Title: SCREAM!!!
Author: Joy
Email: SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com
A night of destiny had begun at Caritas that evening. Lorn had Spike payback a favor by singing at the club's reopening. Buffy and Dawn were most proud of his talents each having been sung to. The rest of the Scoobies had made the trek to LA to see Spike perform out of support and blackmail. Now that he and Buffy were living together and raising Dawn everyone lightened up on the vamp. A series of prophetic dreams had revealed the Spike's necessity in Buffy's life as well as the arrival of a love and partner for Dawn.
Angel Investigations had arrived at the club because they loved Lorn and to support Angel who would sing as well, thought much worse then Spike. Wesley and Gunn vide for Fred's affections while Angel finally got the words out to tell Cordelia how he felt about her…with coaching by Spike.
For Dawn's part the evening held the most. She got to tell off Angel for all the evil she did to her family and truly claimed Spike as family in front of the large group of White Hats. Lorn kindly introduced her to her destiny in the form of a teenage boy named Wolf. Wolf was just that…a young shape shifter, with no knowledge of his background. Spike played father to both filling Wolf in on his heritage and setting boundaries with Dawn on dating. These of course had to be broken almost immediately when the PTB made it apparent that Dawn had to be claimed (bitten) by Wolf so that when he was presented to his clan he would already be married in their eyes.
The evening had worn on, sending all to their sleeping quarter. Now in the great Hyperion hotel were gathered a large group of Observers to protect them from the impending magiks, spirits and the clan. Lorn entered the hotel when, after several shape shifters he had never seen before entered his club looking for Wolf, he became nervous.
A floating translucent being drifted to the floor of the lobby, "They are all here…Begin." At the words all the other beings save five began to illuminate and hum.
Lorn heard the sound but couldn't place it…but it was perfect in resonation and pitch soothing him to his soul. Others in the Hyperion didn't have the same reaction. Upstairs Buffy sat straight up in bed covering her ears screaming at the top of her lungs, as a few rooms away Dawn did the same thing. On the ground floor Connor began to wail bloody murder while Cordelia past out on the floor having attempted to get to the little nipper.
Wolf was the first out his door calling for help. Fred went to his aid as quickly as she could. Lorn made his way to Connor and allowed Angel to gather Cordelia into his arms. Spike threw on some boxers and a robe onto Buffy carrying her into the hall. "What the bloody hell is going on?!" Spike shouted loud enough to wake the rest of the occupants of the hotel.
The tortured women were carried by their loves to the lobby, while Lorn carried the baby. All the White Hats emerged from their own rooms groggy and completely confused. "What are you doing here Lorn?" Angel yelled over the screams of the Summers women and his son.
"I thought something might be wrong so I came over…Looks like I was right," he answered.
"Any thoughts on this green guy?" Xander asked from behind him with Anya under his arm.
"Connor's little ears are not handling the hum well," Lorn responded.
"Hum?" Spike quipped.
"There's a low hum… Not from TVs or bugs but something…well, unearthly."
"That helps… How do I make Dawn stop screaming in pain? She doesn't even seem to know I'm here," Wolf fussed.
"Why aren't the rest of us effected?" Fred asked.
"Hey…I just know there's a hum. I don't know how to make it stop or if we should make it stop, let alone why its only bothering these four," Lorn stated.
Tara rubbed her head and said, "Well Buffy and Dawn aren't exactly human and neither is Cordelia. This probably proves that Connor isn't entirely either… You guys aren't probably affected because you have extra sensitive hearing."
"But so does Cordy," Xander responded.
"Not quite," Angel answered. "Her hearing was focused on one voice at a time not multiple like the rest of us. That's probably why she knocked out. The frequency is wrong."
Wesley being the ever present former watcher, piped up saying, "Buffy and Dawn have Slayer hearing, which isn't as good as Cordy's. I guess Connor has some seriously good hearing too."
"That's great but how do we make them stop," Spike yelled, "screaming." On the last word the three stopped and were asleep. "Okay what caused that?" he asked.
"There's a singer here…" Lorn said looking about the room, "No four…one for each of them… Set the girls down." Lorn laid little sleeping Connor on the sofa in the lobby. The little boy began to coo sweetly and rocked back and forth as if someone was soothing him.
"A singer?" Gunn asked, while the other men refused to let their women out of their arms.
"A singer is a spiritual being from the heavenly realm. Most people call them Angels… People tend to classify all heavenly beings the same though they have very different jobs and functions," Anya said with authority.
"Like Demons," Xander said very proud of himself for connecting the dots.
The group looked at her and him with confusion. "She's right," Lorn said quickly. "Put the girls down. They won't be hurt." Wolf was the first to set his love down on the floor. As soon as he let goof her, Dawn floated up and swayed back and forth. Wolf went to retrieve her, when Lorn caught his arm, "Trust me." The boy nodded.
