Chapter 26: Becoming (Part 2)

Buffy

"Is anyone else worried about how we managed to lose a demon that can suck the world into hell?" Xander asked. "I mean, what does that say about us? We lost a giant stone demon that can suck the world into hell."

"We didn't lose it. It was stolen," Willow pointed out. "Pass me that book over there."

Xander reached across the table to pick up the book that Willow was pointing to and handed it to her.

"Thanks," Willow said, and disappeared back behind the computer.

Buffy looked from her friends to the book open in front of her. It wasn't in English and it wasn't in Latin. She had no idea what it said. She turned in her chair to face Giles, who was sitting behind the checkout counter. "There's no chance that Alfalfa got up and walked away on his own?"

Giles adjusted his glasses and answered without looking up from whatever he was reading. "No, not at all. Acathla can only be awoken by one who is worthy using the blood...oh dear lord."

Buffy's eyes widened. "What 'oh dear lord'? Giles!"

Giles looked up. The shadows under his eyes seemed darker than they had been seconds before. "Using the blood of the eldest of an elder bloodline. The first person in Sunnydale to come to mind who fits that description is Angel."

The library was silent. Of course it was Angel.

"Is anyone else really hoping that whoever stole our demon isn't worthy?" Xander said. "We had enough trouble last time someone wanted to use Deadboy's blood."

Buffy wanted to argue, but Xander was right. Between the assassins, Kendra mistaking her for a vampire, and Willy selling her, Kendra and Angel out to Spike, burning the church down and dropping an organ on Spike didn't feel like equal payback. If someone tried to kidnap Angel again, she was going to rip off their arm and beat them to death with it.

"I'm in the security footage!" Willow said. There was a scramble as Buffy, Xander and Giles hurried over to the computer to look at the screen over Willow's shoulder.

A five by five grid of images covered the screen. None of them were changing except for the night watchman moving around and the curator Giles had spoken to leaving the room he was working in once to get a cup of coffee. Then, at one in the morning exactly according to the timestamp on the video, the watchman stopped walking in front of a case of old knives. He swayed slightly on the spot and then suddenly dropped to the floor with his throat cut. There wasn't anyone in the frame with him.

"Oh no," Willow said. "I think we have vampires."

The double doors of the room where the curator was working violently burst open seemingly on their own.

"Definitely vampires," Buffy agreed.

There weren't any cameras in the room. Buffy tried to watch through the open doorway but only managed to catch some flashes of movement before the giant stone block that held the demon was wheeled out of the room. She followed the stone until it was pushed out of the building via a door that had to be broken so that it would fit through.

"Well, that was useless," Xander said.

"Not at all," Giles disagreed. "We now know that Acathla was stolen solely by vampires."

"Who could have been working for someone else," Buffy pointed out. So the security footage was useless.

Willow sighed. "Darn. I was hoping that would show us who we're dealing with." She clicked away from the security footage to a page that looked like an online chatroom with a lot of pentagrams. "And still nothing from Ms. Calendar's online coven. What's a girl got to do to prove she's not a satanic cannibal out to destroy the world?"

Buffy, Xander and Giles looked at each other with wide eyes.

"I beg your pardon?" Giles asked.

Willow blushed. "They've had problems with these radical Church of Darkness people...But I'm working on it. It'll take a little longer than if Ms. Calendar was able to introduce me, which is something we should have done a while ago but we were always too busy and now we're stuck with this."

Giles made his way back to his seat behind the counter. "Someone had to go with Ms. Summers. Cleveland is quite unsafe this time of year."

Buffy hadn't been happy about Mom going on a business trip to the other Great American Hellmouth without her, but with the missing demon hellportal statue she needed to be in Sunnydale. Mom and Ms. Calendar were supposed to be back on Monday.

"I wonder if there are other elder bloodlines in Sunnydale," Giles mused.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say, gee, I hope not," Xander said.

"The Master's bloodline is the only one," Angel said.

Xander jumped a foot into the air. "Make some noise, would you?"

Angel didn't reply. He walked further into the library and handed a few scraps of paper to Giles. "We know who has Acathla."

"We do?" Buffy asked. She went over to the counter to see what Angel had given Giles. Giles quickly finished reading and relinquished the papers to her. They consisted of a picture of the stolen stone box that had been clipped out of a newspaper and a short note that read Catch me if you can, Angelus. The note was in Lucy's handwriting.

"Why would they want Acathla?" Giles frowned. "I didn't peg Spike for one who wants to end the world."

