Nearing eight o'clock on the next night, the sun set. Harry Potter and Diana Fisher were standing around in a park shortly thereafter, waiting for whatever it was that was supposed to come and get them.
Harry and Diana had both slept away most of the day, needing to build up a nice store of energy for the night's activities. Now, Harry turned to Diana. "Are you ready for this?" he asked.
"Would it be too late to say 'no'?" Diana asked, and Harry smiled.
"I'm serious," he said.
"You don't look it," Diana teased.
"Diana, we could die any second," Harry pointed out. "Aren't you in the slightest bit worried?"
"Sure, I'm worried," Diana said. "I'm just not showing it."
Harry gave Diana a skeptical look. "You always wear your emotions on your sleeve," he accused.
"I do not!" Diana said, punching Harry's arm lightly."
Harry would have retaliated, but he stopped. The hair on the back of his neck had just stood up, and it was staying that way.
Harry quieted Diana. He glanced around - he couldn't see where Angel's men were, but he knew they were there - but it wasn't them. Something else was out there.
"I think it's coming," Harry whispered, and Diana's smile disappeared.
Neither of them felt the darts hit them in their backs, dropping them to the ground.
A man in a tree watched a vampire and a girl fall to the ground. Good. This was supposed to happen. Everything according to plan. The man radioed back that the operation was commencing, and signaled to his other men to follow those now carrying off the unconscious bodies.
Harry thrashed himself awake. He was so damn tired of being tranquilized. It was so humiliating.
Harry quickly regained a measure of self-control, and his vampire features receded.
"Welcome, vampire," a voice said, though Harry could not twist to see it; he was held firmly to the table by restraints.
"Hello," Harry said, sarcastically. "I have a name, you know."
"Yes, I suppose you do," the voice said. "I don't care."
Harry almost laughed. The voice obviously belonged to a middle-aged man, but the tone was so juvenile that it was really laughable.
"Okay, you don't care about my name," Harry said, repressing his laugher. "What do you care about?"
"You have information," the voice said. "But you're worth more than your mouth, aren't you?"
"Don't know what you're talking about," Harry said. "My mouth is worth a lot." He began to work at the restraints, testing their strengths and weaknesses.
"You're a vampire with a soul," the voice said. "That makes you a commodity. And we wouldn't mind finding out what, exactly, glues your soul to that body of yours."
A hand with a scalpel emerged into Harry's field of vision. Harry groaned as the small blade descended towards his chest.
The scalpel, it's bearer still cloaked in darkness, made several quick, shallow incisions in Harry's chest. The cuts were painful, but Harry bit back any exclamations he might have had. Pain didn't matter so much, or so he told himself.
Just as the scalpel was about to plunge deeper into Harry's now bleeding chest, he and the unseen "doctor" heard an alarm go off.
Harry smiled.
A second later, as Scalpel-Bearing-Immature-Doctor-Man was faltering, Angel burst open a door on the far side of the room. The doctor backed away, allowing Angel and his commandos to enter the room. From another door came more men - and the shooting began.
Harry began to strain in earnest, attempting to break the bonds that held him to the table. A bullet ricocheted off his restraints, giving Harry an unexpected help. Harry quickly ripped through the rest of his restraints.
He leapt to his feet, standing on top of the table. The pain in his chest was forgotten. Harry's vampire face reemerged, and he grinned in animalistic anticipation and blood lust.
"Here!" Angel yelled, and threw something towards Harry. Harry caught it and got a grip on the shining Sword of Gryffindor. With a growl, he charged into the fight.
Harry swept the Sword of Gryffindor in an arc, removing the head of an opposing guard, and splattering his blood in all directions. Harry took a second to lick some of the blood off his face.
Tasty.
Seeing a new threat, the other guards turned to face Harry, but he wasn't there anymore. Harry turned a quick, nearly effortless somersault over the guards to land behind Angel and his men.
"Fancy meeting you here," Harry said.
"Likewise," Angel said. "The bug worked; we've got their data. We're planting a virus in their central computer system that should take out the other bases across the nation."
"Where's Diana?" Harry asked.
"We're looking," Angel said, looking a bit grim. "We still haven't secured most of the building. You're pretty close to the outer walls."
The gunfire finally died. So had most of the opposition.
