Chapter Forty Seven: Reunion
Leaving the train station in daylight was a problem for the vampires which could only be solved by using that old vampire escape route, the sewers. But going underground was something Angel wanted to do for other reasons anyway. It had the benefit of neutralising the advantage possessed by the demon in being able to fly. However, after a lengthy walk underground he knew that they couldn't stay down in the sewers for much longer.
Angel led the way through the smelly, unpleasant tunnels. Dawn and Connor followed and Drusilla brought up the rear. So far there had been no sign or smell of any demon presence, either that of local demons and vampires or of whatever it was that was coming after them.
Angel had had centuries of experience in being hunted. The first priority was always to decide whether to fight or to run. These days Angel's first instinct was usually to fight since there were often others depending on him who he had to protect. But this time he would have preferred avoiding a fight. He was responsible for Dawn's safety and that could best be done by not meeting the demon at all. If he could keep everybody away from it for long enough then Giles's spell might trap it again.
Connor was thinking about the same thing. "Something's gone wrong," he said. "They should have done that magic spell by now. I bet it didn't work. You should never rely on magic. It always lets you down when you really need it."
"They were going to delay doing the spell until we were well clear of the city," said Angel. "You know that. But you're right. We can't rely on it. We've got to be ready to deal with this thing when it arrives. If it's now coming after us it might be beyond the range of the spell when Giles carries it out."
"Oh it's coming alright," said Drusilla. "And there's no spell gonna stop it."
Well so much for that hope thought Angel. Whatever this thing is it's got some way of detecting Dawn and it can move a lot faster than we can, even when we're on a train. Dawn will only really be safe from it after it's dead. So unless Drusilla's got this wrong we're gonna have to fight it. So where's the best place for us and the worst place for this thing and the demons it has working for it?
They had now reached a major junction in the sewers and Angel stopped. He knew the sun had not yet set so he and Drusilla couldn't yet walk around the streets. But this was a suitable place to exit the sewers as soon as it was safe to do so.
"OK, pop up topside and have a look around," he said to Connor. "You know what to look for. Somewhere we can't be overwhelmed by large numbers coming at us all at once and somewhere we can't be attacked from the air. And be careful."
"Why don't we just stay down here?" asked Connor. "This place fits the bill perfectly."
"Eeuw," said Dawn. "It might fit your bill but I'm not cowering down here with the local rats and all this crap. I'd rather be killed by a demon than die of some sort of plague."
"We can't stay down here much longer anyway," said Angel. "I can smell rain on the way. We can't be trapped down here when these tunnels fill up with water. You guys have to breathe even if Dru and I don't."
Connor nodded and went up the nearby ladder. At the top he cautiously opened the cover and exited the sewer. A few moments later he came back down. "It's nearly sunset and it's clouded over. You can all come up here without catching any rays."
Connor went back up the ladder and the others followed him up to ground level. They found themselves in the residential part of a medium sized town. As they began to look around the area a light rain began to fall. Angel once more set off leading the way.
"Keep watching the sky everybody," said Angel. Yell out if you see anything bigger than a bird."
"Are you looking for somewhere specific?" asked Dawn who briefly hurried her pace to walk alongside Angel. "Do you know this place?"
"Nope, never been here before. I'm looking for an unoccupied, solidly built house," said Angel. "A house with its own grounds and a cellar where we don't need an invitation to go inside. Somewhere we can cover all the entrances and not have to worry about any innocent bystanders."
"Well that building over there looks empty," said Drusilla pointing to the end of the street where a large, green, three story building could be seen above the thick wall which surrounded the house and its gardens.
"How do you know it's empty?" asked Dawn. "It looks the same as all the other houses on this street."
Drusilla smiled. "I cheated," she said. "That's the place where we fight the demons. I've already seen it. We might as well go there now."
"If that's the place the demons attack us why should we go there at all?" asked Connor. "If we never go there we should be safe."
"It doesn't work like that dearie," said Drusilla. "One way or another we'll end up there, whether we like it or not. I'm never wrong about something like that. If we waste time trying to avoid it, then we'll have less time to get ready to fight these things."
"Let's go," said Angel stalking forwards towards the house. He knew all about Drusilla's gift and knew it was futile trying to argue with her or it. Drusilla followed him.
"I'm sure there's something wrong with that logic somehow," said Dawn following behind Drusilla.
"Logic, I didn't notice any logic," muttered Connor as he brought up the rear.
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"What do you think happened to them Carter?" asked Jack as Sam Carter walked back into the Control Center. "Apophis left six ships orbiting the planet and they've all gone. Do you think that force pulled them down?"
Sam shrugged. "It's not pulling at us any more. But that doesn't mean it didn't pull them down," she said. "I've not been able to find any crash sites so far but it's a big planet and anyway they might have ended up in the ocean."
"Maybe it's had all it can eat for the time being?" suggested Xander who, with Buffy, Willow, Teal'c and Phoebe had followed Sam into the room. "Or maybe it's on our side and it only wants to destroy the Goa'uld?"
