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Guest1320: Thanks for the review, and glad it was interesting. Yeah, Ensouled Spike would be friends with everyone here. Yeah, I remember those. And interesting on that comic. Glad to hear it. Thanks.
Chapter 11- Arrival
Los Angeles
Angel was in pain. Nothing like what he had felt earlier, of course, but his whole body stung. Every time he moved, the still-healing burns sent sharp splinters into his flesh that went down bone deep.
Wesley and Cordelia had taken off for what they were all calling Monster Island, with Spike, Willow, Xander, Lorne, Piper, Paige, Leo, Dean and Bobby in tow.
Now Angel drove stiffly along the Los Angeles backstreets— the dangerous neighborhoods that most of the traffic avoided— heading for the warehouse Gunn's crew still used as their main base of operations. Some of the streetlights were out, and there wasn't much by way of typical L.A. neon in this neighborhood, but what illumination there was striated the hood and windshield of the convertible.
Buffy sat on the passenger's seat. Fred was in the backseat, along with Tara, Sam and Phoebe. Though Angel had met Willow's girlfriend before, he still was not sure what to make of her. On the outside was a kind of vulnerability that made him want to protect her, a classic damsel in distress, and yet, he sensed something resonating inside her, a steely resolve that told him that when put to the test, she might well be as strong-willed as any of them. Stronger, even.
The combination of Tara and Fred, in whom Angel had sensed a similar internal power upon first meeting her, was odd, to say the least.
He had only just met Sam, but the drive in him to help, and the resolve against what they were facing, that was already impressing him. He hadn't interacted much with Dean but it had seemed even stronger in him.
Phoebe seemed nice, and had provided quite some helpful info with the Book of Shadows.
Fred would mutter something that seemed nonsensical to Angel, Buffy, Sam and Phoebe, but Tara would smile and say, "I know" with a certain inflection that made Angel wonder if the two weren't communicating telepathically.
Not that he thought they were, but the women seemed to have formed an instant bond.
The headlights in Angel's rearview mirror belonged to Gunn's truck. He and Calvin were following behind, more to keep the teenager away from the rest of them in case something should happen than because they couldn't have squeezed in together.
Angel turned left along a one-way street that was little more than an alley. His own headlights splashed across a dumpster and a bunch of broken wooden palettes. A police car was pulled up to a loading dock on the left, but it was empty and dark.
"James Ellroy, eat your heart out," Buffy said.
"You read James Ellroy?" Angel asked, raising an eyebrow as he shot Buffy a sidelong glance.
"I might," she replied, not looking at him. After a moment, a sweet smile came to her face. "Okay. I saw LA. Confidential. Watched the extras on the DVD."
"Not much time for reading in this line of work," Angel observed, trying to reassure her.
"No," Buffy sadly agreed. "No, there isn't."
They were quiet after that. Tara and Fred continued their shorthand conversation of half-sentences and knowing mutterings, while the rest were silent.
"Here we are," Angel said as he pulled the convertible up to the curb at the rear of the warehouse where Gunn's crew hung out.
He glanced at Buffy, then back at Tara, and then Sam and Phoebe. "Follow Gunn's lead on this. Most of the traps set out are for vampires, but his friends don't take kindly to uninvited visitors even when they're human."
"Real social butterflies, huh?" Buffy replied. She didn't wait for an answer, just leaped out of the convertible without using the door.
"Think they'd take kindly to a hunter though?" Sam inquired.
"Well, there might be a chance", Angel shrugged, as he, Tara, Fred, Sam and Phoebe got out, with Gunn and Calvin parking the truck and catching up with them too.
"So the whole gang's here", Phoebe quipped. "The gang that's left, that is."
"How we doin'?" Gunn asked, looking at the rest.
"Following your lead," Buffy replied.
Gunn nodded, turning to Calvin. "You stick with me."
Calvin blew air out of his mouth in a noise of dismissal. "Gunn, you been out of the neighborhood a while. They my boys too. No one's gonna come down on me."
The teenager started toward the back door of the warehouse, and Gunn reached out and snatched the back of his shirt, hauling him backward. "Maybe not on purpose, Calvin. But you go in that door right now, the rest of us will be hosing your remains off the pavement."
