The Journey, not the Destination

by Xena Avenger

An epically long fic. What happens in is? Starts with Angel fighting the dragon and Buffy helping deal with the consequences. Story begins at the end of 'Angel, Not Fade Away.' Buffy/Angel

73. Afterimage - Part 3

February 12th, 2009

"Wow, just two days away?" Buffy muttered to herself with a frown as she studied the Cute Kittens calendar hanging on the wall in her corner office, one of her Christmas gifts from Dawn. The days had flashed by so quickly, so much activity from the events after the LA Hellmouth had completely drowned out the impending holiday.

She drew a heart in the box containing the 14th, her mind wandering to what she could do this year with her hubby for Valentine's Day. She quickly came to the conclusion that a sexy outfit would be rather ineffective if he couldn't see her in it. 'On the other hand, he could always feel how it looks on me.' She thought, amused and warmed by the idea of his hands wandering all over her body.

Letting out a breath at the sudden heat rushing over her, she popped the cover back onto her red pen, dropped the writing implement into the 'I'm a Slayer, Ask me how!' mug on her desk as she walked by, and tried to put out the fire those romantic idea were igniting in her.

'Actually, maybe a little heat will burn off the cloud of funk that been hovering over Angel lately.' She thought mischievously, thinking a little 'afternoon delight' might be in order.

As she exited her office to go see what her husband was up to, she crossed paths with Spike in the hall. Her blonde brow creased as she thought for a moment and checked the clock on the wall and noted the time. Directing her voice towards the only other being in the hall she asked, "I thought you were teaching Angel's class today?"

The tall blond vampire raised an eyebrow as he stopped mid-stride towards his office, mildly surprised Buffy didn't already know the change of plans with teaching Angel's class and not even trying to hide the smirk as he could smell her slightly aroused scent. "Would have been." He mumbled around the unlit cigarette in his mouth, giving a slight roll of his shoulders, "But can't say I rightly mind the break, get enough of a workout with my own classes, never mind fillin in for the sightless wonder."

Buffy bit her tongue to keep from verbally lashing at the tall souled demon across from her for the blind crack at her husband, instead she spoke as calmly as she could, "Then who's teaching Angel's class right now?"

Spike's lip curled up into a smirk, "The ponce is teachin his own bloody class. About time I might add. "

"What?" The word jumped from Buffy's mouth even as she moved towards her spouse's office to check if he was in there and to validate if Spike was just being his usual trouble-making self. Pushing the door open and looking into the room, Buffy knew immediately her husband wasn't there, in fact, now that she was consciously reaching out she realized he wasn't on the top floors at all, she couldn't sense him nearby.

The vampire's sky blue eyes watched amused over the blonde's plight a moment before turning back towards his own office, a grin on his lips. "Right, well if you don't mind, I'll be cashing in on that break now, need to be good and rested for when Mrs.' the Bloody' gets home."

Buffy barely heard him as she headed down to the elevator to find her husband.

...

Angel took a deep breath to steady his nervous before walking into the training room. To the left and right he could hear the young slayers as they conversed, trading everything from thoughts of today's training exercises to which boy at the nearby high school was the cutest.

He felt eyes fall on him as he moved forwards into the room, the hush that followed was deafening.

"Mr. Angel." One of his students spoke up, "Are you here to say hi?"

Angel felt all the eyes in the room fall over him, rippling on his skin like waves in the hot desert. "Actually, Linda" He spoke up, "I'm here to teach."

The slightly over a dozen young woman looked around at one another a moment, none knowing what to say in response. What could he do if he couldn't see?

Clearing his throat, Angel let his white guide cane fall to the floor with a resounding thud. "I know what you are all thinking, how can a blind guy teach you anything? Well, let's find out. Michelle, come at me please."

The brown eyes of the dirty blonde that stood off to the corner widened a moment, trying to figure out if he was joking or not.

Angel turned his face towards the girl he'd just named, "No time like the present, Michelle."

Hesitantly, she moved forwards, a few girls moved away as if it were a game of tag and they were afraid of becoming 'it'.

"Umm..." The trainee fidgeted as she walked forwards, holding her hands in a loose fist but unsure if she could make herself swing at a blind man.

Instead of waiting for her to react, Angel took a quick step forward and launched his fist towards her.

Reflex took over the young slayer as she twisted and blocked the punch, automatically sending a return blow.

Angel felt the air displacing and heard the steadily increasing thump of the young woman's heart as adrenaline flooded her system. Raising his hand, he caught her fist, tugged forwards with it and spinning his arm around, threw the slayer off balance. Michelle yelped as she fell backwards and felt her teacher's arm brace against her throat as she was trapped against his chest.

"You hesitated, and now you're dead." Angel stated to the trapped girl a second before releasing her.

The dirty blonde quickly pulled away with red cheeks, embarrassed she let a blind man 'kill' her in a mock fight.

"Never underestimate a foe, that's usually how you end up dead." Angel spoke as he moved forwards slowly, his blind eyes scanning over the girls now standing in a circle around him, their attention successfully acquired. "Eyes are very important in a normal fight with another sighted opponent, but there is always more to 'see' around you than with vision alone."

Angel turned to a tall redhead, "Claire, please knock me over."

The girl hesitated only for a second before launching herself into the training session, dropping in low and trying to knock her instructor on his ass. Under no circumstances did she want to be embarrasses as Michelle had been a moment before.

Sidestepping the sudden rush of slayer, Angel spun and lifted his leg out, connecting with the girl's rear and sending her sprawling.

"Hey, how do you know where I was?" Claire complained as she picked herself up off the floor, cheeks burning with a mix of anger and embarrassment.

A smirk pulled at Angel's lips before he forced his face back to his usual poker bluff. "Like I said, you can use more than sight alone to see what is happening around you."

Motioning for the girls to regroup in a circle, Angel continued. "I want everyone to close their eyes."

After a few mumbled protests, the slayers obeyed.

"Now." Angel asked, "What do you see."

"Nothing." One girl mouthed smartly, "My eyes are shut."

"Try harder, Jill." Angel replied, making the girls uncomfortable again when he said their names. They were quickly learning their comments were not as anonymous as they'd originally hoped.

Explaining, Angel began, "The world around you isn't only based on visual indicators, you also have hearing, smell, and especially touch."

"I thought the goal was to never let the enemy touch you?" Andrea, a short black haired teen, asked as she shifted from foot to foot, thinking over something Spike had said in a previous class.

"In a sighted attack, yes, it would be ideal to avoid any contact, but when fighting blind, you want to stick with the old 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer' rule. If you know where your opponent is, you can use that to keep in control of them. If you can touch them, you can put them where you want them."

A few girls nodded, remembering person defense classes and how to use your enemies momentum and body weight to your advantage in a fight.

"Again, what do you see?" Angel asked the girls, waiting patiently for their other senses to awaken.

"I can hear Jackie breathing beside me." Jin spoke up, listening to her fellow slayers shifting around.

"Good." Angel encouraged, "The sound of breathing is key to knowing where a living opponent stands, also footsteps and the shifting of clothes are telltale indicators. What else can you 'see'?"

"Michelle has on strong perfume." Claire addressed.

"Yes, smell can be both a blessing and a curse in a fight." Angel continued, "It can alert you to the presence of another when sight and hearing can't, but it can be deceiving too, especially if your opponent is constantly moving and spreading the scent around." Angel thought back to the fight the other day with the vampires in the park, their stench had saved him from a good beating.

"Is that how you know who and where we are?" Jessie asked as she tried to 'see' though the blackness.

"Basically, yes. I'm familiar with your voices and scent by now." The living vampire admitted, noting the murmurs of 'gross, creep and pervert' from a few in the back.

"Most of us can't hear and smell like you can, that's not fair." Michelle spoke up, feeling the disadvantage of not being part vampire.

"No fight is fair, Michelle" Angel replied honestly, "As a slayer, you have a far keener network of senses than the average human, you must learn to master those abilities, as your life likely depends on it. "

After a few moments of silence, the girls began to use their other senses, reaching out and moving slightly to orientate themselves between their fellow students. Now they were focused on using their other senses, they all realized they could pick up on the presence of someone more than human, the demon within Angel was quiet at the moment, but a weak tingle told all the slayers a demon was near.

Slowly the girls began to listen to the slayer beside them too, noting the sounds of clothing shifting, footfalls, clinking jewelry and breathing.

"Alright, now I want everyone to take up a defense stance and practice right, left punches. Go slow and feel for your opponent. Listen to where they are, smell them if you can, and always keep your mind open. Your ears can tell you almost as much as your eyes if you give them the chance." Angel addressed the girls, listening to them shuffling around and talking quietly.

Angel felt himself finally relax as he listened to his class train, the comforting weight of a purpose was resting on his shoulders again.

...

Buffy peeked into the training room to see what Angel was doing, mostly to make sure he wasn't biting off more than he could chew or getting himself beaten into a bloody pulp by any overzealous in-training slayers. As she watched the young slayers while they moved in slow motion, trading punches with the girl across from them with blindfolds wrapped over their eyes she felt relief well up inside her stomach.

All looked to be going well.

Glancing across the room at her husband, she grinned as she watched him listening and giving advice to the sparing slayers, noting the satisfied smile on his lips.

A matching smile washed across her face as she studied him interacting with his students, glad that he was finally able to resume teaching since she knew how much he enjoyed and sorely missed it. As a bonus, the slayers were learning a valuable skill that could easily save their lives one day.

