Disclaimer: I don't own Angel or Leverage. They belong to Joss Whedon and Dean Devlin.
Convergence
Chapter 7: The Plan
Nate, Hardison, and Parker were forced to leave during the planning portion. Eliot didn't want them listening to the planning because "I don't want y'all getting involved in this." So Nate took Hardison and Parker out to eat at a family restaurant, where they did what most thieves do when bored: planned different ways they could crack the security systems around Boston. It never hurt to be prepared.
As soon as they left, the Scoobies' planning started. The whole thing gave Eliot a headache, so he excused himself to his kitchen to cook and clear his head. He left the door open so that their conversation—argument really—could filter in. Everyone seemed to disagree on one aspect or another, so not a lot of actual planning got done.
About an hour and a half into the useless session, Eliot was finished cooking. He gathered the first two trays in his hands and took them to the living room area, setting them down on the table.
"What's all this?" Willow asked in surprise as her stomach growled.
"Dinner," Eliot replied, going to grab the last few plates, balancing them carefully on the way back over.
"Thank you," Buffy said softly, reaching out to try some of the chicken.
Eliot smiled, returning with plates and napkins for the gang before going to get the jug of pig's blood for Spike and Angel, along with two mugs.
"Y'all want anything to drink?" Eliot asked, surveying the group to see that they were all enjoying their food.
"The water's fine," Buffy replied, taking some more food from the serving platters.
"This is really good!" Gunn exclaimed in surprise, going for more.
"Thanks," Eliot replied with a small grin, grabbing some for himself before they devoured it all. Even Spike tasted some of it, just to see what the fuss was about.
After they were all finished eating, everyone was in a much better mood and the planning went a lot easier. Eliot even managed to chip in without getting his head bitten off—figuratively or literally.
By the time the rest of Eliot's crew got back Angel was back up in the training room and everyone else was sitting around the living room laughing about something. Hardison looked over at Nate in surprise, who shrugged. Apparently Eliot could get along with other people after all.
When Nate looked back over at the group Parker was sitting next to Eliot on the table, leaning on his shoulder sleepily. Eliot's arm was wrapped casually around her shoulders, pulling her into him protectively. Obviously they had been doing a lot of bonding when Nate wasn't looking. Hardison looked a bit confused about it as well before he shrugged and went t o set up his computer at the table.
Nate shook his head. It had been a long day and what he really needed right now was sleep. "Eliot," Nate tried to get his attention, "I'm going upstairs to get some sleep. Try to keep things quiet." Eliot nodded in agreement before turning back to the group with a laugh at something Willow had just said about bad Latin translations. Nate turned and went upstairs, waving goodnight to Hardison. He needed to sleep before his head exploded from all the confusion and craziness of the past few days.
"So, what exactly is it you do now, Lindsey?" Gunn asked as soon as everyone calmed again.
Eliot laughed again, "You remember when we all broke into Wolfram & Hart to get those files on the—the psychic kids?"
Gunn laughed. "Yeah. Good times."
"I pretty much do that now."
"Steal things?" Wesley asked.
Eliot nodded, "If you want to simplify it."
"He punches things," Parker mumbled from his shoulder.
"He what?" Gunn questioned as Parker lifted her head from Eliot's shoulder.
"He's our Hitter. He protects us and hurts people. And gets shot at," Parker explained before leaning over onto Eliot again.
"Wait. You—the wimpy lawyer guy—make a living beating people up?"
"If you want to put it that way..." Eliot mumbled, "But you were there during that final Wolfram & Hart thing. I could hold my own back then."
"I guess. It's just—that's just weird, man," Gunn replied with a laugh.
"So what's the strangest thing you've ever stolen?" Xander asked.
Eliot looked over at Parker, who was paying attention again and grinning with an almost evil glee, "Well, in Guatemala…"
Eliot put a hand over her mouth to stop her from saying anything, "We stole the future once," he answered with a crooked grin.
"How do you do something like that?" Wesley asked.
"We were taking down this fake psychic, right? Guy was stealing people's life savings with his act…"
By the time Nate made it downstairs the next morning Eliot was serving French Toast to the teams. Nate yawned and headed for the coffee pot. Faith was standing there sipping her own cup. "Morning," she greeted as Nate poured some for himself.
He leaned against the counter next to her. "How's it going?"
"Can't complain."
Nate nodded, watching as Parker kept trying to sneak up behind Eliot and steal bits and pieces of his cooking set up (and failing). He chuckled as Eliot batted her hands away again and handed her a plate of French Toast and a shaker of powdered sugar. Nate immediately felt that this was a bad idea and moved to take it, but Parker simply shook out what looked like a cup of the stuff onto her food and handed the shaker back to Eliot with a peck on the cheek. Nate 'hmmm'd in surprise, taking another quiet sip of his coffee. Their relationship was getting stranger by the minute. Stranger than even the whole supernatural-is-real thing.
