Strategy Part Eleven

[thebratqueen]

PART ELEVEN

Silence holds everyone captive. It's like a redux of the Gentlemen except there's no floaty demons and nobody's voice has been stolen so much as everybody in the room has, to a one, decided that the most *fatal* thing any of them could do right now is try to interrupt.

Angel is doing his imitation of a statue. It's a good imitation, if you believed statues might one day jerk out a hand and kill you and hey - stranger things have happened.

The moment drags on. Eyes start to flicker. Gunn to Fred, Fred to Spike, Spike to Xander, Xander to the prisoner and then over to Angel himself.

Xander figures there's history enough between Angel and him for him to try to tug the vampire back from whatever psycho place his brain's just moved into.

"Angel, buddy - "

"Say that name again." Angel says, black-as-my-undead-soul eyes never leaving the face of the poor schmuck currently tied to a chair.

The guy, too Jasmine-blissed out to be aware of the danger, repeats: "Wesley."

Oh, Xander thinks about two seconds later, a vampire *can* crush a man's skull in just using the force of his fist. Good to know.

***

Pause. Rewind.

The arrival of Connor's blood to the white hat side resulted in new plans for inoculations and recovery. The first to go where the foundlings that had been with them in the sewers from the start. All had never been in Jasmine's thrall in the first place and now they never would be.

Next were people in key places - like warehouse guards and medical folk - who were needed on their side. The withdrawal pains were hell and not all of them agreed to stay on. In the end it was a 60/40 split. 60 percent grudgingly staying, 40 percent finding inventive ways of committing suicide using only their limited resources.

Still - better than nothing.

Once the process was streamlined, it then became a matter of planned strikes. Hitting the right people for the maximum benefit.

This was where the Sunnydale gang came in.

Xander was the first. Grabbed in the night, rough handled, forced into what he later found out was a week of agony that even heroin withdrawal couldn't rival, then made to wake up one day with his one eye blinking up at an Angel who looked about as cheerful as he ever did.

"Jasmine's a lie," Angel told him, flatly. The vampire then deposited a kit containing one vial of blood and a few dozen syringes. "You get to save the others."

Xander did. He got Giles first, then Dawnie. Anya and various Slayers in Training had been the easiest next. Angel appeared once, to help with Buffy (the Slayer herself managed to come out of her thrall with relative ease, simply commenting, flatly, "Déjà vu all over again." and never speaking of it again though never, for that matter, smiling anymore either). After that it was up to Scoobies to save Scoobies. Buffy took care of Spike. Spike and Buffy managed Faith. And then it needed a tag team of Buffy, Spike, Faith, Xander, Kennedy *and* Giles to battle it out the fifteen hours needed to hold Willow still and inject her.

The rest, in comparison, were easy.

Culture shock ruled the day. Meetings were held in Angel's underground bunkers to find out what was true and what was not. Some things were convenient - apparently Power That Was trumped First Evil That Is in the big capture the flag battle of life. Some were funny, like woman hating Caleb turning out to be one of Jasmine's most devout preachers and fund raisers - a task they left him to since *nobody* wanted to deal with him.

Others were weird. Like the Angel's son having sex with Cordy and bringing about the end of the world thing.

There wasn't much time for chewing the fat, however. Enough had been wasted just saving the Scoobs, and Angel made his impatience with that patently clear.

Finally he and Buffy had it out one night. Not fighting. Just doing that cold, emotionless thing they did. Speaking that language that only Slayers and champions were apparently only allowed to speak.

Angel: "I can't have you here. I need you out there. Making my second front."

Buffy: "Fine. Spike stays here. I can't be worrying about him."

Angel: "Fine."

So Team B was assembled. Also Team C. Buffy and Giles headed up one front, grabbing Dawnie and most of the wanna be Slayers. Willow got Team C, which notably had Faith (muscle), Anya and Andrew (demonic knowledge), Kennedy (the faint hope that Willow would not go veiny insane) and a handful of wanna bes as well.

Xander, like Spike, got to stay with Angel. Not because he liked or wanted to, but because ironically he was one of the few people Angel could trust.

Teams B and C went out. Did what they could to get more members, increase the flow of supplies, research what was needed to bring Jasmine down.

