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Part 7
Willow worriedly watched her husband pace in agitation back and forth across their bedroom, his forehead knotted in troubled thought. Ever since the mission to invade the Tower had been launched, he had been very agitated. She was sure she knew why.
"Oz, please, sit." She urged, catching his hand as he made another pass. "This is NOT your fault."
Oz's lips tightened and he slipped his hand out of hers, reaching up to tug at his beard.
"Where could he have gone?" he wondered aloud, "And why?"
"You've been asking yourself those same questions for twenty years now." Willow put her arms around him and rested her head against his shoulder. "I don't think the answers are anymore clear now than they were then. Maybe Angel was right. Maybe history is doomed to repeat itself."
"No." Oz shook his head sadly, "This time it was different. HE was different. I can't believe he would abandon us again. I was sure he came back to set things right."
"I wish you wouldn't torment yourself over this." she wrung her hands together in worry. He had reacted in much the same way twenty years ago, the first time Gabriel had disappeared, "Please, stop worrying about it, at least for my sake."
Oz rubbed his eyes tiredly and stretched.
"You're probably right." He sighed, giving her an appreciative squeeze, "Maybe I'll go down to the briefing room and see what Angel is up to. Are you coming?"
"No," she shrugged half-heartedly, "I have a few things I'd like to take care of here. Maybe later."
"Okay." He kissed her on the forehead and left the room.
As the door closed behind him, she turned and went into the small alcove that was reserved for her spell casting. Gathering up a metal bowl and few bags of herbs, she crossed over the boundary of a protective sigil that had been painted on the floor. She sat down in the center of the painted circle, folding her legs under her, and laid the bowl and the herbs aside. Closing her eyes, she searched for the inner calm that was required for intricate spell casting and laid the translated tempus spell on the floor in front of her. Missing or not, she would keep her promise and send Gabriel home.
Angel slumped in the shadows of his usual chair, facing the multitude of security cameras, his hands folded neatly under his chin. The sturdy metal briefing room door opened and someone walked inside.
"Any chance you're watching HBO?" Oz mused as he stood behind the high-backed chair, his eyes skimming the monitors perfunctorily.
"They're getting close." The vampire indicated one of the monitors on the lower left hand side.
"Who?" Oz squinted at the black and white picture, "Is that . . .my daughter? Where are you getting this feed from?"
"Alex's helmet." He nodded curtly, "I had Marcus fit it with a remote camera when he repaired it, so I could keep an eye on the mission."
Oz grabbed a chair and dragged it over next to Angel.
"You're worried about her, aren't you?" he asked knowingly.
"I'm worried about ALL of them." Angel asserted, a little too quickly, "This is a delicate operation. We both know that their chances of getting out of this aren't good even if they succeed. And the price of failure . . ."
"I know." The old werewolf sank down resignedly into his seat, "Either way, it ends tonight. After fighting for so many years, it's almost relaxing if you think about it."
"There are worse things than war, Oz." Angel whispered grimly, "Remember, I know what it's like on the other side. So far, you haven't seen anything. "
"Is that what you're really worried about?" Oz surmised quietly, "Or is this about Alex?"
"I don't know what I'll do if she doesn't make it back, Oz." His hands tightened reflexively on the arms of his chair, "I wish I could have been closer to her, but it was too hard. She's so much like . . . her mother. "
"Her father, too." Oz reminded him, "He was a good man, once. I wish you'd remember that."
"Good men don't abandon their obligations, " Angel muttered bitterly, unconsciously looking to the monitor again, "no matter what they are."
"I don't know why you -" Oz caught something on one of the viewscreens and he froze, "Angel, I thought all the sub-train cars were out?"
"They are." Angel sat up in his chair, alarmed.
"Then why is the incoming light on." Oz pointed to the flashing light above the loading tunnel.
"Sound the alarm, Oz. Then get your wife and hustle it back here." Angel ran to the door, dread heavy in his voice as the first demons emerged from the transit tunnel, "We're being invaded."
Glancing at the small screen of her geometer, Alex raised her hand and called for a silent halt, checking her watch. Blue, Yellow and Green squadrons were already assaulting the outside of the Tower, by now. After a nerve-wracking trip through the transit tunnels, Red Squadron had arrived in the forbidden zone. Then they had proceeded on foot through a series of twisted underground passageways, a legacy of the burrowing demons who had been the first to come through the Hellmouth, until they reached a point directly under the Tower. "This looks like the place." She said, pointing to a dark, valve-like growth on the ceiling of the cavern. "Who's got the neuro-box?" Cavanaugh handed her a small black box with four short needles jutting out of the corners on one side.
