True Destiny (PART 2)

by Gizmo

Conclusion to True Destiny

True Destiny: Part Two

By

John MacAmhlaidh

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all the characters therein are the property of Warner Brothers, Joss Whedon and Gekko Productions. I am only borrowing them for use in this fanfic and in no way benefit financially from this story.
The characters from Final Destination are the property of Jeffrey Reddick and I am only borrowing them for the duration of this story.

Thanks: To Beckybob, Steve Pantovich, Michael T and everyone who have reviewed my stories.

Some words of warning: This is a sort of a crossover with the film Final Destination, one of the best films I've seen this year.

******

The door to the Computer Skills Classroom crashed open as a silently crying formed ran into the room. Teary eyed and white faced, Willow threw down her books, scattering the pencils and chalk that covered the table's surface. She flung herself into her old teacher's chair and rubbed the arms, remembering Jenny Calendar and all the good that she had done for a timid little girl.
* I wish you were here, Jenny. *
She shook her head and wiped away the tears that she had spilt, knowing that the few drops that had fallen from her eyes wouldn't be the last that she would cry for Miss Calendar. She had been one of the focal points of Willow's life, one of the few teachers that she fully respected and could relate to. They had shared likes and dislikes and then friendship.
The red head wiped her face again to make sure that there were no more tears and took out the piece of paper that Xander had given her. She already knew the words that were printed there but she needed to make sure that she had read them correctly.
'A spell for binding a demon specifically a vampire. I think that it's in the copy of the 'Essences of Spirits and Shades' that Giles keeps in his private stock of books. Be careful, Love Xander.'
It was the last two words that persuaded her to do what he wanted. For so long she had waited for him to say those words out loud but this note would do for a start. She would have to get ready.
* First, I'll tidy up this mess. *
She walked around the desk, picking up the bits and pieces of crap that she'd scattered over the floor. Pushing aside a few chairs, she picked up pencils that had flown everywhere because of her. Taking a quick count of everything she came up short and cursed. It was Snyder's idea to inventory every piece of chalk, every pencil and pen that the teachers were allocated to cut down on losses. That action alone convinced her that the guy was a demon but she still couldn't prove it. Searching around she tried to remember where the last one had gone. From where the others had gone it had to be the one that she had left on the side of the table. Getting onto her hand s and knees she took a look around Miss Calendar's old filing cabinet. The top of the thing was bare so that was no help and the floor beyond was clear up to the wall so that left...
The floppy disk was the first thing she saw. The dust build-up had turned the bright yellow casing a dirty orange and probably damaged the precious bit of plastic inside. Willow knew instantly that it wasn't hers and that meant it could only be Jenny's. The thought that it could be anyone else's made her choke back a teary cough.
Pushing aside the cabinet she reached in and took out the disc, cradling it in her hands as if it were precious. For a couple of seconds she thought about giving it to Giles and laughed again, this time in joy. The man would look at it and use it as a coaster for his morning cup of tea. She picked up the lost pencil of Snyder and absently pushed the cabinet back into place. Curiosity got the better of her and she powered up her PC, pushing in the disc after the boot up sequence had completed.
When she saw the ancient writing move across the screen she frowned and then gasped as she saw the translation move up beside it. It took her all of half of a second to realise what it was and the tears started to flow again. She collapsed back into the chair and let the tears flow freely.

******

Xander sat back for a second and fully realised the implications of what he had done.
He'd brought a vampire back from the dead.
And it wasn't just any vampire. He'd read Angel's bio just like everyone else in the Scooby Gang and it hadn't been good. The Scourge of Europe for one hundred and forty years had killed more people than the Black Death. That might be a bit of an exaggeration but the numbers didn't matter. Angelus had been a totally twisted bastard that liked to play with his food. He'd reduced Buffy to an emotional wreck with a few pictures and glances in the night.
* You can dwell on this another time. For the moment, deal with the consequences. *
Getting up he held the cross in front of him again and checked the vampire for signs of unlife. Tugging on Angel's leg got no response but that meant jack shit. Angelus always liked to play games. Reaching into his pocket, Xander pulled free a little bottle and uncapped it with his thumb. Shaking a few drops onto the vampire's skin got no more reaction than a groan and Angel rolling over onto his back. Xander stepped back.
"Put it away!"
Picking up a rag he threw it over the vampire and saw that he had a problem. He had the chains and stuff to tie Angelus up and that hollow to stuff him into but keeping him there was another thing. The human blood might help with that but there was still a doubt in his mind.
* Enough. Just tie him up good and that's all you can do for the moment. *
Dragging the vampire out of the aquarium by his hair, Xander saw another problem with his plan. He was going to be sticking Angelus out in a place where the sun might touch his body and that was not good. Vampires don't tan they flambé. If Willow was able to deliver on her front the last thing that Buffy would want to see is her beau saying 'Hi' and then 'whoompf'. Looking around got him nothing until he realised what he was wearing.
The clean overalls had been the best thing to have next to the mask. Every second guy in Sunnydale had a set of these as well as the entire sewerage detail of the Public Works. They gave him an extra degree of anonymity for the robbery. Peeling them off, he pulled them over the vampire and stopped when he was about to put the vampire's arms through the sleeves. A better idea occurred and he tied the sleeves around Angelus' neck after doing up the zipper.
The next thing was the sixty feet of chain and Xander used every foot of it. The last thing he wanted to see was this prick coming up to him a few hours later looking for a snack.
* Time for the last touch. *
He got the tape and cut a one-foot long piece of it, wrapping it around Dead Boy's mouth. Poking a hole in the tape, right over the mouth, he shoved a heavy plastic straw into the hole and taped that into place. Then he started the fun.
Slapping Angelus' face he brought the vampire out of his stupor. Xander saw that the vampire recognised him straight off when his eyes locked straight onto his and stayed there. He smiled back at the irate vampire.
"Hiya there, Dead Boy. Good to see you again. The last time I saw you, you were on the business end of a stake I was holding."
Angelus' eyes glazed for a second and he jerked his head down to look at his chest and the place where the wound would be.
"Sorry there but I killed you. Totally killed you but I decided to bring you back for the Buffster. It's just that I think that, even though I hate your fucking guts, she does need your happy face around. The Angel bit not the psychotic stalker side. Anyway, I'm going to give her the choice of killing you or trying to help you. Willow is going to bind you against doing harm and then I'm going to invite the Slayer around. Be nice until then."
Angelus started to flop about, straining against the chains. He got nowhere and Xander grabbed him by the lock on his chest and hoisted him into a fireman's lift. Kicking the shed door open, he walked slowly out towards the spot that his guest was going to be occupying for his brief stay. Angelus kicked hard once and Xander lost balance crashing into the ground. And looked up and into Angelus' eyes before the vampire cracked his skull into the human's face.
Xander saw it coming and jerked his head back, taking the blow on his chain and felt blood fill his mouth. Rolling away from the vampire he spat out a mouthful and watched the vampire's eyes track the gob of red liquid until it hit the ground.
"You hungry!"
Angelus' eyes flashed again and Xander smiled, showing bloody teeth. He spat again to clear the last of the blood and swore to himself that he wouldn't be so lax again. Breathing slowly he bent over to pick up the vampire again and kicked out when it went for his hand. Angelus had no way to dodge the blow and the heavy boot cut open his eyebrow to the bone.
"It's very simple, you long streak of misery. You are hungry and I am going to feed you. But if you try shit like that again, I'll just plant you out here and wait for the sun to rise. And you can bet that I won't spare a bladder full of piss to save you from burning."
He pulled the vampire by his hair over to the pile of cars and threw him the last few feet into the hollow. Walking back over to the shed he pulled out a smaller pair of locks and a couple of bags of plasma from the refrigerator. When he got back he found the vampire trying to pick the lock using a spike of metal coming from one of the old cars in the pile.
"I can't leave you alone for a second."
He grabbed a handful of dirt and thought about shoving it into the lock and stopped himself. Don would be looking for that padlock when this was all done and if he couldn't find it the first person he'd blame would be Xander. Squeezing into the hollow with Angelus, Xander shoved one of the bags of blood onto the straw. After a second or so of effort the plastic gave against the straw's tip and blood cascaded into the vampires mouth through the tube. Angelus didn't need any prompting and started to feed. Xander threw the other bags on the ground by Angelus' head and backed out of the hollow.
"If you get hungry, stab another bag with the straw."
He hoped that the blood would divert the vampire's attention long enough for him to find a way to plug the lock around the vampire's neck. A few minutes later, the rag that had preserved Angelus' modesty was around the lock with the last of the electrical tape. Xander looked at his watch and whistled when he saw the time.
"Time to go. And don't worry about being disturbed. No one comes here on a Saturday."

