Chapter Fifty Seven: Timing It
With a final gurgle, the last of the black liquid was forced down through the Hellmouth and back into the Hell Dimension. Willow, Cordelia and Anya unclasped their hands and stepped away from the rim of the Hellmouth. They relaxed their concentration a little but remained ready to deal without anything else that might come through from the Hell Dimension below.
They didn't have long to wait. Almost immediately a thin line of smoke began to rise up out of the hole in front of them. The thin line quickly became a considerable column of smoke and began filling the room.
"Unless we can put out the fire down below we've got to block off this smoke," said Wesley.
"You think?" said Kennedy sarcastically through the hand that she was now holding over her face.
Willow didn't wait to combine with Cordelia and Anya. She stepped forward to the edge of the hole leading to the Hellmouth and, with both hands pointing down into the hole, spoke a word of power: "Blow!" Everybody was briefly buffeted by a terrific gust of wind as a column of air was driven downwards. That seemed to do the trick because after that no more smoke came up from below.
But although there was no more smoke and no more black liquid, things were not exactly the way they had been before. The retreat of the liquid had left behind a foul smelling residue behind which coated the floor and walls of the cellar and everything else the liquid had touched.
"The next thing we've got to do is get rid of this residue," said Wesley looking around. "One spark down here and this whole place will go up in flames."
"The next thing we've got to do?" asked Anya. "I haven't seen you do anything up to now."
"Wesley's not a witch, you know that," said Cordelia quickly to head off an argument. When did I become the peacemaker she thought? "But the next thing we've got to do is block off that Hellmouth and stop that stuff or anything else from coming back up. No point in doing a clean up until we've done that."
"We can't block it off permanently," said Willow. "The Hellmouth might be our only way to get home. We might have to return along the route taken by Tara to get here. She thinks the Stargates at least are going to remain off line for the time being and it might not be possible to get home using magic."
"But all the time this Hellmouth's open it's pulling down those spaceships," said Kennedy. "We've got to shut it down now otherwise this whole city might be destroyed. We can't afford to have even one of those ships come down on top of us."
"Tara didn't have time to tell me everything that's going on but she said we mustn't shut down the Hellmouth, not yet," said Willow. "If we do we'll be doing just what Lilah and Wolfram and Hart want us to do."
"Can't you do something about those spaceships without actually shutting down the Hellmouth?" asked Gwen. "I mean if it's not the actual Hellmouth itself that's causing the trouble but something else can't you tackle the something else, whatever it is?"
"Well Cordy said she could feel some sort of force coming up out of the Hellmouth," said Anya. "Couldn't we block that off or maybe track it back to its source?" she added looking at Cordelia.
"It's coming straight up out of the Hellmouth," said Cordelia. "So if we track it we've got to go down inside. Do we want to do that without a Whitelighter to orb us out again afterwards? We don't want to find ourselves swimming in that black stuff down there."
"No we don't," said Willow. "We'll just have to do the next best thing, block off the Hellmouth temporarily. Or at least stop anything or any force from coming out of it."
As she spoke Willow's thoughts turned once more to Tara. Where are you now? What new crisis have you had to go deal with? It must have been urgent since you didn't explain what it was about before you went. Why didn't you take me with you? Was it because I've got to stay here and guard this Hellmouth? At the back of her mind Willow was hoping that Tara had not been drawn all the way back to Earth once again, before she had the chance to explain everything.
"And how exactly do we block it off temporarily?" asked Anya interrupting Willow's musing.
"No idea," said Willow. "Any suggestions will be gratefully received."
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As Fred entered the main lounge of the Slayer HQ in Sunnydale she saw that the two Whitelighters were present and were talking to each other.
"Hey! You're back," she said. "So what happened? And what happens next? Are we ready to go? Do we still have to do this? How much time have we got left?"
"We'd better get everybody in here, everybody who's in the building anyway," said Leo. "And then we'll explain what we know."
