TITLE: The Time Lady and the Watcher
AUTHOR: Methos (ianblyth2005@btinternet.com)
DISCLAIMER: This story takes place during year 2 of my Harry Potter and the Technomage series, as usual, everything Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, Babylon 5 belongs to JMS and a ton of other people including Jeanne Cavelos who I have to thank for her amazing work on the Technomage backgrounds. Dr Who, Romanadvoratrelundar, Gallifrey and everything from the Whouniverse belong to hundreds of people, none of which are me... all I own is the twisted idea, poor me :(
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=/^\= Giles felt his hands run through his thinning hair as his frustration crept up on him again. It had been nearly two years now since Xander had left to attend Hogwarts, two years without a word, not even an owl or a telephone call, nothing. They’d all sent him Christmas presents last year, but without any word from the erstwhile Scooby, they were beginning to feel a bit abandoned.
He’d heard the rumours; he wasn’t that far outside the wizarding world so as not to have. The rumours that You Know Who was returning to power, the first time he’d heard the rumour he had nearly dropped his cup of tea in shock, the very idea that ‘He’ was coming back scared him more than he would like to admit. He had left that all behind him; he got out a long time ago, back when he was young. His family had never forgiven him of course, for leaving, for finally having the guts to stand up and do what was right. They all thought he was dead now, his brother, his parents, all of them.
He’d felt the old mark burning and itching of course, he knew what it meant; even the old tattoo of Eyghon that covered it up for so many years had now been burnt away as the faded remnants of the old mark burned to the surface. A few times he had considered planning going over to England, going back to Hogwarts and returning to that world, but every time he thought he had plucked up the courage the thoughts of that last final fight with the infirni, the fight that nearly cost him his life, the memories of the water rushing into his lungs before he managed to change shape, they all came flooding back nearly paralysing him to the spot with fear.
So now Xander was alone, and he cursed himself for his fears, for not having the courage to go back and help his ‘son’ with the trials that were coming. It had been nearly two years now, Xander must have been coming along in his schooling by now, it was just hard to accept that he was over there and there was nothing he could do for him from here.
Willow had taken it the hardest, but Buffy had felt it as well, even though she had been the driving force causing him to leave Sunnydale in the first place, He felt that now she actually regretted her actions and saw what a vital part Xander was to the group. Without his light hearted sense of humour to brighten the situation, patrols had become increasingly dark affairs, with Buffy turning from stakes and crossbows to a more lethal approach with swords.
Willow had done the same, though not with weaponry, her investment had been to concentrate more and more on magic, some even dangerous magics that he had tried to dissuade her from. Though most of his pleas now fell on deaf ears, especially now with Riley dating Buffy full time, her secret out in the open for all to see, and Willow helping the initiative at Riley’s behest. Sunnydale had become a much darker place since Xander had left and he doubted that this would be the sort of place that Xander would want to come back to, even if he could forgive his ‘friends’ for what happened.
He turned round, admiring the empty room for a moment, there were times in the past three years that he would have given a good portion of his soul for some peace and quiet like this, but now the silence was deafening. It felt strange, stagnant even. The house was now lifeless; the little hints of the teenagers that used to frequently visit him had long since gone.
In all truth he had long since given up on Sunnydale, Buffy didn’t need him here anymore, she had made that abundantly clear when she turned to Riley and the Initiative for backup and resources instead of him. The only thing they actually ‘let’ him do anymore was look after the chipped vampire, Spike. He’d had a run in with the initiative earlier this year, and it had left him unable to bite any humans. In a strange move, Buffy had refused to hand over Spike to the initiative, even though she was now working with them full time. For some unfathomable reason she had left him with Giles to look after.
And now here he was, expelled from the Watchers council, ignored by his own slayer, living with a neutered vampire and even the boy he had come to think of as his own son had abandoned him. He opened the draw under the desk slowly, methodically, as he always did to retrieve his wand. It slid into his hand like an old friend and the warmth tingled around his palm where the hand crafted wood slipped past the old calluses and found its way home.
