Disclaimer : Nothing's mine.
Hello ! I am very truly deeply sorry but life went too Hell. Seriously, it was nothing really serious but it was an endless successions of shits (car broke, three times, my pc died, I felt ill multiple times, it was Hell at work...) and I completely lost my will to write or read. And in December, the snow paralysed my region, and me. To be honest, I just wanted to stay in bed and never leave.
On the good side, this story is almost over. The next two chapters are beta-ed and I have just a couple of pages left to write because the epilogue had been finished centuries ago ^_^
I'll do my best to finish it quickly.
Again, I'm really sorry for the delay.
Enjoy !
Chapter Twenty-Nine
All Hell Breaks Loose
The hours following the disappearance of the Scoobies went by in a blur. It was during such moments when time seemed to speed up around a person. A look at the clock could make it seem like each minute passed excruciatingly slowly. Or even too fast. At the same time. Slowly, because there would be this dreadful feeling inside your gut telling you that it'll be too late. That whatever you do, you'll lose. And too fast because you would be desperate to find a solution, to end whatever was happening.
Buffy knew moments like it well. She had had her fair share of them. Sometimes, she wished (not out loud of course) that she could be blasé enough to be unaffected. Nevertheless, each time seemed to be worse than the last. But there was something about this situation that had her on edge. To be honest, there were a lot of things that disturbed her about the whole thing.
She felt useless. This wasn't a job for a Slayer alone. Their enemy was using a high degree magic, so only magic could be used to stop him. She would be able to fight the minions, but she would be of no use against the big bad. Not with the mojo he could throw around. Willow was the one that they needed but she had been taken. That fact alone was enough to make her lose hope.
Which led to the even more worry. Their enemy had Willow, Xander, and Giles. They might not be on good terms at the moment, but that didn't meant she didn't care. Thinking about everything that had happened with this case up to now made her question the chances the three would survive long enough to be found.
As if her worry for the Scoobies and feelings of uselessness weren't enough, the feeling that something was going on between Jack and Dawn wouldn't leave her alone.
She was ready to burst out of her skin. If she had to try finding sleep for another minute, she was going to kill someone. She abandoned the sofa and was surprised to discover that her body didn't hurt as much as before. She moved a little, searching for how far she could move before the pain would come back. Only to find there was none. She still didn't feel in top shape, but she felt like she did after a really strenuous workout rather than a near death experience. That was good.
She found Ianto in the armoury, staring at the table where all kinds of weapons had been spread out. There was a deep frown on his handsome face. She cleared her throat to announce herself and he turned to her, startled by her sudden appearance.
He seemed a little out of his depth as he said, "I don't know what kind of weapons we should bring. I mean, we don't know who or what we're up against. What should I bring? Guns? Would alien weapons be affective? Will there be some sort of magical shield protecting them?"
She moved to his side and looked over his selection of weapons.
"Do you have any water guns?"
He looked at her quizzically. "Water guns?"
"For vampires. Fill them with holy water and they make nice deterrents. As for the weapons, take the largest calibre. Aim for the head. Beheading works well for almost anything. It would be best to avoid a close fight, but I think it would be a good idea to have crosses, stakes, and knives. Just in case."
"We don't have…"
Buffy ignored him and left the room. He followed her. His longer legs just barely helping him to keep up with her. She led him to the gym and watched as she dragged out a large wooden chest from under a bench. He tried to help her only to discover that it was too heavy for him to lift, though she didn't seem to have any problem with it.
'Right, super strong girl here,' he thought.
She opened it and he saw that it was filled with swords, knives, daggers, crosses, holy water vials, stakes and even a couple crossbows. She took out some of the equipment and put them inside a duffel.
"So, what's going on between my sister and Jack?"
"What?"
"Come on! Are you telling me that you don't see that something's going on?"
"No, yes, I mean… I don't know."
She closed the bag and turned towards him. "You don't know or you don't want to tell me?"
