I'll Wait For You
Chapter 7 - Life Goes On
Part 1
A year after Buffy left to work for the AWP, demonic activity started to pick up in Sunnydale. Giles' last resort was to ask the Watchers Council to get Faith released from prison so she could take over the slayer duties. They refused at first and asked about the current slayer. When they learned that she had been recruited by the AWP, the Council was extremely impressed and readily agreed to have Faith released. Travers even sent another watcher to Sunnydale for her.
Xander continued to work construction and he and Anya got married. He did not like the idea that Faith was back in Sunnydale and was the slayer on the Hellmouth instead of Buffy. In his mind Buffy had once again shirked her responsibilities and left town without letting anyone know where she was going and he voiced his feelings at every opportunity.
It was early December two years later when Angelus arrived in Sunnydale and found Faith and her watcher living in the Summers' house. Not knowing that he wasn't Angel, she told him that Giles and Joyce had gotten married and she directed him to their new home across town. When he reached the Giles' house, he discovered that not only was Buffy not there, but no one knew where she was. Actually Giles knew, but he would not reveal her whereabouts. Her mother and the rest of her friends knew only that she was alive because once a year her mother got a letter from her from somewhere in the world. Giles was touched by the despondent look on Angel's face; it was the same look that he had seen on Buffy's face so often before he contacted the AWP.
Recalling her visit to Angel near the end of Buffy's senior year in high school when she suggested that he leave Sunnydale, Joyce now regretted her actions. The look of hopelessness and heartbreak on his face when he found out that Buffy was not in the city told her that she had been wrong about him and the depth of his feelings for her daughter. She showed him the two letters she had received from Buffy since she left.
"Have you not heard from her this whole year?" Angelus asked.
"No, I hope to hear from her soon; the year is almost over."
Angelus didn't know what to think. Where could Buffy be? He accepted that Joyce didn't know where her daughter was, but he knew for a fact that Giles wasn't being truthful when the watcher said that he didn't know either. He made no effort to call Giles out on the lie; it was obvious that Giles had lied to his wife and Angelus didn't want to force that lie out into the open and cause a problem that he could avoid. The fallout might cause a rift between him and his mate whenever she showed up.
Angelus could not stay in Sunnydale when Buffy was not there, so he headed for Los Angeles, not even going by the mansion; he wasn't sure why.
Unknown to Angelus and Joyce, Giles contacted his friend, Tarkington, at the AWP and informed him that Buffy's mate had reappeared and was looking for her. He was told that upon completion of her current assignment, Buffy would be released from the AWP. Tarkington was not sure how long that would be.
Part 2
When the message went out from the Aurelian Council to all clan members that Aurelius was reborn, Spike was in South America trying to convince Druscilla to take him back. When she refused, he went on a drinking binge. However, he was sober enough to get the message from his clan's Council and he headed for Sunnydale after once again pleading with Druscilla, who remained steadfast in her unwillingness to reunite with him.
When Spike got to Sunnydale, neither Angelus nor Buffy was there. He was convinced that sooner or later they would show up, so he moved into the mansion instead of returning to his former crypt. He knew that Angelus would eventually come to town looking for Buffy, so he sobered up, cleaned himself up and set about cleaning up the mansion as he waited for his sire. He didn't know why, but he felt that the return of Aurelius would not only mean a reuniting of the clan, but that his family, what was left of them, would be reunited as well.
Part 3
In LA the AI team had not heard from Buffy in years. For a while after Angel disappeared, they heard from her often, then nothing. It was like she just disappeared. Cordelia learned that the people in Sunnydale were just as distraught over Buffy as AI was over Angel when she called the Summers' house and Faith answered the phone. She was told that Buffy had indeed disappeared, taking only the clothes she was wearing and one weapon, her scythe. She hadn't even taken Mr. Gordo; Buffy never went anywhere without that stuffed pig.
