All Roads Lead to Sunnydale
Part 6
By Gem
Riley was getting tired. His grand plan for revenge against his mother's lover had been reduced to an episode of "This Was Your Life." Years of training, and centuries of survival, had primed him for action, not discussion and plot exposition. It was time to move on to the main event, before the yawning vampire guards lost all interest in assisting.
"Mom, I think it's time we moved things along," he said, with a nod at the guards. "The boys look like they're getting hungry, and frankly I'm a little bored myself. I have plans for Buffy and I for tonight, so can we just kill Angel and get out of here?"
Angel closed his eyes for an instant and breathed a quick sigh of relief. He could feel his tense muscles relax just a fraction in the knowledge that he was the only real target. He had been certain Buffy would be hurt because of him yet again, but it appeared Riley at least would be satisfied with his death alone.
If only Riley could convince his mother to be satisfied.
His mother was more confused than satisfied at the moment; Riley seemed to be under the impression he was the one in charge. She cocked an eyebrow at her only son.
"I think Mother's plans for Buffy will make your plans impossible, dear."
"But..."
"And stop calling me Mom," she interrupted with a pout. "This college boy routine isn't funny now that everyone is in on the joke."
"Afraid I'm going to have to agree with 'Mom' on that one," Buffy said. "Any second now you're going to start 'gee whiz'-ing her and I'm going to have to hurt you. Well, more than I'm already planning on doing."
Buffy knew what Riley's words had signaled to Angel, and as much as she loved him for it, she wasn't going to let Angel get away with it. Without looking at him, she edged her hand over to clasp his, behind the sheltering folds of his coat.
She was now connected to the only part of her world that counted. And she was not about to let go without a fight.
"Darla, he's right, and don't think it isn't killing me to say that," Angel said abruptly.
He could feel the warm strength of Buffy's hand in his, but it only served to remind him of what was at stake: her life. He had to persuade Darla to let her go, even if it meant siding with Finn.
"Pun intended, my love?" she purred at him, all smiles once again at the thought.
"I'm the one you want," he continued, paying no attention to her interruption. "Buffy is the Slayer; she was doing her job. I'm the one who betrayed you."
Buffy gripped his hand with bruising strength. "You are so not going to do this to me," she said in a low voice. "I won't let you pull all this Mr. 'Take Me, Take Me!' crap and walk out on me permanently. Don't you dare even try."
"I won't let you die," he replied softly, but steadily.
"This is all very touching, but you don't really have a say in my plan," Darla pointed out evenly. "It's my party and you'll die if I want you to."
"Now wait just a minute Mom, I mean Mother. You said I could have Buffy," Riley protested.
Buffy thought he sounded for all the world like a twelve-year-old gypped out of a new bike at Christmas. It was amazing how flattering this wasn't.
"Riley," his mother began, "I will not..."
"We agreed Angel was the one who actually staked you," Riley broke in, "and killing him was always the plan. Buffy is mine though; you promised."
"Well I sure as hell didn't," Buffy said sharply. "Just so we're clear, you're not actually getting either of us, but you're certainly not getting me." She wound her fingers through Angel's and clenched his hand fiercely, willing him to say something other than 'take me instead.'
Riley held up his hand to quiet her. The gesture was so condescending, and so overwhelmingly Riley, Buffy had to bite down hard on her tongue to keep from hurling herself at him to break off said hand.
"Buffy, please, I can handle this. Mother just doesn't understand."
"Oh hang it up, Norman. You're the one who doesn't get it," she snarled. "We are history. Maybe not what someone who was watching CNN the night the Pilgrims landed would call history, but we are definitely the nightmare that once was."
"This is too soon, Mother," Tara said urgently. "You said it was going to be slow, remember." She cast an anxious glance at the broken edge of the circle, and then forced her eyes away. She couldn't risk drawing any attention to what she had done.
"I'm bored," her mother retorted, scarcely sparing her a glance. All her attention was focused on her petulant son. She ran a soothing hand down Riley's arm.
"You know Mother likes to give you things to keep you happy when I can," she murmured, "and I really thought making her watch as I killed Angel would be enough punishment for her. But now I'm not so sure." Darla tapped her finger thoughtfully on her chin. "Angelus could have been salvaged eventually if not for her. She stole him from me, and then she destroyed him. Now, even if Angelus could come back, he would still be obsessed with her. No, I think the best thing would be to kill her first while Angel watches, and then kill him."
"Come on, Darla, can you think of any punishment greater than having you for a mother-in-law?" Angel forced a cockeyed smile on his face and did his best to wheedle. "Your chance for fun is just beginning with Buffy, but only if you let her live."
"With them? No thank you," Buffy said firmly.
Angel cast her a desperate glance, trying to tell her without words to be quiet while he saved her life. She saw the entreaty in his eyes, and her heart melted, but she would not give in. She loftily turned her head away; the matter was not up for discussion, at least as far as Buffy was concerned. Both, or neither, would survive.
"But Mother, you promised," Riley was still stubbornly insisting. He shook off her conciliatory caress and glared down at her. "And this was my plan to begin with; I should get to say who dies. It's just supposed to be Angel."
