Categories > TV > Buffy the Vampire Slayer > BUFFY Meets STAR TREK
- The Hell-God Cometh -
12
"A witch?" Wesley proposed as he simultaneously read through a collection of ancient texts and rubbed at his recently bruised back.
"I...I didn't sense any dark magic from her," said Tara. "And...the way she broke my spell - like it was nothing to her - she wasn't a witch."
Wes gave it some more thought. "Are we certain she's not a demon?"
Angel loaded another corpse onto his shoulder. "Demons tend to be less attractive," he said, carrying the body away.
"Well, ...A shape-shifting demon?"
"No," replied Angel as he came back to remove another corpse. "She was too strong."
"Some form of human/demon cross-breed?" the Englishman offered. He watched Angel carry the last of the demon bodies out of the shop through the side door behind the counter. "A vampire of some kind? She did sense that you were a vampire, Angel. Without seeing your demon face."
"She's not a vampire," his voice echoed distantly from the alleyway.
A moment later, Angel returned and closed the door behind him. All the bodies were now stacked neatly beside a dumpster until such a time that Angel could properly dispose of them. He passed through the beaded curtain into the main shop floor. "She caught an axe-blade in her hand without being cut. You saw it yourself, Wesley."
"A...a human? Using powers?"
Tara raised a hand. "Again - no magic."
"She's something else," Angel stated. "Something with God-like strength."
"You don't suppose..." Wesley began, "...that perhaps... she is a God?"
"No," Angel immediately dismissed. "Gods aren't corporeal beings. Besides, if she was a God, she could have killed us all with a thought. She wouldn't have had to fight."
"Yes, of course," Wesley acknowledged. "We are beginning to clutch at straws."
"Yeah," agreed Angel. "No more guess-work, guys. Let's find the answers." He pointed to the books before making his way towards the basement to see where Riley had got to.
Wesley pondered absently for a few seconds before getting back to his reading.
Angel was almost to the door when Riley appeared from downstairs holding a small shining ball that looked remarkably like a light bulb.
"Here," he said, holding it before the vampire.
Angel gave it a quick inspection. "Sure that's it?"
"It's the only 'glowing orb' down there."
Wesley approached them carefully. There was still a little tension between them. "May I?"
Riley allowed him to take it over to the table where the failed Watcher began to research its purpose.
"But if it's designed to repel 'that which cannot be named'," Angel asked, "how do we know if it'll have any effect on Glory?"
"It's the only thing we have that can be linked to her," Tara said.
Riley nodded. "Buffy found it at the same site she encountered Glory."
"Then it's all we have," Angel sighed.
Black ash of Zanbaa, Salamite crystals, and dry baked earth from the mystical plains deep in the heart of the Serengeti. Tara had managed to find them all within the Magic Box, but there was still one ingredient that evaded her. And there was nowhere else to look.
"Err...Wesley?" she asked, disturbing the man from his work. "Would salamander eyes be a...safe substitute for eye of newt?"
"Honestly...I'm not sure," he said. "I haven't studied the Lexicon. Fire spells are relatively unfamiliar to me. I'm sorry."
"That's okay. I...I'll work something out." Eyes were eyes, right? However you look at it.
She picked up the jar of salamander eyes and went back to work.
"Aah," Wesley sighed with revelation.
Angel quickly stepped over to him. "What does it do?" he asked eagerly.
"Oh, nothing new on the Dagon's sphere as yet," he replied. "But I have found a reference to a 'Book of Tarnas' in relation to the 'Key'. It's the only time in any of the texts that the 'Key' is mentioned."
"Do we have the book here?" asked Angel.
"Not here-"
"What about in L.A.? Call Cordelia-"
"We don't have it there either-"
"Are you sure? Just give her a ca-"
"Of course I'm sure, Angel."
The vampire stopped and nodded once.
"But if anyone has it..." Wes began, "...it would be the Watcher's Council."
"So, call them."
"I'm not... they... I can't see them helping us, Angel."
"This is important, Wesley. You used to be one of them. Make them understand we need the information. You have to try."
"Alright," he yielded. "I'll try."
Just as Wesley got to Giles' desk and held the telephone receiver to his ear, a woman's voice called to him from the other end of the line: "Hello?"
Needless to say he was quite surprised. "Um...he-hello there?"
