...And Learn To Fly
Will we burn in heaven?
Like we do down here.
Will the change come while we're waiting?
Everyone is waiting...
Witness' by Sarah Mclachlan
...Well, that's disappointing. I was told a Slayer was coming. And all I get are her lackies.
A Slayer is here. Kendra stated, her voice icy. Angelus regarded her for a second before smirking.
Ah, yes, you tried to kill my soul-happy other half recently. I hated him too, does that mean we can be friends?
I don't make friends with demons.
Drusilla pushed a hand past the open top buttons of Angelus's shirt and stroked the skin beneath. Draped against him it was hard to believe that she could be dangerous. Especially with the pout that forced her lower lip out.
I don't like this Slayer... she whispered loudly, her lips inches from his ear.
No, Dru. Doesn't have a sense of humour like our Buffy...
The rational part of Kendra's mind, which was the larger part, the part taught by her Watcher and the Slayer's Guide, told Kendra to attack. She was a Slayer. They were Vampires. Her job was simple. But against so many... she was doomed. Plus there was the problem of the three innocents at her back. People who she'd call friends if it wasn't forbidden for Slayers to have friends. If she attacked now they would surely die as well.
Speaking of Buffy. Where is our little trouper? Not got over me already has she?
She's been over you for ages, Angel. Xander growled.
Oh. Well said Mr Harris. Angelus grinned, clapping his hands a little, And as a boy who's never been over...or under... Buffy in any way, what do you suggest I do now?
I was thinking; die horribly.
Angelus's human mask flickered on and off to accent his true form and Xander grimaced at what he had just said. The Master Vampire stalked forward, leaving Dru behind and grinning devilishly to her own thoughts. He stopped a few steps from Kendra, aware that the Slayer might make a move if he stepped any further forward,
Well, they say great minds think alike...' he said, leaving the phrase hanging as if there was more to it.
...But there is an exception to every rule. Giles said dryly.
He had been standing watching the murderer of his girlfriend in silence as he tried to battle down the surfacing rage. He knew that whereas his anger might be advantageous in battle, right now it could get his friends killed, or the world ended. So instead he'd been looking around the room, doing what he hoped the Slayer was doing by checking out weaknesses and possible weapons that could be used for or against them. The surrounding Vampires seemed to be unarmed, but the room was full of ornate weapons hanging from the walls, it called for a quick slay before the demons discovered their advantage.
Ah! Rupert! Angelus's face shocked back into its human mask, his eyes comically wide as if it was truly a shock to see the Watcher. Dru, still in demon form, slid up behind him again, pouting at the lack of killing. I'm surprised to see you here Watcher, without your Slayer.
I don't need her to kill you.
Angelus tilted his head ever-so-slightly to the side, Well, that was the impression I got... after you ran away at our last meeting.
That won't happen this time. Giles said, trying to keep his voice impersonal. He was just waiting for Kendra to make a move, she was a Slayer after all.
Oh no. Angelus agreed, I don't expect you to be running anywhere after this is over.
Geez, enough of the evil posturing already! Cordelia snapped, finally coming to life at the back of the group, We get it, okay, you're gonna kill us. But does it really have to be by talking us to death?
I like her.. Drusilla purred into Angelus's shoulder, Can I keep her? To play...
Cordelia visibly paled but with all of her bravado talking all she managed to get out was a half-hearted ewww'. The Vampires around the room shifted impatiently, they were bound to obey their Master, but many were hungry and the blood-filled bodies squirming before them looked delicious.
Angelus seemed to be considering something, as if Cordelia's words had not even broken through into his mind, and his eyes were fixed onto Giles. The Watcher stared back, half-wondering what was going on but mostly not wanting to break eye-contact. A cold hand on his neck broke his concentration almost instantly, even as Angelus's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
Giles turned his head to see the owner of the hand that was now rubbing its way familiarly down his back. Jenny.
he breathed. The black-haired teacher looked more beautiful than ever. Even in his dreams she had not looked this radiant. Probably because in his dreams she was not real...but now.
Oh God.. Jenny.. he almost gasped, turning into her embrace. Her arms wrapped around his middle and he rested his head onto her shoulder, emotions raw. It was a position that he almost felt he would never occupy again. He had almost thought that he was over her. He would killed Angelus, avenge her death, and then move on with his life. But she was here. Now. And he could be happy again. He sighed, feeling that the air escaping his lung was carrying with it weeks of unshed tears.
A hand grabbed Giles and pulled him back forcibly just before fangs closed on his neck. He blinked several times, not understanding why someone had pulled him out of heaven's embrace. He looked up into Jenny's face with confusion that slowly turned into horror at what he saw there. The fine skin of her forehead was drawn together in lumpy ridges as if something lived beneath her face. Stranger's eyes looked out of her face, a disgusting shade of yellow. But worst of all, worst because it was the most subtle, with the canines barely touching the lower lip of her closed mouth.
