"Well, Sir, you’re right. Something is going on here."
After being here for six hours, that revelation really wasn’t that much of a surprise. Kawalsky motioned Hayes to follow him into the small courtyard, just outside the entrance of the hotel. The last thing he wanted was for Angel and his team to know they were onto something.
Things were tense enough as it was, Kawalsky wanted to know a little more before he and Angel went for round twenty.
Kawalsky got along with Angel about as well as he got along with the Tok’ra. Actually, it was kind of like working with the Tok’ra. He worked with them because he had to, but he didn’t trust them one single bit.
And vice versa.
Though… Angel did have reason to distrust and dislike him. Threatening to call in the military, when Angel tried to stop them from hearing about Faith’s rescue, hadn’t been the smartest move. But at the time, Kawalsky hadn’t been all that charitable. He still wasn’t.
And he HAD been considering calling in SG-2 unofficially.
Now more than ever he wanted to call in Lou’s team. They would keep quiet, they owed SR-1 far too much not to, but he was holding off calling anyone until they had more of an idea about what was going on.
He wanted to make sure this wasn’t a knee jerk reaction to seeing his Lieutenant teetering on the edge.
Seeing Rosenberg in such a bad state had gotten to him.
Rosenberg was the epitome of control.
Not once had he ever seen her lose it when on duty. She always kept it together, no matter how bad the shit was. Even on her first mission with SR-1 she'd kept it together. Christ, it had been her first day, they had been sent on a rescue, and she had handled everything with the same control she always did. Yeah, she had been a little - a lot - nervous that day, but once they were off world, Rosenberg had done her duty.
Watching his Lieutenant falling apart shook him, hearing her scream out from nightmares, again and again, shook the entire team.
Now they were trying to find out what the fuck was going on here.
Kawalsky already had a feeling that this was far from over. Angel and his team were acting too secretive for Faith’s rescue to be the end of it. Everything Angel had told them sounded like bullshit, and at times he made no bones about it being bullshit.
If Angel hadn’t told them some things prior to Rosenberg’s arrival, Kawalsky was sure they would have bullshitted even more. Kawalsky was sure Angel was kicking himself for telling them as much as he did. It made it impossible for them to cover everything up… like they could anyway.
The place had been trashed, they would have to be blind not to know some kind of battle went down here.
It annoyed the fuck out of him. They knew something had happened, more than they were saying, but Angel and his team refused to let them in on it. They also refused to say anything about the strange things that had happened in the last six hours.
They had closed their ranks well and truly.
At times, they were downright hostile.
As were SR-1.
Angel and his team weren’t the only ones to close their ranks.
SR-1 might be a little fractured at the moment, their foundations damaged because of the secrets both Rosenberg and Hayes had kept from them, but they were still a team. Didn’t matter what shit went down, how crazy it was, they backed each other up.
SR-1 weren’t leaving and Angel would just have to deal with it.
Christ, how the hell was Rosenberg friends with that guy? He was nothing like the people she usually hung out with. He had almost busted a gut when Cordelia told him about the rescue mission.
He had been, in a word, furious by the time Cordelia finished telling him everything.
Kawalsky was baffled. How the hell could he be mad at her? Kawalsky and the rest of the team had been beaming when they heard everything. Their girl had pulled through even though she had been shit scared. She had pulled herself together, gone with what people and weapons she had, and did what she had to.
She was Search And Rescue through and through.
Yet these guys were acting like she committed the crime of the century. Angel especially. Every time someone brought up her name, he got a pissed look on his face.
Kawalsky wanted to know why.
He wanted to know a lot of things. Like who the two women, the ones Cordelia and Rondell had picked up from the airport a few hours ago, were, and what the ‘delivery’ Gunn had been speaking about was.
Both had to do with Rosenberg, he was sure of it.
He hoped Hayes had more than snippets of overheard conversation, which was where he had gotten his information from. Though, knowing Hayes, he’d have something. The man tended to blend into the woodwork better than anyone else on his team.
