Divine Interventions (8/16)
Sep. 13th, 2005 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alixtiiThis time I'm actually halfway done. It's an odd feeling.
Title: Divine Interventions (8/16)
Fandom: Buffy/Angel
Characters: Dawn, Amy, Cordelia, Ethan, Willow, Kennedy, and others.
Rating: The overall fic will include material up to and including NC-17; most scenes are considerably milder, though.
Warnings: Het, femslash, BDSM, noncon, underaged—but none of these as the main focus of the fic.
Warnings for this chapter: None.
Timeline/Spoilers: Takes place after “Why We Fight.” Spoilers up to “You’re Welcome.”
Summary: Unlikely allies must team up to protect Willow from a resurrected enemy and the worshippers of the dark god Osiris.
Author’s Notes: The Council code, countercode, and counter-countercode are from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Merlin and Vivian.” Thanks as always to my beta reader![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spikendru.
Previous chapter can be found here.
All chapters can be found in my memories.
Chapter Eight
“That’s ridiculous,” Willow said. “What would Osiris want with me? I’m just your average, run-of-the-mill meet-one-on-every-street-corner witch.”
“Who just happened to ensoul a vampire, bring a Slayer back from the dead, almost destroy the world, and turn every Potential in the world into a Slayer,” Amy pointed out. “You’re not exactly garden variety.”
“Am too! See?” Willow made a wild, inarticulate gesture. “Garden-variety Willow!”
“We both know that’s not true, love,” Kennedy interjected reasonably.
“You summoned Him, tried to command Him to bring Tara back,” Cordy explained. “He’s angered by what He views as your impudence.”
“It’s not anger that drives Him,” Beth corrected. “Not anymore. It’s fear.”
The room went silent. “Who is he again?” Willow asked.
“A seer,” Dawn answered. “Blind one. Named Beth.”
“Where do all these Tiresias kids come from, anyway?” Cordy asked. “Do they have a school for blind child prophets or something? Or is it just some sort of mystical archetype?”
For a moment, no one answered.
“As fascinating as those questions sound,” Dawn ventured at last, “I think we need to be more worried about protecting Willow.”
“Willow can protect herself,” Kennedy pointed out. “She is the most powerful Wiccan on the planet.”
“It might not be the best time to mention that when you’re in a room full of Wiccans, kid,” Amy pointed out. “You want us to get jealous and switch sides?”
Dawn knew she had best intervene before Amy and Kennedy came to blows. “Kennedy, do you think it’d be safe to go out tonight if we all go as a group?” Of course it’s not safe, Dawn mused somberly to herself. When was slaying ever safe?
Kennedy considered, her attention successfully diverted by the possibility of playing expert. “Three Slayers, a whole gang of witches including Willow, and a chaos mage? I don’t think that should be too much of a problem. Just keep tight.”
“Good,” said Dawn. “Tonight we’ll go out, scout out the territory. Willow, you and Amy might want to compare notes on the Order of Osiris. For the rest of us, I’m not sure what we can do.”
Willow nodded. No one moved.
Dawn made her own way out of Willow and Kennedy’s living room, through the kitchen and onto the back terrace. Once there, she pulled out her cell phone and checked the readout. Good, she had a signal. The roaming charges were going to be enormous, but that was the least of her problems. She typed in the number for the Council.
“Hello?” asked the person on the other end.
“In Love, if Love be Love,” Dawn recited from memory, “if Love be ours, faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers: Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.”
“It is the little rift within the lute,” came the countercode, “that by and by will make the music mute, and ever widening slowly silence all.”
“The little rift within the lover’s lute or little pitted speck in garnered fruit, that rotting inward slowly moulders all. It is not worth the keeping: let it go: But shall it? answer, darling, answer, no. And trust me not at all or all in all.” She paused, taking a breath. “It’s Dawn Summers. I need to speak with Rupert Giles.”