"Pity there aren't more," Harry said, surveying the carnage.
Loud footfalls announced the arrival of 'more'. "Good," Harry said. He and Angel, followed by those of the Wolfram and Hart strike force that remained, dove in.
Keeping Angel on his right, Harry thrust the Sword of Gryffindor straight forward, impaling one of the charging guards. It took Harry a second to register the fact that none of these new guards carried guns, and then another second to register that all of them carried wooden stakes.
"Guess that we're the guests of honor," Harry yelled, violently yanking his sword out of the dead guard.
The corridor was narrow, and none of Angel's men could fit up to help their leader or Harry. A guard with a sword came up to challenge Harry. He swung his sword in an overhead arc that Harry caught easily with his own blade, turning it aside and thrusting upwards to gut the guard.
This maneuver left Harry open, and another guard charge in, ready to stake Harry, and Harry, with his sword inside another guard, was defenseless...
Angle stepped in and drove his own sword through the offending guard's neck, effectively severing his head but for a little bit.
Harry looked up and nodded at Angel, acknowledging the fact that the older vampire had just saved his un-life.
Harry and Angel coordinated themselves from then on, keeping the other's movements in mind when making a move. Angel drove his sword into and through the gut of an offending guard, and Harry blocked the downward thrust of another coming from Angel's right. Angel ripped his sword free, dropping the now dead guard backwards, and Harry thrust the Sword of Gryffindor forward, throwing the guard into the crowd pressing forward to attack.
Harry looked to Angel, and Angel, understanding, put his hands together. Harry leapt and stood on Angel's hands, and Angel spring-boarded him forward into the crowd of guards. Harry turned a somersault in the air, caught a guard's head between his legs, and rolled down onto the floor, keeping hold of the guards' head and throwing him violently, scattering the guards in that part of the corridor.
Harry was now partially surrounded by guards. He thrust quickly into one, ripping apart the guard's abdomen, and withdrew the Sword of Gryffindor, spinning it to strike behind himself. As Harry drove the Sword behind him, he kicked to the left. When he felt the Sword connect and rip threw flesh, Harry twisted, ducking his head and spinning in a deadly circle, cutting all the guards in his vicinity to ribbons.
Harry stopped his death spiral facing the remaining guards. They looked at him, covered in blood, staring unsatisfied lust to drain the blood from their still-living bodies, and looked at the sliced up remains of their fellows.
"Come on then, gents," Harry said, his eyes bugging out from the primal pleasure of the kill and his desire to feed. The yellow there seemed to deepen. "Free hair cuts, quite a deal." He rose and began advancing towards them, unblinking. "Of course, I tend to cut a bit below the hair..."
The remaining guards bolted and ran, screaming like children.
Harry turned back to Angel. "Too bad," Harry said.
To Harry's surprise, Angel came up and put a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Get a handle on that rage," he warned. "If you let it take over too much...well, you don't want that to happen."
Harry stared at Angel for a moment, trying hard to figure out what the older vampire was talking about. Then it clicked. Harry's vampire face receded, returning his normal human features.
"Phew," Harry said. "I didn't know..."
"Your first massacre," Angel said. "You've never lost control before. It's understandable. But now really isn't the time for this."
"Right," Harry said. "Let's go find Diana."
"And then get the hell out of here," Angel added.
Harry and Angel rushed through the building, Angel occasionally checking with his other units to find out how well they were doing. They were meeting fierce resistance in several of the underground levels, and the topmost level.
"Come on," Angel said. "We're headed for the top."
They took an elevator quickly to the top floor. Angel briefed Harry quickly on what they already knew. "This floor opens directly onto the helipad. If we hurry, we'll catch the head honchos before they take off and our choppers have to hunt them down."
The elevator door clicked open to gunfire. The two Wolfram and Hart commandos with Angel were both hit, and Harry took a glancing below to his arm that ripped his shirt. Harry and Angel both flattened themselves against the walls of the elevator, out of the line of sight of the gunmen.
"Bullets can't kill us, can they?" Harry asked.
"No, but they can hurt like hell," Angel replied.
"Screw pain," Harry said, and ducked back out. The gunfire quickly resumed. The first two shots were wild, no where near Harry, but the third came directly for his face. Harry slashed upward with the Sword of Gryffindor, entirely by reflex, and the bullet was deflected harmlessly away. Harry brought the Sword to a halt.
