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Needed	By : abra Category: Angel the Series > Het - Male/Female > Faith/Wesley Views: 1835 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own AtS, nor make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or the setting of the story. All things I borrowed from the Buffyverse are a creation of and belong to Joss Whedon.

I have also borrowed several ideas and concepts from to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. (the mirror of Erised, the Room of Requirement)

Timeline: more than 9years after NFA ("Angel"), 10 after "Chosen" (BtVS)

Chapter 9

Wesley put the kettle on before reaching for the familiar black tea box of Fortnum and Mason's Royal Blend. He was trying to master his emotions before the discussion with Faith. He toyed with the idea of postponing the confrontation until he got another black crystal. He rejected the pretext. Faith had already broken through the spell. She should be perfectly able to talk about events leading up to her visits. The constraint might still work if he asked her about what had happened inside the cave. Inside Wesley, propriety was fighting curiosity on that subject. What could possibly induce Faith to have sex with his facsimile?
"Don't you ever sleep?" Faith asked.
He turned around at the sound of her voice. Her voice was low and husky. She had obviously just woken up. Her hair was such a glorious mess, Wesley thought watching her advance toward him. She put two teaspoons of instant coffee in a mug she held up to him.
"Can I have some hot water?"
As soon as the kettle whistled, he poured hot water over her coffee and his tea.
"I'm glad you're awake," he said sitting across from her at the kitchen table. "We need to talk."
She stifled a yawn.
"More questions, Wes?"
"Yes. And quite a few answers, hopefully."
This statement aroused her interest.
"Are you gonna come clean and admit that it was you all along?" she said with almost sincere levity.
She was probably relieved to finally have someone share her secret. Wesley shook his head sadly.
"I wish that were the case," he said, thinking of the grim reason for the conversation.
Faith grinned delighted and wriggled her eyebrows.
"I bet you wish," she said.
"Oh, no, I didn't mean..." Wesley stammered at her insinuation. "I have some news about the coming darkness," he rallied as best he could from the image of him and Faith in her jail cell.
They both heard the jeep pull in the driveway at the same time. Spike was back. They awaited his entrance in silence.
"Aren't we all creatures of the night," Spike remarked. "Anything interesting going on?"
"Wesley was just saying he's got something about this darkness business," Faith answered.
"Come on then. Let's hear the... are they tidings of joy or not?"
Wesley could feel the hostility in his attitude. He had to contain his own instinctive revulsion. He did not have to be any closer to sense that vampire was warm. He had just fed. There was too much of the old school Watcher in him to be comfortable around a vampire satiated on human blood.
"I want to talk to Faith first," Wesley said.
"The hell you will!"
"The subject is somewhat delicate. I have no intention to keep secret anything that has to do with the Apocalypse, I assure you."
"You can shove your assurance right up..."
"He can stay," Faith interjected.
"It's about the cave," Wes told Faith.
"He can stay," she repeated.
"All right," Wesley accepted, almost relieved that he wouldn't be alone when he broke the news to Faith. "Before I begin, you should know the background," he addressed Spike. "Ten years ago Faith found this cave..."
"I read the file," Spike interrupted him. "Found it ages ago, pet. I had to know, didn't I? Was worried about you disappearing like that all the time," he told Faith.
"That's OK. I guess I should've imagined."
Wesley ran through the content of the file mentally. It did not mention his unexpected and surreal apparition. There was no reason to inform Spike of that fact.
"How often did you go back?" Wesley asked her before the silence could get awkward.
"The first time was ten years ago, as you know. The second time was two years after that. I kept going back six � seven times each year since then."
Faith was looking down at her hands as she spoke. Wesley noticed the thin cuts on her palm. She must have held the crystal so tightly that its edges had dug into her skin. He resisted the impulse to put his palm over hers.
