Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.
CHAPTER 36-WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN
Gwen's Loft
"Gotta say…never took you for a voyeur," Mercedes let out along with a deep but useless deep breath as she shut the water off and turned her head to one side, catching sight of the former Texan just standing there silently.
"V…oyeur," Illyria stammered out with an odd and deep in thought expression as she cocked her head to one side as she continued to slowly look the dripping wet Mercedes up and down.
"Yeah…voyeur, it's what we call a person who likes to watch kinky stuff…did you like the show, I know that I can get going sometimes but…that was," Mercedes purred back with a very sultry tone to her words as she shook some water out of her hair and then started to walk towards Illyria, making sure to sway her hips back and forth just right.
"You are a strange one," Illyria replied without even a hint of an expression or edge in her words as she just stayed where she was and simply stared right back at Mercedes.
"Guilty as charged I'm afraid, but okay…enough with the jokes, why are you really here," Mercedes replied, laughing a little, before she finally turned and reached for a towel, only to find that the one that she had hung up was now gone.
"You do not have a soul…however you do not kill the humans…why," Illyria asked with an easygoing tone to her words, as she looked completely uninterested as Mercedes began to look around for her towel.
"I want to…believe me, that little…Dawn, the slayers sister…she sure looks tasty, but I've found that it's better to play by the rules…for now," Mercedes slowly answered, licking her bare lips and flashing slightly pointed fangs.
"Because of that I cannot allow you," Illyria pointed out with a slight nodding of her head before she looked away, as if checking the time on the old clock on the wall nearby.
"Huh, can't allow me to what," Mercedes questioned back with a confused look in her eyes as she cocked her head to one side slightly and frowned.
"Get in the way of my plan," Illyria eerily answered with a small burst of light going off in one eye before she spun around on her heels and clocked Mercedes across the face, hard enough to knock her out cold. With one last small glance back at the vampiress Illyria calmly strolled out of the room, leaving a wet and naked Mercedes to who knew what fate.
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
The Car
"Get your asses in here it's almost light," Gwen snarled loudly, even though she had gotten what they had come for, as she flung open the door to her limo and tried to bore a hole straight through Angel with her gaze.
"No shit," Spike cursed out loudly as he dove into the car, not heeding the bullets that struck him in the side, until he unceremoniously crashed into one side of the back seats.
"I'm not leaving without…Wesley, Faith, what took you so long," Angel started to shout back in reply before he turned back towards the house, a fierce look of determination on his face as Wesley and Faith materialized out of the darkness. Almost immediately Angel could tell that something was very wrong. Faith looked to have suffered more that her usual fair share of injuries, enough of them so that she was struggling mightily to support Wesley. That feat should have been easy for her but Wesley looked equally the worse for wear.
"Hey…any room left at the inn," Faith asked huskily though it was more from her breathing heavy than trying to flirt or anything even close to it.
"What happened," Angel demanded angrily as he hurried over and used his body to shield the two from any of the bullets.
"What…heh, do you think, I get into a little bit of trouble and Wes here thinks he's Hercules or something," Faith snapped angrily as she looked away from Angel and glared at Wesley.
"Well excuse me for trying to help the woman that I love," Wesley very nearly gasped back with an extremely pained expression on his face before he seemed to pass out momentarily.
"Wesley," Faith cried out in sheer panic, as Angel thought that he saw a tear slide down her cheek before she regained her composure, propping Wesley up far enough that Angel could see that he looked paler than he had ever seen him.
"Get in the car Faith," Angel yelled out over the sound of the gunfire as he pointed furiously at the open car door.
"But," Faith started to strongly object, looking like she could care less that bullets were flying everywhere around her at that very moment.
"Get in the damn…nnh…car," Angel growled again, definitely not in the mood to argue, before a few bullets to the chest silenced him.
"Angel," Wesley tried to explain before his injuries caught up with him and he winced badly in pain and went silent.
"Just do it," Angel added back, this time taking no chances and grabbed both Wesley and Faith by their arms and rather rudely flung them both into the car.
"Angel…I just had these seats washed ya know," Gwen shot back through the open car window, her voice full of disdain, before she almost tried to lean her head out and glare at him.
"To bad…drive," Angel sarcastically spat back, though Faith thought that she could see the slightest trace of a smile on the edges of his lips, as he dove back into the car, not caring to even shut the door before the car's engine roared to life and took off.
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Headquarters
"Anybody find him," Giles asked with a weary edge to his words as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his beaded brow.
"No, you know for an immature geek he really knows how to hide," Xander breathed out with a worn out shrug of his shoulders as he sunk down into the closest chair that he could find, ignoring the glare of one of the new slayers that had just cleaned the room.
