Standing on the Edge of Tomorrow III: Inferno
Disclaimer: Everything in the Buffy universe belongs to Joss Whedon. I'm just taking the characters for a joy ride.
Note: You might want to check out the first two installments of this story. It might clarify some things.
Second Note: I was watching the first episode of Season Seven today and I noticed something very interesting in the scene where the First Evil is in the high school basement talking to Spike. When it changes into Drusilla, it actually touches Spike. What I'm wondering, is why can it touch Spike, but it can't touch anyone else? Is it because Spike is dead? But if so, shouldn't Buffy have been able to touch it, as she died, and it should go both ways. Just a thought.
Prologue: Open the Gateway:
The remnants of Angel's team of fighters stood in the rain soaked alley, watching as an impossibly large army of demons crept closer and closer. The souled vampire glanced around at his companions, notably regretting two things. Firstly, he regretted asking Spike to assist him in constructing his plan to destroy Wolfram and Hart. Though he needed Spike's muscle, asking him to come to Los Angeles, tearing him away from Dawn, and shoving him into certain doom had been more selfish than he cared to admit. Secondly, he regretted failing to ask the rest of the Sunnydale crew to help him. He knew that Buffy and Faith disagreed with his decision to join Wolfram and Hart. The Watchers' Council hadn't looked kindly on it either. Foolishly, he believed that as the legendary vampire with a soul and the champion of the people, he didn't need the help of the Slayers.
He was starting to see the error of his ways. Unfortunately, his hubris cost Wesley his life. Now, he, Spike, Gunn, and Illyria stood gathered in a small group, awaiting what would most certainly be their deaths. "We got anything in terms of a plan?" Spike asked warily, looking over to Angel for guidance.
"We fight," Angel replied as confidently as he could. But even his determination was starting to wane.
"Bit more specific?" Spike asked hopefully. Angel shot him a sour look and glanced back at the demon army in front of them.
"Well, personally, I kinda want to slay the dragon," Angel grinned as a dragon soared through the sky toward them. "Let's go to work." The group issued a collective battle cry and raised their weapons before they ran forward into the fray. Instantly, Angel realized that they were going to lose. However, the hopelessness that laid heavily upon his heart quickly gave way to joy when he saw that directly behind the demon army stood a group of very familiar faces.
"Hold your ground!" He shouted over the sounds of battle around him. "We've got company." He watched as Buffy, Faith, and a group of the Slayers broke through the line of demons.
"Thought you could use some help," Faith offered as she shoved her ax through one of the demons in front of Angel.
"How'd you even know what we were doing?" Angel asked, shaking a demon off of his back and decapitating it with a swift motion of his sword.
"Kara had a vision," Faith explained, watching her friends out of the corner of her eye to ensure that they were still standing. "Oh, and Spike called a couple hours ago and told us that you had lost your mind."
"Spike!" Angel growled over at the bleach blonde vampire.
"What?" Spike bellowed back.
"What part of secret plan did you not understand?" Angel yelled, angrily slashing at the dragon as it swooped overhead.
"Apparently all of it," Spike shouted back with a chuckle.
"He's not lookin' too good," Faith commented suddenly, motioning over to Gunn, who was struggling against two larger and stronger demons.
"He's been wounded," Angel responded concernedly. "He needs to get to a hospital." Faith nodded and motioned for two nearby Slayers.
"Get him outta here," she instructed, pointing to Gunn. "There's a hospital just down the street. Hurry!" The Slayers nodded, dispatched the two demons that he had been fighting, grabbed Gunn, and began to fight their way back through the alley toward the street with the injured man propped between them.
The battle raged on until the alley was covered in blood. The dragon fell out of the sky and Angel stood over it victorious. Finally, those demons that hadn't been killed fled in fear. Angel looked around at the carcasses lying on the street and at the faces of his friends and smiled. "I guess this means we won, huh?"
Buffy laughed and nodded as she walked over to Faith and linked her arm with the younger Slayer's to help her hobble along on a wounded leg. "Yeah, but the next time you want to dive headlong into a battle you cannot under any possible circumstance win, just give us a call."
