Chapter Sixty One: Hurry Hurry

If she could just make it to the Magic Box she should be alright. But that was the problem, making it. She hadn't shaken them yet and that indicated they weren't relying just on high tech gadgets. Her magic should have dealt with that. No, whoever was tracking her was using magic as well.

Amy had left the Slayer HQ to go and get the ingredients for the Oracle spell only a quarter of an hour earlier. It was a pitch black overcast night. No stars were showing and it had only stopped raining about an hour before. But at only nine o'clock in the evening there had been no reason to suppose there would be any particular problem in walking the short distance across town to the shop.

Yes this was Sunnydale, but a Sunnydale without a current Hellmouth and without the regular influx of vampires and assorted demons that had infested the town for so long. A few occasionally still turned up, maybe for old times sake but generally Sunnydale was no more dangerous than the average small American town, and a lot safer than some. But as Amy now realised, the town had changed in the last day or two and might now be infested with all sorts of human and non human dangers.

Wolfram and Hart were again in town and of course that didn't just mean Lilah Morgan and her pet magic users. Oh no. The whole Wolfram and Hart show on the road had come to town and that might have attracted the attention of all sorts of dubious elements who followed the 'law firm' or who just kept a general eye on them to see what they were currently up to.

And maybe agencies like the NID and perhaps Homeland Security were also still on the scene plus any other groups that wanted to know what they were up to. I should have worked this all out before I left the Slayer building Amy told herself and then she had another, quite horrifying thought.

Suppose the word is out? Suppose the demon, vampire and general underworld community had gotten wind of the opening of a new Hellmouth? And why wouldn't they? Wolfram and Hart might have spread the word themselves. All sorts of monsters would be coming from, well from all over the world probably. They would be in town looking to party once the new Hellmouth was opened and at the moment there were no Slayers about to keep them in check.

Amy knew she had been followed from soon after she left the Slayer HQ. Maybe somebody had planned to detain her once she was out of range of observation from the HQ. A veteran of the old 'Vampire' Sunnydale, at first she wasn't particularly bothered and she had carried out an elementary concealment spell immediately after turning into a dark alley. That had seemed to do the trick.

But not for long. A couple of blocks later the followers were back, well either the first followers or somebody else doing the same thing. So Amy had tried a rather more powerful spell. But once again that wasn't effective for very long.

Amy knew she couldn't stay for long in the doorway where she was currently standing, trying to catch a glimpse of whoever or whatever it was that was interested in her. So far she had just relied on her witch instincts, she hadn't actually caught sight of anybody but she knew they weren't far away. She could feel a nearby presence, a presence that was still very interested in her.

Amy was reasonably sure that her latest concealment spell would hold up for a few minutes longer. She had paused in the doorway and tried to contact the Slayer HQ with her cellphone. But she could not get through. It might have been a coincidence. There might be a technical fault or she could be in a poor reception area but Amy didn't think so. Somebody was blocking her communications. That being so she had no reason to hang around her current location any longer.

If Tara, Amy's assigned Whitelighter, had been on Earth Amy would have been able to call her for a pick up even without a phone but neither Leo nor Jenny would be tuned in to her in the same way. Nevertheless she tried quietly calling their names: nothing. No she'd have to get out of this herself.

Amy was just about to step out of the doorway when some instinct told her to stay put for just a little longer. Almost at once she heard the sound of somebody walking along the street, or rather more than one somebody. A few moments later two men passed by, strolling along as if in no particular hurry to get anywhere.

The men were tall, well dressed and well muscled. They looked human but that didn't mean anything. If they were human they were probably well armed and working for somebody. But they could be vampires or something worse. It was unlikely that they were locals. They were not chatting the way two casual walkers would do. On the contrary their attention was directed to scanning the surrounding area as they walked along.

All of the human inhabitants of Sunnydale seemed to be keeping out of the way. Either they had been warned or the good old Sunnydale radar was back working again. All the locals might be aware of would be a general feeling that it was a good night to stay home. I wonder if that sort of thing is controlled by a higher power thought Amy. Does somebody broadcast some sort of subliminal message as a sort of damage limitation?

The two men stopped a little down the street, muttered a few words to each other and then came back the way they had come. Once again they seemed to be in no particular hurry. Quite obviously they were patrolling the neighbourhood. Probably Wolfram and Hart goons thought Amy as she watched them pass back up the street. Clearly they were not aware of her and they didn't seem to be searching for her so they were probably not the people tracking her.

What to do? She was now having second thoughts about heading for the Magic Box. It had various magic protections but anybody who knew who she was would know of her connection to the shop. They would also have her address and by now might have staked out both places. They might be waiting for her to show before picking her up for questioning.

No, Amy decided, I need a new plan. Not the shop and not home. I'll have to forget about the oracle spell. The only way I'll be safe is if I leave town quickly or somehow get back into the Slayer HQ. But the HQ was certainly being closely watched.

