Title: Manifest Darkness
Episode 05
Authors: Sovereign and Elizafan568
Rating: R - things get dark fast.
Notes: This story starts half way through season five of Angel in the episode "Damage". It goes AU from there with some cannon parts to it.
Summary: Factions for good struggle with each others existence while something darker this way comes.
Feedback: Sovereign - xsovereignx@yahoo.com and
Elizafan - elizfaith568@yahoo.com
**
Jill ran around the newly cleaned, Renegade base, spouting off orders and directing the girls to do this and that. Raven sat at a large table they had set up in the middle of the main area of the warehouse. Justice and Rachel sat across from her, arguing about what exactly they should do next. Justice wanted to form several parties and stat search the local demon hangouts while Samara though they should wait a while before making their presence known. Raven had a headache just from listening to the two of them, but it wasn't that that was bothering her. For the past few hours, she had the nagging feeling they were being watched. The girls she had sent to scout around the hideout, reported back nothing, Still, Raven couldn't shake the feeling.
"I'm telling you, we need to get out there and bang some heads or things are just going to explode before we know it, then what? It'll be to late for regrets then." Justice exclaimed, slamming her fist onto the table top.
"Who's heads are we going to bang Justice?" Raven asked as she rubbed her head. "We just got here, and we need time to get used to being here. Hell, we in the deep south and none of us are even southern! We make waves and we get the locals riled and we are going to find our jobs really hard to perform with innocents climbing all over us."
"Hey, Ya'll over yonder. I resemble that remark bout southern folk!" Bobbie Gordon fired from the corner. Cute, and really strong even for a Slayer, she was generally liked by all.
"Sorry Bobbie." Raven replied to the Huntsville native. "Other than Bobbie, none of us fit in here. Especially you Justice, you big mouth."
Justice took a deep sigh and slunk down into her chair. "Well, I'm sorry Raven, but I can't stand all this sitting around. I'm bored and I just got this feeling something bad is going to happen soon and I don't want to get bitten in the ass."
"Oh don't worry about that, Justice. I don't think anyone would bite your ass." Samara snapped out at Justice, then founded herself on the floor, as Justice had pushed her chair back to far too fast, causing her to fall backward.
"Watch it, Samara. I'm really not in the mood." Justice said, her tone a sort of dull anger to its sound.
Raven laughed mildly. Samara was youngest, but she gave as good as she got, and she knew somewhere down the line, Justice was gonna pay big for that little chair stunt. Raven had witnessed once when Buffy herself had made the young teenager angry and found her entire supply of hair ties super glued to her walls.
"Alright you guys. Be Mellow." Raven quoted one of her catch phrases. "We make camp here for tonight. Tomorrow, we set about getting a lay of the land." she looked up and got a nod of agreement from Jill. "We need to be ready to move along. I don't think we'll be staying here, call it a gut instinct."
Suddenly, a loud crash came from outside of the hideout. "What the hell was that? Sounded like a tree falling or something." Justice shouted, looking around trying to determine what direction it came from.
Raven had an idea of what it was. She knew they were being watched and here was her chance to prove it. She jumped out of her chair and headed outside, Justice, Jill, and Samara following quickly behind her. She was pretty sure she could tell what direction it came from, but the series of falling trees only a few meters from there hideout was a dead giveaway. "Finally, a head to bang!" Justice explained as she rushed ahead of the group toward the source of the noise. The rest sped up to keep up and what they found shocked the hell out of them. "What the hell is that?" Justice said, as she stared up at the near nine foot tall monstrosity standing before them.
"A group of young Slayers, how interesting." the being, Cain, said, his voice dead and robotic, with a hint of demonic.
"We ain't Slayers, per se." Raven replied, unsure of what the hell this thing wanted, but she remembered the tales of Adam, and figured this thing had a mission, but better to find the info. "Slayers are thatta way." Raven pointed North west. "We don't hang together."
"Yes, you have separate from the whole...become your own faction. You disagree with their mission? Their methods perhaps?" Cain asked, his tone and stance seemingly unthreatening, at least, as unthreatening as a big, human/demon/machine hybrid could be.
"We do our thing." Raven replied. "Buffy and her corp does theirs. They don't like us too much for being thinkers and so we're out. On our own, like you seem to be." Raven was unsure of this thing. Was it evil? Was it incorrectly programmed? It seemed to be vaguely familiar in the facial area, but she could not just put it together. "Heard you smashing trees, came looking. Can we help you? Maybe repair you? Oil you maybe?"