Fred looked nervous, "Does anyone less find it disturbing that she's being held being held by someone we can't see?" Everyone looked from her then back to Dawn, when with a sudden flash of light a large, mostly translucent man stood before them holding Dawn rocking her back and forth in his arms.
In a moment a flash in front of Buffy and Cordelia revealed a woman and man each waiting to receive them. Two women sat with Connor, one rocking him the other gazing at him and rubbing his back. Everyone was silent as they looker around to see if other beings were in their midst. A blinding flash brought the leader face to… well…non-face with Wolf. The teenager stared into where its eyes should have been with fear. It cocked its head to the side the way Spike always did.
Spike passed the sleeping Buffy to the translucent being before him and joined Wolf. With a hand on his back Wolf felt better especially when Lorn joined them on his other side. The leader nodded to the boy and suddenly left.
Angel gave Cordelia into the arms of the being patiently waiting to receive her. He walked to the sofa his was on. He considered the woman rubbing his son's back. She looked so familiar, like someone he knew years before but just couldn't remember. "I know you," he whispered looking at her. She met his eyes and in a moment it all came back to him.
Darla terrorized this woman to death, attempting to get her to renounce God. She was a missionary in some country in Europe. She defiantly stared Darla down through all the physical torture, spiritual and emotional torment. Days of this turned into weeks all in front of the people she had helped convert.
Her last few moments were awful. 'You may kill me, but you will never have my soul.' Darla stuck a knife in the woman's breast and her fangs in the missionary's neck. 'May God have mercy on your soul…May I see your true self in Heaven.' Darla was so disgusted she tore the woman's throat out.
Angel stared into the missionary's face. "Have you? Have you seen her?" he whispered.
She shook her head, but pointed to Connor and nodded. The leader appeared at her side quickly. She stared at It for a moment and turned back to Angel with a shamed look and a small smile. The leader disappeared again.
Angel looked around for some guidance. Fred approached him quietly whispering in his ear, "If she is from Heaven, she should exist outside of time… She is saying Connor makes it to Heaven." Angel fell to his knees and kissed his son's head with tears in his eyes. He looked up at the missionary but she was no longer there.
All the translucent beings were invisible again, floating the girls and Connor toward Angel's room where the crew looked on. They were laid down like sardines next to each other with Connor in his bassinet.
Wolf nervously ran his left hand down his right arm to comfort himself, "What now?"
"Hell if I know," Spike answered him.
"Whatever is happening or is about to happen must be very important. Though I don't understand the humming," Wesley said in his very British manner.
"Please stop with the Nancy-boy speak and think watcher! This is why you twits are created!" Spike demanded.
Angel looked at Lorn, "You said you thought something might be wrong. Why?"
"A bunch of shape shifters I had never met were trolling for Wolf. I'm assuming they were going by scent because none of them mentioned his name just his description," Lorn responded.
"Great… I caused Dawn to scream like that," Wolf moaned.
"Alright boy. I've been very supportive up to this point but if every time you find out something about who and what you are that you don't like you decide to bitch and moan we are going to have more then words! Understand!" Spike yelled at the teen. "Now suck it up… Besides those see through things were what made Dawnie scream, right mate?"
"That's right Wolf," Lorn comforted.
"The observers are the ones humming," Anya commented.
Willow looked at her wearily, "For an ex-vengeance demon you know a lot about these 'Angels'."
"I've lived longer then any of you. I should know more about this plain and others."
"How old are you?" Gunn asked curious of the blunt woman mainly concealed by her fiancée rather then clothes.
"Not important, mate!" Spike snapped looking at the demon hunter. "I realize that the brilliant stick over there didn't fall screaming to make this important to you, but if you don't mind my lady did." Gunn and Fred's eyes met but so did Wesley's. "Oh great the bloody watcher is in on this too… I'm sorry to distract the three of you from what ever strange love triangle you've got going here but Wesley I need you to work this out!" Spike begged.
"Hey, Hey," Lorn said calmly. "Anyanka gave us the name… They're called the observers but they're acting. Two different heavenly beings are here doing something… That's a good thing."
"Actually its not," Anya said entering the room more fully, having grabbed Xander's robe to cover herself. "If the singers and the observers are here and acting, that means something pretty nasty and is heading our way. The humming thing is a spiritual barrier, not unlike the one you have at your club…except that it's rarely constructed on the earth, let alone to protect people like us."
"What do you mean?" Willow asked.
"Two vampires, a …whatever the boy is…, a couple of demons, an ex-demon, and a bunch of human's that are anything but innocent. Not even a slayer gets this sort of protection," Anya finished.
"But a key would," Wolf said quickly.
"But she doesn't open anything anymore," Xander commented.
"Key?" Fred asked Gunn and Wesley.
