Oslo, Norway
November 19, 1891
Darkness and cold gripped the city tightly. It was the sort of bitter cold that made even the hardened locals want nothing more than to toss another log onto the fire and to spend the night nestled in their beds with an extra blanket or two to help keep winter's chill at bay. Few people moved through Oslo's streets this night. The few who did moved at a hurried pace, clothes clutched tightly to their bodies to try and retain as much body heat as possible until the traveler could reach someplace warm.
But as with all things there are exceptions. In the dark streets near the harbor four people walked casually as if the cold meant nothing to them. Two of the travelers were women, one blonde the other brunette. Both were strikingly beautiful and wore thick designer cloaks made of wolf fur. The other two were men, one also blond and the other dark-haired. They wore thick woolen overcoats that were currently the fashion in England.
As they walked the travelers did so with a casualness and swagger that amazed anyone who caught a glimpse of them. To the dead the cold means very little.
"God, will you look at all this snow," grumbled the blond man. "It's like the Sahara Desert only the wrong color."
"It's not true what they say about how no two snowflakes are identical," said the brunette girl as she watched several flakes float by. "That's just a rumor they started to make it easier for them to trick us. I can hear them all. Plotting away and singing Christmas carols all the while."
"Ask them to sing something else then," replied the blonde woman. "I hate Christmas."
"After what you did five years ago in Jerusalem I imagine Christmas is none too fond of you either, darlin'," countered the dark-haired man in a noticeable Irish brogue.
"Nothing like slaughtering two dozen religious pilgrims on the holiest day of the year to get you on Father Christmas' naughty list, eh, Darla?" snickered the blond man.
"I don't believe in Father Christmas, William," replied Darla. "But if I do ever met him I'll be sure to rip his throat out. For some reason he never visited me when I was a child."
"I told you to call me Spike," snorted the vampire. "But offing jolly old St. Nick, now that would be a spot of fun, wouldn't it, Dru?"
"Oh, that does sound like fun," cooed Drusilla. "I've never killed a saint before. I wonder what they taste like."
"Rather bland, I'd say," mused Darla. "What do you think, Angelus?"
"The problem with killing saints is that they can't become saints until after they're dead," said Angelus. "So the only way you could ever find out what a saint's blood tasted like is to kill him while he's still a mortal holy man."
"Which we did lots of last month," noted Spike. "Priests and nuns really are bland so I suppose Darla's right."
"Bland or not maybe we shouldn't have killed quite so many of them in such a obvious fashion back in Copenhagen," muttered Angelus. "That's what got that pack of vampire hunters after us."
"But, Angelus, we couldn't let my Spike have all the fun, now could we?" said Drusilla.
"She's has a point there," smirked Darla. "Besides, those vampire hunters were far from the most formidable that we've ever faced. It's not as if we were dealing with Holtz, after all."
"They may not have been Holtz but they did have numbers on their side," countered Angelus, momentarily recalling the torture and near extermination he'd suffered at the Englishman's hands. "That's what forced us to flee the city on the first available ship. Which, by cursed luck, brought us to this iceberg of a city."
"Nothing warms me up like a spot of blood and a bit of murder. And I think I've just found a place were we can all have a bit of both," smiled Spike as he pointed to a building with lit windows across the street. The sign above the building's entrance read "The Gray Cat Tavern".
"It's rather late and very cold. I imagine that there aren't very many people inside," mused Darla. "And we do need a place to stay. I don't relish the idea of spending the night in the sewers in this weather."
"There's Viking blood in there," whispered Drusilla. "It's in little flesh bottles that have 'Drink Me' written on their necks. Just like in Alice in Wonderland."
"Well, what's say we all make a little trip to the pub then?" said Angelus gleefully. With that, the four vampires strolled across the street. An icy blast of wind rushed into the tavern as Angelus pushed the door open, a sad omen of what was to come.
Inside were four men. Behind the bar was a heavyset man who looked as if he were fighting a losing battle to stay awake. At a nearby table, surrounded by many empty bottles, were two men wearing outfits common among the local sailors. One was in the middle of telling an extremely lewd joke, much to the enjoyment of his companion. Lastly, sitting at a table in a corner, was a bookish man who had a nervous air about him. A bowl of soup sat growing cold before him, but the man was too occupied with futzing with his pocketwatch and adjusting his glasses to pay it much heed.
"Oh, good evening ladies and gentlemen," said the bartender as the group entered. "I'm afraid we'll be closing soon so the kitchen is no longer open. But if you'd like to sit by our fire and have a quick drink to warm you on this awful night I'd be more than happy to accommodate you."
