CHP3
'Nothing will ever be the same…'
The sky turned black, the stars burned out, the sun died and life- everything changed…
They came, took the weak, used them until their light was no more.
The Light was not happy. The Light dimmed and we worried. The Light was all. The Light…
War ensued; the beast's, demons from every dimension rose against those of the Light, those who would protect the weak, the little beings the Light took such pleasure from. Some believed the little beings- humans – were nothing more than a passing distraction, that once gone- wiped from the verse- the Light would find pleasure in their worship, in their light but their light was no longer pure; they were corrupted, tainted by the demons…
There were others who swore to protect that which the Light favored and found such pleasure in and so the worshipers split in two factions.
The Od VaiLumen chose from the race of humans protectors for their species. Men and women who could see or feel the Light and answered the call of The Chosen. Granted by the Od VaiLumen authority over the elements the women became Fury's, the first and most powerful defense against those who sought to destroy the human race. The Guardians, sworn to fight and guide the Fury's were granted longer life and strength in order to heal the wounds of their charges. Even in this the Od VaiLumen had no say for if death took a Fury or Guardian their light was extinguished for ever…
For ever… the words printed in bold black letters seemed to burn in her mind and the images they produced drained the color from the gold tinted skin leaving it ashy and gray.
Women of fire and ice battling forever on the black soil over the bodies of their fallen warriors while more of the hordes crawled from the bleeding earth to consume of the Light.
The men, Guardians trying in vain to save the few they were able to reach, many giving their life for the Fury they tried to heal and more dying still… and the battle rages. Blood is shed…
The Light.
It was a non-entity yet it gave life to everything, even the hordes. There was no light with out dark, night could not exist with out day and so evil had to be balanced by good. It was the reason they were, the reason she was selected, why they were all special.
The Od VaiLumen had more power than the Fury's or Guardians combined yet they held back. They left the war to them as all the suffering and the pain because if the greater powers clashed everything would die.
The Light would cease…
"This is how it's meant to be."
******
"Consider her armed, dangerous, and quite possibly insane. Don't let her grace or gentle beauty fool you. Winifred Burkle," Wesley pointed at a poster of Fred. She was looking quite innocent and cute. "is a monster, a siren hoping to lure you away from Jasmine and onto the rocks of heresy and destruction."
My mouth hung slightly open at his words. Was he serious- yes, they all were.
"Amen to that." Gunn said and I couldn't help the frown I threw his way. Yeah, they were all brain washed but this one obviously still felt the sting of the break up.
"Now, uh, Lorne has a few important announcements and, as I understand, a very special surprise." Then Wes stepped away from the podium, taking the poster of Fred with him. What followed next were a series of 'I hate Fred' themes as entertainment. The little boy with his stupid essay, the prom queen in her ugly pink dress, the mute lady! Jeez I thought that was bad enough but then the band started up and Lorne was singing- that was my cue to leave. Lorne's a good singer, nice voice I guess but he's the only one out of the bunch of us that's remotely 'innocent' aside from Fred and he's singing her demise?
I Just- I couldn't.
"This is how it was meant to be."
I still couldn't stop thinking about them, the Fury's. They were dying and I had no idea what I was supposed to do, how to reach them or even how to help but I knew that this thing they called Jasmine was one of theirs, the ones who want my kind dead.
The ones who want all of us dead.
I couldn't even tell them to leave me alone, the Od VaiLumen because like the book said, I answered their call. I chose to be one of theirs.
*****
"So we're on lock down because your wife says so." Jessy asked. She stood with the other Hell'sAngel's, arms crossed, blue eyes glaring. There was uncomfortable silence, Dom cleared his throat and the others fidgeted, trying to find somewhere else to look and wishing they were someplace else.
"No," Matthew took a step forward drawing their eyes away from the impending argument. "We're locked down for our own safety."
