In the Space of a Journey
Chapter Twenty
Part 20:
England: The Compound
Giles's announcement, followed by the blood-curdling scream, shocked everyone in the huge tribunal chamber into silence. Everyone except Buffy. Before the scream even died away, she was running. Her muscles strained unhappily, but she ignored them. She vaulted over the railing that separated the judging area from the onlookers. For a second, Buffy felt her old self again, and then her foot caught on the edge of the railing. She went sprawling. She felt the stabbing pain as her foot wrenched and bent the wrong way.
One thought rang through her mind. (No! Not my legs!)
For an instant, her fear started to overwhelm her. She was weak again, and alone -- just like the day Billy's truck changed her destiny. Alone except for the eyes of all the astonished Watchers wondering why their Slayer was on the floor and not on the job. That's why they hadn't moved to help, right? Because their own, personal superhero was in the room?
Then Buffy heard the scream again -- it was definitely a female -- and she pulled herself to her feet. Despite the jarring pain in her ankle, she ran toward the sound. Watchers started moving, trying to see what was going on, if they could help or if they could get away.
Buffy scanned the area, but she couldn't see who had been screaming.
"Where are they?" she shouted. The Watchers around her motioned, and she followed their directions.
The doors to the room opened with a resounding crash. Buffy looked up. "Xander! You're alive!"
They were separated by rows and rows of milling people, but Buffy felt the hope in her heart spring alive again now that she could look into his loving, brown eyes. She wasn't alone!
"For God's sake, everyone stop milling around like a flock of chickens!"
Buffy almost sobbed in relief when she heard that voice. It was Giles -- her Giles and not the quiet, drained, personality-less Giles who'd been in control during most of the tribunal -- standing on top of the defense table trying to control the crowd.
"Buffy can't do her job with all you bloody fools in the way! Let those who are trained to fight, do the fighting, and don't bumble around useless. Just sit there!"
Realizing the truth of his words, despite his lack of tact, people started to clear a path, and Buffy kept moving toward the screams. Then she heard another one. This one was male. Buffy started to run again, vaulting and dodging what she could, ignoring the pain that stabbed every time her foot hit the ground. Pain wasn't a luxury she had right now. She was the Slayer, powers or no powers, and she had to help whoever was in trouble.
"They're over here! Whatever they are!" a man called from the top row of seats. Others at the top craned their necks and looked into the narrow space between the raised seats and the wall. Horrified murmurs and gasps could be heard, as well as shocked comments about life force draining and charred flesh.
Buffy was almost there when she heard a familiar voice yell, "We've found her!" Xander made it to her side at the same time.
"Sonya?" Buffy whispered, afraid to hope, but sure she'd recognized that voice.
"And Doyle." Xander grinned at her. "They're invisible. Don't ask."
Then Buffy realized Oz and Cordelia were behind them. The four teens ducked under the seats and made their way to the back. They were shielded from some of the eyes now -- only those along the top row of seats and people peering in the sides could see them.
That was when Buffy saw it -- a little girl with long, flaxen hair staring into a male Watcher's eyes with an incredible blue gaze. He wasn't moving. Her hands were on his cheeks and an azure glow surrounded them. The man's skin was starting to char. Beside them was a charred heap of flesh covered in tweed.
"What is she?" Buffy whispered.
"Don't look into her eyes," Xander said. "Believe me, I know!"
Behind them, Cordelia suddenly groaned. Buffy didn't have time to stop. She, Oz and Xander kept moving. Her strength grew with every step. Buffy grabbed the little girl and pulled her off of the man. The man fell to the ground with a thud.
"Don't let her get skin-to-skin contact with you," Xander warned. "That's how she drains her victims."
"How do you know?" Buffy asked as she found a way to hold Blue Eyes around the torso, effectively binding her arms behind her without any skin-on-skin contact.
"She tried to drain me," Xander explained briefly, "but it only worked when she touched my skin with her bare hands. And she was touching that guy's skin with her bare hands..." As he spoke, Xander leaned down to inspect the fallen man.
The little girl craned her neck to look up at Buffy imploringly. When she spoke, her voice was high, but it carried well. "I'm just so hungry. They won't let me eat? Why did they make me this way if they won't let me eat?"
Taking care not to look into the girl's eyes too deeply, Buffy shook her head. "I don't know." She could hear the Watchers all around them buzzing with comments. Her arms ached a little at the strain of holding the girl so tightly, but she couldn't let the child go.
