Chapter 24
"So have you made any headway on the Altar of Christ or about how to destroy the Eye of Eden?" Julie asked two days later. The entire group had met at the Magic Box to discuss their next move.
"Not as of yet." Giles decided to take the reins with this one. "There were a few texts that said it was possible to use the Altar as a destruction method, but none of them have said how it is possible. We're following up on a few leads, but it doesn't look too promising. Also, Angel is planning a trip to LA to sign for the Host."
"Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" Julie smiled at her boyfriend. She was surprised that she hadn't thought of that sooner. And to think she had just spent the last three months at the Hyperion with the loveable green demon. "Why didn't you sign for him when we were there?"
"Between you being back and a couple of cases that needed my attention, it had slipped my mind." Angel admitted with a shrug. Julie nodded; she understood where he was coming from. But I was thinking you and I could head up there in a day or two."
"Sounds good to me." Julie smiled. She was happy to be included in Angel's plans. Of course, he probably wouldn't be doing that if he knew her secret. Unfortunately for her, she had yet to come up with a way to get around not being able to lie. So her secret was just below the surface, and even a light scratch would release it. I should probably sing for Lorne as well."
"Why?" Spike raised a scarred eyebrow. From what he knew about Lorne, only one person had to sing for one issue.
"I'll be singing for a different issue." Julie was relieved that Spike was so easy for her to read sometimes. The Scoobie gang still didn't know that she had lost her powers, and she wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. "When Angel sings, Lorne will hopefully see something about his path in Hell. I won't be with you and Angel while you are down there. I will be up here holding the damn thing open."
"Ah, so that we can get back out." Spike nodded. It was all starting to make sense to him.
"So you and Angel will be going to LA, but is there anything we can do here while you are gone?" Willow asked. She really wanted to research something, and actually be of some help. The research had been pretty aimless the past couple of months, but she was ready to get back at it.
"Sorry Wil, but I can't think of anything for you guys to do. I assume you have researched the crap out of all the books available to you." Julie felt kind of bad breaking the news to Willow. She knew how badly the redhead wanted to help. "I guess you could try to find more books on the internet or something."
"What about the books from Wesley?" Angel suddenly remembered all the books Julie had brought back with her from the Hyperion. What surprised him was that Julie seemed to have forgotten all about them.
"Oh yeah. I guess I should go get them." Julie hopped off the table she had been sitting on. Angel frowned slightly, but handed her the car keys. "I'll be back very soon."
"Why does that make me feel uncomfortable?" Dawn asked as Julie left the store. Spike chuckled and patted Dawn's shoulder.
"Oh, for the record, you are not allowed to be in the same car as Julie is she is driving?" Buffy pointed at her younger sister. She had her patent Slayer authority look on so that Dawn would definitely follow instructions.
"Changing the subject, Angel, come on, you have to know what is wrong with Julie." Xander turned to the half vampire. "She's been spacey since she had come back to Sunnydale. She doesn't seem to be all there. So what's up?"
"I have no idea why she is all spacey." Angel shrugged. He knew Julie didn't want him saying too much about it, so he had to lie. "She has been like that since I found her. She is getting better, though. I mean, when we were at the hotel, she would hardly talk at all."
"That's bollocks!" Spike burst out. He couldn't believe that he was the only one who could see it. "I may be human, but I can still tell that it is gone."
"That what is gone?" Dawn looked between Spike and Angel. She was itching to know why she suddenly felt more comfortable around the Anti-Slayer. It didn't help that he school life was super boring, and she felt she needed to see some drama to perk up.
"Julie doesn't have her powers anymore." Spike announced, shocking everyone. "I don't know how, but she no longer has them. She can't read our thoughts, control emotions, and she can't open up the portal to Hell."
"How do you know all that?" Willow asked. She had to admit, she was mildly surprised. Every once in a while, Spike would actually come up with something plausible, and it would blow her mind.
"She would have thrown a shit-fit by now if she knew what I was thinking." Spike admitted. "I had to know. She seemed different when she came back from her trip, so I had to test my theory that she had lost her powers."
"Angel? Is that true?" Buffy was looking directly at her ex-boyfriend. She didn't care how Spike had figured it out. All that mattered to her was if it was true or not. She silently hoped that it wasn't. "Is Spike right?"
"You'll never cease to amaze me, William." Julie re-entered the Magic Box with an armload of ancient texts. Her voice got everyone's attention, and they all blushed. She set the stack of books on a table with a load bang. "It's true. I gave up my powers."
"Gave them up? Why?" Anya was beginning to panic. "Why would you do that? We needed them to open the portal. We helped you. And this is how you thank us. We spent three months researching and worrying, and now we find out that not only did you lie to us, you also made our efforts obsolete."