Slinking out before he could notice her, Buffy moved off down the hall to talk to Cassidy, figuring she'd update the medic on Angel's progress and ask for more advice on how to handle his mentally induced blindness.

...

"Ok ladies, let's try a few group exercises. I want you to alternate with sight and blindfolds while sparing. Change it up every 3 minutes, I want everyone to have a chance playing the blind guy." The instructor announced as he listened the his students moving about and breathing heavily from the exercise. He'd missed the sounds more than he'd realized.

"Mr. Angel, Sir, we need one more." Jenny called from across the room, noticing all the other teams had 4 while they only had 3.

The dark haired Irishman made his way over, positioning with the three young woman around him, "Hope you don't mind if I play the blind guy." Angel smirked as the sparing began.

Now that the girls were used to what it was like to fight against a sightless vampire, they began to make a conscious effort to quiet their breathing and secure any loose items like earrings which could clank and give away their position to his sensitive ears.

Linda, a stocky built brunette with a strong left hook, gasped when she managed to connect hard with her instructors jaw.

Angel was knocked sideways from the force of the blow, but managed to keep his feet under him while rubbing his jaw.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry!" Linda cried, horrified she was about to receive a big fat 'F' for socking the teacher in the mouth.

"No, good job." Angel praised instead of being angry as he rubbed his chin, since the whole point of the exercise was to make sure the slayers here learned how to win, "You were able to slow your breathing and sneak in without my noticing, that was perfect."

At the compliment instead of punishment, the few slayers that had stopped to look resumed training.

"Now, let's see if you can hit me again." The only man in the room challenged with a smirk as he put on the offense.

...

Ten minutes flew by as one by one the training slayers tried to outsmart their teacher and get in a blow. Each time Angel managed to block or attack before the hit could connect. Slowly the 'fight' moved from the slayers pitting against one another to each trying their fists and feet at showing up the boss man.

By now, Angel knew he was cheating, but he couldn't seem to help himself. After the crack to the jaw, he'd started listening closely to the heartbeats of the slayers around time, perfectly alerting him to their locations at all times, like a form of demonic radar.

There was no intent to flaunt the ability the demon within had granted him, but the fighting was exciting the vampire too much. For too long he'd been on the sidelines, now that he had the ability to interact, he dove into it.

The fight with the vampires the other night had been energizing, but there was so much more to fighting living, breathing opponents, the thrill of their increasing heartbeats and the smell of adrenaline. He wasn't even aware that the vampire was awaking within.

The pounding feet of an approaching enemy alerted him to turn to the left, and with a roll of his shoulder, the slayer flew over him and into the girl sneaking up from behind.

"Ow!" A feminine cry of pain came from where the crash happened.

"What happened?" Angel demanded, his nose suddenly acknowledging the potent scent of slayer blood.

"Hit my nose on Abby's knee when I landed." Molly spoke though a nasally sounding voice, her fingers pinching her nostrils together to help stop the fountain of red that had starting flowing down her face.

Something deep inside Angel stirred as the scent worked into his brain, and for the first time in a month he realized how very quiet his demon had been. Ever since the Hellmouth collapsed and his demon had worn itself out escaping the tunnels, the vampire that shared his body and soul hadn't stirred. It was always there, just not overly noticeable.

The bold scent of blood seemed to have fully awoken it, because it was suddenly very noticeable.

"You need to go see Cassidy?" He asked, his mind picturing how the young woman would look standing there with the crimson flowing down her lips.

He didn't even notice when he licked his.

"Nah, I'm fine." She dismissed, already reeling for a rematch as the excitement of the fight was still rushing over her, "Stopped bleeding already anyways".

Before Angel could suggest they take a break so he could calm his demon down, a few of the slayers moved on him, already jumping back into the sparring. They weren't even aware of their sixth sense picking up on the now active demon within their teacher.

Now more than ever, Angel found himself focusing on the pounding heartbeats of the hot blooded young ladies surrounding him, the thumps drumming in his ears steadily pulling him in closer.

As he fought off their attacks, he didn't even realize he'd started hunting.

'Thump, thump, thump.' The sound was just to his right. Just as Angel turned his head he felt a sharp jolt to his side before another impact slammed into his cheek.

On autopilot, he instantly shot his elbow out and felt a satisfied crack and cry of pain as he turned and whirled his leg out, knocking another opponent to the ground. The last blow he'd received had been a good hit, the pain of it suddenly causing his face to shift into the mask of the vampire within.

A few of the girls cheered as their teacher switched to 'game face', the demonic brow and teeth always exciting the slayers within them to fight harder.

'Demon mode' was a favorite.

None of the girls realized the change hadn't come voluntarily to their teacher's face, but as a result of the demon's mind slipped in over the human's.

Their own slayer senses were thrilled at the demonic energy, calling them all in for a fight. Little did they know Angel wasn't the one they were sparing with now.

Heartbeats, blood and pain suddenly became the demon's world as the animalistic urges of the vampire washed out his human consciousness. After being at rest for so long, the demon was hungry, so very hungry.

His fangs itched for blood, the hunger growing by the second, a craving suddenly undeniable.

His yellowed eyes slipped open, translating the dozen or so heartbeats pounding around him into something seeable. He blinked a few times, unsure of what his formally blind eyes were registering. There were human shaped beings all around him, in the center of the chest of each, he watched their hearts beating, sending the sweet hot blood within coursing though the network of arteries and veins throughout their bodies. It was like watching the world in thermal, except the only color was red flowing blood.

He licked his lips as his fangs throbbed for a taste.

"The vampire is going down!" Claire challenged as she ran towards her vamped teacher, her own images of victory and adrenaline clouding out the danger.

He watched her approaching, studying the rushing blood as it moved within the body, coming closer, bringing the blood to him.

A hungry growl escaped his throat as she leapt at him.

...

"What was that?" Buffy demanded as she dropped the medical book on mental conditions Cassidy was showing her, the muffled sound of a scream already fading from the back office.

"Whatever it was didn't sound good." The medic answered, moving to grab the med kit while Buffy was already in motion towards the office door.

As soon as Buffy entered the hallway that separated the Med-ward from the training rooms in the basement, she felt the heavy weight of something wrong filling her gut.

"Angel." She whispered, suddenly feeling the rise in demon energy, she quickly jogged towards the feeling, Cassidy running with her medical kit not far behind.

...

Linda was on the ground, cradling her arm against her chest with hot tears running down her cheeks from the blinding pain.

Claire hadn't moved once since her limp body slammed the unpadded floor a few moments ago.

"Look out!" Jackie cried as Molly, Jenny and Michelle tried to get in behind the vampire, to get Debbie away from him.

The demon looked to the left, seeing the three heartbeats rushing for him. With a hungry grin on his lips, he dropped the struggling body in his arms and turned to confront the approaching blood, getting impatient for a bite.

...

When Buffy slammed open the door, her heart dropped to her toes upon seeing the trainee slayers sprawled on the ground, a few more were struggling to contain her husband, who even from this distance she could tell wasn't thinking as a human anymore.

"Angel!" She yelled his name, hoping he'd respond to her voice.

He didn't. The demon was too focused on the visual of blood surrounding it, the hunger and anger over being denied food was too strong. Language was not part of the vampire's understanding.

Buffy ran forwards, dreading having to fight her lover but knowing he needed to be brought down quickly before someone got killed.

A few of the battered slayers noticed Buffy approaching and quickly moved away to let her though. "Get out." The eldest slayer commanded the slayers still standing as she moved to place herself between her berserked spouse and the defenseless injured on the ground.

Without complaint, most of the young woman moved to help their fallen companions as Cassidy directed them to carry the wounded down the hall to the Med-Ward.

When Buffy looked up, she found her lover's yellow eyes focused on her. Shock filled her as she realized he wasn't just looking towards her, but actually at her.

He could see.

"Angel." She spoke gently, hoping he'd snap out of this blood haze fast, she didn't want to have to hurt him.

His only reply was a hungry growl.

Looking into those burning demonic eyes, she could see the need for blood flashing loud and clear, the vampire was in full control...and starving.

Angel wasn't there.

When his gaze turned towards a slayer a few feet away, one struggling to rise and holding her hand over her bleeding mouth, Buffy realized he was going to attack the girl. She was closer and injured, like a lion it was a dinner call for the demon.

"Buffy!" Cassidy yelled from the doorway, sliding a knife across the floor towards the blonde.

The eldest slayer's foot stomped down on the blade to catch it, then bent to pick it up. In less than 3 seconds, she was holding the knife and trying to figure out what to do with it. 'I can't throw it at Angel, I could kill him.'

By then, the vampire had reached the injured slayer, she was struggling in his arms when Buffy realized why Cass had given her the knife. Quickly, she pressed the blade against her scar and cut a small slit in her neck over the scarred skin.

Linda screamed as she failed to fight the demon off her, but just before his fangs tore into her throat, he dropped her forgotten to the floor. Looking up at him, she noticed his gaze was now entirely focused on Buffy, who was standing across the room with a knife in her hand and blood dripping down her neck.

The demon growled as he moved towards the overpowering scent that had suddenly filled his senses. 'Mine.' The word crossed his demonic mind, one that was not familiar with human speech but did understand ideas like hunger and possession. The call of the blood from this pulsing form was stronger than anything else he knew, he was drawn to it, unable to focus on anything else.

He wanted it.

In moments, he was grasping the enchanting scent, bending down to breath deep and run his tongue over the still trickling wound. He didn't want pre-spilled blood though, he needed his fangs to pierce flesh and bring him the hot life giving substance directly into his mouth.

