TITLE: the Correspondences
Section 4
SUMMARY: Buffy & Angel write letters to each. Can they solve their problems through words?
RATING: PG13
PAIRING: Buffy/Angel
SPOILERS: general up until season 4
FEEDBACK: PLEASE! It means SOOOO much! PLEASE PLEASE!
DISCLAIMER: Joss Whedon owns the characters. Lines from Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare. Lyrics from the songs by: the Sunday's ("Wild Horses"), Janet Jackson ("Again"), Garth Brooks ("She's Every Woman" & "The Dance").
DISTRIBUTION: Organized Insanity (http://www.geocities.com/crazyevildru/index.htm), otherwise ask me
-the Correspondences-
16
THURSDAY NIGHT
"ANGEL! ANGEL!"
"Cordelia? What's up?"
"Vision, icky man, very big icky man, here's the address."
"Okay."
"And Angel, I'd take that extra big fighting ax, and maybe a slayer if you've got one lying around."
"Okay. Buffy?"
"Yes." She came out of the kitchen.
"Extra big icky guy, up for a fight?"
"Oh, fighting side by side again, definitely."
They arrived at the address and found a slew of demons. "This looks horrible."
"Don't be so pessimistic Buffy."
"Okay, what do we do?"
"We get up on the roof, attack from above, got your crossbow?"
"Yes."
"Practice lately?"
"Yes. Let's go."
"Get on my back."
"Oh boy, I love riding you Angel."
"Buffy..."
"Well I do, let's just go." She hopped on his back and he scaled some drainage pipes to the top of the warehouse. She jumped off. "Was it as good for you as it was for me?"
"Better. Now let's just watch and see what they are doing." They watched for a few minutes until the horror of what they were watching set in. Below them, was a line of humans, and they were jumping down into a circular hole, and there was just as steady a stream of demons coming out of a hole not ten feet away. At the other end of the warehouse, they saw maybe fifty bodies, with maybe twenty other bodies being fed off of by a hoard of vampires. Some of the humans were just children; others were adults, teenagers, women and men. She saw two vampires drinking from a small child, next to her, was another small child being changed.
"My god... it's a demon manufactory, and the children. This explains why there's been so many more demons lately."
"I know, we have to stop them."
"Duh. How?"
"It looks like some kind of ritual, the lines and candles, and incense. If we can stop the ritual, maybe we can stop the whole thing. We can't save the people who are already dead, but perhaps the others."
They moved inside the window, closer to the demons and listened.
"When will they be here?" One said.
"They will be, and they will be pleased. The jeweled ones will be pleased."
"Angel, jeweled ones?"
"I don't know."
"Angel look... I've seen one before, in your office at Thanksgiving that first year. We know how to kill them."
"Killing them won't stop the others." It was a Morha demon, this could be a potentially lethal fight for him, he had to be careful not to mix blood with any of them.
"So what do we do?" She asked.
"Those people look they are entranced or something, like a spell, if we can break through to them we could try and get of them out."
"Good plan, no wonder I love you so much." She said smiling. Just then she saw something sparkle in between both holes. "Angel... look." She pointed. She looked closer and it appeared to be a jewel that was emanating two lines from it, to each of the holes. "If we get that jewel, I bet the holes will close up. You can kill that other demon you know how to kill, I'll go for the jewel."
"You sure?"
"Yes, after that, you get the people out, I'll take on the demons."
"Sure?"
"Yes Angel, let's go. I need a distraction to get close enough."
"Consider it done." Just then he kissed her forehead and jumped down the floor, running away from the jewel, several demons followed him, including the jeweled one. She jumped down and ran to the jewel, demons began attacking her. She made it close but was thrown back.
"Silly mortal girl... you can't enter the circle without being prepared, all who enter, become." They brought Angel to her, three demons had him, he was vamped out and they had a stake to his heart. "Now, I'd stop fighting if I were you."
"ANGEL!" She tried to run to him, but she was held back. He morphed back to human face. "ANGEL! Let him go! What are you doing here?" She spoke to the Jewel man.
"We are ending the world. What are you doing?"
"We are ending the end of the world."
"Well my dear, as you can see, one of us is going to walk away happy, and two will not walk away, and sadly you can't stop us, it's already started." The ground began to shake violently and the holes began expanding toward the jewel. "Ah, it's already started. Let them go, there is nothing they can do."
