A bad dream. Angel thought as he felt himself rise up through layers of consciousness. It was all a bad dream. I'll awaken to find myself in bed next to Buffy and all of this will be forgotten.
He could even hear Buffy saying "Good morning, Angel." But the voice wasn't right.
His eyes snapped open and he shot upright. He found himself in the middle of the biggest bed he had ever seen in his life. It was circular and about twenty feet across and yet it was dwarfed by the single chamber in which it was held.
The elliptical room was made of reddish granite-like stone and must have been near a hundred feet on its long dimension and eighty on its short. The bed was situated at one end. In the middle of the room rested a magnificently huge fireplace which was open on four sides. The fire place was the center piece of a sunken sitting area filled with silk pillows, low soft chairs and covered with furs.
Beyond the fireplace could be seen two pools of water, the larger was an irregular circle about thirty feet across. The smaller was more like ten but trails of water vapor on its surface indicated that it was heated. In the middle of one long side of the oval was a pair of double doors about twenty feet in height and width. To the other side was a forty foot long opening to a gigantic balcony, looking over an endless vista.
He couldn't see much of the view from the bed but it didn't matter. His attention was taken by the absolutely gorgeous blond girl sitting on the edge of the bed in a near transparent black silky dress. The expression on her face was neutral but her eyes danced with amusement. It had been this girl that had spoken.
"I said good morning." She repeated. "Where I come from it's considered to be very rude to ignore your hostess. Especially after she went through the trouble of tending to your injuries."
At the mention of those injuries Angels mind filled with remembered pain and suffering. He quickly examined himself and found that not only had those injuries been banished, as if they never were, but that he had been dressed in a pair of loose black silk drawstring pants and a matching black silk sleeveless peasants shirt.
"Uh, th-thank you." He was finally able to say past his surprise.
His memory was starting to fill in details of the last thing he remembered, being rescued by a shapely demoness. He looked around the room but couldn't see her anywhere. But what the girl had said and the sound of her voice penetrated the gloom of Angels mind. THIS sweet young innocent looking girl WAS the demoness. As Angel turned back to her she smiled at his comprehension. He really was a quick one.
"I see you've made the connection as to who saved you from Angelous clutches." Her innocent smile grew a touch of danger. "Don't jump to conclusions, not everything is as it seems. Are you hungry?"
She made a slow pointing gesture to the other side of the bed. Angel turned and found a table full of food that hadn't been there a minute before. It took only a second for Angel to make up his mind whether or not to eat the food. The decision was helped along by a protracted low and painful rumbling in his stomach.
He scooted to the edge of the bed and stood up but a bit too quickly. He felt himself swoon and start to fall. He was saved the impact by two small but quick and very strong hands. He looked their owner directly in her warm blue eyes and was taken aback slightly by the glimmer of pain within.
"Thank you. Again." He told her quietly as she helped him to a chair.
"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad I could help you out."
She barely spoke above the whisper of silk her dress made, as she found her own chair, and yet Angel had no trouble hearing her. He couldn't help but follow her progress until she sat down. Then his attention was entirely focused upon the food before him. Nothing on the table was like anything he had ever remembered having before but the looks and smells were far too appetizing to ignore anymore. He piled servings on his plate from a couple of dishes and dug in. The blond smiled as she chose smaller portions for herself.
"It's been quiet some time since you've had real food, hasn't it?" Angel warily looked her way.
"You seem to know a lot about me."
She shrugged as she poured herself a glass of a slightly glowing reddish-amber liquid. "I study anything which captures my interest. And a souled vampire does just that." As she spoke Angel continued to eat.
"And, now a days, there aren't many things that are capable of that distinction." She was amused at his slightly puzzled look. "I've seen and done many things, Angel. Something's I've re-done just to see if they would turn out differently. I've even been involved with your life before."
Before he could say anything she waved lightly and continued "Oh, don't ask me how. Just believe that I have." Her eyes shone in a way that Angel felt compelled to believe her.
