|
Arriving to find the house empty, Lauren is worried until she sees a message left for her.
Following the directions in the message, Lauren makes her way to UCLA and into the utility tunnels beneath
the campus until she reaches the room where the group have taken the kidnapped lawyer, Travis McCauley.
The others explain what happened, including why another Wolfram & Hart lawyer, Alexandra Morelli, is
working with them.
Travis regains consciousness and promptly vomits, a side-effect of the knockout drug
deliberately added by Ethan. Patrick starts questioning Travis, who replies with sarcastic remarks. While
Patrick is doing the questioning, however, Lauren uses her powers to get visions of Travis' recent past.
She is able to view meetings Travis had with the Circle of the Black Thorn, confirming its membership of
Dr. Maalik, Keri Prescott, the Shadow Clan leader, and the Count. Another vision shows Lauren a meeting
where Travis was preparing various Wolfram & Hart department heads for an important event - one
of the Senior Partners is coming to Earth to take personal charge of the apocalypse.
As the questioning continues Jalen senses something approaching and warns the others
that he thinks shadow ninjas are coming. He enters the Shadow Realms to delay them while the others
escape with Travis in the SUV. Worried that Wolfram & Hart can track Travis mystically, Patrick
asks Lauren if she can somehow block them. She tries and winds up projecting her consciousness out of
her body to another plane, from where she is able to "see" the law firm's psychics trying to
find Travis. Lauren is able to block the attempts, which draws the attention of the Count. He projects
himself to the other plane and confronts Lauren, surprised at the level of her abilities. Meanwhile,
worried that Wolfram & Hart may also have some kind of tracking chip implanted to help them locate
Travis, Ethan gets Patrick to drop him off at an electronics store where he can pick up parts to jury-rig
a jamming device.
In the Shadow Realms, Jalen confronts the incoming ninjas. He soon discovers that while he
can attack and kill them in the shadow dimension, they seem unable to harm him. After Jalen kills two of
their number, the other ninjas retreat and Jalen rejoins his friends, emerging from the shadows right into
the SUV. Shortly after, Lauren returns to her body as well, knowing that she will be able to shield
everyone in the car from psychic detection. Unfortunately, Ethan is no longer in the car...
Once he has finished kit-bashing the jamming equipment together Ethan contacts the others.
Having stayed on the move to avoid detection, Patrick now drives the SUV back to pick up Ethan. Just as they
arrive the group is horrified to see Ethan felled by a sniper's bullet straight through his chest. Dana
jumps out of the car to help Ethan only to be suddenly overcome by a strange weakness and she passes out.
Alexandra follows and she too is mysteriously felled. Travis uses the opportunity to flee the scene, but
Jalen takes off after him. The ninja does not make it very far before he too is hit by the sniper.
Patrick finally locates the shooter and fires off a few shots of his own to force the sniper to seek cover.
With the shooting momentarily subsided Lauren uses her telekinesis to pull Dana back into the car. Once
inside the vehicle Dana regains consciousness and Lauren proceeds to grab the wounded, maybe dead, Ethan.
Once Ethan is in the back of the SUV Lauren pulls the unconscious Alexandra in as well. Suddenly both Dana
and Lauren pass out, and Patrick and Jalen are also feeling weak and dizzy. Patrick starts up the car and
retreats, getting Jalen to take the wheel long enough to grab the fleeing Travis and toss him into the back
of the car.
Fearful of pursuit, Patrick begins taking a random route, with no initial destination in
mind. Looking back he sees that Travis has also succumbed to the strange weakness and passed out. Patrick
also sees that something is causing the unconscious Dana to start to change into her werewolf form. With
no other choice Patrick decides to head back to the house before whatever has happened to the others
happens to he and Jalen. On the way back, Patrick and Jalen are surprised to see Ethan regaining
consciousness. From what they knew, he has to heal normally before he can "raise from the dead"
and there is no way he could have recovered that quickly from a fatal bullet wound to the chest. Ethan is
also shocked as he sees that the wound is healing rapidly. Ethan proceeds to field dress Jalen's bullet
wound as the SUV reaches the house. Once they arrive, Ethan immediately takes Lauren down to the
infirmary, worried about her weak pulse and erratic breathing. Once she is downstairs she seems to get
better so Ethan goes back upstairs to check on Travis and Alexandra, and is shocked to discover that they
are both dead.
Dana has also regained consciousness, having shifted back to human form while Ethan was looking
after Lauren. Ethan has no explanation for how his wound healed so quickly, or for how Travis and Alexandra
died. He and the others can only assume that it was some kind of spell cast by Wolfram & Hart. Not
wanting the bodies around, Ethan convinces Patrick to help him take the bodies to Wolfram & Hart,
dropping them in a dumpster behind the law firm's building.
Some time later the bodies are found and brought to the company's medical research section
for examination. The Count arrives to see the results, and the doctor performing the tests is revealed to be
Dr. Maalik. The evil doctor mentions how lucky he is to have survived, but that fortunately he keeps his real
heart someplace safe and that the one currently in his chest, like the one stabbed by Ethan, is
a donor organ. Dr. Maalik is puzzled by the death of Travis and Alexandra, saying that it was as if the life
force was simply drained out of them. The Count admits that Wolfram & Hart did not use any magic so he can
only assume it was something that the group did to them. He then pauses and turns to Maalik, wanting to
clarify what Maalik has said, namely that Travis' body is perfectly fine other than the life force was drained
from it. Maalik confirms this and the Count is pleased, it means they now have the perfect vessel for their
needs.
|