***

Between Willow and Fred, Jasmine's lines of communication didn't stand a chance. Even states apart as they eventually were, they managed to hack in to every transmission that needed hacking without anyone on Jasmine's side even recognizing a glitch.

In the main office, as Angel's bunkers were jokingly called, Fred became VP in charge of all things intelligence. It was up to her and her team to scan every bit of information, determine what was important, present it to Angel so that they could form their battle plans.

Fred was the one who got every communication from Lorne. She also refined the system. Created a series of drop boxes around LA that Lorne could use to slip notes into and therefore not have to negotiate his way past sewer guards anymore. This also proved safer, since it minimized face to face contact with him and anyone Connor's informants might have loved to get a picture of.

Pylean was still used for those notes, but Wesley added encryption on top of it as well. Wesley wasn't the best at it that there ever could be, but he wasn't bad for a dedicated amateur. In the end Fred trusted only herself to stare at the seemingly random combinations of numbers and letters in order to tease out the true meaning inside.

At her daily meetings with Angel, she was also the only one smart enough to never mention which items came courtesy of Wesley's hands. There were some things the vampire couldn't stand knowing about.

***

Wesley knew about none of this. All he knew was what he could guess, based upon his experience of working with the others before. He continued to act as Connor's right hand man - in all meanings of the phrase - and formulated the best plans of attack that he could. Even when the last of his intelligence from Angel's side dried up, he managed to do surprisingly well.

***

Nobody on Angel's team knew about this. What they *did* know, though, was Connor had a new helper. Somebody that in communications was referred to as the Lieutenant. Everybody soon learned to *hate* that guy. He managed to turn Connor's violent attacks into surgical strikes. Quicker battles, slightly more fatal.

They couldn't get any information about him. Nothing *real*. Gossip, though, managed to get through. Over dinner (a meal, like the two others, that Angel rarely attended) Fred would share these seemingly trivial findings: Connor's men didn't really like the Lieutenant either. Apparently he had yet another name amongst the troops and it involved words that nobody would've guessed Fred could say without blushing. There was a frequent wish for an accident of some sort to befall him.

Spike was the first to notice something wrong with that. One night, while smoking but not eating, he commented: "Doesn't make sense, does it? Thought Jasmine's lads were all hugging and sharing."

"Sure," Xander said, forking into his rehydrated potatoes, "except when it comes to *us*."

"That's my point," Spike reminded him.

Fred shrugged it off, looking sorry she'd shared. "It's just gossip. It probably doesn't mean anything."

Spike didn't look satisfied. "Maybe."

Fred stopped mentioning it for a while. Mealtime conversation centered around other things.

Sometime later, it was Gunn who brought in the next bit of news.

"Remember that name they gave the Lieutenant?" the man asked, coming back from battle one day, "turns out there's a reason."

Which was how they found out that the Lieutenant was sleeping with Connor. Which naturally led to tons of jokes outside of Angel's earshot about Connor's favorite positions, and the obvious conclusion of how the Lieutenant had gotten his job in the first place. Nobody ever stopped to consider how dangerous this knowledge would eventually be.

***

Fast forward a little.

It's been over a year since Jasmine took control. Almost exactly a year since Wesley was taken. A quarter of a year, more or less, since the Scoobies joined in.

The good guys are starting to get weary. Connor's blood still comes in, and fortunately there's only a few cells needed to break the thralls, but it's like fighting a hurricane with a tiny cocktail umbrella. The victories they eke out are too small to build morale.

Still, they do win some. Team B and C have now been joined by D through K. They're spread out through America and they do what they can.

The bigger numbers mean harder hits on Connor's side. And Wesley's information is what shapes many of the white hat victories.

Finally the pattern is so evident that even Connor starts to notice it.

***

"How did they know?" Connor rages one afternoon. He's stomping about the room, slamming things down onto tables. "They were *waiting* for us. It's like they *knew*."

Wesley notes this. Goes to rub Connor's shoulders. "Every side has its dumb luck."

Connor shakes his head. "No. It's too much."

"These things happen," Wesley assures him. Wonders if he can distract the boy with a well placed hand, or even his lips. "Few wars are one-sided."

"This one *should* be," Connor grumps.

