"So Spike and Dru have summoned some new supervamp to kill us?" Buffy asked from her place in Angel's lap.
Giles smiled at her verbal short-cut. She had truly become happier during these few days since Angel picked her up at the Bronze. Something had happened that night, something that had changed their relationship completely. They had strolled into the library hand in hand with big, silly grins on their faces. He was glad they had come to an agreement about their relationship, but she could pay attention to someone not named 'Angel' as well...
"Something like that," he said.
"Good!" Buffy said and jumped to her feet. "In that case, I've got to go home. I'm grounded, again, and I have to patrol and manage to get home before mom realizes I'm not in my room."
Angel immediately rose. "I'll accompany you to the door," he said. "It's my turn to baby-sit Deidre, so I have to get home too."
They said their goodbyes and then disappeared into the night.
-#-#-#-
As soon as they got outside the library, Angel grabbed Buffy and kissed her thoroughly. After a few long seconds, he broke the kiss, smiling, and leaned his forehead against hers.
"Good night," he whispered.
Buffy smiled softly, then she disappeared towards the park. Angel looked thoughtfully after her. It was strange how you could feel so much for anyone. He had spent every free moment with her the past two days, and yet he missed her two seconds after she left him.
Angel grinned and shook his head. He wouldn't complain. There weren't many people who met someone to love forever, but he had. Buffy was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He would never allow hurt to touch her.
Whistling, he jumped into his car for the day, a blue BMW, and started to drive home when something suddenly stepped onto the road right in front of him. Panicked, he pushed down the breaks, but with screeching wheels, he drove into the thing with a sickening crunch. It was thrown onto the window, then flew off the car and into the ditch. A terrible pain hit his body and made him double over. Then, it was over.
Angel opened the door and quickly rounded the car to slide down into the ditch to see what he had driven into. Down there, he could make out the dark shadow of something in the limited light from the car.
He reached the bottom and turned the body of a human, laying face-down in the mud.
And himself looking at his own face. Surprised, he fell back on his butt.
"Caliam!" he got out.
The guy's eyes opened, shining yellow in the darkness as his face morphed into that of a vampire.
"Yes," he whispered. "Caliam. How are you my dear brother?"
With a growl he attacked. Angel crawled away, quickly getting to his feet with easy grace and threw his brother away from himself, into the corner of a house. A sick crunch was heard as his back snapped, and Cal cried out in pain, only in the same moment, Angel fell to the ground writhing in pain coming from nowhere.
Slowly, it disappeared, and Angel looked at his brother who smiled evilly.
"Do you understand now?" he taunted. "Have you ever wondered over your strength or your weird immunity to sickness? I almost died twelve years ago, Angel. The only thing that has kept me alive is the blood of vampires I received from granny Dru. But now I am one. Think, bro, your twin is a vamp and you're practically one too! Don't you just love twin connections?"
Angel reeled back as if someone had hit him. Dru, as in his great grandmother. Dru, as in Buffy's nemesis. Dru, as in the vampire who destroyed his family by killing his brother and making him one of them.
Filled with fury, Angel produced a stake from his pocket and readied himself to throw it. But it didn't leave his hand.
"I can't," he mumbled to himself.
An amused laugh rung through the air. Angel looked at Caliam and watched as he got up and walked away.
"You should have killed me," he laughed. "Now, you're just gonna be in pain, like her."
Angel stared after him, then he flew into the car. He had to find Buffy!
-#-#-#-
Buffy staked her last vampire and glanced at her watch. Eleven. Time to go home. Joyce usually came home eleven thirty after an exhibition. It was best for her she was at home by then. If she didn't want to be grounded for the rest of her life, of course. Giles wouldn't like that, nor would she for that matter. They had started to run out of 'extra studies' excuses for her coming home late.
She put the stake in a pocket and started to go home. When she got to the end of Hudson Street, she decided to take a shortcut through one of those dark, dangerous death alleys close to the Bronze. Those streets were common hunting grounds for the wandering dusters with pointed teeth.
