Chapter 13
Holtz' men attacked and Angel, Buffy, Gunn, and Fred fought back. Angel tossed one guy into the weapons cabinet, breaking the glass doors. Buffy made her way to it through some more of Holtz' men, took out the sharpened baseball bat and tossed it to Gunn. She picked up the broadsword for herself, but only used it to fend off the men's weapons. Neither she nor Angel were trying to kill, just to disable.
When one of the men lifted a wooden staff to stake Angel after he got knocked to the ground, Buffy shot him in the back with a crossbow bolt. As she picked up another bolt to reload, one of the men tackled her to the floor.
Lorne's green hand came up behind Wes' desk as Gunn got battered back into the office by two of Holtz' men. Lorne levered himself to his feet, and seeing Gunn getting battered down, let out a high shrieking that had everyone cower down, covering their ears.
Lorne kicked one of Gunn's attackers in the face as he broke off his 'musical' assault, and Gunn knocked the other one out.
Holtz quietly turned away and walked out the front doors. Angel sent the last attacker flying over the counter, looks at where Holtz was standing and saw the open doors, then walked over to pull the guy lying on Buffy's back off her and helped her up.
"Easy. Come on. Are you hurt?"
"I don't think so." Angel kissed her and rubbed her back where the guy had landed hard.
"Call Wes."
Fred stumbled towards the phone. Angel saw Lorne, looking all bruised up, following Gunn out of the office.
"Jeez, Lorne. They got you good. You better sit down." Buffy said.
Lorne just looked at Buffy and Angel.
"What?" they asked in unison.
"They didn't do this to me. Wesley did." The demon answered.
Everyone turned to stare at Lorne.
"Wesley? What are you talking about?" Buffy asked.
"Well, earlier when he came to pick up the baby, Conner started crying and Wes hummed a little lullaby, and I read him and... I don't know why he did it."
"Did what?" Angel asked.
"He, he's been to see Holtz behind your guys' backs. Twice. And he's not taking the baby overnight. He's, he's taking the your son away, for good."
"It doesn't make any sense. Why would Wes do a thing like that? You must have read him wrong." Buffy said in disbelief.
"No, I read him right. And I've got the gash on my noggin to prove it." Lorne said. Fred hung up the phone "He isn't answering his cell, pager, or home."
"Where is he?" Angel asked.
One of Holtz' guys, hand pressed over his side, inched along the floor.
"Shouldn't we be getting these guys to a hospital or morgue?" Lorne asked.
"No. Holtz knew Conner wasn't here when he walked through that door. He would have torn the place apart top to bottom. He was stalling." Angel said.
"Buying Wesley some time to get away." Lorne said.
"Holtz is the key. I want Holtz. If I find Wesley with him..." Angel seethed.
"Angel, we don't know the whole story here. I don't think you should get too pumped..." Gunn said.
"I'm not interested in what you think!" Angel snapped.
"Hey, easy guys!" Lorne said.
"He took my son." Buffy barked.
"I know this is life and death. I'm just saying, let's get..."
Angel grabbed Gunn's shirt collar with both hands and pushed him back. "He took our son!" he yelled at the man.
"You better get your damn hands off of me!"
"Stop it! Stop it both of you! This isn't helping, damn it!" Fred said pushing them apart. "Back off! There is only one thing that matters right now, and that is 'where is Conner?'"
Gunn and Angel stood there staring at each other for a moment, then Angel brushed past Fred and Gunn to pull up one of Holtz' men. Buffy came to his side.
"Get up. Where is Holtz?"
"You'd think I'd tell..." the man started.
Angel threw him clear across the lobby and picked up the next one. Angel pushed him up against the wall, pulled the crossbow bolt out of his side and held it up.
"I'm gonna count to three and then I'm gonna bury this in your face."
"Twenty two thirty nine Santa Elena. It's a big Victorian in Silverlake." He said.
Angel let the guy drop to the floor and he and Buffy headed towards the door, Angel picking his broadsword off the floor as they went.
"We better find Wes before they do." Fred said.
"We should start at his place." Gunn said.
Lorne watched Gunn and Fred hurry out.
