Authors Note: First off, I apologise for such a huge delay between updates. I was distracted by a wonderful holiday to Lanzarote, followed by an extended bout of writer's block... I've always known the broad stroke of what would happen in the story, but it's the little details that kill me sometimes.

As always, thanks to everyone who has reviewed. I'm sorry I kept you waiting and hope you'll continue to enjoy the story. You guys inspire me! Xephon- I'm guessing you're not the worlds biggest Buffy fan. Sorry you don't approve of Buffy being general, but it made perfect sense to me - Hey, she's annoyed me too at times, but I can't imagine anyone else doing it.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Angel, Buffy or anything else, really, except for the PC I wrote this on and an extensive DVD collection. However, if my plot to take over the world is successful, things will change... :-)

Reviews: As ever, read and review and I'll love you forever...

CHAPTER 15: WHAT'S BETTER THAN A ROCKET LAUNCHER?

The light from the twin suns bathed the field in golden light. Two birds fluttering overhead suddenly squawked and flew away quickly as a swirling portal opened, spitting forth its passengers.

Angel squealed the van to a halt and looked around. The area didn't look particularly familiar to him.

'Uh, Lorne? Any idea where we are?'

The green-demon sat forward and looked out the windshield at the area before them.

'Uh… yeah. I think it kinda looks familiar.

Reaching across to the side door of the van, he popped it open and stepped out into the mid-morning sunlight. The smell of the air made him shudder. Damn it all, he was home again. Looking around, he spotted a familiar lane that passed for a road in these parts.

'That way,' he pointed.

Angel had gotten out of the van himself and now came to stand at Lorne's elbow. 'You sure?'

'Sure I'm sure. My mother's…' he spat the word out with a mixture of contempt and distaste, '…farm is over that ridge. And we opened our last portal home just west of there.'

The vampire nodded. 'West it is then,' he agreed.

Angel turned to get back in the van when he saw Cordelia standing, staring at him. A ghost of a smile played on her lips. 'What's wrong?'

'Nothing,' she smiled a little wider. 'I just… I guess it's been a while since I saw you in daylight.'

Angel smiled and turned his face towards the twin suns, closing his eyes and savoring their heat. As he stood there, he felt her hand slip into his. He drew her towards him, wrapping his arms around her frame without opening his eyes. For a moment, he could almost hear his heart beat, standing with her in the sun. Then a shadow crossed his heart as he remembered the future he had signed away. His chance of being human gone, he wondered what kind of a future he could ever offer the woman in his arms.

A throat cleared behind them. Angel opened his eyes and saw Lorne, his arms crossed, what passed for a stern expression etched on his face.

'I hate to break up this beautiful moment you two. But in case you hadn't noticed, we're kinda against the clock. And, more importantly, I want to get the hell outta here as soon as!'

Cordy suppressed a grin and withdrew herself from Angel's embrace, all business once more. 'So are we hiding the van and going incognito?'

'Like Lorne said, we're against the clock,' Angel replied. 'Maybe we should take it.'

'A van in this dimension? That'll be wicked conspicuous,' Faith commented from the van's door.

'No choice,' the vampire replied. 'We need to find those books and get to the Senior Partners. We're not going to do that fast enough on foot.'

Faith shrugged in acceptance. 'Let's hit the road then.'

Buffy paced the inner office nervously, psyching herself up for facing her troops. Since she'd left Sunnydale, she had pretty much left all the training and slayer duties to Faith, at her sister's and her friends' insistence. She was burned out, they said. She needed time to grieve for Spike. To rebuild a new life for her and Dawn in Europe. And it would be good for Faith, Willow and Giles had told her. Give her a purpose, a focus. So Buffy had passed the torch, as it were, to the dark-haired slayer.

And, in the deepest recesses of Buffy's mind, it had been a huge relief. The two years or so since her mom had died had been hell on earth. The grief process. Coping with Dawn. Her own death and painful resurrection. And then the apocalypse to end all apocalypses (or so she had thought at the time). She had become world-weary and not a little bitter, and had begun to understand why slayers never lived very far into their twenties. If the demons didn't kill you then the bitterness, the isolation and the responsibility would.

But now. Now she wasn't alone. Every girl who could be a slayer was. All of the potentials had received their Slayerhood, and the weight of the world was no longer on her shoulders alone. And it had been wonderful. She still slayed when she needed to, when demons or vampires had crossed her path. She still discussed strategy with Giles and Faith when the need arose. But for the most part she was free.

