Note: Hey, I know slayerfan and steph are still around reading. There might be more. This is taking forever. I know. I promised to finish this one. But there have been so many plot bunnies hopping around in my brain for other things to come out. Hey, and I even wrote another fic that was sort of funny. Check it out too (shameless plug). Keep reading.
Chapter twenty-four – True or False
Faith was never a worrier. Things did turn out the way they were supposed to turn out. But the only thing on her mind at the moment was escaping. She knew the gang was coming to get her. The link between herself and Wesley was practically screaming at her now. The only problem was she didn't want anyone hurt just because of her.
Columba had decided that her appearances at dinner were unnecessary. Thank God she didn't have to endure him anymore, or she'd lose her lunch every time she looked at him. She just wished she knew where Angel was being held. Then she could escape, break Angel out, and somehow bash the bad guy's head in before he could blink.
Not all was going great for her. Her stomach was always queasy, she felt dizzy half the time, and her body flashed hot and cold constantly. If this continued, she'd go crazy. Since she'd never been sick as a child, being in this condition now made her feel out of control.
Instead she needed to be proactive, get herself out of this situation. Climbing onto the side of the wall, she reached the bars to the window that let light in. It was worth a shot to see if something up there was loose. One of the bars did jiggle a little bit, but she couldn't get enough leverage on it to pull it out. She fell down to the ground, trying to figure out another way to remove them.
Maybe if she caused a scene, then they'd come see about her and open the cell door. That had worked in so many movie plots, it might be worth a try. If the guards were stupid morons would help.
So she clutched her side and crumbled to the floor, screaming at the top of her lungs. "Help me, somebody. I'm dyin' in here."
Two of the guards came running, but did not open the cell.
"I'm bleeding here. I need help. What if I die before the ritual," Faith moaned to the two.
One opened the door, while the other stood back to watch. She had the one guy down in two seconds flat and the other guy pinned to the wall outside the cage in four. Slamming the guard upside the head, she flung him back into the cell and closed the door. Since the keys were still dangling from the lock, she took them out and pocketed them.
"Damn, strength is returning," she said to herself as she scanned the rest of the cells for Angel.
The guards were causing a ruckus back in her old cell, but once she shut the door on that wing, no one could hear them. She just hoped there wasn't some type of surveillance system set up. She was screwed if there was.
The place was laid out in a maze-like fashion. She couldn't figure out where she was going, just that she had to get as far from that cell as possible. Rounding the corner, she remembered that this was the area that she had first seen Angel. Maybe he was close by, she thought. As she crept along the wall, listening for any sound of people, she heard another voice she wasn't expecting. And it just didn't make sense that she should be hearing that voice.
"So if it happened once, it can happen again. I can't take it happening again. It didn't work, right? So what's the point? Not going to work."
Now she had to save not only herself, but Angel and Queen C as well. Nothing is what it had seemed. She was pretty sure when she had seen the dream, it had all happened. Angel and Cordy were dead. The dream had said so. Wesley had said so. No way it was a lie. Wesley couldn't lie that well.
Faith slowly made her way around the corner to see Cordelia, dirty and bloodied, sitting on a concrete floor. She didn't look good. She'd never seen Cordelia look like hell before. It was not a pretty sight.
"Cordelia," she whispered.
"Now I'm hearing voices. See. This is it. It's over with. Please just take me back. I'll behave. No more interfering."
Faith rolled her eyes at Cordy's dramatics. The woman always did act way too emotional.
"It's me. Faith." She ran up to Cordy's cell, keys at the ready. After the fifth try, she found the right key.
"You're not real. Just a figment of my imagination. Just like Angel was and Buffy was, and now they're both dead. I saw it."
Faith snorted. They better not be. But as far as she knew, no, both were alive and kicking.
"Cordy. We need to get out of here, now." Faith took her hand to propel her forward out of the cell.
"She doesn't believe you," a voice off in the distance said.
This was just getting better and better. She didn't have to go far to find her other target. Angel sat huddled, trying to keep away from the encroaching sun in his cell. Did he have to endure this every day, trying to find shelter from the bright light streaming in?
