Disclaimer: Thanks Joss : )
Chapter 2
The Ice Rink was deserted as expected when the A.I. team arrived. As soon as they entered, Angel could feel the strong magic’s floating on the air. Everyone of his team was loaded up with weapons and all, bar Angel, carried a small satchel filled with essentials for no one knew how long they‘d be away. As expected, Cordy’s was significantly bigger than everyone else’s. Angel had said that was fine. When she’d finished packing he’d happened to mention it was fine because she’d be carrying it herself. Needless to say, she was still a little upset with him at the moment.
Wesley dropped his satchel and pulled a small talisman and a piece of paper from his pocket. He threw the talisman down on the point where the magic seemed strongest and recited the words from the page. The pressure began to build in the room as he spoke and the air started to shift. This spell had been the closest one they could find to what they needed so Wesley and Fred had sat down and tweaked it a little. It should, using the energies left over from the last portal, open to the coordinates previously specified. That’s if it worked.
A blue ball of light appeared in front of them and Angel noticed Wesley smiling in satisfaction. It grew bigger and bigger until it was the size of head; then a beach ball and eventually it was big circle a person could easily walk through. The portal shimmered in front of them and stopped growing. It hung innocently in the air, a foot off the ground. Angel stepped forward and reached out a hand towards the portal. He touched the surface tentatively. When nothing happened he sunk his hand up to his wrist through it and still nothing happened. He looked back to Wesley. ‘I’ll go first. Follow me one by one.’ He jumped through.
Everyone glanced at each other then Gunn stepped forwards with a shrug and jumped in after Angel. Cordelia followed him. Lorne had opted out of the mission and was watching over the hotel. Fred went next, then Connor and Wesley was last. The portal closed behind them, leaving no trace they were ever there.
**************************
Angel stepped out into a grassy field-into sunlight. For a moment he panicked, looking around for shelter before he burst into ash but froze when he felt no reaction. Why wasn’t he burning up?
The others came through one by one and came to stand behind Angel, gazes roving the idyllic countryside before coming to rest on a frozen Angel.
Cordelia was the first to react. ‘Oh my god, Angel get out of the sun!’
A few seconds of still solid vampire later and all looked confused. ‘What-?’ Gunn stared at him incredulously.
‘I believe…’ Wesley began and Cordelia groaned.
‘Yeah, we get it; Angel can walk in the sun. Yay for him. We should keep going ’cause these girls aren’t going to rescue themselves. Which way, Angel? ‘
Angel’s gaze roamed over all he could see and had to admit he had no idea where to start. ‘Wesley, you have any ideas?’
‘As a matter of fact,’ he sent a snarky look at Cordelia before continuing. ‘I do. Fred and I came up with a small list of spells we believed would come in handy while we were here. One of those we included was a locater spell. We should be able to use it to locate a group of people. After all, this is a demon dimension, right? How many humans could there be here?’
Angel nodded slowly. Wesley’s tracking spell would definitely come in handy for sure. Hopefully the group of girls and demons hadn’t moved too far ahead of them.
‘Do it,’ Angel nodded at Wesley. Gunn looked a little irked at the magic but said nothing. Connor was slowly idling away from the group, examining things on the ground.
‘Connor,’ Angel called out before he wandered too far. ‘Stay closer to the group please. We all need to stick together.‘
Connor scowled but wandered back to the group, coming to stand next to Fred. Angel watched him for a few more moments before returning his attention back to Wesley and Fred. They pulled a few items from both their packs and lay them out on the ground. Angel watched overtly, unsure about what was supposed to happen. This was different to the spell they’d done back at the hotel.
A bright green glow suddenly came from in front of the two and Angel squinted against the harsh light. When it cleared a mass of little green dots hovered over a map Angel hadn’t seen them lay out. He leaned forward to take a closer look and noticed, with some surprise, that there were almost a hundred dots. He scanned the map and saw a mass of dots in one spot. A clump of thirteen. ’There,’ he pointed to the green patch. ‘Thirteen dots. That’s them.’
‘Is there anyway to find out how many hostiles are with them? I kinda don’t wanna killed before we’ve done any rescuin’.’ Gunn rubbed a hand over his bald head.
‘It’s called surveillance, Gunn,’ Wesley huffed. ‘I can’t do everything. I could change the target for the spell but that would take time. Too much time.’
