The Wind Beyond the Walls of the Mind: Chapter 26 - Through the glass darkly
by Gaius Petronius
The Wind Beyond the Walls of the Mind

Chapter 26
"Through the glass darkly"

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 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 some raunchy language.

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On the street in front of the New Age Curiosity Shop, the winds rose steadily. Beyond the open square and hidden by the surrounding buildings, white lightning like flashes and answering bursts of red plasma lit up the sky. Next door at the camera store, Kate and Cordelia piled up a mound of over twenty cameras. Angel kept passing more out through the smashed display window.

"There's a whole storeroom of 'em back here! How many you want, Cordelia?" he called out from inside the store, his voice laced with sarcasm.

"As many as they got!" she shouted back, ignoring his tone, ". . . as long as they have a working flash!"

Finally understanding, Kate stared with admiration at Cordelia as she stacked the cameras on the sidewalk.

"You are one crafty bitch!" the LAPD detective nodded.

"Hey, not just anyone can work with Angel," Cordelia grinned back, "Ya gotta be good, honey!"

Kate cast Cordelia a momentary glare and Cordelia smiled smugly as if she were reveling in every second of Kate's discomfort. Suddenly, Angel, with two cameras slung over his shoulders and three in his arms, leaped out of the broken display window.

"All right, Cordelia, what's the plan?" he asked as he tumbled the last cameras into the pile, "We got forty-five, maybe fifty flashes here and like three of us?"

All at once, from up the street, camouflaged Initiative soldiers began streaming out of the intersections towards the shop. They ran in full retreat, hugging the walls of the buildings and factories lining the avenue. From among the crowd of roughly two dozen soldiers, five bearing alpha particle rifles broke off and took up concealed ambush positions among the buildings on both sides of the street. Waving frantically, Riley signaled to this group and then joined them. He hovered, concealed just inside a brick building's front entrance. Graham and Forrest lead the rest of the unarmed soldiers in a sprint up to the sidewalk in front of the camera store.

At the same time, Buffy, Giles, Willow and Tara burst out the front door of MacDuffie's shop and stopped in the middle of the pavement. Faith followed seconds later but held back, flattening herself against the wall of the shop.

Buffy, carrying the Shining Trapezohedron, nervously surveyed the growing chaos all around her. Fires burned out of control beyond the corner from where the Initiative soldiers had fled but the Haunter of the Dark was nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell is going on out here?" the Slayer asked Giles, but her question was just as much a statement of reality. Giles sensed the tension building in her voice and placed his hand reassuringly on her shoulder.

Forrest, Graham and their troops reached Angel, Cordelia and Kate in front of the camera store.

"Any weapons here?!" Forrest yelled in desperation to the vampire.

"What happened to yours?!"

"We had to ditch 'em," the Initiative Squad leader shouted over the rising din, "Drained! Only had four, maybe five shots each at best!"

"Over here!!" Cordelia called out, indicating the pile of cameras, "Everybody grab two or three of these!!"

"What???" Graham exclaimed.

"Do as she says!!" Angel yelled in order to be heard over the intensifying wind, "It can't stand light! We'll fire the flashes in a volley! It'll buy us more time!"

Graham looked skeptically at Forrest.

"You heard the orders! Assist the civs!" Forrest said as his face betrayed the faintest trace of a grin.

"Yeah, but her?!" Graham snapped back, waving his hand at the tall, brunette ex-cheerleader.

"Ya took orders from Maggie!"

"Shit yeah! And look where the hell that got us!"

"You got a better suggestion?!" Forrest yelled.

Without answering, Graham grabbed up three cameras. The other soldiers, in a rush, immediately followed suit.

"Make sure the flashes are all charging!" Cordelia shouted as she passed out the cameras to the eager hands around her.

Kate and Angel joined the soldiers in scooping up the cameras from the pile on the sidewalk. At the same time, Angel glanced nervously around searching for any trace of the Haunter of the Dark.

"Where the hell is it?!" he yelled at Forrest.

Forrest stared up the street to where Riley and his men were concealed.

"Damned if I know! It was right on our ass last I saw!"

Buffy looked desperately at Willow and Tara. At the same time, Tara's eyes met Willow's and both turned to Giles.

"We're going to start the spell to open the void!" she said with conviction.

Tara nodded in agreement.

