CHAPTER SEVEN: BOY TALK

The group moved back upstairs and were sitting around the monitor.  Wesley walked in with Lilah at his side, the former lawyer clutching at a wound on her stomach.

"What, no cake?" Lilah asked sarcastically.

"Where is it?" Fred demanded angrily.

"Where's what?" Lilah asked, genuinely perplexed.

"Angel's soul," Cordelia replied.

"Oh, that what."

No one in the room liked the casual way that Lilah dismissed Angel's soul.  they didn't like the idea of Lilah being in the hotel at all, but they knew that she probably had some sort of useful information.  Wolfram & Hart may have been evil, but they always knew what was going on, and the AI team desperately needed information.

"She didn't take it," Wesley replied.

No one was willing to believe that Lilah had nothing to do with taking Angel's soul.  They didn't believe her because they needed to believe something, and also because she just generally lacked credibility.

"How do you know?" Connor asked.

"Because she told me," Wesley replied succinctly.

Buffy looked at Wesley closely, saw the way his hand was near Lilah as she walked awkwardly down the steps into the lobby, saw that he was ready to catch Lilah if she fell.  There was something between the two of them, even if the others didn't know.  She was reminded of her own relationship with Spike and the absolute wrongness of the entire affair.  She guessed that something similar had occurred between Wesley and Lilah.

"Maybe she knows who took it," Cordelia suggested.

"Or who's controlling the Beast," Fred added.

Lilah looked at the skinny Texan woman with confused eyes.  That was a word she had never considered in reference to the Beast.

"Controlling?"

"Angelus thinks rock-boy's just the muscle.  Not that I trust him any more than you," Gunn said.

"I think Angelus might have a point," Buffy interjected.  "Of all the places in the world that this Beast thing could go, why come here?  Why to LA where Angel – or Angelus, for that matter – is.  This thing seems smart, and from what Angelus said about it earlier, it didn't have the most strategic of plans.  Just your basic crush, kill, destroy."

Wesley considered Buffy's words for a moment.  He knew that she was right, knew that Angelus had been speaking the truth earlier.  It all fit for the Beast to be working for something a lot larger than himself.  Though Wesley shuddered to think what could have the kind of power to control a demon as large and as ferocious as the large creature made out of stone.

"That's what he's been trying to hide. There might be something in the text we-"

"Text?" Cordelia interrupted the ex-Watcher.

"Lilah found a passage in Rhinehardt's Compendium," Wesley explained, holding up the book that Lilah had handed him earlier when he'd caught up with her in the sewers.

"But we searched that already.  There's nothing in there," Fred protested.

"Because all references to the Beast have been erased in this dimension," Wesley explained.

"I got my copy of Rhinehardt's…way out of town.  I'm surprised you didn't think of that," Lilah commented, looking pointedly at Fred who flushed a little.

"Which is why Angelus remembers the Beast's little Prussian party when Angel doesn't.  Angel's memory's been wiped clean like those books," Buffy surmised.  "And cos Angelus is never really in control, his mind wasn't the one that was affected by the spell."

Wesley nodded and looked towards Fred, still holding the book that Lilah had handed over earlier.

"We should compare this passage with the information Wolfram and Hart extracted from Lorne. There might be-"

"Yeah you do that," Gunn said, cutting Wesley off as he grabbed the flamethrower and headed downstairs.

"Charles," Fred began to protest.

"Somebody needs to be downstairs, make sure nobody else tries to intel our boy," Gunn explained, not wanting to see Wesley and Fred discussing anything, even if he logically knew that the two brightest people in the room needed to talk if they wanted to defeat the Beast.

Fred went to follow but Cordelia laid a hand on her arm.

"Let him go," Cordelia said.  "I know this is hard.  I know we're all tired and hurting, but we have to stay focused.  We need to figure out what's coming, and how to get Angel back before it does, because if this is as bad as I think it is, we'll need him more than ever."

Fred nodded reluctantly.  Buffy stood up and smiled sympathetically at Fred.  She walked out of the office, ignoring Cordelia calling her name and asking her where she thought she was going.  Without a word, she followed Gunn downstairs to where Angelus was still caged.

------------------------

Buffy walked down the stairs as Gunn took a seat on some crates at the bottom of the stairs several feet from the cage, the flamethrower aimed at Angelus who just looked at him with interest.  Again, as Buffy walked down the stairs, Angelus' face lit up.

"You're back."

"I'm not about to leave you boys down here all alone.  Who knows what sorta crap you'd fill his head with," Buffy replied.

