Chapter Fifty Six: Down Below and Up Above

Back in the basement of the hotel powerful magics were being used:

"I think you've stopped it," said Gwen. "Either that or it's stopped of its own accord. Either way I don't think it's getting any higher. But can you send it back down to where it came from?"

Cordelia and Anya had carried out a spell to try to drive the black liquid down the hole through the Hellmouth and back into the Hell Dimension. Without a spell book handy they had used a generic repulsion spell chant but so far all of their efforts had failed to reverse what was happening. As Gwen had pointed out they had finally stopped the further flooding of the hotel cellar. Either that or the black stuff had finally stopped pouring up out of the Hellmouth for some other reason.

At present the three women were half way up the cellar steps. They had retreated step by step as the black tide advanced. It was now lapping at their feet having flooded the whole cellar area below them. Cordelia and Anya had linked their hands and were concentrating on preventing any further encroachment.

"Get help!" ordered Cordelia with a brief glance at Gwen. "We need more magic users and a good spell book. Go and find some friendly local witches, the Halliwells or somebody who can do magic. We can't keep this up for ever. We need more magic power."

"I might be able to help," said Gwen. "Perhaps if I tried to..." began Gwen.

"Don't use your lightning, whatever you do," said Anya. "I think I know what this stuff is. It's what fuels the Fires of Hell. If something sets it alight nothing will put it out. And when it really gets going that's when the fire demons turn up. You don't want to face them. They feed by pulling their victims into the fire with them."

"If we'd had this stuff back in Sunnydale the oil companies would have been all over us," said Cordelia. "They'd be looking for ways to get more of it."

"I think I'd prefer the fire demons," said Gwen.

"It's already well alight down below," said a voice from behind them from further up the steps. It was Willow. "We've got to get this stuff out of here before the fire arrives."

Willow came down the steps behind Cordelia, Anya and Gwen. Tara came with her holding her hand. Behind them were Wesley, Eve and Kennedy. Anya gave Tara a brief smile to welcome her back but then quickly returned her attention to the black flood spread out below them.

"With Willow's help I was strong enough to orb everybody out of there," said Tara. "We had to get out quickly and we couldn't exactly swim through this stuff. It's flooded everything for miles around in the hell dimension. It's like a great black sea down there."

"If you two have been able to hold it back from coming any further into this world the four of us working together should be strong enough to drive it back to where it came from," said Willow.

"So long as nothing else turns up to interfere with what you're trying to do," said Wesley.

"Well welcome back Wesley!" said Cordelia. "Do you have something in mind? Or are you just back and being your usual pessimistic self?"

"Well somebody or something arranged for all this to happen," said Wesley. "I'm just saying we should watch out in case they're still about and try to stop us."

"There's something else to watch out for as well. Just before Tara orbed us away I thought I saw things swimming in this muck," said Kennedy. "Large things with big teeth."

"Sounds like the fire demons," said Anya. "I expect they're the ones who set it all loose in the first place."

"Well if anything jumps out at us while we're doing the magic then you guys had better take care of it," said Willow looking at Kennedy and Gwen. Kennedy said nothing more but nodded, smiled, drew her sword and stood ready.

Willow turned back to Tara and smiled. "Ready to do some magic together?"

Tara smiled back. "Oh yes, I'd like nothing better..." began Tara. But she broke off from what she was saying as if she was listening to something. "Oh dear," she added. She released her hold on Willow's hand and promptly disappeared in an orb.

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Dawn arrived back at her room, shut the door behind her and sat down on the bed to think. The room was as plain as when she had first seen it but it wasn't a prison cell. There was no lock or bolt on the door. Everybody in the community had a simple room just like it. Only the married couples had more space and of course a larger bed.

She would have thought of the room as some sort of monastic cell but she very definitely wasn't in a monastery. She was in a community which had chosen to isolate itself to a certain extent from those living outside but there were men and women living there, some together and some apart and there were plenty of children of all ages.

The community described themselves as the Searchers After Truth. Like a monastery they aimed to be as self sufficient as possible by working the land, making their own clothes and trading locally for whatever else they needed. From what Dawn could gather the 'Search' was mainly concerned with the occult, magic and prophecy. She wondered whether these people were somehow connected to the Kallistien witches but they did not call themselves witches and claimed to know of nobody who did.

Dawn had spent most of her time since arriving, in the company of the two people she had first met. The man Eiric and the woman Mooren. They had at first thought her to be a friend of theirs named Lisabet and they still sometimes got her name wrong.

Lisabet had just succeeded to the post of Keeper of the Key following the death of her mother. There was an induction ceremony connected with the succession. Eiric and Mooren had been ready to conduct Lisabet to the ceremony when they had arrived at the door of the room. It seemed that somehow Dawn had taken the place of Lisabet who looked just like her apart from being a few years younger. Lisabet was now nowhere to be found.

Since there was clearly no chance of impersonating Lisabet, even if Dawn had thought of a reason for doing so, she had told the others all about who she was and what had happened to her as far as she knew.

