Chapter Seventeen:
The Wounded and Getting Up to Date
Gwen couldn't believe how much destruction was there. Collapsed buildings. Charred and torn-up bodies. Blood. Fire. Smoke. It had all been caused by her. She knew that without having any reason to even suspect it. She had caused every bit of this suffering and destruction.
She felt an odd sort of content feeling inside of her. She didn't want to be glad at seeing all of this and knowing she had caused it, but she was.
Then she remembered where she was supposed to go: Los Angeles. She was supposed to rejoin Angel, the vampire with a soul. The only vampire with a soul--to her knowledge.
She felt a tickling sensation in her hands. She looked down at them and was surprised to see them glowing bright and blue. She felt the electricity stored up in them. She smiled.
"E.T. ain't got shit on this," she whispered to herself and laughed. Then she focused on putting her power to use. She felt a very, very small amount of her energy drain. Electric bolts shot out of her hands and slammed into invisible walls that made up a sphere. The ground began to melt along with the surrounding building debris. The bodies began to peel apart and burn.
Gwen expected the metal zippers on her jeans and leather jacket to melt, but they were unaffected. As was she. Then she stopped the electrifying of all surrounding her.
The tickling traveled up her arms. She looked down and saw that her arms were now glowing as well. Then the glow disappeared under the rolled up sleeves of her jacket. There was tickling in her feet now, too. She could see a bit of light escaping her white-and-red shoes. Her breasts tickled and her neck did, too. Her knees tickled and then her entire head tickled. She laughed.
That's when David Carradine appeared in front of her. It was Richard, in the form of David Carradine from "Kill Bill Vol. 2". He was wearing clothing that slightly resembled that of a pirate's attire and spoke with a slight lisp.
"That isn't the limit of your powers, sweetheart," he said. "You've got a bunch of other things you can do. Keep your mind focused on, oh, say, transportation--wink, wink--and you'll get a big surprise. Now, I'll leave you to your brand new bag." Then Richard disappeared and Gwen did what he suggested. She kept her mind focused on transportation.
There was a great flash that wiped a tenth of the city off of the face of the Earth quite literally, and Gwen was gone.
Meanwhile…
Kennedy wasn't there. Her body was… but her soul was missing.
This wasn't fair. Kennedy hadn't been dead after all… yet Willow had used a spell to bring her back from the dead. Now only a part of her was on Earth. The rest was somewhere else.
"GILES!" Willow screamed. Kennedy was staring up at the night sky with a blank face. It was as blank as the faces of the dead soldiers surrounding them with their glazed eyes open and staring into eternity.
Giles came over and kneeled down next to her.
"She's not here," Willow told him. She then kept repeating that. "She's not here. She's not here. She's not here. I fucked up. She's not here." Lorne laid his jacket over the bleeding form of Oz. If he didn't get medical attention soon he would be dead. Lorne then spotted Buffy standing on top of a mountain of debris with Dawn in her arms. There was blood all over both of them. Lorne called her over.
Buffy snapped out of whatever dream world she was in and ran to him. She set Dawn down and started crying.
"I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do." Lorne was getting annoyed by the constant repetition of that fact, but he bit his tongue.
"We need to get to the medical tent," he stated.
"WILLOW!" Buffy shouted suddenly as if having an idea. "Willow knows spells! Willow can heal Dawn! WILLOW!" Willow wasn't paying attention, though. She was crying and asking Giles what to do to bring back the part of Kennedy that was missing.
Xander got up with a great amount of effort and walked over to Buffy. He was holding his arm, making certain that it was still there and not believing it was there because he couldn't feel it. Saliva was dripping down his chin, but he didn't care. He collapsed next to Buffy and looked at Dawn.
"Jesus," he moaned. "The blood." "I don't know what to do, Xand," Buffy stated. Her voice was panicky… not a shred of thought in it. "She's gonna die!" Alexander Harris then tore off the sleeve of his demolished arm and shredded it into small strips using his working hand and left foot. The strips he gave to Buffy and told her to wrap them very tightly around the really bad wounds. He wouldn't be able to wrap the strips because he only had one hand.
Buffy nodded robustly and then did so. She then tore off her own sleeves and shredded them. Lorne watched as the two did this, not thinking about how he should be doing the same to Oz, who was very near death.
