The Magic Box, now.
"They're still in class," Anya said as she hurried out of the back office while Giles kept on calling the Summers home hoping that Buffy was home before shaking his head and remembering Buffy had a class as well. He then slammed the phone down while Dawn stood still on the other side of the counter with her hands pressed down on the glass and a look of worry on her face. All she heard was that her older self had done something terrible, or was going to do something terrible, in Los Angeles and that they needed to get there fast.
Dawn was feeling… something. She didn't know how to feel as she listened to the conversation between Giles and Anya about Cordelia receiving a vision that had the older Dawn killing Darla and her child, 'I remember Darla… she's supposed to be dead. And.. and Vampires can't have kids… so…' Dawn's eyes shifted back up to Giles as he shook his head, his voice seemed so far away now while he talked to Anya who was right next to him, the two of them repeating to themselves that Tara, Willow, and Buffy were most likely in their respective classes.
"I.. I know the classes they're in," Dawn whispered, and the two adults turned to look towards her. She wanted to know what was going on as well… no, more than that… she needed to know what was going on. She needed to get some answers from her older self. Dawn had to believe that there was absolutely no way that she could ever kill a child or a pregnant woman; vampire or not.
Dawn wanted answers – so she nodded her head when Giles said that he and her would be going over to the university and picking up Tara, Willow, and Buffy. Dawn nodded her head before Giles turned towards Anya.
"Anya, you and Xander will be staying here," Giles said and, at that, Anya nodded her head. He then turned to Dawn before telling her to pack up her book bag and then leave it in the back office. Dawn nodded her head and was about to turn towards the table in the middle of the store when everyone heard a whistle from outside, followed by the sound of a sonic boom. Giles, Anya, and Dawn turned towards the big glass window at the front of the store.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light in the distance. The light forced Giles, Anya, and Dawn to cover their eyes and look away before there was a violent tremor followed by the distant sound of "BOOOOM!" and then a "Whoosh!" before there were the sounds of car alarms going off, the sounds of screams and the Magic Box door chime going off multiple times as people ran into the store for some degree of protection based off the panic in their voices. Her eyes still closed, Dawn felt a hand grab her arm before being pulled away while Anya's voice yelled out.
Dawn opened her eyes to see Giles pulling her behind the counter while everything in the store was shaking violently. She saw jar and vials falling from the shelves before turning around as she was pulled behind the cashier and saw Anya rushing from behind the counter while yelling at everyone to go to the back of the shop. Dawn's heart raced as she stared at the terrified people who were staring out through the glass window as they ran towards the rear door. She saw Anya turn and then step back putting her hands over her mouth as she gasped in shock.
"Oh dear Lord," Giles whispered after he too rushed out from behind the counter and stood next to Anya. Dawn saw him put up his hand to the sides of his head while his eyes were wide open in shock.
Dawn stepped over and around the broken glass and spilt liquid. She wanted to see what was happening. And when she did rush around the counter, Dawn almost wished she didn't. There was a massive fireball that was forming into a towering inferno that looked to be several blocks away. It was as if the tower of fire was reaching the sky. She could see the raging fire slowly diminish in size before being extinguished… but then there were the whistling sounds in the air.
Those sounds were soon followed by hard thuds on the ceiling of the Magic Box, and then on the street outside as Dawn and the others stared out the window while the other bystanders were being told by Anya to continue going into the backroom – AKA the Slayer training room.
Suddenly, Dawn was pulled back when something smashed through the front window. And then another, and then another.
"Get back! Get back!" Giles yelled as he pulled Dawn, who swore she saw bones and headstones on the floor of the Magic Box, into the back room where all of them waited for the rain of debris to stop. And when it did stop, a few minutes later, Giles and Anya were the first ones back out into the store which had several pieces of debris sprawled all around the floor.
Headstones, bones, pieces of burnt caskets. Everything that one would find in a graveyard was in the Magic Box – as well as in several other areas such as in the surrounding buildings and on the street. There were damage to properties, many dead from the massive explosion, and hundreds more injured.