She had power beyond most things he had ever encountered before. He had many questions in his mind but two remained foremost.
"Who are you?"
"I am the Mistress of this place. Limbo, as I call it. I am it's absolute master and Magus. No one who enters MY realm is my equal. I am the one who wields the power of the Elder Gods and who, may someday, serve as their doorway through which they will re-conquer a world, a galaxy and an entire reality. Their DarkChild, if you will." She smiled her sweet shy smile and finished "But you, my dear Angel, may call me Illyana."
He paused in his meal to try some of the glowing liquid and found, to his delight, that it was wonderful. He was also trying to absorb everything she had said. He recalled that Angelous had reacted with terror upon learning her name and now he seemed to remember a dark and dusty legend, which no one gave much credence to.
A legend of a DarkChild sent to Earth at her masters bidding. Supposedly she gave assistance to King Arthur and Merlin before the fall of Camelot. He mentioned this to Illyana.
"Hmmm" She pondered his question "It may have been me, or one of me. But then again it may yet be me." she refilled her goblet and stood. Angel found that he had had sufficient and did like wise. "It's difficult to explain Angel, but I think you can handle it."
He followed her onto the balcony as she spoke. He was very interested in what she had to say. The view was breath-taking. The balcony was, in truth, a ledge protruding from the side of a mountain, over a thousand feet in the air with only a low stone railing around the edge. Angel felt a moment of vertigo and stood still until it passed.
Out there, all around him, was an endless vista of jungles, lakes, savannah's, desert and forest sprinkled with lone mountains and a distant range. No earthly tectonics created this land.
"This is Limbo. All of it, as far as you can see and beyond, is mine. It is a strange land full of beasts and demons. Some harmless but most" Her eyes took on a momentarily wicked gleam "are deadly. But what makes Limbo unique is that it exists without linear time or space. This, plus my own talents, allows me to travel almost limitlessly through time and space even between realities." She gave him a half grin. "It was this ability that enabled me to steal you away from Diablo and Angelous."
Angel shuddered at the memories her words invoked. "I'd rather not talk about them." He told her.
"Of course." She agreed while their eyes followed a large reptilian bird as it glided through the air. "All of this under my rule alone. Anything I could ever want is a gesture or jaunt away. Here, in this time and place, I am truly without equal. Do you have any idea how that must feel?"
Angel had watched her while she told him of this place and her mastery of it and came to one conclusion. "Very lonely." She stiffened at his words. "You're all alone here."
The realization struck a similar cord in Angels own heart. He knew what it felt like to be all alone in the night. Illyana whirled on him with venom in her eyes but upon seeing Angels countenance it faded away. He wasn't mocking or deriding her or even pitying her. He was identifying with what she was feeling.
"More so than you can imagine." She admitted and turned back to the view. He now recognized the pain he had glimpsed earlier and that he saw in her very posture now. It was a pain with which Angel was very familiar with. He had spent almost one hundred and fifty years as a souled vampire where in he was shunned from both human and vampire society.
He had been totally alone. All alone with the demon within himself. It wasn't until a half-breed named Whistler found him and brought him to Sunnydale did Angel begin to come to accept who and what he was. He was still working on this when it had been all ripped away.
But instead of wallowing in the past he needed to focus on the now and Illyana. As he moved forward to speak, Illyana held up a hand and made is if to listen to a sound only she could hear.
After a moment she smiled and said "Looks like this game's about to begin in earnest." She turned to Angel wearing a very dangerous smile and told him. "We're about to have company. It seems that Diablo isn't about to let you go with out a struggle."
She turned and moved past him into her chambers again. "He has sent Arioch and Angelous with a score of enforcer demons into my realm to retrieve you."
Angel felt himself shiver as he followed her inside. Arioch was known as the Father of Vampires, although no one was sure whether or not that was reality or just a title, and he was Named as the Demon of Chaos. A very formidable foe. Named demons were second only unto the Lords of Hell themselves.
