Where Angels Fear to Tread, p4
###
Angel regained his consciousness slowly, aware of the pain shooting through his flesh. It was always that way when he finally managed to wrest back control of his body from Angelus, yet never before had the demon fought him this intensely. He was aching all over.
The demon. Angelus. His eyes shot open and bright light stabbed into them, forcing him to blink.
"He's awake," an unknown voice said.
After a few moments Angel was able to make out the face of a man leaning over him. He was quite certain he didn't know that man and neither was he familiar with the room that slowly too shape around him.
"Mr. Fitzpatrick?" the man asked him. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I had to battle a demon for control of my body," he groaned. "Oh, wait! That really happened."
He looked up to see two more people sitting in the room. One was a red- haired girl he seemed to remember from one of his classes, the other a dark- haired boy. Both of them were staring at him with a mixture of amazement and fear.
Someone was missing from this picture, though.
"Where ... where is ... the Slayer?"
"Right here!"
Turning his head he saw her coming down the stairs of the apartment he was in. She looked bruised all over and her left arm was in a makeshift sling, but apart from that she seemed unhurt. He breathed a silent sigh of relief. Thank God he hadn't added another to his long list of victims.
Buffy sat down next to him, looking at him with concern in her eyes. Those eyes looked so very familiar to him. Like the eyes of another Slayer he had once known.
"How do you feel?" she asked him.
"Did I hurt you?" he asked back.
She gave him a shy smile. "I'll live."
"Mr. Fitzpatrick," the older man said, "we need to talk about certain things. Things concerning the entity living inside your body."
"You are her Watcher, I guess?" he asked him.
"Yes. My name is Rupert Giles."
"But we all just call him Giles," the boy added. "My name is Xander, by the way. This is Willow. I guess you and Buffy met before."
Angel nodded, looking at Buffy again. So close, he whispered to himself. So very close to snuffing another innocent life.
"So you want to know about the Butcher Knight?" he asked them.
"That would be helpful, yes," Giles said. "We have learned some of the story already. If our information is correct you and the Knight did not always share the same body, correct?"
Angel shook his head.
"I spent a large portion of my life trying to hunt that cursed creature down. I wanted to see it destroyed."
"It killed your lover," Buffy said.
"How do you ...?" he asked, then stopped. "Ah, I remember. Elia told me about the prophetic dreams she sometimes had. Is that where you learned of me?"
"Yes. I dreamed of the night shortly after you came here. Afterwards I saw some scenes of a battle. You were there, trying to save me ... or the person from whose eyes I saw everything, from the Knight."
"I failed," Angel whispered, balling his fists as he felt tears threatening to fall.
Buffy put her hand on his shoulder and for a moment he could imagine that the last thousand years hadn't happened. That Elia was touching him, in the way only she could. It was but illusion, though. Elia was long dead. Dead because he had failed her.
"After her death," Angel continued after a moment, "I could think of nothing else but hunting this creature down. I dedicated my life to it and followed it to my dying breath."
"What happened?" Giles asked.
"What you'd expect to happen when a mere mortal goes after a monster like Angelus." Angel gave a dry laugh. "I died."
#
He was dead.
That knowledge took a while to penetrate, but once it was locked inside his head there was no going back.
He was dead.
He remembered how he had died. He had tracked down the Butcher Knight and engaged the monster in combat. He had fought with every last ounce of his strength, had used every dirty trick ever known, but in the end it had not been enough. The Knight had impaled him upon his monstrous sword and Liam O'Connelly, Earl of Angel's Haven, had died.
He was dead.
Looking around he found death to be a strange place, if place it was. There was light everywhere, turning the world around him into a single bright whiteness, devoid of all color or shape. He wondered whether he would soon face the Lord and whether his renouncing Him would earn him a place in Hell.
After some time, he had no way to measure how long, he became aware of two shadowy figures in the distance. Lacking anything better to do he walked toward them.
Soon he could make them out. A man and a woman, dressed in some kind of togas, skin the color of gold. Jesus and the Virgin Mary? Somehow he had never imagined them to look like this.
"Welcome, warrior," the female greeted him, her voice a beautiful music.
"Is this Heaven?" he asked her.
"No, this is not heaven," the male said. "You might consider this a way station. If it is your wish to pass on into what you understand to be Heaven, you will soon do so."
"First, though," the female continued, "we have a proposition for you. If you will hear it. It concerns the entity known as Angelus. The Butcher Knight."
The familiar fury flooded through his veins, if veins he still had.
"I want it destroyed," he growled.
"Your hatred is strong, your will is even stronger. Which is why you are the right man."
"Right man for what?"
"The Vampiress known as Darla," the female explained, "made a terrible mistake when she summoned the Etrigani into the corporeal world. She has unleashed something even she has no hope of stopping or controlling in the long run. As she will soon learn."
"No weapon can harm Angelus," the male continued, "nothing will ever kill him. He does not age, he does not die. Only a power greater than his own could banish him from the Earth once more and the resulting battle would lay waste to your world, warrior."
His rage grew upon hearing those words.
