RETURN to CHAOS

by CRAIG SHAW GARDNER

  He realized now that it had been doubly important to find Willow. Not only was she the ideal sacrifice, but she had a message of great importance.

  Her warning might even save the spell and ensure that she had not died in vain.

  But were these warnings truly about Eric? Or were they somehow about his own foolishness? Was this young woman as innocent as she seemed, or did she know far more than she pretended?

  That was the damned thing about prophecies. Anyone could read so much into them. These three probably all related directly to the Slayer and had nothing to do with him. And yet . . .

  “So?” Willow asked impatiently.

  George nodded. “They are most interesting. They could very possibly relate to tonight.”

  “So do they change your mind?”

  “No. But I thank you for sharing them with me. They will make me far more watchful. They may help me avoid pitfalls and insure my success.”

  “That’s good news, I guess. Well, I wouldn’t want my sacrifice to be in vain.” Willow’s lower lip began to tremble. “Excuse me. I think I’m going to start crying now.”

  “I was afraid of that. Why don’t you go talk to my nephew?”

  George watched Willow march away. This was most unpleasant.

  Ian knew they needed a plan. “We have to find some way to confront my uncle. But there’s no way to tell where he’s gone.”

  “I know,” Oz said. “He’s set up shop at an old warehouse less than a mile away from here.”

  Somehow, Ian would not be surprised if Oz knew everything. About everything.

  There was a huge clatter outside, as if someone had run into the garbage cans. Xander burst into the room.

  “All right!” he demanded. “What have you done with them?” He stopped and stared. “Oh, hey, Oz.”

  “Hey,” Oz replied.

  “We’ve got work to do,” Xander said to Oz. “Giles wanted to find out what the other Druids knew.”

  “So they sent you?” Ian asked trying to hide his disappointment.

  “No, actually, they sent Buffy. I just stopped by my house and got my old Schwinn racer so I could beat her out here.”

  “And you didn’t beat me by much.” Buffy walked in the door.

  As inappropriate to the situation as it might be, Ian couldn’t help but smile.

  “Giles wants us all to meet back at the library,” she announced. “We’ve got to do something to save Willow.”

  Tom looked doubtful. “I don’t know if we can. It might ruin the spell.”

  Ian had deferred to his uncle long enough. “If this spell is so important, why doesn’t he tell us about it? No one has practiced human sacrifice in our order for two thousand years. I think, if something’s going wrong, it must be in my uncle’s mind. I say we save Willow.”

  Tom only hesitated an instant before he nodded.

  “So what do we do now?” Xander asked.

  “We have all of my father’s spell memorized,” Ian said. “We may need to step in and fix whatever damage he has done.

  “But what if Uncle George has added something he hasn’t told us about?” Tom pointed out.

  Ian nodded. “The Druids have never written down their secrets. We rely on memory. Because of this, my uncle has no notes. He could be planning anything.”

  “Giles has got a great library,” Buffy replied. “Spells, counterspells, you name it!”

  Ian glanced at his brother. “I think it’s time the Druids learned to read.”

  “But what about Willow?” Xander and Oz asked simultaneously.

  “Oz tells us George has got her locked up in a place not too far from here. He’s bound to have surrounded the place with a protection spell. I might be able to get through it, but not without loudly announcing our presence. If we’re going to barge in like that, we’re going to need a plan.”

  “Well, Plans R Us,” Buffy agreed smartly.

  “And the times our plans don’t work,” Xander added, “we come up with other plans! Known as backup!”

  “They’re our specialty,” Buffy agreed. “We got back.”

  Ian nodded. “Well, then, I guess we’d better start planning.”

  Chapter 23

  BUFFY WAS AS READY AS SHE WAS GOING TO BE.

  Night was falling.

  They had spent the afternoon planning. Giles had decided they should break up into two separate units, though not the units their foes would anticipate. As he put it, “Somebody’s made some very serious plans for us. If we can properly confound them, we may be able to slip them up.” He had looked around the room, at Buffy and Xander, Oz and Cordelia, Ian and Tom. “We have our own unique abilities. Working together, we should be quite formidable.”

