The bus pulled in behind two limos outside of the Hyperion hotel. Giles wondered if there was some sort of celebrity inside, it being LA afterall. The girls gathered themselves and the wounded. They also woke up the sleeping passengers. Buffy joined Giles at the front of the bus.
"So how do we say, hey Angel, we just averted another apocalyspe but in doing so we also destroyed an entire city?"
"Buffy, I think that says it all. He should understand."
"Yeah, I mean when he came to see me he knew what we were up against, so this shouldn't be much of a surprise, but still showing up at his doorstep in the middle of the night, wait is it morning?"
"I think it is."
"Yeah, well I mean I'm showing up with like 20 bodies, some in not so good of shape and I am expecting them to just welcome us with open arms. Its wierd, I feel wierd about this. Do you feel weird?"
"No, not weird so much as tired. Come on lets head in." Giles put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze. She liked it when he did things like this, it made her own father seem not so distant. After so many weeks and months of fighting with Giles, it was nice just to feel safe in his arms again.
Buffy lead the troops inside.
"Yo, I know its crazy out there, but this is no hospital, take your injured somewhere else." Gunn said as Buffy and company brought in the wounded.
"Buffy? Faith?" Wesley ran towards the door.
"You know these people? Wait, hey Faith, Willow." Gunn gave them a nod, and came over to help them carry the injured.
"Buffy, Faith, what happened? Why are you here?"
"Yo Wes, see its like this, another apocalypse averted by yours truly and B here, consequence? Sunnydale, now known as Craterdale." Faith set down Wood's body and walked toward Wesley.
"They did marvelously. One hell mouth, closed for business." Giles walked over to Wesley and shook his hand.
"Nice to see you all made it out alive. Were there many casulties?"
"We lost Spike and Anya, and probably about 10 slayers at least."
"Ten slayers? Giles, you mis-spoke. You must mean 10 potentials."
"No, they're all slayers now. Long story, lets just say, Willow took the power from the shadowmen, our watcher precursors, which was possible by using the scythe the, I guess they could be called protectors of slayers made, and she channeled the slayer essence into every girl in the world who had the possibility of being slayer. In short, there is not 'one girl in all the world,' more like a lot of girls around the world. Our mini-slayer army fought them off long enough for the amulet to wipe them out, and eventually Sunnydale." Giles stood back and watched the girls work on each other. Gunn had grabbed the first aid kit out of their supply and was helping them.
"Wow. Well I guess thats a way to avert an apocalypse. I heard it was the first evil, sounded bad."
"It was, but the first has been safely been put back in its place, its army destroyed, as well as its residential hell mouth. Quite a fulfilling day."
"Buffy!" Angel came running down the stairs, "Is this fall back, or success?"
"It's success, I guess. I mean hello, we destroyed an entire city, but the first has been stopped, army gone. So no need to rally the troops."
"Where's Spike?"
"Dead."
"How?"
"Amulet, wiped out all of the ubervamps, by shooting a beam of sunlight at them, in the process it burned him up I think. I left before the end, he made me leave. I tried to get him to leave, he didn't need to continue, but he did anyways. Said he wanted to see the big finish or something like that, typical."
"Are you okay? I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I know he meant something to you, so are you okay?"
"I'm fine, tired, achy, brain a bit fried, but okay overall. Sad though, we totally destroyed the mall." Angel reached over and hugged Buffy, she felt at home in his arms. It was like returning to your childhood bed where you always felt safe and warm, never doubting a single thing.
"It was the soul you know, the soul that created the sunlight, that destroyed the ubervamps. His soul saved us Angel, his spark."
"Destroying a city? Not bad, doesn't compare to world peace, but still very impressive." Lilah walked out of the doorway.
"Do you always do that? Just show up from out of nowhere? Its kinda creepy you know." Angel released Buffy and looked at Lilah.
"Well, sometimes its the only way to get noticed around here, with all the action as of late. I'm Lilah, of Wolfram and Hart, its a pleasure to meet you. You are quite famous you know. Everyone will be so jealous when they hear I got to meet not one, but both slayers."
"Hi, I'm Buffy, but I get the feeling you already know that."
"The senior partners were very impressed with your, ingenuity. Hell mouth destruction is a tall order, even for a slayer or two. Ever consider free lance work?"
