Repost FIC: Trinity's Child 23/25

[CDRERamius@xxxxxxx]

TITLE: Trinity's Child 23/25
AUTHOR: Tony McD
DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to Joss Whendon, Mutant Enemy, WB and 
others. This is for fun, not profit.
SUMMARY: Sequel to Terra Australis Incognito. 17 years on Buffy, Xander, 
Willow, and their child must face very different evils to save the world 
(again).
SPOILERS: None really. AU.
RATING: MA 15+ (Australian system)

Trinity's Child 23/25

"Ok people, let's do this properly." Billy said to the teams. They had 
taken position outside where the High Council was hiding. The Canadians had 
surrounded the place but wisely left the actual assault to Buffy and the 
Aussie teams. Billy nodded to Willow.

"Work your mojo Willow." Billy told her. Willow, Buffy and Xander sat 
around a white sheet and Willow burnt some incense. Together they held a jar 
with multicoloured crystals while Willow incanted the spell. They poured the 
crystals onto the sheet.

"What are we looking for here?" Billy asked.

"The spell reveals magic and shows what kind of magic it is." Willow 
said as the crystals began to move into lumps of different colours. "See, 
here's the basic layout of the place. These light blue lumps signify people 
who have used magic recently, so I'd say these would be the Watchers Council. 
Mmmm."

"What?" asked Billy, a little annoyed at being totally in the dark 
with regards to magic.

"It looks like they're all in one room, but the room itself is 
protected by an illusion spell. It means that they have hidden the room by 
making doors appear into walls and the like. It seems pretty powerful." 
Willow informed him.

"Anything else? Anything we should worry about?" Billy wanted to know.

"No. It's just the illusion spell. To break it I'll have to be just 
outside the room. But this doesn't pick up non magical dangers." Willow 
cautioned.

"That's why we brought these little babies along." Billy said 
indicating to the tiny robotic recon cockroaches which now were moving into 
the building. Billy, Xander and the team leaders looked at the feedback and 
noted the positions of the Black Ops team.

"We've got three with uzi's here" Billy made a mark on the building 
layout. "Another two roaming here, and it looks like ten sleeping and goofing 
off in this room here. The thing that concerns me is that we don't know how 
many are in with the High Council guys." Xander turned to Willow.

"Any way of finding out?" he asked the Wicca.

"Not without breaking that illusion spell first." She told him. Xander 
swore.

"How long to break it once you're there?" Billy inquired.

"Five minutes or so."

"Shit, too long. Can you show us the exact location of the doors?"

"Yeah, not a problem." Willow said. "Why do you want to know where the 
doors are?" she asked him.

"I'm planning to pick the locks." Billy said with a little evil smile. 
He went back to planing the assault.

"Team One enters here and takes out the sleeping room. Team Two will 
split. Half will enter this room here and take out the three guards. The 
other half will come in here, take out the two roaming guys and conduct a 
sweep to see if we missed any. Xander, you, Buffy and Willow come in after 
them and locate those doors for me." Billy said.

"We take them all the way out?" Team One leader asked. Billy nodded.

"Any one with a weapon that's not us gets it. The High Council guys 
are to be captured alive, if possible." Billy looked around. "Any questions?" 
There were none.

"Get to your positions." Black clad figures took positions next to 
doors and windows. Billy listened as each team reported that it was in 
position. Billy keyed the mike.

"All positions, stand by... stand by... EXECUTE!"

There was a series of crashing doors and breaking windows as the 
attack began. Flash bang grenades were thrown which disorientated the Black 
Ops teams. Billy dropped one roaming Black Ops guy with a three round burst 
to the chest while Xander took out the other. There were sounds of a couple 
of shots from the Black Ops team which were answered by the muted sound of 
Team One return fire.

Buffy, Willow and Xander quickly made their way to the hidden room and 
Willow started to search for hidden doors. A Black Ops guy seemingly appeared 
from the wall. Before he could do anything, there was a sickening sound of 
his neck snapping as Buffy twisted his head.

