BtVS. Judgement Day 2.0 Chapter 2
Disclaimers: I don't own anything at all here. Everything is owned by their respective owners
Spoilers: The entire Buffy and Angel series (I'm ignoring the comics). Terminator up to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
I wish to thank my beta, Jediknight.
An Abandoned Warehouse in San Francisco
J-Day Minus One
July 24, 2004 – 01:12 AM (Pacific Time)
Korman stood in the dimly lit warehouse, greeting another group of demons eager to join the movement. Under his leadership, the Scourge in California had risen from the ashes. After Tiernan and his cadre had been wiped out fighting the vampire Angel, the Scourge had been at its lowest point. But Korman had rebuilt them. By the time the Scourge had regained its strength, Angel was embroiled in his battle with Wolfram & Hart.
Interfering with the demonic law firm was suicidal, and Korman had been smart enough to steer clear. Not that it mattered in the end, Wolfram & Hart's Los Angeles branch had been destroyed in a bid to sink the city into Hell. As for Angel and his team, nobody knew what had become of them. Los Angeles' supernatural underworld was now under the care, so to speak, of the Dark Slayer, Faith Lehane.
But all of that was about to change.
The human order, with its witches and Slayers, was crumbling under the weight of its own arrogance. Korman's seers had pieced together the truth: a nuclear war was imminent. The end of humanity was coming, and from its ruins, the demons would rise to claim the Earth.
All over the world, bunkers were being prepared for the Scourge's warriors, hidden away from the coming devastation. When the nuclear fires subsided, they would emerge, ready to re-establish the natural order. The human world would be no more, and the reign of demons would begin anew.
Korman smiled as he surveyed the gathering of demons, his dark eyes gleaming with the knowledge of what was to come. The time of mankind was over, and soon, the Scourge would inherit the Earth.
San Francisco.
Buffy's flat
01:51 (Pacific Time)
Willow sipped her tea thoughtfully, mulling over what Sarah Connor's spirit had revealed. Judgement Day was looming, and they needed to know when it would happen, and more importantly, if they could prevent it. The key was Skynet, a secret military project. Maybe Riley would have some insight, she mused.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Xander stepping into the kitchen.
"Am I interrupting something?" he asked, noticing her pensive expression.
Willow smiled softly and shook her head. "No, not at all. Sit down."
As Xander took a seat, she continued, "I've been thinking about what Sarah Connor said, and I'm wondering if Riley might know anything about Skynet. After all, it's supposed to be some top-secret military project, right?"
Xander leaned back, considering it. "I doubt he would know much. If it's that classified, the security clearance must be sky-high. You'd need to be pretty deep in the loop to even hear about it."
Willow raised an eyebrow at him, prompting him to add with a grin, "What? I've read a lot of technothrillers!"
Willow chuckled lightly. "Okay, okay. Fair enough. But still, it's worth asking."
"Where's Buffy, anyway?" Xander asked.
Willow glanced toward the hallway. "She's taking a nap. She's had the dream too... more than once. It's probably hitting her harder than the rest of us."
Xander frowned, tapping his fingers on the table. "Yeah, I figured. What about you? Did you…?"
Willow shook her head. "No dreams for me. But I've seen enough through Sarah Connor's vision. It's real, Xander. All of it."
Before Xander could respond, a muffled sound came from down the hall—Buffy's bedroom. It started as a whimper, then grew louder, a pained groan escaping her lips.
"Buffy!" Willow and Xander rushed from the kitchen, bursting into her room.
Buffy was tossing and turning violently in her sleep, drenched in sweat. Her face was tight with fear, her hands clenched into fists around her blanket. Xander hesitated, but Willow quickly knelt by the bed, gently shaking Buffy's shoulder.
"Buffy! Wake up, it's just a dream. You're safe," Willow urged softly.
Buffy shot awake with a gasp, sitting upright as if she'd been pulled from deep water. Her eyes were wide, her breath ragged.
"Buff, are you okay?" Xander asked, concern thick in his voice.
Buffy blinked rapidly, trying to focus. It took her a few moments to realize where she was. She exhaled sharply, running a hand through her tangled hair. "Same dream. No... more intense this time. Way more."
"What did you see?" Willow asked, her tone soft but serious.
Buffy took a moment, wiping her face. "The nuke... it was the same. The flash, the heat... everything burning. But after that, it's like I skipped ahead... I saw the future. The world was in ruins. People were fighting, machines, killer robots everywhere. But this time..." She paused, the image vivid in her mind. "This time, I saw him. John Connor."
