Part Four
'You do not belong here,' a robotic voice said behind him. Spike turned to look, a small metal droid was hovering in the air - shooting out red rays of light, scanning him. 'William. Bloody comma The. Vampire class. You are not of this world.'
'Right, yeah.'
'You must report to interdimensional immigration c308-'
'Not bloody likely,' Spike interrupted. He tilted his head and scrutinised the floating droid, 'so you recognise who everyone is, right? You're the welcoming party.'
'That is correct.'
'Am I the only bloke to have jumped through into this world recently?'
The droid went quiet, bobbing up and down in the air - and there was a rattling sound, like files being flipped through at speed. '48 hours ago, Greenway, Alonzo. Human Class.'
'Yeah? And … I don't suppose you happen to know where in this godforsaken, blade runner dimension he's got to?'
The rattling noise sounded again. 'Delta quadrant, subsection 4 - east side.'
'Right then,' Spike smiled with satisfaction. He grabbed hold of the droid - which began to beep in alarm. 'You're comin' with me - in case he moves…' and he strode off through the building, coming out a docking station just as a large, silver bullet train hurtled past through the air. He vamped out - waited for the last carriage, and then jumped onto the train - hanging onto the back of the carriage with one hand, and keeping the droid safely tucked under his other arm.
The team made their way down to the lowest sub section of the Wolfram and Hart basement. As they got to the bottom of the steps they found their way blocked by a web of green laser beams. 'What is this?' Fred asked, looking at the crisscrossing green light nervously.
'Let's find out,' Angel stepped forward - and as soon as he crossed the path of the laser net, triggered an alarm. A red light flashed on the wall and a siren sounded and then, all around them, doors slid open and people began to walk out - walk towards them. The team gripped their weapons.
'Zombies,' Wesley said. Gunn groaned, 'not again,' he raised his axe and chopped through one of the slow moving corpses before swinging at another. 'They better not bite me this time.'
They all bunched together, into a square, fighting back to back as the zombies circled them, hitting out with their weapons. The reanimated corpses fell - but more would always appear, coming out of the doorways in a never ending stream.
'Why has this place always gotta use zombies?' Gunn grunted as he swung again and again with his axe.
'Cheap - I guess,' Fred said from behind him. Her sword scythed through the air and decapitated one of her attackers.
'We don't have time for this,' Angel cried impatiently. He didn't have a weapon - and was fighting with his fists and feet, throwing punches and landing kicks. 'The whole building's gonna blow.'
'You and Fred go on,' Wesley told him, stabbing a zombie and then kicking it away from himself. 'Charles and I will hold them back.'
Angel grabbed hold of Fred's arm and pulled her through the crowd of Zombies - heading onward. She glanced back as she ran, and caught one fleeting glimpse of Wesley, inundated with the walking dead - and then they were out of sight, and she and Angel were nearing their goal.
The slayers were taking five - stretching out to cool down, drinking from their water bottles. 'So - uh - I guess you do a lot of training with Angel, then?' Buffy asked. Although her relationship with Angel was so long ago now, although there had been other men since he had left, she still found the thought of his new life weird and uncomfortable. And found the idea that Cordelia was a big part of that, that she knew Angel better than Buffy did now, even weirder. She wasn't jealous - but maybe jealous adjacent. Not that she would let Cordelia know that.
'Well, I used to,' Cordelia shrugged, and took a long drink from her water. 'Years ago - he taught me the moves, how to handle a weapon properly. I could handle myself in a fight pretty good long before the slayer stuff. And that's thanks to him … but a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then.'
'You don't train together anymore?' Buffy furrowed her brow.
'Well - it would be kind of hard, what with him being at Wolfram and Hart and everything. I don't exactly just waltz into the evil empire every week for a work out.'
Buffy looked even more confused now, 'wait - you're not at Wolfram and Hart? You didn't go with Angel?'
'Of course not!' Cordelia looked scandalised at the very notion and shook her head vehemently. 'The rest of the team went with him but … Me and Doyle? No way - we know what that place is. Besides, Doyle's visions are from the PTB - we can't just go work for the other side. Someone has to keep helping the hopeless. Some one has to keep working the mission.'
'And that's you and Doyle?'
