Part 8
The room quickly was swept into a panic when the gunshot was heard. The crowd began to storm their way from the ballroom as a man lay bleeding from a wound on the floor.
“Angel?” a frantic Fred shouted. She knelt by the fallen vampire’s side as blood poured from the rifle wound. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Angel choked out. “Doyle? Is he.”
“His bodyguards carried him out of here,” Xander informed him. Damn help him, but he was actually concerned for the vampire.
Angel struggled to prop himself against a tipped over chair. Crimson stained his once pristine dress shirt. “Go help the others,” he ordered. “Find Ramius.”
“But Angel,” Fred pleaded.
“I’m fine,” he insisted. “A bullet isn’t going to kill me.” Angel grunted in pain as the metal inside him shifted against his ribcage. “Going to hurt like a mother in the morning though. Now go. I’ll find you guys in a minute.”
Fred didn’t want to leave him, not when he was hurt, but the logical side of her brain won over the irrational side. He wouldn’t die, but if she didn’t go help the others, someone else might. She finally nodded her agreement and led Xander to the stairs.
Angel continued to rest on the ground as he tried to stop the bleeding.
“Asshole,” he muttered. “This was my best dress shirt.”
***
Buffy kicked down the door to the conference room just as Ramius was sliding the rifle back into the ventilation duct. Gunn was right on her heels, and the two prepared to take the demon on.
“Well, well, well,” Ramius taunted. “If it isn’t Goldilocks and the long lost Wayans brother. How you guys doing?”
“We’ve come to bring you down,” Buffy informed him. “Seems like you missed the congressman. Maybe you should just give up peacefully.” Buffy posed in her most menacing fight position. The effect was slightly lost. She was wearing a dress after all.
“Yeah, that’s a bitch,” Ramius admitted. He jumped from the table and stepped towards the two, his eyes measuring up the both of them. “Of course, whoever the poor bloke is that I did hit is probably hurting like a mother fucker right now. I’m disappointed I didn’t hit Doyle, but carnage is carnage.”
“If you don’t stay right there,” Buffy stated, “there’s going to be a lot more of it.”
“Yeah,” Gunn agreed, poking his head over Buffy’s shoulder. “What she said.”
“Listen, Sonny and Cher, I’d love to stay and chat, but I gotta keep moving.” Before either could speak, Buffy was nailed by a spinning heel kick and Gunn was sent flying against the wall by an uppercut.
Ramius walked calmly into the hallway and adjusted his suit. “Like I said, I really must be going.”
“Hey!” a voice shouted from behind him. Ramius turned to strike down the being, but instead, he was hit by a fistful of a blue powder.
“You might want to run,” Dawn advised, her bag of Hecate’s Essence still in hand, “because you’re not going to be able to hide.”
“You little bitch!” Ramius shouted. He slapped Dawn across the face, and the girl went sprawling to the ground. Ramius furiously tried to brush the dust off him, but it was too late.
“Stop right there!” Cordelia, Fred, and Xander spotted Ramius brushing himself off on the far side of the hallway. “He was hit by the dust,” Cordelia realized.
Dawn groaned from her position on the ground. “Fred, check on Dawn. Xander, let’s go.”
Cordelia and Xander raced down the hall after Ramius, but the shape shifter ducked into the nearest stairwell. The two followed a few moments later, just as Buffy and Gunn limped from the conference room.
Gunn rubbed his sore chin and leaned against the doorframe. “Okay, I’m man enough to admit that you just got your ass whooped,” he said to Buffy. The slayer turned her best death glare on him, and Gunn swore that he felt something shrivel up.
“Fred, where did he go?” Buffy asked. She knelt by her sister. Dawn sat up, her cheek red from Ramius’ blow.
“Cordy and Xander chased him to the far stairwell,” Fred told her.
Buffy helped Dawn to her feet. “Are you okay? Do you need Fred to stay with you?”
“No way,” the girl cried out. “There’s no way I’m letting a little bruise keep me down.” Dawn touched her cheek gingerly. “Am I swelling?” Buffy rolled her eyes. Yeah, Dawn was feeling okay. “I got him with the dust,” Dawn informed them. “We need to hurry before it wears off.”
Buffy immediately went into command mode. “Okay, Fred and Gunn, you two take the west stairs and try to find Cordelia and Xander. Dawn and I will take the east stairs. We’ll meet in the middle.”
