Prophesy After the Fact
Part 6
By Marie Nomad
Angel waited anxiously as he looked out of the window to see Buffy talking to Giles. It was times like these that he wished that he still have his vampire hearing. Buffy slapped Giles across the face and there was yelling. Giles stepped back and held his head. After a few moments, Buffy hugged Giles and then she walked inside while Giles went to his car.
"Is everything okay?" Angel asked concerned as Buffy came back.
"Just clearing the air." Buffy said as she sat down. "Say… Will… we have to keep this on the low for a while. I need to find this… friend of mine. He was a very dear friend of mine that I abandoned when he needed me the most."
"Does this 'friend' have a name?"
Buffy gazed into Will's dark eyes. "Angel. Actually, he was my ex-boyfriend, way back in high school. We were great together until we slept together and… everything just went into Hell."
"Ouch." Angel winced as he vaguely remembered that time. He paused as he tried to remember when he was Angelus but the memories felt more like some horror movie rather than his life.
"Yeah. We made up, kinda and we split up again and things just got complicated and weird and I can't really tell you much." Buffy laughed as she ran her hand through her hair. "Look at me; I'm talking to a nice guy about finding my ex-boyfriend because my other ex-boyfriend told me that he's alive. This is not how dates are supposed to go."
"I don't mind. You have a fascinating life. I wish my life is that… interesting." Angel smiled at Buffy.
"You have amnesia and that's interesting. Look, I'm really hungry so we can we go? My treat."
"Well, I do know this nice place that I've been dying to try out." Angel said as he got his coat. "How do you feel about Chinese food?"
"As long as it's not Italian, I'm cool."
XXX
Angel's mouth drooled as he piled on the eggrolls, the fried rice, and other stuff that he couldn't pronounce. He sat back down at the table and started stuffing his face. Buffy's eyes widened as she watched him eat.
"Easy. This is an all you can eat buffet, emphasis on all you can eat." Buffy said as she picked up a pair of chopsticks and started eating at a slightly slower pace.
"Sorry." Angel swallowed. "I… love eating. I want to try out all types of food. Don't tell Josh that I'm eating meat. I'm supposed to be a vegetarian. I don't eat meat that often but I want to at least try it since I don't remember what meat tastes like." He explained.
"That's okay." Buffy looked around, hoping to see her tall broody ex-boyfriend somewhere in the crowd. She missed him and she didn't even know if he shanshued or not.
"You miss him. Don't you?" Angel asked as he paused in his eating again.
"It's that obvious? Yeah." Buffy said sheepishly. "There's nothing to be jealous about. Angel and I had split up years ago. We're two completely different people. I'm just worried because… there are bad people out there who want Angel dead or converted into being evil and I don't want that."
"I see." Angel's heart hurt as he looked down. He should tell her the truth about him but he didn't know what to tell her. All of a sudden, Shanshu's words came clear to him. He couldn't tell her. He didn't want to betray the goddess who had helped him. "Can we talk about something else besides ex-boyfriends? I'm feeling insecure."
"Sure."
"Why are you in Sunnydale besides my sister?"
Buffy's smile faltered.
Angel realized the meaning. "Oh. Well, can we talk about Leia, she… she seems a little secretive. What is she hiding?" He knew that Leia was hiding the fact that she was a slayer but there was something else. Something that just made the girl scared to admit.
"What makes you think she's hiding something?" Buffy grew nervous. She couldn't tell Will the truth. The slayer thing is Leia's responsibility.
"You saw the way she shoved me out of that bomb shelter. She must be hiding something." Angel paused dramatically as Buffy fidgeted. He leaned over and whispered, "Is she into drugs?"
Buffy's eyes bulged. "No!"
"Orgies because I had watched Law & Order?"
"No! We hunt vampires." Buffy clammed up. She had never felt so blond in her life. She had just admitted to a man who shouldn't know more than he should that she is a vampire hunter. "Role playing. Yeah! We role play vampire slayers."
Angel blinked and asked, "What's role playing?"
"Oh, it's a live action game. We pretend to be vampires and slayers and we go out at night, have some laughs, come back and have pizza." Buffy explained trying to make her job as easy as possible. At that moment, she didn't want him to know anything. All she wanted for him to see is a nice normal woman who is friends with his younger sister. If he knows, he might hate her or worse get involved in her slaying activities and get hurt again.
Angel saw the look in her eyes. She didn't want to tell him. Either she wanted to keep him away or keep him safe or both. He won't shatter the illusion of ignorance. "Role playing sounds great. I was worried that Leia was into something dangerous. Thanks." He smiled at her and then started eating again.