Grogan was too gung ho, Rosenberg too focused, but Hayes kind of faded into the background. "What have you got?" he asked his Captain.
"It’s big, Sir… at least I think it is."
Damn. "What did you find out?"
Hayes hesitated. "Sir, did you want Grogan in on this?"
Kawalsky shook his head. "He’s patrolling the perimeter, trying to see what he can overhear from Gunn’s men."
Gunn’s men were around Grogan’s age, he was hoping that if Grogan couldn’t overhear anything, he could maybe get them to talk.
"We’ll fill him in later."
"All right, Sir," Hayes began. "I found out some intel about the delivery and the two women. Don’t get too excited, Sir, there are still a lot of questions unanswered. Getting information out of anyone is next to impossible. They don’t trust us and these aren’t the sort of people to give trust over easily. Everything I found out was stuff I had overheard."
If they were anything like the Tok’ra… they would never give trust over.
"Firstly, the delivery. I heard Rondell talking to Gunn about it. Sir, I didn’t get exactly what the delivery was, but I think it’s weapons. The delivery was supposed to be this morning, but when Rosenberg came back injured they put it back, which, apparently, was a good thing. Because Gunn’s ‘friend’ was having trouble getting some of the hardware."
Weapons.
Fuck.
Why the hell would Rosenberg order weapons? "How much hardware are we talking about?"
"Enough to make it impossible for anyone except Rosenberg to accept the order," Hayes told him. "None of the others have enough money on them to cover it."
Enough money? "I’m not sure I want to ask but… how much isn’t enough money?"
"We’re talking in the thousands, Sir, maybe tens of thousands. I heard Rondell say he had a few thousand he could lend but Gunn said it wasn’t enough."
Mother fuck.
"Rosenberg wouldn’t order weapons for a rescue," Hayes stated firmly. "Not the sort of volume we’re talking about."
"Any idea what she wanted them for?"
"No idea."
"What about the two women Cordelia and Rondell brought here?"
"I managed to find out a bit more about them than I did about the weapons, Sir."
"And?" he prompted.
"The two women are witches," Hayes didn’t look happy about what he was saying. "Apparently the older woman, Annabelle, was contacted by one of Angel’s team yesterday. They called her here for some reason, Sir, and I don’t think it had anything to do with Faith or Giles."
"Go on."
"Annabelle was supposed to have arrived this morning, probably around the same time as the weapons, but she called and put the flight back. Apparently her coven decided going alone was too dangerous, so they sent Annabelle’s former apprentice with her. That’s who the blonde is."
"Too dangerous? They could just be talking about the demons in LA," Kawalsky suggested, not wanting to jump to conclusions. Hayes had gone on and on about how dangerous LA was.
"I wish that were true, Sir, but I don’t think it is. More of the coven are coming here, tomorrow actually. Again, I don’t know why, but if a coven of witches are coming here, it can’t be a good thing," Hayes told him. "I couldn’t hear everything Cordy, Annabelle, and Faith were talking about, but… Rosenberg’s name was mentioned several times as well. They kind of hushed up when they started talking about her so I couldn’t hear anything.."
Damn. "Any idea what they were saying about Rosenberg?"
"No, Sir, Angel showed up not long after," Hayes made an apologetic face. "He knows I was listening."
"How’d he take it?"
"He wasn’t too happy that I was there, but… the way he acted," he shook his head. "If I didn’t hear anything at all, the way he acted would have been enough to confirm your suspicions, Sir."
Really? "What did he - "
"Excuse me, Sir, got a sec?" Grogan called out to him as he walked casually towards them.
There was nothing rushed about his steps. To the observer, Grogan looked like he was just saying hello. Unless you knew him, it would be understandable to think he looked bored.
To Kawalsky, he looked anything but. Kawalsky recognised Grogan’s look and body language.
