“Okay, I’ve threatened the juvenile hearth rugs.” Buffy mumbled to herself as she entered the kitchen. “Now where is my coffee?” This last was spoken louder, and directed to the room at large.
“Hearth rugs?” Willow asked as she sipped her cup of tea.
Elvara and Joyce shared a quick glance and broke out into giggles. It was Joyce who asked, “So you talked to them then?”
“We have reached an understanding.” Buffy speared Elvara’s two young daughters with a glance. “I trust I won’t have to repeat myself anytime soon?”
Nordlys shook her head and Katla just looked confused.
Nordlys leaned across and whispered to her sister, "Bebee Elizabetta has threatened Wolf and Fahr to behave until we are old enough," she explained.
"Oh. That’s good then." was the only reply she got.
Nordlys poured Buffy a coffee and handed it over. "Thank you for caring," she said as she kissed the older woman's cheek.
Spike smirked as he sipped from his mug, answering Willow’s question. “The two young men she is referring to, seem to have a similar problem to your old boyfriend.”
Joyce shook her head. “Not really Spike. Oz couldn’t control it. They can, quite well from what I have heard.”
Willow’s eyes opened wide in understanding, “Oh! And she just… if they…” She nodded her head, “Cool.”
Xander blinked, his mind taking in what had been said, not quite understanding until he made the connection. He yelped and tripped over his own feet, falling to the floor, sputtering. “You mean… them… werewolves?!?!”
“Not exactly,” Methos said as he accepted a bacon roll from Elvara. “Only Wolf is… well… a werewolf.” He took a slow sip of his coffee and continued. “Fahr is a werecat. Not sure exactly what type, but definitely feline.”
Xander just sat there, on the floor, blinking and shaking his head.
It was Richie who knelt down and whispered in his ear. “The only thing that’s going to happen is your arse is going to get sore from sitting on the floor, and your brains will fall out if you keep shaking your head.” He grabbed Xander’s arm and helped him back to his feet. “Don’t worry, it’s all under control.”
"Don’t worry. Right. That I can do. If they’re were-whatever’s why are they sniffing around the girls. Do the girls know?" Xander babbled
"They're their mates, Xander. With their kind they can actually recognize their mates very young. And yes the girls know." Ritchie answered leading the bemused young man to one of the sofas.
Clem looked up from where he was sitting, “Hi Buffy, “the demon said. “Where did you find Klantac Meat? I didn't think you could get it in this dimension.”
Buffy raised an eyebrow at Elvara who just grinned and pretended not to notice the look she was getting from Elizabetta.
Picking up her own drink she made her way over to where Haakon was sitting, where she sank down onto the floor at his feet and rested her head on his leg. The Soturi dropped his hand onto her head and stroked her hair slowly.
Spike took a huge swig of the warmed blood in his mug and nearly spluttered it out. “This is Slayer!” he exclaimed, staring into the mug in the hope it would give him some answers.
“We thought it should make you stronger for the fight. I know where a couple of potentials live and I paid them to donate. It was the work of moments for Haakon to trigger the Slayer gene.” Elvara explained to the still spluttering vampire. “It will speed you up? I was right?”
“You were right, Pet. Just wasn't expecting it, that's all.” Spike told the resting woman as he gratefully accepted a top up from Nordlys.
Dawn and Katla were also helping where they could. Dawn was nervous. It was obvious, but surprisingly it was the young girl that steadied the youngest Summers.
“Weapons,” Buffy finally said and looked over at Spike. “Give a lady a hand?” she asked holding out a hand.
Spike looked puzzled for a moment.
“I need blood,” Buffy explained and Spike brought her wrist up to his fangs, barely scratching the surface. The blood pooled in the scratches for a couple of seconds before Buffy dripped it into the middle of the kitchen floor. What happened next seemed like something out of a Hollywood film. Part of the floor sank and slipped sideways to reveal a set of stone stairs leading downwards.
Buffy flicked a switch at the top and the whole path was flood lit with Halogen lights.
“What were you expecting? Flaming torches?” she asked with a laugh at the expressions on the Scooby’s faces. “Let's go shopping.” she added with a wicked grin, before tripping lightly down the stairs.
Giles and Spike followed quickly slightly overawed at what they were seeing.
