HOW LIKE A FALLEN ANGEL – CHAPTER 9
We were taking a bit of a holiday, just racking out at the Academy, being hunted once in a while, taking care of emergencies and hitting the beaches a lot, when we got a very strange request. We were on a beach near Cervo, when Buffy found us.
"Hey guys, you two up for a bit of action?"
"Could be, what ya got?"
"A rogue slayer in this little town in Texas. She doesn't believe in vampires or demons and she's using her slayer powers to run the town. Wood tried talking to her, but she had him beaten and hauled off. We could send in a few slayers to handle it, but everyone is pretty busy at the moment; besides you two are here and bored. So; in or out?"
I stole a glance at Dawn, and saw her grinning ear to ear; I looked back at Buffy "definitely in; but OK if we do it tomorrow, Dawn has a bit of wedding planning to do tonight."
Buffy just nodded and joined us on our towel. She was looking better than I had seen her in a long time. I suppose she had finally found her true calling, as I knew she would. We chatted and joked, and simply enjoyed each others company and the day. Too soon, we were headed back.
We slept in, and about noon the next day, we headed for Texas. It was five in the afternoon when we showed up in the town of Brownfield. We were headed for a town called Agua Blanca, but I wanted to travel in style. We were able to pick up an old Harley for a good price and after getting a couple of helmets, we were headed for our appointment. Dawn was in her white leather pants and vest, with an old concert tee shirt underneath. I was wearing black leather pants with a 'Go BAMA' tee shirt and, of course, my duster. We looked like a pair of yuppies out for a disreputable time, which was the idea.
We hit Agua Blanca about eight thirty that night. It was just a wide spot in the road, with a few houses, three businesses a post office and a roadhouse; 'The Armadillo's Den'. If you had to look the term 'roadhouse' up in a dictionary, it would probably have a picture of this place. It was the embodiment of every worn down honkey tonk in America; from the potholed and graveled parking lot, to the flickering neon sign, I though places like this only existed in clichéd movies, not real life. Well, we parked the bike and shook off the road dust and went in.
She wasn't there, at least not yet. So we sat at the bar and ordered a couple of beers. Now normally, I like beer, but the choices I had were 'Lone Star' and 'Schlitz'; considering it was Texas, I ordered a couple of 'Lone Stars'. Just to show that our luck was truly going south, we happened o be there on karaoke night, which meant that we got to hear the same three drunks sing old Hank Williams tunes. I was tempted to get up and belt out some Johnny Cash, just to liven things up, when she walked in.
Both Dawn and I could feel her immediately; and in keeping with our plan, Dawn gave her a couple of minutes to survey the place, killed off her beer and went to the ladies room. I ordered another for both of us, and felt her coming over.
"Hi" she twanged "I'm Shirley".
I looked over at her, she was maybe nineteen, dark hair and a sun bronzed face. She may have even been pretty, except for the spoiled, sour expression on her face and the cold quality of her eyes. Looking into them, it was like she didn't fell any more, she was remote, a borderline sociopath, I thought. She picked up Dawn's beer and took a long pull.
"My names Ian, and that seat is taken"
"I know, I'm takin' it"
"No, my girlfriend is takin' it, and you owe me a beer."
Her eyes got harder, and she looked over my shoulder, "this her", she asked; getting to her feet.
As she moved to confront Dawn, I put my hand out to stop her, "you really don't want to do that" I said.
She just pushed my hand away and facing Dawn asked, "this your fella".
Dawn looked at me, smiled and nodded.
"Mind if I borrow him for a bit?"
Dawn lost her smile and gave Shirley a glare. She looked around her and meeting my eyes asked "who is this bitch."
"This is Shirley" I answered.
With a bit of a chuckle Dawn replied "surely you're joking".
"No, I'm serious, and she really is Shirley."
Dawn shifted her gaze back to the girl and looked her up and down, and finally meeting her eyes said "piss off".
Shirley just gave a little grin, and then belted Dawn right in the jaw.
Dawn took one step back and gave her head a little shake, and then eyes boring into the other girls said "you hit like a girl".
The slayerette had an amazed expression on her face, she swung again, but this time Dawn caught her fist and held it for a second, then shoved her back against the bar. The young girl looked scared, and Dawn's face was lit with a feral smile, a smile I had seen many times before.
Without taking her eyes off Dawn, she shouted to the others: "Billy, Joe-Bob, you two take care of him, Bubba, Bud, give me a hand with her.
I know she heard the clicks, but no other movement. Not being stupid, and wanting to know exactly what was going on, she slowly turned towards me. That whiny, petulant look was back on her face, I guess she didn't care for it when her orders were ignored. She looked at the guys, who were not moving and finally her eyes drifted to me and the two very eloquent arguments for non-involvement that were in my hands.