She turned around the corner and walked right into a well known person. "Angel!" she exclaimed and hugged him. "What are you doing here?"
He flashed her a broad grin. "Not Angel," he drawled and threw her off him and into a hard wall.
She hit the wall head first and a fog clouded her senses. She tried to focus on the stranger standing over her with a smug smile on his lips.
"Caliam," he finished with a laugh.
The pain overtook her as everything went black.
-#-#-#-
A tearless, empty scream tore from her throat and an intensive pain ripped her body as the stranger thrust himself into her body. Her faint fighting subsided as the pain took over. All she could remember as she lay there, naked and broken at the ground, was the blood. The blood she had taken, the blood he had taken. And as she could feel the pain in her lower body disappear, she lost her faith in her cause. What kind of Slayer let herself be raped? What kind of Slayer let herself be turned?
The emptiness, the pain as her body turned from living, to living dead. And the dull, senseless ache from the dirty feeling of his hands on her body. All she knew, was that for her, there was no life anymore. Just a dead existence. But it was all for a cause she supposed. Yet, someone had violated her. Not only her body, but her mind, her soul. Someone wearing the face of her love.
Even now she could remember the happiness that flooded her senses at his presence. The love, the devotion in his eyes. He had been gentle and loving to her these two days, careful he'd never hurt her. Her love had waited for her to be ready, even as she knew he desired her.
But now, the girl she once was had disappeared. Left, there was a dark creature of the night. One of those she was supposed to fight.
Then everything went black, and the only thing she was aware of was him.
-#-#-#-
Angel searched through Sunnydale like a madman all night. He even called her house once, but she was not to be found anywhere. And as the sun came over the horizon, he drove to the home of Giles. Nervously, he knocked on the door. Almost immediately the door opened, revealing a fully clothed, disheveled Rupert Giles.
"Angel!" he exclaimed as he opened the door. "Thank God you're here! Buffy has disappeared!"
Angel nodded anxiously. "I know," he said. "I've been searching for her all night. You haven't seen her?"
"No, Giles confirmed. "Her mother called me at one in the morning, she's completely frantic. What have happened to her?"
Angel closed his eyes and sank to the floor as Caliam's last words played over and over again in his mind. He had gotten her. It was all his fault. Who knew what horrors she went through right now?
"Angel?" he heard the watcher say.
He opened his eyes and looked straightly at the middle-aged Englishman in front of him.
"He got her," he said.
"Who?" Giles asked, frowning.
Angel shook his head. "Call the others," he said. "Tell them to come here. I have something to tell you. I'll call a few others who should hear this."
Giles nodded and picked up the phone to dial a number. "Willow? Good. You have to get down here now. Buffy has disappeared."
-#-#-#-
It had been hers and her mother's secret for so many years, no one else knew. She was a Channeler, the messenger for the Powers that Be, and had been so since her early childhood. It had been her mother that understood the reason behind the weird visions and dreams, but now she knew herself.
The visions had never been wrong, they always came true. Sometimes, the visions were about her family, sometimes about strangers, but pain always followed. Not only the splitting headaches, but the pain of the events that followed them. She'd seen herself get raped, seen her brother become a werewolf, her parents divorcing and thousands of people needing help. And she and her mother always tried to help.
That was how they was introduced to the darker side of the world. The vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. And they tried to fight them. But soon they realized that nothing they did was enough. There were others out there, better equipped to fight. As the Slayer, the Chosen One.
She had gotten to know about the Slayer completely by mistake. One day, she'd been in her father's working room, searching for a cellphone when she accidentally stumbled upon a secret room filled with books and mysterious artifacts.
It was her father's heritage from his great grandmother Julia, a powerful gypsy sorceress. Books about magic and the creatures created from it. About the the darkness underneath the shady surface of the earth. And she'd read.
But it wasn't until now she got any use of her knowledge about magic.
