The Magic Box, now.
"Many major American cities have enacted Martial Law and…"
"Beijing has been gutted with am initial estimate of nearly three hundred thous…"
"Washington, D.C has been devastated, there is no news on whether the President was in the…"
"Several nuclear power stations in Europe have…."
"Los Angeles looks like a war zone with initial estimates of…"
"Thousand Oaks Cemetery in Sunnydale has been…"
"The LA Women's Penitentiary has seen…"
Giles was flipping through channels on the small television in the back room as he, Buffy, and the other Scoobies looked on with paled expressions as Breaking News on every single channel detailed the destruction happening all over the world. Upon reaching another channel, Giles stopped and his eyes went wide open, "my dear Lord."
Buffy, who was holding tight onto a fearful Dawn, looked over at Giles who was staring at the screen in front of him, "Giles, what is it?"
None of them heard the bell over the main entrance chime as Xander rushed into the shop from work calling out for Anya and the others as he stared at the debris littering the floor. Xander then stepped over the debris, even the large headstones, and made his way into the shop.
"Anya!" he yelled out while the aforementioned Anya shook her head before looking over her shoulder. With a trembling voice, she then called out for Xander to meet them in the back room before turning her head back towards the sight of a large section of London burning. She heard footsteps behind her before she was spun roughly around and then pulled in for a tight hug; at that time, her blood froze upon hearing Giles responding to Buffy's question.
"The Watcher's Council," he whispered in a trembling voice as the television screen showed aerial images, interspersed with news footage of terrified London residents screaming as they rushed away from the disaster around them, of many collapsed buildings. The footage was soon cut to several other burning sites, several of which were once small villages in an otherwise idealic English countryside. To Giles, he was watching a war zone, and the enemy had taken out the world's first line of defence, "the Council is gone. Those… those images… the attacks… whoever this is targeted the Watcher Council headquarters in London and sites all over England and…"
And then the group heard two familiar female voices in the store, currently behind them, as they stared at the fuzzy images on the television screen in front of them.
"Buffy! Giles! Anyone?"
"What happened?"
Upon hearing Willow and Tara respectively after the door chimed, Giles and then others shut off the television before rushing out to the shop floor. They rushed past the counter led by Buffy who hugged Willow while Dawn hugged Tara.
Pulling away, Willow then hugged Xander, the redhead telling the boy that the two girls had seen him enter the Magic Box from the bus.
"Any idea what's going on?" Xander spoke as Dawn hugged him for a few seconds before the latter pulled away.
Giles pressed his lips together while thinking about how many of his friends he had lost in the destruction of London before coming to the realization that his two aunts were still living in the city, and he needed to know if they were safe and sound. "I'll be right back," Giles, worry in his voice, rushed back to the back office leaving the other Scoobies in front of the counter. Buffy and the others watched his figure move behind the wall before turning back towards Tara and Willow.
"We saw the column of fire," Tara said while Willow nodded her head, "and then… well, before that I felt something."
It was then that Willow snapped her head towards her lover, wondering if she could be talking about the same feeling – that feeling of evil and dread that simply appeared out of nowhere, "you mean…" Tara turned to Willow who then continued, "wait, did you feel something evil… something cold just…"
"Appear out of nowhere?" Tara whispered, stunned, as she looked back at the redhead before Buffy, who was rubbing her own arms by crossing them over her chest confirmed she had felt something as well. Willow and Tara looked back at the Slayer, and then back at Anya, Xander, and Dawn.
'Dawn…' Tara thought, her mind going back to the older Dawn who had gone to Los Angeles, "how about the older Dawn? Anything from her?"
"We've heard some things about her," Anya said, her feet shuffling on the floor as she looked away when Buffy and the others looked over at her with confusion etched on their faces before the younger Dawn shook her head. The younger Dawn bit her bottom lip before she turned to Anya.