Xander tilted his head. "You saw him? What was he like?"
Buffy's expression shifted, a mixture of awe and sorrow. "Older. A lot older than when you guys saw him in those pictures on the Internet. He was leading the fight. I could feel it, he was their hope, like he knew exactly what needed to be done. But the machines… they kept coming. Wave after wave of them. They looked… unstoppable."
She shuddered, remembering the flashes of steel skeletons moving through battle-torn streets, hunting people like prey. "I heard him give orders. 'Hold the line,' he said. He had this... presence. Everyone was looking to him, like he was the only thing standing between them and total extinction."
Willow and Xander exchanged worried glances.
"Wow. Sounds like he's important," Xander said, trying to piece it together. "He's, what, the key to stopping this whole Skynet thing?"
Buffy nodded. "He has to be. Everything in the dream pointed to him being the one who leads the resistance... the one who fights back."
Xander's brow furrowed as he processed the information. "But what about us? What if there's something we can do?"
Buffy leaned forward, her eyes hardened with determination. "I'm not gonna sit around waiting for the world to end. If this Judgement Day is coming, we're gonna stop it, one way or another."
"Do you think we can reach out to Riley? He might know something more about John Connor and this Skynet project," Willow suggested, a glimmer of hope in her voice.
Buffy nodded, but deep down she knew that time was running out. Every night the dreams were growing more vivid, more urgent. The shadow of the future was looming larger, and for the first time in a long while, she felt like she was facing a battle they couldn't win alone.
Cleveland, Ohio. 06:45 (Eastern Time)
Giles sat in deep thought, the weight of the conversation with Willow still hanging over him. Sarah Connor's story gnawed at him, stirring a faint memory. He felt certain he had encountered something similar during his time as a Watcher, visions of a future war, nuclear destruction, and killer robots. But the details eluded him.
Reaching for the phone, he dialed the Watcher HQ in Scotland.
"Thank you for calling the Watcher Founda.." a woman with a strong Scottish accent began.
"Izzy? It's Giles," he interrupted, his tone urgent.
"Oh, hi, Ripper! What can I do for you?" she responded warmly.
"I need you to check something for me," Giles said, not wasting time on pleasantries. "Anything the Council has on future visions involving killer robots and nuclear apocalypse, dated between 1984 and 1997. Possibly tied to a woman named Sarah Connor."
"Very specific," Izzy noted. "I'll give it a shot, but we're short-staffed with all the personnel evacuations."
"I understand, but this could be directly connected to why I ordered the evacuation in the first place," Giles said, his voice grave.
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line.
"You don't think…" Izzy started.
"It's becoming more likely with each passing hour," Giles confirmed.
"I'll make it a priority," Izzy said, her tone shifting. "I'll look through the archives myself."
An Abandoned Warehouse in San Francisco,
04:57 AM (Pacific Time)
Korman paced the warehouse floor, the weight of anticipation heavy on his mind. The plans were in motion, and soon, the world as he knew it would be reshaped. But as always, a sense of unease gnawed at him. Demonic prophecies were fickle things, always shifting, never set in stone. He was pondering this when one of his seers, a gaunt demon with milky-white eyes, stumbled into the room, panting from the effort of whatever vision had just gripped him.
"My lord," the seer rasped, struggling to catch his breath, "the Slayers... they know."
Korman's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, they know?"
The seer swallowed hard, fear evident in his voice. "The witches… they've discovered the coming war. They've seen it, the nuclear holocaust, the end of man. They're preparing. If they connect the dots and find the right seers, they could change everything. They could stop it."
Korman felt a cold rage boil up inside him. He had worked too long, too hard for this moment, and he wasn't about to let some meddling witches and Slayers unravel his plans. The Scourge was poised for its greatest triumph, the annihilation of mankind, the dawn of a new order.
Korman turned on the seer, his voice cold. "If the Slayers are trying to stop this, they will need help. They will seek seers and psychics. We can't allow that."
The seer nodded, trembling slightly, knowing what was coming.
"Send word to our agents," Korman ordered, his voice sharp and decisive. "Every seer, every psychic, every witch with even a hint of precognitive power—kill them. I don't care if they're human, demon, or anything in between. If they can see what's coming, I want them dead before they can help the Slayers."
