Grimms and Gods
by Daniele-Marx
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Disclaimer: ...Nope, still don't own them. Chapter 4: The Conclusion!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Deni watched as the Stellios turned on her; granted she wished to just turn and disconnect the spell by grabbing hold of Willow's arm, but her code was not to have any enemies who could turn others against her; she hadn't had one yet and wished to keep her secret to some extent. She felt her options fade as she considered each one, and wondered what she could barter for immunity. A smirk was suppressed at the realization that nothing she herself could barter would grant her immunity from what wrath he harbored, if he would have it his way. Angel stepped up to grab Willow and pull her out of her trance, but Deni shook her head no. Arrak turned to see Willow, who was still entranced in the spell; the Stellios began to swarm their way towards Willow and Angel began to approach the entranced spell caster slowly, trying not to provoke Arrak. "I could always take the witch."
"You're not being reasonable. She stays on this plane. Her life is not mine. The bargain was made between the Fire Tamer and myself; no one here has the signature you search for." Angel looked at Willow once more and then at Deni, noticing her necklace for the hundredth time this night.
"Deni, I think he wants to break the connection between you two."
"The pendant? Hold on here--" Arrak seemed to hesitate and the Stellios began to halt as well. Angel had a point, Deni reasoned, but the pendant she carried had been hers for over five hundred years; she wasn't too keen to get rid of it. Something dawned on her then. While she was dealing with Arrak as she would anyone who crossed her path now, she never considered that he was still stuck in the past so to speak.
"You will if you want to get rid of him!" Deni stopped to think. The pendant or the witch and herself. She realized she would rather bargain. These days it was hard enough not to say 'Just blow him up!' then to use reason. The problem was this: She was given the pendant by someone who couldn't take it back. Oh, she wished she never came here. Then, at least, she would have not been able to make the choice; on the other hand, she strongly believed in fate. If she wasn't meant to keep the pendant, then she would have no other choice but to give it up for the greater cause. She knew she had to stick by her moral standards should she be under Arrak's trial. Diplomacy was key here for her.
"Fine." She removed the necklace and held it in her open hand. This pendant was very good for a vampire. Fire was the universal symbol of purity; she knew the pendant was the reason she despised blood. She could probably go for a few more months, maybe even years, without feeling an urge to drink should she give the pendant up freely. Arrak stared at the it and Deni held it out for him to take. "Take the pendant and be done with it. I have no desire to be in further argument with you." Arrak seemed to become engulfed with more flames than he started with but he seemed to consider what she would give him and what he could take. After a minute of consideration, the flames calmed themselves and he stared down at Deni with a fierce look in his eyes.
"Five hundred years of service from both you and the fire witch in the dimension above this one and the pendant." The pendant suddenly became less important at the moment, and Deni grasped it and put down her hand.
"That's not going to happen. I'm the one who summoned you tonight, not the Fire Tamer. Her powers aren't near as powerful as they were in her past life. She wouldn't survive a month under the work her past life would have to go through. One hundred years from me and the pendant."
"My territory, my rules. Four hundred years."
"It's a joke. I could merely deflect your powers and push the witch over. One-fifty."
"With the pendant in advance."
"If you mean you want me to give up my protection so you can possess my body and walk out of here, I will have to object. I know your ways, Arrak. That's not going to happen. Take human form and I'll consider giving you the pendant when we're out of this hotel. One hundred and fifty years of service and the pendant, and when that time is up, it will be voided." Angel stepped up suddenly, his face expressing confusion and the rare look of fear usually found on a deer when it glances into headlights.
"What kind of service are we talking about, Arrak?" Deni and Arrak looked at Angel with blank looks. They were so involved with the past that they forgot that there were others in the room. "She's still my client and that means I'm responsible for her. Now nobody's going anywhere until I get some information."
"Everyone varies, Angel."
"I've been to hell for a hundred years and I wasn't sane when I got out."
"There's little difference between that and this, but someone has to make up for lost time and since I am the only witness left it is only proper that I pay the price."
