Disclaimer: All characters and things from ANGEL and BUFFY belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. If they aren't on the show they belong to me.
Summary: Angel and Spike get a chance to get back the people that meant the most to them after the battle against Wolfram and Hart. But can they keep the real past a secret from the only people they want to share it with? A/C S/B
CHAPTER 22
Spike drove his motorcycle with Buffy sitting behind him toward L.A., he realized they were on a tight schedule and needed to try and make it to the Hyperion Hotel to warn Angel and Cordelia before Xander and Faith got there. That's why Spike didn't understand why Buffy suddenly yanked on his jacket, almost causing him to lose control of the bike.
Spike stopped his bike, pulling his helmet off and turning to Buffy. "What?"
"We need to tell Giles what we are doing." Buffy told him.
"Giles?" Spike shook his head. Going to Giles' would only waste time, and time was not something they had at the moment. "Buf…there's no time…"
"Spike." Buffy said in the commanding voice she was famous for. "Giles needs to know. Regardless of what he remembers he is still my watcher and he will still worry."
"Yeah, but if we don't bloody move it, he will feel a lot of guilt if anything happens to Angel or Cordelia." Spike told her. "In this reality, he worried a lot about them."
"He worried about them before…" Buffy went to argue.
Spike shook his head. "He couldn't wait for you to get away from Angel. I don't care what lies he fed you. And I don't think he thought much of Cordelia ever."
"You don't know that." Buffy didn't like Spike accusing her watcher of being insensitive. She had always thought of Giles as one of the more sensitive people in her life.
"Look, what I do know is that if we don't get to L.A. Angel and Cordelia will both be in serious danger." Spike said.
"Like that's something new for them." Buffy rationalized. "We go to Giles' it will only take a second."
After a beat Spike sighed. "Fine." He then turned his bike in the direction of Giles' house. The rest of the ride was silent, until Spike pulled his bike up onto Giles' driveway.
Buffy hopped of the bike. "Give me a second."
Spike nodded, watching Buffy run up the driveway. The Slayer, however, did not even make it to the door before it swung open and Giles stepped out onto his porch.
"Buffy?" Giles looked down his driveway and saw Spike sitting on his motorcycle. "Spike?"
Spike gave Giles a wave.
Giles turned his attention back to Buffy. "What are you doing here?"
"We think Xander and Faith went after Angel and Cordelia." Buffy told him. For some reason, as she shared this information with Giles she felt as though she was betraying him and his trust because he could not remember his old life, his real life, and she could. She shook the feeling and waited for his response.
"Why would you think that?" Giles asked.
"Because Xander and Faith are both gone." Buffy said.
"Gone?" Giles raised an eyebrow, his eyes darting between Buffy and Spike, who was now making his way up the driveway. "What do you mean gone?"
"Meaning they haven't been seen in bloody town." Spike said. "We think they are after Angel and Cordelia, so we stopped by to tell you we are leaving." He took Buffy's hand, trying to pull her away from her watcher and back toward his bike. He knew if they had any hope of making it to Angel and Cordelia then they needed to really get moving.
"Leaving? Where?" Giles asked.
"Los Angeles." Buffy told him. "We have to warn Angel and Cordelia."
"Be careful." Giles told them.
"We will." Spike said, and then got an idea. He knew it wouldn't hurt to have Giles back, memory and all, so he threw something at the old watcher, holding it would spark something for Giles. "And Giles, while we are away, do me a favor?"
"What?" Giles asked.
"Look up a fellow by the name of Angelus." Spike smirked, knowing that Angelus was a name that hit Giles close to home. Angelus had tortured Giles' personally, and made Buffy run around like a lost puppy while she was under Giles' watch, not to mention Angelus had taken Jenny from Giles. If any vampire's name was to awaken Giles' memory, it was Angelus.
"Look him up?" Giles seemed confused.
"In your books." Spike said. "Trust me, you ought to find something on him. He's a vampire."
Giles nodded and moved back into his house as Spike mounted his bike, waiting for Buffy to join him.
"Are you dense?" Buffy asked Spike.
"What?" Spike was confused.
"Angelus never existed in this reality because Angel isn't a vampire. You just sent Giles on a wild goose chase!"
"Did I?" Spike seemed to as more rhetorically then anything. "Or maybe since the world is going bloody crazy and vampires are now real and you and I and Angel and Cordelia have our strength and powers back, then maybe things aren't how they seem. Maybe, somewhere, Angelus does exist."