A few things had been established. Firstly although the Key might be the same Key which had been turned into Dawn back on Earth she could not be sure. Since Dawn resembled Lisabet so closely they thought she was some sort of relative of the Keeper or perhaps another Keeper or potential Keeper herself.

Dawn had established that she was still on the world of Kallistien although nobody had ever heard of the Goa'uld or the Stargate and they didn't know anything about spaceships or other modern technology. Dawn had concluded that she was either in the far future or the distant past, probably the past.

So why was she here? How did she get here and how could she get back home or at least get back to the Kallistien of her own time? Everybody back there must be frantic she thought. Although if this was time travel perhaps she could somehow return to the moment when she left so maybe nobody would miss her after all. But before she did that she had to work out how to return and nobody seemed to have any idea of how she could do that.

Dawn presumed that the answers to her questions were all linked to each other and to the Key. She therefore needed to know more about the Key. The trouble was it was the Keepers who knew most about the Key and they generally didn't tell much of what they knew to anybody except their designated heir. Lisabet's mother would have told her what she needed to know but that didn't help Dawn at all because Lisabet wasn't there and her mother had died.

Mooren had sent a message to the people she called the Magisters and the Matres. If anybody could help it would be them she insisted. They were very knowledgeable about all sorts of things, especially magic since they were the Guardians of the Secrets of the Tau'ri, whatever that meant.

The Chief Magister had sent a reply, by what means Dawn didn't know, that he would be arriving the following day. At the moment Dawn was wondering if it would be a good idea to wait for this man to arrive or whether there was anything she could try in the meantime.

Could she trust this Chief? Could she trust any of these people? They naturally wanted to get their Lisabet back. They might also want to use the Key for whatever it was the Key was normally used for. Everybody had been very vague about that. But Dawn certainly didn't want to be turned back into a glowy, green ball of energy so she didn't tell them she was the Key, or a Key.

At that moment there was a loud bang. It seemed to have come from up in the sky. Thunder and lightning? Dawn didn't rush to the window since it was too high to see out, but the sun was shining outside and it was rather cool. Not at all like thundery weather.

Dawn decided to go outside and have a look to see what was happening but before she could make a move the door was opened and Mooren rushed into the room.

"Come outside and look," she said. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Dawn followed the excited Mooren out of the room, along the corridor and into the rear garden. A lot of people had already crowded outside to get a clear look of what was happening up in the sky. Dawn join them in staring upwards at the spectacle above.

Dawn was disappointed to realise that the excitement was nothing more than a number of high altitude contrails crossing the sky. As Dawn looked up she could see that each trail was being extended off in what she thought was an approximately south-west direction. A moment later she discovered the reason for the explosion as a much lower flying machine passed above them followed by a sonic boom.

This must be all new to them thought Dawn. She turned to Mooren: "You've never seen aircraft before?" she asked.

"Aircraft?" asked Mooren. "What do you mean? What are aircraft? Are they what you call those lines in the sky?"

"Aircraft are flying machines," said Dawn. "Sort of like erm, carriages in the sky, but without horses to pull them. They fly like birds, well not exactly like birds but they fly with people inside. They sometimes leave trails in the sky like that when they're high up. It's just a sort of cloud."

Mooren shook her head, her attention once more focused on the sky above. "These aircraft must be much faster than dragons," she said. "Where do they come from and what are they doing up there?"

"You don't know?" asked Dawn. "Eh yes, if you don't know what they are you wouldn't would you?" As she spoke Dawn suddenly began to worry. Was she seeing the arrival of the Goa'uld? And if so which arrival? And should she say anything? For the first time since her arrival Dawn had the realisation that perhaps she should try to avoid changing the time line.

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The lights of two arriving Whitelighters appeared in the main lounge of the Sunnydale Slayer HQ. They cleared to reveal Leo and Jenny. They had finally returned from their meeting with the Elders and the other Whitelighters. They looked around but found that the room was empty.

"Somebody will be down in the basement keeping an eye on the Gate," said Leo. "They might all be down there. Let's try there first."

"I've been thinking about what's happening," said Jenny who made no move to leave the room. "When I first became a Whitelighter I thought the Elders knew everything. It's frightening to find out there's so much they don't know. Especially when there's so much at stake."

"Well if they knew everything they wouldn't be Elders, they'd be somewhat higher up on the ladder don't you think?" asked Leo.

"I suppose," replied Jenny. "But don't you think they're doing a lot of guessing about all this? And they don't seem to be getting any support from anywhere else, from anybody who is higher up the ladder. Do you think the other side might be suckering them? This all feels wrong somehow."

"There are always things the Elders can't tell us. You know that. They might be guessing but I don't think so and if they are then it's informed guesswork," said Leo. "Anyway you heard them. The last word has to be with the mortals. All we can do is explain what we think and what the Elders think. The rest is up to them. It's up to them to exercise their free will."

