FIC: Daybreak Postponed (10/13)

["C S Armitage" <soren_nyrond@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: Daybreak Postponed [approximately] (10/12)
AUTHOR: Soren Nyrond
DISCLAIMER: All characters in this part belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy -- etc etc as in part (0/12). Some ideas have been borrowed for elsewhere to illuminate this story: they did once belong to Other Companies (and still do, I imagine), but since they are by way of being generic concepts, Idon't think anything's awry.
SUMMARY: As if uit wasn't confusing enough, Soren throws in some more people -- again, acknowledgements that they belong to Joss, Mutant Enemy, and sundry other maga-coprs that earn more in one minute than (etc. etc)
ARCHIVING:: Talk to me -- there may need to be re-edits on earlier bits ofthis, thanks to kind feedback.
SPOILERS: None - none of this ever happened in the ME-world
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Molto gratitude for the nice feedback, guys. Save The Snippets !!!
  
  
DAYBREAK HAS BEEN POSTPONED

By Soren Nyrond

Part Nine - In which the numbers rise

 

 

"It's Giles," Willow said: "I'd recognise that voice - "

"We'd better let him in, then," Buffy replied. "Are we all - ready ?"

General assent ensued and, at a nod from her Slayer, Willow dissolved the spell which had been blocking the entrance to the subterranean refuge.

A few minutes later, Xander's voice could be heard, protesting.

"I tell you, G-Man: I've been down her three times already, andit's just a dead - "

"Hi, Xander," Willow said brightly. "Did you find Giles ?"

"Yeah - he's just behind me - hey, light - neat."

The little sphere was about the size of a pearl and glowed withsoft warm creamy light, enough to allow basic visibility, even if the roomseemed full of a swirling almost liquid darkness, that ebbed and flowed, and eddied almost as if it had life of its own.

Then Giles was working his way through the aperture and down onto the mattresses.

 

"I tell you - " Xander began: "That was a dead end - "

"All right," Giles said. "And on the subject of dead ends, we stand a good chance of being dead at the end of this unless we stop Travers. "

He led the way through the gloom, towards a doorway on the other side of the room, which, till now, had gone unnoticed.

As, to him, did that fact that a book had slipped from his pocket as he had got up. Willow, however, attentive as always to Giles when she wasn't engaged in huggology or smoochage with her Slayer, had noticed, and picked it up.

The doorway led to a passage and thence to another door, which opened onto a larder or stock cupboard of some sort. Giles picked his way through, to the far side. Following, Xander picked one or two items from the shelves.

"Ooh - grape juice ! Hey, and those little biscuity things with sugar twirls on the top. And what are swiss rolls ?"

 

"As Willow said, earlier - " The four youngsters were gatheredround Giles, Xander energetically transferring some of his storeroom bootyinto direct ingested calories, Willow and Buffy intricately intertwined, and Samantha sort of draping herself across their backs, langourously.

"As Willow said, we face a severe situation - I am now certain that Quentin has already initiated the first stages of the Ritual of the Dark Voracious, and he probably intends to complete it tonight, and release the demons at the heart of the ritual onto the countryside."

"Eww !" Willow said (her voice slightly muffled, as her mouth was pressed into to Buffy's shirtfront).

"I take it, that means bad," Samantha asked. 

"Unless you enjoy endless night, and a constant series of humansacrifices," Giles replied, slightly more acerbically than usual. Samantha might be a Slayer-in-training, but she exhibited several of the attributes (in his opinion) of a polecat in heat. And, he was disturbed to find, itaffected him.

"Okay," Buffy said, from where she peeped over the top of Willow's head, "then let's saddle up and deal with Mr. Travers." She put an emphasis on the 'Mister' that, to Giles, presaged ill. 

"You might want to wait - "

"I might not, Giles - this is the man who brought a pet vampireto kill me and who tried to kidnap Faith for 're-education' in England - presumably here, now I think of it." Buffy had disentangled herself from Willow and was now on her feet, eyes afire. "And now he's planning on openinga HellGate." "How did you know that ?"

"My dream. Remember ? That was the word Merrick used and 'endless night of human sacrifices' or whatever you said, sounds pretty like Hell."