A few minutes later they had been joined by Amy and Lorne. Then Gunn and Captain Dietrich, the senior officer present from the SGC arrived from the basement, still busy discussing what the NID had been up to.
"So you think this Maybourne was doing his own thing," said Gunn. "Not just working for Wolfram and Hart?"
"I don't know anything about Wolfram and Hart," said Dietrich. "But the NID have been trying to get hold of a Stargate for a long time. They pulled a few tricks to try to get control of ours but SG-1 and the General stopped them. I doubt Maybourne and the NID would have given the Gate over to anybody else if they'd gotten their hands on it."
"Maybourne and the NID might be acting on their own but they might only think they are," said Gunn. "It wouldn't surprise me if Wolfram and Hart are back of the NID as well, whether Maybourne knows it or not. That would be just like them. Anywhere there's dirty doings there's a trail of slime leading back to them."
Gunn and Dietrich abruptly realised that the others were looking at them and waiting for them to finish. They took seats in the room and waited with the others to hear what Leo and Jenny had to say.
"The Whitelighters here are going to fill us in on the latest situation and then we've got to decide what we're going to do," said Fred. "Over to you," she added looking at Leo.
"OK, well as you know our bosses reached an agreement with the bosses of Wolfram and Hart to open up a Hellmouth," began Leo. "Although we didn't know it at the time the permanent shutting down of the Sunnydale Hellmouth caused a lot of stresses in the Multiverse and these bottled up forces are what's behind our problems. For example this recent rash of earthquakes and the shutting down of the Stargate network."
"I've been given a few details about this," said Dietrich. "And I just about understand what a Hellmouth is. But could you be more specific about what shutting it down has done? I would have thought shutting down something called a Hellmouth would be nothing but good news."
"Normally it would be," said Jenny. "Hellmouths have been opened and closed from time to time before and the usual rule is shut them down as soon as you can because leaving them open is pretty well always bad news. But this time something different seems to have happened."
"Could it be this other side are doing something to force us to reopen the Hellmouth? Does anybody know for sure exactly what's happening and what's causing it?" asked Fred.
"Well it seems to be pretty sure that what's happening is simply the result of closing down the old Hellmouth and not something staged by the other side," said Leo. "The elders tell me this has all been checked out."
"We've been told that we can rule out any deliberate action by the demon fraternity and their friends," replied Jenny. "But nobody is sure of exactly how things have played out, or at least nobody at any sort of level we are able to contact."
"Level?" puzzled Dietrich. "By that do you mean..."
"Don't ask," said Gunn shaking his head. "Believe me it's better not to ask. Otherwise we'll be here all night arguing about nothing else."
"Anyway what seems to have happened this time is analogous to bottling up an active volcano, but on a much larger scale," continued Jenny. "The stresses have caused phase shifts between different worlds and different dimensions. This has severely disrupted communications between and movement to and from different worlds and universes."
"So that's why the Gates don't work at the moment," said Amy. "And why we can't create magic portals to other places, at least not without a massive amount of magic power, which we don't currently have available."
"So you reopen the Hellmouth, the stresses are relieved and the Gates start working again," said Dietrich. "I see."
"Actually we don't reopen the same Hellmouth, that's gone for good," said Leo. "What we do is open a new Hellmouth, but to the same place, to relieve the stress. At the moment the stress is continuing to build up and it's not just the Gates and this world it's affecting, it's having a disruptive affect in a lot of other places."
"We've decided the new Hellmouth will be in the basement here where the slayers and everybody else can keep an eye on it," said Fred. "Stop anything nasty from coming through and causing trouble."
"Without a new Hellmouth the risk is the stresses will build up to a point where there will be a major reaction, a sort of chain reaction," said Jenny. "It could destroy entire worlds and the Earth will be first in the firing line. The longer we wait the greater the stress and the greater the risk."
"But haven't things quietened down a bit in the past few days?" asked Lorne. "Is that down to your Elders or are things settling down naturally? If your people don't know exactly how things have been screwed up how do they know what will happen next?"
