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Chapter 4
WASHINGTON DC AIRPORT
2347 HOURS
The wind whipped all around her, making her trench coat fly out behind
her like a cape. One of her hands held tightly onto her briefcase, the
other shielded her eyes from flying dirt and other
debris that the wind was tossing up. Her ears were bombarded with load,
booming sounds. She looked up, and was rewarded with a face full of
sand. She was almost there, just a few more steps.
Scully walked into the airport just as all hell broke loose. People who
had once been sitting quietly on benches waiting for people, or watching
the arrivals/departures on the airport screens, were now banging their
fists on walls, yelling to their companions, or complaining to airport
personnel. Scully looked up to read the arrivals/departures.
FLIGHT 204 TO CHICAGO - DELAYED
FLIGHT 327 TO MIAMI - DELAYED
FLIGHT 136 TO LONDON - DELAYED
FLIGHT 153 TO LOS ANGELES - DELAYED
FLIGHT 426 TO PARIS - DELAYED
...
Scully sighed. Of course with this storm, they couldn't risk letting
planes takeoff and land. She hoped it would be over soon. Standing
around in the airport, alone, was getting to her. She desperately wanted
out of DC, where everyone was spying on her, if you believed what Mulder
said. 'Oh yeah Scully, like that's really the reason you want on that
plane' said a little voice in her head. Scully ignored it, and settled
into an airport to wait for her flight out.
*****
The little man watched her take a seat, her legs crossed at the ankles,
briefcase lying at her feet. He knew it wasn't long before the air
traffic controllers figured out that it wasn't the storm that was
causing the delay, but a carefully planned and executed illegal entry
into the airport's computer system. All the supposedly delayed airplanes
were starting to approach the runways, asking for
permission to land. He had to act soon. His eyes flicked to the screen
as he saw Scully and several other passengers get out of their seats,
clutching their belongings. Already, 'ontime' listings began replacing
the 'delayed' listings. The small group of people began to move in their
own directions, and he knew it was time.
He picked up his light suitcase (it was light because it was empty), and
hurriedly rushed into the cluster of people, muttering pardons, and
shoving people out of his way. He brushed against Scully, making sure
that the tiny micro-listening device that had been resting carefully on
his fingertip, was securely attached to Scully's jacket. Not pausing,
(to do so would arouse suspicion) the little undercover CIA agent
continued his fast shuffle until he rounded a corner, whereupon he
entered a washroom.
He pulled out a compact, but expensive looking cellular phone (the
newest in CIA accessories) and was connected via private satellite to
his superiors at the Pentagon. When he heard a beep inthe receiver, he
promptly reported on his mission.
***
Scully saw the queer little man roughly shove people out of his way, but
paid him no heed. All she wanted to do was get out of this crazy airport
and into the isolated town that Mulder was hiding in. She got her
boarding pass out of her briefcase, and gave it to the flight attendant
at the door. The FBI was paying her a first class seat to Miami, where
they thought she was going to spend a relaxing vacation at the beach.
Boy were they wrong.
*****
The bell rang for classes to start just as Buffy entered the classroom.
She flopped down in her seat, and glanced around the classroom, noticing
with some confusion that Hank was there. The teacher closed the door,
and that was when the horror started.
The teacher turned to grin at her, eyes laughing, as she changed into
the substitute biology teacher, Natalie French. As Buffy stared on in
shock, she completed the transformation into the She-Mantis, her jaw
bones clicking together hungrily. Buffy glanced furtively around the
her, and it just got worse. All her classmates had turned into corpses,
their flesh decaying and falling off, maggots squirming out of their eye
sockets. She looked at Willow and Xander to see their reactions. She
screamed as she saw them, their faces horribly contorted into those of
vampires. The last thing she saw was Hank's face, looking normal and
calm, staring at her. Buffy looked down at her hands, and found she
could see strait through them. She was a ghost.
Buffy woke up in Angel's arms screaming. They were in his apartment, and
he was trying to soothe her. Her wild eyes went wide as she peeked over
Angel's shoulder and saw a dark shadow creeping forward, something in
hand. She stared at it cluelessly, then her eyes opened in understanding
and fear. "Angel!" she managed to cry out. "Look out, behind you!" He
turned around just in time to see the grin of satisfaction on Darla's
face as she thrust the stake in her hand through his ribcage, piercing
his heart.
Buffy was jarred from her sleep into a sitting position by a sound,
which she realized was herself screaming out in pain and loss. In a
moment, strong arms were around her, comforting her, just holding her
while she shed her tears. She leaned back into Angel's embrace,
shivering. Within a moment, she had stopped crying and fallen silent,
listening to her heart beat slow down. When she felt she could do so
with out crying, Buffy looked up at Angel. He wiped a few stray tears
off her face with the sleeve of his jacket, and waited for her to begin.
