Alright gang, here's your update, sorry it took so long!
Chapter 5- Remember Me.
The three teens sat in their enclosure; Tara looking at the ground in shame. Xander’s eyes were wide, yet Willow seemed oddly calm.
“What did you just say?” Willow stared at Tara in shock.
“Didn’t you hear her; she said she was a witch.” Xander glared at the redhead, the cogs in his head turned and the situation clicked, he turned to Tara, eyes wide, “YOU’RE A WHAT?!”
Willow rolled her eyes at him. “You are kidding, right, Tara?”
Tara sighed. “I wish. Look, I don’t know why we were taken, but I know who brought us here. Those men, they work for a family, the Jenners…”
Tara explained all about Angel and Network, informing them of everything she knew.
At the end of her lengthy story, Tara’s two companions were wide eyed.
“Wow,” Willow shook her head, “its not everyday you here that the world is inhabited by witches and there’s a huge government agency trying to kill them all…”
“Fool!” Xander grabbed her, “I told you to watch Passions; I knew they couldn’t make that up!”
“What’s Passions?” Tara looked over at them.
“I told you its real!” Xander was, by this time, freaking out.
“Oh come on, Xander!” Willow gave him a shove, “So you don’t know who this Angel guy wants with us?”
“No, but it may have something to do with Faith and Jenny…”
“Who are they?” Xander appeared to have calmed down and was now piqued with interest.
“They worked at Network; Jenny’s okay, kind of scary some times though, and Faith is the coolest, she used to bring me candy when I was little. Giles never liked her much. I don’t know why though, Faith was the only other person at Network who was nice to me. Not many people at Network were nice to me…” Tara curled up against a wall. “Anyway, Jenny and Faith came to our house last night; I think Angel’s looking for them.”
“Well,” Xander looked at Willow, “what do you want to do?”
Willow looked up... “There’s a skylight,” …and around. “some boxes.”
Tara and Willow looked at Xander with grins on their faces.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
A few minutes later they managed to stack a few boxes up, get Xander on top of them, and Willow on top of him.
“Ugh! Just because I’m the guy--” Xander pushed Willow’s body up towards the ceiling.
“Oh shut up, you get to touch my butt.”
“Oh, now there’s a threat.”
“Oof!”
Tara cringed as the two fall to the ground. Xander’s the first to recover.
“I have an idea, get on my shoulders this time.” Xander explained.
“Oh yes, it worked so well the first time, let’s just make it an even longer drop!” Willow rubbed her head.
“Come on.” Xander lifted the redhead up and they once again scrambled on the box, this time after minutes of unsuccessful grasping, Willow caught hold.
Willow grabbed the edge of the skylight and pushed back the glass. “Got it!”
Xander let go and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Sweet, Merciful, Zeus.”
“Ahh!” Willow was dangling from the opening. “Xander! Don’t let go!”
After ten minutes of pushing, pulling, and swearing, the trio was on the roof.
“Now what, genius?” Xander stared at Willow.
“Now we make like a tree and get the frilly hell out of here.” Willow looked down at the ground.
Angel is clinging to Drusilla’s book of poetry. His minions have Faith and are standing behind him.
“Look, call me old fashioned, but your boys should have bought me a drink before tying me up and taking me home.”
“Oh shut up, Faith. You know, I let you walk away once. You should have stayed away; I’m not going to let you go again. Let me guess, it was Jenny’s idea to find my brother and restart Network… please tell me it’s not true, tell me you have a brain beneath that thick skull of yours?”
Faith doesn’t answer him.
“That’s what I thought. I should hope that flattering hairstyle wasn’t her idea too.” Angel approached her and ruffled her now short and naturally spiky hair.
He turned from her and walked to a table on the other end of the room, here Giles sat, not tied or bound, just sitting. He dropped the poetry book on the table.
“Angel, what are you doing?”
The young vampire opened the book, flipping through it. “I don’t really remember her, I try though.”
“Just let Tara go, please.”
“Spike’s dead. He staked himself, so I killed Network.”
“Oh, dear lord. Angel, I’m sorry…” Giles looked down at his hands.
“It was your fault, you said you hated him. You said you never wanted to see him again. You destroyed our family Giles!”
“You have what you want, Angel, you have me, you have Dru’s book. You don’t need the others.”
Angel shut the book and looked at Faith. “Giles, you care more about that witch bitch than your own family.”
“Of course I love her, I raised her.” Giles watched Angel and Faith.
Faith looked away.
Angel looked at Giles. “You left us, because you said we were evil, then you go and adopt a witch, a bit hypocritical, don’t you think, Giles?”
Giles stood, becoming uncomfortable. “She’s a good person, Angel, you’re not.”
Angel was silent for a while before nodding. “Alright, Giles, I’m not like Spike, I’m not going to give you a second chance.” He looked to his men. “Kill them all.”
Back on the roof the kids were staring up at the sky.
Tara looked down at the ground. “So how do we get off the roof?”