She'd been in the living room, reading as she waited for her younger brother, Angel, to come home, when the visions hit her. A young girl, blond, being raped by a mirror image of Angel, a vampire, and being turned.
Another vision hit her immediately after that one. A collage of the girl, fighting vampires, arguing with an older man, chatting with her friends, kissing Angel. It was the Slayer, the Buffy Summers her brother had spoken so passionately about. And she needed help.
The only help finding the place Buffy would be in, was a nearby neon sign reading 'the Bronze'. She'd gotten up, quickly checking that Deidre was asleep, then she'd taken her only car to start looking for 'the Bronze'.
It hadn't taken her too long finding the place and she'd quickly parked the car at the front door to go looking for the girl. After ten minutes, she found her in an dark alley behind the club. She was bathing in her own blood and was bruised all over her body. That they were still visible said more than enough of how bad she was hurt.
She'd managed to pick the girl up and place her in the backseat of the car before taking her home, thanking God no cops were out at midnight checking for speeding cars. At least not in Sunnydale.
Well at home, she got rid of the girl's ripped clothes and washed her clean before dressing her in a large T-shirt. Then she placed her in one of the guest rooms and started to secure the house from unwanted guests. Only with that done, did she go after the old magic tools to secure herself and Deidre from a soulless demon by anchoring Buffy's human soul to her body.
Afterwards, sitting in a comfortable chair by Buffy's side, she let herself react to the vision. Who was the vampire who'd raped the young slayer and turned her? He'd been an exact copy of Angel, down to the clothes. Not a detail separated them. But it couldn't be Angel. Sure, he'd been a little violent since Caliam's death, but a rapist? No, he wouldn't do such a thing. Or would he?
-#-#-#-
Buffy opened her eyes to a candlelit room. She was lying on a big bed with green sheets. Someone had dressed her in a soft T-shirt, falling almost to her knees. As she moved to sit up, she became aware of someone stirring next to her. She looked to her left and found herself staring at a tall, red-headed woman sitting in a chair next to the bed.
The woman pushed a few strands of her curly hair out of her face and smiled at her. "Welcome back, Buffy," she smiled. "I'm Stephanie, Angel's sister. You had me worried there for a while."
Buffy gritted her teeth. She was hungry, very hungry. She needed food, or she had the feeling that she would jump Stephanie to get something to eat. Wait a minute. She was unwilling to feed on a human? Something was wrong. A huge wave of hunger washing over her convinced her that everything but food were of second priority though.
"Food," she growled. "I need food. Now."
Stephanie quickly got up, muttering something about knowing she forgot something. She hurried towards the door, but stopped as she reached it.
"I'll fetch something," she said quickly. "Just...just don't go looking for it, OK? My daughter is sleeping in the room next to yours."
Buffy nodded. She would never take a life. But that didn't make it easy not to grab the first wandering happy meal coming by.
Trying to keep her new game face at bay, she tapped her fingers at the covers, letting her sharp eyes flicker over the room. Suddenly she found herself trying to smell the living, breathing creature next door. Stop it, she ordered herself. Yes, you're a vampire. That doesn't mean you can make innocent children your lunch.
In a distant part of her mind, she wondered why she wasn't trying to kill herself, or for that matter someone else. Then she realized it. Her slayer instincts were still imprinted with fire on her soul. And they didn't let her get away that easy. But the thoughts were quickly interrupted as Stephanie stepped into the room, holding a squirming rabbit in her arms. She smiled apologetically.
"I'm sorry," she said. "This is the biggest rabbit we have. But don't worry. We breed them for food."
Her stomach didn't let herself ask any questions. She almost ripped the poor creature apart as Stephanie handed it to her. Already growling, she sank her suddenly razor-sharp fangs into the rabbit and started to drink the sweet food coming from it.
Almost too soon, the animal was drained, and lay dead in her arms. Ashamed over what she'd become, she handed the dead creature to Stephanie, who handed it to someone else outside the room.
