Disclaimer: I do not own Angel or Highlander. If I owned Angel...well, Lilah wouldn't have died and the better part of Season 4 wouldn't have happened anyway.
Thanks to Oxnate for being the beta
Dead Man Walking
By Alkeni
Chapter 12: Lights Out II
Gwen and Angel had only been gone for a few minutes before Wesley turned to the others. "Anyone want to fill me on who she was and what I missed?"
"Gwen Raiden is a thief." Lilah said, after a moment. "Wolfram and Hart has arranged for various clients to make contact with her, in the past, when they need something stolen from high security. She has a power that frankly I don't understand. She can control electricity completely."
"And if she touches you with bare skin, you're dead." Gunn said. "I know that first hand." He shrugged, "Then she zapped me back. One of those 'dead for a few moments' things."
"Which would be why she wears the gloves." Wesley mused, then turned to Cordelia. "And is that why you had this look of wanting to tear out the woman's skull and beat her death with it?" Then, "And for that matter, what happened between you and Angel that has you two on the outs with eachother? Time was he'd fall all over himself to bring you with him on a little mission like this."
"Things change." Cordelia said noncommittally, her voice uncharacteristically toneless.
"Clearly." Was Wesley's reply. He looked at the others, who seemed just as curious as he was about what had changed between the ensouled vampire and his seer. He shrugged. "It doesn't matter that much to me. Just don't let it get in the way of defeating this Beast. I could care less about your personal disputes in and of themselves."
"You really mean that." Cordelia said. It wasn't a question. "Is there anything of the old you left?"
"Which old me? The one in Sunnydale who had the emotional maturity of a blueberry scone?" He quoted Rupert Giles with a hint of viciousness in his tone. "He's dead and gone, thankfully. A person is a work in progress, Cordelia, always. I am who I am right now, the sum total of my experiences. I imagine that in five hundred years, assuming I don't loose my head by that point, I'll be at least a little bit different from who I am now." He turned towards the stairs and headed up, leaving the lobby behind. Lilah followed suit moments later. She wasn't hanging around in the lobby with Team Angel. They didn't like her, and she didn't like them. They seemed to tolerate Wesley, but she doubted they would do the same for her.
She found Wesley sitting on their bed, thumbing through one of the Source Books. He looked up at her approach and closed the book.
"Quite the little speech you gave down there, Wes." Lilah said, sitting down on the bed next to him.
"Its the truth." Wesley replied with a sigh.
Lilah tucked a stray hair behind her ear and then, "So...why didn't you tell them that I'm immortal as well?"
"Its none of their business. I'd much prefer they didn't know that Iwas an immortal either. They only know about me because I had to explain to them after they saw me come back to life." He sighed again. "Frankly, I don't trust any of them. Not enough that I think they wouldn't try and kill you, if it comes down to it, if they jump to conclusions about you. And if they knew you were immortal, then they'd know they needed to cut your head off. If they don't know, then odds are whatever they try won't kill you."
Lilah scoffed. "If you're that untrusting of them, why did you even come here? Why bring me here?"
"Because when it comes to this Beast, this place still is probably the safest place in the city. And because if the Beast is ever going to be defeated, its Team Angel that's going to figure out a way to do it. And since I don't fancy living in a destroyed world, helping them seems the most viable option." He stood and went into one of his bags and pulled out a wrist-guard-like device. He tossed it to her and she caught it.
"What's this?"
"Put it on." Wesley said. Lilah raised an eyebrow but slid it over her wrist. Then she smirked in realization.
"Another collapsible sword, like the one you have."
"Exactly." Wesley said. He flicked his wrist and produced his sword. "You'll never want to be without easy access to a sword. The immortal that challenged me last summer kept his inside a trench coat. This is a little less conspicuous and more easily accessible." Lilah said something quietly that Wesley didn't catch. "What was that?"
"I...I don't know how to use a sword." Lilah said, after a moment, a touch of embarrassment in her voice at admitting deficiency in any area.
"You have plenty of time to learn." Wesley said. "And carrying a gun around as well would serve you well. Beheading the enemy while they're temporarily dead works just as well." He indicated for Lilah to stand up. "We have several hours until Angel returns with or without Semkhet."
Wesley spent the next hour and a half teaching Lilah the basics of swordplay. She was a quick study, but she still did have a long way to go. Then, as was usual for them after a fight, they ended up in bed together.
There wasn't any broken furniture this time, however.