I waved the Colts at the occupants of the roadhouse, "what do you say fellas, you wanna see a fair fight?"
"They all just nodded, even the three old drunks and the bartender; I turned to Shirley and said "looks like you're on your own darlin'". She didn't look happy about not being in charge anymore, but she didn't really have much choice. She turned back to face Dawn and, I suppose, face the music. The smile still lit Dawn's face as they went at it.
It became clear after the first flurry of blows that Shirley was overmatched. It was like watching one of the early fight scenes from 'The Matrix'. Shirley would throw a punch, and Dawn would simply not be there to be hit, then Dawn would let fly with a precise counterpunch. Shirley, and the bar, was taking quite a beating, but I could see that Dawn was pulling almost all her punches. She was stretching this out, the sadist.
Shirley was getting a bit desperate; she was ready to try anything to win. As she went down for the ninth or tenth time; I saw her go for a knife with her right hand. I warned Dawn, who lit the knife thrust pass mere inches from her nose, then disarmed her with a wrist lock. Then she folded the slayer wanna-be with a full strength punch to the kidney followed by an elbow to the jaw. Shirley was well and truly out of it. Dawn scooped her up and headed for the door. I continued to cover the patrons with both Colts, even though no one seemed inclined to cause trouble. We made it out to the parking lot, and I fired up the Harley. Dawn got on with Shirley and we headed down the road. We went a few miles, until no lights were visible and we were well and truly alone. We stopped and woke up the former queen of Aqua Blanca.
She looked wildly around, wondering where she was, then understanding hit her eyes.
"Listen up kid, we've got some stuff to tell you, and then you need to make a decision. You understand?"
The girl just nodded. We proceeded to tell her about demons and slayers and what her duty was. She listened, I truly believe that she listened; but in the end she could not let go of being in charge. She threw a handful of sand in our faces and tried to run. I have no idea where she thought she could go, I mean we were in the middle of nowhere after all. I was the first to recover and in a very short time, I caught her and returned her to her unconscious state. I carried her back to the bike.
"So, what do we do with her now?"
"Watchers Council, I guess; after all that's what they're supposed to do."
I agreed with Dawn, but the idea of what could happen to this girl chilled me. But I knew that Giles and Xander and the rest would do everything they could to be fair. We got back on the bike, and pulled Shirley up with us, and then we caught 'the express' to Scotland.
It was a real drain, teleporting all of that weight, but I really loved traveling on the bike, and was astounded that I hadn't thought of it before. We popped up in this section of the Highlands that looked like it was right out of a dream. It was simple, stark and beautiful. We headed on toward Edinburgh, to a small estate just to the north called Veritas. This was the new headquarters of the Watchers Council. We pulled up, and announced ourselves. Allana came down to greet us and find out why we were there. We explained the whole situation t her along with our observations about Shirley. Allana and Dawn went off to apprise Giles of the situation, leaving me sitting with the unconscious red-neck. I chuckled to myself, wondering what they would make of her accent and attitude. I suppose, after dealing with Faith, attitude was something they could handle. Xander showed up, and asked me to take her to a cell in the basement of the property. Giles was already there, with a syringe of something in his hand.
"Much like the serum used during the Cruciamentum, but lasting at least a month. Hopefully we can convince her of the error of her ways in that time, and she can help our cause. If not, well this place isn't so bad."
"Hopefully" I said, "but even if she seems to come around I'd keep her away from the States for a good, long time, cause I think she'd run the first chance she got."
"We'll see" he said "giving the girl the shot and backing out of the cell."
The door slid home and Xander spoke up "you up for dinner?"
We picked up Olivia and the six of us headed for a pub called the 'Boar and Hounds' that everyone seemed to think was great. I can't say it was my favorite place in the world, but after 'The Armadillo's Den', it was a vast step up. We ate and drank and did some wedding planning. Giles was to be Xander's best man, with both Oz and Myself as groomsmen. Dawn was Allana's maid of honor, with Willow and Buffy as the bridesmaids. It was shaping up to be a lovely ceremony. Allana asked if we could stay a day or two; I checked with the 'higher-ups' and they said it was fine. We ended up closing the pub down and even I was a bit squiffy as we made our way back to the mansion.
We slept in very late, and after brunch; Dawn and Allana went off to talk about wedding stuff. I had been planning to go over the bike and clean and straighten everything, when I saw Xander looking bored. I asked him if he wanted to help with motorcycle maintenance.
"Sure, if you'll use it to teach me Zen."
"Sorry, Buddhism not exactly my thing, remember; serious Christian here."
He had this lopsided grin on his face "I can't believe it, I make a literary reference and you don't catch it."
