Chapter Fifty Five: Hellfire?
Willow led the way out of the cave and down the broken path to the bottom of the cliff. She remained on alert all the way but in the hours since they had ascended to the cave above, the creatures that had been stalking them seemed to have departed, presumably in search of other prey. Only a couple of the more agile ape-like demons had got as far as the cave entrance and Kennedy had made short work of them with her sword.
Eve came down the cliff path immediately behind Willow and after her came Wesley carrying the still unconscious Tara. Kennedy was once again acting as rearguard, her drawn sword in her hand.
Tara had still not woken up. Even when Tara did wake up Willow did not want her to exhaust herself again by orbing everybody back to Kallistien, not unless there was no alternative. So Willow had seen no point in remaining in the cave any longer waiting for Tara to regain consciousness. She and everybody else would be a lot safer back on the other side of the Hellmouth.
Besides, Willow didn't want to leave the Hellmouth open any longer than she had to. There was still the question of what was happening to the spaceships and the more general question of the threat from the Goa'uld to deal with.
Willow continued in the lead around the base of the cliff and arrived at the point where she was sure Kennedy had killed the bear like monster. But there was no sign of it. Probably something has already eaten it she thought. She looked around but could still see no immediate threats. We'd better keep moving before anything else turns up.
Willow set off into the jungle, going down the hill back the way they had come. The vegetation was just as soggy and the atmosphere was just as hot and humid as before. Progress was therefore slow and exhausting as they struggled through the mud. They tried to avoid the worst of the ground but Willow did not want to use any more magic until she really had to. She remained alert to deal with any dangers and made sure that Wesley with Tara remained close behind her.
At the bottom of the slope Willow stopped and looked around. "Looks like the jungle has already covered up any trace of our journey up here," she said. "I don't want to risk getting lost. How exactly did you find your way to the Hellmouth again?"
Willow's question was directed to Eve. Why take chances if you don't have to thought Willow. On the way in Willow had been aware of the thread which linked her to Tara. She no longer had that as a back up guide on the way back. She would have to use magic if there was no other way but it would be simpler if Eve just did what she had done before. There was also the added advantage that Eve would be in front where Willow could keep an eye on her.
"Follow me," said Eve without hesitation. She now had her compass in her hand and kept glancing at it as she led the way deeper into the thick alien undergrowth. The others followed.
After fighting their way through the jungle for a while Wesley called for a halt to rest. He had spotted a suitable clear, reasonably dry area of ground where he put Tara down. Wesley carefully placed Tara, still sleeping, with her back up against a tree.
"I'll scout ahead a bit," said Kennedy moving to the front of the group.
"No!" said Willow quickly grabbing the slayer's arm before she could disappear. "We stick together. We don't want to lose anybody in this jungle. Once you're out of sight we might never see you again. Everybody stay together. If anything suddenly jumps out of that jungle we're gonna need you."
Kennedy was confident of not getting lost. She never seemed to lose her sense of direction and had always assumed it was part of being a slayer. But she saw no reason to argue with Willow, not when there was another way to see what might be waiting for them up ahead.
So Kennedy shrugged but said nothing. She followed Willow's orders to the extent that she did not disappear into the undergrowth. But with a sudden leap she sprang upwards high onto the trunk of the largest nearby tree and quickly continued upwards to where she could survey the surrounding area.
Willow watched the slayer disappear into the branches above and then turned to look at the sleeping Tara and smiled. How long would she remain asleep? She had already tried the Sleeping Beauty method to wake her up but Tara remained asleep, although once more with a slight smile on her face. Willow was reluctant to try anything else since she reasoned that Tara needed the rest. She would surely wake up when she was good and ready.
And then it happened. With Willow still focused on Tara's face the Whitelighter opened her eyes and looked straight at Willow. Willow immediately dropped to her knees beside her partner.
"Hey, had a nice rest sweetie?" asked Willow stroking the hair away from Tara's forehead. "Are you alright?"
