CONSEQUENCES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Katy and Morgan.
CHAPTER 19-HEADING HOME, A FIRST SOFT TALK
The giant scorpion like demon took the brunt of Wolfram and Hart's attention. Willow collapsed about two seconds after making sure that Angel knew that Wesley had indeed come back through the portal. Spike had started to go to her aid but had been forced to stop when the giant scorpion like demon turned its attention to him. Cursing at Angel Spike back away quickly, getting the giant demon to start after him, allowing Angel and Groo to rush in and get Willow and Wesley out of any immediate danger. They almost made it to the first van to pull up before the inevitable happened. As the van's side door slid open a giant minotaur demon popped out of the portal and snorted loudly before noticing the bright floodlights that Wolfram and Hart had brought along. The dying screams of the guards echoed in Angel's ears as he and Groo set Wesley and Willow's unconscious forms in the back of the van and slammed the door shut.
"Get them back to the mansion," Angel shouted loudly at David as he finished slamming the door shut.
"Yes sir," David announced with an exceedingly proud grin on his face before he pulled down his night vision goggles and tore off back towards his mansion.
"Was that wise Angel," Groo asked with a confused and apprehensive look on his face as he picked his sword back up.
"Don't know, but we've got bigger fish to fry, Gwen get everyone out of here, Spike, Groo, and I will hold off our new friends," Angel replied softly with a shrug at first before raised his voice so that everyone could hear him. Faith started to complain but was stopped when something else slid out of the portal and crashed to the ground below.
"This is getting ridiculous," Spike growled with an angry sneer on his face before the scorpion demons tail lashed out and slammed into him, sending him flying through the air and crashing through the wall of one of the nearby buildings.
"Spike," Morgan cried with a scared expression on her face as she started to take a step in his direction before Connor moved quicker and was dashing towards the large hole in the wall just as more of David's vans pulled up.
"Time to go," Katy said with a very determined look on her face a she grabbed the handles of Faith's wheelchair and spun her around before heading off towards the nearest van.
"But shouldn't we," Morgan began to ask with a worried look on her face as she took another step in Spike's direction before Michelle made the decision for her.
"Spike and Connor can take care of themselves, we can't, now come on," Michelle interjected with a very serious and determined look on her face before she was almost forced to drag Morgan into the van. The minotaur demon seemed to take a lot of glee in chasing after anything smaller than itself. When it turned its attention towards Angel and charged with its head down and deadly horns aimed his way Nina panicked and shot off one of her crossbow bolts, striking the demon in its left eye as it had picked its head up only slightly after seeing a flash of light. The demon roared out loudly, more in anger than in any real pain before the shock troops were sent in from Wolfram and Hart.
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Buffy angrily paced back and forth in front of the small television in her room. Giles and Xander sat on the bed, silently watching the news broadcast. The television networks had begun their late local news when the portal had opened up and Wesley had come through. Xander had initially flipped on the television to try and find something to take his mind off of the concern and fear that he felt because Willow and Dawn had yet to either be found or report in since Buffy had briefly gotten in contact with Willow. Buffy's heart had immediately begun to race at the sight of the portal and Xander had developed a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach at the exact same time. Only the new slayers seemed to be unaffected by the sight of the portal. Their reactions were mostly surprise and awe. Lorne and Andrew had a similar reaction, with at first sight of the portal Lorne had run screaming from the room, hiding in the back of the hotel's bar. Andrew had been selected to go and keep him company, mostly so that they wouldn't have to hear him ask question after question about the portal.
"What is Angel thinking, opening up a portal that size," Buffy grumbled under her breath with a very frustrated and anxious scowl on her face as she continued to pace back and forth.
I don't know Buffy, right now though our main concern should be in closing that portal, we've already seen what has come through it since turning the television on, I shudder to think what could possibly still come out," Giles replied with a concerned look on his face as he shook his head and leaned back up against the backboard.
"First he takes Willow and Dawn, and now he's opening portals, he's lost it I tell ya," Xander exclaimed with a deep sigh before he flopped backwards onto the bed and stared up at the old light that hung from the ceiling.
"Does this Angel know a lot of magic," Kennedy asked with an angry scowl on her face as she leaned up against the doorway and stared off into space. With each passing hour she was becoming more and more anxious about the fact that Willow was not at her side.
"Not particularly Kennedy, although he knows more than any of us except for Willow and myself, he's no dark mystic but he knows enough to be a threat," Giles replied softly with an anxious frown on his face as he watched Buffy pace back and forth.
"Yeah, and with Willow working possibly working with him who knows what he's trying to do," Xander grumbled with an unhappy and scared edge to his voice as he sat back up and looked over at Kennedy.
"So what are we standing around here for, can't you do like a locator spell or something," Kennedy demanded with a frustrated scowl on her face as she half turned out of the room but stayed where she was.