Cassie, Ritchie and Methos already had their own swords, but they picked up side arms from the rack that looked like it had been set out for the centre page spread in arms and ammo.
Haakon was efficiently checking over a new model Glock, and picking up extra ammunition clips before handing a tranquilizer gun to Elvara. Spike grinned as he watched the Viking check it twice before he allowed the Priestess to take it from him.
Joyce was smiling at Giles's expression. “Just don't ask mother about licenses.” she told him as she opened up the doors to a cabinet that held knives of all sorts. Some looked like they should be painted onto the walls of Egyptian tombs while others looked more like they'd come out of the fevered imagination of a psychopath.
Buffy and Methos reached in together to pick up the knives they normally carried. Buffy's had dragons curled up the blades, dragons that seemed to uncoil slightly as they fitted into her hand.
The converted cellars seemed to go on for miles. Buffy watched in amusement as spike opened one of the doors to find a bare room with chains attached to the wall.”Prison cell,” Elvara explained coming up behind the blond. “Those chains were built to withstand demons, vampires would stand no chance.” she grinned, “You and Bebee can play later, work now.” she said knowingly.
“And Joy, we don't need licenses.” Elvara grinned at her sister. “Diplomatic Immunity at its best.”
Buffy and Cassie went round the room making sure everyone was armed. Ritchie had pulled two more tranq guns out and handed them, hilt first to the two witches. He then showed them how to put the holsters on properly, securing them in place with leg straps. “Make sure you pack plenty of spare doses, they fit around the belts.” he ordered before he checked that Buffy didn't need him for anything else.
Methos watched carefully as Xander picked up his own weapons. Whatever misgivings he might have had about the boy, he knew his weapons.
It took them less than fifteen minutes to arm fully. Then Buffy opened up the last cabinet. It was filled with medical supplies.
“I'll see to that with the girls help when you've left.” Joyce told her mother before hugging her closely. “You be careful.”
“I will.” Buffy said, returning the hug. “Elvara lock down.” she instructed as she made her way back up the steps.
Elvara nodded once and closed her eyes for a fraction of a second. All that could be heard were the resounding thuds of steel shutters, back by the strongest wards known, locking into place. The noise was echoing through the room.
Upstairs Dawn looked in horror as every single window and door became impenetrable. The only way in or out was through the massive oak front door that had been steel lined centuries ago by a master smith.
Elvara accepted Haakon's aid in climbing up the stairs; their fingers interlinked the way that Spike's and Buffy's were.
Nordlys was waiting at the top for them. She sank onto her knees in front of her mother. Elvara let go of Haakon's hand and placed her own on Nordlys’ head. “If I return I will. If not, take my place with honor.” she told the young girl, trying to ignore the tears that were welling up in her own eyes. They were exactly the same words her own mother had spoke to her when she and Hrolf had left to fight the Demon Lord that had been released.
Nordlys nodded “I will.” she said before rushing into her mother's embrace.
Buffy stepped forward and wrapped her arms around them both, tears shimmering in her eyes. “Know this my little dancing light. If it is within my power, she shall be returned to you.” Buffy ran her thumbs across Nordlys cheekbones and winked. “And we all know that her Soturi would die before allowing her to be harmed.”
At that, Nordlys gave a gasp, her eyes widening as she remembered something. “I’ll be right back…” and she extricated herself from her mother’s embrace and raced out of the room.
Tara made a move as if to follow, but was restrained by Anya’s gentle hand on her arm. “I think I know where she is going. She’ll be back once she has found it.”
“Found what?” Xander asked with an absently curious tone to his voice, as he checked and rechecked the gun he had chosen from Buffy’s vast arsenal.
“You’ll see,” Methos said as he clapped a hand to Xander’s shoulder and left it there, showing Xander he was there for him, even if only to kick his ass.
Nordlys searched through her room in a frenzy. It had to be here somewhere.
There it was. She pulled out the wooden box from the bottom of her wardrobe. She knew it had been here.
Hurrying back down the stairs she nearly skidded at the bottom, only to be caught by Wolf.
She ran to her mother's side
"Mama, you gave this to me for safe keeping when I was ten. I return it now to your hands," she said as she pulled a true Viking sword from its scabbard. The light caught the pattern welded blade and flung the beams back around the room.
