slayers_desire | trying to make the pieces fit ((Buffyverse plot))

((I'm going to take cues from April-mun for noting Ed's actions in other people's scenarios. Just Victor's this time around, though.))

Ed shakes his head a bit, still very confused. "But... we didn't send an IDC code. I don't even have my GDO anymore... How did you know it was really me?"

He's really starting to get the feeling that something's not right. The staff of Stargate Command are usually much more paranoid about letting visitors through than this... The techs in the control room always wait to confirm that any visitors trying to get through transmit a valid IDC number before opening the Iris. And Ed's certain he never sent one. He doubts Clark, April, or Victor did, either; he's only just met Victor, and he's told April and Clark very little about Stargate Command. (Not because he doesn't trust them, it just hasn't come up.)

Unless... maybe he did, and he just doesn't remember doing it... Or someone else (or maybe Someone, like the PTBs... he does work for them, after all...) took care of it for him... He shakes his head a bit, a little headache starting to form in his sinuses, and tries to smile at his younger brother. He's back with his little brother again... nothing else should matter, right? Still, the smile ends up a bit strained. "Okay. What did you want to show me?"

Victor: Ed clutches at the bite wound, on his left deltoid, blood staining the steel of his Automail arm, eyes wide with terror. "Victor...? Guys...? What's going to happen to me?!"

Edited (HTML fail) 2013-01-04 21:37 (UTC)

Victor: Taking the cue from Victor, Clark takes the handcuffs from her and steps forward towards Ed and the infected Wes. April watches carefully, her husband has a lot of abilities. He will be fast enough. He will be strong enough. She trusts in the same way that he can't be bitten either.

Lorne frowns as the infected Wes looks around, anxious to find others to infect. "We have to... ensure they can't infect anyone else."

Ed: Al is way to excited about the fact that his brother is here. April, Clark and Victor are willing to follow Ed and Al through their new surroundings. Few of them notice the arrival of another SG team.

That is... until one of the SG members uses his Zat'nik'tels to shoot the guards at the Iris, twice to kill them.

Clark and April: "You are the fastest one here..." April reminds her husband. She can run pretty fast... but she desperately wants to get to her son. Get him to safety.

He knows that she's right. "Get as many people out as you can." Clark kisses her, and turns to run to the apartment, barely glancing around to see if anyone is watching. He needs to get their son to safety, and he doesn't have much time.

"Ed... you're going to change, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. The bite's too high for us to amputate and stop the infection from spreading." She owes him that much. To tell him the truth. "We're going to handcuff you and Wesley. We're going to stop the infection from spreading further. I promise that we'll try to find a cure for you."

So far her plan is just to keep them from running off and biting others. Other than that... she's lost. It's not like she has a basement to keep them in.

The sound of a Zat firing is a very distinctive noise, and it cause Ed to immediately tense and whirl in the direction of the noise, blade-arm in a guard. "What the Hell?!" He growls, spotting the newly-arrived SG-team. The team leader's eyes flash with gold light as soon as Ed meets his eyes. "Dammit! They're Goa'uld! Al, stay behind me!" Al is unlikely to listen to his brother right now, and would probably want to help Ed fight, but Ed's telling him anyway. Hopefully, though... Al will listen.

Victor: Ed's trembling, tears coming to his eyes. But... he still has a duty to everyone here to make sure he can't hurt anyone, in any way. Will he retain his ability to transmute...? He can't take the chance that he will; so he grabs his Automail arm and forcefully yanks it out of its dock, tossing the prosthetic as far away as he can. Then he takes off his utility belt and throws it in the opposite direction. "Do it," he tells Victor, a sob coming unbidden to his voice. "Make sure I can't use Alchemy... Don't let me get to my arm and reattach it, or clap my hands... Don't let me get to anything I can use to draw."

Victor: Clark moves forward to handcuff Wes and Ed together. And yes... he is the fastest man in the world. But, this one moment takes a little more time. Just enough for the very infected Wes to bite him.

And that will create a problem. Because a zompires bite is magical. It will affect Clark.

Ed's last decision is a very good one, since the zompire's transformation won't take away his supernatural abilities. A transmuting zombire would be a bad thing. But you know what is worse? A zombire with super speed, super strength, heat vision, the ability to fly and all that jazz.

Ed: Al steps forward, ready to fight with his brother. "These are my friends Ed. I have to help make sure they aren't hurt." Clark, April and Victor also get ready. They are not sure how to fight the Goa'uld SG members, but they are willing to protect innocents even here.

Clark and April: After watching her husband fly away to retrieve Jonathan, April returns to warning others on the street. There are so many people. And the strange darkness is getting larger and larger.

She sees Victor helping a homeless man, both hoppling away... but not quick enough. The darkness takes them. And all April can do is scream as she watches her best friend get taken. And become dust...