"The Elders have been doing what they can to keep a lid on things," said Leo. "But they think the current lull is just that. A lull before a much bigger storm. They're not certain, nobody can be certain, but that's the best information we've got or are likely to get."
"What I want to know is does this mean we'll be letting the First Evil out of its bottle again?" asked Amy. "After all we did to get rid of it. As soon as we open up a new Hellmouth what's to stop it from popping back into our world again and causing more trouble?"
"Once again we can't be absolutely certain but we don't think that will happen," said Leo. "The First Evil was a product of a sequence of events on Earth even though it had roots in the Hell Dimension. It needed to feed off the evil in this world in order to maintain itself and build up its power. We don't think it would have been able to survive in the demon realms. Without its usual prey it should have dissipated by now."
"But you might be wrong?" asked Amy.
Leo shrugged. "Nothing's certain, but the First Evil is something we've dealt with before and I'm sure we can deal with it again if we have to. It's a lesser and more long term hazard compared to what we think will happen in the near future if we don't open up a new Hellmouth."
"Hey children, are any of you thinking what I'm thinking? There's another big problem with this business of opening up a new Hellmouth downstairs," said Lorne.
"You mean what happens to us if we release all that stress in the basement here?" suggested Fred.
"Not just us but this entire world," said Lorne. "I mean yeah, nobody wants to have a volcano build up the pressure until it blows. But who in their right mind wants to be there, right on top of it, when they take the plug out?"
"What did the Elders say about that Leo?" asked Fred. "What will happen to us? Will we be destroying ourselves and this world?"
"Yeah, are they asking us to sacrifice our world to save a lot of others?" asked Gunn.
"The Elders don't know how bad things will be when the new Hellmouth is opened," said Leo. "All they know is the longer we take to open it the worse it will be, not just here but just about everywhere else. If we don't open it then eventually it will be forced open anyway by the stresses building up. If we take the initiative then we've got a better chance of controlling things."
"But the decision is up to you, you mortals," said Jenny. "We're not here to give orders. Nobody will force you to co-operate with Wolfram and Hart in opening a Hellmouth. The decisions are yours to make."
"Well that's mighty big of the Elders don't you think?" said Gunn sounding enormously unimpressed. "Destroy yourselves and the whole world or destroy the whole universe. But no, nobody's putting us under any pressure. It's entirely up to us."
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The main preparation ahead of the spell to expel the Goa'uld once again would be for Lissie to contact and activate the Key once more. Once this was present and charged up then Prue, Piper and Paige would repeat the Power of Three spell that they had used back in the past to expel the Goa'uld. Phoebe wouldn't take part since the intention was to make things as much like what had happened before as possible. But of course this time there would be no Glory.
Lissie insisted on being alone when she contacted and activated the Key. "All Keepers are sworn to strict secrecy about how to activate the Key," she said. "It's not that I don't trust you people but I don't need to trust you to do this."
"Glory seemed to know what to do with the Key back in the past," said Piper. "And she wasn't a Keeper. It can't be that big a secret."
"And she and her ugly little demons knew just what to do back on Earth as well," said Xander.
"Yes, well I don't know how she found out about it," said Lissie. "All I know is she was a powerful witch back in my time. I suppose witches have ways of finding things out but it wasn't because I told her anything and I'm not telling you people any secrets of the Key either."
"No need to get upset," said Giles. "We're quite happy to leave you alone here in the library to do what you have to do. How long will you need?"
"No more than an hour, probably a lot less if it goes the way it should," said Lissie.
"In that case who's ready for a bite to eat?" asked Paige. "It must be hundreds of years since I last ate anything."
"Wait a minute," said Connor. "Don't you guys remember what happened to Dawn when she tried to come into this place? She was knocked sideways by all the magic around here. What's going to happen if Lissie brings the Key in here and activates it? Will there be another reaction?"
"You're right," said Giles. "We can't take that risk. The Key should be activated and the expulsion spell should be carried out well away from here and well away from any other active magic sources."
