Chapter 2

"Hello Whistler, still colour blind I see."

"Wow as always it's such a pleasure to see you again. You know your almost as nice as your brother, at least you smell better than he did the last time I saw him and your definitely better on the eyes."

"Whistler, you're a pig, just so we get that out in the open, anyway we always have this conversation and I always tell you not if you were the last creature on this earth. Look your message said that it's time, is it? Is it really now? Do I finally get to see him again?!" Her voice went from calm and collected to excited and filled with a certain childlike anticipation.

Whistler looked at her and shook his head, despite all his years of doing this he still could not get over what the PTBs managed to put people through and what those people were willing to take. The girl in front of him (and he thought of her as a girl even though she was a woman of twenty four years), she had seen so much and felt even more and yet she still held out hope, maybe not in the world but in someone she had not seen in more years than most people lived. Oh hell, he though, its not like we haven't screwed up anyone else's life in fact she'll be meeting those people shortly anyway.

"Kathy things have changed a little, something's about to go down and he's the one leading the charge. The Powers have asked that you step in and straighten things out, but first I need to get you up to date."

"But I get to see him soon, right? I don't have to wait too long? I need to see my brother Whistler, I've waited long enough."

"I know Kathy and you will, you'll see Angel soon enough."

It was raining, not a light little drizzle but pouring. It was as if the earth new what was going on and felt the need to show that it knew and cared. Actually that's not completely out there, she realised, considering the way the world works that's a very likely possibility.

She walked toward the building not expecting to see anyone and so was surprised to see the shape of a woman emerge through the rain. She ducked aside and hid, not wanting to be seen. As she looked closer she realised that the woman was blue, 'fricking Smurfette' she thought slightly amazed, 'oh wait that's Illyria, crap don't tell me I'm too late'

Kathy ran toward the building and snuck inside, all around her lay the dead bodies of large red demons with tusks. Obviously Illyria had had some fun. She made her way to the main chamber and looked around. There lay the remains of what had obviously been some sort of demon except it was missing a large portion of its head, next to it was a IV stand with a number of bags hanging from it. Kathy knew this was the body of Cyvus Vail, a member of the Black Thorn and one of the most dangerous men on Earth. It was of no concern to Kathy however what she was really interested in was the body of a man lying close by.

Kathy stood over the body of the man, he was in his thirties but his face even in death looked tired. 'Sorry, she thought, I know how much you'd like to stay dead Wesley but you're needed here.'

She knelt down beside him and took a container from her bag, it was filled with a luminous green liquid that glowed and added an eerie light to the already morbid setting. She carefully removed the lid and allowed some of the liquid to fall onto the mortal injury in Wesley's stomach. Placing the lid back on she sat back waited.

"Come on, come on," she urged, "work goddamn it, you said this would work."

A moment later the man gasped, his chest rose as his lungs began to work again and his heart beat. His wound, which had left blood pooled around him, was no longer and his body was void of any injuries. Wesley rolled over onto his side unsure of what was happening, he looked around, his eyes resting on Kathy.

"Who are you, what did you do to me? What's going on?" He asked her gruffly.

"It's alright, calm down I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help. My name's Kathy and I healed you, you should be fine in a second, "she replied wondering how she was going to explain everything to him without him trying to kill or capture her. Maybe the fact that she brought him back from the dead would count for something.

"You brought me back, I was dead and you revived me. How? Why? I don't want to be here anymore, you should have left me be, I could have been with her, with Fred, why did you BRING ME BACK?" he yelled at her, what had began as a confused ramblings turned into an outraged yelling.

"Wesley calm down, look I'm just doing what I'm told, you're needed here, you're important, it's not your time." She said, 'that's it, one more cliché Kathy that's all he needs to tip him over the FRICKING edge' she berated herself silently.

"Who are you?" Wesley coldly asked, staring at her.

"My name is Kathy, I'm a messenger from the Powers that Be, they sent me to help get you guys back on the path. The only problem is that unless we move now there's not going to be anyone else left to save. I'm sorry Wesley, we've got to go, we need to help the others otherwise this is all just a big waste of time." Kathy checked her watch and saw that they were going to cut this close; she just prayed it wasn't too close; she wasn't in the mood to lose her brother before she even found him again.

"Angel and the others, they made it?" Wesley asked.

"They killed the other members of the Order but now they're about to face an onslaught of thousands of demons, which, I'm guessing they're not going to survive for long in. We need to get there Wes, we need to pull them out."
The urgency in her voice confused him, who was she and why did their fate concern her so much? Still he realised that now was not the time, his friends needed his help and despite how he felt about being back, he knew that he had to go to them.

"Alright," he said, "Come on, although I'm not sure how much help we'll be fighting these guys, bringing me back may have been a waste of time"

"Believe me Wes I don't waste my time in matters like these, and anyway who said we're going to fight? This is a rescue mission."