"Riley!" Darla snapped. "Stop whining! This isn't precisely my dream come true either. If those wretched lawyers hadn't pushed up the date because they wanted to get some contracts signed, I would have waited until Angel regained his humanity. Think how much sweeter it would have been to see him become human, have everything he ever wanted within reach, and then kill them both." She sighed heavily. "But no, they wanted things now, now, now. The living are always in such a hurry."
"What are you talking about?" For once unmindful of the weapons pointed at them, Buffy abruptly turned her head to face Angel. The hurt was clearly shining in her eyes. "What is she talking about? You're going to become human? When? Why didn't you tell me?" She stealthily withdrew her hand from his.
"Oh, you didn't know that either?" Darla's good humor was magically restored. "Well, Riley said you didn't like to talk much, but I thought at least to your precious Angel...go on, Angel, tell your little playmate the big secret. I want to see her face when she realizes what might have been."
Darla grabbed the stunned Slayer's arm and turned her unresisting form slightly to face Angel. Then she backed up a few paces behind Angel and snapped her fingers at one of the minions, nodding towards a chair in the corner. The minion swiftly brought it over and Darla sat down, clearly waiting for the show to begin.
"Then it is true? Why didn't you tell me?" Buffy ignored Darla and concentrated on Angel's stricken face. "Is this another thing you thought I wouldn't care about? Or is this," she paused for a moment to collect her thoughts, "is this the thing you didn't want to admit you were hoping for?"
Angel was silent.
"I'm right, aren't I?" she prodded.
He didn't want to get into this here, now. All the times he had let himself imagine telling Buffy about his promise of shansu, he had pictured them alone, in a room filled with candles, and romantic music, and the intoxicating promise of a future to be shared.
Apparently all he was going to get was the candles.
"I didn't tell you because I don't know when, or if, it will happen," he finally admitted. "It might not be this decade, or even this century, and considering my line of work, surviving to see it isn't exactly a gimme." He shrugged slightly. "I didn't want you waiting around for me on the off chance I might start breathing while you still are."
"And you didn't think I should have some say in this?" she choked out.
When would he realize how much he hurt her by trying to shield her from pain? She didn't need his protection; she only needed him.
He looked deep into her eyes, pleading for her understanding. "Buffy, it's everything I ever wanted for us, but it's not a given...and I won't let you waste your life on a maybe."
Thrusting aside the issue of Angel making her decisions for her again, she concentrated on the essentials instead, as visions of the life that they might have shared flashed past her mind's eye. It was her dream made flesh, and now it would be over before it began.
"But why?" she whispered. "Who or what is going to be so harsh that they would give you life too late for us to be together?"
In this moment, she had no doubts about who he would live out his days with, if he could; they belonged to each other, and always would. She had to clench her hands into fists to keep from reaching out to him; she desperately wanted to feel his arms around her. But they were too exposed now, and she wouldn't give Darla any further excuses to kill him.
"It's supposed to be my reward from the Powers That Be," he replied with a sad smile. "If I help enough people, make up for the harm I did before, I will become human. But only they know how many people are in an 'enough'."
"Well, that little sub-plot ends tonight," Darla said, nodding her head to the guards.
"Mother, wait!"
* * * * *
Darla tapped her foot as she stared at Riley, waiting impatiently for an explanation for his outburst. Mortal or immortal, she still had places to go and people to kill; time was wasting.
Riley placed a gentle hand on her elbow to guide her into the far corner of the room. They spoke quietly for a few minutes, before Darla could be heard to say, "Fine. You ask and see what she says." Her voice had a certain 'mother knows best' quality that Buffy knew all too well. It never led to good things.
Buffy glanced at Angel and she could see he'd heard the same note of inevitability. They were fast running out of time to plot or plan; they had to take action soon and face the consequences.
Tara was huddled on the edge of the bandstand platform in a ball of misery. She wound her arms around her knees as she rocked back and forth, desperately trying to divorce herself from the nightmare world surrounding her.
Riley strolled past his sister and over to the edge of the dark circle, stopping directly in front of Buffy. He pointedly ignored Angel.
"Buffy, I think I've solved our little dilemma. It required a little wheeling and dealing, but my mother is willing to give it the old college try if you are." He beamed at his suspicious ex, oblivious to her hostility. "All you have to do is say the word, and we can have you out of here in a jiffy."
Angel couldn't help rolling his eyes. "He actually talked like this to you and you still couldn't see he was from another time?"
"I thought it was the Iowa thing." She gave Angel a helpless smile.
"I," Riley said loudly, trying to draw Buffy's attention away from Angel, "I am prepared to offer you something wonderful, beyond your wildest dreams. Something he could never offer you," he finished with a sniff in Angel's direction.
"Actually, dear, he could," Darla said quietly. She shot Angel a venomous look. "He's just too much of a goody-two-shoes to do it anymore."
"I'm offering you immortality, Buffy," Riley said seductively. "You will live forever, never grow old or sick or die. No grey hairs to cover up and no sagging skin to stretch; just eternal youth and strength and beauty. Think about it."
For a brief, dizzying moment, Buffy considered it. At last she would be free from the persistent fear of an early death; she could spend each day with the glorious certainty that another day would follow.
She could spend each day with Angel, knowing that death would never be able to separate them. And when he regained his humanity, as she knew one day he would, she could make him immortal once again. They would be together forever, and maybe then he would find peace in living for eternity.