"You want any, Nate?" Eliot asked as he battered some more bread.
"Sure. Thanks," Nate replied, watching as Parker dug into her breakfast with a scary amount of relish, getting the powdered sugar all over her face.
Hardison was sitting in the living area on his computer, glancing up every once in a while to glare at Eliot, as if resenting him for bonding with Parker (no matter how…strangely they had done so). Nate was soon handed a plate of French Toast and he went over to join Hardison as Eliot took a wet towel to Parker's sugar-covered face.
"What are you doing?" he asked as he took his first (very delicious) bit.
"Looking for information on all this crazy talk online," Hardison replied, showing Nate his computer screen, filled with witchcraft websites and demon databases, "it's kind of scary to think that all this stuff is out there and we just never noticed."
Nate nodded and Hardison went back to his computer after sparing another glance for where Parker and Eliot were laughing with the other crew. It was strange how Parker was still clinging to Eliot, like she was afraid that once this was all over he'd leave with the rest of them, but Parker had never reacted to things like a normal person, so Nate figured that there was really no harm done. And Hardison would learn that he didn't need to be jealous of Eliot, as Nate was certain that their relationship was purely platonic brother-sister in nature. Even if they were…weird about it.
When everyone was finished with breakfast, Eliot enlisted Hardison to help clean up the kitchen. While they were doing that the rest of the crew gathered around Willow's computer looking at what looked like floor plans, probably for the 'Coven Headquarters,' as they had been calling it.
"Do you have any of the spelling ingredients we need?" Willow asked Eliot as he walked over from the now-clean kitchen.
Eliot nodded, "Just a bit of it. I can bring everything I have out here then we can decide what we need to find."
"Sounds good," Willow replied.
Eliot got up and went into his kitchen. Nate heard a few banging noises before him and Parker, who had apparently gone to help when no one was looking, came out with a few bags of what looked like herbs and other things and a couple of worn books in a language Nate couldn't read. "This is all I have right now," Eliot apologized, setting everything down on the table and motioning for Parker to follow suit, "I don't really keep stocked because the only reason I do any spellwork anymore is to heal injuries, which is pretty simple."
Willow nodded, sorting through some of the supplies in front of her, "You have a place close by we can get the rest?"
"I know a place."
"Me and Xander will go get supplies then," Willlow announced. Eliot nodded, writing some directions on a slip of paper and handing it to her. She marked supplies they already had from Eliot's kitchen off her list and then left with Xander.
"You use magic to heal yourself?" Nate questioned as soon as the door closed.
Eliot looked over at Nate sheepishly. "Only when I'm really badly injured and don't want y'all to know," he replied.
Nate supposed that that made sense. Eliot was the type of guy to hide his weaknesses anyways. "How often?" he questioned, wanting to know how often Eliot really was badly injured. He'd never really thought about how injured Eliot got on jobs because he never seemed that injured, but if he had been hiding it, that changed things.
"Nate…"
"How often, Eliot?" Nate demanded.
Eliot sighed, looking away. "Every few jobs…mostly just so that I'm in better shape in order to protect y'all. It's my job to protect y'all, and if it means getting beat on myself in the process, I'll do it," he replied stubbornly, "So don't you go changing the way you do things just 'cause you know now. I can handle it."
Nate nodded as Eliot crossed his arms and glared stubbornly.
"Well, now you don't have to worry about hiding it, and you never have to be injured, right?" Hardison asked from his chair.
"No, Hardison. Magic's a last resort. Healing on your own is always the better option. Then you know how to deal with it when magic isn't possible," Eliot replied, giving both him and Nate a look that said the conversation was over. Nate nodded, understanding Eliot's logic, but still upset by the fact that he had been hiding this from them, even if it was only to protect them.
"Well, if that conversation's over, can we get back to the plan?" Buffy asked as Faith and Angel came in from the training room.
"Please," Angel said, "we needed to have this done yesterday."
Buffy's whole team (plus Eliot) spared a glare for Angel before going back to the plans on the computer.
"We sure this will work?" Buffy asked Eliot.
"If Willow and I get the spell right…yeah, it should," Eliot replied, "Their security sucks. They're overconfident. That's their downfall."
"But like you said, we don't know how many there are outside of the leaders," Wesley reminded.
"I don't think the weaker ones will be a problem once we take out their leaders. They won't be able to organize themselves. If they do, we'll notice and be able to take them down too," Eliot replied evenly.
"Eliot," Nate interrupted, worried by the direction of this conversation, "are you talking about killing these people?"
Eliot shook his head. "No. We're sending them to an alternate…Hell dimension. If they die there," he shrugged, "not my problem." Nate didn't bother to mention that that was just as bad seeing as no one else seemed to think twice about it. These people were strange. And he included the nodding Parker in that equation.
