Lilah glared at Gavin, still tied up in the chair where Angel had left him.
He made a pleading sound through his gage, and Lilah laughed.
"You think I'm untying you after you spilled your guts out to Angel? Wrong, buster. You can just stay there until Hell freezes over."
She ran her hands through her hair, exasperated. Angel had just left with all the information that Wolfram & Hart had extracted from Lorne's head. Normally, she wouldn't have handed it over, but as Angel had said, she couldn't lose. Either he died, or the apocalypse was stopped. Either one would make her look good. But out of those two possible endings, she hoped the apocalypse was stopped. She wasn't interested in the end of the world again. The Senior Partners were, but she wasn't. It wasn't fair that just when she got to be in charge of her own corner of the sandbox the world was ending.
She sighed. The news of the coming apocalypse had been sudden and unexpected, but not the first apocalypse she had faced and come out on top. She had never been afraid before, but now she was. All the other times, there had been solutions, ways, reasons... This time, there was barely anything to work with. The psychics' brains still plastered the conference room walls, where they had tried to decifer the information from Lorne's head.
Gavin made another frantic noise, jarring her from her thoughts. Lilah just picked up a file and left, waving a little goodbye to him before slamming the door. Someone else would find him later.
~
Wesley Wydham-Pryce slammed the axe through the door, breaking it. The demon inside was big, green, slimy and loud. It screeched at the top of its' lungs, making a shrill noise that made Wesley drop the axe and cover his ears. The men with him also were forced to drop their weapons and cover their ears. Through the high pitched noise, Wesley managed to pick up his axe, and throw it expertly at the demon's unprotected throat. The axe cut the throat slighty, and the shrieking, agonizing sound became distorted. One of his men managed to grab a gun and blow the head off. Demon guts spewed everywhere, and thankfully the sound stopped completely as the demons' body hit the floor. Wesley wiped demon gunk of his face.
"That's been the fifth attack in this area by demons." said Emil, one of his men. "Pretty uncommen to have that many attacks in the same place. Hasn't the percent of supernatural attacks gone up lately?"
"By 200%. Yes, it is strange." said Wesley morosely. Emil seemed to be waiting for him to say more, but then another demon jumped him from behind. Wesley whipped out a pistol and blew off its head and helped Emil up.
"Let's get out of here," said Wesley.
Indeed, it was strange. His phone was ringing off the hook with people complaining of supernatural happenings. Wesley supposed Angel was similarily occupied, as some of the people who had called him told him that Angel Investigations had been unable to help them. His bruised mouth turned up in a bitter smile. He had used to be in Angel Investigation, one of them, one of the "good guys." No more. Because of a false prophecy that had said that Angel would devour his son, Wesley had attempted to protect Connor by kidnapping him, and had ended up sending Angel's son to a different dimension to be raised by Holtz as revenge on Angel.
Now, a forlon Judas, he was running his own good guy agency and sleeping with the enemy. What a change. The funny thing was that Lilah hadn't seemed to be such an enemy anymore... until she had sucked Lorne's brain for info. Had she honestly meant that whole speech on trust? Why had he even trusted her a little?
He knew why. He had actually gotten a bit comfortable with their relationship. You can't go on being with a person and not trusting them a little.
Wesley sighed. Just another mistake to add to the plethora he had already committed.
~
Lilah walked into Files and Records at Wolfram & Hart and took a seat. She opened the file she had requested and perused through its contents. Surveillance pictures of Angel Investigations fell into her lap. She picked up a picture of Winifred Burkle and grimaced. Wesley's little pet obsession. She'd only dressed up as Fred to annoy Wesley and clarify to him that she did not care one bit about her...Oh god, it had been embarrassing when Wesley had told her to keep the glasses on. Just as she'd tried to show him she didn't care about Fred, Wesley had shown that he didn't care about Lilah either.
How could she have started caring about Wesley? When and why did it stop just being hate sex? Lilah knew when it had stopped; she had enjoyed the fact that someone cared just a little bit about her, so she had let down her guard a little. Bad move. Wesley had broken her heart not even knowing she'd had one.
Lilah was sorry to see their relationship disintergrating. She wished that they could have a normal life together, although that would never happen. They were on opposite sides of the war of the world and would always be that way. But sometimes in the middle of the night when she woke up sad and alone, she dreamed. She dreamed at times when the heavens were dark and her hopes were high, but everytime, light broke the illusion. It was getting dark early outside, she noted, and then clutched her desk when the office rumbled from thunder and despair.
~
And when the sky got dark and the thunder loud, Wesley decided to go see what he could do to help. After all, he had used to be the researcher of the team. He opened the door of Angel Investigations and attempted to look haughty.
The pile of papers spread over the desk and floor need to be figured out. "Where did you get your information from?" asked Wesley. "Lilah can be very giving." said Angel. Angel's words hung in the air, aimed obviously at Wesley. Wesley tried not to look embarrassed. He hated it how Angel deliberatly shoved in it his face, just a bit more. He knew the gang was horrified at his relationship with Lilah, but they weren't his group anymore, so why did they care? Why did he care?