******

Willow scrolled down through the spell for the third time and took note of all the ingredients that she'd need. The spell was no use to her now that Angel was dead but it might be handy to have.
"I can get all of these at that magic shop on Venice. They have great stuff for little spells..."
She jumped and remembered what she had come in for in the first place, Xander's spell. Checking her watch she looked outside and saw that it was nearly sundown. She thought for a minute about going back to the library and talk to Giles but she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep quiet about what Xander would ask her to do. It wasn't her fault that she wasn't able to keep secrets, it was just the way she was. Secrets like this spell that Jenny had worked on the night she had died.
The timestamp on the last file proved that. From what she knew the file had probably been open when the vampire had killed her. She powered off the computer and took out Jenny's disc, turning it over and over in her hands. By any rights it was Giles' property and should be given to him. She looked at the computer again and thought for a second. Five minutes later she turned the machine off again, leaving an encrypted copy of the spell behind in a special folder.


******

"Mister Mayor. I have good news. My sources have located the three here in Sunnydale."
Wilkins looked up from a set of speech notes he was working on and smiled as if touched by an angel. He had only a few hours to work on it before a midday opening of the new fire station but if this news was what he wanted to hear.
"Don't keep me hanging on your every heartbeat or I'll have your heart removed?"
The Assistant smiled back.
* Little chance of that, bastard. See you fuck me over after giving you this information *
"The seer used his credit card in the Holiday Inn on Rowan Avenue and has taken two rooms for a week. When questioned the receptionist on duty identified the two boys and the girl as being their new tenants. But as yet we have been unable to..."
He stopped as his phone rang and popped it out of his pocket. Getting the Mayoral approval to answer it he turned his back to Wilkins and started to talk. The chat was very brief. When he faced the Mayor again he didn't look happy anymore.
"On a hunch sir, I had two of our people check out the Sunnydale High School and they report that a car registered to one of the two boys in parked outside the school's front gate. A further look spotted the Watcher's vehicle. I advised them not to investigate any further but I doubt that it's much of a coincidence that they are all there at the one time."
"You're right, of course. We have less than a day until the spell kicks in and I can't afford to waste time during the next few weeks. Offer a reward among our night-time community. Whoever brings me the bodies of those three children before midnight tonight will be very well paid for their time."

******

Giles had an idea about the spell but it wasn't any more than an idea. Fourteen hours of research had only given him clues and not much else.
To command Death in the fashion that seemed to have been done here a blood sacrifice would have to have been performed. In theory he probably had something but without the actual spell he couldn't try to divine the locus or focal point from where the spell had been cast.
But he did have something to go on. The spell could only have been cast on ground that had been sanctified and then defiled. The only problem was that the Spanish, when Sunnydale had originally been born three hundred years ago, had put up churches all over the place. He had a lot of ground to cover and only a day to find the focal point. They'd only need to narrow down the search to within a hundred yards of the locus and he'd be able to the rest.
But first he'd have to get Willow working on the Infernal Machine.
Buffy and the three had been going through spell books and arcane histories for the entire night, trying to find something that would help them in the search for the exact spell that had been used against them. He'd given them a list of words and phrases that would help but the four young people had piled the books that they had tried unsuccessfully on the ground beside them. The piles were getting higher and they were running out of books.
He'd have to call Willow.
All of the Scooby Gang had left their home phone numbers with them for convenience sake. It made it easier for him to get in touch with them if an emergency arose.
"Hello, Mrs. Rosenburg, how are you? It's Mister Giles from the school. I was wondering if Willow would be coming here today to help with the cataloguing. She said she might be able to. Right... okay... with Xander Harris you say... thank you very much Mrs. Rosenburg, goodbye."
* The woman would talk the birds out the trees if you gave her half the chance. *
He'd have to try and get to Willow later, one way or another. Her help would be invaluable. For the moment he'd have to do what he could with what he had. He went over to the children and touched Alex on the shoulder. The boy jumped up and looked about in confusion. Awareness filtered in and he gave the librarian a cold look that faded.
"Any luck?"
A sad shake of Giles' head was his answer.
"You should go back to your hotel and get some rest. I have one spell that we can use as a last resort but it is dangerous."
Alex nodded and went back to stare at the book he'd been using as a pillow. It was one of fifty tomes of spells and occult histories that he'd gone through. The veneer of disbelief that all three of them had used as shields had been burnt off as the night went on. Carter had tried to dismiss some of it but with Buffy's strength and a demonstration of some of Giles' magic toys had shut him up.
"We'll come back later."

******

The two old friends didn't talk much on the way to the scrap yard. He had arrived at her door at eight, grumpy as hell and hauled her off into the overcast day. Willow had mentioned that she needed to stop off at the magic shop to get the ingredients for the spell and that had been the extent of the conversation. Xander's end of things had been handled by the occasional grunt and that had been it. Willow had looked him over and seen the ugly black and blue bruise at the side of his mouth. And it wasn't hard to see that he hadn't slept much.
If she hadn't been impressed by the conversation she was even less impressed by the yard. It was ugly and represented everything her mother campaigned against, bless her GreenPeace loving heart. The only thing that Willow didn't like was the smell. She waited in the car while Xander got out, opened the gates and got back in. He drove the car recklessly over to the larger of the two yard's structures, next to a pile of cars and a massive crane. He braked the car hard and she shot forward, straining the seatbelt's capacities to the fullest.
"Get out and I'll show you why we're here."
He walked into what looked like an office and came out with a torch. He played with it for a second, checking to see if it worked and half blinded himself with the beam. It didn't help his humour any.
"Come on."
He walked over to the fallen pile of cars and bent down, shining the light into the darkness of a pit. He grunted again and Willow barely managed to hear the words.
"Hungry fucker, ain't ya."
Xander got up and handed the torch to Willow.
"Take a look at our guest and do me a favour. Stay in the sunlight."
He wandered over to the shed and disappeared into its depths. She waited for a second and bent down, shining the light into the darkness. The first thing she saw was a pair of large and dirty feet. Moving the beam up along the person's body she played the light over the chains and lock and it hit her.
* This is a vampire. *
Then she saw the face.
Even caked with dirt and with a muzzle across his face, it wasn't hard to mistake her best friend's ex-lover. She'd fallen into those eyes a couple of times herself and seen the emotion in them go from loving to homicidal as Angel's soul had fled. She sat of the ground, oblivious of the dirt and looked into the vampire's eyes.
A hand landed on her shoulder and she jumped in fright. Falling back she looked up at Xander as he threw what looked like bags of blood into Angel's little cubby-hole.
"That's Angel in there."
Xander shook his head.
"Sorry to burst your bubble but that's Angelus. I came to that conclusion when he tried to kill me again. And he is why I need you to bind him. Buffy can decide what to do with him and she can stop blaming me for everything."
She stared at Xander and then at Angelus.
"I need to go back to the Magic Shop again. I forgot some stuff."
Xander saw through the lie in a second.
"What do you need? One of us will have to stay here and keep an eye on Mister Munchies here. If you tell me what you need I can use the car and be back in no time."
* And ask the storekeeper what your stuff is for. *
Willow saw Xander's eyes narrow and knew that she'd been caught out. The old Xander wouldn't have given a second thought to an errand like this but that spell had brought about a lot of changes in his personality. And not all of them were good. If they were going to trust each other they'd have to be truthful to each other.
"I found the spell that the gypsy's used on Angel to give him his soul. I need a few things from the magic shop and I can do the spell today."
To say that Xander was shocked was an understatement. He'd never really examined his motives for bringing Dead Boy back but this spell brought some truths to the surface.
He was jealous.
He'd always admired Buffy, loved her, lusted after her, whatever you wanted to call it. From the first time he'd seen her and the guard rail had taken him down he'd wanted to know her. The Scooby Gang was as close as any family could ever be and that had spoilt it for him. She had come to love him as she would a brother and that had killed any chances of something between them.
And then Dead Boy came along and got everything that he had wanted. It made him feel bad that he'd complained about it all the time to Buffy and Willow. He'd done everything he could without crossing the line but she had still stayed with the vampire. In the end he'd come to realise that Buffy was out of his reach.
And that he was only bringing back Angelus as an apology.
"Fine. Tell me what you need."

