Timeline: Mid season 4, just before 'Apocalypse Nowish.' Just allow a bit more time for these events to happen hehe.
Kate looked across the car at Connor.
"
You're looking a bit better," she said.
"
I'm a fast healer," replied Connor.
They drove a fair distance before either of them spoke again.
"
Look, it's none of my business, but what were you doing fighting that
thing?" Kate asked.
"
It's what I do," said Connor simply.
"
Oh, man," chuckled Kate.
"
What?"
"
You kinda remind me of someone I used to know. He was all mysterious and noble,
too."
"
What happened?"
Kate gazed thoughtfully for a moment. "He saved my life, and I haven't
seen him since."
"
Oh." Connor thought for a moment. "Why not?"
"
Because sometimes people just go their separate ways. Doesn't mean anything's
happened or not happened between them…they just move on."
She pulled the car over.
"
Alright, I'm assuming you aren't your regular, run-of-the-mill
guy off the street, so if I do this -" She leaned across the car and
pressed a cross on the side of his face. Shocked, he grabbed hold of her arm
but didn't move the cross away; at the last second realising what she
was checking. After a few seconds of checking for smoke and burning she released
the cross.
"
Good, at least I don't have to dust another one…"
Connor suddenly wanted to get out of the car.
"
Look, maybe we can help each other. I need to dump this car, too many people
will have seen it and with that dent they'll be able to trace me through
the trail of witnesses alone. You interested?"
For some reason, he stayed put. He nodded.
"
Don't talk much do you Connor?"
He shook his head.
"
Well, okay…" She pulled out into the traffic flow, to wherever
the night may take them.
"Oh, my head…" groaned Lorne. He was propped up in bed sporting
all kinds of scratches and bruises.
"
What happened back there, Lorne?" asked Fred, who along with Angel and
Gunn were upstairs while Wesley hacked the body of the demon up in the basement.
"
Well, I was doing a reading on an old friend of mine, real nice singing voice – it's
a wonder she hasn't gone professional, actually – and all of a
sudden this enormous brute wanders in, kills a couple of her clientele and
gives me the strangest look…"
He paused for a moment.
Angel waited for a second, and then said, "Is that all?"
"
Yes, actually, then I woke up back here," said Lorne, with only the slightest
air of anticlimax.
"
Great," muttered Gunn. "Which leaves us exactly at square one."
"
Not exactly, my fellow vanquisher of all things evil and slimy," continued
Lorne with a smile. "Now, normally I can only read things when they sing
to me…but this was something else. This demon has become so attuned to
the psychic world…it has to feed on psychic energy itself. Not just any
old psychic energy, mind, but that extra special type of energy which you can
normally find in situations which are anything but."
"…
Anything but what?"
Lorne gave Angel a puzzled look. "Normal."
"
Oh."
"
Energy like what?" asked Fred.
"
Like the kind humans make when they experience emotion that goes beyond anything
they've experienced before; that makes them lose conscious control of
themselves."
Angel snapped his fingers. "Like the terror that kid must have been feeling."
Lorne had been brought up to speed on the situation, and pointed at Angel. "Bingo."
"
Lilah must've been using him as bait to get to the demon, try and bargain
with it…" said Angel, mostly to himself.
"
There's more, kiddo," said Lorne. "They can also feed off
other beings which produce any kind of psychic energy."
"
Like you," said Gunn. Lorne just nodded.
"
So you're like…an all you can eat buffet?" asked Fred.
"
Yeah, if it wasn't trying to tear me limb from limb it probably could've
fed off me for months," said Lorne. Then he thought for a moment. "Now
that I think about it, I can't decide which one of those things is worse."
"
Alright, so it goes to where psychic demons are, right?"
Lorne nodded at Angel.
"
And to where humans are feeling intense emotions?"
"
That's right, Angel cakes."
"
Okay, now we're getting somewhere," enthused Gunn, obviously tired
of sitting around and waiting.
"
You said that you could read the demon before, right Lorne?" asked Fred.
"
Yeah, I did. And I've gotta say, I've read some pretty messed up
members of the underworld in my time…but this has to be one of the worst."
He was suddenly serious, a rare sight for Lorne.
"
It's smarter than it looks, it's relentless and it's not
gonna stop until it gets what it wants."
"
And what's that?"
"
To kill us all."
Wesley had wandered in.
"
Well, hopefully it won't come to that. There's only a maximum of
four in the city and we've already dispatched one of them."
