Chapter 2: Shiney New Soul, Missing Friends and Meetings.
By: Hope
Buffy walked over to the chair to pick up Dawn's books. "Not very social." She remarked as she helped her sister walk over to the elevator and then back up to the room.
Dawn was upset that he had left without saying anything, and *why* didn't they hear the door open? Dawn was hoping that he might come back later since he knew where she was staying but she doubted it, why would anyone be interested in here? She was just an old, shiney, key-like thing turned sister of the slayer. There was nothing about her that people would find that great.
"Ooh! T.V.!" Dawn said excitedly as they entered their hotel room. It was a relatively small room but it would do for the two while they were staying there, there were two queen sized beds, two dressers, a phone, a desk with a chair and a television set. "Does it have cable?" Dawn asked while hopping over to the nearest bed.
"I think it should." Buffy said, still sounding distracted as she put Dawn's books and things down on the desk.
"Buffy, are you alright?" Dawn asked, noticing how her sister was staring off into space again...just like she had when she had first come back.
Buffy continued staring at the wall for a few seconds until Dawn's words had registered in her head. "Y-yea, I'm fine Dawnie. But...Angel's missing." She said, not knowing any other way to break the news to Dawn. Dawn watched her sister try and find the words to finish the sentence.
"Buffy, what else?" Dawn could tell that Buffy was having a hard time with this, she seemed to have a hard time talking about anything that had to do with Angel since she came back.
"Cordelia's missing as well....and Dawn, Angel as a son." Buffy could see the look on Dawn's face go from being worried to confusion.
"A WHAT?"
- - - - - -
Pain shot through Spike's body as he fell onto the cold,
damp floor of the African cave. It had been weeks since the demon had bestowed
the gift upon the Master Vampire and yet Spike hadn't once left the cave
since.
Spike didn't know that it had been weeks though, to him time didn't seem to matter anymore, he would live eternally and suffer for eternity. What the bloody hell was I thinking? he thought to himself, as he struggled to stand up. His arms and legs were tired and weak from the lack of blood and he was sure that he had lost a few pounds since leaving Sunnydale. But that didn't bother him that much. The fact that he was starving didn't even seem to matter to him anymore. The only things that he was able to think of were the hundreds, maybe thousands even, of victims that he had had since he had become a vampire. They all haunted him, not only in sleep, but while he was awake as well.
His soul was greatly upset this whole time, not knowing what was wrong with him, or how any of that had happened. But then he received the memories of Sunnydale, of all the people he had met there, but above all else, memories of Buffy. Memories of him holding her, comforting her, even just talking to her was enough to sooth all of the aches and pains that he was experiencing from past victims. But then he saw it. He saw what had forced the demon within him, the demon that was still present, almost dominint inside of him, to leave Sunnydale and seek out his soul.
"NOOO!" He screamed, throwing himself back against the wall once again, hoping that it would relieve him of the memories that now scarred him deeper than any physical blow could. He slowly calmed down as a new emotion, something that he wasn't very familiar with began to run through him. Courage.
The demon within wasn't going to give up so easily. "Angel." The name popped into his head out of nowhere, but he realized that it was the right name. "I guess Peaches is going to be good for something." He said, talking to himself as he once again stood up.
Spike wouldn't take this soul thing the way Angelus had. Angelus's soul had changed him, made him betray the ones that had loved him, or who hung with him at least. But Spike wasn't going to do that. He wasn't going to pity himself, lie in the shadows and wait for the end of the world, he was going to do something with this soul and no one could bloody stop him.
He tried to push the memories of his victims away as much as he could as he gathered up his strength to make it out of the cave, and to find some blood.
- - - - -
"C'mon Gunn!" Fred yelled up the stairs of the hotel to her
boyfriend. It had been two weeks since both Angel and Cordelia had gone missing,
and they hadn't seen Connor since either. Lorne was in Las Vegas but when they
had called he said that he would try and help by getting information out of
demons and contacts, but he never said anything about coming back. Connor made
him too nervous.
"Alright, alright." Gunn said, making his way down the stairs, wielding a nice battle axe that was concealed inside of a big black bag on his back.
