CONSEQUENCES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the new ones that I created.
Author's Note: Nina is a part of Angel Investigations basically because other than her it's only Spike and Angel, is Angel's girlfriend that he wants to keep safe, and as someone new she could come in handy in certain situations… and Faith is single after she split up with Robin.
CHAPTER 4-BEARER OF BAD NEWS
"I'm sorry Nina but you're not coming with us," Angel stated with a very loud and clear, but not threatening, tone of voice as he pulled a couple of duffel bags out of the closet. After the discussion downstairs in the lobby with Gwen and Spike Angel had come to a decision. He was going to find the axis of Pythia and no one was going to stop him.
"Says who," Nina shot back with a defiant glint in her eyes as she flung a pillow at Angel's head. Angel let the pillow smack him full on in the face before he responded.
"Says me, and that's all that you need to know," Angel snapped back with an angry growl as he glared across the bed at Nina, who looked admittedly shocked at Angel's reaction.
"So that's how it's going to be then huh, I'm just supposed to stay here because you say so…like a good little girl…," Nina proposed with a timber of uncertainness in her voice as she jammed her fists into the pockets of the bathrobe to keep from letting Angel see that they were shaking slightly.
"Yes, like a good little girl, look this isn't a game Cordelia…I don't want you there," Angel quickly shot back with a frustrated and overwhelmed scowl on his face as he threw some of his clothes down onto the bed and stalked around the foot of the bed.
"Cordelia…Angel what," Nina stuttered out with a very surprised enlarging of her eyes as she took a step back and kept herself upright by leaning on the dresser. It took only a split second after Nina had stopped talking for Angel to realize his mistake.
"I called you…Cordelia…why did I do that," Angel mumbled awkwardly to himself as he took a step back and slowly sat down on the end of the bed, leaving a skittish Nina to look on and wonder.
"Hell if I know…are you feeling okay, maybe…," Nina offered up with a worried look on her face as her nerves settled down enough for her to walk over and sit down on the end of the bed beside Angel.
"I'm going crazy just sitting here, I need to get to Europe and find the axis," Angel stated with a frustrated and anxious tone to his voice before he stood back up and shook his head.
"Right, and I'm going with you," Nina proclaimed with an excited look on her face as she stood up and took a step towards Angel.
He walked sullenly through the streets of Rome, caring not that the rain was soaking him clear through to the bone. On this sad, dreary, and lonely dark day he was to become the bearer of bad news. He had shed a tear himself when he had been alerted of their deaths. Faith's voice had been anything but the confidant tenor that it used to be. It was still scratchy but its power was barely holding itself together. She had shown indifference when telling him about Cordelia's death, a little regret about Fred's death. Gunn's death had been revealed with a bit of anger at another good fighter lost tone in her voice, but that all came to a screeching halt when she had alerted him to the last death. Her voice had uncharacteristically cracked as she whispered the name of her former watcher. Giles remember the description of Wesley that Faith had given him sometime after they had left Sunnydale far behind. The man that Faith had described to him sounded nothing like the young man that he had met that morning many years earlier in Sunnydale. His optimism and youthful exuberance seem to have been replaced by bitterness, self-loathing, and deep regret.
It had been Willow that had voiced an agreeing estimation of the former watcher. Giles could only guess what Faith had been doing in the meantime from when she had originally dropped the phone to when she had rung him up in the middle of the night several hours later. In the background he thought that he could hear the sound of glass falling onto glass, suggesting to him that possibly glass from a picture hung on the wall fell out and struck more glass that was already on the floor, not a good sign. He had tried to get Faith to talk but from her large amount of silence, and more than once saying that she should have been there to have helped, he reasoned that until she had a chance to calm down it wouldn't be prudent to push her into anything.
Giles didn't look up when he passed a few of the new slayers, undoubtedly on their way out for a little fun on the town. He didn't feel that they needed to be burdened with the news that he was carrying, they didn't know those that had fallen and he needed to save his energy for those that deserved to know. He walked up the steps slowly, hoping to come up with some way of breaking the unfortunate news to Buffy and the others without hurting them anymore than he had to. A smiling Xander open the door when Giles finally lifted his hand up and knocked.
"Hey Giles what's the good…Giles," Xander started to ask with a happy smile on his face, with one hand on the doorknob and the other filled with what looked like peanuts, before he caught wind of Giles' dripping wet clothes and beyond saddened frown.
"Is Buffy here," Giles asked calmly, instead of answering Xander's question as he walked into the apartment, but stayed close enough to the door so that he wouldn't drip onto any of Buffy's furniture.
"No, she had a dinner date with the Immortal, but Willow and Kennedy are here, I could…," Xander replied with a suddenly worried look on his face as he shut the door before he then walked over and emptied his hand of peanuts into a half full bowl.
"Get them please Alexander, this is important," Giles said softly, barely able to control his range of emotions as he slipped his glasses off and tried to clean them off.
"Okay…you sure you don't want a towel first you're dripping water all over the place, you know Giles there is this amazing tool called an umbrella…," Xander started to reply with a worried and confused look on his face before Giles angrily cut in.
