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Thank you to everyone who had favorited, followed or reviewed this fic so far.
Thanks a lot to Brainstorm Sorcerer for his help with the chapter.
Chapter 7- A Beast awakens
Hyperion Hotel
Gunn grabbed a battleaxe in the lobby as Groo grabbed a sword while Angel was walking down the stairs, holding Connor, with Lorne following him, talking emphatically.
"No", Angel immediately said.
"Why?" Lorne asked.
"No."
"Why?"
"I said no."
"I said why", Lorne then made a suggestion for further conversation. "Now, let's meet in the middle with a "why no?""
"It's too soon", Angel walked to the front desk.
"But she got her memory back. Aren't you a weensy curious if Cordy remembers anything about her little stint as a Miss Higher Power?" Lorne inquired, and it was a legit question. "Oh, say, maybe something about the thing-a-ma-bad that Wolfram and Hart sucked outta my noggin."
Angel was more concerned about her mental condition. "We need to give her time to adjust before we start coming at her with a million questions."
"How 'bout one? One's good", Lorne gave a compromise.
"In a couple of days when she's more herself", Angel assured.
Lorne turned to Fred, Gunn and Groo. "Chime in any time."
Fred, Gunn and Groo were at the weapons cabinet, picking out weapons.
"Love to", Fred shrugged.
"Really", Gunn added.
"We have a case from a client", Groo finished.
"Need some backup?" Angel asked her.
"Nah. Woman out in Hancock Park's hearing spookies in her pipes. I don't know whether to bring my axe or a plunger", Gunn shrugged.
"Maybe you should try reading her again if you want answers so much?" Angel suggested to Lorne.
"As long as I get some painkillers, sure", Lorne said with a shrug.
"Don't know about painkillers," They all looked to the door as Matt walked in with his cane and case, "but what about a duet?"
"Jumping Jehoshaphat! Matt!" Lorne ran to embrace him, "Oh my sweet Devil, I missed you," and then they pulled back, "and may I just say you are glowing? Are you pregnant?"
"Not that I can tell."
"Shame, it'd be a cutie like the little nibber here", Lorne gestured to Connor as Gunn and Fred came over and hugged him, while Groo shook his hand.
Angel approached last, handing Connor to Fred as he hugged his best friend, before Fred offered the baby to him, "Say hi to uncle Matt."
Matt took the baby and rocking him said. "Hi kid, you're getting bigger, I think you're going to outgrow us all soon."
They all chuckled as Matt handed Connor back to Angel and inquired. "How's Cordy?"
"Well, her memory is back", Angel revealed, surprising Matt at that.
"Really?"
"Really", Angel nodded. "But she is in shock I think, trying to adjust."
"I get it", Matt assured.
"And how's Faith?" Angel then asked Matt.
"She's fine, though she went off to Sunnydale over some Slayer stuff at the same time I decided to come here", Matt informed Angel. "And some remnant of the Hand attacked us all. Jessica was poisoned and Colleen was stabbed but they're fine now. And Luke's club got blown up. But you know him."
"He's fine, he's Luke Cage after all. I pity the fool who blew up the club when he finds him", Gunn then said, fanboy believing in his favorite hero. And then he moved on. "Not that we don't love having you here, but what's up Matlock?" Gunn asked for all of them.
Matt lost his good mood. "We need to talk."
"Okay, we'd love to stay here for it, but there's a job, guys", Fred reminded Gunn and Groo.
"Right", Gunn realized.
"You three can be told of this later", Matt assured as they nodded and walked out to do the job.
"So, what is it?" Angel asked as he, Matt and Lorne sat down.
"Well, I had a dream", Matt explained to the two of them. "Some kind of monstrous creature punched its way out of the ground, I think it was made of rock. It fought all of you and injured you", Matt gestured to Angel as he said that. "And then fire rained in the sky."
"Okay, that is horrible", Angel said, sharing a concerned look with Lorne.
"Maybe I can sing for you?" Matt both asked and suggested.
"Oh yeah, works for me", Lorne said as he clapped his hands, preparing to listen to what Matt was going to sing.
And so Matt began with a deep breath- "All around me are familiar faces. Worn out places, worn out faces. Bright and early for the daily races. Going nowhere, going nowhere. Their tears are filling up their glasses. No expression, no expression. Hide my head, I wanna drown my sorrow. No tomorrow, no tomorrow. And I find it kind of funny. I find it kind of sad. The dreams in which I'm dying. Are the best I've ever had. I find it hard to tell you. I find it hard to take. When people run in circles it's a very, very. Mad world, mad world…."
