The Confrontation

"The infection might be our best bet to keeping Amos here if he shows up. But we also have to be extra mindful of the cultists, because Amos wouldnt wait even a minute with getting himself into a fight if any of them made him feel suspicious of Saoirse's safety," he then said but that wasnt all. They both knew Amos wouldnt stick around if he didnt feel that it was safe enough and he would take Saoirse with him. He wouldnt even put it past Saoirse if Amos already somehow knew. He was quiet for a bit before he shook his head and sighed. "I dont see another option," he admitted before he went to the door, holding it for her. "Let's go find out,"

Considering everything that had went on between them she wouldn't put it past the daemon to keep Saoirse's well being above all else. "We will just have to remind him of what is at stake," she said, hoping that if she showed up, he would try and listen to reason.
He held the door for her and she moved ahead, leading the way to Saoirse's room not far away from their own. Passing a few cultists on the way, they all seemed to cower as the powerful pair. "Just ... try not to agitate her too much," she sighed, knowing their daughter she was probably already fuming the minute she saw Baal.

Saoirse was sitting on her bed, dressed in alongsleeved dress, trying to pull at the linen that she felt was too short even still. She didn't want the visible reminder of what she was right now, and whenever some cultist entered she would start screaming at them. As the door crept open she got up from the bed, "I told you to leave me alone!" She yelled, tossing a dish at the wall next to the door. But it was her mother entering, unfazed by her daughter's actions. "I thought I had raised you better than to throw with cutlery," she sounded almost dry.
Saoirse stepped back, sitting down on the bed. "I want to go home," she just muttered.

Her sigh was reasonable, but he was pretty sure that his existence right now alone was enough agitation. Entering the room after Buffy, the summoner shortly glanced at the broken dish, then at their daughter. "Home isnt safe as it is right now, even more when the spread reaches beyond southern. Eventually someone will know who's responsible and that will only put a target on you and everyone else's back, especially if we went back home now of all times," he said, a little harsher than he meant to but he was not really getting the teenage tantrum of hers. Then again, he had never had the liberty to say just what he wanted growing up in the temples.

Saoirse glanced at her father, but it felt like she would rather speak with a wall than him. Then looking at her mother, she seemed to change tactics. "It's not safe anywhere then, not if we are followed even to Aurvandil - why is this place then? None of the daemons here like me, they either think I'm a freak or a brat," she said, trying to make her mother listen.
Buffy sighed, moving over to sit down in front of her daughter. "Is it because you miss Amos?" She asked, and the trybrid looked at her mother with hurt eyes. Was it really that obvious. "I do, but he wouldn't like it here either ... Alyssa knows I'm alive," she said, the last part of her sentence she looked at her father. "Have you seen what he did to her? She could've died," she said. Buffy nodded, "I was the one who found her, but she could not be reasoned with," the former fenix argued. "You hurt her, you hurt me!" Saoirse started yelling again, not listening to her mother's brainwashed words.

It was maybe a fallible hope to think that she was ready to listen to reason. He let Buffy handle the situation as it seemed that Saoirse would rather not have to listen to him at all. But as she looked at him, speaking of Alyssa he was clearly listening. Only that he should've known that it was another reason to be angry at him. He just drew in a deep breath and crossed his arms. "That's why your mother is here with me. Why I'm not back home and why I havent been replying to your messages or cooperating with the Eliors," he just answered a little cold in tone, his patience clearly not as it used to be. "Is that why you're rebelling against us? Because you're angry at me?"

