Chapter 1
"Angel, stop sulking. You're still a champion, anyway." Giles said in an irritated tone. He was fed-up with Angel's constant brooding and didn't know how they ever put up with him. Really, for someone who's more than two hundred years old, he's acting quite childish.
"Yeah, just not the champion. It's not fair; I didn't even get my Shanshu thingy yet. I mean, wasn't that The Apocalypse five years ago? How many the apocalypses are there, anyway?" With that Angel gave a little pout and strode over to sit at the loveseat in the middle of the lobby.
Giles gave a little sigh and went on to ignore him. He scanned the scroll for the spell in his hands again to make sure that he had everything right. If Willow was here this would've been much easier but seeing as she's not, as she had gone again to the astral projection, and won't be being back for some time they were stuck with him. Giles looked at his watch and frowned. Buffy, Gunn and Lorne should have been back by now with the supplies. He wondered what was keeping them so long. He hoped they weren't in any danger.
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The Gharrlod demon was thrown across the room and hit the wall very hard before falling on top of a stack of empty boxes. Lorne looked up from the table, where he was putting their orders into his bag, when he heard the sound and stood up. "Oh, boy", he said to himself as he went to join a furious-looking Buffy. "This ain't pretty".
Buffy had her arms crossed across her chest and her glaring eyes were unwaveringly focused on the heap among the boxes. When Lorne came up to her, he spoke in a worried tone "Uh, sweetcakes. I don't think that was a good idea."
Buffy looked at Lorne and said, "He grabbed my ass!"
Uh-oh, Lorne thought, I guess I forgot to mention it to her. He did a mental gulp and gave a small laugh, "Ah, I guess I didn't tell you about that."
"About what?"
Oh, sweet mother of Lord. "Oh, hah. Common misunderstanding. I guess I should've told you that the way Gharrlod demons close a deal is by squeezing the fleshy bump on the backside which so happens on humans to be your tush. Not perverted in any way."
"What! Lorne!"
All Lorne could give was a small "Oops-sorry-forgive-me?" gesture when they heard a growl. They looked at the demon which was trying to stand up and get out of the pile. It looked just as furious as Buffy previously was.
"Ok, so how do I tell him that it was all a mistake? A misunderstanding."
"You have to show him you're sorry, honeybun."
"Ok, so how do I do that?"
"Well…" Lorne leaned in to whisper into her ear and told her.
Buffy's eyes went wide and she turned to look at him. "No – no! Ew, that's disgusting!"
"Sorry, hon, but it has to be done. I would do it for you but I'm afraid he's only angry at you."
"Can't we just kill him? Technically, he is a demon. No offense."
"None taken. And no. We might need to deal with him again and it won't be nice manners."
Buffy looked at the demon which was walking towards her, demon saliva running down its jaw. "Yech!" Buffy said with disgust. She glares at Lorne warningly before saying "This never leaves this room."
"You have my word."
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Gunn sat in his truck parked outside the warehouse where Buffy and Lorne were. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel in tune with the song playing in his head, voicing out the occasional "yeah" and "uh-huh". Then in the distance he saw Buffy speed walking towards the truck and Lorne trailing behind her. He turned on the engine, grinning at the roar it gave, and waited for them to catch up. Buffy took the front seat and slammed the door, making Gunn wince at the strong impact but not saying anything. As soon as Lorne was in and seated, Gunn immediately set off for the Hyperion.
During the drive, he chanced a glance at Buffy who was looking out the window. "So, what happened back there? You guys took a while."
"Don"t. want. to talk about it."
Gunn just raised an eyebrow and said nothing. Instead he looked at the rearview mirror to look at Lorne, questioning him silently. Lorne, sensing this, just shakes his head. Gunn shrugs and left it at that. If they didn't want to talk about, he's no business snooping around; so he just continued the silent drive.
