Running on Faith, Season Two: 2.08: Marius
by filmtheory
“Are you ready?” Giles asked.

“Yes,” Gretchen and Dawn answered almost simultaneously.

“Are you sure?” Giles asked again. “Because it is of utmost importance we get this correct. These reagents are rare, expensive, and can be quite dangerous if not handled with extreme-”

Bang! While listening to Giles with her full attention, Gretchen had failed to notice the small string of fire beads slipping out of her hands. Dawn, as if expecting such an event, quickly grabbed an empty metal trashcan and slammed it down on the small fire, extinguishing it.

“Damn it, Gretchen!” Giles yelled.

“Sorry,” the witch said meekly.

“What did you expect, Giles?” Dawn said almost reproachfully as she removed another string of fire beads. “Can we just do this?”

“Alright, alright,” Giles said tetchily. He pulled on a thick glove and picked up the bottle with the small Bezoar in it. “Are you ready with the pin?”

Dawn nodded. Giles quickly opened the jar and reached in, grabbing the Bezoar. He slammed the twitching creature onto a wooden plate. Instantly, Dawn pierced the Bezoar with a large needle, pinning it to the plate. Gretchen wrapped the string of fire beads around the Bezoar and the plate.

“Bound, you are,” Gretchen said. The small parasite stopped twitching and lay docilely on the plate.

“Bound to this disk,” Dawn continued.

“And bound to do our will,” Giles finished.

“From the Mother Bezoar you have come,” Gretchen began the next trio of lines.

“To her you now return,” Dawn continued.

“To her you will lead us,” Giles finished.

Dawn exhaled. “We sure we want to do this?”

“Not much choice, is there?” Giles asked.

Gretchen slowly removed the fire beads. Dawn pulled the pin from the small demon. Giles picked it up from the wooden plate and placed it on the ground. The demon slowly began moving toward the door to the lobby.

“Looks like we’re on,” Dawn said.

“Okay, let’s go guys,” Faith said as the demon entered the lobby and headed for the exit. “Dawn, Gretchen, and Giles on magic duty. I’m muscle girl. Xander’s back up. Lorne and Connor are staying and holding the fort down. Damn this crew got big.”

“Why aren’t I going?” Connor asked.

“Your ribs are still poking out,” Faith said. “You’re healing fast, but not fast enough.”

“What spells are protecting du Plessis?” Xander asked.

“We don’t know,” Giles answered.

“I have a contact who might have the skinny on the defenses,” Faith said. “I’ll give him a call once we have a location. But if he doesn’t have anything, you three’ll have to play by ear.”

“Sounds fun,” Gretchen said perkily. Giles and Dawn gave her scathingly reproachful looks.

*******

Faith, Giles, Dawn, Gretchen, and Xander stood in a warehouse across the street from a run down home. It wasn’t quite night yet. Faith had called her contact nearly an hour ago, but still hadn’t received a response.

“Any idea what’s keeping your anonymous contact?” Xander asked.

“I leave messages with a service. My guy checks twice a day. Could be as long as a twelve hour wait.”

Giles looked at her cautiously. “And who is your guy?”

“I can’t have contacts off the books?” Faith asked.

“I don’t want anyone having contacts off the books. I wanted detailed information on all sources know to-”

“It’s a guy called Marius,” Faith said.

“Marius, you say? I’ve never heard of him. Is he trustworthy”

“I don’t know. He’s given good intel in the past, but he seems kind of a shady type. But for now, he’s all we have to go on.”

Faith cell phone rang and she looked down.

“Is it him?” Dawn asked.

“Could be,” Faith answered. “He calls from random pay phones and I don’t recognize this number. Faith answered, looked at Dawn and nodded. “Dawn get a pencil. The spells are . . . Claw of Fire.” Dawn began scribbling. “Archangel’s Sword . . . Macharius Santayalla, are you making this up? Okay, sorry. The Crucible of Manning.” Faith looked at Giles. “And one other spell my guy doesn’t know.”

“I’ll need to call Lorne at the hotel,” Giles said. “I have some texts that he’ll need to read to us.”

“Thanks man,” Faith said into the phone. “I owe you one.”

********

Marius’ intel was right on the money. After a slight problem with the Claw of Fire, the defenses fell in rapid succession. Ironically, the one spell Marius didn’t know was the easiest to surpass. It was a simple glamour that prevented them from finding the door without touching the building and feeling for it.

Faith knocked in the door. A fire bolt shot at her, but Gretchen acted quickly and deflected it. Xander and Faith charged in, swinging swords wildly and unnecessarily. It was still barely daytime. du Plessis’ vampire minions fled from the light coming in the door, which had western exposure. Dawn took her small sword and began smashing out blackened windows until the setting sun shone filled the room and incinerated the vampires.

“Here!” a familiar British voice called from the basement.

Armand charged out the back door and into an alley. Faith ran after him. “You get Spike, I’ll get du Plessis.”.

