Divine Interventions (13/16)
Title: Divine Interventions (13/16)
Fandom: Buffy/Angel
Characters: Dawn, Amy, Cordelia, Ethan, Willow, Kennedy, and others.
Rating: The overall fic will include material up to and including NC-17; most scenes are considerably milder, though.
Warnings: Het, femslash, BDSM, noncon, underaged-but none of these as the main focus of the fic.
Warnings for this chapter: The aftermath of the violence in the last chapter.
Timeline/Spoilers: Takes place after “Why We Fight.” Spoilers up to “You’re Welcome.”
Summary: Dawn, Ethan, and Amy team up to protect Willow from a vengeful Osiris.
Note: Thanks to spikendru for a great beta.
Previous chapter can be found here.
All chapters can be found in my memories.
Chapter Thirteen
Dawn self-consciously exited the guest room that had been acting as Beth and Ethan’s to see a huddle of people gathered around Willow and Kennedy’s bedroom.
“What happened?” Dawn asked immediately, ignoring for the moment her concerns about propriety. Besides, they were all so intent on whatever it was that no one had seen which room she had come out of.
“It’s Kennedy,” Cordelia answered. “She’s injured. We were going to get you, but you weren’t in our room and then Althanea had it under control.”
“So she’s all right?”
Cordy shrugged. “She has a knife wound to the abdomen. I wouldn’t usually call that all right, but she’s a Slayer and she has one of the world’s most powerful healers working over her right now. She’ll be fine in a couple of days. Probably won’t even have a scar.”
“How’d it happen?”
Cordelia’s features darkened. “Willow.”
Dawn’s heart sunk into her stomach. How could any of them been so foolish as to leave Kennedy alone, relatively unprotected? Of course the dark version of Willow would attack her first. She should have at least have had a Wiccan on hand to stand guard.
Of course, how safe was anybody as long as Willow’s dark side was loose?
“I need to see Althanea,” Dawn said. “And you and Amy and everybody else, I guess. We know what the Rite of Isis does.”
Cordy nodded and quickly pushed aside the Wiccans who stood in the hall until she and Dawn managed to enter Kennedy’s bedroom. Althanea, Kelsenia, Amy, and Vaughne were already inside, and Ethan and Beth slipped in behind them. Kennedy lay naked on the ground.
“I said no one was to-” Althanea started, but broke off when she looked up and saw Dawn. “Oh, it’s you. Any news from the front?”
“People are dying,” Dawn said simply as she looked down at Kennedy’s prostrate form. Althanea and Kelsenia seemed to be cleaning the wound with some type of herbal mixture. “And we know what the Rite of Isis does. It removes the rules of noninterference for Higher Powers.”
Althanea visibly started so badly she almost dropped the rag she was holding in her hands. “You mean-”
Dawn nodded. “Every god or Power with an agenda is suddenly going to lose the obstacles which keep them from using humankind as their punching bags. Pandemonium.” She glanced back at Ethan. “Your patron should be happy.”
But Ethan shook his head. “Chaos holds within it the potential for creation. This is purely destructive.”
“Well, can we count on Hecate and Janus to help us out, then?”
This time it was Althanea who contradicted her. “Their influence is too subtle: butterfly-wings-flapping-in-Singapore type of stuff. Osiris will use brute force if his hands are untied.”
“Brute force above and beyond a vampiric army numbering in the hundred thousands?”
“Believe me, you don’t even want to know,” Ethan answered. Althanea and Amy gave dismal nods in agreement.
“Cordy?”
“I’m just a Higher Power,” Cordelia answered. “Don’t look at me. I won’t have anything near the power necessary to put down a god.”
“How about the other Powers?”
“There are beings of equal power on the other side,” Ethan pointed out. “For the most part, they should cancel each other out.”
“The good Willow?”
Vaughne answered. “I think she’s still communing or something. She’s not exactly one for shows of power; she claims they offset the harmony of the universe.”
Well, the harmony of the universe was going to be offset quite a bit if they couldn’t stop the Rite of Isis from being performed. “Did anyone think to suggest to her that maybe she should help us out anyway?”
“I tried,” Vaughne said. “All she did was quote the Tao Te Ching. ‘Through nonaction nothing is left undone.’”
Through nonaction they were all going to get killed. This was only getting worse. “Where’s a good hart’s blood dagger when you need one?” she muttered to herself.
It was Ethan who heard her. “Excuse me?”
“Pop culture reference, sorry. We need something which can kill a god.”
“Goddess only knows how that would throw off the balance,” Althanea said. “We need to contain Osiris, while still letting him act as a counter balance to the Light.”
