Summary: Set in Buffy and Angel season flashbacks, telling the entire story of Darla and Angelus and Darla and Angel. Based on the song "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias.

*The Rise of Angelus*

Would you dance
If I asked you to dance?
Would you run
And never look back?
Would you cry
If you saw me crying?
Would you save my soul tonight?

It was a dark night in 1753 Galway, as Darla lured a drunk Liam into an alley. She was going to turn him into what she was. He didn't even have any suspicion and no knowledge of vampires. His only thought was of her. He was charmed by her and her beauty. That's what made it so easy to lure him into a dark and desolate alley. Besides, by turning him into a monster, she would be saving him from this mortal life of unhappiness, cruelty, and of plainly being an outcast.

After he had awoken and had been told everything by Darla, they went to his place where his sister invited him in, saying that he looked like an angel. Then he killed his entire family, leaving his father for last, as Darla watched with amusement and joy. She knew that she had chosen right, because he had the skill of pure evil like herself.

In the centuries that followed, Darla and Liam became known as the most evil of all the vampires. Liam's name was even changed to Angelus. So, throughout time, he became known as "Angelus; the one with the angelic face; the face of an angel."
In 1764 York, England Darla and Angelus killed the Vampire Hunter Holtz' family, but left his older daughter a vampire; Sarah. That made Holtz want to seek vengeance so much that he hunted them down, tracking them the best that he could. He and his friends almost found them in 1765 France, but all they accomplished was tracking them, due to Darla and Angelus hiding in a stable. But then in 1767 Marseilles Angelus, Darla, James, and Elisabeth were tracked and found. Angelus wanted to go, but James wanted to prove that he wasn't afraid or a coward by staying. That resulted in Angelus taking an arrow for James just moments after Darla and Elisabeth fled for safety. Then James betrayed Angelus by fleeing and leaving him at the hands of Holtz.
In 1771 Rome, Darla saved Angelus from any further torture by Holtz, and they fled into the night, leaving Holtz alive but his friends dead.
In 1860, Angelus sired Drusilla after driving her insane by killing everyone she had known and loved. Then, a few years later, seeking companionship of her own like Angelus and Darla had, she sired the young poet William, in 1880, and brought him to Angelus to meet. Darla by now had left to rejoin The Master. Later, William became known by two names; William the Bloody and Spike.
In 1898 in the Rumanian woods, Angelus killed the most beloved girl of the gypsies, which resulted in them punishing him with restoring his soul. Then, in 1898 Borsa, Romania after sensing that he had a soul, Darla turned her back on him.

Would you tremble
If I touched your lips?
Would you laugh?
Oh, please, tell me this
Now would you die
For the one you love?
Hold me in your arms tonight
I can be your hero, baby
I can kiss away the pain
I will stand by you forever
You can take my breath away
Would you swear
That you'll always be mine?
Or would you lie?
Would you run and hide?
Am I in too deep?
Have I lost my mind?
I don't care...
You're here tonight

In 1996 Manhattan in a dark alley, a demon named Whistler found him. By now he had changed his name from Angelus to Angel. Whistler told him that if he wanted to find his place in the world, he had to follow him. So, he did. Then Whistler enlisted him to watch over Buffy who would soon become the new LA Vampire Slayer and then Sunnydale's Slayer.

After leaving Sunnydale and going to live in LA, and after establishing Angel Investigations with the help of some new and old friends, he soon discovered that Wolfram and Heart had brought Darla back to life, but as a human. That wasn't the problem really, though. The real issue was that because she was human, she was dying of Syphilis, just as she had been before The Master had turned her centuries ago. So, even after everything evil that she had done as a vampire, he did what he could to save her life. He even went through the trials and tests to save her. In the end though, he couldn't save her, because Dru turned Darla back into a vampire.

I can be your hero, baby
I can kiss away the pain
I will stand by you forever
You can take my breath away
Oh, I just want to hold you
I just want to hold you, oh, yeah
Am I in too deep?
Have I lost my mind?
Well, I don't care...
You're here tonight...
I can be your hero, baby
I can kiss away the pain
I will stand by you forever
You can take my breath away

About six months later or so, Darla came to the Angel Investigations hotel pregnant after they had had a night of passion six months earlier, when she had tried to get him to lose his soul with a "moment of perfect happiness." Then, around a month or so later, after she had him promise to take care of their son, she staked herself in an alley on a rainy night, and baby Connor was born.

I can be your hero
I can kiss away the pain
And I will stand by you forever
You can take my breath away
You can take my breath away
I can be your hero...