"
It's done then?" asked Angel, and Wesley nodded in reply.
"
I think the most prudent course of action is to get back onto the streets and
hunt the remaining Sha'Tan'Uo demons."
"
Yeah, me too."
They wandered out into the hallway, leaving Lorne to rest.
"
Alright, Gunn; you and Fred should stay here and make sure it's business
as usual at Angel Investigations, take any house calls, and make sure Lorne
is feeling alright. If the Sha'Tan'Uos are causing as much havoc
out there as Lorne says they're capable of, then you'll probably
be headed back onto the streets anyway. Me and Wes'll take the car and
hunt don the rest of the big boys."
Gunn didn't look too happy with the decision. "Look, Angel, I should
be going out with you, not him. What if –"
Angel put a hand on his shoulder. "Gunn…it'll be okay."
Gunn nodded and stormed off down the corridor.
Fred stood a moment longer, then said, "I should probably…" and
then followed him.
Wesley started talking to Angel as though nothing had happened. "We should
start with the locales of any psychic demons we know of, see if they know anything
or…"
"…
If they're dead?" Angel finished. Wesley nodded.
They started down the corridor.
"
Are you sure we couldn't have taken Gunn along?" asked Wesley.
"
I need him here, taking calls, seeing to Lorne…he's the only one
capable of taking a Sha'Tan'Uo if another one turns up here now
that…"
"…
Now that I've gone?" Angel nodded. "Alright, I understand."
They walked the remainder of the distance in silence.
Kate and Connor walked along the road, heading back to her place to crash
for the night. Kate glanced at Connor.
"
You really are a fast healer, aren't you?"
"
Yeah."
"
Well, you're not a vampire, so what gives?"
Connor paused for a moment. "I'm the son of two vampires."
Kate stopped walking. "That's not possible."
Connor turned to face her. "Well, here I am." She picked up on
the hurt in his voice.
"
I'm sorry; it just caught me by surprise is all. I'm sort of new
to this whole demon-fighting thing. I was under the impression that vampires
couldn't have children."
"
They can't, normally. Which makes me a freak."
He turned around and started walking again. Kate hurried to catch up with him.
"
Well, I for one am glad you're a freak."
Connor glanced at her. Normally people tried to convince him that he wasn't
a freak of nature, not be glad of the fact he was one.
"
Why's that?"
"
Because otherwise I'd have to drag you home. Or, more likely, you'd
be dead. I know I would be with the beating you took earlier. But with all
of that super-strength and healing, here you are."
Connor thought about that point. He was pretty good at what he did, and without
his...unique skills, he would've been dead long before tonight.
"
So what about you?" he asked, bringing himself back to the here and now.
"
Me? I'm a disgraced cop who loves the law too much to leave it in the
hands of the jerks still on the force. I can't do my job the way I did
before…so now I handle the side of the law that the others know nothing
about."
"
You mean fighting demons?"
She considered that. "Not exactly. I'm what you'd call a
vigilante I guess. I sort out problems that normal people have that they can't
take to the authorities."
"
But how do you know how to solve them if there aren't any rules to hold
you in place?"
She chuckled. "I ask myself that very same question myself every single
day. And the answer I always come up with is; if I can't sleep at night
then I'm doing something wrong."
"
So how do you generally sleep?"
She smiled. "Like a baby."
They wandered on a bit further without talking, and then they started down
the street Kate said she was living on.
A roar echoed in the distance.
Connor automatically went into a defensive position, and Kate put her hand
on her pistol.
"
I dropped that thing, it can't still be alive."
"
It could be another one." The roar echoed again. "Or maybe you
didn't kill it."
"
Dammit," whispered Kate. She started down the street at a jog.
"
Where are you going?" called Connor, who started after her.
"
I have to finish it off!"
Connor shook his head and just followed her, surprised at how well she followed
the direction of the sounds of whatever the creature was.
Gunfire joined the sounds of the demon howling as they approached the vicinity
of whatever was going on.
Then a person in full body armour and a semi-automatic flew out onto the street,
neck bent at an impossible angle.
Kate sprinted down to the street corner the body had flown from and glanced
quickly around the corner, Connor right behind her.
"
Damn…" she whispered. She nodded her head and moved so Connor could
look, and he did so.