"S'cuse me," the voice said again, and all heads spun to the door where a young blonde woman stood nervously. It wasn't Glory.
"A Vhlipschang Demon under the old memorial overpass told me I could find you guys here," she said in a witless, slightly simple-minded voice.
Wesley shook his head at his own foolishness and hung up the phone.
"Who's /she/?" asked Angel.
"I'm Harmony," she said.
"Harmony?" Riley considered.
"You know her?" Wes asked him.
Angel caught her scent. "She's a vampire."
"Didn't she used to date Spike?" said Tara.
Angel frowned. "Spike?"
Riley stepped forward. "Last time she showed her face, she tried to kill Buffy. Kidnapped Dawn as I recall."
Harmony spotted the young girl at the back of the shop. "Oh...yeah...about that...sorry. Nothing personal."
For all Angel knew, she could be after Dawn again - maybe for Glory. "What do you want?"
"Spike's gone," she blubbered. "I thought he'd left me at first, but all his things are still in the crypt. Even his home waxing treatments, and he never goes anywhere without them. ...So I thought maybe the Slayer had gone and dusted him or something, so I asked around and I heard she'd disappeared, then I'm like 'Oh, my God!' - I couldn't believe it. You've gotta tell me the truth, I have to know..."
All 5 of them simply stared blankly at the over-bearing simpleton.
"...They ran away together, didn't they?"
Riley and Tara let out a guffaw while Angel and Wes felt a great weight of confusion descend upon them. Dawn didn't even react.
"Wait," Riley said, as past events replayed in his head. "Spike was /here/. When they disappeared; he was here."
"Spike's with Buffy?" asked Angel, somewhat flummoxed. That was great. Not only was Buffy in trouble, but she was in trouble with a maniacal vampire who'd like nothing better than to kill her.
Riley quickly tried to reassure him: "He's fairly harmless now, since he got a chip in his head. He can't directly harm anyone."
"Spike is with Buffy?" Harmony whined. "I knew it! That two-timing creep. When I get hold of him, I'm really gonna do it this time. I'm gonna stake him so bad-" Harmony's voice faded suddenly to a shrill cry as her whole body dried to dust before them.
The cloud settled to reveal Glory with a splintered board from the outside bench in her hand. She dropped the wood and rested her hands on her hips. "I believe She did order the stake."
If she had looked beautiful before, she now looked unquestionably luscious. In the hour that she'd been gone, she had found the time to change into something a little more suited to the night. Her blonde locks were now tied up off the neck sensually, and the red dress had been replaced with a vinyl one in a deep shade of burgundy.
"Okay," she started. "I'm going to ask you once - nicely - and you're gonna want to think very carefully before you give me an answer. ...Because I'm through playing." Folding her arms, she said forcefully: "Give me the Key."
The group came together.
Angel noted that Riley's hands were clenched in fists and Wesley had removed his spectacles. Tara, who was stood beside them at the table, gave him a nod. They were ready. Well, as ready as they could be. Angel turned his attention back to the mysterious Glory.
She held up her hands expectantly. "Well?"
"Go to Hell," he told her.
She smiled. "That's the plan."
No sooner had she started for them, when Tara pulled out 2 fistfuls of magical dirt and commanded: "Fiat incendium!" Her hands became engulfed by fire. "Pila!" she called as she threw her hands forward, releasing 2 searing balls of flame hurtling in Glory's direction.
Just as Tara had anticipated, the woman ducked the first fireball, which beat a hole through the front window and faded into the night. But the second had been angled downward. It caught Glory as she crouched from the first and knocked her back to the wall. Though, when she got up, her eyes as fiery as the flame that hit her, not even her clothes were charred.
All right, they were going to need this guardian spell.
The group was stood within a large, thin circle of ash, with Glory still on the other side.
"Ignis flamma!" Tara decreed, and the fine ring of black ash began to rise into the air. It crackled like fire and, just as it was about to form an impenetrable barrier ...It went 'poof'.
The ash was gone and the barrier was nowhere to be seen.
Salamander eyes! It was the damn Salamander eyes! If only she'd had the time to learn that teleportation spell.
