The Wind Beyond the Walls of the Mind: Chapter 24, part 1 - Fabius Cunctator
by Gaius Petronius
The Wind Beyond the Walls of the Mind

Chapter 24 - part 1
"Fabius Cunctator"

by Gaius Petronius

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all the characters that appear on the show are the exclusive property of Joss Whedon, the WB, Fox and Mutant Enemy, Inc. This story can be read on its own or as a sequel to H. P. Lovecraft's "The Haunter of the Dark" from which the Ancient Ones, the Shining Trapezohedron and the character of Robert Blake are derived.

Content Note: This part is rated PG-13 for violence and raunchy language.

A Note on the Text:
In 217 B.C., the armies of Carthage under the command of Hannibal swept across Italy wiping out the legions of the Roman Republic sent to challenge them. The last line of defense standing between Hannibal and the fall of the Republic was the newly elected Dictator of Rome, Quintus Fabius Maximus. Realizing that Rome was no match for Hannibal's brilliant generalship, Fabius opted for one of the earliest recorded instances of guerrilla warfare.

He shadowed Hannibal's army, cut their supply lines, burned crops, launched small assaults against straggling corps of the Carthaginian army, kept Hannibal always guessing as to where the next strike was coming but primarily bought the Republic valuable time to rebuild their shattered army.

For this, the impatient and headstrong Romans gave him the dubious Latin appellation of "Cunctator" meaning "the Delayer."

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Willow, Tara and Xander dashed down the stairs outside the library main entrance. Side by side, they reached the walkway that led out into the Quadrangle. The open grass area on a Friday evening was usually full of students wandering between dormitories or lounging on the few benches lining the paths. Tonight it was virtually deserted with the few students visible rushing for shelter into the nearest buildings. Scattered faces peered out from the neighboring dormitories at nature's rising fury. The trees on the Quadrangle swayed back and forth with the surging wind. The lampposts illuminating the pathways shivered in their foundations.

The three friends halted on the edge of the Quadrangle. The spread of grass and swinging trees, so inviting during the peace of daytime classes, now appeared like a potential deathtrap for any who dared to cross exposed in its open space.

"Okay, the truck's over in lot A! We're gonna make a run for it!" Xander shouted.

Suddenly the lamp lights on the Quadrangle blinked out and from behind them came the sound of shattering glass as several of the library windows caved in before the rush of the winds.

"NOW!" Xander yelled.

All three plunged forward in a mad dash across the Quadrangle towards the parking lot. They had covered no more than one third of the distance when a giant cloud of red vapor poured out of the sky directly in their path. About the center of the swirling cloud floated the three lobed burning eye of Nyarlethotep. Like a massive jellyfish, its outstretched stinging tentacles floating towards its prey, the shape of the Haunter glided towards Xander, Willow and Tara who stopped dead in their tracks.

"Okay, guys, get ready to scatter!" Xander shouted as they backed away.

"What?!" Willow cried out in confusion.

"It can't nail all three of us at once if we're not together in a group!"

In an instant, the three lobed eye released a ball of blazing plasma. Willow, Tara and Xander scrambled in different directions, each taking shelter behind a massive tree. The ball of plasma burst into flames on the walkway where they had been standing only moments before.

Suddenly, from out of the darkness on all sides of the Quadrangle, four huge arcs of what appeared to be electricity, leaped out at the Ancient One. There was a loud crackling noise and the Quadrangle was faintly illuminated by a bluish light as if it glowed under the unearthly electrical pulses from a giant Van De Graff generator. The Ancient One lurched and bellowed under the impact of the blasts. As each arc ran out of power and stopped, another picked up the attack from a different location.

In the dim light, camouflaged men laden with back packs and toting large rifles dashed between buildings, moved from tree to tree and stopped to fire the electron bursts as they advanced on the Ancient One. Joel and his Delta Squad from the Initiative moved in fast to intercept the halted entity. Joel, in the advance position, fired another alpha particle blast at the Haunter at the same time as he spoke calmly into his wireless communicator.