"Y'all can do that?" Hardison asked in disbelief.
Eliot nodded. "If Willow and I get the spell right."
"Can someone explain to me why this plan is relying so heavily on Lindsey, who is, as I keep saying, evil and none of you have a problem with it?" Angel interjected.
"If you don't shut up, I'm gonna stab you next," Gunn replied. Angel winced and stepped away from him.
"Let's try not to stab Angel again. We need him whole for this," Buffy input tiredly.
"Can we stab him afterwards?" Spike pitched in hopefully.
"If you're good."
When Xander and Willow got back, Eliot got to work helping Willow open up some spell books, carefully translating the procedures. Nate and Hardison watched in awe as they methodically set the circle up and started preparing the ingredients. Parker hovered behind Eliot, trying to read over his shoulder and looking on with interest at the ingredients.
"Is that really a newt eye?" she asked, pointing at the ingredient Eliot was currently handling.
"Yes," Eliot replied, swatting her hand away for the hundredth time in the past ten minutes.
"Can I touch it?"
"No."
Parker pouted, scooting closer to Eliot and setting her chin on his shoulder. Eliot rolled his eyes, but continued working on the spell.
"Almost ready?" Willow asked, looking over at him.
"Yup," Eliot replied, putting the finishing touches on his mixture.
"So what exactly is this for?" Nate questioned, looking skeptically at the setup.
"This will prepare the spell in an amulet," Willow explained, setting up some candles, "so that when we get the headquarters all we have to do is recite the incantation over the amulet and voila, instant portal to a Hell dimension."
Eliot nodded, setting the amulet they were using in the center of the circle and settling on the opposite side from Willow. "Parker, you need to wait away from the circle with everyone else," Eliot ordered, pushing the thief away from him for the first time Nate had seen in days.
Parker joined everyone against the wall as Willow lit the candles. Eliot looked across the circle at her and nodded and they started chanting in a language Nate didn't know. It wasn't Latin, although it sounded a little like it sometimes. Nate couldn't catch any of what they were saying as they sprinkled the separate mixtures into the center of the circle at different intervals until finally there was a flash of bright light that spun inward until it was captured in the pendant and died down, leaving only the pendant, still glowing brightly, in the center of what had been the circle. The circle and everything in it had been seemingly burned away by the spell, leaving the floor looking clean, like none of it had ever been there.
"Did it work?" Buffy asked as soon as the light died down.
"Well," Eliot started, looking at the pendant, "nothing burst into flames. And no one died,"
"And there's no dimensional rip or baddie from Hell," Willow added.
"So yeah," Eliot finished, "it worked."
"Good," Spike said, "I would have hated to explode! Why didn't you two tell us someone might explode?"
"It didn't seem important," Eliot shrugged.
"How is that not—"
"Spike. They're right. It didn't happen, so it's irrelevant. So we're ready?" Buffy asked, stepping forward to inspect the pendant Willow was now holding.
"Pretty much," Willow replied.
"Then we get started. Tonight. So let's get ready," Buffy ordered, "Let's get the weapons."
"Weapons?" Nate asked as Buffy, Gunn, and Xander left. Nate guessed it was to get the weapons from wherever they were stashed.
Eliot nodded, "Trust me, you do not want to face down something supernatural without something sharp and pointy on your side."
"Can I come?" Parker asked from next to Nate.
"No, Parker. None of you can come. This is dangerous and none of you are trained in how to handle it. I don't want y'all getting caught in the crossfire because I can't keep track of you. So none of you come. And I mean it," Eliot replied, looking at each of them in turn until they nodded their agreement.
The rest of the day was spent in preparation. Most of Buffy's crew spent time cleaning and putting together weapons while Wesley, Willow, and Eliot did some more spellwork, creating easily activated charms to use during the job. Nate and Hardison hung back, mostly doing research on Hardison's computer revolving around Eliot's past as this Lindsey character and the supernatural in general. Parker spent her time flitting back and forth between the groups, helping out here and there but mostly just reading over people's shoulders and trying to get her hands on sharp shiny things.
When the sun started to set, Buffy announced that it was time to put their plan into action. The team looked a little nervous as they gathered the supplies they'd been compiling all day long. Willow had the inter-dimensional-portal pendant around her neck and many smaller ones hanging from her hands. The rest of the team was decked out with weapons, although Wesley and Eliot also had some of the spell pendants from earlier in the day.
"Let's go," Buffy said, leading them out the door. Eliot gave one last look back at Nate, Hardison, and Parker, telling them on no uncertain terms to stay put, then disappeared out the door with the rest of them.
A/N: Yay for not taking as long this time? Maybe? Anyways. It's looking like it's winding down. Only a few more chapters to go, at most. Review please?