"What are you telling me? Are you trying to make me feel better for my failure? If nothing can hurt him, that means I never had a chance. Is this your way of making a mockery out of my life?"
"No, we want to show you a way," the male said.
"The Etrigani can not be destroyed," the female explained, "but he can be caged. We can bond his form to that of a man. It would have to be a man of exceptional strength and will. A man who will do anything to make sure that the entity he carries inside him never breaks its chains again."
He understood.
"You want to bond me with this creature? The one I have sworn to see destroyed? You must be mad!"
"It is the only way to stop him. If you do not do it, he will carry on his mission. He will seek out Slayers and destroy them. He will slaughter everyone in his path. When he does not find a Slayer, he will kill everyone else he finds. He will never stop."
He clenched his fists, the images of the monster on a rampage cascading through his mind.
"What ... what will happen to me if I agree?" he asked.
"You and Angelus will be bonded. The Knight does not age and neither will you. Nothing can kill him and the same holds true for you. If the bond is established it will be your task to keep the creature imprisoned inside you. It will be a constant struggle, for the demon is strong. If you prevail, the Earth will be safe from the Butcher Knight. If you do not, you will become Angelus and kill again."
"Can you carry this burden to keep your world safe?" the female asked him.
#
"I said yes, of course," Angel said. "What else could I have done?"
"You have carried this demon inside of you for a millennium?" Giles asked.
"More or less. For nearly two centuries I was able to keep him imprisoned inside me. It wasn't easy, but I managed. I lead as normal a life as one who does not age could, never staying in any one place for too long a time for fear of being found out. It was not a good life, but neither was it unbearable."
He leaned back, sighing deeply, feeling the memories press in on him.
"Then, one day in the year 1189, I was in Italy. And Darla found me."
###
"I was a drifter in those days," Angel said, "never staying in one place for too long, trying not to make close friends as they would only age and die while I just went on. I knew that I would be on this Earth forever and so I intended to make the most of it, see every last spot, every last corner.
"Rome, Italy. It was a truly beautiful city and I had planned to stay there for a few years to enjoy it to the fullest. I wasn't too shy about making casual acquaintances and one night, while I was on my way to court a young girl, it happened."
"Darla," Buffy said.
"Yes. I recognized her immediately. How could I not remember her. On the day the Butcher Knight took my beloved from me, the two of us had fought against each other. I knew how strong and powerful she was. I had experienced it firsthand.
"On that night, though, I was sure the tables would be turned. I was immortal, nothing she could do would kill me. I share a portion of the Butcher Knight's strength, making me nearly her equal in a fight. I thought I would finally have my chance to get even with her. She had unleashed this monster upon the world and on this night she would pay."
He shook his head, sighing.
"I couldn't have been more wrong."
#
"Angelus," Darla whispered, a look of rapture spreading on her face.
"I am not Angelus," Angel growled at her, fury in his eyes. He drew the sword he carried with him, looking forward to cutting the Vampire's head off her shoulders and ending her foul existence forever.
Darla just smiled at him.
"They have imprisoned you inside this mortal form, but I can taste you, my Butcher Knight! Just under the surface. I know how dearly you want to break free and kill again. Kill the Chosen Ones."
Angel could feel the demon move inside his body, the words of her who had summoned him into this world stirring him up. Angel shook his head, refusing to yield. He had kept the fiend imprisoned inside him for two centuries and would continue to do so for all eternity.
"You will never again spill innocent blood, monster," Angel snarled, making two menacing steps towards the Vampire. Darla never moved.
"There is a Slayer living in this city," she said as if he'd said nothing, "killing my brethren. You will kill her for me, Angelus. Do what you were summoned to do!"
The demon raged inside Angel's body, but still he held on. Never again, he had vowed! Never again would he allow this monster to be free. He had sacrificed everything to end its reign of terror and would be damned before he let it free again.
"It's time to pay for your crimes, Vampire!" Angel raised the sword.
At the last split second Darla raised a sword of her own and met his strike. The two started to do battle, striking and blocking with a speed and grace no mere human could have matched. Angel felt the power of the Knight flow into his limps and he welcomed it. It was only fitting that the monster would help him destroy its own summoner.
Darla was driven back by his fury, steadily losing ground, but her smile never wavered. Angel put more effort into this attacks and Darla stumbled, her sword wrested from her hand, and found herself with her back to the wall, Angel's sword hovering close to her throat.
"It ends tonight," he whispered, gathering his strength for the final blow.
"Oh, it will," Darla agreed.
Suddenly the night around them came alive. Before Angel knew what was happening half a dozen shadowy shapes surrounded him, reached for him, tore at him. Vampires, many of them. His sword vanished into the darkness and they held him in their iron grips, forcing him to his knees before a laughing Darla.
"Where is your bravado now, Earl of Angel's Haven?"
"You can't kill me," he growled, straining against the hold of his captors.
"Nothing could be further from my mind," she laughed. "I want you just the way you are. Well, not quite the way you are right now."
