Title: Immortal Miracles
Author: Kristin Hulett Buffy and the Scooby Gang find out about the prophecy about Angel turning human, i.e. the Shanshu prophecy. Then they get some strange dreams and prophecies of their own.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters on Buffy and Angel. I am only a lowly fan who liked the Angel/Buffy relationship and has my own ideas about the prophecy Wesley found. The only characters that are possibly mine are the members of the Council of Miracles (and Megan, in the epilogue). Meaning, don't sue me because what would you expect to get out of a 23-year-old without a job, driver's license, or anything that could possibly mean my family's rich. All you would get would be a lot of junk and a possibly psycho golden retriever.
Author's note: The demon is loosely based on Greek mythology, if it seems familiar.
Part Eleven
While Buffy, Giles, and the others head toward the area where Angel is obviously battling the demon, they study the demon itself. Buffy decides that it kind of looks like the pictures of dragons from the time of the Knights of the Round Table. Except it didn't. It had multiple heads, like the Hellmouth demon they fought twice before, and was dark in coloring. Every once in a while, they saw one of the heads dart down and apparently attack. Most of the time, the head would come back up quickly, after being beaten somewhat. Several of the heads were bleeding from large cuts; the blood showing up dark in the moonlight. Evidently, Angel had a sword or something sharp also.
A few minutes later, they get close enough to the battle to see that Angel is suffering from several wounds. He is still fighting, but it looks to them that this might be a battle he will lose.
Buffy starts getting worried that this battle might end fatally. At least in Angel's case. At that exact moment, she realizes that, even though she tried to suppress it, she still loved Angel. Her anger over her breakup with Riley transforms into anger at this demon who was endangering Angel's life. She gets her weapons ready and rushes into battle recklessly.
Giles exclaims, "Wait! We need a plan! You can't just throw yourself into battle like that and live." Suddenly he speaks quieter, like he is being introspective. "Especially against a demon like this."
Cordelia, only hearing the first part of Giles's comment, suddenly has a thought. "Wait a minute! Maybe this battle is what all those prophecies were about." Afterward, she can't believe she actually came up with that on her own. Then, she surprises herself even more. She speaks, "Hey! We need to help them so they don't die. We can't just sit here and watch them lose."
Both guys are staring at her. Then, Giles kicks into gear. "OK. We need to at least give Angel a break. We should split up so we can attack from all sides and hopefully surprise this demon enough to make some headway. Angel and Buffy have the front of the demon already. I'll take the rear; Cordelia, cover the right side, and Wesley will have the left."
Wesley has second thoughts. "Isn't this going to be a suicide mission?"
Giles gets angry. "Would you rather just stand here and watch Buffy and Angel get massacred?" Wesley looks down and slowly shakes his head no. "I didn't think so."
They spread out, each person going to their assigned areas. About a minute later, they attack. Giles gestures to the others at the best time to attack. They rush in with their weapons raised.
Their plan works at first. The attack from all sides surprises the demon. Angel gets a chance to fall back for a minute to recover some of his strength. Buffy takes up the slack and is fighting mercilessly. Both Cordy and Giles are slashing with their swords, and Wesley is wildly swinging his axes. After a moment, they are all covered in demon blood.
But the demon is not backing down. It hardly seems to be registering its wounds. It is the ultimate foe by way of resilience. It is the Energizer Bunny of the demon world. It keeps going and going and going.
Suddenly, Giles gets an idea. He finds a large piece of wood from w destroyed building on the pier. He tears some fabric from a nearby table covered with a tablecloth. He finds a bottle of alcohol and douses the fabric, which he has wrapped around the end of the piece of wood. He pulls a matchbook out of his pocket, lights a match, and lights the makeshift torch. He runs back into battle.
With one gigantic swing of the sword, he puts all his strength into cutting off one of the demon's heads. Immediately afterwards, he thrusts the torch onto the wound, cauterizing it. While it is writhing in pain, Giles, Cordy, and Wesley inflict more damage. Buffy runs over to Angel, who is sitting on the ground.
"Are you OK?"
"I'm fine." He doesn't seem to realize that it is Buffy speaking. Then, suddenly, he struggles to his feet and picks up his weapon. "They can't fight! I have to be the one to kill it! I have to go back into the battle!"
