TITLE: Destiny's Child
AUTHOR: sugarwater
E-MAIL: DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, all bow down to the mighty Joss
TIMELINE: Begins mid Season 2
SPOILERS: Probably just about everything
SYNOPSIS: B/A! The Powers That Be have a surprise in store for Buffy and Angel. Btvs re-write – Angel doesn't leave. Whole lot of Fluff and little bit of Angst.
DISTRIBUTION: Anywhere, if you want it, take it, just let me know!
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Very very long epic type story, Chapter 7 takes place about two days after Chapter 6
FEEDBACK: Craved, oh please, please, please, REVIEW! Constructive crit very welcome
RATING: T
The mausoleum was large and looked damp and dark. It was the perfect place to find a vampire nest. The three demons walked up to the building and slowly pushed open the heavy door. It creaked loudly alerting the occupants of their presence.
Within a second they were greeted by a pack of growling vampires. "Hey, this place is ours, what do you want?" the vampire in charge shouted.
"Vampires, you're so predictable. We have some news we think you'll be interested in hearing." The demon said.
"What about?" the vampire hissed, not trusting the large demon before him.
"The slayer." The demon said smiling.
The radio played loudly in Buffy's apartment as she painted her nails. She was getting bored of doing nothing all day long and not being able to leave the house at night. Even though she enjoyed the break she was beginning to miss the slaying.
While she waited on her nails drying she made her way into the kitchen and carefully opened the freezer in search of ice cream. To her dismay the tub was empty. Buffy groaned and placed the tub in the bin. As she stood at the counter she wrapped her fingers on the surface while thinking. It was dark outside. "Surely it won't hurt to go out just this once…" she said to herself while eyeing the door.
With a smile on her face she threw on her jacket and picked up her keys. Giles would never find out.
"I don't understand, what are you saying?" the vampire asked, confused. The demons had explained what they had to do, but it didn't make sense.
The demon sighed in frustration. "The signs indicate that an ancient prophecy will soon come to pass. The slayer is about to give birth to the guardian. If we don't kill her before she comes into the world then the end of days will be averted and we will never take hold of this mortal realm. We must act now, together. We must put our differences aside and work together to find the slayer." He explained.
"Well she lives here in Sunnydale but I haven't seen her in months, nobody has. Guess she must be laying low if she's knocked up huh." The vampire informed them.
"Yes, we heard she lived here. We will begin our search tonight." The demon concluded.
"And what if we don't find her, then what?" another vamp spoke up.
"Then we will keep looking. We will not give up. Our numbers are great and if we join forces with vampires and other demons we will find her and we will kill her. The word is on the underground, demons and vampires everywhere around the world are looking for her. If we don't find her, someone else will. She can't escape."
Buffy slowly walked down the street taking in the fresh air. She closed her eyes as the cool night breeze washed over her. As she walked back to her apartment she was unaware of the vampire watching her from across the street.
Jason was at Hemery High with Buffy when he was turned and knew that she was the slayer. Having heard about the demon cult that were looking to kill her he decided to inform them instead of fighting her himself. While he thought he would have had a good chance at killing her, he didn't want to take the risk. Besides, they might let him drink her as a reward for finding her.
Smiling at the thought of this, he quietly followed her to her apartment and then made his way back to the demons lair.
"I'm bored. It's been half an hour already, when is this guy gonna wake up?" Cordelia whined as she sat cross legged on the ground beside the newly filled in grave.
Willow rolled her eyes as Xander sighed loudly. "Fine. Leave, at least we won't have to listen to you complaining" Xander shot back.
"Excuse me! Here I am trying to help you guys save the world or whatever and this is the thanks I get!" the feisty brunette retorted.
Willow and Oz walked around to the other side of the headstone while the couple argued.
"If they don't stop fighting with each other I might stake them instead!" Willow moaned.
"Well on the plus side, it's been a pretty slow night. At least they're providing us with some form of entertainment" Oz said to his girlfriend.
Willow smiled. "I wonder where Giles got to" she queried.
A rustle and the sound of a branch cracking suddenly came from the bushes behind them.
"Giles?" Willow called to the foliage.
