Title: Destiny Denied, Chapter Two of ???

Author(s): Specks, Nina, and Ky

Rating: This chapter is PG-13 (for language) but there will, Ky hastens to assure, be NC-17 in upcoming (and clearly labeled) sections.

Summary: AU, folks... Everyone has a destiny, even though Buffy and Angel have long been denied theirs. A changing of the guard causes history to be rewritten and proves that, in the end, no one (yes, Joss and Marti, we're looking at you!) can alter what is destined to come to pass...

Spoilers: This *is* AU, but in this chapter (two) we'll be making mention of events from AtS seasons 2 (Judgment) & 3 (Tomorrow, and again with the mocking) and all the BtVS Seasons, primarily the episodes Passion, Graduation Day Part II, The Gift, Surprise.

Disclaimers: Brace yourselves, folks, this may come as a shock to some of you: We are *not* Marti or Joss or David Greenwalt. As a matter of fact, we're not any one(three) in any way involved with the shows, the networks, the production companies, the actors, their agents... yada, yada, yada. We're just some B/A fans, having a little fun with these characters while their owners are off making money with them.

Authors Notes:

Ky, champion of The Female Eunuch, our very own proponent of sexually liberating the masses, one lewd public act at a time, would like to thank the tall, dark, handsome man (who jogs past her place of work everyday as she walks inside) for not wearing a shirt last week. Please, keep up the good work!

Nina, gimpy painter of the caves, would like to thank Willis Haviland Carrier for making the summer bearable and B for being there, even after the stars went blue.

Specks, she of the many mini plaques would like to thank the penguin who's ill tempered prompting has encouraged her muse to return, however sporadically; her dialogue guru, who did absolutely nothing for this chapter and therefore should be thanked for not interfering, and C for being annoyingly wicked and therefore greatly inspiring. :) Collectively, of course, we'd like to sincerely thank everyone who's read and encouraged any of our other stories, (which we promise are just on hold, not abandoned!!!) and we'd like to send a big thank you to all the wonderful people who sent feedback and/or threats after the posting of the first chapter! =o)

Um, we also feel compelled, again, to thank anyone who's made it past all the notes and to the actual story (Look down! You've made it! You're there!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rereading the memo in his hand, Whistler scowled.

"Screw this," he muttered, tossing the note aside. "I won't do it... I don't care what she says; the Powers can't possibly condone this."

But even as he said the words, he began to doubt them. In the past few years, the Powers had become increasingly erratic- permitting their warriors to suffer unnecessarily. Despite the fact that they were clearly stronger together, the PTBs allowed their primary warriors to be parted by a curse that should never have existed. Since the separation, both had strayed from the path they were meant to travel, denying their joint destiny and jeopardizing the fate of the world.

Through it all, the Powers had remained characteristically aloof, honoring an ancient pact with the darker sides and not intervening directly. Though he'd never understood *that* particular deal, Whistler did understand the need to honor one's word. Of course, he knew the other side frequently failed to keep their end of the bargain. Recently they unleashed a hell god on Sunnydale, ultimately leading to the death of the Slayer, and they resurrected the dead, or the undead, depending on how you wanted to look at it. In either case, the 'rebirth' of Darla had started a downward spiral for the souled vampire that didn't seem to have an end.

Whistler had been keeping tabs on both the Slayer and the souled vampire, waiting for the order to step in, to intercede on their behalf. But the order hadn't come. To his great frustration, even with both their Warriors in peril, the Powers had seemed to turn a blind eye. He'd become increasingly dissatisfied but had kept silent. For a few precious moments there in the opulence of the Main Office, he'd thought the time had come to set things right...

Then he'd seen Cordelia and reality had set in.

If Cordelia were to be believed, instead of putting things right, he was expected to give the relationship between slayer and vampire the deathblow.

Glancing back down at the note, he scowled again and shook his head, the PTBs had to be out of their minds. Expecting him to tell Angel to never contact Buffy again? Weren't they supposed to fight together during the End of Days? Were they trying to lose? What the fuck were they up to?

Something had to be done about this, the question was what?

***

Pausing in the entryway, the svelte strawberry blonde surveyed the scene before her.

The room was large, airy, three of it's walls painted in subtle, earthy hues that lent warmth and seemed to glow, reflecting the light pouring in through the fourth, west-facing glass wall and the enormous skylight overhead. Plush cream-colored carpet stretched wall to wall, a striking contrast to the dark furnishings in the room. In the center of the room, two overstuffed slate couches were arranged, facing each over a long, low coffee table. Comfortable lounge chairs were arranged on the remaining sides of the coffee table and enormous pillows were scattered haphazardly throughout the room.

On one of the lounge chairs, sipping from a tall glass, sat the youngest of her siblings. With her head bent as she peered at the glossy pages of a magazine, her long dark locks, streaked with varying shades of blue, obscured the younger goddess' facial features.

Beyond the furnishings, near the floor to ceiling wall of glass that faced the western sky, lay her other sister. Soaking up the sun like a cat, to the casual observer, she could have been sleeping. Lying on her back with her feet propped up on a stack of pillows, her waist length red hair splayed out around her, and her arms stretched out, palms up, to either side of her, only the slight rhythmic tapping of her feet gave her away.