"You ready?" Willow asked her partner.

Again, Tara only nodded, but this time she smiled, her expression carrying unspoken feelings. Immediately, the two joined hands, closed their eyes and turned their faces skyward. Their voices suddenly rang out through the swirling chaos on the street.

"Hra, Krahtar, di meygo ylime grestis Erah Shagghai . . ." the two Wiccan's voices cried out in unison.

At the same time, Cordelia, now having virtually taken over control of the Initiative soldiers, broke the squads up into two groups.

"Okay! You guys take your position over there!" she shouted, directing the milling squad to a spot on the edge of the camera store, "Group two, you set up there by the dumpster." The second squad uncertainly eyed the position indicated on the edge of the alley beside the shop.

The men glanced at Forrest and Graham for confirmation. They in turn, eyebrows raised, looked at Angel. Grinning sheepishly, Angel only shrugged his shoulders.

Forrest was the first to give in.

"You got your orders!" he shouted at the squads, "Take positions!"

The men separated, the first group lining up on the corner at the far end of the camera shop, the other huddled around the dumpster at the entrance to the alley as if it were some form of cover.

"Remember to all fire at once!" Cordelia barked out orders like a tall, gorgeous, but no nonsense staff Sargent "Only shoot half your cameras to give the others time to recharge!"

At the same time, Willow and Tara's chanting built with nerve wracking intensity.

"Hra, Krahtar, di meygo ylime grestis Erah Yggatha!" Their voices now pierced the noise of the winds enveloping the street.

"Damn! Where the hell is it?!" Angel screamed as he stared wildly around him.

"Hey, Angel, maybe it's invisible, too!" Kate answered him.

"That's not funny, Kate!"

"It wasn't supposed to be!"

Angel shuddered at her suggestion.

Inside the shop, the motor for the generator roared in Xander and Anya's ears. Anya, still hunched over the controls, began breathing heavily. Her face clenched up and her hands started shaking.

"What's wrong?!" Xander exclaimed, seeing her distress.

She didn't answer but looked all around the shop, her face blanketed with fear.

"Anya, this is not the time to be pissed at me!"

"It's coming, Xander!" she shouted, ignoring his complaint, "It's coming!"

"Where?! WHERE?!" he yelled back.

Suddenly, Anya stared directly overhead at the ceiling of the shop.

"OH GODS!" she screamed.

"SHIT! THE SKY!" Xander cried out.

Quickly, in a reflex motion, he reached across from the generator to Anya's control panel and slammed on the switch that governed the bank of lights pointed skywards.

In the sky directly over the shop, the barrel rolling crimson clouds suddenly parted as the Haunter of the Dark soared down upon the crowd of people in the street. It's screech caused the buildings to tremble and the wind whipped all around the defenders.

In that instant, Buffy, Giles, and all the Initiative soldiers froze in surprise and horror as Nyarlethotep displayed itself in its full manifestation. Only Willow and Tara continued their chant, undisturbed by the doom descending on their heads.

"HRA, KRAHTAR, DI MEYGO NYBOR GRESTIS ACTIB RYLETH!"

Talons outstretched, the Haunter was within yards of snatching Buffy and the Shining Trapezohedron from off the ground when Xander's bank of floods, like the beacon of the Pharos, burst alive piercing the smothering red mists that surrounded the Preparer of the Way. The tone of the Haunter suddenly changed from a scream of victory to a howl of dismay as it beat its wings and circled trying to dodge the stinging white light. Finally it landed in the street, a block away from the shop, clearly visible and just beyond where Riley and his five other squad members were concealed.

". . . why didn't it roast us? . . ." Kate asked as her voice trembled and her eyes widened in horror.

"It needs Buffy and the Trapezohedron," Angel explained as coolly as he could, "Otherwise it and the Ancient Ones can't cross over."

Still hidden against the front wall of the shop, Faith glared at the Haunter as it lurched up the street towards Buffy.

"Come and get it, you bastard!" she whispered to herself and grinned, "You're gonna pay for this big time!"

The Haunter of the Dark moved deliberately up the street, it's swaying red body and webbed wings stirring up the air, but the three lobed eye on the end of the serpent neck appeared to glide forward as if it were supported by its own sea of poisonous mist from the blasted home world of the Ancient Ones.