Armand turned a corner into a side alley. Faith ran past the side alley, then spun, and headed back around the corner. She’d wanted to make sure she didn’t want to turn into the alley immediately in case he had a trap waiting for her.

Faith entered the alley cautiously. du Plessis couldn’t be seen, but she didn’t hear him running either. Her skin grew slightly cold as the sun finished its decent and left Los Angeles in darkness.

Faith heard Giles and the other running toward the alley. If du Plessis was going to make a move, it would have to be now, before Faith’s backup arrived.

“We didn’t bomb your building,” Faith called. “We don’t know who did. But if you come talk to us, maybe we can all figure it out.”

Faith looked up and only had a second to react. A dumpster flew from on top of the building. She jumped back and it just barely missed her. She looked up, trying to see where du Plessis was. As the metal bar, swung into her field of sight, she realized how dumb she’d been. Armand du Plessis didn’t have the strength to throw a dumpster. He magicked it and waited for her to make a move. Then he clocked her.

Now bleeding, Faith rolled away, dodging the metal bar as du Plessis brought it down again. She tried to stand, but he swung again, nailing her leg and tripping her. Armand raised the bar again, ready this time to smash her skull. Suddenly, two clear bolts of energy hit him and knocked him back. Dawn and Giles ran down the alley and grabbed du Plessis.

“And now you kill me, yes?” du Plessis grinned.

“I was telling the truth,” Faith said groggily. Her head was killing her. “We didn’t bomb you.”

“We want to know who did just as much as you do,” Dawn added.

“Who else would want to attack you?” Giles asked sharply.

Armand looked at them warily. He didn’t trust them. But if they were lying, why let him live? “The Senior Partners had many enemies. But since we’ve been cut off, most have abandoned their grudges.”

“Cut off?” Gretchen said as she arrived in the alley. She was helping to carry Spike.

“It’s almost been a year and a half since me and Angel took out the Black Thorn,” Spike said. “You still haven’t reestablished contact?”

“We tried. We anointed new liaisons, but they were killed soon after. I’m the only surviving conduit to the Senior Partners. And even I can’t reach them.”

“Maybe they didn’t set up your privileges correctly,” Gretchen offered. “Like when I couldn’t get on the Council web site because Andrew fouled up my access.”

“You couldn’t get on the site because you forgot your password,” Giles said impatiently.

“Before that,” Gretchen insisted.

Armand du Plessis shook his head. “I had contact with them at one time. But after the last of my fellow conduits were killed, I was unable to access them.”

Giles looked at du Plessis, not sure how much too believe. “Since the Senior Partners lost contact, you’ve run Wolfram & Hart. Is there anyone else who’d want to attack you?”

“My enemies have been vanquished,” du Plessis said proudly. “The last major player who opposed me was destroyed almost seven years ago.”

Faith looked up at du Plessis as she did the math in her head. “Who was it?” she asked urgently. “Who was the major player?”

Armand had been about to answer when his blood sprayed her face. It wasn’t until after she felt the moisture of Armand’s warm blood that she heard the muffled gun shot. Faith looked up and watched as the rifle-carrying gunmen moved back from the ledge and ran.

Faith tried to get up to chase him, but felt too woozy. It didn’t matter, since Dawn immediately held the slayer back.

“You can’t dodge bullets,” Dawn said. “We got what we came for.”

“Did we?” Faith said bitterly.

“We have Spike back,” Dawn said. “And we know it is the Markovics who’re attacking Wolfram & Hart.”

“We should get back to the hotel,” Giles agreed.

*********

Dawn returned to the hotel and took a long, warm shower. Breaking du Plessis’ defenses had been quick but draining work. Besides, she too hat been sprayed by the wizard’s blood when he was assassinated.

Dawn left the shower and threw on fresh clothes. She was about to turn on the television and zone out when someone knocked at the door.

Dawn opened the door to see Connor standing in the hall nervously. She smiled. “Hey,” she said in a flirtatious voice.

“Hi,” he said quickly and nervously. Be confident. Like Faith said. “I um . . .” Connor leaned toward her. She smelled so nice. Like flowers. His nose was next to her face and he longed to bury it her neck and smell her deeply. Most men wanted touch the woman of their desire all over. Connor wanted to smell her. He licked his lips, wanting to kiss her so badly that he could taste the adrenaline rushing through his veins.

Dawn saw Connor leaned forward. Her body felt the closeness of his body and it made her tingle. She tilted her head to the side and slowly closed her eyes. He’s going to do it! Dawn thought. He’s FINALLY going to do it. Goose bumps rose on her arms. She opened her mouth.

Connor leaned further toward Dawn. She stood there, her head tilted to the side and her beautiful red lips parted. Her soft brown hair framing the lovely pale skin of her neck. He wanted to kiss her so badly. Faith had told him it was okay if he kissed Dawn before Dawn kissed him. But he knew Faith was different than Dawn. She was more forward and aggressive, especially with sex. What if it was okay with Faith if a guy kissed her, but not other girls? What if it wasn’t okay with Dawn? If she wanted to kiss, why didn’t she just kiss him?