And then Matt was done as Lorne looked concerned, but also impressed by the singing at the same time, though the concern overpowered it.
"Well, I want to say thank you for the show, but I feel like that would set the wrong tone. It's a shame that such an experience is hampered by such apocalyptic messages", Lorne finally said with a sigh.
"Apocalypse, again? How many is that now?" Angel wondered.
"What did you see?" Matt inquired.
Lorne looked at them all grimly and told them just what it was.
"Something is coming, guys. And I mean right now, he's punching his way to LA. The city will be feeling it soon enough, hell, I think it already is."
"And the demon?"
"Never seen anything like it. What I can tell you, it is about as friendly as Taylor Swift is to her latest ex", Lorne made a quip, but it was dead serious, and then he inquired. "But why would you getting these visions?"
"What do you mean?" Matt was confused. "I thought it was because of Abaddon and the Hell-Mark."
"You got sent nightmares by Mephisto about Abaddon, and don't make me recall feeling that part, but these were sent to you, and I don't know how, or why."
"One mystery followed by another, yep, we got an apocalypse coming." Angel finally said.
If this wasn't Mephisto, then what was it?
Matt knocked, and Cordelia opened the door, surprised to see him. "Matt?"
"Hey Cordy", Matt said as he walked in, holding some food. "Got some for you."
"Thanks", Cordelia said happily, taking it from him and putting it on the table.
"So you remember?" Matt inquired.
"Yes, I remember everything", Cordelia confirmed with a nod. "Well, expect about when I was in the Higher Dimension."
"Well, that's too bad, could have helped us out here", Matt said with a sigh and she agreed with him there.
She seemed different though, he didn't know why. Perhaps because she had been a Higher Being all this time and now had her memories back, something had changed about her? That could be it.
"I remember us too", Cordelia then said, rubbing his arms, confusing Matt, why was she doing this now?
"Cordy….."
"It was a nice time, among the happiest of my life", Cordelia continued, now cupping Matt's cheek while moving closer to him and holding him. "I wish we could just go back to that time, you know?"
"Yeah, but things change", Matt said, gently putting her hands away, weirded out by her behavior. But then Matt remembered Cordelia had just gotten her memories back, and she was behaving like she had a little while after her breakup.
Her thoughts and memories were probably jumbled right now.
"So, you can eat, and I'll let you know if anything happens", Matt said, walking down, not noticing the ominous gaze behind him.
As he walked down, he heard the phone ringing faster than Angel or Lorne could answer them, and asked. "You want me to take any of them?"
"No, just take care of my son", Angel said, gesturing to Connor in his crib as Matt walked to him and lifted him up.
"Hey kid, how are you?" Matt asked as Connor made a funny sound.
"Oh, okay", Matt shrugged as he sat down with him. "Well, daddy is too busy with phones so you're stuck with me for a bit."
During that time Fred, Gunn and Groo returned as Angel asked. "How did it go?"
"Bad", all three said together, and then Gunn and Groo walked off, while Fred walked to Matt, deciding to play with Connor, when he suddenly heard Cordelia gasp upstairs.
"Cordy!" Matt immediately said as that got their attention, and so Fred took Connor from him while Matt and Angel rushed upstairs, with Lorne staying on the phones.
They opened the door, and Cordelia looked frightened as Angel hugged her. "It's okay Cordy! I'm here, we're all here!"
A while later, Cordelia was sitting down as Angel tried to touch her but she shifted slightly, and he inquired. "Did I do something or…..?"
Cordelia assured in that moment. "Oh, Angel... I love you. I always will. You know that."
Angel said. "I don't suppose we could stop there."
"I wish we could - more than anything - but I can't", Cordelia now shifted to face Angel. "When I got my memory back, everything came rushing in. Sunnydale, moving to Los Angeles, meeting you again. I wanted to tell you, but it was just too much."
"Tell me what?"
"What I remembered when I was a higher being. I remember seeing you - your past - when you were Angelus", Cordelia finally revealed to him.
Angel pointed out. "I never tried to hide who I was or what I've done. You already knew."
