Chapter 29
Cordelia and Wesley were setting up a magical circle on the floor in front of Angelus's cage while he looked on. The skull was at the center, while twigs were arranged in the shape of a circle around it. White candles were lit on the perimeter. The rest of the gang stood around in a semi-circle. Buffy stood off to the side of the cage, watching the goings-on.
"Have you all lost your mind?" Angelus asked. "You're going to use black magic to restore my soul? People, this never goes well. Am I the only one paying attention?"
"Ten-to-one, the entire hotel gets sucked into a hell dimension." Lilah said.
"You, two…. with the shutting up." Gunn said.
"Talk about eleventh-hour desperation. Face it, you're grasping. No jar, no soul."
Connor looked over at Angelus while lighting a candle. "You sound pretty desperate yourself."
"Do you have the vial?" Cordelia asked. Wes handed her a vial and she poured the contents of the vial on the skull.
"Let's be realistic." Angelus said. "Even if your precious champion makes another guest appearance, you can't stop the apocalypse. Bottom line is you're going to lose. The last thing you smell will be each other's blood."
"That's you're opinion." Fred said.
"You tell him, honey." Lilah said sarcastically.
"You, shut your fat mouth."
"Look at you…. heroes." Angelus said. "So tangled up in your own crap, you can't even find the world to save it."
"Does everyone have their talismans?" Cordelia asked.
"Hell, even Angel knew you never stood a chance. You want to know why he really let me out? Because he finally gave up. He knew you were all too weak and selfish to stop what's coming. He gave up his soul because he gave up on you."
"You're right. Buh-bye." Cordelia gestured with her hand, throwing sand at Angelus and sending him flying to the back wall.
As Wesley chanted, Angelus stood up. "Don't kid yourselves….I'll still be around long after your corpses rot." White smoke emanated from the skull and purposefully meandered toward Angelus. "I promise you. This isn't…. The end." The smoke surrounded Angleus's body, lifting him off the ground. He winced and screamed in pain. The skull in the magical circle exploded and the smoke disappeared and Angel fell to the ground.
Buffy put her hands on the bars of the cage and looked down. "Angel?
"I'm so sorry." Angel said.
"It worked." Lorne said.
"Did it?" Connor asked.
Angel sat up. "Fred."
"What?" Fred asked.
"You came down the stairs. You had blood, and I grabbed you."
"I'm fine."
"The spell, it worked. I feel it." Cordelia said.
"We have to be sure." Wesley said.
"Get Lorne to read him." Gunn said.
"Angel, are you aware of what's happened?"
"I'm back." Angel said. "There's, uh, something else. Something worse…. worse than the…."
"The Beast, yes. And we need your help to fight it, but first you have to sing for Lorne…."
"I, uh…."
"To prove it's really you."
"Oh, right. Raindrops keep falling on my head…. do do do do…. Just…."
"Oh yes. Yes! Sweet fancy B.J. Thomas, it's him. It's Angel." Lorne said.
"You sure?" Gunn asked.
"Yes, yes! The aura has totally changed, and the vibe screams soul! Ha ha! Oh, bless you and your beautiful land line to the PTB, honey!"
"He's back." Connor said.
"Then we can let him out." Fred said.
"No. I'm staying in here." Angel said. "I'm doing what's best for the group."
"Sine when is locking up the leader what's best for the group?" Cordelia asked.
"Since when does your vision come with a guarantee? For all we know, this spell is only temporary, and God forbid…. I can give orders from down in here. And the new ones are: no more back-biting, fist-fighting, fraternizing, or vengeance. From now on, you focus on one thing: making it out alive. Cause I'm only going to say this once: what Angelus told you was a lie. I haven't and will never give up on you. We'll get through this thing. Together."
"I can't believe we didn't crush you people years ago." Lilah said.
"Wes, you and Fred get back to Lilah's books. We need any new information we can on this new player. Lilah, make some coffee. Earn your keep around here." Wesly, Fred, and Lilah went upstairs. "Lorne, I want you out working low-pro real estate. If this thing is bigger than the Beast, it's gonna be laying down roots. And it'll need square footage."
"Good to have you back, boss." Lorne walked upstairs.
"In the mean time, Connor, Gunn, work damage control. Sweep the surrounding blocks for civilians. Save who you can. Connor, it's me."
"I know." Connor said. He walked upstairs after Gunn.
Angel looked at Buffy. "Buffy…. I…."
"Forget about it." Buffy said. "Unlike most people, I know the difference between Angel and Angelus." She looked at him for a long moment and then walked upstairs.
Angelus nodded and looked at Cordelia. "Cordy…."
"No." She said.
"I didn't say anything."
"True, but I thought I should tell you upfront that I don't take orders from guys too scared to step out of their cages."
