"You look like you could use a bit of quiet." Gwen's voice caught Angel's attention. "Why don't I show you the forward viewing lounge?"
He looked at her, half convinced that her eyes would be full of fear and distrust. Certain that things would be different now, and afraid that 'different' would also mean 'bad'. But while there was a bit of fear, it was more the sort that might be nervousness, and plenty of confusion. Her hand was resting on his, and she even had a small, hopeful smile. Maybe… maybe things weren't utterly ruined? Of course, there was still that… clause, but…
And why was he still sitting here like a lump? "That might be nice."
She stood up, her hand closing around his so that as she stood, there was a gentle tug prompting him to do the same. The result was that they were so close that they were almost touching. Gwen blushed, her eyes traveling over him as a soft "Oh my…" emerged.
"So, you mentioned a viewing lounge?" Angel smiled, feeling just a little pleased by her reaction. He might not reflect, but apparently, he still looked good, judging by her reaction. "What, exactly, is viewed there?"
Gwen just smiled, and started down a silvery hallway, pulling him along. "You'll see."
Angel found himself actually smiling as he followed her. "This looks… remarkably similar to the set. Is there even… is there one of those… giant mallet-choppy areas in here somewhere?"
"Yes, there is. We shouldn't need to go there." Gwen chuckled, shaking her head. "There's sort of a funny story about that, but… You know, I'm still not actually sure why we have that. They built it because it was on the series, but… Why was it event here at all?"
"The drama of an episode with a weak plot?" Angel ventured the guess, remembering some of the older television series that he'd seen.
"Probably. But the viewing rooms are much better." She tugged him into a room, with more silvery walls and a sort of darker gray carpeting. There were some pale couches, and a couple bowl-like chairs, but nobody else was currently in the room. One whole wall was… it looked gone, revealing a sweeping panorama of stars. Gracefully, a satellite slid into view below them, with antenna and a panel of solar cells.
Angel felt his jaw drop as he moved into the room. Slowly, he approached the stars, almost bumping into the transparent panel that formed the wall. "It's… amazing."
For a few moments, there was nothing but the soft sound of Gwen's heartbeat as they looked at the stars. Then, she asked a question, something that Angel had tried to hope wouldn't come back up. "So, you're a vampire? How does that… I mean… umm…"
Angel looked over at her, seeing the way that's he'd caught her lip in her teeth, clearly trying to figure out how to ask what she wanted to know. It couldn't be easy for her to make sense of all of this. "A vampire. One vampire has to deliberately… it's a deliberate process, and it involved dying. You probably don't want all the details. I've been a vampire for… hmm, what year is this? Two hundred and twenty some years. Some of the stories are real, and some of them are utter rubbish."
"The blood? Problems with sunlight? Crosses? Garlic? Running water? Reflections?" She looked at him, her eyes meeting his. Her other hand reached up, and her fingers came to rest over his heart.
"Sunlight and crosses are dangerous. I don't have a reflection. Running water… I have no idea where that came from, unless it's because a lot of rivers have sharp rocks in them, and that would hurt…" Angel shook his head. "Personally, I think showers are one of the greatest inventions of the modern era. As for garlic… vampires have sharper senses, so we can… strong smells are stronger. But you'd get the same effect from too much perfume or from slicing open hot peppers."
She smiled at that, looking at him. "Has anyone ever tried that? The hot peppers?"
Angel smiled a bit, noticing that she hadn't asked about the blood again. Maybe she was trying not to think about that part of things? "Not to me, but… I met someone that had that happen to him. Actually, somebody smacked him in the face with a pepper when he was trying to bite them. Apparently it was the most intensely painful and horrible experience that he'd ever suffered. It sounded far more amusing than it really should have been…"
"Oh dear…" The corner of her mouth was twitching, as if she was trying not to laugh about the idea of a vampire getting a face full of peppers instead of biting someone.
"It changes things. What I can do, what I can't do. I'm never going to have gray hair, or wrinkles, but I can't go out for a walk in the afternoon." He sighed, feeling the familiar wave of self pity, brooding, and guilt for everything that he'd done. "There's a lot in my past that I didn't mention."
"Apparently. You mentioned that your birthday was in March, but not that you were in your third century. And you'd mentioned having done some things that you weren't proud of when you were with… I think you described Darla as your ex-girlfriend?" Gwen shook her head. "How much of that was true, and how much was…"
"Edited." Angel spoke, internally wincing at the tone in her voice. She sounded as if she felt… well, almost betrayed. "My birthday is March tenth, not that I've celebrated it very much lately. Darla… she's the one who turned me. She wanted me to be… terrible, and for her, I… I tried to be what she wanted. I have a detective agency, but a lot of our cases involve demons, or curses. Some of them… they just can't go to the police. And most people, they wouldn't believe any of this."
