Chapter 5

All four people looked up at this very big very bad and thought, well more or less, the same thing.

'Oh, shit.' Well at least Russ and Cordy thought that whereas Angel used an Irish term that no one but Russ would understand out of the other three (having lived Angel's life) and Fred used some word which wasn't nearly as bad as any of them, given her upbringing.

Now, let's describe the very big very bad for you so you can understand why everyone used their respective terms. It stood at, or towered over by, at least seven feet probably a full eight. Its head wasn't that big, but its mouth was. It had a snout and the snout got bigger than the actual head. The teeth were a foot long, if not bigger. It had claws as big as its teeth and little beady eyes. Its body was just the bones and skin. The muscle was a small amount, but still visible, under the taught skin. And, of course how could I miss this, its skin was black-brown and looked as if it was burnt.

The very big very bad raised its head and roared. Along with scraping to very tall roof with the top of its head, it also shook the entire building with its roar. Angel looked beside him and saw a battle ready Cordelia with a big sword in her hand. On the other side Russ was standing with a cross bow. After a quick glance over his shoulder he saw Fred fiddling with something. Angel was in wonderment about how the three people around him were so fast at gathering their battle ready selves. He just raised the two axes and charged in, hacking, dodging and dismembering away. I mean, let's face it Angel is would be content to do this all day. Hacking, dodging and dismembering that is.

Russ was happy just shooting at its head a great many times from afar and Cordy chopped anything that came within a metre of the spot she was glued to. Okay, so she wasn't that eager about charging at the very big very bad, but can you blame her? Fred was still doing something on the ground and everyone knew that it was important. Especially after the strange axe-throwing device which saved them from the bug monsters (Season 3, Fredless).

Russ reached behind him to grab another arrow to reload into the bow but found he'd run out. He'd already used about ten of them. All of them were buried deep in the big bad's neck and torso. He took this opportunity to look behind him and see Fred's progress. She seemed to be adding the last tweaks on something that he couldn't even see. When he glanced back towards Angel and Cordy he saw that Cordy had given up any wishes to stay far away from the big bad whilst chopping at it. Cordy was now as much in the thick of it as Angel. Except that Angel was saving her neck more than a few times, along with his own of course.

Well, I guess the fact that after Angel doing his thing and dismembering this demon as well as he can it should mean that the demon is in tiny, tiny pieces. But, unfortunately, the demon was able to grow back parts. It just got more and more pissed off as people cut it into little pieces, forcing it to grow again. Because, as strong as it is, growing itself takes energy and this was a good thing for Angel and Cordy because this meant that they didn't have to fight it with all of its attention on them.

Fred finally finished what she was 'tweaking' and she called out.

"Angel, Cordy, y'all should move!" Angel and Cordy both glanced back before quickly running out of the way. Even though Fred's inventions are wacky and sometimes hard to realise what they're for this one was slightly obvious. Or more than slightly. Anyway, this particular invention looked suspiciously like a missile launcher. Fred moved to the back and then pressed a lever. A length of sharpened silver shot out and then pierced the big bad in the heart. The silver withdrew itself automatically so that the end was in the body and then the claw opened. Cutting the creature's heart to shreds. It fell onto its knees in pain and then crumpled up.

The four people stared at the defeated big bad before everyone started congratulating and praising Fred for her victory over the, now, not so big not so bad. The thing let out a groan and Fred leaped into Russ' arms with a shriek. Then she realised that it was an after-death groan she realised her position in relation to Russ'. She turned her face to Russ and they looked into each other's eyes for a minute, both of them lost helplessly.

Another crash that was caused by landing on the shards of glass on the ground made them leap apart in shock. A vamp was standing there, well he looked human but humans don't breeze in a hotel room twelve levels up through the window. Then of course there was the whole completely calm and collected look. Because even if a human had managed to get into a hotel room twelve levels up they wouldn't be calm and collected. Especially seeing a dead big bad in front of them.

The vamp actually looked not all that bad. He had longish brown hair and intense green eyes. He had one of those faces that looks like it belongs on a soapie or something. He was just a bit shorter than Angel and about as well built. He emanated waves of evil aura. They didn't need Lorne to tell them that particular fun fact. And he was very cocky, the way he stood as if he was invincible.

Then the vampire confirmed their suspicions and went into vamp mode. Angel stepped forward, no matter how tired or battered he was from the previous big bad. Okay the two previous big bads. The vamps started to battle it out. The evil vamp was actually quite well matched to Angel and it was like the twins were fighting each other. Only one of them played dirty. Really dirty. And I'm not talking about Angel.

Finally Angel found an opening and backed the other vamp against the wall and used the spring loaded stake hidden up his sleeve to pierce the vamp's heart. Or where it was meant to be. Angel withdrew the stake but nothing happened. The vamp smiled at Angel and then hit Angel's head with his own. When Angel brought his face back to the vamp he himself had gone into vamp mode.

