Successor (BTVS)
- Thread starter DeAnno
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Jono is one of our best squishy wizards so its good to keep him out of squishing range.
S4.0E12: Stairway I
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
[X] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
INT. FOWLER MUSEUM - NIGHT
HARMONY: I don't see Drusilla anywhere nearby. Aren't you two-
SPIKE: Now, now, let's not say anything we'll regret. Dru's just been a bit barmy lately, but we'll be back together soon enough. Was telling me I needed to go find some singing songbird, 'all for one and one for all', all kinds of nonsense, and not the usual useful type. Figured she needed some space.
INT. DRACULA'S MANSION - NIGHT
DRACULA: I suspect there is even more in that vein that you do not yet fully understand, hidden from casual viewing. But is it so surprising? Your Domain is so fundamental, so elegantly simple. You are no magician with flashy stunts, you are the Slayer, the Killer who strikes from ambush, the master of Sun and Shadow.
BUFFY: What do you mean domain? Isn't that usually a thing from the math dimension?
DRACULA: It is time for me to show you something.
Dracula crosses the room and removes an ancient tapestry, revealing the OBJECTIVE MIRROR. Both Sineya and a human Dracula are visible in it, but behind them in the background is an abstract pattern of SUNS and SHADOWS.
INT. WILKINS' OFFICE - DREAM
Wilkins laughs lightly.
WILKINS: Well, take that as some incentive to put your noggin to work then. You've already figured out where the lock is, all you need to do is remember how to open it up. Everything you need is already inside you.
BUFFY: I did just say we could rethink the cliches, didn't I?
INT. THE WIZARD'S WORKSHOP - DREAM
HARMONY: Buffy?
Harmony approaches Buffy uncertainly, covered in motor oil and minor burns. In the background, the runes are destabilizing, alternating between WHITE and BLACK.
BUFFY: Harmony. You did really well. I'm so sorry I can't save us.
Buffy pulls Harmony into a hug and kiss as the WHITE LIGHT intensifies, creating unnaturally tall BLACK SHADOWS.
HARMONY: Don't be sorry. You still saved me. You're the hero of my story.
Time in the scene freezes to a hard stop, and then fades to GOLD.
EXT. SINEYA'S SAVANNAH - DREAM
WILKINS: You saw what happened fourteen thousand years ago, or at least most of it. The Cosmos was Sundered, the Old Ones could not survive the aftermath, and the Empire of Tears fell. Those pesky Powers That Be just couldn't leave well enough alone, and as a result we have our modern multiverse, shattered like a broken mirror. No one shard is big enough to reflect an Old One within, just as they planned.
BUFFY: So that was definitely the past then? Not some twisted vision of the future?
Wilkins makes a wishy-washy gesture.
WILKINS: Not quite the past, obviously, especially since those friends of yours managed to avert the apocalypse. It wasn't stopped in the real timeline, I'll tell you that. But the story was close enough, in the broad strokes.
SINEYA: (In Buffy's voice, without her mouth moving) Sometimes tales have two meanings.
BUFFY: How reassuring.
No time to hesitate. Buffy used the backspike of her hammer to give herself a shallow cut on the back of her forearm, then slammed it into the concrete, right below the stain from Faith's blood. Right away, she felt the snapping feeling in her mind of the Veil tearing.
The effect on the wall was immediate; she saw the blood start to be sucked in, and even as it was everything sort of folded back, spinning and curling into itself but not ending up anywhere but gone. She belatedly remembered a similar thing happening months ago, when she'd opened Wilkins' bone cache in the warehouse, but the scale of this was much bigger and the effect more obviously magical.
Jonathan was already waving his bone again, but Buffy interrupted, "No, bad idea. You're tired already, Adam's countered your magic before, and there's something about this I really don't like. Go upstairs to City Hall and regroup."
"You're going in alone?" Jonathan objected.
"Sometimes you have to spring the trap," she said. By now, the seal was almost fully done opening, and had revealed a set of overlarge stone steps heading downward. She took off without arguing, confident Jonathan would follow direct orders.
She just used a hint of superspeed on the gently spiraling descent, pulling lightly again so she'd have plenty left in the tank to fight Adam with. The rough steps she traversed weren't just tall, but also wide, with both walls more than her arm span away as she ran. The ancient feel of the place was intensified by eerie lighting, with a soft golden glow emanating up from below. There was never an obvious source, despite moving around circle after circle.
"CyberWillow, talk to me," she felt like the situation was spiraling more and more out of control. She needed more information.
"It is reassuring to be able to perceive your location again," she replied, a little more emotionally than was usual for her. She was quickly back to business though. "Much has obviously been clouded from us, but based on what I have been able to observe Adam and any accomplices present entered the seal between 130 and 280 seconds before you did."
She was more worried about what was happening where she wasn't, "What's happening at Crawford Street? Are they holding?" The steps kept going down and down; whatever this was, it was buried deep.
"Battle was never drawn, and yet the enemy forces already retreat in good order. It is likely that the Initiative's movement was a feint," CyberWillow answered.
Even stranger than the tunnel's lighting was the faint music. It had started so slow and soft that she almost thought she was imagining it, but it was getting louder and quicker as she went. She still couldn't quite make out the words, she could tell it was a group of girls singing in chorus. They were familiar somehow, but she couldn't quite place them.
"So our plan didn't work?" Buffy asked, ignoring the ominous signs of doom for now. "They knew I was here?"
"I estimate that there is a 78% chance they were somehow informed, and a 22% chance they merely acted out of suspicion or precaution," she replied, a tinge of frustration evident in her voice.
"Great." Ugh. More spies, probably, or something. It'd almost be a relief to get into a deathmatch against Adam instead of obsessing over that mess. Luckily, she saw a change up ahead; she might get her wish soon.
