Survival of the Sickest
Chapter 1: Waiting in the Wings
By: Rogue-Slayer13
Disclaimer: The characters of Btvs and Ats belong to Joss Whedon, not myself.
Summary: See chapter one
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Lorne sat in a chair in the corner of Angel's office praying with his face in his hands. Wesley was furiously pacing the length of the office while Gunn leaned against the wall looking out the window of Angel's office. Knox sat on the couch, not really knowing what else to do at the moment.
"I hate feeling useless," Gunn commented.
"Yeah, I'd like nothing more then to be the White Knight in this messed up little fairy tale. I mean, I don't just care about Fred, I practically worship it," Knox stated.
The last sentenced caused all three men to turn and look at the scientist with quizzical looks.
"You said, 'it'," Gunn said.
"What?" asked a confused Knox.
"You said 'it', not 'her'. You said, 'I worship it'," Wesley stated.
"Oops."
"You did this. This is all your fault!" Gunn shouted as he advanced on Knox.
"I just played my part," Knox replied with a grin.
"You slimy bastard. You couldn't stand the thought of me being with her instead of you, so you kill her?" Wesley shouted as he too closed the space between Knox and himself.
"I chose Fred because I love her!" Knox shouted as he backed up a bit. "She's worthy of being Illyria's shell."
"What are you getting at?" Wesley demanded.
"This was all predestined millions of years ago. There's nothing you can do to stop it. There's only a few of us, but that doesn't matter, there's a great kingdom waiting for Illyria in another dimension. I'm just a small part of the plan. This thing is so much bigger then you could ever imagine. All you can do now is wait," finished Knox with a cocky grin.
There was a moment of silence before Gunn head butted Knox, knocking him out cold.
"Bastard."
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Fred watched as Drogyn began the incantation to teleport the sarcophagus from the jet to the Deeper Well. He was standing in front of a circle that had been traced onto the chamber floor. Around the circle were four candles and in the center of it was a bundle of herbs. As Drogyn continued to chant, the herbs began to smoke, the smoke cloud growing larger and larger until it blocked Drogyn from view. When the smoke finally subsided, Illyria's sarcophagus was in the middle of the circle.
"You sure you're up to this?" Angel asked.
"Yeah," Fred replied as she turned to look at Angel. "I'll be fine, I mean, what else do I have to lose?"
"Everything's gonna be fine," replied the vampire.
"I hope so," Fred said as she turned and walked toward Drogyn.
"Are you sure she'll be okay?" Angel asked.
"If everything goes according to plan, your friend should be fine," replied a slightly annoyed Drogyn.
Spike looked across the bridge and into the chamber where Fred was sitting cross-legged in one circle while the sarcophagus was in another.
"This better work," Spike said. "Cause we're running out of options."
Fred watched as a blue mist began to form around her. It circled her head before floating over toward the sarcophagus where it began to lazily circle around it. The mist did a few more laps before it formed a straight line from Fred's mouth to the sarcophagus. Fred felt as if her very soul was being pulled out of her body through her mouth. Her entire body began to shake and the warmth was sucked out of her.
Her fingers and toes went numb and it was becoming harder and harder for her to breathe. A massive cloud was violently circling the sarcophagus, the lid of which rattle slightly with the force of the motion. Finally the chain of mist connecting Fred to the sarcophagus disappeared and the cloud was sucked into the sarcophagus. Fred took a deep calming breath and was grateful to feel the warmth return to her body.
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"What should we do with him?" Gunn looked over to Knox who was tied to an office chair and slipping in and out of consciousness.
"I say we kill him," Wesley replied coldly.
"Now fellas, it may be just the fact that I'm not a very violent person, but I think murder is a bit too much." Lorne looked at the two men, hoping that they would agree.
"Lorne's right. No matter how evil he may be, he's not worth it," Gunn said.
"We could leave him for Angel to deal with. I'm sure he'll be more then thrilled when he finds out how big of a role Knox played in all of this," suggested the ex-watcher.
Gunn watched as Knox slowly came to and looked around his surroundings.
"What happened?" Knox asked.
"I was this close to kicking your ass," Gunn replied holding his thumb and index finger about half and inch apart. "You're lucky Lorne's a lover and not a fighter. Otherwise, your ass would be dead by now."
"Well I appreciate that very much."
"Just because I convinced them to spare you life, doesn't mean we're bosom buddies or anything," replied the green skinned demon.
"It's probably too late to save her now anyway."
"What do you mean?" Wesley asked.
"I seriously doubt Spike and Angel made it past the keeper of the well and if they didn't do that, then there's no way in hell that they could've saved Fred."
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Fred shakily got to her feet and walked back out of the chamber. She was still weak, but she looked a million times better then she had before.
"You back to plain, old Fred again?" Spike asked.
"Yeah," Fred replied with a smile. "It's just plain, old me again."
"Well that's the way we like you." Angel pulled Fred into a hug.
"You should probably be on your way. I'm sure your other friends must be worried," Drogyn said as he lead the group out of the well.
"Thanks for the help," Spike said as he walked out of the Deeper Well.
"Anytime, a friend of Angel's is a friend of mine," Drogyn replied.
"It was nice seeing you again," Angel called as he followed Spike and Fred out of the grove of trees.
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To Be Continued . . .
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