CONSEQUENCES

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

CHAPTER 18-MISS ME

Morning brought little relief to those desperately trying to come up with the whereabouts of Wesley's spirit. Although promising to stay up the entire night Dawn had slipped off into a peaceful slumber shortly after midnight. Angel had offered to carry her up to bed but Spike had stepped in and done it himself. True to her word Illyria had remained awake throughout the night, working on the opposite side of the library from Willow, who had steadfastly refused to sit anywhere near the ancient one. Willow had intently studied each and every book that was put in front of her. Angel had returned from talking to Nina and only mumbled something to Spike in a language that Willow didn't understand before he had resumed helping research the spell that would bring Wesley back.

"How are we even supposed to know this spell when we see it," Katy asked with a half asleep look on her face as she slurred her words noticeably.

"I've done this type of thing before Katy, so if you see any spell that talks about inter-dimensional resurrections then you're probably on the right track," Willow replied with a frustrated and anxious look on her face as she turned next another page without finding anything that would be of any help to her.

"Sure Willow, whatever you say," Katy mumbled back with a very sleepy smile on her face before Willow had to hold back a grin as a few minutes later she saw Katy's eyelids droop until she to was sound asleep, her head resting softly on the books in front of her.

"Look Red, are we going to need anything special for this spell…because let's face it I'm better in the field than sitting here digging through all of these dusty old books," Spike asked with a bored stiff expression on his face as he closed the book that he was lightly skimming and turned to Willow.

"I can't be sure yet Spike, until I find the correct spell I won't know the list of ingredients and other items that we'll need," Willow replied with a small yawn as she shrugged her shoulders and gave Spike her best apologetic smile.

"In that case I think that it's best if we all turn in for the night, you to Illyria, we can start fresh tomorrow…later on this morning," Angel said with a tired look on his face before he glanced up at the clock on the wall and amended the last part. Willow reluctantly nodded her head and left the library without giving even half a glance Illyria's way. Spike shook his head at this but understood her motives before with a small wave of his hand he waved off the question that he could tell was beginning to form on Illyria's orange tinted lips.

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"Well the police over here are about as helpful as they were in Sunnydale," Xander quipped with a sarcastic and exhausted frown on his face as he plopped down into one of the chairs in the lobby before handing Vi the pencil that she had accidentally dropped.

"That doesn't sound good," Buffy said with a worried and anxious expression on her face as she nervously looked down at Xander.

"We got nothin," Kennedy grumbled with an unhappy scowl on her face as she looked ready to explode from worrying about Willow.

"The authorities said that until Willow and Dawn have been gone for twenty four hours they cannot be considered missing, but a nice young lieutenant did say that he'd keep an eye out for them, but I don't put much hope in that panning out," Giles said with a very concerned scowl on his face as he walked past Buffy towards the stairs. Giles had taken Xander and Kennedy with him to the nearest police station the moment that they had finished breakfast the next morning.

"Do we know if Angel has any friends or contacts here in London, maybe the London branch of Wolfram and Hart would know something," Buffy offered up with a hopeful but grim look on her face as she stopped Giles but was then interrupted by Lorne, who looked none the better after sleeping in late. Xander had let him sleep on the floor in his, Andrew, and Giles' room out of pity combined with not wanting to let him out of their sight.

"Afraid that'd be the king of bad ideas cupcake, Wolfram and Hart wants Angel and everyone else that helped him take down the circle of the black thorn dead, if you went to them then you'd be delivering them into their hands," Lorne interjected with a very serious and almost angry scowl on his face as he quickly paced down the rest of the stairs and entered the lobby.

"What other choice do we have though, Angel's not about to just pick up the phone and give us a call and tell us where he is," Xander objected with a very sarcastic tone to his voice as he sat up in his chair and then laughed at the thought of Angel actually helping them do anything.

"But didn't Willow have her cell with her, I don't know why I didn't think of it before," Buffy started to say with a confused look on her face before the idea hit her and she quickly pulled her own cell phone from her pocket and started to dial Willow's number.

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The sound of the cell phone ringing had pulled Willow out of her slumber. She didn't know when she had fallen asleep or how long she had been out but hoped that it hadn't been to long. After Angel had told her the whole story she and Dawn had both agreed to do all that they could to help bring Wesley back and stop the senior partners. She had found several spells that she thought were possibilities before she had fallen asleep but now upon jerking away she noticed that her markers had all fallen out of their respective books.

"H…hello," Willow slurred out with a huge yawn before she slid the book off of her lap and back onto the desk in front of her.

"Oh thank God," Buffy mumbled softly under her breath with a very relieved expression on her face before she continued, "Where are you?"

"We…we're fine Buffy don't worry, I'll explain everything once we're through casting," Willow started to stutter quickly with a frantic edge to her voice before the phone was ripped out of her hands and flung violently against the far wall shattering into pieces. Willow cringed as the pieces fell to the floor.