Cordelia nodded. Buffy was flummoxed. Wolfram and Hart might be evil but, from what she knew about them, they were connected. And they were rich. They had offered the team the full 401K package. Power, influence, tech, cars … money. Everything Cordelia Chase had always valued above all else. Everything she had lost back when her folks got busted for tax fraud. Cordy - the Cordy she thought she knew - should have jumped at the chance to lay her hands on that much wealth so easily.
But now it turned out that she had flat out turned it down, and sacrificed her family in doing so. Just so she could be the champion of L.A and help the hopeless. She'd passed over power and wealth for the good of others … that was inconceivable. 'Why didn't you go with him?' Buffy asked. She couldn't figure it out at all.
'He had to go - he signed his life away, but he needs to know that there are still champions out there, doing his job for him - completing his mission. We couldn't go - we have to do his work for him. And it's our work too.'
'But weren't you even tempted?'
Cordelia shook her head, 'the mission is what matters.' She saw the flustered look on Buffy's face and laughed. 'Buffy - I like helping people. It's important and it's worthwhile and I did it willingly long before I was chosen to do it. Me and Doyle make a difference in innocent people's lives. That's worth so much more than a designer wardrobe, a penthouse apartment and a carpool. I mean - sure - I'd like that stuff, but not if the cost is selling my soul and turning my back on what really matters.'
'Huh,' Buffy couldn't think of anything else to say. She just stared at Cordelia, who wriggled uncomfortably under her gaze. The awkward moment was, thankfully, broken when the door to the training room was pushed open and Giles came rushing in. 'Buffy - I've just had a text message … Dawn…'
Doyle and Dawn had turned their table over and were now crouched low behind it, using it as a shield, whilst the demons smashed the place up. Her phone lit up - and Dawn checked her messages. It was Giles: Buffy was on her way. She nodded to herself and then showed it to Doyle. 'So now we just sit tight,' he said under his breath, low enough that only she could hear him.
But other customers, without the knowledge that rescue was at hand - and far less used to hostage situations than Dawn and Doyle, were freaking out. One woman wouldn't stop screaming. A small group of teenage girls were huddled in a corner - shaking and crying - and the body of one man already lay in the middle of the floor. He had tried to challenge the demons … they had broken his neck.
'Will you shut up?' One of the demons roared at the screaming woman, pointing its machete at her, 'before I shut you up.' The woman took one look at the curved blade and began to scream louder. The demon took a step towards her.
'We can't just do nothing,' Dawn hissed at Doyle. Looking very much like he wished that was exactly what they could do, he nodded. 'You stay down,' he told her quietly, and then shakily he got to his feet.
The demon raised his blade, the woman screamed even louder. 'Hey, bud!' Doyle called across to it. It turned to look at him. 'Yeah,' he nodded encouragingly, 'right,' he held his hands up to show he was no threat. 'Now - I think maybe we could all do with calmin' down here - tempers are frayed … things are gettin' outta hand - that helps nobody.'
Down on the floor, Dawn stared at up him, 'what are you doing?' she hissed.
'Stallin',' he hissed back at her. He looked back around at the demons. 'Now - I know you fine gentleman came here for a reason, and I'm thinkin' that reason wasn't just wavin' swords in frightened people's faces. You want the money?' He looked over at the trembling waitress hiding behind the counter. 'Open up the cash register,' he said to her, 'let 'em have it.' He turned to the screaming woman, 'and if we're all real quiet, they can take their money and go - and we can all go about our lives. So what do you say?' he asked the demons, 'we'll be quiet and you take the money and leave?'
'I say…' the demon walked over to Doyle, looked him up and down and then sniffed. His expression became one of disgust. 'I say you aint human,' he said picking the half demon up by his shirtfront, one handed. 'And we aint gonna listen to what some little halfbreed has to say.'
He hurled Doyle across the room. The Irishman slammed into the opposite wall and fell to the floor. Hidden behind her table, Dawn let out an involuntary yelp. A thousand plans flew through her mind and she discarded them all, realising that Buffy wasn't here yet - and Doyle was out for the count - and so all that left was her. Just like Doyle had done, she slowly got to her feet.
Spike let go of the bullet train as it hurtled through the air, and landed on a docking station in the delta quadrant. The droid was still bleating away in alarm under his arm. He ignored it - and entered the building. 'This is the place?'