Oh, but he did care. Cared so much. They had been his friends, his partners. He wanted to be back with them...especially with Fred. He supposed that psychologically, Lilah was a replacement for her, not like he couldn't have chosen woman more opposite from Fred. He really needed to get over Fred, but he just couldn't. His interest in her had dwindled, until the other day when she had come to him asking for help against Professor Seidel. Reminded him of everything he had loved about her. Lilah had noticed, and dressed up as Fred, and no matter how convincing Lilah thought she was, Wesley could tell she was jealous. It was sort of funny, in a twisted sort of way. Ruthless lawyer queen of Wolfram & Hart couldn't get over him. Wow, he'd really moved up in society.
Wesley moved to take a paper from the huge pile on the desk.
~
On the roof of the place where the symbol of fire from Lorne's head had indicated they should go, Wesley watches from the side as Angel is thrown off the roof by the Beast. Gunn runs to attack him, but to no avail as he too is thrown to the side. Lorne is collapsed on the floor, and Wesley is the only one left.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out two guns and shoots them simulateously at the Beast, emptying the gun at the Beast, to no avail. Then the Beast knocks him down as well to join his fallen comrades. Then the dead bodies strewn over the floor begin to smoke...
...and Lilah runs into the main office and demands information on what is going on. The building has just shaken and Lilah suspects that the cause was supernatural.
Another shake and she loses her balance. She grabs the curtains over the flashing window and rips the purple fabric. The wall cracks a little from the force of the shaking. The sky flashes with light, and Lilah is beyond doubt that all that supernatural energy is coming out with a bang...
...as Wesley drags Gunn under cover and watches the bodies burst into flames. He looks up at the sky and squints. There are bright streaks in the sky, and as they get closer he sees that it is raining fire. The fire comes down all around them, but strangely enough does not severly burn anything. As black spots float into his vision, he thinks of Angel and Gunn, Fred and Cordy and Lorne, and hopes that coming back into the battle has redeemed him a little. He thinks of Lilah as well, and wishes he could redeem her, so he could be with her. He hopes she will survive the night...
...and as the fire rains down from the sky, Lilah stares out of the window from the 17th floor of Wolfram & Hart and thinks of the world that would soon not be. She wraps her arms around her body and observes the flames, and hopes in vain that her Wesley will somehow find his way back to her.
~
Finito
"You think I'm untying you after you spilled your guts out to Angel? Wrong, buster. You can just stay there until Hell freezes over."
She ran her hands through her hair, exasperated. Angel had just left with all the information that Wolfram & Hart had extracted from Lorne's head. Normally, she wouldn't have handed it over, but as Angel had said, she couldn't lose. Either he died, or the apocalypse was stopped. Either one would make her look good. But out of those two possible endings, she hoped the apocalypse was stopped. She wasn't interested in the end of the world again. The Senior Partners were, but she wasn't. It wasn't fair that just when she got to be in charge of her own corner of the sandbox the world was ending.
She sighed. The news of the coming apocalypse had been sudden and unexpected, but not the first apocalypse she had faced and come out on top. She had never been afraid before, but now she was. All the other times, there had been solutions, ways, reasons... This time, there was barely anything to work with. The psychics' brains still plastered the conference room walls, where they had tried to decifer the information from Lorne's head.
Gavin made another frantic noise, jarring her from her thoughts. Lilah just picked up a file and left, waving a little goodbye to him before slamming the door. Someone else would find him later.
~
Wesley Wydham-Pryce slammed the axe through the door, breaking it. The demon inside was big, green, slimy and loud. It screeched at the top of its' lungs, making a shrill noise that made Wesley drop the axe and cover his ears. The men with him also were forced to drop their weapons and cover their ears. Through the high pitched noise, Wesley managed to pick up his axe, and throw it expertly at the demon's unprotected throat. The axe cut the throat slighty, and the shrieking, agonizing sound became distorted. One of his men managed to grab a gun and blow the head off. Demon guts spewed everywhere, and thankfully the sound stopped completely as the demons' body hit the floor. Wesley wiped demon gunk of his face.
"That's been the fifth attack in this area by demons." said Emil, one of his men. "Pretty uncommen to have that many attacks in the same place. Hasn't the percent of supernatural attacks gone up lately?"
"By 200%. Yes, it is strange." said Wesley morosely. Emil seemed to be waiting for him to say more, but then another demon jumped him from behind. Wesley whipped out a pistol and blew off its head and helped Emil up.
"Let's get out of here," said Wesley.