"Thank you kindly, good sir," replied Angelus warmly in passable Norwegian. Behind him Drusilla and Darla moved to stand a few feet away from the sailors, much to the enjoyment of the seamen who were now giving the female vampires their full attention. Spike, meanwhile, edged over to near were the nervous man sat.
The entrance of the newcomers seemed to have only made the man more worried. Spike noted the man's hands were now trembling slightly. Hhhmmm, I think the little poof is on to us, thought Spike. Right then. When we show our hand I'll have to grab him nice and quick to make sure he doesn't get away.
At the bar Angelus was giving the bartender one of his best smiles. "Tell me, sir, just what sort of brandy would you happen to have back there?"
"Ah, a fellow brandy drinker," grinned the bartender. "Well, you're in luck tonight, my friend. I received a shipment of most excellent quality just the other day."
"Wonderful," said Angelus as he morphed to his vampiric visage. "Nothing washes down fresh blood quite like good brandy." The bartender had only time for a short gasp before Angelus grabbed him and sunk his fangs into the man's neck.
The two sailors sat staring, jaws agape at what had happened. They were snapped back to reality when Darla and Drusilla, now also in vamp mode, turned to face them.
"Allez cuisine!" cackled Darla as she and Dru pounced on the two men.
As anticipated, the nervous man tried to bolt the moment Angelus changed. But Spike had been ready for him and grabbed the man before he'd made it two paces.
"No! No! No!" screamed the man as Spike turned him around so that they were face to face. "You're demons aren't you!? I'm trying to help you! I have the information she wanted! Let me go! Why are you doing this!?"
"We're vampires. This *is* what we do," answered Spike. "Now shut up and die with some dignity. On second thought, just shut up and die. I don't give one toss about your dignity." With that, Spike pulled the man's neck close and began to feed.
Several minutes later the vampires were done feeding and the bodies of their prey had been tossed casually in a corner.
"Mmm, that was a lovely meal," said Drusilla contentedly as she sat down in a chair and laid her head on a table. "I could taste the sea in him. Now I'm rocking from side to side on the inside just like a boat. Its ever so much fun."
"I'm happy for you, pet," grumbled Spike as he plopped down into a nearby chair. "But I'm still a bit peckish. A skinny little bloke like that isn't very filling."
"I'm afraid you'll just have to live with him for tonight, Spike," said Darla as she went about closing the shutters on the tavern's windows. Given recent events Darla didn't want to take the chance that a stray passerby might spot the bodies of the vampire's victims.
"Cheer up there, Spike," called Angelus from behind the bar. With a flourish the vampire pulled two large bottles of brandy out from under the bar. "This stuff will do a fine job of fillin' the rest of your belly. Best of all, these drinks are on the house."
Spike grinned at his fellow vampire's joke.
"Cheers, mate."
~*~
"Wake up!"
The words cut like an icepick though Angelus' brain. Who's shouting at me like that and just how slowly can I kill them? wondered the vampire as he began to open his eyes.
Angelus' thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly felt a hand grab his throat in a viselike grip and haul him out of his chair and into the air. The shock of this managed to cut though the alcohol haze that had been clouding his mind just moments before.
Angelus looked down and saw that the person holding him was a woman with dirty blonde hair, a series of red markings on her face who sported a black dress with bust and hemlines that would have been considered quite scandalous by the standards of the day. The woman…no, a demon, the vampire's senses mentally amended…was extremely angry.
"You miserable, pathetic leech!" howled the female demon. "Do you have any idea what you've done!?"
"Gaaakkk!!" replied Angelus.
With a sound of disgust the demon released the vampire and watched as he tumbled to the floor.
"Nice of you to wake up," called Spike. "It seems we're in a rather big spot of trouble."
Angelus, after taking a moment to be grateful vampires didn't need air, looked to see Spike, Drusilla and Darla standing to the demon's side a several feet away. Though they were trying to hide it, Angelus could tell that they were all quite afraid. He didn't blame them a bit. Angelus' senses were sharp, even for a vampire, and right now his senses were screaming at him that the woman before him was not only a demon, but a very powerful one as well. As a rule demons and vampires usually didn't get along well.
This, to put it mildly, wasn't good. If he was going to get out of this Angelus decided he'd have to be very, very clever.
"My dear lady, it seems that my companions and I have done something to upset you," said the vampire in his most charming voice while giving a graceful bow. "Please enlighten me as to our transgression and I swear we'll do all we can to make amends."
