Hey everyone! OK, really sorry for the time delay, not writer's block, promise, just a couple of technichal delays. This means I've got the next two chapters done and will put them up on a weekly basis again! Thanks for all the reviews so far! Keep 'em coming! Hope you like, this is kind of a set up chapter for the next one, which I've decided to slit into to because it's a huge climaxy one!

Apocalypse Nowish-Chapter 9. Proclamation.

Conner slowly felt himself fade back into reality. As his daze wore off his vision became less distorted and Hazy and his mind began to act on the blurred figures and objects he saw melded into the background. He saw a dark figure right in front of him and a comfortably lit room with a table in the centre and a couple of other men standing idly around. He blinked a couple of times and began to see more clearly, the blurry shapes became people. He looked up at the man in front of him. It was Gavin, looking down at him, smiling joyfully. Conner felt the hatred flow through his body, waking his mind and body. He felt the chains around his hands and feet again now; he also felt the burning pain that had left him in his sleep. His chest stung fiercely and the bruises gave weight to his lungs. Conner now felt wide-awake, and was sneering harshly. Gavin smiled, indifferent to Conner's every action.

"Hello again." He said.

"Yeah, hi." Said Conner, mockingly, amused by his approach.

"Soon, you're going to have a visitor."

"Great, I'll put the kettle on." Gavin smiled and nodded at his reply.

"The visitor in question isn't really interested in tea." He said, amused.

"I was making Coffee." Conner retorted bluntly. Gavin let out a small, respectful laugh.

"He's interested in you." He said, leaning in closer and tapping Conner mockingly on the chest. Conner cringed with pain.

"Well I'm not interested in him so why don't you shut up about it!" He retorted, trying to keep the shakiness out of his voice.

One of the silent men from the background of the office stepped forward and, without so much as an approving nod from Gavin punched Conner right in the side of the face. Conner swallowed his scream in a desperate effort to be brave against the searing pain. His ear had been crushed and rang loudly in his thoughts, also sending jolts of pain into his already shaken head. Suddenly, as Conner was shaking his head wearily Gavin's office phone rang loudly. Gavin smiled, hinting that he hated being interrupted.

He walked over to the phone and placed it to his ear. He was nodding for a while, listening intently until he replied. Conner once again tried to lean fourth and listen. He heard the name Lynwood'. Suddenly it came back to him; his visitor was to be Lynwood. The guy he had met before at that movie place. Lynwood must be Gavin's boss.

"Already? That was quick. Right now? OK then, yeah, I'll meet him outside."

Gavin hung up. He walked over to the other guys, muttering instructions, before staring back into Conner's eyes.

"I just hate getting interrupted like that." Conner was silent.

"At least it was for a good reason. My boss is coming back Conner, and he's going to love you."

Gavin remained staring into his eyes until he suddenly broke off and strode briskly out of the room. Conner was left in silence, his every move followed by three pairs of cold, dutiful eyes. He looked around at the, sleek, modern office he was in. He was against the wall and in front of him was a large, black-glass table, a chair at either head. The men were hanging around behind the table, leaning against the walls and admiring some of the ornaments atop glass shelves. To his left was a giant window that was the entire wall. To his right was the bronze coloured, wooden door. He turned his rueful eyes to the windows and watched the unmoving blackness that engulfed the sea of lights.

---

Gavin powered through the maze of halls on his floor, winding briskly towards the lift. He swerved past a corner. Ahead of him a door was swinging shut; it closed silently. Still walking, Gavin smiled cruelly, enjoying imagining Lilah's bad tempered reaction to her crushed hard drive.

---

Lilah closed the door softly behind her. Wesley had already made his way to a pre-positioned chair beside her desk. She turned around and looked down at him. He was bound tightly by handcuffs but he wasn't her prisoner, and he knew it. In fact, he didn't look the least bit worried; he lay back, comfortable and relaxed, apparently oblivious to everything that had just happened. Most surprisingly he seemed excited, sought of aroused by the latest turn of events. She guessed he looked for whatever could substitute for the pain he felt. Now they were by themselves; Lilah wanted no one to hear the story she was about to tell Wesley, and she hadn't truly convinced herself that even that was a good idea. In some strange, twisted way, Wesley seemed to be the only one she could trust. And she even knew that Wesley did not hold much trust in her. Then again he hadn't much trust in anyone, himself included.

During the silence that followed, Lilah strolled over to her shelves when she noticed an oddity. She rolled her eyes as she saw her hard drive smashed and strewn carelessly across the shelf and the floor. How pathetic. She realised now that she couldn't care less about her job at Wolfram and Hart, and although she never would have realised, in all her years of hard work, she wanted it out of the way. Sighing impatiently she nodded sympathetically, and turned back to Wesley who was sitting back, checking out her office. Finally, after another awkward moment of silence, Wes spoke.