He didn't pry her for details, he knew she would tell him in time.
Buffy began to describe her terrible nightmare to Angel, who grimaced.
"It was horrible, at the end when she..." Buffy could not bring herself
to say killed. "I thought... I thought I had lost you." Buffy buried her
face in Angel's chest, taking strength from his form while he stroked
the back of her head, entwining his fingers in her hair. Eventually. she
fell into a troubled, but more peaceful, sleep on her bed.
Chapter 5
MULDER'S RENTED APARTMENT
0637 HOURS
***The little man picked up his suitcase and shoved his way through the
people clustered below the TV screen. He inconspicuously deposited
something microscopic on Scully's jacket, then hurried on his way***
Mulder woke up with a start. 'That was a weird dream' he thought to
himself. He wondered what the little man had to do with Scully. He was
troubled by the little thing left on her jacket in his dream. But then
again, it was only a dream, nothing to worry about or take seriously.
Unless you were him.
He checked his watch. "Almost seven," he said aloud. He pulled himself
out of bed, and into a pair of jogging pants and an old t-shirt that had
a hole in the shoulder. Just because he was supposed to be dead didn't
mean he wasn't going to get out of shape. It was a small town, no one
knew him, and at this hour in the summer, any sane person would still be
sleeping.
Mulder opened his door and was greeted with Californian sunshine and a
nice breeze. Perfect weather for jogging.
He started off at a slow pace, building up speed as his muscles warmed
up. Soon he was running full out, past the school and through the
residential area.
He was right, most people were asleep, but a few were up, working. Two
of those people were Jenny Calendar and Rupert Giles. Giles had arrived
at Ms. Calendar's house earlier to discuss the strange e-mail she had
received the night before, telling of an upcoming event in Slayer
prophesy. Giles was peeking out between Ms. Calendar's blinds, watching
Mulder run by.
"Ms. Calendar, who is that queer man running by outside? I don't believe
I know him, yet he looks strangely familiar."
Ms. Calendar walked over and looked out beside Giles. "Hmmm... I don't
know, I've never seen him here. He's kind of cute though..." she paused
as she saw Rupert's face change color slightly. Smiling to herself, she
continued, "He might just be passing by, or he might be a part of that
carnival that's stopping here. Which reminds me Rupert, are you busy two
days from now?" She smiled at him, a smile she knew he couldn't resist.
Giles was caught off guard, and the smile completely disarmed him.
"Well, no..."
Ms. Calendar smiled again. "Good, will you go to the Carnival with me?"
Giles studied her face for a minute, then finally said, "did you just
say what I think you said?" Ms. Calendar nodded. Giles allowed himself a
broad smile. "It would be my pleasure to accompany you to the Carnival
Ms. Calendar."
"Jenny, please"
"Very well then, Jenny"
*****
Across town, Xander was turning over in his sleep.
* The FBI agent and his partner ran across the grounds, guns drawn. The
FBI woman yelled something to the man, who yelled back. The FBI man's
eyes opened wide in astonishment at what he saw before him. The partner
saw nothing though, and the man yelled at her to watch out, before he
ran out in front of her and holstered his gun, raising his arms above
his head pointing to the sky, fingers splayed out, and then...*
Xander Harris woke up. 'Whoa that was weird' he instantly thought. 'Got
to stop watching those chase movies before I go to sleep'
Xander trudged down the stairs, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He made
his way over to a cupboard in the kitchen, and pulled out the only solid
food in the house; a box of Capt'n Crunch cereal. He meandered over to
the fridge and pulled out some milk. He absently poured the cereal and
the milk into a bowl, then got himself a spoon. He was still puzzling
over his weird dream, pondering what it's significance was. He knew it
was important to someone in someway. He filed it away in his mind. The
answer would come to him in time. He carried his breakfast over to the
den, and settled himself in to watch the morning cartoons.
*****
The lit end of a cigarette glowed brightly, tiny pieces of ash falling
off, as the smoker inhaled. Already, his ashtray was half full with
smoke stubs. He looked around the room, seeing aged faces that were
etched in his mind. He knew next to nothing about these people, and they
knew nothing about him, yet here they met frequently.
They had met to discuss FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, and his supposed
death in his apartment two weeks ago. Unbeknownst to Scully and the
local authorities, the FBI had done a full work up on blood taken from
the body in Mulder's apartment. The results had just come back. It
wasn't him.
The Well-Manicured man finished reading the report and scowled.
