Apocalypse Nowish
It was a gathering that had not been seen in recorded history. Every council leader, every being of power was gathered in the clearing that had been declared Accorded Neutral Territory for the duration of the meeting. Leaders from various nations, packs, clans, courts. Some Harry could recognize immediately. Others, he had only known through rumor. The clearing swelled with power, and Harry himself was distinctly uncomfortable. As the representative of the Unseelie Court, it was his job to ensure the Accords were followed, as well as representing his Queen in this matter. Mab might have had the power to control this lot, but Harry wasn't entirely certain of his own ability to do so.
Still, he took down the names of all those present. And when Fix, the Summer Knight, arrived and stood beside him, Harry was relieved. Fix had been the Summer Knight for several years now, and had more knowledge than Harry would admit. Winter and Summer were perpetually at war, but in this matter, they were united. It was enough of a shock to everyone that Harry suspected many here now had come simply to see what would make the Queens of the Sidhe set aside their eternal struggle and work together.
Arthur Langtry, the Merlin of the White Council, gave Harry a dirty look. He'd never liked Dresden, and fully believed the young wizard to be a time bomb waiting to explode and destroy them all. The fact that this upstart youth had maneuvered his way into power as the Winter Knight did not pass his attention, nor his suspicion. He filed the information away, giving the Knight a barely respectful nod. This answered the question of where Dresden had been the last several months, after being presumed dead.
Mavra, the eldest vampire of the Black Court, avoided Dresden. She loathed the wizard and was determined to see him dead. But at this meeting, he was untouchable. She scowled as he was approached by Lara Raith, who had arrived in proxy for her father, the King of the White Court. Raith flirted openly with Dresden, but the wizard resisted her charms and she moved on through the crowd to take her place.
Harry waited until all the dignitaries were in place, keeping his expression neutral. This was the very last place in the world he wanted to be, but it was his Queen's order. Well, his Queen and Fix's. At least the changeling was in the same boat as him. Before anyone could start to get impatient (and for immortal and semi-immortal beings, they could be damn impatient), Harry nodded to Fix. The changeling quickly drew up his will and closed the circle. Trees surrounding the clearing groaned and shifted, closing the physical circle at the same time a magical barrier was erected. The air immediately began to swell with the pressure of those contained within.
There were plenty of beings who could easily break it and leave. But the matter was ceremonial, traditional. The circle ensured privacy, and no magical communications or scrying could penetrate it. Any technology to do so would have burned out by now, given the magical energies moving about.
"Thank you all for coming," Harry announced, his stern baritone ringing clearly through the clearing. "On behalf of Mab, Queen of Winter, I bid you all welcome. This conclave has been called to address an issue of utmost importance, and one that has attracted the attentions of both Summer and Winter alike." That said, he turned to face a woman in a crisp, cream-colored business suit. "I now open the floor to the representative of the Senior Partners, the Wolf, Ram, and Hart, to give us this most pressing news."
"Thank you, Mr. Dresden," the woman said, her voice very pleasant, like nothing at all was wrong. She rose from her spot at the U-shaped table and began to pace, high heels clicking on the floor.
"Ladies and gentlemen, higher beings," she began, with a nod to a section of the table where, sandwiched between an angel and a demon, a hunter from South Dakota sat. The hunter was incredibly uncomfortable. He scowled.
"I realize that this meeting is... unorthodox at best, but it's to the advantage of everyone here to discuss something that's come to the attention of both the Senior Partners of my firm and Queen Mab. Lights, if you please?"
At the back of the room, a young man in a suit--another lawyer from Wolfram and Hart--hit the lights. The woman turned on a lap top, and a screen on the back wall sprang to life.
"I know we're all familiar with the Hellmouth in Sunnydale," she said. "Some more than others." She offered a smile to Rupert Giles, who sat at the end of the table, nearest the door, just next to a vampire named Nan Flannigan, head of the American Vampire League. "In all of my time at Wolfram and Hart, in all the meetings we have held, all of our plans, not a single employee was aware," she said, clicking a button, "that this existed."
Behind her on the screen, there was an aerial image of an expanse of land.
"Now, I know that looks like just a piece of land in the middle of nowhere," she said, offering everyone a beautiful smile. "And it is. You'd be right to think that." She waited a beat.