"Believe it. We need to leave now. Those guards I took down will be missed."
"Your strength?" Angel asked, trying to edge his way over to the door and avoiding the sun at the same time. His face was bloodied, one eye swollen shut. They must have used him as a punching bag very recently.
"Somehow, it's returning. I'm not sure why."
Faith dragged Cordelia out of the cell and made her way to Angel's. Opening the door on the second try, she shielded his body until he could make it into the corridor where the sun did not touch.
"You good?" she asked him as she saw him limping along.
"Don't worry about me. Cordelia needs it more."
Faith helped the seer along the corridor until they got to the door that led up to the house.
"We go up or down," Faith asked the vampire.
"We have to go down. No other choice. Sun won't set for several hours. Then we can find a way out."
"You look like psycho girl. Why are you here to save us?" Cordelia started to get her faculties back. But her speech was still too slurred.
"I just saw you not too long ago. Remember?" Faith told her as they made their way to the sewers.
"No. I've been a higher being, so no. Unless you became a god, which I don't think would ever be possible, because hey, killer."
Oh, mean Cordy was coming out to play. Faith would drop her right where she stood if Cordelia didn't pull herself together.
"She doesn't remember much. That wasn't Cordelia when you last saw her."
Faith sort of knew that. It definitely looked and acted like the ex-Sunnydale resident. Could things get any screwier?
Faith and Angel heard scuffling of feet not too far behind them. They hurried along at a faster pace, both helping Cordelia now that it seemed maybe they had been discovered.
"Which way?" Faith asked Angel yet again. She'd rely on Angel sense of direction and his nose to get them out of this maze.
Angel pointed to the left, running ahead to see where it went. The vampire went down as he rounded a corner. Did he slip or was there someone waiting for them around that corner? When she heard the sounds of punching, the former scenario was the answer. Faith let go of Cordelia and raced ahead to join in the fray.
It seemed to take forever to make it to the point where the invasion was to start. It looked to Wesley like Buffy had been planning this for a while now. Too many people in place around the city to cause chaos against Columba. It was a well-organized attack on all fronts.
"Can you really fight?" Buffy asked them as they waited for all the pieces to be in place.
What a ridiculous question to ask, he thought. She still didn't have any faith in him. All she remembered was his last fight in Sunnydale. He'd been down with one punch from someone. His neck hurt for weeks afterward. Now he knew how to dodge those kinds of powerful punches. And he also knew how to give them too. He also knew what to use to his advantage.
Wesley pulled out his shotgun from its holster on his back. "We all have our strengths and weaknesses. I, for one, have come well prepared."
"Never been a gun person myself," she said, trying to hide a smirk.
"We use what we have," he replied sarcastically. He replaced the weapon, checking once again for all the other weapons on his person. If she knew what else he carried, she would be more than surprised.
Gunn had come along with Xander and Riley, but Giles and Dawn had stayed behind at the warehouse. He was grateful that Buffy had put her foot down on that. He didn't want to worry about more than one teenager at a time. Connor stood beside him, ready to bolt and find his father. Something he thought would never be possible. Connor actually wanted to save his father. Holtz would be shocked if he were still alive.
The connection with Faith provided a pleasant hum in the back of his brain, always there, but not taking up too much of his thinking. He just hoped that she was all right. He was right about one thing. His ability to control his emotions had gotten stronger over the last two days. It was either from coming closer to Faith or he was mastering that part of his mind that was affected.
"When?" Connor whispered to Wesley.
"Could you follow his scent if we came close enough?" Maybe if Buffy were wrong, they'd have a backup plan.
"I could right now."
"We're that close?" Now that was not what he had expected.
"Close enough. Four miles at the most."
Connor amazed him sometimes. Part bloodhound, part demon, part human, part something else, the boy, if he got his head together, would leave a slayer wanting. It was the part about pulling his life together that Wesley wasn't sure about. He still had many issues, most involving his father, that he had to figure out.
Putting his musings on the boy aside, he went through what he would say to Faith when he found her. He needed to get her as far away from this mess as possible. Then they would see if the spell or curse they were under could be lifted. If it could, then what would be the next step? Faith had her life in Cleveland; Wesley had his life in Los Angeles. Well, what was left of Los Angeles.