The seer hesitated for a moment. "It will take time to locate them all, my lord, but we will begin immediately."
"Do it now," Korman growled, his patience wearing thin. "Time is the one thing we can't afford to waste. The Slayers are resourceful, but we'll make sure they're flying blind in the dark when the world burns."
The seer bowed low and hurried out of the room to spread the orders. Korman's mind churned with thoughts of violence, his pulse steadying as the plan came together.
There would be no mercy, no hesitation. If anyone, Slayer or seer, dared to stand in the way of the Scourge's ascension, they would be wiped from existence. The apocalypse was inevitable, and Korman would ensure it came to pass.
He turned to the shadows, where his lieutenants waited. "Gather the strike teams. We have a war to win, and we'll start by snuffing out any light that dares see it coming."
With a malicious grin, Korman could already feel the weight of victory. The hour of reckoning was drawing near.
Finns' Lodgings. Los Angeles. 06:26 (Pacific Time)
With the operation to capture Connor scheduled for tomorrow, the Finns had a brief window to conduct some personal investigations. Their first step was acquiring a secure cell phone, and Riley placed a call to an old contact at the NSA.
"Bob?" Riley said, his voice low.
"Riley? Do you know what time it is?" came the groggy reply.
"I know that it's your day off," Riley said. "I wouldn't be calling unless it was urgent."
There was a brief sigh on the other end. "Alright, what is it?"
"Project SkyNet."
A long silence followed, the kind that made it clear Riley had hit a nerve.
"You don't have clearance for that," Bob finally responded.
"My boss might," Riley countered. "Brigadier General Robert Jackson. Tell him it's about the Connor case."
Cleveland, Ohio. 12:01 (Eastern Time)
Giles had finally drifted off to sleep when the sharp ring of the telephone startled him awake.
"Jenny Calendar School..." he answered groggily.
"It's me, Izzy," came the familiar voice on the other end.
"Oh, Izzy, sorry, I was just..."
"I know, long nights for everyone lately," Izzy replied sympathetically. "Listen, I've got the information you asked for on Sarah Connor. Turns out, the old Council had been keeping tabs on her. They had a hunch she was tied to something significant, but they maintained a hands-off approach."
"And then the Terminator arrived…" Giles prompted, already piecing things together.
"Exactly. The Council was blindsided. By the time they realized the gravity of the situation, it was too late," Izzy continued. "After that, the Connors vanished. They were experts at staying off the grid. The only thing the Council could do was keep tabs on Project SkyNet, trying to use their influence to slow it down. Then, when Sarah Connor and that other Terminator destroyed Cyberdyne HQ, the Watchers swooped in, pulled a few strings, said the right things to the right people, and helped finish Cyberdyne off."
"So they thought they'd stopped it," Giles said, rubbing his temples.
"Exactly. When Judgment Day came and went without incident, they figured they dodged a bullet and stopped paying much attention to SkyNet."
Giles let out a weary sigh. "And now, it's back, isn't it?"
"According to the last report the Council received before it fell? SkyNet should already be operational."
Somewhere in San Francisco – 10:42 AM
"Who exactly is this guy?" Buffy asked, trailing a few steps behind Willow and Kennedy.
"His name's Dennis Galland," Willow replied. "Supposedly a psychic. He's been posting some stuff online that lines up with what Sarah told us, so I figured he might know more."
The house they approached had clearly seen better days. Once a quaint mansion, its garden was now overgrown with weeds, the paint faded and peeling. The windows were boarded up with warped planks, giving it the look of a haunted, forgotten place.
"Are you sure this is the right address?" Kennedy asked, an eyebrow raised in clear doubt.
Buffy, her patience wearing thin, nodded. "Yes, Kennedy, this is the place."
Before they could exchange more words, a sharp, terrified scream pierced through the air from inside the house.
Buffy and Kennedy didn't hesitate. They exchanged a glance, then charged toward the front door. With a single hard shove, Buffy smashed it open, sending splinters of wood flying. Inside, they followed the sound of the screams, racing through the dimly lit hallway until they burst into a disheveled kitchen.
Five demons in dull gray uniforms were clustered around a pantry door, battering it furiously. They froze the moment Buffy and Kennedy stormed in, their glowing eyes narrowing with aggression.
"Well, this just got interesting," Buffy muttered, before leaping into action.
