SECOND CHANCES

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I create.

CHAPTER 18-Chaos, The Fight, And A Misunderstanding



Neither Connor nor Xander knew what was happening in the hotel's lobby but both were seasoned enough to know, along with the screams, that whatever it was the people they loved were in trouble and needed help. Connor had hastily grabbed what looked like just an extra piece of wood that was shaped about the size of a small surfboard after having hastily determined that it was what he was looking for that could help Cordelia. In fact he had almost knocked Xander over on his rush back out of the room. After that Connor had begun to race back through the halls of the hotel, hoping to get back to the lobby in time to protect Cordelia. Xander tried his best to follow but he soon discovered that no matter how hard he tried he simply couldn't keep up with Connor.



In his rush to get back and help Cordelia Connor was running so quickly and recklessly that he ended up knocking unconscious more than one mercenary that was trying to flee the scene. When Connor finally got back to the lobby he was in such a rush and was caught so unready by the sight of the overly large demon raising hell in the lobby that he almost tripped over Cordelia.



"Hey watch it Bigfoot.," Anya cried angrily as she glared up at Connor, for a moment forgetting the large amount of fear that gripped her. For a few moments Connor seemed too stunned by what was unfolding in front of him to respond.



"Whatever.Cordelia," Connor muttered before almost shouting the ex- cheerleaders name as he dropped the makeshift backboard that he had brought back with him and knelt by her side with a very worried look on his face that was matched by the look on Cordelia's face.



"Hmm.Connor.good.you're back," Cordelia mumbled out with a pained grimace on her face as she tried not to cry.



"What happened.where'd that thing come from.," Connor started to say with a look of both anger and fear, not for his own safety but fear for mostly just Cordelia, on his face before he was cut off as a chunk of the wall went flying over their heads, making Anya throw herself off to the side and Connor throw himself over Cordelia.



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"Get off me Peaches.I'm not a bloody pillow," Spike growled angrily, momentarily slipping into his game face, as he tried to shove a groggy Angel off of him.



"Shut up Spike.we have to help Buffy," Angel growled back while wearing his own game face as he struggled to get off of Spike and back up to his feet.



"That's what I was trying to do before you decided to play Peter Pan and.," Spike started to say with a very angry scowl on his face, as he switched back to his human visage, before Angel turned back and reluctantly helped him back up to his feet. Not really feeling like continuing to fight both Spike and Angel turned back to look out into the lobby, and what they saw would have stopped both of their hearts had they not already stopped decades earlier. Buffy lay face down in a small pile of debris with what looked like a nasty cut on her temple that was bleeding. "Buffy," they both cried out in fear and anger as they charged back out of the remains of the office and rushed to her side. They were about ready to kneel down beside her when they looked up and noticed that the demon had noticed their return to the fight and now looked intent on putting them permanently out of the fight.



"Dawn look out," Spike yelled as he launched himself back to his feet and took off towards the frightened teenager, getting to her and carrying her out of the way just as the demon brought a huge fist down where she had just been. "Stay here," Spike said sternly to Dawn after he noticed a sword lying nearby. Dawn started to disagree but Spike silenced her with a very cold and serious glare before he scrambled over and picked up the sword.



"Buffy," Angel mumbled sadly as he slowly rolled Buffy over while trying to not catch the attention of the demon currently on a rampage in the lobby. As a tear tried its best to come out Angel gently put two fingers on Buffy's neck and checked for a pulse. A relieved smile spread across his face as he felt a strong pulse. "Just got knocked out," he said softly as he shrugged his shoulders before he heard Fred scream.



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Wesley had been feverishly sifting through the remains of the shattered weapons cabinet when he heard Fred's scream. From her vantage point a few feet away Faith could see the conflict arise on his face. She could tell that a part of him wanted to abandon the search for the weapons and to turn around and go and help Fred. But then she saw another side come to the forefront, a side that she had to admit that she was really starting to love, a side that when she saw it Faith got the feeling that no matter what evil or troubling situation was facing them that they'd be able to get through it. She remember him wearing it more than once back in Sunnydale but back then she had mistaken it for pure smugness and arrogance, not realizing that even though he didn't look it back then Wesley had just as strong a fighting spirit as anyone, even her. But all those years spent in training to be a Watcher had conditioned him to think first and fight later.



Throwing a shattered piece of wood to the side Faith could almost feel the small sliver of wood poking into her finger. Had she not been in such a hurry she would have stopped and taken the splinter out, but with the current condition as it was she simply didn't have the time. Beside her Wesley busied himself by hurriedly sifting through the broken weapons cabinet and alternating between casting a quick look over his shoulder to make sure that the demon wasn't advancing on them and to catch a quick look over at Faith, to make sure that she was still alright. When Faith happened to catch Wesley looking at her the emotions contained behind his gaze threatened to overwhelm her. The love for her that she saw there made her slightly scared, scared that no matter what she did she would never be able to live up, be good enough for him, but as she looked again the realization that he already thought of her as good enough gave her the courage to fight on and to hope for a future with him playing a big part in it.



