CONSEQUENCES

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

Author's Note: If anyone wants to use any of my characters or storylines from any of my stories and spin them off just ask and we'll talk, unless I'm writing a sequel to that particular story and at the moment that'll only be for Three Strikes.

CHAPTER 8-OVERESTIMATIONS AND EXAGERATIONS

The force of Faith's attack sent Cody flying back into wall, with the force of his impact with said wall jarring the knife from his hands. Scowling in pain Faith did a back flip and snapped the neck of whoever it was that had attacked her first. Next she scooped up his shovel and went in search of the demon that had struck her with its tongue. Spike stood as still as a statue for several moments as those nearest to him rushed forward. When they got close enough to his liking a wicked grin curled up the edges of his mouth and he easily dodged the first blow and then slit the throat of the next attacker. Angel initially started to throw himself at those that charged towards him but stopped and changed his tactic when he remembered that Nina was standing behind him with a dagger in her hands and not looking supremely confidant of her chances in a real fight. Nina, determined to show Angel that she could handle herself in a fight without him having to baby her, awkwardly lunged forward at the first demon to rush towards her, burying her knife up to the hilt in its chest. For a split second Nina let out a yelp of joy, before the fist of one of the larger demons dashed her hopes. The force of its blow cracked several of her ribs and sent her flying back across the street and through a centuries old stained glass window that had been set in an old window hole to keep the drafts out until a new window was made.

"Nina," Angel loudly exclaimed with a shocked and panicked look on his face, as he had more than heard the sound of Nina's ribs cracking after she was struck. Neither Spike nor Faith ever heard Nina's initial scream.

"Angel…what the fuck are…," Faith started to shout with an angry and surprised look on her face, as she caught sight of Angel sprinting away from the alley out of the corner of her eye, before she was forced to go silent when she had to duck down to hope to avoid the breath of a fire spewing demon.

"Ah don't waste your breath, Peaches must have found something better to…," Spike started to shout back with a zealous grin on his face before a furious Cody interrupted.

"You bitch," Cody screamed out in rage as he bent down and picked up his knife before madly charging towards Faith, intent on slashing her open across the stomach. Faith gave him her best smirk and wrenched his arm around quickly, letting the knife clatter harmlessly to the ground, before the tip of the blade of one of the other demons nicked just enough of her throat to stop her fighting immediately.

"A…Angel," Nina gasped out through a lot of pain as she fought hard to take each and every breath, lying on her side amidst the pile of shattered glass and blood.

"Nina…are you," Angel started to ask with a very concerned scowl on his face before a hatchet sliced into his left shoulder, going in deep enough to strike bone. This time however Spike clearly heard Angel's growl of pain, coupled with Faith's startled gasps as she clutched at her throat and frantically hoped that the blade hadn't gone far enough into her throat to do any serious damage.

"Oh bullocks," Spike shouted loudly before he caught the flat of a shovel broadside across his face, an attack that sent him staggering for a few steps before to his amazement he caught sight of a flash of jet black hair out of the corner of his eye which was soon followed by the sound of a neck being snapped. By the time that he had turned around the demon that had struck him with the shovel lay face down in a dirty looking puddle, with a triumphant and energized Morgan standing over it, looking half drunk and ready for anything.

"Who the hell are you…," Cody cried with a furious and scathing sneer on his face as he readied to attack again.

"The bitch from hell," Morgan shot back with a daring grin on her face before she had to duck down low to avoid an attack from one of the other demons.

"Got that right," Spike quipped under his breath with a sly smirk on his face as he slowly wiped his fingers across his face, checking to see if he was bleeding.

"What was that…," Morgan started to demand with a furious glare in her eyes before she was so concerned with glaring at Spike and making sure that the demon didn't get a second chance to hit her that she missed Cody's first incoming attack and wound up with a three inch long slash across her stomach, just above her bellybutton. "Damn," Morgan hissed angrily through clenched teeth as she stumbled back and clutched a hand to her stomach.

"Shouldn't we…I don't know, say something," Dawn wondered with a sad and nervous look on her face as she held the newspaper up in front of her and stared at their pictures.

"About what Dawnie," Willow asked softly with a tired and weary look on her face as she sat down on the couch beside Dawn.

"Them…I mean they were our…well your friends, it just doesn't feel right that we…," Dawn stammered to get out with a steadily growing look of sadness on her face as she gestured to the pictures on the front page.

"I know what you mean Dawn, but we can't do anything for them right now, when Xander, Kennedy, and I get to LA we'll find the right cemetery and pay them a visit," Willow replied with a somber look on her face as she lightly patted Dawn on the back.

"Change of plans Will, we're not going to LA," Xander announced with a serious and unhappy frown on his face as he walked into the living room, carrying a stuffed full satchel.

"Why not," Kennedy asked with a bored expression on her face as she walked in and slid into a spot next to Willow on the couch.