The last time he had seen it was six weeks ago, when they had been on a rescue. They had been working with the locals, trying to locate SG-11. Rosenberg had established her link with them pretty much as soon as they walked through the gate, but the locals had slowed them down.
All of them eager to help.
So eager that SR-1 found it impossible to get away from them, without drawing undue attention to themselves and Rosenberg. They hadn’t wanted to locals to know Rosenberg was psychic. They were about six hundred years behind Earth, on the evolutionary scale, and were a little touchy about certain things.
It was Grogan who had worked out the locals were the reasons behind SG-11’s disappearance, and he had pretty much conveyed that message without a single word.
That’s how SR-1 worked. They knew each other so well, that they sometimes didn’t need to actually say when they were in deep shit.
A look was enough.
Grogan was giving them that look right now.
Casual, to those around him but to SR-1, he may as well be waving his hands around and screaming ‘danger’.
"Sure, Grogan what’s up?" Kawalsky kept his tone light, though his body went instinctively on alert, as did Hayes’.
Grogan glanced around the small courtyard, his eyes finally focusing on the entrance to the hotel. "Everyone inside?"
He nodded.
"Angel?"
Angel?
"He’s in his office," Hayes told the Lieutenant.
"We have a situation, Sirs," Grogan announced, his voice low.
Kawalsky was getting a bad feeling about this. He didn’t like how pale Grogan was. Christ, it looked like he had seen a ghost…
He hadn’t seen a ghost had he?
"What kind of situation?"
"There’s been a compromise," Grogan chose his words carefully. "A big compromise."
To quote a great General…
Crap.
About damn time.
Faith couldn’t described how relieved she felt when Red appeared at the top of the stairs. Six hours of putting up with her military friends, and she was ready to kill someone.
All right, so she had been more worried about Red than her military friends.
They all had been.
Faith had been filled in by Cordy about all the shit that had gone down here after she had been taken and… she was just about to go out of her mind.
Red suicidal, she just couldn’t see it.
Except when she thought about Willow using herself as bait to rescue her from the demons.
Demons who had almost killed Fang, demons who had sent Red catatonic. Christ, no wonder Fang almost lost when Cordy told him what Red did.
It wasn’t just because Red was the most powerful witch they had, but because Red had done it because of Graduation.
Fuck.
Red was suicidal because they'd saved her.
So it wasn’t a wonder that she was so relieved to see Red finally. Faith had heard the screams from her nightmares, knew that Red was going through hell, and it was killing her not to be doing something.
So much for taking care of Red like B had asked.
B was going to kill her when Faith finally kicked the bucket.
"Hey, Red, welcome back," Faith greeted her with false cheer, making her way up the stairs to meet them half way. Faith couldn’t say Red or her guy looked too happy. In fact, they both looked stressed. Red was looking down at the lobby, searching for someone. "If you’re looking for your guys, they’re outside having another meeting."
Like they didn’t know Red’s friends were talking about them.
Christ, did they think they were stupid?
"What about Angel?" Red asked.
"In his office." With the witches.
Wow.
Guess she had been worried about Fang. "Everything all right, Red?" And wasn’t that the dumbest question of the century? NOTHING was all right. "Fang’s fine you know, he’s going to heal from the attack, but if you’re worried… YO ANGEL," Faith yelled as loud as she could. "Red needs - "
Faith words were cut off by Red’s hand on her arm. "No! Don’t call him… shit!"
What was wrong? Why was Red so pale? And why did she look like she was about to have kittens when Fang walked out of his office?
"Daniel, find my - "
"Hayes, stop!" a voice cried out from outside the hotel. It was one of Red’s guys, though she couldn’t tell who.
The next moment Hayes ran into the hotel at a speed that was impressive for a human.
He was heading straight for Angel, with a… oh damn. A cross in his hand.
"Hayes! No!" Red screamed just as her friend launched himself at Angel. "Daniel, go now!"
Red’s man pushed past Faith then practically ran down the stairs, but skidded to a halt before he made it to the bottom, stopping as Red’s two other friends ran into the lobby.