"What"
"I'll explain in a second, right now I'm just basking in this unusual sensation."
"Xander, what the heck are you talking about?"
He then showed me a copy of 'Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance'. I finally understood the reference and his surprise. After all, who would you expect to know about different religions? Anyway, after absorbing a good bit of verbal abuse, I got Xander to agree to help me out with the Harley.
We had removed the manifolds and were soaking the carb, when I turned to Xander. Up to now we had been talking about soccer, European football and other sports related topics, when I decided to change the subject.
"Xander, can I ask you something out of left field?"
"Sure, what's on your mind?"
"Why are you getting married?"
I could tell instantly that it was not a topic that he had anticipated, but much to my surprise; he was actually thinking about his answer rather than throwing off some trite justification.
"I suppose it comes down to demonstrating that you are a man of your word. I mean what guy hasn't said 'I love you' just to get something from a girl; but committing to marriage shows her that you just aren't mouthing words, that you truly do love her, and her alone."
I just looked at him for a second, awed by what he had said, and the depth of passion behind his words. "Have you ever told Allana that, or has she ever heard you talk like that, because that was one of the most eloquent things I've ever heard."
He looked up, at first like he thought I was pulling his leg or something; but he saw that I was serious, and blushed at the praise. "Can I ask why you wanted to know?"
"It's a topic that I've been wrestling with for some time now. I love Dawn; I cannot imagine anyone as perfect for me as she is. Xander, she completes me, she supplied the pieces that I didn't even realize weren't there. Emotionally I know I should ask her to marry me in a heartbeat, but intellectually I know that I probably won't live another five years. How can I build anything when I'm saddled with this? Is it fair to make a commitment like that while knowing full well that the odds of seeing your tenth anniversary are somewhere between slim and none."
"Who cares how much time you may or may not have together? Seriously, we could all be dead tomorrow, but it wouldn't change how we felt or how we loved."
"So, you think I'm being a bit of an idiot?"
"Maybe just a bit, but mostly I think you're just afraid. Not the most surprising thing in the world."
"Hey, who am I to argue with the 'All Seeing Xander'."
"And don't you forget it buddy."
We laughed and he caught me up on what the 'Council' had been doing and how the new slayers had been functioning. In return, I told him some of our adventures and the places we had been and things we had seen. I had always appreciated the special person that Xander was, I had from the first; but just spending the day and talking with him made me appreciate even more the remarkable person that he was.
Eventually the ladies had covered every bit of wedding planning possible, and came out to see what we had been doing with our time. It was neat to see how Allana changed just from being around Xander. She just lit up, and this cloud of serenity surrounded her, as though when she was near him, nothing else mattered.
It was about three in the afternoon, so we decided to go to a place that Xander knew that was nearby and have a picnic dinner. That sounded great to me.
We drove to this lake, or I suppose loch is the word, and spread our stuff out in this secluded clearing that Xander obviously knew was there. We relaxed and chatted about life, the universe and everything. When that got old we tossed a Frisbee. Dawn suggested that we go skinny dipping, but that was vetoed by the rest of us. I could tell that Allana was much shyer than the rest of us, and I didn't want her to feel embarrassed.
That night Dawn and I talked about taking the bike down to London and just sightseeing for a day or two. The idea sounded great to me, I'd never spent any significant time in London, and had always wanted to see the Royal Gallery. So the next day we loaded up the bike, said our goodbyes to the 'Council' and took a leisurely drive down to London. We got there late in the afternoon and decided to stay at the 'Feather's Inn', a small private hotel in Notting Hill. We got cleaned up and went out for dinner. Unfortunately British cooking is pretty awful, whether you're in a five star restaurant or the corner pub. After dinner we went to a club and danced till about midnight. There was one vampire in the joint, but Dawn managed to bag him during a pretty lively number, so no-one really noticed him poofing.
We made our way back to the hotel, looking forward to a good night's sleep. Sorry to say, that didn't happen. About two in the morning we were both awakened by the phone. I had told the desk not to put anything through, except for an emergency. I just hoped that his definition of emergency ran to hangnails, parking tickets and such.
"Ian, you awake?"
"Almost Xander, what the heck is going on?"
"Willow just called here looking for you, she said something about this huge flair of evil energy, and she thought she felt you involved. You and Dawnie are OK right, not fighting some big bad?"
"Yeah, we're fine, just sleepy." I hung up the phone, telling Dawn about what Xander had said.
"Could it have been one of the other ones?"
"Maybe, but I would have expected to hear from the higher ups if it was."
Troubled but tired, I put out the light and we went back to sleep.
Half an hour later, we were awakened by power flaring in our room. As my eyes cleared, I could see the form of a woman standing in the center of the floor. She looked like a hologram, but I recognized Serena, Willows' second in the Coven.