He straightened his tie. "I don't know what's going on. However, I know what you are talking about."
"What do you think it is?"
"I don't know."
"Did you ask Jack?"
"Jack doesn't tell me everything. I'm pretty sure you know him better than I do at this point."
"Is that jealousy I hear, Ianto Jones?"
"I am just stating a fact. Whatever they've discussed, they haven't said anything to me or anyone else, that I know of."
"Yeah, that's what worries me."
She grabbed the bag and put the strap over her shoulder like it wasn't stuffed full of a wide selection of heavy weaponry and they left the room. They were half way towards the main room when alarms started going off. They broke into a run.
Jack glanced at them as soon as they entered.
"We've got a location."
"How?" Buffy asked as Ianto left to fetch the weapons.
It was Tosh who answered.
"I changed the parameters. I used the data we have to increase the sensitivity of the sensors so they'd activate the alarm at the first sign of something."
"So how sure are you that it's who we're after and not a false alarm?"
"Because the activity is steadily increasing."
Buffy didn't ask anything else. Tosh was the computer genius, not her. If she said that the alarm was their guy, then it was. Going from the Hub to the SUV didn't seem to take any time at all.
Their siren blared as they flew down the streets. Buffy closed her eyes for a moment, gathered her stray thoughts and tried to focus on the task at hand. It was difficult for her to do because, deep down, she knew they wouldn't be in time to save all of them. There was no way they could make it in time to save everybody. She wasn't even sure that they could make it in time to stop the bad guy from accomplishing his goal. Not without Willow anyway. And there was also whatever it was that Jack and Dawn had planned. There was something going on, something that they were hiding from her and it couldn't be good. She hoped for Jack's sake that nothing bad would happen to her sister. Because then, the end of the world would be the least of his worries.
"XANDER!"
Willow struggled against the chains holding her. She screamed, crying and kicking as she watched the blade slowly pulled out of her best friend's thigh. When it was free, blood began pouring out of the wound in a steady flow.
"Come on, you can save him. One little spell is all it would take."
The analytical part of her brain told her that the wound was lethal. It was only a matter of minutes until Xander bled to death. Another part of her rebelled. She could save him! She had the power to do it. Like the warlock said, just one little spell.
"Will, don't."
She looked into Xander's eye. His face was contorted in pain as he hung by his wrists on the wall in front of her. Dried blood covered his forehead. He was paling quickly, losing blood.
"Don't die," she pleaded.
She struggled against herself as every instinct she had in her was screaming at her to do something. It had been hours since they had started to torture him and she had had to watch it all. The tension had been building inside of her as her magic sought release. She stared briefly at the circle she was in. She knew the runes. The moment she released her magic, it would be siphoned off by the circle and that would be the end.
Giles was calling to her.
"Willow, look at me. Willow!"
She tried to turn her head but she couldn't take her eyes off Xander. She could barely hear the others wizards surrounding her chanting. Like her, they knew she wouldn't be able to hold on. She wasn't strong enough. What would she be without him? He was her best friend, the mainstay of her life. They had been together since kindergarten and nothing, absolutely nothing, had ever broken them apart for very long. Their world had changed, people had come and gone but they had always been together. They were more than friends, more than lovers. Nothing could break them apart. She couldn't lose him.
It was like losing Tara all over again. Without Xander, she would die. Perhaps not physically, but emotionally. She had lost Buffy a long time ago, without even realizing it. She had lost Oz and Tara. Even the distant friends in Cordelia and Anya were lost to her. God, even Spike! She couldn't lose anyone else, especially not Xander. If he died, it would be Hell on Earth. She would bring it herself.
"WILLOW!"
Her eyes finally moved from Xander to Giles. The old man was only there because of them. It was their fault. They killed their last and only parental figure. He had warned them. Oh God, he had tried to show them that what they were doing was wrong. For so long he tried to make them see and they had brushed him off, acting as if they had known better. He had followed them to try keeping them alive and it was going to kill him.