One bolted towards the weapons cabinet, the other, Grogan, went for something left lying near the door… a sword!
Oh fuck.
"Hayes! No!"
Shit! She was too late. Shit! Shit! SHIT!
Willow screamed out to her CO as she followed Faith down the stairs. Christ, she was too slow, her speed was only slightly faster than a walk. Her back was too stiff from sleep and healing to make her mobile, she couldn’t get to them in time. Daniel was trying to get close enough to Hayes to pull him away, but Grogan had pulled - thrown - him out of the way.
Right into Faith.
Fuck! "Hayes, Grogan, he’s not evil!" Willow cried out.
"Rosenberg," Kawalsky yelled, armed with a battle axe. "Get the hell out of here! He’s a vampire, everyone’s compromised!"
Holy shit. "Sir, he’s not evil! He’s good, he’s a good vampire."
Oh yes, that statement was really going to reassure them.
Especially now, when Angel landed a punch on Hayes that sent him flying across the room. Sweet Jesus, it was all over now.
No matter what she said, she wouldn’t be able to stop her team.
You fight one member of SR-1, you fight them all.
FUCKING HELL!
Grogan launched himself at Angel next, catching him from behind and -
"Get the hell off him, Nimrod!" Cordy screamed before SHE threw herself on the two men, knocking them all to the floor.
Angel howled as the sword struck him and Willow screamed in fear as Kawalsky headed towards them, axe raised, going for Angel’s head.
Willow tried to head him off at the pass but her back slowed her down FAR too much, she’d never get there in… "Faith! Stop him! But don’t hurt…" Shit! Oh shit.
Willow winced when Faith pushed away from Daniel and tackled Kawalsky.
This was not going to end well.
Gunn’s men were starting to run into the hotel, they weren't jumping into the fray just yet, but they would.
Sweet Jesus, her team were going to get their asses kicked.
No way could they fight two super beings and a group of men and women - TEN times their number - trained to fight super beings. Dr Whitwood and some other people were filing out of Angel’s office as well.
Oh shit, they weren’t clients were they?
Oh, they were going to make one HELL of an impression.
"Willow!" Daniel yelled out to her.
She spun around to see Daniel being held back by two of Gunn’s men.
This was getting worse.
She had to save her team. "Don’t hurt them!" Willow screamed out to everyone and anyone. "They don’t know Angel has a soul."
Was anyone even listening to her?
Fuck this! Willow headed over to where Cordy, Angel, and Grogan were fighting, only to be stopped when someone grabbed her arm.
Dr Whitwood.
How fucking slow was she?
"Let me go, I have to get to my team," she struggled against his grip, her back screaming in protest as she did so. The two women that had come out of Angel’s office with him were at her side as well.
Sweet.
Civilians.
"Damn it, Doc," she snapped. "Let me go, I have to help them. It’s a misunderstanding, they don’t know Angel has a soul."
They were outgunned and outnumbered - she was going to help them however she could.
"Doc, for fuck sake, my team won’t listen to anyone but me," she fought again, frustration and anger building inside of her. Her team were getting their asses kicked because of her. Grogan was now being held down by Angel and Cordy, Faith and Kawalsky were fighting on the floor, Daniel was being restrained.
Hayes looked unconscious next to the weapons cabinet.
"Doc, let me go, I have to get in - "
"Willow, you’re injured, I can’t let you go in there, you’ll get hurt. Angel has everything under control."
Yeah, because they were superhuman and her team wasn’t.
"Doc, if you don’t let me go…" she left the threat hanging. There were civilians around them, after all.
"Willow, I can’t I - "
His words were cut off when Willow’s fist connected with his face.
The shock of the blow forced him to let go of her arm, which was great, except that the Doc lost his balance. Again, not anything too bad, except he knocked his head on a coffee table on the way down.
Oh fuck… he was out cold.
"Is he…" Damn it! She couldn’t bend down to check on him. "Is he all right?" she asked the elder of the two women.
