Chapter Five

It had been three days since Connor had been taken, Allie's manic hysteria after he had gone had calmed down since everyone had started working towards finding him and bringing him back. Lorne had gone to see one of his sage friends the day before to find a Vashnik stone and the gang were eagerly awaiting his return; the Vashnik stone was alleged to be the only way to perform a locator spell on the Mishu Order who used powerful charms to hide their whereabouts at all times. Cordelia had finally managed to tap into her visions but she couldn't see where Connor had been taken; only that he was still alive. Gunn and Wesley had been out gathering the remaining ingredients for the locator spell so now all anyone could do was wait for Lorne to return from his visit.

"Shouldn't he be back by now?" asked Allie anxiously. She was sitting on the sofa flicking through an Assyrian text on religious orders and not paying any attention to it at all.

"He'll be back soon, he shouldn't be long now," smiled Cordelia, Allie smiled back at her and nodded. She had begun to feel a little more confident about finding Connor and getting him back now that they had formed a plan.

"Not long at all, Princess," grinned Lorne as he walked through the glass double doors at the back of the hotel. Fred laughed and ran over to him, hugging him tightly. "Now that's the kind of welcome a demon could get used to,"

"Did you get it?" asked Angel gravely, focusing on the task at hand rather than the welcome return of Lorne. He nodded and handed Angel a folded brown cloth, he smiled as he unwrapped it to find a deep red stone lying in the centre. "Right, let's get to it,"

Wesley gathered the other supplies and laid them out on the reception desk while Gunn scrabbled about underneath the desk for a road map of LA. He opened it out fully over the desk as Wesley lit incense and candles and Angel placed the Vashnik stone over the position of the hotel on the map. Wesley mumbled a few words in a language that nobody recognised and the stone began to glow red and shift slightly on the map. Fred looked on in excitement as the stone continued to shake slightly and move up the map, Allie smiled as the plan came to fruition and the glowing red stone shot across the map and stopped on a one way street deep in the Chinese quarter.

"Why would they go back to Chinatown?" asked Gunn, a frown advertising his confusion.

"These Mishu obviously have some sort of Oriental background," started Wesley.

"Who cares? Let's go," said Allie, the determination set in her voice. Angel was about to tell her that she was staying when he caught sight of that glint in her eyes, it was the exact same look he got when the mission was something he cared about.

"Okay," said Angel. "Everyone saddle up, we're going in and we're getting Connor back,"

"The Mishu Order is very proud. If they lose Connor back to us then it is unlikely they'll fight for him; they will move on rather than admit defeat. They prefer to ignore their failures," said Wesley as he gathered his weapons.

"That's good but I'm still shooting to kill," grinned Gunn.

"Me too," said Allie. "So, can we go now?"

"Yeah, let's move," said Angel.

The location marked by the Vashnik stone on the map was almost identical to the house the Mishu had been holed up in when Angel and the gang first attacked. Angel wasted no time with small talk this time round, instead he burst in through the front door and headed up the staircase straight away. Light was pouring from one of the rooms and Angel burst straight through the door, everyone following him. The room was practically empty, Connor was chained to the wall half-naked and beaten; his chest and face were smeared with his own blood and his eyes were barely open.

"I think he's drugged," said Fred, running over and lifting Connor's eyelids to look at his pupils. "He's heavily sedated, I'm gonna need a hand," Cordelia ran over and used her axe to chop through Connor's chains; he fell to the floor but Fred and Cordelia helped him to his feet. He moaned slightly as they dropped him again, both had looked up to come face to face with the room filled with the Mishu.

"Don't wait for them," shouted Angel, spinning on his heel and punching a Mishu in the face sending him flying to the floor. Following Angel's lead, everyone began to fight back, ignoring the huge mass of monks that seemed to be coming through the door, the window and from the floors; they were just appearing every time another was killed. Allie was in a zone, Connor had been hurt and it was time for revenge, no matter how low a reason it was to kill. She raised her axe and chopped into a Mishu's back, sending him coughing to the floor, Allie smiled as she spun around and kicked another monk that was coming up behind her. She had definitely learned a lot since joining the team at Angel Investigations, she looked over to Gunn who was getting stuck in with his axe, Wesley was slicing into monks with his knives while Fred and Cordelia were both doing fine with their swords and axes. It was the first time she felt like part of the team. Angel kicked another of the Mishu in the face before punching the one behind him and rushed over to where Connor was lying behind Fred and Cordelia. He lifted him up onto his shoulders and looked back at the team.