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Both immortals were back down in the lobby when Angel and Gwen arrived. Instead of being accompanied by a skinless panther, they were accompanied by a short man who looked like he was dressed for a day on a tropical resort, complete with a Hawaiian shirt and brimmed hat.
"Any movement from the Beast while we were gone?" Angel asked within moments of entering.
"Not a peep." Gun replied. "We've just been wasting our time trying to figure out how to kill the thing. Which, far as we can tell there aren't any."
"Even Evil Incorporated doesn't have the slightest hint of any idea about this thing." Lorne added.
"What it is, where it's from, what it can do. Still nothing on all three fronts." Lilah remarked.
Fred raised an eyebrow at the third member of the new arrivals. "That doesn't look like Semkhet..." she said slowly.
"Semkhet's not available anymore sweetheart, on account of a slight case of being ripped open to death in a cave." The new arrival took off his hat and placed it over his chest. "Don't supposed I could interest you in a short, stock orb keeper?" He waggled his eyebrows lasciviously at the physicist. Fred rolled her eyes a little and stepped back a little.
Angel chuckled a little awkwardly. "Guys, I'd like you to meet Manny. The last totem of the Ra-tet."
Only an idiot would've missed the dubiousness in Wesley's tone, "This...is a being of supreme power?"
"You should see me in my Armani." Manny replied dryly, putting his hat back on.
Lorne pointed at Manny and leaned a little forward. "What happened to the second to last one?"
Gwen stepped forward. "Somebody already ripped out the toy surprise." Lorne's face fell a little and he looked at Cordelia a moment. So its not just the death of the Ra-tet this Beast wants. Wesley mused. There's something each of them is carrying, or has inside themselves. He made a mental note to look into that.
"The good news though," Angel added, "Is that we've figured out the Beast's plan."
"Which is?" Gunn inquired.
Manny supplied the answer there. "To blot out the sun for all eternity." Then and without any visible appreciation of the comic value of his subject change, he asked, "You guys got a john?"
Angel was a little thrown off, but a moment later he pointed, "Right back there." He headed down the indicated hall, then stepped back a few to grab a newspaper from the front desk counter before continuing on.
"Why did the small yucky man say that?" Cordelia demanded. "He's joking, right?"
"No, its true. Apparently there's a ritual using the members of the Ra-tet to change day into night," he paused, as if for dramatic effect, "forever."
Diabolical. The ramifications were terrifying. "As far as evil plans go," Wesley commented, sitting down. "It doesn't suck."
"Its something Wolfram and Hart would never have considered." Lilah remarked. "Too evil for them, I guess. This Beast is an over achiever, I'd say. Really likes to raise the bar."
Angel nodded in agreement with the two of them. Gasp. "He's killed four of the five so far. I figure if we keep Manny safe, the lights stay on, and eventually we can figure out a way to defeat this thing." Let's hope so.
"But where are we going to keep him? It'll need to be a small, controlled space." Fred started.
"Secure the perimeter." Angel supplied. "Guards on duty at all times." Ah, and once again the famous Angel total lack of tactical sense strikes again.
"Kitchen's got a meat locker." Gunn contributed.
"Brilliant plan." Wesley interjected dryly. "Truly remarkable. Let's store the one thing that will stave off perpetual darkness in the home of the only people we're sure the Beast knows are actively trying to figure out a way to stop him. He knows that we're his enemy, so if he can't find the last totem of the Ra-tet anywhere else, it would seem highly likely that he would at least check her."
Gunn stood up angrily. "I'm sick of your little side comments, English. If this plan is so bad, let's hear you come up with a better one."
"I don't have to have a plan in place to know that this one is a guaranteed failure." Wesley shot back. "And while I may not have a complete plan, it occurs to me that a good start might be to get the last totem out of Los Angeles and thus he immediate reach of the Beast."
"Or maybe out of this dimension." Fred added softly.
"Hell dimensions are not known for being conducive to the long term health of humans." Angel noted. "And whatever else he is, Manny certainly would look like a human to most demons."
"Hell dimensions aren't the only ones out there. I'm sure, given time, we can figure something out." Wesley replied.
"But what are we going to do until then?" Lorne broke in, "Wesley has a point about not keeping him here."
"I know a place." Gwen told them out of nowhere.
Cordelia rolled her eyes. "As long as its not some nondescript tenement downtown, with discarded boxes in the stairwells and peeling plaster and the faint odor of dead people."