"I," Angel punched the other vamp, "Don't," Angel punched him again, "Like," Another punch, "Getting," Another punch, "Hit," Another punch, "In," Another punch, "The," Another punch, "Head." Angel then finished the vamp who was about to pass out with a head hit. The vamp crumpled to the ground and Angel tried staking him again. When nothing happened Angel looked back at the other three behind him. Russ raised his crossbow and shot him in the heart but nothing happened either.

"Why is he not going poof?" Fred asked innocently. Angel looked at her and said,

"I have no idea." Angel tried to poke around with the stake but nothing happened. Angel stood up and stared at the unconscious vamp in front of him, puzzled. Cordy walked up to vamp and leaned down. She got out a flashlight and turned it on before shining it on the vamps skin. He got set on fire and when she flicked the flashlight off the skin as left extremely burnt. She put the torch back and stood up before talking to Angel.

"He's not invincible, this is an ultraviolet light." The vamp then came out of unconsciousness and looked up at them before getting up and jumping off the balcony. Okay, it was more like falling off the balcony because he was still a little shaky with the idea of actually walking in a straight line and all.

"How am I meant to pay for all of this? I wish that demons would give us a check for everything they destroyed or that we could claim it from them after we killed them. Or something." Cordy said as she looked around the mess that had been left behind after the three attacks they'd suffered from.

"It's as if my hotel room is a magnet for evil or something." Cordy sighed and went over to one of the chairs and sat down. She was exhausted and she wasn't the only one. Angel joined her sitting down, or I should say slouching, on the expensive chairs that came with the expensive hotel room.

"Are you okay?" Angel asked Cordy and she looked at him with a tired look.

"I'm fine. I thought I'd left most of this behind but it turns out that coming back to L.A. means coming back to demon attacks galore." Cordy sighed for the second time. Angel gestured over to Fred and Russ who were talking to each other with this awkwardness emanating from both of them.

"What's it with them?" Angel asked and Cordy shrugged.

"I'm guessing that they like each other. What with the awkwardness and the looks." Angel studied Cordy and she asked,

"What's up?"

"What's it with us?"

"I'm guessing that we like each other. What with the looks and the comfort when we're together that I don't get anywhere else. Or at least that's what I feel." Angel leaned in to Cordy.

"I feel it too." They got closer and closer together until…

"I can't..." Angel said and moved away from Cordelia with a sad look on his face.

"Why?" Cordy asked with this incredibly sad expression on her face that made Angel feel for her. He hated having to do this.

"Not right now. I mean after…" Angel trailed off and Cordy picked up from where he left off.

"After you get your soul secured. I get it." Cordy said and stood up and continued,

"I get it."

"I don't want to…" Angel stood up and tried to make eye contact with Cordy but he failed miserably.

"You don't want a lot of things do you?" Cordy asked harshly without looking at Angel.

"It's not that I don't want…" Angel got cut off by an angry Cordy, who was still refusing to make eye contact.

"Funny, that's what you said earlier."

"That's not what I meant…"

"Then what did you mean?" Finally Cordy made eye contact with Angel, who was starting to go into the sad puppy dog mode.

"I meant that I'm so close, we're so close, to being able to do some things, everything that we want to do together and not worry about anything. Remember when you said you couldn't be with me because of my past, because of Angelus?" Cordelia nodded, "Well, after this Angelus won't be in me anymore. There will be no chance of him ever resurfacing again. I just want to wait until I know that this is true. And if it doesn't work… It'll be easier to back out and resist the temptation…"He looked down at Cordy who was looking at him with such an expression that he couldn't bear it. All he wanted to do was dip his head down to hers and let their lips connect.

Their eyes were connected in such a heat of passion that, subconsciously, their heads were moving closer and closer together until… (Haha, tricked you again into thinking they were going to kiss .:Cheeky grin:.)

"We can't…" Angel said barely moving his lips. Cordy bit her lower lip.

"Of course." Instead of being aggressive like she was before now she was just disappointed. Just plain disappointed. But despite that they didn't move, still almost touching and looking into each others eyes until…

"THAT'S IT!" A yell came from behind them and they jumped apart. They both turned to the yelling person and saw Russ pumping his fists into the air in victory. Apparently he'd found something that was 'it'. And if he lived through the death looks Angel and Cordy were giving him then he would probably explain exactly what 'it' was. He looked between the two people with death looks and tried his 'winning smile'. It didn't win them over.

"Uh, I figured out what to do about Mr I'm so Invincible?" He said in a questioning voice so it sounded more like a question rather than a statement of a finding.

Then Cordy finally gave up her death look for a less threatening one and said,

"Okay. Fine. What do we do?" Angel glanced at her with a slight disappointment at her talking and not giving him death looks any more. She shrugged slightly at him so he too relaxed and became less threatening. He seemed to be less tall and towering and more brooding and hunched over. Okay he was still tall, but less psychologically tall.

"Well I've got this plan. Fred helped me with it," Russ gave Fred a warm smile and she returned it with equal fervour. Then, after another death look from Angel, Russ continued on.

"So, anyway. My plan is…"