"Well done Lilah, you've captured me." He said, sarcastically.

"Yay me. Let's break open the champagne in celebration."

Wesley smiled cunningly at her.

"I'll take off the cuffs." She said, reaching into her jacket pocket.

Wesley let out a short, sharp laugh. Lilah looked over to him to find him dangling the undone handcuffs from between two fingers. She smiled warmly. He wasn't stupid.

"You could have escaped."

"Well, putting our shag-a-thon at risk, I figured you'd have something miraculously important to tell me."

"I'm that desperate am I?"

"Yes." Lilah was slightly broken by his sharp and harsh remark.

"Well, as a matter o' fact, I do have something to tell you. Then I want you to tell me something."

Wesley looked slightly puzzled, deep in guessing what it might be. After a pause, Wesley replied.

"Well, fire away."

"OK Wes, first things first, I've been through this an awful lot in my head and I have to know." Wesley nodded, egging her on. "Why did you cut yourself back in the apartment?"

Wesley smiled again, as though he was playing the best game. "I missed. How about we discuss why you charged at me with a syringe?"

"You missed?" She retorted, sounding scarcely fooled.

"Yeah, I acted foolishly in the heat of the moment and slashed at your wrist. Obviously without the desired effect." Wesley looked down at his palm; they were stained with dried rivers of blood. He looked over at his other, bandaged hand. He was really in quite a state.

"And the other wound?" Asked Lilah.

"Battle wound."

"Right. Down to business I guess." Wes leaned forward in his chair, bracing for intense listening.

"All of a sudden, today, I've been thrown into this elusive mystery. First of all, the girl in the white room," Wes raised an eyebrow, " oh yea, Angel wouldn't have filled you in, huh? By the way where is my broody buddie?" Wesley made it clear she wouldn't receive an answer. "Right, anyway. She told me some ominous, prophetic speech thing"

"Tell me what she said." Wesley interrupted.

"OK. She basically said I was a wolf, and, um from the seventh day every sacrifice counts, no, brings us closer, that was it."

"A wolf?"

"No, yeah, she said I was the wolf. Why?" Wesley shook his head so she continued. "Then, from Gwen downstairs," Wesley looked up, confused, "files and records." He nodded. "She gave me an address and I drove there. I spent hours there trying to find something, anything relating to what the girl had said."

"And?"

"And then this is where it gets weirder, and slightly scarier than usual. This black writing suddenly appeared on the wall. It said that I was in danger and that I had to grab a marked book and run. Sure enough, five seconds later, I hear a blood curdling scream from downstairs and then heavy footsteps on the stairs. They were coming up. So I searched frantically for the marked book and found it."

Wesley looked up; it was obvious what he was going to ask.

"I haven't finished just yet. I found the book, and to my own amaze I managed to escape through a window before whatever was coming managed to inflict any grave bodily harm upon me. As I got up the street, he started to follow me. I didn't get a good look of him until I was driving away. He clearly had otherworldly powers because he was slicing through the steel bonnet though it was wet paper. He was exactly normal, in a kind of strange way. He seemed, I don't know, a little too weird or something." Wesley frowned.

"Now what is really creepy about these guys is just that, they're guys not guy. They looked exactly the same, that one and the one that attacked me later." A moment of silence passed before Lilah let out a huge sigh of relief.

Wesley looked up at her warmly. "Well, you certainly did a good job of not being killed." She smiled.

"Well, what can I say? Something came over me."

"This certainly does sound interesting, and most definitely important." He said, sincerely.

"If the girl in the white room starts talking like that then you know it's important." She replied. Wesley nodded.

"From what you've said I gather you require me to translate the text in that marked book of yours."

"Yep."

"Why not use the extensive resources made available to you buy the good people at Wolfram and Hart?"

"Well, let's just say my job isn't really in a state of security, also you're the only person I could trust at the moment." Wesley looked slightly complimented; he wasn't really expecting that.

"Surely you of all people would know that every word uttered under this roof is recorded and monitored."

"Oh come on, give me some respect. I had a fellow colleague help me out."

"Gavin?" Lilah let out a small laugh at this.

"Not that kind of colleague." she replied. Wesley smiled. During a short pause Lilah sat down on her desk, facing Wesley.