"Will do," Angel promised seriously. The group slowly began the march to the hospital, most everyone nursing wounds. Angel glanced around the alley, tossed his sword down onto the blood soaked street, and followed after them. The rain had stopped halfway through the battle and the sky was starting to clear. The moon shone brightly above him and the stars twinkled, millions of miles away. Angel thought back to all of the battles that he fought and all of the friends he lost, and he knew that all of those things had brought him to this moment. He fought his great battle, the one that would define the rest of his life, and now he just wanted to rest. But more than that, he wanted to leave Los Angeles and find some place quiet in which to settle down for a while. He knew it wouldn't be forever; eventually, the fight would call him back, maybe to L.A., maybe somewhere else.
"So, what's next?" Buffy asked as Angel caught up with them.
"I was thinking of moving back to Sunnydale for a little while," Angel answered casually. "The big city scene is starting to wear thin."
"What about the others?" Faith asked, in reference to Illyria and Gunn.
"I don't know. I guess we'll find out soon enough," Angel said thoughtfully. He was certain that Illyria would leave as soon as she healed enough to travel. Gunn's fate was uncertain. He was wounded badly. Angel just hoped he survived the night.
They arrived at the hospital a few minutes later, much to the shock of the hospital staff, which was quickly overwhelmed with the injured. Angel paced impatiently as the doctors worked on Gunn. An hour before dawn, a surgeon entered the waiting room. "Are you here for Charles Gunn?" He asked. Angel turned to face him and nodded.
"Yes, we are," Angel replied.
"Are you family?" The surgeon questioned.
"Yes," Angel answered.
The man eyed him doubtfully for a moment, but continued. "Charles came into the operating room suffering from massive blood loss. The injuries he sustained were too much for his body. We did everything that we could, but unfortunately, we weren't able to save him," he explained apologetically. "I'm very sorry for your loss."
Angel sighed and looked down at the ground. Tears pricked at his eyes, but he restrained them. "Thank you," he whispered. The surgeon nodded and walked away.
"I'm sorry, man," Faith said, walking over to the souled vampire and laying her hand on his shoulder.
Angel smiled over at her and nodded. "Thanks," he spoke quietly. "Gunn was a fighter. He died nobly. That's what he would have wanted."
"You did what you had to do," Faith whispered so that only the vampire could hear.
"I'm not so sure about that," Angel murmured.
"People die in this business, Angel," Faith reasoned. "When they chose this life, they know that. You can't blame yourself. Yeah, Gunn and the others looked to you to lead them. But they wouldn't have followed you somewhere they didn't want to go."
"When did you get so insightful?" Angel chuckled.
Faith shrugged. "I guess it comes with being a high school graduate," she grinned.
"You passed your GED, huh?" Angel asked.
"That I did," Faith replied proudly.
"Have you told Buffy yet?" He questioned.
"Nah," Faith said dismissively. "I want to surprise her. She'll be psyched. She didn't think that I took her whole 'gotta plan for the future' speech to heart."
"She'll be proud of you, Faith," Angel said sincerely. "I know that I am."
"Thanks, Fang," Faith clapped him on the shoulder.
"What're you guys talking about over here all quiet and conspiratorial like?" Buffy asked curiously, hopping out of her chair and walking over to the duo.
"Nothing in particular," Angel lied.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Right," she stated.
"I was just telling Angel that we should get him out of here before the sun rises," Faith offered. "You know, so he doesn't turn into a crispy critter."
"Good point," Angel frowned. "I lost track of time. Spike," he called to the other vampire, "we should go."
"Some of the girls are still in the operating room," Buffy said. "But they should be released tonight. We'll leave for Sunnydale when the sun goes down. Faith," she instructed, "take Angel and Spike back to Angel's place and get them packed. Meet us back here at dusk."
"Yes, ma'am," Faith replied with a mock salute. When Angel and Spike started to walk away, Faith leaned down and gently grazed her lips against her wife's. "We'll be back soon," she promised when she pulled away. Buffy smiled and nodded as Faith hobbled down the hallway after the vampires. "Come on, Soulboy," she teased, "let's go to your place."
…………………………………..
Kara squeezed her eyes shut, gritting her teeth against the pain that ripped through her mind. She felt as though she was being torn in a thousand directions at once and the anguish that burned through her blood brought her to her knees. Clutching her head, she leaned back against the wall and waited. Slowly, images began to form in front of her closed eyelids. She saw the flash of a brown robe. A fire was burning somewhere; she could smell the smoke. A dark, hazy room was spread before her. She could hear chanting. The words assumed form in her mind with clarity. "We beseech thee, open the gateway. We beseech thee!"