'After a bit more frantic beeping, the droid replied 'affirmative' and then went back to its distressed alarm tones. 'Well, tell me when I'm getting warm,' he said to it - and made his way through the long corridors.
The holding cell had risen fully out of the ground now, steam was pouring off it. The demons stood around it in a circle and continued to chant. They broke off when, with a strangled scream, one of them went flying through the air and slammed into the opposite wall. Turning, they saw Angel standing in the doorway - glowering. 'Wanna tell me what's going on?' he asked. The demons glanced at each other and the - with a wild battle cry - all charged at the vampire.
'This isn't gonna work,' Dawn said - she spoke calmly and, like Doyle had done, had raised her hands to show she was no threat. But when the massive demons turned to look at her she swallowed hard, already regretting the decision to step in.
'Oh yeah, little girl, why's that?'
'Because you're asking for trouble.'
The demons laughed - and one stepped right up into her face. 'We're demons - we like trouble.'
Dawn shook her head, 'not this kind.' The demons laughed again. 'Are you gonna stop us?' It sized her up, 'you and what army?'
It was suddenly kicked across the length of the diner. 'That would be me,' Buffy announced.
'Greenway, Alonzo, Human class,' the droid suddenly beeped, 'straight ahead.' Spike slowed down his pace. There were two men up ahead of him, standing in the corridor, talking. One was dressed in the strange clothes of this strange dimension - but the other was in a normal business suit. He was short and pudgy, with smooth skin and thinning hair and a large pair of spectacles; he didn't look much like a supervillain. He looked like a tax accountant.
The men shook hands and the one that belonged in this dimension walked away. Spike stalked closer. 'Alonzo Greenway?' he asked.
Greenway looked up, irritated, 'what's it to you?'
Spike let go of the droid - so both his hands were free. 'I've been sent to collect you.' He whipped his right fist out and smacked the small, soft man a hard right cross.
Angel kicked one demon in the head and then ducked under the arm of another, rolling across the floor. 'Angel!' Fred threw him her sword and he caught it deftly in one hand and jumped back to his feet. He slashed the sword through the air and beheaded one demon and then used the blade to plunge through the chest of another. He kicked the skewered demon away from himself. 'Fred - shut that thing down!' he yelled at her.
She ducked past another demon and ran towards the control panel, 'oh boy,' she began to study the way the device worked, muttering under her breath as she examined the switches and dials and levers. 'Something is powering this, but where…'
Angel threw another punch with his left hand and then decapitated another demon. 'Sometime soon, Fred!' he yelled - as the tank beneath his feet began to rumble and vibrate. The vents released a whole more steam.
'It's coming!' Fred called back, still running her hands over the control panel and trying to trace back what was controlling what. A sudden spark of electricity shocked her and she pulled her hand back with a yelp, 'OK - something different,' she murmured. The tank rumbled again - and she peered over the side of the panel to look at it. Something very large, and very scary was swimming inside of it - and Angel was standing right above it, still fighting the demons. 'Oh crap…' she muttered.
Before the demon had even hit the other wall, Buffy had spun around and kicked the machete out of the second demon's hand. Behind her, Cordelia was taking on the third demon, kicking it in the face repeatedly, forcing it to give up all the ground.
Dawn sank back down behind the table - but kept her eyes fixed on the fight. Buffy and the demon were trading blows, throwing fast and furious punches. But behind her - the first one was back on its feet and creeping back up. 'Buffy look out!' Dawn cried - and Buffy turned, saw a giant, green fist swinging her way and ducked - so the demon hit its own brother instead.
Over the other side of the diner, Cordelia had backed her own demon right into a corner - but with an enraged roar, it lashed out with a mighty fist and sent her spinning off. She slammed against the counter and the demon pounced.
Down on the floor, Doyle came round, shook his head - and saw Cordy pinned down by the very demon that had thrown him across the room. Without even thinking, he morphed into his spikes and launched himself at the demon. He heard several of the other customers squeal in terror as he changed form right in front of them - but he didn't have time to worry about that. He landed behind the larger demon and began to heave it away from Cordy. He wasn't strong enough to pull it clear, but he was able to get it to stagger back a few paces before he lost his balance again, and that gave Cordelia room to slide out from under it and go back on the offensive.
