Disclaimer: All things Power Rangers belong to Disney all things Buffy and Angel belong to Joss Whedon everyone else is mine.
Author's Notes: In the Power Rangers realm, this takes place January 2008, in between the ending of "Legacy" and the start of the yet to be named Planetary Rangers fic. In the Buffyverse, this takes place a few years after the end of season seven and ignores the comics. To fit better with my universe, it is also going to assume that the potential slayers lost their slayer powers sometime after the series finale. And finally, where the most notable changes are is in the Angel timeline. Obviously Los Angeles did not become some sort of demons roam free hell in my AU as it did in the official Angel storyline. And since I'm making changes…. (yeah there were a few things I was unhappy about with the ending of Angel)… Fred didn't die/get consumed by a goddess and is still with Wesley, Cordelia was saved, Gunn never lost his lawyer smarts, and the gang has been working for Wolfram and Hart for the last few years in an attempt to kill the beast from the inside.
Quick Buffy note: I am a huge Buffy/Angel fan, which is why they are thinking about each other during the story. As much as I'd like to see them together, for those of you following the series you should know that by the end of Buffy and Angel there really isn't an opening for them to get together again anytime soon. I chose the characters relationships based on the Angel series and an idea that came to me from the latest Buffy Season 8 comic (Retreat part 5).
The reason I wrote this fic as a one shot is because I wanted to do another Buffy crossover in my Power Ranger timeline, however I did not want to have crossovers in Legacy and I do not want to have them in the next series. This is not necessary to read if you are following the series but it will be alluded to in the Planetary fic.
Obviously if you don't follow my Power Rangers series or haven't seen all of Buffy and Angel you're going to have questions. I tried to give a lot of background, but if you have any other questions feel free to ask. I think that about covers it. As always, reviews are appreciated.
Power Rangers
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
"Hell on Earth"
Three friends found themselves walking out of an office building in Los Angeles; heading for what they had heard was a popular lunch spot. Carri Hillard, Kimberly Hart and Jason Scott had all spent the morning in a meeting with the man who was writing the script that would correspond to the massively famous and successful Luke Kirk book.
Carri's reasons for attending were simple. She ran the production company that was making the film, she set up the meeting, and she was going to be there. Jason was there because he was Luke Kirk and this project was his baby, and Kim was there because she was the inspiration for the heroine plus it was her day off and Carri asked her if she wanted to tag along. Officially though the scriptwriter thought that Jason and Kim were the official speakers for Luke Kirk, as he had been informed that Mr. Kirk suffers from agoraphobia, a fact that was not allowed to leave that room as it would breech his confidentiality clause.
They walked down the sidewalk and Kim glanced over at Jason. "You were really harsh with that guy." Kim pointed out. Harsh was probably a light word for it. This was the second draft of the script that they had seen. Jason had been pleased with most of it, but there were a few places where he had ripped into him about unauthorized changes he made.
Jason grunted. He was lucky he wasn't fired. "My book, my script, my final decision." The first script was close to perfect but he had taken liberties with his corrections that he didn't like.
Carri rolled her eyes. She was glad Jason didn't have any real power here. The guy was a genius with scripts. He had decided to add his own flare in spots and it simply didn't work. Carri had agreed with Jason's opinion, he was making action sequences too artsy. However, Jason had gone on the defensive. He needed to get over it. He was going revert those changes back to the original, work off the first set of notes they gave him, and make today's changes. "Don't stress out about it. It won't be long and he'll be sending my office a new, kick ass copy to look at without his touch made just the way you want it."
"What exactly did he write that was Oscar nominated?" Jason questioned. He was pretty sure it wasn't for a movie that he would have been interested in.
"A period piece." Carri replied with a shrug. Jason glanced over at her and she couldn't help the sly smile. "An Elizabethan era romance." Jason huffed and muttered something under his breath. "Oh relax. He has done action blockbusters too. I think he's trying to combine the two for your script and you have to admit that for the romance scenes it totally works."
"Yeah. Right." He said sarcastically. He wasn't going to tell her she was right. The romance scenes were almost better than he had imagined.
"I think it's pretty close to perfect." Kim said as she smiled sweetly at Jason. In reality, it was good, but she wouldn't say perfect. She simply wanted to rib Jason a bit since he had managed to get so worked up over the whole thing.
"You would." Jason replied, shooting her a look. She continued to smile at him and finally he smiled back. He didn't know what it was about the girls but he never could stay mad at them for long.
"It's close enough." Carri said, rolling her eyes in Jason's direction. Before Jason could say anything, she continued. "It's not going to be hard to fix and it's not something worth worrying about. We have a lot we're in the process of lining up and we're still on schedule to start filming this summer so don't stress."
"Fine." Jason said sharply, indicating that he did not want to discuss it further. He trusted Carri, he had to since he signed his project away to her. If she thought things were ok and they were still on track, he would listen to her. However, that did not mean he still would not tell her exactly what he thought of what was going on.
"You're going to have a busy summer." Kim commented looking over at Carri. She was going to oversee this movie, which was going to be a big enough project on its own. She was hoping to start pulling together her ideas for a new television show around the same time. She was also planning on getting married to her long time boyfriend, and anyone Kim knew who was getting married said worrying about the wedding was another job in itself.
Carri waved her hand around as though she was brushing Kim off. Work was going to consume most of her time between all the projects she was looking at, which was fine with her. Of course, she did have a wedding coming up, but in theory, it would be after they finished filming and besides, that was why she had hired a wedding planner. Between her mother and her cousin, they were giving the woman she'd hired tons of ideas and she and Rocky could step in as much or as little as they wanted depending on how much time they had. The only drawback to that was that she was pretty sure that poor woman was going to want to kill her mother before this was all said and done. Although she was quite confident that her father was going to tip the woman when he paid the bill, she was already setting aside a tip fund of her own to make doing her wedding worth her while.
She abandoned those thoughts and grinned at Kim. "No worries." She replied.
Jason caught Kim's eyes and he grinned at her. Kim should know better. Carri was much more concerned with work than her wedding. She hadn't really wanted to get married in the first place, but he and Kim were the only ones that were aware of the fact she'd had to warm up to the idea. Now she was game, but that didn't mean she wanted to be involved in the planning part. "She's not the only one who's going to be busy this summer." He said, shifting the discussion away from her wedding. "I plan on watching the filming and taking care of releasing my second book in the series."
Kim rolled her eyes heavenward. Because she really wanted to see her likeness plastered across the cover of another book. "Oh God." She said with a groan. "How hard am I gonna smack you this time?"
Jason snickered and Carri and Kim shot him a look. "If you want to know what's in my next book you can read it when it comes out." He had certainly collected enough stories over the last year between the two of them and the rangers' battles to make a good story.
"We're gonna have to kill him." Carri said as she glanced over toward Kim. Kim grunted and Jason simply laughed at the duo. Carri sighed as she thought about it. "Of course on the other side of that, I am going to get a big paycheck from it once we turn it into a movie."
"Thanks." Kim said, reaching over and giving her friend a shove. "You're switching sides on me."
"Please that doesn't mean I'm going to like the book. I'm just pointing out the future revenue." She said as she rolled her eyes. She turned toward Kim and grinned. "Besides, you're getting some revenue out of this for the torture you're suffering as well."
