CONSEQUENCES

Disclosure: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created.

CHAPTER 3-IF ONLY

"Hey Angel, what's the big idea leaving me all…," Nina groaned sleepily through a big yawn as she pulled a bathrobe around her and tied it tight, her hair still dripping with water after her quick shower.

"Greetings milady," Groo stated with a warm smile on his face as he walked back out of the kitchen with a glass of milk in his hands.

"Who are you," Nina started to ask with a very startled and scared expression on her face as Connor jumped up from his chair, ready to defend her.

"I am sorry if I startled you, it was not my intention," Groo replied quickly with a nervous look on his face as he took a step back and set his glass of milk down on the counter. Nina did her best to make herself small behind Connor, who silently cursed himself for not having a weapon in his hands as he kept his gaze locked onto Groo's every move. "I am here to see Angel," Groo added with an innocent and sincere smile on his face as he stepped back and hoped to catch a glimpse of Gwen or Angel out of the corner of his eye before Connor did anything.

"A friend of yours," Spike asked with a slight smirk on his face as he nodded his head ever so slightly towards Gwen, who feigned to be honored by Spike's smile as she kept her gaze locked onto Angel.

"If you use that term loosely then…yeah, she's a friend," Angel replied softly after a moment of thought before he took a sip of the blood in his glass.

"Hey pal, let's not forget who saved your ass back when you were looking for your perfect little girlfriend…," Gwen shot back with an angry glare on her face as she slipped off of Angel's desk and stalked up to him, finally ending up poking him in the chest with her index finger, throwing into him a few sparks as her gloves stuck out of her jeans pockets.

"If I remember that job correctly your employer double crossed you in the end and locked us both in an elevator and started to fill it with gas, a gas that would have killed you had you not been fortunate enough to be caught in that situation with the one guy in Los Angeles who doesn't need to breathe," Angel calmly stated back, with the glass of blood still at his lips, before the edges of his lips curled up into a smile.

"I hate it when that happens," Spike added with a sly grin of his own as Gwen's glare instantly snapped from the brunette vampire to blonde one.

"You got something to say blondie," Gwen demanded with an angry and confrontational scowl on her face as she turned fully to Spike and looked ready to give him twenty thousand volts before Angel stepped in.

"Enough…we don't have time for this Gwen, we're in to deep of shit to waste time with infighting, you two wanna duke it out later…fine by me, but first we really should…," Angel interjected with a very stern and inflexible pout on his face before he finished off the rest of his blood and was just about to take Spike's glass when a shriek of surprise from the other room snapped the three out of their entanglement.

"Nina," Spike exclaimed with a confused and surprised wide eyed look on his face before he was first out of the office, followed closely behind by Angel and Gwen. Spike instantly dove for Groo's midsection in a flying tackle that sent the two crashing down over the counter and to the floor, with Spike cursing loudly at the pain that it caused. Nina glanced down at a small space between the side of the staircase and the closest end of one of the couches before Angel rushed into action.

"No wait, Spike don't…," Angel shouted quickly with a very nervous and unsure look on his face before Spike and Groo slammed into the floor.

"Angel, what the…Groo," Gwen started to demand with an unhappy look on her face before she pushed Angel out of the way and impatiently walked over to the counter and looked over it.

"What's going on dad," Connor asked with a nervous and unsure look on his face as he cast a quick look back over his shoulder to make sure that Nina was still there.

"Groo stop playing…wait a minute…dad, damn Angel, you've been keeping secrets," Gwen joked with at first a quickly fading look of shock on her face before her mouth curled up into a smile and she smacked Angel on the back.

"It's not really a secret, it's just that…," Angel replied softly with a nervous half smile on his face as he gingerly walked over to the round sofa and collapsed down onto it.

"That's funny, if it's not a secret then why didn't I know," Spike demanded with an impatient and hurt frown on his face as he stood up and walked around the end of the counter, holding his side and wincing as he went. With a confused glare sent Spike's way Groo slowly stood up and looked ready to continue the fight before Gwen leaned over and laid a hand on his arm.

"You weren't here when it all…," Angel started to answer with an unhappy frown on his face when Gwen broke in.

