Part Thirty-two.

Faith’s heart was still pounding rapidly when she sat back down in her seat. “We lost ‘em.” Not that they had really lost them. The demons were left in the dust the second they got into the car but they were alive.

For now.

“Is everyone all right?” She looked over to Tara, who had tears falling down her face. Inwardly she swore, cursing herself for forgetting about Annabelle. “Tara? You okay?”

The blonde witch nodded but didn’t take her eyes off the road.

Faith, not sure what else to do, reached out and squeezed her shoulder before turning to the three men in the back seat. “You guys?”

“Fine, Faith,” Giles face was still marred with confusion. “Are you…”

Faith could see the fear in his eyes. He never admitted it, at least not to her, but he was shit scared of losing her. She knew he hadn’t really wanted to take her on as a Slayer, he didn’t want to lose another one, but in the end he had – and they made a good team. Faith knew her death would kill him, she saw it every time she looked at him after a bad fight. “Five by five,” she assured him.

He gave her a warm, relieved smile.

“Daniel? Kyle?”

“I’m uninjured,” Kyle replied distractedly, his eyes intent on Daniel.

“How bad is he?” she asked, nodding to Daniel.

“I’m fine,” Daniel stated through gritted teeth.

Kyle ignored him. “Nothing too severe. Maybe a broken ankle, some ribs… I won’t be able to tell until we stop.”

Faith nodded, guilt flowing through her. One part of Slaying Faith didn’t like were the casualties. Faith loved Slaying when it was just her and her prey.

When her friends – or one of her best friend’s honey’s – were involved, she hated it.

Faith knew her friends were the reason she was the longest living Slayer in history but the price she paid – would pay – for that was that one day she would lose her friends.

Not if, but when.

And she was responsible for them – just like she was now. It was up to her to keep all of the people in the car – and the world – safe. Sometimes the weight of that responsibility was too much.

“Ah… Faith?” Tara’s quiet voice pulled her from her macabre thoughts. “I don’t know where I’m going. I-I’ve never been to LA before.”

Damn, she had forgotten about that. She glanced around, taking in the street around them. “Keep going down this street until the end then take a right. We’re going to Caritas.”

There was nowhere else to go.

“What about Willow?” Daniel demanded, his pain forgotten. “She’s still linked to the demons.”

“Linked to the demons?” Giles repeated, alarmed.

“I’ll explain later,” Faith told him before turning to Daniel. “We can give her a call, give her a heads up about the demons. You got your cell on you?”

Daniel nodded and reached for his cell. His face fell as soon as he took it into his hand. “It’s broken.” He closed his eyes as though he were in pain. “I must have landed on it during the attack.”

Damn. “Anyone else got a phone?”

Kyle shook his head. “Mine is in my locker at the hospital.”

“Annabelle had Angel’s.”

Shit. “Okay, we head to Caritas and work out what to do there. No matter where we go the demons can track us so we may as well go to a place where they’re powerless.”

And who knew… Maybe Red and Fang would be there waiting.

** ** **

“We’re too late.”

There was no doubt that the demons had been here.

Willow felt the bile rise in her throat as she stared at the chaos in front of the hospital. Police cars were strewn haphazardly in front of the Emergency Room entrance. Officers were running around frantically trying to contain the hysterical patients fleeing from inside. People were screaming about monsters inside the hospital.

They were too late.

“We’re not going to get inside,” Angel commented, nodding towards the seven police cars now entering the car park.

Willow didn’t answer, she couldn’t. The scene in front of her held too many reminders. It reminded her of another time; another battle where they had failed so badly. The only difference now was that the building in front of her wasn’t smoldering – or a high school.

It… It was graduation all over again.

The fear, panic, and grief of what this meant, what she was seeing, slammed into her. It was crippling. The air seemed to disappear and she felt the world start to close in around her. Willow knew deep in her heart what had happened. Her fears had been right; the demons had tracked her friends through the link through Tara. They had been linked to the witches and they had gone after their biggest treat.

A threat Willow had sent here… to a place full of innocent people.

She had sent them here.

Daniel… Faith… Tara… Annabelle…

This was her fault.

She had done this.

Oh sweet Jesus.

“Willow?”

She jumped at the sound of Angel’s voice, her entire body shaking. “I’m fine.” The words were automatic, she was anything but fine.

Her entire world was crashing around her.