She turned to look at the man, hoping there was still a chance. "Xander?"
Abruptly, he stood up and let the man fall back to the ground. "Damn it! There's another death on Chamberlain's head!"
Buffy could feel everything spinning out of her control. She looked back to see Oz leaning over Cordelia.
"She's OK," Oz whispered to Buffy. "Loosing the powers makes us dizzy. I can feel mine starting to pull away, too."
Buffy nodded. "Don't worry. I'll keep you safe."
"We'll help!" Suddenly Sonya and Doyle were standing next to them. Doyle slid a small ring into his pocket.
"Come on, Buffy," Xander said. "We've got to go deal with this... now!"
Oz sank down to the ground, and Sonya crouched beside him. Buffy felt the last of her power snap back into her. She felt almost giddy in her strength. "Let's go!"
They made their way out from underneath the bleacher-type seats, Sonya and Doyle supporting Cordelia and Oz until the two former partial Slayers got their bearings back. Buffy, no longer having problems holding Blue Eyes, and Xander led the march up to the podium. Giles got down from the table and met them there.
"What is the meaning of this?" Chamberlain roared. "Guards! Restrain them all."
"Even the Slayer?" a guard asked.
"Even her!" Chamberlain ordered. The anger flashing in his eyes actually scared Buffy for a minute. Her instincts -- sometimes Xander called them her Spidey sense -- started tingling.
"No!" Giles shouted. "You will never give orders in this Council again!"
"Oh, no?" Chamberlain queried. "And why not!"
"Because you are the worst type of fiend..."
"Indeed he is!"
The new voice came for an unexpected source -- unexpected to everyone but Xander.
Gwendolyn Post stood up and pointed at Chamberlain. "You knowingly began and fostered a program to upgrade humans into superior beings by imbuing them with demon powers. When they couldn't keep the powers without killing innocents to live off their life force, like Melinda..." Gwendolyn gestured at Blue Eyes. "...you helped them, and even sent some of them out into the world to fend for themselves. You've sponsored the murder of hundreds and hundreds of innocents, Chamberlain, and I will not stand for it any longer. Not now that I have proof. A whole room of Watchers has seen the results of your horrible, horrible plans! You cannot hide behind your office any more!"
"Oh my..." Wesley said softly from his place at the defense table.
"He kidnapped us," Sonya said to the crowd of Watchers still seated. "He wanted my healing powers."
"An' me visions!" Doyle added. "We have been locked up in the bottom of this place for days!" The half-demon seer made a good candidate for pity -- his face was pale, and bruised from the electrodes, dark circles underlined his eyes and his normally skinny frame seemed even smaller and almost frail after several days of starvation.
"Doyle?" Aidan whispered from his place at the podium. He stood up and started to leave the podium, but someone barred his way in an attempt to challenge the proconsul.
"Is this true, Chamberlain?" one of the Board members, John Warrington, asked, not even noticing that he was standing in Aidan's way. Or just not caring. The look of disgust on Warrington's face -- and Warrington had been one of Chamberlain's most whole-hearted supporters -- was echoed on faces all around the room. The guards had stopped before carrying out their orders, now unsure if they should continue.
Even Barrows was looking at Chamberlain in disbelief. "I didn't know. I didn't know," he mumbled repeatedly from his seat at the prosecution's table. "I didn't know they had to kill people..."
Buffy turned to look at Giles, a smile curving her lips. "Giles! You did it! Everything's going to be all right!"
"How did you know, Giles?" Xander asked. "Did Gwendolyn tell you, too?"
Giles was shaking his head. "No... that wasn't what I was talking about at all."
"Then what did you mean when you called Chamberlain a fiend?" Buffy asked, confused.
Giles looked up at the man in question. Chamberlain's face seethed with rage as he looked around the room. People who had been on his side just seconds before, now looked at him with some combination of fear, anger and disgust.
"Ethan came up to me a little while ago..." Giles began. "He told me... he said that..."
"Come on? What did he say?" Wesley urged, squinting at Giles through his wire-rimmed glasses.
Giles's voice was soft, but Buffy, and everyone standing around them heard it quite clearly. "He said that Chamberlain is a vampire."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sunnydale: The Warehouse
Angel stood near Nicole, watching the scene with an enigmatic smile on his face. Amy had gotten away. That was one step in the right direction. He knew that Jenny was one of the Rios -- that had been a part of the plan. He just couldn't be sure which Rio she was.
"Rio?" Terrance asked, looking from one commando to the other. "Which one are you?"
