The Wind Beyond the Walls of the
Mind
Chapter 7
"It's so beautiful . . ."
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.
The Wind Beyond the Walls of the Mind is set
roughly in mid-season four shortly following the death of Doyle
but before the creation of Adam and the death of Maggie Walsh.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Suddenly the door to The New Age Curiosity
Shop swung open. Giles entered followed by Buffy. Giles' face
was a blank stare but Buffy's was downcast, her brow furrowed
with concern.
Anya, Willow and Xander spun around in surprise.
Only MacDuffie looked up calmly from his cup of tea.
"Oh, Buffy!" Willow exclaimed, "We
were getting worried."
Buffy was uncharacteristically silent as she
joined the rest of the Scooby Gang. Willow sensed her friend's
apprehension.
"What's happened? Where were you guys?"
she asked, looking back at Giles.
"I'll tell you later, Will," Buffy
muttered.
Immediately, all eyes turned to Giles as he
approached MacDuffie. At first, the two men stared at each other.
Willow wondered what silent communication was going on between
the Watcher and the Guardian. Giles finally sighed as MacDuffie
set his teacup down on a display case.
"Hello, Anson," Giles said, his voice
subdued.
"Hello again, Rupert."
Giles paused, shaking his head.
"All these years . . . and I never once
suspected," he said quietly.
"Rupert, you know that's the way it had
to be."
"So the Guardians really do exist?"
Giles half asked, ". . . your father, Jameson?"
MacDuffie only nodded as Giles shook his head
and joined the Guardian as they both stared out the front window
of the shop in the morning sunlight.
"And I take it, now that you've chosen
to disclose your identity," Giles continued ". . . well
to paraphrase a saying they have here in the Colonies, it's a
sign we're stuck in the middle of Loch Muck, the boat's sprung
a leak and Nessie just ate the only paddle."
MacDuffie, almost laughing out loud, grinned
broadly.
"It's not all that bad, Rupert!"
he chuckled, "You and I, we've been in tight corners before.
This is more of the same, . . . just a tad bigger. Now . . . introduce
me to your Slayer."
"Of course," Giles grinned back as
he turned to face Buffy. "This is Buffy Summers. Buffy, this
is Anson MacDuffie, . . . an old mentor of mine . . ."
"Mentor my ass!" MacDuffie interrupted.
He bent down and spoke in a pseudo confidential tone to Buffy
so that Giles could hear every word.
"Drinking buddies would be closer to it!"
he said, "I was his grad counselor at Oxford when he first
poked his innocent little nose in the door. Took him under my
wing . . ."
Giles' face turned bright red.
"Oh please!" he protested, "You
were nothing more than a loose cannon, taking out any pub you
happened to stumble into." Giles turned to Buffy in an attempt
to dispel the influence MacDuffie was gaining over his charge.
Buffy, her eyes now wide, listened in humorous astonishment at
the growing squabble between her Watcher and this new Guardian.
"He was the one that needed the direction
and refinement," Giles snapped as he pointed at MacDuffie.
"I beg your pardon!" MacDuffie announced
with mock indignity.
"When I first met you, you were at the
rail in the Boatswain's Arms sucking down . . . " Giles snorted
with disgust, ". . . straight gin!"
"And bloody good gin it was too!"
MacDuffie huffed in response.
Buffy couldn't take it any longer.
"Guys!" she said as she attempted
to referee the dispute, "Enough with the Brewery U class
reunion! We got an end of the world thing to deal with!"
"Quite right," Giles concurred as
he glared at his former university companion. MacDuffie only grinned
at Buffy as he folded his arms across his chest.
"So, you're the one that had the Council in such an uproar,"
he said.
"That's me!" Buffy replied at first
all perky. Then suddenly she frowned. "You weren't on the
Council were you?"
"Gads! No!"
"Good! I was just gonna say . . ."
Buffy said reassured but she stopped in mid sentence as MacDuffie
drew himself up to his full six foot one height, stood in front
of her and stared. He suddenly wore a look of deep concern on
his face that made Buffy uneasy as he gave her the visual third
degree.
"Uhh . . . I admit I didn't brush my teeth
this morning . . . " she said sarcastically, "and I
haven't tweezed my eyebrows in three days . . ."
Giles sensed MacDuffie's sudden uneasiness
as well.
"What is it, Anson? What's wrong?"
"I don't know . . . " The Guardian
said softly as he ran his fingers through his brown curly hair,
"usually I can sense these things . . . but from her . .
. there's nothing . . ."
"Nothing!? I'm nothing?!" Buffy bristled.
"No, you misunderstand me," MacDuffie
said trying to soothe what he knew was the Slayer's sometimes
volatile pride, "The aura emanating from you is very strong,
far stronger than I've ever seen in a Slayer. But . . . it's just
not what I had anticipated."
