CONSEQUENCES

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

CHAPTER 5-THE QUICKENING

Angel scrambled out of the way, pulling an almost frantic Nina behind him. Connor didn't need to be told to vacate the area as he quickly limped away from the bulldozer and hauled himself up and over the counter. Spike frantically searched the area around him for a weapon but soon gave up the hopeless pursuit. He knew that there wasn't anything in the hotel that could stand up to a bulldozer. Groo seemed fixed in stone for a moment, staring oddly at the bulldozer, looking as if he were about to compare it to something from Pylea when Gwen grabbed his collar and angrily hauled him back towards the counter.

"What now," Spike shouted with an angry scowl on his face as the bulldozer backed up a bit and then smashed some more of the front of the building.

"We have to get out of here," Connor quickly added with a fearful and still confused look on his face as the top of the counter was lit ablaze by a Molotov cocktail.

"No shit…follow me," Gwen interjected with a very serious look on her face as she pushed off of Angel and Spike's shoulders to get back up to her feet.

"Where are we going…," Nina asked, still trying to figure out exactly what was going on, before a doped up looking vampire walked into the lobby, with his entire body taped up with explosives.

"Anywhere but here," Angel exclaimed as he grabbed Nina with one arm and pushed Connor forward with the other on his way towards the back of the Hyperion before the explosive laden vampire blew himself up. The ragtag group scrambled through the kitchen, knocking anything and everything off of the shelves and onto the floor as they went. Angel kicked open the back door and ran for cover under the overhang where two cars were parked. One of them Angel didn't recognize, the other however was one of his special cars from Wolfram and Hart that he had left there, just in case.

"Running away's not exactly our style Angel," Spike quipped with a sarcastic but yet serious smirk on his face as he dashed after Angel, who was helping Nina and Connor get in.

"You got a better idea Spike…we're getting our asses kicked here, we won't last much longer if we stay here," Angel shot back with an angry sneer on his face as he momentarily thought about staking the younger vampire but stopped when Gwen interrupted.

"Just follow me, I'll get us to the airport, and whatever you do…don't look back," Gwen shouted over subsequent explosions that came from within the hotel before Angel turned and noticed a burning car that was crumpled up in the far corner.

"My car…," Angel grumbled with a very annoyed scowl on his face as he recognized the license plate of the burning car.

"We'll send them the bill later Peaches, come on get in," Spike growled loudly as he ripped open the passenger side door and dove in. Angel clenched his hands into fists and his whole body shook in anger for almost a second before he turned back around and slid into the drivers seat, gunning the engine and roaring off after Gwen, hoping that Wolfram and Hart wouldn't follow them, but he was wrong.

"I don't know what you hope to gain here Buffy, all that they're going to do is lie to you," Giles said with a skeptical and unsure frown on his face as he paid for the cab fare over and turned to Buffy.

"You might be right Giles, but I have to at least try," Buffy replied with a nervous smile on her face as she took a deep breath and straightened out her blouse. After moving to Italy and beginning to date the Immortal Buffy had come into possession of a great sum of money, enough to at least buy new clothes for herself and Dawn. Chief among the new clothes was a proper business suit. And tonight Buffy wore that suit for the very first time.

"Do you think that they're even going to talk to us," Giles asked with an impatient and nervous tone to his voice as he slid his hand underneath his coat and comfortingly felt the smooth metal edge of one of the guns that he had armed himself with for just this kind of occasion.

"Oh I think they will…I do have a way of making people talk," Buffy quipped back with a sly smile on her face, that hid well her tremendously nervous and scared inner self, before she began to walk towards the front doors.

"That was in Sunnydale, this is Rome, and we're not at Willy's, we're dealing with Wolfram and Hart here, this is the big leagues," Giles reminded Buffy with an almost fatherly look of caution on his face as he adjusted his tie and prepared for the worst.

"I know Giles, that's why I have a backup plan, if they don't want to talk then we'll just fly to LA and see for ourselves," Buffy said back with a determined look on her face as she walked up to the front doors and made her way inside.

No one noticed her presence, seeing her only as simply one more street urchin, if they saw her at all. They did not take the time to notice that she was very nearly covered in blood. But much of the blood was not her own. The majority of the blood on her body belonged to those of her victims, those demons that she had obliterated during her last battle. She had remained unconscious ever since the end of the battle, not knowing its full outcome. She lay there, partially hidden in amongst the many bags of trash that had been thrown out and then collected along the roadside. Her head swam with a tidal wave of memories and recollections as she regained consciousness.

"Where am I, I am not familiar with this place," She said with a contemplative and slightly confused look on her face as she slowly and painfully lifted her head up out of the muck and looked around. She was about to get up when she noticed something odd. Her hair was no longer a light shade of brown but instead a bright orange. Cautiously she lifted her hands up to her face and noticed a tattoo of a rose on the interior of her left wrist and her fingernails were painted the same color as her hair. But what confused her more was when she looked down. Gone was the lithe and wisp like shell once known as Winifred Burkle, in its place was a figure that more closely resembled a video game or comic book character's body, and with it barely enough clothing to cover her now much more ample physique, and all of it the same odd bright orange as her hair, complete with a small tag that read, "Orange Crush" . Grimacing at the pain in her head she crawled out of the trash pile only moments before a wave of memories sent her reeling into a dirty puddle. As she choked on the water and blinked her eyes a couple of times to try and clear them one thought came to her, "I am Illyria."