The kid's eyes went wide. Angel tried not to smile.
"After you," Tara said, gesturing for Gunn to lead them. Gunn shook his head in mock disgust at Calvin and headed off to the left, along the back of the warehouse, away from the booby-trapped doors.
A huge metal fire escape was attached to the rear of the building but came down only to a place about a dozen feet above the ground. There were no streetlights on this stretch of road, or if there had been they had been broken. But Angel's night vision was better than a human's and he could see that up in the scaffolding of the fire escape there was another ladder, an extension ladder that had been painted black and was not a part of the original structure.
From his pocket Gunn withdrew a small flip phone. He punched in a sequence of numbers and clapped it to his ear.
"It's Gunn," he said. "Sweet Christmas."
He closed the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. Angel watched him carefully, bemused, and when Gunn looked up he just had to ask, "Sweet Christmas?"
"Just something a guy from the neighborhood used to say. Guy we all looked up to," Gunn explained. "It's this week's password. 'Course they'll change it now when they realize you've all heard it."
"This is pretty well-managed", Sam said, impressed.
With a ratcheting of gears, the black-painted extension ladder began to lower itself toward the ground.
"Whoa," Calvin uttered.
"Gotta like it," Buffy observed. She glanced at Gunn. "Motor and chain for a garage door opener?"
Gunn looked surprised. "Yeah."
"You boys have a nice clubhouse. Can girls join?" the Slayer inquired.
"Not a lot of playing in this clubhouse," Gunn replied grimly. "But yeah, there's women in the crew too. Girls, even. We all got something to fight for."
"Do they ever feel like you abandoned them?" Tara asked. "Working with ..." Her words trailed off as though she had suddenly realized where her train of thought was taking her. Tara flushed a bit, but Buffy gave her an encouraging look.
Gunn glanced at Angel before answering. "I guess they do. Keep tryin' to tell them I got a chance to step up to the Majors, fight our fight on a whole other level. Sometimes I think they get it. Sometimes I know they don't."
"Must be hard", Phoebe noted, sad for the young man.
"It is", Gunn replied. "Until I remind myself why I'm with Angel."
The ladder touched down, the gears grinding to a halt. Gunn reached out to steady it and ushered Calvin up first. He glanced pointedly at Angel. "You go last. You know you make them skittish, especially with that nasty-ass sunburn."
Angel nodded and waited patiently as Gunn, Buffy, Sam, Fred, Tara and Phoebe preceded him. When they had all scrambled up the extension ladder and were mounting the metal stairs of the real fire escape, the sound of the chain and the gears began again and the ladder began to rise.
By reflex, Angel looked beneath him to make absolutely certain nothing had followed them up the ladder. Only the shadows below. When he reached the roof he was met with the mouth of a blowtorch, spitting blue fire at him with a hiss.
He froze at the top of the fire escape. Beyond the blowtorch and the grim-faced, one-eyed, twentyish man holding it, he saw Buffy, Gunn, and the others all standing with Calvin and a couple of guys from Gunn's crew he recognized.
He chose to ignore the blowtorch, climbing the rest of the way to the roof, physically forcing One-Eye to either burn him or back off. The grim young man took several steps back, but still watched Angel warily. The vampire did not blame him; nearly every one among Gunn's crew—or what had once been Gunn's crew—had lost loved ones to vampires. It was only natural for them to be suspicious.
"So," Angel said, shooting Gunn a dark look, "if we're done with all the welding, why don't we see what we've got?"
"Yeah, I'm not very fond of wasting time, especially with my brother and Bobby going over there", Sam commented, looking towards Gunn himself.
Gunn glanced at the two men he had been speaking with, then gestured toward the door on top of the warehouse that led down inside the building. Tara, Fred and Phoebe followed Gunn and Calvin down the stairs.
Angel hesitated a moment, but it appeared Mr. Blowtorch and his two friends were going to stay topside, so he and Buffy followed the others.
"Gunn's friends are a little jumpy," Buffy whispered to him as they went down through the metal-and-concrete stairwell.
"One way to put it," Angel agreed. At the bottom there was a door that led onto the floor of the warehouse. Gunn rapped hard on it three times and waited for it to be opened. When it was, they all stepped into a vast, poorly lit section of the building where cars were being worked on and racks of weapons lined the walls.
