December 12, 2005

...

Buffy and Angel were sitting on their couch, Angel was watching a hockey game while Buffy scanned the pages of a fashion magazine.

Their seven month old daughter Katie was napping in her playpen.

That kid could sleep through anything…even the wall suddenly blowing in and a large group of soldiers flooding the large room.

Angel had jumped to his feet in an instant, knocking the first armored guard into oblivion before the entire wall had settled into a heap of debris on the floor. He would have taken out more, but a rush of energy hit him, freezing him in place.

Buffy was a little slower in joining the fray, her baby belly at seven months, she found moving anywhere fast a near impossibility. It didn't stop her from flinging her glass of water at the closest goon, knocking him unconscious and cutting his face when the glass shattered.

Before she could reach for the sword hidden under the couch, she found herself caught in the same magical grip as Angel.

…

Angel was frozen, he tried to move, but his body wouldn't respond to any of his commands. He managed to strain his eyes far enough to see Buffy, she was frozen too and looking as pissed as a pregnant slayer could get (which was pretty scary as he knew).

"Who the hell are you?" Angel demanded to the obvious leader of the attack, a short demonic looking humanoid with an incredibly arrogant personality, a sorcerer to boot. The only thing keeping Angel from panicking was being super pissed at being held prisoner in his own home and being terrified for his family.

The demon frowned, "You murder by brother and tried to kill me. I break into your home, hold you and you whore hostage, and you have the audacity to not even know who I am! Think back to October 22, 2004. You were jumped, beaten and strung up in my dungeon. You spent two days hanging from my chains, being beaten by my men."

"Cerberus's brother." Angel realized. It was escaping from his castle that he was shot and nearly died in the back of Oz's van.

"Cerberus's brother…No longer because of you and your bitch." The demonic man shot, spitting in Angel's face. "I have a name you know, it's Graegus. You killed my only family; it would bring me great pleasure to do the same for you. However I'm here for another reason, an old friend of yours recently helped me out. You see, I spent over a year buried under the debris from my castle, and now my new partners have promised me revenge…as long as I do one simple little thing for them first."

"What would that be?" Angel questioned, he figured as long as he kept the bastard talking, he wasn't actively a threat to Buffy or Katie.

"I have a proposition for you" the short bald man said to him.

"Not interested" Angel shot through gritted teeth.

The man smiled, yellowed fangs glistened in the light, "I wasn't talking to you."

Angel felt his heart skip a few beats. 'Something tells me I'm not going to like this'

A moment later, Graegus pulled an old withered volume from the folds of his robe, raised it to his eyes, and began to chant.

The words seeming to float off the page and swirl in the air around Angel.

'What the hell?' Angel thought, then pain ripped into his chest.

The spell keeping him immobile didn't keep him standing as the pain knocked his legs from under him.

As he collapsed to the floor, he gasped in agony, his mind screamed, 'NO!' He knew this pain, a pain he never thought he would have to feel again, now that his curse no longer existed.

He was wrong.

The words that floated in air tore into Angel's body, he screamed Buffy's name as the words exited him, dragging his soul with them.

They swirled in air for a moment, then the sorcerer raised a glass jar, a Muo-Ping, the words carried the soul into the container, then they disappeared, leaving an orange swirl of color dancing within the glass vessel.

...

Angelus slowly rose to his feet, his head still pounding from the pain of his soul being torn out, a pang of bitterness wafted on his tongue, then that too was gone.

Yellow eyes fell upon Graegus, "Thanks, could've gone without the headache though. You mentioned something about a proposition?"

Graegus's smile revealed sharpened teeth, "I did." He said as he walked around Angelus, looking the demon over, perhaps sizing him up.

Angelus silently did the same. "Well?" the vampire asked after a moment of silence, "You gunna talk or what?"

The sorcerer stood and faced the demon, "Wolfram & Hart sent me." He paused to let Angelus react to the statement, he didn't so he continued. "They wish to use your…services…to eliminate a potential risk to their greater plans. They believe you will be very interested in the offer and in exchange, they are willing to give you a most generous payment." He finished by folding his hands in front of him.

"Are you gunna get to the point sometime this decade? Getting bored, leads to getting hungry." Angelus glared licking his fangs in threat.

The bald man nodded, "Kill the baby. The slayer too. In return we destroy your soul."

Angelus looked up quickly, his demonic brow knotted in confusion? "Is that the payment or the job?"

Graegus smiled, "Both."

Slowly Angelus smiled, it was cold. "Really? Now that IS an enticing offer." He pacing and looked into the bald man's eyes, "What's the catch?" He demanding stopping in front of the shorter man.

"No catch, no clause, no loophole, just a simple exchange. They die, you go free. Wolfram & Hart forget you even exist."

Angelus thought about it for a moment, "When?" he asked.

"Whenever you like, now seems as good a time as any."

Angelus turned and looked at Buffy, his eyes wandered up and down her body.

He glanced in discontent at her extended belly, ripe with child, but still thought that body was salvageable.

Still looking at her, he asked Graegus, "Can I turn her?"

Graegus's eyes turned a milky white as he mentally spoke to his bosses, his mouth moved slightly but no words escaped, a moment later his eyes cleared and he looked at Angelus. "Yes, if I destroy her soul as well, the body is yours. However, not the thing growing inside her, that must go."

Angelus smirked, "Funny, I was just thinking the same thing."

...

Buffy stood frozen for the entire exchange, she watched in horror as Angel's soul was ripped from him, and she heard every word the two demons exchanged.

She knew Angelus made sure she did.

Her heart hammered in her chest, Angelus was just handed his dream and she had no doubts on him taking it.

He was going to kill their children, and turn her into a monster.

She fought the restrains, but there was nothing she could do, she was held by magic.

She wanted to run, to grab Katie and just run forever, but she couldn't even move her hand over her swollen belly. A tear slipped from her eye and ran down her cheek, 'Please, no…make this nightmare stop' she silently prayed to anyone who would listen.

...

Angelus moved towards Buffy, planning on taking her first, but Graegus's voice stopped him. "The children first; drain the brat, and then cut that parasite for her womb. Then you can have your fun with her."

Angelus scowled, and then moved towards the playpen. "Actually this might be better." He said to the sorcerer after hearing Buffy cry out. "She gets to watch her children die before I kill her. Maybe I'll drive you mad like I did Dru." He finished to Buffy with a cold smirk.

Katie had been sleeping for the entire event so far, but woke as Angelus picked her up awkwardly around her waist.

The seven month old opened her eyes and looked into his face, her brown eyes looking into his yellow ones.

"Da-da" she said playfully.

Angelus smiled, a cold laugh emanated from his throat. He turned to Buffy, "Ya hear that Buff, she called me dada. Isn't that special? Would love to see rat-boy's face on that one. Kind of poetic really, baby's first word…will also be her last."

Buffy's eyes widened in terror for her child, in her head she was screaming, her hands clenched into fists, but the movement wasn't nearly enough. The magic held her fast.

Angelus held the baby tighter and she began to whimper, she could feel the distress radiating off her mother.

"Named after the sister I killed all those years ago. The poetry in this is marvelous. Aww…don't worry little Kathy, you're such a wee thing, this won't take long." He said as his fangs lowered towards her throat.

In the background, Buffy screamed.

...

TBC