"It takes more than sweet words to fool Mara, you worm!" spat the demon. "Because of you four the entire universe just may come to an end."
"Oh, fun!" giggled Drusilla.
"Love, now is not the time," whispered Spike. "Let's try and get the very angry and powerful demon over there not to kill us and then we can look into destroying world some other time."
"Promise?"
Spike gave a quick metal sigh but nodded. She may be mad but that's part of why I love her, he thought. I just hope Angelus can talk us out of this so I can keep that promise.
If Mara heard that conversation she ignored it. Right now all her attention was focused on Angelus. "You fools didn't know it, but the man with the glasses over there was a member of a cult who worshipped the Frost Giants, the ancient and sworn enemies of the Norse gods, both good and evil. The cult's worship of them was giving the Frost Giants a great deal of power.
"I doubt creatures like you know the ancient stories of this land so I'll enlighten you as to why this is bad. If the Frost Giants gain too much power they're sure to attack the Norse gods. A final war between the Norse gods and the Frost Giants is one of the signs of Ragnarok, the end of the universe.
"I don't know about you, but neither the gods or myself are keen on the idea of Ragnarok happening just now. That's why my masters assigned me the task of locating and destroying the Cult of the Frost Giants. The man you killed was a member of the cult who was willing to sell them out in exchange for his own life being spared. Because the cult has powerful mages who would have noticed if he'd just summoned me directly I arranged to meet him here to gain the location of the cult's headquarters."
Mara's eye flared red as she glared at Angelus. "But then the four of you had to come in here and kill him!"
Angelus took a moment to process what he'd just been told. Given the circumstances it was no wonder the demon was so enraged. In fact, the vampires were very lucky she hadn't destroyed them yet.
It was then that Angelus had an idea. It was a longshot, but it was better than being turned to dust. Or worse.
"Most ancient and powerful one, please accept our most sincere apologizes for interfering in your most noble mission," began Angelus. It took all the vampire's self-control not to wretch at being forced to speak such sycophantic words. "Since it was our error we would be most honored if you would allow us to aid you in your quest."
"Aid me?" said Mara as she arched an eyebrow. "How can you lot help me?"
"Even a demon as powerful as you clearly are can't be everywhere," replied Angelus. "Allow us to be your agents and search the city for the base of this cult you speak of. Once we've located their lair we'll even destroy them for you if that's your wish."
"Big talk, leech," snorted Mara. "It took me weeks to get a line on the cult and find someone willing to turn on them. What makes you think you and your pals can accomplish what you claim?"
"Angelus can be most…persuasive when he wants to be," cut in Darla.
"'Angelus?'" repeated Mara. "I've heard tale of you, vampire. They call you 'The Scourge of Europe' do they not?"
"Ay, that they do, my lady," answered Angelus.
Mara stood silently, her face a mask of contemplation as she considered the offer she'd been made.
"Very well, vampire, you and your companions have a deal," announced the demon after several long and tense moments. Mara then reached into the cleavage of her dress and pulled a scroll of parchment from it.
"Give me you hand, Angelus."
The vampire was less than thrilled at the idea of offering the demon his hand but complied. Mara carefully took Angelus' right hand with her left and lifted it up to face level. Suddenly the demon's head leapt forward and Mara's teeth clamped down on the vampire's thumb.
Angelus let out a shout and jerked his hand free. "What in the hell are you doing?!" he growled. The vampire then glanced down at his injured finger. Under normal circumstances a small wound like that would heal almost instantly. Angelus' thumb, however, remained bloody. The vampire suspected that since the wound had been inflicted by a demon it might take longer to heal.
As Angelus turned his attention back to Mara he noted that she now had a quillpen in her left hand. "Here's the deal, you parasites. This parchment is a contract by which you four swear to track down and destroy the Cult of the Frost Giants by dawn tomorrow. If you succeed I'll release you from my service and let you live. If you fail you'll burn with the morning sun. After I've made you suffer for a while, that is. Of course, as with all demon contracts, this one must be signed in blood. Now, who wants to sign first?"
After a moment of silence Angelus said, "I will,". Mara nodded and handed him the contract and the quill. After dipping the end of the pen in some of the blood that had flowed from his finger, the vampire placed the parchment on a table and quickly signed his name.
As the other three vampires watched Angelus, Mara drew a wicked-looking knife from her sleeve and hurled it at the table. It embedded itself in the wood just inches from one of Angelus' hands. To his credit the vampire showed no reaction. He simple moved off to the side a bit.
"The rest of you may use the knife to draw your blood," informed the demon.