It was then that Amy spoke up. “What about the other Willow? The one who did this?” She pointed to Kennedy’s once-grievous wound.
“Dropped to being our second priority. Dark Witch, bad. Dark God, worse.”
“Really?” a familiar voice said in a mock-whine. “I think I’m insulted.”
Dark-haired Willow entered the room, and Dawn could see how out in the hall the Wiccans had parted to let the witch through. Still, Vaughne’s crystal was glowing at a low-level intensity, so Dawn supposed the Wiccans were connected and prepared to act if the need arose.
“You dare to come back here after what you’ve done?” Althanea said, rising and gesturing towards Kennedy’s prostrate form.
“Why not?” Willow asked. “It’s my bedroom, after all. Or have all of you forgotten that you happen to be guests in my house?”
“Leave here,” Althanea ordered, in a voice which allowed no disagreement. The witch rose, and Dawn was struck with the force of Althanea’s confidence: the grey-haired witch showed no fear of Willow’s power, only an ageless grace.
“Well, you see, there’s a problem, Althanea,” Willow said, as she circled the group. “I want power-the type of power you gave me through Giles two years ago, that I had when I tried to end the world. I imagine that most of that power was yours, being the daughter of a goddess and all. And I want it. I don’t suppose that this time I’ll have to worry about it infecting me with your loathsome humanity. That part of me is gone now.”
Althanea didn’t back down. “True power is not something that can be taken by force, Willow. It lies within. ‘Those who master others have force; those who master themselves have strength.’ I taught you that, remember?”
“In that case,” Willow said, lunging for Althanea, “I’ll settle for the type of power which can blow stuff up.”
“Вернитесь!” Althanea commanded, and Willow was thrown backwards. Dawn watched as the witch scrambled to her feet, her menacing composure momentarily discomforted, as she grabbed onto the closest thing to her.
Which just happened to be Kelsenia, Althanea’s niece. Surges of blue lightning raced from the girl’s chest and up Willow’s arms as she drained Kelsenia of her power.
“Enough!” Althanea said, and for the first time the composed gravitas was replaced with an all-too-real pained anger. “Discedere!”
Willow disappeared instantly, seemingly exploding in a cloud of dust. Dawn recognized the teleportation spell Althanea had used; she had even used it herself-although it had more or less knocked her unconscious each time she had attempted it. Even experienced witches found it extremely difficult, after all.
If it had fazed Althanea at all, however, she didn’t show it. She bent over her collapsed niece, who had fallen next to the wounded Kennedy.
“Liefde bindt ons, uitvoeringen ons een,” Althanea chanted, holding Kelsenia’s hand. “Wat mijn was, is van de joue. Come on, chiya.” Kelsenia stirred, tossing lightly without regaining consciousness. “Thank the gods,” said Althanea after a long sigh of relief. “I stopped Willow before she could drain her completely.”
“How powerful will Willow be now?” asked Dawn, glad the girl would be okay but forced to focus on their immediate tactical situation.
“Senya’s only begun her training,” Althanea answered, “but she holds an enormous amount of potential. Willow, however, will be able to tap every drop of that power. I would fear the worst.”
Dawn nodded, glumly. She had been fearing the worst from the very beginning of this debacle, and somehow the worst kept on happening, her fears becoming reality. The only thing missing now was the Stay-Puft marshmallow-man.
And the only thing to do was to get back to work. She slipped away from the group into the bedroom she shared (at least in theory, after last night) with Cordelia, and opened a briefcase next to the bed. She stared at the contents for over a minute, then closed the briefcase and went back into the hall, where almost everybody was still gathered.
“The Rite of Isis,” Dawn said, in shock. “It’s gone.”
* * * * *
“The Rite of Isis,” Alexia said, staring in wonder at the parchment. “Do you have any idea how great a treasure this is?”
The young Wiccan shook her head.
“Let me put it this way. I can think of no greater gift you could bring us save for Willow Rosenberg’s head upon a plate.” The high priestess paused, as she studied the girl before her. “You would betray your goddess this way?”
“Hecate cannot protect us. She has said so Herself. My only hope now is to ally with Osiris.”
“A wise choice,” Alexia agreed. “He will not forget this service you have done us in His Name.” She ran her fingers lovingly over the parchment. “The last copy of the Rite known to us was destroyed in ’79, before you or I were even born. But now, our Dark Lord will at last walk free. And when He does, Rosenberg will die.”
Then, without warning, Alexia reached out and grabbed the girl’s arm. “Beyond life, beyond death, Darkness I summon thee.”