Buffy felt a shiver run over her as her lover's clawed hands grasped her shoulders and drew her towards him, his face low against her neck as he lapped at her blood. She tilted her head back as her hunger fevered husband mouthed her throat, her own fingers enclosing over his shoulder and the back of his neck to make sure he stayed put. Although she knew at this point nothing shy of death would break his trance over her blood. "Yes." She whispered into his ear, giving him permission as she felt him probing and kneading along her neck, as if trying to decide if he could sink his fangs in or not.

'Mine.' The word flashed though his thoughts one last time before his pulsing fangs pressed into the soft flesh. His body shivered, feeling as if he'd just sunk his throbbing erection into a hot wet woman, the blood that filled his mouth brought forth a feeling even more divine than an orgasm.

As the sweet hot blood flowed down his throat, the demon relaxed in ecstasy, a content feeling rushing over him. It was similar to jumping into a cold pool after being on fire. The relief was tangible.

Buffy felt the rush of adrenaline fading as her lover's body pressed closer to her, his mouth still over her scar but no longer greedily sucking. She could feel his tongue caressing the wounds, lapping away any remaining blood as he breathed in her scent and listened to her slowing heart.

He hadn't taken much, but the thrilling heat that had washed over her while he fed left her lightheaded and swoony.

Moving her hand up, she brushed her fingers along the back of his neck, feeling his response as he nuzzled closer, their bodies holding one another up.

A satisfied growl issued from his chest as he exhaled, his mind settling as the red haze faded away. The demon was content now that it had been granted a taste of its mate's blood, and most importantly, that she'd freely offered it.

"Angel?" Buffy asked softly, probing his awareness as she ran her other hand down his back, eager for his human side to reappear.

"Mine." He whispered, the last remnant of the demon's consciousness receded as he pulled his mate closer, snuggling against her warmth and love. Everything about her suddenly washed waves of calm over him; her scent, touch, heartbeat, taste.

Everything about her screamed home.

"Yours." She agreed with him, brushing her fingers through his hair as she turned to look up at him, scanning his demonic features before standing up on her tip toes to kiss him. 'And you're mine too.' She thought.

The taste of her blood lingering in his mouth wasn't the most pleasant experience, but the fact he leaned into her lips and responded tenderly assured her he was regaining control again. The demon might recognize her as it's mate, but it was the man who reacted to her kisses.

When he finally broke the kiss, he pulled back only enough to look down at her, his yellow eyes studying her face a moment, watching the red haze of blood and arteries fade back to the ever present black.

Buffy's heart fell after he blinked, the telltale blank stare of blindness once again filling his vision as the yellow irises faded back to brown and the demonic features shifted back to human. 'So the demon can see, it's Angel who can't.' Pushing away her disappointment in the return of his blindness, she ran her thumb along his cheek, "Are you ok?"

Confusion washed over his face as he pressed against her, his mind blanking when he tried to recall when his wife appeared, where the training slayers were and why he could taste her blood in his mouth. "Buffy? What happened? What...why...did I bite you?"

She felt his fingers probing her neck, a frown crossing his lips and he blindly looked around and tried to remember what happened.

"Everything's ok Angel, just relax." She encouraged, wanting him to keep still until all the injured students were removed. "You didn't hurt me, you haven't done anything wrong, just relax." She repeated, already feeling the pending anxiety in him while his mind tried to recall what just happened.

Buffy quickly nodded to Cassidy and the other slayers to grab the injured and go, wanting to keep Angel isolated until she was sure his demon was back under his control. At this point, she didn't know what had triggered his demonic side, and whatever it was, she didn't want it to happen again.

Angel stood listlessly while Buffy ran her fingers along the back of his neck, she was growing worried as she noticed his expanding silence.

"Angel? Are you awake?" She asked, despite the fact he was standing, she noted his eyes were closed and how still he'd gone.

"Did I...are the girls...alive?" He asked, sounding afraid to hear the answer.

'Shit, he remembers.' She thought a moment before answering, realizing that was why he'd gone taciturn all of sudden. "There were no casualties." She assured quickly, having seen all the slayers show signs of life as they were carried out. Eyeing the bruise forming on his chin, his left eye turning black and from his minimal moving, she guessed about a few bruises on his chest and limbs. "Looks like they got you pretty good too, are you ok? Do you want to lie down?"

"I'm fine." He muttered, straightening and pulling away from her probing hands. "Can you check with Cass, make sure all the girls are alright?"

Buffy frowned, not wanting to leave him alone, especially when the red warning alarms in her head were flashing at his 'I'm fine' declaration and how he was moving away from her.

"Angel." She began to protest but he turned his blank chocolate brown eyes on her, begging with his stare, "Please?"

After chewing her lip for a second, she relented, "Ok, but I'll be right back, just stay here for a minute."

He nodded halfheartedly as she looked him over one last time before quickly jogged out of the room and down the hall to the Med-Ward.

Inside were a dozen nerve racked slayers, most nursing bruises or exchanging 'OMG what the hell just happened?' stories with one another while a few others were laying on cots as Cassidy treated their minor wounds.

"Cass?" Buffy asked upon reaching the medic's side, looking around at the young faces and trying to look reassuring as she took a damage assessment.

"Worst is a broken arm, got several sprains, a minor concussion, numerous bruises, and one broken nose. All in all, not bad for a live-action training session with a rogue vampire." Cassidy replied as she worked to set Linda's broken arm. "Speaking of, how's Angel?"

"Bruised and guilt ridden, but otherwise coherent." Buffy answered worriedly as she observed the damage her husband's demon had wrought. Instead of rushing out with the information she'd gathered, she grabbed a few ice packs and helped tie them to the injured slayers while she casually asked for their versions of the story. As much as she loved and trusted her spouse, she also knew his version of a story tented to be less than unbiased when he felt he was guilty of something. After several minutes passed and she had the full back story, she nabbed a first aid kit and returned to the training room to treat her husband's minor wounds.

When she reached the room however, she found it empty. Buffy swore as she realized her spouse had vanished.

She was about to repeat the anger fueled search she'd thrown earlier in the week before she forced herself to calm down and take a few deep relaxing breaths. Angel was feeling guilty and depressed, she figured neither of those warranted an angry response from her, so clearing her mind, she focused on her husband and reached out for him, seeking the warm tingle that his soul always aroused within her.

Nothing immediately jumped out at her, but slowly her feet began to walk, letting her instincts guide her.

Five minutes later, she stood at the sub-basement doorway, feeling a slight tingle to indicate her lover was somewhere within. 'Same old Angel.' She thought with a sad smile, remembering the numerous times she'd found him hiding in the lowest part of the building, brooding over one thing or another. It didn't happen as often as it used to before the soul merger and the personality of Angelus blended into the fold, although recently he seemed to be relapsing more often. 'Well, at least he's consistent.' She thought before shoving the door open and slipping into the darkness.

It wasn't long before she found her husband sitting on the floor in the back by the boilers, a distant broody expression marring his face.

Placing the first aid kit on the floor, she settle down against the wall beside him and looked him over in silence, noting the severe frown on his lips. After what felt like forever but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, she inched over to the first aid kit and removed an ice pack and some numbing cream.

When she moved to put the ice pack over his swelling eye, Angel turned away from her hands, "Please Buffy... don't."

A hurt expression flashed across her face, "I'm just trying to treat your wounds, help dull the pain."

"I deserve the pain." He muttered, looking downright miserable.

"No you don't." Buffy retorted, a mix of sorrow for him blending with anger at him being such a masochist. "What happened was an accident..."

He cut her off, "Teachers don't accidentally try to kill their students Buffy, I let my demon overpower me back there and those young woman nearly died because of it!" By the end, he'd been nearly yelling at her.

After a long silence, Angel let out a frustrated breath, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout at you." Now instead of feeling like crap for hurting kids, he felt like crap for yell at his wife too.

"I know, and venting is good. No need to apologize for that." Buffy assured, leaning in to place a calming kiss on his forehead. "What happened back there wasn't your fault." She told him softly from her seat beside him, "The girls aren't blaming you either."

He snorted humorlessly, "Of course it was my fault, I tried to kill them."

"No." Buffy affirmed, "Your demon was provoked. The girls agreed that they knew your demon was rising but were too eager to show one another up to back off. The demon was hungry and that made it grumpy." She brushed her fingers absently over the rough patch of skin on her neck, "It's sated now and back under your control. It happened, now it's over. Please Angel, don't shut down because of this."

The silence from him was deafening. His blank eyes remained glued to the floor as he sat still as stone of the cold floor.

She leaned closer to him, wanting to slip against him and wrap herself in him arms. "Will you come upstairs with me?" She asked, hoping to get him out of the basement at the least since he made no move to hold her.

Buffy didn't care how long he'd been a vampire, lurking around alone in the dark was no longer a hobby she tolerated for long.

The living vampire stiffened under his wife's touch and love, not currently feeling worthy of either. Her words echoed and bounced around with his own in his mind for a moment before he let the thoughts escape his mouth, "I'll go to my office, but...I'd prefer to be alone for a while." He still felt like he'd done something wrong, no matter what Buffy said to him, he felt like he'd let his students down.

"Angel." Buffy began, not ready to let her husband resume long term brooding again. Not to mention how badly it hurt to have him basically tell her to leave him alone.

"Please Buffy." He cut in, picking up on the hurting vibes, "It's not that I don't want you near me, I just...I need some time alone to think right now. Ok?" He hated hurting her, but he just couldn't bring himself to feel comforted by her right now, not when his students were in the Med-Ward because of him.

