What you wish for
Chapter 4
Angel sat in his office alone staring at the wall. It was past midnight but he wasnt the only one still there. Fred, Wesley, Gunn and Lorne had followed his example and were now working to alleviate the pain they felt at the loss of Max. But Angel wasnt working, his mind was elsewhere and it wasnt possible to put it back on work. He kept thinking about Max, the way she would laugh, walk, talk, sing... How she smelled like flowers in the morning. He hadnt noticed what he had had right infront of him until she was gone.
"Hey boss." Lorne said coming into the room.
He wasnt alone, Fred, Wesley and Gunn followed him. Eve stood against the door jam behind them. Althought Eve was obviously evil she still seemed to have a heart and the loss of Max had shaken up the small group and thrown it out of whack which also effected Eve.
"Hey guys." Angel said pushing himself up.
"Angel theres something going down." Eve said standing upright. "It could actually be a good thing."
"What is it?" Angel asked her annoyance written all over him.
"They might give her back... So to speak." Eve said to him.
"What?" Angel asked leaning his hands onto his desk.
"They want her back..." Eve said looking from the floor to Angel. "She plays a major part in the apocolypse and they need her back. But there is a clause... She gets the visions."
"Back? If shes in heaven they cant get her back..." Angel caught it before the gang all began to look at one another.
The silence in the office was defening, Angel hated it when he was the last person to be informed about something. He pushed his chair back and walked around the desk as Harmony came into the office.
"Where is she?" Angel asked them.
The answer was people looking down at the ground and endless silence.
"Harmony, where is Max?" Angel asked her.
"Oh I know this!" Harmony said squinting her eyes as if she where thinking really hard. "Oh!" She popped her eyes open and seemed as if she were going to jump. "That hell dimension. The one where she doesnt age but they go through like a year in a couple of minutes!"
Angel looked at the group and shook his head. They had kept something like this from him, she had been in there for three days that could be twenty or thirty years. He closed his eyes then snapped them open again, this time he was greeted by another familiar face that he didnt even want to see.
"Lindsey?" He said looking at him.
"I had this big elaborate plan to ruin all of your lives but I heard about this and I decided this might be a better waste of my time." Lindsey said looking at Angel.
Angel took him in, his hair had grown and he had symbols or tattoos on his chest which was shown by the opening in the top of his shirt.
"Angel it was so ify we didnt want to bring your hopes up when we werent sure." Fred said to him.
Angel turned his head to Fred. "Are you trying to spare me Fred? Bring her back."
"Its going to be hard Angel. Its only been done three times in the history of well ever." Gunn said to Angel. "Once it sliced the person in half and the other two times the two people never aged again, lived forever."
"Its better then her being in a hell dimension." Angel said crossing his arms. "I'll take it."
"Well..." Lindsey said smiling. "We already did it."
----
Black boots slammed down on the pavement in a dark alley. Max Tripp stood in the dark alley head to toe in black. Black leather pants with a black belt and a large silver buckle on it. A black short sleeve t-shirt and her pitch black hair down in wavy locks falling all over her back.
She was covered in weapons. She had a large gun attached to her belt buckle and on her right arm she had a knife attached to a black three belted cuff that went around her hand, the knife shot out when she threw her hand hard. In her left hand she had a cross bow, attached by a strap that went around her chest and ended in a small holder on her back were a dozen arrows.
Angel stood at the end of the alley his eyes on her. She had retreated into the core of who she had been before Wolfram and Hart. Lindsey had warned him about her, that she had become something a little more super then natural. She shook her hair back.
She had followed a vampire into the alley and she knew that he was still there. She turned abruptly and kicked her foot up. Angel watched as a stake emerged from the end of her shoe and she kicked into the darkness. With a shriek and a puff of smoke she had dusted a vampire in the dark once again.
She turned and looked down the alley at Angel. He looked back at her his hands in the pockets of his nice suit. She sauntered down the alley towards him. Her eyes glowing a soft green obviously meaning she had just caught something on fire somewhere.
"Stalking is a federal offense." Max said as she swept past Angel.
He grabbed her arm. She spun around throwing her hand off, he saw it then. The pain in her eyes. The ultimate hurt of being stuck in a hell dimension for that long and Angel not coming for her. She turned back aware that he had caught on to her and headed down the alley.
"I felt the same way Max." He said to her back.
"I didnt feel anything." Max called back as she walked out onto the street.
The next morning, Angel found himself in his chair in his office staring at the wall while the rest of the team argued over Eve, weither or not she was against them or nothing at all. Harmony entered the room obviously needing to speak to Angel about something very important.
"Hey boss. We have a problem, this girl just went all loony and broke out of the nut house." Harmony said to Angel putting her hands on her hips.
"Thats not our thing Harm." Angel said to her.
"Well shes kinda like all exorcisty." Harmony paused then raised her hands up. "Ya know?"
"She's possessed?" Angel asked her.
"Yeah." Harmony said turning and leaving as if it werent important anymore.
"We can get a team on it." Wesley said as the doors opened and Harmony backed against the wall.
Max walked into the office her long hair behind her as she waltzed toward Angel's desk. She threw something she had wrapped up in a small towel onto his desk. He opened it, it was a human foot.
"Your psycho isnt possessed." Max said to Angel. "She's insane."
"What?" Angel said standing.
"Shes not possessed, shes extremly violent and strong as hell. Shes one of Buffy's grand new ideas." She said and turned to leave the room.
"Whoa!" Angel called. "What?"
"She's a slayer." Max said her back still to Angel. "Find her, shes dangerous with that much power and that many bad memories."