******

Allen rained down blows on one of his brood and felt dead bone snap. It was too young and too weak to offer any defence towards its maker and died because of that. When its dying scream finished echoing around the walls of the house, the old vampire stood and smiled, baring it's fangs ion mock humour.
"And who says killing the messenger doesn't give you that warm fuzzy feeling? Now I don't want to hear any more shit about not knowing where this Harris kid is. I want him. Find him."
The vampires didn't move and Allen felt the need for another demonstration coming on. He grabbed the nearest vampire and raised his fist.
"I know where they might be!"
Allen threw the vampire to the ground and looked at one of the new 'recruits'. He was a kid from the high school and a pain in the ass. Allen changed back to his human appearance and smiled at the vampire.
"You know where they might be? Do tell?"
The vampire spilt his guts about the library and what he knew about the gang. Then Allen spilt the young vampire's guts and turned to the others.
"Rest for now. An hour before sunrise we go to the nearest opening to the school and swarm the place. Kill everything. You and you come with me. I need to see that little bastard Willie."

******

Buffy had plenty of time to kill. Giles had gone all wiggy British style and asked her to check on Willow before coming back to the library. After he had run his hand through his hair for the tenth time, she said yes. She spent all of a second thinking about leaving Giles alone with the three assholes...
* Correction. One asshole and two halfway normal people. *
She could see that Giles was really worried and decided to do what he asked. It was daylight and he had talked with Willow's Mom only a while before so she was probably all right. The shock of being reminded of Miss Calendar, or whatever her name was, had hit the red head a lot harder than it had Buffy. But then Buffy was used to losing people by this time. It hurt when Ford had died and Angel had lost his soul but Jenny had been different. Buffy had trusted her and she had stabbed the Slayer in the back in all but deed.
Grabbing her jacket she made a beeline for her house and spent all of ten seconds quality time with her mother. She rang Willow's house once she was out of the shower but there was no change there. She called Giles to see if there was any change and got the same from him: no sign of Willow. Her friend did have a life outside of school and the Scooby Gang but it sort of revolved around computers, books and magic.
* Magic. *
Twenty minutes later she was watching Xander walk into the Magic Shop ahead of her. The super-geek, uber-nerd that Xander had been was definitely gone. He got out of an old car and strode into the shop, looking around in a way that reminded her of herself when out on patrol. Keeping her eye on him, she crossed the road and nearly got knocked over for her troubles. The squeal of brakes was high and painful and she leapt back to safety. The motorist gave her a few seconds of cursing and she turned her Slayer face on him. He took off.
She looked up and saw Xander looking straight at her. He stood at the edge of the path in front of the shop and waited for her. Uncomfortable under his stare she crossed the road, this time looking each way and then she was beside him.
"Looking for someone?"
His gaze was unblinking and apologetic but there was something in his body language that said that he was near hurting someone.
"Actually yes. I'm trying to find Willow."
He nodded and walked into the shop without another word. Angry at such a dismissal she followed him. Just as he handed the shopkeeper a piece of paper she grabbed his arm and that made him turn around to face her.
"I want to know where Willow is! Giles needs her help with something."
Xander turned back to the shopkeeper for a second.
"I'll pay cash for all of that. Can you bag it for me?"
"I asked you a ques..."
Xander turned on the Slayer.
"You didn't ask me a question, you just told me what you were doing. And if you had asked I would have told you that I'm getting this stuff for her."
"Why?"
The question nearly caught him off guard. He'd expected a little more spleen venting on his friend's part but she was probably holding back because they were in public. If this were the cemetery she'd have him pinned up against a wall with his limbs in a granny knot.
"I'm going to take these to her. If you want to know why she wants them you can see for yourself."

******

Willow sat where Xander had left her, a few feet from Angel. Even though the vampire snarled at her between slurps she still thought of him as Angel, the man who had saved her more than once. Never mind the fact that he had turned her fish into a necklace. And the fact that less than a day later he nearly snacked on her.
She had to put them behind her for the moment.
The spell went through her mind again and she mouthed the words. It was safe to do that as long as she didn't have the ingredients nearby. Something about the spell...
Angelus slurped the last mouthful of plasma loudly and kicked the car behind him, breaking her concentration. Absentmindedly she walked over to the fridge and took out an armful and tossed them onto the vampire's head. Sitting back down on the ground she began to go through the spell again. It was fairly simple. You arrange certain items in a pattern and that attracts a deity's attention. Like all spells it was an appeal to the deity or spirit asking for something and giving them something in return.
In this case the deity wasn't a full blown one but a servant of one. Nemesis could never be judged as a fair god, that wasn't Her area of expertise: revenge was. The gypsies appealed to Her sense of justice and gave Angel his soul back under THAT condition and from what Willow knew Nemesis would have granted it for any reason.
And therein lay the problem. Doing this spell the way it was wouldn't really help Angel. He'd just be right back in the same position he'd been before him and Buffy had...
The crunch of a tyre on gravel brought her out of her trance and she moved over to see who was coming. She knew that it could only be Xander but when she saw Buffy she knew that things were really about to come to a head.

******

Allen really hated having to do any sort of business during the day, even something as important as this.
* Humans are food. *
It was something that every vampire believed like gospel. It was one of their reasons to exist. Humans were food and nothing else. To have a human, in this case Xander Harris, piss on their parade, was unthinkable.
"Very simple Willie. We get what we want or else I get to watch these two find out if they can pull a person apart, straight down the middle. I think they can't but you know how it is, you have to find out some things the hard way."
Allen's vampire face jumped out and turned a simple grin into a hungry maw.

******

The Slayer squatted and sank into Angelus' eyes. Even after all the pain that she had endured at his hands she could only remember the way she felt when he touched her and kissed her. She didn't see the ridged forehead that meant he was in vampire form.
She only saw Angel.
The vampire stared back at her and moved his head to stab another bag of plasma without breaking their gaze. Willow and Xander couldn't see any sign of intelligence in the vampire's eyes and they didn't know if they should be more scared of that fact or not. Angelus would take his time and hurt them, giving them the slightest chance of surviving but only after enduring unbelievable pain. The vampire, a mindless one, would just feed and kill before moving on.
"Buffy!"
The Slayer shook her head and saw that Xander was standing right beside her. She got up from her squat and looked him in the eye.
"Why?"
He shrugged and made a 'follow me' gesture.
Once inside the shed he handed her the tri-barrelled gun.
"That can shoot three crossbow bolts as fast as you can pull the trigger. It takes as long to load as a single shot and has better range. And you can use it to kill Angel!"
Xander's statement shocked the Slayer to the core. She'd had all of a second to marvel over the gun when Xander, her friend for nearly three years, pops out with those two words 'kill Angel'. She'd always known that the two never got along, even before the fact that Angel was a vampire came out.
"Willow said that she can give him his soul again. Then..."
"Then we're right back at square one. He l... cares for you and you for him and we know what happened the first time because of that. The mortuaries did a special deal for the few months that that psycho was running loose. And he was a psycho, just as he is now. HE IS A VAMPIRE. He kills and he loves it. Shit, Rambo couldn't equal this guy's body count unless he nuked New York. We have seen the funerals that this guy has caused."
Xander held his hands to his head as if in pain and stopped, standing tall and still in the centre of the shed.
"And I saw you and him together and it killed me. You had something together that couldn't be touched by anyone outside of a storybook. And because of that you deserve each other as Angel and Buffy.
But not on the terms dictated by that spell.
You have to decide, here and now, because by nightfall he'll be too strong to hold. I can stop feeding him but that won't make much of a difference. Angelus is still Angelus even if he is as weak as a kitten. His knowledge is more dangerous than his muscles."

******

It came to the red headed witch in a flash. She was putting out the ingredients, checking them off on her list one at a time and it hit her. The spell had been deliberately tailored to call on Nemesis and that couldn't be changed. But she could change some of the rest. The important part of the spell was the 'true happiness' part. If she appealed to Nemesis first...
Drawing a simple circle of protection around her, she sat on the ground and folded her legs beneath her body and focused on the Orb, using its surface to concentrate her train of thought. She strained as hard as she could and tried to remember the words that she'd read in one of Giles' tomes of power.
"Nemesis, Goddess of Retribution, I bring a petition before thee and ask that a wrong be righted, that what should not have been be made to happen. I call on the cause of true justice and the Balancer of Scales."
Her mind cleared and she knew that something was listening, something powerful and old. A stench filled her nose, clogging its pores and nearly caused her to gag before she remembered what it was. It was the smell of blood. A cold gust of wind swirled across the yard towards her body and pulled dust and rubbish up into a will-o-the-wisp that sat over her.
She had her deity on the line.
"Oh mighty Nemesis. The creature Angelus has caused much pain and suffering and knows no limits to its evil. I implore you to invest this demon with the soul of Angel, so that the demon will feel the touch of purity for all time. That it will feel its hands help others live where it would destroy and kill. I ask that you let this creature live a good life knowing that it will be trapped for all eternity in a prison that it can never escape. I ask..."

DONE.