Various members of the crew were out on the floor working on various projects, and Angel and Sam spotted a young priest in a white collar amongst them. That was new, but they were not surprised. Faith was a powerful weapon against these kinds of vampires, against evil. Why not recruit someone who could wield it?
From across the warehouse floor came a phalanx of half a dozen members of the crew, led by a diminutive, dangerous-looking Latina woman. She went immediately to Calvin and gave him a big hug, kissing him the way a mother or older sister might. But when she looked up from the teenager, she was all business.
"Gunn," the woman said, "we expected you earlier."
"We got a lot going on, Lucinda."
The woman, Lucinda, glanced dubiously at Fred, Tara, Phoebe and Buffy. Angel could read the doubt in her expression. He figured a woman her size ought to know better than to judge the value of a combatant by his or her appearance, but he chose to say nothing—particularly given the sneer on her face when she finally looked at him after having turned from Sam whom she'd regarded neutrally, carefully studying the places on his face and hands that were still burned from his close call with the sun.
"Yeah. So do we," Lucinda sniffed. Then she looked at Gunn. "Only reason we're going along with this is 'cause if it's as big as you say, it'll affect us all."
"That's for sure," Fred said, her voice low.
Lucinda glared at her, stepped over, and looked her up and down. "You this 'Vampire Slayer' I keep hearing about?"
Fred's eyes went wide, and then she looked at the ground. "Oh, gosh, no. Not me."
The woman glanced at Tara, but only for a moment before looking to Phoebe for a moment, and then her gaze settled on Buffy.
"Yeah," Buffy said. "Me."
"You don't look like much," Lucinda said doubtfully. Buffy defiantly locked eyes with her.
"Neither do you."
Sam remembered Dean one-upping Buffy with Lucifer, but remembered what she'd said too. "Well, have you taken on a Hell Goddess?"
Lucinda glanced at Sam in shock, then turned to Buffy.
"All right, then. Why don't you all come have a look at our guest?" Lucinda said, turning to lead them back the way she had come, across the floor of the warehouse, past all the others who worked on various projects there. "We've got some information out of him that might be helpful, and I think we're not too far away from getting the rest."
"You're already working on this?" asked Angel. Lucinda only laughed.
Gunn glanced back at Angel. "They've been working on it. Had a little more luck than you did."
"Well, there's a lot more of them," Buffy said helpfully.
One of the other members of the crew, who had fallen behind, snorted in derision. "And we don't have to hide from the sun."
"There's that," Gunn agreed.
Angel said nothing. These people might not answer to Gunn anymore, but they had still developed into their own little anti-supernatural army, right there in the dark heart of Los Angeles. It was impressive, and a little unnerving.
"Think we'll find what we're looking for here?" Phoebe asked Sam in a whisper.
"These people are very well organized. And I've met quite a few hunters", Sam assured her. "I think we'll get a lot."
Lucinda led them to a trailer truck that looked as though it hadn't run in years and had long since been abandoned. The crew had use for the trailer, apparently, for there was a pair of guards with axes standing beside the rear doors of the huge metal box.
"We checked all our sources," Lucinda said. "And we weren't real polite about it. Came up with this guy."
At a nod from the woman, one of the two guards unlocked the rear doors of the trailer and pulled them open. Inside, the place was empty save for a metal chair to which had been chained a Lei-Ach demon. Angel had not seen one in years.
"Hey," Buffy said. "I've seen this species before." She frowned, turning to Lucinda. "But they don't speak English. How did you get any information—"
"Bite me, you filthy bitch," the Lei-Ach demon snarled.
"There's your answer", Phoebe muttered.
Tara actually flinched at the words.
Buffy glared at it. "Reminds me why I killed them all the first time I ran into them." The Lei-Ach, its face gray and leathery, mottled as if with disease, snaked out its long black tongue, and made obscene noises with it.
Fred blushed slightly and looked away, but Angel and Sam studied it more closely. The Lei-Ach had been severely beaten. Its left leg was broken above the knee and was already badly swollen. There were severe burns on its chest and neck, and all of the fingers on its right hand had been shattered. They were mangled and bloody, edges of broken bone jutting out from the skin.