Soon most of Dawn's wounds were covered. The four that weren't were on her stomach, and they didn't have a strip long enough to stretch around all of her despite her slim stature.
Buffy pushed down on the three wounds that were close enough together for her to push down on with just two hands. Xander stood up.
"W-We need… duct tape! We need duct tape!" He then took two running steps before looking at Lorne. "Cover his cuts!" he ordered promptly before running off to find duct tape and having no idea where to begin the search.
Lorne then tore off his sleeves and shredded them into strips before wrapping two lightly around Oz's neck so as to not cut off his nose from his lungs, but to keep the blood from seeping out so quickly. He'd need duct tape as well. He then wrapped some around his arms and legs. He didn't have any lesions in his midsection. Lorne could see very many bruises and understood that many of his bones were broken.
Lorne seriously doubted Oz's chances of survival.
That's when the dead bodies of the soldiers were reanimated and began to stand up with a great need to feed.
Meanwhile…
Searing agony was all that Angel knew as he began to wake up. He was on the pavement of the street. When he opened his eyes all he saw was collapsed or burning buildings. He, like Connor, assumed that the Apocalypse had already happened.
He looked down at himself and saw blood on his midsection. He then remembered the metal pole and cringed. He didn't like things getting shoved into him… I'm gonna rephrase that. He didn't like getting impaled.
That's when he heard sobbing.
He looked in the direction of the sobbing and saw the backs of three people. Spike, Faith, and Robin. None of them were crying.
Then he heard a voice he had never expected to hear again in his eternal life. Fred's voice.
"What happened?" she sobbed. "What happened!" Her voice cracked and she sobbed even harder.
Angel leapt up and shot like a bullet to the crowd. He then saw Fred, dressed in Illyria's outfit, sitting in a pool of her own blood--blood that had come from the gigantic hole in her stomach--and crying.
"FRED!" Angel shouted in glee. It was glee he hadn't experienced since his final days with Cordelia--the real Cordelia in flesh and blood, not the vision or the impostor. Angel took a step forward to hug Fred when she crawled backwards, babbling insanely.
Spike ran forth and put his hands on her shoulders. He wanted to help her like she had helped him. Faith, Robin, and Angel gathered around the two.
"Fred," Spike said. Fred looked at him, tears leaving clear trails amongst the dirt and dust and blood on her cheeks.
"What happened?" Fred asked in a cracked voice.
"Calm down, Fred," Spike demanded and Fred seemed to obey. She stopped sobbing and stared into his eyes, letting him know he had her full attention. "We found out what was happening to you when we went away. That thing--" "Sarcophagus," Fred informed him in a composed voice, clearly much more in control now.
"Yes, sarcophagus. It held a demon god by the name of Illyria." Fred's eyes widened.
"The demon god… consumed you…" Fred whimpered. "W-Wha-What?" "It took over your body." "Did I hurt anyone?" Spike shook his head. "No. It wasn't you." Fred then looked around and saw the destruction. "What happened?" she reiterated.
"We're not sure what caused this," Spike said as he looked around the horizon. "Certainly not any lackeys like those Moch-things." Spike was talking more to himself at that point.
"Moch-things?" Fred asked.
"We'll get to that, Fred. While you were… gone…" Spike then told her all that had happened, stopping before telling her about Wesley's death. He also left out that Wesley had warmed up to Illyria, not certain what effect that would have on her.
"Who died?" Fred asked after Spike stopped right before they all met together in the alley.
"Gunn--" Fred looked at him shocked. "--got hurt. So did Angel and myself." "What about Wesley?" Fred queried, knowing the answer.
Spike sighed. "I'm sorry, pet." Fred began to cry again. This time Spike didn't think he could calm her down.
Meanwhile…
Lindsey was still perched atop the tallest Venacklondage. He was waiting now. Waiting for the newest addition to the army. The most powerful.
It had taken a great deal of work to get it into the army. But it was about to be worth it. Once it was no longer tampered by a human shell it would be once again ruthless, angry, and ready to kill.
Illyria, in her original form, would be arriving soon. In the meantime, however, Lindsey was playing Rumy with a Jarlkarlone. Lindsey was winning, of course.
Near the end of the game Illyria rose from the ground. It was seamless and soundless. She just formed from the ground really.
"Hello, beautiful," Lindsey said. He now had the most powerful army ever created at his disposal. "How are you today?"