Buffy rolled her eyes, sensing that beneath it all Spike was right, but not wanting to show the ex-vampire that she might agree with him. Instead she got onto his bike, slipping her helmet on and giving his leather jacket a tug, letting him know she was ready to start making their way out to Los Angeles.
Wesley sat at Angel's desk, reviewing the scroll Angel had told him to go over. He was still confused as to why Angel had asked him to review the translation since clearly someone had already translated it for Angel; still he did what was asked of him. His eyes darted back and forth between the original writing and the translation that had already been written out. The writing seemed eerily similar to his own, but Wesley shook the chill away that came with that observation.
"The father…will kill…the son…" Wesley read the translation out loud. He sighed, sitting back in his chair, contemplating the words he had just read. "What does that mean?"
Suddenly images flashed through Wesley's mind, so vivid and so frantically that he felt as though his breath had been taken away.
Sunnydale. Faith. L.A. Cordelia. Angel. Gunn. Being shot. Pylea. Fred. A pregnant Darla. Lorne. Connor. Holtz. His throat being slit. Connor's return. Angel. The ocean. Cordelia. Angelus. Jasmine. Wolfram and Hart. Illyria. His death.
The memories hit Wesley so hard that he felt tears slip from his eyes. He wondered what had happened to him. He looked out into the lobby to see his friends, his family, and wondered what had happened to any of them. He didn't understand why they were back or why he had not remembered everything before, but then he looked back down at the scroll in front of him. Angel had asked him to translate it with Lorne; Angel and Lorne knew it would awake Wesley's memory. Wesley realized that Angel, Lorne, and probably Cordelia knew what was going on.
Angel and Cordelia made their way back into the Hyperion Hotel, hand in hand, to find Fred still sitting at the counter, Lorne on one couch, sea breeze in hand, and Gunn laying across the other couch, his eyes shut.
"You two lovebirds done chatting?" Lorne smiled up at Angel and Cordelia.
Angel and Cordelia both blushed at Lorne's words, and for the first time in a long time, Angel's blush was visible. This detail put a smile on Cordelia's face.
Angel looked over to see Cordelia's smile, but did not understand where it had come from. "What?"
"Nothing." Cordelia continued to smile as she pulled her hand away from his and gave him a wink, making her way over toward the counter and Fred.
Angel smiled at her, and then turned his attention back to Lorne and Gunn. He clapped his hands together, clearly not sure how to start the conversation. "So…Gunn…you're back?"
Gunn opened one eye slowly. "Yeah."
"Where you sleeping?" Angel raised an eyebrow. "I didn't mean to wake you up."
"Nah man, I would never sleep with my eyes closed." Gunn rolled his eyes but sat up, his nap clearly over.
Angel did not catch onto Gunn's sarcasm. "Oh, good. So, did you find anything?"
"Gunn thinks that they were definitely vampires." Fred said matter-of-factly.
"Really?" Angel nodded, deep down he had already known that fact but he was glad that investigating it had given Gunn something to do all afternoon.
"Yeah. No doubt." Gunn said. "Those victims had some major puncture wounds to the neck." Gunn jabbed his own neck with two fingers. "I've seen it, those were vampires alright."
"You've seen it?" Lorne caught onto Gunn's words before Angel or Cordelia. "Where?"
"My sister…" Gunn shrugged, and then thought about it. He had not just seen wounds like that on his sister. He had seen them hundreds of times before. His mind slowly started churning as memories of his old gang and staking Alonna came back to him. He didn't have time to put everything together though, before Connor came rushing into the hotel.
"We've got a problem!" Connor exclaimed, jumping down the two steps and into the lobby.
"Connor?" Angel was not used to seeing his son so jumpy. "What's wrong?" He felt Cordelia's presence next to him and pulled her close to him, waiting for his son to answer.
"I went to the police station before…" Connor gasped to catch his breath.
"Connor, slow down…" Cordelia tried to calm the boy she considered a son. "Take a breath and…"
"Xander!" Connor got out. "Xander was at the police station, looking for you." He pointed to Angel, having no memory that Angel was his father. "He was looking for you Angel."
"What?" Angel looked at Cordelia to see she looked worried.
"He wanted your address. The guy at the front desk gave it to him." Connor said. "I got here as fast as I could…"
"Do you think he is coming for you two?" Lorne asked Cordelia and Angel.
"I don't know." Angel said honestly. "But we need to figure it out. We need to keep ourselves safe. If he is coming it won't be for a nice visit…"
"Well, it's not like you'd invite me for one anyway." Xander's voice rang through the Hyperion Hotel as he and Faith appeared at the entrance of the hotel, each with a gun in their hand.
Gunn, Lorne, Connor, and Fred all moved to surround Angel and Cordelia, who were standing in the middle of the room, starring up at Xander. Cordelia moved close to Angel, and he could sense her fear, even if she was trying her best to mask it.
Giles sat at his kitchen counter over the few books that the Watcher's Council had given him that made any references to vampires. He did not have many books, and he attributed that to the simple fact that the Watcher's Council had not seen a need to give him many, seeing as how a few weeks ago vampires did not walk the earth.
Giles was not even sure why he had listened to Spike, and was wasting his time looking up a vampire named Angelus. He was not sure the significance in the particular vampire, and yet, deep down, he felt as though the name was important; that Angelus mattered.
Giles sighed, flipping through the pages of the second to last book he had, when suddenly, something caught his eye. He opened the book to see the word ANGELUS written at the top. He skimmed the page, and began reading it out loud.
"Angelus, origin Ireland. Order of Aurelius. Killer mastermind and one of the strongest vampires to every walk the earth. Maimed and tortured for over a century throughout the world. Fell out of existence in Romania, but is said to still be seen in the world today…"
Giles stopped reading, and looked up from the book. "Sounds oddly familiar." He looked back down at the book. "Let's see if there is a picture of this fellow…"
He turned the page, and could not help how his mouth hung open. There, before him was a picture of Angelus, and Angelus looked exactly like…
"Angel!" Giles jumped up from his chair, he did not understand why Liam Angel would look exactly like a blood sucking killer then walked the earth centuries before. He scrambled to find Buffy's cell phone number. After all, Spike was the one who had told Giles about Angelus, so Spike had obviously made the connection between Angelus and Angel.
Then, suddenly, Giles stopped searching for his slayer's number, because he remembered. He remembered Angel and his gypsies curse, he remembered Angelus and Jenny's death. He remembered Drusilla and Spike, and how all three vampires had tortured him. He remembered Angelus' death and Angel's return, and how Angel left for L.A. He remembered Joyce's death, and Dawn's arrival, and Buffy's death. He remembered Buffy's return from the grave and Spike's soul, and he remembered the collapse of the Hellmouth. He remembered moving back to England, and then he remembered…
"I died." Giles said out loud. He remembered dying. "This makes so sense." He did not recall, however, how he had come back or why he had forgotten his past up until the very moment he read Angelus' name. He had a feeling that Spike had answers, if not Spike, Buffy, Angel, and Cordelia. They all had seemed odd the past few weeks. He quickly began his search for Buffy's cell phone number again, hoping to get some answers.
Xander took a step farther into the lobby, waving the gun freely in his hand, and causing Angel, Cordelia, Connor, Fred, Lorne, and Gunn to counter his step. Faith was a step behind him and seemed reluctant to follow Xander but eventually did.
"So, I've got this problem." Xander started. "It seems my best friend…" He swung the gun in his hand, pointing it at Angel. "decided it would be okay to steal my girlfriend." He swung the gun, pointed it at Cordelia. "Now how wrong is that?"
"Almost as wrong as you walking in here with that gun in your hand." Gunn reacted before anyone else could.
Xander glared at Gunn.
"Gunn…" Angel turned to his friend. "This is between me and Xander." He did not want to see his friend get hurt, even if Gunn could not remember being his friend.
"That's true." Xander agreed with Angel. "But it doesn't really matter, because you're not making it out of here, Angel."
"Xander, grow up." Cordelia snapped. "You and I, we never would have worked out."
"You weren't saying that a few months ago, honey." Xander said sarcastically.
"I didn't know what a jerk you were a few months ago." Cordelia shot back. She did not like this new Xander at all.
"Well, you're going to learn to like me again, because Angel is going to be out of the picture." Xander smirked. "Faith, do it."
"What?" Faith was confused.
"Shoot him." Xander turned to Faith motioning to her gun. "Shoot Angel."
Faith looked at the gun in her hand, her eyes wide. Somewhere, sometime, someone had asked her to do the same thing, to kill Angel, she just couldn't remember when, why, or who.
Angel saw the confusion in Faith's eyes. He wouldn't let her become a killer, not again. He quickly turned to Xander. "What? Can't even do it yourself Xander?"
"Wouldn't look good on my record." Xander explained. "Faith could probably pull it off."
"Too bad you'll rot for it anyway." Connor told him. "I work with the police department."
Xander swung his gun onto Connor, but Angel jumped in front of his son.
