DISCLAIMER: I do not know anyone who works on Angel or do I know anyone who knows them. This story is pure fictions and from my own and my friends imaginations. My friends and me are real so you can't have us. So there. Anybody else who you've never heard of belong to us though.
FEEDBACK: Much appreciated. E-mail me at boniberk@aol.com
Enjoy!
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PROLOGUE
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All that went before…He looked deep into her eyes. There was nothing there now, as before there had been only kindness, warmth and a love for him. That had all changed since… since her initiation. He searched for something. Something that could be a reminder of who she was, but as hard as he looked he could find nothing and inside him something cracked. Emotions whirled in his head, telling him to just curl up and die, but he knew that this wasn't the way it was supposed to be. It had been destined from the beginning for him and her to lead their own separate paths. It was only now, when they had to part for the final time, that he realised how much he had come to care for the Slayer.
'Buffy… I love you and…'
'And what…' She reached up and hooked her hand around his throat, pulling his face down against hers. His skin felts cool against hers. Once, her skin had had a particular warmth and vibrancy to it but now… now it felt like it was his skin. Cold. She pressed her soft pink against his lightly, pulling closer to him in what seemed to be an eternal lovers embrace.
A look of surprise crossed his face as he saw the coldness in her eyes. Her lips had a faint tinge of blood against them, exciting him and her. He wanted to push her away but she seemed to grip him too tightly, forcing him ever closer towards her. Still trying to pull away, he flashed the mental image of the old Buffy Summers in his head. He drew a sharp, clean blade from beneath the material of his old jumper, cleverly concealed, and pressed it against Buffy's left breast. He jerked her against him tightly, crushing her almost in his embrace and drove the blade into her chest, pushing the cold steel through her frail body, into her fast beating heart. He pulled away at the point where her heart stopped and fell to his knees sobbing uncontrollably. Her lifeless body crumpled in front of him, falling beside him, an expression of astonishment fixed on her features.
A firm hand was placed on his shoulder and he turned away from the visage, closing his eyes. Mental images of her falling body and her expression kept flashing through his head. The hand tightened and his eyes shot open. The vampire looked up to see his companions: Spike, his grand-childe and a fellow vampire; Doyle, the half demon; and Cordelia the cheerleading prom queen, through blurred eyes. Tears fell down his cheeks without stopping and all three looked at him in surprise, the sight of him crying a new occurrence.
'What are you waiting for?' he shouted, 'Let's get out of here. Away from here. Please…'
Leaning on Doyle's shoulder, Angel and his three unlikely friends walked slowly down the alley and out into the bright lights of the empty late night streets.
*****
'So. You had another one of those vision things again?' Spike turned to look at Doyle, who was sitting at the desk with his head in his hands. Sometimes Spike thought that all this time in America was beginning to rub off on him. He was even starting to sound like them. Vision things?!
'Well it certainly wasn't a skip through a daisy field,' Doyle sneered. 'Of course it was a vision!' The half demon moaned slightly at the sound of his own raised voice. It always seemed that after a vision his head was going to expand. Not in terms of knowledge but perhaps an explosion. He calmed himself down and continued. 'Look Spike, I've had enough of these damn things to know.'
Spike opened his mouth to retort, but closed it again as Angel shot him a warning look. The vampire had been brooding since THAT episode with Buffy and it had taken him a few months to come out of his depression. During that time, he'd thrown himself into his work and managed to exterminate half the scheming weirdo population of Los Angeles. Spike had never seen him so angry, yet coming home late at night he would hear Angel sobbing behind closed doors and find him asleep with a picture of the Slayer in his hands. Spike remembered that episode he'd had one night with him…
*****
'Get out of this goddamn funk Angel! Slayer's dead. Face it.' Spike leaned over Angel, almost spitting in his face with frustration. The vampire had gone into total recluse mode. Ok, so he wasn't the mean, lean Angelus machine that had sucked his way across Europe before crossing those stupid gypsies, but he was still a vampire.
'But…'
'Fuck the but's! Buffy's dead. And nothing you will do or kill will bring her back. So you killed her? She was going to turn loose on the Sunnydale population and we didn't want the town to be renamed Bloodydale, did we?'
'Spike…'
'Come on Angel. The only alternative was for me to kill her. And we both know how good I am at Slayer-slaying. If you hadn't have done it then I would have got me a triple point Slayer score. And Slayer blood is pretty tasty. We've both had our share remember?' Spike felt himself hitting the wooden floor, after being punched clean in the face by Angel. That was the reward you got when you brought a man out of depression? Well, that was the psychiatrists' job out the window.
'Said something you didn't want to hear? She was a demon Angel. And an insane one at that. She had to go, just like she would have had if she'd lived her normal life. She would have lived a long life, gazing at you with bitterness as you remained eternally young and her youth was ravaged. Either that or she'd have died young anyway. What with the Slayer age life expectancy and all that. At least she loved you before she changed. She didn't hate you, did she?'
Spike paused for a moment to allow the older vampire to hit him again. But Angel pulled him up and shoved him against the wall.
'Thanks Spike, I guess.'
No problems. I can understand the brooding though. Slayer wasn't half decent looking. Glad to see you've still got good taste after all this time. Drusilla was obviously the best, but I do remember one of those Irish girls…'
'Spike…' Angel's voice rose warningly.
'Ok. Jeez. A guy can't even speak his mind these days.'
