And What Alice Found There: Chapter 5
A light from ahead had brightened to the point where Robin had shut off his flashlight. Whatever was up ahead was casting enough light that he could easily make out the sewer walls.
“We’re almost there.” Robin had used this entrance many times to get in and out of the school without anyone noticing. It was the same one he’d come through the night he’d found the Levinson boy's body. “Another hundred yards or so.”
“Stay sharp.” Faith cautioned.
After the arrows, they’d slowed their pace even more than before, carefully checking for more traps. They’d avoided them, but at the cost of time.
Spike was stumbling along, led by Brigette. Whoever was waiting at the Hellmouth for them, they’d been prepared for a vampire. The scent of bleach and the effects of garlic hadn’t lessened. Dru’s Knave was obviously hedging his bets.
Reaching the opening leading to where the portal to the Hellmouth lay, Faith and Robin flattened against the walls to peer inside.
Across from her, Faith heard Robin suck in his breath, hissing it in through his teeth in an obvious effort to keep silent.
Faith didn’t have to try. She couldn’t have made a sound if she’d tried. Buffy lay chained down to a table, her arms outstretched in an obscene parody of crucifixion. Blood ran from cuts on her body. A man stood with his back to them, a dagger in his hand.
Pulling Robin back into the shelter of the tunnel, Faith motioned for the others to gather close. “Some guy has Buffy. It looks like he’s alone, but I dunno for sure. We’ll rush him and try to take him out quick.”
Robin struggled to maintain his composure. “We have to help Buffy, he’s – “
“It’s not pretty, so don’t look.” Faith interrupted. It would have been easy to pretend she’d never seen anything like this before, but she’d be lying. “Brigette, Rowena – you go around to the left. Robin, Caitlin – you go to the right. I’m gonna go right straight for this jerkwad.”
“What about me?” Spike asked.
“You can’t even stand. Stay here out of the way.” She didn’t give him a chance to argue, turning away to lead the attack.
They charged into the room that housed the opening to the Hellmouth, Brigette and Rowena veering off to the left with Robin and Caitlin heading to the right. Faith had drawn her athame and she rushed toward the man standing over Buffy. She launched herself at him, planning on knocking him down and pinning him while the others freed Buffy.
Instead of meeting with flesh and bone, Faith collided with an invisible barrier. Her arms gave way under the impact and her head struck the barrier with a smack.
“It seems I was wrong about your friends.” Ethan turned and smiled. “They’re quite resourceful, but not too bright. Did you really think I’d leave myself unprotected?”
Robin rushed to Faith’s side. “Opening the Hellmouth will kill you – kill us all!”
“You people are like a bloody broken record.” Ethan sneered. “Afraid of anything with power.”
“Perhaps that’s because we’ve seen the consequences too many times.” A voice from behind him made Ethan spin around.
“Ripper!” His heart surged up to choke him, and with an effort Ethan kept his voice light. “I’d say it was good to see you, but I’d be lying.”
“And that would be something different for you.” Giles said dryly.
“I have to say, you’re a much more resourceful group than I remembered.” Ethan watched as Willow, Giles, Xander, and Tiffany entered from the blocked stairwell. Obviously less blocked than he’d thought.
The sight of the bloody cuts on Buffy’s body made her stomach churn, but Willow deliberately pushed the feeling aside. She wouldn’t help Buffy by being a wuss.
“The Double Jeopardy question for the day is ‘What pathetic loser keeps coming back to have us kick his ass?’” Xander elbowed her. “Didn’t the
Initiative lock him up?”
Ignoring Xander, Willow examined the protections Ethan had set up. He stood next to the table that held Buffy, inside a ring of candles that was positioned carefully over symbols and sigils chalked onto the concrete floor. Some she recognized, some she didn’t, and some she wished she didn’t.
A circle of protection, fairly standard stuff, but she knew getting through it wasn’t going to be easy or even possible. That was the idea behind a circle of protection, after all.
“Keep him busy.” Willow told the others. “Keep him talking.”
Within the circle, Ethan smirked as they fanned out around him. “I suppose your plan is to distract me while Ms. Rosenberg tries to break through my wards? We can give it a go, but there’s really not much time for the traditional banter.”
Eyeing the blood-filled pattern over the Hellmouth, Willow realized that for once Ethan was telling the truth. Beneath the thick ropes of blood, the seal over the Hellmouth was beginning to glow as it had the last time they’d fought here. Another few minutes and it would open.
“You seem sure of yourself, Ethan.” Giles walked up to the edge of the protective markings surrounding his one time friend.
“Let’s just say I have an inside man.”
