Chapter Six – Time Flies
"Do you mind?"
"No. Do you?"
'Will you just leave me alone already?"
"No"
"Buffy! Angel! Connor's being a pain in the ass again"
Once again yet another fight was about to brake out. Only half way across the Atlantic Ocean, and there had been one black eye and a spilt lip.
"I'm the pain in the ass?" Connor snorted distastefully. "You were the one that had to start this whole argument by asking me if I had lived in a mental institute all my life!" he pushed Dawn roughly out of his way and retreated towards the back of the jet. "As a matter of fact, I'd just love to see you survive Quor-toth"
"Quor-toth?" Dawn looked at him dumbly.
"The worst dimension of Hell. My home dimension of course, raised there for all my life. Forget the institute you flake; you don't know what real hell is like"
Dawn kept her mouth shut as Angel grumbled a thank you. For the next hour there was a blissful silence until Dawn opened her mouth again.
"What was it like?"
Connor looked up at her, a startled expression crossing his face.
"What was what like?"
"Quor-toth"
The boy sighed and turned to face her. She had asked him a civil question this time without being snarky, so he might as well pay back the good fortune.
"It was a Hell, but the worst of all Hells. Red and vile, that was the extent of the place. I grew up in a world that you could never trust anything or it would kill you. I was raised to hunt and kill demons for as early as I can remember and then not that long ago I came here, to the dimension where I was born"
"But Angel..."
"But Angel nothing" Connor hissed. "He isn't my father – not to me. I was raised be a man named Daniel Holtz. His family had been murdered by Angelus in eighteen hundreds, but a spell brought him to the future. From what I've been told, he took me to get revenge on Angel. So he was my father. There are many things that he has done that when I look back, I am not as proud of him as I once was. He killed himself so that I would think Angel had done it – I even tried to kill Angel for it. I always knew that he was my real father, but it never mattered"
"Sorry" Dawn put her hands up in mock surrender. "Well thanks. Now I know your sob story. Heck the fact that you should only be a few months old must really be getting to you"
"Like you know anything about that" he challenged.
"Actually I do. You want to know something? I'm not real!"
He looked at her funny and then poked her in the arm just to make sure. Yep, she was solid.
"You seem real enough to me?"
"No stupid. Didn't you listen to what Lorne had said at the hotel? Technically I should be only about three years old. Before that, I was just a ball of green energy for countless millennia, until some monks decided that the best way to protect me was to send me to the slayer; Buffy – as a human sister"
She paused for breath and then got right back on track.
"So the was an evil Hell Goddess after me. She needed to use my blood to open a portal to get home. In doing that, she would have to kill me – nothing big for her" Dawn grimaced at the memories. "It almost worked too. She was destroyed, but my blood still fell. Buffy then sacrificed her own life for mine and jumped through the portal. She died for me that day," she went quite for a second. "Things weren't great. Our mother had died too not that long ago and then I had lost my sister. It was Spike... he was really the only one that cared looking out for me until Buffy was brought back to life"
"Spike?" Connor asked puzzled. "He's the vampire your sister wants to save?"
"Yes, but from what Buffy told us, he's human now or damn close to it"
"What was he like... who is he?"
Dawn suddenly smiled at Connor's interest.
"He was the best. Sure all the time I knew him he was soulless. Couldn't hurt anybody thanks to the government, but he was still the coolest. You could say he's something like a brother or something to you. He's Angel's grandchilde. His sire was a nasty chick named Drusilla that was Angel's childe. He liked to think of himself as the big bad"
"I could see that" Connor muttered.
"Spike was like a really cool big brother. He could always make things feel better. We all had a rough year that ended not too long ago. We all did things we regret. I just hope we can find him" she smiled sadly.
Connor was about to say something more in return, but then Lorne told them they should all get into their seats because they were about to be experiencing some turbulence. The jet was thrown into a spin that leveled off and then started to jerk around erratically. Buffy didn't like the feeling of this at all.
"What is that?" Buffy asked startled from the co-pilot's seat as she saw what looked like a swirling could of black mist begin to form in the air. Angel was not too far behind her watching as well.
"You got me muffin. I don't have a clue. It could just be bad weather forming out there" Lorne replied, but didn't look too overly certain.
"That doesn't look like bad weather to me"
"I agree" Angel said, he looked out at thar mist with a sickened look.
"What going on out there?"
That was Dawn again, but her voice had changed. She was frightened. The harsh movements that the jet was going through were not making anyone feel very safe.
"I don't know Dawnie" Buffy said looking back over her shoulder.
Then the blackness completely covered the jet and a fierce spinning started. There were screams and cries of fear, but it continued on into the blackness.
Out in the hot weather beaten land, two lone figures kept steady pace as they marched through the burning sands. With every step, Spike could feel bits of his life slipping away and he fell to his knees in pain. Roho was instantly at his side, worry written across the young man's face.
"Spike... are you alright?"
"You... called me Spike" he panted and gave him a rare, but tired smile.