Cordelia made a point of her own. "Knowing's different than living it. When I was up there, I could look back and see everything you ever did as Angelus - more than see, I felt it. Not just their fear and pain. I felt you and how much you enjoyed making them suffer. I love you, Angel", she touched his face, "but I can't be with you. It's just too soon. Maybe if we just give it a little time... Cordelia started hyperventilating, convulsing, and her eyes turned white. Angel and Matt grabbed her shoulders to steady her.
"Cordy!"
"He's coming. He's coming now."
Later, Cordelia was lying down on the bed.
Angel was beside her with Matt on the doorway when Fred came, holding Connor. "I'm going out with Connor, because I don't want to be here, and I don't think anyone here can look after him right now with what's going on. I'm telling you because of what happened last time someone went off with him."
They groaned, remembering Wesley's stupidity as Angel assured Fred. "I trust you. Take care of him." He walked to Connor and kissed his forehead. "Be good to Aunt Fred, she loves you."
Fred smiled and then left with Connor, as Angel turned to Cordelia. "You still have your visions. I thought they weren't supposed to hurt anymore."
"This wasn't normal", Cordelia sighed as Angel sat down on the bed beside her. "If that word actually applies to anything that ever happens to me. The visions are usually like a lawn sprinkler. This was like Niagra."
"Maybe you should rest", Matt suggested to her.
"No, I'm okay", Cordelia assured.
Angel asked. "What else can you tell me?"
Cordelia informed him. "Big, powerful, clawing its way up through the bowels of the earth to slaughter us all. Yeah, that pretty much covers it."
"Must be what I saw", Matt realized.
"Did either of you see anything that could give us a location?" Angel asked, but Matt shook his head.
Cordelia was the same. "No, just the big beastie", she sat up in the bed. "It's coming, Angel, and it won't stop - not until we're all - It won't stop."
Angel suggested. "Matt's right. You should probably get some sleep."
Cordelia was sarcastic, like usual. "Yeah, because impending doom - almost as good as warm milk."
Angel stood up. "Whatever's coming, I'll figure out a way to stop it." He turned to Matt. "We both will."
Cordelia wasn't so sure. "It'll be too late. I can feel it. There's something - I don't know. I think I know more about this thing - or, I knew more when I was all high and mighty, but I just can't get at it."
Angel again made a suggestion. "Maybe if Lorne read you again."
Cordelia scoffed. "You think he would after what happened the first time?"
Angel quipped. "I could hold him down."
"Angel, we need to know more. I need to know."
Angel started walking off as Matt walked after him. "So, where are you going?"
"Well, the one place which would have the answers", Angel said, and Matt realized where.
"Go, good luck", Matt said, tapping his shoulder.
"Thanks", Angel nodded and walked off.
Matt then walked back to the room and told Cordelia. "You're wrong."
Cordelia was now standing near the window, and turning to look at him asked. "About what?"
Matt told her exactly what.
"Angelus was a soulless Demon, that only brought death, destruction, misery, and pain. But Angel, he is someone else entirely. He has a soul, he's a good man, one of my best friends. I refuse to believe that they are both the same."
Before conversation could go any further, Matt heard wings beating fast, and quickly pulled Cordelia away from the window as a sparrow slammed into it.
"What the hell?" Cordelia wondered as more slammed into the window, and he pulled her into the hall before going down himself, where a whole flock was slamming outside on the glass, with Lorne, Gunn and Groo just as shocked as them all.
In a few seconds, it stopped as Gunn commented. "I'm guessing this isn't a good sign."
"Yeah, as far as harbingers go…not so much", Lorne agreed there.
"These are strange happenings", Groo muttered.
"Tell me about it", Matt agreed before going back up, but then found Cordelia leaving.
"Where are you going?" Matt asked her.
"I'm getting a stronger feeling", Cordelia revealed.
"About the vision", Matt realized.
Cordelia nodded in confirmation. "Yeah. Flashes, images, tugging at me, pulling."
"Where?"
Cordelia shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe where this thing's gonna jack-in-the-box."
Matt noted. "So you were gonna go face it by yourself."
Cordelia groaned. "All right. I was a higher being", she started to walk off.
"Was."
Cordelia stopped.
"You're not anymore."
Cordelia agreed on that too. "No, I'm not. I remember wanting to come back home, to be able to touch, to feel", she finished it all, "to be human again."
Matt assured. "You are."
Cordelia then told him the catch. "But I can't remember how. Am I on vacation? Did I go cosmic AWOL? Did I do something to piss off the Powers That Be and get kicked out? Why am I here?"
Matt told her genuinely. "Because you're important."
