Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.
Author's Note:
Tamara-The fight comes next chapter but this chapter does have a little bit of the old Spike and Angel, no knockout gas used here
Jess-You asked for me to update and here it is, hope you like it
Angel of Darkness-glad you reviewed, here's the next chapter
CHAPTER 6-PARTY CRASHERS
She carefully studied herself in the dirty mirror. Gone was the beautiful and carefree art student. In her place stood a scared and nervous woman that almost didn't recognize her own reflection. Having stopped caring about her appearance days earlier because of her fear of what Angel was planning her skin had grown rough in places and makeup was used sparingly. All of her clothes had a constant slept in look and her hair was lucky if it got washed every day. Her hands were now covered in small almost miniscule cuts and bruises that looked nothing like the hands that had painted portraits of her friend's only weeks earlier. The biggest change in her reflection was her hair, gone were her beautiful blonde locks. In their place was a mass of at times unruly dark brown hair. She had stolen a couple bottles of dye before they had left New York. Angel had told her to get them but at first hadn't told her exactly why. As he was helping her dye her hair he had explained it all. Wolfram and Hart and their allies would be looking for two vampires with souls that were traveling with an ex watcher and a rogue slayer, with the most easily visible one of the group being a young blonde werewolf. She hadn't wanted to change her looks but as she stared into the mirror, with Angel busy several feet behind her working the forge while Spike helped to reshape and reform the old weapons into new ones, Nina came to fully understand that she might not make it out of this fight alive.
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"It looks good," Angel said softly with an awkward look on his face before Nina jumped a bit after hearing his voice but not seeing his reflection in the mirror.
"Easy for you to say, and maybe next time gimme a heads up when you're sneaking up behind me okay," Nina said back with an unhappy and uncomfortable look on her face as she turned around and pouted, lowering her chin and trying to remain calm.
"Sorry, I keep forgetting that I don't have a reflection, it's not something that I think about a lot," Angel replied with a slightly embarrassed expression on his face as he walked up beside Nina and took her hands into his. Nina tried her best to not look him straight in the eye or stare at his bare chest dripping with sweat. The forging and re-forging of the weapons had made the crypt very hot and so it hadn't taken Spike and Angel long to strip off their sopping wet shirts and hang them up to dry. Nina had used one of the knives to cut her jeans into jean shorts and one of Angel's beaters, though the sweat stung her eyes even more than the few tears that sprang up.
"Well try to next time," Nina lightly snapped back with an embarrassed expression on her face as she turned and looked at the names on the vaults.
"Don't waste your breath pet, asking him to remember anything is like asking the Fuhrer not to invade Poland, tried it myself, trust me it doesn't work," Spike joked with a sly but tired smile on his face as he dunked a red hot piece of weaponry into one of the buckets of water.
"Shut up Spike," Angel growled back sharply with an angry scowl on his face as he snapped his head around to glare at his grandchilde.
"Don't get your knickers in a pinch Peaches, just trying to lighten the mood a bit, we're not planning a picnic here, like it or not we're planning a bloodbath, about time to," Spike replied with a seldom used, for him, tone of voice, one that no matter who heard it they knew that there was no arguing with his logic.
"Just remember that not everyone needs to die, the newly made slayers don't have a clue about any of this, though they'll blindly follow whatever Giles says they're not our enemy, so don't kill them," Wesley added with a very serious look on his face as he slowly walked back down into the crypt, leaning a little bit on the walls to keep himself upright.
"If you say so, you sure I can't have a go at that little bitch of a slayer that," Spike asked with an optimistic and hopeful look on his face as he perked up a bit.
"No Spike, forget about finding Dana, we have bigger fish to fry this weekend, just concentrate on getting us into Rome and the explosives," Angel replied with a cold and honest expression on his face as he turned away from Spike and watched Wesley weakly make his way through the crypt towards them before he returned his gaze to Spike. The hours came and went as Spike and Angel worked feverishly to get their select weapons back into working order. Wesley used the time well, doing his best to show Nina a few defensive moves and even spar with her a little. They had been firing crossbows for over an hour before Angel had walked up out of the crypt and told them that they would leave the moment the sun went down the following night.
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She walked into the party looking like the bell of the ball. Her dress was a bit to tight for her taste but it was the only thing that the tailor had in his shop that came close to fitting her on such short notice. She had sulked into Giles' office and told him a story that she had started making up ever since walking out of the crypt back in northern Italy. Sitting in his office in Rome she felt at the same time horrible for lying to him like this but excited because she knew something that he didn't. She nearly shattered her glass of water three times as she listened to Giles and a man that was introduced to her as Wesley's father. She knew that her mother had been less than stellar in her parenting duties but as she listened to Wesley's father she was stuck in total disbelief that the man that she had left only a day or two earlier in the crypt was even related to the pompous and arrogant bastard standing in front of her. For the first time the reasons that Wesley had been as he was when he first showed up in Sunnydale were crystal clear. Even with her strong will she could see how this shriveled up old man could take control of someone if given enough time.
Buffy and The Immortal had come in last, both wearing brand new outfits that Buffy had sworn weren't needed. Willow and Kennedy had stuck to a corner of the large ballroom, though for the entire day of the ball Willow had felt off, not able to keep anything down and feeling a bit lightheaded. Xander had tried to get her to lie down for awhile but she had told him not to worry and go make sure that none of The Immortals assistants were slipping off with any of the new slayers. It wasn't that she thought any of them were in any real danger, it was more like acting as a chaperone at a school dance. Though they were slayers and incredibly powerful they were still teenaged girls. Andrew was having the time of his life, entertaining the two women that he had brought with him as his dates. Xander and Rhona had tried to decide between them exactly how he had gotten two beautiful women to accompany him but after a time Giles had told them that it was a mystery for the ages and said that they should try and enjoy the party before it was over. Dawn tried her best to strike up a conversation with Faith all night but the latter had kept ignoring her, checking the clock ever few minutes, feeling more and more anxious as the time ticked by.
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The party was in full swing, with valets parking guest's cars, as two heavily cloaked figures vaulted from rooftop to rooftop heading towards the building where the party was being held. The guards on top of the building cursed their luck for getting the short end of the stick and having to stand guard out in the cool night air rather than being inside and enjoying the party. They were supposed to patrol the entire roof of the building but as the night began to wear on they stopped walking and sat down in the corners, listening to some music from a battery powered radio. The latest song has just started when the first guard went down, his neck snapped, his head very nearly ripped off. The second guard felt nothing as the blade sliced clean through his neck, his head tumbling off without much sound. The third and fourth guards barely had time to notice that something was wrong before a thrown dagger found its mark, buried into their foreheads. The two-cloaked figures hastily disposed of the bodies of the guards of that one corner before dispatching the rest. By the time that they were done sixteen guards were dead, piled into a large pile on the roof of a nearby building so as to not be noticed by any of the guards on the ground.
When the last guard on the roof was killed one of the figures slung a large heavy duffel bag over his shoulder, mock saluted the other figure and then hopped first down onto the roof of a catering truck and then to the ground. Ripping off his mask Spike felt energized for the coming battle. When he got around to the back corner of the building he found Wesley cutting the emergency water line to the building and hooking the building into the back of the large tanker truck that they had brought from the local church. Wesley and Nina had somehow managed to get to the priest to bless the water in the tank, something that had been made incredibly easier upon finding out that he was an old friend of the family. He had sworn to stay silent on the fact that he had helped them but alerted Wesley to the fact that his father was in Rome and still thought him to be dead.
"We're almost ready," Nina whispered softly with a very serious and scared look on her face, with a crossbow at her side, as she helped Wesley attach the pipes.
"Good, Angel isn't going to wait long to make his grand entrance and we have to be ready when he does," Spike replied with a grim look on his face as he set the large duffel bag on the ground and unzipped it.
"And the bombs," Nina asked with a nervous smile on her face as she brushed some of the dirt off onto her jeans.
"Got em right here, don't worry pet I know what I'm doing," Spike said with a reassuring look on his face as he held up two smaller bags that were so filled with explosives that they could not be zipped shut.
"She's in there you know, are you going to be able to go through with this," Wesley asked Spike with a very serious tone to his voice as he checked to make sure that the seals on the pipes were good.
"Yeah I know, don't worry about me I'll do my part, just hope that they're smart enough to know when they're beaten," Spike replied with an almost angry and frustrated scowl on his face as he set the two smaller bags down and began to arm himself.
"So we're just going to kill them all," Nina asked with a slightly sick to her stomach look on her face as she struggled to stay calm despite the circumstances.
"Not everyone, only anyone that's not human, the young slayers will all be in their teens so they'll be easy to spot, Giles and the others will more than likely try to protect them, leaving only The Immortal, his goons, and the other dignitaries and their security details to worry about, in the back of the building there's a vault that contains a book that we need, it's a collection of occult diagrams and symbols, it's our best bet to find out what the symbol that Cordelia saw in her vision meant," Wesley answered with a very grim and frustrated look on his face as he deemed the connections good and then watched Spike continue to arm himself.
"Okay so it's crash, boom, and we enter," Nina said softly with a very nervous look on her face as she checked over her crossbow.
"Right, just make sure that you don't point that thing in my direction, the last thing that I need is to have come all of this way only to get staked from behind by a misfired bolt," Spike grumbled with a slow nodding of his head as he finished arming himself before Angel leapt from the roof of the building and used a drainpipe to slow his descent before he landed on the ground beside Wesley.
"Are we good," Angel asked with a very serious look on his face as he made sure to look all three of them in the eye.
"So far so good, the tank is ready, Nina will be the first out and after I give her the okay signal she'll turn on the pump, anything remotely vampiric in there will incinerate in seconds," Wesley replied with a very confident tone to his voice as he pulled a knife from his pocket, wrapped it up in a blue handkerchief and then tucked it into one of the pockets of his coat.
"What's that for," Angel asked softly with a concerned look on his face as he leaned a bit closer to Wesley so that only he would hear.