Finally Wesley found a battle axe to his liking and Faith found two short swords with spikes jutting out from the hand guards. With a mighty shrug of his shoulders Wesley spun around and charged the demon as he tried to come at it from as many different sides as he could, as Faith took an attacking position far enough away as to not get in his way but not far enough to get out of eyesight of him. Brandishing his weapon Wesley began to dodge and weave around the large demon, trying to draw its attention away from Fred and Gunn, who it seemed to be intent on stomping out. At first it didn't seem like the demon much cared that Wesley and Faith were even there, let alone causing it any damage. But when Faith jabbed one of her swords into the back of the demons left leg, just about the area where she hoped its Achilles tendon would be, the demon roared in anger and spun around to confront the rogue slayer.



"Get away from her, Faith watch out," Wesley yelled angrily as acting upon pure emotion he surged forward and brought the blade of the axe down on the demons other leg just about the knee, hoping to draw its attention away from Faith. The blade of the axe however hitting its mark didn't do nearly as much damage as Faith's sword had done and in the end Wesley found himself roughly knocked off of his feet and the first thing that he saw when he pulled himself up to a sitting position before fully standing up was of a scared Gunn pulling a completely terrified Fred out of harms way.



"Hey.whoa.oh shit," Faith yelled out angrily as she tried to dance her way around the demon's attacks but her foot slipped on the thin coating of the demons blood that was quickly spreading across the floor and she went down hard, flat onto her back, with one of her swords skittering across the floor and ending up just a few mere feet away from Angel. The demon quickly took note of Faith's predicament and went to stomp her into a greasy stain on the floor when Spike rushed over and pulled Faith out of the way just before the demon brought its foot down.



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Across the floor Angel still held a comatose Buffy in his arms when he noticed the sword lying only a few feet away. A profound moment of indecision washed over him, on one hand he wanted to protect Buffy and keep her safe, but on the other hand if the overly large demon that was currently on a rampage in the hotel's lobby wasn't stopped then Buffy would always be in danger. It took him only a quick glance up, seeing how although they were fighting valiantly Spike, Wesley, and Faith would not be able to defeat the demon on their own, Angel made up his mind and rushed Buffy over and laid her beside Cordelia, ordering a frightened Anya and Willow to watch out for her, before retrieving the sword and joining the fight.



Upon entering the fight Angel had to quickly duck to avoid the demons large fist as it took a giant swing at him. On the other side of the demon Angel could see Wesley dodging in and out of the demon's reach, axe in hand, as he tried to inflict as much damage on the demon as he could without taking to much himself, and for the most part it was working, although Wesley wasn't getting out completely unaffected. Angel couldn't see the cut but there was blood on the side of Wesley's head that looked pretty fresh. Faith and Spike on the other hand had experienced more luck than the former watcher, and Angel guessed at the reason being that although he could fight well Wesley was still only human and therefore couldn't possibly hope to do as well as a vampire and a slayer.



Even though he had no clue as to exactly how to kill the demon or even if it could be killed Angel intended to do as much damage to the creature as he could before it demolished the entire hotel and hurt those that he loved. Had his heart been able to beat it would have been pounding like a jackhammer in his chest. He could see Faith and Spike split up and help to surround the demon so that now Angel was on the demons right side, Wesley was behind the demon, Spike was on the demons left side, and Faith was standing directly in front of the now wounded demon. From his side of the demon Angel could see Wesley try to dodge to one side or the other on his attacks so as to try and see Faith, making sure that she was still alright, a sight that didn't entirely surprise Angel for he knew that most likely Wesley still felt of Faith as his charge. But what surprised Angel the most was the look on Faith's face when she did the same and saw the blood on the side of Wesley's head, had she not been as strong as she was Angel felt that she would have most likely immediately rushed to his side, but she stood firm and the blood only seemed to make her angrier at the demon than she had previously been.



Meanwhile Giles had made his way back over to Cordelia and with Connor and Xander's help had been able to get Cordelia up off of the floor and onto the makeshift stretcher that Connor had found. Doing her part Willow had cast a small healing spell on Cordelia and now helped to get the former cheerleader away from the lobby. Unsure of exactly what to do Anya followed Xander out of the lobby, with her last image of the lobby being of both Angel and Spike charging the overly large demon, weapons raised, with Faith beginning to circle around to go and check on Wesley. Connor was the first to speak up after they had all left the lobby. "Where are we going," he asked with a look of a cross between fear and confusion on his face.