He stood up with the wand in his hand, feeling comfortable as he twirled the wand around his fingers slowly as he slowly walked across the room to the stereo that was neatly placed in the corner above his vinyl collection. He carefully selected the album and placed it on the player before turning the power switch.
The soft sound of ‘One of us is gonna die young’ by The Ark came slowly from the speakers at first before he sent a quick flick of his wand towards the stereo to fix the problem. He’d been listening to this song more and more lately, it seemed to fit his mood of late, he just wished the ominous feeling in his gut would go away and actually let him rest at night.
“Will you...” Spike began to shout as he walked out of the bedroom that he had ‘kidnapped’ for his own, though really it was little more than a room that Giles had moved his weapons and odd mystical artefact out of, now he didn’t patrol or help Buffy anymore it was of little use to him. Most of the weapons he had sold cheaply to stores around town, and a few of the artefacts he had decided were fakes, so he had sold them to a local ‘new age’ store.
“Do be quiet.” Giles said pleasantly though with an undercurrent of steel as he turned to look at the peroxide vampire. While he had come to accept Spike being here and the limited role that he was taking on in helping Buffy, it didn’t mean that he actually had to be pleasant to the vampire.
“It’s just this soddin’ song, over and over,” Spike complained while trying to keep his tone as neutral as possible. He’d learnt early on that the watcher wasn’t as much of as a push over as he thought he was when he’d first come to Sunnydale. Two hours as a rat had helped him come to that conclusion, especially when Giles had locked him in the fridge for the last hour. “Why don’t you get out, you know, take some of that frustration and do sommet’ with it?”
“Is that your solution to everything Spike? Violence?” Giles asked as the song continued to play in the background.
“Well, it doesn’t hurt.” Spike smirked back.
“So, how did that work out for your chip?” Giles smiled softly as Spike frowned at him. “Violence isn’t all....” Giles paused, mid-word as he felt the first tremor shake the floorboard. The music skipped several beats as the shelf the vinyl player was on shuddered. “Again?” He breathed out as he took the three steps to the doorway of the kitchen. He felt strange standing there, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t protect himself from any falling debris and such, but after too many years living with muggles he had found some things actually made sense in the long run, and the protective frame of the doorway actually did help him feel better as she earthquake began to shake the room more violently.
“Huh...” Spike paused as he braced his boots against the floorboards, this was the third earthquake this week and they were becoming more than a little annoyance to him. This one was different though, the others barely lasted a few seconds where as this one was still going strong nearly a minute later. “This is new.” He smirked over at Giles who was standing calmly in the doorway.
“We are in California Spike, earthquakes are the norm here.” Giles shot back.
“Three in a week?” Spike asked with a frown. “Nah, even for Sunnydale, that’s weird.”
“Maybe,” Giles frowned, running through any calendar dates in his mind that would point to today as being a specifically vital mystical point, nothing really came to mind though.
“Maybe those monk guys were right after all...” Spike muttered as he slowly made his way over to where Giles was standing, his usual cocky stride made a bit unsure by the constant shaking of the ground.
“What... monks...” Giles ground out as the tremor started to shake more violently.
“Oh, some ponces I ran into last week, kept muttering about the end of days and all that bollocks, didn’t pay ‘em much notice mind you.” Spike stated simply with a bored look on his face. “They were down at that rip off store, you know, the one with all the hippy bollocks outside.”
“Spirit of the age...” Giles frowned, it was a local new age store, nothing really of interest to him, mostly books on Wicca and the occasional talisman, nothing of any real power. In fact he had been sure most, if not all of their artefacts were fake when he had wandered in to sell some of his old books and talismans.
“That’s the one,” Spike continued. “They seemed all excited, something about the Word of Viagra...” Spike paused as he frowned. “No, that’s not it, Word of Valium? Valius?” He frowned again as he tried to get the name right. “Anyway, some bloody rusty amulet or something they’d found, said they were going to bring the ‘goddess of time’ to earth, bloody bollocks if you ask me.”
“The Word of Valios?” Giles ground out through his teeth as the earthquake subsided.
“That’s the puppy!” Spike grinned as he clicked his fingers; that would have been bugging him all night.
