The Angel's Knight #24 - Battle Plans

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110 miles north of Los Angeles, October 15, 2017

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While we were in the steam room together Faith said something along the lines of life sometimes being like a roller coaster. You can't steer, you can't stop, you can only hold on for dear life and see where it takes you. That's pretty much the way my life has been these last two days and the roller coaster doesn't seem likely to slow down anytime soon.

Strangely enough a part of me feels completely at ease with this. Well, not completely. There are way too many people here. Somehow I get the feeling that I was never around so many people before, or at least so many people that were all united by a single goal. A true army, even though only about a third of them actually look the part.

We arrived here in a virtual caravan of cars, mostly minivans and SUVs, though a few more battered cars that looked like they just hailed from some ghetto street corner were also there. Angel's people from LA, nearly 300 in number, don't wear uniforms, but there is something of a uniform look to them if you gaze into their eyes. Determination, resolve. I have no doubt these people will do their best.

On the highway we met more cars, coming from the other direction. People from the Angel Foundation offices in San Francisco and Seattle, or so Faith told me, another hundred or so fighters ready to kick demon ass.

When we left the highway I saw an old traffic sign. It named several towns you could reach by going off here; none of the names meant anything to me. At the bottom of the short list, though, there was a name nearly unreadable, worn away by something that had left the other names untouched. I'm not sure how I knew this - you couldn't really read it anymore - but the name said 'Sunnydale'. And somehow that name seemed incredibly familiar.

Some side roads later, roads that I didn't even see until we were on them, we arrived at what was quite obviously the meeting place. Evident by the presence of quite a few military vehicles and about 200 guys in fatigues, armed to the teeth. The sun sank below the horizon almost the second we came to a stop, allowing Angel to get out of his sun-screened car to greet some people. I quickly lost sight of him among the crowd.

Right now I'm standing right in the middle of all these men and women, all of them grim and determined, and I think I should be shaking with nervousness and fear. This is so over my head, all of this. Yet somehow it isn't. I can't quite put my finger on it. There is this feeling that I should be here. No, more than that. A feeling like I should be in charge, telling people what to do and lead the fight against demons. Which is ridiculous, of course. A seventeen-year-old girl leading a charge against demons. Maybe it's a Slayer thing. Or I'm finally going mad. Took me long enough.

"Kid, over here!" I look behind me and see Faith calling out to me. I smile involuntarily. It's a nice feeling to have someone look out for me this way. I don't remember having a mother and Faith certainly doesn't behave like one, but still ... okay, some part of me feels incredibly strange thinking that way about Faith. Almost as if things should be the other way around, me looking out for her. Which is ridiculous. Again.

Faith is standing amidst a small crowd of people grouped around a table, several maps spread out on it. I know most of the people there. Angel, Mr. Pryce, Tara, Gunn, this Graham guy Faith calls 'Buzzcut'. Some strangers are among them, though. Or I think they are strangers. There is something familiar about all of them.

"Time for introductions," Faith says, putting her arm around my shoulder. "Diana, these are, in order, Riley Finn, commander of the army guys, Amy Madison, a witch we know from Sunnydale, and finally Xander Harris, founding member of the original demon hunting posse back in the day. Guys, this is Diana Knight, our brand-new Slayer."

I look at the people she just introduced. Finn is a tall guy, taller even than Angel, and looks like he came right of a recruitment poster. I'd say he's in his early forties, but you can only tell by some lines around his eyes. He looks spry and tough, the muscles under his shirt the kind you don't get from working out in a fitness studio. And how do I know about different kinds of muscles anyway? Things are just getting weirder and weirder.

Looking at him somehow fills me with some kind of resentment I can't quite explain, so after shaking his hand I look at the woman next to him. Amy Madison, Faith said. She's about Faith's age, but there is something of a ... tired look about her. Like something she went through left her drained and she never quite recovered from it.