"Why? Why would you willingly give up the right to live your life? Why all this mayhem over something that happened over five centuries ago? It doesn't make sense."
"Because there's a code of conduct for those who remember it. I am doing this because I have no desire to be revealed and I don't want to be bombarded by enemies. Do you have a problem with that?"
"Yes, I have a problem with that. Times have changed and no one willingly serves evil beings anymore."
"There is no bad guy in this scenario, Angel. Arrak is reasonable when you start talking to him. This is the way with all gods. Most of the time it is common reciprocity, but otherwise you have to get them to loosen up because of all the intrusions caused by other witches and spell casters. In the end, those who mean well on both parts misunderstand one another. You have tried too hard to adjust to this world you live in that you forgot the one you were brought into. I expect I will be emotionally in tact when I get out of his only because I went willingly. There will be no trouble."
"And what about everything here? Are you willing to give up everything you've ever done just to pay back a debt you've never bothered to look into?" Deni guessed that Angel wasn't grasping this concept nor would he in the allotted time it would take for Arrak to take her to his abode in the next dimension, probably in some extremely hot lair made for his species, which meant that she would living in a living, breathing sauna.
"I keep my promises, Angel. Besides, if you've been to hell, you certainly know that time moves differently there than here. I shouldn't be gone more than a few months earth time. Now, Arrak, if you accept these terms then maybe we can come to an arrangement."
"I agree." Arrak took her hand and as if she pulled him out of a carriage. A lean man wearing a black with orange pinstripe suit, a black cape with orange lining, and a black hat with a matching orange stripe to match stepped into the room. He had flaming orange hair and a pointed nose, his fingers bony and still grasping her hand as the other waved away the spell that was cast.
Willow suddenly swayed out of the trance caused by the spell. Wesley ran up to Willow and caught her, pulling her away from Arrak and Deni. Willow sat up against Wesley's arms as he held her against him, looking up to see Angel staring at Deni who was staring at Arrak. "I think he was frustrated that no one was still using the old ways to get things done. Too many people just barge into his realm and take what they want and leave without so much as recognition for his help." Wesley listened to Willow's words and took them to heart. Now he believed that Deni was taking the right path. At first he believed that Deni was trying to pick a fight in order to get away with ridding of the Grimms by tricking Arrak, but now he noticed that she learned from her mistake not using her intellect to calm Arrak before attempting to converse with him. She must have realized just how long it had been since she received the pendant.
"I must speak with you on behalf of the investigators that reside here." said Deni suddenly, still holding onto Arrak's hand.
"Geez, he really cleans up, doesn't he?" said Cordelia, who was admiring Arrak's new red hot look. Fred cleared her throat to signal Cordelia to get her head out of the clouds and help stand Willow, who was looking a little dazed and seemingly still high on the trance she had been pulled out of, up. Deni ignored those around her to choose the right words to say to Arrak.
"Without your aide there would have been more murders in this city and there would have been no justice for those whose lives were taken." She turned to Angel with seriousness in her eyes. "Do you have an artifact you would be willing to offer to him in thanks? This being a bargain made by tradition, it would be proper to follow the same rituals since we were performing the spell together. Should he have come to you, he would have given you something of value to him." Angel paused to think and Deni looked around to find something in particular. Her eyes fell on the painting she had seen when Angel had led her into the Hyperion. She had recalled the painting with the snake in the ocean covering the island, and suddenly it hit her. "The Jormungandr." Angel looked up to see her alit face, noticing that she must have just figured out something she couldn't remember before now.
"What?"
"That painting you have. The Midgardsormr of Norse mythology consisting of the giant Jormungandr whom everyone feared and the island Midgard. They threw him into the ocean where he grew so huge that he encircled the island and became known as the Midgardsormr who rose up from the ocean to poison and devastate the earth." Angel walked over to the painting and took it off the hook it was propped onto.