The shining blade remained flawless.
Seeing this, Angel circled out as well, and tried deflecting the first shot that came his way with his own sword. The bullet shattered the blade, though it didn't hit Angel.
"Magical sword," Harry said shortly.
"Lucky bastard," Angel replied.
They charged the guards, who didn't think or move quickly enough to avoid the attack. All three dropped fast.
"That way," Angel said, pointing. As he said it, three men came hurrying into view, though the face of only one was visible. Harry did a double-take.
"Onde!" he yelled.
"The entity you knew as Onde is dead," replied the man who appeared to be Onde. The other two emerged - the three were identical. "This shape is the most optimal."
Harry considered cutting each down, but stopped himself. He turned to Angel. "What do we do?" he asked.
"Who are you?" Angel asked.
"Do you really expect us to tell you that?" Clone 1 replied.
Angel gave Harry a quick glance. Both of their faces transformed, their fangs sharpening before the eyes of the three Onde look-alikes.
As they faltered, fear coming to those eyes for the first time Harry could remember, Angel's communication device beeped. "Go ahead," Angel said, his voice a bit distorted by his fangs.
"Sir, we've secured the building," came the voice from the little box. "No one got out."
"Good job, captain," Angel said. "Stand by and await further orders."
"Yes, sir," the captain responded.
Angel returned his attention to the three Onde clones. "You've lost," he said, simply. "We have taken complete control of this facility, and at this time, all your other installations around this country and the world are being disabled and destroyed. Give up."
The three looked at each other, considering. Then, each reached back, and touched something in his upper back. They fell to the floor, lifeless, instantly.
Harry walked over and prodded a body, sniffing. "Guess that means they give up?" he inquired.
Angel's communication device beeped again. "I thought I told you to await further orders," Angel said in slight annoyance, his face returning to normal.
"Yes, sir, you did, sir," the captain's cautious voice said. "But I have a young lady here who is insisting on talking to you and Mr. Potter."
"Diana?" Harry yelled, not sure if the device would pick up his voice.
"It's me," Diana said, sounding a bit shaken.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked, taking the device from a smiling Angel.
"Yeah, I'm peachy," Diana responded, the slightest bit of tease showing through the fog of her obvious fright.
"Really," Harry said.
"Really," Diana repeated. "He's dead, isn't he?"
Harry didn't have to inquire as to whom she meant. He glanced down at the three dead clones and recalled their words.
"Yeah," he said. "He is."
Harry could practically hear her smile.
Later, Harry sat at the Wolfram and Hart conference table with Angel, Diana, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, and Lorne. Angel was talking.
"We can set you up with accommodations wherever you're off to next," Angel said. "We have connections in every city in this country, and most in Europe. Wherever you're going, we can help you get there and live quietly and comfortably when you get there."
Harry glanced at Diana, who smiled an encouragement at him. "Actually," Harry said, fumbling his words a bit for the first time in months. "I was wondering...I mean to say, we were wondering...wondering if maybe, if it's not too much of an inconvenience...maybe we could stay here?"
Angel slowly smiled at Harry. "Why the change of heart? I thought you didn't trust us."
Harry was about to respond when something occurred to him. "Hang on," he said. "How did you know that?"
Angel sighed. "Harry, I wanted you to know what you were getting into here. Do you really think that we don't have enough security here to keep people from pressing their ears to doors?"
Harry was instantly angry. "So you played with me...again," he accused.
"No," Angel said. "I arranged for you to be able to hear the truth." Wes looked more than a bit sheepish at this. "Would you have been as cautious if I'd just come out and told you that this place was manipulating us?"
Harry got a handle on his anger. "Probably not," he said. "It doesn't affect my decision. I have just one term, though."
Everyone looked apprehensive.
"If you're planning on having me fall in love with a girl to save the world...let me know first, okay?" he asked.
Angel smiled. "Deal," he said, and they shook hands.
THE END
Well, there it is. This one wasn't nearly as long as I'd originally thought it might be, but oh freaking well. You can expect Hell Soul, the next sequel, to begin in a week or two. Oh, and watch for other stuff - I'll be updating my profile page to include my latest projects and ideas. Coolness. One last thing, before Sword of Gryffindor is really over and the space runs out. BUNKER SHORTS!!!! -[LJL]-
Harry and Diana had both slept away most of the day, needing to build up a nice store of energy for the night's activities. Now, Harry turned to Diana. "Are you ready for this?" he asked.