She smacked it a hard backhander and then ducked beneath it's flailing arm, seizing it and twisting it up the demon's back into a hammerlock. It roared in pain, and she twisted harder - until it's hand opened up involuntarily and it dropped its weapon. She caught the blade in other hand before it fell to the ground, and then kicked the demon away from herself.
It stumbled and fell to the ground, and she advanced - blade raised. But out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Buffy, trapped between the two other demons and taking a beating.
Greenway crumpled as soon as Spike's fist hit, but that didn't stop Spike sticking the boot in as the man fell. Once on the floor, he started to scrabble away trying to get some distance between himself and this man who had just turned up and started attacking him. 'Nope!' the vampire sprang forward and grabbed hold of him again, hauling him back to his feet. 'It's not gonna work. You're going home.' He smacked him again just for the sheer pleasure of it.
As Greenway realised that this man meant business - and more than that, he meant home as in earth, he began to struggle in earnest, twisting and turning and trying to pull himself loose from Spike's grip. When that didn't work he began to cry out for help. 'Kidnap! Kidnap!' he screeched, still twisting in an attempt to yank himself free. Spike punched him again, 'shut your hole, mate.'
He loosened his grip on the man, just a fraction, as he reached inside his coat pocket to pull out the crystal.
'I'm not going back there,' Greenway told him. 'I'm not going back just to go to jail.' Spike, stopped reaching for the crystal and hit him again. 'You should have thought of that before you slaughtered five holy women you daft git.'
'I'm not going back,' Greenway repeated - and then raised his voice once more, 'kidnap!'
A whole fleet of security droids came zooming down the corridor from all directions and surrounded the two men, using their lasers to scan the little tussle going on in front of them. 'Disturbance in the delta quadrant,' one of the robotic voices announced, 'send security team.'
'Piss off,' Spike snarled at the droids - but that was a bad idea - as they suddenly fired out green beams of light, which acted as a laser cage and trapped the two men in place. 'Cease and desist,' the droid told them, 'await the arrival of the security team. You will be processed.'
Spike dropped his hold on Greenway, who stumbled back a few paces and grinned at him. Blood was trickling down from his nose. 'See - I told you I wouldn't go back. Everything here is recorded - the security services are gonna see you attacking me for no reason. I'll go free - and you can enjoy some quality time in their penitentiary.'
'Not bloody likely.' He took a swipe at the green lasers - but there was a buzzing sound and he withdrew his arm with a yelp of pain, staring at it where the green light had burned it. 'So we can't get out of the laser cage?' Spike asked.
'Not until security lets us out,' Greenway told him, looking delighted. But Spike was unperturbed. He pulled the crystal out of his pocket. 'Yeah - what if we use a different door?' He began to chant the mystical words Doyle had taught him, and then, inside the laser cage, the air rippled and tore and a large, swirly portal opened up. 'Sorry, Greenway,' Spike said, 'but this is your off-ramp.' He grabbed hold of the other man, who began to shriek once more - and they both fell through the tear in the universe.
Angel swung his sword and then leapt high into the air, somersaulting and then landing, he swung his sword again and slashed another demon across the chest. It coughed up blood and then fell to the floor. He turned to the next one. 'How's it coming, Fred?' he yelled, ducking a hit.
Fred didn't even answer, she was too busy working - muttering as she went - trying to solve the puzzle of the control panel. She was flicking switches and turning dials and she knew she was close. It was responding to her, making noises that told her she was on the right track.
Meanwhile Angel had lost his sword - it dropped from his hands and slid across the floor. The two remaining demons converged on him - one picking up the fallen sword and the other pushing him against the wall. With a scream of fury the demon plunged the sword into Angel's heart - drove it right through him and skewered him to the wall. They backed off, looking pleased with themselves and turned their backs, heading to stop Fred.
Behind them, Angel gasped and blinked with pain. And then, with a great groan, he pulled the sword right out of his body - and slashed it through the air in two swift strokes. Both demon heads rolled across the ground. 'It had to be made of wood, you jackasses,' he told them.
The control panel beeped - and the metal iris that had covered the crystal opened up. 'Yess!' Fred grinned to herself, 'I'm good.' She took the crystal out of the panel and the whole thing made a powering down sound, the holding cell began to sink back beneath their feet.
Angel jumped down, as he felt the ground begin to move beneath him. 'It's done?' he asked Fred, 'you stopped it?'