To himself, Wesley sighs. He realizes he's going to have to shove a few more acceptable losses into the fire.

***

Fred gets two pieces of contradictory information.

The first, gleaned through methods Wesley is completely unaware of: the Lieutenant has planned a strike on one of their bunkers on Pico.

The second: Wesley has sent them a note saying to put crucial staff and supplies in the exact same bunker.

Fred stays up all night thinking about this.

She decides in the end that Wes is only doing his best, and must not have known what the Lieutenant was planning.

***

It goes on like this. Some weeks Wes manages to be more subtle about his double-crosses. He gets the white hats into just the right spot so that they can be hurt and his cover won't be blown.

At the same time he keeps sending the blood. Keeps giving them the intelligence that they need that only someone with Connor's ear could give them.

Nobody guesses or even suspects the overlap until one day, when they're doing old-fashioned reconnaissance via one of the hotel guards, a chair, and some of Angel's best threats.

Which is when the guard, one of the ones who stood outside of Wesley's door himself, lets drop the atom bomb.

***

Bits of brain are sliding down Angel's fingers, curling around the knuckles.

"That - that *can't* be true," Fred says.

"It's what the man told us," Spike comments.

"Well it's a *lie*," Fred insists. "Wesley wouldn't *do* that."

Xander and Gunn, though never having talked about it, turn out to be of one mind about things that Wesley would do.

"Sounds like him to me," Gunn says.

Fred is appalled. "Charles!"

"Hook up with evil to save his own damn ass?" Gunn replies. "Sounds *exactly* like Wesley to me!"

"He's *helping* us!" Fred reminds him. "*Saving* us! Risking his own life to get Connor's blood and - "

There's a pause in the air. Five people, simultaneously, figure out the answer to the question "How the Hell *does* Wes get his hands on Connor's blood?"

Fred shakes her head. "No. It's not true."

"It was true for Cordy," Xander points out, still not exactly over that.

"She was *possessed*," Fred replies. "By Jasmine." Inspiration strikes. "Maybe - maybe Wesley's possessed too? Maybe they *got* to him and - "

"They'd get to us too, pet," Spike says, his souled self taking no joy in this bubble-bursting. "Wouldn't even be having this conversation, if bitch-goddess could get any one of us back."

"He's not the Lieutenant!" Fred declares, daring any of them to challenge this. "The Lieutenant *hurts* us! He's killed some of us. He even got Matthew killed - Wesley *liked* Matthew."

"Wesley *liked* Lorne at one point too," Gunn says. "Didn't stop him putting a hole in his skull when he took Connor's side the *first* time."

Fred pounces on this. "Lorne's *with* him! He wouldn't go along with any of this. He *has* to know - "

"In which case he could be helping," Spike says, again the one with the pin to Fred's balloon.

"It's not true," Fred repeats.

Xander offers his own assessment: "Wouldn't be the first time Wes has sacrificed a few innocents for something *he* thought was a good idea."

Gunn's nod indicates this isn't a habit Wes has gotten away from since his Sunnydale past. "I'm guessing it's not the last."

Spike, content in his role of devil's advocate, "'course he *is* giving us the blood. Strike against the prodigal's side with that one."

Gunn's not swayed. "So? Not like it's helping *that* much. Plus that way he keeps our trust. Plays us for chumps while he uses our information to plan his little victories."

Even Xander spots the flaw in this one. "But we don't *give* him information, right? I thought we had a strict one way only policy there."

"We do," Spike agrees. "Lorne sends the stuff packing, we don't send anything back. There's no way Watcher boy could take advantage of - "

Now it's Fred who's grown quiet. "He told me to send supplies to Pico."

Everyone in the room remembers the attack in question. It was one of the most vicious, and would've been moreso if they hadn't had the warning to pull people out.

"Before the attack," Fred says, disbelief coloring her face as she admits it. "He sent a message. He said the safest place was the bunker on Pico." She looks over at Angel. "The Lieutenant planned that attack. But - but it *can't* be true. Lorne gave us that information. Why would he do something like that?"

Angel speaks for the first time since he reacted. "Guess I'll go ask him."

It isn't until Angel's gone that they all realize they don't know which "him" Angel meant.

***