“Just a moment, Miss Summers,” the receptionist on the other side of the phone answered. “Mr. Giles will be with you shortly.”
It was a few seconds before Giles’ voice exploded through Dawn’s phone. “Dawn‽ Where are you? What in the world did you think you were doing? Your sister and I have been—”
Dawn cut him off. “Giles, I need every Slayer not actively engaged in a current apocalypse mobilized and brought to Sao Paulo. And I need it yesterday.”
This time, Giles’ response was calmer. “What’s happening down there? We’ve got the reports, but. . . .” He trailed off.
Even though Dawn was alone on the terrace, she brought her voice down to a whisper. “We think Willow might go dark again.”
There was a long pause before Giles spoke again. “The first contingents of Slayers will be arriving in a few hours. It might take a while to mobilize them all.”
“Thank you, Giles.”
“Good luck, Dawn,” Giles said before he hung up.
Dawn closed her cell and re-entered the house, returning to the living room. Ethan, Beth, and most of the Wiccans had left, leaving Amy and Willow alone with Cordelia. “I’ve called the Council. They’re sending reinforcements.”
Kennedy shot a suspicious look her way, but said nothing. “Thank God,” said Willow.
“It’s one of Them that got us into this trouble,” Cordy pointed out, reasonably.
* * * * *
“That really is a pretty big hole in the ground.”
Alexia laughed as she looked back over her shoulder at Rack. “It’s all that remains of your hometown.”
“Never much liked the place anyway. You ready for this?”
“As ready can be,” Alexia said as she cracked her knuckles. “Stand back and watch an expert in action.”
From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring
Renewed be the Staff that was broken
The crownless again shall be King.
Rack looked at the staff which lay at their feet. “That’s it? It’s that easy? A little whirlwind and there it is?”
“It looks easy,” Alexia answered, insulted. “You try Making sometime, tell me how easy it is.”
“No need to get your panties in a twist,” Rack said distractedly, picking up the staff and looking at it. “So what was that bit about the crownless being King?”
Alexia shrugged. “In the movie, it was that Viggo Mortensen guy. I don’t know where Tolkein got the incantation from.”
“You use spells cribbed from fantasy novels.”
“Hey, if it works, use it,” Alexia said. “It got us what we wanted, didn’t it?”
Alexia saw the small, wicked smile slowly spread across Rack’s face. “It did indeed,” he said, holding the staff high. “It most certainly did.”
Alexia nodded. “Now let’s get to Brazil.”
* * * * *
The sun was due to set in a couple of hours, before any of the new Slayers would have had time to arrive. The group began to prepare for their patrol, each arming themselves with various weapons: Kennedy and her two Latin American charges each took crossbows along with smaller knives; most of the Wiccans armed themselves with daggers; Cordelia picked up an imposing-looking long sword. Ethan went straight for a wicked-looking mace which, Dawn thought, looked decidedly impractical for actually dusting vampires, and incredibly practical for causing immense amounts of damage and pain.
Kennedy watched as Beth picked up an axe. “Are we really bringing the blind kid with us? I mean, he doesn’t have sonar or anything like Daredevil, right? He’s just blind.”
“I’m a seer, not a superhero,” Beth answered indignantly.
“I don’t trust him enough to leave him here,” Dawn admitted as she chose a sleek katana for herself. Her handgun was hidden in her purse.
“Okay, but he better not take off my head with that thing because he thinks I’m some vamp. And if he becomes vamp food, I’m not going to cry.”
“No one will,” Beth said matter-of-factly as he shifted the weight of the axe from one hand to the other. “And I won’t.”
Kennedy didn’t look convinced. “Is that a prophecy or a promise?” she asked as she led the entourage into the night.
Beth never answered, Dawn noticed, but simply held his axe as he waited for action.
* * * * *
They must have encountered two hundred or more vamps, just prowling the streets, in the course of a few hours patrolling. Each member of the group held his or her own for the most part, although Beth’s lack of eyesight wasn’t exactly an advantage in his favor. They got through the night with their worst casualty being a dislocated shoulder by one of the Wiccans which Kennedy had reset on the spot.
