CONSEQUENCES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created.
CHAPTER 6-WHAT A DIFFERENCE A NEW SHELL CAN MAKE.
The plane landed safely on a dark and secluded runway. Connor and Groo had taken the window seats, with their faces glued to the windows as the plane approached the runway and set down. Spike and Angel on the other hand stayed in their seats in the middle of the plane and made absolutely no effort to look out of any window. Faith had slept almost the entire trip, with her hand never leaving the medallion and more than once Gwen could have sworn that she mumbled Wesley's name in her sleep with a tone of voice that seemed to suggest that she was having trouble dealing with his death. Nina had slept off and on during the trip, finding a place for herself, snuggled up next to Angel. Gwen had busied herself with making preparations for lodgings for the large group upon their arrival in London. Upon touching down Angel seemed to be about as anxious as a small boy on his first day of school while Spike almost seemed uncomfortable to be home.
"What now…," Connor asked with a look of awe on his face as he slowly limped off of the plane and shuddered as a cool wind blew over them from outside of the small hanger.
"Now we…make ourselves scarce," Nina replied with a nervous look on her face before she yawned deeply and her eyelids drooped a bit as she leaned up against Angel.
"You sure…after all that I could really use a spot of violence," Spike stated with a very serious and anxious smile on his face as he looked about ready to walk straight out of the hanger and into the nearest bar fight before Angel stopped him.
"No one's going anywhere Spike, at least not alone," Angel interjected with a very stern and uncompromising expression on his face as he gingerly made his way over towards a set of stairs and sat down.
"Fine then, I'll take Groo with me and we'll paint the town red," Spike shot back with a nervous but excited grin on his face before he stiffly spun around on his heel and marched off towards the hanger door while Gwen conferred with the pilots.
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She did not remember how she had come to be in this place. She was no longer sprawled out on the corner, face down in a pool of muddy water. Instead she could vaguely remember someone helping her to take a shower and get cleaned up before dressing her wounds and putting her to bed. Illyria did not like to be needy of anyone, save for Wesley. But he was gone now, sent to a place where she could not follow or endeavor to retrieve him from. Instead she opened her eyes to find herself wrapped snuggly in a warm bed with a thick blanket wrapped around her coupled with a beautiful, and rather busty and nude, blonde. During her brief time spent learning about the world from Wesley Illyria had learned about many of the different kinds of relationships that existed between humans. She had been a good student, mostly because she was gaining information on whom at that time she still thought of as the enemy, looking for any way to undermine them.
"This does not make sense…," Illyria stated with a confused and thoughtful look on her face as she painfully sat up, not caring if she woke her companion. With aching knees, back, and shoulders Illyria slid out of bed, cocking a disbelieving eyebrow after she looked in a nearby mirror and fully took in the differences between her two shells. She remembered the left over feelings that had been left by the host of her first shell and wondered if her former host had left any residual feelings and drives in this new shell. When the beautiful blonde mumbled something in her sleep and rolled over onto her back still fast asleep, letting the blanket slip fully away Illyria got her answer.
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"Maybe we should question that woman, the one that they pulled out of the rubble," Xander offered up with an optimistic and helpful look on his face in between bites of Frosted Flakes.
"Good plan Xander…really, oh wait…she's in a coma," Dawn exclaimed with a wickedly sarcastic grin on her face through a mouthful of cereal herself.
"Well it was still a good thought…right," Xander hoped with a scared look of hope on his face as he looked around the room, desperately searching for support.
"Oh course it was Xander…now be a good boy and eat your breakfast," Willow joked with a warmly sincere smile on her face as she walked from the refrigerator over to the table and lightly patted him on the shoulder. To this Xander grumbled through his next spoonful of cereal.
"But seriously guys we need to do something, Faith hasn't reported back for hours, I'm worried about her," Buffy said with a tired look on her face before she picked up and buttered her piece of toast.
"Come on guys, this is Faith we're talking about here right, she probably had a long night and is fast asleep in bed," Xander began with a bored frown on his face before he took another spoonful of cereal.
"Which is right where you'd like to be," Dawn mumbled softly under her breath with a cheesy grin on her face, getting Buffy to half turn away so that she could smile while Willow tried to look as if she hadn't heard Dawn say anything at all.
"I do not believe that is the case, however I am hopeful that she will contact me soon," Giles replied with a stifled yawn before he sat down at the table and rubbed his eyes.
"I think she will…although I have a funny feeling that it won't be from where you expect…," Willow said softly with a trance like look on her face before she recovered and shook her head, smiling awkwardly at everyone.
"Anyway…do we have a bead on that new girl Giles," Buffy asked quickly, hoping to take some of the heat off of Willow, who seemed to be a bit out of it.
"Uh…yes actually we do, her name is Morgan Adams, she should be arriving from Florida sometime later today," Giles answered before Willow walked over and poured him a cup of tea.
"Do we have a place for her to stay yet, because I don't care what you say I am not sharing my room again…," Dawn stated emphatically with a very certain frown on her face before she took another spoonful of cereal.