"I know how that one works. How many people would believe that we actually met aliens, and that Laliari's… well, not human?" Gwen smiled a little, looking up at him.
"I knew that from the moment I first saw her. She doesn't smell right." Angel shook his head, feeling slightly better. "Which would hardly be convincing to most people."
Gwen just shook her head, and looked back out the window. "The view of the stars is the best part about being here. Lots better than the fact that they're counting on us to help avert some sort of catastrophe."
"We'll handle it. Just like we do everything else." Angel smiled, feeling somehow better. Gwen knew that he was a vampire, and wasn't trying to get away from him. She wasn't trying to run, or hide. Maybe… maybe there was hope.
He'd best talk to Willow, and find out if there was any progress on a permanent anchoring for his soul.
End part 14.
Cordelia sighed, feeling almost like everybody was trying to run away. Jason had practically run from the room, even if it was supposedly to find Malthesar so he could share the information on the bad guys. Angel and Gwen had left, and she wondered, yet again, exactly how much was going on with those two, and if she needed to remind Angel about a certain nasty clause for his soul. She wondered if Willow had made any progress towards a way to permanently bind his soul to him. And she was jealous of the way that Willow and Alex looked so snuggly together. Maybe not happy with the situation, but they looked… well, maybe Willow's spell had brought her to the person that she was supposed to be with.
She was on an alien spacecraft that looked just like the set of a television series, kidnapped – or maybe drafted would be more accurate – taken to help fight some sort of terrible alien menace. Her relationship had just taken a serious nose dive. It had been bad enough that some of the secrets had been ripped out like this, but then Jason hadn't wanted to believe what they'd said, had looked at her like she was crazy. And then when he'd seen proof, he'd looked… he'd been afraid. Not just afraid of Angel the vampire, but afraid of all three of them.
Folding her arms across her chest, Cordelia leaned back in the chair, looking at the ceiling. "This situation bites."
Alex laughed, a sharp, half nervous sound, and looked at her, his eyes so full of emotion and questions that she couldn't quite sort out everything. "Considering the situation, is that the word to use?"
"Yeah, definitely the word to use." Pausing, Cordelia considered things again. They were the only humans on the ship, and Angel was a vampire, even if he did have a soul. Things were not good, could get a lot worse, and they still didn't know about the bad guys. "Sometimes, life is just way more complicated than it needs to be."
That was when the door slid open again, with this little sound of displaced air that almost mimicked a cheesy special effect. Jason was there, still looking awkward and uncomfortable, although he seemed to settle a bit when he realized that Angel was gone. Malthesar was with him, with an exaggerated looking frown.
She stood up, forcing herself to look like she wasn't angry, like she didn't want to scream and throw things because yet another relationship was plummeting towards disaster because of hellmouthy weirdness. Her smile probably looked as fake as Malthesar's frown, but it would have to do. "So, Malthesar, what can you tell us about these enemies?"
"Our enemies… They are what would best be described as pirates, or aspiring conquerors. They were tried and found guilty of efforts to seize power. Liliamesa and Thelianar were members of the Thermian space fleet, before a mutiny. They nearly took over a colony world before they were stopped. Na'triss was one of the strongest supporters of Sarrais, and rapidly attempted to take power in the sudden power vacuum. The fourth of the leaders is Kelairi, a political leader of our people. She became very ambitious, and…" He paused, as if trying to find words for something very painful. "Power without ethics is a very bad thing."
"They were sentenced to live the remainders of their lives on a miserable world that was barely habitable. There were strong factions arguing that to sentence them to death would be a moral failing of our own. Perhaps they are now reconsidering that position. The criminals… they escaped the planet, seized control of a small ship, and vanished. Several ships have been sent out to search for them, and it seems that this one was… fortunate enough to find them." His tone made it clear that he wasn't certain if this was good fortune or bad fortune.
"Imagine the odds. Out of all the habitable planets in space, they came to earth." The dry comment from Alex almost helped.
"Actually, your world is distant from the centers of power. If they could start an empire here, with this world, it might be very difficult to dislodge them from that power." Malthesar's words were logical, but unwelcome.
"So, we aren't just trying to save the world, but the whole galaxy this time?" Willow's voice was soft, as if she found the idea daunting.
"Yes. But if you have practice in saving a world, that should be beneficial for this." Malthesar looked so desperately sincere and worried that it almost hurt.
"Oh God…" Cordelia sank back into her chair, rubbing at her temple. She was certain that leaping migrane from her vision was coming back. She'd signed on to play the part of a princess. She'd expected a pretty costume, a few lines, maybe a kiss or two. She hadn't expected to have to help save the whole galaxy from ambitious aliens. "Why couldn't they just climb the social ladder like normal power hungry freaks?"
Nobody had an answer for her, partly because it was too simple. If they'd been willing to settle for the normal means of advancement, they wouldn't be bad guys, or at least not on the same scale.
