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The Coven of Reformed Supernaturals

The Beast itself could not have taken Angel's last kick and gotten out of it completely unscratched. Cole, possessing only a fraction of the superhuman strength of the vampire, had never even had a prayer.

The moment the kick hit him he was sent reeling back, clutching at his throat as though desperate to protect it from another assault, and the frozen world around them vanished as Angel and he slipped into the shimmering dimension; evidently they'd only been able to stay in that world for as long as Cole was focused.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Angel roared at Cole, shifting into his vampire face as he began to launch a powerful array of punches and kicks at his opponent, barely giving Cole any time to counter-attack. "HOW DARE YOU USE BUFFY TO TRY AND MAKE ME GIVE IN! HOW DARE YOU MANIPULATE ME! HOW DARE YOU STAND THERE AND ACT LIKE YOU WANTED TO HELP ME!"

"I do want to help you!" Cole yelled back, although his voice was slightly muffled by his damaged teeth and jaw. "Why else would I show you that world-"

"Oh, with that SHIT excuse of a life?" Angel asked, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder in the metaphorical direction of the illusion.

"Cole, don't you get it?" he said, his voice lowering in volume as he spoke, trying to resist the temptation to strike at the man who had once, so very long ago, helped him to realise the truth of the words he was now speaking. "Life can't be perfect, or we wouldn't have anything to compare it to. How would we know we were awake… if we'd never been to sleep? How would we know we were happy… if we had never been sad? We have to take the good with the bad, not sidestep the bad every chance we get. If we don't make mistakes, how can we learn from them?"

Cole stood up, still slightly unsteady on his feet, and glared at Angel.

"You truly believe that to be the case, Angel?" he asked, slightly tense as he faced Angel; evidently he was preparing to attack again. "No matter what the consequences of your mistake are, you wouldn't take your decision back? Even if your mistakes cost you everything you ever wanted?"

Angel nodded, a slight tear in his eye.

"Even then," he said to Cole, tensing himself as well as he prepared to retaliate. "My past made me what I am; I can't just change it every time I feel hard done by."

Cole merely growled slightly in reply as the two of them stared at each other, each one waiting for a chance to strike and defend their 'beliefs' to the other.

In the end, they both moved at the same time, lunging towards each other with a crash that seemed to send ripples along the walls of the dimension as they collided, Angel's vampire face on and Cole's eyes gleaming with red fire from the power within him.

The two 'men'- for lack of a better term- grappled with each other at close quarters, neither one prepared to give the other man a chance to get a spell off, albeit for different reasons. Punches were landed by each man onto the face and upper body of his foe as could best be done in such close quarters, but the two combatants were so close to each other that neither of them could land a punch that would be powerful enough to make a serious difference.

After a few moments of rolling around through the blankness that surrounded them, it was Angel who terminated their violent 'embrace' by grabbing Cole's shirt and head-butting him sharply on the nose. The recoil of the impact snapped Cole's head back sharply, followed closely by the rest of his body as Angel struck Cole sharply in the chest with both feet in a powerful kick. The sheer force of the blow sent Cole flying back several 'feet' before he managed to steady himself, looking back at Angel with cold determination in his eyes.

The vampire didn't even seem angry that Cole was still alive, never mind frightened at how the demon was glaring at him. He simply smiled, as though recalling a pleasant memory, and then raised his hands, his entire body now beginning to crackle all over with golden energy.

"The gloves are off," he said to Cole simply.

Then he dived towards the demon with a speed that would have seemed too fast to a passing beam of light (Assuming light worked the same way on this plane of existence), and collided with Cole, sending the two of them flying as gold light shone around them…

And suddenly, countless alternate lives flashed before their eyes, as though, just for a moment, the barriers separating their alternate selves had collapsed, and these two versions of Angel and Cole could experience everything that was being felt by the others.

Cole was a mortal doctor who had fallen in love with an equally mortal Piper after she contracted amnesia… he was still an Avatar, returning to the present after a showdown in a future ruled by an evil version of Wyatt Matthew Halliwell… he was Belthazor again, giving the best man speech at Piper and Leo's second wedding…

Angel was a private detective mounting a robbery to get revenge on this reality's Wolfram & Hart… he was human once again, united with Buffy, Conner and Dawn after being restored to life following the destruction of Sunnydale… Darla and Conner were still alive, although an eight or nine-year-old girl who called him 'Daddy' and seemed to resemble Fred was there as well…

Then, briefly, a world flashed before their eyes that both saw, instead of just one. A world that featured both of them in it, as close as brothers in all ways but blood, sitting on a couch, surrounded by children of various ages, none of them older than five, chuckling as they watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame on the television…

Then that world passed, the golden light around them vanished, and Angel was left staring down at Cole, who was merely blinking in confusion at his surroundings; evidently, most like since he hadn't been the one to trigger it, he was more dazed by their recent experience than he was.