She came to the bottom and there was only one exit; she raced out into a large domed chamber, thirty feet tall and twice as wide. There were no obstructions, and it was clear nobody was in here; she still hadn't caught up to Adam and Faith. The entire interior of the dome was covered in bright runes, obviously different ones than the types she often saw Andrew and Willow use. They weren't the source of the light though; instead they were drinking it in as it radiated from the center of the room.
There was a ten-foot hole in the floor, and golden light bled out of it, beautiful and terrible and real in a way she'd never seen in the waking world. Something in her knew this had to be the hellmouth, that what she was seeing couldn't belong in this dimension, that it couldn't belong in anywhere. But there was no more time to think; Adam must have already gone down.
She reached the lip in a flash and looked down into the pit.
She saw stairs, spiral stairs going around and around around and down down down further than anything, further than everything, further before after-
They started out almost ornate, obsidian and steel, but as they went they bent and changed and warped and-
She could hear the words in the music, all of them at once and she could hear Kendra, and Faith, and she could hear herself singing too and she knew all the voices were-
The golden light pulsed with the music, and Her heart beat along with it, pulse-pulse, pulse-pulse, pulse-pulse. The trickle of blood ran down her arm and the light rose up and it was all Hers Hers Hers, it was all about HER-
There's a Lady who's told all that glitters is gold,
And She's buying the stairway to heaven.
When She gets there She knows, if the stores are all closed,
With a word She can get what She came for.
There's a sign on the wall, but She wants to be sure,
'Cause You know sometimes words have two meanings.
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings:
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.
There's a feeling I get when I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees,
And the voices of those who stand looking.
And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune,
Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will Dawn for those who stand long,
And the forests will echo with laughter.
If there's a bustle in Your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now:
It's just a spring clean for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths You can go by, but in the long run,
There's still time to change the road You're on.
Your head is humming and it won't go, in case You don't know,
The piper's calling You to join him.
Dear Lady, can You hear the wind blow, and did You know,
Your stairway lies on the whispered wind?
And as we wind on down the road,
Your Shadow taller than Your soul,
There walks The Lady We All Know,
Who shines white Light and wants to show,
How everything still turns to gold.
And if You listen very hard,
The tune will come to You at last,
When all are one and one is all!
To be the rock that does not roll!
And She's buying the stairway to heaven.
It was too much.
KILL
Something in her mind broke open fully, and she would've maybe screamed forever if she hadn't already known it for what it was. She strapped it back down, compartmentalizing what little parts of it that she could actually remember. This new and exciting freak show absolutely had to be put off for later.
Distantly, she noticed the music had stopped. There was something important, but-
"Incredible isn't it?" She finally ripped her gaze away from the fractal madness beneath her, but it wasn't Adam or Faith she saw lurking. It was Wilkins.
She grabbed at him instinctively, looking to hold him down and beat some sense out of him until she knew what the hell was going on, but her hand just phased through his neck as if he wasn't there.
He tut-tutted at her. "Attacking first, and thinking later. Not exactly very mayorly of you."
"What is all of this? What did you do? Where's Adam?" He couldn't possibly be deep down inside of that. She was pretty sure nobody could go too far into that without their brain turning inside out, no matter what kind of ascended demon they were.
"I believe that's my cue," she turned and saw Adam calmly walking into the room, descending from the same oversized stone steps she'd used to enter. Had he gotten behind her? There hadn't been any forks in the road, so she couldn't see how. He'd gone past the seal before her, so he should've been in front.
KILL
He was as horrific and snakey as she'd seen before, but there was an extra quality to him in person, something innately bigger, heavier. More real. The others had encountered him before in the computer lab, but they hadn't mentioned this. Either way, she couldn't detect any obvious weaknesses despite his Frankenstein appearance; he'd be hard to fight.
KILL
Forrest followed at one side, already vamped out, probably having no idea that he was chaff in this battle, just another dead body to get in the way. There was something different about him too, but it wasn't that important, just barely under the surface. Tiny scars on his hands, a hint of ozone in the air. She wouldn't be taken by surprise.
KILL
She quickly refocused on the last of their group, and the most annoying by far. Faith was on the other side, with that typical smug smirk on her face, and Buffy could feel her own power reflected back now, as if by some funhouse mirror. What she'd been, the same piece of it she'd had before the Master killed her all those years ago.
"Boss!" Faith's eyes lit up when she saw Wilkins, and she almost started forward before thinking better of it. She recovered with an easy smile, "Long time no see."
"And you in a uniform, serving your country proud," he said. "You kids grow up so fast."
"Proud to be creating abominations off the books," Buffy quipped. "It's like civic responsibility, without the civics or the responsibility.." Despite her bravado, she was uncertain, and still didn't know what had happened. Had she been mesmerized by the stairway longer than she'd thought?
"I'm not sure you have much of a leg to stand on there," Wilkins said snidely. "Surveillance without a warrant? Threatening congressmen? And there's the matter of that city you destroyed too, the voters really hate that."
And there was Wilkins on top of everything, all telepresent and ghost-like. She didn't trust for a second he was powerless to stab her in the back somehow when she was busy with the others.
Buffy decided to try to fish for information. There was so much she didn't know she was almost bound to catch something. "So this was the best master plan the three of you could cook up? Go through all that effort to distract me, and then come in second in the race anyway? Gotta say, not that impressed."
"You're the one that let us finish, girlie," Forrest answered. "Without you, we-"
"Shut up dumbass," Faith snapped.
"The secret is irrelevant now," Adam contradicted her, focusing his attention on Buffy even as he did so. "Faith told me how you tricked her once. How does it feel to have been deceived by her now?"
