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Chapter 2
Sam Lawson stood outside of Angel's half-destroyed office in Wolfram & Hart, a stake in his hands. It was being pointed toward his own heart by Angel. Lawson looked at the stake and back at Angel, a mocking smile forming on his face.
"Come on chief," Lawson said to his sire, "give me a reason."
The Powers that Be interfered.
Angel was given the memory of stabbing Lawson through the heart, killing him. Angel saw the ashes float to the ground. He could not see the light, or the hands that pulled Lawson away from him. A woman, too bright to see, had hold of the half-souled vampire. She was the future self of the girl they would one day protect. Lawson was invisible to everyone else as he was pulled away from the timeline, away from the ripples in the pool of life. He was frozen in time, and couldn't speak or move.
She took him to the realm between realms, where the pools connected, where gateways could be made. A place of light and chance, where gods once interfered with the lives of mortals. She was not supposed to be there yet, and she could not stay for long. She ignored the uncomfortable atmosphere; it would not hinder her.
She could see Lawson's half soul, caught within his heart, fragments of the soul occasionally passing through the lifeless veins. She laid her hand over Lawson's heart and let Life flow from her to him, nudging and nurturing his soul, making it whole. The soul pulsed within his heart, and grew, spreading through his body like a liquid inferno; a golden thing that glowed and shimmered.
As his soul spread, he started to move again. She had to work fast, as he was not supposed to be there either. She took him by the hand and felt his fingers close around hers. "I need your help," she said to him, though she hadn't actually spoken. She felt his confusion, and then his trust. He would help her. She made the ripples hold still as she drew them both back into a different part of the pool. Two more to save.
In an alleyway behind the Hyperion Hotel, a legion of Hell-spawned beasts was advancing toward Angel, Spike, Gunn and Illyria. The rain was pouring down; the heavens were weeping as Hell declared war.
Wesley was dead, and Lindsey had been shot by Lorne, who wasn't coming back to rejoin the others, and he'd asked not to be found. Connor was home with his foster parents, after helping his father kill Hamilton, who had been Wolfram and Hart's link to the mortal plane. To kill him, Angel had fed from him, ingesting some of the blood of the ancients, but only those ancients who had been loyal to evil.
"Supposed to wear that red stuff on the inside, Charlie boy." Spike said, after seeing Gunn's wounds. Gunn looked down and felt his stomach, then looked up.
"Any word on Wes?" he asked.
Spike shook his head. Illyria jumped down from a roof to join them. She stood up straight, with her head bowed. "Wesley's dead." Angel looked at her with disbelief, and the others bowed their heads. Illyria looked confused and upset. "I'm feeling grief for him," Illyria continued, "I can't seem to control it. I wish to do more violence." She declared.
The crowd approaching them was yelling and roaring. "Well," Spike said, "wishes just happen to be horses today, among other things."
The demons broke through the gates. Angel looked up to see a dragon in the sky, shrieking as it hovered and swooped.
"Okay," Gunn said, "you take the 30, 000 on the left…"
"You're fading," Illyria interrupted, "You'll last ten minutes at best."
"Then let's make 'em memorable." Gunn said, getting to his feet. They all stepped forward to make their stand.
"Any terms of a plan?" Spike asked.
"We fight," Angel replied simply.
"Bit more specific?" Spike pressed.
"Well personally," Angel said, looking up, "I kind of want to slay the dragon." The demons broke into a run. Angel raised his axe. "Let's go to work."
The Powers that Be interfered again. Time stopped. The rain itself stopped falling and everything froze in place. The woman carried Lawson into the reality, into the alleyway. She set him down on the ground, let go of his hand, and stepped away, toward the heroes. She dimmed the light surrounding her so that she could be seen properly.
Lawson saw a woman, early thirties, auburn-haired, her hair hanging down over her shoulders. She was blue-eyed, and he was taller than her by about an inch. She was slim, and good-looking. She was wearing jeans of all things, and a green sweater and white sneakers. He'd kind of been expecting a white dress and a halo, and maybe wings too. She was not, however, an angel.
He looked over at the heroes and recognised them all. "Angel and Spike! And I nearly killed the other two. The girl looks different though. Can they hear us?"
"No. And that's a demon in her body," the woman explained. "The girl is already dead, but the demon is fighting on our side."
"Why are we here?" Lawson asked her.
