Chapter Sixty Five: Lines of Attack
"OK, if everybody's finally ready," said Lilah. "Can you all now step forward and take your places in the circle around the place where the Hellmouth is to open. Take the hands of the people next to you to complete the circle and we can start the ceremony to get it open."
At first Gunn, Fred and the others said nothing. They already knew what to do. They had just needed to know when. When they completed the circle it would consist of a ring of people alternately from each side. Gunn, Fred, Vi, Lorne and Robin would participate along with five Wolfram and Hart people. The Sunnydale group had told Lilah that the Whitelighters would simply watch. But Leo and Jenny would be ready to rescue the others by orb if necessary.
But then, although everything had finally been agreed, Gunn decided to try to put a late spanner in the works. He was still not reconciled to going along with Wolfram and Hart no matter how many times he was told there was no alternative. He had had too many bad experiences of the demonic law firm to trust them, no matter what the circumstances. He still had the nagging feeling that Lilah Morgan was succeeding in putting something over on them.
"How do we know this is safe," he asked. "We open up a Hellmouth and what happens next. It swallows us? Lots of demons rush out and kill us? The world is destroyed? Something even worse than that?"
"Of course it's not safe," said Lilah. "Nothing's safe any more. Doing nothing's not safe. If we'd been allowed to do this a few days ago it would have been safer. But with a Hellmouth there's always a risk. We already talked this through over and over. You'll be in danger, but you'll not be in any more danger than my people are."
"That's a point," said Fred glaring at Lilah. "Why aren't you going to be part of the circle? Why aren't you taking the same risks as the rest of us?"
"Yeah," said Lorne. "You don't mind if all of your people are swallowed up by the Hellmouth. Wolfram and Hart isn't exactly famous for its employee care plan. You wouldn't mind if everybody in the circle were blasted down to Hell if it got you what you wanted."
"Oh for goodness sake," began Lilah. "How many more times? This is the only thing we can do. We have no choice. Your people up there," Lilah gave a nod towards the sky, "and down here," she nodded towards Leo and Jenny, "have told you that haven't they?"
The group standing around Lilah exchanged glances and shrugged but nobody made a move towards joining the circle.
Lilah sighed and continued. "Look, I'm right here. I'm in just as much danger as all of you. Anything that happens here happens to me as well, OK? I'm not in a safe place in a cave or on some other planet."
"If you're in just as much danger then why don't you join the circle?" asked Gunn. "Just what are you really up to? What have you got to gain from all this? Gain personally that is?"
"I can't join the circle because it would unbalance the numbers," said Lilah. "And I can't pull out one of my mages, they're all needed. And I gain just as much as you all do. I get to carry on living on a planet that hasn't been destroyed. Now can we please get on with this because if we wait any longer there'll be no point in doing it at all."
At that moment the lights went out but the darkness was brief. The house generator had been working since the earthquakes had begun to disrupt the local mains electricity supply. But whatever glitch interrupted the generator did not last more than a moment. However the brief darkness stopped all talk. The first to speak again when the lights came back on was the commander of the SG unit guarding the Sunnydale Gate situated on the other side of the basement.
"The Stargate's got a contact," said Captain Dietrich staring at a computer screen in front of him. "There's an unscheduled offworld activation. Somebody off world is trying to open this Gate."
"How?" asked Robin Wood. "I thought it wouldn't work until we finished all this business? Isn't that part of the reason for what we are doing?"
"Yeah, that's what we were told," said Gunn once again looking suspiciously at Lilah. She said nothing but simply shrugged, held out her hands and shook her head to indicate that she didn't know any more than they did.
"Beats me," said Dietrich. "I don't really understand why it stopped working in the first place. All I know is this Gate's got a contact."
At that moment the worm hole of the connection flowed out and back to settle into the familiar watery curtain of an open wormhole connection. It continued to ripple briefly and then settled. Everybody in the basement was now on high alert, staring at the Gate, waiting to see who or what would come through.
Captain Dietrich and his SGC people held their guns at the ready on guard. They had been told that the guns wouldn't work in the slayer building but they hadn't really believed it. Anyway, Dietrich had reasoned, his people were all trained to use their guns as weapons even when they could not be fired and had ordered bayonets to be fitted. If anybody or anything hostile came through they wouldn't have an easy time of it.
Everybody else in the basement remained quiet and on alert for several minutes, expecting the imminent arrival of who knew what, until finally Fred broke the silence. "Where's it connected to," she asked. "Is it an attack or is it somebody friendly?"
"If this was the SGC Stargate I could answer that," said Dietrich. "But this Gate doesn't have the same level of computer backup. Unless they reply to the radio signals I've sent to them we won't know who they are until they step through."
But nobody would be stepping through. At that moment the connection was broken from the other end, wherever that was. The space within the Gate cleared and it once again became inert.
"Maybe somebody tried calling but it didn't work properly before it all broke down again," suggested Vi.
"Well nobody sent a signal through," said Dietrich. "It couldn't have been one of our groups."