"About time! We've never met Buffy and I want to make a good impression!!" Fred said honestly. She had been wondering what Buffy was like ever since Angel had left to meet her and in coming back he had revealed nothing to her, or anyone for that matter. Cordelia wasn't really great at describing Buffy either, the most she got out of her was that she was the slayer and when Fred had asked if she was pretty (to Angel's standards) Cordelia looked at her like she was mad. 'She had NO idea how to moisturize,' was all that she said, after that the subject had to be dropped due to Cordelia's surprise party.
As soon as Gunn reached the bottom of the stairs, Fred had started making her way out the door, heading out to the car. (Gunn had gotten one of his friends to lend him his jeep when Angel had disappeared with his car.) "Whoa, whoa, whoa." Gunn said as he jogged to catch up to Fred. "What's with the rush?" He asked, almost already knowing the answer.
"We're the only people here Gunn!" Fred said, continuing to walk out the door. "Angel and Cordelia are *both* gone and we have no idea where Connor is. Buffy might be able to help us!" She said as they both walked out the door.
"Yea I get that, but that doesn't mean that we have to be an hour early to meet her." Gunn said, smiling as he pointed to his watch.
Fred stopped and smiled at him. "I guess your right." She said, trying to shrug off her stress.
"Of course I am." He said, still smiling. "Now how about we get some tacos." He put his arm around Fred as she leaned her head on his shoulder. "It's just....they could be hurt, and they would find us if we were missing, I just don't want to lose anyone." She said as she began to calm down from all of the rushing she had done before.
"I know."
- - - - -
"Why hello Lilah." Gavin said while passing the lawyer in
the hallway of Wolfram and Hart. Lilah ignored his greetings and continued
walking to her office, Gavin turn around, following her and grabbed the door to
her office before it shut. "We aren't in a good mood, are we?" He asked,
laughing at her. Lilah sat down at her desk and looked up at him. "Well you
don't have to have a little brat shadow you for a week." Lilah replied when she
looked back down at her desk, taking out a folder and pulling out all of its
contents.
"Ah, so you were chosen for this years charity case." Gavin said, pleased with this new information.
"Yes, I wa- - -" Lilah stopped mid-sentence as she began reading through the folder's contents. After a minute of silence she looked back up at Gavin and smiled. "Well actually this might be an advantage for me." She said happily. Gavin's smile dropped and he walked out of her office, mumbling something under his breath. Meanwhile, however, Lilah looked down at the folder on her desk.
The name that she saw was "Summers, Dawn." from Sunnydale California. Hellmouth city. "The sister of the slayer. Now this could be interesting." She said to herself, not able to contain her excitement.
She pressed a red button on her phone. "Yes, Miss Morgan?" The voice asked on speaker phone.
"Put me through to the partners."
"But Miss Morgan, I'm not su---"
"I said put me through. They'll want to hear this." Lilah said, once again smiling at the information that she had discovered.
- - - - - -
The doorbell rang to the small apartment and Justine
quickly got up, grabbing a knife and carrying it with her as she walked over to
the door. "Hello?" She asked as she began to unlock the door.
"Justine, its me, Stephen." Stephen anxiously said, afraid that by some strange chance of fate someone from his father's office would see him.
"Stephen you scared me." She said as she put the knife on the table next to the door and opened the door for the young man. "Besides, didn't you have a key?" Justine asked, examining the boy.
"Lost it." Stephen said as he walked into the small kitchen area, taking some water from the fridge. "Had to help a girl get back to her hotel." He added, although he had lost his keys fighting off 3 vampires from attacking a frightened couple the night before.
"Oh." Justine sighed, re-locking the door and going back to lay down on the couch.
Stephen didn't want to tell Justine about the girl he had met. He thought that her sister (the woman had looked to young to be her mother) might have some relations with his father but he liked Dawn and he wanted to be able to see her again, since it wouldn't really matter anyway, he had already taken care of his father.
The monster was gone from his life, for good.