"Me!" the messy one replied.
"No, me! He's just trying to trick you, Terrance," the neat one retorted.
Angel darted a glance at Nicole. She was engrossed by the dual Rios. He had to find a way to take her out. The plan had been to sneak up on her and hit her over the head on the roof, but somehow she'd managed to turn the tables on him. Angel still didn't know how that had happened. Nicole's powers were the most deadly to him, by far. Until she was incapacitated, Angel wasn't free to act.
The vampire slowly reached into the pocket of his trench coat, checking to see that his security measure was still there, where he'd put it earlier. It was.
He looked down and his gaze met Faith's. She looked angry, but her look softened just a touch when it collided with his.
"Come on!" Nicole snapped right in his ear. "Quit exchanging sappy glances with the whore. We're going down there, and if you so much as twitch a muscle in the wrong direction... well, that blaze on your hand earlier was just the beginning of the torture I can give you, all of it ending with you as a big pile of ash."
Angel nodded, and they began the descent down the rickety stairway that lead from the second level to the ground floor. It creaked with every step.
Terrance was still focused on the two Rios. "I know a way to figure this out. Only the real Rio knows his security code. Tell it to me."
The two Rios stared at each other.
"You first," the messy one said, giving a grand gesture.
"No," the other one replied. "You first. If I tell you the code, then all you have to do is repeat what I said."
Faith snorted. "What a plan, Ter. You're a natural leader, really!"
"Shut up!" Terrance growled at her. He swung his gaze back to the Rios. They were glaring at each other. "All right, you two. You are each going to come whisper the code in my ear. That way the fake Rio can't cheat."
"Fine!" the neat Rio agreed, scowling at his duplicate. "I'll go first."
Before the other Rio could move, the neat one walked over to Terrance and leaned down to whisper something in his ear.
As Angel walked down the last few steps, he had a good vantage point to see what the neat Rio was up to. Unfortunately, so did Nicole as she followed him. The Rio put his hand on Terrance's shoulder, and suddenly Angel knew this one was going to work some magic. He could practically smell the power brewing. Assuming that this Rio was actually Jenny (because why would the real Rio need to magic Terrance?), Angel jumped the last few stairs to the ground and turned to look up at a surprised Nicole.
"That's it!" She extended her hands, and stared at him.
Angel slipped his hands in his pocket and pulled out a mini fire extinguisher. He opened it and let the spray fly at the fire wielder before she could concentrate long enough to set him ablaze. There wasn't much in the tiny canister, but it was enough to coat her face -- finding its way into every opening: eyes, mouth, nose, etc. -- and distract her from using her powers. And that had been Angel's plan all along. While she was momentarily blinded, he dropped the small canister and scooped up a large piece of metal from the floor of the warehouse and aimed it at her head. She crumpled to the ground -- sliding down the staircase the rest of the way.
Spinning around again, Angel was just in time to see Terrance fall to the ground as well, a victim of the neat Rio's magic. The three of them -- Angel, Faith and the neat Rio -- turned to face the messy Rio, who faltered back a step.
The neat Rio whispered, "So mote it be." Suddenly, the appearance of Rio vanished and morphed back into Jenny.
"You fools," the real Rio whispered. "Did you think I wouldn't plan for this?" He clapped his hands three times, and the sounds unnaturally loud in the large, echoing warehouse. Suddenly, the ground started to shake. The debris around them began to move. But wasn't the telekinetic commando unconscious?
Angel looked back to see Terrance grinning at him.
"Faith isn't the only one who knows how to play dead!" Terrance bragged.
Angel ran for Terrance, but he came up short against a forcefield. Faith ran for Rio, and found the same thing. The debris Terrance was moving came together in two large piles. Rio said several words in ancient Sumarian, and the piles started to meld and grow until they formed something vaguely resembling of the human form.
Rio looked at Jenny. "Have fun, my dear." He reached out and grabbed Faith by the arm. The girl tried to pull away, but she couldn't get her hand free from his iron-like grip.
Her eyes widened and she looked at Rio with something akin to fear. "What... what are you doing?"
"I'm going to complete this ritual, and you're going to help me. Now, come on!" Rio pulled Faith away with him.
"No!" Angel ran for Faith, but one of the huge junk monsters stepped in his way.
"Bye, guys. Have oodles and oodles of fun." Terrance actually winked at them. Then he picked up Nicole's unconscious body and followed Rio, leaving Angel and Jenny with the two junk monsters.
