Chapter 7
"You know, maybe we should have made this place into an accounting firm," said Xander. "Dress in three-piece suits, carry calculators, do tax work. Something a little less dangerous, we're really asking for it being in the do-gooding business."
Most of the people in the board room ignored Xander's flippancy. Willow, however, responded with a smile. She knew that Xander's defense mechanism was his joking and it was comforting to know that it was still intact considering the situation that they were apparently about to enter.
"All right," Wesley said. "If Leonard is telling the truth then we are in a great deal of danger. The question is do we believe him?"
"And why wouldn't we?" asked Buffy.
"Well his story sounds like he's being forthright with us, but I'm not entirely sure how much we can trust it."
"Why would he lie?" Everyone looked at Buffy. "I know, I know, someone evil could be using him against us, but this is a little too simple for any master villain."
"It's not just that. " Angel speaking like this came as a surprise. He tried to explain."You just don't develop something as powerful as the gift of foresight without any physical consequences. The way he's telling us, he got it as a gift when he turned twenty-one. Now maybe I've gotten rusty, but I didn't sense any demon coming off him; did you Lorne?"
Leonard had refused to sing and allow himself to be read. When they had pressed him, saying it would help clear things up, he had replied by saying: "If you don't trust me now, I don't think my singing 'Ol' Man River' is gonna make things better."
"Of course, I can't tell for sure without a chorus, but I'm pretty sure that there's nothing demony about him," Lorne said.
"There is precedent for being able to receive visions without having any demon parts," said Fred. Everyone turned to her in surprise.
"What? Why haven't we heard about this before?" said Gunn.
"Because most of the sources on this are from Christian texts," said Wesley. . Works which talk about men who have the ability to hear the voice of God."
"You're saying that this guy is some kind of new Moses or Jesus?"asked Buffy. "Maybe I'm rusty on my religion, but last I checked prophets weren't born in Sunnydale ."
"I don't know why. Everything else seemed to grow there." said Xander.
"Another thing is that generally a power of this magnitude appears in previous generations. To go from book seller to prophet isn't the kind of thing that just happens." said Giles.
"Maybe it does." Everyone turned towards Fred again. "I mean, he said that his uncle suffered some kind of mental breakdown around the time that he was the same age. Maybe he had the gift of foresight, but it was diagnosed as a schizophrenic episode." "That's a hell of an assumption to make on one remark." said Buffy. Wesley looked at Buffy curiously. "Why are you fighting this so much?" "Excuse me?" "Vampires and demons don't phase you. But a man tells you heard God's voice and you think he's certifiable. Why does it bother you?" Buffy turned toward Wesley. "Let me ask you.: Given every thing that has happened over the past two years, do you believe in God?" There was a long silence from the former Watcher. He just looked at Buffy for a long time before finally dropping his eyes.
"We're getting bogged down by theology," said Robin. "There's a more important issue here. " "Which is?" asked Faith. "Lets say that he has the gift of foresight. Someone of his abilities would be a benefit to somebody. Why on earth would someone send the Order of Taraka after him?"
"Well if what he is telling us is true, the people who would benefit the most from his visions are us," said Willow, "and we've pissed off our fair share of people."
"Why are you all playing around what's happening?" The group turned to Andrew in shock. He hadn't said a thing since arriving in the conference room with Fred nearly an hour earlier. No one knew why Fred had unilaterally decided that he should be a part of this meeting, but Willow knew that she wasn't entirely comfortable with him in the room. Nobody had expected him to talk, and certainly no one had expected him to be this hostile.
As if sensing the open hostility, Andrew tried to sink into the background much. For a brief moment it seemed as if everybody was going to just forget that he had spoken.
"Dance around," Faith finally said.
Andrew appeared to be nonplussed. "Great. You have a problem of this magnitude, instead we're quibbling over semantics."
"Andrew--" Fred started.
"I'll just say this and then you can all throw me out of here. Leonard has visions in which you all play a central role: it seems pretty clear that he could be a big help to us. Someone on the outside knows this and has targeted him for death. And it doesn't take a super-nerd to figure out that Wolfram and Hart is probably behind it all."