'Well, I guess him in the office alone is better than him sitting down here alone.' She thought as she nodded and answered in voice so he could hear it. "Deal."

The tense air between them didn't dissipate much on the way up to the offices on the top floor. Buffy noticed a very distinct distance between them, one that wasn't only emotionally. Anytime she'd attempted to touch her spouse, he'd move away before the contact.

Biting her tongue, Buffy didn't vocalize her worries. Instead, she helped lead Angel to his office and left him to his wallowing, at least for a while. She'd give him time to snap out of it on his own first before intervening.

...

Sitting on the couch and staring at the constant darkness that consumed his world, Angel's mind replayed the fight in the training room over and over, trying to understand how his demon had pushed him so far out of control. Over and over, he replayed the few minutes like a tape, looking for something he might of missed the first time. The worse part of his memory wasn't attacking the girls, but remembering how it felt to actually see though the eyes of the monster sharing his body and soul. All the vampire saw was blood, flowing hot and ready in the veins of the living. Those repeating moments in his mind were full of walking circulatory system bodies without faces or names. What nauseated him most, was they all had looked like food.

Angel shivered and took a deep breath, trying in vain to shake the gruesome thought out of his head.

He could smell the sandwich Buffy had brought in an hour ago for his lunch, but the idea of eating with the slayer buffet line in his brain made his stomach clench in rejection.

His wife's blood curled uneasily in his gut as well.

As much as he wanted to open up to her and let her take his pain away, the faces of his students would replaying in his mind wouldn't let him rest.

Swallowing the taste of bile in the back of his throat, he sipped at a bottle of water before rising and pacing along the wall near the windows.

By this time, he knew the sun would be beginning to set, the glowing orb of light would be low in the sky and brilliant shades of purple, orange, pink and red would be painting the horizon. The thought made his already dark world seem all the darker.

...

Later that evening, Buffy had hoped the familiarity of being home would help chase away some of Angel's dark mood, instead the worry multiplied when Angel refused dinner, and then it morphed into disbelief when he told their children he had an 'ouch' so they wouldn't play with him.

As upset as she was that he would so blatantly lie to their children, the fact he withdrew from them at all was far more terrifying. Normally, he would crawl over broken glass with two broken arms to spend time with the toddlers, and just one smile from them would make all his pain go away.

Didn't seem to be the case tonight.

When she tried to confront him about it after the kids went to bed, he simply apologized and informed her he was going to sleep on the couch that night.

Buffy was stunned that he would go so far as to avoid even sleeping next to her, but arguing with him about it was only making the tension between them worse.

With a defeated sigh, Buffy muttered, "Night, see you in the morning."

'You'll see me."Angel thought darkly as he nodded, settling down onto the couch and pulling the blanket he knew was on the back down onto him.

Before his wife reached the top of the stairs, he called out to her, unwilling to leave the uncomfortable silence between them for the night.

When Buffy turned and asked him if he needed something, he paused before saying, "I know I'm not showing it much tonight, but I love you."

The cold hand around Buffy's heart loosened its grip as she quickly crossed the distance between them. When he turned his face towards her, she took that as a sign and leaned down to kiss him goodnight. It was brief, but she felt in his lips that his kiss was sincere. "I love you too, and wish you'd change your mind about tonight." She whispered as she stood back up, looking down longingly at his arms and hoping he'd decide to come to bed instead of sleeping downstairs on the couch. At the moment, snuggling against his warm chest would be a much desired end to this long tense day.

His frown told her without words that little fantasy wasn't happening tonight. "Tomorrow." He said by way of dodging, wondering himself if this cold wet blanket of misery would stop smothering him in another 24 hours.

Glancing him over longingly one last time before heading upstairs alone to their bedroom, Buffy sighed and climbed the steps, wondering if she'd even fall asleep with his side of the bed cold and empty. She never did sleep well without her favorite Angel shaped pillow and blanket anymore.

Buffy slipped under the too cool covers, ones usually warmed by her lover's body heat. After the day she'd had, she needed sleep, but instead, she restlessly tossed and turned for almost an hour. Finally, her exhausted body acknowledged Angel's weak presence a floor below her and she drifted off sometime near midnight.

Laying on the light blue couch cushions, Angel tried to blank his mind in order to sleep, unfortunately the power button seemed to be jammed. The darkness surrounding him had nothing to do with nightfall as he lay listening to the distant heartbeats of his family sleeping a floor above him. The steady thumps usually lulled him quickly to sleep, but tonight they sounded too far away. Every instinct he had was calling for him to climb the stairs, slip into his bedroom and snuggle in beside his wife, to let her love chase away his discomfort.

But he didn't.

Couldn't.

He didn't feel like he deserved that comfort.

After what felt like hours of listening to his subconscious batter him for his numerous failures, he finally drifted off.

...

Katie opened her sleepy brown eyes and sat up, something felt funny in her tummy. "Daddy?" She whispered, climbing over the rail on her small bed and slipping to the floor. Her covered feet padded soundlessly on the carpeted floor as she eased her partly shut door open and glanced across the hall to her parents' bedroom. Daddy wasn't with mommy, she could tell that immediately. Moving towards the stairs, she headed to where the feeling of daddy was stronger.

Once downstairs, she could see in the hazy darkness her father's form moving restlessly on the couch, pale moonlight from the window behind him reflecting off his sweat beaded face in as he shifted and whispered, trapped in a nightmare.

Daddy wasn't scared like before, when his eyes ran red from an ouch, but she could feel the sadness in him.

...

Buffy had been asleep until the scream snapped her awake.

'Angel.' She knew before she was even fully conscious, kicking off the comforter as she wrestled with the sheets tangled around her feet.

Jumping up from bed, she hurried out her bedroom door, only pausing to note their daughter's door was ajar. Before running downstairs to wake Angel from the nightmare that must have caused the scream, she looked down into the dimness below from the landing above and saw Katie crawl onto the couch with her father. Buffy watched as the little girl padded Angel's cheek with her little hands and talked softly to him, doing what he always did for her when she awoke from her own nightmares in the night.

Already feeling Angel calming from her vantage point on the landing, Buffy watched for a few moments more while Katie snuggled up with her father on the couch, finding a comfortable spot in her daddy's arms as he laid back down.

Seeing the little girl had the situation under control, Buffy took one last look and headed back to bed, confident Angel's nightmares would not return with Katie keeping guard.

...

The two small dead staring eyes that had been watching him faded from his thoughts as he felt his daughter's little hands patting his cheek and heard her soft voice whispering that everything was ok. "Don't be sad Daddy." Katie was saying in his ear, "I'm here, everything is ok now."

Angel's dark eyes opened to an even darker world, but he didn't need vision to wrap his arms around the comforting warmth of his baby girl. "Katie?" He spoke tiredly and a bit disorientated after waking so abruptly, "Sweetheart, what are you doing down here, you should be in bed." He caught her small hand in his and kissed the wiggling fingers as she patted his cheek.

"You were hading a nightmare Daddy, I was just making you better." She replied innocently enough, he could practically feel her big brown eyes blinking at him.

"Yes, and I'm all better now." He agreed, "so back to bed you go." He sat up and prepared to carry his child back to her room when she flatted out against him and latched her arms almost painfully tight around his neck, "No! I want to stay here...with you...please Daddy?" The nearly four year old begged quickly as she suction-cupped against Angel's chest.

"Whoa, loosen up a bit before you strangle me." The choking father pleaded as he freed himself from Katie's choke-hold.

"Please!" She begged again, already trying to worm her arms back around him.

"Ok, ok." Angel laughed out as he relented to his child's demands, always finding himself unable to say 'no' to his baby girl. As much as he thought she should be back in her room and that he didn't deserve to feel comfortable tonight after what happened during the training session, he also couldn't deny how much he enjoyed her small weight resting in his arms or the sense of peace she brought to his soul. She wasn't Buffy, but the ability she possessed to calm him and bring joy to his heart when she was near was undeniably similar. It was a trait both of his children inherited from their mother.

"Yay!" The little brunette in his lap cheered as he agreed to let her stay with him, although his eyes were blind to it, he could feel the weight of her smile pressing all over him.

"Sleep now, Ok baby." He spoke quietly, laying back and getting comfortable as Katie wiggled into her own comfortable spot against his chest.

"Not a baby." The toddler breathed out in defiance as she laid her head down on his shoulder, her eyes already drooping.

"Of course not, my mistake." Angel replied with a grin, still picturing how tiny and beautiful she was when the nurse laid the screaming pink newborn in his arms for the very first time.

He ran his fingers though her soft brown hair, gliding the digits over her back before resting his hand protectively over her small torso, his thumb stroking along up and down her spine. It was only a few moments before he felt her body relax in sleep, hearing her heartbeat slow and breath deepen. "Sweet dreams." He whispered as he placed a light kiss on her crown.

With his child sleeping peacefully wrapped in his arms, Angel closed his sightless eyes. This time, the feeling of being watched did not return, nor did the nightmare that had shadowed it.

...

In the morning, Buffy walked down the stairs with a sleepy Liam in her arms, his little fist rubbing his eyes as he yawned away the remains of the night. His mother's matching hazel green eyes scanned over her husband's broad back, wishing she could run her hands over his shoulders and kiss him good morning. At some point during the night, Angel had rolled onto his side, now he lay facing the back of the couch. Although she couldn't see her, Buffy knew Katie was snuggled in between her father and the couch back, it was a favored hiding spot for the kids. One Buffy learned about quickly enough, especially when the first time it happened she'd nearly had a panic attack thinking her infant had been kidnapped as she hadn't been able to locate the baby anywhere. As it turned out, it had been just that, her Kid, Napping...with daddy on the couch.