"I got this from a trader just before I came to America. He insisted I have it since he knew there would be no one to trade it for good supplies where he was going. It was a good painting for its time." Angel carried it over to Arrak, who looked at the painting with true interest. "Someone you know?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." said Arrak, who took the painting with slight enthusiasm. "Your generosity will not be frowned upon. For a vampire, you have great self restraint. Don't expect the same treatment from other gods." He waved his hand over the painting and it disappeared into thin air. "We shall leave now. Say your farewells." Deni nodded and turned towards Angel and the rest of the team.
"Thank you for helping me. Being as old as I am you get to the point where you don't need anyone. I need a favor, though." She walked over to the notepad she had written on earlier and scrawled a phone number on it, then handed it to Angel. "Call this number and ask for Melyna. Don't bring up anything about the Fire Tamer; it's not worth the earful you'll get. The phone number is probably the best reference you'll get out of this deal other than a solved case. Tell her I will be back in about six months for personal reasons. Don't tell her where I'm going but that the Grimms are no more. Then tell her to wire down however much you normally charge for these services from my account. I assume you do charge for services."
"Duh." said Cordelia. Gunn looked at the woman with a blank look in his eyes. All she talked about was money. It was strange enough that Angel hired her, but she had a habit of spending money and avoiding tact. Though he agreed that she was right to some degree because they did provide the elements that brought her crusade to an end. And now she was going to work for the god who provided the artillery. That, he reasoned, should have sounded worse than it was, with the time served being one hundred and fifty years. Maybe it was the fact that that in this world was about six months. Six months or one hundred and fifty years, though, is enough to make even Angel nervous. When someone is gone for six months, it is supposed to be merely six months; Deni didn't have a problem with it, though, so long as her secret was kept safe. Secret, that is, meaning her age and how much longer she plans to live. Her secret would be safe with Arrak he assumed, but only because he cared enough to let her talk to him civilly and conceded to her terms.
"I'm ready." These words left Deni's mouth and the AI team watched as Arrak began to lead her towards the entrance and realized that they weren't going to stop them. It didn't take much to realize that this case was probably one of the oddest yet. A vampire about five hundred years old coming down from wherever she was from to fight dangerous creatures that she had no intention of fighting in the first place helps solve the mystery and takes off with the demon who destroyed the creatures for them.
"Hey, Deni." said Gunn, who was tired of standing by while all this happened. Deni and Arrak stopped, turning towards the man. "Just what happened that caused all this, including leaving like you are, to happen?" Everyone looked at her for the answer and wondered whether or not she would humor their question. Deni looked down.
"I guess I can grant you this one considering you helped me rid of these creatures. I'll make it short so then you'll have to settle for less. Around five hundred and thirty-nine years ago I met this woman, Melynadia, the Fire Tamer of that era. We became friends, shared dangerous tasks, and discovered that my thirst for blood was a little too strong, so we summoned the fires to create this pendant, which represented the pure aspects of one who had a soul. The feat took a large portion of her energy and a week later she fought in a battle and lost. Soon enough, five hundred years passed. A few weeks ago I was told of a new source of evil that soon became known as the Grimmace and it killed some people from where I lived. No one was strong enough to fight it other than myself so I was assigned the task. Now here I am."
"Well, that certainly explains a lot." said Wesley. Arrak turned towards Deni and nodded, making the vampire turn towards the exit again.
"Thank you again for your help." she said. Arrak placed his hand on the small of her back, leading her out of the door. Angel followed them until he reached the entrance and they were already outside with the sun threatening to rise any second. He watched in the shade of the foyer until they reached the sidewalk and Deni appeared somewhat anxious.
"You have nothing to fear so long as I stand here, Hannah." Deni seemed to calm down as she heard this and the sun suddenly rose, cascading light down the street and flooding rays upon both Deni and Arrak, in which Deni recoiled slightly with her hand up to shade her eyes and Arrak merely stood there, staring blankly into the bright source of daylight. Suddenly, he waved his hand and they disappeared in a shimmer which resembled a wave of heat.
