Fic: Shanshu 42 - Finding Spike (revised)

[dragonyphoenix]

The desert was hot in a hotty hot way, but at least the vamps were dusted. And Buffy wasn't even going to ask how the Turok Han had survived sunlight. They were history and she still had an apocalypse to deal with. Moving on. “Okay, Dawn. You're up.”

“Me? But …” Buffy crossed her arms as Dawn took a deep breath. “Right. Uh, what do I do?”

“What do you mean, what do you do? You know what you do. That's why we brought you, because you're the only one who can do what you do.” Right, and that didn't sound completely idiotic. “You sort of use the Hellmouth and make it show you where Spike is.”

“You can do it, Dawnster.” Hey, no fair, Xander being more encouraging than her. “It's just like riding a bike except that this is something you've never done before. Uh, doesn't it run on instinct or something?”

That's when the woman that the big guy, Rico?, had dumped on them, the little strawberry blonde, piped up. Cassie was her name, maybe? “It is instinctual. I can lead you through it.”

“Well, Cassie …” Dawn started. Yes! I knew her name was Cassie.

“A girl is dead, Will is missing, and you people are laying out a scrying bowl? How the hell is this supposed to help?” That came from Spike's, well no, not Spike's, Will's friend, Millay, who looked so geeky that even high-school Willow would seem cool in comparison, which was a comment Buffy was never, ever going to share with Willow.

“Hey,” Xander lay a hand on Millay's shoulder. And look at Xan getting touchy-feely with the new girl. Note to self: after this is over, have someone check if Millay is a demon. “None of us are forgetting that Patti's gone but we've got the end of the world to prevent. We will grieve, but later.”

“End of the world?”

“You saw the vamps, right? How they dusted as they died?”

“Well, yeah,” Millay conceded. “That was different.”

“Trust us,” Xan said. “We know what we're doing. We're just sort of experts in fields outside the ordinary. Look, if this doesn't work, you can totally take it out on me.”

“What, by piping Narn opera into your room?”

And given the googly eyes that Xander was making at Millay, that had to be a mega-geeky reference.

Cassie pulled Dawn to the ground before the scrying bowl. “Just stare into the bowl. Your true nature will do the rest.”

As Dawn was getting comfortable on the ground, Xander's cell went off. “I'm just your average ordinary everyday superhero. Nothing more than that, it's all I really am.” Xander backed off, moving out of hearing range, as Dawn glared up at him.

“If you know so much about scrying,” Dawn asked Cassie, “why can't you do this?”

“My powers are tied to this realm. Your nature partakes of all the realms. Only you can search them all.”

“Oh.” Dawn leaned back over the bowl. “I'm seeing … water, water and a bowl.”

“Power follows will. You have to want to see into the different realms.”

The water started bubbling and, okay, it was hot out here in the desert, but not that hot. “Oh, here we go.” Dawn sounded excited so something must be working but all Buffy would see was a bowlful of water. “Ugh, green scales and red eyes? I'd hate to meet one of those in a dark alley. Oh, and ewww, I don't even want to know what that is.”

“Think of Willow,” Cassie said. “And Spike. Look for him.”

“Right, Spike. Ugh, that's one damned creepy demon.”

Buffy coughed.

“Buffy, I'm in college. I can say damned if I want to.”

“Just get on with it.”

“Well, I can't tell if that's its face or just a mask. I mean, it doesn't look like it comes off but it's pretty mask-like and if the mask is that disturbing, I'd hate to see what's behind it. There's a bunch of stick-bugs, sort of like praying mantises – mantisi? – that can walk on two feet and they're wearing armor and carrying weapons so I'm going with demons here. Oh, and there's Spike and there's Willow too!”

“Great,” Buffy said. “Two questions: where are they and how do we get to them?”

“Okay,” Cassie said. “Keep you eyes on the scryed image but also think of this realm. You will get a sense of the distance between them. It might come to you as an image or a chord or even a scent.”

Buffy waited a couple of minutes. “Dawn?”

“I'm not getting it,” Dawn shouted. “There's nothing saying where that dimension is.”

What was it Willy had said? “They have to come back here for the ritual! Could they be here already? In this dimension?”

“But, I thought they'd be at the Hellmouth.”

“I got him.” Millay was holding some sort of electronic device. “GPS signal's working again. Will's signal. It's coming from lat, 34.0259346 and lon, -118.4751398, which is … Mann's Chinese Theater. LA. They're in LA.”

“What?” Buffy asked, “as in they're taking in a show?”

Xander snapped his cell shut as he joined the circle around Dawn. “The ritual, it's going down at Mann's Chinese Theater. Wes has a team on the way but with LA traffic, even at mid-morning, they're not gonna make it in time.”

“How do we get me to LA?” Buffy asked. “You, witches, give me a lift?”

The witchy Slayers looked at each other like she was going to eat them up or something. Finally one stepped, or was really shoved, forward. “I'm sorry, ma'am, but we don't have that kind of power.”

“Also, we'll need them here,” Cassie said. “To close the Hellmouth.”

Hellmouth open vs. all the dimensions running together. Great, not one but two apocalypses – apocalypsi?. “Right, Xander? How do you feel about speeding?”

“I can teleport.”

Huh? Creepy hippy guy, the one who'd kidnapped Dawn which had turned out to be totally unnecessary since Spike was back in this dimension anyway. “No offense but …” Wait, what was she saying? He'd kidnapped Dawn. She had no problem offending him. “I don't know you.”

“It's the only way you'll get there in time to save the realms.” Okay, and add Cassie to the glaring-at list.

“I don't know you either.” No other options. “Okay, uh, dude. We'll take …”

“It's Webb,” Dawn said.

Web? As in a spider? “Huh?”

“His name is Webb.”

“I'll take you and your three,” Webb said.

My three? “My three what?”

Webb pointed to those three Slayers of Andrew's, the girls who'd fought together as a unit. Great, so either he really did want to save the day or he was taking out her best fighters.

“What do you need me to do?” Xander asked.

Find me a better way to LA. “Make sure the Hellmouth gets closed. See that they do it right this time.” Oh, and that raised a good question. Buffy turned to the witches. “You do know how to close a Hellmouth, right?” And why hadn't she asked that before they'd opened it?

“Wesley gave us instructions.” Okay, as long as those instructions hadn't come from Andrew, they should be fine.

“We should get going,” Webb said.

Wow, and that was fast. Mann's Chinese Theater, hundreds of those praying mantis demons, and boy Dawn's description really hadn't brought home how creepy they were, and then … Spike! And Willow! And some woman aiming a sword at Willow's chest.

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Good job on the revisions. I updated the link in my yet-to-be-posted rec list.


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks.