After Death Fellowship Building, The Mount, Ex-Lost Angeles, Dawn Sunday Morning

[spin_kick_snap]

Breaking into the small building that the 'After Death Fellowship' had taken for their own was child's play for anyone with a lockpick and a reason to get inside. Anders and Ezra had both. The unassuming exterior was matched by the interior as well; the front door opening to small entryway and the entryway led to a pair of double doors at the back. The building had been used as cheap seminar space, back when the Mount had still been Paramount Studios and things like 'seminars' still existed.

The doors at the back were slightly ajar, showing a large, open room that was not quite big enough for the hundred metal folding chairs crammed inside of it. The chairs were lined in ten rows of ten with only a narrow space down the middle to serve as an aisle, all of them facing away from the doors and towards the back of the room where the floor was raised about four or so feet up to make a little 'stage'. On that stage stood a podium, from which Christian Ngyuyen was addressing the congregation.

"When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth," she said, delivering that line with all the fervor of a Southern Baptist preacher delivering some fire and brimstone to the damned, rather than quoting lines from Daybreak of the Dead. From the scattered clapping and calls of "Amen!" and "Preach," she had apparently found a willing audience.

The whole thing would be absurd, if it wasn't for two key details. The first was Kathy, standing in a white nightgown, roughly two sizes too big for her, staring past Christian's right shoulder in horror.

The other was the zombie, handcuffed to a radiator, its jaws clacking continuously in a sermon of its own.

Christian	"We have told the unbelievers time and time again that the exes that ring our walls aren't just the mindless dead that they have been misconstrued as!" Christian thundered, banging on the podium with a fist to emphasize her point. "They're our parents, our siblings, our children, our spouses! Our friends and coworkers and neighbors! We knew their souls were still trapped within the flesh and still we were mocked and chided and pushed around by the heroes that strut around this place! But we were given two signs that we were correct! The resurrection of Max Hale from the body of Jarvis, and the return of Katherine Li, once more in her own skin! They, who had both been among the walking dead, came back to us with their souls and minds intact, to once again exist among the living!" More cheers greeted her words, even as Kathy frantically shook her head.
Kathy	"No!" Kathy burst out, voice cutting across the noise of the congregation. "I keep telling you that it's not like that! It wasn't some kind of religious experience! It was my frien--"
Christian	"Katherine, you're a little confused about what happened, aren't you?" Christian asked. Kathy paused, considering that, and then slowly nodded. Yes. Yes she was confused about how it all went down, actually. "It's all right, dear," Christian continued. "Maybe you should sit down, shouldn't you? All this standing is making you tired, I bet."
Kathy	Kathy sat. She was on the floor, cross-legged, before a helpful parishioner could even finish offering his chair. Sat and sorted through the confusing and blurry memories of her resurrection, trying to make sense of them.
Christian	Christian hadn't even waited to see if Kathy would comply; simply gone back to her sermon. "What our lost loved ones needed was a guide, someone who could show them the way back to themselves. Someone to lead by example, the spark that relights a million souls and brings them back to us. Right now, they may clack and claw, their souls caged within them, but all they need is to be reminded of their true selves and cleansed of the zombie taint! All they need is someone to show them the way. Someone to act as their messiah - to die and rise - and then to live once more." Christian beamed down at Kathy. "I told you that you were amazing. You're going to be a true hero - a savior to millions."
Kathy	"What?" Kathy asked, eyes wide as she put the pieces together. "No, no, oh no." She stayed seated on the floor but started trying to propel herself backwards and away from Christian. "Please no, don't, please," she cried, tears welling in her eyes. "I won't do this. No, I won't. You can't-- you can't make me, oh god. Please don't make me please don't make me please don't! Please no!"
Christian	The congregation started to shift in their seats slightly, sounding uneasy at Kathy's panicked reaction. "I thought she volunteered," one woman said to another. "Wasn't that why she was up there?" Christian's smile froze into something like a rictus. "Katherine, I understand you're having cold feet, but I think that this kind of fuss is inappropriate, don't you?" She shook her head, looking disappointed. "You have the opportunity to bring hope back to all these people, reunite them with their loved ones. That's important to you, isn't it?"
Kathy	"Yes," she said in a broken whisper, unwilling to keep making a scene. Her parents had always stressed the importance of not making a scene. "Yes, I want to help." At Christian's urging she stood up again and held out an arm, taking slow step after slow step towards the chained ex. But even though she'd stopped begging, even though she acknowledged that she wanted to bring these people back their families, Kathy couldn't stop her tears. They poured down her face with every step, like something inside of her had shattered and couldn't stop.
Christian	"Oh, Katherine, you have such a pretty face," Christian said softly. "I think this occasion deserves a smile, don't you?" She nodded in satisfaction as Kathy's grin spread over her face from ear to ear. "That's a good girl."
Anders	"Mind control," Anders whispered from their spot just out of sight. His stomach twisted at the sight of Kathy being controlled like a puppet. "We're too far back to get Kathy free, but I should be able to at least protect us for now."
Ezra	"Mm-hmm." Ezra had not been very talkative up to this point, and he wasn't about to change that now. His lips were a thin line, and his gaze was darting around the room, taking note of where everyone was. He was calculating how to best get closer to Kathy. If Anders could handle the mind stuff, Ezra could probably handle the bodies.
Ex	One step. Two. A third. And suddenly Kathy was right there, standing in front of the ex who was in a frenzy now, the metal handcuff clattering against the radiator as it strained to get at the warm meat coming closer.
Anders	If Anders had been waiting for a signal to act, that was about as good of one as he could hope for. He grit his teeth and waved his staff in a sigil, protecting Ezra and himself from Christian's efforts for, he hoped, as long as it would take to get Kathy free. "We need to go," he muttered, and it took all his restraint not to smash a fireball into Christian right then.
Ezra	Ezra didn't need to be told twice. He may have been in human form but he knew he was still going to be able to dart past at least some people before anyone would even figure out to try and stop him. So that's what he was doing.
Christian	Noise rippled in the congregation as Anders and Ezra pushed their way into the room and through the crowd. "Stop!" Christian commanded. "You don't want to interrupt the services, do you?" Her entire audience froze, Kathy included. But Anders and Ezra kept shoving their way forward. "Stop! I said stop! Please won't you stop?" she said, voice going more hysterical with every word that they ignored.
Kathy	Kathy didn't need to look to know what was happening. No one caused chaos like her friends. "They're coming for me," she crowed. Her grin got a little wider, turned more real. "They're coming for me and there's nothing you can do about it!"
Christian	"I can make it a hollow victory," Christian snarled to Kathy before shouting. "You don't want to let them interfere, do you? Stop them!" The congregation didn't need any more encouragement than that. Suddenly they were out of their chairs, throwing themselves at the intruders. "Not you though," Christian added to Kathy, who was getting ready to throw herself from the stage to fight. "Not you. You've got another job to do. Don't you?" Christian's grin was a ghastly thing as Kathy turned another pleading look to her. "Go over there and let it bite you, won't you, darling?"
Kathy	Her smile hadn't faltered since Christian told her to wear it. It remained fixed as Kathy closed the distance between herself and the ex again, as she offered herself up- even when the dead thing grabbed her with its free hand and raised her arm to its mouth. She even kept it on when the ex bit down into her skin and the blood started pouring down her arm. She did realize that she could scream though. And scream she did.
Ezra	You didn't survive doing the tasks Ezra had been doing for the Coterie if you didn't develop certain skills. Like being able to focus on a single goal. And being able to block out what you couldn't allow yourself to be affected by. Like, say. One of your friends screaming like Kathy was screaming right now. Oh, sure, he still heard it. And he was dimly aware that the sound of it was making his stomach turn, but that wasn't going to make him pause or stop or acknowledge it. He was headed straight for Christian. Making his way past the congregation with rising levels of aggression. He wasn't going to kill anyone in the horde, but he didn't particularly care how hurt they got, either.
Anders	Anders hung back as Ezra rushed forward, focused on keeping the cultists off him until Christian was down. He used ice spells to do it, freezing the congregation in place as Ezra shoved his way past. He had his own sick stomach at Kathy's scream, but as far as he could tell all he could do to help was to get everyone else out of the way. Fast.
Christian	People kept flinging themselves at the advancing pair, driven to it by Christian's increasingly shrill demands. Men, women, even children tried to rush at them, trying to punch and push and kick and claw. They were frozen by Anders' spells, or knocked aside by Ezra, their hands closing on empty air, feet colliding with the stilled bodies of the person in front of them. And then Ezra was up on the stage in front of Christian, who glared at him. "How dare you?!" she demanded. "We're a peaceful religious group and you have no right to interrupt our gathering! You want to leave immediately, don't you?" The power in her voice crawled over Ezra's mind, searching for any way in.
Ezra	And there might have been one, maybe, but Ezra wasn't waiting to find out. In fact, Ezra was barely listening. One focus, one goal. One flick, and there was a knife in his hand. Another, and he'd stabbed her in the throat. Unceremonious and efficient - and something he'd be trying to scrub from his brain for the next couple of weeks. But it didn't matter right now. Right now, he just wanted her dead.
Christian	Christian's expression was one of surprise as her hands came up to her throat, blood pouring over her hands as she tried to hold the skin together as if that would negate the injury. The blood bubbled around her fingers as she gasped for breath and she tried to croak out one last command before before falling, first to her knees and then crumpling directly to the floor. Blood pooled around her, soaking into the cheap carpet, and staining her skin and clothes bright crimson.
Anders	It was so quickly done Anders could barely keep it straight in his head. One second Christian was talking and he could feel her mind control trying to break through his barriers -- the next there was a well-deserved knife in her throat, and she was nothing more than a crimson heap on the ground. He might have thought about the suddenness of it more if he hadn't been rushing toward Kathy, desperate to have her in his arms. To heal her, if he could.
Ezra	These things happened when someone in your group was secretly a (mostly former) hitman for the supernatural mob. Surprise? Ezra knelt down only briefly to check that Christian was as lifeless as she was supposed to be. Then, his attention was on Kathy, too. And the ex. In fact, mostly the ex. He knew Anders was going to zero in on Kathy because there was just no other way. And, well, had he not already established himself as the lethal party of this two-man rescue mission?
Ex	The ex was chewing on something. Blood was smeared across its mouth and its jaws worked tirelessly, working over the small hunk of flesh it had managed to keep hold of when Kathy had wrenched away. The scent of blood was heavy in the room and the ex's struggles to escape increased. It yanked and the handcuff around its wrist gave about an inch or so as the rotting skin beneath it split and tore.
Ezra	Ezra was going to be trying to scrub his brain clean for a month. The smell of blood and rot combined felt like it was burning his nose. But at least the ex's struggles were swiftly over. Ezra's knives made sure of that - perhaps even a little more aggressively than necessary. It was all he could do, after all. He was useless when it came to helping Kathy now.
Kathy	Kathy's world had narrowed to a dark tunnel as soon as the ex had bit down into her skin. She didn't even realize when Christian's hold on her broke, just knew that her mental commands to wrench herself away from the ex's mouth were finally obeyed by her body. Her scream stopped, mercifully, but only because she saw no point in screaming anymore. The only thing that mattered was the hole in her arm - and, because of that, nothing else mattered. All the care she'd taken since coming to the Mount, all her fear, all her nights of restless sleep in a closet of all places...all of that had been for nothing, because she knew what came next. First pain, then numbness, then sickness, then death. Then hunger. Constant, insatiable hunger. She slumped down to her knees, eyes vacant.
Anders	Anders fell to his knees next to her, arm already around her shoulders. There was no one else in the room to him as soon as he touched her. "Let me see your arm," he said, in a voice that papered authority over his howling panic. "We -- we should have time to fix it. Promise. Good as new."
Kathy	"It's already going numb," Kathy said quietly, holding out her arm. There was an actual hole in her arm; the ex had taken a chunk with it when she'd pulled back. The skin around it was bone white and that color was spreading up her arm, even as they watched. "The virus is faster now. People die in hours, not days. And I'm a speedster." She gave him a smile that tried for gentle but ended on empty. "It's okay if you can't. Just bring me to Eliot. He knows what to do. He promised." She'd come back once already and her life had been beautiful, wonderful, perfect. This time she could go without regrets.
Anders	Anders nodded dumbly at that. Drag zombie Kathy across LA so Eliot could kill her, why not? It wasn't like he hadn't lost her before. "You aren't going to die today," he said, though he wasn't sure if it was true. "Besides, you did that once, and nobody liked it much. Hold still." The healing light was already circling his hands, gathering over the wound. He held his breath as he watched to see if the skin would knit itself back together.
Kathy	The viruses inside her had exploded into a thousand directions, taking over cells left and right and multiplying a million times in the space of seconds. Already diseases were launching attacks on her heart, her lungs, her spine; measles, once nearly eradicated, was alive and well in her bloodstream, and so was hepatitis and rabies and Lyme disease and even a new and exciting strain of MRSA. And below it all, the new, unchanging ex-virus cells, doing nothing but waiting for now, letting the other diseases do their thing. Their time was later, once the processes had all ground to a halt and the meat was cooling and the blood had thickened. That was what Anders was up against, strain after strain of the some of the most virulent diseases in history, colonizing Kathy's system and using her body's speed to make more of their own.
Anders	Anders' eyes closed as he set into a kind of trance. He felt the spirit healing tracing along Kathy's veins, sometimes moving painfully slowly as it learned how to overcome each new blockage or invasion. The magic erased developing cysts, reconnected frayed and broken nerve fibers, eased swelling in muscles. It was hard work. It felt like all the healing Anders had done in the last five years, but at once. He tightened his jaw, imagining the warm strength he drew from Dante's touch. That sense-memory gave him the push he needed to keep going, to heal Kathy's lungs and stop the sickness spreading to her heart. He opened his eyes again as he watched the bite knit back together.
Kathy	Kathy coughed, a wet, rattling sound. Gasping for breath, she rolled over onto her side and retched a little. Normally she'd be embarrassed about it, but at this point, she couldn't muster up the emotional wherewithal. "Anders?" she croaked, turning back to look at him. Sweat beaded on her forehead as her fever broke. "Did you...?"
Anders	"I tried," Anders said softly. He was a little pale, and sweat beaded his forehead. "You had -- about everything a person could have, so it wasn't easy. But I think I did, yes." He crinkled his forehead. "Do you feel like I did?"
Kathy	The hectic flush in her cheeks was fading at almost the same rate that the unnatural paleness in her arm was receding. Kathy rubbed at the spot in her arm, still pink and raw-looking, and nodded. "It doesn't hurt when I breathe anymore," she said, softly. "I still hurt, but in the way you do after the flu, you know? When your whole body's been wrecked but you're finally feeling okay enough to notice?"
Anders	"That sounds exactly right," Anders said. "Only instead of the flu, you had the flu, liver damage, pneumonia, the mumps, and a bunch of things I don't know the names of. No wonder you need some rest." He ran a hand over her hair. "Do you think the cult kept snacks somewhere? Might help get your blood sugar back up."
Kathy	"Maybe there's a kitchen somewhere in here?" Kathy suggested, even if the thought of going to look for it left her exhausted. She closed her eyes and focused on breathing. "Places like these usually have somewhere to make coffee and serve shitty cookies or whatever."
Anders	Anders kissed Kathy on the top of the head, pressing his body against hers for comfort. "Do you want me to go find something, or do you want to rest with me a bit first?" he asked. He didn't feel ready to leave her again. Not yet.
Kathy	Kathy clung to him more tightly, answering his question before she even opened her mouth. "No," she said, shaking her head. "Rest. Stay. Please." And in a voice so low he had to strain to hear, "Don't leave me here alone."
Anders	That was all Anders needed to hear. "I'm not going anywhere," he said, and stretched out his legs as he cuddled more closely to her. "Not until you tell me to."

Crowd	"Nooooo." A man in the crowd moaned, fell to his knees. "That was Lise - you killed her!" "Worse, you killed Christian!" a woman said, taking another step forward. "How could you?" The crowd shifted. Some stared at where Kathy lay in Anders' arms and turned away, shame-faced at what they'd nearly been witness to. Others had been freed of Christian's overt mind control but were still true believers. These people were freeing themselves from ice and moving forward towards the front. "What the hell is happening?"