It clicked for her in a rush; it was the Master's cave all over again. "She was never keyed in, was she? It was just me. You needed me to open it, to get down here at all." But it still didn't make sense, the sewers under City Hall were all covered, "CyberWillow, what happened?"
"I don't know!" Her reply came out of her lone radio, absent the usual echoing effect. It sounded exactly like Willow did when she was panicking. "They must be lying! I can see everything down there, I can see the door, it closed and nothing came through after you!"
"I think something's wrong with some of the actual cameras," CyberWillow's mood seemed to have whiplashed, but after a second Buffy realized it was the real Willow, networked into the call. "Adam got into them somehow."
"And you made that possible as well," Adam continued to lecture her. "Without your Veil, I would've been forced to guess that you lay in wait. But when everyone around me suddenly became confused..." he puffed out a disturbing little chuckle.
"You can see through Veils?" She was aching to fight, but she figured if he really wanted to give her a supervillain monologue and reveal all his secrets, she'd let it happen.
"I'm so very aware," he boasted, "I know every molecule of myself and everything around me. No one, no human, no demon, has ever been as awake and alive as I am."
"Enough talk," Faith said hungrily. "Let's dance again, B."
KILL
She charged, that nasty knife of hers in hand, but Buffy was immediately ready with her hammer, threatening the space and forcing her to abort. Buffy was keenly aware of the infinite drop right behind her and surged forward to establish better footing, but even as Faith was sidestepping out of the way a jagged bolt of energy came from where she'd been, projected straight from the hands of the vampire behind her.
KILL
Buffy had expected it and avoided the shock by grounding the bottom of her hammer's shaft in the floor, then lifting herself into midair and letting the burst of charge flow through it into the ground. Forrest was posed like some kind of dumb cartoon character and reacted to this development by just turning up the power and wasting more electricity. She could tell it was way stronger than one of the normal electroshock rifles, but that still wouldn't accomplish anything with her feet off the ground.
Being sort of stuck in midair presented an opportunity for a Faith though. She tried to close, narrowly dodged a savage kick, and then repeated the attempt as Buffy wriggled around like she was in some kind of Olympic event. Buffy finally caught her with a glancing shot to the arm and she backed off for a second.
"Gotta admit, pole dancing really suits you." Of course that's where Faith's mind would go.
Then Adam finally joined the fray, the claws on his left hand exploding out and multiplying into a tangle of serpentine tentacles. He whipped it all at her like an extra-long cat-of-nine-tails, heedless of the electricity Forrest still hadn't run out of.
Buffy flipped herself up to a standing position on top of the head, temporarily towering above the other combatants as the nasty claw whips wrapped around the shaft underneath her. Before Forrest could correct his aim or Adam could remove her support, she launched herself into a forward dive straight for Adam's head.
KILL
CORRUPT
She tried to resummon her hammer into midair for a nasty swing, but Adam fought the magic and spoiled that plan. She improvised with a right hook instead, and while it didn't do nearly as much damage as she'd hoped for, it did distract him enough that she could pop her hammer back into her hand.
KILL
But she couldn't take advantage, there wasn't time. Faith attacked her from behind, more energy from Forrest raced over to be a nuisance, and it was a struggle not to get eviscerated by the big knife or marked by Adam's dozens of tiny claws. Something gave her a feeling scratches from either would be bad news out of proportion to their size. She'd wanted to save it for the offensive, but she didn't have a choice, so she pulled on her superspeed to get out of the pickle.
CORRUPT
She tried to put Faith between her and Adam, but she could feel him riding along on her superspeed somehow; he just followed her as she twirled around the other slayer, both of them moving in fast forward as the other two slowed to a crawl and the electricity flying through the air turned almost jello-like.
She took a frustrated swing at Faith anyway, but Adam was ready to deal with it. He knocked his probably-ally out of the way, saving her from a much more serious blow. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a slow motion Wilkins approaching in concern, but she couldn't spare attention for anyone but Adam now.
She tried to vary up her superspeed to see if she could shake his grip on the effect, but he kept pace with her probing attacks perfectly, still negating any temporal advantage. Finally she let go of her superspeed in disgust; all she was doing now was exhausting herself for nothing.
"Not very polite to play with my toys without asking," she said.
"Unsurprising that an only child didn't learn to share," he replied.
KILL
Even if he matched her quips, he couldn't take her in a 1-v-1. As Faith got back to her feet and Forrest finally ran out of gas, Buffy started raining blows on Adam, making hammer contact against his head once in between a few shots he blocked with his metallic right arm. For his part though, he scratched her up with the whip claws, first getting her cheek and then her forearm.
CORRUPT
The second hurt way worse than the first; it latched on and sucked blood out of the trival wound she'd given herself to open the stupid seal in the first place. She ripped her arm out of his grip before too many of the claws latched on, but the effort put her off balance and he managed to kick her in the stomach and send her way further back than she'd intended, crashing across the room.
Her left arm stung angrily and felt sluggish, but Adam hadn't gotten away clean either. The metal plate on his temple was just a little bit dented, and she could tell with her boosted slayer instincts that the damage wasn't superficial. She got up warily, eying the others across the stairway pit. They all made a rough triangle with the hole in the center and Faith and Forrest together at one of the points. The mayor's ghost looked on from beyond them, grinning like a fan at a football game. Golden light still pulsed out through the room, channeling into the runes of the dome (and then into her? She could feel it now, in the back of her mind.)
She wanted to try to run around and punish the both of them for hanging around in a fight that outclassed them, but she was worried if she did Adam might be able to do something with the stairway of doom. However his complicated scheme had worked, he was definitely down here for a reason, and his CORRUPT domain might let him do whatever it was he wanted to do scarily quick.
Vote: What's Buffy's focus as the fight goes on? How does she angle for an advantage?