Angel had to admit, he felt like sitting down for a few moments to get his head together himself- what had he just done there, used his magic to dive through countless alternate realities in some subconscious attempt to daze Cole?- but shook it off; there would be time for weakness once Cole had been defeated. This was no time to dwell on what could have been; he had set himself a task, and this task had yet to be accomplished.

He wasn't denying that the prospect of stopping for a while to take a look at other alternate worlds was pleasant, but he had more immediate matters to attend to. Some of the worlds he'd seen had been good ones, yes, but unlike Cole, Angel was content to just be himself and use his temporary powers to stop his new nemesis, rather than use them to try and insert himself into a new timeline.

Whatever had happened to his alternates that gave them the life they had led, they deserved it. Life had given them a chance, and they had taken it, where he, for reasons unknown, had not taken it or had never even had the option to take it.

All he could do was make the most of the life that he possessed; they had their worlds, and he had his.

As he looked down at Cole, now more alert and looking almost ready to strike back again, Angel's mind flashed back to the events of half a year ago, when he and Lindsey had duelled in the basement of Wolfram & Hart.

"It doesn't matter what you try. It doesn't matter where I am, or how bad-ass you think you've become, because you know what? I'm Angel. I beat the bad guys…"

It had been true then, and it was still true now. Whether his adversary was a human, a vampire, a demon, a god…

Angel had always found a way to defeat it.

He wouldn't break his record now.

As Cole stared up at him with an expression that could almost be incredulity, as though he still couldn't believe that Angel wanted him dead after all this, Angel lunged towards Cole again…

And suddenly, Angel felt his consciousness rise from his body. For a moment he thought that Cole had somehow negated the curse and freed his soul, but quickly realised that, unlike the last couple of times this had taken place, he could still sense his physical body.

Then a figure appeared in front of him. Dressed in the brown leather coat, dark trousers, and dull long-sleeved white T-shirt, looking for all the world like he had when he was Belthazor and fighting on Angel's side, a golden gleam around him that could only indicate the presence of a soul, a gleam that could never be fabricated…

Cole Turner.

"You finally did it, huh?" the former lawyer said, looking at the vampire with a small smile on his face. "It took you long enough… Then again, I suppose it took you a while to get the picture after my little 'talk' to you, didn't it?"

"What?" Angel said, looking at Cole in confusion. "What are you…"

Then he noticed something that he hadn't registered before. Like many of the astral projections and ghosts he'd encountered in his life, Cole seemed slightly transparent, but this was different. Certain details about him seemed to be… indistinct, for lack of a better term. His sleeves almost seemed to become part of his wrists, the fur around the edge of his coat was hazy and indistinct; it was almost like looking at a self-portrait done by a skilled artist, but who was basing his work on what he remembered from a while ago rather than what was in front of him at the immediate moment…

And then it hit Angel.

"You're… you're the Cole I know, aren't you?" he said, looking at Cole in surprise. "You're the part of him that remembers this when we send you back…"

"Got it in one," Cole said, smiling over at Angel. "When I was sent back, the sisters cast a spell to erase my memories of my time in the future, but it somehow had the side effect of creating a kind of… sub-me, I guess you could say, that remembered everything that happened in that time and remained dormant in my subconscious. As things went on, I realised that I could observe everything that happened to the dominant personality without being affected by it like he was; I think that, in some way, I'm actually the last remnants of his soul."

Sighing sadly, he looked back at Angel's suddenly inquiring expression. "Believe me, I've tried to take advantage of that fact, but the dark magic in me's too powerful. I've given everything I've got towards trying to take control of the body back at some points, but all I could exert was the slightest suggestion as to whether or not to do something in the last few months; stop him blowing Paige up the moment he saw her, prevent him from taking over Phoebe's mind to make her love him again…"

He sighed. "Minor details, I know, but it was all I could do."