"The trees where just to get your attention, and for my recall spell. I need no assistance. So, you prefer to do things your way, but you still consider yourself a force of good and intend to destroy the forces of evil wherever you can?" he asked, showing no hint of anything but curiosity.
"I never said that." Raven replied, realizing this thing was playing for the dark side. "I said we were on our own. Maybe mercenary work more fits our bill right now. Right Jen?" she looked at Jill, the calling of the wrong name a message to the second in command and the others to get ready but hold for now. If Raven did it again, then it was time to fight. "You looking for mercies? Cuz we're good at what we do."
"Yep. We're aces. You got enough cash. We got enough fight." Jill added, mentally readying herself, but really not wanting to fight this giant mish mash of parts.
"That depends. Do you have problems killing anything and everything that get's in your way? Can you turn your back on everything good....everything you where and pledge your allegiance completely to the service of evil and to my empress?" he said, still his expression and toned unchanged, freaking the girls out more than what he was actually saying.
"Mer-cen-ary. Say it with me robotrooper..." the word coming out and the angle of his face matched up with a man she had seen only once visit Buffy. "Son of a bitch. What happened to you Riley? What the hell did those bastards do to you?" she asked, reaching out and openly smacking Justice on the arm and gesturing for her to head back to camp.
Justice got the signal and started to head back to the hideout, but stopped when she saw Cain's arm grow a huge skewer, which then shot out from his arm and hit inches in front of Justice. "Don't move. Pity. You could have been useful, now your faction will fall along with the rest, all be it sooner for you. You're so disorganized and weak that it would be a waste of time to even bother my empress with informing her of your existence. I feel I am sufficient enough to deal with you." Upon finishing, Cain began taking slow, deliberate steps toward the girls, who had all taken stances at this point but where backing away slowly.
Raven backed off. Gesturing the others to do so as well. Raven was a good leader, but she was a better schemer. Her old gig was always scams, and teamed that with Jill's slight paranoia, it seemed to work better than most teams. Raven kept her cool as she back pedaled with others, waiting for a moment to strike.
Raven backed off. Gesturing the others to do so as well. Raven was a good leader, but she was a better schemer. Her old gig was always scams, and teamed that with Jill's slight paranoia, it seemed to work better than most teams. Raven kept her cool as she back pedaled with others, waiting for a moment to strike.
The massive behemoth kept walking toward them, and Raven was sure she saw just the slightest hint of a sadistic smile on his twisted mechademonic lips. She needed to remain calm, and so will herself into it. "You know, if you try this, it's going to cost you. We already know what you are anyway you frickin toaster."
"Do you? Then tell me, what am I?" Cain said, a hint of sadistic glee entering his voice, as he stopped, only a few feet separating them.
Raven debated. She took a couple of steps back. Damn it, did the freak know what he was about to step in? How could he? Just one more damned step! Raven composed her voice, willing it not to tremble. "Human, in parts, demonic in others, and top of the cybernetic enhancements." she quoted Buffy's stories, as she always hung off the every word.
"You got the best soldier your mad scientists could find, patched in with the meanest nastiest demons you could toss in the blender and stuff." the words hit her. "I believe its called a Kinematically Redundant Demonoid. You got a big battery buried somewhere in that ugly carcass of yours filled with plutonium 36 or Uranium 235." She smiled satisfactory, waiting for him to take one more step and take a hell of a fall.
"You know Adam's exact stats I see. True, I am basically the same but with one small difference.." at that, both Cain's arms turned into huge Gatling guns, causing the girls' eyes to go wide. "I'm much more powerful than he ever was." Taking another step, the guns started to come to life, but never got a shot off as Cain fell into the pit with a crash, throwing up a huge cloud of dust.
"Admit nothing. Stupid ass." Raven turned and started running for all she was worth. The best she could hope for is the stakes and bear trap at the bottom of that hole would hold him for a minute tops. Slayers could run, but how fast could this thing run? Raven began barking orders. She was good at this. "We gotta get the hell gone from here. We're heading into town and getting us wheels and getting gone."
Jill ran to the door of the hideout and yelled into it. "Everyone, come on. Let's get the hell out of here now. MOVE!" she exclaimed. The girls quickly got to there feet and ran to the door, following Jill to the rest of the group. Raven took the lead, leading the girls towards the main road into town when she heard another crash coming from the direction of the pit.