‘Wes is right. We need to move on. Something may have noticed our arrival and I’d rather not wait around to find out what,’ Angel picked up the satchel he’d dropped and turned to Gunn. ‘You ready?’
Gunn nodded and Angel turned to Connor. He nodded before Angel opened his mouth and Fred and Wesley rose as he turned to them. ‘Let’s go.’
***************
The group had been walking for several hours when Connor stopped suddenly and cocked his head. They were in the middle a small clearing, having walked the past couple of hours through what can only be described as a small forest. Angel was a little unsettled seeing how close this demon world was to the real world. What was also unsettling, however, was the complete lack of wildlife. No birds flew overhead or rested in trees; no crickets could be heard; no snakes, rabbits, deer, there wasn’t even any butterflies. He wasn’t the only one who noticed, he realised, by the uncomfortable look on Wesley’s face.
Connor dropped his bag and slunk off to the right of the clearing, keeping low to the ground. Angel took a step forward, ready to follow his son, but Gunn put a restraining hand on his arm and shook his head. Connor reappeared a moment later, something clutched in his hand. He stooped to pick up his bag then came to stand in front of Fred. He held out the object and she slowly held out her hand, palm up, ready to take whatever he held. He dropped the item and Gunn moved closer to the nervous girl. After dropping Angel in the ocean, Connor wasn’t a very well trusted member of the A.I. Team. Fred had been the worst hit. She’d trusted him completely and the whole time Connor had been lying to her face.
‘What-,’ she started then looked down. She leaned in to examine the object and Angel took several steps towards her, coming to a halt when she smiled. ’Great work, Connor.’
It was a new thing she was trying with Connor. Positive reinforcement; like a puppy. Angel didn’t know if the method would affect the boy in any way. She smiled up at Connor before turning to Angel. ’Look what Connor found,’ she held out her hand. In her palm lay a hairclip. A blue hairclip with a sparkly butterfly design.
‘I doubt that belongs to one of the demons. The girls definitely were here,’ Wesley helpfully pointed out. ‘Unless there’s some new craze I don’t know about.’
Angel shook his head at Wesley’s words and looked to Connor. ‘Anything else?’
‘I searched the surrounding area where I found the clip and there were no other obvious clues. They travelled down this road,’ Connor crouched down, running a hand lightly over the sandy road. He looked up at Angel and smirked slightly, reminding him of Angelus. ‘There are eight guards, surrounding the girls as they walk. Their step are paced evenly. They fear no opposition and are walking steadily, maybe half a day ahead of us.’
He finished speaking and stood back up, brushing the dust off his hands. ‘They will stop again during the night. We should try to cover as much distance as we can in that time.’
Angel’s jaw almost dropped. Where was the sullen teenager they’d had in L.A lately? What happen to the Connor who use to mope around complaining about everything and everyone? He seemed a different person here. Was it because they needed him? In L.A, Connor was overshadowed by Fred, the smart one, Wesley the Watcher who quit when Giles offered him a job, Gunn, the street thug and Cordelia the seer. Not to mention the demon, Lorne also known as The Host and Angel himself, a vampire with a soul. Maybe Connor had been lashing out at them, feeling left out and unwanted. Angel made a silent promise to nurture Connor and his talents more, show him he was a vital asset to the Angel Investigations team.
‘Damn, man,’ Gunn stared in wonder at Connor. ‘Hey, are you able to tell if any of those girls were hot?’
Wesley groaned and pushed his glasses further up on his nose. Angel smothered a grin and returned his eyes to Connor. ‘Half a day?’
Connor nodded and swung his pack over his shoulder. ‘We leaving?’
Angel copied Connor’s movement, everyone else followed suit. ‘Lets go. I want to get as close as we can to them tonight. We slept, ate and went to the bathroom before we came, right?’ Everyone nodded. ‘We shouldn’t need to stop for a while.’
Cordelia, who had been silent for a while sidled up to Angel’s right. ‘I have a bad feeling about this,’ she said quietly, her gaze roaming the track ahead of them.
‘Which part?’ Angel half-smiled.
‘Yeah,’ Gunn chimed in, coming up on Angel’s left. ‘The-possibly-heading-towards-our-doom-in-the-forest-part or the we’re-going-to-get-killed-before-we-can-rescue-the-girls-part?’
‘All of it,’ she said quietly as she disappeared from Angels side, drifting back to join Fred and Wesley.