Jason moved over and forced himself in between the two girls, putting an arm around each of them. "Torture?" he questioned with a grin as he gave them each a glance. "Come on, you girls know I love you, I'd never torture you." He said sarcastically. "The books are just fun, that's all." He added as they approached the restaurant. "Let's get lunch."
Kim and Carri glanced around Jason and made a face. Carri managed to crack a smile and Kim could not help but join in, and by the time, the three of them entered the restaurant they were all in good spirits.
An hour later Kim and Carri found themselves walking in the doors of an upscale mall in Los Angeles, taking advantage of their free afternoon. They had ditched Jason not too long before they got there. Well they hadn't actually ditched him. They had both smiled sweetly and suggested he come shopping with them. His reply was that he would rather spend the rest of eternity in the orb with Callisto.
He took a cab back to Angel Grove and left the two of them, armed with credit cards, to prowl the mall. They were both thrilled to be able to spend some time shopping; they had not done as much of it as they thought they would when they returned home last year. Work consumed a lot of time for both of them; add to that the past year's ranger conflict and it pretty much took over their schedules.
They walked into the first store and Carri immediately eyed a shirt on a rack. She grabbed the shirt in her size and moved to continue to follow Kim around the store. "I'm glad I've got time to add to my wardrobe." Carri commented. Not that her wardrobe was lacking. She bought some stuff, and Ashley had given her a lot of clothes as part of a promotion they were doing that involved Carri and her team wearing Ashley's clothes on her show.
Kim snickered. She wasn't fooled in the least. Carri had plenty of clothes. "Please. Eventually you're going to need a new house with a bigger closet to accommodate your wardrobe."
"Nah." Carri said as she turned to Kim and grinned. She had a huge walk in closet and she absolutely loved it. She did have a lot of clothes though. "I'll clean my closet. I am sure there is a lot of stuff in there I don't wear. I'll box it up and send it to you."
"Great so you'll make them my problem." Kim replied, simply shaking her head. Although she did appreciate the gesture. Carri was taller than she was and she might have to get the clothes altered, but Carri had a good selection and she would definitely pick from it. Plus it would add to her wardrobe without her spending a dime.
"You'll appreciate them." Carri assured her, turning to grin at her friend.
Kim said nothing as she stopped and pulled a pair of pants up, looking them over to see if she wanted to try them on. Decision made, she pulled out a pair in her size and turned back to Carri. "Did I tell you about my last trip to see Mother?" Kim asked, changing the conversation as Carri went over to pick up a pair of jeans.
"No you didn't." Carri asked, immediately picking up the fact that Mother was short for Mystic Mother. Kim didn't talk much about her time spent with her and when she did, it was because something interesting happened. Sometimes Kim fed her fun stories about Rhianna or the others, sometimes it was something she learned. It was still odd to Carri to talk about the former evil doers casually but she tried to get over it.
Kim looked up after grabbing a shirt to see a swarm of women had made it their way. She glanced toward Carri and nodded in their direction. "Remind me to tell you later." She could probably tell the story without anyone being suspicious but she elected to play it safe.
"Right." Carri said, continuing shopping as they made their way to the back of the store.
Kim followed her lead and by the time the duo had made it back to the dressing room their hands were full of items. Ten minutes later, they each had a shopping bag filled with half the things they tried on. As they exited the store Carri went to go back to Kim's earlier topic, but that was forgotten when she turned the corner and smacked right into someone.
"Sorry." Carri said, stepping back to get a good look at the woman she ran into. "Buffy?" she questioned, surprised to see the slayer. The last she heard from her she was still running around in Europe.
"Carri?" Buffy Summers asked as she eyed an old friend. She hadn't seen her since she passed through Angel Grove, shortly after Sunnydale had collapsed into the hellmouth. She had heard that Carri had been off planet right after that, and she sent her a few messages once she saw the news reports out of Angel Grove and realized that Carri must be back.
"It has been a while." Carri said, giving the Slayer a smile. They had seen each other on several occasions since Dark Specter had been destroyed. Carri missed being a ranger, and there were a few occasions when Buffy wanted an extra pair of hands. She would jump to Sunnydale in a heartbeat, and sometimes some of the other Ninjetti had joined in. Of course, she fought demons more in LA during their last few years at USC, helping Angel out after he moved to town and started his investigations firm.
She hadn't had much contact with Buffy since leaving to run her own missions in space. Once she returned Buffy sent her a message and they would drop each other lines on occasion. They spoke frequently when Buffy was trying to hunt Olaf's Hammer for Carri. That was the only thing that could smash a Goddess into submission, and after it had worked so well on Glory, Carri wanted to use it on Callisto. However, the hammer had been lost, and in the end it didn't matter as she was gone and that was over.
"It has." Buffy replied as she glanced from one ranger to another. "It's good to see you too Kim." She had gotten to know Kim some through Carri. It was always fun to make new superheroine friends.
Kim smiled and greeted Buffy as well. There was a pause in the conversation before Carri continued it. "So what are you doing out in LA? Last I heard from you, you were in Italy." Buffy had sworn off of the west coast for a while with Angel living in LA and now leading the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart.
"Dad was pretty adamant about seeing Dawnie." Buffy replied. Her father had missed most of her teen years thanks to Buffy and he put his foot down about his youngest daughter coming to visit. "They're having a father daughter day and I elected to go shopping." She hadn't been shopping in a long time. Life had been hectic for her since Sunnydale, and now that she was supposed to be on vacation in LA she was going to enjoy it.
"How's Dawn?" Carri questioned. She had known Dawn, well literally since her senior year in college although her memories of Dawn were jumbled up and she had false memories of her going back to when she met Buffy. It was an odd situation to say the least. Dawn had suddenly appeared in Buffy's life one day, living as her little sister thanks to some serious monk magic. She was initially part of this world as a mystical energy known as the Key, but now nobody thought of her as anything less than Buffy's little sister.
"She's good. She just turned twenty one so." Buffy paused and shrugged her shoulders. "I think I miss the teenage angst over the spending her nights at the bar phase though." Dawn tended to go out and party now that she was of age. A lot. And Buffy constantly worried about her. She knew what was really out there at night.
"She'll grow out of it." Carri replied with a shrug of her own. "She's probably just high on the fact that she can buy her own beer now." She had seen it happen enough when she was in school. She was pretty thrilled herself when she was old enough to buy a beer, although she never obsessed over it. She had been drunk very few times in her life, enough to know it was not something she wanted to make a habit of.
"Let's hope so." Buffy said with a nod. If not she would put an end to it herself. She sighed and decided to move the topic away from her sister. "What are you guys doing out here?"
"Taking advantage of some time off." Kim said as she held up her shopping bag. "Care to join us?" She was ready to get back to the shopping part of the afternoon and it would be fun to have a third.
"I'm in." Buffy said, grinning at the duo as they turned and headed toward the next store.
After a few hours of shopping, the trio headed out to the car where they all dumped their bags in the trunk. "Coffee?" Carri questioned as she jerked her thumb toward the street. She wanted to hit up a place that she and Kim went to while they were in college before she took Buffy home, and she and Kim returned to Angel Grove.
"Sure." Buffy replied. It had been an expensive shopping trip but it was well worth it. She would now have some new clothes to take back with her.
"This way." Kim said as she took the lead. They quickly made their way out of the parking lot and onto the main road. The coffee shop was only a few blocks away and the girls were taking their time getting there, enjoying the what constituted for a winter afternoon in LA.