"And… this?" Angel asked, indicating himself and Cole. "What happened to make this little 'chat' of ours possible?"

Cole smiled slightly at that. "You did, really," he said to his old friend. "Your little 'stunt' back there with the dimension dive- interesting trick, by the way- left him dazed enough for me to reach out and form this link with you. We're currently communicating on the astral plane; our bodies are pretty much moving in slow motion back where we left them."

"Ah," Angel said, nodding in understanding before he looked at Cole in confusion once again. "And the point of this is…"

"You need my help to pull this next part of the fight off," Cole said, looking at Angel with a serious expression. "If you can get that potion down 'my' throat, you'll be fine from there, but you'll never got close enough to do that without my help. If you transfer some power to me, I can break out of this body, leaving him so confused that you can shove the potion down his throat, and then take him out if you move fast enough."

Angel nodded thoughtfully. "Could work…" he said, before his eyes widened and he looked back at Cole in horror. "But… wait a minute… if you leave the body…"

Cole shrugged. "Yeah, I know, I go off to whatever's waiting for me in the afterlife and there's a good chance that I'll end up in Hell because of what my body's been doing after it got corrupted by all that dark magic…" he said nonchalantly as he looked back at Angel. "Your concern's appreciated, Angel, but trust me; I'll be fine. What happens…"

He sighed. "Well, I've had a good run; all I can do is go out with a bang."

He looked over at Angel with a resolved stare. "Now, just hurry up and do it before I change my mind."

His throat too tight to speak, unable to believe what his friend was willing to sacrifice for the sake of the world that had forced him into this position, Angel could merely nod. Raising his arms, Angel launched a burst of energy at Cole…

And then he was back in his body, leaping towards Cole, whose head had suddenly been thrust back sharply as a brilliant gold light burst from his eyes and mouth. The light vanished just as Angel hit him, knocking Cole flat onto his back. Glancing at Cole's face, Angel was relieved to see that 'Soul-Cole's' gamble had paid off; Cole was staring blankly 'upwards' in confusion, almost as though he was looking for something he'd missed and couldn't understand what it was doing there.

Seizing his chance, Angel pulled out the phial of potion that Leo had given him (Mercifully still intact), pulled the stopper off, and tipped the whole bottle down Cole's open mouth. Cole's entire body suddenly glowed a vibrant blue for a moment, and then the glow faded, leaving Cole looking mostly the same as before, but somehow less… complete, was the best term Angel could come up with.

As Cole blinked his eyes open to look up at the vampire, Angel just smiled.

"Hey, asshole," he said, raising his fist back as he grabbed Cole's shirt, "who's Mr Big without the increased healing?"

Before Cole could reply, Angel had punched him the face, leaving Cole with a broken nose, and then hauled Cole onto his feet, his head in Angel's hands.

As Cole stood there, his soul gone and his every action now motivated merely by his magic, his dazed brain registered just what Angel was intending to do. One hand stretched over his left cheek and ear, the other hand nearly encompassing the right side of Cole's head, each one gripping the head in such a tight hold that Cole couldn't break free…

Cole swallowed.

Angel was going to break his neck.

"Go ahead- kill me!" he yelled at the vampire, a last act of defiance as well as a last stab at survival. "Snap my neck like a dry twig. It'll be your last chance with her!"

He felt Angel tense slightly, and smiled; it seemed like he'd struck a nerve there. It seemed like no matter what else happened, the Slayer would always be Angelus' weak spot…

"Think about it, Angel!" Cole yelled, frantically trying to make his point to Angel before the vampire could finish the job. "You signed away the Shanshu prophecy; you'll never be human now! You'll always be a vampire, and she'll spend her life fucking the likes of the Immortal! Is the world really worth that price!"

Angel sighed, as he stared up at nothing in particular.

"No," he said, regretfully. "The world isn't worth that."

Cole relaxed, and Angel seized his chance. Twisting Cole's head sharply to the right, an audible snap was heard as Cole's head suddenly ended up facing backwards.

For a moment, the first vampire and the first magic-based demon to ever possess souls stared at each other, a single thought flashing through their minds as their seemingly timeless combat finally came to an end.

Brother…

Then the light faded from Cole's eyes, and Angel let his body fall. As he stared down at the fallen body of his once and future friend, fire slowly spreading along his form as the magic within his body began to depart their 'prison, he uttered three simply words to explain his actions, the only words that were needed.

"But she is."