"Hey Angel…where is everybody," Gwen wondered with a bored smile on her face as she hopped up onto the counter and scratched at the countertop with her fingernail. Angel inhaled deeply and let out the useless breath as he slowly turned away from Gwen and hung his head.

"They're…," Angel mumbled with a somber pout on his face as he slipped his hands into his pockets and searched for the right words.

"They're dead…all of them," Spike finished with a drained look on his face before Nina stepped out from behind Connor and walked over and helped Angel to take a seat.

After his suggestion of sending Faith to Los Angeles to discern the truth about what had happened there and to Angel and the rest of his team Giles had begun to have doubts. His doubts stemmed not from whether or not she was the right one for the job or whether or not she would be able to successfully complete the job. He had the utmost confidence in Faith's abilities to wring any amount of needed information out of just about anything or anyone. What he was worried most about was her current state of mind, given her recent breakup with Robin and her excessive use of alcohol to try and cover up her emotional pain, and her close friendship to Angel. Ever since they had landed in London after the destruction of Sunnydale Giles had used many of his contacts, some that he hadn't talked to in years, to keep tabs on the rogue slayer. He made sure to keep a very detailed journal of her every moving, hoping to use it to show her good behavior after having busted out of jail, but never ruling out the possibility of using the information held within it against her. If he needed her to do something and she refused he wanted to have an ace in the hole in his favor.

Once more Buffy had retired early, shrugging off Giles' dire predictions about the possibility of what was happening in Los Angeles, saying that she was tired and was going to bed. Dawn had remarked about how Buffy had begun to do that a lot lately, come home after every date with the Immortal and mumble something before heading to her bedroom and then sleeping late into the next day. Willow and Xander had tried their best to explain it away but Giles' internal warning bell had gone off when Buffy had begun to devote more and more time to dating the Immortal and less and less time to helping locate, train, and relocate the new slayers.

"This had better be good G, I was in the middle of a game of quarters and…," Faith began to say with a bit of a drunken slurring in her speech as she slid into the chair on the opposite side of the desk from Giles.

"I apologize for bringing you here on such short notice Faith, but this is important," Giles replied with a comforting and peaceable smile on his face as he opened up a drawer and pulled out a file that he had only recently begun to fill up while Faith slid her shades back up the bridge of her nose, even though it was creeping up on three in the morning local time.

"It's okay, another beer and those dumb fucks would have passed out anyway," Faith mumbled back with a wicked grin on her face before she took a swig of the beer that she had brought with her.

"Ah…yes, well then I have a very important job that needs doing and I believe that you are the perfect person to…," Giles replied with an awkward smile on his face as he opened up the file and took out a few pictures and handed them to Faith, who seemed reluctant to take them at first. After another swig of beer Faith slowly leaned forward and took the photos from Giles before she let her shades drop down a bit so that she could get a better look at them.

"So who's the blonde, some snitch that you want me to tail," Faith finally asked softly with a bored tone to her voice as she studied the photos for a bit longer before she tossed them back onto the table and leaned back in her chair.

"That's what I want you to find out Faith, she seems to have some kind of connection to Angel, what it is I don't know yet, but she hasn't been seen since the…accident, in Los Angeles two days ago and…," Giles replied with a tired and slightly frustrated expression on his face as he took his glasses of and laid them on the desk in front of him before he rubbed his tired eyes and checked his watch.

"You know that I'll be putting myself in danger, I'm an escaped convict remember, Wes and I didn't exactly sign the guest book on our way out…if the authorities in California get word that I'm back in town then I'm screwed," Faith said softly with a slight hint of fear and reservation in her voice before the edges of her mouth curled up ever so slightly at the end of her statement.

"Still…you are the only one that can get us the information that we need without setting off a tidal wave of…," Giles stated with a very serious and nervous look on his face as he stood up from his desk and walked around the edge of the desk.

"Fair enough, so when do I leave…," Faith asked with a slight shrug of her shoulders before she straightened up in the chair and downed the rest of her beer and then set it down on some papers on Giles' desk.

"Right now…before any potential leads dry up," Giles answered with a grim and tired expression on his face before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a plane ticket.