"I'll stay here in case he comes back." Lorne called
He bent down behind the counter and came up holding a baseball bat.
"And this time I'll be ready!"
Buffy and Angel hid in the bushes and watched Lilah and the commandos talked.
"Where'd he go?"
"Uh, we had him, and we lost him." The lead guy said, then he put a finger up to his earpiece. "Ah, we're picking him up again. Please, just give me a moment, please. Spring Street."
"Downtown?"
"Yes, ma'am. Near the sixth-street bridge."
"Let's go."
"Sixth Street Bridge, let's go!"
All the men ran to their vehicles.
One of the guys was yelling, "Let's go! Hustle! Hustle!"
As one of the commandos got ready to get into his Hum-vee, Angel and Buffy jumped out from behind the bushes. They smashed him into a post, then a tree, knocking him out. The driver of the Hum-vee looked over towards the passenger side when his partner didn't get in. The driver's side door opened and Buffy and Angel threw him out on the street, got in and drove off after the rest of the cavalcade.
Buffy and Angel spotted the car with Holtz, Justine, and Conner in it. They were driving off, only to have a Hum-vee overtake them and cut them off. The car turned off the road, but it was quickly blocked in by more Hum-vees. Angel and Buffy jumped out of the one they were in and charged the car. Holtz got Conner out of the back while Justine tackled Angel only to get thrown aside by Buffy.
Holtz stopped. "Come any closer and I'll snap his neck!"
Angel and Buffy came to a dead stop.
All around them commandos were jumping out of their vehicles, cocking their machine guns.
"Who are they?" Holtz asked.
"They work for me." Lilah replied.
"Ah. The attorney."
"Yes. You are gonna give us the kid, Captain Holtz."
"Don't!" Buffy and Angel yelled.
"That's cute. You'd rather see the fanatic with the baby than us?" then to Holtz, "Those are automatic weapons pointed at you. They didn't have them in your time. They fire sixteen bullets per second."
"And if they were going to use them they would have already. They want the baby alive." Angel said.
"Something we all have in common." Holtz replied.
Buffy started to shiver and tremble. She recognized this place! It was from her dream. She knew what was coming. Angel looked over at her and then slipped his hand into hers. The air shivered and Sahjhan appeared.
"Not all of us." Sahjan said. He looked at Lilah. "You do not want the child alive. You want the child dead. That was our arrangement."
"Yeah. I'm a lawyer. Have you met me? We have a new arrangement. I'm keeping the baby." Lilah retorted.
"You can't do that!"
Lilah yelled to the commandos. "Ignore the loud mouth with the bad skin. He's impotent in this dimension."
"We're leaving." Holtz said.
"No one's going anywhere." Lilah snapped.
One of the commandos stepped closer, and Buffy knocked him down, taking the weapon away from him and turning it on Lilah.
"Don't shoot." Lilah said.
Buffy handed the gun to Angel. She hated guns and she was shaking bad enough right now as it is.
"Yeah. You really don't want to. Your bullets won't kill me. But mine will kill you and her first." Angel said.
Angel looked over at Holtz and Conner then to Buffy and back.
"He'll be dead before I hit the ground." Holtz stated.
"I know."
"So. I'm going to leave now, right? With me, he gets to live, anyone tries to take him, he dies."
Angel looked at Buffy, she nodded, thinking it was the only way out of her prophetic dream, then after a long beat Angel said, "Take him."
"Whoa! No! What is wrong with you people?" Sahjan asked.
Holtz said to Angel and Buffy, "I will take good care of him, as though he were my own son. He'll never even know you existed. Don't come after me. You will though, won't you? Maybe I should just..."
"No. Please." Buffy said, a tear moving down her cheek.
Justine looked from Holtz' hand moving closer to Conner's neck, to Angel and Buffy, and back.
"Take him." Buffy and Angel said painfully together.
Sahjhan raised his hands and chanted, "Lekko najine forkahdio!"
There was a big explosion with bright sparks and a hole opened in the air. Past the burning edges they saw a turbulent, blood red sky. It was the portal thing from Buffy's dream. Buffy and Angel's eyes widened in unison.