"Well that was a big waste of time," Buffy fumed with an angry scowl on her face as she angrily stormed back out onto the patio in front of the high rise. She and Giles had been ushered into the building and met with the head of the Italian branch of Wolfram and Hart. A seemingly friendly woman who had irked Giles' almost from the get go by constantly referring to gypsies in one derogatory mention after another, and she spit a lot.

"How dare she say such things, gypsies are not…," Giles added to Buffy's venting with a furious scowl on his face as he forcefully clamped his briefcase shut and kicked at a wilted leaf.

"Easy Giles, don't have a heart attack…," Buffy quickly exclaimed with a worried look on her face as she tried to keep from hitting someone.

"Yes…because that would be a tragedy," A sing song voice stated from out near the bushes as Buffy and Giles both jumped in surprise and spun around to confront the speaker, with Buffy scrambling to get in a defensive posture. "What did you do with my boys, we used to have so much fun, but then you had to come along and take them from me," Drusilla asked with an impatient and drugged scowl on her face as she stepped out of the bushes, clutching a motley looking doll close to her.

"Drusilla…what are you doing here," Buffy shouted out, more as a challenge than a question, as she and Giles quickly looked around to make sure that this was not a trap.

"Ms. Edith has been a very naughty girl, I thought that daddy could teach her a lesson, but then he…," Drusilla started to say with a dazed look of anger on her face before several suited men from Wolfram and Hart rounded the corner.

"You shouldn't be out here Miss Drusilla, you're not well," The leader of the group stated with a less than thrilled frown on his face before the rest of his group led Dru away and into the building.

"Where are you taking her," Giles demanded with a frustrated and nervous look on his face as he stepped forward and got in the way of the leader.

"That is none of your business, I would advise you both to vacate the premises, we have a company policy to shoot loiterers," The man said with an amused smirk on his face before he leaned to one side and walked past Giles into the building.

"Well that was…freaky," Buffy stated with an odd frown on her face as she looked back at the front doors of the Wolfram and Hart tower before a car pulled up with Andrew at the wheel.

"Yes it most certainly was, but we should go before they make good on their threat," Giles added with a serious look on his face as he took a deep breath while Andrew waived a friendly hello.

"Are you sure about this," Nina asked with a concerned look on her face as she and Angel, arm in arm trying their best to look like a couple going through the airport on the first leg of their honeymoon, made their way through security and then out into a hanger on the edge of the airport.

"Not really, but right now we don't really have a choice, if Gwen says that she can get us to England then we have to trust her, at least for now," Angel replied with a nervous and tense look of frustration on his face as he held open a gate for Nina to pass through.

"Good because we only have a couple of days before I'm going to need to be locked up every night and…," Nina said back with a scared and worried look on her face as she nervously checked her watch and brushed some stray strands of hair back behind her ear to keep the wind from whipping them across her face.

"Kept from hurting, maiming, or killing anyone…God Angel you sure seem to date the weird ones," Spike quipped with a sly smile on his face as he took out a cigarette and lit it up, if only to calm his nerves.

"Okay…I'm lost here, what…does she become some sort of homicidal maniac every so often or…," Faith asked with a bewildered and slightly hung over scowl on her face, as she impatiently rubbed the small medallion that she wore on a gold chain around her neck.

"I wish…actually I'm a werewolf," Nina answered with a sheepish and somewhat embarrassed smile on her face as Faith's eyes widened right off the bat before they narrowed to concerned slits before Angel pulled her aside.

"Everything will be fine Faith, yes Nina is a werewolf, every time that she changes she's been locked up in one of the cells at Wolfram and Hart, at least until morning and she changes back…it's for everyone's safety," Angel whispered with a very serious and tone to his voice before Faith got a word in edgewise.

"Guess you're really finally over B then…gotta say that I never saw this coming," Faith shot back in a daring whisper that brought a smile to her face.

"You wanna know what I never saw coming Faith, you showing up at the Hyperion wearing some of Wesley's clothes and smelling like you slept with him…," Angel countered with a sly grin on his face as a few feet away Nina kept checking out the window to make sure that they weren't being followed while Spike turned away but snickered as he could hear every word. Faith hesitated and momentarily averted her gaze before speaking.

"As if…look Angel I came here on Giles' orders to check you out, see if you'd gone over to the dark side, I stopped by Wes' apartment first…he wasn't home so I took a shower, had a beer and got some sleep…what's wrong with that," Faith declared with an angry scowl on her face as she kept her hand up at the medallion, her thumb constantly softly rubbing over the surface.

"Nothing's wrong about that…on the surface anyway, but…where did you get that," Angel started to reply with a frustrated feeling rising up within him before he cocked an eyebrow and noticed how Faith's hand had not left the medallion that she wore around her neck from the moment that they stepped into the hanger.