Fred and Gunn agreed and took off in the direction that their comrades went minutes earlier. Buffy checked once more that her sister was fine before the two headed in the opposite direction.
They had to move quickly and find Ramius before the dust lost its effect.
***
Ramius ducked into the laundry room to escape his pursuers. He weaved his way past the washers and driers as he desperately looked for a place to hide. Ramius didn’t like to admit it, but he needed to regroup. Having his plan interrupted certainly wasn’t something he anticipated. Neither was the fact that he had several people chasing after him.
His getaway was supposed to be quick and easy. He would make the shot, dump the weapon, shift into another body, and walk out the front door.
Ramius again tried to manipulate the extra layer of striated muscle that covered his body. The muscles twitched and morphed slightly, but the exertion was too much to maintain. Ramius breathed heavily, the effort to shift taking its toll.
“What did that little bitch hit me with?” he asked. Oh, if he ever got his hands on that little girl again, he would do things to her that would make Hannibal Lector blush.
Ramius continued to move to the back of the room. He finally found a corner where he could use some laundry carts for cover. “So now I’m the one on the run.”
Ramius sighed heavily at that fact. “First time for everything.”
***
“Did you see him?” Cordelia questioned. “We chased him to this floor.”
The three pairs of demon fighters converged from different directions on the fourth floor of the Hilton. “No,” Buffy answered. “What about you guys?” she asked to Gunn and Fred.
“Nope,” Gunn answered. “He didn’t get past us.”
The six stood in the center of the ‘T’ shaped intersection, all exasperated for seemingly losing Ramius. “Well,” Cordelia reasoned, “if he didn’t get past any of us, then that means he’s still on this floor somewhere, right?” The gang all nodded their agreement. “Fine. So all we do is kick down every door until we flush him out.”
“That’ll take too long,” Gunn argued. “That stuff will start losing its affect on him real quick. If we don’t get him now, then he just shifts into a new body and walks right on the hell out of here.”
Everyone realized that Gunn was right. The Hecate’s Essence only worked for a few minutes. By now it would start losing its hold on the demon.
“Okay,” Cordelia said. “He can’t just walk into any room. He’d have to have access cards. So then where could he go?”
“Vending room,” Xander supplied.
“Exercise room,” Fred added.
“Or maybe the laundry,” Dawn said, pointing to the doors behind them.
“Okay,” Cordelia started, “We’ll break off into pairs. Xander and I will take the laundry. The rest of you find open access areas. If you find him, hit him with some more dust and contain him.”
“Yeah,” Gunn agreed. “I’ll try to stop him by hitting his fist with my head again.” Fred slapped him across the gut before she dragged him down the east hallway. Buffy ushered Dawn down the south hallway.
Cordelia opened the laundry room door.
“Hey, Cordelia,” Xander said.
“Yeah?”
“I got your back.”
Cordelia sighed as she stepped inside. “Imagine how good I feel about that.”
***
Cordelia silently motioned for Xander to walk along the far wall. He was slightly nervous about separating, but Cordy gave a reassuring smile that seemed to calm him. Cordelia moved in a crouch along the center of the room between two aisles of washers.
The washers and dryers hummed loudly, but despite that, Cordelia tried to tune her demon senses into her surroundings. She could feel Xander on the opposite side of the washers to her left. He moved slowly but surely forward.
When Cordelia finally reached the end of the row of washers, she sensed too late the other presence in the room. From her right, a pair of arms grabbed her and tossed her to the wall.
“Hey bitch,” Ramius taunted. “Looking for me? Or perhaps you’re looking for someone else? Perhaps..me?” Ramius shifted his form, the effects of the Hecate’s Essence clearly worn off. But what was more disturbing than that was the figure he shifted into.
“It’s like looking into a mirror, eh?” The clothes, the hair, the makeup, it was all the same. Cordelia was looking at herself.
Xander sprinted the rest of the length of the room when he heard the noise. “Cordelia? Are you..holy shit.” Xander was dumbstruck as he viewed two Cordelias staring each other down. “As if one Cordelia wasn’t enough trouble.”
“Tell me about it.”
The three turned to the new voice. It was Angel, firefighter axe in hand, blood staining the front of his shirt.
“I guess there is a choice to be made.”