"You need to stay in control, Willow."
"I can't." She shook her head, crying.
The pressure inside of her was too much.
"Will," her gaze shifted to Xander, "I love you."
"Xander, don't! I'm sorry. I'm… Xander?"
His head wobbled and his eyelid fluttered. Someone unshackled him and he fell to the ground, into the gathered pool of his own blood. The only sound being his body hitting the ground.
"Xander? Xander? Answer me, Xander!"
The warlock stood right above Xander and nudged the body with his foot. "Looks like he won't be of any more use."
His eyes stopped on Giles. He smiled. "Next!"
She saw a vampire move towards Giles and all her walls collapsed. Anger and desperation engulfed her. She felt the power consume her and barely heard her name being called. She pushed the magic out of her, directed at the warlock, wanting to hit him, to kill him. His only reaction was a smile and a flick of his wrist.
"Finally!"
Her breathing hitched. She felt the magic leaving her, being sucked out of her and it hurt. She tried, in vain, to stop it. The pain grew inside of her as her reserves were emptied. Instinctively, she taped into the power of the Earth to keep her from dying. She tried to stop from doing it but it was purely an instinctual act of self-preservation. There was nothing she could do about it now. She was just a conduit. The chanting rose in volume, the air crackled with power and the runes which were designed to create the portal began to glow.
She used all her strength, mental and physical, to brace herself for the pain as she attempted to create a shield around her. She couldn't stop the flow of power but she could at least try to slow it. She prayed that Torchwood would come in time to fix their mistake.
The car flew through the streets at breakneck speed. Jack had called the police and told them to evacuate the immediate vicinity around their destination. The cops were under strict orders to protect the population and stay out of the building. This time, whoever was behind the plan hadn't chosen a secluded area but some place in the middle of the business district. Jack had let Buffy hand out various weapons and explain how to use them. Basically, on vampires, they would use water guns filled with holy water as a distraction and use their real guns to take headshots at demons. Of course, said enemies were stronger and faster than all of them.
"As soon as we're in, search for the idiots and free them," Jack added.
"No," he heard, surprised.
He turned to Buffy. Playing with her knife, her face was set as she explained, "This is not a rescue mission. We have to stop the ritual and save the world. That's our main goal. If we can save them while doing it, that's a big bonus. But saving the world is our first priority."
"Buffy," Dawn whispered.
The Slayer shot a glare at her sister.
"You know that I'm right. The world is more important. It always has been."
There was a sadness and resignation in her voice and they saw the Key bow her head in defeat.
When they arrived, they were ready. Buffy grabbed Jack's arm.
"I'll need someone to distract the warlock. I won't be able to put him down if I have to face him directly. Human or demon, he has magic on his side."
"Okay, I'll distract him. How am I supposed to recognize him?"
"Believe me, you will. Smart as they can be, the evil mastermind is always the one who'll brag."
Weapons in hand, they made their way inside. Just before going in, Buffy turned towards her little sister. She didn't like her being here because even after all these years, and their problems, she kept worrying about her safety. Dawn shot her a tense smile.
"I'm a big girl, Buffy."
"I know. But you're still my bratty baby sister."
The Key's smile brightened a little. The Slayer smiled back and went inside, shouting, "Remember the first rule of slaying: don't die!"
Dawn watched her sister disappear inside and followed her. Her heart beat furiously inside her chest. Her hands shook and her breathing became shallow. She was more afraid than she could ever remember being before. She had planned all of this with Jack. They had agreed on signs if things went bad and she had made him promise to take care of Buffy if something should happen to her. They were ready. She was ready. Like Buffy had said in the car, saving the world had always been the most important thing.
She could already hear the sound of fighting. She followed it until she reached a room. The scene that greeted her stopped her cold. They were too late.
