeping it raised high in front of her all the time. A deep throated rumbling came from the demon and Cordelia realised that the creature was laughing. "You can't save everybody with that sword," it said in its deep, rumbling voice. Without another word it turned away and disappeared back upstairs.
"What was that thing?" asked Cordelia. "I know it was a demon but was it the one we're after? And where did you get that sword from?"
"The sword's a magic trick I developed after the Hellmouth fight," said Tara. With a word she extinguished the flame and cleaned the blade but she kept the weapon in her hand.
"The Whitelighters all used flaming swords to defend the entrance to the Hellmouth," continued Tara. "I've worked out a magic spell so I can produce the sword when I'm faced with strong evil. One of the advantages of being both a witch and a Whitelighter. The demon might have been something left behind by Wolfram and Hart. Another one of those defences you mentioned."
"I don't think so," said Giles. "If I'm right then having that thing here is much worse than meeting any sort of Wolfram and Hart guard dog. But I don't think it can be the creature that escaped from the book. I think it relies more on brute strength and savagery than on a reserve of demonic power."
From above came the sound of crashing and the fall of a great weight.
"Whatever it is it sounds like it's in a fight," said Cordelia. After a brief pause to gather her magic power ready for use she led the way upstairs.
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Angel led the way inside the building, still following the increasing stench of the demon. Whatever sort of demon it was, it was obviously pretty big because as well as smashing down the front door, the door frame on each side had been damaged as the demon had shouldered its way through. And there it was; large, dangerous and coming straight at them!
Angel aimed a powerful kick straight at the throat of the thing. The blow would have instantly killed a human being but the demon shrugged it off and Angel found himself flying across the room into the wall as he was tossed aside. Before the demon could follow up its success it was in turn knocked across the room to smash into the wall on the other side. Drusilla had picked up the broken door and used it as a weapon by driving it into the torso of the demon with crushing force.
Angel sprang to his feet in time to see the demon bounce off the opposite wall and throw aside the shattered door. It was now advancing upon Drusilla who stood waiting for it in full vampire face. But suddenly the demon staggered to its knees. As it fell down Angel saw that Cordelia and Tara had come into the room behind it. Cordelia was glowing with power and she now repeated what she had just done. Holding out her hand she propelled a second blast of magic force at the demon, which knocked it to the ground, flat on its face.
Angel didn't think the demon was yet dead, but anyway did not intend taking any chances. He knew that many demons could quickly recover from what looked to be crippling injuries if you gave them the chance. He picked up a large fragment of window glass lying nearby and used it to chop into the neck of the demon. It took two more cuts before he was finished but he finally completed the decapitation and threw the head aside.
Giles had now joined the group and together with Tara and Cordelia explained to the vampires all they knew about what was happening. Angel explained how he and Drusilla had tracked the demon across town and how things were going back up on the spaceship.
"Are we alright now this demon is dead?" asked Tara directing her question to Giles. "Didn't you say you recognised what it might be?"
"I think it's a Kamanate," said Giles. "And that's very bad news."
"More so than any other demon?" asked Cordelia. "Don't tell me, let me guess. We're in Apocalypse mode again aren't we? Do Apocalypses really happen somewhere other than Sunnydale or do they just take place wherever we happen to be?"
"A Kamanate is a sort of soldier demon I think," said Angel. "Find one and you generally find a lot more not too far away. Now that the Kallistien witches are fully occupied with the Goa'uld, all sorts of demonic activity might be stirring. Demons that normally keep a low profile on this world might be taking advantage of the chaos."
"Well I think it's all down to Wolfram and Hart," said Cordelia. "And it wouldn't surprise me if Eve had something to do with it. Lilah says Wolfram and Hart don't want the Goa'uld to take over this world. Even if that's true she's probably quite happy for the demons to take over instead."
"Yes, but this has got to be some sort of diversion," said Giles. "Kamanates are all about chaos, not control. They're mercenaries. They'll be working for somebody or something, somebody who wants them to cause as much destruction as possible."
"Wolfram and Hart," said Cordelia.