Indeed, it was strange. His phone was ringing off the hook with people complaining of supernatural happenings. Wesley supposed Angel was similarily occupied, as some of the people who had called him told him that Angel Investigations had been unable to help them. His bruised mouth turned up in a bitter smile. He had used to be in Angel Investigation, one of them, one of the "good guys." No more. Because of a false prophecy that had said that Angel would devour his son, Wesley had attempted to protect Connor by kidnapping him, and had ended up sending Angel's son to a different dimension to be raised by Holtz as revenge on Angel.
Now, a forlon Judas, he was running his own good guy agency and sleeping with the enemy. What a change. The funny thing was that Lilah hadn't seemed to be such an enemy anymore... until she had sucked Lorne's brain for info. Had she honestly meant that whole speech on trust? Why had he even trusted her a little?
He knew why. He had actually gotten a bit comfortable with their relationship. You can't go on being with a person and not trusting them a little.
Wesley sighed. Just another mistake to add to the plethora he had already committed.
~
Lilah walked into Files and Records at Wolfram & Hart and took a seat. She opened the file she had requested and perused through its contents. Surveillance pictures of Angel Investigations fell into her lap. She picked up a picture of Winifred Burkle and grimaced. Wesley's little pet obsession. She'd only dressed up as Fred to annoy Wesley and clarify to him that she did not care one bit about her...Oh god, it had been embarrassing when Wesley had told her to keep the glasses on. Just as she'd tried to show him she didn't care about Fred, Wesley had shown that he didn't care about Lilah either.
How could she have started caring about Wesley? When and why did it stop just being hate sex? Lilah knew when it had stopped; she had enjoyed the fact that someone cared just a little bit about her, so she had let down her guard a little. Bad move. Wesley had broken her heart not even knowing she'd had one.
Lilah was sorry to see their relationship disintergrating. She wished that they could have a normal life together, although that would never happen. They were on opposite sides of the war of the world and would always be that way. But sometimes in the middle of the night when she woke up sad and alone, she dreamed. She dreamed at times when the heavens were dark and her hopes were high, but everytime, light broke the illusion. It was getting dark early outside, she noted, and then clutched her desk when the office rumbled from thunder and despair.
~
And when the sky got dark and the thunder loud, Wesley decided to go see what he could do to help. After all, he had used to be the researcher of the team. He opened the door of Angel Investigations and attempted to look haughty.
The pile of papers spread over the desk and floor need to be figured out. "Where did you get your information from?" asked Wesley. "Lilah can be very giving." said Angel. Angel's words hung in the air, aimed obviously at Wesley. Wesley tried not to look embarrassed. He hated it how Angel deliberatly shoved in it his face, just a bit more. He knew the gang was horrified at his relationship with Lilah, but they weren't his group anymore, so why did they care? Why did he care?
Oh, but he did care. Cared so much. They had been his friends, his partners. He wanted to be back with them...especially with Fred. He supposed that psychologically, Lilah was a replacement for her, not like he couldn't have chosen woman more opposite from Fred. He really needed to get over Fred, but he just couldn't. His interest in her had dwindled, until the other day when she had come to him asking for help against Professor Seidel. Reminded him of everything he had loved about her. Lilah had noticed, and dressed up as Fred, and no matter how convincing Lilah thought she was, Wesley could tell she was jealous. It was sort of funny, in a twisted sort of way. Ruthless lawyer queen of Wolfram & Hart couldn't get over him. Wow, he'd really moved up in society.
Wesley moved to take a paper from the huge pile on the desk.
~
On the roof of the place where the symbol of fire from Lorne's head had indicated they should go, Wesley watches from the side as Angel is thrown off the roof by the Beast. Gunn runs to attack him, but to no avail as he too is thrown to the side. Lorne is collapsed on the floor, and Wesley is the only one left.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out two guns and shoots them simulateously at the Beast, emptying the gun at the Beast, to no avail. Then the Beast knocks him down as well to join his fallen comrades. Then the dead bodies strewn over the floor begin to smoke...
...and Lilah runs into the main office and demands information on what is going on. The building has just shaken and Lilah suspects that the cause was supernatural.
Another shake and she loses her balance. She grabs the curtains over the flashing window and rips the purple fabric. The wall cracks a little from the force of the shaking. The sky flashes with light, and Lilah is beyond doubt that all that supernatural energy is coming out with a bang...
...as Wesley drags Gunn under cover and watches the bodies burst into flames. He looks up at the sky and squints. There are bright streaks in the sky, and as they get closer he sees that it is raining fire. The fire comes down all around them, but strangely enough does not severly burn anything. As black spots float into his vision, he thinks of Angel and Gunn, Fred and Cordy and Lorne, and hopes that coming back into the battle has redeemed him a little. He thinks of Lilah as well, and wishes he could redeem her, so he could be with her. He hopes she will survive the night...
...and as the fire rains down from the sky, Lilah stares out of the window from the 17th floor of Wolfram & Hart and thinks of the world that would soon not be. She wraps her arms around her body and observes the flames, and hopes in vain that her Wesley will somehow find his way back to her.
~
Finito