"He wouldn't be, unless Drusilla told him to," Angel said.

That was something that was scarily easy to picture. Of course Spike would end the world if Drusilla wanted it. Hadn't Lucy once said that he would do anything for his sire?

"So let's go to the factory and destroy the thing!" Xander said. "We can destroy it, right?"

Giles picked up the book he'd been reading and turned a few pages. "It is possible to destroy Acathla, but it would require the twin of the sword first used against him wielded by, well, Angel, in this case. The Swords of Altaïr. I'll make a call to the Council and see if they have the second in storage."

"While you do that, Angel and I will go look for our demon," Buffy said. It wouldn't be sitting in the factory gift wrapped for them. Lucy was too smart for that.

Kendra arrived at Buffy's house the next morning. Her Watcher had sent her to Sunnydale thanks to another premonition or whatever it was that made him put her on a plane to a Hellmouth by herself. Buffy surprised the other Slayer by giving her a hug before dragging her inside.

"Are things really so bad that both of us need to be here?" Buffy asked.

"My Watcher believes it to be so." Kendra took a long bag off of her back and placed it on the dining room table. "He had me bring this." She unzipped the bag to reveal the sword inside.

Buffy pursed her lips. "I'm guessing that's the second Sword of All-ear."

"Sword of Altaïr," Kendra corrected. "Yes, it is."

"Alright," Buffy said. "I'll call Giles. Do you want something to drink?"

When Giles arrived with Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Oz and the other three members of Dingoes Ate My Baby in tow, Buffy and Kendra were sipping cups of tea that Kendra had ended up making. She'd added spices that Buffy didn't recognize, but it tasted good.

"Kendra brought the sword," Buffy said.

"Wonderful. Were you and Angel successful in locating Acathla?" Giles took a sip of the tea he'd poured for himself and raised his eyebrows. "Chai, excellent."

Buffy shook her head. They hadn't found the demon or any of the vampires who'd stolen him. According to Angel, Drusilla had been moving all over town when he'd tried to track her. Lucy, Spike and Drusilla definitely had a plan.

"So, this demon is going to suck the world into hell if we don't destroy it?" Sam asked. "And we don't know where it is?"

"That pretty much sums it up," Willow said. "I've finally gotten Miss Calendar's online coven to trust me, but they can't find him either. Apparently most demon tracking spells are pretty useless in Sunnydale."

Considering that Sunnydale seemed to be ninety-nine percent demon on a good day, that limitation made perfect sense.

Xander cleared his throat. "You forgot one teeny tiny little thing." He turned to Kendra. "Buffy's cousin went to the dark side on us."

Kendra looked confused. "I beg your pardon?"

"Lucy's a vampire," Buffy quickly explained, before Xander could say anything else.

An expression of understanding crossed Kendra's face. "I am sorry for your loss."

Buffy gave her a pained smile. "Thanks." She didn't try to explain that it didn't feel like a loss, not really. It felt more like when Angel had lost his soul. Lucy was gone but she was still there, and it felt like her fault.

"Isn't Lucy trying to send some sort of message or something?" Cordelia asked. "I mean, she sent you a note."

"She sent Angel a note," Buffy said. She frowned as she remembered something about that note that hadn't seemed as important the night before. "She sent Angel a note, but she called him Angelus."

Was that important? It could have been a way to taunt Angel. He hated Angelus, he hated being Angelus and he hated being reminded that he ever was Angelus. She could also have been telling him that he was soulless, metaphorically speaking. (Was that what a metaphor was? Buffy had fallen asleep in English class that day.)

Xander made a snide remark about vampires sending messages through dead bodies that made Devon jump to Lucy's defence. Their verbal argument turned into a brawl in the middle of the living room between one word and the next. Before they could break anything or punch a hole in the wall, Buffy and Kendra pulled them apart.

"So not the time, boys," Buffy said. "Giles, is there any kind of tracking spell we can use?"

Giles sighed. "I've not found anything in my research to track Acathla himself, but we may be able to use Angel to locate Spike and...the others."

Willow and Kendra nodded along to the plan Giles laid out. Track Spike, Drusilla and Lucy during the day using Angel's blood connection to them, go to their location, and have Angel destroy Acathla. It assumed that the three vampires didn't want to leave the demon unguarded during off peak hours, and with the useless guards they'd had last time Buffy had been to the factory she was pretty sure that they'd be guarding the statue themselves. It seemed like a safe assumption.

"But what if they aren't with the demon statue?" Sam asked. "Do we just keep looking and pray no one decides to end the world?"