[] Forrest is the weakest link. If she can end him and put a stop to all the electricity flying around things will get easier fast.
[] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
[] Adam's the only real threat here, try to ignore the other two and focus on him.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
INT. FOWLER MUSEUM - NIGHT
HARMONY: I don't see Drusilla anywhere nearby. Aren't you two-
SPIKE: Now, now, let's not say anything we'll regret. Dru's just been a bit barmy lately, but we'll be back together soon enough. Was telling me I needed to go find some singing songbird, 'all for one and one for all', all kinds of nonsense, and not the usual useful type. Figured she needed some space.
------------------------------------------------------------------
INT. DRACULA'S MANSION - NIGHT
DRACULA: I suspect there is even more in that vein that you do not yet fully understand, hidden from casual viewing. But is it so surprising? Your Domain is so fundamental, so elegantly simple. You are no magician with flashy stunts, you are the Slayer, the Killer who strikes from ambush, the master of Sun and Shadow.
BUFFY: What do you mean domain? Isn't that usually a thing from the math dimension?
DRACULA: It is time for me to show you something.
Dracula crosses the room and removes an ancient tapestry, revealing the OBJECTIVE MIRROR. Both Sineya and a human Dracula are visible in it, but behind them in the background is an abstract pattern of SUNS and SHADOWS.
------------------------------------------------------------------
INT. WILKINS' OFFICE - DREAM
Wilkins laughs lightly.
WILKINS: Well, take that as some incentive to put your noggin to work then. You've already figured out where the lock is, all you need to do is remember how to open it up. Everything you need is already inside you.
BUFFY: I did just say we could rethink the cliches, didn't I?
------------------------------------------------------------------
INT. THE WIZARD'S WORKSHOP - DREAM
HARMONY: Buffy?
Harmony approaches Buffy uncertainly, covered in motor oil and minor burns. In the background, the runes are destabilizing, alternating between WHITE and BLACK.
BUFFY: Harmony. You did really well. I'm so sorry I can't save us.
Buffy pulls Harmony into a hug and kiss as the WHITE LIGHT intensifies, creating unnaturally tall BLACK SHADOWS.
HARMONY: Don't be sorry. You still saved me. You're the hero of my story.
Time in the scene freezes to a hard stop, and then fades to GOLD.
------------------------------------------------------------------
EXT. SINEYA'S SAVANNAH - DREAM
WILKINS: You saw what happened fourteen thousand years ago, or at least most of it. The Cosmos was Sundered, the Old Ones could not survive the aftermath, and the Empire of Tears fell. Those pesky Powers That Be just couldn't leave well enough alone, and as a result we have our modern multiverse, shattered like a broken mirror. No one shard is big enough to reflect an Old One within, just as they planned.
BUFFY: So that was definitely the past then? Not some twisted vision of the future?
Wilkins makes a wishy-washy gesture.
WILKINS: Not quite the past, obviously, especially since those friends of yours managed to avert the apocalypse. It wasn't stopped in the real timeline, I'll tell you that. But the story was close enough, in the broad strokes.
SINEYA: (In Buffy's voice, without her mouth moving) Sometimes tales have two meanings.
BUFFY: How reassuring.
------------------------------------------------------------------
S4.0E12: Stairway
S4.0E12: Stairway
No time to hesitate. Buffy used the backspike of her hammer to give herself a shallow cut on the back of her forearm, then slammed it into the concrete, right below the stain from Faith's blood. Right away, she felt the snapping feeling in her mind of the Veil tearing.
The effect on the wall was immediate; she saw the blood start to be sucked in, and even as it was everything sort of folded back, spinning and curling into itself but not ending up anywhere but gone. She belatedly remembered a similar thing happening months ago, when she'd opened Wilkins' bone cache in the warehouse, but the scale of this was much bigger and the effect more obviously magical.
Jonathan was already waving his bone again, but Buffy interrupted, "No, bad idea. You're tired already, Adam's countered your magic before, and there's something about this I really don't like. Go upstairs to City Hall and regroup."
"You're going in alone?" Jonathan objected.
"Sometimes you have to spring the trap," she said. By now, the seal was almost fully done opening, and had revealed a set of overlarge stone steps heading downward. She took off without arguing, confident Jonathan would follow direct orders.
She just used a hint of superspeed on the gently spiraling descent, pulling lightly again so she'd have plenty left in the tank to fight Adam with. The rough steps she traversed weren't just tall, but also wide, with both walls more than her arm span away as she ran. The ancient feel of the place was intensified by eerie lighting, with a soft golden glow emanating up from below. There was never an obvious source, despite moving around circle after circle.
"CyberWillow, talk to me," she felt like the situation was spiraling more and more out of control. She needed more information.
"It is reassuring to be able to perceive your location again," she replied, a little more emotionally than was usual for her. She was quickly back to business though. "Much has obviously been clouded from us, but based on what I have been able to observe Adam and any accomplices present entered the seal between 130 and 280 seconds before you did."
She was more worried about what was happening where she wasn't, "What's happening at Crawford Street? Are they holding?" The steps kept going down and down; whatever this was, it was buried deep.
"Battle was never drawn, and yet the enemy forces already retreat in good order. It is likely that the Initiative's movement was a feint," CyberWillow answered.
Even stranger than the tunnel's lighting was the faint music. It had started so slow and soft that she almost thought she was imagining it, but it was getting louder and quicker as she went. She still couldn't quite make out the words, she could tell it was a group of girls singing in chorus. They were familiar somehow, but she couldn't quite place them.
"So our plan didn't work?" Buffy asked, ignoring the ominous signs of doom for now. "They knew I was here?"
"I estimate that there is a 78% chance they were somehow informed, and a 22% chance they merely acted out of suspicion or precaution," she replied, a tinge of frustration evident in her voice.