Drusilla, Spike and Darla did so and Mara's contract was soon signed. Once that was done the demon rolled the contract up and stuffed it back down her cleavage. Mara then drew a gray stone from an unseen pocket in her dress and tossed in to Darla.
"That's a summoning stone," said Mara. "Once you've completed your mission, if you complete it, squeeze the stone and speak the words 'Vise seg, Mara' to summon me."
The demon then flashed a nasty grin. "Oh, and if you're thinking of skipping out on our contract I'd advise against it. That contract was signed in your own blood which means there's nowhere you can run or hide that I can't find you."
"We'll keep our word," replied Angelus. "By dawn tomorrow the Cult of the Frost Giants will be but a memory."
"Then stop the lollygagging and get to work, Dead Boy!" commanded Mara. "Or I'll make sure you all suffer twice as much before I let the sun burn you to dust." With that, Mara vanished leaving only the strong smell of brimstone behind her.
For several moments the vampires stood silent.
"'Deadboy?'" Angelus repeated. "Remind me to slowly skin the next person who calls me that."
"Well this is just bloody wonderful!" shouted Spike as he tossed his hands in the air in frustration. "We've just signed a blood contract with a demon who plans to torture and then roast us if we don't find and destroy some cult in just over a day. We may as well stake ourselves right now!"
"Stop being so dramatic, Spike," ordered Darla. "We're still alive and that's what counts."
"We're alive but we're dead. I don't know if that's funny or not," said Drusilla quietly.
"It's most definitely not funny," grumbled Angelus. "We've bought ourselves some time but we've also incurred quite a task."
"Don't be so down, dear," said Darla. "I spent decades under the personal tutelage of the Master. He taught me many things, including how to track down people and things."
"The Master never stuck me as the Sherlock Holmes of the vampire set," groused Spike. "But how do you expect us to find this cult in one day when it took that demon three weeks just to get a solid line on them?"
"Demons like Mara are too arrogant and pompous to be very good investigators," answered Darla. "They have a hard time bringing themselves to consort with the sort of low-born creatures who often have the sort of information she was looking for. Lucky for us, thanks to the Master's teachings, I know were such creatures can often be found in cities like this."
"I guess that bald bastard turned to be good for something after all," said Angelus. " So, quickly, we'll burn down this place to cover our tracks and get to investigating."
"As Holmes might say, the game is afoot," smiled Darla.
~*~
It was called Unspace. That was what Mara called it anyway. It was an endless expanse of white stretching out across infinity. A place on the canvas of creation that had been left blank.
The only thing that existed in Unspace was will. Mara's will. The demon had found this void while out exploring the planes of creation one day, countless centuries ago, in the time she called her childhood. Even since then this place had been a sanctuary to her. A place where she could escape all the pressures that came with being a first-class unlimited demon.
It was in Unspace that Mara felt she could think most clearly. For in Unspace there were no distractions. Only her will keeping the nothingness at bay while she contemplated.
So Mara floated motionless in the great sea of Unspace, her mind turning the recent events in Oslo over and over again. Her thoughts constantly searching for another solution to the problem of the Cult of the Frost Giants. Something that didn't involve pinning all her hopes on four pitiful vampires.
It was then that she felt it.
Mara's eyes slowly opened. She was being summoned.
With a flash of red light the demon vanished.
Unspace was empty once more.
~*~
The first thing Mara saw when she materialized on Earth was a great mansion on fire. Then she heard the screams. From inside the mansion came a stream of screaming, both men and women. But they were not the screams of people escaping a fire or even being consumed by one. They were the screams of people being slaughtered.
"Do you find our work to be to your satisfaction, milady?" asked a gleeful voice to the demon's side. Mara turned her head to see Angelus standing beside her. The vampire's clothes were stained with blood and had several rips in them, his hair was mussed and his face, currently in its demonic visage, had a large smear of dark red blood around the mouth.
In his left hand Mara could sense the summoning stone she had given Darla. In his right hand Angelus wielded a fireplace poker. Covering the sharp end of the poker was more blood and bits of a gray substance that Mara guessed was likely brain matter.
"Just what am I looking at, leech?" demanded the demon. "It looks like just another vampire massacre to me."
"Ah, but the people dying in there are the Cult of the Frost Giants," informed Angelus proudly. "It took us quite some time, but we were finally able to find a minor ice demon who we were able to, shall we say, convince to tell us the location of the cult's headquarters. Once that was done my companions and I used our considerable charm to gather a group of a about twenty local vampires to help us."
