tle: Futures Hope : Blind Sided Author: Firecracker Disclaimer:The Buffy verse and its character's do not belong to me, however Hope and Adam do.
A/N: This is a follow up story to Enter Hope, Into The Woods and Return to Chaos so it might not make any sense unless you've read them first
chapter ten
The sun began to rise in the distance, flooding through the windows of the factory, bathing the area with light as shadows faded into the warm glow. Luckily this wasn't a problem for the abandoned buildings current occupants.
''Say what you want about monks, they knew what they were doing.' Zahn, the largest of the group spoke.
'Making themselves a human vessel, hiding the key in plain sight…' he continued.
'It was a smart move, they knew it would be the last place she'd look.' Zile huffed.
'Glorificus may have missed her window, but we won't.' Zahn said with confidence as he turned to address their guest.
'You'd better not.' Hope said leaning forward.
'I still say we're behind schedule.' Said Sirk the demon that sat beside her.
'Actually we're exactly where we need to be, and I should know.' She informed him, her voice impatient.
'Have I let you down before?' she asks placing a hand on his shoulder that was meant a warning.
'Forgive my brothers…' Eames their leader spoke as he glared at the others.
'We owe you a great debt, you shared information with us, their strengths and weaknesses, who knows how long it would have taken us…' he began.
'Which is exactly why I came to you, having someone on the inside will make things run a lot smoother in long run, don't you think?' she asked the collective.
'Oh absolutely.' Eames agreed.
'What makes you so sure that they'll even take you back?' Sirk sneered beside her, clearly unhappy with the future slayers presence.
'Killing those slayers didn't exactly work in your favor.' He said not even attempting to disguise his grin.
'Minor setback.' Hope responded with a shrug.
'One I've already began to fix.' She informed them.
'Nice job by the way, getting the demon to steal Faiths sight.' She said receiving a small nod from Zahn.
'It was foolish.' Zile spoke seeming bored with current situation.
'It was the perfect distraction, they didn't suspect a thing.' She corrected him.
'and the half breed?' Zile growled in annoyance.
'Is out of the loop, as far as he knows I was in Los Angeles hunting demons.' She said, clearly losing patience with explaining her actions.
'Good those Lazarus demons always were a pain in the ass.' Zahn spoke, clearly not a fan of the species.
'You've crossed a Lazarus or two in your time?' she asked with amused curiosity.
'One or two.' He shrugged.
'Well as interesting as this little chat has been…' Hope began as she stood to leave the table.
'The slayers.' Sirk said from beside her.
'Won't be a threat, I have just the thing to see to that.' Hope replied sharply.
'And we're just supposed to leave this with a slay…' he didn't continue as Hope charged forward.
Clutching the demons jaw with enough force that an audible crack filled the room, before raising a knife towards his shocked face.
'Eames, please ask your brother to hold his tongue.' she said addressing their leader.
'Before I cut it out.' She said with a murderous stare, causing the demons eyes to widen in horror.
'I think he got the message.' Zahn grinned, clearly having no patience for his brother.
'You're ready to begin.' Eames asked.
'Yes.' Hope said releasing her hold on the demons jaw.
'Need anything from us?' he asked.
'No, just be in place when I need you.' she informed him.
'Two days from now.' Eames began, speaking to the group.
'Everything changes.' Hope finished before leaving the table.
The End