"Do not do that again, when we're done with this then we'll drop you off at the hotel, until then you do not contact Buffy or any of the others in any way, understand," Angel stated with a very firm and unwavering tone of voice as Willow knew instantly that there was no arguing with him.

"Fine…but you realize that Buffy's going to," Willow started to protest with a nervous look on her face as she sat up in her chair and opened up the largest book on the table.

"Leave Buffy to me, if she thinks that she's running this show then she's going to have a rude awakening, I'm through playing by the rules, and a bunch of slayers are no longer any deterrent," Angel interjected with a deadly serious look on his face as for a moment Willow feared that Angelus had come back before Nina stepped off of the final stair and entered the room. Sensing her presence Angel seemed to relax a bit, before she lazily leaned up against Angel for support. Willow couldn't suppress a smirk at the sudden change on Angel's face as he had gone from dictating the terms of her working with him to suddenly being a glorified wall in less than a second. "Nina…time to wake up," Angel whispered softly to Nina as he slipped an arm around her and drew her close.

"Don't want to," Nina mumbled softly in her sleep as she turned her head slightly before burrowing her way into Angel's shoulder, soon she was softly snoring away.

"This is awkward," Angel mumbled with a confused smirk on his face before he made up his mind and scooped Nina up into his arms and carried her out of the room.

"Always trying to play the hero," Spike stated with a slight bit of mockery in his voice as he swaggered into the library, using a toothpick to get Willow could only guess what out of his teeth.

"Could say the same thing about you Spike, why didn't you tell us you were back, Buffy…," Willow started to ask softly with a determined to get to the bottom of the madness look on her face as she set the book that she had opened up earlier down onto the desk.

"Has gotten along fine without me Red, saw it for myself, Angel was there to…we saw her with that git, I mean how stupid can she be…that bloody bastard doesn't give a damn about her," Spike answered at first with a relaxed look in his eyes before he grew angry and spat out the end.

"The Immortal's not that bad, he seems nice…really," Willow countered with a defensive and slightly scared expression on her face as she turned in her chair to fully face Spike.

"Because you don't know him like Angel and I do, trust me Red, give him a chance and he'll take the thing that you value most in this life and then taunt you with that fact," Spike replied with a very vengeful sneer on his face as he stormed across the room and kicked a chair out of the first few rays of sunlight before sitting down in it.

"You and Angel, you're old friends of the Immortal," Willow asked with an interested expression on her face as she was always hungry for new information.

"Only in the sense that we want to cut him into tiny pieces and stick his head on a pike," A very serious Angel growled as he angrily stepped back into the room and pulled a book from the shelf that he had been reading the night before.

"Tense much," Katy said with a sarcastic smile on her face as she slowly walked into the room, looking ready for a workout rather than for more studying.

"You don't understand Willow, the Immortal is bad news, and if Buffy can't see it then Spike and I are going to have to take care of him," Angel said with a very serious and commanding edge to his voice as he then silently found a seat next to Spike.

"What do the two of you have against The Immortal, it's not like he tried to kill you or…," Willow started to ask with a fed up and frustrated scowl on her face as she turned and looked at the two vampires.

"Actually he did, strung us up like rabbits and let his executioner play with us for awhile while he had his way with Darla and Dru…bloody bastard, he did something to them, they weren't acting like themselves when we found them," Spike started to say with a very bitter and angry sneer on his face before he forced himself to calm down.

"When we tried to confront him the Immortal's goons wouldn't let us get anywhere near him, and when we came to Rome he got the better of us again, and didn't let us forget it," Angel finished with a very calm but bitter look on his face as he looked up from his seat and glanced over at Willow before returning to his book.

"I…I had no idea," Willow stammered out with an overwhelmed feeling in her stomach before the wheel's of her mind began to spin of exactly what to do when she saw Buffy again.

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"Okay, so is everyone ready, remember this is a very dangerous spell, now anything goes wrong…anything at all, kill me," Willow said loudly with a very serious look on her face as she slowly turned around in circles, making sure that everyone could hear her clearly. They had waited until nightfall to even hope to perform the spell. Katy had found the right passage in one of the books that she had been looking through and had been overjoyed when Willow agreed that it was the correct spell. Angel and Spike had spent the rest of the day rounding up the supplies, with Groo and Gwen getting the ones that they couldn't as some were in some very sun drenched locations.

"As ready as we're going to get," Michelle replied with a nervous but excited smile on her face as she slowly stood up after laying the chicken's feet at the base of the large blood circle on the stones. Earlier in the day Gwen had found a small square on one corner of London that would fit their needs. Angel and Spike had drawn a pentagram on the stone in blood and then set about arraying the various spell components around the circle. Faith sat back in her wheelchair near a tree with a change of clothes in her hands. The clothes were not for her but for Wesley, in case when they brought him back he wasn't wearing any.