"Gentlemen, we have a situation. It seems our dear friend Mr. Mulder
isn't dead as we were made to believe. It is imperative that we know his
location immediately. The dead man was a Department of Defense spy,
working directly for our DOD liaison. That body needs to be incinerated
promptly, and all traces of our involvement must be wiped away."
The collection of old, but very important men grumbled in agreement,
pushed back their chairs, and shuffled out the door.
When the last of them had gone, Cancerman turned to face the
Well-Manicured man and remarked, "Well, looks like he has thwarted us
again. What do you propose we do about it?"
The Well-Manicured man turned his large head to look at Cancerman. "I
think it is time to take the next step. You know what to do."
"It will be done."
Chapter 6
THE GILES' RESIDENCE
1253 HOURS
Buffy's arm whipped up and behind her, but her foe was not where he had
once been. A leg swooped out behind her, almost knocking her legs out
from under her. She jumped up, using her Slayer strength to propel her
upwards, until she grabbed hold of a pipe overhead. She swung around,
kicking her legs out in front of her, and hit her opponent square on the
chest.
Giles fell to the padded floor of the deep basement of his Sunnydale
home. Buffy was training here since the library was undergoing major
repairs. Willow, Xander, Ms. Calendar, and a reluctant Cordelia were
also there. Ms. Calendar had brought over her laptop since Giles didn't
own a computer, and she was watching Willow admirably. Willow was typing
away at the computer, searching the Internet for information on the
prophesy that Giles had briefed them on earlier. Cordelia was, well,
being Cordelia. She was making snide comments on the lack of decor in
the basement, and the whole house.
Xander had gone out to get them lunch, and had just returned. He rang
the doorbell insistently. Buffy, who was just about to finish Giles off,
jumped up to answer it (much to Giles' relief). She opened it to find
Xander standing there, grinning, and proudly holding up his five large
bags of food. Buffy relieved him of two of the bags, and together they
brought them downstairs. Xander laid out all the food on the small
coffee table, the only furniture in the room. Giles and Cordelia looked
at the fast food with distaste. Xander had already dug in, and was half
finished his first cheeseburger.
Buffy, famished after her strenuous workout, picked up a box of large
fries, and commenced to munch on them.
Ms. Calendar chose a filet-o-fish, Giles and Willow both took
hamburgers, while Cordelia picked at a box of Chicken McNuggets.
Giles brought down a large black garbage bag, into which they all put
their garbage when they were done. Xander, not wanting to leave any food
uneaten, looked hungrily at Cordelia's McNuggets. She pushed them over
to him with disgust, and he promptly devoured them, licking the
remaining crumbs off his fingers. He grinned happily, then let out a
loud burp. "Xander" everyone groaned. He looked at all of them and held
his hands up in protest.
***
Something beeped, and Buffy paused in the middle of her attack to check
her beeper. "Don't' bother," Ms. Calendar said from behind her. "Its
just my e-mail". Giles got up from where Buffy had tossed him, and
everyone crowded around Ms. Calendar and her laptop.
"It's from that monk, Brother Luca" Giles remarked "I wonder what he has
to say now?"
Ms. Calendar quickly read the message, and told him it was about the new
prophesy. He moved forward to read the message.
"Hmmm... very interesting. It says here that unexpected help will arrive
to aid us, but it might not be enough. I wonder what this "unexpected
help" is, and why it won't be enough. Ms. Cal-... Jenny," he corrected
himself, while Willow, Buffy and Xander exchanged glances. "Is there
some way to contact this Brother Luca character? Send him a reply
e-message maybe?"
"That's e-mail Rupert"
"Yes well, can you?"
"Of course. Just give me a couple of minutes."
Ms. Calendar hastily typed out a message asking for more information,
sent it, and sat back in her chair, waiting. "This may take a while,"
she informed them.
Sure enough, it was nearly an hour later when they received a reply.
Everyone had gotten bored waiting, so Willow and Xander had pulled out a
chess board and started a game. Buffy was going through a series of
flips and gymnastics on the floor, Cordelia and Ms. Calendar were
engaged in a chat about clothes and the importance of a good appearance.
Giles was trying to figure out how to use the laptops cursor in order to
play a game of electronic solitaire. He almost had it, when the computer
beeped, startling him.
The monk's e-mail said that the help was one who had lost everything,
everyone, one who had a special power. Not even he would be able to
banish the evil that had laid dormant, awakened by the Hellmouth. The
e-mail ended, leaving everyone more confused then before. Finally
Cordelia asked, "What does this mean, "one who has lost everything,
everyone'? How can you lose everyone?"
"I think I can answer that".
For Parts 7 & 8, Click Here!
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