"An unknown ally?" said Sam. "It's not the Kallistien witches doing it, I checked. If somebody unknown with that sort of power was on our side why wouldn't they contact us?"
"These people don't have radio," said Jack. "If they don't have one of our sets handy maybe they don't have any way to contact us. Maybe it's some sort of independent witch group."
"No radio, but they can detect orbiting spaceships and pull them down onto the planet. That doesn't seem right," said Sam.
"No, it doesn't," agreed Jack. "We'll just have to see what happens next. I don't suppose you guys had any luck getting the Gate to work?"
"I'm afraid not," said Sam, shaking her head. "We've tried feeding in all sorts of power but nothing we do gets it working. We're still cut off from Earth. I'm beginning to wonder if the whole Stargate network has stopped working."
"Even magic doesn't help," said Phoebe. "Something's going on. Something is interfering with our portal opening spells and something has shut down the Gates. There must be a connection."
"They think it might be something to do with a mystic Key thing that came through the Gate on the planet just before everything shut down," said Sam to Jack.
"But we don't know," said Willow quickly before Jack had the chance to ask any questions. "There's a lot about the Key we don't know. We need to contact Giles and do some research. Anyway we don't have the Key with us here. It's down on the planet which is where we've got to be."
"We've got to go down there now anyway," said Buffy. "I've got to contact my sister, make sure she's alright."
"I'd like to know what my sisters are up to as well," muttered Phoebe. "They've been gone an awful long time."
"If you find out, let us know," said Jack. "I'm sure Danny is having the time of his life with your sisters but it would be nice to know for sure."
"There are one or two other things I need to talk to Giles and Anya about," said Willow. Like what happened when he last saw Tara and what actually happened to Dawn back in Sunnydale she thought.
Jack broke off from what he was saying because the ship suddenly lurched as if it had been pulled violently to one side and he had to grab the table in front of him to keep from falling down.
"What just happened?" he asked.
"We're falling," said Sam who was frantically engaged in working the controls in front of her. "Whoever's operating that tractor beam or whatever it is, they just switched it back on again. I don't think they're our friends after all. I'm trying to use the engines to pull against it."
"Where are we going?" asked Jack. "Where on the planet is this force coming from?"
"The city," said Sam studying the instruments in front of her. "The capital city. It's pulling us down onto the city. If we crash there we'll kill thousands of people, maybe hundreds of thousands."
"Transport us down now," said Buffy. "We've got to go down to the city anyway. Tell us exactly where that force is coming from and some of us will go see what we can do about it." But not me she added to herself. I'm going to find Dawn.
"OK," said Jack. "And we'll prepare this ship for destruction. From what I recall about Goa'uld ships there is a way we can do a self-destruct. If it gets to the point where we can't avoid it it'll be better than having this ship hit the city."
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"Well that was a waste of time," said Amy. "We might just as well have stayed here and played around with the Gate in Sunnydale for all the good we did."
Amy and Fred had just arrived back at the Sunnydale slayer HQ after their visit to the SGC and were walking up the path to the front door. Fred had spent some time at the SGC talking to the Stargate scientists and Amy had tried various magic spells but nothing they tried had made any difference. The Stargate remained dead, just like the Gate back in Sunnydale.
"Well it was great to talk to all those experts about how the Gates work," said Fred. "I know a lot more now about the practical application of wormhole theory and how the curvature of the..."
Fred broke off since from her expression Amy obviously didn't share Fred's opinion about the interesting nature of the science of physics and its applications.
"Oh yeah, great," said Amy. "And it got us exactly nowhere. So what do we do now? And how do we get our people back if the Gates remain down and we can't open up any magic portals?"
"The General said they know some friendly aliens who have their own spaceships," said Fred. "Without the Gates they don't have any way of contacting them. But he expects the aliens will contact the SGC sooner or later."
"Don't count on it," said Amy. "If it was just some sort of technical hitch with the Gates then OK, spaceships might not be affected. But whatever has happened has affected magic as well so it might have affected spaceships too. We just don't know about it yet because we don't have any ships ourselves."
"You're saying whatever's happened might have affected the fundamental laws of the universe and made wormhole and interstellar travel an impossibility?" said Fred.
"Uh, no. You're saying that," said Amy. "I just said don't count on it because we don't really know what's happened."
The two women had been talking on their way leading up to the house. Now they went in the front door to be immediately greeted by Lorne, who had been minding the shop in their absence. They went into the nearby lounge to sit down and talk so that they could bring him up to date on how things were.
"Don't worry about it," said Lorne. "There are some mighty special people over in that other world. When they're ready to come back they'll find a way. They've got some serious power between them. Anyway it's not as if there was another pending apocalypse facing us."
At that exact moment the house was shaken by a powerful earth tremor. It lasted for a full ninety seconds before quietening down.
"Good job we've got the safety spells on this place," said Amy when all was quiet again. "I'll bet that one was strong enough to cause a bit of damage in the town. That reminds me. I'd better go look at the shop, make sure it's alright." She stood up and went to pick up her coat.