"To a hospital.she needs a doctor.and you need to get back into the lobby and protect Buffy and to help the others fight that demon," Giles puffed out quickly as the effort of helping to carry Cordelia through the hallways of the hotel was starting to get to him. When he finished he half expected to get his head bitten off by the look of shock and anger that flashed across Connor's face. But on a night of many shocks and surprises Giles was dealt another one when the look of anger on Connor's face passed without incident, and after saying a soft goodbye to Cordelia that was returned in barely audible mumbles, and he then turned and took off as fast as he could run back towards the lobby to go and help Angel and the others fight the demon.



"He listened.Boy Wonder actually listened," Xander said with a look of disbelief on his face as he moved over and Anya reluctantly took Connor's place in helping carry Cordelia away from the lobby.



"That's true.but which side will he choose.he hates Angel even though he's his father.what if he chooses to stake Angel.what if he.," Anya started to say with a concerned scowl on her face as she looked up first at Giles, and then around and Willow and then finally over at Xander.



"That's.that's true.he could.all that rage.all that concern over Cordelia," Willow stuttered out fearfully as she deftly avoided Giles' withering gaze.



"Connor will do what is right, even though he hates Angel.he'll do what's right.now come on, we must hurry," Giles said sternly as he tried his best to cover up the fair amount of fear that he was feeling about whether or not Connor would actually do the right thing or take the golden opportunity given him and rid himself of Angel. Xander momentarily looked up with a questioning look on his face as if he was preparing to interject something but he stopped abruptly and kept quiet as he helped Giles and the others carry Cordelia further away from the lobby.



* * * * * * * *



Out in the streets around the Hyperion the mercenaries that could still walk were pouring out of the hotel, and joining the snipers that had vacated their positions around the hotel, as they barely noticed the finely dressed woman's body lying on the sidewalk with a knife sticking out of her back and blood oozing everywhere. Neither that nor the roughly dressed man standing over her with a look of little apology on his face as he seemed to almost take some small amount of joy in the woman's death and could care less what anyone else thought. The few robed magic users that had made it back out of the hotel recalled their actions to their superiors before mysteriously vanishing into the shadows.



The senior partners had made sure that neither the police nor the paramedics would be called to an emergency of any sort to that spot outside of the Hyperion. They had invested far too much intelligence and resources to then see it blow up in their faces. And because of that they had, like they had many times before, simply laid all of the blame at the one that had been in charge of the mission and selected the next person in charge to get their team out with as little damage to them as they could, all while doling out the proper punishment on the last leader. And in this case like many others the proper punishment was death. And so on that cold and dreary night in the city of angels Lilah Morgan died.



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"Wes..Wes," Faith shouted with a great deal of fear and worry in her voice that she no longer tried to hide as she pulled Wesley away from the demon and its attempts to kill Spike and Angel.



"Is he alright," Dawn yelled timidly as she rushed to Faith's side and helped her pull a tired and beaten up Wesley away from the fight. As soon as Faith and Dawn had pulled Wesley far enough away Dawn stepped back and took note of Wesley and Faith. Faith seemed to not have changed that much, other than grown up as per the natural way, her hair was longer and fuller and she seemed to have spent her time in prison well, in the end the sight of the rogue slayer made Dawn swallow very hard. The groggy ex-watcher on the ground in front of her looked nothing at all like the bookish coward that everyone had told her repeatedly about, with Xander most of all being the one to make fun of the former watcher, using him as the brunt of many jokes. Right now he looked more like one of the hero's from the war movies that Xander seemed to love so much. But what sent a shiver down her spine was the sight of the ghastly scar on his neck. She hadn't seen it when she had helped Faith drag him away from the demon and now her hand began to tremble as the thought flashed through her mind that it was both highly possible and highly probable that Faith caused that injury. With a thoroughly frightened look on her face Dawn slowly began to back up, all the while keeping her eyes locked onto Faith, who still held a sword in her hand and looked extremely worried and pissed at the same time.



"He'd better be.wait Dawn.what.oh no wait.you don't.I didn't.," Faith started to say with a very concerned scowl on her face, as she knelt down beside Wesley, before she looked up and noticed a frightened Dawn slowly backing away after seeing the scar on Wesley's neck and Faith's mind quickly deduced what Dawn must be thinking.



"No.just.stay away," Dawn shot back with a cross between an angry look on her face, that Faith had to admit reminded her of Buffy, and one of complete fear as she stumbled backwards before she turned and began to run away, finally stopping as she got to Buffy's side and Connor charged back into the room.



"Shit," Faith growled under her breath as she debated whether or not to go after Dawn and try to explain but she knew that she didn't have the time for it and so she turned her attention back to Wesley, who by now was sitting up and trying to take stock of the situation.



END OF CHAPTER 18