REPRECUSSIONS
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Kelli.
CHAPTER 15-PAIN SEEMS ETERNAL
The vehicle finally came to a stop in an alley about a block away from the hospital. Sam softly gave out the orders to the other Initiative soldiers before she turned back to Xander and paled a bit. "Um…Xander, do you mind if I ask you a question, it could be construed as an overly personal question…but what's with the eye patch," Sam asked with a nervous look on her face as she tried to keep from staring at the eye patch.
"Oh this…well that preacher guy, Caleb…he kind of stuck his thumb…and," Xander replied with a sheepishly look of uncomfortable-ness on his face as he half gestured with his thumb towards his eye, not reveling when he saw the pale look on Sam's face.
"But now he looks even sexier…we can play pirates anytime that we want to," Anya chimed in with an optimistic look of zeal on her face before her frown turned upside down at the odd stares that Xander and Sam sent her way.
"That mwather fucker's gwanna pay…," Kennedy slurred out with a very angry and vindictive grimace on her face through the pain that she was in and the tears running down her cheeks.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here people; we don't even know who this Caleb person truly is, if we go into this halfcocked then your friend Rhona won't be the only one to die, and besides we need to get you to the infirmary to have a medic look at that nose of yours," Sam stated with a cautionary frown on her face as she turned and glanced over at Kennedy before turning back to Xander and Anya and continued the conversation.
"I don't understand how this happened…," Giles stammered out with a look of total disbelief and bewilderment on his face as he paced back and forth in the open space in the living room.
"Well ya see Giles…when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much they…ah heck who am I kidding…sperm met egg and as a result we have Connor," Oz said with a nervous look on his face as he caught the stares of some of the assembled potentials.
"Is my father here or not," Connor mumbled with an unhappy frown on his face before he became oddly fascinated with the design of the couch and looked away.
"I'm sorry Connor, but your father is not here at the moment," Giles replied with a somewhat sheepish smile on his face as he stopped for a moment before continuing to pace.
"Do you know when he'll be back," Oz asked with a slightly nervous frown on his face as he sat back in his seat and looked up at Giles.
"I'm afraid not, you see at present Angel and I…well those of us still remaining in this house anyway, aren't exactly on such good of terms," Giles answered with an unhappy and slightly nervous scowl on his face as he only half turned back to Oz and Connor.
"What do you mean…Giles…," Oz softly stammered out his question with a confused and uncomfortable expression on his face, guessing that he wasn't going to like what he was going to hear.
"A few days ago…after a very unfortunate incident at the vineyard…the potentials and those others assembled took a vote and a decision was arrived at…," Giles stuttered out his reply with a concerned and slightly shamed look on his face before Connor cut in.
"I don't understand what you are saying," Connor stated with a confused look on his face as he pushed his bangs off of his forehead.
"We voted…Faith in, as our new leader, Buffy left that night and we haven't seen her but only for the briefest of instances since, right now I have no clue where Buffy is…Faith either for that matter, because the erstwhile slayer has flown the proverbial coop once more and last that we knew was at the abandoned hospital, Willow and the others went to retrieve her," Giles answered with an unhappy frown on his face as he walked over to the nearest open chair and sat back down.
"What the bloody hell is going on out there," Wesley exclaimed loudly with a demanding expression on his face before he pushed Lilah out of the way before she could get off a rebuttal and threw the door open. The scene that the former watcher stumbled out into was one that could have only been described as hell, pure hell. Almost immediately he threw himself to the ground, setting aside the pain of the bare skin of his palms meeting the unforgiving blacktop of the parking lot. "Damn…," Wesley growled through gritted teeth as he raised his head up and found himself staring face to face with the stalled open eyes of the soldier that he had ordered to assist Faith. "Faith," Wesley shouted at the top of his lungs as he began to pick himself up off of the ground before the hail of bullets flying back and forth overhead forced him back to the pavement.
"Wesley," Faith shouted over the din before she shoved one of the Wolfram and Hart guards out of the way and rolled over the shell of a burnt out tire and finally stopped when she came into contact with Wesley's left shoulder.
"What going on," Wesley asked with a confused look on his face as one hand went for one of his guns while the other came to rest on Faith's shoulder as she tapped into her slayer strength and pulled him out of harms way behind one of the barricades that the Wolfram and Hart guards had brought with them.
"I don't know, we barely got halfway across the parking lot before someone started shooting as us, we made it back here but only I was able to get behind the barricade in time," Faith replied with an only semi nervous look on her face as she balled her hands up into fists and tried to keep her temper under control. Fighting vampires, demons, hell beasts came easy to Faith, but fighting against armed guards with guns was an entirely different matter. Her slayer speed would only give her an edge for so long before one of her enemies got lucky and she'd be down for the count, forever.
"I don't recognize them either…but we're going to have to do something," Wesley stated with an unhappy scowl on his face as he strained to catch a good glimpse of their attackers while slipping both guns out of their holsters.