Buffy sighed in relief. She found her plate was empty and her stomach was full. "Fortune cookies." She said as she picked up a fortune cookie.
"Maybe, this will help." Angel picked up the other fortune cookie and at once the cookies were opened.
Buffy stared at the fortune cookie and read, "Find your angel and you will have peace?" She was confused. Only a couple of hours ago, there was a mysterious message that warned her to stay away from Angel and now she got a sign to keep going. She had read fortune cookie messages and this was more like a sign from a higher power rather than something some idiot wrote.
"Hurry up you idiot." Angel read his cookie. "What kind of fortune cookies are these?"
"Maybe they're custom made fortune cookies." Buffy put the message in her pocket. "I have to go and do stuff."
"Can I drive you to where you're staying?" Angel offered.
"Oh no. I'm fine. I'm good. You go on ahead." Buffy said as she paid for their meals and then led Angel out of the door.
"Sure." The two walked outside and stared at each other. "Well… this is it." Angel said as he looked down at her.
"Yeah."
Angel tilted his head down and Buffy closed her eyes. A spark shot between them and the slayer and ex-vampire yelped in pain.
"Yeow!" Buffy put her hand to her lips. "Was that static?"
"I didn't mean for that to happen." Angel said as he rubbed his lips. "We have the worse luck when it comes to dates."
"I better go anyway." Buffy hugged Will. "I'll talk to you later."
She walked off and Angel watched her leave. "That was close." Shanshu said as she appeared next to him. "What were you thinking!"
Angel walked to his truck and got out his cell phone and said, "I just wanted to kiss her."
"No kissing. Kissing is not a good idea. When two people kiss, it's a start of a relationship. If you two kiss, then everything we had been through will be all for nothing!" Shanshu yelled as she sat beside him.
"It was just a kiss."
Shanshu took his hand and held it. "I just want what's best for you. After all that you've done, you deserve it."
"I'll be careful." Angel sighed, "You sound just like Mom." He paused. "Say, Shanshu, I don't remember as much about Angel's vampire past as I used to."
"Part of the spell. You are now thinking apart from your old self. It's part of the process." Shanshu answered, "Please, you must not fight this so much. I'm doing everything in my power to keep the bitch from blabbing everything to your old friends. Just enjoy your new life, William. That's all I ask." Shanshu leaned over, kissed him on the cheek and vanished.
"She's right." Angel admitted. He loved Buffy but he couldn't be with her without telling the truth and he couldn't be with her if he tells her the truth. "Maybe, I should find out what's bothering Leia." He looked around and then closed his cell phone. "When did I start talking to myself?"
XXX
Angel tapped on the computer. He asked his parents why Leia was acting strange but all he got was that it was a phase. However, Leia seemed to act much stranger since the accident that changed Will's life forever.
He sat in the archive section of the library. "I know it's here somewhere." Angel muttered to himself as he flipped through the microfilm. In a small town like Sunnydale, an accident that got him in the hospital for over a year on life support must make front page news.
Finally, he found the page. "One car accident. Local resident, William Luke Smith, had been in a car accident when he hit a pole while driving down Meadowpark Lane. What was Will doing driving around drunk?" He wondered as he pulled up the pictures. The truck was totaled and it was a miracle that he was alive. "Leia Katherine Smith was at the scene and had saved her brother's life. Sadly enough, William remains in critical condition. It is unknown whether or not he will wake up." He sighed. There was not much about the accident that was helpful. He did know one thing, the accident happened near Leia. He smiled. Leia must have been a new slayer at the time and felt guilty for not being there for him.
"Yo, Will."
Angel looked up to see Gunn. "Oh, you're… Gunn right."
"That's right, I'm looking for Angel." He held up a slightly better looking picture but it still had the lumpy forehead and fangs.
"Ummm…" Angel got out his pad. "Why don't I draw your friend better? No one can take that seriously."
Gunn looked at his crude drawing. "Oh yeah. Well, none of us were Rembrandts. This was the best we could think of."
"Allow me." Angel looked at the picture and started drawing out a better picture of his old self.
"So… you have amnesia." Gunn said after a few minutes.
"Yeah. I don't remember a thing before I woke up in the hospital a couple of months ago." Angel admitted as he erased a line. "So, what's this Angel like? Is he nice?"
"He's okay. He's real mysterious since he had a…" He stopped and added, "a really complicated past. Like Passions with horror movie slashed right in. He's a loner but if you get to know him for a couple of years, he kinda grows on you."
"That's good to know." Angel stopped his drawing and held it up. "How's this?"