"The other dragon sword, I thought it lost to history," Buffy said in astonishment. "I had no idea you had that."
"It was the traditional weapon of the Soturi." Elvara explained quietly as she looked at the blade her father had carried, reverently she took it from her daughter's hand and replaced it in its scabbard before turning to Haakon.
“I place my protection in your hands, Soturi. Guard us well.” she said before kissing his cheek.
“My life in your service lady.” Haakon replied before fastening the baldric around his torso and checking on the state of the blade. It looked like an efficient killing machine, if a sword could be called a machine. The light glinted off the pattern worked into the metal, there was a groove running down its length, and a simple cross guard. It seemed designed just for killing.
A horn outside sounded and they made their way out of the house towards the van Clem had borrowed from one of his friends. As they left Willow watched as the three young girls cuddled up to Joyce, needing the reassurance that they would see their loved ones again. Nordlys seemed the worst affected. She turned her face so her mother wouldn't see her tears.
“Set the wards,” Buffy asked Elvara as she slipped into the van.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Elvara meditated as the van they were crammed into worked its way through the side streets and made its way to the innocent looking square that held the building that was Watcher's HQ. Clem had driven the route three or four times in the night, making sure he knew it off by heart before he brought Buffy and the warriors to their target. Buffy and Spike shared the bench seat at the front while everyone else was crammed in the back.
Haakon and Anya flanked Elvara as she went deeper and deeper into her own mind, building and holding a powerful glamour.
Methos took advantage of the situation by pulling Cassie onto his lap. Methos had already threatened to remove Xander’s spleen through his nostrils if he disturbed the Priestess at all. The look on the immortal man's face, and the lack of sympathy on anyone else's had made the boy hold his tongue the whole time. It wasn't until they drove passed one of the huge plate glass windows along Regent's Street that he realized how hard she was working. All he could see of their reflection was Clem's small car from Sunnydale. There was no sign of the large van being driven by a floppy skinned demon.
Elvara nodded to Willow as they entered the road that led to the Watcher's home square. She held out her hand, Tara's already grasped firmly in her other and prepared to take up the load that was the glamour. Willow screamed. She had never felt so much power course through her. Hair and eyes turned white as she pulled the extra strength she needed form her lover before she picked up the mantle that Elvara was handing her. A small part of her mind hadn't really believed the older woman's warning. She did now. Anya touched the joined hands and added just a little more power as the glamour settled on the occupants of the vehicle. Buffy looked more like Joyce, Clem like any other son being made to take his mother shopping; the rest of them vanished from sight. Willow was breathing hard and sweating, this was hard.
“Stop fighting the power the earth is trying to give you, child,” Elvara instructed. “Let it flow through you. It’s a lot easier.”
Willow did as she was told, letting Gaia's own strength just flow through her body without hindrance.
“Better?” Elvara asked.
Willow nodded.
“Three minutes,” Clem called out from the front. The warriors started to pick up their weapons. Mostly swords and knives. Haakon took the intricately bound braid off of the hilt of his sword before strapping a Glock 22 to his hip and checking the knives he had hidden on his body.
Spike had slipped into game face as they rounded the corner. Clem pulled to a stop in the middle of the road and everyone climber out from the van, before he took off to wait for the pick-up signal. No-one had noticed a thing. The 'car' hadn't stopped at all.
Elvara stood by Buffy's side, Cassandra and Methos behind them; the light glamour they were wearing made them seem like any other group of tourists wandering around London looking at the architecture. Richie and Haakon scanned the street up and down, watching for any trouble. Spike just reveled in the fact that he could stand in the sun but Buffy wasn't fooled, he was still on high alert, he was just enjoying the sun.
Haakon took his place bedside Elvara, Anya coming up the other side.
“I am fire, I am ice,” Elvara repeated, listening as Anya picked up the rhythm. Soon she and Haakon joined in
“We are air and earth.”
It was the work of seconds, but it seemed like hours to those waiting.
“Fucking bastards!” Elvara exclaimed, her hair suddenly turning pure gold, eyes flashing. “Those bastards have anchored to the planet using innocent souls. Give me two minutes Beebe.”
