Part 3

Hyperion Live

The demon watched her creation with a look of extreme satisfaction written upon her face. The building stood tall in front of her, looking like something that had at one point been beautiful, but that had, in time, lost its glamour. She grinned, feeling like dancing and singing and crushing some man's spine under her shoe. What a brilliant idea she had had! There was no way they would resist it. It was absolutely perfect.

"What exactly are you doing?" Ronald Miltser suddenly appeared next to her, startling her. She hit him over the arm.

"Don't do that!" Halfrek told him annoyed.

"What are you planning?" he asked interested.

"Well, since I was left alone, you going off with that pansy vamp and that psycho with his new pet slayer, I thought long and hard about how to turn things to my advantage. And well, ta-da," she answered him.

"But what is it?" he looked at the abandoned building curious.

"It's a hotel," she replied smiling.

"I can see that, but why on earth would you think this would attract our young victims?" he asked still puzzled.

"Because it's not only a hotel, it's the Hyperion Hotel. I checked up on a few things. This is the place where that vampire of yours is going to be living one day. Of course it's not real, just a temporary illusion, but you gotta admit it's a damn fine one," she smiled again.

"And you're sure they're just going to march in there without thinking about it twice?" Ronald was skeptical.

"Ronald, Ronald, take it from someone whose been around for a few thousand years, whatever attracted the vampire to this place in the future, will do the same now. Besides how many abandoned hotels can you find in New York?" she asked.

"True, but this helps our...your cause, how?" he said as his eyes left his orbits to inspect the building up close.

"Well, we can spy on them without lurking in the streets," she pointed out. "It has more than a hundred rooms. We can even stay in it without drawing their attention. Play with them and kill them when we're bored."

"Extraordinary," the doctor was truly impressed. "I can't wait to get my hands on that little bastard."

When William stirred awake, he realized he was holding something soft and warm in his arms. Looking down and seeing Dawn, he smiled. The poor child had been dragged into this whole ugly mess without a good enough reason. What sort of power could this tiny little girl hold? None as far as he could tell and she was more vulnerable than any of them. At least in case of trouble they could make a run for it, but she couldn't even do that. He stood up, careful not to wake her. He winced in pain and suddenly remembered everything that had happened the previous night. The girl. The alley. The way he kept hitting her with the lid of that trashcan...He closed his eyes trying to chase away the horrid memories.

He took a deep breath and opening his eyes again, he looked around. A few feet away Liam was slumped over a few crates, seeming very used to sleeping like this, the plastic bags that had once covered the crates he was on, lying disregarded on the floor. He had a smirk on his lips which - William supposed - meant he was having a very good dream. Wesley was the complete opposite of Liam, he was sleeping on his back, very still and seeming orderly even now. A whole bunch of plastic bags were shoved under his head making a very strange pillow. On the opposite wall, Willow twisted and turned on the crates, obviously not comfortable sleeping on hard wood. As she should, William thought to himself. Women should sleep in nothing but the finest beds and silken sheets. Buffy was nowhere in sight.

He stood up from the crates completely, still holding Dawn in his arms. He didn't want to put her down on the hard crates.

"Here, have this," the slayer said startling William who hadn't noticed her nearing. She was holding out her jacket to him. "I made a pillow out of it for you last night, but you kept twisting and turning during the night and it sorta wound up on the floor."

"You did?" William was surprised and felt very flattered by the gesture. "Thank you."

"It was nothing," she told him smiling as he took the jacket and put it around Dawn before laying her down on the crates. "Did you have some sorta nightmare?"

"I...don't remember," he said assuming he had been plagued, even in his dreams, by the memories of what he had done the previous night.

"He, on the other hand," Buffy looked over at Liam who was still deep asleep. "Snores. And I think a rocket going off a foot away from him wouldn't wake him up."

"Rocket?" William asked confused.

"Oh," she had forgotten for a few moments that he was from the 19th century. "It's...this thing. Uhm, you can blast people with it or...go to the moon in it."

"People are actually going to the moon?" William asked excited by the idea. "I've read Jules Verne, but I never thought that we...would ever actually get there. It sounds so silly," he paused for a moment and then wanted to ask something, but Buffy interrupted him:

"It's not made out of cheese if that's what you want to know."

"No," he smiled. "Do people live there?"

"Oh, no, we got there, but we haven't quite figured out how to live there yet," Buffy said returning the smile.

"Did anything happen? Last night? After I fell asleep?" he asked and the slayer shook her head.

"Not really. Liam kept blabbering on about a floating eye, but considering he actually tasted the rotten mushrooms, I really think he was seeing things," Buffy said pointing towards an open jar laying on the floor somewhere in the warehouse. "Even I considered eating them at one point. Unfortunately, I am that hungry."

"We should get some food. We can't starve ourselves," William pointed out.

"We'll wait till everyone wakes up, then we can leave this place for good," Buffy said determined. "And eat."

"Did you sleep all right?" William asked.

"Not really," Buffy shrugged. "But I've had worse nights. Try waking up at seven after coming back from a night of slayer training at 3 am. You know that feeling when you're too tired to actually sleep?"