"This can't be good, there's something that he knew that he didn't want us to know," Buffy added, quickly turning away in a desperate attempt to try and hide how tired she was quickly becoming.
"I believe that it would be in our best interest to find out what that is to," Giles stated sharply with a less than thrilled look in his eyes as he pulled out a chair and sat down, his legs quite tired.
"Maybe it's something really weird like Spike's back," Vi offered up out of the blue as she shuffled her way into the kitchen, squinting against the early morning sun.
"Spike…heh, yeah right Vi, that'd be just…crazy," Xander laughed out loud back, clearly finding the idea of the soul having vampire being back ludicrous.
"Great," Buffy honestly answered to herself in a very low mumble, making very sure that no one else in the room heard her, as she turned her face towards the window and soaked up some of the warmth.
"Did you say something Buffy," Giles asked softly as he turned his head towards her and scrunched up his face a bit in concern.
"Huh…oh uh no," Buffy lied with a slightly to confidant of a smile creasing her lips, hoping that Giles wouldn't push the envelope any further before she excused herself and hurried up the stairs to take a shower and get some sleep.
1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
"I couldn't believe that anything could be this boring…but now," Connor observed loudly, as he angrily threw a magazine down and began to pace back and forth in front of the large window.
"I'm worried about Angel," Nina mumbled out softly through a tissue as she was having a devil of a time trying to keep herself from tearing up at how close it was to dawn and nobody had heard from Angel or any of the others in several hours.
"Big surprise there," Kennedy scoffed with a rolling of her eyes as she angrily shook her head and then started to join Connor at the window.
"You can leave you know, I doubt that anyone will care," Audrey snapped back sharply as she stepped out from behind the table and forcefully crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"What are you doing here again," Kennedy quickly exclaimed loudly with an angry sneer in her gaze, looking away from the window before being silenced by Connor's hand on her shoulder.
"Easy people, this is getting us nowhere, Angel and the others will be back before dawn just like they planned, we just have to have faith," Willow interrupted with a very authoritative tone to her words, though being very careful to not even look in Kennedy's general direction, something that didn't escape the young slayer.
"Spike won't let anything keep him from seeing Buffy, not when he's this close," Dawn added with a very certain and determined look of ferocity in her gaze as she stomped into the room, almost daring anyone to contradict her.
"Exactly, now what we should do is," Kate began to order with an uncomfortable edge in her words before the sounds of the elevator rising up to the top floor made everyone go instantly silent.
"Stay off the living room carpets, I just had them," Gwen's angry voice shouted out as it came over the backs of Faith helping a visibly worsening Wesley in through the doorway, Spike and Angel staggering in slowly, leaving painfully clear trails of dark blood behind them, both using the walls to keep from falling to their knees.
"Angel," Nina screamed in sheer terror as she shot up out of her seat and sprinted towards the door.
"Oh my god…Spike," Dawn exclaimed, very nearly echoing Nina's initial scream, as she raced over and did her best to support him, not caring that she was now completely drenched in blood from the waist up.
"It's okay Niblet, it's not as bad as it looks," Spike tried to reply with a confidant shrug of his shoulders, though he only got about halfway through the shrug before he was forced to stop, hissing loudly in pain.
"Call for a doctor," Faith demanded with a very serious if not furious fire in her eyes as she gently leaned Wesley up against the wall just long enough to glare at everyone in the room, making it clear that Wesley seriously needed help.
"What happened, I thought that you had everything covered," Willow asked very pointedly as she did the best that she could to help Nina support Angel, before wondering where Groo had run off to.
"We ran into a few unforeseen…snags, couldn't be helped," Gwen declared passively as she seemed far to absorbed in the stone that she kept concealed under her coat on her way to her office.
"Couldn't be…why you, you should've known that Angel and Spike hadn't been invited," Faith growled out loudly, as she was very nearly literally spitting venom with every word, before Wesley woke up and lifted his head up, showing off the trickle of blood running down the side of his face.
"Nnh…Faith, where," Wesley blubbered out through quivering lips as he got a good look at Faith's face and saw that she had a fair amount of blood on her face as well.
"Wesley…oh thank God, don't worry Wes everything will be fine, I'll take good care of you," Faith forced herself to say calmly with a determined look in her eyes even though her stomach was knotted up something fierce.
"That's nice, but then who's going to take care of you huh," Wesley softly joked with as good of a sarcastic grin as he could muster before the two completely ignored everyone else in the room and headed for their room.
"What do we do…Willow, what do we do," Dawn asked with a voice full of concern and panic as she gritted her teeth and helped Spike over to the nearest chair.
"We shut up and get these bullets out of me, they won't kill me but it doesn't mean that they don't still hurt like a bitch," Spike pointed out in his usual less than diplomatic tone as he painfully slid his duster off and made quick work of his shirt.
