Disclaimer: Angel and his respective adversaries belong to Joss Whedon and Co., and all of 'Charmed' belongs to Constance M. Burge; I'm just using them for the moment

Feedback: I'd like that, believe me

AN: Well, here we are, moving up to the big finale of the first part of a my five-part series; the Source has fallen, the Seer and her Council have bitten the dust, but Angelus is still active and out to cause as much trouble as possible. And now, BtVS's Becoming meet's Charmed's Witch Way Now; the Angel of Destiny appears to the Charmed Ones when they're not only trying to deal with a witch-hunting whackjob, but also trying to prevent Angelus from unleashing Alcathla on the world…

AN 2: Usual rules apply; anything you don't see here- such as the sisters' initial reactions to the Angel of Destiny's offer- happened the same way they did in the show, with my main focus being on what's different in this reality

Sent to the Witch

Even as Paige thrust her stake into the chest of her vampiric opponent, she was already orbing over to stand a few feet away from her current position, her gaze fixed on her next opponent as he turned to look incredulously in her direction.

"Surprised?" she said, smirking slightly as the vampire looked at her like he was trying to predict her next move without even knowing how she'd pulled off her last one; evidently these suckers weren't used to encountering a 'normal' woman who could hold her own against them. "Trust me; you still haven't seen what I can really do when I want to."

Roaring in rage- whether he didn't believe her 'warning' about what she could do in a fight or simply didn't care, she couldn't tell and wasn't bothered either way-, the vampire charged towards her, only for Paige to launch a powerful kick to his chest, following it up with a palm strike powerful enough to do some damage even to his vampire-reinforced nose.

Even as she fought to stop herself from wincing at the brief pain in her wrist- she may have learned how to limit the damage she did to herself when delivering particularly powerful blows, but it still wasn't easy to hit something as tough as a vampire without feeling some of the impact herself-, Paige was spinning around to land another blow on his jaw with her right foot, sending him staggering back and moaning through a clearly broken jaw.

"Now then," Paige said grimly as she stared at the vampire before her, "I'll give you one chance- one chance- to walk away from me, OK? Tell Angelus that I'm ready for him. Clear?"

The vampire nodded weakly.

"Good," Paige said simply, before she pointed at the path a few feet away from them. "Now, get out of my sight."

As the vampire turned to hurry away, Paige waited until he was out of sight, and then slumped down against a nearby tree, her head in her hand as she stared at the ground before her.

"Oh, God…" she groaned, keeping her stake clutched in her left hand as she stared in frustration at nothing in particular. "Can't this just end…?"

She knew she was rapidly approaching the point of becoming obsessive, of course- after all, with the Source gone, the Charmed Ones now lived in a practically demon-free city; nobody was really ready at the moment to tackle the witches who'd killed the big cheese and the entire demon council-, but she just couldn't help it.

Call her obsessive, but as long as Angelus continued to walk through the streets of the city, killing innocent people and using her boyfriend's face to do it, she couldn't stop trying to counter the damage he was doing.

She knew it wasn't her fault that Angel had lost his soul, of course- as Piper had pointed out, she was hardly to blame for acting on her desire to be with the man she loved, and she could hardly have known that he was going to go evil on her after the fact- but that didn't stop her feeling responsible.

Whether unintentionally or otherwise, she'd caused this whole situation. They'd been distracted from Angelus's activities because of the more immediate threat of the Source- each foe had been personal, but Angelus could only operate on a local scale while the Source had an entire demon army available to him-, but every time Paige had looked in the paper lately, she'd seen yet another killing reported that could only have been Angelus's work; Leo had confirmed that the habit of making crosses on the cheeks of some of his earlier victims was an old 'trademark' of Angelus's kills.

He'd already killed something like a dozen people, apparently for no other reason than because he couldn't get to them directly; he didn't even seem to be selecting them based on a specific pattern, so they couldn't even try to predict who he'd go after next and thus try to protect them.

Paige knew she had to do it.

She had to find Angelus.

She had to do what Angel would have wanted and kill his demon.

If only it wasn't so hard not to think about what she'd lost when Angel's soul had been taken from him, and what she'd lose all chance of regaining when she finally saw him turn to dust…

A few metres away from where Paige currently sat on the ground, hidden behind a tree as he watched her, Angelus allowed himself a satisfied smirk as she sat on the ground.

She was definitely approaching the point where she'd be fully ready for him to turn her; this little 'game' of theirs no longer favoured him over her, as far as he could see. She'd been a fair opponent when the two of them had fought shortly after the destruction of the Judge, of course- even if part of the reason she'd won was that he wanted to see if she was willing to kill him yet-, but after taking out the Source itself on no less than two separate occasions?

He'd be prepared to bet that, the next time they met, he'd have a definite challenge in front of him if he was going to put her down for the count.