Realisation struck Giles in the chest like a sledgehammer, winding him for a second. Xander pulled his hand away from the Watcher's shoulder, his face almost a perfect mirror of the older mans. Horror. Confusion. Disgust. This is what their friend had become. Perhaps what all of them would become before this night was over. Become or be killed by.
started Cordelia, staring at her former teacher, ..I thought she was dead.
Well technically, she is. noted Angelus, You see even before I drank her blood I knew I would turn her. As a friend to you all it would cause you pain to have to... drive a stake through her heart. Of course the most delicious part of it was getting old Rupert to consent--
Giles's head whipped up and he glared at Angelus, but the Vampire kept on speaking.
-- I gave him a chance to save her or save himself. I think he thought she was dead otherwise he wouldn't have run.... Or would you Rupert? Too yellow to save your girlfriend? How does it feel to know that you left her unconscious body here with me so that you could save yourself? How do you think she felt about that..?
If Angelus had been expecting a violent reaction in which the Librarian would have died, it was not what he got. Instead Giles turned back to his former girlfriend with sorrow but no tears in his eyes. She hadn't spoken a word, and he wondered briefly if that was to save him pain. All his thoughts about Vampires dissolved in that moment and he wondered if he could love one. Like Buffy loved Angel. Could he love a beast? A demon? Could he forgive all that she was for all that she might be? Happiness for him. Could he live in the dark forever with her?
Giles leant back into Jenny's embrace, her arms wrapping around him once more. It was like a soft moment of oblivion, of calm before a raging storm. In her arms, he still felt safe, and loved. In her arms she was no different than she had been before. He looked up into her face, the Vampire visage melting back into human. Confused. He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. Forceful, but soft. And in a voice without words told her how sorry he was for making her what she was. For leaving her. For killing her. Making her a Vampire as if it had been his blood that turned her, not Angelus's. He said all this silently as he felt the words could not pass his lips. Only as he pressed the stake into her heart did he voice once what he was feeling.
I'm sorry.
Jenny's body exploded into dust. It was with such force that her clothes crumbled away as well, until all that was left of her was the dust coating his body, his hands.
The room burst into movement. Angelus launched forward, expecting to catch the Watcher off-guard, only to be kicked back by Kendra. Xander turned around and began to fight the Vampire beside him with passion and hope rather than skill. Cordelia did the same, manoeuvring until she was fighting back-to-back with her boyfriend.
Giles, far from paralysed, brought up the soiled stake and thrust it into the heart of a second Vampire before a third had time to tackle him to the floor. The pair struggled for a second, feet flailing and hands punching wildly before the Vampire threw an off-balance hit and Giles plunged the stake into its heart. He climbed up off the floor, the ashes of three Vampires clinging to him and reminding him what they were more that ever. Killers.
Looking around he took in the teenage couple, desperately fighting four Vampires with blood dripping from gashes on their faces, and seeping through cuts in their clothes. A fifth joined in the battle and it began to look more like a blood-bath, a pack of hyenas chasing a wounded zebra.
Kendra was exchanging fierce blows with two Vampires. Angelus and another, barely a fledgling. As she swung a blow to reel the Master back she aimed a kick at the second Vampire's middle, then turning back to smash her fists into Angelus's face. Giles pulled the second Vampire away from Kendra and embedded the stake into its heart. Kendra passed him the sword in a flurry of movement before focusing all of her attention onto Angelus.
Giles weighed the cool blade in his hand for a brief moment before launching into the pack of Vampires surrounding Cordelia and Xander. Minutes that seemed like hours passed as slowly the number of Vampires lessened, but the humans got tired and battered. The only plus was that Drusilla seemed to have finally disappeared from her daddy''s side.
Angelus spat out a mouthful of blood, That's your name, right? How does it feel to be the second best?
Kendra's lips drew together in silence, she didn't like throwing barbs during battle, just punches.
Silent hmm? Buffy wasn't. Maybe that's what makes a better Slayer.... He grinned as he feigned a blow, But then again she wasn't just vocal when fighting..
Cordelia gasped, just as a Vampire turned her own stake inwards to her stomach. She could only just managed to stay on her feet long enough for her boyfriend to catch her. He wanted to see if she was all right, but he was forced to let her slip to the ground and continue the fight around him.
Angelus backhanded the Slayer and she fell to the floor, a gash on her arm spilling blood over her clothes. Giles twisted where he was standing and immediately stepped in before Angelus could wield a death blow.
Help Xander.. Giles hissed to the prone Slayer as she scrambled off the floor. She nodded once to him and dissapeared. Now it was just Giles and Angelus.