"I could, although something tells me that Angel will not stay in one place to long, and wherever he is hiding out he has probably protected it with cloaking spells that I would have to know the origin of before I could even hope to break them," Giles softly replied with a worried look on his face as he slipped his thumb and index finger underneath his glasses to rub the sleep out of his eyes.
"So what then, we just sit here and do nothing, wait for this Angel guy to make a mistake," Rhona exclaimed with a heavily sarcastic and frustrated scowl on her face as she shook her head.
"Looks that way," Vi mumbled with a sad and defeated pout on her face as she looked up from her crossword puzzle and shrugged her shoulders.
"So then we're just going to let Wolfram and Hart take care of those demons and close the portal," Xander wondered aloud with a confused and slightly scared look on his face, as he turned first to Giles and then to Buffy.
"Right now it's the wisest option…unfortunately, with all of the Wolfram and Hart security and local authorities present our hands are tied, at least until everyone leaves the scene, then it might be possible for me to be able to determine exactly what spell was cast," Giles replied with a very serious and frustrated expression on his face as he stood up and walked over to Buffy, looking to try and calm her down but his hand only got within an inch of Buffy's shoulder before she pulled away and walked out of the room.
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It was midnight, of which day she knew not, when she finally woke up. She didn't remember falling asleep but when she awoke she found herself back in her room at David Nabbit's mansion. She licked her lips to keep them from drying up to much and cracking before she sat up and almost instantly noticed that there was only a little bit of pain. Taking a nervous breath she slowly pulled her shirt up until she could see the bandages. With a slight shrug of her shoulders she began to pull the bandages off one by one. When she was finished she found that the wound was almost done healing, except that she would definitely have a scar there to remember it by. Half smiling at the sudden upturn in her fortunes Faith slid out of her clothes and into the shower, intent on getting clean, having the weight that had seemed to be weighing on her ever since arriving in LA suddenly now gone. She tarried in the shower longer than she had originally intended, relishing the feeling of the cool water against her skin. When she finally got out she rummaged around in the drawers until she found something that she felt comfortable with wearing. As she pulled on her jeans she wondered how David had been able to buy clothes for seemingly all of them and managing to get the right size. Shrugging aside most of her thoughts Faith put on a comfortable looking jean jacket and picked up her shoes before she walked softly out of her room and down the hall before descending the stairs. She planned to slip out through the doors in the library and have a quick smoke, using a cigarette that she had stolen from Spike when he wasn't looking. She only got into the doorway of the library before she knew that she was not alone.
"Who's there," Faith demanded softly at first before she allowed the volume of her voice to rise high enough that whoever was in the room would know that she was not in the mood for playing any games.
"Hello Faith," A low and emotionless voice said from out of the darkness that sent a chill down Faith's spine.
"Wes," Faith gasped with a very surprised look on her face before a small lamp was turned on, illuminating a section of the room in an eerie glow. When he didn't respond immediately Faith turned in the direction of his voice and her breath caught in her throat. He sat leaning back in a chair in the corner, feet propped up on the nearest desk. He wore a dark pair of jeans, no shoes or socks, and a loose fitting button up black or dark blue shirt that he had left unbuttoned with no undershirt. Telling herself that she was not staring at his chest Faith oddly couldn't help but focus her attention there. It was after a few silent moments between the two that she noticed that he wore, what looked like the medallion that she had been wearing for days, around his neck, or at least half of it. Fumbling in the darkness Faith reached for the medallion and a slight shudder passed through her body when she felt that although the medallion was still around her neck there seemed to be only half of it still there.
"Couldn't sleep," Wesley asked softly with a very far away look on his face as he gazed out sadly into the darkness, as if he was searching its murky depths for someone.
"Something like that, but shouldn't you be," Faith replied softly with a nervous look on her face as she slowly took a step towards Wesley and felt a weird sort of energy flow through her veins.
"I was happy…complete, I had accomplished my mission, done what had been requested of me…but she told me that it wasn't my time, I still had work to do, feats of grandeur to accomplish," Wesley uttered, almost in a surprised and scared whisper, before a solitary tear slipped out and down his cheek.
"Who Wesley, who told you," Faith started to ask with a curious expression on her face as she walked over to stand directly in front of Wesley across the desk.
"Fred," Wesley quickly answered with a deadly serious stare in his eyes before he reached a hand up and wiped away another tear.
"But…she's dead, Illyria…," Faith started to question with a confused look on her face before a death glare from Wesley silenced her.
"Don't…just don't, don't say that name…please," Wesley finally said with a look of very forced calm on his face as he dug his fingernails into the top of the desk to keep himself from punching something.
"Fair enough, but I really think that you should be upstairs asleep in your room, the whole coming back to life…have a hunch that it'd take a lot out of you," Faith said with a shrug of her shoulders before she walked around the edge of the desk and pulled up a chair for herself and sat down beside Wesley.
"Apparently not as much as one would think, if anything I'm restless…I don't feel comfortable in my own skin," Wesley said back with an uncomfortable and nervous look in his eyes as he shook his head and stared off into the darkness.