"Buffy, he means living forever with him," Angel said softly.
He had seen the faint smile on her face, and he still knew enough of her heart to know what put that smile there. She was dreaming the impossible dream.
She quickly snapped out of her beatific visions and stared at Riley in shock. Eternity spent in the arms of Riley Finn?
"As if!" Buffy snorted derisively. "Talk about a waste of a perfectly good forever."
"Buffy, I don't...I don't think you understand," Riley sputtered. "I'm offering you eternal life. Ever since you were called, you've feared death. I'm giving you a way out; out of all of it."
Riley stepped closer and put his hand under her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. Buffy could feel Angel's arm tense next to her body, but he managed to control his urge to defend her. They both knew they couldn't afford to let their tempers get the best of them.
"No death," Riley continued, staring into her eyes. "No slaying, at least not vampires. You know, Mom and all." He shrugged slightly. "No more training or patrolling to interfere with our dates. Good-bye freaks, hello normal life. It will be perfect, Buffy. We can live anywhere you want, as nice, normal, everyday people, for the rest of...eternity."
Buffy stared deep into his blue eyes, searching for any sign of the man she had spent so much time with last year. Was this really sober, responsible, always-wear-socks-with-your-shoes, Riley proposing such a crazy scheme? Did he actually think she would go along with it?
"Are you listening to yourself? A nice normal eternity? Please!" She jerked her head away from his tight grasp and looked over at Angel. Her angry expression softened instantly.
"Maybe I am afraid of dying young," she admitted softly, melting under the gentle heat of Angel's crooked smile, "but there are other things I'm a lot more scared of, and you are so not the solution, Riley." She shifted her gaze back to her would-be one and only. "I actually would rather die."
"You mean you would rather die with him than live with me," Riley corrected her bitterly. "I bet if he was the one offering eternity you'd snap it up like that." He snapped his fingers in her face, hoping in vain for a flinch.
"Got it in one, Brainiac."
Darla smiled triumphantly. As always, mother knew best.
"I told you she would only want it for him," she gloated as she sauntered over to stand beside her son. "Still, you had to hear it for yourself. She's not worthy of you, Riley; she never was. She was just part of the plan, but now the plan is done. Angel is here, and he will die. And as long as she's here too, so will she." She laid a consoling hand on his broad shoulder as she steered him over to the space under the stairs. "Now be a good boy and help Mother light the circle on fire."
* * * * *
Angel's heart sank when he saw Riley pull a cigarette lighter from his pocket. It was time. It was time because there was no more time left.
"Sorry, fella," Angel said abruptly, looking over at the vampire holding a gun on Buffy. "I don't know about any of you guys, but if I'm going up in flames, I'm not going with this cramp in my leg. I need to move." Without giving the vampire time to answer, Angel extended one of his legs slightly and shook it, then forced his guards to back up a pace when he set his foot back on the ground.
Tara lifted her head from her knees and glanced over at Angel. She didn't say a word, but the tightening of her mouth told him she too knew the moment was at hand.
Angel caught Buffy's eye and nodded ever so slightly at the break in the circle, now visible just to the side of his boot. She glanced at it, recognizing in a heartbeat the opportunity it represented. She also recognized the danger, but there really was no other choice. Even as she and Angel silently communicated plans, Darla and Riley were approaching with torches.
For just an instant, Buffy locked eyes with Angel. Even if she had possessed the immortality Riley promised her, there still wouldn't have been enough time to tell her beloved all that she was feeling at this moment. As it was, there wasn't even time to say "I love you" before they threw themselves out of the circle and away from their captors.
Buffy flung herself sideways, hoping to knock Angel down and out of the path of the crossbow. At the same time he grabbed her to pull her down under him, out of the bullet's trajectory. Neither plan would have worked, were it not for Tara.
"Fire!" Tara screamed, leaping to her feet.
The vampire guards were startled, and a little confused, by her loud statement of the obvious. It threw off their timing just enough for the first shots to go wide, and allowed Buffy and Angel to roll several feet away before barreling into an enraged Darla. A moment later, the three of them were a tangle of arms, legs and fangs.
"Fire!" Tara shrieked again.
She pointed to the far wall, where the bullet fired at Buffy had struck a candle instead, knocking it onto the dry wooden floor just below a boarded- up window. The flames were swiftly climbing up the wall and spreading across the floor. The vampire minions took one look at the fire, which had grown almost immediately beyond their control, and fled. In their haste to escape, they knocked over most of the sconces, littering the floor with flaming candles.
Darla spared only a glance at the blaze before she returned to the cause for her fury - Buffy.
"You were supposed to stay in the circle." Darla threw down her torch as she scrambled to her feet, just an instant ahead of Buffy. "This one time you were supposed to do as you were told and die. All my plans, all the time I spent working with those idiotic lawyers, and it turns out to be for nothing." She hauled the Slayer to her feet by her hair, retaining a tight hold on the long blonde locks as she reached for Angel with her other hand.
"If I'm not going to listen to my own mother," Buffy grunted as she tried to pull free, "why should listen to you?"
She was too close to Darla to get in an effective kick, and she refused to use the 'chick fight' stand-by of fingernails. An elbow to the vampire's ribs served quite nicely, however, to put some distance in their relationship.
