Disclaimer: I don't own Angel, it's that simple.
A/N: Please review, if only to say that you read it.
Before Angel could reply to Belle's demand the voice of CEO of the London branch was heard.
"Belle, you know better than to give terms like that, especially to a CEO of a division," Jonathan Webber said as he walked in, surveying the damage.
"What are you doing here, Jonathan?" Belle asked angrily, still looking at Angel.
"I was called about the security breech," he continued to study the state of the area, "This is going to cost us."
"It's only a few broken windows, walls… and guards," Wynn muttered.
Mr. Webber looked over to a woman with raven hair that standing behind him, "Jennifer, many will see this as an omen. Make sure no one finds out about this."
"Sir, there is no way we can get someone to repair the damage before the banquet begins. I already checked."
He groaned, "Postpone it by a few hours. Please notify everyone attending."
She nodded and walked away, leaving Mr. Webber to deal with the problem in front of him.
"I'm sorry if the way Belle worded that statement made it appear that we didn't want anything to do with you if you made a decision. You are welcome to the banquet, actually you must come to the banquet. I'm not wasting all that money for your hotel. You may work with Mr. Rupert Giles…but if you find his resources limited, you may come here… for a price though,"
Belle glared at her boss, he was the only one that could override her authority, and it was visible that she hated it. Giles however was very entertained by seeing Belle being put in her place.
"Thank you," Angel reluctantly replied and walked out of the building, followed by the others. Wynn stayed behind for a minute looking around, I imagine seeing if Jo was anywhere nearby, but she wasn't. The Welsh woman sighed and continued.
"What's the Dark Mist?" Angel asked as they were walking on the pavement.
"What happened?" Giles answered with another question.
Angel took a long and unnecessary breath but before he could speak Spike did.
"Wesley died and Fred got possessed by it. So what is it," he said bluntly.
"Oh…I'm terribly sorry, he was a good man," he was obviously taken back by the news, "Well, The Dark Mist, also called The First's Child—"
"Wait a second, who would bang The First," Wynn commented.
Giles rolled his eyes, "It's called The First's Child because it was the first thing The First created,"
"So, it's like The Second?" an American girl with short, chin-length, golden hair almost giggled in her Southern accent.
"I suppose you could think of it like that Marci, " Giles replied, not entirely sure if she had been sincere or it had been a sarcastic remark.
"Let's not talk about this here, I'm sure they can still hear us," Wynn gestured to the large building.
"Where is Fred?" Giles asked.
"At St. Christopher's Hospital,"
"Where is that?"
"Just follow me," Angel replied as he climbed into his rental car.
Spike and Gunn did the same, and for some reason so did Wynn. She observed the strange look she received.
"What? You think I want be stuck in that tiny thing again?" she cocked her head over the Giles' automobile.
Angel looked to Giles through the window, who nodded. He pulled out, and tried to get away from the London division as fast as he could. Silence filled the car, but Wynn broke it.
"Aren't you William the Bloody?" Wynn said, sounding frightening close to Belle.
"I swear, what's with you people, I haven't call myself by that name for ages,"
"I had a dream about you when I was thirteen," Wynn stated, as she fiddled with her fang necklace. She wasn't in a hurry to clarify that comment, I think she enjoyed it when everyone was squirming a little.
"What was up with that Jo girl?" Gunn asked, trying to change the subject.
"She thinks the world suck and she has no chance of redemption, because she killed a man."
"It's not her fault, she probably didn't know her own strength."
"She killed him before she was a slayer… he tried to rape her and they got into a fight and according to the court she used 'unnecessary' force. She got sent to jail and when she received her slayer strength she broke out," Wynn explained.
Silence filled the car. It always seemed that slayers ended up having horrible pasts, and then being the slayer, or now, a slayer made things worse.
Soon they were there, and as we walked down the hallway, Giles told the slayers to wait outside. Spike gave him a brief description on what Fred had said back in the hotel. While he was doing so, I entered the room through the wall, but Fred wasn't in her bed. I looked around, but she wasn't in there at all. The others soon saw what I did. Suddenly, Nancy came in and a frown came upon her face.
"You're too late," she said. Those words sent chills down everyone spines. Where was Fred? Spike's fear quickly turned into assumptions and anger.
He shoved Nancy against the wall, causing her to drop her clipboard.
"What did you do to her? Where is she?" He asked as he used his forearm to choke the older nurse.
"I didn't do anything, she just was taken to a private room," Nancy managed to squeeze out.
Spike immediately released her, realizing that she could probably have him kicked out in a second now. Wynn came into to the room, drawn by the activity like a moth to a light. Her face became stone when she saw Nancy, and vices versa.
"Wynn," Nancy said simply as she straightened out her uniform.
"Nice to see you too, Mum," she answered back.
Spike's jaw dropped slightly, and everyone else was shocked, even Giles.
"Are these friends of yours?" Nancy eyed the blonde vampire.
"Just acquaintances,"
There was an awkward, and almost angry, silence. It was apparent that the two of them hadn't ended on the best of terms.
"Well, Wynn, please take them out of here to Room 248. That is where Winifred Burkle is," Nancy stated as she hastily exited, visibly upset by seeing her daughter again.
Wynn remained silence, as the others went to that new room. They didn't see but a solitary tear slid down her pale face. She quickly wiped it away, and walked out.