Cordelia couldn't help herself, she had to ask how Faith had gotten out of prison. She was told that the Watchers Council had made arrangements for Faith to be released and had sent a new watcher to Sunnydale. She also found out that Giles and Joyce had gotten married, that Joyce sold her house on Revello Drive to the Council and it had been modified to be a watcher/slayer residence including a large library and a soundproof training room in the basement and it was now occupied by Faith and her new watcher.
At first AI began to speculate as to whether or not Angel and Buffy were together, however, that option was quickly ruled out because Angel disappeared months before Buffy did.
Part 4
About an hour after sunset, the members of the AI team were performing their usual tasks of 'busy work' in the lounge of the Hyperion Hotel - Wesley had his nose buried in a book doing research, Fred was on the computer, Gunn was, once again, cleaning and rearranging the weapons cabinet, Cordelia was thumbing through a magazine and Lorne and Doyle were enjoying Lorne's most recent alcoholic concoction when Angelus appeared in the middle of the room.
Shocked beyond belief for a few moments, the team just stared at, what most of them assumed was, Angel, before they all started talking at once. Cordelia was the first one to recover as she launched herself at Angel, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug as questions were thrown at him.
"Where have you been?"
"How could you just disappear like that?"
"Are you all right?"
"Were you with Buffy?"
Angelus was not accustomed to this kind of attention and certainly not accustomed to being questioned by humans.
"If you will all give me a minute, I will tell you everything."
He freed himself from Cordelia's embrace and sauntered over to the counter where Lorne and Doyle still stood; he motioned toward their beverage container and Doyle poured him a drink. He took a long swig from the glass and burst out laughing as he slammed the glass down on the counter. "What the hell are you guys drinking?"
Lorne and Doyle, who both knew that this was Angelus, joined him in laughter. "It's one of Lorne's concoctions," Doyle told him; "needs more alcohol."
Angelus nodded his head and said, "Yeah," as he turned around to face the others.
He then proceeded to tell the group what had happened to him from the time he left the hotel headed for Sunnydale to a few minutes ago when he appeared in the hotel lounge.
Wesley recovered first after hearing the story. "You mean that the real Aurelius is reborn and he is the one who helped Buffy defeat the First Evil?"
He was concerned about what it meant for humans around the world now that Aurelius was back; recalling what he remembered from his training with the Watchers Council, they did not have much information about the clan leader.
"Yes, he is back, all of Clan Aurelius have been notified and clan members are celebrating around the world."
Angelus tried to allay Wesley's concern when he told the ex-watcher what he knew about his clan's Ancient. Clan Aurelius was still the most powerful clan of vampires on earth, but Aurelius was gentle and peace-loving and he would not allow any vampire uprising, neither inside nor outside his clan.
"He is that powerful?" Gunn wanted to know.
Angelus chuckled. "You have no idea."
He went on to explain that considering Aurelius was more than three-thousand years older than when he was dusted, his physical, mental and emotional strengths more than likely could not be measured. If he wanted to do so, he could probably cause all human wars to cease in an instant, but he wouldn't do that. He would not interfere in human affairs. Angelus did not know Aurelius' immediate plans, but he knew for certain that there were no plans that had a negative impact on humans.
When asked if he was coming back to Angel Investigations, the team was told that he would be available, whenever possible, if something came up that they could not handle, but his primary goal was to find Buffy.
"Angel, have you any idea where Buffy is, whether she is even alive?" Wesley wanted to know.
"I know that she was alive a few months ago; I didn't know where, but I could feel that she was still somewhere in this world. For many weeks now I have not been able to feel her at all. It is just as it was when she was ... gone ... for five months. I feel nothing." Angelus could not bring himself to say the word 'dead'. "Right now, I just need to rest a bit before I resume my search."
His friends watched as he climbed the stairs to his suite in the hotel. As soon as he was out of sight Gunn spoke. "Something is off with Angel; he doesn't seem like himself. Did anybody else notice that?"
"He's just tired," Cordelia offered, so happy to have her friend back; "he'll be fine as soon as he finds Buffy. We'd better pick up some blood; who knows how long it's been since he last fed."