"No..." Buffy wasn't getting the bigger picture.
"Oh, I should mention, Wolfram and Hart are evil, well we tend to represent evil, except in the LA branch which our little Angel here has taken over. We are so proud of the Angel Investigations crew that we had to offer them something, I mean hey, they won! They beat us, so they needed a big trophy." Lilah winked and smiled at Angel. Buffy was unnerved.
"Lilah what do you want?" Angel was getting short with her. "As you can see we have other things that need to be tended to."
"I have a message from the senior partners. It seems one of our seers on staff has a message for the slayer. Which now that there is hundreds of you, is kind of vague, but we think the message is for you."
"Okay?" Buffy wasn't sure what to make of this.
"Okay, here it is," Lilah pulled a piece of paper from her pocket," I had to write it down to make sure I got it right. 'The king of cup's picnic is long over, yet his birthday arrives today. The queen of wands will see this, but the queen of swords will sit beside his throne.'"
"Uh, What?" Buffy started to laugh, thinking this woman was insane.
"I've heard part of this before. A long time ago, when Spike was first turned, we were fighting, and Drusilla was talking her usual nonsense to Darla, and she said something like that. Do you have Drusilla?" Angel tried to go back through the last 100 years of memories.
"What? Like the firm would let something like her slip away? Please, she might be insane, but if we keep her decently sedated and supply her with dollies and tea, she is quite well behaved. She has been a huge asset to the company."
"Um... okay. So do your senior partners have any idea what that means?" Buffy asked.
"Well, no. Not exactly, we think it has something to do with you and Faith, possibly a prophecy of some kind. Seers aren't known for their clarity, especially Drusilla."
"'The king of cups expects a picnic, but it is not his birthday.' Thats what she said, when Spike and I were about to fight. I think she was talking about Spike."
"Excuse my eavesdropping, but the scroll, the prophecies of Aberjian, they spoke of the vampire with a soul. Remember, you stole it from Wolfram and Hart a few years ago? I'm sure its around here somewhere." Wesley wandered off to dig through their piles of books and information.
"Man, first he steals my thunder, now he steals my prophecy? What's next my girl?" Angel looked at Buffy, realising what he just said. "Wait, put a check next to the girl stealing as well." Angel looked deflated, defeated.
"Angel stop it, come on, there is no reason to think that Spike has stolen your prophecy, or whatever, I mean you had the soul first right? Thats gotta mean something." Buffy patted him on the back.
"Angel." Faith walked over and nodded at him.
"Faith, long time no... wait, I guess it would be short time, no see."
"Yeah, nice to see you haven't gone all 'grrr' again."
"Nice to see you didn't flee to the other team."
"Their benefits plan sucked. So do you got any food around here, truth be told, I'm starvin' and the girls could use some food too."
"Angel, as you will soon learn, those girls over there, all they do it eat, talk and eat. That's about it." Buffy started to laugh.
"Yeah, head through there, there should be some food in there, but maybe a trip to the grocery store would be a good idea." Angel pointed at a set of doors.
"Cool, B, you want anything?"
"A nap the size of that crater and a shower would be good."
"Don't think that's in the kitchen, but I'll keep my eye out." Faith grabbed Vi and another girl and headed off for food.
"You two seem to be getting along."
"Yeah, we are, its sort of a sister thing, well more like a long lost twice removed second cousin thing, but we aren't hating each other. I'm gonna go check on every one."
"Yeah I should go help Wesley."
"I think he's got Giles with him, you know how they love their books, and Giles has been in serious withdrawl. By the way, where is Cordy? I was expecting to be warmly recieved by the princess of ice."
"Oh, you don't know. Long story short, she's in a coma."
"I hate it when that happens."
"Yeah."
Buffy went over to Willow and Xander. Gunn had started to help people upstairs to find rooms to sleep in.
"Hey Angel? we can send cars to get clients now can't we?"
"Yeah Fred, one of the perks of the system."
Angel heard Fred hang up the phone, and come out putting on her jacket. Lorne was with her.
"Hey, we have to go pick up some guy who doesn't know who he is or something, but we'll be right back."
"Okay be careful, streets aren't exactly safe, remember riots?"