Passing the prone body on the sofa, Buffy entered the kitchen and set her son into his booster chair as she went about getting him his morning juice and making a pot of coffee for the adults. While she was mixing the hot water with the quick oats for Liam's breakfast, Katie shuffled into the kitchen suppressing a yawn before climbing up into her own booster seat.

"Morning sweetie." Buffy greeted as she took another bowl from the cabinet to portion out a helping for her daughter's breakfast.

When the oatmeal was finished, she placed a bowl in front of each of her children before stealing a glance into the living room. She'd expected Angel to be awake by now, except he was still face down on the couch, blankets now pulled up over his head. With a raised brow at his late waking, she went back over to the counter, poured him a mug of black coffee and walked over to the couch, placing the steaming cup on the end table where she knew he'd smell it. On a normal morning, he was up with the kids, or earlier if they had some time for some togetherness before the sun rose. Watching the still lump for a few moments, she realized he was still very much out cold. 'Ok, guessing he didn't get much sleep last night. Second thought, neither did I.'

With a worried frown, Buffy returned to the kitchen to supervise the kids eating and to clean up the pending mess as she nursed her own mug of coffee. Once the two little ones were fed, they slipped out into the living room to play while Buffy washed the table and dishes.

After she was finished, she walked back into the living room to find Angel still motionless while Katie and Liam played with their toys on the floor across the room. Walking over to the unmoving blanket on the couch, Buffy lightly touched his shoulder though the thick cotton and pulled the fabric down enough to uncover his head and see his face, before she called his name softly.

His reply was a groan into his pillow as he rolled onto his back, but his eyes remained shut.

Buffy glanced up at the clock, as much as she'd have liked to let him sleep longer, they needed to get ready for work now or else she'd be late for class. Leaning in closer, she brushed her fingers though her husband's dark hair and called his name again, this time a little louder.

The reaction was different this time, instead of a groan, his arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her down on top of him. With a yelp, she found herself crushed up against his chest, which was actually rather comfortable. She felt him sigh as in relief and nuzzle against her.

As much as she wanted to stay locked in his arms, now wasn't the time. "Angel." She address the still sleeping living vampire beneath her, "I need you to wake up now, we need to get ready for work." Despite the message, she said it with a smile.

He make a noise of disagreement and pulled her closer.

Buffy grinned, glad he was at least still affectionate in his sleep. Instead of words, she freed her arm from under his crushing embrace and ran her thumb over his cheek as she leaned down and kissed his lips.

His response wasn't instant, but the return kiss came pretty quickly.

She knew he was really waking up when he broke off the kiss rather abruptly.

What bothered her was although he was naturally drawn to her, he was making a conscious decision to distance himself from her.

"What time is it?" He asked rather groggily, sitting up as she slipped off him and eased onto the couch beside him instead. 'Uhh.' He thought to himself, 'Why do I feel like I haven't slept in days?'

"Just after 9." She answered, watching as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "There's coffee on the table to your left, might be cold now though." The switch between the happy morning kisses to emotionless dialog bothered her, but she didn't want to stir the pot while he was still waking up, which she noticed was taking longer than usual.

He nodded, reaching out towards the smell of the cooled off coffee and muttered, "This is fine, thanks."

After a few moment of awkward silence, Buffy offered, "Want me to make you breakfast?" She knew her husband's stomach was usually the first part of his body to wake up in the morning...well it was at least the second thing to wake up.

Instead of the hungry look she expected, he seemed to flinch. "No, thank you."

After he gulped down a few sips from his mug, he turned his blind eyes towards her, "I'll get the kids dressed if you want to shower."

Nodding, she then added a audible reply before getting up to do just that. "Ok, I'll be 20 minutes." As she headed upstairs, she chewed her lower lip and tried to figure out how to break the tension that was growing steadily between them.

...

Angel had just finished getting the kids ready when Buffy exited the bedroom across from him, Katie and Liam slipped between their legs to run back downstairs where their toys were waiting. Her sharp eyes noted the odd color choices for the kid's clothes and figured they picked their own outfits that morning and her husband being unable to see the colors hadn't interfered. Everything looked to be on the right side out, so she shrugged and let it pass.

"Ok, we'll head out as soon as you're ready." Buffy addressed as she looked up at him, noting his disheveled and bedridden appearance. Usually, she found he looked rather good when he awoke in that manner, but his rumpled appearance wasn't due to a sexy romp between the sheets with her this time, and today his eyes were bloodshot with exhaustion.

A frown crossed his lips and Buffy braced herself for something she wouldn't like to come out from between his.

He didn't disappoint.

"Buffy I'm..." He paused a moment and fidgeted before continuing. "I'm not going to work today."

"What? Why?" She asked, concerned and confused. Their whole lives pretty much revolved around Angel Investigations. For them, work had nothing to do with money, it was how they made a difference in the world now that there were other slayers and defenders of the innocent. The business side of AI interfaced with the local police department to help solve supernatural related crimes all over the country and the school aspect ran the training of the slayers that now helped the helpless.

The idea that her husband didn't want to interact with his own creation was scary to her, other than his family, his business was his life. "Angel, what happened yesterday..."

He cut her off, "Isn't going to happen again."

She blinked a few times before slowly asking, "Are you...quitting?" The thought left a pit in her gut.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before answering, "No, I'm not. I just...I don't know. I need a day or so to figure this out."

A chill had run up Buffy's body, one that had nothing to do with the outside February temperature. After a second of thinking it over, she replied, "I can call out too, we can talk about this."

Angel immediately shook his head, "No, there's no need for you to miss classes too, I'll be fine here alone, I promise."

"Are you sure?" She asked, wanted another option. "I can take a half day."

He sighed heavily, "Honestly, I've had a headache for 24 hours now and I didn't sleep very well. I just going to rest for a while, you don't need to miss class for that."

She wanted to argue, to whack him upside the head and tell him to get in the car, but the tired look in his eyes convinced her give in to his request. She wasn't worried he would hurt himself or try to escape his past again by running away, but she knew he was hurting inside. As much as she'd rather him crash in his office or the Med-Ward for the day where she could check in on him, she could tell he really would rather stay home. Trying to be as supportive as she could, even though she loathed the idea of him home alone when he obviously didn't feel well, she forced a smile and nodded, "Ok, I'll call you in a little bit."

He returned the smile and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "Thank you." He whispered, thankful she wasn't going to fight about his wish to be home alone. He wanted to let himself move on from this and get back into solving cases and training the next generation of slayers, but something was nagging at his subconscious and preventing him from moving on.

After Buffy and the kids were gone, Angel paced the living room for a while, feeling both drained and energized at the same time. The demon within was still flying high on Buffy's blood from the day before while the rest of his body was dragging on the few hours of poor sleep he'd managed last night. He has slept better with Katie in his arms, but it hadn't been long enough to fill the deficit.

Giving in to the weariness, he climbed the stairs to the bedroom he shared with his wife and slipped under the covers of their bed. The lingering scent of Buffy on the sheets quickly lulled him to sleep.

It wasn't long before the nightmare returned.

...

The room was pulsing in an eerie red light, the walls were rumbling as loudly as if he'd been standing by the engine of a 747 airplane, the stench of sulfur was strong enough to be suffocating, his skin was burning from a mix of heat and scratches from falling debris and although his mouth was dry, he could still taste the bitterness of death in the air.

'Don't look, don't look, don't look.' The words repeated as if on a broken recording in this mind.

He opened his eyes.

The infant held motionless above the alter screamed out a final breath as the dagger slipped though her small body.

"No!" Angel yelled out, but it was too little and too late.

The baby was dead.

Sinking to his knees, he watched in horrified fascination as the blood dripped from the lifeless form, collecting into a puddle on the floor and flowing into a stream directly towards him.

'You let me die.' The accusing words came from nowhere and everywhere at once, both disembodied and ghostly.

"No...I...but...the seal." Angel stuttered out, trying to tell the vengeful spirit he had no choice, that stopping the ceremony would have left the Hellmouth open for all of Hell to escape.

He choked on his words, they tasted like ash on his tongue.

The red stream flowed to a stop a few scarce inches from his knees, slowly lifting upwards, twisting and lengthening into the shape of a newborn's tiny circulatory system. The tiny heart in the center did not beat as the Slayers hearts had during the fight in the training room, Angel could see the organ had been severed neatly in half by the sacrificial blade.

"Please." Angel begged, "I would have saved you if I could have..." Tears were flowing down his cheeks, sobs shuttering in his heaving chest as he fought for breath.

His guilt was smothering him.

'You can.' The disembodied voice drifted out all around him, feeling almost as if it were touching him.

At that, Angel lifted his head from the shameful drop it had been in. "I can what?" A seed of hope came with the words.

'Save me.' Came the reply, echoing all around him.

"How?" He begged, "Please tell me how!" He needed this, needed to save this child. It suddenly became the most important mission in his existence, more vital than breath itself.

The dagger that ended the child's life materialized before him, hanging in the air like a deathly feather, floating towards him. Glowing with blood, the blade was the only other visible object his eyes could see besides the horrific blood system of the murdered infant.

"Wh...what do you need me...to do?" Angel asked, his wide brown eyes nearly penetrating the knife hanging in the air before him.

Silence was thick in the air.

"Please!" He called out loudly, "Tell me how to save you!" Angel begged, every nerve in his body aching for a solution.