Hey old man... Angelus said as he wiped the blood away from a broken nose with the back of his hand. Giles rose the sword between them, but made it apparent that he was waiting for Angelus to make the first move. Before he had been fighting from rage, now he was in a deeper place, where the rage turned to a calm certainty that he would win, and the monster before him would loose.
Angelus glared at the Watcher before him and thought of all the nasty thing he would do to the, technically, younger male. He didn't want to kill him yet, just make him suffer. Apart from Buffy this was the person he wanted to hurt most. Hurt because humans thought they were experts on pain. He liked to show them they were wrong.
Come on, Ripper... That is what they call you isn't it? Ripper? Sounds a violent name, sure you should be working with kids?... Don't you want to kill me? Hack me to pieces with that sword? Oh, and speaking of...
His voice drifted off and he moved his hand slowly up to his mouth. His human featured creased up as the demon face surged forward and he bit deeply into the palm of his hand. Retracting his canines with ease he let the blood well up into a pool before twisting around, his eyes never leaving the Watcher's, and fixing his fingers around the sword hilt in Acathla's chest. With a deft movement he whipped it out and held it so that its tip was touching the silver one in Giles's hands.
I think mines better.. He said offhandedly, Not that comparing is my style... he grinned.
Yours has been stuck in a demon for most of eternity. Giles snapped.
Angelus murmured, now clearly talking about something else, But Buffy didn't--
The breath seemed to hitch in his mouth. Which was a stupid idea because Vampires don't breath. He stiffened and then felt something pushing him down. Not physically down, but back into a place that he had been resting for so long. A place inside himself. He growled and fought, but the thing pushing him back was stronger. And its light was blazing goodness.
The fighting around the pair seemed to stop. The Vampires turning to stare at their suddenly silenced Master as if expecting him to be dead. Then the silence in the room was broken.
Giles... I... Sorry, so sorry... Oh God...
The Watcher stared at the Vampire from across the room, and at eyes that a few moments before had been glaring at him but were now just filling with tears. And he knew. Somehow he knew that this was no longer Angelus. It was Angel, the lover of his Slayer. He knew. And he didn't care.
With one deft movement Giles swung his arm back and threw the sword as if it were a battle-axe, the blade turning in the air as it sailed towards its destination. With sickening accuracy the sword pierced the Vampire's chest, reeling him backwards into the opening portal behind him. Giles couldn't help feeling that there should be more, screams of pain or something. But Angel just looked shocked. And his expression never changed from that, even as the portal closed, swallowing him into hell. And that would be the last way that any of the group would remember him, open mouthed, eyes wide, tear streaked cheeks, and a heart more deserving of a stake than a sword.
Cordelia breathed, after a long silence.
That was awsome... Xander commented.
Kendra agreed. The Librarian turned his head to look at each person in turn, then smiled.
It was rather, wasn't it?
As if suddenly remembering something the group, as one, glanced around nervously.
Uh, where did all the Vamps go?
Probably ran of when they saw Giles's impressive sword flinging... Cordelia said proudly, for a moment forgetting the near-fatal wound in her middle.
You think if he wasn't the talkative type we'd all be dead by now..? Xander questioned, kneeling by his girlfriend as an afterthought.
Giles conceded.
Well... what do we do now...? asked Xander.
Well. I'd say a celebration is--
Uh, if I can chip in. Hospital? said Cordelia weakly. All eyes turned to the crouching girl, and then at each other as the cuts, bruises and broken bones they'd sustained finally began to make themselves known.
I second that. Kendra said, rubbing her arm where the joint was dislocated.
agreed Giles, before he knelt with Xander to pick Cordelia up.
All things considered though, I think we got out of this pretty lightly... I-I mean, it could have been much worse.. Xander offered, trying to see the bright side of things.
Yeah. If he'd unleashed nuclear war on us... I need to get some safer friends. Cordelia grumbled.
We're your friends? Xander prodded.
Uh... It was the lack-of-blood talking... I'll feel more scathing when I'm not-dying.
The group shot a last collective glance around the room, bloodstained and covered with the smells of fresh battle, before making their painful way out. Once the euphoria of winning began to seep away so did their talkativeness, and only the tiredness remained. It was only when they reached the outside of the mansion, while they were pausing to drink in the fresh air, that one suddenly remembered.
I wonder what's taking Buffy so long..? and all the apprehensiveness and fear that they'd been facing at the beginning of the night, and that they thought they'd shaken off a moment before, took an invitation back in again.
(Author's Note: *cringes* Yes, I feel guilt, two weeks an no update? Have I lost you all? Plus a B/S-less chapter. Sigh. Oh well, its not the end yet... Although we do face the final curtain. Thanks for the reviews everyone.)