"Whatever this thing is doesn't affect Phade, yet everyone else is falling over themselves to please this being." Tasha spoke just beside Matthew. She was hoping Jessica would hold her tongue or at least wait until the meeting was over before she argued with Ryan. It was no secret there was a distance between the two. Jessica as well as Ryan hadn't said a word and weirdly none of the Hell'sAngel's had nosed in on it.
"Any help we think of offering is only going to warm it and that's only going to make it harder for Phade to find a weakness or get rid of it." Ryan avoided looking at Jessy but he could feel her hard eyes on him. He'd kept his distance, avoided having any conversations with her and damn sure tried to keep Franco from overhearing anything he shouldn't.
"So we sit tight." Dom stated clearly unhappy by the inaction.
"You're not the only one who doesn't like this, Dom." Ryan offered a pained look knowing Mr. Vartan was not happy about this either. His daughter was left pretty much to fend for herself and the new husband was sitting tight in his hide out.
"Then I say we sneak up there and fill this thing full of lead or silver or whatever's gonna take it down." Jax grinned hopping to his feet with excitement. He cast bright eyes around the room noting the lack of excitement his idea had.
"Jax," Oded leaned his head forward slightly shaking it. "Just sit down." He said and everyone knew that wasn't what he'd originally intended to say.
"But-." Jax began only to have Tripp lightly shove him toward his chair.
"We sit tight." Ryan re-iterated receiving only slight grumblings from the younger guys. "No outside contact at all. TV, radio, Internet." He locked eyes with each member receiving a nod of capitulation before going to the next. "I took care of the TV's, no way for the kids to accidentally get sucked into this thing." He grimaced slightly showing them the severed cords. There were plenty of expletives as to the kind of fool he was for doing something so stupid since now they couldn't even watch a DVD. Ryan just let it all fall over his shoulders. He hadn't thought of that and now there really was nothing to keep the kids busy.
"Ok, alright. They're still fixable…" though he wasn't going to do the fixing and that's what had Jax and Tripp grumbling. Anything electrical was pretty much their thing. "Look, Daa..ah- Franco will keep the boys out of trouble." At least he hoped so. "You just need to keep the pc's and laptops locked. We don't need them stumbling onto that website."
It grated on Jessy that he'd married Phade but now her kid was here and her father. At first there was slight concern from the others about having the kids in the warehouse but there was nowhere for Temoc to go since his sister was off with the Slayer. Mr. Vartan was there to care for Sebastián which tended to negate that little problem. The fact that Phade's father found things to fix around the warehouse which freed the others to work on new weapons and altering the vehicles endeared the older man to the Hell'sAngel's but now Ryan was calling him Dad?
She waited for the others to leave walking up behind Ryan as he was talking to Tasha. The Russian caught one look at Jessy and beat a hasty retreat knowing the young woman was finally going to have that conversation with Ryan.
"Dad?" he froze at the steely tone directly behind him. He'd been avoiding her; at least he'd been trying to and been dreading the talk he knew he had to have with her. It had been three months since the 'incident' and since then he'd married Phade, helped her bring back the sun, provided sanctuary for her family and now pretty much took care of her son and Father.
"What is wrong with you?" Jessy asked her face was a mask of hurt and longing. Ryan tried to ignore the naked look on her face as he turned around. He wiped a tired hand over his own threading the fingers through his hair.
"Look, I-."
"Don't care." Jessy cut him off stepping into the small space separating them. Her hands splayed on his chest as she rose on her toes… Ryan roughly grabbed her shoulders and held her away from himself.
"Most guys wouldn't think twice about this." He said in a rough voice. She could tell he was angry, felt it in the painful grip he had on her shoulders. "Hell, I probably wouldn't have thought it over if it weren't for Phade-."
"Screw you!" Jessy hissed twisting out of his grip. "You don't even know her."
"She's my wife." Ryan stated in a quiet but firm voice.
"Who you don't live with and hardly ever see. What kind of marriage is that? And you're taking care of her son. A boy who isn't yours! He has a Father- what the hell is wrong with you?" Jessy raged spitting out anything she could think of to hurt him, hurt as much as his rejection hurt her.