"Well, where's the book then?" Said Wesley after a short while of admiring Lilah. Lilah smiled somewhat appreciatively and picked up the phone beside her. She wedged it between her ear and shoulder and dialled a number. Wesley waited, listening with mild interest but mostly putting his brain to the limit trying to consider all she had told him.

"Hi Dylan. Yes, it's me, Lilah. What do you mean? I didn't hang up on you. Oh well, that's beside the point, I need you to bring in the book I left with you. What? Yeah, I'm aware of what Gavin's been up to. Ok great, my office."

Lilah looked back over to Wesley and tapped her fingers on the hard surface of her desk, waiting impatiently.

---

"So, you really tried full on and found nothing, huh?" Asked Gunn, standing behind the reception and leaning casually over it, looking over to Lorne who was sited next to Fred on the lounge.

"That's pretty much the gist of it, yeah." Replied Lorne, looking solemnly to the ground.

"It's OK Lorne." Said Fred, patting him gently on the back.

"It's not OK if we don't find Cordy." He replied.

"Well," said Gunn, looking slightly confident," Angel seems to have his heart on it and he's the kind a guy who won't give up."

"Yeah," agreed Fred, "We will find away, anyway contacts are never reliable."

"Unless you're looking for useless advice," Gunn reminded her.

The silent gap in the conversation was suddenly interrupted by the hotel door bursting open. Gunn looked up and Fred and Lorne looked back over their shoulders. Angel stood in the doorway, with a hardy, slightly angry, determined look on his face. He swung his arm up and releases his grip on a set of keys. They flew through the air and landed placidly in Gunn's opened palms, as though it had been a carefully rehearsed ritual. Gunn smiled, "how'd it go?"

"I need my car back." Said Angel, ignoring the slightly disappointed sigh that came from Gunn. He walked down the stairs and to the reception desk; he leaned against it, looking out at Fred and Lorne with Gunn beside him, behind the desk.

"Well, how'd it go?" Said Fred, in an odd nervous tone.

"He wasn't there."

"I knew it," said Gunn," we checked over at his place during the search quite a few times, he was definitely gone though."

"He lives somewhere else. He gave me a note when he was taking me back, he also said to see him for information regarding Cordelia."

"So he knows something?" Gunn rose to his feet as he said it, looking disgraced.

"Why didn't he tell us?" Fred filled in. Gunn opened his mouth to add to that when Angel cut him off.

"Look guys, it doesn't matter why Wesley has been doing the things he's been doing, right now, I just want to focus on getting things back to the way they were. That means finding him and finding Cordelia. Well, and also my car of course"

"What about" Fred began to inquire.

"Don't worry Fred, Conners will get what's coming to him, he'll just have to wait."

"So, hang on, you said you got Wes' new address but he wasn't there. Just out?"

"No, he wasn't just out. I stumbled across his apartment to find daggers imbedded in walls and the flood stained with his own blood, which also happened to trail out of the building."

"What do you think happened?"

"Well, guess what else I found." The rest of them looked up expectantly.

"Lilah's mobile phone." Gunn nodded and the other two looked up.

"You think Lilah's captured Wesley." Said Lorne, without a hint of shock in his voice.

"Why would she want to" Fred, once again, began to inquire.

"Hmm, let's think, Wolfram and Hart have lost three major players, naturally, wanting to find them they target the one isolated from the others." Said Gunn.

"Wesley." Finished Fred, looking remorseful.

"Bingo."

"So, do you think you know where he is?" Asked Fred, looking over to Angel hopefully.

"Well, something apart from the sheer stubbornness of Lilah tells me he's being held right there, in Wolfram and Hart." Replied Angel.

"You're planning to break in to Wolfram and Hart aren't you?" Said Lorne, in disbelief.

Gunn smiled and Angel couldn't help a small grin. "It's been done before, we'll just do it again." Said Gunn, beaming with pride and excitement.

"You mean you fellas have actually pulled it off before?" Answered Lorne, his jaw looking as though it would drop in awe. Fred was looking over at Gunn, her face shone with respect for him. He snuck a sly grin back and her smile widened.

"Well, yeah, but we kind of had a whole inside job thing going back then." Admitted Angel.

"Oh." Said Lorne, looking slightly less impressed.

"C'mon Angel, we can do it, I had a ball last time." Gunn was grinning, feeling all fidgety with the hope of some real excitement. It was as if, all of a sudden, having Angel and Lorne back had just hit him. He would no longer have to wake to an endless repetitive search. It would be a search, but it would be fun and he was up to it. He wasn't sure how he felt about Wesley though, he would just have to wait and see how he would fit back in.

"Who's up for it? I'm pretty convinced this is our only way to get Cordy back and I owe Wes a great big one."