"Ian, you and Dawn are needed."
"What's the matter?"
"Your brother and sister have been captured and are being tortured."
"Why?"
"So that you will come."
"Isn't that begging for trouble?"
"In a way, but he has a purpose. He seeks to eliminate the Seraph from this plane of existence."
"I didn't know that was even a possibility."
"It is, but all must be present. He has two, he must not get you."
Suddenly the image blinked out of existence; I didn't know if it had been cut off or if she was just finished.
Wanting a few more answers, I called Giles. Xander answered, and put Giles on. He sounded almost as weary as I felt. I explained what Serena had told me about eliminating the Seraph, and wondering how it was possible.
"Just stay where you are, we'll do some research and hopefully have some answers soon."
He hung up and I turned to Dawn, filling her in and asking her opinion.
"I guess the big question is; are you going to try to rescue them?"
"If they are in trouble, I have to."
"But you know it's a trap."
"I know, but morally, I don't have a choice. I gave them my word and I'm going to fulfill it or die trying."
"You're a dope, you know that don't you?"
"Yeah, I do, and I understand if you don't want any of this."
"Now you really are being a dope, if I can't talk you out of this idiocy, I'm not just gonna sit around waiting to hear about it. I'm sticking with you, no matter what."
I was about to reply when the phone rang again. It was Giles, back in record time.
"If they kill all three of you at the same time over an altar during a black mass, then your angelic essence is sent to heaven, and cannot inhabit a human host. With all of the Seraph gone, new ones cannot be created. That's what our magician is trying to do, eliminate the forces of good or order in the world."
I think he'd been taking lessons from Dawn, because he said all of that in one rush, without taking a breath.
"Thanks Giles, anything else."
"Yes, actually; he'll have an acolyte or apprentice helping him and many demons to supply evil energy. Probably no vampires but most other species of demons are usable."
I thanked Giles again and hung up. Then I put in the call I least wanted to make.
"Yes little brother?" It was Michael.
"Were you ever going to tell me?"
"We would prefer that you didn't go."
"I realize that, and I appreciate the risks involved, but there is no way I'm gonna just sit on the sidelines and watch. Can the four of you do anything?"
"Not directly, no; but if you insist on going then I can advise. You will need more than just the two of you. And here is where you need to go."
His/her hand floated down and touched my forehead, imparting the location and every other bit of information that they thought I could use. She/he stepped back and said "Good fortune, and all our blessings go with you."
That last bit wasn't just words. When they cared to do so, Archangels could bless a person, increasing their strength, endurance and even luck. Knowing we were being given every bit of help that they could bestow, we prepared to leave. I called Xander so he could pick up the bike, there was no way we could take it with us. And Dawn and I 'caught the express' to Spain to recruit help.
When we got there, we woke up Buffy, Faith and Willow and explained the situation.
"So let me get this straight" Buffy said "some psycho is holding and torturing the other two Seraph in order to lure you there so he can eliminate you all at once. Having done this, he is going to try to destroy the forces for order in the world; definitely including slayers in this group. Then the entire world will be in chaos, and that's what he wants."
"That's pretty much it" I said. "I don't want to, but we pretty much have to play this one head on. Just find him, kill him, and rescue those that we can. No finesse, just a knock down drag out fight."
"The real question is who's coming with you" Willow asked.
"I figured you, Faith and two others to watch your backs."
"Absolutely" Faith put in "Little J is my sis; I'm not leaving this to anyone else."
"What about me" asked a rather indignant Buffy?
I turned to her "you're the second wave darlin'. If we don't make it, the slayers are the most effective force for order in the world, along with the Church. If we can't stop him, you and the Cardinal need to make arrangements to get the job done, I trust you to be able to make the tough decisions."
"So" Faith asked "who else for the 'suicide squad'?"
"I think Jenn should come along" Willow said "she's a slayer and a witch, that's a tough combination to beat."
"I'll go" supplied Oz. I had not been aware of him just kind of lurking back in the shadows: from the startled looks, neither had anyone else.
"You got the wolf thing under control" Faith asked.
"Totally"
"The important question is how well does your brain function when you 'wolf out'?"
"Not one hundred percent, but I'm not gonna attack anyone I'm not supposed to."
"Well" Dawn said "looks like we got a rescue party. Let's load up."
Dawn and I stuck with our weapons, Willow only took this ceremonial knife, Jenn picked a few throwing stars and a very nice battle axe. Oz went for the commando look with an automatic rifle, pistols and grenades. Faith had some guns and grenades herself, surprising me in her departure from traditional slayer weapons.
Once we were equipped to our liking, we joined hands and went to where the Archangel had shown me. I know most of us didn't expect to live to see the end.