Gwen chuckled. "Pretty specific."
"This place is safe?" Angel asked.
"Very." Gwen replied.
"Alright then. Gwen and I will take Manny to this place of hers, and keep an eye on him. The rest of you look into portals to send Manny through, or weaknesses of this Beast or something we can do about it." Then, "And see if we can figure out what it needs to do with the things that it's been taking out of the Ra-tet. If everything goes to hell, we'll need as many back-up plans as possible."
"I'm going with you." Cordelia said firmly, standing.
"Cordelia-" Angel began with a negatory tone.
"No, Angel." Cordelia interrupted sternly. I'm coming with you and that's final."
Angel shrugged his shoulders in surrender. "Fine. Whatever you want to do." I told the truth when I said I didn't care... but obviously what ever it is that's gone wrong between them is too large to not affect the larger picture: their ability to work together against the Beast. Lovely.
"I'll come with too." Gunn said. "I'm not going to be too much help with the researchanyway, so I might as well be useful."
"Alright." Angel acquiesced much easier to Gunn's addition than Cordelia's. Definitely a problem with Cordelia and Angel. Wesley confirmed mentally.
Wesley raised the point with Lilah once the four had left with Manny. Fred and Lorne were over on one side of the lobby, he and Lilah on the other. Fred seemed interested in keeping a distance from him, whenever possible. Or perhaps from Lilah, or the both of them together, or something along those lines. Perhaps all of the above.
Lilah pondered his observations for a moment. "I think you're right." She said quietly, so as not to be overheard by Fred or Lorne. "There is definitely something off between the Brooding Avenger and his precious Seer." But then she shook her head. "Unfortunately, I can't imagine what it could be."
"Great." Wesley sighed. "Because I have a sneaking suspicion that whatever it is is going to cause us all major problems down the line."
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"...I'm just saying, it never would've happen on my watch." Gwen said as she followed Cordelia and Angel into the lobby, Gunn right behind her.
"Gosh no!" Cordelia gushed, "Because you're super tramp!"
Angel ignored the two of them and went over to the counter where Lorne and Fred were researching. Wesley and Lilah picked up the relevant books and notes they'd made on what they'd found. Very early the four of them had been decided that Fred and Lorne would look into portals, and Wesley and Lilah would work on the ritual and figuring out more on the Beast. They'd had no luck on the latter, but they'd struck gold on the former. Which was especially good news, since they'd just received word about what had happened to the last totem.
And I can't even blame Angel...much. That annoyed Wesley a little. He had a lot of built up anger and hate for Angel. Most of it was somewhat unjustified, he knew. It was for more than just the smothering with a pillow incident though. Once he'd stopped being in Angel's employ he had had a chance to step back and take a good look at the last two and a half years since he'd come to L.A. Angel hadn't come back quite so good in the final analysis. Then again, neither had he, or anyone else. None of them were as good as they liked to think themselves to be. Not so bright and shiny. That discovery had been a major factor in the massive shift in his perception of the world.
"What's the latest?" Angel asked, interrupting his internal musings. Wesley turned a book towards Angel.
"We looked into the ritual. It appears that he has to assemble a sort of ritual prop." He pointed to the diagram in the book. "These three pieces were inside the totems. The Beast kills them, rips out the pieces and puts them together like this."
"Instant light-switch for the sun." Lilah noted.
"What about the other two? What did he take out of them?" Angel asked.
"We saw him suck the energy out of Mesektet and he ripped the heart out of Ma'at. As near as I can figure," Lilah continued, "he has to use the energy and the heart together with this prop here to blot out the sun. Exactly how that works is unclear."
Gwen pointed at the diagram. "These wings. They're metal, right?" Wesley nodded. "Get me close enough and I can melt that. That should slow him down."
"If we find him in time." Cordelia said, playing the voice of pessimism for a change. "Need I remind everyone that he's already got all the pieces plus we don't even know where's he's going to perform the ritual? He could be performing it right now!"
"Sun or no sun." Gunn came up to the group, "I'm not worried about slowing him down. I'm worried about taking him out."
"We may have a solution for that." Fred said, indicating herself and Lorne. "When you called to tell us Manny was dead, we decided to keep working on the portal angle – only to send the Beast through, rather than Manny."
"We've tried everything else." Lorne said. "Not a big fan of portals, but if that's what it'll take to stop Dr. Feelbad..."
