Disclaimer: I don't own much, but I do own Leilita and Faith. Kevin Smith owns everything else.

Summary: Bethany and her crew set out to find Leilita, Loki, Azrael and Faith.

Rated PG-13 I guess.

A/N: Dammit, I lost everything in the Great Computer Plague Of 2002, including Chapter 11, so I had to rewrite it. So it might not be as good as the original was, but I remember the general idea of it.

Chapter 11: The Escape

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Leilita narrowed her gold eyes at the fallen former angel coldly, twisting her full, bloodred lips into an ugly grimace. "You let the girl escape?" she sneered, crossing her arms over her breastplate.

"She overpowered m - "

"A small child overpowered you?" Leilita echoed, scornfully.

Loki nodded. "Yes, Madame, she did overpower me. She is the Last Scion." Loki masked his contempt with a smile.

"And you are a fallen angel." Leilita offered him a cool smile. "Don't worry, Loki, darling."

Don't worry?' Loki wondered, backing away from Leilita. That woman has the smile and the charms of a snake... There's no way in hell I'm going to trust her...' "What, me worry? About what?" He asked.

"What I'll do to your little friend and her mother once I find them," she finished, flashing off a toothy grin.

"They're innocents. You can't hurt - "

"That rule need not apply to me, my darling Loki," Leilita said airily, with a wave of her hand, light dancing off of the massive metal bracelets on her wrist. "I am above such rules, Loki, dear. You should know that by now."

"I'm going to enjoy feeding your carcass to Cerebrus," Azrael grinned, stroking the rim of his white fedora, gloating. "I have waited for this moment for a looong long time."

"I didn't do anything wrong," Loki protested, as Leilita sent her henchmen on him with the snap of her fingers. "That girl, she got my pocket knife from me! She's the Last Scion!"

Leilita blinked her long-lashed, almond shaped eyes and smiled prettily. "I'll dispose of the brat...once I dispose of you, my traitor friend."

*****

Faith ran through the wide, open corn field, clutching the pocket knife in her hand. Husks of corn loomed tall and forboding over her, and reached out and tangled in her hair. As she ran, she patted the pocket of Loki's leather jacket, feeling the reassuring bump of the package of crackers and moist toilettes.

"I have to find Mom," she panted her mantra over and over, mostly to herself. "I have to kill Azrael and Leilita."

Faith went sprawling as her foot caught a rock, and slammed her knee against the hard ground. Dust scattered, scratching her eyes, and when she reached into her pocket, crackers, along with the knife and EZ-Wipes, were gone.

Faith felt around in the dirt, but she couldn't locate Loki's pocket knife. Nor could she locate the crackers or toilettes, for they had also fallen out of her pocket.

She bit her bottom lip hard, knowing that big girls wouldn't cry in her situation, and looked for something else she could use as a weapon.

"Faith..." called a voice in the distance, "it's your mother... Where are you?!"

Faith smiled and jumped to her feet, ready to call out to her mother, and then stopped. What if it was one of Leilita's decoys? She searched through the pockets of the jacket, looking for some sort of alternate weapon.

She pulled her rosary out of the secret pocket of the jacket and wrapped it around her small hand.

"I'm here, Mommy," she called out, following the sound of her mother's voice. "Where are you?"

Bethany emerged from the corn field, her clothes tattered and her face smudged with dirt and blood. A joyful Bethany dropped to her knees and opened her arms to her daughter. "Faith, angel, I'm so happy I found you!" Her mother wrapped her in her arms, tightly, and held her against her chest. "Oh honey, I'm never letting you get away."

"I missed you too, Mommy... Let's go home." Faith clung to Bethany's waist, fingering the rosary in her hand, and silently blessing it.

As Bethany led Faith out of the corn field, Faith stopped and strained her neck.

"What's wrong, honey?" Bethany asked, holding on to her daughter's hand. "Do you hear something?"

Faith unwound her rosary from her hand, the cross dangling from her fingers. "Who are you?" she asked, firmly, holding the rosary in front of her, as if it were a shield. "Who are you?"

"Faith, honey, what are you talking about?" Bethany asked, puzzled. "I'm your mother."