“It’s like that every night now?” Dawn asked on the return walk to Willow and Kennedy’s house.
“It’s been bad,” Willow answered, “but tonight’s been the worst. It’s been increasing pretty much exponentially ever since the migration’s begun.”
“This is war,” Amy said
Dawn turned to look at the Wiccan, and could see, in the light of a torch that Willow was carrying, that Willow and Kennedy had equally quizzical looks on their faces. “That’s what the priestess of Osiris said,” Amy explained, “when they attacked us at UCLA. I didn’t realize she was talking literally.”
They were on Willow and Kennedy’s street, now. “Uh-oh,” Kennedy said. “Somebody’s waiting for us. Or somethings.” Dawn squinted and could make out two shadowy forms standing in front of the house
“They’re not vampires,” answered Beth. “They’re Slayers.”
Dawn let herself loosen her grip on her katana just a little bit, as the group made their way up to the two figures. In the light of the torch it became clear that they were indeed Slayers, in fact two that Dawn recognized from Sunnydale.
“Reporting for duty!” Vi said, snapping to attention and making an emphatic quasi-military salute.
Shannon, the other Slayer, looked at her companion oddly. “Faith and your sister are working an apocalypse in San Francisco,” she explained, “since Faith can’t leave the country and Giles thought it might not be wise to face you with Buffy just yet. So it’s our job to report to you for orders.”
Dawn nodded. “How many Slayers have arrived so far?”
“Thirty-six so far,” Shannon answered, “counting the two of us. More should be arriving by the hour.”
“If the girls want to go patrolling tonight, make sure they don’t go out in groups of less than a dozen,” Dawn ordered. “In the morning we’ll work on coming up with a plan of attack.”
Shannon simply nodded, but Vi replied with an enthusiastic “Yes, ma’am!”
“And Vi? Don’t do that. You’re not in the military.”
“Yes—I mean, okay.”
TBC. . . . here
Title: Divine Interventions (8/16)
Fandom: Buffy/Angel
Characters: Dawn, Amy, Cordelia, Ethan, Willow, Kennedy, and others.
Rating: The overall fic will include material up to and including NC-17; most scenes are considerably milder, though.
Warnings: Het, femslash, BDSM, noncon, underaged—but none of these as the main focus of the fic.
Warnings for this chapter: None.
Timeline/Spoilers: Takes place after “Why We Fight.” Spoilers up to “You’re Welcome.”
Summary: Unlikely allies must team up to protect Willow from a resurrected enemy and the worshippers of the dark god Osiris.
Author’s Notes: The Council code, countercode, and counter-countercode are from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Merlin and Vivian.” Thanks as always to my beta reader
spikendru.Previous chapter can be found here.
All chapters can be found in my memories.
Chapter Eight
“That’s ridiculous,” Willow said. “What would Osiris want with me? I’m just your average, run-of-the-mill meet-one-on-every-street-corner witch.”
“Who just happened to ensoul a vampire, bring a Slayer back from the dead, almost destroy the world, and turn every Potential in the world into a Slayer,” Amy pointed out. “You’re not exactly garden variety.”
“Am too! See?” Willow made a wild, inarticulate gesture. “Garden-variety Willow!”
“We both know that’s not true, love,” Kennedy interjected reasonably.
“You summoned Him, tried to command Him to bring Tara back,” Cordy explained. “He’s angered by what He views as your impudence.”
“It’s not anger that drives Him,” Beth corrected. “Not anymore. It’s fear.”
The room went silent. “Who is he again?” Willow asked.
“A seer,” Dawn answered. “Blind one. Named Beth.”
“Where do all these Tiresias kids come from, anyway?” Cordy asked. “Do they have a school for blind child prophets or something? Or is it just some sort of mystical archetype?”
For a moment, no one answered.