"Rebelling?" She had to scoff, shaking her head at her father. "Do you expect me to just come to terms with the fact that my literal father could've killed me yesterday? That my mother seem so different and not even a fenix anymore?" She was lashing out, but it was only because she felt so deceived. If her parents had known for longer that this was what was happening. "Why did you send me away? I don't buy that crap about some mysterious daemon out to hurt me; were you tired of me? Is that it? Did you just not want me anymore?" She had to ask, all her words spilling out of her as she felt tears falling down her cheeks.
Buffy hushed their daughter, pulling the trybrid in to her arms, "we never wanted to send you away, but it was for your own safety," she said, but the trybrid shook her head. "If you wanted my safety you would've kept me with you, explained what was going on before it happened," she argued. But things weren't so simple, not if you asked Buffy. "Saoirse, your father and I love you, and I don't blame.you for your anger, but as for how things are right now nothing is certain," Buffy said. She knew what Baal had tried to do yesterday, but things had worked out, and Saoirse was left unscathed.

Saoirse was just so angry, like she couldn't even begin to talk rationally about things when her father was acting this way. If he was being cold and cynical, then she could match it with anger. At least that was how she had it in her head. She had never been one to rebel, always doing what she was told, but she was sick and tired of it. Not to mention scared about her infection. As Baal left, she jumped in her seat, before more tears ran down her eyes. He couldn't even pretend to care, could he? He was just so empty that he didn't even care. "Let us leave, mom, we can get out of here and away from him; We could go be a family," she pleaded but her mother just shook her head, much to the trybrid's disappointment.

Baal left, and honestly Buffy thought that was the best option. Their daughter didn't know of their sacrifices, she didn't know cause they had never intended to tell her about it. Because why worry their daughter with something that essentially wasn't her burden to carry? "One day you will understand," she sighed, getting up and looking down at her daughter. "I'll send for Amos ... Just try and behave; And try not to yell at your father every time you see him," she said, kissing her daughter on her hair before leaving the room.
She got outside, seeing Baal as if he was just frozen with anger. "Your temper is running away with you," she said calmly, placing a hand on his shoulder, looking at him with soft eyes. "I know things are not ideal, but she will come around when she starts to understand; In the meantime I'll send for Amos, he seems to be the only one who could make her calm down," she said, hearing more things break inside their daughter's room, sighing as she shook her head. "Temper runs in her blood too, huh?" And with that Buffy left to talk to some cultists.

He didnt know how he was supposed to deal with his anger. The artifact made some reasonable suggestions, but it was all just a lure for chaos, he knew that. Buffy's words werent exactly a help but her hand was. He just didnt really know how to communicate that to her besides just keeping still. He found it hard to believe that Saoirse would ever fully understand, but on the other hand it wasnt as if he wanted her to. He didnt want her to know of all the horrors that she could have lived through under different circumstances. And as Buffy left, he was just left to his thoughts and the sound of Saoirse's destructive anger. They were probably quite alike in the matter. He just stayed outside her room with his arms crossed, waiting to see if she wanted to pull another trick to try and leave.

As soon as Alyssa had gotten the message, Amos was sure he should have been feeling at ease, but he kept feeling all sorts of other feelings. Anger, hurt, fright. Anger most present right now. It couldnt be real that Saoirse was in a good place. It was early so Alyssa should be resting but Amos wanted to be sure. "I'm gonna go for a walk to clear my head," he said in a soft tone, leaning over to kiss his mother's forehead. "There's nothing to worry about after all. She's fine and safe, just like the message said?" he said with a shrug and a smile. But Amos didnt work that way. A message meant jackshit when his gut was telling him different. He got outside and headed in the direction he believed she would have gone. Probably south, to where her mother had kept Baal. He knew that place even if his mother hadnt told him about it before. He wasnt keeping the people he loved safe for nothing.

Alyssa sighed, knowing her son better than he seemed to know himself. As he turned to leave she grabbed his hand with the little strength she had left in her. "I'm your mother, I'll always worry - But be safe and be vigilant," she reminded him. She knew she couldn't change his mind once he had set a course, but she could remind him that he would never be alone. As he left the empusa seemed to sleep. The clergy had stopped the spread temporarily in Amos' finger, so hopefully everything would work out in the end.

Buffy had sent out a group of cultists along with a description of Amos, but they all seemed to know who the young daemon was. Everyone seemed to know of his heritage at least his mother as his father had never been disclosed. Alyssa was the blood of Bael, and Amos too as an extension of her. But Buffy warned them, knowing that it could prove difficult to get a hold of the young man. It didn't take long for the group to spot him as he had reached Southern. Two larger daemons positioned themselves beside the daemon as the third ingested a tranquilizer into the mouth of the daemon. As soon as he stopped fighting, they placed a bag over his head, dragging him with them to the hideout.
As the group reached the cultist place, they placed the daemon in a room before notifying Baal of his arrival.

It was just a waiting game at this point. Baal still stood in the hallway, watching Saoirse's door as the cultists approached him, informing him that they had found and caught the young daemon. He shortly glanced at the door, wondering if she was too busy ruining the interior of her room to pay attention. He followed them to the room where Amos was held. It was like it had been with Saoirse, all the features he had been supposed to recognize were blurred out by his sight, making Amos seem just like any other daemon. But this was different because Baal knew who he was before he had stepped into the room. He waited for the young daemon to wake up, but he should have expected nothing but anger. He managed to keep relatively calm, especially as Amos had had the exact same approach as Saoirse, making demands when he was not really in a position to do so. "You know you saw Simeon, dont lie to me. We have the description of his new body and you managed to get infected while staying in his presence, with Saoirse on top of that," the summoner just said a little coldly. He was done trying to be the nice father that wanted to comb out the knots, there wasnt time for it.

"I'll be careful," he said but he wasnt sure he could stick to that if Saoirse was in actual danger. Amos had led a selfish life, but it was like he was willing to sacrifice himself if possible for the trybrid. She really was someone special for him. He didnt make it far into Southern before he was apprehended and drugged, struggling against their grip but quickly losing strength before he seemed to doze off. When he woke up, he saw his father in front of him. Immediately it was like his whole being just filled with anger but they had constrained him in case he would be trouble. "You look like shit. And rightfully so, after what you did to mom," he hissed, fighting against the constraints so he could just throw himself at Baal and get some sort of revenge for his mother. "What have you done to them? Saoirse and Buffy," he demanded. But then Baal spoke and it was like the summoner knew just how to pour gasoline on the already blazing wildfire. "Fuck you, you were the one who was supposed to keep us safe, that's why we were packed up and sent to the drop off point just like that. We wouldnt even have had to leave if you hadnt lost control of your fucking pet!" he had started out quite aggressively but then he resorted to yelling, spitting at the ground between them before he leaned back.

Saoirse was cunning, her mother was right in that regard. Throwing things meant that they couldn't hear where in the room she was, and her ear was plastered to the door. She heard something about a daemon, a young one. Had they already caught Amos? He wouldn't be out and about, she had warned him without warning him. Gritting her teeth she waited until she heard the footsteps of her father leave. Opening the door, and closing it silently behind herself she didn't even notice her mother standing right behind her. "No patience," Buffy sighed, but it didn't matter what she did. So instead of locking her daughter in her room, she decided to lead her to the room where Amos and Baal would be. "Now you need to manage your temper-" - "-I am doing this my own way," Saoirse just interrupted, making her mother breathe out in frustration. "Promise me you'll try," Buffy pleaded and Saoirse nodded before the door to the room was opened.
Saoirse wasted no time, running past her father as she reached Amos who was strapped down. His eyes seemed hazy, did they drug him? "You have no right!" Saoirse yelled as she turned around to look at her father. Anger fuming out of her, and it wasn't helping the fact that she was infected. Her marks on her hands were slowly turning a dark purple, looking more like sickly veins than anything. "Release him! Let him go right now, you ... You monster!"

Amos was done talking to Baal way before Saoirse appeared. But seeing his sister was definitely calming him down, because he could see that she wasnt harmed, at least not with immediate wounds. Baal looked at his daughter as she turned to him, his eyes hardening a little as she started yelling. He had to take in a deep breath but as she called him monster it was like he was figuring out new limits to his already fragile patience. "Monster?" He repeated as he furrowed his brows. How could she know what monsters there were really out there when she had been protected for this long? "You have no idea what you're talking about, my child," he just said, his voice disappointed and angry, but at the same time he was challenging her to say more.

"That's because you never tell me anything!" she screamed at him, shaking her head in bewilderment. How could he not see how confusing everything was? How convoluted her entire world was right now. "What have you ever done to any of us that haven't caused us harm?" she asked, visibly shaking from the pain she felt in her marks. The infection inside of her was spreading rapidly, and yet the only visible clue was her marks turning dark purple. "You have hurt me, mom, Alyssa and Amos, all in the span of a few weeks - Mom might put up with it because you brainwashed her; But I am not going to trust anything you say from now on!" she was furious, never had she raised her voice in front of her family like this.
Saoirse had always been the quiet and timid type, always letting things happen to her, but what good had it really done her? She had lost contact to Connor, she was maybe losing Amos to an infection and now her parents were crazy and with some delusional cult. "Tell me, what have you ever done that hasn't ended up hurting us? What kind of man leaves his daughter for half a year without a word or explanation? Oh wait, you do!" she screamed, letting it all out, but she could also feel her body taking quite the hit. The infection feasted on anger on any strong emotion it could get out of her, and she was practically force feeding it right now. "Do you know what it means to hear your mother cry herself to sleep every night because you weren't there? How many nights I cried because I couldn't even comfort her?"

She was right he wasnt telling her much but it was all for a good reason. What he had told her up till now had seemed to go on deaf ears either way, so what was the point? Her question made him grit his teeth because she really seemed to understand very little of the situation they were in. But he let her speak, even if her words were hurtful and her attitude was frustrating.
He had to tense his jaw and remind himself that he had promised Buffy to behave. But as she heavily implied how incompetent he was as a father, that was were it seemed to click for him. "You are so ungrateful, it's unbelievable!" he said, shaking his head as he just couldnt believe it. "I may not have been as present as any of us would have liked, but at least I was a part of your life! You think I wanted to be gone? That I wanted your mother and you to hurt like this?" he bashed back in a raised voice. "You keep telling us about all these simple things that could have been done, as if that wouldnt have made things way worse? You want to know what really happened to your mom while you were gone?" he was yelling now too, despite how little he had wanted to lose his calm. He approached her and reached out and grabbed her arms, forcing her to face him, because now she would get the truth she longed for so bad. "I ate her soul and opened the rift that now is the giant pillar you see! So what do you think would've happened if you were actually here? Tell me Saoirse! What do you think would have happened?!"

Ungrateful? Oh she had to hear that all of her life, wouldn't she? Just how ungrateful and lucky she was to be alive. She shook her head at him, shaking with anger as he went on. He spoke to her like she was a child, and she despised him for it. But then things turned serious as he approached her, grabbing her arm and made her look at her. Her eyes widened, filling with tears as he told her all of these things but she shook her head as she looked down. "I didn't ask to be born! YOU forced me in to this world, YOU were supposed to protect me not just call me ungrateful simply for being alive!" she yelled back, tears running down her cheeks. "Do you know how much easier life would've been without me? Do you know how I lay awake at night and think how happy Connor would be if he wasn't forced to be around me? How free Amos would be if I weren't there to tie him down like the egotistical brat I am!?" she was hurt and sad, and her father did nothing and said nothing to soothe her. "So be honest with me right now; Wouldn't it had been much easier on everyone if I wasn't born?" she asked, her body shaking with the pain as she finally fell to her knees.
The infection had reached her heart, but she refused to say anything. She knew Amos could feel her suffering, but she had never spoken like this before, told about her real thoughts. "If I had been there, I would've been in the way again ... And that was why you sent me away." her voice filled with defeat as her markings were turning a darker purple.

Baal really wanted to hear what her thoughts were because she seemed to know exactly what it was that had to be done. He know he was being harsh, saying things that she shouldnt even be thinking about but he felt at a loss. Even more when she began questioning her own existence, it seemed to make him realize that he had been wrong to yell at her the way he had. Because as much as it would have been easier, neither him or Buffy really wanted that. She was the solid proof of their love, a walking example of how well their love had blossomed. She fell to her knees but he guided her down. But before he could say anything, Amos started struggling again, more furious than ever. "You're hurting her!" he screamed, feeling his thumbs being crushed down into his palm. He grit his teeth and grunted, pulling more and more despite how it may hurt him, screaming all sorts of profanities at Baal. "I swear to Bael the bastard himself that I'll fucking kill you, Belial!" he said in all seriousness, his eyes more filled with hatred than ever. He had seen how her marks had been changing and he could feel her hurt.

Saoirse was struggling to even keep her body upright at this point, her heart struggling to keep up and she heaved for air as she cried. She felt so weak, her teeth grinding as her marks felt like they were pulsating.
Just then Buffy came in to the room, startled at what she was seeing. "Belial, let go of her," she urged him, coming over, dropping down on her knees, pulling her daughter in to her arms. A pained expression came upon the former fenix' face as she placed a hand over the trybrid's heart. "It's the infection," she said in a hushed tone, moving to her feet and lifting her daughter up, "call upon all the daemon healers ... I'll need them," she ordered before rushing out the door with her child held close to her. Buffy was scared, scared because she could feel her precious little girl slip away, and if she did, all they had done would be for nothing, wouldn't it?

The summoner hadnt realized what he had been doing until Buffy entered and spoke to him. Frowning deeply he let her go, clearly regretful in the way she was looking at his daughter but only Buffy would have been able to tell. Amos was so furious, struggling hard to get freed. It wouldnt take much before he would probably snap both his thumbs to get out of his restraints. He saw Saoirse get moved out of the room, kicking his legs as he was just screaming in anger. The summoner just left as well to get the healers, leaving the young daemon stuck to a chair, feeling useless as ever. He felt his eyes well up but that only made him that more frustrated and angry.

Buffy took Saoirse to the only room where she knew the others barely dared to enter; It was her private study where an altar was. Some of the daemons left her offerings there, but as she entered the room she just cleared the altar of everything, placing down her child. "It's alright, baby, mommy's here," she said, breathing fast as she was trying not to break down crying. She couldn't let emotions hold her back now. Walking over to a small table she took out some dark ink, her hands shaking as she started drawing symbols around the edges of the altar.
Saoirse groaned in pain, and Buffy hushed her child, kissing her forehead, but she could feel how weak she was becoming. Buffy couldn't heal her, not yet, but she could keep her alive. As the healers entered the room she put them to work, mixing tinctures and ointments of many kinds before looking to Baal. "Make yourself useful and tend to Amos," she ordered him, mostly because him being there with the healers was a distraction to them. She turned her full attention on their daughter. "It's alright, honey, everything is going to be alright," she promised her child, finishing up the symbols before stepping away. Her hand moved out in front of her, chanting daemonic words that made the symbols light up and a dim light surround her daughter.

The summoner just seemed to stare at their daughter with a dreadful look in his eyes. Even if he had seemed so cold and unfazed, a direct threat to his blood was clearly affecting him. Her order brought him back to reality as he simply nodded and left to go back to Amos. The young daemon had worked so hard on the restraints that his wrists were bruised quite hard. Some of the metal had also dug into his skin, making his hands damp from his own blood but it still wasnt enough to break through. The summoner came in and started freeing him but that didnt seem like a good idea because as soon as Amos was freed, he turned and bumped right into Baal, tackling him to the ground. "Come on then! Hurt me too! Do something you bastard?!" the young daemon screamed as he grabbed onto the summoner's collar, slamming him down against the ground. Baal didnt even fight back, but it didnt deter Amos. Some cultists had heard the commotion, but the sight left them stunned, because they werent sure what to do. Intervene and risk angering the summoner or do nothing?