The thought of losing Daniel… God, it killed her. The thought of losing Faith, Giles… it scared her so much that she didn’t want to move.

Inside the building in front of her, her friends could be lying dead… just like they had been seven years ago. God! She was being punished for surviving. What was happening here… This was her punishment for her screw up at Graduation.

Oh God! Daniel!

Her mind screamed as her fears overwhelmed her. Willow didn’t even try to stop the fear – she couldn’t. She couldn’t even move. Willow didn’t want to move from this spot, because the second she did, she would find out what happened to the people that she loved. She couldn’t go through that again, she couldn’t.

She wanted to stay here where she could let herself believe they were still alive. Where there was hope.

The fight was over; what they were seeing here was the aftermath.

Willow had lived through one massacre to know that this was what the first few minutes after it looked like.

It was over.

Willow squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t have the strength to handle this. It was her worst nightmare coming to life. She had dreamed of this happening a million times over.

Losing anyone she loved, feeling that grief, that pain, and being responsible was something she couldn’t deal with.

This was why she had never allowed herself to get close to anyone. Why she had endured such loneliness during her years at the Academy.

She couldn’t go through this –

“Lieutenant!” Angel shouted, startling her once again. She was surprised to find him standing in front of her, griping her shoulders almost painfully. “Willow?”

Tears filled her eyes as all of her control slipped away. “Daniel… Faith…”

“I know,” Angel told her gently. “But I need you to pull yourself together. They might still be…”

Willow’s mind shut out his words as the horror completely consumed her. She couldn’t stop the fear as it coursed through her veins.

She heard Angel shouting at her but her mind couldn’t comprehend the words – anything.

This, this was too much for her.

She chanted those words over and over again as her mind shut out the world around her.

** ** **

He was losing her!

Angel could see her mind shutting down. The smell of fear was all around her. No, not fear. Fear wasn’t what he was smelling off Willow. It was more than that, terror… horror… the kind of scent his victims had back in his Angelus days.

The last time Angel had seen Willow in this state had been seven years ago.

“Willow!” he tried to reach her again, but he knew there was no hope.

The look in her eyes… It was the same as it had been right after she had found Buffy and Xander.

Angel cursed himself a million times over.

“Will… please…” he begged, desperate. They needed to get inside but they weren’t going anywhere with Willow like this.

God damn it! This was what Giles had warned them about; the reason he had vetoed Angel’s idea of calling in Willow to help when he first suggested it.

What had he been thinking? “Willow, we need to get into the hospital.” Which was getting harder by the minute. More police were arriving as they stood here. Soon it would be impossible to get inside.

Willow had to snap out of it or… Or what? He couldn’t leave Willow out here, not with demons possibly nearby.

Damn, his hands were tied. “Willow!” he shouted her name and gripped her shoulders even tighter than before. Her eyes were wide with horror but that wasn’t what had Angel so worried. They way they were looking THROUGH him did. “Lieutenant!”

Nothing. He looked back to the hospital. More people were rushing outside, more news crews were arriving – as well as the police he had spotted a second ago.

The place would be swarming with police soon. If he didn’t go inside now he wouldn’t be able to get by them.

Angel had no idea if the demons were still inside. Faith, Giles, or any of the others could be in there as well… hurt, injured.

Damn it! He had to get in there!

He grabbed Willow’s hand, giving up on trying to reach her, and pulled her towards the left wing of the hospital, where some doctors and nurses had set up a makeshift infirmary. Angel didn’t like where it was positioned, near some trees and a path that led out of the hospital grounds, but he was desperate. He searched the crowd for a familiar face, one of Kyle’s nurses. If he could find one of them to watch Willow, then he could go inside and –

“Angel?”

Thank God! “Beth!” Angel pulled Willow towards the nurse walking towards him. Beth was in charge of the night shift, and well aware of who and what Angel was.

“Angel!” She was covered in blood and looked terrified. “There was an attack inside the hospital,” she started to explain. “I think it was – ”

“I know,” he cut her off, not wanting anyone nearby to hear what she was saying. While a few nurses and one other doctor knew about the supernatural, most of them didn’t. And with the news crew setting up in front of them, Angel didn’t think now was the time to broadcast it. “How many were there?”