"No argument here Wes, but with all of their firepower I don't see how…," Faith started to reply with an angry and frustrated pout on her face before she was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass from high overhead. The dark slayer and her watcher watched in both fascination and horror as two figures plummeted towards the ground. The fall of the two figures were broken when they landed on several of the Initiative soldiers, knocking them out cold.
"Angel," Faith exclaimed with a shocked look on her face as she stood up and looked over the top of the barricade.
"Faith get down," Wesley shouted frantically as he jumped up, grabbed Faith's midsection, and dragged her back down, barely avoiding the hail of bullets that whizzed by where her head had been only moments before.
"But Wes, Angel…," Faith shot back with a frustrated look of concern on her face as she struggled a bit against Wesley's embrace.
"Can take care of himself and doesn't die when he gets shot, unlike you and I," Wesley stated with a firm tone to his voice as he tightened his hold on Faith's midsection and did his best to look her in the eye while speaking.
"But…," Faith started to mumble back before a glint of metal from above caught her eye and her head shot up. "Oh fuck…Wes we have to…," Faith cursed angrily with an almost frantic tone to her voice before a shot rang out.
"Faith…," Wesley nearly screamed out as he dove overtop of Faith, gritted his teeth, and hoped for the best. Within seconds the air was filled with two almost simultaneously sharp intakes of breath as the shot found its mark, slicing through the back of Wesley's left shoulder and finally tearing through Faith's right should before ricocheting off of the pavement.
Molly had at first chosen to accompany Fred and Gunn in their search through the hospital, but when she had stopped to check on something the two old friends had continued on, unaware of her absence. She had tried in vain for several minutes to relocate them before she had heard the first burst of gunfire that she would later find out had driven Angel and Lorne to drop to the ground. With a panicked look of fear on her face Molly spun on her heel and took off in the direction of the gunfire, hoping that her worst fears weren't about to be realized.
"Mr. Gunn…," Molly exclaimed with a very worried look on her face as she frantically shoved open a set of double doors and started off down the hallway, only to slam headfirst into a fellow potential.
"Hey," Kelli shouted with an angry sneer on her face as she sat up and would have tried to strangle Molly but her restraints kept her from doing anything more than floundering in her attempts to get back to her feet.
"Ow," Molly moaned with a pained wince as she softly rubbed the spot on her left temple where she was sure that she'd have a bruise by morning. "Hey what's the big…," Molly started to growl angrily with an accusing sneer on her face before she looked up into the barrels of two guns aimed directly at her, with her eyes mimicking silver dollars in terms of their size.
"And you are…," Riley asked with an impatient scowl on his face as he half looked in Molly's direction and half looked in the direction of the gunfire.
"Molly…Molly Windholm," Molly stammered out with an innocent look of fear on her face as she tried her best to smile and look as non threatening as she could.
"Well Ms Windholm, today's your lucky day, we're only going to take you into our custody instead of kill you," Riley added with a slightly haughty smirk on his face as he took the safety off of his gun, leaving Molly to swallow hard and try not to panic.
"What the hell…I thought you were," Kelli started to exclaim with an angry look on her face before she fully realized who it was that she was talking to in the personage of another potential.
"I got better…," Molly quickly replied with a scared look on her face as she leaned back a bit and away from the barrels of the guns trained on her forehead.
"How fortunate for us…cuff her," Riley stated with an almost mocking smile on his face before he shrugged his shoulders and tossed a pair of restraints similar to those that Kelli wore to the Initiative soldier closest to Molly.
The Initiative soldiers never knew what hit them. Buffy burst around the corner like a force of nature, her right foot nearly crushing one guard's windpipe before she flung herself to the ground as the other guard got off a few shots. Spike used the diversion well as he gritted his teeth against the pain searing through his chest and connected with a kick the remaining guard's leg, smiling softly to himself as he heard the bone crack. The two guards collapsed into completely disarray before Buffy was able to turn back to Spike and assess the situation.
"Spike…are you okay," Buffy called out with a hesitant and nervous look on her face as she helped Spike back up into a seated position before casting a wary eye back over her shoulder at the two guards, one of whom was still trying to catch his breath while the others attention was take up in softly moaning in pain over his broken leg.
"I've been better…," Spike mumbled with a pained smile on his face, before he coughed a bit, as part of his duster fell away from his body, revealing the many bloody wounds marring his chest and stomach.
"Oh my God," Buffy cried out with a scared look in her eye as she frantically began to scan the surrounding area, desperately hoping to find something to press onto the wounds.
"Wasn't fast enough…," Spike started to add with an almost sarcastic smirk on his face before he coughed up some more blood and fell into the onrushing darkness.
"Spike…," Buffy screamed with a terrified expression on her face as tears sprang down her cheeks before all power to the hospital was cut and the hallway went dark.