"I'm sure we'll be filled in later," Wes said quietly as to not disturb the conversation.
"Not true," Lorn said. "With Wolf, Dawn can open several things."
"Okay… Why do you allow him to date her, bleach boy?" Xander snapped angrily at Spike.
"Prophecies and Destiny… We all know it doesn't work to run from them, Whelp!" Spike snapped back.
"Explain the Key thing please," Wesley said having traveled to office.
Spike moved to the watcher, "Dawn is actually an ancient energy that was made into a human form by some monks to be used for good, and sent to be protected by the slayer. However, there was a Bitch of a Hell God that wanted to go home. She had a fancy ritual to use Dawn's blood as a KEY to get her there. Once she started bleeding it wouldn't stop until Dawn died. Thus being why my love took a high dive into a big pool of cosmic energy, so her sister wouldn't have to die… Clear enough for you!"
Spike's normal smirk was dancing on his lips. Xander, Willow, Tara and Anya all smirked and smiled at the Vampires general audacity and compression of information. "You are so good at that Dead Boy!" Xander commented.
"Hey that was my nickname! He was Dead Boy, Jr. or Bleach boy or…" Angel said before he realized how disturbing it was that he wanted to keep his 'pet' name amongst the Scoobies.
The room erupted in laughter breaking the tension a bit. "I didn't realize you fancied the name so much, Peaches," Spike looked at him like he was about to pounce. "I thought you always preferred my pet names for you."
"Enough lechery between vampires. You may not have issues with blending the sexual lines, but I do!" Xander fussed. Willow cleared her throat drawing his attention to her and Tara. "Sorry… That's normal," he waved his hand at them, "That's not!" he waved toward the vampires who glanced at each other then stalked toward the carpenter.
"Don't knock it till you try it," Spike said as he came toward Xander's front, who backed up but Angel had started to circle toward his back.
"Angel!" Wesley snapped getting his attention back to the task at hand. "Seduce the boy later."
Angel looked at Spike over Xander's shoulder and laughed. He soon met the shocked faces of his younger employees and stopped laughing. Spike laughed even louder at that. "Now you know why I call him Peaches," he said wagging his eyebrows.
"What was that you said about distraction from a love triangle?" Wesley shot at him. Gunn and Fred laughed at that.
"Fine… What have you found in that bloody book?" the blonde said leaning on the counter.
"I found a prophecy a few days ago that didn't make a lot of sense, that I think may apply now," Wesley said nonchalantly. "The… I think it would be translated Ether…will rise and fall… at the paw or claw… of the… I'm not sure about what it should be here…"
Spike grabbed the book and scanned the words and grabbed the translation book next to Wesley. "What is he doing?" Gunn asked.
"Spike was always an academic…" Angel answered.
"I used to keep one minion around to do translation so I didn't look like a Nancy-boy in front of the rest," Spike said from the book. "Wolf go get the book I was looking at with you earlier."
"Minions?" Fred asked.
Willow piped up, "Oh yeah, he was a real bad ass. Killed the anointed one right after he arrived in Sunnydale and killed two slayers before Buffy."
"Yeah, never could kill Buffy," Xander said with a smile.
"Always wanted into her knickers… Besides she was way too much fun… Who could resist that wonderful smart ass of mine?" Spike said still searching the contents of the book. "The only man in this room who didn't fall under her spell was watcher boy over there because he was to busy getting a stiffy over Queen C."
"I knew you had a thing for Buffy," Anya punched Xander's arm.
"Queen C?" Fred asked.
Xander rubbed his arm and answered as Wolf gave the book to Spike, "That was Cordelia's license plate in high school."
Gunn and Fred began to gaffe. "You had a thing for Cordelia?" Gunn asked. "She was in high school man… Jailbait even."
"Hey!" Wes fumed. "Ancient history." Gunn continued to smirk. "We danced at her Prom that's it." Angel cleared his throat, "Fine and a kiss but that's it… I didn't make you going into detail about your…relationship with Spike did I?" Wesley directed at Angel.
"Age appropriate material," Tara nodded toward Wolf.
"Thanks for the concern, but this whole evening is beyond weird already," the teen responded.
Spike let out a loud frustrated growl. "Hey- Observers…" Spike started yelling at the room. "Its not cool to knock out our seer before we find out about something like this, mates," he said waving the book in his hand.
"What's up?" Wolf asked.
He looked the boy in the eye, "Ya know how everyone keeps saying you're in for some big destiny and crap like that… Well, they're not exaggerating…" In a moment the leader arrived again as did several other translucent beings none with faces. They surrounded Wolf, floating him up to the center of the lobby. "Keep breathing!" Spike shouted.
Wind, rain, and bursts of light cocooned the teenager as his body bucked. And then… the SCREAM!
TBC…