The warlock, a strange man with grey and white hair, was hiding behind a shield and shouting orders. There weren't that many opponents. Maybe a dozen or so vampires, a couple of demons and three wizards. The last of which were so busy with the spell that they couldn't attack the team. The mastermind was protecting them with his shield, allowing them to perform the spell that would effectively end the world.
The problem with the ritual was that the spell casters were the most vulnerable while it was being performed. They had to focus all of their energy, magic and mind on the ritual. Their defences were down during that. The Big Bad, the grey and white haired man, had to protect them. They were surely his best weapons and they were busy chanting.
She searched for her friends. She felt the air rush from her lungs and her blood freeze as she took in the scene. Her heart skipped a beat as her mind process what she was looking at. Xander was dead. They had been too late and one of them was dead. The ritual had already begun, only magic would be able to stop it. There was no way Buffy would be able to stop it. It was her time then. She could feel the emotions swirling inside of her. Her fear nearly paralysed her as she realised what she had to do and what it could mean. Panic threatened to overtake her. She needed to get a grip on herself. She slowly breathed in and out, still keeping a close eye on her surroundings.
She tightened her fists in anger and despair. She tried to ignore Xander's blank stare, the meaning of it, tried to ignore the sight of him laying in his own blood. Unmoving. Lifeless. She tried to ignore Willow's pitiful cries as the witch fought her own battle against herself. She tried to shut out the fight going on around her. She ignored the heat in the air, a by-product of all the power put out by the ritual. She thought she could see something, barely there, hovering just above the glowing runes on the floor. A hole, almost invisible. She looked at the smiling warlock, protected behind some magical shield. He was gloating. His plan was working perfectly and she wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug expression off his face. He was sure that nothing could stop him now.
She searched for Jack and when their eyes met, she silently reminded him of his promise and he nodded his head solemnly. She searched for her sister and saw her fighting several vampires in a deadly ballet. She always had been beautiful during a fight.
She was ready. The blade cut through her skin like it was nothing, just above the long scar on her arm. She cut deep, clenchingher jaw from the pain. And then she let the memories flow.
The first day of pre-school. Lie.
The day she lost her first tooth. Lie.
The day she learnt how to ride a bike with her dad. Lie.
The day she entered elementary school. Lie.
The pride in her mother's eyes as she wrote her name for the first time. Lie.
The happy days of the Summers family. Lie.
The day her parents divorced. Lie.
The day they moved to Sunnydale. Lie.
The days spent at the mall with her sister. Lie.
It was all a lie. Every birthday, every first time, every happy memory. None of it had ever happened.
What had happened was the day she sat in the Magic Box, Spike at her side, reading Giles' diary and realizing that she was not real. Just a tool. A powerful and dangerous tool. She was not human.
What was real was her mother dying, her family being hurt.
What was real was the day she stood atop the tower, blood dripping to the ground as power bubbled and grew inside of her, the fabric between realities collapsing. Because she was the Key and she could open portals. And because she could open them, logically she could close them too.
She closed her eyes and searched for that fire inside her. A cold green fire, waiting, sleeping. She found it and saw it was barely a spark. She fed it with memories of what it was, what they were. The Key, a power like no other in the Universe. Something that had always existed and always would. It was hard and her head was soon throbbing. She fed it with her anger at being used. With the heartache she still felt from everything she had lost, with the tiredness of being alive after so many fights when so many others hadn't survived. She fed it her hope for a better future for her and the ones she loved. And she fed it that love she felt for her family and her friends, and her dreams of starting her own family with Derek. She gave everything she had, and everything she was, to close the portal in front of her.