I went to Room 248, and sure enough there was Fred, soundly asleep. She looked so peacefully, and I'm sure no one wanted to break that but this was important. Angel slowly went over to her side, and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Fred, wake up," he said softly. Her eyelids gradually opened, and then almost in panic she checked her surroundings. She sat up and sighed.
"Damn," she said so quiet that probably only Angel and Spike could hear her.
"What?" Angel said confused.
"I was hoping that it all had been just a nightmare,"
Angel nodded, knowing what she meant. Giles approached her.
"Fred can you please tell about what happened with you and the Dark Mist," he said.
Fred shot a glare at Spike, but it took him a while to figure out why.
"Don't worry, love, I'll keep my promise…only once. He wants to know about what happened in the hotel room, not the crash."
"Oh," she looked to Giles, "After the crash, I felt cold, but I thought it was just because… of what happened. But it got colder and colder, like I was caught in an Alaskan blizzard… no worse than that. It was gradually, no sudden burst of winds like in a snowstorm. My perception was changing, it was moving forward, but I didn't really pay attention. I had other things on my mind…" she trailed off again.
Why was she so afraid to talk about my death? Was it about what happened last time she did, in the hotel room?
"Please go on,"
"When Spike started asking the questions, I didn't want to answer. Every time I thought about what happened before the crash, it got colder faster. Like it didn't want me to talk, but Spike was so convincing, how could one time hurt me?"
Guilt washed over his face, "Sorry, I didn't know."
"Don't be, it was going to come out sooner or later… I feel myself losing control, being pushed out, my insides being roughed along the way… but when Spike held up that picture, I could go back in, and my insides seemed to be put back fall back into place, not completely though. I guess that why there was some internal bleeding."
"So it try to take over your body,"
Fred nodded.
"She left out a part," Spike said, "When I held up Wes' picture he, his ghost I mean, was able to pull it, the Dark Mist, out of her… I think"
"How did you know to do that anyway?" Angel inquired.
"A little birdie told me, Peaches,"
"Seriously Spike, " Giles cleaned his glasses, "how did you know?"
He shrugged, "As strange as it may sound, it was instinctive."
Giles rubbed his temples, "This isn't good, not good at all."
"What is it?" Angel sat down on a nearby bench. This room was much nice than the previous one, with its seating, calming décor and large TV with a DVD player. I wondered why Fred was moved here, Angel hadn't asked for this or at least I never saw him. Besides if he had, he would have known that she wasn't in Room 401 anymore.
"While the First created the Dark Mist much like itself however it could affect people physically. At the same time, it's indestructible. Many eons ago, The First and it came very close to ending the world but they were stopped when a group witches and warlocks using all energy in the Champions and therefore killing them, dispersing the particles of Dark Mist throughout every dimension, plane, and corner of the universe. If I'm correct, patches of it are reforming, but we have a chance of stopping it without losing any Champions since it's not at full strength,"
"How do we know it's not at full strength?" Spike asked.
"All the patches would be joined together and cover all of London. Also you would die by just walking in to it. "
"And it picked the one place on the planet where it's normal to have that amount of fog. No one would notice it reforming," Angel stared at the floor.
"But it, or at least a patch of it, messed up with Wesley. It tried to enter so fast that all his organs shut down, at the same time pushing him out of his body. The other patch trying to get into Fred did it slower, so that her body processes wouldn't stop."
"What makes you think it was an entirely different patch trying to get into Fred, maybe it was the same one." Gunn suggested.
Before Giles could reply the American girl walked in, "Mr. Giles, Wynn is reciting Sex Pistols lyrics again and-" she stopped when she saw Fred, "Oh My GOD, is that you Fred, Fred Burkle!"
Fred studied the girl for a moment and the excitement washed over her face, "Marci Clifton? The same Marci I babysitted for?"
"The one and only. So how did you end up here, I mean London," she replied, reminding me of Harmony… if Harmony was Texan.
"Gala, how did end up here?"
"Well, I got into Oxford,"
"That's great, you always wanted to go there,"
"Yeah, and then six months ago I got really strong and it ends up I am a slayer. At first I was really freaked out but Mr. Giles found me and everything been good since."
"Wow, that explain why you could always open those pickle jars so easy,"
"Marci, do you mind?" Giles said, becoming agitated.
"No, not at all," she said clueless as she place herself in a chair.
Giles sighed, "What was I saying before."
"Why you think it was two different patches," Gunn repeated.
"Ah yes. It had to be two patches because that patch of the Mist is trapped inside…Wesley's body, even though it's no longer function…though it could probably get the body to work again with the help of some magic. "
"Is there any way that patch can get out of the body?" Angel asked somberly.
"I'm sure if the body is cut open it could get out… oh dear, the morgue-"
"Don't worry about it, she's too tired to do an autopsy," Spike said.
"What?" Fred said very confused, but not nearly as confused as Marci.
"Well that phone call was from the London Morgue. This lady was asking me all these question on whether Wesley had any heart problems because it 'appeared' that he didn't died from the crash. When I said no she told me she would just put down the crash as the cause of death, because she didn't want to do another autopsy," he explained.
Giles looked at him, " You've been away here for too long. You really thought that a British woman would give up that easily!"
"No true scientist gives up that quick," Fred commented.
"She probably is under the influence of The First, maybe even able to do the magic required to allow the Mist to use the body again. We have to get there quick," Angel stood up and put on his coat. Gunn turned to the doorway but stopped in his tracks. There was someone standing there that he didn't expect to see…it was me.
Next time: Someone very close to Fred attacks her and the group discovers Wesley's terrible fate from an unlikely source.