“Maybe we can learn to fl--”
Xander was suddenly cut off when he fell through the roof, landing on one of Angel’s lackies.
“Ahh! That was scary; luckily this pointy-eared guy in a suit broke my fall.”
The two girls looked down through the hole.
“Giles?”
Giles looked up to see Tara looking down at him.
Faith broke free of her restraints and started opening a can of whup-ass.
Tara leaped down to offer her assistance, magick crackling from her hands. She was suddenly grabbed, her hands restrained.
“Get off of me damnit!” The blonde struggled.
“Oh how cute…” Angel approached her.
Giles and Faith were held back.
“Tara isn’t it, you know me, I’m sure…”
“Angel.” Tara hissed his name.
“That’s right, Angel Jenner. It’s sad, Tadpole--”
Willow flinched.
“--I’m the last of my family. History tells it that we gave ourselves to evil the night Christ died, in exchange for the world. History’s important, kiddo. So let me tell you a little more…This wasn’t some random attack, I didn’t kill three hundred plus people just to be mean. This is personal, Tadpole, --”
Willow flinched again.
“--this all could have been avoided if my brother had just stayed home.”
Tara felt her stutter creep back. “Y-your b-brother?”
“Oh, he didn’t tell you? Of course not. You are his redemption after all. If a witch can be good, so can a Jenner.” Angel leaned in, she could smell blood and alcohol on his breath. “Do you feel evil inside you? Does it want out?”
Faith was angry by this time. “Quit picking on her Angel, she’s just a kid!”
Suddenly the demons restraining Faith were sliced and diced.
“Sorry, it took me a while to find the place.” Jenny’s sword was bathed in blood.
The one remaining minion attacked, his head was deftly removed before he could lay a hand on the sword wielder.
“Like you weren’t going to kill him, didn’t he see his friends get killed?” Faith rolled her eyes
Jenny walked up to Angel, placing her bloody sword on his shoulder. “So you’re Angel, you’re younger than I thought you’d be. When they said you were a vampire, I thought they meant hundreds of years old.”
“I was recently turned.”
She pressed the sword against his neck.
“It hurts to lose family doesn’t it, Jenny. Killing makes it better, try, you’ll like it.” Angel smirked.
Giles stepped in between them, putting a hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “Jenny, don’t.”
Jenny looked at him without anger, but with wonder and discovery. “But I want to, I want to hurt him.”
“No you don’t, leave him be.” The two share a moment, gazing into each other’s eyes. “It doesn’t solve anything, you know that.”
Faith looks at them with shock and jealousy.
“Oh how sweet.” Angel looked at them, “Seriously, stop, I’m going to gag.”
The evil vampire paced, “Odd, that you’ve ruined our family, just to seek out another.”
“Aren’t you tired of fighting, Angel?” Giles followed him with his eyes. “You’re hurting yourself as much as me.”
“It was always about you, you know, after you left?”
“It was my choice to leave.”
“It wasn’t fair to us.”
“Life isn’t fair, Angel, be a man, or as much of one as you can be. We’re leaving, and you had better not pull something like this again.”
“I’ll see you in Hell, Giles.” Angel glared and them. “That’s where all Jenners end up, you know? No exceptions.”
Angel turns and leaves the room.
Jenny turns to look at Giles. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“I’m not!” Faith shouted from the wall, waving her tied arms in the air. “A little help?”
Jenny comes over and cuts her bonds with the sword. “I’m sorry I ran off.”
“Me too, you scared me. Why didn’t you tell me you were in trouble?”
“I didn’t want to bother you.”
“Bothering me is always a better option then stabbing someone.” Faith smiled and rubbed the circulation back into her wrists.
“I know, I was just frustrated…”
“Well, it’s okay, because it turns out you gutted an immortal.”
“What?” Jenny’s eyes went wide.
“Giles told me, Ethan is apparently immortal as all Hell, bitchin’, yeah?”
“I suppose…”
Giles bent over to help Tara up off the floor where she was cast by her captor. “Well, that was a dramatic entry.”
“Like in the movies.”
“Except people don’t get hurt.”
Tara brushed herself off and helped Xander up. “This is Xander…and,” she looks up to where Willow is poking her head through the hole, “that’s Willow. They’re friends from school…”
“Nice to meet you both.” Giles helps Willow down to the ground.
“Hate to rain on the parade, but what just happened? I mean, we’re kidnapped, Tara’s a witch. A little help here?” Xander put a hand on Willow’s shoulder out of protective-best-friend instinct.
“It is a very long and complicated story, I’m sorry you two were involved…We’d better go, my car is out front, and this place isn’t safe.”
The group left, Giles stayed behind for a moment, looking at Drusilla’s poem book. He picked it up and discretely slipped it in his jacket pocket.
-Rei
"I am vindicated, I am selfish I am wrong, I am right I swear I'm right I swear I knew it all along. And I am flawed but I am cleaning up so well, I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself so clear." -Dashboard Confessional
Edited by: ambersagoddess at: 9/12/04 6:28 pm