*****
Ever since then Angel had been on some kind of road to recovery, though he'd shown his lack of experience in the interrelation department. The guy had the looks, the sex appeal, but somehow he was a bit lacking when it came to talking to people. Oh yeah and if he had that one 'true' moment of happiness he'd be back to being Big Bad Angelus. This Spike didn't mind too much but he guessed that Cordelia and Doyle wouldn't be exactly thrilled about it.
Angel stood up and walked over to Doyle, crouching beside him and placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. The vampire was clad in a dark blue jumper and black trousers that didn't leave anything to the imagination. His hair was its usual gravity defying self and the vampire looked concerned at Doyle.
'You up to telling us what you saw?' Angel spoke quietly as to not cause his friend any unnecessary pain. He knew what it was like with the headache thing. Doyle nodded slowly, every movement sending slivers of icy pain through his consciousness, but managing to blurt out the words.
'Four girls. Young. Surrounded by vampires. Not a lot of them, but it looks like a horde.'
'Sounds like the ideal vampire porno movie to me Doyle,' Spike sneered contemptuously. 'At least one of those kind of porno films with a plot guessing by the amount of vampires. What the girls like then? Cheerleaders I bet. We all know what a weakness you have for cheerleaders. Well, EX-cheerleaders that is.' Doyle laughed falsely.
'Anything else?' Angel stood between his bickering companions, looking at Spike in particularly. Sometimes that twisted sense of humour could get a little on the irritating side.
'We've got to go to England,' Doyle concluded. The two vampires looked at Doyle with disbelief.
'England?'
'Yes, England.'
Spike shook his fair head slowly from side to side. 'Not again.'
Doyle and Angel looked up at Spike. Angel understood automatically from the look on the younger vampire's face and tried to warn Doyle who shrugged him off. A look of anger flashed in the Irishman's eyes.
'These girls are in danger. What the hell do you mean 'not again'?'
'Bad experiences…' The vampire's eyes glistened with tears as he turned away. He loved causing a scene and seeing the look on Angel and Doyle's face was enough to send a grown man into fits of laughter. Controlling the laughter on his face, he sighed pathetically and fell in a chair, covering his face with his hands.
Angel straightened himself, standing up from his previously crouched position. 'Spike…'
Spike sniffled and raised his head, a wicked smile appearing on his face.
'Stop this. And in any case, Doyle's right. These girls need our help from the sound of things. And if you don't want to go then that's your choice. But Doyle and I are going, with or without you.'
'Going?' said a voice from the doorway, 'Going where? Where are we going?'
'England,' Angel replied. The figure stepped further into the room, her shadow stretching out behind her across the door entrance.
'Why England?'
'Damsels in distress. Plus England does have the best girls around, eh Doyle? These Americans aren't worth it.' Spike smiled. 'Welcome to the madhouse Cordelia.'
'All that way just to save some girls? Is it worth it?'
'Well Doyle?' asked Angel, 'How do you read the situation?'
The half demon raised an eyebrow. 'You're asking me?' he drawled in his Irish tinged accent.
'No. He's asking the Maha Rishi,' Spike said sarcastically, 'Of course he's asking you!'
Angel nodded in response to Doyle, pointedly ignoring the other vampire who shrugged and popped over to the fridge. He pulled the door open and took out a container of pig's blood that he downed in one, not caring to warm it up first. He grimaced at the taste. He still wasn't getting used to this whole 'pop into the microwave and heat for 5 minutes blood' thing instead of 'instant hot human blood'.
'Well, my feelings is that this is more than a one off. These girls have been popping up in my visions quite a lot recently, though things haven't seemed as bad as they did in this vision. Those girls need some serious long-term help by the looks of things.'
'A lot like you then, eh Doyle?' murmured Spike, wiping the blood from his chin daintily with his sleeve.
Doyle smirked. 'Nah. Maybe it'd be best if we thought about having you institutionalised William.'
'And maybe we should decide on whose got a 'slight' drinking problem as well as having a 'slight' demon infection?' Spike glanced across at Cordelia.
'Whose got a demon infection? I mean that's so gross! Whoever's got it better stay away from me!' Cordelia shuddered and looked at Doyle, who averted his eyes and glared at the grinning figure of Spike.
'So,' interrupted the dark figure of Angel, 'Are we going or not?'
Doyle nodded slowly as Cordelia looked to Angel for reassurance.
'Might as well come. Give me a chance to have a nip at the Queen and see if I can get a decent drink.' Spike shrugged in acceptance, leaving only Cordelia.
'Angel… I would, but I can't leave LA. Really, I can't. I've got a couple of auditions. I only get a few, and those I do I can't fail to miss. I'm sorry. Besides…' she smiled coyly, 'You can do so much more without me in the way.' A silence fell over the room as all three men looked at Cordelia. Doyle raised an eyebrow, while Spike laughed to himself. Stupid girl didn't even make a point clearly while poor Doyle floundered about with his words. After a few seconds that seemed to stretch on forever, the human girl rolled her eyes and made for the door.
'What?' asked Angel, looking at the departing Cordelia, the confusion clear on his face.
'If you don't know then I'm not gonna bother to explain.' She opened the door. 'Well, I guess this is goodbye then. Remember me when you come back and I'm rich and famous. I don't want you coming for handouts. Or demon problems for that matter.' The three men nodded, each saying goodbye as Cordelia left the building for the last time. Each realised that this was a new beginning for them all.
*****
So????