"What Cordelia saw couldn't be real," Dawn said, her eyes boring through Anya, "I would never… I mean I know the Older me would never…"
"What happened?" Buffy said, her hand on younger Dawn's shoulder while her mind went to wondering about the Older version of her sister. Buffy asked again as Dawn looked away for a few minutes before turning her head back towards Buffy; but before Dawn could say anything, Anya was the one who asked for calm in the face of what they were facing now. Buffy turned to the ex-demon in surprise as she noted the strange tone in her voice, a tone she couldn't place.
Anya then sighed before saying, "I think we have bigger things to deal with now."
"Yeah," Buffy said with her eye narrowed as her gaze shifted between Anya and Dawn, the latter who seemed as if she had a faraway look on her face. Buffy glanced at the same expressions of confusion on Xander, Willow, and Tara's faces before she shook her head and imagined the worst case scenario that would involve all of them, "well, definitely another apocalypse situation."
"Yeah," Willow said.
"What are the chances that demons… I mean the 'I eat people' variety…" Xander said as he used an exaggerated gruff voice for the latter part of his sentence before speaking normally again, "…demons decide to use whatever this is, to try and… you know… kill, eat, and then kill humans again?"
"Not to mention riots, looting, and…." Dawn added.
"That's the police's responsibility," Buffy said at hearing mention of riots and looting, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked at each of the Scoobies, her mind trying to still process the images on the TV of people screaming in pain while they were covered in blood.
Those images were soon followed by more images of buildings and parts of various cities destroyed – it was as if they were facing the end of the world, and this was only the first half – 'I feel like I'm in the eye of the storm. Like something worse is coming.' Taking a deep breath, Buffy then continued, "we're going out on patrol tonight for any demons that could be thinking about taking advantage and attacking humans. Now we…"
Before Buffy could continue, the group heard the door slam open, the chime from the bell covered over the loud 'Thud'. Buffy and Xander, who had their backs to the front door, turned to find a teenaged boy who couldn't be more than fifteen running into the store with what looked like a grey woollen blanket rolled up under his left arm.
"I… I need to… speak to the Slayer… I… I was told to come…" the boy panted while occasionally looking over his shoulder before looking back at the group with a look of fear etched on his face, "please, I need to… speak…" he struggled for breath, "please, I need to speak to the Slayer."
Xander was the one who acted first and said, while motioning towards Buffy, "this is your gal."
"You look like you're going to faint," Dawn said rushing over to the boy who quickly stepped back, all the while holding the rolled up blanket closer to his chest now. Dawn, noticing the sudden shirk from the boy stopped and took a step back. She could sense the fear coming off from him, "listen, I think it's pretty bad and I'm sure you're scared but…" Dawn nodded at Buffy, "my sister's the Slayer, and…"
"I was told to give you this," the boy trembled in fear while looking over his shoulder before looking back at the Scoobies once again. He then extended his arms outwards, the blanket laid out vertically, towards Buffy while his body was telling him to follow the request of the old lady he met earlier that day. He was told to run and get out of Sunnydale once he had made the delivery, "please take it. I… I was told to give it to you and then to leave Sunnydale."
"What is it?" Buffy said grabbing the blanket, her fingers digging into the soft fabric until she felt what seemed to be a handle. Once the blanket was in her hands, the boy then backed away, his face full of fear.
"All she told me was to keep it safe, she wants you to keep it safe," the boy exclaimed before turning around and then running out of the shop, leaving the Scoobies inside with perplexed expressions on their faces. The main door swung shut after the boy rushed out leaving Buffy to place the blanket on the top of the counter just as Giles walked out of the back office saying that all phone lines, both local and international, were out.
As he walked behind the counter, he said he needed to call his aunts, but with the lines down, it was nearly impossible. Stopping behind the counter, it was then he saw the blanket on the glass top, "Buffy? What is that?"
"Some kid ran in and just handed it to her," Dawn said standing next to Buffy as she unwrapped whatever object was inside the blanket. She slowly unfurled it while Giles was fixing his glasses so that they remained steady on his face. At the same time, Willow and Tara asked Giles if there was any other news about what had just happened. Xander and Giles just started filling Tara and Willow, as well as Buffy, on what happened when the latter finally revealed what object the blanket was wrapped around.
