Disclaimer: I own nothing below except the plot. All characters, locations, and concepts are owned under their respective copyrights.
Spoilers: Angel through Season 5
Timeline: During Angel Season 1
Author's note: As with all of my stories, suggestions about future plot developments are welcome and wanted, Reviews of any kind are very much wanted as well.
Chapter 8: Bid the Sickness Cease - Part 1
Fred's cave, Pylea.
Fred was waking up. She knew this because she could feel the throb of her wounds. Before this, there had been far more pain. Then there was a sudden, forced sleep. She still wasn't sure exactly how that happened.
Fred wondered why she made the choices she did. The day she was attacked, had she not went to the market, or had she insisted that Wesley come with her. All or most of the ensuing horror would have been prevented.
That was her first thought. Her second was 'Where am I?' By the smell, and the feel of the bed and the ground, she could guess that she was in her cave.
Fred opened her eyes. She confirmed that she was indeed back in her cave, and she was not alone. Wesley was also there. She was being watched over by Groosalugg. Wesley had two healers hovering over him. One was a human male, and the other was an older Pylean demon. Wesley was prone and unmoving, though.
Fred voiced her next thought 'How'd I get here?' She remembered being in the dungeons. She also had a vague but eerily specific dream of Wesley coming to save her. She knew it was a dream because there was no way that Wesley could have fought his way through all of the guards and battlements, and even if he did, he'd never be able to get her out by himself.
"Mistress, the warrior-c-I mean Wesley, he fought his way into the castle, and he carried you back here. Do your wounds trouble you? " The Groosalugg still marveled at the courage Wesley had shown. Breaching the castle was no small feat, fighting and killing the guards was something else again.
Fred looked over at Wesley. She could see that he had most of his clothes off. And there were numerous wounds with bandages and stitching that crossed over his body. Fred gasped for a second. She had not realized that Wesley was in such a bad way "Why is he unconscious?"
"He used some dark magic, it protected him and kept him going until he retrieved you. Once you were safe, the magic left him. He collapsed afterward." Groo reflected how Wesley had changed when that power had deserted him. Wesley had changed from a black haired and clothed unnatural creature to a vulnerable human who was too weak to do what Wesley had done.
Fred continued to examine her partner. She hadn't been out for very long, as Wesley's wounds were still bandaged, the two healers had not yet had time to sew the larger wounds on his back and legs. They had sewn up most of the smaller cuts on his arms and a slight nick on his cheek. "You look like you wanna say something to me, what is it?"
"I think you should tell Wesley to stay away from you." Groo had awhile to consider this. It had scared him when Wesley had sucked that magic out of his book. His whole countenance had changed. The Pylean admired Wesley for what he had accomplished, but he also worried for the female he now served. Wesley seemed unstable.
Fred turned sharply towards her protector with a quizzical look "Why? I mean he saved me from that place."
"He's dangerous, rash, and I don't believe he is fully sane. He commanded nature itself when he was infected with that magic. I fear he will seek that power again, and if he does, none of us will be safe." Groo had not followed Wesley, but he had seen the storm clouds that the warrior had conjured, and the lightning that had struck at his enemies. More importantly, though, Groo had seen the manic yet oddly detached form that Wesley had taken on after he had absorbed the dark magic.
Fred thought again 'what did he do?' She considered Groosalugg for a moment, he was not given to hyperbole. But she turned her thoughts back to Wesley 'whatever he did, it saved me. Can I condemn him for that?'
She spoke to her protector "Groo, don't worry about him, he only did that because of me. I can make sure that it doesn't happen again."
"How will you manage that? You fought well when they came for you, but we were overpowered by their numbers, they will always have that advantage." The Groosalugg snarled that last bit out, he was still angry about being bested by palace guards. It did not matter that they had him and Fred outnumbered 5 to 1, palace guards were largely trained rigidly and rarely fought except to hunt down runaway cows. Whereas the Groosalugg had fought countless beasts and demons all of his life.
Fred smiled and nodded at Wesley "We'll come up with something." Fred shifted to get up and flinched in pain.
"You need to rest, mistress, your wounds will heal well enough, I don't know about your violation, they sought to punish you for killing their comrades." Groo had seen how Fred had been abused once the healers had started to work on her. He did not have much experience with females of any race, be they Pylean or cow. But he assumed that they did not look as Fred did if they were healthy and unharmed. She was neither.
Now Fred remembered the rest of her ordeal, she was shocked at what the guards had done after they captured her. Generally, Pyleans did not breed with humans, most saw humans as nothing more than beasts. There were exceptions, of course, the Groosalugg was the result of an example. But back to her own ordeal, Fred was still sore from the pain between her legs and any movement sent some pain to the rest of her body. Her wounds had been bandaged and sewn up. Despite the pain, she moved and crawled over to Wesley. He hadn't stirred, even though the healers were tending to him.
She looked from Wesley to the male human healer "When will he wake up?"
