New Way of Life
NOTE: I do not own these Angel and Buffy characters, but if you see anyone whom you do not recognize, he/she belongs to me.
A/N: This story takes place after Chosen, but before Conviction, meaning it's the summer in between. To put down a recap, Spike burned up, everyone (minus Anya) escaped on the school bus, Buffy and her friends haven't split up yet, and Angel Inc is preparing to move into W&H. On with the story…
CHAPTER 11
Buffy moaned as she got up from bed to answer the rapid knock at her door. "Who is it?" she asked with a yawn.
"It's me," Willow's voice replied.
"Will, what is it?" Buffy asked, opening the door to see her red haired friend on the other side.
"Buffy, we need you and Angel downstairs," said Willow. "I found something."
"What is it?" Buffy wanted to know, snapping out of her tired state.
"You'll see in a minute," Willow said.
Buffy wanted to push her further, but just nodded and went to gather Angel.
Nearly an hour later, the residents of the house had showered, dressed, and all sat around the living room, waiting for Willow to come down. Buffy, Angel, and a very drowsy Dawn sat lined up on the couch, Gunn and Wesley resided on the loveseat, Xander a chair, and Kennedy sat in an armchair.
"What is taking her so long?" Buffy asked anxiously.
"She'll be down," Angel assured his girlfriend, putting a comforting arm around her.
"Sorry it took so long," Willow apologized, coming down the stairs, a few sheets of paper in her hand. She propped up on the arm of Kennedy's chair before facing the gang. "I needed to be thorough on a whole new level of thorough."
"Willow, what is all of this about?" Wesley asked.
"Well, last night after much, much, much research into the Romainet text I figured out something," the witch explained. "The explain-y part is a little hard. I stayed up really late working on the perfect speech, though."
"Really late," Kennedy added dryly.
"It didn't go so well, though," Willow continued, ignoring the young Slayer's comment. "But I made you all a nice little print out of what I generally have in mind. Now before I show you this, you have to know that this text is more ancient than… another text that's really, really old. It may not work, but we need to do that thing where we hope for the best." Releasing a breath for her quick talking, Willow rose and began handing out the sheets of paper she had to the others in the living room.
It took a couple of minutes for everyone to finish reading and Willow sat playing with her thumbs, looking very jittery.
"Willow?" Buffy addressed, once she'd finished reading.
"Hmm?" Willow responded.
"This idea…" her blonde friend started.
"Genius," Wesley supplied.
"What he said," Buffy said to Willow with a light smile.
"This is some fancy looking quick thinking, Will," said Xander.
"Shoot, I barely know what it means and it sounds good to me," said Gunn.
Dawn asked, "So any chance we're going to be doing the sleep thing again soon?"
"Willow, I've never seen anything like this before," said Wesley. "What could have led you to the Romainet text?"
"Oh, just a gentle clue in the night," she replied.
"I'm completely game," said Angel. "Where do we start?"
"Wait a second, people," said Willow. "If we want this to happen we should move tonight. It's just that I doubt it if we all have enough air fare for all of—"
"I have three different credit cards on me," Angel cut her off. "We can make it happen."
"Ingredients?" Willow asked.
"If we leave right now we can gather whatever you need," Wesley told her.
"Great," Buffy said, standing. "Let's get packing, people. Don't fold anything, just stuff whatever into a suitcase and move now."
At the Slayer's command, the room practically hopped up and all headed upstairs, talking and planning.
Dawn remained where she was and groaned. "I'm guessing we're not going back to sleep?"
It took until nearly two for everything to get ready for the airplane to take off. When the large group arrived in LA it was three o'clock by the city's time.
"Angelkins," Lorne beamed as everyone filed into the hotel. "Gunn face. I haven't seen you two in—"
"There's good magic shop nearby," Angel said to Willow as everyone headed upstairs, completely ignoring Lorne. "We can get what you need."
"Great," said Willow. "Now I'm guessing the sun sets at like seven so everything needs to be ready by then. No mistake."
"Good to see you guys, too," Lorne called up the stairs after the busying group.
Later, after everyone had found a room in the hotel to occupy, they all split up to do the separate things that needed doing. Willow, Lorne, and Kennedy, supplies ready, went on top the hotel's roof, Buffy, Angel, Dawn, Xander, and Wesley were on the search for Angelus, each with a weapon, and Gunn, although craving a fight more than anything, headed to the hospital.
"Xander?" Willow's voice called to her friend telepathically.
"Willow?" Xander responded, also through the mind.
"We're ready up here. Remember, when you spot Angelus just give him a good swish, slash of the knife and we're good to go."
"Got it."
Meanwhile, at the hospital, Gunn sat by Fred's bedside and gently took her hand into his. The pretty girl had a large bandage covering the side of her neck and Gunn, without even having to think, knew that was where Angelus had left his mark on her. The sight of the bandage made Gunn's blood boil, but he kept his rages in check.
"Hey," Gunn spoke to Fred softly. "It's me. How you doing, girl?" Fred made no sound, just the beep of the machine she was hooked up to. "Not to good. I get that. Look, Fred, you ain't even got to worry. Everybody's out there right now trying to find Angelus. And when we get him his ass is fried." Still not getting a response, Gunn just squeezed Fred's hand tighter and whispered, "Hang in there, Fred."