"Whatever it was," began Lilah who then broke off briefly from what she was saying while yet another minor earth tremor shook the building. "Whatever it was it doesn't make any difference. This sort of glitch is probably something we should expect anyway. We've got to press on with what we're doing. Now can we please get this circle formed while we still can?"
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They had so far cleaned out three nests of vampires and two groups of demons. The underground sewers of Sunnydale were positively overflowing with underworld denizens. But as usual with vampires and demons there was not much organisation. The various groups did not in any sense constitute an army. They all seemed to be separately waiting for the Hellmouth to open. Fortunately, apart from a few cuts and bruises nobody in the party being led by Angel had been injured or killed.
After moving away from the scene of the latest fight and its dead demon bodies Angel called another halt in a clear spot to discuss the next move.
"It should be dark up there by now," said Giles looking at his watch. "If everything has gone according to plan the town will be blacked out."
"We're only a couple of blocks away from the HQ," said Angel. "But it might be tough the rest of the way. The last few sewers will be the hardest. They're closest to where the new Hellmouth is planned to be so there might be solid demons and vampires from now on."
"So we change the plan," said Xander. "That's what we always do when things don't work out. And they never work out exactly the way we plan do they? Can't we just pretend to be demons and vampires ourselves and sneak by?"
Angel shook his head. "Wouldn't work," he said. "You smell like humans. You'd be spotted straight away."
"We shouldn't be sneaking around anyway. Why don't we just hit the demons and vampires some more?" suggested Connor. "Isn't that one of the reasons why we're here, to divert attention from the others and make Wolfram and Hart think we're the big threat. The more demons we kill now the fewer we'll have to worry about when the Hellmouth is open."
"That sounds like a good way to get us all killed," said Wesley. "If you're outnumbered you don't go for a frontal assault." Not if you have any sense he added but he did not say that aloud. "Sneaking around has won a lot of battles. The plan is to get as many of us to the Slayer HQ as possible, not to fight battles. We're only going this way to avoid being seen by human agents and because we didn't want our magic users to drain themselves transporting everybody."
"The only way we can properly divert the attention of Wolfram and Hart is to get to the Slayer HQ," said Giles. "Lilah Morgan won't care what happens to the demons and vampires down here in the sewers. If she opens that Hellmouth the way she wants to there'll be a lot more to take their place. If we can't continue on down here we'd better get up there."
Drusilla had been scouting a little way ahead. Now she returned to the sewer tunnel intersection where the others were talking.
"They're coming from above," she said. "They are coming from above, they're coming now and they're coming in helicopters."
"Helicopters?" asked Giles. "What do you mean helicopters?"
"Those things with the whirly blades on top. They fly though the air," said Xander. "You must have them in England."
Giles gave Xander an exasperated look then glanced back at Drusilla. "Who's coming now in helicopters? Did you hear them or is this something from your second sight?" he asked.
"It can't be General Hammond," said Wesley. "He won't be sending in any of his people unless we give him the signal."
"I can hear them now," said Angel looking up to the ceiling of the sewer. "Several helicopters. Must be some sort of military unit."
"Maybe something happened and the General decided to move in anyway," suggested Xander.
"Or maybe the people in those helicopters are working for somebody else. Somebody like the Secret Service people working with Wolfram and Hart," said Connor. "Always assume the unexpected is bad news and you won't go far wrong."
"OK, that decides it. We stay down here and press on," said Angel. "Dealing with soldiers isn't our business. Down here dealing with the vampires and the demons, that's our business. Until we reach the HQ that's how we can be most useful."
"You said you didn't think we could get through down here," said Connor.
"Yes I did but we'll just have to do the best we can," said Angel. "I think we've got a better chance down here than facing automatic weapons and helicopter gun ships. Anyway we don't want to fight humans if we can avoid it. It might be difficult to avoid killing some of them."
"Watch your father," said Wesley to Connor quietly as Angel turned away to lead them further along the sewer tunnels. "We're going to carry on sneaking around for as long as we can and there's nobody better at sneaking around than your dad."
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"I'm quite happy staying right here," said Jack leaning back in his chair. "Goulies, demons, vampires and things like that, not our business."
"You sound like you want to put the genii back in the bottle," said Daniel, who was sat next to Jack in the SG-1 control room. "Can't be done."
"Genii?" queried Teal'c. "What's a genii and what bottle are you talking about?" Teal'c was sat on the other side of Daniel.
"It's just an expression. It means we can't undo what's already been done," said Sam quietly from her position monitoring a computer screen. "Or at least not without magic," she added mischievously.
"How many years have you lived on this planet?" Jack asked Daniel.
"What sort of question is that?" asked Daniel.
"Well I've lived here a few years longer than you and neither of us met any witches or demon things up until now," said Jack. "Seems to me people like that, things like that, generally keep out of the way. When this is all over if they want to go back to keeping out of the way that's fine by me. We can all go back to disbelieving in them."
"You can't seriously mean that?" asked Daniel.
"No, not really," said Jack. "But I'm not going looking for any more of that sort of thing once this is all over. Seems to me there are people much better equipped to deal with those types of problems. We save the world in our way and they save it in theirs."