Let whatever Dru had seen in her vision a few weeks ago show up to provide them with the appropriate stakes for such an epic confrontation as theirs almost deserved to be, and the upcoming fight between them would be very interesting…

"Soon enough, lover," he whispered, smirking in a satisfied manner as he studied her sitting on the ground, her dark hair covering her neck as she stared at the stake clutched in her hand. "All that remains is the appropriate stakes, and the game is on."

With that, he turned around and walked away, leaving Paige to continue staring reflectively at the stake in her hand before she herself got up to walk away.

As he walked back into the building that had served as his home ever since his restoration to his old self, Angelus allowed himself a slight grin as he saw Spike slumped sulkily in his wheelchair, reading with the newspaper with an evidently frustrated expression on his face as Drusilla walked in from her own hunt, licking her lips and holding her stomach as though she'd disagreed with something she'd eaten.

"Nice walk, pet?" Spike asked briefly.

"I met an old man," Angelus's favoured childe said, sounding slightly sulky at the thought. "Didn't like him. He got stuck in my teeth."

As she licked her fingers briefly, she turned to look at Spike, closing her eyes and leaning her head back as she continued speaking. "But then the Moon started whispering to me... all sorts of dreadful things…"

"Like what?" Angelus asked, deciding that now was as good a time as any to announce his presence to his vampiric family.

"Oh, look who's home; back from stalking the ex already?" Spike asked teasingly.

Angelus didn't even bother to answer the crippled vampire; he just shoved past the wheelchair-confined vampire to look inquiringly at Drusilla.

"Did you have a vision?" he asked, looking inquiringly at the woman before him, not for the first time slightly regretting her insanity; it made for an exquisite torment, but at the same time it made her practically impossible to understand at times like this. "Is something coming?"

"No… it's here," Drusilla said, grinning as she looked over at the vampire. "At the museum. A tomb... with a surprise inside."

"You can see all that in your head?" Angelus asked, looking at her with a faint trace of approval. She may be more enigmatic than the Greek Oracle had been, but at times like this he was always grateful he'd turned her rather than killed her.

"No, you great poof; she read it in the sodding paper!" Spike groaned, as he held out the paper to his grandsire. Taking the offered item, Angelus studied the headline- 'Mysterious Obelisk Unearthed'- and the subtitle underneath it- 'Excavators Discover Ancient Artifact'- before looking inquiringly up at Drusilla.

"This is what you meant?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow slightly as he spoke. "Would it be what I think it is?"

"It's a surprise," Drusilla replied, leaning back with a broad grin on her face as she spoke. "The kind of surprise that can set a world ablaze and send millions of humans screaming into hell."

Angelus raised his other eyebrow appreciatively.

A surprise that could send the world to Hell?

Now that would make an appropriate fight during which to turn Paige…

"God…" Paige groaned the next morning as she slumped down in her chair at the breakfast table, her head in her hands as she stared listlessly ahead of herself, dark circles under her eyes from having been up so late.

"Another rough night, huh?" Piper asked as she walked into the room, looking curiously over at her younger sister.

"You have no idea…" Paige assured her, standing up and heading over to the kettle to prepare herself a cup of coffee. "I mean, I stake three vampires, and none of them seemed to know a thing about where Angelus is hiding out at the moment."

"Ah," Piper said, nodding slightly as she looked uncertainly at her younger sister. "Uh… no offence, but are you sure that you should be going after Angelus on your own? I mean, you've only been in the witch business for about a year-"

"He's my problem; I'll be the one to deal with him," Paige coldly informed her sister, taking a sip of her newly-prepared coffee before she groaned and glanced over at the window; her mind had been so clouded by exhaustion earlier that she hadn't registered the sound of the workmen outside. "God, haven't those guys gone yet?"

"Unfortunately not," Piper replied, shaking her head as she looked at her sister. "I asked them how long it was going to take, and they said three weeks, which means it'll probably be around three months."

"Ah," Paige said, shaking her head slightly as she took another sip of her coffee and stared in frustration out of the window. "Well, I guess all we can do is hope that the demons stay quiet; vampires we can at least tackle outside, but if we start getting thrown through the window or something we're going to have a lot of awkward questions to answer…"

"You won't," Leo said as he walked into the kitchen, his expression grim as he looked at the sisters. "Even without the issue of recent events having caused so much chaos down there they're too busy fighting each other to worry about us, our main problem definitely won't follow us to the house."

Piper blinked slightly at the grim expression on her husband's face.

"Uh… what do you mean, our main problem?" she asked, looking anxiously at her husband.

Before Leo could answer, the main door opened and Phoebe walked into the kitchen, looking impatiently at her sisters.

"We have a huge problem," she said simply. "Cole tried to contact me at work today."

"What, more whisperings?" Paige asked.