The word was spoken in a voice that scraped across her soul like a nail across a tombstone. She saw something flare in the distance and knew that the Orb of Theusala was doing its job. She smiled and fainted.

******

Buffy strode out of the shed just as Willow went limp and fell back out of the circle. Running forward she aimed the gun into Angelus' hollow and began to pull the trigger. The vampire twitched and she moved to get a better shot and then she saw the Orb flare for the last time and disappear. An answering flare came from the darkness within the hollow and the Slayer braced herself for something to happen. She didn't want to fire and miss.
She didn't want to drag this out any longer.
Willow got up and saw Buffy aim the gun into the hollow, kneeling down to get a better shot. Reaching out with what strength she had she grabbed her friend's leg and pulled just as the Slayer fired. The shot dug into the ground a few feet short of her target and Buffy turned an angry stare that died quickly when she saw the state that Willow was in.
"Buffy..."
The Slayer took one look into the hollow and knew that the vampire wasn't going anywhere for the moment. It was too bright and if he made any move it would end up with him burning.
"Willow. Are you all right?"
The red head nodded and smiled weakly. The smile blossomed as she recalled what had made her pass out.
"Buffy, the spell worked. He has his soul again."
The Slayer turned away from her friend and gritted her teeth. She started to cry and considered, for one second, taking up the gun and firing into the holow.
She wouldn't miss.

******

When the clock hit midday, Giles gave up on waiting for Willow to come and started to prepare for the spell that would have to be cast. What they had to do, in order to save the three kids from Death was fairly simple.
They had to kill them.
Well, sort of.
The spell was designed as a brute force method of hiding a person from magical attack. It was bulky, brute force magic and that tended to be very messy. It cut a hole in the universe that nothing could get through, not even air. If he judged it right the death geas would rebound back on its maker and he might make a mistake. A protective circle had to be drawn and this would mark the boundary for the spell. Like any summoning or shielding spell you have to mark a line that either you or someone else would cross
First he had to get ready. He needed only one thing and that was bone. In this case, Miss Carlisle's skeleton in the science room was about to have an accident.

******

The Mayor waved his hand and the circles of power flared into sight. In a few hours he'd have to step into those rings and intone a spell. The main part of it was done, all the messy bits finished. It had been hell getting the blood out of the carpet but it had been worth it. Yanni had been a little too choosy in picking from the Mayor's private library and that was definitely a 'no-no' in his book.
He really missed Yanni's jokes but a Mayor had to stand by his principles. You couldn't let a thief get away scot-free.
The intercom on his desk bleated out a squeak and he waved his hand again, sending the circles back to the shadows.
"Yes Miss Haversham."
The distorted voice of his secretary came over the line.
"Mister Morgan is here to see you sir."
The Mayor frowned. Morgan was supposed to be co-ordinating the three little problems that were in Sunnydale.
"Send him right in."
The dapper young man entered and gave his boss a shaky smile.
"I'm sorry to bother you sir but I think there's something you should know."
The Mayor's expression didn't change and Morgan took that to be a bad sign.
"The three subjects have gone back to their hotel and it looks like they are resting. I just think that they would be a lot more worried about what's coming."
Still thinking up ways to hurt his assistant, the unspoken question made him pause.
* How can they be so calm? *
Moving back behind the desk, he sat down and thought for a second.
"It has to have been the Slayer and her little band of friends. They have convinced the children that they can save them. We have to remove that illusion. Call Bob and tell him that I want to talk to him."

******

Buffy watched as Xander moved into the hollow with Angel. Shoving him up against the wall, Xander braced his knees against the vampire's chest before pulling the tape free of Angel's mouth. Spitting out a chunk of straw, the demonic face melted into the familiar human form that Xander had come to know and hate. He hid a grimace as Angel looked about him with nothing but pain in his eyes.
* Dead Boy is back, in all his glory. *
Pushing out of the cramped space, Xander got to his feet and started to brush himself down in an effort to get some of the mud and filth off of his clothes. That and avoid looking at Buffy, who was waiting on his evaluation. She stepped into his line of sight and he sighed.
"It's him."
Her head jerked over to look at the two dirty feet that could just be seen sticking out of Angel's little prison and that was her only reaction. She blinked once or twice and that was all.
"Will he be safe here? For the moment?"
Xander shrugged and then nodded.
"Yeah why?"
The Slayer gestured towards the car.
"Giles needs our help, well Willow's help more than ours. Can you give us a ride?"
Xander's eyes narrowed at Buffy's tone. It didn't sound like that she had taken in this thing at all. Her boy friend, soul mate or 'nookums' or whatever the hell she wanted to call Angel, was back and she was acting like it wasn't anything big.
* Last time I resurrect someone for her. *

******

The library doors swung shut behind the swaggering form of Snyder as the troll triumphantly walked out, leaving Giles gob-smacked. The news that the odious little man had just dropped was too horrible to think about. The local police department, at the prompting of the local authorities, was concerned by the amount of violence in schools. They had decided to run a simulation to see how they could react to something happening. They were going to stage a simulation over this weekend or the next and so the library, as well as the whole school, would be emptied.
They couldn't cast the spell.
The Watcher in Giles kicked in and he had to react. The first thought that came to mind was dragging that little shit back into the library by his balls and use his head for a punching bag. It was something to think about but for the moment he had worse things to think about.
They couldn't do the spell.
Something had occurred to him while he'd been pounding the skeleton into shards. He'd moved the table aside and was smashing the bones with a war hammer from the library's armoury when he looked down on the spot the Hellmouth rose from. If this death geas kicked in at full force it might cause the creature to arise and open and that was not good. If Willow helped him cast the shielding spell the geas would rebound on the sorcerer that cast it and it would be over. If not then they were all fucked.
* Shit. *
He heard voices coming from outside and pictured Snyder coming back with someone, probably a cop. He balled up his fists and got ready to get another gut full of crap from the troll when the doors swung open, revealing all of the Scooby Gang. For a second, their happiness got to him, swelling his anger up to near breaking point but it never got there. He needed their help in this and most important of all, they were his friends. He could never forget that.
The came to a halt directly in front of him and their grins faded, striking out the youthful joy and replacing it with looks that should only be seen in the eyes of battle hardened soldiers.
"What's wrong?"
Giles bowed his head for a second and then looked Buffy square in the eye.
"We have to find another place to do the spell. Snyder has closed the school down for the entire weekend so the local police can do some sort of evacuation drill for the school. We have to do this somewhere else."
He ran his hands through his hair and began to pace. The conditions for the spell were hard and the library had been perfect. Now that they couldn't use it they were screwed. Those three kids were screwed.

******

"Thank you very much Bob. I'll be sure to remember this favour that you've done for me. Yes Bob. Goodbye."
With a happy grin, the Mayor snapped his phone down and saw Morgan hovering expectantly in front of his desk.
"Mister Morgan, you'll be happy to know that the problem of the librarian and his friends si no longer one. With the school closed I don't think there'll be much resistance. Call the President of the Golf Club and tell him that I'll be able to attend the dinner after all."
Morgan didn't move.
"Sir. The information that we sent out earlier to the 'night staff' gave only the library as the..."
The Mayor's happy face disappeared and he tilted his head.
"I will probably have to explain things in a simpler way from now on. I can only hope that Willie has been able to spread the word better then you can."

******

"What's exactly the problem, Giles?"
Xander sat in one of the chairs and relaxed. They had four hours until the shielding spell was supposed to be cast. Buffy had finished crushing the bones in record time while Willow and the Watcher rehearsed the incantations needed. Xander watched on and counted down the seconds until an idea formed.
"The police are going to stage a mock rescue of students from a shooting. It's the pipe dream of some bureaucratic fool..."
"You know that its sort of weird that when these three kids come to town looking for something on an assistant to a Mayor and the town authorities throw this down. If the town council or someone high up is behind this geese..."
The Watcher grimaced at the pronunciation.
"... then it wouldn't be hard to say that this thing is working out of a council person's office. You said that this thing had to be done on formerly holy ground and I know that most of those guys live in the really old section of town. If it was council members then they'd have to use someplace they would have to control totally and the only place I can think of is their offices."
Giles went through Xander's train of thought and came to the same conclusion. The best way to check of course would be on the computer and Willow would...
She was already hard at work. Two of the libraries machines were powered up and both had maps, one old and one new, on their screens. Printing off both onto clear film she placed one over the other and overlaps jumped out. The main council offices were where the biggest overlap took place. Buffy looked over her friend's shoulder and pointed at the spot.
"But you said it had to be unsanctified? Doesn't that mean that something evil is supposed to have happened there."
Willow went back to the computer and looked up the history of that area of town. She quickly found the answer to the Slayer's question.
"There was a massacre of some townspeople during the time the Spanish were here. Bandits killed a group of women and children when they took shelter in the local church."
Giles put his finger on the spot and frowned. The information was handy to have but it wasn't going to help. Willow was going to have to find another site for them to do the spell at. He told her so.
"G-man. How important is the site that this spell..."
"It has to be on solid ground, Xander. It can't be on the second storey of a house. It has to be indoors but the place has to have some occult power because the spell draws on that power to work. And before anyone asks there is no danger in using this spell so close to the Hellmouth. In fact the spell will probably weaken it for a time. What we need to do is cast this spell before this death geas comes back into power. THAT might open the Hellmouth."
Everyone's eyes were drawn back to that spot on the library's floor. Except for Xander, who was deep in thought. He tilted his head for a second and let out a little laugh.
"Whoever is doing this 'geese' thing has to do it at midnight right..."
Giles nodded.
"Okay. I need to get some things and then I'll be back here. You'll be able to use the school tonight. The police are going to be busy somewhere else. We'll need to pick up those kids."
Giles saw that Xander had a little smile on his face and decided against asking what he was up to. He had more important things to think about.