They exist two power levels below their masters. This meant that they were two orders of magnitude weaker than the Lords but it also meant they were still two orders of magnitude stronger than any mortal mage could ever be. As the Slayer has been described as being a force of nature, a Named demon could be described as a force of hellfire.
"What are you going to do?" Angel asked as he caught up with Illyana. As she turned back to face him, her clothing was replaced, in an instant with her form fitting silver armor and flaming sword. Her countenance was that of one looking eagerly forward to the coming challenge.
"Give them what they came here for..." for a second Angel was sure she meant him "A FIGHT!" With that a golden disk enveloped both of them and whisked them away to her throne room.
--- --- ---
Angel found himself standing at one end of a red stone room which reminded him of European cathedrals built in the middle ages, minus the beautiful stained glass windows. Hugh columns and flying buttresses supported a massive ceiling high overhead but there was no visible source of lighting. Angel imagined that a football game could be played with the walls of this single room. He heard Illyana greet someone behind him and turned to see.
"Hello S'ym." Her voice was sultry and yet carried a weight of command.
"Even'n Boss." came the gravelly reply from the demon standing near the throne. Angel stepped back once as S'ym came into view. This just elicited a chuckle from the hugh beast.
"BOO!" S'ym told Angel as he lent forward slightly to give it emphasis.
"Now, now S'ym. Angel is my guest." Illyana looked between them. "And you have to admit he took your appearance better than most."
S'ym harumphed and pulled on his cigar "You mean like those pussies you keep -"
The rest of what S'ym was about to say was lost in a howl of pain as blue bolts of power left Illyanas hand and crackled all across S'yms body. He jumped and smoked for half a minute and then she let him drop to his knees. Angel couldn't help but draw the comparison to the Emperor from Return of the Jedi.
"You will never speak of them in such a manner again. UNDERSTOOD!" Her voice carried a definite promise of renewed pain for disobedience.
"Ye-Yes Mistress." S'ym replied in a suitably cowed voice. But Angel caught the glare he sent her way from beneath his brow. It also was a promise... of revenge.
"I trust that this little demonstration wasn't lost on you Angel." Illyana said as she sat upon her throne and summoned her scrying crystal. The crystal began showing scenes which Angel guessed were places within Limbo itself.
"Not in the least." Angel stated while looking S'ym in the eye. Angel moved up the stairs of the dais to stand next to her throne. "Illy-" He was stopped by her warning look towards him.
"Not here." She told him quietly. "Magus, Mistress or DarkChild if you please." There was nothing pleading in her voice. She was giving him the warning she hadn't bothered to extend towards S'ym.
Angel understood S'yms feelings now; jealousy. Illyana was showing deference to humans over... her own kind? He wasn't sure about that now. As he looked at her it dawned on him that she was a half-breed. Why else would she prefer her mortal form to her demonic one.
It explained the source of her tremendous power, it had always been theorized that a half-breed sorcerer, or sorceress, would be extra-ordinarily powerful and here before him was living proof that they were right. It also helped explain the feelings of loneliness she professed to earlier.
"Of course, Mistress." Angel responded politely.
She smiled at him while S'ym glowered. The scene in the scrying crystal changed again. This time the focus was upon an ebony runesword wielding figure striding purposely towards his destination. Angel easily recognized Angelous and the enforcer demons with him.
"Arioch." Angel whispered and the figure stopped in his tracks with one hand raised. His attitude was if he was listening. Similar to Illyanas pose earlier within her chambers.
It seemed as if he turned and smiled directly at Angel and continued walking with a renewed sense of purpose. Somehow, Angel realized, the Named Demon had overheard him. Angel turned wide eyes towards Illyana. He hadn't known that would happen and if the Mistress of Limbo found the results upsetting he would be in for a world of hurt. Instead she was looking upon him with a knowing smile. Her voice was calm and light as she spoke to him.
