Thanks to all reviewing persons, and to whoever it was who shoved me on their author alert list. Sorry to disappoint you but in this story Buffy is and will forever stay dead. Also, just so you know this is set somewhere in season 5 before Lindsey's first appearance.
Chapter 2: Holes
Los Angeles by day.
The sight of the buildings, trees, cars, billboards and people below him, illuminated in brilliant sunshine still looked alien to Angel. When he'd first come to be C.O of Wolfram and Hart, he'd made a point to avoid looking out of the windows when the sun was up. This was due partially to a lingering fear that he'd burst into flames if he gawked at the sun for more then half a second, but mainly because of a reluctance to accept anything that Wolfram and Hart had to offer, with the exception of anything that could help him defeat them.
Once the fear had died down and his loathing of Wolfram and Hart had died down to its usual levels, he'd began to see the windows in a different light. They were something that he'd earned, for every life saved, every demon killed, he felt as if he had earned the right to look at the sun again. Also, he continually maintained that it would take more then fancy windows and a bright, pretty, glowing sphere to make him the Senior Partners sock puppet.
He didn't believe for a second what Lilah had told him about the senior partners giving him Wolfram and Hart because he'd ended world peace. He knew they weren't stupid, and that they wouldn't hand something so powerful over to him unless there was a way for them to gain from it. He didn't know what that was yet, but with the new power and resources that he had at his disposal, there was serious potential to tip the scales of good and evil into good's favour. In LA at least.
And that was what he and the others had been doing. As Gunn had told him, With Wolfram and Hart's LA branch at their disposal, they' been able to do more good in a couple of months then they had in the several years they had spent at Angel Investigations.
Angel's thoughts were stopped in mid track by the sound of a knocking at the door, which was immediately followed by Gunn and Wesley walking into his office.
Angel immediately noticed that Gunn, who appeared to have been smiling almost constantly since Wolfram and Hart downloaded numerous encyclopaedias worth of law into his head, now looked angry, almost enraged. Wesley wasn't looking much better, although he was more successful in concealing it.
"Bad news?" Angel asked before taking his seat.
"You could say that." Wesley replied in a quiet tone of voice.
"Ever hear of a guy called Gythurit Ghartasthreassdo?" Gunn asked, his composure returning, before dropping a thin manila folder in front of Angel.
"Gyther Garasthrado?" Angel replied, attempting and failing to get the name right.
"Gythurit Ghartasthreassdo." Wesley corrected. "He's a warlord for one of the assorted small Demon clans in Los Angeles."
"And?"
Gunn gestured at the file. Angel reached across the table, pulled it towards him, opened it, and found a typed report and two photographs inside, both of which were of large craters in indistinguishable locations.
"Those used to be Basildon and Killay." Wesley said, "One was a fairly small town in England, another was a village in Wales. Gythurit destroyed them both a little over an hour ago."
"Why?" Asked Angel, with confussion and disbelief which the photographs had created within him quickly turning to anger.
"From what the records say, this guy had enemies in both places." Gunn said.
"And he felt it was easier to blow two large holes in the Earth then go after his enemies." Wesley finished.
"Almost one million people were killed."
"We're not sure yet how he was able to destroy both places, but we're guessing that it has to be magic of some description. According to the report, there were no increased levels of radiation round the craters, and they're also both perfect circles, conventional…"
Wesley cut himself off as the cup of blood in Angel's left hand shattered as the hand closed to a fist. Jagged pieces cut into the surrounding flesh, but in top of the anger, Angel barely felt it.
"You say this guy's in LA?" His voice was almost a whisper.
"Yes."
"Then I say we pay him a visit."
"Sounds good to me." Fred said as she walked through the open door. Her voice was tinged with a rare bloodlust which Angel had only ever heard once, shortly before she tried to murder professor Sydel for sending her to Pylea.
There was a brief pause as Fred moved to the centre of the room. Whilst this was happening, Angel removed a piece of jagged porcelain from the sleeve of his shirt and dropped it casually on the floor.