"I never lied to you." Julie insisted. She couldn't lie. Even without her powers, she couldn't tell even the whitest of lies. It was her curse, not her power. "Not once."
"It's like you think I am stupid, or something." Anya got right in Julie's face, much to the worry of everyone else. "You think I don't know it was you who stole the ingredients for Sleeper's Tea? Who else would know Bezoar could be replaced with Mandake leaves?"
"What is she talking about, Julie?" Angel stepped up beside his girlfriend. None of what Anya said made any sense to him. Why would Julie need Sleeper's Tea to hunt down Valhalla?
"So where did you do it?" Anya continued to push as if Angel hadn't just spoken. "You must've done it somewhere where you knew you would be safe. And we know you weren't in Sunnydale. Where were you? Tibet? Or somewhere a little closer to home?"
"Shut up, Anya." Julie warned.
"It's funny that about half way through you little hiatus, Wesley called to ask about the ingredients for Sleeper's Tea." Anya gave one last little push. But Julie wouldn't have any of it.
"I said... SHUT UP!" Julie yelled. She backhanded Anya across the room into the cash register counter. Breathing heavily, eyes blazing, Julie glared at her crumpled body.
The room remained silent as they all held their breath to see if Anya would get up. Xander sat motionless in utter shock as he watched his wife struggle to take a breath. Anya pushed herself up on shaky limbs, giving her head a rub. Slowly standing up, she straightened her clothes.
"I live on a Hellmouth. I was a Vengeance Demon for hundreds of years." Anya flipped her hair out of her now distorted face. "You are going to have to hit me a lot harder than that if you are planning on injuring me."
"You didn't tell us Anya was a Vengeance Demon again." Willow hissed at Xander, tugging on his shirt sleeve. She stopped when she realized that Xander didn't look as if he had known about this new discovery.
"And you thought I didn't know about your little trip down memory lane." Julie smiled wickedly. She was totally ready to take Anya down, even if it meant alienating herself from the people around her. "Anya, I've known since the day I met you, I just didn't say anything. Though I guess I shouldn't have expected the same courtesy from you."
"I can't just sit around and let you lead us into disaster." Anya braced herself for another attack, but Julie remained where she was. "I also think that after everything, Angel and all of us have the right to know... Where were you for the past three months?"
"I went around the world." Julie struggled to not say the complete truth. She only prayed that she wasn't asked another direct question about it. Partial truths had satisfied them in the past, but from the looks of things, she doubted it would be like that now.
"Like where?" Anya grinned, knowing she had Julie cornered.
"Paris, Budapest, Moscow, Beijing, Vancouver, Tel Aviv, and La Paz to name a few." Julie thought for a moment, trying to remember all the cities she had visited. "Of course everywhere in between too."
"And when you were awake? Where were you then?" Anya's grin turned into a full out smile. She was really enjoying watching Julie squirm.
"I was at..." Julie clamped her mouth shut. She fought hard to not continue her sentence, but she knew she was fighting a battle she had no choice but to lose. "The Hyperion Hotel."
"What are you saying, Julie?" Angel stepped forward. He moved between Anya and Julie so he could look his girlfriend right in the eyes. He planted his hands on her shoulders to keep her in one place when she tried to avoid him. "What do you mean?"
"I was at the Hyperion Hotel the whole time I was gone." Julie felt deflated as she let the truth out. "I had to go some place where I could be monitored closely and be safe. I didn't want to put you in anymore danger than I already had."
"Bull shit." Spike couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew something crazy was up, but he never thought it was would be that extreme.
"Excuse me." Julie glared at the bleached ex-vampire. "You know something I don't, Spike?"
"Bull shit." Spike repeated. "Don't sugar coat the real answer, Julie. You left because we are starting to make you feel human. And if you feel human, you can't just stomp around being angry at the world. Angel loves you, and you can't stand that. How could someone possibly love you and not be insane, am I right?"
"You're right." Julie was defeated. Though her first answer was true, Spike had read deeper and found the real big answer. "Loving me can only mean pain, so I figured that if I left to go deal with this elsewhere, things between Angel and I would fade."
"Haven't you ever heard the saying 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'?" Angel smirked. He was still deeply wounded by what Julie had done and the fact that his team in LA had lied to him about it. But he couldn't deny that he still loved her.
"I needed to see if that was true." Julie admitted. Relief flowed through her. It felt good to see him smile like that. "But it wasn't just that. Valhalla would've found me here, and it probably wouldn't have gone so well. I needed somewhere where he wouldn't think to look. He's smart, but sometimes he doesn't put two and two together very well."