"Yes, he heard you. But it doesn't matter. I wanted him to come here. This just saves me from having to lead him here myself." She looked past Angel to S'ym. "S'ym rally your boys together. We're going to have company soon."
S'ym cracked the knuckles of each fist "Bring'em on Boss. We been itch'n for a good brawl." Illyana laughed at the demons enthusiasm.
"I can always count on you to be ready for a fight, can't I S'ym?" S'ym just snorted his agreement. "Go on then. Enjoy yourselves." she indicated the others who had been waiting patiently in the shadows.
"Just remember my instructions S'ym." She cautioned him as he turned to leave. He looked back over his shoulder and nodded.
"What instructions?" Angel asked, forgetting to place an honorific with the question. She glanced at him via the corners of her eyes but ignored it.
"I have a surprise waiting for our dear Arioch. And I would be so disappointed if he arrived in a condition unable to appreciate it."
The smile Illyana wore reminded Angel that there truly were worse things than death and that this little girl was probably capable of most of them. He shuddered as he felt a chill which wasn't entirely physical. It caught the Magus attention.
"Uhmm, we can't have you greeting our guests looking like a body servant now can we?"
The question was entirely rhetorical. She considered it for a moment and then made a slight gesture with her near hand towards Angel. Angel had to admit that the sensation of his clothes changing form while upon his body was unique. The fabric grew thicker and stiffer, becoming leather pants and vest.
Boots appeared on his feet and 3/4 gloves on his hands with bracers upon his forearms. The padding of the leather increased in some areas to provide protection while leaving a full range of motion. As an after thought Illyana added metal studs upon the padded areas.
"That's better." Her voice was sultry. "You look good in leather." She was taking her time appreciating the view.
"I'm protected but I'm unarmed." Angel pointed out the obvious. Illyana waved it off.
"This is only for show. You won't need to participate. Anyways, there's nothing you could do."
At first he bridled at that assumption on her part but then he remembered that he was fully human now and that made him less than a match for even a simple vampire. The enforcer demons that were coming would use his bones as toothpicks. She was right, he wouldn't stand a chance.
He could even hear Buffy saying "Good morning, Angel." But the voice wasn't right.
His eyes snapped open and he shot upright. He found himself in the middle of the biggest bed he had ever seen in his life. It was circular and about twenty feet across and yet it was dwarfed by the single chamber in which it was held.
The elliptical room was made of reddish granite-like stone and must have been near a hundred feet on its long dimension and eighty on its short. The bed was situated at one end. In the middle of the room rested a magnificently huge fireplace which was open on four sides. The fire place was the center piece of a sunken sitting area filled with silk pillows, low soft chairs and covered with furs.
Beyond the fireplace could be seen two pools of water, the larger was an irregular circle about thirty feet across. The smaller was more like ten but trails of water vapor on its surface indicated that it was heated. In the middle of one long side of the oval was a pair of double doors about twenty feet in height and width. To the other side was a forty foot long opening to a gigantic balcony, looking over an endless vista.
He couldn't see much of the view from the bed but it didn't matter. His attention was taken by the absolutely gorgeous blond girl sitting on the edge of the bed in a near transparent black silky dress. The expression on her face was neutral but her eyes danced with amusement. It had been this girl that had spoken.
"I said good morning." She repeated. "Where I come from it's considered to be very rude to ignore your hostess. Especially after she went through the trouble of tending to your injuries."
At the mention of those injuries Angels mind filled with remembered pain and suffering. He quickly examined himself and found that not only had those injuries been banished, as if they never were, but that he had been dressed in a pair of loose black silk drawstring pants and a matching black silk sleeveless peasants shirt.
"Uh, th-thank you." He was finally able to say past his surprise.
His memory was starting to fill in details of the last thing he remembered, being rescued by a shapely demoness. He looked around the room but couldn't see her anywhere. But what the girl had said and the sound of her voice penetrated the gloom of Angels mind. THIS sweet young innocent looking girl WAS the demoness. As Angel turned back to her she smiled at his comprehension. He really was a quick one.