"We're going to need blood…lots of it," Willow announced, seemingly taking full charge of the situation, as she set her laptop down on a nearby table and then hurried to Angel's side.
"Don't look at me," Kennedy scoffed loudly, looking back and forth between Angel and Spike with a look on her face that seemed to suggest that she wasn't going to lift a finger to help either one of them.
"Wouldn't think of it, Audrey…do you think that you can pick some up for me," Willow coldly started to answer as she helped Nina remove Angel's coat and tried to keep her stomach from gurgling unhappily at the sight of so many bullet wounds.
"Huh…me," Audrey fumbled back softly as she was completely shocked that Willow even knew her name, let along enough to count on her in such an important situation.
"Yes you, you know these streets better than I do, I figure that you'd know where to get some fresh blood at five in the morning," Willow shrugged back with a slightly odd expression on her face as she fumbled in a nearby drawer for a pair of scissors to use to cut the remains of Angel's shirt away.
"What happened," Dawn demanded quickly, more out of wanting something to do to keep herself from crying in front of Spike.
"Thought you already asked that pet," Spike commented softly with a curious edge to his words as he stared at Dawn oddly for a few seconds.
"Yeah…probably, but I have a better chance of getting the truth out of you than anybody else," Dawn replied with an almost carefree shrug before she fell back into a relaxed smile and slowly nodded her head.
"And why is…that," Spike said through a rather painful wince as he slowly raised his arms while Dawn started to pull his shirt up.
"Because Buffy's not the only Summers that you can't lie to," Dawn pointed out with a proud and unnaturally confidant light in her eyes as she leaned in a little bit closer to Spike and smiled before pulling back and shaking her head.
"Bloody birds, always…ow," Spike started to angrily mutter under his breath before he jumped in pain and scowled back over his shoulder.
"Sorry, I thought I saw one of the bullets about to fall out," Kate apologized quickly, even though the look in her eyes seemed to suggest otherwise, as she backed her hands off and frowned at Spike.
"Pliers usually work better than fingers luv," Spike pointed out with a slightly odd look in his eyes, one that was halfway between wanting to snap Kate's neck in two with his bare hands and one that was glad that she was at least trying to help.
"You've had experience with this kind of thing," Kate said looking a little surprised as she did her best to stand fully back up without leaning on anyone or anything for support.
"Far to much for my liking," Angel grumbled out strongly through tightly gritted teeth as he brushed one of Willow's hands away and pulled one of the bullets out himself, letting it clink to the floor without watching it.
"But who did this to you," Nina quickly asked, more than a little afraid that whoever had shot Angel would probably try to do it again.
"Who do you think, the guards…it's always the ruddy guards," Spike spat out sharply with a very bitter glare before he bit his bottom lip to keep himself from crying out in pain.
"We had to make a few last minute changes and got sloppy," Angel added in his own two cents worth somberly before he again hissed in pain as someone touched one of his wounds.
"Here…try these, I think that they'll work better," Gwen interjected with an almost annoyed expression as she handed first Willow and then Dawn a pair of pliers.
"What am I supposed to do with this," Dawn asked softly as she held up the pliers and looked to Gwen in confusion.
"Use them to get the bullets out, just make sure that you don't go in any further than you need to, these will take long enough to heal as is," Angel explained strongly as he sat up very straight and braced himself for what was to come.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
No one outside of those standing hooded in a circle knew exactly what this room was really meant for. Many had just believed the lie that the intricate design on the floor was the product of a mad monk's fevered dreams from centuries past. Even some of the world's top scholars in the field had viewed and studied the insignia, all agreeing that it was a work of art, nothing more. Of course that decision suited the room's current occupants just fine.
"I can't believe that none of those fools even had a clue about what this was really all about," One of the hooded men chuckled with a thoroughly arrogant grin breaking the monotony of the other men's expressions.
"That's the point you idiot, only those in the order like us have even the slightest clue as to the symbols true origins," Another of the hooded men snapped angrily as he lightly shook his head, his tone of voice full of spite.
"Enough…both of you, it is time to begin…the end of the world," A taller man ordered with a very fierce sneer as he cuffed both across the backs of their heads.
"Yes sir," The two other hooded men replied in total unison before the third stepped into the center of the room.
"Yes indeed, and to think…this is all possible thanks to that airhead of a slayer…my lovely girlfriend…Buffy," The Immortal slowly nodded his head in agreement as he spoke the words, before finally letting the hood slide off of his head, revealing a now heavily tattooed face.
END OF CHAPTER 36
Author's Notes: There's only one chapter left…it'll be a big one, in more ways than one. Okay maybe two more chapters, just because I let my imagination run away with me a little.