The Powers That Are

A sudden blast of fire blew down the cloisters, the flames licking at the marble pillars that supported the structure, scorching the walls and leaving them blackened. The force of the heat was enough to ruffle the hair of the three people crouched, hidden, behind the low wall.

'Well that answers that question' Doyle whispered to his companions 'the temple is definitely guarded.'

'Great plan Irish man!' Anya hissed back at him 'what do we do, now?'

Slowly and carefully, Doyle turned himself round so he was facing the direction the fire had come from, he put his fingertips on top of the wall, and pulled himself upwards, so only his forehead and eyes were visible above it, peering into the temple. 'Okay okay, he's big and he's ugly' he said to the two women, 'but I think he's stupid.'

'Are you sure that's not you you're describing?' Anya wanted to know. Leaning against the wall, the other side of Doyle, Tara wrinkled her nose up in amusement and smiled warmly at her friend, 'I don't think it can be, sweetie', she said. 'Francis isn't very big.'

'Hey! I'm not deaf y'know!' He sat back down, in between the two scoobies and leant his head against the bricks behind him. 'We need a plan to steal that gem stone without godzilla in there realisin'. Tara? Any ideas?'

The witch nodded her head, 'I can cast a spell so that he won't notice that it's gone.'

'I think it's a 'she'.' Anya interrupted. 'Female galgamesh demons are always bigger, and they can breathe fire up to a range of twenty feet.'

'Does it matter?' Doyle wanted to know. 'Tara, you were sayin'?'

Anya slumped down, sulkily, muttering to herself that yes it did matter - because how far the demon could breathe it's deadly flames was entirely dependent on its sex and that was the sort of information that might come in handy when you were trying to outrun it. Tara smiled at her again, but then continued talking to Doyle. 'The only problem is, I can't make her not notice us trying to steal it, as well. I can't do a cloaking spell on both us and the gem, not at the same time - it's either/or.'

'Okay' he nodded slowly, thinking. The ground and the wall behind them shook slightly as the galgamesh demon roared once more, hunks of stone began to fall from the roof of the cloisters and rain down on where the three of them were hidden. 'I'm going to go out there and distract it - whilst I'm running from a fiery death - which will be my second, by the way - Tara, you cast the cloaking spell and Anya? You teleport into the temple and grab the gem whilst it's not looking. We meet back here if we're not obliterated, OK?' The two women nodded, and Doyle swallowed nervously - hating having to play the hero once again. Wasn't it enough that he'd given up his real life back on earth to be a hero? He had to be one in the afterlife too? 'On the count of three - 1...2...3'

He morphed into his demon spikes and used his extra power to spring over the wall, from a crouched start. He landed on his feet; surprising the massive lizard like beast that guarded the temple and the gem of Andulae, and began to run, before the galgamesh had time to breathe it's fiery death at him. The thundering footsteps and the cracking earth behind him told him he was being chased, the tail of the demon swung from side to side, bashing the walls and knocking down the pillars. The whole temple was going to collapse under the destruction caused by it's own guardian. It roared once more, and Doyle put on another burst of speed, rounding a corner just as the flames came shooting towards him.

Tara had stayed by the wall, but she stood up and tracked the galgamesh where it ran. She whispered her incantation to the goddess 'Blind Cadria, desolate queen, work my will upon the beast. Your curse upon it. My obeisance to you.' As Doyle ran back towards her, the demon hot on his heels, she blew the powder she held in her hand out towards the running galgamesh. A sudden beam of light, golden and liquid, seemed to emanate from her hand and then hit the lizard demon squarely in its eyes, before melting away. The light caused the galgamesh to become confused, just for a moment, it forgot what it was doing - and Doyle used that moment to grab Tara and pull her over the low wall. They now hid on the opposite side, inside the crumbling cloisters, not far from the door to the temple.

Meanwhile, whilst the half brachen demon had been creating his distraction, the former vengeance demon had used her teleportation powers, regifted to her after her own heroic death, to vanish into nothingness and rematerialise inside the temple. She approached the gem of Andulae, where it sat on its plinth, with extreme caution. It was a pale pink, and about the size of her fist. It looked like any semi precious rock and she didn't see why it was worth all this trouble - or why it was worth the risk of the three of them getting obliterated. Still, Cordelia had sent them on this mission and they had to do whatever Cordelia told them - she was a higher power, a demigoddess. They were just three dead schmucks that had made the poor life choice of playing heroes.

'Please don't be cursed, please don't be cursed' she whispered over and over as she reached out to take the gem. She shut her eyes, screwed them up tight, and turned her face away as her hand made contact with it - tensing up waiting for an explosion or something. But nothing happened when she touched it with one outstretched finger, and relieved, she opened her eyes and picked up the gem. The ground rumbled beneath her, then and -rather than stick around to find out what was happening, she teleported back to her friends.