"I think so," said Tara quietly. "I just had the most wonderful dream. You found me lying in a cave and ..."
"There's something happening up ahead," called Kennedy from her perch high above. "Wow!"
Kennedy rapidly dropped down out of the tree. "It's coming this way. It's like a flood, a black flood."
"Everybody up into the trees," said Wesley. "The higher the better."
Willow helped Tara to her feet. Eve had begun to climb but Kennedy and Wesley looked at Willow and Tara ready to help if necessary.
"You guys get up in the tree!" ordered Willow. "I'll take care of Tara."
As she spoke Willow saw and smelt a dirty, fetid black liquid start to flow out of the trees towards them. The start of the coming flood. She put her arms around Tara, muttered a few words and the two of them floated up into the air.
The flood, which had started as a trickle, quickly became a torrent. Wesley and Kennedy had to scramble quickly up the tree after Eve to stay above it. What they didn't know was whether the tree would be higher than the flood and whether the flood would wash away the tree. In both respects however it seemed that they were lucky.
As the main rush of fluid ended, the group found themselves marooned on the topmost branches of one of the tallest trees in the area. As they looked out over the drowned jungle all they could see were the tops of the taller trees poking through the black expanse. Back the way they had come the cliff with the cave had now become a vast black waterfall.
We left just in time thought Willow. But is this some sort of natural phenomenon or is somebody using this stuff to try to kill us or trap us down here?
"Is that it?" asked Kennedy. "Or is it going to get higher than this? Anybody any idea what this stuff is and where it comes from?"
"This is a very different sort of world to the one we're used to," said Wesley. "This might be a normal occurrence in these parts."
"Won't this stuff have drowned all the creatures that live in the forest?" asked Eve.
"We don't know that," replied Wesley. "They might be able to live in it. They might thrive on it."
"Well whatever it is it smells foul," said Kennedy. "And it doesn't look like something you'd want to drink."
"We're also out of food," said Eve. "We just had a little that Tara had with her and that's all gone now. We can't stay here long."
"What do we do next? This stuff might have flooded the entrance to the Hellmouth," said Kennedy. "Do we wait for it to go away? That might be a long time and I don't fancy swimming in it. Would you be able to fly us over it?"
Kennedy had addressed her questions to Willow who had been talking quietly to Tara where they had landed on one of the highest branches. Kennedy was prepared to accept Willow as leader but was reluctant to take orders from Wesley. Wesley was a Watcher but in Kennedy's opinion Watchers were there to give advice, not to take the lead.
"I could fly a little way but only with one of you at a time and I think we should stay together," said Willow. "I certainly don't recommend swimming in it. It smells awful. I think it's got a lot of sulphur in it."
"Not just sulphur," said Wesley. "This looks something like hot tar. You can feel the heat coming up from it. And that raises a very important point. It might be flammable."
"This is a hell dimension," said Tara, speaking up for the first time. "That usually means fire and brimstone. We need to leave here soon because this stuff is likely to catch fire."
No sooner had Tara spoken then there was a distant boom. Everybody looked in that direction. They could now see a great column of smoke and ash rising up into the sky from somewhere over the horizon.
"And that volcano, if that is what it is, is just the sort of thing to set fire to all this," said Wesley. "This whole area will be alight in a few minutes."
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Daniel Jackson returned to the library to rejoin the debate over what to do next. He had left the room to find the SG communications team that was stationed elsewhere in the building.
"I've spoken to Jack and the good news is we've got a little more time," he said after walking through the door. "They've been able to take out all of the missiles so far launched by the Goa'uld fleet. But the Goa'uld will likely launch a lot more before long."
Jack and his crew had also been able to destroy the small Goa'uld spaceships that had taken off from one of the moons. Jack had told Daniel not to mention this to the others but he had not explained why.
"The bad news is that's just about the last thing they'll be able to do up there," continued Daniel. "They're organising the evacuation of the ship. It'll soon be destroyed by the self destruct system just before it enters the atmosphere. Teal'c has taken off again in his shuttle. The shuttles are pretty well all we've got up there now but they won't be able to take out a major missile strike by Apophis."
