Chapter Fifteen – Just an Illusion

Now Faith did scream.

"Doyle, what's wrong?" Cordelia asked as she rushed into the cottage.

"Watcher guy Wesley took off after Faith. Something is wrong. Deadly wrong, Cordelia. We have any way seein' what's happenin'?"

Cordelia shook her head at all that Doyle was trying to tell her. "Start from the beginning."

Doyle took a big breath to settle himself. "We were just watchin' that beautiful girl, Faith. She was in this mansion, looking for something. Well, she found something alright. A body. I don't know whom, but Wes tore out of here. We both sensed something wasn't right. That girl is in grave danger."

"Oh, damn. There's not any way to see. Did you see Angel anywhere?"

"No. It looked like she was alone."

Cordelia paced until she came up with a plan. "I'll try to contact Angel, get him to find Faith. That's the best I can do."

"What's a beautiful girl like you doing here with that guy?" a familiar voice started, turning the two towards him immediately.

Cordelia sneered at the newcomer, and pushed her way past him. He grabbed her arm to stay her from leaving his sight.

"Now where do you think you're going?"

"As far away from you Lindsey as I can get," Cordelia told him as she elbowed him in the stomach.

Lindsey doubled over in pain as she pulled the door open. "You can't interfere," he managed to get out.

"Not sure she's listening. You've double crossed too many people, lawyer."

"I'm not here to double-cross. I'm here on a job." Lindsey waved his hand out the door, and then followed to find Cordelia.

Cordelia stood in the flower garden, looking around for something. She walked forward again, and then stopped. "Why isn't this working?"

"You can't go anywhere. You gotta stay here," Lindsey called out to her.

"This is so your fault. Wait until I kick your ass."

Cordelia stomped over to Lindsey. He stood his ground, but flinched a little as she put herself right up into his face.

"You can kick my ass all you want. But I can't let you interfere."

"Why?" she yelled. "Something's wrong. I have to get to Wes."

"The PTBs seem to think something's wrong too. That's why they sent me. They don't want anyone else getting hurt, or worse."

"Can't be any worse, you stupid git," Doyle shot back.

"You have to trust me, please?" Lindsey begged.

"No. No trusting. You let me go, Lindsey, or so help me you will regret it," Cordelia pointed out to the dead lawyer.

"I can't," he simply told her. "I didn't shut the system down. They did. You're right. Something is happening. Your friends aren't the only ones in danger. We all are. If whatever plan they have succeeds, the realms between heaven and hell will collide. That's all they told me."

"Why send you, you jerk?" Doyle wanted to know.

"What? You think you're the only ones trying to make amends, make things better? I made so many mistakes, really horrible mistakes. I've been working my way out of hell. And believe me, you don't want to go there anytime soon."

Angel tried to take notes, like Wes always did, trying to find some kind of pattern as to why Faith's power had ebbed. The only conclusion he could come up with was a spell. So they needed to do some kind of spell to break the hold. But none of them was powerful enough to do a lot of spells he had found. Since he had once accidentally opened up a portal to Quor'toth, he probably was the most likely candidate. He hoped he had it in him when the time came.

Illyria had walked away moments before, quickly and quietly. When she did that, it surprised even him, because he was the master at it. The manly shout he heard next did surprise him. They had a visitor. Maybe that's what she had heard.

As he walked out of the office, he spotted Illyria holding up a man in the air. He just hoped the man wasn't a cop, because Illyria would take a lot of explaining.

"Illyria, put him down," Angel told her.

"He is evil."

"Aren't we all," Angel quipped before he touched her arm to tell her that he meant business.

Illyria immediately complied with the gesture. Angel was encouraged that she actually had listened to him that one time. Except after she let the man down, she punched him hard in the stomach. The man doubled over in pain.

"No killing the human, Illyria."

She looked at him like he was daft. Walking back a few paces, she looked to Angel to take control. "I believe that he is yours now, half-breed."

Angel helped the man stand, depositing him on the couch. "Sorry about the reception committee. She punches first, asks questions never."

"It's alright," the man wheezed out. "I'm looking for Faith."

Angel's senses perked up a bit. He probably didn't want to know whom the man was sitting beside him. "Hmm. Why?"

The man sat up straighter. "I'm Robin Wood. Faith's watcher."

Angel actually did snort when he heard that one. Probably because he knew that it wasn't true. She had a watcher. He was now dead. The man in front of him didn't know squat about Faith, even though he thought he did.