"I don't know, I'm not sure what happened to him, I can only treat the wounds I can see. If he is unconscious for some other reason there's nothing I can do." The healer whispered so as to avoid disturbing his patient. He also looked Fred over while he was speaking. Her injuries were still evident, though she didn't seem hampered by them. He was pleased to see that her swollen eye had finally opened.
Fred brushed a hand over Wesley's brow and smiled fondly. "How long was I out?"
"Not very long, about a day. We were able to tend to you completely. But your friend here, his wounds were more serious than they first appeared, but we were instructed to heal you first. Apparently, your friend had the Groosalugg put you first, at great cost to himself" The healer reflected that the Groosalugg was quite insistent when he came to fetch him for healing duties.
By and large, Pyleans cared not for the well-being of their cows, except for those who could see the benefit of having healthy slaves. As result, those humans who could serve as healers were costly to hire, and their masters reaped great benefit from them. There were some who did not have to pay for such services, Groosalugg was one who was exempt.
Fred was no medical doctor, but she had become well versed in basic survival, so she examined Wesley with eyes that had experience in how a human body should look. She saw that he was pale from blood loss, but more important was his expression. It was not the serene placidity of sleep, but a shifting grimace of pain that never really abated.
Fred said as much to the Pylean healer "Is there anything you can do for him? He's hurting."
"Not until he wakes up, I hear tell that you cows have a way to get medicine into one of your kind while they're asleep, but we do not have such sorcery here, we are forbidden to use cow inventions." The Pylean healer snorted in disgust, it was bad enough he had to touch and treat these two animals, but now he had to speak with one as well, and it was female, which made things that much more difficult, not mention disgusting.
Fred noted the nature of the response, but decided now was not the time to confront that, Wesley was more important than some squabble over culture "That still doesn't answer my question, when will he wake up?"
"With his wounds I would guess that if he doesn't die, your mate should awaken by tomorrow, if he remains as he is longer than that, there is little hope for him." The Pylean was enough of a healer to refrain from commenting on the weakness of his patient, but only just, he was telling the truth to the best of his knowledge. Wesley would soon need water to survive, and food to regain his strength.
Fred kept her gaze sweeping over Wesley. She heard the healer and she knew that Wesley waking up was crucial. She was thinking about how she could help. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
The human healer answered her "I don't know, this situation is unfamiliar to me. I am used to dealing with lonely slaves who have few if any friends, back when I was a doctor, I had seen and heard about the value of affection and proximity of family, haven't seen that since I came here. If you are able, stay close, talk to him, sing, if you think it will help, pray."
"Thank you, how long have you been in Pylea? I've been here three years so far." Fred turned from the doctor (as she now knew him) and smiled at Wesley, she would take the advice. Her presence, her voice, and her touch, however brief, would help Wesley.
But she thought 'There has to be more that I can do. I could use some help here? Please, Anyone?'
The human doctor smiled in turn at his recent patient. He did not want to broach any idea of physical affection. In his experience, women who had been raped tended to shun such affection for a time. In some extreme cases, they sought such affection immediately after or never again. "I no longer remember how long, all the years blur together." The doctor chuckled "If you ever work for Wolfram & Hart, be sure to read the fine print on your employment contract, quitting carries a price."
"Oh wow, I'm sorry. I've been through something like that, before Wesley came here. There was a time when I thought Earth was a dream. Wesley showed me that it was very real." Fred remembered reading about Wolfram & Hart in the templates.
And then the thought struck her 'Oh my gosh, the templates, I could use those to help Wesley.'
She turned back to Groo "You said Wesley accessed dark magic, how did he do that?"
"He used the two books that he placed so highly earlier." Groo still remembered the bargain he and Wesley had made before the fight that put him in service to Winifred.
Now Fred had her answer. "Thanks, Groo, I'll keep in mind what you warned me about earlier with Wesley." She would still plead with whatever higher powers were listening, and she would watch Wesley if he woke up. But now she had a lead to really help heal Wesley.
Her pleading was being heard. From her heavenly perch, the soul of the future Winifred Burkle was watching her counterpart. What she knew, from her experience with Angel Investigations, was that magic was about balance. Wesley had created a radical imbalance with the kind of dark magic he used. It would take an equal or greater form of light magic to save him. She also knew that her living counterpart would never be able to do those things necessary to save Wesley given the violation that had happened to her recently.
Yet again, future Fred would have to intervene. She had saved Wesley numerous time before her death and one time after. His sacrifice, of relinquishing his place in time, had saved her. First from her imprisonment within Illyria and second from an afterlife tied irrevocably to the Old One. Thus she enjoyed the advantages of a paradise dimension, one of which she would now fully use.
One advantage that Fred's soul enjoyed was that she could, given the right circumstances, intervene. Her power could only be used when one of her friends was in danger. She was not able to physically affect anything, any interaction could only be done through the mind, and forcing anyone to do anything was out of the question. She had to argue and convince to achieve anything.
There was one other option, but it involved an incredible price. She also had to figure out how to convince herself.
