Chapter Sixty Three: Strategic Moves
As a Whitelighter Tara was responsible for helping a group of witches. Willow, Cordelia and Anya had just returned through the Stargate from Kallistien so Tara didn't need to check up on them. But Tara didn't know what had been happening to Amy while she had been gone so immediately on coming through the Gate back to Earth she extended her Whitelighter senses to make contact.
Tara was surprised to discover a contact nearby. So nearby in fact that Tara decided that Amy must also be inside the SGC even though she had definitely not got there by passing through the Gate with everybody else.
The Gate-room, the nearby corridors, pretty well the whole SGC complex was now filled with the people who had just hurried through the Gate. This meant that the crowding and confusion was such that it would be some time before Tara would be able to talk to anybody in charge in order to find Amy.
Since her senses told her all was not well with Amy, Tara decided not to use mundane methods but to go straight to Amy using her Whitelighter powers. She decided it was OK to orb straight there. It was not as if she needed to keep her Whitelighter powers a secret from the people surrounding her.
Like several of the people new to the SGC Willow, after passing through the Stargate, was stood in the Gate-room, waiting for the traffic to clear, looking around and taking stock. Her musing and brief thoughts that she would like to find out about how the Stargates worked were cut short by Tara grabbing her hand.
"I've got to go see Amy right now," said Tara. "Want to come?"
Willow smiled. "I told you. No more orbing away without me, not unless you've got absolutely no choice. Let's go."
Tara orbed and the two witches found themselves in the SGC Infirmary. Since things had been so quiet lately the unconscious Amy in a bed nearby was the only patient there and for the moment there were no nurses or doctors in sight.
"We're still in the SGC," said Tara walking over to the bed and looking down at the sleeping witch. "Let's find out why Amy's here. I think she would benefit from my help."
"If you heal whatever it is that's put her in this hospital maybe she'll be able to bring us up to date with what's happening in Sunnydale," said Willow.
But before Tara could start using her healing power the two women were interrupted by a woman's voice from behind them:
"So just where did you come from and are you friend or foe?"
Willow and Tara turned to find a beautiful woman in a white hospital coat, probably a doctor, looking at them. The Infirmary had not been left unattended after all. Behind the woman in the doorway was an armed sentry pointing a gun at them. Willow tensed ready to respond but Tara stepped in front of her partner before Willow had a chance to do anything. Tara knew how Willow felt about guns and didn't want her to do something she might regret.
"We're friends of Amy," said Tara. "We've just come back from Kallistien with all the others. Your Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter will vouch for us."
Doctor Fraiser looked hard at Tara. There was something about her that inspired trust. Oh to hell with it thought the doctor. If they can just appear and disappear whenever they want there's nothing I can do to stop them. She turned and signalled the sentry to relax.
"How did Amy get here?" asked Tara turning back to the bed.
"She appeared a little while ago out of nowhere, just like you. But she collapsed straight away and hasn't woken up yet," said Doctor Fraiser. "I can't find anything wrong with her. I think she's just exhausted."
"If she teleported all the way from Sunnydale no wonder she collapsed," said Willow carefully watching the armed guard until he left the room. "I didn't think she was strong enough to do that." All the way from California to Colorado? I don't know if I'm strong enough to do that on my own she suddenly thought.
"Maybe it was an emergency and she went beyond anything she's done before," said Tara. "That can happen in certain circumstances. Let's find out."
Tara had now turned back to the sleeping patient. She stretched out her right hand and held it above Amy's head. A glow appeared briefly between Tara's hand and Amy's head, intensified and then faded away. Almost immediately after the glow faded Amy stirred and opened her eyes. She smiled as she recognised Tara and Willow standing over her.
"Hey, the A Team's back," she said and then frowned and looked around. "Or am I where you guys went? Where am I?"
As Tara explained to Amy where she was and what she, Willow and the others had been doing Doctor Fraiser tapped Willow on the arm and drew her away to ask some questions.
"What your friend just did..." began Fraiser.