"I see you've made the connection as to who saved you from Angelous clutches." Her innocent smile grew a touch of danger. "Don't jump to conclusions, not everything is as it seems. Are you hungry?"
She made a slow pointing gesture to the other side of the bed. Angel turned and found a table full of food that hadn't been there a minute before. It took only a second for Angel to make up his mind whether or not to eat the food. The decision was helped along by a protracted low and painful rumbling in his stomach.
He scooted to the edge of the bed and stood up but a bit too quickly. He felt himself swoon and start to fall. He was saved the impact by two small but quick and very strong hands. He looked their owner directly in her warm blue eyes and was taken aback slightly by the glimmer of pain within.
"Thank you. Again." He told her quietly as she helped him to a chair.
"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad I could help you out."
She barely spoke above the whisper of silk her dress made, as she found her own chair, and yet Angel had no trouble hearing her. He couldn't help but follow her progress until she sat down. Then his attention was entirely focused upon the food before him. Nothing on the table was like anything he had ever remembered having before but the looks and smells were far too appetizing to ignore anymore. He piled servings on his plate from a couple of dishes and dug in. The blond smiled as she chose smaller portions for herself.
"It's been quiet some time since you've had real food, hasn't it?" Angel warily looked her way.
"You seem to know a lot about me."
She shrugged as she poured herself a glass of a slightly glowing reddish-amber liquid. "I study anything which captures my interest. And a souled vampire does just that." As she spoke Angel continued to eat.
"And, now a days, there aren't many things that are capable of that distinction." She was amused at his slightly puzzled look. "I've seen and done many things, Angel. Something's I've re-done just to see if they would turn out differently. I've even been involved with your life before."
Before he could say anything she waved lightly and continued "Oh, don't ask me how. Just believe that I have." Her eyes shone in a way that Angel felt compelled to believe her.
She had power beyond most things he had ever encountered before. He had many questions in his mind but two remained foremost.
"Who are you?"
"I am the Mistress of this place. Limbo, as I call it. I am it's absolute master and Magus. No one who enters MY realm is my equal. I am the one who wields the power of the Elder Gods and who, may someday, serve as their doorway through which they will re-conquer a world, a galaxy and an entire reality. Their DarkChild, if you will." She smiled her sweet shy smile and finished "But you, my dear Angel, may call me Illyana."
He paused in his meal to try some of the glowing liquid and found, to his delight, that it was wonderful. He was also trying to absorb everything she had said. He recalled that Angelous had reacted with terror upon learning her name and now he seemed to remember a dark and dusty legend, which no one gave much credence to.
A legend of a DarkChild sent to Earth at her masters bidding. Supposedly she gave assistance to King Arthur and Merlin before the fall of Camelot. He mentioned this to Illyana.
"Hmmm" She pondered his question "It may have been me, or one of me. But then again it may yet be me." she refilled her goblet and stood. Angel found that he had had sufficient and did like wise. "It's difficult to explain Angel, but I think you can handle it."
He followed her onto the balcony as she spoke. He was very interested in what she had to say. The view was breath-taking. The balcony was, in truth, a ledge protruding from the side of a mountain, over a thousand feet in the air with only a low stone railing around the edge. Angel felt a moment of vertigo and stood still until it passed.
Out there, all around him, was an endless vista of jungles, lakes, savannah's, desert and forest sprinkled with lone mountains and a distant range. No earthly tectonics created this land.
"This is Limbo. All of it, as far as you can see and beyond, is mine. It is a strange land full of beasts and demons. Some harmless but most" Her eyes took on a momentarily wicked gleam "are deadly. But what makes Limbo unique is that it exists without linear time or space. This, plus my own talents, allows me to travel almost limitlessly through time and space even between realities." She gave him a half grin. "It was this ability that enabled me to steal you away from Diablo and Angelous."