"I wonder if it's about time to make a permanent appearance stateside." Buffy commented as she looked around. As much fun as she was having in Europe, her trip to LA reminded her why she missed being home. "I heard they've got a small hellmouth just outside of Houston giving them trouble." Of course, there was trouble all over the world that was why she had left the country in the first place, to travel and destroy evil. However, she was neglecting some of the worst cases in her own home country.
"Sounds like a good place for a slayer to be." Carri commented, turning toward Buffy and smiling. "As long as you have a spare room for an old friend to crash in once or twice during baseball season." She had not seen a game in Houston since her dad took her when she was younger. If Buffy was out there, she'd take advantage.
Kim rolled her eyes. "Like you need any more to do this summer." She said. Her friend kept racking up the to do list and when summer came around she was going to go crazy. "And besides." Kim stopped suddenly. She glanced over to the brick building next to them.
There was a for rent sign in the window and whatever used to occupy the space had moved out long ago. But there was still something in there, she could sense the power coming from the building. It hit her like a ton of bricks when she approached. "Something's not right here." Kim said as she walked over to the window.
Buffy looked over at Carri who shrugged. She assumed it was because she was Muirantian but that was a long story, one that Kim could fill Buffy in on later if she chose to. Both girls followed Kim to the windows and when they peaked in, they couldn't believe what they saw. "And I thought I could make it through the weekend without fighting demons." Buffy said with a sigh.
"I wonder what he's summoning them for." Kim said as she stared at the man in the middle of the room. She couldn't tell who he was but she was pretty sure he wasn't human. On both sides of him stood a demon, one of them newly summoned, and he himself was overflowing with power.
"Maybe he needs shopping buddies." Buffy commented as she stepped back and looked at the front door.
Carri rolled her eyes. The sad thing was she could quite possibly be right. "Only in LA." She replied as Buffy quietly tried the lock.
"Is it open?" Kim questioned, stepping back after deciding that the guy definitely wasn't human. He had two small horns coming off of his forehead that had been hidden by his hair, odd shaped ears and long fingers with claw like fingernails. Whether or not he was a demon from Earth, it was hard to tell.
"Nah. I'm going to have to go in the hard way." She said as she looked over at the two female rangers. "Shall we kick some ass?"
"Why not." Carri replied. It had been a while since she had been able to be out kicking ass. She missed the fight. It was what always drew her back into the rangers.
Kim nodded as she and Carri moved into position behind Buffy. With one swift kick, the slayer opened the locked door. "Easy enough." Buffy said as the trio headed into the building. The man working the magic immediately stopped to look at them. Buffy smiled at him. "Building's closed. We're here to evict you."
He let out a slight laugh. "Poor lost little girls." He said as he eyed the three of them. "I'm going to make you regret your decision to come in here." He said with a twisted smile as he wondered what possessed them to try and play hero.
"Lost?" Buffy repeated with a grin. This was going to be fun. He had no idea what was about to hit him. Without another word Buffy ran to attack the first demon she came to.
Kim saw the slayer run to pick a fight with one of the demons and she decided to go after the other one. After all, she was demon spawn herself. Demon spawn who had a few things she'd been practicing and would love to give them a try.
With the two demon's occupied Carri found herself with their summoner left in the middle. "Looks like it's just you and me." She said with a grin as she ran to attack him. She got in a good series of kicks before he threw her off of him without ever laying a hand on her. She hit the floor with a grunt. "That was not fair." She grumbled as she stood.
"Not fair?" the man questioned. As the woman looked ready to attack, again he called to his power source. As the power flowed through him, he wielded it to his current needs. With one quick blast of energy, he lifted her up high in the air, his power wrapping around her throat and choking the life out of her.
Carri managed a brief glance down to the floor below where Kim and Buffy were too caught up by their own fights to realize what was going on here. She couldn't help but wonder what good having friends who were demons and slayers were if she was going to have to save herself. A smile managed to come across her face as she caught a glimpse of an old dusty chair sitting in the corner of the room. Sometimes it was more fun to save herself.
With a flick of her wrist, the chair sailed through the air and smacked into the guy choking her. He was surprised and he lost his concentration, dropping her ungracefully to the floor. She smacked down and sucked in a few deep breaths as she prepared to jump up and run back into the battle. Before she could do anything, a figure ran past her swinging an axe at the man who tried to kill her.
She stood up and got a good look at the man with the axe. "Gunn?" she questioned.
"Sorry I'm late. I tried to get here quickly." Gunn replied as he worked on beating the guy back.
Carri simply shrugged. She had no idea that Gunn was supposed to be coming to their rescue in the first place. Before she could go help him, the man gathered himself and went to attack Gunn. "This isn't going to work." She said with a sigh. She needed more firepower. "Planetary ranger, power up!" She called out, and seconds later, she was transformed into her Planetary form.
Gunn watched in awe as a streak of lightning entered the building and smacked into the man he was attacking. He looked back to see the pissed off White Planetary Ranger unleashing her fury. Looking around he saw Kim finishing off her demon and Buffy giving hers quite the pummeling. "Buffy!" He called out and as the slayer turned toward him looking somewhat surprised, he tossed her the axe.
Within seconds of gaining a weapon, Buffy tossed the demon's head to the floor and the body was not too far behind. She quickly noted that there was a duo of Planetary Rangers attacking the man. She went to join them but before she could, the man looked up and saw that his demons were dead and he escaped before he could meet the same fate.
Kim and Carri powered down as Buffy surveyed the damage. "I didn't even wear my demon cleaning clothes." She said with a sigh. She liked vampires. She slayed them and they went poof. Demons she had to clean up after.
"Don't worry. We'll send a team to take care of this." Gunn replied. It was one of the advantages of working for Wolfram and Hart. They could concentrate on the important stuff while someone else worked on the cleanup.
"Right." Buffy said eyeing him, not wanting to leave anything to Wolfram and Hart. They were evil and she didn't trust anyone working for them. Not even those whom she once considered allies. She was afraid the law firm was corrupting them and she wasn't sure how they were bringing down the corporation from the inside.
"We can't let him roam free." Kim said as she gestured back to the spot where the man once stood. He was calling from some serious power source and she had a feeling he would not rest until he finished whatever task it was he started out to do. "We need to figure out who he is and go after him."
"I couldn't agree with you more." Gunn replied with a nod. "If you guys come back with me we'll go over everything and use our resources to find him."
"To Wolfram and Hart?" Buffy questioned, ready to spit out a no way in hell. Even Kim and Carri were skeptical about seeking out the law firm that was at the center of all things evil.
"I know how you feel about us." Gunn spoke quickly before Buffy had a chance. Andrew had told them what Buffy thought years ago. He couldn't blame her, he himself was skeptical at first. "I work there and I still think that Wolfram and Hart is the core of all evil. However, Angel, Cordy, and the gang… we have all managed to do some real good from inside. We can help you now; we're your best resource."
Kim and Carri were hesitant and they both turned to the slayer for the final say. They thought maybe they could turn to Billy for help but they were not sure if his expertise extended this far. They didn't like Wolfram and Hart, but they thought perhaps using them was their best bet. In the end, it was up to Buffy.
Buffy glanced briefly at them. She didn't want to say yes. But she knew Gunn was right. She wasn't even sure where Giles was at the moment to ask him. "Fine. But if we suspect anything." Buffy let her voice trail off.
Gunn nodded. They weren't stupid enough to cross the slayer. "Follow me." He said as he led the way out of the building.