"Oops," Glory said, mocking her. "Looks like the little firecracker blew a fuse." She let out an abrupt laugh and brought her hands together with a loud clap. "Now it's my turn to get nasty." If there was one thing that Glory loved, it was killing, maiming and reeking havoc. Though, technically that was 3 things, she loved them equally and all at once. It had been a long time since she really let loose, and now that these earth-realmers had stirred a thirst within her that she'd all but forgotten, she was ready for some all-out violence.
Glory took the first substantial object she could find - the small, square display table near the entrance - and lifted it into the air with one hand. The brown tablecloth slid away, taking scrolls, idols, charms and other paraphernalia tumbling to the carpet. With one gentle movement, Glory sent the table flying across the room towards the witch.
The instant Tara realised she was directly in its path, she tried urgently to scramble clear of its descent. But the display surface hit the edge of the main table and bounced, veering to the side. Tara had moved right into its new path.
It came down hard onto the back of Tara's leg, twisting it in a direction it wasn't built to take and the startled sorceress fell precariously forward, clipping her skull on a bookshelf as she went. She hit the floor hard, and the pain that shot up her leg fell on dull nerves as the girl slipped away into unconsciousness.
The main table still rocked from the impact, and the Dagon's sphere shook free from its place amongst the research. It careered down the centre of an open book, off the table, and onto a chair where it fell to the ground and continued to roll toward Glory until it hit the step in the middle of the shop floor.
Glorificus stepped down from the carpeted section of the Magic Box and strode towards the men. Then she faltered. Struck inexplicably by some bizarre, drunken swagger, she tried to get at them again and failed.
"Wha...? ...Wha's tha...? ...Where...?" she mumbled through slack lips. She felt cramped - forced in where she shouldn't be, like she needed to get out - away. Just being in this place sickened her brain. But it wasn't right. She shouldn't be feeling this way. She should be tearing arms from sockets, not loosing it. They'd done something to her!
"What.../is/...that?" Her hands clawed at the scalp through her hair. "Like itchy fingers twitchin' in my brain." She shot a look at Angel, Wes and Riley that implied they were to blame for her 'illness'.
They backed away from her a little without even realising.
She then made another attempt to reach them, and almost fell on her face. Then she saw it. Just behind her and to the left. The Dagon's sphere!
There was nothing the 3 men could do as she brought her leg down and crushed it under her foot.
"There ya go!" she said, feeling suddenly better, and getting back to business. Like a wily fox prowling through the chicken coop, she came at them.
Angel moved into position and formed the first line of defence, executing phase one of their back-up plan: Wound her.
The soul-bearing vampire created the necessary distraction by giving her something to concentrate her attack on.
She made a swing for his head. Angel feinted instinctively to the right to avoid the blow and came back to block a second punch. It served to give Wesley the perfect opportunity to pull out and fire Giles' crossbow. It was a promising shot. Until it hit its target.
The arrow ricocheted off Glory's side to Angel's surprise. That was the back-up plan shot to hell.
Glory didn't miss a beat, taking the vampire's forearm and ripping it back until the bone shattered and pierced his flesh. Angel cried out as she flung him into one of the racks by the staircase. The shelf unit tipped as Angel fell, and it came crashing down onto his chest. But she didn't stop there, flipping the main table over and on top of the shelf - further crushing him. She'd save him 'till last. Once she'd made him watch.
Wesley moved around her and threw the crossbow. But she batted it away easily.
Thinking it the perfect chance, Riley tried to hit the bitch from behind.
When Riley attacked, she turned, shot out a hand and jabbed him in the throat - taking the breath from him and launching him across the shop. He impacted into the window, cracking it, and dropped back to earth, blacking out.
Wesley, meanwhile, was picking up the Lexicon and flicking quickly through the pages. When he found what he thought he was looking for, he began to recite Latin with serious intent in his voice: "Magister mundi sum! Monstra mihi pecunium, potestatem obscuri lateris nescis-" He shrieked as the book was sent flying from his hands.
Glory locked both hands on Wesley's head...
"Angel!" he pleaded desperately.
Angel tried to lift the shelving away from him, but the tear in his right arm and the weight of the table on top caused it to buckle and the rack came back down onto his chest with a crack. Still, he tried again in vane with his good arm to get loose.
Wesley was struggling hopelessly with the small hands that were clamped around his face as his feet rose from the carpet. Then, to Angel's horror, she snapped his head around with a heart-wrenching crunch.