Xander watched as Elvara performed her so called magic. Willow and Tara stood off to one side, looking pale and tired but were the magic users and he couldn't see why they had to bring the house keeper with them. She rubbed him up the wrong way completely. Joyce had said it was something to do with the Pheromones, that she gave off the essence of the female and he wasn't old enough to appreciate it yet, to him she looked like every other middle aged mother and could do with losing some weight.
“Elvara, are you sure you can manipulate the wards?” Buffy chewed on her bottom lip as she considered the options. Human blood had sealed the building in front of them; the wards were the strongest she'd seen in this dimension, other than her own of course.
“I know I can. It will pull a lot of power, but I've done it before. I need to do this, to help today Buffy. I need to” Elvara said, shaking slightly.
Buffy wrapped her arms around Elvara's shoulders and hugged her closely.
“I can't fight like you, Buffy, I mustn't do harm, but I can bring down those wards with no-one knowing. My part in the battle.”
With a nod Buffy agreed and walked away from the priestess. This was her battle.
Willow could see the wards, and they scared her. She had never seen anything like them before. They were thick, heavy and solidly built, wrapped into the very earth itself. Nothing she had ever learned had prepared her for this.
Buffy signaled to Elvara then loosened her sword in its scabbard. Something changed in the atmosphere as Elvara started to mutter under her breath.
'Great' thought Xander, ‘just what we need, her going loco.’
Elvara was starting to sweat, beads of water running down her face and arms, the cloth clinging to her skin. Haakon wrapped his arms tightly around her, pulling her close into his strong body. His long hair loose covering both their faces like a curtain, hiding them both from sight.
Spike turned suddenly to face the older looking woman; he could hear her heart beating faster and faster as if she was running a marathon. The thudding was getting louder and louder. Haakon started to whisper to the witch in his arms.
“I am your rock and your support, you are safe with my arms, anchored to me you can travel where you will, I will call you home” his baritone voice echoed between them.
Anya joined in, getting under Haakon's embrace so he held them both. “I am air, I let you fly freely. You are safe with me.”
Spike watched, fascinated, as they both stroked Elvara's sodden hair back from her face, cradling her in their arms. Haakon sank to the pavement, pulling Elvara onto his lap, as he continued to half chant, half talk keeping the witch's soul in her body. Anya by their side, not letting go.
The movement was swift as Elvara turned in Haakon's arms and faced the building; throwing her open hand out towards it she slowly closed her fist.
“The wards are mine!” she said in a low, demanding tone. Then she smiled, it was almost unholy. “These wards are mine. I have them, Willow, Tara, drop the glamour.”
Tara and Willow were grateful for Richie's support as they slowly recovered from the exertion. How Elvara had produced it on her own they didn't want to know.”
“Can’t they see us from inside the building?” Xander asked as he handed Willow a bottle of water.
“No, Elvara is holding their own wards steady against them. It all looks empty to those on the inside.”
“All communications are down.” Cassie reported. “I have control.”
Buffy smiled and spoke softly. “Lower them at just the door, Elvara, and then let's get this show on the road.”
Buffy and the others mounted the stone steps quickly, slipping inside the building as Elvara dismantled the wards with no-one on the inside any the wiser. Xander was the last one up the steps; he turned to see Haakon lifting Elvara up into his arms, the woman seemed almost unconscious, and looked old, exhausted. Surely the magic she’d done hadn't been that difficult? Spike had pulled a gun from its holster and was acting as outrider as they brought the woman into the building.
Methos glanced over at Buffy, one eyebrow cocked in a silent question. She met his eyes with a considering look, before nodding in answer. He pulled out a small tube of what looked like paint and handed it to her.
Buffy opened the tube and squirted some of the oily substance onto her fingers before applying it to the left side of Methos’ face, turning it a vibrant blue. She smirked as she whispered softly, “Let Death be my left hand now as he was before.”
Ignoring the puzzled looks from everyone, Methos proceeded up the main stairs, sword bared, and a feral grin on his face. This was going to be fun!
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Author's Chapter Notes:
As always, thanks for reading. And a massive thanks to Jamies_Lady... without whom this story wouldnt have been as long.
Chapter End Notes:
up next? what else... the council goes down.