"What you are looking into is the Quortoth, the darkest of the dark worlds. So, I can widen the portal and you can all be swallowed up by a world you cannot begin to imagine, or you can keep your word and kill that child." Then to Lilah, "Now!"
When no one moved he spread his arms. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
The opening in the air grew bigger.
"Kill it." Lilah said
"No!" Buffy and Angel yelled.
The commandos, Buffy, and Angel stood there with the weapons aimed at each other. Holtz grabbed Justine and pushed her away from him then headed for the hole in the air. Angel dropped the gun and he and Buffy charged after him.
Justine was screaming, "Daniel! Daniel!"
Buffy and Angel were screaming, "No! NO!"
Holtz jumped into the roiling red air of the portal and disappeared from view. Angel and Buffy jumped after him, but a lighting bolt that lashed out from the portal and hit them full in the chest threw them back. They flew backwards and landed with a hard thud. They rolled to look back at the portal, Buffy scrambling to get up and get her son.
"Wow. I didn't count on that. Kinda takes care of my problem." Sahjan said.
Buffy, Angel, and Justine were lying on the ground staring at the portal.
Sahjhan raised his hands. "Forkahdio najine lekko."
The hole in the air quickly shrank to a pinpoint and disappeared.
"All right then." He looked down at Angel and Buffy, who were still staring at where the portal had just been. "Have a good summer." With that Sahjhan disappeared into thin air. Lilah, looked down at Angel and Buffy, who didn't move. "Hmph! Well, I'm looking at a mountain of paperwork." She turned to go.
Justine got up and stumbled towards Wes' car.
The commander asked Lilah, "Should we do something about..."
Lilah, looked back at Angel. She actually felt pity for Buffy, but not for Angel. "Yes, we should. We should let him suffer."
Angel rolled over onto all fours and looked around him. Buffy had gotten to her knees and she was shaking and crying uncontrollably. He saw Justine drive off in Wes' car. Buffy collapsed back onto the hard ground, once again facing towards where the portal had been. Angel went to her and held her tightly, rocking her back and forth. She kept repeating one word over and over. The name of their son: "Conner."
Holtz' men attacked and Angel, Buffy, Gunn, and Fred fought back. Angel tossed one guy into the weapons cabinet, breaking the glass doors. Buffy made her way to it through some more of Holtz' men, took out the sharpened baseball bat and tossed it to Gunn. She picked up the broadsword for herself, but only used it to fend off the men's weapons. Neither she nor Angel were trying to kill, just to disable.
When one of the men lifted a wooden staff to stake Angel after he got knocked to the ground, Buffy shot him in the back with a crossbow bolt. As she picked up another bolt to reload, one of the men tackled her to the floor.
Lorne's green hand came up behind Wes' desk as Gunn got battered back into the office by two of Holtz' men. Lorne levered himself to his feet, and seeing Gunn getting battered down, let out a high shrieking that had everyone cower down, covering their ears.
Lorne kicked one of Gunn's attackers in the face as he broke off his 'musical' assault, and Gunn knocked the other one out.
Holtz quietly turned away and walked out the front doors. Angel sent the last attacker flying over the counter, looks at where Holtz was standing and saw the open doors, then walked over to pull the guy lying on Buffy's back off her and helped her up.
"Easy. Come on. Are you hurt?"
"I don't think so." Angel kissed her and rubbed her back where the guy had landed hard.
"Call Wes."
Fred stumbled towards the phone. Angel saw Lorne, looking all bruised up, following Gunn out of the office.
"Jeez, Lorne. They got you good. You better sit down." Buffy said.
Lorne just looked at Buffy and Angel.
"What?" they asked in unison.
"They didn't do this to me. Wesley did." The demon answered.
Everyone turned to stare at Lorne.
"Wesley? What are you talking about?" Buffy asked.
"Well, earlier when he came to pick up the baby, Conner started crying and Wes hummed a little lullaby, and I read him and... I don't know why he did it."
"Did what?" Angel asked.
"He, he's been to see Holtz behind your guys' backs. Twice. And he's not taking the baby overnight. He's, he's taking the your son away, for good."