Cain leapt out, higher and faster than one would have though possible for someone of his size. Using his internal tracking system, he locked onto the girls, who were out of sight but not out of range, and let loose with both guns. "You little girls are only delaying the inevitable." he exclaimed, his voice full of emotion for once, too bad the emotion was rage.
"DOWN!" Raven screamed hitting the ground, feeling the heat of several round go past her head. she looked around, noting the only reason she hadn't been hit was that they were on a down ward slope and her dive to the ground had hidden her from range. The voice of the creature, the rage that tore from it, was curling a icy finger of fear around it. She took the time to measure the distance to the road, the looked past. Nothing. Left was more trees, right more trees. A decision had to be made and be made now. Unfortunately fighting was out, most of their weapons were at the old warehouse. "Still bound by physics you bastard." Raven wiped at a cut on her cheek and really got pissed. She hated bleeding. "Jill. Come here quick."
Jill crawled over next to Raven as bullets flew by over their heads. "What is it Raven? You got a plan right? You've always got a plan." Jill said, her face still full of confidence in Raven's abilities.
"Not much of one, but is all we got." Raven looked around, the group was split on both sides of the two girls. "You take that group and head north, call Buffy. Tell her that her boyfriend is doing.. or is a new Adam, stronger faster better. Justice and Samara will take that group and head west, high tailing it towards L.A. Faith is there with the Scythe and some serious firepower. I'm betting they don't even know what the hell is going on, but I can tell you this jackass is not alone. He's got an 'Empress' which implies big force. So that's the plan."
"Excellent plan, Raven, but what are you gonna do?" Jill said as she moved over to take charge of her group, while motioning for Justice and Samara to take charge of theirs. All nodding in understanding and agreement.
"Buy the time for you to get the hell gone from here." she replied, pulling reaching in her pocket and pulling a small metal object from her pocket, then deftly flicking it around. A butterfly knife. "We don't get the message out, everything is going to be screwed."
Cain stopped his firing and called out to the girls. "How you doing over there? Still alive? Anyone hurt, cause I hope they are. Go ahead and face your destruction like a Slayer should instead of hiding like a bunch of scared little girls. Come one, I'll give you a free shot at me, need to test me endurance against a Slayer anyways." Cain said, his voice full of confidence and evil glee.
"Don't do this, Raven. Please." Jill pleaded, knowing there was no talking her out of this.
Raven looked over at Jill and gave her a indescribable look. "I don't want to. I want to run with you, but we all die that way. This jerk won't kill me. Call it a inside bet. I'm the leader of a group he didn't expect to find, or else he would have come in guns blazing. Right? Jill, get these girls and get them safe. We can't fight this. It required a spell for Buffy to beat the last one, we need that too. Bring Willow here and she'll be able to find me. Alright?" she laid a hand on her friends shoulder. "Trust me?"
Jill, tears in her eyes, nodded in silent agreement. "Okay girls, let's move!" she commanded as she and hers darted off to the north, staying low and behind cover wherever possible. Justice and Samara took that as cue and lead their group off as well, leaving Raven alone with Cain. They knew it had to be this way, but none of them could feel good about it.
Cain detected the movement as well as the fact that one was left behind. "Well, seems you're a little smart after all. You know I can't follow two groups at once, plus you leave one behind to stall me. I'm guessing it's the leader too..the dark haired one. How noble of you...How sickening." Cain said, his booming voice echoing through the now seemingly calm woods. "Come on out, I may not kill you."
Raven stood up and smirked. Getting under people's skin was a life long art. She'd fight this behemoth, but she'd also smart ass him too. "My Name is Raven, and unlike your chick feed Empress, I lead by example. Care to give me your name or should I just call you Maytag?"
Cain laughed slightly at Raven's utter defiance. "My name is Cain, formerly know as Riley Finn, a weak and useless human being. My first operational test was against Adam. Let's just say that he's no longer functioning after that. Do not insult my Empress again. I can make your death last weeks if I want." Cain said, smiling sadistically.