"I though so," Wesley said. "Let me tell you my hypothesis and how I came to it. When I worked at Wolfram and Hart we had a request for a triumvirate of wizards from the Italian branch of the firm. They needed them to enforce the wards of protection around Mount Vesuvius. The legend was that some four thousand years ago a powerful, elemental spirit had tried to take over the world. The sources refer to it as 'the coming fire'. The most powerful mages of the land finally trapped it inside the mountain. The spirit was so powerful that it in about two millennia it managed to erode the constraining magic and turned the mountain into a volcano, covering the city of Pompeii. The mages of that time succeeded in containing it for a second time, and it was stopped from turning the world into a blazing inferno. Another two thousand years after that, the coming fire was breaking free again. Now, the past two millennia have been overpoweringly Christian and the Italians realized that none of their wizards was powerful enough to stop it. So they called us, and we obliged."
"So that's why Ilona was mollycoddling the great poof!" Spike exclaimed.
"Probably. Angel was the one who signed the order for the wizards to go to Italy," Wesley said.
"This was very interesting, Wes, but could you come to our current problem any time soon?" Faith said.
"As far as I remember from what I read in the archives of Wolfram and Hart after the Italians' request, there are several elemental spirits imprisoned all over the world. I read about 'the coming gale' in Egypt, 'the never-ending rain' in China, and apparently we face 'the coming darkness' now."
He stopped to take a drink of water. He was not looking forward to the last part of his lecture.
"So what's it got to do with Faith?" Spike asked.
"These spirits device whatever ways they can to break through their containment spells. 'The coming darkness' is trapped in this mountain, and it transformed a cave into a trap for unwary humans. It gathers its power by feeding on the emotions of the humans who walk into that cave. I guess that room works like a virtual reality room and the spirit animates whatever fears or desires are on the mind of the visitor. Most of the humans who are caught in that trap don't survive."
He fell silent, fiddled with his cup of tea, cleared his throat, tried to phrase the rest as best he could.
"Go on, Wes," Faith prompted.
He looked in her eyes and tried to guess what she was feeling about the other him in the cave. Enough to keep going back year after year. Enough to remain single for a decade.
"All the prophecies lead up to a certain date when this spirit should be ready to break free. And that moment is supposed to come ten years from now."
"What do you mean? Everything's happening now!" Faith said.
"You're not saying that we're in the wrong bloody Apocalypse, are you?" Spike asked.
"No. The thing is... You see, the mages who trapped this spirit the last time, only about five hundred years ago, have woven an intricate web of spells all over this mountain in order to keep people away from the cave. They were aware that it was going to build up strength by feeding on humans. The mountain's packed with spells of confusion, repulsion, turnarounds and fake routes. The cave can only be found by accident and by someone who is quite magic resistant. And they counted on the false certainty that anyone who found the cave would find its death in it. Your map, Faith, is probably the only one in existence. That's why those demons attacked last week. They wanted to unleash it themselves in order to use its power."
"OK, I think I followed that incredibly long explanation," Faith said. "But why is this happening ten years ahead of schedule?"
"It had more sustenance than it was supposed to. Your visits, Faith. You fed it. Constantly. For eight years."
Faith had turned deathly white. Wesley wished he could hold her hand, do anything to comfort her, to ease her guilt.
"For fuck's sake, couldn't you find a better way to say it?" Spike asked, angry.
"So Alex is... his son?" she asked in a quiet but steady voice.
Wesley didn't have an answer for that. As far as he knew, the spirit was not corporeal. Then again, 'Jasmine' had managed to become corporeal.
"Do you know how to stop it? Do you have a plan?" she asked.
"I have some ideas," Wesley said.
"We'll talk tomorrow. With the girls," she said and walked away.
She stopped when Wesley spoke.
"There's no need to tell them... about you and... Faith, I thought you should know," he pleaded forgiveness. He had harmed people before, having the best intentions.
"You were right. I needed to know."

~~~~~~~~~
"Wes."
His hand was sliding over silk. He was gradually awakening with the wonderful feel of the smooth fabric beneath his fingers. He was enjoying the texture, the warmth, the softness of the skin. Skin! He startled.
His hand had been caressing Faith's thigh covered by the silk bath robe and his fingers had traveled beyond it. He pulled away his hand hurriedly, and groped for his glasses on the nightstand.
Faith was sitting on the edge of his bed and seemed unaware of his improper, if inadvertent caress.