"What the hell?" Xander asked, his eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the red and silver weapon.
"My word," Giles added as he leaned over the weapon while Buffy wrapped her fingers around the metallic shaft – one end had a sharpened wooden stake, and the other end was topped with an elegantly crafter curved blade. The entire weapon itself looked like some kind of a scythe.
Then there was what Buffy said next after picking up the weapon and then spinning it about.
"This… It feels as if it belongs to me," Buffy whispered looking up at Giles, and then at Willow and Tara, "I'm serious, I feel as if this… scythe, I guess, belongs to me."
"You think it's some kind of magic?" Willow asked as she reached for the weapon and Buffy lay it on her open hand. Wrapping her fingers around the handle, Willow shook her head before saying that she wasn't feeling anything magical about it. Willow then handed it to Tara, who confirmed Willow's feelings about no magic in the weapon, before handing it to Giles who was amazed at how light it felt in his hands. After handing it back to Buffy, who then stared in amazement while she swung the weapon in small arcs.
"Could this be some Slayer weapon?" Anya asked. And at that question, Willow, Tara, and Giles glanced at each other as they remembered what the older Dawn told them about a powerful Slayer weapon that was used to activate all the Slayers on Earth. They recalled the Older Dawn saying that it was that single act that brought about Twilight to the Earth in the future.
Giles looked back at the weapon in Buffy's hands before wondering if this was the very weapon that the Older Dawn was talking about. It certainly fit her description of the weapon. And that was the problem, according to what the Older Dawn had said, this weapon was supposed to have been used in the fight against the First to battle its army by activating all the Slayers in the world. But that act had brought about Twilight to the Earth dimension, bringing about the end of the world.
And now the question was why was Buffy given the Scythe now, of all times. The Older Dawn had already warned them of what happened when all the Slayer were activated. Giles rubbed his chin while staring at the weapon as Dawn held it in her hands, 'the weapon was sent to us for a reason. It cannot be to call upon the Slayers… although it would be good to have a worldwide army of Slayers at this very movement. But no… it cannot be for that. So why…?"
"Hey," Dawn said as she held the metallic shaft in her hands and stared at the cool silver once she noticed something, "there's some symbols scratched on here… and the scratches look recent."
Surprised, Giles held out his hand, "may I see it, Dawn?" Dawn handed him the weapon, his fingers wrapped around the metal shaft and shifted the weapon in his hand ever so slightly so that the light coming in through the shattered front window caught on it. It was then that he saw the scratches… scratches so minute that everyone missed them unless the light hit the metal at a certain angle.
"What is it?" Buffy asked as Giles scanned the shaft with his eyes. Some of the symbols were familiar to him, but there were those that weren't. He looked up form the symbols and asked both Tara and Willow to head up to the obscure section on the second floor.
"There should be a few books on symbology," the Watcher said. He then looked back at the shaft while Tara and Willow rushed up the stairs to the second floor. All the while, Giles pressed his lips together before looking back up at Buffy and the others, "I can't be sure, but I recognize three of these symbols as protection markers. It's meant to keep the weapon hidden away from powerful magic."
"So why give this to me now?"
"I don't know," Giles said just as the phone behind him started to ring. Still starring at the handle while mumbling why it was that the symbols were scratched onto the handle, and why the weapon needed to be hidden away, it was Anya who rushed towards the phone before picking it up.
"Dawn?" Anya said as she covered one ear, "I can't hear you… you're breaking up…"
Buffy and the others immediately turned towards Anya, the former rushing to the phone as Anya waved her off before she turned away and shook her head, "Dawn? Where are you?"
"Anya, give me the phone," Buffy demanded.
"Hold on!" Anya yelled into the phone before she pressed a button on the phone's cradles and turned on the speakerphone function. Immediately, everyone heard Dawn's voice on the line. It was breaking up, with some words being unintelligible thanks to the crackling sounds between random words, "On way… signal… damn it!"
