Disclaimer: Not mine.

Thanks to Starway Man, my Beta

This is far shorter than I would have liked (I was really hoping to cover the entire episode in this chapter), but given the huge delay...I had to get something out. I promise I'm trying to pick up the pace, but with RL being what it is, I can make no promises as to whether my output will get better.

I'm not sure how it got delayed on being posted here on FFN. Regardless, here it is.

Exit Strategy

By Alkeni

Chapter 8: Rebel Yell

Rebel Camp, Pylean Plains

May 4th, 2001

The motley mess (no way they qualified as a 'crew') that was the human resistance against the demons ruling Pylea were assembled around their three victims – humans, like them, but caught coming from the direction of the castle. Scum, working for the Covenant, therefore; traitors to their race. Too many accepted their role as cows...it was why freedom wasn't theirs yet...

"For the crime of collaboration with the Covenant," The leader intoned with all the ceremony he could muster, speaking to the bound prisoners, "You are hereby sentenced to death."

Though she knew it was counter productive, Lilah was busy itemizing the exact order in which she would flay Wesley's flesh from his bones and then dismember him once they arrived in the afterlife, after these idiots killed them. White hat or not, there had to be a special place in Hell for stupidity of the magnitude he'd displayed back in the forest. Had to be.

She was pulled from her vicious thoughts by Wesley doubling down. "No, we are not collaborators!" He insisted. "We're not even from around here!"

"Sure, because they're going to believe that, Wes. If we were collaborating with the Covenant, we'd certainly insist we weren't, wouldn't we?" Lilah rolled her eyes, the effect ruined by the fact that her head was in a stock. Now all I need is for people to throw rotten tomatoes at me...

"Not helping, Lilah, so why don't you shut up?!" Gunn cut in.

"Silence!" One of the other rebels demanded. "Do not speak, reconnaissance cow scum!" He looked to the executioners. "On my count of three." The executioners readied their weapons in place over Lilah, Wesley and Gunn's necks.

"Forgive me, Gunn," Wesley told his friend, apparently uninterested in absolution from Lilah, "I should never have opened my mouth."

"Little late for that," Lilah drawled again, retreating into natural habits as death now seemed imminent. She was terrified beyond belief – she'd gotten out of Wolfram and Hart with her skin intact after Lindsey's promotion...and now she was going to die here, at the hands of a rag tag collection of idiots that made Angel look competent. Furious was better than fear, and if she was going to die, she wasn't going to do it with desperation in her voice. Wesley could handle that. "And it's a pity how that didn't occur to you in the first place."

I'm Lilah fucking Morgan. I'm better than that. Terrified? Yes. Resigned? Yes. But damn her soul back into the claws of the Senior Partners if she was going to show any of that.

"Don't worry, I've got a plan," Gunn told them in an earnest, serious tone.

"Oh thank god! What is it?" Wesley asked as the countdown began with a 'one'.

"We die horribly and painfully, you two go to Hell, and I spend eternity in the arms of baby Jesus." Gunn replied.

Well, that's a really swell plan, sure. Even though Lilah had to grant that it was better than any plan she could come up with. It was a pity she hadn't even been raised Catholic, or she might have started confessing her sins right then, on the off chance God was listening.

Wesley's face and tone fell. "Oh."

Lilah took one final breath...and as three was called out, waited for death.

But it never came.

She heard the sounds of hoofbeats, shouts...fighting. Lilah saw the bodies of one of the executioners dead on the ground, a arrow in the chest. Do we owe our lives to Robin Hood or to the Pylea-stone Cops? The latter, it seemed. The rebels were fighting the demon guards, and Wesley and Gunn were both on their feet, both trying to get away. Lilah pushed herself up, the wooden stock around her neck and her bound hands making it quite difficult, but she managed.

In the confusion, she lost sight of Wesley and Gunn, trying to move away between human rebels and Pylean soldiers...

Snarling, a Pylean demon grabbed at her, aiming to pull her into a better angle for decapitation. Kicking at him, Lilah struggled from his grip – the stocks around her neck slammed into the demon's face, knocking him to the ground. Crouching down, she cut the ropes on her hands with the guardsman's sword and picked it up. The weight and style of the weapon was unfamiliar – Lilah knew the basics of how to fight, but she hadn't spent much time in Wolfram and Hart's self-defense classes. Hadn't seemed much point, to be honest.

After all, look at all the effort Lindsey put into them, and he still lost his hand to Angel. Still, she brandished the weapon, managing to keep the demons at bay just enough...to not get killed. That was just about it.

But it was all it needed. Still trying to get away from the camp, Lilah saw Gunn and Wesley fighting – fighting – the Covenant soldiers, using the stocks as blunt instruments like she had.

Lilah stayed out of the fight as best she could of the rebels, and the main battle between her and the Pyleans. Soon enough, though, the battle was over, with the surviving Imperial Guard fleeing.

With the battle one, the leader approached Wesley and Gunn – who hadn't managed to get their hands unbound during the battle. "They did not come for us." It wasn't a question. "They came for you." Again, not a question. "Why?" Finally, a question.

"Because they know we want to rescue the princess." Wesley answered. "Something they very much don't want to happen."