Angel watched as they disappeared and slowly turned back towards the team. He was happy that the murders were now at an end. "Well, I would say that more freaky than our last few cases." said Cordelia.
"Those two looked really comfortable together." said Gunn.
"When you meet someone who knows you from a long time ago, you forget rules that weren't in use until the eighteenth century." said Angel , who walked over to Willow. "You okay?"
"Oh yeah. I got this real good buzz--for awhile, anyway-- when I held onto the spell. Good thing she compromised instead of resorted to violence. I'm not comfortable fighting with magic just yet…I should really get back to Sunnydale sometime today. With school tomorrow and all."
"Yeah."
"I could probably stay a little while in case you just wanted to catch up. Its not like I don't study hard enough every other day of the week."
"Sounds good. We'll put some coffee on. Ill make the call in an hour or so. This phone number looks like it's from the Midwest somewhere." The AI team and Willow turned away from the entrance that Deni had disappeared, and moved on. Her life was no longer in their hands, though someone wanted to say, 'Lets go get her,' but didn't because she went on her own accord. Maybe it was because they weren't expecting what they saw that left them strangely unsettled, that they weren't really needed as a whole in order to take on the entire swarm of Grimms. They knew they would move on, but at the moment they felt the urge to reflect. Angel headed towards their bookcases in order to read up more, maybe find something more on Melynadia, maybe read up on the cause of her death and how that was affected by summoning Arrak a week earlier. Gunn, Wesley, and Fred went to grab some brooms to clean up the broken mirrors, the three chattering animatedly about the events that happened during the night; and Cordelia went into the office to start the coffee, accompanied by Willow, who was going on about how the spell felt and what she saw while under the trance, which caught Angel's attention later on in the morning. Cordelia stopped when she looked at the clock in the office, and her face went up in an annoyed pout. When asked about her sudden attitude, she threw her hands up, exasperated, and pointed at the clock's face. Willow's face lit up with excitement, which only fueled Cordelia's vexation.
"It is four o'clock in the morning and the sun is already up!"
The End...
A/N: Review if you want. Marx.
by Daniele-Marx
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Disclaimer: ...Nope, still don't own them. Chapter 4: The Conclusion!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Deni watched as the Stellios turned on her; granted she wished to just turn and disconnect the spell by grabbing hold of Willow's arm, but her code was not to have any enemies who could turn others against her; she hadn't had one yet and wished to keep her secret to some extent. She felt her options fade as she considered each one, and wondered what she could barter for immunity. A smirk was suppressed at the realization that nothing she herself could barter would grant her immunity from what wrath he harbored, if he would have it his way. Angel stepped up to grab Willow and pull her out of her trance, but Deni shook her head no. Arrak turned to see Willow, who was still entranced in the spell; the Stellios began to swarm their way towards Willow and Angel began to approach the entranced spell caster slowly, trying not to provoke Arrak. "I could always take the witch."
"You're not being reasonable. She stays on this plane. Her life is not mine. The bargain was made between the Fire Tamer and myself; no one here has the signature you search for." Angel looked at Willow once more and then at Deni, noticing her necklace for the hundredth time this night.
"Deni, I think he wants to break the connection between you two."
"The pendant? Hold on here--" Arrak seemed to hesitate and the Stellios began to halt as well. Angel had a point, Deni reasoned, but the pendant she carried had been hers for over five hundred years; she wasn't too keen to get rid of it. Something dawned on her then. While she was dealing with Arrak as she would anyone who crossed her path now, she never considered that he was still stuck in the past so to speak.
"You will if you want to get rid of him!" Deni stopped to think. The pendant or the witch and herself. She realized she would rather bargain. These days it was hard enough not to say 'Just blow him up!' then to use reason. The problem was this: She was given the pendant by someone who couldn't take it back. Oh, she wished she never came here. Then, at least, she would have not been able to make the choice; on the other hand, she strongly believed in fate. If she wasn't meant to keep the pendant, then she would have no other choice but to give it up for the greater cause. She knew she had to stick by her moral standards should she be under Arrak's trial. Diplomacy was key here for her.