After Glory, they had thought that she wasn't the Key anymore. Just human. When the First came, she proved that she was not extraordinary. Along with Xander, she was the only plain old human. The only person without superpowers. But the dreams had begun not long after that. She didn't mention them to anyone. She dreamt of another time, when demons roamed Earth. It wasn't so bad. It was just… different. The visions were blurred but after a while she had realised that she had been made human before. Or not exactly human. She didn't know what she had been but she had had a life before being Dawn Summers. Long before being a green glowing ball of energy even. She had eventually talked to Giles about it. He was the only one who knew about the dreams. She had started training with Willow under the pretence that she could have residual magic because of what she had been. It had worked and she had learnt to recognize her power. She had also understood that while she might be dormant, she was still the Key.
Their plan relied on two suppositions. First, that she still had the power of the Key. She had never tried to access it before, never tried to use it. It was too dangerous and the fears of being consumed by the power, or not being able to stop it, were too great. However, there was no time for hesitation or doubt about her abilities now. She was the only thing that could stop the end of the world. Second, the bad guy didn't know what she could do. After all, they closed Glory's portal and there was never any proof that the Key still existed. So, the bad guys would think that the Key had been destroyed during the closing of the portal, if he was even aware of its existence in the first place.
They hoped so anyway.
It was like an explosion. Sudden and violent, blinding her. She was the only one to feel it because it happened inside of her. The fire began consuming her, eating her from the inside out. She couldn't think, couldn't breathe. The fire, the power, was the only thing on her mind. Her eyes were closed but she had never seen so clearly. She could feel the people around her, see their energy moving around and hurting each other. But most importantly she could see the hole above the runes — could hear whispers coming from the other side. It called to her power, attracting her, hypnotising her. She willed the feeling to stop, the attraction to fade away. She was the Key, the master of portals. She could open them, so it only stood to reason that she could close them.
The power was getting to be too much.
'It didn't hurt this much last time,' she thought.
She focused on her task and imagined the world draped with a transparent veil. The warlock created a hole in that veil, right in front of her, a hole which was getting bigger and bigger under the power of the spell. She imagined herself consumed by the green flames of her power. She could almost feel the flames, almost touch them. When she had some semblance of control, she imagined herself throwing all her power at the portal. In her mind, the green flames shot towards the portal, encircling it. They cut it away from its source of power and left it alone. Abandoned and weak, the green flames pressed in, shrinking it, choking it, until it was closed and gone.
She opened her eyes and saw the world through green light. She almost shouted in joy when she realised that the portal was gone. But her power was still flooding out of her and she couldn't stop it. She hadn't had time to figure that part out. The only thing known that could stop it was death. The first time, blood and death through the portal closed it. This time, there was nothing to close but she had to be stopped.
The pain was unbearable now. She couldn't keep her control. She had so much power inside of her, it kept coming from seemingly nowhere. There was no end, it would continue to pour out of her forever, until she was stopped. Tears fell down her cheeks. She was still losing blood from the cut in her arm but she didn't even felt light-headed.
Suddenly, someone was in front of her. Large cold palms were on her wet cheeks.
She choked out, "I can't stop it."
"Are you sure?"
"It burns."
She focused on the hands and her vision cleared long enough to lock eyes with Jack.
"Please."
He nodded. He let her go and she missed the coldness of her hands. Seconds later, what felt like an electric charge shot through her body. Her body exploded with pain. It felt as if she was being torn apart. She yelled but her voice gave out almost instantly. She felt her heart stop just before blacking out.
As soon as Jack locked eyes with Dawn, he knew they were ready. But were they, really? More like they had no choice. There were so many ways this could go wrong. But they had no choice, so he nodded slightly and hoped for everything to go well. Because if not, he was in deep trouble. They all were. He kept an eye on Dawn as he tried to get himself closer to her. He kept shooting anything that got too close to either of them. His heart pounded in his chest, sending adrenaline coursing through his veins. It was times like this when he felt truly alive.
As he made his way to her, he felt the air around him thicken. It was harder to breath and there was a disturbing crackling sound filling the room. There was something more, hidden in the background, a noise that almost reminded him of the TARDIS. A vaguely ethereal music.