"Great." Ugh. More spies, probably, or something. It'd almost be a relief to get into a deathmatch against Adam instead of obsessing over that mess. Luckily, she saw a change up ahead; she might get her wish soon.
She came to the bottom and there was only one exit; she raced out into a large domed chamber, thirty feet tall and twice as wide. There were no obstructions, and it was clear nobody was in here; she still hadn't caught up to Adam and Faith. The entire interior of the dome was covered in bright runes, obviously different ones than the types she often saw Andrew and Willow use. They weren't the source of the light though; instead they were drinking it in as it radiated from the center of the room.
There was a ten-foot hole in the floor, and golden light bled out of it, beautiful and terrible and real in a way she'd never seen in the waking world. Something in her knew this had to be the hellmouth, that what she was seeing couldn't belong in this dimension, that it couldn't belong in anywhere. But there was no more time to think; Adam must have already gone down.
She reached the lip in a flash and looked down into the pit.
She saw stairs, spiral stairs going around and around around and down down down further than anything, further than everything, further before after-
They started out almost ornate, obsidian and steel, but as they went they bent and changed and warped and-
She could hear the words in the music, all of them at once and she could hear Kendra, and Faith, and she could hear herself singing too and she knew all the voices were-
The golden light pulsed with the music, and Her heart beat along with it, pulse-pulse, pulse-pulse, pulse-pulse. The trickle of blood ran down her arm and the light rose up and it was all Hers Hers Hers, it was all about HER-
There's a Lady who's told all that glitters is gold,
And She's buying the stairway to heaven.
When She gets there She knows, if the stores are all closed,
With a word She can get what She came for.
There's a sign on the wall, but She wants to be sure,
'Cause You know sometimes words have two meanings.
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings:
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.
There's a feeling I get when I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees,
And the voices of those who stand looking.
And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune,
Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will Dawn for those who stand long,
And the forests will echo with laughter.
If there's a bustle in Your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now:
It's just a spring clean for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths You can go by, but in the long run,
There's still time to change the road You're on.
Your head is humming and it won't go, in case You don't know,
The piper's calling You to join him.
Dear Lady, can You hear the wind blow, and did You know,
Your stairway lies on the whispered wind?
And as we wind on down the road,
Your Shadow taller than Your soul,
There walks The Lady We All Know,
Who shines white Light and wants to show,
How everything still turns to gold.
And if You listen very hard,
The tune will come to You at last,
When all are one and one is all!
To be the rock that does not roll!
And She's buying the stairway to heaven.
It was too much.
KILL
Something in her mind broke open fully, and she would've maybe screamed forever if she hadn't already known it for what it was. She strapped it back down, compartmentalizing what little parts of it that she could actually remember. This new and exciting freak show absolutely had to be put off for later.
Distantly, she noticed the music had stopped. There was something important, but-
"Incredible isn't it?" She finally ripped her gaze away from the fractal madness beneath her, but it wasn't Adam or Faith she saw lurking. It was Wilkins.
She grabbed at him instinctively, looking to hold him down and beat some sense out of him until she knew what the hell was going on, but her hand just phased through his neck as if he wasn't there.
He tut-tutted at her. "Attacking first, and thinking later. Not exactly very mayorly of you."
"What is all of this? What did you do? Where's Adam?" He couldn't possibly be deep down inside of that. She was pretty sure nobody could go too far into that without their brain turning inside out, no matter what kind of ascended demon they were.
"I believe that's my cue," she turned and saw Adam calmly walking into the room, descending from the same oversized stone steps she'd used to enter. Had he gotten behind her? There hadn't been any forks in the road, so she couldn't see how. He'd gone past the seal before her, so he should've been in front.
KILL
He was as horrific and snakey as she'd seen before, but there was an extra quality to him in person, something innately bigger, heavier. More real. The others had encountered him before in the computer lab, but they hadn't mentioned this. Either way, she couldn't detect any obvious weaknesses despite his Frankenstein appearance; he'd be hard to fight.
KILL
Forrest followed at one side, already vamped out, probably having no idea that he was chaff in this battle, just another dead body to get in the way. There was something different about him too, but it wasn't that important, just barely under the surface. Tiny scars on his hands, a hint of ozone in the air. She wouldn't be taken by surprise.
KILL
She quickly refocused on the last of their group, and the most annoying by far. Faith was on the other side, with that typical smug smirk on her face, and Buffy could feel her own power reflected back now, as if by some funhouse mirror. What she'd been, the same piece of it she'd had before the Master killed her all those years ago.
"Boss!" Faith's eyes lit up when she saw Wilkins, and she almost started forward before thinking better of it. She recovered with an easy smile, "Long time no see."
"And you in a uniform, serving your country proud," he said. "You kids grow up so fast."
"Proud to be creating abominations off the books," Buffy quipped. "It's like civic responsibility, without the civics or the responsibility.." Despite her bravado, she was uncertain, and still didn't know what had happened. Had she been mesmerized by the stairway longer than she'd thought?
"I'm not sure you have much of a leg to stand on there," Wilkins said snidely. "Surveillance without a warrant? Threatening congressmen? And there's the matter of that city you destroyed too, the voters really hate that."
And there was Wilkins on top of everything, all telepresent and ghost-like. She didn't trust for a second he was powerless to stab her in the back somehow when she was busy with the others.
Buffy decided to try to fish for information. There was so much she didn't know she was almost bound to catch something. "So this was the best master plan the three of you could cook up? Go through all that effort to distract me, and then come in second in the race anyway? Gotta say, not that impressed."
"You're the one that let us finish, girlie," Forrest answered. "Without you, we-"
"Shut up dumbass," Faith snapped.