"Fine." She removed the necklace and held it in her open hand. This pendant was very good for a vampire. Fire was the universal symbol of purity; she knew the pendant was the reason she despised blood. She could probably go for a few more months, maybe even years, without feeling an urge to drink should she give the pendant up freely. Arrak stared at the it and Deni held it out for him to take. "Take the pendant and be done with it. I have no desire to be in further argument with you." Arrak seemed to become engulfed with more flames than he started with but he seemed to consider what she would give him and what he could take. After a minute of consideration, the flames calmed themselves and he stared down at Deni with a fierce look in his eyes.
"Five hundred years of service from both you and the fire witch in the dimension above this one and the pendant." The pendant suddenly became less important at the moment, and Deni grasped it and put down her hand.
"That's not going to happen. I'm the one who summoned you tonight, not the Fire Tamer. Her powers aren't near as powerful as they were in her past life. She wouldn't survive a month under the work her past life would have to go through. One hundred years from me and the pendant."
"My territory, my rules. Four hundred years."
"It's a joke. I could merely deflect your powers and push the witch over. One-fifty."
"With the pendant in advance."
"If you mean you want me to give up my protection so you can possess my body and walk out of here, I will have to object. I know your ways, Arrak. That's not going to happen. Take human form and I'll consider giving you the pendant when we're out of this hotel. One hundred and fifty years of service and the pendant, and when that time is up, it will be voided." Angel stepped up suddenly, his face expressing confusion and the rare look of fear usually found on a deer when it glances into headlights.
"What kind of service are we talking about, Arrak?" Deni and Arrak looked at Angel with blank looks. They were so involved with the past that they forgot that there were others in the room. "She's still my client and that means I'm responsible for her. Now nobody's going anywhere until I get some information."
"Everyone varies, Angel."
"I've been to hell for a hundred years and I wasn't sane when I got out."
"There's little difference between that and this, but someone has to make up for lost time and since I am the only witness left it is only proper that I pay the price."
"Why? Why would you willingly give up the right to live your life? Why all this mayhem over something that happened over five centuries ago? It doesn't make sense."
"Because there's a code of conduct for those who remember it. I am doing this because I have no desire to be revealed and I don't want to be bombarded by enemies. Do you have a problem with that?"
"Yes, I have a problem with that. Times have changed and no one willingly serves evil beings anymore."
"There is no bad guy in this scenario, Angel. Arrak is reasonable when you start talking to him. This is the way with all gods. Most of the time it is common reciprocity, but otherwise you have to get them to loosen up because of all the intrusions caused by other witches and spell casters. In the end, those who mean well on both parts misunderstand one another. You have tried too hard to adjust to this world you live in that you forgot the one you were brought into. I expect I will be emotionally in tact when I get out of his only because I went willingly. There will be no trouble."
"And what about everything here? Are you willing to give up everything you've ever done just to pay back a debt you've never bothered to look into?" Deni guessed that Angel wasn't grasping this concept nor would he in the allotted time it would take for Arrak to take her to his abode in the next dimension, probably in some extremely hot lair made for his species, which meant that she would living in a living, breathing sauna.
"I keep my promises, Angel. Besides, if you've been to hell, you certainly know that time moves differently there than here. I shouldn't be gone more than a few months earth time. Now, Arrak, if you accept these terms then maybe we can come to an arrangement."
"I agree." Arrak took her hand and as if she pulled him out of a carriage. A lean man wearing a black with orange pinstripe suit, a black cape with orange lining, and a black hat with a matching orange stripe to match stepped into the room. He had flaming orange hair and a pointed nose, his fingers bony and still grasping her hand as the other waved away the spell that was cast.