"Would it be too late to say 'no'?" Diana asked, and Harry smiled.
"I'm serious," he said.
"You don't look it," Diana teased.
"Diana, we could die any second," Harry pointed out. "Aren't you in the slightest bit worried?"
"Sure, I'm worried," Diana said. "I'm just not showing it."
Harry gave Diana a skeptical look. "You always wear your emotions on your sleeve," he accused.
"I do not!" Diana said, punching Harry's arm lightly."
Harry would have retaliated, but he stopped. The hair on the back of his neck had just stood up, and it was staying that way.
Harry quieted Diana. He glanced around - he couldn't see where Angel's men were, but he knew they were there - but it wasn't them. Something else was out there.
"I think it's coming," Harry whispered, and Diana's smile disappeared.
Neither of them felt the darts hit them in their backs, dropping them to the ground.
A man in a tree watched a vampire and a girl fall to the ground. Good. This was supposed to happen. Everything according to plan. The man radioed back that the operation was commencing, and signaled to his other men to follow those now carrying off the unconscious bodies.
Harry thrashed himself awake. He was so damn tired of being tranquilized. It was so humiliating.
Harry quickly regained a measure of self-control, and his vampire features receded.
"Welcome, vampire," a voice said, though Harry could not twist to see it; he was held firmly to the table by restraints.
"Hello," Harry said, sarcastically. "I have a name, you know."
"Yes, I suppose you do," the voice said. "I don't care."
Harry almost laughed. The voice obviously belonged to a middle-aged man, but the tone was so juvenile that it was really laughable.
"Okay, you don't care about my name," Harry said, repressing his laugher. "What do you care about?"
"You have information," the voice said. "But you're worth more than your mouth, aren't you?"
"Don't know what you're talking about," Harry said. "My mouth is worth a lot." He began to work at the restraints, testing their strengths and weaknesses.
"You're a vampire with a soul," the voice said. "That makes you a commodity. And we wouldn't mind finding out what, exactly, glues your soul to that body of yours."
A hand with a scalpel emerged into Harry's field of vision. Harry groaned as the small blade descended towards his chest.
The scalpel, it's bearer still cloaked in darkness, made several quick, shallow incisions in Harry's chest. The cuts were painful, but Harry bit back any exclamations he might have had. Pain didn't matter so much, or so he told himself.
Just as the scalpel was about to plunge deeper into Harry's now bleeding chest, he and the unseen "doctor" heard an alarm go off.
Harry smiled.
A second later, as Scalpel-Bearing-Immature-Doctor-Man was faltering, Angel burst open a door on the far side of the room. The doctor backed away, allowing Angel and his commandos to enter the room. From another door came more men - and the shooting began.
Harry began to strain in earnest, attempting to break the bonds that held him to the table. A bullet ricocheted off his restraints, giving Harry an unexpected help. Harry quickly ripped through the rest of his restraints.
He leapt to his feet, standing on top of the table. The pain in his chest was forgotten. Harry's vampire face reemerged, and he grinned in animalistic anticipation and blood lust.
"Here!" Angel yelled, and threw something towards Harry. Harry caught it and got a grip on the shining Sword of Gryffindor. With a growl, he charged into the fight.
Harry swept the Sword of Gryffindor in an arc, removing the head of an opposing guard, and splattering his blood in all directions. Harry took a second to lick some of the blood off his face.
Tasty.
Seeing a new threat, the other guards turned to face Harry, but he wasn't there anymore. Harry turned a quick, nearly effortless somersault over the guards to land behind Angel and his men.
"Fancy meeting you here," Harry said.
"Likewise," Angel said. "The bug worked; we've got their data. We're planting a virus in their central computer system that should take out the other bases across the nation."
"Where's Diana?" Harry asked.
"We're looking," Angel said, looking a bit grim. "We still haven't secured most of the building. You're pretty close to the outer walls."
The gunfire finally died. So had most of the opposition.
"Pity there aren't more," Harry said, surveying the carnage.