"I don't believe I do, but I suppose it must be quite terrible," William said sympathetically.

"Quite," Buffy smiled. A sudden thump startled them. Willow had fallen on the floor.

"Ouch," the redhead let out and stood up with a sleepy expression on her face and her hair ruffled in an adorable way. "That's the 3rd time that happened. At this pace I'll be getting a brain trauma soon," she complained.

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked her concerned.

"Bruises aside, I think I'll live," Willow assured her, rubbing her elbow. She yawned and looked around. "Have you been up long?"

"I had the last watch, so I've been up a while, but William just woke up," Buffy answered her.

"Spike!" a small voice cried out and the three teenagers looked back at Dawn confused.

"Whose Spike?" Willow asked frowning.

"I don't know," Buffy lifted her shoulders. "Maybe it's someone she met before she wound up here."

"That's highly unlikely," Wesley said opening his eyes. He had listened in to the teenagers' conversation without betraying the fact that he was awake. "From the looks of it, she was given a human shape only recently. Before that she was probably just..."

"A key?" Buffy suggested.

"You can't bring an object to life. Actually, yes you can, but you can't turn it into a human," he corrected himself. "She was probably an immense shapeless power source. Strong enough to open the gates to another dimension. She wasn't conscious before, that's why she probably has no recollection of people before she met us."

"Then whose Spike?" Willow asked. "Cause none of us actually used the word spike since we got here. She must've got it from somewhere else."

"It probably has something to do with us," Wesley thought. "We're all connected to one another somehow."

"How? You're from England, we're from California and they're from the past," Buffy pointed out. "And she's the key to chaos," she gestured towards Dawn.

"Remember what the demon said?" Wesley stood up from the crates. "We're all going to be heroes one day. And I suspect we all fit together somehow. You're the slayer," he pointed towards Buffy. "I'm a watcher. You're from Sunnydale, right?" he turned towards Willow. The redhead nodded. "That's where the hellmouth is. And the two of them," he pointed towards William and the still sleeping Liam. "Are going to become vampires. And he," he looked at Liam. "Is going to be a particularly bad one until he gets cursed with a soul. Wait a second...that sounds oddly familiar. He's from Ireland...about 200 years ago...Europe, gypsies," he muttered stray thoughts as they came to him. "Angelus."

"Huh?" Buffy gave him a confused look.

"Angelus. He's a vampire. He's the only ever recorded case of a vampire with a soul. He was called...the Scourge of Europe I believe. He was evil. A monster, but then he was cursed with a soul by gypsies in Romania. I don't quite know what happened to him after that, but if what the demon was saying is true, then he's going to become a champion of humanity," Wesley remembered.

"And you're sure that's him?" Buffy looked over at Liam skeptical.

"Unless there are other souled vampires in the world, yes," Wesley nodded.

"And who does that make me?" William spoke up. "The demon, he said I'm going to become a vampire as well. Because of him," he gestured towards Liam.

"Well, he sired a few men in his life, but...hmm," a coincidence suddenly occurred to him.

"What is it?"William asked curious.

"Spike. One of his children was named Spike," Wesley said looking at Liam.

"He had children?" William was further confused.

"Figures he'd suck at naming his kids," Buffy smirked.

"No, no, not children as his descendants, children as the people he turned into vampires," Wesley explained. "One of them was called Spike. He was British but..." he struggled to recall the details. "But he wasn't directly sired by Angelus, but by one of his children. He had another name. I can't remember." He had, after all, read dozens of books about vampires and it was hard to recall something about a certain vampire among hundreds.

"Damn it!! Could you all just be quiet?!" Liam awakened groggily.

"By the way you were snoring, buddy, I don't think you had any problems sleeping," Buffy said giving him a dirty look.

"I was sleeping just fine until you all woke up and started walking about and talking all at once," Liam complained standing up and yawning.

"Have you stopped hallucinating?" Buffy asked smirking.

"I don't know what you just said, but I don't like the way you said it," Liam said looking at the slayer annoyed.

"Let's just say we did and don't," Buffy said trying to put an end to a potential fight, but only making Liam more confused in the process. "Forget it," she eventually said frustrated.

"We should get going," Wesley said looking at his creased uniform jacket with regret.

"Yeah, we should," Buffy said eyeing Liam one last time.

"Can we eat now?" the Irish teenager asked sighing.

"We'll probably have to steal something again," Buffy said frowning. "I don't think we have any money."

"I have my wallet with me, but it's not American money," Wesley told them.

"We can go to an exchange office," Buffy said relieved they wouldn't have to resort to stealing again. She wasn't very comfortable with it. For some reason she thought jail was not a good place to hide from Makhran.

"This is your big plan?" Billy asked looking around the deserted hallways of the Hyperion Hotel. Halfrek nodded. The man's eyes wondered towards the ceiling. "I have to say...I like it."

"I thought you would," Halfrek said smiling. "There's no reason to deal with this situation by splitting up. I mean I know we all want our turn at hacking those little bastards to bits and pieces, but why not do it together?"