Suddenly a large red skinned demon with armor jumped out from the bushes and attacked Willow and Oz. The red head screamed loudly, alerting Xander and Cordelia to what was going on. The demon swung his sword at Willow and Oz quickly grabbed her, pulling her out of the way. As the pair fell down to the group they were surrounded by vamps and more demons.
The vampires grabbed Xander and Cordy who quickly pushed their crosses at them. When they let go of them the couple began to back away in the direction of Oz and Willow who were just getting to their feet, both holding crosses of their own.
One of the red demons grabbed Cordelia by the neck and knocked Xander to the ground as he attempted to fight them off. The leader of the demons walked casually forward as Oz and Willow lifted Xander to his feet.
"Where is the slayer. We have no interest in you" he said to the gang.
"She's not here" Oz said
"Nonsense. You must know of her whereabouts. Tell us where we can find her or we kill the girl" the demon responded.
"Let her go!" Xander shouted as he rubbed his head.
"What he said! I don't even know Buffy!" Cordelia said as she wriggled in the demons arms.
The larger demon looked in the direction of the vampire he had spoke to earlier. "Is this true?" he said getting angry.
"The girls lying, these guys fight alongside her all the time" the vampire told him.
The demon turned his attention back to the Scooby gang. "Last chance. Tell us where she is" he demanded.
"No!" Willow said boldly.
"Very Well.
Your bravery is futile. We have eyes everywhere. We will find her. And when
we do we will kill her and the guardian of light. It is our destiny" he
taunted.
"Kill the girl" he then ordered.
Before the demon had a chance to kill Cordelia, Giles came out of nowhere in his car. He sped through the cemetery, knocking the leader demon down and came to a screeching halt in front of Willow, Xander and Oz. The demons and vampires were distracted and the red demon holding Cordelia loosened his grip in the chaos. Xander took the opportunity to drive his stake deep into the demons side. As the demon gasped in pain Cordelia ran towards Giles' car. The gang jumped in and Giles sped off as fast as he could.
"That was a close one" Oz commented when they were far away from the cemetery.
"Is anyone hurt?" Giles asked.
"No but your timing is impeccable G man" Xander said while rubbing the back of Cordy's neck.
"I was almost demon chow!" Cordelia exclaimed.
"What did they want?" Giles asked.
"They were after Buffy, and something about the guardian of light? I don't know" Xander recalled.
Willow and Giles exchanged worried glances. They had to be talking about the baby. At least now they had something solid to research.
Later that night Giles called Buffy and told her about the demons after her, making sure she was on her guard and not leaving the apartment.
The next evening, Mr. Campbell made his way down Buffy's street. He paused and checked the address on the piece of paper he had in his hand. Seeing that he had the right address he turned and walked into the apartment building on his right.
The history tutor slowly approached Buffy's door and raised his hand to knock. Before he had a chance to do this, two vampires grabbed him from either side, covered his mouth and dragged him away from the door.
Inside the apartment Buffy was washing some dishes and thinking to herself. The phone call the other night from Giles had shaken her. The demons he had told her about sounded like they meant business. She really couldn't take anymore chances like she had the night before by going out to the store after dark.
The biggest disappointment was that Giles had confirmed her baby was special. The demons that had attacked the Scooby gang were obviously after her baby, and that meant there was no way she could keep it. Especially since there were already demons and vampires after it. It was going to be the hardest thing she had ever done, but she loved her baby more than anything and if keeping it meant it would be killed then she had to do what was best for her baby and put her up for adoption.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by a knock on the door. Buffy tossed the towel aside and made her way to the door. When she opened it, she was greeted by a smartly dressed man holding textbooks in his arm. He smiled warmly at her.
"Miss. Summers?" the man asked.
"Yeah, you're Mr. Campbell right?" Buffy smiled.
"Yes, may I come in?" he asked politely.
"Sure, come on in." Buffy gestured as she opened the door wider.
The man smiled at her again, "Thank you" he said as Buffy turned from the door and started walking towards the table.
"I'm not really very good at History so whatever you can teach me will be a huge help" she said as she turned around.
The man who was masquerading as her history tutor vamped out in front of her and stepped inside the apartment, holding the door open.
"Well, to be honest, the only thing I know about history, is that you're it." He said laughing.