"Unless we meet 'that sort of thing' on another planet," said Daniel. "Next time the locals complain about demons they might just be complaining about the real thing and not some alien life form."
"There's something else you're forgetting," said Sam looking up from the screen in front of her. "Last we heard, Apophis still had some witches on at least one of his ships. If he survives, whatever happens back on Kallistien we might have to face magic using enemies again in the future."
"By then those witches might be controlled by Goa'uld symbiotes," said Teal'c. "We shall need to recruit some of the friendly witches to assist us. I think they will be prepared to help rescue other witches. And I should like their help to see if I can contact any witches there might be amongst the Jaffa."
"I wonder how the General will describe that in the budget allocation," said Daniel. "I don't think recruiting 'special ability' people will satisfy anybody for long. Not if this Stargate breakdown means an official inquiry."
"Special units, reserve standby technicians, contractors, consultants, something like that," said Jack. "The US military have got a couple of centuries of experience in getting funding for just about any sort of boondoggle. The General will get it through somehow if he has to. Hell, I heard we even managed to employ an Egyptologist in one of our Air Force bases."
Daniel gave Jack an exasperated look but said nothing.
"Do these witches need to be paid?" asked Teal'c. "Does this affect your budget? Does their magic not include producing whatever funds they need? Do they actually need funding from you?"
Jack shrugged. "Who knows? But don't let the IRS hear you say that," he said. "They don't take kindly to people literally making their own money."
"OK, something's happening," said Sam gazing intently at the information on her screen. "That's the third successive quake originating in the same part of Southern California. Looks to me like its all happening right under Sunnydale."
"So what are you saying, a quake and after shocks?" asked Daniel moving forward to look over Sam's shoulder.
"Not exactly," said Sam. "After shocks are generally smaller than the original quake. What we seem to have here are a swarm of quakes, but the big ones seem to be getting bigger and bigger. It all seems to be building up for something really big, just like we were told it would."
"Something really big like the opening of a Hellmouth?" asked Daniel. And then he stopped to pursue a few thoughts of his own. Not all seismic activity was explained by plate tectonics. Is this the way this sort of thing usually happened? And what about those very rare mega volcanic eruptions? Did they happen because of some sort of connection to a Hell Dimension? What exactly was going to be let loose in Sunnydale?
"So are we all ready here," Jack asked Sam. "No chance of a blowback or something through the Sunnydale Gate?"
"We're as safe as we can make it sir," said Sam. "That's to say as safe as everybody else on the planet."
"And who knows how safe that is," said Daniel.
"As you know we've de-powered our Gate," continued Sam. "I told Willow and the sisters what they needed to know about how the Gates work. All we can do now is wait."
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"So what do we do next?" asked Dawn. "Just wait for the next jump to another world?"
"What else can we do?" asked Vala with a shrug. "Unless you know of a way to control these jumps to other worlds that you've decided not to mention up to now?" she added suspiciously.
The two women were currently eating a picnic lunch in a local park. They had put into action the plan that they had devised and were now wondering about how long it would be before anything happened.
Dawn had already thought about trying to control a jump to another world. On the previous world she had tried concentrating hard and willing herself back home, back to the original Kallistien or to anywhere at all really. But nothing had happened.
Dawn had even tried to cast some made up magic spells of her own but that was very half hearted since she did not know enough about magic to do that sort of thing. She had no spell book of her own and so far had not been able to obtain one, so when her spellcasting had failed she had not been surprised.
But the plan suggested by Vala had relied on a little more than will power or made up spells. They had returned to the local witch they had previously visited and Vala had paid her to carry out some magic ready for when Dawn jumped to the next world. Always assuming that there would be a next jump of course and that Dawn did not find herself stuck permanently in her present location.
If things went according to plan the next time the connection to other worlds opened up ready to swap her with yet another similar looking young woman, Dawn would not jump to some apparently random destination. Instead she would jump back to the original Kallistien in exchange for whoever might have been dumped there in her place. Once back in the original Kallistien she could try to contact Buffy and the others and hopefully return home.
What nobody knew, including the witch, was whether things would work out in the way planned. But the witch thought there was a good chance for success because Dawn would automatically have an affinity with her own universe so the spell would be working towards, rather than against, a natural balance.
Vala had insisted on being included in the spell. She wanted to go with Dawn when she next jumped and was staying close by the younger woman for that reason. The witch carrying out the spell had pointed out that this might not work but if it did it would probably mean the displacement of another Vala from Dawn's universe. But this had not bothered Vala. Her priority was to get away from the world were she was currently trapped. Another Vala would have to sort things out for herself.
"Well if that other Vala is like you, you might find yourself with even bigger problems than you have now," Dawn had pointed out. "She might be in even bigger trouble than you are."
"That might apply to you as well," said Vala. "You might be jumping out of the pan and into the fire."
But of course neither woman had any intention of remaining where they were. It was not in their nature. All they could do now was wait for things to happen and then deal with the consequences.