Angel's mind was racing; he was going through everything he had read about the End of Days and the jeweled ones. If an unpure creature were to jump in the hole, he was pretty sure the hole would close up, he had to try. He ran to Buffy and grabbed her.
"What's going on Angel?"
"Buffy, I have to go."
"What?" The ground was shaking and thunderous sounds were drowning out the sound.
"Buffy, I have to stop it."
"How?"
"I won't be back Buffy."
"Angel... no!"
"Buffy, I love you! I have to go!"
"Angel, please don't! I can't live without you!"
"Buffy, please... I have to end this."
With that he grabbed her and they kissed quickly. He jumped into the circle and she watched with horror as he dove into the hole. A light shot up through it and she watched all the demons being sucked into hole. The remaining people began waking up from the magic, confused and crying. The light dissipated and the holes closed up, leaving the jewel on the surface. She walked over to it and held it up, it looked like there was a fluid inside, it was green.
She sunk to the ground crying. She had lost him for good.
17
DURING THE NIGHT
She had this nagging feeling, like there was something undone. She got up very quietly, so as not to wake him, but remembered he was not there. She went to the chest and opened it up looking very specifically for something. She found it and quickly flipped to the last page and read it, it was a letter that she had never gotten.
My love-
How can you possibly forgive me for what I did to us? Luckily you don't have to, because you don't remember because the past twenty-four hours, the happiest of my life, never happened. Our love was erased, like it was some cosmic joke, and now I feel even more dead inside than ever before. Feeling my heart beating, the warmth of humanity then having it taken away, how can I go on?
I wish I didn't remember, but it will pull me through, I think, until I can find my way back into your arms, into your warmth. Until this burden is not only mine to bear. Until then, I am haunted by the memories of a day when my dreams came true and I could make love to you over and over and not worry about the consequences. A day when I was human and was able to kiss you in the sunlight and not worry about burning.Now that day is but a shadow, a reflection, in my dreams, a never ending nightmare for myself, the kind that you always want to have, but never want to remember. The worst kind of nightmare that seems wonderful until you wake up and realize that it isn't real. What will I say when I see you again? What could I say so as not to sound like an idiot? I pray to the Powers that Be, that you remember so I don't have to look into your eyes and lie to you. Part of me wishes you would never remember, so I never have to know the true meaning of loneliness and regret.
I am glad I had one more chance with you. One more time to relish the time with you, and ravish in your juices, and push us past the line of all logic and sanity, past the point of reality. I remember fondly, your lips around me, your hands stroking me gently, your fingers on my back, your breath on my neck, your hair running over my skin. I close my eyes and remember the delights your body holds for me and wake up and realize that they are someone else's now. I've not met him once, but already I hate him, envy him, for being able to touch you in ways I cannot, will not. In a way I am glad these are only memories, for you should not have to live with the knowledge of that which I took away from you, once again.
Eternally sorry,
Angel
She was unsure how to process what she just read. She flipped back through the pictures and closed her eyes. The pictures were so vivid, and his letter? Had he been human? When? How? She flipped through the drawings for sometime that night until she found one of himself, entitled 'Self-Portrait.' In it, he had long hair, and a vacant sad look about him, it was not recent, probably from before he was changed. She looked through more and found pictures of him and Darla together. She cringed. She found some of Drusilla as well, so many, but never the love with which he drew her.
"Oh Angel!" She pressed play on the radio and listened. She looked at the pictures of them together, and the one he had drawn of the other night and realized what this song really meant.
//Looking back on the memory of
The dance we shared 'neath the stars above
For a moment all the world was right
How could I have known that you'd ever say goodbye
And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance
Holding you I held everything
For a moment wasn't I a king
But if I'd only known how the King would fall
Hey whose to say you know I might have chanced it all
And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance
Yes my life is better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance//
She knew what she had to do. She sat with the pen and paper for an hour and went back to the warehouse. She put the letter where he had jumped. She caressed the ground, "Oh my Angel! I guess you finally have atoned and now we shall be together."
She placed the envelope down and raised the blade to her wrist and sliced up her arm and let it a few drops fall upon the letter along with her tears. She held the letter with one hand, while her other bled out her life.