"All right - " Giles was working fast: he knew how off-the-cuffBuffy Summers could be, on her Slay-rides: "- you might have to wait - we probably aren't strong enough yet - "

"I've got you," Buffy stated flatly, vying for the dominance, "I've got my witch." She glanced round. All the other three were on their feet as well. "I've got a back-up Slayer - okay, a trainee, but . - and I've Xander, who isn't totally useless."

Xander looked slightly affronted, then relaxed again. It was Buff on a roll: no malice there, just the desire to win the argument.

"Buffy - there's - "

            

The only window in the room they were using (a floor up, down anarrow passage, and several rooms along from the cellar storeroom), might once have given subdued light. In the present situation it offered nothing(except perhaps an aperture for the darkness to ooze in and out), so the glow, as it manifested, was pretty obvious, to all but Giles, behind whose unwary back it was materialising.

"G-Man," Xander began, but Willow, with a wave of her fingers, translocated the Watcher to one side (to Giles' unspoken amazement - unspoken because he understood at once that the glow and its potential origins took priority).

>From something the size of a dinner-plate, the glow extended and expanded to a hoop, a window, finally the size of a circular doorway. There it stabilised, and then its blue-white colour began to shade towards gold and green. It was at the point that Willow made a noise that might havebeen indicative of dawning comprehension, but she was overtaken, by the sudden, explosive, exit from the "doorway" of two figures and the implosive shrinkage and vanishment of the doorway thereafter.

 

That left the two figures: and Buffy was on guard against them at once.

Samantha followed suit, albeit with less self-confidence. Willow still hadenough strength to conjure another light-globe and she did so, just as Buffy began to move forward.

"Hey - B - good t'see y' !"

"God, Buffy - polite, much - we came here to help !"

Faith Spencer, rogue Slayer, and Cordelia Chase, actress/secretary/investigator (and Queen C of Sunnydale High) stepped forward and lookedround.

"Xan, Will !"

"Oh, yes - good to see you, Willow." Cordelia wanted to make it clear that she was still clearly and totally "off" the Harris charm (evenif the boy was slavering like a puppy: thank goodness she'd remembered to dress, before jumping (or being jumped) across the Atlantic to a School forWatchers somewhere in the back-woods of England . of course, there might be a spare Royal Prince somewhere around - this was England, which was hardly bigger than the lower forty on some Texas or California ranches . )

Buffy relaxed, a fraction.

"Okay - and don't think I don't appreciate it, but - you're here - why ?"

"Cool it, B - Queen C had another vision, and we hopped Will's express route over to help." Faith was on a real buzz: she was out of prison and, after some soul-searching and a lot of apologising, she was righteous and ready to kick demon butt. And she had got Cordy away from Angel forat least a day or two and planned on seeing quite what there was under Ms.Chase's polished veneer (not to mention under her designer blouse-and-jeans combo).

Cordelia, meanwhile, was looking over the mystery member of thequorum, who looked like a top-shelf version of a private-school girl (indeed, almost the sort of private school specifically Approved by the Government).

It was, she decided, her cue to be gracious. "Hello, I'm Cordelia."

"Pleased to meet you: I'm Samantha; I'm a Slayer-in-training."

But not a Slayer-in-a-training-bra, Cordelia noted. But was too cool to say aloud, she added to herself.

"Oh - well, all the best of luck: it's a - " she quick-scanned her vocabulary for the right word " - challenging career."

 

"You mentioned a vision, Faith," Giles said, before the whole thing descended into a reunion-fest.

"That was C - I just brought her some medication after the screams." Faith returned to considering the alternative possibilities of Red -she was dressed as unsexy as usual, but Faith was well aware of what was under those clothes, and, if there was a chance, she knew how she always felt after a fracas - as well as hungry .

"Cordelia ?" The noise level was starting to rise with five ofthem: Giles wondered just where Elspeth was - she could at least have taken Samantha off his hands, and perhaps Willow, or Cordelia .

"Hm - oh, yes, Giles ?"

"Vision ? Details ?"

"Fractious - short-tempered: Angel gets like that - I usually find . no, Group O isn't your bag, is it ?"

 

"Oh oh - " Willow was listening. "Feet - coming this way !"

Faith and Buffy were on high alert instantaneously, and Willow started to marshal her wiccan strength in case it was needed.

 

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