Twenty minutes later, they were sitting at a conference table in Wolfram and Hart, along with a group of people that they had all worked with before. Seated at the head of the table was Angel, Buffy's first love who still got her all in knots. She was never sure if she was really over him and she hated seeing him.
Beside him sat Cordelia, someone who had grown up more than Buffy had ever thought possible. She was no longer the arrogant cheerleader; she was now part demon with visions from the powers that be, her past life all but forgotten. Next to her sat the only other vampire Buffy had been with sexually, Spike. Buffy watched as Carri glared at Spike. Carri hadn't spent hardly any time with him now that he had a soul. She still harbored resentment toward him for the few days he kidnapped her years ago.
On the other side of Angel was Wesley, Faith's former watcher, and next to him was his scientist girlfriend. Rounding off the group from Wolfram and Hart were Gunn and Lorne, who were sitting toward the back of the table so that Buffy, Kim and Carri could be closer.
As everyone finished getting situated, Angel looked around at the people facing him. "So what happened?"
"Kim saw a bad guy, we killed his demons." Buffy said simply. She didn't feel like elaborating as she didn't felt comfortable enough at Wolfram and Hart to do so.
"We stumbled on whatever he was doing." Kim added in. She found herself wondering how much they knew about her, about her Muirantian powers. She wondered what she should tell them, if she should tell them anything. In the end, she decided not to talk about it for now.
Carri nodded as she leaned in toward the table. "We were fighting when Gunn showed up." She said as she gestured toward him. "How he knew to be there I have no idea." She added, turning back toward Angel and raising an eyebrow. Seeing Cordelia there, she had an idea, but she wanted them to confirm it.
"I had a vision." Cordelia said as she glanced down the table. She watched as the girls nodded then she continued. "I saw him calling up those things. I saw you die." She said pointing to Carri. She watched as the White Ranger sighed and shook her head. "With the whole daylight thing going on, Gunn was the best choice to send to help."
Kim saw Carri go to open her mouth but she moved to cut her off. She had a feeling she was going to ask what was supposed to happen to her. There was no point dwelling on it. "Do you know anything about the guy that was there?" Kim questioned. She was hoping they had already started looking into the situation once they realized what was going on.
"We were waiting to see what information you gathered." Wesley replied. They had thought about diving into their research but they were hoping that the returning group could give them some sort of direction. There was a lot of material to go through and when you didn't have anywhere to start from it could be rather tedious.
"All we've got is that the guy is good at summoning those things." Cordelia added as she looked around the table. She just had a vision and she needed to share. It was nice that the world didn't know when it happened anymore. It used to be that the pain from the visions was so bad she would literally fall over from it. Now they just appeared and nobody noticed when it happened. "I just had another vision. He's coming back after nightfall and summoning a small army of demons to let loose on LA."
"Then we need to get moving." Angel spoke quickly, a thousand thoughts running through his mind. They needed to figure out what was going on, prepare for battle. He was grateful it was at night, it would be much easier for him and Spike to join in.
"What's the big deal?" Spike asked as all attention turned toward him. "They managed to kill the demons. If we take an army to match his army we'll be able to crush them."
"The big deal," Kim started as she glared at the bleach blonde vampire, "is that we have to stop more than just the demons, we have to stop him. I don't think he has any power; the powers I felt him using came from something else. Something more powerful." She was not too keen on Spike either but he wasn't evil anymore and she would try to include him.
"So you're saying that he's drawing his powers from another source." Fred asked as the wheels in her head started turning.
"Yes." Kim replied giving her a nod. "The demon summoning, the powers he used against us, I don't think he normally has the ability to do that sort of thing."
"If I could." Fred stopped short and glanced toward Angel. "The demons they killed, could you have their bodies sent to my lab?" She waited for Angel to nod his head yes then she continued. "If he just summoned them there may be residual energy left on their bodies from wherever he was drawing his power source. If I can isolate that energy I may be able to figure out where it came from."
Carri glanced over at her two friends. Buffy shrugged and Carri smiled. She didn't get Fred in the same way she didn't get Billy. Kim on the other hand had an idea what the woman was talking about. "It might work." She said as she thought about it. One of the things she had learned recently is that magic and powers come with their own unique energy patterns. Isolating them was next to impossible and even if you could, you would have to have some sort of database to compare them to. But if Fred had technology she didn't know about, if she could isolate the source, maybe she had some way to track it back to whatever he was using.
"Good." Angel said as he nodded in Fred's direction. "You get started on that. Wesley, you start researching this guy. The rest of us will work on strategy and help out where needed." He quickly handed out orders.
"We'll start by helping Wesley." Buffy quickly said as she volunteered herself and the two rangers. They had seen him and fought against him so it made sense that they help research. Besides, she had no desire to lock herself in a room with Angel and strategize, not until they knew something more. Seeing him again brought back some old feelings that she wanted to keep buried. She was mad at him she had to remember that. Dragging Carri and Kim with her with her to help Wesley should ensure that Angel would not feel the need to follow.
"Fine." Angel said as he stood. He watched as the others at the table stood as well. He was in full on stress mode over the upcoming evil demon they would have to fight and Cordelia sensed it. She walked over and put an arm around him. Reflexively he draped an arm around her shoulder and leaned down to kiss her temple.
Buffy stood gaping at the duo as Wesley was gesturing for them to follow him. Angel and Cordelia? Why hadn't anyone told her about that before? Out of all the people, she would have never thought he would have a thing with Cordelia. Of course, she never thought he would be inclined to have a thing period. But Cordelia?
Carri grabbed the slayer by the arm and pulled her toward the door. She had noticed the exchange too, it was hard to miss. But now was not the time to worry about who your ex-boyfriend that you may or may not still have feelings for was dating. Now was the time to worry about the non-human male who was trying to conjure up demons to attack Los Angeles.
Wesley had dumped a stack of ancient texts in front of the girls before taking off into another room to look at books of his own. They were thumbing through the texts looking for pictures or descriptions or anything they could find that would clue him into the mystery man.
"Research mode sucks." Carri said with a sigh. She would have been much happier plotting how to kick his ass over looking through a dusty old collection of books for any clue to who or what he was.
"You got the best look at him. It makes sense for you to be here." Kim quickly pointed out. She would agree that it was boring. But Carri should know well enough that you can't go in to fight against an enemy blind. That is what they did earlier and it could have gotten her killed.
"Looking at books is better than sitting out there with Angel." Buffy said as she continued to flip through the pages. She was never on board with the research part but this time she was glad she was. She could not help but think about Angel with Cordelia and it was driving her crazy. "I mean Cordelia? Seriously?"
"Cordelia has changed." Carri reminded her. She understood Buffy's frustrations. But Cordelia wasn't the same airhead she was when Carri first met her and it was obvious that Angel saw something in her. "And none of us have been around Angel to know what has happened between them."
"Maybe she has but I would have never seen that one coming." Buffy assured her as she made a face. "And why hasn't anyone told me about it? News like this doesn't just stay hidden." Buffy quickly pointed out. That was what irked her the most. She had no idea about their relationship until she saw that little exchange.
"You did say that you wanted nothing to do with this place." Kim pointed out as she gestured to the room around her. She could not imagine that too much news from Wolfram and Hart made it Buffy's way. "I wouldn't be surprised if people declined to tell you anything that's going on here, even personal relationships since they're happening under the roof of Wolfram and Hart."