Angel was forced to watch as she took back her sword and sliced the blade across her own wrist. Dark red blood bubbled from the wound. Darla came forward and the Vampires wrenched him back to his feet.
"I think we can yet improve you, my darling!"
With that she forced her wrist to his throat and her tainted blood flowed down his throat.
#
Angel paused in his story, the pain of the memories evident on his face. Buffy edged closer to him without consciously realizing it, wanting to make the pain in his eyes go away. She placed a hand on his arm, hoping to offer him at least some comfort.
Angel looked up at her, once more amazed how much she resembled his lost love. He shook his head. Elia was dead, dead for a thousand years, taken from him by the very monster he now carried inside himself. The monster that had almost killed the girl sitting beside him right now.
"After drinking her blood," he continued after a moment, "my will weakened. I could hear her voice in my head, commanding me to obey. I wanted to obey her, I wanted to serve her, yet I managed to resist. The thought of the Knight getting free from inside me was stronger than her blood."
He managed half a laugh.
"I thought I would be strong enough to resist her. Once again, though, I was wrong."
#
Five nights. Or something close to that. He was no longer certain about the passage of time. Five nights, more or less, since Darla had taken him. Since she had fed him her tainted blood, which had robbed him of the will to fight her. Five nights of imprisonment in this dark dungeon where the monster taunted him day and night.
Inside himself he felt the Butcher Knight, fighting against the chains, striving for the freedom that seemed so close.
"Never," Angel whispered.
Five days without water, food, or sleep. He was an immortal, it wouldn't kill him. It was taking his toll, though. He could feel his resolve weaken second by second. He was not sure how much longer he would be able to resist.
Elia's face appeared before his eyes.
"I will resist, beloved," he swore. "For you, I will resist!"
The door to his cell opened and Darla walked in, looking as smug as ever, her lips spread in a sensuous smile.
"Hello, Angelus! I've got good news!"
"You contracted a fatal disease?"
"Still defiant, are you? Well, I've got your medicine right here, boy!"
She stood before him, fists on her hips, her smile chilling him to the bone.
"I have to say I'm a bit sad. I seem to be losing my charms. But then again, if good old-fashioned womanly wiles do not work, there are other avenues to take."
She leant in closer, brushing her lips along his cheekbones, whispering into his ear.
"Over two centuries ago I summoned you into this world, Angelus. We are bound, you and I. Your mortal host is bound to me by my blood. I have researched the summoning ritual again and I think we might get lucky here."
Angel's blood ran cold.
"By Bond of Blood I call the Might," Darla began.
Angel convulsed as the Knight moved inside him, screamed, ethereal fists smashing against his prison of flesh and blood. Angel bit down on his own lip to keep from screaming and blood ran down his face.
"Of Fire From Hell, Inferno's Light,"
His blood started to boil as demon fire blazed brightly inside him, scorching his humanity, burning it away.
"I Curse Your Soul with Satan's Bite,"
He broke the chains that held him, falling to his knees and screaming out loud. His body began to break and shift, bones and muscle tearing apart and reforming themselves. His skin ripped apart like paper as something larger than himself tore through his form.
"Arise Angelus," Darla laughed, "my Butcher Knight!"
The screaming stopped and Darla beheld the huge man kneeling at her feet. His clothing had been ripped away and she could see every inch of muscled body and tanned skin. A growl filled the room as he rose, full of strength, and stood before her.
"Welcome home, Angelus!"
She had her Butcher Knight back, her glorious engine of destruction. Now the Slayers would live in terror once more. Never again would they feel safe either in night or daylight.
"Find the Slayer," she commanded, "find her and kill her! Kill everyone who stands in your path! Level this city if you have to!"
The Butcher Knight stood before her in all his glory. A shimmer in the air heralded the arrival of his sword, lost centuries ago, but once again speeding to its master's side. Angelus held the blade in hand and smiled a cruel smile.
"I don't think so, Darla," he just said.
Darla gasped.
###
"What happened?" Buffy asked.
Angel sighed.
"Darla was pretty much surprised, that was for sure. The Butcher Knight had been imprisoned inside me for two centuries. The one thing Darla had not considered was that his long connection to me might have changed him every bit as much as it changed me. Maybe even more so."
#
"What do you mean 'I don't think so'?" Darla asked the Butcher Knight.
"What I said!" Angelus smirked at her. "I don't think so!"
He stretched his long body, relishing in the feeling of freedom after so long a time. He twirled the sword in his hand, cherishing the blade like the long-lost friend it was. He laughed out loud, jubilant to be free.
"I love it," he screamed.
"Angelus," Darla yelled, furious.
The Knight whirled around and grabbed her, pulling her in for a bruising kiss. Darla was too confused to resist and after a moment she no longer wanted to. She returned the kiss, their tongues dueling for dominance.
Angelus pushed her away when he was satisfied and laughed again.
"I never knew how much I missed. So many things to do in this world. Mindless slaughter is getting so boring after a few centuries. I think I need a bit of enjoyment in my life after all this time."