In this state of mind all of Amy's senses were heightened to fever pitch. Thus as she pondered what to do she became aware of a new noise in the neighbourhood, a sort of quiet shuffling by somebody or something that did not want to be noticed. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, stop. Shuffle, Shuffle, shuffle, stop. Yes, it was definitely getting closer. Whatever it is, when it gets here I should be somewhere else she thought.

Amy turned and tried to open the shop door behind her only to find it locked, which was what she had expected. But opening a locked door was child's play for a witch like Amy and a moment later she was inside the darkened premises, relocking the door behind her. She was now inside a small dress shop, a shop long familiar to her in small town Sunnydale.

Amy went straight to the back of the shop and opened the internal door leading to the back room. She did a quick check and found the back door where she expected it to be. She unlocked it ready for a quick getaway into the alleyway at the rear and then returned to the doorway leading back into the main shop and waited.

With a good view of the front door, Amy stood in the dark intending to see what happened next. If she felt threatened she would leave immediately and in a real emergency she had her teleport spell ready. But it would have to be an emergency because the spell drained her and left her exhausted for some time afterwards.

A crouched over figure shuffled along the pavement in front of the shop. It was a bulky figure and wearing a heavy overcoat despite the warm California evening. The coat was pulled up to conceal the head of the figure, assuming it had a head of course. It did not pause at the shop entrance but continued along the road and Amy briefly breathed a little more easily. But her relief was short lived because moments later the figure returned and entered the doorway.

It's definitely tracking me thought Amy. It's as if it's caught my scent. It might be working for somebody or it might be some sort of a demon hunting for prey. I'm not gonna let it get anywhere near me.

As she thought this the figure rattled the relocked front door to see if it would open and lifted its head to peer within. Two bright fiery red eyes blazed at her. She could see nothing else of the creature because the eyes seemed to be set in a surrounding darkness. Amy was now certain that whatever it was it was not human and was likely to be very dangerous.

At that moment the door crashed open. The creature had broken it apart by brute force. That was enough for Amy. She wasn't a Slayer. Fighting demons on her own was not her business so it was time to go. She was leaving right now and she did not intend to run down the road with that thing chasing her. She stepped into the back room and immediately set off her teleport spell.

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The lights of the orb cleared to reveal three of the Halliwell sisters: Prue, Phoebe and Paige. Prue and Phoebe stepped away from their orbing sister.

"OK." said Paige. "I'll be back when I've dropped off Piper so she can tell the others about that visit from Glory."

"Tell them all not to take too long," said Phoebe. "That last vision was crystal clear. We don't have much time. We've got to leave this world as soon as we can."

The sisters had arrived at the military base where Lissie had been taken in order to activate the Key well away from other sources of magic. To avoid accidentally interfering with anything that Lissie was doing the three sisters had landed outside the front gate of the compound. But that wasn't a problem since they now had valid Kallistian identity cards which Prue and Phoebe showed to the guards on the gate as Paige orbed away.

A few minutes later the sisters arrived at the building to which they had been directed, the building where Lissie was working on the Key. Just inside the door they found Faith, sat on a chair and flipping through an illustrated magazine. Drusilla was dozing on a chair further along the corridor. She opened her eyes as the others entered.

"So how's it going?" Prue asked Faith. "Is the Key ready yet because we're running out of time?"

"No idea," said Faith. "We keep hearing noises from inside," she added nodding in the direction of the door at the end of the corridor. "But every time we go look she tells us to get out."

"She was having some trouble with the Key," said Drusilla. "Something about it being charged up already. But she doesn't want our help."

"Let's have another look," said Prue walking towards the door. "See if anything's changed."

"We've all got to get to the Gate as soon as we can," said Phoebe. "There's a chance they'll be able to get it working. But even if they don't we've all got to get off planet somehow, as soon as we can or we might be stuck here permanently. I've had a couple of vision warnings about that."

"So what if they can't get the Gate working?" asked Faith. "Time-travel again? Do we go back to when the Gate was working?"

"No, that would be very risky," replied Prue. "We don't seem to have changed the future on our last trip but we should avoid time travelling any more than we absolutely have to."

"Sam and Tara have a plan to get the Gate working. But if it doesn't work and we can't use the Gate the idea is we all combine our power and try to open a magic portal. If that doesn't work we will have to leave through the local Hellmouth and hope Tara will be able to lead us back home that way," said Phoebe. "But whatever happens we can't stay on this world much longer."

Prue led the way into the room where Lissie was working and stopped just inside the door. The others followed her in and were as surprised as Prue by what they saw.

Lissie was lying on her back on the floor, apparently asleep. But she was not alone. There were five other young women in the room and they were also lying on the floor, apparently asleep. All five had a strong resemblance to Lissie and Dawn although Dawn wasn't one of them.