"Just because I don't care for Wolfram and Hart doesn't mean I don't want to know if my ex-boyfriend is dating someone new." Buffy quickly replied. Sure, she didn't care about what they were doing but that did not apply to Angel's dating life. She was interested in that. "He certainly tries to find out everything about me." She added. That had gotten back to her from several of her colleagues who had run into Angel since she had been gone.
Carri looked up from her book and glanced over at the slayer. "You're still in love with him aren't you?" she asked. It was the only thing that made any sense. Why else would Buffy would get this worked up over Angel dating someone else.
"What? No." Buffy said shaking her head. She had a lot of feelings where Angel was concerned but she didn't think she still loved him. That didn't keep all those feelings from surfacing when she saw him. They had a lot of history and she had to assume that he felt the same way. She sighed. "It's Angel. It's complicated."
"Are you seeing anyone?" Kim questioned as she looked over toward Buffy. "Maybe you can tell him all about your relationship." When she returned and Tommy hadn't been inclined to give her another chance, she went through some of the same things Buffy is going through. They weren't together anymore but that didn't stop old feelings from surfacing when she saw him. After she caught him with blonde big boobs, the only thing that made her feel better was Josh. Not only did she have a strong relationship with another guy, but it was nice that Tommy knew she had moved on too.
"No… yes… well kind of." Buffy said as two sets of eyes moved toward her. "I am seeing someone. It's not serious right now but we're seeing each other."
Kim gave her a slight nod and went back to flipping through the books while Carri was ready to pepper the slayer with questions. "Anybody we know?" she asked saucily, giving the slayer a look.
"Riley." Buffy replied simply, waiting for the reaction she knew was going to come.
"Finn?" Carri questioned, looking at Buffy in awe. After Riley was all on edge and had left Sunnydale she thought that relationship was more than over. Another even bigger factor made Carri question the relationship. "What about Sam? Are they divorced?" She didn't care if it was really none of her business, she didn't tolerate cheating and would let Riley have it if he was and she saw him again.
"She's dead." Buffy said, watching as her friend's facial expression dropped. "It happened a few years ago while fighting a demon. Anybody in this line of work knows there's a good chance that's how you'll end up." Buffy said, a hint of sadness in her voice as Carri nodded her head. The White Ranger was all too aware of that. Buffy smiled at her and continued. "I ran into Riley about a year ago. He'd quit the army but was still demon hunting on his own. He wanted to work with me. I let him on the team and a couple of months ago we started sleeping together again. I don't know how this is going to work or where it's going, but it's good for now."
"Damn." Carri replied with feeling. She felt bad for Riley even if his wife had been gone for a while. And she had no clue how it was going to work out for Buffy and Riley take two.
"Yeah." Buffy shrugged. It was different this time around between her and Riley. Maybe it could even work out. Nothing was certain though. She had another thought to share but never got to it as Kim let out a yelp.
"I am a damn good researcher." Kim said as she picked her book up and showed it to Buffy and Carri. She had flipped through the books quickly paying as much attention to detail as she could, hoping to find their guy.
"Are we sure that's him?" Buffy asked as she scooted closer and took a look.
Carri glanced at him as well and the horns and the hands seemed to match up. "From the picture it's him."
Kim remembered enough of the oddities that the man they were looking at held. "I'm fairly confident in saying it was him." She said as she set the book down. She glanced over the description and filled the others in. "He's Drakonian. From Draken."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "In English please."
Kim let out a little smile. "He's from another planet." She said as she looked back down at the text. It was a planet she never heard of but apparently, Wolfram and Hart had. "It looks like they are an ancient race, very powerful. The catch is only the first-born son that gets bestowed all the power and the magic that their people are capable of. The rest of the family has to work for it and even then, they have to pull their power from a secondary source. This is what I think our guy is doing."
"So pissed off little brother decides to come to Earth and practice the little magic he can do by summoning demons?" Carri questioned raising an eyebrow.
"The book doesn't exactly say who he is or why he's doing it." Kim said as she rolled her eyes at her friend. "That part we're going to have to figure out."
"I say it doesn't matter." Buffy said as she stood. "I say we're going to kick the crap out of him regardless of why he's doing it." She continued. She was the slayer. If there was something that needed to be slayed, she slayed it. She didn't really care about anyone's motive. As long as killing him fixed the problem, she was happy. "Come on; let's go let the others in on the game."
Kim snapped the book shut and stood, picking the book up and cradling it in her arms. Carri hopped up as well, and then she and Carri followed Buffy as she led the way out of the room.
It had been a frustrating afternoon for the Drakonian. Marcus was summoning his hellbeasts and he had been interrupted. By what was apparently a group comprised of two Planetary Rangers and a third girl that from what he could tell had super strength. He certainly had not expected that.
He had sent his brother a message, asking him if he knew how to destroy a couple of Planetary Rangers. He wasn't sure why he did it; he seriously doubted he would actually respond. However, his brother was the one with all the power and maybe he knew something. More than likely if he did respond it would only be to laugh at him.
That was what his brother had done when he told him of his plan, he had laughed at him. He didn't think he had the power to do it, but he would prove him wrong. He had successfully summoned two demons. Now he was going to work on pulling from all the power he had to summon a small army at once. Hopefully that would do the trick against any intruders.
Once he destroyed those who thought they could line up to stop him, the rest of his task would be easy. He could take his time to summon more demons and creatures worse than that, allowing the city to slowly be engulfed by the hell he was creating until the town turned into a hell on Earth, a hell that spread quickly and infected the rest of the world before anyone could figure out how to stop him.
It would be only then that he would be satisfied and his revenge complete. He was not usually one to think like this. His brother was raised to be evil. His parents gave him more attention because he could naturally do things that Marcus could never dream of. He had to work hard to try to learn how to get another source to draw powers of his own. And even then his abilities were nowhere near his brothers, although he was hoping that this little trick would prove something.
Instead of being as evil as his brother is, he was simply a bad boy who liked to party. He had done a lot of partying on a lot of different worlds. The first time he came to Earth he fell in love with it because the people were so simplistic and so easy to corrupt. He had gone to a club, and with the help of a talisman had hidden the parts of his appearance that were not human. He had met a beautiful human woman and she took him home with her that night.
From there their relationship grew, and he enjoyed every minute of his time with her body. She was gorgeous, sexy, and quite good in bed. One night they had enjoyed hours of particularly wild sex. Somewhere during that the talisman he wore around his neck flew off, exposing him for who he was. She freaked out, physically attacking him, belittling him, embarrassing him, and throwing him out of her home. A woman had never treated him like that in his life and he certainly was not going to stand for it now. But it was too easy to go back in there and beat her to death. He wanted to make her suffer. This is why he is bringing hell on Earth to her and everyone she had ever cared about.
He had told his brother of his plan in hopes that he would get him to help. Even though he wanted to do it on his own, he thought he could impress his brother more if he were by his side and guarantee more damage than he originally planned for. However, his brother had told him that the plan was stupid and that there was no way he would be able find enough power to pull it off. Seeing as how he had no interest on wasting his talents on a third world planet such as Earth, there was no way he was going to help. He would just watch him fail and come crawling back. But that was not going to happen. His brother may have been the more evil one, the one with all the powers and the abilities but he was going to be the one to get the last laugh. He was going to unleash his demons on Earth and he was going to get payback for his embarrassment.