"How about back at the hotel, down in the basement?" suggested Paige. "Then we'll be in exactly the same place as when we did the spell back in the past."
"But things are happening there as well, maybe some sort of dark magic," said Buffy. "You'll need to stay well away from there if you want to avoid other magic. Willow and the others went to investigate what was going on. Has anybody heard back from them?"
Giles shook his head and the others generally looked blank.
"Well in that case I'm going over to the hotel to see what's happening there," said Buffy. "You guys don't need me to do all this magic spell business. But you'd better find somewhere safe to do it."
But before anybody could come up with another suggestion the lights of an incoming orb appeared in the middle of the room.
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The Chief Magister had finally arrived and Dawn, with Mooren, had been invited to a private meeting with him. Just the three of them were present. Nothing further had happened about the aircraft that had been seen overhead. But it was a big world and they were a long way away from any major cities. Even now the Goa'uld or whoever might be busy starting their conquest of the world.
"It's too late to start keeping secrets now," said the Magister. "You should have thought of that before."
"But I can't tell you everything I know about the future," said Dawn. "That would change everything."
"Maybe everything should be changed," said Mooren. "Not everything in our history was good. I expect you know of some pretty bad things in your history as well, things it would be good to change if you could."
"But you don't understand," said Dawn. "If I tell you things and they don't happen then I might not exist so I wouldn't be here to tell you about them and we'd have a paradox. Goodness knows what will happen then. More importantly my sister and all my friends might not exist any more and I'm not risking that."
"Ah, you believe in the linear nature of time," said the Magister. "It doesn't actually work like that. If it did then time travel wouldn't be possible at all."
"Could you explain all that?" asked Dawn. "What do you mean?"
"Yeah," said Mooren. "It went past a bit quick for me as well."
"OK. Well you think of time as flowing in one direction. Once the wave of the present passes by then events that are now in the past are finished with, over," said the Magister.
"Um yes, I suppose so," said Dawn. "But that's just the way things are."
"Is it?" said the Magister. "Well if that was true and you really have travelled in time then you being here is exactly what happened anyway, it was so to speak predestined to happen because it already happened. On the other hand your idea of time might be wrong in some way. There are other theories about a multitude of alternative futures, about time flow being circular or even reversible."
"So you're saying if it was predestined, if it always did happen, then it doesn't matter what I say I can't change the future," said Dawn.
"Yes, but like I said time might not be like that," said the Magister. "You might still be able to change things that have already happened by going back to the past because the past and the future too, is still accessible to those who know how to reach it. That doesn't mean we know all about time but it cannot be a simple linear process."
"So if what you just said is right I definitely shouldn't tell you anything, because it really could change the future," said Dawn.
"What you decide to do depends on what you are trying to achieve," said the Magister. "I would guess that you're here for a purpose. Since you don't know what that purpose is then it's probably somebody else's purpose. Once you achieve that purpose you might well find yourself back where you came from."
"Well that's a big help," said Dawn sarcastically. "I might be here for a purpose but I might not. I might be here to tell you all about the future but that might be the very thing I mustn't do. I might return when I've done it but I don't know what it is nor whether doing it will get me back home. And most important of all I don't know who sent me here and whether I should be on their side or not. Any other pearls of wisdom?"
"We can't solve your problems for you I'm afraid," said the Magister. "And even if we could would you believe us if we simply told you what to do? Would you do it?"
"No, I probably wouldn't," agreed Dawn. "I've got to do some thinking for myself. Do you have a library around here? Is there somewhere I can do some research into the Key, Time-travel and magic?"
"You're welcome to look through our library," said Mooren. "I don't know if it will have what you want but there are a lot of old books and scrolls there that nobody's looked at for a very long time."
And these people call themselves the 'Searchers After Truth' thought Dawn. Perhaps like a lot of people they already think they know the 'truth'. But she didn't say this out loud. "Thanks for that," she said. "I hope it has what I need."