Darlene cupped her hands together into a sling and Alex stepped into it, allowing herself to be lifted toward the ceiling. Reaching up, she pressed the needles of the box into the fleshy edge of the valve and activated it. There was a very faint whirring sound as the neuro-box generated a muscle relaxing charge and the valve hatch fell slack. Originally, the neuro-boxes had been developed for medical use, but it turned out that they worked equally as well on the organic constructs the demons favored, acting like a skeleton key.
"All right, everyone up, single file." Alex commanded, "Dar, I want you to take the bomb and go up there first, then start pulling everyone else up behind you."
"Sure." The tiny blonde smirked, accepting the capsule shaped explosive and tucking it under her arm, "I'll be the sacrificial meat. See ya in a minute." Effortlessly, she leaped up and grabbed the edge of the circular opening and, sliding the bomb through, pulled herself over the lip after it. Hanging her arm over the edge, she reached for the first soldier's hand and hauled him up. In a moment there was a steady flow of nervous soldiers filing through the open valve. Alex was the last, choosing to cover the rear until all her soldiers reached the upper level.
"Geez, it stinks up here!" Darlene complained, hoisting her friend up through the opening with one hand and holding her nose with the other.
"That means we're getting close." Alex noted, "We'd better hurry."
They quickly advanced down the oddly empty corridor in tight formation. They approached an archway with a wide, railed catwalk supported by evenly spaced pillars and overlooking a huge central chamber. With a silent signal, Cole and his squadron separated and scurried to the other side of the archway while Alex's team pressed cautiously against the wall on their side. Holding their rifles guardedly, a pair of scouts, one from each team rounded the corners in opposite direction, brandishing their weapons.
"It's clean." They reported softly, drawing the barrels of their guns back up.
Both squadrons slipped through the archway. Cole pressed his back to a lumpy pillar and peered around the edge of it, over the lip of the railing and down into the bowl below. The chamber was massive. He estimated that half the Resistance base could fit in it with room to spare. It was almost a perfect sphere shape with thick, horizontal, ring-shaped ribs running along the edges. Dozens of valves, similar to the one they had used to gain access to the Tower were scattered along the different levels, all interconnected by a web of bony catwalks. In the direct center of the chamber atop a high, stair-lined dais, there was something so horrible that it took his breath away.
A twenty-foot high pool of brick red light shimmered within the frame of a sturdy, upright semi-circle of polished stones. Unnatural shadows and dark, sinister shapes danced close to its watery surface, waiting anxiously to be released. A sound like the squealing of a hundred thousand pigs reverberated endlessly from the high domed walls and the sickening stench of sulfur and brimstone was overpowering. A bone-chilling feeling of absolute evil emanated from the structure, a testament to its pivotal role in the fall of humankind.
"The Hellmouth." Cole breathed in awe, "It really exists."
"Not for long." Darlene grinned recklessly, hefting the bomb and readying her rappelling rope with her other hand.
"So where are they?" Cole scowled, "This place should be crawling with demons."
"I don't know." Alex squinted, peering over the edge of the catwalk, "but I don't like it. I expected the place to be poorly defended, but not empty. It doesn't make sense."
"Who cares why?" Darlene shrugged, looping the supple rope around one of the thick, organic pillars and cinching it tightly before tossing the other end over the railing, "Let's get down there and blow that thing to pieces."
Nimbly hopping up onto the lip, she paused and flashed Cole a devilish smile before slinging the bomb over her shoulder and dropping over the edge. Alex hesitated uncertainly, apprehension in her eyes, then slipped quickly down the rope, reaching the floor only moments after the slim blonde.
"This place is HUGE!" Darlene marveled, clapping her hand over her mouth as her last word echoed around the bowl. "I bet we're the first humans to ever set foot in here."
Cole dropped to the floor beside her and drew a well used pistol.
"Save the sight-seeing trip, Dar." His dark eyes scanned the numerous alcoves carefully, "Let's just set the bomb and get out of here, okay?"
As the rest of their comrades touched down, Darlene, Alex and Cole made straight for the Hellmouth.
"Here," Darlene tossed the remote detonator to Cole, "I'll set it up and when we're clear, you can knock it down."
"You sure the range on this transmitter will give us enough clearance to escape?" Cole looked the remote over suspiciously.
"My brother made it." She answered simply, "That should be all you need to know."
Darlene stopped just in front of the Hellmouth, her delicate features bathed in its rusty, crimson light. The vile portal seemed to sense the nearby presence of humans and the living shadows trapped within flitted about excitedly.
"Ugh," Darlene made a distasteful face and knelt, wedging the head-sized bomb against the base of the dark stone structure. "Talk about freaksome."