"See, Buff! Ya fool 'em every time,"
Xander cracked, once again trying to relieve the tension he felt
growing in the shop.
Giles was puzzled as well by the Guardian's
response.
"Just what were you anticipating?"
he asked intently.
Again, MacDuffie stared closely at Buffy. Slowly
he reached out his hand.
"Take it," he said and Buffy recognized
a "control" in his voice. Normally she would resist
such an attempt to manipulate her but something deeper in her
mind told her to ignore those instincts.
She extended her hand and, as MacDuffie grasped
it, she imagined she sensed a surge of subtle power. For a moment
she felt his long, strong and wiry fingers intertwined with hers.
He then gently released her hand and spoke quietly as if his words
were meant for her alone.
"Buffy, . . . you have tremendous powers
even for a Slayer, but, for the most part, I sense they are firmly
controlled. I don't see how Nyarlethotep will be able to use you
to open the conjunction portal releasing the Ancient Ones. And
yet you say it's been stalking you for almost a week now?"
Buffy shifted uncomfortably. The image of the
mysterious virtually formless entity tracking her through the
cemetery brought the goose bumps to the back of her neck.
"Yeah, every night. It keeps coming in
closer . . . and I can sense it's getting stronger." Puzzled,
Buffy suddenly turned to Anya and Xander, "But, it split
when you guys showed up," she said, her brows raised in a
question.
"Maybe it doesn't like crowds?" Xander
shrugged.
Anya huffed.
"That wasn't us that chased it away,"
she said curtly as she turned to Xander, "Remember I shined
your flashlight at it?"
Xander, Buffy, and Willow only stared at Anya.
"It hates light!" Anya explained
in an exaggerated tone as if she were dealing with only Xander.
"How'd you know that?" he asked,
shifting to the defensive.
"Give me some credit will ya!" Anya
said, now completely disgusted, "I got over a thousand years
on the rest of you guys!"
Still Xander and Willow were confused, but
MacDuffie and Giles nodded with understanding.
"Oh come on!" she snapped, "I've
seen these Ancient Ding Dongs plenty of times. They show up every
hundred years with all their slimeys, smellies and tentacles .
They always find somebody with more power than brains to help
them and then we got another end of the world routine. . . . anyway,
it hates light."
"Quite right," Giles interjected
in support of Anya, "Small amounts will keep the Ancient
Ones at bay, and illumination of greater intensity thrusts them
back into the Void."
Xander swaggered towards the center of the
shop.
"Well then, no problemo," he announced,
"It can't hack daylight and at night we just fry its butt
in the beams of a couple of headlights."
"If only it were as simple as that,"
Giles muttered.
"Why?" Willow asked, "We drove
it off last night."
Giles shook his head. Clearly the Scooby Gang
had little concept of what the Ancient Ones comprised. Giles knew,
although only from legend, the nature of the nightmare they faced.
He doubted his friend MacDuffie had ever faced them as well but
he understood the father, Jameson, had been involved with two
shadowy individuals purported to be Guardians during the last
rupture between the two universes in the 1930's.
"It'll be back," he answered Willow's
question ominously, "It's becoming more resistant to light
the closer we get to the planetary conjunction when the Void and
this world will be virtually coterminous."
"Which is?" Willow had to ask the
question.
"Three nights from now. May fifth."
Buffy stood motionless. The more she learned,
the more she imagined she was facing some incomprehensible fate,
as if she were standing on the edge of a vast and invisible precipice.
Any movement in any direction beyond what lay directly in front
of her would send her plunging, into what she had no idea. She
knew she was brought to the shop this sunny morning for a reason.
She steeled herself for the answers she realized might seal her
own doom.
"Giles? Mr. MacDuffie?" she asked
quietly, "What is this thing? What are we up against? . .
. and what does it have to do with me?"
"You have all read my e-mail to Mr. Giles?"
he said softly.
Anya, Xander, Willow and Buffy nodded fearfully.
MacDuffie turned and walked toward the front window of the shop
once more.
"Good. It is Nyarlethotep . . . the messenger,
the Preparer of the Way and the most violent and nightmarish of
the Ancient Ones . . . the winged blackness . . . the three lobed
burning eye."
Xander turned to the others and tried valiantly
to grin.
"How the hell are we gonna fight it? I
can't even pronounce it. Anybody mind if I just call it 'Mr. Icky?'"
MacDuffie turned to Giles.
"Perhaps," he said, "we should
use the name given it by an old Guardian from my father's time
. . . 'The Haunter of the Dark.'" His words sent chills down
Buffy's spine. Willow shivered involuntarily while Xander's grin
quickly faded from his face.
Giles joined MacDuffie by the window as the
two spoke back and forth comparing notes.