******

Carter rolled over in his bed and moaned. He'd been having a dream involving Tyra Banks and a pot of honey and she was starting to get hungry but she didn't have anything to spread the honey onto so she could eat it...
And then the banging started. He rolled over again and saw that it was half past five in the evening and some guy was banging on Clear's door so hard that he could hear the individual knuckles impact on the wood.
The football player rolled out of bed with a curse and stomped over to the door, practising for what he was going to do to the guys balls. He wrenched the door open, looked down the hall and saw that it was the receptionist who'd booked him in and two other guys in tattered clothes.
"What the fuck do you assholes want? We are trying to sleep."
The receptionist nodded to the two tramps and pointed his finger.
"That's one of them!"
Carter saw trouble coming and dived back into the room. He grabbed the edge of the dresser by the bathroom and shoved it up against the door. The flimsy box bounced back from the door as the two goons threw themselves against Carter's barricade but he didn't care. He and Alex were too busy trying to climb out of the window and into Clear's room. Out on the ledge Alex looked down and saw the Buffy girl climb out of a car with some guy. Since she was supposed to help people he decided to try an experiment.
"BUFFY! HEEEELP!"
The Slayer's head jerked up and she saw the two guys crawl over to Clear's room and climb in her open window. It wasn't hard to see that the guys were in trouble.
"Xander come on!"
She ran at full speed for the front entrance and banged hard on the windows, trying to get the doors opened by someone inside. She squinted for a second against the reflection in the glass and saw that the front desk was unmanned and the 'full' sign was on.
"Buffy. Move."
She jumped to the side as Xander shot a hole in the door, blasting the glass into a million little shards. Both of them ran in through the shattered remains and pounded their way towards the ornate stairs just as the three piled down at breakneck speed.
Buffy saw the two men coming down and knew that they were demons. They rounded the last turn and didn't slow as they saw the Slayer at the bottom of the steps. The first one down swung his fist at Buffy, who grabbed it and spun into his body, driving her elbow into his face and then punching down into his gut. As he folded down over her she flipped him over and kicked at his head before looking over to see how Xander was doing with the other one.
A normal Xander/Demon fight, in her book, would mean that her friend would be lying on the ground with his spine a few feet away. Not this time. The soldier in Xander had come out and he had grabbed a brass-coated bollard that all hotels seemed to have and smacked the demon across the head with it. As it crashed to the floor he hit it twice more and dropped it before running out the door behind the others with Buffy following. The three piled into Carter's car and it sped out of the parking lot.
Xander ran for his own car with the Slayer not far behind. If they were going to catch the three before they did something stupid they would have to be quick about it. Starting the car he waited for the half second that Buffy needed to shut the door and then he pushed the car to its limit.
It wasn't smart to drive a car away, at high speed, from a crime scene because that attracts attention. And nothing got a cop's attention like 'shots fired' and a speeding car. He gunned his engine and saw that he had a problem. His car didn't have nearly any of the power of Carter's Charger but he might have a way around that. If Carter tried to duck and weave he might turn a corner of two. Xander knew Sunnydale and its traffic and if the Charger took any corner before the freeway he'd bog down in shopping traffic.
He did.
Xander took his chance and pulled into an alley that managed to get him just ahead of the slowly crawling Charger. He had to be in front of this guy or the Charger would take off again at the first opening in traffic. He came to a joining of alleys and braked the car.
"Buffy. Run to the end of the alley and try and catch them. If you do, tell them to pull into the next alley. If you miss them I'll meet you at the bottom of the street."
The Slayer nodded and took off at her full speed, covering the hundred yards to the mouth of the alley in five seconds. She looked left and right, checking every car, looking for the people rather than the machine. A familiar face made her look back and she saw the three in their car, only a few behind Joyce Summers. She ran over to Carter's car and pounded on the door to be let in. Clear pushed the door open and the Slayer jumped in.
"Go to the next alley and turn left. Move,"
Carter gunned the engine and the traffic seemed to flow apart. He revved the engine again and pushed his car into the opening and took the turn. Ahead, they could see Xander's car with the engine running and they pulled up behind. When they came to a stop, Xander jumped out and came to them.
"Get out of the car. If whoever is after you sent those goons they'll have a description of your car."
Carter felt the adrenaline burn off and thought about refusing but the idea made sense. If those two guys caught them, they were screwed. Royally screwed.
But this was a Dodge Charger.

******

The Mayor listened as Morgan listed all the damage to the hotel. It was a miracle that all concerned had fled the scene before the cops had arrived. Being the good policemen that they were they had gone for the security footage and that was now in the Mayor's wastebasket, ready for incineration.
"I didn't anticipate that our night staff would start their work so early. No matter, those troublesome kids are no longer a problem, they'll be too busy running and hiding to be a bother. Just in case, have the police look for them and their car. If they are caught and die in their police cell then that would be even better.
Oh yes. Can you get my driver to drop my golf clubs up her? I need to practise my putting for tomorrow's game."

******

Xander looked down at the Charger as he had Carter guide it into the scrap yard shed. It had been a very stupid thing to bring the car through the whole of town but, as sure as God made little apples, the Charger would have gotten fucked up by some scum if they had left it in that alley. The engine cut out and a very relieved Carter got out and slammed the door shut.
"Now what?"
Xander started to go through lockers along the back wall of the shed and pulled out a dirty old plastic drum. Its surface was grimy from use and Xander had to wipe the handle to get a grip so it wouldn't slip from his hands.
"You're names Carter, right? Grab any glass bottles you can find."
Xander walked outside and gently placed the drum into the back of his car. Carter came out a moment later with two bottles and but them in beside the drum. Then he held out his hand to Xander.
"Thanks for the save man. You and that Buffy chick saved our asses."
Xander smiled and shook Carter's hand.
"No bother. The name's Xander, by the way, Xander Harris. And I may need your help in a second."
He looked over to where Buffy was standing, looking in on Angel. The vampire seemed to have got some of his mind back and had retreated as far back into the hole as possible. The last thing that the vampire needed was a fatal case of sun burn. It wouldn't be a problem in a few hours when the sun went down and that brought up a bad thought. Angel would probably get out of those chains, one way or another, and after dark he would start to roam. Neither he nor Buffy would think that a good thing. And Xander had something to do besides baby-sit some two legged leech.
"Carter. Can you go back into the shed and try to find a sheet or blanket? Anything that's big enough to cover a person's body entirely."
Carter squatted and made out the form of a person in the hollow. He didn't have a clue about what was going on but he owed this guy something. He came back from inside the shed with a sleeping bag from his car.
"This do?"
"Perfect."

******

Clear didn't have any idea of what was going on. Ever since she'd come to this town she been hit on all sides by things that she'd never really believed in and never thought she would. She was an artist and she knew that she had to use her imagination to follow concepts and visualise them.
But demons and vampires and all this other crap was something else. She'd have to be nuts to believe it but...
But.
She had seen those two that had nearly snacked on Carter. She had seen those two guys that had gone after them in the hotel. None of them had been human. They had shown no emotion at all, coming after them. She'd been chased before and the person doing the chasing always, always, shows some emotion. A shiver ran through her as she thought about what would have happened to her at their hands and she stopped.
This Xander guy had waded into the hotel like Rambo and Buffy like Rambo's sister. They'd dropped those two guys like they were nothing and made it look so simple. But she knew that is she had taken one hit from that thing that Xander had used, she would have been killed. The thing had taken three hits and still had been able to move.
* Time to think about something else. *
She watched Xander give the sleeping bag to Buffy, who opened it out. Getting down on his hands and knees, he went into the hollow with Angel and soon Clear heard chains moving about. She squatted and fell back as a loop of chains was thrown out of the hole. A massive dirty padlock followed and then Xander stuck out his hand for the bag. Buffy handed it over and held one end.
Angel pushed out of the hole and Buffy wrapped the quilted bag over her boyfriend's head. He flinched when the sun hit his feet and started to smoulder and Buffy saw that she had no choice. She pulled Angel over to the car and literally threw him into the back seat, hiding him from the light. Xander pulled himself out of the hollow and followed them into the car.
"He all right?"
Clear saw Buffy nod.
That task done, Xander gestured to the rest of them to come over.
"Get in. We have only got a couple of hours and I have to get in a Breaking and Entering before dark."