“As fascinating as those questions sound,” Dawn ventured at last, “I think we need to be more worried about protecting Willow.”
“Willow can protect herself,” Kennedy pointed out. “She is the most powerful Wiccan on the planet.”
“It might not be the best time to mention that when you’re in a room full of Wiccans, kid,” Amy pointed out. “You want us to get jealous and switch sides?”
Dawn knew she had best intervene before Amy and Kennedy came to blows. “Kennedy, do you think it’d be safe to go out tonight if we all go as a group?” Of course it’s not safe, Dawn mused somberly to herself. When was slaying ever safe?
Kennedy considered, her attention successfully diverted by the possibility of playing expert. “Three Slayers, a whole gang of witches including Willow, and a chaos mage? I don’t think that should be too much of a problem. Just keep tight.”
“Good,” said Dawn. “Tonight we’ll go out, scout out the territory. Willow, you and Amy might want to compare notes on the Order of Osiris. For the rest of us, I’m not sure what we can do.”
Willow nodded. No one moved.
Dawn made her own way out of Willow and Kennedy’s living room, through the kitchen and onto the back terrace. Once there, she pulled out her cell phone and checked the readout. Good, she had a signal. The roaming charges were going to be enormous, but that was the least of her problems. She typed in the number for the Council.
“Hello?” asked the person on the other end.
“In Love, if Love be Love,” Dawn recited from memory, “if Love be ours, faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers: Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.”
“It is the little rift within the lute,” came the countercode, “that by and by will make the music mute, and ever widening slowly silence all.”
“The little rift within the lover’s lute or little pitted speck in garnered fruit, that rotting inward slowly moulders all. It is not worth the keeping: let it go: But shall it? answer, darling, answer, no. And trust me not at all or all in all.” She paused, taking a breath. “It’s Dawn Summers. I need to speak with Rupert Giles.”
“Just a moment, Miss Summers,” the receptionist on the other side of the phone answered. “Mr. Giles will be with you shortly.”
It was a few seconds before Giles’ voice exploded through Dawn’s phone. “Dawn‽ Where are you? What in the world did you think you were doing? Your sister and I have been—”
Dawn cut him off. “Giles, I need every Slayer not actively engaged in a current apocalypse mobilized and brought to Sao Paulo. And I need it yesterday.”
This time, Giles’ response was calmer. “What’s happening down there? We’ve got the reports, but. . . .” He trailed off.
Even though Dawn was alone on the terrace, she brought her voice down to a whisper. “We think Willow might go dark again.”
There was a long pause before Giles spoke again. “The first contingents of Slayers will be arriving in a few hours. It might take a while to mobilize them all.”
“Thank you, Giles.”
“Good luck, Dawn,” Giles said before he hung up.
Dawn closed her cell and re-entered the house, returning to the living room. Ethan, Beth, and most of the Wiccans had left, leaving Amy and Willow alone with Cordelia. “I’ve called the Council. They’re sending reinforcements.”
Kennedy shot a suspicious look her way, but said nothing. “Thank God,” said Willow.
“It’s one of Them that got us into this trouble,” Cordy pointed out, reasonably.
“That really is a pretty big hole in the ground.”
Alexia laughed as she looked back over her shoulder at Rack. “It’s all that remains of your hometown.”
“Never much liked the place anyway. You ready for this?”
“As ready can be,” Alexia said as she cracked her knuckles. “Stand back and watch an expert in action.”
A light from the shadows shall spring
Renewed be the Staff that was broken
The crownless again shall be King.
Rack looked at the staff which lay at their feet. “That’s it? It’s that easy? A little whirlwind and there it is?”
“It looks easy,” Alexia answered, insulted. “You try Making sometime, tell me how easy it is.”
“No need to get your panties in a twist,” Rack said distractedly, picking up the staff and looking at it. “So what was that bit about the crownless being King?”
Alexia shrugged. “In the movie, it was that Viggo Mortensen guy. I don’t know where Tolkein got the incantation from.”
