Chapter Nine: There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb
"Kat, Celia, you guys okay?"
"Oh, yeah, Mom. Peachy with a side of keen. Because getting jumped by vampires is a normal thing!"
"Well, you know, for the Slayer it is," Katherine interjected.
"Not for me it isn't," Celia argued loudly. "I don't care if I'm the Slayer's kid. That doesn't automatically warrant me getting ambushed by the undead!" Katherine opened her mouth to say something in opposition, but Celia silenced her with a glare and stomped upstairs, slamming her door loudly.
"Other than the psychological damage I'm going to have to rectify by sending you to therapy, everything else fine? No injuries of the bodily kind?"
"Nah, we're good, Mom," Katherine assured Buffy. "But that was just really...scary." She looked at her mother, feeling more like three instead of nearly fourteen. "It's kind of funny -funny weird, not funny ha-ha- when you think that this hasn't happened to us before."
"I've worked so hard to make sure that it never would," Buffy sighed. "I guess we're going to have to step up your training."
"They can't come in, right? I mean..." Katherine new she was being silly. The first thing Buffy had taught her was never invite in anyone after dark. Then she had learned why. But she needed reassurance. She needed to hear that she was safe.
"Vampires can't come in unless they're invited. ...Don't worry, honey. You're home. You're safe."
"Who's here?" Grey asked blankly, still reeling from the fact that he almost got to kiss Katherine. The object of his affections, however, was much more quick on the uptake.
"How many?" Katherine asked sharply.
"I - I don't know! Oh God, oh God, oh God..." Brianna chanted over and over again, beginning to hyperventilate.
"Breathe," Katherine urged her, trying to calm the younger girl down. "Breathe. Come on. In, out. In, out. Good, keep doing that."
"We got company," Ian said casually, sticking his head in the room. Though his attitude was laid-back, Katherine could tell that inside, he was freaking out. She knew because she felt the same way. But she couldn't afford to give into her fears now. Focus and stay strong, that's what David had said she needed to do.
"Barriers are up?"
"We've got about five of them, but they won't stay up for long, not with Wolfram and Hart spellcasters out there."
"Fine. Ian, Grey, go round up everyone, bring them back here. No, Brianna. Stay here," Katherine said as the redhead moved to go with her brother and cousin. "I'll need you to help me with the spell."
"But it's Latin," she said eyeing the book. "I don't know Latin."
"I do," Grey offered. "I can stay and help you-"
"No," Katherine said forcefully. "We have to do this as quickly as we can. I can't afford any distractions. Now go."
Grey gave her a hurt look, but obeyed. Katherine felt bad, but if he and the others were to live, she really couldn't have him around while she was trying to do the spell. Having him around would have been a distraction of the biggest kind, something she couldn't afford.
"Pass the chalk," Katherine called out. She stood in the center of the dirt-floor room and drew a large white circle around her, and then a five-pointed star in black on the inside of the circle. She lit white candles and placed one on each of the star's points. Brianna, on the other hand, drew a large archway in white chalk on one of the room's rock walls. Then she lit a candle of her own.
"This is gonna work, right?" She asked nervously.
"Hopefully. I mean, it'll definitely get you away from here, but I had to do some tweaking so that I can send you guys to a specific place in a specific time after specific events have happened. Celia's spell was much more simpler. She just went back in time."
"But we're going to the future."
"A specific kind of future. Basically, it's like trying to pinpoint one dimension out of a infinite number. But don't worry," she added off Brianna's anxious look. "I've done a bit of magick before, and I learned from the best." Katherine gave her a confident wink, and Brianna nodded. She walked around the circle with her candle held high and began to chant the Latin version of Katherine's spell.
Katherine took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She could already hear the panicked voices coming down the passageways.
"Mercury, Messenger to the Gods, I beseech you.
Grant us access to the land of freedom, of peace, of tranquility.
Open the Gateway to the land of harmony, of acceptance, of joy.
Give us passage to where I will it, to where I need it.
Mercury, Messenger to the Gods, I beseech you.
Grant us access to the land of freedom..."
Katherine and Brianna continued to chant the spell, their voices ringing loud and clear in the underground chamber, overlapping over one another but silencing the hysteric mob of Eros demons. Fierce winds began to whip through the chamber, and Brianna's grip on the book tightened, but not once did she break stride.
"Look," Grey muttered to Ian, who had come in behind everyone else and had made their way to the front. The doorway that Brianna had drawn had begun to shimmer. In a blinding flash of white light, the doorway became a patch of silver, rainbow colours reflected on the inside. Katherine and Brianna kept chanting until the winds had begun to intensify. Then they abandoned their posts, being careful not to extinguish the candle flames.
"Go on!" Katherine yelled. "In there! Go!" Brianna helped her to her feet; the older girl was clearly exhausted. People began to rush all at once for the gateway to safety, but Ian worked damage control.
"One by one, women and children first!" He shouted over the combined noises of frantic yells and fierce winds. "Don't snuff out the candles! ...Make a line! Keep moving!"
"You okay?" Grey asked over the din. Katherine looked weak and pale, but she nodded.
"I'm fine. Make sure that everyone gets through," she ordered him and his sister.
"Where are you going?" Brianna asked.