"No." Angel said, blocking Connor from Xander. "This is between me and you, Xander."
"Bull." Cordelia glared at Angel, she was not about to lose him in this stupid way. She turned back to Xander. "You don't love me, Xander. You love someone else." She wasn't sure if Anya was the one Xander was really missing, but she figured it was worth a shot. "You will always love her."
"What are you babbling about?" Xander was growing impatient with Cordelia.
"Anya." Cordelia said the name slowly, so Xander could hear each syllable.
"Anya?" Xander snorted. "Who the hell is…" Suddenly, Xander's eyes grew wide and full of pain. "Oh God, Anya…"
Angel took Xander's reaction moment as the perfect time to strike, jumping at Xander and tackling him, kicking the gun at Connor who quickly picked it up.
"I lost Anya…" Xander cried under Angel's grasp. "How…how did…"
"Shoot him." Gunn told Connor.
Connor held the gun up, but Lorne quickly approached Angel's son. "Don't." He placed a hand on Connor's shoulder. "This is over." He understood that Xander had gotten his memory back.
"Uh, is it?" Fred asked, seeing that Faith was holding the gun to Angel's back.
"No one move!" Faith exclaimed.
Everyone listened, no one moved.
"Faith, put it down." Cordelia said calmly. "You don't need that."
"Shut up, bitch!" Faith swung the gun at Cordelia. "There is no way in hell me and Xander are getting out of here. You think I don't know that? You think I'm stupid?"
"No one said you were stupid, Faith." Cordelia told the slayer who didn't remember her past.
"That's right, Faith." Angel said, still holding Xander down who was now too busy mourning the death of Anya to worry about Faith or her gun. "You're not stupid." He tried to get up.
"Stay down." Faith jabbed the gun into Angel's back, causing the ex-vampire to wince.
"Okay, okay…" Angel said, staying still, he could tell Faith's slayer strength was coming back
"Why don't you just shoot him and get it over with, Faith?" Wesley appeared in the doorway of the office.
"Who the hell are you?" Faith asked Wesley, not recognizing her watcher. "And how the hell do you know me?"
Wesley took a step into the room, and Cordelia, Angel, and Lorne could tell immediately that he had gained his memory back. "My name is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce and I know you very well."
"Yeah?" Faith seemed amused by Wesley. "What the hell do you know?"
"I know you're a killer." Wesley told her, knowing what made the slayer tick. "I know that's what you're good at. You kill things. You torture things. You kill vampires and demons, you tried to kill Buffy. You killed that man. You tortured me, you bruised Cordelia's face."
On instinct, Cordelia held her hand to the cheek Faith had thrown an elbow at when she had first come to L.A. It seemed so long ago to Cordelia now.
"And yet, Angel tried to save you. He gave everything he had to protect you, to bring you back." Wesley took another step toward Faith. "And this is how you repay him? You couldn't kill Angelus, a heartless, bloody trusty killer, but you can stand here now and try and kill the one man who never gave up on you?" Wesley motioned to Angel, and then shook his head. "I really have failed you Faith."
Faith stood, taking in Wesley's words.
"Okay? What the hell is going on?" Gunn was confused. "Who the hell is Angelus?" Then Gunn put it together. Alonna's death, vampires, seers, souls, lawyers, Angelus, Wolfram and Hart, the battle, death. Everything rushed back. "Wow…" Was all he said.
Lorne realized Gunn had gained his memory back, and put a hand on the man's shoulder. "Good to have you back."
"How?" Gunn started, but realized he knew the answer when he looked at Lorne. The Powers had something to do with their return.
Suddenly, Faith dropped the gun, shaking her head. "You never failed me, Wesley. I failed myself." She then moved, helping Angel off of Xander.
"What the hell is going on?" Connor repeated Gunn's question from earlier. He, and Fred still had no idea what was going on, they still could not remember.
"Nothing." Angel answered, helping Xander up. "Everything is fine."
Xander looked between Angel and Cordelia, who were now standing side by side. "I'm so sorry."
Cordelia smiled at Xander. This was the Xander she had loved at one time; she could see it in his eyes. "It's okay."
"No." Xander shook his head. "It's not." He searched Cordelia and Angel for answers. He needed to know what was going on, what had happened, and how he had gotten to where he was.
"Spike can explain everything." Angel replied to Xander's unasked question, and then turned to Faith. "Are you okay?"
Faith smiled slightly. "Five by five."
"Good-" Angel started, but was cut off by Spike and Buffy diving through the doors of the Hyperion Hotel, and tackling both Xander and Faith to the ground.