Chapter Nine

Taking a warm and slightly tearful adieu from Mich, Angelus smiled warmly at the young woman he had known for so long who now recognized him as well.

"I've missed you much," he smiled at her. "It has been so long since I've seen you, or any of the senshi…"

Quietly handing him a tissue, Mich looked tearfully at him.

"Yes," she quietly agreed. "I can't believe how long it has been, Angelus. And everyone has been reincarnated, you say?"

Angelus nodded.

"Yes," he revealed. "I have already woken Serenity – she goes by Usagi now, Haruka and Hotaru. You are the fourth I've contacted. Setsuna and Minako are in LA like you, I will look them up as well. Rei, Makoto and Ami are with Luna in Tokyo. They have already taken up their identities as senshi. Their memories aren't complete as of yet though, and I doubt they will regain them without my help."

Giving him a careful look, Mich placed a slender hand on his arm.

"What of Endy, of…Bri?" she delicately asked, hesitating over the last name. "Have you…have you found them?"

Bowing his head slightly, Angelus choked down the guilt and grief awakened by the names before looking into Mich's compassionate eyes.

"Endymion has been taken once again," he sadly said. "Rei, Ami and Makoto have their hands full in Tokyo fighting him. But they are the only ones of you that can fight right now. I should have awakened you before, but I never saw any reason before. Bri… She's been…reincarnated…as well. Her name is Buffy now, in the same age as you in fact. Ironically enough, she is a Slayer still."

Mich frowned at his cautious wording.

"You haven't awakened her?" she incredulously asked. "Why?"

Angelus shook his head.

"I've tried, believe me," he sadly said, "but each time, something interrupts. There's a part of her missing, she has all the memories, but they're fragments, nothing complete."

Mich nodded sympathetically.

"Does she know you?" she asked. "I can't see you keeping away from her by your own free will."

Smiling bashfully, the sentence lured a laugh out of the somber vampire.

"Of course," he admitted. "We love each other even. It's been hard though, our love life hasn't exactly been a dance on roses. I…I had to leave her just about a year ago. The balance between my soul and my demon had become too precarious for me to stay. We still keep in touch though…"

Laughing, Mich gave him a mischievous look.

"I certainly hope so," she agreed. "I remember how hard it was for you to be apart. You went brooding, and Bri became unsure and violent. None of you were a very pretty sight."

Angelus grimaced, then looked at his borrowed wristwatch.

"Damn!" he cursed, completely out of character. "I am supposed to meet Setsuna in an hour under the pretext that I need help decorate the Hyperion, and I have to go back to my apartment to change cloths first."

The dark-blonde violinist smirked.

"Well," she teased, "that's what you get when you foolishly sit down on the edge of a fountain. Jokes aside, I think I have some cloths left here from my last partner. There should be something in your size. Beware though, he was a fan of leather…"

Setsuna Meiou's office – LA USA year 2001

When Angelus stepped into Setsuna Meiou's, famous Interior Decorator and one of Usagi's teachers actually, office exactly fifty-three minutes later, he had been refitted into a pair of tight leather pants and a cream colored t-shirt. The cloths reminded him rather much of what he had been wearing during the separation time.

Glancing around for a second, Angelus catalogued his surroundings before turning towards the woman waiting to greet him with a smirk.

"As I know you will appreciate this later," Angelus said, taking a few quick steps towards her, "I will do this directly."

He grabbed her slender hand and focused on the magic he held inside. Forcing it to flow into the raven-haired woman's body, he used it to free the memories buried and chained so deep down in her mind he doubted that she was aware of them. Then he slipped out of her head and looked expectantly at her. It didn't take long for the reaction to come.

Immediately after his withdrawal, the woman's almost purplish brown eyes lit up with an inner contentment, and a soft half smile came to rest on her lips. Taking his hand between hers, she did a smooth courtish bow before stepping forwards to give him a formal but very affectionate and instinctive hug.

"Angelus!" she warmly said. "I am so very happy that you survived. I…we missed you very much."

Giving her a warm hug in return, he smiled softly at her.

"The feeling is mutual," he softly admitted. "The years have been lonely without you."

Minako Aino's beach house – LA USA year 2001

Just having finished cooking dinner for her and Artemis, Minako slipped out of her nightgown and into the jeans and blue tank top she planned on wearing going shopping that afternoon. Pulling her hair from her face and fastening it in a ponytail in her neck with a steel clip, she glanced out of her bedroom window to check if Artemis was back from his walk on the beach yet.

Scanning the beach for the white cat that was Artemis, her eyes caught the sight of a tall man stepping out of some black sports car. He seemed familiar somehow… Abandoning her cat for the man, she peered at the man. Giving up the futile attempt, she turned around to grab her stylish, steel glasses, putting them on.

Seeing more clearly now, she turned back to the window and took a closer look at the man. He had begun walking down the street now, heading in her direction. Noticing the way he strode, she frowned. She knew that walk. There was only one person in the world who walked like that, arrogantly yet humbly and with a graceful self-assuredness that was almost tangible. And as he glanced in her direction, her suspicions were confirmed.

Minako's pale lavender eyes widened and then she flew down the stairs of her small beach house, out through the door and onto the man, hugging him for all her worth.

"Angelus!" she laughed. "You are alive!"

As two arms went up to hug her as well, she was greeted by the voice she hadn't heard for millennia.

"Minako!"

Pulling away, the blonde girl grinned at her friend.

"Artemis and I have been searching for you," she told him. "You as well as the other senshi. I suppose you have the same opinion of the current situation in Tokyo?"

Angelus nodded, smiling broadly at her.

"Yes," he grinned. "But not for long I have to admit. I seem to have gotten further than you though…?"

Minako shrugged an irritated look on her face.

"Correct," she admitted. "For some reason, Artemis' mind meld doesn't work on Usagi and the others. Nor have he been able to activate them. I have been keeping an eye on them though."

Angelus pensively nodded.

"I believe I understand," he commented. "I have the same problem with Briseis."

Minako gave him a surprised look.

"You have found Bri?" she exclaimed.

"I have," Angelus confirmed. "We have even been in an relationship. But I can't awaken her memories for some reason."

Minako felt the pain of his heart as if it were her own. Giving him a comforting hug, she comforted him the best she could with her empathic powers.

"It will be all right," she whispered. "She will remember. As cliché as it may sound, love breeches all walls."

Breaking apart again, they shared a short silence before Minako shrugged.

"Well, I just finished making dinner inside," she said. "You are welcome to join me. It is nothing special though, just a vegetable soup. I have a couple of blood bags lying around if you are hungry. Battle injuries and all that, you know."

Following the slender senshi to her house, Angelus shrugged.

"I'm not too hungry," he said. "Soup will be fine. It may not still the hunger of my body, but it certainly tastes more pleasant than a bag of type O blood."

Minako laughed right out at that.

"Don't say that," she mischievously commented. "I don't think you've eaten my food anytime before."

Angelus chuckled.