Disclaimer: Own it, I do not.
Thanks extended to Oxnate for being my Beta.
Dead Man Walking
By Alkeni
Chapter 11: Lights Out I
"Did you mean what you said?" Lilah asked quietly, "Right before-"
"I did." Wesley answered. "I never expected it...I don't think either of us did." Lilah shook her head.
"No. I didn't expect for me to. But...I...the first true thing I've felt in a long time..." Her voice trailed off for a moment. She was...nervous, almost. Not quite, but close. Wesley actually found it a little endearing. "I love you." Then she immediately changed the topic, uncomfortable with discussing it. Wesley sympathized. He'd never been an emotionally open person, and Lilah's stunting of her emotions ...well, Wolfram and Hart wasn't a conducive environment for emotion. "Where do we go from here? House, white picket fence and two and a half children?" She chuckled.
"Somehow I doubt that either of us would be content with that." Wesley replied. The two of them were in one the empty rooms in the Hyperion, far from the other rooms in use. Angel had, reluctantly agreed to let them stay here, considering that they'd both helped him and the others rescue Connor and escape the horde of animated zombies when they went up to the White Room.
Lilah sat down on the bed, then laid back on it, stretching. "Probably not. The idea sounds nice, but I think my head would implode after a year of it, at most." She sat back up. "So...what else is there to this whole 'Immortal' thing? Can't be all pluses."
"There's no downside attached to being immortal this way than any other way – everyone else around you dies. Well, there's The Game." He almost spat the word. The whole idea struck him as profoundly mad.
"I heard the capital letters. What is this Game?"
"Pointless violence in pursuit of a mythic and likely non-existent prize." Wesley replied. "The thing – the lightning – that provides us with our Immortality is termed by Immortals as our Quickening. Its the name the Council always used as well, given that it worked well enough. Anyway, it contains all our accumulated power – the longer you live, the greater your Quickening will be just for that. But Quickening can be stolen – when an Immortal is killed, the Quickening is released. If another immortals is close enough."
"They get the Quickening and all the power?"
"Essentially, yes. There are some Immortals that actively Headhunt, while others just try to live their lives, and others who's attitude to it is somewhere in-between. In theory, when there is just one Immortal left, he or she will get 'The Prize', whatever it is."
"Have you taken any heads? This thunder feeling I get whenever I get near you for a few seconds. That some kind of Immortal radar?"
"One. I was going to purchase a boat for the whole 'dredging up Angel' thing. He found me and decided to challenge me. I shot him five times and then took his head."
"Not much for sportsmanship are you? Aren't there any rules to this 'Game'?"
"Only one that matters. No taking of heads on holy or unholy ground." Wesley replied. "Any ground that is consecrated or desecrated to a powerful degree. That's the only rule that actually matters, the rest are just issues of honor, tradition. According to how I understand it, the last time someone broke the 'no beheading on holy ground' rule, Vesuvius blew its top shortly thereafter. Its about releasing the Quickening on such ground that causes the problem. But a beheading on the premises of Wolfram and Hart would actually be just as bad – the ground is profoundly unholy, after all."
"Anything else I should know?" Then it occurred to her, "How did you know I was- you had to have known ahead of time...you didn't tell me!"
"And what would I have said? Telling you before you actually died would've achieved approximately nothing. You might have gotten yourself killed prematurely. Life is life. As for how? Just like immortals can sense their fellows, we can also sense pre-immortals. It wasn't until I sensed the one I killed – and understood what I felt off of him that I realized when I was sensing from you." He sighed. "I can't think of anything else – ah yes. Immortals are sterile. Can't have children."
Lilah shrugged. "Doesn't really bother me. Wasn't planning on having a kid anyway. Didn't fancy handing my firstborn over. Now I know I don't need to bother paying for the pill." She sighed and then rubbed at her forehead. "I need to rest. I need to...this is a lot to handle, and...dying...takes a lot out of you." She laid back on the bed again.
Wesley nodded. "I'll be down in the lobby." He grabbed the source templates they'd taken from Wolfram and Hart. "Hopefully these can help us shed some light on this...beast. Whatever it is." Lilah nodded and he went out of the room. He stopped when he saw Angel just down the hall, coming towards them. The vampire stood there, standing in front of him.
"So...you and Lilah." He said, slowly.
"You of all people are not in a position to criticize my relationships." Wesley said, "And even if you were, we're not friends anymore." He held up a hand, "I understand why you tried to smother me with the pillow. But I'm not ready to forgive you. Maybe someday I will. Hopefully we'll both live long enough for us to forgive eachother, for what we did. I should have told you, about the prophecy. Should've found another way." He sighed. "I stole and lost your son, you tried to kill me." He sighed.