"We have a room waiting for her yes Dawn, but she probably won't arrive until tonight, her flight stops over in London for a few hours," Giles said with an appreciative smile on his face as Willow handed him his cup of tea before doing her best to stifle a giant yawn while Kennedy came around the corner, looking still half asleep and not to happy at waking up alone.
"Hey baby…sorry about not waking you but…," Willow said softly with a sincere look of regret on her face as she walked over and kissed her girlfriend lightly on the cheek.
"Whatever…," Kennedy grumbled with an unhappy look on her face before she, still half asleep, staggered across the kitchen and began to search for a cup of coffee.
"Yeesh, don't you people have any liquor, even one of those light beers would do…," An oddly familiar voice to Buffy stated before Buffy turned around and caught sight of someone going through the refrigerator.
"Excuse me," Buffy questioned with a confused look on her face before the person stood up with a bottle of local beer in his hands.
"Buffy…," Xander asked with a confused look on his face as he half turned around in his chair and looked at where Buffy was looking, but to him he saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"Just here for a little visit toots, got a few items on the ole agenda, kind of important ones at that," Whistler joked with an immature grin on his face before he popped the top off of the beer and hopped up onto the counter.
"What are you…," Buffy began to say with a slightly threatened scowl on her face as she stood up and pushed her chair back.
"Buffy," Dawn whimpered with a scared look on her face as she first looked to Buffy before looking at everyone else in the room, desperately hoping that someone could provide an answer to Buffy's behavior.
"See like last time I figured this for ole Angel's bid day…but then you came along, only this time it wasn't entirely your fault and we did see you coming, except that this time you turned your back on Angel right when he really needed you," Whistler answered with a sad and sullen pout on his face as his countenance suddenly changed to that of a small child that had just lost his puppy.
"I did not turn my back on…," Buffy started to growl with a quickly growing scowl of anger on her face as she balled her hands up into fists while the others in the room continued to act as if they thought that Buffy had lost it, with Kennedy still holding the cupboard door open.
"That's what they all say, Benedict Arnold tried to tell me the very same thing, Brutus and Cassius to…but no matter what idea you have going around in that pretty little head of yours the truth is that you did turn your back on Angel when he really needed you, they all really needed your help, but Rupes over there kept putting Angel on hold when he called, so Angel finally had no choice but to give up on you helping him…sending Andrew there to rip his heart out all over again by telling him that you didn't trust him anymore was a stroke of genius…sick, but a stroke of genius nonetheless," Whistler answered slowly in between sips of his beer as Buffy stood there, suddenly quite flabbergasted and feeling as if more than just the rug had been jerked out from under her.
"B…but he said…," Buffy stammered out, now close to tears, as she took a few fragile steps forward and let her hands slip out of fists and they began to shake ever so slightly.
"What…you think he's never lied before…he killed that Ben guy to, never told you about that either I see, man that guy's full of surprises, but speaking of surprised honey…ole Angel didn't go bad, he was trying to change the beast from the inside out, and when he found that he had gotten in way over his head he called the one person…the one person, in this entire universe that he believed would never turn him down…kinda makes ya wonder how they felt when he found out he was wrong…," Whistler replied with a matter of fact frown on his face before at the end he hung his head and sadly shook it.
"No…," Buffy mumbled with tears now trickling down her cheeks as she reached the counter and leaned heavily on it, not noticing that Giles had risen from his chair and Willow was already starting to chant the words to a spell aimed at revealing the unrevealed.
"Yeah…but Angel wasn't the only one that you hurt, he was just the beginning, what happened in Sunnydale…that was only the beginning…," Whistler stated sadly with a hurt frown on his face as he slowly slid off of the counter and set the beer on the table before he disappeared. Moments later both of Buffy's hands were tightly wrapped around her watcher's neck. It took the combined might of everyone in the room to pry her off, with Buffy finally collapsing into Xander's arms and soaking the front of his shirt with her tears.
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"Wonder if they'd mind…," Spike quipped with a sly grin on his face as he eyed a grand piano from across the bar while Angel and Nina sat on stools nearby.
"Don't even think about it William, we're trying to blend in remember, not indulge in whims…," Angel growled under his breath, using Spike's human name when others were around in hopes of not attracting anyone's attention that only knew them by their vampiric names.
"Ah come on Liam, let him…besides it could be fun, I mean look at these people, they look like they want to dance…," Nina added with a warm smile on her face as she turned her full attention to Angel, still feeling a bit awkward at calling Angel and Spike by their human names.
"Since when was this open for debate, sit still and shut up Spi…William," Angel grumbled loudly with a quickly growing level of annoyance as it was clear that Spike was intentionally trying his patience.
"Well there's no need to get shirty about it," Spike declared with a sad pout on his face as he leaned forward and took a sip of his drink.
"Alright people we have rooms, Angel Nina here's your key, Connor and Spike can take the second one and…," Gwen announced with a relieved and tired smirk on her face as she walked into the lounge, first tossing one key to Angel, one to Spike, before she twirled the last key around on the tip of her index finger while eyeing Groo hungrily.
"Why do I have to share with him," Connor objected with an angry scowl on his face as he lightly limped into the lounge and pulled up a stool next to Nina, who pulled her drink a little further towards Angel as he did so.