"No, this time he was channelling through a TV psychic while I was at work," Phoebe countered, as she sat down in her chair in frustration. "I mean, seriously, he sounds like he's getting really desperate now…"

"Did anybody notice?" Paige asked, unable to stop a briefly irrational spike of jealousy as she heard about Cole's latest attempt to communicate with them from the grave.

She knew it didn't make sense, but part of her couldn't help but wonder why Angel had never tried to make contact with her after his soul had been removed from his body. Was it because he wasn't a magic-based demon like Cole was, was it because his body was still walking around even if he wasn't in it…

There were several potential reasons for why he hadn't been able to make contact, of course, but that didn't stop Paige from wishing she knew conclusively why he couldn't say anything to her.

"Just my highly suspicious assistant," Phoebe said, bringing Paige's attention back to the matter at hand. "I mean, how am I supposed to move on with my life when I keep being haunted by his afterlife?"

"Any ideas how he's doing that, Leo?" Paige asked, seizing the opportunity presented to her to find out if there was any way Angel's soul could do the same.

"I don't know," Leo said apologetically, dashing Paige's hopes of getting an answer to her unspoken question. "I guess it could be because he's half-demon; maybe he's on some kind of astral plane…"

"Well, whatever; we can't risk him contacting me again," Phoebe said, shaking her head resolutely. "I have to figure out a way to get to him and find out what he wants."

"Uh, can we focus on the immediate priority here?" Piper put in, looking inquiringly over at her husband. "Leo, before Phoebe showed you said something about us having a main problem coming up?"

Before Leo could reply, he suddenly froze.

Paige blinked.

"Uh, Piper?" she asked, looking in confusion over at her sister. "Why'd you freeze Leo?"

"Yeah, I gotta admit, it does seem a bit… excessive," Phoebe added, as she indicated the view outside. "I mean, I found those guys annoying too, but did you have to freeze Leo to make them be quiet-?"

"The guys outside?" Piper repeated, turning to look out of the window in confusion. "What do you mean…?"

Her voice trailed off as she took in the sight before her; every single one of the workmen who'd been making such a noise earlier were now frozen into stillness.

"What the hell?" Piper said, staring incredulously at the sight before her. "I didn't do that; I couldn't freeze all that stuff!"

"But I can," a voice said from behind them.

Instantly spinning around, the three sisters found themselves facing an old man in a long blue robe, smiling slightly at them as he stood in the middle of the room, his arms spread out.

Paige blinked.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked, looking incredulously at the man before them.

"I'm the Angel of Destiny," the man said, in a tone of voice that made it clear that he thought that explained everything. "And I've come to change yours."

A few minutes later, Paige couldn't believe what had just happened.

Not only were they being given the chance to stop living a life like nothing she'd ever dreamed of… a life that had brought her a family and a lover she could never have imagined having while she was growing up (OK, so her lover had gone evil; Angel had still been a great boyfriend during his 'good' period)… and her sisters wanted to give it up?

Before she could think any further about that, Piper's phone started to ring and Leo moved once again.

"Uh… Piper?" he asked, looking in confusion at her. "Did you just freeze me?"

"No, the Angel of Destiny did," Piper replied, as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. "You'd better check with the Elders-"

"After telling us what you were going to say earlier," Paige interjected, as Piper raised the phone to her ear.

"Yeah, sure; we'll talk about that once I'm done here," Piper said briefly, before she hit the 'Accept Call' button and raised the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

After a moment's silence, her eyes widened in confusion. "Darryl? What's wrong?"

After a moment's silence, Piper waved Paige and Phoebe over to listen to the rest of the conversation.

"An FBI agent named Jackman called me into his office today," Darryl was saying over the line; Paige definitely didn't like the sound of an FBI agent looking over their stuff. "He did a search on unsolved cases. Apparently your names came up on way too many witness lists."

"What do you mean?" Phoebe asked, looking anxiously at the phone in absence of Darryl himself to look at. "What does he know?"

"I don't know, but I'm gonna try find out," Darryl assured them. "In the meantime, just lay low, and whatever you do, don't use any magic."

As Piper terminated the call, Paige groaned.

"Great…" she sighed, as she looked at her sisters. "So, basically, we're screwed, right?"

"No," Piper said, shaking her head. "That would take destiny out of our hands, and I don't think that's what the Angel meant-"

"OK," Phoebe said, raising a hand in a warning gesture, "ix-nay on the angel-nay talk, OK? Let's take this up to the… family heirloom, shall we?"

Gesturing towards the stairs, Phoebe swiftly headed up towards the attic, followed closely by Piper, Paige and Leo, the group remaining silent until they'd finally reached the attic and the Book of Shadows.

"Uh… am I the only one who doesn't get why coming up here helps anything?" Piper asked.

