FicWad

#25
Dave's bar:


Xander awoke from another phase of sleep.
And he felt anything but well rested.
The dreams had come again and he had relived part of the
french Immortals life. A damn long life. Ironically he
was a better man than Xander, most of the time at least.
Or seemed to be.
Xander never had had a working family.
Henri laFollet had been married for life a dozen times,
and even being a killing son of a bitch he had been a
good husband...and a great father.
What a paradox.
Whatever, Xander now had him in there and he had been
wrong. The demon helped him to survive the first round,
the first and most important battle. Not the war for
possession of his mind.
The rest of the way was his to go and he made it as far
as he could...part of laFollet still was there and he
still wanted to take over.
Bastard, Xander thought.
He got up from bed and went to the frdige, took four
bags in right away. It helped to make him feel better.
When he turned around and noticed Faith standing there
he could see her worried expression. "It's far from
over, isn't it?" she asked. "Oh Xander..."

"Won't help me," Xander rasped back. He had to go
through there on his own. "I'll make it."

"In a year?" Faith demanded, agitated. She sniffed.
"It isn't...right that you need to...sleep like that.
As if you are truly dead."

"Technically I am," Xander shrugged. But that was just
the technical matter. "Next time I'll be out and get a
coffin for me...have to rest in true fashion, huh?"

"Spare me the joke," Faith answered. "Or maybe not, it's
sort of an idea..."

"What do you mean?"

"We got troubles, bad boy," Faith acknowledged without
much hope in her eyes. "Someone made inquiries and,
guess what, information's out...proof. People are going
down."

"Drop the cryptic act!" Xander groaned horrified. He had
enough problems with Angel as it was. Damn it. He got
that from Angel more than enough. "What's up?"

"Dave is up. They are after his ass," Faith replied, her
eyes cast down. She quickly surmised how the legal part
of the state came gunning for us. Only a matter of time
until things blew up in their faces.
The business angle was finished.
So much for the club being a safe haven.
Or them being rich.
Obviously Dave was a fraud and one who reached the end
of the line. Most of their money would go down with the
man, with the club. All they could save was their own
skin and a few essentials. She already had done that,
packed their belongings up and had them sent away to a
safehouse at the harbour.

"Oh damn!" Xander whispered. And he was in this weak
state...he sat down and ran a hand through his hair.
And if things ran like true Sunnydale fashion this was
just the smallest part of their troubles. Which was
true - Angel had sent something over to convince them
their illegal activites had failed as well. Everything
broke apart within a day or two, once the soulvamp just
looked at it. Damn him but he was good. "Anything else?"

"Not that I'm aware of. Besides Cordelia, of course,"
Faith said and looked curiously. "Why do you still
want her? You have me...why lust for her?"

Xander was not aware that he lusted for her at all. She
was just a friend. Right, he was a lousy liar. He eyed
Faith and answered he had no idea. It just was one of
these women one could not forget, ever...and since he
knew of their connection he felt responsible for her.

Faith was about to answer something when the bells rang.
"Xander?" she winced, getting up. Looking really, really
worried now. "We better get ready to run. Something's
coming. Something big, bad and...incredibly powerful.
Either we run or...I see you die."

And he was not in the condition to fight, Xander knew.
He decided to take it in stride. "Let's get gone, F."
Just another mistake on the long list which made a life.
Xander trusted her visions enough for it.

They silently began to clean house. A pair of the thugs
they had hired as personal for the club took most of
the mobile belongings to the safehouse and then they
would vanish. Being generously paid already. Xander
trusted their hypnotic conditioning to work long enough
for this. Later on they would not remember much more
than rubbish, even if it was for their lifes they would
not be able to recall correctly.
Most of the stuff they got stayed.
Furnishings, toys, beds, clothes. All the many dumb
items that came with building a stable life...all the
non-essential items.
Xander would miss the club.
He had been happy here, had believed he would live for
years to come in this loft. Hiding right under Angel's
nose and the authorities as well.
But, him being him, he had a plan for the worst case.
He had a few firebombs placed in the building and once
he started the timer the building was going down. And
most of the damning evidence would burn with it. Most
of the people, the being staying here would vanish from
the face of the earth afterwards. If they knew what was
good for them, anyway.
Xander thought they got away clean. He just stepped out
of the loft into the club to learn he was wrong again.
He had waiuted too long.

There they came, crashing the bouncers away and making
their way. A bunch of vampires with a few demons in the
mix, led by a huge creature.
Seven feet tall and looking though, the creature did
remind him of some cheap horror movie monster. Looked
like it was a patchwork giant under that army-like green
fatigues. Part of it seemed to be made of metal.
Xander spotted Harmony in the background, cowering in
fear as a bunch of screaming mortals got herded around
by the gang.
Big boss man had them all kneel in the hall.
This looked bad...very bad.
He just stood there and felt his knees go weak and
his body scream for rest. He wasn't much more than a
very tired mortal right now...but one that held his hand
on a pistol and knew this building was rigged to explode
in a firestorm within the next four minutes.
"Alexander Harris," the patchwork monster said, settling
his gaze on me. "I am Adam. You have something from me."

"Who are you?" Xander gulped, spying Faith stand at his
side ready to do battle...and loose. Thing looked solid
and these claws were nasty. Very nasty. "I never heard
of you. What do you want?"

"Give me the communication program."