"Because it's better if we stay together, look at it this way…you two can get a chance to bond," Angel quickly replied with a tired but sly grin on his face as Nina did her best to try not to laugh.
"Whatever…but I make my own rules these days," Spike stated with a very certain and serious look on his face as he pushed off of the stool and walked over to the empty piano and sat down.
"What's he doing," Groo asked with a slightly nervous and confused look on his face as he walked over and slid onto Spike's vacated stool.
"His own thing, like always," Angel mumbled with a bored look on his face, as he didn't budge from looking the exact opposite direction that Spike was to him.
"Can he play," Gwen asked with a stifled yawn as she leaned back up against the bar and ordered a drink.
"Who cares, come on Nina let's go," Angel stated with a fed up look of frustration on his face before he slipped off of his stool and headed for the exit, just as Spike began to play a soft tune and a young woman walked into the lounge.
"Aren't you a little young to be in here," Gwen quipped with a sly grin on her face as she took her drink from the bartender and took a sip. Her words got a cautious response from the young woman.
"Hey…I'm old enough," The young woman stated proudly back with an annoyed scowl on her face as she slipped a few bills out of her pocket. Connor stared at her oddly, getting a sneaky wink from Gwen before the young woman stepped up to the bar and ordered. After looking carefully at the young woman for a few seconds the bartender slowly got her a drink.
"By what, five minutes," Gwen joked back before the young woman slipped out of her coat and slid onto the only open stool left.
"I'm almost twenty okay, so enough with the age jokes okay," The woman said with a tired frown on her face before she absentmindedly scratched an old scar on her side that Connor watched with some fascination. Her shirt came down to about an inch or two above her pierced bellybutton and there was a tattoo of a rose on the small of her back.
"I'll think about it," Gwen shot back with a strong look in her eyes before she took another sip of her own drink while Spike switched songs that he was playing on the piano and started a salsa style number.
"See that you do," The woman stated back with a restless look on her face as she glanced up at the clock and then over at Connor, before long trying to not make it look like she was staring at Connor out of the corner of her eyes even though she was. With a nervous half grin on her face she was glad that she had decided to dress conservatively, at least for her, before she left Miami. Spike continued playing for almost two more hours before the sun went fully down and moments later Spike took a useless deep breath and stopped playing. "He's pretty good, who is he," The woman asked Connor softly as she leaned in a bit closer and Connor found it hard to keep his eyes on hers and not let them drop down a bit to the top of her shirt, one that she had left the top few button's unbuttoned and made for a hard to resist place for Connor's gaze.
"A friend," Connor replied softly, his cheesy smile quickly slipping off of his face after he saw the look in the woman's eyes as she watched Spike's every movie as he stood up and stretched his legs a bit.
"So then you know if he…," The woman continued with a nervous half smile on her face as she bit her bottom lip before speaking.
"He's free…," Connor replied grumpily as he turned away from the woman and took a large drink from his own glass.
"Good," The woman stated with a very interested and excited smile on her face before she took one last sip of her drink and slid off of her stool and headed towards Spike. Doing his best to reign in his temper Connor lazily looked over at her coat and took notice of nothing but her name, Morgan Adams.
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"Alright Giles, I'm only going to ask you this once, and you'd better tell me what I want to hear…," Buffy threatened with a very serious look on her face as she forcefully paced back and forth in the middle of her living room after having called the Immortal and canceled their date for that night. She had done her best to sound as if something serious had come up that she couldn't miss and she fervently hoped that he had bought her excuse.
"It was never my intent to…," Giles began to say with a nervous but confidant look on his face and tone to his voice as he sat up in his chair and crossed his arms.
"I really don't care about that right now Giles, now here's the question, did Angel ever call you for help…and…and if so why did you not tell us," Buffy continued with a restrained look of anger on her face before she finally stopped pacing long enough to glare menacingly down at Giles.
"Yes, Angel did call asking for our aid in a matter, but I thought that it was only a ploy to get information, I didn't know that he was serious about it, I swear Buffy that if I had known that he was telling me the absolute truth I would have come to you," Giles stated slowly and calmly as his gaze never left Buffy's while the others all tried to silently take stock of the admission.
"So is there anything else…any other little secret that you, or anyone else…would like to tell me…anyone back from the dead that we don't know about…Andrew…," Buffy spat out with a very frustrated and overwhelmed look on her face before she cast a death glare over at the former nerd, who was in the midst of unwrapping a giant sucker on his way to his room to play his newest video game, Crash Bandicoot.
"Um…well actually uh…nope," Andrew stammered out with a very nervous and scared look on his face before he finished unwrapping his sucker and quickly popped it into his mouth. Before Buffy could ask him another question he had raced into his room and locked the door behind him.
END OF CHAPTER 6
Author's Note: There are some differences for Illyria on a possibly temporary level, some will like them and some will hate them, Illyria wanted to experience something in her "Fred" shell, because of Fred's leftover feelings for Wesley, but wasn't able to…but now…hopefully this will all make sense. All in all another step on Illyria's journey to understanding humanity.