"Maybe." Then, "Immortal, then? How is it?"
"Less limited than being a vampire." Wesley replied. He saw Angel almost respond to that visibly, and Wesley sighed again. "That was...unfair. It is...interesting, to go into a fight and know that unless your enemy knows your very specific weakness...that the odds of you dying... are slim. It induces a certain recklessness. I got my team killed, being reckless like that, on the roof. I didn't plan. Didn't think about the fact that my team wasn't...immortal like I was." He raised an eyebrow. "You've met an Immortal, haven't you?"
Angel nodded. "Once. When I was Angelus. A really brutal piece of work named Kronos. Angelus and him fought, and well...he won. I wasn't worth killing."
That name rang a bell. Rack up a body count like that... "Did he have a scar over his right eye?"
"You know him?"
"I know of him. One of the oldest and more brutal Immortals ever heard of. He's killed a few Slayers as well – that's how the Council knows about him. For the challenge, I presume. Back in the Bronze Age he and three other immortals cut a bloody swath through the Middle East and Europe. The Council assumes that they were origin of the 'Four Horsemen' of Christian Armageddon." He shrugged. "Immortals – we're like people, I guess. Some good, some evil." He continued on down to the lobby.
Fred was already deep into the research when he arrived, as was Gunn. "Anything?" He asked.
Fred shook her head. "Nothing. And this...'the answer is among you' thing is worthless too. I have I mentioned how much I hate cryptic messages?"
"I'm telling you, its Connor. Its gotta be." Gunn said.
"I'm surprised you're not trying to lay blame on myself, or Lilah."
"The Beast did slaughter everyone and Wolfram and Hart and did kill you. For the moment you're out of the running for working with the big bad." Gunn shot.
"I'm flattered." Wesley set the source books down and then lifted one up. "Index all references to the 'Eye of Fire' and cross-reference with methods of creating a rain of fire." He opened the book up and the previously blank pages suddenly formed words. He looked up at the slightly shocked faces of Gunn and Fred. "Source Templates. Lilah and I stole them from Wolfram and Hart before we came over here the first time. They can access any and all works from the Wolfram and Hart Archives. I want to see if we can determine exactly how it made the rain of fire. It might give us a hint on what we're dealing with. More than we have, anyway."
AtS-HtS-AtS-HtS-AtS-HtS-AtS-HtS-AtS-HtS-AtS-HtS-AtS-HtS
Two hours later, they'd barely scratched the surface of what the source books could call up, but they were still nowhere – on the whole package. Well, not entirely, actually. Wesley looked up from the book. "I have something. Not sure exactly how useful it is. I've found an entry about that little girl – or rather, what posed as a little girl - the Beast killed in the White Room. Whatever she was doing there may not be her only function." He turned the book so the others could see. "Her name is Mesektet."
Fred raised an eyebrow. "Hmm...I would've figured Tiffany, or Brandi."
"So what? Wolfram and Hart was just a day job for her?" Gunn asked.
"Something like that." Wesley replied. "Mesektet was one of five enormously powerful beings which are themselves linked to an embodiment of the sun god Ra."
"Which...would make them totems, right? Symbolic manifestations." Fred looked at the book. "They're part of this Ra-tet. What does that mean, though. We don't know what they do or where they're from..."
"Which could mean he just killed Mesektet because she worked for Wolfram and Hart." Wesley sighed.
"I'll hit the net. Charles, you want to update Angel?"
Gunn shook his head. "Mr. Do-Not-Disturb? Doubt it. Don't know why we're bothering with the Ra-ra's anyway. 'The answer is among you.' Remember?" Gunn was prevented from continuing on in that grain when Lorne walked in.
"Bad news munchkins. Rumor mill has Dr. Feelbad attached to another slice and dice yesterday." The empathic demon said.
Fred looked up from the computer. "Who was it?"
"Lovely woman. High and mighty white magic shaman type. That didn't even faze the Beast. Just tore her heart right out of her chest."
Strange. Wesley thought. "The M.O. Doesn't match...Mesektet had some kind of energy sucked from her. The Beast didn't touch her heart..."
Fred looked at the book and paged through it for a moment then looked back up at Lorne. "You didn't happen to catch a name, did you Lorne? Like," She looked back at the book, "Ma'at?"
"Yea, that's the lady. How did you-"
"Another member of the Ra-tet."