End part 15.
He looked at her, half convinced that her eyes would be full of fear and distrust. Certain that things would be different now, and afraid that 'different' would also mean 'bad'. But while there was a bit of fear, it was more the sort that might be nervousness, and plenty of confusion. Her hand was resting on his, and she even had a small, hopeful smile. Maybe… maybe things weren't utterly ruined? Of course, there was still that… clause, but…
And why was he still sitting here like a lump? "That might be nice."
She stood up, her hand closing around his so that as she stood, there was a gentle tug prompting him to do the same. The result was that they were so close that they were almost touching. Gwen blushed, her eyes traveling over him as a soft "Oh my…" emerged.
"So, you mentioned a viewing lounge?" Angel smiled, feeling just a little pleased by her reaction. He might not reflect, but apparently, he still looked good, judging by her reaction. "What, exactly, is viewed there?"
Gwen just smiled, and started down a silvery hallway, pulling him along. "You'll see."
Angel found himself actually smiling as he followed her. "This looks… remarkably similar to the set. Is there even… is there one of those… giant mallet-choppy areas in here somewhere?"
"Yes, there is. We shouldn't need to go there." Gwen chuckled, shaking her head. "There's sort of a funny story about that, but… You know, I'm still not actually sure why we have that. They built it because it was on the series, but… Why was it event here at all?"
"The drama of an episode with a weak plot?" Angel ventured the guess, remembering some of the older television series that he'd seen.
"Probably. But the viewing rooms are much better." She tugged him into a room, with more silvery walls and a sort of darker gray carpeting. There were some pale couches, and a couple bowl-like chairs, but nobody else was currently in the room. One whole wall was… it looked gone, revealing a sweeping panorama of stars. Gracefully, a satellite slid into view below them, with antenna and a panel of solar cells.
Angel felt his jaw drop as he moved into the room. Slowly, he approached the stars, almost bumping into the transparent panel that formed the wall. "It's… amazing."
For a few moments, there was nothing but the soft sound of Gwen's heartbeat as they looked at the stars. Then, she asked a question, something that Angel had tried to hope wouldn't come back up. "So, you're a vampire? How does that… I mean… umm…"
Angel looked over at her, seeing the way that's he'd caught her lip in her teeth, clearly trying to figure out how to ask what she wanted to know. It couldn't be easy for her to make sense of all of this. "A vampire. One vampire has to deliberately… it's a deliberate process, and it involved dying. You probably don't want all the details. I've been a vampire for… hmm, what year is this? Two hundred and twenty some years. Some of the stories are real, and some of them are utter rubbish."
"The blood? Problems with sunlight? Crosses? Garlic? Running water? Reflections?" She looked at him, her eyes meeting his. Her other hand reached up, and her fingers came to rest over his heart.
"Sunlight and crosses are dangerous. I don't have a reflection. Running water… I have no idea where that came from, unless it's because a lot of rivers have sharp rocks in them, and that would hurt…" Angel shook his head. "Personally, I think showers are one of the greatest inventions of the modern era. As for garlic… vampires have sharper senses, so we can… strong smells are stronger. But you'd get the same effect from too much perfume or from slicing open hot peppers."
She smiled at that, looking at him. "Has anyone ever tried that? The hot peppers?"
Angel smiled a bit, noticing that she hadn't asked about the blood again. Maybe she was trying not to think about that part of things? "Not to me, but… I met someone that had that happen to him. Actually, somebody smacked him in the face with a pepper when he was trying to bite them. Apparently it was the most intensely painful and horrible experience that he'd ever suffered. It sounded far more amusing than it really should have been…"
"Oh dear…" The corner of her mouth was twitching, as if she was trying not to laugh about the idea of a vampire getting a face full of peppers instead of biting someone.
"It changes things. What I can do, what I can't do. I'm never going to have gray hair, or wrinkles, but I can't go out for a walk in the afternoon." He sighed, feeling the familiar wave of self pity, brooding, and guilt for everything that he'd done. "There's a lot in my past that I didn't mention."
"Apparently. You mentioned that your birthday was in March, but not that you were in your third century. And you'd mentioned having done some things that you weren't proud of when you were with… I think you described Darla as your ex-girlfriend?" Gwen shook her head. "How much of that was true, and how much was…"
"Edited." Angel spoke, internally wincing at the tone in her voice. She sounded as if she felt… well, almost betrayed. "My birthday is March tenth, not that I've celebrated it very much lately. Darla… she's the one who turned me. She wanted me to be… terrible, and for her, I… I tried to be what she wanted. I have a detective agency, but a lot of our cases involve demons, or curses. Some of them… they just can't go to the police. And most people, they wouldn't believe any of this."
"I know how that one works. How many people would believe that we actually met aliens, and that Laliari's… well, not human?" Gwen smiled a little, looking up at him.