Edited 2013-01-04 22:25 (UTC)

Clark hears her scream, and firmly picks up speed. He has to get to the apartment before the darkness does, and he doesn't bother to go the normal way, flying straight to the balcony. "Jonathan!"

Victor's eyes are misting up, too, and she has to force herself to keep her voice steady. "You'll be fine, Ed. We'll heal you. We've got the power of the multiverse behind us. We've got magic--"

Then Clark gets bit and she starts crying in earnest. Everything's getting out of hand. She just stole a child's father from him. Her failures are killing people.

"April, I-I, I didn't know, I--" She thought that since magic didn't work in that world, that the zompires had to be medical, not magical. If she'd had any idea, any idea at all.... Her best friend is going to die. And there's nothing she can do about it.

Guilt fills her stomach like heavy stones. "I'm sorry." She stumbles backwards, cane slipping from her grasp and hitting the floor with a clatter. "I'm sorry."

Her usual ability to be calm, to be a leader during a crisis is shattered, and now it's all she can do to stay standing. All she can do to remember to breathe.

"I can't lose you!" Ed tells his brother, voice heated with fear. "Not again!" But... dammit, Al's just as stubborn as Ed himself is... Al's made up his mind; he'll fight, even if it means he'll get hurt, or worse. Shaking, he squeezes his eyes shut again, retrieves a Zat from one of the fallen SFs, opens his eyes again, takes aim at the former SG team leader, and squeezes off a shot. The soldier collapses to the ground, jerking with spasms for a second or two before going still.

Even though they might not be able to get the parasite out of the USAF officer... which would mean he'd be stuck, screaming inside his own head, unable to control his own body for as long as the Goa'uld remained wrapped around his spinal cord... he can't bring himself to kill any of them. He can only fire stunning shots.

Victor: April chocked back tears herself. She put up a mental shield tight around all three of them. Ed... Wes... and her husband. "Victor... we need kryptonite. If we can keep them here..."

Wes is already gone. The infection is claiming Ed's mind. And Clark lowers his head, one hand pressed up against the mental shield. Saying goodbye to his wife while he is still in the right mind-set.

"Victor... honey... we have to do something." Lorne whispers.

Ed: The SG team trade off a few shots. One, luckily just one, hits April and she collapse to the ground stunned. Clark speeds quickly to move his wife out of the area.

The SG team keep moving forward. Not afraid to fire two shots when they can. Taking out as many people as they can. The Goa'uld want this technology. They need it. They will be merciless.

Clark and April: Martha is holding Jonathan tightly in her arms. She is backing away from the blackness, which had entered underneath the door. She turns, so relieved to see her son. "What is happening?"

Clark's relieved when he sees both of them all right, but he knows they aren't even close to being out of danger. "We need to go. Now." He knows the look in his eyes will tell his mom that he doesn't have time to explain, even if he knew what it was.

He ushers her towards the balcony, letting her hold onto Jonathan for now. If he holds her so the baby is between them as they fly, he should be safe...

"I-it should've been me. It should've been me. Clark, I'm so sorry, I should've cuffed them myself, I didn't know. I love you, Clark, I'm so sorry."

She sobs hard, hot tears coursing down her cheeks, she pulls her little lead box out of her bag.

And when Lorne says they have to do something, she shakes her head. Nothing to do now but curl up and die. She just killed her best friend. She wipes her nose on her sleeve.

"April!" Ed cries when she goes down. He immediately points his Zat at the Snakehead who hit her and fires off another shot, still only willing to stun the soldiers—in this case, mostly because he knows Clark would probably frown on Ed taking a life in revenge, even if it is because one of them hurt April. He backs up as the Goa'uld advance, trying to keep Al at least partially blocked by his body and out of the enemy's line of fire. "Dammit," he growls to himself. "Where are SG-1?!"

Edited 2013-01-04 23:22 (UTC)

Victor: April struggled with her mental shield holding the three men. She has a lot of strength... but when the infected Wes and Ed pound against it that strength is drained slightly. It will get worse once Clark looses the battle to the Zompire infection.

Lorne picks up the lead box. He is not sure what it does, but believes it will help them. He has to believe in something.

Ed: Al is looking for his friends too. They should be here. Helping them... protecting them. That is when he gets hit. The zap knocks him down quickly. And the Goa'uld who did it aims again and fires a second shot.

Clark and April: Martha holds the baby tight in her arms as her son picks her up. They fly away from the blackness that enters the apartment.

Down on the streets below, there are few places left to flee. April and Ed have reached the edge of the city with the fleeing refugees. Ed is helping a few children, who are weeping for their parents. One child falls, and April stops to help her back up.

The darkness comes up from behind her... it touches her and... the bond between her and Clark is broken. Suddenly.