Chapter Twenty
Part 20:
England: The Compound
Giles's announcement, followed by the blood-curdling scream, shocked everyone in the huge tribunal chamber into silence. Everyone except Buffy. Before the scream even died away, she was running. Her muscles strained unhappily, but she ignored them. She vaulted over the railing that separated the judging area from the onlookers. For a second, Buffy felt her old self again, and then her foot caught on the edge of the railing. She went sprawling. She felt the stabbing pain as her foot wrenched and bent the wrong way.
One thought rang through her mind. (No! Not my legs!)
For an instant, her fear started to overwhelm her. She was weak again, and alone -- just like the day Billy's truck changed her destiny. Alone except for the eyes of all the astonished Watchers wondering why their Slayer was on the floor and not on the job. That's why they hadn't moved to help, right? Because their own, personal superhero was in the room?
Then Buffy heard the scream again -- it was definitely a female -- and she pulled herself to her feet. Despite the jarring pain in her ankle, she ran toward the sound. Watchers started moving, trying to see what was going on, if they could help or if they could get away.
Buffy scanned the area, but she couldn't see who had been screaming.
"Where are they?" she shouted. The Watchers around her motioned, and she followed their directions.
The doors to the room opened with a resounding crash. Buffy looked up. "Xander! You're alive!"
They were separated by rows and rows of milling people, but Buffy felt the hope in her heart spring alive again now that she could look into his loving, brown eyes. She wasn't alone!
"For God's sake, everyone stop milling around like a flock of chickens!"
Buffy almost sobbed in relief when she heard that voice. It was Giles -- her Giles and not the quiet, drained, personality-less Giles who'd been in control during most of the tribunal -- standing on top of the defense table trying to control the crowd.
"Buffy can't do her job with all you bloody fools in the way! Let those who are trained to fight, do the fighting, and don't bumble around useless. Just sit there!"
Realizing the truth of his words, despite his lack of tact, people started to clear a path, and Buffy kept moving toward the screams. Then she heard another one. This one was male. Buffy started to run again, vaulting and dodging what she could, ignoring the pain that stabbed every time her foot hit the ground. Pain wasn't a luxury she had right now. She was the Slayer, powers or no powers, and she had to help whoever was in trouble.
"They're over here! Whatever they are!" a man called from the top row of seats. Others at the top craned their necks and looked into the narrow space between the raised seats and the wall. Horrified murmurs and gasps could be heard, as well as shocked comments about life force draining and charred flesh.
Buffy was almost there when she heard a familiar voice yell, "We've found her!" Xander made it to her side at the same time.
"Sonya?" Buffy whispered, afraid to hope, but sure she'd recognized that voice.
"And Doyle." Xander grinned at her. "They're invisible. Don't ask."
Then Buffy realized Oz and Cordelia were behind them. The four teens ducked under the seats and made their way to the back. They were shielded from some of the eyes now -- only those along the top row of seats and people peering in the sides could see them.
That was when Buffy saw it -- a little girl with long, flaxen hair staring into a male Watcher's eyes with an incredible blue gaze. He wasn't moving. Her hands were on his cheeks and an azure glow surrounded them. The man's skin was starting to char. Beside them was a charred heap of flesh covered in tweed.
"What is she?" Buffy whispered.
"Don't look into her eyes," Xander said. "Believe me, I know!"
Behind them, Cordelia suddenly groaned. Buffy didn't have time to stop. She, Oz and Xander kept moving. Her strength grew with every step. Buffy grabbed the little girl and pulled her off of the man. The man fell to the ground with a thud.
"Don't let her get skin-to-skin contact with you," Xander warned. "That's how she drains her victims."
"How do you know?" Buffy asked as she found a way to hold Blue Eyes around the torso, effectively binding her arms behind her without any skin-on-skin contact.
"She tried to drain me," Xander explained briefly, "but it only worked when she touched my skin with her bare hands. And she was touching that guy's skin with her bare hands..." As he spoke, Xander leaned down to inspect the fallen man.
The little girl craned her neck to look up at Buffy imploringly. When she spoke, her voice was high, but it carried well. "I'm just so hungry. They won't let me eat? Why did they make me this way if they won't let me eat?"
Taking care not to look into the girl's eyes too deeply, Buffy shook her head. "I don't know." She could hear the Watchers all around them buzzing with comments. Her arms ached a little at the strain of holding the girl so tightly, but she couldn't let the child go.