He knew he shouldn't have been thinking about Faith. Every time he did, when he probed the connection just a little, something bad seemed to happen. His body slammed up against the wall, head hitting the slimy concrete hard enough to almost knock him out. Faith was in serious trouble. And if Connor was correct, they weren't very far from it.
"Dammit, he is not freaking out on me," he heard Buffy's voice through the haze of pain. "We're not ready."
Wesley pushed himself up, not seeing the group in the tunnel, but seeing through Faith's eyes. Angel was trying to take on two vampires without much success. Faith seemed to have much more strength than Angel, and was taking on more, including a huge hulk with spines exposed down its back. They weren't going to win, he could tell. With just Faith at full strength, there were still too many of them.
Wesley made his way over to the ladder to go up into the sunlight. He was getting out of there. He could find Faith on his own. It was now or she would die.
"Don't let him leave," Buffy yelled.
Wesley wasn't going to let that happen. "Extundo," he threw at the group as he climbed up the ladder. That would stop them for a while. But not for long. As soon as he was out of their sight, the spell would wear off quickly. He just hoped that he was a bit faster than the slayer or Connor. What he didn't expect was to see each of them sprawled out on their backsides, struggling to get up. Maybe his powers were stronger than he realized. He didn't want to stick around to find out.
"What the hell did he just do?" Xander called out to Buffy. Buffy had no idea that Wesley could use that powerful a magic, much less use it at all. Each of the group slowly got up from the ground, having felt like a sledgehammer had hit each. Connor was the first to recover, quickly following the ex-watcher.
"No, Connor," Gunn shouted, but the boy was gone. "We have to go now. Wes will get himself killed."
"Should have brought Giles," Xander mentioned. "And what the hell do he do to us?"
"He repelled us from following him so he could get away," Riley announced, rubbing his head where he had hit it on the ground just moments before. "I know some Latin."
"When did he learn how to do that?" Buffy asked Gunn.
"English always had some of that in him. Just not that powerful. Listen, I'm going after them."
Buffy threw up her hands in exasperation. "My plan was good, right?"
Gunn yelled, "Yeah," as he started to climb the ladder.
"We going?" Riley asked as he looked to Buffy for guidance.
"When I catch up with him," she started as she climbed the ladder not too far behind Gunn's feet.
Wesley ran, sensing but not seeing, where Faith might be. He thought they'd need Connor to track down where Angel was. His connection guided him just as well as Connor's nose.
"Slow down," Connor called from a half a block behind him.
He didn't want to hurt the boy if Connor had come to take him back. The streets were quiet in the twilight. The sun still shone as an orange glow in the west. Since it was a residential street, not much damage had occurred. The homes looked to be expensive and fairly new. So they couldn't be near the city's center, where high rises and older housing dominated the landscape.
"Where are we?" Wesley asked Connor as they slowed somewhat.
"Tarzana, I think."
Then all of the pieces fell into place. Why hadn't he seen it before? Dammit, why hadn't he trusted his translating skills? Maybe because they'd gotten him into such trouble before. He wasn't always correct in his translating of prophecies. He still didn't exactly know what shanshu really meant. But he'd forgotten about that one little fact that no one even cared to care about. Everything in the Scrolls of Aberjian had come true so far. He'd translated so many false prophecies, he never knew which were true or not, or which prophecies belonged in which set of scrolls.
"I know exactly what we are dealing with," Wesley told Connor with authority.
"How do we kill it?"
"I have no earthly idea. I'm just Gun Guy. Remember?"
TBC
Author notes: OK, don't shoot me on my Latin. It's been a long, long time since I had it. And then I really didn't pay that much attention in class. Do you know how many Latin words there are for repel? Mine means to repel violently. Also, I hoped you figured out what is going on, because I just did about fifteen minutes ago. And I think I got something wrong on the canon in a previous chapter. Can anyone spot it?
Next: The big showdown!! I promise. Although it may take more than one chapter. We'll see. Keep reviewing and reading!! Yay. Almost done.