"We need to find Buffy," Giles said as a sudden fear stabbed into his chest as he wondered what could be coming next.
U.C. Sunnydale, now.
Buffy rushed out of her class after the tremors – she thought it was an Earthquake, as did her classmates. And then, as she was rushing towards the door that led out of the classroom, she heard the sound of an explosion in the distance. And then everyone screamed as she was pushed forward and out of the door. Once out in the hallway, Buffy ran out towards the exit, she heard people screaming and yelling about there being a terrorist attack while she ran past them.
But once she was outside, Buffy saw the pillar of flame in the distance before it extinguished itself.
'Dawn,' Buffy thought to herself as she ran down the stairs and then towards the bus-stop, she needed to get to the Magic Box. She needed to make sure that Dawn was safe. Just as Buffy had the idea to leave for the Magic Box, Willow and Tara had already planned that exact same thing. They were already leaving their respective buildings before they felt a sudden tremor. Willow and Tara reached for something to keep them steady, and then the heard the sound of an explosion. While they couldn't see if from where they were, the two witches – separately- rushed towards the other sides of their buildings and saw the fireball in the distance turning into a pillar of fire for a few seconds before extinguishing completely.
'What.. what kind of magic is this?' Willow thought before she felt tingling sensations on her arms. She turned her head and saw a stunned Tara staring out at where the pillar of fire was once rising into the sky before it was extinguished. Willow rushed to her girlfriend as fast as she could while avoiding many panicked students and faculty who were running about trying to reach for safety in case it was a terrorist attack.
'Does this have something to do with that powerful force that appeared out of nowhere?' Tara thought to herself as she stared out into the distance where there was now only a pillar of smoke in shock. She looked around at the crowds of people who were rushing about every which way in panic before he heard a female voice calling out to her. Turning around, Tara saw the redhead weaving through the crowd of panicked people towards he, "Willow!" Tara yelled out her lover's name as she raised her arms into the air and waved.
It wouldn't be too long that Willow and Tara held each other tight as they hugged, and then their lips meet in a kiss.
"We… we need to head back to the Magic Box," Tara said as Willow pulled back after kissing her, "I… I felt something just now… it…"
"Evil?" Willow said nodding her head. Tara stared at her in surprise as the redhead recounted feeling something very evil, and very powerful, appearing out of nowhere. And Willow was just as surprised when Tara revealed the very same thing. "Very evil?" Willow asked before Tara nodded her head.
"Okay, I think we need to get to the Magic Box," Tara said before the two of them made their way towards the nearby bus-stop, "I think Buffy should be heading there too. Hopefully."
Gilroy, Mission.
After taking a step towards the doors of the small Mission in Gilroy once she exited the portal, Willow stopped and stared at the large stone building. She looked over her shoulder towards Sunnydale, and a smile crept onto her lips. One of the shards from the dark magic ball created with Twilight's power had just utterly destroyed Spike's crypt. The resulting explosion and fiery inferno taking out the entire graveyard while Spike was taking one of the underground tunnels back to his crypt.
And that's where Willow sensed he used to be… all he was now was ash floating in the air.
With a grin, Willow could now sense the Powers watching her.
The redhead smirked and looked up at the clouds floating in the clear blue sky, "The master will have words with all of you," Willow whispered before she looked back towards the Mission, "one of your future acolytes is dead. Soon, all of them will be gone." Willow then began her walk to the small gate that led to the cobblestone pathway to the front door, "and the very weapon meant to be wielded by your champion will herald the coming of Twilight." Willow waved her hand and the iron gate squeaked open as she continued walking up the path. She passed bright green grassy lawns that had wooden tables and benches under some of the larger canopied trees that peppered the property.
Willow continued on while, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw some priests doing work on the grounds – one was tending to flowers on the bushes that hugged the stone walls of the mission while another three were cleaning windows. Willow nodded at them while she continued walking before knocking on the closed wooden double doors.
"May I help you, Miss," the priest tending the flowers asked as he took off his gardening gloves and walked towards the redhead.
Willow smirked before saying, "a few friends of mine left something here for me to pick up. It's kinda important that I get it right now so that… you know… I can bring about the end of this world…"
"Excuse me?" the priest asked with a look of confusion on his face, "what are you…?"
