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

Chapter 24 - concluded
"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.

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In the sky over the Sunnydale Power Plant, the twisting mass of clouds swirled together into the form of Nyarlethotep. With a hideous scream, it swept down out of the sky and released a blast of flaming plasma at the building housing the main generators. There was momentary silence as a flash of red light surged all around followed by a massive explosion. In a second, the building was engulfed in flames. Severed power lines few in every direction. Transformers shattered and burst in showers of sparks. The high voltage towers toppled and collapsed like twisted Erector sets.

From the hillside overlooking Sunnydale, the lights suddenly blinked out. Only the lurid crimson illumination now cascading down from the sky bathed the city as if it were awash in a river of blood.

In MacDuffie's shop, the lights suddenly snapped off. Cordelia, Angel, Kate, Buffy, and Giles looked at each other in fear. Anya struggled with her console for the bank of floodlights. She twirled dials and threw toggle switches all to no effect.

"They don't work!" she shouted not looking up from her control panel, "We've lost them! Giles! The power's out! We've lost the floods!"

Buffy stared at Giles, her face desperately begging for an answer. Giles ran to the front window and, with Angel and Kate beside him, stared out onto the darkened street.

"The block's out," he said flatly.

"It must have hit the power plant . . ." Angel answered, his voice laced with tension.

". . . and without Xander's lights . . . we're defenseless . . ." Buffy murmured to herself.

Alone by the entrance to the storage room housing the Shining Trapezohedron, MacDuffie stared blankly at Faith lying on the cot.

In Giles' apartment, Spike lay flopped on the couch in front of the television. He sipped a glass of blood as he prepared to watch the day's soap opera tapes on the VCR. The voice of a soap actress from the television's puny 3 inch speaker squeaked in the apartment.

"Edmund! You're sleeping with your dead brother's wife! But he's still alive!"

"Ooo, I think I'm gonna like this!" Spike grinned as he settled in.

Suddenly the lights snapped off and the image on the TV screen went out with a little pop.

"Hey! Wot the bloody hell!"

In her office, Maggie Walsh, the keyboard firmly gripped in her hands, hovered against the wall by the door. The lights flickered out and a battery powered emergency lighting box near the ceiling snapped on.

"Soldier! What's going on?" she yelled to the Guard in the hallway.

The lock on the door clicked open as the Guard entered.

"The power's out Ma'am and we're going over to . . ."

Before the guard could take two steps into the room, Maggie Walsh swung the keyboard in his face as if it were a club. Caught totally unawares, the stunned Initiative soldier toppled backwards into the hallway. Walsh leaped across his body, grabbing the loose rifle and, crouched down, quickly scanning up and down the hallway. Around the corner stepped the three Initiative Soldiers sent to take her to the containment cells. Without hesitation or warning, Professor Walsh opened fire. One soldier dropped motionless to the floor and the others retreated for cover back the way they came. Walsh raced down the hallway in the opposite direction and disappeared around a corner.

Clutching the Guard's rifle, she burst into the Command Center. Professor Walsh quickly strode in front of the Control consoles and fired a round into a monitor which exploded in a shower of sparks. She then pointed her rifle at Hunter. Other soldiers raised their weapons and took aim at their former commander.

"Nobody moves" she yelled, "Or your little Youth Group leader here is dead!"

All the soldiers froze, and Hunter stood firmly behind the row of consoles. Suddenly, on the far wall across the main floor, a glowing red vapor poured out of the ventilator grates and seeped through the seams of the wall boards and flooring. It swirled upwards into an enormous crimson shape with outstretched wings and snake-like neck. On the end of the neck floated the three lobed eye of Nyarlethotep. The eye swayed back and forth as if studying the small form of Maggie Walsh in front of it. The Professor, her eyes blazing with excitement, turned to face the Haunter of the Dark.

"Well, . . . I see you took my bait. How convenient," she said sarcastically, her voice betraying traces of a hollow echo that the Initiative soldiers didn't recognize.

Hunter didn't move but whispered into his headset.

"Uh, Riley? Do you read me? This is Hunter," he said quietly with a desperate casualness.

"Hunter! What's going on?" Riley shouted into his headset from the now pitch black streets of downtown Sunnydale.

"It's here . . . the bogey . . . with us . . . in the Command Center," Hunter replied, "It's staring right at me . . . and it doesn't look happy."

"WHAT!"

"Maggie let it in . . . " Hunter continued sarcastically, "She's trying to talk to it now . . ."

The soldiers, their rifles now trained on the Haunter, slowly backed away. Maggie Walsh didn't move but rather glared at the three lobed eye. Nyarlethotep swayed back and forth like a cobra hypnotizing its prey.