"I know what an umbrella is Xander, but the gravity of this news propelled me to come over her immediately, thus I did not bring my umbrella with me…now would you get Willow and Kennedy in here and stop staring at my like some slack jawed…," Giles snapped with a frustrated and nervous scowl on his face as he put his glasses back on and then took a deep breath to try to calm down. Xander stared at him for a few moments before he turned and left the room down one of the hallways. While Xander was gone Giles slowly slipped his coat off and hung it up on the coat rack near the door.
"What's wrong Giles," Willow asked with a worried look of fear on her face as she walked into the room, Kennedy trailing a foot behind, looking as if she had just been woken up from a long nap.
"You had better sit down for this Willow, Kennedy…you to Xander…," Giles stated softly with a very pained and saddened expression on his face before he took one last deep breath and laid out the details as he knew them. Fifteen minutes later Buffy and Dawn would separately come home to find Xander staring aimlessly off into space through the far window while Willow muffled her sobs into her girlfriend's shoulder.
"You're making a mistake Angel, I can help you…," Nina announced with a pleading look on her face as she back slowly towards the Hyperion's front doors while Connor did his best to rub the stiffness out of his knee.
"You're better off staying out of this Nina, Wolfram and Hart will spare no expense to find me and Spike, I don't want you to get caught in the middle, so just take a cab to the airport and spend some time with your sister and niece, I'll call you when we get to Heathrow," Angel stated back with an uneasy look on his face as it hurt to push Nina away again but he felt that it was best for her sake if she stayed as far away from him and the others.
"Fine, you can be a real jerk sometimes you know that Angel…," Nina mumbled back with a sad and dejected pout on her face, even though she was trying her best to remain stoic, as she turned away from Angel, slung her duffel bag containing what few items of clothing that she had with her and stepped out of the Hyperion.
"All to well…," Spike quipped with a sly smirk on his face as he walked out of the office with a glass of blood in his hands.
"Now that Goldilocks is out of the picture we probably should figure out how we're actually going to get to England, I'm guessing that we won't be able to use one of your private jets to get us there…and the commercial liners are to bright…," Gwen interjected with a soft smile that curled up the edges of her lips before Angel stepped in.
"I'll think of something…I always do, but first things first, we should start off by…," Angel answered with a grim look of caution on his face as he lowered his head and began to pace across the lobby towards the counter before he was interrupted.
"Telling me what the hell is going on here…Spike," A raspy voice stated clearly with a strained and hurt tone to it before Angel and everyone else left in the lobby turned around to see Faith nervously step out of the kitchen before she stopped abruptly at the sight of Spike standing beside his grandsire. Angel paused for a moment in the stunned silence that was the room to take in the condition of the troubled slayer now only a few feet in front of him. Besides smelling of Wesley's soap Angel was very nearly bowled over and drowned in the enticing smell of regret and despair. Angelus had known the scent well over his decades of malice towards humanity. And Angel had unfortunately caught the scent many times since gaining his soul. But yet beyond the regret and despair there seemed to be something deeper going on behind her mask of unfamiliar feelings. He didn't quite know the scent, something mixed between pond scum and the blood of a newborn babe. From a quick glance before she shoved her shades further up the bridge of her nose Angel was able to see that both of Faith's eyes were red and bloodshot, most likely from little sleep and shedding more than a few tears.
"What are you doing here," Spike asked with a well-concealed look of surprise on his face as he slipped a glance over at Angel out of the corner of his eyes.
"I could ask you the same thing blondie, last I knew you were burning up in the Hellmouth," Faith shot back with an icy glare aimed directly at Spike over the top of her sunglasses.
"Yeah well…I got better," Spike retaliated with as he took a step forward and set his feet in preparation for anything.
"So who's the…," Gwen began to wonder with a pointed and daring frown on her face as she stared intently at Faith for a moment before turning to Angel.
"Faith…her name is Faith, she's a vampire slayer," Angel replied dryly with an unsure expression on his face as inwardly he felt that the entire situation was quickly spiraling wildly out of control.
"You know my name…seems only fair that I should know yours," Faith responded with a darkly carefree smile on her face before Angel gave her a second look, taking note that the oversized long sleeved shirt that she was wearing Wesley had worn not a week before, Angel remembered it clearly, mostly because of the remnants of pasta sauce stain on the left cuff.
"Obstinate over there's Gwen, Connor's the kid, and the bouncer's Groo," Spike replied with a bored but complacent smile on his face before he took a drink of blood. Spike kept pouring the blood down his throat as he ignored the glare that Gwen shot him.
"Good, now that we've all been introduced can we…," Angel groaned with an annoyed scowl on his face before a scream ripped through the lobby from somewhere outside. "Nina," Angel shouted with a panicked look of worry on his face before he took a step towards the Hyperion's front doors. He had only gone a couple more steps forward when a terrified Nina came tearing back through the doors, the glass in the doors being shattered by a spray of bullets. The shower of broken glass and bullets sent everyone to the floor, and Nina scrambled straightforward and barreled into Angel's chest. The two went down in an awkward ball before the first of many Molotov cocktails spun into the space, instantly setting anything that they touched on fire.