"That's Tara. I'm Willow," said Willow.
"That... whatever it was she just did. That was healing right, sort of laying on of hands, healing by magic that sort of thing?" asked Fraiser.
"Uh huh, sort of," agreed Willow nodding.
"I'm a doctor," said Fraiser. "Doctor Fraiser. Is there some way to learn that, bottle it or something because it would be very useful around here. Well very useful just about everywhere of course."
"Uh no, it's a gift," said Willow. "It's uh very rare. Tara does what she can but she has to follow all sorts of rules. If she broke them she wouldn't be able to do it at all. And if it became generally known what she could do it would cause more harm than good."
"But how could that cause harm..." began Frasier only to be interrupted by Willow.
"I need to hear what Amy's saying," said Willow deliberately cutting a difficult conversation short. She and Tara had had long conversations on this very subject.
Not going from hospital to hospital and healing all the sick and injured she possibly could was one of the hardest things about being a Whitelighter, Tara had explained. But she had been convinced by the elders that large scale interference by supernatural beings in the mortal realm would not be a good thing. It was not why she had been made a Whitelighter and in any event it would allow the demon realms to become more active on Earth.
"It's the same reason why powerful demons and warlocks don't walk up and down the street killing people openly all the time," Tara had explained. "If either side distorts the balance too much or too openly, it's the other side which benefits."
Willow returned her attention back to what Amy was saying: "But I only intended to teleport back to the Gate in the Slayer HQ," she said. "How did I end up here?"
"Just a moment," said Tara who then closed her eyes and concentrated for a few moments while everybody else looked at her.
"I'm blocked off. The Sunnydale HQ has been blocked off in some way. I can't orb there and I can't detect the other Whitelighters," she said to Amy. "I expect your attempt to teleport there was blocked as well so you sort of 'bounced' here to the other Stargate."
"There's an SGC team in Sunnydale, in your Sunnydale HQ helping your people guard the other Gate," said Fraiser. "I'll take you to see the General. He might be able to contact them and find out what's happening."
"I don't think Lilah Morgan would have overlooked that," said Amy. "I bet she's blocked their communications as well. She'll be behind all this."
"Lilah Morgan? She's in Sunnydale," asked Willow.
"Oh yeah," said Amy. "She and her goons are camped out there."
On the way to find the General Amy brought the others up to date on what had been happening in Sunnydale.
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The circle was formed. All of the strongest Kallistien witches were present which meant it was a large circle. Of necessity the ceremony was outdoors, in a woodland clearing just outside the military base where Lissie had worked on the Key. Within the circle were Lissie and the other Keepers who had arrived on the planet over the past few hours by unknown means. They formed an inner circle of their own.
Inside the circle of keepers was the Key, or at least a visible aspect of the Key. It floated at head height at the very center of the gathering. It looked something like a large brightly glowing emerald green jewel, but since it was too bright to look at closely nobody could be quite sure of its exact shape.
Lissie and the other keepers had finally decided that the only way they had of getting home and resuming their normal lives would be if they were able to establish control of the Key. But first everybody had agreed to use the Key to deal with the Goa'uld fleet. Even though they all came from different times and places and even universes they were all Kallistians. They all wanted their world to be made permanently safe from the alien attack.
Soon after the Earth people had left Lissie had announced to the witches that she and her fellow keepers were now as ready as they were ever likely to be. The witch Ninnay had contacted the Central Coven and arranged for everybody to gather in the woods ready to carry out the expulsion ceremony.
Everybody knew the Goa'uld fleet would soon be back. Their progress was being monitored by a combination of magic powers and the equipment left behind by the Earth people. It was therefore imperative that the magic of the Key be used as soon as possible, preferably before the Goa'uld landed another wave of troops or decided to bombard the planet.
As well as the witches and keepers taking part in the ceremony there were a number of other people watching. The spectators included a unit of soldiers from the base to provide some protection against mundane attacks. Other units were on call nearby. There were also a number of junior witches who would not take part in the ceremony but who were tasked with providing magical protection to the area. Masquerading amongst the latter was a young looking blond haired woman.