The third guy, Xander Harris, gives me a big smile as he shakes my hand and somehow looking at him makes me feel a lot better. He's about Faith's age as well, but at the same time it wouldn't be too hard picturing him walking the halls of a high school somewhere. His dark hair is tussled and laced with dirt and his eyes look haunted, but underneath all that there is some sort of inextinguishable humor, like a permanent grin that, though sometimes hidden, never goes away.

"Another Slayer, eh?" Harris says, still smiling. "Looks like the Powers finally decided to give us a helper for once."

"Glad to have you on board, Diana," Finn adds, his smile looking somewhat artificial, though. "We can certainly need an additional Slayer, considering what we'll be going up against."

He nods towards the maps on the table and apparently that is some kind of cue for Harris. His smile fades and he suddenly looks all business, almost like a soldier himself.

"We shouldn't have too many problems as far as static obstacles are concerned," he begins. "Not much left of the buildings or anything else for that matter. It's only in the immediate vicinity of the old high school grounds that things start getting messy. But we'll have to abandon the vehicles there anyway thanks to the no-tech whammy going on."

I just listen as he tells us what's going on behind that nearly static dome of dust that rises just about a mile in front of us. I don't think I've ever seen anything look this eerie before. Anyway, apparently there are a lot more creepy things inside. Vampires. Demons. Guys in black robes. Mantises, whatever those are.

"Our main objective is to disrupt the ceremony," Angel says, taking charge of the planning. "If at all possible I would like us to capture that statue. We don't know whether it's possible to take it away from there. If it isn't, Tara will set up a containment spell around it. We will need to buy her time for that."

I look at Tara, who is standing some feet away, deep in conversation with some other witches. Apparently they belong to some sort of coven that has been helping Angel and his people for some time and teleported here from New England. You know, I'm rapidly getting used to all this strange stuff. I said teleported without cringing about the bizarreness of it all.

Harris talks some more about what they saw and I get the gist. Apparently some witch called Willow attempted something or other and got herself stuck in something called the Hellmouth. Opening that up would be a major bad, so we have to stop these black robe bad guys from freeing her. Again, all this sounds incredibly familiar, as if I've gone through something like that before.

"What about this Willow woman?" I suddenly hear myself asking. "We can't just leave her ... stuck, can we?"

Everyone looks at me and I feel about half an inch tall. These are pros; they have been doing this for years. I've slayed exactly one vampire so far and didn't have a clue what I was doing while doing it. I don't look away, though. For some reason the thought of that poor woman remaining stuck in there ... I don't like it.

"Believe me, Diana," Angel finally says, his voice soft and silky, "we want to free Willow. She was our friend. We will do everything we can for her, but the first order of business is to ensure that her freedom doesn't lead to something catastrophic. If there is a way to free her without putting innocents in danger then we will do it. You can count on that."

I believe him. Something about his face, his voice, I just know that he's telling me the truth. I can also tell that this Willow woman really means a lot to many of the people here. I can almost imagine I know her simply by looking at their eyes.

After a minute or so of silence the planning gets underway again.

"I don't like this no-tech zone they seem to have erected around the high school," Finn grumbles as he goes over the maps. "We don't know how much it will affect our weapons."

"We can probably write off the stun-guns and tasers," Harris muses. "All the regular firearms should work fine, though. Mechanics and chemicals haven't failed us yet."

"I'm more worried about having to abandon our vehicles outside the main objective," Angel adds. "With that many vampires and demons in there we're going to need all the momentum we can get just to make it into the high school ruins." He stops a moment, something like a look of nostalgia coming onto his face. "I wish we had horses."

"Horses?" Finn asks, frowning heavily.

"Well, they wouldn't conk out on us halfway in," Xander admits. "But I doubt most of our people here even know how to ride."

Mr. Pryce, who has observed more or less quietly so far, shakes his head, sighing. "Six hundred people on horses charging into an unknown, probably lethal situation. I'm just as happy we're not going to do that. Bad precedent."

I'm sure I'm not the only one looking at him with a puzzled expression on my face.

"Just remembering a poem I read in school," he says.