'It wasn't even that hard.'
He stared around at all the dead demon bodies that lay, mostly headless, scattered around the chamber. 'But the question is - why did they do this in the first place?'
'Buffy!' Instead of using the machete she had won, Cordelia instead tossed it towards the beleaguered slayer. It flew through the air in a graceful arc and Buffy's hand shot out and caught it, 'thanks.' The light gleamed on the blade as it sliced through the air. Slashing in one direction, she slit the throat of the first demon and then, whipping it back across and bringing it down before jerking it back up quickly, she disemboweled the second.
At the same time, Cordy booted her demon hard in the groin. It crumpled, and she took that moment to run up the wall and flip off over its head, landing behind it and snapping its neck, now it was at a more reachable level. She dropped the dead body to the floor and looked around, breathing heavily.
Buffy was likewise breathing heavily, but she was smiling as well. 'You went for the groin,' she said.
'Well - a wise slayer once told me that keeping it simple is an underrated tactic.'
'You did good.'
Cordelia grinned back. 'Thanks - you too.'
Once the failsafe had been deactivated, the zombies - those which Wesley and Gunn had not yet managed to dispatch - had stopped fighting and returned back through the walls. Fred and Angel had found the two men waiting for them in the basement, and now the whole team were reconvened up in Angel's office. Angel had taken Connor from Lorne, and was holding him close, as they tried to process what had happened.
'Are these the demons you fought?' Wesley asked, showing his boss an illustration from one of his books. It had only taken him a couple of minutes to locate them, Fred had been surprised how quickly he had come back with the exact thing they were looking for. But then she didn't know why she was surprised - Wesley always came through, and he always knew. They wouldn't last five minutes without Wesley, his expertise was so essential to everything that they did - and yet he never seemed to take any of the credit…
Angel looked at the picture and nodded, 'that's them - so what's their story?'
Wesley turned the book back around so he could read from it and started to fill the others in on the details. 'They are creatures of The Senior Partners,' he told them all, 'created by them to do their bidding on this plane of existence. A minion race, henchmen specifically created to carry out their orders.'
'But that doesn't make any sense,' Fred frowned, 'why would The Senior Partners tell these minion demons to activate the failsafe?'
Wesley shook his head, 'unclear.'
'What's going on, Lilah?' Angel looked up from his son, dandled on his knee, to the liaison.
'What on earth makes you think I would know?' she asked, quirking an eyebrow.
'These guys work for The Senior Partners. You work for The Senior Partners. You want me to seriously believe that you're not all connected?'
She laughed, 'connected, yes. In cahoots, no. Honestly, Angel - for one so old you can be so young sometimes. The Senior Partners have any number of minions, creatures and children down on this plane of existence - all scurrying around doing their bidding - but you can't honestly think they let us all link up and discuss our plans - their plans. I know what they want me to know, when they want me to know it. No more and no less. The same goes for everyone else they have working for them, keeping the apocalypse machine going.'
'And The Senior Partners haven't told you anything about today?'
She shook her head, and smiled around at them all. 'Which leaves us in a pickle. We don't know if those demons were working under the orders of The Senior Partners - or if they'd gone rogue and were working under their own steam. And going from the deafening silence from the big guys, I'm guessing they don't want you knowing either. They're choosing to leave you in the dark.'
'And that means leaving you in the dark, too?'
'Maybe they don't trust me not to tell.' She flashed a smile at Wesley. Across the room, Fred flushed and looked down.
'But whoever was behind this, we have the crystal now, right?' Lorne asked, 'no more activating the failsafe without us knowing? No more code 7? No more nuclear option?'
'I've got the crystal,' Angel nodded, 'and we'll be making sure no employee of Wolfram and Hart can get their hands on it. But we need to get to the bottom of …'
The door opened and Spike stalked in. Angel sighed, 'Spike - not now.'
'Brought you a little present,' Spike said, ignoring him. He reached behind the door and pulled in Greenway, bound and gagged - his eyes frightened and furious at the same time. 'Rumour has it you were looking for this little bird that hopped the nest.'
'Greenway?' Gunn looked dumbfounded, 'he jumped dimensions - how did you…?'
'I jumped right in there and brought him back, didn't I?' Spike answered, he eyeballed Angel, 'it's what we heroes do.'