"Weaker vamps always do tend to follow other vampires with strong forces of personality," recalled Mara.
"That they do," nodded Angelus. "Anyway, once we knew the location of the cult we headed her at once. It seems that the cult's' leader is a man of great means so he decided to make his private mansion the cult's base. He chose a wonderful location really. Out here, away from the city and on the edge of a forest, no one would notice a cult at work. Or one being exterminated."
"But vampires can't get into a private residence without being invited. How did you get inside?"
"Ah, that," said Angelus. "In that regard fortune was with us yet again. When my followers and I arrived we happen to hear some strange noises coming from a shed in the back. It turned out to be two of the servants having a late night romantic encounter. As luck would have it those servants lived in the mansion. So all we had to do was grab the lady by her throat and threaten to tear it out to convince her gentleman friend to invite all of us into the house.
"Our good luck didn't stop there. It seems that most of the cult was gathered here tonight to perform some sort of ritual in the basement. Our arrival quickly put an end to that.
"So for about the past hour my fellow vampires have been destroying the cult's members and anyone else they should happen to come across. Witnesses and all that. The cult members put up a good fight for about the first forty minutes but after that it was all downhill. We should have killed everyone in the next fifteen minutes or so."
It was then that a horrific scream came from the front of the mansion. Mara and Angelus turned in time to see a man covered in flames running out the main door.
With a small sigh Angelus pulled back the poker, took aim, and then hurled it at the burning man. The poker flew though the air and into the center of the man's chest in a matter seconds. The man stopped screaming abruptly, gave a small gurgle, and then fell to the ground dead.
Mara didn't even blink.
His work done Angelus turned back to the demon. "So, milady Mara, I think that my companions and I have lived up to our end of the contract. If it pleases you to do so, I'd like to humbly request that you fulfill your end of our bargain."
Mara nodded, reached into her cleavage and pulled out the contract the vampires had signed in blood the night before. She held the up at a right angle, muttered a few arcane words under her breath, and watched as the scroll caught fire. In seconds the parchment was ash blowing in the wind.
"Congratulations, deadboy," said Mara. "You and your leech friends get to continue to live, as it were." The demon then fixed Angelus with a fiery gaze that made even the vampire shudder. "If you'd like to keep existing I'd suggest never, ever crossing my path again, Angelus. Because I swear to you right here and now, next time I won't be so generous."
With a final scowl Mara then vanished.
Angelus stood motionless for several moments. He then let loose a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding. "Honestly, if my heart still beat it's days like this that would give me a heart attack.
"Damn high and mighty demon bitch! I'll find some way to make her pay for treating me like a dog one of these days. Mark my words I will!"
Angelus then turned his gaze to the burning house. "I suppose I'd best round up, Darla, Spike and Drusilla. We've done what we came to do and it'll be dawn soon. If we don't want to burn we'd best start looking for shelter."
After heaving a final sigh Angelus headed for the burning house to locate his companions.
For several minutes the area where the demon and the vampire had been was totally silent. Then the face of a boy, no more then ten years old peaked out from behind a bush. The boy looked at the spot where the two beings of evil had talked and at the still burning mansion. He stifled some tears. His face had seen many of them in the last hour and he couldn't bear to shed anymore.
"Mara, Angelus, Darla, Spike and Drusilla," whispered the boy. "I'll remember those names. Someday I swear I'll make all of you pay for what you did here to tonight."
With that the boy drew back into the underbrush and disappeared.
~*~
"Damn," whispered Angel. "I remember now. We slaughtered everyone in the mansion. The cult members, the servants, the household's children."
"Yeah, you had the touch back in the day, deadboy," mocked Mara. "I was never into the gore thing. If I'd have found the cult I was planning to call my bosses and let them send in some trolls or something to do all the wetwork. You saved me the trouble. And you reveled in it."
Angel glared at Mara. "Yes, I did. But that was then and this is now. I'm not like that anymore."
"I doubt the late Jenny Calendar would agree with that," retorted the demon.
Angel flinched.
The vampire then took a breath to steel himself. "You've told me about how we met, Mara. Now I think it's time you left." Angel then reached for the spellbook to read the dismissal spell.
"Whoa, whoa, space cowboy," said Mara. "That was the first time we met but it wasn't the last time out paths crossed. There was another time. It was one of the most important moments in your life, as a matter of fact. Would you like to hear that story too, my little fallen angel?"
After several long, silent moments Angel nodded.
Mara grinned savagely.