"Oh, yeah. The world's really stopped turning without me."
"Well... you're important to me, and Angel, and the rest of us."
Cordelia smiled. "You and Angel are always good with words."
Matt chuckled as she said. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I was sent back because I'm important or needed - for this, to stop whatever's about to happen. I have to find out if that's why I'm here." She started walking off.
"And I have to go with you", Matt said as he walked alongside her.
"Just like that?" Cordelia asked, as she'd thought he'd try to get her to stay.
"I never could talk you out of anything", Matt reminded as both chuckled and walked off.
Soon, Matt and Cordelia were in a warehouse in LA, walking beside each other amid boxes and such.
Matt inquired. "Sure you know where you're going?"
"Exactly? No. But, for the first time since I've been back, I feel like I have a purpose, like a reason for being here. Before, all I felt was empty - like I was waiting for my life to start", Cordelia told Matt with a sigh.
Matt knew the feeling. "I know how that feels. Not knowing why you're here, what your place is in this world...When I first lost my eyes and my dad, I felt the same."
"I'm sorry", Cordelia said as they continued walking, and soon reached an alley in the city, from where Matt could hear the events going on in the city, and it did feel like an apocalypse and birds were behaving strangely, and people were arguing.
Both of them stopped.
Cordelia noted. "This place. I've been here before."
"I think so too", Matt said before remembering, and so did Cordelia.
"Oh, my God. Darla", Cordelia spoke first.
"She died here, Connor was born here", Matt finished for her
Then he suddenly felt something shaking in the ground and pulled Cordelia back. "Stay back!"
Something burst up from the ground in front of them, surrounded in red light. It had got two enormous horns on top of its head, and it was a hulking beast - the one Matt and Cordelia had both seen.
The Beast was huge, and he cast a horned shadow on the moist pavement.
Matt used his sense, and could tell that the Beast's hide was tough like stone, but the eyes were vulnerable.
So he immediately took out his Billy club from his back and threw it at the Beast's head, but it was deflected and fell off, and then the Beast picked Matt up and threw him off, his back hitting a dumpster which got dented from it.
"Matt!" Cordelia called out as the Beast marched to her.
Matt quickly got back up and unsheathed his arm blade, and then rushed the Beast, which tried to smack him away but he dodged while slicing its palm, though it was unaffected.
It tried to hit again as Matt flipped over it and tried to stab it but it was still unaffected. He then sliced its leg but nothing happened still.
The Beast again tried to strike but Matt rolled away and getting up, tried to stab the eye but Beast grabbed his hand and broke the blade off before stabbing him on the shoulder, making Matt gasp as the Beast threw him into a wall, breaking it as Matt fell down, groaning.
The Beast then grabbed Cordelia by the throat and lifted her several feet into the air to its eye level and stared into her face, though she didn't scream or trash, just stared back, looking a little frightened.
Suddenly, it was hit by a ball of Hellfire, making it stagger back with a grunt of pain, dropping Cordelia, and both turned to see Matt staggering back up, having taken the blade out of his shoulder, and now his eyes were glowing a fiery red, the Hell-Mark blazing too, visible underneath his shirt, and his fists were alight with Hellfire.
"Round three!"
And with that, Matt leapt and punched Beast's face, staggering it back, and then he ducked to avoid a strike and decked its gut twice, making it snarl again, before it hit Matt on the face, sending him flying back onto the ground, and Matt spat out some blood.
He immediately got back up and rushed Beast, again dodging a strike before leaping and punching its chest, staggering it back, and then he dodged another strike and punched its arm so hard some of its stone skin melted off, making it scream in pain.
Matt tried to punch again but this time Beast grabbed both of his hands. Matt grunted, enduring the pain, as Beast kneed his ribs, and he gasped in pain, before the Beast punched his face hard twice, sending him falling down once more as he spat out blood.
The Beast then looked at them both, and laughed, and then with a single effort, jumped up to the top of a nearby five story tall building.
When it was gone, Cordelia crawled to Matt, who was hurt and bleeding.
"Come on, Matt, let's get you back", she said, helping him up.
Gunn was talking on the phone in the lobby, and so was Lorne is also on the phone, and Groo too.
When they were done, Wesley had just come in through the front doors. "It is a bit ripe in here. I'd suggest opening a window, but –"
"Fred's not here", Gunn immediately said.
"Didn't ask."
"Didn't have to.
Wesley decided to ask now. "Since you brought it up, where is she?"
"Not your business."