"Oh, and I need it now," Willow gave the man a wide grin, "so be a kind priest and open the doors for the herald of your new master."
"This a joke?" the priest asked just as the others, who were cleaning the windows, put away their rags and took off their gloves before walking towards Willow, "you were sent here as a joke…"
Then Willow started to laugh. She laughed so hard while saying, "you got me… you got me…" Willow wiped her tears while the priests laughed nervously as they stared at the redhead who spoke, "sorry… I couldn't help it." Willow continued to laugh for a few more seconds before she slowly calmed down and then took in a deep breath. Just as one of the priests was about to say something, it was instead Willow who spoke, "don't worry, you won't live to see the end of all things." Willow then flicked her wrist and three of the priests had their necks broken while the fourth one was magically hoisted into the air and then slammed repeatedly into the double doors until they violently swung open with the bloody mess that used to be the priest thrown unceremoniously aside into the hallway.
Willow smiled as she took a step into the hallowed entryway while there were shouts from within the various hallways of the mission. As she strode further in, Willow stopped once a few priests had rushed into the hallway, all of them staring in horror at the bloody pulp laying against the wall closest to the doors behind Willow.
"If… if you are… are seeking sanct…"
"No," Willow shook her head, "no sanctuary. I'm here for something more." Willow then tilted her head and closed her eyes. All she heard were disgusting popping sounds, after which she felt something wet hitting her face. Opening her eyes once again, Willow stared at the headless bodies that crumbled to the floor… their blood pooling underneath the empty space where their heads used to be. Willow wiped the blood that spattered on her cheeks as she stepped over the bodies. She didn't even look at the pieces of flesh and bone that were stuck on the walls of the hallway as she walked towards the end of the hallway. She sensed three Priests running out the rear of the Mission- running away for safety, for their very lives.
But the redhead reached out with her dark magic and slammed the Priests into the ground. While the shattered bodies were being shoved into the ground by an invisible force, Willow placed her hand on the wall at the end of the hallway. She used her magic to shove aside the wall with a grin on her face – she was mere steps away from her goal of activating all the Slayers on Earth; an act that would bring upon Twilight into this timeline.
Willow walked into the rather large hidden room, with torches on the wall proving extra light, and she looked around with a curious expression on her face. She noticed the sign on the far wall and whispered, "This weapon is for her." A smirk on her face, Willow turned her head towards the empty space in the room – a space that was supposed to have been filled with a great rock within which was supposed to contain the Slayer Scythe.
The large stone itself wasn't there.
Willow then turned around and walked out into the hallway. She made her way towards the entrance she used earlier while thinking, 'where could it be?' Her shoes made disgusting squelching sounds as she stepped on the wet, dark red blood still pooling on the floor. Suddenly, she stopped at the entrance and smiled.
"I know where you are," she whispered in a sweet sing-song voice before opening up a portal, "only one other place you could be. Bad Guardians." She then stepped into the portal while whispering, "bad, bad, Guardians."
Los Angeles, at that same time.
Dawn was sobbing uncontrollably as she covered her eye with her arm. Her thoughts were still on Connor and the look of anguish on Darla's face. She cared about Connor; there was no doubt in her mind. Losing the man she knew he could have one day become seemed to shatter her heart. And now she wondered if she could do the same to Cordelia and Angel.
Could she find it in her very soul to kill Angel and Cordelia? That was what she was asking herself as she wiped her eye and her cheek. She was leaning back on her seat as she stared at the steering wheel with her arms by her side. Dawn told herself that the future had already changed. Amy was dead. Warren was dead. Darla and Connor were dead.
The possibility that her future could occur was lessening by the second. With every death, that hellish future was being permanently erased, 'or it's already been erased.' Dawn shook her head and thought back to Cordelia, 'she may not be the conduit for Jasmine anymore. Connor was needed… he was destined to become Jasmine's progenitor.' As Dawn continued to wonder what would happen if she killed Cordelia, and the pain in her chest from killing Connor was multiplied a hundred-fold.
