To Conquer Death
by Rainne
Part Five
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The ringing of the telephone called the Scoobies away from breakfast the next morning. They had gathered at Buffy's house to plan for the upcoming trouble with the Council, and so that they could all become acquainted with Janna. They were all bonding over pancakes when the phone began to ring, and Janna, who was up and on her way to the kitchen for seconds, asked Buffy if she wanted Janna to grab it. Buffy nodded, and Janna picked up the telephone. "Hullo, Summers residence," she greeted, and then, as a voice roared at her from the other end, she paled and then began to cry.
"Janna Markham!" Quentin Travers' voice screamed at her, loudly enough for everyone at the table to hear him. "You've compromised the security of the Council! You ungrateful little brat, do you realize what you've done?"
The instant the tears began rolling down Janna's face, Buffy was at the telephone, taking it away from her and pulling the girl tightly to her in a hug. She cut Travers' diatribe off with a sharp "Shut up, Travers!" Then, when she had silence, she took over the conversation. "Let me explain something to you. You're not getting Janna. You're not getting Dakota. You're going to get on your plane and you're going to go back to England and you're going to leave us alone."
"You're not calling the shots on this one, Summers," he growled at her, and fell silent when she laughed at him.
"Actually," she responded, "I kind of think I am. Because, you see, I have two extremely powerful witches; a daywalking vampire who, according to you people, is a potential Slayer; a potential Slayer; a Watcher; a thousand-year-old ex-demon; a guy with a big heart and a hell of a right hook; and, well, I'm the Slayer. So, Travers, what have you got?"
He was silent for a long moment, and then he snarled, "This isn't over." The line was abruptly disconnected as he slammed the phone down on his end.
Buffy pulled the weeping child close to her. "It's okay. He's gone. And we're not gonna let him get you."
"Th-th-they kidnapped me," she whispered. "Before."
Buffy blinked. Huh? She pushed the child back from her, holding the girls shoulders at arms'-length. "They what?"
"They kidnapped me. When I was eight. I was at boarding school, and my Watcher came into the dorm one night and drugged me. By the time I woke up, I was in a first-class seat on the Concorde, halfway across the Atlantic Ocean. I wasn't allowed near a telephone for years, and by the time I was, the one time I was able to actually use it without being seen, my parents' phone number didn't work any more. I was never allowed to send mail, and I was never allowed to go anywhere out of sight of a Council operative. They wanted to make sure I couldn't escape. And then, once I was old enough to understand my calling, I knew how important it was; but I wanted to go home so bad!" She shook her head. "And they want to take me back. I knew they wouldn't just let me go. I knew it."
Giles looked stricken. "He kidnapped you?"
Janna nodded. "I just got lucky when I escaped," she told them. "I was planning on climbing out of the window in the ladies' loo, but he went to the gents' first, and I was just able to walk out for the first time since I was eight. I couldn't believe my luck. And then, when I heard him — and he knew me, Buffy, he knew who I was! He's going to take me back and I don't want to go, I want to go home, I want to see my mother! I've got five brothers and sisters that I haven't seen since the oldest of them was six, and I want to go home!"
Buffy pulled her close again. "You will. I promise. When this is over, I'll see to it that you go home. I swear it."
They moved back to the table. "You know he's going to head straight here," Giles warned them.
Buffy nodded. "That's why we're going to be ready for them. I've got an idea." She began to outline it, and the heads around her began to nod.
--
When Quentin Travers stepped off the airplane in Sunnydale, preceding his entourage, he was amazed to see young Janna Markham standing out in the open, in the middle of the airport, staring defiantly at him. He immediately started toward her but was cut off halfway there by two people who walked in front of him, and when they were past, she was gone. He looked about wildly and saw her scampering across the concourse. He took off walking after her, but she turned a corner and, by the time he got there, he couldn't find her.
She had been dressed in a red hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans, and he looked around for those colors, spying them on a lithe figure which seemed to be hiding behind a post. Then suddenly they were on another figure at the end of the concourse, near the escalator. He made a split-second decision to head for the escalator, and was nearly there when distracted by the sight of a figure in red and blue ducking out of the ladies' restroom. He looked around and, for the first time, realized that he had become separated from his lackeys. He couldn't see any of them. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned back around to find Janna standing directly in front of him. "How ya doin', Travers?" she asked in a voice that wasn't her voice.