"Who did this to it?" Angel asked.
Lucinda raised an eyebrow. "I did. Why, you soft on these freaks?"
Angel studied the brutalized demon. "Given that they're mainly known for sucking the bone marrow out of their victims, I'm not inclined to care much. Just wondering if it was necessary."
"It's horrible," Tara spoke up.
Fred took a timid step forward, her gaze ticking from the tortured Lei-Ach to Lucinda. "Isn't there another way to do this?"
"Maybe," Lucinda admitted. "But none that I know, and we've got a time crunch, anyway, don't we?"
"I'd say that's right", Sam sighed. "I guess sometimes its necessary."
"What's wrong with you guys?" Calvin asked. He had been quiet since they had arrived, tagging along but not making a nuisance of himself. Now they all turned to look at him, and the kid had a grim, dark look on his face, his eyes narrowed. "It's a demon. You heard Angel. It kills people and eats their bone marrow. It's evil, and you're gonna cry over it?"
"Well, I wouldn't put it that way," Tara replied awkwardly.
"Nobody's crying," Fred said.
Gunn rapped his knuckles on the metal wall of the trailer. "It's a monster. And there's a whole army of 'em out there, with plans that include us only if we're on the menu. End of story."
"Can't argue with that logic," Buffy said.
"All right," Angel agreed. He turned to Lucinda. "So what have you learned?"
Lucinda stared in at the Lei-Ach demon, which began to curse loudly in its own language as well as in English. "This general—Axtius? His assault team is ready. Demon troops just waiting to go. Even our friend here wasn't sure how many he's got," Lucinda said, gesturing at the bleeding, mangled Lei-Ach. "They're headed out to some island. Couldn't get much more than that. Gonna slaughter everyone there, and that's just their first stop."
Buffy glanced over at Angel and he saw a familiar gleam in her eye. "Okay. Maybe we can't stop him going there. There's only a few of us and a whole lot of them. But we've gotta be able to slow him down so we can prepare the islanders. Any idea exactly how Axtius was planning to transport this huge army across the ocean?"
Lucinda's eyes darkened. "I asked. He wouldn't say."
"We need to know," Tara said. "Willow's out there. We have to buy her some time."
"My sisters and Leo too", Phoebe said, hoping they'd be fine.
Lucinda put her hands on her hips and shot Tara and Phoebe a hard look, mostly Tara though. "Well, we could maybe find out, but I wouldn't wanna hurt your gentle sensitivities by damaging the marrow-sucking homicidal demon anymore."
Before Tara could respond, Calvin stormed toward the rear of the trailer.
"Hell, let me do it!" the teenager snapped. Gunn grabbed him and held him back. Angel saw the discomfort in Fred's eyes and in the way Tara stood, uncertain, knowing what had to be done but not wanting any part of it.
"Give me a minute," Angel said. He stepped inside the trailer and reached back to close the doors behind him. Buffy grabbed the door, holding it open so that she could enter with him, and Sam stepped in too.
The vitriolic demon laughed and swore at them. Two minutes later it told them that Axtius had engaged a huge freighter called the Marianne to take his troops across to the island.
"So that's our next step," Angel said quietly, gazing at Buffy over the silent, sulking, bloody form of the chained demon. "We sink his boat."
"Could be fun", Buffy shrugged.
"And very useful", Sam added.
The fishing boat was being piloted towards Monster Island, by a Captain Hobbs, whom Zeke had assured them was trustworthy, and his regular ride to the island.
It was night, but Spike had gone as below deck as he could to sleep, and to avoid sunlight.
Cordelia, Wesley and Bobby were in deep conversation with Zeke in the main cabin, but Willow had gotten queasy so she'd come out for some fresh air.
Being away from Tara felt strange to Willow. Her girlfriend would have chided her for worrying, but there was anxiousness in her mind that couldn't be dispelled. She didn't want to be away from her, especially in a situation like this. She wanted them to face it together. At least that's what she'd tell Tara. Truth was she wanted Tara to be away from danger forever, even though it was impossible.
"Worried for your lady love?" A kindly voice asked behind her.
