Thanks to everyone for their continued support.
CHAPTER THIRTY - GRIEF
The last of the injured were being loaded onto the buses when Cordy and Willow arrived. Giles and Faith immediately approached them.
"So, what's the plan now?" Faith wanted to know.
"We need to figure out a way to wake Angel and Connor up," Cordelia replied. "Somehow reverse the spell the Senior Partners have on them."
Willow looked at Giles. "Is there a way to do that?"
The Watcher removed his glasses, looking perplexed. "Well… if I had the proper resources. The relevant texts – then perhaps I could find out. But all our books are in the Hotel."
"Well, isn't there another fully comprehensive occult reference library we can go hang out at?" Xander asked hopefully. At the sight of so many pairs of eyes rolling at him he shrugged. "What? It's LA."
"Unless we're planning on infiltrating the Wolfram & Hart building, I don't think we're going to find a library that can help us," Cordy commented, feeling defeated.
"Not necessarily," Spike cut in, coming from the back of the van. "Lawyers aren't the only ones who like some light bedtime reading. This bloke Angel sent Wesley after – a wizard named Vail. Wes was practically wetting himself about the library this bloke was reputed to have."
Giles frowned. "Do you know the way?"
Spike shrugged as he lit a cigarette. "It's in the hills," he remarked, nodding towards the Hollywood sign. "I can find it."
"Good," Willow replied, starting to look anxious. "Let's get moving before we lose what little head start we have."
Vail's compound was eerily silent as they drove through the imposing gates and up to the house. Quietly, Faith gave several groups of slayers orders to comb the grounds for signs of the enemy, while she organized the rest to help the injured inside. Cordelia, Willow, Giles and Spike went ahead, to ensure the house was truly empty.
The stench of death was thick and cloying as the entered the palatial house. The first body they found was a butler, judging by his clothes, his cause of death undoubtedly the dagger protruding from his chest. Cordelia's heart constricted as she recognized the weapon as one that Wesley had favored – it had been a gift from Angel.
They made their way forward and spotted a second body - a frail old man by appearances, hooked up to an IV, but one that still seemed to radiate an aura of power, even in death. The wizard Cyvus Vail's head was now just a bloody pulp, apparently smashed in by a single blow.
A noise drew their attention further inside the room. Another body. And a figure crouched over him. It looked like…
"Fred?" Cordelia whispered, not believing her eyes.
The figure's hair turned blue, then back to brown again, her image transmuting back and forth every few seconds, as though the magic of creating one identity was draining on the other.
"Illyria," Spike corrected her, moving forward.
Illyria didn't acknowledge their presence. She just continued to crouch over Wesley's body, his head cradled in her lap.
"Where you been, blue?" Spike asked her in a quiet voice, low so as not to startle her. "There was a fight we could've used you in."
Cordelia came up behind Spike, tears springing up in her eyes at the sight of her decomposing friend.
"Fred… Illyria…" she said. "We should bury him. Wesley… he deserves a proper burial."
"I don't understand," Illyria finally spoke. "I don't understand why I mourn. He was a lowly mortal. But I… miss him."
Spike put his hands on her shoulders and gently drew her away. "Come on, blue. He's gone. No more to be done here."
They buried Vail and his butler in a pit at the bottom of the garden, and gathered round a grave dug beneath a birch tree to say goodbye to Wesley. Rondell insisted on filling in Wesley's grave himself, the final mark of respect towards the man that had saved his life several years before. And, as he said quietly, it was something that Gunn would have wanted him to do.
The rest of them went back inside and Giles, Dawn and Xander immediately set to work in Vail's vast library, looking for any information that could help them.
Willow, Cordelia and Spike went in to check on the three, still unconscious members of their group. Illyria, perhaps drawn to Spike through familiarity, followed close behind.
There was no change – not that they had expected any. Cordy knelt down by Angel's side and took his hand, as though hoping her presence would somehow tether him to this world and prevent him from slipping away.
Willow felt like she was intruding on such a private moment. She dragged her eyes away and rested them upon the blue-haired woman.
"Illyria?" she asked timidly, partly afraid and partly in awe of the power emanating off the figure before her. "What happened? After the battle last month, I mean."
"I saw the one they called Gunn and the white-haired vampire…" She paused and looked at Spike. "You – perish. I tried to go to Angel's assistance but he disappeared. I do not know where they took him.
"I destroyed many more demons but the battle did not bring me pleasure. It did not quench this… anguish I felt. And so I left and returned here. To him."
"You stayed with him? All this time?" Cordy asked.
"Yes."
Cordelia felt her throat constrict. In a way, it seemed right, Fred staying with Wesley's body – mourning him as he had her. But this, she kept having to tell herself, was not Fred, no matter how much she might look like her…
She pushed all that to the back of her mind as her gaze drifted onto Angel's lifeless body again. No, there would be time to mourn properly, for Wesley, Fred and Gunn – later. Now, they needed to figure out what to do.
"Will, how are we going to wake them up?"
Willow looked helpless. She shook her head, at a loss for answers as she looked from Connor to Angel, finally dropping her gaze onto Buffy.
"I'm hoping Buffy just has a bad concussion," she began. "If that's why she's… if it isn't something else, then I have a good chance of waking her up. But – Angel and Connor? I just don't know."
"You've never seen anything like this?"
"Red? What about when Buffy went into that trance a while back?" Spike remarked, looking at the witch intently. "That spell thing you did then? Would that work here?"
Again, Willow looked uncertain. "I – I don't know. Buffy went into that trance because it all became too much for her, when Glory kidnapped Dawn. It was… stress related, I guess. This? This is more… mystical…"
Cordelia, however, was ready to grasp at the slightest hope. "But it might work?"
"It might…" Willow answered cautiously.
That was good enough for the brunette. "Okay. Let's try it. What do I have to do?"
The preparations did not take long. While this had been one of the most complicated pieces of magic Willow had ever attempted, it was also one of the most simple by all outward appearances. Lighting a few candles in the room, the witch directed Cordelia to sit near Angel, facing his unmoving form.
"There's no incantation," she told her. "No potions. You just have to will yourself into his psyche. That's why it's so difficult to do. It takes a lot of concentration."
Cordelia nodded, taking the words on board. "Then what?"
"You might find Angel trapped into repeating a pattern of behavior," Willow continued. "You have to get him to stop. Convince him to break the pattern and wake up."
"Sounds simple."
"It won't be." Willow did her best to remove any sign of doubt from her expression, and gave Cordy a supportive smile.
Cordelia closed her eyes, concentrating as hard as she could. Her brow furrowed as she strained to make the spell work. Despite herself, Willow chuckled, which earned her a disgruntled look from the Seer.
"You're trying too hard," she told her. "Relax. Connect with his mind. Don't force it."
Cordelia closed her eyes and tried again. After several minutes of frowning and straining, her face finally began to relax. Then Willow sensed a peacefulness pass over Cordy and she knew it had worked.
Satisfied that everything possible was now being done for Angel, she turned her attention towards Buffy.
To Be Continued...