Nyarlethotep passed the concealed forms of Riley and the armed soldiers as it advanced on Buffy who stood unmoving, the other worldly colors of the Shining Trapezohedron shooting out from the Crystal clasped in her arms.

Xander had scrambled to the front window and stared out at the approaching nightmare. He turned and shouted back to Anya over the roar of the generator.

"That sucker's too close! Juice it with the front lights!"

With exaggerated force, Anya slammed on another switch on her control panel.

The bank of floodlights trained down the street in front of the shop snapped on blanketing the intersection and the surrounding buildings in a bath of white light. The Ancient One screamed again and quickly slithered back the way it came until it lingered on the edge of the beams of the floods. Unfazed, Willow and Tara chanted continuously.

"HRA, KRAHTAR, DI MEYGO NYBOR GRESTIS ACTIB KADETH . . .!"

Suddenly a shimmering appeared in the air less than twenty feet in front of Buffy, Willow and Tara. It was faint at first but rapidly grew in size and intensity as if the fabric of this world's three dimensions were bending and stretching to a point where they would burst, opening a floodgate into the Void and beyond.

At the same time, Forrest yelled into his headset to Graham and Riley.

"Riley! Graham! You guys hear me?!"

"I got you Forrest!" Riley yelled into his headset as he crouched by a building entrance. From his vantage, he could clearly see the back of the Haunter looming up and its giant forked tail whisking back and forth in the street knocking over everything in its path.

"Loud and clear here!" Graham answered from beside the dumpster.

"Riley," Forrest said firmly, "We're gonna drive it back with a bunch of camera flash guns we got here 'til it's between you guys! Then you goose it good with the alpha packs!"

"Understood! When we overload the rifles, everybody hit the pavement!" Riley answered, his voice shouting to be heard over the winds, but supremely calm. He wasn't afraid now. This was it, he thought as he began fiddling with his rifle's controls. The last stand . . . for Buffy.

Although he could barely make out her diminutive figure almost a block away in the glare of the floodlights, he imagined, in this final moment, she was standing at his side. When those rifles flew, she would be dropping to the street next to him. He would hold her close, protect her, her soft body pressed up against his . . . and it would be over. And then they would have forever.

"You got it!" Forrest screamed over the headset and his piercing voice snapped Riley out of his reverie. "When I yell to get down, everybody drop and cover your eyes!" Forrest shouted at the group around him.

Buffy, Giles and the rest of the Scooby gang looked at each other in confusion.

"Do what he says!" Angel yelled at them.

"Squads!" Forrest ordered the assembled Initiative soldiers, "Advance ten yards, crouch and fire on my mark! Move!"

The two squads from the corner of the camera shop and by the dumpster suddenly advanced on either side of the street towards the Haunter. In a moment, all dropped to their knees together and took aim with over twenty cameras.

"Say cheese!" Graham sniggered.

"FIRE!" Forrest shouted.

Two dozen camera flashes, all pointed at the Haunter, went off as one. The brilliant flare caught the Ancient One totally unawares. It lurched, stunned, and slithered back towards Riley's men waiting in ambush.

"Squads! Advance ten yards and fire on my mark!"

Like a bizarre pack of papparazi getting the first pictures of Hell, the two groups of soldiers ran forward once more. Again, they all halted together, dropped to their knees and took aim. The eye of the Haunter swayed on the end of its neck and was about to release a blast of plasma when Forrest screamed again.

"FIRE!"

Two dozen flashes burst with light in an instant. The Haunter bellowed in fury and lurched backwards again until it was now squarely in the middle of Riley's ambush.

"Shit, I'll bet all mine have red eye!" Graham smirked.

"Armed Squad! Set to overload!" Riley shouted into his headset.

Riley fiddled with his rifle, yanked the wires from his pack and gave the order.

"Rifles away! ALL PERSONNEL, TAKE COVER!"

Riley and the other ambush soldiers tossed their rifles at Nyarlethotep.

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" Forrest screamed at his men and the Scooby Gang back at the shop, "COVER YOUR EYES!"

Willow and Tara remained unmoving, absorbed in their chant. Buffy and Giles grabbed them both and threw them to the pavement. Angel swept both Cordelia and Kate in his arms and pushed them down onto the sidewalk as he tried to shelter them with his outstretched arms. Like a field of wheat flattened in a hurricane wind, the Initiative solders all dropped where they stood. Riley's men dove into the surrounding buildings seeking cover.