"So what now?" Buffy snapped out of her shock to ask. She wasn't exactly thrilled that Julie had done that, but she couldn't turn back time to go and change it. "How are we supposed to get Angel and Spike into Hell if you lost your powers?"
"Gave up." Julie corrected. "I didn't lose them. I gave up my powers."
"And we've gone full circle." Willow jumped at the chance to learn the answer to the question that had been bugging her. "What do you mean, you gave up your powers?"
"I made a deal with a demon lord." Julie finally answered. "My powers for the ring. But don't worry. The Oracles oversaw the whole thing. I will get them back once I've convinced Lucifer to let Valhalla back into his own domain."
"Does anyone else feel like this is a trap?" Dawn spoke up. She had been mostly silent the whole time, but she felt that this was something that she needed to address.
"It's not. Don't worry." Julie insisted. "The Oracles work for the Powers That Be. There is no way they would let this become a trap."
"She's right." Angel agreed. "Though I haven't met the newest Oracles, the old ones were very just and very fair. Most importantly, they definitely stuck to their word."
"Well an Oracle is an Oracle is and Oracle." Tara shrugged. She had decided to mostly stay out of all the issues pertaining to Julie. The Anti-Slayer still made her super uneasy, but for the most part Tara didn't have a problem with her and wanted to keep it that way.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, are we all forgetting that Julie has been misleading us for months?" Faith stood up to address the group. "She has been lying to us. Not directly, of course, but still. B, you can't just stand by and let her run the show. Especially after this."
"Actually, she can." Spike stood up for Buffy as he always had. "I don't always agree with Julie, but so far she has been right. About everything. She knows more about the Eye of Eden and Valhalla than we can ever learn, and she has connections in all the right places. So I say we listen to her."
"Thank you, Spike." Julie was genuinely grateful to have Spike on her side. "And I didn't know about you, but I am ready for some action."
"What sort of action?" Buffy asked, intrigued. The thought of fighting a demon was exciting. Her muscles ached for proper use.
"While Angel and I are gone, I want you guys to figure out how to open a gateway to Hell." Julie smiled as she began to gather her up some of her tings. "When we get back from LA, we are heading under."
"When do we leave?" Angel asked. He could tell that Julie wanted to leave sooner than was previously discussed.
"Right now, if you are okay with that." Julie searched Angel's face for anything that might suggest he didn't want to leave right away. She smiled slightly when she didn't find any protests. "Willow, I am counting on you to find the spell."
"See you in a day or two." Angel slipped his leather coat on, and searched his pockets for the car keys.
"Oh, and Anya, you might want to explain...that." Julie waved her hand toward Anya's face, drawing attention to Anya's demon facade. Julie smiled triumphantly over her shoulder as she and her boyfriend left the Magic Box.
Everyone turned to look at Anya, who had changed her appearance back to normal. She blushed a little and looked very sheepish. Xander's hurt look cut through her like a knife. A very sharp serrated knife. She had never meant for it to come to this.
"Xander..." Anya began, but Xander put his hand up to stop her.
"How could you, Anya?" Xander asked after a long moment. He couldn't bring himself to even look at his wife.
"D'Hoffryn was going to kill you if I didn't become a Vengeance Demon again." Anya was so ashamed. She hated she was hurting everyone, especially Xander. "I didn't think that you would still marry me if I had told you."
"You've been a demon since before our marriage!" Xander was completely shocked. He couldn't believe that she hadn't him.
"What was I supposed to do? He was going to kill you, Xander!" Anya found her voice again, and held her head high. She had done the right thing, and she knew it. "I love you, Xander. I definitely did not want to see you die. I haven't killed anyone; I hardly grant any wishes."
"But you still grant some?" Buffy had to step in. She was not at al comfortable with killing her friends, but she would if it came to that. "How many would you say?"
"Oh, maybe two a month." Anya shrugged. "I don't really grant wishes that will hurt anyone. Just small ones. I definitely pick and choose."
"Anyone we know of?" Willow was curious. With all the crazy things that happen daily in Sunnydale, it was hard to tell what was a wish and what was caused by the Hellmouth.
"No. I don't do any work in Sunnydale. I work mostly in LA and other cities close by." Anya explained. She was happy that her friends seemed to be accepting it, but Xander still wouldn't look at her. "Xander... I'm sorry."
"I know." Xander said quietly. He finally looked his wife in the eyes, and he realized that no matter what she was or what she did, he would always love her. He opened his arms wide and hugged Anya. "I love you, you crazy demon."
Anya laughed in relief as she hugged him back. She felt so much better having her secret out in the open. In a way she was grateful Julie had done all that she done.