"Willow stay here with Dawn, Andrew and I will check this out," Robin stated with a nervous look on his face, even though his tone of voice hinted otherwise, as he pushed open one of the double doors.
"We…we will," Andrew stuttered out with an absolutely petrified look on his face as his normally pasty complexion went as white as a sheet and for a moment Robin expected the formerly evil nerd to faint.
"Yes…we will, we need to buy Willow enough time to finish the spell and find out what's going on out there, besides we have to figure out what happened to Kelli," Robin stated plainly and forcefully with a very serious look on his face before reached out and grabbed Andrew's shoulder.
"Okay yeah but…," Was all that Andrew could get out before Robin had smiled over to Willow and drug him out of the room.
"What do we do if…," Dawn started to ask with a scared look on her face before she let her voice trail off.
"We hope that doesn't happen Dawnie, if I can get this spell off then we'll be all set, otherwise…," Willow interjected at first with an optimistic smile on her face as she walked across the room and sat down in the center of the circle that she had made.
"Otherwise we'll all die horrible painful deaths…," Dawn finished with a worried look on her face before the tears once more sprang down her cheeks.
"What's going on," Xander asked with a confused and concerned look on his face as he followed Sam out of the alley.
"I don't know, this shouldn't be happening," Sam replied with a concerned look on her face as she led Xander, Anya, and a still bloody Kennedy out of the alley and quickly behind a barricade as the bullets continued to fly overhead. Hazarding a quick glance at their opposition Sam's gaze was met by a sight that would haunt her memories for decades to come. Rising up out of the smoke and shattered glass a monster tore into any and all Initiative soldiers that stood in its path.
"Hey…don't we know him," Anya piped in with a cheerful smile on her face as she watched the monster continue to tear through the ranks of the Initiative soldiers, despite the stupefied look that Sam was casting her way.
"Anya what…oh hell, it's Angel," Xander started to ask with a confused and angry scowl on his face before he ducked his head above the barricade and recognized the monster.
"Nwat hwim agawn," Kennedy blurted out with a pained grimace on her face as she gently pushed tissues up each nostril to try to stop the flow of blood as best she could. Sam puzzled at this and was about to pose a question when the monster turned and charged towards them.
"How many times do I have to tell people…I don't like getting shot, it hurts…," Angel growled with a very angry and frustrated sneer on his face as the next Initiative soldier that he came to panicked at the sight of him in full game face and hesitated, giving Angel the perfect opening. With a half cocked smirk on his face Angel backhanded the soldier's weapon away before he slammed his right foot into the soldier's stomach, sending the man flying backwards through another window.
"Angel wait, stop please…," Xander blurted out with a sudden burst of courage as he stood up and rushed around the edge of the barricade and positioned himself in front of the mightily pissed off Angel.
"Why should I…you didn't stop when you kicked Buffy out…maybe I should return the favor, take your other eye perhaps," Angel growled with and angry scowl on his face as he reverted back to his human face, all the while forcing the carpenter to back up by sheer intimidation.
"Shit…Angel…," Faith shouted, at the top of her lungs, through the pain as she found that for the most part her right arm was now useless in trying to push Wesley off of her.
"Faith…," Angel questioned with a confused and somewhat worried look on his face before his nose caught first the scent of Faith's blood and then of Wesley's.
"Angel hurry…Wes is hurt," Faith exclaimed back with a pained countenance before she gritted her teeth against the pain and fought back the tears that threatened to pour out.
"No…really, I'm fine…," Wesley mumbled with an eerie smile on his face as a small bit of blood started to leak out the side of his mouth before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.
"Wesley," Faith screamed in a more shrill voice that she ever thought possible as her defenses were laid bare and a torrent of tears sprang forth.
"Do you have any idea where you're going Charles," Fred asked with a scared look on her face as she caught up to Gunn and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Sure…of course, okay not really no, I never liked hospitals," Gunn answered with an uncomfortable pout on his face as he turned a corner and stopped in his tracks. "Every damn hallway that we get to looks exactly like the last one," Gunn added with a somewhat angry scowl on his face as he fretted about what to do.
"Well I think I saw a nurses station awhile back, what if we go back there, find one of those hospital maps or something and find our way out," Fred stated with a sincere look on her face as she lightly patted Gunn on the back.
"Fine with me I guess…just wish that we would have found someone is all, I mean how hard can it be to find a bunch of Buffy's former friends in a hospital…," Gunn stated with an unhappy frown on his face as he turned on his heel and followed Fred back to what he thought was a nurses station.
"Harder than you think Charles, I once got lost in a hospital for almost four hours when I was six…scared me nearly t' death, by the time that my mother found me I was so traumatized that I didn't form a complete word for two months," Fred quipped with an eerie smile on her face, one that made Gunn's hair on the back of his neck stand on end, before she finished her bout of nostalgia and skipped around a nearby corner.
"Freaky…," Gunn mumbled with an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach as he rounded the corner and started to follow Fred down the hall.
END OF CHAPTER 15