It was Lorne, now standing beside her, kindness in his eyes. Even without his reading powers, Willow found him quite perceptive, so it'd be useless to hide the truth from him.
"She'll be all right", Lorne assured her. "She has got Angel, Gunn, Sam, a Charmed One and your Slayer friend with her. They'll take care of her."
Willow smiled. "I know. But I wish I was taking care of her."
Dean and Xander had been talking to Hobbs, before they joined them on deck, Xander saying. "Gotta say, your Witchy woman can take care of herself. She's a sweet girl, but a tough cookie, a chocolate-chip cookie, see where I'm going with the snack metaphor?"
"I think you're hungry", Lorne shrugged.
"He's always hungry", Willow told him.
"I get it", Dean assured her, sitting down. "Sammy, people don't consider him a one-man army, which seems to be the perception of me for some reason, but he can hang in with the worst of them. In spite of all that, well, he is my little brother. I wanted him on the job with me. Saving people, hunting things. The family business. But, I always wanna take care of him, because I'm the big brother. And while you and her are a couple, you're probably the more powerful one I guess, and she is shy as a wallflower. You want to be there for her, always."
Willow nodded, realizing Dean was getting her.
"But, at day's end, we gotta realize, they're capable enough themselves."
"Yeah, that'd be true", Piper said, popping in with Paige and Leo. "My two sons have come to meet me from the future at times."
"Wait what?" Xander asked in shock. "Time travel is-"
"Yeah, it is, done it quite a few times", Leo told him as well. "Pretty handy."
"Oh yeah, I've done it too", Dean said, his expression. "Not as good an experience as you lot though."
"And while they're grown up, and amongst the most powerful people in the world", Piper continued telling Willow. "At day's end, I will worry for them, whether they are in the future or present."
"Because they're our children", Leo held Piper's hand. "And it's not just limited to that. People we love so much, we just want to be the ones looking after them, even if they can do it themselves. Its just a thing."
"Yeah", Paige finished the conversation. "It is, and no matter what, it just never goes away."
It was silent for a while after that.
"So, Mr. Greenjeans", Xander started talking to Lorne. "Any idea how we could get the islanders to defend themselves from the army? Would it be like in the Western movies where training works?"
Lorne raised an eyebrow. "Don't look at me. Angel sweet-talked me into this one."
"Actually, it was Cordelia", Willow said. "We're all here for a reason. Wesley has the book learning and is the leader. Cordelia knows some of these people from saving their lives before. Zeke is our ambassador. Bobby has the most experience out of any of the humans here. Dean, you said it, you're like a one-man army, and have gone up against the worst of things, like the real Devil. Piper, you've the best power of any of us Witches, Paige, you also have the orbing stuff and knowledge. Leo, you too have a vast knowledge from the Whitelighter days. I'm mojo girl myself. Spike's muscle, and probably some nasty strategy we're all to nice to think of."
"Not to mention Gunn would have killed him if he'd been left", Lorne added.
"The tears we won't have shed", Xander scoffed.
"Now listen", Piper said, causing Xander to turn to her. "He is a messed up guy, but right now, a lot of his bad behavior looks like a response to how you all treat him."
"He is a pre-dust bunny is all", Xander defended himself.
"Maybe he's trying to be more, and you just can't see it", Piper wasn't having any of it, and Xander realized she wasn't gonna let him spout his hatred of Spike here.
Willow stepped in to continue her previous conversation, pointing to Lorne. "You're our semi-seer and Demon language translator. Xander, you still have the magickal military training bouncing inside you, so there could be some soldier thinking inside."
"Wait what?" Dean looked to Xander. "Magical military?"
"Long story. Magick. Halloween. Army man memories. Complicated stuff", Xander shrugged. "Not too important."
As they looked ahead, Willow asked. "So, is the island shielded by some spell?"
"Yeah, it is. And its why I can't orb us there either", Paige revealed to Willow.
"And the ward influences boaters to navigate around without even realizing it", Lorne added. "We'd all like to be that invisible sometimes, I reckon."
"It seems Satanel, Addwaitya and Hex would be powerful enough to get past this magic though", Piper spoke grimly, as she, Paige and Willow gulped, knowing even with Tara and Phoebe, these three would be too much for the five of them. "And we'll be the only line of defence of these people against Axtius' army."
