DISCLAIMER: Joss is Boss, NOT YOU YA DAMN KUZUIS WHO ARE TRYING TO RUIN BUFFY WITH A NEW MOVIE WITHOUT ANGEL, GILES, WILLOW, XANDER, ETC. HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY- BLASPHEMY I SAY!

Ch 3…

***

"Nothing, more nothing oh and for a change, nothing!"
"Ooh, ha, I'm awake!" Anya jumped as the Xander slammed his book shut, wiping drool from her chin.
"It's okay An, Dawn and Lorne passed out hours ago." Xander rubbed her back as she stretched hoping that his own agitation would lessen. Then again he never had been particularly lucky.
"Argh, It's getting worse, the pain it's too much." Darla was coiled around her stomach, her whole body shaking.
"I bet that's what all those people thought when you sank your dirty fangs into them, think of it as payback, it's a bitch."
With Buffy and Angel gone and Cordy asleep Xander was venting his frustration at being here on Darla, plus he was still harboring some anger towards the vampire that murdered his friend.
"Too bad Willow's not here we could put some kind of witch fu on her to make her shut up."
For once he didn't bother telling his bride-to-be that she was being tactless, he happened to agree. Fred yawned loudly as her fingers clacked across the keyboard; she had been on the damn thing all night muttering somewhat incoherently the whole time.
"I'm sorry Wes I've run the numbers at least a dozen times and according to these calculations the Tro- Clon should be here now." Fred glanced over at Darla still hunched over her stomach moaning in agony. "And I'm pretty sure it's in this room."
"Heads up one baby picture making machine coming through."
Gunn pulled the machine into the room as though it were no effort at all, Willow following behind him somewhat wearily, she looked drained.
"Will are you okay?"
She waved off her long time friend, collapsing into one of the booths.
"Just need to recharge, the spell took a lot out of me."
"It was tight, Sabrina here got us through the hospital and out without a single camera spotting us, not even the people saw and trust me a black man in a hospital without some kind of bleeding wound stands out." He smirked almost proud of this fact. "I checked in with Rondell, the boys aint too happy about playing guard to the hell spawn but they'll be here."
Wes smiled thinly resembling the stuffy man from Sunnydale, all that was missing was his suit replaced by stubble and an increasingly baggy sweater.
"Good, the furies have strengthened the sanctuary spell, only our people will be able to come and go from the building. Lorne's contacts have heard rumblings of some kind of uprising but nothing substantiated, many still regard the pregnancy to be myth, he did what he could to ensure it stay that way. Now that we have the machine I suggest-"
Fred cleared her throat, still somewhat timid but becoming increasingly more confident with each passing day.
"Uh shouldn't we wait for Angel? I mean theoretically this would be the only chance he has to see his baby for the first time with his friends and family that is presuming that the Shanshu prophecy is still years from being fulfilled." Fred rambled not seeing the looks from both Cordelia and Wesley, the ones that clearly begged her to stop talking, Cordelia even going as far as to mime slitting her throat. "Although one could make the argument that given he found the love of his life now that the powers would allow the prophecy to be fulfilled within the next few years so that it would not be in vain and also so that if this baby is human he would be able to be an actual father to it."
She smiled gamely at the somewhat shocked room, Gunn was grinning at her in that way that made her ears turn pink while Giles and Wesley both looked somewhat bewildered.
"Okay and in English that would be what exactly?"
"Ok what our little Fred was saying is that we should wait for Angel before doing the sonogram which I actually agree with, wouldn't hurt to have him and Buffy here when we let Mama Vamp out of the bubble." Cordy came to stand by Fred who was shrinking under the gaze of everyone in the room.
"Yeah I got that part, it was the shoe shine thingie that made the kind of sense that's not, or was that only me?" Xander looked around the room, "Oh god was that only me?"
"Uh no, I'm confused too, I've never found any reference to a Shanshu Prophecy, Wesley?"
The younger ex watcher squirmed under the heat of the gaze Cordelia had on him, Angel had all but ordered them to never reveal to the Sunnydale gang about the prophecy but then again he wasn't the boss anymore and they had ways of making him talk. Avoiding the eyes of Cordelia he sighed.
"Some years ago Angel recovered the scrolls of Aberjahn which contained the Shanshu Prophecy. A prophecy which foretold that the vampire with a soul would play an important part in the apocalypse and through many trials, several plagues and the sort would die."
"You say one thing Xander Harris and I will feed you those shoes your girlfriend is wearing, which are gorgeous by the way." Cordy glared once more at Wesley giving her silent consent for him to continue.
"That the demon in Angel would die and the human would live, essentially he would be granted his humanity after proving himself to the Powers That Be." The room fell silent except for the groans of Darla, which they had become increasingly used, to, now no more than a humming background noise.
The door above screeched closed and Buffy and Angel both slightly mussed but not really show any signs of wear appeared in the club. Buffy peeled her jacket off and threw it over a chair turning to face the group.
"So what did we miss?"