Soldiers were firing on two of the demons he had fought before; one of them
was still full of bullet holes. They were being slaughtered; corpses lay at
all angles around the street, soldiers and civilians alike. A humvee lay on
its side, and several people were taking cover behind it, one of whom being
a woman in a business suit, looking very out of place, barking into a cell
phone.
Parts of the demons bodies were appearing and disappearing, avoiding the bullets
being fired at them by the soldiers. Every time a human was killed, the demon
that killed them glowed faintly and attacked with a renewed strength.
The soldiers were fighting a losing battle and they knew it. They started to
back towards the humvee, when another rounded the corner and speeded toward
the demons. Men poured from the back of it and started to take on the demons
again, and the woman made a run for the new vehicle, accompanied by a few soldiers.
The humvee took off down the road, leaving the men behind.
Kate ducked low and moved around the corner towards the melee. Connor ghosted
behind her. He noticed a man standing, shaking, behind the overturned car.
One of the demons was now scything through the men, swinging its arms wildly,
obviously becoming more and more powerful with each life it took.
Kate stopped and glanced back at Connor.
"
I don't know how we're going to end this one…"
Connor smiled grimly. "I think I might."
Angel rounded another corner. They hadn't seen any supernatural activity
at all, not even a simple vampire.
"
I don't understand it…" he muttered.
"
Maybe the demon underworld's staying put because of the new arrivals," suggested
Wesley, guessing the reason Angel was feeling frustrated.
"
Yeah, maybe. I keep thinking of what Cordy's so afraid of, though. Whether
this is the thing we have to stop."
"
I doubt a few demons, as capable as they are at causing havoc, would frighten
Cordelia into hiding away."
Angel smiled. "True."
He glanced quickly around the car, checking for remains of demon that might
remain.
Wesley caught him. "Angel, the blood evaporated and the pieces of flesh
dissolved, there's nothing left in here."
"
Yeah, I know…I just had to -" he stopped, listening intently.
"
What is it?" asked Wesley, fully aware Angel possessed much better hearing
than him.
"
Gunfire," was the reply, and he swung the car to head towards the sounds.
Wesley once again produced the shotgun seemingly from thin air, and began to
check it over. Angel glanced over but didn't ask him where it had been
hidden again.
The roaring of a Sha'Tan'Uo became increasingly evident.
Suddenly a humvee shot across the intersection ahead of them and Angel had
to swerve hard to avoid it. They rounded the corner to see two of the demons
fighting a group of heavily armed soldiers.
"
Wolfram and Hart?" asked Angel, and Wesley just shrugged.
They headed down the street.
Connor ran over to a downed soldier and removed his weapon.
"
Do you have a specific idea in mind or were you just planning on general suicide?" asked
Kate. "You can't take those things on; they've just killed
a small army!"
Connor didn't reply, he just aimed the pistol at the power cable above
the street and fired. It shot loose of the wall and snapped down onto the concrete.
Connor removed the soldiers' gloves, put them on and grabbed the cable.
A kid made a run from behind a turned over humvee down the street towards
them, and one of the demons broke into a run after him.
Wesley reached across Angel and yanked the steering wheel to the side, pulling
onto the other side of the road and facing the wall to their left. Angel slammed
onto the brakes.
"
What the hell are you doing?" he cried.
Wesley cocked the shotgun.
Justin couldn't feel his legs, yet they kept running beneath him. He
could hear that thing chasing him behind him. He wanted to stop when the car
pulled in front of him, but most of his body wouldn't respond to his
brain any more.
The window of the car wound down, and someone yelled, "Get down!" from
inside.
Somehow, he managed to throw one of his legs out of sync with the other one,
causing him to crash down onto the concrete.
The barrel of a gun poked out of the window above Justin and fired at the demon,
sending it staggering backwards.
The car door opened.
"
Get him into the car," called the newcomer. He leaped at the demon, starting
to fight with it.
Two hands picked him up and hauled him into the back seat of the car.
"
Stay here," an English voice told him, and Justin passed out.
Wesley checked to see if the kid was dead, found he was just unconscious and
grabbed the shotgun from the front seat. He turned to see Angel battling with
the Sha'Tan'Uo and headed to help him.
"
Angel!" he called, and Angel threw himself to the ground. He fired the
shotgun, but the demon phased away for a brief second, its body turning into
a green mist where the shrapnel would have hit it.
"
Great," he muttered, tossing the shotgun to ground. He flicked his wrist
and the sword collapsed to full length. "Let's do this the old
fashioned way."