Buffy found herself sitting alone in Wesley's office. Carri and Kim had reassigned themselves to other tasks, and Buffy was waiting for the former watcher so she could work on something on her own. Things were moving a bit quicker now that everyone had an idea of what they were dealing with. She was ready to get rid of this guy and move on.
She readjusted her seat on Wesley's desk just as the door open. "Finally." She muttered, tired of having to wait for him to return.
"Wesley I." A voice said as the door swung open. The voice stopped short upon seeing the slayer sitting there. "Buffy." Angel said simply as a way of acknowledgement as he entered the office, allowing the door to fall closed behind him. "Sorry I was looking for Wesley."
"He should be back any minute." Buffy replied, trying her hardest to give her ex-boyfriend a smile. She had a lot of things she wanted to say to him and this was the first time they had been alone together since she stepped into Wolfram and Hart.
"Ok. Good." Angel replied. He was suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. Buffy was, well she was Buffy. The first person he truly loved in he didn't know how long. Things between them were weird at best, but it was still Buffy and even though he worked to get over her, he still cared. "I should."
Before Angel could finish the suggestion that he leave, Buffy piped up. "So Cordelia huh?" She couldn't help herself. It had to be said or it was going to drive her nuts. "Out of all people to be with you chose Cordelia?"
"What?" Angel questioned, freezing in his place as he turned to look at his former girlfriend. "You haven't been around for years. Cordelia isn't the same girl you knew in high school and you have no right to judge who I'm dating."
"I have no right?" Buffy repeated, putting her hands on her hips and leaping off the desk. "You have judged every man I've ever been with since you and you say I have no right to have an opinion on you and Cordelia?"
Angel took a step closer and pointed a finger at her. "That's right, you don't."
"That's funny coming from you." Buffy said with a laugh as she stepped closer to him as well. "I'm going to have an opinion. I think you're dating Cordelia just to get back at me." She really didn't think she meant that but he had pissed her off really fast and she was going to push right back.
"To get back at you?" Angel spoke, his voice raising. "If anyone has played that game it's you." Angel pointed out. He saw the slayer roll her eyes and as the word "please" left her lips he spoke again. "Where should we start? With Spike? There's a good one. Or how about the Immortal?"
"Oh my God are you still hung up on that?" Buffy replied as she glared at him. "First, despite what you might think none of that had anything to do with you. And second, that was years ago. I could care less about either of them now."
"I'm sorry I didn't drop in on your life unexpectedly so I could figure out who you were dating." Angel replied harshly. The logical side of him was screaming to stop arguing with her. But this was the way most of their conversations had gone since he left Sunnydale and it didn't look like that was changing anytime soon.
"I can't help that our paths collided. You are going after the same demon as me, that's as far as this goes." She quickly pointed out. She thought for a moment before continuing. "I could care less who you're dating. I'm perfectly happy with Riley." She was not going to discuss whether or not that last statement was entirely true. She just wanted to throw it in Angel's face.
Angel ignored the fact that the entire conversation started because she did care who he was dating. "Riley? You mean military boy?"
"That's the one." Buffy said with pride as she stood up a little straighter and crossed her arms over her chest.
Angel laughed. "He's not worthy of you." He quickly pointed out. "It was too easy for me to kick the crap out of him." He added. "You can just add this fling with Riley to your long list of poor decisions." Angel wanted to kick himself. He didn't know what he was spouting at this point. He hated arguing with her. For a brief second he wondered if he still had feelings for her then he shook that thought off.
"Poor decisions?" Buffy repeated. She had quickly decided she did not want to discuss Riley anymore. He had given her the perfect opportunity to point out something else that bothered her. "Look around." She said as she gestured to the office. "We're standing in the mother of all poor decisions."
"We are doing a lot of good here." Angel said with a growl. He absolutely hated the fact that she looked down on them all because of where they worked. The ends justified the means.
Buffy snorted. "Good?" She questioned as she locked eyes with him. "I'm sure you're doing great work, being the head of a branch of a company that's pure evil."
"The LA branch may have Wolfram and Hart on the door, but we've changed this place." Angel said as he got into her face. "Hasn't any of this proven anything to you?" He questioned as he lowered his voice. "We still fight the good fight. We just have an unconventional way of doing it."
Buffy inched as close as she could to him without touching him. She had a lot to say, she just did not know what part she wanted to say first. Before she could chose, the door opened and a blonde vampire poked her head in. "Hey boss, Fred wants to see you downstairs. She said she's got answers."
Angel glanced back at Harmony. "We'll be right there." He assured her, watching as she nodded and stepped out. He looked back toward Buffy, who had taken a step back. He was glad. He honestly was not sure if they were going to end up fighting or end up with their tongues down each other's throats. He would have enjoyed the latter and that made him feel guilty as hell.
"We should go see what's up." Buffy spoke quickly. Angel would not have been the only one to enjoy the kiss. The thought had crossed her mind when they were that close. She had fantasized about it more than once. It wasn't as if she and Riley were serious. However, it simply could not happen.
"This way." Angel said, reaching out toward her to guide her out the door. Buffy followed him out through the hallways and down the stairs, until they reached a set of metal doors that were the entrance to the lab.
Walking in they found everyone else there waiting for them. Angel quickly looked the small gathering over before he spoke. "What have you got?"
"The energy was easy to trace. It left a very unique signature that popped up almost immediately in our database." Fred spoke quickly as she looked at the others.
"What's it coming from?" Kim asked. Now was going to be the time for her to step up and work on a plan. She was hoping she could be of some assistance here.
"Ockman's Eye." Fred said. She watched as Wesley's eyes lit up in recognition of the name but he apparently did not know enough to chime in. Nobody else knew what she was talking about. "Ockman was a very powerful demon in the universe. His enemies could not defeat him so they drew his powers away from him and contained them in the eye so he could not use his powers to kill them. The Eye was lost before it could get destroyed. Nobody has actually seen Ockman's Eye in centuries to even say it exists, but if someone were to have it they would be able to draw from all the powers Ockman once held."
Wesley smiled at Fred. He was quite impressed with her researching abilities. "I vaguely remember hearing the story." He commented. It was something that he had seen in passing once or twice before.
"So if we take the Eye does that mean he's out of luck?" Buffy questioned as she looked toward Fred.
"I don't know if it's going to be easy to separate it from him. I think he's locked it in a sub dimension." Fred quickly explained. "And even if you do get it away from him, I think you're going to have to destroy it to keep him from using it."
"I might be able to get to it and destroy it." Kim chimed in as the wheels in her head were turning. By all accounts, she was still a novice, but she was certain she had one up on everybody in the room. Of course, she needed to figure out exactly what she was getting into first. If Ockman was evil, she had a good idea who might have inside information on destroying the eye. "I need to speak to Mystic Mother." She said aloud.
"Hurry. We need to be ready to go quickly." Angel said as he glanced at her. They did not have time to waste chasing theories but Kim seemed to be certain on something. Night would be here soon though and they needed to be prepared.
Kim gave him a slight nod before teleporting herself out. As she did, Gunn scooted back a few steps. "How the hell did she just do that?" He asked. He had seen ranger's teleport. That was not a ranger teleport. That came from inside of her.
Carri simply shrugged in response. "Long story." Now was not the time to get into that.
"You think she'll make it back in time?" Spike asked as he glanced toward the ranger. They could not afford to wait on her if she did not. They would have to go on and kill demons without her.