"Satisfied?" she asked.
"Yeah," Buffy nodded.
Stephanie smiled. "Good," she decided. "Now we can talk about what's happened to you."
Memories of drinking the blood of the living animal filled her, and horror rose in her mind. "H-h-he turned me," she forced out. "A creature I've sworn to kill made me one of them."
The woman frowned and looked worried. "Do you remember what happened before he drained you?" she asked nervously.
Buffy nodded. "I had been at Giles," she slowly said. "Angel kissed me goodbye, and I went to the park to slay. Then I remember the time being eleven o'clock, I had to go home. Mom would come soon, and I'm grounded. So I decided to take the quick way through the alley behind the Bronze. I turned around the corner, and walked right into him. And I-I hugged him.Then he threw me off him. After that, everything's blank."
Stephanie looked relieved at that, but Buffy didn't notice it, too caught up in her pain. "Why?" she sobbed. "What would he get from turning the slayer?"
She shook her head. "I don't know," Stephanie said truthfully. "But I guess he wanted you to suffer."
Buffy straightened up and her tears stopped coming but instead a deep cold filled her. "He looked just like him," she said in an empty voice. "But it wasn't him."
Stephanie looked deeply into her eyes. "Do you have any idea who it was?" she asked seriously.
Buffy swallowed. "He told me his name," she confessed. "Not that it meant anything. For all I know he could be centuries old. But for all it's worth... Caliam. He told me his name was Caliam."
Stephanie stared at her. "Caliam?" she gasped. "No! It can't be."
Buffy gave her strange look. "That's what he said," she said. "Why? Do you know him?"
Stephanie nodded and looked at her. "Caliam is Angel's twin brother," she said in a strangled voice. "And he has been dead for twelve years. If this vampire who r...turned you was Caliam, it means he..."
Buffy looked at her with pity. "...he was turned," Buffy concluded for her. "But I don't understand! If Caliam was turned, why hasn't he showed up until now? Merrick told me that vampires has a tendency to kill their own family after being turned."
Stephanie had a thoughtful look on her face. "I think he's the one responsible for our family's misfortune," she said slowly. "And if I'm right, it means he started plaguing us long ago, starting with my rape seven years ago..."
"I'm so sorry!" Buffy said softly, something inside her made her feel like she knew what Stephanie had gone through.
Stephanie smiled. "It's nothing," she said soothingly. "Sure, it hurt a lot in the beginning, but I got something else as repayment. My Deidre."
"You got pregnant," Buffy stated, pulling her fingers through her long blond hair.
Sadly she looked away. "I will never be able to get any kids," she said tonelessly. "Everything about me is dead."
A soft hand turned her face so she looked into Steph's eyes. "No, Buffy," she said softly. "Your body may be dead inside, but YOU are alive. Your soul, the thing that makes you you. It's not the body that makes you alive, it's your soul. That's the difference between you and the other vampires. They have lost their souls, you have yours."
Buffy looked doubtingly at her. !That's the thing I don't understand," she admitted. "How come I have my soul?" She paused as another thought hit her. "And how did I get here?" she exclaimed. "How do you know so much about vamps? How did you know about me?"
Laughing, Steph held her hand in the air to stop the questions raining on her. "One at the time," she told her. "I believe Angel has told you about mother being a psychic and father a gypsy, huh?"
Buffy nodded. "Yeah," she confirmed. "He has mentioned it."
"Good," Steph said. "We start there. Listen carefully. My great grandmother was the daughter to the leader of the gypsy tribe, Julia. She also was a great beauty. But she fell in love with a man outside the tribe, and as she married him without the tribe's permission, they were banished. They had a daughter, Claudia, and as she was three, they decided to try and get in touch with the tribe, for Claudia's sake. But Julia said no. And on her way home that night, my grandmother made a decision that would change everything. As a gypsy she knew everything about vampires and now she decided to become one of them to punish her tribe for shutting her out, blaming Julia and Claudia for everything. And she was turned.