“The one that can open the Hellmouth?” Giles frowned even further, tempted now to cast an incendio and put the annoying bleached vampire out of everyone’s misery.
“Ahh... that one.” Spike frowned as he saw Giles’ fingers wrap around his wand. “Think we should stop it?”
“We?” Giles raised his eyebrow as the earthquake finished shaking the house.
“Well, more along the lines of, I help you... well, watch your back, and you don’t dust me.” Spike babbled out as he started to back away from Giles. “Well come on,” Spike started to defend his situation. “If she really was a goddess or any of that bollocks, she wouldn’t need these tossers help in getting out, would she?”
“Just because she might not be a true goddess of time, does not mean that they could not cause destruction on an untold level Spike,” Giles countered as he slipped his wand into his pocket and threw his coat on. “Well? Are you coming or not?” Giles frowned as he saw a look of glee cross Spike’s face before he walked out of the front door and shut it behind the vampire.
“So, where first? Willy’s? Do I get to watch you beat him up again?” Spike grinned at the thought of even being able to watch some violence, even if he couldn’t partake in it anymore.
“I thought the Hellmouth would be a better place to start,” Giles frowned as they reached his car.
“Oh bollocks to that,” Spike smirked at the car. “Walking would be bloody quicker.”
=/^\= “Bloody hell!” Spike whispered out as he snuck round the derelict corridors of Sunnydale High School, following Giles who had his wand out and was using it like a torch.
“Quiet!” Giles hissed out as he arranged himself on a corner wall so that he could see round effectively without being seen by the occupants.
He could see two now, no three, all wearing robes with some sort of infinity symbol rotated so it ran down the chest vertically. They were Chronitoc demons, peaceful monks, not the sort to go around opening Hellmouths or bringing about the end of days.
“We worship the one!” One of the demons cried out as it strode towards the centre of what used to be the library and bowed down on its knees.
“We live for the one!” Another demon cried out as it followed the other and lied down on what looked to be a roughly drawn approximation of the same symbol they had on their robes, only drawn in blood on the cracked floor.
“We die for the one!” The last demon cried out as he strode into the middle of where the other two were waiting, for a moment he simply stood there before brandishing a dagger.
Giles was ready in a heartbeat, his wand focused as the lit tip died out and he stepped around the corner. “Expelli...” He didn’t have chance to finish the incantation however as the demon ripped the dagger down in a smooth motion, slicing its own throat open in a clean cut before it fell to the floor and it’s blue blood started oozing out onto the cracked ground.
“I’m guessing that ain’t good then?” Spike whispered as Giles went several shades paler and the room started shaking.
“Interlopers!” One of the remaining demons hissed up at them, causing the other survivor to snap his head round and bare his teeth at them.
“Quite,” Giles said, almost using the word as a curse. “Incendio!” He shouted, blasting one of the demons with a fire ball from his wand, his aim held true as the fire ball impacted the demon in the chest, incinerating it instantly.
“Oh bugger!” Spike muttered as the shaking started becoming more violent and the ground in the library started crumbling away revealing a sickly blue light. “You better have something fancier than a fireball mate,” Spike smirked as he turned to Giles who was now aiming his wand at the other demon.
“Tell me!” He shouted as he strode over to the demon, his wand held out threateningly as he thrust it painfully into the demons neck. “Who is the goddess of time? Who are you summoning?”
“We... we don’t know her name,” The demon hissed out as the entire hall now became bathed in the bright blue light. “She is eternal, a true goddess of time, she burns through all life and will see the end of the universe.”
“So a true goddess; then? Bugger,” Spike smirked as Giles turned to face the hole that was forming in the floor, “Time to get the Slayer then.”
“Leave her,” Giles said softly, turning to the demon. “Go, get out of here.” He muttered softly, nodding as the demon fled, his robes swirling up clouds of dust as he ran from the library. “We’ve got bigger things to deal with.”
“Oh hell,” Spike muttered as he walked over, the last demon forgotten as he stared down where Giles was looking, the view beneath him threatening to swallow him whole as the curves and ripples around moved on their own accord. The ‘hole’, that was all he could call it, was blue and black and orange and other colours he had never even imagined before. It was dark and foreboding but promised life and salvation all at the same time. It swirled around like an unstable vortex with twists and turns that should have taken it out of view but somehow it seemed to warp to keep everything stable.