"I knew that from the moment I first saw her. She doesn't smell right." Angel shook his head, feeling slightly better. "Which would hardly be convincing to most people."
Gwen just shook her head, and looked back out the window. "The view of the stars is the best part about being here. Lots better than the fact that they're counting on us to help avert some sort of catastrophe."
"We'll handle it. Just like we do everything else." Angel smiled, feeling somehow better. Gwen knew that he was a vampire, and wasn't trying to get away from him. She wasn't trying to run, or hide. Maybe… maybe there was hope.
He'd best talk to Willow, and find out if there was any progress on a permanent anchoring for his soul.
End part 14.
Cordelia sighed, feeling almost like everybody was trying to run away. Jason had practically run from the room, even if it was supposedly to find Malthesar so he could share the information on the bad guys. Angel and Gwen had left, and she wondered, yet again, exactly how much was going on with those two, and if she needed to remind Angel about a certain nasty clause for his soul. She wondered if Willow had made any progress towards a way to permanently bind his soul to him. And she was jealous of the way that Willow and Alex looked so snuggly together. Maybe not happy with the situation, but they looked… well, maybe Willow's spell had brought her to the person that she was supposed to be with.
She was on an alien spacecraft that looked just like the set of a television series, kidnapped – or maybe drafted would be more accurate – taken to help fight some sort of terrible alien menace. Her relationship had just taken a serious nose dive. It had been bad enough that some of the secrets had been ripped out like this, but then Jason hadn't wanted to believe what they'd said, had looked at her like she was crazy. And then when he'd seen proof, he'd looked… he'd been afraid. Not just afraid of Angel the vampire, but afraid of all three of them.
Folding her arms across her chest, Cordelia leaned back in the chair, looking at the ceiling. "This situation bites."
Alex laughed, a sharp, half nervous sound, and looked at her, his eyes so full of emotion and questions that she couldn't quite sort out everything. "Considering the situation, is that the word to use?"
"Yeah, definitely the word to use." Pausing, Cordelia considered things again. They were the only humans on the ship, and Angel was a vampire, even if he did have a soul. Things were not good, could get a lot worse, and they still didn't know about the bad guys. "Sometimes, life is just way more complicated than it needs to be."
That was when the door slid open again, with this little sound of displaced air that almost mimicked a cheesy special effect. Jason was there, still looking awkward and uncomfortable, although he seemed to settle a bit when he realized that Angel was gone. Malthesar was with him, with an exaggerated looking frown.
She stood up, forcing herself to look like she wasn't angry, like she didn't want to scream and throw things because yet another relationship was plummeting towards disaster because of hellmouthy weirdness. Her smile probably looked as fake as Malthesar's frown, but it would have to do. "So, Malthesar, what can you tell us about these enemies?"
"Our enemies… They are what would best be described as pirates, or aspiring conquerors. They were tried and found guilty of efforts to seize power. Liliamesa and Thelianar were members of the Thermian space fleet, before a mutiny. They nearly took over a colony world before they were stopped. Na'triss was one of the strongest supporters of Sarrais, and rapidly attempted to take power in the sudden power vacuum. The fourth of the leaders is Kelairi, a political leader of our people. She became very ambitious, and…" He paused, as if trying to find words for something very painful. "Power without ethics is a very bad thing."
"They were sentenced to live the remainders of their lives on a miserable world that was barely habitable. There were strong factions arguing that to sentence them to death would be a moral failing of our own. Perhaps they are now reconsidering that position. The criminals… they escaped the planet, seized control of a small ship, and vanished. Several ships have been sent out to search for them, and it seems that this one was… fortunate enough to find them." His tone made it clear that he wasn't certain if this was good fortune or bad fortune.
"Imagine the odds. Out of all the habitable planets in space, they came to earth." The dry comment from Alex almost helped.
"Actually, your world is distant from the centers of power. If they could start an empire here, with this world, it might be very difficult to dislodge them from that power." Malthesar's words were logical, but unwelcome.
"So, we aren't just trying to save the world, but the whole galaxy this time?" Willow's voice was soft, as if she found the idea daunting.
"Yes. But if you have practice in saving a world, that should be beneficial for this." Malthesar looked so desperately sincere and worried that it almost hurt.
"Oh God…" Cordelia sank back into her chair, rubbing at her temple. She was certain that leaping migrane from her vision was coming back. She'd signed on to play the part of a princess. She'd expected a pretty costume, a few lines, maybe a kiss or two. She hadn't expected to have to help save the whole galaxy from ambitious aliens. "Why couldn't they just climb the social ladder like normal power hungry freaks?"
Nobody had an answer for her, partly because it was too simple. If they'd been willing to settle for the normal means of advancement, they wouldn't be bad guys, or at least not on the same scale.
End part 15.