Raven approached the behemoth, her steps placed and steady. This guy was huge and armored it seemed like. She knew she was outmatched, but that would not stop the odd eyed girl from being who she was. She was trained and friends with Buffy Summers and Faith Winters. She was not going to disgrace them here. "Riley Finn runs a military outfit and Buffy destroyed Adam. So either your story is crap, or you ain't in Kansas anymore toto." she pried, ready to fight, but wanting to see how much this arrogant microwave oven was gonna put out.
"You know nothing little girl. I know your pumping me for information and it doesn't matter. You won't be able to tell anyone anything, so it won't matter what you learn. This reality will fall under our rule like all the others. The empress will kill the Buffy of this world like she always does and then our Dark Lord will consume life here to his fill. This place will become but another stepping stone to the next reality. We are Legion for we are many." Cain, finishing his slight sermon and looking quite pleased with himself. His arms reverted back to there natural state, except of the 2 skewers protruding from his wrists.
"Alright then." She waived her hand in a gesture, bringing up the small knife. "Let's dance!" She immediately got into a knife fighter's crouch, the point of the small knife pointing up as she wove it in front of her. She had no real plan of attack, just dodge a lot and buy the time to get away. She quickly went on the offensive and tried the classic kick to the crotch. Her foot got there unimpeded, but it felt like she's kicked a steel door. "Ow."
"Is that all? I'll give you a choice, surrender now and come along quietly, or die here. Your choice." Cain said, raising his skewers and pointing them toward Raven.
She folded the knife away and raised her left hand then her right. Having bought all the time she could, and realizing the way to beat Cain was a lot bigger than her. "Alright. Alright. Look, I had to try okay?" she wasn't surrendering in her mind or heart. She had to learn more, and getting skewered like a shishkebob was going to do nothing for her or her fellow renegades. "Take me to your leader." she chuckled at that, it was still a pretty funny line.
"You've made the correct choice." Cain said as grabbed Raven by the throat and lifted her into the air. He was squeezing to tight for her to break free, but not tight enough to stop her breathing. He carried her over to where he had knocked down several trees that made a triangle on the ground. He took a small skull out of a satchel at his waist and slammed it into the center of the triangle, crushing it to dust. "Get ready to meet her highness." He said as they both vanished in a flash of swirling dark light.
**
The tiniest Slayer in the place, Trinity Stafford, began her run. She pumped all of her four foot nine frame into making this work. She hit the vault horse and surged with motion as she vaulted her tiny body six inches high an any other Slayer in the building and hit a surprising eight feet high. Kennedy marked it down with a big smile. Tiny she may be, but Trinity could move, even more so then the blonde standing to Kennedy's right. "Did you see that Buffy? She's like a bullet! UH.. if bullets could do gymnastics. Anyway, she's got the record. eight feet and one inch."
Buffy had a look on her face the seemed to show she wasn't really there. Like there was something on her mind. "Yeah, she's really impressive." she replied, almost absent mindedly. She had a bad feeling, but she didn't know why. Nothing else had gone wrong since Raven's departure, but she couldn't shake the feeling that things were going to get much worse, very soon.
"Are you alright Buffy?" Kennedy asked, putting her clipboard away. "Has something gone on?"
"What?" Buffy said, snapping out of her daze. "No, nothings happened. I'm just worried about Raven I guess. I just got that feeling I always get before something bad happens, but I have no idea why." Buffy continued watching the girls train, not looking at Kennedy.
Kennedy came about to ask another question about the odd eyed girl's departure, but never got the chance as Xander came trotting into the room holding one of the cordless phones. "Some guy wants to talk to you Buffy. He said you had a clearance." Xander's expression was confused as he added. "I remember when clearance sales were only in the junk mail.
Buffy took the phone from Xander and put it to her ear. "Hello, this is Buffy Summer speaking." she said into the phone as Xander and Kennedy listened in with interest.
An automated voice came on the line, mechanical sounding. "Voice signature recognized - Summers, Buffy Anne." There was silence on the phone for a moment, then a familiar voice came through the line. "Buffy. It's me Riley."
A look crossed Buffy's face that Xander could only describe as surprise with a mix of happiness. "Riley! Long time, no see..or hear...or anything else. What's going on? Must be pretty bad for you to be giving me a call."
"Not at all. I just thought I would call, say hello. If that's alright? I mean, I wasn't trying to butt in or anything." he sounded less military on the phone than he had in years and it made him smile. He was always less military and more Riley with the little blonde. Always.
"Sorry, just been a lot going on here lately, and I've had this sinking feeling that something really bad is brewing. You know? Just the usual." Buffy said, her worry disappearing slightly at hearing the voice of her former boyfriend.
