Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Title: New Players, New Plans
Author: jazzman31
Rating: M
Warning: This is a femme slash fic. If you do not like this type of fiction, then you shouldn't read it
Summary: Well, this chapter answers a lot of questions, and poses more. Don't kill me, it will all make sense soon. You all know I am a review whore, so pleasure me.
February 10, 4:00 pm - Streets of LA
Willow disembarks the bus, and sighs as she takes in the busyness of the city in front of her. She wants to go further away from Sunnydale, but something is pulling to L.A. and she can't ignore its tug. She looks around, and then decides it is safe enough to head into the large city. She walks until she reaches a diner, and decides that she needs to eat something, and find shelter before dark. She takes a seat in the rear of the restaurant and waits for her server to come. An older woman walks over and presents her with a menu.
"What can I do for you hon?" the woman asks.
"I'll have a cheeseburger with fries and a strawberry milkshake to drink," she says without looking at the menu.
What's the point of looking anyway, all of these restaurants are the same; burgers, fries, shakes, old-fashioned malts, etc. She ate her meal in silence, and then left a few bills on the table, leaving her server a generous tip. She wandered the streets of L.A. until she found the place that she was looking for. She had gone there on a whim, thinking that they could help her. She knew that Chase hade been in contact with them for the past few weeks, even if he tried to keep it a secret. She needed answers, and she needed them now. She knew that Faith wasn't really dead, how did she know, because she could feel it. She also knew that if she told anyone her suspicions they would just chalk it up to her missing Faith. She could feel the bond that she had with Faith grow stronger with every step she made toward the building. She just had to get there and actually find someone willing to talk to her.
Giles Residence – 5:00 pm, same day.
"Buffy, you can't just go after her, she has power beyond your wildest dreams," Giles said to Buffy as she continued to pack.
"Dad, we have been through this, she is my little sister, I am the slayer, therefore it is my sacred duty to protect her. I promise if I can't find her within forty-eight hours, I will come home. Cordy is going with me, so I won't be alone, and I have a place to stay, they have a house in L.A., which is more than likely where Willow is going to go," Buffy argued.
"I'm going with you," Joyce said from the door.
"Have you all gone mad? Have you forgotten that she is a powerful witch, born from a powerful witch line? Have you forgotten that with the flick of a wrist she has destroyed demons? I say that we respect her wishes, and let her find whatever it is she is hoping to find," Giles pleaded, wanting to protect his family from the possible truths they were so close to discovering.
They could never know what he had done, in order to protect them from what was coming. The guilt weighed on him like a ton of bricks, as he defended his position on the situation, but he found out the Summers women do not back down.
Chase Manor – Same day, same time
"I am going, Dad, and you can't stop me. I will find a way, and you know it, so just let me go," Cordelia said, as she continued packing her bag.
"I want her back too, Cor, I want her back so desperately it hurts, but she has to deal with this on her own. She has to face this by herself, we will only be hurting her in the long run if we go to her now. Give her some time," Chase pleaded.
'If they go after her now, she will never reach her full potential,' Chase thought to himself.
Cordelia wouldn't back down, she just took her bag and walked out the front door. She drove to get Buffy, and was surprised that Joyce joined them, but while the three of them drove to L.A. with a purpose, Chase made a very important phone call.
"Take the witch in, but turn the others way, do not tell them anything," Chase said into the phone, before severing the connection.
He buried his face in his hands, and sighed, then jumped when the phone rang.
"Chase," he said into the phone.
"I think it's time that we moved on to the next phase of our plan," the mysterious voice said on the line, before the connection went dead.
Chase hurled the telephone across the room in frustration, before collapsing into a fit of sobs in his chair.
Wolfram and Hart HQ – Same time, same day
"Everything is in motion," Lilah said, as she looked at her colleague while replacing the phone into it's cradle.
"Well, then we should begin our preparations for the ceremony, although it won't be held for some time, I would like to cover every possible thing that could go wrong and have a back-up plan," Lindsey said from his wing-backed chair behind his large oak desk.
"This can only happen one way, if it happens any other way we will lose control over them, and they will defeat us," Lilah said. "She has arrived, let's go to her, and bring her in before someone else gets to her."
The duo walked to the elevator, and rode it down several flights to where the nervous redhead was impatiently waiting. They took her, the look they flashed her told her not to ask any questions, just to follow. She could sense the barriers around her, but knew deep down she could break through the preventative barriers with ease. She could also feel the evil surrounding her, but shook off her antsy feeling in favor of hopefully finding answers. She could feel Faith near, and felt her heart rate pick up. They arrived at a room, a short time later, after going through many secured doors. Willow took in the stark white walls, and the many windows. Little did Willow know, but in a few short moments her world would be capsized into something that she would barely recognize as her own.
Lindsey and Lilah looked at each other, and then at the girl in front of them, gauging her response to being so close to their captive, as she was being held in the next room over. Willow's ears pricked up when she heard a slightly familiar voice, and she looked around to try and determine the source. Her instincts told her to duck, and she did, moments before the door was blown off its hinges, and a woman, not much older than herself, stormed in wearing what she could only describe as Special Operations gear. Lindsey and Lilah were held at gunpoint by another woman wielding two handguns, while the initial woman scooped Willow up in a fireman's carry. Willow, was too stunned to protest, and when she saw Faith, unconscious, ahead of her on yet another woman's shoulder she relaxed. Four women came into her line of sight, not including the one carrying her nor Faith, and a portal opened. The last thing she remembered before everything went black, was that she hoped they were the good guys.
Wolfram and Hart HQ 2 hours later
"Where are they?" Buffy asked, as she held the receptionist by the collar of his shirt.
"I honestly don't know. Honest. They just disappeared," he said, trembling with fear under the glare the slayer had pinned on.
"Buffy, he doesn't know anything, c'mon, we're too late," Spike said. "Besides you said yourself that you couldn't feel them."
"Yeah, I can't feel them, but I can feel evil, and it is all over this building," the petite blonde argued.
"Buffy, honey, I think it would be best for us to go, and regroup. Do a little research first, and then come when we are better prepared," Joyce said.
Buffy looked incredulously at her mother, and then sighed. She knew that her mother was correct about the situation, but she didn't have to like it. She slowly lowered the receptionist to the ground, the slayer not liking the defeat hit him in the mouth, before she turned on her heel and stormed out of the building. The evil of that place had started to get to her, and she felt the need to kill something. Cordelia followed the blonde closely, and once they were outside, she grabbed the blonde and kissed her thoroughly. They climbed into the backseat of Cordy's jeep, and held each other, while Joyce and Spike climbed up front, Joyce driving. The ride back to Sunnydale was ridden in defeated silence.