"That's why I'm going with her, I mean if this no memory guy is evil or something I can hit him and we can run." Lorne smiled and nudged Fred.
"Okay, I'll see you when you get back."
"So how do we say, hey Angel, we just averted another apocalyspe but in doing so we also destroyed an entire city?"
"Buffy, I think that says it all. He should understand."
"Yeah, I mean when he came to see me he knew what we were up against, so this shouldn't be much of a surprise, but still showing up at his doorstep in the middle of the night, wait is it morning?"
"I think it is."
"Yeah, well I mean I'm showing up with like 20 bodies, some in not so good of shape and I am expecting them to just welcome us with open arms. Its wierd, I feel wierd about this. Do you feel weird?"
"No, not weird so much as tired. Come on lets head in." Giles put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze. She liked it when he did things like this, it made her own father seem not so distant. After so many weeks and months of fighting with Giles, it was nice just to feel safe in his arms again.
Buffy lead the troops inside.
"Yo, I know its crazy out there, but this is no hospital, take your injured somewhere else." Gunn said as Buffy and company brought in the wounded.
"Buffy? Faith?" Wesley ran towards the door.
"You know these people? Wait, hey Faith, Willow." Gunn gave them a nod, and came over to help them carry the injured.
"Buffy, Faith, what happened? Why are you here?"
"Yo Wes, see its like this, another apocalypse averted by yours truly and B here, consequence? Sunnydale, now known as Craterdale." Faith set down Wood's body and walked toward Wesley.
"They did marvelously. One hell mouth, closed for business." Giles walked over to Wesley and shook his hand.
"Nice to see you all made it out alive. Were there many casulties?"
"We lost Spike and Anya, and probably about 10 slayers at least."
"Ten slayers? Giles, you mis-spoke. You must mean 10 potentials."
"No, they're all slayers now. Long story, lets just say, Willow took the power from the shadowmen, our watcher precursors, which was possible by using the scythe the, I guess they could be called protectors of slayers made, and she channeled the slayer essence into every girl in the world who had the possibility of being slayer. In short, there is not 'one girl in all the world,' more like a lot of girls around the world. Our mini-slayer army fought them off long enough for the amulet to wipe them out, and eventually Sunnydale." Giles stood back and watched the girls work on each other. Gunn had grabbed the first aid kit out of their supply and was helping them.
"Wow. Well I guess thats a way to avert an apocalypse. I heard it was the first evil, sounded bad."
"It was, but the first has been safely been put back in its place, its army destroyed, as well as its residential hell mouth. Quite a fulfilling day."
"Buffy!" Angel came running down the stairs, "Is this fall back, or success?"
"It's success, I guess. I mean hello, we destroyed an entire city, but the first has been stopped, army gone. So no need to rally the troops."
"Where's Spike?"
"Dead."
"How?"
"Amulet, wiped out all of the ubervamps, by shooting a beam of sunlight at them, in the process it burned him up I think. I left before the end, he made me leave. I tried to get him to leave, he didn't need to continue, but he did anyways. Said he wanted to see the big finish or something like that, typical."
"Are you okay? I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I know he meant something to you, so are you okay?"
"I'm fine, tired, achy, brain a bit fried, but okay overall. Sad though, we totally destroyed the mall." Angel reached over and hugged Buffy, she felt at home in his arms. It was like returning to your childhood bed where you always felt safe and warm, never doubting a single thing.
"It was the soul you know, the soul that created the sunlight, that destroyed the ubervamps. His soul saved us Angel, his spark."
"Destroying a city? Not bad, doesn't compare to world peace, but still very impressive." Lilah walked out of the doorway.
"Do you always do that? Just show up from out of nowhere? Its kinda creepy you know." Angel released Buffy and looked at Lilah.
"Well, sometimes its the only way to get noticed around here, with all the action as of late. I'm Lilah, of Wolfram and Hart, its a pleasure to meet you. You are quite famous you know. Everyone will be so jealous when they hear I got to meet not one, but both slayers."
"Hi, I'm Buffy, but I get the feeling you already know that."
"The senior partners were very impressed with your, ingenuity. Hell mouth destruction is a tall order, even for a slayer or two. Ever consider free lance work?"
"No..." Buffy wasn't getting the bigger picture.