~*~
April 2, 1900
Peking, China
Across the city fires burned, people cried and screamed, flesh and bone torn and shattered and fear hung like a heavy fog in the air. Atop a warehouse in the docklands Mara stood a watched all that was happening with glee. "Ah, the smells of revolution! You know I love it."
A strong breeze carrying the scent of a nearby fire blew by ruffling the black jacket Mara wore. The coat was part of an outfit that consisted of green trousers, a brown shirt, Mara's necklace of animal teeth, a khaki web belt, and sturdy black boots. The outfit was based on uniforms currently being worn by soldiers in Europe with a few modifications to suit the demon's personal taste.
Off in the distance there was a large explosion. Mara smiled. Tensions between the native Chinese and foreigners had reached the breaking point in recent months and now a full-scale rebellion was well under way. Mara had spent a lot of time in the region lately, fanning the flames of hatred on both sides and brokering dark pacts with the various factions who were vying for power. As people ran through the nearby streets screaming the demon took a moment to bask in the satisfaction of a job well done.
It was then that Mara felt something hit her. The demon stumbled and for a moment almost lost her balance. But Mara was able to right herself in time and quickly began to look around. "What the hell was that?! That force that hit me, it didn't feel like a physical blow. It felt like an attack from the astral plane or something similar."
Mara then closed her eyes and began to concentrate. She let her demonic senses roll out across the area searching for the source of the disturbance. After several minutes Mara found what she was looking for.
Mara opened her eyes and then vanished.
The demon rematerialized herself close to where she'd located the center of the disturbance. As the world again came into view the first thing Mara noted was that she was inside a Buddhist temple. A temple that was currently on fire. Mara paid the fire no mind and continued to look for the source of the event. A few steps away she spotted a finely crafted sword driven into the base of a statue. The demon walked over to the statue and with a quick jerk pulled the sword free.
"Does this mean I'm now the king of England?" mused Mara to herself.
Mara then gave the sword a twirl in her hand and slashed at the air. "Hhhmmm, study yet flexible, light and still perfectly balanced. From the look of it I'd say it's old too. Three hundred years at least. Not the sort of thing one just leaves laying around a burning temple."
The demon gave a small shrug and, with the sword still in hand, headed deeper into the burning building.
It didn't take long for Mara to find the girl's body. She was young, not even out of her teens, and dressed in a dark blue silk outfit that was popular among martial artists. A few feet from her right hand was a wooden stake whose back end had been elegantly carved into the shape of a dragon. On the girl's neck were two puncture wounds.
Mara looked at the girl's body.
"Vampires."
She then reached over and picked up the stake. Mara spent several moments examining it before giving a bemused grin.
"Toothpick."
The demon then stored the stake in one of her coat pockets. She then reached out to the wound on the girl's neck and ran a finger though a bit of the still warm blood that stained the fallen girl's skin. Mara put the finger with blood on it in her mouth and tasted it. The demon's smile grew larger.
"Slayer."
Mara nodded to herself as stood up from over the dead girl. "Well, well, looks like some vampire out there had themself a very good night. Still, this does explain that force that hit me. The mystic energy released by the death a Slayer is considerable. The senses of a lowborn creature like a vampire aren't sharp enough to sense such things but mine are."
The demon then took a deep breath. "Oh, and I smell the musk of vampire nookie in the air as well. A post-victory celebration, no doubt."
The demon gazed at the fallen Slayer's body. "Was it worth it, little one? Giving up the dream of being a normal girl, knowing that you were condemned to die a young, and likely terrible death?"
Mara then hefted the sword casually up and against her shoulder. "Not that I really care. But I'd just like to know for the record.
"Anyway, I'd like to thank you for generous contribution to my kitchen set. I'm sure this sword will be excellent for slicing watermelons. And that stake, I mean, toothpick will be a part of my oral hygiene routine for a long time, I assure you.
"If it's any consolation, you don't won't have to worry about the rats and bugs making a meal of your corpse. Then temple is burning quite nicely so I'd image you'll nice and cremated very soon."
Mara then took a moment to spit on the girl's face. The body's skin hissed and burned where the saliva touched.
"Arrivederci, Slayer," mocked Mara as she vanished.
~*~
Mara reappeared on the roof of a building several blocks from the burning temple. "My senses tell me that there are some vampires right around here. I want to see the one that killed that Slayer with my own eyes."
Mara's eyes scanned the people in the area. At first all she saw was Chinese running one direction or another trying to escape the chaos that gripped the city. Then the demon spotted them. Through the storm of panic that was Peking walked four westerners. Two men and two women. Two with dark hair and two blondes. The two women and the dark-haired man were dressed in the elegant clothes of the day.
