Armageddon

Session Summary

Armageddon - Summary

A MONTH LATER?

McKennit is, well, sucking. Unfortunately, that's a literal statement. It's gotten to the point that even the dopiest of individuals has picked up that "something's wrong".

Since the dead are rising as demons, and a couple vamps have come back for the CG members while they "sleep", it's become necessary to post a guard at the hospital - at least every night if not 24/7. Owen is doing his best to put everyone possible on life support to just stop them from rising, and he's got a few doctors helping him with that, but they simply don't have the equipment to keep everyone breathing, particularly now that the violence is escalating.

The bottled water supply is running out quickly. Geoff is frustrated because, as he says, "I can't make something disappear. If it's in the water, it's in the water. I can break down the blood compound, but anything that will break down organic material is not something you want to ingest."

Darla has woken up, and is almost ready to be released from the hospital. Rachel is ecstatic. Rowan is still in a coma, and Owen is worried about her ever recovering.

Rachel has started gathering the last remaining not evil witches into a new coven that focuses on defensive tactics. There's been several recruits of untested witches who've decided they want to do something to help. Some of them are trying but can't do shite. A lot of them want to learn fireball throwing now, and Rachel is frustrated that they are going down a slippery path. A few of them are frightened and listening.

On a similar note, Chase has started holding self-defense workshops for the non-magical, served up with a healthy amount of vampire lore. It helps her students feel like they're doing something, and she takes the more promising ones and teaches them the finer points of staking. Like Rachel, though, she has the ones that want to dust vamps now, and she's concerned that they'll get in too far over their heads too quickly.

Geoff re-broke his hand trying to do too much. Owen gave him a lecture about the delicacy of hands and how if he does this again he may never have full use of it back, and since he's a doctor and that's his dominant hand... Geoff told him that currently the most important thing was living through the summer. Owen put an overly confining stabilizer on him. Geoff, knowing his hand didn't need that much help, took it off the next day, couldn't put something back on by himself, and tried to get help from somebody else on staff. Somebody else on staff told Owen, who put a club-like cast on Geoff's hand and told him that if he took this one off, next time he'd put him in something up to his elbow. At first it was easy to convince Geoff to stay home, or go hang out with Nikki, and not help with the fighting, but he's growing more restless as time passes.

Geoff and Chase are being very polite to each other. Which, while not what Rachel was hoping for, is at least a change of pace.

Nikki is doing better. She's still weird, but she seems to be recognizing people and places. She gets really confused that two years have passed (she is convinced that Geoff just got out of the hospital from Strella's attack, and she can't figure out why his hand is broken), and she still hasn't gotten used to Rive or Stefan. Nathaniel she seems OK with, and occasionally she talks to him in broken Abenaki. Chase and Geoff make her happy (and a few days ago, she declared to Chase that when the barrier goes down, they need to go shopping in Portland), and she's started regularly asking when "Alex" gets back. When a break is needed, she still makes fantastic sangria, and turning up the music for dancing and drinks is her favorite way to spend an evening.

There's been no word on Deaver.

Richard, at first, decided that the gang's vigilante justice needed to end. He dropped off their radar and wrestled with that idea for a while. Until he decided that the authorities weren't able to handle the kind of things the scoobies were handling and so they were necessary. So he avoided places he knew they would be so that he wouldn't "catch" them doing something illegal. Then finally last week he showed up in the path of a regular patrol and said, "The police are falling apart. I think somebody's (or somebodies're) working on the wrong team. Even the good guys don't know what the hell they're doing and, for all the research I've done over the last year, I don't know half what you do. Want a policeman on your squad?" He's a good fighter and a great shot... too bad bullets aren't that effective against vamps. He's also a little bit of a rules stickler, and occasionally squeamish about the amount of "stake first, ask questions if it doesn't turn to dust" that goes on.

Lilith occasionally trips through town, but has laughingly avoided any and all fights. Marie has made it clear that she's still high pissed over Zachary. St. Saul flies over town almost nightly. Bannon hasn't been seen.

NOW?

It's evening and the gang is headed out on the usual patrol. Rachel has agreed to bring along two of Chase's new recruits who have shown both potential and self-control. Geoff is also with the group - cast and all. Richard has also joined up. He has more or less adjusted to the weirdness.

And then - a scream! The gang bounds off to the rescue. Racing through the woods, they arrive in a clearing encircling an old church. Lilith, Marie, and about a dozen goons are jumping some 30 would be victims at an outside service. A few last minute instructions to the nuggets, and the fightin's on.