Faith had proved herself to be a remarkable leader, tirelessly training the new girls and taking them under her wing. Buffy couldn't help but be impressed by her. So impressed, in fact, that the three months Buffy had planned on taking off from active Slayer duties suddenly became 6 months. And 6 months was quickly turning into a year. Buffy had often wondered in these past few weeks if she would have ever gone back at all, if the LA battle hadn't happened.

She knew that was the main reason Faith had decided to go to Pylea. The brunette had nearly admitted as much to her the day before.

'You need to start getting to know these girls, Buffy,' Faith had told her. 'They're your troops too.'

'You trained them,' she had replied. 'They know you. They trust you.'

Faith had shaken her head in frustration. 'You've been out of the saddle too long, girlfriend. Its time you got back on.'

Voices in the lobby brought her out of her reverie. Xander was back.

'Hey Buff!' he greeted her as she left the safety of the office. 'Check it out. What's better than a rocket launcher?'

Was this one of his weird jokes? She shrugged, not really knowing how to respond.

He gestured excitedly to the crates some of the slayers had just set down. 'Two rocket launchers!'

Buffy was stunned. 'You stole two rocket launchers?'

'What? Too much?' Xander grinned. 'The army base was totally deserted. Guess they've bunked out. We got some grenades too. And we swung by that big sports equipment store. Crossbows, arrows and some more swords.'

The look of amazement on Buffy's face morphed into a huge smile.

'Did I do good, or did I do good?' He preened, obviously very pleased with himself.

'You did great,' she told him. Leave it to Xander to come through. 'Let's get everyone together and talk some strategy.'

The van got some very bewildered looks as it drove past a small village in Pylea. One of the children present burst into hysterical screams and ran into a house.

'Guess horseless carriages still haven't made it here yet,' Cordelia wryly observed. Her eyes lit up at another thought. 'Which means that polyester hasn't either. So, call it a plus side.'

'Let's just get out of here, Angelcakes, okay?'

Angel could see what Lorne was nervous about. Several male demons had gathered and were pointing towards the van with rakes and shovels as they drove past. Speeding up, he drove away from the village quickly and went up over the hill towards their destination.

Coming to an abrupt stop, Angel took a look around. This was the place. He glanced sideways at Cordy for confirmation. She nodded.

'Okay, everyone out,' he announced. 'We need to do this quick, before those villagers tell someone we're here.'

'Everybody fan out,' Faith ordered the slayers. 'We work outwards from the van in circular formation. Everyone stay within yelling distance for now.'

Giles regarded the surrounding area. Behind them was the hill they had just come over. They were currently in a green pasture, with no distinguishing features save for a few boulders here and there. To the west lay a dense wood. The hopelessness of their situation drove itself home.

'Angel? How long has it been since you were here?'

'3 years, give or take.'

The watcher had feared as much. 'The likelihood of the books still being here or anywhere in the area…'

'I know, Giles,' Angel turned to the Watcher, showing for a moment his own hopelessness before the hero's veil came down in his eyes once more. 'But we have to try, don't we? Cordy's vision, or whatever it was… Doyle told her we need those books if we're going to win.'

The Englishman took of his glasses with a sigh, needlessly polishing them on his sweater. 'Angel, I know I don't need to tell you this. You've been through this before countless times and I know you know what the stakes are…' He paused, unsure of how to continue.

'You're trying to warn me that we may not win.' It wasn't a question. Giles nodded but said nothing, waiting for the other man's reaction. 'I know the odds are stacked. They always are… I know that this time, it may be the hardest thing we've ever faced… But, I know something else too.' Angel looked Giles straight in the eye. 'I know that I'm going into that fortress to face the biggest, most unstoppable evil that I've ever come up against, and I'm being forced by some prophecy to go in their with my son and the woman I love! And I'll be damned before I'll take them in there without some kind of guarantee that they'll get out again! We need those books.'

He stormed off towards the trees, desperately searching for some trace of the books, or some trail of whoever might have taken them. He knew that Giles was right, that three years on the chances of finding the books were next to impossible. But he also knew he had to try. Now that they were in Pylea, the prospect of Cordelia and Connor going into that fortress with him was even more terrifying. They were all he had left, and the prospect of losing them…

The sound of something flying at speed through the air distracted him from his thoughts. Looking up, he moved only just in time to avoid being skewered by a long wooden spear.

'We need a moat.'