"Well here you are again," said Glory to the woman she found leaning on a tree and taking in everything that was going on in front of her. "Do you plan on more meddling or are you leaving when this is done?"
"You've got me confused with somebody else," said the other Glory turning and smiling. "I haven't done any meddling. But I'm pretty good at meddling so I can do some if you want."
"You don't call opening a Hellgate in somebody else's universe meddling?" said Glory.
"Not me," said the other Glory. "I expect it was one of them," she added pointing to a group of three other Glorys stood talking in the trees a little way away.
"What!" said Glory. "How many of you... How many of me are there? This is ridiculous."
The other Glory shrugged. "It's a big Multiverse. I expect there are an infinite number of us," she said. "And most of us have enough power and knowledge to discover the focus of what is causing all of the upset in the various universes, so we're here to make sure everything is properly put back together again and in a manner that doesn't hurt us."
"It's the reopening of the Hellmouth back on Earth that's meant to straighten everything out," said Glory. "The Earth in this universe that is. That's the focus. Shouldn't you all be there?"
"Oh dear, you are out of the loop aren't you," said the other Glory. "That's just another symptom, not the real cause."
"So what is the real cause," asked Glory glaring at her look-alike, annoyed that others seemed to know more than she did about what was going on.
The other Glory looked straight at her and smiled. "You are. Or rather we are," she said.
"Huh?" responded Glory. "And just what do you mean by that?"
"You remember using the Key to open up the portals between worlds?" asked the other Glory.
"You mean back on Earth in Sunnydale up on the tower?" asked Glory.
"Uh huh," replied the other Glory. "Well a lot of us in many different universes did something similar at exactly the same time. The combination of all that is what, in the course of time, has ending up distorting everything."
"So they don't really need to reopen that Hellmouth back on Earth then?" asked Glory.
"Oh yes they do," replied the other Glory. "But that's only part of the solution."
"And the rest?" asked Glory.
"Well similar openings will be taking place all over the Multiverse. The rest requires the Key," said the other Glory. "That will take center stage as soon as Dawn returns."
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Lilah Morgan watched as her team of mages set things up in the basement area of the Sunnydale HQ. She and her people had finally been allowed inside so that the Hellmouth opening could be carried out although it was obvious that the decision taken by the present occupants of the HQ had been very grudging and not unanimous.
Colonel Maybourne and two of his NID team had tried to accompany Lilah and the Wolfram and Hart team into the building but they had been refused admittance. Lilah had explained to Maybourne that she could not claim that he and his people were needed to take part in the ceremony so she could not force the issue.
Lilah in reality was not upset that Maybourne was not allowed inside. She did not want him doing anything to mess things up. He and his people were not under her control in the same way as the Wolfram and Hart mages. And since the ceremony and the Hellmouth opening were being carried out in the basement where the Stargate was situated he might have become alarmed about what might happen to the Stargate.
On the other side of the basement Gunn, Fred, Leo, Lorne, Vi, Wood and Jenny were quietly talking:
"So how does this work?" asked Gunn. "We don't have any serious magic users ourselves any more unless Amy turns up. But if Lilah's people could do this on their own they would have done it already. So how do we come into it? We can't add much in the way of magic to the mix. Not unless the Whitelighters use their powers."
Leo shook his head but said nothing. They had already discussed this and the Whitelighters had explained that they could not take part in opening the Hellmouth. This was entirely a matter for mortals.
"Some magic spells can be done by people without magical talent," said Wood. "So long as the right ingredients are present and the right ritual is followed."
"As the representatives of our side you can still take part, even though you're not witches yourselves," said Jenny. "You still provide balance to their side of things."
"You mean they need us just to be here, mouthing whatever words they give us and that's the way it works?" asked Gunn. "Why us? Why not the next bum off the street? If you don't need any talent there are millions of people to choose from. Wolfram and Hart could round up as many as they need."