Just as he expected no reply, it came, quietly.

'Take my place.'

Angel blinked at the words as they entered his mind, twisting in turning though his memory and around the pit of despair that had become his world. His blind-to-all-but-the-dagger eyes focused on the blade, his whole consciousness studying the weapon before him as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

The tears in his eyes dried as determination filled his features.

His mind was set.

With purpose, he reached out and took the knife.

In the next moment, Angel opened his eyes, finding himself twisted in the blankets on his bed.

His mind whirled, 'A dream.' It told him, 'A nightmare.'

The thought would have stuck had he not brought his hand up to move the bunched up comforter off him, finding clenched tightly enough in his right fist to draw blood, was the dagger from the dream.

His face hardened and he knew what he had to do.

Quickly getting up, he showered, dressed and slipped out the front door.

The world around him was dark, but there was a shimmer of red beginning to form where he expected the ground in front of him to be. Realizing it was a path forming for him to follow, he swung his guide cane back and forth along the crimson line as he headed down the sidewalk.

He had a bus to catch.

...

Something was wrong.

Buffy had learned a long time ago that when that uncomfortable feeling stirred in her gut, it meant trouble.

Getting back to her office after her first class finished, she decided to assure herself whatever was giving her indigestion wasn't do to the man she'd left home alone. Picking up her office phone, she dialed home and waited a few moments for Angel to answer. 'Ok, maybe he's asleep.' She thought as the phone kept ringing, 'Or maybe he is outside on the deck or in the shower, or dancing around the living room with the radio blasting.' She very much doubted the last one, but it did make her smile for a brief second before the answering machine picked up. "Hey, just checking in. Call me, love you." She told the recording before hanging up. After a few minutes of waiting for and not getting a call back, she tired his cell but got the same no response as the house phone. She repeated her message for his cell answering machine and hung up, her worry only growing.

After twenty minutes of no return call and still no answer, she decided she was going home to check on him. She sent a message to Giles to keep an eye on the kids as she grabbed her coat and headed out of her office.

Buffy was almost out the front door of the building when Willow crossed her path, "Hey Buffy, what's up? Is something wrong?" The Wicca asked, noticing the worry lines were in place around her friend's eyes.

"I'm sure it's nothing." Buffy made herself say, hoping it was true, "Angel isn't answering the phone so I'm going to go check on him."

"Oh, you need a ride? I was just heading out to the store anyways, we're running low on Twice Blessed Sage and Salamander's eyes and I have a class to teach tomorrow to perform a..." Willow noticed Buffy's lack of paying attention as she looked out the window over at Angel's convertible parked not far away. "And you don't really need to hear the details because you're worried about Angel."

At the sound of his name, Buffy looked back at her friend, "Huh? Oh, sorry. I just...I need to go check on him."

"Right." Willow could clearly see Buffy should not be behind the wheel of a car at the moment, not when 95% of her brain was focused on Angel. "Come on, I'll drive."

"Thanks Will." Buffy said as the two exited the building and walked over to the Wicca's car, the icy parking lot a hazard in itself.

A few minutes later, Willow pulled into the Summer's driveway and Buffy quickly exited the car and rushed into the house.

"Angel?" Buffy called as she entered into the living room, looking into the bathroom and kitchen downstairs before heading up to the bedroom. The fact she didn't feel Angel close by was already building on her worry from earlier. When she opened the door to her bedroom, she found it as empty as the rest of the house. 'Where the heck did he go?' She wondered with a note of frustration. Looking over the bed, she knew he'd spent at least some of the time alone sleeping as the sheets were far more rumpled than she'd left them.

On autopilot, she pulled the comforter over and down to make the bed as she mulled over where her husband could have gone. As she lifted the sheet, her eyes spotted a bloodstain on the usually white fabric. Her own blood grew cold as she untangled the material and looked over the stain again, it wasn't large, but the dampness proved whatever caused the blood hadn't been all too long ago. 'Was he taken by someone? Did he hurt himself? Is he ok? Where did he go?' A million questions raced though her mind as she gathered up the sheet and headed downstairs.

Willow was wandering the kitchen while waiting for Buffy when, said slayer rushed into the room, "Will, I need a locator spell, ASAP."

The redheaded witch blinked a moment before responding, "Why? Angel's not here?" Then what Buffy asked processed, "Oh and I need something of his to bind the spell to..."

Before Willow could say more, she shoved the bloody sheet into Willow's arms, "Use that, his blood, it's fresh. Please, hurry."

Nodding, the young witch quickly grabbed a few household supplies and organized herself to perform a simple locator spell using a map of the state Buffy procured from somewhere for the projection.

Less than five minutes later, Willow pointed to the glowing spec of light on the map moving steadily upwards from Doylestown. "There, wow, he's moving fast, he has to be in a car or something. I hope he isn't driving...you know with the blindness...ok I'm sure he isn't driving." Willow mumbled nervously as Buffy stood and began to pace.

Buffy watched the glowing spec with an uneasy feeling stabbing around in her gut, "Where is he going? And most importantly, why and is it willingly?" The fact he didn't call her was what really bothered her.

Willow bit her lip as she studied the glowing orb of light that represented Angel's location in the real world, noticing the direction it was heading. Slipping her phone into her hand, she did a quick search and compared the path to the map. "Buffy, I think he's heading to Cleveland." The technologically savvy witch declared as she showed her blonde friend the map on her phone, "He must have taken the 11:15am bus, the schedule matches that route and timing."

Buffy glanced over at the clock on the wall, a frown on her lips, "He has a 25 minute head start. If we hurry we should be able to catch up to it, the bus makes a few stops, right?"

Willow nodded as she grabbed the keys off the table, mentally preparing herself for having to speed for the next 30 minutes in order to get to Cleveland in time to meet up with the bus and figure out what was going on with Angel.

Although she still had no idea why Angel would make a break for Cleveland, why he wouldn't tell her or get a ride from a friend as opposed to public transit, Buffy quickly headed for the door. "OK, let's go."

As Buffy got into the car, a shiver washed up her spine.

She had a bad feeling about this.

...

Angel was restless for the whole 40 minutes since he walked out his door, even worse while he'd been sitting on the bus, and the times it pulled over at a stop were almost unbearable.

After what felt like an eternity, the cheap and barely functioning PA system on the bus clicked on, a statically announcement from the driver stating the next stop would be in five minutes.

'Finally.' Angel thought, gripping his cane hard enough to make the metal groan. This was his stop. As he thought about it, he realize this would be his last stop.

As much as the thought should have bothered him, he kept picturing the eyes of the infant girl as she was slain before his own. 'I can save her.' The idea felt solid in his mind, he kept repeating it to keep him going.

When the bus finally pulled over at the sketchy graffiti filled platform, the driver asked to Angel as he descended the stairs, "Hey man, you sure you want this stop? I can drop you at the next one, lot safer than this place."

"I'm sure." The living vampire answered as he stepped down onto the sidewalk, his guide cane tapping along as the faint glowing trail that lit his otherwise dark world appeared to lead him in the direction of the collapsed high school.

"Can't say I didn't warn ya." The driver muttered as she closed the door and drove off, shaking her head and reminding herself to read about the foolish blind white dude that was sure to wind up in the police logs the paper published every a few days.

Angel had been the only one to exit in this part of town.

The walk went quickly enough, though he felt eyes watching him, none dared to confront him. He could feel it in the air, a blind man in the bad part of town should have been easy pickings, but something was keeping the thugs away, something dark.

The Hellmouth.

There was a line he'd crossed a few blocks back, one that even the worst of the human criminals wouldn't breech. He was in demon territory now. Despite the fact a good number of demonic beings were hungry to pick their teeth with Angel, none dared to confront him.

It was almost as if he were welcomed there.

When he finally reached the abandoned remains of the high school, he pried a board off the fence and slipped inside the boundary, still following the glowing blood-red trail to hollow shell that was once a high school.

"Great." He sighed, feeling the padlock on the door and realizing there would be breaking and entering involved to get inside the basement and into the caves below.

As he bent over to get the required leverage to snap the lock, he heard on the edge of his hearing a barely audible cry from below, 'Hurry...please...save me.'

"I will." He promised, slamming his fist down and shattering the metal lock off the door.

...

Willows green eyes kept flicking to the rearview mirror, expecting to see flashing blue and red lights at any moment.

She wasn't going any faster than Oz had during the last apocalypse on the verge of happening in Cleveland, but an antsy slayer encouraging light speed results was beginning to damage her calm.

"Almost there." Willow assured to her friend fidgeting in the seat beside her, Buffy's fist clenched so tight they were turning white.

...

Angel felt around in a circle, making sure the hole he'd created was large enough for him to pass though without leaving too much skin behind. The trapdoor in the basement had collapsed inwards from the quakes that had resonated from the shifting energy flow when LA's Hellmouth had been forming, meaning he'd had to excavate the pathway by digging. As he eased himself down into the crevasse, the dull red glow reappeared before his otherwise sightless eyes, showing him the way forward.

The moment he slipped beneath the surface, he felt the power within the Hellmouth wash over him, threatening to force his face to change. It didn't matter that the majority of power had migrated back to California with the birth of the LA Hellmouth, the residual energy would always remain, dormant or not. Taking a deep breath, he closed his aching eyes, focused on himself and let the air out of his lungs slowly. When he felt his control return, he opened his eyes and once again began to follow the glowing red trail further into the tunnel.