He kept his focus on Dawn but tried to keep a close eye on the runes on the floor. He caught the disturbance in the air just above it. Like a hole. A tiny hole with the potential to become a direct path to Hell. If he could have, he would have been amazed by the mere thought of something like that. But he hadn't the time. He watched the girl cut her arm, letting the blood flow. She closed her eyes and her face was soon distorted by a myriad of emotions.
Seconds passed by and it felt like hours to him. Her body jerked and he could see her muscles tighten. He stood immobile and watched, mesmerized as the place seemed to explode with white hot energy. The last steps towards her were made in a struggle but he reached her nonetheless, just as the portal disappeared. He cupped her face with his hands and almost took them back. She was burning up. Almost too hot to touch. When she opened her eyes, they glowed green. He could see the agony in them.
She choked out the words he hadn't wanted to hear, "I can't stop it."
They had talked about that possibility. She had never used her full power on purpose before. The one and only time was when she was abducted by Glory. A Summers had had to die to stop the power back then. But the power had been different then, outside of her. That was how Buffy was able to stop it. This time she was the power. It was coming from inside of her, growing and asking to be let out. That was something they couldn't allow.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"It burns."
He hesitated. Maybe if she had more time...
"Please."
She was in so much pain that he didn't argue. He took a device out of his pocket, turned it on and aimed it at her. He pulled the trigger. Crackling blue energy left the alien device and hit Dawn. She screamed. Her voice breaking almost as soon as she began. He caught her before she fell, eyes empty and wide open.
"OWEN!"
Jack immediately started CPR. The doctor seemed to take forever reaching them. When he did, he ripped her shirt open, put the electrodes on her chest and told him to back off. The captain let him work and turned to the rest of the room. The vampires were nothing but ash, the demons were dead and he looked up just in time to see Buffy impale a dumbstruck warlock with her sword. Ianto and Gwen were handcuffing the unconscious magic users while Tosh went about freeing a devastated Willow and a hurt Giles.
A blonde storm rushed by him. He watched as Buffy knelt down by her sister's body. She didn't touch her as Owen shot electricity through the Key's body to try restarting her heart.
"Please, please, Dawnie. Don't do this to me. You forbid me to die! You can't die on me after that, okay? We have so much to work on! And you're getting married, remember? Please."
Time seemed to freeze as they watched, waited, for a sign, any sign. Finally, the steady beeping of Owen's machine broke the silence.
"She's back," the doctor said. "We need to get her back to the Hub now."
"Is she going to be okay?" Buffy asked.
Owen avoided her eyes and simply repeated, "We need to get her back to the Hub."
Jack turned to the rest of the team. "Alright, we—"
He went from standing to flat on his back faster than anyone could follow. He dazedly stared up at the ceiling and realised his jaw was broken. It hurt far too much for it not to be broken. He tried to clear his blurry vision but his brain seemingly didn't want to work. There was a lot of noise around him and he felt dizzy. When the picture cleared, he saw Ianto carrying Buffy away. Carrying her because she was yelling at him so loudly and saying things so quickly that he couldn't understand a word she said. Which might have been for the better. The glare she was sending him told him that the only reason he wasn't dead was that she didn't want to hurt Ianto and was letting the man carry her away.
He got back to his feet slowly. Owen was carrying Dawn to the SUV and Gwen offered him a hand.
"Thanks."
"You should stay far away from Buffy until she cools down."
"It's not like she could kill me."
His joke died as Gwen glared at him.
"I'm pretty sure that she's angry enough with you to find a way to put you down permanently."
He grimaced at her choice of words and tried to joke again. "Put me down? That is so wrong."
"Sometimes, I wonder Jack."
She walked away from him. He looked around at the mess. Only corpses were left. His eyes stopped on Xander's body and he sighed sadly. There was always a price to victory, wasn't there? He sighed before turning around and leaving the building. They still had a lot of work ahead of them to clean up this mess.
¤ ¤ tbc ¤ ¤