It's a big brawl. Marie manages to grab Geoff and whisper something to him that makes him go pale. Nathaniel and Stefan work together. Chase sets an example for her trainees with a multi-dusting on the vamps who've latched on to her friends and students. Suddenly just as the tide begins to turn in favor of the good guys, the air pulses with the beating of demon wings. St. Saul arrives. The vampires stop mid-fray and move away, forming a rough circle around the perimeter of the clearing. The remaining congregation, which has huddled in prayer, begins to pray even more fervently. St. Saul looks around the clearing and begins to speak in rusty, almost impenetrable Latin.

"The time rising, the flood is coming. My children, my children. The saint shall come forth. And these, these are the chosen. These are they who shall take forth the saint."

Saul then flies away, as the vampires disappear into the trees.

Later - one of the perks of patrolling is you get to drink afterwards. Lots of enthusiastic dancing here on the eve of destruction. Shannon is worried about Richard, who looks a little beat up. He asks her to come home with him, and after a lot of non-verbal urging from her friends and her sister Kelly, she gives in, hops over the bar, and leaves with her husband. Kelly cheerfully takes Shannon's post serving drinks.

Geoff asks Chase for a dance, and they hit the floor. He's a little out of sorts. When she asks him what's wrong, he admits that Marie scared the crap out of him. She likes her guys with a high pain threshold, apparently. His reaction bothers him, because he's not used to being scared of anything. He has officially decided that he wanted to live a long time. Lousy sense of timing there.

Chase, taking the segue, picks up the "us" conversation where they left it a while back. She says they'd talked about picking up where they left off, but that was a rather complicated spot ? right before she didn't quite let him ask her to marry him. Trying to feel the conversation out, Geoff asks, "So ? you mean you want to move back in?" She snarks back, "Oh, no. I'm not spending another night with you until you marry me."

He grins. And picks her up off the floor. And, oh yeah, he says yes. Right after that, he calls out to anyone who's listening that someone had better marry them in the next 15 minutes before she changes her mind ?

There's a big happy thing. Geoff blushes slightly and pulls something out of his pocket, pressing it into her hand. It's a familiar jewelry box, with her ring still inside. He couldn't quite let it go.

* * *

Early the next morning, Richard leaves his place for an all-hands meeting at the station. He's patched up and happy-looking. Shannon sees him off with a smile, a hug, and a kiss, watching as he drives away.

* * *

Rachel and Stefan pick up Darla from the hospital. Rachel has much cause for giddiness: Darla will be home to celebrate the Summer Solstice with her that evening. Her apartment also now has an empty room where Darla can stay. And Chase and Geoff have volunteered to help sanctify Cernunnos Grove by getting married there tonight.

* * *

Brandon, Nathaniel & Nikki sit in candlelight at the BT Mansion, misfits in time, each doing their own thing.

* * *

Rive gets in from her shift guarding the hospital. She walks in to her apartment and finds a note. Three little words in a cramped male hand: "I miss you." Shaken, she deliberately crumples the paper in her hands, drops it on the floor, and walks back out with a determined step.

* * *

Chase and Geoff are dead asleep on the bed, still dressed after staying up most of the night getting the master bedroom at Geoff's house re-settled. An unseen and delighted Freddie slips an old photo of them into a frame as they sleep. Morning light creeps in through the blinds as Chase's phone rings.  She sits up groggily and answers. It's Rachel. There's been an "incident" at the Police Station, apparently. She agrees to meet them there with Geoff in tow. Stefan places a similar call to the Manor Managerie and the gang is on the way, although no one can reach Rive.

* * *

There's a crowd gathered outside the McKennit Police Department. A fire truck is parked nearby, and the entrance has been cordoned off. There are oddly no policemen outside the building - only firemen. Angling for insider info, Stefan calls Shannon. She tells him that Richard had gone to a meeting that morning, but that's all she knew. She's worried when she hears that something is happening at the station, and Stefan promises to keep her posted.

Chase hits up one of the firemen with her usual aggressively friendly questioning, and he eventually admits that the police may not actually be in there. There hasn't been any sign of anyone at all. A different fireman spots Stefan and Nathaniel, recognizes them as those what combat the weirdness that is, and gets the other guys to let them through. As the scoobies work their way through the crowd, citizens move out of the way. They start to hear soft murmurs of "thank you" all around them. As they climb up the station steps to talk to the firemen, the murmur turns into scattered applause. Chase tries to disperse the crowd with an awkward speech. Voices call out, telling the group that they want to help, and asking if it's really vampires. Chase encourages them all to go home, travel in groups, stay in private residences, and not to invite anyone in. Most of the crowd disperses.