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Can't wait till the next chapter? Too bad. Here's a summary.
Summary (at Tariq's request) of the last few chapters: Gwen is added in. She is coming to Los Angeles at Richard's request to help Angel and his team. Before she goes, however, her power leaves her. That power overloads all electronic appliances around and the power from those appliances is then added to Gwen's power. After that she begins to head to Los Angeles. Dawn is injured greatly and dying. Illyria is also injured. Angel is impaled. Xander's arm is lost due to severed muscles and nerves. Willow keeps herself from injury but Kennedy is put into a coma while Willow believes she is dead. Buffy is trapped under her tent. Lindsey's mind is being poisoned by a source unknown and is now in control of all of the Jarlkarlones and Venacklondages on Earth. Drusilla is dead and Connor no longer under Bob's influence. Bob's location is unknown now. Most of the country is deceased. The Mochlackdangodenacks are rapidly decreasing in number Buffy finds Dawn and takes Dawn with her to find Willow and Xander. Illyria is feared dead. Spike, Robin, and Faith are looking for survivors while Angel is unconscious. Willow is fighting back Evil Willow. The Bolinkodagenat's cover is blown. Ashley is awake. Connor is awake and thinks the world has ended. The zombies have not made another appearance yet and Monique's and Gunn's conditions are unknown.
Oz loses a fight against the Bolinkodagenat, which then goes off to find Willow, the source of the magical sense it feels. Willow destroys part of Kennedy after performing a spell to bring her back from the dead when she is only in a coma. The Bolinkodagenat attacks and is scolded by Lindsey and disappears. Lindsey scolds the Bolinkodagenat more. Illyria comes to. Spike finds Illyria only to find that he has, in fact, found Fred.
Willow gets Giles over to her and wants to know how to bring back the part of Kennedy destroyed. Buffy, Lorne, and Xander take care of Dawn and Oz. The dead soldiers turn into zombies. Fred is brought up to date on events. The Bolinkodagenat is going to retrieve the Key (Dawn). Lindsey greets Illyria back now that she is no longer in the shell of Fred. The reason for this is not yet known to you people, the readers. Dun dun duuuuunnnnn suspenseful music
"Eventually, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." - Narrator "Fight Club"
The Wounded and Getting Up to Date
Gwen couldn't believe how much destruction was there. Collapsed buildings. Charred and torn-up bodies. Blood. Fire. Smoke. It had all been caused by her. She knew that without having any reason to even suspect it. She had caused every bit of this suffering and destruction.
She felt an odd sort of content feeling inside of her. She didn't want to be glad at seeing all of this and knowing she had caused it, but she was.
Then she remembered where she was supposed to go: Los Angeles. She was supposed to rejoin Angel, the vampire with a soul. The only vampire with a soul--to her knowledge.
She felt a tickling sensation in her hands. She looked down at them and was surprised to see them glowing bright and blue. She felt the electricity stored up in them. She smiled.
"E.T. ain't got shit on this," she whispered to herself and laughed. Then she focused on putting her power to use. She felt a very, very small amount of her energy drain. Electric bolts shot out of her hands and slammed into invisible walls that made up a sphere. The ground began to melt along with the surrounding building debris. The bodies began to peel apart and burn.
Gwen expected the metal zippers on her jeans and leather jacket to melt, but they were unaffected. As was she. Then she stopped the electrifying of all surrounding her.
The tickling traveled up her arms. She looked down and saw that her arms were now glowing as well. Then the glow disappeared under the rolled up sleeves of her jacket. There was tickling in her feet now, too. She could see a bit of light escaping her white-and-red shoes. Her breasts tickled and her neck did, too. Her knees tickled and then her entire head tickled. She laughed.
That's when David Carradine appeared in front of her. It was Richard, in the form of David Carradine from "Kill Bill Vol. 2". He was wearing clothing that slightly resembled that of a pirate's attire and spoke with a slight lisp.
"That isn't the limit of your powers, sweetheart," he said. "You've got a bunch of other things you can do. Keep your mind focused on, oh, say, transportation--wink, wink--and you'll get a big surprise. Now, I'll leave you to your brand new bag." Then Richard disappeared and Gwen did what he suggested. She kept her mind focused on transportation.
There was a great flash that wiped a tenth of the city off of the face of the Earth quite literally, and Gwen was gone.
Meanwhile…
Kennedy wasn't there. Her body was… but her soul was missing.