"Don't you think you should, um research or something," asked Fred. "Don't Willow and Tara have a lot of magic books around here?"
"Oh yeah," said Amy. "Like I'm gonna go through their things. I don't think so. Anyway I've got a lot of books at the shop. I'll have a look through them."
"See if there's anything about the Key," said Fred. "And about the Stargates. I'll see what books are lying around here. I'm sure Willow won't mind if I look through them."
"Oh I'm sure she won't mind YOU looking Fred," muttered Amy quietly to herself. "Oh no."
"Oh and we haven't heard back from Gunn about what Wolfram and Hart are up to," said Fred standing up. "I'll give him a ring."
"No need," said Jenny coming into the room just before Amy left. She had just orbed into the house and heard the last part of the conversation. "I've spoken to Gunn and he's on his way back here. I can tell you exactly what Wolfram and Hart are up to and what's caused the break in communications with the other world."
"Do you know how to get the Stargates back working, or the magic portals?" asked Fred.
"Maybe, I do know it isn't anything to do with the Key," said Jenny. "Hopefully once things have been straightened out, everything will be back to normal. Anyway things will soon start happening around here and we all need to get ready. That earthquake might be just the first of many and some of them are going to be a lot bigger."
"Apocalyptic?" asked Lorne.
"If you say so," said Jenny.
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Things are deteriorating. There's no doubt about that thought Wesley. For one thing the light level had begun to drop. The surrounding gloom was now like a severely overcast day. I hope it's part of a continuing day-night cycle he thought rather than another symptom of this world simply falling apart. Things are bad enough without having to stay in the dark all the time.
Another thing that had changed was the continuing development of currents within the mass of debris floating around them. Their little piece of reality was now part of a stream of assorted bits and pieces of the smashed up world which was flowing on its way to some unknown or non-existent destination.
Other debris streams flowed by alongside them as well as above and below them and in approximate up and down directions. There was some sort of organisation developing within the floating matter since the various streams no longer seemed to collide with one another all the time or exchange particles so much and there were fewer and fewer pieces just floating along on their own.
"Gravity," said Eve abruptly. "It's like gravity."
"What do you mean gravity?" asked Wesley.
"It's like the early solar system," said Eve. "There's a theory that apart from the sun it originally consisted of a lot of small pieces of rock, dust and so on from some old broken up star. As time went on this all settled out into orbits and coalesced into larger pieces through the attraction of gravity. Eventually the pieces were as big as planets, but with a lot left over for meteorites, asteroids, comets and so on."
"Yes, but that took millions of years," said Wesley. "If that's what's beginning here we're not going to be around long enough to see it. Anyway I don't see that things are like that. It's not as if things are colliding with each other all over the place and gathering into bigger and bigger lumps. There's some other reason for what's happening."
"OK, how about this then," said Eve. "Maybe we're in a giant bath and we're now on our way down the plug hole. And when we go down the drain we'll really be in the..."
"You're not helping you know," said Wesley.
"And you are?" replied Eve. "What's your latest great idea to get us out of here?"
"Isn't there anything in your Wolfram and Hart background that would help us to decide where we are and how to get out of here?" asked Wesley. "You must have learnt something in your time with them?"
"Sorry, I missed the briefing on celestial plugholes," said Eve. "I must have been sick that day."
"Look out!" called Wesley because now, once again, things had begun to change.
Ahead of them, in their stream of debris, collisions had started to happen as another stream came down on them from above. Rocks hammered into each other, a bush and a piece of furniture became entangled and spun away and soon it would be their turn.
"We can't survive that," said Eve. "If we get hit by that stuff it'll kill us."
Wesley agreed, but there was no time for discussion. He jumped to his feet and grabbed Eve's hand, pulling her up as well. "Jump!" he shouted and leapt into the unknown. The platform they left behind was almost immediately bombarded by pieces of stone, earth and other debris. They had narrowly escaped being killed.
Now they were falling into space. Hand in hand they fell. There seems to be some sort of gravity pulling us down thought Wesley even if it doesn't affect the rest of the floating debris. Or maybe we're falling because we expect to fall he thought. Maybe we have more influence over this world than we think.
The further they fell the more they seemed to be just moving in their own random direction, like all the other bits and pieces and the various streams of matter. As they had jumped they had looked down towards what would have been the ground. Now, with a minor mental adjustment it seemed that they were simply travelling forward, feet first, on their own path through the debris.
They passed close to a couple of clouds of debris as they fell, or perhaps as they streamed by, but otherwise they passed through empty space. But avoiding hitting anything seemed to be a matter of luck and their luck might soon run out. Up ahead, or down below if you prefer they could see that they were advancing towards a really large mass of rubble. Unless they controlled their descent, or managed to change direction somehow they would soon have a fatal collision.
Eve could see what was coming as clearly as Wesley. "What do we..." began Eve but she stopped talking because suddenly 'she' was there.
'She' was Tara. Tara had appeared by orb in front of them and immediately grabbed hold of them both. Before they could say anything in greeting or ask any questions Tara orbed again, and this time she took them with her.