"It doesn't make any sense. Why would Wes do a thing like that? You must have read him wrong." Buffy said in disbelief.
"No, I read him right. And I've got the gash on my noggin to prove it." Lorne said. Fred hung up the phone "He isn't answering his cell, pager, or home."
"Where is he?" Angel asked.
One of Holtz' guys, hand pressed over his side, inched along the floor.
"Shouldn't we be getting these guys to a hospital or morgue?" Lorne asked.
"No. Holtz knew Conner wasn't here when he walked through that door. He would have torn the place apart top to bottom. He was stalling." Angel said.
"Buying Wesley some time to get away." Lorne said.
"Holtz is the key. I want Holtz. If I find Wesley with him..." Angel seethed.
"Angel, we don't know the whole story here. I don't think you should get too pumped..." Gunn said.
"I'm not interested in what you think!" Angel snapped.
"Hey, easy guys!" Lorne said.
"He took my son." Buffy barked.
"I know this is life and death. I'm just saying, let's get..."
Angel grabbed Gunn's shirt collar with both hands and pushed him back. "He took our son!" he yelled at the man.
"You better get your damn hands off of me!"
"Stop it! Stop it both of you! This isn't helping, damn it!" Fred said pushing them apart. "Back off! There is only one thing that matters right now, and that is 'where is Conner?'"
Gunn and Angel stood there staring at each other for a moment, then Angel brushed past Fred and Gunn to pull up one of Holtz' men. Buffy came to his side.
"Get up. Where is Holtz?"
"You'd think I'd tell..." the man started.
Angel threw him clear across the lobby and picked up the next one. Angel pushed him up against the wall, pulled the crossbow bolt out of his side and held it up.
"I'm gonna count to three and then I'm gonna bury this in your face."
"Twenty two thirty nine Santa Elena. It's a big Victorian in Silverlake." He said.
Angel let the guy drop to the floor and he and Buffy headed towards the door, Angel picking his broadsword off the floor as they went.
"We better find Wes before they do." Fred said.
"We should start at his place." Gunn said.
Lorne watched Gunn and Fred hurry out.
"I'll stay here in case he comes back." Lorne called
He bent down behind the counter and came up holding a baseball bat.
"And this time I'll be ready!"
Buffy and Angel hid in the bushes and watched Lilah and the commandos talked.
"Where'd he go?"
"Uh, we had him, and we lost him." The lead guy said, then he put a finger up to his earpiece. "Ah, we're picking him up again. Please, just give me a moment, please. Spring Street."
"Downtown?"
"Yes, ma'am. Near the sixth-street bridge."
"Let's go."
"Sixth Street Bridge, let's go!"
All the men ran to their vehicles.
One of the guys was yelling, "Let's go! Hustle! Hustle!"
As one of the commandos got ready to get into his Hum-vee, Angel and Buffy jumped out from behind the bushes. They smashed him into a post, then a tree, knocking him out. The driver of the Hum-vee looked over towards the passenger side when his partner didn't get in. The driver's side door opened and Buffy and Angel threw him out on the street, got in and drove off after the rest of the cavalcade.
Buffy and Angel spotted the car with Holtz, Justine, and Conner in it. They were driving off, only to have a Hum-vee overtake them and cut them off. The car turned off the road, but it was quickly blocked in by more Hum-vees. Angel and Buffy jumped out of the one they were in and charged the car. Holtz got Conner out of the back while Justine tackled Angel only to get thrown aside by Buffy.
Holtz stopped. "Come any closer and I'll snap his neck!"
Angel and Buffy came to a dead stop.
All around them commandos were jumping out of their vehicles, cocking their machine guns.
"Who are they?" Holtz asked.
"They work for me." Lilah replied.
"Ah. The attorney."
"Yes. You are gonna give us the kid, Captain Holtz."
"Don't!" Buffy and Angel yelled.
"That's cute. You'd rather see the fanatic with the baby than us?" then to Holtz, "Those are automatic weapons pointed at you. They didn't have them in your time. They fire sixteen bullets per second."
"And if they were going to use them they would have already. They want the baby alive." Angel said.
"Something we all have in common." Holtz replied.