"If I understand correctly," Giles
said, "it needs three elements to effect an opening of the
Void and the releasing of the Ancient Ones. The conjunction of
the Void and this world is the first, a life force surge of extraordinary
power is the second and something you called 'the key.'"
"Yes," MacDuffie nodded, "A
Life Force of that strength can only be found in our modern world
in a Slayer. In more ancient times, priestesses of various cults,
particularly those of Isis in Egypt, were trained and prepared
much as a Slayer and they were the natural targets of The Haunter
during past conjunctions."
Giles ran his hand through his hair and adjusted
his glasses as he followed the Guardian's gaze out the window.
"We can't do anything about the planetary
conjunction. That will happen no matter what . . . " Giles
looked over the top of his glasses at Buffy ". . . but I
like to think we have some control over the Slayer aspect of it."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Giles!"
Buffy snapped and for a moment the tension relaxed in the shop.
"But what about the 'key' you mentioned?"
Giles continued, "I'm not familiar with what precisely it
is. I presume The Haunter is searching for that as well."
MacDuffie only nodded.
"So . . . What is it? " Buffy broke
in. "Better yet, where is it and how do we keep it out of
The Haunter's slimy claws."
MacDuffie didn't answer. He only stared at
Buffy as if he were evaluating in his mind the numerous paths
that now branched out before them all. He closed his eyes, struggling
to envision the options looming before them but the attempt was
a failure. All the outcomes were deeply concealed by a grey, mist
like curtain cast down before him. In such a case of many choices,
he realized that in fact there was no choice, only one path that
beckoned towards him and the others gathered around. As his father
had told him, it was time to set out on that path. The die was
cast.
The Scooby Gang waited patiently as MacDuffie
wrestled with his own thoughts. At last he nodded slightly to
himself, pushed his teacup aside and strode slowly over to the
closed door of the back storeroom. He selected a key from a key
chain withdrawn from his pocket and unlocked the storeroom.
As he opened the door, a pulsating light of
an unknown color and spectrum washed the room casting bizarre
shadows across the floor and walls. It came forth not as a blinding
flash, but rather a deep, rich and mysterious shade not unlike
the rainbow of colors from a drop of oil or gasoline on the still
surface of a puddle of water. It surged out into the room with
an almost liquid like iridescence.
Anya, her face etched with fear, suddenly moved
back and took shelter behind Xander. Buffy's body tensed up and
her arms almost rose out in front of her in a defensive stance.
Giles, too, stiffened as the color washed over them. He firmly
grasped the edge of a display case. Only Willow, fascinated by
the mystery of what she saw, stepped forward towards the light.
MacDuffie disappeared into the storeroom and
moments later returned to the shop. Cradled in his arms in front
of him was a dark wooden box and, nested inside on a bed of old
excelsium was the source of the light. The Scooby Gang could only
see several of the points of the object protruding above the rim
of the box.
MacDuffie set the box down on a display case
in the center of the shop.
"It's all right," he said calmly
to the others, "Although the illumination has intensified
in the last twenty-four hours, it seems to be stable."
Buffy lowered her defensive stance. Anya, however,
still cowered behind Xander.
"You've seen this before?" MacDuffie
asked her, sensing her discomfort.
Anya only nodded.
"You're wise to treat it with such respect,"
he said.
At the same time, Willow, almost hypnotized
by the flood of light, approached the box. Slowly she reached
out her hand to touch the object inside. MacDuffie quickly intercepted
her, grasping her shoulder and pulling her gently back.
"No, lassie!" he said in an urgent
whisper, "Do not touch it! And especially do not gaze into
it!"
"But it's so beautiful," Willow murmured.
"That it is. But in it's beauty lies the
snare to the unwitting. If you were to gaze into those otherworldly
colors, your mind would be seized by its powers within, snatched
from your physical body and hurled across the vistas of time and
space, to the Void and Beyond! If your soul were strong enough,
you might wallow for all time in the nightmare Hell of the Ancient
Ones themselves. And if it were not, then your soul would become
the eternal food, like the liver of Prometheus, for Nyarlethotep
itself!"
Willow cowered away, but still could not take
her eyes off the box.
"I told you it eats souls!" Anya
whispered to Xander.
"Oh dear God! This thing is . . ."
Giles couldn't complete the sentence. After a pause, MacDuffie
answered the Watcher's unfinished question.
". . . yes, Rupert," he said quietly,
"'The 'Shining Trapezohedron' . . . "
"This object nearly leveled the entire
ancient city of Alexandria!" Giles exclaimed in fear.
"This thing blew away a city?!" Buffy
asked in astonishment, "I keep asking this, gang! What is
it?"
