Chapter Text
James MacPherson was moving slowly for a man right outside the place where he was supposed to be incarcerated for eternity. The reason for his lack of speed was that he was supporting someone who was just getting used to moving again, after over a hundred years of being encased in bronze.
Of course, the fact that she had a hood over her head hardly helped HG Wells with her bodily coordination. But then, she hadn't seen anything for a century. She could stand to wait a little longer. It wouldn't do for her to damage her eyes by exposing them to light too soon.
MacPherson had long since ceased to be shocked that HG Wells was a woman. It had, after all, been over 15 years since he'd first talked to her. Even if this was the first time they'd actually met in the flesh.
Leena, the woman MacPherson had brainwashed to aid him in his escape, sat dumbly in the driver's seat of the car he'd forced her to park outside the Warehouse, waiting for MacPherson to either relinquish his control of her or give her orders.
After helping HG into the back of the car and making sure her hood was secured, MacPherson slid into the passenger seat. "Drive to Featherhead, my dear. Carefully. We don't want to draw any attention."
"We need to go to London." HG said in a hoarse whisper.
"Oh, I know." MacPherson said, licking his lips in anticipation of what was to come. "But it'll take you about a day to fully acclimatize to the world again. We can't make a move until then. Anyway, I want you to meet a colleague of mine there."
"This Featherhead... is it close?" HG rasped.
"Yes. Just a few miles." MacPherson replied.
"Do you not think they will follow?"
"No. I scrambled the Warehouse's systems. Right now, Arthur couldn't find us if he were right around the corner." MacPherson reassured.
"Good." HG said, sitting back. "Then you must tell me what I have missed. It has been many years since we last... spoke."
~*~
Claudia sat there, staring dumbly at her Farnsworth.
MacPherson had escaped. Claudia could accept that, he was by all accounts a cunning man. She could even accept that he'd brainwashed Leena somehow - perhaps even literally, given her brief cerebral inflammation.
But why would MacPherson release HG Wells from the Bronze Sector? Wells had been dead for at least 50 years, as far as Claudia's rather scanty knowledge indicated. What could he possibly know that MacPherson would risk everything to break him out?
Dawn nudged her shoulder, and Claudia made space for Dawn to sit beside her so that she too could see the Farnsworth. "What would MacPherson want with HG Wells?"
Artie stared at Dawn for several long seconds. Dawn became uncomfortably aware that this was the man that she had shot just a few days ago. Admittedly, she had been delirious at the time, and it had only been with a Tesla so there was no permanent injury, but still.
"So you're okay then?" Artie asked eventually.
Dawn nodded. She couldn't quite find the words to establish just how okay she was. She was no longer schizophrenic, after all.
Of course, her happiness was marred more than a little by the fact that Sunnydale was currently in the throes of a pretty large earthquake, and her sister was lying dead on her bed. Although the death was artefact induced and only temporary.
"Good. We can talk about you shooting me later. And Claudia, you can explain what you're doing with Dawn."
Claudia gulped (that sounded ominous) and tried to change the subject. "So, uh, about Wells?"
"I don't know anything. I can't even find the records of Wells being bronzed in the first place. MacPherson really did a number on these computers, almost nothing is working."
"Do you have Internet?" Claudia asked thoughtfully. "If you do, you can find if there's been any news about HG Wells recently."
"On it." Artie said. "And I'm not even going to ask why you've got goo in your hair." Then he hung up.
Claudia fingered her hair. "Hey, Dawn? Mind if I have a quick shower? I don't want this to get on your carpets. Plus it really stings."
Dawn shrugged. "Sure, bathroom's just down the hall."
"Thanks." Claudia said, standing up.
Someone knocked on the front door. "Do you want to get that, or shall I?" Dawn asked Buffy.
Buffy, unsurprisingly, didn’t answer. Dawn sighed. "And I'm talking to my dead sister. Thank God I'm sane these days."
~*~
"Pete, Myka." Artie said in greeting.
