Running on Faith: Season One: Episode 17: Baggage, Ghosts, and Destiny
by filmtheory
Faith stood there feeling sad that she couldn’t feel more shock. She was still upset about the Mayor. Too upset to really feel what this meant. So there was one more bad guy in the world. So what? Still, what had transpired in the City of Faith nee Sunnydale still weighed heavily on her mind. She felt like she hadn’t really heard, or rather felt the last of it.

“So what’s that mean?” Faith asked.

“It means we go find her,” Kennedy said. “I told Buffy I’m bringing in an ex-liaison from Wolfram & Hart. That means I am bringing her an ex-liaison from Wolfram & Hart.”

So Kennedy was here for the lawyer and not the lover. Faith couldn’t help but feel a slight pang of disappointment. She liked Red enough these days. She felt like the two could relate more. But they’d never see eye to eye on Mayor Wilkins. Willow wouldn’t understand. She wondered if anyone would.

“How’d she get out?” Spike asked.

“Don’t know,” Connor answered. “But they must’ve been quiet as a mouse if Angel and I couldn’t hear them.”

“They?” Dawn asked uncomfortably. “What do you mean they? You don’t think Lorne went with her willingly, do you?”

Faith noticed that Angel opened his mouth to speak, but Connor’s grip on Angel’s shoulder tighten.

“He had a disagreement with Angel earlier,” Connor said. “I can’t be sure what he was thinking.”

“Angel,” Willow said with a voice and face of a child pleading with a parent. “I know you know Lorne better than I do, but I can’t believe he’d try to hurt you because of an argument.”

“Ditto,” Faith chimed in.

“I ditto her ditto,” Spike said.

Kennedy shook her head. “No offense Angel. No offense Spike. But to me, a demon’s a demon. You can never be sure of their loyalties.”

Spike frowned. “You don’t know Green like we do, luv. Besides, Angel, you said Eve was after you because of the thing with Lindsey. Don’t forget who the triggerman was on that job. Eve’s got just as much a beef with Lorne as she does with you.”

Angel nodded.

“What are you guys talking about?” Connor asked, his eyes moving between Spike and Angel.

“But how could Eve get out of the cuffs?” Angel pressed on, ignoring Connor’s question. “Lorne worked here. He knew where the keys to the cuffs were.”

Faith noticed Angel’s none-to-subtle skipping of Connor’s question. She could see Connor’s curiosity was shared by Dawn by the look in the young Watcher’s eyes.

“Whether they’re on the same side or not,” Faith said authoritatively. “They’re out there somewhere. We’ll know if they’re buddy-buddy when we find them. But for now, that’s the job. Find them.”

“I can track them,” Connor said.

“You’re hurt,” Faith said. “You stay here.”

Angel looked outside. “It’s daytime, Faith. By the time Spike or I could go outside to track them, the trail would be cold.”

Willow held out her hand. A glowing orb of green light floated from her it. “I don’t know about Eve. But this’ll take us to Lorne.”

Faith smiled. “Way to go, Red.”

“Hey,” Spike snapped. “That’s my nickname for her.” He glanced around, noticing the condescending looks of the others. “Well, guess it’s not that important at the moment. Pretty obvious, too, what with the hair and all.”

“Spike and Angel are in the sewers,” Faith said. “Spike had contacts who could get a hold of Eve in the past. See if they still know where she is. Willow and the green glow ball will lead Dana and I on the Lorne hunt. Kennedy, get a list of Lorne’s old hangouts from Angel and run those down. Dawn, you stay and keep an eye on infirmary boy.”

“Hey,” Dawn and Connor yelled simultaneously.

“I’m a Watcher,” Dawn yelled.

“I can help,” Connor shouted just after her.

“Connor, you’re too hurt to hurt,” Faith said curtly. “And Dawn, yeah, you’re right. You’re a Watcher. So watch Connor.” Faith winked slyly. “I know how much you like doing that.”

Dawn went red with embarrassment. Connor, in contrast, went pale and looked at the floor.

Spike didn’t liked the idea of working with Angel again. But he did like the idea of Faith taking charge. “Alright boys and girls, we got out marching orders. Let’s roll.”

**

“Yeesh! This is it?” Lorne asked with a note of terror in his voice. Hell, it was practically an entire orchestra.

Eve raised her hands, now cuffed to each other instead of a metal cage, to her face so she could scratch her nose. “What’d you expect? Something more akin to Disneyland?”

“Ew.” Lorne’s face went sour. “Nothing that tacky.”

“This from a man in a shiny red suit.”