  Oz and Ian had taken a trip out to the warehouse where Ian’s uncle had set up shop. It was exactly as Ian had suspected. Their uncle had placed a protection spell around the building. About six feet away from the concrete walls, it felt like they were hitting another wall, invisible perhaps, but no less solid.

  Giles, Ian, and Buffy were planning to go up against George. Giles thought he could bumble through an antiprotection spell. If anything harder came along, Ian would have to handle it. And Buffy? Well, she was there to fight the vampire, and anything and everything that might pop out of the Hellmouth. Now that Ian had explained the connection and strengthened-bond part of George’s spell, Giles began to understand the chaotic predictions of the computer program. For George to bind himself to evil, even hoping to banish it, would allow evil to bind itself to George, and thus find entry to this world. Chaos indeed.

  Tom and Ian were fascinated by Oz’s report on their uncle’s alliance with Eric. Ian thought it explained a lot. Tom thought it only led to more questions.

  While Team A attempted to stop George and rescue Willow, Tom would lead the brave volunteers (a.k.a. Xander and Oz) against the vampires. There apparently was going to be quite a gathering—a hundred vamps or more, all ready to go on a killing rampage, all to draw out the Slayer and keep her busy while the real threat unfolded elsewhere.

  Tom had spent most of the afternoon instructing the two on the finer points of the crossbow. Their plan was to get in, mess up Naomi’s plans, then get right back out, and let Buffy clean up the mess later. After, of course, Team A had rescued Willow.

  Meanwhile, Cordelia would follow what Oz called the Werewolf Plan. Mainly, it meant she would be spending the night locked safely away. After some debate, Giles had decided to use the rare-book cage in the library for that purpose. That way, he could avoid the awkward explanations to Cordelia’s parents. She’d just do the usual and say she was staying over at a friend’s for the night. Besides, Giles didn’t think the vampires would be looking for her here. And there would be plenty of other people around the school for the first half of the night. After all, it was the night of the annual Spring Formal.

  All this, and Cordelia would have plenty to read.

  While Cordelia wasn’t exactly wild about the plan, she liked it better than any alternative she could think of. Xander promised to check back in with her once they’d disrupted the vampires’ plans.

  So they were ready to rock and roll.

  “The sun is bowing out!” Xander called from his place by the window.

  “Very well,” Giles said. “Cordelia, I think it’s time you got in the cage.”

  “Boy,” Xander said, “I’ve been trying to get her in a cage for years.”

  Cordelia was not amused. “Xander!”

  He shrugged. “Sorry. Just another example of the old Xander Harris misplaced humor. Patent pending.”

  Cordelia suddenly smiled. “Hey! I’ve got an idea!” She turned to Buffy. “Did you know there was a really happening new club over by the old packing plant? Even better than the Bronze. You should check it out.”

  Xander and Buffy looked at each other. “Naomi,” they agreed.

  Cordelia blinked then frowned. “Why’d I say that? I never go over by the packing plants. What an
absolutely gross part of town.” Her head jerked. “The vampires are gathering! They are going on a rampage! Half of Sunnydale will die!”

  Cordelia shook her head. “Ugh. It’s like I’ve got somebody else in my head, whose thoughts are getting all jumbled up with mine.”

  Her whole body jerked this time. She glared at Buffy. “Cordelia will never be free unless you confront me!”

  Cordelia wailed. “Now Naomi’s using my voice?”

  “Into the cage, Cordy,” Xander gently urged.

  Cordelia quickly complied, and Giles locked her in. “I will keep one key with me. There is a second in my desk drawer. We will return here when we have completed our missions, and let Cordelia out at dawn. And I promise you, Cordelia, that once Willow is rescued, our first priority will be to lift Naomi’s spell.”

  Cordelia nodded her head. “Xander!” she called. “I want you to be careful. I want you to let me out of here tomorrow. I want all of you to let me out of here!”