The Merlin grunted, standing to show his intent to speak. "I assume this is the location within Pennsylvania," he said, his voice holding no surprise. "Rumored to hold the Seven Gates of Hell." His expression appeared mildly bored. "I cannot see what bearing this has upon the White Council. We have victoriously concluded one war already, against the Red Court. Our enemies have been destroyed, and we now seek to recover from our efforts."
There was an answering snort from a wizened old man. He had the bronzed, leathery complexion of a Native American who had spent his time under the sun. His hair was dark grey, streaked here and there with black, and hanging in a long braid down his back. Ulric did not rise, but his amber eyes flickered in disdain towards the most powerful wizard on the planet. "What I hear is your war was stopped by one of your own, while the rest of your Council burrowed down in Scotland with the rest. If this Hell's Gate is to open, who knows what might come out of it? Would your White Council stand by while the Old Ones walked?"
That feral gaze turned to look at the Winter Knight, who was attempting to be invisible as possible. "I think one of your ilk at least might take objection."
Langtry's blue eyes narrowed. "Warden Dresden is a member of the White Council," he said. His voice was even, though he seemed to be spitting out the words. "His actions during the war are not unknown to us."
"Try not to choke there, Arty," Dresden murmured, unable to help himself. It was only a heartbeat later that he realized his words had been heard by the entire conclave. His expression was unrepentant, but he stood just a bit straighter. "Milady Mab has already requested my attention in this matter. I would certainly be honored to be the White Council's representative as well, in order to give our military a chance to recover from the war."
The Summer Knight pressed a hand to his face and bowed his head, presumably to hide the grin on his face.
Ulric rolled his eyes, a faint growl under his breath. "The internal matters of your White Council do not concern me. I wish to know more about what is expected to arise should this Gate be opened." His gaze turned back to the woman. "Speak more on this, if you can."
The hunter made a sighing noise. The Gates of Hell. John Winchester'd been to New Jersey and back looking for those, several other locations they were rumored to be, too. He'd never found anything concrete.
"Seven Gates of Hell?" The demon next to the hunter smiled, very slowly. His suit was very expensive. His accent was British, and he seemed altogether gleeful at the prospect of all of this. "That sounds... useful." "Crowley?" The demon smiled winningly. "Yes, Mr. Singer?" "Shut your trap."
Across the table, an amazingly beautiful vampire sat, full attention focused on the speaker. "Yes, please continue, Lilah."
The woman nodded. She pushed another button and showed a different view of the area.
"Our findings aren't very concrete yet, but what we do know is that these rumors are not just rumors. Our geologists have been working overtime to check into signs that might make the site similar to the Hellmouths in Sunnydale or Cleveland. The bad news, kids, is that it's strikingly similar. The worse news is that these Seven Gates of Hell actually seem to exist."
"Is such a thing even possible?" The voice cut the air like a perfect knife. Half of the room turned to look at the voice's owner. She was very, very old, very, very pale, and her eyes burned in her face like they did not quite belong to her. They, in fact, did not. Red hair spilled down her shoulders in heavy waves. "You'll forgive me, I'm no expert, but while I'm quite certain Hell exists, does it have gates?"
"Mr. Giles, if you could?"
"Yes, yes of course." Rupert Giles did his best to smile at the seriously terrifying vampiress. "Uhm, Maharet, is it? Yes. A Hellmouth is simply an area with increased supernatural energies. Generally, the public tends not to know about them. If the mouth actually opens, it's a portal between here, between earth, and um, Hell. Hellmouths attract a variety of creatures, vampires, demons, werewolves, ghosts..." He nodded, seeming to say there were more possible creatures even than these. "The, um, the energies can also effect human beings and cause them to behave in ways they otherwise normally would not."
Lilah nodded. "Much as Mr. Giles and I have differing viewpoints, of everyone in this room, he is the expert on hellmouths. For those that don't know, Mr. Giles is a member of the Watcher's Council, and is currently living and working in Sunnydale."
All of the vampires in the room were suddenly looking very intently at Giles. He could feel his face burning. "Thank you for that," he said, sarcastically. "Ever so much."
"Ijits," Bobby Singer said. He removed a flask from the pocket of his flannel shirt and took a swig from it.
"Wolfram and Hart's Special Projects division took a little bit of time away from its pet project and relocated some of our resources into going to York and looking at the site," Lilah said. "The team did find the gates, as well as several colorful local rumors and a lot of human bones. Two of the team did not return to L.A."
"Are you assuming them missing?" asked Nan Flanagan's companion, a dark-haired vampire with a Southern accent.
