Author's note: Scary Vampiress, hi! I'm glad you're enjoying the stories; I tried to keep everyone in character as much as I could. This season's timeline is accurate up to when Knox and Fred break up just before the Illiria arc, but we haven't quite reached there yet; Knox and Fred are still just geekily flirting at this point. (They're so cute!)
Mery-Key, did you like that? The 'coffins' comment seemed like too much to me, but maybe I'm just hypersensitive or something…Did you read Regaining Strength?
Anyone who read without reviewing; thanks!
This one's a bit shorter; sorry. Next week it'll be longer, promise.
Those who do not Remember 4
"You have nothing." Angel said flatly.
"There's nothing to have. They're goo." Fred said apologetically.
"And the peist? The bean sidhe?"
Fred shrugged helplessly. "None of our instruments can even detect the bean sidhe. And the peist have vanished since we disturbed them earlier."
"Where are Connor and Deirbhile?" Angel asked Wes.
"They went to kill things." Knox offered.
"Why does he get to be here and I had to hear about it from the copy girl?" Spike complained, coming in.
"Spike…" Angel warned him.
"He was helping me." Fred told him.
"When did they go?" Angel asked, looking at Wes again.
"Some hours ago, I suppose." Wes answered.
"Right…how's Gunn?"
"Shaken. Killing his sister…again…wasn't easy for him."
"Why didn't she dissolve?" Angel asked. Alonna's body hadn't dissolved until Fred had started the autopsy, at which point it had exploded and drenched the whole lab in goo.
"We don't know yet." Fred said tiredly, pulling some sheets of paper from Knox's arms.
"Did he think it was her?" Spike asked.
"I…I'm not sure."
"I knew it wasn't Buffy. If he didn't know it wasn't her, that could be it."
"Could that be it?" Wes asked.
"I'm not sure." Fred repeated. "I guess."
Harmony came in. "Connor and Deirbhile are back. They're down in Medical."
"Medical? Why?" Angel asked sharply.
Harmony shrugged. "For Deirbhile. I thought she was all, y'know, fast healing."
"She's supposed to be. Get Connor up here."
Harmony started out, stopped, and backed up, letting Connor pass her. "Here he is!" she chirped, as though she'd had anything to do with it.
"What happened?" Wes asked.
"You ok?" Angel added.
"Fine. We got side-tracked."
"Side-tracked." Angel repeated.
"To San Francisco." He sat gingerly on the extreme edge of a chair. "There was a portal, we had to go…"
"What about Deirbhile?" Angel asked.
"We met some people she knows there. Got some help."
"She all right?" Knox asked.
"She'd be better if she'd let me get her out of LA." Connor said bluntly. Glancing up, he added, "What do you care, anyway?"
"Connor!" Fred said sternly.
"He doesn't even like her." Connor muttered.
"What? That's not true." Knox protested.
"She doesn't like you." Connor corrected himself, rising suddenly to his feet and crossing to the door.
Deirbhile watched without moving from where she was leaning against the frame until he reached her; then she let him help her in. "Thanks." she murmured, sinking into a seat.
"Are you all right?" Angel asked.
"Sure. No problems."
"Your hand's bleeding." Fred pointed out.
Deirbhile didn't move. "Yeah, it does that. I know who it is."
"Who what is?" Wes asked, frowning.
"Doing this. In charge of the goo demons."
"We need a better name for those." Lorne muttered.
"Clann Alta." Deirbhile obliged.
Angel leaned forward, suddenly intent. "What?"
"Clann Alta. The shape-shifters. It's not quite right 'cos they weren't goo, but close enough."
"Torc Alta…" Wes murmured, as though trying to remember something.
"That's it." Deirbhile agreed. "Torc Alta were the were-pigs. Clann Alta was the collective name for the whole stinking lot of them."
"You didn't like them?" Wes asked mildly.
Deirbhile gestured slightly, wincing as she dripped blood on the table. "Sorry…it's not that, they just…they made me feel weird."
"Why?"