"I suppose I did" Roho grinned, but it was a worried one, causing lines to crease his face and make him look far too old. "You need to pace yourself friend. I feel the spell begging to ware off, but that can't happen now. There is still so much farther to go"
"Yes I have to do this. Have to do this for Buffy... I have to give her what she deserves..." Spike rambled tiredly.
Roho looked about for shade, but there was nothing. Taking a deep breath he raised a hand and whispered a few words that Spike did not recognize. Then it all happened to fast. With is seconds a small oasis grew up out of the sands. There was every; water, tree, fruit and shade.
"How did you do that?"
"I have always had talent for sorcery, but I always kept it hidden. I never used it up until now for fear that the Watcher's Council would track it and find me. But I needed to do something. You're in bad shape and I'm not doing too well either"
"Thanks"
Spike leaned back into so foliage and went to sleep almost instantly. But for Roho, he decided he would take a walk through his creation. The song of bird was like a joyful symphony and the cool breezes the whipped in through the trees and leaves soothed the harsh burns he born upon his back. But then he began to sense something else. In the distance, at the back of his mind there was an itch that couldn't be scratched.
"Strange..."
Looking up at the sky, Roho began to feel unease seeping into him, affecting his bone. No matter the heat, he felt like ice – freezing every will he had. Snapping out of the momentary paralysis, Roho made a dash back to where Spike slept. The ex-vampire hadn't stirred once, but the foreboding feeling of something immanent was the worst here. Then Spike began to toss and turn, moan out warnings that meant nothing, then instantly snapped awake.
"We have to move" he groaned.
"But you're too weak!" Roho protested as Spike forced himself to his feet and grabbed on the boy's arm, dragging him along.
"Something's coming kid and I don't like the feel of it"
"I don't either, but where are we to go?"
"I don't know, just run!"
The pair ran as fast as their feet could carry them. Looking over his shoulder, Roho noticed a thick black mist begin to drift through the trees.
"Don't look at it!" Spike yelled, trying to move faster on his aching lags.
They continued to run until they reached the edge of the oasis, where Spike lags promptly gave out on him.
"Oh dear lord" Roho whispered in fear.
"Don't say that. You remind me of Giles" Spike snapped.
"Rupert Giles?"
"Yah, you know him?"
"He was my host with the Council before he left" Roho replied. "The only descent watcher I ever met. How do you know him?"
Spike just laughed at the irony.
"He's been one big pain in my ass for the past six years. He's my slayer's watcher"
"Oh. So that's where he went. I ran away two years after he left"
"Nice... I don't like the looks of this"
Roho followed Spike's gaze and saw that the mist was surrounding them and before everything went black, Spike spoke once last time.
"I don't like this at all"
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce paced the waiting to room of the Los Angeles General Hospital as if he wanted to ware a path into the linoleum floor. Gunn was pretty must beside him in that, while Fred had gone to call Angel's cell phone to tell him what had happened.
They were all afraid for Cordelia right now. She was in the emergency and there was a long line. It just made them all the more frightened for her.
"I'm looking for the friends of a Ms. Cordelia Chase"
They turned to find themselves with a young nurse in her late twenties. She looked how that felt and her eyes told them to fear the worst.
"That would be us" Wesley said moving forward, Gunn at his heals.
"Well..." the nurse started hesitantly. "Your friend has suffered from an extreme cerebral aneurysm. This is the dilation, bulging or ballooning out of part of the wall of a cerebral artery. Some do not grow, bleed or cause any complications. They normally begin to slowly leak blood, which can cause headaches, facial numbness and other problems. Your friend's aneurysm just ruptured not that log ago. We've sent her into surgery and have her in critical condition. It will a few days before we can tell exactly how bad the damage is. If you have a number, we can call you as soon as we have more news"
"Thank you" Gunn replied softly and Wesley handed her one of the business cards with their number on.
"You both should go home and some rest, you don't look so good" she said with concern in her voice.
"Yes... thank you again" Wesley said. "We... umm... we have to go find our other friend and tell her the news"
They left to find Fred, ever so much like they had been, pacing back and forth on the steps at the front of the hospital. She held her cell phone over one ear and had a finger plugging the other as he began the impatient rhythm in the opposite direction. In the end it was Gunn putting a hand on her shoulder that caused the tiny scientist to jump in fright and then stop her pacing.
"Any... any news...yet?" she stuttered.
"Of course" Wesley smiled sadly. "It's bad Fred. A nurse just told us she's gone into surgery. It was an aneurysm"
"Oh god" Fred's hands when over her mouth, tears spilling freely down her face.
"Any contact with the Dark Avenger?" Gunn asked hopefully.
"Not... a word. The... the connection just... just seems to have gone dead" Fred answered slowly, trying not to cry.
"Lord let them be alright" Wesley sighed and then straitened up. "Well they've seemed to have gone missing. The best thing to do would be to call up Buffy friends and tell them..."
There was pause before Fred started talking again.
"It has something to do with what Cordelia told me. She... she told me to warn Buffy. There was something... that Buffy had to... to know. Then suddenly she vanishes along Angel, Connor, Lorne and her sister. There are Powers at work here and we can't do anything about it"
So what do you think happened? Suggestions please. Well anyways, hope you like this newest chapter. I'll update ASAP. Later!