"Bloody hell…can't a bloke get a decent drink around here," Spike cursed with a startled and angry scowl on his face as he dropped the glass of blood in his hands and scrambled back behind the counter.
"Dad…," Connor called out with a very nervous and confused expression on his face as he crawled across the floor towards Angel and Nina, who were trying to sit up.
"Connor, are you," Angel asked with a scared and tense look on his face as Connor reached out and helped him up to his knees.
"I'm fine dad, what's going on," Connor replied and then asked with an impatient and anxious expression on his face before Nina cut in.
"It's Wolfram and Hart, they've found us…," Nina answered for Angel with a very worried and frantic look on her face as she scooted back on the floor away from the door before Angel fully realized what she had said.
"Wolfram and Hart, are you sure…," Angel wondered with a nervous look on his face as he and the others shakily got to their feet before Spike had to jump back to get out of the way of a quickly growing fire.
"Very…they had Wolfram and Hart on the doors of their trucks, not to mention the bulldozer," Nina quickly replied with a scared look on her face as she used the circular sofa to get back up to her feet.
"Bulldozer…damn," Faith wondered with a nervous look of surprise and disbelief on her face for a split second before a loud roar was heard outside.
"Well I'll say this for ya big guy, you certainly know how to piss people off…," Gwen shouted out with a heavily sarcastic tone to her voice as she peeked her head above the counter before the front entryway of the Hyperion was demolished by the bucket of a large bulldozer crashing through it, sending everything and everyone into chaos.
"So what now Giles…what do we do," Buffy asked, her voice shaking with fear and sadness, with a nervous and very tense look on her face as she sat down on the couch beside Willow.
"What do you mean Buffy, this is unprecedented," Giles replied with an unsure and slightly confused look on his face as he took a deep breath.
"I don't know…I just have a serious need to hit something and…," Buffy replied with a frustrated and scared smile on her face as she balled her hands up into fists and looked ready to go ten rounds with Mike Tyson.
"I don't really think that there's anything that we can do Buffy, they're gone and nothing that we do or say is going to change that…," Giles stated with a very sad and somber frown on his face as he glanced up at the clock and wondered how they had all gotten into the mess that they now found themselves in.
"But how could this have happened without us knowing about it," Willow finally asked, with tears running down her cheeks and stinging her eyes, as she turned away from Kennedy long enough to pose the question.
"Did they call about this Giles, I mean if Fred's been gone for awhile wouldn't they have called…," Xander wondered with a saddened frown on his face as at the small table Dawn passed a sniffling Andrew a tissue. Giles stiffened up a bit and sat silently in his chair for a few moments before he looked up at Xander and answered.
"Uh no Xander, for whatever reason they didn't call for help about any of this, I'm as confused and stunned by this as you are," Giles answered with an anxious look on his face as he shook his head and rubbed his tired eyes.
"Did Faith say anything else…other than that they're gone," Dawn asked with a sad expression on her face as she scooted her chair back and slowly stood up.
"Not very much…their deaths seemed to hit her harder than I thought, Wesley's death seemed to hit her the hardest, she sounded almost as if she owed him a debt that now she would never be able to repay him…but other than that she said that she was going to check out the Hyperion and get back to me," Giles replied with a nervous and worried smile on his face as he leaned back in his chair and wondered what Faith was doing at that exact moment.
"That still doesn't explain anything though…what could Faith owe Wesley, I mean he was a terrible watcher, if anything he should owe her…," Xander interrupted with a confused look on his face as he plopped down in the other chair and stared at the edge of the coffee table.
"Like many situations in this life Xander, I believe that there is far more to their relationship than any of us are aware of…," Giles guessed with a grim and regretful frown on his face before he stood up and walked off into the kitchen, absentmindedly beginning to search for something.
"I think there's far more to all of this than any of us is aware of, none of this fits, if Angel was having trouble he would have called me, I know it…he wouldn't have tried to have done all of this by himself," Buffy stated with a very forcing herself to be confidant look on her face as she stood up and began to pace around the room.
"Says who Buff, you know as well as I do that Angel's about as stubborn as they come, if he thought that he could handle it he wouldn't let anyone help…let alone us," Xander added with a nervous frown on his face as he looked up from the edge of the table.
"Well yeah but…," Buffy stammered out with a hurt and somber frown on her face before Dawn brightened up and interrupted.
"What about Wolfram and Hart…they have a branch here in Rome don't they, maybe they'd know something," Dawn announced with an optimistic and hopeful smile on her face as she stood up and patted a still sniffling Andrew on the shoulder.
"You're right Dawn…maybe I should head over there and ask them a few questions, maybe try to get some answers…," Buffy said back with a slightly less nervous and hurt look on her face before Giles broke in.
"I don't think that's such a good idea Buffy, I doubt that Wolfram and Hart will tell you anything…," Giles said softly as he started to interrupt before Buffy jumped back in and interrupted him.
"I know Giles…that's why you're going with me," Buffy stated with a rather pleased smile on her face before she turned on her heel and walked off into her bedroom.
END OF CHAPTER 4