Suddenly, night seemed to sparkle around the fishing boat, and it shuddered as if snagged on something. Then the clear night was transformed into a thick, glistening mist.
"And that's why I and magic didn't have the best of relations", Dean groaned.
"Looks like we're there", Leo noted.
Zeke bounded up onto the deck, his lemon skin strangely complementing the lime of Lorne's. The Miquot demon strode across the fishing boat so quickly that he had reached the prow before Cordelia, Wesley and Bobby emerged from the cabin.
"There it is," Zeke said, his voice husky with emotion. "Questral."
"Questral?" Willow asked, as Piper, Paige, Leo, Lorne, Dean and Xander joined her and Zeke at the front of the boat, all of them admiring the view of the lights of the harbor ahead.
"My home," Zeke replied. He glanced at Willow, smiling. "You call it 'Monster Island.'"
There was very little talk amongst them as Hobbs navigated the boat through the waters of the harbor. Willow was filled with an almost childlike excitement, and her mind whirled with thoughts about Monster Island—Questral.
Here was a civilization made up entirely of nonhumans. In the midst of the twenty-first century, off the coast of one of the largest cities in America, an entire island filled with demons of all breeds, a bizarre Utopia. Benevolent demons, and perhaps some who were not so benevolent but who had surrendered their hatreds and enmities for the dream of peaceful coexistence.
It was truly a marvel.
Dean himself had his eyes narrowed, thinking about the implication. All his life, he'd hunted Demons. Sure, there had been some good ones, like Lenore and her pack, but an island full of peacefully coexisting Demons? His horizons had expanded with this info.
The fishing boat drew closer, and they could see more details. The village that spread out behind the harbor was a patchwork of architectural styles. There were dwellings that were similar to human houses clustered in one place, and a series of treetop structures that must have belonged to a specific demon tribe in another.
To the north was a grouping of huts such as one might have found in Southeast Asia, and to the south what appeared to be enormous anthills jutting from the earth, undoubtedly the home of some underground species.
In the center of the harbor village, where all of these sorts of living arrangements seemed to have been gathered in an extraordinary, almost surreal town square, electric lampposts shared space with blazing torches. Willow imagined there must be at least a few shops and restaurants, supplying the denizens of Monster Island with goods and services.
Despite the horrifying enormity of all of this existing here— a kind of microcosm of all of the demonic species and subspecies that roamed the world in secret—she felt her heart swell with wonder. Hobbs carefully brought them up alongside a dock, where Zeke leaped off and grabbed a mooring line to tie up the boat. Dean dropped to the dock and gave him a hand, tying off the aft of the vessel.
Willow was transfixed by the view she'd had of the island as they came in, but now the harbor itself and some of the small, thatched buildings nearby kept her from seeing much more. She was particularly interested in those anthill-like dwellings, but knew that her curiosity had to be put on hold for now.
They were here to help the islanders, not to study them.
"It's beautiful," Lorne said.
"It is," Cordelia agreed, as the rest of them began to climb down to join Dean and Zeke on the dock.
"Oh, sure," Xander added. "Until they eat us."
"Thank you for your uplifting outlook," Wesley chided him. "I for one find it all fascinating. I'm wondering, also, if that mountainous area beyond the main village is volcanic. There might be something we can do with that, defense-wise."
"Yeah, it is beautiful, and we need to protect it, without an outlook like yours", Piper said, shooting Xander a look.
Willow had barely noticed the mountain—really more of a large hill—that loomed above the lush, tropical forest of Questral. Now she saw that Wesley was right. There was likely to be some way to put the terrain here to their advantage when Axtius's attack came. But they would need time. It was good, though, that they were already thinking along those lines.
Wesley was already thinking ahead, planning and strategizing. There were shouts from the end of the dock. A pair of small demons of the same species—each with six arms and four eyes that glowed red in the dark— were coming toward them, gesticulating wildly with their many upper limbs.
A third hung back on the wharf. It threw back its head and loosed an ululating cry that Willow was certain was some kind of alarm.
"And there's the welcoming committee", Bobby growled.