"How long until that artillery piece you said was coming gets here, English?" Gunn asked.
"Not soon enough, I'm afraid." Wesley replied, not bother to correct Gunn. It was close enough to artillery, when all was said and done. "Certainly not soon enough to prevent the sun from going out. We're not going to be outright destroying or killing the Beast anytime soon."
"But if we stand against it long enough to find a way to corner it, maneuver it into position..." Angel started.
Lorne nodded, "Then maybe we can send this thing back to the hell-sweet-hell it came from."
Gunn didn't look that happy with the entire idea. He stalked over to the weapons cabinet, Fred following him.
"Here's the spell for the portal. We're going to need your help Wesley." Lorne said. "You've got the magical juju we'll need to force this thing through the portal." The demon handed Wesley a piece of paper. "We need at least two people chanting, but the more we have, the easier and faster it should be." Gunn and Fred came back over to them.
"Okay, so we've got everything we need to stop the ritual." Angel said, getting back into command mode. "Let's clear out of here and try and locate the Beast." Suddenly Cordelia gasped.
"Oh my god..." Her voice was filled with a rare horror.
"Another vision?" Angel asked.
Cordelia shook her head. "Same one. Only there was more of it. A massacre...so many people on the ground...dead...dying...the screaming was so loud..."
"Could you hear the demon?"
She shook her head again. "No. But whoever it was talking to..." She looked the ensouled vampire in the eyes. "They felt familiar...like someone I know."
Angel spoke only one word. "Connor."
"I think it's time to bring him into this Angel." Cordelia said. "If nothing else, he's our best chance at finding the Beast."
Wesley immediately had a gut feeling. There was something in the way they were talking about Connor. Whatever was wrong between them, the child born of two vampires was somewhere at the heart of it.
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Their cars pulled up right in front of the abandoned building where Connor lived just as the young man came crashing out of a fifth-story window, landing in a bloody, battered heap right in front of Angel's car mere seconds before it stopped. They all got out of their cars immediately. Angel, under the meager protection of a blanket, rushed for Connor, but Gunn pushed him out of the sunlight and into some shadows. Cordelia rushed over to Connor, kneeling down next to him.
"Oh my god...Connor..." She said slowly, terror in her voice.
"What happened?" Angel demanded.
"The Beast...it's upstairs." He managed to gasp out.
It came out of the same spot Connor was born. Perhaps it does have a connection to Connor.Wesley thought. "Maybe it needs to do the ritual-"
Unsurprisingly, given how much Gunn had been harping on Connor's involvement recently, he finished the ex-Watcher's thought. "In the place where Connor lives."
Angel wasn't interested in such theorizing. "We'll figure that out later. Everybody gear up. Wes, you got everything you need?"
He nodded. "Ready." Gunn grabbed weapons and tossed some to Angel.
Angel snapped out orders – and sensible sounding ones, for a refreshing change. "Gwen, go for the orb, the wings, whatever you can get, your hands on. We can't let him finish the spell. Gunn, you and I will keep the Beast busy long enough for Fred, Lilah and Wesley to work the portal mojo. Cordy… " He looked at her kneeling next to Connor for a moment, his son's face covered in his own blood. "...keep him safe."
"Dad..." Connor started weakly.
"It's okay Connor." Angel told his son softly. "I'm here now." He turned to the rest of them. "Let's go." They rushed up the stairs and into the room where the Beast was, but too late. The Beast was kneeling down in the center of a runic circle, the ritual prop there with him – the orb had already gone solid black, which was not a good sign. It was chanting.
"Oh god. Its already started." Fred said what everyone was thinking. The Beast rose when they entered, and Gunn and Angel immediately went on the attack as Gwen worked her way around the side of the room, trying to get at the prop. Lilah, Fred and Wesley stood off to the side, beginning their chant.
With a grunt, Gunn was thrown back, sprawling on the floor, but he was back on his feet in moments, charging in with Angel at the Beast again. Gwen, her eyes on the fight, saw the Beast devote all his attention to the fight - just for a moment – all she needed – she dove for the prop just as the Beast grabbed Angel and threw the vampire to the side like he was nothing. It turned to deal with Gunn and caught Gwen in the corner of its eye. Growling ever so slightly, it grabbed a wooden crate and threw it at the electromagnetic thief, catching her on the head and knocking her dazed to the ground. She fell onto the prop and it came apart into its three pieces, but the orb began to roll across the floor – right towards the Beast.