"I'm taking Connor now," he shouted, Wesley called back some kind of confirmation that was lost amidst the screams of pain and grunts of exertion. Angel nodded and kicked the glass out of the window before leaping through it and landing deftly onto the bins below. He lay Connor down in the back seat of the car and sped away to the hotel.

At the sight of Angel jumping from the building with their prize on his back, the monks stopped fighting and rushed to the window just in time to see Angel land and drive away. They turned to each other and spoke in a strange guttural dialect, clicking and whirring their tongues. Everyone looked at Wesley to decipher it or at least recognise it but his confusion was as evident as everyone else. The Mishu looked back at the gang, bleeding from various wounds and trying to get their breath back, the monk turned back and spoke again. Allie was getting anxious and stepped forward to launch another attack but Wesley held her back as the leader of the order stepped forward, bowed and threw a small stone at the floor. The small room was filled with the same thick black smoke as their previous altercation and Cordelia was thankful that Fred was standing right beside her in the blackness.

"Nobody panic, it'll clear in a few minutes and we can clear out," said Gunn loudly, Wesley smiled at his ease of movement into the position of leader after Angel's departure.

"I really wish I'd killed some more of those guys," growled Allie, her voice sounding low and dangerous in the black, she was unsatisfied with the fight but relieved that Connor was safe.

"I know, me too," said Gunn. "But we got what we came for and that's what's important, right?"

Angel and Lorne were sitting at the reception desk waiting when the gang walked in through the double doors. Connor was sitting upright on the sofa, his eyes were still bleary and red but he was awake. Allie dropped her axe to the floor at the sight of him and ran over, throwing her arms around him and holding him tightly. Angel watched their reunion with a smile, the ache in his heart forcing him to look across at Cordelia; she was already looking at him with a smile on her face.

"What happened?" asked Angel, looking to Wesley for an update but it was Gunn who stepped forward.

"After they saw Connor was gone they dumped that smoke and high-tailed it outta there," he grinned, Wesley nodded in agreement and Angel slapped them both on the back in triumph. "We didn't get any of them after you left but we got what we went in there for,"

Angel nodded and walked across the room, sitting down next to Connor and smiling at Allie. She left Connor's side silently and joined Fred and Lorne at reception; everyone was watching Angel and his son but attempting to look as if they weren't and failing miserably. Angel knew what they were doing but he didn't care, he had to talk to Connor and he didn't care who heard what he had to say.

"You okay?" he whispered, Connor coughed a little and nodded. "Good. Look Connor, I know I promised to stay off your back and let you live but you can't keep running off alone. I want you to be more careful on patrol from now on; I can't lose you again,"

"I'm sorry, Dad," croaked Connor. "Is Allie okay?"

"Yeah, she was amazing. I've never seen anyone fight like that on their first time out, she kicked ass,"

"Can you get her over here?" he whispered, Angel smiled and nodded and left Connor's side, looking over at Allie and gesturing for her to take his place on the sofa. He walked over to Cordelia and casually placed his hand on her arm; she looked up at him and smiled, from that one touch she knew everything Angel wanted to say to her. Allie grinned from ear to ear and practically jumped over the desk to join Connor; she placed a hand on his knee and squeezed gently.

"I'm sorry I was such a bitch to you before. I just wanted to get out with everyone," she said.

"I was going to apologise," laughed Connor, cradling his side as his body rocked with laughter. "Dad told me you were pretty lethal in there," Allie blushed and looked over at Angel. "I'm just glad that you're okay, I'm sorry I didn't trust in you. I should've known you were ready to get out there,"

"Look, how about we're both sorry and we're both forgiven. I'm just glad that you're back and you're okay," smiled Allie. "Can I get you anything?"

"No, I just wanna go to bed and sleep for a week," he grinned; Allie nodded and helped him to stand from the sofa. Angel and Cordelia rushed over to help but Connor waved them away and said goodnight before climbing the staircase, leaning on Allie.

"You think he's okay?" asked Cordelia, watching the young couple disappear.

"I think he's fine," said Angel, reaching down for Cordelia's hand. "I think everything's going to be fine,"

THE END