The two six-armed demons rushed forward, and Zeke stepped out in front to greet them. They were agitated and began to shout at him in a language that seemed all glottal stops and spitting. Zeke argued with them in a rough approximation of their own language, gesturing wildly toward Willow and the others.
"What are they?" Willow asked.
"Bazhripa," Lorne replied by her side. He touched her elbow politely so that he could slip by her.
"Lorne!" Cordelia called, only to find him already moving past her, Wesley and Bobby to join Zeke in conversation with the two Bazhripa. Meanwhile, the screaming of the third one had already begun to gather a large crowd.
Willow and Paige felt a chill sweep through them as they watched their numbers increase, and for the first time since they landed the group had a real sense that if things went poorly, they might well have put their lives in peril just coming here, however noble their intentions.
Amongst the gathering crowd they saw a multitude of varying demon breeds, things with horns and fins, with many eyes and no eyes. There were Durslar Beasts and Skench demons, a Vahrall or two, and so many other things.
Serpentine things and tiny things that might have been porcupines if not that they were armed. They came in every color and size, and had horns and fangs, tusks and antlers. There were monstrous things that looked as though they might have crawled out of the deepest ocean trench, skittering things that once had lurked beneath the beds of human children. So many breeds had gathered there.
And they all looked pissed.
The gathering of demons remained at the wharfs edge, horrified spectators to the unfolding drama of Zeke and Lorne trying to reason with the furious, six-armed Bazhripa.
Willow, Piper, Paige, Leo, Dean and Xander moved closer to Cordelia.
"What are they saying? Any idea?" Willow asked.
Cordelia shot her a frustrated glance. "No clue. Can you whip up some hocus pocus, nice light show, maybe scare off the locals so we can have a calmer conversation here?"
"Don't think it'd gain us any trust points", Piper pointed out.
"Decidedly not," Wesley agreed. "We've got to be very careful here. We need these people to trust us."
Cordelia grabbed Lorne by the arm. "Hey! Could we get a little info back here? What's going on?"
"What do you think?" Lorne sighed. "Zeke isn't exactly supposed to be bringing tourists to the island. Especially human tourists."
"Tourists?" Xander snapped. "They think we're here for the fun of it?"
"They don't want us here at all," Wesley said, "but they do need us. Zeke, can you and Lorne try to explain to them—"
"We're trying!" Zeke said, but the six-armed demons seemed only to become more agitated. On the wharf, many more had gathered. They were all jockeying for a decent view of the goings-on.
"Okay. Enough of this. We don't have time for screwing around," Cordelia said. She grabbed Lorne by the hand and shot a glance back at Willow, Dean, Piper, Paige and Leo. "Come with me."
Though the Bazhripa tried to stop her, Cordelia marched down the dock until she was face-to-face with the gathered islanders, Lorne, Willow, Dean, Piper, Paige and Leo alongside her.
"Idjits", Bobby muttered about the islanders. "Don't even realize they're in danger."
"Translate," Cordelia said, tapping Lorne on the arm. Then she smiled at the islanders, and Willow recognized that smile. It was her radiant Homecoming Queen candidate smile, the smile she probably had used for auditions when she first came down to L.A. in search of an acting career.
"Citizens of Questral Island," she said. "My associates and I wish you no harm. We come, unfortunately, with pretty darn bad news, but we are here as friends, to offer what help we can."
Lorne quickly translated what she had said, and the crowd quieted down instantly. Willow stood up straighter, trying to look as impressive as she could manage without any actual magick. The truth was she didn't feel very impressive, but she figured if Cordelia could act all regal, she could too.
Wesley and Bobby walked up behind Cordelia.
"She speaks true," Wesley said. "We are friends. We wish to speak with the august Assemblage who govern your island on a matter most dire."
"And regardless of what you think of us, or what we may think of you", Dean now spoke. "A crime against Demons or humans has no difference. It's a crime either way, and we won't let it happen to you."
There was a pause. Some of the demons undoubtedly spoke English, unlike the Bazhripa who had at first accosted Zeke— and who now stood back warily, ready to attack if any of them should make even a threatening gesture.