"Dawn," Buffy yelled out, "where are you?"
"And how are you calling?" the younger Dawn asked.
"…. Phone…. Stranger…" The Scoobies were forced to connect the dots thanks to the sporadic clarity of the call. They guessed she was saying she borrowed a phone from a stranger, "driving back…. Danger… seen before… hear me?"
"You're breaking up!" Xander said as Tara and Willow, both carrying two books each, rushed down the stairs, "we can barely make out what you're saying."
The Older Dawn, who had actually stolen a phone from a man trying to loot a store, sighed as she drove with one hand on the steering wheel. The traffic leading out of Los Angeles was already getting heavier, but not bad enough that Dawn would be stuck in traffic. Instead, she was diving as fast as she could, weaving past cars and motorcycles, while speaking on the phone.
'They can't hear me…. Damn it,' Dawn thought before saying, "I'll explain everything when I get back. But… but listen. I have seen this before…. It happened in the future. Do you understand me… it happened in the future!"
Back in the Magic Box, everyone stared stunned at the speakerphone as they took in what they could make out from the sporadic words they could hear, "happened…. Future… happened…" Giles was about to say that it wasn't possible, that Dawn coming back to the past should have changed things.
And then the next words the Older Dawn said caused everyone's blood to freeze.
"… here…. Twilight…"
"Twilight," Giles whispered shaking his head as he looked up at the expressions of fear on the rest of the Scoobies, "Twilight is here."
"Okay," Xander nervously said as he looked around the room before setting his eyes on Buffy, "now what?"
Another Cemetery.
Willow stood in front of the pyramid shaped object; an object that was magically hidden away from the public, and tilted her head at the locked door. She glared at the warding and the symbols that hardened the magical locks to prevent greater demons from breaking through the front door and through to the area behind it. A place where Willow so much wanted to go, 'and I am not a Greater Demon.' Smirking, Willow waved her hand and the doors crumpled inwards like an invisible hand squeezing paper towels, and then they were flung away through the stone stairwell that led down to an underground room. She heard the crash from the bottom of the stairs, and smiled while clapping her hands together and then rubbing them with glee.
"Ready or not, here I come!" Willow exclaimed as she stepped into the pyramid before making her way down. She could already sense one human life as she whistled, her shoes thudding against the stone steps. The more she went down the stairs, the more she could see the orange reflection off the gold plated doors and the stone floor; the orange coming from the lit torches that were hanging from the walls.
Stopping her whistling once she reached the bottom, Willow stepped on the gold door while looking around at the room. Laced curtains were hung on several places and there were many other throw rugs and pillows to the left, and against several of the columns that made up the center of the room. To the right were barrels, to which Willow shrugged before looking back at the lace curtains.
Smiling at the shadow behind the curtain, Willow sweetly said, "come on out."
She watched the laced curtain pulled aside to find a grey haired old woman in a cream and white dress, There was a small smile on her face as she nodded her head at the redhead before she straightened her back, hung her hands by her side, and took a step forward.
"I take it you know why I'm here," Willow said as she took another step towards the old woman, "and I can guess you know who my master is."
"Twilight," the Old Woman said, her chin raised high in protest, "what you are searching for is not here."
"Oh?" Willow arched an eyebrow.
"I can sense the one who this body belongs to," the woman said before Willow laughed, "she is asleep but… but she will wake. She will…"
"Willow Rosenberg," Willow said as she rushed forward, grabbed the woman by the throat, and then continued moving until she slammed the old woman against a far wall, "is gone. She is dead, and soon, you will die as well when the time comes." Willow then smiled as she tilted her head while the old woman struggled to breath, "I will let you live. For now. Of course it all depends on my master. But for now you live… as long as you give me the Slayer Scythe."
"It's gone," the Old Woman struggled.
"Where is it?" Willow hissed as she pressed her thumb and fingers into the sides of the Old Woman's neck, "where is it Guardian?"
"Away," the woman struggled to speak, "it has been sent far away… hidden from view… hidden from you. From evil."