Darla touched her bruised lips with her fingers, confused as to her own feelings. The Butcher Knight had always been a tool to her, a weapon to be aimed at her enemies. Never before had she thought of it as a man.
"You said there is a Slayer in this town?" Angelus asked.
"Yes."
He walked up to her, draping a huge arm around her slim shoulders, roughly pulling her into his body.
"Tell me all about her, precious! Who are her friends, her companions?" He laughed. "Tell me how to hurt her the most!"
#
"Two hundred years in my body," Angel sighed, "and Angelus had acquired all the worst characteristics of humanity. At first he had just been a weapon. An engine of destruction. Thanks to me he learned cruelty, sadism, the joy of hurting someone.
"On the bright side that meant that he was no longer slaughtering people by the hundreds. On the other hand, though ."
#
During the following three weeks the Butcher Knight went to do his bloody work in the city of Rome. His first targets were the parents of the Slayer and he killed them brutally, leaving their remains for everyone to find.
Next came her brother, a young man who fought well, but was without the shadow of a chance against a monster from the pits of Hell. Angelus took his head and sent a servant to deliver it to the Slayer.
The Slayer lived in her Watcher's house and Angelus took two weeks to slowly kill all her neighbors, creating a circle of death around her home that widened every night. Soon the people of the city were whispering among each other, whispering how the presence of that girl brought death and destruction down upon them.
Superstition soon took hold and the Slayer was to be burned as a witch. Angelus watched from the shadows as she was dragged out of her home, the protests of her Watcher unheard, her strength no match against a scared and angry crowd. Angelus watched as they tied her to a stake and prepared to light the fires.
With the Slayer helpless he strode onto the plaza where they planned to burn her and slaughtered everyone where they stood, cutting people down like so much grass with his mighty sword. The Slayer screamed and tried to break her bonds, but it was to no avail.
Her Watcher was the last to fall before him, the blood exploding from his body as the Butcher Knight's sword cleaved him in two, staining the Slayer's rosy flesh. By that time she was beyond sanity, her world reduced to so much bloody remains, and Angelus found it to his liking.
Before he finally killed her he first raped her, another thing he had learned to enjoy. He took his sweet time with her, killing her by inches. In the end she pleaded with him to finish it, to kill her.
Angelus left her to slowly bleed to death as he and Darla took his leave.
#
Buffy could only stare as Angel recited the tale of the Knight's deeds, seeing the gory details before her mind's eye. How he must blame himself, she thought. To see one's own darkest urges and evils manifested in a creature like the Knight .
"The Knight killed two more Slayers," Angel continued, "until I finally managed to regain control of our joint body once more. Angelus held knowledge of dark magic and I was able to tap into that, creating a counter spell to the one Darla used to summon the Knight from my body. Just the effort to make him speak those words that would bring me back ."
Once again Buffy found herself filled with the almost physical need to comfort him. What was it about this man that moved her so? Surely it was not just his tale, though it was more than horrible enough. She couldn't get over the familiarity she felt with him.
Angel, in turn, looked at Buffy and saw someone else. His soul cried out in need, needing her to be his dead beloved, Elia. She wasn't, he knew that, but still .
"Since that time," he continued, "it has been a constant chase and struggle. I would manage to hide from Darla for decades, sometimes centuries, but eventually she would find me and summon forth the Knight to do her killing for her. After a time I would be able to regain control and flee from her once more. So it went for these last eight centuries."
He closed his eyes.
"I am starting to fear that this is the way it will always go."
Giles looked up from the piece of paper where he had made notes during Angel's tale.
"I am not so certain about that, Mr. Fitzpatrick. You told us that it would always take some time before you could regain control of the Knight and imprison him once more, correct?"
"Yes."
"This time, though, you regained control after but a night. Did you ever manage this before?"
Angel looked up at the Watcher, realizing that he was right. A night, just a single night.
"No," he admitted, confused, "normally it takes me months, years, sometimes decades. Angelus is strong."
"Then we must assume something has changed this time around. Something that weakened Angelus or strengthened you. If we can find out what that is, maybe help it along ."
For the first time in centuries Angel allowed himself the luxury of hope. Just the tiniest ember of it, for a dozen lifetimes of loneliness and sacrifice had taught him better, but it was more than he had felt since that day in Italy.
He looked at Buffy again. Something had changed? Something that had strengthened him?
He was overcome by a memory. Elia, how beautiful she had been, how glorious their love had burned. When they lay together, comfortable in each other's presence, he would look upon her with wonder as she smiled at him.
"You are my strength, my Angel," she would tell him, her strong hands touching him with such sweet tenderness. She had always called him her Angel, he had taken it as his name to keep her memory alive.
"I am stronger for having you by my side, beloved," he replied, knowing that it was true. Together they had been stronger than apart, so very strong.
He looked at Buffy, looked deep into her eyes. Somehow she knew of events centuries before her birth, knew details of his life that no one this side of the grave should know. Elia had told him about the Slayers' prophetic dreams. Was it just that?
Or was it more?
Buffy looked at Angel as he was staring at her and the look she saw in his deep brown eyes made her feel strong.