******

"So what's your story?"
Xander blinked in surprise and looked over at Alex. The three boys were packed into the front seats while the two girls were in the back with Angel. Xander had listened hard for any noise coming from there and heard only a murmur every now and then and so the question caught him by surprise.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that Buffy is this Slayer thing and her friend back there catches on fire in sunlight. Your librarian dabbles in magic and Willow is a major league hacker and also does magic. So I'm sort of going out on a limb here and guessing that you have a super secret too."
Grimacing a bit at the sarcasm, Xander decided to go for the scary version of his story.
"How old am I? How old do you think I am?"
"I dunno, eighteen, nineteen maybe."
"I'm eighteen and I have over twenty years of combat experience. I have hand to hand and weapons training up the wazzoo as well as a working knowledge of explosives and could kick your ass in a heartbeat. And I got all that in one night!"
The two guys looked at him in shock and shut up.

******

Giles and Willow waited in the library, ready to go if and when the cops showed up to turf them out. Snyder had left a good while ago mainly because he had to. You couldn't tell a lie and not follow up on it. They sat in front of the computers, Willow pulling up information on the aeroplane explosion and then the town council and Giles going through the data.
The aeroplane crash brought up a factor that they hadn't explored. The explosion had occurred just after mid-night in the Mid-West and that made it ten o'clock in Sunnydale. For safeties sake they'd do the spell at that time. With that little bit of research done, they concentrated on the Town Council.
And they hit paydirt.
Willow had first thought of it as a way to pass the time until the others got back but now it was a quest of it's own. The first strange thing to come up had been the renaming of the town back at the end of the nineteenth century. Photography had been more of an art form back then and people posed for pictures. And that gave them the face of the Mayor in all his glory. The shock had burnt off and the two had concentrated on the Mayor, Willow pulling any and all information on the man while Giles spent equal time going between his books and her data.
What they found scared them.
The Mayor was over a hundred years old. He'd originally been elected in the late 1890's and had Sunnydale renamed. He'd keep the position for a couple of years and then disappear for a decade or so. After a generation had died off or forgotten about him he would come back as his own son and go for the position again. Whenever he did, the opposition usually got out of the race long before the running.
He'd gone through three generations and was going by the moniker of 'Richard Wilkins the Third' at this moment. The Wilkins family had 'old' money that Willow checked through. Once she burned past the bank's firewalls she found out that the Mayor was clean except for the fact that he seemed to have his own private team of investigators. More hacking came up with the fact that these 'investigators' were all either ex-intelligence operatives or ex-cops. And whatever they did for him didn't appear in the local newspaper.
Whatever the Mayor was or whatever magic he was using to keep himself alive, he was dangerous.
The Watcher and the hacker jumped with fright when Buffy grabbed both of tem by the shoulder. Neither of them had heard her come in, they had been so engrossed in the stuff they had been reading.
"Hi guys. Wassup?"
The Watcher glared at his charge.
"My blood pressure and heart rate. I'll thank you Buffy, if you don't do that again."
She stood back and held up her hands in mock surrender.
"Sorry Giles but it was too good a chance to miss. SO what's happening?"
"The Mayor is behind this. We're nearly sure of this."
"How?"
Willow started to explain, pulling down sheet after sheet of what they knew about the Mayor. But the main proof was the photo from before the turn of the century. The red head could see that she had most of her friend's attention, except that every few seconds her eyes would flick over to the stacks.
"What can we do with this Giles? At the moment we have to concentrate on the others, right?"
Giles nodded and then looked up at her with shock on his face.
"You did find them?"
"Yeah. They're out the back with Xander and..."
Giles stared at her when he heard the tone in her voice and knew that he was going to hear something that he wasn't going to like.
"And?"
"Angel."
Both of her friends looked at her like she was nuts. Willow was shocked that she would bring him here because of what had happened the last time that the vampire had been in this building while Giles was just shocked.

******

The Watcher felt like the Hellmouth had opened up beneath him and ripped his soul out with a butter knife. The pain of losing Jenny, a woman he would have happily married. And a vampire, an animal had taken her away from him. An animal that had left her lying dead in his house mounted almost like a trophy.
A vampire called Angelus.
Buffy had apologised for not killing Angelus and Giles had known that she had meant every word. He also knew that the pain that he had gone through would have been nothing compared to what she would have had to go through to kill her lover. He had seen the passion that both of them had shared and it had been beyond anything he had seen.
Except for his love for Jenny.
When he had heard Xander had killed Angelus, he had been angry but only because the boy had put himself into a situation where he could get to the vampire. The fact that he died didn't help relieve the pain that he'd felt when Jenny had died but it had made him sleep better for a few nights, knowing that Angelus was suffering the torments of hell.
And now he was back.
It occurred to him that Xander might have lied about killing him but he doubted it. No soldier would leave an enemy as bad as Angelus, live. And Xander was definitely a soldier and a very good one.
Suddenly he realised that he didn't want to know. Waving his hand at Buffy he let her go and let all of them in.

******

Xander looked over the intelligence that Willow and Giles had gathered and it helped him a lot. He'd thought out a little plan that would draw the attention of the cops and everyone else in Sunnydale and keep them away from the library. With this information he could now plan a more precise operation and if it worked the cops would be busy for the night. The only problem might be these men that the Mayor privately employed. He really didn't need a run in with these guys.
"Giles. I need to ask you something."
Walking into the office, he found the Watcher sitting down staring at the wall above his desk. On hearing Xander walk into the room, Giles shook his head.
"What did you want to know?"
"What sort of things should I look for if I was trying to find the site that this 'geas' was cast from?"
Giles shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs of dead memory.
"There would be several circles, one within the other, and special sigils drawn between the gaps. There might still be the remains of the original sacrifice but I doubt that. If it were it would be the body of an innocent, maybe a child. If you found that all you'd have to do is move the body out of the circle and the spell would collapse.
But if the Mayor has this near his offices, he'd have only the circles drawn on the floor. Destroy the lines with fire, water or smearing the lines with hallowed earth from a church or graveyard."
Giles' voice dropped to a murmur but that didn't matter. Xander had what he needed.

******

Buffy guided Angel into the cage and helped him sit down, So far her ex had only made the odd grunting noise and that was all. But she could see him looking out at her from those eyes. All she had to do was wait until he was better.

******

Alex sat down and started to read the crap that Xander had been going through. It was either that or begin to go nuts waiting for this whatever it was to start up again after another year. He could still feel the terror of sitting in that car waiting for the train to hit. He could still feel the wind caused by the edge of that sign missing him by all of a molecule's width.
His eyes flitted over the words but nothing sank in until he read the date of the piece.
August 15th 1897.
He flicked to the next page and it was a very modern front page of the local rag. Flicking back again he didn't see any story that connected either page and he flicked back again. And then it hit him.
The photos were of the same guy.
He looked at the black and white photo and saw an middle aged man with light hair and turn of the century clothes. Turning to the modern sample he checked that and saw the same guy in a silk suit, opening some library in the centre of Sunnydale.
* If this is the fucker, he should sell whatever keeps him this young. *
Then he realised that whatever was after him was probably one of the little things that this guy had done to keep young. Killing all those people on that plane hadn't even fazed this bastard and that sickened Alex. He threw down the folder and went back to thinking about what would happen tonight if anything went wrong with this 'spell'.
* A well. If push comes to shove, this library should be a safe enough place to hide out. *

******

Xander wandered over to Buffy and held out the gun that he'd made for her. She'd left it lying in the dirt when she'd first seen Angel and she hadn't touched it since. If this geas thing was as bad as these kids had let on to Willow and Giles then the Slayer might need it.
"I'm going to do a little errand and I'll be back soon. Do me a favour and keep Willow the Bondage Queen out of trouble. You know how she is around boys."
He said it loud enough that nearly everyone in the library could hear it. Willow blushed a deep red and went to speak but her old Willow reflexes kicked in and she went mum. Buffy managed a smile that grew into a grin and she mouthed 'thank you' to Xander. He got up and walked out through the stacks, dragging Carter after him so the rear door would be sealed after he left.
The car started smoothly and He drove for a couple of minutes, wasting time until it was after six o'clock. If the Town Hall were doing any business on a Saturday it would have been finished by this time. Stopping the car in an alley about a quarter mile from the Hall, he got out and opened the boot. He put on a new set of overalls and put his gun, freshly loaded into a pocket. A pair of gloves and a cap finished the disguise and then he took out the few glass bottles that Carter had stuck in the boot.
The drum didn't have a lot of gasoline left in it but it had more than enough for a pair of petrol bombs. If he found this spell site he'd torch the entire place, but only if he found it. Wrapping each of the bottles carefully he put them into a grimy old backpack and locked the car up.