Please, please, please let him be -
"He’s alive," the woman told her.
Willow looked to the younger woman standing next to her. "Take care of him I have to - "
"HAYES! NO!" Daniel screamed.
It was just like in the movies. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Willow turned around to where Hayes had been laying. HAD been. He was standing now, crossbow aimed at where Angel was trying to stand.
Faith wasn’t close enough to stop him.
She screamed but it didn’t make any difference.
Hayes aimed the crossbow and… RONDELL!
Willow wanted to weep with joy as the African American sprinted towards him, barreling straight into the Captain but… oh no! They were struggling with each other. Rondell was trying to get the crossbow off Hayes when Willow heard an all too familiar sound.
The bolt from the crossbow had been fired.
But it wasn’t pointed at Angel.
In the struggle, Hayes’ aim had been knocked off Angel… and was now focused straight at Willow and the blonde civilian.
"WILLOW!" Daniel cried out but Willow was already moving.
She twisted around, and threw herself on top of the blonde.
Slamming them both into the floor.
Willow let out an agonizing scream as her back flared in pain. The pain went from her lower back, right up to her shoulders.
Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! She couldn’t move. The pain was… it was too much. Fuck. She couldn’t get to her team and…
"Rosenberg!" Hayes cried out to her. "Christ, is she hit?"
"Hit?" Kawalsky this time. "What the fuck just happened… Faith, get the fuck off me."
Hit? Oh fuck, the bolt didn’t hit her, did it? She couldn’t tell. Her back was killing her, the pain was pretty much universal. Willow buried her head into the stranger's neck in a bid to stop the wave of dizziness that swum over her.
"Rosenberg," Grogan shouted. "Holy shit, she’s bleeding!"
"Willow!" Daniel yelled. "Damn it, let me go!"
She wanted to yell out to him, tell Gunn’s men to let him go, but the pain was too much. Getting up was an impossibility. Fuck… this hurt worse than when the demons scratched her back the first -
"Are you all right?" the blonde asked, her eyes full of fear. She was terrified. Willow didn’t think she’d ever seen anyone look so scared. Except herself. "Did it hit you?"
"Shit! Don’t move! Don’t move!" Willow yelped when the blonde tried to get a look at her back.
Any movement hurt.
Including breathing.
"She needs help!" the blonde cried out.
Willow heard people rushing over and her team shouting her name, all of them also hurling abuse at the men holding them. They were restrained… at least it sounded like that.
Willow lifted her head, cursed, and focused on the blonde woman through her hair. "I’m fine, Ma’am, I…" Just ripped open the scratch on her back… and quite possibly had a bolt in her back. "Are you hurt, Ma’am?" She didn’t look hurt, but Willow really wasn’t in a position to tell.
"Rosenberg… shit."
"Gunn, thank god! My team, are they all right?" Willow couldn’t see anything now, except the blonde.
"They’re fine, my guys have them."
Five to hold back one man each, no doubt.
It would have to be five to one, because any less and they’d be running free, especially since Cordy, Faith, and Angel were now kneeling next to Gunn.
She lifted herself up slightly - and painfully - to looked at Angel. "Let my team go, they won’t attack you. They thought we had been compromised." Her voice was coming out breathless and she was beginning to feel dizzy again.
Willow closed her eyes and swayed slightly, but was steadied by two hands just below her.
She opened her eyes and smiled down thankfully at the blonde.
The blonde blushed in return.
"Willow, you were hit," Angel told her, ignoring her question. "You’re bleeding bad. Where’s Kyle?"
Oh. Um. Well you see, there was this little accident where… "He’s out cold behind you."
"Excuse me?" Cordy exclaimed. "What the hell happened?"
There really was no way to say this subtly, but she was in so much pain, she was beginning not to give a fuck. "He tried to keep me from my team." The threat returned to her voice. "I hit him."
Angel stared at her in disbelief.