Dawn could feel Connor’s warm breath on her neck. It was the one warm part of her body. The rest was cold with fright and anticipation, covered with goose bumps. She realized she’d been standing there, her eyes closed and head tilted, for at least a minute. She opened her eyes and looked at Connor. He looked frightened. Dawn backed away, wondering if she’d been too forward. Had she scared him off? He grew up in a hell dimension. God only knew what he considered appropriate.

Connor blushed and looked down as Dawn opened her eyes again. “I . . . I, um, need soap. Because I don’t have any and . . . and I smell bad.”

“Oh,” Dawn said, feeling deflated and slightly nauseas. “I think I have extra. Hold on.”

Connor could tell her demeanor had changed as she went into her bathroom. He wondered if it was because she knew he wanted to kiss her. Was she angry because he wanted to kiss her? Did she even know or was he just imagining it?

Connor thought back to his time with Willow. At first, he’d disliked her. He hated witchcraft. He’d been raised to believe it was the devil’s work. But at night, he’d listen to Giles, Angel, and Willow talking about him and Dana. Willow always defended him. She sympathized with him and stuck up for him. Connor had, for a time, come to believe that in life, there was neither good nor evil. There were only sides. Whatever else Willow was, she was on Connor’s side. He warmed up to her quickly after that. And now, he thought of what she told him. 90% of the problems in her life were probably because of dishonesty. Just be honest, Connor. Just be honest.

Dawn returned with some bars of soap. “I have vanilla scented and . . .strawberry.”

It was now or never, Connor realized as he took the soap from her hand. His finger brushed against hers and it sent jolts of excitement through his body.

“I want to . . .,” he started nervously, his voice almost a whisper. “Thank you. I want to thank you. For the soap.”

Dawn smiled slightly. He was so odd. “You’re welcome,” she said softy, looking into his eyes. “If you . . . if you ever want anything else, you can . . . just ask me, okay?”

Connor nodded, then started to walk down the hall. He stopped and looked back. “Have you ever been on the roof?”

“The roof?” Dawn asked.

“It’s nice. The wind blows on you and you can just lay on your back and look at the sky and stare out across the city. You’d be amazed how peaceful a world so violent can look if you’re high enough in the air.”

“Never thought of it that way.”

Connor smiled. “You could . . . you could come up there with me. We could lay there and watch the sky together.”

Dawn gave a nervous giggle. “Let me get a blanket. Then we’ll go up.”

Connor smiled widely, his face lighting up.

**********

Faith, too, was stepping out of the shower (her second of the day) when there was a knock on her door. She opened it to see Giles. Unlike Dawn, she was only wearing a robe. Giles blushed a little.

“May I?” Giles asked.

“You’re not a vampire, are you?”

Giles stepped into her room. “I was wondering if you could give me more information on this Marius. I’ve been in touch with several other Watchers and none seem to have any information on him. For starters, where’s he from?”

“Um . . . Italy. I think he said he’s from Italy. Look, I really don’t know that much about him, but the guy came through for us in a huge way. Can’t we just leave it at that?”

Giles frowned. “I suppose so. When I get back to London, I’m asking Andrew to add what information we have to the resource database.”

“Do you have to?”

“Yes. I do. We don’t want any secrets. If he’s shy about dealing with anyone else, I’ll note that in the entry.” Giles looked at his watch. “Damn it. I have to go or I’ll miss my second flight to London this week.” Giles grabbed an Ann Rice book from Faith’s dresser. “Is this any good?”

“Not really. I couldn’t get through the first chapter. I mean, in the can, I even read Shakespeare. But this stuff puts me right to sleep.”

“Well, it’ll have to do. du Plessis took my other reading material and I don’t have time to stop in a gift shop. May I borrow this?”

“Whatever.”

“Thank you,” Giles said as he headed out. “Oh, and I’ll call you about more details on Marius.”

“Whatever,” Faith repeated. She closed her door and threw off her robe.

Faith pulled on her sweat clothes and climbed into bed. She felt tired and sore. She was annoyed Giles had been pressing her so hard on Marius. Marius. The book. Giles took the book. Suddenly, Faith shot up in bed. “Oh shit!” she yelled.

***********

Giles settled back in the seat. He was tired, but anxiety was keeping him from sleeping. Hoping the Ann Rice book would have the same effect on him that it did on Faith, Giles pulled out the novel, Blood and Gold, and examined the summary on the back cover.

“Once a proud Senator in Imperial Rome, Marius is kidnapped . . .”

Giles stopped reading. “Marius,” he said. “Rome. Italy.” His mind raced. “Damn it Faith!”

************

Faith had waited three hours since she left her message with the message service for her contact ‘Marius.’ Finally, her cell phone rang.

“You’ve got a lot of goddamn nerve!” Faith shouted. She listened for a moment, then cut Marius off. “I’ll explain it when we meet. Face to face. Tonight.” Marius spoke again.

Faith groaned angrily. “No. It can’t wait until tomorrow.”

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