  Xander nodded. “I brought my sleeping bag from home and put it in there. Over in the corner?” Cordelia saw the old Boy Scout bag and nodded. “Why don’t you get some sleep?”

  “Well,” Giles said. “I believe it is time to get to work.”

  Cordelia waved as the others filed out of the library. Buffy, the last in line, waved back.

  Didn’t any of these books have a plot?

  Cordelia tossed aside maybe the twelfth book she had been browsing. She was doing her best not to be depressed, but the selection in here wasn’t helping. Even the illustrated books seemed to feature only pictures of demons and damnation. It was hard to be stuck here, especially with the music from the dance in the gym wafting into the library. She could be out there now, looking fabulous, the envy of all Sunnydale High. Instead, she was locked in a library.

  I hope nobody comes in here—

  Cordelia looked up. The music faded, replaced in her senses by a horrific smell.

  O—K, Cordelia thought.

  She heard an all-too-familiar voice:

  “So, I says, ‘I know where to find Cordelia.’ Oh, Cordelia!”

  Now that Cordelia knew about Naomi’s spell, all the other things around it kept flooding back to her. Including one that was right outside her library door.

  Gloria stepped into the room. And Bryce trailed right behind her. “Sorry. I’ve gotta do this. Otherwise Queen Naomi will suspect. ‘Get that Cordelia out here,’ she says. ‘She’ll get that Slayer!’ she says. Yeah. As soon as something goes wrong with one of her plans, she blames me. She blames both of us, right, Brycie?”

  “Hu—hu—hu.”

  “We’ve gotten sort of fond of you, Brycie and me. We’ll keep you out of the action if we can. It’s not as if there’ll be any lack of blood after all. This night is the end of the world.” She looked around the room. “So where’s the key?”

  Cordelia couldn’t help herself. “In the desk.”

  “ ‘In the desk,’ she says. This place is full of desks.”

  Actually, the place was full of tables. The only desk was behind the librarian’s station.

  “The one in the middle there,” Cordelia found herself saying. “To your right. No, no, that’s your left. Straight ahead now. That’s it.”

  Gloria opened the top desk drawer and pulled out the key.

  She quickly unlocked the cage.

  Cordelia wished she could stay in here even as her feet were walking out.

  “Look guys,” she began, “I appreciate all this personal attention—”

  “It’s not our decision. We just got to let the whammy work—”

  “Hu-hu-hu,” Bryce agreed.

  “Besides, we need you to get the Slayer, and the Slayer’s got to be there so we can destroy Naomi.”

  Cordelia glanced at the muck monster at her side and tried not to breathe. Unfortunately, Bryce didn’t look any less disgusting at night.

  “Well,” Gloria said, “what say we take another little stroll. I think it’s time we gave those kids at the dance a thrill!”

  Eric was afraid this was going to happen.

  He had quit his adopted crypt the moment the sun dipped below the horizon. He had picked his spot carefully, close to the edge of the cemetery. Most of the other vampires residing here were not so lucky.

  One of the Druids’ secondary spells was already working. He had heard that it had asserted itself briefly the night before, only to disappear again by morning. Tonight, though, it was both far earlier and far stronger.

  Now the cemetery was a jungle, a mass of constantly growing vines that was trapping and killing any vampire unlucky enough to be in the middle of it. As the plants grew, their tendrils became harder, and sharper, ever ready to pierce a vampire’s heart. Eric heard a dozen different screams, even saw one of his kind burst into dust. There was nothing he could do. He stared at the ever growing vegetation covering tombstones and statues, trees and mausoleums, drowning everything beneath its leafy mass. If he were to reenter that jungle, he would suffer the same fate as his brethren.

  Now, many of her troops would never meet Naomi. But there should still be enough to create a diversion, and a diversion was all he needed.

  Eric had to be very careful about his control. It mustn’t be too obvious. He couldn’t dampen all the Druid spells. A few missteps could be blamed on the “influence” of the Hellmouth, but too many and George would get suspicious. George had to believe he was still master of his own fate, even though he’d lost all his power long ago.