"I made the right call. This way, everybody stays safe."
"And you don't have to look anyone in the eyes. Bonus."
"I hate that you saw me like that."
"Guess it's only fair. Besides, you're not him. You think we don't get that, but we do."
"What if…. Wh-what if the spell doesn't last?"
"The Powers need a champion, Angel. And obviously they need one pretty bad the way things are going. Who knows, you might even be their only hope, Obi-Wan."
"So, how do I go up there?"
"Easy. Leave him and what you did inside the cage." Cordelia unlocked his cage and opened the door. Angel walked out. "You're not Angelus."
Angelus grinned and pulled Cordy up to him violently. "Guess again!"
Cordelia kneed Angelus in the groin, punched him in the face, and shut herself inside the cage, holding onto the bars. Angelus reached in and grabbed her, pulling her head forward and knocking it on the bars. Cordelia fell to the ground unconscious.
"Stay down!"
Angelus trotted upstairs, letting his vampire face fade away and smiling. Fred was working in the office when Angelus walked up behind her, still impersonating Angel. Fred gasped. "Sorry if I scared you." He said.
"Angel…. I thought…."
"Cordy let me out. Actually, I…. I asked her to be let out. You know what? Never mind."
"No, wait. I'm the one who's sorry. After everything you've been through, I…."
"It has been a little rough."
"On all of us. The stress is…."
"I know I could use a drink." Fred looked at him, wide-eyed and frozen. "Now, you see? That's what I was afraid of. For the rest of your life, you'll only see this evil thing."
"You're my friend, Angel. Past is past, and done is done."
"Thanks, Fred. Can I get a hug?" They heard something crash in the lobby and they both turned to look. When Fred looked back at Angel, he was gone.
A pile of broken coffee mugs and napkins were strewn on the floor. Lilah was standing behind them. Connor and Gunn were in the lobby too. No Buffy. Angelus noted.
"It's my inner megalomaniac. I, uh, rebel at serving coffee." Lilah said.
"Angel, I thought you were confined…." Wesley said.
Angelus edged toward the door. "Change in plans. Cordy actually talked me out of staying down there. Now, I've got my own mission."
"Which is….?" Connor asked.
"Too dangerous, son. I'm afraid you can't go with me. Where's Buffy?"
"She went out to patrol."
"By herself?" Connor nodded. "Maybe I'll catch up to her, then." Angelus rushed out the door. He roamed through the streets getting more and more annoyed. It was like a war zone, with fires going, dead bodies littering the streets, and abandoned vehicles blocking the road. People were fighting and screaming in the streets.
"Like shooting fish in a barrel. Where's the fun in that?" He saw a little girl running out of a building and grabbed her, but she was a vampire too. "What happened to pedestrians? Human pedestrians! Is there no fast food left in Los Angeles?"
Buffy walked through the relatively quiet graveyard. The whole of Los Angeles was going to hell, but she'd managed to find the one graveyard that no one was messing with. It had been an hour since the spell to restore Angel's soul had taken place. She was sure Angel had felt what she felt. The spell wasn't full. He was only partially Angel. That's why he had opted to stay in the cage.
She had decided to leave on patrol to get away from everything. She had cooped herself up with Angelus for too long. His words were starting to get to her head. So, patrolling seemed to be the first thing that came to her mind when she wanted to get away. She had killed a few demons and staked about nine vamps on her way to the graveyard. So, she figured she's reach her quota on her way back to the hotel.
Surprisingly, the chaos had moved on to a different part of the city because she only ran into three vamps which she quickly dispatched. When Buffy got back to the Hyperion, the lobby was deserted. "Hello?" No one answered. She checked the monitor to see if Angel was still in the cage, but it was shut off. She headed downstairs to look and saw that the door was open and Angel was gone. "Angel?" She walked back upstairs. "Anybody?"
Connor appeared on the landing on the second floor. "I thought I heard you."
"Where is everyone?"
"Upstairs. Angelus…. Cordelia let him out and he killed Lilah."
"What?!"
Connor came down the stairs and hugged Buffy tightly. "Are you ok? He said he was going to look for you."
"He didn't find me. You mean…. Angelus is loose?" Connor nodded. "Oh my God…." Buffy's knees gave way and she felt her head swim.
Connor caught her and carried her over to the couch. "Just breathe."
Lorne came downstairs. "Where did…. Oh thank the heavens, she's all right!" He rushed down the stairs and came to Buffy's side. "Are you all right, sweet pea?"
"Angelus…."
"She's a little faint." Connor said. "She didn't know."
Lorne picked up a magazine and fanned Buffy with it. "It's all right. You'll be ok and we'll catch him and put him back where he belongs. Don't fret."