Angel and some others seem to know what he is talking about, but I guess poetry isn't my strong suit, even if I could remember going to school. Well, whatever school America's fabulous social system managed to scrounge up for me. I wonder what kind of student I was.

"We need to get in fast and make sure we can get out again as well," Angel finally resumes the planning.

"We can create a corridor along main street using our armored vehicles," Riley points along the map. "We'll leave a pair of them behind every fifty meters or so to keep the fall-back route open. The difficult part will be once we enter that no-tech zone."

"We can put up some MG nests," Buzzcut adds. "Shouldn't be too difficult. I assume our super-powered people will take point."

Angel nods. "Faith and myself go in first with Diana as backup. Tara and the coven witches behind us with Xander, Gunn, Wesley, and I'd say a dozen others to provide flank support."

I am pretty sure the idea of being on point during a charge into a town full of vampires and demons should seriously freak me out. Maybe I should stop questioning why it doesn't. So far my instincts have saved me from a vampire and landed me a place among people that seem to be genuine heroes, if crazy and insane at times. Okay, I will trust my instincts from now on. If they say storming headfirst into that dust storm is a good idea, so be it.

Does that make me crazy, too? Well, when in Rome...

"Sir," someone calls out, causing all eyes to swivel towards him. A man in fatigues is coming toward the table, casually carrying a large rifle over his shoulder.

"What is it, private?" Finn asks.

"Sir, a vehicle is approaching. It does not seem to be one of the Angel Foundation vehicles and it certainly isn't one of ours."

Angel and Finn share a glance, both of them wondering no doubt who else could be coming to this party. We're in the middle of nowhere here and according to what Faith said most people don't even remember that there was a town here once.

"You expecting anyone, Amy?" Harris asks in a low voice.

"I came alone," she shakes her head.

Angel and Faith start for the edge of the impromptu camp, quickly followed by the rest of us. Seeing as said camp isn't too big we quickly arrive at the end of the road we came down on. A dust plume moves toward us and with a little eye squinting I can make out a car causing it. A black car. I think it's ... yes, it's a limousine.

"I don't like the looks of this," I hear Mr. Pryce mumble.

"What is it?" I whisper to Faith, not sure why all the people around me suddenly become nervous.

"There's only one group of people we know who drive limos, kid," she answers, her eyes locked onto the approaching vehicle, "and they're not friends."

Several soldiers have gone into position around us, rifles at the ready. Angel and Faith are positively bristling with energy and I can feel my own hackles rise, my entire body humming. I realize I'm clenching and unclenching my fists.

Something bad is about to happen. I can almost smell it in the air around us.

The car comes to a stop about ten meters away from the first line of soldiers. By now the twilight of dusk has almost faded and the only sources of light around us are the headlights of the various vehicles. Quite a few of them are currently turned towards the newcomers. The driver's side door opens and a man in a black suit steps out, hands raised above his head.

"Please don't shoot," he yells at us. I can almost see pearls of sweat on his face. "I'm just delivering something."

"From whom?" Finn barks back, a gun of his own lined up.

"Wolfram & Hart," the driver says, slowly walking around the car. "I'm going to open the door if that's all right with you people."

I'm not sure how I know that, but he's human. Not a demon, not a vampire, just human. I hope the people around me know that as well. I'm kind of on board with the whole demon killing thing, but machine guns don't discriminate between those and real people, I think. Everyone please stay cool!

"Go ahead! But no sudden moves!"

The driver moves almost in slow motion. When he finally reaches the door and begins to open it I'm about a second away from screaming at him to get a move on. He finally steps back and allows the passenger to step out.

Even before I see her all my senses are buzzing and some kind of voice inside me head seems to scream danger at me. Everyone around me tenses and when a head comes into view a dozen and more voices gasp, the air around me filled with disbelief.

I recognize that woman. I saw her in a vision while I was raiding a fridge for some early morning snacks.

"Hi, guys," Buffy Summers says. "Miss me?"

TO BE CONTINUED