"Wolfram and Hart have broken down the barriers by now. I need to hold them off."
"You can't go by yourself!" Grey and Brianna said in unison.
"Who's gonna come with me? The both of you need to stay here and make sure everyone gets through, then go through yourselves." She picked up a sword that lay in the corner and found that she could barely lift it.
"You can't go by yourself," Grey repeated adamantly.
"I'll be fine."
"You'll be dead. You can't even stand-"
"I'll. Be. Fine."
"You need help," Brianna argued.
"You guys aren't coming with."
"Fine," the redhead snapped. "But you will need help. Here, take it." She pulled a silver cell phone out of her pocket and gave it to Katherine. "I won't need it, and you can use it to call someone to help."
"Thanks," Katherine murmured. Brianna gave her a quick hug before rushing towards the portal, she being the only girl left. The men began to go through and Katherine turned.
"I'm com-"
"I swear to God, if you finish that sentence, I will run you through with this sword and throw your body through the portal," Katherine interjected quietly, her voice passionate and firm. "I'm going, you're staying here. That's how this works. Don't get all macho on me."
"I wasn't-"
"Don't. Please. Don't make this into something big, because it's not. You needed my help, and I gave it to you. Now leave me alone." She left the underground chamber without once turning around to see him one last time.
Sighing, Grey helped Ian usher the last few people through the portal. "Yeah, you go, I'll stay here," he muttered as Ian stepped through. Then it was his turn.
Katherine breathed a sigh of relief as she felt the ethereal wind die down as she slowly made her way up the passageways and into the main living quarters. The Wolfram and Hart tactics team had definitely broken through. They were too late for the Eros demons. But not for her. So she had to remove as much of them as possible -and as quietly as possible- on her way out. She could do it, if she was really quiet and first took that eighteen-hour nap she flt like taking.
Truth was, after that spell, there was no way she could take one soldier-boy, let alone a whole team of them. She needed help. She just hoped help was back from their little vacation.
"Hello, you've reached Angel Investigations," came Cordelia's chirpy voice. "We're unavailable right now, but if you could leave your name, situation, and a number where we can reach you, we'd really appreciate- Gunn, stop it! Is that my-? Yes, it is my-! No, give it back! Gunn, put that down!"
"Gotta remind them to change that message," Katherine muttered, hanging up. She tried the next number she could think of. "Hope he finally figured out how to work the damn thing." One ring, two rings...five rings. Just as she was about to hang up, a breathless voice answered.
"Cordelia?"
"Katherine?"
"You're okay!"
"You're not," the Pylean ruler noted, reading the emotions in the girl's voice.
"Definitely not. ...I think I'm in over my head, and this isn't something I'd normally say. but...I need help."
"Okay, what's the plan?"
"'Plan'?" Angel echoed blankly.
"Yeah! Wolfram and Hart's men are in there. We definitely need some sort of plan to get Katherine out of there. Then again, it might be no use, seeing as it took us forever to get here!"
"The car's in Caritas," Angel replied tightly.
"I know the car's in Caritas."
"The car's in Caritas because we had to rescue you." Angel was feeling some resentment at the moment towards Cordelia, because she had gotten herself sucked into Pylea, all of Angel Investigations was now in this position. He pushed away his unwanted feelings. It wasn't Cordelia's fault, and he shouldn't blame her.
Yeah, blame yourself. The others could have done perfectly fine without you. Okay, maybe not, but still...
"One of us needs to stay here with Fred," Wesley noted.
"Cordy, stay."
"And do I get a treat for being such a good little doggy?" She muttered, leading Fred up the street a little where they could wait in relative silence.
"Come on, guys. Let's go."
It was the weirdest thing. Every time one of Wolfram and Hart's soldier boys went for her when her back was turned, they got taken down. Katherine wondered if Angel and the others had arrived and just hadn't made their presence known. But then they did come, and the sniper was still at work. Katherine figured it was probably Cordelia, since she didn't see her, but after the fighting was over and Angel helped her out into the Los Angeles night, she could see Cordelia up the street with a girl that looked vaguely familiar.
"Katherine, you okay?"
"Except for the incredible exhaustion and bodily injuries, peachy with a side of keen," she chirped, using her mother's favourite expression.
"Want me to carry you?"
"To the car?" Cordelia coughed loudly and Katherine eyed Angel. "We're going to have to walk to the Hyperion? Where's the car?"
"Long story," he muttered.
Finally, finally, they'd made it. Of course, Angel had all but carried Katherine for the last three blocks, but she still felt as though she'd run a mile.
"Finally," Cordelia sighed, voicing Katherine's thoughts.
"Can I say it?" Angel asked excitedly, pushing open the front doors. Katherine smiled. He was usually so dark and broody; seeing him act like a little child was so cute. "I wanna say it! There's no place like -Willow."
The redhead rose from where she had been seated and regarded the group with somber eyes.
Okay, Rosenberg, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. Be tough. Tough like the Slayer. ...Oh, God...Buffy...
"What-?" Cordelia began, confused.
Angel however, knew. He could tell by the way Willow was trying so very hard not to break down. "It's Buffy."
Oh, God, Katherine thought, her body going numb. Not again. Not again.
END.
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