'Do I keep her alive and hope that maybe… just maybe I've done everything I could to change the entire future?' Dawn then took in a deep breath while pushing aside Cordelia's fate for a few seconds. Her mind went to Angel, 'and what about Angel. He's still Twilight's preferred skin-bag… do I… do I kill him? And how? I used Incindre twice already, and I can't do it another time.' Dawn knew that she would have to wait until the next day to be able to cast another spell since she felt weakened, 'but do I want to stay in LA for too long?' Dawn then sighed before shaking her head, 'I need to take a break. I'm exhausted. Maybe I'll take a nap and then think about if its worthy to kill...'
It was then that Dawn tensed upon hearing the sounds of whistling in the air coming through the closed windows of the Jeep. Dawn wiped her eyes and leaned forward looking out of the windscreen as the distant whistle turned into a loud hum. It was then she saw, with eyes wide open, multiple red coloured shards dart across her field of view before moving off into different directions.
Dawn exited the jeep while her eye tracked one of the shards as it darted off into the distance. It disappeared after passing the roof of a seven-storey building. Then there was a bright flash of light that forced her to cover her eyes with her arm and turn around. She then heard screams and the sounds of car alarms going off. Then there were the sounds of rumbling as she tried to keep her balance since the ground itself was shaking. Dawn turned around and saw, in horror, at the massive explosion in the distance, the ball of fire turning into a tower of flame that looked to be miles long in width. And then, the tower of fire was slowly extinguished.
She heard the same sounds of explosions all over the city as she rushed back into her Jeep.
While she started the engine, one such shard flew directly overhead behind her, it was heading directly for the fifty-five floor headquarters of Wolfram and Hart. While the Senior Partners were panicking about the sudden mysterious, and nearly simultaneous destruction of their minor offices in Los Angeles, they were unaware of one shard speeding towards them. The shard shattered the glass leading to the office of one Lilah Morgan. She saw the shard speed into her office while she was with a client and then lodge itself into the floor.
She, like the other thousands of humans and demons in the building, in both secured and unsecured areas, never felt the intense heat that followed the flash of light. Their bodies immediately turned to dust as a vast fireball tore through each and every floor. Floor by floor, the explosions took out the glass windows. Floor by floor everything was destroyed. And once it reached the fifty-fifth floor, the explosions continued. There were numerous explosions as the fireball destroyed what appeared to be an invisible sixtieth floor, followed by the seventieth, the eighteenth, and then the ninetieth floors – the fireball destroyed 'The White Room' the very conduit to the Senior Partners. The fireball also reached several floors underground and through the dimensional links that connected the evil law firm to several Hell Dimensions. The fire destroying all links… leaving those dimensions cut off from Earth.
In the end, not only was the entire building obliterated as the fireball turned into a pillar of fire – the destruction of the dimensional links resulted in cave-ins for a radius of six blocks all around the massive pillar of fire. And all that remained after the fire extinguished itself was a very big crater, the deaths of the Senior Partners whose dimension was destroyed by the dimensional fire released by the shard, and the deaths of several thousand innocent bystanders living and working in the surrounding four blocks.
Dawn was horrified at the sight of the flames and pillars of smoke in the distance. She could smell burnt steel, flesh, and concrete wafting through the air as hundreds of people rushed past her. She had her hands on the steering wheel of the jeep when a memory flashed into her mind.
The Future, Day One of the End of Days
"London, Moscow, Washington, D.C, Beijing, Pyongyang, and Mumbai, among other major world cities have been destroyed," a frazzled news reader reported – the woman's face covered in ash and soot while the studio behind her had lights flickering and ceiling times falling, some missing her while other sections hitting her shoulders. But she continued reading, "citizens have livestreamed these red spears of light…" the reporter cut away to show a grainy video of a red lance-like object impacting a building before there was a bright flash of light. At the flash of light, the news reader reappeared panting while the side of her head was bleeding, "that was London five minutes ago, and…"
Then there was nothing. All Dawn, Buffy, Willow, Xander, and some of the surviving Potentials could see after returning to the Devon Coven following the battle on the Sunnydale Crater was 'broadcast snow' on the screen.