"What you are looking upon . . . is 'the
key,'" MacDuffie explained, "Powered by the Life Force
during the planetary conjunction, this 'Crystal' opens the gateway
between the Void and our universe allowing the Ancient Ones to
cross over in their full manifestations and reclaim this world
from which they were cast out eons ago."
"And this is what 'Mr. Icky' is looking
for?" Xander wanted to make the question into a joke but
failed miserably.
MacDuffie nodded.
"Well, hey! Anybody else see something
pretty obvious here?" Xander announced, his mind racing ahead
with what he imagined was the simplest solution, "Some damage
maybe? A well placed crowbar between its shiny little points?
MacDuff, you got a dustpan and broom around here I presume? Could
get messy!"
Xander turned as if he were about to go look
for a heavy tool with which to smash the Shining Trapezohedron.
Anya grabbed his arm and restrained him, all the while giving
him her most devastating "Anya look."
"What? What?" he sputtered.
"It won't work, Xander," she said
firmly as if she were lecturing a particularly unintelligent but
stubborn child, "You don't think in two thousand years somebody
hasn't thought of that?"
"It's like the lock on a door," Willow
said softly, "You smash the lock and the door swings wide
open."
"Precisely," MacDuffie agreed.
"Then what do we do?" Buffy
asked fearfully.
". . . return it to the Void from which
it came . . ." MacDuffie said ominously, "then . . .
on the other side . . . destroy it!"
"Don't tell me," Buffy responded
quietly, "Destroying it will require this 'life force' you
mentioned. So whoever takes it over . . . doesn't come back."
There was a moment of silence in the shop as
the impact of her statement sank in on the rest of the Scooby
Gang.
"In order to return," MacDuffie explained
carefully, "The one who carries the Shining Trapezohedron
into the Void must simultaneously release their own Life Force
against it and gaze into its facets, thereby being drawn back
into this world in the microsecond before the 'Crystal' shatters.
At best, that soul will make it back, drained of all physical
life . . . but at least it will return to this universe."
"Great choice," Buffy muttered with
deep sarcasm, "Come back dead or be Mr. Icky's lunch for
the rest of eternity. No way we can seal this thing up like your
father and his buds did?"
"That was only a temporary solution,"
the Guardian explained, "We lost two powerful Guardians in
that struggle. And we know one gazed into the Shining Trapezohedron."
All the Scooby Gang winced at MacDuffie's mention
of Blake's fate.
"This time, our universe and the Void
will be virtually coterminous with almost nothing standing between
them. The planetary forces have not been of this magnitude since
212 A.D., the year ancient Alexandria was nearly leveled."
"How did they stop it back then?"
Willow asked.
"That's a long story," MacDuffie
replied.
"But they did stop it!" Willow declared
hopefully, "Maybe we could do it the same way! If we knew
how!"
Xander joined Willow. Buffy could see the Gang
rallying to her defense again.
"Yeah, I mean, there's no way we're letting
you go through that thing, Buff!" he announced firmly.
Buffy grinned sadly at Xander and sighed. Her
heart both soared and plunged in the same moment as she drew on
the strength of her friends and at the same time realized that
the battle ahead would probably be lead by her alone.
"So . . . what happened?" she asked
with an almost fatalistic tone in her voice, "How did they
stop Mr. Icky and the Bad Boy Brigade?"
"You should do the honors, Rupert. You
were always the better storyteller," MacDuffie volunteered.
Willow grinned.
"Cool, I love stories!" she said.
"Well, everyone settle in," Giles
sighed, "It is a long story, something all Watchers,
. . .and Guardians I presume as well, . . . " Here MacDuffie
nodded in agreement, "have been required to commit to memory."
"You had to memorize it? Why?" Willow
asked.
Giles paused. He saw all the Scooby Gang's
eyes riveted on him. He knew they would be hanging on every word.
Buffy especially he studied and realized that she and the others
were now falling into a preordained role in a grand sweep of historic
events of which no one knew what the outcome would be.
"Because it recounts a single occurrence
in 212 A.D. from which the Watchers and the legend of the Guardians
trace their beginnings," Giles said slowly, "We all
began, Slayers, Watchers and the Guardians in our first great
triumph and disaster. And it has set the stage for our struggles,
indeed our very conduct ever since."
Giles leaned against the side of MacDuffie's
desk. Willow and Buffy pulled out a pair of folding chairs while
Xander and Anya hopped up on the counter next to the mechanical
cash register. MacDuffie stood next to the display case that held
the Shining Trapezohedron. His arms were folded on his chest,
and he didn't move. Giles began speaking slowly and quietly, his
face illuminated by the bizarre color flowing from the Shining
Trapezohedron. Each one bending forward, the Scooby Gang struggled
to hear him as Giles began the ancient tale born in fire and blood.
* * * * * * * *
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