Chapter 14.

By Carycomic

ANGEL INVESTIGATIONS,
SEPT. 25, 1999
(6:24 P.M./PST)

Angel glared at Doyle, as they watched the news story unfold.

"Why didn't you tell me the first thing I got back?"

The half-Brachen Irishman could only shrug, helplessly.

"I had the vision while ya were out! And, since we haven't yet revealed our true natures to Jill, the best I could do was run into our washroom and pretend I was havin' some allergy-related sinus attack. When ya finally did return, I kept mum because there was nothin' ya could have done, anyway! Ya had enough to worry about, by that point."

Angel glared at him for another half-minute before looking away in reluctant affirmation.

* * * * *

Doyle was right. There was really nothing he could have done. And, that was what bothered him the most. The fact that he had been so helpless.

He _hated_ feeling helpless!

Ironically, someone else was feeling the same way, at that exact moment. Someone who had not touched his sour milk, after the first sip, as if it were fresh out of the carton, instead.

"George? Is anything the matter?"

The Newcomer detective looked up at his wife.

"What?! I'm sorry, dear. What did you say?"

So, Susan Francisco repeated the question. Her earlier note of concern going up half an octave.

"As a matter of fact, yes," he replied. "Something could very well be wrong! Earlier today, while investigating a lead on my latest case? I think I ran into. . .Leeloo Songjet."

Susan's hands instinctively flew upward to her mouth. Thereby muffling the gasp that issued from them.

"George! Are you sure? I mean, after all this time?"

Her husband shrugged: "It's hard to forget the voice of the woman our eldest son intended to marry!"

Whereupon, as if Fate had planned it, Richard N. "Buck" Francisco came into the kitchen.

He had not intended to eavesdrop, on his parents, by any means! But, in the process of heading toward the back door, to shoot some basketball hoops in the driveway, he had been unable to avoid hearing the tail end of the conversation. And his reaction was understandably instinctive.

"Whoa! Me? Get married?! No! No way. I don't believe in that arranged marriage crap. I'm not even going steady, yet!"

Susan looked at George.

"It's long past time that we told him, dear."

George sighed and nodded.

"We were not talking about you, Buck. We were talking about your older brother: Josweedan!"

LOS ANGELES SEWER SYSTEM

(3.75 HOURS EARLIER)

Vanessa Helsing (a.k.a. Alison Wonderland nee Leeloo Songjet) ran through the storm drain. Using her olfactory sense (more developed than in Earth humans) to back-track the Nosferatu antitribu she had just slain. Celine knows, it was not proving easy! Not with the more customary odors of a sewer proving almost literally over-powering.

But, there was just something about the blood-bonding magic, practiced by the Assamite Clan that could only be described as distinctive. And, Og-Ra had evidently undergone it. So, if she could find his lair, she might also be able to find a clue as to who his contact with the Order of Teraka was. Which, in turn, might lead to a motive for who wanted William Harcourt dead!

That was when she found it. Not Og-Ra's lair; but, something else. Something long dead... and stuffed inside what she could only describe as a cocoon made out of mucus.

It was a skeleton. That of an Earth woman, from the looks of it! And, the only clue as to her identity was a now-tarnished charm bracelet around her right wrist. So, Vanessa carefully removed the bracelet, and scratched away some of the flaky tarnish. Disclosing two sets of initials, as a result. . .and a Spanish phrase in between them.

"R. C. Con Amore - - E. R."

Meanwhile, back in Bel Air, the fiery skeleton that had been Jonathan Levinson came crashing down to Earth, right next to Andrew Wells' ex-skeleton. And, the only reason the latter knew it was the former was due to the shower of red, metallic scrap that swiftly followed it.

Including the helmet that contained his decapitated (but still un-burnt) head.

"Warren!" he screamed over his built-in radio: "They got Jonathan! What should we do?"

"Abort! Abort! Abort!" came the unequivocal reply.

Whereupon, the two of them deployed their rocket packs and flew off towards the nearest sewer drain.

Prince Cyrus (fresh bandages on his and Russell Winters' chests) watched them go, before he turned and looked at the bronze-colored insectoid standing behind him.

"So, why are you still here?"

The initial response was a telepathic chuckle.

"My current form can do many things, Your Highness. But, flight is not one of them. Don't worry, though! I have their scent... courtesy of their comrade's corpse. And, I will catch up with them, soon enough, as a result."

THE FRANCISCO RESIDENCE

(FOUR HOURS, LATER)

"An older brother?" echoed Buck (in understandable disbelief).

George nodded.

"He was your present age when the Overseers took him from us. To begin training him to be one of them! But, as desolated as we naturally felt, your mother and I could not afford to go completely out of our minds with grief. Not when there was still you to take care of (you were only Vessna's present age, at the time)."

George tilted his head in the direction of the high chair occupied by their four year-old, Earth-born daughter.

"Plus, your mother and I had just become pregnant with Emily. So, we decided never to speak of Josweedan in your presence. Not until the time was right!"

"And what, in Celine's name, made you decide this _particular_ moment was just right?" Buck almost screamed.

So, George told him everything he had just told Susan regarding the Harcourt case.

"Leeloo and Josweedan had been 'going steady' (as the humans say) almost from the time they had each first noticed the difference between male and female Tenctonese! It was only when your brother asked my Uncle Moodri about the mandatory minimum age for marriage, between consenting young adults, that the Overseers became interested in 'recruiting' him."

"And just the way this axe-wielding mystery woman said your birth-name is what made you remember all this?!" Buck exclaimed (still understandably dubious).

George nodded, again. Adding: "Tomorrow, I shall go down to the Federal Building and ask the BNA whatever happened to her. If pressed, I shall tell Matthew (and whoever else needs to know) that I'm looking for a material Newcomer witness to the latest killing."

"Assuming they even agree to your request," countered Buck: "Who are you going to ask?"

"Our original post-Descent case officer," replied his father: "Dr. Herman Cromwell."

Angel was still sulking when Doyle got his next vision.

"AR-R-R-R-R-R-R-GH!"

"What is it?!" exclaimed Angel: "What did you see?"

"A human," gasped Doyle, in response: "In danger... tomorrow... at BNA. His name... is... Cromwell!"

tbc

George Francisco was revealed to have had another son (presumably, Buck's older brother) in the Halloween episode of ALIEN NATION: THE SERIES, entitled "The Night of the Screams." The flashback hinting that the poor kid was conscripted by the Overseers.