"The demons were the first attack," Miss Harkness told them after turning off the screen and turning towards the assembled group, "this is Twilight's way of cracking the shell to get into the juicy bits."
"And the third?" Xander asked, but Dawn, standing next to Buffy, already knew the answer.
"He and his demons will be coming personally for the juicy bits."
And then the End began.
Los Angeles, now.
"Twilight can't be here," Dawn whispered as she shook her head. "No," Willow died, she told herself, and the doorway that only she could open had been shut. Still, no matter how much she tried to deny it, Dawn had seen the red dart with her own eyes. It was the same as that in the grainy video.
Dawn remained in the Jeep, as people ran screaming past her, and stared at the distant devastation. It looked so much like what happened in London when Willow teleported them there after the attack. The only difference was that London was a crater, and LA was still standing – mostly.
And then she had a bad feeling in her gut. The blasts were destructive, but they were not as destructive as they could have been.
"Sunnydale, I need to go back to Sunnydale, Buffy… I need to tell Buffy…," Dawn told herself as she headed back into the Jeep. She started the engine as hundreds of people rushed past her, several cars in front crashed into one another in their haste to get out of the area. Dawn looked back through the rear-view window and pressed the accelerator. As she reversed the Jeep, there was one thought in her mind.
'If this is Twilight, if he somehow made it here to the past,' Dawn thought, 'then I need to go back, damn it, I need to go back to Sunnydale.'
The Hyperion Hotel; now.
By the time the first explosions occurred in the headquarters of Wolfram and Hart, Wesley and Cordelia were at the front desk of the Hyperion Hotel talking about the surprise that Giles informed them about; a Dawn from a future that was taken over by a living dimension known as Twilight. Fred listened in too as she stood next to Wesley.
She was the one who asked about Twilight, followed by Cordelia. The both of them could see the fear in Wesley's eyes. They could see his lips part. And then the three of them looked around in stunned silence as the ground trembled before a red shard darted through the concrete and stuck itself down onto the floor.
And then there was light. The three of them didn't feel anything as the entire building exploded in a fireball which turned into a pillar of fire as well. The fireball took out all the buildings in a six block radius as well before the fire extinguished itself. Just as where the Wolfram and Hart building once stood, all that remained was a huge crater with pillars of smoke travelling high up into the air and debris being scattered all over the place.
Los Angeles looked like a warzone with several other fireballs erupting all over the city. The same was happening in Las Vegas, San Diego, New York, and several other major American cities before the same occured all over the world. Every place associated with the Wolf, Ram, and the Hart – including the Circle of the Black Thorn - were obliterated… anything associated with the Watcher's Council, including the headquarters in London, were about to be obliterated. Anything associated with magic and witches were about to be annihilated.
Sunnydale, fifteen minutes later.
Several hundred other red shards flew at hyper sonic speed over the Atlantic towards the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Several hundreds of others flew over the Pacific towards their targets in Asia, Oceania, Australasia. All of them hit their targets.
It was a worldwide massacre that claimed even the Devon Coven, among many others.
And now, the Earth remained largely unprotected as a terrified Giles, Anya, and Dawn watched news reports from all over the world on the Television in the Magic Box's back office after the people taking shelter headed home to find their loves ones while several others headed to Churches all over the city. The three scoobies held each other as they watched London burning, and then the image on the screen switched to a crater where the Pentagon once stood, and then to a destroyed Moscow. Several other cities were shown while Dawn whispered in a fearful voice, "what's happening?"
"Dawn! Oh God! What the hell happened?" Dawn and the others rushed out to find Buffy rushing towards the counter, going around it, and then hugging Dawn tight. Buffy, her face showing how scared she was at the thought of losing what remained of her family, stared at Giles, "Giles, what's going on?"
"I… I don't know, Buffy."
Women's Penitentiary, outskirts of L.A, 30 minutes later.