"What happened to your hand?" Asked Fred who had noticed the blood trickling to the floor.
"Doesn't matter." Angel replied quickly "What have you got?"
"According to one of the psychics, Gyther or whatever the son of a bitch's name is, lives in an abandoned factory, turned Demon lair near the outskirts of LA. The area's pretty much deserted."
"No one ever goes near the whole area," Interrupted Wesley, "unless they've been abducted by one of Gythurit's minions so as to be an evening meal."
"Angel." The soft voice, tinged with smug callousness almost resulted in an involuntary snarl from Angel.
"Eve, not now." He said through his teeth.
Eve ignored him and walked to the desk.
"The Senior partners want you to bring back whatever it is Ghartasthreassdo used to destroy both villages. They don't think it's practical to have such power in the hands of someone so wholly unimportant."
"Do you think any of us give a damn what the senior partners want?" Angel asked, calm steadily returning to his voice, "We're gonna destroy whatever he's got and make sure no where else gets incinerated."
For a split second, Eve's calm faltered. Her mouth twitched as if an insect had collided with it, and the stare she gave Angel made it look as if she was considering ramming a finger into his eye.
Then it was gone, and her appearance of calm returned.
"Can you all give me and Angel a moment please?" She said.
Everyone looked to Angel, who nodded briefly. Wesley, Gunn and Fred proceeded to leave the room in no apparent hurry. Once they were gone, Eve turned back to Angel, she was almost smiling.
"Haven't you figured out yet that you don't say no to the senior partners without serious consequences?"
"Haven't you figured out yet that I'm not evil?" Angel was almost smiling as well, "I'm not going to hand a weapon of mass destruction over to people or demons or whatever they hell they are, who would use it as such, I don't much care about what it would do to my health."
"Ang…"
"Got it?!" Angel half shouted.
There was another silence; this one lasted only a few seconds. After they had passed, Eve smiled slightly and made her way for the door.
"Got it." She said, sounding a lot like she was resisting the urge to laugh.
To be continued
Also, no offence to the persons of Killay and Basildon, and I know it doesn't seem relevant to the story line just yet but it will.
Chapter 2: Holes
Los Angeles by day.
The sight of the buildings, trees, cars, billboards and people below him, illuminated in brilliant sunshine still looked alien to Angel. When he'd first come to be C.O of Wolfram and Hart, he'd made a point to avoid looking out of the windows when the sun was up. This was due partially to a lingering fear that he'd burst into flames if he gawked at the sun for more then half a second, but mainly because of a reluctance to accept anything that Wolfram and Hart had to offer, with the exception of anything that could help him defeat them.
Once the fear had died down and his loathing of Wolfram and Hart had died down to its usual levels, he'd began to see the windows in a different light. They were something that he'd earned, for every life saved, every demon killed, he felt as if he had earned the right to look at the sun again. Also, he continually maintained that it would take more then fancy windows and a bright, pretty, glowing sphere to make him the Senior Partners sock puppet.
He didn't believe for a second what Lilah had told him about the senior partners giving him Wolfram and Hart because he'd ended world peace. He knew they weren't stupid, and that they wouldn't hand something so powerful over to him unless there was a way for them to gain from it. He didn't know what that was yet, but with the new power and resources that he had at his disposal, there was serious potential to tip the scales of good and evil into good's favour. In LA at least.
And that was what he and the others had been doing. As Gunn had told him, With Wolfram and Hart's LA branch at their disposal, they' been able to do more good in a couple of months then they had in the several years they had spent at Angel Investigations.
Angel's thoughts were stopped in mid track by the sound of a knocking at the door, which was immediately followed by Gunn and Wesley walking into his office.
Angel immediately noticed that Gunn, who appeared to have been smiling almost constantly since Wolfram and Hart downloaded numerous encyclopaedias worth of law into his head, now looked angry, almost enraged. Wesley wasn't looking much better, although he was more successful in concealing it.
"Bad news?" Angel asked before taking his seat.