Buffy spared a quick glance at Angel, whose greater height had given him an advantage when Darla tried to pull him up. He easily avoided his smaller sire's grasp and shot Buffy a quick look, obviously questioning her preference of opponents.
"Much as I'd love to be the one to pound the immortality out of Riley," Buffy said between heartfelt kicks Darla-ward, "I need to settle my mommie dearest issues more."
"If you're sure..." Angel said, flashing her a grin.
"Knock yourself out," she sighed. "I mean, well, you know." She ducked to avoid a sucker punch and concentrated on her own fight, leaving her ex's to battle things out themselves.
Riley already had his hands full fending off a hysterical Tara when Angel reached him. The former commando hurled his sister backwards, under the loft, and focused his energies on defending himself against an enraged vampire who seemed intent on pounding him into the smoking floorboards.
The hall was rapidly being engulfed in flames. Darla's torch, carelessly thrown away in her pursuit of more active combat, had landed against one of the support beams for the loft. Riley's torch, treated with equal disregard by the former commando, lit the staircase on fire. Even as Tara ran from one end of the hall to the other, trying to beat out the flames with her shawl, the floorboards in the loft overhead began to groan alarmingly.
"You're not going to get him this time!" Darla screeched as she twined her arm around Buffy's neck. "They're both mine, and you can't have them!"
She lowered her head to the Slayer's neck and opened wide.
"Tell you what, we'll split them," the Slayer snarled as she butted her head back into Darla's face, "You can keep Riley."
Buffy couldn't get the leverage to flip Darla, and she couldn't force Darla's arm from around her throat. It was time for a very speedy switch to Plan B: her own leg twisted around Darla's leg brought them both crashing to the floor.
The moment she felt the vampire's arm slip from around her neck, Buffy pushed off of Darla and sprang to her feet. Before Darla could finish standing up, the Slayer pivoted and punched out with her foot, inadvertently propelling her nemesis backwards into the flaming staircase.
"No!"
Tara darted across the hall as she cried out, desperate to reach her mother in time. It could not be done; Darla burst into a flurry of ashes just seconds after the flames touched her skin. Tara swayed under the creaking loft, her voice rising and falling as she keened for the mother she lost almost 400 hundred years ago.
"Mother!" Riley bellowed, suddenly recognizing the burst of flame for what it was. He broke away from the stunned Angel and ran to his sister's side, but his own shock was too great to consider leaving, or making Tara leave. He stared at the burning stairs, searching for the impossible sign that his mother had survived.
"We have to get out of here." Buffy grabbed Angel's arm, pulling him towards the door. "Tara, please!" she yelled to the distraught witch. "We have to get out of here!"
Buffy wanted to drag Tara outside, by her hair if necessary, but first she had to get Angel to safety. Unfortunately he had already shaken off her hand and started towards Tara, too intent on rescuing the hysterical girl to worry about his own extremely flammable self.
"Buffy, go!" he yelled over his shoulder. "I'll get Tara."
The enormous cracking sound from above swallowed Buffy's reply, as the loft came crashing down. A glancing blow from a flying timber knocked Tara clear, but left her unconscious on the floor just beyond the bandstand. Riley, standing directly under the loft, was not so fortunate. The burning floorboards from above pinned his legs against the burning floorboards below. He struggled feebly to kick the boards off, and tried to twist around to push at them with his hands, but to no avail. He collapsed in defeat on the worn floor.
Angel stopped in his tracks, suddenly unsure of where the greater emergency lay. A moment later Buffy was at his side, clinging to him with all her might.
"Oh god," she gulped, trying to see a way out through the smoke and the flames. "Angel, take Tara and try to edge along that wall till you get to the door. I'll get Riley and be right behind you." She pushed him towards Tara as she scrambled over the fallen sconces to get to Riley.
"No!" He stared at her in horror. "I don't care how strong you are, Buffy, you can't carry someone that size; he's too tall. Either you'll drop him, or lose your balance and fall yourself. Just get out of here. I'll take care of them."
In a few quick steps he was by her side, reaching down to pull her to her feet. She glared up at him as she pushed his hands away.
"His legs are moving; he can walk," she growled as she began to yank the burning boards away from Riley. "Tara's out cold, and it's easier for you to carry her. And no way am I leaving you in here to handle them both, so for god's sake just get moving!"
Angel wanted to argue with her; he wanted to throw her over his shoulder and carry her off to some place safe and peaceful and never let her out of his sight again. As usual, what he wanted and what he was allowed were two very different things. With a sigh, he bent over and easily lifted Tara into his arms, cradling her against his chest.
"I'm coming back in as soon as I get her out," he warned Buffy as he began sliding along the lone untouched wall. "I better meet you in the doorway."
Buffy watched him for as long as she could, until the smoke obscured her vision. The air was growing thick with the smell of burning wires from the strands of lights, and everywhere tiny bulbs were exploding from the heat, sprinkling the air with glass shards. She was having trouble breathing and the heat was scorching her back; still she persevered. Gritting her teeth at the pain from her now singed hands, she prepared to lift the last heavy beam off of Riley's battered limbs.
Suddenly an arm snaked up around her neck and slammed her forehead against the dusty floor next to Riley. Through the roaring darkness in her skull she heard a voice.
"We're not going anywhere, slugger."