"You know, buddy. That's quite funny, actually, if I wasn't really pissed off right now. Now you can take your watcher ass, and leave."

As he stood for a confrontation, Angel glared at the man in his best don't-mess-with-me stare that usually scared most of the demon population, not to mention all of the human ones.

"Listen, I just need to talk to her. Just talk. You a boyfriend or something, because this is just really getting old."

"What makes you think that? Name's Angel," he told the man, putting as much behind his name as he could to make the man really think about who he really was.

Angel stuck his hand out to shake Robin's as he stood too. Robin politely took it, and tried to automatically jerk it back as Angel started to crush the man's hand in his.

"Angelus?" Robin asked, face looking on in horror.

"Nope. Just a really pissed off vampire with a soul, for the moment. Who knows, if I kill you, maybe I'll turn all evil because of that one perfect moment."

Angel let go of Robin's hand and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm not here to get into a pissing contest with you," Robin told him as he shook his hand out.

"Sorry. Not the kind of contests I like, cause, hey, no killing involved."

"I just wanted to get Pryce's diaries from her. That's all. After that, I don't care what she does anymore. She's not worth it."

"No, no diaries, no Faith. And it's really good to know that the Council cares that much about its slayers."

Robin cradled his hurt hand in his other hand. "Why would you care about a couple of books? What's it to you anyhow?"

"Because I've had just about enough out of those bunch of losers."

Robin drew himself up, offended by Angel's statement. Angel couldn't care less about the man before him. "We lost everything when the First blew up the Council."

"And I lost everything when I brought down demons you couldn't even imagine fighting. What's left of my family, I protect. Got it?"

Robin shook his head in acquiescence. Angel had been pushed about as far as he could be without committing more violence. "I'm sorry, but I have a job to do. Mr. Pryce's father will be in contact with you for his effects."

Wood slowly made his way out of the hotel, glancing over his shoulder as he did. Illyria stood rooted in the same spot the whole time. Angel wondered why she had taken Robin on, and why she stood by while he was in the pissing match with the watcher.

"Just what we need, the Council breathing down our necks too. Illyria, we should get back to work."

Angel turned to Illyria to see if she was going to follow him. Her eyes were the only things that moved. Right in front of him, she started changing. Her face changed, her hair changed, and at last her eyes changed. At first, Angel thought that somehow Fred had found her way home. That maybe they were wrong about her. But the voice that answered him back was pure Illyria.

"I do not understand."

"Neither do I. Did you just do that?"

"I had no control over it," Illyria told him as she looked at her hands.

She placed her hands on her face, over her throat, over her heart. The pleading look in her eyes made him worry. Something had drastically changed the demon.

"My heart beats."

Spike had gotten closer to the noise, just not too close. The chanting had gotten louder, but he didn't want to be discovered. Faith was back there somewhere, hiding. He didn't want to put her in any more danger than necessary. He hoped that the poof and Blue found something in those stupid books soon.

The scream behind him stopped him short. It was a human scream. Not that he hadn't ever heard Faith scream before, but it was usually punctuated by a crass swear word. This was an all out, something has scared the piss out of me, scream. Like the ones people would give him as he sank his fangs into their necks. She must have encountered a bad guy she couldn't take and thought that a girly scream would have him running quick.

Spike took off down the corridor like a bullet. Coming around a turn, he collided with a demon with really bad hands. A ring on its finger glowed brightly. The thing struck out at Spike, taking him down with one punch. Spike returned the favor by swinging out his foot, dropping the thing down to the ground hard. The demon groaned in pain as he rolled around. Spike took advantage of the situation by quickly flipping himself up and stepping on the guy's arm, crushing his weird hand. The creature squeaked in pain again, ring falling to the floor after it slipped from the thing's so-called finger. Spike scooped it up, putting it into his pocket. Anything that glowed an eerie light couldn't be good, he thought. And it could be a clue. Then he kicked the guy into unconsciousness.

Taking off again, this time he went more slowly around corners, until he made it back to where he had left Faith. Only she wasn't where he put her. She hadn't listened to his order. And now he had no idea where she went. His nose picked up her scent, so tracking her hopefully would be easy. As he made his way along the next corridor, he came to a series of doors. The last on the right seemed like the correct one. But when he tried the knob, it wouldn't budge.