  Eric was a master of dreams. He couldn’t control all the Druids, but he had the strength to influence one or two. He had observed the elders, and picked the brothers Stephen and George—both ambitious, one talented, the other envious. How easy it was to destroy Stephen and bring George under his sway. Now he would use the Druids’ power to destroy everything natural, everything they loved.

  The particular spell George would use was not quite what the Druid thought. It temporarily trapped most of the Hellmouth’s power, leaving only a single opening brought by blood, an opening that Eric would use once he had taken over George’s spell—an opening that would allow him to control the ten thousand demons and ten million damned souls that waited on the other side. None of them would get to Earth without swearing fealty to Eric. And all those he allowed through, perhaps only a few hundred at first, but thousands eventually, would repay Eric with blood and power.

  The sacrifice was all that was important. All Naomi had to do, really, was delay the Slayer. Even if she couldn’t kill her, Eric would have the first of the demons by his side, any of whom could destroy even the Slayer with a single glance.

  There were a few, final screams out among the leafy growth. It was a shame about the vampires. But Eric could always make more.

  Naomi was not pleased at all.

  Where were her hundred vampires? She saw thirty, perhaps forty, at most, milling about the parking lot before her. They should all be here by now so that she might assign them their hiding places. Had the Slayer already cut some of them off?

  “Hey,” a voice called from behind her on the loading dock, “we got your girl for you.”

  Well, at least Gloria and Bryce had come through for her. And she was going to kill them? Well, maybe she’d wait a few more hours.

  “Bring Cordelia over here,” Naomi said with more conviction than she felt. “I want her to see the destruction of all she loves before she dies.”

  She frowned as she looked out over the parking lot. A couple more pale forms had drifted in, but she could see far more broken asphalt than undead.

  This was not going at all well. Where were half her troops? Had they forgotten to get up or something? Didn’t they know that this was the big night, the night that was going to make Naomi forever? If she wanted Eric to love her throughout eternity, she had to keep her side of the bargain. Otherwise, he might find some new teen queen to make over into Supervamp.

  Well, whoever was out there would have to suffice. All
Naomi needed, she told herself, was clever planning. That, perhaps, and a little drama.

  Cordelia was here. That meant the Buffy would not be far behind. This platform they stood on was very much a stage, and she was the stage manager. She’d drain Cordelia, but not until Buffy was in view. She wanted the Slayer angry and rushed, ready to make a mistake. Then her troops would descend upon her and do her in—forever!

  Cordelia walked stiffly over to Naomi’s side. She was once again completely under the vampire’s mastery spell.

  “Greetings my children!” Naomi called. “Tonight is the night we triumph! I bring before you Cordelia, whom I will drain in the presence of the Slayer!” Naomi laughed at the thought of it. “Cordelia was the queen. But who’s queen now?”

  The chant started out a bit on the ragged side, but gained strength with every repetition. “Naomi! Naomi! Naomi!”

  Yes, Naomi thought. Why had she doubted herself? This will work! She will triumph!

  “Naomi! Naomi! Naomi!”

  Cordelia shook her head. “Oh, please? Who are you talking to? A bunch of vampires? What do they know?”

  Naomi’s mastery was wavering. She was letting her emotion get in the way. “Silence!” she hissed.

  “You were just never good enough!” Cordelia replied. “You’d never stick to anything. You’d give it up and go on to the next thing. That’s why I always beat you out.”

  “Naomi! Naomi!” The crowd’s enthusiasm was flagging again.

  “That was before I found my calling,” Naomi said to Cordelia.

  “As a vampire? Spare me. Sure you’ve got some moves. But I have some friends who will have you beat—”

  Naomi had had enough of this. “You must submit to my will!” Cordelia, about to say something else, found her mouth snapped shut. Enough insolence! How could Cordelia fight her like that? Naomi had to remember Eric’s lessons.

  Or maybe she could teach Cordelia a lesson of her own. She didn’t want to drain the young woman just yet; no, that had to wait for the Slayer. But what harm would there be in a little nip?