Buffy grimaced. "Pretty much."

The tracking spell that Giles had found involved Angel dripping his blood over a map of Sunnydale while Giles read some stuff in Latin. Two drops of blood flew so far to the east that they were off the map. Buffy saw one of them hit the library door. A small cluster of blood drops fell on the warehouse district, a few lone drops landed where Buffy was sure there were some abandon townhouses, and a second cluster marked the end of Crawford Street.

"They've been making minions," Angel said. He pointed to the single drops of blood. "Those will all be minions. They wouldn't keep Acathla in that part of town."

Buffy didn't get a chance to ask why Acathla wouldn't be there before Kendra asked if they'd already searched in the area of the warehouse district where Angel's blood had fallen. Buffy and Angel looked more closely at the map. They had looked around there, but they hadn't gone into every building. The vampires Angel's blood highlighted were in a warehouse not far from Spike, Drusilla and Lucy's factory.

"We can split up," Xander suggested. "Hit both locations tonight. A coordinated strike."

"Great plan, except we only have one sword and one Angel," Cordelia said. "We'd need some way to get Angel where he wasn't if that was where Acathla was, and some way to tell him he wasn't where he should be."

The library was silent. Everyone who wasn't Cordelia wore identical expressions of confusion.

Cordelia huffed and crossed her arms. "We'll need radios and getaway cars. Xander, let's go steal from the military again."

"'Again'?" Soul asked. "When did you steal from the military before?"

Giles took off his glasses and began cleaning them. "I am not hearing this."

"Good," Cordelia said. "Come on, Xander. Oz, you drive."

Oz just raised his eyebrows before walking out of the library after Cordelia and Xander.

"Okay, so I guess we're going with a coordinated strike," Buffy said. "How are we organizing this?"

They decided on one Slayer and one magic person per group. Buffy introduced Kendra to the time-honoured tradition of flipping a coin to choose who went where. She lost the coin toss and Kendra, after a moment of indecision, picked Crawford Street as her target, leaving Buffy with the warehouse. Buffy was good with that. She felt like it made more sense for Acathla to be in the warehouse district. That was where all the vampires and demons set up shop, after all. Kendra may have gotten in more training than her, but the younger Slayer had only fought Spike once and she'd never had to go up against Drusilla or Lucy. Buffy had the experience in that area.

"Giles, you go with Kendra. Willow, you're with me." Buffy looked at Devon, Sam and Soul. "Can any of you guys drive?"

Devon and Soul could, Sam couldn't. They decided to wait until Xander, Cordelia and Oz got back so they could be sure to have enough drivers for each group.

Their three thieves returned with a haul of four military radios and two flare guns. "This is all we could carry. Someone remind me to requisition a bunch of stuff so we don't have to keep breaking in," Xander said.

"I saw less breaking, more walking," Oz said.

Xander shrugged before explaining how to use the radios. He kept one and the others went to Cordelia and Soul, who would be the getaway drivers, and to Oz, who would be on Buffy's team. Sam would also be joining them, while Devon chose to go with Kendra, Giles, Xander and Cordelia. They started gathering their weapons, lots of stakes, crossbows for Cordelia and Soul, and swords and axes for the rest of them. While they were arming up, Angel stood out of the way and studied the sword Kendra had brought. Buffy went to join him after she'd collected her weapons of choice.

"You don't want anything else?" Buffy asked, gesturing at the sword.

Angel shook his head. "I only have the one job." He took his eyes off the magic sword for a second and looked at her. "Are you okay?"

Buffy scoffed. "Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Our family could be trying to end the world," Angel said.

There was that.

Oz ceded his van's driver's seat to Soul before they left. The idea was that there'd be less moving around once they got to the warehouse, which was a good idea but it didn't take into account that Oz's van was meant to seat five in a relatively small space, so Angel ended up in the back with the weapons. The first few times they turned corners, Buffy heard Angel colliding with the inside of the van.

Soul brought the van to a stop three buildings down from the warehouse that had been marked on the map. He turned around to look at Buffy. "Should I stay here or do you want me to park closer?"

Buffy eyed the distance between them and the warehouse they'd be breaking into. "Unless something comes through the radio, wait five minutes and then park right in front of the building." Soul nodded.

Since there weren't really any big risks to being noticed (they were going to have to fight vampires anyway), Buffy disregarded the stealthy approached and kicked the door in. It flew off its hinges and knocked one of the two vampires on the other side across the room. That vampire exploded into dust, probably due to a broken board sticking out of the wall. Its companion took one look at Buffy and started shouting that the Slayer was there.