She found them hidden inside the cloister, as the galgamesh rampaged around in the atrium that the pillared walkway enclosed. 'I told you she was stupid.' Doyle said to them. 'She doesn't know we've got the gem?' Anya was still clutching the pink stone tightly to her chest, she looked expectantly at Tara wanting to hear the answer to Doyle's question. Tara shook her head 'I've blinded her to it.' she told them 'she won't be able to see the empty plinth.'

'So she's just gonna go on guardin' empty space?'

'That pretty much sums it up, yeah' Tara smiled.

'Right, we need to get this back to Cordy.' Doyle said, and keeping low, the three of them crept out of the sacred temple complex of Andulae and, once at a safe distance, Tara used her magicks to take them back to their own heavenly dimension.


Cordelia was alone in her heavenly edifice - waiting for her three servants to return. As she always did, when she had sent them on a mission and she was left alone, she was watching the world below - specifically Angel. There was a mystical pool held in a rune engraved bowl and stood on a plinth, right in the middle of her throne room- and she used that as a window into the lower planes. It was how she was able to identify which artefacts the soldiers that still fought the good fight on earth would need - and know where to send her friends to find it. But it also allowed her to glimpse her own dear boy - her champion, and follow him as he struggled to find his path.

She didn't really understand what she was seeing at the moment though, he appeared to have shrunk in size and be made of felt. He seemed very angry about it - but he was kind of adorable. She giggled to herself as she watched him sulk in his office, having beaten up Spike for laughing at him. Tears shone out in her eyes, but they didn't fall, watching him was always bittersweet.

'I don't see why we are always the ones that get chased by fire breathing monsters and risk our immortal souls getting obliterated - we were heroes in real life, it's illogical that we be forced to carry on in the afterlife.' That was Anya's voice - complaining, as usual. Cordelia blanked the pool and wiped her eyes, ready for the return of her friends.

'This is only our second mission!' Doyle pointed out, their voices were getting louder, they were close now. 'Cordelia wanted people she could trust.'

'Well Buffy didn't have to do this when she was dead - she just hung out on a fluffy cloud wearing birkenstocks and carrying a harp.'

'Are you sure about that?'

The door into the throne room opened and in walked the three of them, Anya still carrying the gem of Andulae. 'Here you go princess,' Doyle greeted the higher power, 'we got it, just like you asked.'

Cordelia held out her hand and took it from Anya: 'thanks.'

'So what are you gonna do with it?' The small half demon sat down in her throne, his legs dangled over one of the ornate arms, she gave him a pointed look - that throne was for higher powers only, but he just smiled at her and didn't move.

'Did you have trouble getting it?' she asked.

'Only in the 'we nearly died' sense of trouble.' Anya said.

'You're already dead' Cordelia replied distractedly as she examined the gem - seeking out the flaws, feeling the roughness of its surface with her fingers.

'Wh - what are you going to use the gem for?' Tara asked, her stammer always became more pronounced around Cordelia - possibly because she was a higher power, possibly because she was exactly the sort of queen bee that the witch had spent the whole of high school being terrified of.

'It's for Willow' Cordy said, smiling at Tara, softly. She didn't want the gentle wiccan to be afraid around her, and was always a little bit pleased whenever Anya or Doyle did something completely inappropriate or irreverent to prove to Tara that she didn't have to treat Cordelia with reverence. She glanced over at where Doyle was still lolling around on her golden throne. I mean, a little reverence would be nice - she was still Queen C, after all.

Tara's face lit up as she realised she had just done something to aid the woman she loved in the fight against evil. 'W-Willow?'

'Yep' She stopped examining the gem and threw it at Doyle 'think fast'. He caught it, but only just, and overbalanced; falling off the throne and tumbling onto the floor. 'Ow'.

'Serves you right' Cordelia told him, 'you shouldn't sit on my throne.'

'Why do you even have a throne?' Doyle wanted to know 'the other higher powers don't have them.'

'Duh! I wanted one.' The two of them laughed together. She had missed Doyle all those years he had been dead and she had borne his visions. She had jumped at the chance to have him work for her now, and so far the little half demon hadn't disappointed her. He was just as loyal as ever. And the way he looked at her didn't suck either. 'I need you to take this to Brazil.'

'Brazil?'

'Where Willow can find it - it's going to help her locate more slayers.'

'Cool, Rio here we come!'

The three heroes left the throne room, once more, this time headed back to the lower planes; and Cordelia turned back to the mystical pool to watch over her mortal friends. What she saw made her smile. Fred was kissing Wesley. Finally.


A/N This is just a little fic I'm writing alongside my massive rewrite of the whole of Angel - something easy to switch to when the going gets tough. It will be canon compliant through to the end of Not Fade Away, but beyond that it won't really follow the comics (because I don't read them). As this is just my bit on the side, i'll be updating it as and when i've got something to add. There is lots more to come, but I don't know when that will be.