-To Be Continued-
Part 6
By Gem
Riley was getting tired. His grand plan for revenge against his mother's lover had been reduced to an episode of "This Was Your Life." Years of training, and centuries of survival, had primed him for action, not discussion and plot exposition. It was time to move on to the main event, before the yawning vampire guards lost all interest in assisting.
"Mom, I think it's time we moved things along," he said, with a nod at the guards. "The boys look like they're getting hungry, and frankly I'm a little bored myself. I have plans for Buffy and I for tonight, so can we just kill Angel and get out of here?"
Angel closed his eyes for an instant and breathed a quick sigh of relief. He could feel his tense muscles relax just a fraction in the knowledge that he was the only real target. He had been certain Buffy would be hurt because of him yet again, but it appeared Riley at least would be satisfied with his death alone.
If only Riley could convince his mother to be satisfied.
His mother was more confused than satisfied at the moment; Riley seemed to be under the impression he was the one in charge. She cocked an eyebrow at her only son.
"I think Mother's plans for Buffy will make your plans impossible, dear."
"But..."
"And stop calling me Mom," she interrupted with a pout. "This college boy routine isn't funny now that everyone is in on the joke."
"Afraid I'm going to have to agree with 'Mom' on that one," Buffy said. "Any second now you're going to start 'gee whiz'-ing her and I'm going to have to hurt you. Well, more than I'm already planning on doing."
Buffy knew what Riley's words had signaled to Angel, and as much as she loved him for it, she wasn't going to let Angel get away with it. Without looking at him, she edged her hand over to clasp his, behind the sheltering folds of his coat.
She was now connected to the only part of her world that counted. And she was not about to let go without a fight.
"Darla, he's right, and don't think it isn't killing me to say that," Angel said abruptly.
He could feel the warm strength of Buffy's hand in his, but it only served to remind him of what was at stake: her life. He had to persuade Darla to let her go, even if it meant siding with Finn.
"Pun intended, my love?" she purred at him, all smiles once again at the thought.
"I'm the one you want," he continued, paying no attention to her interruption. "Buffy is the Slayer; she was doing her job. I'm the one who betrayed you."
Buffy gripped his hand with bruising strength. "You are so not going to do this to me," she said in a low voice. "I won't let you pull all this Mr. 'Take Me, Take Me!' crap and walk out on me permanently. Don't you dare even try."
"I won't let you die," he replied softly, but steadily.
"This is all very touching, but you don't really have a say in my plan," Darla pointed out evenly. "It's my party and you'll die if I want you to."
"Now wait just a minute Mom, I mean Mother. You said I could have Buffy," Riley protested.
Buffy thought he sounded for all the world like a twelve-year-old gypped out of a new bike at Christmas. It was amazing how flattering this wasn't.
"Riley," his mother began, "I will not..."
"We agreed Angel was the one who actually staked you," Riley broke in, "and killing him was always the plan. Buffy is mine though; you promised."
"Well I sure as hell didn't," Buffy said sharply. "Just so we're clear, you're not actually getting either of us, but you're certainly not getting me." She wound her fingers through Angel's and clenched his hand fiercely, willing him to say something other than 'take me instead.'
Riley held up his hand to quiet her. The gesture was so condescending, and so overwhelmingly Riley, Buffy had to bite down hard on her tongue to keep from hurling herself at him to break off said hand.
"Buffy, please, I can handle this. Mother just doesn't understand."
"Oh hang it up, Norman. You're the one who doesn't get it," she snarled. "We are history. Maybe not what someone who was watching CNN the night the Pilgrims landed would call history, but we are definitely the nightmare that once was."
"This is too soon, Mother," Tara said urgently. "You said it was going to be slow, remember." She cast an anxious glance at the broken edge of the circle, and then forced her eyes away. She couldn't risk drawing any attention to what she had done.
"I'm bored," her mother retorted, scarcely sparing her a glance. All her attention was focused on her petulant son. She ran a soothing hand down Riley's arm.
"You know Mother likes to give you things to keep you happy when I can," she murmured, "and I really thought making her watch as I killed Angel would be enough punishment for her. But now I'm not so sure." Darla tapped her finger thoughtfully on her chin. "Angelus could have been salvaged eventually if not for her. She stole him from me, and then she destroyed him. Now, even if Angelus could come back, he would still be obsessed with her. No, I think the best thing would be to kill her first while Angel watches, and then kill him."
"Come on, Darla, can you think of any punishment greater than having you for a mother-in-law?" Angel forced a cockeyed smile on his face and did his best to wheedle. "Your chance for fun is just beginning with Buffy, but only if you let her live."
"With them? No thank you," Buffy said firmly.
Angel cast her a desperate glance, trying to tell her without words to be quiet while he saved her life. She saw the entreaty in his eyes, and her heart melted, but she would not give in. She loftily turned her head away; the matter was not up for discussion, at least as far as Buffy was concerned. Both, or neither, would survive.
"But Mother, you promised," Riley was still stubbornly insisting. He shook off her conciliatory caress and glared down at her. "And this was my plan to begin with; I should get to say who dies. It's just supposed to be Angel."