"The Orb! Don't let it-" Too late. The orb came to rest at the demon's feet and it smiled predatorialy at Angel, who watched in horror as it picked up the orb. It went back to the ritual circle and set the prop up again, continuing the chant from where it left off. It stood. Lilah, Fred and Wesley began to reach the end to the chant, and the air behind the Beast began to shimmer.
"Angel!" Wesley alerted the vampire.
"Yeah, I got it. Everybody get ready." Outside the room, it began to get darker, ever so slowly, even thought it was still the middle of the day...
"Now or never." Angel said. He raised his sword and charged at it again, Gunn and Gwen right behind him. Between the three of them, though they don't manage to harm the Beast, they slowly start to push him back, towards the portal. Angel caught it on the chest with a leaping kick and it staggered back into the portal, vanishing through the magical gateway, and out of this dimension.
Gwen smiled, "We did it. We won." She looked around at all of them. "Didn't we?"
They all stepped towards the window, looking outside where the sun continued to dim.
"If we won..." Lilah began slowly.
"Then why is it still getting dark?" Fred finished just as slowly.
There was a slow, low chuckle behind them and they all spun to see the Beast standing there, none the worse for the wear after its trip through the portal into a rather unpleasant Hell Dimension. "I told you once." It said, looking directly at Angel. They began to back away from it instinctively. It was strong enough to just rip his head off – even Wesley felt fear. "You need not be my enemy. Join with me..." It paused for a moment, then finished. "Angelus."
It all began to click in his mind. Lilah met his gaze, thinking the same thing, and then...they all watched in horror as the Beast picked up the orb and swallowed it whole, as the sun went out entirely.
When they came back out of the building, Cordelia rushed over to them. "Angel, we have to talk."
"I can't believe we lost the sun..." Fred said dejectedly. No...she was beyond dejection. She was...almost sleepwalking. The shock...she was stunned...they all were. This was worse than any other defeat they'd ever had. Lilah and Wesley hung in the back of the group, unconsciously holding hands.
"Angel...I think I figured it out." Cordelia began.
"So have I. The Beast knows me."
"No." Cordelia shook her head. "It knows Angelus." Angel looked around at all them uncomfortably as the name of his evil alter-ego was brought up. "Am I right? While you were upstairs, it came to me. I wasn't having a vision of the demon. I was having a memory of it."
"How's that again?" Gwen cut in sharply.
Cordelia ignored her. "I told you, when I was a higher being, I'd experienced everything you'd ever done as Angelus. But since I've been back, my memory's been fading until the Powers decided to… jog it, I guess. Angel, I saw you, long ago, standing in a field of bodies with the Beast."
Once again, Connor was immediately in 'My father is completely evil mode', "You knew this thing and you didn't tell us!"
"No!" Angel insisted. "I could never come up against something like that and not remember!"
"The answer is among you." Gunn quoted what seemed to have become his favorite phrase in the world. "That's what the little girl mean, isn't it? This was never about Connor. It's about..."
"Angelus." Fred finished quietly.
"I'm telling you!" Angel even raised his voice a little. "I don't know this Beast. I'd remember!"
"Like you remember falling asleep before Manny got killed?" Cordelia demanded accusingly.
"An inside job..." Gwen breathed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Angel glared at the thief.
Wesley released Lilah's hand. He had it. Well...he hoped he did, anyway. If he was wrong... "It means you're a suspect. Assuming Cordelia's right, we have to accept the possibility that this Beast may have some sort of power over you. To make you do things. To make you forget." He wasn't entirely sure if that was true, but he felt absolute conviction that the answer was Angelus. He was right. The Scourge of Europe knew something...somehow, Angelus was the key to this whole series of events.
Cordelia laid it on as well. "And it has a plan. The rain of fire, taking down Wolfram & Hart, even blotting out the sun… I think now those were only the first steps to something bigger."
Angel shook his head, "Well, I don't know what to tell any of you because I don't know what the plan is!" The immortal stepped forward, towards the ensouled vampire and his seer. "No… but Angelus might. I think there might be only one way that we're going to stop this Beast." He took a breath. This was something he'd never in his life expected to say. He'd said what he was about to say, minus just two letters, many, many times in his life. And he suspected he would say that again. But this...never before. And, he hoped to every deity out there, he'd never have to say again. "We need Angelus." You could've heard a pin drop.