"Looks like we found the first door." Buffy said evenly. Willow marked 
the position then hurried on, finding another door and marking it as well. 
Billy and his team placed a small explosive charge on the doors. Xander 
looked at the charges with a grin.

"Loving your lock picker there, Billy." Xander remarked.

"Yeah, ain't it kinky?" Billy said and detonated the charges. They 
rushed through the holes.

They found one Watcher lying dead on the floor, a jagged piece of wood 
sticking out of his neck. The other members of the High Council stood in the 
middle of the room.

Except for one.

"Where is he?" Buffy yelled as she grabbed the nearest Watcher. The 
Watcher was too stunned to respond coherently. Frustrated, Buffy punched him 
in the head, sending the unconscious Watcher flying. Buffy pulled out her 
knife and grabbed another Watcher. She showed the blade to the terrified 
Watcher.

"Where is he?" Buffy asked the Watcher in a low, dangerous voice. She 
looked to the Watcher like a dangerous animal, ready to kill at an instant. 
She looked demented.

"He left." a female voice said behind her. Buffy released the Watcher 
and spun around to face who had spoken. Everyone else was looking around to 
find where the voice came from. They heard a woman laugh.

"It's been almost twenty years, I don't blame you for not recognising 
my voice." Buffy looked wildly around the room.

"Who are you?" Buffy demanded.

"It's me. Marcie Ross. Remember?" Buffy, Willow and Xander remembered 
her now. The remember she turned invisible back in high school and how she 
had tried to kill Cordelia as well as them. Seeing the fear, Marcie reassured 
them.

"It's OK, I'm one of the good guys now. I work for the government. I 
was the one who tipped them off where these characters were." Marcie told 
them. Buffy took a few seconds to process this.

"OK Marcie, Where did the Chief Watcher go?" Buffy asked the invisible 
agent.

"He and five of his goons left here hours ago. He's heading back to 
Sunnydale."

"Why?" asked Willow.

"He took some book called 'The Cantos of Raman'. He wants to activate 
the Hellmouth to draw on it's powers to summon something called the Cacodemon 
to take you out. The only problem with this, according to these guys, is that 
if it goes wrong, he could open up the Hellmouth." Marcie told Buffy. There 
was a pause as everyone took this information in. Billy issued orders for the 
Watchers to be taken away.

"Where are you taking them?" Xander asked Billy.

"They'll face trial before the International Court of Justice. They're 
almost certain to get a week in sensory depravation." Buffy was stunned.

"They kill my mother and god knows how many others, and they get a 
week!" Buffy yelled at Billy. Billy held up his hands to calm her down.

"You have no idea of what that means, do you? Sensory depravation is 
where the brain is totally isolated from the rest of the body. No inputs at 
all. No touch, no taste, no hearing, no smell, no vision. Nothing at all. You 
do that, and the brain turns in on itself. A day and a half of it will 
totally break anyone down. Three days of it and the person goes insane. Any 
longer than that, the brain starts to shut down. After a week these guys will 
be insane vegetables. They'll spend the rest of their lives in living hell." 
Billy reassured her.

"What about the Chief Watcher?" Buffy asked. Billy gave her an evil 
look.

"He's got something special, just for him. Assuming we can catch the 
prick." Billy fumed.

"We got to get to Sunnydale to stop that bastard. We need you to help 
us with this. But I can't ask you risk you and your teams lives. It's gonna 
be insanely dangerous." Buffy told Billy. Billy smiled shook his head 
disbelievingly.

"Buffy, Buffy. By now you should know that we'd storm the gates of 
Hell and fight Satan himself if you wanted us to." he put his hand 
reassuringly on her shoulder.

"We're in this together. To the end." Billy told her. Willow and 
Xander came up to them.

"To the end." They said together, putting their hands on Buffy's 
shoulder. Buffy was nearly overcome by emotion at the strength of her friends 
dedication. She choked back her emotions.

"To the end." she whispered.

"Let's go."