"NO!" Angel watched, helpless, as Wesley's limp frame dropped to the floor and crumpled.
Time froze for the vampire in that one surreal instant.
He was lost.
Glory brushed the table and the rack to one side as if they were made of paper and yanked Angel up by the collar.
Angel felt something rise within himself, and he gave in to it - letting the demon side of his nature take him - causing his face to become a vampiric nightmare. With all his anger and ferocity, he snapped his head forward and butted her hard in the face, knocking her back. He felt his muscles wind up like tight springs and he unleashed a torrent of heavy blows upon her. He then cracked her head with a viscous punch and floored her with a high-kick.
The sudden burst of emotional energy left him drained, his arm burning with pain.
But she drew herself upright. Not a bruise on her.
"What ... are you?"
"You really wanna know?" she asked.
He barely noticed her growing closer to him.
"I am the rightful ruler of the dark realm of pain. I bring chaos and destruction to everything before me and I do it with style like nobody else. The little girl you're so adamant to protect is the Key to getting me back ... and nothing will stand in my way."
'Ruler of a realm?' he thought, sudden realisation slapping him in the face. 'She ... she IS a God!'
It came to him a moment too late as she reached him, drew back her fist, and punched a hole in his chest.
Angel felt Glory's grip tighten around his heart. His attempts to free himself met with steel opposition.
Riley came-to, got to his feet and whipped his telescopic baton out.
"Riley..." Angel managed through clenched teeth. "Get Dawn ... out."
Glory squeezed harder and the vampire gasped. But he held onto her as tightly as he could.
Finn looked from Angel to Dawn, then made a move to get her and leave. But then he stopped and looked back at Angel. The vampire was as good as dead. If Riley and Dawn left now, Glory would likely rip out his heart and come after them. But Angel wasn't dead yet. And Riley owed him his life.
But who the hell cared about some vampire? Soul or no soul.
Buffy.
What would Buffy do? What would she want him to do?
"Riley ... GO!" Again, she squeezed his lifeless heart. Angel was in a world of pain he hadn't known since his time in the Hell dimension. Pain that burned hotter than the summer sun.
Glory, on the other hand, seemed quite content, if a little annoyed. "You're wasting your breath, vampire. There's nowhere they can run quick enough."
From nowhere, Riley came at her with his extended baton. She released Angel, caught Riley easily, hooked an arm around his throat and dug her fingers into his back - paralysing him on the spot.
Angel fell.
Riley gasped.
"I told you; no more playing, soldier-boy," she teased.
Unable to move - pain shooting through his back, into his limbs and filling every part of him - Riley's joints locked into a disturbing pose. His body began to fit. Blood flowed in rivulets from his back, down his leg and onto the hard, dark floor. His contorted face conveyed the unbearable agony he felt.
Then, almost without effort, she buried her hands into Finn...
...And tore out his spine.
"Gotta love a guy with back-bone!" she said cheerfully as she let gravity take what was left of Riley from her hands.
His body flopped to the floor and caved in on itself.
Dawn fought back a frantic scream, and fear clawed at her insides as a rising nausea turned her stomach over and into a tight knot. She felt herself burning up; suddenly sweating madly with panic-driven dread. And then she knew. She was next.
Dawn bolted for the side door desperately, but Glory was already there.
Taking Dawn by the wrist, clawing and crying, Glory dragged the girl away from the shop, away from her protectors, and away from the world. Taking all hope with her.
*
A tired old pick-up sped out of the four-level interchange onto the Pasadena freeway and out of Los Angeles. At the wheel, Gunn steered between the slower vehicles with Cordelia at his side; re-dialling her employer's number frantically, the harrowing vision still stinging the back of her overwrought eyes. Neither of them could bring themselves to discuss the possibility that what she had seen could be true.
*
The sound of Angel's cell-phone rang on in some distant place beyond his awareness.
How long it had been ringing was anyone's guess.
It simply wasn't important.
Angel was left sprawled on the floor clutching at the gaping hole in his chest, failure and pain conflicting with his ineffectual need to act. To avenge.
Not ten feet away lay his dead friend...
"Oh, God, Wesley..."
And the Slayer's dead boyfriend.
Though he could feel his physical wounds already beginning to heal, his body wanted only to give in, and all other thoughts but one emptied from his mind.