"I'd be surprised if she wasn't back in a few minutes." Carri replied. Kim was getting good at bending time and Carri was quite aware that she was doing it often.
"We'll talk more about the Eye when she returns." Angel said as he looked over his troops. "Those of us who are fighting need to go ahead and get ready, gather weapons. The rest of you, see if you can find anything else on the Eye that might help."
The room quickly split upon Angel's command. Angel led Spike, Gunn, Wesley, Carri and Buffy out of the room and toward their weapons storage area. Once he was gone, Cordelia and Lorne went to help Fred find anything else they could about Ockman's Eye.
"Kimberly." Mystic Mother greeted the ranger as she entered her world. "I didn't know we had an appointment."
"We don't." Kim spoke quickly. Mystic Mother had been pretty adamant as of late about her making appointments to come and work on her magic. It didn't bother Kim, she could bend time to come by whenever.
Mystic Mother nodded as she thought. "Then I have to ask why you are here?" She had more to worry about in life than just teaching the Muirantian magic. She had a family to care for, including her daughter, who was turning out to be quite the handful and gave her quite a headache.
"I was coming to ask you what you knew about Ockman's Eye." Kim said as she glanced over at the woman. She knew her dropping by was not going to be ideal but she also knew Mystic Mother would help. "Have you ever heard of it?"
Mystic Mother let out a cackle in response that reminded Kim that the woman in front of her was once Rita. Once she finished, she turned toward the red ranger. "Heard of it?" she repeated with a grin. "Daddy was friends with Ockman. He was very powerful. At the time I thought what happened to him was a tragedy, but now…" she paused and shook her head. "If someone could properly use his powers it could be a catastrophe."
"What if someone was using them? To summon demons, throw people around; give a good attempt at killing us." Kim quickly explained. She expected a seriously concerned reaction from Rita, but what she got was another cackle.
"I'd say you had someone on your hands that had no idea of the powers they had access to. I could do that sort of thing if I wanted to without thinking about it. I certainly have before." Mystic Mother quickly explained to her. Whomever Kimberly was dealing with was either a novice, or someone who had not done their research. "Someone who you, with your demonic powers and the magic I've taught you, could easily defeat."
"I need to separate the Eye and destroy it. But he's protecting it; it's in a sub dimension somewhere." Kim continued to fill her in. Mystic Mother seemed amused but she needed to get her to focus so she answers her questions.
"I doubt he'll give it up easily." Mystic Mother quickly replied. If he was hiding it in a sub dimension, it meant he was protecting it.
"What if I teleport myself to it and grab it. Then I can pop out and figure out how to destroy it." Kim said, thinking out loud and hoping for some input.
"It won't work." Mystic Mother said quite confidently and Kim glared at her. "It wouldn't be hard for him to move it through pockets in sub dimensions. You could be chasing it for centuries and I doubt you want to waste that kind of time."
Kim crossed her arms over her chest. "Is there a better idea then?" Mystic Mother liked to tell her she was wrong. Usually she had to pry the right answer out of her.
"Use that little toy Dulcea gave you." Mystic Mother replied. "With your powers you should be able to get a feel for Ockman's Eye. As long as he's drawing power from it, you should be able to find it, lock onto it, and pull it back."
"You mean use my staff?" Kim questioned. She hated how Mystic Mother wrote off anything Dulcea helped her with as petty. Dulcea had done a lot for her. She may not have the demonic or sorcery knowledge that Mystic Mother had, but that did not make what she contributed less important. Kim was still Kaycea, a name she never used on Earth but one that others in the galaxy knew meant she was a master warrior on Phaedos. That contributed to who she was as a Muirantian as well.
Kim waited for Mystic Mother to nod her head and then continued. "So when he uses it I'll grab it. Then destroy it."
"The destruction is the easy part." Mystic Mother said with a smile. "It was only meant to contain Ockman's powers. Flood it with power and it will destroy itself."
"What happens to his powers?" Kim questioned. She had to make sure she wasn't unleashing an ancient powerful force on the world.
"A being's powers aren't made to exist outside of the being. It is certainly possible to steal powers or trap powers as you have seen firsthand. If you allow someone's magic, someone's power to go out in the open, as long as you're not pushing it into another person or object it will simply dissolve into the magical fiber of the universe." Mystic Mother offered her the simplest explanation she could. There was more detail to give in regards to this topic, but seeing as how this was a surprise visit now was not the time to continue.
"So I just blow the thing up and it's gone." Kim said, watching as Mystic Mother shook her head. "Thank you. I need to get back to the others." Of course, Kim could bend time and it did not matter, but it was obvious Mystic Mother had other things she wanted to do. Seconds later Kim was engulfed by red light and disappeared from the Mystic Realm.
Twenty minutes after Kim's departure to the Mystic Realm she was standing in front of the group that was about to burst into the building Cordelia had seen in her vision. "Is everyone clear?" Angel asked glancing at the small crew, which included two humans, two vampires, a slayer, and two morphed rangers. They all nodded as he continued. "Kim goes for the eye. The rest of us are killing demons."
"Got it." Buffy replied for the group as she kicked the door in. "Let's do this." Buffy took the lead as they headed into the old warehouse, where standing in the center was the man they were looking for and the small army Cordelia had foreseen.
"You can't defeat me." Marcus said with a laugh. The girls were back and they had brought friends. However, it didn't matter, there was no way they would defeat all of his demons.
Spike simply sighed as he tossed down the cigarette he had been working on. "Famous last words." He said as he swung his sword and ran to the first demon that crossed his path.
The others were not far behind them. Kim stayed back to make sure her friends got off to a good start. Even Wes and Gunn, who had no powers to speak of, seemed to be doing all right and she had to try not to focus on them so she could worry about the task at hand. She reached her hand up and instead of calling for her Fire Saber; she called for her Phaedosian staff.
She marched right up to the man in the middle and he glanced her over. "Did they send the little ranger to scare me?" Marcus questioned, sounding somewhat amused. "You should know I've dealt with your kind before." He said smoothly. Not that he had ever beaten or even really fought against the rangers but he had been with his brother when he had. He supposed that counted.
"I doubt it." Kim replied smugly. What where the chances that he would have encountered a Muirantian who was also a master warrior on Phaedos, and happened to have a red morpher as well? She hit him hard with her staff and sent him flying backwards. She knew the answer to her question. Slim to none.
Marcus stood up and reached for his powers, calling for a fire-based response as he hurled an energy ball coated in flames. Kim smirked. He obviously had not done his ranger research. If he had, he would have known that the red Planetary ranger's element to manipulate is fire. She caught the fireball, which stopped the energy ball that had been sealed inside and was able to throw it back at him.
He rolled out of the way and it hit the wall, shaking the building. The others paused but did not have time to process it as they continued fighting. She was ok with the fact that she missed. He had used Ockman's Eye, she felt it for a second. Now she needed him to use it again so she could latch onto it.
She did not have to wait long as he stood up and shot energy bolts toward her as she ran toward him. She levitated into the air, holding herself there for a moment while she felt the Eye. Before he had a chance to move to go after her, she held her staff out and used it to open a portal into the sub dimension, locking onto Ockman's Eye.
The moment she did, she knew he was aware of it. She felt him go for it but she was more powerful. Maneuvering her staff, she reined its energy back in, pulling Ockman's Eye through the portal and toward her. Within seconds, he was leaping toward her, grabbing her feet and throwing her concentration off.