"Any news?" Myka said anxiously.
"About MacPherson? No, not yet. Whatever he's planning, he hasn't put it into motion yet. But, a few months ago, someone broke into the HG Wells museum in England. Nothing was taken." Artie said brusquely.
"So MacPherson didn't find what he wanted and decided to go to the source." Pete surmised.
"Precisely." Artie agreed. "And you two have to stop him from finding out whatever he's after."
Pete nodded. Myka said "But what about Leena? What do we do if she - if she attacks us?"
Artie shrugged uncomfortably. "MacPherson must be using an artefact on her. I don't know which one. Try and capture her if you can - the artefact will probably be implanted in her brain, which would explain the Cerebritis, so we might be able to remove it."
"And if we can't capture her?" Pete asked.
Silence.
"Right." Pete said grimly, standing.
~*~
Dawn opened the door. "Hi. It's Xander, isn't it?"
Xander nodded. "Um, is Buffy home?" he said, words tumbling over themselves in their hurry to get out of his mouth.
Dawn began to shake her head, then changed her mind. "She's asleep." Which was, sort of, true. It just wasn't the kind of sleep most people woke up from.
Dawn had always known Buffy was special.
"Could you wake her up? This is kind of important." Xander said, shifting from food to foot nervously.
"Why? Is something wrong?" Dawn frowned.
"This is really just something I should tell Buffy."
"Slayer business?"
Xander goggled. "You - you know about that?"
Dawn nodded, smiling slightly. "Way before you did."
"Did - did Buffy tell you about the prophecy?" Xander stammered.
Instantly, Dawn's smile faded. "She did. What's happened?"
"Well, um, Buffy kind of yelled at Giles when she found out, said that she wouldn't stay around for this. And, uh, Giles has gone and gotten Angel and they're going through the sewers right now. He's going to try and kill the Master so that he can't kill Buffy. Ms Calendar told me. She couldn't stop him." Xander said hurriedly.
Dawn mentally reached for any of the vast amount of foreign curses she knew, utterly failed to find one, couldn't think of an English one and settled for saying "Crud."
Despite himself, Xander smiled. "I put it a little stronger than that when I heard, but sure. It is cruddy."
So. The prophecy said that the Slayer would die and the Master would break free. Well, the Slayer had died. Maybe this Giles would inadvertently release the Master.
"We have to do something."
~*~
Artie was trying to unscramble the Warehouse's computer systems when the automatic search protocols kicked in. He had a ping.
Normally, Artie would've ignored it. He was, after all, in the middle of a crisis.
But this was big news.
Apparently, there had been a large, prolonged explosion outside the CERN facility in Switzerland. Although no one had actually been caught in the blast, reports indicated that dozens of workers inside the building had died. Apparently, they had suffocated to death with their lungs filled with ash.
Artie knew the only artefact that could cause that. He'd seen it the last time it was used, fifteen years before.
The artefact was called the Phoenix. It protected the person holding it from fire, but caused nearby people to die instead.
The last person to use it had been MacPherson, when he had chosen to save his wife Carol. It had been that decision which had cost the lives of five firemen, and had led to MacPherson being incarcerated in a federal prison.
The thing was, the Phoenix was in the Warehouse.
Or, at least it should be. If it wasn't, that could only mean that MacPherson had taken it in his escape. Which meant that MacPherson wanted something at CERN.
It could be a distraction, of course. Except for one thing.
Joshua Donovan worked at CERN. Artie was pretty sure that MacPherson wanted him for something. He just didn't know what.
Regardless, Claudia had to be told. If MacPherson was after her brother, she needed to know.
~*~
Claudia was just drying her hair when her Farnsworth buzzed. She opened it, and Artie instantly filled her in on what had happened.
When Artie was finished, Claudia just sat there in silence for several seconds. Then she closed her Farnsworth and yelled "Dawn!"
There was no response. Which could mean only one thing. Dawn was gone.
Again.