Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 2

By Kylia

Teaser: The Stratagem's Response

Twenty-three dimensional superspace is so far above human comprehension, and the beings that live within it so indescribable, there simply are no words to even address the barest outlines. Even when twenty-three dimensional superspace beings fragment tiny fractions of their awareness into twelve-dimensional avatars and drop them into nine-dimensional superspace, it becomes rather elementary and subjective to describe them.

Their actions, their looks, their 'words'. But such must be attempted - arrayed in a diamond pattern were the Four Corners of Fate. Were some lower being - perhaps a seventh-dimensional god - to observe this meeting and, through intermediaries, describe it, they would perceive:

An elderly, bearded 'man' wearing black robes, holding an open iron book with pages of gold. The Librarian. The Writer of Fates, the Keeper of the Book.

A balding, greying man, his coat with elbow patches, seated at a desk, smoking a wooden pipe. The Professor. The 'Spymaster' of Fate - the Identifier of Key Players.

A woman, long blonde hair in chainmail armor, a red tabard, an ever-changing white symbol on the front, a billowing black cape. The Stratagem. The Uncompromising Sword of Order, the Defender of Unity.

A being wearing a brown fedora, brown trench coat, brown boots and gloves. In place of a face, just a single reflective surface, a mirror made of some kind of crystal in one hand. The Gazer. The Master of Probability. The Planner. The Schemer. The least liked of the four, considered half the Hydra by all too many of the lesser powers of Fate - seventeenth dimensional beings, especially.

They didn't 'speak', and yet, there was no other meaningful way to describe the passage of information and ideas and opinions between the avatars of these higher beings.

"Your plan has failed, Professor!" The Stratagem barked. "We tried to account for things your way, and I stayed my hand as promised. Granted, the Werewolf was dealt with, and the Blonde Witch and the Red Witch are now linked. You did that much with the Gazer's help. But now we have two more ensouled Vampires, the Dark Slayer remains in play and the Rat Thief continues to interfere. The Coinbearer has only exacerbated things!"

"That is a gross exaggeration," the Gazer cut in, before the Professor could reply. "I have told you before that the Dark Slayer will be dealt with, and with her, the Rat Thief. The plan is on schedule: six months, nine at the most. And there's nothing the Coinbearer can do to prevent that, as long as you do not interfere!"

Little hope of that, though. The Gazer knew that the Librarian was ready to make a violent change, and the Professor was ready to give up on its plan as well.

"Your assurances are meaningless, Gazer!" The Stratagem turned to him, eyes blazing with violet flames. "You assured us it could be done, that things could be brought back onto track!"

"And they are. Have you not been paying any attention to what I've been doing? The Key will arrive on schedule, the Idiot Goddess will follow, and the Slayer will die. That remains absolute and clear, even the Librarian does not dispute my projections," the Gazer replied, in a 'tone' that could be described as 'flat'.

"As things currently stand, all that is true. But the Coinbearer cannot be properly accounted for. Anything he does could eliminate, retain or add players and variables beyond what your possibilities suggest. He cannot be controlled, and he cannot be contained! We tried to kill the Dark Slayer several times based on your projections, tried to kill the Rat Thief as well - but only the death of the Werewolf was successful. Your failures, instead, gave us two more Impossible Vampires! One that should never have been, and one brought into existence at least two years too early!" The Librarian tempered a moment of agreement with further critique.

"You ignore the fact that the Impossible Vampires are irrelevant. They will not stay - they are lesser beings, and lesser beings with personality conflicts," Much as our own personalities conflict. The Gazer could only wish that some of the twenty-second dimensional beings it knew of could hurry up and ascend to the twenty-third dimension within the next eon or so. The Analyst, the Entanglement and the Historian. They would understand what the Gazer was trying to say. Even if the Entanglement was somewhat too akin to the Weaver for comfort.

"Still. That cannot be guaranteed!" the Stratagem countered again.

"Gazer, I will admit I was wrong, to a degree," the Professor cut in, trying to be more conciliatory. "The Coinbearer proved too active in response to our actions. We simply cannot act through the Book of Fate, while the Iron Coin remains in play."