Kim fell to the floor and he reached out and put a hand to the Eye. He was going to draw power from it while she held it. She could not let that happen. While he worked to use it, she worked to flood it. Mystic Mother had been right; it was not long before the Eye was obviously growing unstable.
The man she was fighting against was desperately trying to use the power of Ockman's Eye to keep her from destroying it. However, she was more powerful than he was, and he lost the battle. Her power shot through the Eye and it exploded just as he was using the Eye to form another energy ball. As Ockman's Eye exploded, the energy ball in his hand exploded with a force unlike anything Kim had ever seen before, sending him flying off into the distance.
As the power left in the Eye all but vanished, Kim dropped what was left of it to the ground and ran to stand over their enemy. She was prepared to let him leave with his tail between his legs, but it was quite obvious that he didn't have that option. The explosion had been the end of him. Two of his limbs had detatched. His skin was turning an orange color and sinking into his body. From the looks of things, she would not have been surprised if the skin actually melted off.
Shaking her head, Kim turned back to the rest of the fight. Most of the demons were dead or about to be that way. She sent her staff away before calling for her Fire Saber and running to join the battle. When she powered up the weapon she found it to be quite easy to slice and dice demons. It was not long before the last demons head went rolling and the warehouse was clear.
"So that's it?" Spike asked as he looked around the room. He was somewhat disappointed. Sure, he had gotten to kill three demons, but he could have kept going.
"That's it." Buffy replied, somewhat grateful. She was through working with Angel. She had managed to make herself more confused than usual and she wanted nothing more than to go home or at least to her dad's house, where he would drop subtle hints about being disappointed in his daughters' lack of availability over the last few years. As much as she hated that, it was better than spending time with Angel.
"I'll get some people over here to clean this mess up." Angel said as he gestured around them. It was nice being the head of a company sometimes. He got to worry about other things besides disposing of demon bodies. "We can head back to Wolfram and Hart and sort this all out."
"I think we're good." Carri said, powering down and lifting up her borrowed axe, leaning the handle against her shoulder. It had been a fun toy to use to take on the demons. She would contemplate keeping it for potential future use if she was not worried about the possible hex Wolfram and Hart could put on her for not returning their property. "The fight's over and Kim and I are really late for a dinner date."
"What about Ockman's Eye?" Wesley asked. He could care less about their dinner date. They needed to know what happened here, and if they were going to have to be up against this sort of thing again.
"Destroyed." Kim said simply as she looked over at the being who was once using it. She had been right; he was definitely nothing more than a pile of bones and slop now. "Along with our Drakonian friend."
"Looks like there is nothing left for us to do here." Buffy spoke quickly. She could not get out of there any faster. She certainly did not want to go back to Wolfram and Hart. She didn't care how good they were working with them on this mission. She still was not inclined to trust them. But then there was Angel. Buffy couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips. When she realized she had sighed aloud, she knew that was her key to leave. "I guess we'll be in touch."
"Yeah, we'll be in touch." Angel said as he smiled toward Buffy. He was somewhat glad she was leaving. He shouldn't be thinking about her, not like that. He didn't know why she pulled every emotion in the book out of him. "This seems to be over but if something else happens we'll let you know."
"Of course." Kim said with a nod. After no one else jumped up to say anything, Kim was the first to start giving quick goodbyes. Carri and Buffy followed her lead and then the trio headed off, Carri dropping Buffy off before she and Kim started back to Angel Grove.
It wasn't long before Kim and Carri were pulling into the parking lot at Bulkmeier's. As the engine cut off Kim glanced over toward Carri. "So we're keeping our mouths shut?" Kim asked. They had discussed in detail whether or not to share their complete day with their significant others. In the end both had decided what they didn't know would not kill them. It wasn't the first time they had come to this conclusion.
"Absolutely." Carri agreed. Rocky and Tommy would both worry about it and both would be angry that they had not brought them in on the situation. They would have most likely considered the idea if the situation were dire. However, as it stood they had more than enough help and contacting the other rangers had never crossed their minds. They were both satisfied with adding this to their list of adventures and forgetting about it.
Kim gave her a slight nod as she got out of the car and Carri followed. Both women headed into the entrance of the restaurant, where they were immediately greeted by Skull and pointed in the direction of the guy's table. Kim couldn't help but smile. Skull was practically glowing. He had been ever since he started seeing Rhianna. And although she was supposedly spending all of her time in the Mystic Realm, Kim knew good and well that Rhianna snuck out plenty to see him.
She got pulled out of her thoughts about Skull and Rhianna once they reached the boys table. After appropriate for public greetings, she and Carri took a seat. Tommy looked over at his girlfriend and smiled. "Did you two shop yourselves out?" he questioned. He never thought they would be out shopping that long today. They left early in the morning to head out to Los Angeles for some time at the spa and a shopping trip. However, after all they've gone through in their lives it was always good to be able to spend some time doing something normal.
"I think we pretty much wiped out the mall." Kim replied. Which wasn't a lie at all. They did shop themselves out and they did buy a lot. Although they shopped only a fraction of the time that Tommy and Rocky assumed they did. Fortunately, the boys would never notice.
"Babe," Rocky started as he put his arm around his fiancé, "at this rate you're going to have to build an extension on the house to hold your wardrobe." He had been teasing her about her massive amounts of clothes the other day.
"Please." Carri said as she rolled her eyes. "I've got it all worked out." She added, making eye contact with Kim before winking at her friend.
Kim groaned and glanced over at Tommy. "I think I'm the one who's going to need a bigger closet." She said as Carri laughed out loud.
Tommy glanced from one of the girls to the other. "Am I missing something here?" he questioned, hoping Carri's plan was not to store her stuff in Kim's closet. The closet in their apartment was tiny. And even when they got a house he was not inclined to use the extra space as someone else's storage.
"Nope." Carri replied, giving Tommy a sly grin. "Nothing to miss." She added before leaning into Rocky. Although she really doubted she had that much to get rid of, and she also doubted that Kim would keep it all.
Kim giggled just as their waiter arrived to take their drink orders. Once he left Rocky spoke up. "I know you're back a bit later than expected, but are you girls still up for a movie tonight?" he asked as Carri sat up and leaned back into her own chair.
"I'm game." Carri replied. She didn't have to get up the next morning, she didn't mind going out.
Tommy nodded, he and Rocky had already discussed going out after. He glanced over at Kim to make sure she was in agreement. "Me too." She chimed in. "What did we decide on?"
"Cloverfield." Rocky replied. It looked like a good suspense movie, and he and Tommy both decided that was their best choice in a pool that included a lot of chic romance movies. The movie was somewhat reminiscent of their ranger days, with the giant monster attacking the city.
Carri made eye contact with Kim and they both laughed. They had been fighting monsters for the last few hours, and now they were going to relax by watching a movie about one. Before the boys could inquire about their reaction, the waiter returned with their drinks and took their food orders.
"So do you think the movie is funny?" Tommy questioned as he looked over at Kim.
Kim shook her head. "I think the movie is a good choice." She said as Carri caught her eyes and she grinned. "We're going to have a fun night."
They were excited about having a night out. They were through dealing with evil aliens and demons. They were not going to have to worry about the next fight. At least that was the case for now. As happy as the rangers had been leading normal lives the last few months, they all knew there was always a chance that would change. There were still bad guys in the universe, still ones who were after them specifically, and there was always a chance that one day they'd get called back into action.