Then from behind the crowd of demons who watched them, these vulnerable newcomers there on the dock, came a deep, rasping voice, like the creaking of ancient, rusted hinges.
"And who, may I ask, are you?"
Instantly a path appeared in the mass of demons. They scrambled aside as quickly as possible to make way for the being who approached the wharf now, whose terrible voice had carried across the land and the dock and out over the water.
"Dai'shu," Zeke whispered hurriedly as the tall demon stepped down onto the wharf. "Yill demon. He's a member of the Assemblage. And a sorcerer."
And a sorcerer. The Witches turned that over in their heads a moment as they studied the new arrival. Dai'shu wore robes so long, they dragged on the ground as he walked. His torso was impossibly long, his legs and arms somewhat truncated, and his face was grotesque, the skin tugged obscenely back by a crown of spines that jutted from his scalp backward.
The Yill were apparently hairless, but these spines—eight or nine all told— jutted back from Dai'shu's bald pate in a strange approximation of windblown hair. There was something unspeakable about them, and Willow tried not to stare.
"My name is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce," the former Watcher said, stepping forward only to then move aside and bow toward Bobby and Cordelia. "This is Bobby Singer. And this is Cordelia Chase, the Princess of Pylea."
A rumble of mutterings went through the crowd. Then a trio of demons who were humanoid save the hideousness of their features pushed out of the onlookers. One of them, a female who appeared to be the oldest, called out to Dai'shu.
"She is!" the female declared. "I recognize her. I know not if she's a princess, but she is Cordelia Chase. They saved my family, saved all my tribe!"
Dai'shu peered at Cordelia through slitted eyes. In the illumination cast by the torches and streetlamps of the harbor village it was difficult to tell, but Willow thought that his eyes might have been glowing a dim blue. With that hideous, stretched-out face bent forward to study them all, the sorcerer seemed to float along the dock toward Cordelia.
"Is this true, Princess of Pylea?"
Before Cordelia could reply, or Piper and Paige could reveal who they were to the sorcerer, who could know of them, a loud groan could be heard from behind them on the dock.
They whipped their heads around in alarm only to see Spike standing shirtless on the deck of the fishing boat, angry burn scars still visible on his white flesh. He was obviously freshly woken from sleep. Rubbing at his eyes he glanced at the enormous gathering of demons and the tall, monstrous sorcerer who loomed over Cordelia.
Spike sniffed and looked down his nose at Dai'shu as if he had just smelled something awful.
"What's all this, then?" he asked.
With a roar, the Bazhripa warriors rushed at the fishing boat in a fit of rage, screaming a single word in their guttural language. Up on the wharf the menagerie of demon clans and tribes began to shout, some of them fleeing back toward the village and others moving onto the dock.
Dai'shu's eyes were wide, and his face became even more grotesque as he sneered at them. Willow felt a powerful hand on her arm, and she was spun around to face Zeke, who held her tight, his features very cruel up close like that, the fin on his head a golden color in the moonlight.
"A vampire!" Zeke snarled. "He's a vampire?"
"Is that what they're yelling?" Willow asked.
"He's a vampire?" Zeke roared again.
Willow shrugged. "Yeah?"
"Damn you!" Zeke said. "Why did no one tell me? Vampires are banned from Questral upon penalty of death should anyone allow them. They are the only banned demonic race. They have no conscience and cannot be trusted. They're going to execute us all!"
"That's wishful thinking, buttercup," Lorne said. "They're not going to wait for anything so formal as an execution."
Wesley, Bobby and Cordelia backed up, and Xander rushed forward so that they were all grouped together there on the dock as the demons rushed in to surround them, brandishing weapons and shouting threats and curses in a hundred languages.
"Not going the way we were expecting", Paige said, looking around grimly.
"Should we tell them who we are?" Piper inquired.
"Would that work?" Dean asked. "If it doesn't, get us out of here."
"Assuming what kept us out doesn't keep us in", Leo noted with a groan.
"Oh crap," Xander whispered in Willow's ear.
Dai'shu began to float, eyes glowing a fiery blue, and he raised his hands and shouted an order to the crowd.
"Tear the intruders apart and bring me their eyes to eat."
So the groups have split up, for now that is.
And its already a mess on Monster Island.
Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.