TO BE CONTINUED
###
Angel regained his consciousness slowly, aware of the pain shooting through his flesh. It was always that way when he finally managed to wrest back control of his body from Angelus, yet never before had the demon fought him this intensely. He was aching all over.
The demon. Angelus. His eyes shot open and bright light stabbed into them, forcing him to blink.
"He's awake," an unknown voice said.
After a few moments Angel was able to make out the face of a man leaning over him. He was quite certain he didn't know that man and neither was he familiar with the room that slowly too shape around him.
"Mr. Fitzpatrick?" the man asked him. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I had to battle a demon for control of my body," he groaned. "Oh, wait! That really happened."
He looked up to see two more people sitting in the room. One was a red- haired girl he seemed to remember from one of his classes, the other a dark- haired boy. Both of them were staring at him with a mixture of amazement and fear.
Someone was missing from this picture, though.
"Where ... where is ... the Slayer?"
"Right here!"
Turning his head he saw her coming down the stairs of the apartment he was in. She looked bruised all over and her left arm was in a makeshift sling, but apart from that she seemed unhurt. He breathed a silent sigh of relief. Thank God he hadn't added another to his long list of victims.
Buffy sat down next to him, looking at him with concern in her eyes. Those eyes looked so very familiar to him. Like the eyes of another Slayer he had once known.
"How do you feel?" she asked him.
"Did I hurt you?" he asked back.
She gave him a shy smile. "I'll live."
"Mr. Fitzpatrick," the older man said, "we need to talk about certain things. Things concerning the entity living inside your body."
"You are her Watcher, I guess?" he asked him.
"Yes. My name is Rupert Giles."
"But we all just call him Giles," the boy added. "My name is Xander, by the way. This is Willow. I guess you and Buffy met before."
Angel nodded, looking at Buffy again. So close, he whispered to himself. So very close to snuffing another innocent life.
"So you want to know about the Butcher Knight?" he asked them.
"That would be helpful, yes," Giles said. "We have learned some of the story already. If our information is correct you and the Knight did not always share the same body, correct?"
Angel shook his head.
"I spent a large portion of my life trying to hunt that cursed creature down. I wanted to see it destroyed."
"It killed your lover," Buffy said.
"How do you ...?" he asked, then stopped. "Ah, I remember. Elia told me about the prophetic dreams she sometimes had. Is that where you learned of me?"
"Yes. I dreamed of the night shortly after you came here. Afterwards I saw some scenes of a battle. You were there, trying to save me ... or the person from whose eyes I saw everything, from the Knight."
"I failed," Angel whispered, balling his fists as he felt tears threatening to fall.
Buffy put her hand on his shoulder and for a moment he could imagine that the last thousand years hadn't happened. That Elia was touching him, in the way only she could. It was but illusion, though. Elia was long dead. Dead because he had failed her.
"After her death," Angel continued after a moment, "I could think of nothing else but hunting this creature down. I dedicated my life to it and followed it to my dying breath."
"What happened?" Giles asked.
"What you'd expect to happen when a mere mortal goes after a monster like Angelus." Angel gave a dry laugh. "I died."
#
He was dead.
That knowledge took a while to penetrate, but once it was locked inside his head there was no going back.
He was dead.
He remembered how he had died. He had tracked down the Butcher Knight and engaged the monster in combat. He had fought with every last ounce of his strength, had used every dirty trick ever known, but in the end it had not been enough. The Knight had impaled him upon his monstrous sword and Liam O'Connelly, Earl of Angel's Haven, had died.
He was dead.
Looking around he found death to be a strange place, if place it was. There was light everywhere, turning the world around him into a single bright whiteness, devoid of all color or shape. He wondered whether he would soon face the Lord and whether his renouncing Him would earn him a place in Hell.
After some time, he had no way to measure how long, he became aware of two shadowy figures in the distance. Lacking anything better to do he walked toward them.
Soon he could make them out. A man and a woman, dressed in some kind of togas, skin the color of gold. Jesus and the Virgin Mary? Somehow he had never imagined them to look like this.
"Welcome, warrior," the female greeted him, her voice a beautiful music.
"Is this Heaven?" he asked her.
"No, this is not heaven," the male said. "You might consider this a way station. If it is your wish to pass on into what you understand to be Heaven, you will soon do so."
"First, though," the female continued, "we have a proposition for you. If you will hear it. It concerns the entity known as Angelus. The Butcher Knight."
The familiar fury flooded through his veins, if veins he still had.
"I want it destroyed," he growled.
"Your hatred is strong, your will is even stronger. Which is why you are the right man."
"Right man for what?"
"The Vampiress known as Darla," the female explained, "made a terrible mistake when she summoned the Etrigani into the corporeal world. She has unleashed something even she has no hope of stopping or controlling in the long run. As she will soon learn."
"No weapon can harm Angelus," the male continued, "nothing will ever kill him. He does not age, he does not die. Only a power greater than his own could banish him from the Earth once more and the resulting battle would lay waste to your world, warrior."
His rage grew upon hearing those words.