TBC. . . . here
Fandom: Buffy/Angel
Characters: Dawn, Amy, Cordelia, Ethan, Willow, Kennedy, and others.
Rating: The overall fic will include material up to and including NC-17; most scenes are considerably milder, though.
Warnings: Het, femslash, BDSM, noncon, underaged-but none of these as the main focus of the fic.
Warnings for this chapter: The aftermath of the violence in the last chapter.
Timeline/Spoilers: Takes place after “Why We Fight.” Spoilers up to “You’re Welcome.”
Summary: Dawn, Ethan, and Amy team up to protect Willow from a vengeful Osiris.
Note: Thanks to spikendru for a great beta.
Previous chapter can be found here.
All chapters can be found in my memories.
Chapter Thirteen
Dawn self-consciously exited the guest room that had been acting as Beth and Ethan’s to see a huddle of people gathered around Willow and Kennedy’s bedroom.
“What happened?” Dawn asked immediately, ignoring for the moment her concerns about propriety. Besides, they were all so intent on whatever it was that no one had seen which room she had come out of.
“It’s Kennedy,” Cordelia answered. “She’s injured. We were going to get you, but you weren’t in our room and then Althanea had it under control.”
“So she’s all right?”
Cordy shrugged. “She has a knife wound to the abdomen. I wouldn’t usually call that all right, but she’s a Slayer and she has one of the world’s most powerful healers working over her right now. She’ll be fine in a couple of days. Probably won’t even have a scar.”
“How’d it happen?”
Cordelia’s features darkened. “Willow.”
Dawn’s heart sunk into her stomach. How could any of them been so foolish as to leave Kennedy alone, relatively unprotected? Of course the dark version of Willow would attack her first. She should have at least have had a Wiccan on hand to stand guard.
Of course, how safe was anybody as long as Willow’s dark side was loose?
“I need to see Althanea,” Dawn said. “And you and Amy and everybody else, I guess. We know what the Rite of Isis does.”
Cordy nodded and quickly pushed aside the Wiccans who stood in the hall until she and Dawn managed to enter Kennedy’s bedroom. Althanea, Kelsenia, Amy, and Vaughne were already inside, and Ethan and Beth slipped in behind them. Kennedy lay naked on the ground.
“I said no one was to-” Althanea started, but broke off when she looked up and saw Dawn. “Oh, it’s you. Any news from the front?”
“People are dying,” Dawn said simply as she looked down at Kennedy’s prostrate form. Althanea and Kelsenia seemed to be cleaning the wound with some type of herbal mixture. “And we know what the Rite of Isis does. It removes the rules of noninterference for Higher Powers.”
Althanea visibly started so badly she almost dropped the rag she was holding in her hands. “You mean-”
Dawn nodded. “Every god or Power with an agenda is suddenly going to lose the obstacles which keep them from using humankind as their punching bags. Pandemonium.” She glanced back at Ethan. “Your patron should be happy.”
But Ethan shook his head. “Chaos holds within it the potential for creation. This is purely destructive.”
“Well, can we count on Hecate and Janus to help us out, then?”
This time it was Althanea who contradicted her. “Their influence is too subtle: butterfly-wings-flapping-in-Singapore type of stuff. Osiris will use brute force if his hands are untied.”
“Brute force above and beyond a vampiric army numbering in the hundred thousands?”
“Believe me, you don’t even want to know,” Ethan answered. Althanea and Amy gave dismal nods in agreement.
“Cordy?”
“I’m just a Higher Power,” Cordelia answered. “Don’t look at me. I won’t have anything near the power necessary to put down a god.”
“How about the other Powers?”
“There are beings of equal power on the other side,” Ethan pointed out. “For the most part, they should cancel each other out.”
“The good Willow?”
Vaughne answered. “I think she’s still communing or something. She’s not exactly one for shows of power; she claims they offset the harmony of the universe.”
Well, the harmony of the universe was going to be offset quite a bit if they couldn’t stop the Rite of Isis from being performed. “Did anyone think to suggest to her that maybe she should help us out anyway?”
“I tried,” Vaughne said. “All she did was quote the Tao Te Ching. ‘Through nonaction nothing is left undone.’”
Through nonaction they were all going to get killed. This was only getting worse. “Where’s a good hart’s blood dagger when you need one?” she muttered to herself.
It was Ethan who heard her. “Excuse me?”
“Pop culture reference, sorry. We need something which can kill a god.”
“Goddess only knows how that would throw off the balance,” Althanea said. “We need to contain Osiris, while still letting him act as a counter balance to the Light.”