Gunn seemed to be considering the possibility now. "So...he's taking them out, one by one? What for?"
Wesley looked back at the book. "I'm not sure. We should see if we can locate the rest of them. If he wants to kill them, it would behoove us to see to it – to the best of our ability, anyway – that at least one of them lives."
The door opened again and Cordelia entered the lobby. "Hi guys."
Lorne raised a hand and waved it a bit. "Oh, hey Cordy."
"What's up Cordy?" Gunn added.
Cordelia didn't say anything in reply for a moment, then just said, "I gotta go see Angel." She went up the stairs.
Gunn scoffed. "You see? I told you Connor can't be trusted. Look how weird he's made her."
It took some more time, but they managed to finally to isolate some locations for the other three totems of the Ra-tet, or at least last known locations. Which was only really helpful for one of them, the skinless saber-tooth tiger, out in Death Valley. Another was in Belize, and the last moved around so much his location was useless to record. Lilah had arrived downstairs as well, and joined in the research, to no avail.
Soon after Lilah came down, Angel and Cordelia came back down, and the vampire seemed to have gotten out of his latest storm-of-brood, thanks to whatever the Seer had told him. Unfortunately, that meant he was also back in 'leader mode' commanding them as if they were subordinates. Which Fred, Gunn, Lorne and Cordelia were, admittedly, but Wesley and Lilah were not and never would be. Allies or associates, yes. Certainly they were right now. However, the two immortals had no choice but to put up with it for the moment. Angel started by filling them in on Cordelia's delightfully vague vision – possibly the most useless thing the Powers that Be had done for the Angel Investigations team...ever.
"The Powers are sending us a wake-up call, people." The vampire began. "Sure, we've been— I don't want to say "demolished"— beaten." No...demolished is a perfectly good word for what happened to us, unfortunately. "And sure it's slightly demoralizing," Wesley kept his running mental commentary going. Understatement of the month, at least. "but from here on out, we're on the offensive." Its as easy as saying that is it? We're going to find out this thing's weaknesses," Can you conjure up any, I wonder? "we're going to go in prepared," How are we going to get prepared, hm? "and we're going to fight smart. It's time to take down the Beast.." Oh, to have your optimism.
Fred started talking as soon as Angel was done with his little pep-talk. "Um… we're all behind you, Angel, 100%. But how can we be prepared when there's nothing on this thing?"
"And weaknesses?" Lorne added incredulously, "It's not a sure bet El Destructo has any."
Angel shook his head, "Everyone has an Achilles Heel." Wesley and Lilah both had to agree with that. Wolfram and Hart and the Watcher's Council both had, in their long histories, failed to encounter something truly invincible.
"Assuming we can't figure out a way to stop it within the next few days, I should have something that would be at least worth a try. Anti-tank weaponry." Wesley added. "Not to say we shouldn't try other things now, rather than let the body count continue to rise, but still, we have a powerful possibility waiting."
"Your pistols and shotgun barely even annoyed it. What makes you think that's going to be any better? Guns never help." Angel snapped.
"Don't underestimate the power of modern weaponry, Angel. As I recall from Rupert Giles's reports, you stood witness to the defeat of a 'invincible' enemy at the hands of a rocket launcher as well. Well, Angelus did, anyway." That actually made Angel pause for a moment, and then he'd had to fill Fred, Gunn, Lorne and Lilah in on the 'Judge' incident.
"That aside, if this thing doesn't have an Achilles Hell we can find and exploit soon, we'll be cooling ours until English's heavy weapons show up. 'cause we got nothing without a new lead." Gunn said, when the Vampire was done.
"There is this Ra-tet thing..." Fred started, but was interrupted when the door opened and a woman with long brown hair, red leather pants and a black half-shirt complete with black gloves that covered her arms completely. Wesley had no idea who she was, but he saw recognition in Lilah's eyes, as well as those of Fred, Gunn, Angel and Cordelia. The Seer was actually glaring daggers at the new arrival. If looks could kill...well, then most if not all of the human race would have killed itself off by this point. He mused idly.
"Gwen?" Angel said after a moment. Cordelia turned and transferred her glare to the ensouled vampire for a moment, then looked back at her previous target.
"Hi there." The woman – Gwen, apparently – said with a smirk. "Long time no hand to hand." She looked at Gunn. "I remember you." Her words made Fred step protectively in front of her boyfriend. Its amazing how much that concept doesn't bother me now, even though it would've torn me in two a year ago. He looked at Lilah a moment. Life was funny that way.