"Ah, not exactly," said Leo. "The agreement is we cooperate. Their side and our side. You people are representatives of our side, Champions in fact. That's not just a word. You've earned that status by what you've done. And you were part of the group that made sure the old Hellmouth was shut and stayed shut."
"Without at least one of you taking part in the ceremony it won't work," continued Leo. Wolfram and Hart on their own cannot open a new Hellmouth. If it was that easy they'd be doing it all over the place. It needs your participation, your willing participation."
"But without our own magic users present this'll be their spell, not ours," said Fred. "Do we just take it on trust that they're only doing what was agreed and nothing more? We won't really understand what's going on. I've got a bad feeling about this."
"That's the point I was making earlier," said Lorne. "It was always going to be their magic, dark magic. A ritual to open a Hellmouth can only be a dark magic ritual. It's sort of a contradiction to try to use white magic for that. Can't be done."
"So what are you guys saying, we just trust Lilah to do what was agreed. Trust Lilah Morgan and take part in her dark magic spell, give it our seal of approval as it were. You must be joking," said Gunn.
"It's part of the agreement," said Leo. "Our side and theirs. They're just as much bound by it as we are."
"I'll try to break this to you gently," said Lorne. "This is Wolfram and Hart we're dealing with. They're not only lawyers, they're the devil's own attorneys. Weaselling their way under, over and around water tight agreements is how they live. Their reason for existing. We're playing on their turf. I expect they're the ones who invented small print. Sure, they'll follow the letter of the agreement but they'll still look to screw us and probably will, ten different ways without even trying."
"It's not too late to back out, even now," said Leo. "If you all agree not to go through with this..."
As if on cue to remind them of the consequences of doing nothing Leo was interrupted in what he was saying by yet another earth tremor. All activity and conversation in the room stopped for about thirty seconds while the floor shook and there was the sound of falling objects in the rooms above. At last all was quiet once more and the Wolfram and Hart mages continued on with their preparations.
"I think that was the worst yet," said Wood. "I think that's all the answer we need, unless anybody has any other way of stopping that sort of thing?"
Nobody offered any suggestions.
"The time will come when that doesn't stop," said Leo. "That was a bad one but nothing like as bad as it will be if we don't solve this."
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The street was dark, or as dark as it ever got in Sunnydale. The street lights were on of course and the area appeared to be deserted as it normally would be in the early hours of the morning. It could have been just another normal night in a small Californian town. Well normal apart from the zig-zag of cracks which had broken up the street as a result of the recent quakes. Although of course even that wasn't exactly unusual in California.
A light appeared at the end of the street and faded to reveal four women. Tara had orbed in with Buffy, Faith and Kennedy to the edge of town.
"That's as close as I can get you," said Tara. "Something's blocking me from orbing any nearer to the Slayer HQ."
"I don't see any barrier," said Kennedy who slowly walked forward a few steps into town with her hand out before stopping. "And I don't feel one either. Looks like you were right when you said we might be able to walk into town from here."
"OK then, we can take it from here," said Buffy to Tara. Tara nodded and disappeared in an orb. She had other things to do in the overall plan.
"Back to the good old days," said Faith as she loosened up by swinging the axe she was holding in her right hand before once more checking the wooden stakes and other weapons she had with her. "A night-time stroll through beautiful downtown Sunnydale with as many vamps and demons as you could wish for."
"Do you think we'll create a big enough stir?" asked Kennedy who was also looking forward to an old fashioned Slayer blitz though town.
"Oh yeah," said Buffy with a smile. "The demon fraternity used to worry about only one Slayer at a time. Well, now they've got three at once. We'll give them something to worry about alright. They won't be able to ignore us."
"Well they've come to town for the Hellmouth," said Faith, grinning just as much as Buffy. "Let's send them all to hell."
The three Slayers now spread out across the road into town ready to make their move:
Faith on the right, Buffy in the center and Kennedy on the left. Buffy looked at her watch. Won't be long now she thought.