“Hey, I was in Japan, Eve. This is so in style over there.”

“Ever hear the words Japanese Fashion Victim?”

“Ever hear the words Dead Evil Lawyer? Now make with the entering of the evil spooky lair.”

Eve stepped inside, Lorne close behind her. The old manor was dark and filled with cobwebs.

“I’ll say it again,” Lorne said. “Yeesh.”

“Um . . . flashlight?” Eve said, again with the mocking tinge in her voice.

A light flicked on behind Eve. “I only brought the one.”

Eve gave a startled squeal and jumped backward towards Lorne, almost knocking the flashlight out of his hand.

“Now who’s Miss Jumpy Pants?” Lorne said with his own mocking grin.

“Lorne I think something’s in here,” Eve said, trying to direct his arm to shine light in a corner where she swore she saw movement. The light hit the arch of a doorway.

“Guess we’re not going that way,” Lorne said.

“Something as important as this, he would have kept as close to him as possible.”

“Any chance he slept on the ground floor?”

“Sorry. The good news is that he didn’t sleep underground either.”

Lorne walked to an elevator and pressed the up button. “Power’s out. Or at least the elevator is. Looks like we’re taking the stairs.”

The staircase creaked as Eve’s foot came down on it. She paused, hearing the sound of flapping wings above her. “God I hope that’s pigeons or something.”

“Keep it moving, sister,” Lorne said, prodding her.

Eve started up the stairs. “This is a new addition to your repertoire.”

“Sure, sweetheart. Whatever you say.”

“Sneaking around behind Angel’s back. Bravely invading the home of one of the darkest wizards ever known to the demon world.”

“Captain Brave. That’s me. Now less talk and more stair climb . . . Ahhh.” Lorne slammed his back against the wall, almost dropping the flashlight.

Eve turned and faced Lorne. The demon looked a lighter shade of green than usual. “What?”

“Nothing.” Lorne straightened his suit jacket. “I thought I saw something.” In truth, he thought he’d seen Lindsey. But the significance of that particular specter was probably best kept from Eve.

“What was it?” Earlier, downstairs, she too had thought she’d seen something. Perhaps it was her guilt at being unable to save Lindsey that made his ghostly visage appear to her. Or perhaps, they were in fact being haunted.

“Nothing. My imagination.” Lorne turned the corner and frowned. “So much for that plan.”

Eve nodded. The stairwell up from this level was blocked by rubble. “Should we try to pull it away?”

Lorne shined the light around the hallway. “I don’t know. If we try to dig through, we could collapse it all on top of us. Do you know of another way up?”

“Besides the elevator shaft?”

Girlish laughter echoed from down the hallway. Quickly, Lorne turned the flashlight to catch a girl wearing Mary Janes run across the hallway.

“Lorne?” Eve asked. The demon turned back to her. “Lorne, what is it? Did you hear something?”

“You didn’t see that?”

“Probably not, since I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Eve fought the urge to grin. Maybe she wasn’t seeing or hearing the things Lorne was, but she was certainly imagining something.

“We try to dig through,” Lorne said, turning back down the hallway to where he’d seen the girl. “I don’t want to leave this path. Like Judy Garland said, stay on the Yellow Brick Road.”

“Lorne?”

“What?” Lorne snapped, turning to face Eve.

“What did you see?”

“Nothing,” Lorne said, turning away.

“Lorne?”

“What?” Lorne snapped again, turning back.

“Are you planning on helping me dig?”

“Yeah, in a sec,” Lorne said, turning back down the hallway.

“Lorne” said a voice behind him.

Slowly, Lorne turned back, fear permeating his being. Eve was staring at him questioningly. But it wasn’t Eve who spoke. Lindsey MacDonald, bullet holes, ghastly white visage, and all, stood behind Eve. “You didn’t really think you’d get away with killing me, now. Did ya?”

With a bloodcurdling scream, Lorne turned and ran from the duo at the stairwell and into the oppressive darkness of the manor’s labyrinthine hallways.

***

Angel and Spike walked through the sewers beneath Los Angeles with Spike leading.

“You know,” Spike said. “Once I Shanshu, I think I’ll miss being on sewer detail the least.”

Angel frowned. “Is that so? Spike let me ask you something.” Angel paused for a moment. “Never mind.”

“No,” Spike said, stopping to look back at Angel. “Say it.”

“Nothing. I think I’ll kind of miss the sewers. Might come down here every now and then. Just for old time’s sake. It’s the pig’s blood that I won’t miss.”