"The secret is irrelevant now," Adam contradicted her, focusing his attention on Buffy even as he did so. "Faith told me how you tricked her once. How does it feel to have been deceived by her now?"
It clicked for her in a rush; it was the Master's cave all over again. "She was never keyed in, was she? It was just me. You needed me to open it, to get down here at all." But it still didn't make sense, the sewers under City Hall were all covered, "CyberWillow, what happened?"
"I don't know!" Her reply came out of her lone radio, absent the usual echoing effect. It sounded exactly like Willow did when she was panicking. "They must be lying! I can see everything down there, I can see the door, it closed and nothing came through after you!"
"I think something's wrong with some of the actual cameras," CyberWillow's mood seemed to have whiplashed, but after a second Buffy realized it was the real Willow, networked into the call. "Adam got into them somehow."
"And you made that possible as well," Adam continued to lecture her. "Without your Veil, I would've been forced to guess that you lay in wait. But when everyone around me suddenly became confused..." he puffed out a disturbing little chuckle.
"You can see through Veils?" She was aching to fight, but she figured if he really wanted to give her a supervillain monologue and reveal all his secrets, she'd let it happen.
"I'm so very aware," he boasted, "I know every molecule of myself and everything around me. No one, no human, no demon, has ever been as awake and alive as I am."
"Enough talk," Faith said hungrily. "Let's dance again, B."
KILL
She charged, that nasty knife of hers in hand, but Buffy was immediately ready with her hammer, threatening the space and forcing her to abort. Buffy was keenly aware of the infinite drop right behind her and surged forward to establish better footing, but even as Faith was sidestepping out of the way a jagged bolt of energy came from where she'd been, projected straight from the hands of the vampire behind her.
KILL
Buffy had expected it and avoided the shock by grounding the bottom of her hammer's shaft in the floor, then lifting herself into midair and letting the burst of charge flow through it into the ground. Forrest was posed like some kind of dumb cartoon character and reacted to this development by just turning up the power and wasting more electricity. She could tell it was way stronger than one of the normal electroshock rifles, but that still wouldn't accomplish anything with her feet off the ground.
Being sort of stuck in midair presented an opportunity for a Faith though. She tried to close, narrowly dodged a savage kick, and then repeated the attempt as Buffy wriggled around like she was in some kind of Olympic event. Buffy finally caught her with a glancing shot to the arm and she backed off for a second.
"Gotta admit, pole dancing really suits you." Of course that's where Faith's mind would go.
Then Adam finally joined the fray, the claws on his left hand exploding out and multiplying into a tangle of serpentine tentacles. He whipped it all at her like an extra-long cat-of-nine-tails, heedless of the electricity Forrest still hadn't run out of.
Buffy flipped herself up to a standing position on top of the head, temporarily towering above the other combatants as the nasty claw whips wrapped around the shaft underneath her. Before Forrest could correct his aim or Adam could remove her support, she launched herself into a forward dive straight for Adam's head.
KILL
CORRUPT
She tried to resummon her hammer into midair for a nasty swing, but Adam fought the magic and spoiled that plan. She improvised with a right hook instead, and while it didn't do nearly as much damage as she'd hoped for, it did distract him enough that she could pop her hammer back into her hand.
KILL
But she couldn't take advantage, there wasn't time. Faith attacked her from behind, more energy from Forrest raced over to be a nuisance, and it was a struggle not to get eviscerated by the big knife or marked by Adam's dozens of tiny claws. Something gave her a feeling scratches from either would be bad news out of proportion to their size. She'd wanted to save it for the offensive, but she didn't have a choice, so she pulled on her superspeed to get out of the pickle.
CORRUPT
She tried to put Faith between her and Adam, but she could feel him riding along on her superspeed somehow; he just followed her as she twirled around the other slayer, both of them moving in fast forward as the other two slowed to a crawl and the electricity flying through the air turned almost jello-like.
She took a frustrated swing at Faith anyway, but Adam was ready to deal with it. He knocked his probably-ally out of the way, saving her from a much more serious blow. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a slow motion Wilkins approaching in concern, but she couldn't spare attention for anyone but Adam now.
She tried to vary up her superspeed to see if she could shake his grip on the effect, but he kept pace with her probing attacks perfectly, still negating any temporal advantage. Finally she let go of her superspeed in disgust; all she was doing now was exhausting herself for nothing.
"Not very polite to play with my toys without asking," she said.
"Unsurprising that an only child didn't learn to share," he replied.
KILL
Even if he matched her quips, he couldn't take her in a 1-v-1. As Faith got back to her feet and Forrest finally ran out of gas, Buffy started raining blows on Adam, making hammer contact against his head once in between a few shots he blocked with his metallic right arm. For his part though, he scratched her up with the whip claws, first getting her cheek and then her forearm.
CORRUPT
The second hurt way worse than the first; it latched on and sucked blood out of the trival wound she'd given herself to open the stupid seal in the first place. She ripped her arm out of his grip before too many of the claws latched on, but the effort put her off balance and he managed to kick her in the stomach and send her way further back than she'd intended, crashing across the room.
Her left arm stung angrily and felt sluggish, but Adam hadn't gotten away clean either. The metal plate on his temple was just a little bit dented, and she could tell with her boosted slayer instincts that the damage wasn't superficial. She got up warily, eying the others across the stairway pit. They all made a rough triangle with the hole in the center and Faith and Forrest together at one of the points. The mayor's ghost looked on from beyond them, grinning like a fan at a football game. Golden light still pulsed out through the room, channeling into the runes of the dome (and then into her? She could feel it now, in the back of her mind.)
She wanted to try to run around and punish the both of them for hanging around in a fight that outclassed them, but she was worried if she did Adam might be able to do something with the stairway of doom. However his complicated scheme had worked, he was definitely down here for a reason, and his CORRUPT domain might let him do whatever it was he wanted to do scarily quick.