"He killed Lilah?" Buffy asked.
"Wes and Gunn found him feeding on her upstairs."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"It's not your fault, dumpling. I'm the one that said it was him. My empathy must be going hay-wire with all the chaos."
"And Cordelia let him out." Connor said.
"I have to stop him." Buffy sat up. "He's out there…. He's killing people. He'll come back…."
"Don't worry. I'm calling up some friends of mine and we're going to work a little magic. This place will be demon-violence-free in a jif."
Gunn and Fred brought spices to Lorne, who was talking on the phone at the front desk. Buffy, Cordy, and Connor were also in the lobby. Buffy sat on the couch nervously playing with her fingernails. Connor sat beside her and patted her knee or shoulder every now and then. Cordelia sat on Connor's other side with her leg bandaged where Angelus had thrown an arrow into it.
"Mm-hmm. Yeah, ok. All right, well not so fast, girls. Yeah, one at a time. Yeah, ok. Violence restrained. Uh-huh. Go on."
"That's everything we could find." Fred said.
Lorne took the phone away from his ear and covered the mouthpiece with his hand. "They say we need bloodroot."
"Bloodroot?" Gunn asked. "Man, we just raided the spice rack in the kitchen. There ain't no bloodroot in there."
Lorne put phone to his ear again. "Uh, 86 on the bloodroot, ladies. Anything else we can…. Well, yeah, I have, uh, paprika, ginger, allspice, clove…. Cloves? That'll work? Oh, got it. Beautiful. Hey, soon as FTD's delivering in the city again, expect a big Thanks a Bunch bouquet from me, girls. Ciao!" He hung up.
"Looks like we got our home security spell." Cordelia said.
"Right you are, missy. As soon as we sprinkle burnt clove dust around the perimeter, light a few candles, incant a few choice phrases, we'll be…."
"Hurry up and do it." Connor said. "The sooner we quit playing with magic tricks, the sooner we find and kill Angelus."
"Wesley says we shouldn't go after him." Fred said.
"I don't give a flying slop what Wesley says. He's not my boss. Where the hell is he, anyway? How long does it take to chop off Lilah's head?"
"Boss or no, he's right when he says we stay together till we know what we have to do." Gunn said.
"I know what we have to do. Angel told me. Something goes wrong, I kill him."
"Oh ho ho. Now you listen to him?" Lorne said.
"Aren't you forgetting something? Angel's soul is still out there somewhere. That means there's still a chance we could bring him back." Fred said.
"How many people have to die before we give up on that plan?" Connor asked.
"How many people have to die without Angel around to save them?" Buffy asked him.
"It's way too late for that. I've seen his true face. And he's tasted blood. There's no going back now. He has to be destroyed. And I'm the destroyer." Connor turned to walk out the front door.
"Connor, stop." Buffy snapped, standing up. He turned to look at her. "Lorne, start on that spell. As soon as it's done, Gunn, you, Connor, Wesley, and me are loading up and going out. Are we all clear on the fact that we are not killing Angelus? We're going to capture him and bring him back."
"Finally, someone with a plan!" Gunn said.
"But Angel said…." Connor started.
"I don't care what he said." Buffy snapped. "As long as Angel's soul is out there and there's a way to restore it, Angelus lives. I don't care if you like the plan, but that's it." Connor huffed and sat down on the couch. "Lorne, I'm not hearing chanting."
"On it." A few minutes later, Fred lit white candles as Lorne read off the incantation. "Violence restrained, demons disarmed. For mortals within these walls, no harm. Protection and safety this charm doth endow to make this shelter a sanctuary now."
Everyone looked around, waiting for something to happen. "That it?" Gunn asked.
"Well, if we followed the recipe…. should be cake. A demon violence-free zone cake."
"I don't know, Lorne. It doesn't feel like anything's different." Fred said.
"Cause it's not." Connor said. "Like every other lame spell you people try, it didn't work. It never works. I've pretty much concluded that magic sucks. I mean, if I were you guys, I wo…." Buffy let Lorne sneak up behind Connor and try to hit him with a candlestick while Connor was talking, but a force field stopped him and sent him backward.
"See? It worked." Buffy said to Connor. "So, stop bitching."
"It also smarts like the dickens." Lorne said, leaning against the front desk in pain.
"Sanctuary spell's working?" Wesley asked, walking out of the basement.
"Yeah, like a charm. Literally."
"Ok," Buffy said loudly to catch everyone's attention. "Let's get down to it. Wesley and Connor, start loading up. We're gonna keep this hunting party tight. Gunn, arm yourself how you like, but I want you to carry the tranq gun. If I can't take him down, I want you to be ready to take the shot. If Angelus needs putting down, I'll be the one to do it. Now, I want to see weapons."