"Now, Angel, let my team go, they won’t…" she fought against another wave of dizziness. She was beginning to feel cool, the pain starting to numb.
She was going into shock.
"Please… they won’t… Kawalsky, Grogan, Hayes, Angel is not a threat, he’s has a soul, which makes him a good guy. He’s not a threat… oh shit… Daniel, tell them," she dropped her head against the blonde’s shoulder and took a deep breath. "Nice perfume," she muttered.
The blonde stammered out a thank you.
Best to compliment Angel’s client’s, that way he might not lose them because of her.
"He’s not, Willow gave me her word before coming down here," Daniel told them. "Please, let me help her."
"Angel…"
"Fang, she’s losing a lot of blood, the bolt must have hit an artery or something, her cuts have reopened, too," Faith told him. "We gotta get her to a hospital."
Hospital, that would be nice. She was beginning to feel tired.
"No time, " Angel said, turning to the older woman who had been with Doc and the blonde. "Do you know a way to heal her?"
Heal her?
The woman kneeled down next to Angel and put a hand on her back.
Willow eyes slammed shut and she let out a groan of pain. She tried to open them again, but she couldn’t. She just wanted to go to sleep.
"Willow!" Cordy snapped. "Don’t fall asleep."
"You have to stay awake," the blonde whispered quietly into her ear.
"Hurts…"
"Jesus H Christ, let me the fuck go!" Kawalsky screamed. "That’s my girl there."
How many times did she have to tell him NOT to call her ‘my girl’?
"I can heal her," the older woman stated. "I will need everyone to move away from her so I can do the spell."
Spell?
SPELL?
"NO!" Willow ground out through gritted teeth. "No spell, no magic."
"Willow, you don’t have a choice," Angel told her. "It’s a spell or die."
"Hospital…"
"We don’t have time, you’re losing blood fast and your heart beat is starting to slow… Annabelle, do the spell, NOW!"
Willow struggled then, screaming out for Daniel and her team.
She heard them call out to her in response, but they couldn’t reach her, they couldn’t stop Annabelle from… Annabelle? Where had she heard that name? Oh god, she was the witch coming here to help them.
"No! Angel, please, no magic… I can’t… no."
"Willow, I’m sorry, but I’m not letting you kill yourself."
Kill herself?
What the fuck was he on about?
Annabelle placed a hand on her arm. "The magic will remove the bolt and heal your wounds enough for you to be out of danger. I won’t hurt you."
"She won’t," the blonde agreed. "Annabelle has mastered healing magics, she does this all the time. Annabelle, I can’t move away without…"
"Stay, help keep Willow’s magic centered."
Willow opened her eyes and stared down at the blonde. "You’re a witch." The words came out like an accusation.
Annabelle started speaking in what sounded like Latin.
"NO!"
But it was no use, it was already beginning. She could feel a tingling sensation all over her back, numbness slowly fading away and being replaced by pain and that sensation.
Willow felt her magic inside herself stir.
She struggled.
It was easier struggling now, the pain was slowly receding and the tingling taking over almost completely.
"Jesus, what the hell is wrong with her eyes?" Grogan shouted.
Willow turned to look, Annabelle’s eyes were black.
Then they turned white.
No. This had to stop.
"Don’t fight it," the blonde told her, though she looked scared. Scared of Annabelle? "Her eyes aren’t supposed to do that." Willow heard her whisper.
Fear filled Willow.
"Don’t be afraid, it interferes with the spell, taints it," the blonde told her. "Focus on me, look at me. We won’t hurt you."
"I don’t know that… I don’t know you." Her back was free of pain now, but it was hot, burning hot.
But not a painful hot.
Willow closed her eyes as the magic overtook her completely.
She felt her own magic come alive, then join with the magic filling her… and with the magic she could feel stirring beneath her.
The blonde’s magic.
Power and magic filled her to the point of overload.
Willow gripped her shoulders, and the last thing Willow heard, before she passed out, was the blonde telling her her name.
Tara Maclay.