Vote: What's Buffy's focus as the fight goes on? How does she angle for an advantage?
[] Forrest is the weakest link. If she can end him and put a stop to all the electricity flying around things will get easier fast.
[] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
[] Adam's the only real threat here, try to ignore the other two and focus on him.
- Location
- United States
Figured it was something like this.
- Location
- DC area
Adam is the biggest threat, which makes Forrest a liability for Buffy to exploit. Faith might be in a position to be swayed, but definitely not turned.
We shouldn't keep doing this with Adam having moderately effective fodder to interfere. I am sure we can manage to beat him to death in a 1v1, so its time to make it a 1v1. The choice is mainly Forrest or Faith, and it is very noticeable that Forrest just didn't matter that much. His trump card cyborg lightning hands got handled casually, and probably doesn't have infinite charge.
Meanwhile Faith will continue to try to stab us with her no healing/extra bleeding knife until she can't anymore, and that will let Adam keep trying to drain our blood with his snake tentacles. The combo is just too nasty to be allowed to happen. Faith picked her side, and is helping another monster that will end up destroying the world out of spite and loyalty to her old boss. It is time for Faith to die and Buffy to be the one with a slayer helping her out.
@Edifier Good call with it being a trap, I was so sure this was real and jumped on your argument over it.
[X] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
Meanwhile Faith will continue to try to stab us with her no healing/extra bleeding knife until she can't anymore, and that will let Adam keep trying to drain our blood with his snake tentacles. The combo is just too nasty to be allowed to happen. Faith picked her side, and is helping another monster that will end up destroying the world out of spite and loyalty to her old boss. It is time for Faith to die and Buffy to be the one with a slayer helping her out.
@Edifier Good call with it being a trap, I was so sure this was real and jumped on your argument over it.
[X] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
- Location
- Vancouver
Well, Adam played things well. Buffy's boosts are showing themselves off too, actually doing pretty well considering the circumstances. Still, we need to focus on a target if we're going to win.
As much as I'd like to focus on Adam, he's too smart and skilled for that to work. Forrest is basically a non entity, and probably the only one vulnerable enough that Jonathan could take out when he gets here.
That leaves Faith. I wish we could have saved. Maybe if we made different choices, definitely if she'd made different choices. Buy I think it's too late now. Any misgivings she had about Adam, she still signed up for this plan, has still been going along with everything they've done. Like Buffy said, time to get a new Slayer, one on our side.
[X] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
As much as I'd like to focus on Adam, he's too smart and skilled for that to work. Forrest is basically a non entity, and probably the only one vulnerable enough that Jonathan could take out when he gets here.
That leaves Faith. I wish we could have saved. Maybe if we made different choices, definitely if she'd made different choices. Buy I think it's too late now. Any misgivings she had about Adam, she still signed up for this plan, has still been going along with everything they've done. Like Buffy said, time to get a new Slayer, one on our side.
[X] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Goddamn, I hate it when the bad guys are competent. Whelp, nothing for it but to deal with the hand we're dealt.
[x] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
I agree that we need to whittle things down and that Forrest is too much of a nonentity to matter. Honestly, it's kinda weird that they brought him along at all. I suppose he probably is the third most dangerous agent the Initiative has, but it still seems odd. Is it possible he has some other role here besides just being backup muscle?
[x] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
I agree that we need to whittle things down and that Forrest is too much of a nonentity to matter. Honestly, it's kinda weird that they brought him along at all. I suppose he probably is the third most dangerous agent the Initiative has, but it still seems odd. Is it possible he has some other role here besides just being backup muscle?
I hate to do this, but
[X] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
[X] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
So I think this is what really changed things for Faith. This isn't the reaction of someone shocked to see Wilkins, it is the reaction of someone that is happy to be back in touch with her adopted family. She was concerned about Adam, and then he told her he was in dream contact with her boss. I really don't think Faith will ever willingly come back to the fold while Wilkins is in play, she will be all in on Adam's plan if that is what her boss wants.
If we manage to kill Wilkins ghost somehow she will still probably be waiting around for him to come back and give her reason to join him again. It happened once already after all.
Edifier
Trusted within thoughts.
- Location
- Court of Moon Wizards
Since Adams domain allows him to use other people's magic via CORRUPT, I think that Forrest's role in this is to be a metaphorical loaded gun in Adam's hand. He has Forrest cast and he takes it over and redirects it, empowers it.
I feel like buffy could just go in hard at full force, go KILL and end it in one move if it's someone other than Adam. But I'm unsure. Has Buddy powered up enough to be able to overwhelm Faith for example? Kinda feel like a yes. But there's probably more going on than I can tell.
There's also that Faith holds a bit of Buffy's divinity, which will likely power her up further.
I feel like buffy could just go in hard at full force, go KILL and end it in one move if it's someone other than Adam. But I'm unsure. Has Buddy powered up enough to be able to overwhelm Faith for example? Kinda feel like a yes. But there's probably more going on than I can tell.
There's also that Faith holds a bit of Buffy's divinity, which will likely power her up further.
Last edited:
- Location
- United States
[X] Faith has been nothing but trouble for over a year now, and she's all out of second and third chances. Time for a new Slayer to be called.
Wow, are we bad at coming up with plans or was Adam always going to get to this point?
Wow, are we bad at coming up with plans or was Adam always going to get to this point?
[X] Forrest is the weakest link. If she can end him and put a stop to all the electricity flying around things will get easier fast.
- Location
- Vancouver
It wasn't a bad plan, exactly. We just underestimated a few things. In particular, Adam's 'sense of self', which is effectively another Domain for him, and how much Wilkins hated us. He could have guided Adam around most plans Buffy made.