18
FRIDAY EARLY MORNING
The man found the girl in the warehouse surrounded in blood. She was barley breathing; he raced her to the hospital. It was just before sunrise when she was admitted and given immediate transfusions. She had no identification on her, just a letter clutched in her hand. They tried to remove it, but she was gripping tightly to it. On the front was written 'Angel.'
"Where is she?"
"Right in there Ms. Lockely." The detective walked in, hoping to see some normal cause of the injury and luckily it was but the girl looked very familiar. "We've tried getting the letter, but we don't want to rip it, it says 'Angel.'"
"Okay, leave the letter there, I'm going to go run some stuff through the system and try and get a name. Try to save her."
Buffy was groggy. She listened to the voices, and she heard hospital beeps. She had been saved; she did not want to be saved. Why did they have to find her? She wanted to be with Angel. She wanted to be done with the suffering. Suddenly, she felt something being taken out of her hand.
FIVE DAYS LATER
"Ready?" Cordelia asked her.
"No, I'm not Cordelia." Buffy said. "I want to die."
"Buffy, you can't, Angel started something here and we need to finish his work."
"Cordelia, I want to die. Angel paid for his crimes a hundred times over and what does he get for it? Nothing. They gave him nothing. I want to die."
"Buffy, we are going back to the office today, and I can't be stopping suicide attempts."
"Then don't."
"Buffy, don't say that when the doctors can hear you. They won't let you leave. You'll feel better once we're home and you can take a shower and a nap."
"He was human, we could have had children by now Cordelia. Why didn't he tell me?"
"Buffy... it would have killed you."
"He did that anyway. We could have had five happy years."
"Buffy..." Her friend began to cry, as she held her. Cordelia had to take care of Buffy; it would be her last act of friendship to Angel. He would take care of Buffy, as Angel had taken care of herself, when she was poor and sad. "Let's go."
"Okay." Suddenly she fell over, and a searing pain ripped through her head. "Cordelia?"
When the pain had stopped she said, "We have to go pick something up first."
"Okay."
Cordelia ran to the place where the vision had told her and picked up the letter and smiled. Buffy was in the car alone and she feared for her life so she ran back. Buffy had been so quiet, so distant, not her usual self.
They got back to the apartment and Buffy went to the bed. "Buffy? I don't know if you want this now, but my vision, told me to get it, and I saw it in your hands, I think it's for you, plus it says Buffy on it." She handed her the envelope. "I'm going up to return a few phone calls, I'll be down in a few minutes with some coffee, okay?" Buffy nodded. Cordelia had already taken all the weapons off the walls and knives out of the kitchen so Buffy should be fine for a few minutes.
She didn't know what it was. Correction, she did, but how? She opened it up and read it.
My love-
I have managed to get this to you, after I got yours. Oh Buffy, there was no other way. I had to, please understand that all I have ever done was out of my love for you, for your life. Seeing you in the hospital again tore me up inside.
I die so you can live. I know you don't understand all that happened but you can get answers. Take the jewel to the Powers that Be, to the Oracles, they want it, they need it. Take it to them, Cordelia knows how to get you in. Be strong love, I don't suffer anymore. I have at last atoned.
Eternally yours,
Angel
She broke down just as Cordelia came down. "Buffy?"
"Cordelia, we have to go see the Oracles, they need this thing." She took the jewel out from the desk and it glowed green. "You can get me there?"
"Yes, but..."
"No questions, let's go."
They were in the car, Buffy was quiet. "Buffy, I know the letter was from Angel, I saw him in my vision, what did he say."
"That he has finally atoned for his crimes and that they Oracles want this thing."
"Okay, we'll go."
"Come in Great Warrior. We've been expecting you."
Buffy was stunned to say the least. "Who are you? I don't understand."
"We are the Oracles, servants to the Powers, as are you, a servant. That which we serve and that which you serve are one in the same. Did you bring the jewel?" The female said.
"Yes." She held it up and it flew into her hand.
"Good, now we have a question to pose you." The male said.
Just then Buffy looked up and saw Angel walk through the door they Oracles had come through. "ANGEL!" She ran to him but was stopped by the male.
"No touching. A statement, a question, an answer and then you will leave."
"ANGEL!"
"He cannot speak, do not speak to him. He is aware of the implications of his speech," the female said.
"I don't understand." Buffy said confused.