"Faith," he called out to the slayer, hoping for an answer.

"Oh dear God," Wesley whispered to himself as he watched the body start to rise from the table.

Whatever someone had done, it wasn't him. That he knew because his ghostly form stood directly before his former self. The thing had jet black eyes, which clued him in that it was evil. He watched as Faith slowly backed away from the reanimated body, shaking her head no.

"This is not fucking real," she chanted out loud.

Faith tried the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. Knocking from outside made Wesley feel somewhat better. Maybe she could get away from it, with help.

She pounded on it, yelling, "Help."

The door vibrated, but didn't open. It must be strongly made, Wesley concluded. He just wished he could open it for her. The body sat on the table, staring directly at Faith, assessing her, studying her.

"Faith," the thing croaked.

It has my memories. Great, he thought. She might think that it was him, coming back to life like some cheap horror movie. He hoped that she had more sense than that.

"He's dead. Do you hear me? You're just an illusion."

The pounding on the door increased. Whoever was out there was interested in getting to Faith. He prayed it was Spike, but he didn't want to leave Faith to find out.

"Don't leave me, Faith," the thing spoke again.

The door finally caved in, admitting Spike in its wake.

"Holy shit," Spike exclaimed, seeing the reanimated corpse sitting on the table.

He obviously didn't like what he saw either. Smart vampire, he cheered.

"Get out now," Wesley said out loud, but knowing that no one could hear him.

He now stood in front of the humans, hoping that he could somehow protect them if the creature passed through him. Would it disrupt whatever spell had accomplished this act?

"We have to get out now," Faith repeated almost word for word.

Spike grabbed her hand and yanked her out of the room, taking off down the corridor to find the door where they had entered not long before. Wesley still stood in front of the being, trying to think of something he could do to stop what was happening.

The corpse didn't look like a dead body. It was pasty, but it hadn't decayed since he had died. Someone had taken great care for that to not happen. It wore the same clothes, minus his jacket. The bloodstain was still apparent on the front of the sweater, knife slash making it gape open just slightly.

The creature moved now, slowly getting up from the table. At first, its legs were unsteady, but it pushed off from the table and walked forward. Wesley braced himself as it walked right through him. He somehow knew it wouldn't be pleasant. For the body to encounter its soul again after death could not be ideal for either. Could he have miscalculated, thinking that he could stop the thing from escaping?

As the body touched him, it recoiled momentarily, but kept on forward. The first touch was searing down to his very being. Whoever had reanimated his corpse was pure, unadulterated evil. It felt like being slammed with the force of the Beast plus some of Angelus to boot. But it was all in his non-corporeal mind. But it had stopped moving. He gritted his teeth, thinking that if he stayed linked with it, his soul would burn up, maybe taking it with him.

"It won't work," a far-off voice cackled to him.

Wesley held his ground, hoping that his two friends had made it out of the building in time. He didn't know why he thought about performing a spell at that time. He had just wanted to stop the thing. But as he started to chant a spell for undoing a curse, the body fell away to the floor with a thud. He sighed heavily, having stopped the body for the time being. He could still see it breathing, which meant that it was alive in some fashion.

As he backed away, the voice now appeared to his left, directly behind him. Whirling around, a fireball was thrown his way. It hit him in the chest, throwing him against the far wall sharply.

"Thought you could still take me on boy. I could piss better magick than that."

Vail was back.

TBC

Next: Is Wesley corporeal? Or are he and Vail going to have a ghost fight? How will the team deal with this latest occurrence? It can't be good for anyone involved.

Author notes: OK, so I didn't know exactly if Vail was going to appear. My question for the readers though is should I make Wes corporeal or not? That is the one dilemma that I am having at the moment. He could take over the evil body and fight within himself for control or he could stay a ghost and do it that way. Either way, at some point he will have to reveal himself to Faith. Or at least that's my plan (OK, so I told you). Tell me what you think. Big bombshell about Illyria too (she's not Fred though). Lots going on!! And I'm pulling my hair out just about now.

Thanks and answers: Thanks go to tp96, Darklight, shahid, qkith, Steph, Illiyra, Imzadi, Caity, and everyone else who is following this. This must be the hardest thing I have ever written. Thanks to all of you for a) keeping me on my toes, and b) keep coming back to review. And yes, Lindsey is back, in honor of Imzadi. He actually fit in this. I was surprised too. And he has a lot to make up for.