Buffy responds to his outburst. "You can't! It'll kill you. If you die, where will that leave me? I'll be all alone." She starts crying.
Finally, Angel realizes that it is Buffy speaking. "Buffy?"
"Yes. It's me. I'm here."
"I have to fight it myself. It's part of the prophecy. I have to do it."
Buffy reluctantly relents and lets him go. He goes back into battle, and shortly, the demon is killed, due to the fact it was mortally wounded before. Everybody slowly leaves the scene of carnage, and heads back to their cars. On the way there, Angel suddenly jerks upward and loudly groans. Then he collapses on the ground, unconscious.
Everybody panics. At first, they just stare down at the unconscious form, and then the silence is broken by Cordelia. "Um . . . What just happened?"
They realize Angel passed out. Cordy kneels down to try and revive him somehow. She knows it should be hard, due to the fact that he's a vampire. However, she gets a major surprise.
"Buffy? Can you come down here for a minute? I need to talk to you."
"OK." She slowly kneels down in confusion. "What?"
Cordy starts whispering. "Put your hand over his face."
Buffy gets even more perplexed at this order, but does it anyway. "What are you talking about?" Then she realizes what is wrong with Cordelia. Her eyes get wide.
Cordy gives voice to what they are both thinking. "I-I think he's breathing."
Buffy looks at her, acknowledging the statement. "Hang on. Let me try something." She moves her hand to his throat.
The two others are just standing watching the drama unfold. They can't hear the conversation, so they don't actually know what is going on. They see Buffy move her hand, and suddenly, the last puzzle piece clicks into place for Giles. He thinks, "The prophecy! Maybe it has been fulfilled."
Meanwhile, Buffy has proceeded to see if Angel has a pulse. She suddenly feels it under her fingers, and looks up at Cordy. They stand up and look at Wesley and Giles. Wesley speaks up. "What should we do?"
Buffy decides to take charge. "Let's take him to his car. Cordy, you drive it back. I'll ride with you. Giles, you and Wesley will drive separately in your car." She hands her weapons to Giles, who then gets the rest of the weapons from everyone else and takes them back to his car quickly. When he gets back, they try awkwardly to pick Angel up.
They manage to get him to the convertible, and, with little struggle, put him in the back seat. Cordy and Buffy get in after they retrieve the keys from Angel's jacket pocket. Cordelia starts the engine and the guys back away. Obviously, she hasn't gotten much better at driving since she left Sunnydale.
A couple minutes later, the Plymouth pulls up in front of Cordelia's building. Surprisingly, all three people in the car are still in the car and alive. However, Angel was still unconscious, and the girls had gotten back way before Giles and Wesley would get there. Buffy and Cordy get out of the car, and lean against it waiting.
About fifteen minutes later, the other car pulls up behind the convertible. Giles and Wesley get out and approach the other car. When they get close, Giles asks, "Is he still unconscious?"
Buffy answers. "Yeah. Maybe we should get him out of the car and inside. Cordy, can we all stay her tonight?"
Cordy quietly gives her permission. Then, Giles and Buffy try and get Angel out of the back seat. They accomplish this, and prop him up. Wesley comes, takes Buffy's place on one side of Angel since he's taller, and the little entourage makes their way up the steps and into the building. About five or ten minutes later, they arrive at Cordelia's door.
Cordy gets her keys out and unlocks the door. She enters and holds the door open for Giles, who supports Angel's body and gets inside, followed by Wesley and Buffy. When they are all inside, Cordy shuts the door and locks it from the inside for security.
Then, Cordelia offers the bed to Angel graciously. She shows the way to the room and Giles follows. The other two follow a couple seconds later. Giles drops Angel onto the bed. While the others are trying to get Angel comfortable, Cordelia takes a few extra pillows off the bed, and finds some extra blankets. She hands one of each to Buffy, Giles, and Wesley, keeping one blanket and pillow for herself. When Cordy and the two guys are walking out the door, Buffy speaks up, her arms full of pillows and blankets. "Hey. I think I'll stay in here. I mean, what about when he wakes up? Who would explain everything to him?"