"Faith, if we do this all ourselves she'll feel left out, and that's the last thing that we need, I slip her this in the middle of everything, without anyone noticing, and she becomes our ace in the hole," Wesley replied with a slightly amused smirk on his face as he turned to look at Angel before leaning over and picking up the shotgun that he had propped up on one of the wheels of the truck.
"Maybe we should have her stay undercover a little bit longer, they might not trust her story yet, and if they think that something's up or that she's hiding something," Angel said back with an unsure and slightly worried expression on his face as he pouted a bit when Nina walked up and straightened his collar.
"Then we're all fucked," Spike grumbled with an unhappy scowl on his face before he picked up the two bags of explosives and walked into the building through one of the back doors.
"No good, if she doesn't help us now and we do this then they'll know that she lied to them and if I know my father he won't hesitate to use whatever means necessary to get her to talk, I'm not going to let him torture her like he did me…she doesn't deserve that," Wesley said with a slightly awkward look on his face as he shook his head and dispelled Angel's idea before at the end he got all flustered and then looked away.
"Is he going to be a problem tonight," Angel asked with a very serious and grim look on his face as he walked around Wesley until he could look him in the eye.
"Not at all, I can't wait to see the look on his smug face when we crash the party, he's always prided himself on not working with those beneath him, remember how he…the cyborg him treated you when it visited, that would be my father on his best day, so don't expect any help from him," Wesley answered with a very grim and determined look on his face as he silently cursed himself for referring to the cyborg as his father.
"You sure he's your father, he doesn't sound anything like you," Nina asked with a perplexed expression on her face as she slung the quiver of crossbow bolts over her shoulder and head and worked it into its final position.
"I'm sure, but sometimes I wonder if there wasn't a mix up at the hospital, anything that could explain our differences," Wesley replied with a sad smile on his face as he checked his watch and then went silent.
"Spike should be almost done setting up the charges, after I land The Immortal and several of the honored guests are going to call for their guards, that's when Spike will detonate the charges, hopefully taking most of them out in the process," Angel began with a serious and somewhat nervous look on his face as he repositioned the sword strapped to his back.
"Then Nina and I will rush in and even out the odds a bit, aim for their hearts," Wesley added with a calm look on his face before he turned to Nina and slowly nodded his head at the crossbow that she held in her hands.
"But how will I know which ones are vampires, I don't…I can't shoot a human," Nina stammered out with fear in her eyes before her lower lip began to quiver ever so slightly.
"Hopefully they'll reveal themselves after the attack, if not…just shoot anyone that comes near you, human or not, this is to big for us to worry about who's human and who's not," Angel replied with an oddly comforting tone of voice as he walked over to Nina, took her chin in the palm of his hand, and then pulled her into a strong kiss.
"Are we ready," Wesley asked with a very serious and almost impatient look on his face as Angel and Nina broke the kiss.
"Yeah," Nina uttered softly with an almost dreamlike look on her face as she couldn't help but smile.
"Very," Angel answered with a very dark expression on his face before he looked to Wesley and then used the drainpipe to get back to the buildings roof.
"Here we go again, we damned few," Wesley stated with a very serious and almost angry scowl on his face before he cocked the shotgun, gave one final look to Nina, and then started off towards the building.
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The Immortal had pulled away from the throng of guests and well wishers with Buffy at his side. He quieted the music and then gave a short speech in which he thanked everyone for coming, relayed his hopes that they'd all be able to do this again sometime, and that he hoped that everyone would have a good time over the rest of the evening. An itch started to crawl up the back of Buffy's neck as she listened to The Immortal speak. She felt good being at his side but in the back of her mind she could feel something gnawing at her, after several months she decided that it was guilt, though about what she couldn't quite figure out. As The Immortal neared the end of his speech the itch grew worse and a tingling sensation went up and down Buffy's spine, the same sensation that only happened when Spike was near. Confused but not wanting to draw attention to her getting her hopes up again only to have them dashed Buffy began to feverishly scan the crowd, trying to make it look as if she were merely smiling at all of the guests. She searched the entire crowd for a shock of bleached blonde hair. But upon not seeing one she mentally kicked herself for believing that he wasn't dead. When he finished his speech with a flourish she shook herself from her delusion and began to clap, soon being joined by everyone in the room. The round of applause had just started to die down when the glass skylight situated directly overhead of a statue of an angel shattered downward, sending a shower of sharp glass everywhere. As she ducked for cover Buffy saw a blur of black drop down through the skylight out of the corner of her eye.
If this was a movie or music video instead of real life a hard rock song would start at the moment that his feet hit the base of the statue. He made sure that he had a good footing and then stood up slowly, keeping his head down the entire way. When he finally rolled his shoulders back he let out a small almost bored sigh before turning his head to one side.
"Hope I'm not interrupting," Angel said with a cocky grin on his face as those in the crowd gasped in shock, some thinking in error that this was all part of the show.
"Angel…," Buffy mumbled out in stark surprise a mere two seconds before his boot connected with her face.
END OF CHAPTER 6