Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.
CHAPTER 30-A HISTORY LESSON
"Why pink," Nina asked with a nervous look on her face as she turned her head to the side just enough to look over at Audrey as the two were sitting up at the bar. Gwen knew the owner and had slipped him enough to get the bar to themselves for the night. Audrey had finished her shift tending the bar just as they all came in. Rather than leave she slid around to sit on a stool and tried to relax.
"Why not, why do you want to know," Audrey grumbled back with a more annoyed tone to her voice than what she meant it to be and she saw Nina tense up briefly before calming down.
"It's just…different, back in my pottery class a couple of women had blue hair, but no one had pink hair," Nina replied with a subdued tone to her voice as she tried to laugh it all off and relax.
"Cool, honestly I was just kind of going from one color to another before I mixed a couple together and got this, works for me," Audrey said with a slight shrug of her shoulders and a small sigh before she downed another shot.
"Well becoming a brunette wasn't exactly my idea," Nina said softly with a childish pout on her face as she gazed up sadly through her bangs, where at the roots her blonde hair was just starting to come back.
"So why'd you do it then," Audrey asked with an interested expression on her face as she sat up a bit and reached over the bar for a bottle of tequila.
"Trying to avoid being recognized mostly, though I don't think Angel likes me as much since I changed it, he definitely prefers blondes," Nina sulked back with a nervous look on her face as she cast a look back at Angel over her shoulder as he stood by one of the pool tables and was readying his next shot.
"If he's put off by you doing something so small as changing your hair color then maybe he ain't the right one," Audrey stated clearly with a very serious look on her face as she picked up her mug and spun around in her chair until she was facing Angel as he took his next shot.
"I heard that," Angel said softly with a serious scowl of impatience on his face as he kept his eyes fixed on the cue ball as it rolled across the table.
"Damn vampire hearing," Faith quipped with a sly grin on her face as she let her head fall back up against the back of her chair.
"What," Audrey sputtered out with a totally taken by surprise look on her face as she very nearly dropped her mug.
"Probably should have said something earlier ya know Peaches, yeah we're vampires, well Angel and I are, the others are human," Spike replied with an almost bored and relaxed tone to his voice and shrug of his shoulders as he watched Angel's ball miss it's target and he began to set up his own shot.
"Most of the others, you're forgetting me, Faith, and Nina over there," Mercedes added with an amused smirk on her face as she set her sights fully on Audrey, curious to see her reaction.
"Thanks Mercedes," Nina grumbled back with a sharp pout on her face as she glared across the bar at Mercedes, before the latter shrugged her shoulders and took a drink.
"We're not going to harm you, I know that you're a slayer but you don't have to worry about your duty, both Spike and Angel have their souls," Wesley calmly stated with a very non threatening tone to his voice as he rubbed his right thumb down Faith's calf under her pant leg before he slipped it in between her sock and her skin as her feet were resting in his lap.
"That's impossible, vampires don't have their souls, I've had shit for a watcher but at least I know that," Audrey announced with a very concerned and confused look on her face as she slid off the end of her stool and looked like she was trying to make a fight or flight decision.
"Normally you'd be right, but not with these two," Willow said softly with an anxious expression on her face as she put down her tall glass of tea and looked to Angel.
"They're special," Dawn added with an overly cheesy grin on her face as she nodded her head quickly and then laid her head on Spike's shoulder just as he started to bend over to take his shot.
"Damned is more like it," Spike grumbled softly with an unhappy pout on his face as he eyed Dawn with a displeased frown before he straightened up and gave her a one armed hug.
"None of this makes any sense, vampires and whatever the hell you are don't just kick back and play pool," Audrey started to exclaim with a confused look on her face before Kate slid out of her booth and started to explain.
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Kennedy walked quickly, keeping in the shadows as best she could. She guessed that Giles would probably have sent word ahead for several if not all of his contacts to keep an eye out for her and she was not in the mood to get dragged back to council headquarters until she had found Mercedes. She tried several of her haunts but came up with nothing. Growing frustrated she changed her tactics and dropped by the Immortal's office, hoping that Mercedes had taken the high road and wasn't anywhere close by. She slipped in through one of the back doors and avoided allowing anyone to notice that she was there as she made her way through the building towards the Immortal's office. She noticed that the door was open, and the lights were out, and cautiously went inside. Her eyes darted around the room as she tried to think of anything that that she might find in here to help her find Mercedes.