"Dead," Lilah responded.
Harry was quick to determine that he liked that Singer fellow. He was taking careful note of the proceedings, who was speaking, and what kind of viewpoints they offered. And while he thought Giles could be helpful, the sudden attention focused his way left the wizard glaring coldly at Lilah Morgan. He didn't like the idea of hurting a woman, but he was truly wishing that someone here might want to bring her down, all the same.
Mavra cleared her throat. It sounded like a death rattle. She did not stand, keeping her seat like the corpse she was. "How exactly do these gates open?" she asked, the utter lack of innocence in her voice drawing eyes to her.
Beside her, Lara Raith rolled her eyes. She was beyond gorgeous, a living goddess in a pure white silk business skirt that was less than an inch too short for propriety, and blue-black hair that fell past her shoulders in gentle waves. "I find it unlikely that these gates being opened would prove profitable to most of us," she said, her voice cultured and impeccably polite. "If nothing else, for the additional mouths to feed. The kine are numerous, of course, but poachers are distasteful to our nature."
"Your nature," Mavra purred. "Others do not have the same feelings." That said, she turned her head to look back at Lilah. "Is it more than merely a Hellmouth, then?" she asked, her dark eyes glittering. "These Seven Gates... would open directly into Hell?"
Arthur Langtry huffed. "Impossible," he said, shaking his head. "The Laws of Magic strictly prohibit contact outside the borders of this reality. This could not have appeared without the White Council being aware of it."
Dresden rolled his eyes. "Leave it to wizard arrogance to deny the existence of something so obvious," he said. "The Wardens have been preoccupied long enough for someone to have been working at this. Not every infraction of the Laws can be governed, and with the Council stretched across the globe, this could have been just the opportunity someone was waiting for."
The Merlin turned towards Harry, eyes blazing. "I will not accept such insolence from you, Dresden."
Harry met the glare. "Then accept it from my Queen, honored Merlin. I speak for Mab in these proceedings, and the evidence is sufficient to show that the Gates exist. I'll not have the Accords overlooked by any present here today." His gaze swept the room entirely before returning to Lilah. "Ma'am."
"With respect to all here, we're not going to get anywhere if we continue these jabs at one another," someone said. Now all the eyes shifted to him. He was well-dressed, older, and spoke with a very proper British accent. "Can we at least agree to hold our commentary until Ms. Morgan is finished presenting her information?" His attitude was very pleasant. Agreeable.
Lilah smiled at him. "Thank you, Mr. Oliver," she said. "I'll keep it as brief as possible. I know we all want to discuss this."
She clicked another button. Facts and charts about York, Pennsylvania appeared on the screen. "Our team went to York for a month on the company's dime. I've got files full of pictures of the gate area, as well as several first-hand reports from the team of incidents of demonic possession, several species of vampires migrating to the area, a burdgeoning werewolf community and a few other phenomena many of you would be familiar with. The concentration of these things in one place as well as the history of the town lead us to believe this Hellmouth and these gates are going to open, and soon."
"Fuck me," Bobby said. The rest of the room remained silent. "Uh, sorry."
"Our timeline for this occurring is not fully researched and depends on a number of factors, but what Wolfram and Hart can say unequivocally is this: we do not want this to happen." Lilah smiled again. "I know some of you won't believe that, the company line being what it is. But we've got our own time table for things like this, and this doesn't fit into it. We know most of you won't want this to come to pass, either."
Until now, the angel had been silent. He raised his head now, and when he spoke, his voice was deep, authoritative. "Your timeline. The arrogance of what you just said is offensive."
"Cast--"
He did not let her finish. "Your company is responsible for more deaths, maiming and banishments than every other company that has ever existed except the S.S. Your right to speak on this subject is not something I believe in. Your plan for when exactly the apocalypse is 'allowed' to occur is irrelevant."
"Easy, Cas," Bobby said.
"I think actually Cas has a point," Giles said. "Ms. Morgan's firm has hindered a colleague of mine at every turn, simply because of a prophecy that he may or may not be a part of. I have a hard time trusting that she's telling us the full truth, or that her motivations are being laid out clearly."
Lilah grinned. The grin was not pleasant. "Mr. Giles, I have no reason to lie to you, Angel or no Angel. If this Hellmouth opens and these gates open, Sunnydale will be nothing but a fuzzy, happy memory. If this comes to pass, everything you and yours have dealt with will look like an episode of the goddamn Carebears."