Author's note: I feel like it's all coming together now. Sigh.
The story so far: Wesley finally comes back to the Hyperion and concedes to help in the coming Apocalypse. At the end of the last chapter, though…
Wesley interrupted. "So what's this demon you all want me to save you all from?"
Suddenly, the front doors swung wide open, revealing the newest intruder.
"That would be me." He said, and then added:
"Well, not me exactly, but, you know, still evil."
Chapter 7 part a: Afterthought
Angel growled. "Merl."
Yes, it was Merl. The green demon that they used to come to for information, that was killed that many years ago and had somehow come back to life. Angel never really thought about him when he died. It was really Wesley who tried to find the cause of his death.
"Does nobody stay dead anymore?" That was meant to be a cynical joke, but all that resulted in was awkward silence. Angel quickly added. "What do you want, Merl."
"No hello? You guys were never with the manners." Merl sighed dramatically. He moved a few steps into the hotel. "Well anyway, as to why I'm here, who would've knew that these guys over here thought that I was important?" He said, indicating to the demons that just came in behind him. "I mean, they brought me back to life cause they said I was supposed to be important to the big awakening – kinda like this guy." At the reference to him, Wesley scowled.
"Which is why I'm here," he continued. "Nothing personal, I got nothing against you. Hey, from your gang of demon-fighters, I actually liked you; you knew how to do business. It's just that you're supposed to be the one killing my future boss and well, that doesn't sit well with these guys so… we're just going to kill you."
Suddenly the demons ran past him and towards the group. They all quickly took the closest weapon they could get and parried the attacks just in time.
The deadly dance of thrust, slice and slash echoed in the lobby. Spike and Gunn were fighting off two to three at a time, another replacing its place once one is dead. Lorne held his own well enough but was knocked off by an unseen punch. Fortunately, Giles diced the demon before it could finish him off and they continued on. Xander and Willow had a good half dozen among them which Willow dispelled using fireballs – her tame use of magic due to not wanting to accidentally hurt any of her friends – and Xander hacking off any of those that got too close. Angel saw that most of them were running towards Wesley and although he looked like he was taking care of it, Angel could already see him wearing down. Shit, Angel realised, he's not fully healed yet. Angel ran to help Wesley but in his haste, didn't see one of the demons coming after him.
"Angel, duck!"
Without thinking, Angel got down and rolled on the floor, his head barely missing the sharp claws of the demon. It fell beside him with a loud thunk and Angel looked up to see Buffy – having just came back to see a warpath – holding a crossbow. He said a quick 'thanks' before both of them resumed fighting.
Angel hacked some more on his way and was only a few feet from Wesley when a shout resounded in the hotel.
"Stop or we'll kill him!" Everyone simultaneously stopped what they were doing to look at what the person was talking about. Willow gasped when she saw Giles being held at gunpoint by one of the demons. Merl was scowling as he said, "Make one more move and we kill him."
"What makes you think I care?"
"Wesley!" Willow said in disbelief as she turned to look at him. The others were in shock, and even Merl was caught off-guard.
Wesley pointed his cocked crossbow at the general vicinity of the demons. "He's a liability now, people die, we move on." Without pausing, Wesley shot at their direction. Before they could even realise what was happening, several of the demons were down while Merl took a bolt in the arm and leg. He yelped in pain and was about to order another full-on attack but seeing that they were being quickly outnumbered, shouted a retreat. Willow quickly rushed to Giles' side to see if he was okay.
When they were gone, Angel rushed at Wesley and held him tightly by the scruff of the neck. Again. "What were you doing! You were going to let them kill him!"
"Which is exactly what I needed them to believe." Wesley said coldly.
"What was Plan B, huh?" Angel demanded.
"He's alive." He said calmly.
"Angel -" Lorne started to say.
"Do you really believe that? We're just a liability to you?" Angel continued.
Wesley said nothing and Angel let him go. The others started to move, picking up the dead corpses and putting away the weapons, generally trying to avoid the confrontation between the two. Wesley had his back to Angel and was walking away when Angel suddenly voiced out.
"Who hurt you?" Angel asked. He knew he hit a nerve when Wesley stopped and Angel sensed his heart skip a beat." Who did you lose?"
Everyone was brought to a standstill and stood awkwardly as they tried unsuccessfully to ignore the conversation. When Wesley finally turned around, his demeanor was cold. But instead of answering Angel, he moved his gaze to Giles behind him and asked "Where are the scrolls?"
"They're in the office." Giles told him. He walked past Angel and showed Wesley to the office, giving one look back before joining him in and closing the door.
"I'm going out." Angel said suddenly, taking the sword from Gunn's hands and leaving through the basement. After a silent moment, the others resumed their cleaning.
A few seconds later, Illyria came through the front doors, a satisfied look vivid on her face. She saw their questioning looks and said "I found vermin by the entrance. They will bother us no more." She smirked.