Willow suddenly swayed out of the trance caused by the spell. Wesley ran up to Willow and caught her, pulling her away from Arrak and Deni. Willow sat up against Wesley's arms as he held her against him, looking up to see Angel staring at Deni who was staring at Arrak. "I think he was frustrated that no one was still using the old ways to get things done. Too many people just barge into his realm and take what they want and leave without so much as recognition for his help." Wesley listened to Willow's words and took them to heart. Now he believed that Deni was taking the right path. At first he believed that Deni was trying to pick a fight in order to get away with ridding of the Grimms by tricking Arrak, but now he noticed that she learned from her mistake not using her intellect to calm Arrak before attempting to converse with him. She must have realized just how long it had been since she received the pendant.
"I must speak with you on behalf of the investigators that reside here." said Deni suddenly, still holding onto Arrak's hand.
"Geez, he really cleans up, doesn't he?" said Cordelia, who was admiring Arrak's new red hot look. Fred cleared her throat to signal Cordelia to get her head out of the clouds and help stand Willow, who was looking a little dazed and seemingly still high on the trance she had been pulled out of, up. Deni ignored those around her to choose the right words to say to Arrak.
"Without your aide there would have been more murders in this city and there would have been no justice for those whose lives were taken." She turned to Angel with seriousness in her eyes. "Do you have an artifact you would be willing to offer to him in thanks? This being a bargain made by tradition, it would be proper to follow the same rituals since we were performing the spell together. Should he have come to you, he would have given you something of value to him." Angel paused to think and Deni looked around to find something in particular. Her eyes fell on the painting she had seen when Angel had led her into the Hyperion. She had recalled the painting with the snake in the ocean covering the island, and suddenly it hit her. "The Jormungandr." Angel looked up to see her alit face, noticing that she must have just figured out something she couldn't remember before now.
"What?"
"That painting you have. The Midgardsormr of Norse mythology consisting of the giant Jormungandr whom everyone feared and the island Midgard. They threw him into the ocean where he grew so huge that he encircled the island and became known as the Midgardsormr who rose up from the ocean to poison and devastate the earth." Angel walked over to the painting and took it off the hook it was propped onto.
"I got this from a trader just before I came to America. He insisted I have it since he knew there would be no one to trade it for good supplies where he was going. It was a good painting for its time." Angel carried it over to Arrak, who looked at the painting with true interest. "Someone you know?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." said Arrak, who took the painting with slight enthusiasm. "Your generosity will not be frowned upon. For a vampire, you have great self restraint. Don't expect the same treatment from other gods." He waved his hand over the painting and it disappeared into thin air. "We shall leave now. Say your farewells." Deni nodded and turned towards Angel and the rest of the team.
"Thank you for helping me. Being as old as I am you get to the point where you don't need anyone. I need a favor, though." She walked over to the notepad she had written on earlier and scrawled a phone number on it, then handed it to Angel. "Call this number and ask for Melyna. Don't bring up anything about the Fire Tamer; it's not worth the earful you'll get. The phone number is probably the best reference you'll get out of this deal other than a solved case. Tell her I will be back in about six months for personal reasons. Don't tell her where I'm going but that the Grimms are no more. Then tell her to wire down however much you normally charge for these services from my account. I assume you do charge for services."
"Duh." said Cordelia. Gunn looked at the woman with a blank look in his eyes. All she talked about was money. It was strange enough that Angel hired her, but she had a habit of spending money and avoiding tact. Though he agreed that she was right to some degree because they did provide the elements that brought her crusade to an end. And now she was going to work for the god who provided the artillery. That, he reasoned, should have sounded worse than it was, with the time served being one hundred and fifty years. Maybe it was the fact that that in this world was about six months. Six months or one hundred and fifty years, though, is enough to make even Angel nervous. When someone is gone for six months, it is supposed to be merely six months; Deni didn't have a problem with it, though, so long as her secret was kept safe. Secret, that is, meaning her age and how much longer she plans to live. Her secret would be safe with Arrak he assumed, but only because he cared enough to let her talk to him civilly and conceded to her terms.
"I'm ready." These words left Deni's mouth and the AI team watched as Arrak began to lead her towards the entrance and realized that they weren't going to stop them. It didn't take much to realize that this case was probably one of the oddest yet. A vampire about five hundred years old coming down from wherever she was from to fight dangerous creatures that she had no intention of fighting in the first place helps solve the mystery and takes off with the demon who destroyed the creatures for them.