- - - - - -
Buffy sat alone in the lobby of the hotel while Dawn was
probably still getting ready up in the room. She had promised that she would be
down in a few minutes though, which was good, Buffy felt like she needed a
little more alone time. Buffy had expected that Angel would move on with his
life, just like she had, but she never thought that....first of all it was
impossible but, she would never imagine that he could have a son.
Although she was shocked by the news, she felt sympathy for Angel, hearing the story of how it all had happened. Westley had betrayed Angel and the rest of his friends by taking Connor away, but he had thought that he was doing that to save the baby. Even though that was true, Angel had still pushed Westley away, stripping him of all of his friends.
Buffy felt that if she thought about it one more time then her head would explode. She couldn't even think of where Angel or Cordelia would be, or anything else for that matter. But she had made a promise to Dawn, she had promised that things would gett better for them and she was going to do anything to be able to keep that promise.
Buffy had been sitting in the lobby, waiting for Gunn and Fred for 10 minutes (she had come down early) when Dawn snuck up behind her, or tried to at least. Long before Dawn reached her, Buffy had heard her walking as quietly as possible towards her. When Dawn was reaching to put her hands on Buffy's shoulders, Buffy grabbed her arms and gracefully flipped her over so that her butt hit the ground, but so that she wasn't hurt.
Dawn turned and looked at Buffy (who was smiling) with a pout on her face. "You're no fun." She said as she crossed her arms in a childish manner and sat beside her sister.
"I guess that your knee's feeling better?" Buffy asked her sister, noticing how she wasn't limping or hopping anymore.
"Yea!" Dawn replied happily, "I guess that some ice and a little rest was all it needed!" She said smiling. "So they're not here yet?" Dawn asked, searching the lobby for the two friends of Angel, even though she had no idea what they looked like.
"Nope. Just me here." As soon as the words left Buffy's mouth, the door opened and in walked Fred and Gunn who were holding hands like a happy couple. "Thats them." Buffy said while pointing towards the pair.
To Dawn's surprise, one of them was a girl. She was petite with
long brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing faded jeans and a blue tank top.
The man next to her (who was holding her hand) was tall, probably about 6'3"
maybe a little taller, well built and very handsome, but still no comparison to
Stephen, the boy that had helped Dawn back to the hotel only hours ago. (Yes,
she was *still* thinking of him.) He was wearing a pair of khakis and a green
muscle shirt.
As soon as they had walked into the hotel, Fred saw the two girls sitting in chairs over on the right side of the room. The older one, who she was guessing was Buffy, had blonde hair hair that was just above the shoulders. She looked like she couldn't be anymore than 5'4", if she was even that tall. She was wearing a pair of faded hip-huggers with a white v-neck shirt. She was prettier than Fred had thought she would be.
The younger girl that was sitting next to her didn't look like she could be any older than 16 years old, she had long dark brown hair that ran past her shoulders and was wearing denim shorts with a red tank top. She must have been Dawn.
The two girls stood up and walked up to the two people that had just entered, each certain of who the others were. "Hi." Buffy said, starting the conversation. "I'm Buffy, and this is Dawn, my sister." Buffy said, looking at Dawn.
Dawn waved at the two, now wondering what was in the black bag that was on the man's shoulder. "Hi, I'm Gunn." Gunn said, shaking Buffy's hand and winking at Dawn. "And this is Fred." Fred waved with a shy grin.
"What's in the bag?" Dawn asked, pointing to the bag on his shoulder.
"Dawn!" Buffy said, thinking that Dawn had been rude.
"Oh, this?" Gun said, taking the bag off of his back. "This is a birthday present for Buffy. I guess Angel never got around to sending it, what with Co--with everything that was going on." Gunn said, handing her the bag.
He almost expected her to drop it, it was even hard for him to carry but to his surprise he saw that the slayer easily lifted it up and placed it on her shoulders. "Although, I wouldn't open it up in here." Fred said, looking around the large room. "Some people might not be to thrilled with whats in there."
"Right." Buffy said, not really knowing how to talk to them. "We should probably go back to Dawn and me's room, its not that big, but its alot more private than out here." Buffy said, noticing the large amount of people walking in and out of the hotel.
"Right." Fred and Gunn both said as they followed the slayer and her sister to the elevator.