With an unsteady, emotional ache in his voice, he closed his eyes and broke down.
"Buffy..."
12
"A witch?" Wesley proposed as he simultaneously read through a collection of ancient texts and rubbed at his recently bruised back.
"I...I didn't sense any dark magic from her," said Tara. "And...the way she broke my spell - like it was nothing to her - she wasn't a witch."
Wes gave it some more thought. "Are we certain she's not a demon?"
Angel loaded another corpse onto his shoulder. "Demons tend to be less attractive," he said, carrying the body away.
"Well, ...A shape-shifting demon?"
"No," replied Angel as he came back to remove another corpse. "She was too strong."
"Some form of human/demon cross-breed?" the Englishman offered. He watched Angel carry the last of the demon bodies out of the shop through the side door behind the counter. "A vampire of some kind? She did sense that you were a vampire, Angel. Without seeing your demon face."
"She's not a vampire," his voice echoed distantly from the alleyway.
A moment later, Angel returned and closed the door behind him. All the bodies were now stacked neatly beside a dumpster until such a time that Angel could properly dispose of them. He passed through the beaded curtain into the main shop floor. "She caught an axe-blade in her hand without being cut. You saw it yourself, Wesley."
"A...a human? Using powers?"
Tara raised a hand. "Again - no magic."
"She's something else," Angel stated. "Something with God-like strength."
"You don't suppose..." Wesley began, "...that perhaps... she is a God?"
"No," Angel immediately dismissed. "Gods aren't corporeal beings. Besides, if she was a God, she could have killed us all with a thought. She wouldn't have had to fight."
"Yes, of course," Wesley acknowledged. "We are beginning to clutch at straws."
"Yeah," agreed Angel. "No more guess-work, guys. Let's find the answers." He pointed to the books before making his way towards the basement to see where Riley had got to.
Wesley pondered absently for a few seconds before getting back to his reading.
Angel was almost to the door when Riley appeared from downstairs holding a small shining ball that looked remarkably like a light bulb.
"Here," he said, holding it before the vampire.
Angel gave it a quick inspection. "Sure that's it?"
"It's the only 'glowing orb' down there."
Wesley approached them carefully. There was still a little tension between them. "May I?"
Riley allowed him to take it over to the table where the failed Watcher began to research its purpose.
"But if it's designed to repel 'that which cannot be named'," Angel asked, "how do we know if it'll have any effect on Glory?"
"It's the only thing we have that can be linked to her," Tara said.
Riley nodded. "Buffy found it at the same site she encountered Glory."
"Then it's all we have," Angel sighed.
Black ash of Zanbaa, Salamite crystals, and dry baked earth from the mystical plains deep in the heart of the Serengeti. Tara had managed to find them all within the Magic Box, but there was still one ingredient that evaded her. And there was nowhere else to look.
"Err...Wesley?" she asked, disturbing the man from his work. "Would salamander eyes be a...safe substitute for eye of newt?"
"Honestly...I'm not sure," he said. "I haven't studied the Lexicon. Fire spells are relatively unfamiliar to me. I'm sorry."
"That's okay. I...I'll work something out." Eyes were eyes, right? However you look at it.
She picked up the jar of salamander eyes and went back to work.
"Aah," Wesley sighed with revelation.
Angel quickly stepped over to him. "What does it do?" he asked eagerly.
"Oh, nothing new on the Dagon's sphere as yet," he replied. "But I have found a reference to a 'Book of Tarnas' in relation to the 'Key'. It's the only time in any of the texts that the 'Key' is mentioned."
"Do we have the book here?" asked Angel.
"Not here-"
"What about in L.A.? Call Cordelia-"
"We don't have it there either-"
"Are you sure? Just give her a ca-"
"Of course I'm sure, Angel."
The vampire stopped and nodded once.
"But if anyone has it..." Wes began, "...it would be the Watcher's Council."
"So, call them."
"I'm not... they... I can't see them helping us, Angel."
"This is important, Wesley. You used to be one of them. Make them understand we need the information. You have to try."
"Alright," he yielded. "I'll try."
Just as Wesley got to Giles' desk and held the telephone receiver to his ear, a woman's voice called to him from the other end of the line: "Hello?"
Needless to say he was quite surprised. "Um...he-hello there?"
"S'cuse me," the voice said again, and all heads spun to the door where a young blonde woman stood nervously. It wasn't Glory.