Angelus glared at her and tried to put on his most innocent face.  "I wouldn't do that."

"You'd do that and a whole lot worse."

"Hmm, good point."

Buffy walked to where Gunn sat and took a seat next to him, purposefully sitting behind him so he couldn't accidentally get her with the flamethrower.  It wasn't that she didn't think he couldn't handle the weapon, it's that she didn't want to test that theory.

"You okay?" Buffy asked quietly. 

She knew that Angelus could hear them, but asking quietly gave Gunn a feeling of a slight amount of privacy.  She just hoped Angelus had enough tact to not say anything.  Of course, she knew Angelus far better than that.

Gunn just shrugged. 

"She loves you," Buffy whispered.

"Maybe."

"She's right you know," Angelus said from his cage.  Buffy knew that she wouldn't have had any luck with keeping Angelus quiet.  She could only hope that he didn't say anything too horrible.  But, again, she knew him better than that.  "At least you've got the love of a good woman.  'Til she dumps you for a guy with a bigger horizon."

"You'd know all about that wouldn't you Angelus?" Buffy retorted angrily.

Angelus actually looked slightly impressed.  "Meow.  Kitten has claws."

"You'd do well to remember that," Buffy warned.

Angelus just scoffed and rolled his eyes.  He knew that no one would do anything to hurt him.  It was still Angel's body, and they wouldn't kill him or hurt him in any way that would leave permanent damage.

"Like you could ever hurt Angel," Angelus taunted.

Buffy gave him a grin that made Angelus want to take a step back.  He resisted that impulse and met her eyes that were eerily calm.

"I guess you kinda repressed that whole, me sticking a sword into my lover's gut and sending him to hell thing," Buffy said.  "If I remember correctly that was Angel I did that to.  I killed him without a second thought, and if I had to, I'd kill you as well."

Angelus scowled angrily and put his hands to the bars.  He didn't like the reminder of what Buffy had done in sending him to hell.  The demon had suffered as much as the soul had, and Angelus had been doing his best to repress that experience.  Having it laid before him so glibly, by his mate of all people, hurt more than he would ever admit.

"You've finally got the balls to kill me, eh lover?  Finally.  I mean, I killed a good fifty, sixty people the last time I got out.  Jenny, Theresa, and who knows how many others that you were chosen to protect," Angelus said.  "I just gotta ask, did he ever forgive you for that?  I mean, you unleashed me, you had the chance to kill me, and you didn't.  Your Watcher's pretty little girlfriend died cos of you…I wonder if he still thinks about her."

Buffy tensed up but refused to let the tears fall.  She had to admit, Angelus definitely knew how to bait her.  She had often wondered whether or not Giles had forgiven her for what had happened to Jenny.  She still didn't forgive herself.

"I think I can safely say I'm really sick of you Angelus," Buffy said, thanking the Higher Powers that her voice hadn't wavered.  "I think I might just get that Shaman to put Angel's soul in permanently so we never hafta see you ever again."

For a second there was a flash of pure panic on the Vampire's face.  If either Buffy or Gunn had blinked for that instant, they would have missed it, but they both saw it.  Buffy smiled, thankful that she'd gained the upper hand again.  She hated losing ground, especially to Angelus.

Before they knew what was happening, the AI team was descending the stairs, Lorne in tow as well, having come back from talking to his various contacts.

"What's the what here?" Buffy asked.

"Cordelia had a vision," Fred explained.  "She knows how to put Angel's soul back."

Buffy nodded, swallowing the jealousy that had just risen inside of her.  She didn't like that Cordelia was the one to figure out how to Angel's soul back into his body, but she was just thankful that they'd been cut a break. 

"I guess the Powers saw how bad you guys suck," Angelus taunted. 

"Doing better than you!" Fred snapped.

"Ooh, she really has put on spunk, hasn't she.  Not the same, shy, bitchcow we pulled out of Pylea," Angelus said.

Fred glared but didn't say anything further.  She hated that Angelus was affecting her so badly.

"So, what's the go?" Buffy asked, wanting to get the attention away from Angelus and back onto the mission at hand.

Cordelia scowled, wanting nothing more than to be rid of the blonde Slayer.

"We need Connor and Gunn for this one."

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Thanks heaps for the feedback ppl!!  Very encouraging!!  Glad you're enjoying this fic.

Ohhh, and Lisette…when are we gonna se an update of yours, huh?  Some of us are DYING over here!!  (Well, not really…but…PLEASE?!?!?!)

Toodles.