Ezra	Ezra turned to face the crowd, and held his bloody, grimy knives up in a demonstrative fashion. "Yes, they're dead," he said, raising his voice. His tone was tense, like he wanted to grind his teeth together instead of speaking. "If you do not wish to join them, I suggest staying away from me." He was paler than usual. But the only person in this room who might've noticed was currently in no condition to do so. "You've seen what I will do."
Crowd	Several more people left, ducking out of the room, away from the man with the bloody knives. But not everyone was that smart. "But...but what are we supposed to do now?" another voice asked. It sounded on the verge of tears. "How are we going to get our friends and family back if she's not going to lead their souls home? We need her!"
Ezra	"You do not need her!" Ezra snapped. "She was never going to lead anyone's soul anywhere, because what she was peddling to you was false hope." Well, if he'd sounded tense before... This was much, much worse. There was rage in his eyes. "And for your false hope, she was willing to sacrifice someone else's life. Someone else's." Who he was not looking at. "Up to you to figure out if you still want to follow your false fucking prophet." There was a little bit of Dante in there. But the way he held his knives at the ready was all Ezra.
Crowd	More people were crying. Some out of guilt for what they'd nearly been a part of, but most because even false hope hurt to lose. "Are - are you gonna tell the heroes?" a heavyset man in the front asked. Having an ex chained up in the middle of the Mount wasn't going to go over well with anyone, never mind nearly sacrificing a girl to it.
Ezra	"Do you think they won't notice what happened?" To Kathy. Who he'd continue not to look at, because for as long as he didn't look - or that Anders didn't call out to him - he wouldn't know for sure, and he was clinging to that uncertainty for as long as he could. "That they won't question it?" Because Ezra thought they would very much question Kathy, specifically, getting bitten. After everything else that had been going on. "And do you think I would lie for you?"
Todd	More people slipped out, the ones that thought they could pretend they'd never been here, they could deny the finger pointing and the accusations when the all came crumbling down. That left only about twenty of Christian's die-hard followers. The heavyset man in the front. A tired-looking woman with a little girl in her arms and a blond boy who kept looking at Kathy and sniffling. Others here and there, faces in a crowd. From the shocked horror in their expressions, they'd clearly never considered what would come next, that they'd ever have to answer for what they'd done. "It's all your fault!" the women with the children cried out. "If you'd just let things happen the way they were supposed to, they wouldn't have cared! Not when the exes began to turn human again!" "Ma, I told you," the boy whispered, "she said she couldn't do that."
Ezra	"That was never going to happen!" Ezra rarely yelled. This time, he did. And he looked incredulous as he did so, and he wished he could've kept himself from doing it because the kids didn't deserve to subjected to any of this (and that was where his only sliver of empathy lay, right now), but he couldn't. "Don't you get it? It was a lie! Sure, she may have believed it herself but that doesn't make it true."
Todd	"Not her," the boy said. "Her." He pointed to the spot where Ezra was deliberately not looking. "She told me she couldn't bring my dad back. She cried. I tried to tell them--" "Todd, hush," his mother said, dragging him behind her. Todd peeked out around her side. "What's gonna happen if she's not okay?" he asked, with child's curiosity. Or maybe a healthy sense of self-preservation.
Ezra	This was the first that Ezra acknowledged the kid - he'd been yelling at the mother, not him. He hadn't been listening for whispers when there was blood rushing in his ears. But he listened now. And he didn't look behind him. As for the question? He was not a very vindictive person by nature, but he was far from thinking straight right now. He couldn't help the darkness in his voice. "Bad things."
Crowd	The heavyset man in the front shifted his weight. "There're more of us than there are of you, pretty boy," he blustered.
Ezra	Ezra's gaze slid over to him. "I wouldn't try me."
Crowd	The man made a few more noises, then glanced around. No one else seemed inclined to leap in with him. "Whatever," he said, subsiding. "Not worth the effort." "Please," said a young woman near the back. "What are we supposed to do now?"