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"I'd like you to see this bit here." Giles turned the scroll and pointed to one side that was visibly written differently from the others. "This portion is written in a different language no one has ever seen before – neither the Council nor any of our outside contacts – and it seems very significant to the prophecy. We are positive that it's not merely a cryptogram of some sort. I was hoping it came exclusively from your world."
Wesley surveyed the symbols and said "I don't recognize it."
"I see." Giles said, sounding disappointed. "I'll keep trying then."
Wesley scanned the words and asked casually. "So where did you keep the 'Totem of Varharra'?"
"Excuse me?" Giles looked surprised.
Wesley stopped instantly in his reading and turned to Giles. He said it more slowly.
"Oh dear." Giles whispered, and gave Wesley a sheepish look.
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Wesley and Giles rushed out of the office. "Hopefully we will have enough time before their mystic pinpoints its location to them."
Spike sensed their urgency and asked. "Hey, what's going on?"
"He mistranslated the scroll." Wesley told them, a hint of anger in his voice. Giles looked shame-faced but Wesley ignored him and continued, "It seems there's an item – the 'Totem of Varharra' – that is a crucial part of the re-awakening. If we want to stop this apocalypse, we are going to have to find it before they do."
"Where is it?" Buffy asked.
Wesley went over to the reception desk to where the city plan was still spread out and scanned it quickly before saying "Warehouse district, 25-42 Johnson Street, building 12. It's about twenty-minutes from here."
"Well, let's go then." Spike said. They agreed that Lorne and Giles should stay behind again, but this time Willow requested to also stay. So that left Gunn, Buffy, Illyria, Xander, Spike and Wesley to go.
"Where's the vampire?" Wesley asked, finally realising that he was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh, he just went out. You know, after your little – thing." Xander said.
Wesley sighed in exasperation and said, "I don't have time for this. Someone contact him and tell him to meet us there." With that, he quickly left through the front doors, the others following a second behind.
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"So, this is the place?" Spike asked, looking at the intimidating big warehouse building in front of them.
"It appears so." Wesley said. He turned back to the group and said, "It will be better if we split up in groups. You – come with me."
"This 'you' has a name, you know." Xander grumbled.
"The totem should be in the basement so the only way to go is down. You," he acknowledged Spike, "wait for the vampire and brief him." Seeing that there was nothing else that he should say, he moved towards the warehouse, Xander his disgruntled tail. Buffy and Gunn formed the next group so that left Illyria and Spike to wait for Angel.
While waiting, Spike kicked a rock. A few seconds later, he kicked another rock. Then another.
"Bollocks, this is stupid."
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"I can't believe I mistranslated the scroll." Giles said. He and Willow were sitting alone behind the reception desk, Lorne having already retired to his room.
Willow tried to reassure him. "It's ok, Giles. Everybody makes mistakes."
"Mine almost cost you your lives."
"Like mine didn't?" She said, with a sad smile on her face.
"Willow…"
"Don't worry, Giles. I'm sure they'll find it first."
Giles sighed and patted her hand. "I hope you're right."
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"'Bout time you showed up." Spike said, extinguishing his smoke with his boots. Angel didn't say anything to that and simply walked towards the warehouse.
Spike rolled his eyes and said, "Wrong building, Poof."
Angel stopped but didn't turn around as he waited for Spike to show him the right one. Spike smirked as he and Illyria lead the way.
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"We're not his minions."
Wesley stopped and half-turned to look at Xander as he stood up. "What?"
Xander stood up as well. "We're not his minions. We're just helping out, that's it."
Wesley gave him a look before saying, "Right." then resumed crouching to their destination.
"Just so you know."
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"Nice ass."
Gunn stopped. "What?" he said.
Oh my god, Buffy thought, did I just say that out loud? "Oh, um… I said pizzazz, this whole crawling through the vents thing. Just… thinking out loud."
"Oh," he said as he continued crawling. "I thought you said 'nice ass'. Well, it better be with all those crunches I've been doing lately." Gunn smiled as he teased her, already feeling the heat from her blush. They crawled a few more feet before Gunn saw something.
"Hey, I think I see light up ahead."
"Finally." Buffy said. As they crawled closer, they found that the glow was the illumination of the moonlight that was coming in through the window of a room. After giving it a few shoves, the metal seal finally gave way, falling with a satisfyingly loud clang which meant that the floor was fortunately not that far below. Buffy got down last and surveyed the dark room.
"Where do you think we are?" she asked Gunn.
The lights suddenly flashed on and Buffy had to shield her eyes at its blinding brightness. Blinking rapidly, she finally got used to it and saw that Gunn was the one to switch them on. Gunn smiled.
"Welcome to the basement."
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Author's note: Chapter 7 part b will come along tomorrow. Why I made chapter 7 into two parts and not just admit that it's chapter 8, I have no idea. Actually, I do, but whatever.