She studied them for a few moments before strolling nonchalantly into the cozy sitting room and plopping down on the remaining pillowy lounger. Swinging her legs carelessly over the arm of the chair, the elegant 'woman' made herself at home before turning her attention again to her younger siblings.

Flashing a wicked grin, she spoke, "Did ya miss me?"

Her only answer came in the form of an inelegant snort from the floor near the western wall.

Arching a perfectly formed brow, she smirked widely, "REALLY, Demetria. how rude."

Stretching slowly, the red head sat up and stared at her older sister, green eyes locking with gray for a long moment before she spoke, "Rude, was I?"

"Isn't that what I just said?"

Keeping a straight face, Demetria spoke again, the only indication of her mirth the slight change, as her green eyes shifted to gold, "Am I supposed to care what you think?"

Settling easily into the familiar game, the eldest gave a manic grin, "Weren't you ever taught to respect your elders?"

Groaning inwardly at her sisters' antics, Eir threw down the magazine she'd been reading. She hated this little question game they so frequently engaged in. The two would banter back and forth, one question after another, until she was left clinging to shreds of her sanity. She knew she had to intercede before things got too far; once they were really into it, it was hard to break them out of their silliness.

Sweeping a lock of hair from her eyes impatiently, she glared at Demetria before leveling fuming dark eyes on her other sister and asking a question she was sure she didn't want to know the answer to, "Where on earth have you been, Coeur?"

Arching an eyebrow, Coeur retorted, "Not earth, little sister. The Main Office."

"The Main Office?" Eir asked in confusion- Coeur's least favorite place was work, "What were you doing there?"

"Oh, you know, sightseeing."

"Sightseeing? At the office?" Eir's brow wrinkled in confusion. Sightseeing? What was there to see? The main office was a white and bright place full of well.nothing. At least it was the last time she'd been there.

"Oh! So it's true," Demetria giggled as she made her way over the couch.

"Oh yeah, it's definitely true," Coeur remarked with a devilish nod. "Thanks to some poor decision making on the part of the Powers, the Main Office is now your one stop eye candy shop."

Eir studied her sister's face dubiously, "Really?"

"Uh huh. Seems the newest ascendant has a thing for half naked men waiting on her hand and foot," Coeur snarked. Seeing the incredulous looks directed at her, she hastily amended, "Yeah, yeah. Pot, kettle and all that. But, really, you should hear what else is going on there."

"Like what?" asked Eir, intrigued in spite of herself.

Coeur gave her sisters an anticipatory grin. Dishing out juicy gossip was one of her favorite pastimes, and now that she had both her usually distracted sisters' undivided attention, she savored it all the more.

"First of all, it seems our favorite slayer and vampire have been apart for three Earth years."

"WHAT!!!" Cried Demetria alarmed. As the goddess of Justice it deeply offended her sensibilities when two warriors so obviously deserving of happiness were slighted. It went against the grain and it was just. WRONG.

"Not possible. The Powers could NOT have possibly let them stray so far from their destiny! That's just against company policy!" De sputtered uncharacteristically.

"That's not all," said Coeur, warming to her tale, " it seems they actually tried to put Angel with Cordelia!"

"No!" gasped Eir.

"Yes," returned Coeur in disgust.

"But.but.." Eir stuttered at a loss for words.

"That's not possible! The Powers can't be *that* idiotic!" blurted Demetria, finishing Eir's train of thought.

"Oh yeah?" challenged Coeur, "See for yourself!"

With that the goddess of love transported them to the Western wall of their villa. Planting them directly in front of the scrying glass embedded in the wall, she waved her hand, bringing forth images of the last three years.

Demetria and Eir watched, horrified and indignant at the injustices dealt to their two favorite warriors. Angel had left Buffy in a misguided attempt to give her what she deserved. Buffy had died, and Angel, because of his sire, had been reduced to a mere shell of the true warrior he once was. As the minutes dragged on, it became clear to all three present that some drastic action had to be taken to salvage the disaster. For a moment silence reigned as the last of the images came to past.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Eir, the most explosive of the three roared.

Coeur rolled her eyes, "Exactly."

Demetria nodded grimly, echoing the sentiment of her two sisters and added, "I think its time those incompetent idiots were replaced."

Blue fire danced on the Goddess of Justice's fingertips, and every now and then the flames crackled restlessly, wordlessly expressing her anger and outrage.

"You're serious?" asked Eir in disbelief. As the goddess of War and Chaos she tended to kill first, ask questions later, while Demetria always wanted to hear everyone's side of the story. Now that her elder sister was ready to kick some ass, she wanted to get started before she changed her mind.

"Dead, serious," replied Demetria, for once completely condoning her younger sister's penchant towards violence.

Seeing the determined look on both her sisters, Coeur flashed a wicked grin, "Looks like a coup is in order."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TBC...

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Finally, today we'd like to offer our apologies to the following people and groups who may have been offended by parts of this chapter:

Pimps from New Jersey, people tasteless enough to dress like pimps from New Jersey, sexist men in general, men with no sexual expertise, men with no knowledge of the clit in particular, anyone thinking of Kevin Smith (the director) right now, eunuchs, in general, because they get a raw deal, and anyone who may have been offended by these apologies... ;o)

We're sorry... so sorry. Please accept our apologies...

(A yummy cyber cookie to anyone who can figure out who wrote which parts of the author's notes and apologies... ::g::)