“The First?” Giles smiled at Ethan’s surprise. “Do you really think I haven’t studied the Book of Vanikov? Buffy is my charge after all.”
“Good guess.” Ethan quickly regained his composure. He should have known that Giles would be the one person to actually read the old journals. “But, you already knew the First was trapped beneath the seal.”
“And you expect you’ll be rewarded for freeing it?” Giles considered brushing a foot across the chalked lines. He knew better than to try, experience had taught him that the wards would rebuff the attempt. They could only be erased from the inside.
“No doubt you’re expecting to become King of the World or some such?” He shifted his attention to where Buffy lay motionless on the table. She was pale, nearly as pale as a vampire, with a bluish tinge to her lips. “You’ll have a short reign, Ethan. I’m going to kill you for harming her.”
“I’m shaking in my boots.” Ethan mimed a yawn.
“You better be.” Faith struggled to her feet, wiping at the blood that had run down her face from the cut on her forehead. “I owe you for this.”
“The line forms here.” Picking up a rock, Xander tossed it at Ethan. It bounced off the barrier, just as he’d expected, but hopefully it would help keep Ethan distracted. “I’m still pissed off over Halloween.”
Willow smiled. She was probably the only one who didn’t regret that night. When it was over, she’d gotten a boost in self-confidence.
Closing her eyes, she searched within herself for a spell to counter Ethan’s. One came to her, but it seemed as if another, darker spell was trying to force its way into her consciousness.
Ignoring it, Willow gave sincere thanks to the Goddess and reached into her bag for the candles and other items she would need. While she couldn’t break through Ethan’s wards directly, she could make things miserable for him until hopefully his concentration would waver enough to weaken them.
Out of habit, Xander took up a protective position at Willow’s back, his baseball bat at the ready while she set up her own circle of protection. Technically, no one could break through the circle but if they did, he’d be there to meet them. Swinging and screaming like a girl.
Ethan watched Willow’s preparations warily. He wasn’t sure just how powerful she’d become in the years since he’d seen her last. No doubt whatever skill and talent she’d had had been neutered by Giles’ restrictions, but she was still a wildcard.
The blast of magic against the invisible barrier protecting him took Ethan by surprise. It was much more powerful than he had expected, but his wards held. “Nice try.” He smirked.
“I’m only getting started.” Willow matched his smirk with a twist of her wrist and fingers.
“Are we doing the hokey pokey?” Ethan laughed.
“Not quite.”
“It’s all very pointless – “ Ethan coughed. “Pointless.” He coughed again, gasped for air. “It’s – “
There was a tingle of satisfaction at Ethan’s distress. Willow’s spell had sucked most of the air out of the circle Ethan stood within. Ignoring the small whispers that she should take all of it and let him die, Willow changed her strategy.
Ethan quickly countered Willow’s spell, pulling fresh air into his lungs. He really should have expected that one, it was an old trick. He did have one advantage; she wouldn’t kill him, but he had no such compunction.
Willow hadn’t expected the spell to succeed, it was merely the first in a series testing his concentration and strength. She sent another spell his way, one designed not only to irritate him, but to help Buffy.
“So what the hell are we supposed to do, sit around and watch?” Faith asked. Her head ached from the collision and she owed the English bastard some payback.
“Distract him!” Xander yelled over the rising screech of magic. “Throw rocks – anything!”
“Great, reduced to crowd noise.” Rowena said.
“Hey, I’m from Boston – nobody does crowd noise like a Southie.” Grinning, Faith hefted a baseball sized chunk of rock. Winding up, she let it fly. It bounced with a satisfying thunk.
“Batter up.” Robin handed a rock to Rowena.
“Go team.” She eyed the rock. Sports were not her thing.
The rocks bouncing off Ethan’s circle of protection were annoying, but hardly likely to break his concentration. “You’ll have to do better than that, children.”
While the rocks weren’t a major annoyance, the fact that he wasn’t able to affect Willow was. His effort to keep air from entering her circle, as she had done to him, had failed as had the spell to turn the air surrounding her into poisonous gas.
“You little – bitch – “ Ethan snarled at her. While his spells were ineffective, her spells were working perfectly.
Willow was unable to attack him directly, but she was quickly making him miserable. The temperature had dropped until he began to shiver.
“You’ll have to do better than that. I’m from England, sweetheart – not Southern California. This is nothing. A summer’s day.” If Ethan were to admit the truth, which he tried never to do, it was colder than a well-digger’s ass, as his grandmum used to say.
“Give me time.” Willow smiled with more confidence than she felt. She and Ethan were at nearly equal levels. She would eventually wear him down, but time wasn’t on her side.