The six women were in an approximate circle, their feet towards the center. And right in the middle of that circle was something floating about a foot off the floor and giving off a strong green glow.

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"That's it, done! Nobody gets in and nobody gets out," said Lilah as she put her cellphone away. "The town is now isolated."

"We'll we've done that before," said Maybourne. "It didn't last long then so what makes you think it'll be any better this time?"

"We were only applying pressure that time," said Lilah. "This time we're gonna keep the barriers up until this business is all over. And these barriers are a lot stronger."

"Last time you bugged out when the General turned up," said Maybourne. "What will you do if he turns up again with a small army?"

"He'll need more than a small army," said Lilah. "My people have got the area around the Slayer building shut down. But outside that there are all sorts of demons, vampires and monsters gathering. Believe me we're better prepared this time."

"Even if he flies in?" asked Maybourne, still sceptical. "Didn't he use helicopters last time?"

"Even if he flies in," confirmed Lilah. "Trust me."

Maybourne wasn't convinced but he said nothing more. He had made his own security arrangements without consulting Lilah. The General should not be given a chance to interfere this time.

"And when you take over that building I get the Stargate," said Maybourne turning his attention back to the Slayer HQ across the road. I wonder if she's going to keep her word on that he thought. Trust her? Oh yeah.

"That's the deal," said Lilah. "You get the Stargate, we get everything else, all the mystic and magic stuff. That sort of stuff's no good to you anyway." Lilah made no mention of opening a Hellmouth. Maybourne wouldn't understand and it just might make him worried about what would happen to the precious Stargate.

"What about that woman who left the building a while ago. Have you picked her up yet?" asked Maybourne. He had also given orders for the woman to be picked up and questioned by his people but she had managed to somehow disappear.

"That's Amy Madison, and no we've not picked her up yet. But it doesn't matter," said Lilah. "She can't get back into the building and she was the only witch they had left."

"Not even if she's one of those people who can teleport?" asked Maybourne.

"You don't think we've covered that? Please!" said Lilah. "Amy's not the strongest witch they've got. The power we've got focused in this area, there's nobody who'll be able to teleport in or out of that building, certainly not a witch like Madison. And if she tries to leave town she doesn't have the power to go far. Believe me, we'll pick her up before long."

Maybourne did not ask about the more mundane ways of communicating with the outside world. It was he who had made the arrangements to once more block off all electronic communication between the area of the Slayer HQ and the outside world.

"So what next?" asked Maybourne. "They keep stalling. Do you really think they're gonna let your people in now? Now that they don't have even one witch to combat whatever it is your people are planning to do. Are you going to break in or just keep sitting here?"

"It'll be difficult with the protections they have in place but yes, if we have to break in then we'll break in," said Lilah. "But we might not need to. I have it on good authority things are going to get a lot worse just about everywhere in the near future. If they don't let my magic users inside they'll soon have that building falling down on their heads."

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The rush was unexpected. It should not have taken them by surprise because they were all meant to be guarding the open Hellmouth. However everybody was debating what was going to happen next so nobody was paying proper attention when the demons started coming up out of the hole leading down into the Hell Dimension.

The saving factor was the large number of experienced demon fighters present, all of whom were able to react quickly to the unexpected. So it was that the demons, seemingly triumphant in being able to reach the upper world so easily and in large numbers, found themselves faced with savage attacks from the slayers Buffy and Kennedy as well as from Angel and Connor.

Both slayers were carrying swords and soon demon heads and large amounts of green ick were flying around the cellar. Connor was also armed and began using his knives to good effect. Angel used his speed and strength to deliver killing blows while at the same time trying the almost impossible feat of watching out for both Connor and Buffy.

Almost as quick to respond but without the benefit of superhuman reflexes, Xander, Wesley and Gwen got themselves involved, but in a more defensive way by providing a shield for the witches to give them a few moments breathing space. Willow, Cordelia and Anya linked hands ready to blast the demons only to find that they didn't need to do so.

Suddenly demons started exploding into nothingness in all directions. Piper had been orbed in by Paige. As quickly as it had begun the life and death struggle was over. Some of the last demons standing tried to make it back down the Hellmouth but none of them made it. Piper then went around the area cleaning up by destroying the bodies of the demons killed by the others.

"Well that does it," said Willow. "We can't just leave this Hellmouth open any longer. We've got to shut it down now." As she spoke Willow became aware of a familiar presence, a much loved presence, arriving behind her by orb.

Willow turned with a big smile ready to welcome Tara back with her number one hug. But her partner was not alone. She had orbed in two Kallistien witches and was just disengaging from them. But Tara had arrived in time to hear what Willow had just said.

"I'm afraid we can't shut it down now," said Tara. "We've got to leave. We've got to leave right now and leave the Kallistians to deal with this. That's what these witches will be doing. They know how to place a temporary block which should hold until the Central Coven can gather and do something permanent."

"Before they do anything there's something you and they need to know," said Piper.