"That guy you killed? Yea, that's him." Fred said. Everyone's dying, it seems. I thought death was a one-way street, and suddenly we have resurrection all over the place. I'll have to find out what happened.
Gwen laughed a little. "Kicked you in the face too, didn't I, Cherry? Sorry about that. I really do try to avoid contact." She gave Angel a sly look and a smirk. "Mostly."
Angel started to speak, "Cordelia, this is-"
The Seer shook her head. "I know who she is." She looked at Gwen again, "Caught your little show on the omniscient higher-plane channel, thanks." There's quite a bit I missed...
Gwen chucked, "So you're the girl who makes his heart go pitter-pat." Pause, "Figuratively at least." She looked back at Angel. "You must be so happy." Hopefully not any time soon. Angelus is the last thing we need now.
"I'm not having the best week, to be honest." He was about to tell her to get to a point or leave when Gwen spoke again. "Tell me about it. I mean really, tell me. Freak to freak. Is the world about to end, or what?"
"Something happen to you?" Angel stepped forward a pace.
"Met with a client last night, in the oil fields." She replied. "Which is odd because I've bagged for this guy for six years. Big money – and he's never wanted to meet before."
"Fascinating as these details must seem to you," Cordelia snarked, "We're dealing with much more important stuff right now. Apocalypse. End of the world."
"Also, while we were talking," Gwen went on as if Cordelia hadn't interjected, "He got his chest punched out a by a big demon made of rock." That got everyone's attention, and even made Cordelia shut her mouth, instead of laying on more snark. "Demon okay?" She seemed incredulous at the idea. "Whole nine: cloven feet and horns and teeth..." She saw Lorne and did a double take. "He wasn't wearing lamé thought."
The empathic demon shook his head. "Yeah. The evil ones just can't pull it off. It gets camp, and then," he waved a hand. "unpleasant all around."
"This client of yours." Wesley asked, "was anything removed from the body?"
"Didn't see." She replied, and Lilah smirked. The woman turned back to Angel. "But you are hands-down,"
"You're lying." Lilah interrupted. "What?" Gwen glared at her. "I said you're lying. Something was removed from the body, and you did see it."
"Its pretty rich for a Wolfram and Hart Lawyer to be accusing someone else of lying, Lilah." So they did know each other.
"I know your tell because I've seen you lie firsthand before." Lilah said.
Angel raised an eyebrow. "Well. Was something removed from the body?" In the background, Fred was thumbing through the pages of Rhinehardt's Compendium quickly.
"Something was." Gwen replied, after a moment. "Kinda big – size of a book, maybe, made of metal. Didn't get a very clear look at it." Lilah made no contest with her words there. "I didn't say anything because I thought it might be valuable, okay?"
"No surprise there," Lilah said quietly to Wesley.
Fred stepped forward with the book in her hands. "Um...excuse me...not that I don't bear a grudge against you, because I do, but your client didn't happen to be a skinless saber-tooth tiger...or composed entirely of light maybe?"
"Yea..." Gwen replied. "The light...it came out of his chest. How did you know?"
"Three down." Gunn said.
"He's taking them out. The Ra-tet." Fred agreed.
"What's a Ra-tet?"
Wesley answered the thief's question: "A mystical order. Each totem representing a stage in Ra's journey across the sky." He opened his source book and pointed to the characters in it. "Here's your client. Two others – these ones – are dead."
"That means there's two totems left..." Cordelia, who had been look as well, noted. "Manjet and Semkhet."
"The last sighting of Manjet was Belize, two years ago. Semkhet lives in a cave in Death Valley." Fred supplied.
"Then its easy to know what we need to do." Angel said. "All we have to do is find Semkhet and protect him."
Lorne turned a page in Rhinehardt's Compendium. "Yeah, well won't that be hoot. Looks like Semkhet is puddy-tat to the world's scariest six-year-old."
"It could be dangerous." Cordelia interjected.
"I'll take Gwen." Angel said quickly. Too quickly, actually. There is something...off in the relationship between Angel and Cordelia... From Lilah's expression, he could tell she was thinking along similar lines.
Gwen rolled her eyes. "Gee. I feel all warm inside."
Cordelia shook her head. "Shouldn't we all go? It might -" Angel didn't wait for her to finished, just grabbing his bag and leading Gwen back over to the door.
"We can handle it. Superpowers. I'll catch her up on the drive."
"But its four hours!" Cordelia protested. "Both ways!"
Angel looked back over his shoulder, halfway out the door. "I'm sure we'll find something to talk about."