"Not fish, nor fowl, nor good red herring. Neither one nor t'other, you know? They could look human, sometimes, but I knew they weren't…kind of like me. Anyway, off-topic."
"The boss." Angel said quietly.
"The boss." she agreed. "Eden."
"As in the Garden of?" Gunn asked from the doorway.
"Hi, Gunn. No, not the Garden…Eden. Minor…very minor…Tuatha de Danann and I'm guessing from the looks on your faces you have no idea what that is?" Groaning, she leaned back in her seat.
"Mythological races of beings in Ireland." Wes supplied.
"Not mythological." Deirbhile corrected him. "But yeah. Eden had some power over fire, but he was such a minor member of the race no one bothered with him much…and when they faded away he didn't go with them."
"So now he's…what, trying to take over the world?" Fred asked.
"What shall we do tonight, Brain?" Deirbhile murmured. "The same thing we do every night, Pinky…try to take over the world."
Fred looked helplessly at Connor, who leaned forward and squeezed Deirbhile's bad hand.
"Ow." she commented mildly.
"Then stay focused." Connor ordered, sitting back again.
"Yes, trying to take over the world. He's sending all these stupid Irish things to distract you."
Angel looked up with a start. "Why those?"
"Um-possibly because you're Irish? And so is he," she gestured to Connor, "more or less, and so am I."
"Since when?" Connor asked in surprise.
"You, or me?"
"Either. Both. Whatever."
She smiled faintly, knowing he'd chosen the words deliberately. "Angel's Irish…at least, Liam's Irish. That makes you…half-and-half, anyway."
"And what about you?" Fred asked tentatively.
"I was a queen in Ireland for years…and there's the other thing." She looked from one to the other, finally looking back at Connor. "They don't get it."
"No." he agreed.
"If you told us, that would help." Gunn pointed out sharply.
Deirbhile stuck out her tongue at him. "I'm getting there. It's my heritage because the de Danann were Elves…or not quite Elves; descended from Elves, is probably better."
"They what?"
"When the Elves left, after the War, some of them decided to hang around. They roamed for a while and eventually they fetched up on…well, Banba, then, I guess. I drove back the sea for them and left them to it. They were gone by the time I got back."
"When was that?" Wes asked.
"Two, two and a half thousand years later, I guess. That was when I was married."
"Married." Fred repeated.
"Yeah. Cerbhall. But that's not…it doesn't matter." She glanced at Angel. "You remember any of this?"
"The de Danann, a bit…kid's stories." Deirbhile flinched, lowering her head, and he shrugged. "It's all they were."
"It's all they are." Deirbhile agreed, not looking up. "Except Eden."
"What does it mean?" Connor asked.
"Eden? Fire." Deirbhile told him absently. "That was his specialty…fire."
"Didn't know Elves could do that." Gunn commented. "You can't."
"True. But he wasn't an Elf, he was Tuatha de Danann. And they were…they had power. A lot of it." She glanced at Angel. "Eden's dangerous. The more so because he has others working for him now."
"Clann Alta?"
"Them. Some kind of sorcerer or conjurer, for the peist. I don't know about the bean sidhe."
"He's consolidating power." Angel said thoughtfully.
"Right, and distracting you while he does it. Obviously he's afraid of you."
"So he's sending…" Angel thought for a moment. "Things to keep Fred busy. Buffy for Spike…" He glanced at Gunn. "For Gunn."
"And all of them for you." Connor added. Off everyone's looks, he added defensively, "He's distracted when you all are."
"He doesn't need to distract you, because you have to watch me and I'm always loopy." Deirbhile continued. "So that just leaves Wes and Lorne."
"And we may be about to find out…" Fred backed up, knocking over a chair in her hurry, eyes on the odd swirl in the center of the room.
Connor pushed Deirbhile back towards the door, and the men took up stances. The swirl vanished…
And Deirbhile gasped, gripping the doorframe tightly, and when they looked back her glamour had disappeared and Thariin was there. "Brother…" she gasped.