“Yeah, that’d be a close second,” Spike said, now continuing on, still ahead of Angel. “Luckily, I’m going to be the one who’ll Shanshu. And then I can give up sewers and pig’s blood.”

Angel shook his head sadly. He wanted so badly to explain things to Spike. But it would all be beyond his comprehension. “You shouldn’t be working toward a reward, Spike. That’s not the point. Besides, the prophecy was definitely meant for me. Definitely.”

“Oh yeah?” Spike said jeeringly without looking back. “When we track down ol’ Eve, we’ll ask her about that.”

“That’d be a good idea.”

The two walked silently for a beat. “Besides,” Spike said. “I thought you said during the master plan, you signed away your rights to the Shanshu. That just leaves me, eh?” When Angel didn’t answer, Spike stopped and looked back.

“Oh, bloody hell,” Spike said, seeing the empty sewer behind him.

****

With Faith at her side, Willow followed the glowing green orb as it floated through the streets of L.A. Dana walked a few steps behind them.

“Trippy how no one bats an eye at this,” Faith said.

Willow shrugged. “It’s L.A.”

“It’s pretty,” Dana said form the back. “Glows green like Dawn.”

Willow swallowed nervously, then sighed with relief when Faith rolled her eyes.

“Always with the glowing green Dawn,” Faith said. “Something’s seriously wrong with that girl.”

“Not for long,” Willow said confidently.

Faith glanced back at Dana, who seemed to be taking in the scenery. “You really think you can fix her? I toed the line on Dana before. Crazy brunette solidarity and whatnot. But between you, me, and the glowy green orb, I don’t know that she’s not too far gone.”

“She’ll never completely recover. But with the details Lorne gave me, we should be able to do a lot for her. I mean, with the basic healing spells I used already, I think there’s been improvement.”

“Yeah. She apparently now considers Connor the one creature on the face of the planet with a y chromosome that isn’t a threat.”

“Well, that probably had more to do with beating him senseless than my spell, but I’m not unwilling to take undeserved credit. What we’ll do next is work with the specific things that happened to Dana. Essentially use magic to put her in a mental reality where she’ll be able to save herself from the horrors that happened to her. The reality will still be there. But she’ll feel more empowered about it.”

“Are you kidding?” Faith apparently spoke more loudly than she’d intended. She could sense she’d attracted Dana’s attention. The junior slayer was now tensed for a fight.

Willow looked at Faith nervously. “I know it seems cruel to put her through that again. But it in the end, it’ll be for the . . . oh no.”

Faith followed Willow’s gaze forward. The green ball was gone.

*****

Connor looked down when Dawn entered the room with the change of bandages.

“So how much did Willow tell you?” Dawn asked.

“About what?” Connor said nervously. But he knew where this was going.

“About my talk with her. About you. Duh.”

Connor shook his head. “She didn’t say anything.”

“Meaning she told you everything.”

“No. She really didn’t say anything.”

“Which is why you know I thought you were smug and maybe gay. And I suppose Willow didn’t tell Faith I . . . never mind.”

“Faith just has a dirty mind. And me, with the smug . . . I just. I have good hearing. I . . . I heard you.”

“You eavesdropped!” Dawn shouted angrily.

“No. I just heard. Things are like that. I just hear them.”

Dawn sat down and roughly ripped at his bandages.

“Ow!” Connor grunted. “What did I do?”

Dawn stopped and flopped her hands down. “Nothing. It’s . . . I hate that you know what you know. And, and, and now that you know what I . . . I mean, you obviously don’t think I’m . . .” Dawn threw her hands up in exhaustion.

Connor shook his head, not really knowing what to say. “First, what I got was that you think I’m a gay, smug, know-it-all who’s kind of cute and occasionally saves your life! I mean, what am I supposed to do about that? And you know, I’m kind of not used to hot chicks thinking I’m cute or smug or whatever. So . . . so there you go. I guess. What are we even talking about?”

“You think I’m hot?” Dawn said, looking up at Connor.

“Um, yeah?” Connor said as if to say ‘duh.’ “And don’t do that thing where you pretend you don’t know you’re hot. Because you know.”

“No I don’t!” Dawn protested loudly.

“Yes you do!”

Dawn’s face went red with fury. “No I . . .” Without warning, Dawn leaned forward, kissing Connor hard on the lips. Connor, loose bandages and all, slid away form her, flopping onto the floor with a thud, as he had the last time she tried to kiss him.

“Guess I should be used to you doing that,” Dawn said derisively. “What’s with the hot and cold? I’m sick of hot-and-coldness!”