"I need the help of the other two vampires as well. The ones with souls. 'Something to do with a triangle of protection. This is several weeks after Angel thinks he staked you. Now he is fighting against the powers of darkness themselves. We are here to make sure he and Spike survive this battle. If possible, I would like to save the other two as well, because they are also trying to do good for this world."
Lawson looked over at the mass of demons, frozen in time.
"Release the heroes slowly," the woman appeared to be speaking into the empty air. "I want to talk to them before we enter the fight."
Angel had his arm raised to strike the demon in front of him. His arm slowly lowered, and the others started moving forward too. They all stopped still as they noticed what was happening to them. They saw the frozen demons, the motionless rain, and looked around in confusion while they regained the use of their limbs. One by one, they saw the pair standing behind them. The woman was unknown to them, but they recognised the vampire they thought was dead.
"Hi," the woman said to them. "My name is Erica. I'm here to help you."
"Why?" Angel asked.
"Because I need your help."
"If you did all this, why would you need our help?" Spike asked.
"I didn't do this. The Powers that Be granted me this opportunity to be here, to help you win this fight. I'm here to save you because I need you to save me."
"What are you talking about?" Gunn asked.
"She smells of power," Illyria said quietly to the others.
The woman walked toward them, "I'll explain in a minute. You're not going to last much longer, though," she said to Gunn as she put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. She put her other hand up in front of his wound and drew Life from within her to heal him. The wound knitted together to reveal smooth unmarked skin, and Gunn stood up straighter as the pain left him. The others glanced from him back to Erica with some amazement and suspicion.
"I'm not supposed to be here, so I'm not allowed to do much. They don't want me to accidentally screw up the timeline." Erica said, turning back toward the others. "I can heal, and I can fight as a mortal. It is important that this battle take place, between evil and the champions, so I can't remove you from it, like I took Sam away from his place of death."
"Yeah, how…" Angel started asking; his finger raised toward Lawson.
"The Powers that Be intervened, and they let me repair his soul and bring him here."
"How can we save you?" Spike asked.
"I'm at the end of my journey as a mortal. I need you there to protect me nearer the beginning of it. The Powers that Be warped time so that I could come back and help you, and give you a choice. At this point in time, in this reality, I'm still years away from being the woman you see before you. I'll be little more than a teenager, and fairly helpless. I won't recognise you, or even be aware of the world beneath the mortal one. I'll become a pawn of others, who could do great damage with me if you let it happen. I'm asking you to save my life. The Powers that Be chose the three souled vampires to be my protectors, and they chose the Seer to be my guide, but I don't want to force you to help me. I want to give you the choice to do so. But know that I won't grow up into the woman I am today without you."
"Cordy?" Angel asked. "She'll be back?"
"Almost," Erica said. "She won't remember anything past high school, except for the kiss and the man that made her what she is. She'll know who you are, Angel, because she knew you before LA, but she won't remember what you two had." She paused for a moment. "No matter what your decision is I'll help you here, but I wouldn't be asking you, and the Powers that Be wouldn't ask you, if this wasn't important."
"What about us?" Gunn asked, gesturing to himself and Illyria.
"After this fight you get to live your lives, and you can do whatever you want with them." Erica told him.
"Then let's destroy them and be done with it." Illyria said, looking back at the demons.
"Then get ready, because time is about to be put back into place." Erica said. She now, inexplicably, had a long sword in her hand, shining silvery despite the dim light. It looked heavy, but she held it easily. She pushed the sleeves of her sweater back above her elbows, ready to go to work. An axe appeared on the ground for Lawson, and he picked it up and settled it into his hands. The group looked back at the demons.
"Stand back a few paces," Erica told them. "We're not supposed to engage until time is flowing normally."
The rain slowly started falling again. The others stood back as the demons started moving. "Now!" Erica yelled, as time returned to normal.
Angel struck down the demon in front of him, splitting it in half. Illyria had no weapon but her own body, and she used it to tear apart any demon that got close enough. Spike and Gunn worked together to kill any demons near them. Lawson backed them up, and Erica fought her way to the front. She was very good with the sword, cleanly cutting demons to pieces quickly and efficiently. Together, the team made the demon bodies pile up. As the dragon swooped low to the ground Angel jumped for it's back and hacked off its head as it was rising rapidly through the air. As he then dropped through the air he jumped off the beast toward the giant Cyclops and blinded it with his axe. He was flung into a building as the Cyclops thrashed about, trampling many of his own allies.