"Actually, it's pretty simple," Phoebe replied as she picked up a portable CD player that had been sitting around in the attic for a while now- Paige wasn't sure when it had first appeared, but her best guess was sometime after the fight with the original Source; he'd almost certainly have destroyed it if he'd been here at the time-, turned it on at full volume, and put it beside the window. "Since nobody's left the house empty since this morning, there's no way he'd have had time to bug the house, so he has to be listening from outside. Make a loud noise like that, and it's really kind of hard for them to hear what we're talking about."

"Ah," Paige said, nodding in understanding. "Smart move; let us hear what Leo has to say to us, mmm?"

Phoebe's expression almost instantly turned sheepish, as though she'd totally forgotten that her brother-in-law had something to tell them.

"Ah," she said, somewhat apologetically. "Y'see, I was kinda thinking more about trying to deal with the Cole issue we've got going on right now…"

"Trust me, you all need to know this," Leo said, looking resolutely at the sisters. "This morning, the obelisk containing the demon Alcathla was stolen from the museum, and the Elders."

Paige blinked in confusion.

"Sorry; Angelus stole the obelisk containing who?" she asked.

"An ancient demon," Leo replied, his expression grim as he looked at his family. "Around eight centuries ago, he came forth to swallow the world, his intention being to send it to Hell. Fortunately, he was killed by a virtuous knight who pierced the demon's heart before he could draw a breath to perform the act, causing Acathla turned to stone-"

"Sorry; he turned to stone?" Phoebe asked, looking in confusion at Leo. "What happened to them just going up in flames when they're killed?"

"Not all demons die the same way, Phoebe," Leo replied simply. "Anyway, that's not important now; what is important is that the obelisk was recently discovered and brought to the San Francisco Museum to be examined, but it was stolen last night… and, according to what the Elders told me, the guards were drained of their blood and had sustained injuries to their throats."

Paige swore.

"Angelus, huh?" she asked grimly.

"He's the only vampire who'd think that big, anyway," Leo confirmed, nodding slightly apologetically at his sister-in-law. "Trust me, I wish I had better news for you myself; the possibility of Angelus getting his hands on Alcathla is not a pleasant one…"

"OK," Piper interjected, raising a hand as she looked anxiously at her husband, "care to explain the 'send the world to Hell' thing you mentioned there for me here, because I gotta say, of everything we heard here, that's the part I'm not loving."

"Well," Leo continued, as he turned to look at his wife, "while the Underworld we know is a primarily demonic realm, it can still be accessed by most magical creatures operating on our own plane of existence. However, the Demon Universe- from which the first true demons, demons that are to the demons of today what the dinosaurs are to birds, came from- exists in a dimension separate from our own. With one breath, Acathla will create a vortex, a kind of..."

He waved his hand uncertainly as though trying to find an appropriate analogy. "…whirlpool, I think was the best term the Elders could come up with… that will pull everything on Earth into that dimension, where any non-demon life will suffer horrible and eternal torment."

"Ah," Paige said, swallowing slightly as she looked at her brother-in-law. "So… not a good thing for him to have a hold of, huh?"

Leo shook his head. "Don't worry; it's unlikely Angelus knows how to wake Alcathla up in the first place," he said, as he looked at the young part-Whitelighter. "It requires the blood of someone worthy to awaken him by removing the sword that impaled him; Angelus will never work out the definition of 'worthy' in time."

"OK," Paige said, nodding briefly at the ex-World War Two medic before she turned to look resolutely at her sisters. "Well, I think it's safe to say that we have definitely moved past the point where we can just drop out of the magic game; we need to find Angelus and-"

Piper's mobile suddenly rang, prompting the sisters to break off their conversation as Piper pulled it out and held it to her ear.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hello," an unfamiliar voice said on the other end. "Is this… Piper Halliwell?"

Piper nodded uncertainly.

"Yeah…" she said, looking up at her sisters in confusion. "Who's this?"

"My name is Jenny Calendar," the voice on the other end said. "I've been contacted regarding your… Angelus issues… by a Whitelighter- an old charge of your husband's, I understand- who gave me this number and told me to call you."

Piper's eyes widened.

"Wait a minute…" she said, her eyes wide at the implications of that statement. "Do you mean…?"

"Yes," Jenny Calender's voice said on the other end of the line. "I'm a member of the tribe that originally cursed Angelus with his soul."

AN 3: Firstly, if anyone's wondering why Jenny just called rather than visiting directly, she didn't exactly feel it would be right to just drop in on people she'd never met without calling ahead to explain herself. Secondly, she introduced herself as 'Jenny Calendar' rather than 'Janna Kalderash' because she finds it easier to use that name when dealing with people outside the clan; she's never totally agreed with the clan's policy of isolating itself from the world at large, so she doesn't want to isolate herself even further from the people around her by using a strange name. As for how this will impact the events of 'Witch Way Now'… you'll just have to wait and see