The lower section wasn't as badly damaged as the entrance had been, thus his speed was growing quicker than earlier when he'd had to constantly stop to shift around rocks and debris. As he descended, the temperature grew eerily warmer, coaxing him to first shed his jacket, then outer sweater. As he dropped the coat on the ground, a weight in the pocket caught his attention. Feeling around, he pulled out his long forgotten cellphone.

A seed of doubt stirred in his mind about what he was doing sprouted as he felt the solid weight of the phone, suddenly thinking about Buffy and his family. 'I should call her one last time, hear her voice and tell her I love her.' Hitting the power button, he waited for the sound that indicated it was booted up and ready before hitting the voice command and saying her name. He couldn't see the missed calls screen or the flashing message icon as he held the device to his ear and listened to the rings.

He was surprised at how fast she picked up and how worried she sounded. "Thank God! Angel! Where are you! What's going on? Are you ok? Hello? Angel?"

The words had been fired at him in quick rapid succession, but after a few seconds he found his tongue, "Yeah, I'm here. I just...wanted to hear your voice." 'One last time.' He left unsaid, it was hard enough to keep speaking with the first few words tasting so thick of guilt.

The relief was palatable the moment she heard his voice over the line, but his tone set off more warning bells in Buffy's head. "Angel, please tell me what's wrong. You sound faded, where are you? Why did you leave without telling me? Are you ok? Are you under duress? What's going on Angel, please tell me." She repeated most of the unanswered questions from a moment ago, noticing his lack of replies for them and the growing static over the line.

Angel hadn't expected his wife to know he'd left, so the lie he could have said wasn't yet formed in his head. "I'm sorry Buffy" was all his mouth would supply. The apology was for far more than just leaving without telling her today, it was for everything he'd ever done to wrong her. 'She'll be better off without me, this will end all the pain I bring her.'

A stream of words came from over the line, but Angel wasn't hearing them anymore. The image of the dead baby was watching him from a few feet away, suspended in air and glaring at him with those dead vacant eyes. He didn't know how he saw her, since everything else in his vision was still absent, but the visual left him staggering back with tears flowing down his cheeks and apologies for being too late to prevent her death came tumbling from his lips.

Barely aware of it, Angel lifted the phone back to his mouth and whispered, "I love you" before letting the device fall to the dusty rock strewn floor though weakened fingers, the connection going dead.

'Save me.' Came from the hovering infant, a pleading look upon her too pale face.

Slowly Angel reached into his pants and pulled the knife from its sheath within his belt, his hand gaining strength as he tightened a fist around the hilt. Nodding as emotion made it too hard to speak, he followed the red blazing trail again down into the lowest part of the chamber, into the room which was the mirror image of where the newest seal of Danzalthar had been created only a month ago from the blood of the deceased infant floating before him.

...

"Angel! Shit, pull over!" Buffy yelled as she realized Angel was no longer there to hear her desperate pleads, instead she directed her voice at the redhead in the driver's seat beside her. She had recognized the voice her husband had used, the same hollow tone that he'd spoken to her on the night he'd gone to take his own life. It didn't make sense to her, but in that very moment she knew, he was in the Hellmouth to kill himself.

Willow jumped at the command and quickly jerked the car into the breakdown lane, taking a good minute of steady breaking until the car finally came to a complete stop. Turning to the blonde nervously digging though her purse for a flashlight, she asked. "What are we doing?"

"Teleport me." Buffy demanded, with a 'please for the love of anything do it fast' tone.

"Oh." The Wicca spoke as she realized her friend's plan with a heavy heart, "I...can't."

"Why!" The Slayer demanded, pumped full of adrenaline, so much her leg was twitching.

"I'm sorry, but don't have all the supplies with me. I pre-make the bags of herbs with the spells woven in to make the magic cast faster and seem instant, but I still need the ingredients to perform them. I can't make the mojo happen without the right tools, and I...didn't bring that tool." The Wicca gave her a apologetic frown.

Buffy's mouth moved a few times but nothing came out, she had to get to Angel right now, but couldn't.

Willow checked her mirrors and pulled back onto the highway, speeding up to a very-over-the-limit number as she tried to get her friend to Cleveland in time to save Angel.

'He's going to die.' Buffy realized in horror, suddenly believing she wasn't going to make it to him in time. Her grief was pushed down just as fast as it had appeared, replaced by the hardened exterior of The Slayer, the raw personal strength that had seen her though some of the hardest times of her life. The waiting was terrible, but she forced herself to endure it. As much as she'd felt like jumping out of the car and run off the adrenaline her body was pumping out in waves, she restrained herself to reason, that the car was going much faster than she ever could manage on foot.

As the Ohio landscape rushed by the passenger window, the thought slipped by her mind again. 'He's going to die.' It felt too much like the Christmas morning that Angel had tried to end his life. She'd heard the taunting warning from The First and rushed to go save him, running for all she was worth, across town and up Kingsman Bluff. Running and running just to arrive too late. Had the magical snow that hit southern California not swept across the sky and blotted out the morning rays, Angel would have burned. There would be no magic snow this time, and Angel had too much of a head start.

'He's going to die' came around again, bringing with it a single tear down her cheek. She wiped it away and stared straight ahead, saving all her energy for the race to come, the race against the clock, the race to save Angel.

She didn't care that odds were against her, they usually were, and she wasn't going to give him up without a fight.

It felt like hours had gone by, but it had been barely 5 minutes since she'd lost contact with Angel and Willow speeding off the exit and rushing across the mostly empty streets.

For lunchtime on a workday, one would have expected more activity. However the old Hellmouth High School had been built in a older rundown residential area of town, most of the mid-day activity was towards the newer business end of the block.

Neither of the two in the car complained about the lack of traffic as Willow raced the vehicle down the street the school occupied and came to a screeching halt at the fence that now wrapped around the abandoned shell the Hellmouth energy had reduced the once proud build to. All of the Hellmouths over the globe had suffered Earthquakes during the birthing process, the network of energy connecting each one resonating the power that had surged from Cleveland to LA. There were cracks in several walls and in the foundation, but since the building wasn't functional at the moment, no one had bothered to report the damage or repair it.

Without waiting for the vehicle to reach a complete stop, Buffy jumped out and shot off like a bullet, practically though the fence and all out running across the cracked parking lot towards the entrance.

Within minutes, she was down into the basement, Buffy barely paused as she located the spot Angel had cleared earlier, his white guide cane revealing the partly hidden gap in the debris. Her much smaller body easily slipped though the opening and down into the darkness.

Switching on the flashlight she held in a death grip, she rushed down into the tunnel and after her husband. 'He's not going to die.' She forced herself to think, 'You won't let him.'

...

Angel could feel the heat rising from beneath him, the dark energy surging just below the Seal. Although it was hot, he felt cold inside as he stood so close to the vortex of evil barely two inches from his boots.

With a slow and steady motion, he brought the knife up and felt the blade a moment, checking the sharpness.

'Wow' He thought as he felt the razor edge of the weapon, impressed on the quality and craftsmanship. This certainly wasn't a Wal-mart brand dagger, it was a work of art.

Art forged for death.

Then the voice came again, breaking his momentary trance, 'Please Angel, save me.'

The living vampire nodded his reply and drew the blade even with his chest, the deathly sharp tip poised over his heart. He could feel the organ beneath his ribs thumping wildly, a mix of terror and excitement.

He would save her, the tiny life he watched end would live again.

The baby girl would live.

He would die.

He moved his arms out, ready to pull in quickly and sink the blade into his heart, to give his blood and life for the innocent babe watching him silently from across the room.

Just as he was contracting his muscles, a sudden rush washed over him, a soothing calm that made his arms heavy. There were no words, no audible sounds, but something spoke into his mind, with emotions. Whatever it was, it was asking him to put down the blade, to not spill his blood here, it wanted him to live.

In a moment of indecision, he wavered, the tip of the knife drawing a drop of blood when it grazed his skin through his thin t-shirt.

'Don't stop, you must SAVE ME!' The disembodied voice of the infant cried out, echoing in the chamber as the words bounced off the stone walls. 'Do it! Do it now!'

Before Angel could follow though, he realized he could see a light entering his black world. The unearthly red glow Angel had been following and seeing was being outshined by a glorious white mist as it rose from the steel-grey seal.

His dark brown eyes couldn't help but be drawn to the mystical glow as it moved towards him, a feeling a complete calm washing over him, a soothing cream that dulled his burning thoughts and making him feel safe, warm and loved. It was nothing like how Buffy made him feel, and yet it was almost the same.

There wasn't a sound in the chamber besides his heavy breaths and the angry desperate cries of the baby suspended in the air above the seal, but in his mind Angel heard the words as much as he felt them. The feeling urged him to lower the knife, to not spill his blood here over the seal.

Dark eyes focus on the glow from within the seal, a bright and warm white light. It took him a second to understand what it was; the soul of the baby, the real soul. From halfway across the continent, the essence of the sacrificed baby had come to stop him, to save him from the darkness that was using his guilt to kill him.

In his confusion, he looked over at the red glowing shape of what he'd thought was the slain child, no longer seeing the illusion of innocence of before, whatever it was now, there was nothing but evil within the tiny shape.

Suddenly it became clear to him, this trip wasn't about saving the baby, it was a trap, he was being deceived into trying to kill himself.

Angel suddenly recognized the pattern and the weighted down feeling of helpless despair, he'd once felt it before. It was the same empty desperation from his last Christmas in Sunnydale. The voice of despair that had been tormenting him over the last week, the eyes floating in air, the nightmares and feelings of uselessness, it had all been orchestrated to lead him here into this very chamber.