"And how did you reach that particular conclusion?" Wesley seemed to be the only one capable of speech.
"Think about it. They as much as anyone else represent pure evil; you're the good guys. You all get killed, evil wins and darkness comes that much closer to taking over the planet." Andrew paused to let all this sink in. "But even if none of this were true, what difference does it make? As it says on your business cards, you help the helpless. This man qualifies. You may not like what Leonard is saying, but it doesn't change anything. At least grant him that courtesy."
For a long moment, nobody said anything. Even Andrew seemed somewhat shocked at his outburst and again tried to fade into the walls.
"Ok, first of all, where did you learn to speak like that?" said Buffy. " "Were you channeling William Shatner or Patrick Stewart?"
"It's the right thing to say. Doesn't matter who said it." .
"He's right." Everyone turned to Xander. "I agree with Andrew one hundred percent, and damn you for creating a situation where this would ever be possible."
There was another long pause. "When you put it that way" said Wesley," I guess we don't have much of a choice as to what to do."
There was a general agreement. Then suddenly everybody began glancing at Willow. Everyone knew the history between her and Andrew, and no one really wanted to agree with something he said without her consent.
Willow looked directly at him. Then she walked across the room.. "When did you develop such good powers of speech?"
Andrew seemed a little surprised, then smiled. "Everybody grows up eventually." The two of them looked at each other for a moment, and Willow realized that the boy she had tried to kill only a year ago was gone. The accelerated maturation process that had affected all of the Scoobies had finally reached him.
"All right. I guess we're helping Leonard," said Angel. As everyone nodded approval, he asked: "Little question, how do we help him?"
"Well obviously we have to protect him from the Order of Taraka," said Fred.
"And how do we do that?" asked Giles" The Order is not some monster that we can fight and kill. We are talking about an army of hitmen that can basically disguise themselves as anyone they choose."
"Yeah, those last two attempts showed a lot of subtlety," said Xander.
"If I had to guess, those were just warnings," said Wesley. "From the readings, those who work for the Order of Taraka are known for their guile and their intensity. They are more than willing to give their lives to destroy their target, and they will never stop hunting Leonard unless we convince whoever is responsible to take off the hit."
"Which, since we don't know for sure who is responsible, could make it fairly difficult to figure out who to beat up," said Buffy.
For a moment the difficulty of the situation seemed to leave everyone at a loss. Then suddenly Willow was struck by an inspiration. She was about to mention it when Fred piped up. "I've got an idea!" When everybody turned to her, Fred blushed a little. "Well, more of a notion than an idea. Actually it's kind of a concept with a practical application..."
"Fred, you've really got to pull it together when you have something to say," said Buffy.
"You're right. Okay, here goes. Willow, when you were in
Sunnydale you cast a lot of locator spells. Trying to find people and potential Slayers and such."
Willow nodded. She had an idea where Fred was going.
"Well, why don't we use a modified version of a locator spell to track down members of the Order of Taraka. "said Fred. "If they're in L.A. --- and the way they've been tracking Leonard, you gotta figure that they're close--- maybe a spell would tell us where to find them.".
They all pondered this for a second. "That's a good idea, Fred." said Giles. "But there are a couple of problems. First, members of the Order could be demon or human. Without any real idea as to what were looking for will make it difficult to cast the right spell."
"And even if we could get it right, most locator spells only tell you where someone is within the radius of a few miles," added Wesley.
"Couldn't we modify the spell somehow?" asked Xander.
"We'd need some kind of personal possession in order to pull it off," said Giles.
"But we have one." Now they all turned to Faith. "That ring that Leonard took of the Mohra demon."
They all considered this. "Willow, do you think that this would be enough to work with?" asked Wes.
"Well if we could change the incantation from one that traces the wearer into anybody who might wear something with this insignia." Willow thought. "I think it might work. Unless..."
":Can't we find a way to eliminate that word from our vocabulary?" said Gunn. Willow ignored him.
"Is it possible that they might have some way of distorting magic?"