This wasn't fair. Kennedy hadn't been dead after all… yet Willow had used a spell to bring her back from the dead. Now only a part of her was on Earth. The rest was somewhere else.
"GILES!" Willow screamed. Kennedy was staring up at the night sky with a blank face. It was as blank as the faces of the dead soldiers surrounding them with their glazed eyes open and staring into eternity.
Giles came over and kneeled down next to her.
"She's not here," Willow told him. She then kept repeating that. "She's not here. She's not here. She's not here. I fucked up. She's not here." Lorne laid his jacket over the bleeding form of Oz. If he didn't get medical attention soon he would be dead. Lorne then spotted Buffy standing on top of a mountain of debris with Dawn in her arms. There was blood all over both of them. Lorne called her over.
Buffy snapped out of whatever dream world she was in and ran to him. She set Dawn down and started crying.
"I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do." Lorne was getting annoyed by the constant repetition of that fact, but he bit his tongue.
"We need to get to the medical tent," he stated.
"WILLOW!" Buffy shouted suddenly as if having an idea. "Willow knows spells! Willow can heal Dawn! WILLOW!" Willow wasn't paying attention, though. She was crying and asking Giles what to do to bring back the part of Kennedy that was missing.
Xander got up with a great amount of effort and walked over to Buffy. He was holding his arm, making certain that it was still there and not believing it was there because he couldn't feel it. Saliva was dripping down his chin, but he didn't care. He collapsed next to Buffy and looked at Dawn.
"Jesus," he moaned. "The blood." "I don't know what to do, Xand," Buffy stated. Her voice was panicky… not a shred of thought in it. "She's gonna die!" Alexander Harris then tore off the sleeve of his demolished arm and shredded it into small strips using his working hand and left foot. The strips he gave to Buffy and told her to wrap them very tightly around the really bad wounds. He wouldn't be able to wrap the strips because he only had one hand.
Buffy nodded robustly and then did so. She then tore off her own sleeves and shredded them. Lorne watched as the two did this, not thinking about how he should be doing the same to Oz, who was very near death.
Soon most of Dawn's wounds were covered. The four that weren't were on her stomach, and they didn't have a strip long enough to stretch around all of her despite her slim stature.
Buffy pushed down on the three wounds that were close enough together for her to push down on with just two hands. Xander stood up.
"W-We need… duct tape! We need duct tape!" He then took two running steps before looking at Lorne. "Cover his cuts!" he ordered promptly before running off to find duct tape and having no idea where to begin the search.
Lorne then tore off his sleeves and shredded them into strips before wrapping two lightly around Oz's neck so as to not cut off his nose from his lungs, but to keep the blood from seeping out so quickly. He'd need duct tape as well. He then wrapped some around his arms and legs. He didn't have any lesions in his midsection. Lorne could see very many bruises and understood that many of his bones were broken.
Lorne seriously doubted Oz's chances of survival.
That's when the dead bodies of the soldiers were reanimated and began to stand up with a great need to feed.
Meanwhile…
Searing agony was all that Angel knew as he began to wake up. He was on the pavement of the street. When he opened his eyes all he saw was collapsed or burning buildings. He, like Connor, assumed that the Apocalypse had already happened.
He looked down at himself and saw blood on his midsection. He then remembered the metal pole and cringed. He didn't like things getting shoved into him… I'm gonna rephrase that. He didn't like getting impaled.
That's when he heard sobbing.
He looked in the direction of the sobbing and saw the backs of three people. Spike, Faith, and Robin. None of them were crying.
Then he heard a voice he had never expected to hear again in his eternal life. Fred's voice.
"What happened?" she sobbed. "What happened!" Her voice cracked and she sobbed even harder.
Angel leapt up and shot like a bullet to the crowd. He then saw Fred, dressed in Illyria's outfit, sitting in a pool of her own blood--blood that had come from the gigantic hole in her stomach--and crying.
"FRED!" Angel shouted in glee. It was glee he hadn't experienced since his final days with Cordelia--the real Cordelia in flesh and blood, not the vision or the impostor. Angel took a step forward to hug Fred when she crawled backwards, babbling insanely.
Spike ran forth and put his hands on her shoulders. He wanted to help her like she had helped him. Faith, Robin, and Angel gathered around the two.