Loud footfalls announced the arrival of 'more'. "Good," Harry said. He and Angel, followed by those of the Wolfram and Hart strike force that remained, dove in.
Keeping Angel on his right, Harry thrust the Sword of Gryffindor straight forward, impaling one of the charging guards. It took Harry a second to register the fact that none of these new guards carried guns, and then another second to register that all of them carried wooden stakes.
"Guess that we're the guests of honor," Harry yelled, violently yanking his sword out of the dead guard.
The corridor was narrow, and none of Angel's men could fit up to help their leader or Harry. A guard with a sword came up to challenge Harry. He swung his sword in an overhead arc that Harry caught easily with his own blade, turning it aside and thrusting upwards to gut the guard.
This maneuver left Harry open, and another guard charge in, ready to stake Harry, and Harry, with his sword inside another guard, was defenseless...
Angle stepped in and drove his own sword through the offending guard's neck, effectively severing his head but for a little bit.
Harry looked up and nodded at Angel, acknowledging the fact that the older vampire had just saved his un-life.
Harry and Angel coordinated themselves from then on, keeping the other's movements in mind when making a move. Angel drove his sword into and through the gut of an offending guard, and Harry blocked the downward thrust of another coming from Angel's right. Angel ripped his sword free, dropping the now dead guard backwards, and Harry thrust the Sword of Gryffindor forward, throwing the guard into the crowd pressing forward to attack.
Harry looked to Angel, and Angel, understanding, put his hands together. Harry leapt and stood on Angel's hands, and Angel spring-boarded him forward into the crowd of guards. Harry turned a somersault in the air, caught a guard's head between his legs, and rolled down onto the floor, keeping hold of the guards' head and throwing him violently, scattering the guards in that part of the corridor.
Harry was now partially surrounded by guards. He thrust quickly into one, ripping apart the guard's abdomen, and withdrew the Sword of Gryffindor, spinning it to strike behind himself. As Harry drove the Sword behind him, he kicked to the left. When he felt the Sword connect and rip threw flesh, Harry twisted, ducking his head and spinning in a deadly circle, cutting all the guards in his vicinity to ribbons.
Harry stopped his death spiral facing the remaining guards. They looked at him, covered in blood, staring unsatisfied lust to drain the blood from their still-living bodies, and looked at the sliced up remains of their fellows.
"Come on then, gents," Harry said, his eyes bugging out from the primal pleasure of the kill and his desire to feed. The yellow there seemed to deepen. "Free hair cuts, quite a deal." He rose and began advancing towards them, unblinking. "Of course, I tend to cut a bit below the hair..."
The remaining guards bolted and ran, screaming like children.
Harry turned back to Angel. "Too bad," Harry said.
To Harry's surprise, Angel came up and put a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Get a handle on that rage," he warned. "If you let it take over too much...well, you don't want that to happen."
Harry stared at Angel for a moment, trying hard to figure out what the older vampire was talking about. Then it clicked. Harry's vampire face receded, returning his normal human features.
"Phew," Harry said. "I didn't know..."
"Your first massacre," Angel said. "You've never lost control before. It's understandable. But now really isn't the time for this."
"Right," Harry said. "Let's go find Diana."
"And then get the hell out of here," Angel added.
Harry and Angel rushed through the building, Angel occasionally checking with his other units to find out how well they were doing. They were meeting fierce resistance in several of the underground levels, and the topmost level.
"Come on," Angel said. "We're headed for the top."
They took an elevator quickly to the top floor. Angel briefed Harry quickly on what they already knew. "This floor opens directly onto the helipad. If we hurry, we'll catch the head honchos before they take off and our choppers have to hunt them down."
The elevator door clicked open to gunfire. The two Wolfram and Hart commandos with Angel were both hit, and Harry took a glancing below to his arm that ripped his shirt. Harry and Angel both flattened themselves against the walls of the elevator, out of the line of sight of the gunmen.
"Bullets can't kill us, can they?" Harry asked.
"No, but they can hurt like hell," Angel replied.
"Screw pain," Harry said, and ducked back out. The gunfire quickly resumed. The first two shots were wild, no where near Harry, but the third came directly for his face. Harry slashed upward with the Sword of Gryffindor, entirely by reflex, and the bullet was deflected harmlessly away. Harry brought the Sword to a halt.