Angel shook his head. "No, the Order of Taraka doesn't believe in cloaking spells or for that matter camouflage. They hide themselves only when it suits their purposes."
"Then maybe we can pull this off." Buffy looked to Wesley and then to Angel. For a moment, there was awkwardness. For all of the work that they done the past month, they had yet to lead some kind of action against a viable threat, and no one was quite sure who was in charge.
Wesley spoke: "Willow, get your magic materials together. We need to prepare a modified locator spell for Los Angeles. We've got to be precise enough to find the exact location."
"I'm on it."
Buffy turned to Gunn. "Gunn, get a couple of Slayers together. The Order of Taraka can be tricky, so choose the best ones."
"Gotcha." Gunn turned around. "Faith."
"You want me?" A very strange expression crossed Gunn's face before she added: "To help you."
Whatever expression had been there was gone. "These assassins sound like trouble. I think we need all the firepower that we can handle." He turned to Buffy. "After we load up, you'll know where to go?"
Buffy nodded and turned to her left facing Angel. "I think we have to make the assumption that were going to find more than one assassin."
"You're probably right. Who else do you want to send out?"
Buffy hesitated for a moment. "Me." Again they all looked to the blonde slayer in surprise.
Willow spoke first. "You sure about this Buffy? : I mean you haven't fought a demon in a few weeks."
"I know that. But it's like riding a bike."
"Buffy you never successfully rode a bike in your life." Buffy glared at Dawn who had been quiet until now.--- something she wouldn't have minded her doing more often. She ignored her sister who was now grinning at her own wit..
"Besides, I've fought the Order before and beaten them. I need to be out there." "You're not doing this by yourself," said Angel. He was trying to sound unconcerned but there wasn't a person in the board room who didn't know the subtext. "I'm coming with you."
There was a long pause. "Angel...."
"It's just demon fighting. We've done it a hundred times before. We can do it now."
Buffy seemed to ponder this for a second longer "All right. But this is a group thing. Robin, Fred you're both coming too."
"Gotcha."
"OK." Both spoke quickly, neither quite sure what they were getting into.
Buffy then turned to her right.. "Xander, take a Slayer you trust and get Leonard. I need you to get him somewhere safe."
"Like this massive building isn't secure enough?"
"There are too many people here. The Order's bold, and they're definitely not afraid of the frontal assault. If they come here people might get hurt."
Xander nodded. "Lorne." The demon turned. "We're going to take Leonard to Caritas."
"Okay..." Lorne said slowly. "Don't take this the wrong way but I'm not wild about inviting another 'guest' there, especially when they're still working out the kinks in the anti-violence spells. Why can't we hide them in the Hyperion ?"
"Lorne, Caritas is a closed off location that we know about and that we can secure easily." Xander spoke as if he had been the one going there for three years, instead of the people of Angel Investigations. Given what she had heard of what had happened there before, Willow could understand Lorne's trepidation. "The Hyperion is too large and has too many points of entry. We need a smaller location."
The green demon sighed "You're right. Well let's hope this is the one night of the year that roving street gangs don't stage a home invasion." He and Xander started out to the door.
"What's my job?" asked Dawn.
"You're not going to like it." said Buffy
"I'm a big girl. I can take it,"
"I need you to take the other Slayers and handle any of the other business that comes in. There are a few other things that need the attention of somebody, and you are as well qualified as anyone to do it."
Dawn looked at her somewhat surprised "Buffy, I..."
"Dawn," Giles spoke up, "this is a great responsibility. We're asking you to take control of the business of Angel-Slayer, Inc. For a few hours you're going to be helping us a great deal."
Dawn immediately brightened. "Okay. Thanks."
"Just try not to set fire to the building." quipped Buffy.
"All right, let's get moving." said Angel and started to the door
"Wait!" Everyone stopped and looked at Buffy. "One last thing: I don't know if the assassins will be working together or alone, but try to leave one of them alive."
There was some sounds of disapproval and cries of "Why?"
"We need to find out who set them on Leonard in the first place. But more than that, we need to send a message to the Order of Taraka. I don't think a corpse will be enough. We need someone breathing who can tell those in charge who's running the show."