The cold she’d channeled into Ethan’s circle of protection was designed more to prolong Buffy’s life – by slowing her bleeding and lowering her metabolism – than to hurt Ethan. Now she needed to go on the attack.
Dawn and Lijuan stumbled into the room from the third entrance. Both were bruised and bloody, and Lijuan was using Buffy’s scythe as a makeshift crutch. Giles and Robin went to help them, leading them to a place where they could sit comfortably.
“Why is it so cold?” Dawn’s teeth chattered.
“Willow’s trying to help Buffy.” Giles pulled his coat off and draped it around her shoulders.
“Where is she? She and Angel were ahead of us. There was like an explosion or something.” She burrowed into the warmth of his coat.
“The net Dawn was in was rigged – when I hit it with the scythe – “ Lijuan flung her hands up in an approximation of fireworks. “Kablooie!”
“Kablooie, indeed.” Giles had no doubt that black magic and the scythe would not mix well.
“Where’s Buffy?” Dawn asked again. She tried to look around Giles, but he shifted to block her view.
“Where is Angel?” He countered. “Was he with you?”
“No, he was with Buffy.” She shook her head. “He was sick or something.”
“Sick? Vampires don’t get sick.” Giles frowned. Something tugged at his memory.
“There was bleach, and garlic.” Lijuan told him. “After Dawn got caught in the net, Buffy led Angel on down the tunnel.”
“You didn’t see him on your way here?” It was possible that the garlic had rendered Angel unconscious. His studies with the council had taught him how deadly garlic could be to a vampire in large doses.
“No, but we were out for I don’t know how long.” Lijuan told him. “We could have passed him though, we just had the one flashlight and the batteries were running low.”
“Hmm…” Giles glanced over to where Spike was lying in the opening that Faith and the others had entered through. Obviously Ethan had counted on Angel – and possibly Spike – coming with Buffy and had prepared traps accordingly. “Not to worry, we’ll go back for him when this is over.”
Lijuan clutched at the scythe. It was vibrating, nearly wiggling off her lap. “What is up with this thing?”
“No doubt it senses the presence of magic.” Giles winced as a loud clap of said magic echoed through the room.
“This is getting boring.” Ethan watched his breath crystallize as he spoke. He was growing tired, and she’d nearly caused him to step across the protective lines chalked on the floor. Outside those lines there were too many eager maiden Slayers ready to grab him.
“Really? I could do this all night.” Willow smiled brightly and sent a spell his way to cause his skin to itch. It was a minor spell, but it would keep him off balance while she threw another ground tremor at him.
Inside of her, voices whispered spells – deadly spells – to crush Ethan and take the power of the Hellmouth for herself. She ignored them, focusing on slowing the flow of Buffy’s blood onto the floor by sending a small spell to clot the blood already on the table.
“I’m afraid at my age, I need my beauty sleep.” Ethan smiled evilly. “And besides, you didn’t really think that was my only protection, do you?”
“Let me guess – you hit the clearance bin at Evil Sorcerers ‘R’ Us.”
“Good one, Will.” Xander snickered. The only plus to these things was the snark factor.
“Shh!” She hissed. It was hard enough ignoring the little black whispers in her mind without Xander disturbing her concentration.
“Cheeky.” Ethan pulled an amulet from under his shirt. “I wonder if you’ll be quite so quick to quip as you watch your friends die.”
Holding the amulet up, Ethan uttered the incantation to call forth the demons bound to it.
For a moment, nothing changed. Faith and the others continued to pelt the barrier and Willow’s magic continued to search for weaknesses in Ethan’s wards.
Then Spike cried out. “Get it off!”
Faith turned to look at the tunnel opening they’d come out of. Spike had crawled after them, stubbornly refusing to stay out of the way, and now lay thrashing around on the dirt floor.
“What the hell?” Stepping closer, Faith saw that there were things crawling over his body. They were fist sized, black and shiny, and they had vicious looking pincers.
“Off – off – “ Spike rolled, trying to crush the things crawling over him.
The black things moved closer to her and Faith backed away. “This is not good.”
Behind her, Dawn shrieked and Faith risked a look over her shoulder. More of the black creatures were pouring into the room from cracks in the walls and the floor.
A sharp pain brought her attention back to the threat in front of her. One of the fist sized creatures had latched onto her ankle, cutting through the leather of her boot. “Son of a bitch!” She kicked her foot out, sending it flying.
There were cries and screams of pain from all around and Faith found herself too busy keeping the monsters from crawling up her legs to help anyone else.