******

Allen squinted out through the manhole cover and saw movement in the window of the library. Willie, bless his crooked little heart and now his crooked little legs, had been right on the button. The Mayor was paying big bucks for those three kids and Willie had said that the Slayer's little gang, including Harris, was hanging out with them. As much as he wanted Harris, business was business.
Come sundown, he'd go in there with his boys and girls and kill everything that moved.

******

The Town Hall was a new building, less than ten years old. Designed like a figure of eight with corridors running out from the top, central and bottom lines it was the brainchild of some architect in Los Angeles. Xander had been in it not long after it opened on one of those school trips that go wrong. In his case it had been him, Jessie and three others munching down on some burritos and then done the Exorcist's fire hose impression for the rest of the day. He was still convinced that they'd emptied gallons of puke between the lot of them.
Getting into the place had been easy enough. There had been some conference closing up and the guards hadn't armed the alarm yet, waiting until the building was clear before they did. Xander climbed a tree and entered the Gents' Restroom on the first floor, hiding in one of the cubicles until the place was closed up. He'd picked the Restroom because there couldn't be any motion detectors in there with the urinals self flushing system kicking in every few minutes.
At first Xander thought he could sneak around the place until he did a count of the security guards. There were too many but that didn't matter. They were no match for a trained soldier.
Flicking through the camera positions in the captured video room, Xander tried checking the rooms for Giles' signs and came up empty. Every camera showed a normal set of typical bureaucratic offices and nothing else. He looked down at the panel and saw something was wrong. All the feeds from the top floor were showing bottom floor offices, that he was sure of. Checking the security room's building plan he saw that there were only two offices on the top level, the Mayor's and his Deputy's. To the best of Xander's knowledge, the Deputy Mayor had gone to France on vacation.
Moving as quickly as he could, Xander popped all the surveillance tapes for the night and threw them his bag with the petrol bombs. When he'd originally entered this room he'd nearly cried when he'd seen the fire suppression system. It was state of the art and had backups up the ying-yang. Backups that were all controlled by a single key.
The top floor had people on it, Xander could see that from the stairwell. One of the offices had lights on and someone was moving around inside causing shadows and light to play across the walls and floor. He moved up and looked down the hallway, directly at the farthest office that was only ten yards away. If he was fully a soldier, Xander would have crept up to the door to make sure of his intelligence but if the Mayor was some sort of sorcerer then that wouldn't be smart.
Looking at his watch he cursed. It was well after eight and that was not good. If he waited around much longer Giles would be doing the spell and that would be it. He had to act now.
Xander took out the two petrol bombs and placed them on the last step of the stairwell. Throwing the bag with the guards' guns over his shoulder he lit a Zippo lighter and placed it beside the bombs. Then he took a coin from his pocket.

******

The Mayor was showing emotion and that was totally unlike him. Morgan fretted about what his boss might do in this situation. Something bad, like hurting him for instance. The lines of the spell's circle were glowing brightly and increasing in brightness as ten o'clock came closer and closer.
As far as the Mayor was concerned, or so it seemed, Morgan was a screw-up. He knew that he was the first of the Mayor's assistants that had had a 'colourful' life, colourful being the word for having done four years for armed robbery. He'd got caught for a stupid mistake that any first time thief would have seen but he'd been too full of his own crap to see it.
"Do you have any idea if anyone else has tried for the children?"
Morgan shook his head.
"No sir. But I was led to believe by a source that a group of vampires may try something."
The Mayor didn't look pleased.
"Vampires do not have a good reputation of surviving attacks on the Slayer. So help me if..."
There was a loud metallic knock on the door and both of the men turned to look at it. Morgan opened the door and called out.
"Can I help you?"
There was no one there and that puzzled him. The knock had been very loud and...
He saw movement and put his hand down to trigger his panic alarm. The instructions to the security guards had been explicit: No-one comes up to this floor for the night. If they had to they would call ahead first.
"What is it, Morgan?"
The Mayor came to stand beside him and then a light flared at the end of the hall, just out of sight. Morgan saw a face and then two flames shot in his direction, arcing high and over his shoulder. He froze, holding the door open against the Mayor's attempt to slam it shut.
It was like time slowed down.
He followed the path of the spinning bottles as they flew through the air with the greatest of ease, soaring past him and down onto the floor of the office. The crack and tinkle of glass disappeared in the massive thump of noise as the petrol burst into flame. The Mayor jumped forward, as if trying to stop the flames from devouring the circles and he screamed as their glow went out as the fire crossed their boundary.
The second bottle crashed against the wall and soaked the curtains in a moving mass of fire. In seconds the room was gone and the two men ran for the stairs and safety. The Mayor's only hope now was that the flames were not strong enough to totally erase the lines. If the Fire Brigade got to the Hall quick enough, he might still be able to enact the spell and be safe if something went wrong.
But the Fire Brigade had to come quickly.

******

The Fire Safety Control box registered the fire's birth and sent its signal along the line to the Controller that would activate the sprinklers. If a little key hadn't been turned earlier then the gallons of water stored in a tank on the roof would have come gushing down on the entire building but as they say: if your Aunt had balls, she'd be your Uncle.

******

Allen was pissed.
He'd led the rush up to the library's windows and had one of the vampires take a look in and he'd seen all of the targets but not Harris. And that made this whole thing useless as far as he was concerned. The others liked the thought of all that money but having a fat wallet didn't really factor in a vampire's life.
He waved his people back and did a quick head count. It was the third he'd had to do since they had started out from their new hide out and each time the numbers were less. He cursed and saw that another two were gone, leaving him with fifteen in all. He'd had twenty-three.
"We wait for twenty minutes more and then we go in. You five go for the Slayer. Keep her occupied while the rest of us kills the humans. None of you try and feed. If you do that you slow the rest of us down and the Slayer could cause trouble. Just kill them. Now you four come with me through the front, you five through the back and the rest through the windows. Now go."

******

Xander drove slowly along the streets, watching the people and listening to the distant sirens. He'd heard the first fire alarm go off when the night sky started to light up.
* No one could do a better job, if I say so myself. *
He saw a couple of cop cars race down a street parallel to his, their lights and sirens blaring and blazing away. His grin grew wider. He done his job and distracted the cops, keeping them away from the library for the night. The gang would have plenty of time to do the spell.
He pulled up in front of the school and got out of the car slowly as his instincts kicked in. He could feel someone watching him and at night in Sunnydale that meant only one thing.
Vampires.
* There are no such things as coincidences. *
He'd heard people say that a lot and only half believed in it. But now he did. The Mayor must have reacted quicker to the fire than Xander thought he could and that didn't bode well.
Reaching back into the car he took out the bag with the guns and lifted it out slowly. He took his own out and held it out of sight hoping he wouldn't have to use it. The bullets would slow the vampires down but wouldn't kill them and that was no help. If it came to a fight he was screwed and the only effective weapons were in the library.
Walking quickly up the steps he made it to the door before he heard the first growl. Throwing open the door he dived and rolled onto his back, bringing the gun up in one clean motion and firing into the advancing vampire. His first two shots hit it in the chest, knocking it to its knees with the pain while the third hit it in the head and smashed it, twitching, to the ground.
Getting to his feet he ran as hard as he could for the library, throwing open and smashing shut the doors that barred his way. He could hear the vampires coming up behind him, punching and kicking their way past each door in their efforts to catch him. Running faster he made it to the library and shouldered it open, falling through.
"VAMPIRES!"