She turned to look at the man, hoping there was still a chance. "Xander?"
Abruptly, he stood up and let the man fall back to the ground. "Damn it! There's another death on Chamberlain's head!"
Buffy could feel everything spinning out of her control. She looked back to see Oz leaning over Cordelia.
"She's OK," Oz whispered to Buffy. "Loosing the powers makes us dizzy. I can feel mine starting to pull away, too."
Buffy nodded. "Don't worry. I'll keep you safe."
"We'll help!" Suddenly Sonya and Doyle were standing next to them. Doyle slid a small ring into his pocket.
"Come on, Buffy," Xander said. "We've got to go deal with this... now!"
Oz sank down to the ground, and Sonya crouched beside him. Buffy felt the last of her power snap back into her. She felt almost giddy in her strength. "Let's go!"
They made their way out from underneath the bleacher-type seats, Sonya and Doyle supporting Cordelia and Oz until the two former partial Slayers got their bearings back. Buffy, no longer having problems holding Blue Eyes, and Xander led the march up to the podium. Giles got down from the table and met them there.
"What is the meaning of this?" Chamberlain roared. "Guards! Restrain them all."
"Even the Slayer?" a guard asked.
"Even her!" Chamberlain ordered. The anger flashing in his eyes actually scared Buffy for a minute. Her instincts -- sometimes Xander called them her Spidey sense -- started tingling.
"No!" Giles shouted. "You will never give orders in this Council again!"
"Oh, no?" Chamberlain queried. "And why not!"
"Because you are the worst type of fiend..."
"Indeed he is!"
The new voice came for an unexpected source -- unexpected to everyone but Xander.
Gwendolyn Post stood up and pointed at Chamberlain. "You knowingly began and fostered a program to upgrade humans into superior beings by imbuing them with demon powers. When they couldn't keep the powers without killing innocents to live off their life force, like Melinda..." Gwendolyn gestured at Blue Eyes. "...you helped them, and even sent some of them out into the world to fend for themselves. You've sponsored the murder of hundreds and hundreds of innocents, Chamberlain, and I will not stand for it any longer. Not now that I have proof. A whole room of Watchers has seen the results of your horrible, horrible plans! You cannot hide behind your office any more!"
"Oh my..." Wesley said softly from his place at the defense table.
"He kidnapped us," Sonya said to the crowd of Watchers still seated. "He wanted my healing powers."
"An' me visions!" Doyle added. "We have been locked up in the bottom of this place for days!" The half-demon seer made a good candidate for pity -- his face was pale, and bruised from the electrodes, dark circles underlined his eyes and his normally skinny frame seemed even smaller and almost frail after several days of starvation.
"Doyle?" Aidan whispered from his place at the podium. He stood up and started to leave the podium, but someone barred his way in an attempt to challenge the proconsul.
"Is this true, Chamberlain?" one of the Board members, John Warrington, asked, not even noticing that he was standing in Aidan's way. Or just not caring. The look of disgust on Warrington's face -- and Warrington had been one of Chamberlain's most whole-hearted supporters -- was echoed on faces all around the room. The guards had stopped before carrying out their orders, now unsure if they should continue.
Even Barrows was looking at Chamberlain in disbelief. "I didn't know. I didn't know," he mumbled repeatedly from his seat at the prosecution's table. "I didn't know they had to kill people..."
Buffy turned to look at Giles, a smile curving her lips. "Giles! You did it! Everything's going to be all right!"
"How did you know, Giles?" Xander asked. "Did Gwendolyn tell you, too?"
Giles was shaking his head. "No... that wasn't what I was talking about at all."
"Then what did you mean when you called Chamberlain a fiend?" Buffy asked, confused.
Giles looked up at the man in question. Chamberlain's face seethed with rage as he looked around the room. People who had been on his side just seconds before, now looked at him with some combination of fear, anger and disgust.
"Ethan came up to me a little while ago..." Giles began. "He told me... he said that..."
"Come on? What did he say?" Wesley urged, squinting at Giles through his wire-rimmed glasses.
Giles's voice was soft, but Buffy, and everyone standing around them heard it quite clearly. "He said that Chamberlain is a vampire."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sunnydale: The Warehouse
Angel stood near Nicole, watching the scene with an enigmatic smile on his face. Amy had gotten away. That was one step in the right direction. He knew that Jenny was one of the Rios -- that had been a part of the plan. He just couldn't be sure which Rio she was.
"Rio?" Terrance asked, looking from one commando to the other. "Which one are you?"