"Welcome to the club Wes…but there is something that I have to ask you, otherwise I'm going to flip out one of these days," Faith continued with a nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach as she fidgeted with her hands to keep them busy.
"Wouldn't want that," Wesley quipped with a half sly grin on his face as he made it a point not to look at Faith despite the half confused and half angry look that she was giving him.
"Right…look, after I put this medallion on I…started to see you, hear you, all over the place, you were like a ghost…and somehow I lived your memories, you should really warn a girl before you let her in on a memory where you get shot…or your best friend tries to smother you in your hospital bed," Faith said softly with a genuinely scared look on her face as tremble in her voice as her hands started to shake before she timidly pulled them back and shoved them into her pockets to keep that fact from Wesley.
"I'm sorry for you having to go through that, it is a side effect of putting the medallion on and getting your blood on it, I became bound to it one day when Gunn brought it into my office and laid it on my desk, I didn't notice it until I got a nasty paper cut and went to move it out of the way…I should have known better," Wesley said with a bit of scorn and self mockery in his voice as he hung his head and his shoulders slumped a bit.
"How could you, as far as you knew it was just some stupid trinket that Gunn wanted to show you, for all you knew it was a piece of costume jewelry," Faith quickly stated with a concerned tone to her voice as she acted without really thinking and pulled her left hand out of her pocket and laid it on top of Wesley's right hand. He snatched his hand away instantly at her touch, at first setting his angry glare towards Faith before her scared eyes calmed his nerves and he reached out and stopped her from pulling her hand away and jamming it back into her pocket again.
"I'm sorry Faith, this is all just so surreal," Wesley said softly with a comforting edge to his voice as he looked Faith directly in the eye and gave her hand a squeeze. Unintentionally Faith couldn't help but allow a relieved and somewhat girly smile to spread across her face before she blushed and looked away.
"You guys won you know, you took out the entire circle of the Black Thorn, course only Angel, Spike, Connor, and Lorne made it but," Faith said back in such as way as to hopefully cheer Wesley up at first before she realized that his mind would revert to those that hadn't made it, all the while she made no move to pull or wrench her hand away from Wesley, as he still held her small left hand firmly in his much larger right hand.
"But we didn't stop Wolfram and Hart, the senior partners still got what they wanted, they destroyed Angel Investigations," Wesley said with a very forlorn and dejected look on his face as he slumped down a bit in his chair before he was interrupted.
"Not yet they haven't," Angel interjected with a very firm and determined look on his face as he and Spike stepped into the light. Faith started to dream up a sarcastic retort before she saw the state that the two were in. Both vampires looked like they had been through a meat grinder and had lost an awful amount of blood, most of which saturated their clothing.
"See you in the morning," Spike mumbled with a very somber and unhappy look on his face before he headed off towards the kitchen.
"Angel what," Wesley started to ask with a confused and concerned look on his face as he stood up and let go of Faith's hand before walking around the side of the desk. Angel stayed silent for several moments before he surprised both Faith and Wesley by shedding tears and pulling Wesley close into a crushing bear hug.
"Glad you're back Wesley, it just wasn't the same without you, and don't tell Nina about this…Spike and I just had a little talk about why he got his soul," Angel said with a very glad look in his eyes before he let go of Wesley and trudged up the stairs.
"You look like shit Wes, you need to get cleaned up, I think there were some spare towels in the kitchen," Faith joked with a sly grin on her face as she stood up and walked around Wesley, gently pulling his now bloodied shirt away from his body.
"Thanks," Wesley said back softly with a sly grin of his own before he let Faith direct him towards the kitchen, with her carefully pulling the bloodied shirt off of him first, her fingers shooting sparks against his skin with every gentle touch. As they went he got the odd sensation that Faith's gaze was not always on the darkened hallway ahead.
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"There you are Angel, do you know what time it…Angel, oh my God, what happened," Nina started to say with an anxious and worried look on her face before she saw how physically torn up Angel was and gasped.
"I reminisced with an old friend, he had a confession and needed to get if off his chest," Angel replied softly with a deadly serious look on his face as Nina continued to stare at his wounds for a moment before she rushed off into the bathroom before returning several moments later with a bowl of water and some towels.
"Okay, so why do you look like you got your ass kicked," Nina wondered with a concerned expression on her face as she dipped the edge of one of the towels into the water before she wiped a bit of the blood off of Angel's chest.
"Because I was a good teacher, right now we have to get ready for Wolfram and Hart, I think that it's a pretty good…bet, that they know our plan and are going to do whatever they can to stop us, including going after Buffy and the others in a plan to draw us out," Angel answered with a very serious look on his face as he punctuated several moments in his answer with winces in pain that coincided with Nina wiping away a little more of the blood.
"No rest for the wicked," Nina mumbled with an eerily sarcastic and fatalistic scowl on her face before she set about helping Angel tend to the rest of his injuries.
END OF CHAPTER 19