"But at the same time, Julia made a decision. Claudia would be accepted into the tribe. So Julia and a few others went to her and William's, her husband's, home to fetch her. But she had already come there, and when Julia arrived, she had turned William and was going to kill Claudia. Julia saved her.
"And she grew up in the tribe, not knowing any of her parents. She got married and had a son, Alessandro.
"Alessandro was a great boy. The favorite in the tribe. Intelligent, handsome and a natural leader. And as his grandmother died, he became their leader. But as the time went by, he got curious over his mysterious grandparents. Soon, by studying history, he knew what happened. And he blamed the tribe. He left it, taking only his heritage after Julia and Claudia.
"Sandro moved to USA and settled here, and using his brain, he managed to get rich. By doing what he always wanted to, design, he transformed into a multi-millionaire. Cars, houses, clothes, furniture, he designed it all. And people loved it.
"But life as a millionaire was lonely. So one day, he just decided to disappear for a while. He went to Ireland, and there he met my mother Maeve. They fell in love and got married. Together, they created a family. But soon it was clear that mother was a psychic.
"In the beginning, father didn't seem to care, but after Caliam's supposed death, it was just too much, and they divorced. Sure, they loved each other, but the marriage was too hard. And since then, they've had an on-off again relationship. Married right now.
"We are four children in the family. Me, the oldest, Caliam and Angel, the twins, and Antonio, the youngest. And it's something weird about everyone in the family. Father is a gypsy, and pretty good at magic. Mother is a psychic, Caliam's a vampire, Angel is never sick, and have some really strange reactions to some things. Antonio is a werewolf. And I, I have a connection to the Powers That Be."
Buffy gave her a puzzled look. "Excuse me?" she asked. "Powers That Be?"
Stephanie smiled briefly. "God," she said. "I get messages from him through the Oracles, who sends them to me as visions. And they're damn painful to get too..."
Buffy shook her head. "OK," she said. "Now you've lost me. Oracles? Aren't they supposed to be some sieresses in Greece?"
Stephanie nodded. "Yes," she answered. "But they were also the messengers for the gods. In this case, they gets orders from the Powers That Be and give them to me."
Buffy nodded. "I think I understand," she said. "You got a vision about me. But that still doesn't explain why I have a soul, or how you knows about me and vamps."
"No," Steph agreed. "That has to do with my great grandmother Drusilla."
Buffy jumped at the name and grabbed Stephanie by the neck. "What do you know about Dru?" she snapped angrily.
-#-#-#-
Alessandro Marciano was at the office in New York when Angelus reached him at his private number. He just needed to hear the name Drusilla to throw himself on his private plane to go to Sunnydale.
-#-#-#-
Maeve Marciano taught a class of college students in Gaelic when she received a message on her beeper. Ten minutes later, she sat in her car on her way to Sunnydale.
-#-#-#-
The students in Sunnydale High made big eyes when a red jaguar escorted by bodyguards on motorbikes stopped dead by the school and a beautiful woman dressed in Gucci ran to the library where Giles and Angelus Marciano had locked themselves in earlier. And they were even more surprised when a long, black limo stopped at the school and a man in Armani followed in her tracks. Then, when Snyder came to investigate, dark-clad guards sent him violently on his way. But when Willow, Xander, Oz and Cordelia got there, they immediately got in.
All school talked about it. Especially as a gorgeous guy on a bike around their own age joined the others. What was going on?
-#-#-#-
Angel paced nervously in the library when a beautiful woman came. They gave each other a quick hug.
"Are you OK, Angel?" Maeve asked worriedly.
Angel nodded. "Yes," he said. "I'm alright. But we've got trouble. We can talk more when the others are here."
Soon after, an older man who also hugged Angel arrived. And then Scooby Gang came and soon after a young man who greeted Angel enthusiastically. Now, everyone were there.