"None of this stuff looks familiar," Kennedy grumbled softly to herself with an unhappy and disappointed frown on her face as she started to open and close every drawer of the Immortal's desk. She hadn't gotten to far when she noticed a glint of light out of the corner of her eye. When she turned to look at what had caused the glint she saw an odd shaped vase that looked more like one of Giles' science beakers than a vase. Scrunching her face up in wonderment Kennedy slowly climbed up onto the desk underneath the shelves and stood up on wobbly legs. "Don't know what's so special about this," Kennedy mumbled softly to herself with a curious expression on her face as she picked the small vial up before she heard the sounds of someone coming. With a small squeak of panic she hopped down off of the desk and rushed into the Immortal's closet, burying herself in the back behind all of his coats and hoping that she wouldn't be found.
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
"I'm sorry that I couldn't see you any sooner than this but I am a very busy man," The Immortal said with a tone of regret to his voice as he walked into the office and flipped the light on before standing aside and allowing Robin to enter after him.
"I'm sure you are," Robin calmly replied as he stepped into the office and took a look around. The office didn't look like he expected it to. It wasn't overly large or too richly furnished with priceless trinkets from far off shores. It looked entirely like a normal man's office. Though Robin knew that the Immortal was anything but a normal man. Even though he knew not to trust the Immortal he could feel his resolve slowly ebbing away from him. He made a mental note to ask Roger about it when he got back before his thoughts were interrupted.
"Do you want something to drink, I don't really have much but," The Immortal asked with a soft and genuinely helped tone to his voice as he walked over to his small wet bar and picked up a glass.
"No thank you, I won't be staying long and I have a lot of work to do tonight, it'd be best if I were to avoid alcohol for the evening," Robin replied with a humble smile on his face as he slowly sat down and shook his head, trying his very best to play the perfect guest. From her spot inside the closet Kennedy did her best to keep from making a noise and giving away her position. By the time that Robin was done visiting with the Immortal in his office both of Kennedy's knees had begun to ache. She grinned darkly as she came out of the closet, thankful that the two had left minutes ago, before she stealthily made her way out of the Immortal's business. She had heard the entire conversation and more than once had to bite her lip to keep herself from attacking one of them. Her only thought was to find Mercedes as she raced off into the night, holding the soul nice and warmly in her inner coat pocket.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
"So then you were bitten by a werewolf," Audrey asked with a curious pout of hesitation on her face as she raised the lip of her mug up towards her mouth slowly. After Kate had tried to explain a few things Audrey had slowly begun to relax and not feel threatened. By the stroke of midnight she was situated in between Nina and Faith, with the former trying to get Angel's attention, and the latter going over some symbol scrawled out onto a napkin with Wesley.
"Yep, and ever since then I'm lucky enough to get two monthly visitors," Nina started to say back with a sad shaking of her head before she couldn't help but grin a bit at the end. A couple of subdued chuckles were heard from around the bar but no one openly laughed out loud at her joke.
"So then what's your story," Audrey softly asked Dawn with a slightly hesitant look on her face before she took a drink and swallowed.
"Oh you know…formerly a big ball of energy that armies have fought and died for…nothing much," Dawn mumbled back with an awkward frown on her face before she grew nervous and reached for Spike's mug of ale on the table in front of them.
"It's a long story, long story short…we're here to save the bloody world," Spike interjected with an apprehensive frown on his face as he deftly snatched his mug away from Dawn before Willow spoke.
"I'm sorry about how the old council treated you Audrey, but you must understand, the old council was made up of men and women who often looked out for themselves first, the end always justified the means with them," Willow stated with a nervous but sincere tone to her voice and look on her face as she looked straight across the large table at Audrey.
"From where I'm sitting Willow, it doesn't look like to much has changed, Giles is still playing by the old council's rules, no matter how much he wants to deny it, he's no better than they are, in fact he might be worse," Angel said softly with a very serious, but not angry, tone to his voice as he finally looked over at Nina, saw the sadness in her eyes and reached over and laid a hand on her knee.
"They're repeating the same old mistakes," Gwen replied with a sizeable hint of sarcasm to her voice as she shook her head and tried not to get to negative.
"And making all new ones," Connor chimed in with a grimly amused smirk on his face as he checked his watch and tried not to stare at Audrey.
"Wait a minute, what do you know about the old council," Willow demanded with an impatient and confused frown on her face as she turned to Gwen.
"How do you think I found out about this little miracle," Gwen replied calmly with a satisfied grin on her face as she produced the chip that held her electrical charge in check out of one of her pockets and held it up.
"I thought your contacts with Wolfram and Hart helped you find it," Kate wondered aloud with a confused frown on her face as she sat up straight and leaned forward onto the table.
"They did, I used both the old council and my contacts at Wolfram and Hart to find it, of course I never let on with the council why I wanted it, I never met with the council in person, I always used a go between, someone that they would willingly do business with," Gwen replied with a calm expression on her face as she slid the chip back into her pocket and brushed some lint off of her sleeve.
"Who's Wolfram and Hart," Audrey asked softly with a curious look on her face after she swallowed a drink and set her mug back down onto the table in front of her.