"What this…it's nothing, just found it at Wes', don't really think he'll miss it…," Faith tried to say back with a carefree and prideful smile on her face but Angel could see regret and sadness struggling to pull the smile down into a frown.

"Back to stealing again…," Angel grumbled with an unhappy scowl on his face as he leaned in a bit closer to Faith, who almost protectively wrapped her full hand around the medallion, before Nina spoke up.

"Here she comes," Nina exclaimed with a bit of fear, confusion, and relief in her voice as she took a step forward and laid a hand on Angel's shoulder.

"Wolfram and Hart guards are trying to get through security so we don't have any time to waste," Gwen announced with a nervous smile on her face as she set her gaze firmly on Angel.

"We should all get on board," Groo added with an innocent smile on his face as he first looked to Angel and then to Spike.

"Uh board what mate, this hanger's…," Spike started to say with a sarcastic and unhappy frown on his face before a line of lights lit up and unveiled a small plane that looked to be only a bit larger than the one that Angel and Spike had taken a few weeks earlier.

"We're going in that," Connor interrupted with a nervous and skeptical look on his face as he limped forward and looked the plane over.

"You got a problem with that kid, because if you do then you can stay here and have a nice talk with the goons that are trying to kill us," Gwen snapped back with a less than impressed and thrilled expression on her face as she glared at Connor.

"It'll be fine Gwen, but where…how…," Angel stepped in with a scolding glare sent Gwen's way before he posed the questions that were on almost everyone's minds.

"Relax, we're not stealing it if that's what you're spazzing about, I took on a job from a guy in Russia, where I met Groo here, and he wanted me to fly here and pick something up for him, afterwards the plane was how I was supposed to get back," Gwen stated with a restraining and somewhat nervous look on her face as she held her hands up defensively as if she thought that she was being accused of stealing the plane.

"Great plan luv, except that there's just one small problem, who's gonna fly the plane…you," Spike asked with a sly grin on his face as he flicked some ashes off the end of his cigarette onto the floor.

"The pilots…duh," Gwen shot back with a scolding sneer on her face as she stalked up to Spike and glared at him straight in the eye.

"Oh…yeah…of course," Spike mumbled softly with a defeated look of embarrassment on his face, that he tried well to hide, as he took a step back and took another drag on his cigarette.

"So what are we waiting for, let's go," Connor interrupted quickly with a nervous and hurried look on his face as he began to limp towards the plane, just as a door on the side of the plane opened up and a middle aged man began to push a rolling set of stairs towards the plane. Within a few moments Angel and the others boarded the plane and shut out all of the light so that Angel and Spike could get some sleep, without having to worry about going up in flames. Angel's last conscious memory before falling asleep was Faith curled up asleep in her seat, holding onto the medallion for seemingly dear life.

"They didn't tell you anything," A worried Dawn asked as she crossed her arms and sat down on the couch beside Buffy.

"Not really, the lady that we talked to said that it was most unfortunate about what happened to Angel and the others…and that the gypsies were probably to blame…," Buffy replied with a nervous frown on her face before she yawned deeply and checked her watch.

"That woman…," Giles began to mutter with a visibly angry scowl on his face as he clenched his hands into fists before he noticed that the others were staring and he forced himself to calm down.

"But she did say something then…what exactly did she say," Willow asked with a quick nervous glance Giles' way before she turned her full attention to Buffy, awaiting a response with her laptop on and ready to type down Buffy's every word.

"She said that Angel and the others went up against the senior partners of Wolfram and Hart, and that they were dealt with accordingly, whatever that means," Buffy answered softly with a confused and steadily growing look of concern on her face before Giles cut in.

"I haven't been able to contact Faith since she informed me about Wesley and the others," Giles announced with a grim frown on his face as he set about cleaning his glasses.

"I wonder how she's taking it, she was closer to Angel then most of us…," Xander added with a concerned and apprehensive expression on his face before he took a sip of his glass of apple juice.

"I believe not well Xander, my only hope is that she can…at least temporarily, put her feelings aside and find something…anything, that will help us figure out exactly what happened," Giles add with a look of great concern on his face as he reached out and picked up his glass of apple juice that until that moment he had regarded as if it weren't there.

"Hey guys look, they say someone survived what happened in LA, they're bringing her to the hospital right now," Andre exclaimed as he raced into the living room before flipping on the television and settling down right in front of it. As she was about to hurl an angry word or two Andrew's way Buffy stopped when she saw what Andrew had been talking about. The image on the screen was of a team of paramedics rushing a young woman out of an ambulance and into the hospital. But what struck Buffy the most about this was how much the injured young woman looked like her, right down to the small frame and blonde hair.

END OF CHAPTER 5

Author's Note: The changes that Illyria has undergone will be explained and they're not that far fetched, given how Illyria can't select his/her next host, but take the first available body. I'm sorry if there aren't any section breaks in between when I write about Angel and his group and Buffy and her group, I put marks in to note the seperation when I type the pieces but then when I post the story they disappear.