"Hey, Deni." said Gunn, who was tired of standing by while all this happened. Deni and Arrak stopped, turning towards the man. "Just what happened that caused all this, including leaving like you are, to happen?" Everyone looked at her for the answer and wondered whether or not she would humor their question. Deni looked down.
"I guess I can grant you this one considering you helped me rid of these creatures. I'll make it short so then you'll have to settle for less. Around five hundred and thirty-nine years ago I met this woman, Melynadia, the Fire Tamer of that era. We became friends, shared dangerous tasks, and discovered that my thirst for blood was a little too strong, so we summoned the fires to create this pendant, which represented the pure aspects of one who had a soul. The feat took a large portion of her energy and a week later she fought in a battle and lost. Soon enough, five hundred years passed. A few weeks ago I was told of a new source of evil that soon became known as the Grimmace and it killed some people from where I lived. No one was strong enough to fight it other than myself so I was assigned the task. Now here I am."
"Well, that certainly explains a lot." said Wesley. Arrak turned towards Deni and nodded, making the vampire turn towards the exit again.
"Thank you again for your help." she said. Arrak placed his hand on the small of her back, leading her out of the door. Angel followed them until he reached the entrance and they were already outside with the sun threatening to rise any second. He watched in the shade of the foyer until they reached the sidewalk and Deni appeared somewhat anxious.
"You have nothing to fear so long as I stand here, Hannah." Deni seemed to calm down as she heard this and the sun suddenly rose, cascading light down the street and flooding rays upon both Deni and Arrak, in which Deni recoiled slightly with her hand up to shade her eyes and Arrak merely stood there, staring blankly into the bright source of daylight. Suddenly, he waved his hand and they disappeared in a shimmer which resembled a wave of heat.
Angel watched as they disappeared and slowly turned back towards the team. He was happy that the murders were now at an end. "Well, I would say that more freaky than our last few cases." said Cordelia.
"Those two looked really comfortable together." said Gunn.
"When you meet someone who knows you from a long time ago, you forget rules that weren't in use until the eighteenth century." said Angel , who walked over to Willow. "You okay?"
"Oh yeah. I got this real good buzz--for awhile, anyway-- when I held onto the spell. Good thing she compromised instead of resorted to violence. I'm not comfortable fighting with magic just yet…I should really get back to Sunnydale sometime today. With school tomorrow and all."
"Yeah."
"I could probably stay a little while in case you just wanted to catch up. Its not like I don't study hard enough every other day of the week."
"Sounds good. We'll put some coffee on. Ill make the call in an hour or so. This phone number looks like it's from the Midwest somewhere." The AI team and Willow turned away from the entrance that Deni had disappeared, and moved on. Her life was no longer in their hands, though someone wanted to say, 'Lets go get her,' but didn't because she went on her own accord. Maybe it was because they weren't expecting what they saw that left them strangely unsettled, that they weren't really needed as a whole in order to take on the entire swarm of Grimms. They knew they would move on, but at the moment they felt the urge to reflect. Angel headed towards their bookcases in order to read up more, maybe find something more on Melynadia, maybe read up on the cause of her death and how that was affected by summoning Arrak a week earlier. Gunn, Wesley, and Fred went to grab some brooms to clean up the broken mirrors, the three chattering animatedly about the events that happened during the night; and Cordelia went into the office to start the coffee, accompanied by Willow, who was going on about how the spell felt and what she saw while under the trance, which caught Angel's attention later on in the morning. Cordelia stopped when she looked at the clock in the office, and her face went up in an annoyed pout. When asked about her sudden attitude, she threw her hands up, exasperated, and pointed at the clock's face. Willow's face lit up with excitement, which only fueled Cordelia's vexation.
"It is four o'clock in the morning and the sun is already up!"
The End...
A/N: Review if you want. Marx.