The blond man wore a workman's clothes and an expression of unrestrained, sadistic glee on his face. As Mara watched the blonde vampire even gave a merry little hop over a barrel that lay in the street as he walked.
"I think I just found my Slayer slayer," concluded the demon.
Mara then blinked. "Hey, wait a second! I know those vampires! They're the ones who I had destroy the Cult of the Frost Giants back in Norway almost ten years ago. Their names were Angelus, Darla, Spike and Drusilla."
It was then that Mara's demonic senses set off a little alarm bell in her head. Mara leaned forward and squinted at Angelus. "No way." Mara reached into her jacket, pulled out a pair of glassed and secured them to her face. "I'm seeing it but I don't believe it. Angelus has a soul!"
Mara scratched her chin and tried to think. "A vampire with a soul? In all my years I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing. Sure, restoring a vampire's soul is possible but why would anyone want to do that to a creature like Angelus?"
After several moments of thought a lightbulb went off in the demon's mind. "Oh, I get it. I bet Angelus went and killed someone with loved ones who were skilled in magic. They restored his soul to let his human heart bear the burden of having killed and tortured so many. Twisted! I like it!"
Mara's gaze again returned to the street only to find that vampires gone. "Dammit!" cursed Mara. "I got so lost in my own thoughts they slipped away. And here I was hoping to have a little fun with those vamps. I wonder if Angelus' friends know about his soul. I wonder what kind of fun things might happen if I told them."
It was then that another explosion rose up off in the distance. Mara sighed. "Oh, right, I have work. Tormenting vampires is cheap kicks compared to a revolution anyway. I guess I'd better get back to it."
Mara gave her new sword a quick twirl and then vanished.
~*~
"And I'm sure you know the rest of the story," finished Mara.
Angel only nodded. He recalled how later that same night Darla had confronted him over his not-so evil ways. She'd got so far as to have kidnapped a baby and demanded that he kill it in front of her to prove that he was still the monster she thought he was. In the end Angel fled with the child and returned it to its parents. But that confrontation with Darla had forced Angel to split from the woman who had been his sire, mentor, companion and lover for decades.
For a moment Angel wondered at have things might have been if Mara had indeed reentered his life that night. Thankfully he would never know.
"You know, I kept meaning to track you down and see what you were up to," said Mara casually, snapping Angel back from his revelry. "But you know how it is. One war ends and two more start up. There's a revolution somewhere. Ethnic or religious hatred flares. I tell ya, the past ninety-nine years of this century have been a boom time for us demons. I can't wait to see what the next one holds. Assuming there is a next century. I'll have to check to see when the next Apocalypse is scheduled.
"Anyway, with all that I had to do I never did find the time to check up on you. So imagine my surprise one day when I hear who happens to be cooling his heels in particularly nasty hell dimension."
"Full circle," whispered Angel to himself.
"You got it," mocked Mara. "Well, this has been fun but I've got to go. Evil waits for no demon. See ya, deadboy."
With that Mara vanished.
Angel stood silent for a time just staring at the pentagram where the demon had been.
"Enjoy yourself while you can, Mara," he said eventually. "Because the next we meet there will be a reckoning. A reckoning that only one of us is going to walk away from."
To be continued…
Author's notes: Well, that's finally done. This is another part of the story I was itching to do from day one. I can tell you it was even more fun to write than I expected it to be. But I'll ruminate more later. Let's point out a few things first.
"She has a point there," smirked Darla. "Besides, those vampire hunters were far from the most formidable that we've ever faced. It's not as if we were dealing with Holtz, after all."
Holtz is, of course, the time-displaced vampire hunter who's giving the Fang Gang such a hard time in the current season of Angel.
"Allez cuisine!" cackled Darla as she and Dru pounced on the two men.
"Allez cuisine" is the line the great Chairman Kaga uses to kick off battles in his Kitchen Stadium in every episode of the Japanese cooking show Iron Chef, of which I am great fan. The phrase literally means "Go kitchen!" in French.
"Love, now is not the time," whispered Spike. "Let's try and get the very angry and powerful demon over there not to kill us and then we can look into destroying world some other time."
It takes him almost a hundred years to keep that promise, but in Buffy's season two he and Dru almost did destroy the world.
"That's a summoning stone," said Mara. "Once you've completed your mission, if you complete it, squeeze the stone and speak the words 'Vise seg, Mara' to summon me."