"Hurry it up, Dar." Alex urged, "I want to get out of here as soon as we can."
"There." She straightened and stepped back, "All done."
"Good. We're halfway there." Cole turned, signaling to his squad. "Everybody out-oh, shit!"
Alex and Darlene started, then froze in fear as they saw the towering figure standing in one of the passageways over Cole's shoulder. Fides spread her arms wide and a flock of demons rose up around her.
"Stupid mortals." The armored creature sneered in her resonant, echoing double voice, "Even now, your home base is about to be overrun by my finest troops. I thought I might miss the festivities, but your leaders were kind enough to arrange for a house call. Welcome, children of the Human Resistance, you've just walked into your own grave."
The soldiers formed a rough circle, turning their backs to one another defensively, as cackling demons of myriad shapes and sizes began appearing in the open passageways of the upper levels. Alex cocked her shotgun and inhaled a deep breath.
"Guys," she whispered tightly, "I think we're in trouble."
Oz entered his family's quarters and slammed the door behind him, muffling the deafening blare of the alarm system behind it. His heart was pounding like a jackhammer in his chest. Invasion. The word sent a shiver of sick dread through him. How had the demons known? Where had they come up with enough fighters to stage an assault?
"Willow!" he shouted to the seemingly empty room, "Willow?"
He turned the corner into her spellcasting alcove and found her sitting crosslegged in the center of a protective circle inscribed in the floor. She was in a deep trance, murmuring low and steady under her breath. Damn it! Why now? He knew better than to disturb a spell in progress. Why hadn't she warned him?
Oz didn't want to leave her here alone, but Angel needed him back at the briefing room. He was faced with a difficult choice. Defending the base meant leaving his wife unprotected, but staying with her could spell the end for everyone. One thing he knew for certain, hesitation would help no one.
He left the room and closed the door behind him, making sure that the locks were all in place. Touching his fingers to the runes which had been scripted on the frame of the door in sequence, he activated an extra precaution, a seal of magic. The runes had been placed long ago, intended as a secondary line of defense in case the conventional locks failed, but had never been tested. Hopefully, their power would still be potent after all this time.
He ran back to the briefing room as fast as he could. He paused before entering, his breath harsh and labored. It had been too long since he had seen battle, he wasn't ready for it. The door opened and Angel pulled him inside. He was wearing his old Black Squadron uniform and he appeared to be ready for battle. Hefting an automatic rifle and cocking it, he slipped its strap over his shoulder and tossed another, far larger weapon to Oz.
The old werewolf caught it easily. It had one large barrel surrounded by a ring of smaller barrels aligned around its outside edge. He could see that the ring was controlled by a motor which would rotate it so that each barrel would in turn meet the firing mechanism.
"A chain gun?" he raised his eyebrows incredulously.
"Yeah, but be careful," Angel stuffed a pair of pistols into his friend's belt, "Marcus said the cooling system isn't quite perfected yet."
"So what's the plan?" Oz accepted a handful of ammunition clips and stuffed them into his pockets.
"There is no plan." Angel snorted, "The PLAN was to invade the Tower, not fight off invasion ourselves. I've mobilized as many Academy students as I could get and sent them down to the transit docks. We'll have to cut them off there. If they keep coming inside, it's over."
"After you." Oz hefted the huge chain gun and stepped aside to allow Angel to pass.
Darlene fired her rifle at an agile, gray skinned demon, grazing it and driving it into a group of its companions. She fired a few rounds on the other side of the group, herding them into an even tighter mass.
"Thank you." She quipped cheerfully as she slung the hand-sized grenade launcher out of its holster on her thigh and fired a shell directly into the center of the group.
The shell detonated violently and more than a dozen demons died screaming in an explosion of searing bluish chemical fire. The shell had more impact than she had anticipated and the force of it almost knocked her off her feet. She stumbled as the shockwave hit her and the grenade launcher flew from her grasp.
"Damn it!" She swore, diving to the floor as a winged demon soared down at her from one of the upper levels. Three bullets smashed into its side and the creature veered wildly and collided with the wall. Cole paused as he ran by to give her a quick nod before charging a pair of two-headed vulture-like beasts.
She slipped her feet under her and started to move after him, when another hail of bullets from behind distracted her. She whirled around and saw Fides closing on Alex, who fired another volley of shells from her shotgun into the creature's belly with no effect. Darlene was caught for a moment between going to Cole's aid and helping her squad leader.