Yellowed demon eyes narrowed at the eerily red glowing being, it no longer crying out to be saved. That wasn't possible for the root of all evil. Angel's jaw tightened in a rush of anger, his fangs aching from the strain, "You son of a bitch" he growled, his face fully shifting as the rage rushed over him. In his fury, he raised the dagger still clenched in his fist and stalked towards the false baby, ready to take out his anger with the weapon that had nearly ended his life.

In response, the peaceful feeling tugged at his heart again, urging him not to attack, but to show mercy.

Too engaged in his fury to listen, he grabbed the fake baby hard around the neck and slammed the tiny body up against the rough stone wall, the dagger poised to descend and cut the body in two for a second time. "You." He spat, having hoped he'd never come face to face with the ultimate evil again, not after what it had nearly made him do the last time they'd met. With a snarl, he pulled his arm back and shoved the blade forward with all the strength he could manage.

The tip purposely missed the squirming being and with a shower of sparks, buried into the stone wall all the way to the hilt, becoming lodged forever.

Dropping the creature in his hands, Angel stepped back from the cold feeling it left on his skin, knowing and remembering the feeling of it from the last time.

A feeling he would never forget.

The First Evil.

The being that haunted him in the weeks following his return from Hell, showing him the faces of those he'd killed while without a soul, poised in the guise of Jenny Calendar, driving him mad with grief and guilt to the point he'd almost taken his own life. It would have succeeded had The Powers-That-Be not interfered on his behalf, blocking the deadly morning rays and blanketing Sunnydale in a coating of snow.

This time instead of looking like Jenny, it had taken the form of the infant from LA, who had been sacrificed to create the seal. It had haunted his nightmares and even his days, feeding him lies and building on his feelings of guilt and remorse.

"You failed." He whispered, refusing to fuel the hate The First thrived off of, giving nothing but indifference to the soul of darkness.

The warmth from the seal showed the baby's gratitude for his mercy, swirling around him and giving him a piece of the peace she felt, thanking him for being there and not leaving her alone in the end, for being a witness to her sacrifice and acknowledging her life and death. The pure innocent soul held no grudges, she simply accepted her fate to be a guardian of Danzalthar. She had been born to become a seal to the Hellmouth, that was all she knew.

Shed of mortal fear, pain and weakness, she would exist forever now, a light in the dark to keep the evil at bay.

Angel blinked the tears from his eyes, smiling his first unburdened smile in weeks. The glow of the soul began to fade then, returning back into the metal of the seal and back to LA.

The First boiled in a blinding rage as it watched the real baby's soul deter Angel from his task. The First had been so close, only a few seconds away from manipulating the former undead into killing himself over the seal. His suicide would have corrupted the balance and caused the power to shift, caused the Cleveland Hellmouth to open. Hell would have reigned on earth, chaos and mayhem and madness...oh my! But no, the living vampire was swung back towards the light, for the second time his life was denied to it.

For the second time, The Powers had intervened to save their key player in the upcoming Apocalypse.

A player that should have belonged to the dark side, the one that was to have become it's personal vessel on the mortal plane. If only Angelus hadn't been cursed with a soul. In the late 1700's, The First had taken a liking to the fledgling and over the decades it watched as Liam of Galway became The Scourge of Europe. With only a few months to wait for the stars to align for the first time in over 1,000 years, The First realized it could take a physical body. Angelus had been the demon it had chosen; a being of pure evil, fierce, smart, attractive and best of all, immortal. A perfect combination to spend eternity reigning over Hell-on-Earth. The First anointed Angelus without the vampire even knowing it, but when the ritual to take possession could finally be performed, it was after 1898, Angelus had been cursed then, and the now residing soul had prevented The First from being able to complete the ritual. The possession had failed, but the connection had lingered, as a side effect, allowing the incorporeal being to touch the vampire even though it had no physical form of its own.

When The Powers returned Angel to Earth after spending a hundred years in Acathla's Hell Dimension, The First realized their plan to use the tormented vampire as a weapon against it. The First had hoped to sway the vampire back to the dark side, but the soul wouldn't allow it. It would have preferred if the vampire had lost the retched soul for a second time to The Slayer, making the possession possible again, but they'd refused to cooperate, thus convincing the vampire to kill himself had been a necessary step to protect itself.

Now it was twice The Powers had stolen away its victory.

The First roared as its true form burst forth in a blaze of fury and vengeance, tearing out from the disguise of the baby and lashing out at Angel for all the failures he had been responsible for in this last century. Even Sunnydale was lost due to the vampire giving The Slayer the secret weapon to destroying the Hellmouth once and for all.

The First didn't care that direct attack was against the rules, it was mad with rage and hate and the desire to kill the one that had been its favorite for a few hundred years.

Angel felt the sudden inrush of energy and ducked, rolling away from the blow that would have knocked him senseless and kept retreating, keeping a steady focus on the bright red blob in his vision that was the Earth's First Evil. The attacks were easy enough to defend against, they were wild and without thought, like a cornered animal lunging in for a random bite. That didn't make this fight any less dangerous, any one of the blows would be a major injury if they landed.

The frustrated screech that bellowed from The First's wide gaping mouth was shrill enough to make Angel's ears bleed, but as it charged for him again, he sensed an opening and took it. As the Divine Evil rushed at him, he side-stepped and swung his arm out, connecting with The First's back and steering it into the rock wall behind him, directly into the hilt of the dagger buried in the wall at chest height.

Ignoring the aching shiver of cold and torment that washed over him when he brushed the evil being's form, Angel rolled away and braced himself against the shrieks and rumbles that erupted from the creature in pain of the stab wound. Angel wouldn't have thought such a small wound would have caused The First so much pain, not compared to the size of it. He began to wonder if it wasn't so much the pain of getting a hilt suck in its chest so much as getting any piece of that particular dagger. Something about the weapon made it special, it had a power over the evil incarnate, the power to hurt it.

He didn't know that it was the specks of dried blood, his blood, that was causing The First pain.

It was him that had the power to hurt it.

None of this mattered much to Angel, The First's screams were shaking the whole chamber, like it was trying to bring the entire city of Cleveland down on his head like the collapse of Sunnydale.

'Time to go.' He suddenly acknowledged, looking around for the glowing trail but finding his guiding light was now gone. Blind and in a partly collapsed system of caves, he realized this could take a long time to feel his way out. Unfortunately he didn't have much time, he could already hear the rocks above him growing loose as The First continued to fight and scream.

Just then, his straining ears picked it up, it was barely audible in the cacophony around him, but he still heard it, would always hear it, Buffy's voice.

Locking on, he began to move in that direction, trying to focus on the faint speck of sound. He didn't know if she was really there or if it was just a trick in his mind, but either way he was going to find out. He grunted and stumbled along, wanting to call out but knowing she would be unable to hear him, his ears barely picked her up and his senses were five times as sensitive as hers.

...

Before that traitorous vampire could clear the chamber of the seal, The First ripped itself off the dagger's handle and focused all its remaining power into a single ball of energy. Right before it lost the strength to project itself into this world, with a incoherent blast of rage, The First threw the sphere at Angel's unprotected back.

With a satisfied smirk, it dissolved and vanished back to its realm

...

The air suddenly charged as Angel realized The First had stopped screaming. 'Oh Shit.' He barely had time to think as the rush of energy came at him. His reflexes were excellent, but even he couldn't completely dodge in time. Angel yelled in pain as a bomb exploded just beside him, the force of the explosion pushing him backwards and connecting him hard against the unforgiving stone wall.

The world flashed white before everything faded away.

...

Buffy tore down the chamber, scampering past, under and over rocks in her haste to reach Angel in time. She knew she was close when the entire cave began to tremble, it grew steadily more powerful as she neared the focus point. The major worry for her was if the quake was a sign that whatever Angel had come here to do, was it currently in progress or had it already happened?

Growing fear added more speed to her steps, she was not willing it to be either option, because the end result of both would make her a widow. She was not ready for that... never would be.

A rush of light startled her as two floating balls zipped though the air and began to hover a few feet around her. Reflexively she swatted at one before she realized they were sent by Willow, who must now be following at a much slower speed than an adrenaline over-flowing Slayer. "Right, show me the way." Buffy muttered as she slipped the flashlight into her back pocket and freed her hands to help maneuver her over the boulder covered floor.

A series of screams suddenly echoed from ahead, shrill and piercing. The only factor Buffy found positive about it, that it wasn't Angel's voice, and that it sounded mad, which likely meant Angel was pissing it off, which meant he was still alive.

"Angel!" Buffy yelled out, trying to make her voice project though the rumbling in the walls and over the maddened screams. Something about those screams seemed familiar, like she'd heard that voice before. However she didn't have time to sit and think at the moment, she needed to put all her focus on reaching her husband.

Nearly to the final chamber, the one housing the Seal of Danzalthar, the screams stopped and the cave fell eerily quiet.

Buffy had no time to wonder what that meant when she felt the energy build even from where she was, a sign something bad was about to happen.

Something did, because in the next moment another scream projected down the hall, one she knew belonged to Angel.

Then everything went deathly silent.

Silence was never a good sign.

The rumbles in the rocks snapped off like a switch had been thrown, the whole cave was still.

"No." Buffy said aloud as she raced the last few steps and practically dove into the end chamber, the eerie pulsing glow of the Seal helped light the room, along with the two floating balls of light that had been guiding her path.

The chamber was empty, save for a body on the ground against the far wall.

Angel.

...