"What are you telling me? Are you trying to make me feel better for my failure? If nothing can hurt him, that means I never had a chance. Is this your way of making a mockery out of my life?"
"No, we want to show you a way," the male said.
"The Etrigani can not be destroyed," the female explained, "but he can be caged. We can bond his form to that of a man. It would have to be a man of exceptional strength and will. A man who will do anything to make sure that the entity he carries inside him never breaks its chains again."
He understood.
"You want to bond me with this creature? The one I have sworn to see destroyed? You must be mad!"
"It is the only way to stop him. If you do not do it, he will carry on his mission. He will seek out Slayers and destroy them. He will slaughter everyone in his path. When he does not find a Slayer, he will kill everyone else he finds. He will never stop."
He clenched his fists, the images of the monster on a rampage cascading through his mind.
"What ... what will happen to me if I agree?" he asked.
"You and Angelus will be bonded. The Knight does not age and neither will you. Nothing can kill him and the same holds true for you. If the bond is established it will be your task to keep the creature imprisoned inside you. It will be a constant struggle, for the demon is strong. If you prevail, the Earth will be safe from the Butcher Knight. If you do not, you will become Angelus and kill again."
"Can you carry this burden to keep your world safe?" the female asked him.
#
"I said yes, of course," Angel said. "What else could I have done?"
"You have carried this demon inside of you for a millennium?" Giles asked.
"More or less. For nearly two centuries I was able to keep him imprisoned inside me. It wasn't easy, but I managed. I lead as normal a life as one who does not age could, never staying in any one place for too long a time for fear of being found out. It was not a good life, but neither was it unbearable."
He leaned back, sighing deeply, feeling the memories press in on him.
"Then, one day in the year 1189, I was in Italy. And Darla found me."
###
"I was a drifter in those days," Angel said, "never staying in one place for too long, trying not to make close friends as they would only age and die while I just went on. I knew that I would be on this Earth forever and so I intended to make the most of it, see every last spot, every last corner.
"Rome, Italy. It was a truly beautiful city and I had planned to stay there for a few years to enjoy it to the fullest. I wasn't too shy about making casual acquaintances and one night, while I was on my way to court a young girl, it happened."
"Darla," Buffy said.
"Yes. I recognized her immediately. How could I not remember her. On the day the Butcher Knight took my beloved from me, the two of us had fought against each other. I knew how strong and powerful she was. I had experienced it firsthand.
"On that night, though, I was sure the tables would be turned. I was immortal, nothing she could do would kill me. I share a portion of the Butcher Knight's strength, making me nearly her equal in a fight. I thought I would finally have my chance to get even with her. She had unleashed this monster upon the world and on this night she would pay."
He shook his head, sighing.
"I couldn't have been more wrong."
#
"Angelus," Darla whispered, a look of rapture spreading on her face.
"I am not Angelus," Angel growled at her, fury in his eyes. He drew the sword he carried with him, looking forward to cutting the Vampire's head off her shoulders and ending her foul existence forever.
Darla just smiled at him.
"They have imprisoned you inside this mortal form, but I can taste you, my Butcher Knight! Just under the surface. I know how dearly you want to break free and kill again. Kill the Chosen Ones."
Angel could feel the demon move inside his body, the words of her who had summoned him into this world stirring him up. Angel shook his head, refusing to yield. He had kept the fiend imprisoned inside him for two centuries and would continue to do so for all eternity.
"You will never again spill innocent blood, monster," Angel snarled, making two menacing steps towards the Vampire. Darla never moved.
"There is a Slayer living in this city," she said as if he'd said nothing, "killing my brethren. You will kill her for me, Angelus. Do what you were summoned to do!"
The demon raged inside Angel's body, but still he held on. Never again, he had vowed! Never again would he allow this monster to be free. He had sacrificed everything to end its reign of terror and would be damned before he let it free again.
"It's time to pay for your crimes, Vampire!" Angel raised the sword.
At the last split second Darla raised a sword of her own and met his strike. The two started to do battle, striking and blocking with a speed and grace no mere human could have matched. Angel felt the power of the Knight flow into his limps and he welcomed it. It was only fitting that the monster would help him destroy its own summoner.
Darla was driven back by his fury, steadily losing ground, but her smile never wavered. Angel put more effort into this attacks and Darla stumbled, her sword wrested from her hand, and found herself with her back to the wall, Angel's sword hovering close to her throat.
"It ends tonight," he whispered, gathering his strength for the final blow.
"Oh, it will," Darla agreed.
Suddenly the night around them came alive. Before Angel knew what was happening half a dozen shadowy shapes surrounded him, reached for him, tore at him. Vampires, many of them. His sword vanished into the darkness and they held him in their iron grips, forcing him to his knees before a laughing Darla.
"Where is your bravado now, Earl of Angel's Haven?"
"You can't kill me," he growled, straining against the hold of his captors.
"Nothing could be further from my mind," she laughed. "I want you just the way you are. Well, not quite the way you are right now."
