Chapter 14

Russ fell onto the ground heavily and spat a wad of blood out. He turned over and coughed again. The man stood over him, taking care of his hand that seemed to have a speck of Russ' blood on it. He wiped it with his handkerchief coolly. He looked down at Russ without a look of disdain or hate or pity. He was expressionless. Maybe that was what scared Russ the most, the utter lack of any expression at all except anger and he didn't even use anger when lashing out. Apparently beating people to a bloody pulp was his outlet.

"Who are you?" Russ asked, sounding slightly breathless. Probably due to the lack of complete consciousness.

"My name is Javert."

"Javert..." Russ said to himself and saw a flash of images that made no sense to him, "I know you..."

"Why of course," Javert spoke joyfully, as if pleased by Russ' knowledge of him, "I was the one who rescued you from that human hellhole when you were a young boy."

"I knew it. It was you."

Russ was about five years old and he was sitting in the living room floor colouring in the book with a pack of crayons. His mom looked over him from the couch while reading a trashy magazine that made up rumours about stars because the authors probably hated their own lives too much. Or that was what his mother said anyways.

There was a crash at the front door and a tall silhouette appeared in its place. Russ looked up as the silhouette stepped forward. His mother quickly stood in front of Russ who got up and clung onto his mom's leg and peered around her legs.

The tall man stepped forward into the light of the house and Russ saw his face clearly. He quivered behind his mother's legs and she tried to comfort him with a hand on his shoulder.

"It's time." The man said and Russ' mother cried out.

"No! No. There is no way." She cried at him and he just approached her almost automatically. He backhanded her. Hard. She fell and Russ went to her side immediately. The man picked up Russ easily and slung him over his shoulder. Russ beat at his shoulder with his small fists crying out for his mother who lay there holding her cheek and crying for him.

As the man turned away she swung her leg around so that the man fell heavily on the ground and grunted. Russ' mother caught Russ easily and got up and went to sprint for it but the man grabbed her by the leg and pulled her to the ground. She cried out as she fell and the man ripped Russ from her arms after a struggle and then walked away with him in his hands leaving Russ' mother on the floor almost unconscious with a spilt lip and a fast swelling up eye and cheek.

"You bastard." Russ spat at the man who had dragged him away from his mother when he was five years old. He swung his beat up body up, energy renewed by the knowledge of Javert's past that had collided with his. He stood up and swayed slightly as he glared at Javert.

"Now, now boy. No need to mouth off." Apparently Javert had decided to take a fatherly stand in front of Russ and backhanded him across the face. Russ felt time pass slowly for him for a few seconds as his neck snapped to the side by the impact. Javert was as strong as he looked. Russ staggered and held a hand to his cut lip and looked at Javert with slightly blurry vision.

"So this is how you make me want to give up Fred is it?" Russ asked, knowing well that it clearly wasn't.

"Well, no..." Javert grinned widely at his own 'initiative', "I was just solving a problem for them before they needed to deal with it."

"Wow, they must be really grateful." Russ said sarcastically.

"You'd think that wouldn't you? Ah well, another day, another obstacle cleared." Javert smiled at him calmly and took out a big, scary looking knife out of his jacket. He looked at Russ who was vaguely registering the knife through a haze of blood that seemed to be clouding his vision.

"You will be serving a higher power Russet, just think of that. With your death will come a new dawn. And there will be no pain, or suffering, or poverty, or hunger, or depression. Just think of that." Javert said with this really crazy, scary glint in his eye.

"I'm thinking." Russ said and eyed the knife and wondered how hard it would be to take it off him in his current state. Then he decided that there was no way he was getting out of this alive. Unless...

"Javert. Didn't we tell you? The place for psycho vigilante was already taken." A voice said behind Javert and he whirled around. Russ peered around the burly guy and saw one person who he was so incredibly thankful to see that he would've gotten down on his knees and kissed his feet.

"Well, if it isn't the short Irish messenger boy." Javert said, sighing and rolled his eyes.

"Hey," Doyle said and held a finger up, "I am not short." And then, with no further ado, Javert was flung across the room into the far off distance of the void.

"Wow cool trick Doyle," Russ said and turned to Doyle, "You are Doyle, aren't you?"

"Yeah Russ, it's me."

"Well, neat trick. Reckon you could teach me? I mean, right now I'm kinda devoid of the telekinetic powers." Russ asked, goofy smile on his face and Doyle pretended to contemplate it.

"Uh... No, but I can give you back your powers." Doyle said.

"I have powers now? Jeez, that makes me sound like a superhero." Russ cracked, apparently putting aside the horrendous wounds he had all over his body. Doyle laughed at the joke but went back to business fast.

"I don't have too long. Your mission, it's a go."

"It is?"

"Yes, blow the cover. Explain everything. And don't let him do the whole 'I don't deserve it' thing cos then 'you know who up there' is gonna give up on the poor sod."

"Hey, he's your best sod. He survived an onslaught from Wolfram and Hart for crying out loud."

"Yeah, but 'you know who' is very impatient and unless Angel accepts that his destiny has rewards in it too, then 'you know who' is gonna order immediate withdrawal." Doyle said, his face extremely serious now. Russ sighed, he knew it was going to be a battle but he was accepting the challenge, and nodded.