"You know, maybe we should have made this place into an accounting firm," said Xander. "Dress in three-piece suits, carry calculators, do tax work. Something a little less dangerous, we're really asking for it being in the do-gooding business."
Most of the people in the board room ignored Xander's flippancy. Willow, however, responded with a smile. She knew that Xander's defense mechanism was his joking and it was comforting to know that it was still intact considering the situation that they were apparently about to enter.
"All right," Wesley said. "If Leonard is telling the truth then we are in a great deal of danger. The question is do we believe him?"
"And why wouldn't we?" asked Buffy.
"Well his story sounds like he's being forthright with us, but I'm not entirely sure how much we can trust it."
"Why would he lie?" Everyone looked at Buffy. "I know, I know, someone evil could be using him against us, but this is a little too simple for any master villain."
"It's not just that. " Angel speaking like this came as a surprise. He tried to explain."You just don't develop something as powerful as the gift of foresight without any physical consequences. The way he's telling us, he got it as a gift when he turned twenty-one. Now maybe I've gotten rusty, but I didn't sense any demon coming off him; did you Lorne?"
Leonard had refused to sing and allow himself to be read. When they had pressed him, saying it would help clear things up, he had replied by saying: "If you don't trust me now, I don't think my singing 'Ol' Man River' is gonna make things better."
"Of course, I can't tell for sure without a chorus, but I'm pretty sure that there's nothing demony about him," Lorne said.
"There is precedent for being able to receive visions without having any demon parts," said Fred. Everyone turned to her in surprise.
"What? Why haven't we heard about this before?" said Gunn.
"Because most of the sources on this are from Christian texts," said Wesley. . Works which talk about men who have the ability to hear the voice of God."
"You're saying that this guy is some kind of new Moses or Jesus?"asked Buffy. "Maybe I'm rusty on my religion, but last I checked prophets weren't born in Sunnydale ."
"I don't know why. Everything else seemed to grow there." said Xander.
"Another thing is that generally a power of this magnitude appears in previous generations. To go from book seller to prophet isn't the kind of thing that just happens." said Giles.
"Maybe it does." Everyone turned towards Fred again. "I mean, he said that his uncle suffered some kind of mental breakdown around the time that he was the same age. Maybe he had the gift of foresight, but it was diagnosed as a schizophrenic episode." "That's a hell of an assumption to make on one remark." said Buffy. Wesley looked at Buffy curiously. "Why are you fighting this so much?" "Excuse me?" "Vampires and demons don't phase you. But a man tells you heard God's voice and you think he's certifiable. Why does it bother you?" Buffy turned toward Wesley. "Let me ask you.: Given every thing that has happened over the past two years, do you believe in God?" There was a long silence from the former Watcher. He just looked at Buffy for a long time before finally dropping his eyes.
"We're getting bogged down by theology," said Robin. "There's a more important issue here. " "Which is?" asked Faith. "Lets say that he has the gift of foresight. Someone of his abilities would be a benefit to somebody. Why on earth would someone send the Order of Taraka after him?"
"Well if what he is telling us is true, the people who would benefit the most from his visions are us," said Willow, "and we've pissed off our fair share of people."
"Why are you all playing around what's happening?" The group turned to Andrew in shock. He hadn't said a thing since arriving in the conference room with Fred nearly an hour earlier. No one knew why Fred had unilaterally decided that he should be a part of this meeting, but Willow knew that she wasn't entirely comfortable with him in the room. Nobody had expected him to talk, and certainly no one had expected him to be this hostile.
As if sensing the open hostility, Andrew tried to sink into the background much. For a brief moment it seemed as if everybody was going to just forget that he had spoken.
"Dance around," Faith finally said.
Andrew appeared to be nonplussed. "Great. You have a problem of this magnitude, instead we're quibbling over semantics."
"Andrew--" Fred started.
"I'll just say this and then you can all throw me out of here. Leonard has visions in which you all play a central role: it seems pretty clear that he could be a big help to us. Someone on the outside knows this and has targeted him for death. And it doesn't take a super-nerd to figure out that Wolfram and Hart is probably behind it all."
