Charlie looked up at the office building and swallowed. Hard.
After she had conned the slayer into telling her where Andrew was being held, she and Cas and the flying monkeys had high-tailed it to LA. Reigna and Simon had accompanied them as far as the nearest gas station, where Simon had flatly refused to go any further. Against Castiel's recommendation, Charlie had used the key on the bathroom door and sent the two back to Oz. Cas and Charlie continued on.
When they were close to LA, they checked into a cheap hotel and planned their next move.
"Alright, so, apparently that slayer - whose name I never got, by the way - thought I was another slayer that she knew. I'm guessing that's my double in this world," Charlie had rambled as she paced around the room. "So it's likely that everyone in her camp will think that I'm her, which means I should be able to bluff my way into getting to see Andrew."
"You have to be careful, Charlie," Cas had warned. "Your double must be running around somewhere. If your identity is discovered-" the rest of Castiel's warning was lost to a violent coughing fit. Charlie had helped him to sit on the bed.
"Cas, bud, you're not looking too good," Charlie had said nervously. Castiel sighed.
"I fear I'm near the end of my time," he rasped. "I doubt I'll be much good to you." Charlie had frowned anxiously.
"Tell you what, Cas. You rest up here, and after I get the info I need, we'll see if there's any magic in this world that can help you out with your whole...dying, problem," she said awkwardly. Castiel had glared at her reproachfully.
"Don't get your hopes up," he had whispered. Castiel had turned over on the moth-eaten bed and passed out after that, succumbing to his exhaustion. Charlie had watched him sleep for a moment before heading out on her mission.
She now stood in front of the office building, staring upwards at the shining facade. She squared her shoulders and tried to think 'slayer' as she approached the door. A scifi looking scanner popped out of a hidden compartment and scanned her biometrics. Then the door snapped open revealing an ordinary looking lobby. She walked in confidently, trying to pretend like she belonged there. Absolutely no one, none of the casual-to-business attired individuals running around the ornate lobby, gave her a second glance. Charlie was heartened by this and strolled up to the receptionist desk.
"Hello," Charlie said brightly to the bespectacled man sitting behind the large desk. The man looked up at her blandly. "Can you tell me where I can find Andrew Wells?" she asked politely. He rolled his eyes.
"Hang on," he said, beginning to type furiously on his computer. Charlie watched him for a moment, anxiously chewing on her lip. Suddenly she felt an iron grip on her shoulder spinning her around.
"Vi!" the woman holding her yelled. Charlie blinked at the young Asian woman. Charlie blinked.
"Yes! Hello?" she greeted, trying not to let her uncertainty show. The girl grinned at her.
"Here to see Andrew? Me too!" she said without waiting for an answer. "I was with him earlier I can show you the way. Come on!" The girl pulled her towards a bank of elevators. Charlie resisted instinctively for a moment and then decided to go with the flow. She'd worry about getting Andrew alone after she found out where he was.
The girl chattered at her on the elevator ride up and through the hallways. Charlie tried her best to deflect any questions. The floor that they had stopped on had distinctly more security than the rest of the building. Charlie followed the other woman past several security scanners (both magical and mechanical), past locked doors, and past armed guards, to a room at the end of a hallway.
When they entered the room it looked less like a hospital and more like a hotel bedroom. There was the obligatory heart monitor and IV stand by the bed but the rest of the room was very comfortable and homey-looking. A nurse stood by the bed, taking readings and jotting things on a chart. Charlie looked at the boy in the bed, trying not to let her feelings show.
He was asleep. Charlie was struck by how very very young he looked. And how very very gay. He was definitely not what she had pictured when she imagined someone enslaving her monkey friends. The nurse looked up. She shook her head.
"I'm so sorry," she said softly. "I just put him under a healing sleep. It'll allow him to regain his mystic energy much more quickly."
Charlie groaned inwardly.
"Aw, that's tough luck. Sorry, Vi," the girl next to her said regretfully.
"How long until he's awake?" Charlie asked. The nurse shrugged.
"I'm going to wake him up in about an hour. It's dangerous to leave him in this state for too long, not sure how far he'll sink down. Don't want a sleeping beauty situation on our hands."
"Come on, Vi. We can wait it out," the girl next to her said, steering her out of the room. They walked back past the measures of security but when they got to the elevators the girl kept walking in the other direction.
"I hope you don't mind, Vi, but one of my friends is in the ward with all the psychics. I wanna check on him."
"Psychics?" Charlie asked distractedly. Her mind was still focused on puzzling out how to get to Andrew alone. The girl gave her a strange, calculating look which Charlie missed.
"Yeah, you hadn't heard? All the psychics in the world and basically anyone tuned into the powers-that-be started going all crazy pants a few days ago?"
Charlie nodded, trying to look like this wasn't disturbing information. Privately, she wondered if this had anything to do with her arrival in the world. The other girl shrugged and pushed open a set of swinging doors. They walked into a long ward with multiple beds along the wall. Charlie snapped back to the present as she realized what she was seeing. All of the individuals, most of whom were human, were strapped down in various stages of consciousness. Some were gagged. All of them appeared to be out of their minds.
The other girl watched her take this in.
"Yeah, it's pretty disturbing," she murmured. Charlie stepped forwards, looking at a brunette girl to her left. Charlie suddenly felt something sharp poking into her back.
"It was disturbing the first time you saw it too."
Charlie inhaled shallowly. She held her arms up placatingly.
"What are you doing?" she asked quietly. "We're friends."
"Oh yeah? Then what's my name?" the woman asked. Charlie scrunched up her face.
"Susan?" she guessed. The woman behind her snorted.
"Nice try. Turn around! Slowly," she ordered. Charlie did as she asked and turned around to face the business end of a sword.
"It's Satsu, by the way," she added venomously.
"Satsu. Nice to meet you," Charlie said with a nervous chuckle. Satsu was unimpressed.
"My name's Charlie, and I realize that it's suspicious that I look like your friend, but I promise I have a good reason." Satsu sneered.
"Yeah? You wanna finish what that shadow creature started?" she asked with deadly conviction. Before Charlie could even utter a denial, they were interrupted but a sudden, simultaneous gasp from the psychics surrounding them.
Disturbed, they looked around at the invalids whose faces were now pointed towards them. In one voice, they intoned:
"TRESSPASSER! DEFILER! BRINGER OF DARKNESS! YOU ARE DESTRUCTION!"
The voices then lapsed into nonsensical shrieks and groans, mumbling similar condemnations. Charlie was the first to recover from the sudden interruption. She shoved Satsu, hard, and ran past her towards the exit. She was halfway down the hall when she felt something grab her foot. She narrowly avoided face planting by rolling onto her side and flinging out her arms. Once she was on the carpet, she tried to get away from whatever had her leg but suddenly she felt pain shooting all throughout her body from the point of contact in her ankle. She faded into darkness as the sound of running boots closed in on her.