Angel shuddered at the memories her words invoked. "I'd rather not talk about them." He told her.
"Of course." She agreed while their eyes followed a large reptilian bird as it glided through the air. "All of this under my rule alone. Anything I could ever want is a gesture or jaunt away. Here, in this time and place, I am truly without equal. Do you have any idea how that must feel?"
Angel had watched her while she told him of this place and her mastery of it and came to one conclusion. "Very lonely." She stiffened at his words. "You're all alone here."
The realization struck a similar cord in Angels own heart. He knew what it felt like to be all alone in the night. Illyana whirled on him with venom in her eyes but upon seeing Angels countenance it faded away. He wasn't mocking or deriding her or even pitying her. He was identifying with what she was feeling.
"More so than you can imagine." She admitted and turned back to the view. He now recognized the pain he had glimpsed earlier and that he saw in her very posture now. It was a pain with which Angel was very familiar with. He had spent almost one hundred and fifty years as a souled vampire where in he was shunned from both human and vampire society.
He had been totally alone. All alone with the demon within himself. It wasn't until a half-breed named Whistler found him and brought him to Sunnydale did Angel begin to come to accept who and what he was. He was still working on this when it had been all ripped away.
But instead of wallowing in the past he needed to focus on the now and Illyana. As he moved forward to speak, Illyana held up a hand and made is if to listen to a sound only she could hear.
After a moment she smiled and said "Looks like this game's about to begin in earnest." She turned to Angel wearing a very dangerous smile and told him. "We're about to have company. It seems that Diablo isn't about to let you go with out a struggle."
She turned and moved past him into her chambers again. "He has sent Arioch and Angelous with a score of enforcer demons into my realm to retrieve you."
Angel felt himself shiver as he followed her inside. Arioch was known as the Father of Vampires, although no one was sure whether or not that was reality or just a title, and he was Named as the Demon of Chaos. A very formidable foe. Named demons were second only unto the Lords of Hell themselves.
They exist two power levels below their masters. This meant that they were two orders of magnitude weaker than the Lords but it also meant they were still two orders of magnitude stronger than any mortal mage could ever be. As the Slayer has been described as being a force of nature, a Named demon could be described as a force of hellfire.
"What are you going to do?" Angel asked as he caught up with Illyana. As she turned back to face him, her clothing was replaced, in an instant with her form fitting silver armor and flaming sword. Her countenance was that of one looking eagerly forward to the coming challenge.
"Give them what they came here for..." for a second Angel was sure she meant him "A FIGHT!" With that a golden disk enveloped both of them and whisked them away to her throne room.
--- --- ---
Angel found himself standing at one end of a red stone room which reminded him of European cathedrals built in the middle ages, minus the beautiful stained glass windows. Hugh columns and flying buttresses supported a massive ceiling high overhead but there was no visible source of lighting. Angel imagined that a football game could be played with the walls of this single room. He heard Illyana greet someone behind him and turned to see.
"Hello S'ym." Her voice was sultry and yet carried a weight of command.
"Even'n Boss." came the gravelly reply from the demon standing near the throne. Angel stepped back once as S'ym came into view. This just elicited a chuckle from the hugh beast.
"BOO!" S'ym told Angel as he lent forward slightly to give it emphasis.
"Now, now S'ym. Angel is my guest." Illyana looked between them. "And you have to admit he took your appearance better than most."
S'ym harumphed and pulled on his cigar "You mean like those pussies you keep -"
The rest of what S'ym was about to say was lost in a howl of pain as blue bolts of power left Illyanas hand and crackled all across S'yms body. He jumped and smoked for half a minute and then she let him drop to his knees. Angel couldn't help but draw the comparison to the Emperor from Return of the Jedi.
"You will never speak of them in such a manner again. UNDERSTOOD!" Her voice carried a definite promise of renewed pain for disobedience.
"Ye-Yes Mistress." S'ym replied in a suitably cowed voice. But Angel caught the glare he sent her way from beneath his brow. It also was a promise... of revenge.