Angel didn't answer, he bit his tongue and stayed silent. Fred was looking every bit as surprised as Gunn. 'But how did you track him? I have the best lab in the Western Hemisphere and I was still weeks off developing anything sophisticated enough to trace signatures pan-dimensionally.'
'I've got a little bit of help on my side. The big guys looking out for me and all.'
Again Angel didn't say anything, though he was now biting down so hard he could taste blood. He sat in his chair, gripping Connor, completely quiet as Gunn organised having Greenway taken off and put into holding - where he couldn't escape again, and Spike left and, after a while, Fred and Wesley and Lorne left too.
He looked back up when it was just him and Lilah left in the office. She smiled a brief, wintry smile at him, 'well - looks like Spike saved your ass today,' she said to him. 'Whether or not it was The Senior Partners trying to kill you - at least you can now hand over Greenway, it's a positive result. They might look more kindly on you.'
He stared at her, 'so you really don't know what happened today, Lilah?' he asked, heavily.
She shrugged. He continued to stare - for once, he didn't think she was lying. 'Then you have nothing of interest to say to me - get out.'
'Wow … wow … what is this?' They were all back in Giles' study - and Cordelia was holding onto a weapon Buffy had just handed her. She closed her eyes and just felt it. It was almost as if she could feel it talking to her.
'It's the scythe,' Buffy told her, 'it was forged in secret - aeons ago - just for the slayer. No one else can feel its power but us. Every one of us.'
Cordelia opened her eyes and looked down at the weapon in her hands, it felt so right - like it belonged with her. 'This is what Willow used?' she asked, 'to call us all? This is how she channelled the energy?'
Buffy nodded. 'Way back in time - like cave people days, these creepy dudes "the shadow men" took a girl and chained her to a rock, imbued her with the power of a demon so she would have the strength and skill to hunt the vampires.'
'The first slayer,' Cordelia said. It was Giles who answered, 'yes, and - as you know - it was she who threw the final old one out of this dimension. Though, if what you are saying is true - some of them have found a way back - I will keep looking into that.'
'She was this spooky, rasta momma who tried to kill us all in our dreams one time. And she pops up if you ever go on a slayer vision quest,' Buffy said. Cordelia and Doyle exchanged a confused glance - but didn't say anything.
'Anyway, the first slayer died - the way slayers do,' Buffy continued, 'and the next slayer was called. On and on down the generations, the deserts rolled back and shoes were invented and the shadow men became the watchers council - but it was still the same old schtick - in every generation, one girl in all the world. But - somewhere along the line - this group of women forged the scythe, and then hid it away and waited - knowing the time would come when everything would change.'
'And that's what you did last year?'
Buffy nodded. 'One girl in all the world just wasn't going to get the job done this time. For centuries, the watcher's council have hoarded their secret knowledge and used slayers as disposable weapons. They wanted to be the powerful ones - call the slayer, train the slayer, bury the slayer and then onto the next one; they claimed they were the ones fighting the war - and the slayer was simply the tool by which they did it. They wanted the slayer to do as she was told, fight as she was trained, follow orders and die when it was her time.'
'But you were never one for followin' orders?' Doyle asked.
'She never was,' Giles smiled proudly at his slayer.
'The old watcher's council was destroyed and all out war was declared on the slayer line,' Buffy said. 'Bringers - these guys in dark cloaks with their eyes cut out were murdering all the potentials.'
Cordelia remembered the previous year - and all the times she had been attacked out in the courtyard, outside the hotel, by mysterious men in dark cloaks. Doyle had saved her from the first attack. And from the second - though he had been possessed at the time and only interested in Kali and if any harm was done to her. Faith had killed the third bringer.
Buffy was still talking, 'so when I uncovered the scythe - pulled it out of a rock like I was King Arthur - I used it to call all the slayers. Now there are more slayers than watchers, the balance has changed - the power is ours - and every girl who could be a slayer will be one, will get the full use of her power. And - if when she grows up she wants to work as an active slayer, and help protect the world - then she will be paid for it, same as the watcher's were in the old days.'