"A Vhlipschang Demon under the old memorial overpass told me I could find you guys here," she said in a witless, slightly simple-minded voice.
Wesley shook his head at his own foolishness and hung up the phone.
"Who's /she/?" asked Angel.
"I'm Harmony," she said.
"Harmony?" Riley considered.
"You know her?" Wes asked him.
Angel caught her scent. "She's a vampire."
"Didn't she used to date Spike?" said Tara.
Angel frowned. "Spike?"
Riley stepped forward. "Last time she showed her face, she tried to kill Buffy. Kidnapped Dawn as I recall."
Harmony spotted the young girl at the back of the shop. "Oh...yeah...about that...sorry. Nothing personal."
For all Angel knew, she could be after Dawn again - maybe for Glory. "What do you want?"
"Spike's gone," she blubbered. "I thought he'd left me at first, but all his things are still in the crypt. Even his home waxing treatments, and he never goes anywhere without them. ...So I thought maybe the Slayer had gone and dusted him or something, so I asked around and I heard she'd disappeared, then I'm like 'Oh, my God!' - I couldn't believe it. You've gotta tell me the truth, I have to know..."
All 5 of them simply stared blankly at the over-bearing simpleton.
"...They ran away together, didn't they?"
Riley and Tara let out a guffaw while Angel and Wes felt a great weight of confusion descend upon them. Dawn didn't even react.
"Wait," Riley said, as past events replayed in his head. "Spike was /here/. When they disappeared; he was here."
"Spike's with Buffy?" asked Angel, somewhat flummoxed. That was great. Not only was Buffy in trouble, but she was in trouble with a maniacal vampire who'd like nothing better than to kill her.
Riley quickly tried to reassure him: "He's fairly harmless now, since he got a chip in his head. He can't directly harm anyone."
"Spike is with Buffy?" Harmony whined. "I knew it! That two-timing creep. When I get hold of him, I'm really gonna do it this time. I'm gonna stake him so bad-" Harmony's voice faded suddenly to a shrill cry as her whole body dried to dust before them.
The cloud settled to reveal Glory with a splintered board from the outside bench in her hand. She dropped the wood and rested her hands on her hips. "I believe She did order the stake."
If she had looked beautiful before, she now looked unquestionably luscious. In the hour that she'd been gone, she had found the time to change into something a little more suited to the night. Her blonde locks were now tied up off the neck sensually, and the red dress had been replaced with a vinyl one in a deep shade of burgundy.
"Okay," she started. "I'm going to ask you once - nicely - and you're gonna want to think very carefully before you give me an answer. ...Because I'm through playing." Folding her arms, she said forcefully: "Give me the Key."
The group came together.
Angel noted that Riley's hands were clenched in fists and Wesley had removed his spectacles. Tara, who was stood beside them at the table, gave him a nod. They were ready. Well, as ready as they could be. Angel turned his attention back to the mysterious Glory.
She held up her hands expectantly. "Well?"
"Go to Hell," he told her.
She smiled. "That's the plan."
No sooner had she started for them, when Tara pulled out 2 fistfuls of magical dirt and commanded: "Fiat incendium!" Her hands became engulfed by fire. "Pila!" she called as she threw her hands forward, releasing 2 searing balls of flame hurtling in Glory's direction.
Just as Tara had anticipated, the woman ducked the first fireball, which beat a hole through the front window and faded into the night. But the second had been angled downward. It caught Glory as she crouched from the first and knocked her back to the wall. Though, when she got up, her eyes as fiery as the flame that hit her, not even her clothes were charred.
All right, they were going to need this guardian spell.
The group was stood within a large, thin circle of ash, with Glory still on the other side.
"Ignis flamma!" Tara decreed, and the fine ring of black ash began to rise into the air. It crackled like fire and, just as it was about to form an impenetrable barrier ...It went 'poof'.
The ash was gone and the barrier was nowhere to be seen.
Salamander eyes! It was the damn Salamander eyes! If only she'd had the time to learn that teleportation spell.
"Oops," Glory said, mocking her. "Looks like the little firecracker blew a fuse." She let out an abrupt laugh and brought her hands together with a loud clap. "Now it's my turn to get nasty." If there was one thing that Glory loved, it was killing, maiming and reeking havoc. Though, technically that was 3 things, she loved them equally and all at once. It had been a long time since she really let loose, and now that these earth-realmers had stirred a thirst within her that she'd all but forgotten, she was ready for some all-out violence.