"What? Who are you?" He summoned his best British manner. "This is not amusing -" he began, but she spoke a sudden word and he couldn't make his voice work.
She smiled at him then, and it was not a pleasant smile. "Dakota Walsh, Mr. Travers. Why don't you come with me." She clamped a hand down on his elbow and began forcibly leading him toward the escalator, speaking enthusiastically, and rather loudly, to her "Uncle Dave" about how great it was to see him again and how much he was going to love Sunnydale.
They were met by another Janna at the luggage claim. She had Quentin's bag in her hand, and took him by the other elbow. "Hey, Karen, you've got Uncle Dave's bag?" Dakota said loudly.
"Karen" grinned. "Yeah, I've got it. Let's go. The car's outside, waiting for us."
They steered Travers out the door and to the loading zone, where Xander and yet another Janna were waiting with Xander's car. "Karen" stepped back to stop him trying to run, and Dakota informed the Englishman in a low voice that if he didn't get in the car, she'd drain him dry and save them all the trouble. He got in, followed by Dakota and "Karen," and they drove away quickly. By the time any of the Council members got out the front door of the airport, looking for their lost leader, he was nowhere in sight.
As they pulled out of the parking lot, the Janna in the front seat murmured, "Let the spell be ended," and dumped some colored sand out the car window, scattering it into the wind. As she did so, the three Jannas' features changed. Dakota became a young woman of indeterminate age with brown hair and eyes, "Karen" became Buffy Summers, and the Janna in the front seat became the red-haired witch Willow Rosenberg. Travers began to splutter, and Dakota turned and glared at him. "Shut up, Travers, or I'll gag you."
They drove then in silence to Dakota's house, where Giles waited for them. Their captive was deposited on the sofa and glared at by all five of them for a long moment. Then, finally, Dakota turned away from him, her lip curled in disgust. "I gotta say," she commented to the room in general, "If the alternative was working for this piece of scum, I'm glad I got turned into a vampire."
"You won't win this, you know," Travers commented. "My operatives will find me. And when they do, you'll all die. Including the little rogue you're harboring."
Buffy smirked. "Seems to me you've got a lot of rogues on your hands, Travers, and none of them so far have proved easy to even find, much less kill. How many assassins have you sent into prison after Faith? I do keep up with her, you know. You tried to kill me when I was eighteen and I was too smart for you then. You can't even find Janna; the only reason you knew she was even in Sunnydale is because she answered the telephone. As for Dakota, we haven't found the thing yet that will kill her."
He glared at her. "You're a pathetic excuse for a Slayer, harboring vampires in your very midst, calling them members of your... your Scooby Gang. Don't think the Council doesn't know how Angelus got released -"
His words were cut off when Dakota lifted him by the throat, choking off both tirade and breath. Her vamp face was on as she hissed at him, "Don't you even speak his name. Angel is more human than you are, you sack of shit, and Angelus wasn't Buffy's fault. If anyone's to be blamed for what happened, it's Jenny Calendar, because she kept silent when she should and could have spoken out to prevent what occurred. And she died for her sins. So you shut the hell -" her voice cut off suddenly, and the others knew immediately what had happened — she'd accidentally made eye contact with him.
Buffy and Xander stepped forward and tried to break the eye contact, putting their hands in front of Travers' and Dakota's eyes, but noting happened. Then they tried to physically separate the two of them and couldn't. Willow tried to magickally separate them to no avail, and they were just about to hit Dakota over the head with something heavy when both voices spoke together.
"This is the prophecy."
They were both silent then for a long moment, during which no one moved, all five pairs of eyes riveted on daywalker and Council man. A small sound behind them startled them, but it was just Janna creeping down the stairs to see what was going on. Buffy beckoned her into the room, and they waited to see what else would happen with Dakota and Quentin. Janna came in the room and stood behind Buffy, watching the odd scene unfold before her. The two voices spoke again, but this time they sounded like one voice.
"This is the prophecy."
"Giles, what's going on?" Buffy asked sharply.
"I've no idea," he responded frankly. "They're acting spellbound."