It was then that Amy spoke up. “What about the other Willow? The one who did this?” She pointed to Kennedy’s once-grievous wound.
“Dropped to being our second priority. Dark Witch, bad. Dark God, worse.”
“Really?” a familiar voice said in a mock-whine. “I think I’m insulted.”
Dark-haired Willow entered the room, and Dawn could see how out in the hall the Wiccans had parted to let the witch through. Still, Vaughne’s crystal was glowing at a low-level intensity, so Dawn supposed the Wiccans were connected and prepared to act if the need arose.
“You dare to come back here after what you’ve done?” Althanea said, rising and gesturing towards Kennedy’s prostrate form.
“Why not?” Willow asked. “It’s my bedroom, after all. Or have all of you forgotten that you happen to be guests in my house?”
“Leave here,” Althanea ordered, in a voice which allowed no disagreement. The witch rose, and Dawn was struck with the force of Althanea’s confidence: the grey-haired witch showed no fear of Willow’s power, only an ageless grace.
“Well, you see, there’s a problem, Althanea,” Willow said, as she circled the group. “I want power-the type of power you gave me through Giles two years ago, that I had when I tried to end the world. I imagine that most of that power was yours, being the daughter of a goddess and all. And I want it. I don’t suppose that this time I’ll have to worry about it infecting me with your loathsome humanity. That part of me is gone now.”
Althanea didn’t back down. “True power is not something that can be taken by force, Willow. It lies within. ‘Those who master others have force; those who master themselves have strength.’ I taught you that, remember?”
“In that case,” Willow said, lunging for Althanea, “I’ll settle for the type of power which can blow stuff up.”
“Вернитесь!” Althanea commanded, and Willow was thrown backwards. Dawn watched as the witch scrambled to her feet, her menacing composure momentarily discomforted, as she grabbed onto the closest thing to her.
Which just happened to be Kelsenia, Althanea’s niece. Surges of blue lightning raced from the girl’s chest and up Willow’s arms as she drained Kelsenia of her power.
“Enough!” Althanea said, and for the first time the composed gravitas was replaced with an all-too-real pained anger. “Discedere!”
Willow disappeared instantly, seemingly exploding in a cloud of dust. Dawn recognized the teleportation spell Althanea had used; she had even used it herself-although it had more or less knocked her unconscious each time she had attempted it. Even experienced witches found it extremely difficult, after all.
If it had fazed Althanea at all, however, she didn’t show it. She bent over her collapsed niece, who had fallen next to the wounded Kennedy.
“Liefde bindt ons, uitvoeringen ons een,” Althanea chanted, holding Kelsenia’s hand. “Wat mijn was, is van de joue. Come on, chiya.” Kelsenia stirred, tossing lightly without regaining consciousness. “Thank the gods,” said Althanea after a long sigh of relief. “I stopped Willow before she could drain her completely.”
“How powerful will Willow be now?” asked Dawn, glad the girl would be okay but forced to focus on their immediate tactical situation.
“Senya’s only begun her training,” Althanea answered, “but she holds an enormous amount of potential. Willow, however, will be able to tap every drop of that power. I would fear the worst.”
Dawn nodded, glumly. She had been fearing the worst from the very beginning of this debacle, and somehow the worst kept on happening, her fears becoming reality. The only thing missing now was the Stay-Puft marshmallow-man.
And the only thing to do was to get back to work. She slipped away from the group into the bedroom she shared (at least in theory, after last night) with Cordelia, and opened a briefcase next to the bed. She stared at the contents for over a minute, then closed the briefcase and went back into the hall, where almost everybody was still gathered.
“The Rite of Isis,” Dawn said, in shock. “It’s gone.”
* * * * *
“The Rite of Isis,” Alexia said, staring in wonder at the parchment. “Do you have any idea how great a treasure this is?”
The young Wiccan shook her head.
“Let me put it this way. I can think of no greater gift you could bring us save for Willow Rosenberg’s head upon a plate.” The high priestess paused, as she studied the girl before her. “You would betray your goddess this way?”
“Hecate cannot protect us. She has said so Herself. My only hope now is to ally with Osiris.”
“A wise choice,” Alexia agreed. “He will not forget this service you have done us in His Name.” She ran her fingers lovingly over the parchment. “The last copy of the Rite known to us was destroyed in ’79, before you or I were even born. But now, our Dark Lord will at last walk free. And when He does, Rosenberg will die.”
Then, without warning, Alexia reached out and grabbed the girl’s arm. “Beyond life, beyond death, Darkness I summon thee.”
TBC. . . . here