"Because something else has come up, remember that young woman that I told you about, the new slayer, well she has been sighted in a rather bad section of London," Giles answered with a very grim and serious frown on his face as he walked into the room and looked skeptically down at Kennedy.

"And that should worry us…why exactly," Kennedy demanded with a flip of her hand as she flopped back in her seat and stared up at the ceiling.

"It should trouble you Kennedy because Ms. Adam's was seen fighting what looked like a mob of demons, to much for one such as her to take on alone…but that's not the only reason that…," Giles began to say with a seemingly uncomfortable and nervous look on his face as he sat down in a chair and looked towards the couch.

"Reason that what…," Dawn wondered with a nervous and somewhat scared look on her face as she caught the look on Giles' face.

"The reason that we should all be concerned is that one of my sources has told me that it appears that Ms. Morgan if fighting alongside…Faith, who is supposed to still be in Los Angeles California, not London England," Giles replied with a curious look on his face as he turned his head just enough to look away from those assembled on the couch and not look Xander directly in the eye.

"Who's in London," Buffy asked with a tired yawn as she walked back into the apartment after visiting the Immortal for a bit.

"Faith…although she never said a word to me about leaving LA, something's up Buffy," Giles answered with a grim scowl on his face as he turned around in his chair and looked up at Buffy, who rolled her eyes and sighed softly.

"Great…just what we need, Faith going off on her own again," Buffy groaned with an annoyed and frustrated frown on her face as she shook her head on her way to the small kitchen.

"Did your source say what the fight was all about, how it got started, if there was anyone else fighting," Willow asked with a sincere look of concern on her face as she looked quickly after Buffy and then turned her gaze fully to Giles.

"He did say that there were three others fighting but he couldn't make out who they were, although now that you mention it he did say that there was someone with bleached blond hair in the middle of the melee…," Giles began to reply with a calm and firm tone of voice before at the end he debated about his choice of words and spoke the last little bit softly, mostly to Willow and those closest to him in hopes that Buffy wouldn't hear and get her hopes up again. Ever since that day in Sunnydale, even though she had never openly admitted it Buffy had been half expecting Spike to suddenly show up at her door, wondering where she had gone. There had been a few excruciatingly close near misses as people who looked like Spike had been spotted all over, but each time it had turned out not to be true.

"Bleached blond…Spike," Buffy stated with a look of nervous but yet hopeful awe on her face as she walked back into the living room and looked first to Giles.

"Now Buffy don't get your hopes up, we've been through this before, my source only said that he saw someone that had a hair color similar to Spike's…," Giles began to protest with an awkward smile on his face as he tried his best to placate Buffy's nerves and to calm her down.

"I thought you two were over and done with…," Kennedy asked with a confused and exceedingly bored frown on her face as she sat up and glared over at Giles.

"We were, but…if Spike had made it through then…we were going to talk about…us," Buffy softly replied as she sat down on the couches armrest and unscrewed the top on her bottle of water.

"Us…," Dawn begged to ask with a nervous and unsure pout on her face as she turned her head and gazed up at Buffy.

"Ever since I found out about his soul I had thought a lot about us…and the night before Sunnydale was destroyed I came to a conclusion, if we both made it then we'd give it…us, another go…but we'd take it slow and not hide anything," Buffy replied softly with a warm but yet sad smile on her face before she turned away, just quickly enough so that no one saw the small tear make its way down her cheek.

"How can you…after what he did…he should be lucky enough…," Xander exclaimed loudly as he nearly shot up out of his chair and looked about ready to go to war before Willow's words calmed him, if only a little bit.

"He saved the world Xander, if not for him we wouldn't be here…the least that you can do is let him rest in peace, if that's possible for him," Willow interjected with initially a rather stern glare in her eyes before her countenance softened and she found that she couldn't look at Buffy as she spoke the last few words.

"So what Will, he saved the world, we all have…how does that give him any right to…," Xander began to shout back with an annoyed scowl on his face as he tightly gripped the armrests of his chair before Buffy broke in and ended the discussion.

"Because I said so," Buffy stated plainly and without reservation before standing up and walking off into her room, shutting the door firmly behind her.

She lay there, unmoving, for what felt like hours, reveling in all of the feelings and sensations that she had just experienced for the first time. Illyria had wanted to experience this particular aspect of humanity with Wesley but because of the shell that she had taken possession of it was not possible. But with this new shell, a shell that still craved the woman now getting ready in the bathroom, was something of a very different sort entirely. While still at Wolfram and Hart she had used her free time to try and study up on the points of humanity that baffled her. This particular one had been almost a complete mystery to her until a few hours ago. Now though her curiosity was peaked by a report on the radio about a young blonde woman being found alive in the rubble of what was the Wolfram and Hart tower.