“Kinda reminds me of Woodstock,” Spike muttered softly as he stared down.
“Not now,” Giles hissed out, his eyes never wavering from the sight beneath them while his brain ran at a hundred miles a second as he tried desperately to think of a way to close this before anything came through from the hell dimension they were now connected to.
“Is that...” Spike swallowed audibly as he stared down the ‘vortex’. “Hell?” He knew there were dozens, if not hundreds of hell dimensions, and the one that seemed to be slowly coming into view at the bottom of the vortex didn’t look any more inviting than any of the other Hell dimensions that he’d heard about.
“I don’t know,” Giles paused, staring down the vortex. “It could be one of any number of dimensions Spike; though it does have a certain ‘hellish’ look to it I will admit.”
“You can say that again,” Spike smirked as he looked down, the view that was now shimmering into sight was of a desolate landscape, fires burned around the edges and just in the distance he could make out what looked like a city off in the distance, at one point it looked as if it had had a dome or something protecting it from the elements, but that had all gone now and the giant pearl white spires were slowly being eaten away by the sand filled air while fires licked around them and through all of the shattered windows. Spike squinted his eyes, trying to make out more detail, the buildings showed real signs of decay and the most telling fact was that there wasn’t any glare or reflection from the windows, it was like every piece of glass in the entire city had been smashed. The most awkward thing about the way the ‘vortex’ had formed was the fact that while they were looking down through the floor into the vortex, it seemed to be appearing on the other side the right way up on the landscape.
“What’s that?” Giles finally broke in, trying to wrap his head around how the gravity must twist and reshape in the vortex, if there was any gravity at all through the twisting hole through dimensions. He pointed his wand towards where he could see some movement coming towards them slowly.
“Dunno,” Spike shifted position a bit, trying to get a better view at where Giles was pointing. “Wait... is that...” His voice rose an octave as he grinned. “A bint with a tin dog?!” He barked out a laugh before being silenced by Giles’ glare.
Sure enough there was a woman wearing a loose red top walking towards them, she seemed to be carrying what looked like to be a tin dog that had K-9 printed on the side of it in bold black lettering. The woman was blonde with her hair falling around her shoulders, the hair was matted through sweat and what looked like blood and her clothes were burnt in several places and torn in various others.
“I... I don’t think she belongs there,” Giles said softy as he stared down the vortex at her as she approached; he even winced as she fell to her knees sharply as she stumbled towards the vortex. He watched her stand up shakily, the tin dog having fallen to the floor and rolled away from her.
“Think we should `elp her?” Spike asked, staring down into the vortex as the woman picked up the tin dog carefully in her arms and started walking towards them again. He could now see the tin dog had been damaged quite severely, a hole in the side with wires poking out and various scorch marks over the bluish grey casing made it pretty obvious that the tin dog wasn’t in pristine condition anymore.
“I should say so,” Giles said with a frown as the room shook again, various pieces of debris from the unstable library were now falling down the vortex and being torn apart as they bounced around the outsides. “And quickly,” He added as he noted the instability of the vortex. Dimensional rifts weren’t known for their stability and this one did not look to be the exception to the rule.
“Sod that!” Spike muttered as he watched a particularly sturdy looking metal girder get warped and torn apart as it bounced around the vortex walls. “How the bloody hell do you expect to get her over ‘ere,” He paused for a moment, looking down the vortex and shaking his head. “Up ‘ere, whatever.”
“I don’t know,” Giles muttered, racking his brain for a solution to the problem as he looked around the library which was becoming even less sturdy as time moved on.
“Well bloody hurry up,” Spike shouted as he moved out of the way of some more debris that fell into the vortex, the woman on the other side was now virtually up the other side of the portal and was looking wearily at the various objects that had fallen out of the other side of it in scattered pieces of their original form.