"Squad Leader, this is Delta Squad. We have engaged our bogey in block E978. We've got three civilians pinned and are laying down fire to distract its attention."

Riley and his squad of eight men jumped out of a humvee on a downtown street several blocks distant from MacDuffie's shop. The men scattered, taking up positions along the buildings lining the street. The entire downtown appeared deserted. No cars raced up and down as usual on a Friday night and only an occasional face peered from the windows of the surrounding buildings, the ominous atmospheric turbulence having driven all to take shelter. Riley replied to Joel's message.

"Delta Squad, this is Squad Leader. You hear me, Joel?!"

In the Quadrangle, Joel advanced further and took cover behind the tree with Xander.

"Gotcha loud and clear, sir," he barked over his headset.

"Hunter! Are you tracking this?!" Riley shouted.

In the Command Center of the Initiative, Hunter and a half dozen technicians were riveted to their monitors.

"Bullseye on the main screen, sir!" Hunter yelled.

"Keep us posted on any changes in it's position!" Riley ordered Hunter, then turned his attention to Joel, "Joel, what effect are the alpha bursts having?!"

At the same time, an arc of alpha particles leaped from the rifle of one of the Initiative soldiers on the edge of the Quadrangle. The Ancient One lurched and spun in the direction of the blast.

"It sure as shit doesn't like 'em!" Joel yelled into his headset.

"Is that Riley!?" Xander yelled as he grabbed Joel by the collar and screamed into his headset.

"Riley! This is Xander! I got Willow and Tara with me. We have stuff to help put this thing down but we gotta get back to Buffy at the shop! We're gonna make a run for it!"

"Xander?" Riley exclaimed stunned.

Suddenly he understood the situation in the Quadrangle.

"Joel! Lay down covering fire!" Riley shouted urgently into his headset, "Those civilians have to get outta there!"

Hunter's voice from the increasingly chaotic Command Center broke in over the squad headsets.

"Hey, guys!" he shouted, "The infrared readings are surging big time in E978! You better all clear out NOW!"

Joel quickly grabbed Xander and almost pushed him in the direction of the parking lot.

"Get your friends and run like shit! We'll cover ya!"

"Thanks! Good luck!" Xander shouted back over his shoulder.

Xander dashed across the walkway towards the tree sheltering Willow. At the same time, Nyarlethotep released a ball of flaming plasma at one of the Squad soldiers firing from the edge of the Quadrangle. There was a flash of red flames as the soldier disappeared in the burst of crimson fire. Xander gasped but kept his attention focused on Willow and Tara.

He dragged Willow roughly out from behind the tree and together they ran over to Tara who crouched behind one of the oldest oaks on campus. From the single massive tree that sheltered them, all three each took a deep breath and then broke into a run across the Quadrangle towards the parking lot.

"Delta Squad! Shift positions! Fire at will!" Joel screamed into his headset.

A burst of alpha particle blasts lit up the darkness on the Quadrangle from all directions as the Initiative soldiers dashed back and forth. The Haunter of the Dark responded with plasma blasts, touching off fires that leaped like monstrous claws towards the red sky.

Xander, Willow and Tara reached the parking lot and scrambled into the truck. In a moment, the engine sprang to life and the truck lurched forward as Xander popped the clutch. The truck stalled. Cursing, Xander restarted the engine and, this time, successfully forced the vehicle into first gear. He burned rubber as the truck peeled out of the parking lot and disappeared down the street.

Behind them, in the Quadrangle, the alpha particle blasts became fewer and fewer as the plasma bursts from the Ancient One increased in number. Finally, the arcing electric pulses ceased all together, leaving only red smoke and flames billowing up from the once green lawns of the Quadrangle.

On the deserted street in downtown Sunnydale, Riley shouted into his headset.

"Delta Squad Leader! Do you read me?! Come in Delta Squad Leader! Joel! What the hell's happening!? Hunter, are you picking up Delta Squad?!"