"In a word…evil," Wesley said with a very serious sigh as he took a deep breath and let it out, thankful that the medicine that Faith had mixed in with his drink had begun to work.
"On the surface it's a law firm, with offices all over the world, they claim to be on the up and up, but behind the façade they're really an inter-dimensional juggernaut that is twisting everything around so that in the end evil wins the last apocalypse," Faith added with a slightly guilty frown on her face before she slid her feet off of Wesley's lap and got up to go and get them some more drinks.
"Someone's been studying, hauling out the big words," Spike quipped softly under his breath, as he leaned a bit closer to Dawn, before she did her best to stifle a laugh.
"You guys seem to know them pretty well," Audrey said with an odd look on her face as she handed her mug to Faith, who reluctantly kept her cool and went back to the bar to refill it after she placed hers and Wesley's mugs on the table near their chairs.
"I used to run the Los Angeles branch…it's a long story, but why all of the questions, there's a branch here in Rome, surely you've dealt with them in the past," Angel answered softly with a very calm and serious tone to his voice as he gently gave Nina's knee a squeeze as he turned his head to the side to look at Audrey.
"Not really, I don't really get out much…after the accident I've stayed pretty close to home, our family lawyer helped me through all of the legal stuff after my parents died, and after that…well protecting my neighbors keeps me pretty busy," Audrey slowly replied with an embarrassed look on her face as she lied just a little bit. She had heard the name Wolfram and Hart before, but hadn't heard much about who they were or what they did. So she played dumb to get some information.
"Trust me, you're better off not having anything to do with Wolfram and Hart, nothing ever ends well when they're involved," Spike said softly with a very serious look on his face as he swished a bit of gin around in his glass before he gulped it all down.
"I'll try to remember that," Audrey said back softly as she couldn't help but shudder from the serious look on his face.
"See that you," Angel started to say with an anxious frown on his face before an odd odor came to his attention.
"What…what is it," Nina asked softly with a suddenly very concerned tone to her voice as she glanced over and noticed the look on Angel's face.
"It can't be," Spike stuttered out with an eerie look of total disbelief on his face as he slowly got up from his seat and walked over to the window that lead out onto the street.
"Why do I not like the sound of that," Dawn asked softly with a scared pout on her face as she set her cup down and turned to Willow.
"I sense a great darkness," Willow replied with a very nervous and serious expression on her face before Angel cut in.
"Quick, cut the lights…all of them, everyone down now," Angel exclaimed in earnest, with an almost scared silly look on his face, as he leapt up out of his chair and began to hurriedly turn off every light in the pub.
"What's wrong…Angel, tell me," Faith demanded with an annoyed and tense look on her face as she leapt up to her feet while Mercedes went to join Spike at the window.
"It's them," Spike stated with a look of awed fear on his face as he turned back from the window after shutting off any lights near him.
"Who," Mercedes asked with a confused look on her face as she grabbed Spike's arm and kept him from shutting off one light, not liking the look on his face when he turned back to her.
"The scourge," Angel answered softly with a very serious and overwhelmed look in his eyes before he shut off the last light.
"Bloody hell," Wesley mumbled out softly under his breath with a very startled and surprised tone to his voice before Angel grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down beneath one of the larger tables, giving them both adequate cover. Nina, though she didn't know what was going on, joined Angel and Wesley with a panicked look of fear on her face.
"That bad huh Wes," Faith asked softly with a look of confidence on her face though her tone betrayed the nervousness that she had at the unexpected.
"They're the S.S. of the demon world," Wesley replied with a very grim and concerned look on his face as Faith slid in underneath the table next to him, glaring at Angel but keeping one eye on the pub's front door and the other on Wesley.
"The who," Dawn hissed softly with a confused look on her face as Willow made sure that she stayed out of sight.
"Hitler's secret police, they're infamous," Willow replied with a very nervous look on her face as she kept Dawn behind her and out of any line of fire.
"And bloody terrible card players, did I ever tell you the story," Spike spat out with a look of mockery on his face before Angel interrupted.
"Shut up Spike," Angel hissed with a fair amount of venom in his tone as he kept Nina behind him so that they'd have to go through him to get to her.
"We should fight," Connor announced with a confidant and combative tone to his voice and look on his face as he started to get up from behind his table.
"They may outnumber us," Groo added with a serious look on his face as he turned from looking at Connor to look over at Angel.
"Of course they outnumber us, they never travel alone, always in large groups, makes them more lethal, Connor get down, we are not fighting them," Angel replied with a very serious and concerned look on his face as he looked around the bar and tried to get a lay of the land in case they needed to make a stand there.