“You use spells cribbed from fantasy novels.”
“Hey, if it works, use it,” Alexia said. “It got us what we wanted, didn’t it?”
Alexia saw the small, wicked smile slowly spread across Rack’s face. “It did indeed,” he said, holding the staff high. “It most certainly did.”
Alexia nodded. “Now let’s get to Brazil.”
The sun was due to set in a couple of hours, before any of the new Slayers would have had time to arrive. The group began to prepare for their patrol, each arming themselves with various weapons: Kennedy and her two Latin American charges each took crossbows along with smaller knives; most of the Wiccans armed themselves with daggers; Cordelia picked up an imposing-looking long sword. Ethan went straight for a wicked-looking mace which, Dawn thought, looked decidedly impractical for actually dusting vampires, and incredibly practical for causing immense amounts of damage and pain.
Kennedy watched as Beth picked up an axe. “Are we really bringing the blind kid with us? I mean, he doesn’t have sonar or anything like Daredevil, right? He’s just blind.”
“I’m a seer, not a superhero,” Beth answered indignantly.
“I don’t trust him enough to leave him here,” Dawn admitted as she chose a sleek katana for herself. Her handgun was hidden in her purse.
“Okay, but he better not take off my head with that thing because he thinks I’m some vamp. And if he becomes vamp food, I’m not going to cry.”
“No one will,” Beth said matter-of-factly as he shifted the weight of the axe from one hand to the other. “And I won’t.”
Kennedy didn’t look convinced. “Is that a prophecy or a promise?” she asked as she led the entourage into the night.
Beth never answered, Dawn noticed, but simply held his axe as he waited for action.
They must have encountered two hundred or more vamps, just prowling the streets, in the course of a few hours patrolling. Each member of the group held his or her own for the most part, although Beth’s lack of eyesight wasn’t exactly an advantage in his favor. They got through the night with their worst casualty being a dislocated shoulder by one of the Wiccans which Kennedy had reset on the spot.
“It’s like that every night now?” Dawn asked on the return walk to Willow and Kennedy’s house.
“It’s been bad,” Willow answered, “but tonight’s been the worst. It’s been increasing pretty much exponentially ever since the migration’s begun.”
“This is war,” Amy said
Dawn turned to look at the Wiccan, and could see, in the light of a torch that Willow was carrying, that Willow and Kennedy had equally quizzical looks on their faces. “That’s what the priestess of Osiris said,” Amy explained, “when they attacked us at UCLA. I didn’t realize she was talking literally.”
They were on Willow and Kennedy’s street, now. “Uh-oh,” Kennedy said. “Somebody’s waiting for us. Or somethings.” Dawn squinted and could make out two shadowy forms standing in front of the house
“They’re not vampires,” answered Beth. “They’re Slayers.”
Dawn let herself loosen her grip on her katana just a little bit, as the group made their way up to the two figures. In the light of the torch it became clear that they were indeed Slayers, in fact two that Dawn recognized from Sunnydale.
“Reporting for duty!” Vi said, snapping to attention and making an emphatic quasi-military salute.
Shannon, the other Slayer, looked at her companion oddly. “Faith and your sister are working an apocalypse in San Francisco,” she explained, “since Faith can’t leave the country and Giles thought it might not be wise to face you with Buffy just yet. So it’s our job to report to you for orders.”
Dawn nodded. “How many Slayers have arrived so far?”
“Thirty-six so far,” Shannon answered, “counting the two of us. More should be arriving by the hour.”
“If the girls want to go patrolling tonight, make sure they don’t go out in groups of less than a dozen,” Dawn ordered. “In the morning we’ll work on coming up with a plan of attack.”
Shannon simply nodded, but Vi replied with an enthusiastic “Yes, ma’am!”
“And Vi? Don’t do that. You’re not in the military.”
“Yes—I mean, okay.”
TBC. . . . here