"Buffy's what? How is she a slayer?" Angel asked her as she walked out of the office.
Max found herself on the street infront of Wolfram and Hart. She knew Dana was near she could feel the insane presence. She walked down the street and turned down a empty road where cars parked for the disgusting apartments abover her. Down in the end of the street she saw Dana, she was hunched over a large amount of snack foods.
Dana turned when she heard Max. It was obvious she knew Max wasnt just a passerby, she had black leather jacket on that went with her black pants and black combat boots. Dana took her place ready for a fight, Max didnt want to fight her she was obviously insane.
"I want to fight." Dana said glaring down at her.
"If thats what you want." Max said smiling.
Dana charged at her. Max shot her leg up taking Dana in the side of the face. Dana grabbed her leg and twisted it. Max took the initiative and flipped herself over keeping Dana from breaking her leg. Max landed on her feet behind Dana. Max realised that Dana had her where she wanted her, backed into a corner.
"Max!" She heard it but it was too late for Max.
The defening roar of Dana slamming a massive concrete block on her head drowned out everything else. The next thing Max knew she was waking up in an hospital her head pounding. She looked around, her clothes where no where in sight and the sun had gone down. There was no Angel or any AI team member.
She pushed herself out of the bed and pulled off all of the stupid wires. She looked out the window in her room and kicked it in then jumped out of it landing on her feet five stories down. She ran through the streets of LA, she ran up into the nearest Wal-Mart and grabbed a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt and a pair of boots. She was weaponless but she seemed to be a human torch so that didnt bother her.
Just as quickly as she had come she was gone again out of the double doors of the massive superstore. Her next stop was Wolfram and Hart. She took the elevator up instead of the stairs because the running thing was getting old. She leaned against the elevator door as it went up. The doors dinged open and she marched past Harmony and into Angel's office.
"How dare you?" She yelled at Angel. "Its bad enough you let me get killed in the first place then you go and put me in a hospital when... Ah you moron!"
"Calm down Max." Wesley said to her.
Wesley, Fred, Gunn and Lorne were in the room but another person was there, a shorter person in a suit with sort of long curly hair. She knew he was a watched just by looking at him. She turned back to Angel her anger boiling under the surface.
"Angel is not at fault for your death." Spike said from the back of the office.
"Shut up Spike. Like you helped you were off doing Harmony." She yelled.
"Max..." Fred said to her.
Max turned to Fred ready to unleash more anger but she couldnt. The sight of Fred made all of her emotions flip flops where tears where starting to form in her eyes.
"Shes hurting..." Max said looking down at the floor.
Angel crossed the room and put his arms around Max. She buried her face in his nice shirt and she began to cry her hands gripping the back of Angel's shirt. He brushed back her hair and kissed her forehead.
"Is she a slayer too?" Andrew asked.
"No... Shes pyrokinetic." Wesley said to Andrew.
"Really?" Andrew said excitedly. "Shes a firestarter?"
"She doesnt like to be called that." Gunn said nodding.
"Shes really strong too." Lorne added.
"So whats going on with them?" Andrew asked.
"They are in love," Fred said smiling. "They just dont know it."
"Sorry to burst your bubble but we got a little problem on our hands." Spike said to them.
"Spike." Fred snapped.
"Fine." Spike said turning and leaving.
"Do they ever like seperate girls? Like for example, two differnt ones?" Lorne asked them.
"No." They all answered in unison.
Max and Angel seperated after a few seconds a staring. They turned back to the group and began to talk about Dana, she was an obvious threat. Her mind didnt work the same as everyone elses.
"We know that she was abused, find out who did it." Angel said to Gunn and Wes. "Anything you can, if hes still alive or serving time or whatever."
"Ill find Spike." Max said turning to leave.
"Be careful." Angel said to her.
She left the office and the building. But Max didnt go to the house she didnt know where it was and chances where that she didnt go back there. Max went the only place she could think of, the docks. Angel's car pulled up behind her as she ran down the docks.
"I can smell him." Angel yelled to her.
Max stopped short as Angel went into the place where he smelled Spike. She couldnt do it, she couldnt go into the building and let them take Dana while she watched. She looked past Angels car as the rest of the tactical team came up behind his car. She looked at the doorway and ran through it. As if it were her own personal hell things started to come back to her. The life she had lived in Melany had been an evil one.
She had let herself believe she was normal as a child but she knew she wasnt, she bred in a home of evil but denied it to the world and even to herself. Thats when you know you are in deep, when you cant tell the differnce between reality and the lies. She heard a cry from below her and she knew it was Spikes.
Max ran to the basement to see Angel pin Dana against himself and force her towards the door. He yelled something and a dart zoomed past Max's ear and hit Dana in the chest.
Max walked out of the basement and back into the fresh air as Spike was wheeled out on a gurney. She stared at the sky. Lorne came up behind her and put his hand on her back.
"Its a fresh wound I know. But you need to come back to us." Lorne said to her. "The pain will stop. I know it will."
Max looked over to see a group of girls and Andrew around Angel. She smiled at Lorne and went to Angel. She stood next to him as the army of slayers stared them down.
"Shes stronger then most slayers." Angel said about Max.
"Is she stronger then 12 vampyr slayers?" He asked.
"Dont make me find out." Max said to Andrew.
"Ill just tell Buffy about this when we get back now wont I." Andrew said turning with the slayers and Dana on a gurney.
"Let him go. Hes a moron, see him take that one on. Mental problems and all, thats a beauty." Max said shaking her head.
"He cant handle her." Angel said softly.
"Shes too far gone."