"Are they really that bad," Audrey wondered aloud with a confused look on her face as she hesitantly peeked her head up over the rim of her table before quickly ducking back down out of sight as a ray of light from most likely a flashlight whipped by the window.
"They don't play around, the last time I fought these guys I lost one of my best friends, I don't want to take that chance again…not if I don't have to," Angel shot back with a very serious look on his face before he crawled out from underneath his table, against Nina's silent pleadings, and carefully made his way over to the window. Everyone waited in nervous silence as Angel cautiously pulled back the curtains just enough to look outside. Seconds later he jerked his hand away and ducked down further as the sound of booted heels passing back rose up out on the street. No one moved or even dared to do more than breathe more than what was absolutely necessary to live until the sounds died away.
"Well that was a barrel of monkeys," Spike grumbled with an impatient scowl on his face before he turned back and laid a hand on Dawn's shoulder, his countenance softening slightly in relief when she picked her head up and smiled at him.
"We need to go…now, they might come back," Angel announced with a deadly serious and impatient frown on his face before Mercedes interrupted.
"Running won't save us," Mercedes interjected with a suddenly very worried and scared look on her face as she shakily stood up and turned towards Angel.
"Why am I getting a bad feeling about this," Kate grumbled with an impatient pout on her face as Groo helped her back up to her feet.
"I didn't think that he'd actually do it…The Immortal, every so often he'd joke about bringing the Scourge in to…thin the herd a bit, I never thought that he was serious," Mercedes answered softly with a guilty look of fear on her face, as if she felt that she could have prevented it from happening somehow, before she swallowed hard and if possible got even paler.
"How can you be sure that he's the one that brought them here," Willow asked with a pointed expression on her face as she and Dawn got back to their feet.
"Yeah, the guy doesn't exactly look like a demon," Faith pointed out with a curious look on her face before she noticed Wesley having some pains in getting back up to his feet and she turned back to help him up.
"The Scourge would never work for someone that wasn't a full demon," Angel added with a very dark look on his face as he slowly walked away from the window straight towards Mercedes.
"He'd never contact them directly, it'd be much to dangerous, he'd send one of his demon flunkies, it's how he deals with all of the demons, the Immortal doesn't like to get his hands dirty unless he thinks that he's going to win, besides if something went wrong," Mercedes said back with a kind of soft mocking chuckle and smirk as she sidestepped a table and shortened the distance between herself and Angel.
"He'd be able to wash his hands of the entire thing, letting his underling take all of the heat while he gets away free as a bird, smart plan," Gwen said softly with an almost impressed look on her face as she slid a hand into her pocket, making sure that the chip was still there, just in case.
"We'll worry about that later, we need to get back before they come back, and you're going to have to call Giles, don't tell him where you are, but you have to warn him about the Scourge, make him understand how dangerous they are and that they shouldn't be taken lightly, I don't want any more deaths on my conscience, I have more than enough already," Angel declared with a very decisive and commanding tone to his words and look on his face as Gwen pulled her cell phone out and ordered the cars to be brought around while Willow slowly nodded her head and started to think about what to say to Giles.
END OF CHAPTER 30
Author's Note: Thanks to all for reading. This chapter starts out in a bar that Gwen called ahead first to and basically bought for the night so that Angel and the others could try to relax without having to deal with a lot of the bar's regulars. Audrey was there as it was her part time job. During the night Dawn kept trying to sneak a sip of Spike's beer but he made sure to stop her every time. Audrey and Nina struck up a conversation, as someone would probably ask Audrey about why she has pink hair. Nina's reservations about Angel not liking her as much as a brunette is more about how once a fight gets going Angel tends to pull away from those that he cares most about and focuses to much on the fight, which in and of itself isn't entirely bad, but Angel tends to do it to the extreme and those closest to him suffer. Audrey has a pretty good idea that Wolfram and Hart aren't good guys but she doesn't know much else, so she plays dumb to try to learn more. Angel and the others don't outright accept her it's just that since she's a slayer she's already in the world of demons and the like and therefore doesn't have to have everything explained to her from the beginning.
Kennedy went to the Immortal's office and headquarters to see if she could find Mercedes, or something to help her situation. She got to the Immortal's office and found Mercedes' soul, but got interrupted when the Immortal and Robin Wood came in to talk. So she hid in the closet, listened to their conversation, and then came out and ran off into the night, taking with her Mercedes' soul. The rest of the chapter is more of the talking between Audrey and Angel's group as they get t know each other a bit better. The appearance of the Scourge just kind of came to me out of the blue, as they would be a way for the Immortal to cause a lot of havoc and if he wanted to and come out looking like a saint, as he'd just blame their appearance on a patsy and move on. Why he brought them to Rome is a source of debate, guess you'll all have to read on to find out why.
In closing thanks to all for reading and remember reviews are appreciated.