Angel was forced to watch as she took back her sword and sliced the blade across her own wrist. Dark red blood bubbled from the wound. Darla came forward and the Vampires wrenched him back to his feet.
"I think we can yet improve you, my darling!"
With that she forced her wrist to his throat and her tainted blood flowed down his throat.
#
Angel paused in his story, the pain of the memories evident on his face. Buffy edged closer to him without consciously realizing it, wanting to make the pain in his eyes go away. She placed a hand on his arm, hoping to offer him at least some comfort.
Angel looked up at her, once more amazed how much she resembled his lost love. He shook his head. Elia was dead, dead for a thousand years, taken from him by the very monster he now carried inside himself. The monster that had almost killed the girl sitting beside him right now.
"After drinking her blood," he continued after a moment, "my will weakened. I could hear her voice in my head, commanding me to obey. I wanted to obey her, I wanted to serve her, yet I managed to resist. The thought of the Knight getting free from inside me was stronger than her blood."
He managed half a laugh.
"I thought I would be strong enough to resist her. Once again, though, I was wrong."
#
Five nights. Or something close to that. He was no longer certain about the passage of time. Five nights, more or less, since Darla had taken him. Since she had fed him her tainted blood, which had robbed him of the will to fight her. Five nights of imprisonment in this dark dungeon where the monster taunted him day and night.
Inside himself he felt the Butcher Knight, fighting against the chains, striving for the freedom that seemed so close.
"Never," Angel whispered.
Five days without water, food, or sleep. He was an immortal, it wouldn't kill him. It was taking his toll, though. He could feel his resolve weaken second by second. He was not sure how much longer he would be able to resist.
Elia's face appeared before his eyes.
"I will resist, beloved," he swore. "For you, I will resist!"
The door to his cell opened and Darla walked in, looking as smug as ever, her lips spread in a sensuous smile.
"Hello, Angelus! I've got good news!"
"You contracted a fatal disease?"
"Still defiant, are you? Well, I've got your medicine right here, boy!"
She stood before him, fists on her hips, her smile chilling him to the bone.
"I have to say I'm a bit sad. I seem to be losing my charms. But then again, if good old-fashioned womanly wiles do not work, there are other avenues to take."
She leant in closer, brushing her lips along his cheekbones, whispering into his ear.
"Over two centuries ago I summoned you into this world, Angelus. We are bound, you and I. Your mortal host is bound to me by my blood. I have researched the summoning ritual again and I think we might get lucky here."
Angel's blood ran cold.
"By Bond of Blood I call the Might," Darla began.
Angel convulsed as the Knight moved inside him, screamed, ethereal fists smashing against his prison of flesh and blood. Angel bit down on his own lip to keep from screaming and blood ran down his face.
"Of Fire From Hell, Inferno's Light,"
His blood started to boil as demon fire blazed brightly inside him, scorching his humanity, burning it away.
"I Curse Your Soul with Satan's Bite,"
He broke the chains that held him, falling to his knees and screaming out loud. His body began to break and shift, bones and muscle tearing apart and reforming themselves. His skin ripped apart like paper as something larger than himself tore through his form.
"Arise Angelus," Darla laughed, "my Butcher Knight!"
The screaming stopped and Darla beheld the huge man kneeling at her feet. His clothing had been ripped away and she could see every inch of muscled body and tanned skin. A growl filled the room as he rose, full of strength, and stood before her.
"Welcome home, Angelus!"
She had her Butcher Knight back, her glorious engine of destruction. Now the Slayers would live in terror once more. Never again would they feel safe either in night or daylight.
"Find the Slayer," she commanded, "find her and kill her! Kill everyone who stands in your path! Level this city if you have to!"
The Butcher Knight stood before her in all his glory. A shimmer in the air heralded the arrival of his sword, lost centuries ago, but once again speeding to its master's side. Angelus held the blade in hand and smiled a cruel smile.
"I don't think so, Darla," he just said.
Darla gasped.
###
"What happened?" Buffy asked.
Angel sighed.
"Darla was pretty much surprised, that was for sure. The Butcher Knight had been imprisoned inside me for two centuries. The one thing Darla had not considered was that his long connection to me might have changed him every bit as much as it changed me. Maybe even more so."
#
"What do you mean 'I don't think so'?" Darla asked the Butcher Knight.
"What I said!" Angelus smirked at her. "I don't think so!"
He stretched his long body, relishing in the feeling of freedom after so long a time. He twirled the sword in his hand, cherishing the blade like the long-lost friend it was. He laughed out loud, jubilant to be free.
"I love it," he screamed.
"Angelus," Darla yelled, furious.
The Knight whirled around and grabbed her, pulling her in for a bruising kiss. Darla was too confused to resist and after a moment she no longer wanted to. She returned the kiss, their tongues dueling for dominance.
Angelus pushed her away when he was satisfied and laughed again.
"I never knew how much I missed. So many things to do in this world. Mindless slaughter is getting so boring after a few centuries. I think I need a bit of enjoyment in my life after all this time."
Darla touched her bruised lips with her fingers, confused as to her own feelings. The Butcher Knight had always been a tool to her, a weapon to be aimed at her enemies. Never before had she thought of it as a man.