***

Justine had been the perfect choice, parents killed when she was younger, sister murdered by vampires. It was too easy to bring her into his cause, she had passed his test, lasted long enough for him to find her worthy and now she had begun the task he had assigned to her; finding others like them. The vampires they had subdued and kept chained in the basement of a defunct factory downtown were nothing more than punching bags that they replaced every few days, it would do his new fighters no good to practice on vampires that were not at full strength.
"Very good Aubrey."
She had been a surprise, far more ruthless than he had imagined, although one tends to become that way after losing her only son, heard his screams of agony as he burnt away. Yes everybody here had their own tale of woe, reason for hating the creatures of the night.
"Halt!"
Throwing the stake without so much as a second glance the vampire disappeared in a halo of dust releasing one of his fighters.
"Never turn your back on one of them." Ignoring the fighter who was coughing from being strangled by the vampire he strode to the stairs. "Justine take charge, I'll be back by the morning with a replacement."
Why yes, she was the perfect choice, doing exactly as he said, she was a slave and he was the master, he took an almost perverse amusement in it. The world had changed; it had been over a hundred years after all. The darkness had flourished, seeping into the human coil corrupting from within; it disgusted him. Burrowed into his stomach and settled in painfully.
"Tick tock, time's wasting and Angelus aint getting any older, unlike you."
"Sahjahn." Somehow his tone remained civil although the demon that stood before him looked anything but.
"Look I've got stuff to do, plagues, massacres to watch so really could you speed this up? Take that sharp little stick there and shove it through his chest, easy as pie, comprende?"
"As I promised I will show him no mercy, my fighters are almost ready, Angelus will be dust. He will feel his skin burn away, his muscles liquefy and his bones shatter."
"This, I like the sound of, any chance you could have it done by Monday?"
Holtz glared at the demon, stalking past him into one of the many dank and dark alleys of Los Angeles.
"It shall be done, now leave me be."
No mercy, what he had was stronger than mercy; conviction.

***

The room was silent when a yawning Dawn and a satin robe clad Lorne stumbled in.
"Whoa quiet down everyone, the vibes in here could freeze an Eskimo." He shrunk down from the look Angel gave him. "Okay crumb-cake backing away. What's going on?"
Xander shrugged gesturing with his head to the obviously in pain Darla.
"Well Darla's in pain. It hurts, my god it hurts. That's pretty much all she can say. Wes was just about to check what's baking in the oven."
"Mmhm, I got that. I meant what's with the big scary traitor vibes. Heavy ones, a lot of people in this room aren't playing the honesty card and its breaking hearts faster than an Elton John at Princess Diana's funeral."
"I'm with Lorne, you've all been with the avoidy since me and Angel came in." Buffy fixed her gaze on Willow, almost always the most malleable when under her stare. "Willow?"
Her lip was chaffing from her teeth gnawing at it.
"Well, uh, it seems that, well there is this, um, you know. I think this is something that Angel should tell you."
Cordy rolled her eyes, she'd forgotten just how babble happy Willow could get when in the spotlight, they were lucky no one had asked her to sing. Taking pity on the girl she turned to her boss.
"Angel, they know." Her eyes were wide and she stressed the words, the already pale vampire seemed to lose more colour. And Fred clasped the arm of Gunn, burying her face behind him.
"Angel something you need to tell me?" She asked slowly locking her eyes on him. This was why he hadn't stayed to say goodbye after her graduation, he can't say no to her, not when those eyes are locked on him.
"I wanted to tell you, but it never seemed right. By the time I found out you were with Riley and then…" He choked up, Buffy knew how his sentence ended. And then she died. Everyone else was trying to act as though they weren't all listening in on the obviously private conversation, well everyone except Anya who was openly staring. Buffy turned to Lorne and he nodded not bothering to wait for her to ask, she led him into the rumpled bedroom and sat on the bed.
"Angel what is it because you're scaring me."
He was fidgeting, it was weird to see Angel not in control, she reached for his hands and folded them in her own, trying to settle her racing heart.
"It was during my first year here, we'd had some trouble with that law firm."
"Wolfram and Hart." Buffy added softly, vaguely remembering the details.
"Right, we found these scrolls." He glossed over how he acquired them. "And there was this prophecy. It talked about the vampire with a soul, that he would Shanshu."
"Shanshu." She repeated trying to absorb it all. "What does it mean?"
"To die." Buffy bit back a sob. "And to live." She looked at him in confusion. "That one day my demon would die and I would live, human."
Tears openly fell from his eyes mixing with Buffy's own as she cradled his head to her chest.
"Why didn't you tell me this when I came back?"
Angel pulled away to face his soul mate, his face barely a centimeter away from Buffy's own.
"It said this would only happen after numerous trials, apocalypses, plagues. There is no timeline here and I didn't want you to pin your future on something that may or may not happen for centuries."
Buffy smiled wryly, that was her Angel always making the hard choices so that she didn't have to.
"It wont be centuries Angel, I wont let it. The Powers that Be have their champion and if they want this slayer on their side they wont let it take that long either." His face was grasped between her hands, tears spilling from her eyes; hesitantly she closed the gap between them and kissed him. He clung to her wildly, afraid to let go, to open his eyes and realize this to be all a dream, one he'd had every night since he had left her side. One that he was almost too afraid to give voice too, that it would diminish it somehow, make it not come true.
"So is that it? No other secrets?" She asked as she finally pulled away from him.
"No, you already know the rest. But you, my beloved there is something you aren't telling."
"Angel, I--"
"They need to know Buffy, know where you were. I wish I could say I was sorry that they brought you back but I'm too selfish, I don't want to live in a world that doesn't have you in it."
"How can I?" She looked so young innocent, her face streaked with tears just like that day that had never happened, which she knew about and had cried with him over the last time they met.
"Because if you don't you'll end up resenting them."
Angel guided Buffy's head to his chest where his heart lay and had once beat, but just for her, it only ever beat for her.
"I'll tell them, I will but right now we have other things to worry about."
She reluctantly pulled herself from his embrace and made towards the door, her hand stretched back towards him.
"Come on."
He followed after her, their hands closely entwined.

***

Thanks for checking in. I have taken your suggestions into account and yes I am most definitely considering a return for both Oz and Doyle. There's even the slightest of chances that we will see the return of another brunette Sunnydale favourite. Well you'll see!