Angel had a devil of a time explaining away the deaths of every member of his team to Gwen and Groo. After Spike's impromptu statement Gwen had stood in stunned silence for several moments while Groo had lowered his head and mumbled something in Pylean before excusing himself to the garden. Angel had wanted to tell Gwen the story in private but Nina had refused to let him out of her sight, a viewpoint that Connor quickly jumped on board for. It took him nearly two hours to tell the entire story, and when he was done Gwen's response was not exactly what he expected it to be.

"Shit…," Gwen stated with a surprised and bewildered look on her face as Spike could tell that she was trying to keep her facade of not caring one way or the other about the deaths from being irrevocably shattered.

"Not exactly what I expected but…we have more important problems to deal with right now," Angel said with a nervous and unsure look on his face as he sat up in his seat and interlocked the fingers of his left hand with the fingers of Nina's right hand.

"If we don't do something the senior partners of Wolfram and Hart are going to start opening up portals all over the place, and the only one with enough magical knowledge to do anything to stop them is dead…," Spike added with an unhappy frown on his face as he watched his body beginning to heal itself via a deep cut on his left arm.

"Okay…that sucks, so why don't you get someone else to do it…surely there has to be someone around here with that much power," Gwen replied with a serious and somewhat somber smile on her face as she slid off of the counter and took a step forward.

"I wish there were, but Wesley was the only one that could possibly have hoped to decipher the spells that would be required and now that he's gone…and given what we just went through with the senior partners no one's going to help us, we're on our own," Angel said for the others with a deep in thought scowl on his face before he glanced over at Nina and tried to force a smile up to the surface to improve her mood, it didn't work.

"If only we could get him back somehow…but that's impossible right…I mean no one comes back to life after they've died," Nina groaned with an unhappy and concerned frown on her face as she looked desperate to say something to help Angel and the others.

"Says who…Angel and I did it…Buffy to, it could happen…but we'd have to find his soul first…," Spike offered with a dry smile on his face as he stood up and walked over towards Connor, who had been silently standing beside Nina and Angel, taking everything in and trying to decide whether or not he could trust Gwen.

"What about the axis of Pythia," Gwen asked with an optimistic look on her face as she turned back towards Angel.

"The what…," Connor interjected with a confused look on his face as he stepped forward in between Angel and Gwen, almost daring the newcomer to explain herself.

"The axis of Pythia dumbass…what, can't you hear right," Gwen shot back with a slightly angry glare in her eyes as she spun around on Connor and cocked her hips to one side.

"Okay, for those of us in the uninformed, what the bloody hell is the axis of Pythia," Spike interjected loudly with a not pleased and being excluded look on his face as he walked over towards the couch and made sure that he would get an answer.

"It's a mystical object, able to locate souls and the like across dimensional boundaries…," Angel replied with a distant look on his face as he stared off into space, going over in his head the last time that he had used the axis.

"But we know where ole watcher boy's soul is, where all of the white hats go when they die," Spike joked with a sly smirk on his face as he held his side and limped through the lobby, heading for Angel's office.

"Heaven," Nina offered with a thoughtful smile on her face as she absentmindedly rubbed the crucifix that she wore around her neck with the pad of her thumb and leaned in closer to Angel.

"It's possible, not sure that I believe in heaven…hell's definitely there though, nice for a quick visit…but not a place that I'd recommend," Angel stated out into thin air as he seemed to be giving his every thought voice before Gwen groaned and Groo cut in.

"Then we need to retrieve this device, if it can help us find Wesley then we must have it," Groo interjected with an upbeat smile on his face as he walked across the lobby towards Angel, casting a quick wary glance back towards Spike and the office.

"Easier said than done Groo, we don't have it any longer…I sold it to a guy that I thought I could trust in England, he said that he'd hold onto it for me…hey, I needed the money," Angel countered with a sour and embarrassed look on his face as slumped down in his seat a bit and shuffled his feet.

"Great…now we don't have a chance in the world, that thing could be anywhere…," Gwen grumbled with an unhappy scowl on her face as she lightly kicked the counter.

"Not exactly, a few months after I sold the axis I learned that he had given it to the old Watchers Council for them to look after it, so they probably still have it somewhere," Angel shot back with a serious look on his face as he stood up and approached Gwen.

"That still doesn't help us any big guy, they're not exactly going to list something like that on the brochure," Gwen snapped with a sarcastic pout on her face as she crossed her arms and leaned back up against the counter.