"You don't know her. You don't know me." Ryan's face took on a stony appearance though his jaw was clenched tightly. After all the time they'd worked together, all the tight spots and close calls they'd lived through he couldn't help but feel miserable over this. He was choosing Phade over a friend, or someone he'd thought of as a friend.
"This never happened," he looked at her meaningfully. "And it never will."
*****
"Where's Angel?" I asked Lorne's back. He whirled around looking very fidgety which meant something wasn't as peachy keen in the world of the oh-wonderful-Jasmine. The green skin went a shade paler then he was bubbly-Lorne again smiling widely though it never reached his eyes.
"Crumb cake! You're looking fabulously delicious!" he exclaimed eyeing my attire for the day. One dark eyebrow rose in questionable disbelief at this and his voice faltered. I mean, fabulously delicious? That made my jean capris, brown square-heeled high boots and quarter sleeve sweater blouse seem like something off the runway. Not exactly high fashion and I remembered Cordelia's surprise at not finding designer labels in my wardrobe. What I didn't tell her was that the nicer clothes in my closet where tailor made by an old friend of my Mom's who had a shop in the downtown fashion district. She's a nice old lady who now has other seamstresses making the fancy wedding gowns, prom dresses and sweet 15's. She still does some for me when I ask her but I try not to make it difficult for her. She's not as young as she used to be and her eyesight is failing… Getting old is a bitch.
"He's gone."
I frowned.
"What do you mean gone? Where'd he go?" that was the wrong question to ask. Just out of the corner of my eye I could see Gunn approaching and turning to look behind me found Wesley standing not a foot away. "You guys wanna let me in on the big secret?" I asked facing them. I had that bad feeling again and being surrounded by the mass of adoring Jasmine fanatics didn't help.
"He's dead to us." Wes replied then took my arm in his hand and led me to the side. Gunn and Lorne followed like good little puppies and I wondered what, if anything, I should do. Were they gonna try and kill me now?
"Hmmph!"
I changed the snort of laughter to a sort of cough seeing the look on Wes's face. I mean we were surrounded by people! Granted these were all brain washed but I was pretty sure they wouldn't try and kill me in front of an audience. Jasmine wouldn't like it.
******
"How did you figure it out?" Wes asked looking at Fred.
"It was Angel." She replied her glanced strayed to the prone figure on the bed. "He figured since Cordy gave birth to Jasmine, they might share a blood link as well as a mystical one."
"We hoped Cordy's blood would have the same effect when we exposed you to it." He looked a bit shamed. He knew exactly how they were feeling now that reality had set in.
"Thanks for nothing." Gunn muttered through there was a thread of anger in his voice. Angel couldn't blame him.
"Yeah, you slashed this wrist, and I'm ready to do the other one myself." Lorne actually looked around for the blade but felt too downtrodden to actually do it just then.
"Everything we believed...deception." Wesley whispered from his spot. He stared ahead at nothing, his gaze lost in memories of what he'd believed to be true, what he'd felt was true.
"And how do we convince several million other people that Jasmine's message is false?" Angel asked putting the question of what they needed to do out for every one to focus on.
"It's impossible." Fred said with shake of her head. "Even if we're able to develop a synthetic analog to the blood, there's—I mean, how do we fight something this huge and powerful?" she looked at each of them hoping to see one of them hold out an answer but they were all defeated.
"I don't know yet, but what I do know is I'm not leaving this hotel without my son." The fire in Angel's voice got them standing a little bit straighter.
"I'll get him. I've kidnapped him before." Wes stated in a dead voice. Now that he wasn't under Jasmine's spell he could feel again, feel for what he'd done, the pain he'd caused.
*****
"They were granted authority over the elements."