Dawn waved the crossbow she carried around through the darkening alleys cautiously as she and the others hunted for Angelus. To be searching for such a monster, Dawn thought the night seemed awfully calm and tranquil, especially for Los Angeles.
"This is crazy," said Buffy. "When a girl wants a vicious killer to come out and jump at her he's nowhere to be seen. Nice, huh?"
"We'll find him," Angel promised. "The second he's able to sense me he'll come out."
"Buff, shouldn't you be getting the super Slayer sensing vampire vibe thing?" Xander asked.
"Not yet," Buffy sighed.
"Hold on," said Wesley abruptly, pointing his sword at something in the distance of an alley. "What was that?"
"Let's not wait to find out," Buffy said, suddenly taking off with a run.
"Buffy!" Angel shouted after her as he and the rest moved as fast as they could after her.
"Buffy," said Dawn, approaching her sister, who had stopped running once reaching the figure. "What is it?"
"It's a couch," Buffy informed them.
"Oh," Wesley said, slightly embarrassed.
"It's OK, Wes," said Angel.
"Yeah, everyone confuses vampires for lazy boy furniture," Xander added.
"Let's just keep looking," said Buffy, turning to leave.
Everyone suddenly stood frozen, hearing strange sounds all around them. From out of nowhere, a circle of vampires appeared, surrounding the group. Buffy and Angel glanced upward to see a few more of them on the roofs.
"Uh oh," Dawn squeaked.
Angelus took that moment to leap for the roof, landing in front of his advisories. "What? You didn't expect me to be solo for this little showdown did you?"
"Angelus," Angel glared, narrowing his eyes at the one enemy he hated more than any other foe he had ever come up against.
"Angel," Angelus smirked. "Been a while. Say, if you're up for it we have time to bag a few virgins. I know how you love the nuns, too."
Buffy held her baseball bat like stake readily. "Well, at this moment in time you better hope those particular nuns have mercy on your non-soul."
Angelus smirked increased at the sight of Buffy. "Hey there, Buff. Haven't seen you since… oh, right. Since we had that fun filled night of boning." His words caused the grimace Buffy wore to increase. "No, it wasn't that. The last time I saw you, we were sword fighting. Now how did that end, Angel? With a sword to your chest as I recall." Angelus scoffed as he added, "Tough love. It's a beautiful thing."
"Continue with the talking thing," Buffy said to the vampire. "In the last year I trained a group of potential Slayers, destroyed the first evil, and watched as my town was made into a crater. So I'm thinking that you and the kicking of the ass, not my biggest challenge."
"If that's the way you want to play it, Blondie." Angelus glanced around at his vampire army and nodded towards all of them.
The vampires began attacking all at once, not even giving Buffy and the others time to get their weapons ready.
One of the vampires, a young male, backed Dawn up into a corner of the alley. The teenager fired an arrow from the crossbow, managing to shoot the undead menace in the chest. She released a horrid scream as she felt herself get grabbed up without any notice.
"Hey, Dawn, right?" Angelus said, his arm wrapped tightly around Dawn's throat. "Look at you. You finally outgrew the braces phase. Bet you taste like a real woman now." Angelus released a painful groan, accidentally freeing Dawn of his hold, allowing her to run off.
"Thanks," said Xander, holding up a bloody dagger. "Owe you one, dude." He sped from the alley before Angelus had a chance to grab him or retort.
"Hey, good looking." Angelus glanced up from his bloody shoulder to see Buffy standing before him, stake aimed high. "I just got a sudden urge to do some heavy duty dusting. You up for it?"
"Only if you are, lover." Angelus immediately gave her a backhanded punch to the face, making the Slayer grunt.
Buffy returned the punch, also giving the vampire a swift kick to the upper abdomen. The pair continued to go blow for blow, sounds of vampires turning to dust and fighting going on all around them. Finally, Angelus deflected Buffy's stake nearly making contact with his chest and took her by the throat, holding her up against a wall.
"You know what I love about you Slayers?" Angelus asked lowly as he clutched her throat even tighter. "Getting to see your eyes pop out."
Buffy gasped loudly as she was released from Angelus' hold by Angel decking him in the jaw.
"You again," said Angelus to Angel. "You still haven't figured it out have you?" He clouted Angel upside the head, making him topple to the ground. "Without me, you're nothing. That's what you were before me and that's what you are now."
"Yeah," Angel breathed. "And here I thought having sanity was more rewarding them being a homicidal maniac. Could be wrong, though."
Angelus gave his other half a sharp kick in the chin, making Angel fall to his back, coughing up a large mess of blood. Buffy rushed up to the scene, but Angelus simply took her throat again and tossed her off into a pair of trash cans. Angelus turned back towards Angel and picked him up by the shirt.
"Let's join forces again…" Angelus vamped out and knelt towards Angel's neck. "Shall we?"
A/N: I just started a new job. There is good news and bad news with that. The bad news is that I might not be able to update as frequently. The good news is, well, I'm making money. Guess that's mostly just good for me, huh? Please review!