Beth shook her head. “I only saw three but there were more. They were on the same floor as –”

“Giles.” Fear gripped him. “Did you see what happened? Did Giles and Faith escape?” Please… please…

“I don’t know,” she replied, close to tears.

“It’s okay. Listen, Beth, I need to get inside but…” he motioned to Willow. “I don’t have a lot of time to explain but I need you to stay with Willow while I’m in there. Don’t leave her side. If she comes too, tell her not to move.”

Angel hated leaving Willow but he had no choice.

“Tell her I’ll be back for her.”

** ** **

She was going to kill her.

Cordelia didn’t care what Angel, Giles, or Faith said. The second she got her hands on Willow, she was going to kill her.

“Can’t you drive any faster?” Cordelia snapped as Gunn maneuvered through the traffic on their way to pick up Willow’s team.

The vampire hunter glared at her. “I’m going as fast as I can.”

But it wasn’t fast enough! Cordelia’s heart hadn’t stopped pounding since she received the call from Major Moron. If Willow had just listened to them then none of this would have happened. But no! Willow HAD to do things her way.

And now they were paying the price. She had been wrong, the demons hadn’t been after her. Her plan to lure them away hadn’t worked and more than likely they had gone to the hospital instead – where Angel and Willow should hopefully be now.

Cordelia didn’t think she had felt this angry ever before.

Willow hadn’t just endangered the witches, and their chance at stopping the cult, but she had endangered Cordelia’s family.

Angel, Giles, and Faith… they had been together for so long. Fought side by side ever since Graduation.

If anything happened to any of them, Cordelia really would kill Willow.

** ** **

Angel faltered the second he stepped into the hospital. He wasn’t sure what he had expected to see, but the sight of splattered blood across the wall just inside the entrance wasn’t it.

It looked like a massacre had happened here.

Looked like? No. What had happened here had been a massacre. The demons hadn’t quietly made their way to Giles’ room. They didn’t sneak through the hospital, trying to avoid detection. The floor Giles’ room was on was three floors up and already this floor looked like a war zone. The scent and sight of blood was everywhere.

The demons had annihilated anyone who stood in there way. More than likely killed everyone on their way to find Giles and the witches.

He understood now why there were so many police and news crews outside.

The demons had made their presence well and truly known. Angel just hoped they had fled when the police and news crews arrived but…

Seeing the state of just one floor of the hospital, Angel didn’t think they had… not unless they had followed Faith and Giles if they had escaped. The demon cult were determined to bring forth their apocalypse… and it looked like they weren’t afraid of doing whatever it took to make it happen.

For the first time since Graduation Angel felt in over his head.

These demons were unstoppable and hell bent on making this dimension their own and they had next to no means of stopping them. Angel took a deep breath and headed deeper into the hospital.

There were people everywhere… If even one of them saw the demon, there was no way they would be able to stop the press from showing it on every news station between here and… everywhere.

If Willow saw one of them…

She would be dead.

** ** **

“Oh my God!”

She heard the words but, like when Angel had been talking, they held no meaning for her. She was numb inside, the pain and fear was replaced with a familiar feeling of nothing.

Willow didn’t want to see, feel, or understand anything.

Right now, she was safe. Locked safely in her mind, protected from the pain she knew was waiting for her. There was a part of her mind that was protesting what she was doing, her military mindset rebelled against it, but it wasn’t enough to pull her out of her haven.

Willow wouldn’t – couldn’t – go through the pain of Graduation again.

She couldn’t.

“What… Oh God!”

Not even the hand squeezing her arm tightly was enough to break her free from her mind. The voice, her military voice, was yelling orders at her but the fear of what was out there was too much.

She had known all along that she wasn’t strong enough.

When she had first met Daniel, she should have refused the SGC. She should never have come back to LA.

She should never have allowed herself to love anyone.

This… This was a nightmare she couldn’t escape from.

She couldn’t –

“Willow!” the voice that called her name was unfamiliar, a female voice that she had never heard before, but the tone of her voice caught Willow’s attention. The attention of the part of her that was military…

Willow felt herself being pulled backward, the hand on her arm squeezing her painfully now. The woman was saying something to her, her voice now desperate as she pulled Willow away from whatever was scaring her.

That was when she felt it – the tingling sensation of her link.

It was strong now, so impossibly strong.

She could feel it… and what was on the other end of the link. It – they – were nearby.

The demons… oh sweet Jesus… the demons were nearby.