"You said there is a Slayer in this town?" Angelus asked.
"Yes."
He walked up to her, draping a huge arm around her slim shoulders, roughly pulling her into his body.
"Tell me all about her, precious! Who are her friends, her companions?" He laughed. "Tell me how to hurt her the most!"
#
"Two hundred years in my body," Angel sighed, "and Angelus had acquired all the worst characteristics of humanity. At first he had just been a weapon. An engine of destruction. Thanks to me he learned cruelty, sadism, the joy of hurting someone.
"On the bright side that meant that he was no longer slaughtering people by the hundreds. On the other hand, though ."
#
During the following three weeks the Butcher Knight went to do his bloody work in the city of Rome. His first targets were the parents of the Slayer and he killed them brutally, leaving their remains for everyone to find.
Next came her brother, a young man who fought well, but was without the shadow of a chance against a monster from the pits of Hell. Angelus took his head and sent a servant to deliver it to the Slayer.
The Slayer lived in her Watcher's house and Angelus took two weeks to slowly kill all her neighbors, creating a circle of death around her home that widened every night. Soon the people of the city were whispering among each other, whispering how the presence of that girl brought death and destruction down upon them.
Superstition soon took hold and the Slayer was to be burned as a witch. Angelus watched from the shadows as she was dragged out of her home, the protests of her Watcher unheard, her strength no match against a scared and angry crowd. Angelus watched as they tied her to a stake and prepared to light the fires.
With the Slayer helpless he strode onto the plaza where they planned to burn her and slaughtered everyone where they stood, cutting people down like so much grass with his mighty sword. The Slayer screamed and tried to break her bonds, but it was to no avail.
Her Watcher was the last to fall before him, the blood exploding from his body as the Butcher Knight's sword cleaved him in two, staining the Slayer's rosy flesh. By that time she was beyond sanity, her world reduced to so much bloody remains, and Angelus found it to his liking.
Before he finally killed her he first raped her, another thing he had learned to enjoy. He took his sweet time with her, killing her by inches. In the end she pleaded with him to finish it, to kill her.
Angelus left her to slowly bleed to death as he and Darla took his leave.
#
Buffy could only stare as Angel recited the tale of the Knight's deeds, seeing the gory details before her mind's eye. How he must blame himself, she thought. To see one's own darkest urges and evils manifested in a creature like the Knight .
"The Knight killed two more Slayers," Angel continued, "until I finally managed to regain control of our joint body once more. Angelus held knowledge of dark magic and I was able to tap into that, creating a counter spell to the one Darla used to summon the Knight from my body. Just the effort to make him speak those words that would bring me back ."
Once again Buffy found herself filled with the almost physical need to comfort him. What was it about this man that moved her so? Surely it was not just his tale, though it was more than horrible enough. She couldn't get over the familiarity she felt with him.
Angel, in turn, looked at Buffy and saw someone else. His soul cried out in need, needing her to be his dead beloved, Elia. She wasn't, he knew that, but still .
"Since that time," he continued, "it has been a constant chase and struggle. I would manage to hide from Darla for decades, sometimes centuries, but eventually she would find me and summon forth the Knight to do her killing for her. After a time I would be able to regain control and flee from her once more. So it went for these last eight centuries."
He closed his eyes.
"I am starting to fear that this is the way it will always go."
Giles looked up from the piece of paper where he had made notes during Angel's tale.
"I am not so certain about that, Mr. Fitzpatrick. You told us that it would always take some time before you could regain control of the Knight and imprison him once more, correct?"
"Yes."
"This time, though, you regained control after but a night. Did you ever manage this before?"
Angel looked up at the Watcher, realizing that he was right. A night, just a single night.
"No," he admitted, confused, "normally it takes me months, years, sometimes decades. Angelus is strong."
"Then we must assume something has changed this time around. Something that weakened Angelus or strengthened you. If we can find out what that is, maybe help it along ."
For the first time in centuries Angel allowed himself the luxury of hope. Just the tiniest ember of it, for a dozen lifetimes of loneliness and sacrifice had taught him better, but it was more than he had felt since that day in Italy.
He looked at Buffy again. Something had changed? Something that had strengthened him?
He was overcome by a memory. Elia, how beautiful she had been, how glorious their love had burned. When they lay together, comfortable in each other's presence, he would look upon her with wonder as she smiled at him.
"You are my strength, my Angel," she would tell him, her strong hands touching him with such sweet tenderness. She had always called him her Angel, he had taken it as his name to keep her memory alive.
"I am stronger for having you by my side, beloved," he replied, knowing that it was true. Together they had been stronger than apart, so very strong.
He looked at Buffy, looked deep into her eyes. Somehow she knew of events centuries before her birth, knew details of his life that no one this side of the grave should know. Elia had told him about the Slayers' prophetic dreams. Was it just that?
Or was it more?
Buffy looked at Angel as he was staring at her and the look she saw in his deep brown eyes made her feel strong.
TO BE CONTINUED