- Location
- United States
CW sounding more human and friendship-y, so that's a good sign I think longterm.
In retrospect I think my plan was jumping the gun. Panopticon's revealing of the spy probably narratively should have been followed by dealing with him and rooting out other spies in the organization somehow. I think that if we'd waited to ambush them as they came out here, they'd have been able to get away, but we wouldn't be risking this fight which I'm starting to think is going to end with us losing.
Hmmm, so a concern on focusing on someone not Adam is with the final line:
I'm kind of worried that killing Forrest or Faith would result in Adam accomplishing what he wants to with the artifact. However, I think that focusing Adam probably just ends with us losing and being forced to retreat as long as the other two are still around. I agree that Forrest seems like a non-factor, although he might also be the one we could kill the easiest without Adam being able to do whatever he wants to do. Faith though might upset the mayor (assuming that's not the First or something)... I can't tell if that would be a good or bad thing, tbh.
In retrospect I think my plan was jumping the gun. Panopticon's revealing of the spy probably narratively should have been followed by dealing with him and rooting out other spies in the organization somehow. I think that if we'd waited to ambush them as they came out here, they'd have been able to get away, but we wouldn't be risking this fight which I'm starting to think is going to end with us losing.
Hmmm, so a concern on focusing on someone not Adam is with the final line:
I'm kind of worried that killing Forrest or Faith would result in Adam accomplishing what he wants to with the artifact. However, I think that focusing Adam probably just ends with us losing and being forced to retreat as long as the other two are still around. I agree that Forrest seems like a non-factor, although he might also be the one we could kill the easiest without Adam being able to do whatever he wants to do. Faith though might upset the mayor (assuming that's not the First or something)... I can't tell if that would be a good or bad thing, tbh.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
[X] Adam's the only real threat here, try to ignore the other two and focus on him.
If Faith dies, I can't imagine I'll stick around. Not a threat or anything, but she's prrrrobably my favourite Buffyverse character, and killing her would be a sour note when I've already talked some about the direction this quest has gone.
If Faith dies, I can't imagine I'll stick around. Not a threat or anything, but she's prrrrobably my favourite Buffyverse character, and killing her would be a sour note when I've already talked some about the direction this quest has gone.
- Location
- United States
I think he's also only being kept stable by Faith and Adam as more powerful entities he can follow around.
I guess he's also the only one who really seems disposable, if they need a sacrifice or something? I think Faith might be disposable to Adam now too, unless Wilkins managed to secure some sort of binding oath for her wellbeing from Adam.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Forrest is the weakest link. If she can end him and put a stop to all the electricity flying around things will get easier fast.
I think focussing on Adam is too likely to end with Faith's knife in our back. She's likely good enough to manage that while we are distracted.
In turn focussing on Faith will be enough of a distraction to let Adam act unhindered.
Better take things slowly and eliminate the weakest link.
It might even give us some time for support to come, though that is propably too optimistic for a fight in superspeed.
I think focussing on Adam is too likely to end with Faith's knife in our back. She's likely good enough to manage that while we are distracted.
In turn focussing on Faith will be enough of a distraction to let Adam act unhindered.
Better take things slowly and eliminate the weakest link.
It might even give us some time for support to come, though that is propably too optimistic for a fight in superspeed.
So I think this is a slightly longer term issue than one might immediately think. Keep in mind that what the artifact has been doing all quest is sending buffy a slow (but absolutely massive relative to everyone else) flow of power, making her stronger over time. This is a problem primarily if we let Adam do it then don't manage to get another fight with him in time. We absolutely shouldn't let him if we can help it, but I don't think we die immediately if he succeeds here.
I think Adam ultimately came in here with a good enough plan and enough backup that he is probably going to manage whatever he is trying to do. The big question is what will it cost him, and what sort of shape will Buffy be in at the end. I'd rather it cost him Faith and have another slayer pop up to help us than have us deal him some serious injury but still have one of his big ties to Wilkins and one of the only other important combatants in the town.
Wilkins and Faith picked their side here, its the evil one. Even if they have another plan outside of Adam it doesn't really matter, they are propping up another horrible monster to benefit themselves. Wilkins being upset because we kill his surrogate kid is an upside to me at this point. The only better time to get rid of Faith than now is right before Wilkins tries to pull off whatever plan he has, and ends up so angry he can't manage it and dies (again).
[X] Forrest is the weakest link. If she can end him and put a stop to all the electricity flying around things will get easier fast.
- Location
- United States
I think this is a pretty good analysis. I agree that we don't immediately die, but it's still an L I don't really like taking. Especially since this mess was my plan... sorry about that btw.
I was thinking more on the immediate level here. If Wilkins has any way to affect the fight, (Buffy worries that he does in the update), then he's not using it and I could see him holding off until he thinks Faith's life is at risk. But on the other hand, if he's got any leverage over Adam, I could see him using it to try to get Adam to save Faith from us, which might derail whatever Adam is doing.
- Location
- Vancouver
Yeah, I noticed that too, but like you, I agree that focusing on Adam likely ends with them still getting what they want, or Buffy getting hurt very badly in the process of stopping them.
One idea I did have (which might be catastrophically bad, mind), is to immediately break the runes rather than fight them. Adam can't 'corrupt' uncontrolled things, like CW spell proved, so that might work to stop them. The cost of doing so however could be... pretty much anything. It'd be a huge gamble.
Don't worry, I'm pretty sure plan 'break Maggie's leg in broad daylight and wait for Adam' would have also had some really fucked up consequences too.
Huh, I didn't really consider Wilkins having a way to actually influence the fight, thats a good point. I guess I'd rather deal with a potential shot from Wilkins than a sure shot from Faith with a weapon that can cause slow healing wounds around those blood draining tentacles. It is very much a pick your poison scenario.