"You're right…but Giles would probably know where it was…or at least have some record of it in his files, if we could get a look at those files then we find the axis and they'd never have to know the difference," Angel offered up softly as he began to pace around the room.

"They'd never let you just look at them Angel, it's pretty clear that they think that you've gone over to the dark side, Spike's supposed to be dead, and then everyone else is…," Nina added with a worried look on her face as she slowly stood up and pulled the bathrobe a bit tighter, suddenly lost deep in thought.

"Dead…," Angel said, finishing for Nina, as he stopped pacing ever so slightly before he walked off into the office, suddenly feeling very much like a little pick me up.

Several hours after being carried onto the plane, as she had passed out on the ride over, Faith awoke just as the plane touched down. She groggily sat up in her seat and was thankful that it wasn't sunrise yet as she had a terrible hangover and her eyes were still bloodshot. Cursing under her breath Faith slipped her shades on and wondered if she had remember to bring anything with her or whether she was left with only the clothes on her back. She hoped that wasn't the case as she had been wearing the same clothes for two days straight and had to admit that she was begging to reek. When the plane pulled up to the terminal she kept her head down and fumbled in the overhead compartment for a little bit before she found a couple of duffel bags that she recognized as her own and pulled them out.

She slipped through airport security easily enough, greatly thanks to Giles having called ahead and gotten in contact with one of his informants that worked in airport security. She flashed a little bit of skin to get a cab to come her way rather than a pair of rich looking tourists before she directed the driver to take her to her first destination, Wesley's apartment. She had decided to visit him first for two reasons, one because she guessed that if Angel had gone bad that it'd be easier to get information from Wesley and if necessary take him out then Angel and she believed that he'd let her in and let her use the shower. Faith paid the cabbie and walked up the stairs to Wesley's apartment, finding it disconcerting that the door was wide open. But after a quick sweep of every room and closet she walked back into the living room, content that she was alone. With a smile and shrug of her shoulders she shut and locked the front door before she hit the shower.

She slipped out of the shower reluctantly and wrapped herself up in the first bathrobe that she could find; one that she figured was Wesley's because it smelled like she had remembered his scent being when he had come to bust her out of jail. She tied the ropes tightly in front before she shrugged off trying to comb the tangles out of her hair and decided to grab a beer from the refrigerator and plop down on the couch, hoping to catch something on the news and wait for Wesley to come back home. She was just about to pick up the remote when the sound of something being dropped to the floor outside of the apartment caught her attention. At about the same time her cell phone began to ring. Muttering angrily to herself she set her beer down on the coffee table without using a coaster and fumbled through her bag until she found it. "Yeah," Faith mumbled with a bored and unhappy edge to her voice as she stood up and wiped a patch of collected water off of the side of her face.

"I see that the change in scenery has done little to help your disposition," Giles replied with a frustrated and disapproving tone to his voice before Faith yawned deeply and walked over to the door.

"Yeah…I'm torn up about it to," Faith quipped back with a half hearted smile or sarcasm on her face before she flung open the door and checked both ways for anyone.

"You really should take this more seriously Faith, we need for you to…," Giles scolded Faith through the phone line with an angry frown on his face as Faith bent down and picked up the newspaper before she turned around and shut the door behind her.

"Relax G, I got it all covered, I'm going to lay low at Wes' for a little while, maybe get a good night's sleep…and then check out Angel, okay…just get off my…shit," Faith groaned back to Giles with a bored to death sigh and roll of her eyes as she sat back down on the couch and flipped the paper around to the front page. She was about to finish her sarcastic and witty joke back to Giles when the pictures on the front page caught her eye. Lined up in a row under a large picture of the devastation were the pictures of four smiling people. People that she had never expected to see in this way. Cordelia's picture was first, complete with her date of birth and the day that she died, then came Fred, Gunn, and finally the picture that was the reason that Faith abruptly halted her shot back to Giles before dropping the cell phone altogether. Half smiling back at her was the face of her former watcher, the man that had failed her. But as she looked at the picture it was not that thought that struck her hardest, instead it was the bottomless feeling that it was her fault, all her fault.

END OF CHAPTER 3