The question is do we tell them it's all doubts and guesswork thought Jenny. Won't that just make things harder for them? But if we don't tell them then aren't we just manipulating them to get them to do what we want? What sort of free will is that?

"I know what the problem is sir. I've found out why the countdown stopped," said Sam looking up from where she was working. "It's this blue tube here. When it..."

"Let's leave out the technicalities for now Major," said Jack. "We don't have the time and I won't understand them anyway. Just tell me you can fix it."

"Yes sir. Well I can fix it to start the self-destruct again," said Sam. "That's pretty straightforward. But the trouble is I can't reset it. When it begins again it'll be counting down from two minutes."

"Which is a problem since we've got to get back to the teleportation point before everything blows up," said Jack. And I think it's a lot more than two minutes away from where we are now he added to himself, even running flat out.

"Exactly," said Sam. "I didn't time it but even running at full speed it'll be very tight getting back there to the teleportation point before everything comes apart."

"Now one of those witches would come in handy right about now," said Jack. "Pity we can't just ring them up. Could you restart the countdown by remote control from somewhere else on the ship like the transportation point? Could you rig something up?"

"I could do that ten different ways if I just had the time," said Sam. "But I don't. If this ship isn't in pieces in the next few minutes it'll still be together when it hits the city. That'll mean the city or a large part of it will be nothing but a smoking hole. The only way to stop a disaster down on the planet is to restart the self-destruct right now and allow the ship to break up completely when it hits the atmosphere."

"OK, show me how to reset it," said Jack. "And don't use any big words."

"It'll be simpler if I do it sir, it'll save time if you let me..." began Sam, only to be interrupted by Jack.

"That's an order Major," said Jack. "No argument. We don't have time for that. You will now show me how to restart the countdown. You will then go to the teleportation point as quickly as you can. Signal me when you get there because that's when I'll restart the countdown. As soon as you've spoken to me you will teleport down to the planet. That's another order by the way Major."

"Yes sir," said Sam looking Jack straight in the eye. She could see that arguing the point would be a waste of time.

"And don't worry, I can move faster than you," said Jack. "Unless you've become one of those slayers without telling me."

"No, not a slayer," muttered Sam. "But I can move a lot faster than..."

"This isn't a debate Major," said Jack. "Let's get on with it."

Sam carefully explained to Jack exactly what he had to do, at the same time calculating everything that could be done to improve Jack's chances to make it to the transportation point in time before the ship blew up.

"OK, I've got it," said Jack. "Now get out of here, scoot."

Sam thought briefly about giving Jack a quick hug then thought better of it. It would be like saying she didn't think he'd make it and anyway they really didn't have the time for an emotional farewell.

"I'm going to dog open all the doors on the way," she said. "You'll be able to take it at a flat out run. Just don't break your neck when you drop down to the next deck, uh sir."

Jack said no more but quietly nodded. Sam quickly made her way down to the transportation point, using her gun to destroy the door controls in an open position at every doorway on route. Finally she arrived at the nearest transportation point, took a deep breath and signalled to Jack that she was there.

Although she would be disobeying orders Sam had no intention of transporting down to the planet straight away. She intended staying until the last possible moment with her hands on the transportation controls. All Jack would have to do when he arrived would be to get inside the rings. Sam would do everything else. She'd deal with any fall out from disobeying Jack's order when they were both safely down on the planet.

The problem was Sam could see no way that Jack would be able to make it. The distance was just too great. An Olympic athlete couldn't do it. But she knew Jack was going to try. Jack was going to die trying. That's the sort of man he was.

"One minute to self destruct!" said the Computer voice startling Sam out of her dark thoughts. One minute gone already she thought. Come on Jack, you can do it! If anybody could do it Jack would find a way.

And Jack was trying. He was currently at full speed running along the upper corridor on the deck above Sam. But he had already reached the same conclusion as Sam. There was no way he could make it. But hey, he had to try. He might just get lucky. Maybe the computer clock was a little out. Maybe the self destruct wouldn't kick in everywhere at once. Maybe it would hit the other side of the ship first. Maybe...

"TEN, NINE, EIGHT..." counted the computer.

Jack didn't slow down but he hadn't yet reached the lower deck. It wasn't even going to be close.

"THREE, TWO, ONE..."

Sam teleported down to the planet. Jack hadn't even been in sight. Sam knew she wouldn't have been able to operate the switch had she seen Jack pounding towards her. She wouldn't have been able to watch him as she transported herself to safety. Had Jack known that? Had he stayed on the deck above for that very reason? Don't be silly she told herself. There was no way he could have reached that last corridor in time.

Sam realised that she had been standing waiting beside the transport arrival point for several minutes now. Without giving it any thought she realised she had still expected Jack to teleport down after her. Some sort of miracle, some sort of typical Jack miracle would save him and he would make it. But as Sam continued to wait, nothing happened. Nobody appeared. It looked like Jack hadn't made it.