“I’m trying,” Giles snapped back before flicking his wand over several pillars that instantly morphed into flat platforms, another flick send them slowly into the vortex, yet another flick turned one of the wooden banisters into a long rope that coiled on the floor and tied itself to a thick stone pillar, another flick sent it down the vortex on top of the platforms. “Quickly!” He shouted down the vortex to the woman who was looking up at them hopefully. “It won’t hold for long!”
“What about K-9?” The woman shouted back, thrusting the tin dog out in front of her.
“Leave the soddin’ tin dog,” Spike shouted down impatiently. “This place is bloody falling apart; just get up ‘ere!”
“I can’t!” The woman shouted up, “I can’t leave him!”
“Tie the rope around the dog, then get hold of the rope and we’ll try and get both of you,” Giles shouted down, nodding when she nodded up at him. “Go slowly though, I don’t know how long those platforms will last.”
“This better work Watcher,” Spike said, not taking his eyes off the woman who was slowly tying the rope around the tin dog. “If they fall then there ain’t gonna be enough of ‘er for a DNA test.”
“You think I don’t know that,” Giles shot back. “But unless you have any better suggestions,” He waited a beat for Spike to respond then continued when Spike stayed silent. “I suggest you steady the rope while I get ready if anything should go wrong.”
“Whatever,” Spike muttered before he moved over to where the rope was tied off; looping the rope around his wrists he gingerly stepped closer to the vortex and braced himself ready for the weight of the woman and the tin dog.
“Take it carefully,” Giles shouted down the vortex, hoping that the woman could still hear them as she slowly made her way over the platforms following the tin dog. “Quickly,” He muttered, almost a prayer as the room shook again.
“She’s not going to make it,” Spike shouted as the platforms shook slightly with the rest of the room.
“She will.” Giles shouted forcefully above the roar of the vortex. “Just hold tight,” He muttered as he moved to look down again. She looked to be about half way up, across, whatever the vortex but he could see the strain on her face from the strain that the vortex was putting on her. “Hold on!” Giles shouted down. “Tightly!” He paused for a moment, watching as she looked up at him before wrapping the rope around her waist tightly. “Ready?” He shouted, waiting for her to respond before he flicked his wand at her and the tin dog. “Accio Rope!”
The effect was instantaneous, the rope started moving up towards them, slowly at first but then it began to pick up speed to such an extent that Spike stumbled backwards as the rope pulled him back away from the vortex where he fell in a pile of dust. Unfortunately not his own, Giles noted.
“Could’a warned me!” He shouted, muttering several choice curses under his breath as he stood up and untangled himself from the rope that was coming faster and faster now.
“No time,” Giles shouted, “Get ready!”
“For wha...” Spike started before the vortex shuddered once more and the tin dog flew out of the vortex, still attached to the rope. Spike barely had time to brace himself before the dog landed on top of him sending them both back down in a pile where the tin dog rolled off of him and crashed into a desk with a resounding clang.
“And one more,” Giles prayed silently that the vortex would hold for just a few more seconds while the blonde woman made her way through, someone must have been listening as the rope pulled her into view a few moments later, looking a little shocked and dazed she gratefully accepted Giles’ hand out of the vortex as the rope stopped moving. “We should go,” Giles said plainly, not bothering with any introductions at this point. “This room isn’t stable and the vortex could bring the entire school down.”
“Got my vote,” Spike shouted. “Let’s get the bloody hell out of here!”
“This way,” Giles said, motioning to the corridor when he saw the woman pick up her dog again. “Spike, take the dog,” He said forcefully, leaving no room for Spike to disagree with him. “It’ll slow her down and we need to get out of here as quickly as we can.”
“Right,” Spike nodded, snatching the tin dog from the woman who stared at him for a moment before opening her mouth to say something before a wry smile appeared on her face and she nodded while her hand played with something in her pocket.
“Come on,” Giles snapped, breaking them out of the staring competition, he noted that the woman seemed to look through Spike as if he wasn’t even there, something he had wished fondly for over the past few months.
“Right, whatever.” Spike muttered as he followed the blonde woman who was now making her way through the crumbling school corridors following Giles.
=/^\= AN: This fic starts half way through year 2 of Harry Potter and the Technomage Book 2, just so people can get their timelines right :D
Hope you enjoy
M