"Yes, it might well be Wolfram and Hart," agreed Giles. "But it might be that the demon or Demon Lord who came out of the book has now done some recruiting of his own. Whoever it is, somebody's sending out demons to create chaos and keep us busy while they're doing something else. We've got to be very careful here."
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"North? What is there north of the city?" asked Prue. "Where would they go?"
"There's nothing there," replied Lissie. "Well, no towns anyway, not for a long way. There are farms of course and a few small hamlets but otherwise it's just the country houses of the local bigwigs."
"She must be using one of them," said Piper. "She won't be doing another big event out in the open. Not after what happened the last time."
Lissie, with her link to the Key had detected its unveiling by Glory as she prepared to carry out the second ceremony. The plan was to take Lissie to the ceremony so that she could close down the Key. The witches would then repeat Prue's attempt to travel back in time and speak to their earlier selves in order to cancel out all of the changes they had made to the time line. That way it would not matter if Glory got to see Lissie, what happened now would be cancelled because it would not happen.
"Could you orb us to wherever Glory might be?" asked Prue only to be faced by Paige shaking her head.
"I never left the city back in the future remember," she said. "On this world I can only orb to where I've been before."
"But the city was... is... will be much bigger back in the future," said Piper. "That might be enough. Take them as far north as you can and let Lissie try to get another read on where the Key is from there."
"Them?" Aren't you coming?" asked Paige.
"Somebody's got to stay with Faith," said Piper. "Lissie's got to go to deal with the Key. You've got to do the orbing and Prue's got to give the orders. Seems it's down to me to stay behind."
Prue frowned at Piper. "If you'd rather I didn't..." she began.
"Don't be silly," said Piper putting on one of her oh so sweet smiles. "I'm quite happy not to be the big sister any more. I'm just kidding."
"OK," replied Prue still thinking about what Piper had said. Am I overplaying the big sister thing? Do they resent me taking the lead? When this is all over we'd better have a family conference to clear the air. Many a true word spoken in jest and all that.
"I'll get ready to do the travel back in time spell again for when you guys get back here," said Piper.
"And if anything happens to us and we don't get back, you do it anyway," said Prue.
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Teal'c led the way through the ship, Phoebe followed with Willow and Xander and Buffy brought up the rear. Willow was now conscious but very weak. They had decided to bring her with them because leaving her behind would mean leaving somebody with her and splitting their already very small party.
Phoebe was using her flying power to support herself and Willow which meant that the two witches were actually floating through the ship an inch or two off the ground. Xander remained close to Willow ready to lend a hand if needed.
Phoebe had carried out a quick location spell to try to find the Gate but it had not been successful. "I probably didn't do the spell right, not having a spell book and the right herbs," Phoebe had explained. "The spell I used is not really designed for this sort of work anyway, sorry."
"I think the Gate will be not be very far away from Apophis's command center," Teal'c had advised. "Apophis will want to have it available in case he has a need to travel through a Gate. I think the second deck would be the most likely location." The second deck was therefore their current intended destination.
The plan was for Teal'c to pose as one of Apophis's Jaffa, something that was easy for him to do since that is just what he had been. The main danger was that he might meet somebody who knew him and knew that his loyalties had changed. Teal'c would try to explain away the others as Kallistians who were working for Apophis and who were reporting back on the current situation down on the planet.
"Hey, we've still got our radios," said Xander suddenly as he walked along. He pulled his radio out of his pocket. "We can contact our people back on the other ship, tell them we're alright."
Teal'c stopped and turned back to Xander. "That would be very dangerous," he said. "There is a high likelihood of any message being intercepted and blocked by Apophis's people. They might not be able to decode the message but they would then know there was an enemy aboard their ship."
"Hold fast!" ordered a Jaffa who had just turned the corner of the corridor behind Teal'c. He was accompanied by four others, all armed with staff weapons which they now aimed at the unknown intruders. "Identify yourselves! Give the password!"
"Help me!" screamed Buffy and rushed forward towards the Jaffa. "Don't let them escape!"