"The WHAT?" Xander groaned. He had no shred of an idea
what puzzle guy was up to but he was not much in the
way of having humor. Or talking. He just raised an arm
and a few bony claws shot around like crossbow bolts.
Faith got a full load into her body and immidiately she
went down. One of the projectils stuck very close to
her heart. Oh crap. "Shit, freak! Leave her alone!"

He did not even ask the or-what-prank. Really not into
humor, that sucker. And Xander now stood over a fallen
Faith, weak as a kitten and armed with a gun that was
useless. And he faced a monster too powerful to be taken
down by a hundred men. In other words business as usual.
He trained the pistol at the face of the patchwork being
and thought about firing - and then he decided against
it. The giant just looked at him, icy calm. Sure in the
knowledge of his invulnerability.
"That wouldn't make a dent inside of you, huh?" Xander
asked, wondering if he was quick enough to grab into
his coat and pull out the flashgrenade stored there. He
was rather uncertain about theeffectiveness of this
maneuvre...

"Approximately not," Adam agreed wholeheartedly. "The
program, vampire."

"Damn it, I don't KNOW of any program!" Xander barked
back. "What the hell makes you think I have that
whatever you're talking about?"
Think Xander! Xander thought desperately. Unless he got
a good idea he was going to be toast in another three
minutes and counting.
If this Adam left him alive so long.


#26
Dave's bar:


Harmony could see Xander stand there and she knew things
were in the shit. She halfwards expected him to fire his
gun and go down in flames of glory or something. He was
weak, hurt by what happened to him shortly ago, far from
his best.
Otherwise Adam would have a real fight on his hands.
She heard Xander give his statement and then she stepped
out of her niche and cried out. "I have it, I have what
you want...that program..."

"Harmony?" Xander asked, surprised. Truly surprised.

Harmony wondered why she did that. Maybe because she
just had nowhere else to go and he was the only one she
had. Angel was after her, now...fuck. She just wanted to
get out of here really quick. She fumbled the disk Angel
had handed her out of her jacket and one of the minions
came to rip it from her hand. She looked exactly as she
felt - very scared.
She looked at Xander and hurried to his side, taking in
whatever safety there was in the room. "Angel gave us
that...," she hurriedly croaked out, "can we get out of
here now?"

Xander looked at her and then something lit up in his
eyes anew. Hope. There was a grin around the corner of
his mouth. He nodded to her and whispered her to take up
Faith and then to run the hell out with her. There was
a Graduation party surprise on the way.
Faith was moaning in pain but otherwise she was quite
well...able to walk as soon as she was helped to stand
by Harmony. Harmony had no idea what Xander was up to -
and how he thought they could walk out of this now, but
the hint was taken.
They were surrounded by Adam's minions left and right.
Not to speak about them controling the exits.
"Where shall we go to?" Harmony rasped, figuring out
that Xander meant he had set up some bomb. That was the
big party surprise she had experienced at graduation,
when they blew up the school to get the mayor.

"Follow me," Faith replied into her ear. Embarassed by
how easy she had fallen down against that big monster.

Harmony considered her mad but then, as Adam inserted
the disk into the drive he had in his belly (wow, since
when had a demon some computer disk drive in his belly?
What in the name of Sunnyhell was that bugger?), things
began to happen.
Adam froze in midmotion and fell face down.
The surprise of it was not lost on the crowd. They
had ignored Xander reaching into his coat and when he
came up he threw something away, got his gun out and
started to shoot, shouted at her to run as the whole
place was rigged to blow in a minute or less.
Harmony had no idea what he meant but then vampres all
over the room began to explode when he shot his gun at
them. Loosing arms and legs and sometimes chests or
heads and disintigrating.
It was an impressive feat, still.
Most of the minions were dumbstruck with the flattened
load of Adam in their midst and the rest of the dimwits
just had heard the words Xander said. Then the grenade
detonated, bright light blinding anyone.
Panic broke out.
"He killed the master!" one of them screamed.

"Impossible, Adam cannot be killed," another answered.
"He never even touched him."

"Rip 'em 'part!" a third voice demanded, angrily. "Rip
'em 'part, I say!"

"Cover, cover, he got something...!" a female barked
as Xander's shots rang in the air and there was major
confusion coming. Vampire started to scream and swear
and looking for a way to save their own skin.

"Wait! Did he say the place was rigged to go up any...
aaah!"

"TAKE THEM!" another howled. "THEY KILLED OUR MASTER!"

Dimwit, she thought. Only an idiot vampire would take
on the one who just killed his master. Most would
crawl on their bellys not to follow him instantly.
Harmony was unable to see anything but let Faith guide
her. They stumbled some way and Harmony just hoped Faith
knew where the hell she was going to. She certainly did
not know and from the way Faith stumbled around, going
for handholds, she wasn't too certain either.
Behind them she heard and sensed Xander fight.
For whatever it was worth, he shoved and kicked them a
way out of this mess...yelling about the explosives.
Explosives, damnit! The last time he had he certainly
did not pay heeds to the concept of subtlety, did he?

Blindly moving through whatever corridor or room they
were in she heard Xander throw a door shut and then
block it, shouting that would not stop them for more
than half a minute. Faith hurried after that. Walking
with two bad legs and those spikes in her was not
exactly easy or painless.
They got somewhere and maybe her blinded vision
cleared enough to spot walls when the world rocked
them around suddenly. there was a load bang and other
sounds next. Then everything got black as something
fell down on the back of her head, making her fall
and loose consciousness.