Glory took the first substantial object she could find - the small, square display table near the entrance - and lifted it into the air with one hand. The brown tablecloth slid away, taking scrolls, idols, charms and other paraphernalia tumbling to the carpet. With one gentle movement, Glory sent the table flying across the room towards the witch.
The instant Tara realised she was directly in its path, she tried urgently to scramble clear of its descent. But the display surface hit the edge of the main table and bounced, veering to the side. Tara had moved right into its new path.
It came down hard onto the back of Tara's leg, twisting it in a direction it wasn't built to take and the startled sorceress fell precariously forward, clipping her skull on a bookshelf as she went. She hit the floor hard, and the pain that shot up her leg fell on dull nerves as the girl slipped away into unconsciousness.
The main table still rocked from the impact, and the Dagon's sphere shook free from its place amongst the research. It careered down the centre of an open book, off the table, and onto a chair where it fell to the ground and continued to roll toward Glory until it hit the step in the middle of the shop floor.
Glorificus stepped down from the carpeted section of the Magic Box and strode towards the men. Then she faltered. Struck inexplicably by some bizarre, drunken swagger, she tried to get at them again and failed.
"Wha...? ...Wha's tha...? ...Where...?" she mumbled through slack lips. She felt cramped - forced in where she shouldn't be, like she needed to get out - away. Just being in this place sickened her brain. But it wasn't right. She shouldn't be feeling this way. She should be tearing arms from sockets, not loosing it. They'd done something to her!
"What.../is/...that?" Her hands clawed at the scalp through her hair. "Like itchy fingers twitchin' in my brain." She shot a look at Angel, Wes and Riley that implied they were to blame for her 'illness'.
They backed away from her a little without even realising.
She then made another attempt to reach them, and almost fell on her face. Then she saw it. Just behind her and to the left. The Dagon's sphere!
There was nothing the 3 men could do as she brought her leg down and crushed it under her foot.
"There ya go!" she said, feeling suddenly better, and getting back to business. Like a wily fox prowling through the chicken coop, she came at them.
Angel moved into position and formed the first line of defence, executing phase one of their back-up plan: Wound her.
The soul-bearing vampire created the necessary distraction by giving her something to concentrate her attack on.
She made a swing for his head. Angel feinted instinctively to the right to avoid the blow and came back to block a second punch. It served to give Wesley the perfect opportunity to pull out and fire Giles' crossbow. It was a promising shot. Until it hit its target.
The arrow ricocheted off Glory's side to Angel's surprise. That was the back-up plan shot to hell.
Glory didn't miss a beat, taking the vampire's forearm and ripping it back until the bone shattered and pierced his flesh. Angel cried out as she flung him into one of the racks by the staircase. The shelf unit tipped as Angel fell, and it came crashing down onto his chest. But she didn't stop there, flipping the main table over and on top of the shelf - further crushing him. She'd save him 'till last. Once she'd made him watch.
Wesley moved around her and threw the crossbow. But she batted it away easily.
Thinking it the perfect chance, Riley tried to hit the bitch from behind.
When Riley attacked, she turned, shot out a hand and jabbed him in the throat - taking the breath from him and launching him across the shop. He impacted into the window, cracking it, and dropped back to earth, blacking out.
Wesley, meanwhile, was picking up the Lexicon and flicking quickly through the pages. When he found what he thought he was looking for, he began to recite Latin with serious intent in his voice: "Magister mundi sum! Monstra mihi pecunium, potestatem obscuri lateris nescis-" He shrieked as the book was sent flying from his hands.
Glory locked both hands on Wesley's head...
"Angel!" he pleaded desperately.
Angel tried to lift the shelving away from him, but the tear in his right arm and the weight of the table on top caused it to buckle and the rack came back down onto his chest with a crack. Still, he tried again in vane with his good arm to get loose.
Wesley was struggling hopelessly with the small hands that were clamped around his face as his feet rose from the carpet. Then, to Angel's horror, she snapped his head around with a heart-wrenching crunch.
"NO!" Angel watched, helpless, as Wesley's limp frame dropped to the floor and crumpled.