The creatures were easy enough to kill, a quick stomp and they squished like the overgrown bugs that they were, but there were so many of them that for every one Faith smashed, ten more took its place.
“Well, now, this is more like it.” Ethan smiled as he watched them kick and swat at the creatures he’d summoned. “It’s almost like a dance, all we need is music.”
Within her own circle of protection, Willow was safe from the creatures, but she was helpless to protect her friends. The bugs flung themselves at the barrier, exploding on contact, but it didn’t dissuade more of the creatures from attempting to break through.
The voices in the blackest corners of her mind whispered spells to her, spells that would kill the creatures and Ethan with them. Willow ignored them, searching for another way to help her friends.
Lijuan swatted the black creatures away from her with the scythe. It didn’t seem to like being used as a baseball bat, vibrating wildly in her hands.
“Sorry!” Another bug scurried up her leg and bit through her jeans and into her thigh. She cried out and the scythe slipped from her hands as she fell to her knees.
Dawn had backed up against the wall, her mouth open wide, but no sound came out. The creatures were ignoring her, crawling around her as if she were invisible to them.
It was a blessing and a curse. Dawn wanted to help but she was terrified that moving would attract the creatures’ attention to her.
“Damn it, we have to do something!” Xander flinched back as more of the creatures flung themselves at the invisible barrier protecting him and Willow.
“I’m trying!” She shouted back.
“They’re – they’re gonna die!” He hated standing and doing nothing while the others were hurt and bleeding.
“Just give me a minute!” The problem with the spells that she wanted to use were that they would hurt her friends along with the creatures, or they would spare everyone but Spike. There was something nagging at her memory, but she wasn’t sure she could pull it off.
“I gotta help them.”
“What – “ Willow turned to see Xander step out of the circle. “Xander – no!”
“Get busy, Will.” He began stabbing the bugs with the sharpened end of his customized ball bat.
“Xander – “ Grinding her teeth in frustration, Willow tried the spell, knowing she didn’t have enough power to pull it off, but she had to try. Maybe if she used just a little of the dark magic… “No!” Willow crushed the voice. No dark magic, even if they all died. As she expected, the spell fizzled, partly from her weakness and partly from the distraction.
Lijuan had managed to get to her feet again, brushing the creatures off of her arms and legs. She cried out as several of the creatures clung to her back, biting into her flesh, just out of reach.
“Hold still!” Xander used the point of his bat to pry the creatures off Lijuan’s back. He did so at the cost of his own feet and ankles, which were quickly swarmed over.
“I hate bugs!” Lijuan scooped up the scythe, which was still vibrating as if it wanted something. She smashed the creatures around Xander’s ankles and together they worked their way toward Willow.
The others seemed to have the same idea and they’d gradually been stomping and fighting their way toward her. If nothing else, the barrier offered something safe to put their backs to.
Lijuan was having a difficult time hanging on to the scythe. The closer she got to Willow, the more it vibrated, practically tugging itself out of her hands.
“Well, well, looks like you have a choice, Willow, my dear.” Ethan smiled an evil smile. “You can stay safe inside your wards and watch your friends die, or drop the circle to let them in – and hope you can raise it before my pets eat you alive.”
“None of the above.” She’d felt something pulling at her, growing stronger as Lijuan approached. The scythe was calling to her. Way too many voices in my head!
“Lijuan! Give it to me!” She reached out through the barrier.
The scythe practically leaped from her hands toward Willow, leaving Lijuan feeling defenseless.
Several of the creatures latched onto her arms as Willow took hold of the weapon. She gritted her teeth and pulled the scythe – and the bugs – inside the circle of protection.
The bugs fried with a satisfying snap and the pain of their bites was washed away by the joyous feeling of magic pouring through her. Whatever the scythe’s true function might be, when it was in her hands and pitted against the Hellmouth, a channel opened to the Goddess and pure magic rushed through it.
Cradling the scythe to her chest, she let loose the magic given to her.
White fire spun around her and funneled out of the circle, pouring over the creatures and her friends, halted only by Ethan’s own protective wards. It swirled around them like water around a boulder midstream, continuing on until the room was full. The creatures began exploding, the sound echoing off the walls like firecrackers.
Within his circle of protection, Ethan was knocked to his knees by the force Willow threw at his wards. She’d pulled stronger magic out of her bag than he’d bargained for. The thought crossed his mind that she’d given into temptation and used dark magic. If she had, then he might have a contender for control of the Hellmouth.
The small explosions continued for several minutes, culminating in a final explosion as the amulet blew apart, knocking Ethan backwards. He fell unconscious to the floor, his shirt smoking from the spent magic.