"And we must show the Jester what happens when he lets his toys escape into the lesser realms," The Stratagem went on.

"I cannot understand how you can ignore the fact that it doesn't matter if you kill the Coinbearer, it doesn't matter if you try to neuter his influence at the source. The Jester already knows what it can do to us, to our Book. We cannot stop distribution of fragments of the Iron Coin. And if you try to act - so, too, will he. We can contain the Chaos. We can ensure this Theater remains on track!"

"No, Gazer, we cannot!" The Librarian roared, closing his book with a heavy snap. "I did not want to admit it before, but The Book is now compromised in this Theater, and fatally so. More uses of the Iron Coin may be accounted for - the Writer and the Novelist are already on hand to do so, but in this theater of operations, this world. This linchpin - by your own words, if this Theater cannot be brought back on track, humanity in this world, this universe is doomed. And that throws off everything in a dozen galaxies for millennia."

"In one universe. It is not worth direct interference!"

"You are assuming I propose to act directly," The Stratagem corrected. "Fate will intervene directly, but I do not propose to kill the Coinbearer myself. I will merely send the Legion of Necessity - not even the entire Legion, at that."

"That is still too much!" The Gazer clenched its fists, calling upon its mirror. Visions began to play across it, that the Gazer projected into the center of the four. "I have shown you, I have proven it to you. Nine months, and it will all be sorted out. 98% convergence with the original plan - and 1% of that is from the Werewolf being dead, rather than simply gone."

"Nine months for the ruin your projections!"

"I have accounted for him. We barely even need to use the Book, and only for people that the Coinbearer would not read. We have been writing around him, and we will simply continue to do so, but more so."

"It is not worth our time to devote even that much energy to that effort!" The Librarian pointed out. "As the Professor has agreed." The Gazer turned to his former ally, who nodded silently. "The Stratagem will deploy a part of the Legion of Necessity. They will eliminate the Coinbearer and use brute force to bring things back on track. And we can return our focus to those matters we've neglected, from what minor extra attention we've wasted on this Theater."

"And you're prepared to deploy Legionaries to every single Theater the Jester drops a Coin fragment in?" The Gazer asked.

"If it proves necessary, I would deploy Legionaries against the Jester itself!" The Stratagem shot back, in a heated tone.

The Gazer shook its head. "I will have no part of this idiocy. If you three are determined to ruin this Theater by your own impatience, do it without my aid. I cede matters to you, Stratagem. Prove me wrong, but you won't, because you can't. You will lose us this Theater, soon enough." The Gazer then vanished, leaving behind what would look, to a lesser observer, to be a small pile of shattered glass.

"I will deploy my Legionaries immediately. The Coinbearer will die well before the six months the Gazer offered as its lower estimate." The Stratagem subsequently vanished with the clash of metal on metal ringing in its wake.

The Professor looked troubled, before it spoke. "I hope you are right about this, Librarian. Even now, my doubts grow with regards to the new plan. The Gazer has rarely ever steered us wrong before."

"The Gazer is the surveyor of possibilities, but Chaos only expands those. There is simply no way they can be accounted for properly, with one of the Jester's coins in play. Once the Coinbearer is eliminated, proper projections can be made, and the Gazer can account for future Coinbearers based on the data obtained from the excision of this one."

"Perhaps." The Professor had made its choice - but given the arguments it had heard just now, it would not be remiss to make preparations for the complete failure of this Theater, if the Gazer was right. Breakwalls would need to be set up, to contain the fallout.

With a short puff of its pipe, the Professor vanished in smoke, and the Librarian followed suit in a flash of golden darkness.

The nine-dimensional space that had been Fate's meeting ground was now empty.

Fate's decisions had been made.

The Coinbearer's days, to the collective mind of Fate, were very numbered. The Legion of Necessity were the mightiest soldiers - mightiest fourth dimensional soldiers, anyway - Fate had on hand. More than enough, even with only a small detachment, to bring things to order in this Theater.

The Jester could be stopped here, at least.