"I hate to wake you. You haven't been getting enough sleep as it is," she said.
"What's wrong?"
She couldn't be there for anything less than wrong.
"There's something you need to know, too. With all that's coming, I might never get the chance to tell you."
"You can tell me anything," Wesley said.
"Eight years ago, before I went back to the cave... I went to LA and dug up your body. Your old body," she clarified unnecessarily. "I went to a lab and had a DNA comparison. Between you, me and Alex. I know it wasn't you in the cave, OK? It wasn't you in so many ways... but the DNA matched. Whatever magic that spirit can do, it's wicked strong. That man who looked like you and wasn't you, also kind of was you. I'm not asking you anything. Just thought you should know."
"Yes. This is something I should know. Thank you."
She looked at him in the reddish dawn light. Wesley realized she was wondering if he was serious.
"You brought my remains here, didn't you? That's why you were able to bring me back," he said, working out some things that had been unclear to him.
"We passed by your grave when we�ve been in the cemetery the other day."
"Why me?"
"You mean... then?"
"Yes. Then. Why was I the most important thing on you mind?"
He took a sip of the tea he had brought up to his room earlier. It had grown cold, but it still felt familiar and comforting. He let the smooth, honey-like flavor sooth his aching throat.
"After you guys took up the Senior partners... we all gathered from all over the world to find out what happened to you. Buffy and the others went at the sight of the last battle. Giles, Robin and I went to Vail's place. We found your body..."
Her gaze fell on his lower abdomen, where he had felt Vail's knife twist in his gut. He saw her hand imperceptibly move, and guessed that she had just restrained the urge to touch that spot.
"I had been thinking about you a lot after we left Sunnydale. Even in Sunnydayle, actually. When I had to be the grown up around the other Slayers. You were so young when you go me and Buffy."
"I wasn't younger than you are now," he said.
"Not the same thing. You had no field experience. I had no book-experience," she said with a smile.
"Is that why you've got my diaries?" he asked.
He had made his voice as soft and unobtrusive as possible. It was his gentle interrogation voice. The tone that simply nudged the speaker in the direction of the information he wanted.
"No, that was after..." she corrected instantly, and stopped just as abruptly.
"After Alex was conceived," he finished her sentence.
Faith tilted her head to the side and looked at him. Wesley accepted the gaze of her dark eyes, amazed that he wasn't feeling vulnerable, laying in bed in a pair of Spike's old pajamas and with the stirrings of a morning stiffie so close to Faith's thigh.
"You sure wrote a lot. I read everything I could find. At first, because I was curios. What kind of man you really were... You know... What Alex could be like when he grew up..."
"Were you disappointed?"
"No!" she exclaimed. "No. You were, you are intelligent, you always did what you thought was right, made hard choices, always accepted the consequences."
Wesley was touched. She seemed genuinely impressed with him. He had seen the very thick file she had gathered on him. Faith had had ten years of reading his Watcher diaries, his private diaries, even the very thorough file Wolfram and Hart had compiled. And then there were her visits to the cave. He drank the last of the cold tea, thinking about Faith's deep change of heart in his regards.
Her voice faded away, but her gaze remained fixed on his face.
"Are you wondering what it's like with me?" he asked.
"What?!" she exclaimed, taken aback.
"I heard that no two men kiss the same way," he continued on the perilous trail. "If you need to know if there's a difference... feel free to find out."
Before he could add any more taunting she leaned over and kissed him squarely on the lips. He felt her drawing away in no time, and he stuck his left hand in her hair, pulling her roughly back toward him. He hadn't even thought about kissing anyone but Fred for years, but Faith teasing him with such a passionless kiss provoked his dominant nature. He crushed those pouty lips of hers until she let out a faint whimper, which was the signal for the next level.
She tasted of that damned instant coffee, making him wonder how long she had stayed in the kitchen building up the nerve to come and talk to him. Her tongue was entwining eagerly with his. Wesley put his arm around her waist and pulled her on top of him. He was almost sure he was dreaming until Faith jumped out of his bed and ran out of the room.
~~~~~~~~~

To be contined...
- 8
- 9
- 10
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