While several others cities were being hit, Faith felt the shudder in her cell before hearing several "BOOM!" sounds in the distance. Furrowing her eyebrows, she sat up and then turned on her bed until her legs hung off the edge of the bed. She felt a strange sensation going through her body before she hopped off and strode to the bars of the cells as she watched officers running down the hallways yelling to themselves. Using her enhanced hearing, Faith could make out that some needed to call their wives, or husbands, or daughters, or sons. She saw once after another running down past her while the other women in the adjacent cells were yelling at the guards demanding to know what happened.
"Hey!" Faith yelled as the building shook again, followed by another BOOM! Faith banged her hands against the bars of the cell as she tried to get the attention of the last guard as he rushed past her, "what the hell is going on?"
"L.A's been hit!" the guard yelled.
"Hit by what?!" Faith yelled when suddenly the alarms rang out and the locking mechanism on the cell doors clicked. Faith snapped her head towards the lock and stepped back with her hands in the air. It was an automatic reflexive action brought about by random cell checks by the guards. Suddenly the lights went out; and a second later, red emergency lights on the ceiling lit up. And almost immediately, there was pandemonium. The cell doors were pushed open as women rushed out of their cells and into the hallway. They now had a chance to escape, and they were going to take it.
Faith had her eyebrows furrowed while lowering her hands and taking several steps forward. Wondering what was going on, she put her fingers around the cell bars and slid the door open. Several other prisoners were running past her, some glared at her – particularly the ones who tried to make her their plaything the first few weeks she was in the prison. However, they learned not to mess with the Slayer, especially after she let them hit her a few times to establish self-defence, not that it really mattered. What mattered was the beat-down she gave them- that act was her protection.
Especially since they didn't bother her again.
Faith was hesitant to leave the cell. She put one foot out into the hallway and tried to listen over the klaxons for any signs of armed guards putting down a potential jailbreak. The guard that rushed past her earlier mentioned an attack on L.A, and Faith wondered if that attack hit the power lines that fed the prison.
'What kind of attack though?' Faith whispered to herself as she stepped out of her cell and then cautiously crept down the hallway. She saw that every cell door was open when suddenly she heard the sounds of feet hitting the floor. She jumped into another cell that was open and lay flat against the wall as three guards and two police officers rushed past yelling about several sections of LA being totally destroyed.
"What?" Faith whispered shaking her head, "LA destroyed?"
Faith thin stepped out of the cell and stared down the hallway the guards and the officers just ran through. She didn't know if it was safe to run down that way, or if it was better to simply stay in the prison. She waited for a few more minutes before she took in a few deep breaths. But before she could do anything, she heard footsteps and a familiar voice coming towards her.
"Faith!"
"Angel?" she yelled out, stepping out into the hallway where she saw a distraught Angel and a dark-skinned man she didn't recognize, "Angel?"
"OH God, you're alright," Angel rushed and placed his hands on her shoulders, "when we arrived, we saw guards, police, prisoners, everyone evacuating. The surrounding area has been decimated, and…"
"What's going on?" Faith asked as she glanced at the nervous look on the bald young man's face, and then her eyes shifted back to Angel, "Angel, what is it?"
"It's an attack of such…." Angel shook his head, "I've never seen anything like it, Faith. Half of L.A is destroyed."
"Oh God," Faith whispered.
"Cordelia, Wesley, and Fred are dead," Faith opened her eyes wide in shock as Angel continued speaking, "all phone lines are down. I wanted to find out if anything happened in Sunnydale and…"
"This could be the Hellmouth?" Faith asked, "then B…"
"We can't contact Buffy… well, we're unable to contact her," Angel said shaking his head, "and.. and there's something else that happened. I'll tell you in the car."
"Where are we…?"
"Sunnydale," Angel said before introducing Gunn, and then returning his focus to Faith once again, "we're heading to Sunnydale. I have a feeling that Buffy will need your help, Faith. Whether she wants it or not."
Faith nodded her head, and then sighed, "if she kills me, I'm haunting you." The Slayer then gently punched Angel's shoulder, "well, lets get out of here and save the world." As they rushed down the hallway, Faith asked out loud, "any idea if helping save the world gets me on parole earlier?"
TBC