"Well, now that you're here, would you like to make this easy and accompany me to a detention cell? . . . No? . . . I didn't think so." As Professor Walsh spoke, Hunter made a subconscious note that it looked like the former Initiative Commander's eyes were now glowing red. He had only one option left.

"Riley . . ." he whispered over the headset, "I need the Fabius Code . . ."

"Fabius!? But Hunter . . ." Riley's mind reeled at the thought.

"Uh, Commander . . ." Hunter interrupted him, speaking with an exaggerated normality to his voice, "I think now would be very cool. All security has been breached and everything is wide open. And in about five seconds Maggie's gonna insult it, and we'll all be toast anyway."

For a moment, Riley stood in silence. Nearby, the other soldiers from the squad halted, aware that they were suddenly rendered leaderless. When Riley finally spoke, his voice was flat and empty as if it were echoing back from beyond his own grave.

". . . "Cunctator" . . ." he said slowly.

"Is that with a 'C?'" Hunter whispered politely in his headset.

". . . yeah . . ." Riley answered.

". . . thank you . . ." Hunter replied.

Without stooping to reveal his motions, Hunter's fingers flew secretively across the keyboard in front of him. He quickly tapped the return key. A computerized voice blared from the Initiative PA system.

"Attention all personnel! Attention all personnel! Fabius has been activated. Repeat, Fabius has been activated. All personnel must evacuate the site within 120 seconds."

The voice droned on, over and over, mingling with the blare of the klaxons. Walsh spun in a fury to face Hunter.

"You little stinking bastard!" she screamed.

She fired her rifle as Hunter leaped for cover behind the command console. His monitor exploded raining sparks and debris across the console. The other soldiers and technicians scattered for the exits. Pinned down behind the console, Hunter yelled into his headset as Walsh sprayed the Command Center with rifle fire.

"All Personnel! Abandon your posts! Repeat, abandon your posts!"

Something stung in his leg just above the knee.

Graham and Forrest ran out of a side alley where their troops have been posted and joined Riley.

"Riley! What the fuck is going on at Command!?" Forrest exclaimed.

"Hunter! Report! Hunter, do you read me?!" Riley yelled into his headset, ignoring Forrest.

On the main floor of the Command Center, Maggie Walsh's rifle clip was finally empty. She threw the weapon aside and seized an abandoned alpha particle pack and its rifle. The Ancient One hovered closer as it continued to study her. She spun around to confront it.

"All right, you big red scaly bastard!" she yelled in an hysterical fury, "Since all the other chicken shits are gone, it's just you and me!"

At the same time, Hunter crawled across the floor towards the end of the shattered Command console.

"Well, you really gotta hand it to the old bitch!" he yelled ironically into his headset, "She's talking to it again!"

"Attention all personnel! Attention all personnel!" the PA system blared over the chaos, "Fabius has been activated. Repeat, Fabius has been activated. All personnel must evacuate the site within 60 seconds."

Walsh raised the alpha rifle and fired at Nyarlethotep. The Ancient One swayed from the impact of the arc of alpha particles. It swung one of its wings at Professor Walsh and knocked her off her feet. The rifle flew from her arms sending the energy arc spraying across the walls and power panels of the Initiative. Circuits exploded as sparks and fire spread from whatever the alpha particle arc touched.

Lying prostrate on the floor, Maggie Walsh looked up and back over her shoulder. The Ancient One hovered directly behind her. Rather than reducing her to ashes in a plasma burst, it only stared down at her as flames began to lick up the walls of the Command Center. Suddenly her body turned crimson and the flesh began to transform into a vaporous mist. She screamed and thrashed, unable to stop the metamorphosis. In a second, the transformation was complete and the cloud of vapor that was once Professor Walsh was sucked up into the vortex of the three lobed burning eye of Nyarlethotep.

Hunter, crouched on the floor at the edge of the blasted console, stared in amazement.

"Holy Shit! Riley!" he yelled, "Our bogey, it didn't fry Maggie! It like, absorbed her!

"Attention all personnel! Attention all personnel! Fabius has been activated. Repeat, Fabius has been activated. All personnel must evacuate the site within 30 seconds. . . . 29 . . . 28 . . . 27 . . . !"

Hunter struggled to his feet. As he did, he grinned and spoke into his headset with a desperate finality.

"Okay, folks! This is Hunter signing off here! It's been fun!"

Hunter stumbled wildly towards an exit at the back of the Command Center.

On the blackened streets of downtown Sunnydale, Riley, with Forrest and Graham at his side, only stared straight ahead in horror. Over all their headsets came the faint sound of the computer generated count down.

". . . 20 . . . 19 . . . 18 . . . 17 . . ."

Back at the Initiative, Hunter staggered down the central hallway of the detention wing between the holding cells on either side. The hallway was empty and dark except for the faint glow from an emergency battery powered light on the wall.

". . . 16 . . . 15 . . . 14 . . . 13 . . ."