Buffy started to shiver and tremble. She recognized this place! It was from her dream. She knew what was coming. Angel looked over at her and then slipped his hand into hers. The air shivered and Sahjhan appeared.
"Not all of us." Sahjan said. He looked at Lilah. "You do not want the child alive. You want the child dead. That was our arrangement."
"Yeah. I'm a lawyer. Have you met me? We have a new arrangement. I'm keeping the baby." Lilah retorted.
"You can't do that!"
Lilah yelled to the commandos. "Ignore the loud mouth with the bad skin. He's impotent in this dimension."
"We're leaving." Holtz said.
"No one's going anywhere." Lilah snapped.
One of the commandos stepped closer, and Buffy knocked him down, taking the weapon away from him and turning it on Lilah.
"Don't shoot." Lilah said.
Buffy handed the gun to Angel. She hated guns and she was shaking bad enough right now as it is.
"Yeah. You really don't want to. Your bullets won't kill me. But mine will kill you and her first." Angel said.
Angel looked over at Holtz and Conner then to Buffy and back.
"He'll be dead before I hit the ground." Holtz stated.
"I know."
"So. I'm going to leave now, right? With me, he gets to live, anyone tries to take him, he dies."
Angel looked at Buffy, she nodded, thinking it was the only way out of her prophetic dream, then after a long beat Angel said, "Take him."
"Whoa! No! What is wrong with you people?" Sahjan asked.
Holtz said to Angel and Buffy, "I will take good care of him, as though he were my own son. He'll never even know you existed. Don't come after me. You will though, won't you? Maybe I should just..."
"No. Please." Buffy said, a tear moving down her cheek.
Justine looked from Holtz' hand moving closer to Conner's neck, to Angel and Buffy, and back.
"Take him." Buffy and Angel said painfully together.
Sahjhan raised his hands and chanted, "Lekko najine forkahdio!"
There was a big explosion with bright sparks and a hole opened in the air. Past the burning edges they saw a turbulent, blood red sky. It was the portal thing from Buffy's dream. Buffy and Angel's eyes widened in unison.
"What you are looking into is the Quortoth, the darkest of the dark worlds. So, I can widen the portal and you can all be swallowed up by a world you cannot begin to imagine, or you can keep your word and kill that child." Then to Lilah, "Now!"
When no one moved he spread his arms. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
The opening in the air grew bigger.
"Kill it." Lilah said
"No!" Buffy and Angel yelled.
The commandos, Buffy, and Angel stood there with the weapons aimed at each other. Holtz grabbed Justine and pushed her away from him then headed for the hole in the air. Angel dropped the gun and he and Buffy charged after him.
Justine was screaming, "Daniel! Daniel!"
Buffy and Angel were screaming, "No! NO!"
Holtz jumped into the roiling red air of the portal and disappeared from view. Angel and Buffy jumped after him, but a lighting bolt that lashed out from the portal and hit them full in the chest threw them back. They flew backwards and landed with a hard thud. They rolled to look back at the portal, Buffy scrambling to get up and get her son.
"Wow. I didn't count on that. Kinda takes care of my problem." Sahjan said.
Buffy, Angel, and Justine were lying on the ground staring at the portal.
Sahjhan raised his hands. "Forkahdio najine lekko."
The hole in the air quickly shrank to a pinpoint and disappeared.
"All right then." He looked down at Angel and Buffy, who were still staring at where the portal had just been. "Have a good summer." With that Sahjhan disappeared into thin air. Lilah, looked down at Angel and Buffy, who didn't move. "Hmph! Well, I'm looking at a mountain of paperwork." She turned to go.
Justine got up and stumbled towards Wes' car.
The commander asked Lilah, "Should we do something about..."
Lilah, looked back at Angel. She actually felt pity for Buffy, but not for Angel. "Yes, we should. We should let him suffer."
Angel rolled over onto all fours and looked around him. Buffy had gotten to her knees and she was shaking and crying uncontrollably. He saw Justine drive off in Wes' car. Buffy collapsed back onto the hard ground, once again facing towards where the portal had been. Angel went to her and held her tightly, rocking her back and forth. She kept repeating one word over and over. The name of their son: "Conner."