Time froze for the vampire in that one surreal instant.
He was lost.
Glory brushed the table and the rack to one side as if they were made of paper and yanked Angel up by the collar.
Angel felt something rise within himself, and he gave in to it - letting the demon side of his nature take him - causing his face to become a vampiric nightmare. With all his anger and ferocity, he snapped his head forward and butted her hard in the face, knocking her back. He felt his muscles wind up like tight springs and he unleashed a torrent of heavy blows upon her. He then cracked her head with a viscous punch and floored her with a high-kick.
The sudden burst of emotional energy left him drained, his arm burning with pain.
But she drew herself upright. Not a bruise on her.
"What ... are you?"
"You really wanna know?" she asked.
He barely noticed her growing closer to him.
"I am the rightful ruler of the dark realm of pain. I bring chaos and destruction to everything before me and I do it with style like nobody else. The little girl you're so adamant to protect is the Key to getting me back ... and nothing will stand in my way."
'Ruler of a realm?' he thought, sudden realisation slapping him in the face. 'She ... she IS a God!'
It came to him a moment too late as she reached him, drew back her fist, and punched a hole in his chest.
Angel felt Glory's grip tighten around his heart. His attempts to free himself met with steel opposition.
Riley came-to, got to his feet and whipped his telescopic baton out.
"Riley..." Angel managed through clenched teeth. "Get Dawn ... out."
Glory squeezed harder and the vampire gasped. But he held onto her as tightly as he could.
Finn looked from Angel to Dawn, then made a move to get her and leave. But then he stopped and looked back at Angel. The vampire was as good as dead. If Riley and Dawn left now, Glory would likely rip out his heart and come after them. But Angel wasn't dead yet. And Riley owed him his life.
But who the hell cared about some vampire? Soul or no soul.
Buffy.
What would Buffy do? What would she want him to do?
"Riley ... GO!" Again, she squeezed his lifeless heart. Angel was in a world of pain he hadn't known since his time in the Hell dimension. Pain that burned hotter than the summer sun.
Glory, on the other hand, seemed quite content, if a little annoyed. "You're wasting your breath, vampire. There's nowhere they can run quick enough."
From nowhere, Riley came at her with his extended baton. She released Angel, caught Riley easily, hooked an arm around his throat and dug her fingers into his back - paralysing him on the spot.
Angel fell.
Riley gasped.
"I told you; no more playing, soldier-boy," she teased.
Unable to move - pain shooting through his back, into his limbs and filling every part of him - Riley's joints locked into a disturbing pose. His body began to fit. Blood flowed in rivulets from his back, down his leg and onto the hard, dark floor. His contorted face conveyed the unbearable agony he felt.
Then, almost without effort, she buried her hands into Finn...
...And tore out his spine.
"Gotta love a guy with back-bone!" she said cheerfully as she let gravity take what was left of Riley from her hands.
His body flopped to the floor and caved in on itself.
Dawn fought back a frantic scream, and fear clawed at her insides as a rising nausea turned her stomach over and into a tight knot. She felt herself burning up; suddenly sweating madly with panic-driven dread. And then she knew. She was next.
Dawn bolted for the side door desperately, but Glory was already there.
Taking Dawn by the wrist, clawing and crying, Glory dragged the girl away from the shop, away from her protectors, and away from the world. Taking all hope with her.
*
A tired old pick-up sped out of the four-level interchange onto the Pasadena freeway and out of Los Angeles. At the wheel, Gunn steered between the slower vehicles with Cordelia at his side; re-dialling her employer's number frantically, the harrowing vision still stinging the back of her overwrought eyes. Neither of them could bring themselves to discuss the possibility that what she had seen could be true.
*
The sound of Angel's cell-phone rang on in some distant place beyond his awareness.
How long it had been ringing was anyone's guess.
It simply wasn't important.
Angel was left sprawled on the floor clutching at the gaping hole in his chest, failure and pain conflicting with his ineffectual need to act. To avenge.
Not ten feet away lay his dead friend...
"Oh, God, Wesley..."
And the Slayer's dead boyfriend.
Though he could feel his physical wounds already beginning to heal, his body wanted only to give in, and all other thoughts but one emptied from his mind.
With an unsteady, emotional ache in his voice, he closed his eyes and broke down.
"Buffy..."
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