Clark can hear a sound like a wailing, wounded animal and he doesn't immediately realize that it's him. The first time he lost her, they hadn't had the deep bond that they do now. Losing her was a shock, but not as severe as losing anyone else. This is different, like someone has reached into his chest and squeezed his heart, cutting it to ribbons. A whole half of himself seems gone, like half of his soul has been suddenly, violently amputated. It's like nothing he's ever felt before, and he can barely comprehend that there's anything else going on.

She manages to get a hold of herself enough to say, "Give it here. I need to put it in his pocket." She won't get someone else bitten.

She feels dull and numb and tingly as she advances, kryptonite held in front of her. She can't see for the tears blurring her vision. She slips it in his jeans pocket, cuffs him, too. "Clark, I'm sorry. I love you and I'm so sorry."

"ALPHONSE!" Edward screams as his brother falls, voice raw with grief and rage. The Soulmates' Bond between him and Alphonse disappears, cut off as though it has been abruptly taken into the Gateway of Truth, just as Alphonse's body—and Edward's right arm and left leg—had been four and a half years ago. The emotional and psychic trauma feels almost exactly the same as it felt for Edward to have his arm and leg Deconstructed—only it's a million times worse, even compared to the pain Alphonse must've been feeling as the same happened to his own body that night. Half of Edward's soul has been ripped apart at the seams, and he can almost physically feel that pain.

Letting out an agonized scream, he turns his Zat on the remaining Goa'uld and shoots them each twice, no longer caring about sparing their lives. Then he adds a second shot to the two he already stunned, ending their lives as well. As the Embarkation Room falls silent, Edward starts shaking violently, slowly lowering the Zat, then letting it slip from his grasp as he collapses to his knees beside his brother's body. He breaks down crying, not even bothering to try to hold the tears back, picking his brother's body up and cradling Alphonse's head against his chest.

Edited 2013-01-05 03:35 (UTC)

Victor: Clark looked at Victor. The life of her best friend was gone. There was a coldness there instead. "You failed everyone."

Infected Wes moves with his free hand to grab the Kryptonite and throws it as far as he can. Infected Clark breaks the handcuffs on him, then both infected Wes and Ed. Together, the three infected people break the mental shield. Wes moves right. Ed moves left.

Infected Clark smiles at Victor. "Your family is next."

Ed: The room is quiet around Ed as he kills the Goa'uld who had stormed the Embarkation Room. He feels an empitness that seems endless

Clark: Clark feels that same empitness... as he comes down from the air with his son and mother. Jonathan is crying. And no matter what Martha can do, she can not consol her grandson.

Ed moved to greet Clark, standing by his side to protect Martha and Jonathan. Determined to be the bodyguard still.

April: She is surrounded by a white light. When it fades, she is in a white room. Her allies... Clark, Ed and Victor are all in states of shock. No matter what she does, she can't get their attention.

She can feel the emotional stress from them all. Whatever they are seeing... it is very real to them. Just like her own experience was. She takes a moment to collect herself.

Hope... It was what they are seeking. She steps forward, determined to do something. But someone grabs her from behind. Turning... April is shocked to see her mother Drusilla standing there.

"Not your turn lamb."

Clark feels a sudden, irrational surge of anger towards Ed when he sees him. He was supposed to protect her. And that anger wars with the knowledge that there was nothing Ed could've done. Clark was supposed to protect her too... and he couldn't do that.

He forces it down, even though he still feels like his heart is bleeding. "Let's get out of here before we lose anyone else."

I did. I failed everyone.

"Get out of here. Get somewhere safe," she tells April and Lorne. Containing the spread is no longer an option.

Panic spreads in her like a virus. Her heart is pounding so hard she feels like she's dying, and she's hearing a violent buzzing in her ears that's getting louder all the time. She pushes a PINpoint into April's hand and leaves for home.

She needs to save her children. Her family. Nothing else is true in her but that. And that buzzing, even louder now, a flushing to her face, she feels like she has hot wire in her veins.

She PINs home, yelling, "Code red, code red, this is not a drill!" They're moving worlds. Cutting all ties. Code red brooks no argument.

Cole comes out of the bedroom looking bewildered, but takes one look at her face and grabs the emergency bag she has packed at all times under the bed. Victor heads right to the nursery, picks up Anya and Athena, one child on each hip. They're three now and too heavy for her to cart around, but now's not the time to worry about her own physical pain. "Where's Jude?"

"He's at school." Cole wraps an arm around her, he's ready to go, but there's a fraction of a second before he can get his finger to depress the button.

The despair starts to press in, snuffing out all of the hope he'd had at the start of all this. SG-1 finally show up, with General Hammond in tow, and all of them freeze when they see Edward kneeling on the floor with his brother's lifeless body clutched against him. When Edward sees them, an uncontrollable rage boils up inside him, and he turns his head to face them, screaming, "Where the fuck have you guys been?!"