There were hundreds of demons running through the street toward them, and yet the heroes fought on. Angel recovered from his fall and rejoined the fight. Eventually, a little over an hour later, the tide of demons ebbed.
Gunn sank against the wall, exhausted. The others stood over the demons they'd just killed, looking up as the rain eased. "The sun 'll be coming up soon." Spike said.
"Don't worry about that," Erica said. She'd gotten a few cuts from the fight, but they were already healing. The sword had disappeared again. "Spike, Angel, now is the time for your answer. Will you help me?"
The two glanced at each other. Spike looked back at Erica first. "Why not, luv? I'll help you." He glanced back at Angel with a grin. "Just wanted to beat you at volunteering to do something noble."
"This is serious, Spike." Erica said, holding his gaze. "Do you mean it? Do you truly want to become my Champion?"
"Yeah," Spike nodded, the grin gone. "I'll do it."
Erica looked hopefully back at Angel, who'd been staring doubtfully at Lawson. He looked back at her.
"The Powers that Be really sent you?" Angel asked.
"Yeah," Erica said. "They picked me, when I was just a girl, to become some great hero or something. A vessel of power, they said. I didn't really have a choice, but… looking back on things, I don't regret it. You guys helped me do a lot of good … but then again, that hasn't actually happened yet. "
Angel was silent for a moment. Slowly, he nodded his assent. Erica held out her hands for them. Lawson stood behind her. He had already received the gift she was about to give them. Gunn and Illyria stood quietly, watching.
"I can give you one gift before I go." Erica told them. "I can give healing to the living, and life to the walking dead. I suppose the Shanshu prophecy mentioned something about this, but after I'm done with you, you'll still be more than human."
"Why didn't you say something about this before?" Spike asked as he took her hand.
"I didn't want to bribe you into helping me." Erica explained. "I wanted you to do it because you chose to."
"I can't take it," Angel said. "I signed away my chance for humanity."
"Sure you did," Erica said, "but that only means you prevented the certainty of your fate. Your future is no longer written in stone, or to be more accurate, on a scroll. It's your choice now." She held out her free hand for him. "So make it," she said in a whisper, her eyes fixed on his face.
Angel took her other hand, and both of the vampires started feeling light-headed. Where she touched their skin, they tingled pleasantly. They felt warm, refreshed, and alive. They could feel the Life power within her flowing into them, coating, strengthening and protecting every one of their cells as it was passed through their bloodstreams.
"You'll be immune to crosses, garlic, holy water, the lot." Erica explained with her eyes closed. "You'll be able to walk in the sunlight. A stake through the heart or decapitation will still kill you, as it would anything else, but you'll leave a body behind. Despite this, you'll still be immortal. You won't have to breathe. Being stabbed or shot won't kill you, and you'll still be strong, fast, still have superior sight, hearing and smell, and you'll still be able to wear your other faces. You can take blood, but you won't need it. Angel," she continued, opening her eyes, "you are no longer cursed. That soul is yours. You can corrupt it just like any soul-owning human can, but you'll never lose it. It is the same for you two as well."
"So what are we waiting for?" Spike exclaimed, a gentle feeling of new strength flowing through his veins. "Let's go. 'Save your younger self, right?"
"Yeah." Erica said, letting go of their hands. She looked a little sad. "She's at school, and right now she has no idea of what she'll one day be capable of. If I recall correctly, I was afraid, even of you guys at first. This is not going to be some boring babysitting job. Things will be drawn to her, and she'll be drawn to trouble. The day you'll meet her -- that'll be today, I guess, she'll already be in trouble." She said this with a wistful smile. "The last thing I can do here is send you to her. You'll meet Cordy there too; she'll know why she's there. Once you find us, you can bring us back here." Erica's tone was quietly reassuring. The three didn't say anything; they just looked at her expectantly.
Gunn and Illyria were silent, standing apart from them. They knew they were not a part of this.
"So, if you're ready," Erica said slowly, looking at each of the three in turn, "I'll see you guys later, I guess." She brightened, and the others covered their eyes. When they could see, she was gone. The three vampires felt strange again, as they were pulled from one part of the pool of life, and lowered carefully into another.
Gunn and Illyria were left standing alone in an alleyway littered with bodies, the atmosphere lightening as the sunlight emerged through the darkness.