Buffy succeeded in her intention of puzzling the Jaffa long enough to allow her to get in amongst them. None of them realised the danger represented by the diminutive young woman. As Buffy passed the Jaffa leader she seized him with one hand and tossed him in amongst his colleagues. The five Jaffa suddenly found themselves in a heap, their weapons knocked aside and no longer aimed at the intruders.
Buffy now began delivering blows to the fallen Jaffa, quickly rendering three of them unconscious. Teal'c and Xander stepped forward to account for the other two. Phoebe did not get involved but stayed back and kept hold of the still groggy Willow.
A few minutes later, after securing the unconscious Jaffa inside a nearby room the group resumed their journey towards where they hoped they would find the Gate. This time Buffy walked at the front of the group with Teal'c. Xander brought up the rear and Phoebe continued to look after Willow.
Teal'c had already witnessed Faith and Drusilla in action so he was not surprised to see that Buffy was at least as formidable as either. Is it a question of inborn ability, training or some sort of magic he wondered? Drusilla is no longer human but Faith and Buffy seem to be completely human, or perhaps more than human. Can we use whatever methods these women use to make the SG teams more formidable or is Daniel Jackson right about his idea of a Chosen One, or Two or whatever?
Further musing was cut off as the group reached their first objective, the ventilation chute at the centre of the ship. This chute circulated air throughout the ship. It was not meant to be a way to move from deck to deck, even though it was large enough for a body to fit inside. It was simply a smooth metallic tube, with no way to hold onto the sides. The strong flow of air through the chute would make it pretty well impossible for anybody to brace themselves and climb up the tube.
Anybody normal that was but the group now assembled was far from normal. With Phoebe's flying ability to assist them the plan was for the group to ascend up to the deck where they hoped to find the Gate.
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"There's no doubt about it, we're getting more people here," said Eve coming back into Wesley's room. "Every time the loop restarts there are more people about. There are two men on the desk now and a lot more people walking about outside."
"If I'm right about this place being a sort of demon larder it looks like the demon is catching more and more people back on Kallistien," said Wesley. "Or perhaps there's more than one demon."
"Well, the newcomers don't look or behave like Kallistians," said Eve. "How do you explain that? How come they fit into this false LA set up? I think these people are coming from LA."
"They're being fitted into an existing matrix," said Wesley. "None of them have any free will so it's not necessary that they come from LA, or even Earth. But they might not be real people anyway. It might just be that this world gets more elaborate, more detailed, every time a new loop starts."
"You're piling assumption on top of assumption," said Eve. "You don't know if any of this is correct. You don't even know we're here because of a demon. There might be something else going on."
"Yes I'm assuming," agree Wesley. "But it's pretty clear whoever put us here isn't on our side, whether it's a demon or Wolfram and Hart. We've got to get out of here and stop whatever it is they're up to."
'Our side,' thought Eve. At least he's no longer blaming me for all this. "Well we'd better hurry up and get on with it then," she said. "I'm fed up eating the same breakfast every day."
"You know, if these people are coming from Kallistien they're being fitting into what is our world," said Wesley. "An Earth type world."
"You already said that," said Eve.
"No, um yes, what I mean is this world wherever it is, is linked to us. It's constructed from our memories," said Wesley.
"Your point being?" asked Eve.
"Perhaps we have the power to change it," said Wesley. "You suggested we use those magic amulets. Perhaps we can use them to make a few useful changes to this little world. Something that will help us to escape."
"Something like a spaceship at the end of the street with the keys in the ignition," suggested Eve. "Or our very own working Stargate."
"Not exactly. I don't know how to fly a spaceship," said Wesley. "And anyway we might be in the wrong universe so a ship or a Gate might not be the right solution. But that's the right sort of idea. No, what I was thinking about was a library at the end of the street with a lot of very useful books about magic and demons."
"How about an on line connection over in the corner with access to the same information?" suggested Eve. Jenny was right she thought. Wesley's just like Giles. He'd be happy if he was living in the age of quill pens and inkwells.