"Don't worry Doyle, he'll accept the rewards. I mean, did you see the way he was with Cor-uh... Corey his new friend that likes the sunlight." Russ tried to cover up his slip, he knew about the history between Cordy and Doyle and didn't want to bring up the whole hurt thing. Okay, so the cover wasn't that great. In fact, it was crap. But he wasn't going to get any bad stuff from Doyle it seemed.

"It's okay Russ." Doyle said and smiled this saintly smile that would've made anyone feel all gooey inside. Looking at that smile was like looking into heaven. Russ was starting to understand exactly what working at the right hand of the Powers entailed.

"So when I get down there I'll have my powers back right?" Russ asked, hey he just wanted to make sure.

"Yeah Russ." Doyle said and grinned at Russ' impatience.

"You promise?" Russ asked in such an immature tone that Doyle couldn't help but widen his grin at him.

"Pinkie swear." Doyle said and held out his pinkie. They shook pinkies and there was a flash of light. At least in Russ' head there was a flash of light.

He immediately sat up and almost cracked heads with Angel who was previously looking at him worriedly.

"OW!" They both said simultaneously and Russ sat up rubbing his head and Angel went over to Cordy who inspected his forehead and, finding it fine, kissed it.

"So Angel, you ready for that soul securing?" Russ said with Fred doing to Russ pretty much what Cordy was doing to Angel. Russ rubbed his forehead and looked at Angel with a part pained expression, part annoyed expression and something that no one else in the room could discern except for Randy who we have completely forgotten for now.

At this point everyone in the room froze except for Randy and Russ. Randy looked at Russ.

"You are going to secure his soul down here?" Randy asked incredulously and Russ just shot him a withering look.

"Well, you see Randy can't exactly go anywhere since those stairs you can randomly call haven't been randomly callen so, you know, kinda trapped down here with nowhere to go unless you call those steps." Russ said and Randy's eyebrows shot up at the sudden and unexpected attack.

"Okay, okay, touché." Randy said and Russ shot him a look showing exactly how he felt about everything that he had to go through in the last, what seemed to him, hours. Of course to the rest of them it all spanned over fifteen, twenty minutes.

Anyway, Randy quickly made the stairs appear and Angel and Cordy were the first to leave, Fred followed them after some persuasion and promises from Russ that he would be right there. Russ turned to Randy and spent half a minute just looking at him. Eventually Randy cracked under the pressure.

"Wot is it Russ?" Randy slipping into cockney and Russ just looked at him before replying.

"You know what's happening next." Russ didn't ask, he said it like a statement and Randy nodded. Russ nodded at that and looked at the ground.

"You've been a great friend Randy. Really. I know I give you shit sometimes but I really... Appreciate you." In any other situation Russ would've been a typical guy and overacted himself swallowing his pride and machoness before saying appreciate you but in this situation it was more a pause to search for the right word. And when he found it he said it without pulling a face or holding his breath or doing any of the other things that guys do when they act like idiots. And Randy saw that and it was the one thing that kept him from making a comment.

"Thankyou Russ. And, if I may ask, why are you acting as if you are going to die?" Randy asked, okay so he had to say something about the previous use of 'appreciate' but he kept back things that were a lot worse because of Russ' seriousness. Russ sighed heavily, time to divulge information that he'd just learned.

"I'm not going to die, you know that. But, you know, you're never going to see me again." Russ said and Randy nodded, he knew that. And he knew why.

"You're moving back up?" Randy asked and Russ nodded sadly.

"Yeah."

"What about Fred?" Randy asked and Russ winced as if Randy had punched him in an already bleeding and open wound.

"She'll forget, like all the others." Russ said, not liking anything that he was saying.

"I'm sorry Russ, I know you love her." Randy said and Russ just nodded and turned and walked up the stairs.

"Fred, hi." Russ said as soon as he reached the top of the stairs and they disappeared behind him. He said this almost guiltily, although she didn't know why he would be guilty. He drew her into a hug and she responded with an unsure smile on her face but a smile nevertheless.

"Hiya Russ." She replied and he drew her into a hug which also puzzled her, but which she responded to nevertheless. When they withdrew Russ grimaced at Fred, knowing that his actions were questionable.

"How bout we get out of here, eh? And when I say 'here' I do mean this abandoned, empty swimming pool." Russ said and Angel and Cordy were the first to climb out by using the ladder. Fred stayed behind with Russ and just looked at him.

"Are you okay?" She asked, even though he had returned to his nice guy, sarcastic humour state she knew something was wrong. But she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Great." Russ said flippantly and then saw that Fred wasn't going to drop it and took her hands in his and looked into her eyes. What he said next was reassuring to Fred and was the truth, but not all of it exactly and if Fred knew what he really meant behind the cryptic message then maybe she wouldn't have smiled afterwards and turned to go up the ladder.

"Everything will be fine. I promise. I'm gonna do my stuff on Angel and him and Cordy are gonna have a happily ever after. And us... I'll never leave you. Ever. Whatever happens I'm going to be right here, next to you. Even if we get separated I will always come right back to you."