*************
Several hours later and Angel was ready to strangle both the seer and the ex- Watcher. Wesley and Cordelia had gotten into a fight as they walked through forest, arguing over the best way to go while the others looked on in horrid fascination. They’d had been going at it for going on twenty minutes when Connor spoke softly from beside Angel. ‘We’re getting close. I can smell them. They were here maybe two, three hours ago.’
Angel was quickly learning to trust Connor’s judgment, though his senses told him they were closer than that.
’Does anyone want to rest?’ Five hands went up before Angel had even finished speaking- Cordelia had put up two- and Connor grunted in annoyance. Maybe this mission was more than Connor wanting to feel accepted. Angel had a feeling Connor genuinely wanted to save these girls. Maybe he really was changing.
‘We will rest here for twenty minutes then continue on. In a couple of hours we’ll set up camp. Is that okay with everyone?’ he received only grunts in response.
Cordelia sat down and took off her shoes, examining her feet; Gunn walked into the bushes, reappearing a minute later; Wesley sat down and took out his spell page, Fred sat down beside him while Connor sat on a fallen stump and glared at the ground. Angel stood and surveyed the area. He could see why the demons chose this place to rest. It was well covered and very dense. Predators would have a hard time finding clear shots and it would be too easy to simply melt into the background.
Everyone took a drink and had something to eat, while Wesley disappeared for a minute or two then- to Connor’s relief- they continued on.
They’d not been walking long when Angel felt a chill creep up his spine. He froze and the others followed suit, watching him closely. He held up a hand and waved it to the right. Wesley, Gunn and Connor understood, while Fred and Cordelia stood there looking confused. The men dragged them off to the side of the dirt track they were walking on and hunkered down behind some bushes.
Angel closed his eyes and reached out with his senses. Something was coming this way, fast. Before he could react, a huge demon came from out of nowhere, almost bowling him over. He ducked to the ground and snarled as he scented the human girls. This demon had been one of the number guarding them.
He snarled and lunged at the demon. It charged him again and Angel dodged it, swinging round and burying his foot in the demons deceptively hard looking chest. His foot sank up to the ankle and he grimaced. He tried to yank his foot out but it wouldn’t budge. All of a sudden a dark shape came out of nowhere and knocked the demon away from Angel. His foot slipped free and he stumbled back, watching in dawning horror as Connor took on the large demon but he needn’t have feared; Connor had the demon on the ground in seconds and Angel watched as Connor snapped its neck.
Connor stood back from the demon and wiped his hands on his pants. He looked up as Wesley and the rest came out from hiding and Angel watched the expressions on their faces closely. No one looked surprised at Connor’s actions. That could be because Connor’s previous actions included dropping Angel in a box into the depths of the ocean for a few months.
Angel cleared his throat and the gang looked at him. ‘We had better keep going. The demon must be covering the groups back. We’ll keep on going. The group must not be moving as fast as we thought if we caught up with a straggler.’
Wesley took off his glasses pinched the bridge of his nose. ’Of course, that makes perfect sense. Thirteen teenage girls… that’s bound to slow them down.’
Gunn raised a hand. ‘Yo, can we go cause, uh… he ain’t smellin’ too good, if ya know what I mean.’
‘I’m with Gunn,’ Cordelia wrinkled her nose. ‘Lets just save these brats so we can go home.’
‘Oh… your concern is so touching, Cordy. You do realise though that they are teenagers not children, right?’
Cordelia rolled her eyes. ‘Whatever.’
‘Let’s just go!’ the previously quiet Connor ground out. ‘We’re just wasting time.’
‘Connor’s right,’ Angel stepped up, smoothing the ruffled feathers as best he could. ‘They’re not far away now. We should catch up to them in no time if we keep moving. Is everyone right to continue?‘
Everyone nodded the affirmative and Angel turned to see Connor already moving, eager to catch up with the group. The boy was still a puzzle to him. Hopefully when they got back to Los Angles they would have a chance to get to know each other better. Taking his mind off Connor, he noticed Fred lagging behind a little, looking weary.
He dropped back a little and adjusted his pace to match hers. ‘You okay?’
‘Yeah, I’m fine. A little tired and I’d love some coffee but I’m okay,’ she nodded jerkily and Angel couldn’t help but think maybe she didn’t need any more caffeine in her system.