The six rifles, now emitting the distinctive high pitched dual tone, clattered noisily as they slid and skidded across the pavement and stopped at an evenly divided distance from the Ancient One. For a second, the three lobed eye of the Haunter regarded the little weapons with puzzlement.

Then the entire street whited out as the six rifles exploded on overload. In an instant, all color vanished as the brilliant white light of the six blasts overwhelmed every wavelength of the visible spectrum. At the same time, there was a series of loud electrical pops followed by a concussion that made the ground and buildings tremble. The Haunter screamed as it's physical manifestation dematerialized and swept away in the wind. All was white everywhere for a few moments more, then, quickly color returned.

Overhead, the clouds still barrel rolled over the shop and up and down the streets, the buildings and structures not set ablaze by the alpha particle explosion were bathed in a lurid bloody red color from both the dark crimson sky and the fires burning nearer the center of Sunnydale.

". . . Riley . . . Riley!" Forrest shouted looking up from the pavement, "You did it, man! You fried it!"

Up and down the street, heads popped up as soldiers and the Scooby Gang quickly got to their feet. Buffy looked around, bewildered. She cast a questioning glance at Giles.

"Did they do it?" she asked hopefully, "Did Riley stop it?"

". . . no! . . ." Tara exclaimed looking up, frightened, "The light only drove it back into the Void for a few minutes. It bought us time."

Tara stared at the shimmering puncture in the fields of space and time that hovered in front of them.

"You have to go in . . ." she said to Buffy, "And fight it from there. When the rupture is almost closed, jump back through and Willow and I will finish closing here. Then we'll smash the Trapezohedron."

Buffy nodded and turned to advance towards the widening opening. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Faith appeared standing right behind her and tapped Buffy on the shoulder.

"Hey, 'B.'"

Buffy turned and stared in total shock at Faith. Pale, her pupils still bright red, she was unsteady on her feet, but her smirking grin spread from ear to ear as she placed her hands on her hips as if she were assuming all authority for what was about to occur.

"Gimme the Crystal. This is my job now," Faith announced calmly.

For a second, Buffy was speechless. Finally she collected her thoughts.

"Faith! How . . . ? But you're too weak. You're dying!"

"Yeah, I guess I do feel pretty shitty," Faith said, still grinning, "But you don't know what you're going up against. I do! I've fought these things! After what I did to you guys, hell, maybe if it doesn't work out . . ."

Faith paused and nodded at the now towering opening into the Void as she spoke, "Through there is where I really belong anyway! Hell, I spent the last six months there!"

"NO!" Buffy cried out.

"Buffy, even your old Scottie Boy there said I was the one, not you," Faith argued reasonably as she turned to Willow, "Am I wrong, Red?"

For a second, Willow said nothing, her face bathed in doubt.

". . . MacDuffie's last words . . . were 'get back to the shop . . . and help Faith!'" Willow muttered.

Faith reached out and placed her hand on the Shining Trapezohedron cradled in Buffy's arms.

"See, my job!" Faith answered with finality, "No time to talk, 'B.'"

Faith suddenly drew her other fist back and landed a punch square on the side of Buffy's face just below the eye. Stunned, Buffy staggered back into Giles' arms, at the same time releasing her hold on the Crystal as Faith snatched it away.

"There, that's settled," Faith grinned for the last time, "No bitchin' and moanin'. I hate long goodbyes."

Faith spun on her heels and strode in the direction of the shimmering rupture opening into the Void. As she stepped into the opening, a vibration disrupted the surface of the field drawing a bright yellow light out of her body and a wisp of the bizarre colors from the Shining Trapezohedron. In a second, Faith's body, now devoid of its living soul, dropped to the street as her black hair spilled out across the pavement. She lay there, unmoving, the only sign of life her slow almost imperceptible breathing. The Trapezohedron rolled out of her arms. It, too, was lifeless, all signs of light and the unearthly color now vanished into the Void.

". . . NO! . . ." Buffy screamed in both despair and fury.

She struggled out of Giles' arms and dashed after Faith. As she struck the rupture into the Void, the same bright yellow light surged out of her body, and she toppled forward onto her face on the pavement. There, the two Slayers lay motionless side by side as all around, the flames spread from building to building.

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