"Fred," Spike said. Fred looked at him, tears leaving clear trails amongst the dirt and dust and blood on her cheeks.
"What happened?" Fred asked in a cracked voice.
"Calm down, Fred," Spike demanded and Fred seemed to obey. She stopped sobbing and stared into his eyes, letting him know he had her full attention. "We found out what was happening to you when we went away. That thing--" "Sarcophagus," Fred informed him in a composed voice, clearly much more in control now.
"Yes, sarcophagus. It held a demon god by the name of Illyria." Fred's eyes widened.
"The demon god… consumed you…" Fred whimpered. "W-Wha-What?" "It took over your body." "Did I hurt anyone?" Spike shook his head. "No. It wasn't you." Fred then looked around and saw the destruction. "What happened?" she reiterated.
"We're not sure what caused this," Spike said as he looked around the horizon. "Certainly not any lackeys like those Moch-things." Spike was talking more to himself at that point.
"Moch-things?" Fred asked.
"We'll get to that, Fred. While you were… gone…" Spike then told her all that had happened, stopping before telling her about Wesley's death. He also left out that Wesley had warmed up to Illyria, not certain what effect that would have on her.
"Who died?" Fred asked after Spike stopped right before they all met together in the alley.
"Gunn--" Fred looked at him shocked. "--got hurt. So did Angel and myself." "What about Wesley?" Fred queried, knowing the answer.
Spike sighed. "I'm sorry, pet." Fred began to cry again. This time Spike didn't think he could calm her down.
Meanwhile…
Lindsey was still perched atop the tallest Venacklondage. He was waiting now. Waiting for the newest addition to the army. The most powerful.
It had taken a great deal of work to get it into the army. But it was about to be worth it. Once it was no longer tampered by a human shell it would be once again ruthless, angry, and ready to kill.
Illyria, in her original form, would be arriving soon. In the meantime, however, Lindsey was playing Rumy with a Jarlkarlone. Lindsey was winning, of course.
Near the end of the game Illyria rose from the ground. It was seamless and soundless. She just formed from the ground really.
"Hello, beautiful," Lindsey said. He now had the most powerful army ever created at his disposal. "How are you today?"
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Can't wait till the next chapter? Too bad. Here's a summary.
Summary (at Tariq's request) of the last few chapters: Gwen is added in. She is coming to Los Angeles at Richard's request to help Angel and his team. Before she goes, however, her power leaves her. That power overloads all electronic appliances around and the power from those appliances is then added to Gwen's power. After that she begins to head to Los Angeles. Dawn is injured greatly and dying. Illyria is also injured. Angel is impaled. Xander's arm is lost due to severed muscles and nerves. Willow keeps herself from injury but Kennedy is put into a coma while Willow believes she is dead. Buffy is trapped under her tent. Lindsey's mind is being poisoned by a source unknown and is now in control of all of the Jarlkarlones and Venacklondages on Earth. Drusilla is dead and Connor no longer under Bob's influence. Bob's location is unknown now. Most of the country is deceased. The Mochlackdangodenacks are rapidly decreasing in number Buffy finds Dawn and takes Dawn with her to find Willow and Xander. Illyria is feared dead. Spike, Robin, and Faith are looking for survivors while Angel is unconscious. Willow is fighting back Evil Willow. The Bolinkodagenat's cover is blown. Ashley is awake. Connor is awake and thinks the world has ended. The zombies have not made another appearance yet and Monique's and Gunn's conditions are unknown.
Oz loses a fight against the Bolinkodagenat, which then goes off to find Willow, the source of the magical sense it feels. Willow destroys part of Kennedy after performing a spell to bring her back from the dead when she is only in a coma. The Bolinkodagenat attacks and is scolded by Lindsey and disappears. Lindsey scolds the Bolinkodagenat more. Illyria comes to. Spike finds Illyria only to find that he has, in fact, found Fred.
Willow gets Giles over to her and wants to know how to bring back the part of Kennedy destroyed. Buffy, Lorne, and Xander take care of Dawn and Oz. The dead soldiers turn into zombies. Fred is brought up to date on events. The Bolinkodagenat is going to retrieve the Key (Dawn). Lindsey greets Illyria back now that she is no longer in the shell of Fred. The reason for this is not yet known to you people, the readers. Dun dun duuuuunnnnn suspenseful music
"Eventually, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." - Narrator "Fight Club"