"Riley!" Darla snapped. "Stop whining! This isn't precisely my dream come true either. If those wretched lawyers hadn't pushed up the date because they wanted to get some contracts signed, I would have waited until Angel regained his humanity. Think how much sweeter it would have been to see him become human, have everything he ever wanted within reach, and then kill them both." She sighed heavily. "But no, they wanted things now, now, now. The living are always in such a hurry."
"What are you talking about?" For once unmindful of the weapons pointed at them, Buffy abruptly turned her head to face Angel. The hurt was clearly shining in her eyes. "What is she talking about? You're going to become human? When? Why didn't you tell me?" She stealthily withdrew her hand from his.
"Oh, you didn't know that either?" Darla's good humor was magically restored. "Well, Riley said you didn't like to talk much, but I thought at least to your precious Angel...go on, Angel, tell your little playmate the big secret. I want to see her face when she realizes what might have been."
Darla grabbed the stunned Slayer's arm and turned her unresisting form slightly to face Angel. Then she backed up a few paces behind Angel and snapped her fingers at one of the minions, nodding towards a chair in the corner. The minion swiftly brought it over and Darla sat down, clearly waiting for the show to begin.
"Then it is true? Why didn't you tell me?" Buffy ignored Darla and concentrated on Angel's stricken face. "Is this another thing you thought I wouldn't care about? Or is this," she paused for a moment to collect her thoughts, "is this the thing you didn't want to admit you were hoping for?"
Angel was silent.
"I'm right, aren't I?" she prodded.
He didn't want to get into this here, now. All the times he had let himself imagine telling Buffy about his promise of shansu, he had pictured them alone, in a room filled with candles, and romantic music, and the intoxicating promise of a future to be shared.
Apparently all he was going to get was the candles.
"I didn't tell you because I don't know when, or if, it will happen," he finally admitted. "It might not be this decade, or even this century, and considering my line of work, surviving to see it isn't exactly a gimme." He shrugged slightly. "I didn't want you waiting around for me on the off chance I might start breathing while you still are."
"And you didn't think I should have some say in this?" she choked out.
When would he realize how much he hurt her by trying to shield her from pain? She didn't need his protection; she only needed him.
He looked deep into her eyes, pleading for her understanding. "Buffy, it's everything I ever wanted for us, but it's not a given...and I won't let you waste your life on a maybe."
Thrusting aside the issue of Angel making her decisions for her again, she concentrated on the essentials instead, as visions of the life that they might have shared flashed past her mind's eye. It was her dream made flesh, and now it would be over before it began.
"But why?" she whispered. "Who or what is going to be so harsh that they would give you life too late for us to be together?"
In this moment, she had no doubts about who he would live out his days with, if he could; they belonged to each other, and always would. She had to clench her hands into fists to keep from reaching out to him; she desperately wanted to feel his arms around her. But they were too exposed now, and she wouldn't give Darla any further excuses to kill him.
"It's supposed to be my reward from the Powers That Be," he replied with a sad smile. "If I help enough people, make up for the harm I did before, I will become human. But only they know how many people are in an 'enough'."
"Well, that little sub-plot ends tonight," Darla said, nodding her head to the guards.
"Mother, wait!"
* * * * *
Darla tapped her foot as she stared at Riley, waiting impatiently for an explanation for his outburst. Mortal or immortal, she still had places to go and people to kill; time was wasting.
Riley placed a gentle hand on her elbow to guide her into the far corner of the room. They spoke quietly for a few minutes, before Darla could be heard to say, "Fine. You ask and see what she says." Her voice had a certain 'mother knows best' quality that Buffy knew all too well. It never led to good things.
Buffy glanced at Angel and she could see he'd heard the same note of inevitability. They were fast running out of time to plot or plan; they had to take action soon and face the consequences.
Tara was huddled on the edge of the bandstand platform in a ball of misery. She wound her arms around her knees as she rocked back and forth, desperately trying to divorce herself from the nightmare world surrounding her.
Riley strolled past his sister and over to the edge of the dark circle, stopping directly in front of Buffy. He pointedly ignored Angel.
"Buffy, I think I've solved our little dilemma. It required a little wheeling and dealing, but my mother is willing to give it the old college try if you are." He beamed at his suspicious ex, oblivious to her hostility. "All you have to do is say the word, and we can have you out of here in a jiffy."
Angel couldn't help rolling his eyes. "He actually talked like this to you and you still couldn't see he was from another time?"
"I thought it was the Iowa thing." She gave Angel a helpless smile.
"I," Riley said loudly, trying to draw Buffy's attention away from Angel, "I am prepared to offer you something wonderful, beyond your wildest dreams. Something he could never offer you," he finished with a sniff in Angel's direction.
"Actually, dear, he could," Darla said quietly. She shot Angel a venomous look. "He's just too much of a goody-two-shoes to do it anymore."
"I'm offering you immortality, Buffy," Riley said seductively. "You will live forever, never grow old or sick or die. No grey hairs to cover up and no sagging skin to stretch; just eternal youth and strength and beauty. Think about it."
For a brief, dizzying moment, Buffy considered it. At last she would be free from the persistent fear of an early death; she could spend each day with the glorious certainty that another day would follow.
She could spend each day with Angel, knowing that death would never be able to separate them. And when he regained his humanity, as she knew one day he would, she could make him immortal once again. They would be together forever, and maybe then he would find peace in living for eternity.