The shining blade remained flawless.
Seeing this, Angel circled out as well, and tried deflecting the first shot that came his way with his own sword. The bullet shattered the blade, though it didn't hit Angel.
"Magical sword," Harry said shortly.
"Lucky bastard," Angel replied.
They charged the guards, who didn't think or move quickly enough to avoid the attack. All three dropped fast.
"That way," Angel said, pointing. As he said it, three men came hurrying into view, though the face of only one was visible. Harry did a double-take.
"Onde!" he yelled.
"The entity you knew as Onde is dead," replied the man who appeared to be Onde. The other two emerged - the three were identical. "This shape is the most optimal."
Harry considered cutting each down, but stopped himself. He turned to Angel. "What do we do?" he asked.
"Who are you?" Angel asked.
"Do you really expect us to tell you that?" Clone 1 replied.
Angel gave Harry a quick glance. Both of their faces transformed, their fangs sharpening before the eyes of the three Onde look-alikes.
As they faltered, fear coming to those eyes for the first time Harry could remember, Angel's communication device beeped. "Go ahead," Angel said, his voice a bit distorted by his fangs.
"Sir, we've secured the building," came the voice from the little box. "No one got out."
"Good job, captain," Angel said. "Stand by and await further orders."
"Yes, sir," the captain responded.
Angel returned his attention to the three Onde clones. "You've lost," he said, simply. "We have taken complete control of this facility, and at this time, all your other installations around this country and the world are being disabled and destroyed. Give up."
The three looked at each other, considering. Then, each reached back, and touched something in his upper back. They fell to the floor, lifeless, instantly.
Harry walked over and prodded a body, sniffing. "Guess that means they give up?" he inquired.
Angel's communication device beeped again. "I thought I told you to await further orders," Angel said in slight annoyance, his face returning to normal.
"Yes, sir, you did, sir," the captain's cautious voice said. "But I have a young lady here who is insisting on talking to you and Mr. Potter."
"Diana?" Harry yelled, not sure if the device would pick up his voice.
"It's me," Diana said, sounding a bit shaken.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked, taking the device from a smiling Angel.
"Yeah, I'm peachy," Diana responded, the slightest bit of tease showing through the fog of her obvious fright.
"Really," Harry said.
"Really," Diana repeated. "He's dead, isn't he?"
Harry didn't have to inquire as to whom she meant. He glanced down at the three dead clones and recalled their words.
"Yeah," he said. "He is."
Harry could practically hear her smile.
Later, Harry sat at the Wolfram and Hart conference table with Angel, Diana, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, and Lorne. Angel was talking.
"We can set you up with accommodations wherever you're off to next," Angel said. "We have connections in every city in this country, and most in Europe. Wherever you're going, we can help you get there and live quietly and comfortably when you get there."
Harry glanced at Diana, who smiled an encouragement at him. "Actually," Harry said, fumbling his words a bit for the first time in months. "I was wondering...I mean to say, we were wondering...wondering if maybe, if it's not too much of an inconvenience...maybe we could stay here?"
Angel slowly smiled at Harry. "Why the change of heart? I thought you didn't trust us."
Harry was about to respond when something occurred to him. "Hang on," he said. "How did you know that?"
Angel sighed. "Harry, I wanted you to know what you were getting into here. Do you really think that we don't have enough security here to keep people from pressing their ears to doors?"
Harry was instantly angry. "So you played with me...again," he accused.
"No," Angel said. "I arranged for you to be able to hear the truth." Wes looked more than a bit sheepish at this. "Would you have been as cautious if I'd just come out and told you that this place was manipulating us?"
Harry got a handle on his anger. "Probably not," he said. "It doesn't affect my decision. I have just one term, though."
Everyone looked apprehensive.
"If you're planning on having me fall in love with a girl to save the world...let me know first, okay?" he asked.
Angel smiled. "Deal," he said, and they shook hands.
THE END
Well, there it is. This one wasn't nearly as long as I'd originally thought it might be, but oh freaking well. You can expect Hell Soul, the next sequel, to begin in a week or two. Oh, and watch for other stuff - I'll be updating my profile page to include my latest projects and ideas. Coolness. One last thing, before Sword of Gryffindor is really over and the space runs out. BUNKER SHORTS!!!! -[LJL]-