'Paid?' Cordelia's eyes had suddenly lit up. Doyle chuckled softly to himself. But Buffy was nodding, seriously. 'The watcher's council is an ancient institution. They have a lot of money stashed around the place, and - luckily for us - they didn't keep it in the building that blew up. So now it belongs to the slayers. We're the ones doing the job - so we get a cut of the wealth.' Her eyes darkened, 'You can't save the world and worry about paying the bills, or working a regular job.'
Cordelia smiled wryly - she recognised the look in Buffy's eyes, she knew it from her own days just after high school. The worry that poverty brought, the constant weight on your shoulders and the nagging doubts in your head - grinding you down; the fear of how to get by - and the shame of having other people realise you weren't making ends meet. They had both been thrown out of their comfort zone abruptly, and forced to grow up and take on adult responsibilities; Cordelia when her folks lost their money and Buffy when her mom died.
And that kind of experience shaped you, had shaped them both - so they were now completely different from the person their high school self was on track to become. And Cordelia was now the type of person to count every cent, who had kept a business afloat for over four years by sheer will power and the fear of poverty snapping at her heels. And Buffy was using the hidden wealth of the watcher's council to make sure other girls like her never found themselves in the same position.
'The thing is - I know it's not fair on all those young girls upstairs, being made the slayer,' Buffy admitted. 'But being the slayer was never fair. It was always a job girls were forced to do because the men who wielded the power didn't want to do it themselves. We were born to be sacrifices to the dark. But now - now we don't have to wait our turn to get our power, and then fight and die unnoticed by everyone else. We're a family, the power is ours - and if we choose to use it, then we get compensated for our trouble. Evil exists - and someone has to fight it, I've just tried to make it so that those of us who do can do it as safely as possible.'
Cordelia nodded slowly, and finally put the scythe down on the desk, though her hands missed it immediately. 'I think you did the right thing,' she said. 'I think the world is better this way.'
'She's only sayin' that 'cause you're gonna pay her,' Doyle said, smiling fondly at his girlfriend.
Buffy rolled her eyes, but she smiled too. 'OK, Giles - Cordy is the active slayer in L.A, she needs to go on the payroll.'
Giles nodded, and started to look through his papers for a form to fill out. 'What about Doyle?' Cordelia asked. 'Watchers get paid too, right? And he's the closest thing I have to one. He does most of the research and he has the visions which tell me who to go and save … and they're really painful.'
Giles looked at Buffy, expectantly. She nodded. 'Fine, Doyle can go on the list as well.'
Cordelia beamed in satisfaction. 'Well this has been a very worthwhile trip.'
Buffy smiled at her, 'you know, I think so too. I'm really impressed at how you handled yourself back in that fight, Cordelia. And to be holding down a city the size of l.A all by yourself … I think you must be a natural at the slaying game.'
Cordelia smiled back at her, and this smile was warm and sincere and reached all the way to her eyes.'Well, I was lucky - growing up I got an opportunity to learn from the best.'
Angel sat in the dark, brooding once again. Things were even worse than he realised - he was in deeper than he knew, and had already lost more than he had understood. Spike - Spike - was the real champion now. Not just out there, doing the mission, helping the hopeless- Angel had already known he was doing that. But he was connected. Somehow - some way - someone bigger than all this was helping him, had shown him how to cross dimensions and bring Greenway back.
That weighed heavy on his heart as well. He had known the heroic thing to do was punch a hole in the dimension wall and worry about the consequences later, but he hadn't done it. He had sat here, in his office, in his comfy chair - whilst his team used all the resources of Wolfram and Hart to try and track their client. Meanwhile, Spike had done the heroic thing and got the job done. It seemed like - if the powers weren't already fully on Spike's side - then they would be soon. Spike was the real deal now. Angel was a corporate puppet.
And it wasn't just The PTB turning their back - if they had a back - on him. Today's events made him wonder if The Senior Partners had also decided they no longer had a use for him, maybe they wanted Spike in their corner, instead, too. He sighed, steepled his fingers and stared morosely at the opposite wall. He had rendered himself pointless - without meaning and without worth. He had given up the mission - sold his soul - and then allowed himself to be so ground down that even his new bosses didn't have a use for him. And if The Senior Partners didn't want him anymore - where would that leave Connor?
He knew he should try and fight this feeling of utter hopelessness, that he should put on his game face and try and fight his way through the depression that had settled on him. Everyone else here had found meaning in their lives, in their new roles - it was just him, slowly sinking - like one of the animals sucked into the tar pits.
