5. [Location: Hyperion] [Voice] A song of world's ending

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

It's the middle of the night, and Lorne can't sleep.

The shadows have eyes, and they are watching him.

After hours of tossing and turning, he finally gives up and rolls out of bed. Stares at his bedside clock through bleary eyes. It's well past midnight. He slips a bathrobe over his stripey pajamas, puts on a pair of fuzzy pink slippers, and shuffles out to the bar. Turns on the pink lamps, but they only make it worse, since shadows can only exist where there's light. Still, there's no way he's turning them off.

Lorne pours himself a shot of peach schnapps and downs it, reveling in the sweet burn. His eyes are drawn to the empty stage, only to discover that it's not so empty. There's something shifting behind the curtain.

The curtain ripples, and silhouettes pour out to the edges of the stage. One of them steps into the middle, where it's dimly illuminated by the lamps, but not enough to make out anything more than the moldering outline of a corpse.

Then, all at once, the ghosts begin to sing, and Lorne's world falls apart.


Caritas, a pile of colorful rubble in the street. Castle Summers in ruins, its towers torched. Even the Sanctuary is a shambles. The air reeks of smoke, decay, blood, and charred flesh.

But the streets are the worst sight of all, because the people of Taxon are tearing each other apart. Weapons fire at a car zooming through Osten. In the shadow of a wrecked building, two vampires snarl as they wrestle for dominance like wild animals. Everything is chaos. Screams rend the air like knives tearing through cloth. Piles of the dead lie rotting in open graves.

Soon, the entire city will be a grave.


The song ends, and Lorne collapses, trembling, against the bar. He catches one last glimpse of the ghost in the middle of the stage. Its face is strangely familiar. At the sight of it, he leans over a trash can and retches, bringing up black bile.

When his senses return to him at last, Lorne keys up the tablet on his wrist and sets it to voice. He feels so terrible right now he can't let all of Taxon see his face. "I got a musical message from our ghostly friends. Apocalypse. Second verse same as the first." He lets out a shuddering breath. "But I got something new to add. It's not all the hamsters' fault. The people of Taxon?" He stares grimly into the tablet. "We're all fighting each other."

"By the way, team? I'm coming to the Hyperion. I hope you'll all join me. 'Cause all that fighting I saw? Not gonna happen."

He takes off as fast as he can in his fluffy pink slippers toward the tram. No time for a snappy suit. At this time of night, the tram is mercifully empty of Extras. As he gets out of the tram and approaches the Hyperion, he feels a flutter of apprehension about seeing Angel again.

Then sets it aside. All animosities have to go.

Clad in pinstriped pajamas, a purple silk bathrobe, and slippers, he opens the doors to the Hyperion.

Comments

[ location: hyperion hotel ]

[bigbad]

Spike is driving around aimlessly when Lorne's message comes through. He's recently come out of his glitch, and he doesn't really want to talk to anyone about it. Still, if there's an apocalypse on the way, it's time to talk to face the world again. He's pretty near the Hyperion anyway.

By the time Lorne gets there, Spike is sitting on the couch, drumming his fingers on his leg impatiently.

He looks up and smirks when Lorne walks in. "Nice outfit."

[Location: Hyperion]

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

For a moment, Lorne thought that Spike was still glitched. Then he spoke, and a wave of relief passed over him. "Spike! I'm so glad it's you!"

His first instinct is to rush forward and hug him, but he knows Spike isn't a hugging kind of guy, so he settles for sitting in the red couch opposite him. "Believe it or not, saving Taxon comes higher on my list than midnight fashion statements," he quips.

[Location: Hyperion]

[bigbad]

Spike nods. "Yeah, it's me, in all my undead glory. Sorry about, uh, being a stuffy Victorian nancy." And he'd like that to be all that's said on the matter, thank you.

Spike snorts. "I'm almost surprised," he says. "Lorne, less than impeccably dressed. Really must be the end of the world." It might be a joke, but he's not laughing. It isn't funny.

[Location: Hyperion]

[supercompacted.livejournal.com]

Fred walks carefully down the stairs, hugging her elbows. She's just got a cardigan wrapped around her shoulders, just wearing her night shirt and pajama pants beyond that. She straightens her glasses when she sees both Lorne and Spike...unglitched Spike? That makes her smile a little. She's glad to have him back.

"Hi, guys," she says, somewhat listlessly. She heads to the couch and sits down, too. "So...this is really bad." Nothing like stating the obvious to start up an impromptu meeting.

[Visual]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

She'd seen it. She'd seen it, but the hamsters were twisting and turning and doing their best to make sure that they couldn't stop it.

It seemed obvious to Drusilla. They'd taken away the Doctor and his Master. The last of the Time Lords. The only people who had stood a chance of stopping the pictures in her head.

(One evening, she might wake up to find that the Angel Beast - or Spike, or the Slayer, or her little brother - had been snatched away. How could they bear it? How could anyone bear it?)

"They're taking all the people," she said, addressing Lorne in a sharp tone. He needed to know. He needed to know and he needed to pass on the message to Angel and the others. "They're taking the people that can save us."

[voice]

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

What do you care, Drusilla? You're a big fan of carnage. You liked watching Cordy and everyone else suffer at the hands of that creep. What's it to you if all these people die?