The lot of them smiled warmly and nodded unanimously.

"Alright," said Angel, getting a real strength back into his voice, "we're gonna break in and rescue Wes."

---

Gavin walked past the tired, sheepish reception and out of the lobby through the big glass doors. As they slid open silently, his body, face and mind were met with the cold, fresh wind of the night. He stood in the middle of the doors and looked down the huge stepped path that led straight down to the road. There was not a soul to be seen pardoning a couple of people waiting beside the curb down the bottom of the stairs. He left the doors before they closed on him and began his slow descent. He walked with pride and an unusual touch of self-importance, listening to the vivid sound of his shoes on the hard pavement. He reached the curb, greeting the two men with an outstretched hand. They took his hand out of pure respect but he could tell they were irritated by the obligation. They were both dressed well and stood straight, waiting sternly for the car. Just after Gavin began to shiver from the cold he noticed a pair of headlights slow to a halt, suddenly a great black limo stretched before him. It stopped, and, without the engine shutting off one of the doors swung open. A friendly, respective looking man stepped out and walked over to another door, right in front of Gavin. Gavin stepped back and allowed the man to gently open the door. Lynwood stepped out from the seat, stretching his legs with a tall posture. Lynwood stepped forward towards Gavin. The door was closed gently behind him and the man retreated to his own door. The limo slithered silently into the night from which it came.

"Gavin. I'm actually pleased to meet you." Gavin took Lynwood's outstretched hand apprehensively, dampened slightly by the insertion of the word actually, and the fact that they had met before on numerous occasions. Lynwood walked over to the two other men and thanked them for coming, apologising for the wait. Lynwood began to climb the path, gesturing for the others to follow. They did, but Gavin was beginning to feel extremely frustrated at being completely ignored by Lynwood's gaze, he had expected a warm welcome followed by a sincere approval.

--

Silence crept menacingly over Lilah's office once again. Whenever there was no sound to distract stray thoughts the air between Lilah and Wesley was as thick as stone. They looked around tensely looking for something to take their eye off one another.

Finally the thick silence was broken when the door handle twisted and the door swung open. Lilah and Wesley looked up to see Dylan standing in the doorway, holding a thick book in his arms. He walked forward, his glance ever so often flicking over to Wesley sitting in his chair. Wesley could imagine the sight he would be to others. His face looked beaten and cuts littered his arms; he looked rugged and cold. Dylan walked up to Lilah and placed the book into her hands.

"There it is." He said, cheerfully.

"Thanks Dylan, for the lot."

"Sure, no problem, you can rely on me."

There was a silence and both Lilah and Wesley peered up at him, waiting for him to leave. Dylan didn't leave; he turned his attention to Wesley and walked over to him. Dylan offered his hand. "You must be the infamous Wesley Wyndham-Price."

Wesley stared strangely at his hand until it was withdrawn. Dylan looked slightly alienated by Wesley actions.

"I'm infamous?" Asked Wesley, after a while, a grin starting to form across his hardened face.

"In my books you are." Dylan replied.

"Well, Dylan, I take it, nice meeting you."

"Yeah, it's Dylan. See you Wesley, later Lilah." He nodded accordingly then strode officially out of the room, closing the door gently behind him. Wesley gave a small laugh and stared pitifully at the door. Lilah grinned.

"He's a good guy." She informed him. Wesley looked up, a comical expression on his face.

"As far as evil lawyers go you mean?" He asked.

"I'm not really sure he's evil." Lilah replied, gazing at the door in thought.

She looked back at Wesley, who had already snagged the book off her stealthily and become deeply enthralled in it. Lilah stared at him with admiration, though she did not know why.

After a short while of flicking through pages Wesley slammed shut the book, knocking Lilah out of her seductive daze.

"I'm going to flick through the pages and search for any reference to the things you mentioned," he informed her, suddenly sounding very professional. He looked up at her with a sincere expression. "You realise that if I find anything that tells me this is important I will have to tell Angel." Lilah sighed, but nodded with a frown.

So Wesley once again opened the book, preparing his eyes for lengthy and intense reading. They were already tired enough. He hadn't slept for about a day and a half now, and that day and a half had been pretty exhausting. Lilah handed him a thick pad and a pen. Wesley frowned.

"It looks as though some of it is Proto-Canaanite, South Iberian I think. The later entries are Latin. Lilah, do you think you could find me a reference for early Proto-Canaanite scripture?"

Lilah smiled; she was so thankful that he would be able to translate it and that she would finally get to learn what was happening. She felt a great excitement and strength of spirit come over her.

"Sure," she reached for the phone, "let's do this."