He closed his eyes and sighed again. OK - let's say he got out of here, without The Senior Partners trying to kill him again - if it was them that had tried to kill him today - then what? With no higher power on his side, guiding him - giving him purpose - who was he? What was he here for? He'd been brought back from hell for a purpose - and both sides took credit for it … but now Spike had been brought back, just the same. And was doing Angel's job for him. Spike was taking his destiny - and Angel was just … nothing. With nowhere to go and no reason to live, and no hope for redemption. He wanted out of Wolfram and Hart - but after that? After that he might as well just walk out into the sunshine … there was no place left for him on this earth. It would take a miracle to give him purpose and meaning once again...
Beside him, the phone began to ring. Fearing that Harmony would turn up and talk at him again if he didn't answer, he reached out for it, though his movements were listless. 'Hello?' he said, blankly.
'Angel, man? It's me.' Doyle. 'Is it too late to talk?'
'It's OK,' though his heart was heavy and he didn't want to talk.
'Good - I'm in London, wasn't sure what time it was where you are.'
He was too depressed to even wonder why Doyle was in London.
'Listen, bud - I had a vision, a couple o' days ago now but this is the first chance i've had to ring - I need to tell y' about it.'
'Why don't you tell Cordy? Or Spike?'
There was a moment of confused silence down the other end of the line, 'this one was for you,' Doyle said at last.
'Can't have been,' Angel said, 'I don't work for The Powers anymore.' He sighed, deeply, 'I'm not their champion.'
'Yeah - well - they mustn't have got the memo - 'cause this one was definitely aimed at you. It was about The Senior Partners.'
'What?' Despite himself, Angel sat up straight and his ears pricked up.
'Yeah - well - sort of. It was about these demon guys, emissaries I guess. Really powerful - a secret society that puts all The Senior Partners plans into play down on earth. I didn't get to see all their faces - there were lots o' them - lots of different kinds. Belong to a group. The Circle of the Black Thorn. The PTB - well, I think they want you to destroy 'em.'
Angel was only holding onto the phone loosely, now - and his mind was ticking over. This was why the failsafe had been activated. The Senior Partners had realised that the Powers had made a move against them - that they were planning to use Angel to strike a blow for the good side - and so they had tried to get in a preemptive strike. Kill Angel before he could kill their emissaries and destroy their plans on this plane of existence.
He felt a hollowness in his chest where his heart should be pounding with the sudden realisation. The Powers had not abandoned him, they were not done with him. They wanted to use his position from inside the company to strike a blow that would send the whole eternal chess game spinning off the board. And once he'd done that, ground the gears of the apocalypse to a screeching halt - even if for just one, shining moment - he would be free of Wolfram and Hart. He would be a champion again. This was his way out.
'Angel, bud, Y' still there?' he heard Doyle's voice down the other end of the line, He snapped back to attention, 'yeah, yeah - I'm here. Listen, I need you to do me a favour. Don't tell anybody about this OK? It's too dangerous for the others to know about it - yet. I'll tell them … when it's time, but for now - I don't want The Senior Partners going after them because they think they know something. I need the team kept in the dark.'
'Yeah - OK. Listen, man … I saw Buffy yesterday… she's … she's good. She looks great, she's doin' great. She seems happy … I just thought you'd wanna know.'
'Yeah, thanks.' He thought about Andrew's words - that Buffy's camp no longer trusted him now he was at Wolfram and Hart. That Buffy no longer trusted him. That had stung - that had made him question his place as a champion more than anything else that had happened since he took over the law firm. Made him realise most acutely that he had lost his way, changed sides without realising it. But now he knew that wasn't true. Doyle's vision told him that The Powers were still in his corner. He still had a place in this world and a chance for redemption. 'Thank you,' he said again. And he didn't really mean for the news about Buffy - he meant for the hope the half demon had given him, the purpose - the mission. That was what Doyle had always done, that was how their relationship had started. And now - even halfway across the world - Doyle was still putting him back on his path, and giving him a reason to keep on fighting.
He thought he could almost hear the half demon's wry smile down the other end of the phone, as he picked up on the change in the vampire's tone - from hopeless to grateful. 'You're Welcome,' Doyle said.
A/N next episode is 'Why We Fight.'
