Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Anyway, enjoy.
Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been
What Makes a Monster?
"C… Cole?" Phoebe asked, staring at the red-skinned form in front of her, dressed in a military costume and looking at her with a slight smile on his face. She vaguely registered Doyle standing on one side of him, and a tall, pale-skinned man to the other side who must have been Angel, but she couldn't bring herself to be too concerned about him at the moment.
All that mattered was that he was there.
There may still be all kinds of stuff that they still didn't know about that facility that they'd been held in (The link between her and Doyle had been disrupted by something after he'd been knocked out; she knew he was awake, but not much else)… there may still be a lot of work their groups had to do to save the day…
But their three groups were now reunited.
Anything else was a mere secondary concern.
"Hi, Phoebe," Cole/Belthazor said, smiling briefly at her before looking around the room. "Good to see you, Piper- and I assume you two are Buffy and Willow, from what Angel told me?" he asked, looking over at the other witch and the Slayer, who were looking at him with a slight degree of apprehension. They must have assumed that the demon was Cole, given that he was with Doyle and Angel, but they must still have been a bit uncertain about his presence before Phoebe had confirmed his identity.
"Hi," Buffy said, before looking back over at Angel, trying to conceal her joy and relief at knowing he was all right. She knew that he could see it in her eyes, and, for the moment, that would have to be enough.
Once the Halliwells had the chance to go over the curse and find some way to get rid of the damn clause, then they'd most likely have time for a proper greeting.
"Hey," Angel said, as he and Doyle detached from 'Cole', the three of them sitting down in nearby chairs as the witches did the same; Phoebe evidently wasn't quite comfortable with Cole when he looked like this…
Then again, Buffy couldn't blame her. After all, she may have kissed Angel when he had his 'game face' on, but then she'd always known that it was still Angel behind the fangs. From what Phoebe had told them earlier, the line between Cole and his demon was a lot less secure; apparently, Belthazor and Cole were two distinct individuals, and Cole mostly only exerted a certain degree of control over the demon.
If the demon ever lost control…
Buffy shook her head; she couldn't worry about that now. They had more important matters to attend to.
"Um… Cole?" she asked, looking over at the demon. "Could you just… y'know… turn human? Not that I'm being picky or anything- it's good to meet you, by the way- it's just that… well, it's not exactly easy having you looking… well, like that…"
She trailed off, suddenly concerned that she may have offended him. Belthazor, to her relief, merely smiled and shrugged.
"Yeah, I understand where you're coming from, and I apologise about that, Miss Summers, but I don't really have any choice," Cole said, sighing slightly as he tapped his head. "Don't know if you already know this, but that facility sticks these chips in the heads of the demons they capture-"
"That renders the demons unable to hurt humans; we gathered that," Phoebe said, indicating the cupboard. "We've got some vampire called Spike in the cupboard who's got one of those chips in his head; he's been -"
Angel held up a hand to stop Phoebe talking as a slow grin spread across his face.
"Wait a minute; Spike can't hurt humans?" he asked, looking at the witch with an expression that resembled a child having just been told that Christmas had come early.
"Uh… yeah, that's right," Doyle said, looking over at Angel curiously. "Would have mentioned it earlier, but I wasn't sure it was the right time…"
Angel's eyes widened in surprise as he looked over at Doyle.
"You thought it 'wasn't the right time' to mention something that major?" Angel said, grinning over at the half-demon as he spoke. "Doyle, my friend, I would have been far more eager to get out if I knew that news! That guy has constantly gotten on my nerves ever since he was turned; having him become incapable of doing what he loves most is the equivalent of Christmas coming early!"
"Oh, shut up, you great poof!" a voice yelled from the cupboard.
Grinning, Angel slung one arm over the sofa and leaned back to look at the cupboard from which the voice had come from.
"Really, Spike?" he asked teasingly, an innocent smile on his face that was obviously meant to be anything but innocent. "And what are you going to do, exactly? Wave your fists about and have a headache at me? We do have more humans here than we do anything else; you try and hit me, there's a good chance someone else will get hit first, and what'll you do then?"
"Plus," Willow put in, looking over at the cupboard with a wicked little grin on her face, "how do we know that it's not the presence of a soul that activates the chip? Even if you actually hit Angel it might not do much good!"
A low growl was heard from the cupboard, which, to those members of the group that possessed enhanced hearing, sounded like 'Bloody poof…', but nothing else; evidently Spike couldn't be bothered coming up with a very elaborate retort.
"Anyway," Piper said, waving a hand to draw attention back to their group, "can we focus on the matter at hand right now? What do the chips have to do with Cole being all red and demon-ish on a permanent basis?"
"Oh yeah; sorry 'bout that," Doyle said, chuckling sheepishly before he patted Cole on the shoulder. "Anyway, these guys somehow stuck this chip in Cole's head that stops him transforming into his human form; o' course, it might've just been some side effect of however the chip stopped him from shimmering out of there straight away, but he's been stuck like this ever since we got in there."
Noting everyone's confused expressions, Cole just shrugged. "If you're wondering how they were able to stop me from shimmering, I can't answer you," he said. Then he glanced over at Piper. "Anyway, do you think Paige can get these things out of our heads?"