"And how did you reach that particular conclusion?" Wesley seemed to be the only one capable of speech.
"Think about it. They as much as anyone else represent pure evil; you're the good guys. You all get killed, evil wins and darkness comes that much closer to taking over the planet." Andrew paused to let all this sink in. "But even if none of this were true, what difference does it make? As it says on your business cards, you help the helpless. This man qualifies. You may not like what Leonard is saying, but it doesn't change anything. At least grant him that courtesy."
For a long moment, nobody said anything. Even Andrew seemed somewhat shocked at his outburst and again tried to fade into the walls.
"Ok, first of all, where did you learn to speak like that?" said Buffy. " "Were you channeling William Shatner or Patrick Stewart?"
"It's the right thing to say. Doesn't matter who said it." .
"He's right." Everyone turned to Xander. "I agree with Andrew one hundred percent, and damn you for creating a situation where this would ever be possible."
There was another long pause. "When you put it that way" said Wesley," I guess we don't have much of a choice as to what to do."
There was a general agreement. Then suddenly everybody began glancing at Willow. Everyone knew the history between her and Andrew, and no one really wanted to agree with something he said without her consent.
Willow looked directly at him. Then she walked across the room.. "When did you develop such good powers of speech?"
Andrew seemed a little surprised, then smiled. "Everybody grows up eventually." The two of them looked at each other for a moment, and Willow realized that the boy she had tried to kill only a year ago was gone. The accelerated maturation process that had affected all of the Scoobies had finally reached him.
"All right. I guess we're helping Leonard," said Angel. As everyone nodded approval, he asked: "Little question, how do we help him?"
"Well obviously we have to protect him from the Order of Taraka," said Fred.
"And how do we do that?" asked Giles" The Order is not some monster that we can fight and kill. We are talking about an army of hitmen that can basically disguise themselves as anyone they choose."
"Yeah, those last two attempts showed a lot of subtlety," said Xander.
"If I had to guess, those were just warnings," said Wesley. "From the readings, those who work for the Order of Taraka are known for their guile and their intensity. They are more than willing to give their lives to destroy their target, and they will never stop hunting Leonard unless we convince whoever is responsible to take off the hit."
"Which, since we don't know for sure who is responsible, could make it fairly difficult to figure out who to beat up," said Buffy.
For a moment the difficulty of the situation seemed to leave everyone at a loss. Then suddenly Willow was struck by an inspiration. She was about to mention it when Fred piped up. "I've got an idea!" When everybody turned to her, Fred blushed a little. "Well, more of a notion than an idea. Actually it's kind of a concept with a practical application..."
"Fred, you've really got to pull it together when you have something to say," said Buffy.
"You're right. Okay, here goes. Willow, when you were in
Sunnydale you cast a lot of locator spells. Trying to find people and potential Slayers and such."
Willow nodded. She had an idea where Fred was going.
"Well, why don't we use a modified version of a locator spell to track down members of the Order of Taraka. "said Fred. "If they're in L.A. --- and the way they've been tracking Leonard, you gotta figure that they're close--- maybe a spell would tell us where to find them.".
They all pondered this for a second. "That's a good idea, Fred." said Giles. "But there are a couple of problems. First, members of the Order could be demon or human. Without any real idea as to what were looking for will make it difficult to cast the right spell."
"And even if we could get it right, most locator spells only tell you where someone is within the radius of a few miles," added Wesley.
"Couldn't we modify the spell somehow?" asked Xander.
"We'd need some kind of personal possession in order to pull it off," said Giles.
"But we have one." Now they all turned to Faith. "That ring that Leonard took of the Mohra demon."
They all considered this. "Willow, do you think that this would be enough to work with?" asked Wes.
"Well if we could change the incantation from one that traces the wearer into anybody who might wear something with this insignia." Willow thought. "I think it might work. Unless..."
":Can't we find a way to eliminate that word from our vocabulary?" said Gunn. Willow ignored him.
"Is it possible that they might have some way of distorting magic?"