"I know the feeling. I've been having it myself lately." he leaned forward in his chair. "Hey Buffy, when you said you were sick of the lonely life of a Slayer, you really meant it huh? Building a whole army of you guys? Wow."
Buffy tuned and leaned against the railing separating her from the training course. "Yeah, but its turned out to be as much trouble as it has help. Had one group split off here recently. They didn't like following my lead apparently, so they went off to do things their way. I'm a little worried about them since I haven't heard anything since they left."
Riley frowned slightly. Buffy's instincts about things were usually pretty much on the right side of things. If she thought something had happened. then generally something had happened. Sometimes it really was some 'thing' that happened. He'd offer the help, it was what he did, for her anyway. "Hey Buffy, I got people all over the country. If you'd like, I could send someone over just to peak around their location. It wouldn't be any problem."
Buffy thought for a moment then answered. "I really hate to ask, but, I figure you can find them, check on them, and get the information back to me faster and with less trouble than we can. Only if its not trouble, though. Don't want you to have to clean up my mess." Buffy said with a small laugh.
"We're all the good guys here right?" he laughed in return. "Anyway one of these days my boys and girls might need some helping Slayer hands. Give me the location and I'll route someone down there"
"Apparently, there down in Georgia in the US. Where exactly in Georgia, I have no idea. Anything you can tell be would really help out." Buffy said, trying her best to hide just how worried she was and failing miserably.
"How many girls?" Riley asked, writing down 'GA' on his notepad. " Or do you have a last known location in Georgia?"
"Roughly thirty girls, lead by a dark-haired, odd eyed girl named Raven Raines. Last I heard, they were in or around a town called Columbus I think. But since then, I can't say for sure. I really appreciate this Riley." Buffy said, noticing Kennedy and Xander watching and listening intently and trying her best to shoo them off.
"Alright. Columbus." his voice faded into the background as he tore the note from the notepad and told someone to send something somewhere. His voice came back strong though, as if he had just had his head away from the receiver for a moment. "Right. Okay, I've got a full company of guys going down there. That's about a hundred and eighty good old boys and girls Buffy. Hopefully we can find something."
"A hundred and eighty? Seems a bit much but whatever you gotta do I guess. Well, I hate to cut this short but I got two "employees" here than I need to discipline so I hope to be hearing from you soon, alright?" Buffy asked, giving the eavesdroppers the evil eye.
"Of course. I'll send a cell phone to you so you can reach me. It's special programming for easy access, so don't let anyone have it.." he took a deep breath. "It was good hearing you again. Good hunting Buffy."
"Same to you, Riley. Bye." Buffy hung up the phone and put her hands on her hips, looking at Kennedy and Xander grinning from ear to ear. "Get a life guys, we were done years ago. Besides, he's married remember?" Buffy said as she brushed past them, heading out of the training area and in the direction of her room.
"Still, I mean it's Riley. He's got a whole new project and yay for the good guys." Xander joked, reaching up to itch near his eye patch. "What did he want anyway? Life getting boring being the General or Initiative plus?"
"He was just checking in is all. We're not exactly low profile anymore and we were bound to draw him and his military boys' attention sooner or later. Least Riley's making them be up front about it. Besides, with the feeling I got now, we are going to need all the help we can get." Buffy said as she started up the stairs, Xander and Kennedy still in tow.
"I don't know, Buffy. Everything feels alright to me. Not sure what's got you all rattled, but I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle. I mean, hello, Slayer army that beat back the First, and we're much better off now than we were then. Anyways, I'm off to take another group of girls out, so I'll see you two later." Kennedy remarked as she waved goodbye and headed toward the barracks to drill some more girls.
"Yeah Buffster. I gotta get running too. I kinda told Andrew I'd watch his new Kenshin ultimate edition with two minutes of bonus footage and a behind the scenes with the creators and.. uh.. I mean.. he's very lonely and I thought Id check on him." Xander prattled, scooting away as he waved.
Buffy laughed at Xander's little back peddle and went into her room, plopping down onto her bed and staring at the ceiling. *I hope Riley calls soon. I hope I'm wrong in thinking the news is going to be bad. Too bad I never am.* Buffy though as she rolled over to take a nap. Little did she know that things were only going to get worse...much worse.
T..B..C..