Ok, so I know fire is one and I can use that, no problem. Water is another but I'm not so sure turning into a fish is having 'authority' over the element and what about the stone. I mean I can make my- well, any part of me hard as stone and I swim through it but is it really an element? I wonder how many elements we can use? What about the whole Guardian healing thing? How come I'm able to do the healing sans Guardian or is it a different kind of healing they do? I really wish they'd left a manual for this stuff. How the hell am I supposed to figure it all out? You'd think I'd get more info for all the cash I doled out just to get this book though it does feel sort of light somehow.
"Where's my Guardian?"
I mean he's the one who's supposed to be doing the teaching or guiding- shit.
"This is giving me a head ache." And there was no way I could hide in my suite all day at least not today. That meant it was time for me to make an appearance in the lobby.
I really hated going down there because all the Jasmine fanatics did was bash Fred and Angel or spout its praises. I was no closer to figuring this out and Ryan was getting antsy. I couldn't blame them for feeling caged. They were out of touch with the outside world and that was never a good thing especially with Jax, Tripp and Dom. Those three wreak havoc every where. I'm amazed they are still alive and I really didn't like the idea of Ryan being cooped up with Jessica not that Ryan would ever- because if he- he jus- no.
"No."
I tried to put those stupid thoughts out of my head but I just knew leaving him alone with her was a recipe for disaster and still I refused to bring it up. I didn't even tell my Dad because once the words are out I can't take them back. I can't pretend the possibility isn't there and I just don't want to deal with something like that again.
"Wes?" I hadn't even heard the door open let alone close but there was no denying he was just leaving Cordelia's room.
"Phade." He smiled though it wasn't a real smile. I tilted my head to the side and slowed down a little wondering what was different. "You're feeling better today. Why don't you come sit with me? We can thank Cordelia for bringing Jasmine to us. For giving us so much happiness."
Ha! Happiness. Yeah, and I have the Midas touch but there it was, the smile only it didn't reach his eyes.
The happiness was gone.
"Ummm…." I didn't really wanna go with him, especially not if he was gonna go all priesty on me and pray like some of the other loonies I'd seen in Cordy's room. Still, I couldn't say no since that would draw unwanted attention to myself because who doesn't want to thank Ms. Chase for giving us a peace-loving-evil-demon to enslave man kind?
"Ok." I said just a tad too cheery.
He opened the door for me and like a true gentle man waited for me to go in first. This was so in character for Wes I didn't even think twice about it and that was soooo my bad.
I barely had a chance to take in the others in the room; Lorne standing at the foot of Cordelia's bed, head bowed as if in prayer and Gunn leaning against the wall looking at me. Suddenly I have something heavy on my back, I can't move my arms and a cold hand is covering my mouth. Of course I lashed out, I tried to break free and then it hit me. Who else has cold hands that I know?
"Mmnglll!!" that didn't sound like Angel but its what I meant and I stopped struggling because if Wes had led me into this 'trap' it meant he wasn't under that demons control anymore. Come to think of it neither would Lorne and Gunn and if Angel was here-. "Mnagh!"
"Don't worry." But Fred was holding a knife and I wasn't so sure they didn't intend to kill me. I mean they probably thought I was under that things control and they knew what I could do. Well, not everything but they'd seen some of it.
"We're not going to hurt you."
Hmph, that's right sweetie, you're not going to hurt me because I wasn't about to let that happen. Still, I tried not to hurt her as I raised my leg.
Fred flew back knocking into Lorne and both went down on the other side of the bed.
I kept trying to speak, to tell them I wasn't one of those mindless freaks but Angel just would not let go and I didn't want to hurt him either. That whole fire thing wasn't completely under my control which is why I tried not to use it. Suddenly he turned and I saw Gunn come at us with a bat.
"Mph, phuukn mmat!" I doubt they got the gist of that but I knew where he was thinking of landing the blow. I let my body go and the sudden dead weight had Angel bending forward to keep me up. The bat connected with a loud 'whack!' and I was free.
"What the hell is wrong with you all?" I hissed trying to keep my voice from reaching the Jasmine fanatics and grabbing Wes as a body shield.
"We're trying to help you." Wes grimaced barely able to speak past the hand I had clamped over his throat or the pain from the arm I had shoved up behind him.