"I trust that this little demonstration wasn't lost on you Angel." Illyana said as she sat upon her throne and summoned her scrying crystal. The crystal began showing scenes which Angel guessed were places within Limbo itself.
"Not in the least." Angel stated while looking S'ym in the eye. Angel moved up the stairs of the dais to stand next to her throne. "Illy-" He was stopped by her warning look towards him.
"Not here." She told him quietly. "Magus, Mistress or DarkChild if you please." There was nothing pleading in her voice. She was giving him the warning she hadn't bothered to extend towards S'ym.
Angel understood S'yms feelings now; jealousy. Illyana was showing deference to humans over... her own kind? He wasn't sure about that now. As he looked at her it dawned on him that she was a half-breed. Why else would she prefer her mortal form to her demonic one.
It explained the source of her tremendous power, it had always been theorized that a half-breed sorcerer, or sorceress, would be extra-ordinarily powerful and here before him was living proof that they were right. It also helped explain the feelings of loneliness she professed to earlier.
"Of course, Mistress." Angel responded politely.
She smiled at him while S'ym glowered. The scene in the scrying crystal changed again. This time the focus was upon an ebony runesword wielding figure striding purposely towards his destination. Angel easily recognized Angelous and the enforcer demons with him.
"Arioch." Angel whispered and the figure stopped in his tracks with one hand raised. His attitude was if he was listening. Similar to Illyanas pose earlier within her chambers.
It seemed as if he turned and smiled directly at Angel and continued walking with a renewed sense of purpose. Somehow, Angel realized, the Named Demon had overheard him. Angel turned wide eyes towards Illyana. He hadn't known that would happen and if the Mistress of Limbo found the results upsetting he would be in for a world of hurt. Instead she was looking upon him with a knowing smile. Her voice was calm and light as she spoke to him.
"Yes, he heard you. But it doesn't matter. I wanted him to come here. This just saves me from having to lead him here myself." She looked past Angel to S'ym. "S'ym rally your boys together. We're going to have company soon."
S'ym cracked the knuckles of each fist "Bring'em on Boss. We been itch'n for a good brawl." Illyana laughed at the demons enthusiasm.
"I can always count on you to be ready for a fight, can't I S'ym?" S'ym just snorted his agreement. "Go on then. Enjoy yourselves." she indicated the others who had been waiting patiently in the shadows.
"Just remember my instructions S'ym." She cautioned him as he turned to leave. He looked back over his shoulder and nodded.
"What instructions?" Angel asked, forgetting to place an honorific with the question. She glanced at him via the corners of her eyes but ignored it.
"I have a surprise waiting for our dear Arioch. And I would be so disappointed if he arrived in a condition unable to appreciate it."
The smile Illyana wore reminded Angel that there truly were worse things than death and that this little girl was probably capable of most of them. He shuddered as he felt a chill which wasn't entirely physical. It caught the Magus attention.
"Uhmm, we can't have you greeting our guests looking like a body servant now can we?"
The question was entirely rhetorical. She considered it for a moment and then made a slight gesture with her near hand towards Angel. Angel had to admit that the sensation of his clothes changing form while upon his body was unique. The fabric grew thicker and stiffer, becoming leather pants and vest.
Boots appeared on his feet and 3/4 gloves on his hands with bracers upon his forearms. The padding of the leather increased in some areas to provide protection while leaving a full range of motion. As an after thought Illyana added metal studs upon the padded areas.
"That's better." Her voice was sultry. "You look good in leather." She was taking her time appreciating the view.
"I'm protected but I'm unarmed." Angel pointed out the obvious. Illyana waved it off.
"This is only for show. You won't need to participate. Anyways, there's nothing you could do."
At first he bridled at that assumption on her part but then he remembered that he was fully human now and that made him less than a match for even a simple vampire. The enforcer demons that were coming would use his bones as toothpicks. She was right, he wouldn't stand a chance.