[Visual]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

The vampire shook her head. Yes, she enjoyed carnage and bloodshed and pretty messes on pavements slick with scarlet. The joy of it, the thrill of it, the scent of it. It was in her nature. It was one of the strongest things in the world.

But it wasn't the strongest. Her love for her family was stronger. For all her faults, Drusilla adored her family. Her Daddy - or what was left of him, trapped in the Angel Beast - and her little brother and her darling Spike and the Dawn bird and her Slayer.

"I won't be fighting for them," she said, with something close to derision. She'd be fighting for the only people in any world that mattered.

(She'd bristled, just a little, at the word 'creep'. It wasn't the time or the place, but the Master had been a good friend and she missed him terribly.)

[voice]

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

Oh, right. You don't care about us plebes. This is about family. All that vampire siring stuff.

Well, you're right. They did take the Doctor away, and he could've been a big help. But what could they do that's so bad that even those of us who don't like a little slaughter with their breakfast start going at each other's throats?

[Visual]

[allthatlife.livejournal.com]

"What?"

Martha had missed Cordelia's initial post. (The doctor had been too busy getting used to life in Taxon and setting up the surgery she had felt obliged to start.) She'd seen the end of the world, though, and she would do everything in her power to stop it from happening again.

(Where was the Doctor? Where had he gone?)

"Lorne, what's happening? What did they tell you?"

[voice]

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

They didn't exactly tell me anything. I think they were trying to give me a message, but it wasn't telling.

I don't think I told you last time: I'm an empath. When people sing to me, they open up their hearts, and I can read them. Some of those ghosts that've been hanging around came into Caritas and sang. What I saw was...destruction. The end of Taxon. And part of it's our fault.

[Visual]

[allthatlife.livejournal.com]

Although Martha's eyes widened a little in surprise, her expression wasn't one of disbelief. It was an unusual - amazing, incomprehensible, astonishing - talent, but it wasn't impossible.

She didn't have time to dwell on what Lorne could do, however. She had to focus on what he'd seen.

"Oh my god," she breathed, then: "What can we do?"

Because there had to be something.

[voice]

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

Well, it seems to me that if we all put our differences aside and try our best to get along, then we have a chance of not tearing each other's throats out. I know I'm trying to open my mind to people I might not have even glanced at before. Make a few friends with people you find scary, and maybe when the time comes, they won't want to fight you.

Also, you know, with all the doctor skills, you should be prepared for a whole world of hurt. There's a lady in town named Kaylee. She's helping me turn the basement of Caritas into a bunker in case the worst happens. If you can put together some medical kits, I'll stash a few in there.

[voice]

[aintnoconvict]

[Don't ask what Glitch is doing up at this hour, he's not quite sure himself. Might have to do with the gaunt, gray lady with milky lavender eyes who may (or may not) have been following him around lately.]

Fighting each other? For what?

[voice]

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

I don't know, Glitch. But people were dying.

[voice]

[aintnoconvict]

No. [A very quiet, very flat denial.]

We...w-w-we're getting these warnings for a reason, if we know what's coming we can stop it, right? It doesn't have to happen like that, does it?

[voice]

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

No, it doesn't have to happen. If there's one thing I've learned about visions and prophecies, it's that there's always a maybe.

[voice]

[supercompacted.livejournal.com]

We were fighting each other? ...like a glitch, you think?

Okay, I'll be downstairs in a minute. Did you get any idea how soon, during that whole thing? I don't suppose we were that lucky.

[voice]

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a glitch that...that violent. It wasn't play-fighting, like Spike and Angel in their duet. It was bloody.

[voice]

[supercompacted.livejournal.com]

...I've seen a glitch or two like that. But not everyone.

[ooc: Ooooh, will do. :3]

[voice]

[chase-evolution.livejournal.com]

[Mohinder's voice, when he speaks, is weary but coherent. He's been awake for awhile.]

Fighting each other? But why-?

[There's a lot of possibilities, none that he likes, so he cuts himself off.]

Is there anything I can help you with, Lorne? Anything we can do to try and stop it?

[voice]

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

Don't know why. Part of me wishes I did so I could stop it, but part of me is glad I don't.

All I have to go on right now are hunches. First hunch: these ghosts are connected to what's going to happen. Maybe see if you can talk to some ghosts and find out what's going on. Second hunch: people who treat each other decently don't get the sudden urge to kill each other. If there's anyone in town you don't get along with, try to patch things up, soon.

[voice]

[chase-evolution.livejournal.com]

Thankfully, all my antagonists have left fairly recently. I don't think all the time in the world would've been enough to patch that off.

As for the ghosts, I have my father right here. He's not exactly talkative at the moment, indicating that he's a poor replication. But I'll keep trying if you think they might have more information.

[voice]

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

Another apocalypse? Seriously?

[voice]

[greenballadeer.livejournal.com]

'Fraid so. I've helped out with a few of those myself, though I'm not used to the kind where the people you get along with for the most part start tearing each other apart.

[voice]

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

[A sigh, a very worried sigh.]

Yeah, that's... really not the most encouraging. [And now a pause, because she hates being asked this question, and she hasn't known Lorne for that long, so he might not want to share, but she has to try anyway.]

Are you okay, Lorne? You sound a little like a James Bond Martini. [Shaken, not stirred? It's a bad joke, but she knows he likes his pop culture as much as she does.]