Gunn didn't say anything else, but he was not sure that hunger was the reason for the weird vibes that he was getting from Angel.
Upstairs Angelus chuckled to himself. 'No clue. Besides Doyle and Lorne, and possibly Gunn, the others have no clue that I am not their precious Angel, and there is no way in hell that I am living off the swill that soul boy drank.'
Part 5
Members of AWP Team 4 dragged themselves back to the home office. They had been away for nearly two months, the longest assignment any team had had in years, however, what they had accomplished was no less than miraculous. For decades two demon clans had been at war in a little known segment of their dimension, however, this war was threatening to spill over into neighboring human dimensions and this could not be allowed. These demons had regenerative capabilities, meaning that if they lost an appendage, it would regenerate itself within a couple of months.
Team 4, AWP's team elite, had been asked to come and either lead these clans through peaceful negotiations or else. Jon Tarkington knew what 'or else' meant. Either they were able to lead the clans to a peaceful settlement or they had to destroy them both. Other demon clans in that dimension were not willing to accept any other alternative; they had lost too many of their own trying to quell this war.
While the leaders of the opposing clans spoke a rough form of English, most of the demons assumed that the peace negotiators could not speak their language and that as soon as they were gone, war would resume. When they saw that one of the negotiators was a human female, what was obviously a bullish member of one of the clans approached Buffy threatening to teach her a female's proper place and he attempted to touch her hair. Before he knew what was happening, he had lost the offending hand and was on his back with the blade end of a very deadly looking weapon at his throat.
Before they arrived Jon had reminded Buffy that these demons always respected a show of strength. To have one of their strongest fighters defeated by this tiny human was the highest of insults. The slayer simply told them in their language as she spat the words -
"Those of you who want to discuss peace, meet here in one hour; the rest of you, come prepared for war. Your final war."
Leaders of the opposing clans, including the bad-ass who had lost a hand earlier, met at the appropriate place and time dressed in what was assumed to be their finest attire, ready to discuss their idea of peace, which turned out to be total annihilation of the opposing clan.
"You didn't think this would be easy, did you?" Jon whispered to Buffy.
Arriving at a peaceful settlement was a long and arduous affair. The peace negotiations went on for weeks until 'old no-hand' decided he had had enough. He suggested that each clan should choose a champion to fight for them and the clan whose champion lost the fight would have to agree to be slaves of the other clan. Before anyone could say anything, he declared that he was choosing the female peace negotiator for his champion.
Buffy was furious as she jumped up and yelled, "Are you insane? I would never be your champion."
She didn't calm down until Jon touched her on the arm and said, "Buffy, he's joking."
She noticed then that everyone else was laughing, including 'old no-hand'. She apologized profusely and blushed even more.
It wasn't until negotiations neared an end that the members of Team 4 found out that the two opposing clans were actually members of the same clan, the Shgynkny, and the dispute had started between two brothers.
"What a sad waste of life," Jon said out loud to no one in particular.
"Indeed," 'old no-hand' replied.
At that moment he reminded Buffy of Giles.
"It's time for me to go home," she told Jon as they approached the portal that would take them back to earth.
Part 6
Buffy was elated when Tarkington informed her that her mate had resurfaced and was searching for her. She finalized her affairs with the AWP and headed for Sunnydale. The closer she got to California, the better she was able to communicate with Angelus. She didn't understand this; she had never been able to communicate with Angel while she was awake. She didn't know exactly where Angelus was, but she sent him a message through the link that she shared with Angel - she would meet him at the mansion in Sunnydale.
In the meantime in LA the members of AI were questioning whether or not they should try again to awaken Angel. He had been asleep for two full days. Before they could decide one way or the other, they heard footsteps running down the stairs.
"Angel, what...?" Cordelia started to ask.
"I have to get to Sunnydale."
"What's happened? Have they found Buffy?"
"She said she'd meet me at the mansion. I have to go now."
Before anything else could be said, Angelus disappeared.
End of Chapter 7