Gunn's eyes widened as he looked between his drawing and Will's. "Damn, that's good." He accepted the picture, "You do this professionally?"
"Nah." Angel blushed as he grinned. "I just got started. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know."
"You got it." Gunn grinned as he walked off. Angel sighed in relief. Gunn may have all of the knowledge of the laws both human and demon but he still didn't know anything about drawing techniques.
"Well, I got more stuff to do." Angel said to himself as he printed out the article and walked off.
XXX
"He could be an active volunteer." Buffy said as she held up one of the bad drawings of Angel to a lady.
"Hmmm…" Mrs. Potts said as she studied the picture. "I don't know anyone with fangs."
"Ignore the fangs. We were wondering if you seen any homeless guys with amnesia that look like this."
"Hmmm… let me see? Will!" Mrs. Potts cried out. Angel showed up with blankets in his arms. "Have you seen this man?"
"Will!" Buffy exclaimed as she looked at the man.
"Buffy, I was just volunteering." Will stepped back. "You look great."
"So do you." Buffy's heart raced in her chest. "I thought Angel would be here."
"Understandable. I drew out something that doesn't have fangs and gave it to Gunn." Will explained. "You should get a copy from him and I haven't seen anyone like that."
"Thank you." Buffy smiled at him. "I better go. I'll call you later."
"Bye." Will watched Buffy leave.
Buffy got back into her car and started it up. All of a sudden, the radio turned into static and the strange voice said, "Leave Sunnydale. Chaos follows you everywhere."
"Shut up." Buffy turned off the radio. "I'm not interested in talking to ghosts."
"Who says I'm a ghost?" The radio asked and then turned itself off.
XXX
"So, you haven't seen anyone like this asking for a job but doesn't have any ID?" Spike asked as he stood at a Doublemeat restaurant.
"I don't think so." The cashier said.
"Hi, Didi." Will said as he came up and saw Spike. "Oh, Spike."
"Will. Wish to join the great Angel search eh?" Spike asked.
"No, I was just dropping this off."
Angel handed Didi the application. "Sorry it took me so long to fill this out. I had to get the information."
"Working as a burger boy, eh?" Spike commented as he looked over his shoulder. "You know, Buffy worked as at this restaurant, well not in this exact one but you know what I mean."
"It's a job." Angel shrugged as he thought bewildered. "Buffy worked at fast food place?"
"Yup. Smelled like meat for weeks on end." Spike recollected, "She might not notice though, she stopped noticing after a while."
"I see." Angel walked off.
XXX
"We're getting nowhere." Buffy moaned as she sat in the bomb shelter that was now looking more like something out of 'Without a Trace'. It had a whiteboard, maps, and even a drawing of Angel pinned up on the wall. It had been several hours since the great Angel search began and they found nothing.
"None of the local good demons had even heard of Angel." Ryoma said as he sipped his tea. "Do not worry, all paths intersect in at least one place."
"I'd rather have my path intersect here." Buffy said firmly.
Giles, who was sitting to the side after being reassured that Gunn and Spike won't kill him, spoke up. "Perhaps, if we learn more about this Shanshu Prophesy, we may have a better idea on what condition Angel was in. We received the Scrolls of Aberjian which revealed another prophesy that seems connected to the Shanshu one. We called it the Ranku Prophesy."
Spike looked at Buffy and said, "Buffy, ask Rupert how he thinks that this Ranku Prophesy is connected to the Shanshu Prophesy?"
Buffy glanced at Giles. "Giles?"
Giles took a deep breath. Spike had somehow avoided talking to him directly. "This Ranku Prophesy hasn't been fully translated but there were words 'Souled Vampire' in there. It depicts some form of quest."
Silence filled the air. Gunn nearly hit himself over the head. Why didn't he think that there could be another prophesy dealing with the Shanshu prophesy? Of course, he didn't know since he was a street thug turned lawyer. He didn't have much business with ancient prophesies written in dead languages. "So, this 'Souled Vampire' could be the same guy that was in the Shanshu Prophesy." Gunn figured.
"Now wait a second, Charlie. The last time some watcher translated bits of the Shanshu Prophesy, me and the poof went into a fight to the death match over a cup of mountain dew!" Spike remembered and then saw Buffy and Leia staring at him. "Long story."
"We have software that could help us translate faster." Ryoma offered, "We will find the truth behind this."
All of a sudden, Spike screamed in pain as he held his head. "Gah! Charlie, vision!" His face became pale as he fell to the ground. In his mind, he saw Will lying face down in his own blood with a demon standing over him. "Buggers."
To Be Continued…