She saw Cole fire two bullets into one of his opponents' heads at point blank range, spraying dark blood and skull fragments into the air. The demon didn't die though, the second head taking control of the body and lunging at him with a taloned hand. The Gold squad leader ducked instinctively, barely avoiding decapitation, and scrambled away from the second monster. Shooting Alex a regretful glance, Dar fired a shot from her rifle at one of the bird-men and charged after Cole. Alex could probably keep for a few minutes. Cole might not be so lucky.
Alex backed steadily away from the towering demoness, firing a steady repetition of bullets into its chest. Load, point, fire. Load, point, fire. Sparks flew and the bullets ricocheted harmlessly off its armored hide. Fides lashed out with a long, sinewy arm and clamped her hand around Alex's helmet. The dark-haired girl struggled as she was hoisted off her feet and brought dangling face to face with the serpentine beast.
"So you're Buffy Summers' kid, huh?" the demoness leered, waving the tip of a taloned finger under the soft underside of the girl's chin, "You know, she killed my old man. I never got the chance to pay her back for that. Which is not really good news for you, I'm afraid. I have a thing for vengeance."
Alex unclipped the strap on her helmet with one hand and fired her shotgun into Fides throat as she dropped to the floor. The demoness snarled in rage and whipped the empty helmet across the chamber.
"You're just a little girl." Fides chuckled, her shoulder tentacles waving slowly to the sides, blocking off any avenue of escape, "What in the world made you think you could take me?"
"Leave her alone." A young man's voice sounded clear as a bell above the clamor of demonic battle cries and gunfire.
Fides cocked her head and turned slowly to face the source of the voice.
"Gabriel." Alex smiled in relief, "You made it."
He was standing on the lip of one of the bony ridges on the floor next to a disheveled, somber looking old man. A strange feeling washed over her when she saw the two of them standing side by side and she made a heart stopping realization.
"I told you I'd be here." The auburn-haired young man smiled down at her. He raised his pistol and held it steadily with two hands, aimed at Fides.
"Leave her alone." He commanded with a steely voice.
Fides straightened proudly and sneered. "I don't know how you got here and I certainly wasn't expecting to see two of you, but I don't care. Guess it's just my good fortune." She spread her taloned hands and grinned, exposing jet black fangs, "Twice the fun."
Gabriel pulled the trigger and a bullet exploded in a flash of light, directly between Fides' eyes. The giant demoness howled and clutched her face, stumbling and falling to one knee, unharmed, but temporarily blinded.
Gabriel and the old man nodded quickly to one another and jumped down from the low ledge, splitting up and running in opposite directions. The old man ran down to Alex and helped her to her feet, dragging her out of the range of Fides blindly swinging limbs.
"Who are you?" she shouted as he pulled her down behind the cover of one of the ridges, narrowly avoiding the fiery breath of a lizard-like demon.
"Call me Wanderer." the old man crawled up next to her and pressed his back against the ridge looking at her with a mix of wonder and pride in his eyes, "I'm . . .a friend. "
"Well, friend, you better take this." Alex slipped a PL-122 pistol into his hand, "You're going to need it."
"We have to get to the transit docks!" Angel shouted over the deafening whine of the emergency alarm, "It's the only way we can cut them off!"
A group of half armored and disoriented soldiers rushed to a junction in the corridor and began firing around the corner.
God, they're already in this far? Angel's dread deepened. Raising his rifle up to his shoulder, he leaned around the corner and fired a spray of bullets into the advancing horde of demons, sending half a dozen to their deaths.
More demons entered the hallway, coming from the direction of the transit docks.
"We'll never make it through! They've gotten in too far!" Oz shook his head helplessly, squinting as he fired a burst from the heavy chain gun, "We need to retreat to some place secure."
"You go." Angel backed away and cut down another wave of attackers with a rapid tattoo of gunfire. One of their number got too close and he was forced to smash the butt of his weapon against the creature's jaw, "Go to Willow, your room's the most secure place in the base!"
Oz drew one of his pistols and finished the fallen demon with a well-aimed blast, keeping pace with Angel's fighting retreat.
"And what about you?" he shouted, bringing his chain gun around to bear again, "Where will you be?"
Angel kept his attention focused on the far end of the hall, "I have somewhere else to be."
They came to a fork in the corridor and Angel started down one of the branches.
"Hold the junction for as long as you can." He shouted, "Then go to your wife."
He paused for a moment, turning to look at his old friend with deadly seriousness.
"It's been an honor serving with you, Oz. With all of you." He said in a low, emotionally strained voice, "You've been the best friends I could have ever hoped for."
"You, too." Oz saluted the vampire sadly, knowing that this was probably the last time they would ever see each other. He had only a moment to contemplate, however, before the beginning of the next wave of demons entered the corridor.