"Vise seg, Mara" literally means "Appear, Mara," in Norwegian. Yes, I actually took the time to track down and consult a Norwegian-English dictionary.
Also, everything that Mara said about the Frost Giants is true and comes from actual Norse myth.
I had some fun with Mara calling Angelus 'deadboy'. Now you see why Angel hates it when Xander calls him that so much.
The whole concept of Unspace is something that just came out of left field. I was trying to think of some place for Mara to be when Angelus summoned her but I kept drawing a blank. All I could think of was Mara floating in a white void. So I decided to just run with the void. After musing on it for several minutes I christened this void Unspace.
The name being my attempt to sound like comic book writers like Warren Ellis and Grant Morrison. If you ever get the chance, read anything they wrote. Joss Whendon himself is a huge fan of Warren's Planetary book. Joss wrote in introduction to the first Planetary collection and even said in interviews that he had an idea for a Planetary story that he wanted to write. Sadly, for a variety of reasons, this will never happen. But Joss did later say he thought of a way to use the idea elsewhere.
Anyway, even though it was a real spur of the moment thing I really like the concept of Unspace. I wouldn't be surprised if I dig the idea out to use in another story of mine someday.
"Whoa, whoa, space cowboy," said Mara.
I know this line sounded a bit odd. At first it was just going to be "Whoa, whoa, cowboy." But then I got to thinking about how the line "See you, space cowboy," ended so many episodes of the anime Cowboy Bebop and after thinking about it for several seconds I knew I'd have to put it in.
Also, IMO, the line "You're going to carry that weight" fits Angel just as much as it does Cowboy Bebop's Spike Spiegel.
"Arrivederci, Slayer," mocked Mara as she vanished.
Originally I wanted Mara to say, "Zàijiàn, Slayer" which is how you'd say "Goodbye, Slayer," in Chinese. Of course, about 1.5 seconds of though made me realize that while people in America might get Mara saying goodbye in Italian, almost no one would get her saying that in Chinese. Besides, zàijiàn is how one says goodbye in modern Mandarin Chinese, which I don't think people would have been using in turn of the century Peking (known today as Beijing).
For the record, Beijing was one of the places I visited while in China. I had a pretty good time there and strutting my stuff on the dance floor of a Beijing disco is one of my favorite memories of the trip. Of course, it would have been better if I had any skill at all in dancing which I don't. But no one at the club seemed to notice and I had great time so I don't worry about it.
I'm sure all of you recognized the China flashback as coming from the Buffy season five episode "Fool For Love". I knew the first time I saw that episode that I'd have to find some way to work it into the story. How could I not? The slow motion as Angel, Darla, Dru and Spike walk though the city, the looks on their faces, and the beats of the music hitting at just the right moment. Truly it was one of the greatest episodes of Buffy ever!
Plus, her whole one-sided interaction with the dead Slayer gave another chance to drive home just how evil Mara can be. Though I admit I sort of dithered on if Mara should spit on the body or not. I really wondered if I might be going too far on that one. But then I figured that Mara's a first-class, unlimited demon. To get a rank like that I'd say doing terrible thing on a daily basis is pretty much a requirement. So I went with it.
Now for the good stuff; Spike, Dru and Darla. I hope their inclusion in the story was a pleasant and enjoyable surprise for everyone.
God, these guys were a blast to write! Spike is just so much fun. I've had some mixed feeling about the direction he's taken in the last few seasons, but hot damn I'm burning to see what happens with him next.
But I really love "old school" Spike. Back when he and Dru were running the vamps in Sunnydale was, in my book, the peak of all things Buffy. Not that the stuff that came after was bad by any sense of the word. It's just that Spike back then was totally and unrepentantly evil. And that sort of villain is just a kick to cut loose with.
Then there was Dru. Wonderful, evil, crazy Dru. I was actually worried I might not be able to handle that bizarre way she talks. But once I started writing it just came to me. Great, I hear Drusilla in my head. This fanfic stuff is making me crack!
Lastly, we have Darla. I don't need to tell you folks what she's meant to the world of Angel in the last few seasons. Originally, only Spike and Dru were going to be with Angelus in this story, but then I saw that the four were together in "Fool for Love" and the Angel episode "Darla" so I had to put her in.
Darla was also interesting to write. So was loyal to the Master who Angel treated as a joke. She loved Angelus but was willing to leave him to Holtz to save her own skin. Is it any wonder that she can screw with Angel like no one else?
Anyway, I think I've rambled enough. I'll close by saying that you should hang onto your hats, folks. We're getting closer to the grand finale but the surprises are nowhere near done.