Chapter Sixteen – Don't Go All Angel On Us

"Back to the world of the living," Lorne stated when he saw Wesley open his eyes.

"We have to go," Wesley said as he tried to get off a cot.

"Hold your horses Mr. Bashed in the Head. We need a plan first. Remember that? That's what you used to do. Don't go all Angel on us."

"Plan? My plan is to go in and beat the bloody daylights out of whoever took Faith."

Giles sat down next to the younger man. "We don't know who took her or why."

"Doesn't matter."

Wesley stood up quickly, looking around for his weapons.

"OK, Lone Ranger, sit down before you fall down." Lorne pushed on Wesley to make him sit. If it had been a year ago, Wesley would have either sat down because it was the right thing to do or he would have toppled over anyway. Not this Wesley.

"Get out of the way."

"You know, Angel, bad influence. And also, we have info, so sit."

Wesley glared at the green demon.

"Sit down man before you fall down." Giles took an arm and dragged him down beside him on the cot. Wesley had never seen Giles look so beat up in his life. Even after all the business with the Mayor in Sunnydale, Giles never looked that worn down.

"What do you know?"

"Only that this attack was for one purpose only. To take you guys out."

Wesley figured as much. Lorne had let them in, so the whole group suffered the consequences.

"And if you're thinking your fault, don't. We've had these raids at least once or twice a week. This one was just a little more powerful. We captured one of the demons. Soldier Boy's men are speaking with him right now."

"Where?"

"I'll take you to them." Lorne was waving at Giles to not, but Wesley moved faster.

"Not a good idea."

"It's Wesley. He's a civilized human being," Giles stated as he followed Wesley out of the tent.

"You don't know the things he did before this little connection happened with Ms. Slays-a-lot."

Giles stopped in his tracks. "What?"

"Let's just say, learned from the master, have the souvenirs to prove it."

"Angel?"

"Think darker," Lorne told the man as they walked to catch up with Wesley. "Much darker."

"Yes. I know a bit about that darkness, souvenirs and all."

Wesley entered a tent that had Riley's men guarding it. They let him pass, thinking that the man might be able to help. He grabbed the first available weapon he could get a hold of from someone's holster, continuing on to the demon.

"Wesley, I was just coming . . . ." Riley wasn't able to finish the statement because Wesley leveled the gun he had taken and pointed it at the demon's leg and fired.

"We don't have time," Wesley started as the demon groaned in pain.

"That's not how we operate," Riley charged at Wesley.

"Stay out of this." Wesley brought the gun up to the demon's head.

He noticed out of the corner of his eye several of Riley's soldiers had entered the tent, guns drawn to check out the commotion.

"If you kill him, we can't get the information we need, Wesley," Giles yelled from the entrance.

"Where is she?" Wesley calmly asked the red-eyed demon, whose blue scaly skin seemed to be turning even more blue with the loss of blood.

"I don't know what you're talking about?" the demon told him in a low, deep voice.

"Your people kidnapped her for a reason. Where are they taking her?"

"You might want to answer him, blue guy." Lorne had come into the tent too.

Wesley then pulled out a nasty looking knife from his boot. "Now, we'll try that again. Who are you working for and where is she?"

Wesley was lost. He knew he had to find Faith. He didn't care what the others thought of him at that moment. She was all that mattered to him. When had he become so ruthless? In Pylea when he had to take charge, sacrificing many for the good of everyone, or had this always been inside of him, hidden. Faith was the objective. The thing that he could focus on, the person that he cared for more than anything at the moment was gone. This demon would tell him what he wanted to know, regardless of the consequences.

"Sir, should we take him down?" one of the soldiers asked Riley, pointing a gun toward Wesley.

"Hold up," Riley ordered.

"Wesley, this isn't how we do these things. He'll tell us." Giles was really trying to pull him back from the edge. He figured that out. Without Faith there to guide him, it would probably be impossible.

This was Faith's life. This was every one of his friends that had died over the last couple of months. His family. The knife he was holding dug into the demon's skin on his neck. As Cordy would say, "Desperation, meet Wesley."

"They'll kill me."

"Don't worry. I'll take care of that right now." The knife dug deeper. Blood, bright red blood flowed down the demon's arm.

"They need her for some ritual. At least, that's what they told my boss. Now let me go."

"Where?"

"LA. Just said the dark-haired slayer. Take 'em all out and get her."

"You took out that many people to get to one person?" Riley was even disgusted.

"And for the fun."

Wrong words. Wesley drew the gun up to the demon's head and pulled the trigger this time.

"Oh dear," Giles whispered to Lorne.

"You caught him on a good day, Giles. Besides, my people would have done the same thing."

"War is hell."

"Agree with you on that one."

As Wesley walked out of the tent, he had to find the control that had just slipped badly. His body was saying hit something, anything, while his mind was saying run. Now he knew how Faith had felt in Sunnydale. The thing that he had never understood about her until that very moment. She had wanted someone to care about her. Like Giles had with Buffy. Not just a boss or a mentor, but a human connection. No wonder he had failed in his duties. Because he should have thrown his duties out the door and listened, really listened to her.

When he had finally listened to her, fighting to jail Angelus, he had gotten through to her on some level. It hadn't been perfect, but it had been a start. Stick up his ass indeed.

"Are we ready?" Wesley directed the question to Riley, since they all had followed him out of the tent.

"Ten men, three slayers. Connor, Xander, Giles, you. That's all that we have left."

"And me," one of the other slayers, Cari, waved to them.

"I'm good to go," another said, stepping into view.

"So that's nineteen."

"Twenty with me. You're going to need all the help you can get," Lorne piped up. "I might know of a way in once we get close to LA."

Connor threw Wesley his shotgun. "Let's go."

"Move 'em out people." Riley gave orders to the remaining wounded men to secure the area with the help of the refugees. Xander walked up to Giles and Lorne.

"I see you're alright," Giles inquired.

Xander pointed to all his bruises. "Been through worse. What's with Rambo and Rambo Junior? Those two are very scary together. And where's Dawn by the way?"

"With Faith, from what I gather from Wesley."

"When I catch up with those demons, history."

"So, plan," Connor asked Wesley as they gathered the others around to leave.

"They need Faith for some ritual."

"Why'd they take Dawn?"

"Must have gotten in the way, I guess. Faith will keep her safe for as long as she can."

"We've wasted too much time here. Let's go. You and I."

Wesley looked at the young man and nodded no. How much would he like to ditch the rest of them? Greatly. But if they hadn't been there today, the whole place would have been overrun.

"We stay with the group for now."

"Ready?" Riley waved to the ex-watcher.

Wesley touched Connor's shoulder and motioned him to get into the vehicle to leave.

TBC