Angel shook his head. "No, the Order of Taraka doesn't believe in cloaking spells or for that matter camouflage. They hide themselves only when it suits their purposes."
"Then maybe we can pull this off." Buffy looked to Wesley and then to Angel. For a moment, there was awkwardness. For all of the work that they done the past month, they had yet to lead some kind of action against a viable threat, and no one was quite sure who was in charge.
Wesley spoke: "Willow, get your magic materials together. We need to prepare a modified locator spell for Los Angeles. We've got to be precise enough to find the exact location."
"I'm on it."
Buffy turned to Gunn. "Gunn, get a couple of Slayers together. The Order of Taraka can be tricky, so choose the best ones."
"Gotcha." Gunn turned around. "Faith."
"You want me?" A very strange expression crossed Gunn's face before she added: "To help you."
Whatever expression had been there was gone. "These assassins sound like trouble. I think we need all the firepower that we can handle." He turned to Buffy. "After we load up, you'll know where to go?"
Buffy nodded and turned to her left facing Angel. "I think we have to make the assumption that were going to find more than one assassin."
"You're probably right. Who else do you want to send out?"
Buffy hesitated for a moment. "Me." Again they all looked to the blonde slayer in surprise.
Willow spoke first. "You sure about this Buffy? : I mean you haven't fought a demon in a few weeks."
"I know that. But it's like riding a bike."
"Buffy you never successfully rode a bike in your life." Buffy glared at Dawn who had been quiet until now.--- something she wouldn't have minded her doing more often. She ignored her sister who was now grinning at her own wit..
"Besides, I've fought the Order before and beaten them. I need to be out there." "You're not doing this by yourself," said Angel. He was trying to sound unconcerned but there wasn't a person in the board room who didn't know the subtext. "I'm coming with you."
There was a long pause. "Angel...."
"It's just demon fighting. We've done it a hundred times before. We can do it now."
Buffy seemed to ponder this for a second longer "All right. But this is a group thing. Robin, Fred you're both coming too."
"Gotcha."
"OK." Both spoke quickly, neither quite sure what they were getting into.
Buffy then turned to her right.. "Xander, take a Slayer you trust and get Leonard. I need you to get him somewhere safe."
"Like this massive building isn't secure enough?"
"There are too many people here. The Order's bold, and they're definitely not afraid of the frontal assault. If they come here people might get hurt."
Xander nodded. "Lorne." The demon turned. "We're going to take Leonard to Caritas."
"Okay..." Lorne said slowly. "Don't take this the wrong way but I'm not wild about inviting another 'guest' there, especially when they're still working out the kinks in the anti-violence spells. Why can't we hide them in the Hyperion ?"
"Lorne, Caritas is a closed off location that we know about and that we can secure easily." Xander spoke as if he had been the one going there for three years, instead of the people of Angel Investigations. Given what she had heard of what had happened there before, Willow could understand Lorne's trepidation. "The Hyperion is too large and has too many points of entry. We need a smaller location."
The green demon sighed "You're right. Well let's hope this is the one night of the year that roving street gangs don't stage a home invasion." He and Xander started out to the door.
"What's my job?" asked Dawn.
"You're not going to like it." said Buffy
"I'm a big girl. I can take it,"
"I need you to take the other Slayers and handle any of the other business that comes in. There are a few other things that need the attention of somebody, and you are as well qualified as anyone to do it."
Dawn looked at her somewhat surprised "Buffy, I..."
"Dawn," Giles spoke up, "this is a great responsibility. We're asking you to take control of the business of Angel-Slayer, Inc. For a few hours you're going to be helping us a great deal."
Dawn immediately brightened. "Okay. Thanks."
"Just try not to set fire to the building." quipped Buffy.
"All right, let's get moving." said Angel and started to the door
"Wait!" Everyone stopped and looked at Buffy. "One last thing: I don't know if the assassins will be working together or alone, but try to leave one of them alive."
There was some sounds of disapproval and cries of "Why?"
"We need to find out who set them on Leonard in the first place. But more than that, we need to send a message to the Order of Taraka. I don't think a corpse will be enough. We need someone breathing who can tell those in charge who's running the show."