"Then we should get started before anyone or anything shows up," Willow replied with a nervous smile on her face as she nodded her head and then walked to the center of the pentagram, carrying the Axis with her.

"Now remember, if anything comes out of that portal other than Wesley…kill it," Angel shouted out to the group with a very serious expression on his face as Nina loaded her crossbow, stuck another bolt in her teeth, and ducked behind a tree. Angel, Spike, Groo, and Gwen each took up defensive positions a few feet from the edge of the circle, spacing themselves an equal distance apart. Each wielded a simple sword with a dagger for backup. Katy and Morgan stood guard with Faith, each with crossbows of their own and Faith had concealed a large dagger underneath the stack of clothes that she had for Wesley. A sawn off shotgun also lay across her lap and as her nervousness began to grow she began to tap it anxiously with her fingernails.

"What if Wolfram and Hart tries to stop us," Michelle asked with a very scared look on her face as she limped back next to Connor, who sat on the top of a van and was serving as a lookout. Illyria was out of sight on the top of one of the nearby buildings, serving as a surprise ally if needed.

"If they stop us before we get Wesley back then it's all over," Spike answered with a very serious look on his face as he half turned back to Michelle before Dawn spoke up.

"Are you sure that you can do this Willow, you won't get lost in the power," Dawn interjected with a worried look on her face as she turned away from Spike and over to Willow.

"I'll be fine Dawnie, all I have to do is bring his soul back to this plane of existence by using the Axis here to locate it, then it's all up to Faith and that medallion to make him corporeal again," Willow said back with a nervous frown on her face as she started out looking in Dawn's direction before she turned and gazed over at Faith, who almost self consciously reached up and stroked the smooth surface of the medallion.

"It's time Willow…and thank you," Angel told everyone with a very commanding edge to his voice before it softened and he smiled at Willow.

"Don't mention it, think of this as me making up a small part of what we owe you guys for not being there when you really needed us," Willow replied softly with a somber smile on her face as she meant every word. She started the spell off slowly, concentrating more on getting the words right then keep tabs on where everyone else was positioned. The words soon began to tumble out of her mouth one right after the other as if she were no longer controlling them. Instead the spell seemed to take on a life of its own.

"Is this supposed to happen," Spike shouted above the suddenly strong breeze that had picked up out of the blue after Willow had begun to speak.

"How should I know," Angel angrily shouted back with a hand over his face to try to keep his vision clear.

"I think it's working…look," Connor called in from his spot as he pointed to the sky several feet above Willow as what looked like a ribbon of light appeared in the sky and began to wriggle around. Smiling at this Willow finished the last words of the spell and the ribbon of light spread apart into a portal.

"Now Faith," Angel screamed out over the near tempest as he turned away from the circle just slightly and hoped that he was screaming in Faith's general direction. Even though Faith barely heard him she figured that her time for action was at hand. Shutting her eyes tightly against the wind she closed both of her hands tightly around the medallion and began to concentrate more intently than she ever had before, ignoring the spattering of rain that was beginning to fall around her. Looking very scared Katy pulled out one of her crossbow bolts and scratched it across her hand, hissing loudly as a thick line of blood began to dribble down her hand. Acting quickly she fought against the wind and began to let all of her blood drop down through the small hole in Faith's hands that she had created with her index finger. The medallion needed fresh blood that did not belong to either of the forever-joined pair to work its final magic. Katy had nearly vomited when she had first heard what she would have to do but after a pep talk from Faith and a very clear threat from Angel she knew that she could not turn back. At first nothing happened, but as more and more of Katy's blood began to coat the medallion the reaction finally began. Soon a blinding white light began to emanate from Faith's hands, forcing everyone in the square to turn away lest they be rendered completely blind. The white light then shot what looked almost like a laser straight towards the center of the portal.

"I…can't see," Morgan shouted out in pain before a small bench was wrenched from its foundations and struck her in her already injured shoulder, knocking her to the ground and once more breaking the arm. Spike heard her scream of pain and took a step in her direction to go and help but stopped when something bright flashed out of the portal and slammed down onto the cold wet cement of the center of the square.

"Is it him," Gwen shouted out with an angry expression on her face as she peered through the now almost blinding rain at the two figures in the center of the circle.

"It's him…Angel it's Wesley, he's alive," Willow shouted out of the center of the circle with a very excited and overjoyed tone to her voice as she knelt down beside the naked former watcher and checked his pulse.

"That's…Willow look out," Angel started to shout back in congratulations before a large scorpion like creature slithered through the portal and landed over Wesley and Willow, causing Angel and Spike and the others to go staggering back out of the way of the demon's claws and poisoned tail.

"Bloody hell," Spike sneered with a furious look on his face as he tumbled back over a park bench before the winds died down and the portal collapsed back in upon itself. He had only started to get back up to his feet when Connor sounded the alarm and had just gotten to Angel's side when the vans of Wolfram and Hart sped into one corner of the square.

END OF CHAPTER 18