‘This whole thing should be over soon. Then we’ll be back home and you can rest and, I suppose, if you want, you can drink as much coffee as you want.’
She laughed and smiled slightly. She had a little bit of bounce in her step and she looked a little less tired but they needed to stop soon. As he headed back to the front of the group he bumped into Wesley and whispered. ‘Keep an eye on Fred.’
Wesley dropped back immediately and Angel was relieved that he was blessed enough to have staff who did his bidding without making a big show about it.
He heard a noise and he froze, his head cocked towards the sound Connor mimicked his actions, obviously having heard the same thing; crying.
He motioned the team forward and they all inched moved slowly, merging into the bush, keeping low as they crept towards the female voice.
Angel held up a hand to stop them and he pulled out a knife, in case the girl wasn’t alone. The gang saw what he did and copied him, each pulling out a weapon. He scurried toward the sound, hiding behind bushes and trees and stopped as the cries grew louder. He leaned around the tree he was hiding behind, looked around and quickly withdrew before anyone noticed him. Someone, however, did.
Angel told the group what he had seen. All the girls and the demons were resting but a hundred feet away.
‘Then let’s hit them, man. I mean, no offence but I wanna go home, spend some time with my boys, you know?’ Gunn held his axe at the ready.
Cordelia lifted her weapon too and nodded, agreeing with Gunn. Fred, too, lifted her weapon in her slightly trembling arms. ‘We have to get them before they get to where ever it is they are going, Angel. It might as well be now.’
‘I must say I agree with the majority here, Angel. I might be best to strike while the metaphorical iron is hot.’ Wesley pompously spoke.
‘Yo man. You could have just said “let’s go” or something to that affect,’ Gunn shook his head. ‘The British,’ he cursed.
‘I’ll have you know-’
Before Wesley could start an argument, Angel looked at Connor and nodded his head. The two hefted their weapons and abruptly ran from the group, disrupting the conversation. After a moment everyone followed and they ran towards the group of teens and demons, ready to rescue.
****************
Angel stood at the side of a small clearing looking mystified. Connor stood silently beside him in the same state. The carnage around them was horrible. Bodies littered the ground and blood soaked into the earth as they stood, dumbfounded. The others came up slowly behind them, puzzled by their stillness. Cordelia gasped as she saw what they were looking at. Angel heard Wesley’s ‘Oh dear’ and silently echoed his statement.
It was a slaughter. ‘What…’ was all he could get out. What did this? The bodies of the demons, some dismembered, some beheaded, littered the ground in front of them and the Angel investigations team weren’t the ones responsible. Not to mention there were many more than the original eight guards.
‘You thinking’ one of them turned on the others?’ Gunn asked in a low voice.
‘One demon didn’t do this. It looks like an army went through here.’ Angel was completely stymied. They’d been the only ones to follow the demons, he was sure of it and none of the demons would have turned against the rest. ‘No one thing could do this.’
‘Damn, I wish you would have told me that earlier,’ said a new voice and Angel turned to the sound, ‘’Cause I gotta say, for a large guard, they were pretty easy to take down. Of course the fact they could smell a vampire gave me the distraction I needed so… thanks.’
Walking towards them was the most beautiful woman Angel had ever seen. She raised her eyebrows and contemplated the mismatched group the vampire had with him.
‘Forgive his manners please,’ Gunn stepped forward. ‘My name is Charles Gunn, this is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, Cordelia Chase, Fred Burkle, Connor and the tall, dark and broody is Angel.’
‘Uh huh.’ the girl began to turn away but Wesley coughed lightly to get her attention. She stopped and looked back at him, amused.
‘Excuse me, miss… but you did,’ he gestured to the carnage. ‘This?’
She nodded slowly, a wry smile flitting over her face and he blanched, falling back a little. Angel noticed Connor smirking. ‘Where are the girls?’ he finally got out. The girl, no, young lady before him shone brightly even in the moonlight.
‘They’re safe,’ she replied and she began to turn away again. ‘Is it too much to assume you have a way to get us all home?’
‘We have a way,’ Fred timidly spoke up. ‘We have a spell to open a portal to back home.’
The girl nodded. ‘I’ll get the girls.’
‘Wait,’ Angel called out as she walked away. ‘What’s your name?’
She didn‘t stop. ‘Buffy.’
This chapter is the longest one cause I couldn’t find a good place to stop. It all wanted to come as one chapter so I let it. Let me know what you think.
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