"Oh, I should mention, Wolfram and Hart are evil, well we tend to represent evil, except in the LA branch which our little Angel here has taken over. We are so proud of the Angel Investigations crew that we had to offer them something, I mean hey, they won! They beat us, so they needed a big trophy." Lilah winked and smiled at Angel. Buffy was unnerved.
"Lilah what do you want?" Angel was getting short with her. "As you can see we have other things that need to be tended to."
"I have a message from the senior partners. It seems one of our seers on staff has a message for the slayer. Which now that there is hundreds of you, is kind of vague, but we think the message is for you."
"Okay?" Buffy wasn't sure what to make of this.
"Okay, here it is," Lilah pulled a piece of paper from her pocket," I had to write it down to make sure I got it right. 'The king of cup's picnic is long over, yet his birthday arrives today. The queen of wands will see this, but the queen of swords will sit beside his throne.'"
"Uh, What?" Buffy started to laugh, thinking this woman was insane.
"I've heard part of this before. A long time ago, when Spike was first turned, we were fighting, and Drusilla was talking her usual nonsense to Darla, and she said something like that. Do you have Drusilla?" Angel tried to go back through the last 100 years of memories.
"What? Like the firm would let something like her slip away? Please, she might be insane, but if we keep her decently sedated and supply her with dollies and tea, she is quite well behaved. She has been a huge asset to the company."
"Um... okay. So do your senior partners have any idea what that means?" Buffy asked.
"Well, no. Not exactly, we think it has something to do with you and Faith, possibly a prophecy of some kind. Seers aren't known for their clarity, especially Drusilla."
"'The king of cups expects a picnic, but it is not his birthday.' Thats what she said, when Spike and I were about to fight. I think she was talking about Spike."
"Excuse my eavesdropping, but the scroll, the prophecies of Aberjian, they spoke of the vampire with a soul. Remember, you stole it from Wolfram and Hart a few years ago? I'm sure its around here somewhere." Wesley wandered off to dig through their piles of books and information.
"Man, first he steals my thunder, now he steals my prophecy? What's next my girl?" Angel looked at Buffy, realising what he just said. "Wait, put a check next to the girl stealing as well." Angel looked deflated, defeated.
"Angel stop it, come on, there is no reason to think that Spike has stolen your prophecy, or whatever, I mean you had the soul first right? Thats gotta mean something." Buffy patted him on the back.
"Angel." Faith walked over and nodded at him.
"Faith, long time no... wait, I guess it would be short time, no see."
"Yeah, nice to see you haven't gone all 'grrr' again."
"Nice to see you didn't flee to the other team."
"Their benefits plan sucked. So do you got any food around here, truth be told, I'm starvin' and the girls could use some food too."
"Angel, as you will soon learn, those girls over there, all they do it eat, talk and eat. That's about it." Buffy started to laugh.
"Yeah, head through there, there should be some food in there, but maybe a trip to the grocery store would be a good idea." Angel pointed at a set of doors.
"Cool, B, you want anything?"
"A nap the size of that crater and a shower would be good."
"Don't think that's in the kitchen, but I'll keep my eye out." Faith grabbed Vi and another girl and headed off for food.
"You two seem to be getting along."
"Yeah, we are, its sort of a sister thing, well more like a long lost twice removed second cousin thing, but we aren't hating each other. I'm gonna go check on every one."
"Yeah I should go help Wesley."
"I think he's got Giles with him, you know how they love their books, and Giles has been in serious withdrawl. By the way, where is Cordy? I was expecting to be warmly recieved by the princess of ice."
"Oh, you don't know. Long story short, she's in a coma."
"I hate it when that happens."
"Yeah."
Buffy went over to Willow and Xander. Gunn had started to help people upstairs to find rooms to sleep in.
"Hey Angel? we can send cars to get clients now can't we?"
"Yeah Fred, one of the perks of the system."
Angel heard Fred hang up the phone, and come out putting on her jacket. Lorne was with her.
"Hey, we have to go pick up some guy who doesn't know who he is or something, but we'll be right back."
"Okay be careful, streets aren't exactly safe, remember riots?"
"That's why I'm going with her, I mean if this no memory guy is evil or something I can hit him and we can run." Lorne smiled and nudged Fred.
"Okay, I'll see you when you get back."