Inside the station the crew is met with deafening silence and a bloody massacre. The majority of the force is sprawled among the meeting room chairs. There's no a single living soul. The destruction is devastating and complete. All the officers were clearly killed by vicious vampires. Stefan and Nathaniel start collecting the dead, knowing that they will have to be dealt with before they rise.

Richard is nowhere to be found.

Realizing that there's no good way to cover this up or explain it, the crew opts for full disclosure. Brandon and Chase get on the phone and start making calls to local media. Brandon tells his paper to get the best staff they've got on the story. Now.

Nathaniel, Stefan and Geoff work their way back to the holding cells. Most of the inmates are, of course, dead. But atone end, there's an indestructible cell of tempered plastic, and inside there's a very alive man with a shaved head, pale eyes, and a thousand-yard stare. He's staring straight out, right through the guys. Stefan's demon sense goes off as he approaches the inmate. The intercom system enables them to question the man. His name is Mark, he's murdered four people, and he saw the whole thing.

Mark tells them that the vampires had an inside man on the force, a guy named Detective Kelsey. He unlatched the one-way door that covers a tunnel entrance hidden in a janitorial closet near the holding cells. About half an hour ago, the gang of vampires came in through the tunnel. Then, massacre. They left the way they came in, taking Kelsey, Detective Arquette (Richard) and a few of the other officers with them. When asked who was in charge of the vamps, his description can only fit Lilith.

While Mark is monologuing, Chase looks up his file. He brutally murdered four college girls, and the post-mortems clearly indicate that he's a Wendigo. When she announces that at large, Nathaniel locks eyes with the prisoner, who looks like he's relishing the though of their impending private "conversation."

Realizing that they still haven't heard back from Rive, Chase tries her phone again. Nothing. A call to Owen reveals that she left the hospital at her regular time, and he hasn't talked to her since. Concerned, Stefan takes off to start looking for her.

The decision is made to stake each of the fallen officers through the heart as cleanly as possible, to ensure that they won't turn, but that the bodies can still be returned intact to their families. Nathaniel agrees to stay and take care of the grisly chore.

Chase and Geoff take deep breaths and announce that they'll break the news to Shannon about Richard.

* * *

Stefan knocks on Rive's door. There's no answer. He debates about that long, and kicks in the door. No irate screams. He calls out to her. Still no answer, but no evidence of foul play, either. Stefan picks up the crumpled note in the middle of the floor and reads it. He places it on her table with a note of his own and leaves again.

* * *

Shannon sits in her living room, opposite Chase and Geoff. They tell her that there's been a massacre at the station, and the killers took Richard. They don't even know if he's still alive. Shannon is silent a moment, staring at her hands. Then she looks up at them. "Chase? What has my husband?" Chase and Geoff look at each other - apparently Shannon is ready to give up her blinders. Chase exhales. "They're not human ?"

* * *

Everyone regroups at the Boyd-Townsend manor, albeit still without Rive. Stefan tells the girls about the note, but no one knows a thing about Rive's love life.

Desperate to at least try to Richard back, they start attempting to devise a plan. A fast hunt through the manor reveals Deaver's light box ? but it is in pieces, several dozen of them. He was clearly "working" on it before he left. They study the alumni map, looking for anything that will help. Doc has been laying a map of McKennit over the top of the tunnel system, but his work isn't complete yet. A quick once-over makes it pretty clear that going down there is suicide; and in all honesty, Richard is probably already dead.

There's discussion about how, if he's still alive, they could potentially leverage a trade for Richard. Conversation comes back around to Chase's deal with Bannon and her promise that neither Rive nor Stefan would attack Lilith (as her obvious worth to Bannon would make her an ideal candidate). Since Chase has been on a brutal-honesty, power-to-the-peeps kind of kick all day, Rachel tells the group something that has been bothering her. She suspects that Chase's agreement not to harm Lilith might not actually pertain to Stefan, as he did not make the pact himself. Bannon may have been playing mind games all along. But she's not for sure, so it would be Chase's call as to whether or not to risk it.

So what to do??

[In the immortal words of Steve the note-taker, this session's notes ended: "The plan is slowly, painfully hatched. I mean pain. Searing, make-you-pee-your-pants kinda pain. Matter of fact, we had to call the session, so we could finish hashing the plan?"]

SERIES FINALE