Lorne intervened before things could get even worse. "Hey, uh, call me kooky-pants, but maybe we could save the three rounds until after the Chuck Heston Plague-A-Thon cools off."
Wesley inquired. "You've noticed the increase in paranormal activities?"
"The birds outside for one", Groo pointed out.
Lorne added. "And the Ghostbuster lines have been ringing off the hook."
"I've been tracking similar reports", Wesley sighed and made his offer. "Maybe if we pool our data –"
"Go pool yourself. I'm gonna find my girlfriend", Gunn started to walk away, when Angel interrupted him.
"No you're not. If we don't' stop what's coming, it won't matter where Fred is, or any of us", Angel said firmly, not wanting to argue on this. "And where's Matt?"
"He left with the Princess", Groo informed, and Angel nodded.
"In that case, she's safe."
Later, Lorne was sitting down, looking at papers that were spread across the coffee table. The papers were completely covered in mystical symbols, and there are hundreds of these sheets of paper.
Angel was pacing. Wesley was sitting on the couch next to Lorne. Gunn and Groo were sitting on the couch across from them.
Angel told all of them. "That's everything Wolfram and Hart could decipher from what they took outta Lorne."
Wesley was grateful for the information, but confused too. "They just handed these over?"
"Lilah - she can be very giving", Wes looked at Angel out of the corner of his eyes.
Gunn inquired. "You trust her on this?"
Angel gave his reasoning. "No, but she's got an interest in stopping the end of the world before it ruins Wolfram and Hart's end of the world, so..."
"OK, what's the plan?"
"You're holding it", Angel sat next to Gunn and Groo. "We figure out what all this means, then do something large and violent."
"The deciphering is what is difficult", Groo sighed.
Wesley commented. "I see you've given it considerable thought."
Lorne held up some of the papers. "So all this came out of my head? No wonder it made me greener."
Angel pointed out. "If Wolfram and Hart hadn't extracted it, you'd be a paler shade of dead.
"Yeah, well, remind me to send 'em a fruit basket", Lorne sipped his cocktail when the phone rang. "Mm. Saved by the continuous bell." He stood and walked to the front desk.
Angel asked. "You've been logging the calls?"
"Every last squishy one."
Angel immediately gave an order as he got an idea. "Grab a map, start marking the locations. See if they're concentrated in any one area." He turned to Wesley, Gunn and Groo. "Whatever's happening, whatever Matt and Cordy have seen, the answers are in these pages. We need to figure this out.
A while later, they were still on the couches, trying to decipher the data contained in the papers on the table in front of them.
Gunn sighed. "We're never gonna figure this out."
Angel said. "We have to keep trying."
Wesley's response was surprising. "Normally I'd agree, but this is a waste of time."
Angel pointed out. "It's all we have."
"Does not seem like all of it", Groo said.
Wesley agreed. "We must be missing something. This is gibberish. Bits and pieces of glyphs, archaic languages, symbols - all jumbled together."
Angel asked. "Do you recognize any of them?"
Wesley took a look. "Uh, heat, fallen, shrine, flesh...none of it makes any sense."
Angel told him. "Ah, we gotta keep at it until it does."
Gunn stood up. "You know, maybe we should just take a step back." He walked around.
Angel said. "We don't have time. Cordy said whatever's happening is going down right now."
"Then perhaps you should have addressed this earlier", Wesley flipped through the pages. "We could sift through this muddle from now 'til doomsday, whether that's tomorrow or a thousand years from now –"
Gunn was standing behind Wesley now. "Wait, go back. The last sheet, flip it back."
Angel stood and walked to look. "What is it?"
Wesley's eyes narrowed. "I don't see anything."
Gunn revealed. "'cause you're looking too close." Gunn lined up two of the papers, showing a triangular symbol that's completed when they were lined up properly. Plus, the pattern of the symbols and glyphs weren't nonsensical after all.
There were areas that were more densely written on than others. Gunn grabbed a stack of the papers from Wesley, pushing the coffee table out of the way, and started arranging the papers on the floor, matching up the denser areas which started to form lines.
"OK. So what the hell is it?"
When arranged properly, the papers formed a symbol that looked like a square with diagonal lines connecting opposite corners, forming an "X" pattern within the square).
Angel, Wesley, Gunn and Groo stood and stared at it.
Angel noted what it was. "The Eye of Fire."
Wesley explained. "Ancient alchemical symbol for fire."