"No you're not. My mother never called me angel'. Do you work for Leilita?" Faith asked, narrowing her eyes at the alleged impostor.

Bethany laughed. "Honey, you must be joking, right? It's me, Mommy."

"What if you're some impostor?" Faith asked. "What if my real mom is hurt, or dead?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Bethany tried to reach for Faith, but she ducked away from her hands. "Come on, Faith, before they find us."

Faith backed away from the woman who was calling herself her mother. "You can't be my mother - "

"Faith!" Bethany screamed, pointing to something just beyond the girl's shoulder.

Azrael clamped a large hand down on Faith's shoulder, letting out an annoyed sigh. "Stupid girl," he sneered, shaking his head at her. "You opted for door two. Mistress Leilita is quite vexed you skipped out on us."

Faith hid the rosary from Azrael's view. "You can never be too careful," was her reply.

"Well, you had your chance to go to your mother. You're ours, now."

"Let her go!" Bartleby rushed up behind Bethany, tripping and falling into her, bringing her to the ground with him.

"Fools... Tsk tsk tsk," Azrael clucked his tongue. "Bumbling idiots. The girl is ours. You had your chance, she chose not to go with you."

"No, let her go!" Bethany pulled herself to her feet and tried to grab Faith, but Azrael halted her with a hard glare.

"If you try to touch one hair on the girl's body, I kill her," he sneered. "You had your chance." The demon tightened his grip on Faith's shoulder, nearly crushing her bones in his palm. "Come with me, Faith."

Faith whirled out of Azrael's grip and pressed her cross into his forehead. "Hail Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

"STOP THAT," Azrael shrieked, brushing the rosary out of Faith's hand, "STOP THAT CHANTING!"

A reddened mark, which resembled the cross on Faith's rosary, appeared on his forehead, and the frightened demon raised a hand to the wound.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen," Faith repeated, holding the cross in her hand. "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

Azrael took a half-hearted swipe at Faith, before falling to his knees. "Y-y-you'll pay for this, you little brat," he hissed, narrowing his eyes at her. "You may destroy the container, but you'll never destroy what's inside."

Faith took a step back, reaching for her mother's hand. "Mommy, let's get out of here," she whispered, backing away from Azrael's host body.

Bethany grabbed her daughter's hand and slipped through the trees, into the night.

*****

When she spotted Loki's body, Serendipity originally assumed him to be dead. As she approached him, cautiously, with Rufus by her side, she realized he was merely unconscious.

"Loki?" she whispered, dropping to one knee beside him, touching his arm. "Loki? Can you hear me?"

Loki shifted, but did not open his eyes.

Serendipity gently shook Loki's shoulder, as Rufus looked out for Bethany, Bartleby and her daughter. "Come on, Loki... Come on..."

Loki opened one eye. "Serendipity?"

She nodded, brushing her hair out of her face as she hovered over Loki. "What happened to you? You look like...shit."

"I've fallen out of favor with Leilita and her minions," he mumbled, struggling to sit up. "She sent Azrael to find and kill Bethany and Faith..."

"Why would she turn on you?" Serendipity asked, gravely, holding his hands in hers.

He sighed. "I helped Faith escape. I'm marked now."

"Then come with us and help Bethany defeat Leilita, then," Rufus insisted, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

Loki sighed again, as Serendipity helped him to his feet. "If I joined you, Bartleby would - "

Rufus scoffed. "Who gives a fuck what that dickless son of a bitch thinks? We can use all the help we can get, Loki. We all know that deep down inside, you don't want Bethany's daughter to die."

Loki nodded, having made up his mind. "Okay. Let's go."

*****

They were being chased.

Bethany dove through the wilderness, blindly, clutching Faith's wrist in her hand.

She didn't bother pausing to glance behind her, to see how close Leilita was to them. She didn't have that luxury.

Faith struggled to keep up with her mother, but her foot got tangled in a tree root and she fell to her knees.

Faith could hear Leilita's purposeful footsteps behind her, and she struggled to her feet, but it seemed as if the roots of the tree were holding her down. Try as she might, Bethany couldn't pull Faith free.

As she desparately tried to release Faith, a dark shadow fell over them.

*****

TBC?

Alex