The male paced over to her, "Please..." he took her hand and led her to the center of the room where there appeared a globe. "Look into it. You remember these events." She looked and saw everything Angel had draw in the pictures, unfolding.
"I know of them, I do not remember them."
"Do you want to?" He asked.
"What?"
"Do you want to?" He asked, his patience wearing thin.
"What would I have to do?"
"Simply touch the globe."
"What's the catch?"
"Smart girl, brother, like I said, she is not quick to decide. She learned well."
"The catch is that he will forget."
"What kind of sick joke is this?" Buffy asked getting frustrated. She looked over to Angel; he was not looking at her.
"You see this?" The male lifted the jewel up. "This is filled with blood."
"It's not blood." She said.
"Not human blood for certain. Do you doubt the occurrence of those events?" He said pointing to the globe.
"No I don't."
"So you remember?"
"No, I believe."
"Do you believe you remember?"
"NO! I believe they happened in my heart."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because Angel wouldn't have drawn me with a tattoo he didn't know about."
"Is that all?"
"Why would you have asked me if I wanted to remember if it never happened?" She asked.
"She has you there brother." The female said walking over to Angel. "Do you know how those events transpired?"
"Surely not, I don't remember."
"He went to fight in the sewers, you above in the light. His blood mixed with that of the Morha demon. Morha blood is the blood of eternity. It also reverses the effects of eternity." The male said.
"What?"
"My brother means that it gave him his humanity back."
"That's how it happened? Why don't I remember?"
"Because later you went to fight the demon and he almost died, almost caused your death, he came to us and asked us to change him back."
"You turned back time." Buffy said.
"I told you brother she was smart."
"Yes." The male said to his sister.
"You said you had a statement and a question, what is the question?" She asked.
"I must finish with the statement. The blood of eternity, capable of creating immortality and reversing it."
"What are you saying that I could be immortal?"
"Indeed."
"And he could be mortal again?"
"Or. Indeed."
"With that blood?"
"Yes."
"But he died, he jumped in the hole, why is he here now? Why can't he speak?"
"Because he is a reflection of your memory, a shadow of the past."
"So why tell me this about the blood, what's the point?"
"Because he has atoned for his crimes, and he walks with the great warriors. But if you mix his blood with that of the Morha, he may only leave this room through that door which you came through."
"I could take him human?"
"Yes."
"No curse, no clauses, no conditions, human? To age and have children? To be a normal human male, no consequences?"
"Correct."
"Or I could mix it with mine and be immortal."
"Correct."
"Why would I do that?"
"That is the question. What do you want to do with the blood?"
"It is mine to do what I want with?"
"Indeed. You may take twenty-four hours to decide."
"No, I don't need it."
"What is your answer?"
She turned to him. "Can he hear me? Can I talk to him?"
"Indeed you may."
"Can I have a few minutes?"
"No. We are on a tight schedule."
"Angel," she turned to him with tears streaming down her face. "Angel, I'm sorry, I love you so much, but I..." she turned back to the Oracles. "I want to take it to those children who drank from the vampires, they should be waking up soon, I want to save them, I want them to be children, can I do that?"
"Indeed you may do anything with it."
"How much will I need to save those children and their parents?"
"This much." The female took the jewel and handed it Buffy. "Is that your decision?"
"It is."
"Touch the globe." He said.
"No." Buffy said.
"What?"
"I want him to know, not I. I have gone this long without knowing, I want him to keep the memory."
"So be it." The male said, as he turned to the door.
"Wait!" The female said. "If you touch it together, his memory will be shared."
"Sister... that is hardly what was to be done."
"Brother, she is giving up so much, she deserves this." Just then a light from above flashed. "See, they approve. Touch the globe together."
Buffy and Angel met at the globe and touched it and she fell to the ground with the sudden overload of senses. She felt everything that had happened in a matter of seconds, every touch, every punch, every glance, every little thing, in a second. He made no move to help her. The Oracles turned toward the door and he followed.
"ANGEL I LOVE YOU!" She screamed before she was thrown out of the room.
"BUFFY!" Cordelia caught her. "What happened?"
"Nothing, we have to go to the warehouse. We have to find those children, as many as we can. This blood, it will make it them human again."
"Buffy?"
"Cordelia, let's go."
GO ONTO THE NEXT SECTION