"Buffy, he means living forever with him," Angel said softly.
He had seen the faint smile on her face, and he still knew enough of her heart to know what put that smile there. She was dreaming the impossible dream.
She quickly snapped out of her beatific visions and stared at Riley in shock. Eternity spent in the arms of Riley Finn?
"As if!" Buffy snorted derisively. "Talk about a waste of a perfectly good forever."
"Buffy, I don't...I don't think you understand," Riley sputtered. "I'm offering you eternal life. Ever since you were called, you've feared death. I'm giving you a way out; out of all of it."
Riley stepped closer and put his hand under her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. Buffy could feel Angel's arm tense next to her body, but he managed to control his urge to defend her. They both knew they couldn't afford to let their tempers get the best of them.
"No death," Riley continued, staring into her eyes. "No slaying, at least not vampires. You know, Mom and all." He shrugged slightly. "No more training or patrolling to interfere with our dates. Good-bye freaks, hello normal life. It will be perfect, Buffy. We can live anywhere you want, as nice, normal, everyday people, for the rest of...eternity."
Buffy stared deep into his blue eyes, searching for any sign of the man she had spent so much time with last year. Was this really sober, responsible, always-wear-socks-with-your-shoes, Riley proposing such a crazy scheme? Did he actually think she would go along with it?
"Are you listening to yourself? A nice normal eternity? Please!" She jerked her head away from his tight grasp and looked over at Angel. Her angry expression softened instantly.
"Maybe I am afraid of dying young," she admitted softly, melting under the gentle heat of Angel's crooked smile, "but there are other things I'm a lot more scared of, and you are so not the solution, Riley." She shifted her gaze back to her would-be one and only. "I actually would rather die."
"You mean you would rather die with him than live with me," Riley corrected her bitterly. "I bet if he was the one offering eternity you'd snap it up like that." He snapped his fingers in her face, hoping in vain for a flinch.
"Got it in one, Brainiac."
Darla smiled triumphantly. As always, mother knew best.
"I told you she would only want it for him," she gloated as she sauntered over to stand beside her son. "Still, you had to hear it for yourself. She's not worthy of you, Riley; she never was. She was just part of the plan, but now the plan is done. Angel is here, and he will die. And as long as she's here too, so will she." She laid a consoling hand on his broad shoulder as she steered him over to the space under the stairs. "Now be a good boy and help Mother light the circle on fire."
* * * * *
Angel's heart sank when he saw Riley pull a cigarette lighter from his pocket. It was time. It was time because there was no more time left.
"Sorry, fella," Angel said abruptly, looking over at the vampire holding a gun on Buffy. "I don't know about any of you guys, but if I'm going up in flames, I'm not going with this cramp in my leg. I need to move." Without giving the vampire time to answer, Angel extended one of his legs slightly and shook it, then forced his guards to back up a pace when he set his foot back on the ground.
Tara lifted her head from her knees and glanced over at Angel. She didn't say a word, but the tightening of her mouth told him she too knew the moment was at hand.
Angel caught Buffy's eye and nodded ever so slightly at the break in the circle, now visible just to the side of his boot. She glanced at it, recognizing in a heartbeat the opportunity it represented. She also recognized the danger, but there really was no other choice. Even as she and Angel silently communicated plans, Darla and Riley were approaching with torches.
For just an instant, Buffy locked eyes with Angel. Even if she had possessed the immortality Riley promised her, there still wouldn't have been enough time to tell her beloved all that she was feeling at this moment. As it was, there wasn't even time to say "I love you" before they threw themselves out of the circle and away from their captors.
Buffy flung herself sideways, hoping to knock Angel down and out of the path of the crossbow. At the same time he grabbed her to pull her down under him, out of the bullet's trajectory. Neither plan would have worked, were it not for Tara.
"Fire!" Tara screamed, leaping to her feet.
The vampire guards were startled, and a little confused, by her loud statement of the obvious. It threw off their timing just enough for the first shots to go wide, and allowed Buffy and Angel to roll several feet away before barreling into an enraged Darla. A moment later, the three of them were a tangle of arms, legs and fangs.
"Fire!" Tara shrieked again.
She pointed to the far wall, where the bullet fired at Buffy had struck a candle instead, knocking it onto the dry wooden floor just below a boarded- up window. The flames were swiftly climbing up the wall and spreading across the floor. The vampire minions took one look at the fire, which had grown almost immediately beyond their control, and fled. In their haste to escape, they knocked over most of the sconces, littering the floor with flaming candles.
Darla spared only a glance at the blaze before she returned to the cause for her fury - Buffy.
"You were supposed to stay in the circle." Darla threw down her torch as she scrambled to her feet, just an instant ahead of Buffy. "This one time you were supposed to do as you were told and die. All my plans, all the time I spent working with those idiotic lawyers, and it turns out to be for nothing." She hauled the Slayer to her feet by her hair, retaining a tight hold on the long blonde locks as she reached for Angel with her other hand.
"If I'm not going to listen to my own mother," Buffy grunted as she tried to pull free, "why should listen to you?"
She was too close to Darla to get in an effective kick, and she refused to use the 'chick fight' stand-by of fingernails. An elbow to the vampire's ribs served quite nicely, however, to put some distance in their relationship.