Willow nodded. "I can sense the magick," she said, "but I can't tell where it's coming from or what it's supposed to do."
"Fear not," said a voice from Dakota that was entirely not Dakota's voice. "What grows in the dark dies in the light. The Prophecy has sucked the life from the Council of Watchers for centuries. Now is the time for fulfillment. Fear not."
And then a voice that was not his came from Quentin Travers' throat. "For it shall come to pass in the latter days, in the place of the sun."
"You know, if I had a nickel for every time I heard a prophecy about me that talks about the place of the sun, I wouldn't have to work a day in my life." Buffy snorted.
Giles nodded in agreement and they waited for something else to happen. When it didn't, Janna went into the kitchen and returned with Oreo cookies and milk for everyone on a tray. "Here. Biscuits. I don't know about any of you, but I'm fashed."
Giles nodded. "Thank you, Janna," he commented, taking a glass and a cookie.
"They're fighting," Willow said suddenly.
"Huh?" Xander and Buffy replied in unison.
"They're fighting," Willow repeated. "That's why they're tied up like that. She wants to get it out, and he doesn't. So they're struggling over who's going to win. But... he's going to lose. Because she's not the only one who wants it out. There's someone else there, too. Someone I can sense but not really get a fix on." She shook her head in frustration. "This could take a while."
Buffy shrugged, taking a glass of milk from Janna. "We've got time." To the younger girl, she gave a smile. "Thanks, sweetie."
Janna, complimented by her idol, blushed furiously and had to look somewhere else. Willow and Buffy shared a grin of amusement at the girl's hero-worship. And then the voice that was not Dakota's spoke from her throat. "The Chosen One."
"Who?" Buffy asked. "Me?"
"The Chosen One," said the voice from Travers.
Dakota spoke again, but to everyone's surprise, it was her own voice that spoke in a struggled whisper. "Willow. Help me."
Willow was immediately at her side. "How?"
"Can't... break... loose... He's... winning... help..."
"What do you need me to do, Dakota? Tell me!"
There was an agonizingly long moment of silence. Beads of perspiration broke out on Dakota's forehead as she fought to say what she wanted to say. "Grows... dark... dies... light..." she grated.
"What grows in the dark dies in the light," Willow repeated. Then suddenly her own personal light dawned. "Dies in the light!" She turned to the others. "Cover your eyes. Turn around and cover your eyes. Now."
With no questions, they all obeyed. Willow stepped back from Dakota and Quentin, raised her hands together and pointed them at the two interlocked figures. She whispered a quick prayer to the Goddess that this would work, and then shouted a single word at the top of her lungs. "Illuminate!"
The flash of light was so bright that the world glowed nuclear around Buffy for a split second. Even with her back to it and her eyes tightly shut and covered with her hands, she still had spots before her eyes when she finally opened them again. Her eyesight returned then and she turned at the same time as Xander and Giles to find Willow, Dakota and Travers all lying on the floor in different places. Willow was struggling into a sitting position and Buffy went to her immediately, helping her up and into a chair. Xander got Dakota onto the couch and smoothed back her hair, talking to her in gentle tones, trying to get her to regain consciousness. Giles and Janna both walked over to stand over Quentin Travers, who groaned as his eyes fluttered open. Janna waited until he had focused clearly on her and then fetched him a sharp kick in the ribs before Giles could stop her. "Jerk," she said to the fallen Watcher, then returned to her cookies.
Xander was concerned, not being able to wake Dakota up, when suddenly her eyes opened. He jumped back in startlement. They were completely white — no iris or pupil could be seen. The others, except for the still-floored Travers, approached her cautiously, Willow leaning heavily on Buffy. "This is the prophecy," she said suddenly in a soft voice. The voice was a man's, and had a distinctive English accent. "The prophecy is given to the Council of Watchers of London, on the twenty-eighth day of August in the Year of our Lord one thousand two hundred forty-seven. For it shall come to pass in the latter days, in the place of the sun, that the Chosen One shall initiate the destruction of the Watchers. She herself shall turn and face the sun, and shall ally with the sorceress. She shall conquer Death and live forever, even to the end of the age, and from the get of the witch shall the new order be sprung. This is the prophecy."
Then Dakota's eyes were her own again, just for a second, before they rolled up in the back of her head and she passed out.