-#-#-#-
Oz watched the people gathered in the library. Both friends and strangers. All had one thing in common: they had come here to hear what Angel wanted to tell them. And something told him it was important.
Now when everyone apparently were there, Angel rose and got everyones attention. "I realize that most of you don't know each other, so I will start by explaining who everyone are," Angel started. "Mother, father, Antonio, this is Giles, Xander, Oz, Willow and Cordelia. Giles, gang, this is my mother Maeve, my father Alessandro and my brother Antonio."
Everyone nodded politely.
"And now back to the subject," Angel said with a suddenly grim voice. "Drusilla is here in Sunnydale, and she's here for revenge. And she has brought a part of it with her. Caliam is one of them."
That certainly got the attention of Giles, Maeve, Alessandro and Antonio. They seemed to be pretty chocked. Not that Oz had any clue who Caliam was, but it didn't look too good.
"Caliam?" Willow wondered and frowned. "Who's that? And revenge? Who do Drusilla want to take revenge on?"
The older man gave her a pale smile. "Caliam is my son and Angelus´ twin," he explained. "We all thought that he died twelve years ago. And Dru..." He swallowed thoroughly. "...was my grandmother," he finished. "She was the reason I left Italy and my tribe so long ago."
Willow nodded. "I understand," she said slowly. "But Mr. Marciano..."
"Sandro," he interrupted. "Only Sandro."
She gave him a quick smile. "Sandro," she said. "Why does Dru want to take revenge on you?"
Alessandro shook his head. "My great grandmother, Julia, banished Drusilla and her husband William...," he started.
Giles interrupted him with a sharp look. "William Spears?" he asked. "From England?"
Sandro gave him a confused look and nodded. Oz's brain immediately put two and two together. "Spike," he said out loud.
Giles nodded. "Yes, Spike," he agreed. "It seems like it has been going on a long time. Please continue, Mr Marciano."
Sandro smiled. "Well," he continued. "Julia banished Dru and William for their relationship. But when they had a daughter, Claudia, they wanted to re-enter the tribe for her sake, but Julia refused, so Dru made sure she was turned. Completely by her own will. And she blamed the tribe for everything. And in the last twenty years, she has taken out her anger on us, hers and Julia's children."
Giles nodded thoughtfully. "Yes," he said. "Caliam's death split you and your wife up. Your daughter's rape and your son's werewolf attack. And now Caliam's attack on Angel and Buffy..."
The woman opened her mouth for the first time. "Buffy?" she asked with a singing accent which betrayed her Irish origins. "Who's she?"
A collective moan came from Willow, Xander and Cordy, and Oz held back a smile. Time for the famous speech.
"In every generation, there's a Chosen One," Giles explained. "She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer."
When Giles uttered the last word, Angel jumped and stared at him, as the woman, Maeve, burst out laughing a warm, rich laugh. "The Slayer, huh?" she said slyly. "Only psychic madness I recall you saying..."
Angel stared at Giles who shrugged. "You needed to find out by yourself," he said.
"But," Angel disagreed, then darkened once again. "Not that it matter now..."
The woman looked sharply at him. "What do you mean?" she said.
Angel looked into the empty air in front of him. "That's the reason I called you here," he said sadly. "Buffy is gone, and I fear that Caliam has gotten her. And if he has...she's dead. And there's no reason to not believe it."
A deep silence fell over the room, as everyone realized what had happened. They had lost her. The happy young woman who had brought light to their usually dark lives. Yet, Oz couldn't help but notice the strange expression at Angel's mother's face. She seemed concentrated at something, something hard.
Suddenly someone moved from the stillness. Antonio flew up from his seat and looked around cursing. "Damn," he swore. "I forgot that damned moon."
Then he spotted one of the book cages, ran into it and locked the door. "Thang G...," he started to say, but the sentence ended with a growl.
"Full moon," Oz commented. "I hope the cage can hold him."