Buffy spared a quick glance at Angel, whose greater height had given him an advantage when Darla tried to pull him up. He easily avoided his smaller sire's grasp and shot Buffy a quick look, obviously questioning her preference of opponents.
"Much as I'd love to be the one to pound the immortality out of Riley," Buffy said between heartfelt kicks Darla-ward, "I need to settle my mommie dearest issues more."
"If you're sure..." Angel said, flashing her a grin.
"Knock yourself out," she sighed. "I mean, well, you know." She ducked to avoid a sucker punch and concentrated on her own fight, leaving her ex's to battle things out themselves.
Riley already had his hands full fending off a hysterical Tara when Angel reached him. The former commando hurled his sister backwards, under the loft, and focused his energies on defending himself against an enraged vampire who seemed intent on pounding him into the smoking floorboards.
The hall was rapidly being engulfed in flames. Darla's torch, carelessly thrown away in her pursuit of more active combat, had landed against one of the support beams for the loft. Riley's torch, treated with equal disregard by the former commando, lit the staircase on fire. Even as Tara ran from one end of the hall to the other, trying to beat out the flames with her shawl, the floorboards in the loft overhead began to groan alarmingly.
"You're not going to get him this time!" Darla screeched as she twined her arm around Buffy's neck. "They're both mine, and you can't have them!"
She lowered her head to the Slayer's neck and opened wide.
"Tell you what, we'll split them," the Slayer snarled as she butted her head back into Darla's face, "You can keep Riley."
Buffy couldn't get the leverage to flip Darla, and she couldn't force Darla's arm from around her throat. It was time for a very speedy switch to Plan B: her own leg twisted around Darla's leg brought them both crashing to the floor.
The moment she felt the vampire's arm slip from around her neck, Buffy pushed off of Darla and sprang to her feet. Before Darla could finish standing up, the Slayer pivoted and punched out with her foot, inadvertently propelling her nemesis backwards into the flaming staircase.
"No!"
Tara darted across the hall as she cried out, desperate to reach her mother in time. It could not be done; Darla burst into a flurry of ashes just seconds after the flames touched her skin. Tara swayed under the creaking loft, her voice rising and falling as she keened for the mother she lost almost 400 hundred years ago.
"Mother!" Riley bellowed, suddenly recognizing the burst of flame for what it was. He broke away from the stunned Angel and ran to his sister's side, but his own shock was too great to consider leaving, or making Tara leave. He stared at the burning stairs, searching for the impossible sign that his mother had survived.
"We have to get out of here." Buffy grabbed Angel's arm, pulling him towards the door. "Tara, please!" she yelled to the distraught witch. "We have to get out of here!"
Buffy wanted to drag Tara outside, by her hair if necessary, but first she had to get Angel to safety. Unfortunately he had already shaken off her hand and started towards Tara, too intent on rescuing the hysterical girl to worry about his own extremely flammable self.
"Buffy, go!" he yelled over his shoulder. "I'll get Tara."
The enormous cracking sound from above swallowed Buffy's reply, as the loft came crashing down. A glancing blow from a flying timber knocked Tara clear, but left her unconscious on the floor just beyond the bandstand. Riley, standing directly under the loft, was not so fortunate. The burning floorboards from above pinned his legs against the burning floorboards below. He struggled feebly to kick the boards off, and tried to twist around to push at them with his hands, but to no avail. He collapsed in defeat on the worn floor.
Angel stopped in his tracks, suddenly unsure of where the greater emergency lay. A moment later Buffy was at his side, clinging to him with all her might.
"Oh god," she gulped, trying to see a way out through the smoke and the flames. "Angel, take Tara and try to edge along that wall till you get to the door. I'll get Riley and be right behind you." She pushed him towards Tara as she scrambled over the fallen sconces to get to Riley.
"No!" He stared at her in horror. "I don't care how strong you are, Buffy, you can't carry someone that size; he's too tall. Either you'll drop him, or lose your balance and fall yourself. Just get out of here. I'll take care of them."
In a few quick steps he was by her side, reaching down to pull her to her feet. She glared up at him as she pushed his hands away.
"His legs are moving; he can walk," she growled as she began to yank the burning boards away from Riley. "Tara's out cold, and it's easier for you to carry her. And no way am I leaving you in here to handle them both, so for god's sake just get moving!"
Angel wanted to argue with her; he wanted to throw her over his shoulder and carry her off to some place safe and peaceful and never let her out of his sight again. As usual, what he wanted and what he was allowed were two very different things. With a sigh, he bent over and easily lifted Tara into his arms, cradling her against his chest.
"I'm coming back in as soon as I get her out," he warned Buffy as he began sliding along the lone untouched wall. "I better meet you in the doorway."
Buffy watched him for as long as she could, until the smoke obscured her vision. The air was growing thick with the smell of burning wires from the strands of lights, and everywhere tiny bulbs were exploding from the heat, sprinkling the air with glass shards. She was having trouble breathing and the heat was scorching her back; still she persevered. Gritting her teeth at the pain from her now singed hands, she prepared to lift the last heavy beam off of Riley's battered limbs.
Suddenly an arm snaked up around her neck and slammed her forehead against the dusty floor next to Riley. Through the roaring darkness in her skull she heard a voice.
"We're not going anywhere, slugger."
-To Be Continued-