"Whatever," Billy shrugged and looked back at the girl crouched down next to the wall a few feet away from him. "What do you think, Dana?" the slayer mumbled something in Chinesse. "We'll take two rooms," he said smiling. "Preferably on the same floor."

"What did you call this again?" Liam asked taking another bite out of his hamburger.

"Fast food," Buffy said smiling.

"I like it," Liam said with his mouth full.

"You can take the man out of the 18th century, but you can't take the 18th century out of the man," the slayer said amused.

"What do you mean?" Liam asked frowning and stopping on the sidewalk abruptly.

"Nothing," Buffy rose her shoulders as she took another sip from her cola.

"I haven't eaten that much since...," Willow chuckled. She remembered the last slumber party Xander had thrown for her after she hadn't been invited to some popular girl's birthday party. It had been just for the two of them and he had brought a tone of sweets on which they munched on all night while watching horror movies. "Well, a while anyway."

"I think I'm going to get sick," Wesley complained. Fast food didn't seem to agree with him.

"Next time we'll get pizza," Buffy said decisively. "Wes, you're an absolute live saver."

"Glad to be of service, but I hope the money will be enough for another meal," the watcher in training said.

"For another one, yeah, but for two, no way," Willow told him.

"Did you like the food, William?" Buffy turned towards the young English man.

"It was...different from anything I've ever eaten," William admitted. "I'm not quite sure I liked it though."

"Not everyone's a fan," Buffy understood. Little Dawn walked in front of them where they could keep an eye on her and happily drank from a cold shake. "At least she seems to have enjoyed it a lot."

"Yes, she does," William said smiling as they passed by a large building that looked abandoned. Liam suddenly stopped in his tracks and stared at it frowning.

"What is it?" Buffy asked him following his gaze towards the building.

"It's abandoned. We could stay there for the night," Liam said looking back at the slayer.

"It's a hotel, I doubt it doesn't belong to anyone," Wesley pointed out.

"But it isn't being used," Liam neared the wooden fence surrounding the hotel and gracefully jumped over it.

"He doesn't seriously expect us all to...," Willow said, but her words were cut off by Buffy who made the same agile jump over the fence in pursuit of Liam. "I guess he does."

Wesley made his way to the fence too and struggling a bit more he managed to pass beyond it. Once there, he opened the wooden gate and let the others in.

"Spooky," Willow let out when she saw the hotel up close.

"Abandoned usually equals spooky," Buffy noted from the steps of the hotel. Liam had already entered the building after they had forced the doors open together.

"So it truly is abandoned?" Wesley asked curious.

"Well, I doubt anyone's living inside it, though it's probably owned by someone," Buffy answered him. "But hey, until they come to throw us out, the place is ours for the taking."

Liam came out of the hotel, covered in dust:

"It's empty. Only dust and mold living in there."

"Does that mean I'll actually be sleeping in a bed tonight?" Willow asked excited.

"Let's hope so," Wesley said before he entered the old hotel, shortly followed by the rest. Dawn seemed hesitant to enter at first for some reason, but eventually gave in to William's pleas.

The hotel was huge, spacious and full of spider webs and dust. William rose Dawn to reach the front desk and playfully ring the bell still there, covered in a thick layer of dust.

"I'm going upstairs!" Willow announced and ran up the stairs while Wesley yelled helplessly after her:

"We shouldn't separate just in case..." he stopped his words as the redhead had already disappeared upstairs. He shook his head.

"Why would anyone abandon a hotel? Especially one as big as this one?" William asked puzzled as he put Dawn back down.

"No money to support it most likely," Wesley guessed. "Should we investigate it all? Go through every room?"

"Right now? Nah," Buffy said. "We'll be bored enough later. I don't know about you guys, but I'm dying for some decent shut eye."

"I could use some sleep too," Wesley said rubbing his eyes tiredly. A scream was suddenly heard from upstairs.

"Willow!" Buffy and Wesley said at the same time and they rushed upstairs, followed by Liam. William stayed behind with Dawn.

Upstairs, Willow looked horrified around herself when the three teenagers came running towards her.

"What happened?" Buffy asked her.

"I heard noises. Like pounding," the redhead told them.

"Probably just rats," Liam said. "There must be a few considering all the dust and filth."

"Eww!" Willow let out disgusted.

"If there was anyone here, he would've showed himself," Wesley said reassuringly. "Besides the door was locked, wasn't it? The windows were intact so unless there's some sort of secret passageway, then we're alone."

"It's best if we don't spread ourselves too thin though," Liam said looking around the empty corridor. "Just in case."

"Two rooms. One next to the other. One for us, one for you," Buffy said agreeing with Liam. "Let's go back downstairs. We left William and Dawn alone."

As they left they couldn't have known that just beyond one of the doors, Billy was holding Dana still, with one of his hands over her mouth, stopping the insane slayer from continuing to pound a mirror with an old candle holder and making the teenagers inside the building aware of their presence.

"Bad, bad girl, Dana," he muttered in her ear angrily.

End Part 3