"Rescue the princess? What from?" The leader inquired. "She's the princess of the realm. She has everything she could possibly want!"

"Including her freedom? No. If she isn't rescued from the castle, and soon, then she'll be forced to mate with the Groosalugg." Wesley explained, looking the leader in the eye, mustering up as much gravity and dignity as he could, given his neck and hands. Gunn nodded in agreement with Wesley as the Englishman spoke.

Another one of the rebels nodded, "And that would fulfill one of the Covenant's biggest prophecies...and consolidate their power. There'd be no stopping them..."

"Let me guess." Lilah called out from where she was. "The Deathwok and other demon clans aren't very fond of the Covenant, all things considered? Since they're just priests, and not warriors or monarchs?"

"Exactly." The leader answered. "But if the prophecy is fulfilled, and the visions from the Powers That Be are absorbed from the cursed one, then they shall rule through a warrior monarch – through the Groosalugg. He's always been little more than a puppet for Silas and the others." He looked to Lilah, "But if you really are otherworlders, how would you know that?"

"It was a guess." Lilah admitted. "The truth is, I'm...familiar with the powers behind the Covenant. That's how they handle warrior clans." Lilah had read about and heard about this sort of thing happening in at least a half-dozen hell dimensions.

"With the Deathwok and the Gathwok and all the other clans completely under their influence, the Covenant's forces would be able to hunt us down and kill us all, however hard we fought." The leader added.

"And we don't want that to happen any more than you do." Gunn said, his expression managed to be even more serious than Wesley's.

"Then you spoke truly, even though I did not believe you." The leader said after a moment, "We are on the same side. Release them." He nodded to some of his men, and Wesley and Gunn's hands were unbound, and the stocks removed from their necks. "Though their hands were tired and their necks bared, they fought with us." Lilah was about to interrupt – her hands were free but she couldn't get the stocks off – but one of the rebels also came over to remove her stocks. The leader approached Wesley, "I'm ashamed," he said in a lower voice. Lilah barely heard him as she moved towards Gunn and Wesley.

"We nearly cut your heads off." The leader continued.

"Yea. About that." Lilah cut in, moving to stand a bit behind Wesley and Gunn "Just what were you-"

Wesley looked back at her, his lips in a thin, no nonsense line, gesturing his hand at her, fingers up, to shut up. Lilah fell silent mid-sentence. Satisfied, Wesley turned back to the rebel leader. "You were just doing your job."

Job? Job? She'd spent so much time in the last few hours planning on just how to hurt Wesley when this was over that it was starting to lose its luster...still, one more reason for it, now. 'Just doing your job'. Lilah swore inside her head, My ass he was just doing his job!

"You are all three of you free to go." At those words, the rebel leader stepped aside and the three of them took the opening, moving away. As they passed through the camp, the leader proclaimed: "Five cheers for the otherworlders!"

"Ooh," Wesley remarked with a slight smile, "In this world you get five."

"So I'm thinkin' our first job," Gunn said after a moment, the three of them still walking as the rebels chanted 'Brave warriors' five times, raising their weapons as they did so, "Is to find Angel."

"Yes." Wesley agreed.

"Find Angel? Given what he's like right now? Yeah, there's a great idea." Lilah cut in. "Are you freaking kidding me? I think our priority should be avoiding Angel, at least until he's back in control of his inner vampire!"

"Yeah, guess that's a good point. I mean, last time we saw him, he did have a funny look on his face." Gunn agreed with the understatement of the century. "Kind of a rip-out-your-guts-now, ask-questions-later look."

"Exactly." Lilah gestured at Gunn with an open hand. "Which is exactly why we need to go in the opposite direction from Angel. Or else just get out of this damn dimension altogether." The last suggestion was made with the sarcasm of someone who knew it was never going to happen. Besides, in the long term, leaving Angel behind probably wouldn't serve her needs either.

"We aren't just leaving him here." Wesley said with finality, and Gunn made no sound or move of protest. "And even if that was an option, the only way we can leave this world would be with the books that are still in the Covenant's possession. And we need to get Cordelia, who is in the castle. Not to mention," He added, "That Lorne is still somewhere around, and we need to find him too."

"That's putting an awful lot on our plate." Gunn looked back at the rebels. "You know, these guys may have won a skirmish here...but they've got nothing on the Covenant." He shook his head, "I'm not thrilled at the idea of just leaving them to die."

"I can't say I am either." Wesley agreed softly. "And they would come in handy if we need to incapacitate Angel...and our interests where Cordelia is concerned do align."

"So we get a bunch of expendables to help us do the job?" Lilah smirked. "Well. That's the best idea I've heard yet out of either of you."

"They're not cannon fodder, Lilah. I've no intention of simply using them as -" He looked at Gunn, "What was that term you used last week? 'Meat shields'?"

"Yea," Gunn nodded. "That's the one." He looked at Lilah, "I'm not wanting to leave them to die, but I don't plan on leading them to die either."

Too bad. Way I figure it, it'll have to happen. No way everyone will make it out of this alive. And the rebels were more expendable, as far as her needs were concerned, than Wesley or Gunn were.

"Fine." She conceded, raising her hands halfway, palms facing them, "You've made your point. Let's get started then." She gestured widely back towards the rebels, "After you two."