The assemblage of Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Xander, Kennedy and a dozen or so Slayers, along with their new human and demon alleys, all turned with varying looks of bewilderment at the statement. For a moment, no one could speak.

'What?' Andrew asked, puzzled. 'I think a moat might help. I always thought it was the one thing missing from the defenses at Helm's Deep. If they had a moat, the Deeping Wall might never have been blown up.'

Finally, Buffy found her voice. 'You know, I miss the old, bound and gagged Andrew.'

'No, wait. Seriously,' he insisted. 'If we had a moat, filled with, like… I don't know… gasoline or oil or something… then we could fire flaming arrows into it when the demons try to cross…'

'You do like flaming arrows, Buffy,' Dawn commented, a giggle choking her.

'Andrew! We're in the middle of LA!' the Slayer said, exasperated. 'Not in the middle of… Robin Hood Prince of Thieves! ... Can we get back on topic? Now, from what we've learnt from recon, they've been recruiting a lot of vamps into their forces.'

'Yeah,' Rondell cut in. 'They're grabbing a lot of folks from the downtown area and turning them. People who couldn't afford to leave, the homeless, whoever the can lay their demon hands on. Big numbers.'

'How many?'

'My guys reckon on maybe five hundred vamps…'

The group sucked in a breath as one.

'Oh jeez, relax,' Willow remarked. 'The vamps are the easy part. If I were you, I'd worry about all the hell-beasts and that dragon.'

'What's your plan?' Buffy asked.

Willow smirked. 'Just a little idea Xander and I have about one of our rocket launchers. We'll work out the kinks and get back to you.'

'Great. So, we'll have around 20 Slayers on roof tops with crossbows. Left flank on the ground will be Rondell and your guys. Right flank Rieff and your men.' Rondell let out a derisive snort which Buffy chose to ignore. 'Both your teams will be backed up by slayers – 10 or 15 each.'

'We don't need no back up!'

Buffy looked Rondell straight in the eye. 'You're guys are good fighters, I won't deny that. But you're all human and unless you're holding out on me, none of you have superpowers. So you're getting back up.' Rondell opened his mouth to argue. 'End of discussion,' the Slayer said forcefully.

She turned to Kennedy. 'You'll take the rest of the slayers down the centre. Xander, grenades, rocket launchers, flaming arrows, flame thrower. Take whoever you need and have them positioned behind the main line. Dawnie, you're with him. Willow?' she looked at the red head sitting opposite her.

'Front and centre at your side.'

Angel turned to see more than a dozen villagers charging towards them, armed with a variety of rakes, hoes, shovels and spears. Several of the Pyleans eyed the van warily and gave it wide birth, but they continued to charge towards them nonetheless.

'Welcoming committee,' Faith remarked. 'Friends of yours?'

'Not especially,' Angel replied. 'But, no matter what they look like, they're just farmers Faith.' His tone made his implication clear. Faith immediately turned to her troops.

'Defense only,' she yelled to them. 'No killing blows!'

The Slayers got into formation with liquid precision. Most of them were armed with swords or axes, but didn't bother to unsheathe them, preferring to ready themselves for hand to hand.

Angel tore off a sturdy branch off a nearby tree at tossed it to Cordelia. 'You remember how to stave, don't you?'

By the look on her face, he was going to pay for that remark later. Connor ran to his side. 'Go easy on them, kid.'

The younger man regarded his father wryly. 'Funny, I was just about to say the same to you.'

Running forward, they met the villagers head on. They could see another five or six in the background, running to join their comrades. Angel grabbed hold of a rake as it swung towards him, snatching it from his would-be attacker's grasp and flinging it away, before tossing the now unarmed demon away from the main battle. Another ran forward to take his place.

A burly farmer with a shovel ran at Cordelia and she raised her make-shift staff to defend herself. Her size and agility gave her the edge, however, and she danced around him, keeping him off balance and unable to land a successful blow. She raised the staff to counter yet another attempt, and drove the shovel up and backwards, totally unbalancing her opponent. Swinging her staff around, she caught him across the stomach, winding him and landing him flat on his back.

Predictably, the farmers and villagers were no match for the Slayers. In moments, they lay at their feet, groaning from various minor injuries their opponents had inflicted upon them.

Angel turned to the rest of the group. 'Right, now that that's taken care off…'

Before he could complete his sentence a warrior leapt from the trees and held a blade to his throat before he could move to counter the attack.

'Angel the Drokken killer. You have dared to return?'

To Be Continued...