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Giles was sitting on the floor with his sleeves folded up – his jacket abandoned earlier somewhere in Angel's office – when he heard the door burst open and three figures came in. He frowned at the tension that he felt around Buffy and Lorne – one that Gunn was obviously oblivious to since he was too happy talking about wanting to kick some demon butt. Well, he didn't have time to think about it – those two will just have to deal with it among themselves – when they had something important on their hands, like preventing a demon from bringing about the end of the world.
"So, did you get the supplies?" Giles asked as he got on his feet and wiped his hands on his pants, even though they weren't even dirty.
"Yep, have them right here" said Lorne as he went over to hand his bag to Giles.
Giles took the bag and relieved it of its contents, putting them on the floor beside him. Yes, they were all there. All they had to do now was perform the spell.
"Ok" Giles said. As he was about to sit down again he said "Now, since everyone's here, I don't" Giles stopped his descent and straightened up again. He looked around the room and then rubbed his head in annoyance. "Where are the others?" Giles asked. Quite frankly he was losing his patience.
"You mean Spike and Xander?" Angel filled in, returning from his office. "Last I saw they were headed from the basement."
"Don't forget the blue princess." Lorne chipped in.
"Yes, Illyria." Giles heard about what happened to poor sweet Fred. He felt useless when Angel called that time and asked for Willow. He felt that somehow her death was partially his fault, even though any other person he told this to would've said otherwise. He regretted not being able to do anything to help them. He couldn't call for Willow then, and he couldn't call for her now. So this time he vowed to use all his abilities to help them. If only they'd act more seriously about this.
"Angel, will you go and get them please? We can't afford to waste anymore time on this."
As Angel went off to get them, Giles finally was able to sit down again. The others quickly followed suit and sat down on their designated X's that Giles had written around the circle he drew on the floor with red paint. So now Giles was sitting on one side with Lorne and Gunn on his left and right respectively. Beside Gunn was Xander's spot and next to it, Buffy. Next to her was where Angel would be sitting – directly opposite Giles for obvious reasons of the spell – and then, Spike and Illyria. All of them would complete the circle, and then they"d perform the spell to open the portal. Angel would then enter it and retrieve their apparent hero, hopefully as quickly and simply as possible while returning unscathed. They had no idea what was on the other side, and what would slip through the portal while it was open so each one of them was prepared with a concealed weapon.
Angel came back again with the others. Spike and Xander each looked rumpled while Illyria had a small smirk which was, quite unnerving. Nobody asked so nobody told. They all sat down and finally completed the circle. Looking around at all the faces, Giles took a small breath before starting.
Angel quite frankly was feeling a bit bored. It was a fairly easy process, surprisingly; Angel thought that it would be more exciting but Giles said a few words, threw bits of various powders in the middle and then told them to hold hands. They've been at it for quite some time now – one hour – and his bum was starting to hurt. The reason it was taking so long was because Giles was, you could say, scanning for the right dimension.
The spell was somewhat unspecific. It was a cool spell, actually, although troublesome if you want it done quickly. It held a sort of database to various dimensions and you could pick one you wish to open. Angel wondered if they had gotten hold of this spell earlier if they would have easily found Connor in Quor-toth, and if everything would have gone differently. As Angel was entertaining those thoughts, there was a sudden "A-hah!" sound that came from Giles.
Giles whispered a few more words and suddenly, floating in the middle of the circle, was a huge portal of blue swirling mist.
"Ok, Angel." Giles said, letting go of his hands which the others followed suit. "You have to be quick. I sensed he's the only person there, so I don't think you'll have any problem finding him. Good luck."
Angel took a deep breath – one which was completely unnecessary – and stood up. He looked at the misty portal and said "Here goes nothing" before entering into its unknown depths.
Angel held his hands in front of his face when he felt himself falling. He gave a little grunt when his body impacted hard with a cemented floor. He got up to his feet, steadying himself, and inspected his surroundings. He was in what looked like an empty warehouse and judging from the view at a high window, it seemed to be dusk. Angel, seeing nothing there, made his way to the front entrance. He opened the door… and found hell.