******

Buffy left Angel sleep in the cage while Giles and Willow began the preparations for the spell. The study table was moved to the side, exposing the painted circular design that marked the Hellmouth's resting-place. The two practitioners of magic began to pour out the bone dust along the marked line, chanting softly while the three, who would live or die this night, looked on.
Buffy took up Xander's present and began to look it over. She took a couple of crossbow bolts and slit them down the tubes, marvelling at how easily the weapon worked.
* I'll have to ask him to make some more stuff for me. *
She aimed at the far wall and imagined pulling the trigger. She tried to conjure the image of the bolts flying but the form of Angel kept forming in her mind.
Her Angel.
She was so happy that he was back and yet she didn't know what he thought of this yet. Did he still love her? Did he even know her anymore? A lot had gone on in the few months that he had lost his soul and he had shown how evil he could be. Just as she had seen him as her Angel when he had gone evil, only seeing the good person that he had been, now she wanted to know if she would see Angelus in Angel every time she looked at him. It was so hard.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to cry. Or laugh. The position she was in was so stupid. The only person she loved more than anything was only feet away and she couldn't trust herself to touch him.
Her eyes whipped open when the first gunshot rang out and she whipped the gun towards the library's doors when the other two sounded.
"Get into the office!"
As everyone piled into the office, Giles ran to the cage and started to get weapons ready for his Slayer. He threw a short sword out onto the floor and as it clattered to the ground, Angel woke up. He looked around and then up at the Watcher.
"G... G... Gilesss."
The Watcher froze at the sound of his name and saw the vampire stand beside him.
"Hello Angelus."
The vampire shook his head as Buffy spun and aimed the gun.
"My... name is... Angel."
Buffy smiled and the gun dropped then whipped back to the door as a figure barrelled through it. She stopped herself from firing when she recognised Xander and jerked when he screamed one word.
"VAMPIRES!"
The windows shattered and a muffled thump rang out from the stacks as vampires rushed in from those directions. Buffy swung the gun around and fired three quick shots, scoring two kills and a wounding. She turned to Giles and caught a thrown sword and in turn threw her gun to him.
"Load it!"
The Watcher began to load it and stuck the bolts down the tubes only to see that the heads were still sticking out. He cursed as he realised that he couldn't do anything.
Buffy flowed across the floor and swung her sword at the first vampire. It raised its arm to block and the sword sunk in and powered through the limb, dropping it to the ground where it dissolved into ashes. The Slayer kicked out and crushed the wounded demon's leg, dropping it to the floor beside the ashes of its limb.
Xander was still on his back with his gun aimed at the door. When the first vampire smashed into the room he shot it twice in the head and rolled to one side as the body thumped down where he had been lying. He swung the gun to another target and fired the last of his bullets into its chest and smashing it back into the others behind it.
More vampires flowed from out of the stacks and Giles fired a loaded crossbow, scoring a kill. He went to load another bolt and failed as a vampire ran into the cage and started to punch out. Angel jumped up and grabbed the vampire, pummelling it with his fists. Giles grabbed the loose bolt and stabbed down into the battered vampire's chest, turning away before it burst into ashes. Angel vamped out and grabbed a sword, running out to help with the fight.
"Angelus!"
The frightened scream of a tall blood covered vampire echoed in the room and was ignored by all except the name's owner. He ran forward into the bunch that towered over Xander and began hacking away as if he was chopping wood. A vampire dissolved on its feet as its head flew from its shoulders under the vampire swung sword. Another followed and another as the screamer backed off and lets its minions die.
Xander kicked out and away from the battle waging above his head and saw the crossbow gun lying in the cage. He ran across the floor, keeping low and pulled out the arming mechanism. With one hard push the crossbow heads sunk out of sight and he aimed carefully.
Willow and the others stood in the office and saw a vampire run at them. As it crossed the threshold, willow jumped up and smashed a cross into its face, knocking it to the ground howling at the agony that flared through its body. As it rolled about the witch grabbed a pencil and stabbed down with all her strength and punched through the creature's chest and into its heart. She grabbed more pencils and threw them at Clear. The girl grabbed them and waited for another attack as the two guys grabbed their own pencils.
Buffy was in trouble. The vampires were attacking her with their claws, cutting her and staying just out of her reach. A flurry of arms would dart in and she would swing the blade cutting one or two but missing the ones that would open another part of her skin. She felt herself weaken and knew that the next few attacks would probably kill her. She could see Angel kill another vampire and then saw her lover get the sword kicked out of his hand.
One of the vampires saw that her attention was somewhere else and lashed out, trying to hit her throat and kill her with one blow. He swung back his arm to throw the punch that would kill the Slayer and felt something strike him. He looked down and saw the tail feathers of a crossbow bolt protruding from its chest. It had just enough time to form an expression of surprise before it died.
Xander aimed and fired the gun again and saw another vampire die and then another. He dropped the gun and started to reload.
Angel swung his fist and connected with the vampire's face. He knew this one and felt hate well up within him. He launched a flurry of fists that pushed the vampire further and further back until it hit the library's main counter. He snaked his hand around its throat and jerked it back, snapping its spine.
The silence that came was like a blanket of nothingness that dropped over the whole library. Buffy swung her sword and the wounded vampires dissolved under her blade, and then she collapsed to the ground. Xander ran out with the loaded gun, aiming into the stacks and then out the windows. Giles ran to his Slayer and began binding her wounds with strips of his clothing.
"Buffy!"
Willow ran out of the office and stopped. Running back in again she grabbed Giles' first aid kit and gave it to him. Angel sat down by the vampire that he had just killed and looked into its face. A name came out of nowhere and he mouthed it.
"Allen."
"One of yours?"
The vampire looked up at Xander and nodded. The boy turned soldier triggered a bolt into the dead vampire's chest and watched it dissolve. He looked back at Angel.
"Buffy needs you."
He walked over to the one he had shot through the head and shot it, watching Angel get up and go over to help Giles.

******

Clear looked down at the pencil that Willow had dropped into the ashes of the dead vampire and then looked at the one in her hand. A movement on her wrist caught her eye and she looked at the second hand on her watch.
Five minutes to ten.
She ran out and showed the time to Willow. The witch didn't say a word and just dragged the girl and her two friends into the circle.
"Stay there. Start breathing quickly to flood your bodies with oxygen. When the barrier goes up no air will get through so you'll only have a few minutes of air. We'll need those few minutes."
She grabbed the bag of dust that Giles had dropped onto the floor and finished drawing the circle. It flared with light when the two ends of the curve joined and the barrier began to take form. A shimmering veil of translucent light began to lift up from the white circle and cut through the air, moving faster and faster with Willow's chant. It formed a half sphere over the three and began to darken.
By the time it was ten o'clock the half sphere was pure black.
When the clock struck the hour and chill wind blew through the room without raising any dust. A moving black shadow swept across the ground and over the sphere. A moment later it was gone.

******

The Mayor looked at his watch by the flames that pulsed from the Town Hall and saw that it was after ten o'clock. The fire trucks had arrived only after he had managed to get to a pay phone. By the time they had arrived the entire top floor was ablaze and not soon after the fire started to claim the rest of the building. He never saw or felt the cold that heralded his own death. The chief of police had come to give whatever help he could and the Mayor had commandeered his car, sitting in the passenger seat under the cool of the car's air conditioning. The press hadn't been slow in arriving either and the Mayor had dealt with them already.
The shadow moved across the vehicles and flowed under a squad car, severing its brakeline. The oil flowed onto the ground and moved purposefully uphill, pooling beside the driver's door. The Mayor looked up and saw Morgan looking at him with abject terror in his eyes. And that angered him.
If Morgan had only closed that door the bombs wouldn't have gotten into his office and he would have been safe. His only hope now was that the spell was doing its work. He opened the door and stepped out, preparing the lecture that he was going to give his former assistant.
His foot landed in the oil and couldn't find any traction. He slipped back, one arm falling against the steering column and knocking the gear handle into drive while his elbow fell and pressed the clutch. The car flew forward and past the shocked fire fighters and into the blaze. There was a thump and the car collided with one of the columns that lined the inner atrium and another as the gas tank exploded under the immense heat.
Everyone just stood there, shocked to the core, except for Morgan who had a massive grin on his face.
* Guess who gets to be Mayor. *

******

ONE WEEK LATER.

The Bronze was pulsing with energy and life under the feet of a hundred teenagers. Laughs and shouts echoed through the massive room and Buffy smiled at it all. Xander had worked his way through the crowd to the bar and was trying to beat his way back through and failing.
"Penny?"
The Slayer looked over at Willow and her smile grew.
"All is right with the world and I am happy."
"How's Angel?"
The grin grew wider.
"He's still weak but he's getting there. He remembers everything and then some. From what he can tell me he knows the limits of what holds his soul this time."
"What do you mean by that?"
The Slayer looked down at the ground and blushed bright red.
"Well... He still has his soul after three nights..."
"BUFFY!"


THE END


Well folks the end to another story. If you liked it, loved it or couldn't get it off your screen fat enough send me a mail or post a review.