"Me!" the messy one replied.
"No, me! He's just trying to trick you, Terrance," the neat one retorted.
Angel darted a glance at Nicole. She was engrossed by the dual Rios. He had to find a way to take her out. The plan had been to sneak up on her and hit her over the head on the roof, but somehow she'd managed to turn the tables on him. Angel still didn't know how that had happened. Nicole's powers were the most deadly to him, by far. Until she was incapacitated, Angel wasn't free to act.
The vampire slowly reached into the pocket of his trench coat, checking to see that his security measure was still there, where he'd put it earlier. It was.
He looked down and his gaze met Faith's. She looked angry, but her look softened just a touch when it collided with his.
"Come on!" Nicole snapped right in his ear. "Quit exchanging sappy glances with the whore. We're going down there, and if you so much as twitch a muscle in the wrong direction... well, that blaze on your hand earlier was just the beginning of the torture I can give you, all of it ending with you as a big pile of ash."
Angel nodded, and they began the descent down the rickety stairway that lead from the second level to the ground floor. It creaked with every step.
Terrance was still focused on the two Rios. "I know a way to figure this out. Only the real Rio knows his security code. Tell it to me."
The two Rios stared at each other.
"You first," the messy one said, giving a grand gesture.
"No," the other one replied. "You first. If I tell you the code, then all you have to do is repeat what I said."
Faith snorted. "What a plan, Ter. You're a natural leader, really!"
"Shut up!" Terrance growled at her. He swung his gaze back to the Rios. They were glaring at each other. "All right, you two. You are each going to come whisper the code in my ear. That way the fake Rio can't cheat."
"Fine!" the neat Rio agreed, scowling at his duplicate. "I'll go first."
Before the other Rio could move, the neat one walked over to Terrance and leaned down to whisper something in his ear.
As Angel walked down the last few steps, he had a good vantage point to see what the neat Rio was up to. Unfortunately, so did Nicole as she followed him. The Rio put his hand on Terrance's shoulder, and suddenly Angel knew this one was going to work some magic. He could practically smell the power brewing. Assuming that this Rio was actually Jenny (because why would the real Rio need to magic Terrance?), Angel jumped the last few stairs to the ground and turned to look up at a surprised Nicole.
"That's it!" She extended her hands, and stared at him.
Angel slipped his hands in his pocket and pulled out a mini fire extinguisher. He opened it and let the spray fly at the fire wielder before she could concentrate long enough to set him ablaze. There wasn't much in the tiny canister, but it was enough to coat her face -- finding its way into every opening: eyes, mouth, nose, etc. -- and distract her from using her powers. And that had been Angel's plan all along. While she was momentarily blinded, he dropped the small canister and scooped up a large piece of metal from the floor of the warehouse and aimed it at her head. She crumpled to the ground -- sliding down the staircase the rest of the way.
Spinning around again, Angel was just in time to see Terrance fall to the ground as well, a victim of the neat Rio's magic. The three of them -- Angel, Faith and the neat Rio -- turned to face the messy Rio, who faltered back a step.
The neat Rio whispered, "So mote it be." Suddenly, the appearance of Rio vanished and morphed back into Jenny.
"You fools," the real Rio whispered. "Did you think I wouldn't plan for this?" He clapped his hands three times, and the sounds unnaturally loud in the large, echoing warehouse. Suddenly, the ground started to shake. The debris around them began to move. But wasn't the telekinetic commando unconscious?
Angel looked back to see Terrance grinning at him.
"Faith isn't the only one who knows how to play dead!" Terrance bragged.
Angel ran for Terrance, but he came up short against a forcefield. Faith ran for Rio, and found the same thing. The debris Terrance was moving came together in two large piles. Rio said several words in ancient Sumarian, and the piles started to meld and grow until they formed something vaguely resembling of the human form.
Rio looked at Jenny. "Have fun, my dear." He reached out and grabbed Faith by the arm. The girl tried to pull away, but she couldn't get her hand free from his iron-like grip.
Her eyes widened and she looked at Rio with something akin to fear. "What... what are you doing?"
"I'm going to complete this ritual, and you're going to help me. Now, come on!" Rio pulled Faith away with him.
"No!" Angel ran for Faith, but one of the huge junk monsters stepped in his way.
"Bye, guys. Have oodles and oodles of fun." Terrance actually winked at them. Then he picked up Nicole's unconscious body and followed Rio, leaving Angel and Jenny with the two junk monsters.