"Ed—" Daniel starts to say, before Edward cuts him off.

"You promised me you'd protect him!" Edward roars at his former apprentice. "One of your teams came back through infested with Goa'uld parasites! They killed my brother! AND YOU WEREN'T HERE!" The despair starts to overwhelm the anger once more and he slumps a little, reaching a shaking hand for the Zat he dropped and picking it up. For a moment it seems like he might turn it on SG-1... but then he turns the muzzle to press against the side of his neck.

"No!" Sam cries. "Ed, don't, please!"

"There's nothing left!" Edward half-screams, half-sobs. "My Soulmate is dead, and I will never be whole again!" He's still holding Alphonse against him, and as he turns away from SG-1, he lowers his head so that his forehead is resting against Alphonse's for a moment. "I'm sorry, Al..." he whispers. "I'll be with you soon..." Then he closes his eyes, lets the last of his tears fall...

And then, just as he's about to squeeze the trigger... there's Al's voice, in his mind, screaming at him. BROTHER! STOP!

He freezes. "Al...?"

That's not me, Ed! Al's voice says, and it's loud and clear, not faint like it was the last time Ed heard it. This isn't real!

And with that... Ed can feel the Bond again; he lets go of the false Al's body and drops the Zat. That bonfire of hope flares up again. "This isn't real..." he says, quiet at first. Then he repeats it, voice louder and angrier. "None of this is real." He rises to his feet and locks eyes with Daniel and Sam. "And you are not my apprentices!"

((Gaaaah, frelling bleedover... Also, heads up: I have a concert to attend this evening, so I'm only going to be able to keep threading until about 6:30 PM CST. I have no idea how long the concert's going to last, so assume I won't be back until tomorrow morning. >.>))

Edited 2013-01-05 16:28 (UTC)

((big thanks to Ed-mun for the edit. finally get to bring everyone back together))

Victor: Victor acted pretty quick calling the red alert. But she was followed by the quickest zompire. Her former best friend. That second that Cole takes is just enough for him to be grabbed by the infected Clark.

Cole is just about to get bitten... when a bright light flashes...

Clark: People were running away from the city. The blackness was getting quicker and quicker. Ed will be taken... and there is a moment where Martha stumbles and the blackness comes for her.

It comes for Martha and Jonathan... when a bright light flashes...

April: She growled at her mother. "What do you mean it is not my turn? They need me! They are in so much pain!"

"Poor little lamb, lost in the woods." Drusilla sings softly.

There is a bright light surrounding Clark, Victor and Ed.

Ed: A bright light flashes around Ed and when it is gone, he is in the white room with Clark, Victor and April. Both Clark and Victor are coming out of their experiences now.

A white glowing gem drops from the air into Ed's hands. It ebbs with hope. Looking into it for a second, he sees the true image of Al, and SG1. They are safe. They are laughing over supper. And for a second, Al looks up... knowing his brother is safe now.

((everyone awakens in the white room. Drusilla is visible to everyone too.))

For a moment, Clark feels even worse somehow when he feels Martha and his son disappear from his arms. Then he sees April... and hesitantly reaches out for the bond, afraid that all he'll feel is nothing. "April...?"

Victor backs away from Clark, shaking, and part of her brain is saying, something is not real, but she's not sure which something it is.

She's had her brain scrambled before. She can't trust this reality. She's looking hunted.

Ed has to momentarily shield his eyes from the harsh light; once his vision recovers, he's able to lower his hands and catch the white gem in both (it clinks against the bare steel palm of his right hand) just in time. He spends several moments staring at the image inside it, watching Al, SG-1, and General Hammond talking and laughing together at the dinner table at Hammond's house. It's... somehow both weird and overwhelmingly joyous, seeing his brother eating food again. After four and a half years of Al having to fake the act of eating so no-one the brothers stayed with would find out that the armor he was bound to was empty inside... well, Ed had kind of gotten used to it, even though it was incredibly awkward for both of them.

Al pauses in the middle of his meal, and turns slightly in his seat so that he's looking in the direction Ed's watching them from. For a moment... just a moment... it's almost as though the brothers are meeting eyes. Al gives his brother a wide smile, then turns back to his friends and resumes his meal.

"Thank you, Al..." Ed whispers, smiling gently and closing his eyes for a moment. "Love you." He presses the gem against his heart for a moment, then lets his left hand drop to his side, clutching the gem tightly in it. Then he looks up and joins his friends, expression becoming more neutral once he sees Drusilla, whom he immediately recognizes—he's been working his way through both of the Buffyverse TV series, currently in the middle of season 4 of BtVS and season 3 of Angel. Dru might be April's mother... but she's also a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal, and Ed's a little bit creeped out by her.

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everyone loving me by now? lol

:P

<3

You're awesome <3

thanks guys

You're doing great!

Very awesome!

*pets*

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pets