Before Buffy had a chance to grab a stake five demons ran through the door and ran towards her. Buffy looked terrified and ran towards the other side of the apartment. There was no way she could take them all on. Two of them caught her before she had gone too far and swung her around. Buffy punched the first two and round house kicked the third, instantly cursing herself for trying such a move. The first two came back at her and she grabbed the first, using him as a weapon by hurling him towards the second. She grabbed the third and threw him out the window but two more came at her with their swords. One took a swing at her and cut her arm. As Buffy distractedly looked down at the deep cut on her arm, four demons grabbed her and dragged her into the next room. They pinned her down to the ground and held her there while another demon walked in with his sword.
"You can't escape now. This prophecy will never come to pass." The demon sneered as he drew his sword back, intending on driving it right through Buffy's stomach.
A split second before the sword came into contact with Buffy a blinding light came from within her and went into all of the demons present, including the vampire. Within seconds the demons were incinerated on the spot and the light disappeared.
Buffy lay on the floor in shock trying to get her breath back. There was a strong smell of smoke in the air and the apartment was covered in demon ashes. She could feel her baby kicking hard in her stomach. Buffy rolled onto her side and then pulled herself up. She stood there, looking at the apartment for a moment and then closed the door before making her way over to the phone.
"Are you sure he said the guardian of light?" Giles asked an exhausted Willow.
"Yes, I'm sure. He said he was going to kill Buffy and the guardian of light." Willow told him before going back to the book she was reading.
"I'm sure I've heard that before but I can't think where." Giles replied while flipping through a large volume.
"Ahh, here, these are the demons, yes?" Giles asked passing the book to Willow to show her the picture.
"That's them!" Willow said excitedly. "What do we know?" she asked.
"Not much I'm afraid. They're Romasch demons. Much more civilized and intelligent than others, hence the swords and armor. Apart from that we know nothing." Giles huffed.
The phone in Giles office rang and he got up to answer it.
"Hello?" he said answering it and sitting down.
"Giles. It's me" Buffy said sounding scared.
"Buffy? What's wrong? What happened" Giles asked anxiously as Willow joined him upon hearing Buffy's name.
"I was attacked in the apartment. It was the demons that you said were in Sunnydale, about 8 of them" Buffy told him.
"Good god. Are you alright? Where are they now" Giles asked.
"I'm fine. They're dead. All of them" Buffy replied.
Giles was amazed, "You killed them all? How did you manage that?" Giles said.
"I didn't kill them. The baby did." Buffy said seriously.
"What do you mean?" Giles asked, taking his glasses off.
"They had me surrounded, I was almost toast and then all of a sudden there was this light and they were all gone, burned on the spot." Buffy explained.
"How do you know it was the baby" Giles asked skeptically.
"The light came from within me, it had to be her" Buffy said, convinced.
"Well this is astounding, I wish we knew more about this, Willow and I are still researching but we've found nothing as of yet." He said apologetically.
"Giles, this means the baby can look after itself right? It has powers, it can defend itself." Buffy began.
"We don't know that for sure. It could have been anything that killed the demons" Giles replied.
"I'm sure Giles. But if this baby can defend itself, surely I don't have to put her up for adoption, right?"
"No one is invincible, Buffy. We don't have any concrete evidence about your baby's powers yet. I still strongly recommend that you put her up for adoption." Giles said gently.
Buffy was silent for a moment "Yeah, Ok" she said numbly.
"Speaking of which the woman from the adoption agency is coming to speak with you tomorrow afternoon" he continued.
"Ok, well I better go, it's been a really long day." Buffy said trying not to let Giles know that she was on the verge of tears.
"Yes, of course. You should get some rest. I'll call you tomorrow. Goodnight Buffy."
"Bye" the slayer said quietly before hanging up the phone.
Buffy got up from the couch and slowly walked through to her bedroom. She lay down on her bed and broke down crying. As her baby began to kick she cried even harder, rubbing a hand over her abdomen. She wished there was another way. If only there was.
Buffy cried and cried until she could cry no more. She drifted off to sleep sobbing with her legs as close to her chest as her bump would allow. As she lay there with a tear soaked face and one hand on her stomach she dreamed of Angel, that he was with her, holding her, and everything was ok. In the back of her mind she knew it was just a dream but she would have gave anything to stay in it forever.