Angel added. "And destruction."
Gunn commented. "You had me at fire."
"Perhaps we shall get both, fire does cause destruction", Groo pointed out.
"Um, boys?" Lorne held up the map. "I hate to be the little demon that cried apocalypse nowish, but uh..." Lorne gestured to the map with a marker. He'd plotted the locations of the disturbances with a red dot for each call, and the dots had formed a square.
At the diner, Fred was rocking baby Connor, who was asleep now, and the waitress inquired. "So, what about you?"
"Huh?"
"You and your man, you ever thought about having one?" The waitress inquired. "And I noticed he isn't here."
"Yeah, stuff happened", Fred told her.
"Well, as long as you have such adorable company, won't be too bad, so cheer up", the waitress said as the women smiled at each other.
Then the building shook as there was an earthquake, and Connor started crying as Fred held him close, and got out of the booth, crouching down, and pulled the waitress beside her. "Get away from the window."
Angel was drawing diagonal lines, connecting the corners of the square formed on the map when Lorne plotted the incidents. Angel pointed to where the lines crossed. "That's it."
"What?" Lorne asked.
Wesley noted. "The focal point of the disturbances. The building shakes like there's an earthquake."
Angel realized. "Whatever's coming, that's where we'll find it."
Gunn told them both. "I know that area - the old Kimball building's down there. They did a retro on it, put a club up on the roof. The, uh, Sky Temple or something."
Lorne nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I've heard of it. Watering hole for the tragically hip. Actors, models, all the hot mamas and yamas."
"So this thing is going to do something evil and huge up there", Groo realized.
"A shrine of the flesh", Wesley looked at Angel.
"So, who's thirsty?" Angel walked to the weapons cabinet.
"Let's do it", Gunn followed Angel.
"We shall end this threat", Groo agreed, following Angel too.
Lorne was still sitting at the desk. "Hey, I know location's everything, but, um, maybe we should hold off on the down-payment 'til we know what we're dealing with or how to stop it."
"If it's alive, we kill it. If it's not, we bury it", Angel threw the crossbow to Wesley. "You in?"
At the sky temple of the Kimball Building Roof- Angel, Wesley, Lorne, Gunn and Groo walked up to the club entrance armed and ready to fight, but when they saw the Beast, they stopped dead in their tracks.
The Beast chuckled at them. It was standing inside a square made from human bodies that had been laid out in formation.
At the center of the square, the Beast was holding a man in the air, dangling him by the foot. The way the body hung, it formed sort of an "X" shape.
Lorne quipped. "Ooh, uh, I'm gonna need a bigger arrow."
The Beast threw the man he was holding across the room before focusing his attention on Angel's gang. Angel hoisted his sword and ran toward the Beast. Gunn and Groo flanked him on the right, while Wesley and Lorne were on the left with crossbows aimed.
Angel swung the sword at the Beast, but it had no effect - when the sword contacted the Beast's skin, there was a pinging sound, but it didn't cut or penetrate the skin.
He blocked and dodged strikes, then struck again, but was disarmed and thrown into a column which shattered into pieces.
Gunn hurled the battleax at the Beast, but the Beast caught it easily, bending the blade in half and throwing it back at Gunn who took cover to avoid.
Groo tried to strike with his sword twice but the Beast blocked both times and kicked him away, shattering a table as Groo fell down.
Angel got up with 2 smaller axes, dodging the Beast's blows and striking him, but he blocked his attacks and pushed him back.
Wesley and Lorne fired from their crossbows but the Beast deflected their projectiles at Angel, who dropped his axes and doubled over in pain. The two loaded their crossbows again but the Beast threw Angel at them, knocking them all down.
Groo then charged again, kicking the Beast, and then punching its stony gut, and then tried to strike again but Beast grabbed him by the collar and threw him into the other three, taking them down again.
Gunn leapt back out with a sword and tried to fight, the Beast unaffected as he grabbed Gunn by the throat and threw him across the room.
Wesley took out 2 automatic handguns, firing them at the Beast who was unaffected. He ran out and took out a shotgun, firing that instead as the Beast went on his knees, and Wesley walked closer, about to fire again when the Beast looked up with a smile and pushed the shotgun away, hurling Wesley across the room.
The Beast chuckled.
"Might wanna hold the gloat, chuckles", Angel pulled the arrow out. "We're just getting started."