"Honey," Willow whispered leaning in to the woman's ear as the latter struggled to breathe… she was now gasping for air while the redhead tightened her grip, "I'm more than evil. I'm the herald of a great cosmic coming. I am the herald of a great evolution. So, tell me again, where is the Scythe… and I will ask my master to keep you in this putrid form of yours."
"Twilight will never come…" the Woman struggled to speak, "I know where you are from.. I know you are from an alternate future, and… and what happened in that future will never happen in this timeline. You will fail."
Willow then sighed before pulling back her head from the old woman's ear. The redhead then locked eyes with her, "this is going to hurt."
Willow smiled a sweet smile as she mentally invaded the mind of the lone Guardian. The woman screamed in pain as Willow slammed though her memories until seeing a weapon being rolled up in a blanket and then being handed over to a boy.
"Take this to the Slayer," the woman's voice exclaimed. Willow looked away from the eyes of the Guardian and smiled. She then turned back towards the old woman.
"You sent it to Buffy," Willow chuckled shaking her head, "oooh, good girl."
"I… I know the owner of this body is…" the woman never finished what she was about to say – that the real Willow was somewhere locked within the shell, brainwashed by Twilight to act as his herald – instead, the woman gagged as Willow crushed her throat. And then, while her hand was till deep within the bloody throat, Willow tossed the body aside. Her hand now dripping with bright red blood, Willow turned around and closed her eyes.
She mumbled a spell so that her astral self would wander around the entirety off Sunnydale. But oddly enough, she was unable to locate the Scythe, Buffy, or the Scoobies. She did, however, manage to sense the Older Dawn rushing back to the city from Los Angeles, followed miles away by Angel, Gunn, and Faith.
"Master's father is coming, and mother has to be somewhere in Sunnydale," Willow whispered as she walked towards the stairs, "where oh where could they be?" Willow hummed a tune as she started to walk up the stairs, "ummm… maybe I'll check the Magic Box first. Buffy and the Scoobs are probably there." A smile formed on Willow's face as her footsteps echoed throughout the whole stairwell as she made her way upstairs.
Somewhere else.
It was cold. It was dark.
Not that Willow couldn't open her eyes. Her eyes were open, but she was surrounded by darkness. The darkness rippled like water… water that was cold and gave off so much evil. The freezing cold brushed against her skin as the black metallic chains were wrapped tightly around her. She could sense evil… she could sense the destruction being carried out throughout the world.
It was only minutes ago that her eyes fluttered open to the sensation of terror from around the world. She felt a range of emotions – all being funnelled into her very soul.
But there was nothing she could do.
"Let me go!" Willow yelled out as she tried to call up the unadulterated, uncorrupted power of Earth's magic. But she couldn't. No matter how much she tried. "AAAAAAAAAAA!" Willow screamed out as she pushed against the chains that were wrapped around her while she remaining deep within the dark cold waters.
'I am the Supreme With of the Earth Realm!' Willow mentally yelled out, 'I call on all the ancient spirits of Earth, I call on all the ancient gods and goddesses of this realm of light and life, lend me your strength to free myself. Lend me your strength to help fight this battle… help me to stop Twilight and save us all!'
Still there was nothing.
"COME ON!" Willow yelled out loud. She was not panting as she remained floating helplessly in the dark waters. She couldn't feel any pressure from the surrounding liquid, just a sensation of helplessly floating by as her brainwashed body was being used to kill and destroy.
She yelled out in anguish as she felt the deaths of the priests.
She yelled out in anguish as she felt the death of the Guardian.
She could feel everything her physical body was doing. She could feel the anger and hate the monster occupying her body had towards life itself.
"Help me," Willow said with a heavy heart when she had this sensation that her body was heading for Buffy and the others, "Dawnie… Tara… Buffy… help me." Willow took a deep breathe before staring out into the darkness that surrounded her, "kill me if you have to. Don't hesitate. Never hesitate."
She then sighed as tears welled in her eyes, "Dawnie."
TBC.