"OK. Fine, but don't do anything but sleep."
"God! He's unconscious. What would I do with him?"
The three leave. Buffy lays a blanket on the floor and sits down Indian-style on it. After a while, she lies down and falls asleep.
When Buffy wakes up, it is morning. She gets up off the floor to check Angel. He is still unconscious, but also still has a pulse. She walks out of the room a moment later and sees that the others are all awake and sitting there waiting.
"He's still unconscious. Does anyone know a way we could try and get him to regain consciousness?"
Giles answers. "Give him a little more time. Maybe he will still wake up on his own."
Buffy contradicts him. "It's already been several hours. Do you really think he's going to wake up on his own?" However, while she is talking, she is heading for the door to the bedroom.
A few seconds later, she enters the room and sits down on the end of the bed, facing Angel. She settles down to wait and see if he does actually regain consciousness on his own.
"Maybe I should have brought a book."
Buffy is thinking about being incredibly bored. She gets up and starts looking through the drawers in the room. Finally, in the top drawer of the nightstand, she finds a magazine. She returns to the foot of the bed and sits down again.
Twenty minutes later, Buffy is almost finished looking at the magazine. She notices some movement nearby, and she looks up. She sees that Angel's eyes are open. She stands up and moves toward the head of the bed.
"Hey. How're you feeling?"
Angel is still a little out of it. "Buffy? What am I doing here? What're you doing here? Where am I?"
Buffy decides to good-naturedly tease him. "Enough with the questions. Anyway, yes, you were hurt, I needed someone to yell at, and Cordelia's. In that order."
"Why'd you need to yell at someone?"
"Oh, Spike pissed off Riley and he broke up with me. It just really made me upset."
"Sorry."
"It's not your fault. Well, I guess it kind of was, since it was the prophecy that made Riley mad."
"The prophecy?"
"The one that said we were supposed to be together."
Angel replies quietly. "Oh. Do you still need someone to yell at?"
"No. I worked it out first on a bunch of vamps, and then on that demon."
They both get silent at the mention of the demon. Angel sits up and looks at Buffy. At that exact moment, Cordelia comes running in with a bucket of water. She stops dead at the sight of Angel awake.
"Oh. OK. I'll just take this back to the kitchen." She smoothly turns around and walks out of the room.
When the door had opened, both Angel and Buffy had turned and looked at the person who had entered. When Cordelia makes her exit, they continue their conversation. Buffy is the first to speak.
"So. You're OK? Do you feel anything strange?" She intentionally wants to know if Angel knows he is human.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Buffy just looks at him. Angel reads something in her eyes, and then tries to concentrate and figure out what she meant. Suddenly, his eyes get wide, and Buffy knows her has figured out that he is truly human. She decides to try and explain what had happened.
"We don't know how it happened, exactly. After the battle, you passed out, and suddenly you had a pulse." Then, she leans over and gives him a hug. Angel decides to risk everything he has, and leans over and kisses her. When she returns the kiss, he knows that everything is alright.
A few hours later, everything is explained to the others. Giles seems happy. Cordy tries to hide it, but they all know she is happy too. Wesley just seems completely confused.
Buffy decides that she wants to go back to Sunnydale and tell Willow and Xander. The others decide that they will go with her, and plans are made to leave the next morning.
It is decided that Buffy will ride with Angel in his convertible. The other three will follow in Giles's car. Then, they settle down to sleep until it is time to leave the next day.
The next morning, they wake up early to get ready for their trip. Angel, Cordy and Wesley then pack up some clothes for a couple days, while Giles and Buffy pack up everything they had brought with them. They leave the apartment, and Cordy locks the door behind them. The group heads down to the cars parked outside. When they reach the front door, Angel and Buffy split off from the others, and head for the Plymouth.
Before they get to the car, Giles calls out an instruction. "Angel. Meet us at my house when you arrive in town."
Buffy throws her bag into the back seat of the car while Angel replies. "OK. Meet you there." Then, he throws his bag in the back with Buffy's and opens the car door for her. She gets in, and Angel goes around the back end of the car and gets in on the driver's side. He turns around to check and see that the others are getting in Giles's car. Then, he turns the key in the ignition, and they drive off.