Near all of the people, civilians… People she had sworn to protect – people she had failed to protect at Graduation at again here tonight. People like Daniel, Faith, Tara, Annabelle, Buffy, Xander…

NO!

“No!” the protest tore out of her and the woman stopped pulling her away.

“Willow?”

No. No.

Nonononononono.

“Willow? We need to find Angel. I think they’re out here, the things that attacked the hospital. In the trees…”

The words hit her like a zat, the true meaning of them, and the horror of everything crashed around her.

The demons were nearby… civilians…

“Angel?” Willow looked around, her heart thundering with fear.

“He’s inside the hospital. He asked me to look after you while you…”

Shame, disgust and guilt filled her. Sweet Jesus. What was she doing?

Willow squeezed her eyes shut, fighting off the fear and the pain. She was trained to handle situations like this and she had failed. She had let her emotions and her fears win. She had failed – had failed…

But not anymore.

Using strength she didn’t know she had, she called on every ounce of her training, right back from her first days at the academy and buried her fear – just like she had buried herself a few moments ago.

She couldn’t – wouldn’t – lose it now.

She opened her eyes and looked to the woman. “We need to clear this area.” Clear the area? How? There were too many people, too many… news crews?

Willow froze as she found herself staring directly into a camera. In front of it, a reporter was giving his story.

This… this was bad.

Shit!

Think! She had to think!

** ** **

Angel continued to make his way to Giles’ floor, the number of bodies increasing as he went. He felt cold with fury inside. With every body, his rage increased.

These demons were going to pay.

** ** **

There! In the trees! Willow backed away instinctively as she saw the demons. She counted… too many. They were hovering in the trees, just out of sight unless you were looking.

They stirred slightly when they saw her and for a second she thought they were going to attack, but they held their positions. Probably waiting for Angel to return before attacking. With all of the police and press around, attacking too soon would be dangerous. They might not get their prize.

Or prizes.

If the demons attacked here… too many civilians would die.

And the secret of demons would be out. She glanced over to the camera again, praying that the news was being broadcast locally.

She had to get out of here, draw the demons away, otherwise… it would be worse than Graduation.

Willow closed her eyes, there was only one thing she could do. She had to lure the demons away, become a big enough threat so they would all follow her.

She… She could do that.

And there was only one way she could achieve.

By doing the one thing she was best at.

Running.

** ** **

Doctor Janet Fraiser stirred the sauce slowly, the smell of it permeating through the kitchen, the television playing softly in the background. “Cassie! Dinner will be ready in ten minutes. I hope that table is set.”

She waited for the obligatory ‘yes, Mom!’ to sound from the dining room and Janet smiled in anticipation. Nights with Cassie were becoming a rarity now. She was in college and with the demands of Janet’s job, getting together was near impossible.

Nights like this happened once in every blue moon.

Both women always promised to get together more often, but with the lives they led it was –

“Hey Mom!” Cassie called from the living room. “Come here!”

Taking the sauce off the stove, Janet made her way to Cassie hoping that this wasn’t a ploy to avoid setting the table. It was amazing what her daughter would do in order to avoid a little house work. “What is it?” Janet asked, finding Cassie standing in front of the television.

“They took my show off… something happened in LA, a massacre of some sort. They said over a hundred people are dead.”

Janet reached for the remote, turning up the volume.

“…police are unsure of what had happened here, exactly,” the reporter stated, his face grim. “But as you can see from the injured people behind me…”

Janet stopped listening as her eyes focused on the scene behind the reporter. She could hardly believe what – who – she was seeing. Janet would have thought she was making a mistake if the redhead woman standing several feet behind the reporter didn’t turn and look at the camera.

The look of fear and terror on her face could not be mistake, nor her identity.

“Cassie, give me the phone.”

Janet watched as the woman beside Willow started pulling her away, pointing towards something off camera. She could see Willow’s eyes widen.

“Mom?”

Janet grabbed the phone off Cassie and quickly dialed the General’s number. She looked back at the screen as the General answered…

Just in time to see Willow run.

** ** **

Elsewhere in LA a woman frantically searched for her keys, the television reporter repeating the breaking story.

She wasn’t interested in what he was saying.

She had already watched the report, and was on her way to the hospital. She had seen something in the news report that had shaken her to her core… something that couldn’t possibly be real.

Finding the keys, she ran out the door. Next