In her memories the image and name of this young blonde woman called out to her. She didn't yet fully understand why though. All that Illyria knew was that if she wanted to understand what had happened fully and discern her next course of action then she needed to know where the important players now stood. An odd sense of loss and grief filled her wholly as she reflected back upon Wesley's death, replaying the scene over and over again in her mind, wondering if he would still be alive if she had been only a few seconds faster. That thought consumed her for several more moments until the beautiful blonde reentered the bedroom and told her that she needed to get ready for work and tossed her an outfit that had less material comprised in it than a small washcloth.

Angel had seen the slow and insanely frustrating slide into death of one woman that he loved and he wasn't about to let it happen again. Whereas with Cordelia he had later endlessly condemned himself for not doing this or that he was not about to repeat his earlier errors. As the battle raged on Angel had managed to get Nina back out of the street and into the corner of the small shop. He had ended up using some of the shops wares as weapons because the mob of demons that had rushed him earlier hadn't let up and followed them. He didn't know how Faith and Spike were faring but he felt that he'd know if something had happened to Spike.

"Now you die…," An enraged vampire growled as he raced across the street towards Angel, who was standing in the small shops doorway after having dusted a vampire that had almost made it to Nina.

"Like I haven't heard that one before," Angel cracked with a bored but confidant grin on his face as he easily blocked the stake that the charging vampire held in his hand, before he used a quick snapping of his elbow to spin the point of the stake around. Before the vampire knew what was happening he had been dusted by his own stake. It didn't take long for the rest of the dusted vampires cohorts to press their attack. Angel dodged the first closed fist easily enough but wasn't so quick against the second one, a fist which caught him squarely on the jaw. He stumbled backwards into the little shop a few feet before he collected himself and lowered his shoulder before charging back out into the fray. Spike meanwhile was having less trouble, mostly because he had forgone trying to single-handedly slay every single demon with brute force alone. Instead he had resorted to letting the demons do it for him. To this end he had begun to land a punch to the jaw of one demon, just as one enraged demon would come up behind him, before he'd dart away and let the punch that was meant for him land on the demon that he had punched.

"Gonna have to be quicker than that…," Spike announced with a zealous look of pride on his face as he rolled out of the way of another attack and grinned as another demon fell. Faith had recovered enough from the wound to her neck to be able to trip up unsuspecting demons and then take the opening and drive Spike's blade down into whatever unprotected area that she could find. The wound on her neck was already beginning to heal although it was bad enough that had she been human it would definitely have left a scar. Even now though from the quick look that Spike had gotten of it he wouldn't be surprised, slayer healing be damned, if Faith would still be left with a scar.

"Any bright ideas…," Faith gasped out with a somewhat desperate look on her face as from what she could see the alleyway had suddenly become filled with a never-ending stream of demons.

"A few," Spike shouted back angrily as he dodged another blow and then grabbed a demon by the horns on its back and ran it straight into the side of a dumpster until finally snapping its neck.

"Fuck…," Morgan groaned with an unhappy scowl on her face as she crawled back away from the battle, tears beginning to show.

"Wait…what's wrong honey, don't like playing games with the big boys," Cody stated with a very proud sneer on his face as he advanced towards Morgan, the point of his knife clearly aimed straight for her jugular.

"S…stay away from me…you sick fuck," Morgan spat out in between foreshortened breaths as she held a hand to her wound and tried to get back up to her feet.

"I'm sick…heh, I'm not the one that came in here, playin all commando super bitch from hell, you did that all by yourself, and now you're going to die," Cody shot back with a very triumphant and full of power gleam in his eyes as he slowly continued to walk towards Morgan, getting closer with each step.

"Like I haven't heard that one before, please…," Morgan exclaimed back with a look of great confidence and disdain on her face as she tried to act as if this was all old news to her but in reality she was scared shitless.

"You've got quite the mouth on you…guess then I'll have to start by cutting out your tongue," Cody announced with a very certain and vindictive sneer on his face as he stepped over the body of the demon that Morgan had killed.

"Seems to me that what we have here is a failure to communicate, you see the young lady here told you to take a hike, but like most slack jawed yokels you've glossed over that part and gone straight to making grandiose claims," Spike interrupted with an anxious scowl on his face as he stepped in front of Cody and allowed Morgan to get back up to her feet even though she was still leaning very heavily on the wall and clutching the front of her now crimson stained shirt.

"Shut up…," Cody screamed out in a terrible fury as he lunged forward towards Spike. The flash of Spike's blade would be the last thing that Cody would ever see in this world before in his hurry to attack Spike he missed Faith standing beside the bleached blond vampire with the point of his sword pointed towards Cody. He impaled himself on the sword and died within moments. After initially recovering from the shock of Cody's death Spike started to try and create a path through the sea of demons and vampires when the worst happened. Above the clamor and din of the mob could clearly be heard a werewolf's howl.

END OF CHAPTER 8