Halfway down the hall, Hunter suddenly fell forward on his face as if one of his legs had suddenly given out. He winced in pain and struggled to sit back up. He wrapped his hands around a point above his left knee as blood gushed out of a bullet wound.

"Aw man! How the fuck did that get there?!"

With a supreme effort, Hunter struggled to his feet and lurched forward.

The three squad leaders listened in mounting horror to the emotionless computer generated voice from the Initiative Headquarters.

". . . 6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . ."

Suddenly, a faint crackling sound emitted from the headsets followed by a sharp snap. Then silence.

Overhead, a bright red flash seared the sky. Riley screamed into his headset.

"HUNTER! . . . HUNTER!"

From the mile distant vantage point on the hillside overlooking Sunnydale, by the edge of the college campus, a bright red ball of flames suddenly leaped skyward in a billowing mushroom cloud. Throughout the explosion, the monstrous form of Nyarlethotep, its wings outspread in rejoicing, spewed into the sky and circled wildly around the devastation. Quickly, a second shape appeared, amorphous, unformed but racing madly back and forth across the city as if it were the wind itself. In the distance by the docks, the sea suddenly surged out of its appointed bounds and roared blocks inland, lifting the moored tankers and freighters up, smashing them into any buildings blocking their path land ward. Then the air and ground began to shake on the hillside itself as the shock waves from the explosion at the Initiative Headquarters caught up with the faster rays of light.

In the hallway of Tara's dorm on the campus, several students cowered against the walls as the flames on the Quadrangle slowly died down. Suddenly there was a bright flash of red light, and a shattering of glass as windows blew in. The building shook violently and anyone standing was thrown to the pitching floor.

Blocks away, Xander's truck careened crazily down the center line of the street. What few other vehicles were on the road dodged his headlong flight and blew their horns. A brilliant red flash illuminated the sky. Seconds later, the street began to heave and pitch with the tremors from the Initiative Headquarters explosion. Xander struggled to retain control of the truck. At his side, Willow grabbed Tara and screamed as the front of a building slid off from the trembler and collapsed in the street directly in their path. Xander yanked the steering wheel hard and crashed headlong into a tilted street lamp. There was a loud crunch followed by the hissing of steam from the truck's punctured radiator. The whole front end of the truck buckled in and no one stirred in the cab.

In the New Age Curiosity Shop, Giles lit an old glass globe kerosene lantern. A bright red flash momentarily illuminated the street outside and spilled into the shop, overpowering the dim illumination from the lantern. Anya looked up from her lifeless control panel while Angel, Kate and Giles stared at each other. In a moment, the building began to shake as the ground trembled. Outside, the wind suddenly rose, whipping up and down the deserted street. Buffy, her face washed in fear, stepped up beside Giles and stared at him.

"We're next . . . aren't we?" she asked quietly.

Giles didn't answer. In the corner of the room, MacDuffie suddenly looked away from Faith and stared anxiously out the front window.

". . . Willow! . . ." he said outloud.

He quickly threw off his trench coat, reached over to his desk and pulled out the ancient short sword he used the night before. Purposefully, he strode across the shop and out the front door.

"Hey! Where's he going?" Cordelia called to the others.

"Anson! Anson!" Giles shouted after the Guardian.

MacDuffie didn't answer. Rather he stared straight ahead as if he were marching towards a scaffold of his own making. He quickly broke into a run and disappeared up the street into the crimson darkness.

The ground shuddered under Riley, Graham and Forrest. All three dropped to their knees to maintain their balance. The wind billowed up around them, sending debris and trash from overturned garbage cans flying up the street. In a moment more, the rumbling of the ground faded away. For a few seconds, Riley was silent. Then he spoke into his headset. His voice quivered.

"Base, . . . this is Alpha Squad Leader. Hell of a first command there Hunter. . . . Good job, Soldier . . . "

Riley bowed his head. No one moved. Suddenly, as if re-energized, Riley rose to his feet. He leaned with determination born of another's sacrifice into the howling wind. Forrest and Graham, now on their feet too, looked at Riley and awaited his orders.

"Riley . . . what the hell happened?" Forrest shouted not to be drowned out by the growing din all around them.

"The Command Center is gone," Riley answered staring out into the darkness," We're on our own. Fan the squads out one block distance on all sides of that shop. Conserve as much energy as you can from your alpha packs. We only have four or five shots per pack, then we're outta business. When we know which direction the bogey is coming from, we'll concentrate our forces there. Everyone move out!"

Graham and Forrest quickly turned and ran back up the alley towards their own squads. Riley stood alone. He gritted his teeth and slowly whispered into his headset.

"Alpha Squad Leader to Base . . . over and out."

There was no response. Only the faint hiss of static drifted from the headset and was quickly lost in the roar of the rising winds.

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