"Right then, we'd better get on and use the Key to defend the planet from the Goa'uld and drive them away, just like we did when we were in the past," said Prue looking pointedly at Buffy.
"They're right," said Giles, forestalling yet another objection from Buffy. "Dawn would want us to. The Goa'uld might be firing off more missiles even as we speak. We can't risk the lives of everybody on the planet."
"Including everybody in this room," added Daniel.
"OK, go ahead then," said Buffy. "But before you do anything, before any of you do anything, I want your agreement to do whatever it takes to bring Dawn back. Magic, Stargates, time travel, whatever it takes. As soon as you've done this and this world is safe, we get Dawn back. I want everybody to promise."
"We'll all do whatever we can, provided it doesn't involve dark magic," said Prue quietly. The others nodded and murmured agreement.
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"I don't know what it was but I put three bullets in it and it still kept coming," said agent Jackman. It didn't even slow down."
"But you're still here," said Colonel Maybourne. "What happened next? Where did it go?"
"I don't know," said the agent. "The thing hit me and knocked me clear across the cave. That's when my lights went out."
"You don't seriously mean this thing had fangs like a vampire?" asked Major Grant referring to the description of the creature that Jackman had given. She looked suspiciously at the agent. "Are you sure you weren't dozing off? When you're like that a dream can seem pretty real."
"Oh yeah, so what about my face and this big bump on the back of my head?" asked the agent leaning forward to show off his injury. "Did I dream that? And what's happened to Zelinski? I don't see him around any more."
"More to the point why are you still alive?" asked Colonel Maybourne. "If that thing wanted to kill and you couldn't stop it why didn't it finish the job? And where did all this dust come from?"
"Your other agent's fine," said a voice from behind them. "Probably. But I expect he's still running. Vampires can be pretty frightening, even if you've met them before."
"And just who the hell are you?" asked Maybourne addressing the tall, well dressed African American man who had just entered the cave. As he spoke he put his hand on his holstered gun. "And how did you get past the guards out there?"
"I'm Wood, Robin Wood," said the man extending his hand to Maybourne. Maybourne ignored it so Wood put it down without fuss. "I'm the principal of the local High School. I'm afraid I didn't see any guards. I expect they've all gone as well."
"Let's just suppose for a moment I believe all this vampire nonsense," said Maybourne. His experiences with Lilah meant that he did believe but he didn't want to admit that in front of the others. "What exactly are you doing here and what've you got to do with vampires?"
"Like I said, I'm the High School Principal. I was leading a group of students in the woods when we saw evidence of vampire activity in this area," said Wood.
"Evidence?" asked Major Grant. "What evidence?"
"A dead body I'm afraid," said Wood. "One of your people I think. The fang marks are unmistakable." Wood decided not to mention that he had decapitated the body to make sure it did not rise again as a vampire.
"So you and your students decided to come looking for the vampires," said Maybourne sceptically. "Very brave of you. Is dealing with vampires part of the curriculum at Sunnydale High?"
"No, but maybe it should be. We've had vampires in Sunnydale for a long time," replied Wood. "We know how to deal with them. There might be a group of them in this area but there might just be just the one vampire." A vampire who was now dust thought Wood but he decided not to mention that either since he wanted to spook the NID unit right away from the area.
Wood had already decided not to be as forthcoming as he could have been. He did not explain that his 'students' were a group of potential slayers with experience in dealing with vampires. Nor did he explain that he was in the area to look into what was causing the burrowing noises below the Slayer HQ.
"So how do we know you're not a vampire?" asked agent Jackman aggressively. "That other thing looked quite normal until just before he attacked me."
"Well I have a heartbeat and I'm wearing a cross," said Wood pulling out the chain that he wore around his neck. "That means I can't be a vampire. And I can prove I am who I say I am." Wood pulled out his ID card and showed it to Maybourne. Maybourne looked at it and handed it back.