"You could say that." Wesley replied in a quiet tone of voice.
"Ever hear of a guy called Gythurit Ghartasthreassdo?" Gunn asked, his composure returning, before dropping a thin manila folder in front of Angel.
"Gyther Garasthrado?" Angel replied, attempting and failing to get the name right.
"Gythurit Ghartasthreassdo." Wesley corrected. "He's a warlord for one of the assorted small Demon clans in Los Angeles."
"And?"
Gunn gestured at the file. Angel reached across the table, pulled it towards him, opened it, and found a typed report and two photographs inside, both of which were of large craters in indistinguishable locations.
"Those used to be Basildon and Killay." Wesley said, "One was a fairly small town in England, another was a village in Wales. Gythurit destroyed them both a little over an hour ago."
"Why?" Asked Angel, with confussion and disbelief which the photographs had created within him quickly turning to anger.
"From what the records say, this guy had enemies in both places." Gunn said.
"And he felt it was easier to blow two large holes in the Earth then go after his enemies." Wesley finished.
"Almost one million people were killed."
"We're not sure yet how he was able to destroy both places, but we're guessing that it has to be magic of some description. According to the report, there were no increased levels of radiation round the craters, and they're also both perfect circles, conventional…"
Wesley cut himself off as the cup of blood in Angel's left hand shattered as the hand closed to a fist. Jagged pieces cut into the surrounding flesh, but in top of the anger, Angel barely felt it.
"You say this guy's in LA?" His voice was almost a whisper.
"Yes."
"Then I say we pay him a visit."
"Sounds good to me." Fred said as she walked through the open door. Her voice was tinged with a rare bloodlust which Angel had only ever heard once, shortly before she tried to murder professor Sydel for sending her to Pylea.
There was a brief pause as Fred moved to the centre of the room. Whilst this was happening, Angel removed a piece of jagged porcelain from the sleeve of his shirt and dropped it casually on the floor.
"What happened to your hand?" Asked Fred who had noticed the blood trickling to the floor.
"Doesn't matter." Angel replied quickly "What have you got?"
"According to one of the psychics, Gyther or whatever the son of a bitch's name is, lives in an abandoned factory, turned Demon lair near the outskirts of LA. The area's pretty much deserted."
"No one ever goes near the whole area," Interrupted Wesley, "unless they've been abducted by one of Gythurit's minions so as to be an evening meal."
"Angel." The soft voice, tinged with smug callousness almost resulted in an involuntary snarl from Angel.
"Eve, not now." He said through his teeth.
Eve ignored him and walked to the desk.
"The Senior partners want you to bring back whatever it is Ghartasthreassdo used to destroy both villages. They don't think it's practical to have such power in the hands of someone so wholly unimportant."
"Do you think any of us give a damn what the senior partners want?" Angel asked, calm steadily returning to his voice, "We're gonna destroy whatever he's got and make sure no where else gets incinerated."
For a split second, Eve's calm faltered. Her mouth twitched as if an insect had collided with it, and the stare she gave Angel made it look as if she was considering ramming a finger into his eye.
Then it was gone, and her appearance of calm returned.
"Can you all give me and Angel a moment please?" She said.
Everyone looked to Angel, who nodded briefly. Wesley, Gunn and Fred proceeded to leave the room in no apparent hurry. Once they were gone, Eve turned back to Angel, she was almost smiling.
"Haven't you figured out yet that you don't say no to the senior partners without serious consequences?"
"Haven't you figured out yet that I'm not evil?" Angel was almost smiling as well, "I'm not going to hand a weapon of mass destruction over to people or demons or whatever they hell they are, who would use it as such, I don't much care about what it would do to my health."
"Ang…"
"Got it?!" Angel half shouted.
There was another silence; this one lasted only a few seconds. After they had passed, Eve smiled slightly and made her way for the door.
"Got it." She said, sounding a lot like she was resisting the urge to laugh.
To be continued
Also, no offence to the persons of Killay and Basildon, and I know it doesn't seem relevant to the story line just yet but it will.