"Oh, right a big bloody knife is going to do that. It never occurred to me. Gee, how stupid do you think I am?" I doubt they were able to see my eyes roll though there was no missing the sarcasm.
"On a scale of 1 to 10?" Gunn asked.
"Look you," I huffed a breath feeling decidedly uncharitable towards the Mike Piazza wanna be. I didn't dare let Wesley go, not until they realized I was on their side.
I'd never left it.
"God, did you have to hit me?" Angel groaned tentatively shaking his head. Gunn looked apologetic but it still didn't get rid of the pain in Angel's head. I wouldn't blame him for taking a bite out of chocolate boy.
"She ducked." He defended sounding very lame.
"Are you all over the whole 'I love Jasmine' trip?" I asked glancing at Lorne who now stood with Fred as far form me as they could. "Because if you're not I'm gonna have to do some major hurting here." Just to make my point clear I had Wes help me by emitting a slight groan of pain.
"Are you?" Gunn asked still toting the bat like he was gonna have the chance to use it.
"Does it look like I'm one of those?" I asked glaring at him.
"But how did you- I mean- well she's-." Fred really made no sense and her confusion only seemed to spread to the others.
"Fine." I let go of Wes stepping away from all of them and holding my hands up. "Now what's going on?"
They looked at each other, the questions clear on their faces but no one was talking. I set my hands on my hips looking at each face.
*******
Wes left to get Connor and no matter how I phrased it Angel wasn't leaving with out him but he would leave with out Cordelia. Go figure but its like I always thought, men just don't love the way women can and that includes vampires.
"So you could see her-it how it truly looks from the very beginning?" Fred asked just a bit grossed out.
"Oh yeah and that's not all. That thing makes me sick, I mean puke sick, nausea, head aches, migraines, light piercing pains in my brain type sick." At the looks on their faces I thought maybe that was a little too much information. "How 'bout you?"
"Oh, just kinda scary gross. Not like…" Fred looked away and I noticed the others were looking very sad now that they weren't under the happy demons spell.
"I haven't been able to find anything on this thing. I checked all the books in Wes's office not that there are many left and I tried different occult shops. Heard you two had quite the bon fire going in the last one I went to."
"Jasmine had it burned." Angel said though he quickly looked away from me.
"Her blood was on the floor. She didn't want anyone else coming in contact with it." Fred mumbled softly. I placed an arm around her thin shoulders trying to offer what little comfort there was in this situation. They were all tense, wondering when they-we would get caught.
"So how come you weren't affected?" Gunn asked with a frown.
"Because I'm not like you guys. Not anymore." I sighed wondering if I should tell them what I knew or if it was better just to lie my way out of their next set of questions.
"Wait," Angel straightened from his slumped pose and stood looking at me. "Why didn't you tell us you weren't under Jasmine's control?"
"I did!" I exclaimed dropping my arm from Fred's shoulder. "You had your hand clamped over my mouth. All I could get out was- Mphg! Mnagh! and not much else."
"You can't get in our heads anymore?" Angel asked with a frown.
"Oh."
Well, shit. I hadn't even thought about it. It didn't even occur to me to use thought-speak. "Well, now I feel all kinds of retarded."
"So a 10, then." Gunn replied while Fred offered a comforting pat to my leg.
"You know, I got a brand new trick I'm itching to try out." I said with a soft smile. "You wanna be the lab rat?"
"What are you?" Lorne asked quietly. Everyone looked at him but he didn't seem to notice. Those red eyes just stayed on me, contemplating.
"You read me, Lorne. Don't you know what I am?" he shook his head faintly, eyes never wavering, not even when I smiled.
"Fury."
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly and it was clear he'd known, he had just been waiting for me to know it.
"I am of the Light, of the Chosen and I have answered their call. I live to fight so that all may live and thrive, so we may please the Light."
I had no idea where the words had come from but they were true and I had chosen.
I am a Fury.