"OK, let's accept you are who you say you are. Where are the police? Why didn't you call the authorities? What are you up to?" asked Maybourne.
"I'm afraid the police are not well equipped to deal with vampires, any more than you are," said Wood. "As for what I'm up to, this is Sunnydale. This is where I live and work. I don't think you people are from around here so I think it's more to the point if I ask what exactly are you up to?"
"That's none of your concern," said Maybourne. "All you need to know is we're here on government business, we're armed and there are more of us."
"Not any more there aren't," said a voice from behind them. Maybourne and the other two NID people turned around to find that the voice had come from one of a group of four young women who had quietly entered the cave behind them.
"All your weapons are no use against a vampire as you've just found out. I'm afraid all your other people have run away," she said. "You three are the last ones left. Oh and somebody has smashed up that drilling machine you were using."
Vi added the last comment without mentioning that it was the potentials who had just had a grand old time smashing up the machinery.
The drilling machine! They know it was a drilling machine thought Maybourne. I bet that's why they're here. But how did they know we were operating it? It was meant to be so quiet that nobody in the house would be able to hear it until it was too late. Magic again? More magical defences or a rather more mundane security leak? Either way Maybourne realised that his current operation to snatch the Sunnydale Stargate was now over.
The infuriating thing for Maybourne was he had no grounds to arrest the people who were responsible for messing things up. He thought about taking Wood in for questioning but quickly changed his mind. He was obviously working with the other Sunnydale people and there would be a big stink if the local High School Principal disappeared or was roughed up.
OK thought Maybourne. That didn't work. But it was always a long shot anyway. But I'm not giving up. Sooner or later the NID will get control of its own Stargate.
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"Well at least Daniel's alright," said Jack. "For the moment anyway."
Jack was walking along the corridor with Sam towards the transportation point. They would be the last two to evacuate the ship before the self destruct took effect.
"Two minutes to self-destruct!" warned the computer voice as they walked along the corridor.
"Until the next salvo of missiles comes in from Apophis's fleet you mean sir," said Sam. "He's as much in the firing line down there in the city as everybody else."
"Yeah, but he sounded optimistic," said Jack. "He didn't go into details but he did say the witches had found out how the Goa'uld had been sent packing the last time. It's all to do with magic and he thinks it's something they the witches will be able to do again. I told him to tell them to hurry up and get on with it."
"Just so long as it only affects the Goa'uld and their ships," said Sam. "We don't want it to get rid of us as well. No news from Willow and the others sir?" asked Sam.
"Two minutes to self-destruct!" warned the computer voice again.
"Nope," said Jack. "Seems this force is centred on that hotel we were staying in. She and some of the others have gone there to see if they can do anything about it. They haven't reported back yet."
"Where to sir?" asked Sam as she reached the controls. "Do you want to go where we sent the others or do you want to go down to the city?"
The people on the spaceship, SG personnel and witches alike, had been evacuated to as far away from the capital city as possible. The city was in line to be the most dangerous place on the planet since it was the location of the mysterious force that was pulling down the ship as well as the target of the Goa'uld missiles.
"You know as well as I do we've got to go to the city," said Jack. "We can't do any good on the other side of the planet. Put us down as close to where that force is centred as you can."
"Two minutes to self-destruct!" warned the computer voice as the two members of SG-1 arrived at the teleportation point.
"Wait a minute," said Jack. "That clock sounds as if it's stopped. It keeps saying it's two minutes to self-destruct. Has something gone wrong? Did the witches lift their protection spells before they left?"
"Yes they did," said Sam. "It's not that. Not unless they made a mistake."
"So is it the just the voice that's gone wrong or has the countdown really stopped?"
"I'll check," said Sam and darted away down the corridor.
"Sam, there's no time, you can't..." began Jack. But Sam had gone, probably deliberately running off before Jack could order her not to.
"Hellfire!" said Jack and rushed after her.
"Two minutes to self-destruct!" warned the computer voice again to the empty corridor.