The nearest demon lunged at her, but Buffy grabbed him mid-air and hurled him through the kitchen window. Glass shattered as the demon was thrown outside. Kennedy was right behind her, launching a kick at another demon's groin. It barely reacted, snarling as it shoved her to the ground. Kennedy quickly retaliated, sweeping its legs out from under it and delivering a swift kick to its head, knocking it unconscious.
Buffy faced off against two more, easily ducking under a wild swing before slamming one into the refrigerator with enough force to dent the metal. She flipped the second demon over her shoulder with a judo throw, and it hit the floor with a sickening thud.
Kennedy, back on her feet, grabbed a knife from the kitchen drawer and stabbed another demon in the chest. It collapsed immediately. Buffy finished off the last one with a solid punch, sending it flying out the same shattered window.
As the final demon hit the ground, Willow stepped into the kitchen, taking in the scene with a small smirk. "Looks like you guys handled it."
Ignoring the wreckage around them, Willow focused on the pantry door. She raised a hand, muttering a quick incantation, and the lock clicked open. Inside, they found a man slumped on the floor, unconscious, a thin trail of blood trickling from a gash on his forehead.
Willow knelt next to him, checking the wound. "It's not too bad—he's lucky. Just knocked out." She and Kennedy quickly bandaged him as he began to stir.
"Ugh, my head…" the man groaned, blinking his eyes open. His gaze fell on Buffy first. "I know you… You were at one of my shows a couple weeks ago." Then his eyes shifted to Willow. "And you... witch, right?"
Willow smiled faintly. "Yeah. I saw your act. Turns out, you're the real deal, huh? We're here because we need your help."
He frowned, slowly sitting up as his hand went to his head. He tugged off a wig, revealing his scalp covered in strange brain-like ridges. "Part T'sylic demon," he explained, noticing their stares. "That's where the psychic mojo comes from."
Buffy stepped forward, her expression serious. "We need to know about Judgment Day."
Dennis sighed deeply, weariness etched into his features. "It's tomorrow."
Buffy's eyes widened. "How do you know?"
"I've been seeing it for weeks," he said, rubbing his forehead. "Tomorrow evening—18:18. That's when the launch codes get entered. After that, it's over."
Buffy clenched her fists. "There has to be something we can do."
Dennis looked at her, his expression grim and resigned. "You don't understand. I've seen it. It's inevitable. I'm getting out of here tonight, taking my family and heading south. You should do the same. There's no stopping it."
Buffy exchanged a look with Willow, her resolve hardening. "We've stopped apocalypses before. We're not giving up on this."
But Dennis just shook his head, his voice heavy with resignation. "This isn't like the others. This one's bigger than any of us." He stood shakily, glancing around his ruined home. "You might slow it down, but you can't stop it."
Buffy turned away, determination etched on her face. "We'll see about that."
As Dennis' words hung heavy in the air, the kitchen grew uncomfortably still. Buffy crossed her arms, deep in thought, while Willow knelt next to Dennis, ensuring he was steady on his feet. Kennedy, keeping a watchful eye on the scattered demon bodies, wiped the sweat from her brow.
"Maybe we should tie them up or something," Kennedy muttered, glancing over her shoulder. "They look a little too quiet for my liking."
Buffy shot a quick look at the fallen demons, all apparently unconscious. "They're out cold. But better safe than sorry."
Just as Buffy turned to move, there was a sudden shift of movement—too fast. One of the demons, the one Buffy had thrown into the fridge, surged to his feet, eyes glowing with a fiery intensity. Before anyone could react, he lunged at Kennedy, tackling her to the floor with a roar.
Kennedy hit the ground hard, the wind knocked out of her. "Buffy!"
The rest of the demons sprang to life, quickly shaking off their feigned unconsciousness. Two more bolted for the door while the others blocked Buffy and Willow, desperate to make their escape.
Buffy barely had time to react. She kicked the nearest demon in the chest, sending him staggering back, but another rushed past her, heading for the hallway.
Kennedy struggled under the demon pinning her down, gritting her teeth as she managed to elbow him in the throat. She scrambled to her feet just in time to see the last of the demons vanish out the front door, their retreat surprisingly coordinated.
Buffy gave chase but stopped short at the door, watching them scatter into the shadows outside. She cursed under her breath and turned back to Kennedy, who was rubbing her ribs, and Willow, who had instinctively raised a magical barrier during the chaos.
"Well, that went well," Buffy said dryly.
Kennedy, catching her breath, muttered, "Next time, we definitely tie them up."
TO BE CONTINUED...