He charged the Beast, blocking and dodging his blows while knocking him with punches and a spin kick. He blocked a punch but then got an uppercut which sent him upwards, so he flipped and landed on the awning, now in Vamp face as the Beast sneered back.
Angel leapt back down, avoiding punches as he knocked the Beast with his punches, including 2 spinning ones. He ducked to avoid a blow and punched him twice before leaping and kicking him, then brought him down on his knees with a punch. Angel pulled out a dagger to stab his eyes but he grabbed his hand, then snatching the dagger, stabbed Angel's neck who gasped in pain as blood poured out of his mouth while he morphed back into human face.
"Do you really think they are safe with each other?" The Beast taunted before hurling Angel out into the city, as Gunn stood and screamed. "NO!"
"ANGEL!" Groo screamed at the same time as he stood too.
Lorne looked panicked. The Beast kneeled on one knee, punching the floor at the center of his human square, sending a trail of fire out along the floor in the shape of the Eye of Fire symbol. A shock wave emanated from the area, knocking everyone back a few feet.
Wesley, Gunn and Groo were knocked back as Lorne was thrown back, but landed on a glass skylight and fell into the room below.
The fire was tall now, taller than the Beast. Wesley sat up in time to see the Beast leap straight up into the sky, riding the fire that he created.
Wesley and Groo went over to Gunn, who was lying unconscious on the floor.
Lorne was conscious now.
Wesley and Groo carried Gunn away from the fire.
Angel lay somewhere on the street, and rolling over, pulled the dagger out, gasping, while looking at the fire in the sky as he convulsed.
Matt and Cordelia had returned to Hyperion shortly after Team Angel had left, and so they had been unable to communicate their findings with each other.
Cordelia then watched as a shaft of fire that was shooting straight up into a red circular cloud in the sky right over downtown. The column of fire was sucked up into the cloud where it disappears and the clouds closed.
Still glowing, the clouds now rained tiny fireballs all over the city. She stared in disbelief.
"I can feel it", Matt grunted from the bed. "I saw it, and I couldn't prevent it. I should have tried harder."
"It's not your fault", Cordelia assured Matt. "It was all just too strong."
"What if it is?" Matt wondered.
"No, it's not", Cordelia assured, moving closer to him. "I know it in my heart."
She touched his face and brushed his hair away, and then pulling his face closer, kissed him passionately and tenderly.
Only, instead of kissing back, Matt pulled back. "No."
"No?" Cordelia asked, shocked. "Why?"
"You're not in the right state of your mind, I'm hurt, you're in shock, the world might end, this is not the time for this", Matt said, and then declared. "I love Faith. I will always love you too, Cordelia, but that relationship is over. I don't know what happened to you in that other dimension, but I hope you get over it soon."
Then he got up and limped away to his own room to start his meditation, thinking the return of memories had still made Cordelia fuzzy, and he did not notice her infuriated look behind him.
At the Kimball building, from the office in which he landed, Lorne watched through the window in horror as fireballs rained down on the city.
Wesley and Groo, holding Gunn's limp body in their arms, also watched the sky.
Fred watched the fire rain down too from inside the diner, with the waitress and other patrons freaking out. Fred tried to call someone on her cell phone but didn't get through so she hung up and continued staring, trying to soothe the crying Connor.
At her office in Wolfram and Hart, Lilah too watched fire rain down as she wringed her hands nervously, then rubbed her upper arms as if shivering.
Stick too saw the rain of fire from a window in Hyperion, and he had also noticed Cordelia's strange behavior. "Something's wrong with the Princess."
He quickly willed himself to go to the New York Sanctum, but to his shock, the Mystics were all asleep, and he saw Strange in a meditative position, grunting and twisting his head, as if in a fight.
"Strange?" Stick called out but got no response, as Strange was suddenly hurled through some glass and fell down, cuts all over him, but he still didn't open his eyes, and sounded like he was in a fight.
"Must be Nightmare", Stick groaned. "They're on their own now."
And so this is the end.
So since Connor is still a baby, Jasmine's best bet here is Matt, who is the Devil, and so he can give her a lot of power, but unlike Connor, he's smart, and knows not to bang Cordelia. Hope my explanation for why he isn't suspicious makes sense too.
So since I removed THAT from this episode, I think now its worthy of a 10/10, since this episode would have been a 10/10, but THAT dragged it down to 8/10 instead.
So Strange and the Mystics are besieged by Nightmare, and can't help much, sadly.
Thanks a lot to Brainstorm Sorcerer again.
Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.