"Negative, Alpha Leader!" Hunter replied from the Command Center, "But that infrared burst is covering virtually all of block E978! I'm recalibrating the scans now! The sensors are overloading!"

In the Quadrangle, all around the towering image of Nyarlethotep, the flames licked up the trees and clawed at the sky overhead as if they were worshiping the Ancient One. For a moment, the Haunter of the Dark surveyed the devastation all around. Slowly, it raised its neck and the three lobed burning eye stared out beyond the campus buildings.

At the same time in her guarded office, Maggie Walsh was glued to her computer screen. She muttered as she typed furiously.

"Just one more string of code and . . . Voila!"

She tapped the enter key and grinned evilly. Suddenly emergency klaxon horns blared throughout the Initiative Headquarters. In the Command Center, technicians scurried about the monitors and tapped frantically at their keyboards as all their readings went haywire. Hunter, his mouth open in astonishment, stared at the screen in front of him.

"What the Hell!?" he yelled at the chaos now threatening to overwhelm the Command Center.

"Sir! We just lost all control to the security systems!" a technician shouted in a panic from down the table of sensors, "Defense force fields are going down all around the perimeter!"

"SHIT!" Hunter cursed as he tapped frantically at his keyboard in a desperate effort to regain control of the emergency systems.

"Hunter! What the hell is going on there?!" Riley's voice sounded tinny through Hunter's headset.

"We've got a security breach!" he exclaimed while still struggling with strings of programming code, "Someone hacked into the system and shut down all the perimeter force fields!"

". . . Maggie . . ." Riley muttered to himself on the darkened street downtown. "It's Professor Walsh!" he shouted into his headset, "She knows the system inside and out!"

"Take control of the Professor's quarters!" Hunter snarled at three soldiers in front of the command consoles, "Throw her in a detention cell! NOW!" The soldiers scrambled as one down the main floor corridor.

In her office, Maggie Walsh leaned back in her chair in front of the monitor on her desk. Calmly, she folded her hands in her lap and grinned as if waiting for the final move on the chessboard.

"I've always marveled at the power wielded by a simple keystroke . . ." she announced out loud as if she were preparing to put Riley in checkmate.

She gazed at the walls of the room and realized that she was relishing the blazing crimson night that was descending on Sunnydale.

". . . now . . . come to Mama!" she said.

In the campus Quadrangle, Nyarlethotep floated over the devastation for a moment more. Then, its entire body dissolved into a crimson mist and surged upwards dispersing into the red sky. The rising wail of sirens from approaching fire and emergency vehicles echoed from just beyond the campus.

Across town, chain link fencing surrounded the Sunnydale power station. Enormous transformers and the main generating building covered almost two city blocks while dozens of massive cables which fed the raw power to the city were attached to huge steel high tension towers leading off in several directions. Clouds of steam poured from a pair of wide mouth concrete stacks by the side of the generation building.

Suddenly, directly overhead, the red sky swirled with a mounting turbulence. The underbelly of the clouds began to turn, doing barrel rolls in the direction of the power plant.

In her office, Walsh quickly unplugged her keyboard and hefted it by the end with two hands as if it were an awkward weapon. She ran across the room and flattened herself against the wall by the doorway.

In the Command Center, Hunter and a technician worked feverishly at their keyboards.

"I can't bring the defense perimeters back on line!" the young assistant shouted, "The Main console's been locked out! HOLY SHIT!"

"Whatcha got?!" Hunter called back without looking up from his own keyboard.

"Readings have dropped in E978! But we have a major surge in B237!"

"Oh my God! Generators!" Hunter screamed desperately, realizing what was about to happen, "I want the back up generators on-line NOW!"

"Hunter! Talk to me!!" Riley's voice crackled over Hunter's headset.

"It's targeting the power plant, Sir! We're gonna lose the juice!

Riley stood speechless on the deserted street under the bright street lamps. He breathed deeply as his mind raced desperately to devise a strategy.

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