“I’m hot and cold? One minute I’m gay smug man. The next you’re trying to dry hump me on my sick bed.”

“Well, one sec I’m so hot I must know it. Then I’m so fugly you’re sliding off your so-called sick bed to avoid a peck on the lips.”

“Peck?! If you looked in my mouth right now, you’d find your tongue print on my esophagus. Look, you’re . . . you’re beautiful. And you’re so much more my type. I mean, I don’t even like blondes that much. But things just got all screwed up and, and, and . . .”

“So much more your type? I’m more your type than who? Who’s blonde? No one here is blonde except Spike. Oh my god! You are gay! I knew it! Look, I’ll introduce you to my friend Andrew. He’s blonde and in the closet, too. You two will-”

“I’m not gay! I’m just . . . dumb. Okay, Dawn. I’m really dumb and I do dumb things that hurt people. And if I . . . if I dated you, that’d just be too much. It’d, it’d, it’d be bad.”

Connor climbed to his feet and grabbed his bandages. “Look, I . . . I can change these myself. I should . . . I’m going to go. Angel has this hideout place. Tell him I went there. He and I are supposed to talk about stuff tonight anyway.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Stuff we did to piss each other off.” Connor’s eyes began to tear and he looked at the ceiling. “I think . . . I think he knows how dumb I am. Was. Whatever.”

“What are you talking about?” Dawn said, a look of almost repulsion on her face.

Connor shook his head and pulled off the remainder of his dirty bandages. “Nothing. I just did something that would upset him if he knew. And I think he knows.”

Without looking back or even redressing his wounds, Connor sullenly walked from the room.

******

With another powerful swing of the sledgehammer, Angel knocked in the wall and burst through into the basement. He looked around, then dropped the giant tool on the floor. This was definitely a dark wizard’s basement. If Lorne had set Eve free, if they were working together, this is the only place they could have gone.

Cyvus Vail was the wizard who’d erased Connor’s memories and all memory of Connor. He’d programmed Angel’s son with the false memory of a happy childhood in suburban California. And then, to fulfill a prophecy, he’d returned those memories to Connor.

Lorne seemed to want more than even this. He seemed to want to plunge Connor back into that state of horror and despair that Angel had pulled him from. If Lorne were to do that, he would need to go to the source. Vail was dead. But his large manor still remained secretly nestled in the middle of L.A.

Angel climbed the stairs from the basement to the ground floor. He glanced around as whispers filled the room. He saw nothing. As if sensing his eyes scanning the room, the source of the whispers went silent.

Angel stepped out onto the ground floor. It was a grand foyer. Angel remembered killing seven of Vail’s guards in this room. Now it was empty. Or so Angel initially thought. He turned to a corner to see a woman sobbing. Not any woman. Eve.

“Where’s Lorne?” Angel asked harshly. “I know he’s with you.”

Eve’s tear-streaked face looked up at him. “Lorne? Oh, Angel. Lorne is the least of what’s here with me.”

Sensing the presence behind him, Angel slowly turned to face whoever was behind him. Spike was oddly a relieving sight. That was until Angel realized he was standing next to Drusilla. Then the full impact of the tableau finally became apparent to him.

Angel watched as a petite blonde figure strode forward from behind Spike and Dru. She threw a fierce punch, hammering Angel’s jaw and knocking him to the ground.

Standing over Angel, Darla grinned widely. “Hello, lover.”

Angel crawled back away from Darla. At first, he was sure his mind was playing tricks on him. She couldn’t be back. She was dust. Then again, she’d been dust once before and come back to be the first vampire to give birth to a child. Besides, his aching jaw told him this wasn’t his imagination. This was Darla.

“Spike,” Angel said with a mixture of nervousness and agitation. “Little help here.”

Spike laughed. “Me? Help you? As if!”

Angel sprung to his feet and assumed a fighting posture.

“Where is my little brother, daddy?” Drusilla purred. “Why do you take him away form me?”

“Well, Dru . . .” In the middle of the sentence Angel threw a quick punch, nailing Darla in the face.

“That’s my boy,” Darla said with a smile.

Angel’s attention was ripped form Darla as a screaming woman ran down the stairs. Turning, he saw Eve leap down the last three steps and run across the foyer.

“Eve?” Angel called. Quickly, Angel looked back to where he’d seen the lawyer crying in the corner earlier. The corner was empty. “How’d you get over . . .”

Angel froze as Eve ran straight through Darla, past Angel, and down another corridor. “What the hell is going on here?!” Angel yelled. Dodging another punch, Angel ran, following Eve down another corridor and praying it wasn’t a trap.

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