"Wh- oh yeah, her power!" Phoebe said, spinning around to look at her other sister with a grin on her face. "Could you call Paige and-"
Willow, however, raised a hand to stop the witch's eager expression. "Too risky to try that until we know more about how that chip's attached to the brain," she said, hating to watch Phoebe's hopes fall, but knowing that it was for the best. "For all we know, it could be so far in that any attempt to orb it out would take away some tissue by mistake; I'd rather Paige could tell what she's calling to herself before we try anything like that."
"Oh… uh, right," Phoebe said, sighing as she sat back down and looked over at Cole. "Sorry, sweetie."
Cole shrugged. "I've spent most of my life looking like this before I met you; I can manage for a few more hours," he said dismissively.
"Well, now that we've got a plan for resolving that issue," Doyle said, leaning forward to look around the room at the others, "what's our next move?"
"Yeah, we need to think about that…" Willow said, leaning forward, her chin in her hand, and looking at the other people in the room. "I mean, look at it; what do we know about the people in this place, baring the fact that for them 'demonbad' and they aren't even prepared to find out whether the demons are actually dangerous?"
"Well…" Cole muttered, as he looked around the room, exchanging sheepish glances with Angel and Doyle; they probably should have mentioned this earlier, but it had never seemed like the right time.
"We do know that they've been infiltrated by an old friend of his," Doyle explained as he took up the story, indicating Cole as he spoke.
"Well, 'friend' isn't quite the right word," Cole said, as he looked over at Piper and Phoebe to make sure they understood what he was saying. "The last time we met, he was trying to convince you to give up your powers by making you believe that you were insane."
Piper and Phoebe's eyes widened in horror as they stared at Cole.
"But… but you injured him!" Phoebe protested, as though desperate for Belthazor of all people to laugh and say that he'd only been joking. "You said we wouldn't see him for a while! This is not a while!"
"He's still not back at full strength yet," Cole assured her, trying not to let his own fear show; he knew as well as anyone that even a weakened Source was one to be feared. "He must have decided that he needed to keep this situation under control, so he took the risk and came back before he was back to full health."
"Um, excuse me, but who are you talking about?" Buffy asked, looking at the two witches and the demon in confusion.
"Basically?" Piper said, looking back at the Slayer with a nervous look on her face. "We're talking the Source of all evil magic- based demons; big, bad, tough, and dangerous."
She glanced back at Cole. "That is who you're talking about, right?"
Cole nodded, and Phoebe groaned.
"Great…" she muttered to herself as she stared up at the ceiling of the small apartment. "As if we didn't enough problems…"
"And, lemme guess, we couldn't just batter him into submission?" Buffy asked, looking over at Cole for confirmation.
The demon shook his head. "He can only be stopped with magic; try and kill him with your bare hands and you'll only get him annoyed at you. I managed to injure him last time we fought with an energy ball, but I can't guarantee there's a way to stop him for good at the moment."
Buffy sighed. "Great…" she muttered, clasping her forehead and staring upwards for a few moments, before she sat forward and looked around at the others. "Well, we'll get back to that later, OK? In the meantime, I think our next move should be to get everyone back here, update them on the current situation, and then get Paige and Willow to take these guys into a hospital so we can figure out how to extract those chips before we decide how best to infiltrate this base."
Piper nodded. "Good idea," she said to the Slayer, before looking over at the others. "Anyone got anything they'd like to add before the others get here?"
The rest of the group shook their heads, apart from Cole, who was looking over at the cupboard containing Spike with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"What?" Phoebe asked, looking at her demon lover sharply.
"Hmm?" Cole muttered, looking back at her. "Oh, sorry; I just had a thought that might give us some more firepower."
"Which is?" Angel asked, looking over at his new friend.
"Well, it just occurred to me that, when Angel and I were tricked into fighting each other down in that complex, neither of us experienced any pain from the chips," Cole explained, as he looked around the room. "Of course, the scientists had somehow 'limited' the chip to allow me to use my energy balls, so I could be wrong, but it seems logical to assume that the chips don't stop the demons with them from attacking other demons…"
Buffy held up a hand.
"Hold on a minute," she said, staring at Cole harshly. "Are you honestly suggesting that we ask Spike for help? The man's a homicidal maniac with a penchant for impalement-!"
"Who's lost the means to vent his frustration on his normal victims," Cole replied casually as he looked back at Buffy. "In his current state, he'll be looking for something else to attack, especially since he may never get back to 'normal' as far as he knows. If it helps, you can think of him as a weapon; just point him in the right direction, if it's necessary, and let him loose."
"This facility is run by humans, Cole, remember?" Doyle said, looking over at the ex-assassin. "How are we meant to use Spike in there?"
"With the Source active?" Piper shrugged, glancing over at the half-Irish demon. "Trust me; we'll need all hands on deck, as soon as the others get back."
And the sooner the better… Angel mused to himself, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers.
He hadn't mentioned this to anyone else, but while he was in the surgery, he'd smelled something that he didn't recognise and didn't like the scent off. It almost seemed like a combination of human, demon, and machine, except there was some extra factor that he couldn't identify, baring the fact that it reminded him of the scent of Cole's energy balls.
He sincerely hoped that he was getting worked-up about nothing, but, if his theory was correct, there was something down there that was very big, very powerful, and more than likely dangerous…
God, I hope I'm wrong.