"Always nice to be recognized," Buffy muttered. She looked at Angel and said "Find the statue." before throwing herself into the fight with the vampire and the three others who'd joined him. They were textbook minions, relying mostly on their strength and the few hand-to-hand combat moves that all vampires seemed to have as soon as they clawed their way out of their graves. Sam and Oz staked one of them while Willow levitated some broken wood and took out others that were coming to join the fight. Buffy danced through her three enemies and dust fell around her. In less than five minutes there wasn't a vampire left in the area.

Willow frowned. "Is that all of them?"

"Don't complain about that," Sam said. He rubbed his shoulder and grimaced.

Willow blushed. "I'm not complaining, I just think that if Acathla was here there'd be more vampires guarding him."

They were interrupted by Xander's voice coming from the radio in Oz's pocket. "It's here! Acathla's here! We're under att—" Willow squeaked when Xander was cut off by a loud crash.

Angel appeared at Buffy's side. "Let's go."

Soul already had the van started when they got outside. His face was pale. They piled into the van without putting their weapons away and Soul peeled down the street before the doors were all closed. Considering that Buffy almost got poked in the eye with Willow's sword and Sam did take a hit to the chest from the blunt end of the stake Buffy was holding, it probably wasn't their best idea. They all got organized eventually.

"What's the plan, Buffy?" Willow asked.

Buffy took a few breaths to try to calm down. That didn't stop her heart from hammering in her chest. "Angel kills the statue, the rest of us rescue our friends."

"Good plan," Sam said. "I like that plan, it means the world won't end."

Buffy hoped that he was right.

Crawford Street was silent when they got there, dead silent. It sent shivers up Buffy's spine that she determinedly shook off. Not hearing the sounds of a fight was no reason to get the wiggens.

"Which house is it?" Soul whispered.

"The mansion at the end of the street," Buffy whispered back. Because of course it was.

This time, Buffy entered the mansion through the front door and she felt a lot more confident about the people at her side actually having her back. The front door turned out to be the right choice because they walked right into the large room where Buffy had fought Angelus and immediately found the big, ugly petrified demon. It was standing in the middle of the room in front of the fireplace, grimacing at them, surrounded by vamp dust that covered the floor.

"Where is everyone?" Willow whispered.

Angel turned his head and then swallowed uncomfortably. "I hear heartbeats in the basement." Of course they were in the basement.

"Split up?" Sam asked.

Buffy shook her head. "Angel?" She gestured towards the demon. Better to get that out of the way first.

Angel cautiously advanced on the demon, but the only other movement was from the vampire remains his steps disturbed. The thick layer of dust rose up in little swirls and puffs, revealing the pattern on the floor beneath. When Angel was a foot away from the statue he stopped and swung the sword. It cut through the statue like the stone was butter and the top half off the demon slid down the diagonal cut and crashed onto the floor before the statue started crumbling to dust. Easy. Too easy.

Buffy sensed Lucy's presence a split second before she started speaking. They all turned towards the stairs when Lucy's voice began drifting down. She was standing near the middle of the staircase, looming over them while she read from the book she was holding. It was Latin, which meant she had to be doing magic.

"What's happening?" Buffy asked Willow.

Willow opened her mouth to reply, but before she could get a word out the floor started glowing. White light formed a circle and magical-looking symbols around a five-pointed star that Angel was standing in the centre of. A rippling black substance—not a liquid but not quite solid—appeared under Angel's feet.

Angel fell through the floor and disappeared.

The lights vanished a second later, leaving Buffy blinking away spots. She didn't need to be able to see properly to glare at Lucy, who was grinning broadly. "What did you do?"

Lucy made a visible effort to tone down her smile, and failed. "I sent him to hell, a hell. One that he could get out of, eventually."

"Payback?" Oz asked.

"Exactly," Lucy said.

Buffy hurled her stake. Lucy shrieked as the piece of wood scraped her shoulder and stuck into the wall behind her. "Get gone," Buffy said. "You have until sunrise to leave town. After that it's open season on the Aurelius bloodline."

"We didn't kill him!" Lucy exclaimed. "He's even got a magic sword. Angel will be fine, tortured a little, but fine."

Buffy growled and took a threatening step towards the staircase. Lucy squeaked. She disappeared upstairs before Buffy had to move any closer.

"What do we do now?" Willow asked quietly.

Buffy turned sharply on her heel. "Basement." First they'd free their friends. Then they'd figure out how to bring Angel home.