Ezra	"That's not my problem." His problem was behind him, and he was trying not to look. Willing Anders to give him good news. "Go."
Kathy	"Yeah," came a shaky voice from behind him. Kathy stood up, leaning heavily on Anders for support, and met the eyes of several people in the crowd. "If I don't see you, I don't have to tell Stealth you were here."
Todd	Maybe it was the grim resolution in Ezra's voice. Maybe it was seeing the person they were willing to sacrifice standing back up. Maybe it was invoking Stealth. Whatever reason, the rest of the congregation headed for the doors, Todd looking back once to wave, sad and apologetic. "I'm glad you're okay!" he called. No one else said anything at all.
Ezra	Ezra hoped good things would come Todd's way later in life. Or at least he would have, had his attention been on the retreating crowd after he'd heard Kathy's voice, and it hadn't been. His attention had whipped around immediately. "Kathy!" he exclaimed, her name a gasp on his lips. "Are you --" Actually, no, this seemed like a question best directed at Anders. "Is she okay?" Because Kathy herself would say 'I'm fine' regardless, he was sure.
Anders	"Mostly," Anders said, though there was still clear concern on his face. "I healed everything I could, but she was sick in about a hundred different ways. I'd like to wait here until we're sure she's back to herself."
Kathy	"I'm fine," Kathy said, because she could be a caricature of herself sometimes. She was still clinging to Anders in an attempt just to keep standing, but she was trying to convince everyone she was okay. "A little wobbly, yeah, but..." But she wasn't blind and going into convulsions, so already she was doing a million times better than the last time she'd been bit.
Ezra	Anders' concern was mirrored on Ezra's face, now that some of the tension of desperation had dissipated. "You can't even stand on your own, dumpling," he told her, not unkindly. Then he glanced back towards the doors the congregation had fled out of. "And it seems like we have some time." And, he was still holding his bloody knives. He could buy them more time, if need be. He did make quite the intimidating sight, after all.
Anders	"They didn't seem suicidal enough to come back," Anders nodded, following Ezra's gaze. "And if they are, I'll back you up." To Kathy, he added, "Ezra's right. You aren't going anywhere until you're a little less green around the gills. We can wait that long."
Kathy	"I'm only agreeing because it's that or make one of you princess carry me across the Mount," Kathy said, her legs trembling like a newborn calf. She was exhausted. "Besides, we should be here. Until Stealth shows up. Make sure nobody comes in and...I dunno. Removes evidence?" Something? Look, she didn't have to be completely on the ball. Today had already sucked a lot and it was barely past dawn. "I'm gonna sit down now," she decided, suddenly leaning against Anders extra-hard.
Ezra	"Yeah, you do that," Ezra agreed, taking half a step towards her - towards them - before deciding against it. He wanted to be a comfort, wanted to be a crutch. But right now? He was more of a guardian with knives. He figured he would stay that way until they could leave this room with two dead bodies in it.
Anders	Anders gave Ezra a tired kind of smile. "Come closer, if you want," he said. "I'd say we don't bite but that's not very funny right now." He was ignoring the dead bodies. He couldn't do anything about them, and Kathy needed him.
Ezra	Ezra couldn't really ignore the bodies. For one, he wasn't sure he trusted dead bodies around here to actually stay dead. And, well, he had other reasons too. Like the blood spatter on his clothes. "Thank you, darling," he said, "but no." The reasons were complicated. When was anything about Ezra not complicated? "Just make sure she rests."
Kathy	Kathy gave him a soft, understanding kind of smile and dropped the hand that had already been reaching out towards him. It would take more than bloody knives to make her afraid of Ezra, but she wasn't going to push. Didn't have the energy. "When you're ready, you can come sit with us," she offered instead. "I think sitting would do us all a world of good right now." Anders had probably exhausted himself healing her and Ez might not be shy away from killing, but he certainly didn't like it. They could all use a chance to rest. Rest and then go home.

[Finale 1 of 2! Many thanks to the amazing team of not_every_mage and smilestopscars for all their hard work and compelling writing for this. <3 I can't fangirl everyone in this plot enough, omg. NFB, NFI. Previous post Next Post]