The images abruptly faded, leaving a black void in front of her eyes. Kara sighed and the pain began to recede. "Again," she muttered angrily, "thank you Cordelia. I just couldn't live without mind numbing headaches and completely oblique visions." Opening her eyes, she blinked against the harsh bathroom light. She was sitting on the floor by one of the stalls. The first tingles of a migraine had started forming in her brain when she was trying to instruct a classroom full of inexperienced Slayers how to defend themselves against a vampire attack. Excusing herself, she had rushed to the bathroom and collapsed by one of the stalls just as the vision hit her.
Pulling herself to her feet, she grabbed onto the edge of the sink and surveyed herself in the mirror. Her dark hair was pulled back, but loose strands hung around her face. Her blue eyes shone brightly out at her, but smoky circles lingered underneath of them. She hadn't been sleeping very well since the visions started. When she closed her eyes, images of pain and suffering drifted through her mind. For the first couple of weeks, she simply laid in bed with Kennedy, watching her lover sleep, and contemplating the horrible things that she saw behind her eyes. But she had taken to pacing restlessly around the house. She knew that Kennedy was worried about her. She also knew that Buffy and Faith were too. Her parents shared the bedroom down the hall. The situation had been strange at first, but Kara became accustomed to it and preferred having them around, especially after Willow's wall soundproofing spell.
Turning on the sink, she cupped her hands and let the water gather between them. After several moments, she lifted her hands to her face and splashed the water across her skin. The coolness was refreshing and the mist hovering in her mind dissipated. "Another vision?" A voice asked to her left. Kara jumped, stifling a startled cry. Turning, she saw Kennedy standing by the doorway with a smirk on her face. "Scare you?"
"How the hell did you sneak up on me?" Kara asked in surprise.
"Well, I'm a Slayer now too, remember?" Kennedy teased. "Being sneaky comes with the territory."
Kara rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Yes, I had another vision," she said, answering her girlfriend's first question.
"What was it about?" The younger girl asked concernedly.
"I'm not sure yet," Kara replied, her brow furrowing as she thought of the disjointed images that had past before her eyes. "But I'm sure they'll send me some clarification soon," she added sarcastically. Kennedy smiled sympathetically and closed the distance between them, pressing their bodies together. Kara sucked in a breath as the cold marble of the sink touched the band of skin exposed between the hem of her shirt and her jeans and closed her eyes as her girlfriend's knee pushed up against her center. "You know someone could walk in at any moment," she said, the rough desire laden in her voice betraying her reasoning.
"I know," Kennedy grinned wolfishly as she ducked her head and flicked her tongue out, running the metal stud of her tongue ring across the sensitive skin covering Kara's pulse point. The older girl groaned in approval, letting her head drop against the mirror behind her as she instinctively began to grind against Kennedy's knee. "Like that, baby?" The former Potential asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Why don't we take this back to my office?" Kara suggested.
Before Kennedy could reply, the bathroom door squeaked open and a teenage girl poked her head in. "Miss Summers?" She asked tentatively.
Kara sighed and glanced over at the student. "Yeah, Michelle?"
"Are you coming back to class? We were starting to get worried," Michelle replied, a deep blush creeping up her neck and staining her cheeks when she realized what her teacher had been doing in the bathroom.
"Well?" Kennedy asked pointedly, raising an eyebrow.
Kara hesitated, knowing that she would get in trouble with Giles for ending her class early, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything for the rest of the day if she didn't do something about the low tickle spreading throughout her body. "I think we've learned enough for today," she concluded. "Tell the others that class is dismissed. Work on the routine we developed for next week," she instructed. Touching her forehead with the back of her head, she added, "I'm just feeling a little under the weather."
"I hope you feel better," Michelle said, suppressing a smile as she backed out of the bathroom.
"Giles is going to kill me when he hears about this," Kara chuckled. With Jack Borland's death, Giles had taken over control of the Watchers' Council. Some of his first actions were to appoint Buffy, Faith, Kara, Spike, and Kennedy as instructors at the training school built next to the new headquarters building in Sunnydale.
"Well, you did have that vision and all," Kennedy reasoned. "It's not like you ditched class for the sole purpose of having sex with me."
"Right," Kara murmured as Kennedy grabbed her hand and led her out of the bathroom. The images that she had seen in her vision flashed before her eyes again, leaving an unsettled feeling in her stomach. Something bad was coming; she could feel it in her very bones – something that would change everything.