Xander and Cordelia landed late that evening and Mason picked them up and brought them to Diana's and they already had a piece of the puzzle to share.
"Brother Michael is full of it." Xander tried to joke. "As in, he's full of green energy. The monks were morons to send him anywhere using Magic if this Hell god is capable of tracking Magic. On the other hand, they probably had only minutes to come up with a plan, any plan and implement it. The Council's got him on lockdown and they've got the witches from the Devon Coven trying to figure out how to get it out of him, so they can figure out a way to hide it themselves."
"He was very surprised when the Council rep explained to him what we saw in him," Cordelia said sympathetically. "he immediately realized that meant he'd been created, not born and wondered if he was even human. My own sense is that, yes, he's human, soul and all and I told him that. He was relieved to hear it."
"So, from what Mason told us on the way over here after he picked us up," Xander changed the subject. "the only clue to this Hell god's whereabouts is the crazy people turning up in the hospital, right?"
"Yes." Diana confirmed. "And they've been found primarily in two areas, the warehouse district where three of them were found, which is where Brother Michael and Brother Luca landed and Faith, Jesse and Mason found the Dagon's Sphere and wondering around the residential areas of town. She may have found herself a nest to hide in while she searches for the Key."
"I think we should try talking to the crazy people ourselves." Xander suggested. "They may be crazy but that doesn't mean they don't have actual information, it just means they can't tell what's real, right?"
"That's one form of mental illness, there are others." Diana answered. "But from what I understand, all of these people aren't making coherent statements, just random, unrelated comments. They can't answer questions and just make nonsensical statements."
"Statements that seem nonsensical because the people hearing them don't have a frame of reference for them." Xander suggested. "Someone talking about vampires would get the same reaction, but we know they're real. They may not be able to answer a question, but they may say something we might be able to understand that leads us to this Hell god. Right now, it's all we've got."
"I've got a very strong feeling there's answers at the hospital." Cordelia told them. "I agree, we need to check it out."
"He's right." Mason agreed. "And we still have no idea if she's on a time schedule or not, at some point she may give up any attempt at stealth and just start tearing Sunnydale apart looking for what she's after. And if she gets ahold of one of us, we know where the Key now is, she may be able to torture it out of us or even mind suck it out of us. We could wait and see if the Council comes up with another potential weapon that might be able to stop her, but we could run out of time. There's a lot of information we simply don't have and no way that we are currently aware of to get it. Beyond the patients being brought into the hospital and labeled crazy, that is."
Having no other course of action, the group packed up the Dagon's Sphere and Faith's chakram in case they did get any useful information from the patients and could go right to the Hell god's location and headed to the hospital. Unfortunately, the patients really weren't saying anything useful.
"That was a bust." Xander muttered as they left the hospital. "But I still feel like the answer is here and we just aren't seeing it."
"My sense that something's here is stronger than ever." Cordelia looked around. "What are we missing?" A man bumped into her and said "Excuse me, I'm sorry. Really tired, long shift." And walked around her. Cordelia blinked as she looked at him and his image wavered, she glanced at Xander who was staring at the man with a puzzled look on his face. "Something's off about him." She stated as Xander's eyes went wide.
Xander turned to Diana. "Diana," he whispered. "the Dagon's Sphere, get it out!" Puzzled, Diana pulled it out of her pocket and the man's image wavered again.
"What -?" She started to say as the man's image changed and became a woman wearing the same clothes, but now hanging on her.
"Throw it!" Xander ordered and Diana didn't hesitate, she threw it and the woman swung around and caught it. A look of agony appeared on her face and her mouth opened in a silent scream of pain as now her image wavered.
"Now, Faith!" Cordelia said urgently. "It's her!" Faith threw the chakram as the woman crushed the Dagon's Sphere in her hand and a blast of light shot from it, blinding them. They shielded their eyes and once the light was gone, the group turned back to see the body lying on the ground,nits throat slit by the chakram Faith plucked out of the air.
"That was a lot easier than I thought it would be."